The Conversation -- July 22, 2025
Megan Forrester of ABC News: "Days after ... Donald Trump posted an AI-generated fake video showing former President Barack Obama's arrest on his social media platform, the current president pushed conspiracy theories about Obama in the Oval Office on Tuesday, accusing him of treason without providing evidence regarding the 2016 presidential election. 'They tried to rig the election, and they got caught. And there should be very severe consequences for that,' Trump told reporters on Tuesday. A spokesperson for Obama pushed back on the Trump administration's claims, saying while they would 'not normally dignify the constant nonsense' from the White House with a response, the claims are 'outrageous enough to merit one.' 'These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction,' the statement said. Trump's comments come after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard submitted a criminal referral to the Department of Justice threatening the Obama administration."
Habba-Dabba-Dumped. (BUT See Update Below.) Tracey Tully Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: “A panel of federal judges in New Jersey on Tuesday rejected Alina Habba’s bid to stay in the job as the state’s U.S. attorney and instead invoked a rarely used power to select a candidate of their own to take over as the state’s top federal prosecutor. The judges announced that they had appointed Desiree Leigh Grace, an experienced prosecutor whom Ms. Habba named as her first assistant soon after she took over as interim U.S. attorney in March. The appointment is effective as of Tuesday or, alternately, upon the expiration of the 120 days of Ms. Habba’s term, according to an order signed by the district’s chief judge, Renée Marie Bumb. That wording reflected a lack of clarity as to when Ms. Habba’s 120-day term expires.... [Donald] Trump named her on March 24, saying her ascension to the post was 'effective immediately' — suggesting that her term expired on Tuesday. But Ms. Habba was sworn in at the White House four days later. Counting from that date, she may still have several days in her post. The deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, in a social media post, suggested as much, writing that the district court judges were 'trying to force out' Ms. Habba 'before her term expires at 11:59 p.m. Friday.'” ~~~
~~~ Oops! Update. “The leadership of the U.S. attorney’s office in New Jersey was thrown into confusion on Tuesday as top Justice Department officials pushed back after federal judges in the state moved to appoint a new U.S. attorney.... The attorney general, Pam Bondi, responded Tuesday evening with a social media post defending Ms. Habba and saying that the first assistant — Ms. Grace — ] 'has just been removed.' 'This Department of Justice does not tolerate rogue judges — especially when they threaten the President’s core Article II powers,' Ms. Bondi wrote. The deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, also attacked the judges on social media, saying that they had colluded with New Jersey’s Democratic senators, who have opposed Ms. Habba.... Ms. Grace was sent an email Tuesday informing her that she had been fired, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.”
Tom Sullivan of Hullabaloo posts some clips of Mehdi Hasan debating 20 young fascist dumbos. So not a fair fight. MB: I watched a few clips earlier today, and these kids are scary stupid. Thank you to RAS for the link.
Marie: This is one of those days that there's too much news for me to keep up with. Contributors have shared some useful links in today's and yesterday's Comments, and I urge you to check them out. (I'm so distracted, I ended two sentences in a row with prepositions. That is something up with which you should not put.) Here's one: ~~~
~~~ Tom Nichols of the Atlantic: “From his first day as a candidate, Trump has appeared animated by anger, fear, and, most of all, pettiness, a small-minded vengefulness that takes the place of actual policy making.... Trump’s second term has been a cavalcade of pettiness; his lieutenants have internalized the president’s culture of purges, retribution, and loyalty checks.... Even on matters of grave international importance, Trump governs by emotion rather than any coherent sense of policy. A few weeks ago, the president seemed to change course on the war in Ukraine.... Putin had finally done something worse than murdering thousands of Ukrainian civilians and kidnapping Ukrainian children: He had made Donald Trump look like a chump. Thank you to laura h. for this gift link. (MB: BTW, Nichols' essay fits neatly into my Unified Theory of Trumpitydoodah.) ~~~
~~~ Here's another: Richard Luscombe of the Guardian: “Migrants at a Miami immigration jail were shackled with their hands tied behind their backs and made to kneel to eat food from styrofoam plates 'like dogs', according to a report published on Monday into conditions at three overcrowded south Florida facilities. The incident at the downtown federal detention center is one of a succession of alleged abuses at jails operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (Ice) in the state since January, chronicled by the advocacy groups Human Rights Watch, Americans for Immigrant Justice, and Sanctuary of the South from interviews with detainees. Dozens of men had been packed into a holding cell for hours, the report said, and denied lunch until about 7pm. They remained shackled with the food on chairs in front of them.” Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~
~~~ Marie: The aim of the Trump administration then not only is to make U.S. citizens view immigrants as less than human by denigrating them with labels like "illegals" & claiming that they are murderers and rapists; it also is to treat the immigrants themselves as feral animals. The U.S. has ratified and/or signed all of the Geneva Conventiion protocols. Somebody should tell Trump.
