The Conversation -- June 27, 2025
Michael Schmidt & Michael Bender of the New York Times: “The University of Virginia’s president, James E. Ryan, has told the board overseeing the school that he will resign in the face of demands by the Trump administration that he step aside to help resolve a Justice Department inquiry into the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, according to three people briefed on the matter. For the leader of one of the nation’s most prominent public universities to take such an extraordinary step demonstrates ... [Donald] Trump’s success in harnessing the investigative powers of the federal government to accomplish his administration’s policy goals. The New York Times reported on Thursday evening that the Justice Department had demanded Mr. Ryan’s resignation as a condition to settle a civil rights investigation into the school’s diversity practices. In a letter sent on Thursday to the head of the board overseeing the university, Mr. Ryan said that he had planned to step down at the end of the next academic year but 'given the circumstances and today’s conversations' he had decided, 'with deep sadness,' to tender his resignation now.... The school’s board has accepted Mr. Ryan’s resignation, according to two of the people briefed on the matter.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: This is a mistake. Whatever Ryan's personal plans may have been, he had a duty to the principles of the academy to tell the Trump administration to stick it. Same with the board, which should not have accepted his resignation. These people are not as bright as you would expect them to be if they don't understand that they do not have the freedom to knuckle under to a despot.
Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: “The Supreme Court on Friday backed ... Donald Trump’s request to scale back nationwide orders that have for months blocked the administration’s ban on automatic citizenship for the U.S.-born babies of undocumented immigrants and foreign visitors, a signature piece of Trump’s efforts to restrict immigration. The 6-3 decision, with the liberal justices dissenting, sends the cases back to the lower courts to determine the practical implications of the ruling and leaves open a path for challengers to try to continue to block the president’s policy.... The justices were not directly addressing the constitutionality of the president’s birthright citizenship order, which opponents say conflicts with the 14th Amendment, past court rulings and the nation’s history.... Writing for the majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said such universal injunctions likely exceed the power that Congress has granted to the federal courts.... Justice Sonia Sotomayor read a lengthy summary of her dissent from the bench to emphasize her strong disagreement with the opinion, which she called a 'travesty' and warned would 'cause chaos for the families of all affected children.'” ~~~
~~~ Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The Supreme Court has handed ... Donald Trump a major victory by narrowing nationwide injunctions that blocked his executive order purporting to end the right to birthright citizenship. In doing so, the court sharply curtailed the power of individual district court judges to issue injunctions blocking federal government policies nationwide.” The opinion, concurring opinions & dissents are here, via the Courts. ~~~
Birthright citizenship was added to the Constitution at the end of the Civil War. It’s a basic idea: When you’re born in America, you’re an American. That’s what Trump is trying to take away. By failing to protect this basic constitutional right, the Supreme Court is declaring open season on all our rights. -- Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus ~~~
~~~ New York Times live updates are here.
Marie: A tragedy, in the Greek sense, is a story in which the main character comes to an unhappy ending through some fault -- or character flaw -- of his own. We may not be talking "Oedipus Rex" here, but perhaps a more homely, Arthur Miller-type tragedy: Robyn Pennacchia of Wonkette on the death of Canadian immigrant Johnny Noviello, a small-time drug dealer and Trump fan who died in ICE custody. Pennacchia concludes, "I couldn’t tell you what made a non-citizen with a history of drug offenses think that Donald Trump was his guy. Maybe he thought because he was white, because he was Canadian and not Mexican, that he was conservative, that he’d get a pass. He cheered for Donald Trump because he thought it would be other people getting hauled away to these detention centers and not him. Clearly, he was wrong." More on Noviello's death linked below.
