The Conversation -- July 8, 2025
⭐Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: “The Trump administration can move forward with plans to slash the federal work force and dismantle federal agencies, the Supreme Court announced on Tuesday. The decision could result in job losses for tens of thousands of employees at agencies including the Departments of Housing and Urban Development, State and Treasury. The order, which lifted a lower court's ruling that had blocked mass layoffs, was unsigned and did not include a vote count. That is typical in such emergency applications. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote a public dissent. The case represents a key test of the extent of ... [Donald] Trump's power to reorganize the government without input from Congress. The justices' order is technically only temporary, guiding how the administration can proceed while the challenge to Mr. Trump's plans continues. But in practice, it means he is free to pursue his restructuring plans, even if judges later determine that they exceed presidential power. In a two-paragraph order, the justices wrote that they had concluded that 'the government is likely to succeed on its argument' that [Mr.] Trump's executive order announcing plans to downsize the government was legal. The justices added that they had not expressed a view on the legality of specific layoffs or reorganizations by the Trump administration.
"In a 15-page dissent, Justice Jackson sharply criticized the court's decision, calling it 'not only truly unfortunate but also hubristic and senseless' and arguing that it undercut the authority of trial court judges. 'It is not this court's role to swoop in and second-guess a lower court's factual findings,' Justice Jackson wrote, echoing her dissent last month in the case limiting the power of lower-court judges to block administration policies nationwide." See commentary by Ken. W. & Akhilleus below.
Tom Nichols of the Atlantic: "Who's running America's foreign and defense policies? It's not the president, at least not on most issues. Trump's interest in foreign policy, as with so many other topics, is capricious and episodic at best. He flits away from losing issues, leaving them to others.... It's not Marco Rubio -- ... he seems to have little power in this White House. It's not [Pete] Hegseth, who can't seem to ... deliver a real briefing that isn't just a fawning performance for Trump.... The principals are either incompetent or detached from most of the policy making, and so decisions are being made at lower levels without much guidance from above.... Ironically, allowing various lower offices to fill the policy void empowers the unknown appointees whom MAGA world claims to hate in other administrations.... No one in Trump's administration has any incentive to fix this, because serious changes would be admissions of failure.... Less than a year into his second term, it's clear that the goals of Trump's 2024 run for the presidency were, in order of importance, to keep Trump out of prison, to exact revenge on Trump's enemies, and to allow Trump and his allies to enrich themselves by every possible means." Thank you to laura h. for this gift link. MB: The Atlantic was having trouble loading the page Tuesday afternoon, but after about 10 minutes, I was able to get it. ~~~
~~~ Marie: In a real presidential administration, the top people get briefings, they meet with the president and discuss options, some push their own agendas and points-of-view, the president considers their input & directs them on what to do. According to Nichols, that usual deliberative process isn't happening. Trump's lack of engagement and his Cabinet members' lack of status are letting the "deep state" make most of the foreign policy decisions. Until something causes Trump to take notice. At any time, Trump can blow up deep-state plans and policies, as he did Monday when he reversed the recently-announced Pentagon decision to pause weapons deliveries to Ukraine. So chaos reigns. Trump's deep state cannot manage his brain-farts, and Little Marco & Drunk Pete are afraid to do so. We have a blustery, big-stick, occasional foreign "policy" that makes no sense except insofar as it may satisfy the short-term personal advantage of Donald Trump.
Contributor Ken W. is confused. He was certain Marco Rubio was AI-generated. Then comes this: ~~~
~~~ John Hudson & Hannah Natanson of the Washington Post: "An impostor pretending to be Secretary of State Marco Rubio contacted foreign ministers, a U.S. governor and a member of Congress by sending them voice and text messages that mimic Rubio's voice and writing style using artificial intelligence-powered software, according to a senior U.S. official and a State Department cable obtained by The Washington Post.... Using both text messaging and the encrypted messaging app Signal, which the Trump administration uses extensively, the impostor 'contacted at least five non-Department individuals, including three foreign ministers, a U.S. governor, and a U.S. member of Congress,' said the cable, dated July 3.... The State Department responded that it would 'carry out a thorough investigation and continue to implement safeguards to prevent this from happening in the future.'... 'This is precisely why you shouldn't use Signal or other insecure channels for official government business,' ... said Hany Farid... [of] the University of California at Berkeley." MB: If the person responsible for this hoax has created a Little Marco who is more humane and decent than our current Secretary of State, then I'm all for it; give him/her a medal, not a felony indictment for impersonating a federal official.
