The Conversation -- May 28, 2025
⭐Lindsay Whitehurst of the AP: "A federal trade court on Wednesday blocked ... Donald Trump from imposing sweeping tariffs on imports under an emergency-powers law. The ruling from a three-judge panel at the New York-based Court of International Trade came after several lawsuits arguing Trump has exceeded his authority, left U.S. trade policy dependent on his whims and unleashed economic chaos. The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. The Trump administration is expected to appeal. At least seven lawsuits are challenging the levies, the centerpiece of Trump's trade policy." MB: Should this ruling eventually be upheld by Johnnie & the Supremes, it would be one of the biggest "Never Minds" in recent U.S. history, the biggest still being, IMO, Dobbs. And it would be a well-deserved rebuke not only of the Crazy Man in the White House, but also his lily-livered enablers in Congress, who could and should have put a stop to it all.
Corrupt President* Pardons Two More Corrupt* GOP Officials. Gregory Svirnovskiy of Politico: "... Donald Trump issued pardons Wednesday to a former New York congressman and a three-term Connecticut governor -- part of a recent clemency spree that has also included reality TV stars and a Virginia sheriff. Trump used his presidential discretion to grant clemency to former New York Rep. Michael Grimm, who pleaded guilty to tax evasion, and former Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, a once rising star in Republican politics brought down in a corruption scandal. Grimm served in Congress from 2011 to 2015, where he developed a reputation for his brash treatment of the media. The Republican's political career came to a halt when he pleaded guilty to aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false tax return and concealing more than $900,000 in gross income.... Rowland, the governor of Connecticut from 1995 to 2004, was convicted in two separate federal criminal cases." ~~~
~~~ Here's Grimm, in the U.S. Capitol building in 2014, threatening to do grievous bodily harm to a reporter, Michael Scotto of NY1. In fact, had Grimm carried out his threat, Scotto most likely would have died a violent death as Grimm proposed to throw the reporter off a balcony onto a marble floor far below. No doubt the incident made Grimm Trump's kinda guy. ~~~
A Government Of the White Men, By the White Men & For the White Men. Julian Mark of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration moved Wednesday to dismantle one of the federal government's largest and longest-standing affirmative action programs, siding with two White-owned contracting businesses that challenged its constitutionality. In a motion filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, the Justice Department said that a Transportation Department program that has carved out an estimated $37 billion for minority- and women-owned businesses violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution. If a judge approves the proposed settlement, the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program (DBE) will be prohibited from awarding contracts based on race and sex, effectively ending its founding mission."
Confused? So Is Everybody at HHS. Lena Sun of the Washington Post: "Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s surprise announcement Tuesday ending coronavirus vaccine recommendations for healthy children and pregnant women blindsided the agency that offers that advice, according to current and former federal health officials. Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are scrambling to understand Kennedy's decision, announced in a 58-second video on X on Tuesday morning.... Five hours later, CDC officials received a one-page 'secretarial directive,' dated May 19 and signed by Kennedy, that contradicts some of what he said in his video, according to two current and one former health officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. In his tweet and video, Kennedy said he had unilaterally decided to override the current recommendation that everyone 6 months and older receive an annual coronavirus vaccination -- including healthy pregnant women.... In his video, Kennedy also said federal health officials had removed the previous recommendations from the agency website. But top CDC officials did not know of the decision at the time, according to one official, and as of Wednesday that removal still had not happened....
"Last week, top officials from the Food and Drug Administration outlined a new coronavirus vaccine policy in a New England Journal of Medicine article, approving shots only for those 65 and older and people with medical conditions [including pregnancy] that put them at high risk for severe illness.... HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said the directive provides that the vaccine should not be recommended for healthy children under 18 and should not be recommended for pregnant women. He did not address questions about the apparent contradictions between the directive, Kennedy's video and the New England Journal of Medicine article." Emphasis added.
