Jordan Klepper covered a good bit of Trump news in last night's segment because Trump is an accidental comedian: someone who doesn't mean to be funny (and who in his case is someone completely without a sense of humor), but is funny because he is such a pathetic dolt: ~~~
Worse Person on Earth Protected by Funds He Stole from Starving Children. Katie Herchenroeder of Mother Jones: "Security detail for ... Donald Trump’s budget chief and Project 2025 architect Russell Vought is being paid for by what’s left in funding for the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, according to documents reviewed by Reuters. There isn’t much left of USAID after Trump and Vought worked together to dismantle the agency last year. Just around 100 staff members are left to close out all operations by September. Still, the White House Office of Management and Budget, which Vought oversees, is allocating $15 million from what remains of USAID operating expenses to pay the US. Marshals Service to protect the political appointee through the end of 2026."
From the pinned item in a New York Times liveblog: “Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany criticized ... [Donald] Trump’s rapid reorientation of American foreign policy, saying in Munich on Friday that the rules-based international order had collapsed. But he also extended an olive branch to Mr. Trump, switching to speaking English from German to address Americans as 'friends' and warn that the United States could not 'go it alone.' 'The international order based on rights and rules is currently being destroyed,' Mr. Merz said at the opening of Europe’s largest annual security conference. He added, 'This order, as flawed as it has been even in its heyday, no longer exists in that form.' Mr. Merz suggested the Trump administration’s actions over the past year meant that the United States’ claim to global leadership 'has been challenged, and possibly squandered.' But Mr. Merz also criticized Europe for not doing enough to bolster its security and to grow its economies independently of America, and he insisted that the two needed to continue working together, including through NATO.”
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Heather Cox Richardson puts together, in broad strokes, what Josh Marshall calls "Authoritarian International," a conspiracy of criminal elites who control world finance. MB: Her conspiracy, in this telling, is still crudely-drawn, but my guess is that with more data and a giant white-board, someone could fill in the blanks and connect the dots. Of course, there is not much honor among thieves, the aphorism notwithstanding, so these criminal conspiracies are fluid and the dotted lines on the white-board would not be static. (That's why white-boards have erasers.) But Richardson's general observations are solid, IMO. The rich are different from you and me, and not in a good way.
Lisa Friedman of the “Trump on Thursday announced he was erasing the scientific finding that climate change endangers human health and the environment, ending the federal government’s legal authority to control the pollution that is dangerously heating the planet. The action is a key step in removing limits on carbon dioxide, methane and four other greenhouse gases that scientists say are supercharging heat waves, droughts, wildfires and other extreme weather. Led by a president who refers to climate change as a 'hoax,' the administration is essentially saying that the vast majority of scientists around the world are wrong and that a hotter planet is not the menace that decades of research shows it to be. It’s a rejection of fact that had been accepted for decades by presidents of both parties, including Richard Nixon, whose top adviser warned of the dangers of climate change and the first President George Bush, who signed an international climate treaty.” Thanks to akaWendy for this gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) An AP report is here. An MS NOW story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Everything about MAGA is a lie. They pretend the "traditional Christian family" is their ideal, and that every person who doesn't fulfill his or her role in that "typical" family structure is some kind of kooky liberal pervert who doesn't share their perfect values. Well, you cannot pretend to idealize some Nazi vision of "family" when you condemn your own children to live on a planet that you are making more and more uninhabitable. ~~~
It boggles the mind that the administration is rescinding the endangerment finding; it’s akin to insisting that the world is flat or denying that gravity is a thing. -- Dr. Howard Frumkin, professor emeritus of public health at the University of Washington ~~~
~~~ Seth Borenstein of the AP: “The Trump administration on Thursday revoked a scientific finding that climate change is a danger to public health, an idea that ... Donald Trump called 'a scam.' But repeated scientific studies say it’s a documented and quantifiable harm. Again and again, research has found increasing disease and deaths — thousands every year — in a warming world.... Thousands of scientific studies have looked at climate change and its effects on human health in the past five years and they predominantly show climate change is increasingly dangerous to people.” ~~~
~~~ Melissa Goldin of the AP: “... in making the announcement, Trump and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin made false claims regarding the government declaration, climate change, and energy. Here’s a closer look at the facts.” ~~~
~~~ Dharna Noor of the Guardian: “The move was described as a gift to 'billionaire polluters' [by Alex Witt of Climate Power] at the expense of Americans’ health.... On social media, Barack Obama said the repeal will leave Americans 'less safe, less healthy and less able to fight climate change – all so the fossil fuel industry can make even more money'. The former secretary of state John Kerry called the new rule 'un-American.... Repealing the Endangerment Finding takes Orwellian governance to new heights and invites enormous damage to people and property around the world,' said Kerry, who also served as Joe Biden’s climate envoy. 'Ignoring warning signs will not stop the storm. It puts more Americans directly in its path.'... A slew of green groups have promised to take the EPA to court over the rollback, as has the state of California.”
Hey! It Was Super Bowl Thursday for NFL Pro-Bowler Criminals! Seung Min Kim & Mark Anderson of the AP: “... Donald Trump on Thursday pardoned five former professional football players — one posthumously — for various crimes ranging from perjury to drug trafficking. The pardons were announced by White House pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson. Ex-NFL players Joe Klecko, Nate Newton, Jamal Lewis, Travis Henry and the late Billy Cannon were granted the clemency.... Johnson said Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones 'personally' shared the news with Newton, who won three Super Bowls with the team.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I am such a sports expert that when I saw that all five of these lucky duckies were veteran Pro Bowlers, that would mean we would soon be seeing a lawn-bowling cryptocurrency gambling scam playing out on some part of the White House lawn not covered with bulldozed rubble or limestone pavers. But no. It seems "Pro Bowler" has nothing to do with ten-pins.
