Which shall rule—wealth or man?

My Sunday movie was Fortune Feimster, Crushing It. I quite enjoyed the first Fortune Feimster comedy video I saw a few weeks ago and this was like a sequel. It was also as much fun. The first story was about the honeymoon she took with her wife Jax to the Maldives. Only on the plane – a 24 hour trip – did Fortune find out being gay in the Maldives is illegal. The trip there included an overnight in Qatar, where being gay is also illegal. She was afraid of gay booby traps the whole time. It was not a romantic honeymoon. Again, there were stories of dealing with her mother. Some were when Fortune was a teen. After her parents divorced her mother started treating Fortune as her husband – even though there were older brothers. Other stories were about dealing with a now elderly mother. And to my delight she talked about being a teen in the church bell choir! Sigh, not the most flattering of stories. My phone has been added to an emergency alert system. It is now 0-3. The first alert I got was a couple weeks ago. The alert said that strong thunderstorms were heading my way and would hit in several hours. By the time the storm reached me it had died out and I think we didn’t even get a sprinkle. The second alert was 6 am Monday morning. It said there was a possible explosion, though unconfirmed. It gave an address, but not a city (and there are a lot of cities in the Detroit Metro area). The alarm sound woke me up. Then my phone chirped about once a minute demanding I read the message. I eventually got out of bed to get it to shut up. Going back to sleep wasn’t easy. I checked the local news this morning. Yes, there had been a fire at that address. Whether there was also an explosion is unknown. If I needed to be concerned about an explosion why did the alert come two hours after the fire started? Yeah, I’m glad it didn’t wake me at 4 am. The fire was about ten miles away. Why did I need to be concerned at all? The third alert is one that didn’t get sent. Sunday afternoon a line of thunderstorms did sweep across the area. It was strong enough my city’s civil defense sirens went off. The news this morning included how many homes had lost power. So why no alert? Who issued these alerts and under whose authority is not mentioned in the messages. As soon as I touch “OK” they disappear. How did I get on this alert system? I’ve had the phone about 22 months before the first alert. How might I get off? I think I would do better on my own city’s system, if I’m on any system at all. Now here on Wednesday evening a thunderstorm is passing through. No alert. So maybe the score should be 0-4. Big news out of the US Senate is the 25 hour speech given by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ). He started at 7 pm on Monday and yielded the floor after 8 pm on Tuesday. Oliver Willis of Daily Kos reported on the speech as of Tuesday morning.

Throughout his marathon speech, the senator has taken aim at key Trump policies and actions, particularly the systematic attack on multiple government agencies under the guise of Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Trump has signed off on DOGE-led purges of thousands of government employees (some purges of which judges have ruled unconstitutional), closures of federal agencies, and intrusions of sensitive government systems at agencies like the IRS and Social Security Administration. “What kind of man is in our White House that makes fun of the disabled, who lies so much that the fact-checkers lose count, that minimizes the pain and the suffering?” Booker asked.

Alix Breeden of Kos reported this afternoon, and explains a bit more. Yes, this sets a record. The previous longest speech was by Strom Thurmond in 1957, fighting against civil rights. Breeden reported on the response from Democrats, which was strong praise, and on the response from the public.

According to The New York Times, more than 14,000 people called Booker’s office from the time he began his speech Monday until he yielded the floor. He reached young voters on TikTok, amassing more than 350 million “likes” on videos of his speech posted to his profile. On YouTube, his videos have more than 140,000 views. And across social media, the left is praising Booker for lighting a fire under the Democratic Party.

In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted Christian Paz of Vox:

Into his second day of a marathon address on the Senate floor, Booker is engaging in almost, but not quite, a filibuster — an old congressional tradition. Filibusters are marathon addresses used as a procedural tool. They take advantage of the Senate’s rules that allow for unlimited debate or speaking by a senator unless there have been special limits put in place. Senators recognized by the presiding officer can speak indefinitely, “usually cannot be forced to cede the floor, or even be interrupted”…but “must remain standing and must speak more or less continuously,” according to the Congressional Research Service. But Booker’s address isn’t a filibuster — there’s no legislation that he’s trying to hold up. Instead, it’s a form of political theater and protest against the Trump administration. And it comes at a time when overwhelming shares of his party’s membership think their elected leaders aren’t putting up a tough enough fight to resist Donald Trump’s agenda. About two-thirds of Democratic voters would prefer their leaders “stick to their positions even if this means not getting things done in Washington” a March NBC News poll found.