Josh Gerstein, et al., of Politico: “The Justice Department is seeking to meet with Ghislaine Maxwell, the co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Tuesday. Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year federal prison sentence for child sex trafficking and other crimes.... The sudden decision to seek a meeting with Maxwell appears designed to appease Trump’s base. It also raises the question of whether Maxwell may try to leverage the meeting for a reduced prison sentence by telling the Justice Department what it wants to hear.... 'President Trump has told us to release all credible evidence. If Ghislaine Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say,' Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement posted by Bondi.... Blanche said he anticipates meeting with Maxwell 'in the coming days.'”
“Johnson Shutting Down House Early to Block Epstein Vote.” Annie Karni of the New York Times in an item in today's “Trump News” liveblog: “Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday morning canceled votes for Thursday and sent the House home early before a planned five-week recess, telling reporters at a news conference that he was doing so in order to serve the American people by shutting down Democratic efforts to demand more votes on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files. 'We’re done being lectured on transparency,' he said. He said that 'the Rules Committee became ground for them to do that. We’re not going to play political games with this.' The last votes are now scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, and the House will be in recess until September.” MB: Excuse me. Shutting down the house to prevent a vote in order to appease the president* whom you're supposed to be a'checkin' & a'balancin' is “playing political games.” ~~~
~~~ Update: Here's a full Washington Post story by Marianna Sotomayor & Kadia Goba. ~~~
~~~ AND Marcie Jones of Wonkette writes that the big break is necessary to give Pam Bondi time to finish the Trump/Epstein coverup.
Gary Legum of Wonkette reveals that Rep. Jim Comer, the noble representative of Kentucky's first and best Congressional District, has figured out a way to get rid of all of Joe Biden's judicial appointments, thus repairs the ills of "the biggest scandal in the history of American politics." And you thought Comer was stupid.
Peter Eavis of the New York Times: “American steel makers are raising prices, forcing new costs onto domestic manufacturers that make everything from cars to military tanks. The increases come on the back of President Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum. Two big American producers, Cleveland-Cliffs and Steel Dynamics, reported on Monday that they had charged more for their products in the second quarter of this year than they did in the first quarter. About a fifth of the steel sold in the United States is imported. The steel tariffs, which were raised last month to 50 percent from 25 percent, have made imports of the metal much more expensive. And as imports have declined, American producers have more power to opportunistically increase their prices, buyers said.” ~~~
~~~ Jack Ewing of the New York Times: “General Motors said on Tuesday that its profit in the second quarter fell by more than a third, after ... [Donald] Trump’s tariffs cost the company more than $1 billion. G.M. was the second automaker this week to show the toll that the Trump administration’s trade policies are taking on the industry. Stellantis, the maker of Chrysler, Jeep and Ram vehicles, said on Monday that it lost 2.3 billion euros ($2.7 billion) in the first half of the year partly because of tariffs and other Republican policies. Automakers are an important pillar of the U.S. economy and the industry employs about one million manufacturing workers. Eroding profits will make it harder for them to invest in new technologies to withstand growing competition from Chinese automakers that have been expanding abroad.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I'd like to remind all the brilliant businessmen tha they backed Trump while he was campaigning on a promise to impose high tariffs on imports. They backed his because they believed he would lower taxes on the rich brilliant businesspeople and their rich corporations -- which he did. But also too a tariff is a tax. Innit? I'm sure you'll figure out soon enough how to make sure consumers pump more money into your bottom line, and your profits will be right back up there. OR we'll have a Trumpomungus depression.
Rachel Roubein & Caitlin Gilbert of the Washington Post: “... Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ... praised Steak ’n Shake for announcing that the fast-food chain would start offering Coca-Cola with real cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup. The soda company announced Tuesday it would roll out that version of its product in the United States this fall as an additional option for consumers. 'MAHA is winning,' Kennedy posted Saturday on X..., referring to his 'Make America Healthy Again' movement aimed at reducing chronic disease and childhood illness. But studies do not show substantial benefits in using cane sugar as a substitute for high-fructose corn syrup, some nutrition experts said.” ~~~
~~~ BUT. Emily Heil of the Washington Post said asked six Post colleagues to participate in a taste-test, and five out of six chose the Mexican cane-sugar Coke as better tasting than the U.S. corn-syrup variety.
