The Conversation -- June 26, 2025
~~~ Thanks to RAS for the link. Need more proof? ~~~
~~~ Paul Glastris of the Washington Monthly spoke with a person "who has had a decades-long career in the U.S. military and the intelligence community" about the implications of the leaked Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report. Now we know, the source said, that "this latest weapon, long in development but never deployed, has demonstrated once again that if an adversary simply digs deeply enough, the laws of physics are on their side." Okay, so that's bad, but of course it's way worse than that: "As long as we didn’t use them, Iran didn’t know for sure how damaging they could be. That gave us leverage with them. Now the situation is reversed. We’ve revealed or confirmed that our most fearsome weapon, or the most fearsome we’re willing to use — we could drop nukes or send in the 82nd Airborne, but that’s not going to happen — can collapse the entrances of tunnels but not destroy facilities buried deeply in a mountain. Going into any negotiations with them, they know our limits.... And not just Iran. Every other adversarial regime now knows these weapons are essentially duds. That weakens our leverage considerably with all of them. I am sure Kim Jung Un is happy in North Korea today." Via digby, via RAS. ~~~
~~~ Marie: AND, once again, do bear in mind that Obama & Kerry's Iran nuclear agreement was working when the Quicker Fucker Upper wiped it away. And speaking of that, this: ~~~
~~~ Jennifer Rubin of the Contrarian: "There is no agreement, pledge, or promise Donald Trump won’t break. Constant reversals, betrayals, lies, and bullying risk isolating us from valuable allies and incentivizing our enemies to resort to hard power. In Iran, Trump’s 2018 decision to tear up the Iran nuclear deal, followed by resorting to brute force, gives Iran an incentive to regard negotiations as useless and to instead race to make a bomb to ensure survival." Read on. See also Lawrence O'Donnell (video embedded below) on Trump's pronouncements regarding a deal with Iran (at about 11:30 min. into the video).
Marie: I have not fully appreciated what a dick Drunk Pete is. Here he was Thursday morning, attacking the press for, well, reporting: ~~~
~~~ Here he is berating Fox "News" Pentagon reporter Jennifer Griffin: ~~~
~~~ AND in Thursday's Comments, Elizabeth points to this NYT story and the excerpt below: ~~~
~~~ Eric Schmitt & Helene Cooper of the New York Times: “Mr. Hegseth ... took a combative tone at Thursday’s news conference, singling out reporters who have covered the Pentagon for years under successive administrations, both Republican and Democratic, and complained that they were not properly cheering for the one he represented. Then he reached for history. 'President Trump directed the most secret and most complex military operation in history,' Mr. Hegseth said. No mention was made of the D-Day landings at Normandy, which involved intricate planning, 160,000 troops from allied nations, fake radio transmissions and false radar readings, paratroopers, pilots, Army rangers and spies. Even President Franklin D. Roosevelt was unaware of the exact time of the mission until just before it began.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: (1) The operation was not “secret”: As the New York Times reported Sunday, in the lead-up to the bombing, “Mr. Trump was making blustery statements indicating he was about to take the country into the conflict.... These public pronouncements generated angst at the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command, where military planners began to worry that Mr. Trump was giving Iran too much warning about an impending strike.” Because of Trump's boasting leaks, military planners had to add a deceptive maneuver to the operation, sending decoy B-52s on a mock bombing mission using a different flight path. Meanwhile, Trump helpfully gave Iran the heads-up to move its enriched uranium and centrifuges to other places. (And as Jennifer Griffin of Fox pointed out to Hegseth, moving stuff appears to be what Iran did.) ~~~
~~~ (2) The operation was not “complex” (except to the extent Trump's Big Mouth required the military to build in the subterfuge): Take off, fly to sites, drop bombs, fly home. Admittedly, it's not as easy as that, especially because of the length of the flights and the need to refuel en route. But it was made a lot easier by the fact that the Israelis took out most of Iran's anti-aircraft defenses. More important, this was no D-Day. Not just D-Day or Hiroshima was a more secret and complex operation, many a less significant military mission has been more complex. ~~~
~~~ (3) Donald Trump didn't “direct” anything. I forgot the verb. As Lawrence O'Donnell pointed out Thursday night, the general outlines of the plan have been around for years. Trump just said, “go.” When the issue of the day is Trump's wanton hyperbole, Hegseth certainly won't be fired for exaggerating the Boss's fabulousness. But the Bootlicker's glorification of Looselips von Clusterfuck is embarrassing.
