The Conversation -- April 12, 2025
Tobi Raji & Shira Ovide of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration announced late Friday night that smartphones, computers and other electronic components are exempt from what the White House calls 'reciprocal' tariffs, days after the United States imposed the highest levies on foreign goods in a century. The directive, issued by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, lists nearly two dozen exemptions, including chips, flash drives and TV displays. For makers of electronics, particularly Apple, the break on tariffs is likely to be a huge relief. Apple has faced the prospect of a new import tax of roughly $700 or more on each $1,000 iPhone imported from China, based on tariff rates the White House increased to at least 145 percent.” The CNBC story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: I know that most people will be relieved by this exemption because it will save scads of money on products that most of us use. And that's fine. But let me tell you how monumentally stupid the exemptions are. Trump claimed that the purpose of his big beautiful tariffs was to induce manufacturing in the U.S. His Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick (or Nutlick, as Akhilleus prefers), spoke of the joy of "millions of Americans" whistling while they worked screwing tiny little screws into tiny little holes into tiny little electronics. Well, Donnie & Howie, if you remove the tariffs on electronic parts, you are not going to get millions of Americans screwing tiny little screws into smartphones & computers in shiny new factories dotting the great American landscape because we're going to keep on keepin' on importing those electronics. Idiots!
More Stupid Trump Tricks. Gabrielle Canon of the Guardian: “Donald Trump shows no signs of easing his assault on climate science as plans of more sweeping cuts to key US research centers surfaced on Friday. The administration is planning to slash budgets at both the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (Noaa) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), according to internal budget documents, taking aim specifically at programs used to study impacts from the climate crisis. Craig McLean, a longtime director of the office of oceanic and atmospheric research (OAR) who retired in 2022, told the Guardian that the cuts were draconian and would 'compromise the safety, economic competitiveness, and security of the American people'. If the plan is approved by Congress, funding for OAR would be eviscerated – cut from $485m to $171m – dismantling an important part of the agency’s mission. All budgets for climate, weather and ocean laboratories would be drained, according to the document reviewed by the Guardian, which states: 'At this funding level, OAR is eliminated as a line office.'... Noaa is facing a $1.3bn cut to overall operations and research, with various programs on the chopping block, and the National Ocean Service would be cut in half. Science done outside the agency would also be undermined with cuts to Noaa’s climate research grants program, which provides roughly $70m a year.”
Nicole Narea of Vox: The Trump administration's refusal to bring back Kilmar Abrego Garcia from an El Savadoran jail to which ICE “accidentally” deported him “is the second time that the Trump administration has effectively ignored a court order. The first time, it refused to turn around deportation flights headed to El Salvador midair, arguing that US federal courts had no authority outside the US. 'The idea that somehow this is something other than just picking up the phone and saying, “Get this guy back here,” is absolute poppycock,” said Paul Wickham Schmidt, a retired immigration judge and professor at Georgetown University Law Center. 'The idea that this is some sort of sensitive foreign relations is BS.'... The government’s actions are part of a larger picture of attacks on the rule of law, Schmidt said.”
Maya Ward of Politico: “A 60-foot wide strip of land along three southwestern border states will be placed under the jurisdiction of the U.S. military to help deter illegal immigration, the White House said Friday.... Donald Trump issued a memorandum directing the military to take temporary control over the Roosevelt Reservation, a corridor that runs along the border line in California, Arizona and New Mexico.... The memorandum marks an escalation in the president’s use of the military to facilitate his sweeping crackdown on immigration. And while unclear how far the administration will go, it could be an additional step to militarizing the nation’s southwestern border.... Immigration, military and legal experts have said that Trump’s move to militarize the border could raise legal questions about potential violations to the Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law that generally prohibits active-duty troops from being used in domestic law enforcement.”
Trump Tries to Shake Down Ukraine. Luke Harding of the Guardian: “The US has demanded control of a crucial pipeline in Ukraine used to send Russian gas to Europe, according to reports, in a move described as a colonial shakedown. US and Ukrainian officials met on Friday to discuss White House proposals for a minerals deal. Donald Trump wants Kyiv to hand over its natural resources as 'payback' in return for weapons delivered by the previous Biden administration. Talks have become increasingly acrimonious, Reuters said. The latest US draft is more 'maximalist' than the original version from February, which proposed giving Washington $500bn worth of rare metals, as well as oil and gas.... Volodymyr Landa, a senior economist with the Centre for Economic Strategy, a Kyiv thinktank, said the Americans were out for 'all they can get'. Their bullying 'colonial-type' demands had little chance of being accepted by Kyiv, he predicted.'” MB: I suspect that the architect of the shakedown is Vladimir Putin, & that Trump plans to turn ownership of the pipeline over to Russia.
