Plus: The Humiliation of Pam Bondi
The quote of the week, which I suggest you read aloud to someone who needs to hear it:
“ICE goes masked for a single reason — to terrorize Americans into quiescence,” Federal Judge William Young, wrote last week in a blistering 161-page First Amendment ruling.
The judge, a Reagan appointee, called the Trump Administration justifications for masks, “disingenuous, squalid and dishonorable.”
“It is a matter of honor -- and honor still matters. To us, masks are associated with cowardly desperados and the despised Ku Klux Klan.
In all our history we have never tolerated an armed masked secret police.
“Carrying on in this fashion, ICE brings indelible obloquy to this administration and everyone who works in it.
“We can not escape history,” Lincoln righty said. “[It] will light us down in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.” Abraham Lincoln, Second Annual Message to Congress (Dec. 1, 1862).
Happy Friday. A note to readers:
There are still Americans who remember the whole “No Kings” thing, and what it means to live free in a country ruled by laws, not men. Some of them sit on the federal bench. But there is a role for all of us. Please consider joining us.
As we head into the weekend:
David French notes in re Israel-Gaza deal: “It’s an unmitigated good that the hostages are being returned and that the cycle of death and destruction has been paused. Now, the goal is a post-Hamas future for Gaza.”
Meanwhile, the “Peace” president, who brokered a deal to end the war in Gaza, continues the attack on American cities. (But was temporarily stopped from sending more troops to Chicago.)
Oklahoma’s Republican Governor breaks with Trump on Chicago invasion. “Oklahomans would lose their mind if Pritzker in Illinois sent troops down to Oklahoma during the Biden administration.”
Trump’s reign of retribution comes for New York AG Letitia James, just days after the arraignment of former FBI director James Comey, who was indicted on the explicit orders of the president.
“Dow drops 500 points as sell-off intensifies after Trump’s critical comments about China”
But, in a sign that the universe has not totally lost its mind, Trump did NOT win the Nobel Prize, which went instead to María Corina Machado of Venezuela, for “her tireless work promoting democratic rights.” Predictably, MAGA raged. And the sane remnant of the world girded for the fallout: Bloomberg: “World Awaits Blowback as the Nobel Slips From Trump’s Hands
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The Bondi Humiliation
Before we pass on to more edifying subjects, we should not overlook the very public self-disgracing of the Attorney General of the United States.
I’ve already written about her feces-flinging-howler-monkey performance before the Senate, but we should not gloss over some of the dazzling details of the week.
On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s Truth Social post ordering her to prosecute his enemies — including James Comey — was intended as a private DM. “Trump believed he had sent Bondi the message directly, addressing it to ‘Pam,’ and was surprised to learn it was public, the officials said. Bondi grew upset and called White House aides and Trump, who then agreed to send a second post praising Bondi as doing a “GREAT job.”
Comments the WSJ: “The misfire provided a window into how, through command and chaos, Trump has executed a wholesale transformation of the Justice Department.”
It also provided a window into the shrunken and craven role that Bondi now plays. The Attorney General is supposed to be an august role, the guardian of the nation’s laws. But the entire incident served as an exclamation point on Bondi’s etiolated status as a functionary who is ordered about by text message to stroke her master’s lust for revenge.
As we know, she rushed to comply. Career lawyers were fired; loyalists slapped into place, and the indictments issued. There will be more, because she is merely Trump’s cats-paw.
Meanwhile, we learned that she showed up for the senate hearing with all of the dignity and preparation of Triumph the Insult Dog.
Bondi did not bring along deeply researched legal memoranda or notes on constitutional law; or carefully reasoned answers about due process or the Epstein Files. Instead, she showed up with a scripted burn book. Reuters photographer Jonathan Ernst captured images of her pre-written personal attacks on individual senators who might ask her difficult and probing questions. None of it was spontaneous. Even her zingers were scripted.
Images showed Bondi had an entire page dedicated to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, including prompts to accuse the Democrat of working with “dark money groups” and being a “hypocrite.” A handwritten note scrawled on Bondi’s folder also suggested she ask Whitehouse if he ever took money from tech billionaire and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, a onetime associate of Jeffrey Epstein, if the topic of the late pedophile came up. [Which. of course, it did.]
Exit take: Surely there have been other morons who have served as Attorney General; and let’s stipulate there have been other craven oafs who clung to the office. But have any Attorneys General ever abased themselves so publicly as we saw this week?
No, my friends: Even the voluminous tomes of self-humiliation fail to provide us with any parallels — or even anything even remotely close.
The Joke Really is On Us
Brilliant piece by Miles Taylor, who is now also in Trump’s sights:
Remember when Donald Trump “joked” about locking up his political opponents? This has been a long-running comedy routine since 2016. He makes the crowds chant it. Then his aides circle back and say it’s just fodder for rallies. “He doesn’t wish to pursue charges,” Kellyanne Conway once promised us. A long list of Trump critics now being investigated by Trump would say otherwise, myself included.
Remember when Donald Trump “joked” he wanted to buy Greenland or swap Puerto Rico for it? I do. I was one of the administration officials who helped expose the absurd proposal that he started to talk about in 2018. His defenders swatted it down, even convincing European allies it was an “April Fool’s joke.” Then he returned to office and made it one of his first foreign policy planks, upending relations with our allies.
Remember when Donald Trump “joked” that the FCC should look into comedians making fun of him? After an SNL parody about him aired in 2019, he tweeted: “Should FCC look into this?” Aides denied he was serious, and in recent months, Republicans assured us Trump wasn’t using the FCC to bully the networks. Well, tell that to Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert. Trump admitted it’s precisely what he’s been doing.
Remember when Donald Trump “joked” about slowing down testing during the pandemic? “Slow the testing down, please,” he said to his aides, claiming it was making America “look bad” to have so many positive cases. The White House scrambled to claim he wasn’t serious, with aides saying the comment was made “in jest” and “tongue in cheek.” Then Trump cut through the spin: “I don’t kid,” he told reporters. And of course, his mismanagement resulted in thousands dying unnecessarily.
Remember when Donald Trump “joked” about not accepting the election results? “I have to see,” he told Fox News’ Chris Wallace in 2020 about whether he’d concede if he lost. His top aides and Hill Republicans insisted Trump wasn’t serious and would start a peaceful transfer of power. The Capitol Police officers beaten up that day would like a word about why the so-called joke ended in bloodshed.
Remember when Donald Trump “joked” about sending the military into U.S. cities? When protests erupted after George Floyd’s murder, Trump taunted protesters by saying he’d “deploy the United States military if necessary.” Aides reported it was bluster and the White House said it was “absolutely not true” that Trump was considering invoking the Insurrection Act to deploy active-duty troops. Recent months have shown us — all too well — that this has been his plan.
Remember when Donald Trump “joked” about remaining in the presidency beyond his term? After China’s President Xi Jinping abolished term limits, Trump praised him: “He’s now president for life… maybe we’ll have to give that a shot someday.” Aides said he was just “trolling” the press. As Trump allies start joking about “Trump 2028,” I’ll let you decide whether to be fooled.
The danger of Trump’s “jokes” isn’t that they’re funny. It’s that they cause total moral numbness. They create permission structures for abuse. Every time the public laughs off an outrageous new comment, it widens the space for something more extreme. What used to be unsayable somehow becomes debatable. By the time people realize he’s serious, it’s too late, and someone like James Comey is forced to walk into a federal courthouse facing obviously trumped-up charges.
Do you realize it yet, America? The joke’s on us.
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