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"The New Dark Age." Adam Serwer of the Atlantic: "The warlords who sacked Rome did not intend to doom Western Europe to centuries of ignorance.... The same cannot be said of the sweeping attack on human knowledge and progress that the Trump administration is now undertaking -- a deliberate destruction of education, science, and history, conducted with a fanaticism that recalls the Dark Ages that followed Rome's fall. Every week brings fresh examples.... By destroying knowledge, Trumpists seek to make the country more amenable to their political domination, and to prevent meaningful democratic checks on their behavior. Their victory, though, would ... annihilate some of the most effective systems for aggregating, accumulating, and applying human knowledge that have ever existed. Without those systems, America could find itself plunged into a new Dark Age.... One obvious cost is the damage to technological, scientific, and social advancement. Another will be the impossibility of self-governance, because a public denied access to empirical reality cannot engage in self-determination as the Founders imagined.... Like the catastrophic loss of knowledge in Western Europe that followed the fall of Rome, it is a self-inflicted calamity. All that matters to Trumpists is that they can reign unchallenged over the ruins." Thank you to laura h. for this gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Chris Hayes's opening segment addresses this same phenomenon. Later, he interviewed Adam Serwer & Jelani Cobb, Dean of the School of Journalism at Columbia (and a New Yorker writer): ~~~
Pardons for Sale. Price: $1MM PLUS. Ken Vogel of the New York Times: Paul "Walczak, a former nursing home executive who had pleaded guilty to tax crimes days after the 2024 election, submitted a pardon application to ... [Donald] Trump around Inauguration Day.... Still, weeks went by and no pardon was forthcoming.... Then, [his mother Elizabeth] Fago was invited to a $1-million-per-person fund-raising dinner last month that promised face-to-face access to Mr. Trump at his private Mar-a-Lago club.... Less than three weeks after she attended the dinner, Mr. Trump signed a full and unconditional pardon.... The case of Ms. Fago and Mr. Walczak is the latest example of the president's willingness to use his clemency powers to reward allies who advance his political causes, and to punish his enemies." MB: According to the report, The son is a crook who stole $10MM of nurses' withholding taxes, and the mother was involved in handling Ashley Biden's stolen diary. (Also linked yesterday.) The Hill's report is here. ~~~
~~~ Turns out Trump actually favors fraud & abuse: ~~~
~~~ Ben Shpigel of the New York Times: Donald "Trump will fully pardon the reality television stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, who were convicted three years ago of evading taxes and defrauding banks of more than $30 million to support their luxurious lifestyle. The pardon, announced Tuesday by the White House, is the latest instance of Mr. Trump using his clemency power to settle grievances over what he calls the political weaponization of the justice system. Mr. Trump, in notifying the Chrisleys' daughter, Savannah, called their treatment 'pretty harsh,' as shown in a video clip of their call posted to social media by one of the president's special assistants, Margo Martin.... According to prosecutors, their empire was 'based on the lie that their wealth came from dedication and hard work' and they were 'career swindlers who have made a living by jumping from one fraud scheme to another, lying to banks, stiffing vendors and evading taxes at every corner.'... Then, after earning millions of dollars from their show, the Chrisleys, along with their accountant, Peter Tarantino, defrauded the I.R.S., prosecutors said." The ABC News report is here. ~~~
~~~ Daniel Barnes of Politico: "In his first full week as the Justice Department's pardon attorney, Ed Martin personally reviewed a pardon application for Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes. Peter Ticktin, a lawyer and former classmate of ... Donald Trump's at New York Military Academy, hand delivered a collection of 11 pardon applications to Martin at the Justice Department on Thursday, including one for Rhodes, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 18 years in prison in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.The effort to submit new pardon applications to Martin was arranged by Ticktin and pardoned Jan. 6 rioter Treniss Evans, both now in leadership positions with a conservative nonprofit, American Rights Alliance.... Proud Boys members Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola are also among those who submitted new applications since Martin's appointment, according to Ticktin and Evans. While Trump pardoned or dismissed cases for nearly 1,600 Jan. 6 rioters on his first day back in office, certain prominent participants convicted of seditious conspiracy had their sentences commuted to time served -- a lesser form of clemency than outright pardons. Some have continued to lobby publicly for their commutations to be converted into pardons.... Ticktin said [Martin] did pledge to advance the applications to White House pardon czar Alice Johnson for review."
