2025-04-18 20:00:00
Since each day feels like a month and each month feels like a decade, there’s no compelling reason to wait until we officially reach day one hundred of the new administration to assess their first 100 days in office. As Dana Milbank explains in WaPo (Gift Article): Trump is wrapping up 100 days of historic failure. He hasn’t gotten many bills signed. He hasn’t ended the wars he promised to end. He plunged the markets and created instability in the global economy. He’s offended our closest allies and dramatically decreased international tourism to the US. He’s been great for China and provided solace to Russia. He’s been losing court cases. His approval rating is dropping. But, in fairness, this is a presidency that seems determined to be judged not only by traditional measures of political success, but also by the amount of damage it can do. So it’s worth noting that, as Milbank points out, “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. He has upended global structures that kept the peace for generations. He has aligned America with the world’s despots. He has slashed the federal workforce and impaired the government’s ability to collect taxes, administer Social Security and fund medical research, among many other things. He has abused his power in startling ways, using the government for personal vengeance and retribution against perceived opponents, harassing law firms, universities and the free press with an authoritarian flourish. He has shattered the guardrails that limit executive power, ignoring laws, eliminating inspectors general and other mechanisms for accountability and oversight. He has displayed gratuitous cruelty in the treatment of migrants and government workers alike. He has used the government to undertake breathtaking schemes of self-enrichment. And he has left a large number of his countrymen angry and frightened.”
+ The anger and fear, as it turns out, is somewhat bipartisan. Earlier this week, GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski answered a question from a constituent in way that makes it clear just how much has changed in the not yet one hundred days. “We are all afraid…I am oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice because retaliation is real.” And here’s the famously reserved, conservative commentator David Brooks in the NYT (Gift Article) calling for an uprising. What’s Happening Is Not Normal. America Needs an Uprising That Is Not Normal. “It’s time for Americans in universities, law, business, nonprofits and the scientific community, and civil servants and beyond to form one coordinated mass movement. Trump is about power. The only way he’s going to be stopped is if he’s confronted by some movement that possesses rival power.”
In it’s latest salvo against Harvard, the Trump administration has demanded its records related to foreign donations. Earlier, “federal officials punished the university by freezing $2.2 billion in federal grants and are threatening to revoke the institution’s tax-exempt status.” Why are the tactics that the administration is deploying against Harvard so important? Because they offer a blueprint (accusations of a foreign interference, cutting off funds, removing tax exempt statuses) of a strategy that many educational institutions, non-profits, and NGOs wil be facing in the near future. Politico: “President Donald Trump on Thursday ramped up his threats to scrutinize the tax-exempt status of groups and colleges he disagrees with, calling out a prominent organization that’s fighting some of his actions in court.” These can all be viewed as preemptive strikes against the groups fighting back in courts, defending the constitution, and leading the resistance.
“High-school seniors may be leaving home for college in a few months, but some parents aren’t ready to let them party on their own in countries where the drinking age is 18. They also don’t want to be a buzzkill by saying no to senior spring break. The compromise: Mom and dad are packing their sunblock and bathing suits and coming along.” WSJ (Gift Article): Have Fun on Spring Break, Kids. I’ll Be Right Next Door. (My kids are embarrassed when I come along on family trips…)
What to Watch: When a financial titan (Jon Hamm) suddenly finds himself divorced and jobless, he starts robbing his wealthy neighbors to stay afloat. Check out Your Friends & Neighbors on Apple TV.
+ What to Binge: I’ve been working my way through the six seasons of Line of Duty, the British police drama focused on an anti-corruption unit. (For some reason, I find myself interested in anticorruption fights these days.) I’m watching on Prime, but it’s available a lot of places.
+ What to Read: “The funny thing was that this is what he got grief for — trying to avoid wafting carcinogens. Of all his idiosyncrasies, and there were lots, this was among the most rational. A small sampling of the others: He brought his own sheets and pillowcase for overnights at the firehouse. He wiped down everything with his own stash of bleach wipes — including the inside of the fire engine. In his back pocket, he had a second remote control for the fire station’s TV, so he wouldn’t need to touch the shared one.” NYT (Gift Article): The Firefighter With O.C.D. and the Vaccine He Believed Would Kill Him.
Courts and Last Resorts: “It is, as we have noted, all too possible to see in this case an incipient crisis, but it may present an opportunity as well. We yet cling to the hope that it is not naïve to believe our good brethren in the Executive Branch perceive the rule of law as vital to the American ethos. This case presents their unique chance to vindicate that value and to summon the best that is within us while there is still time.” Read Conservative Judge’s Full Opinion Rebuking Trump Administration Over Abrego Garcia Case. And another judge blocks administration from deporting noncitizens to 3rd countries without due process. Meanwhile, a US citizen was held for pickup by ICE even after proving he was born in the country. And, Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen met with Kilmar Ábrego García in El Salvador.
+ Shart of the Deal: Rubio and Trump give slightly different updates on the peace deal they’re supposedly brokering between Russia in Ukraine. Neither update suggested much progress.
+ Dollar Signs: “Currencies rise and fall all the time because of inflation fears, central bank moves and other factors. But economists worry that the recent drop in the dollar is so dramatic that it reflects something more ominous as President Donald Trump tries to reshape global trade: a loss of confidence in the US.” (There is some good economic news to report. Since it’s Good Friday, the markets are closed.) Meanwhile, Trump is replacing the acting IRS commissioner, part of a dispute between Treasury and Elon Musk.