Shame on Marcie Jones of Wonkette for making me LOL in her account of the hearing in which Emil Bove, the “answer to the question 'What would Stephen Miller look like in the Upside Down?' was in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee [Wednesday], because ... Donald Trump has nominated him to be a judge on the Third US Circuit Court of Appeals that hears cases from Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, GOOD LORD.” Jones also provides some of the background on Bove that might have slipped your mind. More on the hearing linked below, but not so funny.
Elizabeth Goitein of Just Security: "Last week, federalized National Guard forces who were deployed in Los Angeles in response to protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids assisted the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in conducting a routine counter-drug operation 130 miles east of the city.... Based on currently available information, it appears to be illegal, as well. Around 315 Guard personnel were deployed to assist DEA in executing a federal search warrant as part of an investigation into three large marijuana growth operations in the eastern Coachella Valley region.... The operation also involved the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Customs and Border Protection; ICE; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosions; the U.S. Marshals Service; and the Internal Revenue Service. During the raid, ICE agents arrested between 70 and 75 workers believed to lack documentation, and one U.S. citizen was arrested for impeding law enforcement.... The lack of any legal authorization for this use of federalized National Guard forces is, of course, highly concerning in its own right. But the use of federal forces to assist with drug raids also represents a massive shift in, and an expansion of, Trump’s domestic use of the military."
Marie: Here is an aspect of Trump's Big Bad Bill that has escaped my attention: ~~~
~~~ Ali Davis, in a guest post on Wonkette: “Hello, college and university administrators! You have homework! You have serious homework, and it is due now.... Donald Trump and the Republicans’ 'One Big Bill' is designed, in part, to financially devastate colleges and universities. Part of the plan is to make it impossible for lower- and middle-income students to get student loans, and part of is intended to cripple the higher education system itself by slashing access to federal funding for any school that doesn’t stick to spouting party-line conservative ideas. You have already begun to see the effects of having your research grants yanked around as the Trump administration tries to frighten and/or ban your foreign students.... The Project 2025 devotees who have poured into the second Trump administration have an explicit goal of destroying our nation’s universities.” Davis had advice for universities, their donors (and those who think maybe a university education is a plus) on how to fight the Big Bad plan to destroy higher education now.
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Marie: I refuse to withhold my outrage. I refuse to read stories about Trump and his lackeys with resignation or acceptance.
