t0000 2.0, aka 47

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Here are two episodes from Heather Cox Richardson's Politics Chat. I listened to these a couple of days ago and wanted to share them.

In this first one, she speaks about the new Pope and puts him in the context of Catholics like JD Vance, who try to use Catholic teachings to justify the administration's approach to deportation, or, more accurately, renditions.

As an aside, did you notice they the admin just defied court rulings and flew about a dozen people to South Sudan? I’m guessing they’re in a prison there but . . . Maybe U’ll get around to posting an article on that topic later. So, very bizarre and inhumane and unlawful . . . Without due process, i.e. denying habeus corpus. Jeez. Did you see the footage of a Congress person asking kristi noem to define habeus corpus and her absolute ass backwards response??? Yikes. But we knew that nominating unqualified loyalists to these top administration positions occurred with deliberate malice aforethought. Anyhow! I digress. . . Back to Heather Cox Richardson.

She points to the significance of the College of Cardinals choosing Pope Leo, someone in the mold of his predecessor, Pope Francis, especially as regards a rejection of right wing radical Catholicism that has been rising around the world and in the US.

She continues with a discussion of Musk and the department of government efficiency collecting personal data on Americans. She also touches on Starlink.

Not to bore you totally, just to give an idea of what's discussed, since there’s no easy ‘blurb’ to copy and paste.

At the 20 minute mark, she questions who is in control in the administration. In interviews, t0000 often deflects when he doesn't know the answer to a question by suggesting the interviewer ask someone else in his administration.

She says: "Trump is not in good control of this administration." So, who is? There is a struggle going on. The magas are pushing on the idea of deportation. That would be Stephen Miller in the White House and Kristi Noem at the Department of Homeland Security. Then, there are the people trying to institute Project 2025. That effort is being led by Russell Vought at the Office of Management and Budget. Then, there are the tech bros and the musk crew who are looking at decimating the United States government because they want to create this new kind of network state and want to be able to gather the power of communications, artificial intelligence that is fed by the databases they're pulling and also through cryptocurrency in order to get rid of the idea of nation sates and replace it with this new technological idea.

If any of that sounds interesting, have a listen (about 32 minutes).


Politics Chat, May 8, 2025 [Heather Cox Richardson]

During that chat, she refers to another episode that focuses on cryptocurrency and its significance in the t0000 regime. Here it is, below:


Politics Chat, May 6, 2025 [Heather Cox Richardson]

She readily admits she is no expert on cryptocurrency but offers her opinion on the different ways t0000 and his flunkies are using it. In one way, we know: for grift, for extortion, and to provide a convenient untraceable money flow for sycophants to curry his favor through lavish donations.

That's a lot to listen to. Only if you have the time, of course. I mainly wanted to put her out here, as another person that might be interesting to follow.

 

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I love Robert Reich and Heather Lofthouse and the Saturday Coffee Klatch. They have a great rapport. The set-up is relaxed and friendly. I feel like I’m practically sitting at the table with them. There’s humor and wisdom and experience. Robert Reich tells it like it is. The republicans big, bad bill is the biggest transfer of wealth in American history.

People get ready! 14 June is NO KINGS DAY. It’s a very important protest day.

It also happens to be the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Continental army -the beginning of the revolution! Washington became General on the 15th. And t0000’s b-day is the 14th for which he is planning a military parade, as dictators do.

Try that for some foul-tasting medicine. Sufferin’ succotash.


Harvard, The Big Ugly Bill, and The Big Reveal | The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich
May 24
2025
The "big beautiful bill" is a bunch of BS.

Blurb: “On today's Coffee Klatch, Heather and I discuss what the new GOP budget reveals about GOP priorities — and the massive Trump power-grab hidden in it.””

 

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Another good one from Ben Meiselas and Michael Popok of Meidas Touch and LegalAF.


LIVE: Major BREAKING Legal News from LEGAL AF!!! - 5/24/2025 | Legal AF [Meidas Touch;5.24.25]

Blurb: “Ben Meiselas & Michael Popok head the top rated Legal AF podcast and tonight debate: The Supreme Court's schizophrenia on full display, sometimes siding with Trump, sometimes not, as it lurches from one presidential crisis to the next at the end of the term; Harvard's fist fight with Trump; Trump's own press secretary opening him up to criminal prosecution in the future for the Meme Coin/influence peddling scam, and so much more at the intersection of law and politics.”