+ More Strikes on Yemen: “US air strikes on a key oil terminal on Yemen’s Red Sea coast controlled by the Houthi movement have killed at least 74 people and wounded 171 others, the Houthi-run health ministry says.”
+ A Night Unlike Other Nights: “Early Sunday morning, a man named Cody Balmer allegedly attempted to burn down the official residence of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, just hours after Shapiro and his family had finished their Passover seder.” Yair Rosenberg in The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Lies About Josh Shapiro Have Consequences. “The Genocide Josh movement singled out a Jewish candidate for censure over Israel while tendentiously misrepresenting his stance on the issues in order to discredit him. This was not an expression of traditional sharp-elbowed American political discourse, but rather an echo of ancient antipathies.”
+ You’re On: “The company plans to incorporate a partner company’s AI tech into its TV software in order to interpret psychological factors impacting a viewer, such as personal interests, personality traits, and lifestyle choices.” LG TVs’ integrated ads get more personal with tech that analyzes viewer emotions. (So now we’ll just see ads customized for people who are furious at their TV company…)
+ Burning Associated with Sex: “It was not immediately clear how or why Torres set fire to the sex toys, which included a ‘rubber vagina,’ according to a police source.” Flaming sex toys sparked blaze damaging three Staten Island homes.
Back in the day, I partipated in the annual parent sack race at my kids’ elementary school — until Jonny Moseley became a parent at the school and decided to join in. I’m used to coming in at the back of the pack in races, but there was no way I was gonna sack up against the world’s greatest mogul skier. I was reminded of this experience when I saw this headline: Olympic legend leaves parents in her dust at school sports day.
+ Stem cells to treat Parkinson’s? 2 small studies hint at success.
+ New Mexico made childcare free. It lifted 120,000 people above the poverty line.
+ Missing toddler who walked 7 miles alone through Arizona wilderness led to safety by rancher’s dog.
+ ‘Book brigade’: US town forms human chain to move 9,100 books one-by-one. (I once did something similar, but I used my Kindle.)
+ WaPo: Huge rabbit rescued from kill farm is now therapy bunny, drives mini truck. (He also regularly attends SF Giants games which—at least so far this season—have also been feel good stories.)
+ In preparation for 4-20 (which originated at my high high school), here’s a look at how the number and the event went global. ‘This is freaking crazy!’: The rise and fall of a San Francisco party that changed the world.
+ ChatGPT spends ‘tens of millions of dollars’ on people saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’ If only we were as loving to each other as we are to machines. (Says the guy who once wrote an article titled: I Kissed an iPad and I Liked It…)
2025-04-17 20:00:00
Should I stay or should I go? It’s a question made famous by The Clash, but it’s also a question that is a key driver of politics across the globe. While the Clash’s question was focused on interpersonal relationships, the question facing millions of humans at any given moment is focused on broader issues such as climate, war, health, wealth, and political unrest. “The human species is on the move. Last year there were more people living outside of their birth countries than at any other time in modern history, according to the United Nations. It’s a sea change that will reshape politics, economics and civil societies for generations. It’s no coincidence that 2024 was also a year of defeat for incumbent political parties, as leader after leader was voted out of power in democracies at the center of the human storm.” The NYT (Gift Article) with a very interesting look at the data that underpins so many national and international stories. To Understand Global Migration, You Have to See It First. “Rapid shifts in migration are nearly always driven by an enormous shock, such as war, political upheaval, natural disaster or economic collapse. There is reason to believe such shocks will become more frequent as the world faces more geopolitical instability and ever-increasing climate risk.”
+ While the world’s populations are on the move, in America, things are historically stagnant. I touched on this back in February: The U-Haul of Mirrors. “Don’t move! Stay right where you are! That’s easy advice for me to take. I move so rarely from the couch indentation where I write NextDraft that my kids occasionally place a finger under my nose to see if I’m still breathing. But these days, more and more Americans are not moving; at least not from their communities. A country that was once defined by how often people moved has changed dramatically in recent decades—and the trend has left other core characteristics like entrepreneurship, innovation, growth, and social equality stuck in the mud.”
In Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda famously sang, “I’m not throwin’ away my shot.” Well, he may be rethinking that commitment. Injectable drugs like Mounjaro and Ozempic have already dramatically changed the shape of things in the health industry, the food economy, and about half the bodies in Hollywood. But because these drugs require a weekly shot, there’s always been somewhat of a cap on their usage. That cap could be blown off soon. Daily Pill May Work as Well as Ozempic for Weight Loss and Blood Sugar. “In a way, the very existence of orforglipron is a triumph of modern chemistry. The injectable GLP-1 drugs are peptides — small fragments of proteins. (GLP stands for glucagon-like peptide.) Peptides are digested by the stomach … The solution was to find a small molecule — thousandths of the size of a peptide — that sinks into a tiny pocket in the protein that is the target for GLP-1s. When it sinks into the pocket, the protein changes shape just as it does when a GLP-1 binds to the whole protein. Finding that small molecule, Dr. Skovronsky said, was ‘the holy grail.'”
In the Killers song, the band asks, “Are we human, or are we dancer?” The question is pretty timely given that it was inspired by “Hunter S. Thompson, who stated that America was ‘raising a generation of dancers, afraid to take one step out of line.'” But these days, there’s often an even more pressing question. Are you human or are you a bot? And the answer to that question can be connected back to getting people to keep in line. Wired: This ‘College Protester’ Isn’t Real. It’s an AI-Powered Undercover Bot for Cops. “American police departments near the United States-Mexico border are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for an unproven and secretive technology that uses AI-generated online personas designed to interact with and collect intelligence on ‘college protesters,’ ‘radicalized’ political activists, and suspected drug and human traffickers.”
