Now What? Sammy Westfall, et al., of the Washington Post: “A two-week agreement to halt U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran was under threat from multiple directions on Wednesday. Iran accused the United States of violating the ceasefire. Israel carried out widespread strikes in Lebanon. Iran conducted retaliatory attacks in the Persian Gulf region. And traffic in the Strait of Hormuz remained at a standstill.”
Phillips O'Brien: "This is no run of the mill TACO. This is complete US strategic failure." MB: This is a stark assessment from somebody who knows what he's talking about. The fake author of "The Art of the Deal" is the worst stratergerist imaginable. The whole world -- except maybe Trump himself and some of the malevolent crackpots running Iran -- is paying for it. For eons of trying, humans have not figured out a way to pick honorable, benevolent leaders. ~~~
~~~ Erika Solomon of the New York Times: “Iran publicly released on Wednesday what it said was the 10-point framework for talks that ... [Donald] Trump described as 'a workable basis on which to negotiate' an end to the war. Much of it consisted of maximalist demands that look difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile with U.S. aims. A White House official said the points do not match what Mr. Trump was referring to.... Here are the 10 points of Iran’s proposal, according to Iran’s official news agency, IRNA, and where these demands might conflict with Washington’s aims[.]” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Admittedly, we are dealing with two sets of notoriously unreliable narrators here. But it does seem likely that the TACO King was lying when he claimed to have in hand "a workable basis to negotiate." A document titled "You Lose, Sucka!" does not seem to me like "a workable basis to negotiate." Rather, it's a phony excuse to back down from a foolish, empty terrorist threat to completely annihilate the people of a sovereign nation. One obvious tell: we don't get to see the version Trump claims to have.
Both Jen Psaki of MS NOW & Evan Hurst of Wonkette call out "Two Weeks Trump."
Charlie Savage of the New York Times: Donald “Trump’s threat on Tuesday to wipe out Iran’s entire civilization escalated days of bellicose rhetoric in which he has made what appear to be self-incriminating statements about an intent to commit war crimes if the Iranian government does not submit to his demands. 'A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again...,' Mr. Trump wrote on social media.... Even as Mr. Trump dialed back his threat late Tuesday by announcing a two-week cease-fire, he has for days vowed to order the U.S. military to systematically destroy every bridge and power plant in Iran if its government did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil tankers. The laws of war forbid the deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure as a means of coercing a government. While it can sometimes be lawful to attack a specific civilian object if it offered a military advantage, an order to indiscriminately destroy all of a country’s bridges and power plants would be illegal and place military commanders in an untenable position, said Geoffrey S. Corn, who was the Army’s senior legal adviser on law-of-war issues and now teaches at Texas Tech Law School.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: This is of course completely consistent with Trump's history of boasting about his crimes. Like the time he told the Russians he got rid of Jim Comey to cover up their cooperation in throwing the 2016 election to him. Or when he bragged about that "perfect call" in which he urged Volodymyr Zelensky to make up some dirt on the Bidens or else he would withhold $400MM in military aid to Ukraine, which Congress had obligated him to send. Or the hundreds of times he has embraced his many co-conspirators in all the criminal activities undertaken to overturn the 2020 election. He's still at this last one; the news today is that he's going after Cassidy Hutchinson for testifying as to some of his bad behavior and possible crimes.
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| He must stand in front of the mirror every morning & make mean faces. |
Blondie Snubs Congress. Stephen Groves of the AP: “The Department of Justice has indicated that former Attorney General Pam Bondi will not appear for a scheduled deposition next week before a House committee investigating how the government handled its investigations into Jeffrey Epstein.... [A] spokeswoman for the House Oversight Committee said Wednesday the department signaled that Bondi ... will not appear for the deposition April 14 'since she is no longer attorney general and was subpoenaed in her capacity as attorney general.' The committee will contact Bondi’s personal counsel to discuss the next steps about scheduling the interview, she said.” ~~~
~~~ Hailey Fuchs of Politico: “House Republicans indicated Wednesday they will continue to seek sworn testimony from Pam Bondi on the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case, even after her ousting as attorney general.”
Zack Colman & Jean Chemnick of Politico: “EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin embraced a community of climate change contrarians Wednesday in a speech that underscored how scientific outliers have made inroads with the Trump administration. Zeldin acknowledged in his opening statements to the Heartland Institute’s conference in Washington that he was the first EPA chief to attend the annual gathering, which has long been shunned by Democratic and Republican administrations alike for advancing a fringe view that greenhouse gas emissions are beneficial.... The overwhelming body of science shows that the negative consequences of climate pollution far outweigh the possible benefits, researchers say.”
New York. From the pinned item in a New York Times liveblog: “Rex Heuermann, the man accused of murdering at least seven women on Long Island in what became known as the Gilgo Beach killings, pleaded guilty on Wednesday, bringing a sudden end to a case that took investigators more than a decade to solve. Mr. Heuermann, 62, pleaded guilty to all seven murders, plus an eighth that he had not yet been charged with. He appeared in Suffolk County court at what had been scheduled as a routine hearing before a trial set to start in the fall.... Mr. Heuermann told Judge Timothy P. Mazzei that he was entering his plea willingly and waiving both his right to appeal and to testify on his own behalf....
