“Tariff Man doing Tariff Man stuff..” John Buss,@repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
Last night, I dreamed I had been to an amusement park where everything spun oddly and fell apart. Guess who followed me around his theme park at one point shoving his hands down my shirt to grab my tits until a nice black lady in a black suit with sun glasses on said “Sir, you really shouldn’t do that.” I pressed an elevator at one point, and some skinny, red-headed white guy in a flannel shirt on the other side of what turned out to be a duo door elevator had the ground pulled out from under him. The ground below him started dropping. All I could do was watch from the other side. There were guys everywhere with stacks of boxes, trying to sell stuff they wouldn’t let you see. All the time #FARTUS just followed me, bragging about each ride that was more dangerous than the next.
I doubt I need a Jungian psychologist to decode all that. A lot of my time was spent trying to get children to get off and get out of here before they were hurt. Oddly enough, I was more fascinated during the dream than anything else. It was a bit like a Salvador Dali show. Maybe some of the celebratory herb wafting from the 4/20 Party at the bar on the corner got into my bedroom. Who knows? I woke up thinking, “What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been.” I heard a lot of Grateful Dead on Temple’s last walk of the day.
Trump’s 100th day in office officially happens this month on the 30th. So far, not good. This headline in theWashington Post, attached to an op-ed analysis from Dana Milbank, grabbed me. And not by the you know what. “Trump is wrapping up 100 days of historic failure. America has seen ruinous periods, but never when the president was the one knowingly causing the ruin. It will be far worse if Trump tries to illegally remove Fed President Jerome Powell from his post. He’s trying to blame Powell for this mess. I’m not sure who will be dumb enough to take that bait, but I do know that Republicans won’t stand in his way of his lawlessness, as usual.
“By any reasonable measure, President Donald Trump’s first 100 days will be judged an epic failure.
He has been a legislative failure. He has signed only five bills into law, none of them major, making this the worst performance at the start of a new president’s term in more than a century.
He has been an economic failure. On his watch, growth has slowed, consumer and business confidence has cratered, and markets have plunged, along with Americans’ wealth. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday that “growth has slowed in the first quarter of this year from last year’s solid pace” and that Trump’s tariffs will result in higher inflation and slower growth.
He has been a foreign-policy failure. He said he would end wars in Gaza and Ukraine. But fighting has resumed in Gaza after the demise of the ceasefire negotiated by his predecessor, and Russia continues to brutalize Ukraine, making a mockery of Trump’s naive overtures to Vladimir Putin.
He has been a failure in the eyes of friends, having launched a trade war against Canada, Mexico, Europe and Japan; enraged Canada with talk of annexation; threatened Greenland and Panama; and cleaved the NATO alliance.
He has been a failure in the eyes of foes, as an emboldened China menaces Taiwan, punches back hard in the trade war and spreads its global influence to fill the vacuum left by Trump’s retreat from the world.
He has been a constitutional failure. His executive actions, brazen in their disregard for the law, have been slapped down more than 80 times already by judges, including those appointed by Republicans. He is flagrantly defying a unanimous Supreme Court, and his appointees are facing contempt proceedings for their abuse of the legal system.
Even his few “successes” amount to less than meets the eye. Border crossings are down from already low levels, but despite all the administration’s bravado, there’s little evidence of an increase in deportations. Hopes for cost-cutting under the U.S. DOGE Service, which Elon Musk originally projected at $1 trillion this year, have been scaled back to just $150 billion — and much of that appears to be based on made-up numbers.
But Trump, whose 100th day in office is April 30, has achieved one thing that is truly remarkable: He has introduced a level of chaos and destruction so high that historians are hard-pressed to find its equal in our history.
And yet, he persists. There’s a long list that follows. Seeing it all in print is disturbing. Zachary Basu has another take posted on AXIOS. “Trump’s United States of Emergency. ”
In his first 100 days, President Trump has declared more national emergencies — more creatively and more aggressively — than any president in modern American history.
Why it matters: Powers originally crafted to give the president flexibility in rare moments of crisis now form the backbone of Trump’s agenda, enabling him to steamroll Congress and govern by unilateral decree through his first three months in office.
Paired with his assault on the judiciary, legal scholars fear Trump is exploiting loosely written statutes to try to upend the constitutional balance of power.
How it works: The president can declare a national emergency at any time, for almost any reason, without needing to prove a specific threat or get approval from Congress.
The National Emergencies Act of 1976, which unlocks more than 120 special statutory powers, originally included a “legislative veto” that gave Congress the ability to terminate an emergency with a simple majority vote.
But in 1983, the Supreme Court ruled that legislative vetoes are unconstitutional — effectively stripping Congress of its original check, and making it far harder to rein in a president’s emergency declarations.
The big picture: Since then, presidents have largely relied on “norms” and “self-restraint” to avoid abusing emergency powers for non-crises, says Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program.
That precedent was broken in 2019, Goitein argues, when Trump declared a national emergency in order to bypass Congress and access billions of dollars in funding for a border wall.
President Biden stretched his authority as well, drawing criticism in 2022 for citing the COVID-19 national emergency to unilaterally forgive student loan debt.
But Trump’s second-term actions have plunged the U.S. firmly into uncharted territory — redrawing the limits of executive power in real time, and fueling fears of a permanent emergency state.
Zoom in: Trump’s justification for his tariffs cites the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which can be invokedonlyif the U.S. faces an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to its national security, foreign policy, or economy.
According to the White House, America’s decades-old trading relationships — including with tiny countries and uninhabited islands — qualify as such threats.
As a result, a 1977 law originally designed to target hostile foreign powers — and never before used to impose tariffs — is now being deployed to rewrite the global economic order.
There’s much to look forward to as we lurch towards the midterms. Little Marco Rubio is sure fucking up the state department. All you need to do is see a cabinet meeting. His face is telling. He looks like the only one who knows he’s going to hell. This is from NPR as reported by Graham Smith. “The State Department is changing its mind about what it calls human rights.” What fresh hell is this lil Marco?
The Trump administration is substantially scaling back the State Department’s annual reports on international human rights to remove longstanding critiques of abuses such as harsh prison conditions, government corruption and restrictions on participation in the political process, NPR has learned.
Despite decades of precedent, the reports, which are meant to inform congressional decisions on foreign aid allocations and security assistance, will no longer call governments out for such things as denying freedom of movement and peaceful assembly. They won’t condemn retaining political prisoners without due process or restrictions on “free and fair elections.”
Forcibly returning a refugee or asylum-seeker to a home country where they may face torture or persecution will no longer be highlighted, nor will serious harassment of human rights organizations.
According to an editing memo and other documents obtained by NPR, State Department employees are directed to “streamline” the reports by stripping them down to only that which is legally required. The memo says the changes aim to align the reports with current U.S. policy and “recently issued Executive Orders.”
Officially called “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices,” the annual documents are required, by statute, to be a “full and complete report regarding the status of internationally recognized human rights.”
Human rights defenders say the cuts amount to an American retreat from its position as the world’s human rights watchdog.
“What this is, is a signal that the United States is no longer going to [pressure] other countries to uphold those rights that guarantee civic and political freedoms — the ability to speak, to express yourself, to gather, to protest, to organize,” said Paul O’Brien, executive director of Amnesty International, USA.
A spokesperson for the State Department declined to comment on the memo or the human rights reports. NPR confirmed the memo’s authenticity with two sources close to the process.
There is some good news on the front of Trump’s kidnapping and disappearing people to El Salvador. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) managed to get a meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, as was his goal. Historian Heather Cox Richardson, writing at her Substack, gives us some perspective.
Today, Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) posted a picture of himself with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man whom the Trump administration says it sent to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador through “administrative error” but can’t get back, and wrote: “I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.”
While the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, apparently tried to stage a photo that would make it look as if the two men were enjoying a cocktail together, it seems clear that backing down and giving Senator Van Hollen access to Abrego Garcia is a significant shift from Bukele’s previous scorn for those trying to address the crisis of a man legally in the U.S. having been sent to prison in El Salvador without due process.
Bukele might be reassessing the distribution of power in the U.S.
According to Robert Jimison of the New York Times, who traveled to El Salvador with Senator Van Hollen, when a reporter asked President Donald Trump if he would move to return Abrego Garcia to the United States, Trump answered: “Well, I’m not involved. You’ll have to speak to the lawyers, the [Department of Justice].”
Today a federal appeals court rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to stop Judge Paula Xinis’s order that it “take all available steps” to bring Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. “as soon as possible.” Conservative Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, wrote the order. Notably, it began with a compliment to Judge Xinis. “[W]e shall not micromanage the efforts of a fine district judge attempting to implement the Supreme Court’s recent decision,” he wrote.
Then Wilkinson turned his focus on the Trump administration. “It is difficult in some cases to get to the very heart of the matter,” he wrote. “But in this case, it is not hard at all. The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order. Further, it claims in essence that because it has rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done. This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.”
“The government asserts that Abrego Garcia is a terrorist and a member of MS-13. Perhaps, but perhaps not. Regardless, he is still entitled to due process.” The court noted that if the government is so sure of its position, then it should be confident in presenting its facts to a court of law.
Echoing the liberal justices on the Supreme Court, Wilkinson wrote: “If today the Executive claims the right to deport without due process and in disregard of court orders, what assurance will there be tomorrow that it will not deport American citizens and then disclaim responsibility to bring them home?” He noted the reports that the administration is talking about doing just that.
“And what assurance shall there be that the Executive will not train its broad discretionary powers upon its political enemies? The threat, even if not the actuality, would always be present,” he wrote, “and the Executive’s obligation to ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed’ would lose its meaning.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen confirmed Thursday night that he has met with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man whom the Trump administration said it mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March.
“I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return,” Van Hollen, D-Md., wrote on X.
Images of Van Hollen’s meeting with Abrego Garcia were first posted online by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who has rebuffed calls to return Abrego Garcia to the United States.
Bukele said on X after the meeting that Abrego Garcia will remain in El Salvador’s custody “now that he’s been confirmed healthy.”