Ana Swanson & Sydney Ember of the New York Times: Donald “Trump has frequently claimed that foreign countries were paying for his tariffs, not Americans. But as economists predicted, that is largely turning out not to be the case. Research published on Thursday by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Columbia University suggests that, through November 2025, 90 percent of the economic burden of the president’s tariffs fell on U.S. companies and consumers. The economists reviewed the 'incidence' of the tariffs — who ultimately pays the cost of new import taxes. When a good is brought into the country, the importer of record, often an American company, is first responsible for paying the tariff to the U.S. government. But the importer can pass that cost on to others by raising the prices it charges its customers, or by negotiating more favorable contracts with its suppliers.” A CBS News story is here.
Mary Ilyushina of the Washington Post: “Making a striking foray into the South Caucasus, a region Russia has long viewed as in its sphere of control, Vice President JD Vance this week offered Armenia and Azerbaijan a slew of trade and security deals that could loosen dependence on Moscow and shrink the sway of neighboring Iran. During a two-day swing through Yerevan and Baku — capitals no sitting U.S. president or vice president had visited — Vance trumpeted plans for a new transit corridor that would transform a derelict stretch of Soviet-era railway into the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) — a 26-mile trade link through Armenia, connecting Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan exclave and to Turkey while bypassing Russia and Iran. The project was at the heart of a Washington-brokered peace framework signed by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the White House in August, which ... Donald Trump billed as an end to an 'unendable war.'... While Trump has hailed the agreement as proof of his peacemaking acumen, the fighting effectively ended in 2023.... What the framework illustrates well is ... how in his embrace of 19th-century style great power politics, [Trump] is willing to wield not only military might but also economic muscle to elbow out rivals and claim the spoils of conflicts for America.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Wait, wait. I thought the Trump Doctrine was that Trump was going to control the Western hemisphere but leave Europe and Asia to Russia & China. Now we're going to plunder Eurasia, too?
Revenge of the Nutjobs. Shawn McCreesh, et al., of the New York Times: “One of the more extraordinary aspects of ... [Donald] Trump’s second term is this: Some of the most far-out election conspiracists who helped him spread lies about the 2020 election and then tried to overturn it are now inside the government, using the power of the state to keep Mr. Trump’s denialism alive. This dynamic came into focus on Tuesday when an unsealed F.B.I. search warrant affidavit revealed that the recent criminal investigation into the 2020 election results in Fulton County, Ga., had been instigated by Kurt Olsen, a rather prominent character in Mr. Trump’s election denialism movement. Mr. Olsen, who is a lawyer, was considered by people in the first Trump administration to be a fringe menace. In the second Trump administration, he is the director of 'election security and integrity,' with the power to refer criminal investigations — criminal investigations into things that have been thoroughly debunked. No matter how many times the results of the 2020 election have been rehashed, Mr. Trump’s fixations have not abated. Mr. Olsen’s position is proof of that. But he is not the only one. The president has installed proponents of his fraud claims all across his administration.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: “The nomination of Jeremy Carl, the Trump administration’s pick for a senior diplomatic role overseeing relations with international organizations, was in peril Thursday after a key Republican senator [-- John Curtis (Utah) --] said he would oppose his nomination because of social media posts and podcasts in which Carl espoused controversial comments about Jewish people and Israel.... With the Democratic minority expected to vote unanimously against Carl, Curtis’s defection appeared set to tank Carl’s nomination to be assistant secretary of state for international organizations.... Carl, a senior fellow at the conservative Claremont Institute, had faced fierce questioning during the committee hearing Thursday as Democratic senators condemned not just his views on Israel but also his incendiary statements about women, race and the 'great replacement theory,' which suggests that elites are working to replace native-born Americans with non-White immigrants.... In September, CNN reported that Carl had tried to delete at least 5,000 tweets from his account on X, formerly known as Twitter, including many that expressed inflammatory views about religion, race and politics.”
Julian Barnes & Tyler Pager of the New York Times: “... an intercept of [a] communication [between two foreign nationals about], collected by a foreign spy service and given to the United States, has now become a flashpoint within the intelligence community and between the administration and Congress. The reason is a single name that came up in the discussion: Jared Kushner..., [Donald] Trump’s son-in-law. The previously unreported mention of Mr. Kushner in the discussion came after members of Congress were briefed last week about a classified report filed by a whistle-blower regarding the intercept.... The whistle-blower has accused Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, of limiting who could see the report and of blocking wider distribution among the nation’s spy agencies....” ~~~
~~~ Scott Lemieux, in LG&$, has excerpted a chunk of a Wall Street Journal report on the coverup. Lemieux writes, “I like how the Republican 'defense' is essentially 'of course Tulsi had to cover this up, it will make us look bad.'”
