The Conversation -- May 30, 2025
Scott Nover of the Washington Post: “PBS sued the Trump administration Friday, nearly one month after the president issued an executive order targeting its federal funding. In a complaint filed in federal district court in Washington, the public broadcaster alleged that the government violated its First Amendment rights. PBS also said the order unlawfully interfered with the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, which established the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a nonprofit entity that oversees federal funding to PBS and NPR.... PBS was joined in its suit by Northern Minnesota Public Television, a PBS member station.”
Janay Kingsberry & Maura Judkis of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump announced Friday that he has fired the director of the National Portrait Gallery, Kim Sajet, whom he called 'highly partisan.'... 'Upon the request and recommendation of many people, I am herby terminating the employment of Kim Sajet as Director of the National Portrait Gallery,' Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. 'She is a highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI, which is totally inappropriate for her position. Her replacement will be named shortly.' It is unclear if the president has authority to dismiss Sajet. The Smithsonian’s programming is not under the purview of the executive branch, and personnel decisions for senior-level Smithsonian museum positions are made by Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III.... As director, Sajet has focused on diversifying the gallery’s collection and programming by acquiring works that reflected a broader range of artists and subjects and integrating Spanish into the museum’s communications strategy.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Fight for your job, Ms. Sajet. Everybody's doing it. ~~~
~~~ Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: “... Trump’s mass deportations haven’t happened, and his administration has accumulated an astonishing record of losses in federal courts as judges appointed by presidents from both parties reject his attempt at governing by fiat. What remains is the wreckage: a loss of faith in U.S. credit, reflected in what the Brits are calling a 'moron premium' that the markets are imposing on Trump, which is pushing up bond yields and interest rates; a generation of talent departing the federal government; a loss of goodwill among foreign partners that would take years to rebuild, if it can be rebuilt at all; and the devastation of the scientific research at American universities that has long powered the American economy.... Likewise, the Russian government is now mocking Trump.... During the Biden years, Trump liked to say that 'the world is laughing at us.' Now it really is.... He continues to diminish his office in ways large and small.... The good news is more and more Americans are summoning the courage to fight back.” This is a gift link.
CDC Contradicts RFKJ. Fenit Nirappil of the Washington Post: “Coronavirus vaccines are still recommended for healthy children if their doctors approve, according to updated immunization schedules published late Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, contradicting Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s announcement earlier this week. The revisions, which also say the vaccines are no longer advised during pregnancy, add to the confusion surrounding the Trump administration’s move to bypass the traditional system for immunization advice through expert review and CDC guidance. The CDC did not remove the coronavirus vaccines from the childhood schedule, as Kennedy said it would, when it updated its website late Thursday. Instead, the agency recommends the shots based on 'shared clinical decision-making,' meaning children can get vaccinated if their parents and doctors agree.”
Justin Jouvenal of the Washington Post: “A divided Supreme Court on Friday cleared the way, for now, for the Trump administration to revoke the temporary legal status of more than 530,000 migrants from four countries who have been allowed to live and work in the United States while their immigration cases play out. The ruling is the second time in recent weeks the high court has given Trump officials permission to terminate programs that protect immigrants fleeing countries wracked by war or economic turmoil. Earlier this month, the court allowed the administration to revoke temporary protections that have allowed nearly 350,000 Venezuelans to live and work in the United States. Legal challenges to each of the Trump administration’s action will continue in lower courts, and could eventually reach the Supreme Court for a full hearing on the merits. For now, the justices are allowing two of the president’s most aggressive moves to deport large numbers of migrants who during the Biden administration had been given permission to live and work in this country after fleeing harsh conditions at home.” At 10:40 am ET, this is a developing story. According to MSNBC, the vote was 7-2, with Elena Kagan voting with the right-wing justices.
