The Conversation -- May 17, 2025

Eric Tucker, et al., of the AP: "The person believed responsible for an attack targeting a Southern California fertility clinic Saturday posted rambling online writings before an explosion that investigators are treating as an act of terrorism, according to a law enforcement official. The suspect, who died in the explosion that tore through the clinic and rattled the upscale California city of Palm Springs, also attempted to record video or stream the attack, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss details of the attack and spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press. 'Make no mistake: This is an intentional act of terrorism,' Akil Davis, the head of the FBI's Los Angeles field office, told an evening news conference. Authorities were still working to piece together a motive and build a chronology of events leading up to the attack."

Axios has released the full Biden-Hur interview. If you have five-plus hours with nothing to do, you can listen here.

Marie: Looks as if El Gordo de Mar-a-Lardo does understand that foreign trading "partners" are not the ones who pay his big, beautiful tariffs/taxes: ~~~

~~~ Josh Boak of the AP: "... Donald Trump on Saturday ripped into Walmart, saying on social media that the retail giant should eat the additional costs created by his tariffs. As Trump has jacked up import taxes, he has tried to assure a skeptical public that foreign producers would pay for those taxes and that retailers and automakers would absorb the additional expenses. Most economic analyses are deeply skeptical of those claims and have warned that the trade penalties would worsen inflation. Walmart warned on Thursday that everything from bananas to children's car seats could increase in price. Trump, in his Truth Social post, lashed out at the retailer, which employs 1.6 million people in the United States. He said the company, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, should sacrifice its profits for the sake of his economic agenda that he says will eventually lead to more domestic jobs in manufacturing. 'Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain,' Trump posted. 'Walmart made BILLIONS OF DOLLARS last year, far more than expected. Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, "EAT THE TARIFFS," and not charge valued customers ANYTHING. I'll be watching, and so will your customers!!!'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So Tyrant Don has used his position as POTUS* to bully the Congress, the courts, the press, the universities, his perceived individual political enemies, immigrants, people of color, women, consumers, small companies, and now he's zeroing in on the world's biggest retailer. No group -- save white racist men who pledge their fealty to him -- has been able to evade him. I do not understand how anyone can abide him.

~~~ Speaking of major American retailers, RAS is wondering if the feds will be hauling Jeff Bezos downtown for a chat. The linked page, BTW, is one more indicator (among many) that the entire Trumpy 8647 outrage is a hoax. With all the stories we read about the Secret Service being stretched so thin, the real outrage here is that Kristi Noem is wasting its resources on "investigating" Jim Comey, especially -- as Akhilleus points out -- it was probably Comey who got Trump elected back in '16.

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Dana Milbank of the Washington Post runs down some of Trump's and his administration's and Congressional Republicans' atrocities of the week. Milbank starts with Trump's racism: "It's hard to see this refugee policy, and the exception for Afrikaners, as anything but an assertion of white supremacy." He notes that Christopher Landau, the State Department official who welcomed the Afrikaners, bowed to the eugenics movement, a concession made more horrifying by the fact that Landau's father & grandparents were Jews who fled Austrian Nazis. As for Trump, he "abandoned any pretense of conveying the American values of freedom and democracy on his trip to the Middle East, supplanting them with the Trumpian values of greed and transactional relationships." This is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ A possible positive outcome from Trump's Grift and Graft Excursion to Arab states: ~~~

~~~ Luke Broadwater & Erika Solomon of the New York Times: Donald "Trump said on Friday that 'a lot of people are starving' in the Gaza Strip under an Israeli blockade preventing aid deliveries, adding that the U.S. wanted to help alleviate the suffering. 'We're going to handle a couple of situations that you have here,' Mr. Trump said, speaking in the United Arab Emirates on the last leg of his visit to three Persian Gulf nations this week. 'We're looking at Gaza, and we got to get that taken care of. A lot of people are starving. A lot of people. There's a lot of bad things going on.'... Mr. Trump emerged from his trip to the Middle East with a more sympathetic tone on Gaza -- a notable shift given his longstanding close relationship with the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu.... Boarding Air Force One on Friday, Mr. Trump told reporters that the United States must take action on the Gaza crisis.... On top of the total siege it has imposed on Gaza for more than two months, Israel has escalated its military campaign in recent days. Strikes on Friday killed more than 100 people, according to Gaza's health ministry, a day after Israeli bombardment forced the closure of one of the enclave's major hospitals." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: That was yesterday. Of course OF COURSE, I spoke too soon. This is today: ~~~

~~~ Courtney Kube, et al., of NBC News: "The Trump administration is working on a plan to permanently relocate up to 1 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya, five people with knowledge of the effort told NBC News. The plan is under serious enough consideration that the administration has discussed it with Libya;s leadership.... In exchange for the resettling of Palestinians, the administration would potentially release to Libya billions of dollars of funds that the U.S. froze more than a decade ago.... After publication, a [State Department] spokesperson told NBC News, 'these reports are untrue.'... In February..., Trump outlined a goal of finding 'a beautiful area to resettle people permanently in nice homes, and where they can be happy and not be shot, not be killed, not be knifed to death like what's happening in Gaza.'... Libya is struggling to care for its current population as two rival governments, one in the west led by Abdul Hamid Dbeibah and one in the east led by Khalifa Haftar, are actively and violently fighting for control. The State Department currently advises Americans not to travel to Libya 'due to crime, terrorism, unexploded landmines, civil unrest, kidnapping, and armed conflict.'" MB: It's not clear from the story which Libyan leadership the Trumpies have been talking with (or not!). In any event, I consider the reporters more credible that the State Department spokesperson.

Ryan Grenoble of the Huffington Post: "The president of the United States used the full power of his office Friday to have an embarrassing public meltdown online. Donald Trump, you see, appears to be freaking out after he got scolded by the Boss on the first night of his European tour. 'I see that Highly Overrated Bruce Springsteen goes to a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States,' Trump wrote, glossing over the fact that he, too, is currently in a foreign country speaking badly about someone. 'He's not a talented guy,' Trump sniped of the decorated Rock and Roll Hall of Famer who's won 20 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, an Academy Award, a Special Tony Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Trump also called Springsteen 'a pushy, obnoxious JERK' without a hint of self-awareness." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Grenoble is supposed to be a straight reporter. Obviously, this report is not "straight." Nonetheless, I share his bias. As an example of journalistic practice, the piece sucks. As a bit of truth-telling, I find it faultless. Oh, and it was not only Springsteen who displeased the King of Insults. ~~~

     ~~~ Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: "There were other posts aimed at other critics. 'Has anyone noticed,' Mr. Trump wrote in one of them, 'that, since I said "I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT," she's no longer "HOT?"' Shortly after that one, he took a swipe at 'grandstanders' in the Republican Party and 'radical left losers' getting in the way of his agenda and the Supreme Court, which he said was 'being played.'" McCreesh also asked the White House what Trump meant by his "vague threat" to Bruce Springsteen: "This dried out 'prune' of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that's just 'standard fare.' Then we'll all see how it goes for him!" But, McCreesh writes, "Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, would only send back a string of insults about Mr. Springsteen's career."

Cat Zakrzewski, et al., of the Washington Post: "The White House this week labeled ... Donald Trump 'the dealmaker in chief, claiming he has secured more than $2 trillion in investment agreements during his tour through oil-rich Middle Eastern monarchies. As Air Force One touched down in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, the White House released daily lists of the dozens of deals that it said Trump had secured during his visits. But at least half a dozen of the contracts were announced before Trump even took office in January.... In Doha, the administration announced $8.5 billion in projects involving the Texas energy company McDermott.... But the company previously announced contracts for [the Qatar] initiative during Joe Biden's presidency, in 2023 and 2024. When Trump was in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, the White House announced $200 billion in 'new' commercial deals with the UAE. Much of the corporate funding came from a cloud computing deal between Amazon and UAE state-owned telecommunications company e& ... [which] Amazon ... announced that contract in October, and the company had only committed about $1 billion over six years.... The math behind the White House's claim that Trump secured 'trillions' on this trip is fuzzy even including the contracts that predate his presidency." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This kind of lie annoys me because there's no way the MAGA minions will ever know his boasts are big fat lies. He constantly tells them Biden was a terrible president, but he takes credit for Biden's accomplishments.

He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant. If you're the F.B.I. director and you don't know what that meant, that meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear.... I think it's a terrible thing.... And when you add his history to that, if he had a clean history, he doesn't. He's a dirty cop, he's a dirty cop. And if he had a clean history, I could understand if there was a leniency, but I'm going to let them [-- the Justice Department --] make that decision. -- Donald Trump, signaling to Pam Bondi to throw the book at James Comey ~~~

~~~ Eileen Sullivan & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "The Secret Service questioned James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, on Friday about a social media post he made that Mr. Trump's cabinet officials and allies claimed amounted to a call for Mr. Trump's assassination, according to a law enforcement official. The Secret Service sought the interview after Mr. Comey posted a photo on Thursday of seashells on a beach forming the numbers '86 47,' a phrase used by Mr. Trump's critics at protests, and on signs and clothing. 'Eighty-six,' according to Merriam-Webster, is an old slang term meaning to dismiss or remove.... The interview is said to have taken place at a Secret Service office in Washington. Mr. Comey is said to have voluntarily consented to the interview, the official said, and was driven to the interview by Secret Service agents....

"Critics of Mr. Trump's administration have said that his officials have blown Mr. Comey's post out of proportion and are using it as an excuse to harass one of Mr. Trump's perceived enemies.... Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said the Secret Service, which falls under her department, was investigating [Mr. Comey]. Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, said on Fox News that Mr. Comey should be jailed.... It is uncommon for senior administration officials ... to comment publicly [as they did].... In an interview with Bret Baier of Fox News that was broadcast on Friday, Mr. Trump -- the target of two assassination attempts last year -- said he believed that Mr. Comey was calling for him to be killed." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: "Voluntarily?" That trip to the Secret Service office sounds a bit like a frog-march to me. CNN has videotape of the Secret Service "escorting" Comey from his home and into their minivan. Very accommodating. And here's Steve M. precisely expressing my sentiment about Trump's "analysis":

     ~~~ Steve M.: "Trump says, 'A child knows what that meant' -- yes, because if there's one thing the average child knows well, it's twentieth-century restaurant slang." After contrasting the administration's reactions to "86 47" with the right's promotion of "86 47" (including merch!), Steve concludes, "At the very least, they're trying to build an America in which anything that offends the famous Fox viewer in The White House is illegal. If we don't call them on this now, they'll keep trying to remake the country in this way. And they might get us at least partway there." ~~~

     ~~~ Steve Benen of MSNBC: Kristi "Noem ... issued on online statement that claimed, 'Disgraced former FBI Director James Comey just called for the assassination' of the president.... Team Trump has long seen Comey as a villain who should be targeted and investigated. His since-deleted Instagram post appears to have given the president's operation an excuse to do what it wanted to do anyway."

The Government does not contest before this Court the applicants' description of the notice afforded to AEA detainees in the Northern District of Texas, nor the assertion that the Government was poised to carry out removals imminently. The Government has represented elsewhere that it is unable to provide for the return of an individual deported in error to a prison in El Salvador, where it is alleged that detainees face indefinite detention. The detainees' interests at stake are accordingly particularly weighty. Under these circumstances, notice roughly 24 hours before removal, devoid of information about how to exercise due process rights to contest that removal, surely does not pass muster. -- Supreme Court Order ~~~