President Donald Trump lashed out at Van Hollen Friday morning in a post on Truth Social, saying the Democratic senator “looked like a fool yesterday standing in El Salvador begging for attention.”
At an Oval Office meeting with Trump on Monday, Bukele argued that he didn’t “have the power to return him to the United States.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the same day that the United States would provide a plane for Abrego Garcia to travel back to the country should El Salvador allow his release, framing the decision as being solely in Bukele’s hands.
In a statement Thursday night, the White House called Van Hollen’s efforts in support of Abrego Garcia “disgusting” and said Trump will “continue to stand on the side of law-abiding Americans.”
Trump threats to Fed Chair Powell scare the shit out of me. I am totally with Senator Elizabeth Warren on this statement. “Markets will ‘crash’ if Trump can fire Fed’s Powell, Elizabeth Warren warns.” You can listen to her interview at this link. Nobel Prize-winning Economist Dr. Paul Krugman explains the dangers of a “Trumpified Fed” at his Substack today. “Why You Should Fear a Trumpified Fed. Don’t give an abuser power that’s easy to abuse. He even starts with the holy grail of economics charts from FRED. The Fed is a significant source of economic data. I spent hours as a new grad student in 1978 in the basement of the University of Nebraska at Omaha with a huge accounting pad and pencil in the Federal Documents area, writing down months of data to type onto punch cards with some code ordering up a graph that I had to wait hours for as I watched a huge printer spit out green bar paper. Now it’s just a few clicks of a mouse button to get the same data from FRED.
Sometimes the Federal Reserve has extraordinary power over the economy.
Consider what happened from 1982 to 1984. For most of 1982 the U.S. economy was in grim shape. Employment had plunged, especially in manufacturing. The unemployment rate hit 10.8 percent in December (it was 4.2 percent last month.) And economic pain helped Democrats make major gains in the 1982 midterms.
But everything was about to change, thanks to the Fed. In the summer of 1982 the Fed decided to ease monetary policy. Interest rates plunged, and about 6 months later the economy began a stunning rebound, growing 4.6 percent in 1983 and 7.2 percent in 1984. Ronald Reagan claimed credit for “Morning in America,” but actually it was the Fed that did it.
This episode illustrates the Fed’s power — power that must be insulated from abuse by politicians, especially politicians like Donald Trump.
Over the past few days Trump has been demanding that the Fed cut interest rates and calling for the Fed chairman’s “termination.” It’s worth looking at what he posted on Truth Social to get a sense of how, to use the technical term, batshit crazy he is on this subject:
And we really, really don’t want someone that crazy dictating monetary policy.
The reason we don’t want politicians in direct control of monetary policy is that it’s so easy to use. After all, what does it mean to “ease” monetary policy? It’s an incredibly frictionless process. Normally the Federal Open Market Committee tells the New York Fed to buy U.S. government debt from private banks, which it does with money conjured out of thin air. There’s no need to pass legislation, place bids with contractors, deal with any of the hassles usually associated with changes in government policy. Basically the Fed can create an economic boom with a phone call.
It’s obvious that this kind of power could be abused by an irresponsible leader who wants to preside over an economic boom and doesn’t want to hear about the risks. This isn’t a hypothetical scenario. Consider what happened in Turkey, whose Trump-like president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, recently arrested the leader of the opposition. When the global post-Covid inflation shock hit, Erdogan embraced crank economic theories. He forced Turkey’s central bank, its equivalent of the Fed, to cut interest rates in the belief, contrary to standard economics, that doing so would reduce, not increase inflation. You can see the results in the chart at the top of this post.
How can we guard against that kind of policy irresponsibility? After the stagflation of the 1970s many countries delegated monetary policy to technocrats at independent central banks. Can the technocrats get it wrong? Of course they can and often have. But they’re less likely to engage in wishful thinking and motivated reasoning than typical politicians, let alone politicians like Trump.
What makes Trump’s attempt to bully the Fed especially ominous is the fact that the Fed will soon have to cope with the stagflationary crisis Trump has created. Trump’s massive tariff increase will lead to a major inflationary shock:
I’ve been using that “s” word for a while now. If Krugman uses it, run for the hills.
So, this is running long, so I’ll quit with this. I hope your weekend is peaceful. We’re gearing up for Jazz Fest, so I have a few more weeks of Ugly American Tourists in the hood, and then it might get more normal since Trump is decimating the tourist industry.
U.S. tourism has dropped with visits from other countries down as much as 11% in March, while more Americans are moving outside of the country to places like Canada. NBC News’ Liz Kreutz talks to USC Hospitality and Tourism Professor Hicham Jaddoud on the drop.
Maybe those disruptive Airbnb’s will be used for the people who live here. I can only hope.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
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In her first interview as second lady, Usha Vance revealed that her husband, Vice President JD Vance, is extremely lonely in his new position.
To no one’s surprise, social media had a field day. From sarcasm to scathing political criticism, the internet did not hold back.
Usha Vance said JD Vance is “very lonely” as Vice President, attributing this to long working hours and little communication, as per a report by BuzzFeed.
Her words created a social media storm, with online reactions varying from dark humor to brutally harsh, with scant sympathy for his loneliness.
She told the Times that because her husband is so busy, they now communicate primarily via text these days. “I don’t know that he’s asking me for advice so much as it can be a very lonely, lonely world not to share with someone.”
JD Vance was a huge hit on the internet! What people are saying is as follows, as per a report by BuzzFeed.
Responses from Reddit threads:
“Has he tried visiting a furniture store?”—u/parkerplotkin
“Did he say thank you to his friends?”—u/GenosseGeneral
“They weren’t wearing suits, so.”—u/Dosanaya
“Poor JD Vance, oh no. While attempting to remove the benefits that they paid into and dismissing numerous Americans, he is profiting from the same taxpayers that he is disparaging. His children will attend the private, pricey schools that his wealthy friends have been urging taxpayers to fund. Is JD Vance feeling lonely, though? Whoa, that’s really sad.”
Others criticized him for making money off taxpayers while pushing to take away benefits and firing many Americans. Some even suggested that JD could quit and be less lonely, urging Vance to shame the rest of the world for being a complete sell-out.”
“He can give up, which will make him feel less alone.” Usha Eff and her collusion. You embarrass the others by being a total sell-out. —u/eastwestjewels
“Is leaving the country permanently and resigning from your elected position the answer to male loneliness?”—u/500owls
Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday March 29, 2025
“US Vice President JD Vance will visit India from 21 to 24 April, marking his first official trip to the country since taking office. He will be joined by his wife Usha Vance and their three children — Ewan, Vivek, and Mirabel — as part of a broader diplomatic tour that also includes a stop in Italy.
The visit underscores growing US interest in consolidating its relationship with India amid shifting global alliances and economic realignments. A statement from his office confirmed meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said the discussions will focus on shared economic and geopolitical priorities.”
T Bogg has this bit of news on Raw Story. “‘Uppity’ J.D. Vance flattened for new screed defying the Supreme Court.”
Vice President J.D. Vance was raked over the coals on Wednesday morning for a series of social media posts on X on Tuesday where he continued to defend the Donald Trump administration for wrongfully shipping a Maryland man to El Salvador despite an admonition from the Supreme Court.
With the battle over the deportation and imprisonment of Kilmar Abrego Garcia at a notorious Salvadoran prison camp reaching the point where even the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board is stepping in and deploring the lack of due process, Vance has doubled down and blown off concerns.
In a long post on X, Vance argued, “To say the administration must observe ‘due process’ is to beg the question: what process is due is a function of our resources, the public interest, the status of the accused, the proposed punishment, and so many other factors. To put it in concrete terms, imposing the death penalty on an American citizen requires more legal process than deporting an illegal alien to their country of origin.”
He then added, “Here’s a useful test: ask the people weeping over the lack of due process what precisely they propose for dealing with Biden’s millions and millions of illegals. And with reasonable resource and administrative judge constraints, does their solution allow us to deport at least a few million people per year?”
So, let’s not leave out his latest embarrassing moment. This is from ABC News. “Vice President JD Vance fumbles Ohio State football team’s national championship trophy.” This guy can’t get anything right.
Vice President JD Vance fumbled The Ohio State University football team’s national championship trophy during a celebration at the White House on Monday.
President Donald Trump hosted the Buckeyes after they won the College Football Playoff National Championship against the University of Notre Dame in January.
When Vance went to pick up the football-shaped trophy off a table at the end of the event, the 24-karat gold, bronze and stainless steel trophy nearly toppled over behind him before two players caught it. The base dropped to the ground to gasps from the crowd.
Vance went on to hold the trophy separate from the base.
Though the Pentagram-designed piece appeared to break, the trophy and base are two separate pieces so that the 26.5 inch-tall, 35-pound trophy can be hoisted in the air. The 12-inch-tall base weighs about 30 pounds.
That’s not seriously as bad, though, as the ongoing constitutional crisis of Trump’s DOJ. He’s breaking our Constitutional Democracy by refusing court orders to bring Garcia home, putting Judge Paula Xinis in a difficult place. Will she put them in contempt of court or rely on SCOTUS to deal with them. This is from Politico. “Judge launches inquiry into Trump administration’s refusal to seek return of wrongly deported man, “To date, what the record shows is that nothing has been done. Nothing,” U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said.”
A federal judge ordered an “intense” two-week inquiry into the Trump administration’s refusal to seek the return of a man who was wrongly deported from Maryland to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
“To date, what the record shows is that nothing has been done. Nothing,” U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said at a court hearing Tuesday.
Xinis’ order sets up a high-stakes sprint that may force senior Trump administration officials to testify under oath about their response to court orders requiring them to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States. Each day that passes, the judge noted, is another day Abrego Garcia spends improperly detained in a maximum security mega-prison.
“We’re going to move. There will be no tolerance for gamesmanship or grandstanding,” the judge said. “There are no business hours while we do this. … Cancel vacations, cancel other appointments. I’m usually pretty good about things like that in my court, but not this time. So, I expect all hands on deck.”
