[guest post by Dana]

Let’s go!

First news item

Oh, let’s just call a spade a spade here: who is it that the United States has aligned themselves with in the Ukraine-Russia war? Thanks to Trump, it’s Russia, of course. Thus, it is not in Russia’s interest:

CNN reports that the State Department is now confirming cancellation of the contract tracking abducted Ukrainian kids, claiming it’s not in U.S. interests. Also, a State Department spokesperson said the data hasn’t been deleted and now rests with a subcontractor, though more details appear scarce.

Second news item

How’re the Republican townhalls going (for those Congressmembers who are still doing them)? Let’s take a look-see at a Wyoming gathering:

Holy shit. This happened last night at the townhall of MAGA Congresswoman Harriet Wageman, who defeated Liz Cheney in deep red Wyoming, where Trump won with over 45%, the biggest margin in the nation.

Give 'em hell.

pic.twitter.com/TypzaD3bXm

— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) March 20, 2025

Third news item

Business as usual with this crew:

Elon Musk’s political action committee is offering Wisconsin voters $100 to sign a petition expressing their opposition to “activist judges,” a cause that President Trump is pressing as judges block or delay several parts of his agenda.

Why it matters: The move reflects how Musk is throwing his considerable wealth behind Trump’s priorities — including an upcoming election in Wisconsin for a crucial seat on the state’s Supreme Court.

When you’re a star billionaire, they let you do it. You can do anything, even use your oodles of money to attack the rule of law. . .

Fourth news item

Testifying against her would-be assassins:

On Thursday, after deliberating for less than four hours, a federal jury returned guilty verdicts against two Eastern European self-described gangsters hired by Iran to send a hit man to kill an Iranian dissident at her Brooklyn home. The intended victim, Masih Alinejad, is a journalist and activist with nearly 9 million Instagram followers and the personal enmity of Iran’s Supreme Leader, who calls her “the American agent.”

The July 2022 plot was at least the third attempt on Alinejad’s life by Iran, and the trial marked the first time the regime’s assassination apparatus was laid out in detail in a U.S. courtroom. Until the United States v. Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, the Justice Department had issued indictments against Iranian officials that described their alleged efforts to assassinate U.S. officials—including Donald Trump and John Bolton, Trump’s National Security Advisor in his first term. But on the 24th floor of a lower Manhattan U.S. District courthouse, a string of FBI agents filled in the nitty gritty—detailing the forensic penetration of iPhones, Google accounts, WhatsApp messages, and search histories of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) operatives hunting Alinejad.

. . .

Alinejad testified to a packed courtroom on Wednesday. Since moving to the U.S. in 2009, the journalist has emerged as a prominent dissident, with a large following inside Iran, especially among young women who understand the regime’s enforcement of compulsory hijab, or modest dress, as shorthand for all its misogynist laws. Iran’s most recent attempt on her was in 2024, when, according to a U.S. indictment, Iran engaged an Afghan to arrange the assassination of both her and Trump.

“They wanted Ms. Alinejad dead, not in the witness box,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael D. Lockard.

Appearing with her signature yellow blossom in a towering nimbus of hair, Alinejad explained that she had been out of town for most of the time that Mehdiyev was staking out her street. On the day they overlapped, she was alarmed to lock eyes with him while looking out a front window. “He was in my sunflowers, staring into my eyes. I got really panicked,” she said, and she ducked out of the house with a friend. Mehdiyev soon fled as well and was arrested after running a stop sign.

An incredibly courageous woman stands firm.

Fifth news item

Oh:

A hearing has been set for Friday afternoon to debate whether a federal judge in Washington acted correctly when he temporarily stopped the Trump administration last weekend from summarily deporting scores of Venezuelan immigrants under a powerful but rarely invoked wartime statute.

The hearing…could also include some discussion about the Justice Department’s repeated recalcitrance in responding to the judge’s demands. He has been requesting information about two deportation flights in particular, which officials say carried members of a Venezuelan street gang, Tren de Aragua, to El Salvador.

The judge, James E. Boasberg, scolded the department in a stern order on Thursday for having “evaded its obligations” to provide him with data about the flights. He wants that information as he seeks to determine whether the Trump administration violated his initial instructions to turn the planes around after they left the United States on Saturday evening.

