The Conversation -- May 17, 2025
Dana Milbank of the Washington Post runs down some of Trump's and his administration's and Congressional Republicans' atrocities of the week. Milbank starts with Trump's racism: “It’s hard to see this refugee policy, and the exception for Afrikaners, as anything but an assertion of white supremacy.” He notes that Christopher Landau, the State Department official who welcomed the Afrikaners, bowed to the eugenics movement, a concession made more horrifying by the fact that Landau's father & grandparents were Jews who fled Austrian Nazis. As for Trump, he “abandoned any pretense of conveying the American values of freedom and democracy on his trip to the Middle East, supplanting them with the Trumpian values of greed and transactional relationships.” This is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ There could be one positive outcome from Trump's Grift and Graft Excursion to Arab states: ~~~
~~~ Luke Broadwater & Erika Solomon of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said on Friday that 'a lot of people are starving' in the Gaza Strip under an Israeli blockade preventing aid deliveries, adding that the U.S. wanted to help alleviate the suffering. 'We’re going to handle a couple of situations that you have here,' Mr. Trump said, speaking in the United Arab Emirates on the last leg of his visit to three Persian Gulf nations this week. 'We’re looking at Gaza, and we got to get that taken care of. A lot of people are starving. A lot of people. There’s a lot of bad things going on.'... Mr. Trump emerged from his trip to the Middle East with a more sympathetic tone on Gaza — a notable shift given his longstanding close relationship with the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu.... Boarding Air Force One on Friday, Mr. Trump told reporters that the United States must take action on the Gaza crisis.... On top of the total siege it has imposed on Gaza for more than two months, Israel has escalated its military campaign in recent days. Strikes on Friday killed more than 100 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry, a day after Israeli bombardment forced the closure of one of the enclave’s major hospitals.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: That was yesterday. Of course OF COURSE, I spoke too soon. This is today: ~~~
~~~ Courtney Kube, et al., of NBC News: “The Trump administration is working on a plan to permanently relocate up to 1 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya, five people with knowledge of the effort told NBC News. The plan is under serious enough consideration that the administration has discussed it with Libya’s leadership.... In exchange for the resettling of Palestinians, the administration would potentially release to Libya billions of dollars of funds that the U.S. froze more than a decade ago.... After publication, a [State Department] spokesperson told NBC News, 'these reports are untrue.'... In February..., Trump outlined a goal of finding 'a beautiful area to resettle people permanently in nice homes, and where they can be happy and not be shot, not be killed, not be knifed to death like what’s happening in Gaza.'... Libya is struggling to care for its current population as two rival governments, one in the west led by Abdul Hamid Dbeibah and one in the east led by Khalifa Haftar, are actively and violently fighting for control. The State Department currently advises Americans not to travel to Libya 'due to crime, terrorism, unexploded landmines, civil unrest, kidnapping, and armed conflict.'” MB: It's not clear from the story which Libyan leadership the Trumpies have been talking with (or not!). In any event, I consider the reporters more credible that the State Department spokesperson.
Ryan Grenoble of the Huffington Post: “The president of the United States used the full power of his office Friday to have an embarrassing public meltdown online. Donald Trump, you see, appears to be freaking out after he got scolded by the Boss on the first night of his European tour. 'I see that Highly Overrated Bruce Springsteen goes to a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States,' Trump wrote, glossing over the fact that he, too, is currently in a foreign country speaking badly about someone. 'He’s not a talented guy,' Trump sniped of the decorated Rock and Roll Hall of Famer who’s won 20 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, an Academy Award, a Special Tony Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Trump also called Springsteen 'a pushy, obnoxious JERK' without a hint of self-awareness.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Grenoble is supposed to be a straight reporter. Obviously, this report is not "straight." Nonetheless, I share his bias. As an example of journalistic practice, the piece sucks. As a bit of truth-telling, I find it faultless. Oh, and it was not only Springsteen who displeased the King of Insults. ~~~
~~~ Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: “There were other posts aimed at other critics. 'Has anyone noticed,' Mr. Trump wrote in one of them, 'that, since I said “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,” she’s no longer “HOT?’” Shortly after that one, he took a swipe at 'grandstanders' in the Republican Party and 'radical left losers' getting in the way of his agenda and the Supreme Court, which he said was 'being played.'” McCreesh also asked the White House what Trump meant by his “vague threat” to Bruce Springsteen: “This dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just ‘standard fare.’ Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!” But, McCreesh writes, “Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, would only send back a string of insults about Mr. Springsteen’s career.”
