Habeas What? 😱✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️😱✈️ 

Grifter in Chief:  Republicans in Congress spent four years eviscerating Hunter Biden, his Burisma business, and the curiously high prices he received for his paintings.  Well, Hunter’s monetization of his name and his art sales pale in comparison to Trump and his family’s crypto shenanigans. Their crypto grifts are raking in cash, largely from foreigners, many of whom are upfront about their “investment” in Trump crypto being nothing more than the purchase of access to the orange president. As the Wall Street Journal editorializes today, Trump’s self-enriching crypto ventures are full of ethical lapses that in addition to looking awful, are jeopardizing efforts to pass rational crypto legislation while writing Democratic ad campaigns. Perhaps because that crypto money grab isn’t enough, and also because the planes used as Air Force One are old and lack the gold fittings Trump prefers to surround himself with, this weekend we learned that Trump plans to accept a golden flying chariot from Qatar. Worth about $400 million, the 747-8 series ✈️ is being gifted to the US military to be adapted for use as a temporary Air Force One until the long-awaited new ones, arrive.  Then, once Trump leaves office, assuming he ever does, the Qatar plane won’t be returned but instead will be transferred to Trump’s “library” foundation for his personal use. Naturally, Attorney General Pam Bondi and the lawyers working in the White House Counsel’s office have concluded that there’s nothing wrong with this emoluments violation scheme because there is no part of the US Constitution that they aren’t willing to trample on behalf of the orange schemer. Trump friend Laura Loomer, whose opinion sometimes matters and sometimes is ignored isn’t fond of the plane thing either.  On Sunday she tweeted “I love President Trump. I would take a bullet for him but, I have to call a spade a spade. We cannot accept a $400 million ‘gift’ from jihadists in suits.” Loomer’s jihadist reference has to do with Qatar’s unusually cozy relationship with Hamas.      

Constitution? It’s not just the emoluments clause that Bondi and her crowd are planning to bulldoze. On Friday, Deputy Chief of Staff Steven Miller, Trump’s favorite bigot, teased that the Trump administration plans to suspend habeas corpus, the right of a person to challenge their detention in court. Habeas corpus is another one of those rights enshrined in the Constitution but as evidenced by their efforts to deprive non-citizens of due process, this administration doesn’t believe that migrants and anyone they believe to be migrants are entitled to any of those rights. Anyone who thinks that they’ll stop there hasn’t been paying attention and also probably missed the highly orchestrated activity that occurred in New Jesey this weekend or only receives news from Fox and the rest of the right-wing media.  In a nutshell, the INS arrested and threw Newark’s Mayor Ras Baraka into jail for a few hours, asserting he’d trespassed into an INS detention facility.  A review of the videotape reveals that the Mayor and the three members of Congress, one of whom was the petite and polite 80-year-old Bonnie Watson Coleman, who were also seeking to tour the facility were pretty much doing what politicians do.  Their efforts were fairly ordinary, nothing more than what Mayors and members of Congress generally do as part of their jobs. The event would have been a nothing burger, but the INS officials, goaded on by Trump’s acting NJ US Attorney Alina Habba, of traffic court fame, thought that creating a news event that they could spin into a full-on onslaught by the Mayor and the Congressional entourage on the facility suited their purpose better than just defusing the situation by inviting the politicians in for the tour they requested and, in the case of the Congresspeople, ultimately got.  Ironically, nothing that the Mayor and the Congressional delegation did resembled the actions of the violent January 6th “tourists” who Trump pardoned. Furthermore, Mayor Baraka has achieved what was probably one of his objectives, he’s using the arrest to fundraise for his campaign to be NJ’s next Governor. And of course, Habba and her cronies at the DOJ are now threatening to arrest the Congresspeople who accompanied Baraka as well as any others who cross their paths.  America, 2025.    

Tariffs, Tariffs, Tariffs:  Politico reports that Trump is hyper focused on the mid-terms because he doesn’t want to be impeached again and fears with reason given his grifts that he will be if Democrats retake the House. That fear combined with the eerie quiet at the ports is why he sent Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to Switzerland for trade negotiation with the Chinese. The news this morning is that the US and China will temporarily lower tariffs on each other’s products for three months to buy time to work toward a broader agreement.  The combined 145% US levies on most Chinese imports will be reduced to 30% including the rate tied to fentanyl by May 14, while the 125% Chinese duties on US goods will drop to 10%.  The relief is only temporary, it’s tinged with uncertainty, and only affects trade with China, but the markets are already celebrating, Dow futures are up by 1000 or so points this morning.  Still, it’s not clear when activities at the ports will pick up and whether parents will be able to afford to find and purchase any of those much-discussed dolls and other toys.   

Fog:  Veep Vance, the America only guy, wanted to ignore the risk of a full blown war between Pakistan and India because Asia’s faraway but then someone, probably the newly anointed National Security Advisor Secretary of State Little Marco, pointed out that nuclear clouds know no boundaries, so someone in Trumpland spoke with both countries in an attempt to defuse their attacks and counterattacks.  At least for now that intervention, which Trump is taking full credit for, has defused things somewhat.  On the Russian-Ukraine front, Putin has agreed that it’s time for Russia to meet directly with Ukraine.  Zelenskyy wanted a 30-day ceasefire as a pre-condition for a meeting, Putin not so much.  Trump told Zelenskyy to show up even without a ceasefire, and at least for now Zelenskyy plans to do so. The much-anticipated meeting is scheduled to take place on Thursday in Istanbul though it’s not clear if Putin will attend in person or if he’s instead sending a representative in his place.  Over the weekend, Hamas agreed to release US-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander, the last remaining US citizen held by Hamas.  The release is part of an effort to get a Gaza ceasefire and to restart aid deliveries.  The Times of Israel reports that Israel was not in the loop with regard to any of this, which jibes with the NY Times report that Trump is starting to distance himself from Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu, not sharing information and going his own way on Iran, something that Netanyahu and Trump real estate buddy Steve Witkoff deny. Fifty-nine hostages remain in Gaza, one third of them are thought to still be alive. Trump walking away after Alexander is returned, assuming he is returned, possibly as soon as today, would put their lives in further jeopardy but would be very Trumpian because achieving peace isn’t easy, nor is Netanyahu, and Trump prefers easy and, after all, he’s got resorts to build in Qatar and that ✈️.

Cabinetry: It turns out that flying migrants to faraway prisons, flying in white South Africans,  and paying for Kristi Noem’s various and sundry cosplay outfits is burning a hole through the DHS budget, so much so that it appears that DHS will run out of funding sometime in July.  At least Noem appears to be enjoying her job.  FBI Director Kash Patel, not so much.  Reports are that he rarely shows up in the office, preferring instead to fly gratis to his home in Las Vegas while also attending sporting events.  Who would have guessed that running the FBI could be so much more taxing than hosting a podcast?  Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy also appears stressed because it turns out that while his Fox and reality TV experience made him TV ready, running the historically underfunded aviation system when all the communication wires are fraying isn’t easy particularly given the Musk cuts and the firing of the last confirmed FAA chief.  At least for now, maybe avoid Newark airport, although it’s likely that Newark’s problems aren’t unique, so maybe drive, but not a Cybertruck because of their glue problem.  Not stressing, RFK Jr, the brain worm guy seems to be having the time of his life dismantling the health care system and hiring his likeminded friends. Maybe he’ll stop smiling during fall flu season when no one has access to an updated flu vaccine, but then again maybe not because with no one collecting or sharing data anymore maybe we won’t know how many people are sick and dying, at least until grandma and grandpa stops answering their phones.    

#BringThemAllHomeNow