No broken laws? Prosecute anyway.

Back in April I complained about emergency alerts being sent to my phone. I was alerted to: Thunderstorms that died out before reaching me. An explosion that happened ten miles away and the alert sent two hours later, which reached me at 6 am. I was not alerted to thunderstorms that hit and were quite strong, one setting off the city’s emergency sirens. I rated the service 0-4. I haven’t gotten any alerts since then. Jennifer Berry Hawes, in an article for ProPublica posted on Daily Kos discussed the federal Integrated Public Alert and Warning System that isn’t getting much use by local officials.

ProPublica identified at least 15 federally declared major disasters since 2016 in which officials in the most-harmed communities failed to send alerts over IPAWS — or sent them only after people were already in the throes of deadly flooding, wildfires or mudslides.

Hawes describes several of those incidents. Reasons why IPAWS isn’t used include insufficient training, insufficient money to connect to the IPAWS system, a variety of other alert systems – none of which get used effectively, fear that the alert would be broadcast too widely and cause traffic jams, fear of sending out alerts to something that might be of no consequence prompting residents to ignore future alerts, or the authorized user for a community is home in bed. So I guess my phone is a part of the IPAWS system (perhaps all phones are) and the Detroit authorities are struggling to figure out how to use it effectively. Back when I worked in IT for the auto industry several colleagues in the department were from India and on work visas. At the time I heard a lot about the H-1B visas used by many tech employers. These were visas held by the employer, which meant the worker was tied to that employer. That meant if the employer was displeased the worker would be sent to their country of origin. That also meant the employer could pay well below what they would have to pay an American worker. H-1B visas are still around and are back in the news. The nasty guy wants to limit the use of these visas as part of his efforts to limit immigration. So he added a $100K fee (followed by confusion on when the fee would apply). Tech companies are bitching and moaning, but most can afford to pay, or hire Americans. Or use code written by AI (a quarter of code already is). Kos of Kos reports the places that can’t afford the fees are rural hospitals. Many doctors there are immigrants on H-1B visas. Its also an area the federal government designates as short on primary care doctors and an area likely to be hit when the Big Brutal Bill’s Medicaid cuts happen. Many rural areas may lose their only doctor. Kos also discussed the nasty guy’s shift away from Russia and towards Ukraine. He tweeted that Ukraine could, with help from NATO, push Russia completely out. Kos works through all the details of this change in position. The question is: Why? Kos answered:

The irony is that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin once had Trump in the palm of his hand. Flattery and promises of a Nobel Peace Prize could have helped him starve Ukraine into submission. But Putin, too arrogant to debase himself and suck up to Trump the way other world leaders did, may have overplayed his hand. And that arrogance might ultimately help doom him. What a crazy twist.

In Thursday’s pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev quoted Paul Krugman comparing the nasty guy to Putin and Hungary’s Victor Orban and their grabs for autocratic rule.

Trump has a significant problem that neither Putin nor Orban faced. When Putin and Orban were consolidating their autocratics (sic), they were genuinely popular. They were perceived by the public as effective and competent leaders. Just nine months into his presidency, Trump, by contrast, is deeply unpopular. He is increasingly seen as chaotic and inept. As David Frum says, this means that he is in a race against time. Can he consolidate power before he loses his aura of inevitability? Will those who run major institutions – particularly corporate CEOs – understand that we are at a crucial juncture, and that by accommodating Trump they have more to lose than by standing up to him? To put it bluntly, is the Jimmy Kimmel affair the harbinger of a failed Trumpian putsch?

Oh, I wish! Yes, Kimmel is back on the air with a lot more people watching his returning monologue than watched the show before it was suspended. Thank you, nasty guy. In the news this week is the nasty guy demanding James Comey and Letitia James be prosecuted by the Department of Justice though there is no evidence of actual crimes. In the comments of the roundup are a pair of tweets. The first by Spencer Hakimian quoting an exchange with the White House Press Secretary:

Reporter: Why won't Trump accept the conclusions of his Justice Department to not bring charges against Letitia James? Leavitt: These people literally tried to ruin his life. He wants to see accountability.

Sarah Longwell responded:

This isn’t just weaponizing the DOJ. It’s inventing crimes. His already weaponized DOJ is saying there’s nothing they can do to prosecute because Letitia James didn’t break any laws. And Trump is saying prosecute anyway, I have a score to settle.

A meme posted by DefendOurConstitution shows a boy with a skeptical expression.

So me, wearing a bulletproof backpack to school with metal detectors, armed guards and routine mass-shooter drills is “the price of freedom”... But you, wearing a mask on Walmart for 10 minutes is “tyranny”?

In Friday’s roundup Greg Dworkin included a tweet by Abbie Richards talking about measles misinformation. She includes a link to more on Media Matters.

If you sow enough doubt and fear and confusion, you can sell more supplements to "bulletproof" your followers immune systems against measles.

Will Bunch tweeted an intro to an article he wrote for the Philadelphia Inquirer about TV stations that are not locally owned.