Some of the topics I found most interesting: the discussion about the t0000 administration’s attack on Harvard University; the budget bill and specifically the embedded provision to remove the capacity of courts to hold entities in contempt of court. . . . I’m only about a third of the way through of the 1h 40m 4s podcast.

 

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Here’s one from Zev Shalev. I think the title says enough so I won’t write much.


CBS News Capitulates: How Donald Trump Is Muzzling 60 Minutes [Narativ with Zev Shalev; 5.20.25]

Shalev explains some of the intricacies of what is happening to 60 minutes . . . How the lawsuit brought by the t0000 administration seems to be causing the parent company of CBS (Paramount? . . . I didn’t catch all the details) is settling rather than going to court. One of the repercussions: CBS’ 60 Minutes is losing its independence. Shalev mourns this development (he previously worked at CBS) and places it in the larger context of the many attacks against the press.

 

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The Supreme Court Just Handed A Match To An Arsonist

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This...

talkingpointsmemo.com

The Supreme Court Just Handed A Match To An Arsonist [Talking_Points_Memo; Morning_Memo; 5.23.25]

Quote from the article:
"In a tumultuous week that marked four months since Donald Trump’s second inauguration, nothing will have as long-lasting and damaging an effect on American democracy as the Supreme Court’s decision yesterday to upend 90 years of its own precedent and strip independent agencies of their independence.

"The high court’s six-justice conservative majority fundamentally altered the structural balance of power among the branches of the federal government. It handed vast new power to the White House to put politics above expertise, partisanship above reason, and power over principle.

"All of that would have been bad enough at any other time, but the Roberts Court just handed a match to a confirmed arsonist in Donald Trump. As bad as the first four months of his second term have been, it was not enough to dislodge the conservative justices from their ideological attachment to the radical theory of a unitary executive."

Back to my blathering . . . I guess this puts an end to the independence of the 'civil service'. To clarify, here's an explanation of the civil service.

The civil service, explained

The civil service is the civilian workforce of the U.S. federal government, currently numbering about 2.2 million employees.

protectdemocracy.org

The Civil Service, explained [Protect Democracy; 6.11.24]

Who is Protect Democracy, anyway? This is what they say about themselves: "Protect Democracy is a cross-ideological nonprofit group dedicated to defeating the authoritarian threat, building more resilient democratic institutions, and protecting our freedom and liberal democracy. Our experts and advocates use litigation, legislative and communications strategies, technology, research, and analysis to stand up for free and fair elections, the rule of law, fact-based debate, and a better democracy for future generations." I try to understand a little about the sources I use but, I'll admit, I don't know much about this one.

Back to my blathering: Well. More like, back to my pulling out the quotes that explain this SCOTUS decision. As is their wont of late [yup, AGI(?) autocorrect(?) made a bad decision and wrote: won't have late. I have a habit of using archaic phrases, so fyi "wont is derived from Old English gewunod, past participle of wunian, ‘dwell, be accustomed’, of Germanic origin"], they upend precedent with aplomb, in this case, the 90-year-old decision referred to as Humphrey's Executor.

Quoting from TPM, again:

"The Damage Is Long Term And Lasting

"Political scientist Don Moynihan makes an insightful point about the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision: v. United States.

With unitary executive theory, Congress cannot write robust new legislation that modernizes the civil service and stops politicization. A President could just ignore it. Even if Trump leaves office, and a new President looks to restore nonpartisan competence, their promises are only good for four or eight years before another President can come in and rip up the terms of their employment. And over time, why would even a good government President invest effort in restoring capacity if their successor can undermine it?

With unitary executive theory, the public sector becomes permanently viewed as an unstable and chaotic workplace that we are seeing now. The most capable potential employees decide its not worth the bother, and the workforce becomes a mix of people who cannot get a job elsewhere, and short term political appointees.

