Monday, April 28, 2025

What Happened To Rev. Barber

One more thing about this: If you're wondering why you're not seeing much coverage elsewhere, it's likely partly because I was one of only two credentialed press covering this — the other was a videographer, along with some non-credentialed press.

Relatedly: hire more religion reporters.
That’s the message. The story is here.

And why do we only get news on religion when it’s a white TV preacher? Or the Pope? ‘Tis a mystery….
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But Will He Run For A Third Term?

But will he run for a third term??? Farmers ain’t students who should be learnin’ how to screw in little screws! Farmers deserve socialism! He seems like a sensible, level headed guy. Surprised he’s not working for Trump. Directly, I mean.
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Man Woman Birth Death Infinity*

I can’t believe there’s that much copium in the world. Complacent public thinking modest inflation is worse than grim, creeping death (when you’ve lived through a decade of double digit inflation, a few years of 6% or less is “modest” indeed); who forgot about Covid like it never happened? Especially forgot what Covid did, and who did the worst of it? Who recovered so fast because of who we elected, but we couldn’t see past mild inflation? Because we forget, over and over and over, that it’s about us, and not about being rich? Or saving the rich?

I don’t know. I just know it’s as American as cherry pie. That the generation raised in the Great Depression and who won World War II, were not the “greatest generation” (sod off, Tom Brokaw), but they learned a valuable lesson that just didn’t pass down to all the Boomers and all the Gen Xers and all of the Millennials….  And maybe it was never going to.
A) name 3.

B) The only one that matters is with China. Because store shelves are going to go bare before the 4th of July; and they won’t refill by Xmas, barring a miracle by July 4th. Or even then.
If you’re so rich, how come you’re so dumb? And make it more incredible? How much tariffs are collected from empty store shelves and non-existent container ships? So the brilliant plan is to use racism and xenophobia to make shipping even worse than it’s going to be? And is the test going to be:”Man, woman, camera, TV, person”? Because I hear that’s a tough one.


*It’s a test of how old you are. 
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Can’t Get’ Em To Self-Deport…

...if you don’t give ‘em some incentive?
One mother who was about to be deported was allowed less than two minutes on the phone with her husband to figure out what would become of her 2-year-old U.S. citizen son.

Another mother wasn’t allowed to speak with attorneys or family members before she was deported, accompanied by her U.S.-born children, even though Immigration and Customs Enforcement knew one of them had Stage 4 cancer.

Attorneys for the mothers and their children who were sent to Honduras are blasting Trump administration officials, saying the deportations of three U.S. citizen children over the weekend, including the 4-year-old boy who left without access to his cancer medicines, are illegal. They’re pushing back against statements that the families chose for the children to go with their mothers.
I thought separating families at the border was as low as they could go. Clearly, I should never underestimate their evil.
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Huh?

And how does that work? Truckers are not government employees, and EO’s are not law. I mean, unless you’re going to ban them from delivering to federal buildings, which would include all federal buildings in D.C. (White House, Capitol, etc.)

‘Course, they soon won’t have anything to deliver anyway, so….
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Follow Up Question:🙋‍♂️

Why was the Rev. William Barber arrested by Capitol Police in the Capitol Rotunda today, for praying? 🙏 

Barber leads the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School.
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Maybe JB Pritzker Can Put This Into 8 Points…

 …in a letter to Schumer.

Or just bottle it and start passing the bottle around…
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Only Authorized Prayers Allowed!

Aloud.

 



BREAKING: Police just surrounded Rev. William Barber, prominent activist and pastor, as he and others prayed in the U.S. Capitol Rontunda.

Police then expelled everyone (including press!) from the Rotunda to (presumably) arrest them.

I've covered protests here a lot. Never seen anything like it.
Obviously alien enemies. 👽 
Can confirm: Just spoke to him, and Barber and two others were, in fact, arrested.

Story coming.
Praying while black. Very serious.
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FUBAR

Yeah, I don’t think he’s gonna need that. It’s Monopoly money. Kudlow has confused the Democrats for reality. The latter has stolen Trump’s lunch money and is now eating his lunch. And dinner. And breakfast.

Unfortunately, it’s going to eat ours, too.  Meanwhile the pundits and Pooh-bahs are worried about Trump running for a third term. Because the horse race is the only serious thing inside the Beltway.
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Inherit The Ignorance

To this I would only add: “Inherit The Wind” took the story of the Scopes Monkey Trial and turned it into an allegory of McCarthyism. But just as people thought Jonathan Swift was the narrator of “A Modest Proposal,” people come away from the movie to this day thinking it is a docudrama at least. It is no more an account of the Scopes Monkey Trial than “Close Encounters” was a documentary about flying saucers.🛸 

And yes, Hollywood likes the Roman Catholic Church because it has history, mystery, and knows how to use spectacle. As a practicing liturgist myself once upon a time, I say that with admiration. A woman determined to drive me from my last pulpit did tell me she admired my Easter Vigil variant for Easter Sunday liturgy. I didn’t do it for showmanship but for doxological and liturgical (the “work of the people “) purposes. A little dramaturgy is a good thing. Jesus’ annunciation; Moses stop Sinai conversing with God; Isaiah’s vision of God’s throne room (which has influenced Christian worship since Constantine’s day); Ezekiel watching the throne-chariot of God arising from the Temple. Theophany has its purpose. I recognize the power of Roman pomp, and the virtue of it. 