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Thom Hartmann, in a Daily Kos column, asks why "Trump & the GOP are working so hard to ruin America." He offers some theories, but none of them explains all of the disasterous moves Trump, et al., have perpetrated. The list, which Hartmann admits is only partial, is still a staggering testimony to how much damage these jamokes have done in a few short months. Well worth a scan. Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~
~~~ Marie: BTW, after having Donald Trump invade my headspace almost daily for more than a decade, I do have a Unified Theory of Trumpism. If I have time later in the day, I'll test it against the atrocities in Hartmann's list.
Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: Donald “Trump spent the weekend posting on social media about, well, anything [but Jeffrey Epstein]. On Sunday, the president railed against Senator Adam Schiff, Democrat of California, long a prime target. He attacked Samantha Power, the former administrator of U.S.A.I.D. He posted a fake video of former President Barack Obama being arrested and a fake photo of Mr. Obama and members of his administration in prison garb. He threatened to derail a deal for a new football stadium for the Washington Commanders if the team did not take back its old name, the Redskins. Mr. Trump even at one point posted a video compilation of 25 wacky and incredible stunts, such as a fake video of a woman catching a cobra midstrike with her bare hand. 'One year ago our Country was DEAD, with almost no hope of revival,' he wrote on his Truth Social site on Sunday, the six month anniversary of his second term. 'Today the USA is the “hottest” and most respected Country anywhere in the World. Happy Anniversary!!!'” ~~~
~~~ "Trump's Forever Grudge." Zachary Basu of Axios: Donald "Trump is redirecting his fury over the Jeffrey Epstein files into one of MAGA's oldest obsessions: punishing Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the officials involved in the 2016 Russia investigation.... In Trump's view, any documents linking him to Epstein are a 'hoax' cooked up by the same forces behind the Russia probe. To him, it's all one story — a years-long 'witch hunt' that plagued his presidency from Day 1. Seizing on new criminal referrals by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Trump on Sunday posted an AI-generated video on Truth Social showing Obama being arrested by the FBI.... Gabbard's claims of a 'years-long coup' against Trump landed exactly as intended — exhilarating a MAGA base that has grown restless over the president's attempts to move on from the Epstein case. With Gabbard referring the findings to the Justice Department, MAGA is now primed to expect prosecutions of Obama, Clinton, former FBI director James Comey, former CIA director John Brennan and other high-profile officials. But as with the Epstein files, there's a real risk of overpromising and underdelivering...." ~~~
~~~ David Corn of Mother Jones on Tulsi Gabbard's false claim that President Obama & members of his administration engaged in a “conspiracy to subvert President Trump’s 2016 victory and presidency”: “It’s all a fabrication.... Gabbard is engaging in blatant cherry-picking and gaslighting. And she’s being sloppy with her subterfuge. Her case is easy to debunk.... She is providing a phony and weak cover story, both for Trump and Vladimir Putin.... Ultimately, this is about rewriting history to serve Dear Leader and seeking vengeance on his behalf against those who dared investigate the Russian effort to help him reach the White House....” Corn does debunk Gabbard's weak argument & misdirection in this post. ~~~
~~~ Don't Look Here! Look Over There: Sex, Lies & (One Lone) Audiotape! Rick Rojas & Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: “More than 6,000 documents related to the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., totaling nearly a quarter-million pages, were posted to the website of the National Archives late Monday afternoon, in what the administration hailed as a triumph of transparency. But several noted King historians said they had found little in the way of new revelations about the death of the civil rights leader in the documents, and noted that the trove does not include F.B.I. wiretap recordings of Dr. King and other materials that remain under court seal until 2027. The release on Monday, with no prior notice, came at a time when Mr. Trump and White House officials have sought to divert attention from right-wing backlash demanding the release of files related to the death of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.... Trump administration officials have been in contact with Dr. King’s family, but it remains unclear if his relatives were given the right to request redactions of the newly released material....
“Dr. King had a well-documented history of extramarital relationships. Still, some experts and Dr. King’s family have expressed doubts about the veracity of some of the contents of those previously released documents, particularly when it comes to the more provocative claims about aspects of Dr. King’s romantic and sexual life. Those details, they said, could be more reflective of official efforts to undermine the civil rights leader’s reputation than of reality.”