Xinis’ inquiry is the latest chapter in an escalating clash between the executive and judicial branches over Abrego Garcia’s illegal deportation last month. Xinis previously ordered the administration to “facilitate” his release from the custody of El Salvador, and the Supreme Court upheld that directive last week.
Liz Dye of Public Noticeputs it this way. “SCOTUS puts constitutional crisis in America’s Easter basket. Instead of a chocolate bunny, we get the president openly defying a court order.”
If Chief Justice John Roberts hoped to save the judiciary by burning it down, he badly miscalculated. Just a week after the Supreme Court’s five male conservatives kicked the legs out from under a respected trial judge to save the Trump administration from the consequences of defying a court order, we are back on the precipice of a disastrous constitutional crisis.
Perhaps the justices aimed to protect the judiciary by swerving to avoid a head-on collision with the executive. Maybe they hoped that President Trump would take the win and trim his dictatorial sails. But this is Dr. Strangelove, not Speed, and no amount of vague harrumphing by the high Court was ever going to persuade Major Kong to stand down.
Thanks to the Supreme Court’s fecklessness, the judiciary is now squarely back on a collision course with a Trump-shaped iceberg. But this time, instead of planeloads of faceless migrants, the case involves just one man: Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a husband and father from Maryland, whom the government deported to a Salvadoran torture prison despite a court order barring just that.
The first confrontation involved planeloads of migrants deported pursuant to the Alien Enemies Act (AEA), a statute associated with some of the most sordid chapters in American history, including Japanese internment. The law empowers the president to deport foreign citizens in times of war, and so Trump simply declared that Venezuela has invaded the US by dispatching members of the Tren de Aragua gang as shock troops, and began rounding up Venezuelan immigrants more or less at random.
The fact that we are patently not at war didn’t matter to the Supreme Court. Nor did the revelation that 90 percent of the men deported had zero criminal record. In a hastily drafted order, the five conservative justices rebuffed a challenge to the AEA deportations, airily suggesting that anyone fearful of being deported should just file an individual habeas corpus petition … from a detention cell, in the few hours between when they’re informed they’re being moved and when they’re hustled onto a plane and cast into a windowless dungeon with no access to counsel.
This had the desired effect of heading off a confrontation between Judge James Boasberg and the government, which flatly refused to explain why it deported the men after the judge ordered them not to. But along the way the Supreme Court did require the administration to give some process to AEA deportees.
“AEA detainees must receive notice after the date of this order that they are subject to removal under the Act,” the majority wrote. “The notice must be afforded within a reasonable time and in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek habeas relief in the proper venue before such removal occurs.”
Even this appears to have been too big an ask for the Trump administration, which refused to commit to giving AEA deportees even 24 hours notice before shipping them to a Salvadoran gulag.
There’s more at the link. ProPublica has this scathing article. “Congress Has Demanded Answers to ICE Detaining Americans. The Administration Has Responded With Silence. Amid increasing reports that U.S. citizens have been caught up in the Trump administration’s immigration dragnet, a dozen members of Congress have written to the government with pointed questions. None has received a reply.” The analysis is provided by Nicole Foy.
Just a week into President Donald Trump’s second term, Rep. Adriano Espaillat began to see reports of Puerto Ricans and others being questioned and arrested by immigration agents.
So Espaillat, a New York Democrat, did what members of Congress often do: He wrote to the administration and demanded answers. That was more than 10 weeks ago. Espaillat has not received a response.
His experience appears to be common.
At least a dozen members of Congress, all Democrats, have written to the Trump administration with pointed questions about constituents and other citizens whom immigration agents have questioned, detained and even held at gunpoint. In one letter, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee demanded a list of every citizen detained during the new administration.
None has received an answer.
“What we are clearly seeing is that with this administration, they are not responding to congressional inquiries,” said Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, a New Mexico Democrat.
Leger Fernández and others wrote to Trump and the Department of Homeland Security on Jan. 28 after receiving complaints from constituents and tribal nations that federal agents were pressing tribal citizens in New Mexico for their immigration status, raising concerns about racial profiling.
The congresswoman and others say the lack of response is part of a broader pattern in which the administration has been moving to sideline Congress and its constitutional power to investigate the executive branch.
“That is a big concern on a level beyond what ICE is doing,” Leger Fernández said, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a branch of DHS. “This administration does not seem to recognize the power and authority and responsibility” of Congress.
Norman Ornstein, a longtime congressional observer at the American Enterprise Institute, said prior administrations’ lack of responsiveness has frustrated lawmakers too. But he’s never seen one so thoroughly brush off Congress.
“What’s clear now is that the message from Donald Trump and his minions is: ‘You don’t have to respond to these people, whether they are ours or not,’” Ornstein said, referring to Republicans and Democrats. “That’s not usual. Nothing about this is usual.”
A White House spokesperson denied that the administration has been circumventing Congress or its oversight. “Passage of the continuing resolution that kept our government open and commonsense legislation like the Laken Riley Act are indicative of how closely the Trump administration is working with Congress,” said Kush Desai in a statement.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Trump administration failed to take “one extra step of paperwork” before it mistakenly deported a Maryland man, adding that nonetheless Kilmar Abrego Garcia is “not coming back to our country.”
The comments were the latest example of officials under President Trump digging in despite a Supreme Court order requiring them to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return.
Bondi also repeated numerous claims about Abrego Garcia’s ties to MS-13 that his family has denied and for which there is a conflicting court record.
“He is not coming back to our country. President Bukele said he was not sending him back. That’s the end of the story,” she told reporters at a press conference Wednesday, referring to the Salvadorian leader. “If he wanted to send him back, we would give him a plane ride back. There was no situation ever where he was going to stay in this country. None, none.”
Bondi has previously argued the Supreme Court’s order to facilitate his return meant only that the government would need to supply a plane if El Salvador chooses to return him.
Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran national who fled the country as a teenager to escape gang violence, was protected from deportation by an immigration judge in 2019. The gang Barrio 18 threatened to kill him when trying to extract money from his mother’s pupusa business.
The court record shows numerous issues with the government’s assertion he is a gang member.
The DOJ is now the enforcer for Trump’s Mafia State. They might as well erase the Justice from the name.
I have one thing I need to rant about. I don’t know if I should call it the Space Bunny Adventure or Space Barbies. The women on the Blue Origin Mission deserve all the backlash it was given. This did not empower women. We have actual women astronauts. We do not need to see 11 women in slinky ‘flight suits’ performing cute space cone exit ploys. Amanda Hunt, who writes for the New York Times, stated this. “One Giant Stunt for Womankind. Blue Origin’s all-female flight proves that women are now free to enjoy capitalism’s most extravagant spoils alongside rich men.”
“Though women remain severely underrepresented in the aerospace field worldwide, they do regularly escape the Earth’s atmosphere. More than 100 have gone to space since Sally Ride became the first American woman to do so in 1983. If an all-women spaceflight were chartered by, say, NASA, it might represent the culmination of many decades of serious investment in female astronauts. (In 2019, NASA was embarrassingly forced to scuttle an all-women spacewalk when it realized it did not have enough suits that fit them.) An all-women Blue Origin spaceflight signifies only that several women have amassed the social capital to be friends with Lauren Sánchez.
Blue Origin is one of several private spaceflight companies — among them Virgin Galactic, Space Adventures and SpaceX — now offering rich people and their friends access to space. Its New Shepard rocket is self-piloting, and the six women had no technical duties on the flight. Though two participants had some aerospace experience (Bowe worked for NASA, and Nguyen interned there), Sánchez has said she picked them all because they are “storytellers” who could step off the flight and promote their experiences through journalism, film and song. To Blue Origin, their value lies expressly in their amateurism. Kristin Fisher, a journalist and the daughter of the NASA astronaut Anna Lee Fisher, who joined the livestream, called the flight’s roster “so refreshing.” In the early days of human spaceflight, astronauts “were all white male military test pilots, and they had to have ‘the right stuff.’ You could never talk about nerves, or being nervous, or your feelings,” Fisher said. “But now, in 2025, it is the right stuff.”
Sánchez arranged for her favorite fashion designers to craft the mission’s suits, leveraging it into yet another branding opportunity. Souvenirs of the flight sold on Blue Origin’s website feature a kind of yassified shuttle patch design. It includes a shooting-star microphone representing King, an exploding firework representing Perry and a fly representing Sánchez’s 2024 children’s book about the adventures of a dyslexic insect. Each woman was encouraged to use her four minutes of weightlessness to practice a different in-flight activity tailored to her interests. Nguyen planned to use them to conduct two vanishingly brief science experiments, one of them related to menstruation, while Perry pledged to “put the ‘ass’ in astronaut.”
The message is that a little girl can grow up to be whatever she wishes: a rocket scientist or a pop star, a television journalist or a billionaire’s fiancée who is empowered to pursue her various ambitions and whims in the face of tremendous costs. In each case, she stands to win a free trip to space. She can have it all, including a family back on Earth. “Guess what?” Sánchez told Elle. “Moms go to space.” (Fisher, the first mother in space, went there in 1984.)
The whole thing reminds me of the advice Sheryl Sandberg passed on to women in “Lean In,” her memoir of scaling the corporate ladder in the technology industry. When Eric Schmidt, then the chief executive of Google, offered Sandberg a position that did not align with her own professional goals, he told her: “If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat. Just get on.” It is the proximity to power that matters, not the goal of the mission itself.
So, WTF are they riding? Phallic Veneraton anyone?
This is from the Daily Mail, as reported by Daniel Matthews. “Female NFL reporter rips Katy Perry and Co over ’embarrassing’ Blue Origin space mission.”
Pop star Perry was part of an all-female crew – alongside the likes of Lauren Sanchez and journalist Gayle King – that made an 11-minute trip into orbit on Jeff Bezos‘ rocket.
Perry took a daisy into space – in honor of her daughter – and was seen kissing the ground after touching down back on earth. The singer said she felt ‘super connected to life’ and ‘so connected to love’.