Hollywood, of course, just likes the spectacle.

(The story of the rogue Cardinal crashing the conclave reminds of a Harlan Ellison anecdote he told. He was a writer on a TV show (or was it a movie?) involving high drama on a submarine. Halfway through the work an executive decided the climax needed punching up, so the antagonist would be revealed to have been in disguise the whole time! (And thus revealed as the true antagonist. A Hollywood trope as well worn as the “eternal triangle.”) Ellison very reasonably (for Ellison) pointed out that the people fooled by this disguise (IIRC, “she” was revealed to be a “he”) had been in close quarters in a submarine yet had never noticed this disguise? He said he wouldn’t do it. 

The executive replied: “Oh, you’ll do it. Writers are toadies.” And Ellison leapt across the table at his throat. He was off the film almost immediately.)

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“All I Know Is…”

"...King Canute awoke this morning with the sun shining in his windows, and it didn’t rise before he needed to wake up, so I think the facts speak for themselves.”
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I Don’t Care What Trump Says

Canada can’t join the Union unless it wants to join the Union, and even then it needs the approval of Congress. And the GOP probably doesn’t want ten more Senators (at least), and 30 or so more Representatives, all Democrats.

And Trump is about as persuasive as a two-year old throwing a temper tantrum, so he’s not getting anywhere with this shit. He’s working hard to turn one of our closest allies into one of our most determined antagonists.

He’d have better luck convincing Congress to authorize invading a NATO country (yes, Greenland).
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This Is Your Brain On Eggs 🍳

The ports will all but shut down. Overseas deliveries will cease by early May. Transcontinental shipping will evaporate. Store shelves will go bare. People will get laid off, from ports to truckers to store employees. Factories will run out supplies they need, so there go factory workers.  It’ll remind everyone of the shutdown of Covid, and the recovery from supply chain disruptions that, ironically, Biden successfully led us through. Except Trump won’t know how to do that. 

Will we miss Biden then?

All for the price of eggs.
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Sunday, April 27, 2025

How’s That Working Out For Them?

I've been thinking about this a lot--though not even drafting stories to cross out. I keep wondering if he's contemplating just eliminating judges once SCOTUS turns on him.

Meanwhile, at least one of the tariffs lawsuits is backed by Leonard Leo.
Trump may think he can do that; but absent evidence, I put it down to sheer incompetence. In his first term Trump had people who actually understood how government works, like staff needed to make judicial appointment recommendations. Now the staff thinks they can legislate via executive orders, and even override Constitutional provisions because the Supremes will back their play (their case for presidential immunity was a real Hail Mary, until it wasn’t.). “Eliminating judges”? What, via hit squads? Attrition? Some who retired might return to the bench first. He really doesn’t have a mechanism for it, no matter how conjectural.

Opinion | That four-year-old cancer victim is no angel.
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🥱😴

He’s not asleep. He’s just catching flies.
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Can We Declare The President Delusional Now?

Asking for a friend. It takes how long to plan and build and open a factory? I know! Let’s ask Wisconsin and FoxConn!

Also, with China shutting down shipping to the U.S., and foreign companies doing the same:
How do we assess tariffs on non-goods, Mr. President?

🦗🦗🦗
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10% Of 180?

 So…

He said that he has made 200 deals on tariffs. 200 deals?" Raddatz told the secretary on Sunday. "Who has he made deals with? Is there actually any deal at this point?"

"I believe that he is referring to sub-deals within the negotiations we're doing," Bessent replied.

"But those aren't actual deals," Raddatz pointed out.

"Martha, if there are 180 countries, there are 18 important trading partners," the Trump official opined. "And we have a process in place over the next 90 days to negotiate with them. Some of those are moving along very well, especially with the Asian countries."
Still way less than 200. And Navarro said it was gonna be 90 deals.

Well, you’ve got 75 days left. And good luck with China.
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Fear And Trembling

 Does this make sense to anyone?

"I think, Shannon, America is paying the price right now for President Biden's appeasement," Kennedy replied. "The Biden people believed in diplomacy first, last, and always. We're in a knife fight with Russia and China and Iran, and the Biden people wanted to quote Socrates to them."

"Putin has reneged on every promise that he has made to President Trump," he added. "I think that Putin thinks that America has taken the bullet train to chump town."

"I think he thinks we're afraid of him. He has jacked around President Trump at every turn. He has disrespected our president."
Trump was supposed to know the magic words to solve this problem before he was inaugurated. His mighty presence was supposed to make all cower in fear at the power of his potential wrath.

And now Sen. Kennedy says it’s Biden’s fault? For sending too much military aid? No! For engaging in diplomacy! When Trump promised fear and trembling?

We just didn’t know he meant his own!
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Dead Reckoning

 WaPo poll:

"Trump has seen a decline of 10 points among White people without a college degree, a key part of his political coalition; he is also down 13 points among adults under age 30 and 11 points among those who say they did not vote in November."
The Hill:
“‘I’ll tell you what’s not going to happen is, people are not going to raise [money] to build manufacturing in America,’ [Ken Griffin] said, adding, ‘because with the policy volatility, you actually undermine the very goal you’re trying to achieve.’”
"...as expected..."
GOP donor Ken Griffin suggested the value of the U.S. dollar has significantly deteriorated compared to the euro in the past month under the thumb of President Trump’s latest tariff hike on global trading partners. Griffin, the founder and CEO of Citadel, said the country “has become 20 percent poorer in four weeks,” in conversation with Semafor’s Gina Chon at the World Economy Summit. Since the start of the year, the dollar index has weakened by more than 9 percent.