Most of the courtroom conversation, however, is likely to concern Judge Boasberg’s underlying decision to stop the White House for now from using the wartime law, known as the Alien Enemies Act, to pursue its immigration agenda. The statute, passed in 1798, gives the government expansive powers during an invasion or a declared war to round up and summarily remove any subjects of a “hostile nation” over the age of 14 as “alien enemies.”

Meanwhile, Republicans continue to go after judges on their list:

. . .the president’s allies in Congress have already filed at least four impeachment resolutions against judges, following rulings that slowed or temporarily paused Trump’s push to change the federal government. And a House GOP lawmaker reported he added to that list by filing articles of impeachment against the federal judge in Washington.

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., have not publicly said they would go forward with them — an action that could set up an extraordinary and historic test of judicial independence and a showdown over the separation of powers.

From Trump, who believes that the Supreme Court, heck, any court, is there to do his bidding:

President Donald Trump demanded that Chief Justice John Roberts and the U.S. Supreme Court rein in federal judges who have issued injunctions around the country that have impeded an array of his policies.

“It is our goal to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, and such a high aspiration can never be done if Radical and Highly Partisan Judges are allowed to stand in the way of JUSTICE. STOP NATIONWIDE INJUNCTIONS NOW, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. If Justice Roberts and the United States Supreme Court do not fix this toxic and unprecedented situation IMMEDIATELY, our Country is in very serious trouble!” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Thursday.

Eh, who needs three branches of government anyway. . .

Sixth news item

It’s almost like Russia doesn’t want to end the war!:

The southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa was engulfed in flames late Thursday after being struck by a large-scale Russian drone attack, hours after US President Donald Trump expressed optimism about ending the war and as peace talks are set to resume on Monday.

Trump – who recently held separate phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky on implementing a partial ceasefire – projected optimism about reaching an end to the war on Thursday, saying “we’re doing pretty well in that regard.”

The city of Odesa under Russian attack last night.

Russians now just aim to kill off Ukraine's civilian population. pic.twitter.com/WEyHjFZvhy

— Jay in Kyiv (@JayinKyiv) March 21, 2025

Related:

President Vladimir Putin ordered Ukrainian citizens in Russia to either “legalize” their immigration status or leave the country by Sept. 10, according to a presidential decree published Thursday.

Ukrainians without “legal grounds to stay or reside in Russia” must leave unless they “settle their legal status” within the next six months and 10 days, the decree states.

The order appears to apply to Ukrainian passport holders from four partially occupied regions — Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — that Russia claims to have annexed in 2022, as well as from Crimea, which Russia seized in 2014.

Have a good weekend.

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

How is this not wholly problematic:

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick urged the public to “buy Tesla” stock, a highly unusual promotion by a Cabinet member of a company whose current investors have suffered a sharp slide in share price since December.

Lutnick’s touting of Tesla shares Wednesday night came as CEO Elon Musk oversees the highly controversial DOGE effort to slash the federal workforce for the Trump administration.

. . .

Government conflict of interest rules prohibit federal employees from using their “government position or title or any authority associated with his public office to endorse any product, service or enterprise” save for very limited situations, none of which appeared to apply to Lutnick.

“If you want to learn something on this show tonight, buy Tesla,” Lutnick said during an interview on Fox News with Jesse Watters.

So I guess we’re just going to have four years of rule-breaking without anyone batting an eye. Even when it involves an administration official urging people to buy stock in the company of Trump’s top campaign contributor and current White House employee. Oh, and this same person has now made his Starlink internet service accessible throughout the White House campus. Nah, no conflict of interest anywhere. It’s all cool. . .

-Dana

[guest post by Dana]

Controversial item wanted for new social studies standards in Oklahoma:

The new version of one section of the standards says high school students should “Identify discrepancies in 2020 elections results by looking at graphs and other information, including the sudden halting of ballot-counting in select cities in key battleground states, the security risks of mail-in balloting, sudden batch dumps, an unforeseen record number of voters, and the unprecedented contradiction of ‘bellwether county’ trends.”