~~~ Mark Sherman of the AP: "The Supreme Court on Friday rejected the Trump administration's appeal to quickly resume deportations of Venezuelans under an 18th century wartime law. Over two dissenting votes, the justices acted on an emergency appeal from lawyers for Venezuelan men who have been accused of being gang members, a designation that the administration says makes them eligible for rapid removal from the United States under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The high court had already called a temporary halt to the deportations from a north Texas detention facility in a middle-of-the-night order issued last month. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Politico's report, by Josh Gerstein & Kyle Cheney, is here. And here, at long last, is the New York Times' report. The Court's order, via the Court, is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Chris Geidner, the Law Dork, addresses the import and implications of the ruling. AND here's some of what he says about Alito's dissent (joined by Thomas): "Ultimately, Alito's reasoning would mean that if the lawyers for people who the government is trying to deport with insufficient process (if not, as multiple judges have found, altogether illegally) do so in a way that moves the process along too quickly for him, there can be no appellate jurisdiction until the district court judge actually rules -- even if that is too late." MB: IOW, as far as Sam & Clarence are concerned, if ICE can whip a detainee out of the country and into a hell-hole-for-life before the district judge sharpens her pencils, it's all good. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I know that so-called "conservatives" think empathy is a dirty word, at least when it come to judging. I'm not sure if they understand what empathy means or if they really think it's wrong for courts to consider the rights of us lesser beings. What it doesn't mean -- again, when applied to judicial considerations -- is thinking, "Aw, poor you, you deserve another chance." What it does mean is pretty simple: a Judeo-Christian belief in "walking a mile in his shoes." That is, the judge must ask herself, "Were I in this situation, would I think this decision was fair to me?" I doubt Sam & Clarence would think it was fair if they got thrown in a hell-hole-for-life without being able to defend themselves. But for some reason, they are unable to put themselves in another's shoes. Not only that, they don't understand that the Court on which they sit is supposed to take extraordinary measures when bedrock Constitutional rights -- and life-and-death situations -- are on the line. That is to say, they don't know what their jobs are.

⭐Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "A top adviser to the director of national intelligence [-- Joe Kent, Tulsi Gabbard's chief-of-staff --] ordered a senior analyst [-- Michael Collins, acting chair of the National Intelligence Council --] to redo an assessment of the relationship between Venezuela's government and a gang after intelligence findings undercut the White House's justification for deporting migrants, according to officials.... [Donald] Trump's use of a wartime law to send Venezuelan migrants to a brutal prison in El Salvador without due process relies on a claim that U.S. intelligence agencies think is wrong. But behind the scenes, a political appointee [-- Kent --] told a career official [-- Collins --] to rework the assessment, a direction that allies of the intelligence analyst said amounted to pressure to change the findings." When Collins produced an updated memo that did not change the basic conclusion of the earlier memo, and the Washington Post reported on the findings, "the Trump administration and its supporters and influencers ... reacted by vilifying Mr. Collins.... Ms. Gabbard and her deputy chief of staff revealed on social media that they had made a criminal leak referral about the Post article. And, as reported by Fox News this week, Ms. Gabbard also removed Mr. Collins and his deputy from leading the council." This appears to be a gift link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The timeline of how this all came down is interesting. The reporters do not define the timeline very well here, but you can still see how various administration players tried to cover for faking an excuse to misuse the Alien Enemies Act and how they reacted to media reports.

Zach Schonfeld of the Hill: "The federal judge overseeing the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man mistakenly deported to El Salvador, blasted the Trump administration Friday for not giving her enough material to decide whether it can invoke the state secrets privilege. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said a declaration submitted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, which seeks to avoid handing over certain documents by citing national security concerns, was 'insufficient' and the government needed to show its work as to why the privilege applies.... All sides agreed that some progress has been made, but the proceeding turned fiery at times as Xinis sparred with Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Guynn< strong>, who at one point compared the discovery battle to 'hand-to-hand combat.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Alan Feuer & Aishvarya Kavi of the New York Times: "On Friday, a lawyer for the Justice Department made a new assertion, telling the judge overseeing the case that while Mr. Abrego Garcia's expulsion was in fact an error, it was neither illegal nor an example of government misconduct.... Judge Xinis ended the hearing by saying that she would reserve judgment for the moment on whether the government could invoke the state secrets privilege." MB: It appears the administration's case is, "Our conduct was legal and we won't tell you why." Welcome to the Star Chamber, folks. We are now moving back into the Late Middle Ages, which should make Sam Alito happy. ~~~

     ~~~ Update: This NBC News article, by Gary Grumbach & Daniella Silva, clarifies the government's position: "Government lawyers said the administration has not been able to answer questions about Abrego Garcia's case because that information would be considered protected under 'state secrets' or 'deliberative process' privileges that should not be shared with the public." So, what I said.

Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "The Trump administration has decided to permit the sale of devices that enable standard firearms to fire like machine guns, a move that one person familiar with the matter said was 'by far the most dangerous thing this administration has done' on gun policy. The Justice Department on Friday announced a settlement in a lawsuit brought by the National Association for Gun Rights. The lawsuit challenged an ATF rule banning 'forced reset triggers' -- devices that allow semiautomatic weapons to fire rapid bursts of bullets. 'This Department of Justice believes that the 2nd Amendment is not a second-class right,' Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. 'And we are glad to end a needless cycle of litigation with a settlement that will enhance public safety.' Vanessa Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for Giffords, the national gun violence prevention group led by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, condemned the move. Since the forced reset trigger devices will not be considered firearms, they can be purchased anonymously, without a background or age check. Machine guns have been illegal in the United States since 1986...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Gosh, as a member of the public, I'm feeling safer already, Thanks, Pam!

GAO Sez MYOB 2 DOGE. Jose Pagliery of NOTUS: "Elon Musk's DOGE team is now starting to target government agencies outside of the executive branch, notifying the U.S. Government Accountability Office -- the congressional watchdog that performs studies for legislators about federal waste, fraud and abuse -- that it has 'assigned a team' to assail that agency, according to an internal email obtained by NOTUS. The GAO is pushing back, directly telling the White House cost-cutting project managers at DOGE that the agency is far outside ... Donald Trump's jurisdiction. 'GAO was contacted by representatives of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), who sought to assign a team to GAO. Today, we sent a letter to the acting administrator of DOGE stating that GAO is a legislative branch agency that conducts work for the Congress. As such, we are not subject to DOGE or executive orders,' said an internal email sent to GAO employees at 12:42 p.m. on Friday. The email goes on to say that GAO has 'also notified relevant congressional committees and will keep them apprised of any further developments.'" An NPR story is here.

Another DOGE Deep-Fail. Hannah Natanson, et al., of the Washington Post: "The U.S. DOGE Service arrived at the Social Security Administration this year determined to slash staff and root out what it claimed was widespread fraud and wasteful spending -- a mission Elon Musk's cost-cutting team has pursued across the government. But as of this week, many of the major changes DOGE pushed at Social Security have been abandoned or are being reversed after proving ineffective, while others are yielding unintended consequences and badly damaging customer service and satisfaction. The problems come as the agency struggles to cope with a record surge of hundreds of thousands of retirement claims in recent months.... On Friday, Social Security leaders told employees that the agency was ending a security check, developed at DOGE's request, that was meant to root out allegedly fraudulent claims filed over the phone.... But the measure -- which involved placing a three-day hold on all phone claims as other staffers checked into the caller's background -- had only identified a couple of potential fraud cases while causing significant delays in claims processing....

"Kathleen Romig, a former Social Security official who is now at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said there were already safeguards in place to detect fraud through the agency's phone service. DOGE's efforts have only delayed claims processing and, like most of the team's attempts to reshape Social Security, placed serious stress on the agency, she said. 'So much of this is self-inflicted wounds,' Romig said." MB: This follows up on a story I linked yesterday about the useless, time-wasting security check.

Nicholas Nehamas of the New York Times: "The Trump administration's move to cancel a slew of federal contracts at Harvard University has sparked an internal clash over the impact on medical research intended to help veterans, including projects involving suicide prevention, toxic particle exposure and prostate cancer screening.... Records reviewed by The Times show that the V.A. has begun the process of ending half a dozen contracts on a range of research projects at Harvard.... The tensions inside the V.A. over the Harvard contracts demonstrate how ... [Donald] Trump's use of research funds as leverage in his broader pressure campaign on universities carries political risks. Mr. Trump and other Republicans have courted veterans as a key political constituency, and Mr. Collins has repeatedly promised that veteran care would not be affected, even as he enacts major cost-cutting measures and other changes."

Emily Brooks, et al., of the Hill: "Fiscal hawks on the House Budget Committee on Friday sunk a key vote on advancing the 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act' that encompasses ... [Donald] Trump's legislative agenda, marking a stunning setback for the legislation. The 16-21 vote throws up a hurdle for leaders hoping to send the bill to the Senate by Memorial Day...." Update: The Washington Post story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ As I Was Saying ... Tony Romm of the New York Times: "The Republican tax plan may offer only modest gains to everyday workers, according to a wide range of tax experts, and some taxpayers may actually be left in worse financial shape if the bill becomes law. The latest assessment arrived Friday from the Penn Wharton Budget Model, a nonpartisan scorekeeper closely watched on Capitol Hill. Economists found that many Americans who make less than $51,000 a year would see their after-tax income fall as a result of the Republican proposal beginning in 2026.... By contrast, the top 0.1 percent, including those with incomes over $4.3 million, would gain on average more than $389,000 in after-tax income in 2026...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Here's one outcome of Republicans' refusal to raise taxes on the rich, not to mention Elon's cuts to IRS collections staff: ~~~

~~~ Tony Romm, et al., of the New York Times: "The credit rating of the United States received a potentially costly downgrade on Friday, as the ratings firm Moody's determined that the government's rising debt levels stood to grow further if Republicans enact a package of new tax cuts. The downgrade, to one notch below the highest triple-A rating, amounted to a repudiation of Washington, where ... [Donald] Trump only hours earlier had pushed his party to adopt a legislative package that might add trillions of dollars to the nation's fiscal imbalance. The downgrade from Moody's means that each of the three major credit rating agencies no longer gives the United States its best rating. Fitch downgraded the United States in 2023, citing fiscal concerns, and Standard & Poor's downgraded the country in 2011. The new rating decrease could send ripple effects throughout the economy if it prompts investors to demand higher payments on bonds, which in turn could raise consumers' borrowing costs. So far, though, past downgrades have proved largely symbolic...." The CNBC report is here.

Jordyn Holman of the New York Times: "Every couple of years, Paula Kerger, the long-serving chief executive of PBS, faces pushback from Congress. It often comes from Republicans who argue that public broadcasters like PBS and NPR are biased and not deserving of taxpayers' money.... But this year, she said, feels 'very different.' In January, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission ordered an investigation into the public media networks' sponsor messages. In March, Ms. Kerger faced hostile lawmakers on a House subcommittee led by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who called the hearing 'Anti-American Airwaves.' Then, this month..., [Donald] Trump signed an executive order seeking to end all federal funding for PBS and NPR, which the White House called 'woke propaganda.' Soon after, Mr. Trump terminated a grant that PBS used to finance children's educational programs." (Also linked yesterday.)

⭐Marc Caputo & Alex Thompson of Axios: "Amid long, uncomfortable pauses, Joe Biden struggled to recall when his son died, when he left office as vice president, what year Donald Trump was elected or why he had classified documents he shouldn't have had, according to audio Axios obtained of his October 2023 interviews with special counsel Robert Hur.... The newly released recordings of Biden having trouble recalling such details -- while occasionally slurring words and muttering -- shed light on why his White House refused to release the recordings last year, as questions mounted about his mental acuity. The audio also appears to validate Hur's assertion that jurors in a trial likely would have viewed Biden as 'a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.' Partly based on that determination, Hur decided not to prosecute Biden for improper possession of classified documents, angering Republicans because Trump was facing charges in his own classified document scandal then." Read on. ~~~

     ~~~ The post includes two YouTube videos of audio clips from the interview. Marie: What is not clear from the report is who the reporters' source was for the audio clips. The following NYT report strongly suggests that the Trump White House was the source. So the clips likely distort the full picture of the interview, which lasted for about five hours over two days. But they are what they are. ~~~

     ~~~ Devlin Barrett & Tyler Pager of the New York Times: "The audio was published by Axios as the Trump administration made plans to release the full interview recording.... As early as next week, the Trump administration plans to release the audio recordings of the interview, according to people familiar with the matter.... About a month after Mr. Hur's announcement not to seek charges, officials released a transcript of his interview with Mr. Biden. But for more than a year, Republicans have been demanding that the government also release the audio recording, arguing that it might offer evidence of a decline in Mr. Biden's mental acuity.... The Trump administration was facing a court deadline next week to take a position in a lawsuit over the recording."

     ~~~ Chris Cameron of the New York Times: has more on the overall issue of President Biden's fitness to serve out a second term.~~~

     ~~~ Reid Epstein & Lisa Lerer of the New York Times: "As the Democratic Party faces record low approval ratings, many party strategists and officials believe it must rebuild trust in its brand. That process, some argue, must begin with confronting how the party handled the 2024 race. For most of Mr. Biden's term, many Democrats lived a bifurcated political life. In public, they remained staunchly behind the president, lauding him as sharp and fit to serve. But in private conversations, they fretted about his shaky gait, rambling speech and tendency to forget key details, like the names of foreign leaders.... Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut, one of the first lawmakers to call for Mr. Biden to step aside as the Democratic nominee after his disastrous debate performance in June 2024, said lawmakers had not fully known Mr. Biden's mental and physical state. But, he said, Democrats must now openly admit that the former president was unfit for a second term and should not have run.... Some Democrats are already warning that this issue could emerge as a dividing line in the 2028 presidential primary, as candidates try to distinguish themselves in what strategists widely expect to be a crowded contest." ~~~