Are You Feeling His Pain? David Bauder of the AP: “... Donald Trump suffered 'mental anguish' from CBS News’ editing of a '60 Minutes' interview with Democratic opponent Kamala Harris last fall, his lawyers are arguing in court papers. Trump’s status as a 'content creator' was also damaged by attention given to the interview, lawyers said. It was part of their argument opposing CBS parent Paramount Global’s effort to dismiss the president’s $20 billion lawsuit against the company, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Amarillo, Texas. Trump has claimed the editing was done to advantage Harris, which CBS rejects. Even with the effort to dismiss the case, Paramount is engaged in settlement discussions with Trump. The prospect of a settlement has so rattled CBS News that two of its top executives have resigned in protest.” ~~~
~~~ As Sam Stein & William Saletan of the Bulwark discussed here, the anguished Trump has filed what is less a lawsuit and more of a shakedown. Trump expects a kickback before he allows Paramount to complete its planned merger with Skydance.
Evan Hurst of Wonkette republishes in full Trump's bonkers complaint about judges and Leonard Leo & the Federalist society, blah blah. And he ends the long rant with a standard business-letter closing, which is just comically out of place here: "Thank you for your attention to this matter!" Hurst calls Trump "he’s the weakest dictator ever."
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Ernst Gets Philosophical about Deep Cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. Alexander Bolton of the Hill: “Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst (R) pushed back against constituents who shouted out at a recent town hall meeting that cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) would cause people to die by responding, 'Well, we’re all going to die.'”
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Trump Tariffs v. Law Throws Economy into Disarray. Sam Sutton, et al., of Politico: “With ... Donald Trump’s tariffs entangled in the courts, industry leaders are warning that continued confusion over his trade agenda could drag down an economy that was already in danger of slumping. They are urging Trump to abandon an aggressive policy that has been marked by chaos and reversals, and instead focus on delivering tangible, lasting deals that will allow businesses to plan ahead. A federal court on Wednesday froze the tariffs, but an appeals court on Thursday reinstated them for now, only fueling the sense of disarray.... Confidence among top CEOs cratered during the second quarter at its fastest pace in almost 50 years. The government said the economy contracted during the first quarter as businesses rushed to get ahead of higher import costs and consumer spending slowed. And corporate profits fell.”
Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: “Even by the judge-bashing standards of the Trump administration, the White House’s sharp reactions this week to court decisions curtailing its agenda appeared to intensify a strategic effort to undermine confidence in the judiciary.... About 180 judicial rulings have at least temporarily paused some of the administration’s initiatives.... After the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled on Wednesday that the Trump administration wrongly used a 1977 law to impose tariffs..., Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, called the decision a 'judicial coup' on social media. 'We are living under a judicial tyranny,' Mr. Miller added on Thursday, reposting photos of the three trade court judges. Two of the judges were Republican appointees, one named to the bench by Mr. Trump.... Threats against federal judges have risen drastically since ... [Donald] Trump took office, according to internal data compiled by the U.S. Marshals Service and obtained by The New York Times.” ~~~
~~~ AND the TACO King Goes on a Tirade. Gregory Svirnovskiy & Josh Gerstein of Politico: “... Donald Trump leveled unusually pointed criticism of a prominent conservative legal activist and organization Thursday as he railed against a ruling that struck down his sweeping tariffs. The president, in a post on his social media platform, slammed Leonard Leo, the former chair of the Federalist Society, calling him a 'sleazebag' who 'probably hates America.' It was a striking characterization of Leo, who played a key role in working with Trump to shape the conservative Supreme Court. 'He openly brags how he controls Judges, and even Justices of the United States Supreme Court — I hope that is not so, and don’t believe it is!,' Trump wrote. Trump’s attack came after the U.S. Court of International Trade on Wednesday struck down his tariffs, a massive blow to the primary pillar of the administration’s economic agenda. The ruling was temporarily stayed by an appellate court on Thursday. One of the judges on the three-person panel that blocked the tariffs is Timothy Reif, who was appointed by Trump in his first term. The blame, Trump said, lay with the Federalist Society. 'I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations,' he wrote. 'This is something that cannot be forgotten.'”
