No Sift next week. The next new posts will appear on February 23.
Our response should not be "This response to Bad Bunny's inclusion shows how divided we are, how can we stop this polarization?" Our response should be uncooperative: "The response to Bad Bunny's inclusion shows just how racist our society is. Racists are angry about the halftime show? Good! Everything about our society should make racists feel alienated. How do we make racists feel even more alienated from even more of society?
- A. R. Moxon, The Reframe
This week's featured posts are "Non-Cooperation" and "Dying in Broad Daylight: The Washington Post".
Ongoing stories
- Trump's assault on American democracy. This week he threatened to "nationalize" vote-counting in 15 states, and continued the violent occupation of Minneapolis.
- Climate change. Trump's war against renewable energy is having results: Last year, for every new dollar committed to renewable energy projects, three dollars were rolled back.
- Gaza. The ceasefire is holding more or less, but it can't hold forever if Gazans' lives don't start improving.
- Ukraine. The question is less who is winning than who will crack first. Russia's economy is in serious trouble, and Ukraine is running out of soldiers.
This week's developments
This week everybody was talking about election interference
In the wake of the regime's seizure of Georgia's 2020 ballots and election records, and Trump threatening to "nationalize" the midterm elections rather than let states run them (as the Constitution mandates), it's hard to decide how alarmed to be. Trump may daydream about counting the ballots himself and proclaiming his lackeys the winners, but what can he actually get away with?
Hakeem Jeffries sounds very confident: "What Donald Trump wants to do is try and nationalize the election – translation: steal it. And we’re not going to let it happen. This is going to be a free and fair election. [It] is going to be conducted like every other election where states and localities have the ability to administer the laws."
Democracy Docket's Marc Elias gets down into the weeds a little and has a more nuanced take on the situation. He starts with the strange fact that the warrant for the Georgia seizure came from a Missouri prosecutor, Thomas Albus, rather than from any Georgia prosecutor. It turns out that Albus has been named a "special assistant" to the attorney general. That gives him national scope, and might allow him to seize ballots anywhere in the country.
But Elias thinks seizing ballots in an ongoing election might be more difficult.
It is one thing to seize old ballots; it is quite another to imagine federal agents seizing ballots from county offices on election night or the day after. And that’s only the beginning of the chaos he could unleash. States and counties have limited supplies of voting machines and tabulators, and Trump has already threatened to unilaterally decertify certain machines. A federal prosecutor willing to abuse his power would be a potent tool in achieving Trump’s stated goals. The same is true of mail-in ballots and other forms of voting that Trump seeks to outlaw or disrupt.
But Albus would need cooperation from other prosecutors, FBI agents, and local judges. While Albus might be willing to corruptly serve his boss, others might not be.
Vox interviewed the Brennan Center's Wendy Weiser, who has a similar opinion.
There is a very high risk that the administration will use every tool at its disposal to get voting machines or ballots in the course of an upcoming election. But I don’t think there is a high risk that they will succeed. I think every magistrate judge in the country would understand the difference between a search warrant to seize materials for an election that happened five years ago and a search warrant to seize election materials from an election in progress. I understand why people are worried. But it’s not remotely the same.
The Vox article also addresses the worry that ICE will create chaos in Democratic cities in swing states -- maybe Atlanta or Philadelphia or Milwaukee. The point would be to lower voter turnout and shift the state Republican. However, it's just as likely that a heavy ICE presence would energize Democratic voters rather than deter them. Weiser concludes:
There is clearly an effort afoot to interfere in our elections and that is something that people should be alarmed about. But this can be thwarted. And it must be.
and Minneapolis (still)
If you think the regime has changed its tactics in Minneapolis, think again. Watch this video, for example. A woman is following an unmarked ICE vehicle when agents jump out with guns drawn on her. The quickness with which agents draw their guns tells you everything you need to know. Has there been a single incident in Minneapolis in which an agent drawing a gun was an appropriate response? I think not.
More senseless gun-drawing and tear-gassing is recorded here. And then there's this incident:
Four days after ICE arrested a Rochester man who is the recipient of a kidney transplant, federal authorities still have not given him the life-saving medications he needs to prevent his body from rejecting the donated kidney, according to the man’s wife.
There hasn't been a headline-grabbing ICE murder in the last couple of weeks. But that doesn't mean anything has fundamentally changed.
Speaking of murder, Trump explains to NBC's Tony Llamas how unfair it is to judge his immigration crackdown by the completely unjustified killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti: "two people out of tens of thousands, and you get bad publicity".
Has anybody in history ever been treated more unfairly than Donald Trump? I mean, I get that two people are dead and their families will never see them again, but Trump has had to suffer through bad publicity. How can you not sympathize with him?
Yesterday I spoke to my minister, who was part of the clergy demonstrations in Minneapolis two weeks ago. He described a church in Minneapolis that invited families who are afraid to leave their homes to sign up online to have groceries delivered to them. They expected to get maybe a dozen responses, but instead they got hundreds. And they mobilized volunteers to deliver the food.
Fox News loves to describe the resistance in Minnesota as "a national network of socialist, communist and Marxist-Leninist cells in the United States" who are funded by "foreign adversaries". But it's neighbors helping neighbors, using free online tools (like Sign-Up Genius) to organize themselves.
Springsteen's "Streets of Minneapolis" was the most-downloaded song in the country last week.