Here's a bit more about Humphrey's Executor, which I came upon by following the link in the TPM article. This is from Lawfare:

"Humphrey’s Executor stands for the principle that Congress may restrict the president from removing certain officials who engage in quasi-legislative or quasi-judicial activities. At issue in that case was President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s removal of William E. Humphrey, a member of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) who opposed Roosevelt’s agenda, in spite of statutory language providing that commissioners “may be removed by the President for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” The FTC is a five-member bipartisan body that enforces antitrust and consumer protection laws primarily by adjudicating cases. The Supreme Court ruled that Roosevelt had overstepped statutory boundaries when the president removed Humphrey. As it explained:

The authority of Congress, in creating quasi-legislative or quasi-judicial agencies, to require them to act in discharge of their duties independently of executive control cannot well be doubted, and that authority includes, as an appropriate incident, power to fix the period during which they shall continue in office, and to forbid their removal except for cause in the meantime.

If you want to check that Lawfare article, here's the link:
Reversing Humphrey’s Executor and the Problem of the Federal Reserve [Lawfare; 4.23.25]

A comment from me: well, as you know, this odd bird has an interest in trying to keep up with all the developments occurring in and to our government here in the US of A. Posting about a topic helps me understand things a bit better. I have a vain hope that my continuous blather helps others stay apprised of the goings-on. I hope/think my filter catches some of the important fallout from the daily news dump.

 

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FED UP Navy Commander SHUTS DOWN Trump After Disaster Military Speech [Meidas Touch;5.29.25]

Blurb: “Former Navy Commander Bobby Jones reacts to Donald Trump’s disgraceful commencement speech at West Point where he lamented on his personal grievances, trophy wives, and stealth airplanes.”

Follow Bobby on VALOR Media Network: ⁠ / @valormedianetwork

This MTN episode is from one of their contributors, ‘Burn the Boats’ with Ken Harbaugh.

 

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Here’s one from Meidas Touch’s LegalAF with Michael Popok and Karen Friedman Agnifolo. In this time, when we have a lawless president, having an expert, informed legal perspective is essential. I have gratitude for their dedication and rigorous analysis.

Give this one a try. Yes, it’s long (about 1 hour) but there’s no rule you have to watch the whole thing.

I felt relief in the first 5 minutes. One of the dangers of this time is the normalization that occurs (say, in media reporting) and also a slow acceptance of the status quo (through say, exhaustion).

The other day I was thinking, “Hold on! Isn’t it Congress’ authority to levy tariffs??! Why is the media not continually raising this point?” I value LegalAF for keeping the Constitution front and center in their reports. The legal system is working. It’s slow because every lawsuit brought must go through a process and all arguments must be considered. Things are happening though. Have a listen.


LIVE: Popok and KFA on BREAKING LEGAL NEWS - 5/28/2025 | Legal AF [Meidas Touch’s LegalAF;5.28.25]

Blurb: “ Michael Popok and Karen Friedman Agnifilo return with a new episode of the top-rated Legal AF podcast. On tonight’s docket: Judge Chutkan green lights a lawsuit challenging Trump’s “tyranny” and use of Musk/DOGE, while issuing a surprise ruling involving Trump himself. A federal judge slams Trump for deporting individuals to South Sudan who aren't even from there—prompting Trump to appeal to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Harvard appears to be gaining the upper hand in its legal battle with Trump. And the scandals keep piling up, from crypto schemes to alleged pay-for-pardon deals. All this and more at the intersection of law and politics.”

There are a variety of ways to follow LegalAF. I have mixed feelings about Substack but they have deeper dives there, if you’re so inclined.

 

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This one is a deep dive into the weeds. Marcy Wheeler does some great investigative reporting.

Here she assigns a different reason to the muskmelon’s departure from Washington than the apparent disaffection between him and t0000. Sounds like she hit the nail on the head. Smoke and mirrors.

This one’s not an easy read. For example there was the word ‘retcon’, which I had to look up, even though the meaning is sort of obvious.

One Explanation for Elon Musk's Claimed DOGE Departure that Gossip-Mongers Missed - emptywheel

There's a better explanation for Elon Musk's claimed departure from DOGE than the Trump-Musk drama some outlets are portraying. This looks like another attempt to retcon what DOGE did in an effort to defeat a lawsuit.

www.emptywheel.net

ONE EXPLANATION FOR ELON MUSK’S CLAIMED DOGE DEPARTURE THAT GOSSIP-MONGERS MISSED [Empty Wheel;5.29.25]

Quoting from the beginning of the article:

“The NYT wrote an 1800-word, 5-byline post claiming Elon Musk’s departure from DOGE reflected tensions over Trump’s Big Ugly Tax Bill without mentioning one additional — possibly far more important — factor that may have influenced his announced departure.