Meeting with kings and queens isn't all it's cracked up to be. Here's Queen Maxima of the Netherlands mocking Trump's weird mouth contortions during a photo-op with Trump & King Willem: ~~~
~~~ AND then there's the incredible shrinking Donald: Trump claims to be 6'3", and perhaps he once was. But he isn't anymore. While King Willem is said to be 6'2" or 6'3", in the photo seen here, it's clear that Willem is taller than Donald. Donald didn't suddenly shrink, what with the weight of the world on his shoulders. Here was Donald with another royal this past December: Prince William of Great Britain. William is also 6'3", yet in the stills posted here, he's clearly taller than Trump. Donald should consult with Little Marco on where to get a few pairs of those Cuban boots. ~~~
~~~ PLUS, look who's picking on missing First Lady Melanie. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) does not reckon posing nude qualifies a person for a "genius" visa: ~~~
~~~ But doesn't Melania get points for helping explain proper ICE procedures? (Thanks to RAS for the link): ~~~
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The Supremes are about to go on their luxurious, all-expenses-paid vacations, so today is the day they will be issuing their final dreadful decisions.
Paul Glastris of the Washington Monthly spoke with a person "who has had a decades-long career in the U.S. military and the intelligence community" about the implications of the leaked Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report. Now we know, the source said, that "this latest weapon, long in development but never deployed, has demonstrated once again that if an adversary simply digs deeply enough, the laws of physics are on their side." Okay, so that's bad, but of course it's way worse than that: "As long as we didn’t use them, Iran didn’t know for sure how damaging they could be. That gave us leverage with them. Now the situation is reversed. We’ve revealed or confirmed that our most fearsome weapon, or the most fearsome we’re willing to use — we could drop nukes or send in the 82nd Airborne, but that’s not going to happen — can collapse the entrances of tunnels but not destroy facilities buried deeply in a mountain. Going into any negotiations with them, they know our limits.... And not just Iran. Every other adversarial regime now knows these weapons are essentially duds. That weakens our leverage considerably with all of them. I am sure Kim Jung Un is happy in North Korea today." Via digby, via RAS. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: AND, once again, do bear in mind that Obama & Kerry's Iran nuclear agreement was working when the Quicker Fucker Upper wiped it away. And speaking of that, this: ~~~
~~~ Jennifer Rubin of the Contrarian: "There is no agreement, pledge, or promise Donald Trump won’t break. Constant reversals, betrayals, lies, and bullying risk isolating us from valuable allies and incentivizing our enemies to resort to hard power. In Iran, Trump’s 2018 decision to tear up the Iran nuclear deal, followed by resorting to brute force, gives Iran an incentive to regard negotiations as useless and to instead race to make a bomb to ensure survival." Read on. See also Lawrence O'Donnell (video embedded yesterday) on Trump's pronouncements regarding a deal with Iran (at about 11:30 min. into the video). (Also linked yesterday.)
NYT, CNN Stand Up to Trump.Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: Donald “Trump on Wednesday threatened to sue The New York Times and CNN for publishing articles about a preliminary intelligence report that said the American attack on Iran had set back the country’s nuclear program by only a few months.In a letter to The Times, a personal lawyer for the president said the newspaper’s article had damaged Mr. Trump’s reputation and demanded that the news organization 'retract and apologize for' the piece, which the letter described as 'false,' 'defamatory' and 'unpatriotic.' The Times, in a response on Thursday, rejected Mr. Trump’s demands, noting that Trump administration officials had subsequently confirmed the existence of the report, issued by the Defense Intelligence Agency, and its findings. 'No retraction is needed,' the paper’s lawyer, David McCraw, wrote in a letter. 'No apology will be forthcoming,' he added. We told the truth to the best of our ability. We will continue to do so.' A spokeswoman for CNN, which was the first outlet to report elements of the preliminary report, confirmed that the network had responded to a similar legal threat from the president’s team....
