March 20, 2026

Barak Ravid & Marc Caputo of Axios: "The Trump administration is considering plans to occupy or blockade Iran's Kharg Island to pressure Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, four sources with knowledge of the issue tell Axios.... Trump can't end the war, at least on his terms, until he breaks Iran's chokehold on shipping through the strait.... But an operation to take over Kharg Island, which sits 15 miles offshore and processes 90% of Iran's crude oil exports, could put U.S. troops more directly in the line of fire.... Thus, such an operation would only be launched after the U.S. military further degrades Iran's military capacity around the Strait of Hormuz.... Such an operation, if approved, would also require more troops. Three different Marine units are on their way to the region. The White House and the Pentagon are considering sending even more troops soon, a U.S. official said." ~~~

~~~ Gordon Lubold & Courtney Kube of NBC News: Donald "Trump is weighing whether to send possibly thousands of U.S. troops into Iran as he looks for a way to achieve some of his key goals and end the war.... Trump’s considerations come as he faces a looming global energy crisis, increasing political backlash at home from some of his own supporters, and emerging disagreements between the U.S. and its Middle East allies over the direction of the war. There are several options under discussion.... One would be aimed at freeing up passage in the Strait of Hormuz by deploying troops to Iranian ports or small islands in the Persian Gulf to mitigate the threat to vessels.... Others include an operation to retrieve Iran’s highly enriched uranium or using troops to seize Iranian oil facilities to cut off a key financial lifeline and attempt to extract concessions from the regime...." ~~~

~~~ Jennifer Jacobs, et al., of CBS News: "Pentagon officials have made detailed preparations for deploying U.S. ground forces into Iran, multiple sources briefed on the discussions told CBS News.  Senior military commanders have submitted specific requests aimed at preparing for such an option as ... [Donald] Trump weighs moves in the U.S.-Israel-led conflict with Iran...."

Marie: Philip Kennicott of the Washington Post largely agrees with me on the contrast between the Trump coin & George Tames’ photograph of JFK. (Commentary below.) But Kennicott has a lot more to say about the “chilling” message the Trump coin sends: it “demands assent to [the idea] that the president, like the historic desk that has been scrubbed away, is the personification of resolution. It symbolizes power untroubled by doubt or hesitation.... He stares down the viewer, forcing a choice between accepting his authority or becoming his enemy.” Kennicott also writes, “When Jesus said 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s,' it was after being shown a Roman coin, with Caesar’s image on it. He wasn’t just answering a question about taxation and duty, but responding to a deeply rooted dislike of having to participate in the circulation of Caesar’s image.” The story, like almost everything in the New Testament, is apocryphal, but -- again, like a lot of the New Testament -- it carries a message we can appreciate & honor. The link to Kennicott's column is a gift link.

Michael Grynbaum & Benjamin Mullin, et al., of the New York Times: “CBS News eliminated its century-old radio division, which broadcast Edward R. Murrow’s World War II dispatches from London, amid a round of layoffs on Friday announced by the network’s editor in chief, Bari Weiss. More than 60 employees, or roughly 6 percent of the news division, are set to be laid off under the plan, according to a person who requested anonymity to share internal details.... CBS News Radio, which has roots in the Jazz Age, was once among the premier news broadcasters in the country. 'CBS News Radio served as the foundation for everything we have built since 1927,' Tom Cibrowski, the president of CBS News, wrote in a memo.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: In furtherance of a very brief exchange akaWendy & I had yesterday, I will add here that I once worked for CBS Radio, or at least a division of it: KNX Radio, a CBS O&O. CBS fired me. Days after my boss gave me quite a glowing review, an on-air personality called me into his office, ostensibly to help him answer some of his fan mail. He closed the door, unzipped his pants & pulled out his dick. I jumped up, told him to put that thing away and fled. The next day, one of the few women in West Coast management came over from the network & fired me. I told her exactly what had happened. She said, "I know. It isn't fair. But you upset the talent."

