The Conversation -- July 13, 2025

Rebecca Solnit: "... too many of the powerful voices in this country are downplaying the crisis we're in, and that tamps down the reactions that could save us.... Two things under attack are the rule of law and the separation of powers, but the impact is largely downplayed.... Congress could take its powers back if it didn't have a submissive Republican majority in both houses.... The tariffs are now routinely treated as [Trump's] prerogative, rather than an illicit power grab (that we should be hounding Congress to fight or blaming for not fighting).... While most of the judiciary is upholding the rule of law, the rogue six in the Supreme Court are bending and twisting laws and precedents to hand unchecked power to the president... The Trumpists are increasingly disregarding the law.... ICE is given a shocking amount of money in the BBB, and the apparent plan is to have an unaccountable, lawless gangster army rove the streets of this country. I have not seen mainstream media stories on what this could look like, but I know authoritarianism comes when the authoritarian sweeps aside all limits on his power, all forms of accountability.... [The media are] downplaying Trump's massive corruption of his office...." Thanks to laura h. for the link.

Ha Ha. Colby Hall of Mediaite: “In a rare and telling moment, the president got ratioed [over the Epstein brouhaha] on the very social platform he owns, Truth Social, by the very MAGA loyalists he once could count on to amplify every post. So it’s not just the vocal MAGA influencers who aren’t buying it, it’s the very rabble he loves to rouse who are calling bullshit. For the uninitiated, getting 'ratioed' is social media shorthand for when a post receives far more replies than likes or reposts — usually a sign that the audience disagrees with, or is angry about the content.... The backlash [after Trump's post defending Pam Bondi] was immediate. The post was swarmed with angry and skeptical comments, vastly outnumbering the likes and reposts. This kind of ratio isn’t just a matter of bad optics — it’s a warning flare from Trump’s base. The digital loyalty he once commanded without question is now, at least on this issue, showing serious cracks.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is all SO stupid! These nitwits aren't upset Trump lies to them ten times a day; they aren't upset he has scammed them again and again with his cheesy merch; they aren't upset his megabill will do harm to them and their families; they aren't upset his goons are picking up & deporting mostly regular people, not criminals. Nope. They're upset they're not going to find out what they already know: that men associated with Jeffrey Epstein are skank.

     ~~~ Tom Sullivan of digby's Hullabaloo has more. ~~~

     ~~~ AND Steve M. found a response to a Laura Loomer post that he writes, "is more revealing of the MAGA mindset than all the New York Times diner safaris and Trump-voter focus groups combined. For much of MAGA, there aren't multiple conspiracies. There's just one big conspiracy: the Deep State runs everything, and Donald Trump is tasked by God with dismantling it and bringing the malefactors to judgment.... The problem for Trump now is that his voters have been led to believe that the Epstein client list and the Deep State are exactly the same thing.... MAGA believes that Epstein was a procurer only for people MAGA hates, and that the entire Deep State was in on this, because child exploitation is central to how the rich and powerful operate.... Trump and the party established unrealistic expectations for their voters -- and now they're beginning to pay the price for that." MB: Steve's explanation makes sense, & it answers questions I raised along the lines of "Why would MAGA care about Epstein?"

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Most days the big news is that Trump is being cruel or corrupt (or both) again, not to mention careless and craven. Today it's more along the lines of crazy.

laura h. noticed (see yesterday's Comments) that Trump “sounding especially deranged and even a little panicked” over the Epstein files. Trump claimed yesterday in a social media post that the Epstein documents were "written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden Administration." Say what? Epstein himself -- who of course was, in real life, a partying pal of Trump's -- now seems to be a zombie in Trump's mind; he “never dies.” Here's part of Trump's long, panicky (and unintentionally comical) post, via Caleb Howe of Mediaite: “We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and 'selfish people' are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein. For years, it’s Epstein, over and over again. Why are we giving publicity to Files written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden Administration, who conned the World with the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, 51 'Intelligence' Agents, 'THE LAPTOP FROM HELL,' and more?” Howe has the complete, crazy text, which Trump ends with his weird sign-off: “Thank you for your attention to this matter!” ~~~

     ~~~ Glenn Thrush & Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: Donald “Trump on Saturday threw a political lifeline to Pam Bondi, his embattled attorney general, appearing to side with her over Dan Bongino, the F.B.I.’s deputy director, who has threatened to quit over Ms. Bondi’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case.... Mr. Trump, appearing concerned about the fallout from his administration’s decision to close the Epstein investigation, went on to plead with his followers to 'not waste Time and Energy' on the disgraced financier and registered sex offender he once socialized with.... The blowback over the Epstein case ... has defied the patterns of previous Trump controversies, provoking criticism from activists on the right increasingly willing to cast doubt on Mr. Trump’s actions and motives — and not just place blame on his surrogates and subordinates. Saturday’s post, which included unfounded accusations against Democrats, did not appear to achieve its intended result of diverting attention and quelling doubts about the case, based on the negative response of even Mr. Trump’s supporters.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Don't the Times writers have an obligation to write some version of, "In his post, the President* of the United States sounds batshit crazy"? The article, as written, normalizes scribblings so insane that no one 20 years ago imagined could have been written by a real U.S. president for public release. ~~~

~~~ Matt Dixon & Brennan Leach of NBC News: “... it's not clear that Trump's post will be enough to quell the furor.... All they wanted to talk about ... [this weekend] at the Student Action Summit hosted by the conservative activist group Turning Point USA was the 'Epstein files.' 'I think that these people — and I don’t know, for whatever reason, there could be reasons — but I don’t think they’re telling us the truth about Epstein,' podcaster Brandon Tatum told the assembled crowd at the Tampa Convention Center. 'I think that that that guy was involved in something nefarious that implicates a whole lot of people. And my guess is that the whole lot of people may have, may happen to be some of our allies and some people that we don’t want to have a bad relationship with.'... Former Florida state Rep. Anthony Sabatini, who was among Trump's biggest supporters when in the state Legislature and was in attendance at the event, called Trump's Truth Social post 'out of touch.'... The Epstein issue is challenging [the Trump] alliance like never before.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The great part of this MAGA drama is that it's much ado about very little. They're fighting over myths (kind of like the Reformation, I guess, for those who have opinions about papal indulgences and such). Of course there are "Epstein files," and no doubt they contain "binders full of men." After all, local and federal officials investigated Epstein beginning in 2005, and the feds investigated him again in & around 2019. (French prosecutors also opened an Epstein investigation in 2019.) Epstein himself reportedly made sex tapes of young women & prominent men in his New York City & U.S. Virgin Island properties. Did he catalogue those videos in such a way that would comprise a "client list"? Maybe. Bondi definitely has access to files she is withholding. She should just say so. Also, the likelihood that Epstein killed himself is high. That is, it's unlikely powerful forces conspired to murder him to keep him from telling all. And frankly, who cares? We already know of quite a few public figures, including Donald Trump, who joined in Epstein's partying, and -- with the exception of Britain's Prince Andrew -- none has suffered much for it because most were already known sleazebags. ~~~

     ~~~ Conservative Charlie Sykes on Substack: "... bozos are fighting with buffoons as the ringleader of the whole bangarang looks on. Who could have seen this coming? Other than absolutely everybody? (And, no we do not have to pick sides in a slap-fight among deplorables.)"

Aamer Madhani of the AP: “... Donald Trump on Saturday announced he’s levying tariffs of 30% against the European Union and Mexico starting Aug. 1, a move that could cause massive upheaval between the United States and two of its biggest trade partners. Trump detailed the planned tariffs in letters posted to his social media account. They are part of an announcement blitz by Trump of new tariffs aimed at allies and foes alike, a bedrock of his 2024 campaign that he said would set the foundation for reviving a U.S. economy that he claims has been ripped off by other nations for decades. In his letter to Mexico’s leader, President Claudia Sheinbaum, Trump acknowledged that the country has been helpful in stemming the flow of undocumented migrants and fentanyl into the United States. But he said the country has not done enough to stop North America from turning into a 'Narco-Trafficking Playground.'... Trump in his letter to the European Union said the U.S. trade deficit was a national security threat.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Jenna Smialek & Ana Swanson of the New York Times: “Both economies [-- Mexico & the E.U. --] do a huge amount of trade in goods and services with the United States. And both governments have been in intense negotiations with the United States, right up until Mr. Trump’s letters were sent.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Giselle Ewing of Politico: “... Donald Trump on Saturday said he is considering revoking the citizenship of one of his longtime foes — actor and comedian Rosie O’Donnell — something he has no clear legal pathway to do. The move is an escalation of Trump’s weaponization of American citizenship. While the president has enacted mass deportations for immigrants and looked to end birthright citizenship for the children of some immigrants, his threat to revoke the New York-born actor’s citizenship marks a new frontier. 'Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship. She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her. GOD BLESS AMERICA!' Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Saturday morning. O’Donnell currently resides in Ireland.” The New York Times story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Maybe Trump really can't get away with revoking a U.S. citizen's birthright, but he can make the life of any U.S. citizen a nightmare by threatening to take away his citizenship. No citizen or person residing in the U.S. is safe from his delusional megalomania. 

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: “It is not reassuring, at a time of man-made and natural disasters, that the president is spouting gobbledygook and his maladroit cabinet members are spinning out. It’s a paradox: If you choose your cabinet based on looks, you are likely to end up with a cabinet that makes you look bad. Running government is harder than bloviating on Fox News and assorted podcasts. And if you demand über-fealty from your advisers, you will end up surrounded by toadies who don’t level with you.”

Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: “Thousands of new deportation agents deployed into American cities. A doubling of detention space to hold tens of thousands of immigrants before they are expelled. Miles of new border wall, along with surveillance towers equipped with artificial intelligence. That is the expansive plan that ... [Donald] Trump’s top immigration officials now intend to enact after months of struggling to overcome staffing shortages and logistical hurdles that have stymied his pledge to record the most deportations in American history.... The annual budget of Immigration and Customs Enforcement alone will spike from about $8 billion to roughly $28 billion.... Tim Quinn, a former senior official in Customs and Border Protection, said the rapid expansion of the immigration agencies makes accountability mechanisms even more essential. But the administration earlier this year took steps to dismantle the watchdog agencies inside the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of ICE.” ~~~