According to the report, state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters, obviously a Republican, slipped the item in right before the standards were to be approved by the Board of Education.

This is not the only controversial thing to do with the curriculum standards in Oklahoma:

The proposed standards were already controversial because of the dozens of mentions of the Bible and Christianity within them, as well as the membership of the executive review committee that oversaw the process. That committee included the co-founder of the conservative nonprofit PragerU, a representative from the conservative American Enterprise Institute and the president of another conservative group, the Heritage Foundation, along with multiple other conservative voices. Only three of the people on the executive committee have ever lived in Oklahoma.

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

Last month, President Trump announced that wealthy foreign nationals could purchase a $5 million “Gold Card”:

“We’re going to be selling a Gold Card. You have a green card. This is a gold card,” he said. “We’re going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million. And that’s going to give you green card privileges.”

Today, Trump defended his plan:

During an interview with the president, Fox News host Laura Ingraham asked, “$5 million investment from a foreigner coming into the United States. Why should our citizenship be purchased for any amount of money? Especially given the fact that you are America First.”

“That’s why, because I’m America First,” replied Trump. “Because at $5 million, you’re getting a lot of things, but you’re getting $5 million. Let’s say we sell a million of them. That’s $5 trillion. We are now an unbelievably successful country paying down tremendous amounts of debt. It’s all going to pay down debt. We’re going to have very little debt.”

“If you did $5 million, now, generally people that can pay $5 million are going to be job producers, okay? They’re going to be successful, they’re going to produce jobs. But here’s another thing. Apple comes to me, a lot of companies come to me, they say, “Sir, we just made a deal to hire the number one student at the Wharton School of Finance or at Harvard Business School or anything else or MIT or Stanford or any of them, but they are going to throw them out of the country the day after graduation.” They’ll buy these.”

Trump said that “his people” want to call the cards the “Trump Card” because it will sell even more than a mere Gold Card.

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

Utterly monstrous and completely indefensible:

For days now, the State Department has remained mum about the news that it terminated a contract with a humanitarian group that was tracking the fate of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia after the Russian invasion. The revelation—which we first reported last week—suggests that the United States may now be in the position of helping Russia bury a potential war crime, complicating negotiations to end the Russia-Ukraine war. Yet the State Department won’t explain why this contract was terminated, or even how it happened at all.

But now this developing scandal has gotten worse. The underlying data collected in the course of tracking these children may have been deleted in connection with this contract’s termination, over a dozen members of Congress have now charged in a letter they just sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

What’s more, the group tracking them may have now lost access to the satellite imagery it has been using to track the children, the letter claims, which means untold numbers of them could disappear from the view of these monitors.

“If true, this could have devastating consequences,” the representatives write in their letter, which we obtained. The letter is spearheaded by Democratic Representative Greg Landsman of Ohio, and of its other signatories, two are Republicans: Representatives Don Bacon of Nebraska and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania.

The program had made some amazing progress in locating abducted Ukrainian children before it was frozen by the Trump administration:

Under the contract—which was first approved by the State Department under Joe Biden—the Yale University School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab has been using sophisticated technologies to identify and locate Ukrainian children taken by Russia. This has been widely labeled a war crime, including by the International Criminal Court, which indicted Russian leaders for it in 2023.

This Yale lab’s efforts produced dramatic results: It has located thousands of kids via satellite imagery, biometric data, and other means. In December, it announced the identities of 314 of these kids, and presented evidence before the United Nations Security Council that the abductions amounted to crimes against humanity under international law.

Note:

The contract had been frozen since January as part of the Trump-Musk funding freeze. But now, its termination by the State Department means something worse: The underlying evidence and data tracking the kids will not be transferred to Europol, the law enforcement arm of the European Union. Some of the evidence apparently also won’t be transferred to Ukraine.

I first wrote about this here. It is an abhorrent decision made by the Trump administration, and State Dept. What sort of ogres are not prioritizing the war crime of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia? This impulsive freezing of programs that appear to be a waste of money is appalling. Especially as it doesn’t seem like any sort of rigorous study and analysis is performed before said decisions are made. And are those responsible for the stoppage of programs intimately knowledgeable about the subject matter they are making crucial decisions about?