Adam Cancryn of Politico: “HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s visit to the FDA Friday was supposed to introduce him as a trusted leader to agency employees. It did anything but. Over the course of 40 minutes, Kennedy, in largely off-the-cuff remarks, asserted that the 'Deep State' is real, referenced past CIA experiments on human mind control and accused the employees he was speaking to of becoming a 'sock puppet' of the industries they regulate.... He offered little in the way of a vision for how the agency would come away from the layoffs stronger — instead devoting much of his speech to railing against the agency’s past failings and repeating his assertions that the U.S. was far healthier during his childhood than it is now. 'This whole generation is damaged,' Kennedy said, according to the transcript, claiming that rising rates of chronic disease, allergies and other illnesses are the result of some 'environmental toxin.'”
New York Times Editors: Donald Trump's “careless conduct of the public’s business has roiled stock and bond markets, threatened to cause a recession and damaged America’s global standing. The president’s decision-making has been so erratic that at one point this week, the administration’s top trade official was interrupted in the middle of testimony before Congress because the president had just changed the policy the official was defending.... The latest version [of Trump's tariff schedule] ... is imposing a 10 percent tariff on imports from most nations, along with higher rates on imports from America’s three largest trading partners: Canada, Mexico and China. The average tax on imports will rise to the highest level in more than a century, raising the prices on many consumer goods. The 145 percent maximum rate on Chinese imports is intended to isolate that nation economically, but the simultaneous tariffs on everyone else will undermine that goal. And while the stated purpose of all the tariffs is to expand American manufacturing, putting them in place immediately doesn’t give companies time to build factories. It will cause pain without any benefit....
“It is a bitter irony that even as Mr. Trump raises tariffs, he is axing federal support for these technologies, which are among the most promising areas of domestic manufacturing. Some companies are already abandoning their building plans. Mr. Trump’s use of tariffs is indiscriminate.... In addition to raising prices, tariffs are likely to slow economic growth. And another danger looms: There are warning signs that Mr. Trump’s provocations are reducing demand for Treasuries, forcing the government to offer higher interest rates to investors. If that continues, the federal debt will become even harder to repay.”
Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: “Trump is engaging the full power of the presidency to settle scores. The White House was not meant for petty tyrants on revenge tours. In the biggest job in the world, Trump seems like a very small man. And he has surrounded himself with small people who elaborately flatter him and puff him up in risible cabinet meetings.... Now that Trump’s tariff scheme has gone horribly awry — and the administration’s attempt to spin it as an 'Art of the Deal' victory has fallen flat — it remains to be seen if this will be a 'Wizard of Oz' moment when the curtain gets pulled back on the con man.... Even before Trump opened a Pandora’s box of economic woe, we knew numbers weren’t his strong suit. He had six bankruptcies, and his father had to buy $3.4 million in chips to save one of his casinos.”
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~~~ I, Trvmpvs. Tim Balk of the New York Times: “The Trump administration said on Friday that it had moved a portrait of former President Barack Obama in a White House hallway and replaced it with a pop-art painting of ... [Donald] Trump pumping his fist after the assassination attempt last year on the campaign trail in Butler, Pa. The shuffling of décor is not uncommon at the White House, where portraits are rotated often. But the new, striking artwork depicting Mr. Trump drew criticism from some presidential historians, who could not recall another president hanging a painting of himself during his term in the White House. Typically, paintings of presidents and first ladies are hung in the White House after they have left office, historians said.”