“On social media, Mr. Trump has called for journalists at both news outlets to be fired; he has also claimed, without evidence, that the articles were intended to demean the military personnel who participated in the attacks. The defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, held a televised news conference on Thursday in which he reiterated those complaints about the journalists who covered the preliminary report. Mr. Hegseth pushed back on the findings of the report, but did not deny its existence, and offered no new assessments of the damage to the nuclear sites that were attacked.” ~~~
~~~ Alex Griffing of Mediaite: “On Thursday, [Trump] took to his Truth Social platform and wrote, 'FAKE NEWS REPORTERS FROM CNN & THE NEW YORK TIMES SHOULD BE FIRED, IMMEDIATELY!!! BAD PEOPLE WITH EVIL INTENTIONS!!!' On Wednesday, Trump called for CNN’s lead reporter on the story to be fired, writing, 'Natasha Bertrand should be FIRED from CNN! I watched her for three days doing Fake News. She should be IMMEDIATELY reprimanded, and then thrown out “like a dog.’” CNN released a statement in response, saying: 'We stand 100% behind Natasha Bertrand’s journalism and specifically her and her colleagues’ reporting of the early intelligence assessment of the U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities....'” The White House itself appears to have confirmed the authenticity of the reporting by stating it was “declaring a war” on leakers.
Marie: I have not fully appreciated what a dick Drunk Pete is. Here he was Thursday morning, attacking the press for, well, reporting: ~~~
~~~ Here he is berating Fox "News" Pentagon reporter Jennifer Griffin: ~~~
~~~ AND in Thursday's Comments, Elizabeth pointed to this NYT story and the excerpt below: ~~~
~~~ Eric Schmitt & Helene Cooper of the New York Times: “Mr. Hegseth ... took a combative tone at Thursday’s news conference, singling out reporters who have covered the Pentagon for years under successive administrations, both Republican and Democratic, and complained that they were not properly cheering for the one he represented. Then he reached for history. 'President Trump directed the most secret and most complex military operation in history,' Mr. Hegseth said. No mention was made of the D-Day landings at Normandy, which involved intricate planning, 160,000 troops from allied nations, fake radio transmissions and false radar readings, paratroopers, pilots, Army rangers and spies. Even President Franklin D. Roosevelt was unaware of the exact time of the mission until just before it began.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: (1) The operation was not “secret”: As the New York Times reported Sunday, in the lead-up to the bombing, “Mr. Trump was making blustery statements indicating he was about to take the country into the conflict.... These public pronouncements generated angst at the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command, where military planners began to worry that Mr. Trump was giving Iran too much warning about an impending strike.” Because of Trump's boasting leaks, military planners had to add a deceptive maneuver to the operation, sending decoy B-52s on a mock bombing mission using a different flight path. Meanwhile, Trump helpfully gave Iran the heads-up to move its enriched uranium and centrifuges to other places. (And as Jennifer Griffin of Fox pointed out to Hegseth, moving stuff appears to be what Iran did.) ~~~
~~~ (2) The operation was not “complex” (except to the extent Trump's Big Mouth required the military to build in the subterfuge): Take off, fly to sites, drop bombs, fly home. Admittedly, it's not as easy as that, especially because of the length of the flights and the need to refuel en route. But it was made a lot easier by the fact that the Israelis took out most of Iran's anti-aircraft defenses. More important, this was no D-Day. Not just D-Day or Hiroshima was a more secret and complex operation, many a less significant military mission has been more complex. ~~~
~~~ (3) Donald Trump didn't “direct” anything. I forgot the verb. As Lawrence O'Donnell pointed out Thursday night, the general outlines of the plan have been around for years. Trump just said, “go.” BTW, Drunk Pete made this assessment near the top of his rant against hateful reporters, suggesting to me that it was a planned part of his scolding. When the issue of the day is Trump's wanton hyperbole, Hegseth certainly won't be fired for exaggerating the Boss's fabulousness. But the Bootlicker's glorification of Looselips von Clusterfuck is embarrassing.
Julian Barnes & David Sanger of the New York Times: “After days of debate over how severely U.S. strikes had damaged three nuclear facilities in Iran, the fate of the country’s stockpile of enriched uranium remains a bigger mystery.... There is little doubt that Iran’s entire nuclear program was substantially diminished by U.S. and Israeli strikes, and that it would struggle to quickly produce additional nuclear fuel. But U.S. intelligence agencies had long assessed that, faced with the possibility of an attack on its nuclear facilities, Iran would try to move its stockpile of enriched uranium, either to keep as leverage in diplomatic negotiations or to use in a race to build a bomb.... On Thursday..., [Donald] Trump suggested that the stockpile was destroyed or buried by the bombing of the site at Fordo. 'Nothing was taken out of facility,' Mr. Trump posted on his social media site. 'Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!'... U.S. intelligence collected on Iranian officials shows they have different understandings of the stockpile’s fate.... There is confusion also about where the stockpile was originally.”