Down in the comments was a lot of praise for Booker. And a rebuke to calling the speech “performative” or political theater. And exlrrp posted a meme, created by The Resistance before the speech ended.

If Senator Cory Booker can stand up and speak out against the fascist regime for over 22+ hours and still going strong, every single Democrat needs to do the same. One after another. We must disrupt business as usual. Our democracy is on fire. This is a national emergency. No more compromises with the fascists. They do not care about the US Constitution, or judges or the rule of law. RESIST. DISRUPT. DO NOT COMPROMISE.

Last Saturday, before yesterday’s Supreme Court election in Wisconsin, Ben Wikler, chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, wrote a guest post for Kos. Wikler began with a quote by Justice Edward Ryan, chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 1873.

The enterprises of the country are aggregating vast corporate combinations of unexampled capital, boldly marching, not for economic conquests only, but for political power. The question will arise, and arise in your day, though perhaps not fully in mine: Which shall rule—wealth or man; which shall lead—money or intellect; who shall fill public stations—educated and patriotic free men, or the feudal serfs of corporate capital?

Wikler brought that quote up to date.

Are we feudal serfs of the richest man in the world, Elon Musk? Or are we free?

Wikler wrote that because Musk spent likely more than $25 million to get the Republican backed candidate, Brad Schimel, elected. Musk came to Wisconsin several times. In the most recent trip he offered two $1 million checks to two selected voters. Yeah, offering money to get someone to vote is election bribery and is a felony. The Wisconsin AG has files suit. An Associated Press article posted on Kos reported that Susan Crawford, the Democratic-backed candidate, won the seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. This preserves the liberal majority and prompts a big sigh of relief from liberals.

The contest was the most expensive court race on record in the U.S., with spending nearing $99 million, according to a tally by the Brennan Center for Justice. That broke the previous record of $51 million record, for the state’s Supreme Court race in 2023. All of the spending and attention on the race led to high early voting turnout, with numbers more than 50% higher than the state’s Supreme Court race two years ago.

Two years ago the Wisconsin Supreme Court was flipped from a conservative to liberal majority. Emily Singer of Kos has details on how good this win is for Democrats – and how much of a rebuke it is for Musk and the nasty guy. Crawford won by 10 percentage points. All 72 counties had higher Democratic percents than in November. Crawford won ten counties that the nasty guy had won. Oh, yeah. There were to special elections in Florida to fill vacancies in the US House. They were vacant because Matt Gaetz resigned and Mike Waltz became National Security Advisor (though seems to know nothing about security). Both districts are strongly Republican and in both the Republican candidate won, though by a smaller percentage than in November. Walter Einenkel of Kos reported:

The Trump administration announced on Monday that it will be reviewing nearly $9 billion in “multiyear grant commitments” to Harvard University and its affiliates. “Harvard’s failure to protect students on campus from anti-Semitic discrimination - all while promoting divisive ideologies over free inquiry - has put its reputation in serious jeopardy. Harvard can right these wrongs and restore itself to a campus dedicated to academic excellence and truth-seeking, where all students feel safe on its campus,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in the statement. ... Under the guise of ending antisemitism, the Trump administration has targeted 10 universities for similar federal investigations, including Columbia University. The attacks have led higher education institutions to pledge to remove protections for marginalized groups while cracking down on speech and activism on campus.

A Martinez of NPR spoke to Jason Stanley, a philosophy professor, who is in the process of leaving Yale University, where he’s been since 2013, for the University of Toronto. Stanley is Jewish and an expert on fascism, including writing the book Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future. The page for this segment is a combination of news article and shortened interview transcript. Alas, I think they left out an important point or two. Stanley is moving to protect himself and his family. That fear was prompted by Columbia University (with other universities targeted) agreeing to rework student protest policies to get back $400 million in federal research funding. From the news article:

Though the administration says they are pulling funding from universities to protect students from antisemitism, Stanley says the administration is using Jewish people as an "excuse to take down democracy."

