The Conversation -- February 4, 2025
Unbelievable! Here are the New York Times' live updates of Trump administration developments including Donald Trump's meeting with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu: ~~~
Michael Shear, et al.: “... [Donald] Trump proposed on Tuesday that the United States take over Gaza and that all Palestinians there — some two million people — should leave, describing a permanent relocation to one or more sites funded by 'countries of interest with humanitarian hearts.' As he hosted Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for a joint news conference in the White House, Mr. Trump said that he has studied the conditions in Gaza and his idea to seize and develop it has gotten 'tremendous' support from the 'highest of leadership' as a viable plan to bring peace to the Middle East.”
Peter Baker: “Trump has now added Gaza to his growing list of territories that he wants to seize around the world, along with Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal.... Trump again takes full credit for a cease-fire deal that was first put on the table and painstakingly negotiated by Biden and his team. 'We weren’t helped very much by the Biden administration, I’ll tell you that,' Trump says.... Trump makes clear that he sees Gaza as a new U.S. territory, saying it would be a 'long-term ownership position.' He doesn’t answer the question about what legal authority would allow him to simply take over sovereign territory.... Trump seems to be picking up an idea advanced last year by Jared Kushner, his son-in-law who said that 'Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable.'” MB: Indeed, he said Gaza could become “the Riviera of the Middle East.”
Erica Green: “Since taking office, Trump has talked about Gaza more like a real estate developer than a world leader confronting a major conflict. Tonight, it’s become clear why. He just repeatedly referenced taking over the enclave, developing it and creating 'thousands and thousands of jobs.' It is unclear who would benefit from those jobs if the people who live there are forced to leave.”
Marie: So the plan is that the Emperor Don will send U.S. troops to plant the U.S. flag in another country, that the soldiers will ethnically-cleanse that portion of the country, that the soldiers will force other countries in the region to absorb the approximately 2 million people the U.S. soldiers have dispossessed, and that the soldiers then will have secured this portion of a soverign nation for certain unnamed U.S. developers (Trump, Kushner??) to profit from developing beachfront properties in this new U.S.-owned “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Marie: It's been quite a long time since I've published one of my sports reports, but circumstances demand one now: ~~~
~~~ (1) Alayna Treene & Betsy Klein of CNN: “... Donald Trump is expected to attend Super Bowl LIX at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on Sunday, a White House official told CNN.” ~~~
~~~ (2) Michael Silver of the New York Times' Athletic: “According to two [NFL] sources..., league officials recently changed one of the slogans expected to be stenciled in the back of an end zone from 'End Racism' to 'Choose Love.' The game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles will mark the first time since February 2021 that 'End Racism' is not included as a message in the back of a Super Bowl end zone.” ~~~
~~~ I'll bet you can put (1) and (2) together.
Josh Campbell, et al., of CNN: “FBI officials have complied with demands to provide the Justice Department with details of thousands of employees who worked on investigations related to the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riot, according to people familiar with the situation.... More than 5,000 employee details were submitted, including employee ID numbers, job titles and their role in the January 6 investigations, sources said, but not their names. There are more than 13,000 agents and 38,000 total FBI employees. Meanwhile, officials dispatched by Elon Musk have been seen at FBI headquarters.” MB: Needless to say, it would be childsplay for the little Muskovites to match ID numbers to names.
~~~ Even Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post Gets It: “No president in history has caused more damage to the nation more quickly. As we enter Week 3 of ... Donald Trump’s second term, the chaos and disruption of his first look quaint by comparison. The country survived Trump 1. Now, it faces a real threat that the harm he inflicts during his second term will be irreparable. The United States’ standing in the world, its ability to keep the country safe, the federal government’s fundamental capacity to operate effectively — all of these will take years to repair, if that can be achieved at all.”