“This may be an attempt to preserve the damage Elon did to government, up to and including the data consolidation that DOGE carried out.

“Even NYT’s claimed basis for Elon’s departure is unpersuasive.

“On Tuesday, CBS posted a clip from an interview that will air Sunday, in which Musk complains that the Big Ugly Tax Bill raises the deficit.”

Empty wheel is saying musk’s disgust over projected increases to the deficit and his loud, noisy departure to work f/t on Tesla are a giant cat-toy distraction as the administration faces lawsuits over musk’s actions at doge (aka department of government efficiency) .

 

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This one’s about the new nickname for d t0000 and why it’s so effective. And how the anagram, which stands for ‘Trump always chickens out’ is understood by everyone, here and abroad.


TACO: Trump Always Chickens Out [Rick Wilson of the Lincoln Project;5.28.25]

Blurb: “This week, Rick's Elephant in the Room unpacks TACO Trump. (And, kudos to the Wall Street Bros who coined the "perfect" term -- "Trump Always Chickens Out.") As the anthropologist on Donald Trump, Rick (who has studied this man for over ten years -- thank you for your service!) sheds light on how TACO applies to all aspects of Trump. This flacid, feeble, fatuous fool is not the strong man he thinks he portrays. Completely inept, played by dictators, confused by intelligent people, and obsessively corrupt, Trump has always been a weak, small, stupid man in politics, in business, and in his personal life. Regardless of the news cycle, there's one thing we can always count on -- Trump Always Chickens Out, no matter the stakes.”

・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・

“You can check out Rick Wilson at @TheRickWilson on X and @therickwilson.bsky.social on Bluesky, and subscribe to his Substack at therickwilson.substack.com.

“Join the fight with the Lincoln Project at www.lincolnproject.us “

 

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Here’s one about the costs of dismantling our national security agency and staffing what’s left of it with political loyalists.


Trump National Security PURGE Gets TRUTH BOMB from FED UP Commander [Meidas Touch;5.30.25]

Blurb: “Former Navy Commander Bobby Jones reacts to Donald Trump's restructuring of the National Security Council and breaks down the history of American National Security strategy.”

Follow Bobby on VALOR Media Network: ⁠ / @valormedianetwork

Visit https://meidasplus.com for more!

 

[barnswallow]

One more for now. This one is about elections in North Carolina and gop efforts at voter suppression and other desperate moves to ensure republican’s win.


Trump DOJ Pulls DESPERATE STUNT after MAGA LOSES BIG in Court [Dina Sayegh Doll with MTN;5.30.25]

Blurb: “After a failed attempt to takeover the North Carolina State Supreme Court, the DOJ files a lawsuit to purge voters from the registration rolls. Dina Doll reports on this, the effort to seize control of the North Carolina Board of Electors and why North Carolina is central to the fight over our Democracy.”

 

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Here’s another from Dina Sayegh Doll at Meidas Touch talking about immigration and tactics the t0000 administration is using to throw a wrench in the works. As we know, the focus is not on deporting gang members or people with a criminal record. Instead they are going after hardworking people. The t0000 administration uses measures like revoking the temporary protected status of100s of thousands of Venezuelans and the humanitarian parole status for 100s of thousands of Nicaraguans, Cubans, and Haitians. That’s only one step. Have a listen to hear about what is really happening.


Trump Admin Makes SHOCK MOVE in State Department [Meidas Touch;6.1.25]

Blurb: “New reporting reveals the State Department’s plan to open a new Office of Remigration. Dina Doll reports on this and on the strategy behind the dismissal of immigration cases and the impact of Trump’s inhumane actions against our immigrant communities.”

Visit https://meidasplus.com for more!

 

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Here’s one about t0000’s verbal attacks on federal judges and the repercussions of those. This is not normal behavior for a president, making personal attacks against any judge who disagrees with them. This tactic has a quite specific repercussion. Have a listen.