~~~ Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "The denouement of Joe Biden is unbearably sad. It is the oldest story in tragedy: hubris. By the end, when he was bubble-wrapped in 2024, he trusted only his family and his closest aides. And they protected him with a damaging chimera. Sugarcoated interpretations of polls that were not reflected elsewhere.... It was not just Joe and Jill who wanted to hang on to power, with all the perks and trips and, for Jill, glamorous Vogue covers. It was also their advisers, Mike Donilon, Steve Ricchetti, Anita Dunn, Anthony Bernal and Annie Tomasini.... The more Biden was out of it, the more his hours and responsibilities were curtailed, the more of a vacuum there was at the top, the more power the advisers had." MB: I still blame not Joe but the palace guard, especially his wife, who should have been protecting him from his false sense of fitness for a very taxing job. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I realize that some of you don't think President Biden's fitness for office has any currency and we should let sleeping dogs lie. One critical trait that distinguishes Democrats from Republicans is that we can handle the truth. Besides, IMO, Biden's apparent unfitness for office is precisely why we're in the disastrous situation we face today. Had Biden stuck to his implied resolve to be a one-term president, Democrats would have run their usual chaotic primary season and the eventual nominee would have received a full vetting. For better or for worse, the public would have "seen" the Democratic nominee, albeit mostly through the eyes of our not-always-great journalists. We'll never know, of course, if that unknown nominee would have beat Donald Trump. But we do know that she or he would have stood a better chance.

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Texas. A Rude Awakening for Some Trump Voters. Edgar Sandoval of the New York Times: "Most mornings, Leonardo Baez, a father of seven, wakes up hours before sunrise to mix bread dough in the border city of Los Fresnos, Texas. Punishing and laborious work, yes, but owning a beloved bakery has been a lifelong dream of his, he said. It is now in jeopardy. In February, federal agents swooped down on his shop, Abby's Bakery, detained workers they said were in the country illegally and pressed charges against the owners, Mr. Baez and his wife, Nora Alicia Avila. As their July trial nears, many in this Latino-majority community of 8,500 close to Brownsville, Texas, are learning what life will be like under ... [Donald] Trump and his immigration crackdown. More than 52 percent of Los Fresnos's once-bright-blue Cameron County voted for Mr. Trump in November, but his aggressive policies are dividing families and rattling local business where undocumented residents are indistinguishable from the larger border population.... Mr. Baez and Ms. Avila face potential prison terms, loss of their legal status and deportation if they are found guilty of harboring illegal immigrants." -48-

The Conversation -- May 16, 2025

If you've been too busy to keep up with Trump's various grifts or can't keep up because there are so many, here's Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) who took to the Senate floor to run down Trump's Top Ten Grifts over the last 100+ days. A dandy PSA:

Mark Sherman of the AP: "The Supreme Court on Friday rejected the Trump administration's appeal to quickly resume deportations of Venezuelans under an 18th century wartime law. Over two dissenting votes, the justices acted on an emergency appeal from lawyers for Venezuelan men who have been accused of being gang members, a designation that the administration says makes them eligible for rapid removal from the United States under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The high court had already called a temporary halt to the deportations from a north Texas detention facility in a middle-of-the-night order issued last month. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented."

Zach Schonfeld of the Hill: "The federal judge overseeing the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man mistakenly deported to El Salvador, blasted the Trump administration Friday for not giving her enough material to decide whether it can invoke the state secrets privilege. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said a declaration submitted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, which seeks to avoid handing over certain documents by citing national security concerns, was 'insufficient' and the government needed to show its work as to why the privilege applies.... All sides agreed that some progress has been made, but the proceeding turned fiery at times as Xinis sparred with Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Guynn, who at one point compared the discovery battle to 'hand-to-hand combat.'"

Emily Brooks, et al., of the Hill: 'Fiscal hawks on the House Budget Committee on Friday sunk a key vote on advancing the 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act' that encompasses ... [Donald] Trump's legislative agenda, marking a stunning setback for the legislation. The 16-21 vote throws up a hurdle for leaders hoping to send the bill to the Senate by Memorial Day...." Update: The Washington Post story is here. ~~~

~~~ As I Was Saying ... Tony Romm of the New York Times: "The Republican tax plan may offer only modest gains to everyday workers, according to a wide range of tax experts, and some taxpayers may actually be left in worse financial shape if the bill becomes law. The latest assessment arrived Friday from the Penn Wharton Budget Model, a nonpartisan scorekeeper closely watched on Capitol Hill. Economists found that many Americans who make less than $51,000 a year would see their after-tax income fall as a result of the Republican proposal beginning in 2026.... By contrast, the top 0.1 percent, including those with incomes over $4.3 million, would gain on average more than $389,000 in after-tax income in 2026, the data show."

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post runs down some of Trump's and his administration's and Congressional Republicans' atrocities of the week. Milbank starts with Trump's racism: "It's hard to see this refugee policy, and the exception for Afrikaners, as anything but an assertion of white supremacy." He notes that Christopher Landau, the State Department official who welcomed the Afrikaners, bowed to the eugenics movement, a concession made more horrifying by the fact that Landau's father & grandparents were Jews who fled Austrian Nazis. As for Trump, he "abandoned any pretense of conveying the American values of freedom and democracy on his trip to the Middle East, supplanting them with the Trumpian values of greed and transactional relationships." This is a gift link. ~~~

~~~ A possible positive outcome from Trump's Grift and Graft Excursion to Arab states: ~~~

~~~ Luke Broadwater & Erika Solomon of the New York Times: Donald "Trump said on Friday that 'a lot of people are starving' in the Gaza Strip under an Israeli blockade preventing aid deliveries, adding that the U.S. wanted to help alleviate the suffering. 'We're going to handle a couple of situations that you have here,' Mr. Trump said, speaking in the United Arab Emirates on the last leg of his visit to three Persian Gulf nations this week. 'We're looking at Gaza, and we got to get that taken care of. A lot of people are starving. A lot of people. There's a lot of bad things going on.'... Mr. Trump emerged from his trip to the Middle East with a more sympathetic tone on Gaza -- a notable shift given his longstanding close relationship with the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu.... Boarding Air Force One on Friday, Mr. Trump told reporters that the United States must take action on the Gaza crisis.... On top of the total siege it has imposed on Gaza for more than two months, Israel has escalated its military campaign in recent days. Strikes on Friday killed more than 100 people, according to Gaza's health ministry, a day after Israeli bombardment forced the closure of one of the enclave's major hospitals."

Cat Zakrzewski, et al., of the Washington Post: "The White House this week labeled ... Donald Trump 'the dealmaker in chief, claiming he has secured more than $2 trillion in investment agreements during his tour through oil-rich Middle Eastern monarchies. As Air Force One touched down in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, the White House released daily lists of the dozens of deals that it said Trump had secured during his visits. But at least half a dozen of the contracts were announced before Trump even took office in January.... In Doha, the administration announced $8.5 billion in projects involving the Texas energy company McDermott.... But the company previously announced contracts for [the Qatar] initiative during Joe Biden's presidency, in 2023 and 2024. When Trump was in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, the White House announced $200 billion in 'new' commercial deals with the UAE. Much of the corporate funding came from a cloud computing deal between Amazon and UAE state-owned telecommunications company e& ... [which] Amazon ... announced that contract in October, and the company had only committed about $1 billion over six years.... The math behind the White House's claim that Trump secured 'trillions' on this trip is fuzzy even including the contracts that predate his presidency." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This kind of lie annoys me because there's no way the MAGA minions will ever know his boasts are big fat lies. He constantly tells them Biden was a terrible president, but he takes credit for Biden's accomplishments.

Jordyn Holman of the New York Times: "Every couple of years, Paula Kerger, the long-serving chief executive of PBS, faces pushback from Congress. It often comes from Republicans who argue that public broadcasters like PBS and NPR are biased and not deserving of taxpayers' money.... But this year, she said, feels 'very different.' In January, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission ordered an investigation into the public media networks' sponsor messages. In March, Ms. Kerger faced hostile lawmakers on a House subcommittee led by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who called the hearing 'Anti-American Airwaves.' Then, this month..., [Donald] Trump signed an executive order seeking to end all federal funding for PBS and NPR, which the White House called 'woke propaganda.' Soon after, Mr. Trump terminated a grant that PBS used to finance children's educational programs."