Early Tuesday, the Chickenshits Came Home to Roost. Amanda Seitz & Stephen Groves of the AP: “Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vocal vaccine skeptic and activist lawyer, appeared on track to become the nation’s health secretary after winning the crucial support of Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a doctor who says Kennedy has assured him he would not topple the nation’s childhood vaccination program. In a starkly partisan vote, the Republican-controlled Senate Finance Committee advanced Kennedy’s nomination 14-13, sending his bid to oversee the $1.7 trillion U.S. Health and Human Services agency for a full vote on the Senate floor. A full Senate vote has not yet been scheduled, but with Cassidy’s vote no longer in doubt Kennedy’s nomination is likely to succeed absent any last-minute vote switches.” ~~~
~~~ Beatrice Peterson of ABC News: "The Senate Intelligence Committee voted to advance former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard's nomination for director of national intelligence in a closed-door session on Tuesday afternoon. Gabbard advanced in a 9-8 vote along party lines, according to senators leaving the meeting. All Republicans voted in favor of Gabbard while all Democrats opposed her, according to a source familiar with the vote.... Gabbard, a former Democratic Hawaii member of Congress turned Republican, picked up three key Republican votes on Monday from Sens. Susan Collins, James Lankford and Todd Young. They had previously been critical of her past statements on Snowden and her opposition to government surveillance programs.”
If you're keeping a daily log of "Stupid, Corrupt and/or Outrageous Things Trump Did Today," here's an entry: ~~~
~~~ Perfect. Trump Nominatess Sharpiegate Accomplice to Head NOAA. Scott Dance of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump has named Neil Jacobs, an atmospheric scientist who was found to have violated scientific integrity policies during the 'Sharpiegate' scandal of the first Trump administration, to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Jacobs led NOAA on an acting basis from February 2019 through the end of Trump’s first term, including when the president used a Sharpie marker to alter an official National Hurricane Center map to suggest that Hurricane Dorian would hit Alabama and parts of Florida outside its predicted path.... In response to Trump’s [false assertions about the projected path of Dorian], Weather Service forecasters in Birmingham, Alabama, clarified on social media that the state was probably not in Dorian’s path. The confusion prompted an unusual and unsigned NOAA statement in support of Trump’s warnings to Alabama. An investigation found undue political influence in the process of crafting that statement, in violation of NOAA’s standards for scientific integrity, but Jacobs defended the statement and admonished the Birmingham meteorologists.”
Paul Campos in LG&$ republishes a signficant portion of a firewalled Wired story: “A 25-year-old engineer named Marko Elez, who previously worked for two Elon Musk companies, has direct access to Treasury Department systems responsible for nearly all payments made by the US government, three sources tell Wired. Two of those sources say that Elez’s privileges include the ability not just to read but to write code on two of the most sensitive systems in the US government: the Payment Automation Manager and Secure Payment System at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS). Housed on a top-secret mainframe, these systems control, on a granular level, government payments that in their totality amount to more than a fifth of the US economy. Despite reporting that suggests that Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force has access to these Treasury systems on a 'read-only' level, sources say Elez ... has many administrator-level privileges. Typically, those admin privileges could give someone the power to log in to servers through secure shell access, navigate the entire file system, change user permissions, and delete or modify critical files. That could allow someone to bypass the security measures of, and potentially cause irreversible changes to, the very systems they have access to.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I can't figure out if Josh Marshall wrote the following post or if one of his readers did. In any event, Josh seems confident enough in its accuracy to publish it: ~~~
~~~ Josh Marshall of TPM, publisher: “A 25-year-old DOGE operative named Marko Elez in fact has admin privileges on these critical systems, which directly control and pay out roughly 95% of payments made by the U.S. government, including Social Security checks, tax refunds and virtually all contract payments. I can independently confirm these details based on conversations going back to the weekend. I can further report that Elez not only has full access to these systems, he has already made extensive changes to the code base for these critical payment system.... Phrases like 'freaking out' are, not surprisingly, used to describe the reaction of the engineers who were responsible for maintaining the code base until a week ago. The changes that have been made all seem to relate to creating new paths to block payments and possibly leave less visibility into what has been blocked. I want to emphasize that the described changes are not being tested in a dev environment (i.e., a not-live environment) but have already been pushed into production.”
Faiz Siddiqui, et al., of the Washington Post: “The assistant commissioner of a division of the General Services Administration told staff early this week that layoffs across the federal government are 'likely' after the deferred resignation offer expires Thursday, according to an email obtained by The Washington Post — the sharpest move yet toward forcibly removing many of the 2.3 million civilian federal employees.... The email was the latest sign that administration officials fear few career civil servants will take their offer to quit.... Musk’s allies are also now running GSA, which manages real estate and some procurement and information technology across the federal government.”