Cat Zakrzewski, et al., of the Washington Post: “The White House this week labeled ... Donald Trump 'the dealmaker in chief, claiming he has secured more than $2 trillion in investment agreements during his tour through oil-rich Middle Eastern monarchies. As Air Force One touched down in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, the White House released daily lists of the dozens of deals that it said Trump had secured during his visits. But at least half a dozen of the contracts were announced before Trump even took office in January.... In Doha, the administration announced $8.5 billion in projects involving the Texas energy company McDermott.... But the company previously announced contracts for [the Qatar] initiative during Joe Biden’s presidency, in 2023 and 2024. When Trump was in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, the White House announced $200 billion in 'new' commercial deals with the UAE. Much of the corporate funding came from a cloud computing deal between Amazon and UAE state-owned telecommunications company e& ... [which] Amazon ... announced that contract in October, and the company had only committed about $1 billion over six years.... The math behind the White House’s claim that Trump secured 'trillions' on this trip is fuzzy even including the contracts that predate his presidency.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: This kind of lie annoys me because there's no way the MAGA minions will ever know his boasts are big fat lies. He constantly tells them Biden was a terrible president, but he takes credit for Biden's accomplishments.
He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant. If you’re the F.B.I. director and you don’t know what that meant, that meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear.... I think it’s a terrible thing.... And when you add his history to that, if he had a clean history, he doesn’t. He’s a dirty cop, he’s a dirty cop. And if he had a clean history, I could understand if there was a leniency, but I’m going to let them [-- the Justice Department --] make that decision. -- Donald Trump, signaling to Pam Bondi to throw the book at James Comey ~~~
~~~ Eileen Sullivan & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: “The Secret Service questioned James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, on Friday about a social media post he made that Mr. Trump’s cabinet officials and allies claimed amounted to a call for Mr. Trump’s assassination, according to a law enforcement official. The Secret Service sought the interview after Mr. Comey posted a photo on Thursday of seashells on a beach forming the numbers '86 47,' a phrase used by Mr. Trump’s critics at protests, and on signs and clothing. 'Eighty-six,' according to Merriam-Webster, is an old slang term meaning to dismiss or remove.... The interview is said to have taken place at a Secret Service office in Washington. Mr. Comey is said to have voluntarily consented to the interview, the official said, and was driven to the interview by Secret Service agents....
“Critics of Mr. Trump’s administration have said that his officials have blown Mr. Comey’s post out of proportion and are using it as an excuse to harass one of Mr. Trump’s perceived enemies.... Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said the Secret Service, which falls under her department, was investigating [Mr. Comey]. Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, said on Fox News that Mr. Comey should be jailed.... It is uncommon for senior administration officials ... to comment publicly [as they did].... In an interview with Bret Baier of Fox News that was broadcast on Friday, Mr. Trump — the target of two assassination attempts last year — said he believed that Mr. Comey was calling for him to be killed.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: “Voluntarily?” That trip to the Secret Service office sounds a bit like a frog-march to me. CNN has videotape of the Secret Service “escorting” Comey from his home and into their minivan. Very accommodating. And here's Steve M. precisely expressing my sentiment about Trump's “analysis”:
~~~ Steve M.: "Trump says, 'A child knows what that meant' -- yes, because if there's one thing the average child knows well, it's twentieth-century restaurant slang." After contrasting the administration's reactions to "86 47" with the right's promotion of "86 47" (including merch!), Steve concludes, "At the very least, they're trying to build an America in which anything that offends the famous Fox viewer in The White House is illegal. If we don't call them on this now, they'll keep trying to remake the country in this way. And they might get us at least partway there." ~~~
~~~ Steve Benen of MSNBC: Kristi “Noem ... issued on online statement that claimed, 'Disgraced former FBI Director James Comey just called for the assassination' of the president.... Team Trump has long seen Comey as a villain who should be targeted and investigated. His since-deleted Instagram post appears to have given the president’s operation an excuse to do what it wanted to do anyway.”
