The Conversation -- July 6, 2025
Marie: These ladies are always picking on Donald because he's cruel, ignorant and demented. Here they are getting after him for a demented "answer" he gave to a reporter during his Alligator Alcatraz visit last week. I think RAS may have mentioned this response a couple of days ago; this isn't the first time I've heard it. But it's worth repeating, in case you missed it: ~~~
~~~ BTW, I started this video at 6:47 minutes in. The women get after Trump, Noem, Miller & MAGA members of Congress earlier. The segment that begins at 3:45 minutes in is pretty good, too.
Marie: At the top of today's Comments, Akhilleus shares a theory about Trump's megabill. I had not fully figured this out for myself, but given Trump's history, Akhilleus's supposition sounds not just plausible but probable.
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It's All Yours, King Donald. Naftali Bendavid of the Washington Post: “In a striking dynamic of the Trump era, analysts say, the judicial and legislative branches have been steadily transferring many of their powers to the executive — or at least acquiescing in the transfers. That has shaken up a system that depends on the three branches of government jostling sharply as each jealously guards its own prerogatives, many critics contend.... But the country has become so divided, some scholars say, that leaders of the three branches are often more loyal to their parties than to their institutions.” ~~~
~~~ It seems to take a woman of color to have the guts to stand up to Trump & his enablers: ~~~
~~~ Justin Jouvenal of the Washington Post: “... Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson ... [has] for months plainly criticized the opinions of her conservative colleagues, trading the staid legalese typical of justices’ decisions for impassioned arguments against what she has described as their acquiescence to ... Donald Trump. She returned to that theme again in the final case, ripping the court for limiting nationwide injunctions. 'The majority’s ruling … is … profoundly dangerous, since it gives the Executive the go-ahead to sometimes wield the kind of unchecked, arbitrary power the Founders crafted our Constitution to eradicate,' Jackson wrote.... [Jackson] wrote more dissents this term than any other justice.... Again and again, Jackson accused the conservative bloc of weighing cases in a rushed, reckless and partisan fashion that undermined the high court’s mission to be an arbiter of fair and impartial justice — delivering results for Trump.... Her role is particularly notable because she is the court’s most junior justice. Jackson, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, is the first Black woman to serve on the high court.” ~~~
~~~ Oh, look, here's Trump blithely breaking a law imposed by Congress & upheld by the Supremes. Is John Thune skaking his fists? Is John Roberts stomping his feet? Nope and Nope. ~~~
~~~ Chris Cameron of the New York Times: Donald “Trump late Friday said that the United States 'pretty much has a deal' for an American company to acquire the U.S. branch of TikTok, adding that he intended to restart talks next week with China to approve the deal. 'We’re going to start Monday or Tuesday talking to China,' Mr. Trump told reporters traveling on Air Force One on Friday night as it headed to Bedminster, N.J. 'We think we probably have to get it approved by China. Not definitely, but probably.' He added, 'I think the deal is good for China, and it’s good for us. It’s money, it’s a lot of money.'... Mr. Trump has declined to enforce the law banning the app, which was passed by large bipartisan majorities and unanimously upheld by the Supreme Court.” MB: Great. Trump, as you know, is a very effective talker. See Putin, Russia/Ukraine war; Netanyahu, Israel/Palestine war. But who knows? Maybe Trump really did bully a U.S. company into buying TikTok. So Constitutional failure, but some kind of Trumpian “deal.”