“The Suffolk County district attorney, Raymond A. Tierney, named the victims one by one and asked Mr. Heuermann how he had caused their deaths. 'Strangulation,' Mr. Heuermann said, again and again. He said he had hired women as escorts, killed them, bound them in burlap and left them along Ocean Parkway. As he admitted to the murders, Mr. Heuermann maintained a normal demeanor, as if having a morning chat. The extraordinary proceeding, before a packed courtroom, was over in 20 minutes.” An AP story is here.
~~~~~~~~~~
The Far Side of the Moon. Here are more NASA photos from Artemis II. The New York Times tells the story in pictures here.
The New York Times' liveblog of developments in the Iran war are here. From the pinned item at 5:40 am ET: “The United States and Iran announced a two-week cease-fire on Tuesday evening.... But on Wednesday morning, it was unclear whether word of the nascent deal had reached Iranian local commanders, as fresh missile and drone attacks were reported across the Persian Gulf. And even though the news sent the international oil price benchmark down 15 percent, to $93 a barrel, it remained unclear whether ship operators considered the strait — a critical passage for the world’s oil and gas — safe for transit. After Mr. Trump said on Tuesday night that he had agreed to the cease-fire proposed by Pakistan, a U.S. official said American military strikes against Iran had stopped. Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said the country’s armed forces would 'cease their defensive operation,' and that safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible for two weeks if it was coordinated with Iran’s military. But early on Wednesday..., Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates reported missile and drone attacks. Bahrain’s interior ministry sounded warning sirens and reported a fire started by an Iranian attack....
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel introduced a further complication on Wednesday by saying that, while his country supported Mr. Trump’s decision to suspend strikes against Iran for two weeks, the deal did not extent to the fighting in Lebanon. An Israeli effort to stop the Iran-backed militia Hezbollah from launching missiles at northern Israel has turned into a massive ground invasion of Lebanon’s south. Mr. Netanyahu’s statement contradicted an earlier one by Prime Minister Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan, who said that the cease-fire applied everywhere, including Lebanon.”
He's a maniac, maniac on the floorAnd he's dancing like he's never danced before.
~~~ Dave Lawler & Barak Ravid of Axios: "Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed Tehran's acceptance and said Iran would allow 'safe passage' of the Strait of Hormuz during those two weeks 'via coordination with Iran's armed forces.'... The U.S. and Iran are expected to hold peace talks on Friday in Islamabad, two sources familiar with the plans told Axios. Vice President Vance is likely to lead the U.S. delegation.... Israel has agreed to the ceasefire and will also suspend its strikes, a White House official said." (Also linked yesterday.) Politico's story is here.
~~~ David Sanger of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said on Tuesday that he found a last-minute offramp allowing him to delay his threat to obliterate Iran’s power grid and bridges, seizing on a proposal from Pakistan for a 14-day cease-fire that would include opening the Strait of Hormuz while Washington and Tehran tried to negotiate a peace deal.... Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, a veteran of past nuclear negotiations with the United States..., said 'Iran’s Armed Forces' would retain control of the waterway. That would leave Iran in fundamental control of the passageway.... Mr. Trump appeared desperate for a way to escape his own threats and rhetoric, and to engineer a Pakistani proposal that he would then sign on to.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Heather Cox Richardson sort of summarizes Trump's day yesterday, including his bizarre claim that "authorities are looking to determine whether or not a crime was committed" by CNN reporter Michael Rios for reporting Iran's interpretation of the terms of the cease-fire. An American has to be simple-minded, stupid or mad to suggest that reporting straight facts, facts available to the public through multiples sources including the public airwaves, is a crime.
Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: “World leaders expressed relief on Wednesday that the United States, Israel and Iran had agreed to a temporary cease-fire, with ... [Donald] Trump backing off his apocalyptic threat to escalate a war that had already set off a cascading series of global crises. But the relief was tempered by the profound powerlessness that most countries have felt over the last six weeks as they watched Mr. Trump wage a war that has rattled their economies, their energy supplies, their domestic politics and their relationships with the world’s pre-eminent superpower. Even if the two-week cease-fire becomes permanent, those leaders, particularly in Europe, will be left to repair the cracks this war has caused in the global economy and security environment. They will also be left searching for better ways to navigate the new world order that Mr. Trump has brought to bear in his second term in the White House, in which the president whipsaws friends and foes alike. Other countries have found few ways to buffer themselves, even as they express alarm at Mr. Trump’s actions.”