The Resistance. Jeremy Roebuck & Perry Stein of the Washington Post: “Two groups of FBI agents sued the Justice Department on Tuesday in an attempt to block it from maintaining or publicly releasing a list of thousands of bureau employees who worked on investigations tied to ... Donald Trump or the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Attorneys for nine of the plaintiffs, who filed their suit anonymously in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said the compilation of the list was retaliatory and a possible precusor for unlawful firings. Using case assignment information as a basis to terminate FBI employees would violate civil service protections, they said. The lawsuit also raises concerns that Trump administration officials might make public the names of the agents who were assigned to work on the cases, exposing them and their families to retribution from now-pardoned defendants charged in the Jan. 6 attack.”
The Resistance, Ctd. Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "Federal workers have filed an emergency lawsuit demanding that courts mandate that Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency shuts down the server it has set up at the US Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) headquarters. Wired reports that an attorney representing two unidentified government workers is alleging that 'the server’s continued operation not only violates federal law but is potentially exposing vast quantities of government staffers’ personal information to hostile foreign adversaries through unencrypted email.' The complaint alleges that the DOGE server was installed 'without OPM — the government’s human resources department — conducting a mandatory privacy impact assessment required under federal law,' writes Wired."
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So the Curtain Closes on Act III of “La Tariffa Termina.” Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: Donald “Trump on Monday delayed his planned tariffs on Canada and Mexico for 30 days after winning concessions from both countries to stem the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States, postponing, at least temporarily, a painful and potentially destabilizing trade war. Tariffs of 10 percent are still set to go into effect on China on Tuesday morning. Mr. Trump said on Monday that he was likely to talk with President Xi Jinping of China within the next 24 hours about a variety of contentious issues, and warned that the 10 percent tariff he has planned to impose was just an 'opening salvo.'” Oh, the Fat Guy sang; it's over. There are no curtain calls, but as the audience files out in relieved exhaustion, a stage hand raises & lowers the gold-fringed maroon velvet curtains again and again as Donno takes bow after bow. Alas, Primo Donno has promised a sequel, “La Tariffa Ritorna,” another entry in the emerging genre of improvisational opera buffa. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
Ana Swanson & Chris Buckley of the New York Times: “Mr. Trump’s 10 percent tariff on all Chinese products went into effect at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.... The Chinese government came back with a series of retaliatory steps, including additional tariffs on liquefied natural gas, coal, farm machinery and other products from the United States. It also said it had implemented restrictions on the export of certain critical minerals, many of which are used in the production of high-tech products. In addition, Chinese market regulators said they had launched an antimonopoly investigation into Google. Google is blocked from China’s internet, but the move may disrupt the company’s dealings with Chinese companies. The U.S. tariffs, which Mr. Trump said on Monday were an “opening salvo,” come on top of levies that the president imposed during his first term.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Critical minerals, hey? Time to invade Greenland!
Laura Meckler, et al., of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump is preparing an executive order aimed at eventually closing the Education Department and, in the short term, dismantling it from within, according to three people briefed on its contents. The draft order acknowledges that only Congress can shut down the department and instead directs the agency to begin to diminish itself, these people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about internal issues. That work is underway already. The new administration has been trying to reduce the workforce by putting scores of employees on administrative leave and pressuring staff to voluntarily quit. And roughly 20 people with Elon Musk’s 'Department of Government Efficiency' ... have begun working inside the Education Department, looking to cut spending and staff....” A derivative Independent story is here.
Kaitlin Collins & Tierney Sneed of CNN: “Elon Musk is officially serving under ... Donald Trump as a special government employee, according to a White House official. That designation means Musk – the billionaire tech entrepreneur who has been a force within the new Trump administration – is not a volunteer but also not a full-time federal employee. According to a Justice Department summary, a special government employee is 'anyone who works, or is expected to work, for the government for 130 days or less in a 365-day period.' Musk is not being paid, a person familiar with his employment told CNN. Musk has a top secret security clearance, an official familiar with the matter tells CNN.... On Monday, Trump confirmed Musk has access to the Treasury Department’s critical payment system....” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Oh, and even though Musk is probably breaking conflict-of-intersts laws (among others), he has a very special get-out-of-jail card: “As a special government employee, Musk is covered by a federal conflicts-of-interest statute that prohibits government employees from participating in matters that would affect their financial interests. That law can be enforced criminally or in the civil context, but it can only be enforced by the Justice Department.” That would be Trump's “Justice Department.” ~~~
~~~ There's a New Sheriff in Town. Spencer Hsu & Patrick Marley of the Washington Post: “Interim U.S. attorney Edward R. Martin Jr. alleged in a statement Monday that his office in D.C. had found evidence that people 'committed acts that appear to violate the law in targeting' employees of Elon Musk’s 'Department of Government Efficiency' — an unusual statement that came without any public criminal charges. Hours after making public a letter he wrote to Musk saying the U.S. attorney’s office would 'pursue any and all legal action against anyone who impedes your work or threatens your people,' Martin posted on X that his 'initial review of the evidence' had found wrongdoing and hinted that he planned to take legal action.... While it is not unusual for a prosecutor to publicly confirm an investigation into a matter of public importance, Martin’s statement was atypical in alleging violations of law before any charges were filed.”
