I think those with power are unstable because of the power. They get out their message, but it's a sick message. Unhealthy for the nation.

https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1909808869989056563

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/attorney-general-pamela-bondi-directs-prosecutors-seek-death-penalty-luigi-mangione

https://www.yahoo.com/news/fact-check-luigi-mangione-may-100000110.html

Power corrupts in the name of solidifying power against public good.

Luigi Mangione did the nation a favor. The Walmart shooter, not so.

Luigi killed a pathological human, a sociopath putting personal comfort above decency. And for that, another sociopathic crowd wants to make him an example.

The lesson. Don't get caught. Do good violence but don't get caught. 

Those preaching law and order want it their order, not a better thing, but their way or the death penalty. Trump found Pam Bondi by lifting a rock.

Bernie pressing CNN on reporting truth over other things. Being invited to express viewpoints. CNN does well, and deserves praise beyond mere mention for the early effort on the way to 2028.

 Mediate. https://www.mediaite.com/tv/bernie-sanders-torches-cnn-in-fiery-clash-at-networks-own-town-hall/

They let him on, he includes a shout-out to AOC and their Oligarchy-is-bad tour.

This web search may help readers looking to reach the full session, in video. 

Audio. Transcript.

Bernie starts "paycheck to paycheck" and expands from that.

Bernie is important because he says truth to those who divert from truth to sophistry; i.e., to the media.

The whole thing is a major reach by CNN to "expand the debate." A praiseworthy step. Listen to it, or scan the transcript, but readers, please, give it due attention.

It is a breakthrough for a progressive, in particular for Bernie, to have an MSM chance.

Schiff's taking lead on the insider trader thing is discussed. But briefly by mention.

Pay attention because Bernie is older than Trump, but fully cogent, so the Biden "slipping" scenario is entirely inapplicable.

__________UPDATE_________

The session half way through listening to it, touches all current issues, incliding Trump leaning on law firms, universities, etc., and in opposition to rule of law.

It is a most lucid discussion of current events. Anderson Cooper as moderator/interviewer does a good job, low key, feeding Brnie chances to expound.

It is a breakthrough. CNN could have had Hakim Jeffries on, and done a same old, same old crapshow. But they did not do that. Instead --- They had an independent of the kind of independence Crabgrass embraces, while like Bernie, caucusing locally with the Democrats.

_________FURTHER UPDATE_________

Bernie faces the problem of economic fairness and says few others do.

And he is correct. Elon Musk puts $200+ millions behind Trump. I don't. I lack the resources to match Elon. He buys a fascist agenda he is in agreement with, and I have my vote.

That is the nub of things, which Harris did not say she'd fix, or even that she did not like it since it was a way of things under which she prospered. Harris lost.

Some of us know how it is, many are distracted and divided, but Bernie will not let us hide from the truth other than by not listening to him and not giving him a forum to explain things. CNN gave a forum, so who's next for not hiding from the truth? 

_________FURTHER UPDATE__________

To say Harris lost is to say Clyburn, his way of approaching things, lost.

Big time loss. 

Lost big time to a raving Fascist now using bullying to install a tariff dodge to de facto change taxation to where a sales tax hitting the little people will be installed instead of a justly graduated income and wealth tax, which is an option many find more appealing as well as more just. Something worth taking over the Democratic party to reach, in a way the Republican party was taken over by fascists appealing to bad things in people who lack discernment with an oversupply of bias too. Give people, not a subpopulation thing to yin and yang but people what they want, and curb those adept at confusing, manipulating and obfuscating - DC consultants and the politicians they manage - a lesser divisive voice.

Do that, and actual CHANGE and HOPE are not a cynical slogan, but actual reachable goals. Clyburn had to be sidetracked before the prize for us all was realistic. Harris, her millionaire mixed-ethnic family losing big time may have been the thing to do that. 

If we can talk of Clyburn's sidetracking in the past tense, Bernie may be heard. If not past tense, the uphill will be longer and harder. Subpopulation power jealousies and struggles is tne heart of how the wealthy disenfranchise the many by divisive jealousies being exploitable and exploited.

An outlook beyond the Animal Farm's some more equal than others is needed. We are each as human as the next one, and not more or less humanly deserving.

MSM carrying a WaPo item. "Social Security abandons DOGE-led phone service cuts amid chaos, backlash"

 Link. Elon's legions overreached? No. That's impossible. Well, . . .

UPDATE: More Elon Musk in the news - this about his litigation with Sam Altman and OpenAI. 

While watching the tariffs now, tariffs in 90 days show, try websearch = toyota bz3x

As a hint: https://insideevs.com/news/744039/toyota-bz3x-ev-suv-price/

Read that to see if you care. As a bet, Musk cares. Musk has a business model touched by new things.

Nobody but Trump and Bessent and "the team" know what Trump is up to, per tariff games. Here, Crabgrass guesses a bit.

The formula used to set the "terror tariffs" has been found to be simple, and arbitrary, but it got attention.

Now the negotiation, up or down from there, with China at war, economically. That is a show to other economies lesser in size and reach than China.

90 days is a long time for other smaller economies, including individual nations in the EU who want to play separately and allowed by EU partners to, to come forward to the Trump team and do horse trading. They will, or they won't. 

In 90 days those whose love does not fade away will cement something, others will see, and it is not as if anything is frozen long term in 90 days. But a time frame for movement is set.