One thing is for sure: Ukraine is being hurt yet again by U.S. decisions, while Russia remains free to do what they want. What a disgusting message to send to democracies everywhere. It’s horrendous enough that Trump has repeatedly criticized Ukraine (and Canada!) more than he ever has Russia. It boggles the mind that we would do such harm to innocent children by cutting off and eliminating the possibility of them being located and reunited with their families. This makes me feel utterly ashamed of America before the world.

Completely indefensible.

This is what Russian troops think about Ukrainian children:

Russians share photos on social media: "This is a recent photo of my (soldier) friend. He has a scull of a fcking Ukrainian animal kid on the top of his rifle. We found (the kid's) body under ruins (of a building), partly eaten (by dogs)".
Russia has no right to exist. https://t.co/72T2QJrRXM

— Sergej Sumlenny, LL.M (@sumlenny) March 19, 2025

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

About that phone call between President Trump and President Putin today: a phone call in which Putin kept his little pet Trump waiting for an hour:

A White House readout of the call said Putin supports Trump’s idea for a mutual pause on energy infrastructure attacks — but did not include a commitment to the 30-day truce accepted by Ukraine last week despite Trump’s optimistic comments in recent days that Moscow would go along.

“Both leaders agreed this conflict needs to end with a lasting peace,” the White House said of the Trump-Putin call. “They also stressed the need for improved bilateral relations between the United States and Russia. The blood and treasure that both Ukraine and Russia have been spending in this war would be better spent on the needs of their people.”

“This conflict should never have started and should have been ended long ago with sincere and good faith peace efforts,” the White House added. “The leaders agreed that the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire, as well as technical negotiations on implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace. These negotiations will begin immediately in the Middle East.”

This conflict ILLEGAL INVASION by Russia and subsequent WAR should indeed, never have started!! Why is it so hard for this White House to state accurately what happened? I think we all know the answer to this! Moreover, the war that should have never been started should have indeed been ended long ago with sincere and good faith peace efforts RUSSIA PULLING OUT ALL TROOPS, INCLUDING IN THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES, AND RETURNING EVERY KIDNAPPED UKRAINIAN CHILD BACK TO THEIR PARENTS. That’s how this war should have ended years ago. To accept anything less in a settlement is to grossly embolden Putin.

Utterly predictably, Putin rejects the unconditional ceasefire offered by Ukraine, sends Trump off on the errands of making the Russian invasion easier and denying Ukrainian sovereignty, while Trump claims he has accomplished something.

— Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder) March 18, 2025

Putin is a cruel and diabolical animal, Zelensky is an honorable man doing the best job anyone could in his circumstances, and Trump remains Trump: pathetic in his insatiable need for people to admire him, even in his adulation and capitulation to Putin.

Trump’s take on the phone call with Putin:

My phone conversation today with President Putin of Russia was a very good and productive one. We agreed to an immediate Ceasefire on all Energy and Infrastructure, with an understanding that we will be working quickly to have a Complete Ceasefire and, ultimately, an END to this very horrible War between Russia and Ukraine. This War would have never started if I were President! Many elements of a Contract for Peace were discussed, including the fact that thousands of soldiers are being killed, and both President Putin and President Zelenskyy would like to see it end. That process is now in full force and effect, and we will, hopefully, for the sake of Humanity, get the job done!

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

Chief Justice Roberts rebuked President Trump after he called for a judge to be impeached:

Chief Justice John Roberts is pushing back against President Donald Trump’s call to impeach judges who’ve ruled against the administration.

“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,” Roberts said Tuesday in a rare and brief statement issued just hours after Trump publicly joined demands by his supporters to remove judges he called “crooked.”

No matter how angry Trump is, or how justified he feels, he will never supersede the law or the Constitution:

Good for Justice Roberts. The judiciary does not answer to the president, and it is not required to bend to the president’s will. A presidential election is irrelevant to judicial reasoning, and Trump’s victory did not change the meaning of the Constitution or of American laws.

What Trump was angry about:

President Donald Trump on Tuesday called for the impeachment of the federal judge who ordered a two-week halt to his efforts to remove Venezuelan migrants using extraordinary war powers that haven’t been invoked for decades.