~~~ Bill Barrow of the AP: “The Trump administration on Monday released records of the FBI’s surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr., despite opposition from the slain Nobel laureate’s family and the civil rights group that he led until his 1968 assassination. The digital document dump includes more than 240,000 pages of records that had been under a court-imposed seal since 1977, when the FBI first gathered the records and turned them over to the National Archives and Records Administration.... The Kings got advance access to the records and had their own teams reviewing them. Those efforts continued even as the government granted public access.” ~~~
~~~ The National Archives page re: the MLK records dump is here. The Archives notes that these new releases are made in compliance with "the National Archives' role in fulfilling Executive Order 14176." That would be an order Trump signed on January 23 to release records re: the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ~~~
~~~ Ryan Reilly & Henry Gomez of NBC News: “The Justice Department also announced Monday it had sent a redacted report to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, about the FBI’s handling of files related to 'former-FBI Director James Comey’s failed investigation into Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of highly classified information' during Clinton’s time as secretary of state.... In a post on X, Grassley wrote, 'Pres Trump/Pam Bondi + Kash Patel and others finally got it done' and thanked them for their dedication to transparency. The appendix to the 2018 report from the Justice Department’s inspector general involves the FBI’s handling of thumb drive devices discovered in the course of the Clinton email investigation. 'It's all a distraction, and they’ll release anything if it buys them another day or two to not talk about Epstein or to get the angry mob to talk about Epstein,' House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar of California told NBC News on Monday.” Reilly & Gomez cover several other Trumpy-generated Epstein distractions in this report. ~~~
Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: “... Donald Trump’s stunning response when he was asked if he had a sexual 'age limit' has taken on a new dimension amid the fallout from the 'Epstein Files' controversy and the latest revelations about Trump’s relationship with deceased sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein.... [In] a 2006 interview on The Howard Stern Show ... host Howard Stern and co-host Robin Quivers asked Trump about sleeping with younger women. When Quivers asks for his 'age limit,' Trump starts out by saying he doesn’t have one — but then gives a point of reference that looks not great in any light, saying he would draw a line at '12 year-olds.'... Trump: 'I don’t want to be like Congressman Foley, with, you know, 12-year-olds.'” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Even as Trump tries to recast the grotesque Epstein scandal as an element of the supposed conspiracy his political enemies have perpetrated against him, the Epstein revelations are putting Trump's own admissions into a deeper & broader picture of his own depravity. I think it was Rachel Maddow who pointed out last night that in 2006, Trump was 60 years old. So no 12-year-olds? Great.
Alex Woodward of the Independent: "The federal judge randomly assigned to oversee Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal is a former federal prosecutor appointed to the bench by Barack Obama. Judge Darrin P. Gayles with the Southern District of Florida is a former U.S. attorney who was appointed by the former president in 2014. He was unanimously confirmed in the Senate by a vote of 98-0. The Howard University and George Washington University School of Law graduate became the first openly gay Black man to serve on the federal bench." ~~~
~~~ Déjà vu All Over Again. Kyle Cheney of Politico: “Gayles ... had another brush with a litigious Trump in 2023, when the then-former president sought to punish his onetime lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen. Trump sued Cohen in April 2023.... Six months later, Trump abandoned the lawsuit, just before Cohen’s lawyers were set to question him under oath.... Trump’s decision to file the case in southern Florida led to suspicions he was hoping to draw U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, his own appointee who helped him escape criminal charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith. But Trump’s attorney Alejandro Brito — the same lawyer who led the ill-fated Cohen suit — filed the case in the Miami division of the federal judicial district of south Florida. Cannon sits in the Fort Pierce district, making it unlikely she would have been selected under the court’s assignment process.”
The Care & Feeding of Donald Trump, White House Press Room Edition. Katie Robertson of the New York Times: “The White House said on Monday that it had barred Wall Street Journal reporters from the traveling press pool for ... [Donald] Trump’s coming trip to Scotland, attacking the publication again for its reporting on ties between the president and the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.... 'Thirteen diverse outlets will participate in the press pool to cover the President’s trip to Scotland,' Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement on Monday. 'Due to The Wall Street Journal’s fake and defamatory conduct, they will not be one of the 13 outlets on board.'” Politico's story is here.
The Care & Feeding of Donald Trump. “Give Him Space!” Annie Karni of the New York Times: “Speaker Mike Johnson said on Monday that he would not hold a House vote this summer on whether the Justice Department should release files related to the accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, retreating from his demand last week that the material must come out.... The Rules Committee, a powerful panel controlled by the speaker, had even approved a measure that would bring to the floor a resolution calling for the disclosures, though Republicans gave no timetable for voting on it. Less than a week later, the speaker reverted to his more familiar posture of deferring to the president. 'We need the administration to have the space to do what it is doing,' Mr. Johnson told reporters at the Capitol on Monday.... He added that there would be no vote on the Epstein files before the House departs on Thursday for a six-week summer break.... Mr. Johnson’s quick turnaround indicated that he intends to slow walk, or stymie, a floor vote that could potentially damage Mr. Trump.” MB: IOW, Mikey is sending the House home so they won't have to vote on a weak-tea resolution to disclose the Epstein files. ~~~
~~~ Meredith Hill, et al., of Politico: “That means House members will depart for August recess at the week’s end without being able to vote on [some consequential] legislation.... The House will still vote on measures that can be taken up under an expedited procedure typically reserved for noncontroversial legislation..., such as a bill that would establish new ZIP Codes for certain communities and deter China in the ongoing Taiwan conflict.”