Anybody who bets on markets while adjustments are being made either has insider information or really likes to gamble. One wonders, of the team Trump has, who in the group traded on the initial announcement, buy low, and the 90 day window announcement, sell on the rebound. One expects somebody is watching for trades corrupted by insider trading, and markets can be each against the other and God against them all. God is watching, or some lesser but functional equivalent.

So if you've not got a great portfolio already, or not one at all but paycheck to paycheck, relax. It is wholly outside of your consequence what is the game being played.

We all, including the worldwide economy, are watchers, and all this shit could tank the worldwide trade and planning markets into uncertainty which could meld into a greater depression than we saw in the thirties. On that positive note, Crabgrass shuts down its guessing, and like everybody else, watches.

One thought, Bessent historically worked with Soros. So -- If anybody now is better fixed to be guessing, based on that history, it would be Soros. To the extent Soros betting is transparent it might be something of a barometer of where things might go. However, it might not. Betting on how Soros is being bet is second level guesswork, so why not find a Voodoo savant to read "signs?"

In a hundred days from now things might be less unsettled.

__________UPDATE__________

Not God. A Democrat. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/schiff-wants-tariff-pause-investigation-over-insider-trading/ar-AA1CCHsq 

Of all things? Not Elizabeth Warren. Not Katie Porter. Schiff running the ball.

From that item, a Schiff video, and this:

Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota, when asked by TIME if Trump should be investigated for potential market manipulation, said: “It’s a great question. He certainly had a lot to gain. I hadn’t thought of that.” 

Earlier on Wednesday, Rep. Steven Horsford, a Nevada Democrat, was one of the first to question whether the tariff pause was tied to market manipulation, as the news came out in the middle of a heated hearing with Trump’s trade representative, Jamieson Greer, who had vigorously defended the tariffs. Horsford shouted, “This is amateur hour. You just got the rug pulled out from under you.” He demanded to know whether the administration had deliberately moved the markets. “This is not a game. This is real life,” Horsford said.

Well, opinions can vary, game or not. Games in real life can have payoffs. And Tina takes herself out of the questioning. Leaving it to those not ending their term in office, such as Schiff, who, after all, is ambitious. (You don't believe that, ask Katie Porter.)

Would you put it past Trump or more likely perhaps, Vance the Thiel ally, to take insider profits?

I would not. Again, judgments and opinions can differ. Musk? Already confiictded. DOD and NASA launch money, +++.

What a bunch, that, at a guess, over 50% would think the bunch or a big part of them would gladly take insider profits. My guess. It could be wrong. Sunshine on the question is truly needed. It will distract from or crimp the team's negotiations, but each such negotiation presents its own investment motive for insiders, and what is Bessant's background but trading? 

_________FURTHER UPDATE________

Is this sensible facing a 90 day window of uncertainty? Somebody's showing irrational exuberance. Buy high, sell [guess]. A lot of somebodies. A blinking trend.

 

 

 

April 19 has been agreed upon as the next mass nationwide protest day.

 

 This image was saved from Digbty's Hullabaloo, Open the link, read more.

 

 

What the court said and did, analyzed in a way unlike much of what is being reported about the opinion on review of the lower court's order about a man kidnapped by authorities and sent to an El Savodorian hellhole.

 The item hangs together so no excerpt:

Trump’s Small Win, Huge Loss, On Alien Enemies Act

2 Comments

It is suggested readers bookmark the link: https://blog.simplejustice.us/ 

That site late last month had good content about Trump's war on law firms over which he has a hardon in thinking he wants revenge, revenge and after that intimidation and revenge. Here and a follow-up here.

Also: https://blog.simplejustice.us/2025/04/01/tuesday-talk-trump-fatigue/#more-53669

UPDATE: It is always appreciated when a site links to an original document, in this case to the Court's per curiam opinion on which the site is commenting.  

FURTHER: How/why I came across the site is itself a story, one I might flesh out at some point, but not now.

FURTHER: See, also: EmptyWheel, here.

 

Back from the other side of the brink of species extinction.

 

Colossal Biosciences Resurrects Long-Extinct Dire Wolf

Next up are woolly mammoths, dodos, and Tasmanian wolves.

Ronald Bailey | 4.7.2025 5:00 PM

Note that "colossal" is not used as an editorial judgment, but part of a firm's name.

Sarcasm at the Volokh Conspiracy.

 

Next Up: Jenner and Block

Are you getting the message yet? Kiss the ring! And throw in some cash while you're at it. Or Our Leader will destroy you. Do not cross him - he has the entirety of the executive power of the United States at his disposal.

David Post | 3.26.2025 5:06 PM

Given that the VC is a blog that is heavily focused on the law and the legal profession in all of its various manifestations, I think it is incumbent upon us to at least pay a little bit of attention to the Trump Administration's continuing attacks on lawyers and judges, if only to ensure that our silence is not construed as capitulation.  So no, I'm not going to let it go - no one's forcing you to read anything I write.

Read all about it. Another voice amazed by lack of constraint and normalcy.

Reuters on TTT = Trump Trade Tariffs

 

Dimon warns on trade war after Wall Street CEOs met Lutnick on tariffs

By Nupur Anand and Pete Schroeder

April 7, 20251:50 PM CDTUpdated 3 hours ago

 

 

Trumptie Dumptie shat on us all,

The Trumptie new tariffs will spawn a great fall,

All Hegseth's soldires and all Elon's men,

Can't make our world's trade be shiny again. 

Something like that. Needs work, but something like that.

 

UPDATE: Tariffs are a flat tax on consumption, the poorest consumers will suffer the most. Elon and Bezos will not feel a thing.