Trump’s call to remove U.S. District Judge James Boasberg — the chief judge of the federal district court in Washington, D.C. — is the first time since taking office for his second term that he’s asked Congress to seek a judge’s removal, joining increasingly pointed calls by his top donor and adviser Elon Musk and a segment of his MAGA base.

Here is what Trump posted in full:

This Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama, was not elected President – He didn’t WIN the popular VOTE (by a lot!), he didn’t WIN ALL SEVEN SWING STATES, he didn’t WIN 2,750 to 525 Counties, HE DIDN’T WIN ANYTHING! I WON FOR MANY REASONS, IN AN OVERWHELMING MANDATE, BUT FIGHTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION MAY HAVE BEEN THE NUMBER ONE REASON FOR THIS HISTORIC VICTORY. I’m just doing what the VOTERS wanted me to do. This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!! WE DON’T WANT VICIOUS, VIOLENT, AND DEMENTED CRIMINALS, MANY OF THEM DERANGED MURDERERS, IN OUR COUNTRY. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!

Trump had invoked the Alien Enemies Act, which allows an expedited removal process, thus 250 alleged aliens were deported to Honduras and El Salvador. According to reports, none had been given basic due process, as required by law. The administration claims that they were members of the Tren de Aragua prison gang and MS-13. Horribly, reports are now saying that many of the aliens who were deported pursuant to the Alien Enemies Act did not have criminal records in the United States. Additionally, the Trump administration argued that the deportation of the men was not in defiance of a court order:

The Trump administration has transferred hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador even as a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring the deportations under an 18th century wartime declaration targeting Venezuelan gang members, officials said Sunday. Flights were in the air at the time of the ruling.

U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg issued an order Saturday temporarily blocking the deportations, but lawyers told him there were already two planes with immigrants in the air — one headed for El Salvador, the other for Honduras. Boasberg verbally ordered the planes be turned around, but they apparently were not and he did not include the directive in his written order.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, in a statement Sunday, responded to speculation about whether the administration was flouting court orders: “The administration did not ‘refuse to comply’ with a court order. The order, which had no lawful basis, was issued after terrorist TdA aliens had already been removed from U.S. territory.”

—Dana

As I have done every March 17 since I started this blog, I am wishing my Dad a Happy Birthday.

It is a tradition to note my previous similar posts on this special day. And so, I am doing it again on this exceptionally noteworthy day.

This one is more special than most.

He would have been 100 years old today.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

[guest post by Dana]

Let’s go!

First news item

An interesting look at the disappearance of the WASP, and how no one noticed:

[T]here is no way back to an America run by WASPs, nor should we want there to be. But at its best, the WASP establishment gave us some things that every society needs, including leaders with a sense of ownership over the long-term success of their country and a sense that their privileges go hand-in-hand with a responsibility for those born less lucky.

One way to interpret the chaos into which the country is currently descending is to see it as the result of the void left by the disappearance of that old WASP code. And one way to interpret the culture war that seems to be consuming our politics is to think of it as a battle over what set of norms and customs should be put in the place of the ones that have recently vanished.

It would be naive and ahistorical to wish for an America in which the WASPs are still in charge. But their disappearance is one of the reasons for the chaos in which we now find ourselves. Constructing a meritocratic elite that is better than its WASP predecessors at ruling the country—one that actually manages to earn the assent of most Americans, unlike its more recent incarnations—will by no means be easy.

Second news item

Democrats very unhappy with Chuck Schumer over vote for funding bill:

Privately, House Democrats are so infuriated with Schumer’s decision that some have begun encouraging her to run against Schumer in a primary, according to a Democratic member who directly spoke with Ocasio-Cortez about running at the caucus’ policy retreat. Multiple Democrats in the Congressional Progressive Caucus and others directly encouraged Ocasio-Cortez to run on Thursday night after Schumer’s announcement, this member said.

The member said that Democrats in Leesburg were “so mad” that even centrist Democrats were “ready to write checks for AOC for Senate,” adding that they have “never seen people so mad.”