~~~~~~~~~~

Marie: I knew before Donald Trump won the 2016 election that he was a shallow jerk -- or, as Graydon Carter had put it, "a short-fingered vulgarian." But, I thought, everybody in a high-profile position wants to do a good job if only because he doesn't want to be humiliated. So maybe, I reasoned back then, Trump will be only moderately awful. I sure was wrong about that. During his first term, he proved to be the worst U.S. president in history. Now, in his second term, he's much worse. Why is that? Doesn't he want to be the best president ever and win the Nobel Peace Prize and get his orange face chiseled into Mount Rushmore? Well, yes, yes, he does, I've finally realized. The problem is that he is so grotesquely ignorant and understands so little about this country that he imagines he is doing what it takes to be the best president ever. He thinks all of his authoritarian power-grabbing and money-grubbing and intimidation and cruelty and chest-thumping are the markers of great leadership. ~~~

Here's somebody who does get it: Springsteen in Manchester, England: ~~~

     ~~~ Michael Levenson of the New York Times: "Bruce Springsteen opened his 'Land of Hope and Dreams' tour in Manchester, England, on Wednesday with a forceful denunciation of ... [Donald] Trump, accusing him and his administration of trampling on civil rights and workers, abandoning allies and siding with dictators. Even for an avowed liberal like Mr. Springsteen, it was a notably piercing broadside at a time when some artists have seemed to avoid directly confronting Mr. Trump as they did in 2017, after he took office the first time." ~~~

     ~~~ Here's the transcript of Springsteen's remarks, via his Website.

Sheik to Dump on Trump the Chump. Jeremy Bogaisky of Forbes: "The royal family of Qatar, owner of one of the largest private jet fleets in the world, has been quietly getting rid of some of its biggest planes. It may have found the perfect taker for one of its Boeing 747 jumbo jets in ... Donald Trump, who has been frustrated with the multi-year delays in replacing Air Force One. While many have speculated that the Qataris have offered Trump the luxurious plane to curry favor with the famously transactional president, there may be a simpler rationale: they just don't want it anymore. The royals have failed to sell the plane, which was put on the market in 2020, according to an archived listing. Giving it away could save Qatar's rulers a big chunk of change on maintenance and storage costs, aviation experts told Forbes. Making Trump happy would be an added bonus."

Waste & Abuse. Olivia George of the Washington Post: "A massive military parade and festivities planned in Washington next month will cost an estimated $25 million to $45 million and will involve dozens of warplanes, hundreds of Army vehicles and thousands of soldiers from across the country sleeping in downtown government office buildings, an Army spokesperson said Thursday. The parade, to commemorate the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary, will be held June 14, the same day as ... Donald Trump's 79th birthday.... The parade's overlap with Trump's birthday has stirred ire among some civilians and veterans, especially at a time when his overhaul of the federal government includes slashing the Department of Veterans Affairs.... The president has long mused about soldiers marching and tanks rolling down the streets of the capital and aircraft roaring overhead but backed off the idea in 2018 amid pushback from the Army and D.C. officials over exorbitant costs and the damage tanks might cause to roads."

Ann D'Innocenzio of the AP: "Walmart, which became the nation's largest retailer by making low prices a priority..., [is] warning customers that prices will rise for goods ranging from bananas to car seats.... Given the magnitude of [Trump's tariffs]..., the highest since the 1930s, higher prices are unavoidable, and they will hurt Walmart customers already buffeted by inflation over the past three years.... Those higher prices began to appear on Walmart shelves in late April and accelerated this month, Walmart executives said Thursday. However, a larger sting will start to be felt in June and July when the back-to-school shopping season goes into high gear."

Minho Kim & Tim Balk of the New York Times: "The Trump administration on Thursday fired nearly 600 employees at Voice of America, a federally funded news network that provides independent reporting to countries with limited press freedoms. The layoffs targeted contractors, most of them journalists but also some administrative employees, and amounted to over a third of Voice of America's staff. They signaled that the Trump administration planned to continue its efforts to dismantle the broadcaster despite a court ruling last month that ordered the federal government to maintain robust news programming at the network, which ... [Donald] Trump has called 'the voice of radical America.' In another sign of the Trump administration's hostility toward the broadcaster, the federal building in Washington that houses the media organization was put up for sale on Thursday." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Donald Trump so despises the truth -- AND immigrants of color, of course -- so much that he is hanging his authoritarian hat on open defiance of court orders protecting them.

Adam Goldman, et al., of the New York Times: "The F.B.I. is disbanding a squad that handles investigations into members of Congress and fraud by federal employees..., a move that comes as the Trump administration seeks to eliminate or marginalize units responsible for public corruption cases. The squad's members are likely to be reassigned..., and its work is expected to be merged with one of the other corruption units in the bureau's Washington field office, according to a person familiar with the changes. The special agent in charge of criminal matters at the field office -- who was recently responsible for investigating the Biden administration's green energy grants -- was also pushed out of his job.... The moves, some of the most drastic to date by the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, could reduce the bureau's capacity to fulfill one of its core missions: leading major investigations into public corruption cases that have included, among many others, the two federal prosecutions of Mr. Trump led by the special counsel Jack Smith." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

Oh, Lordy, somebody go online and find Kristi a National Guard outfit: ~~~

~~~ Hamed Aleaziz & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "The Department of Homeland Security has requested more than 20,000 National Guard members to help with the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, according to two U.S. officials.... The request to the Defense Department came after ... [Donald] Trump asked the Department of Homeland Security last week to increase its ranks by pulling in 20,000 officers from state or federal agencies. Lawyers at the Pentagon were reviewing the request with 'interior immigration enforcement,' according to a Defense Department official.... It was unclear what role state National Guard members would play and whether they would be involved in rounding up people for deportation, the official said. It was not immediately clear if the states would also have to approve the plan. National Guard troops have generally played a supporting role to domestic authorities in enforcing immigration issues at the border, including logistics, security and other assistance. But the Defense Department official said that if the request were approved, it would be the first time National Guard troops were used to help enforce an immigration crackdown in the United States." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Marie: So here is a Daily Mail story, and as Daily Mail stories often go, it's so bizarre you may not believe it. But Carl Gibson of AlterNet writes that the Daily Beast corroborated it: ~~~

     ~~~ Shawn Cohen of the Daily Mail: "She's been called 'ICE Barbie' for treating her Cabinet position like a TV production, but now Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is pushing for an actual reality show pitting immigrants against each other 'for the honor of fast-tracking their way to U.S. citizenship'. It may sound like a joke, but the idea is for real and is outlined in a 35-page program pitch put together in coordination with the DHS secretary, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal. Noem is even offering up officials from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to tally votes for the made-for-TV contest. The pitch comes from Rob Worsoff, a writer and producer known for Duck Dynasty, the A&E reality show about a Louisiana family and its hunting empire, and Bravo's Millionaire Matchmaker. The proposed series is called The American, named after the train that contestants would ride around the country, competing in regionally specific 'cultural' contests such as rolling logs in Wisconsin. It would lead to a grand finale with the winner getting sworn in on the steps of the U.S. Capitol." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Okay, bizarre AND wildly offensive. You remember how as the Roman Empire fell apart, it (at least apocryphally) staged popular events in which Christians were thrown to the lions and slaves fought each other to the death? That's what this is: poor people desperate to gain access to the U.S. fighting each other in a public spectacle. Like Trump, Noem has no idea what her job is and, in any event, lacks the character to do that job. ~~~

     ~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "It's getting so I can't even blame the low-information focus groups who just refuse to believe Republicans are doing what they're doing, because at times I can barely believe it myself." ~~~