The Government does not contest before this Court the applicants’ description of the notice afforded to AEA detainees in the Northern District of Texas, nor the assertion that the Government was poised to carry out removals imminently. The Government has represented elsewhere that it is unable to provide for the return of an individual deported in error to a prison in El Salvador, where it is alleged that detainees face indefinite detention. The detainees’ interests at stake are accordingly particularly weighty. Under these circumstances, notice roughly 24 hours before removal, devoid of information about how to exercise due process rights to contest that removal, surely does not pass muster. -- Supreme Court Order ~~~
~~~ Mark Sherman of the AP: “The Supreme Court on Friday rejected the Trump administration’s appeal to quickly resume deportations of Venezuelans under an 18th century wartime law. Over two dissenting votes, the justices acted on an emergency appeal from lawyers for Venezuelan men who have been accused of being gang members, a designation that the administration says makes them eligible for rapid removal from the United States under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The high court had already called a temporary halt to the deportations from a north Texas detention facility in a middle-of-the-night order issued last month. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Politico's report, by Josh Gerstein & Kyle Cheney, is here. And here, at long last, is the New York Times' report. The Court's order, via the Court, is here. ~~~
~~~ Chris Geidner, the Law Dork, addresses the import and implications of the ruling. AND here's some of what he says about Alito's dissent (joined by Thomas): "Ultimately, Alito’s reasoning would mean that if the lawyers for people who the government is trying to deport with insufficient process (if not, as multiple judges have found, altogether illegally) do so in a way that moves the process along too quickly for him, there can be no appellate jurisdiction until the district court judge actually rules — even if that is too late." MB: IOW, as far as Sam & Clarence are concerned, if ICE can whip a detainee out of the country and into a hell-hole-for-life before the district judge sharpens her pencils, it's all good. ~~~
~~~ Marie: I know that so-called "conservatives" think empathy is a dirty word, at least when it come to judging. I'm not sure if they understand what empathy means or if they really think it's wrong for courts to consider the rights of us lesser beings. What it doesn't mean -- again, when applied to judicial considerations -- is thinking, "Aw, poor you, you deserve another chance." What it does mean is pretty simple: a Judeo-Christian belief in "walking a mile in his shoes." That is, the judge must ask herself, "Were I in this situation, would I think this decision was fair to me?" I doubt Sam & Clarence would think it was fair if they got thrown in a hell-hole-for-life without being able to defend themselves. But for some reason, they are unable to put themselves in another's shoes. Not only that, they don't understand that the Court on which they sit is supposed to take extraordinary measures when bedrock Constitutional rights -- and life-and-death situations -- are on the line. That is to say, they don't know what their jobs are.
⭐ Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: “A top adviser to the director of national intelligence [-- Joe Kent, Tulsi Gabbard's chief-of-staff --] ordered a senior analyst [-- Michael Collins, acting chair of the National Intelligence Council --] to redo an assessment of the relationship between Venezuela’s government and a gang after intelligence findings undercut the White House’s justification for deporting migrants, according to officials.... [Donald] Trump’s use of a wartime law to send Venezuelan migrants to a brutal prison in El Salvador without due process relies on a claim that U.S. intelligence agencies think is wrong. But behind the scenes, a political appointee [-- Kent --] told a career official [-- Collins --] to rework the assessment, a direction that allies of the intelligence analyst said amounted to pressure to change the findings.” When Collins produced an updated memo that did not change the basic conclusion of the earlier memo, and the Washington Post reported on the findings, "the Trump administration and its supporters and influencers ... reacted by vilifying Mr. Collins.... Ms. Gabbard and her deputy chief of staff revealed on social media that they had made a criminal leak referral about the Post article. And, as reported by Fox News this week, Ms. Gabbard also removed Mr. Collins and his deputy from leading the council.” This appears to be a gift link. ~~~
~~~ Marie: The timeline of how this all came down is interesting. The reporters do not define the timeline very well here, but you can still see how various administration players tried to cover for faking an excuse to misuse the Alien Enemies Act and how they reacted to media reports.