Rob Copeland, et al., of the New York Times: “Goldman Sachs’s top lawyer, Kathryn Ruemmler, resigned on Thursday in the wake of the Justice Department’s release of emails and other material that revealed her extensive relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.... Ms. Ruemmler and representatives for Goldman said for years that she had a strictly professional relationship with Mr. Epstein, a convicted sex offender. But emails, text messages and photographs released late last month upended that narrative, leading to Ms. Ruemmler’s sudden resignation, which surprised many inside the firm. Before joining Goldman in 2020, Ms. Ruemmler was a counselor, confidante and friend to Mr. Epstein, the documents showed. She advised him on how to respond to tough questions about his sex crimes, discussed her dating life, advised him on how to avoid unflattering media scrutiny and addressed him as 'sweetie' and 'Uncle Jeffrey.' Mr. Epstein, in turn, provided career advice on her move to Goldman, introduced her to well-known businesspeople and showered her with gifts.... In total, Ms. Ruemmler was mentioned in more than 10,000 of the documents released by the Justice Department.” The AP story is here.
Ephrat Livni of the New York Times: “Thorbjorn Jagland, a former prime minister of Norway, was charged with 'gross corruption' in connection with his ties to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the Norwegian police said on Thursday. Pal Lonseth, the chief of Norway’s economic crimes agency, told the state broadcaster NRK that several of Mr. Jagland’s properties had also been searched on Thursday. Mr. Jagland’s attorney said that his client was cooperating with the authorities. Mr. Jagland was formally accused just a day after the Council of Europe, which he previously led, said on social media that ministers had voted to waive the diplomatic immunity that came with his former post at the request of Norwegian authorities 'to pursue proceedings relating to allegations of aggravated corruption.' Economic crime investigators last week opened an inquiry into the ties between Mr. Epstein, the disgraced financier who had cultivated connections among the global elite before his death by suicide in a New York jail in 2019, and Mr. Jagland, who has also served as a foreign minister and a head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Maybe the main reason Trump is so mad he wasn't awarded the Nobel Peace Prize is not so much that Obama got one or that he "resolved eight wars" but that he figured he had social friends on the Nobel committee who had betrayed him.
Megan Lebowitz, et al., of NBC News: “Members of Congress sharply criticized the Justice Department over allegations that it was tracking what lawmakers were searching for as they viewed unredacted versions of the Jeffrey Epstein files.... [Even Speaker Mike] Johnson said Thursday that he didn't think it was appropriate for anyone to track lawmaker searches. 'My understanding is that there are computers set up where the DOJ was allowing access to the files, and I think members should obviously have the right to peruse those at their own speed and with their own discretion,' he told reporters on Capitol Hill. 'And I don’t think it’s appropriate for anybody to be tracking that. So I will echo that to anybody involved with DOJ, and I’m sure it was an oversight. That’s my guess.'” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Wait, Mike. It's "your guess" that tracking, recording, copying and forwarding to Pam Bondi Congressmembers' searches "was an oversight"? That doesn't make a lick of sense. An "oversight" is where you forget to do something or where you don't notice that you've inadvertently done something you did not intend to do. It is not where your boss tells you to spy on some people and then you do that and then you hand over your spy-work product to the boss.
Robert Draper of the New York Times: “In unsparing detail, the [Epstein] documents lay bare the once-furtive activities of an unaccountable elite, largely made up of rich and powerful men from business, politics, academia and show business. The pages tell a story of a heinous criminal given a free ride by the ruling class in which he dwelled, all because he had things to offer them: money, connections, sumptuous dinner parties, a private plane, a secluded island and, in some cases, sex. That story of impunity is all the more outrageous now in the midst of rising populist anger and ever-growing inequality.”
Paul Krugman thinks “The MAGA Bubble Is Imploding”: “Attorney General Pam Bondi’s meltdown on Wednesday while being questioned the House Judiciary Committee was exceptional, even by this administration’s rock-bottom standards. Has any high-level official ever before shrieked at a member of Congress, 'You don’t tell me anything, you washed-up, loser lawyer'? Yet what truly amazed me was her demand that Democrats stop talking about Jeffrey Epstein because the Dow was above 50,000. This plumbed new depths of moral bankruptcy, effectively saying: 'How dare you complain about child rape when the stock market is up?' There was an unmistakable stench of desperation in Bondi’s tantrum.... The cracks are showing, as some congressional Republicans have now voted against Trump's tariffs, Justice Department lawyers are quitting en masse or just plain cracking up, and attempts to weaponize prosecutions keep failing. Now Tom Homan says that the ICE surge in Minnesota will be wound down — an ignominious retreat if true — while Democrats are standing firm on refusing further DHS funding without significant reforms. And Bondi’s yelling isn’t making Epstein go away.”
Chris Cameron of the New York Times: “A federal judge in Illinois on Thursday blocked the Trump administration’s plan to claw back $600 million in public health funds from four states led by Democrats, amid a wider effort by the federal government to pull funding from blue states. Judge Manish S. Shah of the Federal District Court in Northern Illinois wrote in a two-page order that the plaintiff states — California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota — had provided enough evidence that the cuts were 'based on arbitrary, capricious or unconstitutional rationales' to halt what would have been deep cuts in federal public health funding that had already been allocated while legal arguments continue in the case.... Last week, another federal judge extended an order blocking the Trump administration from withholding an even larger pot of funds — $10 billion — for child care and social services in the four states, as well as New York. The Trump administration had also moved last month to suspend funding of food stamps and other hunger relief programs in Minnesota, before a court blocked that plan, as well.”
Konstantin Toropin & Jon Gambrell of the AP: “The United States will send the world’s largest aircraft carrier to the Middle East to back up another already there, a person familiar with the plans said Friday, putting more American firepower behind ... Donald Trump’s efforts to coerce Iran into a deal over its nuclear program. The USS Gerald R. Ford’s planned deployment to the Mideast comes after Trump only days earlier suggested another round of talks with the Iranians was at hand. Those negotiations didn’t materialize as one of Tehran’s top security officials visited Oman and Qatar this week and exchanged messages with the U.S. intermediaries. Already, Gulf Arab nations have warned any attack could spiral into another regional conflict in a Mideast still reeling from the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: So that's one less aircraft carrier to protect us from the ghost of Huge Chavez.