He added that the currency’s deflation amid shifts in economic policy and the president’s latest attack on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has jeopardized the nation’s pristine reputation.

“We put that brand at risk,” Griffin told Chon. “It can be a lifetime to repair the damage that has been done.”

The hedge fund manager echoed economists and world leaders who said new tariff measures will produce no winners but instead force all parties involved to “tread water and not drown.”
Do you miss Biden yet?
Seventy-three percent said the economy is in bad shape, 53% said it's gotten worse since Trump took office and 41% said their own finances have worsened -- which is as many as those who said so under President Joe Biden last summer.
The ABC poll finds over 50% disapproval on every question about what Trump is doing, from immigration to closing the DOE, including how he’s handling immigration (53% disapproval).

The poll also shows disapproval if Democrats and Republicans. And yet Presidents get turned out after one term, and incumbents in Congress almost always get re-elected.

Go figure.
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“Proceeding As Expected”

 Processed…

At a hundred days into his presidency, Joe Biden had a 52% approval rating.

As we near the hundred days mark in his second term, Donald Trump has a 39% approval rating.

Here's how those numbers were framed by the media:
...as expected:
Biden, 52%: “low end approval”

Trump, 39%: proceeding “as expected”
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SNAFU


 

Not a single international cargo ship at the Port of Seattle. The port is dead. The last ship from China will dock at a West coast port on the 29th, and the last Chinese ship will dock on the East coast around May 10th. After that, there will be no more shipments arriving from China. We’re screwed.
FUBAR.

“China needs us more than we need China.” 

We’ll see, won’t we?
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Saturday, April 26, 2025

ICE-ing Down

 About Judge Hannah Dugan:

It's not about bringing a viable criminal case.

It's about manufacturing a negative image of judges.
No, it’s actually about terrible people punching down:
This line is going to stick with me for a very long time.

“One of them is a 4-year-old with Stage 4 cancer who was deported without medication or the ability to contact their doctors…”
Louisiana because three districts in Texas (out of four) have banned deportations under AEA. That, at least, might explain why three children were “quickly deported from Louisiana.”

I’m sure the children were terrible people who needed to be removed quickly for the security of the nation.
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RFK, Jr Seems Nice

Every accusation is a confession. Jr rails against Big Pharma because he’s supported by the competition. What’s that supposed African proverb: “When elephants fight, the grass gets trampled”?
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200 Down, 300 To Go

He replied, "I think in terms of the claims by the President that he has already sealed 200 trade deals, I think there are only 195 countries on this earth. So there's five extra," he said, adding, "and it's unclear how the administration could have sealed the deals with the entire planet in 13 days."
And every one of those imaginary deals has to be approved by the Senate, or they are non-binding. Of course, Trump tore up the revised NAFTA he negotiated in his first term, and it was ratified by the Senate.

So why would any country make a deal with Trump? He could change his mind ten minutes later (whether he has the authority to tear up NAFTA is another matter. Personally I think he has committed so many impeachable offenses under the rubric of “abuse of power” it has to be measured by counts per day.).
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The Corpse At Every Funeral

He has no idea how to behave, does he?
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The Entire DOJ Is Fucked

And then Bondi said:
"We are going to prosecute you, and we are prosecuting you. I found out about this the day it happened. We could not believe, actually, that a judge really did that. We looked into the facts in great depth… You cannot obstruct a criminal case. And really, shame on her. It was a domestic violence case of all cases, and she's protecting a criminal defendant over victims of crime."
Prompting Joyce Vance to observe:
This is all in violation of very clear DOJ policy," Vance accused. "You're not permitted in a case of an indictment or a complaint to go to the press and talk about anything that's not in the four corners of the document, because it prejudices the defendant's rights."

"We will probably see a motion to dismiss this case outright," she then asserted before continuing, "If this was a normal Justice Department. Pam Bondi, [FBI director] Kash Patel, anybody else who was talking about this case on national TV would be referred to the Office of Professional Responsibility for disciplinary action"

"This is not a functional Justice Department," she added. "So the dirty laundry will come out in the wash in these proceedings, where the facts just don't add up."
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😫 👴🏻

 Whiny Old Man Says What?

As he wrote, "No matter what deal I make with respect to Russia/Ukraine, no matter how good it is, even if it’s the greatest deal ever made, The Failing New York Times will speak BADLY of it. Liddle’ Peter Baker, the very biased and untalented writer for The Times, followed his Editor’s demands and wrote that Ukraine should get back territory, including, I suppose, Crimea, and other ridiculous requests, in order to stop the killing that is worse than anything since World War II."

He then added, "Why doesn’t this lightweight reporter say that it was Obama who made it possible for Russia to steal Crimea from Ukraine without even a shot being fired. It was also Liddle’ Peter who wrote an absolutely fawning, yet terribly written Biography, on Obama. It was a JOKE! Did Baker ever criticize the Obama Crimea Giveaway? NO, not once, only TRUMP, and I’ve had nothing to do with this stupid war, other than early on, when I gave Ukraine Javelins, and Obama gave them sheets."