 

Graduated income and wealth taxes would work much, much better.

 

But this is billionaire policy. Not little guy policy. The electlon's over and the red caps will not matter, saying as well as anything, MAKE MY CLASS WEALTHIER MEN.

 

No vowels in the abbreviation, but aside from that, such a cap would fit Trump, and he should wear it.

 The Hill:

DOJ asks Supreme Court to lift order to return wrongly deported man 

by Zach Schonfeld - 04/07/25 11:28 AM ET

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to lift a judge’s ruling ordering the government to return a man mistakenly deported to El Salvador by the end of Monday. 

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who resides in Maryland, was removed despite an immigration judge’s 2019 ruling protecting him from being deported to the country. The administration has blamed it on an “administrative error.” 

Calling U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis’s Friday order to return Abrego Garcia “unprecedented relief,” the Justice Department (DOJ) said it can’t comply with the ruling and called for the high court’s emergency intervention. 

“And this order sets the United States up for failure,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote. 

“The United States cannot guarantee success in sensitive international negotiations in advance, least of all when a court imposes an absurdly compressed, mandatory deadline that vastly complicates the give-and-take of foreign-relations negotiations. The United States does not control the sovereign nation of El Salvador, nor can it compel El Salvador to follow a federal judge’s bidding,” Sauer continued. 

By default, the administration’s request will go to Chief Justice John Roberts, who handles emergency appeals arising from the 4th Circuit. He could act on the application alone or refer it to the full court for a vote. 

That "cannot comply" is a sack of crap. Trump makes a phone call, the guy is sprung and they can fly down to El Salvador and pick him up. 

They are making things up, in effect saying, "An error. Sorry. Uncorrectalble."

If it was me sent there that way I would sure as fuck want it unwound - and justice would be on my side.

What SCOTUS does, different story. I'd expect they'd honor the lower court, and not step into a pile, over how this was done where citizens are at risk of "error" too.

If not, the Court is not worth a pinch of dirt.

 

 

More detail on Perkins Coie suing after Trump bullying. Suing against the bullying. Some fight. Some caved.

 Bloomberg law, not paywalled per my browser settings:

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/business-and-practice/law-firms-back-perkins-coie-in-lawsuit-fighting-trump  --- the report

https://www.bloomberglaw.com/public/desktop/document/PERKINSCOIELLPvUSDEPARTMENTOFJUSTICEetalDocketNo125cv00716DDCMar1/4?doc_id=X3UOB6EAOJ9T5RC5BLC7JI8P68  --- the documents

See also, 

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/04/03/opinion/law-firms-must-stand-up-trumps-attacks/  --- not paywalled??

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/law-professors-legal-groups-back-perkins-coie-lawsuit-over-trump-order-2025-04-03/ 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/504-law-firms-sign-amicus-040025710.html

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5233200-law-firms-judges-trump-executive-order-perkins-coie/ 

And there is even now a Wikipedia page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Targeting_law_firms_and_lawyers_under_the_second_Trump_administration

The Wiki item, in part -

On March 12, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell of the US District Court for the District of Columbia temporarily blocked part of the order against Perkins Coie.^[2][21] In reviewing the case, Howell "cited the First Amendment in temporarily blocking the portion of the order limiting their attorneys’ access to federal buildings and requiring government contractors to disclose if they do business with the firm."^[4] Howell said that the order likely violated several constitutional amendments and "casts a chilling harm of blizzard proportion across the entire legal profession".^[22] Howell, an appointee of former president Barack Obama, stated that like the Queen of Hearts, Trump's statements are entertaining to read about but “cannot be the reality we are living” under the law.^[4] Howell stated: "I am sure many in the legal profession are watching in horror about what Perkins Coie is going through here." ^[2] The Department of Justice attempted to have Howell removed from the case, alleging that she is "insufficiently impartial", but the motion was denied.^[23] Jenner & Block and WilmerHale have also filed suit.^[24]

This is a judge who could hand Trump his ass, so clearly they want to bounce her.

Behind a subscription wall, but lead paragraphs tell enough of a story - A story of how MSM burried "Hands Off" numbers.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/04/07/opinion/letters-to-the-editor-hands-off-protest-coverage/ 

The subscription wall, if toggled off, yields:

Outraged readers found Hands Off! protest coverage paper-thin

Updated April 7, 2025, 1 hour ago

49

[Photo caption] Police estimated that as many as 30,000 protesters attended the Hands Off! rally in Boston on April 5, and organizers put the number at nearly 100,000. Crowds heard speakers at City Hall Plaza after a march down Tremont Street from Boston Common. Hundreds of thousands of other people demonstrated across the country.John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

Huge march should have been prominent on front page

After attending the April 5 “Hands Off!” protest in Boston — huge, historic, and peaceful — I eagerly opened the paper on Sunday to read about it. But where was the coverage? Not on the front page where it belonged, but buried on Page A11 (“Across US, protesters tee off against Trump and Musk: Hands Off! rallies draw thousands”) and then on the front of the Metro section (“Boston Hands Off! rally draws 30k”). What a disappointment!

Wouldn’t it have made a better — and more important — front-page story next to “Voters weigh in on Trump agenda” than a headline about a DOGE staffer?

To continue reading, please login or subscribe to Globe.com

----------------------highlighting added-------------------------------

Fair use, that teaser. See, also: https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/04/07/millions-of-americans-disappeared-thanks-to-us-media/ 

EmptyWheel properly gives the Boston letters theme a nationwide airing of wilful arrogant neglect without cause.