Zach Schonfeld of the Hill: “The federal judge overseeing the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man mistakenly deported to El Salvador, blasted the Trump administration Friday for not giving her enough material to decide whether it can invoke the state secrets privilege. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said a declaration submitted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, which seeks to avoid handing over certain documents by citing national security concerns, was 'insufficient' and the government needed to show its work as to why the privilege applies.... All sides agreed that some progress has been made, but the proceeding turned fiery at times as Xinis sparred with Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Guynn, who at one point compared the discovery battle to 'hand-to-hand combat.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Alan Feuer & Aishvarya Kavi of the New York Times: “On Friday, a lawyer for the Justice Department made a new assertion, telling the judge overseeing the case that while Mr. Abrego Garcia’s expulsion was in fact an error, it was neither illegal nor an example of government misconduct.... Judge Xinis ended the hearing by saying that she would reserve judgment for the moment on whether the government could invoke the state secrets privilege.” MB: It appears the administration's case is, “Our conduct was legal and we won't tell you why.” Welcome to the Star Chamber, folks. We are now moving back into the Late Middle Ages, which should make Sam Alito happy. ~~~
~~~ Update: This NBC News article, by Gary Grumbach & Daniella Silva, clarifies the government's position: “Government lawyers said the administration has not been able to answer questions about Abrego Garcia’s case because that information would be considered protected under 'state secrets' or 'deliberative process' privileges that should not be shared with the public.” So, what I said.
Ken Dilanian of NBC News: “The Trump administration has decided to permit the sale of devices that enable standard firearms to fire like machine guns, a move that one person familiar with the matter said was 'by far the most dangerous thing this administration has done' on gun policy. The Justice Department on Friday announced a settlement in a lawsuit brought by the National Association for Gun Rights. The lawsuit challenged an ATF rule banning 'forced reset triggers' — devices that allow semiautomatic weapons to fire rapid bursts of bullets. 'This Department of Justice believes that the 2nd Amendment is not a second-class right,' Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. 'And we are glad to end a needless cycle of litigation with a settlement that will enhance public safety.' Vanessa Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for Giffords, the national gun violence prevention group led by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, condemned the move. Since the forced reset trigger devices will not be considered firearms, they can be purchased anonymously, without a background or age check. Machine guns have been illegal in the United States since 1986....” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Gosh, as a member of the public, I'm feeling safer already, Thanks, Pam!
GAO Sez MYOB 2 DOGE. Jose Pagliery of NOTUS: “Elon Musk’s DOGE team is now starting to target government agencies outside of the executive branch, notifying the U.S. Government Accountability Office — the congressional watchdog that performs studies for legislators about federal waste, fraud and abuse — that it has 'assigned a team' to assail that agency, according to an internal email obtained by NOTUS. The GAO is pushing back, directly telling the White House cost-cutting project managers at DOGE that the agency is far outside ... Donald Trump’s jurisdiction. 'GAO was contacted by representatives of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), who sought to assign a team to GAO. Today, we sent a letter to the acting administrator of DOGE stating that GAO is a legislative branch agency that conducts work for the Congress. As such, we are not subject to DOGE or executive orders,' said an internal email sent to GAO employees at 12:42 p.m. on Friday. The email goes on to say that GAO has 'also notified relevant congressional committees and will keep them apprised of any further developments.'” An NPR story is here.
