Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
- Juvenal, 2nd century AD
This week's featured posts are "Only Trump represents the People" and "Fantasies of a vast, violent left-wing conspiracy".
Ongoing stories
- Trump's assault on American democracy. Chicago resists, while Portland responds with absurdity.
- Climate change. There's a new warning about a tipping point for coral reefs.
- Gaza. The peace agreement is holding, at least for now. Hostages are coming home.
- Ukraine. Russia is escalating the risks because it is running out of time to win.
This week's developments
The Gaza Peace Plan
To my surprise, the peace agreement has held for an entire week. Today, Hamas released its surviving hostages. Here's what The Atlantic is saying:
Just over a year ago, President Joe Biden had proposed a similar deal to the one pitched by Trump, to no avail. Did Trump succeed by pressuring Netanyahu in a way that his predecessor refused to do? Or did Israel simply degrade Hamas so badly that the terrorist group had no choice but to agree? Both factors seem to have played a role. Did Arab countries sway Hamas, or did the monarchies push Trump to change his stance? Both, again, seem to have been factors, according to our conversations with 10 officials from the United States, Israel, Arab nations, and Europe, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing talks. Now the question is whether the swap of hostages for prisoners unfolds as planned, and whether this week’s diplomatic success will amount to anything more than a blip in the fighting.
and the ongoing invasion of Chicago
The semi-comic superhero Peacemaker once said: "I made a vow to have peace. No matter how many people I have to kill to get it." Trump's ICE raids and National Guard deployments are similar: He would have us believe that he is dead set on stopping crime, no matter how many laws he has to break to do it. And if armed men have to drag you and your family out of your home in the middle of the night and zip-tie you all in the back of a van in order to keep you safe, Trump's people are up to the job.
Here are just a few of the cases I ran into this week:
- In Chicago, ICE shot a Presbyterian pastor the head with a pepper ball. ICE agents shot from the roof of their building. The pastor was among nonviolent protesters in the street.
- A Delaware domestic violence victim with protected status and no criminal record was taken from her home in front of her children and flown to ICE's Louisiana concentration camp, where she was held for nearly a month before relatives and the Delaware attorney general were able to find her and negotiate her release.
- A 13-year-old boy got arrested by police in Everett, Massachusetts. His mother was called to pick him up, but before she could get there ICE had wisked him away to Virginia. "The teen and his family, who are Brazilian nationals, have a pending asylum case and are authorized to work legally in the United States, [immigration lawyer Andrew] Lattarulo said."
- And this: "Doctors at Adventist Health White Memorial hospital in Boyle Heights told LAist that hospital administrators are allowing federal immigration agents to interfere in medical decisions and block doctors from properly treating detainees who need emergency care."
I believe I could find large numbers of similar abuses if I looked harder. There is a crime wave in our cities, but it's not immigrants: It's ICE agents who pay no attention to the legal limits on their actions.
The big news this week mainly happened in court. The question to be resolved is how much deference courts owe a president who is either lying or completely deranged.
The laws that allow the President to federalize National Guard units and deploy them to American cities are all based on the existence of certain conditions, like "invasion" by a foreign nation, "rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States", or "the President is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States".
Ordinarily, if it's anything like a close call, courts defer to a president's judgment about whether such conditions exist. But if a president can make stuff up, then the conditions might as well not be in the law at all. If that's what Congress intended, the law should just say, "The President can take command of the National Guard whenever he wants."
Obviously, the law doesn't say that, so there is some limit to the deference a president is owed. Just as obviously, when Trump described Portland as "war ravaged", he passed that limit. His claims about Chicago are only somewhat more credible.
What Trump intends to do with the troops is also a factor. If the problem he intends to address is "crime" rather than rebellion or insurrection, that is better in one way and worse in another. All cities have crime, so he is at least not delusional when he refers to crime as a problem. But Posse Comitatus and other laws put firm limits on the conditions under which National Guard or regular military units can participate in law enforcement (which has long been a state and local responsibility). So he can call up units, but it's hard to see what they can do (legally) to solve a crime problem.
Here's where things stand at the moment. In Portland, a federal district judge barred Trump from sending National Guard troops -- either Oregon's or some other state's -- to Portland. However, a three-judge appeals court panel reviewing the matter has two Trump appointees, and they seemed skeptical of the lower-court's order. Portland's Channel 6 anticipates that Trump will be allowed to deploy the guard to protect ICE offices and other federal buildings, but not to do any law enforcement.
A Chicago-based federal appeals court has allowed National Guard troops (including 200 from Texas) to remain under federal control in Illinois, but not to deploy to Chicago.
Meanwhile, large numbers of non-military federal agents -- including many whose arms and uniforms make them almost indistinguishable from soldiers -- have deployed to both cities and are engaging in violent activities: attacking apartment buildings, tear-gassing peaceful protesters and journalists, marching masked down Michigan Avenue, shooting protesters, and so on.
Governor Pritzker explains Trump's plan:
This escalation of violence is targeted and intentional and premeditated. The Trump administration is following a playbook: cause chaos, create fear and confusion, make it seem like peaceful protestors are a mob, by firing gas pellets and teargas canisters at them. Why? To create the pretext for invoking the Insurrection Act, so that he can send military troops to our city. He wants to justify and normalize the presence of armed soldiers under his direct command.
The best thing anti-regime media outlets can do is post videos of what is actually happening in places like Chicago and Portland. Jimmy Kimmel has created a #ShowMeYourHellHole hashtag and asked people to post videos of what's going on around them. Here's my favorite so far.