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Ana Swanson & Tony Romm of the New York Times: Donald "Trump revived his trade war threat with more than a dozen countries on Monday, telling them that they would face steep tariffs on their exports as of Aug. 1 unless they agreed to trade deals by then. The president targeted two of America's closest foreign allies, Japan and South Korea, as well as Malaysia, Indonesia and South Africa. Mr. Trump also officially extended the timeline for dozens of other countries to agree to deals with the United States or face tariffs, signing an executive order on Monday afternoon delaying the stiff levies that were supposed to snap back on July 9. Markets dropped as investors assessed the prospect of more trade conflict with some of America's closest allies and largest trading partners. The S&P 500 ended Monday down 0.8 percent. Other major indexes also fell." The AP's report is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Gosh, that's funny. It was just Sunday that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was arguing that August 1 was not a new arbitrary deadline. Now it seems it is. Of course these tariffs are not taxes on Japan and South Korea, as Trump repeatedly claims. They are taxes on American consumers who pay them in the form of higher costs of both products made in other countries and in U.S.-made products that are similar to products made in other countries. When Trump boasts about the supposed big increases in federal revenue coming from the tariffs, those increases in U.S. Treasury revenue are coming directly from American importers/retailers and indirectly from consumers.
The New York Times' live updates of developments in the Texas flooding catastrophe are here: "At least 84 of those killed in the floods were in Kerr County. The other 20 were from nearby counties: Seven in Travis County, six in Kendall County, four in Burnet County, two in Williamson County and one in Tom Green County.... Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, called for an investigation into the administration's efforts to shrink the National Weather Service.... Former Weather Service officials said that staffing shortages had left gaps in communication with the local authorities about flash flood warnings.Officials in Kerr County, where most of the deaths occurred, said residents had previously resisted the expense of a flood warning system. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick [R] of Texas called for sirens to be installed by next summer. Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, said there would be a 'careful examination of what happened' to limit future deaths from flash flooding."
Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: "Unlike his predecessors, Mr. Trump has not hesitated to lean into partisanship during moments of major natural disasters.... When a hurricane hit North Carolina last year..., [Mr.] Trump claimed without evidence that the Biden administration was avoiding helping residents in Republican areas. When wildfires burned through Los Angeles earlier this year, Mr. Trump excoriated local and state Democrats for the calamity, making false assertions about water use policy. But after a catastrophic flood that tore through Texas last week, leaving at least 100 dead, Mr. Trump cautioned against casting blame. 'This is a hundred-year catastrophe, and it's just so horrible to watch,' the president told reporters Sunday as he left his Bedminster golf course.... He appeared close to pointing the finger at former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. before stopping short: 'That was really the Biden setup. That was not our setup. But I wouldn’t blame Biden for it either.'... The extent of the federal response on the ground remains unclear, however. Mr. Trump has repeatedly proclaimed his intention to disband the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which coordinates the federal response to natural disasters, calling it inefficient and bungling." ~~~
~~~ There's one thing you can count on when Texans experience a natural disaster: ~~~
~~~ Ted Cruz Will Go on Vacation Somewhere Else in the World. Rhian Lubin of the Independent: "Texas Senator Ted Cruz was overseas again when devastating floods struck his home state, but this time he promptly got on a flight home, his team claimed. Cruz was in Greece visiting the Parthenon in the capital city of Athens this weekend as disaster hit in Texas, reminiscent of when he went to Cancun, Mexico, in 2021 during one of the worst winter storms in the state's recent history.... Cruz's vacation was first reported by The Daily Beast after an anonymous eyewitness told the outlet they spotted him at the Parthenon around 6 p.m. local time/11 a.m. ET Saturday. '20 kids dead in Texas and you take a vacation?' the eyewitness claimed they asked the senator, who 'sort of grunted and walked on.'... According to The Daily Beast, Cruz arrived in Greece on July 3. On July 2, the Texas Division of Emergency Management announced it was activating state emergency response 'in anticipation of increased threats of flooding in parts of West and Central Texas.'..." MB: To be clear, Theodoros Cruzophopoulos went to Greece after the state first sent out emergency flooding notifications, and he took his family to visit the Parthenon after many reports of the devastation caused by the flooding aired. That is, if Ted wanted to see some ruins, he could find them way closer to home -- specifically, along the banks of the Guadelupe River. ~~~
~~~ Update: According to the NYT liveblog, linked above, Cruz did not return 'to respond in person for the first 72 hours of the disaster.'