Another DOGE Deep-Fail. Hannah Natanson, et al., of the Washington Post: “The U.S. DOGE Service arrived at the Social Security Administration this year determined to slash staff and root out what it claimed was widespread fraud and wasteful spending — a mission Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team has pursued across the government. But as of this week, many of the major changes DOGE pushed at Social Security have been abandoned or are being reversed after proving ineffective, while others are yielding unintended consequences and badly damaging customer service and satisfaction. The problems come as the agency struggles to cope with a record surge of hundreds of thousands of retirement claims in recent months.... On Friday, Social Security leaders told employees that the agency was ending a security check, developed at DOGE’s request, that was meant to root out allegedly fraudulent claims filed over the phone.... But the measure — which involved placing a three-day hold on all phone claims as other staffers checked into the caller’s background — had only identified a couple of potential fraud cases while causing significant delays in claims processing, two employees said.
“Kathleen Romig, a former Social Security official who is now at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said there were already safeguards in place to detect fraud through the agency’s phone service. DOGE’s efforts have only delayed claims processing and, like most of the team’s attempts to reshape Social Security, placed serious stress on the agency, she said. 'So much of this is self-inflicted wounds,' Romig said.” MB: This follows up on a story I linked yesterday about the useless, time-wasting security check.
Nicholas Nehamas of the New York Times: “The Trump administration’s move to cancel a slew of federal contracts at Harvard University has sparked an internal clash over the impact on medical research intended to help veterans, including projects involving suicide prevention, toxic particle exposure and prostate cancer screening.... Records reviewed by The Times show that the V.A. has begun the process of ending half a dozen contracts on a range of research projects at Harvard.... The tensions inside the V.A. over the Harvard contracts demonstrate how ... [Donald] Trump’s use of research funds as leverage in his broader pressure campaign on universities carries political risks. Mr. Trump and other Republicans have courted veterans as a key political constituency, and Mr. Collins has repeatedly promised that veteran care would not be affected, even as he enacts major cost-cutting measures and other changes.”
Emily Brooks, et al., of the Hill: “Fiscal hawks on the House Budget Committee on Friday sunk a key vote on advancing the 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act' that encompasses ... [Donald] Trump’s legislative agenda, marking a stunning setback for the legislation. The 16-21 vote throws up a hurdle for leaders hoping to send the bill to the Senate by Memorial Day....” Update: The Washington Post story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ As I Was Saying ... Tony Romm of the New York Times: “The Republican tax plan may offer only modest gains to everyday workers, according to a wide range of tax experts, and some taxpayers may actually be left in worse financial shape if the bill becomes law. The latest assessment arrived Friday from the Penn Wharton Budget Model, a nonpartisan scorekeeper closely watched on Capitol Hill. Economists found that many Americans who make less than $51,000 a year would see their after-tax income fall as a result of the Republican proposal beginning in 2026.... By contrast, the top 0.1 percent, including those with incomes over $4.3 million, would gain on average more than $389,000 in after-tax income in 2026, the data show.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Here's one outcome of Republicans' refusal to raise taxes on the rich, not to mention Elon's cuts to IRS collections staff: ~~~
~~~ Tony Romm, et al., of the New York Times: “The credit rating of the United States received a potentially costly downgrade on Friday, as the ratings firm Moody’s determined that the government’s rising debt levels stood to grow further if Republicans enact a package of new tax cuts. The downgrade, to one notch below the highest triple-A rating, amounted to a repudiation of Washington, where ... [Donald] Trump only hours earlier had pushed his party to adopt a legislative package that might add trillions of dollars to the nation’s fiscal imbalance. The downgrade from Moody’s means that each of the three major credit rating agencies no longer gives the United States its best rating. Fitch downgraded the United States in 2023, citing fiscal concerns, and Standard & Poor’s downgraded the country in 2011. The new rating decrease could send ripple effects throughout the economy if it prompts investors to demand higher payments on bonds, which in turn could raise consumers’ borrowing costs. So far, though, past downgrades have proved largely symbolic....” The CNBC report is here.
Jordyn Holman of the New York Times: “ Every couple of years, Paula Kerger, the long-serving chief executive of PBS, faces pushback from Congress. It often comes from Republicans who argue that public broadcasters like PBS and NPR are biased and not deserving of taxpayers’ money.... But this year, she said, feels 'very different.' In January, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission ordered an investigation into the public media networks’ sponsor messages. In March, Ms. Kerger faced hostile lawmakers on a House subcommittee led by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who called the hearing 'Anti-American Airwaves.' Then, this month..., [Donald] Trump signed an executive order seeking to end all federal funding for PBS and NPR, which the White House called 'woke propaganda.' Soon after, Mr. Trump terminated a grant that PBS used to finance children’s educational programs.” (Also linked yesterday.)
