Tabby Thursday
- From Paul Krugman: The Tariff Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves.
- From Ken Klippenstein: Exclusive: Operation Excalibur in Los Angeles Was Show of Force.
- On the same topic by David S. Bernstein at Good Politics/Bad Politics: L.A. Confidential. If you have to pick only one to read, let it be this one.
- Via ABC News: 200 Marines among those being sent to Florida to help ICE.
- Via TPM: Congress Throws More Money at Removing Immigrants than Most Countries Spend on Their Armies.
- By Larry Diamond at The UnPopulist: Trump Is Gutting Every Source of America’s Greatness.
- Via NOTUS: Alina Habba Has Been Under an Ethics Investigation for Over a Year.
- From Shelly Palmer: What Happens When English Becomes the Only Programming Language You Need?
- Via WaPo: Trump’s $5 million ‘gold card’ visa might never happen. I understand the journalistic impulse to try and be neutral, but this is just an awfully kind way of saying that the administration appears to be just making it all up with no intention of implementation.
Trump and his aides have repeatedly exaggerated the likelihood that such a program can be implemented under current law, and they have made no effort to introduce legislation to make it happen. Immigration attorneys and other legal experts say a president has no power to unilaterally create a new visa category, which would require an act of Congress.
- Via the NYT: Nearly Half of America’s Murderers Get Away With It.
The clearance rate — the share of cases that result in an arrest or are otherwise solved — was 58 percent in 2023, the latest year for which F.B.I. data is available. And that figure is inflated because it includes murders from previous years that police solved in 2023.
No doubt, tackling gardeners and rounding up day laborers is the best use of our resources when it comes to enhancing public safety!
“one widely retweeted comment stated that MacArthur Park is too full of “human feces… homeless encampments and gangs” for anyone to play there. (In fact, a Twitter search of “MacArthur Park human feces” reveals that this was a common claim that day.)”
A fable they often tell each other out of jealousy, and to resist the idea that maybe what we do here actually works at least as well as whatever it is they are doing in their states.
I think it’s ok to love your home and be devoted to it. Other Americans love their home, too. That’s as it should be.
In Washington State, we used to trash-talk Californians all the time. Now I am one. I don’t hate it here. It ain’t perfect, and I love other places, such as my birthplace, too. It’s the leaning in to the hatred that is the problem. It doesn’t make anybody’s life better.
I’m pretty sure that quote comes from Peter O’Toole’s portrayal of T.E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia
Found it.
The MacArthur park show of force is a hugely important story, one that everyone should read (and also find some videos of the incident). Yes, it’s exactly what the linked article says: an effort to turn the National Guard, or any other military involved in “protecting” ICE, into a force using counterinsurgency methods against the US population.
And if this isn’t a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, I don’t know what is. From the linked article:
The execution may have been clumsy, but most early efforts are. The parties involved are likely to get better, over time.
English is a terrible programming language because of how imprecise it is. See, for example, “Elementary, Dear Data” from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The obvious solution is Esperanto.
A theme in Shelly Palmer’s piece is that the transformation will happen in 36 months.
In 36 months, he says:
“code and content will be free,” and
“we’ll be competing with each other at the speed of thought.”
But we will also be in the final-year throes of the trump administration. Thinking about Larry Diamond’s piece at The UnPopulist, I wonder where trump’s war on diplomacy, science, and higher education will leave us in three years. Not to mention his war on the working class, and specifically immigrants. For example, what kind of LA will there be for people to visit (or not) to see the 2028 Olympics after the feds have had three more years to upend the labor force in their push to detain as many immigrants–status be damned–as possible?
The tariff stuff is really starting to stink to high heaven. It very much feels like a pump & dump scheme, especially with today’s announcement about copper.
I suspect someone, or multiple someones, are getting very rich manipulating the market right now.