The event was hailed by some as a landmark moment but NFL Network reporter Slater hit out at the stunt on social media.
‘The whole thing was embarrassing. So many smart women who worked their whole life to go to space and did the work,’ she wrote.
‘She (Perry) took a daisy and promoted a set list for her new album. If she really cared? Give your spot up to a young girl in the NASA program.’
Slater added: ‘Guess it’s ok for everyone just to care more about themselves and personal motivations these days. Very on brand (with) our culture shift.’
The NFL Network reporter – a self-confessed ‘sci fi geek’ admitted she would ‘love’ the chance to go into space.
But she claimed she ‘would absolutely give my seat up to a woman who has been passed over time and time again by NASA’.
Slater also took aim at how Perry and Co looked when heading into space.
‘I don’t think they truly appreciated the magnitude of the moment. With exception of former NASA scientist Aisha Bowe who absolutely deserved a shot at that flight the bs (bulls***) hair makeup and fits really annoyed me,’ she continued.
‘(It) just felt disrespectful to cosplay as an astronaut in full hair and a curated fit… I cringe thinking what (pioneering female astronaut) Sunita Williams had to think about it all.
‘I also understand why they sent them to promote “space tourism” but yeah the self promotion was so dumb.’
One more from The Guardian. This is written by Moira Donegan. “The Blue Origin flight showcased the utter defeat of American feminism. The trip leaned on a vision of women’s empowerment that is light on substance and heavy on a childlike, girlish silliness ”
But the flight, and its grim promotional cycle, might be most depressing for what it reveals about the utter defeat of American feminism. Sánchez, the organizer of the flight, has touted the all-female crew as a win for women. But she herself is a woman in a deeply antifeminist model. It is not her rocket company that took her and her friends to the edge of space; it’s her male fiance’s. And it is no virtue of her character that put her inside the rocket – not her capacity, not her intellect and not her hard work – but merely her relationship with a man. (The fact that the rocket itself looks so phallic does not help to lessen the flight’s message that the surest way for women to raise themselves in the world is to attach themselves to a man.)
There are at least two women on the mission who can be credited as serious persons: Aisha Bowe, an aerospace engineer, and Amanda Nguyen, a civil rights entrepreneur whose past work with Nasa makes her something closer to an actual astronaut. But most of the crew’s self-presentation and promotion of the flight has leaned heavily on a vision of women’s empowerment that is light on substance and heavy on a childlike, girlish silliness that insults women by cavalierly linking their gender with superficiality, vanity and unseriousness.
In an interview with Elle, the crew members paid lip service to the importance of women, and particularly women of color, in Stem. (The Trump administration has forced Nasa to close some offices in order to comply with its ban on the diversity, equity and inclusion programs that would recruit such candidates.) But mostly, they seemed interested in talking about their makeup and hair. “Space is going to finally be glam,” Katy Perry said, bizarrely. “Let me tell you something. If I could take glam up with me, I would do that. We are going to put the ‘ass’ in astronaut.”
“Who would not get glam before the flight?!” asked Sánchez, who evidently can’t imagine that women might prioritize anything else. “We’re going to have lash extensions flying in the capsule.” Bowe, too, joined in, saying that she had gone to extreme lengths to make sure that she would be, of all things, well coiffed for the experience. “I skydived in Dubai with similar hair to make sure I would be good,” she said. “I took it for a dry run.”
It is not misogynist to say that these women do not have their priorities in order. Rather, it is misogynist of them to so forcefully associate womanhood with cosmetics and looks, rather than with any of the more noble and human aspirations to which space travel might acquaint them – curiosity, inquiry, discovery, exploration, a sense of their own mortality, an apprehension of the divine. These women, who have placed themselves as representatives for all women with their promotion of the flight – positioning themselves as aspirational models of femininity – have presented a profoundly antifeminist vision of what womankind’s future is: dependent on men, confined to triviality, and deeply, deeply silly.
Is this the future that awaits women in Donald Trump’s America: one where the only way to achievement is through sexual desirability, the only way to status as an ornamental attachment on a man who really counts, the only subject on which we are qualified to speak is whether lash extensions will stay in place? If this is the future, count me out. On the other hand, the notion of being launched off of such a grim and sexist Earth is looking more and more appealing.
That’s all, folks!
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This is from the AP. “Suspect in arson at Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence being treated at hospital, police say.”
A man who authorities said scaled an iron security fence in the middle of the night, eluded police and broke into the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion where he set a fire is in police custody at a hospital after an unrelated medical event, state police said Monday.
Cody Balmer, 38, told police he had planned to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a small sledgehammer if he found him, according to court documents. He was being treated at the hospital, which police said was “not connected to this incident or his arrest.”
Balmer’s mother told The Associated Press on Monday that she had tried in recent days to get him assistance for mental health issues, but “nobody would help.” She said her son had bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. The AP was not able to verify that information.
“He wasn’t taking his medicine, and that’s all I want to say,” Christie Balmer said, speaking at the family home in Harrisburg.
The fire left significant damage and forced Shapiro, his family and guests to evacuate the building early Sunday. Balmer, who was arrested later in the day, faces charges including attempted homicide, terrorism, aggravated arson and aggravated assault, authorities said.
Balmer had walked an hour from his home to the governor’s residence, and during a police interview, “Balmer admitted to harboring hatred towards Governor Shapiro,” according to a police affidavit, but it didn’t explain why.
Shapiro said he, his wife, their four children, two dogs and extended family had celebrated the Jewish holiday of Passover at the residence Saturday and were awakened by state troopers pounding on their doors about 2 a.m. Sunday. They fled and firefighters extinguished the fire, officials said. No one was injured.
At a Sunday evening news conference in front of the badly damaged south wing of the governor’s residence, Pennsylvania State Police Col. Christopher Paris identified the man in custody as Balmer.
A judge has revealed the terrifying epidemic of unexpected pizza deliveries to US judges’ homes across the country amid their war with Trump as he battles his executive orders through court.
US District Court Judge Esther Salas labeled the deliveries an ‘intimidation tactic’ on Friday after a slew of judges faced Trump’s wrath after they blocked his executive orders.
‘I found out about it on Tuesday night, and we had already known about hundreds of pizzas that had been going out to judges all over this country,’ she told MSNBC.
Salas said the deliveries were meant as a threat.
‘The point is, someone wants that judge, someone wants those judges to know, “I know where you live,”‘ she said.
Not only were the pizzas being delivered to the judges’ homes, but also to the homes of their children, Salas added.
‘So now, “We know where you live and we know where your children live,”‘ she continued.
Is this the country you thought you lived in? Is this what you learned that our country was about as you sat through history and civics courses and read books in your English classes that represented various periods our country experienced. It is no wonder that one of the past Presidents that Trump most admires is Andrew Jackson, the author of the Trail of Tears and Indian Removal Act. He also defied the Supreme Court. Many indigenous natives died on the Trail to the Indian Territories in Oklahoma, which was later turned over to white immigrants for settling. Jackson also owned slaves.
Now, for our latest Constitutional Battles. This is from Johnathan V. Last writing at The Bulwark. He actually offers up 3 examples that will rule the week’s news.
If you were Chris Krebs, would you flee the country?
Your answer before last week would probably be “no.” Your answer after last week is probably “maybe.” Your answer after the coming week might be “absolutely.”
Let’s break it down to understand what just happened and what is coming in the next 48 hours. Because the next two days may determine whether or not America crosses more critical red lines into open authoritarianism.
Last Wednesday, the president signed a memorandum instructing both the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security to investigate Chris Krebs. You’ll remember that during Trump’s first term, Krebs headed the new Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency—and was fired two weeks after the 2020 election for publicly rebutting Trump’s lies about the integrity of the election. Trump’s memorandum flips truth upside down, accusing Krebs of having “falsely and baselessly denied that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen,” and it not only orders an investigation into Krebs himself but it also commands that the entire cybersecurity company he now works for be stripped of any security clearances it has.
On Thursday, in an unsigned, unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ordered that the Trump administration must “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the immigrant whom Homeland Security mistakenly (by its own admission) arrested and extradited to a gulag in El Salvador.
On Saturday the government responded to the SCOTUS decision by stonewalling the district court judge and then claiming that it could not “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia because he is now detained by a sovereign nation on which the United States could not possibly exert any influence.
Also on Saturday, Nayib Bukele, the authoritarian ruler of that sovereign nation, arrived in the United States.
On Sunday, the government stonewalled the district court judge yet again—filing an update saying it had “no updates”—and in a separate filing challenged the Supreme Court’s order to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return, and added that the details of the deal with Bukele to imprison deportees from the United States are “classified.”
On Monday, Bukele will meet with his patron, Donald Trump.
So, why can’t Bukele just bring Abrego Garcia with him on whatever plane and hand him over to Donald Trump? Is this another dark shadow performance of how Trump bullies everyone, including innocent people and other dictators? This is the historical perspective by Heather Cox Richardson.
In her opinion, filed April 6, Judge Xinis wrote that “[a]lthough the legal basis for the mass removal of hundreds of individuals to El Salvador remains disturbingly unclear, Abrego Garcia’s case is categorically different—there were no legal grounds whatsoever for his arrest, detention, or removal.…. [H]is detention appears wholly lawless.” It is “a clear constitutional violation.” And yet administration officials “cling to the stunning proposition that they can forcibly remove any person—migrant and U.S. citizen alike—to prisons outside the United States, and then baldly assert they have no way to effectuate return because they are no longer the ‘custodian,’ and the Court thus lacks jurisdiction.”
The administration had already appealed her April 4 order to the Supreme Court, which handed down a 9–0 decision on Thursday, April 10, requiring the Trump administration “to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador,” but asking the district court to clarify what it meant by “effectuate,” that release, noting that it must give “due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”
The Supreme Court also ordered that “the Government should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps.” Judge Xinis ordered the government to file an update by 9:30 a.m. on April 11 explaining where Abrego Garcia is, what the government is doing to get him back, and what more it will do. She planned an in-person hearing at 1:00 p.m.
