A New Hampshire man with a green card was detained by immigration officers at Logan Airport and is being held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. read more
Firings and buyouts hit the top-secret National Nuclear Security Administration amid a major effort to upgrade America's nuclear arsenal. Critics say it shows the consequences of heedlessly cutting the federal work force.
Most Michigan swing voters in our latest Engagious/Sago focus groups said that although they voted for President Trump in November, they have objections, frustrations and fears about his behavior since he returned to power. read more
Mike Brock: DOGE is not about efficiency. It is about erasure. Democracy is being deleted in slow motion, replaced by proprietary technology and AI models. It is a coup, executed not with guns, but with backend migrations and database wipes.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup delivered a furious rebuke to the Trump administration over its mass purge of civil servants during an extraordinary hearing in San Francisco on Thursday. read more
OMG, see how they lie, emphasis mine:
Leaked memo: DOGE plots to cut Social Security phone supportwww.axios.com
An internal memo from the Social Security Administration proposes changes to its phone service that could derail the benefits application process for many Americans.
Why it matters: The Trump administration has repeatedly said it doesn't plan changes to Social Security, other than to address fraud and waste--but these proposals risk "crippling" a system already plagued by delays, and facing staffing cuts, former agency officials tell Axios.
The latest: Axios obtained a draft of the memo, signed by acting deputy Social Security commissioner for operations Doris Diaz on March 13, and written on behalf of the agency's operations department.
Its existence was first reported by Popular.Info, which published screenshots of a subsequent version, sent to acting commissioner Leland Dudek a little later that day.
Context: The memo was sent one day after the agency denied, in a press release, a report it was scrapping its toll-free phone line.
Why Democrats are angry at Democrats in Congress:
[I]t's the principle that Democrats are wholly unwilling to fight on the same playing field as Republicans. It's that the Democrats seem forever doomed to be the party that allows the parliamentarian to shut down our entire agenda, while the Republicans won't even let the United States Constitution shut down theirs. As a Democrat, I am desperate for fighters. For brawlers. I know I'm not the only one.plus.briantylercohen.com
People are paying attention. They're agitating. They are taking to the streets and to town halls and they want to fight back. And most importantly, they want the people who represent us in office who actually can fight back to use every lever at their disposal to do it. And if this crop of elected officials won't, then voters are going to elect new ones who will. This isn't about progressive versus moderate; this is about fighters versus non-fighters. It's about giving power to the people who want to wield it. Quite frankly, the future of the Democratic Party depends on it.
Or put another way, Democrats don't want to keep bringing a knife to a gun fight:
"Democrats always say, 'When they go low, we go high.' But I say, 'When they to low, we go toe-to-toe.'" Simone Townsend Sanders
"It's about a political party literally trying to stop the deportation of a criminal gang members."
This isn't about immigration policy or border security. It's about whether we still have a government of laws rather than men. It's about whether presidential power remains constrained by courts and Congress, or whether we've entered an era where such constraints exist only on paper.www.notesfromthecircus.com
The administration isn't hiding its contempt for legal limitations. They're not even pretending to respect judicial authority. They're openly celebrating their ability to act beyond the reach of courts, to implement policies that a federal judge explicitly prohibited. The brazenness isn't accidental"it's the point. It's a demonstration of power unconstrained, a message that the executive now considers itself above judicial review.
If a court order can be ignored today regarding Venezuelan migrants, it can be ignored tomorrow regarding any other matter the president deems important enough. If "war" can be declared unilaterally to access extraordinary powers, what prevents those powers from being used against any group labeled as "enemies"?
Another good piece (shorter!) from the same author, emphasis mine:
From Madison's Vision to Musk's Dystopiawww.notesfromthecircus.com
How Libertarian Naivety Paves the Way for Reactionary Control
The blood now staining our hands isn't just from failing to defend democracy"it's from betraying the sophisticated understanding of power that Madison built into our constitutional system itself. We've allowed the very fusion of private and public power that he sought to prevent, creating a new form of tyranny that wears the mask of efficiency and innovation.
This betrayal has given rise to strange bedfellows, alliances that might seem contradictory at first glance. The apparent contradictions can be confusing: How do Christian nationalists and gay atheist tech billionaires end up on the same side? Why are some reactionaries pushing ethnic nationalism while others advocate for immigration? What binds together Catholic integralists, Silicon Valley oligarchs, and MAGA populists?