All Bark, No Bite, Ctd. Trump Admits He's Protecting Putin. Michael Birnbaum & Martine Powers of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump lashed out at the Kremlin on Tuesday for its unwillingness to negotiate a ceasefire with Ukraine as he continued to consider increased sanctions against Russia, an escalation from his previously friendly tone toward Vladimir Putin that came as the president appeared to grow gloomier about his ability to broker peace in Ukraine.... 'What Vladimir Putin doesn't realize is that if it weren't for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He's playing with fire!' Trump posted on Truth Social."
Peter Eavis of the New York Times: Donald "Trump and some members of Congress want to revive a depleted American shipbuilding industry to compete with China, the world's biggest maker of ships by far.... Last month, Mr. Trump issued an executive order aimed at revitalizing American shipbuilding.... It is such a daunting goal that some shipping experts say it is destined to fail.... The Philadelphia yard won't have space for new orders until 2027, and other American shipyards are so tied up with filling orders for the Navy that they don't have the capacity to produce commercial vessels. It takes far longer to build ships in the United States than in Asia, and costs nearly five times as much. The Philadelphia yard makes roughly a ship and a half a year, compared with around a ship a week at Hanwha's larger facilities in its home country.... In the last 10 years, Chinese shipbuilders delivered 6,765 commercial ships, nearly half of global deliveries, according to data from BRS Shipbrokers. Japan delivered 3,130, South Korea 2,405 and the United States just 37."
"Dictator Chic." Emily Keegan in a New York Times op-ed: "Lately the American president has been spending quite a bit of time redecorating the Oval Office. The results can only be called a gilded rococo hellscape.... There is a parade of golden objects that march across the mantel.... Gilded Rococo wall appliqués, nearly identical to the ones at Mr. Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, are stuck to the fireplace and office walls with the same level of aesthetic consideration a child gives her doll's face before covering it in nail polish. In what appears to be a bid to tie the room together, gilded floral onlays form a chain around the room's cornice. Even the doorknobs are highly polished, so the presidential seal upon them shines.... In 2017 the journalist Peter York called Mr. Trump's aesthetic 'dictator chic,' likening his New York penthouse to Muammar el-Qaddafi's homes....
"Rococo's most enduring trait has been its embrace by the bourgeoisie. By replacing marble and gold with stucco and gilded bronze, the ornamental splendor once reserved for gods and kings was now available to merchants and a growing middle class.... Right before the 2016 election, Fran Lebowitz called Mr. Trump 'a poor person's idea of a rich person.'"
Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "An enduring rift among Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's cadre of senior advisers has divided the Pentagon's front office and fueled internal speculation about his long-term viability in the Cabinet post after several episodes that attracted White House scrutiny.... The conflict within Hegseth's inner circle persists even after he purged several political appointees in April and attempts to portray a sense of unity among his remaining brain trust. His claims, however, are belied by continued behind-the-scenes dysfunction, brought on by unresolved personality conflicts, inexperience, vacancies in key leadership roles and a steady-state paranoia over what political crisis could emerge next, current and former officials said." (Also linked yesterday.)
Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "The White House has lost confidence in a Pentagon leak investigation that Pete Hegseth used to justify firing three top aides last month, after advisers were told that the aides had supposedly been outed by an illegal warrantless National Security Agency (NSA) wiretap. The extraordinary explanation alarmed the advisers, who also raised it with people close to JD Vance, because such a wiretap would almost certainly be unconstitutional and an even bigger scandal than a number of leaks. But the advisers found the claim to be untrue and complained that they were being fed dubious information by Hegseth's personal lawyer, Tim Parlatore, who had been tasked with overseeing the investigation.... One Trump adviser recently told Hegseth that he did not think ... any of the fired aides ... had leaked anything, and that he suspected the investigation had been used to get rid of aides involved in the infighting with his first chief of staff, Joe Kasper." (Also linked yesterday.)
Douglas MacMillan & Aaron Schaffer of the Washington Post: "A leader of the Trump administration's effort to detain and deport millions of immigrants recently earned consulting fees from a detention center company that is expected to benefit financially from the crackdown, according to a federal ethics filing. Before he joined the administration, border czar Tom Homan earned an undisclosed amount in fees consulting for a division of the Geo Group, one of two companies that operates the vast majority of the nation's immigrant detention facilities, according to the disclosure, which was released last week.... After this article was posted online, [ICE] issued a statement, saying, 'Tom Homan has never been involved in any contract discussions or decisions at ICE since being named border czar.' Nonetheless, Homan's recent income from Geo raises questions about whether his private-sector work is influencing the administration's push to round up and deport immigrants -- an effort that relies heavily on private detention facility operators that contract with ICE, according to a government ethics expert as well as opponents of ... Donald Trump's immigration agenda." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Yeah, sure it's a bad look. But however much Homan made on these questionable consulting contracts, I'm sure it's peanuts compared to the millions and millions of kleptocurrency Trump is raking in. Trump makes all the other corrupt officials look like choir boys in comparison. He has changed the definition of "corrupt official."
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Trump administration on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court to allow speedy deportations of migrants to countries other than their own, despite a federal judge's ruling that they must be first allowed a 'meaningful opportunity' to object. The judge [-- Brian E. Murphy of the U.S. District Court in Boston --] has said that the administration violated an order he entered last month in the cases of several men who were loaded on a plane after they were told they were being sent to South Sudan, a violence-plagued African country that most of them are not from. The order required that they be allowed a chance first to show that they were at risk of torture if deported to a country other than their own. Their flight apparently landed on Wednesday in the East African nation of Djibouti, where there is an American military base, and they have apparently been held there ever since.... There were eight deportees aboard the flight to Djibouti. One is South Sudanese, and the government has said that another will be sent to Myanmar, his home country, leaving the six others in limbo. All eight have been convicted of violent crimes." ~~~
~~~ Chris Geidner, the Law Dork, reports -- and comments on the "absurd request."
Nahal Toosi of Politico: "The Trump administration is weighing requiring all foreign students applying to study in the United States to undergo social media vetting -- a significant expansion of previous such efforts, according to a cable obtained by Politico. In preparation for such required vetting, the administration is ordering U.S. embassies and consular sections to pause scheduling new interviews for such student visa applicants, according to the cable, dated Tuesday and signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ The Forbes story, by Sara Dorn, on the visa application pause notes that "International students contribute significantly to the U.S. economy, adding $43.8 billion per year and supporting 378,175 jobs, according to the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers." AND U.S. education (as Chris Hayes noted in the segment above) is one of this country's most successful exports -- a concept too difficult for Dumb Donald to comprehend.
Susan Svrluga of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration leveled another blow at Harvard University on Tuesday, directing federal agencies to cancel or redirect contracts with the Ivy League school. According to a senior administration official, the U.S. General Services Administration will send a letter to federal agencies Tuesday asking them to identify any contracts with Harvard and whether they can be canceled or redirected elsewhere. The review would include about 30 contracts that federal agencies currently hold with Harvard, worth about $100 million, according to a Trump administration official...." (Also linked yesterday.)