+ Meanwhile, “community colleges have been dealing with an unprecedented phenomenon: fake students bent on stealing financial aid funds.” As ‘Bot’ Students Continue to Flood In, Community Colleges Struggle to Respond. “The bots’ goal is to bilk state and federal financial aid money by enrolling in classes, and remaining enrolled in them, long enough for aid disbursements to go out.”
David Bowie suggested, “There’s a starman waiting in the sky. He’d like to come and meet us. But he thinks he’d blow our minds.” I’m guessing that the news cycle of 2025 has dampened the starman’s enthusiasm for a visit. (Seriously, is there any chance our minds would be nearly as blown as his?) It turns out we may find him before he visits us. “An ocean world that’s teeming with microbes — and who knows what other kinds of life — is currently the best explanation for some chemical signatures that the James Webb Space Telescope has spotted in the atmosphere of a distant planet.” NPR: Are there signs of life on alien planet K2-18b, or is it just a lot of hot air? “‘I think this is one of those situations where extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence,’ says Laura Kreidberg, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany who was not part of the research team. ‘I’m not sure we’re at the extraordinary evidence level yet.'” (I don’t know about you, but I’ve heard enough to send Gayle King and Katy Perry to take a look.)
I’m the Taxman: As part of the war on Harvard and higher ed, Trump may be preparing to use the IRS as a weapon. IRS Making Plans To Revoke Harvard’s Tax-Exempt Status. This would be outlandish, but sadly, it could be part of a broader effort to remove non-profit status from orgs that oppose the administration’s messaging or goals. From PBS (one of the orgs already in the financial crosshairs): What to know about the House bill that could punish nonprofits over alleged ‘terrorist’ ties.
+ Fed Ex? “In a social media post, Trump complained that Powell is ‘always TOO LATE AND WRONG,’ and he insisted the Fed chairman’s ‘termination cannot come fast enough!'” Fed Chair Jerome Powell broke the cardinal rule. He told the truth. WSJ (Gift Article): Trump Has for Months Privately Discussed Firing Fed Chair Powell.
+ King of the Hill: Weaponizing the IRS. Further destabilizing the international economy and risking America’s role in the world. Welcome to the new normal. “As the second Trump administration careens from one failure to another, as unhappiness with the president rises, as events and reality refuse to bend to his will, he will become darker and crueler and more unstable. His advisers, all of whom are afraid to stand up to him, will enable him. And the MAGA movement, more cult-like than ever, more walled off from reality than ever, will stay with him until the end.” Peter Wehner in The Atlantic (Gift Article): America’s Mad King.
+ Birthrights and Wrongs: Supreme Court will review Trump’s attempt to ban birthright citizenship. The case may be more about executive power than the core issue. “Based on the ask from Trump’s lawyers, the argument is expected to focus on the scope of the nationwide orders blocking Trump’s policy and whether individual states have legal grounds or standing to bring the challenge — rather than a direct review of the constitutionality of the administration’s proposal.”
+ FSU Shooting: At least six people were wounded in a mass shooting today at Florida State University in Tallahassee. The shooter has been aprehended. Here’s the latest from CNN.
+ It Ads Up: “The judge ruled that Google monopolized the market for two of three sets of products. It was the second time in a year that a U.S. court found it had acted illegally to remain dominant.” Google Is a Monopolist in Online Advertising Tech, Judge Says.
+ Bathroom Breakage: “To minimize disruptions for visitors, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has ordered park service staff to keep open as many amenities as possible, in some cases requiring scientists, park rangers and supervisors to help clean toilets.” Budget cuts and bathrooms: An ongoing struggle at US national parks.
+ Tunnel Vision: “The extravagant car cave has become the talk of the town, reigniting debate over whether a municipality famous for its black-tie opera festival has one rule for the rich and another for the rest.” WSJ (Gift Article): Porsche Heir’s Plan to Build a Private Tunnel Has His Alpine Neighbors Fuming.
NYT (Gift Article): Hundreds of Giant Rodents ‘Conquered’ This Town. Now What? “Luciano Sampietro lifted a three-foot aluminum pipe to his lips and blew, sending a blow dart laced with sedatives, muscle relaxers and painkillers toward the world’s largest rodent.” (I wonder if he’s got a few extra darts to blow my way…)
+ A Sloth got pioneering surgery to cure toothache. (Still waiting for a comment from the sloth. He’s been slow to respond.)
2025-04-16 20:00:00
What can one say. Sire’s gonna sire. That’s about the least weird and disturbing takeaway from the WSJ’s (Gift Article) about Elon Musk’s reproductive efforts to create an army of mini-mes. This guy has spread more seed than Monsanto. If we want to solve America’s budgetary challenges, we should apply congestion pricing to Elon’s urethra. The Tactics Elon Musk Uses to Manage His ‘Legion’ of Babies—and Their Mothers. “Musk refers to his offspring as a ‘legion,’ a reference to the ancient military units that could contain thousands of soldiers and were key to extending the reach of the Roman Empire. During St. Clair’s pregnancy, Musk suggested that they bring in other women to have even more of their children faster. ‘To reach legion-level before the apocalypse,’ he said to St. Clair in a text message viewed by The Wall Street Journal, ‘we will need to use surrogates.’ He has recruited potential mothers on his social-media platform X, according to some of the people.” I guess running multiple mega-companies and a country is decent training for eventually trying to parent a few dozen teens. Look, the fact that someone’s bizarre ideology drives him to give his prostate more work than the speed bag at the Catskill Boxing Club during Mike Tyson’s prime is arguably none of our business. But it’s newsworthy in this case because were talking about one of the most powerful people in the world who, in between fathering his own kids, is taking a chainsaw to programs that benefit yours.
“Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia ruled Wednesday that there is ‘probable cause’ to find the Trump administration in criminal contempt of court for violating his order last month to immediately pause any deportations under the Alien Enemies Act … The Court does not reach such conclusion lightly or hastily; indeed, it has given Defendants ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions. None of their responses has been satisfactory.”
+ This is not the only court order being ignored by the Trump administration. NBC: What happens if a president and the federal government fail to follow a judge’s orders? (Until about a week ago, that was a rhetorical question.)
+ Boasberg’s ruling is a reminder that there’s a lot more than one person being unlawfully held in El Salvador. Every day, we get another story like this: Trump Admin Deports Teen With No Criminal Record to El Salvador Prison.
+ Sen. Chris Van Hollen travels to El Salvador to advocate for Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s release.
+ AP on how things have changed along the Darien Gap. A jungle route once carried hundreds of thousands of migrants. Now the local economy has crashed.
Look, it’s no big deal if you’re a major law firm looking to avoid a direct conflict with the administration. You just agree to do some uncontroversial pro-bono work you’d probably do anyway and let the president announce a win on social media. But that’s not how these negotiations play out. NYT (Gift Article): Law Firms Made Deals With Trump. Now He Wants More From Them. “Over the last week, he has suggested that the firms will be drafted into helping him negotiate trade deals. He has mused about having them help with his goal of reviving the coal industry. And he has hinted that he sees the promises of nearly $1 billion in pro bono legal services that he has extracted from the elite law firms … as a legal war chest to be used as he wishes.”
+ “On the call, Zuckerberg sounded confident that President Trump would back him up with the FTC, said people familiar with the matter. The billionaire Facebook co-founder had been developing closer ties to Trump—his company donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration and settled a $25 million lawsuit—and had been pressing the president in recent weeks to intervene in the monopoly lawsuit.” Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Failed Negotiations to End Antitrust Case.
“One day in 1963, a man identifying himself only as Bill telephoned Rauch from Chicago. The caller, who turned out to be a member of the family that had founded the Spiegel catalog business, wondered whether Rauch’s company could wrap shiny rayon thread around papier-mâché balls. Rauch, who died March 18 at the age of 102, had no idea why anyone would want satin spheres but was happy to try making them.” It paid off. WSJ (Gift Article): Marshall Rauch, Jewish Maker of Christmas-Tree Ornaments, Dies at 102.
Sudan: “Sudan is now worse off than ever before. The largest humanitarian crisis, largest displacement crisis, largest hunger crisis … It’s breaking all sorts of wrong records.” Sudan in ‘world’s largest humanitarian crisis’ after two years of civil war. NPR: Photos: Two years of war in Sudan.
+ Prosecuting the Prosecutors: The latest retribution effort: Trump administration seeks criminal prosecution of New York attorney general.
+ Gender Rules: The UK “Supreme Court has ruled that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex, in a decision which could have far-reaching implications for who can access single-sex services and spaces.”
+ Tumor, Mass: A bizarre story is unfolding as six Massachusetts hospital workers who work on the same floor have reported getting brain tumors. All the tumors have been benign. Meanwhile, a new study suggests that getting CT scans could be more dangerous than people thought.
+ Meth and Taxes: “These are very fundamental policy changes. There isn’t a modern experience for how to think about this.” Fed Chair Powell gives starkest warning yet on potential economic consequences from tariffs. (Given the state of my portfolio, I don’t need a modern way to think about this. I’d settle for modern way to ignore it.)
+ MTG Force: Police use stun gun on two people at Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Georgia town hall. At least it wasn’t space lasers.
+ Silent Filmmaker: “It’s amazing that others [who have been] in this room underwrote electing a man who, in the last week, single-handedly destroyed all of American science.” Seth Rogen attack on Trump edited out of science awards show coverage.
“Millions are tuning in to the hottest show captivating Sweden: It’s reality, it’s live, and after hours of slow shots of calming nature, the stars arrive — Sweden’s beloved moose on their spring migration.” The Great Moose Migration started airing on Tuesday. I watched for a bit. I didn’t see a moose. But it sure beat reading the news.
+ Since Coachella is taking place, you may be wondering what the word Coachella means. Well, “according to the city’s website, during the process of laying out the townsite in 1901, Rector proposed ‘Conchilla,’ which means ‘little shell’ in Spanish and references the fossils that were found in the area. The developers, in agreement, designed a prospectus that would announce the opening of the new town. But the product they got back from the printer misspelled ‘Conchilla’ as ‘Coachella.'” NPR: Word of the Week: Coachella began as a typo. Here’s what happened next.
2025-04-15 20:00:00
It’s gonna be a while before we experience a blue wave in America. But we may be witnessing the beginning of a crimson wave (yes, it’s reddish, but a little added purple is a start). Breaking a dangerous and depressing trend led by Columbia, Harvard rejected the demands of the Trump administration. NYT (Gift Article): Harvard’s Decision to Resist Trump Is ‘of Momentous Significance.’ “Harvard University is 140 years older than the United States, has an endowment greater than the G.D.P. of nearly 100 countries and has educated eight American presidents. So if an institution was going to stand up to the Trump administration’s war on academia, Harvard would be at the top of the list. Harvard did that forcefully on Monday in a way that injected energy into other universities across the country fearful of the president’s wrath, rejecting the Trump administration’s demands on hiring, admissions and curriculum. Some commentators went so far as to say that Harvard’s decision would empower law firms, the courts, the media and other targets of the White House to push back as well.” The fact that Harvard’s refusal to kowtow to a budding dictator is described as a choice of momentous significance tells us just how fast and far our institutions have fallen. How momentous the decision will prove to be depends on how many other institutions and individuals follow suit. This is a fight the sharks in the administration want and they smell blood in the water. To win, Harvard and the rest of us are gonna need a bigger boat.