“It's All Fake.” Daniel Desrochers & Megan Messerly of Politico (July 4): “The White House has little to show as ... Donald Trump’s self-imposed deadline to reach trade deals with dozens of countries arrives in four days. Trump bragged he would rapidly secure dozens of trade deals, but his administration has claimed just three — and the details are thin.... None of it bothers Trump. 'We can do whatever we want,' the president said last week about Tuesday’s deadline for countries to reach deals — or face punishing new tariffs. 'We could extend it, we could make it shorter. I’d like to make it shorter.'... The president’s long-standing affinity for imposing tariffs is clashing with his reputation as a canny dealmaker. Foreign officials, trade experts, lawmakers and even some White House allies have expressed a nihilistic view of the July deadline, questioning whether a deal with the Trump administration means anything at all given the president’s penchant for using tariffs as leverage to get his way.... '... It’s all fake. There’s no deadline. It’s a self-imposed landmark in this theatrical show, and that’s where we are,' [said a person close to the White House].”
Mattathias Schwartz & Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: “A flight carrying eight men who had been held for weeks on a U.S. military base in Djibouti landed in South Sudan just before midnight Friday, officials said, bringing an end to a six-week legal battle that was resolved by an emergency intervention by the Supreme Court.... The 13-year-old country is on the brink of a civil war; the State Department has warned against travel there because of the risk of 'crime, kidnapping and armed conflict.'... The eight men had been shackled for weeks inside an air-conditioned shipping container on a U.S. military base in Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa. Before coming to the United States, the men came from Vietnam, Mexico, Laos, Cuba and Myanmar. Just one is from South Sudan, a violence-plagued country. All had been convicted of serious crimes in the United States, though many had either finished or were about to finish serving their sentences.” The CBS News story is here. The AP's report is here. MB: We are now officially, from the top down, an uncivilized, third-world country.
Corky Siemaszko of NBC News: “A 6-year-old Honduran boy with leukemia whose arrest sparked a public outcry after he, his mother and sister were seized by ICE agents and sent to a Texas detention center is back in Los Angeles, one of the family’s lawyers said Friday. The family, which had been held for a month in the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, was released [without a court order] on Wednesday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a lawsuit was filed on their behalf in San Antonio federal court.... Their release 'demonstrates the power we have when we fight back against harmful, un-American policies,' attorney Kate Gibson Kumar of the Texas Civil Rights Project, which also represented the family, said on the group’s Facebook page. 'The practice of courthouse arrests is a blatant disregard for those lawfully seeking safety through the government’s own processes, and an even bigger disregard for our Constitution and the protections it provides, including Due Process,' wrote Gibson Kumar.... The family entered the U.S. legally on Oct. 26 when they applied for asylum with the now-defunct CBP One app and were given parole status.”
Mark Berman & Jeremy Roebuck of the Washington Post: “The Justice Department’s pledge to prioritize stripping citizenship from naturalized U.S. citizens in more cases is fueling apprehension, with some immigration experts and attorneys calling the directive from a department leader ominous and a threat to due process.... In a memo last month, Brett A. Shumate, who leads the Justice Department’s Civil Division, said it would now 'prioritize and maximally pursue' court cases aimed at taking citizenship away from people accused of wrongdoing.... Denaturalization cases historically have most often been deployed against people accused of hiding their past ties to war crimes, terrorist groups and human rights violations while applying for citizenship, according to experts and data on cases brought by the government. Many of the most prominent cases, for instance, involved people who hid their connections to the Nazis when applying for U.S. citizenship.... According to the Migration Policy Institute, in 2022 there were more than 24 million naturalized citizens living in the United States.... 'This fits into very hostile attitudes towards people who are foreign-born in the U.S.,' said Jean Reisz, who teaches law at the University of Southern California....”
Hearts of Darkness: Jeopardizing the Most Vulnerable. Lauren Gurley of the Washington Post (July 2): “The U.S. Labor Department announced plans this week to slash more than 60 regulations — including eliminating overtime and minimum wage protections for home health care workers and union organizing rights for migrant farmworkers.... The administration ... has plans to rescind an Obama-era rule that granted minimum wage and overtime pay to millions of in-home care workers. The Trump administration said in its proposed rulemaking that current regulations 'might discourage essential companionship services by making these services more expensive.'... The agency also plans to revoke a Biden-era regulation protecting union organizing for seasonal farmworkers who are in the United States through the H-2A visa program.” MB: So it might be more expensive to pay workers $7.25/hour??? Home healthcare workers and migrant farm laborers have exactly no power to fight the federal government to ensure fair wages and working conditions. None nada zero. So, please, let's make sure they're further exploited.