Alan Blinder, et al., of the New York Times: “The Trump administration sued Harvard University on Friday over claims that the school was violating the civil rights of Jewish and Israeli people, an escalation of the government’s yearlong clash with the Ivy League university. The administration has spent months investigating Harvard and trying to force a settlement on the university, the largest target in the White House’s campaign to remake American higher education. But the lawsuit Friday — more than six months after a judge blocked the administration’s opening push to strip Harvard of federal research funding — represented a new threat to the nation’s wealthiest university. In its lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Boston, the Trump administration said that Harvard had 'turned a blind eye to antisemitism and discrimination against Jews and Israelis.' The administration said Harvard had strictly enforced policies against other forms of bias, but had allowed anti-Israel protesters to violate rules 'with impunity' after the war in Gaza in 2023.” ~~~

     ~~~ A timely protest and essay about it remind us how we know the premise of the suit against Harvard is fake: ~~~

     ~~~ Rebecca Solnit: "... a letter signed by 132 Jewish faculty and staff at UCLA reject[ed] the Trump Administration's definition of antisemitism while pointing out what's dangerous about this right-wing definition of antisemitism: it's an attack on free speech and legitimate opposition to the policies of the Israeli government. They might have added that it's an attack by the same administration that has been making nice with actual Nazis and open antisemites, which is how we know that this pretense to defend Jews is in bad faith. It's trying to use Jews to advance a right-wing agenda. And in so doing it harms Jews by pretending that to oppose the Israeli government and/or its policies is antisemitic, which spreads the calumny that somehow all Jews are aligned with this government and its policies." Thanks to akaWendy for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Bigotry is fundamentally stupid. It comes as the result of being too ignorant to distinguish a person from what we decide is his "group," whether racial, ethnic, geographic, religious, whatever. So if an Italian person does a bigot a disservice (or a kindness), the bigot think all Italians are bad (or good). That's mighty stupid. It's true that some cultures encourage behaviors that might appeal to us or might repulse us. But that doesn't mean that an individual steeped in a particular culture will follow its preferred or traditional behavioral patterns. Our own experience tells us that our culture is complex, and that individuals within our own "group" behave, well, individually and uniquely. So it is stupid not to realize that people whom we identify as belonging to some other "group" are also unique individuals.

~~~ Marie: What idiots would choose a site for a real estate project than lies between a landfill & a medical waste dump which is now a Roma encampment/ghetto AND which is in the mythical environs of a character who wants to suck your blood? Enter ... Team Trump! ~~~