Earlier That Same Day. Ephrat Livni of the New York Times: “Pope Leo XIV, the first U.S.-born pontiff, issued a rare rebuke of ... [Donald] Trump on Tuesday, saying it was 'truly unacceptable' to threaten to wipe out Iran’s 'whole civilization.' He did not mention the president by name, but it was clear whom he was referring to. 'Today, as we all know, there has also been this threat against the entire people of Iran. And this is truly unacceptable,' the pope told reporters Tuesday evening in Italy, hours before an announcement by Mr. Trump that a two-week cease-fire had been reached. 'There are certainly issues of international law here, but even more, it is a moral question concerning the good of the people as a whole, in its entirety.'... Leo pressed for diplomacy. 'Come back to the table. Let’s talk,' Leo said Tuesday evening. 'Let’s look for solutions in a peaceful way.'” The AP report is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Just in case il Conte di Mar-a-Lardo was too stupid to know the Pope was saying, "I'm talkin' to you, Trump," Leo made his statement in English.
Tom Nichols of the Atlantic: “The president’s statements are policy, and he has now made it the policy of the government of the United States that at 8 p.m. Washington, D.C., time (3:30 a.m. in Tehran), he will order the U.S. military to destroy Iran and its entire civilization — permanently — unless his terms are met.... Even Richard Nixon, the author of the 'madman theory' — the notion that a president might seek advantage over an enemy by appearing to be irrational — never publicly threatened to wipe out Vietnam.... The most important aspect of Trump’s threat is that it implies the use of nuclear weapons.... The president now sounds no different from the authoritarian rulers of the world’s worst regimes.... If he directs the widespread and irrevocable destruction of Iranian civilization..., the U.S. military should refuse such blatantly illegal orders. American officers have a positive duty to refuse illegal orders, and the destruction of an entire civilization with nuclear weapons — which poses no similar threat to the United States—is as illegal as it gets.” Thanks to akaWendy for this gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)
Assuming no TACO and things get quickly out of control this whole thing comes down to a USMC NCO. I hope he has a cast iron set and loves his country more than his president.* -- Bobby Lee, in Tuesday's Comments
Michelle Price of the AP: “The president who yearned for a Nobel Peace Prize and once reveled in the appearance of solving conflicts turned to the language of annihilation as he struggled to find a resolution to his war of choice in Iran. President Donald Trump’s latest threat over the Iran war hit a new extreme Tuesday as he warned, 'A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,' if Iran failed to make a deal that includes reopening the vital Strait of Hormuz.”
No head of state in the history of the world ever said that. -- Lawrence O'Donnell ~~~
Marie: Unless it came as a complete surprise to you to receive a Nobel Prize, you probably have never had a high like the one Donald Trump experienced yesterday -- because yesterday, millions and millions of people the world over focused on Donald Trump, wondering if he was going to expand his reign of terror. There has never been a publicity whore like Donald Trump. He would kill hundreds of thousands of people for the headlines. His needs only grow with each ensuing publicity extravaganza. He craves more and more attention. He is so accustomed to even extraordinary accolades that they bore him. They put him to sleep. So whatever happens at the end of today's episode of "The Perils of Trumpolini," Trump will be worse tomorrow.
“Happy Death Of Civilization Day, Everybody!” Marcie Jones of Wonkette: “Welp, guess Trump has penciled in today as biggest bombing day ever, with 93 million people cut off from power and water and/or blasted to smithereens, or Trump will chicken out. But he sure sounds QUITE hot to trot, posting this morning: 'A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Nonetheless, just yesterday he made the "revolutionarily wonderful" something less likely to happen by bombing the stuff out of a center of revolutionary wonderfulness. ~~~
~~~ Stupid Trump Tricks. Jake Johnson of Common Dreams: “A wave of US-Israeli airstrikes on Monday hit and extensively damaged Sharif University of Technology, a leading Iranian educational institution that is widely known as 'the MIT of Iran' and seen as one of the world’s top engineering schools. The attack on the Tehran university — one of dozens of education sites bombed by the US and Israel since they launched their war on Iran in late February — sparked outrage inside Iran and around the world. Mohammad Reza Aref, an engineer currently serving as Iran’s first vice president, said the attack on Sharif University 'is a symbol of [... Donald] Trump’s madness and ignorance.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Trita Parsi on BlueSky: "It has also been a center of student opposition to the Iranian gov" Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)
We Have Met the Great Satan, and He Is Trump. Brian Beutler of Off Message has posted "25 Thoughts On The Humiliation Of Donald Trump." We non-subscribers can read roughly half of them, beginning with, "1. Donald Trump, and the many Republicans who backed him through this latest disgrace, have spent decades pretending to believe the Iranian government is uniquely evil because it threatens (idly) to wipe its enemies off the map. 2. It must be clear to everyone credible in U.S. discourse now that Trump-era Republicans — the U.S. regime — and the Iranian Mullahs are degenerates of the same species. Anyone who can’t acknowledge that is not credible. 3. In this conflict, which Trump began, Iran has kicked Trump’s ass. And as much as we don’t gotta hand it to them, that’s better than any alternative. 4. It’s critical that Iran has conceded nothing, because the last thing the world needs at the moment is for Trump to conclude that explicitly genocidal, implicitly nuclear threats will yield concessions."