Jonathan Swan, et al., of the New York Times: “In Elon Musk’s first two weeks in government, his lieutenants gained access to closely held financial and data systems, casting aside career officials who warned that they were defying protocols. They moved swiftly to shutter specific programs — and even an entire agency that had come into Mr. Musk’s cross hairs. They bombarded federal employees with messages suggesting they were lazy and encouraging them to leave their jobs.... Mr. Musk’s aggressive incursions into at least half a dozen government agencies have challenged congressional authority and potentially breached civil service protections.... The rapid moves by Mr. Musk, who has a multitude of financial interests before the government, have represented an extraordinary flexing of power by a private individual.... He carries the authority of the president, who has bristled at some of Mr. Musk’s ready-fire-aim impulses but has praised him publicly....
“There is no precedent for a government official to have Mr. Musk’s scale of conflicts of interest, which include domestic holdings and foreign connections such as business relationships in China. And there is no precedent for someone who is not a full-time employee to have such ability to reshape the federal work force. The historian Douglas Brinkley ... noted that the billionaire was operating 'beyond scrutiny,' saying: 'There is not one single entity holding Musk accountable. It’s a harbinger of the destruction of our basic institutions.'”
~~~ Marie: Elon Musk is not “in government,” as the reporters assert in their lede, only to refute it later, acknowledging he is “a private individual.” And “potentially breached civil service protections” is too weak; the reporters are not lawyers, so they can't opine definitively on the illegality of Musk's actions, but they can at least write that he "likely breached....” Meanwhile, Trump is pretending he is in control of Musk when he seems to be little more than a fat, old, pathetic bystander. He told reporters Monday, “Elon can’t do and won’t do anything without our approval. And we’ll give him the approval where appropriate, where not appropriate, we won’t. If there’s a conflict, then we won’t let him get near it.” Even these mild-mannered reporters acknowledge, in the next sentence: “However, the president has given Mr. Musk vast power over the bureaucracy that regulates his companies and awards them contracts.”
Crusader Muskrat. Matt Shuham of the Huffington Post: “Donald Trump’s 'government efficiency' cheerleader Elon Musk proposed simply ignoring all federal regulations during a public call shortly after midnight Monday morning. Musk ... called for 'wholesale removal of regulations.' The public call was hosted on his website X, formerly Twitter, and included two senators and the Trump ally Vivek Ramaswamy.... '... we’ve just got to do a wholesale, spring cleaning of regulation and get the government off the backs of everyday Americans so people can get things done,' Musk said, adding later: 'If the government has millions of regulations holding everyone back, well, it’s not freedom. We’ve got to restore freedom.... If it’s not possible now, it’ll never be possible. This is our shot.... So we’re going to do it.'... Musk, the world’s wealthiest man and a key player in several industries, would benefit immensely from the ability to pick and choose which regulations to follow.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Should we get rid of federal highway signs first, Elon, or air traffic regs?
Charlie Warzel of the Atlantic: “Elon Musk is not the president, but it does appear that he — a foreign-born, unelected billionaire who was not confirmed by Congress — is exercising profound influence over the federal government of the United States, seizing control of information, payments systems, and personnel management. It is nothing short of an administrative coup.... The end game for Musk seems to be just as it was with Twitter: seize a polarized, inefficient institution; fuse his identity with it; and then use it to punish his enemies and reward his friends. DOGE is a moon-shot program to turn the government into Musk’s personal political weapon.” Thanks to laura h. for this gift link.