"This is Sleepy Joe Biden’s War, not mine," he accused. "It was a loser from day one, and should have never happened, and wouldn’t have happened if I were President at the time. I’m just trying to clean up the mess that was left to me by Obama and Biden, and what a mess it is. With all of that being said, there was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days. It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through 'Banking' or 'Secondary Sanctions?' Too many people are dying!!!"
And yet you haven’t made a deal, and there’s no sign you ever will. If Obama allowed Russia to take Crimea, Biden allowed Russia to invade Ukraine, and neither would have happened if you’d been in office, why hasn’t Russia left Ukraine yet and ceded back Crimea? Could it be because you’re an ignorant blowhard?

And you’re trying to clean up a mess you told us six months ago you’d have cleaned up before you were inaugurated? You said you knew just what to say. And now you’re surprised Putin is still intent on waging war?

How useless are you?
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The Cruelty Is The Point

NPR:
Commerce Department employees caught up in a legal battle over their mass firings are now learning that their health care coverage was cut off weeks ago, even though they were paying their premiums.
Politico:
NEW: A federal judge raised alarm Friday that the Trump administration appeared to have deported a 2-year-old U.S. citizen to Honduras with "no meaningful process" — even as her father was fighting to keep her in the country.

The girl was deported Friday along with her Honduran-born mother and sister, even as Judge Doughty was trying to discern whether ICE's disputed claim — that the mother wanted to bring the child to Honduras — was true. She was gone before he could find out.
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The Art Of The Lie

Caught in a lie? Just lie some more.

The idea that Trump has ever read anything in his life is laughable.
The Vatican issued a dress code for attendees of the funeral. Did Trump read it?

I’m only surprised he didn’t wear a red tie.
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Friday, April 25, 2025

And Then They Came For Me

RFK Jr. Starts National Registry Of Introverts Who Sometimes Get Social Anxiety

“When I was younger, there were never people who liked to spend time home alone by themselves, but now it’s a national epidemic,” said Kennedy, who delivered the remarks at a press conference during which he confirmed federal researchers were working hard to develop treatments for individuals who felt occasionally felt uncomfortable in crowded rooms. “These people can’t live normal lives. They can’t make small talk. They can’t dance. They’ll never go to a backyard barbecue where they only kind of know one person from work.” At press time, experts were warning that the registry could be used to round up introverts for karaoke
If you don’t hear from me, follow the sound of the karaoke.

Fancy Feast Recalls 1 Million Cans Of Food That Cats Just Kind Of Stared At Before Wandering Away

That one is just fuckin’ funny.
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Except….

 …in traditional grammar as I remember it from 70 years ago (and then I learned transformational grammar in college, and now I despise traditional grammar, which I was quite good at in my youth, so why am I having this argument?), subjects and verbs must “agree,” and verbs denote actions (it distinguishes them from nouns), so verbs often “act”on nouns (or objects, either direct or indirect, and now my memory of traditional grammar is going fuzzy again).

But we can talk about verbs “acting” on nouns, or adjectives “describing” nouns, without employing literal personification and meaning verbs are somehow corporeal, muscular, and physically doing something to nouns; anymore than we mean adjectives are sitting around discussing the physical attributes of nouns. If I recall correctly, in traditional grammar direct objects “receive” the actions of verbs, or the subject of the sentence, or something like that. But the term doesn’t mean they accept a present from another part of the sentence, or that it open the front door to them.

Pullum’s argument is that words don’t receive actions from verbs, especially where there is no action to receive. But “throw” is clearly an action (and a verb), while “is” is traditionally classified as a verb, but it seldom even implies action. “That is my cat” doesn’t even address the being of my cat, but it does address the relationship between me and a nearby feline. And in the sentence “that” can be said to be (!) receiving the relationship stated by “my cat.” It’s a special use if language within the terminology of traditional grammar, but no more inappropriate than to use “Chords” in discussing music and then speak if the “chords of memory,” which is a metaphorical use of the musical term.

Pullum says we don’t use this meaning of “receive” outside the discussion of passive voice in traditional grammar.  And he says it as if that observation states the entire problem with how passive voice in traditional grammar is understood. But he’s starting with a category error. He’s saying the clauses in a sentence can’t receive or give, because there are so many examples of sentences where no part of the sentence “gives” and no other part “receives.” But he’s changing categories mid-argument.  If I give you a present and you take the present, then you have received the present. But receiving the action of a clause in a sentence is not a physical act, and yet is a concept of traditional grammar whether the verb in the sentence is “throw or “is,”  Pullum is making a technical term of grammar a literal term; and then he knocks his straw man over.

English does not have gendered nouns, but most European languages do. Such nouns generally require what, in English, we would consider an article. The best example I can think of in English is a usage that differs in America and in Britain. Brits say (generally): “The ambulance took her to hospital.” In America we find that noun naked without an article: “The ambulance took her to the hospital.” In most European languages the “article” is part of the word, and indicates the gender of the noun: masculine, feminine, or neuter. Who doesn’t mean feminine nouns wear skirts, or neutral nouns are eunuchs. But try to learn the rhyme or reason why one noun is feminine, one masculine, etc. if you don’t learn the concept with your first language, it can be a barrier. If you try to discern the “masculine” qualities of nouns in German or French, you will be going in the opposite direction from understanding, because the terms are, in this category, grammatical, and have nothing (except, perhaps, in a very, very deep level of socio-cultural analysis), to do with cultural concepts of gender. You can, in other words, speak of nouns with gender in the grammar of some European languages, without getting into an argument about whether they were born that way.