Barack Ravid of Axios: Donald "Trump is going to extraordinary lengths to defend his claim that U.S. airstrikes 'obliterated' Iran's nuclear program, determined to cement the operation as a defining victory of his presidency.... He has treated the leak of an initial Pentagon battle damage assessment as an act of sabotage, launching an aggressive campaign to discredit the report as preliminary, inaccurate and already outdated.... The FBI has launched an investigation into the [leak], and the administration plans to limit sharing classified information with Congress to crack down on leakers, as Axios first reported.... The messaging campaign has become a whole-of-government priority.... [Pete] Hegseth and ... Marco Rubio stepped forward at NATO to denounce attempts by leakers to 'spin' the intelligence, stressing that the early assessment was labeled 'low confidence.'" ~~~
CNN is scum. MSDNC is scum. The New York Times is scum. They're bad people. They're sick. And what they've done is they've tried to make this unbelievable victory into something less. -- Donald Trump, at NATO, complaining about accurate press coverage of the Pentagon's early assessment of the extent of damage to Iran's nuclear program ~~~
~~~ Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: “Classified intelligence about the damage to Iran’s nuclear program from U.S. strikes was at the center of a political tempest on Wednesday as spy chiefs pushed out new assessments and ... [Donald] Trump continued to defend his assertion that Iran’s key facilities had been 'obliterated.'... Mr. Trump’s angry responses to the news reports, given during a news conference at a NATO summit in the Netherlands, centered on just how much damage the attacks had caused at two of the nuclear sites.... The C.I.A. director, John Ratcliffe, said the strikes had 'severely damaged' Iran’s nuclear program, and the administration suggested that the initial report, by the Defense Intelligence Agency, was based on preliminary assessments and was already outdated. The damage was also being assessed by other U.S. spy agencies. No information that has become public from those assessments has supported Mr. Trump’s description of the level of destruction from the U.S. attack, though they all confirmed that the damage had been substantial.... 'This repeated pattern of manipulating or shading intelligence to support a political narrative is deeply alarming,” [Sen. Mark] Warner [(D-Va.) ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee,] said. 'We’ve seen where this road leads.'” ~~~
The administration has no right to stonewall Congress on matters of national security. Senators deserve information, and the administration has a legal obligation to inform Congress precisely about what is happening right now abroad. -- Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), speaking on the Senate floor ~~~
~~~ Emily Davies, et al., of the Washington Post: “The White House plans to limit classified intelligence sharing with Congress after leaks to the press of an early assessment undermined ... Donald Trump’s claim that U.S. airstrikes obliterated Iranian nuclear facilities, a senior Trump administration official said, setting the stage for a contentious classified briefing before senators Thursday. Amid a political battle over what the intelligence shows, the White House is expected to send four of its top national security officials to brief lawmakers: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, administration officials said. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who testified in March that U.S. intelligence agencies assessed that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon, will be notably absent.... Trump has called Gabbard’s assessment of Iran’s nuclear program 'wrong' and largely sidelined her in navigating the United States’ role in the war between Iran and Israel, current and former U.S. officials and people close to the White House told The Washington Post....
“The Trump administration’s tour to convince lawmakers and Americans of the mission’s success will include a Thursday morning stop at the Pentagon, where Hegseth and unnamed 'Military Representatives' will hold a 'Major News Conference' to 'fight for the Dignity of our Great American Pilots,' Trump announced on Truth Social on Wednesday. 'These Patriots were very upset!' Trump said, without offering any evidence. The president erroneously said that pilots had endured '36 hours of dangerously flying through Enemy Territory' — conflating the length of the entire round trip..., i and lambasted media reports about the initial intelligence assessment.” ~~~
~~~ Gettin' On Board the Trump Train. Amy Mackinnon & John Sakellariadis of Politico: “Two of ... Donald Trump’s top intelligence chiefs issued statements on Wednesday stating that new intelligence indicates Iran’s nuclear facilities were 'destroyed' in U.S. airstrikes over the weekend. CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard issued their statements within hours of each other, reinforcing the administration’s daylong blitz to counter media reports of a preliminary government assessment that the strikes had not significantly set back Iran’s nuclear program.” ~~~
~~~ Heather Cox Richardson has a pretty good summary of Trump's extraordinary efforts to direct the narrative. MB: I liked the part where Trump wrote on social media that "They [the B-52 pilots] felt terribly!" If in fact the pilots' ability to feel things they touched was impaired, perhaps they should not have been flying a big ole aeroplane with all those buttons & levers to push and pull. ~~~