The answer lies in their shared rejection of Madison's vision. Despite their surface-level differences, these groups are united by a common desire to concentrate power outside of democratic institutions. They may disagree on the specifics of how that power should be wielded, but they agree on dismantling the systems that disperse and balance it.
Tech billionaires see an opportunity to reshape society through private control of crucial infrastructure. Christian nationalists envision a return to religious authority unconstrained by secular checks. MAGA populists dream of a strongman leader unencumbered by institutional restraints. What unites them is not a coherent ideology, but a shared antipathy towards the democratic dispersion of power that Madison designed. . . .
Their thought-leaders provide theoretical justification, the tech oligarchs provide infrastructure and resources, and the populists provide the political energy needed to dismantle democratic institutions.
Pres Trump has divided this great Country to the point that he has his followers ascribing "enemy" to those who disagree with him.
Oh, it's about to get a lot worse. Deportations and arrests lie ahead for those who are bold enough to disagree with him publicly:
Aaron Rupar
@atrupar.com
Pam Bondi: "If you're gonna touch a Tesla, go to a dealership, do anything, you better watch out, because we're coming after you."
bsky.app
I agree protesters shouldn't damage Teslas, but if it's okay to protest outside of a Planned Parenthoods, I think you should be able to protest outside a Tesla dealership, but we know that's not what's going to happen:
Soon after taking office for a second time, President Donald Trump pardoned anti-abortion activists who had blockaded and restricted access to the entrance of a reproductive health clinic in Washington, D.C., in October 2020.theconversation.com
These protesters were convicted of violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. Protesting outside clinics is a way for conservative anti-abortion activists to directly influence access to reproductive health care.
The FACE Act prohibits the use of force or threat toward people trying to obtain or provide reproductive health services. It was created to limit the anti-abortion movement's tactics outside clinics, requiring that protesters cannot physically stop patients from walking into clinics and receiving care.
In Trump's second term, the Justice Department has said that it will not prosecute demonstrators unless there are "extraordinary circumstances" or in cases involving "significant aggravating factors" such as "death, serious bodily harm, or serious property damage."
Oklahoma man says Social Security benefits terminated without warning or explanationwww.wkrn.com
An Oklahoma City retiree said his Social Security benefits were suspended without warning " and with no explanation given when he reached out. He worries it may have to do with the place he was born, and ongoing Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cutbacks.
The man, James McCaffrey, who was born to an active-duty U.S. soldier at an overseas Army base, said because of recent comments from DOGE leader Elon Musk, he's worried his benefits were cut because of his foreign birthplace.
McCaffrey said he started to think something was often when he received an unexpected Medicare bill.
"It said that I needed to pay $740 before the 25th of this month or I was going to lose my Medicare," McCaffrey said.
That seemed odd, since his Medicare payment is normally deducted from his Social Security check.
"So I called Medicare," he said. "They returned my call after a wait and told me that they were unable to process it through my Social Security payment, that there was some problem with it. We talked for a bit. He kind of let it out that he thinks it's a possibility that my Social Security was suspended."
And yet another inexplicable deportation:
Brown Medicine doctor deported despite federal court order. What we know.www.providencejournal.com
A federal court order that would have halted the immediate deportation of a Rhode Island doctor was issued Friday evening while the doctor's departing plane sat on the tarmac at Boston Logan International Airport, said a family friend and colleague.
But the plane ultimately took off, carrying Dr. Rasha Alawieh out of the country for reasons still unclear to her family, her lawyer and Brown Medicine colleagues such as Dr. Basma Merhi.
"They did not do anything to stop the plane," said Merhi, who was learning details of the event through information relayed by Alawieh family members. "So, clearly, they wanted to deport her regardless of if there was a judge's order or not. She didn't do anything wrong."
Alawieh had been studying and working in the U.S. for the last six years and had been in Rhode Island, working for Brown Medicine in the Division of Kidney Disease & Hypertension, since last July.
She worked at Rhode Island Hospital evaluating potential transplant recipients and followed the progress of those patients after their procedures, Dr. George Bayliss, the transplant division's medical director, said Saturday.
Joyce White Vance
@joycewhitevance.bsky.social
If the Supreme Court ultimately agrees with what the gov't is arguing today, that the President has broad Article II powers that would permit it to deport people & there can be no judicial review, then literally no one is safe.