~~~ Then There's This. Joseph Gedeon of the Guardian: "The restaurant Kid Rock's was among several others in Nashville owned by ... Donald Trump supporter Steve Smith where undocumented kitchen staff were asked to go home to avoid rumored immigration raids this weekend. The restaurant -- whose full name is Kid Rock's Big Ass Honky Tonk Rock N' Roll Steakhouse, and is licensed by the rightwing musician Kid Rock, who has also become one of the US president's highest-profile supporters -- reportedly found itself struggling to serve post-concert crowds on Saturday night after the order from managers instructing employees without legal status to leave, according to the Nashville Scene.... Like Kid Rock, Smith has cultivated a reputation as a vocal conservative, fighting Covid-19 restrictions and backing Trump with campaign donations. Yet the episode appeared to suggest that his establishments -- including The Diner and Honky Tonk Central -- are partly dependent on the undocumented labor the president has vowed to expel from the US." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Go ahead, you mean person who doesn't care about the trials and tribulations of small business owners who are the backbone of the U.S. economy, etc., etc.: laugh your head off. My own head is, well, off.

~~~ A Frivolous "Investigation." Chris Cameron of the New York Times: "The Trump administration is investigating James Comey, the former F.B.I. director who was fired by ... [Donald] Trump in his first term, for a social media post that officials claim amounted to a call for Mr. Trump's assassination, members of the president's cabinet said on Thursday evening. The Instagram post, which Mr. Comey later took down and said was not meant as a call for violence, showed seashells on a beach forming the numbers '86 47,' a phrase used by critics of the president online, at protests and on signs and clothing. 'Eighty-six,' according to Merriam-Webster, is an old slang term meaning to dismiss or remove, and Mr. Trump is the 47th president. The phrase has not previously been described by officials in the current administration as threatening to Mr. Trump, but soon after Mr. Comey made the post on Thursday, Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, asserted that the former F.B.I. director had 'called for the assassination' of Mr. Trump and that 'D.H.S. and Secret Service is investigating this threat and will respond appropriately.' Other high-level Trump administration officials soon chimed in to denounce Mr. Comey's post, which he had already removed and replaced with a new message that he 'didn't realize some folks associate those numbers with violence.' Kash Patel, the current F.B.I. director, announced that his agency would 'support the investigation' by the Secret Service, and Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, appeared on Fox News hours later and said that Mr. Comey should be jailed." The NBC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm just a'wonderin' when Kristi, et al., are going to "investigate" Trump and others for malicious remarks and social media content encouraging violence. As Cameron reports, "After President Joseph R. Biden Jr. took office, clothing and signs with '86 46,' referring to Mr. Biden, soon began to appear and continue to be sold online. During the 2024 campaign, Mr. Trump posted a video featuring an image of Mr. Biden hogtied on the back of a truck, imagery that had spread among Mr. Trump's followers. Mr. Trump had frequently featured violent imagery on his social media accounts during the campaign."

     ~~~ BTW, according to Merriam Webster, the term "86" comes from the restaurant industry: "Eighty-six is slang meaning 'to throw out,' 'to get rid of,' or 'to refuse service to.' It comes from 1930s soda-counter slang meaning that an item was sold out." That is, it does not mean "assassinate." I have used the term myself in the past, never with violence in mind; I might say, for instance, "I think I'll 86 my original travel plan for this summer." The whole "investigation" is another way Trump Grievance Syndrome is wasting you taxpayer dollars.

Robert Jimison of the New York Times: "The Senate on Thursday rejected a resolution written by Democrats that would have required that the Trump administration tell Congress what steps it has taken to comply with court orders involving U.S. deportees imprisoned in El Salvador and to report on the country's human rights record. The measure failed on a party-line vote of 45-50. Republicans were unanimously opposed. Supporters said the resolution was intended to determine if U.S. security assistance had gone to support the detention of U.S. residents in a country that might be violating human rights. It would have amounted to a strong rebuke of President Trump and a challenge to his aggressive deportation drive, which Democrats see as an unlawful overreach."

Jack Healy, et al., of the New York Times: "A federal judge this week dismissed charges against nearly 100 migrants detained under a Trump administration effort to arrest undocumented migrants for trespassing on a newly declared 'national defense' zone along New Mexico's border with Mexico. The order from a federal magistrate judge, Gregory B. Wormuth, added to the confusion and legal turmoil that have gripped New Mexico in the month since ... [Donald] Trump declared a ribbon of land along the 180-mile length of the state's southern border to be an Army base. Around 400 migrants had been charged with willfully violating security regulations -- misdemeanor charges that can carry up to a year in jail. The arrests, which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was praising just last Friday, had swamped local jails and every day brought dozens of shackled migrants into a federal courtroom to face the novel charges.... Judge Wormuth, a former federal prosecutor, said the federal government had failed to show that the migrants actually knew they were unlawfully entering a restricted military area. He has dismissed charges against 98 migrants so far as he works through the docket." (Also linked yesterday.)

Luke Barr of ABC News: "The acting head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency told staff members on Thursday that he believes ... Donald Trump is a bold man with a bold vision for the agency -- but that FEMA doesn't yet have a full plan to tackle hurricane season. 'I would say we're about 80 or 85% there,' Acting FEMA Administrator David Richardson told staff on a conference call.... The conference call came after an internal document prepared for Richardson ... indicated the agency was ill-prepared for the upcoming hurricane season, which starts on June 1. 'As FEMA transforms to a smaller footprint, the intent for this hurricane season is not well understood, thus FEMA is not ready,' according to the document.... In the conference call, Richardson said he and staff sat down for 'about 90 minutes' and started to come up with a plan for this year's disaster season." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Wow! These guys can come up with a plan in an hour-and-a-half that mostly covers this year's hurricanes? Impressive. What's the plan: send out a memo telling states & municipalities they're on their own and God bless?

DOGE Project Is a Cruel Waste of Time. Natalie Alms of NextGov/FCW: "After installing anti-fraud checks for benefit claims made over the phone early last month, the Social Security Administration is considering walking back the policy after finding only two cases that had a high probability of being fraudulent. The anti-fraud tool set up last month after weeks of changes to the agency's telephone policies has slowed retirement claim processing by 25% and led to a 'degradation of public service,' according to an internal May document obtained by Nextgov/FCW that examined potentially cutting the anti-fraud tool for phone claims. Under the new policy, the agency found that only two benefit claims out of over 110,000 had a high probability of being fraudulent -- and they aren't guaranteed to be so. Less than 1% of claims were flagged as even potentially fraudulent at all." MB: IOW, the only waste-fraud-and-abuse here is that committed by DOGE against citizens who should be receiving SSA benefits.

Brits Ask State to Protect Them from SpaceX Launches. Heather Vogell of ProPublica: "British officials told the U.S. they are concerned about the safety of SpaceX's plans to fly its next Starship rocket over British territories in the Caribbean, where debris fell earlier this year after two of the company's rockets exploded.... The worries from the U.K. government, detailed in a letter to a top American diplomat on Wednesday, follow the Federal Aviation Administration's decision last week to grant SpaceX's request for a fivefold increase in the number of Starship launches allowed this year, from five to 25. Growing the number of launches of the most powerful rocket ever built is a priority for SpaceX head Elon Musk.... After [an] explosion in January, residents of the Turks and Caicos reported finding pieces of the rocket on beaches and roads. A car was also damaged in the Starship 7 accident.... The British letter to a U.S. State Department official, Ambassador Lisa Kenna, asks the U.S. to consider changing the launch site or trajectory of Starship 9." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, and this: as earlier news suggested, Elon now owns the FAA.

Marie: I have a feeling this was all Elon's doing. It certainly isn't an unintentionally-created programming glitch: ~~~

     ~~~ Matthew Gault of 404 Media: "For a few hours on Wednesday, X's Grok AI wouldn't stop talking about about white genocide.... [When the X accounts asked Grok questions unrelated in any way to South African politics], it answered the question, then monologued about white farmers being attacked in South Africa.... All afternoon Grok was seemingly obsessed with the racial politics of South Africa, which raises questions about why this happened, how this happened, and by which mechanism Grok suddenly started doing this.... [Elon] Musk is from South Africa and has accused a 'major political party' in the country of 'actively promoting white genocide.'"

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "Justice Department official Ed Martin, whose nomination to serve as U.S. attorney in D.C. stalled in the Senate, is under investigation by an ethics office that handles attorney discipline in Washington, he said in an office-wide goodbye email Wednesday. On his last day as interim U.S. attorney before heading to the Justice Department, Martin alerted his office's roughly 350 attorneys and 400 staff members to the matter while claiming his confidentiality had been violated. Martin alleged that the legal ethics office, called the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, had inappropriately notified a unit of his U.S. attorney's office of the probe.... Democratic lawmakers and groups have accused Martin of abusing his power, seeking the suspension of his law license or other penalties. In complaints lodged with the Office of Disciplinary Counsel's chief, Hamilton P. 'Phil' Fox, they alleged that Martin has used the threat of prosecution to intimidate and chill the speech of perceived adversaries such as lawmakers, protesters, journalists, medical journals and others he said opposed the agendas of ... Donald Trump or billionaire adviser Elon Musk, even in instances when they did not commit a crime but acted simply unethically.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. "has been firing hundreds, if not thousands, of scientists and researchers doing critical work at various agencies under HHS. It's not even as if he's been doing this in secret; it's been widely reported for months." Yet Kennedy insisted in Senate testimony this week that he has not fired 'any working scientists.' After Kennedy repeated lied to Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), she told the HuffPost, "I think that RFK Jr. clearly believes that the more he tells a lie, the more it becomes the truth." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Since it's Kennedy's sworn (I guess) testimony that no scientists have been fired, it seems to me that every scientist with a pink slip should demand her job back since the firing was obviously an "administrative error" and not an intentional "reduction in force" approved by the head of HHS.

"Lots of Billions." Joe Walsh of CBS News: "The Federal Aviation Administration has resorted to buying replacement parts on eBay and making new parts with 3D printers, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told lawmakers Thursday -- as the air safety system draws scrutiny for decades-old technology and persistent staffing problems. 'We do try to buy replacement parts on eBay for this really old equipment,' Duffy told members of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee Thursday. 'Sometimes, we can't even buy it on eBay, so we're trying to use 3D printing to craft replacement parts for the system that we use.' Duffy appeared at the Senate hearing as the Trump administration pushes for a sweeping overhaul of the country's air traffic control system over the next three years, calling for the replacement of hundreds of radars, over a dozen new control towers and a new telecommunications system. The plan could cost 'lots of billions,' Duffy said last week, likely requiring Congress to appropriate additional funds for the FAA." ~~~

~~~ Josh Funk of the AP: "Air traffic controllers in Denver lost communications with planes for 90 seconds earlier this week and had to scramble to use backup frequencies in the latest Federal Aviation Administration equipment failure. The outage at a control center that directs planes flying at high altitude between airports all over the country on Monday afternoon affected communications, not radar, the FAA's head of air traffic control, Frank McIntosh, said during a House hearing Thursday. This communications failure follows two high-profile outages of radar and communications in the past 2 1/2 weeks at a facility in Philadelphia that directs planes in and out of the Newark, New Jersey, airport.... McIntosh said both the primary and main backup frequencies went down, so the controllers had to turn to an emergency frequency to communicate." ~~~

~~~ Marie: BTW, if you've been bought into Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's claim that the shortage of air traffic controllers is all Biden's fault (i.e., the "four years that came before"), then take a look at this chart. While the number of air-traffic controllers did drop precipitously from a high in 2012, it continued to drop during Trump's first term. The only period of increase on the chart (which runs from 2011 to through 2023) is during Biden's administration. Update: See yesterday's comments for a brief discussion of controller staffing. As NiskyGuy pointed out, it's not as simple as I make it out to be. (Also linked yesterday.)

Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "Fearing the loss of federal funding, the nation's largest anti-sexual-violence organization has barred its crisis hotline staff from pointing people to resources that might violate ... [Donald] Trump's executive orders to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. The organization, RAINN (the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network) has removed more than two dozen resources for L.G.B.T.Q. people, immigrants and other marginalized groups from its list of permissible referrals, according to documents obtained by The New York Times. The employees who answer phone calls, and the volunteers who answer online and text chats, are instructed not to deviate from that list, a policy that predates the Trump administration. For more than three months, they have been prohibited from suggesting specialized mental health hotlines for gay and transgender people, referring immigrants to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, directing students to a group that educates them about sex-based discrimination, recommending books about male-on-male or female-on-female sexual violence, and more." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This makes me sick. In order to save some lives, they are risking others. Apparently some people just aren't as worthy as others. Really, giving in to Trump's bigotry should not be the selected alternative, even if it is the most expedient.

Maya Miller & Carl Hulse of the New York Times: Donald Trump's "surprise firing of the head of the Library of Congress and efforts to install Trump loyalists at the iconic institution have stirred bipartisan pushback on Capitol Hill.... Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and the majority leader..., suggested that the White House had overstepped its authority and that both Congress and the president play roles in deciding who leads the library.... [Dr. Carla] Hayden[, whom Trump fired]..., was nominated by President Barack Obama in 2016 and confirmed for a 10-year term by the Republican-controlled Senate.... She was highly regarded by lawmakers. Opponents of the president's staff changes argue that his attempted takeover at the library breaches the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches. They are particularly concerned that it could imperil the integrity and independence of the Congressional Research Service, the premier nonpartisan research arm of the library that is little known to the public but revered by lawmakers."

Speaker Suggests Even Crueler Bill to Placate Warring GOP Reps. Scott Wong, et al., of NBC News: "Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is exploring ways to placate two rival factions who have emerged as the biggest roadblocks in the House to a massive bill for ... Donald Trump's agenda: blue-state Republicans who want larger tax breaks for their constituents and conservatives who want Medicaid cuts to kick in sooner. Johnson suggested to reporters Wednesday that provisions for a higher state and local tax (SALT) deduction and to enforce new Medicaid work requirements sooner could be incorporated into the final package as he stares down a self-imposed Memorial Day weekend deadline for passage." ~~~

     ~~~ MB: Here again, the choice is to dump on poorer people who can't afford health care in favor of people who at least have enough income to itemize deductions. (Oh, wait, that's good for me. Then great work, Mike. Suffer the ailing children, as Jesus said!) AND of course, there's no discussion of raising taxes on the super-wealthy. No, the poor have to pay for those SALT deductions.

Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court appeared divided Thursday about whether to scale back nationwide orders that have blocked ... Donald Trump's ban on birthright citizenship, in a case with implications for judicial power and what it means to be an American.... But the case before the justices is more of a referendum on the use of nationwide injunctions that have frustrated many of Trump's efforts to dramatically shrink the size of the government workforce, halt federal spending and end diversity programs. Presidents from both parties, members of Congress and Supreme Court justices from across the ideological spectrum have raised concerns about the power of a single judge to temporarily block a president's agenda nationwide.... Judges in lawsuits joined by 22 states and D.C. have issued nationwide orders blocking Trump's birthright citizenship executive action, which civil rights groups, Democratic-led states and most legal scholars say is at odds with the nation's history, the Constitution and past court rulings that enshrined birthright citizenship." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Gerstein & Hassan Kanu of Politico: "... Donald Trump's executive order purporting to end birthright citizenship found no traction Thursday at the Supreme Court, but the justices sounded inclined to rein in a legal remedy judges have used to halt many of Trump's early policy moves, from restricting immigration to cutting federal spending to ending anti-diversity initiatives. Three district judges have deployed that tool -- known as a nationwide injunction -- to block Trump from implementing his birthright citizenship order. None of the justices spoke up in defense of the order's legality during more than two hours of oral arguments, and several suggested that the order is almost surely unconstitutional.

"At the same time, the conservative justices seemed intent on devising a way to prevent, or at least limit, district judges from issuing nationwide injunctions against federal policies. Instead, those justices said, judges should focus on granting remedies that apply to the particular individuals or groups who sued, or to a clearly defined class of similarly situated people.... The court's liberal justices highlighted what they said were practical problems to limiting nationwide injunctions. Without them, the executive branch might be able to enforce a policy that one court has declared illegal against some people -- or in some jurisdictions -- but not others."

Justin Jouvenal of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that the totality of circumstances must be considered when determining whether a police shooting is justified -- not just the split seconds before an officer opens fire -- in a case involving the fatal shooting of a Black man.... The broader standard is likely to make it easier for victims to prove allegations of excessive force in court. The high court revived a lawsuit by the mother of Ashtian Barnes, 24, who alleged that Roberto Felix Jr., a law enforcement officer in Harris County, Texas, used excessive force when he opened fire on Barnes during a stop for suspected toll violations...."

Naftali Bendavid, et al., of the Washington Post: "A growing number of Democrats are publicly second-guessing their party's handling of the last election, acknowledging that President Joe Biden's delayed withdrawal was damaging and in some cases conceding they were too quick to dismiss questions about his age and mental acuity.... Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California), an outspoken supporter of Biden before he ended his reelection campaign last summer, acknowledged in a statement to The Washington Post on Wednesday that he had been mistaken in backing the former president's reelection. 'In my few interactions at public events, I found him coherent and proud of his record, but it is now painfully obvious he should not have run,' Khanna said. 'We should have had an open primary. We must acknowledge this truth to regain trust with the American people.'" ~~~