Here are the most recent updates from the New York Times liveblog (July 5, updated July 6) on the Texas flooding: “The search for those who were swept away by devastating floods in Central Texas grew increasingly desperate as the death toll jumped to 52 on Saturday night and the likelihood of finding more survivors appeared to diminish. In Kerr County, where waterways gorged by thunderstorms tore through a Christian girls’ camp, trapped families inside trailer homes and swept people into the currents, the authorities said that some two dozen campers remained unaccounted for, and that there was “no cap” to the broader tally of the missing.... Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said late Saturday that the girls’ camp and an adjacent river had been 'horrendously ravaged in ways unlike I’ve seen in any natural disaster,' and that rushing waters had reached the tops of cabins.” ~~~
~~~ Josh Hinkle & David Barer of KXAN Austin: “State and local officials are calling out federal forecasters amid deadly flooding in the Texas Hill Country over the extended Fourth of July weekend. The criticism comes, as funding cuts and staff shortages plague the National Weather Service and other emergency management agencies nationwide. Texas Department of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd told reporters Friday original forecasts from the National Weather Service predicted 4 to 8 inches of rain in that area, 'but the amount of rain that fell in this specific location was never in any of those forecasts.'... The area actually received a much more significant amount of rain that night, with NWS observed totals exceeding 10 inches just west of Kerrville, near where dozens were killed or remain missing – including several children at a summer camp.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Update. Christopher Flavelle of the New York Times: “Crucial positions at the local offices of the National Weather Service were unfilled as severe rainfall inundated parts of Central Texas on Friday morning, prompting some experts to question whether staffing shortages made it harder for the forecasting agency to coordinate with local emergency managers as floodwaters rose. Texas officials appeared to blame the Weather Service for issuing forecasts on Wednesday that underestimated how much rain was coming. But former Weather Service officials said the forecasts were as good as could be expected, given the enormous levels of rainfall and the storm’s unusually abrupt escalation. The staffing shortages suggested a separate problem, those former officials said — the loss of experienced people who would typically have helped communicate with local authorities in the hours after flash flood warnings were issued overnight. The shortages are among the factors likely to be scrutinized as the death toll climbs from the floods. Separate questions have emerged about the preparedness of local communities, including Kerr County’s apparent lack of a local flood warning system. The county, roughly 50 miles northwest of San Antonio, is where many of the deaths occurred.” Read on. This is a gift link. ~~~
~~~ A Texas Tribune story is here. It provides a ticktock of when National Weather Service warnings were issued. It seems to put more responsibility on local officials than on the NWS: “Asked Saturday afternoon what kind of procedures the county had to warn the summer camps along the river about flooding emergencies, [Kerrville City Manager Dalton] Rice said that each camp is private. This situation happened very fast, he said, so 'there wasn’t a lot of time in this case as far as warnings.'” Here's an AP story. ~~~
~~~ Marie: This is what to expect when "conservatives" govern. They start with the premise that all government is bad and that they should not pay for necessary services. So besides the staff shortages brought on by Chainsaw Elon & Trump's plan to wind down FEMA to useless, there's this from the Times story: "In an interview, Rob Kelly, the Kerr County judge and its most senior elected official, said the county did not have a warning system because such systems are expensive, and local residents are resistant to new spending." Gen. Russel L. Honoré, Retired, -- who led the military's response to Hurricane Katrina -- spoke on CNN yesterday. He said the Guadelupe River had a history of flooding. (See also this page.) So it isn't as if authorities had no idea that an effective warning system and evacuation plan were essential to the safety of vulnerable communities along the river and its tributaries. Still, the locals thought it was smart to vote for folks who would "keep taxes down" and for Trump (Kerr County: 77% Trump, 22% Harris, so +55), who prefers to spend tax dollars on his birthday parade, UFC fights on the White House lawn and deporting the grandma who hand-makes tortillas at the factory lunch truck than on emergency preparedness. Oh, did I mention that Starlink, Texas, home of the deposed DOGE king, is right nearby -- just 20 miles ESE of Austin? Starlink announced it is providing emergency Starlink mini kits to search & rescue teams, as in "horse bolted, close barn door."