Annals “Journalism,” Ha Ha Ha. Fox Cannot Serve Two Masters. Jeremy Barr of the Washington Post: “On Fox News, the network’s pro-Trump opinion hosts often trumpet the president’s latest attack on the mainstream media. That got a bit more complicated on Friday, when the president sued the Wall Street Journal, another part of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.... So far, the lawsuit has only been mentioned twice on Fox..., in contrast with the widespread coverage it received elsewhere.... Between July 14 and July 20, the word 'Epstein' was used 617 times on CNN and 751 times on MSNBC, but only 160 times on Fox News, according to a Washington Post search using the media monitoring service ShadowTV.”
Devorah Blachor has created a Trump-Epstein quiz for McSweeney's. The quiz is fun, but Blachor is a tough grader who gives short shrift to what will seem like excellent answers to many an earnest right-wing conspiracy theorist. Thanks to RAS for the link.
Jess Bidgood of the New York Times: “In declaring war on The Wall Street Journal over its coverage of his yearslong friendship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein..., [Donald] Trump tapped his supporters’ distrust of his favorite foe — the news media — in an effort to put down a mutiny within his base.... It was a familiar move.... Over the past six months, Trump has ... sought to dismantle Voice of America, the federally funded news agency that provides coverage to countries with limited press freedom, and persuaded his allies in Congress to cut funding for public broadcasting.... [The Trump administration] has flexed its power over seemingly parochial matters — like when some reporters at legacy media organizations including The New York Times lost their desks at the Pentagon to friendly right-wing media outlets, or by removing The Journal from the press pool on a coming trip to Scotland — and over bigger ones, too. When Trump took office, his handpicked chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, quickly revived complaints about 2024 election coverage by ABC, CBS and NBC that had been dismissed by the outgoing chair, and he said the outcome of a 'news distortion' complaint about CBS could affect his agency’s review of a merger proposed between Paramount, CBS’s parent company, and Skydance.” And so forth.
Akhilleus, at the top of today's thread, has discovered that it was so unfa-a-a-air of a social media wag to say of Trump's Oval Office decor "It's like the Dollar Tree version of Versailles." It turns out the decor is much classier: it's the Home Depot version of Versailles. At least I was right when I dubbed it "golden plastic":
Emily Yahr of the Washington Post: “On Monday night, CBS 'Late Show' host Stephen Colbert returned to TV for the first time since the stunning news last week that the network has decided to pull the plug on the historic franchise. The final episode will air in May 2026.... [See videos below of Colbert's monologue & a segment that followed.] Later, guest Sandra Oh started her interview by saying she was saddened and outraged by the show’s cancellation.... Meanwhile, Stewart had plenty to say on 'The Daily Show' Monday night....” ~~~
~~~ AND let there be audience participation! ~~~
~~~ The segment featuring Sandra Oh is here.
Jeremy Barr of the Washington Post: “Three liberal senators want to know whether there is any truth to ... Donald Trump’s claim that Paramount is actually paying him about $32 million to settle his lawsuit against the company, double what was announced by the CBS parent company.... Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) sent a letter Monday morning to the company’s chief executive, David Ellison, asking him to address Trump’s claims of a side deal.... The senators also reiterated their concern that Paramount — and its would-be owner, Skydance — could be seen to have bribed Trump to receive a go-ahead from the Federal Communications Commission to consummate its merger. The senators pressed Ellison, who was photographed in April with Trump, to reveal whether he has discussed the merger with him and whether he has agreed to 'make changes to Skydance’s content or Paramount’s or CBS’s content at the request of the Trump administration.'” (Also linked yesterday.)
