Week of May 4th, 2025

(the above cartoon is from The New Yorker)

Here we go...

1. Donald Trump says foreign films pose a national security threat. (The Guardian, The Economist, etc.). Yep, a “national security threat” that somehow a 100% tariff would….. fix.

2. In the ongoing (real) national security calamity that is Pete Hegseth, WSJ broke the story that Hegseth had a DOZEN chats on Signal that he himself set up to discuss sensitive military info.

3. US Appeals court rejects Trump bid to revoke 400,000 migrants' LEGAL status. (Reuters, Newsweek, MSN). A Biden-era program allowed Ukrainian, Afghan, Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan migrants to enter the country fleeing war, starvation, and violence. If Trump thinks a bazillion-gillian folks are here illegally, why is he not focusing on them – you know, like he said over and over that he would do? No really, why? Noem (Homeland Security) still insists the Administration is targeting "the worst of the worst" criminals. (Yahoo News) As a reminder, 60 Minutes reported that 75% of those sent to that El Salvadoran prison had no criminal record. (And for those saying - ya but they are here illegally - being here illegally is a misdemeanor. Decent people don’t send folks to a gulag for a misdemeanor).

4. In our latest edition of “Why is JD Vance such an asshole?”, JD Vance “jokes” about deporting visitors who come to America to watch the FIFA World Cup. (Yahoo, Newsweek) Unsurprisingly, and given the cruel and wildly reckless way the Administration is handling deportations, a lot of people really didn’t think that was funny. The Cup is supposed to bring in at least $172 billion in GDP to the US (Yahoo News). And yet, due to the Trump Administration’s idea of hospitality, people around the world are being warned against travelling to the US for the World Cup.

5. US embassy in Stockholm, Sweden demands that Stockholm City cancel all DEI policies. (The Guardian, PBS, Newsweek) Stockholm Building Commissioner has told the embassy to f&%k off (well, not exactly like that. They said the order was bazaar and absurd and no, they weren’t doing it). It’s impossible not to notice that most of the Trump Administration’s worst policies involve race.

6. For reasons I do not totally understand, India and Pakistan appear to be flirting with all-out war. Trump, the “stable genius”, minimized it all by saying that India and Pakistan have been fighting "for centuries." Pakistan was formed in 1947. (The Atlantic)

7. Trump nominated Dr. Casey Means for Surgeon General. She’s not certified in any specialty and Oregon Medical Board currently lists her license as inactive. (ABC News) She’s a follower of Robert (brainworm) F. Kennedy and a social media influencer so Trump thinks she’s awesome! Like Kennedy she has a lot of kooky opinions. Look, I agree with her on one thing - that ultra processed foods should not be in school lunches. But I can’t help but think about how Michelle Obama was called a tyrant for suggesting kids eat more vegetables. But is she qualified to be Surgeon General of the United States? Good Lord, no.

8. Trump’s acting FEMA chief was fired a day after breaking from the administration about whether FEMA should be eliminated. (NYT, CNN, CBS News)

9. The Trump Administration is not going to track and report the cost of major weather disasters anymore. (CNN, The Guardian) Well, the storms are more and more frequent, intense, and costly. That might, you know, support evidence of climate change and we can’t have that. Just like COVID – if you don’t report it, it is not happening – “if we stop testing, we’ll have fewer cases” - Trump. Why worry!

10. Trump names yet another nutty TV personality, Jeanine Pirro, to an important role - interim US attorney for DC. (NYT, ABC News, WaPo)

11. It wasn’t bad enough that Trump pardoned ALL of the J6 criminals, including those convicted of seditious conspiracy and those who beat police officers half to death – no - now the Administration has settled the “wrongful death” lawsuit with the family of Ashli Babbit. (CBS News, The AP) Babbit, who joined other insurrectionists to attack the Capitol in order to stop the peaceful transfer of power, was warned multiple times by police to stop advancing during the mele, but instead, tried climbing through a shattered window– within the Capitol - toward police. She was shot by police for not complying.

12. House Republicans approved a provision in their budget to sell off thousands of acres of public lands in order to boost fossil fuel production (NPR, OPB, Yahoo).

13. Trump Admin has erased more than 3000 pages from the Centers for Disease Control, and 1000 pages from DOJ, erasing AIDS prevention data and weather records – anything related to climate change. (Griffin Daily News, Yahoo News) Archivists are scrambling trying to save the data. Why. Remove. Data.??? Information is power and this type of government censorship is what authoritarian regimes do to keep the public powerless.

14. Amid dropping vaccination rates, 25 children in New York State died from influenza during the 2024-25 flu season — more than in any recent flu season. Children in Texas are dying of measles. (NYT) Are we great now?

15. Stephen Miller, confirmed publicly Friday that the administration was “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus, adding that it “depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not.” (CNN, Wapo, NYT) So “whether the courts do the right thing”? Meaning – whether the courts do what we want. Miller has an obsession with immigration. He seems diabolically gleeful about the cruelty. It's hard to understand how a Jew (and a descendant of Holocaust survivors) and a Nazi could exist within one person but he would be the poster boy. Regarding Trump's immigration policies - he has been described as “the brains behind the worst of it.” by Naureen Shah, a lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Washington, D.C.

FromTheLawDictionary.org “Habeas corpus is one of the most important checks on state power that citizens of many democracies currently have. Without habeas corpus, the government would essentially have the right to imprison citizens without charging them or bringing them to trial”

16. A federal judge ordered the release of a Turkish university student who had been detained for six weeks after writing an article that was critical of Israel. (BBC)

17. A judge halts (at least temporarily) drastic cuts to agencies and mass firings being done under Trump executive order.(CNN) The order specifically mentions the departments of Energy, Commerce, Health and Human Services, Interior, Labor, State, Treasury, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, DOGE, OMB, OPM, the National Labor Relations Board, National Science Foundation, Small Business Administration, Social Security Administration and AmeriCorps.

18. Kristie Noem says the Administration is following the 9-0 SCOTUS order to return a wrongfully departed man - while also saying they are not going to return the man. (Yahoo News) No, I’m not kidding.

19. TODAY MARKS DAY 31 OF THE ADMINISTRATION DEFYING A 9-0 SUPREME COURT ORDER TO RETURN GARCIA. As I’ve said before (and is painfully obvious), if the Administration can openly defy a Supreme Court order with no consequences, our constitution is useless, and our democracy is done. It’s just that simple.