~~~ Jennifer Peltz & Alexandria Rodriguez of the AP: “Democratic lawmakers condemned Florida’s new Everglades immigration detention center after visiting Saturday, describing it as crowded, unsanitary and bug-infested. Republicans on the same tour said they saw nothing of the sort at the remote facility that officials have dubbed 'Alligator Alcatraz.' The state-arranged tour came after some Democrats were blocked earlier from viewing the 3,000-bed detention center that the state rapidly built on an isolated airstrip surrounded by swampland. So many state legislators and members of Congress turned up Saturday that they were split into multiple groups. “There are really disturbing, vile conditions and this place needs to be shut the hell down,” U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat, told reporters after visiting the agglomeration of tents, trailers and temporary buildings.... Cage-style units of 32 men share three combination toilet-sink devices, the visitors measured the temperature at 83 degrees (28 degrees Celsius) in a housing area entranceway and 85 (29 Celsius) in a medical intake area, and grasshoppers and other insects abound, she and her fellow Florida Democrats said. Although the visitors said they were not able to speak with the detainees, Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, also a Democrat, said one called out 'I’m an American citizen!' and others chanted 'Libertad!'” The Washington Post's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Cruelty Is the Point. Maria Sacchetti, et al., of the Washington Post: “Federal immigration officers may deport immigrants with as little as six hours’ notice to countries other than their own even if officials have not provided any assurances that the new arrivals will be safe from persecution or torture, a top official said in a memo this week. Todd M. Lyons, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, wrote in a memo to the ICE workforce Wednesday that a Supreme Court ruling last month had cleared the way for officers to 'immediately' start sending immigrants to 'alternative' countries. People being sent to countries where officials have not provided any 'diplomatic assurances' that immigrants will be safe will be informed 24 hours in advance — and in 'exigent' circumstances, just six. Those being flown to places that have offered those assurances could be deported with no advance notice.... Among those who could be targeted are thousands of immigrants with final removal orders who have not been deported to their native countries because a judge found that they might face danger there.... Lawyers warned that thousands of longtime immigrants with work permits and families in the U.S. could now be uprooted and sent to places where they lack family ties or even a common language.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Not only that, you can bet that some U.S. citzens will be caught up in ICE's dragnet -- like dolphins in a tuna net -- & deported to unsafe countries where they have no ties.

Marie: I know life isn't fair, but how about this: if you work at the Department of Injustice, you may be fired because Donald Trump disapproves of the your work assignment you once fulfilled. ~~~

~~~ Perry Stein & Amy Wang of the Washington Post: “Attorney General Pam Bondi this week fired multiple Justice Department employees who were involved in two federal prosecutions of ... Donald Trump during the Biden administration.... In total, 20 people were fired from the department, including two prosecutors who worked under former special counsel Jack Smith.... The rest of the dismissed employees were support staff and U.S. marshals who assisted those prosecutors.... The latest firings come as the Trump administration continues to push out employees across the Justice Department and FBI, often with no explanation or warning.... The latest firings are unrelated to the mass reductions-in-force and reorganizations that Trump has implemented at many other federal agencies....” A CBS News story is here. 

Mark Thiessen of the AP: “The federal government on Saturday dismissed charges against a Utah plastic surgeon accused of throwing away COVID-19 vaccines, giving children saline shots instead of the vaccine and selling faked vaccination cards. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on the social media platform X that charges against Dr. Michael Kirk Moore, of Midvale, Utah, were dismissed at her direction. Moore and other defendants faced up to 35 years in prison after being charged with conspiracy to defraud the government; conspiracy to convert, sell, convey and dispose of government property; and aiding and abetting in those efforts. The charges were brought when Joe Biden was president.... A federal grand jury on Jan. 11, 2023, returned an indictment against Moore, his Plastic Surgery Institute of Utah Inc., others associated with the clinic and a neighbor of Moore’s.... The trial began Monday in Salt Lake City with jury selection.... Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., a leading anti-vaccine activist before becoming the nation’s top health official, posted his support for Moore in April, saying on X that Moore 'deserves a medal for his courage and his commitment to healing!'... In a follow-up X post on Saturday, Bondi said Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene brought the case to her attention.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Excuse me. RFKJ is still “a leading anti-vaccine activist,” or maybe “the leading anti-vaccine activist.”

The government’s interpretation is, to put it mildly, ‘interpretive jiggery-pokery’ of the highest order. ... It requires not just reading between the lines, but hallucinating new text that simply is not there. -- District Judge Jamal Whitehead ~~~

~~~ New York Times Editors: “'Judges from across the ideological spectrum are ruling against administration policies at remarkable rates,' said Adam Bonica, a political scientist at Stanford University. These rulings have halted Mr. Trump’s vengeful attempts to destroy law firms, forestalled some of his budget cuts and kept him from deporting additional immigrants. Yes, the Supreme Court has often been more deferential to the president. Still, it has let stand many lower-court rulings and has itself constrained Mr. Trump in some cases. The bipartisan alarm from federal judges offers a roadmap for others to respond to Mr. Trump’s often illegal behavior. His actions deserve to be called out in plain language for what they really are. And people in positions of influence should do what they can to stand up for American values, as many judges have done. Here, we’ve compiled quotations from judges’ recent rulings and bench comments.” The citations are remarkable.

What comes first, the money or the assholiness? ~~~

~~~ What a Prick! Whitey-White Billionaire Dude Attacks Diversity. Nitasha Tiku of the Washington Post: “Influential tech investor and Trump adviser Marc Andreessen recently said universities will 'pay the price' for promoting diversity and allegedly discriminating against supporters of ... Donald Trump, according to messages he sent to a group chat with White House officials and technology leaders.... [Andreessen singled out M.I.T. & Stanford.] The investor described a 'counterattack' against universities in his messages and called for the National Science Foundation, a federal research funding agency, to receive 'the bureaucratic death penalty.' Andreessen co-founded one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent venture capital firms, Andreessen Horowitz, which embraced ... Donald Trump’s candidacy last year.... Andreessen has quietly helped shape the administration’s hiring and policy decisions.... Andreessen sent his messages to a WhatsApp group used by Trump officials to discuss artificial intelligence policy with dozens of tech figures and academics.... He quickly deleted many of the messages after sending them....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The pathetic irony here is that I suspect people strive to become ultra-rich so "normal" people will admire them. But the fact is that quite a few of the super-rich (and probably especially the self-made variety) are too obnoxious for most of us to endure. So rather than admire them, we are apt to shun and/or ridicule them. 

Disasters That Keep on Taking. Erin Blakemore of the Washington Post: “Counties that undergo severe climate-related disasters often suffer reduced access to critical health care infrastructure in the years that follow, a study ... published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ... suggests.... In contrast, moderate disasters were associated with increased access to in health care, suggesting that 'disasters can, in some cases, lead to (possibly unequal) redevelopment.' 'More affluent communities often have better connections, such as political influence, that help them maintain these important health institutions following a period of crisis,' Yvonne Michael, a professor of epidemiology at Drexel University ... and the study’s senior author, said in a news release.”

Oliver Milman of the Guardian: On Tuesday, Ted “Cruz inserted language into the Republicans’ 'big beautiful' reconciliation bill, before its signing by Donald Trump on Friday, that eliminates a $150m fund to 'accelerate advances and improvements in research, observation systems, modeling, forecasting, assessments, and dissemination of information to the public' around weather forecasting.... 'Ted Cruz has spent years doing big oil’s bidding, gutting climate research, defunding Noaa, and weakening the very systems meant to warn and protect the public,’ said Cassidy DiPaola ... of Fossil Free Media. 'That’s made disasters like this weekend’s flood in Texas even more deadly. Now he’s doubling down, pushing through even more cuts in the so-called big beautiful bill. Texans are dead and grieving, and Cruz is protecting big oil instead of the people he’s supposed to represent....' Cruz, who has previously cast doubt over the scientific reality of the climate crisis, said that complaints about cuts to the National Weather Service are 'partisan finger pointing.'...” Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~ 

     ~~~ Marie: You can bet Travellin' Ted let his big oil & gas donors know about his amendment. So let's make sure every Texan knows about it, too. Ted is up for re-election next year. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee should run a continuous loop on Texans' social media feeds featuring Ted's amendment, maybe over photos of him with his wife visiting the Parthenon.

So it turns out Grok is too much like Elon & his followers. I think we knew that. ~~~

~~~ Kate Conger of the New York Times: “Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, said that its Grok chatbot relied too heavily on input from users of his social media platform X after a code update, causing it to share a series of antisemitic comments on Tuesday. At the time, the chatbot praised Hitler, suggested that people with Jewish surnames were more likely to spread online hate and said a Holocaust-like response to hatred against white people would be  'effective.' It also referred to itself as 'MechaHitler' and posted sexually explicit commentary. X deleted some of the posts on Tuesday evening. Early on Saturday, xAI said in a statement on its X account that 'we deeply apologize for the horrific behavior that many experienced.'” Here's a TechCrunch report.

David Enrich of the New York Times: “In recent months, UnitedHealth has targeted traditional journalists and news outlets, a prominent investor, a Texas doctor and activists.... In legal letters and court filings, UnitedHealth has invoked last year’s murder of Brian Thompson, the chief executive of the company’s health insurance division, to argue that intense criticism of the company risks inciting further violence.... UnitedHealth joins a growing group of companies and wealthy individuals, including ... [Donald] Trump, who are using legal threats and lawsuits to deter or penalize criticism.... For UnitedHealth, the stakes are high. In recent years, the company has been the subject of extensive investigative reporting into its billing practices and denials of patient care, among other things. It faces a variety of federal criminal and civil investigations, including into potential Medicare fraud and antitrust violation....”

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Texas. Isn't That Convenient? David Goodman of the New York Times: “A state court on Friday ordered records in the divorce of Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas to be sealed, a day after his wife, State Senator Angela Paxton, filed a petition that accused Mr. Paxton of adultery. The order to seal the records in the case, in the 429th District Court in Collin County, north of Dallas, came after a request from Mrs. Paxton’s lawyer. This means that further details of the high-profile split would not be available to the public in a case that could significantly affect the race for a U.S. Senate seat in Texas. Mr. Paxton, a firebrand conservative who is popular among Republican voters, is challenging Senator John Cornyn in the Republican primary in 2026. Mr. Paxton has been leading in public polling.”

The Conversation -- July 12, 2025

Aamer Madhani of the AP: “... Donald Trump on Saturday announced he’s levying tariffs of 30% against the European Union and Mexico starting Aug. 1, a move that could cause massive upheaval between the United States and two of its biggest trade partners. Trump detailed the planned tariffs in letters posted to his social media account. They are part of an announcement blitz by Trump of new tariffs aimed at allies and foes alike, a bedrock of his 2024 campaign that he said would set the foundation for reviving a U.S. economy that he claims has been ripped off by other nations for decades. In his letter to Mexico’s leader, President Claudia Sheinbaum, Trump acknowledged that the country has been helpful in stemming the flow of undocumented migrants and fentanyl into the United States. But he said the country has not done enough to stop North America from turning into a 'Narco-Trafficking Playground.'... Trump in his letter to the European Union said the U.S. trade deficit was a national security threat.” ~~~

     ~~~ Jeanna Smialek & Ana Swanson of the New York Times: “Both economies [-- Mexico & the E.U. --] do a huge amount of trade in goods and services with the United States. And both governments have been in intense negotiations with the United States, right up until Mr. Trump’s letters were sent.”