But the administration evidently does not intend to comply. On April 11, the lawyer representing the government, Drew Ensign, said he did not have information about where Abrego Garcia is and ignored her order to provide information about what the government was doing to bring him back. Saturday, it said Abrego Garcia is “alive and secure” in CECOT. Today, it said it had no new information about him, but said that Abrego Garcia is no longer eligible for the immigration judge’s order not to send him to El Salvador “because of his membership in MS-13 which is now a designated foreign terrorist organization.”
There is still no evidence that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13.
Today, administration lawyers used the Supreme Court’s warning that the court must give “due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs” to lay out a chilling argument. They ignored the Supreme Court’s agreement that the government must get Abrego Garcia out of El Salvador, as well as the court’s requirement that the administration explain what it’s doing to make that happen.
Instead, the lawyers argued that because Abrego Garcia is now outside the country, any attempt to get him back would intrude on the president’s power to conduct foreign affairs. Similarly, they argue that the president cannot be ordered to do anything but remove domestic obstacles from Abrego Garcia’s return. Because Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, is currently in the U.S. for a visit with Trump, they suggest they will not share any more updates about Abrego Garcia and the court should not ask for them because it would intrude on “sensitive” foreign policy issues.
Let’s be very clear about exactly what’s happening here: President Donald J. Trump is claiming the power to ignore the due process of the law guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, declare someone is a criminal, kidnap them, send them to prison in a third country, and then claim that there is no way to get that person back.
All people in the United States are entitled to due process, but Trump and his officers have tried to convince Americans that noncitizens are not. They have also pushed the idea that those they are offshoring are criminals, but a Bloomberg investigation showed that of the 238 men sent to CECOT in the first group, only five of them had been charged with or convicted of felony assault or gun violations. Three had been charged with misdemeanors like petty theft. Two were charged with human smuggling. In any case, in the U.S., criminals are entitled to due process.
There is also this about my hope he comes on the plane, however. This is from the Washington Post. It’s hot off the web. “Salvadoran president says he won’t return wrongly deported man to U.S.”
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said Monday that he did not plan to return to Kilmar Abrego García to the United States. “How can I return him to the United States?” Bukele asked Monday during a meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. “I smuggle him into the United States? Of course I’m not going to do it.” The comments come a day after the Justice Department told a federal judge that it isn’t required to bring home a Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador. Since Bukele struck a deal with Trump’s administration, he has accepted more than 200 Venezuelans deported from the U.S. in recent months and housed them in his country’s draconian mega-prison. Later Monday, Trump is scheduled to welcome the Ohio State football team to the White House to celebrate its 2025 national championship.
Come on, Ohio State! Remember Kent State? Be Better! Another not-a-shocker from the Washington Post’s John Hudson. “No evidence linking Tufts student to antisemitism or terrorism, State Dept. office found. An internal memo, prepared days before Rumeysa Ozturk was detained by ICE agents, raises doubts about the Trump administration’s claims that she supports Hamas.”
Days before masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk to deport her, the State Department determined that the Trump administration had not produced any evidence showing that she engaged in antisemitic activities or made public statements supporting a terrorist organization, as the government has alleged.
The finding,contained in a March memo that was described to The Washington Post, said Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not have sufficient grounds for revoking Ozturk’s visa under an authority empowering the top U.S. diplomat to safeguard the foreign policy interests of the United States.
The memo,written by an office within the State Department, raises doubts about the public accusations made by the Trump administration as it has sought to justify Ozturk’s deportation. The Department of Homeland Security has said Ozturk engaged in activities “in support of Hamas,” a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, but neither that agency nor U.S. prosecutors have provided evidence for that claim.
What has Trump done to Little Marco?
Steve Vladick, a law professor at George Town, has this to say about the idea of using the US Military for obvious Domestic Policies. I have this nightmare that all these professors I want to meet will wind up bunking with me and BB in some form of Trump Gulag. Maybe we get a Guantanamo visit. “Five Questions About Domestic Use of the Military. The federal government’s authorities to use the military for domestic law enforcement are old, broad, and vague. They may soon become far more relevant than they’ve been for quite a long time.” Trump was stopped by his Generals last time. Now it’s between us, the Constitution, and a drunk rapist who used to shill conspiracy theories on the weekend at Fox News.
But one of the problems when so much is going on is that we may neglect other stories that are also important, but not as immediate. And so I wanted to use today’s “Long Read” to tackle a topic that may soon become a very big deal—the President’s power to use the military for domestic civilian law enforcement. One of President Trump’s January 20 executive orders directed various officials to report back about the propriety of using the Insurrection Act (about which more in a moment) at and along the border. That report is due April 20, i.e., this coming Sunday. And last Friday, President Trump signed an ominous memorandum authorizing the military to take control of a wide swath of federal land along the U.S.-Mexico border (the “Roosevelt Reservation”)—a move that seems designed to allow the military to arrest non-citizens trying to enter the country unlawfully on the ground that they’re trespassing on military property.
For obvious reasons, the President’s power to use the military for domestic law enforcement is a big deal—and has, historically, been a matter of substantial controversy. Indeed, there are lots of good reasons why we have come to reflexively oppose domestic use of the military except when it is absolutely necessary. But there is meaningful daylight between using the military for domestic law enforcement and using the military in ways that are anti-democratic. And as little as this administration can or should be trusted to hew to the historical line, it’s worth at least articulating what that line is in advance of what may well be the first domestic deployment of regular armed forces since 1992.
…
About a hundred 21 years ago, I wrote my student note in law school on the “Militia Acts”—a series of statutes enacted by early Congresses, and then amended in 1861 and 1871, to delegate to the President domestic emergency authority that the Constitution had given to Congress—“[t]o provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.” These statutes, which have unhelpfully become known as the “Insurrection Act” (unhelpful because the authority isn’t limited to suppressing insurrections), are one of the President’s most important—and most controversial—domestic emergency powers. And it’s possible President Trump may soon seek to use the Insurrection Act in some immigration-related capacity; indeed, as noted above, one of the January 20 executive orders calls for a report on potential invocations of the statute by next Sunday.
Although the details of any invocation will matter, I thought it would be useful to tee up even a potential invocation of the Insurrection Act with a brief explainer of where the statutes come from, what they do and don’t authorize, and why, historically, domestic use of the military has been so controversial. To make a long story short, any invocation of the Insurrection Act under our current circumstances would be a dangerous move from the Trump administration, but contra some hot takes on the internet, it would not be tantamount to a declaration of martial law.
Read more about this act and also the deportation to El Salvador atrocity at the link. Here’s another Hot Take from Wiredwhich is moving up in the Journalism World with its reporting. “HHS Systems Are in Danger of Collapsing, Workers Say. The purging of IT and cybersecurity staff at the Department of Health and Human Services could threaten the systems used by the agency’s staff and the safety of critical health data.”
Much of the IT and cybersecurity infrastructure underpinning the US health system is in danger of a possible collapse following a purge of IT staff and leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), four current and former agency workers tell WIRED. This could put vast troves of public health data, including the sensitive health records of hundreds of millions of Americans, clinical trial data, and more, at risk of exposure.
As a result of a reduction in force, or RIF, in the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO), the sources say, staff who oversee and renew contracts for critical enterprise services are no longer there. The same staff oversaw hundreds of contractors, some of whom play a crucial role in keeping systems and data safe from cyberattacks. And a void of leadership means that efforts to draw attention to what the sources believe to be a looming catastrophe have allegedly been ignored.
Thousands of researchers, scientists, and doctors lost their jobs earlier this month at HHS agencies critical to ensuring America’s health, such as the Centers for Disease Control and and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Hundreds of administrative staff were also subjected to a reduction in force. Many of these staffers were responsible for helping ensure that the mass of highly personal and sensitive information these agencies collect is kept secure.
Employees who were subject to the RIF, as well as some who remain at the agency, tell WIRED that without intervention, they believe the systems they managed could go dark, potentially putting the entire health care system at risk.
“Pretty soon, within the next couple of weeks, everything regarding IT and cyber at the department will start to operationally reach a point of no return,” one source, who was part of a team that managed these systems at HHS for a decade before being part of the RIF, alleges to WIRED.
Like many across the agency, administrative staff found out they were part of the RIF on April 1 in an email sent at 5 am Eastern, though a number of employees only realized they had been let go when their badges no longer worked when trying to access HHS buildings.
Five former prosecutors who worked on criminal cases stemming from the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol are urging the disciplinary office governing lawyers in Washington, DC, to open an investigation into President Donald Trump’s controversial pick to be the district’s top prosecutor.
The filing is the latest turn in the nomination of Ed Martin to be US attorney for DC and comes as Senate Democrats have pledged to delay any confirmation vote.
Martin, who has been serving in the post on an interim basis since Trump returned to the White House, is a divisive pick for the job. After stepping into the position, he used his new powers to dismiss January 6 Capitol riot cases, fire prosecutors who were involved in the investigations, go after his and Trump’s political adversaries, and launch internal reviews in an attempt to find misconduct within the office.
In a letter filed Sunday with the DC Bar’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel, the former prosecutors outlined those controversial actions, as well as others, saying that Martin violated several professional rules.
“He has used his brief time in office to demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of a federal prosecutor, announcing investigations against his political opponents, aiding defendants he previously represented, and communicating improperly with those he did not,” the group wrote.
“These actions are not worthy of the Department of Justice, undermine the Constitutional guarantee of equal protection of law, and violate Mr. Martin’s professional obligations,” the letter reads.
Martin’s office declined CNN’s request for comment on the letter.