Erin Doherty of CNBC: "Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., announced his official resignation from Congress on Friday, a move that was expected but one that could, at least for now, shrink Republicans’ already narrow majority in the House.... With his resignation, Republicans are down to a 219-212 majority in the House, at least until his seat in the solidly red district is filled. His resignation will be effective July 20, Fox News reports from a letter Green sent to House Republican leadership."
No More Jewish Space Lasers! No More Chemtrails! Ashleigh Fields of the Hill: “Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said Saturday she plans to introduce a bill aimed at tackling 'weather modification.' 'I am introducing a bill that prohibits the injection, release, or dispersion of chemicals or substances into the atmosphere for the express purpose of altering weather, temperature, climate, or sunlight intensity. It will be a felony offense,' she wrote in a Saturday post on X.... The Georgia lawmaker said the legislation would resemble Florida’s Senate Bill 56, which was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in late June.... Greene made headlines last year when she suggested Democrats were able to 'control the weather' in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, prompting then-President Biden to condemn what he called 'irresponsible' and 'beyond ridiculous' falsehoods.”
Charlie Nash of Mediaite: “Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) claimed on Thursday that a post celebrating that '18 million kids just lost school meals' and 17 million people 'lost health care' was made in error. After the Trump-backed 'Big Beautiful Bill' passed both the House and Senate, one social media user protested, '17 million people just lost health care. 18 million kids just lost school meals. 3 million Americans just lost food assistance.' Van Orden responded to the post, 'YES!'” MB: In error, my ass. Thanks to RAS for the link; RAS reminds us that Van Orden claimed recently that he and his GOP colleagues are super-responsible representatives of the people: “After a journalist suggested that ... Donald Trump was the deciding factor in Van Orden’s decision to vote in favor of the ... bill, the congressman protested, 'No, no, no..., the president of the United States didn’t give us an assignment. We’re not a bunch of little bitches around here. I’m a member of Congress that represent almost 800,000 Wisconsinites. Is that clear?'” Yes. And that representation means reveling in depriving millions of those constituents and their children of adequate food and health care. (Also linked yesterday.)
In this BlueSky post, Judd Legum makes a list of major U.S. corporations that publicly endorsed Trump's killer megabill. MB: Thanks to RAS for the link. The only one of the companies I consistently use is Comcast (Xfinity), and I'm about to cut the cord. I hope they ask why; I'll tell them because they support a Trump bill that makes poor people poorer and sicker. (Also linked yesterday.)
Theodore Schleifer of the New York Times: “Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person and the country’s biggest political donor, said on Saturday that he would create a new political party, an enormous and challenging undertaking that would test the billionaire’s newfound influence on American politics. 'When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy,' Mr. Musk wrote on X, his social media website, on Saturday. 'Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.' Mr. Musk ... had not filed paperwork as of Saturday evening for the new party, though he added in a separate post that the America Party would be active in elections “next year.” No immediate signs suggested that Mr. Musk was working to establish his party quickly. Any new entity would be required to be disclosed to the Federal Election Commission. Mr. Musk has spoken with friends in recent days about his plan for a political party and what it would take to accomplish it, according to a person briefed on those conversations. The discussions have been more conceptual than pragmatic, the person said.” A Politico story is here. MB: The good news, if Elon ever gets past “conceptual,” is that his little party is more likely to siphon votes from Republican candidates than from Democrats. ~~~
~~~ Maegan Vazquez of the Washington Post offers six reasons that it will be so difficult to start a meaningful third party. And she doesn't really address what an uncompromising dickhead Musk is.