Desperately Seeking the Peace Prize. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post urges the Nobel Peace Prize committee to give Trump the prize "before he bombs Oslo." This is a gift link.
Marie: If you thought this authoritarian administration would quit after punishing a few elite universities for failing to offer courses on The Great White Race, and the Magnificence of Trump, think again. As Ali Davis asserts in an essay linked below, the Trumpistas wants to destroy the country's university system with all its academic freedom & kumbaya we-are-the-world hoohah: ~~~
~~~ The Trumpists' Charlottesville Revenge Tour. Michael Schmidt & Michael Bender of the New York Times: “The Trump administration has privately demanded that the University of Virginia oust its president [James E. Ryan] to help resolve a Justice Department investigation into the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, according to three people briefed on the matter. The extraordinary condition the Justice Department has put on the school demonstrates that President Trump’s bid to shift the ideological tilt of the higher education system, which he views as hostile to conservatives, is more far-reaching than previously understood.... Justice Department officials have told University of Virginia officials that hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding are at risk because of what the department says is the school’s disregard for civil rights law over its diversity practices, according to two of the people.” The link is a gift link. Read on for the particulars. It appears a couple of UV grads who landed in Trump's DOJ were not happy with their university experiences. It's not easy being White. ~~~
~~~ Michael Bender of the New York Times: “The Trump administration on Thursday targeted California’s education system for the second time in two days, announcing a new Justice Department investigation into whether a plan to build a university system that more closely reflects the state’s racial and ethnic diversity violates civil rights laws against discrimination. The investigation was made public just 24 hours after the U.S. Education Department declared that California was breaking federal law by allowing transgender girls to compete on female sports teams. The federal government gave the state 10 days to reverse its policies or face 'imminent enforcement action.'... Since ... [Donald] Trump took office, California has had to contend with multiple threats from his administration to withhold federal funding.”
Joe Heim of the Washington Post: “The mystery artists responsible for a statue on the National Mall mocking ... Donald Trump last week have done it again — this time with a multimedia work taking aim at comments the White House made about them. On Thursday morning, a replica of an old-school television set showing clips of Trump dancing was set up near Third Street NW in direct view of the U.S. Capitol. The set displays a 15-second silent video loop of Trump’s signature slow-motion shimmy from various times and locations. In one, Trump is dancing next to multimillionaire and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who was charged with sex trafficking minors in 2019 and killed himself while awaiting trial.... The television is spray-painted gold, as is a replica of a bald eagle with wings outstretched that sits atop the television. Ivy, also spray-painted gold, bedecks the display.... The White House was not amused.” MB: Perhaps the only useful thing Trump has ever done in his life is to inspire artists in many genres to find new ways to mock him.
The Right Hand Doesn't Know What the Right Hand Is Doing. Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “Less than three weeks after Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia was brought back from a wrongful deportation to El Salvador to face criminal charges in the United States, the Trump administration indicated on Thursday that it planned to deport him again — this time to a different country. Jonathan Guynn, a Justice Department lawyer, acknowledged to a judge that there were 'no imminent plans' to remove Mr. Abrego Garcia. Still, the assertion that the administration intends to re-deport a man who was just returned to the country after being indicted raised questions about the charges the Justice Department filed against him.... Mr. Guynn’s admission that the administration intends to expel Mr. Abrego Garcia, who is from El Salvador, to a third country raised the possibility that he could be deported before going on trial [on smuggling charges related to murder and drug trafficking which AG Pam Bondi dramatically announced earlier this month. Mr. Guynn's] remarks came as the judges overseeing his separate criminal and civil deportation cases struggled to figure out what the government planned to do with him. Shortly after this article was published, a White House spokeswoman posted a message on social media describing news accounts of Mr. Guynn’s statements as 'fake news.'” ~~~
~~~ Update. Ben Finley & Alanna Richer of the AP: “But DOJ spokesperson Chad Gilmartin told The Associated Press that Abrego Garcia will first be tried in court on the charges [before being deported].... White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson posted on X later Thursday: 'Abrego Garcia was returned to the United States to face trial for the egregious charges against him. He will face the full force of the American justice system — including serving time in American prison for the crimes he’s committed.'”