Giselle Ewing of Politico: “... Donald Trump on Saturday said he is considering revoking the citizenship of one of his longtime foes — actor and comedian Rosie O’Donnell — something he has no clear legal pathway to do. The move is an escalation of Trump’s weaponization of American citizenship. While the president has enacted mass deportations for immigrants and looked to end birthright citizenship for the children of some immigrants, his threat to revoke the New York-born actor’s citizenship marks a new frontier. 'Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship. She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her. GOD BLESS AMERICA!' Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Saturday morning. O’Donnell currently resides in Ireland.” The New York Times story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Maybe Trump really can't get away with revoking a U.S. citizen's birthright, but he can make the life of any U.S. citizen a nightmare by threatening to take away his citizenship. No citizen or person residing in the U.S. is safe from his delusional megalomania. 

Oliver Milman of the Guardian: On Tuesday, Ted “Cruz inserted language into the Republicans’ 'big beautiful' reconciliation bill, before its signing by Donald Trump on Friday, that eliminates a $150m fund to 'accelerate advances and improvements in research, observation systems, modeling, forecasting, assessments, and dissemination of information to the public' around weather forecasting.... 'Ted Cruz has spent years doing big oil’s bidding, gutting climate research, defunding Noaa, and weakening the very systems meant to warn and protect the public,’ said Cassidy DiPaola ... of Fossil Free Media. 'That’s made disasters like this weekend’s flood in Texas even more deadly. Now he’s doubling down, pushing through even more cuts in the so-called big beautiful bill. Texans are dead and grieving, and Cruz is protecting big oil instead of the people he’s supposed to represent....' Cruz, who has previously cast doubt over the scientific reality of the climate crisis, said that complaints about cuts to the National Weather Service are 'partisan finger pointing.'...” Thanks to RAS for the link.  

     ~~~ Marie: You can bet Travellin' Ted let his big oil & gas donors know about his amendment. So let's make sure every Texan knows about it, too. Ted is up for re-election next year. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee should run a continuous loop on Texans' social media feeds featuring Ted's amendment, maybe over photos of him with his wife visiting the Parthenon.

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Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: Donald “Trump and Melania Trump traveled Friday to an area of Texas devastated by last weekend’s extreme flash flooding, which left more than 120 people dead.... After the tour, Mr. and Mrs. Trump held a round table packed with state and local officials.... A local reporter tried asking him about 'several families we’ve heard from' who said warning alerts weren’t sent out soon enough, and that people died as a result. 'Only a bad person would ask a question like that,' Mr. Trump said. 'To be honest with you, I don’t know who you are, but only a very evil person would ask a question like that.' The national media was largely barred from the round table. But two pro-Trump social media influencers, Brian Glenn and Link Lauren, were let in. They heaped praise on Mr. Trump, and one tossed out politically friendly suppositions criticizing Democrats and others who had questioned the administration’s disaster response.” ~~~

     ~~~ Alexandra Hutzler of the AP: Trump's upbeat responses to how local officials have handled the disaster are “a marked contrast to how [he] has reacted to natural disasters the past, including to the California wildfires earlier this year, where he blasted California's Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and other local Democratic officials.... Trump instead has largely focused on his relationship with Republican Gov. Gregg Abbott. 'He's an amazing guy, we've become very, very close politically and personally,' the president said. Some of the hardest-hit areas of central Texas, including Kerr County, are areas of strong Republican support that voted for Trump in the 2024 election. 'I would say they were fully funded within minutes of hearing about this,' Trump said at Friday's roundtable. 'And you know, the state of Texas, No. 1, they do it right, and they've done it right for a long time.'" MB: IOW, don't believe all the stories you've read about repeated local and state screw-ups, federal funding delays, staff shortages, whatever. What a jackass. ~~~

~~~ Maxine Joselow of the New York Times: “Two days after catastrophic floods roared through Central Texas, the Federal Emergency Management Agency did not answer nearly two-thirds of calls to its disaster assistance line, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times. The lack of responsiveness happened because the agency had fired hundreds of contractors at call centers, according to a person briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal matters. The agency laid off the contractors on July 5 after their contracts expired and were not extended, according to the documents and the person briefed on the matter. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, who has instituted a new requirement that she personally approve expenses over $100,000, did not renew the contracts until Thursday, five days after the contracts expired. FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security.” Emphasis added. MB: I know it's a shame, after she assembled all those outfits (mostly on our dime, no doubt), but this might be a good time to fire Kristi. This won't happen, of course, because questioning the Trump administration's performance is “evil.” ~~~

~~~ Hiroko Tabuchi & Mira Rojanasakul of the New York Times: “An analysis of National Weather Service vacancies found that in more than a third of offices overseeing regions that are particularly vulnerable to flash floods, one or more of three senior leadership roles, including chief meteorologist, are unfilled. The weather service’s Houston-Galveston office, which straddles an area that sees frequent hurricanes but is also known as “flash flood alley,” currently has no chief meteorologist, science operations officer or warning-coordination meteorologist, according to staff lists from the weather service. The Austin-San Antonio Office, one office responsible for areas hard hit by the weekend flood that killed more than 120 people, since April has had no permanent warning-coordination meteorologist, a post that would typically oversee the weather service’s contact with local emergency officials and others. The San Angelo office, the other office responsible, has had no chief meteorologist.” ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Joyce Lee, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Texas county where nearly 100 people were killed and more than 160 remain missing had the technology to turn every cellphone in the river valley into a blaring alarm, but local officials did not do so before or during the early-morning hours of July 4 as river levels rose to record heights, inundating campsites and homes, a Washington Post examination found. Kerr County officials, who have come under increasing scrutiny for their actions as the Guadalupe River began to flood, eventually sent text-message alerts that morning to residents who had registered to receive them.... But ... even as a federal meteorologist warned of deteriorating conditions and catastrophic risk, county officials did not activate a more powerful notification tool they had previously used to warn of potential flooding. The National Weather Service sent its own alerts through this system, beginning at 1:14 a.m. on July 4.” ~~~

~~~ Ryan Foley & Christopher Keller of the AP: “Federal regulators repeatedly granted appeals to remove Camp Mystic’s buildings from their 100-year flood map, loosening oversight as the camp operated and expanded in a dangerous flood plain in the years before rushing waters swept away children and counselors, a review by The Associated Press found. The Federal Emergency Management Agency included the prestigious girls’ summer camp in a 'Special Flood Hazard Area' in its National Flood Insurance map for Kerr County in 2011, which means it was required to have flood insurance and faced tighter regulation on any future construction projects.... In response to an appeal, FEMA in 2013 [Obama administration] amended the county’s flood map to remove 15 of the camp’s buildings from the hazard area.... After further appeals, FEMA removed 15 more Camp Mystic structures in 2019 and 2020 [Trump administration] from the designation.... Syracuse University associate professor Sarah Pralle ... said it was 'particularly disturbing' that a camp in charge of the safety of so many young people would receive exemptions from basic flood regulation.”

Lara Jakes, et al., of the New York Times: “NATO countries have devised a novel way to provide critical American weaponry to Ukraine for its fight against Russia, and ... [Donald] Trump suggested for the first time that he’s likely to go along with it. Rather than having the United States continue to give its weapons to Ukraine, officials in NATO countries conceived a plan where the Trump administration could sell them to allies, which would then give them to Ukraine. Not only could that be a financial windfall for the United States, it would also shield Mr. Trump ... from accusations of direct involvement in the war. And according to defense officials and experts in Europe..., it would speed desperately needed Patriot air defenses and ammunition to Ukraine as it withstands some of the heaviest Russian bombardments of the three-year war. On Thursday, Mr. Trump said he intended to adopt that strategy.” 

Colby Smith of the New York Times: “The Federal Reserve took steps on Friday to defend itself against accusations by ... [Donald] Trump and his allies that Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, mismanaged renovations at the central bank’s headquarters and then lied to Congress about those plans. The new line of attack, after Mr. Trump aimed a barrage at the Fed’s reluctance to lower borrowing costs, has raised alarm that the White House is trying to lay the groundwork to fire Mr. Powell for cause. In an update to its website late Friday, the central bank laid out details intended to support Mr. Powell’s statements to lawmakers regarding the project, which kicked off in 2021 and is estimated to be $700 million over budget at around $2.5 billion. The extent of the renovations and their swelling cost have spawned intense criticism from both the White House and a number of leading Republicans, who have taken issue with luxury features in an initial plan, including rooftop garden terraces and marble finishings.”

As President Trump works hard to take back our nation’s economic sovereignty, today’s Monthly Treasury Statement is demonstrating record customs duties – and with no inflation! -- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in a tweet ~~~

~~~ David Lawder of Reuters: “U.S. customs duty collections surged again in June as ... Donald Trump's tariffs gained steam, topping $100 billion for the first time during a fiscal year and helping to produce a surprise $27 billion budget surplus for the month, the Treasury Department reported on Friday. The budget data showed that tariffs are starting to build into a significant revenue contributor for the federal government, with customs duties in June hitting new records, quadrupling to $27.2 billion on a gross basis and $26.6 billion on a net basis after refunds.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie. Wow! That sounds great! Trump was right all along! Oh, wait. Treasury is collecting those taxes from U.S. importers and retailers. And those importers will pass on to us consumers most of the cost of those taxes. AND the taxes -- eventually paid by U.S. consumers -- is regressive; that is, poor people will pay a bigger percentage of their income in the cost of imported goods than will the wealthy. As for Bessent's claim of "no inflation," we will also soon feel the inflation at the store. (My neighbor, who pays attention to such things, says she's already noticed hikes in prices of goods she buys regularly.)