In the interview Stanley said:

But you can't win a war unless you recognize it's a war. This way they're going to pick us off one by one. And history is watching here. Our institutions will be written about. They're being attacked for this entirely fake reason that's furthermore fomenting antisemitism in the United States. It's going to create mass popular anger against Jewish people. So, if universities want to fight anti-Semitism, they need to stand up and say, 'No, we are not threats to American Jews. You are threatening American Jews.'

If I remember right, that anger is because people will see these institutions losing money because of Jewish people. Also, Stanley said instead of allowing the nasty guy to pick them off, one by one, they need to start working together to present a strong and united voice. Stanley said of the University of Toronto:

I have the privilege and good fortune to get a job there. And they have a long term plan of creating a center that will be a refuge for politicians, journalists and professors from democratically backsliding or authoritarian countries like the United States or Russia. And my job will be to work with these people to jointly strategize about how to return our countries to democracy.

Last Friday Singer reported the vice nasty and his wife went to Greenland. They went to a military base quite a ways north and a good distance from actual cities. He was there long enough to give a combative speech, then flew home. In that speech he claimed Denmark, of which Greenland is an autonomous territory, “hasn’t done a good job by the people of Greenland.” So the US just has to take it over. Earlier that day the nasty guy explained, in his rambling way, why he wants Greenland. One phrase: “If you look at the waterways, you have Chinese and Russian ships all over the place.” Kos of Kos offered a rebuttal to the nasty guy and vice nasty.

“Denmark hasn’t done a good job at keeping Greenland safe,” Vance said, which was patently absurd on its face. Has anyone invaded Greenland in decades? Of course not. And the American military presence on the island, part of an array of early-warning radars against a Russian nuclear attack, is the reason why.

Denmark, a member of NATO, has allowed the US presence in Greenland. So yeah, Denmark is keeping it safe. The vice nasty said Denmark hasn’t done enough military spending to keep Greenland safe “from a lot of very aggressive incursions from Russia, China and other nations…” What “aggressive incursions” by Russia and China? Put another way, looking at the nasty guy’s worship of Putin and what’s going on in Ukraine, Greenland should not expect the US to protect it from Russia. Kos included a map of Greenland showing the major cities and the military base. They’re not at all close.

Ultimately, as a NATO ally, Denmark has been open to allowing a greater American military presence in Greenland. There appears to be nothing stopping the NATO alliance, or the United States individually, from building up a presence in Greenland.

Easy to figure out this isn’t about defending Greenland. It’s about the nasty guy appropriating its mineral wealth, now unlocked because of climate change. Since Denmark has universal health care, free college, and low income inequality, is rated the second safest country in the world, and the seventh highest economic freedom score, Kos (and I) like the idea of Greenland annexing the US. disamson of the Kos wrote a variation of what I’ve written a few times. I probably wrote about this when discussing articles on Gaslit Nation. disamson took it from an article posted on Quora.

They don't want to take over the government, they want to destroy that ability of anyone to govern. Traditionally, government was the locus of power in a society. Whether it be right wing or left wing, the most significant power was exerted through government action. That is no longer the case. The real goal of people like Musk & Thiel is corporate feudalism.

I went to that article on Quora. It was written by Feifei Wang, who lives in Seattle. Here are some of the important ideas. A dictator needs a strong central government because that’s how they exert their power. Chaos is bad for maintaining centralized control. But the nasty guy and Musk are not building a central government, even though they have loyalists in the important posts. This looks more like destruction. But a weak government doesn’t help the nasty guy or Musk. The government is a source of enormous wealth for billionaires through the military-industrial complex, subsidies, and regulatory loopholes. A strong central government is the source of their power and money, yet they’re destroying it. So what’s the real goal?