⭐Marc Caputo & Alex Thompson of Axios: "Amid long, uncomfortable pauses, Joe Biden struggled to recall when his son died, when he left office as vice president, what year Donald Trump was elected or why he had classified documents he shouldn't have had, according to audio Axios obtained of his October 2023 interviews with special counsel Robert Hur.... The newly released recordings of Biden having trouble recalling such details — while occasionally slurring words and muttering — shed light on why his White House refused to release the recordings last year, as questions mounted about his mental acuity. The audio also appears to validate Hur's assertion that jurors in a trial likely would have viewed Biden as 'a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.' Partly based on that determination, Hur decided not to prosecute Biden for improper possession of classified documents, angering Republicans because Trump was facing charges in his own classified document scandal then." Read on. ~~~
~~~ The post includes two YouTube videos of audio clips from the interview. Marie: What is not clear from the report is who the reporters' source was for the audio clips. The following NYT report strongly suggests that the Trump White House was the source. So the clips likely distort the full picture of the interview, which lasted for about five hours over two days. But they are what they are. ~~~
~~~ Devlin Barrett & Tyler Pager of the New York Times: “The audio was published by Axios as the Trump administration made plans to release the full interview recording.... As early as next week, the Trump administration plans to release the audio recordings of the interview, according to people familiar with the matter.... About a month after Mr. Hur’s announcement not to seek charges, officials released a transcript of his interview with Mr. Biden. But for more than a year, Republicans have been demanding that the government also release the audio recording, arguing that it might offer evidence of a decline in Mr. Biden’s mental acuity.... The Trump administration was facing a court deadline next week to take a position in a lawsuit over the recording.”
~~~ Chris Cameron of the New York Times: has more on the overall issue of President Biden's fitness to serve out a second term. ~~~
~~~ Reid Epstein & Lisa Lerer of the New York Times: “As the Democratic Party faces record low approval ratings, many party strategists and officials believe it must rebuild trust in its brand. That process, some argue, must begin with confronting how the party handled the 2024 race. For most of Mr. Biden’s term, many Democrats lived a bifurcated political life. In public, they remained staunchly behind the president, lauding him as sharp and fit to serve. But in private conversations, they fretted about his shaky gait, rambling speech and tendency to forget key details, like the names of foreign leaders.... Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut, one of the first lawmakers to call for Mr. Biden to step aside as the Democratic nominee after his disastrous debate performance in June 2024, said lawmakers had not fully known Mr. Biden’s mental and physical state. But, he said, Democrats must now openly admit that the former president was unfit for a second term and should not have run.... Some Democrats are already warning that this issue could emerge as a dividing line in the 2028 presidential primary, as candidates try to distinguish themselves in what strategists widely expect to be a crowded contest.” ~~~
~~~ Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: “The denouement of Joe Biden is unbearably sad. It is the oldest story in tragedy: hubris. By the end, when he was bubble-wrapped in 2024, he trusted only his family and his closest aides. And they protected him with a damaging chimera. Sugarcoated interpretations of polls that were not reflected elsewhere.... It was not just Joe and Jill who wanted to hang on to power, with all the perks and trips and, for Jill, glamorous Vogue covers. It was also their advisers, Mike Donilon, Steve Ricchetti, Anita Dunn, Anthony Bernal and Annie Tomasini.... The more Biden was out of it, the more his hours and responsibilities were curtailed, the more of a vacuum there was at the top, the more power the advisers had.” MB: I still blame not Joe but the palace guard, especially his wife, who should have been protecting him from his false sense of fitness for a very taxing job. ~~~
~~~ Marie: I realize that some of you don't think President Biden's fitness for office has any currency and we should let sleeping dogs lie. One critical trait that distinguishes Democrats from Republicans is that we can handle the truth. Besides, IMO, Biden's apparent unfitness for office is precisely why we're in the disastrous situation we face today. Had Biden stuck to his implied resolve to be a one-term president, Democrats would have run their usual chaotic primary season and the eventual nominee would have received a full vetting. For better or for worse, the public would have "seen" the Democratic nominee, albeit mostly through the eyes of our not-always-great journalists. We'll never know, of course, if that unknown nominee would have beat Donald Trump. But we do know that she or he would have stood a better chance.