“WOW! HIDDEN DATA on Trump Admin RELEASED by BRAVE Judge” [Meidas Touch;5.31.2025]

Blurb: “It took a NJ Federal Judge Esther Salas who’s son was shot and killed by someone hunting for her, to release US Marshall data hidden by the Trump Administration, for us to now know that Trump and his minions verbal attacks on federal judges is having real world consequences, as more than 162 federal judges were threatened in a 2 week period in May alone, and more than 1/3 of the judiciary has been threatened this year alone. Michael Popok discusses Judge Salas’ bravery and Trump’s US Marshall Service’s cover-up.”

Subscribe: ‪@LegalAFMTN‬

Visit https://meidasplus.com for more!

 

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ICE

US immigration and customs enforcement

I wonder about the person who allowed them entrance into Congressperson Jerry Nadler’s office. She tried to prevent them. Did she have to let them in? Did they show her a warrant? I heard him say, “I just want to look around?” Has it come to the point that we have to let them in when they show up and say that???

That’s just one short part of this video. I also wonder about the footage of stephen miller at the end. He makes a statement about habeas corpus. Is he correct? I suspect not but I would like to have heard analysis but the video ends there.


All HELL BREAKS LOOSE as Trump Plan BACKFIRES [Meidas Touch;6.1.2025]

Blurb: “MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on hell breaking loose in the streets across America as Trump’s ICE raids target courthouses, restaurants, and construction sites.”

I’ll include ways you can access Meidas Touch content here:
Visit https://meidasplus.com for more!

MeidasTouch relies on SnapStream to record, watch, monitor, and clip the news. Get a FREE TRIAL of SnapStream by clicking here: https://go.snapstream....

Support the MeidasTouch Network: / meidastouch
Add the MeidasTouch Podcast: https://podcasts.apple...
Buy MeidasTouch Merch: https://store.meidasto...

Follow MeidasTouch on Twitter: / meidastouch
Follow MeidasTouch on Facebook:

 

[barnswallow]

I haven’t posted much about the t0000 administration’s attack on universities. They have focused most aggressively on Harvard. Here are a few articles on the topic.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/us/politics/harvard-university-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ME8.6cZ8.AXmP5bGP7x6p&smid=url-share

All the Actions the Trump Administration Has Taken Against Harvard [NYTimes;5.22.2025]

Sub-title: “The pressure campaign to try to force the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university to fall in line with President Trump’s agenda has sprawled beyond just one singular task force or agency.”

Quoting:

“Presidential threats. Onerous investigations. Extensive funding cuts.

“The Trump administration has wielded all three against Harvard University in what began as the work of a task force the president commissioned to address antisemitism on campus — but has sprawled into a multifaceted pressure campaign that leverages the scope and power of the federal government.

“The effort involves at least eight investigations spanning at least six agencies, including the Departments of Justice, Education and Health and Human Services. Some of those agencies, and others, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, have pulled or frozen grants from the school and its research partners, totaling nearly $4 billion. In a major escalation, the Department of Homeland Security said it would halt Harvard’s ability to enroll international students.

“The administration targeted Harvard — and other elite schools, such as Columbia University — as part of a broader political and legal strategy to reshape academia’s race-based admissions policies and perceived liberal bias. While not being officially framed as a personal vendetta for President Trump, the government’s increasingly punitive actions have come after Harvard resisted many of the changes his administration demanded to admissions, curriculum and hiring practices.”

And, another quote re Harvard’s response::

“The university sued after the administration threatened to take away billions in federal funding and has pushed back strongly against the various investigations, denying allegations of wrongdoing and maintaining that it is committed to following the law.

““The administration’s prescription goes beyond the power of the federal government,” Harvard’s president, Dr. Alan Garber, wrote last month. “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.””

 

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Here’s another article on the t0000 administration’s continuing attack, this time involving a particular aspect of Harvard’s Law School, the Harvard Law Review. One of this year’s graduates is a ‘whistleblower’ claiming discrimination, who now is a recent hire of t0000’s Justice Department.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/02/us/politics/harvard-law-review-investigation-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ME8.gHq4.CJxYggNlFWtR&smid=url-share

Title: A Stephen Miller Staffer and Tough Talk: Inside Trump’s Latest Attack on Harvard [NYTimes;6.2.25]

Sub-title: “The Justice Department opened an investigation into the student-run Harvard Law Review. The startling accusations show how the Trump administration is wielding power in pursuit of its political agenda.“

Quote:

“The Justice Department quietly approached Harvard University last month with startling claims, even by the extraordinary standards of the Trump administration’s monthslong assault on the elite college.