Project 2025 is a “controlled demolition” of the US federal government. Instead of building a competent dictatorship, Trump and Musk (and people from the Heritage Foundation) are gutting federal institutions so they simply cease to function. If you replace career civil servants, scientists, and legal experts with unqualified loyalists, these institutions will be unable to function properly—even if someone competent takes office in the next election. This is not about reforming or restructuring the government for a dictator. It is about rendering it permanently ineffective. ... But what if there are better income sources? What if, instead of gaming the system, they became the system? What if, instead of bending the rules, they make the rules? ... If the government is weak and ineffective, essential services (education, health care, energy, law enforcement, military) will become private industries controlled by the wealthy. When everything is privatized, we effectively live in a plutocracy where corporations run everything, and ordinary people have no democratic protections.

Even if a Democrat were elected president in 2028 they would see the only way to govern is to rely on the private sector. And nationalizing basic government functions would be labeled communism. The nasty guy doesn’t want a functioning government because only a government can hold him accountable. Musk and billionaire tech bros don’t want a functioning government because they want a deregulated playground, one without antitrust laws, labor protections, environmental restrictions, or safety regulations. They become the new ruling class. This is worse than an authoritarian regime like China because they still fill potholes and check food safety. In response to this article Kelvin Bauldry commented:

The Republicans have been running up debt for decades because it makes government look “broken” and starves future governments of the resources needed to fix things let alone adopt new policies like universal health care. Fits right into a plan like what you described.

And Chris Jankowski replied to Bauldry:

You’re right Kelvin, and if you check the record, every single time this has happened, the economy tanks and we vote in a Democrat to fix it. We are a deeply stupid nation...

The executive order, like all too many, is lawless

Back in mid January I watched the movie Hugo. Part of it was an homage to early film making and the films of Georges Méliès. At the time I mentioned the Georges Méliès festival at the Detroit Film Theater at the end of March. We’re now at the end of March and the festival was last evening. It really wasn’t a “festival.” There were eleven films, but they all fit in 80 minutes. Since these were silent films, the earliest from 1898, they were accompanied by three musicians. I’m not sure if they have an independent name or were assembled to accompany these films on tour, of which Detroit was the first stop. Perhaps the name Right in the Eye is the name of the package of films and musicians. That name refers to the image of the man in the moon being hit in the eye by a rocket ship. That image was featured in Hugo. Alas, that film wasn’t included. The films shown indicate a man who understood at a very early time what cinema could do. The Lilliputians and the Giants played with scale. Fat and Lean Wrestling Match showed the director could stop filming to make a substitution in the scene – one fighter would deliver a blow which would turn the other into something flat or a dismembered manikin and a few moments later turn into a human again. The longest film was The Kingdom of Fairies where a group of people used a variety of vehicles to visit fantastical lands while pursued by bad guys. No matter how many times the vehicles crashed the occupants emerged unharmed. Since there is no sound all the actors gesticulated wildly, constantly in motion. I quite enjoyed this early look into cinema. Alas, these films probably won’t be seen on streaming. Oliver Willis of Daily Kos looked over the media responses to Signal-gate, where the top military and intelligence discussed plans on the unsecured signal app, and found media “sanewashing” it. They called it such things as a “relatable fail,” a “blunder,” and a “mishap.” They were not calling it what it was – a severe breach of national security, for which participants should lose their jobs, but probably won’t. Walter Einenkel of Kos reported the nasty guy escalated his assault on democracy by issuing an executive order that threatens to withhold federal grant money to force states to comply to voter suppression tactics already enacted in several states. It also grants DOGE and the Department of Homeland Security access to voting records. As is typical the claims given to support the order are lies. The nasty guy did not win by a landslide. The American voting system is already quite secure. And millions of undocumented immigrants are not voting.

Danielle Lang, a voting rights lawyer at the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center told The Guardian that there is nothing constitutional about Trump’s order. “The short answer is that this executive order,” she said, “like all too many that we’ve seen before, is lawless and asserts all sorts of executive authority that he most assuredly does not have.”