Paul Krugman: “I wrote the other day about Trump’s Brazil tariff, which is, as I said, evil and megalomaniacal. But I forgot to point out that it’s blatantly illegal.... [Trump's] letter [to Brazil's President Lula] is basically a confession that he is imposing a tariff for non-economic reasons. And that’s not legally allowed. Memo to mainstream media: No, Trump isn’t 'testing the limits of his authority' or some other euphemism. He’s breaking the law. Period. And it should be reported that way.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Jack Shafer in a Washington Post op-ed outlines many of the ways Donald Trump has turned "the Resolute Desk into a cashier’s counter" for himself and his family's benefit. Thanks to Patrick for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Casey Michel, in an Atlantic essay, argues that "Americans have never witnessed anything like the corruption that ... Donald Trump and his inner circle have perpetrated in recent months. Its brazenness, volume, and variety defy historical comparison, even in a country with a centuries-long history of grift—including, notably, Trump’s first four years in office.... Virtually every week, the Trump family seems to find a new way to profit from the presidency.... Foreign regimes are beginning to see just how far their money can go in Trump’s America. The highest bidder has never had so much to gain." Thank you to laura h. for this gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) 

Scott MacFarlane of CBS News: "Emil Bove, a top Justice Department official who previously served as ... [Donald] Trump's criminal defense attorney, declined to rule out the possibility of the president running for a third term and did not denounce the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol in a questionnaire submitted to a Senate panel considering his nomination for a lifetime appointment as a federal judge. The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote next week on whether to advance Bove's nomination to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. CBS News obtained the 165-page questionnaire that Bove submitted to senators in response to their written questions. In his answers, Bove also wrote he does not recall which Jan. 6 criminal cases he helped supervise when he served in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. In response to the question 'Do you denounce the January 6 insurrection?' Bove wrote: 'The characterization of the events on January 6 is a matter of significant political debate,' and said it would be 'inappropriate to address this question' given ongoing litigation over pardons of Jan. 6 defendants." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Not exactly the wisdom of Solomon, but a nice endorsement of monarchy and a big ole "up yours" to the Senate.

Alan Feuer & Minho Kim of the New York Times: “A frustrated federal judge signaled on Friday that she would issue an order protecting Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the immigrant who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador, from being hastily expelled from the United States again after he was brought back last month to face criminal charges. The suggestion by Judge Paula Xinis, who is handling the original civil case emerging from the wrongful deportation, came during a hearing in Federal District Court in Maryland where she exploded at the Justice Department for having badly damaged the bonds of trust that are normally afforded by the courts to lawyers for the government.... Judge Xinis said some legal safeguard was needed because the administration had already shown in this and other deportation cases that it could not be trusted.... At least three judges in recent months have accused Justice Department lawyers of flouting their orders or of acting in bad faith and have considered opening contempt proceedings to punish them and other Trump officials.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: “A federal judge in California blocked the Trump administration on Friday from making indiscriminate immigration arrests in the Los Angeles area and from denying detainees the right to consult with a lawyer. The two temporary restraining orders issued by the judge represented a sharp rebuke of tactics that federal agents have employed in and around Los Angeles during waves of immigration raids that began last month. In the orders, the judge, Maame E. Frimpong of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, directed agents to stop racial profiling in the course of seeking out immigrants and mandated that the federal government, which has deployed hundreds of agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies in Los Angeles County, ensure detainees have access to legal counsel.... She said that 'roving patrols' without reasonable suspicion violated the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution and that denying access to lawyers violated the Fifth Amendment. The ruling, which remains in place for up to 10 days, came in response to a lawsuit filed last week by immigrant advocacy groups, led by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and the nonprofit Public Counsel. A fuller hearing is expected in the coming weeks....” The AP's report is here.

Laurel Rosenhall of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Friday ordered the Los Angeles Police Department to stop using foam projectiles, tear gas and flash-bang devices against journalists covering protests after reporters and photographers were struck during demonstrations last month. The temporary restraining order by Judge Hernán D. Vera of U.S. District Court also prohibits police officers from blocking journalists from closed areas, obstructing them from gathering information and detaining them for violating curfews or failing to disperse. The case stems from injuries that journalists experienced while covering street demonstrations against the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration enforcement. A lawsuit filed by the Los Angeles Press Club and Status Coup, an investigative reporting site, documented 35 instances in which Los Angeles police officers had used projectiles, tear gas or other forms of force against journalists or blocked them from public areas. The press organizations are likely to succeed in arguing that the journalists’ First Amendment rights were violated and that they would suffer harm in covering future protests in Los Angeles, the judge wrote in granting the temporary order, which lasts 14 days.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: You might have to tell a toddler not to throw toys at his baby sister, but it's pathetic that a court has to order trained officers not to fire projectiles at journalists.

Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: “A Mexican farmworker died on Friday from injuries sustained during a federal immigration raid the day before in an agricultural region north of Los Angeles, according to the United Farm Workers union. The farmworker, Jaime Alanís, fell several stories to the ground from a greenhouse on Thursday, when federal agents raided a state-licensed cannabis farm in Ventura County.... An official familiar with the circumstances of the farmworker’s death said he was from the Mexican state of Michoacán, had been working at the farm for more than a decade and had been trying to flee from agents when he fell. He was in his late 50s.... In a statement, Teresa Romero, president of the U.F.W., said that several farmworkers had been critically injured, and that others, including U.S. citizens, remained unaccounted for after the enforcement actions. She said those citizens who were detained 'were forced to delete photos and videos of the raid from their phones' before being released.... A spokesman for the Ventura County Fire Department said that eight people had been transferred to area hospitals in response to 911 calls on Thursday, and that four other people had been treated at the scene.” ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Haskell of ABC 7 Los Angeles: "Concerned family members are desperate for answers after they say a disabled U.S. veteran and citizen was taken during a federal immigration raid at a cannabis farm in Camarillo. George Retes, 25, works as a security guard at Glass House Farms, where the raid took place Thursday. His sister and wife told Eyewitness News that he was trying to leave the area as tensions escalated between federal agents and protesters. They say they saw AIR7 footage of the scene and were able to see his white vehicle. 'ICE thought he was probably part of the protest, but he wasn't, he was trying to reverse his car,' said his sister, Destinee Majana. 'They broke his window, they pepper-sprayed him, they grabbed him, threw him on the floor. They detained him.... We're just asking to let my brother go. He's a U.S. citizen. He didn't do anything wrong. He's a veteran, disabled citizen. It says it on his car,'..." ~~~

     ~~~ Alex Woodward of the Independent: “... Donald Trump’s administration has defended violent immigration raids targeting cannabis farms in California, where masked federal agents discovered allegedly undocumented minors who are victims of 'exploitation' and 'potentially human trafficking or smuggling,'  according to the Department of Homeland Security. The United Farm Workers union said several workers were critically injured during the raids, while other targeted workers, including a U.S. citizen, 'remain totally unaccounted for.' Agents are accused of chasing one worker who fell 30 feet from the top of a building. He was hospitalized and placed on life support, before dying from his injuries on Friday, according to the union.”

Jazmine Ulloa & Ruth Igielnik of the New York Times: “Six months into the Trump administration’s efforts to carry out the largest mass deportation effort in U.S. history, a new poll shows that the American public is once again warming to immigration.... The share of those wanting to see immigration decrease now totaling 30 percent, compared to 55 percent in 2024, according to the new survey, conducted by Gallup.... A record high of adults in the United States — 79 percent — now believes immigration is a 'good thing' for the country. The results are in line with other recent surveys that suggest attitudes on immigration may be shifting as Mr. Trump has intensified efforts to detain and deport people. Illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border, which began dropping last year under President Biden, are now at their lowest level in decades, and major cities like New York are no longer struggling to care for large numbers of migrants. At the same time, people in many communities ... are seeing immigrant relatives, friends and neighbors taken away by federal agents.”

John Hudson & Hannah Natanson of the Washington Post: “The State Department began firing more than 1,300 employees via email on Friday as a part of the Trump administration’s plans to downsize government.... The move has come under criticism from current and former diplomats who say the cuts will degrade America’s standing in the world and curb U.S. soft power. The diplomats hit hardest hailed from the offices that Secretary of State Marco Rubio eliminated in his sweeping reorganization of the department, the most far-reaching in decades, including the Office of Global Women’s Issues and the department’s diversity and inclusion programs. But cuts also affected employees working on highly volatile issues, including Syria, a brittle Middle Eastern country emerging from decades of authoritarian rule, and senior officials in charge of chemical weapons issues and multilateral nuclear diplomacy. 'They cut key experts on nuclear testing, nuclear verification and efforts to end the production of weapons-grade fissile material,' said Alex Bell, a former State Department official and current president of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 'These cuts will only serve to increase the nuclear threats facing this nation.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Jake Spring of the Washington Post: “The State Department on Friday fired the remaining staff working in the office responsible for international climate policy, including annual U.N. negotiations related to climate treaties.... Most of the staff in the Office of Global Change had left voluntarily after ... Donald Trump took office and moved rapidly to pull the United States out of international climate talks. Nearly a dozen people who remained on staff were fired Friday, and the office will be shuttered as part of the wider downsizing of the department....”

Opera Buffa, Featuring Bondi & Bongino! Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: “The bitter blame game over the handling of the investigation into the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein erupted in public on Friday between Attorney General Pam Bondi and the senior leadership of the F.B.I., particularly the bureau’s deputy director, Dan Bongino.... [During] an angry face-to-face confrontation at the White House on Wednesday..., an irate Ms. Bondi accused Mr. Bongino of leaking information to the news media in the presence of the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, the White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and one of her deputies, Taylor Budowich. Mr. Bongino denied it.... Mr. Bongino, during another confrontation within the past week, told Ms. Bondi she had overhyped the likelihood that a review of the case ... would reveal a list of Mr. Epstein’s sex-trafficking clients, and possibly raise questions about his 2019 death by hanging.... On Friday, a high-profile Bongino booster — the far-right influencer and conspiracist Laura Loomer — claimed, in two dramatic social media posts, that the bureau’s deputy director had taken Friday off to collect his thoughts, and was 'now seriously thinking about RESIGNING' over Ms. Bondi’s actions in the Epstein case.” ~~~

~~~ Marc Caputo of Axios: "FBI deputy director Dan Bongino took a day off from work Friday after clashing at the White House with Attorney General Pam Bondi over their handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, four sources familiar with the conflict told Axios.... The dispute erupted Wednesday amid the fallout of the administration walking back its claims about Epstein by determining the convicted sex offender didn't have a celebrity "client list," and that he wasn't murdered in his New York City prison cell in 2019.... [During a meeting Wednesday,] 'Pam said her piece. Dan said his piece. It didn't end on friendly terms,' said one person briefed on the heated discussion. Bongino left angry, the source said." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Perry Stein & others at the Washington Post have their own take on the melodramatic hijinks. MB: Let's face it: this comedic feud is not what the public expects the top people at DOJ & the FBI to be doing. ~~~

~~~ And now it seems even Kash Patel is thinking of getting the hell out of Dodge if Bondi doesn't get the boot. This is becoming a little too much fun. ~~~

     ~~~ Paul Campos, in LG&$, does not seem to feel Bongino's pain, or Patel's. Or Bondi's. ~~~

     ~~~ As Akhilleus points out at the top of today's Comments, digby has some theories about what's up. Unlike right-wing conspiracy theories, hers are (a) plausible, and (b) not set in stone. MB: If you were wondering, "What's the difference between 'intelligent' and 'stupid'? there's a place to start. Intelligent people seek plausible explanations (even for stupid stuff like why Dan Bongino is so upset), they pose hypotheses, and they adjust their ideas as developments arise. Stupid people come up with crazy theories to explain even fairly unambiguous events, then stick to their crazy theories as others prove them wrong. 