Pullum’s argument, in essence, is that unless the sentence says “The boy throws the ball to the girl ,” it doesn’t involve an action being received (or delivered) to an object.  Which may be literally true; but it’s not grammatically true. And sentences can have literal meanings, while at the same time having grammatical meanings. Wittgenstein might call it a language game. I might say Pullum is playing a game.

Or could be we’re just talking past each other, and we should bury our differences in a discussion of transformations grammar. Noam, I mean?


I was a bit unfair to Pullum here. I just thought he made a bad start. I think the rest of what he has to say would repay attention.

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“The Trump DOJ is run by morons and thugs.”


Southpaw:

Through all his troubles, neither the DOJ/FBI nor any state authorities ever subjected Donald Trump to arrest, preferring in every case to proceed by indictment and voluntary surrender. It’s notable that a sitting judge and pillar of the Milwaukee community was not extended the same courtesy.

How it went down:

It seems bozo ICE, CBP, FBI (why?), and DEA (why?) agents with a mere administrative removal warrant wanted to cause a big scene inside of a courthouse because that'd be fun.

Judge Dugan's "obstruction" changed nothing; right after the "obstruction," an agent rode the elevator down with the target.
Article I establishes the two houses of Congress and the powers and responsibilities of the body. Bondi doesn’t care; she just wants to get her cliche in.

Judge Dugan allegedly protected the defendant from detention by giving them sanctuary in her chambers.

Several witnesses report that ICE did not present a warrant before entering the courtroom and it is not clear whether ICE ever possessed or presented a judicial warrant. (2/6)
Reports are the judge confronted agents with this fact and directed them to the Chief Judge in the courthouse.

Further:
Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-19) issued the following statement:

“I commend Judge Hannah Dugan’s defense of due process by preventing ICE from shamefully using her courtroom as an ad hoc holding area for deportations. (3/6)
And:
We cannot have a functional legal system if people are justifiably afraid to show up for legal proceedings, especially when ICE agents have already repeatedly grabbed people off the street in retaliation for speech and free association, without even obtaining the proper warrants. (4/6)
More:
While the facts in this case are still unfolding, it’s clear that actions like Judge Dugan’s are what is required for democracy to survive the Trump Regime. She used her position of power and privilege to protect someone from an agency that has repeatedly abused its own power. (5/6)
Final :
If enough of us act similarly, and strategically, we can stand with our neighbors and build a better world together.” (6/6)
Asha Rangappa
Seeing claims about the judge "hiding" the defendant. Read the complaint, folks (written by DOJ). The guy was literally in the public area where the agents were. I guess he got on an elevator before they could get to him. The complaint says after letting the defendant exit she came back to the bench.

Yes, there was a DEA(!) agent on that elevator. And the defendant met two other agents when the doors opened (the DEA agent notified them). And yet he still ran the length of the courthouse and escaped out a door. He was pursued and captured on the street.  Sounds more like the agents obstructed each other. 

Further from Ms. Rangappa:

This criminal complaint seems pretty thin on the statutes charged. She allowed the defendant to leave the courtroom by a different door in her courtroom. The arresting agents literally saw him in the hallway right after going to elevator 1/
Second:
That hardly seems like “concealment,” and whether she obstructed would have to establish that she had corrupt intent in letting him exit out of a different door. Which, unless it was unlawful for her to do that, is her prerogative in her courtroom 2/
Third:
I think what a judge does within her lawful power within the four corners of her courtroom would be given great deference, and to inquire into motives would raise judicial immunity questions (the same way inquiring into POTUS’ motives for official acts raise immunity questions) 3/
Fourth
This also raises Tenth Amendment concerns. Of course federal law applies to state officials, but can they be compelled (commandeered) to go above and beyond and “facilitate” (😏) a federal arrest? Case law says no as applied to state law enforcement in other contexts 4/
Last:
I find it surprising that this would meet the Justice Manual’s standards for prosecution. Seems more like an attempt to intimidate state judges into caving into federal encroachment into their duties
There doesn’t seem to be a lot of concern with the DOJ manual in the DOJ at the moment. Or with ethical behavior: TPM:
In 2019, a Massachusetts state judge was indicted on obstruction charges over allegations of blocking ICE officials from taking custody of an undocumented citizen of the Dominican Republic. In that case, itself an extremely rare federal prosecution of a state judge over a decision related to the use of her office, the defendant was allowed to surrender. The DOJ dropped the charges in September 2022.
It languished, IOW, until the Biden DOJ dropped it. This case is unlikely to fare better.
These charges are so stupid. There was an ICE agent **in the elevator** with the defendant after he left the courtroom. But oh yeah, the state judge somehow obstructed ICE because she let the defendant leave the courtroom through a side entrance.