In everything we do, my administration will be inspired by a strong pursuit of excellence and unrelenting success. -- Donald Trump, second inaugural address ~~~
~~~ Naftali BenDavid of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump regained the White House in large part by trumpeting his ability to get things done, accusing his opponents of ineptitude and senility and promising that on Day 1 he would restore basic competence to government. And, he said, it wouldn’t even be hard. But 2½ months in, agencies such as the Social Security Administration have struggled to provide basic services. Trump’s team issues edicts, then reverses them. A leaked Signal chat suggests top security officials were unfamiliar with the basics of protecting military secrets. Crucial government workers have been fired, then rehired. A much-ballyhooed immigration detention center at Guantánamo Bay has faced logistical problems. Trump’s team told laid-off workers at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to contact a particular individual ... [who] turned out to be dead.... These and other missteps are now being compounded in dramatic fashion by a roiling stock market and bond sell-off prompted by Trump’s tariff policies, raising fears of a collapsing economy. Trump’s formula for calculating the tariffs has been widely panned by economists. And on Wednesday, he paused many of the levies just hours after they took effect....” ~~~
~~~ Marie: The article is classic both-sider reporting, but it does get across what a gigantic screw-up machine the Trump mob is. Not that incompetence is unimportant, but I do think the overriding picture of the Trump administration is anti-American, anti-democratic, anti-Constitutional, anti-rule-of-law, destructive authoritarianism. Sure, incompetence, corruption and cruelty are prominent features of this mob's SOP, but the country could survive each of these traits. But as to Trump's effort to destroy everything the country stands for, to destroy its economic infrastructure, to destroy its Constitutional order -- he's been remarkably successful. If his aim is to ruin the country -- and I think it is -- he's been remarkably competent. Perhaps with a little help from his BFF in Russia ~~~
~~~ Jonathan Mahler in the New York Times Magazine: Donald “Trump, it seems, has ... been radicalized. During his first term, he made no shortage of startlingly pro-Putin comments, and even sided with Russia’s president against his own intelligence agencies. But in the first few months of his second term, Trump has gone much further, overturning decades of American policy toward an adversary virtually overnight. He has claimed that Ukraine was responsible for its own invasion by Russia and berated Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, during a televised meeting in the Oval Office. His administration also joined North Korea and several other autocratic governments in refusing to endorse a United Nations resolution condemning Russia for the attack. And he has filled his cabinet with like-minded officials, including his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who has been described as a 'comrade' by Russian state TV. It’s almost impossible to overstate the magnitude of this pivot.... Russia has long served as ... an ideological other, a foil that enabled the United States to affirm its own, diametrically different values.... Trump’s policies and rhetoric seem aimed at nothing less than turning America’s dark double into its kindred soul.” Read on.
Jason Douglas, et al., of the Wall Street Journal: “In jacking up his tariffs on China — and pausing steep duties on dozens of other nations — ... [Donald] Trump is pushing the world’s two biggest economic powers into a battle that will leave neither unscathed and risks tanking the global economy. The total tariffs imposed on China in Trump’s second term now add up to 145%, the White House said Thursday, while China’s blanket tariff on American goods will rise to 125% on Saturday after the latest round of retaliation. The tariffs could eventually be walked back, but already, there are signs that a portion of the $582 billion in goods trading between the two countries is grinding to a halt.... While Trump says any pain in the U.S. from tariffs will be offset by long-term gains in jobs and investment, in the near term, investment bank JPMorgan said Wednesday it is 'more likely than not' that the U.S. economy will shrink later this year.” The link appears to be a gift link, from Scott Lemieux in LG&$. (Also linked yesterday.)
Linda Qiu of the New York Times: “... across Mr. Trump’s political career, his case for tariffs has remained consistent, relying on a number of false and misleading claims to describe a global trade system that is “unfair” to the United States. Although Mr. Trump abruptly announced on Wednesday that he would pause steep reciprocal tariffs for 90 days, a 10 percent 'base line tariff remains in place for most imports. Here’s a guide to some of his most cited claims[.]” A useful guide to Trump Tariff Porkies. (Also linked yesterday.)
Madeleine Ngo of the New York Times: “As the Trump administration’s trade war with China escalates, many consumers have raced to purchase foreign-made products out of fear that companies could start to raise prices soon. Some have rushed to buy big-ticket items like iPhones and refrigerators. Others have hurriedly placed orders for cheap goods from Chinese e-commerce platforms.” MB: That would definitely include me. I bought five major appliances in February, and I'm stocking up on coffee beans now. (I just bought a wheel of brie, too, but obviously that won't last long enough to ride out the Trump Tariff surcharges. The parmigiano? Maybe. It keeps for years.)