Zach Montague of the New York Times: "On Tuesday, a judge struck down [Donald Trump's] executive order seeking to crush WilmerHale, one of several firms the president says have wronged him or have done work for his political opponents. The decision was the latest in an unbroken string of victories for the handful of firms that have sued to stop him. Judge Richard J. Leon of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the order was unconstitutional and 'must be struck down in its entirety,' adding that Mr. Trump appeared intent on driving the firm to the bargaining table by imposing 'a kitchen sink of severe sanctions.' The ruling seemed to validate the strategy, embraced by a minority of firms, of fighting the administration instead of caving to a pressure campaign and making deals with Mr. Trump to avoid persecution. Judges have already rejected similarly punitive executive orders aimed at the firms Perkins Coie and Jenner & Block, and lawyers representing Susman Godfrey asked a fourth judge earlier this month to issue a final decision in their case."
Mattathias Schwartz of the New York Times: "A federal judge [-- Brian Murphy of the District Court in Massachusetts --] expressed frustration on Monday night with the government's failure to give due process to a group of deportees the administration is trying to send to South Sudan but is now holding in Djibouti, as he had mandated last week.... On Monday night, Trina Realmuto, a lawyer for the migrants in the case, confirmed that her team had not been given phone access to them." Politico's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Benjamin Mullin of the New York Times: "NPR sued ... [Donald] Trump on Tuesday over his executive order that aims to end federal funding for NPR and PBS. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington by NPR and other public radio organizations..., said Mr. Trump's order violated the Constitution and the First Amendment's protections for freedom of speech. 'The president has no authority under the Constitution to take such actions,' the lawsuit said. 'On the contrary, the power of the purse is reserved to Congress.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
Rachel Roubein, et al., of the Washington Post: "Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Tuesday that his agency would no longer recommend the coronavirus vaccine for healthy pregnant women and healthy children -- a rare move that bypasses the traditional system of vaccine recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a 58-second video posted on X, Kennedy said the vaccine had been removed from the CDC's immunization schedule for those two groups of people.... Currently, the CDC recommends everyone 6 months and older receive the coronavirus vaccine annually." (Also linked yesterday.)~~~
~~~ Sophie Gardner & David Lim of Politico: "But the change bucks the CDC's precedent for updating vaccine recommendations, which typically takes place after a panel of experts votes on changes. The CDC director can endorse or reject the recommendations, but historically has almost always deferred to the panel.... To win Senate confirmation, Kennedy promised Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.) that he would 'work within the current vaccine approval and safety monitoring systems, and not establish parallel systems' and 'maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices without changes.' The panel met in April but hasn't voted to update Covid vaccine guidance. The decision to skip the vote is controversial."
Chelsea Cirruzzo of Politico: "HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. threatened to stop government scientists from publishing their work in major medical journals on a podcast Tuesday as part of his escalating war on institutions he says are influenced by pharmaceutical companies. Speaking on the 'Ultimate Human' podcast, Kennedy said the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association and The Lancet, three of the most influential medical journals in the world, were 'corrupt' and publish studies funded and approved by pharmaceutical companies.... Kennedy's stance, however, conflicts with that of his NIH director, Jay Bhattacharya, who recently told a reporter with Politico sister publication WELT he supports academic freedom, which 'means I can send my paper out even if my bosses disagree with me.'"
Maxine Joselow of the Washington Post: "Security officers escorted a top official at the Bureau of Land Management out of the agency s building Tuesday.... The reason for the removal of Michael 'Mike' Nedd, a 30-year veteran of the bureau who serves as deputy director for administration and programs, was not immediately clear. But it comes after Politico reported that he had resisted a directive from an appointee of the U.S. DOGE Service.... Spokespeople for BLM and its parent agency, the Interior Department, declined to comment on Nedd's ouster...."
Kelly Cho of the Washington Post: "A federal judge in New York cleared a path Tuesday for the Treasury Department's DOGE team to access data systems that contain sensitive financial information on millions of Americans, stating in her ruling that the Trump administration had complied with earlier requests to demonstrate it is equipped to properly screen and train employees before granting them access. U.S. District Judge Jeannette A. Vargas's ruling allows four U.S. DOGE Service employees at the Treasury Department to access the infrastructure, and opens a path for other employees of Elon Musk's DOGE team to be granted access without judicial approval so long as they undergo training and vetting procedures."