Sharon Otterman & Michael Bender of the New York Times: “Columbia University and the Trump administration on Friday were nearing a deal in the contentious fight over allegations that the school had failed to protect Jewish students from harassment, with Columbia potentially agreeing to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to settle the matter.... The deal, which remains in draft form, would restore at least some of the more than $400 million in federal research funding the administration canceled. In exchange, Columbia would provide compensation to settle allegations of civil rights violations and increase transparency about admissions and foreign gifts, among other concessions.”

Katherine Mangan in ProPublica: “When the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights notified George Mason University on July 1 that it was opening an antisemitism investigation based on a recent complaint, the university’s president, Gregory Washington, said he was 'perplexed.' Compared with other campuses..., George Mason had been relatively quiet over the past year, he said. His administration had taken extensive steps to improve relations with the Jewish community, had enacted strict rules on protests and had communicated all of that to the OCR during a previous antisemitism investigation that remained open. By the next day, though, there were signs that the new investigation was part of a coordinated campaign to oust him.” Read on. Washington's suspicions seem justified. (Also linked yesterday.) 

Ivan Penn of the New York Times: “The Energy Department plans to eliminate hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for major renewable and efficiency projects this year, the latest move by the Trump administration to undo efforts to shift the nation away from fossil fuels. The cuts, which would take money away from projects budgeted for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, focus on solar and wind projects, as well as state and local assistance for low-income families.... Critics argue that the moves are illegal because Congress had previously approved the funding for specific projects.... Ranking Democrats on the Senate and House energy subcommittees called it a 'reckless decision' and demanded the agency immediately reverse its action.”

Jay Willis of Balls & Strikes: Justice Ketanji Brown "Jackson’s focus on the Court’s penchant for warping the law to suit Trump’s interests — sometimes using language so pointed that even the other liberals are reluctant to join her — has been the defining characteristic of her jurisprudence since Trump took office. For as long as she remains stuck in the minority, it might also be the most important part of her job: If she cannot persuade her colleagues that the Constitution does not imbue Donald Trump with an inviolate right to ignore it, she can at least use her platform to show the public that the institution is captured, broken, and not to be taken seriously." Read on. Willis makes a number of excellent points about how Jackson is doing her job. Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) 

Clyde Haberman of the New York Times: “David Gergen, an inside-the-Beltway veteran who helped shape the public images of four presidents, mostly Republicans, and who, after a turn as a magazine editor, trod a well-worn path from political insider to television commentator, died on Thursday in Lexington, Mass. He was 83.” An AP obituary is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Florida. Gilsela Salomon & Kate Payne of the AP: “At the brand new Everglades immigration detention center that officials have dubbed 'Alligator Alcatraz,' people held there say worms turn up in the food. Toilets don’t flush, flooding floors with fecal waste, and mosquitoes and other insects are everywhere. Inside the compound’s large white tents, rows of bunkbeds are surrounded by chain-link cages. Detainees are said to go days without showering or getting prescription medicine, and they are only able to speak by phone to lawyers and loved ones. At times the air conditioners abruptly shut off in the sweltering heat. Days after ... Donald Trump toured it, attorneys, advocates, detainees and their relatives are speaking out about the makeshift facility, which Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration raced to build on an isolated airstrip surrounded by swampland. Detainees began arriving July 2.... Officials have disputed such descriptions.... But authorities have provided few details and have denied media access. A group of Democratic lawmakers sued the DeSantis administration to be allowed in, and officials are holding a site visit by state legislators and members of Congress on Saturday.” ~~~

     ~~~ Jamie Guirola of NBC Miami: “The Archdiocese of Miami is condemning a controversial migrant detention facility in Florida — which state officials have named 'Alligator Alcatraz.'... In a strongly worded statement posted to the archdiocese’s website, Archbishop Thomas Wenski criticized both the conditions at the remote detention site in the Everglades and the rhetoric surrounding it. He wrote: 'It is unbecoming of public officials and corrosive of the common good to speak of the deterrence value of “alligators and pythons” at the Collier-Dade facility.' Wenski’s statement also highlighted humanitarian concerns, noting the isolation of the facility from medical care and the vulnerability of the temporary tent structures to Florida’s harsh summer weather and hurricane threats. He also called for chaplains and ministers to be granted access to serve those in custody.”

Missouri. Government of, by, for the People? Nah. Vivian Ho of the Washington Post: “Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe (R) on Thursday signed legislation repealing a voter-approved law that guaranteed paid sick leave to workers and adjusted the minimum wage to inflation. The law, Proposition A, had been repeatedly challenged by conservative lawmakers and business groups since it passed by a ballot measure in November with almost 58 percent of the vote, with the state Supreme Court upholding it just days before it went into effect in May.... In signing the bill, which repealed Proposition A’s paid sick leave mandate and the annual consumer price index adjustment to the state minimum wage, Kehoe said in a statement that conservative leadership was “protecting the people who make Missouri work ... by cutting taxes, rolling back overreach, and eliminating costly mandates.'”

Texas. Miriam Waldvogel of the Hill: “The Senate GOP’s campaign committee swung at Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) on Thursday after news broke that his wife, Angela Paxton, had filed for divorce. 'What Ken Paxton has put his family through is truly repulsive and disgusting,' National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spokesperson Joanna Rodriguez said. 'No one should have to endure what Angela Paxton has, and we pray for her as she chooses to stand up for herself and her family during this difficult time.' Ken Paxton is looking to topple Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), with one poll in June showing the incumbent trailing the state attorney general by 22 points. The NRSC endorsed Cornyn in the 2026 race and generally supports incumbents.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

The Conversation -- July 11, 2025

Paul Krugman: “I wrote the other day about Trump’s Brazil tariff, which is, as I said, evil and megalomaniacal. But I forgot to point out that it’s blatantly illegal.... [Trump's] letter [to Brazil's President Lula] is basically a confession that he is imposing a tariff for non-economic reasons. And that’s not legally allowed. Memo to mainstream media: No, Trump isn’t 'testing the limits of his authority' or some other euphemism. He’s breaking the law. Period. And it should be reported that way.”

Alan Feuer & Minho Kim of the New York Times: “A frustrated federal judge signaled on Friday that she would issue an order protecting Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the immigrant who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador, from being hastily expelled from the United States again after he was brought back last month to face criminal charges. The suggestion by Judge Paula Xinis, who is handling the original civil case emerging from the wrongful deportation, came during a hearing in Federal District Court in Maryland where she exploded at the Justice Department for having badly damaged the bonds of trust that are normally afforded by the courts to lawyers for the government.... Judge Xinis said some legal safeguard was needed because the administration had already shown in this and other deportation cases that it could not be trusted.... At least three judges in recent months have accused Justice Department lawyers of flouting their orders or of acting in bad faith and have considered opening contempt proceedings to punish them and other Trump officials.”

Katherine Mangan in ProPublica: “When the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights notified George Mason University on July 1 that it was opening an antisemitism investigation based on a recent complaint, the university’s president, Gregory Washington, said he was 'perplexed.' Compared with other campuses..., George Mason had been relatively quiet over the past year, he said. His administration had taken extensive steps to improve relations with the Jewish community, had enacted strict rules on protests and had communicated all of that to the OCR during a previous antisemitism investigation that remained open. By the next day, though, there were signs that the new investigation was part of a coordinated campaign to oust him.” Read on. Washington's suspicions seem justified. It would be appropriate to say "DEI" and "Gregory Washington is Black" in the same sentence.

When Conspiracy Theorists Collide. Marc Caputo of Axios: "FBI deputy director Dan Bongino took a day off from work Friday after clashing at the White House with Attorney General Pam Bondi over their handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, four sources familiar with the conflict told Axios.... The dispute erupted Wednesday amid the fallout of the administration walking back its claims about Epstein by determining the convicted sex offender didn't have a celebrity "client list," and that he wasn't murdered in his New York City prison cell in 2019.... [During a meeting Wednesday,] 'Pam said her piece. Dan said his piece. It didn't end on friendly terms,' said one person briefed on the heated discussion. Bongino left angry, the source said."

Scott MacFarlane of CBS News: "Emil Bove, a top Justice Department official who previously served as ... [Donald] Trump's criminal defense attorney, declined to rule out the possibility of the president running for a third term and did not denounce the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol in a questionnaire submitted to a Senate panel considering his nomination for a lifetime appointment as a federal judge. The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote next week on whether to advance Bove's nomination to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. CBS News obtained the 165-page questionnaire that Bove submitted to senators in response to their written questions. In his answers, Bove also wrote he does not recall which Jan. 6 criminal cases he helped supervise when he served in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. In response to the question 'Do you denounce the January 6 insurrection?' Bove wrote: 'The characterization of the events on January 6 is a matter of significant political debate,' and said it would be 'inappropriate to address this question' given ongoing litigation over pardons of Jan. 6 defendants." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Not exactly the wisdom of Solomon, but a nice endorsement of monarchy and a big ole "up yours" to the Senate.