~~~ Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "For many people, Republicans especially, the Democratic Party's ongoing insistence that [President] Biden was basically fine looks like a fraud committed against the electorate. In 'Original Sin,' Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson's explosive new book about Biden's deterioration, they call the widespread refusal to admit how bad he had become a 'cover-up.'... The 'original sin' that party leaders now need to grapple with is their tendency toward groupthink, inertia and an extreme and wildly counterproductive risk aversion.... Some sort of reckoning is due for the disastrous missteps that paved the way for Trump's return. It's better for Democrats to rip off the Band-Aid now than to let the issue fester until the next election, and to try to glean some bitter lessons from their collective failure. Party officials burned a lot of credibility defending Biden's cognitive fitness." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I do feel Biden's protectors committed fraud against us, and I don't forgive them. It's a shame Biden wasn't more self-aware, but maybe that's a guy thing. I know for certain that if there was a groundswell for me to run for some elected office I would decline because it's obvious to me that my faculties are in decline. I hold Biden's family -- particularly Jill Biden -- responsible for not doing everything in their persuasive power to discourage Joe from running. I consider their behavior selfish, deceptive, unpatriotic and cruel to Joe. It was elder abuse. For all of the tsk-tsking about Hunter's misusing his proximity to Joe Biden, so did everybody who encouraged him to run for re-election.

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New York. Sharon Otterman of the New York Times: "New York University is withholding the diploma of a graduation speaker who delivered an unapproved speech on Wednesday that referred to what he called 'the atrocities currently happening in Palestine.' The move by N.Y.U. to discipline the student speaker, Logan Rozos, is the latest flashpoint between free speech principles and discipline for pro-Palestinian advocacy on American college campuses. It comes as universities across the country brace this commencement season for pro-Palestinian speeches and displays from students and for the anger that pro-Israel voices often express in response. John Beckman, an N.Y.U. spokesman, said in a statement Wednesday that the university 'strongly denounces' Mr. Rozos' decision to express 'his personal and one-sided political views.' The student 'lied about the speech he was going to deliver and violated the commitment he made to comply with our rules,' Mr. Beckman said...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The parts of Rozos' speech published in the article are not, IMO, antisemitic. If there is any place in the U.S. where a person should not "play by the rules" and should exercise his free-speech rights, it's at a university event. I have a degree from NYU. I'm with the kid.

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Ukraine. Paul Sonne of the New York Times: "Ukrainian and Russian negotiators were poised to meet on Friday for the first direct peace talks between their nations since the beginning of the war, after days of confusion and theatrics. The negotiations are not expected, even by foreign leaders like ... [Donald] Trump who called for them, to yield significant results. But the meeting itself is a win for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who refused to agree to a battlefield cease-fire that Ukraine and almost all of its Western backers had sought as a precondition for talks. Last weekend, Mr. Putin proposed direct talks with Ukraine and announced that he would send a delegation to Istanbul for negotiations on Thursday. Mr. Trump chimed in that he supported the idea. Mr. Zelensky said he would himself go to the talks and called on Mr. Putin to also be there. A Russian delegation arrived in Istanbul for the talks but Mr. Putin did not show up. Mr. Zelensky traveled to Ankara, Turkey, and met with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but he did not go to Istanbul." ~~~

~~~ Isobel Koshiw & Anastacia Galouchka of the Washington Post: "Russia has struck 25 hotels near Ukraine's front lines from the beginning of the war in 2022 through March in what appears to be a campaign to discourage journalism in the area, according to a report by the media rights group Reporters Without Borders and a Ukrainian organization, Truth Hounds.The attacks on hotels were initially sporadic but have escalated over the past year, indicating a 'shift from isolated events to a sustained threat' for media personnel working on the front lines, the report states. It found that 24 journalists had been injured and one killed in hotel strikes since the war began."

Vatican. Look Out, Leo! Henry Gomez & Megan Lebowitz of NBC News: "Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will attend Pope Leo XIV's inaugural mass in Vatican City on Sunday, the White House announced Thursday.... Vance, who is Catholic, met briefly with Pope Francis before his death last month." (Also linked yesterday.) -68-

The Conversation -- Ides of May 2025

Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court appeared divided Thursday about whether to scale back nationwide orders that have blocked ... Donald Trump's ban on birthright citizenship, in a case with implications for judicial power and what it means to be an American.... But the case before the justices is more of a referendum on the use of nationwide injunctions that have frustrated many of Trump's efforts to dramatically shrink the size of the government workforce, halt federal spending and end diversity programs. Presidents from both parties, members of Congress and Supreme Court justices from across the ideological spectrum have raised concerns about the power of a single judge to temporarily block a president's agenda nationwide.... Judges in lawsuits joined by 22 states and D.C. have issued nationwide orders blocking Trump's birthright citizenship executive action, which civil rights groups, Democratic-led states and most legal scholars say is at odds with the nation's history, the Constitution and past court rulings that enshrined birthright citizenship."

Jack Healy, et al., of the New York Times: "A federal judge this week dismissed charges against nearly 100 migrants detained under a Trump administration effort to arrest undocumented migrants for trespassing on a newly declared 'national defense' zone along New Mexico's border with Mexico. The order from a federal magistrate judge, Gregory B. Wormuth, added to the confusion and legal turmoil that have gripped New Mexico in the month since ... [Donald] Trump declared a ribbon of land along the 180-mile length of the state's southern border to be an Army base. Around 400 migrants had been charged with willfully violating security regulations -- misdemeanor charges that can carry up to a year in jail. The arrests, which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was praising just last Friday, had swamped local jails and every day brought dozens of shackled migrants into a federal courtroom to face the novel charges.... Judge Wormuth, a former federal prosecutor, said the federal government had failed to show that the migrants actually knew they were unlawfully entering a restricted military area. He has dismissed charges against 98 migrants so far as he works through the docket."

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "Justice Department official Ed Martin, whose nomination to serve as U.S. attorney in D.C. stalled in the Senate, is under investigation by an ethics office that handles attorney discipline in Washington, he said in an office-wide goodbye email Wednesday. On his last day as interim U.S. attorney before heading to the Justice Department, Martin alerted his office's roughly 350 attorneys and 400 staff members to the matter while claiming his confidentiality had been violated. Martin alleged that the legal ethics office, called the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, had inappropriately notified a unit of his U.S. attorney's office of the probe.... Democratic lawmakers and groups have accused Martin of abusing his power, seeking the suspension of his law license or other penalties. In complaints lodged with the Office of Disciplinary Counsel's chief, Hamilton P. 'Phil' Fox, they alleged that Martin has used the threat of prosecution to intimidate and chill the speech of perceived adversaries such as lawmakers, protesters, journalists, medical journals and others he said opposed the agendas of ... Donald Trump or billionaire adviser Elon Musk, even in instances when they did not commit a crime but acted simply unethically.'"

Look Out, Leo! Henry Gomez & Megan Lebowitz of NBC News: "Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will attend Pope Leo XIV's inaugural mass in Vatican City on Sunday, the White House announced Thursday.... Vance, who is Catholic, met briefly with Pope Francis before his death last month."

Oh, Lordy, somebody go online and find Kristi a National Guard outfit: ~~~

~~~ Hamed Aleaziz & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "The Department of Homeland Security has requested more than 20,000 National Guard members to help with the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, according to two U.S. officials with knowledge of the plans. The request to the Defense Department came after ... [Donald] Trump asked the Department of Homeland Security last week to increase its ranks by pulling in 20,000 officers from state or federal agencies. Lawyers at the Pentagon were reviewing the request with 'interior immigration enforcement,' according to a Defense Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations. It was unclear what role state National Guard members would play and whether they would be involved in rounding up people for deportation, the official said. It was not immediately clear if the states would also have to approve the plan. National Guard troops have generally played a supporting role to domestic authorities in enforcing immigration issues at the border, including logistics, security and other assistance. But the Defense Department official said that if the request were approved, it would be the first time National Guard troops were used to help enforce an immigration crackdown in the United States."

Adam Goldman, et al., of the New York Times: "The F.B.I. is disbanding a squad that handles investigations into members of Congress and fraud by federal employees..., a move that comes as the Trump administration seeks to eliminate or marginalize units responsible for public corruption cases. The squad's members are likely to be reassigned, potentially asked to do immigration work, and its work is expected to be merged with one of the other corruption units in the bureau's Washington field office, according to a person familiar with the changes. The special agent in charge of criminal matters at the field office -- who was recently responsible for investigating the Biden administration's green energy grants -- was also pushed out of his job.... The moves, some of the most drastic to date by the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, could reduce the bureau's capacity to fulfill one of its core missions: leading major investigations into public corruption cases that have included, among many others, the two federal prosecutions of Mr. Trump led by the special counsel Jack Smith."

Marie: BTW, if you've been bought into Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's claim that the shortage of air traffic controllers is all Biden's fault (i.e., the "four years that came before"), then take a look at this chart. While the number of air-traffic controllers did drop precipitously from a high in 2012, it continued to drop during Trump's first term. The only period of increase on the chart (which runs from 2011 to through 2023) is during Biden's administration.

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⭐QUID. PRO. QUO. ... I want to thank you and the Prime Minister and everybody else for the help you've given us, and in turn we'll do things for you that I think you'd be very, very happy about.... -- Donald Trump, to Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim and other Qatari leaders, Wednesday

Bill Kristol, in the Bulwark, explains why Trump's taking bribes right out in the open is more dangerous than typical political corruption -- like Nixon's -- where the corrupt and unlawful behavior is done in secret. "Nixon was a dodgy character operating within a rule-of-law setting. That's why Nixon was 'Tricky Dick.' Trump's not a particularly tricky politician. He's much more like a crime boss. And he understands that you're more powerful the more your criminality can afford to be demonstrated to others. After all, a mob boss needs shopkeepers to see that they need to pay him protection money. And if you're not just a mob boss but also the leader of an authoritarian movement, corruption is just part of the story. If you're interested in autocracy and not just kleptocracy, if you'd like to replace the rule of law with your own personal rule and also to liberate your followers from the rule of law, then your ambitions are even greater. An authoritarian project has to come out of the shadows to really succeed." MB: Unless you already figured this out for yourself -- I didn't -- Kristol's post is worth a read.