~~~ Rebecca Ruiz & Andrei Petre of the New York Times: “... [Donald] Trump’s family business is setting its sights on Transylvania, the central Romanian home to literature’s Count Dracula. The company has selected, records and interviews show, a site alongside one of the region’s biggest landfills and a former medical waste dump. The project, which has yet to be announced, would revive a stalled real estate development in the Romanian city of Cluj that had been tainted by government corruption. It would put Mr. Trump’s name on luxury apartments and a golf course not far from an informal encampment where Roma people have been effectively exiled to live beside toxic garbage.... During the president’s first term, the company swore off new deals abroad. It made no such promise when he retook office. Instead, the firm has capitalized on the president’s popularity in particular parts of the world.... Mr. Trump’s family business has collected ample cash as a result. ”

~~~~~~~~~~ 

Marie: Donald Trump has not only embarrassed this country; he has made the United States an embarrassing country. I am ashamed to be a part of it. 

The New York Times' live updates of developments in the Iran war are here. From the pinned item at 5:00 am ET: “The price of oil was retreating on Friday, a day after gyrating sharply, but it remained elevated as investors feared that recent attacks on energy infrastructure in the Persian Gulf would have long-term consequences.... In Washington on Thursday, a day after airstrikes on critical gas infrastructure in Qatar and Iran, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the United States was planning to lift sanctions on Iranian oil to lower prices, reversing years of measures to cripple the country’s economy.... In one sign that the war could have long-term repercussions on energy markets, the state-owned company QatarEnergy said that it would take up to five years to repair 'extensive damage' to gas facilities damaged by attacks on Wednesday and Thursday.”

John Gambrell & Julie Watson of the AP: “Israel pounded Tehran with airstrikes Friday as Iranians marked Nowruz, or the Persian New Year, in the midst of a war that has sent shock waves through the global economy and risked drawing Iran’s Arab neighbors directly into the conflict.... Heavy explosions shook Dubai early Friday as air defenses intercepted incoming fire over the city, where people were observing Eid al-Fitr, the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, and mosques made the day’s first call to prayers. Iran kept up its wave of attacks launched at Israel that have sent millions of people to shelters, with sirens sounding across a wide swath of the north, from Haifa to the Galilee to the border with Lebanon. It came after an intense day that saw more than a dozen missile launches on Thursday alone, according to Israel’s military.... Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Thursday that, at the request of ... Donald Trump, Israel will hold off any further attacks on Iran’s offshore South Pars gas field. ”

Karoun Demirjian & David Sanger of the New York Times: Donald “Trump asserted on Thursday that he had no plans to commit ground forces to the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran, even though he has acknowledged he is contemplating moves that could drag the military into land combat operations. Mr. Trump’s comments still left some room for him to reverse course. 'I’m not putting troops anywhere,' Mr. Trump told a reporter who asked about using ground troops. 'If I were, I certainly wouldn’t tell you.' The president has spent several days alternating between threats to escalate strikes on Iran — which at times he has insisted are an 'operation' or an 'excursion' instead of a war — and promising that the hostilities are on the brink of completion. His latest comments come just two days after Mr. Trump said that he was 'not afraid' to put U.S. boots on the ground.”

Lies & the Lying Liars. Isabel Kershner of the New York Times: “An Israeli strike on Iran’s South Pars gas field was coordinated with the Trump administration in advance, according to three Israeli officials, despite ... [Donald] Trump’s initial assertion...[:] 'The United States knew nothing about this particular attack,' Mr. Trump wrote in the social media post late Wednesday, saying that Israel had 'violently lashed out.' A day later, Mr. Trump appeared to have changed course. Speaking to reporters Thursday at the White House, Mr. Trump implied that he had spoken about the strike ahead of time with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. 'I told him don’t do that,' Mr. Trump said. He went on to say, 'we’re independent. We get along great. It’s coordinated.'... The attacks were the latest in a series of escalating strikes on energy infrastructure that have sent global oil and gas prices soaring. South Pars is part of the largest gas field in the world. Qatar is the world’s third-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Peter Beaumont of the Guardian: “Although Donald Trump said the US had not been given warning of the attack [on Iran's South Pars gas field], it seems highly unlikely that US intelligence would not have known about it or that two allies fighting a war together, involving joint military flight traffic control, would not both have been aware.” ~~~

     ~~~ digby: "Israel says Trump knew all about it and of course he did. They’re working together. And Trump is clearly making decisions by simply saying “fuck it — go for it” because he really doesn’t know what else to do. He’s afraid of losing but he has no clue what winning looks like other than Iran waving the white flag and licking his boots." ~~~ 