⭐Jonathan Swan & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: “This account of how Mr. Trump took the United States into war is drawn from reporting for a forthcoming book, 'Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump.' It reveals how the deliberations inside the administration highlighted the president’s instincts, his inner circle’s fractures and the way he runs the White House. It draws on extensive interviews.... The reporting underscores how closely Mr. Trump’s hawkish thinking aligned with Mr. Netanyahu’s over many months, more so than even some of the president’s key advisers recognized. And it shows how, in the end, even the more skeptical members of Mr. Trump’s war cabinet — with the stark exception of Mr. Vance, the figure inside the White House most opposed to a full-scale war — deferred to the president’s instincts, including his abundant confidence that the war would be quick and decisive. ” (Also linked yesterday.) Update: the link has been changed to one that appears to be a gift link. ~~~
~~~ Marie: I'm betting that one of Swan & Haberman's sources was JayDee -- or at least a top aide of his. Yesterday the NYT published an op-ed by Dana Milbank, late of the WashPo, positing that JayDee had been saddled with all of Trump's missteps and thus had lost his MAGA creds. I didn't think so when I read the op-ed early in the day; Swan & Haberman only convinced me I was right in suspecting that Milbank had grossly exaggerated the rumors of JayDee's demise. JayDee is setting himself up as the Voice Against Dumb Wars within the Trump administration. He is, after all, the only top administration official whom Trump cannot fire. He has lost the argument in the short term, but he aims to play a longer game. Even today, Natalie Allison of the WashPo reports, “'Is God on our side?' Vance said when asked by The Washington Post whether he agreed with some top U.S. officials who have framed the war in religious terms, including Trump. 'I think my attitude towards military conflict has always been to pray that we are on God’s side.'” One may hope a hillbilly elegy is a'comin', but it ain't time yet.
John Hudson, et al., of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump has continued to describe the war against Iran as an unqualified success, saying as recently as Monday that the United States was doing 'unbelievably well' while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tehran had been 'embarrassed and humiliated' by U.S. forces. But Iran’s downing of an F-15E fighter jet and the high-risk rescue operation that ensued showed that Tehran retains the ability to threaten the United States’ military personnel and cast doubt on the statistics Hegseth has promoted in recent weeks, boasting about 'complete control of Iranian skies' and 'uncontested airspace,' U.S. officials and analysts said. The chaotic but successful rescue mission ... has reinforced concerns inside the Trump administration that his messaging about the war is overly optimistic and risks misinforming both the public and the president. 'Pete is not speaking truth to the president,' one administration official said. 'As a result, the president is out there repeating misleading information.'” Hegseth has made other false claims, far overstating the successes of the U.S. military.
Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP -- Donald Trump, full Easter message
It was, by any measure, the most unhinged public comment by any president in U.S. history. -- Garrett Graff ~~~
“The Terrorist in Chief.” Paul Krugman: “Terrorism, according to ICE ... 'involves violence or the threat of violence against people or property to further a particular ideology.' The official website goes on to declare that 'Terrorists do not care who they hurt or kill to achieve their goals.'... Trump ... perfectly fit[s] his own officials’ definition of a terrorist.... He’s promising violence. That vile post isn’t part of a negotiating strategy, since there is, after all, zero chance that Iran will open the Strait of Hormuz by [Tuesday] evening.... Terrorism is a strategy of the weak. It’s what extremists do when they lack the ability to achieve their goals through military action or other non-criminal means.... A refusal by senior officers to participate in war crimes may be the only thing that could stop this evil in its tracks.... America has a terrorist president. And the whole world knows it. But we still have a chance to show the world that he is an aberration, that we are not a terrorist nation. And we can do that by standing up for the values that have always defined us.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Krugman seems more hopeful that I am. I do hope that the majority of Americans don't want "a whole civilization to die tonight." We should acknowledge that Trump is terrorizing not only Iranians but also those of us in the no-death-to-civilization camp. Certainly the threat to us is less dire than it is to people living in Iran, but his war games and teases are a threat to our mental health and financial stability. He is a bully, and he is toying with us -- making us party to state-sponsored terrorism. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Steven Beschloss on Substack: "... the contents of [Donald Trump's Easter Sunday] post provide the clearest possible evidence that this man must be removed from office — that he is unfit to carry out his duties, which require someone capable of rational thought. His increasingly extreme actions, impossible to miss, cannot be glossed over. Something is terribly wrong with him. It is deadly dangerous.... The responsibility resides not just with the Republicans but with every elected member of Congress — to speak up and demand the invocation of the 25th [Amendment] to remove Trump from power. One by one, step by step, a growing collective force can lead to this necessary change. Failing to do so makes them complicit with whatever horrors may come next." Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Paul Campos in LG&$: "Trump has got to go, and there’s no way to make that happen at the moment, but there could be a way, or ways (beyond traditional Roman imperial solutions and the like), sometime between now and the official end of his second term. The more talk of the 25th amendment the better, because the unthinkable has to become thinkable as a prerequisite to becoming doable." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Here's the problem. In January or February 2025, I told the nice ACLU fundraising lady (who occasionally phones me up for a wee money bomb) that what I feared would happen was that Trump would be removed, either by illness or force, making JayDee president* just in time for him to gain the sympathy and/or creds to win the 2028 election. My position on that has not changed. ~~~