Luke Broadwater & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: Donald "Trump said on Monday that the United States would send more weapons to Ukraine to help it fend off Russia's invasion, arguing that Moscow's recent assault on Ukrainian cities left him with little choice. Mr. Trump's comments appeared to signal a reversal from the president after his administration paused some arms transfers to the country just last week, raising fears that the United States was retrenching its support. Instead, Mr. Trump said on Monday that he had grown unhappy with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who has frustrated Mr. Trump's hopes to broker a cease-fire.... After [speaking by phone with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday], Mr. Trump spoke positively about supplying additional support to Ukraine, telling reporters on Air Force One that 'we've been helping them, and we'll continue to help them.'" The AP's report is here. ~~~
~~~ Tim Zadorozhnyy of the Kyiv Independent: "... Donald Trump told President Volodymyr Zelensky during a phone call on July 4 that he was not responsible for the suspension of U.S. arms shipments to Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on July 7, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. The suspension of aid, which includes Patriot air defense missiles and precision-guided munitions, has drawn criticism from Kyiv amid an intensifying Russian aerial campaign that has killed and injured hundreds of civilians in recent weeks. According to WSJ, Trump told the Ukrainian president that he had ordered a review of Pentagon munitions stockpiles following last month's U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear sites, but he did not direct the military to halt weapons deliveries. NBC News reported on July 4 that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unilaterally halted the shipment to Ukraine on July 2, despite internal Pentagon assessments showing the aid would not compromise U.S. military readiness." ~~~
~~~ Gordon Lubold, et al. of NBC News (July 4): "The Defense Department held up a shipment of U.S. weapons for Ukraine this week over what officials said were concerns about its low stockpiles. But an analysis by senior military officers found that the aid package would not jeopardize the American military's own ammunition supplies, according to three U.S. officials. The move to halt the weapons shipment blindsided the State Department, members of Congress, officials in Kyiv and European allies, according to multiple sources.... Suspending the shipment of military aid to Ukraine was a unilateral step by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to three congressional aides and a former U.S. official.... It was the third time Hegseth on his own has stopped shipments of aid to Ukraine, the sources said. In the two previous cases, in February and in May, his actions were reversed days later."
Luke Broadwater & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: Donald "Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confronted several high-stakes issues when they met for dinner on Monday night, including the long-term future of Gaza and the prospect of Israel normalizing relations with its Persian Gulf neighbors. But first, they indulged in some self-congratulation. The two celebrated the U.S. airstrikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, and Mr. Netanyahu used the occasion to further ingratiate himself to the American president by telling Mr. Trump he had nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize. 'He's forging peace, as we speak, in one country in the region after another,' Mr. Netanyahu said, lavishing praise on Mr. Trump, who has long made known his desire for a Nobel Prize. Mr. Trump, for his part, compared his decision to authorize airstrikes on Iran to President Harry S. Truman's decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan during World War II." The Guardian's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Manchild and the Promised Land Visitor. Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "In light of Donald Trump's contentious Oval Office meetings with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and South African leader Cyril Ramaphosa, foreign leaders and diplomats are looking for a roadmap for how to deal with Donald Trump when they meet with him privately and before the cameras.... [A CNN] report notes, 'There are signs ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's planned White House visit Monday that even he is looking to avoid any chance of a fight, despite his close relationship with Trump.... According to Gérard Araud, who served as France's ambassador during Trump's first presidency the first rule is, 'You never contradict Trump publicly, because he will lose face and that's something that he can't accept....You should first be profusely grateful. You should really compliment the president. There is a sort of North Korean side in the White House. And you should let Trump really talk and talk.'... [Araud suggested] visitors treat Trump like 'a whimsical and unpredictable child.'..."