The Trump DOJ is run by morons and thugs.
To read the Criminal Complaint and attached FBI Affidavit that gave rise to Wisconsin State Judge Hannah Dugan’s federal criminal arrest today for obstructing or impeding a proceeding before a department or agency of the United States and concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest is at once to know to a certainty that neither the state courts nor the federal courts could ever even hope to administer justice if the spectacle that took place in Judge Dugan’s courthouse last Friday April 18 took place in the courthouses across the country.
Conclusion
On the facts as alleged by the FBI, it’s hard to imagine that the Federal Government could ever prove that Judge Dugan “obstructed or impeded a proceeding before a department or agency of the United States” within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. Section 1505
This is going to be another one they lose in court.

And yes, Pam Bondi should at least be investigated by the Florida (I presume) Bar.
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“Sir, This Is Not A Wendy’s”


 So many deals:

You don’t know how many:
China has returned two Boeing jets, each valued at $55 million. With $69 million in tariffs applied, the cost per plane increased to $124 million. Orders for an additional 130 jets have been indefinitely suspended.
China has said there are no discussions. Period.

Now, go back to what he said. He’s talking to all the companies and countries (or?), and he’s “made all the deals.”  Okay. 

And he’s made “200 deals,” but he can’t tell you about them because “The deal is the deal that I choose.” No, it’s the deal Congress approves; otherwise it’s nothing.

This is not Macy’s, and he’s not the sole proprietor .
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The Saudis Have Been Bombing The Houthis For A Long Time

The Houthis have learned to disperse their camps so they are less vulnerable to such attacks. And how to fight back. 

You’d think we’d have learned this lesson in Vietnam, where air superiority and bomb runs really didn’t help the war effort (but inflicted a LOT of collateral damage). And, of course, the Vietnam Cong didn’t have the ability to shoot down our bombers as effectively as the Houthi are taking out our drones. 

Trump is bouncing the rubble and losing our equipment. He remains a military genius.
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Bill Maher Discovers The Virtues Of Piety

 Well, piety of a sort;

Bill Maher sincerely believes you shouldn’t be insulting to six million dead Jews unless any of them believed anything or were sincere about anything or had any beliefs he didn’t like.

If you don’t know: Bill Maher had dinner with Trump and had nice things to say about Trump’s social skills and table manners.  Which led Larry David to pen a satirical op-ed for the NYT about “My Dinner With Adolf.” Which Mr. Maher did not take kindly to:

“First of all, it’s kind of insulting to six million dead Jews,” Maher told Piers Morgan in an interview on the set of Maher’s podcast. “It’s an argument you kind of lost just to start it. Look, maybe it’s not completely logically fair, but Hitler has really kind of got to stay in his own place. He is the GOAT of evil. We’re just going to have to leave it like that.”
Popehat still wins. Maybe you don’t lead with the “6 million dead Jews” card? Especially if you’ve spent decades building your own glass house. It’s a pretty sanctimonious redoubt for a guy who’s made a career of mocking the sacred.
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“…Yet We May Safely Pronounce….”

George Conway opines:
Also, they didn’t intend that we vote to elect presidents. They created the electoral college on the express theory that a small but wise group of people chosen from all of the states would exercise better judgment than the voting public. See Federalist No. 68 (Hamilton).

 Or was it never going to work in the first place?

It was desirable that the sense of the people should operate in the choice of the person to whom so important a trust was to be confided. This end will be answered by committing the right of making it, not to any preestablished body, but to men chosen by the people for the special purpose, and at the particular conjuncture.

It was equally desirable, that the immediate election should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice. A small number of persons, selected by their fellow-citizens from the general mass, will be most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated investigations.

It was also peculiarly desirable to afford as little opportunity as possible to tumult and disorder. This evil was not least to be dreaded in the election of a magistrate, who was to have so important an agency in the administration of the government as the President of the United States. But the precautions which have been so happily concerted in the system under consideration, promise an effectual security against this mischief. The choice of SEVERAL, to form an intermediate body of electors, will be much less apt to convulse the community with any extraordinary or violent movements, than the choice of ONE who was himself to be the final object of the public wishes. And as the electors, chosen in each State, are to assemble and vote in the State in which they are chosen, this detached and divided situation will expose them much less to heats and ferments, which might be communicated from them to the people, than if they were all to be convened at one time, in one place.

...

All these advantages will happily combine in the plan devised by the convention; which is, that the people of each State shall choose a number of persons as electors, equal to the number of senators and representatives of such State in the national government, who shall assemble within the State, and vote for some fit person as President. Their votes, thus given, are to be transmitted to the seat of the national government, and the person who may happen to have a majority of the whole number of votes will be the President. But as a majority of the votes might not always happen to centre in one man, and as it might be unsafe to permit less than a majority to be conclusive, it is provided that, in such a contingency, the House of Representatives shall select out of the candidates who shall have the five highest number of votes, the man who in their opinion may be best qualified for the office.

The process of election affords a moral certainty, that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications. Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single State; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole Union, or of so considerable a portion of it as would be necessary to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of President of the United States. It will not be too strong to say, that there will be a constant probability of seeing the station filled by characters pre-eminent for ability and virtue. And this will be thought no inconsiderable recommendation of the Constitution, by those who are able to estimate the share which the executive in every government must necessarily have in its good or ill administration. Though we cannot acquiesce in the political heresy of the poet who says: "For forms of government let fools contest That which is best administered is best,'' yet we may safely pronounce, that the true test of a good government is its aptitude and tendency to produce a good administration.  
Yeah. Whatever happened to that? 

