I just want to acknowledge some things that happened over the last few hours.
Some big deal went down between protesters and ICE agents in Log Angeles yesterday. It may take a couple of days before the whole story is told. See also:
Regarding the Abrego Garcia indictment: Yesterday a top federal prosecutor in Tennessee –where a grand jury indicted Kilmar Abrego Garcia — abruptly resigned. “Schrader’s resignation was prompted by concerns that the case was being pursued for political reasons,” according to ABC News.
Yesterday the Supreme Court sided with Trump in two DOGE cases.
Over the objections of the court’s three Democratic appointees, the justices cleared the way for members of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency to access the records of the Social Security Administration. And the court temporarily paused an order by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., that would have required DOGE to provide information in a lawsuit filed under the Freedom of Information Act. Instead, the justices sent the dispute back to a federal appeals court with instructions for those judges to take another, more skeptical look at the order.
If all our Social Security numbers get leaked, I look forward to the biggest class-action lawsuit of all time.
Medicare is a target as Senate GOP faces megabill math issues. Yeah, they’re admitting they’re looking to cut Medicare to pay for the tax cuts.
Trump is preparing to cancel all the federal funding he can think of for California. “Agencies are being told to start identifying grants the administration can withhold from California,” says CNN.
Somebody ought to explain to Trump that California has the fourth-largest economy in the world. That’s “world,” not “U.S.” It is fourth behind the U.S., China and Germany, I question where the U.S. would rank without California. See Visualizing America’s $29 Trillion Economy by State.
See also Trump to Ax Federal Funding for California as Revenge Tour Escalates at The New Republic. A bit:
California Governor Gavin Newsom responded to CNN’s report in a post on X, with a threat of his own.
“Californians pay the bills for the federal government. We pay over $80 BILLION more in taxes than we get back. Maybe it’s time to cut that off, @realDonaldTrump,” wrote Newsom, whose state generates the highest tax revenue of any state in the country.
I’m nor sure how “cutting that off” would work, but if Newsom can figure it out, I hope he does it.
Some idiot Republican congresswoman who is not Marjorie Taylor Greene flew into hysterics after a guest chaplain named Giani Singh led the House in a morning prayer. “It’s deeply troubling that a Muslim was allowed to lead prayer in the House of Representatives this morning. This should have never been allowed to happen,” she wrote somewhere on social media. The problem was that Giani Singh is a Sikh, not a Muslim, and was introduced as such. Second, some Muslims are American citizens and lovely people. I hope if we ever get our country back a Muslim cleric will be asked to be guest chaplain in the House and lead a prayer.