This Court has all it needs to conclude that Defendants have trampled on Senator Kelly’s First Amendment freedoms and threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees. -- Judge Richard Leon ~~~
~~~ Salvador Rizzo of the Washington Post: “A federal judge ordered the Defense Department to halt pending disciplinary proceedings against Sen. Mark Kelly, saying in a ruling Thursday that the retired Navy captain’s right to free speech was under attack by the Trump administration. U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon barred Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from enforcing a censure against Kelly over comments that the Arizona Democrat made in a social media video reminding service members that they can refuse illegal orders. The judge also ordered a halt to disciplinary proceedings that Hegseth had ordered, which could have reduced Kelly’s rank and cut his military retirement benefits.” (Also linked yesterday.) A New York Times story is here; the link appears to be a gift link. A CNBC story is here.
Isaac Schorr of Mediaite: “The Wall Street Journal dropped a bombshell exposé about Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and her ally, Trump world mainstay Corey Lewandowski, on Thursday evening that is poised to rock Washington, D.C. Here are the five wildest revelations from the Journal‘s bruising and comprehensive story.” ~~~
~~ Marie: I was able to access the WSJ report through this link. I don't think I ever knew that the "security concern" that allowed Noem to move into the Coast Guard commandant's mansion was that tabloid photographers had caught Lewandowski sneaking in & out of Noem's apartment at night. One would think that the WSJ report would be the last straw for Trump because it makes Trump look so weak: the article describes him as "uncomfortable" about the Noem/Lewandowski affair. But, hey, he's the Most Powerful Man on Earth!; why can't he snap his fingers and end his own appointees' affair? Or fire them?
⭐Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, declared an end to Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota following widespread protests against immigration raids that led to the fatal shootings by officers of two American citizens. 'Operation Metro Surge is ending,Homan said Thursday at a news conference.... Homan said city and state jails have agreed to increase their cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but he conceded that they would not hold immigrants who had been ordered released by a judge after they were arrested for an alleged crime, even though that was one of ICE’s top goals. Instead, he said, they would communicate a release date so that federal officers could detain them for deportation.” At 10:30 am ET, this is a developing story. Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) Here's NPR's story. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Congratulations to every brave person who has stood up to Trump and his fascist regime. You are the heroes. ~~~
~~~ Alex Galbraith of Salon: "Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey celebrated the announcement of a drawdown in ICE agents in the city.... 'They thought they could break us, but a love for our neighbors and a resolve to endure can outlast an occupation,' he wrote on X. 'These patriots of Minneapolis are showing that it’s not just about resistance — standing with our neighbors is deeply American.' Frey said the ICE surge ... had been 'catastrophic for our neighbors and businesses.'... Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said he would be happy to 'pack [the Department of Homeland Security‘s] damn bags' and called for accountability from the Trump administration. The Democrat and former vice presidential candidate said that ICE had left 'deep damage' in their wake. 'The federal government needs to pay for what they broke here,' he said.” ~~~
~~~ Sabrina Tavernise of the (Also linked yesterday.)
Marie: You cannot believe a single word immigration thugs say, not "and" and "the." They shoot someone for no reason at all, then falsely accuse the victim of causing the shooting. No matter what. And these lies prove they have knowingly committed heinous crimes. Yet these "officials" are not being prosecuted; in fact, the Trumplodytes are doing all the can to prevent these gangsters from being prosecuted by local authorities. ~~~
~~~ Mitch Smith of the New York Times: “In an extraordinary court filing, the top federal prosecutor in Minnesota acknowledged on Thursday that officials had provided incorrect information about a shooting by an immigration agent last month. The prosecutor, Daniel N. Rosen, asked a judge to dismiss charges against a man who was wounded in that shooting, as well as another man who had been accused of attacking the agent. Mr. Rosen wrote that 'newly discovered evidence in this matter is materially inconsistent with the allegations' that federal officials made in a charging document and in courtroom testimony. 'Accordingly, dismissal with prejudice will serve the interests of justice,' wrote Mr. Rosen, who was nominated by ... [Donald] Trump to be U.S. attorney in Minnesota.” Read on. The link is a gift link.