Folks had no idea who owns their local TV stations - until large, faceless corporations, Sinclair and Nexstar, said they can't watch Jimmy Kimmel because of politics. This is why they've been warning us: media consolidation is a threat to democracy.

Greg Sargent at The New Republic:

Now that Disney and ABC have bucked President Trump’s authoritarian censorship regime and reinstated comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s show, MAGA personalities are in a seething fury. They’re claiming the move insults Charlie Kirk’s memory—Kimmel’s original sin concerned a poorly timed quote about Kirk’s murder—and that this shows Disney hates MAGA’s rank and file. As one influential MAGA figure put it to her followers: “DISNEY LOATHES YOU.”

From Bloomberg:

Epstein was drawn to what he saw as the finest things in life. The substantial wealth he acquired after leaving Bear Stearns in 1981 to advise the ultrarich afforded him a Boeing 727, one of Manhattan’s largest townhouses and his own Caribbean island. And when his own hour of terror dawned in 2005, following a tip to police in Palm Beach County from the family of a teenage girl, he didn’t rely on just one champion or defender, his inbox shows, but a collection of elite professionals. Though lawyers, academics and media advisers helped him in different ways and to different extents, his network included past and future White House officials, a top Hollywood publicist, a former child-exploitation prosecutor and renowned researchers, including one on his way to winning a Nobel Prize. That support for Epstein—who harmed more than 1,000 people, according to the US Justice Department—came when he needed it most. The professionals who surrounded Epstein defended and deflected, coached and countermessaged, burnished and polished. Together, they helped extend Epstein’s influence and freedom, even lending an air of invincibility. His reckoning was postponed until 2019, when federal prosecutors charged him with trafficking minors. Weeks later, he was found dead in jail in New York City awaiting trial.

From NBC News:

Whether she intended it or not, the 39-year-old [MI state senator Mallory] McMorrow started a trend of Democratic outsiders end-running party leaders to launch their campaigns, sometimes in explicit opposition to them. The movement is fueled by a crisis of confidence among Democratic voters in their own party, which is giving encouragement to the types of nontraditional candidates who have been walloped by leadership-aligned rivals in the past. Altogether, ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, the moves have created a number of crowded and competitive-looking Democratic Senate primaries — contests that have often seen party leaders leap in to anoint favorites in recent years. Democratic angst following the loss to President Donald Trump last year has contributed to the trend in at least five races that could determine the majority, from core battlegrounds like Michigan and Maine to long-shot targets like Iowa and Texas.

A pair of tweets, first from Ken Klippenstein:

Chuck Schumer says "even though Democrats' numbers are low," that's fine because they're still higher than that of Republicans. "In a couple of the races where we have the two candidates, we win!"

Lis Smith responded:

With all due respect, this is simply not it. GOP numbers declining doesn't mean Dems will necessarily benefit- polls show that loud & clear. Democrats MUST improve their standing w/the American people & can only do that by putting forth a compelling vision of their own.

I’ve been hearing about the nasty guy threatening to fire, not furlough, federal employees if there is no budget deal and the government has to shut down. I’ve also been hearing about the response from Democrats. This is what Politico wrote about that:

Among the Democrats still standing firm against a Republican-led seven-week funding punt include those representing many of thousands public employees who would be most at risk if President Donald Trump and OMB director Russ Vought follow through on their threats. “Whether there’s a shutdown or not, they just keep firing government employees,” said Rep. Glenn Ivey, who represents part of Washington’s Maryland suburbs. “I don’t know that capitulating on this front slows that down. In fact, it might actually encourage them to think that they can stay on the track that they’re currently on.” Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland called the threats “mafia-style blackmail” in a statement, adding that the potential layoffs are “likely illegal.” Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia said, “For Trump, people’s lives and livelihoods are just bargaining chips.”

In the comments is a tweet from David Frum with a link to his article in The Atlantic. Alas, the full article is restricted to subscribers.

Trump hates Comey because Comey's FBI investigated Trump's Russia connections. But Trump *indicted* Comey not just for payback. Trump is testing whether he can misuse prosecutions to pervert the 2026 elections.

Oliver Willis of Kos discussed why conservatives hate free speech as part of his series on explaining the right. And I think he got it right. After citing several instances of attempts at limiting speech Willis wrote:

Conservatism has a serious problem when it comes to competing in an open war of ideas. Many conservative priorities, like racism and economic policies bent around the desires of the ultra-wealthy, are not popular with the public at large. To allow an open exchange of ideas is to allow for the chance that liberalism and the Democratic Party might succeed. Instead, conservatives have sought to rig the system. In an electoral sense, that has led to policies like gerrymandering congressional districts, redrawing borders to ensure Republicans win seats even in areas where Democrats would have a plurality or majority in a fair system. The same practice is being borne out by the right’s crusade against the First Amendment. If ideas they don’t like are banned from public discourse, the right “wins” arguments by default. Not only does attacking speech change the rules to favor the right, but it undermines the foundation of the United States. The Revolutionary War and the subsequent drafting of the Constitution and the ratification of the Bill of Rights were meant to protect America. Battles like World War II were fought to defend the continued existence of those rights against the threat of fascism. Hundreds of thousands of people died defending those rights.