Constitutional Crisis: ✓. Kyle Cheney of Politico: “An exasperated federal judge commanded the Trump administration Friday to begin providing 'daily updates' on whether it is doing anything to comply with her order to return a Maryland man — illegally deported to El Salvador last month — back to the United States. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis scolded the administration for refusing to provide even 'basic' details about Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s location, despite her demand for an update by Friday morning.... The administration’s stonewalling, which Xinis described as 'extremely troubling,' raised the specter that it is defying the order that the judge issued last week and that the Supreme Court largely upheld Thursday. Xinis, an Obama appointee, said that without any information — or even an acknowledgment that the administration had done anything at all — she could only conclude that the administration had 'done nothing to facilitate the return of Mr. Abrego Garcia.'... Xinis’ new directive requires the daily updates to come from an administration official with 'personal knowledge' of efforts to return Abrego Garcia to the United States. But Justice Department officials said they may not be prepared to comply with her demands until at least Monday.” (Also linked yesterday.)
~~~ Alan Feuer & Aishvarya Kavi of the New York Times: “Taking an increasingly combative stance, the administration defied a federal judge’s order to provide a written road map of its plans to free the man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia. Trump officials then repeatedly stonewalled her efforts to get the most basic information about him at a court hearing.... 'The court finds that the defendants have failed to comply with this court’s order,; Judge Xinis wrote in a ruling Friday afternoon.... Asked about the case on Friday..., [Donald] Trump appeared in no hurry to take steps to ensure Mr. Abrego Garcia’s return, despite repeated court orders and a Supreme Court intervention. 'If the Supreme Court said, “Bring somebody back,” I would do that,” he said, seeming to ignore the court’s order. 'I respect the Supreme Court.' The public recalcitrance on the part of Mr. Trump and his officials highlighted questions about why they have been so reluctant to follow the orders or leverage the president’s relationship with [President Nayib] Bukele to simply ask for Mr. Abrego Garcia to be freed.... [Mr.] Bukele of El Salvador was set to arrive in Washington for an official visit.”
Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: “An immigration judge in Louisiana found on Friday that the Trump administration could deport Mahmoud Khalil, granting the government an early victory in its efforts to crack down on pro-Palestinian demonstrations on U.S. college campuses. The ruling is far from the final word on whether Mr. Khalil, a Columbia University graduate and legal permanent resident, will be deported. His lawyers will continue their fight in Louisiana and New Jersey, arguing that he has been targeted for constitutionally protected speech. The constitutional issues at the heart of the case will most likely get a fuller hearing in federal court in New Jersey than they did in Louisiana on Friday. For the time being, the decision by the judge there, Jamee E. Comans, affirmed the extraordinary power that the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has asserted to target any noncitizen for deportation.... Judge Comans found that the government had met the burden of evidence that the law requires, which effectively amounted to a letter from Mr. Rubio declaring that Mr. Khalil’s presence in the country enabled antisemitism. The Homeland Security Department appears not to have submitted any other concrete evidence substantiating the claim, although it has not publicly released the documents it has filed in his case....
“Immigration judges are employees of the executive branch, not the judiciary, and often approve the Homeland Security Department’s deportation efforts. It would be unusual for such a judge, serving the U.S. Attorney General, to grapple with the constitutional questions raised by Mr. Khalil’s case. She would also run the risk of being fired by an administration that has targeted dissenters.” MB: IOW, this dippy judge found it more important to keep her job than to protect Mr. Khalil's First Amendment rights. That, apparently, is not her problem. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Thought Police. Here is a copy of the letter Little Marco wrote (via the ACLU). It is Judge Comans' sole basis for allowing Mr. Khalil's deportation to go forward. MB: A number of pundits and media outlets have reported that Rubio cited -- as his reason for determining that Khalil should be deported -- Khalil's “past, current, or expected beliefs, statements, or associations that are otherwise lawful.” IOW, a non-citizen can be deported for what he might believe at some time in the future. That is to say, any non-citizen can be deported, because who the hell knows what someone might believe next year? What the statute actually states is that a person "is not deportable 'solely because of [his or her] past, current, or expected beliefs, statements, or associations, if such beliefs, statements, or associations would be lawful....” Indeed, the very purpose of the section is to "[protect] certain government officials and politicians from foreign countries from being removed." Now, here's a citation from Marco's letter:
Under INAsection 237(a)(4)(C)(), an alien is deportable from the United States if the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe that the alien's presence or activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States. Under INA section 237(a)(4)(C)(ii), for cases in which the basis for this determination is the alien's past, current, or expected beliefs, statements, or associations that are otherwise lawful, the Secretary of State must personally determine that the alien's presence or activities would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy.
