I don't know why they think saying the Pentagon is against us is a winning argument: https://www.mediaite.com/news/they-are-lying-karoline-leavitt-says-the-entire-pentagon-is-working-against-pete-hegseth-in-shocking-fox-news-hit/
Meanwhile, Noem had her purse, passport, security badge, and 3K stolen on Sunday night: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/us/politics/kristi-noem-purse-stolen.html
This is probably shrill and considered gauche by the very serious people but I expect at some point RFK Jr is going to actually substantially mess with the childhood vaccine schedule as well as do other things that impede public health especially with regard to MRNA vaccines. He has already pulled us from working on the 2025 flu vaccines which will make them less effective worldwide.
I have a thought game about what is going to be the breaking straw for blue state politicians to get them to actually start wondering if ignoring the Supremacy Clause is their best option. RFK Jr messing with the Childhood Vaccine Schedule might get them to set up the Blue State compact FDA
The Supreme Court has stopped deportations to El Salvador for now in a very out of character ruling issued at 1:00 a.m. EST
This is the 250th Anniversary of the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere and the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Once again, the Old North Church hangs its lanterns: https://www.instagram.com/p/DInYck_OPPD/
1. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither...
2. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
3. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
4. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
5. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
6. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
7. For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
Chris is right. This is more than an immigration issue. It is a basic due process issue. Also the polling indicates that Trump's oppressive heavy-handedness on this has reversed polling from being in his favor.
The polling on immigration was always more nuanced than believed
1. There is no evidence besides the Trump administration and Bukele and online right-wingers saying so that he is a gang member. And pardon me but the "evidence" used so far to transport people to Bukele's gulag is risible and worthy of nothing but heaps of contempt. It is going to take a lot to get me to give credence to Trump, Musk, Bondi, Miller, and their enablers in the lying and propaganda-filled right-wing press.
2. There is a specific legal order that he cannot be sent back to El Salvador.
3. He married an American woman, has three special needs kids, and raises them well on a small amount as far as I can tell.
4. There is such a thing as compassion and mercy in justice.
"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. If the government is confident of its position, it should be assured that position will prevail in proceedings to
terminate the withholding of removal order. See 8 C.F.R. § 208.24(f) (requiring that the government prove “by a preponderance of evidence” that the alien is no longer entitled to a withholding of removal). Moreover, the government has conceded that Abrego Garcia was wrongly or “mistakenly” deported. Why then should it not make what was wrong, right?"
Now is not the time for being in a mushy middle, it only aides and abets Trump and his goons.
The Fourth Circuit disagrees: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/04/17/us/trump-news-updates
A federal appeals court has shot down an effort by the Justice Department to stop Judge Paula Xinis from conducting an investigation into whether the Trump administration violated court orders to “facilitate” the release of a Maryland man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, from a prison in El Salvador.
In a strongly worded order, a three-judge panel said the government’s request to bar Judge Xinis from opening her inquiry was “both extraordinary and premature.”
“It is difficult in some cases to get to the very heart of the matter,” one of the judges, J. Harvie Wilkinson III, 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.”
I agree. Trump's basic MO is one of a third rate mafia boss shaking down for extortion money and his primary fanbase seem to be the kind of people that do not understand Scarface was not an instruction manual
The law firm agreements are exactly what you expect: "One reason we know they’re not legally enforceable agreements is that what Trump is threatening is clearly illegal. Indeed, one can go quite a bit further than this, as TPM Reader AK suggests, and say that if the agreements are agreements then the agreements themselves look like bribery. Trump agrees to forego threatened illegal actions in exchange for $100 million or $125 million of services. That amounts to services of great value in exchange for government inaction and, critically, this part of the agreement is with Trump personally, not the U.S. government. It involves causes Trump supports, and this part of the agreement applies “during the Trump Administration and beyond.” So if you follow the purported logic, a 90-year-old ex-President Trump will still have pro bono work credits to assign in retirement.
But it’s also all just smoke and BS.
Almost every part of the agreements are worded in ways that make the purported commitments basically meaninglessness. So for instance, each agreement has the firm agreeing not to do “illegal DEI hiring.” But that’s easy for them to agree to, as far as they’re concerned, because they don’t think whatever DEI or affirmative action hiring they do is illegal. So whatever “illegal DEI hiring” might be, they don’t do it. End of story. And the same applies to pretty much all the other fairness-related commitments.