Buried coverage, if any, is a great shame on MSM for intentional neglect.

IT WAS BIG NEWS - BIG BIG BIG NEWS

 

Turnout for Hands Off - Mn Capitol grounds, St. Paul, MN

https://minnesotareformer.com/2025/04/05/hands-off-rally-draws-thousands-to-minnesota-capitol-to-protest-trump/

UPDATE: The problem with Hand's Off? It is a defensive effort. Reactive not proactive. It says only, keep what we have that has worked well for decades.

We need to press an improved agenda, not merely saving the best of a flawed status quo. But with chaos and grief being Trump's agenda, and his getting more votes, the short term goal is to stop the people's bleeding. Long term, make it the oligarchs who bleed. 

Make it better for everybody by making Elon give a little, millionaires in Congress having to give a little. 

Otherwise known as justice for all. Not all to the oligarchs. 

Spread the wealth. See how there is more than enough, if merely used wisely.

Noteworthy.

 https://www.yahoo.com/news/senators-introduce-bill-require-congressional-160702152.html

https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/grassley-cantwell-introduce-bill-to-restore-congress-constitutional-role-in-trade 

https://www.cantwell.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senators-cantwell-and-grassley-introduce-bipartisan-bill-to-reassert-congressional-trade-role

https://www.bennet.senate.gov/2025/04/04/bennet-cantwell-grassley-bipartisan-colleagues-introduce-bill-to-reassert-congressional-trade-role/ 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/senators-propose-congress-over-tariff-175226558.html

It's a life preserver of a bill. In case the fan really loads up, tariff-wise.

If the fan really loads up badly, worldwide, from this Trump idiocy, there's already a Congressional process started, in the Senate, and in the House if it looks like the tariff stuff is a load of garbage, a failure, the Republicans can abandon the sinking ship, in hope of survival.

If they are smart enough. That's one hell of a big IF. Don't bet on it.

Tariffs are upon us and we will find out how bad the outcome. Saturday protests were a start, but voting against Republicans in 2026 is the remedy. Absent that, same old .

 The headline is the story. The HAND'S OFF protest effort will be tested via an ongoing turnout.

A growing turnout is best. A vote is the only thing that will quell the billionaires, and then, getting votes >> politicians with guts to fight is not assured in the two party universe.

Anoka County, MN, where I live had its Hands Off turnout, and the strongest thing was drivers passing and honking their solidarity.

But if you don't get out the vote you don't get reform. Simple, but people stowing thier MAGA caps do vote, so people otherwise inclined need to counter them each and every time, each and every chance, fair weather or foul, by mail or in person.

Vote the raacals out, or live under their meanness. Simple. Do it. Again and again.

And force your party to reform its ties to the same people who run the Republicans, or wish you had. It's not easy. It's not always effective. But it is all you have.

 

The case against New York Mayor Adams is dismissed - with prejudice.

 Opinion. EmptyWheel analysis and commentary.

Rather than trying to explain what the case is about Crabgrass refers readers to the first few pages of the opinion.

In effect, Pam Bondi's DOJ wanted to tie a string to the Mayor, to keep him in a place where, to do well and not be bomed he'd have to embrace and follow administration immigration policy, in his city. 

Consider the classic image of the organ grinder having a string tied to the dancing monkey, to assure it keeps dancing to the tune, rather than going away on its own path. There is that feeling of impropriety to how the Bondi DOJ does things.

 

Two old guys, and current events.

 https://www.youtube.com/embed/633Y9mcxN-s

In order to galvanize together his Billionaire base and his Christian Nationalist base, Trump signs executive order to compel a camel to fit through the eye of a needle.

 

image source

 While admitting its much like getting to Mars, Elon says, "We need it. We really, really, really need it. Trump listened. We got the order signed, so it's all over but the shouting."

 Hegseth to make it a DOD priority. Not just a priority actually, but a crusade.

"If I can get the ocean to tilt, I can do this too."

With his getting Palintir into the project, and his main man in Idaho, the best hearts and minds are on it, Hegseth says. Have faith. "We're aiming to be engineering a camel downward; from the size of a Tesla to the size of a dust spec, and going to the finish line from there. Of late, we're down to mouse size, but our most recent lab instantiation met with a house cat and we're starting over from there."

So, if you miss or pass over the video, you may be more confused by this post than otherwise.  Not saying you should watch it, just that you might.

Alternatively, try this.  It's sounder than crypto. Buy in. Enjoy mixing with best/brightest. Ask: Where would DOGE be without Palintir as a trailblazer? Guess.

 

  

Elon bought a lemon with million dollar checks.

 https://www.fox9.com/news/democratic-backed-susan-crawford-wins-wisconsin-supreme-court-seat-cementing-liberal-majority

 

The Brief

• • Susan Crawford, a Democratic-backed candidate, won the Wisconsin Supreme Court race against Republican-backed Brad Schimel, ensuring a liberal majority for at least three more years.
  • The election was marked by record-breaking spending and high turnout, with Crawford supported by figures like Barack Obama and George Soros, while Schimel was endorsed by Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
  • Elon Musk played a significant role by funding Schimel's campaign and personally distributing $1 million checks to voters, highlighting the national political stakes of the race.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - The Democratic-backed candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court defeated a challenger endorsed by President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday, cementing a liberal majority for at least three more years.