Jack Shafer in a Washington Post op-ed outlines many of the ways Donald Trump has turned "the Resolute Desk into a cashier’s counter" for himself and his family's benefit. Thanks to Patrick for the link. ~~~

~~~ Casey Michel, in an Atlantic essay, argues that "Americans have never witnessed anything like the corruption that ... Donald Trump and his inner circle have perpetrated in recent months. Its brazenness, volume, and variety defy historical comparison, even in a country with a centuries-long history of grift—including, notably, Trump’s first four years in office.... Virtually every week, the Trump family seems to find a new way to profit from the presidency.... Foreign regimes are beginning to see just how far their money can go in Trump’s America. The highest bidder has never had so much to gain." Thank you to laura h. for this gift link.

Jay Willis of Balls & Strikes: Justice Ketanji Brown "Jackson’s focus on the Court’s penchant for warping the law to suit Trump’s interests — sometimes using language so pointed that even the other liberals are reluctant to join her — has been the defining characteristic of her jurisprudence since Trump took office. For as long as she remains stuck in the minority, it might also be the most important part of her job: If she cannot persuade her colleagues that the Constitution does not imbue Donald Trump with an inviolate right to ignore it, she can at least use her platform to show the public that the institution is captured, broken, and not to be taken seriously." Read on. Willis makes a number of excellent points about how Jackson is doing her job. Thanks to RAS for the link.

Also see RAS in today's Comments on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's sports analogy. You do have to wonder what kind of person would see children drowned, partly because of his own carelessness, and compare their deaths to losing a football championship. 

Texas. Miriam Waldvogel of the Hill: “The Senate GOP’s campaign committee swung at Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) on Thursday after news broke that his wife, Angela Paxton, had filed for divorce. 'What Ken Paxton has put his family through is truly repulsive and disgusting,' National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spokesperson Joanna Rodriguez said. 'No one should have to endure what Angela Paxton has, and we pray for her as she chooses to stand up for herself and her family during this difficult time.' Ken Paxton is looking to topple Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), with one poll in June showing the incumbent trailing the state attorney general by 22 points. The NRSC endorsed Cornyn in the 2026 race and generally supports incumbents.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Marie: I will get to more stories this afternoon, but I've just had enough for this morning.

“I Am Not Afraid to Use My Voice.” Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: “When a federal judge asked the justice what kept her up at night, Justice [Ketanji Brown] Jackson paused, then said, 'I would say the state of our democracy.' The crowd was quiet for a moment, then burst into applause. 'I’m really very interested in getting people to focus and to invest and to pay attention to what is happening in our country and in our government,' she said at an event on Thursday for the Indianapolis Bar Association. Justice Jackson did not elaborate on what she meant or detail specific concerns. Still, it was striking for a sitting Supreme Court justice to go out of her way to publicly express concern about the state of the country. Although Justice Jackson, 54, is the court’s most junior member, she has not hesitated to use her voice, writing an unusually large number of concurring and dissenting opinions during the court’s most recent term, which ended in late June. She has also written sharp criticisms of her colleagues’ recent emergency rulings that have given ... Donald J. Trump broad powers to reshape the federal government....”

Marie: I don't usually repost videos I've run the previous day, even if I ran them fairly late in the day, but Jen Psaki's little exposition on Donnie Dimento's inability to just keep up -- the evidence occurring over just a few days -- that I couldn't resist posting it again in case you missed it. I'm not really making fun of Trump; it ain't funny, McGee. It's disturbing. Tom Nichols of the Atlantic pointed out earlier this week that Trump wasn't running international policy. It seems he isn't running anything because he doesn't know WTF is going on:

Tariff Chaos Man Threatens Canada. Again. Ana Swanson & Ian Austen of the New York Times: Donald “Trump threatened on Thursday to impose a 35 percent tariff on Canadian imports, upending negotiations between the countries that had Canada’s representatives hopeful that a trade deal could be reached in a matter of weeks. Mr. Trump posted a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada on social media outlining his latest threat. He said the new, higher tariff rate for Canada would go into effect on Aug. 1, though it was unclear if it would affect all Canadian goods, or if he would follow through. Mr. Trump’s letter resembled the format of letters he has sent to nearly two dozen American trading partners this week. But it differed from the others by accusing Canada of having 'financially retaliated' against the United States with its own tariffs. It also raised Mr. Trump’s repeated assertion — unsupported by U.S. and Canadian data — that Canada had not done enough to stop the flow of fentanyl across the U.S.-Canada border, as well as his complaints about Canada’s high tariffs on U.S. dairy farmers.... 'These Tariffs may be modified, upward or downward, depending on our relationship with your Country,” Mr. Trump concluded.” An NBC News story is here.

Tariff Chaos Man Threatens Vietnam. Daniel Desrochers, et al., of Politico: “Vietnam thought it had a preliminary deal with the U.S. to lower its tariff level substantially. Then, at the last minute..., Donald Trump raised the rate. As a result, the Vietnamese government still has not formally accepted a key part of the agreement the president touted on social media last week, despite Trump’s claim in the post that the terms had been agreed to by Vietnam’s leader, Tô Lâm.... Trump announced the framework agreement on Truth Social on July 2, just days before the White House’s self-imposed July 8 deadline for trade negotiations. The deal was just the second the administration has reached to avoid its threatened 'reciprocal' tariffs, after Trump suggested in an April interview that he’d made 200 deals.... 'Trump sandbagged everybody,' said [a] lobbyist [after Trump told General Secretary Lâm that he would impose 20% tariffs on Vietnam instead of the 11% negotiators had settled on]. They described the Vietnamese government’s reaction as 'surprise, as well as disappointment and anger.'”

Robert Davis of the Raw Story: "... Donald Trump's decision to implement 50% tariffs on copper beginning Aug. 1 has stumped ardent conservatives. The Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial board published a scathing op-ed Thursday, arguing that the tariffs are a 'bewildering decision.' 'How this will help the U.S. economy is a mystery, even as it has sent the copper market into turmoil, with chaotic results for American manufacturers that use the vital metal,' the editorial board wrote.... 'Tariffs won’t spur companies to build new smelters that could get tied up in litigation.... Mr. Trump is going to make U.S. firms pay 50% more for a vital metal while they wait five or more years for U.S. sourcing. How does making it more expensive to build aircraft, ships and ammunition promote national security? This is national insecurity.'"

Chris Cameron of the New York Times: Donald “Trump has nominated a fiery right-wing influencer known for his machismo and professed love for steaks and Hooters to be the ambassador to Malaysia. Nick Adams, an Australian-American who immigrated to the United States and became an early, fawning supporter of Mr. Trump, has amassed a conservative following with his over-the-top 'alpha male' persona. He is part of an unruly world of online content that primarily appeals to young men, known as the 'manosphere' — many of whom have aligned with Mr. Trump.... Mr. Adams, whose nomination to be the top diplomat to a Muslim-majority country of 35 million was sent to the Senate on Wednesday, has a history of Islamophobic remarks in his online commentary, denigrating Mr. Trump’s political rivals as supporters of Islam and railing against purported efforts to 'teach Islam in schools.' As a surrogate in Mr. Trump’s 2024 campaign, he shifted to promote the views of Muslim Trump supporters, part of an effort to drive a wedge in the Democratic voter base over the war in Gaza.... Mr. Trump wrote the foreword to Mr. Adams’s most-recently published book promoting macho ideology, 'Alpha Kings,' praising him as 'one of my favorite authors and also one of my favorite speakers.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, it must be a picture book -- with pictures of Hooters employees-of-the-month and such. If the Senate confirms Adams (I think cloture on votes for ambassadorships still takes 60 votes), under no circumstance should Malaysia accept Adams' credentials. Just no.

Trump's War on Science, Higher Education, Media, Foreign Aid, Ctd. 

Science. William Broad of the New York Times: Donald “Trump’s budget plan guts federal science funding for the next fiscal year, according to an overview published by an external group. Particularly at risk is the category of basic research — the blue-sky variety meant to push back the frontiers of human knowledge and sow practical spinoffs and breakthroughs in such everyday fields as health care and artificial intelligence. The group says it would fall by more than one-third. The new analysis, made public Wednesday by the American Association for the Advancement of Science..., added up cuts to the budgets of hundreds of federal agencies and programs that do scientific research or provide grants to universities and research bodies. It then compared the funding appropriated for the current fiscal year with the administration’s proposals for fiscal year 2026.

“For basic science research, the association reported that the overall budget would fall ... [by] roughly 34 percent. For science funding overall — which includes money for basic, applied and developmental work, as well as for facilities for research and development — the analysis found that the federal budget would fall ... [by] of 22 percent. The new analysis shows that the Trump administration’s budget plan, if adopted, 'would essentially end America’s longstanding role as the world leader in science and innovation,' said Toby Smith ... [of] the Association of American Universities.” More on science below.

Higher Ed. Alan Blinder & Michael Bender of the New York Times (July 9): “The Trump administration on Wednesday increased pressure on Harvard University with subpoenas for student data and a challenge to its accreditation, signaling that a possible resolution to its acrimonious dispute with the nation’s oldest and most powerful college remained uncertain. The two sides have exchanged offers since last month, when they started exploring a potential deal over the federal government’s role in admissions, hiring and curriculum....”

Media & Foreign Aid. Brett Samuels of the Hill: Donald “Trump on Thursday threatened to withhold his support for any Republican who opposes a rescissions package of roughly $9 billion in cuts to foreign aid and public broadcasting. 'It is very important that all Republicans adhere to my Recissions Bill and, in particular, DEFUND THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING (PBS and NPR), which is worse than CNN & MSDNC put together,' Trump said, using a derogatory nickname for MSNBC. 'Any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting will not have my support or Endorsement,' Trump added. The GOP-led Congress has until July 18 to approve more than $9 billion in cuts put forward by the Trump administration in a rescissions package. The cuts target the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which oversees PBS and NPR, money for USAID and agencies like the U.S. Institute of Peace, which Trump aimed to dismantle via an executive order signed in February. The House approved the request last month, but it’s largely been on the back-burner....”

Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: “For months..., Donald Trump has waged war on objective, reliable federal statistics.... Increasingly, the administration has delayed, redacted or canceled statistical releases when results proved inconvenient.... [Rather than 'cooking the books,'] officials are depriving agencies of resources necessary to crunch the numbers in the first place.... The Bureau of Economic Analysis, which publishes major macroeconomic statistics such as gross domestic product, has lost about 20 percent of its employees since the beginning of the year.... Citing 'resource constraints' and 'ongoing modernization and streamlining of news release packages,' the agency has announced it will stop publishing certain data.... Other agencies are suffering similar brain drains.... Staff shortages have likewise been so severe at the Bureau of Labor Statistics that it has had to cut back on some of its most important, market-moving data collection.... The Census Bureau, for instance, lost more than 1,000 employees as of April, the acting director said....

“Perhaps most worryingly, Trump is (again) eyeing the decennial census. This is the country’s oldest statistical measure, which happens to be constitutionally mandated. But Trump, aided by GOP allies such as Sen. Bill Hagerty (Tennessee) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Georgia), is now trying to exclude all noncitizens from the official count. This would violate the 14th Amendment, which requires counting 'the whole number of persons.” It would, however, relieve the MAGA movement of the inconvenience of enumerating people it doesn’t think should be counted in the first place.”

Michael Crowley of the New York Times: “The State Department formally notified employees on Thursday that it was about to begin layoffs as part of a consolidation plan that department officials say will reduce bureaucratic bloat but that critics call a shortsighted blow to American diplomacy.... Diplomats said that senior department officials had told them to expect layoff notices as soon as Friday morning.... Secretary of State Marco Rubio ... said the changes would better align it with core American values and root out pockets of 'radical political ideology.' The State Department is proceeding with the cuts two days after the Supreme Court overturned a lower-court order that had blocked the Trump administration from implementing mass layoffs across the federal government.” An AP story is here.

Perry Stein of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration is firing and pushing out employees across the Justice Department and FBI, often with no explanation or warning, creating rampant speculation and fear within the workforce over who might be terminated next.... Some people are simply fired, delivered a notice signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi that cites the broad powers afforded to the president in the U.S. Constitution. Others, particularly at the FBI, are told they can leave or be demoted or terminated. The removals appear more individually targeted — and are happening in smaller numbers — than the high-profile ousters of senior Justice Department and FBI officials in the early months of ... Donald Trump’s second term, when he vowed to clean house at the department that had brought two criminal cases against him. They are unrelated to the mass reductions-in-force and reorganizations that Trump has launched at many other federal agencies, which the Supreme Court has said may move forward for now.... Scores of experienced staffers are opting to voluntarily leave the government to avoid being fired at random or asked to do things that would potentially violate their legal ethics.” ~~~