Even the pro bono work, which now includes “other free legal services,” is a bit less than it appears. I noted above that this part of the agreement appears to be with Trump himself apart from the presidency and continues past the duration of his administration. But the same language means that the notional commitment to either $100 million or $125 million in pro bono work is over an indefinite and actually unlimited period of time. So by the terms of the agreement, Kirkland & Ellis or Cadwalader can run down that commitment over a century. Or two. Any amount of time is okay. Maybe Trump will still be assigning free legal work when he’s 200. I think Ronny Jackson said he’d probably live that long.
My point here isn’t to say these agreements are fine. It’s that they amount to agreements to lie to each other. And everyone else. Except to the firm’s own staff. They get the real story. Or what the management committee believes is the real story. Or anyone else who says the firm has betrayed their principles. They get told the firm didn’t really agree to anything."
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/21/2025”
Except when it keeps getting in the public record
"
I don't know why they think saying the Pentagon is against us is a winning argument: https://www.mediaite.com/news/they-are-lying-karoline-leavitt-says-the-entire-pentagon-is-working-against-pete-hegseth-in-shocking-fox-news-hit/
"
Meanwhile, Noem had her purse, passport, security badge, and 3K stolen on Sunday night: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/us/politics/kristi-noem-purse-stolen.html
"
This is probably shrill and considered gauche by the very serious people but I expect at some point RFK Jr is going to actually substantially mess with the childhood vaccine schedule as well as do other things that impede public health especially with regard to MRNA vaccines. He has already pulled us from working on the 2025 flu vaccines which will make them less effective worldwide.
I have a thought game about what is going to be the breaking straw for blue state politicians to get them to actually start wondering if ignoring the Supremacy Clause is their best option. RFK Jr messing with the Childhood Vaccine Schedule might get them to set up the Blue State compact FDA
"
Hegseth might be on the way out: https://www.npr.org/2025/04/21/nx-s1-5371312/trump-white-house-pete-hegseth-defense-department
"
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/20/us/politics/trump-state-department-overhaul.html
Trump's plan to drastically overhaul the State Department which includes:
1. Severely limiting our presence in Canada because Canada are being meanies;
2. Ending our presence in Sub-Saharan Africa because of Apartheid Boy;
3. Ending the Foreign Service exam and creating a Trumpist personality cult entrance system
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/14/2025”
The Supreme Court has stopped deportations to El Salvador for now in a very out of character ruling issued at 1:00 a.m. EST
This is the 250th Anniversary of the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere and the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Once again, the Old North Church hangs its lanterns: https://www.instagram.com/p/DInYck_OPPD/
"
Do you know who you are dealing with in terms of monomania?
"
No, they didn't.
If anything, they took one issue where Trump had a slight advantage and lit on fire like they always do.
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-approval-rating-immigration-polls-2060973
"
1. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither...
2. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
3. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
4. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
5. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
6. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
7. For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
"
The sweeping humanism of the Trump admin: https://www.thewrap.com/white-house-trolls-kilmar-abrego-garcia-deportation-el-salvador/
"
And I should give this addle-paddled conspiracy sh+t deference and respect because?
We are not exactly talking about a crew known for their veracity and trustworthiness.
"
Chris is right. This is more than an immigration issue. It is a basic due process issue. Also the polling indicates that Trump's oppressive heavy-handedness on this has reversed polling from being in his favor.
The polling on immigration was always more nuanced than believed
"
1. There is no evidence besides the Trump administration and Bukele and online right-wingers saying so that he is a gang member. And pardon me but the "evidence" used so far to transport people to Bukele's gulag is risible and worthy of nothing but heaps of contempt. It is going to take a lot to get me to give credence to Trump, Musk, Bondi, Miller, and their enablers in the lying and propaganda-filled right-wing press.
2. There is a specific legal order that he cannot be sent back to El Salvador.
3. He married an American woman, has three special needs kids, and raises them well on a small amount as far as I can tell.