The documents filed with the court today show that the administration has not been honest with the court or the American people. -- Skye Perryman of Democracy Forward ~~~
~~~ Who's in Charge? Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "For the past several months, the Trump administration has insisted in court that it has no control over the nearly 140 Venezuelan immigrants it deported to a prison in El Salvador this spring.... Both in filings and at hearings, Trump officials have asserted that because the men are being held by jailers in El Salvador, the Salvadoran government has control over their fate. The administration has repeatedly made that claim to argue that it has no real authority to bring the immigrants back... [to the U.S]. On Monday, however, lawyers for the Venezuelan men produced a document indicating that the government of El Salvador recently told the United Nations that it, in fact, bears no legal responsibility for the men. The document, written in response to a U.N. inquiry examining some of the deportations, also claimed that the Salvadoran government was merely doing the United States" bidding when it accepted the men into its prison system.
"'The actions of the state of El Salvador have been limited to the implementation of a bilateral cooperation mechanism with another state, through which it has facilitated the use of the Salvadoran prison infrastructure for the custody of persons detained within the scope of the justice system and law enforcement of that other state,' the document said. 'In this context... the jurisdiction and legal responsibility for these persons lie exclusively with the competent foreign authorities, by virtue of international agreements signed and in accordance with the principles of sovereignty and international cooperation in criminal matters.' The document was included in a new court filing submitted to Judge James E. Boasberg, who has been hearing a long-running legal case brought by the Venezuelan men in Federal District Court in Washington." MB: I don't think Judge Boasberg will be amused. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Lee Gelert of the ACLU said on MSNBC that the Trump administration appears to have been holding the El Salvador document for three months without turning it over to the court or to the defendants' lawyers despite the discovery requests of defendants' attorneys.
Alan Feuer & Minho Kim of the New York Times: "The Justice Department said on Monday that Trump officials would immediately begin the process of expelling Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia from the country again if he is released from custody next week on charges filed after his wrongful deportation to El Salvador in March. That plan, laid out by a Justice Department lawyer at a hearing in Federal District Court in Maryland, directly contradicted a statement by the White House last month describing the possibility that the administration might re-deport Mr. Abrego Garcia as 'fake news.' At the hearing, Judge Paula Xinis, who is overseeing the original civil case emerging from the wrongful deportation, expressed frustration at the government's shifting statements about its plans to handle Mr. Abrego Garcia. The statements in court by the Justice Department lawyer, Jonathan Guynn, further muddied an already unclear picture of Mr. Abrego Garcia's future after the administration abruptly returned him to the United States last month to face criminal charges. At one point, Judge Xinis compared getting certain answers out of the government to 'nailing Jell-O to a wall.' At another point, she described the 'complete chaos' that had arisen from Mr. Abrego Garcia's being 'caught' between his civil case in Maryland and his criminal case in Federal District Court in Nashville.... Much of the confusion has stemmed from ambiguous and contradictory statements from the Trump administration and from what appears to be dueling views from the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security about how to handle the case." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Abrego Garcia's case is arguably the most high-profile deportation case the Trump administration has "managed" to date in what is supposed to be Trump's "signature" issue and a grave "national emergency." Given all that, one would think that the administration would take extra effort to appear professional, prudent and unified. Instead, they have taken on the serious matter of the future of this young man and his family as if they were all hoping to be the leads in a Three Stooges film. KKKirsti has even got the studio's wardrobe mistress to provide her with a complete set of costumes for her audition.
