I’m seeing a lot of articles about Trump’s turn on Iran, how it’s in response to pressure from Israel, his evolving views. I think these are all either overblown or irrelevant. As I noted earlier, what’s driving Trump here is the hunger to get in on a “win.” It might be best to see it as a typical Trumpian branding exercise. Israel has got a product ready to go to market and they’ve offered Trump the opportunity to slap the Trump name on it. But even beyond all that there’s something more. The U.S. has wanted to get rid of the Iranian nuclear program for a very long time. We’ve used coercive sanctions. We’ve engaged in espionage and sabotage. Barack Obama spent a huge amount of time putting together a diplomatic agreement to restrict it.
Continue reading “An Offer Trump Can’t Refuse”Right-Wing Agitation For Violence Against Protesters Swells
Local officials in Adams County, Pennsylvania are condemning a social media post shared by the county sheriff on Facebook that featured an image of a white pickup truck with red splatters across the front bumper, hood and tires. The image posted by Adams County Sheriff James Muller was captioned “The All New Dodge Ram Protester Edition.” The red splatters are very clearly supposed to be blood.
Continue reading “Right-Wing Agitation For Violence Against Protesters Swells”Senate Passes Massive Cryptocurrency Bill, Ignoring Risk To Financial System
The Senate gave its stamp of approval on Wednesday to a massive and growing chunk of the cryptocurrency industry, blessing it with a light-touch regulatory regime that, experts say, may come with a price tag: the stability of the country’s financial system. It’s the most significant victory yet for the crypto lobby, which enjoys near-unanimous support in the Republican Party as well as significant backing from many Democrats.
This bill passed with 68 votes in support, 30 against. Eighteen Democrats joined nearly all Republicans in supporting the bill.
Continue reading “Senate Passes Massive Cryptocurrency Bill, Ignoring Risk To Financial System”Ninth Circuit Mulls How Far the White House Went in Deploying Troops to LA
A panel on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals seemed inclined on Tuesday to keep President Trump in charge of the California National Guard, with judges pressing into just how little justification the White House needs to provide for sending troops into American cities.
Continue reading “Ninth Circuit Mulls How Far the White House Went in Deploying Troops to LA”Senate Republicans Propose Gutting Medicaid Further To Make Trump Tax Cuts Permanent
The Senate Finance Committee, which oversees changes made to taxes and social safety net programs like Medicare and Medicaid, dropped their portion of edits to House Republicans’ reconciliation package on Monday afternoon.
Continue reading “Senate Republicans Propose Gutting Medicaid Further To Make Trump Tax Cuts Permanent”Thoughts on Israel’s Iran Campaign and Donald Trump
I haven’t had a lot to say about Israel and Iran because I haven’t had a lot to add. But I want to suggest something about the possible entry of the United States into the war. These aren’t conclusions, more questions I’ve had and questions that help me frame how I’ve looked at what’s happening.
In the first couple days of this hot conflict, the conventional wisdom and reporting went from Israel doing this more or less entirely on its own, perhaps even interfering in U.S. diplomacy, to the idea that the apparent rush of diplomacy between the U.S. and Iran was actually a ruse concocted by Israel and United States to lull the Iranians into letting their guard down. At first this seemed to be what they call in the online world right wing “cope,” shoving Donald Trump back into the center of the story as He-Man hero when he had actually seemed marginal to the action. But then it started showing up in news reports. And from what I can tell at this point, it’s almost treated as a given, just part of the reported story.
This certainly may be accurate. But I’m not sure that it is. I think it’s also possible that the initial attack was fabulously successful in tactical terms (no one would deny that) and Trump basically wanted in on it. Because he likes success. In a normal administration, reporters might get a clearer read on what was real or what wasn’t. But this isn’t a normal administration. Much of “what the plan is” is an unknowable thing in Donald Trump’s head and a feature of the Trumpian personality cult is that once there’s an approved story, that is the story. Period. I could be right or wrong on my supposition here. But I’m not even sure if the people inside the administration actually know. In any case, I think there’s a pretty good chance the whole ‘we were secretly working together to lull Tehran into complacency’ is a complete fiction, an online MAGA speculation that the White House and Trump glommed onto and made real because it was convenient and helpful.
Continue reading “Thoughts on Israel’s Iran Campaign and Donald Trump”Tina Smith Calls Out Mike Lee’s Rancid Social Media Posts
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
‘I Wanted Him To Hear From Me Directly’
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) was among the worst culprits of trying to muddy the waters around the weekend assassination spree of Vance Luther Boelter in Minnesota – and Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) was having none of it.
In a memorable image captured Monday on the Hill, Smith was seen confronting Lee about his gross and misleading social posts that seemed to blame the victims and left-wing ideology:
“I wanted him to hear from me directly about how painful that was, and how brutal it was, to see that on what was just a horribly brutal weekend,” Smith told reporters afterward. “He didn’t say a lot, frankly. I think he was a bit stunned.”