Susan Crawford, a Dane County judge who led legal fights to protect union power and abortion rights and to oppose voter ID, defeated Republican-backed Brad Schimel in a race that broke records for spending, was on pace to be the highest-turnout Wisconsin Supreme Court election ever and became a proxy fight for the nation’s political battles.

Trump, Musk and other Republicans lined up behind Schimel, a former state attorney general. Democrats including former President Barack Obama and billionaire megadonor George Soros backed Crawford.

The first major election in the country since November was seen as a litmus test of how voters feel about Trump’s first months back in office and the role played by Musk, [...who] traveled to Wisconsin on Sunday to make a pitch for Schimel and personally hand out to [sic] $1 million checks to voters.

Crawford embraced the backing of Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights advocates, running ads that highlighted Schimel’s opposition to the procedure. She also attacked Schimel for his ties to Musk and Republicans, referring to Musk as "Elon Schimel" during a debate.

Young and right minded. Yes!

California Dreaming - I trust Katie Porter to bring it on, Harris to be vapid and empty of policy ideas and ideals, and Republicans to run Steve Garvery. The run to replace Governor Gavin.

NBC has a report with a Porter campaign ad saying she's not an empty vessel.

Here,  with this video URL if you, like Chauncey Gardner, prefer to watch. 

Porter is well known nationally, and in California as a former U.S. House member who rolled the dice for the Feinstein Senate seat but ending up as third in the primary behind Schiff and Garvey. With top to going to the general election.

Garvey, for Christsakes, good baseball player, short on cause to be taken seriously as a politician, but there to squeeze out Porter.

 Schiff not unhappy about it turning out that way.

So Guv race. Expect Harris - Hollywood Harris, to expect it as hers, because.

Crabgrass is 100% behind the Porter candidacy at this point.

Show me something better. You don't have it, so Porter's the one.

Wikipedia page. 

From that NBC page:

“If Vice President Harris were to choose to run, I am certain that that would have a near field-clearing effect on the Democratic side,” Porter told The Orange County Register late last year. 

Harris, also a former California senator and state attorney general, will decide whether to run for governor by the end of the summer, according to a source familiar with her planning. Harris is also weighing a possible presidential run in 2028, and the source said she is “keeping all options open.”

The people of California need a Governor, not a dilettante who took a loss head on, and down ticket, to Dondald J. Trump and the red cappers. 

So -- Please Kamala, give it up. You blew it big time and there are reasons. 

For Governor Kamala -- You're the second best candidate, between you and Porter. 

Plain, simple, and true. Clyburn has no real say, in California.

_______________UPDATE_______________

https://katieporter.com/

https://katieporter.com/2025/03/consumer-protection-attorney-and-former-congresswoman-katie-porter-launches-campaign-for-california-governor/

 

 

"Governor Ron DeSantis leads push to loosen child labor laws as immigration crackdown leads to workforce shortage"

 Guardian -

Alarm as Florida Republicans move to fill deported workers’ jobs with children: ‘It’s insane, right?’

 

Beneath the smugness of Ron DeSantis, at Florida leading the nation in immigration enforcement lies something of a conundrum: how to fill the essential jobs of the scores of immigrant workers targeted for deportation.

The answer, according to Florida lawmakers, is the state’s schoolchildren, who as young as 14 could soon be allowed to work overnight shifts without a break – even on school nights.

A bill that progressed this week through the Republican-dominated state senate seeks to remove numerous existing protections for teenage workers, and allow them, in the Florida governor’s words, to step into the shoes of immigrants who supply Florida’s tourism and agriculture industries with “dirt cheap labor”.

“What’s wrong with expecting our young people to be working part-time now? That’s how it used to be when I was growing up,” DeSantis said at an immigration forum with Donald Trump’s “border czar”, Tom Homan, in Sarasota last week.

“Why do we say we need to import foreigners, even import them illegally, when teenagers used to work at these resorts, college students should be [doing] all this stuff.”

Unsurprisingly, the proposal has alarmed immigration advocates and watchdog groups concerned about child labor abuses and exploitation.

They point out that there is nothing “part-time” in the language of the companion senate and house bills currently before lawmakers, which instead will permit unlimited working hours without breaks for 14- and 15-year-olds who are schooled at home or online, and allow employers to require 16- and 17-year-olds to work for more than six days in a row.

Florida. Alternatively, they could use convict labor. If too few convicts, that can be fixed, Florida style.

What's a politician's Town Hall event, without a town, or a hall? One answer, Planned Bullshit. Or Fear of facing the people.

 

scardey cat

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/03/04/house-republicans-doge-town-halls/81417000007/

title:

House Republicans advised to stop holding in-person town halls after DOGE complaints

https://apnews.com/article/town-halls-musk-doge-trump-gop-749d91ea516284057e4c7bcb1615527e

title: 

Speaker Johnson tells GOP lawmakers to skip town halls after an onslaught of protests

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5175061-house-republicans-town-halls-protests/

title: 

House Republicans advised to avoid in-person town halls amid protests

*****

As in be gutless, don't face the people in a real town, at a real hall.

Why this focus? My district's Rep. Tom Emmer says he'll do a town hall - But ---

His latest email, hitting the inbox three hours ago, one day's notice. This [images omitted] -

Dear Friend, 

As we’ve said for years, Congress is a customer service business. As we continue our work in Washington, D.C., we have announced a telephone town hall to give you an update on our work, hear your input and answer your questions.