~~~ Scott Waldman, et al., of Politico: “The widening attacks on energy infrastructure in the Middle East have created a rift between the White House and its Gulf allies while increasing fears of a global recession. Israel’s targeting of the South Pars gas field in Iran on Wednesday set off a wave of Iranian reprisals that caused extensive damage to the world’s largest liquefied natural gas exporting facility in Qatar. It’s a major escalation in the war and one that energy industry observers have most feared because the destruction of oil and gas facilities could take years to repair and turbocharge the economic disruption already ensnaring the globe.... The attack, which caused oil prices to continue their climb, laid bare the growing daylight between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the war closes in on its third week.” ~~~

~~~ "Apocalypse Now." Juan Cole of Informed Comment: “Oil and gas development doesn’t happen overnight, and repairs can take years. Iran leadership, more hard line than ever before, has repeatedly made it clear that if they cannot export gas on oil from the Persian Gulf, then no one will be allowed to.... Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his extremist cabinet, full of the Israeli equivalent of neo-Nazis, knew exactly what they were doing when they bombed South Pars. They were signaling that their goal is the complete destruction of Iran. They also were very well aware that Iran’s response would likely be to hit the Gulf gas giants. They do not care that they thereby plunged billions of the earth’s people, including ordinary Americans, into long term economic pain. Call it the 'Netanyahu tax' that we’ll all be paying in our electricity, grocery, electronics and consumer spending, possibly for years to come. It is impossible to know whether ... Donald Trump was complicit with the South Pars strike, or was, as he represented himself in social media posts, alarmed and dismayed by it. Trump is a notorious and serial liar, so for all we know he green-lit the bombing but then backed off when Qatar called him up....” 

No, Actually. Peter Nichols of NBC News: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met privately Wednesday with the families of six service members who died in the Iran war and, in a press briefing the next morning, said the message he got was consistent and supportive. 'What I heard through tears, through hugs, through strength and through unbreakable resolve was the same from family after family. They said, “Finish this. Honor their sacrifice. Do not waver. Do not stop until the job is done,’” Hegseth said. One of the people he met at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware was Charles Simmons. His 28-year-old son, Tech. Sgt. Tyler H. Simmons, was among the six crew members killed when their refueling plane crashed in Iraq last week. Simmons recalled his exchange differently. 'I can’t speak for the other families. When he spoke to me, that was not something we talked about,' he told NBC News in an interview Thursday. Simmons said he spoke separately to Hegseth and ... Donald Trump at Dover and was grateful for the warmth that both men showed him.... Asked if he said anything to Hegseth or Trump about the need to keep fighting the war, Simmons said, 'No, I didn’t say anything along those lines.'”

Tiffany Stanley of the AP: “... Pete Hegseth has found no shortage of ways to bring his strand of conservative evangelicalism into the Pentagon. Now the defense secretary’s Christian rhetoric has taken on new meaning after the U.S. and Israel went to war with Iran, an Islamic theocracy. 'The mullahs are desperate and scrambling,' he said at a recent Pentagon press briefing, referring to Iran’s Shiite Muslim clerics.... 'We’re fighting religious fanatics who seek a nuclear capability in order for some religious Armageddon,' Hegseth said of Iranian leaders.” ~~~

     ~~~ AND there's this from Isaac Schorr of Mediaite: “At a Pentagon press conference on Thursday morning, Hegseth said the following: 'May Almighty god continue to bless our troops in this fight. And again to the American people, please pray for them. Every day. On bended knee, with your family, in your schools, in your churches, in the name of Jesus Christ.'” MB: There is so much wrong with this, I can barely count the ways. Lawrence O'Donnell made a stab at it last night (I think he forgot the praying in schools part).

Robert Jimison of the New York Times: “Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a measure that would have barred [Donald] Trump from continuing his offensive against Iran without authorization, moving for the second time since the conflict began to shut down a Democratic bid to limit his power to use American military force without congressional approval. It was the latest in a series of efforts by Democrats in recent months to challenge Mr. Trump’s unilateral military moves and insist that Congress have a say in the use of American force abroad.... Democrats have vowed to continue forcing such votes in a bid to compel top Trump administration officials to testify publicly about the ongoing conflict in Iran, about which they have so far briefed lawmakers only in classified settings.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ BUT. Mia McCarthy, et al., of Politico: “Congressional Republicans are confronting serious doubts they can pass Iran war funding on their own, especially as the potential price tag balloons into the hundreds of billions of dollars. The alternative — relying on a handful of Democrats to push it through the Senate — doesn’t look any more likely as Middle East hostilities expand, energy prices rise and more Democratic lawmakers dig in against an unpopular war. In recent weeks, some in the GOP floated using the party-line budget reconciliation process to give the Pentagon a slug of new money without needing to gather 60 votes in the Senate. But the revelation that a war funding request could reach $200 billion has quickly cooled those hopes.... 'It’s such a contortion to make things fit in reconciliation that there’s probably a preference for regular order,' Senate Armed Services Chair ' (R-Miss.) said in an interview.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie's Translation: We aren't dumb enough to let Trump's unpopular war become a Republican war where Americans are killed in service of the G.O.P., not of the U.S.A. 