Shawn Hubler & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: “Pentagon officials will begin withdrawing 700 active-duty Marines who were sent to Los Angeles last month, the latest scaling back of the Trump administration’s contentious military deployment in Southern California. The withdrawal of the Marines follows the departure of nearly 2,000 California National Guard soldiers and a smaller contingent of about 150 specialized Guard firefighters. The troops had been dispatched to Los Angeles by President Trump starting on June 7, after protests erupted there over immigration raids. More than half will now have been ordered back to base; an 1,892-member brigade of military police remains. The Pentagon’s chief spokesman, Sean Parnell, framed the pullout as the natural closure of a successful military response that was needed to quell civil unrest in the nation’s second-largest city.... Democratic leaders in California have accused the Trump administration of provoking the protests by sending masked federal agents to carwashes and other sites to detain immigrants, and then using the subsequent public outrage over the raids as a pretext for military action. Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles has compared the deployment to an 'armed occupation,' and Gov. Gavin Newsom has condemned it as 'a solution right now in search of a problem.' Both have called for the removal of all the deployed troops.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: “The Office of Personnel Management, the government’s human resources arm, has shed 10 percent of its staff and plans to shrink even more by the end of the year, the agency said on Monday. On Jan. 20..., the agency had a staff of 3,110. Hundreds are leaving through incentive programs, and some are leaving without incentives. More than 125 have been laid off. The newly confirmed director, Scott Kupor, told reporters on Monday that he expected staffing to drop to 2,000, by the end of the year. Mr. Kupor said the agency was cutting its contractors by half as well, going from about 1,200 at the beginning of the year to 600 by the end of December.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Well of course it's easy for Trump's HR to manage with a skeleton staff. On the hiring end, they can dispense with pesky procedures like background checks -- "Oh, you appeared in a Fox 'News' focus in 2013? Great! You're hired." They've proved firing is even easier: just send out masses of Trump "You're fired!" form emails on Friday night.
Colby Smith of the New York Times: “The Federal Reserve took additional steps on Monday to defend the renovations underway at its headquarters in Washington, as top Trump administration officials show little sign of backing down from allegations that the roughly $2.5 billion project has been mismanaged. The central bank published a virtual tour of the active construction site on Monday, including footage of asbestos caulking being removed and blast resistant windows being installed.... The Fed’s renovation has become central to the administration’s attempts to undermine and potentially oust Jerome H. Powell, the chair of the central bank. The White House has also accused the central bank of straying beyond its congressional mandated goals of fostering stable inflation and a healthy labor market, citing its work on climate-related issues, for example. On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called for the Fed to conduct an 'exhaustive internal review of its non-monetary policy operations.'”
Kenneth Chang of the Washington Post: “A public letter from NASA employees on Monday urges leaders of the space agency not to carry out deep cuts sought by the Trump administration.... It is addressed to Sean Duffy, the secretary of transportation, whom ... [Donald] Trump appointed this month as acting NASA administrator. Cuts to NASA programs have been arbitrary and in defiance of priorities set by Congress, the NASA employees said.... Prominent scientists outside of NASA, including 20 Nobel Prize winners, also offered their names in support.... Upheaval within NASA continued on Monday, when Makenzie Lystrup, director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., announced she was 'stepping aside' on Aug. 1.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Marianne LeVine & Derek Hawkins of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration is increasingly relying on Border Patrol agents to help carry out the president’s mass deportation plan and arrest immigrants in cities far from the nation’s southern border — a departure from the agency’s traditional role that some lawyers and advocates consider alarming.... The use of the Border Patrol in major cities such as Los Angeles is lawful under a 1946 statute establishing that the agency’s jurisdiction stretches within a 'reasonable distance' of the border. The Justice Department later set that boundary at 100 miles from any border, including coastlines — an area that today is home to about two-thirds of the country’s population. In that zone, the Border Patrol asserts that it has broad authority to search vehicles, including without probable cause or a warrant.” The link is a gift link.
Zach Montague of the New York Times: “The Trump administration’s efforts to deport foreign students who espoused pro-Palestinian views under a little-used foreign policy provision have no obvious legal parallel.... Challenges to his policies are also, by necessity, treading new ground. The academic associations that sued over the highly publicized wave of arrests in March have said the government targeted those international students in violation of the First Amendment. In court over the past two weeks, lawyers for the associations argued that the Trump administration stretched [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio’s narrow power to revoke visas and green cards in order to stifle the speech of the most vulnerable activists and chill political activity on campuses more broadly.”
Frances Vinall of the Washington Post: “The detention of two Italian nationals at 'Alligator Alcatraz,' the new immigrant detention center in Florida’s Everglades, is sparking criticism from lawmakers in Italy, who are calling on their country’s conservative government to speak out. Gaetano Mirabella Costa and Fernando Artese are being held in 'inhuman and degrading' conditions at the facility, Laura Boldrini, a lawmaker with the opposition Democratic Party, said on social media.... Angelo Bonelli of the Green Europe party said the two Italians had been 'locked in cages, without access to a lawyer, deprived of dignity, water and decent food.' Former prime minister Matteo Renzi, now a senator who leads the Italia Viva party, accused Giorgia Meloni’s government of deference to ... Donald Trump rather than acting to 'defend the rights of an Italian citizen.'... According to [DHS spokesperson Tricia] McLaughlin, Costa overstayed a B2 tourism visa for almost seven years. Artese entered the United States using the visa waiver program, which authorized a stay of about three months, but he remained in the country for about a decade, she said. DHS said they had both been arrested for alleged criminal offenses but did not immediately respond to a request for clarification on whether either had been convicted of a crime.”