One of Smith’s staffers sent a blistering email to Lee’s office, beseeching it to show some restraint:
New Details On Assassination Plot
According to officials, Vance Luther Boelter went to the homes of two other Minnesota lawmakers between the shootings at the homes of the Hoffmans and Hortmans. Other grim details of the the plot were revealed in the affidavit of a FBI agent.
California No Kings Protester Injured
A No Kings protester was seriously injured in a hit-and-run Saturday in Riverside, California, that followed a confrontation between the crowd and the driver of a black SUV. Alexa Carrasco, 21, remains hospitalized. “We want to get out of the woods first,” her uncle, Rosalio Carrasco, told TPM’s Hunter Walker, in a Spanish-language interview last night. “I know many people are helping us with prayers and thats all we care about at this moment.”
Quote Of The Day
“Considered individually, defendants’ legal arguments are meritless. Considered in the aggregate, they are terrifying. Defendants’ interpretation of Section 12406 would empower the President to commandeer a State’s National Guard based merely on evidence that some civilians opposed his authority, disobeyed his commands, or presented operational difficulties for civil law enforcement officials—and without any input from (or even notice to) the Governor. Courts would be powerless to enforce the limits Congress imposed on the President’s exercise of that authority.”–lawyers for California, in a court filing challenging President Trump federalization of the state’s National Guard
Collateral Damage
U.S. citizens of Hispanic descent continue to be entrapped in the Trump administration’s mass deportation operation.
Big White House Flip-Flop On Immigration
The Department of Homeland Security quickly reversed its guidance from just last week that de-emphasized immigration enforcement in the agricultural, hotel, and restaurant industries.
UPDATE: South Sudan Deportees In Djibouti
Lawyers for the cluster of detainees stranded for weeks at a U.S. military base in Djibouti while en route to South Sudan were given contact information for them and a ICE intermediary who can arrange communications, the government told a federal court in Massachusetts in a status update.
Why The Rush?
The Trump administration is trying to sweep the original Abrego Garcia case under the rug before U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis is finished ascertaining whether it was in contempt of court for its months of stonewalling her orders. The Trump DOJ has now filed a motion to dismiss the case on the grounds that the administration’s return of Abrego Garcia to the United States to face trumped-up criminal charges deprives Xinis of any further jurisdiction.
For Your Radar …
One of the USAID cases is slowly moving toward possible contempt of court over the failure of the Trump administration to restore funding as ordered by U.S. District Judge Amir Ali of D.C. He has given the administration until next Monday to provide him with the next steps it plans to take to comply with his March 10 preliminary injunction. March 10! It’s June 17, for those keeping track.
Federal Judge Deplores The Racism Of NIH Cuts
U.S. District Judge William Young of Boston voided what he determined were illegal directives to terminate NIH grants meant to address LGBTQ and racial inequalities in health care.
“This represents racial discrimination and discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community,” said Young, an 84-year-old Reagan appointee. “That’s what this is. I would be blind not to call it out. My duty is to call it out — and I do so.”
DOGE Watch
- NYT: Inside DOGE’s Chaotic Takeover of Social Security
- Politico: Trump’s cuts bring climate and energy agencies to a standstill, workers say
ABA Sues Trump Over Big Law EOs
The American Bar Association filed a lawsuit on behalf of itself and its members against the Trump administration challenging the executive orders targeting law firms.
Ex-Sen. Menendez Reports To Prison Today
Robert Menendez, the longtime New Jersey Democratic senator convicted on federal bribery charges, is scheduled to report to prison today in Pennsylvania to begin serving an 11-year sentence.
Mike Lindell Hit With $2.3M Defamation Verdict
Dominion Voting Systems employee Eric Coomer won a $2.3 million defamation verdict in federal court in Denver against MyPillow founder Mike Lindell over 2020 Big Lie falsehoods.
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They’re Giving The Whole Game Away
You don’t have to squint to see it.
In a lengthy Truth Social post Sunday that you have likely already seen by now, President Trump made clear that his Priority No. 1 Mass Deportation Scheme goes hand in hand with the retribution agenda: invading blue cities, stoking chaos and panic among residents and punishing the Democratic leadership of those jurisdictions.
Continue reading “They’re Giving The Whole Game Away”A Good Corrective
There’s a good piece in the Post today by Philip Bump making an important corrective point which is that, no, we shouldn’t assume that millions of people going out and protesting against Donald Trump is actually great news for Donald Trump. The issue is sort of over-learning the fairly questionable lesson of the George Floyd protests, thinking that they somehow redounded to Trump’s benefit. As Bump notes, there’s pretty little evidence that this is true. At least in the short- to medium-term most evidence suggests the opposite.
Continue reading “A Good Corrective”MAGA Whips Up Conspiracy Theories To Muddy An Act Of Right-Wing Violence
It took only hours after an allegedly Trump-supporting gunman shot multiple Democratic state lawmakers and their spouses for the right-wing misinformation machine to chug into action.
Continue reading “MAGA Whips Up Conspiracy Theories To Muddy An Act Of Right-Wing Violence”