The telephone town hall is scheduled for this Wednesday, April 2nd at 5:30 pm. Many of you will receive a call inviting you to participate, but in case you don’t, to join the event call 833-425-1492. Being transparent and accessible to our constituents is always a top priority and we hope you are able join us for this event.

Sincerely, 

 

 

Sincerely, but what's sincere about it? It's phony to the core. It's an insult.

No town. No hall. Why bother?

To stage a controlled phone-based propaganda fling?

For gulls, to gull them further?  BFD

Sorry Tom. NO GUTS. NO GLORY. 

[end of story] 

Please don't.

If you toggle it on, DuckDuckGo will provide a bot blurb as well as a return list. Here's the bot blurb I got with this search:

Donald Trump has expressed interest in finding ways to serve a third term as president, suggesting there may be methods to bypass the two-term limit set by the US Constitution. However, he has not provided specific details on how this could be achieved.

Indiatimes

The bot is telling it like it is. The story presumes he'd be able to run again and be elected. To the extent people fail to see Elon is only doing Trump's dirty work, hating on Elon for it instead of hating on the dirty work itself and its actual father, he could possibly win again, but BLESS THE CONSTITUTIONAL LIMIT TO TWO TERMS when considering how he'd abuse things by doing it if he thought he could get away with it. What a piece of work.

UPDATE: Reading the TOI link, it says:

Speaking to NBC News in a phone interview on Sunday, Trump claimed, “There are methods which you could do it,” while also adding that “it is far too early to think about it”.
The 22nd Amendment of the US Constitution, ratified in 1951 after Franklin D Roosevelt's four-term presidency, explicitly limits a president to two elected terms.
However, when asked by NBC’s Kristen Welker whether one way to bypass this restriction could be through Vice President JD Vance running and later stepping aside, Trump responded, “Well, that’s one. But there are others too. There are others”.

That would be running a ticket JD/Trump, JD top spot, and then winning. Another way, same ticket and throw JD off a tall building once winning. Putin's possibly hellpful on options.

Speaker Johnson if asked, likely would prefer the tall building option. 

FURTHER: An Elon/Trump ticket, Elon top spot, would fail because Elon's birthplace is South Africa; foreign birth being a bar, unless Trump could finagle a way to thwart that Constitutional provision too. (It's original text, not by Amendment, so would it be harder to evade?)

 

 

16 Tesla EVs are destroyed in a fire in Rome as Italian police investigate possible arson.

Link. Widely reported. Often with this image:

 

click the image to read the bumper sticker

image source: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/16-tesla-evs-are-set-on-fire-in-rome-as-italian-police-investigate-possible-arson/

This other image shows damage, in an update of the same online item:

 Crabgrass favors the first of the report's image choices, since it states a theme.

 

If you like ambiguity, consider this phrase.

 Toast a Tesla.

Are you saying raise a glass in recognition of innovative engineering, or suggesting an unlawful act?

UPDATE:

of course

 

United Health Group. Them again. This time, a litigation settlement where the class action yields tiny settlement per class member.

 Collusive litigation is always a worry, as in name a class, get it through, and then sell out the class. Is this an instance of a greatly inadequate settlement amount?

More than 350,000 current and former employees at UnitedHealth Group have been sent notices about a proposed $69 million settlement in a class action lawsuit alleging workers lost millions in investment returns because the company offered low-performing 401(k) plan options from Wells Fargo.

The settlement notices, which were sent by email or regular mail as of March 24, say a federal judge in Minneapolis will decide during a fairness hearing on June 12 whether to grant the settlement final approval.

Each class member’s proportional share of the net settlement proceeds will be based in part on the balance they invested in certain Wells Fargo Target Date Funds at any time since April 23, 2015, according to a website with settlement details.

“Plaintiff filed a class action complaint … alleging that [UnitedHealth Group] violated ERISA’s fiduciary duties of prudence and loyalty,” according to the settlement notice, which used the abbreviation for the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. “Defendants deny all of the claims made in the complaint [and] deny all allegations of wrongdoing.”

Wells Fargo sold off its asset management business years ago.

[...] Judge John Tunheim of the U.S. District Court of Minnesota substantially denied UnitedHealth Group’s motion for summary judgement in the case in March 2024. In his ruling, Tunheim wrote that “a reasonable trier of fact could easily find” the lead plaintiff caught the company “with its hand in the cookie jar.”

The parties announced the $69 million settlement in December.

The fairness hearing is scheduled for June 12 at 10 a.m. at the federal courthouse in Minneapolis.

During the hearing, attorneys representing the class will seek an award of legal fees not to exceed one-third of the $69 million settlement plus their out-of-pocket costs. Legal fees, administrative costs and a proposed incentive award up to $100,000 for the lead plaintiff will reduce total settlement funds available to class members.

Class members don’t need to do anything to receive payment, according to the settlement notice, nor do they need to attend the hearing. Those objecting to the settlement, however, must notify the court and attorneys in writing by May 29 and may speak during the June hearing if they wish.

The calculator says $69,000,000 / 350,000 gives under $200 on average, and that's if attorney fees are $0. It gets lessened while the plaintiffs' law firm makes a killing.

Is the class being sold out? Is UnitedHealth happy to cap the cost and not take a risk of a substantially bigger hit after losing summary judgment; instead not risking a jury award? 

Could be.

Would you do anything, if in the class, with those numbers, or shrug and say the lawyers did okay for themselves, and UnitedHealth got off cheap but it's not worth a fight for what, possibly another fifty bucks? 