“The department signaled that it was reviewing claims of discrimination against white men at The Harvard Law Review, and accused the renowned publication of destroying evidence in an open investigation. The administration demanded that Harvard “cease and desist” from interfering.

“In a series of letters that have not been previously reported, the government also disclosed that it had a “cooperating witness” inside the student-run journal. That witness now works in the White House under Stephen Miller, the architect of the administration’s domestic policy agenda, Trump officials confirmed.”

I can’t help but view it as part of the authoritarian playbook that elements of t0000’s coterie are pursuing in many areas of American society. I’m reminded of the 7 Mountain objectives of taking over 7 elements. I’m sure I can’t remember them all right here. What I think they are: business, education, entertainment, defense, . . . I’ll try to look that up and add/correct. I haven’t read Project 2025. I think that outlines the strategies we see playing out across the many bizarro actions we’ve witnessed since January 21.

Harvard has been standing up against the government attacks on academic freedom.

Quoting the article again:

“The Law Review is independent of Harvard University. The allegations nonetheless deepened fears among Harvard officials that the administration appeared eager to escalate one of its civil investigations into a criminal inquiry, underscoring how the university’s problems with President Trump extend far beyond the loss of billions in federal funding.

“But the aggressive language in the letters from the Justice Department’s two top civil rights lawyers appeared to have overstated the allegations in pursuit of an additional way to punish Harvard. In that way, the episode fits a broader trend in how the administration is wielding federal investigatory powers to impose its political agenda.

“From reshaping the economy to ramping up deportations to punishing the nation’s elite law firms and universities, Mr. Trump’s government has repeatedly prized speed and shock value over the kind of methodical steps typically taken to build a legal case.

“The investigation of The Harvard Law Review offers a glimpse into the strategy. The Justice Department’s not-so-subtle threats helped persuade The Law Review to agree to at least some of the government’s demands, which were delivered in three letters within 10 days in May.“

 

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I am a little frustrated because my phone has recently acquired a glitch. I suspect it’s my phone and not the website since @mdiver hss been diligently caring for the site and the problem persists. It probably has to do with my iCloud storage being full and my doing nothing about that. If you notice some weirdness in the formatting of my posts, it’s cuz I lack access to features I ordinarily would use. Anyway!

I’ve been posting about Harvard and the attack by the t0000 regime on universities, generally.

Here are a few words from Timothy Snyder, the expert on Ukraine, and also on authoritarianism. He left Yale last year and is now at the University of Toronto. A lot of people who follow him mistakenly thought he had fled the U.S. to get away from what is happening here. He made a special address to correct that misconception.

Part of that address referred people to a letter he wrote in the Yale News. I picked out a tiny excerpt from that which caught my eye:

“I did not leave Yale because of Donald Trump, or because of Columbia, or because of threats to Yale — but that would be a reasonable thing to do and that is a decision that people will make. More scholars will leave the United States if universities cannot make the case for themselves and stand together while doing it. The business of universities is to exemplify and create the conditions of liberty. There are reasons why tyrants come after universities first, and this is the main one. I never once felt at Yale the slightest sense that I should or should not say or write anything in particular; it is important that everyone have that sense. What is coming to the United States now is an attempt by the federal government to encourage conformism and denunciations for the purpose of spreading terror and idiocy. This is hugely challenging to all of those who run our universities; self-defense begins with claiming the concepts. Universities are and should name themselves champions of freedom.”

A little further on, Snyder writes, “I have been writing and speaking for a long time about self-induced regime change in the United States and about the origins of modern tyranny. I share the belief of friends and colleagues that American higher education, the best such system that has ever existed, is now in peril because of the policies of people who wish for it not to exist; and I share the hope that universities will cooperate with one another, rather than be picked off one at a time, that they will support their students at a time of the suppression of freedom of speech and government terror. The attacks by the federal government on Yale don’t have anything to do with my own decision, but I do want to take the opportunity to point out that their rationale is ludicrous. I wrote two books on the Holocaust while at Yale and have been personally engaged in teaching about antisemitism at Yale and around the country during my entire career. History shows that the people who attack universities are not friends of the Jews. The present American government is seeking not to combat antisemitism but to foment it. Not to notice this is to allow the word “antisemitism” to become the political instrument of the actual antisemites, and to allow universities to be destroyed in the name of the latest big lie.”