Yes, He Said That. Right in the Face of Japan's Prime Minister. Javier Hernández of the New York Times: “At an otherwise congenial meeting with Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, in the Oval Office on Thursday, Mr. Trump invoked the Japanese attack on [Pearl Harbor on] Dec. 7, 1941, which led the United States into World War II. He was responding to a question about why Japan and other allies had received no advance notice of the U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran. 'We didn’t tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise,' he said. 'Who knows better about surprise than Japan, OK? Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor, OK? Right?' There was some laughter from the officials and journalists gathered in the room. 'You believe in surprise, I think, much more so than us,' he added. As Mr. Trump spoke, Ms. Takaichi widened her eyes and appeared to take a deep breath. She kept her arms crossed in her lap and did not speak.”  (Also linked yesterday.)~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Hernández describes Trump's stunning remark as "the latest example of Mr. Trump’s penchant for tossing aside diplomatic norms." But it isn't that. Trump simply does not know how to behave in polite company. He's always been the rude, oafish bumpkin from the outer borough who elbowed his way into Manhattan soirees but didn't know how to make appropriate small talk when he got there. This is different from someone like socialite Alice Roosevelt Longworth, who so belonged to the elite class that she felt free to advertise (on an embroidered pillow), "If you can't say something good/nice about someone, sit right here by me." You must know how to play by the rules to have license to break them. ~~~

     ~~~ Javier Hernández & Hisako Ueno of the New York Times: “Many Japanese scholars, politicians and commentators were aghast.... [Prime Minister Sanae] Takaichi, who worked hard during the visit to stay on Mr. Trump’s good side, [also] drew criticism for not saying something about the joke — and for her attempts to curry favor with the president. At dinner on Thursday, she complimented Mr. Trump’s looks. And earlier in the day, she told him, 'I firmly believe it is only you, Donald, who can achieve peace across the world.' Hitoshi Tanaka, a former diplomat, wrote on X that Ms. Takaichi’s approach was 'bizarre and embarrassing.'”

Luke Broadwater & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: Donald “Trump’s handpicked arts commission voted on Thursday to approve a commemorative, 24-karat gold coin bearing Mr. Trump’s image, brushing aside debate over whether the coin violates American tradition.... It is one of at least three coins featuring Mr. Trump’s face, including a $1 coin that will circulate as currency, that the administration is planning. The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, which advises federal agencies on design matters, voted unanimously on Thursday to approve the coin’s design.... Many of America’s founders, including George Washington, were fiercely against taking steps that would make its government officials appear like kings, and that included featuring them on the country’s coins. Only a handful of times in history have people been featured on U.S. currency while they were alive. 

“The administration’s move to mint official coins with Mr. Trump’s face is also legally aggressive. An 1866 law called the Thayer Amendment states: 'Only the portrait of a deceased individual may appear on United States currency and securities.'... On Thursday, Megan Sullivan, the acting chief in the office of design management at the U.S. Mint, told the panel the plans for the gold coin were not part of the 2020 legislation authorizing special coins to celebrate the anniversary. Instead, she said, they were being made under [Treasury Secretary Scott] Bessent’s authority.” ~~~

     ~~~ Darlene Superville of the AP: “The vote by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts ... clears the way for the U.S. Mint to begin production on the coin, whose size and denomination are still under discussion.... Federal law says no living president can appear on U.S. currency. But Megan Sullivan, the acting chief of the Office of Design Management at the Mint, said the Treasury secretary has authority to authorize the minting and issuance of new 24-karat gold coins, which Scott Bessent has used to get around that prohibition and put Trump on a coin.” MB: How about making the coin less than half the size of a dime. Oh, wait: ~~~

     ~~~ Julianne McShane of MS NOW: “Members of a federal arts commission voted on Thursday to create a 24-carat commemorative gold coin featuring ... Donald Trump — and to make it 'as large as possible.'” 