~~~ Max Boot of the Washington Post states the obvious: “History teaches that it is nearly impossible to eradicate a nuclear program by air power alone. Failing a ground invasion — something that no one is contemplating in the case of Iran — the only viable option to guarantee denuclearization is a binding international agreement. The irony is that President Barack Obama had negotiated just such an agreement with Iran in 2015 — the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — but Trump foolishly pulled out of it in 2018, leading Iran to accelerate its enrichment of uranium. The Iran nuclear deal had its flaws. But as long as Iran abided by it — and there were international inspections to ensure that it did — Tehran was prevented from moving toward a nuclear weapon for at least 15 years. Even the most optimistic scenarios of the damage achieved by U.S. and Israeli airstrikes suggest that they delayed the Iranian program by a much, much shorter length of time.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: That is to say, none of this multi-billion-dollar effort would have been necessary had Trump not scrapped the hard-won Iran nuclear deal. Speaking of bombing Iran, RAS points to this: ~~~
~~~ Yelena Mandenberg of the Daily Mirror: "... Donald Trump, facing a new low in approval ratings, posted a 'parody' video that jovially sings 'bomb bomb bomb Iran,' set to a Beach Boys tune. The video features American B-52s soaring through the sky, reminiscent of recent joint strikes with Israel on Iranian uranium enrichment sites in Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz. As the planes drop bombs in the video, the lyrics remain upbeat. The disturbing lyrics include phrases like 'bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran,' and 'went to a mosque, gonna throw some rocks.' It also echoes Trump's previous threats to assassinate Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran's despot, with the line, 'tell the Ayatollah: gonna put you in a box.'... The rest of the song ... also threatens to 'turn Iran into a parking lot.'" MB: Needless to say, real presidents don't make jokes about the use of lethal force.
Steven Erlanger & Lara Jakes of the New York Times: “A NATO summit designed to please ... [Donald] Trump ended on Wednesday with his European allies approving an ambitious spending goal to meet the threat of a militarizing Russia, and clinching a long-elusive public commitment from the mercurial American leader for the alliance’s collective defense. Since his first term, Mr. Trump has been pressing for the allies to spend more on their own defense. On Wednesday, after a one-day meeting in the Netherlands, they agreed to raise their spending on the military to 5 percent of their national income by 2035. That amount consists of 3.5 percent on traditional military needs like troops, weapons, shells and missiles, up sharply from the current target of 2 percent. It also includes another 1.5 percent on 'militarily adjacent' projects like improved roads and bridges, better emergency health care, better cybersecurity and civic resilience. Mr. Trump was pleased.” ~~~
~~~ Here's Lawrence O'Donnell on Trump's NATO performance. Thanks to NiskyGuy for the link: ~~~
Edward Wong, et al., of the New York Times: “The [Trump] administration is pushing nations around the world ... to take people expelled by the U.S. government who are not citizens of those countries.... American diplomats are reaching out to countries in every corner of the globe, even some shattered by war or known for human rights abuses. U.S. officials have approached Angola, Mongolia and embattled Ukraine. Kosovo has agreed to accept up to 50 people. Costa Rica is holding dozens. The U.S. government paid Rwanda $100,000 to take an Iraqi man and is discussing sending more deportees there. And the administration recently planned to fly citizens of mainly Asian and Latin American countries to war-torn Libya and South Sudan, until a U.S. district court blocked those expulsions.... The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the Trump administration has the right to expel people to countries other than their own, possibly paving the way for the deportation flight to South Sudan and similar moves across the globe. 'Fire up the deportation planes,' Tricia McLaughlin, a Homeland Security Department spokeswoman, wrote on social media.... Mr. Trump ... is ... trying to set up a network of nations that accept people from anywhere in the world and put them in prisons, camps or other facilities. In some cases, the foreign governments could allow the people to apply for asylum or try to send them back to their countries of origin.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Trump Sues Entire District Court. Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “On Tuesday evening, the Trump administration ... filed a lawsuit against ... [15] federal judges who serve on the bench in Maryland, seeking a court order that would block [a ruling by] ... the district’s chief judge, George L. Russell III..., [that] any immigrant who sought to challenge their removal from the country by filing ... a habeas petition would be automatically granted a temporary order stopping the government from expelling them for at least one day.... On its face, the spectacle of the Trump administration suing an entire district court made clear just how ugly and bizarre the relationship between the executive and judicial branches has become.” MB: Pretty crazy. ~~~
~~~ Salvador Rizzo & Katie Mettler of the Washington Post: “Legal experts described the move as an unprecedented attack on judicial independence, while government lawyers said it was necessary to preserve ... Donald Trump’s constitutional authority over immigration. Longtime court watchers said they could not recall another instance in which the Justice Department, which usually represents members of the judicial branch in court, sued the entire roster of judges in a district.”