I think Snyder’s words are important in the context of what we’re seeing happening in the U.S. right in front of us, right now.

I’ll post links to the writing/video Snyder made in its entirety, in case you’d like to read all of it:

Last Year's Move to Toronto

And This Year's Politics (video and commentary)

snyder.substack.com

Title: Last Year’s Move to Toronto [on Substack, Snyder’s account, ‘Thinking About . . . ‘ on 6.2.2025

Snyder is the author of ‘On Tyranny’ and ‘On Freedom’, among many other books. He is a historian. He has a lot of interesting things to say about courage, about moving to other countries, different perspectives, opportunities for learning from others and more, in the Substack entry I’ve linked to above.

 

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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/06/climate/trump-coal-gas-plants-energy-emergency.html?unlocked_article_code=1.NE8.kg0G.250PbJe8gEj9&smid=url-share

Coal and Gas Plants Were Closing. Then Trump Ordered Them to Keep Running.[NYTimes;6.6.2025]

Sub-title: "The grid operators that draw power from the plants said they never asked for them to remain open, and consumers may have to absorb extra costs."

Quoting the article:
"The emergency orders, which came last month, surprised the companies that operate the plants, and they are now scrambling to delay some workers’ retirements and reverse nearly complete plans to shutter their facilities. In Michigan, the plant operator raced to buy enough coal to power operations.

"The episode marks a highly unusual use of the Energy Department’s emergency powers under the Federal Power Act. In the past, the department has typically issued emergency orders at the request of regional grid operators to stabilize the power supply during extreme weather events and blackouts.

"Dan Scripps, chair of the Michigan Public Service Commission, said he estimated that the 90-day order to keep the coal plant open would cost ratepayers tens of millions of dollars.

"“What was surprising about this order is that nobody was asking for it,” he said. “The grid operator wasn’t asking for this plant to be kept online. The utility that owns and operates the plant wasn’t asking for the plant to be kept online, the state wasn’t asking for the plant to be kept online.”"

Why does t0000 veer in the direction of causing more pollution wherever he sees the opportunity, especially if climate change is involved? Tim Walz called him a weirdo and that's about as good an explanation as any.

 

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It bugs me that The NY Times has an expiration date for 'shared' articles. I can 'share' 10 articles per month with non-subscribers but, after a period of time, the Times no longer allows access. It makes no sense. Anyway, here's another one from the Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/06/us/politics/supreme-court-doge-social-security.html?unlocked_article_code=1.NE8.8jJl.JifFEQt8ye3k&smid=url-share

Justices Grant DOGE Access to Social Security Data and Let the Team Shield Records [NYTimes;6.6.25]

Sub-title: "As Elon Musk leaves Washington, the team he formed to ferret out waste and abuse won dual victories in the Supreme Court."

Another perplexing ruling from the Supreme Court shows the conservative majority granting more and more power to the presidency. And, exposing citizens to invasions of privacy and to potential targeted mis-use of data.

Quoting from the article:

The Trump administration said it needed the data to root out waste and fraud and to modernize the agency’s operations. Two labor unions and an advocacy group represented by Democracy Forward Foundation sued to block access, saying that much of the information was deeply personal and protected by privacy laws.

The court responded that the agency “may proceed” to allow DOGE access to the records necessary to do its work.

And, again:

In a second unsigned order on Friday the court handed DOGE another victory, ruling that, for now, the organization does not have to turn over internal records to a government watchdog group as part of a public records lawsuit.

The court’s three liberal members — Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson — dissented from both rulings.

. . .

Justice Jackson, joined by Justice Sotomayor, issued a blistering dissent in the Social Security case, accusing the majority of betraying Americans’ trust and giving the administration special treatment.

“On the one hand, there is a repository of millions of Americans’ legally protected, highly sensitive information that — if improperly handled or disseminated — risks causing significant harm,” she wrote. “On the other, there is the government’s desire to ditch the usual protocols for accessing that data, before the courts have even determined whether DOGE’s access is lawful.”

