You're Fired, Maybe  😱✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️😱

Plots and Revolutions: Mao had his intellectual crushing cultural revolution, Stalin his murderous doctors plot and now Trump, our wannabe dictator is moving forward with his own effort to expunge the institutions and people whose views and actions aren’t consistent with his MAGA ideology, ironically under the guise of fighting anti-Semitism, the hate that Stalin used to justify his purge of doctors. Not only is Trump withholding billions of dollars from Harvard, and a growing list of other inadequately “MAGA” universities, he’s now threatening to take away Harvard’s tax-exempt status.  Anyone who thinks he will stop at Harvard or that this has anything to do with a fight against anti-Semitism need only note that last night he also threatened to take away the tax-exempt status of ethics watchdog CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington).  Their transgression, investigating and suing over his many ethical lapses and illegal actions. Since Nixon, US Presidents have been legally prohibited from requesting the IRS to audit or investigate particular taxpayers, but legal barriers won’t stop Trump from moving forward, nor are they likely to stop Attorney General Bondi or his soon to be confirmed IRS Commissioner Billy Long, whose professional past includes hawking fraudulent tax evasion schemes, from following his directives.  In all likelihood, Harvard and CREW will ultimately retain their tax-exempt status but will incur substantial legal expenses during what will be a protracted battle, assuming Trump moves forward with his threats. Then again, Trump is all in on legal battles.  Yesterday, in an opinion written by the very conservative Reagan appointed Judge Harvie Wilkinson, the 4^th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled against Trump’s request to halt Judge Paula Xinis’ orders, the ones intended to get Trump and his team of co-conspirators to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the immigrant that they’ve admitted to wrongfully deporting to the El Salvador gulag. In his scathing opinion, Judge Wilkinson wrote that the “government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order.”  The judge also laid into the administration’s claim that it can’t do anything to return Garcia because they have no jurisdiction in El Salvador as shocking to judges and the American “intuitive sense of justice.”  One question now is whether the Supreme Court will hear this case again, or whether the Justices, like Judge Wilkinson will point out that facilitate is a verb and that by saying that Trump should facilitate Garcia’s return to the US, they meant that they should put him on a plane back to the USA. The other more critical question is whether Trump and his team will obey.  As to Garcia, the good news is that he’s alive. Yesterday, after first denying Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen any access to their gulag or to Garcia, El Salvador’s dictatorial leader Bukele relented by staging a meet up that made it look as if Garcia had been spending his time sipping margheritas at a high-end resort.  After their meeting Garcia was returned to his cell which despite Bukele’s Potemkin village like staging is no beachside lanai.  The Trump team would be wise to end the Garcia episode by bringing him back.  Surely, they can come up with a fiction which would allow Trump to save face, at least with his MAGA supporters and right-wing media outlets, but wisdom like decency isn’t in their dictionary.

You’re Fired? Because trashing the economy and throwing the stock and bond markets into a tailspin hasn’t been damaging enough, Trump appears to be close to dumping or at least trying to dump Federal Reserve Bank Chief Jerome Powell who he appointed during Trump 1.0.  Yesterday, Trump Truth Posted a threat to fire Powell, then the White House Communications office said he didn’t really mean it but then Trump doubled down saying that Powell’s termination couldn’t come soon enough. Powell’s term runs through May 2026, he says he has no plans to resign.  Theoretically Trump can only fire him for cause, but he thinks he’s a king and he might be right, so who knows? As the Wall Street Journal wrote this morning, with his tariff war going poorly and the economy suffering as a result, it was inevitable that Trump would demand that the Federal Reserve ride to his rescue by cutting interest rates. The problem for Trump is that Powell, isn’t rushing to cut interest rates because Trump’s insane tariff policy has pushed the economy into an uncertain territory, and he's not convinced that cutting rates will help rather than make things worse and by worse, he’s concerned about that dreaded stagflation. California’s Governor Gavin Newsom is now suing to stop Trump’s tariffs and he’s not alone as a group led funded by Leonard Leo, the legal activist credited with getting Trump’s Justices on to the Supreme Court, is suing arguing that Trump has no constitutional authority to impose tariffs via emergency powers.

People:  The government purges continue, among the vanquished are many of the scientists who’d been studying the diseases that plague all of us. Years of their research are literally being flushed down the drain.  Measles cases, officially around 750 but probably underreported, continue to rise. Dr. David Sugarman, the senior CDC scientist leading the effort against the current outbreak, said that the CDC is “scraping to find the resources and personnel needed to provide support to Texas and other jurisdictions.”  Don’t be surprised if Sugerman is soon fired for his candor and because RFK thinks measles infections are a good thing.  Defense Secretary Hegseth, who we all know is in over his head, has fired three of his handpicked assistants, something to do with them leaking information. Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, one of the very few Republicans who ever speaks her mind, described widespread worry about the chaos of President Trump's second administration, telling nonprofit leaders in her state: "We are all afraid." She went on to say that there are no checks and balances anymore, maybe because her Republican colleagues aren’t doing their job? Apparently twelve Republican House members have expressed concerns about how cuts in Medicaid will hurt their constituents and are now telling Speaker Johnson that they need him to cut his promised cuts. Of course, their “concerns” for their constituents are really concerns about their reelection prospects.  In any case this is likely more smoke and mirrors since when push comes to shove and when Trump calls, these guys tend to cave.  One of Trump’s faves, Representative Elise Stefanik, his one-time nominee to serve as UN Ambassador, is reportedly now considering a NYS Gubernatorial run.  Aren’t we lucky?!? The Democrats appear to be down another Congressman, at least for now.  New Jersey Representative Donald Norcross, 66 years old, is in intensive care, suffering from sepsis the result of a gall bladder infection spreading through his system.  

Fog:  This morning Secretary of State Rubio said that if Russia and Ukraine can’t come to an agreement soon the US with stop its efforts to broker peace.  Apparently, neither he nor Trump nor Trump’s real estate buddy Steve Witkoff get that negotiating peace deals takes time, lots of it.  The “good” news is that abandoning the Russia- Ukraine talks will free up Witkoff’s schedule to work on his promised Iran nuke deal. That’s the same Witkoff who earlier reported back that he was close to negotiating a deal that looked almost identical to the one struck by President Obama, before having to walk back his “deal” under pressure from White House hardliners by saying that he was new to all this Iran stuff so give him a break if his first try out the box wasn’t satisfactory.  As to Iran and its nuclear capabilities, apparently Prime Minister Netanyahu tried to get Trump to sign off his plans to strike Iran’s facilities during his recent visit, but Trump, like US presidents before him didn’t sign off or at least hasn’t so far.  Something about Trump’s advisors, or at least some of his advisors, warning that striking Iran wouldn’t be successful without causing more strife in the region and also would require lots of US assistance.

#BringThemAllHomeNow