Marie: Oh, dear, is there a fight brewing between Pam Blondie & Kristi Gnome? ~~~
~~~ Jeremy Roebuck of the Washington Post: “A pair of federal judges balked Wednesday at Justice Department claims that the agency would be powerless to stop the deportation of Kilmar Abrego García — the Maryland man illegally deported to El Salvador — should he be released from criminal custody while he awaits trial on human smuggling charges. U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw said such an argument 'defies logic' in an opinion rejecting the government’s request that he immediately halt a lower-court ruling ordering that Abrego be released pending trial to the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.... Still, the judge left open the possibility he could revoke the lower court’s ruling after more consideration and set an evidentiary hearing for next month. Separately Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara D. Holmes — who had ordered Abrego’s release — also expressed skepticism about concerns raised by prosecutors that Abrego would be removed [by ICE!] from the country before he could stand trial.”
“Records of hundreds of emergency calls from ICE detention centers ... — including audio recordings — show a system inundated by life-threatening incidents, delayed treatment, and overcrowding.... A Wired investigation into 911 calls from 10 of the nation's largest immigration detention centers found that serious medical incidents are rising at many of the sites. The data ... show that at least 60 percent of the centers analyzed had reported serious pregnancy complications, suicide attempts, or sexual assault allegations.... Wired spoke with immigration attorneys, local migrant advocates, national policy experts, and individuals who have been recently detained or have family currently in ICE custody. Their accounts echoed the data: a system overwhelmed, and at times, seemingly indifferent to medical crises. Experts believe the true number of medical emergencies is far higher.”
⭐Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: “Just minutes into the first meeting of new scientific advisers appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., it was clear that the skeptical panelists intended to upend longstanding vaccine recommendations in the United States, particularly those pertaining to children. The meeting on Wednesday marked a remarkable and fraught moment in public health. Mr. Kennedy has replaced the gatekeepers of immunization policy in the United States, mostly scientists with deep expertise, with people who often have been critical of vaccine safety and efficacy. The panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccine policy. Its determinations have a powerful impact. Insurance companies and government programs like Medicaid are required to cover immunizations that the C.D.C. recommends, and states base their school mandates on the agency’s guidance.... Breaking with decades of tradition, the American Academy of Pediatrics boycotted the meeting, saying 'we won’t lend our name or our expertise to a system that is being politicized at the expense of children’s health.'” The link is a gift link.
CDC to Hire Crackpot Nurse/RFKJ Ally. Alexander Tin of CBS News: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is hiring Lyn Redwood, a nurse and the former head of a group critics have denounced as anti-vaccine, to work in its vaccine safety office, multiple CDC officials tell CBS News. Redwood was the president of the group now called Children's Health Defense, which lists as its founder Robert F. Kennedy Jr.... Children's Health Defense has sued to curb vaccine requirements, petitioned federal agencies to revoke vaccine authorizations and spread misinformation about vaccines. Kennedy was listed as the group's founder and chairman before becoming the nation's top health official in the second Trump administration. She is joining the CDC office responsible for overseeing most of the agency's work and data to probe potential safety risks from vaccines, including databases used by health officials to collect and analyze reports from the public and health care systems. Redwood is expected to be hired as a special government employee, the CDC officials said...."