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Hello, Mister, Hello, Missus. Here I Am at Camp DeSantis. ~~~
~~~ Florida. Ron DeSantis' “Alligator Alcatraz.” Lori Rozsa & Rachel Hatzipanagos of the Washington Post: “The hastily constructed detention camp in the Everglades that began processing immigrant detainees late this week has already flooded once, may not meet hurricane codes and is not officially approved or funded by the federal government. Experts say detainees and staff will face far more common hazards than the swampland terrors gleefully envisioned by state and national Republicans to discourage escapes. Mosquitoes and hurricanes are more likely to harm the expected 3,000-plus detainees and 100-member staff than are alligators and Burmese pythons.... The detention camp, named Alligator Alcatraz by state officials, has been enthusiastically endorsed by ... Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem. Trump visited Tuesday, saying the camp soon will have 'some of the most menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet.'
“The facility, which includes large tents over cells erected with chain-link fencing, portable showers and portable toilets, was put together in eight days. State lawmakers who have spoken about it say that work was done secretly, after they had ended their annual legislative session. A group of Democratic representatives tried to tour Thursday but were denied entry — 'despite clear statutory authority' allowing them to inspect prisons and detention facilities, they said in a joint statement. 'This is a blatant abuse of power and an attempt to conceal human rights violations from the public eye.'”
9 Comments
Reader Comments (9)
His very own Waffen SS
Perhaps the most hated (and hate filled) bill which barely passed with just a handful of votes in both chambers includes scores of horrific ideas being funded into reality. Thr evil word made flesh.
It’s tough to say what the worst is, but increasing the ICE budget by more than seven times is in the running.
The current ICE budget is a bloated $10 billion. After passage of this horrible bill it’s $75 billion. This is more than the entire defense budgets for Italy and Israel combined.
What’s happening has really nothing to do with the immigration issue, which Congress has repeatedly decided to leave unsolved, mostly because the Party of Traitors likes it that way. They have an issue they can build up from something minor to scary heights that dwarfs almost all other truly important issues this country must deal with.
So why a budget larger than most countries set aside for their entire defense programs?
If gives Fat Hitler his very own Waffen SS. A gigantic paramilitary group answerable to him and him alone. A personal army of masked and heavily armed thugs he can sic on anyone he chooses, for any reason. No going through generals or advisors or even Congress. His very own elite killing machine. Something all dictators need to respond instantly, with zero oversight and legal concerns to his every paranoid brain fart and evil child’s whims. AND! Concentration camps to go along with this army of morons and criminals.
Fat Hitler’s SS.
Now the real horrors begin.
@Akhilleus: Before the megabill passed, I had been thinking that there was nothing stopping Trump from deporting me to someplace, even though I'm a native-born citizen. After the Supremes greenlit deporting eight non-citizens who had committed crimes in the U.S. to Sudan -- when only one of them had ties to Sudan -- I realized there was nothing stopping him from deporting me to Sudan or some other dangerous, lawless country.
Trump has already threatened to "denaturalize" Elon Musk for speaking out against the very bill that gives Trump his access to the "personal army" you describe. Trump also has threatened to deport other citizens because they are criminals. So it takes but a teeny step to move from these threats to threatening to deport any ordinary citizen for speaking out against Trump or some measure he supports. Trump thinks he is the state, and that anti-Trump expressions amount to treason.
Now, as you point out, Congressional Republicans gave him the money to hire a huge army of secret soldiers (even Hitler's SS wore and carried a number of forms of ID). That changes the calculus to this extent: the bigger his army, the greater the odds that Trump will come after us because he will have the manpower to do so. We already know he has the will.