Edward Wong, et al., of the New York Times: “The State Department has fired about 60 contractors who work for its democracy, human rights and labor bureau, a division whose programs have often been criticized by authoritarian leaders, according to two U.S. officials and two former officials. The dismissals deal a severe blow to the bureau, because the contractors were mostly technical or area experts whom senior officials relied on to do the day-to-day work of enacting the programs overseas. The bureau has received about $150 million to $200 million of annual budget funding from Congress in recent years. But the bureau also handles and passes on money that Congress appropriates for other groups, including the National Endowment for Democracy.... [Donald] Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20 that has suspended any money or programs that can be deemed to be foreign aid or assistance.... However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has long been a champion of policies that advance human rights and promote democratic practices.” MB: The story does not let on who in the State Department fired the contractors or whether or not they did so with Little Marco's approval.
John Hudson, et al., of the Washington Post: “Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday unveiled plans to restructure and potentially abolish the U.S. Agency for International Development, moving swiftly against an agency that has emerged as a chief target in ... Donald Trump’s drive to reshape the federal government and refocus spending at home.... 'In consultation with Congress, USAID may move, reorganize, and integrate certain missions, bureaus, and offices into the Department of State, and the remainder of the Agency may be abolished consistent with applicable law,' Rubio ... [wrote] In a letter to senior lawmakers from both parties.... At the same time, the chief diplomat assumed more direct control of USAID, taking on the role of acting administrator and naming a Trump loyalist, Peter W. Marocco, to oversee an agency review and potential cuts. But Rubio stopped short of confirming that USAID — as has been widely rumored among aid officials in recent days — will be collapsed into the State Department.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: This is something new. Rubio, who up until a few minutes ago was a U.S. senator, is the first administration official (as far as I know) to acknowledge Congress's authority over USAID funding. He is both going along with President Musk's stunts and bowing to Congress's Constitutional prerogatives. Very diplomatic, Chief Diplomat! Update: Although he hasn't done so yet, it appears Trumpty Dumpty himself will acknowledge Congress's role in an upcoming order aimed at eliminating the Department of Education (story linked above).
Vaughn Hillyard, et al., of NBC News: "Employees of the United States Agency for International Development based out of the nation's capital were ordered overnight not to come into the office Monday and to work from home. 'At the direction of Agency leadership, the USAID headquarters at the Ronald Reagan building in Washington, D.C. will be closed to Agency personnel on Monday, February 3, 2025,'" said an email sent to staff overnight, according to a copy obtained by NBC News. The message said agency personnel who normally work at USAID's headquarters 'will work remotely tomorrow' except for people who perform essential on-site and building maintenance duties.... The e-mail provided no reason for the work-from-home directive, but it comes after tech billionaire Elon Musk ... said in the early hours Monday that he and the president were in the process of shutting down USAID." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
As long as Musk has this access, he can retrieve people’s sensitive personal information. Social security numbers. Bank account numbers. Tax returns. Musk now has the power to extract that information for his own use, to boost his finances or strengthen his political power. -- Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), in a statement
This is a corrupt abuse of power. Elon Musk may get to be dictator of Tesla, and he may try to play dictator here in Washington, D.C., but he doesn’t get to shut down the Agency for International Development. -- Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), at a demonstration outside USAID HQ, Monday ~~~
~~~ Ellen Knickmeyer, et al., of the AP: “Democrats have delivered a strong rebuke against the Trump administration’s attempt to gut an agency that provides crucial aid overseas to fund education and fight starvation and disease, calling it illegal, vowing a court fight and lambasting billionaire Elon Musk for wielding so much power in Washington. Staffers of the U.S. Agency for International Development were instructed to stay out of the agency’s Washington headquarters, and officers blocked the lawmakers from entering the lobby Monday.... The fast-moving developments come after thousands of USAID employees already have been laid off and programs shut down in the two weeks since Trump became president. And they show the extraordinary power of Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency in the Trump administration. Musk announced closing of the agency early Monday, as Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, was out of the country on a trip to Central America.... Rubio told reporters in San Salvador that he was now the acting administrator of USAID but had delegated his authorities to someone else. The change means that USAID is no longer an independent government agency as it had been for decades — although its new status will likely be challenged in court — and will be run out of the State Department.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Julianne McShane of Mother Jones: “Gathered outside the headquarters of the US Agency for International Development in downtown Washington, DC, on Monday, a fiery group of congressional Democrats debuted what felt like a new — and potent — message: Elon Musk is acting as an unqualified shadow president, and he’s breaking the law along the way. The unelected South African tech billionaire announced Monday that he and Trump were shutting down USAID, which distributes billions of dollars annually in international humanitarian aid to approximately 130 countries — the top recipient in fiscal year 2023 was Ukraine—and employs more than 10,0o0 people....” A Guardian report is here.