Benjamin Mueller of the New York Times: “In the wake of two court rulings taking issue with the axing of medical research grants by the Trump administration, a senior official at the National Institutes of Health has directed agency staff members not to cancel any additional research projects, at least for now. The directive, in an internal memo sent Tuesday and reviewed by The New York Times, is a retreat by the agency. Since [...] Donald Trump’s return to office, N.I.H. has slashed funding for medical research by ending hundreds of awards, part of his administration’s broader effort to end the use of public money on diversity issues and the health of sexual and gender minority groups. It was not clear how long the directive would hold.”
Stephanie Nolen of the New York Times: “The United States will withdraw its financial support of Gavi, a global organization that helps purchase vaccines for children in poor countries, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the United States secretary of Health and Human Services, told the group’s leaders on Wednesday, accusing them of having 'ignored the science' in immunizing children around the world. Mr. Kennedy made the incendiary remarks in a brief, prerecorded video message sent overnight to a gathering of health ministers and other leaders in Brussels focused on raising funds to support the work of Gavi. It was to be played for the group later on Wednesday.... The United States was the largest donor to Gavi, whose work is estimated to have saved the lives of 17 million children around the world over the past two decades.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Stephanie Nolen of the New York Times: “There is more potential than ever before to end the H.I.V. epidemic, scientists and public health experts say. But now, H.I.V. programs across Africa are scrambling to procure drugs that the United States once supplied, replace lost nurses and lab technicians, and restart shuttered programs to prevent new infections.... Already, there are fears that H.I.V. infection rates are rising in the hardest-hit countries, but there is no clear way to measure the damage because data collection was mostly reliant on the terminated U.S. funding. Stocks of prevention drugs once supplied by the U.S. are running out across Africa.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Christopher Flavelle, et al., of the New York Times: “The rapid dismantling of [U.S.A.I.D.] remains one of the most consequential outcomes of ... [Donald] Trump’s efforts to overhaul the federal government, showing his willingness to tear down institutions in defiance of the courts.... This is the story of [the] two weeks [during which Trump tore down the aid agency].... A New York Times examination found that Trump administration officials came to U.S.A.I.D. with no plan to dismantle the agency, at least not so quickly. Instead, that decision emerged day by day, marked by rash demands, shock and confusion.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Elisabeth Bumiller of the New York Times profiles Usha Vance. MB: Unless she gets out now, which apparently she will not, Usha is a traitor to human decency. (Also linked yesterday.)
Zach Montague of the New York Times: “A federal judge in Texas granted a temporary reprieve to two small money services operations that had argued that a new Trump administration policy intended to ensnare drug traffickers was instead driving them out of business. The ruling, handed down late Tuesday, marked the third time a court had rejected a new Treasury Department rule that calls for increased scrutiny of financial service businesses along the southern border, which are already highly regulated. The government in March required businesses in certain ZIP codes in Texas and California to report any transaction larger than $200, along with personal identifying information about the customer. For decades, the government’s reporting threshold for transactions had been set at $10,000. In a brief order, Judge Leon Schydlower of the Federal District Court for the Western District of Texas wrote that drug traffickers could simply go outside the targeted areas to make the policy 'completely toothless.... Innocent businesses can be profoundly disadvantaged if they are located on the ‘wrong’ side of an El Paso street, and thus within a covered ZIP code, vis-à-vis their competitors across the street in an uncovered ZIP code,' he wrote.”