Here are the New York Times' live updates of developments in Donald Trump's grift and graft tour of three Middle Eastern countries.

⭐Retired Appeals Court Judge J. Michael Luttig, in the Atlantic, writes a remarkably strong condemnation of Donald Trump's attack on the Constitution and the rule of law. Luttig, a conservative Bush I appointee, covers many of Trump's outrageous usurpations of power and concludes, 'After these first three tyrannical, lawless months of this presidency, surely Americans can understand now that Donald Trump is going to continue to decimate America for the next three-plus years. He will continue his assault on America, its democracy, and rule of law until the American people finally rise up and say, 'No more.'" I hope you'll find the time to read this essay, if not today, then later. Thank you to laura h. for this gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)

Ismaeel Naar & Enjoli Liston of the New York Times: Donald "Trump met the leader of Syria on Wednesday, one day after announcing a plan to lift sanctions on that country -- a move that could ease the economic stranglehold on a nation battered by civil war and sectarian strife. It was the first time in 25 years that the two countries' leaders had met, and another milestone in Syria's bid to reintegrate itself into the international community after decades of isolation. The two men spoke for about half an hour just before a summit of Gulf leaders in Saudi Arabia, a White House official said.... Mr. Trump met [Ahmed] al-Shara at the invitation of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, who took part in the meeting. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, which backed the insurgency that brought Mr. al-Shara to power, joined by phone." (Also linked yesterday.)

Joshua Kaplan, et al., of ProPublica: "Since Trump's inauguration, the State Department has intervened on behalf of [Elon Musk's satellite Internet company] Starlink in Gambia and at least four other developing nations, previously unreported records and interviews show. As the Trump administration has gutted foreign aid, U.S. diplomats have pressed governments to fast-track licenses for Starlink and arranged conversations between company employees and foreign leaders. In cables, U.S. officials have said that for their foreign counterparts, helping Starlink is a chance to prove their commitment to good relations with the U.S. In one country last month, the U.S. embassy bragged that Starlink's license was approved despite concerns it wasn't abiding by rules that its competitors had to follow.... [In the past, w]When seeking deals for U.S. companies, they said they took care to avoid the appearance of conflicts or leaving the impression that punitive measures were on the table. Ten current and former State Department officials said the recent drive was an alarming departure from standard diplomatic practice -- because of both the tactics used and the person who would benefit most from them."

More DOGE Stupid. William K. Reilly, EPA Administrator for George H.W. Bush, in a Washington Post op-ed: "The Trump Environmental Protection Agency has made clear its hostility to initiatives animated by concern about climate change. But the Energy Star program, targeted for elimination last week, is not and never has been about climate. I was there at the creation. The EPA created Energy Star in 1992 as a public-private partnership to provide builders, owners and renters with reliable information about the energy demand associated with their buildings, homes and appliances.... The program costs $32 million in annual federal outlays to administer but has saved consumers $200 billion in utility bills since 1992 -- $14 billion in 2024 alone. The averted air pollution, which was the EPA's initial objective, has been considerable, equivalent to the emissions of hundreds of thousands of cars removed from the road." (Also linked yesterday.)

Even More DOGE Stupid. Arthur Delaney of the Huffington Post: "The Social Security Administration on Wednesday asked its employees to work hard to clear a backlog of retirement claims after the agency pushed out thousands of workers earlier this year. In an internal memo to operations employees..., a Social Security official said the agency has received more retirement claims than in any previous year, thanks in part to the ongoing retirement of baby boomers. The backlog has grown to 575,000 pending retirement claims, with more than 140,000 of those pending for more than 60 days.... 'I am calling for all offices to do their very best to increase their ... clearances by at least 10 percent daily through the end of May,' [Deputy Commissioner Stephen] Evangelista wrote. The call for Social Security's more than 50,000 employees to work harder comes just weeks after the agency trumpeted its efforts to shed staff as part of ... Donald Trump's [MB: and Elon Musk's] mission to make the government more efficient." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Hmmm. Will these Social Security employees get overtime pay for working ten percent longer? If so, how much taxpayer money are the staff cuts likely to save?

Robert Faturechi & Brandon Roberts of ProPublica: "Attorney General Pam Bondi sold between $1 million and $5 million worth of shares of Trump Media the same day that ... Donald Trump unveiled bruising new tariffs that caused the stock market to plummet, according to records obtained Wednesday by ProPublica. Trump Media, which runs the social media platform Truth Social, fell 13% in the following days, before rebounding. Trump's 'Liberation Day' press conference from the White House Rose Garden unveiling the tariffs came after the market closed on April 2. Bondi's disclosure forms showing her Trump Media sales say the transactions were made on April 2 but do not disclose whether they occurred before or after the market closed.... As part of her ethics agreement, Bondi had pledged to sell her stake of Trump Media within 90 days of her confirmation, a deadline that would have allowed her until early May to sell the shares."

Marie: A few days ago, I opined that Kristi Noem should be held in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer Congressmembers' questions. Wednesday she took it to a whole new level when Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) asked her about that Photoshopped picture of Kilmar Albrego-Garcia's hand (a photo that Dumbo Trump touted on social media and teevee as proof that Albrego-Garcia was a member of MS-13):~~~

~~~ Kristi Plans to Get Her Own New Jet Plane. Marianne LeVine & Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump is not the only one in his administration seeking a new plane. The Department of Homeland Security is planning on a new Gulfstream V, an agency official confirmed Wednesday, after the anticipated acquisition spilled into public view during a congressional oversight hearing. Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Illinois) questioned the spending plan during a House Appropriations Committee hearing on the U.S. Coast Guard and in a social media post, contending that the aircraft would be primarily used by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem. Underwood said the funding, which she placed at $50 million, would be taken from the budget of the Coast Guard, which is overseen by the DHS. 'She already has a Gulfstream 5, by the way, but she wants a new one paid for with your taxpayer dollars,' Underwood wrote on X. Referring to the Coast Guard, Underwood added: 'We should be investing in our national security and improving the lives of our Coasties -- not wasting taxpayer dollars on luxury travel and political stunts.'... The request for a new executive jet comes after years of the Coast Guard raising concerns about the age of its search-and-rescue planes, helicopters, and other equipment."

Zach Montague of the New York Times: "A judge in Virginia on Wednesday ordered the immediate release of Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University who was arrested in March, after two months of detention in an immigration facility in Texas. The order, issued from the bench by Judge Patricia Giles of the Eastern District of Virginia, came as courts around the country have been forced to navigate a sea of legal challenges caused by the Trump administration's campaign to remove scores of foreign academics from the United States. Judge Giles ordered that Mr. Suri be released without bond and imposed minimalconditions beyond requiring him to continue attending court proceedings. Mr. Suri was among several individuals legally studying in the United States, including Mahmoud Khalil, Mohsen Mahdawi, Rumeysa Ozturk and Momodou Taal, whom the Trump administration targeted for their pro-Palestinian activism, raising profound legal questions about freedom of expression.... In a statement in April, Mr. Suri said he had 'never even been to a protest' and the petition for his release filed by his lawyers suggested that he was more likely targeted because of his marriage to a U.S. citizen of Palestinian descent who has been scrutinized by conservative outlets over her family's ties to Hamas." (Also linked yesterday.)

Ellen Barry of the New York Times: "The Trump administration announced criminal smuggling charges on Wednesday against Kseniia Petrova, a Harvard scientist who was detained three months ago after failing to declare scientific samples she was carrying in her luggage. In a hearing in federal district court earlier in the day, a government lawyer told a federal judge that the Trump administration intends to deport Ms. Petrova back to Russia, a country she fled in 2022, despite her fear that she will be arrested there over her history of political protest. The moves represent an escalation in the government's case against Ms. Petrova, which in recent weeks has drawn attention from scientists and academics around the world. And it brought the government into conflict with the federal judge in Vermont, which scheduled a bail hearing for Ms. Petrova later this month, apparently setting the stage for her release.... Ms. Petrova's attorney, Gregory Romanovsky..., said the Vermont hearing had established that Ms. Petrova was detained unlawfully.... He said ... the criminal charge ... '... is clearly intended to make Kseniia look like a criminal to justify their efforts to deport her.'" The Hill's story is here.

Maggie Haberman & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, is moving the assembly of the president's daily intelligence brief from the C.I.A. headquarters to her own complex, according to officials briefed on the move. The brief, a summary of intelligence and analysis about global hot spots and national security threats, is overseen and presented to the president by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. But C.I.A. officers write much of the analysis in the document and produce it, pulling together articles and graphics on the agency's classified computer systems.... [Donald] Trump has openly mused to aides over time about whether the office she leads -- which was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks ... -- should continue to exist.... Ms. Gabbard has discussed Mr. Trump's concerns with him directly and has considered how to overhaul the office...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ More Trumpy Stupid. Marie: Yesterday I linked to a Hill story which reported, "Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard fired two top officials at the National Intelligence Council.... Gabbard removed the acting head of the council, Mike Collins, as well as his deputy, Maria Langan-Riekhof.... The firings come just days after the council released, through a Freedom of Information Act request, an assessment contradicting Trump administration claims that the Tren de Aragua gang is coordinating with the Venezuelan government." Former CIA Director John Brennan appeared on MSNBC yesterday and condemned Gabbard for firing Collins & Langan-Riekhof, both of whom worked for him. He said both were 30-year veterans of the CIA and were top-notch career analysts. Brennan agreed with Nicole Wallace that over and above the loss of these analysts' skills, the lesson here was that analysts will be fired if their analyses don't reinforce Trumpy policies. That is, career analysts are required to produce useless "analyses" that distort or alter the facts and thus are dangerous to U.S. national security. ~~~

~~~ Update: Absent evidence to justify the firings, the workforce can only conclude that their jobs are contingent on producing analysis that is aligned with the president's agenda, rather than truthful and apolitical. -- Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), ranking Democrat on the House Intel Committee ~~~

     ~~~ Steve Benen of MSNBC: "The official line from Gabbard is that she's combatting the 'politicization' of the intelligence community, a conspiratorial line embraced by partisans who disapprove of the extent to which intelligence agencies have presented evidence the president doesn't like. Indeed, as the [Washington] Post noted, Gabbard has actually 'removed or sidelined officials perceived to not support Trump's political agenda.'... Or put another way, if anyone is 'politicizing' U.S. intelligence, it's Gabbard and her Team Trump colleagues. What's more, the DNI's latest purge sends a dangerous signal to intelligence officials throughout the government: Produce reports that make the president happy, regardless of the facts, or you might be next."