Okay, so I’m bumping 3800 words now. I also want to return to my hot Macha Tea and floofy cuddly furbabies. I think we all need a group hug now.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
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I’m a little late for today. I had an appointment to get to this morning. Now, I must catch a breath and a bit of meditative calming before looking at each headline. We’re seeing more evidence of ICE resembling Hitler’s Einsatzgruppen, which was a specially heinous unit within the SS. I’m waiting for some version of the Night of Long Knives now that #FARTUS has some infamous cabinet appointments. We’re seeing increased purges and attacks on Judges, Former Federal employees, Former Federal Prosecutors, and all kinds of people who would deter his fits of paranoia and dreams of revenge. His deportation pogroms continue to rise to the level of crimes against humanity. Each day brings new horrors.
This headline from 7News/NYTV in New York has shaken me. “Saturday statement: school principal wants students back.” We are a country that handcuffs third graders at school and detains them with adults.
SACKETS HARBOR, New York (WWNY) – The school principal where 3 students attended before being taken away by ICE agents wants the children back and will attend Saturday’s rally in the village.
The statement to 7NEWS comes just hours before the event being organized by community members and local democrats.
The rally came about after federal agents went to North Harbor Dairy Farm on County Route 75 in the town of Hounsfield a week ago looking for a criminal suspect. While the feds found that man, they also took 7 other people, who they called illegal aliens, to be processed at the border station on Wellesley Island.
Part of that group is a mother and 3 children.
Jaime Cook, in a statement, says, “Our 3 students who were taken by ICE were doing everything right. They had declared themselves to immigration judges, attended court on their assigned dates, and were following the legal process. They are not criminals.”
Cook continues, “We are in shock, and it is that shared shock that has unified our community in the call for our students’ release.”
Cook says the school is in direct communication with the students and says, “Let me be clear: they are not being medically evaluated. They are not being questioned as potential victims. Calling a detention center by another name does not change what it is.”
Cook is referring to a description and interview 7NEWS did with U.S. Border Czar Tom Homan earlier this week. Our 25-minute interview can be seen here: TOM HOMAN – WWNY
There was a rally later. This is the report from Newsweek. “Third Grade Student Arrested by ICE Sparks Mass Protest.” They actually put underage children in a car with the arrested suspect who is charged the possession of child pornography. They all should be charged with child endangerment.
ICE agents conducted a raid at North Harbor Dairy in Sackets Harbor, targeting an individual charged with possession of child pornography. In addition to apprehending the primary suspect, seven others were detained at a local dairy farm last month, including a mother and her three children enrolled in the local public school.
The demonstration, organized by the Jefferson County Democratic Committee, began with a rally that included a written statement from New York Attorney General Letitia James, who said she was “heartbroken and angry” over the incident.
…
Jefferson County Democratic Committee chair Corey Decillis told NBC News: “We’ve seen it occur right in the last 60 days across the country, but when it happens in your backyard, I think that’s what garners people’s attention.”
Tom Homan said in an interview Thursday on WWNY-TV: “It wasn’t a raid. It was a search warrant execution at a house where a family was found in the country illegally. ICE is doing everything by the book. Once the investigation gets to the point where we don’t have an interest in this family, then a decision will be made on release.”
Principal Jaime Cook said in a statement: “They lived in a house on the same road as a home ICE had a warrant for. The fact that ICE went door to door is unfathomable. The fact that our students were handcuffed and put into the same van as the alleged criminal from down the street is unconscionable. When I think of my third grader’s experience, my stomach twists and it is hard to breathe.”
President Donald Trump is making plans for a military parade in Washington, D.C., on his 79th birthday, according to a report.
A source in the capital told the Washington City Paperthat Trump has earmarked June 14—which is the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army—for the event.
The display of military might will march around four miles from the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, to the White House, the D.C. source told the publication.
The report said that local officials are only now hearing of plans for the parade and that no formal request has been made for their assistance.
Arlington County Board Chair Takis Karantonis told the City Paper that the White House had given the county a “heads up” about the parade on Friday, with only 10 weeks until the event.
He said “the parade’s scope ” was ” unclear” and that no firm details were disclosed.
Other unnamed officials told the paper that a big military parade will require a huge amount of coordination between the six branches of the armed forces, along with several federal agencies and regional officials.
This headline from the Washington Post just about had me gagging on my morning cuppa. This follows up on the fuck up that was supposed to be a grand production of sending a lot of hapless men to an infamous El Salvadorian Prison. “Trump asks Supreme Court to block order returning deportee from El Salvador. Judge Paula Xinis gave the Trump administration until midnight Monday to return Kilmar Abrego García, who was deported despite a court order forbidding it.” How far will those Republican Supremes shove themselves up that FARTUS ass this time around? This story was reported by Justin Jouvenal and Maria Sacchetti.
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to block a lower court’s order requiring officials to bring back a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador.
The emergency motion came after U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis gave the administration until 11:59 p.m. Monday to return Kilmar Abrego García, a Salvadoran immigrant who is married to a U.S. citizen.
Abrego García has been detained at a mega-prison in El Salvador since U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported him last month, despite a court order forbidding it because he had fled death threats from gang members in his home country.
Trump officials have argued that they have no power to return Abrego García because he is now in the custody of El Salvador.
Xinis forcefully pushed back on that assertion Sunday, writing that the federal government certainly does have the authority to return Abrego García and that while Trump officials have also alleged he is a gang member, they have offered “no evidence” to prove that.
The judge noted that the Trump administration is paying the Salvadoran government $6 million to detain Abrego García and other deportees. An agreement between the two countries states that U.S. officials will decide what happens to the detainees in the future.
I suggest we offer them Trump in exchange for holding a new election. Then, there’s just the rest of us. I was excited that my social security check hit my account this morning. That was good news. But this still tells us we shouldn’t take too much for granted. This is again from the Washington Post, which I try not to use gratuitously. “Social Security website keeps crashing, as DOGE demands cuts to IT staff. The worsening problems come as Elon Musk’s DOGE team pushes for more cuts at the agency, including in the department that oversees the website.” I still wonder which of our press and prestigious law firms are supporting the constitutional version of their businesses.
Retirees and disabled people are facing chronic website outages and other access problems as they attempt to log in to their online Social Security accounts, even as they are being directed to do more of their business with theagency online.
The website has crashed repeatedly in recent weeks, with outages lasting anywhere from 20 minutes to almost a day, according to six current and former officials with knowledge of the issues. Even when the site is back online, many customers have not been able to sign in to their accounts — or have logged in only to find information missing. For others, access to the system has been slow, requiring repeated tries to get in.
The problems come as the Trump administration’s cost-cutting team, led by Elon Musk, has imposed a downsizing that’s led to7,000 job cuts and is preparing to push out thousands more employees at an agency that serves 73 million Americans. The new demands from Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service include a 50 percent cut to the technology divisionresponsible for the website and other electronic access.
Many of the network outages appear to be caused by an expanded fraud check system imposed by the DOGE team, current and former officials said. The technology staff did not test the new software against a high volume of users to see if the servers could handle the rush, these officials said.
The technology issues have been particularly alarming for some of the most vulnerable Social Security customers. For almost two days last week, for example,many of the 7.4 million adults and children receiving monthly benefits under the anti-poverty program known as Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, confronted a jarring message that claimed they were “currently not receiving payments,” agency officials acknowledged in an internal email to staff.
Why do Republicans love fertilized eggs and hate children?
Okay, so this one kills me because I know too much about the subject area. But it’s another Black Monday on Wall Street. This is from Bloomberg News’ Timothy O’Brien. “Trump Created an Economic Sinkhole. He Doesn’t Care. There is no strategy behind the tariff chaos — it’s all about personal grievances and settling scores.”
Trump had routinely called for steep tariffs on America’s biggest trading partners during his presidential campaign, and analysts who took his threats seriously produced research indicating that his policies would reduce economic growth and personal incomes. But a tariff regime built on a war-footing seemed so extreme to some observers and Trump allies that they looked for other explanations. His chaotic policy approach — he initially would set a deadline for new tariffs and then suddenly back off — meant that he wasn’t really committed to his own agenda. Tariff Ping-Pong was just a Great Dealmaker ploy meant to get other nations to capitulate, his enablers argued.
Well, times have changed. Trump announced a massive new round of global tariffs last week and over the next two days $5.4 trillion of value was shredded as equity markets cratered. Some Wall Streeters see Trump’s tariffs plans and the future more clearly now.
“This is unambiguously stupid,” Jay Hatfield, the CEO of Infrastructure Capital Advisors, told Bloomberg News over the weekend. He labeled the tariffs poster Trump trotted out in his Rose Garden press conference last week as the “chart of death” and invoked disaster. “It’s a five-alarm fire,” he said. “There’s no argument for creating a trade war whatsoever.”
Anyone hoping that Trump will soon see the light and reverse course might want to reconsider the force of nature that they’re dealing with. He has been insulated from the consequences of his own actions his entire life and appears to care very little about the economic sinkhole he just created. He shared a video of himself golfing over the weekend and one White House insider told the Washington Post that the president, only about three months into his second term, carries the burdens of a notoriously burdensome job rather lightly.
“He’s at the peak of just not giving a f— anymore,” the official noted. “Bad news stories? Doesn’t give a f—. He’s going to do what he’s going to do. He’s going to do what he promised to do on the campaign trail.”
The Post also reported that it was Trump himself who selected the tragicomic “formula” that his administration used to calculate tariff penalties. That’s the formula that somehow positioned Cambodia and Thailand at the top of the heap of countries posing major economic threats to the US and also caused tariffs to be imposed on uninhabited islands near Antarctica. The Post said Trump didn’t finalize his plans until about three hours before he shared them with the world last week.
Trump has likened his much-maligned tariffs salvo as necessary medicine the world needs to swallow.
“THE OPERATION IS OVER! THE PATIENT LIVED, AND IS HEALING,” he allowed in a post to his social media platform. “THE PROGNOSIS IS THAT THE PATIENT WILL BE FAR STRONGER, BIGGER, BETTER, AND MORE RESILIENT THAN EVER BEFORE. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
Given Trump’s worldview, pondering “strategy” is a fool’s errand and asking “What is the administration trying to accomplish?” is the wrong question. There isn’t a strategy. Trump operates in strategy-free zones. But he has overt and longstanding goals.