~~~ Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: “The federal Commission of Fine Arts has taken issue with plans for a new 33,000-square-foot security screening center for White House visitors, saying the proposed facility is too big and not beautiful enough. Members of the Commission of Fine Arts — which ... [Donald] Trump has packed with allies and supporters — had been scheduled to give preliminary approval to the project on Thursday. Instead, they delayed the vote and asked for substantial changes that would emulate the grandeur of ancient Greek and Roman structures. 'Can this building please be made shorter in length and shorter in height?' asked James C. McCrery II, the vice chairman of the panel who was the first architect on Mr. Trump’s coveted ballroom project. He added: 'It’s such a prominent thing, and its prominence then obligates it to be beautiful.' The panel made no such objections last month when it approved Mr. Trump’s 90,000-square foot, $400 million ballroom, bypassing the normal review process and fast-tracking the vote on a project that would transform the profile of the White House. (Mr. McCrery, who disagreed with Mr. Trump over the size of the ballroom, recused himself from that vote.)” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Say what? The proposed screening center is underground. It can't be "shorter." It's already "shorter" than the souls of your shoes. It is not "a prominent thing." You want Greek columns on a Nazi bunker? What am I missing here? 

Heather Cox Richardson highlights another aborted investigation of Jeffrey Epstein -- this one by the DEA -- that mysteriously came to a halt some time after 2015. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) discovered a heavily-redacted memo in the Epstein files that alluded to the investigation and apparently named names of Epstein's alleged co-conspirators. Wyden asked the current DEA Administrator Terry Cole for a copy of the unredacted communication, and Cole was about to provide it when Trump's lawyer & deputy AG Todd Blanche stepped in & stopped Cole. (Also linked yesterday.)  

Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: “Gen. Francis L. Donovan, the head of the military’s Southern Command, acknowledged on Thursday that U.S. strikes against boats suspected of trafficking drugs in the Caribbean Sea and the Eastern Pacific 'aren’t the answer' to the nation’s drug problem. General Donovan, in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the strikes had forced narco-terrorist groups in the region to change their operational patterns but were not a long-term solution.... The United States has killed at least 157 people it accuses of smuggling drugs at sea in 45 strikes since early September. But the Trump administration has not provided evidence to support those claims. General Donovan, a four-star Marine Corps officer with an extensive background in Special Operations missions, told lawmakers that since taking over the command in February, he had started building a more comprehensive approach, working with regional allies like Ecuador. 'Boat strikes will be one of the main tools, and probably not the most effective,' he said.”

Miranda Bryant of the Guardian: “During the tense days when Donald Trump threatened to take over Greenland – a largely autonomous territory that is part of the Danish commonwealth – 'the hard way', Copenhagen was so shaken that it started preparing for US invasion, according to Danish public broadcaster DR. When, in January, Danish soldiers were flown to Greenland, they were reportedly carrying explosives to destroy runways in the capital, Nuuk, and in Kangerlussuaq, a small town north of the capital, to prevent US aircraft from landing in the event of an invasion. They also carried supplies from Danish blood banks to treat wounded people in the event of battle, according to DR....”

Marc Caputo of Axios: "Former FBI Director James Comey has been subpoenaed in the wide-ranging 'grand conspiracy' case against the ex-officials who investigated and prosecuted ... [Donald] Trump, two sources with knowledge of the situation tell Axios. The investigation has produced more than 130 subpoenas since cranking up last year, the sources say, and targets top officials who worked under former presidents Obama and Biden. The officials, including Comey, have all decried the investigation as political persecution and lawfare.... The Trump administration's grand conspiracy theory posits that Democratic officials bent the rules, broke the law and lied under oath to investigate, prosecute and otherwise undermine Trump from his election in 2016 through his federal indictments in 2023. 