Meanwhile, Portland is being Portland.
Crowds that have gathered daily and nightly outside the immigration facility in Oregon’s largest city in recent days have embraced the absurd, donning inflatable frog, unicorn, axolotl and banana costumes as they face off with federal law enforcement who often deploy teargas and pepper balls.
Sunday, there was a naked bike ride to protest against troops deploying into the city. See the closing for more Portlandish absurdity.
and the shutdown
There is essentially no progress to report. Democrats are refusing to approve a continuing resolution unless it addresses Obamacare subsidies, which are lapsing and will cause huge increases in many families' health insurance premiums. Republicans are refusing any concessions, even though many of them realize their own constituents are being hurt.
This week the regime announced that it was using the excuse of the government shutdown to fire more federal workers. About 4600 were let go in all, which doesn't sound like a lot compared to the size of the federal government. But certain areas were hit particularly hard: about 100 were fired from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Because, it's not like substance abuse is a problem in America.
and the increasing evidence of Trump's dementia
Just after midnight on Sunday, Trump posted this:
THE BIDEN FBI PLACED 274 AGENTS INTO THE CROWD ON JANUARY 6. If this is so, which it is, a lot of very good people will be owed big apologies. What a SCAM - DO SOMETHING!!! President DJT
Anybody see the problem? January 6 happened at the end of the first Trump administration. There was no "Biden FBI". Did Trump forget he was president then?
Friday, Trump held a news conference to announce an agreement with the British drug company AstraZeneca.
Under the deal, AstraZeneca agreed to sell its drugs to Medicaid, the health insurance program for lower-income Americans, at about the same prices that it offers to wealthy countries in Europe.
As with all Trump announcements, we'll have to wait and see whether this agreement has any actual effect. But I will guarantee you one thing: It won't have the effect Trump promised. Here's what he said:
Now drug prices are going to be going down 100 percent, 400 percent, 600 percent, 1,000 percent, in some cases. ... And as an example, one particular drug that's hot, very hot, 654 percent, on inhalers, COPD and asthma, as well as certain diabetics medications. They're going to be averaging about 654 percent reduction in price.
If math isn't your strong suit, let me interpret: Suppose a pill costs $1. A 100% price cut means that AstraZeneca gives you the pill for nothing. 1000% of $1 is $10. So a price reduction of 1000% means AstraZeneca will pay you $9 to take the pill. A 654% reduction means they'll pay you $5.54. Do you really believe that's going to happen?
This wasn't a slip of the tongue or a teleprompter screw-up. At the 5:20 mark in the White House video, the camera pulls back enough that you can see a poster on an easel. The poster claims that some drug has a 654% price reduction.
This raises two issues:
- Does Trump's brain really work so badly these days that he believes price reductions over 100% are possible? (Seth Meyers would say yes.)
- Think about the number of people who had to be involved in producing that poster and setting it up. None of them had the courage to push back and tell the Mad King "This doesn't make any sense."
And finally, let's look at the credulous press coverage Trump gets. The WaPo article on this event doesn't mention his laughable claims. The NYT mentions this dementia symptom in the 7th paragraph of its article:
He spoke of delivering seemingly impossible price reductions, such as a “654 percent discount” on Bevespi Aerosphere, an AstraZeneca inhaler for patients with respiratory problems.
Seemingly impossible? Compare this to the wall-to-wall coverage Biden would get whenever he flubbed something.
During the week that the Special Counsel’s report came out, we examined the top 20 articles on the Times’ landing page every four hours. In that time, they published 26 unique articles about Biden’s age, of which 1 of them explored the possibility that Trump’s age was of equal or more concern.
Now, Trump outright babbles and the WaPo ignores it while the NYT tells us he seems to have made a mistake. Apparently the NYT believes it is a matter of opinion whether drug prices are going down more than 100%.
and you also might be interested in ...
Don't forget the No Kings protests on Saturday. There's bound to be one in your area. You may not feel like you can do much to stop the Trump regime. But you can at least do this.
After a few months of relative peace, the trade war with China has restarted. China is restricting exports of rare-earth metals that are used in a wide variety of electronic devices. Trump is threatening 100% tariffs on imports from China. Investment markets crashed on Friday and have recovered somewhat today.
A new report says that the Earth's coral reefs are at a tipping point and have entered into a period of "long-term decline".
The report from scientists and conservationists warns the world is also “on the brink” of reaching other tipping points, including the dieback of the Amazon, the collapse of major ocean currents and the loss of ice sheets.
Back in May, Trump added a carrot to the stick he brandishes against undocumented immigrants: If they would self-deport, the US would fly them to any other country for free, and also give them an "exit bonus" cash payment. ProPublica followed up with immigrants who tried to take advantage of this offer. For many, it hasn't worked out the way Trump described.
Trump's Columbus Day proclamation combines Christian Nationalism with White Supremacy:
Upon his arrival, he planted a majestic cross in a mighty act of devotion, dedicating the land to God and setting in motion America’s proud birthright of faith. ... Guided by steadfast prayer and unwavering fortitude and resolve, Columbus’s journey carried thousands of years of wisdom, philosophy, reason, and culture across the Atlantic into the Americas — paving the way for the ultimate triumph of Western civilization less than three centuries later on July 4, 1776.
Isn't it weird that the Native Americans aren't more grateful for the "thousands of years of wisdom, philosophy, reason, and culture" Columbus brought to them?
and let's close with something relevant
OK, normally the closing is supposed to get your mind off the news. But the most amusing video I've seen this week is this animated music video of Portland's dancing frogs.
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