Madeleine Ngo of the New York Times: “A coalition of 21 Democratic attorneys general sued the Trump administration on Monday over its attempts to restrict undocumented immigrants’ access to federal health and safety net programs. The suit, led by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, comes after several federal agencies announced earlier this month that they would no longer allow unauthorized immigrants to benefit from more than a dozen health and education programs, including Head Start, an early education program for low-income children. Trump administration officials said the changes would ensure that federal benefits were reserved for American citizens. The states said the changes had already caused significant disruption and that providers could struggle to verify the citizenship status of all recipients.... The suit was also brought by the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: If you live in any of these states, or D.C., or (sometimes) Pennsylvania, which has a Republican AG for a Democratic governor, you can feel proud of your tax contributions to fighting some of Donald Trump's cruelest actions.
Gabe Cohen of CNN, republished by Yahoo! News: "The head of FEMA’s Urban Search and Rescue branch, which runs a network of teams stationed across the country that can swiftly respond to natural disasters, resigned on Monday. Ken Pagurek’s departure comes less than three weeks after a delayed FEMA response to catastrophic flooding in central Texas caused by bureaucratic hurdles put in place by the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the disaster response agency. Pagurek told colleagues at FEMA that the delay was the tipping point that led to his voluntary departure after months of frustration with the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the agency.... It took more than 72 hours after the flooding for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to authorize the deployment of FEMA’s search and rescue network."
Alan Blinder of the New York Times: “A federal judge appeared deeply skeptical on Monday of the Trump administration’s efforts to strip Harvard University of billions of dollars in research funding, suggesting the school might prevail in its legal battle against the government. Judge Allison D. Burroughs did not issue a ruling during a crucial hearing, which lasted more than two hours in her courtroom in Boston. But she did seem receptive to Harvard’s arguments, as both the school and the government sought to have the case decided in their favor without a trial. The judge unleashed a barrage of pointed questions at the lone Justice Department lawyer. She demanded to know, for instance, how the administration could reasonably tie withdrawal of medical research funding to concerns about the civil rights of Jewish people. And she appeared bothered by the administration’s hurried approach to attacking Harvard’s research funding, suggesting there were potentially 'staggering' constitutional consequences if the government could punish a university without due process.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Jacob Wendler of Politico: “... Donald Trump attacked the federal judge presiding over Harvard University’s lawsuit against his administration in a Monday afternoon social media post.... 'She is a TOTAL DISASTER, which I say even before hearing her Ruling,' Trump wrote in the post to his social media platform.... 'She has systematically taken over the various Harvard cases, and is an automatic “loss” for the People of our Country!' Trump also said he planned to appeal her decision if the judge rules against his administration. He also attacked Harvard as 'anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and anti-America,' touting the White House’s decision to freeze several billions of dollars in grants to Harvard. Burroughs sided with Harvard last month in a separate lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s attempt to revoke the institution’s ability to sponsor international students.”
Sahil Kapur of NBC News: “... Donald Trump’s 'big, beautiful bill,' which he signed into law this month, will add $3.4 trillion to the U.S. national debt over the next decade, according to a report the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office published Monday. The report found that the law, which Republicans passed along party lines, will also 'increase by 10 million the number of people without health insurance' by 2034. The budget office scrutinized the final version of the bill after Republicans made a series of last-minute changes to cobble together the votes needed in the Senate; it passed 51-50. That revised version subsequently passed the House on a vote of 218-214.”
Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: “A federal judge in Kentucky on Monday sentenced a former Louisville police officer involved in the fatal raid of Breonna Taylor’s home to nearly three years in prison, in a sharp rebuke to the Trump administration, which had requested he serve only one day behind bars. In November, a federal jury in Kentucky convicted the former officer, Brett Hankison, of one count of violating Ms. Taylor’s civil rights by using excessive force in discharging several shots through her window during a botched drug raid in 2020. Even though none of the 10 shots he fired hit Ms. Taylor, Mr. Hankison, who is white, was the only officer to be charged for his actions during the botched operation....
“Last week, Harmeet K. Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, asked the judge in the case, Rebecca Grady Jennings, to sentence Mr. Hankison to a single day in prison — essentially the brief time he had served when he was charged — and three years of supervised release. The request was intended to send the message that the department planned to abandon its longstanding efforts to address racial disparities in policing — and to reorient the civil rights division to pursue ... [Donald] Trump’s culture war agenda at the expense of its founding mission of confronting race-based discrimination.” The AP's report is here.