Christian Davenport of the Washington Post: "Elon Musk, returning to SpaceX on Tuesday for a test flight of his Starship spacecraft, said in an interview that slashing the size of federal government proved far tougher than he expected and lamented the intense criticism leveled at the U.S. DOGE Service, which he led.... 'DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything,' he said. 'So, like, something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it.'" The CBS News report is here. ~~~
~~~ Kenneth Chang of the New York Times: "The latest flight of SpaceX's Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, got all the way up to space, but not all the way back down to Earth. The upper-stage vehicle coasted through space on Tuesday, surpassing flights in January and March that ended in explosions and showers of debris over the Atlantic Ocean. But halfway through its journey, the spacecraft sprang a propellant leak. That caused it to start spinning out of control. The Starship vehicle used in the test flight was not able to survive the intense heat, breaking up as it fell back into the atmosphere. By design, the debris fell into the Indian Ocean, far from areas inhabited by people. That suggests SpaceX engineers still have much work to do with Starship, especially the upper-stage vehicle, before the spacecraft can be reused frequently, a necessity for fulfilling the vision of Elon Musk, who founded the company in order to send people to Mars one day.... SpaceX is to provide Starship as the lunar lander for Artemis III, the NASA mission that is to return astronauts to the surface of the moon in a couple of years. That contract is worth several billion dollars." MB: That would, of course, be taxpayer dollars.
Ed Mazza of the Huffington Post: "Wall Street investors have cooked up a new term for betting against ... Donald Trump ― and some have used it to score big gains at a time when the markets are behaving erratically due to the president's on-again, off-again tariffs. It's called 'TACO,' which is code for 'Trump Always Chickens Out,' and it refers to the president's tendency to announce massive tariffs, causing the markets to plunge, only to back off days later, causing them to rise again. Most credit Financial Times commentator Robert Armstrong for coining the term.... Ted Jenkin ... of Exit Stage Left Advisors, told The New York Post there's now a simple strategy on Wall Street based on those shifts. 'Once he delivers bad news, investors are buying those stocks when they are beaten down waiting for him to chicken out and watching those stocks rebound in value,' he explained. Analysts said the situation is unique to Trump." The New York Times story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: I'm not sure how to use "TACO" in a sentence. Maybe it's just "TACO, Baby!" accompanied by a high-five as a particular transaction pans out because the trader operated on the premise that "Trump Always Chickens Out."
Tariffs, Like Other Taxes, Are for Evading. Ana Swanson & Lazaro Gamio of the New York Times: "As U.S. tariffs on foreign products have increased sharply in recent months, so have the incentives for companies to find ways around them.... Companies may be dodging tariffs by altering the information about the shipments that is given to the U.S. government to qualify for a lower tariff rate. Or they may move the goods to another country that is subject to a lower tariff before shipping them to the United States, a technique known as transshipment. The Trump administration said this month that it would focus more on fighting trade fraud, including tariff evasion.... But many American companies say the scale of illicit activity now far outweighs the ability of these governments to thwart it. These schemes are costing the U.S. government billions of dollars in tariff revenue annually...."
Robert McFadden of the New York Times: "Ronnie Dugger, the crusading editor of a small but influential Texas journal who challenged presidents, corporations and America's privileged classes to face their responsibility for racism, poverty and the perils of nuclear war, died on Tuesday at an assisted living facility in Austin, Texas. He was 95. Inspired by Thomas Paine's treatises on independence and human rights, Mr. Dugger was the founding editor, the publisher and an owner of The Texas Observer, a widely respected publication, based in Austin, that with few resources and a tiny staff took on powerful interests, exposed injustices with investigative reports and offered an urbane mix of political dissent, narrative storytelling and cultural criticism."