There is cause up front to opt out of class actions and preserve individual rights to sue, but wtf, let it move on without any cost to you then take the pittance and move on? Myself, I'd protest and say take it to trial, get a jury, and roll the dice. You hardly can do worse than two hundred bucks on average.

__________UPDATE________

You look at the lifetime of a 401k and $200 bucks against annual numbers here and here, and a chief/indians difference seems striking. However, in one of those items it is Brian Thompson under discussion, and he cashed in but only until he duly got "Luigied." Win a few, lose a few.

Hate the bastards! And go with Bernie and AOC the crowds they attract and their push to get Medicare for All. It's the only sane thing out there if we can move it past Dem donor money against it, into serious debate, then over the finish line. 

Big if. But what's the option?

 

 

Kidnapped and shiped hundreds of miles away to a concentration camp. This could be me, it could be you. Me, more likely, because to the extent they monitor Crabgrass, Trump people likely do not like it.

 The Tufts University grad student kidnapped off the street by people in civilian clothing, wearing masks, to be shipped to a concentration camp in Louisiana - all without a warrant at the time she was seized this way.

 

click the image to enlarge and read

Yeah, they are not yet intentionally coming for me. But mistakes happen, as the Atlantic editor being invited to a top level Trumptsers chat over a military strike at another nation.

Or Musk overstepping and being judicially quelled. It is ongoing operations ripe for error, and if I of a sudden stop posting, please ask about it.

Concentration camps. Yes, what else to call it?  

The LaSalle immigration court, inside a sprawling Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention centre in rural Jena, Louisiana, has been thrust into the spotlight in recent weeks after the former Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil was transferred here earlier this month. His case has drawn international attention as the Trump administration attempts to deport the pro-Palestinian activist under rarely used executive provisions of US immigration law. The government is fighting vigorously to keep Khalil’s case in Louisiana and he is due to appear again at the LaSalle court for removal proceedings on 8 April.

 

 But it has also renewed focus on the network of remote immigration detention centres that stretch between Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, known as “Detention Alley” – where 14 of the country’s 20 largest detention centres are clustered. And now where other students have since been sent after being arrested thousands of miles away.

Badar Khan Suri, a research student at Georgetown University, was arrested in Virginia last week and sent to a detention centre in Alexandria, Louisiana, and then on to another site, Prairieland in eastern Texas. This week, Rumeysa Ozturk, a doctoral student at Tufts University, was arrested in Massachusetts and sent to the South Louisiana Ice processing centre in the swamplands of Evangeline parish.

These distant detention facilities and court systems have long been associated with rights violations, poor medical treatment and due process concerns, which advocates argue are only likely to intensify during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and promise to carry out mass deportations that has already led to a surge in the detention population. But rarely do cases within these centres attract much public attention or individual scrutiny.

“Most of the folks in detention in Louisiana aren’t the ones making the news,” said Andrew Perry, an immigrant rights attorney at the ACLU of Louisiana. “But they are experiencing similar, if not the same, treatment as those who are.”

To observe a snapshot of the more than 1,100 other detainees confined at the facility also holding Khalil, the Guardian travelled to Jena and witnessed a full day inside the LaSalle court, which is rarely visited by journalists. Dozens lined up for their short appearances before a judge and were sworn in en masse. Some expressed severe health concerns, others frustration over a lack of legal representation. Many had been transferred to the centre from states hundreds of miles away.

Earlier in the morning Wilfredo Espinoza, a migrant from Honduras, appeared before Judge Robbins for a procedural update on his asylum case that was due for a full hearing in May. Espinoza, who coughed throughout his appearance and had a small bandage on his face, had no lawyer and informed the court he wished to abandon his asylum application “because of my health”. The circumstances of his detention and timing and location of his arrest by Ice were not made clear in court.

He suffered from hypertension and fatty liver disease, he said through a Spanish translator. “I’ve had three issues with my heart here,” he said. “I don’t want to be here any more. I can’t be locked up for this long. I want to leave.”

The judge asked him repeatedly if he was entering his decision of his own free will. “Yes,” he said. “I just want to leave here as quickly as possible.”

The judge ordered his removal from the US.

Substantiated allegations of medical neglect have plagued the Jena facility for years. In 2018, the civil rights division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) examined the circumstances of four fatalities at the facility, which is operated by the Geo Group, a private corrections company. All four deaths occurred between January 2016 and March 2017 and the DHS identified a pattern of delay in medical care, citing “failure of nursing staff to report abnormal vital signs”.

At the South Louisiana Ice processing centre, an all-female facility that is also operated by the Geo Group and where Ozturk is now being held, the ACLU of Louisiana recently filed a complaint to the DHS’s civil rights division alleging an array of rights violations. These included inadequate access to medical care, with the complaint stating: “Guards left detained people suffering from severe conditions like external bleeding, tremors, and sprained limbs unattended to, refusing them access to diagnostic care”.

The complaint was filed in December 2024, before the Trump administration moved to gut the DHS’s civil rights division earlier this month.

The spokesperson added: “These allegations are part of a longstanding, politically motivated, and radical campaign to abolish Ice and end federal immigration detention by attacking the federal government’s immigration facility contracts.”

The DHS did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Louisiana experienced a surge in immigration detention during the first Trump administration. At the end of 2016, the state had capacity for a little more than 2,000 immigrant detainees, which more than doubled within two years. A wave of new Ice detention centres opened in remote, rural locations often at facilities previously used as private prisons. The state now holds the second largest number of detained immigrants, behind only Texas. Almost 7,000 people were held as of February 2025 at nine facilities in Louisiana, all operated by private companies.