~~~ That is to say, it's a two-step determination: (1) the person must at least be going to have some lawful thoughts at some time in the future; (2) the Secretary of State can decide if the thoughts the person might some day have would compromise U.S. foreign policy. That is, unless a person is in a vegetative state and is not likely to have any lawful thoughts in the future, s/he can be deported. Of course that is absurd. What a U.S. official thinks you might think someday cannot possibly be a Constitutional means of taking any official action against that person.
Robbie Gramer & Nahal Toosi of Politico: “The Trump administration has ordered State Department employees to report on any instances of coworkers displaying 'anti-Christian bias' as part of its effort to implement a sweeping new executive order on supporting employees of Christian faith working in the federal government. The department, according to a copy of an internal cable obtained by Politico, will work with an administration-wide task force to collect information 'involving anti-religious bias during the last presidential administration' and will collect examples of anti-Christian bias through anonymous employee report forms.... The cable encourages State Department employees to report on one another.... The cable was sent out to embassies around the world under Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s name. The instructions also were released in a department-wide notice.... 'It’s very ‘Handmaid’s Tale'-esque,' said one State Department official....” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: If Little Marco wants to out people in the State Department who display an "anti-Christian bias," he should start by looking in the mirror, then turn himself in. There is no one more anti-Christian than a man who condemns another for his supposed beliefs, particularly when those beliefs would seem to be entirely consistent with Christian tenets. The Christian Bible is full of citations emphasizing the importance of mercy. Jesus is cited as having said, "Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful." (Luke 6:36) As for Mahmoud Khalil's beliefs in saving the lives of Palestinians, the entire Christian myth revolves around the value of human life: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son...." (John 3:16) That is, God's greatest sacrifice was the life of his son. IOW, Marco has denounced Khalil for his mercy and his regard for human life. As the frame around the parable of the good Samaritan asks, "Who is my neighbor?" In the story, Jesus tells his Jewish audience that their "neighbor" is not the Jews who pass by an injured man but the foreigner, the stranger, the Samaritan who helps him. Little Marco is not our neighbor.
Ellen Barry of the New York Times profiles “Kseniia Petrova, a [30-year-old Harvard] scientist who [is ensnared in Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, and who had] fled Russia after protesting its invasion of Ukraine []. She fears arrest if she is deported there. On Feb. 16, customs officials detained her at Logan International Airport in Boston for failing to declare samples of frog embryos she had carried from France at the request of her boss at Harvard.” The federal government has incarcerated her in a Louisiana detention center. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: I once carried in a small bag of peanuts from France at the request of my husband at New York University. An adorable customs beagle sniffed them out, and a Customs official pleasantly told me he would have to confiscate them. He was very pleasant & didn't even ask my name or require I provide any ID. That was then.
First Kill All the Lawyers? Nah, These Rich Lawyers Are Killing Themselves. Mark Berman of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump on Friday announced that he had reached agreements with five more law firms pledging to provide a combined $600 million in legal services for causes he supports, the latest deals firms have struck with him in apparent bids to avoid punishment.... The latest deals on Friday marked an increase in the pledges and pushed the combined amount to nearly $1 billion across nine law firms. In a series of social media posts on Friday, Trump said he had reached a deal with four firms — all of them among the country’s wealthiest — to provide $125 million each in pro bono and other free legal work for causes he supports, including aiding veterans, fighting antisemitism and 'ensuring fairness in our justice system.'... Trump identified four firms participating in one agreement as Kirkland & Ellis; A&O Shearman; Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett; and Latham & Watkins.... A person familiar with the matter confirmed that the terms of the deal Trump announced in his posts are accurate.... On Friday evening..., the law firm Susman Godfrey filed a lawsuit pushing back on Trump’s order sanctioning it. The firm called his actions unconstitutional, retaliatory and an effort 'to discourage law firms and their clients from challenging abuses of government power.'”