Hannah Ziegler of the New York Times: “The authorities are investigating the death of a Canadian citizen who died Monday in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency said in a statement. The man, Johnny Noviello, 49, was found unresponsive on Monday at around 1 p.m. at the Bureau of Prisons Federal Detention Center in Miami.... Medical staff administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation, automated external defibrillator shock and called 911, ICE said. Mr. Noviello was pronounced dead by the Miami Fire Rescue Department at 1:36 p.m., the agency said. ICE said that it had notified the Canadian consulate of Mr. Noviello’s death.... Mr. Noviello entered the United States in 1988 with a legal visa status and became a lawful permanent resident in 1991, the agency said. In October 2023, he was convicted of charges of racketeering and drug trafficking in Volusia County, Fla., and was sentenced to 12 months in prison.... Mr. Noviello is the 10th person to die in ICE custody this year and the fourth person to die in custody in Florida, according to the agency’s website.” ~~~
~~~ For some reason, Canada doesn't trust the U.S. anymore: ~~~
~~~ Kelsey Ables of the Washington Post: “Canada is 'urgently seeking more information' about the death this week of a 49-year-old Canadian citizen while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in Miami, Foreign Minister Anita Anand said Thursday in a post on social media.” The Miami Herald's story is here.
Elizabeth Goitein of Just Security: "Last week, federalized National Guard forces who were deployed in Los Angeles in response to protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids assisted the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in conducting a routine counter-drug operation 130 miles east of the city.... Based on currently available information, it appears to be illegal, as well. Around 315 Guard personnel were deployed to assist DEA in executing a federal search warrant as part of an investigation into three large marijuana growth operations in the eastern Coachella Valley region.... The operation also involved the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Customs and Border Protection; ICE; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosions; the U.S. Marshals Service; and the Internal Revenue Service. During the raid, ICE agents arrested between 70 and 75 workers believed to lack documentation, and one U.S. citizen was arrested for impeding law enforcement.... The lack of any legal authorization for this use of federalized National Guard forces is, of course, highly concerning in its own right. But the use of federal forces to assist with drug raids also represents a massive shift in, and an expansion of, Trump’s domestic use of the military." (Also linked yesterday.)
Perry Stein of the Washington Post: “The U.S. DOGE Service has sent staff to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with the goal of revising or eliminating dozens of rules and gun restrictions by July 4, according to multiple people.... The revisions are part of a seismic shift unfolding at ATF as the Trump administration proposes slashing the law enforcement agency’s budget and dramatically reducing the number of inspectors who ensure that gun sellers are in compliance with federal laws. Some Republicans in Congress have called for abolishing the agency altogether, and Attorney General Pam Bondi has said she wants to merge ATF with the Drug Enforcement Administration.”
Infamous Hacker Big Balls Now Has Access to Your Personal Data. Rhian Lubin of the Independent: “Edward Coristine, the 19-year-old nicknamed 'Big Balls' who was working in the Department of Government Efficiency, has landed a new role at the Social Security Administration. Coristine, who was hired by Elon Musk to join the DOGE team, recently left the White House but a Social Security Administration spokesperson confirmed he has since joined the agency as a special government employee. 'Edward Coristine joined the Social Security Administration this week as a special government employee,' spokesperson Stephen McGraw told WIRED.... Coristine’s appointment at the agency follows a recent report that Musk and allies insisted on giving [another] 21-year-old former Silicon Valley intern sweeping access to personal data on hundreds of millions of Americans at the Social Security Administration.” MB: Coristine no no doubt has been designated a “special government employee” because this status does not require a federal background check, something multiple experts have said he could not pass.