~~~~~~~~~~
Texas. A Rude Awakening for Some Trump Voters. Edgar Sandoval of the New York Times: “Most mornings, Leonardo Baez, a father of seven, wakes up hours before sunrise to mix bread dough in the border city of Los Fresnos, Texas. Punishing and laborious work, yes, but owning a beloved bakery has been a lifelong dream of his, he said. It is now in jeopardy. In February, federal agents swooped down on his shop, Abby’s Bakery, detained workers they said were in the country illegally and pressed charges against the owners, Mr. Baez and his wife, Nora Alicia Avila. As their July trial nears, many in this Latino-majority community of 8,500 close to Brownsville, Texas, are learning what life will be like under ... [Donald] Trump and his immigration crackdown. More than 52 percent of Los Fresnos’s once-bright-blue Cameron County voted for Mr. Trump in November, but his aggressive policies are dividing families and rattling local business where undocumented residents are indistinguishable from the larger border population.... Mr. Baez and Ms. Avila face potential prison terms, loss of their legal status and deportation if they are found guilty of harboring illegal immigrants.”
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Reader Comments (6)
I fully understand that there’s no way on earth, or any other possible planet, that Party of Traitors politicians who loudly and regularly proclaim their Christianity, who argue night and day for the freedom to practice their religion, could ever be expected to actually do so.
These Christians, who demand that the Bible serve as the basis for, and the most important guide to governance—for all Americans— who announce their fealty to the teachings of Jesus Christ as their lord and savior, nonetheless outright and repeatedly spit on those teachings.
The apostle Peter, according to all four gospels, denied Jesus three times before he heard a rooster crow. PoT Christians deny Jesus 300 times before Trump crows, and they do it every day.
They ignore and handily deny his most important teaching, to love others as you would love yourself, to feed the hungry, comfort the afflicted, and welcome the stranger. They do this with gusto, with crooked smiles on their faces, and warmly congratulate the most avid offenders.
Everything this President*, his administration, his lackeys in Congress, his cheerleaders in the media, and far too many of his electoral supporters fervently pursue, on a daily basis denies the teaching of the person they all loudly claim to love and honor.
But ALL of their most affecting efforts are based in bigotry, hatred, and cruelty. Across the board. No comfort given to those who need it most, no exception.
This administration is based on two essential beliefs: cruelty and greed. It’s hard to fathom the joyous pursuit of a party to inflict such pain on other humans. Children, pregnant mothers. A party based on cruelty, bigotry, and grasping greed runs this country.
It’s just that simple.
It’s heil Trump and fuck Jesus.
Is the kind of religion they scream about demanding the freedom to practice? The kind they demand we all bow before?
It seems Baby Donnie is shaking his rattle at Bruce Springsteen for having the temerity to criticize his glorious person.
It’s the usual, sad, repetitive, whiny list of insults from the “Your mother wears army boots” school of forensics: he stinks, he has no talent, how dare he say those things about the President of the United States! In a foreign country! Wasaaah.
And of course there’s the ubiquitous jabs at how the other person looks: his skin is wrinkly. He looks like a prune! Harumph!
He ends with a threat. Let him try saying those things when he gets back here. He’ll see what happens then.
In other words, he can’t rebut anything Springsteen has to say so he says “he stinks, he has no talent, he looks like a prune, and he’s gonna get it!”
Very convincing, Baby Donnie.
If just once this mumbling fraud would attempt to take on a single critic by rebutting his or her argument point by point, he might at least get credit for making that effort. Instead we get “I’m awesome, you stink, everyone loves me, no one loves you, and you’re ugly, too!”