My friend and debate partner tells me his Social Security check is still coming. That’s reassuring. But it’s likely still coming because he’s already in the system – at least for a while. Emily Singer of Kos titled her report “It only took two months for Trump and Musk to break Social Security.” The workforce has been cut, field offices closed, and rules for verifying one’s identity have changed. The website has crashed four times in ten days because servers were overloaded. The agency’s ability to serve the public has diminished, but one can’t complain because the office to monitor customer experience is gone. The rule changes mean identity verification can’t be done over the phone. One can do it online (and I started tangling with the verification system and gave up, to tackle when I have lots of time) or in person. Many seniors don’t use computers or live in rural areas without good internet. One has to find an open office and it now may be a good distance away. Then make an appointment with a lot more people having to do the same and a lot fewer agents able to help them. And one must get there – not always easy for seniors. My friend is likely fine. But my eventual application process may be much more difficult than his was. Singer says breaking Social Security is “politically moronic.” It is quite popular, has broad public support, and is critical to highly reliable voting block. Older voters are already packing Republican town halls demanding they stand up to DOGE. In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted Jonathan Weiler who writes Jonathan’s Quality Kvetching Newsletter:

The point is to remind ourselves and the political leaders who seek to represent us that their approach to endless rightwing fulminating needs to change fundamentally. It's both bad politics and unprincipled to cave in to blatant bad faith out of some misguided notion of decorum, or fear of losing popular support, or because maybe Republicans have a point about some tempest in a teapot (Hunter Biden’s laptop, anyone?) when, in this era, Republicans’ only goal is to seize power and then abuse it once they have it. Democrats have limited tools at their disposal right now, as we all know. But they need to start practicing, both for the sake of the party’s future, and the country’s, a different mode of politics. As Josh Marshall wrote yesterday, one thing they can do is adopt a parliamentary opposition’s approach. In parliamentary systems, the opposition has a shadow cabinet. One purpose of that is to provide the public with an ongoing narrative about what the government is doing wrong and how the opposition would act differently if and when they return to power. The point of this exercise isn’t to lie about your opponents. It’s in part to ensure that the public doesn’t only hear one side of the political story.

Dworkin quoted a tweet by Orla Joelsen. I went to it directly to see the whole thing.

Representatives of the American government have been going door to door in Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, in recent days ahead of the now-canceled visit by the U.S. Second Lady, Usha Vance. This is according to TV 2’s correspondent in Nuuk, Jesper Steinmetz.

American representatives have been walking around, practically knocking on one door after another in the past few days to ask if people might be interested in a visit from the Vice President’s wife. Everywhere, the answer was the same: ‘No, thanks.’

He suffers from billionaire brain

The nasty guy rarely misses a chance for a branding opportunity or turn an event into something tacky. This time it is the White House Easter Egg Roll. Alex Samuels of Daily Kos wrote:

According to reports from CNN and The New York Times, which viewed a nine-page guide available for potential sponsors, companies willing to pay between $75,000 and $200,000 can earn perks such as branding rights, having their logos or names featured on event signage, and mentions in social media posts and press releases. The most expensive package—Platinum—includes “branding for a key area or activation,” 150 tickets to the event (100 general admission, plus 50 VIP), and exclusive tickets to an invitation-only brunch inside the White House with first lady Melania Trump. ... However, there’s a reason past administrations haven’t sought to blur the line between the private sector and the government: doing so raises numerous legal and ethical concerns. For one, federal regulations prohibit government employees from using their public offices for personal gain or “for the endorsement of any product, service, or enterprise.”

A Pagan in Arizona of the Kos community posted a photo of Greenland’s new red MAGA hat. It says, “Make America Go Away.” Walter Einenkel of Kos reported Canada has adopted the rallying cry of “Elbows Up!” A video in the post explains the phrase came from the great hockey player Gordie Howe as a way of saying he was always ready to for a fight. It was brought to modern awareness by Mike Myers, who returned to Saturday Night Live to portray Musk in sketches over the last few weeks. During two of those shows Myers wore a shirt saying, “Canada is not for sale.” Emily Singer of Kos reported:

President Donald Trump is sending his national security adviser and the second lady of the United States to Greenland as he continues to saber-rattle about taking over the Danish autonomous territory—a move Greenlandic officials are slamming as “highly aggressive,” The New York Times reported. Usha Vance, the wife of Vice President JD Vance, will leave for Greenland on Thursday, while national security adviser Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright will go earlier in the week. ... Unsurprisingly, Greenland officials are pissed. “What is the national security adviser doing in Greenland?” Greenlandic Prime Minister Mute B. Egede said on Sunday, according to The New York Times. “The only purpose is to demonstrate power over us.”