"The Comey subpoena, issued last week, relates to his alleged role in the drafting of a January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) concerning Russia's election interference that favored Trump.... U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump nominee who threw out the federal prosecution against him in his classified documents case in 2024, is overseeing the grand jury based out of Fort Pierce in the Southern District of Florida." (Also linked yesterday.)

Political support for President Trump is not a legal or appropriate requirement for the effective performance of plaintiffs’ respective roles within the F.B.I.... Accordingly, perceived lack of political support for President Trump is an impermissible basis for termination of plaintiffs’ F.B.I. employment. -- Complainants v. Bondi & Patel ~~~

~~~ Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “Two former F.B.I. agents fired last year for having worked on an investigation into ... [Donald] Trump’s attempts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election accused senior leaders at the bureau and the Justice Department of targeting them for 'political retribution' in a lawsuit filed on Thursday. In their suit, the agents claimed that the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, and Attorney General Pam Bondi had retaliated against them for being  'politically disloyal to President Trump,' even though they had worked on the election interference case ... only briefly and in largely administrative roles. The suit, filed in Federal District Court in Washington, was the latest effort by F.B.I. employees to hold Mr. Patel and Ms. Bondi accountable for the sweeping purge of investigators and analysts. Dozens of agents and prosecutors who worked on the investigations have been fired or forced from their positions in a campaign of retribution that began almost immediately after Mr. Trump returned to the White House.”

Joe Sommerlad of the Independent: “First Lady Melania Trump was part of the discussions ... Donald Trump held with top advisers on how to reset his illegal immigration crackdown, according to a report. After a year of ugly scenes on the streets of major Democrat-led American cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., the surge by ICE and other federal immigration agencies into Minneapolis in January proved a disaster, resulting in the deaths of two protesters and a huge public outcry. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem – who had wrongly described the victims, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, as 'domestic terrorists' – held crisis talks with Trump at the White House and initially appeared to have saved her job before being dismissed earlier this month. The Wall Street Journal now reports that the president met with his top team, including his wife, and told them he was concerned about the torrent of negative headlines Noem’s DHS had attracted.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Notice that Trump & his cohort don't care about the death & destruction they are causing; rather, the concern is "the torrent of negative headlines." Nothing is bad until it's bad for Trump.

Madeleine Ngo & Michael Gold of the New York Times: “Senators moved to speed the nomination of Markwayne Mullin..., [Donald] Trump’s pick to lead the Homeland Security Department, to the Senate floor, setting him up to take over the agency at the center of Mr. Trump’s mass deportation campaign. The Senate Homeland Security Committee voted, 8 to 7, to send Mr. Mullin’s nomination to the full Senate with a favorable recommendation, with most Republicans and one Democrat voting to advance the nomination. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, the committee’s Republican chairman, defected from his party and voted in opposition. Mr. Mullin retained sufficient support on the committee, however, with the backing of Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, a Democrat. Mr. Mullin is expected to face a confirmation vote in the Senate next week.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Paul Waldman on why Trump chose Markwayne Mullin, of all people, to run DHS: "Mullin has no law enforcement experience, no national security experience, no intelligence experience, and no experience leading a sprawling organization like DHS, which has a yearly budget of over $100 billion and 260,000 employees. Mullin did have one thing that no doubt attracted Trump’s attention: He’s a fake tough guy, which is just the kind Trump likes. That makes him a worthy successor to Kristi Noem; while she pretended she was running the agency when she was actually a cosplaying content creator, Mullin will be able to more convincingly deliver rootin’ tootin’ tough talk of the kind that will warm Trump’s heart." MB: An enlightening read. And entertaining, too. Thanks to Ken W. for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) 

