Trump: Above the law?

The New Republic:

Our descent into authoritarian rule continues. Over the weekend, Elon Musk raged on Twitter that people at CBS News deserve a “long prison sentence” based on a fabricated rationale. 

Meanwhile, President Trump tweeted out a line saying straight out that his presidency is above the law. 

And Trump nominated a nominee for U.S. attorney in D.C. who has elevated the idea that DOJ should have no independence from the president. 

According to scholars of authoritarianism, these are the things that happen when a country is sliding into authoritarian rule....

John Yoo, the Torture Memos, and Donald Trump

John Yoo

Balls and Strikes:

....These tenacious defenses of the president’s right to invade foreign countries and states’ rights to ignore international law drew the attention of scouts at the highest levels of conservative legal thought. 

In 2001, President George W. Bush promoted him to deputy attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel, where Yoo would pull off his masterpieces: the Torture Memos, which justified some of the worst atrocities America committed during the War on Terror.

In his memos, all of Yoo’s pontifications about the wishy-washy nature of international law paid off. He answered a series of questions from the CIA and Defense Department with veteran confidence: Al Qaeda? Not a “state,” and thus not covered by the Geneva Conventions. The Taliban? Not a real “government,” and thus not covered, either. Anyone we detain? 

If they’re not wearing army uniforms, they might as well be al Qaeda. And what can we do to them? Since the Geneva Conventions don’t apply to “enemy combatants,” we can do whatever we want. 

These memos and their principles were used to justify years of extraordinary renditions, waterboarding, and assassinations. Torture went from a rumor about CIA blacksites to official U.S. government policy, all thanks to John Yoo and the other merry men at the Office of Legal Counsel....

Trump thinks torture "absolutely works"

Yoo and Fox News

Of course John Yoo defends Trump

The Decline and Fall of John Yoo

"Disinformation Space": Trump sucks up to Putin, smears Zelensky

Summit for bullies

Fact-checking Trump claims about war in Ukraine

US President Donald Trump has appeared to accuse Ukraine of being responsible for the war with Russia, in a flurry of claims from his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida.

Speaking to reporters, Trump also made claims about President Volodymyr Zelensky's popularity and observed that Ukraine had yet to hold scheduled elections due to martial law. He later doubled down on those comments in a fiery Truth Social post on Wednesday.

Trump's accusations - some of which appeared to mirror common Russian talking points about the war - came just hours after US officials met a Russian delegation in Riyadh to open talks to end the conflict, which has raged for almost three years.

Zelensky later accused Trump of "living in a disinformation space" created by Russia....

Does Putin own Trump?

Oliver Stone: "Years of bullshit" on JFK murder

See also The assassination of JFK: Case not closed

Judge hammers Trump's lawyer on trans bias

From The Independent:

A federal judge eviscerated language in Donald Trump’s sweeping executive order targeting transgender service members in the U.S. military and “radical gender ideology” and the use of pronouns.

During Tuesday’s hearing in Washington, D.C., where lawyers for trans service members are challenging Trump’s order that has triggered Department of Defense policy blocking gender-affirming healthcare and new trans recruits, a furious District Judge Ana Reyes interrogated Trump’s “demeaning,” “biologically inaccurate” and “frankly ridiculous” language.

Reyes, who was appointed by Joe Biden, fired off a series of questions attacking the order’s statements that suggest trans Americans are dishonorable and lack “warrior ethos” and humility.

She also grilled government lawyers over the order’s statements against “shifting pronoun usage” and the “use of pronouns that inaccurately reflect an individual’s sex.”

“Would you agree that if the military is negatively impacted, we all have a lot bigger problems than pronoun use?” Reyes asked. If that is the case, “our military is incompetent,” she said.

“I can’t agree with that,” Justice Department attorney Jason Lynch said.

“Do you think usage of that preferred pronoun by that small group of people is going to impact our ability in combat situations?” she asked. “Explain to me how pronoun usage impacts [military readiness]. Because any common sense human being would understand it doesn’t.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has instructed U.S. military branches to pause gender-affirming care procedures and prescriptions and deny trans recruits.

Reyes called the assertion “frankly ridiculous,” and even said she would entertain testimony from an officer of the U.S. military to testify in the government’s defense, if they could find one.

“If you can get me an officer of the United States military to get on the stand and say that because of pronoun usage we are less prepared, I will be the first to buy you a box of cigars,” she said.