Apparently not interested in participating in this process, the Government’s responses essentially told the Court to pound sand. -- Judge James Boasberg, Order, Sanchez v. Trump (the link to the order is is not firewalled) ~~~
~~~ Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “A federal judge in Washington ordered the Trump administration on Thursday to help bring back any of the nearly 140 Venezuelan immigrants who want to return to the United States from the international limbo they have been living in since March, when officials deported them to El Salvador. The ruling by the judge, James E. Boasberg, was one of the most robust steps taken so far to force the administration to give due process to the Venezuelan immigrants deported under the authority of an 18th century wartime law.... Judge Boasberg’s ruling on Thursday ... came after a more substantive decision he issued in December. That ruling found that the immigrants had been denied due process when they were flown on March 15 ... to El Salvador, where they spent months in a notorious prison built for terrorists. The goal of bringing the men back to U.S. soil, Judge Boasberg wrote, was to provide them with what they were denied when the White House expelled them: hearings at which they could challenge the legal viability of Mr. Trump’s proclamation and contest accusations that they belonged to Tren de Aragua, which the administration has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Politico's report, by Josh Gerstein & Kyle Cheney, is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Miriam Jordan of the “An immigration judge has terminated the deportation case against an undocumented father of three U.S. Marines who was detained by federal agents last year while landscaping in Southern California, paving the way for him to seek legal permanent residency in the United States. Last June, Narciso Barranco was clearing weeds outside an IHOP restaurant in Santa Ana, Calif., when immigration agents approached him from behind, pinned him to the ground and handcuffed him. Mr. Barranco, a 49-year-old Mexican national who has lived in the United States for three decades, was then transferred to a detention center and placed in deportation proceedings. He was released on a $3,000 bond in mid-July and fitted with an ankle monitor. At the time, the Department of Homeland Security ... accus[ed] him of having raised his weed trimmer at them.... In her order terminating the deportation case, signed on Jan. 28, Judge Kristin S. Piepmeier said that Mr. Barranco had provided evidence that he was the father of three American sons in the military, rendering him eligible to obtain lawful status.” (Also linked yesterday [in subscriber-firewalled format].) Update: the link has been changed to one that appears to be a gift link.
Kyle Cheney of Politico: “For six months, dozens of judges appointed by Donald Trump have rebuffed — and sometimes pointedly rebuked — his administration’s effort to lock up thousands of immigrants under a novel reinterpretation of decades-old deportation laws. This mass detention strategy, implemented by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has met an overwhelming rejection by federal judges appointed by every president since Ronald Reagan. A Politico review finds that 373 have rejected the administration’s effort to require detention — without the possibility of bond — for anyone who crossed illegally into the United States, even if they’ve lived in the country for decades without incident. That contrasts with just 28 judges who have sided with the administration’s view. Even judges Trump appointed are largely against him: 44 of them have ruled against the administration in mass-detention cases. Twenty Trump-appointed judges have signed off on the policy.”
Maria Kramer of the New York Times: “A New Jersey woman who was detained by federal immigration agents nearly a year ago suffered a seizure after she fell and hit her head in a Texas detention center.... The woman, Leqaa Kordia, who has been held at the Prairieland Detention Facility in Alvarado, Texas, since March 2025, was brought to a hospital last Friday and remained there for 72 hours before being taken back to the detention center.... Ms. Kordia, 33, arrived in the United States from the West Bank in 2016, moving in with her mother in Paterson, N.J. She was arrested in April 2024, when scores of pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered at Columbia University to protest the war in Gaza. She was issued a summons, the case was dismissed and her arrest report was sealed. [MB: Biden era.] But federal officials began investigating Ms. Kordia about a year later. [MB: Trump era.] On March 13, 2025, Ms. Kordia went to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Newark, N.J., after she learned that federal investigators wanted to speak with her. She was then detained for overstaying her visa and put on a plane to Texas, where she has been held ever since, even though a judge has twice ruled that she is not a threat to the United States and could be released on a $20,000 bond.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Rebecca Santana of the AP: “The men tasked with carrying out ... Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda were made to watch a video of the shooting death of Alex Pretti in a slow, moment-by-moment analysis on Thursday by Sen. Rand Paul, who repeatedly cast doubt on the tactics used by federal officers and warned that the American public had lost trust in the country’s immigration agencies.... Paul, who paused the video every few seconds to explain his interpretation of the events, argued that Pretti posed no threat to the officers and questioned why the situation culminated in the ICU nurse’s death.... 'He is retreating at every moment,' said Paul, speaking of Pretti’s behavior.... 'He’s trying to get away and he’s being sprayed in the face.'” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I watched a bit of the hearing (probably this video), and the most shocking part to me was that Rand Paul was the voice of reason. Really! The same little shit who got his shorts in a knot over low-flow toilets and energy efficiency standards for lightbulbs.
Jordain Carney of Politico: “Lawmakers are heading for the exits following a failed Senate vote Thursday, all but guaranteeing the Department of Homeland Security shuts down early Saturday morning. The funding lapse, which will hit parts of DHS harder than others, comes as the White House and congressional Democrats have failed to move closer to a deal after trading proposals to rein in immigration enforcement practices in the wake of two high-profile shootings in Minneapolis. Democrats called the latest offer from the White House insufficient Thursday and are expected to send a counteroffer.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Karoun Demirjian & Madeleine Ngo of the “... a lapse in funding [of the Department of Homeland Security] is not expected to bring the department’s immigration enforcement operations to a screeching halt. And the department is also home to several agencies unrelated to immigration, including the Coast Guard and FEMA, that will be affected. During last fall’s record-long federal shutdown, more than 90 percent of the department’s employees were required to work.... Here’s how a shutdown could affect some of the department’s most visible activities.” ~~~
~~~ Megan Mineiro of the New York Times: “The congressional delegation to Europe’s biggest annual security summit had been expected to be the largest ever this year, with around 50 lawmakers planning to travel to Munich to reassure allies that the United States could still be counted on as a reliable security and trade partner. But amid a funding battle that is expected to shutter the Department of Homeland Security this weekend, Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, abruptly canceled the official delegation ... to the Munich Security Conference, which began on Friday. It is standard operating procedure to call off congressional travel during a government shutdown.... But top Democrats warned that canceling the delegation was the wrong decision in a moment of frayed trans-Atlantic relations.... Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, is leading a bipartisan convoy of 11 senators, along with Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island.... Another bipartisan delegation, led by Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, flew out on Thursday. ”
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New York. Yo, Zohran! The Rent Is Still Too Damned High. Sally Goldenberg & Mihir Zaveri of the New York Times: “Expanding a New York City program to help struggling tenants pay rent seemed like an obvious campaign promise for Zohran Mamdani, who staked his insurgent candidacy last year on making life more affordable in the five boroughs. Now, confronting a grim fiscal picture in his second month as mayor, Mr. Mamdani no longer intends to back the growth of the $1 billion-plus initiative known as CityFHEPS, despite a plan passed by the City Council and upheld in court. The reversal marks the clearest example yet of the clash between the ideology of his democratic socialist campaign and the tough realities of managing a sprawling, costly bureaucracy.” (Also linked yesterday.)