⭐Bad News. Ben Berkowitz of Axios: "A federal appellate court on Thursday temporarily stayed a ruling that effectively wiped out most of ... [Donald] Trump's tariffs.... The intervention will deepen the chaos around the Court of International Trade's Wednesday order, which threatens to upend global commerce.... The trade court ruled that Trump did not have the authority under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose sweeping reciprocal and retaliatory tariffs. The administration immediately appealed." The Washington Post's report is here. The New York Times story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Doug Palmer & Kyle Cheney of Politico: “A second federal court has ruled against ... Donald Trump’s emergency tariffs on imports from around the world, dealing another blow to his trade agenda and efforts to strike new deals with dozens of countries. 'The International Economic Emergency Powers Act does not authorize the President to impose the tariffs set forth' in four executive orders Trump issued earlier this year, D.C. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras said in a decision ordering a preliminary injunction on the collection of the duties on the two plaintiffs who brought the case.” Thanks to RAS for the link. MB: I think this order also is paused by the Appeals Court's decision. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "... it’s good to see at least some judges upholding the prerogatives of Congress, since a Republican-controlled Congress sure won’t do it."
Paul Krugman is downright gleeful that the trade court did its job and invalidated most of Trump's big, beautiful tariffs. "Presumably the Trumpists will try to undo this judgment, one way or another — exploiting other loopholes in the law, maybe trying to bully the Court into submission, maybe just defying the Court altogether. But this is a huge political defeat, and Trump has nobody to blame except his own overreach. You can bet that trade negotiators around the world are snickering, and maybe celebrating with TACOs for lunch." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Jed Graham of Investor's Daily: "The trade court's ruling that struck down the IEEPA tariffs also required the U.S. to refund the tariffs already paid, noted Nomura economist David Self. If the ruling survives, Nomura estimates that the Trump administration would have to refund between $40 billion and $60 billion in collected tariff revenue...." MB: Of course the trade court's rulling is on hold now, but if Trump loses the whole enchilada (or TACO?), then American importers will get their tariff dollars back.
Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: Donald “Trump is employing the vast power of his office to redefine criminality to suit his needs — using pardons to inoculate criminals he happens to like, downplaying corruption and fraud as crimes, and seeking to stigmatize political opponents by labeling them criminals. In the past few days, Mr. Trump has offered pardons or clemency to more than two dozen people embraced by his obstreperous right-wing base, or favored by people in his orbit. Most are political allies, some are former officeholders accused of abusing power for personal gain, and almost all were convicted of white-collar crimes like fraud, tax evasion and campaign finance violations — not far removed from accusations Mr. Trump himself has faced.... Mr. Trump has used his pardon power, like nearly every other executive tool in his kit, to assert personal dominance over processes generally, if not always, governed by established ethical and institutional guardrails.”
Maegan Vazquez of the Washington Post: “Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) said Thursday that ... Donald Trump would be breaking a promise if he went through with pardoning the two men who were convicted of plotting to kidnap her, claiming that he pledged not to do so during a conversation last month.... On Wednesday, Trump told reporters that he would 'take a look at' pardoning the men, adding, 'I did watch the trial. It looked to me like somewhat of a railroad job.' Responding to Trump’s comments, Whitmer told Michigan Public Radio, 'I talked to the president about a month ago and he asked me how I’d feel about this, and I said, “I think it would be the wrong decision.”... And he said, “Okay, I’ll drop it.”’... Whitmer, who pointed out that she was one of the first politicians to condemn the assassination attempt Trump faced at a 2024 rally in Pennsylvania, said she would make her thoughts on the issue known to the White House over the weekend.” ~~~
~~~ Rick Pluta's interview of Gov. Whitmer for Michigan Public Radio is here.