Trump’s order, which he issued in his first days in office, was implemented by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier this month, directed all branches to pause the admission of new transgender service members, and to pause all affirming healthcare procedures and prescriptions for active troops.

The order also claims that the “adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.”

“A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member,” the order states.

Reyes repeatedly asked whether that language is “demeaning” to transgender people.

“The government is not willing to take a position [that] to categorically call a group of people selfish is demeaning?” she said. “The answer is ‘yes it is,’ ‘no it isn’t,’ or ‘I can’t say.’”

Lynch said he could not speak to it in a “constitutional sense.”

“I want to know from the government, whether that language expresses animus,” said Reyes, suggesting that she could strike against the executive order to prove that it was motivated by prejudice.

“This is the policy of the president of the United States that is impacting thousands of people,” she said. “Calling an entire group of people lying, dishonest people with no integrity....how is that anything other than showing animus?....You have an answer, you just refuse to give it.”

Trump is facing a series of lawsuits seeking to overturn executive orders targeting transgender service members as well as incarcerated trans women and gender-affirming healthcare.

Earlier, Reyes noted that Trump’s separate executive order that eliminates federal recognition of trans people inaccurately states there are only two sexes, without accounting for intersex people.

“This executive order is premised on an assertion that’s not biologically correct. There are anywhere near 30 intersex examples. Anyone who doesn’t have XX or XY chromosomes is not just male or female, they’re intersex,” Reyes said. “If I’m intersex, where am I allowed to go?”

Reyes is weighing whether to issue a preliminary injunction that would effectively block the order.

Trump’s order also rails against what the president and his allies have labeled “radical gender ideology,” which government lawyers could not define in court.

“If you can’t articulate what radical gender ideology means, how is the defense secretary going to know what it means?” Reyes asked.

Lynch said he is “loathe to speculate“ what Trump meant.

“It’s not like I randomly picked you off the street,” Reyes fired back. “You’re the government’s representative here.”

Affidavits from trans service members and plaintiffs in the case — including decorated veterans and long-serving troops from across the military branches — illustrate the far-reaching impacts of Trump’s order within the days after it was issued.

In one case, a 27-year-old Navy officer who has served for five years and is a transgender man was literally on a surgery table for a planned double mastectomy when a surgeon delivered “unfortunate news” that his surgery could not be performed.

Tricare, the military health insurer, “would no longer cover my surgery,” according to his affidavit.

“I want to be able to serve my country on the same terms as any other service member,” he wrote. “My treating physicians have all determined that this surgery is medically necessary for my care plan. But I am being denied this care solely because I am transgender.”

Trump has also signed an executive order designed to push transgender women and girl’s from women’s sports.

At least two lawsuits are asking courts to overturn Trump’s order.

Thousands of transgender troops are currently serving, “and are fully qualified for the positions in which they serve,” filling critical roles in combat arms, aviation, nuclear engineering, law enforcement, and military intelligence, among other fields, according to SPARTA Pride, which represents trans Americans in the military.

“The readiness and physical capabilities of transgender service members is not different from that of other service members,” the group said in a statement.

With God on his side, Trump "saving the country"

The New York Times:

President Trump on Saturday posted on social media a single sentence that appears to encapsulate his attitude as he tests the nation’s legal and constitutional boundaries in the process of upending the federal government and punishing his perceived enemies.

“He who saves his Country does not violate any Law,” Mr. Trump wrote, first on his social media platform Truth Social and then on the website X.

By late afternoon, Mr. Trump had pinned the statement to the top of his Truth Social feed, making it clear it was not a passing thought but one he wanted people to absorb. The official White House account on X posted his message in the evening.

The quote is a variation of one sometimes attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte, although its origin is unclear.

Nonetheless, the sentiment was familiar: Mr. Trump, through his words and actions, has repeatedly suggested that surviving two assassination attempts is evidence that he has divine backing to enforce his will. (emphasis added)

He has brought a far more aggressive attitude toward his use of power to the White House in his second term than he did at the start of his first. 

The powers of the presidency that he returned to were bolstered by last year’s Supreme Court ruling that he is presumptively immune from prosecution for any crimes he may commit using his official powers.