It’s pretty clear this answer isn’t right:
In their defense, the authors of the Constitution could never have predicted that American voters would be this stupid.
Mind, I’ve never been a fan of a Platonic Republic, either.  

But in response to Mr. Hamilton, even our
...men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice
have not proven themselves. For one, no one expects electors to be solons. I don’t know when they ever did. For another, political parties did a fair job keeping the criminally incompetent away from the White House. Sure, there were several vying for “worst ever” before Trump came along, rather like brooks and streams, did a fair job of filtering out the water ways until the pollution overwhelmed them. I’d argue (probably on weak historical grounds) that FDR was the first president to control his party more than the party controlled him. And FDR had the Great Depression and WWII providing him an opportunity he took at the full (along with his capable leadership) to an unprecedented 4 consecutive terms with which to cement his authority. Which led Reinhold Niebuhr to warn his adult daughter that she’d never lived under a Republican presidency when Eisenhower was elected. He feared for the results.

I think the blue dog Democrats v the anti-war Democrats in the’60’s started the cracks in the party system. Certainly younger voters resented the power of the “smoke-filled rooms;” and there party control and cohesion began to fall away with primaries slowly replacing them. That “democritization” of the process was not exactly what Hamilton had in mind. Not to be discounted were the Goldwaterites and Birchers who took Barry’s’64 defeat as grounds to develop an alternative structure that eventually supplanted the GOP structure via the Tea Party. Political consultants were already selling the President in 1968, and I remember the “shock” when Nixon’s script for the celebration of his nomination in ‘72 (“Spontaneous Applause”) leaked. Political conventions had been seen as raucous affairs. Already by ‘72 they were being scripted. Now, we take that for granted, and even judge the quality of the production. Panem et circenses has replaced the wisdom of a few good men. But then, conventions sold the “wisdom of the crowd” which “wisdom” is how we got Trump, twice. So…

But the party doesn’t really control anything anymore. If Trump tried to run again in ‘28, does anybody think the GOP would stand up for the 22nd amendment? When Mr. Smith went to Washington, Sen. Claude Rains is told, in a minor scene, that the President wants something done (it doesn’t matter what). Rains derisively replies along the lines of “Who does he think he is?” The Congress, the story is telling us, is the source of power in D.C. And the Senate sits at that apex.

How times have changed. Sen. Claude Rains would have sneered at opposition. I can remember Blue Dog Representatives sneering publicly at anti.-war protesters. Now sitting Senators publicly confess at town halls to being scared to show any opposition to Trump. There is no GOP, there is only Trump. And you are either with him, or you are outcast. Of course Republicans have always been more single-minded than Democrats, but Republican Senators reigned in Nixon and convinced him to resign. The best Mitch McConnell could do in the immediate aftermath of J6 was to trust the electorate would never vote for Trump again. And now Mitch is just going home at the end of his term.

It’s worth noting Hamilton didn’t expect the Constitution to save us from ourselves, much less the “design” of the “Founding Fathers.” He put his trust in “men chosen by the people for the special purpose, and at the particular conjuncture.” And how has that worked out? For one thing, can you imagine the “constitutional crisis” (silly term) if the electoral college last December had said: “Are you FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?!??!!??”, and elected Kamala Harris instead? Lin-Manuel Miranda might have written an approving rap song about it, but that would have been the least controversial response.

Of course, that’s not quite what Hamilton says:
All these advantages will happily combine in the plan devised by the convention; which is, that the people of each State shall choose a number of persons as electors, equal to the number of senators and representatives of such State in the national government, who shall assemble within the State, and vote for some fit person as President.
He makes it sound like there's an election by the people, and another by the electors. And then if the electors happen not to all agree, it goes to the House of Representatives.  Yeah, that’s not the way it works.

But if the electors don’t protect us, who does?
The process of election affords a moral certainty, that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications. Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single State; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole Union, or of so considerable a portion of it as would be necessary to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of President of the United States. It will not be too strong to say, that there will be a constant probability of seeing the station filled by characters pre-eminent for ability and virtue.
Ummmm…

So it all does depend on we, the people.  I’ve gotta say, on closer examination, Federalist 68 is a bunch of gobbledygook. The kind of sales pitch Trump and Musk employ, in fact.

Maybe that’s why we fall back on the mythology of the “Founding Fathers.” Besides, this is just depressing:
…yet we may safely pronounce, that the true test of a good government is its aptitude and tendency to produce a good administration.
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Thursday, April 24, 2025

MORE OF THIS!!


 The first full paragraph there. Congress has explicit constitutional authority to regulate federal elections; not the President. And Congress has not delegated that authority to the President. Therefore, the President can’t issue EO’s to “short-circuit” Congressional authority.

Nothing, IOW, gives him the authority to act in this matter. Or several others, IMHLO.

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Peace In Our Time

The man absolutely, positively, doesn’t understand international trade. Thank goodness there’s somebody who really understands it; because Trump clearly doesn’t. Do not intrude on his blissful ignorance. No comment. Aside from social media diplomacy, neither does Putin. You just have no idea what he’s doing. Nor does he. In alternative world, maybe. Literally the only change since Trump took office is that Ukraine no longer has the full support of the U.S.. Via social media? Said nobody. Ever.
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To All The “Facilitators” Out There

 The Trump Administration is using Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard to argue that the Supremes “outlawed” DEI, and therefore it must be expunged from the land.