Devlin Barrett of the New York Times: “A senior Justice Department official, Emil Bove III, denied to Congress on Wednesday that he had expressed to subordinates an intent to ignore court orders to accomplish ... [Donald] Trump’s rapid deportation goals. The remarks, before the Senate Judiciary Committee, came during Mr. Bove’s confirmation hearing for an appeals court judgeship in Philadelphia, a lifetime appointment that is one rung below the Supreme Court. Mr. Bove, a key driver of the Trump administration’s sweeping changes at the Justice Department, was repeatedly questioned about a whistle-blower complaint that portrayed political appointees as willing to mislead judges and defy the courts.... Mr. Bove’s nomination has generated significant resistance from current and former Justice Department lawyers, as Mr. Bove has led the administration’s efforts to fire, demote and undermine career law enforcement officials who worked on cases that President Trump dislikes.... Democrats repeatedly pressed him about what they viewed as troubling aspects of his tenure at the Justice Department. In addition to the whistle-blower’s accusation that he stated an intent to disregard judicial rulings, they included his move to drop criminal charges against Mayor Eric Adams of New York.... At the end of the questioning, [Sen. Cory] Booker [D-N.J.] suggested that Mr. Bove might have lied to the lawmakers. 'I am hoping that more evidence is going to come out that showed that you lied before this committee,' Mr. Booker said. 'What’s your red line, I really wonder. What could the president ask you to do that you wouldn’t do?'” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I did not find a good YouTube video recap of the hearing, but here's the line of questioning that got the most attention. If you want a little more of the same, just go to YouTube & do a search for "Emil Bove": ~~~
Scott Nover of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration’s dismantling of the agency that oversees Voice of America and other government-funded news operations was necessary because it is 'incompetent, corrupt, biased, and a threat to America’s national security and standing in the world,' Kari Lake told a House committee Wednesday. Making her first-ever appearance before Congress, Lake defended her tenure and said the U.S. Agency for Global Media needs to be shrunk until it can be eliminated.... Most USAGM staffers have been placed on paid administrative leave since March, more than 500 contractors have been fired, and more than 600 full-time staffers received termination notices last week.... In the hearing, points of debate split down partisan lines.” Read on. The Guardian's report is here. The AP's report is here.
Jacob Bogage, et al., of the Washington Post: “As Senate Republicans eye the finish line on ... Donald Trump’s massive tax and immigration proposal, there may be one more obstacle standing in the way of what they hope to be era-defining legislation: their GOP colleagues in the House. The Senate has transformed a slew of key provisions from the House-passed version of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a measure that would extend trillions of dollars in tax cuts, spend hundreds of billions on immigration enforcement and defense and cut spending on social benefit and anti-poverty programs. Now to many House Republicans, the legislation looks unrecognizable — and no longer adheres to hard-fought compromises lawmakers in the lower chamber secured just a month ago.... At least for now, lawmakers in the lower chamber don’t appear ready to pass the bill the Senate is drafting.” MB: What they're arguing over, of course, is which chamber will win the battle to make the bill worse. ~~~
~~~ Jordain Carney of Politico: “Sen. Thom Tillis warned his colleagues during a closed-door meeting Wednesday that he would not vote to take up the party’s sweeping domestic policy bill without further clarity on Medicaid changes, a person granted anonymity to disclose private discussions said.... Multiple other Republican senators warned Majority Leader John Thune during the lunch that they were not ready to vote to launch floor debate on the megabill, according to three attendees.... A clutch of deficit hawks also still aren’t on board with the bill.... 'All of our guys are going to keep advocating for what they want until we pass it,' said Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), predicting that GOP leaders will ultimately get votes to proceed with the bill.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: If you are wondering how you and your family would fare under the House-passed Big Bad Bill, the Washington Post has a calculator here. (Gift link.) There are some sample situations, but you also can fill in your own information. (Click on "Your Profile.") I tried it, using numbers that may or may not be close to my real financial situation (it varies a lot from year to year and I don't pay close attention anyway). Based on the numbers I plugged in, I would come out significantly ahead of the status quo. So forget everything I've written disparaging the bill. It's absolutely wonderful, Bible Mike is the best & Donald Trump is a genius. Okay that bit I've crossed out was a Trump-sized lie.