Charlie Savage of the New York Times: “The Trump administration has taken steps and made claims that clash with legal opinions issued by a traditionally powerful agency that is part of the Justice Department, the Office of Legal Counsel. The office has typically had an influential role in shaping internal government legal deliberations, and its court-like opinions are supposed to bind the executive branch unless the attorney general or the president overrides them or the office itself revokes them. The disregard for its precedents is part of a broader pattern in which the clout and influence of the agency have eroded in the opening months of the administration. Here are some examples that show that disconnect.” Thanks to Ken W. for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)
Adam Goldman of the New York Times: “The F.B.I. has suspended an analyst on Kash Patel’s so-called enemies list after Mr. Patel told lawmakers that the bureau under his leadership would stay out of the political fray and not punish employees for partisan reasons. Last week, the bureau placed the analyst, Brian Auten, on administrative leave.... The reasons for the suspension remain unclear.... The suspension is likely to raise questions about whether the move was retaliatory, and about how closely Mr. Patel would stick to his promise, made during his confirmation hearing in January, that the agency would rise above partisanship despite pressure from ... [Donald] Trump’s allies to fire employees who took part in investigations that conservatives have condemned. The suspension of Mr. Auten, who had already been disciplined and questioned in a criminal inquiry, will also likely intensify distrust of Mr. Patel among employees who have watched senior leaders forced out in recent months with no explanation.” MB: The details here are interesting, so I've made this a gift link.
U.S. Troops Practice Fighting Russians in Winter. Jeffrey Gettleman of the New York Times: Donald “Trump has been leaning away from NATO and getting friendly with Russia, and European leaders are seriously discussing how to create their own defense industry should America abandon them, something unthinkable just a few months ago. But [in war games conducted in Finland by American and Finnish troops], at least, American military cooperation and the perception of Russia as a widening threat appeared unchanged.... As climate change melts ice across the Arctic, this part of the world, once so remote and forgotten, is becoming more accessible and more contested. The world’s major militaries — American, Russian, Chinese and European — are all training for a winter war.”
Dan Diamond, et al., of the Washington Post: “U.S. DOGE Service employees have inserted themselves into the government’s long-established process to alert the public about potential federal grants and allow organizations to apply for funds.... The changes to the process — which will allow DOGE to review and approve proposed grant opportunities across the federal government — threaten to further delay or even halt billions of dollars that agencies usually make in federal awards.... The moves come amid the Trump administration’s broader push to cut federal spending and crack down on grants that DOGE and other officials say conflict with White House priorities. DOGE employees have made changes to grants.gov, a federal website that has traditionally served as a clearinghouse for more than $500 billion in annual awards and is used by thousands of outside organizations, the people said.... A DOGE engineer recently deleted many federal officials’ permissions to post grant opportunities, without informing them that their permissions had been removed.... The Trump administration has publicly confirmed that DOGE was given some authority over the grants website.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: The person in charge of deciding who can post grant notifications? A former U. Nebraska student who dropped out to work for the Thiel Foundation last year & is now a DOGE engineer & administrator of the grants.gov system. This is INSANE.
You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all of the time. -- Abraham Lincoln or Anonymous
You can fool Elon Musk all of the time. -- Marie Burns ~~~
~~~ Elon Makes Another Fake Claim of “Discovering” Massive Fraud. Emily Badger of the New York Times: “Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency announced this week that they had found something especially startling in their government-wide hunt for fraud: tens of thousands of people claiming unemployment benefits who were over age 115, under age 5 or with birth dates in the future. 'Your tax dollars were going to pay fraudulent unemployment claims for fake people born in the future!' Mr. Musk posted on X.... He shared a claim by the group that it had even uncovered someone with a birth date in 2154 who claimed $41,000 in unemployment. These were, indeed, probably fake people — but in a different way than Mr. Musk seemed to realize. It was also most likely a case of his team discovering fraud that had already been discovered by [government employees].... To preserve records of ... fraud [that occurred during Trump's first term] and protect victims of ... identity theft, the U.S. Labor Department encouraged state agencies that administer unemployment benefits to create 'pseudo claim' records — in effect, to tie real cases of fraud in their data to make-believe people.... Now four years later, Mr. Musk and his team appear to have found those make-believe people. Their claims about them were also repeated by Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-deRemer during a cabinet meeting at the White House on Thursday....