“It is this warehousing of immigrants in rural, isolated, ‘out of sight, of mind’ locations,” said Homero López, the legal director of Immigration Services and Legal Advocacy in Louisiana and a former appellate immigration judge. “It’s difficult on attorneys, on family members, on community support systems to even get to folks. And therefore it’s a lot easier on government to present their case. They can just bulldoze people through the process.”

At the LaSalle court this week, the Guardian observed detainees transferred from states as far away as Arizona, Florida and Tennessee. In an afternoon hearing, where 15 detainees made an application for bond, which would release them from custody and transfer their case to a court closer to home, only two were granted.

Cases heard from detention are far less likely to result in relief. At LaSalle, 78.6% of asylum cases are rejected, compared with the national average of 57.7%, according to the Trac immigration data project. In Judge Robbins’s court, 52% of asylum applicants appear without an attorney.

In the afternoon session, the court heard from Fernando Altamarino, a Mexican national, who was transferred to Jena from Panama City, Florida, more than 500 miles away. Altamarino had no criminal record, like almost 50% of immigrants currently detained by Ice. He had been arrested by agents about a month ago, after he received a traffic ticket following a minor car accident.

In a very dreary report, businessinsider.nl  noted:

ICE says 29,675 people are in custody in detention centers across the US. Though the numbers have slowed, ICE is still carrying out thousands of deportations a month - 17,965 in March and 2,985 in the first 11 days of April, according to ICE spokeswoman Mary G. Houtmann.

Detainees allege ICE is rationing basic hygienic products and not giving them masks

Tiben said all but one of Pine Prairie's dormitories, which house up to 70 people, are under quarantine. Detainees cannot leave their rooms to exercise or go to the cafeteria, and meals are served in the dorm themselves.

Though they share every surface, the detainees have not been given masks, gloves, and other basic hygienic products, like hand sanitizer, disinfectant, or wipes, according to Tiben. Two detainees* told Business Insider that soap is rationed and given out every one to two weeks, which ICE spokesman Bryan D. Cox denied.

For-profit corporations run many detention centers, including Pine Prairie, which is managed by the private prison giant Geo Group.

A spokesperson for the Geo Group denied medical neglect in the facility and told Business Insider the detention center "provides access to regular handwashing with clean water and soap in all housing areas and throughout the facility."

An attorney suspects 'massive under-testing'

"You're going to see a loss of life" because of exposure to the coronavirus in ICE detention centers, Jeremy Jong, a Louisiana-based civil rights attorney, told Business Insider.

Alongside colleagues at the Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Immigration Project, and the Loyola Law Clinic, Jong has filed lawsuits in three states to try and free detainees with underlying medical conditions that make them more susceptible to COVID-19.

According to the ICE website, the agency has only carried out 1,030 coronavirus tests on detainees nationwide. Some 490, or 48%, have come back positive. Another 36 ICE employees at detention centers have tested positive, as well.

But Jong suspects the disease is much more widespread in detention facilities than what has been reported.

According to the ICE website, there only have been 20 confirmed cases at Pine Prairie, but Jong alleged that number is "the result of massive under-testing."

Cox said ICE will carry out 2,000 coronavirus tests per month, but that those tests will be earmarked "to determine detainee health and fitness for travel" - in other words, to clear migrants for deportation.

These are, at the most primitive level, human beings no different in that than Donald Trump, Usha Vance, us, or others - to be decently treated. 

 

Never forget the analogy, there is the contractor, there is the architect. One calls the shots, the other implements.

 Tesla protests in the news. 

Here, Minnesota. 

Here, Seattle.

Meanwhile, Musk "sells" X to XAI, at a loss? For less than he paid for X. Is he trying to hoodwink the IRS? "Realizing" a loss on X, while still the boss and beneficiary of both enterprises? Hope not, but otherwise he'd have to sell Tesla stock to realize a real loss, there the price is depressed, and that would not be just a loss on paper.

But back to the headline - never forget. N-E-V-E-R! 

which is Elon

Greenland - How a goodwill Usha visit morphed into JD pontificating in an extremely offensive manner that Denmark rightly found gratiously offensive.

Guardian has the Vance video with a few geeks standing behind him at the space force site. What a piece of work. The man needs to learn manners, no question about it.

Previosly he dumped a load on Ukraine's Zelinskyy.

Now this. JD, do the world a favor and stfu. Worse than Musk that way.

 

Trumponomics.

Seattle Times carring an AP item:

A report on Friday showed all types of U.S. consumers are getting more pessimistic about their future finances. Two out of three expect unemployment to worsen in the year ahead, according to a survey by the University of Michigan. That’s the highest reading since 2009, and it raises worries about a job market that’s been a linchpin keeping the U.S. economy solid.

A separate report also raised concerns after it showed a widely followed, underlying measure of inflation was a touch worse last month than economists expected. It followed reports on other measures of inflation for February, but this is the one the Federal Reserve pays the most attention to as it decides what to do with interest rates.

The report also showed that an underlying measure of how much income Americans are making, which excludes government social benefits and some other items, “has been treading water for the last three months,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management.

“Households aren’t in a good place to absorb a little tariff pain,” he said. “The Fed isn’t likely to run to the rescue either as inflation moved up more than expected in February.”

These are not political shots being fired. This is consumer confidence hitting the toilet. People do not have trust in Trumponomics. It is that simple. Different policy, different results seems a clear way out. Crabgrass hopes for things getting better.