Butterflies Are Not Free 🦋 😱 ✡️🌻😱 👿 🦋  

Morning Update:  Something very weird is happening this morning: the FAA has closed all air space over El Paso, Texas, cancelling all flights for ten days for “security reasons.” As of my writing, there is no explanation for this unprecedented except during 9.11 action. In other news, the person who was detained last night in the Guthrie case has been released and though the FBI says that they have identified other persons of interest, at this point no other information has been released.

WTF:  Now onto the destruction of democracy.  Yesterday, Jeanne Pirro, the former Fox host who is now the US Attorney for Washington DC tried to get a Washington grand jury to indict Representatives Jason Crow, Chrissy Houlahan, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander, and Senators Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin, the six whose Fall video reminded active-duty members of the military and intelligence community that they were obligated to refuse illegal orders. The good news is that the grand jury refused to indict, the horrifying news is that Pirro, clearly following Trump’s orders, even tried. In response to the indictment attempt, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy’s called for “the CEOs and university presidents and other responsible leaders who have been biding their time and waiting for” Trump “to cross the magic red line before speaking up, maybe when he starts arresting Senators is a good time to get off the f---- sidelines.” Murphy is so right, yet the likelihood of concerted pushback from any of those complicit people remains remote. Worth noting, the failed indictment attempt is on top of War Guy Pete Hegseth’s ongoing efforts to censure Senator Kelly, a retired Air Force Captain, by reducing his rank and his retirement pay.  Kelly is currently suing Hegseth, the Department of Defense, and other officials, for violating his free speech and right to due process.  A Judge is due to rule on that shortly.

A Bridge Too Far:  On Monday, Trump threatened to block the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, a 1.5-mile new bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.  He posted on Truth Social that he “will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them, and also, importantly, Canada treats the United States with the Fairness and Respect that we deserve.” Michigan owns a part of the new bridge but the $4.6 billion funding for it was provided by Canada.  Yesterday, it was reported that Trump’s threat to prevent the opening of the new bridge wasn’t simply more of his anti-Canada saber rattling, it was also grift.  It followed a meeting between Commerce Secretary Lutnick and billionaire Matthew Moroun, a Detroit-based trucking magnate whose family operates the competing Ambassador Bridge that also connects Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.  The Moroun family has long opposed and litigated against the construction of the new bridge.  Having failed to prevent its construction, they’ve now found a last-minute way to stand in its way. Could a contribution to one of Trump’s slush funds be involved?  In other irrational infrastructure news, Trump who loves coal plans to issue an executive order today directing the Department of Defense to buy electricity from coal-fired power plants.  The order comes as his administration plans to repeal the endangerment finding, the landmark climate ruling that determined greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health. What could possibly go wrong except for more asthma, pulmonary diseases, and cancer with faster climate change thrown in as a kicker. Such a great gift for the next generation, the group that is also likely to suffer from more once preventable childhood diseases, like measles which leaves some with long term respiratory complications. On the subject of preventable diseases and respiratory distress, yesterday the FDA told Moderna that it will not review the company’s request to license a new, potentially more effective mRNA flu shot, even though the FDA had previously given the green light to the project.  Notably, RFK who prefers heroin and raw milk to vaccines, has a particular animosity for mRNA technology, so what if the technology is the wave of the future. 