His primary aim is to address his grievances with the world, not to craft substantive or even rational public policy. An inordinate number of his goals involve self-aggrandizement or self-preservation. Many others are performative and unhinged. A meaningful number of his ambitions involve seeking revenge on people, institutions, and organizations that he believes have taken advantage of him, the country or his supporters. He has a long history of labeling America’s trading partners, some of whom are the US’s closest allies, as pickpockets and he’s now in a position to do something about it.
Well, at least I know where that stupid formula came from. But, since this is hitting everyone’s pocketbook, will it finally wake some of the little MAGA guys up? Noah Berlatsky, writing at Public Notice, says yes. “Trump’s tariffs insanity begins to fracture the MAGA cult. Republican resistance is helpful. But more of it is needed.”
Trump’s decision to single-handedly hobble the world economy and immiserate tens of millions of Americans has presented his fellow Republicans with a stark choice. Do they continue to kiss his orange butt and slavishly nod along to every nonsensical whim of their idiot Golfer King as he leads them into a recession and almost certain electoral apocalypse? Or do they defy him, splitting the party and opening themselves to a primary challenge … and possible electoral apocalypse?
The good news is that some GOP senators and members of Congress are actually disturbed enough by the prospect of their voters starving in the street that they have taken steps to push back against this grotesquely self-destructive trade policy. The not so good news is that the pushback is hesitant and half-hearted — and the majority of the party remains ready to torture and impoverish their constituents for the greater glory of Trump.
The tariffs, and the quick slide into economic calamity, have sparked real resistance. They’ve also demonstrated just how craven and/or hypnotized the GOP has become, and the extent to which most Republicans would do anything — literally anything — rather than point out that the emperor is wearing a grotesque meat suit made of the skin of his constituents.
As they are wont to do, many Republicans have gotten on their bellies to grovel and spout the usual Trump-flattering balderdash, either because they are desperate to propitiate their master or because they are genuinely fools.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has been leading the charge of the sycophants. In interviews he’s blathered that Trump’s trade policy would force other countries to “stop picking on us” and bleated, “Let Donald Trump run the global economy. He knows what he’s doing.”
The only explanation I can come up with for a leader that obliterates not only his best allies but also his own country is that #FARTUS is patently insane. He’s gone nuclear on nearly everyone, including penguins.
So I am very tired, and I still have to teach tonight. I’ll let you share any of the things you find interesting. At least with this post, we have identified several Secretaries who must be charged with crimes against humanity, all with FARTUS.
#FARTUS has deliberately tanked the equity markets and the dollar with record-level tariffs set with an equation that made no sense and included tariffs placed on islands with no human inhabitants. This is further evidence of the incompetency and utter ignorance of the Trump Administration. This is not economic policy. This is some personal brain fart of a very disturbed man.
None of this makes sense from an Economic Policy Basis. We now have retaliatory tariffs, which signal a massive trade war has begun. Like the last Trump Tariff-induced trade war, US farmers will be on the front line. Manufacturers will also be severely hurt. Of course, the ultimate loser is the average American. I still see stagflation in our near term future. High inflation plus very lousy unemployment. The Fed’s tools are not as useful with this kind of economy. Stimulate the economy to end unemployment, and you get higher prices. Stop the high inflation, and you worsen the recession. What really kills me is that this destructive policy was fully preventable. But then, elections brought us this mess, and elections must pull us out of it.
les pingouins résistent
You may read all my sources if you are so inclined. I know they’re not the most exciting reads. Here’s a trio of dismal headlines from The Guardian. Note: FTSE is the UK equivalent of the Dow Jones.
Global trade war escalates as Beijing hits back against Donald Trump with new tariffs on US goods
I’m going to quote from the Analysis. This is the full Headline. “Trump’s ‘idiotic’ and flawed tariff calculations stun economists Richard Partington, The Guardian’s Senior economics correspondent, wrote this analysis. “‘Willing sycophants’ came up with simplistic formula that has thrown global economy into disarray.”
Waving a big chart as a prop in the White House Rose Garden, Donald Trump suggested his new tariff plan was simple: “Reciprocal – that means they do it to us, and we do it to them. Very simple. Can’t get simpler than that.”
Perhaps a bit too simple. The method used to calculate the most important numbers in international trade, politics and economics has left some of the world’s leading experts shocked.
For each country, the White House looked up its trade in goods deficit for 2024, then divided that by the total value of imports. Trump, to be “kind”, said he would, however, offer a discount, so halved that figure. The calculation was even distilled into a formula.
For countries without a large deficit, the White House applied a 10% baseline, ensuring tariffs would be applied regardless. This was the case for the UK, which the US Census Bureau reckons had an almost-$12bn surplus in 2024.
“[It is] quite an extraordinary calculation after months of work behind the scenes,” said Jim Reid, the global head of macro research at Deutsche Bank. “[It] didn’t add much confidence on there being an in-depth strategic implementation plan.”
For weeks, Washington had been talking about an in-depth policy exercise to establish figures based on a combination of tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade, as it perceived them to be; including alleged “currency manipulation”, local laws, regulations, and taxes such as VAT.
In itself that approach raised eyebrows with experts who said VAT was highly unusual to include, because it is a sales tax paid on domestically produced goods and foreign imports alike.
However, the White House appears to have confirmed it took a simplistic approach to making this judgment:
Reciprocal tariffs are calculated as the tariff rate necessary to balance bilateral trade deficits between the US and each of our trading partners. This calculation assumes that persistent trade deficits are due to a combination of tariff and non-tariff factors that prevent trade from balancing.
There are multiple problems with this – not least that it vastly oversimplifies the drivers of trade deficits. Trade deficits occur when a country buys more than it sells abroad. The US has run a deficit persistently since the 1970s. Typically trade deficits balance over time, as they create downward pressure on a country’s currency (as the result of demand for foreign currency, to buy imported goods, outstrips demand for domestic currency).
Another part of the reason is US goods are too expensive for consumers in developing economies to buy – helping to explain some of the particularly large trade deficits – and new tariffs – for poorer countries.
Adam Tooze, an economic historian at Columbia University in the US, said there were “grotesque” policies for south-east Asian countries, including a 49% Cambodian tariff, and rates of 48% for Laos and 46% for Vietnam.
“This is not because they discriminate viciously against American exports, but because they are relatively poor. The US does not make a lot of goods that are relevant for them to import,” he said.
Vietnam in particular has become part of the global supply chain for major manufacturers, including US tech and clothing companies such as Nike, Intel, and Apple.
Lesotho, the tiny southern African country, one of the poorest in the world, is another odd example, facing a tariff of 50%. Among its main exports to the US are diamonds and clothes – demonstrating how links around the world for rare minerals are important for the US economy, but also how the US sought to boost development in African nations in recent years – with policies to encourage manufacturing by companies including Levi Strauss and Wrangler.
There are three major trade models in economic theory. Basically, the first was mercantilism, which is the colonialist type of economy that caused the Boston Tea Party. The second is absolute advantage, and the third is comparative advantage. We generally have an absolute advantage in nearly all the markets because we’re a huge economy with many natural resources. There are still things we cannot provide, though. The example I always use is coffee.
This is where comparative advantage comes in. The countries in South America and Africa can sell us their coffee in return for goods and services we easily produce. We both benefit from the trade. It’s the basis of free trade. From this model, we’ve had many improvements as we’ve gone beyond the logic of the models to empirical testing. The last big change to this model was by Paul Krugman, but Stiglitz and Samuelson were prior researchers into trade between countries.
You may check out this short explanation from Google AI. Don’t worry, we haven’t got a semester to go through two classes in Internationl Economics and Finance. It took me about 10 years to achieve with my doctorate and thesis and publications on the topic.. I know there are very few of us who find it fascinating, but I really felt like I needed to give you a bit of information so you can figure out what’s going on. So, wherever those Tariff formulations came from, it appears to have come from a crazy theory that I would never have heard of if my Libertarian friends hadn’t noticed their right-wing buddies going off the deep end. You may have noticed that Senator Rand Paul was among the most outspoken Senators against the tariffs. Libertarians generally tend to be big on letting the factors of production and products go where they are most efficient. That basically means open borders for capital and labor plus free trade.
So, that’s when I discovered this unhinged hypothesis. I had never heard of Critical Trade Theory before. I had heard of Critical Theory which basically has Marxist roots. When I originally entered University, I studied various forms of political and economic systems in a comparative class. Those are no longer taught in Economics because we recognize now that we have mixed markets models. The old command economies of the Soviet Union no longer exist. Central planning has gone completely the way of the Dodo, but there are economies that have more public provision of goods than others. Maoist and Stalinist planning are no longer carried out. That’s why it’s important to bring poor countries like Vietnam into a modern trade paradigm so they may develop quickly.
From what I can read of it, it actually appears to have a similar Marxist underpinning. One of the clues is that they use the word “fair” instead of “efficient.” The guy quoted over there is a bit off the rails, but at least I found out what the deal was. You may want to check out the ITIF site for better ways of identifying and correcting trade distortions rather than just using some made-up formula and hitting islands with subsistence farmers, fishermen, and penguins.
The White House has given the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, along with the departments of Treasury and Commerce, until April 1 to identify countries the administration should confront with corrective trade actions.
It would be a mistake for the Trump administration to impose across-the-board tariffs on all nations, even if some run trade surpluses with America.
The administration should focus on the nations that employ the most extensive arrays of unfair trade practices, including behind-the-border restrictions that specifically target U.S. companies or exports.
Based on an index composed of 11 indicators covering America’s trade balances and key barriers U.S. industries face in markets around world, the administration should focus the greatest attention on China, India, and the European Union.
While it is highly unlikely that tariffs or other pressure can convince China to reduce its trade distortions, such measures might work vis-à-vis U.S. relations with other nations.
I did go to Influence Watchto check out their biases and funding sources. The methodology is better, using specific parameters to identify where possible trade distortions can happen. Plus, they don’t target Volcano Islands, seals, and penguins. So, I’m going back to the fallout now, which is not likely going to put you to sleep.