15 comments:
The Total Cluster Fuck That is the Fat Hitler Reich
Where to start? Just throw a dart at the Big Board of Bullshit.
Okay, We have a "leader", if you wanna call him that, who hates science. Doesn't understand it, doesn't like it, and believes science is largely responsible for things like his billionaire pals make less money, pissing off idiotic MAGAts who have been led to believe that vaccines cause everything from autism to chronic cooties, and forces him and his goons to abide by actual scientific results rather than their own gut feelings.
So out with climate science as a whole. Just chuck the whole thing. Not only that, let's use more coal. No renewable energy technologies. That's for the future. Let China own progress in that field for the next century, while we go back to heating houses with peat fires.
Down in El Paso, Hegseth's macho men are using high powered lasers to shoot down party balloons which they describe, hair appropriately ignited, as Messican cartel drones trying to steal our Freeeeddoms! Of course, lets keep this dangerous test a secret from the FAA and local authorities when air space over a huge metropolitan area is closed so the idiots can have fun. Then they all lie about it.
Rather than do what Congress ordered, by law, to release files related to what is more and more looking like the international child sex trafficking Qanon morons claimed was being run Hillary Clinton and blood drinking Democrat elites, lets deflect and lie. Let's let an obviously dangerously out of control personal lawyer for the president pretend to be the Attorney General and turn a congressional hearing on why she is evading the law into a playground screaming match, all the while continuing to attack victims.
Then let's threaten to halt the opening of an international construction project designed to improve trade between two nations because a friend of the president called him up and said it would reduce the amount of money he makes on HIS bridge. Because, why not?
The fate of the world rests on decisions made by an ignorant infant because he needs to take care of his pals rather than be concerned about things like international trade, cooperation between nations, the health and welfare of hundreds of millions of Americans, and forget about inconvenient things like laws and longstanding trade and defense agreements. Some guy just called him up so the world can go pound sand.
And how is it--seriously--that people living and working in this country, contributing to the economy, raising families, sending kids to school, adding immeasurably to their communities, but who come from somewhere else or have different color skin constitute the number one problem in the nation? How is that? The Fatty government is now spending hundreds of millions purchasing warehouses all over the country to serve as internment dungeons for the thousands the ICE goons are rounding up, assaulting, beating, and shooting. How is this making anything great? It's caused an enormous wound to the American psyche as well as the economy. But let's allow dangerous racists to run the country.
We are lucky, it seems to have an obviously brain damaged kook running healthcare into the ground. So there's that. Previously conquered childhood diseases, one of the great advances in human history, are being rushed back into service because one guy feels like doing it and a moronic president is okay with that. This is completely fucking insane.
The sheer incompetence and stupidity of these people places the current United States on a par for the stupidest, most inept, and criminally benighted government in world history. Paleolithic tribes praying to the river gods for more fish are far more advanced in taking care of their people than this clown show of a dictatorship.
And all this is just in the last week! It's like a galactic version of "hold my beer". Every day!
Rebecca Solnit delivers a peptalk: Auspicious Omens and Excellent Insubordination
"The most essential thing about the Trump Administration right now is that it is weak, chaotic, and wildly unpopular and doing everything it can to make itself more so. Unfortunately it's taking the nation and to some extent the world with it, but if you want to see the administration as the drunk driver, more and more people are getting out of the car, or trying to turn it around (and take the keys away). Congress could do it, but Mike Johnson and John Thune won't let that happen (while everyone is focused on Trump, the fact that Congress has immense powers that have been sabotaged or surrendered could use a lot more attention and maybe a campaign to shame the party in charge).
....
All this is turning away longtime Trump supporters (and what the hell ever happened to the party of family values, the rule of law, and fiscal and personal responsibility? – I know, Trump happened). Nothing will distract the public for long from the Epstein files, and the dribble of releases with the obvious suppression of stuff that is legally required to be released, and the clarity about who is being protected (powerful men) and who is not (abused children), furthers the case against the administration."
Josh Tyrangiel, in a long essay in The Atlantic, states that America Isn’t Ready for What AI Will Do to Jobs and speculates on what happens next
"AI is already so ubiquitous that any resourceful knowledge worker can delegate some of their job’s drudgery to machines. Many companies—Microsoft and PricewaterhouseCoopers among them—have instructed their employees to increase productivity by doing just that. But anyone subcontracting tasks to AI is clever enough to imagine what might come next—a day when augmentation crosses into automation, and cognitive obsolescence compels them to seek work at a food truck, pet spa, or massage table. At least until the humanoid robots arrive."
Bible Mike might have been thinking of "oversight" in the sense of all those inspectors general who are no longer with the administration. That is, those charged with looking over the activities of those they are assigned to watch: In this case the Congresscritters who might cause trouble.
BTW, I'm thinking repealing the science of biological evolution that so troubles the Right could be next on the hit list.. Bible Mike would probably be all for that.
