If you can’t decide whether to make red beans and rice or jambalaya, why not make a bastardized version of the two?
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Politics:
Convicted Felon Planning Large Concentration Camp at Guantánamo
Anyone remember why prisoners were sent there after 9/11 rather than somewhere on the mainland? Because Dubya argued that since Guantánamo is not sovereign U.S. territory, Constitutional niceties like habeas corpus and the prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishment” would not apply there.
Far-right vote on asylum rocks German parliament
Germany's parliament descended into heckles and recriminations on Wednesday after a "firewall" against working with the far-right cracked.
U.S. Drops Case Against Trump Co-Defendants
Trump valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira were charged with conspiring with Trump to obstruct an FBI investigation into the hoarding of classified documents that the Republican took with him when he left the White House after his first term.
So now there’s no remotely plausible reason to not release the second volume of Jack Smith’ final report.
‘Malicious Compliance’ Is Not the Issue With Trump’s Executive Orders
The president’s decrees are deliberately sweeping and chaotic.
The goal of all these orders is not to implement policy, but to generate outrage, report the spasms of liberal apoplexy to the MAGA faithful, and then, when necessary, go to court. And why not? The president now has a politically sympathetic Supreme Court majority that worked hard to keep him out of prison while he was a candidate, and has functionally immunized him against almost any challenge now that he’s back in office.
Trump’s people know that they cannot actually shake the Constitution like an Etch A Sketch and make birthright citizenship disappear, but why not give it a shot, especially if a trolling executive order makes the base happy?
Don’t Let The Chaos Mask Trump’s Lawless Power Grabs
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You may see articles arguing that one action or another action taken by Trump resembles something that a previous administration did. That totally, completely misses what’s happening. The Trump restoration is simply unlike anything that we’ve ever seen before. It’s singularly, startlingly focused on increasing the president’s power…
It’s as if Trump has dumped the pieces of the world’s biggest jigsaw puzzle across the streets of Washington: Everyone is chasing around the individual pieces, while only the Trump team has a sense of how all the pieces fit together… The Trump team already knows what they want it to look like—they’ve seen the picture on the outside of the box.
Trump’s First Big Fiasco Is a Lesson for Democrats
Admitting failure is anathema to the authoritarian leader, who is perpetually in danger of being diminished by those who are resentful of his glory—which is why White House adviser Stephen Miller is frantically searching for scapegoats to blame for the unfolding disaster around President Donald Trump’s massive freeze on federal spending…
All of which carries a lesson for Democrats: This is what it looks like when the opposition stirs and uses its power in a unified way to make a lot of what you might call sheer political noise. That can help set the media agenda, throw Trump and his allies on the defensive, and deliver defeats to Trump that deflate his cultish aura of invincibility.
Said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT): “This has been a red-alert moment for weeks—but now no one can deny it. For my colleagues that didn’t want to cry wolf, the wolf is literally chomping at our leg right now.”
Trump Revokes Protected Status for 600,000 Venezuelans
The Trump administration has revoked an extension of deportation protections that the previous Biden administration granted to more than 600,000 Venezuelans already in the United States.
The federal program is available for people fleeing ongoing armed conflict, environmental disasters, or extraordinary and temporary conditions.
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Trump’s Team Has Been Planning This for Years
The first 10 days of Donald Trump’s presidency have seen such an onslaught of executive orders and implementing actions that Steve Bannon’s strategy to “flood the zone with shit” seems apt. But that characterization is incomplete, and it obscures a more frightening truth: The Trump administration’s actions have been not just voluminous but efficient and effective. Though Trump himself may not appreciate the depth of detail that has gone into these early days, his allies do appear to understand what they are doing, and they seem to have his unquestioning consent to do whatever they like.
And what they want is very clear: to take full control of the federal government. Not in the way that typifies every change of administration but in a more extreme way designed to eradicate opposition, disempower federal authority, and cause federal bureaucrats to cower. It is an assault on basic governance.
A great deal of thought has gone into this effort already. The executive orders and sundry administrative directives and guidance that have been issued reflect a profound understanding of the federal government and exactly where the weak spots within the bureaucracy might lie.
Trump Desperately Wants Democratic Legitimacy
It may seem counterintuitive, but part of Trump’s MAGA populism is an excessive regard for the sanctity of elections. It’s why it was so important to deny the legitimate and obvious results of the 2020 election. It’s why Trump insisted he had won the popular vote in 2016, when he clearly didn’t. It’s also why, way back in February 2016, he claimed that Ted Cruz had only won the Iowa Caucus because of fraud.
The appearance of democratic legitimacy is important to Trump. The force of his popularity is one of his most effective weapons against institutions that try to constrain him.
Now that Trump is president again, he’s using that projection of popularity and his demagogic will to power against the Constitution and laws of the United States.
Trump Hires New Lawyers to Appeal Hush Money Case
Inspector General Escorted Out After Defying Trump
Security agents escorted the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Agriculture out of her office on Monday after she refused to comply with her firing by the Trump administration.
Phyllis Fong, a 22-year veteran of the department, had earlier told colleagues that she intended to stay after the White House terminated her Friday, saying that she didn’t believe the administration had followed proper protocols.
RFK Jr. Doesn’t Understand Medicaid
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday ‘most Americans are not happy’ with Medicaid because ‘the premiums are too high,’ suggesting he may be oblivious to the fact that Medicaid overwhelmingly does not have premiums.
In reality, the vast majority of Medicaid enrollees pay nothing for health coverage, which is the point of the program—to insure low-income Americans who cannot afford private health insurance or out-of-pocket costs for medical care.
The resistance will not be rushed
Compare and contrast: Justice Department May Drop Case Against Eric Adams and Bob Menendez Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison. Both guilty AF, only one Get Out of Jail Free card.
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