"No free man shall be seized, imprisoned, dispossessed, outlawed, exiled, or ruined in any way ... except by the lawful judgement of his peers and the law of the land." — Magna Carta 1215
But what did those woke leftists know? Let’s try to catch up:
Bukele rejects returning mistakenly deported Maryland man Kilmar Abrego García - The Washington Post
Trump Administration Arrests Palestinian Activist Who Condemned Anti-Semitism on ’60 Minutes’
White House bars AP from Oval Office event despite court order | AP News
China suspends rare earth exports, kneecapping US industry reliant on Beijing's 'monopoly'
Trump blames Zelensky for Ukraine war after ’60 Minutes’ interview (FFS)
Trump's approval rating falls as 59% say the economy's in bad shape: Poll
Happy Tuesday.
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Some highlights of my conversation with Tim O’Brien.
Accountability and unchecked power…
The risk to the US financial system…
BONUS:
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Nota Bene
Kleptocracy, Inc. - Anne Applebaum in The Atlantic [Gift link]: “"We are living through a revolutionary change, a broad shift away from the transparency and accountability mandated by most modern democracies, and toward the opaque habits and corrupt practices of the autocratic world.”
Once upon a time (and not even that long ago), blatant conflicts of interest, especially involving foreign entities, were something presidents sought to avoid. No previous inhabitant of the White House would have wanted to be seen doing personal business with companies from countries that seek to influence American foreign policy. Such dealings risk violating the Constitution, which prohibits government officials from accepting “gifts, titles or emoluments from foreign governments.” But during Trump’s first term, the court system largely blew off his commercial entanglements. Now he not only does business with foreign as well as domestic companies that have a direct interest in his policies, he advertises and celebrates them. We know the identities of the golf-tournament sponsors not because investigative journalists burrowed deep into secret contracts, but because they appear on official websites and were displayed on a billboard, observed by The New York Times, at his golf course.
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State Terror: A brief guide for Americans - by Timothy Snyder
Yesterday the president defied a Supreme Court ruling to return a man who was mistakenly sent to a gulag in another country, celebrated the suffering of this innocent person, and spoke of sending Americans to foreign concentration camps.
This is the beginning of an American policy of state terror, and it has to be identified as such to be stopped.
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Trump Tests Limits of Presidential Power | National Review
And what law then restrains the president? Yesterday in the Oval Office, Miller and Trump were forced to insouciantly pretend that the Supreme Court hadn’t ruled against them. What comes next, should the court “clarify” its position? Don’t be surprised to see the Trump administration drop the pretense and deny the validity of the Supreme Court’s rulings altogether.
Donald Trump added a portrait of President Andrew Jackson in the Oval Office — an addition reputedly encouraged by none other than Stephen Miller. The reason suggests itself ominously enough in the current context. Jackson is famous for many things, but none more relevant now than his reaction to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Worcester v. Georgia (1832): “John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it.”
A test of the rule of law is coming. It is not enough to write about this phenomenon with clinical detachment; it must be opposed. If not, I assure you that the spirits unleashed by Trump and Miller, perhaps seemingly innocuous now, will eventually consume us all. I’m not here to persuade you. I’m here to warn you.
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Dear John Roberts- Wake Up. Your Legacy is on the Line - Purple America
Right now, that President is laughing at you, because he knows you’ll never stop him. He thinks you’re a pussy. You know why? Because time and time again when you’ve had the opportunity to call him out on issues, you 1) punted the case on a standing issue or some prudential reason, 2) decided it on the narrowest of merits or 3) actually sided with him like you did that egregious pardon decision last summer. He’s steamrolled you and the Court again, and again, and again. It is not a good look for any judge to be treated this way, but for the Supreme Court? People genuinely think you’re cowards.
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Tuesday dogs
Back on the road, again.
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