After President Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on imports from all over the globe, prompting the markets to implode, he took a question about it on Thursday. He ranted and rambled delusionally about how everything is just great. He bizarrely likened the country to a patient that had just undergone advanced surgery without grasping why this metaphor is the opposite of reassuring. And he spouted more nonsense about money pouring into our country. On top of all that, his imposition of the tariffs is likely an enormous and grotesque abuse of power. And because of this, the prospects for stopping them are not wholly nonexistent. We talked to congressional scholar Norm Ornstein, who walks us through how Congress can act, what Democrats can do to pressure Republicans to join in doing just that, and why Trump’s engaged in “horrifying folly.” Listen to this episode here. A transcript is here.
And here’s a snip from the transcript.
Ornstein: They’re inexplicably high and a disaster. I agree. And obviously not only do the markets agree, but so do many people in the business world. I saw that the CEO of Restoration Hardware, as he watched his stock plummet today, responded with a simple two-word phrase, “Oh, shit.”And my guess is that that’s been replicated, probably in even more colorful language, by business leaders, economists, and investors all across America and probably around the world.
Sargent: “Oh, shit” seems like a pretty good reaction, or at least an apt one. So Trump was asked about all this on Thursday. The reporter pointed out that the markets are way down, that they’ve had their worst day in years because of his tariffs. Then the reporter asked Trump, “How’s it going?” Here’s Trump’s answer.
Donald Trump (audio voiceover): I think it’s going very well. It was an operation, like when a patient gets operated on. And it’s a big thing. I said this would exactly be the way it is. We have $6 trillion or $7 trillion coming into our country, and we’ve never seen anything like it. The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom.
What part of his dementia-riddled mind invents these things? Are there really people out there that consider him even lucid? Governors of many states–but especially farm states–are seeing if they can work around our incredibly insane President. This is from Axios. “Gavin Newsom angles for California exemptions to Trump trade war.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday he is pursuing agreements with other countries to ensure California is exempted from retaliatory tariffs stemming from President Trump’s escalating trade war.
Driving the news: “Donald Trump’s tariffs do not represent all Americans,” Newsom said in a video message Friday.
California, whom he touted as “the tentpole of the U.S. economy,” aims to maintain “stable trading relationships around the globe,” he added.
“I’ve directed my administration to look at new opportunities to expand trade and to remind our trading partners around the globe that California remains a stable partner.”
California is “ready to talk” with global trading partners, Newsom wrote on X.
Referring to the state’s economic might, Newsom added his state is “not scared to use our market power to fight back against the largest tax hike of our lifetime.”
State of play: The Golden State’s economy and its workers are heavily reliant on trade with Mexico, Canada and China, and retaliatory tariffs stand to have an “outsize” impact on California businesses, farmers and ranchers, according to a press release from Newsom’s office.
The tariffs could also impede the state’s efforts to rebuild from this year’s devastating Los Angeles wildfires, by hurting access to construction materials like timber, steel, aluminum, and the components of drywall, the press release noted.
The other side: “Gavin Newsom should focus on out-of-control homelessness, crime, regulations, and unaffordability in California instead of trying his hand at international dealmaking,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai told Axios Friday.
Zoom in: Newsom is particularly concerned with retaliatory measures from other countries could impact California’s agricultural sector, especially its almond industry, according to Fox News, which first reported the news of theagreements.
California is the world’s fifth-largest economy and its agricultural sector is a key economic driver for the state.
China’s Finance Ministry on Friday said it will impose a 34% tariff on all goods imported from the U.S. starting on April 10, following duties imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration earlier this week.
“China urges the United States to immediately cancel its unilateral tariff measures and resolve trade differences through consultation in an equal, respectful and mutually beneficial manner,” the ministry said, according to a Google translation.
It further criticized Washington’s decision to impose 34% of additional reciprocal levies on China — bringing total U.S. tariffs against the country to 54% — as “inconsistent with international trade rules” and “seriously” undermining Chinese interests, as well as endangering “global economic development and the stability of the production and supply chain,” according to a Google-translated report from Chinese state news outlet Xinhua.
Separately, China also added 11 U.S. firms to the “unreliable entities list” that the Beijing administration says have violated market rules or contractual commitments. China’s Ministry of Commerce also added 16 U.S. entities to its export control list and said it would implement export controls on seven types of rare earth-related items, including samarium, gadolinium and terbium.
Beijing has also filed a formal complaint against the U.S. with the World Trade Organization, the Ministry of Commerce confirmed in a Google-translated release, saying Washington’s tariffs policy “seriously violates WTO rules, seriously damages the legitimate rights and interests of WTO members, and seriously undermines the rules-based multilateral trading system and the international economic and trade order.”
circa 1908 and a reminder from my Grandparents’ peers
Okay, enough of this. It makes me crazy. Not like the following doesn’t, but at least I know nothing about the field. This is from the Washington Post. We have all these #FARTUS appointments breaking security rules and they do this to who? “National Security Agency chief ousted after far-right activist urged his removal. Gen. Timothy Haugh was fired Thursday as director of the powerful wiretapping and cyberespionage service, according to U.S. officials.”
The director of the National Security Agency, the powerful U.S. wiretapping and cyberespionage service, was fired Thursday, according to one former and two current U.S. officials.
Gen. Timothy Haugh, who also heads U.S. Cyber Command, was let go along with his civilian deputy at the NSA, Wendy Noble, according to the officials. Like others in this report, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel moves.
Far-right activist Laura Loomer advocated for the firings during a meeting with President Donald Trump on Wednesday, she confirmed to The Washington Post on Thursday evening.In the meeting,
Loomer, a fervent Trump supporter, pressed for the dismissals of a number of officials besides Haugh and Noble — in particular,National Security Council staff whose views she saw as disloyal to the president.
At least five key National Security Council aides were fired Thursday.
“NSA Director Tim Haugh and his deputy Wendy Noble have been disloyal to President Trump,” Loomer said in a post on X early Friday. “That is why they have been fired.”
Loomer told The Post that she urged Trump to dismiss Haugh because he was “handpicked” by Gen. Mark A. Milley, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2023 when Haugh was nominated to lead Cyber Command and the NSA.
We are so fucked. Have you managed to crawl out of bed yet?
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
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Trump’s 100th day in office officially happens this month on the 30th. So far, not good. 
And yet, he persists. There’s a long list that follows. Seeing it all in print is disturbing. Zachary Basu has another take posted on 
There’s much to look forward to as we lurch towards the midterms. Little Marco Rubio is sure fucking up the state department. All you need to do is see a cabinet meeting. His face is telling. He looks like the only one who knows he’s going to hell. This is from NPR as reported by Graham Smith. 
There is some good news on the front of Trump’s kidnapping and disappearing people to El Salvador. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) managed to get a meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, as was his goal. Historian Heather Cox Richardson, writing at her 
Trump threats to Fed Chair Powell scare the shit out of me. I am totally with Senator Elizabeth Warren on this statement. 
So, let’s not leave out his latest embarrassing moment. 
That’s not seriously as bad, though, as the ongoing constitutional crisis of Trump’s DOJ. He’s breaking our Constitutional Democracy by refusing court orders to bring Garcia home, putting Judge Paula Xinis in a difficult place. Will she put them in contempt of court or rely on SCOTUS to deal with them. This is from 
Liz Dye of
There’s more at the link. 
It is obvious they are kidnapping and disappearing people like we’re a mafia state. And they’re holding their ground because 
I have one thing I need to rant about. I don’t know if I should call it the Space Bunny Adventure or Space Barbies. The women on the Blue Origin Mission deserve all the backlash it was given. This did not empower women. We have actual women astronauts. We do not need to see 11 women in slinky ‘flight suits’ performing cute space cone exit ploys. Amanda Hunt, who writes for the 
One more from 
Pitting Americans against each other should not be a political strategy. It gets people killed. No one knows this better than Judge Esther Salas, whose son was murdered and husband badly injured by a crazed Trumper. This is from the Daily Mail. 
Is this the country you thought you lived in? Is this what you learned that our country was about as you sat through history and civics courses and read books in your English classes that represented various periods our country experienced. It is no wonder that one of the past Presidents that Trump most admires is 
So, why can’t Bukele just bring Abrego Garcia with him on whatever plane and hand him over to Donald Trump? Is this another dark shadow performance of how Trump bullies everyone, including innocent people and other dictators? 
There is also this about my hope he comes on the plane, however. This is from the
Come on, Ohio State! Remember Kent State? Be Better! Another not-a-shocker from 
Steve Vladick, a law professor at George Town, h
Read more about this act and also the deportation to El Salvador atrocity at the link. Here’s another Hot Take from 
Had enough of Trump’s appointments yet? Try this one. This is from CNN. 
Good Afternoon, Sky Dancers
This country is our backyard. This should not stand. And next up on the WTF is THIS SHIT list? WTF country do we live in? This is from the Daily Beast. 
This headline from the 
I suggest we offer them Trump in exchange for holding a new election. Then, there’s just the rest of us. I was excited that my social security check hit my account this morning. That was good news. But this still tells us we shouldn’t take too much for granted. This is again from the 
Why do Republicans love fertilized eggs and hate children?
Well, at least I know where that stupid formula came from. But, since this is hitting everyone’s pocketbook, will it finally wake some of the little MAGA guys up? Noah Berlatsky, writing at 
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
There are three major trade models in economic theory. Basically, the first was mercantilism, which is the colonialist type of economy that caused the Boston Tea Party. The second is absolute advantage, and the third is comparative advantage. We generally have an absolute advantage in nearly all the markets because we’re a huge economy with many natural resources. There are still things we cannot provide, though. The example I always use is coffee. 
So, that’s when I discovered this unhinged hypothesis. I had never heard of Critical Trade Theory before. I had heard of
I did go to
And here’s a snip from the transcript.
This is from CNBC, as reported by Ruxandra Iordache. 
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