All the Worst People. Brianna Tucker & Frances Vinall of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump on Thursday said he would nominate Paul Ingrassia, a 30-year-old lawyer and former right-wing podcast host, to lead the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC), an independent watchdog agency that oversees federal personnel issues and plays a crucial role in protecting whistleblowers within the government.... Ingrassia, the current White House liaison for the Department of Homeland Security, has publicly advocated for white supremacist and antisemite Nick Fuentes, publishing a Substack titled 'Free Nick Fuentes' and writing on X that 'dissident voices' such as Fuentes should have a place in conservative politics. He was also part of a legal team representing self-described misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, who has been charged with human trafficking and forming an organized-crime group in Romania, as well as rape, actual bodily harm and human trafficking in the United Kingdom. Earlier this year, Ingrassia likened Tate to 'the embodiment of the ancient ideal of excellence.'... A post on social media from [Ingrassia's] podcast ... account in December 2020 called for Trump to 'declare martial law and secure his re-election,' while promoting the debunked conspiracy theory that Trump won that year’s presidential election.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: If you were a whistleblower, would you count on Ingrassia to protect you?
Susan Svrluga of the Washington Post: “A federal judge Thursday blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to bar international students from enrolling at Harvard. Judge Allison D. Burroughs said a temporary restraining order she issued last week must remain in place until a preliminary injunction is issued. The ruling grants Harvard a win in one of the most high-stakes battles in its ongoing war with the administration. 'Today’s court decision allows the University to continue enrolling international students and scholars while the case moves forward,' a spokesperson for the school said in an emailed statement.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Jenna Russell of the New York Times: “As Harvard graduates gathered on Thursday to embrace commencement rituals in Harvard Yard, they were surrounded by both beaming parents and visible reminders that the university is embroiled in an existential fight with the Trump administration.... Throughout the morning, small groups of alumni stood at each gate to campus, handing out stickers that read 'Crimson Courage,' the name of a new alumni group created to galvanize support for the university. Mark Dyen, who graduated from Harvard in 1970, said that he has never been prouder to be an alumnus. 'Harvard stood up for itself, for us, for higher education and democracy,' he said as he passed out stickers. 'And by doing so, it created space for people who are more vulnerable.'” (Also linked yesterday.)
Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: “Several Immigration and Customs Enforcement leaders are leaving their roles, the agency announced on Thursday, in the third major change among its leadership in recent months.... The Trump administration has struggled to meet ... [Donald] Trump’s campaign promises of mass deportations, grappling with a lack of extensive resources despite efforts to bring in personnel from other parts of the federal law enforcement system.... The announcement comes a day after Stephen Miller, a senior White House official, told Fox News that the White House was looking for ICE to arrest 3,000 people a day, a major increase in enforcement. The agency had arrested more than 66,000 people in the first 100 days of the Trump administration, an average of about 660 arrests a day.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I don't know why we're concerned about HHS turnover when we have just survived the real crisis: Trump sent HHS Secretary Kristi Noem off to the Middle East last weekend in such a rush assignment that many people feared she would not have the right outfits to wear for the occasions that might arise. But she did! Lookie here: she's a veritable Barbie of Arabia. In one photo with some king she appears to be just completing her costume change.
Marco Organizes Anti-Human Rights Department. Robbie Gramer of Politico: “Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to gut the State Department’s human rights bureau as part of a sweeping reorganization of the country’s diplomatic service, according to internal department documents and people familiar with the plans. The State Department sent a document to Congress on Thursday notifying lawmakers of the changes that call for the elimination of most offices in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.... That would lead to funding freezes or cuts on programs ranging from internet freedom initiatives in autocratic countries to support for pro-democracy civil society groups facing repression in sub-Saharan Africa.... The reorganization also calls for the creation of new positions that reflect the Trump administration’s cultural lurch to the right in foreign policy, including emphasizing so-called civilizational allies and debates over digital censorship.... According to the notification to Congress, the reorganization would cut the State Department’s domestic workforce by up to 3,448 personnel....” ~~~
~~~ Russell Contreras & Marc Caputo of Axios: "The State Department plans to create an 'Office of Remigration' in a sweeping reorganization drive tied to the Trump administration's efforts to deport millions of immigrants, a department official told Axios Thursday.... The proposed new office would signal the State Department's shift from helping refugees to removing immigrants, even as it employs the term 'remigration' — a concept that critics say has a troubled history in Europe, where it's used by far-right groups."
Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: “Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday informed the American Bar Association that she is cutting off its access to nonpublic information about ... Donald Trump’s judicial nominees because she thinks the nonpartisan organization is an 'activist group.' 'Unfortunately, the ABA no longer functions as a fair arbiter of nominees’ qualifications, and its ratings invariably and demonstrably favor nominees put forth by Democratic administrations,' Bondi said in a letter to ABA president William Bay.” Bendery reprises some of the reasons the ABA determined that Trump's nominees were not qualified. MB: It is not because the ABA is an activist group that his nominees received bad ratings; it is because they were lousy candidates.
Marie: Donald Trump may be erratic but his administration is consistent -- consistently incompetent: ~~~
This is not an evidence-based report, and for all practical purposes, it should be junked at this point. It cannot be used for any policymaking. It cannot even be used for any serious discussion, because you can’t believe what’s in it. -- Georges C. Benjamin of the American Public Health Association ~~~
~~~ Emily Kennard & Margaret Manto of NOTUS: “Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says his 'Make America Healthy Again' Commission report harnesses 'gold-standard' science, citing more than 500 studies and other sources to back up its claims. Those citations, though, are rife with errors, from broken links to misstated conclusions. Seven of the cited sources don’t appear to exist at all. Epidemiologist Katherine Keyes is listed in the MAHA report as the first author of a study on anxiety in adolescents.... 'The paper cited is not a real paper that I or my colleagues were involved with,' Keyes told NOTUS.... 'We’ve certainly done research on this topic, but did not publish a paper in JAMA Pediatrics on this topic with that co-author group, or with that title.'.... The citation ... [has] a nonfunctional link to the study’s digital object identifier. [The JAMA issue number] the citation claims ... didn’t include [such] a study.... Spread across the footnotes of the 73-page [MAHA] document, those missing papers are listed alongside dozens of citations with more mundane errors like broken links, missing or incorrect authors and wrong issue numbers. NOTUS also found serious issues with how the report interpreted some of the existing studies it cites.” Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Blaise Malley of Salon: "White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt downplayed the reported inaccuracies on Thursday, attributing them to 'formatting issues' and saying that the report would be updated." ~~~
~~~ Dani Blum & Maggie Astor of the New York Times: “By midafternoon on Thursday, the White House had uploaded a new copy of the report with corrections.... Dr. Ivan Oransky — who teaches medical journalism at New York University and is a co-founder of Retraction Watch, a website that tracks retractions of scientific research — said the errors in the report were characteristic of the use of generative artificial intelligence, which has led to similar issues in legal filings and more.”
~~~ Marie: This is dog-ate-my-homework territory. Bobby Virus apparently assigned someone to produce the MAHA report, and the person or persons didn't get it done, so they just made up stuff. Kennedy's HHS isn't just embarrassing. It's dangerous to people's health & well-being. And medicos around the world will learn quickly not to trust a damned thing the department produces. ~~~
~~~ Update. Oransky backs up an hypothesis RAS proposed yesterday: that Grok did their homework. "A1 is supposed to be a tool to help one along, but these morons seem to ask it to do the all the work and then do little or no checking to make sure what they were putting out was true," RAS wrote in yesterday's Comments. Washington Post reporters Lauren Weber & Caitlin Gilbert elaborate.