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Alabama. Governor Potato Head?? Steve Benen of MSNBC: "During a Tuesday afternoon appearance on Fox News, [Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.] made it official, announcing that he's ending his congressional career after just one term and running for governor in his adopted home state of Alabama.... Tuberville's tenure in the Senate can charitably be described as an embarrassment. The Republican is perhaps best known for becoming the first and only senator in American history to impose a 10-month blockade against confirming U.S. military officials, as part of an anti-abortion fight that he didn't seem to fully understand.... In the midst of his blockade, several Senate Republicans publicly accused him of, among other things, being dishonest, damaging the military during international crises, assisting U.S. adversaries abroad and relying on tactics that were 'ridiculous' and 'dumb.'... It was not his only fiasco.... If Tuberville makes it to the governor's office next year, it'll be a classic example of a politician failing up. Benen lists a number of classic Potato Head flubs.
~~~ Marie: I wonder if Tommy is planning to live in the Alabama governor's mansion or if he'll stay in his Florida home, as allegedly he's been doing while serving as Alabama's senator.
New York. Andrew Jeong of the Washington Post: "A federal judge said Tuesday that New York City can keep charging drivers entering parts of Manhattan up to $9 until at least June 9 through its congestion pricing program, which aims to reduce traffic and raise funds to revamp the city's decaying mass transit network. Judge Lewis J. Liman of the Southern District of New York federal court issued a temporary restraining order Tuesday against Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy and other officials, blocking them from withholding federal cash or approvals from the state in a bid to kill congestion pricing. New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority sued the Trump administration in February for trying to terminate the program."
Chelsia Marcius & Maia Coleman of the New York Times: "A third person accused of kidnapping a man and torturing him for nearly three weeks to steal his Bitcoin fortune surrendered to the police in New York City on Tuesday morning, Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch said. The police identified the man, who has connections to Switzerland and Miami, as William Duplessie, 33. He spent days negotiating his surrender with the Police Department after the arrest on Friday of two other suspects, according to two law enforcement officials.... Mr. Duplessie was ... charged with kidnapping.... One of the people arrested on Friday, John Woeltz, 37, a cryptocurrency investor, faces kidnapping, assault and firearms charges. The other, Beatrice Folchi, 24, who was initially charged by the police with kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment, was quickly released and her prosecution was deferred.... Mr. Carturan and Mr. Woeltz had ties to a crypto hedge fund in New York.... Mr. Duplessie is an entrepreneur and co-founder of Pangea Blockchain Fund, an investment firm based in Lugano, Switzerland...."
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Isabel Kershner & Fatima AbdulKarim of the New York Times: "... on April 6, near ... a village in the West Bank where most of the residents have U.S. citizenship, Israeli soldiers gunned down Amer Rabee a 14-year-old Palestinian American boy who was born in New Jersey.... The Israeli military has accused Amer and two of his friends of hurling rocks toward the highway and endangering civilians. It described the boys as 'terrorists,' and said its soldiers had 'eliminated' one and shot the two others. Amer's family and one of the surviving boys deny the accusation, saying that they were picking almonds. Amer was shot multiple times in his upper body.... Amer's killing has added to accusations that the Israeli military uses excessive force and operates with impunity.... Amer's death has also raised questions about the American response to helping its own citizens. Senators Andy Kim and Cory Booker of New Jersey have called for an American-led investigation into Amer's death, but the Trump administration has remained largely noncommittal." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Akhilleus reminds me in today's Comments that I forgot to link a story about our great new diplomat Kristi Noem's excursion to Israel: ~~~
~~~ Johnatan Reiss of the New York Times (May 26): "Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, met with officials in Israel on Sunday and Monday as she underscored American support for Israel amid policy disagreements between the two countries. Ms. Noem met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and attended a ceremony on Monday that commemorated two Israeli Embassy aides who were killed last week in a shooting in Washington."-60-
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