~~~ The DOJ is the agency that should be upholding the laws that protect U.S. residents from invasions of privacy. Look what it's doing instead: ~~~

 ~~~ The Lawless Department of Injustice. Azeen Ghorayshi & Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: “The Justice Department has issued subpoenas demanding confidential patient information from more than 20 doctors and hospitals that provide gender-related treatments to minors.... The action marks a new turn in the Trump administration’s efforts to limit transgender medical care. Most of the subpoenas, issued through the consumer protection unit of the department’s civil division, attempt to pierce powerful federal confidentiality protections for patients and their medical providers.... Critics say the motivation is ... a campaign of intimidation.... Revelations of the subpoenas come in the wake of a Supreme Court decision that upheld state laws banning youth gender medicine in about half the country.”

~~~ Marie: Now, here's a test I would flunk. OR I would pass and be goose-stepped out of the building: ~~~

An F.B.I. employee’s loyalty is to the Constitution, not to the director or deputy director. It says everything about Patel’s weak constitution that this is even on his radar. -- James Davidson, former F.B.I. agent ~~~

~~~ Adam Goldman of the New York Times: “Since Kash Patel took office as the director of the F.B.I., the bureau has significantly stepped up the use of the lie-detector test, at times subjecting personnel to a question as specific as whether they have cast aspersions on Mr. Patel himself.... In one instance, officials were forced to take a polygraph as the agency sought to determine who disclosed to the news media that Mr. Patel had demanded a service weapon, an unusual request given that he is not an agent. The number of officials asked to take a polygraph is in the dozens.... The use of the polygraph, and the nature of the questioning..., former bureau officials say, are politically charged and highly inappropriate, underscoring what they describe as an alarming quest for fealty at the F.B.I., where there is little tolerance for dissent. Disparaging Mr. Patel or his deputy, Dan Bongino, former officials say, could cost people their job.... Already..., [Donald] Trump’s political appointees have tightened their grip on the F.B.I., forcing out employees or putting others on administrative leave because of previous investigations that ran afoul of conservatives and a belief that the bureau had been politicized.”

Josh Gerstein & Kyle Cheney of Politico: “A fired Justice Department attorney has provided Congress with a trove of emails and text messages to corroborate his claims that a controversial Trump judicial nominee — top DOJ official Emil Bove — crudely discussed defying court orders. The newly-released messages reinforce claims by whistleblower Erez Reuveni that Bove played a key role in a decision by Trump administration immigration officials to turn scores of Venezuelan immigrants over to El Salvador’s government despite a U.S. judge’s order not to do so. The messages show increasing alarm among Justice Department lawyers that the administration had in fact defied court orders and that some officials — including a prominent DOJ lawyer brought on by the Trump administration — could face sanctions for misleading the courts. Bove has said that he never advised anyone to violate court orders.... In one of the newly-disclosed emails, the acting head of Justice’s Civil Division, Yaakov Roth, told Reuveni and other officials that the men were unloaded based on legal advice given by Bove.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Here's a related account by Devlin Barrett of the New York Times. Barrett takes a different tack, but arrives at the same conclusion: that the documents back up Reuveni's account. Moreover, Barrett adds the DOJ's No. 2 -- Todd Blanche -- to the tall-tale-tellers. The link appears to be a gift link. MB: I'm of the impression that neither Bove nor Blanche directly lied under oath. What they did was twist their tales to make it appear that one thing happened when actually something quite different occurred. For instance, Blanche claims he went to the meeting where Reuveni says Bove told other DOJ lawyers to "fuck" the courts, but Blanche claims he never heard any such thing. HOWEVER, it turns out that Blanche merely stuck his head into the room, had a brief private conversation with Bove and immediately left. So, yes, technically, Blanche attended the meeting because he was in the room while other attendees were there; and no, Blanche didn't hear Bove's remarks because Blanche had left the room by the time Bove told the group to fuck the courts. Here both A & B may be true, but the implication C is not. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Tom Joscelyn & Ryan Goodman of Just Security have minute details of Reuveni's evidence against Bove. MB: Here's hoping Bove goes to jail for criminal contempt of court instead of becoming an appeals court judge who would outrank Judge James Boasberg, the Chief Judge of the D.C. District Court who has threatened to bring charges against those responsible for “willfully disobeyed a binding judicial decree” he ordered on March 15 to “turn the planes around,” if necessary. ~~~

     ~~~ Update: Lawrence O'Donnell speculates that Trump is placing the 44-year-old Bove on the appeals court in anticipation of nominating him to the Supreme Court: ~~~

Michael Crowley of the New York Times: “The State Department formally notified employees on Thursday that it was about to begin layoffs as part of a consolidation plan that department officials say will reduce bureaucratic bloat but that critics call a shortsighted blow to American diplomacy.... Diplomats said that senior department officials had told them to expect layoff notices as soon as Friday morning.... Secretary of State Marco Rubio ... said the changes would better align it with core American values and root out pockets of 'radical political ideology.' The State Department is proceeding with the cuts two days after the Supreme Court overturned a lower-court order that had blocked the Trump administration from implementing mass layoffs across the federal government.” An AP story is here.

Brianna Sacks & Hannah Natanson of the Washington Post: “Two days before torrential rains turned the Guadalupe River into a raging flood, a veteran official with the Federal Emergency Management Agency told The Washington Post that one of the main concerns for this disaster season was the agency’s ability to quickly deploy specialized search and rescue teams. The Trump administration’s new rules mean disaster specialists can no longer 'make decisions' on their own. The official then watched it happen in real time in Texas. Deployments of critical resources, such as tactical and specialized search and rescue teams, were delayed as a result of a budget restriction requiring Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem to approve every purchase, contract and grant over $100,000, according to a dozen current and former FEMA employees.... Other efforts by the administration to constrain spending have hampered FEMA’s operations, officials said, which is likely to make it harder for the agency to be proactive during what is predicted to be a busy disaster season. Multiple former officials and current employees say that several contracts with companies that provide crucial services for disaster response have run out or are about to lapse and have not yet been extended.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The WashPo story is consistent with a CNN story linked here yesterday and Wednesday. MSNBC ran videotape of Noem telling Fox "News" hosts that the CNN story was "fake news." I don't think so. BTW, if you were wondering what Kristi was doing during that 72-hour delay in approving funding for the Texas flood project, please don't accuse her of devoting all of the time to costume changes. For one thing, she was busy posting on her Instagram three portraits of her and asking followers, “Which one do you like for the official Governor’s portrait to hang in the South Dakota State Capitol?” Each portrait depicts her on horseback and wearing a cowboy hat. BTW, I looked at some of the official portraits of previous South Dakota governors, and almost every one I looked at showed a lazy White dude just sitting in a fancy office chair wearing a suit and staring at the artist. One guy, Tom Berry, did have the decency to wear a modest fedora and appear to stand in front of what I'd guess is a South Dakota landscape. Berry was a real rancher. Franklin Roosevelt called him "Cowboy." Noem owns a ranch, too, and is a real horsewoman. ~~~

~~~ Cosplay KKKristi to Get FEMA Wardrobe, After All. Natalie Allison of the Washington Post: “For months..., Donald Trump and his homeland security secretary have said the Federal Emergency Management Agency could be eliminated. But as the president heads to Texas to view the impact of last week’s deadly floods, administration officials say abolishing the agency outright is not on the agenda. A senior White House official told The Washington Post that no official action is being taken to wind down FEMA, and that changes in the agency will probably amount to a 'rebranding' that will emphasize state leaders’ roles in disaster response. The official and others emphasized that Trump will make the ultimate decision, but said at this point, FEMA is not set to be abolished.... Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem in recent months raised the prospect that the agency could be abolished altogether. In describing an executive order on FEMA shortly after he took office, Trump said it would 'begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA, or maybe getting rid of FEMA.'... Last month, Trump said he wanted to 'wean off of FEMA' and 'give out less money.' Noem declared during a March Cabinet meeting that she was 'going to eliminate FEMA.' Last month, however, she seemed to dial down her rhetoric, saying Trump wanted to 'see FEMA eliminated as it exists today.'”

Definitely Not Chill. Livia Albeck-Ripka of the New York Times: “Federal agents raided a large cannabis farm in Southern California on Thursday, clashing with protesters and arresting multiple people.... Footage taken by local news media from helicopters showed the agents firing tear gas and crowd control munitions during the operation in Camarillo, Calif.... Rodney Scott, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, said on social media that '10 juveniles,' eight of them unaccompanied, were found at one of the facilities raided on Thursday, and that all of them were in the country illegally.... Federal agents went to multiple cannabis cultivation facilities owned by Glass House Farms on Thursday.... The company said on social media that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials came to its facilities and that it complied with the search warrants. It is legal for licensed companies to grow cannabis in California.... During the clash near Camarillo, a person appeared to fire a pistol at law enforcement officers, the F.B.I. said, offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to that individual’s conviction.” A CBS News story is here.