“'They’re trying to say the federal government has just been sitting there doing nothing to prevent fraud, and “Here we are going to save the day,’” said Andrew Stettner, who until January was the director of unemployment insurance modernization at the Labor Department. 'They are undermining the belief that federal agencies and states protect taxpayers’ dollars.' He and others said Mr. Musk appeared to be sowing distrust without regard for the details of government policies, following a similar pattern to his incursions into the Social Security Administration.”
Hannah Natanson, et al., of the Washington Post: “Two days after the Social Security Administration purposely and falsely labeled 6,100 living immigrants as dead, security guards arrived at the office of a well-regarded senior executive in the agency’s Woodlawn, Maryland, headquarters. Greg Pearre, who oversaw a staff of hundreds of technology experts, had pushed back on the Trump administration’s plan to move the migrants’ names into a Social Security death database, eliminating their ability to legally earn wages and, officials hoped, spurring them to leave the country. In particular, Pearre had clashed with Scott Coulter, the new chief information officer installed by Elon Musk. Pearre told Coulter that the plan was illegal, cruel and risked declaring the wrong people dead.... But his objections did not go over well with Trump political appointees. And so on Thursday..., [security guards] marched [him] out of his office[, and he was] put on leave.... The episode also followed earlier warnings from senior Social Security officials that the database was insecure and could be easily edited without proof of death — a vulnerability, staffers say, that the Trump administration has now exploited.... Experts in government, consumer rights and immigration law said the administration’s action is illegal.” ~~~
~~~ Jess Bidgood & Alexandra Berzon of the New York Times: “One hallmark of Elon Musk’s 12 weeks in government has been his focus on Social Security. He has sent one of his closest advisers to work at the Social Security Administration. He has falsely insisted that the program is rife with fraud. And he has depicted the entitlement as a tool — a 'giant magnet,' to be specific — that he says entices illegal immigrants to come to the United States. That last part has turned Social Security into a major focal point of Musk’s unfounded belief that Democrats have allowed immigrants into the United States as part of a scheme to tilt the electorate in their favor. A team of my colleagues has reported that Musk is now driving big changes at the Social Security Administration that have braided aspects of his rhetoric about the agency directly into policy. The agency is placing certain immigrants — people who are very much alive — on the agency’s list of dead people, cutting them off from crucial financial services in an effort to push them to leave the country.... [But] according to the White House's own accounting, the targeted migrants did not receive much in the way of government benefits — and none of them received Social Security. The new effort ... is less about cost-cutting than it is about getting the Social Security Administration into the business of immigration enforcement, a push that has deeply alarmed current and former employees of the agency.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: It is quite sickening that the richest man in the world -- who most likely will never want for anything money can buy -- is carelessly, but tirelessly, working to snatch relatively paltry retirement benefits from old people. I don't like to judge people as "evil," but this seems pretty evil to me. I just checked my bank account to see if my latest Social Security check had been deposited, and somewhat to my surprise, the Musk Administration Fraudsters & Liberals Detection Service has not declared me dead yet.
Hurubie Meko of the New York Times: “A Manhattan federal judge ruled on Friday that one member of Elon Musk’s government efficiency program could have access to sensitive payment and data systems at the Treasury Department, as long as that person goes through appropriate training and files disclosures. The order by the judge, Jeannette A. Vargas, came nearly two months after she had ruled that Mr. Musk’s team, members of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, would be banished from the agency’s systems until the conclusion of a lawsuit that claims the group’s access is unlawful. Friday night’s order partly dissolves the earlier preliminary injunction by granting Ryan Wunderly, who was hired as a special adviser for information technology and modernization, access to the Treasury systems in dispute, Judge Vargas wrote. To gain the access, however, Mr. Wunderly will have to complete hands-on training 'typically required of other Treasury employees granted commensurate access' and submit a financial disclosure report, the judge wrote.”