Bad Math:  Despite his assertions that everyone loves him and that his poll numbers, like the economy, are better than ever, they’re not, even advisor Peter Navarro knows that which is why he previewed that this week’s job numbers are going to be really awful. Over the weekend, Louisiana Democrat Chasity Verret Martinez defeated her Republican opponent by double digits in a special election for a state House seat in a district President Trump won by 13 points in 2024.  Special elections are quirky and don’t attract as many voters as general elections so it would be easy to dismiss Martinez’ victory as just one of those local things.  The problem for Republicans is that the Louisiana result is not an outlier, Democrats have been overperforming all over the country which goes far to explaining why Trump is pushing for Congress to pass the SAVE Act, a catchy name for legislation intended to make it more difficult and more expensive for people, especially those who are likely to vote for Democrats, to vote.  It also partially explains why Trump had Tulsi Gabbard snatch those 2020 Fulton County ballots, partially because Trump is still fixated on everything related to his 2020 lost to “Sleepy Joe.”  Yesterday we learned that the “evidence” used to justify the Fulton County raid was provided by Kurt Olsen, an election denier whose claims about the 2020 election were previously disproved and that despite Gabbard’s involvement there was no credible international component to the allegations.  As to math, its not just the polling that’s a problem for Trump, the House, where the Republican majority might shrink by one more again this week if rumors that another Republican Congressman is considering exiting shortly ala Marjorie Taylor Greene are true.  Even at current levels, Speaker Johnson is having trouble managing his team.  Yesterday, three Republicans, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Kevin Kiley of California and Don Bacon of Nebraska, joined all Democrats to defeat a key procedural measure that would have prevented future votes on Trump’s tariffs, the ones cost each of us $1000 last year, an amount that is expected to grow to $1300 to $1500 this year. We are still awaiting the Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs.  To the extent that they haven’t already decided how they’ll rule, Trump may have further damaged his argument that his tariffs are all about national defense by telling Fox’s Larry Kudlow that he imposed tariffs on Switzerland because he didn’t like the way their leader spoke to him.

More Epstein💩:  Ghislaine Maxwell testified remotely, pleading the Fifth while promising to exonerate Trump if he provides her with clemency. Secretary Lutwick admitted to having had way more contact with Epstein, despite his earlier denials.  He acknowledged that he did visit Epstein’s Caribbean Island with his wife, children and nannies but wants us to know that he didn’t leave any of them on the island when he sailed away. Wyoming Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis said that until yesterday she thought that the Epstein stuff was a nothing burger, but after learning that one of Epstein’s victims was a nine-year-old she finally gets why people are so upset. Trump’s circle is pleased that the files reveal that he told a Palm Beach sheriff that he was glad that he was going after Epstein because everyone always knew he was up to bad things. The problem is that Trump’s call has CYA written all over it since it took place after Epstein had already been nabbed and there are thousands upon thousands of pages in the files where references to Trump appear to be redacted.  There’s so much more, not the least of which is the identification of Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, the Emirati businessman who was the recipient of an “I loved the torture video” email from Epstein. The sultan, who attended Trump’s first inauguration, also emailed about two of the women that Epstein had delivered to him.  As to those women, it appears that after his barely there Florida sentence ended, Epstein mostly shifted from abusing and trafficking young girls to trafficking those of legal age. In that capacity he “introduced” Elon Musk’s brother Kimball to at least one of his girlfriends. In addition, via Congressman Ro Khanna we learned that in addition to the Sultan, five other men named in the unredacted files are Victoria’s Secret founder Leslie Wexner, Nicola Caputo, Salvatore Nuara, Zurab Mikeladze, and Leonic Leonov.  Just the tip of a slimy iceberg because there is so much more there as well as a lot that we don’t know, yet.  And, because why not, Trump endorsed Congressman Cory Mills, a married guy who has credibly been accused of threatening and abusing his girlfriends, for reelection yesterday.

🦋 🦋 🦋 😭:  ProPublica published letters written by children incarcerated in Trump and Stephen Miller’s concentration camps.  They are sadder than sad and also evoke the poems included in the book I Never Saw Another Butterfly which were written by doomed children at Treblinka, one of the infamous Nazi Concentration camps.  The US is building more of those camps, presumably to be occupied by more children and their parents few of whom are guilty of any crimes beyond crossing the border. The immigration officials who testified before Congress yesterday refused to acknowledge any of the bad things they’ve done, like murdering Renee Good and Alix Pretti or spraying pepper spray directly into already subdued peoples’ faces.  What have we become?