More from the Trump Corruption Watch. Zach Everson of Forbes: “The Securities and Exchange Commission dropped a lawsuit against Binance on Thursday, days after the crypto exchange began listing a stablecoin created by World Liberty Financial, one of ... Donald Trump’s blockchain ventures.... Binance admitted in a November 2023 plea deal to anti-money laundering and sanctions violations, agreeing to pay $4 billion; founder Changpeng 'CZ. Zhao also pleaded guilty, paid a $50 million fine and was sentenced to four months in prison. In late April..., Zhao applied for a pardon from Trump’s Justice Department, he said on a recent podcast.... On Thursday, the Securities and Exchange Commission voluntarily dismissed its lawsuit against Binance that accused it of failing to restrict high-net-worth individuals from the platform, misleading investors about trading controls and commingling funds that it routed to a third party....” ~~~
~~~ Marie: When a kleptocracy is working properly, underlings don't have to be told what to do. That appears to be what's happened here.
They Remember Musk. Vivian Ho, et al., of the Washington Post look back at some of the lowlights of Elon's disastrous stint as a special federal temp. Fortunately, illustrative photos are available. ~~~
Kirsten Grind & Megan Twohey of the New York Times: “As Elon Musk became one of Donald J. Trump’s closest allies last year, leading raucous rallies and donating about $275 million to help him win the presidency, he was also using drugs far more intensely than previously known, according to people familiar with his activities. Mr. Musk’s drug consumption went well beyond occasional use. He told people he was taking so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that it was affecting his bladder, a known effect of chronic use. He took Ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms. And he traveled with a daily medication box that held about 20 pills, including ones with the markings of the stimulant Adderall, according to a photo of the box and people who have seen it. It is unclear whether Mr. Musk, 53, was taking drugs when he became a fixture at the White House this year and was handed the power to slash the federal bureaucracy. But he has exhibited erratic behavior, insulting cabinet members, gesturing like a Nazi and garbling his answers in a staged interview. At the same time, Mr. Musk’s family life has grown increasingly tumultuous as he has negotiated overlapping romantic relationships and private legal battles involving his growing brood of children, according to documents and interviews....
“As a large government contractor, his aerospace firm, SpaceX, must maintain a drug-free work force and administers random drug tests to its employees. But Mr. Musk has received advance warning of the tests, according to people close to the process.” The article goes into some of Musk's sexual entanglements and his practice of simultaneously fathering children with a number of women. The link appears to be a gift link. ~~~
“Elon Musk's Legacy Is Disease, Starvation and Death.” Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: “Musk’s absurd scheme to save the government a trillion dollars by slashing 'waste, fraud and abuse' has been a failure. DOGE claims it’s saved $175 billion, but experts believe the real number is significantly lower. Meanwhile, according to the Partnership for Public Service, which studies the federal work force, DOGE’s attacks on government personnel — its firings, re-hirings, use of paid administrative leave and all the associated lack of productivity — could cost the government upward of $135 billion this fiscal year, even before the price of defending DOGE’s actions in court. Musk’s rampage through the bureaucracy may not have created any savings at all, and if it did, they were negligible.... Brooke Nichols ... of Boston University has estimated that [Musk's] cuts [to USAID] have already resulted in about 300,000 deaths, most of them of children, and will most likely lead to significantly more by the end of the year. That is what Musk’s foray into politics accomplished.” This appears to be a gift link. Goldberg's column is worth reading in its entirety.
~~~ Gustaf Kilander of the Independent: “Top officials at the Department of Government Efficiency are set to leave their roles following the departure of DOGE head Elon Musk. Three officials – adviser Steve Davis, adviser and spokesperson Katie Miller [-- she's married to Stephen Miller! --], and attorney James Burnham – are leaving the administration, a White House official told The Hill.... Engineer and tech startup founder Sahil Lavingia wrote in a personal blog post that he 'got the boot' from DOGE the day after Fast Company published an interview with him.... He was assigned as the senior adviser to the chief of staff at the Department of Veterans Affairs.... Fast Company ... noted that Lavingia noticed that there were plenty of mission-driven people working in the government. 'But honestly, it’s kind of fine — because the government works. It’s not as inefficient as I was expecting, to be honest. I was hoping for more easy wins,' he said.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: It's really something that a Lavingia got fired for saying that VA employees were dedicated to their work and did it well. The idea of removing "waste, fraud and abuse" is not to hope you find it. Musk was not on a mission to improve the bureaucracy; he was dedicated to trashing it. And that's all. The waste, fraud and abuse he exposed was his own: he abused public servants, his "mission" was a complete fraud and a terrible waste of helpful, usually vital, government services.