4. There is such a thing as compassion and mercy in justice.
"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. If the government is confident of its position, it should be assured that position will prevail in proceedings to
terminate the withholding of removal order. See 8 C.F.R. § 208.24(f) (requiring that the government prove “by a preponderance of evidence” that the alien is no longer entitled to a withholding of removal). Moreover, the government has conceded that Abrego Garcia was wrongly or “mistakenly” deported. Why then should it not make what was wrong, right?"
Now is not the time for being in a mushy middle, it only aides and abets Trump and his goons.
"
He doesn't belong in El Salvador
"
1. Van Hollen managed to meet with Garcia in a hotel. Bukele and/ Trump are frightened.
2. David Brooks used his column to call for an uprising/Aux Armes, Citoyens
"
In response to the 4th Circuit, Pam Bondi promoted Garcia to being an MS13 gang leader. They have unlimited supplies of chutzpah and mendacity.
"
Notice how it only becomes a white wing cause celeb when a white person is allegedly attacked by a non-white person or undocumented immigrant.
"
The Fourth Circuit disagrees: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/04/17/us/trump-news-updates
A federal appeals court has shot down an effort by the Justice Department to stop Judge Paula Xinis from conducting an investigation into whether the Trump administration violated court orders to “facilitate” the release of a Maryland man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, from a prison in El Salvador.
In a strongly worded order, a three-judge panel said the government’s request to bar Judge Xinis from opening her inquiry was “both extraordinary and premature.”
“It is difficult in some cases to get to the very heart of the matter,” one of the judges, J. Harvie Wilkinson III, 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.”
"
I agree. Trump's basic MO is one of a third rate mafia boss shaking down for extortion money and his primary fanbase seem to be the kind of people that do not understand Scarface was not an instruction manual
"
Oh yes, the notoriously straight-laced New York Post.
"
Bend the knee and find your face covered in sh+t
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/us/politics/law-firms-deals-trump.html
"
The law firm agreements are exactly what you expect: "One reason we know they’re not legally enforceable agreements is that what Trump is threatening is clearly illegal. Indeed, one can go quite a bit further than this, as TPM Reader AK suggests, and say that if the agreements are agreements then the agreements themselves look like bribery. Trump agrees to forego threatened illegal actions in exchange for $100 million or $125 million of services. That amounts to services of great value in exchange for government inaction and, critically, this part of the agreement is with Trump personally, not the U.S. government. It involves causes Trump supports, and this part of the agreement applies “during the Trump Administration and beyond.” So if you follow the purported logic, a 90-year-old ex-President Trump will still have pro bono work credits to assign in retirement.
But it’s also all just smoke and BS.
Almost every part of the agreements are worded in ways that make the purported commitments basically meaninglessness. So for instance, each agreement has the firm agreeing not to do “illegal DEI hiring.” But that’s easy for them to agree to, as far as they’re concerned, because they don’t think whatever DEI or affirmative action hiring they do is illegal. So whatever “illegal DEI hiring” might be, they don’t do it. End of story. And the same applies to pretty much all the other fairness-related commitments.
Even the pro bono work, which now includes “other free legal services,” is a bit less than it appears. I noted above that this part of the agreement appears to be with Trump himself apart from the presidency and continues past the duration of his administration. But the same language means that the notional commitment to either $100 million or $125 million in pro bono work is over an indefinite and actually unlimited period of time. So by the terms of the agreement, Kirkland & Ellis or Cadwalader can run down that commitment over a century. Or two. Any amount of time is okay. Maybe Trump will still be assigning free legal work when he’s 200. I think Ronny Jackson said he’d probably live that long.
My point here isn’t to say these agreements are fine. It’s that they amount to agreements to lie to each other. And everyone else. Except to the firm’s own staff. They get the real story. Or what the management committee believes is the real story. Or anyone else who says the firm has betrayed their principles. They get told the firm didn’t really agree to anything."
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/whats-really-in-the-white-house-law-firm-agreements
"
Columbia University seems to be developing a spine again: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/15/nyregion/columbia-trump-president-response.html
"
Trump is "completely underwater" & has broken his own record with the lowest net approval at this point among independents (-22 pts).
His economic net approval with indies at this pt is so low (-29 pts) it has "no historical analogy".
Most indies (66%) oppose the new tariffs-Harry Enten on CNN
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.