Devlin Barrett & Matthew Goldstein of the New York Times: "For months, Attorney General Pam Bondi promised the release of documents on the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein that could reveal damaging details, drumming up anticipation over the files, long a source of speculation and conspiracy theories. But on Monday, a memo by the Justice Department undercut her own statements, pouring cold water on baseless claims. It amounted to a catalog of conclusions that affirmed those reached years earlier by investigators, including that Mr. Epstein killed himself while in a Manhattan cell awaiting trial. 'This systematic review revealed no incriminating "client list,"' the memo said. 'There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.' 'No further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted,' the memo continued, adding that the work of the Justice Department and the F.B.I. on the records had been thorough.... In February, asked on Fox News about the so-called client list, Ms. Bondi replied, 'It's sitting on my desk right now to review.'" Emphasis added. You might think Pam Blondie is a liar. ~~~
~~~ Joe Patrice of Above the Law: "One of two things happened here. Either the Attorney General is currently engaged in covering up a damning client list that would expound upon allegations of the the pedophile sex trafficker's ties to at least some key Trump donors.... Or there never was a client list and Bondi was just bald-faced lying for attention when she explicitly said that it was on her desk.... The former would be a criminal conspiracy run from the highest halls of government. The latter is that the Attorney General exhibits a level of weaponized stupidity that should disqualify her from managing a Chipotle.... The Justice Department is fully untethered from any professional crime-fighting standards.... Epstein was a monster. And the AG treated it as a carnival act." ~~~
~~~ Matt Gertz of Media Matters: "... Donald Trump appointed conspiracy-obsessed MAGA media favorites to the highest levels of federal law enforcement, and now those figures are coming under fire from the right-wing fever swamp for failing to confirm their bullshit.... While the Epstein saga is a bit of a sideshow in the grand scheme of things, what it highlights about the underlying dynamics of the MAGA movement is deeply unsettling. It demonstrates that the Trump administration is in hock to some of the most deranged conspiracy theorists imaginable, treating them as among its closest allies and devoting substantial resources to their care and feeding.... One ironic aspect of the Epstein saga is that while MAGA influencers were apparently certain that the Trump administration was going to implicate a wave of prominent individuals in Epstein's sex crimes and, perhaps, his death, there are few figures as prominent with ties as close to Epstein as Trump himself."
Apparently, someone left the cake out in the rain. I don't think that Trump can take it: ~~~
~~~ Tara Copp, et al., of the AP: "Federal officers and National Guard troops fanned out around a mostly empty Los Angeles park in a largely immigrant neighborhood on foot, horseback and military vehicles on Monday for about an hour before abruptly leaving, an operation that local officials said seemed designed to sow fear. The Department of Homeland Security wouldn't say whether anyone had been arrested during the brief operation at MacArthur Park. Federal officials did not respond to requests for comment about why the park was targeted or why the raid ended abruptly.... 'What I saw in the park today looked like a city under siege, under armed occupation,' said Mayor Karen Bass, who showed up at the park alongside activists. She said there were children attending a day camp in the park who were quickly ushered inside to avoid seeing the troops." The New York Times story is here.
A New Record for Trump-RFKJ's HHS: Lena Sun of the Washington Post: "The United States has reached its highest annual measles case tally in 33 years, hitting at least 1,277 confirmed cases across 38 states and the District of Columbia. The milestone marks a public health reversal in defeating a highly contagious, vaccine-preventable disease as the anti-vaccine movement gains strength.... Authorities said at least 155 people have been hospitalized and three people have died of measles-related complications this year." (Also linked yesterday.)
Chris Cameron of the New York Times: "The Department of Veterans Affairs has scaled back its effort to reduce its work force by more than 80,000 people, saying on Monday that it intended to cut nearly 30,000 jobs by the end of September instead. The department effectively abandoned its previous plan to fire tens of thousands of workers as part of ... [Donald] Trump's wide-reaching plan to slash the federal bureaucracy. The new target, outlined in a department news release, would slash a work force that numbered 484,000 earlier this year to about 455,000. Nearly 17,000 employees have already left. Instead of firing workers, the rest of the cuts would be made by offering early retirement or severance payments, along with what the department described as 'normal attrition' -- the small percentage of employees who quit or move to other jobs every year."
Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times: "The Trump administration has withdrawn its plan to rewrite a ban on the last type of asbestos still used in the United States. The Biden-era ban was a victory for health advocates who had long fought to prohibit the carcinogenic mineral in all its forms. Last month the Trump administration said it planned to reconsider the asbestos ban, which would have delayed its implementation by several years. But late Monday, it withdrew that filing.... The filing is part of a court case brought by the industry challenging the restrictions. Chrysotile asbestos, known as 'white asbestos,' is banned in more than 50 countries for its link to lung cancer and mesothelioma, a cancer that forms in the linings of internal organs. White asbestos, however, has been imported for use in the United States for roofing materials, textiles and cement. It is also used in gaskets, clutches, brake pads and other automotive parts, as well as in chlorine manufacturing.... The about-face came after a public outcry over plans to reconsider Biden-era restrictions on the carcinogenic material."