Marie: Despite all the personnel cutbacks Elon and Trump Cabinet members are making, it seems there are still job openings within the federal government. Here's a tip on what to expect if you apply for one of those positions: ~~~
~~~ Erich Wagner of Government Executive: “Federal job applicants will soon be quizzed on their favorite Trump administration policy as part of the hiring process, according to the Office of Personnel Management’s new 'merit hiring plan.' 'How would you help advance the president’s executive orders and policy priorities in this role?' asks one of four essay questions that job seekers must answer if they are seeking any federal position GS-5 or above. 'Identify one or two relevant executive orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you, and explain how you would help implement them if hired.'... The plan calls on agencies to end any use of 'racial quotas and preferences' in the federal hiring process, including usage of demographic statistics in hiring, recruiting, retention and promotion decisions. And it requires agencies to cease collecting and disseminating statistics 'regarding the composition of the agency’s workforce based on race, sex, color, religion or national origin.'” Thanks to RAS for the lead.
Robert McFadden of the New York Times: “Harrison Ruffin Tyler, the last surviving grandson of John Tyler, the 10th president of the United States, who was born just after George Washington became president 236 years ago and who served in the White House from 1841 to 1845, died on Sunday at his home in Richmond, Va. He was 96.... In a remarkable instance of successive longevities and late-in-life paternities, the Tyler family produced a genealogical marvel, if not a singularity: three generations that spanned nearly the entire history of the American experience.”
Sam Roberts of the New York Times: “Bernard B. Kerik, the New York City police commissioner who was hailed as a hero for overseeing the department’s response to the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, only to fall from grace after he pleaded guilty to an ethics violation and felony tax fraud, died on Thursday. He was 69.” MB P.S.: Despite my unwillingness to immediately speak ill of the dead, if you would like to do so in this case, do feel free. (Also linked yesterday.)
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"Federal Job Seekers Will Be Quizzed on Trump’s Executive Orders
The Trump administration is adding four essay questions to applications for civil service jobs, asking applicants about their favorite executive orders and their commitment to government efficiency. The essay requirements apply even to relatively lower-level jobs starting at the GS-5 pay scale or above — positions that can begin at base salaries as low as $32,357. Those jobs include nursing assistants, park rangers and firefighters."
Killing Children
"In 2023, a Mexican girl with a life-threatening medical condition was allowed to enter the U.S. legally on humanitarian grounds.
The Trump administration has now ordered the girl and her parents to leave the country.
One of the girl’s physicians says that if her treatment is interrupted, “this could be fatal within a matter of days.”"
Guardian
"Trump has no plan for who will grow US food: ‘There is just flat out nobody to work’
Farms rely on seasonal workers and undocumented immigrants, but the Republican’s plans to fill the gap would ‘legalize oppression’, advocates say"
"The truth about this awful place"
Easy Pickings.
A couple of thoughts about the Supreme's decisions regarding temporary protected status.
Much as I don't like them, I see the decisions at least in part as a recognition that a presidential order is not the same as a law, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on both point of view and president. Before the Court decided a president could do no wrong, that distinction was even clearer, and so far the Supremes have shied away from clearing the waters they muddied.
The Dreamers have been caught in the crack between the two for a generation now.
So we're again seeing a battle of decrees. What Biden or before him Obama, did provided the Pretender, who is otherwise mostly lost, with a roadmap. Undo it, whatever it was. Simple enough.