Dismantling USAID is illegal and makes us less safe. USAID was created by federal law and is funded by Congress. Donald Trump and Elon Musk can’t just wish it away with a stroke of a pen — they need to pass a law. Until and unless this brazenly authoritarian action is reversed and USAID is functional again, I will be placing a blanket hold on all of the Trump administration’s State Department nominees. This is self-inflicted chaos of epic proportions that will have dangerous consequences all around the world. -- Sen. Brian Schatz, in a statement ~~~
~~~ Sahil Kapur, et al., of NBC: News: “Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said Monday he’s placing a 'blanket hold' on ... Donald Trump’s nominees for the State Department, tamping down his hopes of quickly installing personnel in key positions. Schatz, who is on the Foreign Relations Committee, said his move is in protest of Trump’s billionaire adviser Elon Musk’s declaring that he and Trump will shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development[.]” ~~~
~~~ Sen Chris Coons (D-Del.) in a Washington Post op-ed: “Donald Trump ran for president on a promise that he would keep Americans safe. His effort to defund and destroy the U.S. Agency for International Development shows he has a misguided idea of how to do that. USAID’s programs, like all our foreign assistance, play a central role in combating extremism, promoting stability and protecting our homeland. Trump plans to sign an executive order that would direct action he is already taking to drastically reduce USAID’s budget and fold it into the State Department. This is an unconstitutional overstepping of our nation’s separation of powers. But even if it is blocked, Trump has already started gutting the agency.... U.S. foreign assistance makes up 1 percent of our federal budget, and this money isn’t charity. It bolsters our security and advances our values. The reckless steps the Trump administration is taking as part of its isolationist “America First” agenda are, simply put, dangerous for Americans.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: It's worth noting that "America First" is not a position of strength but of monumental weakness, a fear of others so potent that we will burrow into our hidey-hole and pretend the rest of Earth isn't there. Sure, "America First" will reduce our standard of living (even if we capture Greenland first!), but Trump thinks it's worth it to avoid dealing with other countries' troubles. He doesn't want to make friends with them because their leaders think he's a buffoon and he's afraid they're right. Besides, he's scared of escargot & doesn't know how to order a MacDo quarter pounder in places where it's called the Royal Cheese or Cuarto de Libra con Queso (or something else). ~~~
~~~ Nicholas Wu of Politico: “House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries issued a key demand Monday as a March 14 government funding deadline approaches, saying ... Donald Trump's recent federal spending freeze 'must be choked off' as part of any bipartisan deal to keep the government open, 'if not sooner.'... House Democrats also plan to introduce legislation blocking 'unlawful access' to the Treasury Department payment system that billionaire Trump ally Elon Musk and his allies recently gained access to as part of their 'Department of Government Efficiency' initiative.” ~~~
~~~ Josh Marshall of TPM has some advice for Congressional Democrats along these very lines, at least as a way to get started.
Republicans Remain in Their Fox Holes. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: “The story of the first two weeks of ... Donald Trump’s second term is one of a hostile takeover of government power with relatively little pushback. And those with the most power to change Trump’s course in the near term — congressional Republicans — have been especially meek, even as he’s trampled on their prerogatives and past ideals. The upshot: The party of limited government and federalism is tacitly green-lighting a more autocratic chief executive.... Republican lawmakers have increasingly just stood by and watched the Trump (and Musk) show.... And all the while, Trump will be emboldened to assert more and more power.” Blake sites many egregious examples of the Republican members of Congress rolling over for Trump/Musk. He then cites polls that demonstrate the MoCs are following what Trump voters want. ~~~
~~~ BUT. Jennifer Rubin of the Contrarian: “Public opposition to the most wholesale and jaw-dropping violation of Americans’ privacy and ... [Donald] Trump’s unilateral outsourcing of the executive branch’s operation to a private individual, Elon Musk, has taken hold.... The Alliance for Retired Americans, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) filed suit on Monday against the Treasury Department 'for sharing confidential data with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), run by Elon Musk.' As Public Citizen explained on its website: '... Instead of protecting the private information of Americans as required by law, the complaint explains, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent took punitive measures against officials who sought to protect that information from improper access and allowed DOGE full access to the data.” A related Politico news report is here.
Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: “A federal judge in Washington on Monday extended a temporary ban against ... Donald Trump’s sweeping pause on trillions of dollars in federal spending while she weighs a lawsuit challenging its legality. U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan, who issued the ruling, cited the otherwise 'catastrophic' impact on millions of Americans who receive vital resources from the government including food and medical assistance, disaster relief and grants for preschools and small businesses. AliKhan said the Trump administration 'offered no rational explanation' for freezing all federal aid virtually overnight.... She added that allowing the executive branch to suspend Congress’s power of the purse would give presidents 'unbounded power' over appropriations, running 'roughshod' over the Constitution’s separation of powers between Congress and the White House. AliKhan’s ruling extend her earlier order — which expired at 5 p.m. Monday — preventing new restrictions from taking effect in the Trump White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB).” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Oh, and OMB ticked off Judge AliKhan by means of a ruse: “'By rescinding the memorandum that announced the freeze, but “NOT … the federal funding freeze” itself, it appears that OMB sought to overcome a judicially imposed obstacle without actually ceasing the challenged conduct,' AliKhan said. 'The rescission, if it can be called that, appears to be nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to prevent this court from granting relief.'”
Marie: Apparently it takes a Black female reporter -- Erica Green -- at the New York Times to ever-so-politely notice that the POTUS* is a flaming racist & misogynist. “President Trump has promised a 'colorblind and merit-based' society, while also equating diversity with incompetence.... Mr. Trump has aligned himself with those who are brandishing the term D.E.I. as a catchall for discrimination against white people, and using it as a pejorative to attack nonwhite and female leaders as unqualified for their positions.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Absent the GOP's very successful voter suppression efforts, Kamala Harris would have won the 2024 presidential election, writes Greg Palast, an investigative journalist who looks as if he stepped out of a 1930s film noir. Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)
Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “The Proud Boys no longer have control over their own name. Under a ruling by a Washington judge on Monday, the infamous far-right group was stripped of control over the trademark 'Proud Boys' and was barred from selling any merchandise with either its name or its symbols without the consent of a Black church in Washington that its members vandalized. In June 2023, the church won a $2.8 million default judgment against the Proud Boys after the organization’s former leader, Enrique Tarrio, and several of his subordinates attacked it in a night of violence after a pro-Trump rally in December 2020.” ~~~
~~~ Jean Carroll, Are You Listening? Marie: Oh, this would be a fantastic tactic to use against Donald Trump. Many have sued him and won. Imagine if some could take control of his name & prevent him from slapping it on buildings & resorts around the world. That would reduce Trump's ability to make money on licensing agreements, which are a main source of his income.
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New York. Benhamin Oreskes of the New York Times: “Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York signed a bill on Monday intended to give the state’s health care providers an extra layer of protection to shield them from prosecution in states that ban abortion. The newly signed law comes days after a New York doctor was indicted in Louisiana for prescribing and sending abortion pills to someone in the state. The charges represented an escalation in the fractious battle between mostly Republican-led states that ban abortion and Democratic-led states seeking to protect or expand abortion access. The law, which takes effect immediately, will allow health-care practitioners to avoid putting their names on prescriptions for medications used in abortions, and instead use the names of their medical practices.”
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El Salvador. John Hudson of the Washington Post: “Secretary of State Marco Rubio said El Salvador’s president has offered to house 'dangerous American criminals' in his country’s jail cells, in what Rubio called the most 'extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world.' 'He has offered to house in his jail dangerous American criminals in custody in our country, including those of U.S. citizenship and legal residents,' Rubio said, speaking of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele during a signing ceremony in El Salvador’s capital. It was not immediately clear whether the Trump administration planned to send incarcerated U.S. citizens to Salvadoran jails.... Any attempt by the Trump administration to jail U.S. citizens in another country would be sure to face legal scrutiny. Bukele’s hard-line anti-crime policies have greatly reduced the level of gang violence in the country, but they have also come under scrutiny from human rights organizations over allegations of indiscriminate arrests and police abuse.... Bukele confirmed the offer in a social media post[:]... 'We are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted U.S. citizens) into our mega-prison ... in exchange for a fee.'...” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Yeah, this is "extraordinary," all right: outsourcing part of our federal prison system to a country led by a president* who calls himself "the world's coolest dictator," and who rules under emergency powers that suspend human rights. Great work, Little Marco!
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