We really need a Tom Lehrer to deal with the silly space we're in.
Wendy,
Solnit, in the piece you link, asks "...what the hell ever happened to the party of family values, the rule of law, and fiscal and personal responsibility?"
Good question. But her answer, "Donald Trump happened" is, I think, incomplete at best. Yes, the appearance of a bullying, amoral slug like Fat Hitler had a triggering effect for many on the right, but they were already there.
Family values was important largely for them to be able to smack down the LGBTQ+ community. Rule of law was important largely to enable them to smack down "urban" communities, mostly black and brown communities, and demand that the smallest transgressions required jail time. Fiscal responsibility was purely a club to beat away taxes. Personal responsibility was aimed at liberals, not at any of their own tribe. Being a Republican meant you were already a responsible person, or so they wanted everyone to believe.
The goal of all four of those so-called virtues on the right had to do with power and that's it. Fatty presented them with shortcuts to power. Throw all of that away and just run roughshod over everyone, ignore laws, ethics, and any moral constraints that get in the way of power and control, that way, they don't need to pretend to care about rule of law, family values or any of the rest of it. Oh sure, they can pull those out of the hat if they're really needed for some more vicious attacks, but otherwise, just fucking everyone do what we say or go to hell (or jail, whichever comes first--now with their ICE goons....dispatch from the world is just a trigger pull away for people they despise).
The freedom that provides has been invigorating for the MAGAts, after all, it must have been tiring pretending to be good and decent people when all they really wanted was to stick it to the gays, the blacks, the liberals, and the "tax and spend" Democrats.
This is the appeal of authoritarianism. It's a get out of morality card for those already tired of all that moral bullshit anyway.
Akhilleus: it is, in addition to a "get out of morality" card, it is a "get out of doing the dirty work yourself" card. Most of the folks you describe don't actually have the Mitty's to beat up the folks they want beaten up, and are happy that another uber-coward-bully will arrange for it to be done by hired thugs.
Later on they will say that they did not do these things themselves, and would not have approved, if only they had known.
"US paid $32m to five countries to accept about 300 deportees, report shows
The Trump administration has spent more than $1m per person to deport some migrants to countries they have no connection to, only to see many sent back to their home nations at further taxpayer expense, according to a new congressional investigation.
A 30-page report from Senate foreign relations committee Democrats, released on Thursday and shared with the Guardian, details how the US government paid more than $32m to five foreign governments – including some of the world’s most corrupt regimes – to accept approximately 300 third-country nationals deported from the US."
Joyce Vance
"Voting: A Right, Not A Privilege, For Now
Republicans want to change that with the SAVE Act"
Sing, O Muse...
And while I'm on the subject of virtue, how about a little trip back to the world of Homer (see what I did there?).
So I've been reading a new translation of the Iliad, by Emily Wilson, the first new one I've read since the 1996 Fagles. Hey, I gotta keep up with how people are talking about me, right?
There are many reasons to read good/great literature, but one certainly is the ability to see how humans have changed over the centuries, and how they have not. Many of the issues dealt with in the works of Homer, Shakespeare, Austen, Pynchon (okay, maybe not Pynchon), and McCarthy we're still confronted with, and the solutions offered by therein (ones that work and ones that don't) provide a useful focus for our contemporary consideration.
My particular focus here is on morality, virtue, and shame. Virtue in the Iliad (and the Odyssey as well) involves how successful characters are at their work. Are you fast on your feet in battle? Can you knock down three guys with one spear from fifty yards? Are you good at reading the signs the gods send telling you either to keep it up or to knock that shit off? Okay, then you are a virtuous person. BUT if you are cowardly, a liar, a thief, a ne'er do well, or in some ways untrustworthy, shame on you! And shame was a big deal back then, at least for the characters in Homer.
So that's a pretty basic way of looking at a certain type of moral grounding for being in the world. Whatever you do, do it well, and don't be an asshole.
Later Greek dramatists, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, for instance, went in for a bit more nuance on the moral front, but shame was still a big driver of social interactions (just look at Oedipus!).
Fast forward to Aristotle. Now things get interesting, at least for what's happening out there today. Aristotle is careful to wend his way through a variety of social conditions requiring a moral core and a stable system of moral judgements. Granted, a lot of what he gets into is teleological (please save brickbats for later on that front), but for Ari, the teleological (end result) for humans is this: are you doing what's best for you to become a good person? Plato had already expanded his ideas of The Good, and Aristotle, as an attentive student, carried that forward. But one of the requirements for achieving a status of The Good, in other words for living a moral life, in Aristotle's philosophy is courage.
For Aristotle, courage is the linchpin of a moral existence. It's easy to be Mr. Good Guy when it's easy to do the right thing. It's when things get hairy that courage is becomes necessary. No balls, no good.
Which brings us to the Modern Party of Traitors. No shame, no balls, no good, no morals, no nothing.
You get the point. Shame is no longer a social driver for these schmoes. Neither is a moral life, because that would require courage, and for a party of shivering quislings and scarified scumbags, courage is as far off as decency, honesty, and truth. As for virtue, if you buy what Homer was selling, that a virtuous person is one who is good at their job, then every single one of these jamokes are debased and depraved. Rocks are more virtuous. Those elected to congress who sit on their asses and say "Yes sir, may I have another" when being smacked around by a corrupt bully, can hardly be described as "good at their job".
Homer would have sent the whole lot down into the dust, left for the dogs. (He does mention, early on in the Iliad, the fate all Acheans and Trojans, at least those who care about such things, fear most of all, is to be left to rot without honor or a decent burial, to be eaten by dogs and birds). Oh yeah, I forgot.