Needless to say, the Court did no such thing. But such a reading does “facilitate” the Administration’s white men only  policies.

My god. He’s gone after the Civil Rights Act!!!!

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/restoring-equality-of-opportunity-and-meritocracy/
I mean, come on! Is anyone really surprised?😳 

I get that the Court’s order in A.A.R.P. was less than felicitously phrased; but one really can’t assume the Administration is acting in good faith in anything they do anymore. Even if they do, it’s the exception that proves the rule.
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Forever In Blue Jeans 👖

First time I visited Colorado (well, in several decades, I mean), I saw a bumper sticker in a Boulder bookstore: “Trump skis in blue jeans.” 👖 

I had it explained to me that was about the worst thing you could say about a skier.
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Wednesday, April 23, 2025

Doth Never Prosper

I thought Trump and Elmo were going to visit the vault at Fort Knox, taking assay equipment to be sure the gold was real, and stream it all live. What happened to that whole thing? He’s got 30 days left (of his 130 days per year tenure). Bets on whether he comes back to spend it, or nah?
Miller: This is the choice facing every American. Either we all side and get behind President Trump to remove these terrorists from our communities or we let a rogue radical left judiciary shut down the machinery of our national security apparatus. President Trump will make this nation safer than ever before and do it over the fighting and opposition of the communist left-wing judges
Well, we know Trump wasn’t coming up with it on his own….

Let’s take Miller seriously a moment. He’s arguing for a state of exception, but that’s literally a statutory or constitutional provision, and neither exists in American law. The counterpart is in the common law, or at least the common understanding of martial law. The state of exception is invoked in time of emergency, but it is imposed by government on behalf of the goals of government, especially of its continuance. Martial law replaces the government when the latter is perceived to have failed so badly that law itself is gone, and martial law is the only available replacement.

Miller doesn’t say that law, or government, has failed; but that it’s going to. The go-to emergency situation since WWII and the Russian-American world dichotomy, is U.S. national security. Miller plays that card by claiming the threat comes from inside the house: the judiciary, which refuses to allow Trump to deport those whom he pleases, the “terrorists in our communities.” This is just Red Scare language brought into the 21st century. Although Miller falls back on the same criticism used by the KKK and the John Birch Society against the Warren Court and federal courts in general.  Except he doesn’t have the Warren Court decisions on race and criminal procedure and constitutional rights to stand on, like the Birchers did. He only has the inchoate threat of the results he says will come. It’s an “if-then” argument, with a very, very, very big “If.”

“If” is hard to sell when it’s only a possibility provided you think like Miller does; or Trump. There simply aren’t enough people that hardcore.

“None Dare Call It Treason,” the John Birch Society declared, attacking the politics of the’60’s they despised. The phrase is the concluding one of a couplet: “Treason doth never prosper. What’s the reason?/For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.” Treason, of course, is a government-ender, a betrayal so profound it can threaten governance itself. It is the only crime defined in the Constitution, and an act that could be serious enough to trigger martial law.

No wonder, then, Miller references it. He’s actually arguing for it, without naming it. For that would be, in a sense, treason. And treason can never speak its name until it prospers; but if it does, it doesn’t have to.

The difference between the “60’s and now is that Kennedy and Johnson and Nixon were in the White House, and nobody in their Administrations (well, maybe with the exception of Curtis LeMay), was advocating the madness Miller is spewing; and Trump is restating.

But Trump saying it doesn’t make it so. The question of what “facilitate” means was present only outside the courtroom after the Supreme Court ruled in A.A.R.P. The courts never doubted what it meant. But Trump & Co. tried mightily to doubt its meaning in the court of public opinion. They finally took it to court because they had nothing left in the arsenal. And in court it’s being met with contempt; in the full legal sense of that term.

The same contempt that Miller’s “argument” will receive if it makes its way to court. It’s already falling in the court of public opinion.

Trump wants a “state of exception” that would leave him free to do as he pleases, because he only understands government as a club to wield, or as something to help him get richer. He’s no deeper or more complex than that. The ability to rally the people and the Congress (at least) to his side in order to get them to accept martial law, is beyond him. He hasn’t even convinced the majority of the nation that his use of Salvadoran prisons is a good thing. Nor has he persuaded them that brushing aside due process is a worthy means to an end. That’s why he’s ramped up this effort to demonize the immigrant and terrorize the population. He really doesn’t have anything left.
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Leaky Pete

"Totally fake story,” That the Pentagon confirmed:
"Changes and upgrades to the Pentagon Briefing Room are nothing new and routinely happen during changes in an administration," a Defense Department spokesperson said in a statement to CBS News.

...

"For this upgrade we were deliberately conservative and opted for several less expensive, on-hand materiel solutions," the spokesperson said.
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But Biden Was, Like, You Know…Old!

Donald Trump babbles about how the grass was wet when he was meeting with Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India:

"He was here two weeks ago...unfortunately the grass was very wet. It was very hard for people to stand on the grass. They got their shoes all ruined."

Bro can't stand on wet grass?

Also, he met with Modi over two months ago.
(Yesterday) (Earlier today) (and the markets ready to fall again) A car factory in every garage? Tough shit, America! You voted for this!
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