+ “Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions – rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking concrete steps to make sure all students at Harvard can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect.Let’s hope other institutions follow suit.” Obama and Yale faculty back Harvard.
+ Trump administration freezes more than $2.2 billion after Harvard rejects its demands. And, Trump threatens to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status.
+ Life’s Capitch and Then You Die. “Harvard is changing course, perhaps because it grasped the true takeaway from Columbia’s cautionary tale: Appeasement doesn’t work, because the Trump administration isn’t really trying to reform elite higher education. It’s trying to break it.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): What Harvard Learned From Columbia’s Mistake. “If cooperation and even capitulation don’t get you anywhere, why give in to the Trump administration’s demands?”
Why settle for the consequence-free breaking of rules when you can delete the rules altogether? NYT (Gift Article): Inside Trump’s Plan to Halt Hundreds of Regulations. “Across the more than 400 federal agencies that regulate almost every aspect of American life, from flying in airplanes to processing poultry, Mr. Trump’s appointees are working with the Department of Government Efficiency…to launch a sweeping new phase in their quest to dismantle much of the federal government: deregulation on a mass scale.” (We need political Metamucil on a mass scale: a return to regularity.)
One of the sad ironies of this era is that due process gave Trump enough time to become president and take due process away. Yesterday, I led with the Trump administration’s defiance of the Supreme Court, refusal to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia home from an El Salvadorian prison, and plans to try to send American citizens to prisons abroad. What’s important to remember is that there’s more than one innocent person who was sent to that prison under an act that hasn’t been used since WWII. Maybe a lot more. NYT (Gift Article): ‘Alien Enemies’ or Innocent Men? Inside Trump’s Rushed Effort to Deport 238 Migrants. “Most of the men do not have criminal records in the United States or elsewhere in the region, beyond immigration offenses, a New York Times investigation has found. And very few of them appear to have any clear, documented links to the Venezuelan gang. As they were being expelled, the detainees repeatedly begged officials to explain why they were being deported, and where they were being taken, one of their lawyers told the courts. At no point, the lawyer said, did officers indicate that the men were being sent to El Salvador or that they were removed under the Alien Enemies Act. The Alien Enemies Act gives the U.S. government broad powers to detain people during times of war, but Supreme Court rulings make clear that detainees have a right to challenge the government, and are entitled to a hearing, before their removal.”
+ Why is the Kilmar Abrego Garcia getting all the attention? Because one Justice Dept lawyer told the truth. These days, even for a lawyer who has defended Trump policies, that’s a firing offense. This Lawyer Defended Republicans and Democrats. His Candor Cost Him His Job.
+ As they usually do, Reveal went a little deeper into this story. The Real Reason El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele Cozied Up to Trump. “If the trial in New York proves Mr. Bukele’s deals with them, it could potentially be very damaging since it would mean that he had illegal deals with a terrorist organization and also illegally freed some of the terrorist organization leaders.”
+ Returning Kilmar Abrego Garcia wasn’t the only judicial decision being flouted by Trump during Monday’s Oval Office presser. Despite a court order, White House bars AP from Oval Office event.
After much outrage, the webpage was restored, but “on the morning of March 19, those three letters [DEI] were added to a URL for an article on the U.S. Department of Defense website about baseball icon Jackie Robinson—and that article was then surreptitiously taken offline … Rachel Robinson—the 102-year-old widow of one Jack Roosevelt Robinson—woke up to an affront on her dead husband’s legacy by the very country he served with honor, only to rise a few weeks later and witness not just the utter silence of the league he integrated, but her husband’s old employer specifically fawning over the brute who ordered the whole thing.” The Ringer: Jackie Robinson Would Be Appalled.
+ “A female Army Ranger for the first time competed in the annual Best Ranger Competition, and her two-soldier team finished the grueling three-day event over the weekend … White, 25, is a Black infantry officer assigned to the maneuver captains career course.”
Welcome Splat: We’re landing many self-inflicted blows to the economy. I keep harping on one in particular because I think the problem will continue to grow. “The US economy is set to lose billions of dollars in revenue in 2025 from a pullback in foreign tourism and boycotts of American products, adding to a growing list of headwinds keeping recession risk elevated.” And from Quartz: Tourists are ditching America. “The biggest declines came from Western Europe, which registered a 17% year-over-year decrease in arrivals by plane. Luxembourg residents stayed away in droves, leading the way with a 44% decline. Denmark, Austria, and Iceland weren’t far behind.”
+ Back Burner: Meanwhile, Europeans who are required to come are taking new precautions usually reserved for their rivals. “The European Commission is issuing burner phones to officials traveling to the United States amid fears of espionage in Trump’s America.”
+ Magnetic Repulsion: “China’s decision to retaliate against President Trump’s sharp increase in tariffs by ordering restrictions on the exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets is a warning shot across the bow of American national security, industry and defense experts said.” NYT (Gift Article): China’s Halt of Critical Minerals Poses Risk for U.S. Military Programs. (Do we need better trade deals with China? Yes. But we needed a longterm strategy. Not whatever it is we’re seeing now.)