Asked by CNN about fellow Democrats encouraging her to challenge Schumer, Ocasio-Cortez declined to answer and said she was focused on keeping Democrats from backing the funding bill: “We still have an opportunity to correct course here, and that is my number one priority.”

Third news item

Columbia University informs about expulsions and suspensions:

Columbia University said students who occupied the campus’ Hamilton Hall during pro-Palestinian protests last spring have been expelled, suspended for several years or had their degrees temporarily revoked.

The sanctions were issued by the Columbia University Judicial Board on Thursday, the school said.

“The outcomes issued by the UJB are based on its evaluation of the severity of behaviors at these events and prior disciplinary actions,” the university said in a statement sent to the school community. “These outcomes are the result of following the thorough and rigorous processes laid out in the Rules of University Conduct in our statutes, which include investigations, hearings and deliberations.”

Fourth news item

Weighing in on the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil:

Now we get to the hard and important part—the unshakable appearance, if not the reality, that all of this is being done in retaliation for constitutionally protected speech on Khalil’s part. It seems to me that there are three different places where the First Amendment might show up in the litigation over what’s happened: As a challenge to the constitutionality of each of the two grounds on which I’m speculating the government might claim it can remove him; and as a standalone retaliation claim.

Taking the third possibility first, the problem for Khalil is that the Supreme Court, in general, has made it very difficult to use a First Amendment retaliation claim to successfully defeat an enforcement proceeding otherwise supported by probable cause—and especially in immigration cases. In its 1999 ruling in Reno v. American-Arab Antidiscrimination Committee, for instance, the Court stressed that “As a general matter . . . an alien unlawfully in this country has no constitutional right to assert selective enforcement as a defense against his deportation.” To be sure, Justice Scalia’s majority opinion left open the possibility that there could be “a rare case in which the alleged basis of discrimination is so outrageous” as to bar an otherwise valid removal proceeding. This may well be such a case. And the plaintiffs in AADC were not LPRs—which might put even more force into the argument for First Amendment limits here. But it’s worth starting from the baseline that, for better or worse (and, in my view, for worse), the First Amendment doesn’t generally protect non-citizens against being removed for activity that the First Amendment protects.

I’m a bit more sanguine about the possibility of specific First Amendment challenges to the hypothesized grounds for Khalil’s removal. Among other things, the First Amendment might require the Secretary of State to have substantial support for a personal determination that an LPR’s continued presence “would compromise a compelling United States foreign policy interest,” support that, in turn, courts could subject to meaningful scrutiny.

Fifth news item

Evidence of Trump’s cognitive decline?:

During a Thursday press availability with reporters in the Oval Office while meeting with the head of NATO, Trump centubled on his argument that Canada must join the United States, insisting that Canada “only works as a state.” Trump said:

“But it comes a point when you just can’t do that. You have to run your own country. And to be honest with you, Canada only works as a state. It doesn’t. We don’t need anything. They have as a state. It would be one of the great states anywhere. This would be the most incredible country visually. If you look at a map, they drew an artificial line right through it between Canada and the U.S. just a straight artificial line. Somebody did it a long time ago, many, many decades ago. And it makes no sense.

It’s so perfect as a great and cherished state. Keeping, ‘Oh, Canada,’ the national anthem, I love it. I think it’s great. Keep it. But it’ll be for the state. One of our greatest states, maybe our greatest state. But why should we subsidize another country for 200 billion, costs us $200 billion a year? And again, we don’t need their lumber. We don’t need their energy.

We have more than they do. We don’t need anything. We don’t need their cars. I’d much rather make the cars here. And there’s not a thing that we need. Now there’ll be a little disruption, but it won’t be very long. But they need us. We really don’t need them. And we have to do this. I’m sorry. We have to do this.“

If not cognitive decline, how does one explain this nonsensical statement?

Sixth news item

The Panama Canal in play:

The White House has directed the U.S. military to draw up options for increasing the American troop presence in Panama to achieve President Trump’s goal of “reclaiming” the Panama Canal, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the planning.

During a joint address to Congress last week, Trump said, “to further enhance our national security, my administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal.” Since then, administration officials have not said what “reclaiming” means.