As the Crackpots Convene. Jason Mast of STAT News: “The meeting [of the CDC's vaccine advisory board] began with an airing of pandemic-era grievances and closed with a move to cement a decades-old, long-dismissed anti-vaccine talking point into U.S. national policy. In the intervening 13 hours came technical issues, forgotten procedures, and a public comments session featuring a parade of alarmed experts speaking on behalf of health organizations. At one point, a panelist asked staff from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention whether a 'pattern of broad-based energy of some type' may be responsible for a surge in flu deaths this year. Another member, one of the few with public health credentials, beseeched his colleagues to quit raising what he and career officials at the CDC consider long-investigated and discarded concerns.... By the end, it was clear that a new era in U.S. vaccine policy had arrived, one in which individuals with long-simmering objections to public health conventions — and in some cases, ties to the conspiracy-ridden anti-vaccine movement — had been empowered to make critical health recommendations for an entire nation.” ~~~
~~~ Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: “An advisory panel recently appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. voted on Thursday to walk back longstanding recommendations for flu vaccines containing an ingredient that the anti-vaccine movement has falsely linked to autism. The vote signaled a powerful shift in the way federal officials approach vaccines, putting into action Mr. Kennedy’s deep skepticism about their safety and delivering the first blows to a scientific process that for decades has provided effective vaccines to Americans.... Dozens of studies have shown the vaccine ingredient, called thimerosal, to be harmless. It has not been a component of most childhood shots since 2001.... To critics, the two-day meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices offered the clearest signs yet that the Trump administration intends to unravel the system that has long guided clinical decisions about vaccination.... 'It’s striking how little the voting members seem to know about the diseases and vaccines that they are discussing' said Dr. Adam Ratner, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist and expert on vaccine policy.In a separate vote, the new panel recommended seasonal flu vaccines to all Americans 6 months and older. The common single-dose flu shots do not contain thimerosal.” An AP report is here.
Josh Gerstein of Politico: “Former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy warned Thursday that acrimonious political discourse and threats to judges are eroding the ability of the United States to serve as an example of democracy worldwide. 'Many in the rest of the world look to the United States to see what democracy is, to see what democracy ought to be,' Kennedy said during an online forum about threats to the rule of law. 'If they see a hostile, fractious discourse, if they see a discourse that uses identity politics rather than to talk about issues, democracy is at risk. Freedom is at risk.' Kennedy, who stepped down from the court in 2018, avoided specifics during his 10-minute speech as part of a series of presentations by current and former judges. However, the Reagan appointee’s remarks appeared to be triggered at least in part by strident attacks ... Donald Trump has mounted against judges, including some whom he appointed during his first term, who have ruled against the administration’s policies on immigration, firings of federal workers and his implementation of broad-based tariffs.”
Shame on Marcie Jones of Wonkette for making me LOL in her account of the hearing in which Emil Bove, the “answer to the question 'What would Stephen Miller look like in the Upside Down?' was in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee [Wednesday], because ... Donald Trump has nominated him to be a judge on the Third US Circuit Court of Appeals that hears cases from Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, GOOD LORD.” Jones also provides some of the background on Bove that might have slipped your mind. More on the hearing linked yesterday, but not so funny. (Also linked yesterday.)
Alan Rappeport & Colby Smith of the New York Times: “The Trump administration has directed Republican lawmakers to remove a provision from their tax and spending bill that would have hit some international companies operating in the United States. The decision to remove the so-called revenge tax came as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday that the United States had reached a deal with other Group of 7 nations that exempts American companies from a separate “global minimum tax.” That global tax was brokered by the Biden administration and was opposed by President Trump and Republican lawmakers who argued it was giving control of the U.S. tax base to other nations. The move to drop the revenge tax follows intense lobbying pressure from international business groups, which warned the new tax would hurt American workers and chill foreign investment in the United States.” ~~~
~~~ Update. Brian Faler of Politico: “Republicans said Thursday they are dropping a so-called revenge tax from a sweeping domestic policy megabill now pending in the Senate after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said it was no longer necessary.”