~~~ Megan Mineiro & Michael Gold of the New York Times: “More than a quarter of congressional Democrats called for ... [Donald] Trump to be removed from office and questioned his mental fitness for the presidency after he threatened on Tuesday to destroy 'a whole civilization' in Iran.The lawmakers, many of them left-leaning, suggested that Mr. Trump’s threats were grounds for Congress to impeach him or for the president’s cabinet to strip him of his powers through the 25th Amendment. Representative Joaquin Castro, Democrat of Texas, called on the cabinet to invoke the constitutional amendment, which allows the vice president and members of the cabinet to declare that the president is 'unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.... It’s clear the president has continued to decline and is not fit to lead,' Mr. Castro said on social media.” (Also linked yesterday.) An NBC News report is here. ~~~
~~~ GOP Congressional Leaders: In a Crisis, Take a Vacation. Arthur Delaney of the Huffington Post: “The part of the U.S. government that’s supposed to decide whether we go to war is on vacation while ... Donald Trump threatens the wholesale annihilation of a foreign country. Congress has not held a single hearing on the war, which has killed thousands of people, including more than a dozen U.S. service members, caused gas prices to spike, and led to Iranian attacks on U.S. allies throughout the Middle East, destabilizing the region. Republicans show no interest in getting involved. As of Tuesday afternoon, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) have had no response to Trump’s genocidal threat against Iran.”
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Margaret Sullivan on Substack: "Based on my survey of regional-newspaper front pages on Monday morning, very few came anywhere near rising to the occasion.... If traditional techniques and language (“emphatic threats”) aren’t getting it done, what actually would work? I’ll make three suggestions, and would be happy to hear yours. First, show the primary document — yes, publish an image of the actual social-media post — even if that means breaking with the tradition of standards and practices.... Second, use headline language and story placement to get across how truly radical Trump’s behavior is.... Third, break with tradition and put a strong opinion column or editorial — or even a very direct news analysis piece — at the top of the online home page, or on the print front page." (Also linked yesterday.)
Greg Jaffe of the New York Times attempts to explain the delicate position of Gen. Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: “Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has no plans to resign or otherwise leave his role at the Pentagon, he said in a statement to The Washington Post on Tuesday, after a series of internal clashes with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that have caused other U.S. officials to question how long they can coexist. Driscoll’s statement follows last week’s abrupt ouster of the Army’s top officer, Gen. Randy George, and two other senior military leaders — and as Hegseth’s top spokesman, Sean Parnell, has privately told colleagues that he is interested in Driscoll’s job should it become open.... The White House, in a separate statement, appeared to back Driscoll, who is close friends with Vice President JD Vance....” The Independent's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: I wrote earlier that Pete can't fire Driscoll; only Trump can, so this was likely a primary reason Pete fired Gen. George, who was Driscoll's chief-of-staff. But according to the Independent story, by Joe Sommerlad, Pete “was motivated by 'paranoia' [to fire Driscoll's chief-of-staff because he feared] that he [Pete, that is] could be replaced by Driscoll, The New York Post reported Friday.... [Rumor is] that Hegseth has been wary of Driscoll ever since he was floated as his possible successor when the Signalgate scandal erupted last March....”
Toni Romm & Annie Karni of the New York Times: “With a roughly $4 billion budget, the bipartisan program known as LIHEAP [-- which helps poor Americans pay their home heating and cooling bills --] is just a sliver of a sprawling federal balance sheet.... Yet it counts among the vast set of federal aid that ... [Donald] Trump is trying to eliminate, as he scrounges for ways to cut costs at home and fund a larger, more expensive military. Mr. Trump has eyed a series of potentially unpopular and divisive domestic spending cuts for the next fiscal year.... Even as voters grow frustrated with the economy — and seem eager to exact their vengeance at the ballot box — the president has proposed to scale back some of the very federal programs that are meant to ease families’ toughest financial burdens.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: In case you are inclined to blame budget director Russell Vought for this cruel budget plan (and Vought surely is gleeful about socking it to poor people), Karni & Romm remind us that just last week Trump told White House guests that the federal government couldn't afford to pay for “day care,” Medicare and Medicaid. (Funny, then, how we can afford to pay for Trump's 'round-the-clock medical care, his gold trips, his White House demo & reno, etc.) Oh, and this: ~~~
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| Change the sheets, Melanie! |
~~~ Devanshi Basu on Mandatory, republished by Yahoo! News: "The Trump administration is moving forward with the purchase of a $70
million jet originally leased by former Homeland Security Secretary
Kristi Noem. The aircraft will reportedly be made available to select
Cabinet members as well as the office of the First Lady. The arrangement
ensures that Donald Trump’s wife, Melania, will have access to the high-end government plane for travel purposes.... The aircraft itself offers amenities uncommon among standard government
jets. The outlet reported the plane features a queen bed, showers, a
kitchen, four televisions, and a bar." Thanks to RAS for the lead.