+ Tinder Box: “Two Belgian teenagers were charged Tuesday with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser known species.” Ants too small to concern you? Spanish police arrest two people linked to cat smuggling ring based in Mallorca.
+ Parent Company: “A young generation is taking a bigger interest in joining the family business, spurred by a cooling labor market that is making it more difficult to land entry-level jobs, economists and business analysts say. At the same time, their parents and grandparents—baby boomers and Gen Xers who own the vast majority of America’s businesses—are feeling more urgency about making succession plans as they look toward retirement.” WSJ (Gift Article): A Young Generation Goes to Work for Mom and Dad Inc.
“If you pay attention to AI company branding, you’ll notice a pattern: Circular shape (often with a gradient). Central opening or focal point. Radiating elements from the center. Soft, organic curves. Sound familiar? It should, because it’s also an apt description of… well, you know. A butthole.” (I still hold out hope that my butthole will reach the singularity before AI does.)
+ While we’re on the topic… JD Vance dropped Ohio State’s college football trophy during a White House celebration.
2025-04-14 20:00:00
Two authoritarians walk into an Oval Office. No, that’s not the set up for a joke. It’s reality playing out right in front of our eyes. Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that a man mistakenly sent from America to a famously abusive El Salvadorian prison should be returned. The worst case scenario was that the Trump administration would make believe that the decision was out of their hands and pretend to leave the decision up to El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. And here we are. Bukele told reporters he would not return Kilmar Abrego Garcia. “How can I return him to the United States? Like if I smuggle him into the United States? … Of course I’m not going to do it. The question is preposterous.” Trump then turned to Bukele and said of the assembled reporters: “They’d love to have a criminal released into our country. These are sick people.” NBC: President of El Salvador says he won’t return mistakenly deported man to US.
+ Look at these two in the Oval Office. This is what American has become. American Exceptionalism has turned into America Acceptionalism: We’re all getting a wake-up call about how much Americans are willing to accept. And we’re likely to soon find out how much this Supreme Court is willing to accept from a defiant ruler whom they’ve already granted immunity.
+ “The Roberts Court will now have to decide whether to side with the Constitution or with a lawless president asserting the power to disappear people at will. This is not a power that any person, much less an American president, is meant to have.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Constitutional Crisis Is Here.
+ Heather Cox Richardson: “Make no mistake: as Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson recently warned, if the administration can take noncitizens off the streets, render them to prison in another country, and then claim it is helpless to correct the error either because the person is out of reach of U.S. jurisdiction, it could do the same thing to citizens.”
+ Surely she’s exaggerating… Oh wait. Trump Reveals He Asked A.G. to Look Into Deporting U.S. Citizens.
+ “Before press came in — but while live feed was running on Bukele’s feed — Trump said to him: ‘home-growns are next … You’re gonna need to build about 5 more places.'” The reaction in the room? Laughter.
+ A reminder: “The majority of the more than 200 immigrants he’s already sent to El Salvador were not murderers or drug dealers. They were ordinary people without criminal records, victim to the Trump administration’s baseless lies about their pasts.”
+ WaPo: 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.”
+ Over the weekend, the US deported 10 more alleged gang members to El Salvador. How will we know for sure they’re gang members without due process? The same way we’ll know if American citizens sent to foreign prisons without due process are really guilty of something. We won’t.
Some good news from the attack on higher eduction. Harvard Will Fight Trump’s Demands. From University President Alan M. Garber: “No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.” Oh yeah, we live in America.
+ “This is my radical proposal for universities: Act like universities, not like businesses. Spend your endowments. Accept more, not fewer students. Open up your campuses and expand your reach not by buying real estate but by bringing education to communities. Create a base. Become a movement. Alternatively, you can try to negotiate with a mafia boss who wants to see you grovel. When these negotiations fail, as they inevitably will, it will be too late to ask for the public’s support.” M Gessen in the NYT (Gift Article): This Is How Universities Can Escape Trump’s Trap, If They Dare.
+ Adam Unikowsky in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Why My Firm Is Standing Up for the Constitution. “Big Law should remain independent rather than have the government dictate who it represents.” (These battles can be won, but only if a lot more universities and law firms join the fight.)
“President Donald Trump bitterly attacked ’60 Minutes’ shortly after the CBS newsmagazine broadcast stories on Ukraine and Greenland on Sunday, saying the network was out of control and should ‘pay a big price‘ for going after him.” The big question here is not how 60 Minutes will respond. They’ll keep reporting. The big question is how CBS owner Paramount will respond. The same goes for the big corporate owners of other major media brands. They have big dollars at stake and their news orgs are a rounding error.
+ Meanwhile, Trump reminded Americans of his view on the invasion of Ukraine: “You have millions of people dead. Millions of people dead because of three people. … Let’s say Putin number one, but let’s say Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, number two, and Zelensky. And all I can do is try and stop it.”
+ Days after more talks with Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, Putin launched a deadly missile attack that resulted in many civilian deaths. I suppose this was partly Biden and Zelensky’s fault too?
“One Saturday morning in August of 2021, more than 200 people assembled in an Arlington church for the funeral of Richard Hanneman, a onetime Capitol Hill staffer and longtime trade association executive who died of lung cancer at the age of 78. Four of Hanneman’s seven children spoke at the service. So did two of his grandchildren and his best friend…But the most compelling presence was the third speaker on the program, a white-haired man in a dark suit. Dick Hanneman himself.” Dan Pink in WaPo (Gift Article): Why not attend your own funeral? (I hate going to out to social events. The one good thing about death is that it provides a perfect excuse to RSVP No.)