Kim Bellware of the Washington Post: “Tucked into the more than 1,000 pages of the GOP domestic policy bill winding its way through Congress is a provision that would water down a nearly century-old firearms law — changes that the gun industry has sought for years but that gun-control advocates warn would come at the expense of public safety. The legislation would ease restrictions established by the 1934 National Firearms Act (NFA) on suppressors — often called silencers — and certain long guns such as short-barreled rifles and sawed-off shotguns. The change would eliminate the $200 federal tax on suppressors and the requirement that owners register them with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Republicans, including Rep. Andrew Clyde (Georgia), who took credit for the provision, said it would relieve citizens of burdensome taxes on their Second Amendment rights. But partially repealing the NFA would dismantle one of the few — and one of the most effective — federal gun laws ever enacted, according to Robert Spitzer..., author of 'The Gun Dilemma.'”
Jason DeParle of the New York Times: “From the start of his second term..., [Donald] Trump has bet that he can appeal to low-income voters while slashing safety net programs on which many of those voters depend. The enormous tax-and-spending bill he is trying to push through Congress is a high-stakes test of that proposition, a gamble that Mr. Trump can retain the loyalty of his blue-collar supporters despite moves that could harm their immediate economic self-interest. As approved by the House, the legislation cuts hundreds of billions of dollars in food benefits and removes nearly 11 million people from the health care rolls, while offering large tax cuts skewed to the rich and adding trillions to the national debt. Senate Republicans are considering a similar measure, with bigger Medicaid cuts and smaller reductions in nutritional aid. Whether Republicans succeed in passing the bill — and whether voters punish them for lost assistance — could affect next year’s congressional elections and determine the long-term size and strength of the social welfare system.”
Tony Romm of the New York Times: “Senate Republicans said on Thursday that they would forge ahead with a plan to slash federal food assistance to the poor, after they devised a workaround that would allow them to cut the program to help pay for their sprawling package of tax cuts. The proposal, which would force states to shoulder new costs for providing food stamps, is part of a larger set of changes targeting federal safety net programs that may result in millions of lower-income Americans losing access to aid. For decades, the federal government has shouldered the primary financial burden for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or S.N.A.P., which provides about 42 million low-income Americans on average with monthly food benefits. Its supporters say the payments are essential, with roughly one in seven Americans reporting inconsistent access to food in 2023, government data show. But Republicans insist S.N.A.P. is riddled with waste, fraud and abuse, and they have sought to scale back its benefits as part of the package of tax cuts they are crafting with the input and support of ... [Donald] Trump.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Obviously, Senate Republicans are relying on the stupidity of their voters, which might be a sensible calculation, given the stupidity of their voters. Even assuming states can immediately do as good a job as the feds at getting food assistance to the needy, taxpayers will still have to pay the cost. The Senate's argument, then, is, "We're not lowering your tax bills, people; we're changing who sends you the bill."
Marie: Here is an aspect of Trump's Big Bad Bill that has escaped my attention: ~~~
~~~ Ali Davis, in a guest post on Wonkette: “Hello, college and university administrators! You have homework! You have serious homework, and it is due now.... Donald Trump and the Republicans’ 'One Big Bill' is designed, in part, to financially devastate colleges and universities. Part of the plan is to make it impossible for lower- and middle-income students to get student loans, and part of is intended to cripple the higher education system itself by slashing access to federal funding for any school that doesn’t stick to spouting party-line conservative ideas. You have already begun to see the effects of having your research grants yanked around as the Trump administration tries to frighten and/or ban your foreign students.... The Project 2025 devotees who have poured into the second Trump administration have an explicit goal of destroying our nation’s universities.” Davis had advice for universities, their donors (and those who think maybe a university education is a plus) on how to fight the Big Bad plan to destroy higher education now. (Also linked yesterday.)
Steven Moity of the New York Times: “The House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Harvard on Thursday in its investigation into whether Ivy League universities have coordinated their pricing, turning up pressure on a school already in an all-out battle with the Trump administration. In the subpoena letter, Representatives Jim Jordan, the Ohio Republican who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Scott Fitzgerald, a Wisconsin Republican who leads a key subcommittee, demanded documents and communications about the university’s tuition and financial aid by July 17. They said they were issuing the subpoena after Harvard’s response to an earlier request for information was 'inadequate' and 'substantively deficient,' with much of the material that was turned over already publicly available. Harvard disputed the committee’s assessment.”