 

[barnswallow]

Here are a set of plain-speaking warnings of the U.S. descent into an unthinkable reality , one that we are living, day by day.

This first one is from The NY Times opinion section, a piece by Ben Rhodes:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/opinion/trump-corruption.html?unlocked_article_code=1.NU8.ZZUP.qDvXkxormIie&smid=url-share

Article title:
Trump’s Self-Dealing Is More Alarming Than You Think [Ben Rhodes, Guest Essay in the NYTimes;6.8.2025]

The NYTimes only allows sharing an article for a limited period before placing it behind a paywall again.

So, a couple of quotes:

“President Trump has more than doubled his personal wealth since starting his 2024 election campaign. Billions of foreign dollars have flowed into his family’s real estate and crypto ventures. A plane that doubles as a “palace in the sky” has been given for Mr. Trump’s use by the government of Qatar.

“It is easy to dismiss this as just a bigger and more brazen version of the self-dealing we saw during the first Trump term. But it poses a more fundamental danger. Our political system is being transformed into something that no longer serves the people. Indeed, the United States is seemingly becoming just another country with a corrupt strongman personalizing and profiting from power.”

. . . Farther down, Rhodes writes:

“ Mr. Lederer likened the pressure corruption puts on a political system to a river bearing down on a dam. Once the dam breaks, you’re washed downriver by currents you can’t control. If you try to rebuild the dam, it’s too late; opposition parties in Hungary, as in the United States, failed to understand that the system collapsed — the dam broke — because the rules and expectations it relied on had disintegrated beyond salvaging.

“ When that happens, it seems only to confirm what leaders like Mr. Orban and Mr. Trump have been saying all along: The system was rotten, and the opposition parties were clueless to reality or too feckless to change it. The corruption becomes a flood, a new normal, carrying the entire country along with it.

“Americans are farther downriver than we seem to understand. Indeed, over the past several months, Mr. Trump has made moves that far exceed anything Mr. Orban has done. What separates Mr. Trump from an Orban or even a Putin is the awesome economic, technological and military power of the enterprise that he now leads: the United States of America.

“No country has more leverage over the global economy. Through tariffs announced on every country on earth, Mr. Trump has personalized that power. Tariffs give him the authority to move markets. He can turn the dial up or down. He has bypassed Congress and cast efforts to constrain him as anti-American, lashing out at “USA HATING JUDGES” on a trade court that tried to limit his tariff authority. This creates limitless opportunities for profit.”

. . . Farther down in the piece, Rhodes writes:

“Already, Mr. Trump has cut government programs that people depend on but that do not bolster his power or offer opportunities for profit. Indeed, the “big, beautiful bill” that makes up his legislative agenda would be a boon to his family and wealthiest supporters while slashing Medicaid and nutrition assistance. It would add over $2 trillion to the national debt while exploding inequality and making life worse for many Americans. That, too, is a story of corruption: Russians and Hungarians deal with struggling economies and declining services while their leaders become richer and more powerful.

““Don’t try to restore the dam,” Mr. Lederer advised me. “Better to regroup and go down the river to build a new dam.” That means focusing efforts on state and local governments, where Democrats can reduce the power of special interests and fill some of the gaps left by a federal government devoted to serving Mr. Trump’s interests.”

. . . Near the end of the article, Rhodes writes:

“It’s not as if the United States was perfect before the 2024 presidential election. Yet Donald Trump is demonstrating what happens when our sense of ourselves as a singularly exceptional nation, unbound by the rules that govern everyone else, is transferred from the nation to one man. We’ve had bad presidents before, but none who have personally profited as much from the office. Markets and institutions can impose some guardrails, but ultimately nothing will impose a meaningful check like the mobilization of the American people.”

I’d ordinarily link to this using the options from this app but, for some reason, they are in a shadowed condition and I can’t access them.

On a similar note, here’s Anthony Davis of ‘Five-Minute News’ and ‘Uncovered’:


Title: “Trump BLOWS UP USA in DISASTER GROWS” [on Meidas Touch;6.8.2025]

. . . I’m sure that’s a typo and it should read *as* disaster grows”