Joey Safchik of NBC San Diego: “The latest video to send shock waves from San Diego immigration court through the immigrant community is actually not of an immigrant, but rather of a 71-year-old U.S. citizen, Barbara Stone. Stone was handcuffed and held by federal agents for eight hours on Tuesday, according to her family. 'I have a large bruise there,' Stone said on Wednesday. 'I feel mentally and physically traumatized.'... Stone was at the court to observe proceedings and how the federal agents act, which is legal and, according to Ruth Mendez of Detention Resistance, is a 1st Amendment right.... No charges have been pressed against Stone, but her family said her phone was confiscated.... Stone said she would volunteer again.” ~~~

~~~ So you can see the reason for this: ~~~

~~~ A Dispensation from the Bishop. Claire Moses of the New York Times: “The Diocese of San Bernardino has told its parishioners that they do not have to attend Mass for fear of federal immigration raids. Bishop Alberto Rojas, the leader of the Roman Catholic community of about 1.6 million worshipers in Southern California, said in a letter on Tuesday that members who face a 'genuine fear of immigration enforcement actions' if they attend Mass on Sundays or holidays are 'dispensed from this obligation.' The lifting of the obligation for Catholics is a rare step usually reserved for extenuating circumstances such as the Covid pandemic.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

“He's Only a Pawn in Their Game.” Alan Feuer & Minho Kim of the New York Times: “From the moment that the Trump administration brought Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia back from his wrongful deportation to El Salvador to face criminal charges, the Justice Department has insisted that the indictment filed against him was a necessary tool to seek accountability against someone who was supposedly a dangerous criminal.... But recent developments suggest that the department is not quite as committed to pursuing the prosecution as it initially seemed.... In a pair of court hearings this week, Justice Department lawyers said that they would press forward with the case, but only on one condition: that Mr. Abrego Garcia remained in custody while he awaited trial. If he were freed on bail, they said, they would scrap the idea of trying him altogether and turn him over to immigration officials for immediate deportation.”

It's important to squish every last little rotten preschooler who is not a JayDee Vance-certified U.S. citizen: ~~~

     ~~~ Laura Meckler, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration said Thursday it would ban undocumented children from enrolling in Head Sta[r]t preschools, one in a series of moves aimed at preventing people in the country illegally from benefiting from federal programs. The news arrived via coordinated announcements from the Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, Agriculture, Labor and Justice. The White House cast the moves as 'the biggest step in more than 30 years to protect taxpayer-funded benefits for American citizens — NOT illegal aliens.'... Undocumented immigrants — and many legal immigrants, too — are already ineligible for most federal benefits.... But there have been exceptions, including Head Start, which has long opened its doors to children regardless of their immigration status.... The new eligibility rules sowed confusion among grant recipients.... And they angered advocates for Head Start, a 60-year-old program that helps hundreds of thousands of children prepare for kindergarten each year.” Since most young children of undocumented parents were born in the U.S., the new rule probably will affect very few children. MB: It's just mean. 

Andrew Jacobs of the New York Times: “Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services secretary, abruptly canceled a meeting this week of a federal task force that helps determine which preventive health measures must be covered fully by insurance companies, raising concerns about the future of the nonpartisan panel. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force had been scheduled to meet Thursday, but its members were informed by email Monday, without explanation, that the meeting would be postponed.... Created in 1984, the 16-member panel of doctors and other health experts plays a pivotal role in determining whether tens of millions of Americans are eligible for lung cancer screenings, stroke reduction medication and scores of other drugs and preventive services.... The decision to cancel the July meeting follows a Supreme Court ruling last month that upheld the work of the task force — but also affirmed Mr. Kennedy’s authority to disregard its recommendations or to remove members before their terms have expired.” MB: One way and/or another, Crazy Bobby & the Supremes are gonna cost me dearly. 

I’m going to do everything in my power to stop it. Find out who’s doing it and holding them accountable. -- Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., on chemtrails, in an interview in May 2025 ~~~

Shocking News for RFJK & MTG. Maxine Joselow of the New York Times: “No, chemtrails are not real, the Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday, in a notable instance of the Trump administration debunking a conspiracy theory that gained traction amid catastrophic flooding in Central Texas. For decades, scientists have sought to shut down the chemtrails conspiracy theory, which asserts that the federal government is spraying harmful chemicals into the sky to control the weather, population or food supply. On Thursday, their efforts got a major boost from an unexpected source: two new E.P.A. websites that seek to 'provide clear, science-based information' on chemtrail claims as well as on geoengineering, or efforts to intentionally alter Earth’s climate.... Some Trump administration officials and Republican lawmakers have used their platforms to amplify the chemtrails conspiracy theory. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services secretary, has suggested without evidence that the Defense Department’s research arm is spraying Americans with harmful chemicals that have been added to jet fuel.... Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, has for years spread the baseless claim that the government controls the weather.” She plans to introduce a bill to make weather-altering chemtrails “a felony offense.” ~~~

     ~~~ Update: What Joselow does not make at all clear is that crazy EPA administrator Lee Zeldin undercut the agency's findings in a video announcing those very findings: ~~~

⭐Zach Montague & Pat Grossmith of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Thursday blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a contentious executive order ending birthright citizenship after certifying a lawsuit as a class action, effectively the only way he could impose such a far-reaching limit after a Supreme Court ruling last month. Ruling from the bench, Judge Joseph N. Laplante of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire said his decision applied nationwide to babies who would have been subject to the executive order, which included the children of undocumented parents and those born to academics in the United States on student visas, on or after Feb. 20.” Thanks to Ken W. for the lead. (Also linked yesterday.) 

~~~~~~~~~~

Texas. Christopher Flavelle, et al., of the New York Times: “'It is likely' that Kerr County 'will experience a flood event in the next year,' city and county officials concluded in a report for the Federal Emergency Management Agency released last October. Such floods, they added, could pose a particular danger to people in 'substandard structures' and result in 'increased damage, injuries, or loss of life.' One solution, county officials noted, would be a flood warning system that could alert residents to rising waters. They estimated the cost of such a system at less than $1 million, and noted that FEMA had grant programs that could pay for it. But by the time floodwaters raged down the Guadalupe River last Friday morning, killing at least 121, including at least 36 children, no such alarm system had been installed in Kerr County.... 

“The New York Times identified at least three occasions between 2017 and 2024 when local officials sought funding for a flood warning system but were rebuffed by the state. Those failed applications came even as the federal government made billions of additional dollars available for disaster-reduction projects — including $1.9 billion that has flowed to Texas over the past decade to be spent at the discretion of state officials, according to a Times analysis.... Over the past decade, according to federal data, Texas has received nearly $1.9 billion through FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, one of the federal government’s main disaster-protection programs.” ~~~

~~~ Marie: The Times' report may be accurate, but only as far as it goes. Yesterday, RAS found a November 2021 article by Louis Amestoy of the Kerr County Lead which reported that Kerr County was sitting on a $10 million federal grant. Some of the county commissioners wanted to return it because they didn't trust President Joe Biden. But "Precinct 3 Commissioner Jonathan Letz said the county is facing serious issues when upgrading its emergency communications systems, including replacing an aging radio system that would align with the city of Kerrville's plan to upgrade its communications. The county's consultants said they believe the federal funding, designed around COVID-19 relief, could be used to offset these costs.... A careful read of [a U.S. Treasury FAQ document] reveals that the county would have broad authority to spend the money as it sees fit, including a new radio system covered in the FAQ." 

Texas Gossip Page. David Goodman of the New York Times: “State Senator Angela Paxton of Texas, the wife of the state attorney general, Ken Paxton, announced on Thursday that she had filed for divorce, saying she made her decision 'on biblical grounds' and 'in light of recent discoveries.' The divorce petition ... lists among the grounds for divorce that the 'respondent has committed adultery' and that the couple has not lived together 'as spouses' since June 2024. Mr. Paxton, in a parallel announcement on social media, said the couple had decided to 'start a new chapter in our lives,' and suggested that the pressures of public life and 'countless political attacks' had precipitated the rupture. 'I ask for your prayers and privacy at this time,' Mr. Paxton said.... A key part of [a 2023] impeachment trial [against Mr. Paxton] was the question of whether [he] had used his office to do favors for an Austin real estate investor who had helped the attorney general conceal an extramarital affair.... Mr. Paxton was acquitted in the trial.... He settled his state securities fraud by agreeing to pay restitution, take legal ethics classes and perform community service, but admitted no wrongdoing.” Ken Paxton has mounted a primary challenge against Sen. John Cornyn (R). A Politico story is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel. Patrick Kingsley of the New York Times in the New York Times Magazine on “how [Benjamin] Netanyahu 'prolonged the war in Gaza to stay in power. Secret meetings, altered records, ignored intelligence: the inside story of the prime minister’s political calculations since Oct. 7.”

Russia/Ukraine. Michael Schwirtz of the New York Times: “Since the start of Russia’s invasion in 2022, Ukraine’s domestic intelligence agency, known as the S.B.U., has become famous for its daring covert operations, involving sabotage and assassination inside Russia. On Thursday, the Ukrainian authorities said that one of the S.B.U.’s own officers from an elite unit was gunned down in daylight in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.... Two Ukrainian officials identified the victim as Col. Ivan Voronych, who was an officer in the S.B.U.’s Center for Special Operations Alpha and had been with the agency for decades. In surveillance video published by Ukrainian media outlets, a gunman wearing dark clothing can be seen running up to Colonel Voronych in a parking lot and firing what appears to be a pistol several times.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

U.K. Aishvarya Kavi of the New York Times: “At least 13 postal workers in Britain died by suicide amid a post office scandal in which about 1,000 postal workers were wrongfully prosecuted for theft and other crimes, according to a report released this week as part of an inquiry into the scandal.... The victims range from postal workers held liable for tens or hundreds of pounds in financial discrepancies to those who were wrongly tried, convicted, imprisoned and made to pay back tens of thousands of pounds. They were all blamed for apparent shortfalls at their postal branches across Britain that, it turned out, had actually been caused by a flawed information technology system. More than 1,000 people were prosecuted from 2000 to at least 2013, but thousands of others were blamed and held responsible, according to the report.... The scandal burst into the public eye last year after an ITV television series, 'Mr. Bates vs. the Post Office,,' dramatized the stories of the victims. Soon after, the British Parliament passed a law quashing the convictions. It has been described as one of the worse miscarriages of justice in British history, and the full extent of the consequences for the victims is still being uncovered.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The ITV series is excellent, IMO. If you have a PBS "Passport," you can stream it. Also, if you have a PBS subscription through Prime, it's available online. PBS Passport also is streaming a one-hour documentary on the scandal. ~~~

~~~ Another Scandal/Another Medium. Karla Adam of the Washington Post: “For the last month, audiences [at a London West End performance venue] have been reenacting the events of Jan. 6, 2021, when a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol in one of the most violent and divisive days of modern American democracy.... Attendees at 'Fight for America' were active participants — singing, chanting, rolling dice, and maneuvering tiny figurines around a model of the Capitol. The unusual project — part tabletop strategy game, part thought-provoking political experiment — was meant to debut in the United States. But after ... Donald Trump’s election victory last fall, the team behind it pivoted to London.... A Washington, D.C., run is still planned for January to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the riot.”