David Fahrenthold of the New York Times: "The I.R.S. said on Monday that churches and other houses of worship can endorse political candidates to their congregations, carving out an exemption in a decades-old ban on political activity by tax-exempt nonprofits. The agency made that statement in a court filing intended to settle a lawsuit filed by two Texas churches and an association of Christian broadcasters. The plaintiffs that sued the I.R.S. had previously asked a federal court in Texas to create an even broader exemption -- to rule that all nonprofits, religious and secular, were free to endorse candidates to their members. That would have erased a bedrock idea of American nonprofit law: that tax-exempt groups cannot be used as tools of any campaign. Instead, the I.R.S. agreed to a narrower carveout -- one that experts in nonprofit law said might sharply increase politicking in churches, even though it mainly seemed to formalize what already seemed to be the agency's unspoken policy." The AP's report is here.
Katie Benner of the New York Times: "Planned Parenthood won a temporary injunction on Monday that allows its clinics to continue to receive Medicaid funding for services that are unrelated to abortion. The organization sued the Trump administration earlier on Monday over a new law that essentially bars Planned Parenthood clinics from receiving federal Medicaid payments, claiming that the legislation is an unconstitutional attack on Planned Parenthood's national organization and its locally run health care clinics. The lawsuit, which was filed in Federal District Court in Massachusetts, challenges part of the new domestic policy bill that ... [Donald] Trump signed on Friday. Judge Indira Talwani issued the temporary injunction...." A CBS News story is here.
The other day, Akhilleus pointed out that Trump's megabill will finance enough new secret ICE agents to comprise a private army reporting to Trump. Jason Zengerle has another idea: ~~~
~~~ Jason Zengerle of the New York Times Magazine in the New York Times on "the Ruthless Ambition of Stephen Miller": "Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, who reportedly accompanied Mr. Miller on his visit to ICE headquarters, seems to defer to him. 'It's really Stephen running D.H.S.,' a Trump adviser said. The attorney general, Pam Bondi, is so focused on preparing for and appearing on Fox News that she has essentially ceded control of the Department of Justice to Mr. Miller, making him, according to the conservative legal scholar Edward Whelan, 'the de facto attorney general.' And in a White House where the chief of staff, Susie Wiles, is not well versed or terribly interested in policy..., another Trump adviser said ... Mr. Miller is typically the final word.... With the passage of the big policy bill, ICE will have an even bigger budget to execute Mr. Miller's vision and, in effect, serve as his own private army." The link appears to be a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)
Garrett Graff: "... it's hard not to look at [Trump's megabill] and fear, most of all, how we're turbo-charging an increasingly lawless regime of immigration enforcement and adding superpowers to America's newly masked secret police.... [Here's why.]... No healthy law enforcement agency can grow quickly. And ICE is far from a healthy law enforcement agency.... When a law enforcement agency at any level grows too rapidly..., hiring standards fall, training is cut short, field training officers end up being too inexperienced to do the right training, and supervisors are too green to know how to enforce policies and procedures well.... The types of people who will be attracted to a job in the wake of Kristi Noem's special-forces cosplay, the eye-popping photo ops at El Salvador's CECOT torture gulag and the Alligator Alcatraz concentration camp are ... specifically attracted by the rough-em-up, masked secret police tactics, no-holds-barred lawlessness that ICE has pursued since January...." DHS isn't ground in rule-of-law considerations the way DOJ enforcement officers are supposed to be.... Trump and his entire administration are increasingly lawless.
Jon Stewart, who was off last week, has a full review of Trump's super-bill: ~~~
⭐Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Dan Froomkin of Press Watch: "The sad fact is that there is nothing terribly out of character about the New York Times's decision to publish a deceptive hit piece about New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, based on hacked data supplied by a noted eugenicist to whom they granted anonymity. The newsroom will go to extreme lengths to achieve its primary missions -- and one of them, most assuredly, is to take cheap shots at the left.... Consider everything that was wrong with the article. It's a long list." Froomkin runs down the list. MB: Froomkin, as usual, is excellent. Everything he covers which I already knew about is accurate, IMO. And Froomkim covers some things I didn't know about; for instance, what/who made Krugman decide he'd had enough.
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Funny.
I always thought that Little Marco was A-I generated.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/07/08/marco-rubio-ai-imposter-signal/?
Guess now there are two of them.
