U.S. District Judge James Boasberg declined to grant an emergency motion blocking the Trump administration from deporting more people under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) on Friday, saying he doesn't think he has the "power" to do so because of a recent Supreme Court ruling.
Among the threats tariffs pose to the U.S. economy, none may be as strange as the sell-off in the dollar. Currencies rise and fall all the time because of inflation fears, central bank moves and other factors. But economists worry that the recent drop in the dollar is so dramatic that it reflects something more ominous as President Donald Trump tries to reshape global trade: a loss of confidence in the U.S.
On Monday, a developer using the popular AI-powered code editor Cursor noticed something strange: Switching between machines instantly logged them out, breaking a common workflow for programmers who use multiple devices. When the user contacted Cursor support, an agent named "Sam" told them it was expected behavior under a new policy. But no such policy existed, and Sam was a bot. The AI model made the policy up, sparking a wave of complaints and cancellation threats documented on Hacker News and Reddit.
A federal appeals court on Thursday excoriated the Trump administration for its conduct in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man who was wrongly deported from Maryland to a notorious prison in El Salvador. The administration 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," wrote Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson in an opinion for a panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The Department of Government Efficiency claims that it has saved the country $115 billion so far. But is this accurate? On DOGE's website, it claims that $115 billion has saved taxpayers around $715 each. However, according to The New York Times, DOGE has deleted hundreds of claims from its "wall of receipts" several times. This includes early March, when the agency erased $4 billion in additional savings it claimed to have made for taxpayers.
Are the cuts DOGE is making, including federal worker layoffs, actually saving money?
@#15 ... Johnson is facing some serious headwinds. ...
Possibly.
The dozen or so Republicans that seem to have deserted him lately have originally voted (twice!) in favor of what they seem to be telling their constituents during the recess.
So, when, the bowel meets the bladder, who knows how they will vote.
(and, fwiw, I did not make that up... pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov )
Speaking of The Dovells, here is there claim to fame ...
Dovells - Bristol Stomp (1961)
www.youtube.com
Bill Clinton Jams
www.youtube.com
... The final 48 hours before the 1992 election, then Gov Bill Clinton jams with the oldies band The Dovells in Cherry Hill, NJ. ...
Negative Views of China Have Softened Slightly Among Americans
www.pewresearch.org
... Fewer now consider China an enemy or say it's the country posing the greatest threat to the U.S.
Americans hold largely negative views of China: Most have a very or somewhat unfavorable view of the country, and they tend to name China as the nation that poses the greatest threat to the United States.
Bar chart showing American opinions of China are less unfavorable than they were in 2024
Still, attitudes toward China have warmed somewhat.
For the first time in five years, the share of Americans with an unfavorable opinion of China has fallen from the year before -- albeit slightly, from 81% in 2024 to 77% in 2025. And the share who have a very unfavorable opinion of China has dropped 10 percentage points since last year. ...
@#13 ... I'm kinda hoping that GOP members of both Houses come to realize that they have to get rid of Trump to save themselves. ...
Yeah, as you note, the mid-terms could be interesting.
imo, the recent spate of Democratic-led Town Halls is sending a warning to the GOP. A GOP that seems to be actively avoiding Town Halls because they do not want to face their constituents.
Speaker Johnson tells GOP lawmakers to skip town halls. (March 2025)
apnews.com
... House Speaker Mike Johnson is encouraging Republican lawmakers to skip town halls that have been filled with protesters decrying the Trump administration's slashing of federal government, echoing the president's claims that the demonstration's are fueled by professional protesters.
The speaker's advice Tuesday comes as GOP lawmakers often find themselves at a loss to explain the cuts, led by billionaire Elon Musk'sDepartment of Government Efficiency, that are leaving federal workers suddenly out of jobs in communities from coast to coast. Democrats are jumping in to shine a bright light on what is happening. ...
But, will that last through 2026?
Who knows.
A different view ...
OpEd: Trump Wants the Dollar to Be Mighty But Weak. It Makes No Sense.
www.barrons.com
... President Donald Trump's views on the role and level of the U.S. dollar recall a famous claim by the novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald. "The test of a first-rate intelligence," Fitzgerald wrote, "is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." Assuming the president's policy hyperactivity is evidence of functioning, we are witnessing a first-rate intelligence in action.
Either that or a devastating disproof of Fitzgerald's claim.
Both Trump and Vice President JD Vance have, for some years, been outspoken in support of a weaker dollar.