The Stephen Millers now in charge likely see that 880,000 as low hanging fruit for the de-immigration plan they have fallen woefully far behind on. Arrests, screw-ups and headlines are up. Promised deportations not so much. The numbers need a boost, and it will be easier to pick on these groups than on the millions who have lived here much longer, have jobs, and are embedded, even integrated, in our communities.
A number: Here in the Northwest, 40% of Hispanic field and farm workers are undocumented, and we depend on them.
@Ken Winkes: I think it's important to keep in mind that these immigrants' lives are being upended not only because Trump & Stephen Miller, et al. are pathetic xenophobes & racists, but because Trump is a liar. His biggest campaign pitch was a lie: that he was going to immediately rid us nice law-abiding White people of having to live in a country "infested" with a million & and half of the most horrible "criminals" who had "invaded" our country.
Of course, there was no such number of immigrant criminals in this country, so Trump had to start deporting anybody ICE could find and in any way they could find them. Most of Trump's victims are not criminals. The ICE officers had to sneak into courts or grab students off the streets or invade immigration centers where people had gone to keep nationalization appointments. And, yeah, Trump had to deport a few kids who were U.S. citizens and/or were in need of life-saving medical treatment available only here. But, you know, as Joni Ernst says, "Everybody dies."
Trump is kicking out these 530,000 people because HE needs to get his numbers up, and HE feels he needs to get those numbers up because he lied. He hopes nobody notices the deportees are -- for the most part -- law-abiding people and not the dastardly criminals Trump promised to deport.
So if one wants to work in the government, one must probably go back and look at the youtube videos of the cabinet meetingws of DJT's regime, and pattern one's application after them. Feet washing and licking of the authority's a** would be expected.
I cannot imagine who would debase themselves to work for the government at all.
Also KKKaroline is a lying fruitcake, like her boss.
Paranoia fodder:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/technology/trump-palantir-data-americans.html
Karen Hao, in a guest essay in The New York Times
If Senate Republicans now vote to prohibit states from regulating A.I. for 10 years, Silicon Valley’s impunity will be enshrined in law, cementing these companies’ empire status
"The quest for A.G.I. is giving companies cover to vacuum up more data than ever before, with profound implications for people’s privacy and intellectual property rights. Before investing heavily in generative A.I., Meta had amassed data from nearly four billion accounts, but it no longer considers that enough. To train its generative A.I. models, the company has scraped the web with little regard for copyright and even considered buying up Simon & Schuster to meet the new data imperative.
These developments are also persuading companies to escalate their consumption of natural resources. Early drafts of the Stargate Project estimated that its A.I. supercomputer could need about as much power as three million homes.
....
Their influence now extends well beyond the realm of business. We are now closer than ever to a world in which tech companies can seize land, operate their own currencies, reorder the economy and remake our politics with little consequence. That comes at a cost — when companies rule supreme, people lose their ability to assert their voice in the political process and democracy cannot hold."
That reminded me to reread an essay by Jared Yates Sexton posted a few months ago Birth of a Monster on the outsized influence of Silicon Valley billionaires.
In an article co-published by Texas Tribune, ProPublica, and several other investigative online news organizations,
Mica Rosenberg, ProPublica, Perla Trevizo, The Texas Tribune and ProPublica, et al, on
Homeland Security records reveal that officials knew that more than half of the 238 deportees to El Salvador were labeled as having no criminal record in the U.S. and had only violated immigration laws
"President Donald Trump and his aides have branded the Venezuelans as 'rapists,' 'savages,' 'monsters' and 'the worst of the worst.' When multiple news organizations disputed those assertions with reporting that showed many of the deportees did not have criminal records, the administration doubled down. It said that its assessment of the deportees was based on a thorough vetting process that included looking at crimes committed both inside and outside the United States. But the government’s own data, which was obtained by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and a team of journalists from Venezuela, showed that officials knew that only 32 of the deportees had been convicted of U.S. crimes and that most were nonviolent offenses, such as retail theft or traffic violations."
Laura,
Sounds like a libel case to me. Even a class action.
Just Ken dreaming.