Tom Nichols, in The Atlantic, ponders Who’s Running American Defense Policy?
"It’s not the president, at least not on most issues. Trump’s interest in foreign policy, as with so many other topics, is capricious and episodic at best. He flits away from losing issues, leaving them to others. He promised to end the war in Ukraine in a day, but after conceding that making peace is “more difficult than people would have any idea,” the president has since shrugged and given up.
It’s not Marco Rubio—you may remember that he is technically the secretary of state, but he seems to have little power in this White House. It’s not Hegseth, who can’t seem to stop talking about “lethality” and trans people long enough to deliver a real briefing that isn’t just a fawning performance for Trump. (As bad as Hegseth can be, he seems almost restrained next to the State Department’s spokesperson, Tammy Bruce, whose comments about Trump—she thanks God for him from her podium and says he is “saving this country and the world”—have an unsettling Pyongyang-newsreader lilt to them.)"
In his substack, Robert Reich ponders What To Do About the Tinpot Dictator
After summarizing the most recent examples where "one man exercised such unbridled discretion affecting the lives of so many of us, while simultaneously preventing others — Congress, the courts, the American people — from having a say or even knowing what he’s going to do next.", Reich encourages our participation for "July 17, Good Trouble Lives On Day.
On July 17, five years since the passing of Congressman John Lewis, communities across the country will take to the streets, courthouses, and community spaces to carry forward his fight for justice, voting rights, and dignity for all.
On July 17, we must DOUBLE the number of us who turned out June 14. Because it’s our country.
And we must also appear in town halls that any Republican senators and representatives are holding, to tell them we refuse to live in a dictatorship. And tell them that we’re going to make sure they aren’t reelected.
Democracy is not a spectator sport."
Steve M. has some more on the Times' Zohran hit job.
When the guys who are going to help us are no help (in fact, are helpless) at all:
https://paulwaldman.substack.com/p/elon-musk-sam-altman-and-the-billionaire?
My Jewish neighbors went to Auschwitz…
Fat Hitler pockets millions from the for profit prison industry. The for profit prison industry pockets billions from taxpayers for the concentration camps they’re building for ICE/Gestapo. Unfortunate detainees get dumped in one of those hastily constructed concentration camps in Florida. And Florida MAGAts, giddy at the idea of their new concentration camp have their pictures taken at the Alligator Alcatraz road sign, waving like idiot tourists at Yellowstone.
This particular idiot in the accompanying picture, celebrating the imprisonment of people, many of whom have no criminal record and whose only “crime” is trying to find a better life for themselves, is in fact a dangerous criminal himself. One of the J6 Proud Boys who escaped a prison sentence of ten years after Fat Hitler let him out of jail.
This grinning monkey is Christopher Worrell, a perfect specimen of MAGA manhood. After pepper spraying police officers as one of Fatty’s insurrection thugs, Worrell skedaddled when an arrest warrant was issued for his criminal ass. He bravely hid out in some rat hole. When he was finally caught, he tried to slither out again by faking a drug overdose.
Now he’s out walking around, loving the fact that human beings who never pepper sprayed cops and tried to overthrow the country are sent to one of Fatty’s concentration camps.
Even worse, someone is making money by selling merch celebrating this house of horrors. I can just picture assholes like this Worrell coward, were he in Germany during the first Hitler’s reign, buying a t-shirt that said “My Jewish neighbors went to Auschwitz and all I got was a lousy t-shirt.”
The lowest of the low.
Test
@Akhilleus: I thought that "Alligator Alcatraz" sign must be a very good job of Photoshopping. I could not believe a government entity would post such a sign that (a) is derogatory of the people detained in the facility, and (b) makes Florida look like a place where only genuinely backward swamp creatures would live.
But I was wrong. Here are some obviously official road workers installing the sign. They are using lots of heavy equipment and are protected by guards wearing uniforms marked "police." Pathetic!
Haha-- I said that exact thing to daughter last night-- no one seems to be asking the important question: who left the cake out in the rain? And she replied exactly what you'd expect, so then I did the next line and so forth-- A lot more fun than watching mysterious warriors in full battle dress show up in your park on horses... God, these people are completely nuts in addition to being mean, incompetent, nasty, vindictive etc etc etc.