Honor.
The PoT MAGA slaves have none. No honor, no shame, no courage, no decency, no morality....No good.
I listened to Jon Ossoff's speech yesterday, as some of you recommended. And here's the thing: I agree that he said the right things. BUT. He doesn't know how to say them. I don't think I do, either. But we have had great orators.
Bill Clinton was awfully good, and he admitted he studied and copied Ronald Reagan.
You might think all the great orators are Black: the soaring speech, the rhythmic cadences of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Barack Obama. Sure Obama was the orator of this century.
But it's hard for me to forget Mario Cuomo. He knew how to do it as well as MLK & Obama. I wouldn't pick any of these three over any of the others.
Somebody needs to teach today's Democratic politicians what Obama & Cuomo, et al., knew. Until we find somebody like that -- or until someone finds he or she can be that person -- our politics will remain boring, sterile, mundane, uninspiring. Oratory is an art; and it is a necessary one. Cuomo used to say politicians campaign in poetry and govern in prose. He knew the poem.
MAGA International
"The MAGA-friendly European think tanks Trump wants to fund
The Heritage Foundation identified European groups for U.S. backing.
The U.S. is reorienting its foreign funding program to export MAGA ideology to Europe — and a growing set of far-right and conservative think tanks and political groups are lining up to take Washington’s money.
U.S. State Department officials have held early talks about government funding with representatives of the new MAGA-supporting French think tank Western Arc and Britain’s Free Speech Union, an advocacy group.
Those approaches were informed by a list provided to U.S. officials by the Washington-based Heritage Foundation of groups the MAGA-aligned think tank described as “like-minded.” Other far-right and conservative groups in Italy and Brussels told POLITICO they would also be interested in support from a U.S. administration they see as an ally."
Patrick,
Good point. Looking the other way while the goons beat up those you hate gives them (they think) an out by being able to say, well gee, I didn't shoot that lady...don't look at me. They're all like Bible Mike. Ask Mike a question about anything, here's what you get. .
Orator. I'm not sure Mayor Pete would be considered an orator, but he sure
is good at speeches.
I met him a few years back when he stopped at our little town when he was
traveling from South Bend to up north in Michigan where his family lives.
Most personable.
Marie,
Thanks for the reminder of what a fabulous orator we had in Mario Cuomo. Reminding Reagan that he never sees the people who "...sleep in the city streets, in the gutter, where the glitter doesn't show." Man, that's good stuff. What a president he might have made. He was Hamlet on the Hudson for a reason though. I'm sure he had his reasons and they were good ones.
I was rarely more incensed at a craven politician (back then, anyway, since then...whoo...) than when the unctuous George HW Bush, made fun of Cuomo, pretending he couldn't pronounce his name, calling him "May-ree-oh" as if to emphasize his foreignness, suggesting that people with names like Cuomo are usually in the Mafia. Yeah and bushes are in the dirt. Racism and fear mongering around racial differences have always been staples of the right. Fatty didn't invent any of that, he just used it to waddle his fat ass into the White House.
But back to Cuomo. As good an orator, he was a pretty good raconteur as well.
Okay, two things, then I'm done for today (Jesus, I hope),
First, Fatty's drooling idiocy edict that carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases are no biggie, and so what if the earth is getting hotter, his pals need MORE MONEY!
His stated rationale for rejecting the science based fact that the planet is getting hotter because of various human activities such as denuding forests and burning fossil fuels at an increasingly dangerous rate, is that it costs auto manufacturers more to adjust their products for fuel efficiency than to simply allow them to spew noxious clouds of dangerous, life threatening unfiltered emissions into the atmosphere.
Okay, so put on your Lee Iacocca hat on for a minute. It might be too big because his head was three sizes too large, but picture yourself in the Ford (of GM or Toyota) board room. Word comes down that that Orange Monster has freed them from caring about the ecosystem.
Now you've spent hundreds of millions restructuring the design and manufacturing of cars to get better fuel efficiency and to spit out lower levels of damaging chemicals. Do you now A. Say Yippee! Let's go back to four gallons to the mile carbon chokers like we had in 1962, or B. recognize that this is phenomenally stupid and the minute a not stupid administration takes over from these morons, they will immediately reinstitute science based regulations. Because C. It will cost them hundreds of millions to reconstruct the design of production plants and emission controls only to find out that in a couple of years, all that will be for nought and they will have to spend a shitload more to get back to where they are right now.
Okay, so there's that.
THEN, there's Marie's designation of Fat Hitler as the "Worst Person in the World".
Okay, there may be plenty of nastier, more evil, more vicious, and more dangerous axe murderers, serial killers, and Hannibal the Cannibal types out there, but not even Dexter, with his regular slice and dice evenings could ever come close to the kill totals of an evil piece of shit like Trump who, with the flick of one of this tiny fingers, can sign an order condemning millions to death.
So...Worst Person in the World? No.
Worst Person in the Galaxy. If some alien Thanos type wants to show up and throw down with Fatty, make it so. Otherwise, it's Fat Hitler FTW. The rest of us FTL. Why? Easy. He's racist hater, an ignorant slob who couldn't possibly care less if thousands of children die because of his actions as long as he is taken care of.
If we had an election tomorrow with this pig's name on the ballot and he got more than five votes, it'd be a tragedy. Thus, the tragedy is not so much that an ignorant racist, murderous moron is in the White House, it's that so many Americans think that's a great idea.
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