Brianna Tucker of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration on Friday announced it would pull all federal education funding from Maine after state officials said they would not comply with demands from the administration to ban transgender athletes from participation in women’s sports, a dramatic escalation that could slash millions in federal funding from K-12 schools in the state. The move marks a major and retaliatory step forward in how far the administration is willing to go to force state governments to adhere to executive orders. Last month, the U.S. Education Department began an investigation into a claim that the Maine Department of Education was in violation of Title IX — a civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education programs receiving federal assistance — by allowing a trans athlete to participate in women’s sports.” ~~~
I have spent the better part of my career listening to loud men talk tough to disguise their weakness. -- Gov. Janet Mills (D-Maine), in response to an insult from Donald Trump, 2020 ~~~
~~~ No Curtsies to the Would-be King. Jenna Russell of the New York Times: “While [Maine Gov. Janet Mills] has stood firm [re: a Maine anti-discrimination law on transgender youth which Donald Trump has criticized], the federal government has barraged the state with investigations, declared its education system to be in violation of federal law and frozen some of its funding. The Department of Education has set Friday as a final deadline for Maine to comply with the president’s order. If it does not, the agency plans to hand the matter over to the Department of Justice for enforcement.... Maine sued the Trump administration on Monday, doubling down on its defiance as it began the legal fight that Ms. Mills promised at the White House.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ By contrast, there's “that woman from Michigan”: ~~~
~~~ Reid Epstein & Tyler Pager of the New York Times: Michigan Gov. Gretchen's Whitmer's “awkward Oval Office appearance reflected how several Democratic state leaders are cultivating cordial but politically risky relationships with... [Donald Trump].... The day after the inauguration, Ms. Whitmer penned a handwritten letter — which has not been previously reported — congratulating Mr. Trump, saying she looked forward to working together and praising his support for the auto industry in his first address, according to a person who relayed the text of the letter. Ms. Whitmer included her cellphone number and invited Mr. Trump to call her if she could be of any help to him. The outreach worked for her, but it came at a cost.... Mr. Trump’s aides surprised her on Wednesday by ushering her into the Oval Office not for her scheduled one-on-one meeting with the president, but for ... [a televised event in which Mr.] Trump signed executive orders punishing those who opposed his 2020 election lies.” At the top of the article is a hilarious photo of Whitmer standing in the Oval Office in front of mantel loaded with golden bric-a-brac -- and covering her face with pressboard presentation folders! ~~~
~~~ Marie: I've been looking for an excuse not to vote for a female presidential candidate in the 2028 Democratic primary because I don't think The United State of Misogyny is ready to vote for a female president. Thanks, Gretchen, for giving me a good reason not to vote for you.
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New York. Patrick McGeehan, et al., of the New York Times: “As federal investigators began the long job of examining what caused a sightseeing helicopter to crash into the Hudson River on Thursday, killing all six people on board, details began to emerge about the small company that made the doomed flight — and its operator’s checkered history. Public records and interviews with pilots and other members of the helicopter industry showed that the company, which has operated as New York Helicopter Charter, had long been seen as an also-ran in the competitive business of taking tourists for aerial views of landmarks in and around New York City.... Its owner and chief executive, Michael Roth, had developed a reputation for being slow to pay and quick to sue.... His company filed for bankruptcy in 2019 and had one its helicopters repossessed late last year, just eight months into its lease.... The first public signs of trouble came in the 2010s, when aircraft operated by New York Helicopter Charter were involved in two incidents in the span of two years.”
North Carolina. Eduardo Medina & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: “In the latest twist in a prolonged legal battle over a North Carolina judicial seat, the State Supreme Court ruled on Friday that thousands of voters must fix issues with their ballots or risk having them tossed. The decision partially upheld a lower-court ruling and could lead to the November election being overturned. Military and overseas voters who did not provide an ID when casting an absentee ballot — which one justice estimated to be 2,000 to 7,000 voters — will have 30 days to fix any issues, the court ruled. But the court also ruled that roughly 60,000 ballots — from voters who, through no fault of their own, had information missing in their registration — must be counted. The case, over a seat on the very same Supreme Court, has tested the boundaries of post-election litigation and drawn criticism from democracy watchdog groups, liberals and even some conservatives across the state, who worry about a dangerous precedent being set. Though the court protected the largest category of voters whose eligibility was being challenged, the number of ballots that remain in question exceeds the slim margin by which the Democratic incumbent won.... Within hours of Friday’s ruling, Justice [Allison] Riggs[, the Democrat whose victory was challenged in court by the GOP candidate,] appealed the decision to federal court.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: This ruling has so many ifs, and & buts that it will be hard for even elections officials to accurately interpret the order & notify all voters who must cure their ballots.
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