Law Dork discusses a remarkable court transcript in Minnesota. You may have heard one quote from it, where the administration's lawyer fantasizes about being held in contempt so that she can get some sleep.
The larger story is that lawyers and prosecutors have been resigning from the Minnesota office because the administration's policies challenge them ethically. Simultaneously, ICE is arresting so many people for no reason that it's hard to process all the court orders releasing them. So they remain in custody for no reason.
The judge, understandably, disapproves. "What you cannot do is detain first and sort out lawful authority later."
and Trump's racism
As anyone with a shred of objectivity knows, Donald Trump has been racist his whole life. NYT columnist Jamelle Bouie sums up:
For years, a cottage industry of political observers has contorted itself to obscure and occlude the obvious. That regardless of what others see in him, Trump’s entire political career — from his embrace of birtherism to his hatred of birthright citizenship — cannot be understood outside the context of his bitter, deep-seated racism.
Thursday night, he ended all legitimate doubt by posting a one-minute video that included an image of Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, a common racist trope. After expressions of outrage even from friendly Republicans like South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, the post was removed. But Trump insisted that he would not apologize because "I didn't make a mistake." He claimed he hadn't watched the video all the way through, and so had missed the Obamas-as-apes part. Of course, reposting to millions of people videos you haven't watched all the way to the end is not a "mistake", and the people who do watch it to the end don't deserve an apology.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denounced the "fake outrage" the video provoked. Obviously, no one could be genuinely offended by the President of the United States promoting a centuries-old slander that casts your people as subhuman.
A federal judge blocked Kristi Noem's attempt to end temporary protected status for over 350K Haitians living in the US. The judge points out that Noem has attempted to block all 12 of the TPS designations that have come up for renewal during her tenure. The law establishing TPS had very specific condition for ending TPS status, and Noem has completely ignored them.
Notice, this has nothing to do with "illegal" immigration. TPS recipients come here legally, work, and play significant roles in some communities. These are the same people that J. D. Vance slandered as eating their neighbors' dogs and cats.
and the Washington Post
That's covered in one of the featured posts.
but I want to introduce you to somebody
The other featured post links to The Reframe, a Substack written by A. R. Moxon.
and the Kennedy Center
Putting Trump's name on the Kennedy Center resulted in audiences staying away and artists canceling their performances. So Trump decided to take his ball and go home: The Trump-Kennedy Center will close for two years for renovations, starting on July 4.
The "Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding" is supposed to cost $200 million, which will either come from private donations or from money for "capital improvements" in the Big Beautiful Bill. NPR doesn't see how this is possible, given that renovations on the David Geffen Hall in Lincoln Center in New York cost $550 million for a less complicated space.
The Center has contracts that go beyond July 4: scheduled performances, employees contracted to work there, and so on. It's not clear what will happen to them, or if anybody has even thought about them. Five unions issued a joint statement:
At this time, no formal notice or briefing has been provided to the unions of arts workers whose labor sustains the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. We only know of public statements issued by President Trump and an internal message to some Kennedy Center employees that reiterated the President’s social media remarks. A pause in Kennedy Center operations without due regard for those who work there would be harmful for the arts and creative workers in America. Should we receive formal notice of a temporary suspension of Kennedy Center operations that displaces our members, we will enforce our contracts and exercise all our rights under the law. We expect continued fair pay, enforceable worker protections, and accountability for our members in the event they cannot work due to an operational pause. Our members remain steadfast in bringing to life theatrical, music, opera, dance, and other live artistic performances in the nation’s capital that speak to and resonate with all Americans.
During his second term, Trump has put a lot of effort into making a mark on DC and the country that will live on after him. This project, I think, is doomed to fail. As soon as he is gone, the country will undo virtually everything he has done. From the Kennedy Center to the Gulf of Mexico, everything will get its pre-Trump name back. His battleship class will never sail. His ballroom will become something else entirely. His triumphal arch, if it gets built at all, will be torn down. The Trump Era is going to be remembered as a time of American shame. By the time he's gone, not even his current supporters will want to commemorate it.
and you also might be interested in ...
Economist Oren Cass wrote an important piece in the NYT: "The Finance Industry is a Grift. Let's Start Treating it That Way". Once, the banking industry was how people's spare cash turned into houses, railroads, and factories. But the vast majority of what the finance industry does today is disconnected from the productive economy, and its profits are largely parasitic.
The Epstein survivors have released a new ad calling on Pam Bondi: "It's time for the truth".
When the Trump administration gets beat, it turns vindictive. We've seen that spiteful side in their unending persecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who they were forced to return to his family after illegally sending him to a concentration camp in El Salvador. Now we're seeing the same hate unleashed against the family of Liam Ramos, the five-year-old whose detention became national news. A week ago Saturday, a federal judge ordered Liam and his father released from the concentration camp in Texas where they had been held since January 20. His ruling was scalding.
But of course, the regime can't let that stand. So Wednesday they petitioned to expedite deportation hearings on Liam's father, who came to the border legally, requested asylum from persecution in his home country of Ecuador, and is cooperating with the legal asylum process. Friday, a federal judge granted a continuance, slowing the process down. The reports I've seen so far don't say for how long.
J. D. Vance got booed during the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Milan. But if you were watching live in the US, you didn't hear it; the rest of the world did. Best response is from Keith Oregel: "Imagine getting booed for being a fascist in Italy."
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