Andrew Higgins & Lili Rutai of the New York Times: “With showbiz hoopla and solemn ceremony..., [Donald] Trump and Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday jumped into the final stretch of an election campaign in Hungary, heaping lavish praise on Prime Minister Viktor Orban just five days before a vote that most polls predict his party could lose. While Mr. Vance cheered on Mr. Orban in person in Budapest, the Hungarian capital, Mr. Trump offered effusive praise by telephone to a Budapest stadium packed with supporters of Hungary’s governing Fidesz party. Their interventions marked a last-ditch effort to revive the flagging prospects of Europe’s nationalist standard-bearer before a vote on Sunday that is widely seen as the most consequential for Hungary since its first free election in 1990 after the collapse of Communism. Mr. Orban is reviled by liberals but lauded by many in Mr. Trump’s MAGA movement and by like-minded Europeans for his previous electoral success, his open contempt for the European Union and his crackdowns on migrants and on activists pushing progressive social causes.” ~~~
~~~ You know what else Trump & Vance's pal Orban did recently??? ~~~
~~~ Catherine Belton of the Washington Post: “Soon after the deadly Israeli attack that caused thousands of Hezbollah pagers to explode in September 2024, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government offered its assistance to Iran, the key sponsor of Hezbollah, considered a terrorist organization by the United States. 'Our secret service has already contacted your services and we will share all the information we have gathered during the investigation,' Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, by telephone, according to a copy of a Hungarian government transcript of the Sept. 30 call.... The call ... pose[s] uncomfortable questions about the Orban government’s relationship with Iran.... The call also jars with the Orban government’s official policy of support for Israel, frequently breaking with its European counterparts to back Israel in United Nations Security Council votes....”
Falih Hassan, et al., of the New York Times: “An American journalist who was abducted in Baghdad by an Iraqi militia allied with Iran was freed on Tuesday after a week in captivity, according to the militia and two Iraqi security officials. The militia, Kataib Hezbollah, said in a statement that it had released the journalist, Shelly Kittleson, 'in appreciation of the patriotic positions' of Iraq’s prime minister, who had been negotiating for her release. The group said Ms. Kittleson must leave Iraq immediately. 'This initiative will not be repeated in the future,' a security commander from the group, who is known as Abu Mujahid Al-Asaf, said in the statement. 'We are in a state of war waged by the Zionist-American enemy against Islam and in such situations many considerations are disregarded.' Kataib Hezbollah, one of the most powerful militias in Iraq, is closely tied to Iran’s Quds Force, the overseas arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.” (Also linked yesterday.)
What if you were hoping against hope that the mad king would dub you attorney general, so you showed off by holding a press conference, whereupon you made the same Freudian slip twice, and then a reporter told on you in the New York Times? Oh dear. ~~~
~~~ Devlin Barrett of the New York Times: “In his first news conference since being elevated to acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, who represented the president in a series of criminal cases, said 'nobody has any idea' what led to Ms. Bondi’s dismissal other than the president.... Mr. Blanche said that he did not know whether he or someone else would be nominated to serve as the attorney general.... The president has privately and publicly complained that the Justice Department has not been aggressive enough in pursuing criminal cases against those he dislikes..., but Mr. Blanche denied anything untoward about the president’s approach to the department.... The news conference was primarily about the rollout of a new division in the Justice Department devoted to pursuing fraud.... Mr. Blanche suggested that the department’s new fraud division would seemingly take precedence over the longstanding work of a separate arm of the department’s criminal division, also dedicated to pursuing fraud.... Justice Department lawyers were notified on Tuesday that significant parts of the criminal division’s fraud prosecutors, including those handling financial markets, health care and consumer fraud cases, would move to the new entity. Mr. Blanche also said officials would launch a national fraud detection center, though he twice referred to it as a 'detention center.'” ~~~
~~~ Another Fake DOJ Investigation. Alan Feuer & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: “The Justice Department has assigned its civil rights division to investigate Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide who outraged President Trump four years ago after her testimony before Congress implicated him in the violence that erupted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.... The move was a highly unusual one by Justice Department leadership, directing a criminal case that appears to involve accusations of lying to Congress to a specialized unit that normally focuses on systemic civil rights abuses like police misconduct and racial discrimination. And yet the decision was in keeping with the administration’s bid to find new ways to use the powers of the federal government to target Mr. Trump’s political opponents.... The inquiry ... was opened in recent weeks as the former attorney general, Pam Bondi, was trying to shore up her shaky standing with the president....
“At a news conference on Tuesday, [new Acting Attorney General Todd] Blanche shrugged off those concerns, saying that Mr. Trump had 'the right,' even 'the duty,' as president to call for investigations of anyone he believed deserved them. That position put Mr. Blanche at odds with most Justice Department leaders of the past 50 years, who have maintained at least the semblance of independence from the White House.” The Independent has a derivative story here.
Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: “The newlywed wife of a U.S. soldier who was detained last week at her husband’s Army base was released on Tuesday, after spending five days at a detention center ... as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. The wife, Annie Ramos, 22, an undocumented immigrant who arrived in the United States as a toddler, was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at Fort Polk, La., on April 2. She was told she had a final deportation order. It was issued in April 2005, when she was 22 months old. The couple had gone to the base to complete paperwork so Ms. Ramos could move in with her husband, Staff Sgt. Matthew Blank, 23, who enlisted more than five years ago and is scheduled to begin training at the end of the month for deployment. It is highly unusual for the wife of a soldier to be detained because of her immigration status.... On Tuesday afternoon, Ms. Ramos walked out of the detention facility and into her husband’s arms. Sergeant Blank put her wedding ring back on her finger, which Ms. Ramos had been told to remove. She has been fitted with an ankle monitor and told to report to ICE every week.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: “A Venezuelan-born family physician who had been caring for Americans with chronic illnesses in an area facing a doctor shortage was detained by Border Patrol agents in Texas late Monday. The doctor, Ezequiel Veliz, was featured in a New York Times article last weekend that detailed how a Trump administration policy had frozen visa extensions, work permits and green cards for citizens of 39 countries, forcing some foreign-born physicians out of U.S. hospitals. Dr. Veliz treated people with diabetes, hypertension and other ailments, and was named resident of the year in 2025 at UT Health, Rio Grande Valley. He had entered the United States legally and was forced to withdraw from his position after losing his work permit because his immigration status ended. He had been trying to transition to a new visa.... Dr. Veliz’s husband, Joseph Williams, an American citizen, said the pair were driving from the Rio Grande Valley to Houston on Highway 77 when they were flagged by Border Patrol agents at a checkpoint in Sarita.”
If you didn't already know what you already know, you would be inclined to believe federal agents AND the head of the agency when they said an alleged gang member & murder suspect, residing in the U.S. unlawfully, had tried to run over ICE officers with his vehicle as they attempted to apprehend him. But you know ICE. Then, there's the videotape. ~~~
~~~ ICE, Lies & Videotape. Soumya Karlamangla & Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: “A person in Northern California was taken to a hospital on Tuesday after a shooting involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, according to local and federal law enforcement. ICE officers had been trying to arrest Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, according to a statement from Todd Lyons, the acting director of the agency. Mr. Lyons said the suspect was a member of the 18th Street Gang and was wanted in El Salvador for questioning in connection to a murder.... Officers shot at Mr. Hernandez after he “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run an officer over,” Mr. Lyons said in a statement. 'Our officers fired defensive shots to protect themselves, their fellow agents and the public.' A dashcam video of the episode complicates the official account. It was filmed by a passing car and appears to have been first posted by the Sacramento television station KCRA. ” Read the details of what the video footage shows. The link is a gift link.
TeeVee News. Ali Watkins of the New York Times: “CBS announced its plans for late-night programming after 'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert' ends next month, with two syndicated comedy shows from the producer Byron Allen filling the late hours starting on May 22. In a statement posted on Tuesday, CBS said it would fill Mr. Colbert’s one-hour slot starting at 11:35 p.m. Eastern with back-to-back episodes of 'Comics Unleashed,' a comedy talk show hosted by Mr. Allen. Those episodes will be followed by two episodes of 'Funny You Should Ask,' a game show hosted by Jon Kelley and produced by Mr. Allen’s company, starting at 12:35 a.m....
The move replaces a highly-produced legacy late-night show — taped daily in a Manhattan studio, with a live audience, aired hours later — with a markedly less sophisticated product. “Comics Unleashed” has only sporadically recorded new material, taping an initial run of episodes in 2006, followed by dozens of tapings in 2014 and 2016. But it ceased producing new material for years, instead relying on regular syndication of old tapes. 'Comics Unleashed' began producing new episodes again for the 2025-26 season, when it was added to CBS’ nightly lineup in the 12:35 a.m. slot.... 'The Late Show,' a broadcast institution that began in 1993 with David Letterman as host...' was canceled as ... [Donald] Trump trained his sights on broadcast networks and media companies who criticized him.”
~~~ Marie: Sorry, Byron, if I'm going to watch reruns of old shows taped in 2006, I'll go with Letterman reruns like this one (okay, it ran in 2007, but close enough). Strictly coincidentally, I watched it yesterday:
~~~~~~~~~~
The New York Times liveblogged election developments. Reid Epstein of the NYT has three takeaways from Tuesday's results.