I know today is Thursday. I’m still two days behind in reading news on Kos. In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted tweets by David Frum:

The unsought-by-Greenland visit by Second Lady Usha Vane feels like a Trump administration project to goad Greenlanders into protest - after which the administration can demand apologies. If/when the apologies are deemed unsatisfactory, next step may be reprisals.

Down in the comments a tweet by Eric Feigl-Ding quoted a tweet by Same Knowlton. First Knowlton:

What’s the story here, and how could this possibly make sense? Firing the scientists who maintain the National Plant Germplasm System jeopardizes 127 years of agricultural genetic preservation. This system safeguards 600,000+ crop varieties that serve as America's agricultural insurance policy against emerging plant diseases and other unforeseen threats to crop production. The NPGS costs 0.000008% of the federal budget while insuring a $1.5 trillion food system. When stem rust threatened global wheat supplies in 1999, these collections provided the resistant genes that prevented widespread crop failure. Similar genetic resources from the bank generate $91+ million annually for the apple industry alone.

Feigl-Ding added:

America’s doomsday seed vault just got defunded by Trump/Musk. If we ever have an agricultural calamity that wipes out plant life on Earth, it’s the seed vault that will repopulate the Earth and feed humanity after the fallout. This is so stupid.

A cartoon by Toonerman shows Howard Lutnick sitting on top of a big pile of bags of money. A man struggles up the pile.

Man: Oh Great Greedy Gazillionaire Howard Lutnick. I didn’t get my Social Security Check. Why? It’s my money and I need it to survive: Lutnick: Quit whining! You sound like a fraudster. Just STFU and accept it. Stocks dropped for a third day in a row... you don’t see me whining.”

Singer discussed the story of the top military and security people discussing plans to attack a Houthi base in Yemen on the unsecure Signal messaging app and mistakenly including Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic in the group. Goldberg said this breach of security could have harmed American military personnel. It violated several provisions of the Espionage Act. It violated federal record laws. Democrats are calling for investigations, calling this “one of the biggest and most incompetent national security breaches in history.” Then Singer gets to the irony.

First, almost every member of that chain criticized former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, citing national security concerns.

Each one of them is listed with their attack on Clinton. And...

Even more ironic is that just last week, Hegseth reported that the Department of Defense was going to be investigating who leaked his plan to brief co-President Elon Musk on the United States' plans for war with China—another thing that makes Americans less safe as there is no reason Musk should be privy to that information. ... Worst of all, as Democrats lambast the Trump administration officials and call for investigations, Republicans have been virtually silent—even though they would be screaming to the heavens if a Democratic administration had done anything even remotely similar.

Those Republicans who did comment were pretty muted. And the nasty guy claimed ignorance.

If the commander in chief did not yet know about the fact that his top aides were putting the country at risk by discussing military operations via text message, then that’s a scandal in and of itself.

In a second roundup Chitown Kev quoted an article in Der Spiegel written by Patrick Beuth, Jörg Diehl, Roman Höfner, Roman Lehberger, Friederike Röhreke, and Fidelius Schmid.

Private contact details of the most important security advisers to U.S. President Donald Trump can be found on the internet. Der Spiegel reporters were able to find mobile phone numbers, email addresses and even some passwords belonging to the top officials. [...] Most of these numbers and email addresses are apparently still in use, with some of them linked to profiles on social media platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn. They were used to create Dropbox accounts and profiles in apps that track running data. There are also WhatsApp profiles for the respective phone numbers and even Signal accounts in some cases. As such, the reporting has revealed an additional grave, previously unknown security breach at the highest levels in Washington. Hostile intelligence services could use this publicly available data to hack the communications of those affected by installing spyware on their devices. It is thus conceivable that foreign agents were privy to the Signal chat group in which Gabbard, Waltz and Hegseth discussed a military strike. [...] It was particularly easy for Der Spiegel reporters to discover Hegseth’s mobile number and email address. They turned to a commercial provider of contact information that is primarily used by companies for sales, marketing and recruitment.