Springsteen has sold over 150 million albums. He is one of the most respected artists in the business. He made it himself, he isn’t a narcissistic nepo baby who had everything handed to him. By contrast, Fat Hitler has never written anything. His books are all ghostwritten. How can you tell?
Too many polysyllabic words, no stupid all caps rants, and proper punctuation.
He’s a whiny brat. But he’s still nasty enough to toss out threats to anyone who exercises their first amendment right.
Wanting to let sleeping dogs lie, as Marie observes, I found this review of Original Sin by Tyler Austin Harper, in The Atlantic difficult to get through.
An Autopsy Report on Biden’s In-Office Decline
"Original Sin suggests that, unlike Lear, who begins his rule flawed but with his mind intact, Biden may have been losing his grip before he took his oath of office. If this is true, Americans unwittingly voted for and were then led by a president who was not up to the job, a state of affairs that certain among the Biden faithful seemed committed to concealing. Tapper and Thompson studiously avoid saying this outright; to their credit, they do little editorializing. The book is written not unlike an autopsy report, describing a gruesome political car crash in dispassionate, clinical detail. The American people, however, must confront the possibility that the book raises: that we may not have had a president capable of discharging the office since Barack Obama left the White House, in 2017."
Doktor Zoom - Wonkette
"Check out this cool interview with physicist/science journalist Adam Becker about how, for all their seeming whizbang futuristic aspirations, techbro billionaires tend to dismiss the actual science that would get in the way of their half-baked sci-fi aspirations. Thank goodness, really. The subtitle of Becker’s new book tells you plenty about the technodelusions he sets out to skewer: More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity."
Becker "They actually have a great contempt for expertise. They don't see it as necessary because they think that they're the smartest people who've ever lived, because they're the wealthiest people who've ever lived. If they were wrong about anything, then why would they have been so financially successful?
Living on Mars sucks. Mars isn't even mid. Mars is just crappy. The gravity is too low. The radiation is too high. There's no air. The dirt is made of poison. There's very little water. It gets hit with asteroids more often than Earth does because it's closer to the asteroid belt. And the prospects for terraforming technology in any meaningful way are not great. Making Mars as habitable as Antarctica during the polar night would be the greatest technological undertaking humanity has ever taken by many orders of magnitude, in order to create a place that nobody would want to live, and where the gravity would still be too low. It's a deeply unpleasant place."
I hope the next Democratic President quotes Alito and Thomas back to them as they are shackled and flown off to a foreign prison for the rest of their miserable lives. It would be fitting to enact all of their bullshit "justice" upon those two cretins. As is typical with Republicans they would only realize the error of their ways if they personally had to deal with the world they have tried to enact on the rest of us. Though I'm sure these two would still believe that we on the other side should still be subject to all the cruelty and inhumanity that they have tried to justify from their bench on high.
On Biden:
I'll never know how compromised Biden's mental and physical health might have been during his term as president or as he decided to seek a second term. What I do know is that as a man of about the same age, I would certainly not have been up to the job but had I been there would hope I'd have surrounded myself with a bevy of advisors who were. Biden certainly did that and the results of his four years were exceptionally positive--for those of a progressive turn of mind. The sanity he brought for four years was a great relief was a great relief after the previous four.
If he hadn't been so successful, like Obama mostly was, the Right would not have hated him so much or per the Pretender seen the need to call him a rank failure, which we all know means success in Pretenderspeak.
In contrast to Biden's cabinet and advisors, we now have the likes of the beauteous Noem and the reality show (to be distinguished from Reality Chex) proposed to her department that would pit immigrants against one another competing for the brass ring of citizenship.
Tho' there have been the typical denials that such a perversion was proposed or talked about at Homeland Security's highest levels, it smacks so much of made for the movies scenes of gladiators fighting in the Roman Coliseum, it seems entirely fitting for this administration and the dress up doll in charge of our security.
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/5303753-dhs-reality-tv-show-immigrants-us-citizenship-kristi-noem-southern-border/
Have to watch myself. The Pretender's entire administration encourages my unfortunate penchant for snobbery.