Marie,
And I have yet to hear what the actual name of this concentration camp is. Is it really Alligator Alcatraz? It’s not something like the Ron DeSantis immigrant Detainment Center or some other officialese sounding title?
Just put this into perspective. I’m guessing the vast majority of people stuck in this hell hole have no criminal record, but all the hand shakes and back slaps and photo ops and that stupid name turn the whole thing into a joke. Immigrant eaten by alligators…hilarity ensues in MAGA world.
There is no “too low” on the inhumanity scale for these people. But calling Fat Hitler TACO is a federal crime.
Wholesome Reading for the Kids
Marie and Jeanne,
Yeah, that cake was pretty damn soggy. Guess Fatty’s SS troops and Gestapo agents have no respect for baked goods.
Unfortunately, Himmler Miller has the recipe locked in his blackened little heart: one large helping of bigotry, double helping of ignorance, a thousand pounds of hatred marinated in bile and excrement, bake over the fires of hell for several years. Decorate with tin soldiers and gunpowder. Serve cold.
The choice of MacArthur Park, given the song, and the park itself, named for another narcissistic loony (at least towards the end—MacArthur wanted to drop 34(!) atomic bombs on North Korea and sites in China, which he called “retardation targets”, talk about retardation! Okay, not going there…) creates one of those odd confluences of current events, history, and pop culture that just begs for satiric treatment.
I remember when the song came out. My band mates and I were sure the wacky lyrics were some kind of abstruse drug reference (back then didn’t most songs have some kind of druggie lyrics?). The true basis, that they refer to the breakup of a romance, isn’t nearly as cool, but hey, Richard Harris! The guy had some pipes, didn’t he? Great chops.
Anyway, I’m sure Himmler is back in his white supremacy kitchen whipping up some other toxic crap,
Can’t wait.
Re the Alligator sign:
Hey. It's a sign. It's on the side of a highway in FL.
By next month it'll have so many bullet holes in it they'll have to replace it.
Every month.
Not because of what the sign means.
Just because it's an easy target in a fully-armed state.
Yee-haw.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/us/politics/supreme-court-federal-workers-layoffs.html?
The Justices didn't rule on the legality of the mass firings....
Of course, they didn't. They might have then been responsible for something. As it is, they're hiding their robes behind their king's skirts.
Fatty’s Star Chamber
Ken wrote: “The Justices didn't rule on the legality of the mass firings....
Of course, they didn't. They might have then been responsible for something. As it is, they're hiding their robes behind their king's skirts.”
Exactly. In fact, the current “court” (the word should never be inscribed without quotes. It’s no more a court of law than KKK Barbie Pam Bondi’s collection of MAGA trolls is a department of Justice) is nothing more than a vile rubber stamp for the worst MAGA wet dreams.
The “court” as it now operates can be most usefully described as a modern version of Henry VIII’s Star Chamber:
“In the reign of King Henry VIII, the [Star Chamber] court was under the successive leaderships of Cardinal Wolsey (the Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor), perhaps the King himself and Thomas Cranmer (the Archbishop of Canterbury). From this time forward, the Court of Star Chamber became a political weapon for bringing actions against those who opposed the policies of King Henry VIII, his ministers and his parliament.
Although it was initially a court of appeal, King Henry, Wolsey and Cranmer encouraged plaintiffs to bring their cases directly to the Star Chamber, bypassing the lower courts entirely. [Lower courts now, in the country formerly known as the United States are forbidden from negating any illegal or unconstitutional act of the Dear Leader. They can, however, handle traffic violations or parking infractions. Unless a MAGA zombie is at fault.]
One of the weapons of the Star Chamber was the ex officio oath where, because of their positions, individuals were forced to swear to answer truthfully all questions that might be asked. Faced with hostile questioning, this then gave them the ‘cruel trilemma’ of having to incriminate themselves, face charges of perjury if they gave unsatisfactory answers to their accusers, or be held in contempt of court if they gave no answer.”
(Per Wikipedia)
Similarly, non MAGA supplicants to Fat Hitler’s Star Chamber find themselves in the position of heads,Trump wins, tails, you lose.
The Roberts Star Chamber doesn’t just hide behind the fat king’s skirts, they raise those smelly skirts and clean his nether regions with their tongues.
I’m pretty sure this is not what the Founders had in mind.