Jessica Piper & Hailey Fuchs of Politico: “House GOP committees have issued new subpoenas to ActBlue, intensifying their probe of the Democratic fundraising platform. The subpoenas are an attempt to force cooperation as ActBlue has pushed back on the congressional investigation, questioning its intentions and constitutionality after the White House launched a similar probe. Reps. James Comer (R-Ky.), Bryan Steil (R-Wisc.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who lead the committees investigating ActBlue, issued the subpoenas Wednesday to compel a current and a former employee to testify about the platform’s fraud prevention policies.... ActBlue had slammed the congressional investigations in a letter this month as a 'partisan effort directed at harming political opponents rather than gathering facts to assist in lawmaking efforts.' The platform and its Democratic defenders have argued that any probe into foreign donations and online fundraising should also include WinRed, the largest Republican fundraising platform.”
Aimee Ortiz of the New York Times: “A federal jury on Monday ordered a man who was charged in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol to pay $500,000 to the family of a D.C. police officer who was assaulted during the riot and later killed himself. A lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia claimed that the officer, Jeffrey Smith, of the Metropolitan Police, was hit with a hard object during the clashes, and that he became depressed in the days that followed. He killed himself a little over a week later. The man who was sued, David Walls-Kaufman, a chiropractor, was also charged criminally with parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building. In 2023, he pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge and served a two-month jail sentence, but he was pardoned earlier this year by ... [Donald] Trump. Mr. Walls-Kaufman has denied assaulting the officer. Officer Smith was hit in the head with a metal pole during the melee and seemed to slip into a deep depression, his wife, Erin Smith, said in 2021.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Here's another case of data confirming what you already knew: ~~~
~~~ Marie-Rose Sheinerman & Nick Mourtoupalas of the Washington Post: “Immigration is driving U.S. population growth and helping offset a broader demographic shift as the baby boom generation ages, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.... From 2023 to 2024, the number of Americans 65 and older climbed by 3.1 percent while the population under 18 declined by 0.2 percent. There are more older adults than children in nearly half of U.S. counties, and the pattern is particularly strong in sparsely populated areas, the bureau said. The gap between the two groups 'is narrowing,' in part because of a decline in births this decade.... At the same time, a historic rise in immigration, particularly among Hispanics and Asians, has counteracted some of that population decline.... A sharp drop in the number of White children is a major factor in the declining number of American children overall, and that decline has been partially offset by the rising number of non-White youth....” ~~~
~~~ Marie: So this is just one more way Trump's draconian, racist, isolationist, anti-immigratation policies are devastating the U.S. economy. A contracting population means a contracting economy.
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Florida. Robyn Pennacchia of Wonkette: “A little over a year ago, Republican Florida Republican Rep. Kat Cammack could have died. Five weeks into an ectopic pregnancy, she was rushed to the emergency room where doctors told her that they could not treat her, for fear of losing their licenses or ending up in prison if they violated Florida’s then-new abortion ban. Under normal circumstances they would have given her a dose of Methotrexate to expel the pregnancy and save her life immediately, but they were wary to do so, and for good reason. Cammack, the co-chair of the Pro-Life Caucus, was able to use her connections and status to convince the hospital to treat her, but now claims that the only reason they didn’t do it right away was due to 'fearmongering' from abortion rights advocates (like all of us!) scaring them into believing that the law banned treating ectopic pregnancies.” MB: Do not think you can win an argument with any of these people even when they have life-threatening, first-hand experience with the effects of their policies (and odd beliefs). They got to where they are via un-reason, and they're sticking with un-reason. And it's your fault. (Also linked yesterday.)
New York. Joe Anuta of Politico: “Now that he’s all but won the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani enters a general election against incumbent Eric Adams, who is eager to keep his seat and has nothing to lose. On Thursday, Adams will launch his attempt at resurrection in a rally from the steps of City Hall — a longshot bid as a political independent — one day after calling Mamdani a 'snake oil salesman.'... The field is crowded. In addition to Mamdani and Adams, Republican Curtis Sliwa and independent Jim Walden are running, and [Andrew] Cuomo is considering his own independent ballot line. There is no ranked-choice voting, meaning candidates can win with a plurality.”
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