U.S. Southern Command is developing potential plans that vary from partnering more closely with Panamanian security forces to the less likely option of U.S. troops seizing the Panama Canal by force, the officials said. Whether military force is used, the officials added, depends on how much Panamanian security forces agree to partner with the U.S.

The Trump administration’s goal is to increase the U.S. military presence in Panama to diminish China’s influence there, particularly access to the canal, the officials said.

Seventh news item

Trump repeating Russian propaganda:

We had very good and productive discussions with President Vladimir Putin of Russia yesterday, and there is a very good chance that this horrible, bloody war can finally come to an end — BUT, AT THIS VERY MOMENT, THOUSANDS OF UKRAINIAN TROOPS ARE COMPLETELY SURROUNDED BY THE RUSSIAN MILITARY, AND IN A VERY BAD AND VULNERABLE POSITION. I have strongly requested to President Putin that their lives be spared. This would be a horrible massacre, one not seen since World War II. God bless them all!!!

What Putin said:

On Thursday, Putin had said it is now “impossible” for even small groups of Ukrainian troops to withdraw from Russia’s Kursk region because they had lost control of the area, Russian state news outlet Tass reported, characterizing it as an encirclement.

Russia said the same day that it had recaptured Sudzha, the largest town in Kursk, and other settlements in the area. In the biggest sign of Russian advances in the area, Putin paid a surprise visit to Kursk earlier in the week, wearing military fatigues for the trip.

Ukraine denies Putin and Trump comments:

Ukraine’s military denied U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim that thousands of its troops were surrounded, following similar comments by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

“Reports about the enemy’s alleged ‘encirclement’ of Ukrainian units in the Kursk region are not true and are created by the Russians for political goals and pressure on Ukraine and partners,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a statement.

“The situation has not changed significantly during the day. Hostilities in the operational zone of the Kursk group of troops continue.”

Two lying thugs in a pod. Where is the outrage that a sitting American president is echoing a vile dictator, hater of freedom, and America’s enemy? Why is this okay with any American?

Asking the right question:

I have a very serious question: does the president of the United States rely on any information about the battlefield situation in Ukraine that doesn’t come from Putin’s conversations with Witkoff? Because there aren’t thousands of helpless Ukrainian troops in full encirclement. And asking Putin for an imaginary favor is quite a way to move the goalpost after Putin refused the unconditional 30-day ceasefire.

Eighth news item

Grifters, quacks, and charlatans leading the way – I’m looking at you, RFK Jr.:

When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed as America’s secretary of health and human services, neutral observers might have asked themselves: Would it be possible for a lawyer who had questioned the safety of childhood vaccinations for two decades to look at the available data and reconsider his views?

Kennedy’s recent interviews with Fox News, along with an op-ed he published on that outlet’s website, have been enough to make many experts conclude the answer is “no.”

Parsing every claim about the measles vaccine that Kennedy has made would take a long time, so let’s focus on one: that the vaccine causes deaths every year. Researchers say that simply isn’t true, except potentially in a small number of people who are not supposed to receive it — those with compromised immune systems.

“There are adverse events from the vaccine,” Kennedy said in a March 11 interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity. “It does cause deaths every year. It causes — it causes all the illnesses that measles itself causes, encephalitis and blindness, et cetera. And so people ought to be able to make that choice for themselves.”

The Infectious Disease Society of America says there have been “no deaths related to the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine in healthy individuals.” (Since the 1970s, the measles vaccine has been given in a combination shot with mumps and rubella to minimize the number of injections kids get.)

“The MMR vaccine has never been found to cause a death in an immunocompetent individual,” Daniel Griffin, chief of the division of infectious diseases at Island Infectious Disease Medical in New York said, echoing that conclusion. “If you’ve got someone who has a compromised immune system, and someone doesn’t know any better and gives them an active vaccine, which is what you are not supposed to do, then, you know, that could result in a death.”

Ninth news item

This is just evil. How does Marco Rubio live with himself? He sold his soul, even though he knows better. Or knew better, once upon a time:

Even as President Donald Trump and government-demolition czar Elon Musk appear to actively favor Russia’s interests amid discussions of how to end the Russia-Ukraine war, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has struck a studiously neutral posture. Rubio has suggested that any peaceful resolution must take into account Ukraine’s “interests” and “their ability to prosper as a nation.”