Chiplash: Tariffs on Tariffs off. Over the weekend, tariff exceptions were made for phones and electronics, which was good news for Apple. By Monday, new chip tariffs were being threatened that would be bad news for Apple. Welcome to another day of market whiplash. Meanwhile, more and more CEOs are expecting a recession.
+ A Jury of One? “The Federal Trade Commission’s blockbuster antitrust case against Meta kicks off on Monday in a courtroom in Washington, D.C. It’s the culmination of a nearly six-year investigation into whether the social media giant broke competition laws in acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp.” Because this is a new American age, stakeholders on both sides are directly lobbying the president.
+ Kleptomania: “We are living through a revolutionary change, a broad shift away from the transparency and accountability mandated by most modern democracies, and toward the opaque habits and corrupt practices of the autocratic world.” Anne Applebaum in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Kleptocracy, Inc. Meanwhile, from WSJ (Gift Article): Trump Administration Retreats From White-Collar Criminal Enforcement. (Time for a Midnight Run digression: “I’m a white collar criminal.”)
+ Rory Rory Hallelujah: “It happened! It happened. So many times it seemed like it never would. There was the 0-for-38 streak in major tournaments dating back to 2014. The heartbreak at the U.S. Open in 2023 and 2024. The double bogeys at holes 15 and 17 during Thursday’s opening round of the Masters. The opening double bogey on Sunday, followed by the shocking double bogey at the par-5 13th, which turned a seeming runaway victory into a whole new ballgame. The Rory McIlroy Roller Coaster. It’s been impacting golf fans—and McIlroy himself—for decades now.” By winning the Masters, Rory McIlroy Finally, Finally Did It.
+ Tinder Box: “This kind of violence is becoming far too common in our society. And I don’t give a damn if it’s coming from one particular side or the other. It has to stop.” Fire set at Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home is the latest in a string of political violence.
+ Flight of Fancy: In a marketing plan that was out of this world, Blue Origin’s all-female flight launched to the edge of space with Gayle King, Katy Perry and Lauren Sánchez on board.
+ Need a Ride? Can old school and new tech coexist? Yes, apparently. Because people have been leaving handwritten notes in Waymos. Tech workers are leaving notes in robot taxis seeking workers and lovers. (I thought the whole point of Waymos was that you wanted to ride alone…)
Viewers of the White Lotus watched a scene that featured what looked like the world’s biggest squirt gun fight. Apparently, it’s a real thing. Songkran: The world’s biggest water fight. (Wait, so squirting is real?)
2025-04-11 20:00:00
Among the many immigrants the Trump administration sent to a draconian prison in El Salvador is (at least) one who they admit was sent there in error. Yet, the administration has thus far argued it can’t or won’t bring back Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia. The case reached the Supreme Court where all nine justices agreed (think about that for a second) that the administration “must ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.” Well, today, the Trump administration defied a federal judge’s order to provide an explanation for how it intended to do so. The executive branch going out on a limb with this position is extreme for several reasons. First, the person who was sent to a foreign jail by mistake is still there as the government delays. Second, the notion that a person sent to a foreign prison cannot be returned doesn’t bode well for due process for immigrants, or for anyone else. (Trump Says He’d “Love” to Deport US Citizens to El Salvador Gulags if It’s Legal.) Third, it calls into question whether this executive branch will follow the directives of the judicial branch. NYT: Trump Administration Defies Judge Seeking Details on Plan to Return Wrongly Deported Man.
+ WaPo (Gift Article): The Supreme Court just set up a potentially huge clash with Trump.
+ “The Trump administration could choose to comply with the court order and secure Abrego Garcia’s return. It could also choose the path of open defiance. But it might instead make a token effort to retrieve Abrego Garcia and then shrug, telling the Court that it tried its best but was unsuccessful.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Confrontation Between Trump and the Supreme Court Has Arrived.
+ Here’s an interesting (if depressing) conversation between Andrew Weissmann and Lawrence O’Donnell about the Justice Department’s remarkable callousness in this case, and what’s at stake.
+ This is a critical case. But it’s just one example of people being sent to a foreign prison, rounded up, or deported without due process. The New Yorker: The Mystery of ICE’s Unidentifiable Arrests.
+ NYT (Gift Article): Social Security Lists Thousands of Migrants as Dead to Prompt Them to Self-Deport.
+ She Worked in a Harvard Lab to Reverse Aging, Until ICE Jailed Her. (Feel safer?) And: Australian with working visa detained and deported on returning to US from sister’s memorial. “He says the official then told him: ‘Trump is back in town; we’re doing things the way we should have always been doing them.'”
Christy Powers has “worked through three economic downturns since 1999. Operating out of Frederick, Maryland, a commuter-train ride from Washington, Powers said more and more of her clients—especially the large swath of federal workers—are ‘coming in telling me how stressed they are.’ Others are halting services altogether to save cash. Is Powers a financial planner? A real estate agent? Nope: She’s a massage therapist, and she and her service-industry colleagues working in beauty, hair and personal care have been witnessing firsthand some of the earliest possible signs the US is tumbling into recession.” Bloomberg (Gift Article): The Beauty Salon Recession Indicator.
+ Looks like the beauty salon indicator is pretty accurate. US consumer sentiment plummets to second-lowest level on records going back to 1952.
+ “The United States gets vital goods from China that cannot be replaced any time soon or made at home at anything less than prohibitive cost. Reducing such dependence on China may be a reason for action, but fighting the current war before doing so is a recipe for almost certain defeat, at enormous cost.” Foreign Affairs: Beijing Has Escalation Dominance in the U.S.-China Tariff Fight.