Some Will Be Heroes. Elizabeth Williamson of the New York Times: Donald “Trump’s executive orders seeking to punish big law firms have led some of them to acquiesce to him and left others reluctant to take on pro bono cases that could put them at odds with the administration.... Instead, an army of solo practitioners, former government litigators and small law firms stepped up to volunteer their time to challenge the administration’s agenda.”
Reid Epstein of the New York Times: “In a pair of podcast appearances over the past several days, Hunter Biden, the son of former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., appears to be trying to settle scores with Democrats he sees as having contributed to his father’s political undoing.Mr. Biden delivered a broad critique of the party last week on the debut episode of a podcast hosted by Jaime Harrison, the former Democratic National Committee chairman, arguing that Democrats lost the 2024 election because they did not remain loyal to his father. In a separate, three-hour-plus podcast released on Monday, the younger Mr. Biden named names, unleashing a profane tirade against a host of perceived enemies, including the senior Biden aide Anita Dunn; the Democratic éminences grises David Axelrod and James Carville; the Obama administration alumni who built Crooked Media, a booming liberal podcast network; the CNN host Jake Tapper; and the actor George Clooney. In a single minute-long clip, he used a version of the same expletive [MB: that would be 'fuck'] 13 times. His interviewer this time was Andrew Callaghan, a YouTuber previously known for crisscrossing America in an R.V.... Mr. Biden also claimed that his father had been given the prescription sleep aid Ambien before his fateful debate....” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Excuse me for joining the right-wing conspiracy-theory circuit, but there's this: Hunter claims his father was taking Ambien to help him sleep after return from trips to Europe & California. But according to Epstein, President Biden had been at Camp David for the five days preceding the debate. So that raises the question “Just how often over the course of his presidency was Joe Biden doped up on Ambien?” If Ambien caused Biden to -- in Hunter's words -- “look like he’s a deer in the headlights” at an 8:00 pm debate, how clear-headed was he when the 3:00 am calls came?
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Minnesota. Mitch Smith of the New York Times: “A Minnesota state senator who was convicted of burglary said on Monday that she would resign from the Legislature by Aug. 4. Her departure would leave the chamber with equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans until a special election can be held to fill her seat and break the tie. By stepping down, Senator Nicole Mitchell, a Democrat, is likely to avoid the possibility of being removed from office.... Ms. Mitchell was arrested in April 2024 and accused of breaking into her stepmother’s home. She maintained her innocence after her arrest, and for more than a year resisted calls by Republicans for her to resign or be expelled. Even so, she was limited to working on the periphery of the Legislature.... After a jury in Becker County convicted Ms. Mitchell on Friday of two felony charges, legislative leaders from both parties said they expected her to resign. Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, is expected to call a special election in the district, which is considered solidly Democratic.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Texas Senate Race. Patrick Svitek & Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the Washington Post: “Firebrand Texas Republican Ken Paxton’s long record of political resilience ... faces a new test after his wife filed for divorce and accused him of adultery, jolting a contentious primary for the U.S. Senate. The race, seen as one of the biggest GOP primaries of the midterms, was already dramatic, with a longtime incumbent, John Cornyn, fighting for his political life against Paxton, the state attorney general styling himself as more loyal to ... Donald Trump. Now, Cornyn and his allies are bringing up the divorce filing as he runs against Paxton, and some Paxton backers are rethinking their support.... The divorce filing, which revived allegations of infidelity against Paxton, added a new potential obstacle to a political career that has survived securities fraud charges, as well as an impeachment trial in the state Senate related to a federal investigation of whistleblower allegations of misconduct that included bribery and abuse of office.... Cornyn ... [called Paxton] an 'onion' because 'every time you peel back one layer of corruption, there’s something beneath.'”
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Israel/Palestine. Patrick Kingsley of the New York Times: “For a year and a half, experts have warned that Israel’s failure to plan for a power transition in Gaza would lead to anarchy, make it harder to deliver aid and stymie efforts to defeat Hamas. A sequence of shootings in Gaza over the weekend — one near Gaza’s southern border, another at its northern edge — have highlighted the accuracy of those predictions. On Saturday, Israeli soldiers opened fire on civilians near a food distribution site run by Israeli-backed private contractors. On Sunday, Israeli soldiers opened fire on civilians as crowds gathered near a convoy of food trucks sent by the United Nations toward areas controlled by Hamas.... Both aid systems are piecemeal responses to a failure by Israel to make detailed plans for a transition of power in Gaza, according to analysts and experts on aid distribution.... Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has also repeatedly decided against creating a system of transitional governance.... In particular, he has prevented the return of the Palestinian Authority, which governed the territory until Hamas seized power in 2007.” (Also linked yesterday.)
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