Chris Cameron of the New York Times: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary and vaccine skeptic who has used his position to amplify discredited health theories and promote unconventional medical treatments, ducked questions, during a congressional hearing on Wednesday, about whether children should be vaccinated for measles, chickenpox or polio. He said people should not rely on him for medical advice. The issue came up when Representative Mark Pocan, a Wisconsin Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, asked Mr. Kennedy if he would vaccinate his own child for measles. 'For measles? Probably for measles I --' Mr. Kennedy began to answer before stopping himself. 'You know, what I would say is, my opinions about vaccines are irrelevant. 'I don't want to seem like I'm being evasive, but I don't think people should be taking medical advice from me.'... But Mr. Kennedy, who oversees several agencies whose mandate is to give advice and make policy on public health, has repeatedly used his position to weigh in on health topics, including vaccination." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: No, a health secretary -- at least one who is not a doctor or is speaking outside his area of expertise -- should not be conveying his own advice. But he should be disseminating the advice of HHS experts, and RFKJ is not doing that. He's sharing his own crackpot theories and firing legitimate scientists. And in so doing, he's sickening & even killing gullible Americans and their children. ~~~

     ~~~ Robyn Pennacchia of Wonkette watched Bobby Jr.'s testimony for nearly five hours and has more to say about it. Pennacchia does quite a good job of summarizing testimony you would not want to spend your day watching. Informative, disgusting AND amusing.

Jan Hoffman of the New York Times: "Overdose deaths in the United States fell by nearly 30,000 last year, the government reported on Wednesday, the strongest sign yet that the country is making progress against one of its deadliest, most intractable public health crises.... Deaths declined in all major categories of drug use, stimulants as well as opioids, dropping in every state but two. Nationwide, drug fatalities plunged nearly 27 percent.... In announcing the new numbers, the C.D.C. praised ... [Donald] Trump, saying in a statement that since he 'declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency in 2017' the government had added more resources to battle the drug problem. But the new data was [were!] released as Mr. Trump's health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was testifying on Capitol Hill about the administration's proposed cuts to many federal health programs, including those addressing the drug crisis.... And despite the progress, drug fatalities remain high."

Mary Papenfuss of the Independent: "The co-founder of the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream company was arrested Wednesday in a protest at a Senate hearing where he accused Congress of providing bombs that are killing children in Gaza. Ben Cohen was one of seven people arrested at the hearing held by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, according to the Capitol Police. The protest erupted as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr was beginning to testify on the 2026 budget for his department."

Steven Myers of the New York Times: "The Trump administration has sharply expanded its campaign against experts who track misinformation and other harmful content online, abruptly canceling scores of scientific research grants at universities across the country.... Officials at the Pentagon, the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation contend that the research has resulted in the censorship of conservative Americans online, though there is no evidence any of the studies resulted in that. The campaign stems from an executive order that ... [Donald] Trump issued on Jan. 20 vowing to protect the First Amendment right to free speech, but the scale of it has prompted criticism that it is targeting anyone researching misinformation. The intent, the critics have said, is in fact to stifle findings about the noxious content that is increasingly polluting social media and political discourse." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Republicans whining about how misinformation-abatement efforts target "conservatives" is pretty solid evidence that even they know -- at some level -- that right-wing opinions are premised on mis- and disinformation.

Catie Edmondson & Margot Sanger-Katz of the New York Times: "House Republicans on Wednesday pushed forward with major legislation to deliver ... [Donald] Trump's domestic agenda, moving over the opposition of Democrats to advance cuts to taxes, Medicaid and food assistance after slogging through all-night and all-day drafting sessions. The votes, in three key committees, were a crucial step for what Mr. Trump has labeled the 'big beautiful bill' that Republicans hope to push through the House by the end of next week. The approvals sent the main pieces of the legislation to the full House, where G.O.P. leaders were racing to pass it before a Memorial Day recess." ~~~

~~~ Marie: Okay, we know that cutting services to advance tax cuts is cruel and irresponsible, but surely Republicans have written a big, beautiful bill that is fiscally responsible and reduces the debt. Right? Well, no. ~~~

~~~ Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "The Republican tax proposal emerging in the House of Representatives would add more than $2.5 trillion ... -- and as much as $3.3 trillion, counting the interest owed on new debt -- ... to the federal deficit over the next decade, according to nonpartisan estimates and budget experts.... The GOP tax bill is structured so that many of its most expensive provisions expire in four years. If those tax cuts are extended -- as Republicans intend -- the cost of the legislation could rise to $5.2 trillion...." ~~~

~~~ Benjamin Oreskes of the New York Times: "The SALT deduction ... -- the amount of state and local taxes that can be written off on federal tax returns -- ... has become an outsize stumbling block for Republicans trying to pass a $3.8 trillion tax proposal that would extend ... [Donald] Trump's 2017 tax cuts and roll back subsidies for clean energy, among other things.... A group of Republican House members, mostly from New York, New Jersey and California, have vowed to vote no on the package unless the cap, which helped pay for the 2017 cuts and expires this year, is raised or abolished." ~~~

~~~ Surprise! Ben Leonard & Meredith Hill of Politico: "The House Energy and Commerce Committee was 16 hours into a nearly 27-hour markup when it became clear that top Republicans on the panel weren't clear on what key Medicaid provisions in the legislation they were actively debating would actually do. Couple that with confusion from moderates over the committee's complex and controversial proposal -- including language to dramatically overhaul the popular health safety-net program with new work requirements and cost-sharing mandates -- and it spells possible troubles ahead for the domestic policy megabill central to enacting ... Donald Trump's domestic agenda. It could also further complicate last-minute negotiations on final text before the House is set to vote on the full package next week, especially with hard-liners pushing for even deeper cuts. 'There were some items in there that, it was the first time we were hearing of them,' GOP Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, who represents a competitive district in Pennsylvania he just flipped red, said in an interview."

More GOP Stupid. David Goodman, et al., of the New York Times: "Conservative states with a hands-off approach to development, such as Texas and Oklahoma, have become wind and solar energy dynamos in recent years. But a simultaneous push by Republicans in Washington and in Sun Belt state capitals to cut off tax incentives and tighten permitting regulations threatens to snuff out the red-state renewable energy boom. The one-two punch underscores the Republicans' move away from embracing an 'all-of-the-above' approach to energy to a one-sided effort to return to fossil fuels. Its success would unwind four years of Democratic efforts to address climate change and advance a clean-energy economy. The shift has been particularly jarring in Texas, the nation's top wind power producer, which is second only to California in solar energy and industrial battery storage....

"On Tuesday, Republicans in Congress began work on legislation that would roll back tax credits for low-carbon energy, using rules that ensure the bill could reach ... [Donald] Trump with simple majorities in the House and Senate. Rather than object, the Republican-controlled State Senate in Texas has passed -- and the State House is currently considering -- several regulatory bills to curtail solar and wind projects in favor of new natural gas plants. Long the party of limited regulation and free markets, Republicans are now seeking to impose new rules on how electricity should be produced." (Also linked yesterday.)

Victoria Bisset & Jonathan Edwards of the Washington Post: "The Episcopal Church is ending its refugee resettlement agreement with the federal government rather than comply with a directive to help resettle White South Africans arriving in the United States as refugees, citing its 'steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation.'... The church's presiding bishop, Sean Rowe, said in a letter that the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, which the church's resettlement ministry participated in for decades, 'has essentially shut down' since January, with no refugees arriving and hundreds of staff laid off. Then, several weeks ago, the Trump administration told the church that it would be expected to resettle the White Afrikaners under the terms of its federal grant. Rowe said the church wouldn't do so given the 'highly unusual manner' in which the federal government selected the White South Africans, who received 'preferential treatment over many others who have been waiting in refugee camps or dangerous conditions for years.'" ~~~

Simon Levien of the New York Times: "One of the first white South African refugees to arrive in the United States appears to have made antisemitic comments on social media -- grounds the Trump administration has tried to use to deport foreign-born pro-Palestinian activists and deny immigration requests. The refugee, Charl Kleinhaus, 46, said in a statement late on Wednesday that he was not an antisemitic person. He called one social media post a mistake and said that others he shared had been written by others.... Last month, before Mr. Kleinhaus's arrival in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security said it would begin screening foreigners' social media for antisemitic content as potential 'grounds for denying immigration benefit requests.' The federal government has targeted several foreigners -- including pro-Palestinian international students -- for speech that it deems antisemitic." The Forward's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: That's odd. Christopher Landau, the State Department deputy secretary who greeted the Afrikaners, "said the new arrivals were 'carefully vetted' in South Africa prior to their arrival." P.S. Here's another way the whitey-white refugees got special treatment: according to ABC News, it appears that they are the only refugees who have not had to pay for their travel to the U.S.: "Typically, when a refugee who is resettled in the U.S. cannot afford the cost of travel, the State Department provides the refugee with an interest-free, repayable loan to fund the travel.... Refugees also sign a promissory note guaranteeing they will repay the loan...." Although the State Department won't be straight about the Afrikaners' travel arrangement, it appears State is picking up the tab for these Afrikaners.

Helpful News. Maeghan Tobin & Agnes Chang of the New York Times: "Earlier this month..., [Donald] Trump closed a longstanding loophole that had allowed a flood of inexpensive Chinese goods to be mailed to the United States without any tariffs. Starting on May 2, those packages faced a tariff of 120 percent or a $100 flat fee. After the United States and China agreed this week to a temporary truce in trade tensions, that tariff is now 54 percent. The changes, which took effect on Wednesday, were described in a White House executive order and guidance from Customs and Border Protection.... Last year, nearly four million packages a day entered the United States with no customs inspection and no duties paid, angering American businesses that said the loophole made it difficult for them to compete.... Under the rules for de minimis shipments, carriers of international mail packages can pay either the 54 percent tariff or the fee of $100 per package.... One caveat: Carriers must use the option they choose -- either the tariff or the fee -- on all packages they ship, and can elect to change only once a month.... It is likely that much of the extra cost resulting from the new tariffs will fall on shoppers. The tariffs on these shipments are also disrupting the economics of global trade." Emphasis added. (Also linked yesterday.)

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Europe. Jeanna Smialek of the New York Times: "In a case that could help shape transparency rules in a digital era, a court on Wednesday said the European Union should not have denied a journalist's request for text messages exchanged as a top official negotiated for coronavirus vaccine access. The case centered on the European Commission's denial of the request, from a New York Times journalist, for text messages between Ursula von der Leyen, president of the commission, and Pfizer's chief executive, Dr. Albert Bourla. The two had exchanged the texts in 2021 while striking a deal for Covid-19 vaccines. When the commission refused to provide the messages, The Times in early 2023 brought a case challenging that decision in court. The question at the core of the case was whether Ms. von der Leyen's text messages were covered by E.U. transparency laws and should have potentially been released.... It remains unclear whether the messages still exist or whether they have been deleted. The General Court in Luxembourg ruled that the commission did not provide enough explanation in refusing the request." (Also linked yesterday.)

Israel/Palestine. Aaron Boxerman & Abu Bashir of the New York Times: "Israeli strikes killed dozens of Palestinians in northern Gaza overnight, Palestinian health officials said on Wednesday, as Israel threatened to ramp up its military campaign in the enclave despite mounting international pressure. The bodies of more than 50 people killed overnight had arrived at the Indonesian Hospital by noon on Wednesday, according to Marwan Sultan, director of the medical facility in the town of Beit Lahia. He said children were among the dead and that dozens more people had been injured. Gaza's health ministry also said that about 70 people had been killed on Wednesday, without specifying where. Gaza health officials do not distinguish between combatants and civilians when reporting death tolls. Israel has been threatening a massive escalation across the Gaza Strip in an attempt to force Hamas to surrender and release the remaining hostages it has held for more than 18 months." (Also linked yesterday.) -53-