+ So has the impact on consumer sentiment and retirement accounts shaken Trump’s support? Among the swing voters, probably. Among the true believers, hell no. WSJ (Gift Article): Trust Unshaken: Trump Voters Are Sticking With Their Guy. “When Trump at last announced the tariffs—levied on friends and enemies—many of them saw the move less in economic terms than as a moment of redemption: The country had gone astray, and something had to be done. Even something radical.”
Speaking at a summit put on by tech investors, U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon praised the use of A1 in education several times. Not AI, but A1, like the sauce. “McMahon said she’d heard about ‘a school system that’s going to start making sure that first graders, or even pre-Ks, have A1 teaching in every year,’ which she said was a ‘wonderful thing.'” Linda McMahon mixed up AI and A.1. — so of course now the steak sauce is all over it.
What to Watch: I’m hardly the first person to recommend Adolescence on Netflix. But it really is awesome. Everyone in the cast is excellent, the topic couldn’t be more timely, and somehow, each entire episode is shot in a single take. For something a little lighter, the very excellent show Hacks returns to Max this weekend. And this season includes the excellent Jimmy Kimmel playing himself on the show. Hacks star Jean Smart appeared on Kimmel this week and it was, as you’d imagine, incredibly enjoyable.
+ What to Hear: An Evening with Elton John and Brandi Carlile on Paramount Plus is filled with songs from the duo’s new album and some of their biggest individual hits. Need to be cheered up? This will work. For more music, this is first weekend at Coachella, and the best way to watch is from your own couch. Coachella will be streaming on YouTube. But wait, there’s more. Lady Gaga was recently on Howard Stern and killed on a couple of songs, including an acoustic version of Abracadabra and Perfect Celebrity.
Don’t Even Think It: Rubio “said that while Khalil’s activities were ‘otherwise lawful,’ letting him remain in the country would undermine ‘U.S. policy to combat anti-Semitism around the world and in the United States, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States.” AP: Pressed for evidence against Mahmoud Khalil, government cites its power to deport people for beliefs. NBC: 130 Jewish Georgetown members slam Trump for ‘weaponizing’ faith in arresting professor. The question isn’t whether you agree with the views being espoused, but whether you believe views should be allowed to be espoused. Yair Rosenberg in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Trump’s Jewish Cover Story. “Presented as an attempt to protect Jews on campus, these threats are actually part of a much wider war against American higher education, which Trump and his allies perceive as a citadel of hostile cultural power.” (Here’s a tought for your Passover Seder this weekend: Don’t trust people who think Heiling is funny to protect Jewish interests.)
+ Yale Tide: Yesterday, I shared my concern about Timothy Snyder and Jason Stanley leaving the United States. Obey Watch. It’s definitely worth reading Snyder’s take on the matter: On leaving Yale. “I did not leave Yale because of anything Trump is doing; the chronology and the psychology are all wrong; I was not and am not fleeing anything.”
+ Whoops: “Doctors, researchers and public health experts warn that the measles outbreak, which has grown to more than 600 cases, may just be the beginning. They say outbreaks of preventable diseases could get much worse with falling vaccination rates and the Trump administration slashing spending on the country’s public health infrastructure.” “Not Just Measles”: Whooping Cough Cases Are Soaring as Vaccine Rates Decline.
+ Gov in the Time of Cholera: “At least five children and three adults with cholera died as they went in search of treatment in South Sudan after aid cuts by the Trump administration shuttered local health clinics during the country’s worst cholera outbreak in decades, the international charity Save the Children reported this week.” NYT (Gift Article): Children Seeking Cholera Care Die After U.S. Cuts Aid, Charity Says.
+ Space Force Feeding: Space Force Colonel Removed After Disavowing JD Vance’s Comments About Acquiring Greenland.
+ Commencement Speech: “Does it do justice to what she’s witnessing — to the Trump administration’s abandonment of, and indifference to, a man consigned to a hellhole in El Salvador because of an administrative error? To Trump’s morally perverse rewrite of history, in which Ukraine is evil and Russia rightly aggrieved? To his pardoning of the savages who smashed their way into the Capitol and bloodied police officers on Jan. 6, 2021? To his veneration of autocrats and his administration’s fervent efforts to turn him into one? To its conception of power not as a blessing that compels you to be generous but as a bludgeon that allows you to be cruel?” Frank Bruni in the NYT: What Do You Tell a College Student Graduating Into This America? (Maybe it’s safest to just say, “Congrats.”)
+ Lightning Crashes: “Lightning strikes kill millions of trees each year — but it turns out that some large tropical trees can not only survive a strike, but also benefit from its effects, according to a recent study.”
+ Blowin’ in the Wind? People in Northern China have a more pressing concern than the building trade war. The building winds. Millions told to stay indoors as China braces for strong winds. State media has warned that “some people weighing less than 110lbs may be ‘easily blown away.'”
If you missed it earlier this week, check out the story of two baseball teams with long losing streaks that were broken during a double-header.
+ Dying US man uses his last months for community service in all 50 states.
+ In a World First, Researchers Mapped Part of a Mouse’s Brain in Incredible Detail. It’s a Leap Forward for Neuroscience.
+ US ballerina Ksenia Karelina reunites with fiancé as she returns from Russian prison.
+ Galapagos tortoises at Philadelphia Zoo become first-time parents at nearly 100. (They’ll come to wish they had waited.)
+ On the Road in a Giant Almond.