But now Rubio’s State Department may have pulled a behind-the-scenes maneuver that appears tilted toward Russia’s interests and could anger Ukraine and its backers in the United States, leading to more questions about the department’s neutrality in the standoff.

The State Department has quietly terminated a contract that was in the process of transferring evidence of alleged Russian abductions of Ukrainian children—a potential war crime—to law enforcement officials in Europe, two people familiar with the situation tell The New Republic.

The nixed award could make it harder to continue tracking down the kidnapped Ukrainian kids and complicate efforts to seek accountability for the abductions, says one of the sources, who has direct knowledge of the ongoing operation.

. . .

The contract is extremely sensitive, because it involves the tracking of some of these abducted children. With this award, which was initially granted several years ago and renewed in late 2023, the State Department has been underwriting work by the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab, which has been using highly sophisticated tools, such as satellite imagery and analysis of open-source technology and biometric data, to identify and locate the abducted kids.

The report—which the lab’s executive director, Nathaniel Raymond, presented before the United Nations Security Council—concluded that this may constitute “crimes against humanity under customary international law.” The lab’s work has been shared with the International Criminal Court in connection with its recent charges that Russian officials, including Vladimir Putin, committed war crimes against the kidnapped kids.

The Yale lab had also transferred names and dossiers on the abducted kids it had located to Ukrainian authorities. But the underlying evidence—the hard digital documentation of kids’ movements and locations, compiled with sophisticated technologies—still needs to be transferred to Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement arm, the source with direct knowledge of the operation says.

This transfer to Europol has been interrupted by the Trump-Rubio State Department’s cancellation of the award, according to that source and a Democratic congressional aide with knowledge of the contract. This sort of tracking involves extremely complex and technologically sophisticated work, and the evidence itself—which is essential to proving the abductions—is highly complicated and must be moved via secure channels.

Have a good weekend.

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

In a nutshell:

It’s disappointing to see so many commentators [and Trump supporters] assign some sort of genius grand strategy to Trump’s negotiating tactics in foreign policy. His tariff moves make no economic sense. Threatening to seize Greenland, Canada, the Panana Canal, and Gaza is nuts. Giving Putin everything he wants violates elementary principles of diplomacy. His job is to advance American security and economic interests. So far, I can’t think of a single concrete achievement toward these goals.

What else is there to say?

There is no genius-level grand strategy. There is no eight dimensional chess. There is only the impulsive decision-making and inflammatory rhetoric of a retaliatory nutjob. We are not in good hands. We are certainly not in the best of hands.

Russia has responded to the U.S. brokered 30-day ceasefire just how we knew they would:

Speaking on Russian state television, Ushakov dismissed a 30-day ceasefire as a mere “breather” for Ukrainian troops, emphasizing Moscow’s preference for substantive peace talks.

Ushakov reiterated Russia’s demands: Ukraine must recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea and four southeastern regions, withdraw troops from lands claimed by Russia and pledge never to join NATO.” . . .

Moscow also seeks limits on Ukraine’s military, protections for Russian speakers and elections to replace Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

[Ed. Russia won’t stop their bombing and shelling and attacks on Ukraine and its effort subsume the sovereign nation. Russia won’t stop. Russia *must be stopped*]

This is the President weighing in today on, well, you’ll see:

The Globalist Wall Street Journal has no idea what they are doing or saying. They are owned by the polluted thinking of the European Union, which was formed for the primary purpose of “screwing” the United States of America. Their (WSJ!) thinking is antiquated and weak, and very bad for the USA. But have no fear, we will WIN on everything!!! Egg prices are down, oil is down, interest rates are down, and TARIFF RELATED MONEY IS POURING INTO THE UNITED STATES. “The only thing you have to fear, is fear itself!”

The European Union, one of the most hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the World, which was formed for the sole purpose of taking advantage of the United States, has just put a nasty 50% Tariff on Whisky. If this Tariff is not removed immediately, the U.S. will shortly place a 200% Tariff on all WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER E.U. REPRESENTED COUNTRIES. This will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the U.S.

—Dana