Georgia. Jeff Amy of the AP: “Republican Clay Fuller on Tuesday won Marjorie Taylor Greene’s former U.S. House seat in Georgia, turning back a Democratic challenge with the help of ... Donald Trump’s endorsement. Democrat Shawn Harris had led the first round of voting in March in a 17-candidate field, but couldn’t overcome the northwest Georgia district’s strongly Republican tilt.... The 14th District is rated as the most Republican-leaning district in Georgia by the Cook Political Report.” (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times report is here. ~~~
~~~ Caroline Soler and Christine Zhang of the New York Times: “The race for Georgia’s 14th Congressional District was quickly called for Clay Fuller, a Republican, but the seat had the largest leftward swing in a special election since the start of 2025. It continues a trend in which Democrats have been showing strong improvements in districts won easily by ... [Donald] Trump in 2024. Mr. Trump won the district by 37 percentage points in 2024. Mr. Fuller’s lead over Shawn Harris, a Democrat, in Tuesday’s special runoff in the district is expected to be about 12 percentage points once all votes are in, according to estimates by The New York Times. That would amount to a 25-point shift from the 2024 presidential race.”
Wisconsin. Julie Bosman of the New York Times: “Chris Taylor, a Wisconsin state appeals judge, won a seat on the state’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, widening liberal control of the court to a 5-to-2 majority. Judge Taylor, 58, a former Democratic lawmaker..., is the third liberal to be elected to the court in three years. In the final days of the campaign, she made a pitch to voters that leaned heavily on her liberal background, emphasizing her relatives’ union membership, her time working for Planned Parenthood and her belief that the federal government is interfering in state elections. The court is officially nonpartisan, but the ideological leanings of its justices, who serve 10-year terms, have become common knowledge in recent decades.” Politico's story is here.
Wisconsin. Mitch Smith of the New York Times: “Voters in Waukesha, Wis., a Republican-leaning Milwaukee suburb, narrowly elected a Democrat as mayor on Tuesday, The Associated Press said. Alicia Halvensleben, the Democratic president of the city’s Common Council, defeated State Representative Scott Allen, a Republican, a result that could signal a political shift in the suburbs and that continues a string of Trump-era mayoral wins for Democrats. The election in Waukesha, population 71,000, was officially nonpartisan, and much of the campaign focused on local issues like budget challenges and housing prices.”
11 comments:
Oh, The Humanity
"The White House plans to spend $15 million in National Endowment for the Humanities funds to finance the construction of the massive archway President Donald Trump hopes to build across from the Lincoln Memorial, according to a spending plan shared in the Office of Management and Budget database on Tuesday."
Not the Same
A post by someone on the ways the two parties are not the same.
"It is highly unusual for the wife of a soldier to be detained because of her immigration status..."
More than a year into this regime and reporters are still trying to tell stories based on how we lived in the before times. There are numerous accounts of spouses of military members who have been locked up now, it is no longer "unusual". Just last week it was widely reported that ICE were planning on waiting outside the marines graduation to arrest family members of graduates. This is the new normal and the press needs to get out of their bubble to accept the reality of what is happening around them today.
Not of the people or for the people.
"Voters frustrated by one-party control in Republican states over the last decade have increasingly turned to citizen-sponsored initiatives to enact policies that their legislatures won’t. They expanded Medicaid, adopted paid sick leave, raised the minimum wage and safeguarded access to abortion. Now, the legislators are striking back.
In North Dakota, Utah and South Dakota, legislatures are sponsoring measures on the November ballot that would raise the threshold for approving citizen amendments to 60 percent, not a simple majority.
And in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill imposing a raft of new requirements, fees and criminal penalties around collecting signatures on petitions for ballot measures. The result: All 22 initiatives proposed by citizens this year failed to qualify for the ballot."
The Correct Response
"Trump's UN Envoy Mercilessly Booed For Claiming His Boss Is 'Creating Peace Worldwide'— A Viral X Post Reveals"
@RAS: I don't know why digby didn't credit the author and seemed to think he was unknowable. It took me 15 seconds or less to find him. His name is Allen Clifton, and he's been writing for years.
@Marie: Not sure, maybe Google hid the answer too far down the page for their engagement dollars or it got overlooked in all the useless slop they pile into their searches now.
Unfortunately the astronauts had to listen to Fat Hitler talk about himself and name drop his garbage friends. "I have to say I spoke to a very special person, Wayne Gretzky, who I think you know, the great one,". Can't get away from the loser even if you leave the planet. The minute of absolute silence after FH's ramblings is awkwardly funny. I guess that is the charisma and charm that I've been told about for decades now, but never seen.
@RAS: I looked for a good, short YouTube video yesterday of the Artemis II doings, as I wanted to post one on the Reality Chex page. I thought I'd finally found one that wasn't full of silly local anchors gushing or whatever. But when I got to the end of the "good" video, there was Trump talking to the astronauts. So I gave up.
That Lasted Long
"Iran reportedly closes Strait of Hormuz as ceasefire agreement remains in peril
State media reports that the strait is now under a "complete closure" due to Israel continuing to bomb Lebanon."
Iran continues its trolling
Supporting Terrorism, Theirs And Ours
"NYT reporting that under this ceasefire each ship will pay $2M to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. It was $0 before Trump launched this illegal war.
100-130 ships pass the Strait daily.
Trump just gave Iran an extra $100M-$130M per day. Masterful gambit, sir. Impeach and remove this fascist—NOW."
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