And he isn't going to start with Elon Musk or Rachel Maddow or Maggie Haberman. Just as his Labor Department (see today's links) is withdrawing work protections from home healthcare workers and legal migrant farm hands, so Trump will go for the most vulnerable among us, those of us who don't have a strong infrastructure to try (probably futilely) to protect us.
We're in trouble.
Marie,
Are we ever.
And what Fatty and Himmler Miller hope to achieve with this army of thugs and hooligans, many of whom were convicted criminals who participated in the J6 attempted coup, as they leap masked and armed out of unmarked vehicles to kidnap anyone they wish for imprisonment, deportation, and Christ knows what else, with no warrants, no legal empowerment (other than the Supremes’ grant of total immunity to the Orange Monster) and no due process, is to spread fear and terror. ICE has become a terrorist organization, far more effective than Al Quaeda or ISIS, because they operate at the behest of the felon in the White House and are supported by taxpayer monies.
In the same way that the Gestapo, the Stasi, SAVAK, and any other state run terrorist organizations have struck terror into the hearts of various citizenries, Fat Hitler’s SS does the same in the country formerly known as the United States.
It’s all about control, fear, terror, and abject obedience to the Dear Leader. And even though the vast majority of Americans can say “It won’t happen to me”, as soon as people in their town or city or even their own street start disappearing, the subliminal fear takes hold and after a while, ratting out those considered enemies of the regime in order to prove one’s loyalty may seem necessary to keep the masked thugs away from one’s door.
It’s already happening.
Trump and institutions
Politico
"Extreme-right groups in Germany are increasingly targeting LGBTQ+ people as part of a systematic effort to gain popularity and win new recruits. Right-wing extremists have mobilized against Pride events scheduled for this summer, planning counter demonstrations that purport to celebrate traditional, heterosexual relationships. It’s a message, experts say, that is drawing a growing number of young Germans to the extreme right."
Trump and the Republicans are creating a fascist playbook that is being tried around the world. Republicans export hate and ignorance to the world. And make the world a far more dangerous place to exist.
Steve M.
"I think Democrats should make videos and ads that include a clock counting down to when the Medicaid changes start to kick in. Democrats should tell voters that Republicans delayed these changes in order to deceive them. Voters should think of them as a ticking time bomb."
The hundreds of thousands of extra covid deaths was just the start.
"This new study of 133 countries is the first to estimate the impact of all USAID’s work. In 2 decades, it has saved *92M* lives. Current cuts, if not reversed, are forecast to cost up to *14M* lives thru 2030."
The Lancet full text.
Maybe adding nearly 3 million excess deaths a year for the rest of this decade is not worthy of a Peace Prize. And for no reason other than hatred and racism.
David Frum, in The Atlantic, Welcome to the Mafia Presidency
Evident from the Trump legal filing against CBS is that not even the president’s own lawyers took his complaint seriously. Three whopping clues give away the game about the filing’s farcicality.
The first is where the lawsuit was brought: the Amarillo division of the U.S. district court for the northern district of Texas. CBS is not domiciled in Amarillo. Neither is Trump or Harris or any person significantly connected with the 60 Minutes segment. What is located in Amarillo is America’s premier pick for right-wing forum-shopping, a practice criticized not only by liberal counterparties but also, at least implicitly, by The Wall Street Journal and National Review. Amarillo is the court where a partisan-conservative plaintiff goes with a case that would be summarily thrown out elsewhere.
The next clue is the language of the filing, which reads like direct dictation from the president:
...A FAKE NEWS SCAM....And so on, through 65 paragraphs of irrelevant name-calling and Trump-quoting obsequiousness.
...Also striking is the carelessness of the complaint’s use of legal authority. Two of Trump’s few quoted sources actually argue against the Trump claim.
....What’s going on here is extortion—and it does not get any less extortionate for being laundered through Trump’s hypothetical future library."
Digby highlights the resignation of FBI official Michael Feinberg who was run out of the FBI because he and Peter Strzok share musical tastes.