Week 8

Not a good week for the nation, but oddly some good things for me personally. I guess we have to celebrate what we can and deal with the rest. Follow the court-watchers for the lawsuits. Chris Geidner (LawDork, Bluesky), Roger Parloff (Lawfare, Bluesky), and the Just Security tracker.

As usual, let’s keep it to things that have actually happened, not hypotheticals. I think it’s important to stay grounded with what has happened. What is actually happening is bad enough, and hypotheticals confuse our sense of reality.

Take time out when you need to. Post your pets.

Here’s what the Trump administration did this week, in no particular order

• Arrested Mahmud Khalil.
• Ukraine agreed on a ceasefire proposal. Russia was having none of it.
• Tearing Social Security phonebanks down – to be all-digital, which will go over nicely with the 70+ set.
• Attacked Columbia University and Johns Hopkins in addition to all the grant-canceling.
• Tore down exhibits on people of color and women on the Arlington National Cemetery website.
• Amy Gleason made a declaration that she neither supervises nor is supervised by Elon Musk.
• Senate Democrats caved on the continuing resolution.

Continuing

• On-again off-again tariffs
• Tesla protests increase. One in Iceland! Tesla stock go down. Musk actually seemed worried about this in an interview.

Pushback

•  Greenland voted decisively against the American-favoring party
• Trump withdrew David Weldon’s (vaccine denier) nomination to be CDC director.
• A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to offer reinstatement to thousands of fired probationary employees at the Departments of Defense, Treasury, Agriculture, Energy, Interior and Veterans Affairs.

200 more weeks to go. What are you doing? Anybody going to Tesla demonstrations? Want to report?