Paul Krugman, writing for his Substack:

Musk is incompetent and evil. He suffers from billionaire brain — that special blend of ignorance and arrogance that occurs all too frequently in men who believe that their success in accumulating personal wealth means that they understand everything, no need to do any homework. But he also clearly detests anything that makes life better for non-billionaires.

In a third roundup Dworkin quoted a tweet by Juliette Kayyem that included a tweet by Alexander Panetta. First Panetta:

Report: A library and opera house that straddles the Canada-U.S. border and has been a symbol of binational friendship for 100 years will have its Canadian entrance cut off by U.S. authorities.

Kayyam added:

Our nation went from powerful to petty in just a few months.

Sen. Chris Murphy commented on a video showing Howard Lutnick’s comment that only fraudsters would complain about missing Social Security checks.

They are getting ready to destroy Social Security. Because the billionaires don’t need it. Prepping the ground here by shaming people who dare complain if their Social Security check disappears.

In a report posted on Tuesday last week Singer wrote about Judge James Boasberg, who ruled against the nasty guy sending a couple planes of of Venezuelan immigrants to a notorious jail in El Salvador. The nasty guy is now calling for Boasberg to be removed. And House Republicans are drafting articles of impeachment against Boasberg and other judges who have ruled against the nasty guy or Musk. There are saner voices saying judicial impeachment is going too far. Even Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issued a mild statement, showing he thinks the talk is not just bluster. Roberts wrote:

For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.

On Wednesday of last week Singer reported House Republicans are supporting the impeachment of judges. Singer wrote the effort is time consuming (and taking away from other House efforts of enacting more of the nasty guy’s destruction) and is destined to fail. The effort is destined to fail, says a Republican aide, because “There aren’t the votes.” If it does come to a vote that record could be politically damaging. And there aren’t 14 Democratic senators who would vote to convict. On Thursday of last week Oliver Willis of Kos reported that after nasty guy commented about impeachment federal judges are receiving death threats and have serious concerns for their safety. Some judges have received pizza deliveries, a way of telling judges their home addresses are known. That’s part of an intimidation campaign. The sister of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett received an emailed threat of a pipe bomb in her mailbox. Thankfully, it was a hoax. Lisa Needham of Kos took the DOGE phrase of “move fast and break things” and suggested that’s what judges should be doing.

Federal judges are still treating the Trump administration like a good-faith litigant, and that has to stop. The administration doesn’t believe it has to follow court orders it doesn’t like and keeps figuring out ways to avoid complying.

Of course, she has several examples of not complying. And they’re not complying partly because of a lack of consequences. Judges are giving the administration the benefit of the doubt and also giving deference to the office of the president. That allows the administration to get away with tactics that no other litigant could. An example is stalling litigation by refusing to say who the actual head of DOGE is. So stop giving the benefit of the doubt. Stop giving deference. Use the power of civil and criminal contempt to force compliance with orders. Sanction Department of Justice attorneys when arguments are not brought in good faith or a filing is for an improper purpose, such as harassment.

If a judge does finally impose any sort of penalty, the Trump administration will inevitably race to the friendly confines of the United States Supreme Court to get them to undo it. That court has ruled, though, that federal courts have inherent power to impose contempt for “disobedience to the orders of the Judiciary.” Right now, federal courts are sending the message that court orders don’t really mean anything if the Trump administration thinks they don’t. There’s no reason to treat the government, the most powerful litigant in the country and one with boundless resources and thousands of attorneys, with kid gloves. The administration knows full well what it’s doing, and what it’s doing is mocking the authority of the federal courts. The federal courts should stop helping them.