Annie Karni of the New York Times: “Representative Andy Ogles, a hard-right Tennessee Republican, on Thursday used Islamophobic language on social media to refer to Zohran Mamdani, the presumptive Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, and said he should be deported. Representative Nancy Mace, Republican of South Carolina, implied that Mr. Mamdani was somehow tied to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which occurred when he was 9. That came after Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, reacted on Wednesday to Mr. Mamdani’s apparent victory with an edited image of the Statue of Liberty clothed in a burqa. The responses to Mr. Mamdani’s electoral triumph were the latest examples of how far-right Republicans in Congress have become overt in their use of bigoted language and ethnically offensive tropes, in both casual comments and official statements. Mr. Mamdani ... was born in Uganda and has lived in New York City since 1998, when he was 7 years old. He was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2018.... There is no credible evidence to suggest Mr. Mamdani is not, or shouldn’t be, a U.S. citizen.”
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: “The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that Planned Parenthood and one of its patients cannot sue South Carolina over its effort to deny funding to the group, reasoning that the relevant federal statute does not authorize such suits. The vote was 6 to 3, with the court’s three liberal members in dissent.... In shutting down such suits in federal court, the majority made it easier for states to deny funding to Planned Parenthood, particularly given the current administration’s hostility to abortion rights.” ~~~
~~~ Lindsay Whitehurst of the AP: “States can block the country’s biggest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, from receiving Medicaid money for health services such as contraception and cancer screenings, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday. The 6-3 opinion by Justice Neil Gorsuch and joined by the rest of the court’s conservatives was not directly about abortion, but it comes as Republicans back a wider push across the country to defund the organization. It closes off Planned Parenthood’s primary court path to keeping Medicaid funding in place: patient lawsuits. The justices found that while Medicaid law allows people [to] choose their own provider, that does not make it a right enforceable in court.” ~~~
~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$, with a big assist from Slate, best explains the ruling. MB: This isn't even about mean old men hating young women who have sex for reasons other than procreation. Even a genuine vestal virgin still requires gynecological care. These old bastids, along with fellow traveler Amy Phony Barrett, want to make sure women can't receive care from doctors and caregivers who are sympathetic to their needs.
The Cheese Stands Disbarred. Tim Balk of the New York Times: “Kenneth Chesebro, a lawyer who helped spearhead a brazen legal effort to use phony slates of pro-Trump electors to overturn the 2020 presidential election, was disbarred in New York on Thursday, cementing an indefinite ban issued last year. The decision by a New York State appellate court concluded a strange legal journey for a Harvard-educated lawyer who worked for former Vice President Al Gore during the 2000 presidential election recount in Florida and later evolved into a supporter of ... [Donald] Trump. In a seven-page opinion, the court cited a criminal racketeering case centered on the fake electors in Georgia, where in 2023 Mr. Chesebro pleaded guilty. The New York court said Thursday that Mr. Chesebro’s 'criminal conduct — conspiracy to commit filing false documents — is unquestionably serious' and that he had undercut 'the very notion of our constitutional democracy that he, as an attorney, swore an oath to uphold.'” An NBC News report is here.
Janny Scott of the New York Times: “Bill Moyers, who served as chief spokesman for President Lyndon B. Johnson during the American military buildup in Vietnam and then went on to a long and celebrated career as a broadcast journalist, returning repeatedly to the subject of the corruption of American democracy by money and power, died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 91.” The Associated Press's obituary is here.
Clyde Haberman of the New York Times: “Carolyn McCarthy, a former nine-term congresswoman from Long Island who became a champion of gun regulation after her family was shattered by a deranged shooter on a commuter train — transforming herself from a nurse and homemaker into a national symbol of unflinching, if largely frustrated, advocacy — died on Thursday at her home in Fort Myers, Fla. She was 81.” The Associated Press's obituary is here.
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