⭐Minnesota Public Radio: “The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation announced Thursday that it’s awarding one of its 2026 Profile in Courage Awards to the 'people of the Twin Cities of Minnesota' for their actions during the federal immigration enforcement surge. The foundation said it chose to honor Twin Cities residents 'for risking their lives to protect their neighbors and immigrant community members from an unprecedented federal law enforcement operation, peacefully defending the human rights and values that serve as the foundation of our Constitutional democracy.' The foundation also announced Thursday that it is giving a Profile in Courage Award to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell 'for protecting the independence of the Federal Reserve, which is critical to the stability of the global economy, despite years of personal attacks and threats from the highest levels of government.'”

Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: “Estefany Maria Rodriguez Florez, a Nashville reporter detained by immigration agents early this month after the government said she had overstayed a tourist visa, was released on a $10,000 bond on Thursday, her legal team said. Ms. Rodriguez arrived in the country from her native Colombia in 2021 and sought asylum. She applied for a green card earlier this year after marrying an American citizen. She had frequently reported on the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown for the Spanish-language outlet Nashville Noticias. Lawyers for Ms. Rodriguez went to court to challenge her detention, writing in filings that there were indications she had been targeted because of her reporting. They said that in doing so, immigration agents had violated her First Amendment right to free speech. They have also argued that the agents did not show Ms. Rodriguez a valid warrant. The government has denied the claim, maintaining that Ms. Rodriguez was lawfully arrested and detained. In court filing last week, lawyers for the administration suggested that the First Amendment 'may not even be applicable to an illegal alien.'” The Nashville Banner story is here.

Amy Harmon of the New York Times: “A federal judge in Oregon ruled on Thursday that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. overstepped his legal authority when he declared last December that providers of gender-transition medical treatments for minors 'do not meet professionally recognized standards.' The decision, a setback for the Trump administration, gives temporary relief to hospitals, clinics and health professionals who provide such treatments. In the weeks after Mr. Kennedy issued his written declaration, the Department of Health and Human Services indicated that it would investigate institutions that continued to prescribe medication to minors for gender transitions and would potentially bar them from receiving federal Medicare and Medicaid funds. Twenty-one states, all led by Democrats, had filed a lawsuit ... claiming that the statement interfered with the power of states to regulate the practice of medicine within their borders.... After a six-hour hearing in the case in Eugene, Ore., on Thursday, Judge Mustafa Kasubhai of U.S. District Court said that Mr. Kennedy had not followed normal procedures before publishing his declaration on the issue.”

 

The Party of Bigots -- and Proud of It. Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: “Republicans in Congress have said that 'Muslims don’t belong in American society' and that 'the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.' On the campaign trail, GOP candidates have called for an end to 'Islamic immigration' and declared the religion incompatible with Western civilization. And top Republicans from the Hill to the White House have shown little appetite to repudiate their language, drawing a stark contrast with past party leaders. Asked this week whether he had gotten pushback from GOP colleagues for saying 'Islamists are the enemy,' Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) smiled.'Nobody’s saying anything,' he said. Republican politicians are ramping up attacks on Muslims and facing few political consequences, and sometimes seeing political benefit, unnerving civil rights advocates and signaling a new normal of open Islamophobia heading into campaign season. Rather than rebuke broad criticism of Muslims in the wake of terrorism — as President George W. Bush once did after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 — GOP leaders have allowed the most blatant anti-Muslim comments to go largely unchallenged.”

Pooja Salhotra, et al., of the New York Times: “Elected officials in California and other states are grappling with how to respond to accusations of sexual abuse by Cesar Chavez days before the March 31 holiday honoring the labor leader’s birthday.... In the hours after the allegations became public, many state and local leaders raced on Wednesday to distance themselves from Mr. Chavez. The governors of Texas and Arizona almost immediately moved to cancel state observances of Cesar Chavez Day on March 31. In Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass, along with women serving on the City Council, said they were planning to sign a proclamation on Thursday to erase Mr. Chavez’s name and rename the holiday 'Farm Workers Day' in the city, the mayor’s office said. They also planned to move the annual holiday to the last Monday each March, untethering it from Mr. Chavez’s birthday. More fallout could come on Thursday, when California state lawmakers will convene in floor sessions.” (Also linked yesterday.)

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