They believe that depreciation will cut the U.S. trade deficit and help U.S. manufacturers and exporters.
But they have also contradicted themselves, and each other, repeatedly on matters that have a strong and enduring impact on the level of the dollar. ...
... DOGE is knitting together data from the Department of Homeland Security, Social Security Administration, and IRS that could create a surveillance tool of unprecedented scope. ...
Yeah,I agree about the "unprecedented scope" aspect.
But I do not think for a moment that it stops, as the title suggests, at immigrants.
Why would DOGE place a Starlink communication device in a Government office?
Why Elon Musk installed his top lieutenants at a federal agency you probably haven't heard of
www.beaumontenterprise.com
... On the rooftop patio of the General Services Administration headquarters, an agency staffer recently discovered something strange: a rectangular device attached to a wire that snaked across the roof, over the ledge and into the administrator's window one floor below.
It didn't take long for the employee -- an IT specialist -- to figure out the device was a transceiver that communicates with Elon Musk's vast and private Starlink satellite network. Concerned that the equipment violated federal laws designed to protect public data, staffers reported the discovery to superiors and the agency's internal watchdog.
The Starlink equipment raises a host of questions about what Musk and his efficiency czars are doing at GSA, an obscure agency that is playing an outsized role in the Trump administration's quest to slash costs and bring the federal government to heel. ...
Jesters " The Band Played On (1941)
www.youtube.com
Lyrics excerpt ...
...
Matt Casey formed a social club that beat the town for style
And hired for a meeting place a hall
When payday came around each week, they greased the floor with wax
And danced with noise and vigor at the ball
Each Saturday you'd see them dressed up in Sunday clothes
Each lad would have his sweetheart by his side
When Casey led the first grand March they all would fall in line
Behind the man who was their joy and pride
(Chorus)
For Casey would waltz with a strawberry blonde
And the band played on
He'd glid 'cross the floor with the girl he adord
And the band played on
But his brain was so loaded it nearly exploded;
The poor girl would shake with alarm
He'd ne'er leave the girl with the strawberry curls
And the band played on
(Verse 2)
Such kissing in the corner and such whisp'ring in the hall
And telling tales of love behind the stars
As Casey was the favorite and he that ran the ball
Of kissing and lovemaking did his share
At 12 o'clock exactly they all would fall in line
And march down to the dining hall and eat
But Casey would not join them although everything was fine
But he stayed upstairs and exercise his feet
...
OK, this is the first time I have said this.
genius has the lyrics in a wrong order.
OK, the lyrics seem to be correct. But the 78rpm record I have from 1941 has the stanzas in a different order.
The link I cite is a good representation of what I hear when I play that 1941 record.
@#20 ... They are trans supporters - thus mental illness. ...
How so?
The link your current alias provided did not explain that conclusion.
All I see is a subsequent link to...
Transvestic fetishism
en.wikipedia.org
... Transvestic fetishism is a psychiatric diagnosis applied in some countries to people who are sexually aroused by the act of cross-dressing and experience significant distress or impairment -- socially or occupationally -- because of their behavior.[2][1] ...
Cross-dressing is, in your current alias' view, trans?
So, please explain your current alias' determination vis-a-vis the link your current alias provided.
... they are trans supporters - thus mental illness. ...
And, I do note, and thank you, for the lack of the usual ad hominem attack of your current alias.
OpEd: Putin plans to destroy America from within (2017)
www.timesonline.com
... Valery Gerasimov is the Russian general who devised their new geopolitical strategy of hybrid warfare. This is an integrated system of cyberattacks, subversion, espionage and propaganda aimed at undermining Russia's adversaries without firing a single shot.
While Americans bankrupt themselves so as to re-fight the last war, it literally sneaks in the back door. It now seeks to use all of our own weaknesses, hypocrisies and momentum against us. Meanwhile, most Americans don't seem to realize that such a war even exists.
Honed in western Europe, its divisiveness is everywhere in our authoritarian age of President Donald Trump. Vladimir Putin's goal is the political demise of our very democracy itself.
The U.S. constitution was drafted by men who knew all the dark powers of authoritarianism, and the many challenges posed in building any real democracy. World history has documented the eagerness of leaders to impose their own beliefs as God's law. Racial, social, economic and political history shows the eagerness of strong-willed groups to dominate their neighbors. ...
Oops, spoke too soon ...
The link is about a class-action lawsuit, not a Federal lawsuit.
From the article in #4 ...