During his first weeks in office, Mr. Trump has signed numerous executive orders that pushed at the generally understood limits of presidential power, fired numerous officials, dismantled an agency in clear violation of statutory limits, and frozen spending authorized by Congress without clear authority. 

Many of his policy moves have been at least temporarily frozen by judges....

Two shooters

Rob's comment:

"Two Shooters" is a good, skeptical start to a real investigation. We've heard this kind of big talk for years---ever since the assassinastion itself, in fact. 

Hard to believe a chronic bullshitter like Trump will actually follow through on this rhetorical performance.

Evidence for two shooters has been clear for years.

"State Capture" by the radical right

South Africa's child

The New York Times:

....Who exactly is running the federal government?

It’s troubling enough not to be able to answer emphatically with “democratically elected leaders.” 

Even more troubling is the possibility that the actual answer is Mr. Musk — the world’s richest man — and other unaccountable, unelected, unconfirmed allies cozy with the president.

Political economists have a name for that: state capture. State capture occurs when wealthy private interests influence a government to such a degree that they can freely direct policy decisions and public funds for their own benefit or for the benefit of their ideological fellow travelers (or both).

Revelations of this especially pernicious, widespread form of corruption have occurred in other countries — a striking example occurred in the country of Mr. Musk’s birth, South Africa — and they offer cautionary tales for democratic governments everywhere.

The details vary by context, but the political scientist Elizabeth David-Barrett lays out three general mechanisms of state capture. 

They now sound familiar: shaping the rules of the game through law and policy; influencing administrative decisions by capturing the budget, appointments, government contracts and regulatory decisions; and disabling checks on power by dismantling accountability structures like the judiciary, law enforcement and prosecution, and audit institutions like the inspectors general and the media.

Some of these strategies could come straight from the Project 2025 playbook or Trump administration executive orders. This should disturb all Americans. 

According to Ms. David-Barrett, state capture creates broad, long-lasting systemic inequality and diminished public services. 

Changing the rules of the game to allow such collusion to flourish, she writes, “leaves those few holders of economic power in a strong position to influence future political elites, consolidating their dominance in a self-perpetuating dynamic”....

See also Trump foreign aid freeze deals heavy blow to family planning abroad and The world’s richest men take on the world’s poorest children.

JFK: Search for the truth continues

Trump declassifies more JFK assassination files

Most Wanted: 15 JFK Files for Investigators

New evidence? Maybe

See also my 2008 article The assassination of JFK: Case not closed.

American history is a nightmare from which we still haven't awakened.

Trump, Republicans, and animals

Wildlife at risk as US government funding paused

....Nearly a dozen IFAW projects across 13 countries have come to a complete stop—and with each day that passes, the damage to conservation efforts, local economies, and vulnerable wildlife is amplified: 

* In Kenya, 252 community rangers will be left without work—and as a result, 468 lions and 18,000 elephants they were hired to protect will be left defenseless against the deadly threat of poachers.

* 250 front line law enforcement officers around the world will not receive the essential training they need to detect wildlife crime, leaving animals vulnerable to trafficking and abuse.

* 350 endangered elephants that call Malawi’s Kasungu National Park home will be at risk of poaching as rapid response units will not be trained and equipped with the tools they need to tackle the illegal killing of wildlife.

These are just a handful of the life-saving IFAW-affiliated projects that have come to a stop as a result of the funding pause....

Aso see Trump hates animals and Building Trump's Wall in an animal refuge.

In his first term: Trump's war on endangered species

It runs in the family

In a tantrum Republican Kristi Noem killed her own dog.

Elon Musk tortures animals in his lab

This is the Republican Party’s most spineless hour

New evidence? Maybe

The magic bullet

From Axios:

FBI finds secret JFK assassination records after Trump order

The FBI just discovered about 2,400 records tied to President Kennedy's assassination that were never provided to a board tasked with reviewing and disclosing the documents, Axios has learned. The still-secret records are contained in 14,000 pages of documents the FBI found in a review triggered by President Trump's Jan. 23 executive order demanding the release of all JFK assassination records.

Why it matters: The discovery — 61 years after Kennedy was killed in Dallas — follows decades of government reluctance to release all documents related to the assassination, which fueled a mountain of conspiracy theories.The existence of the new documents was disclosed Friday to the White House, when the Office of the Director of National Intelligence submitted its plan to disclose the assassination records under Trump's order.

Zoom in: The contents of the newly found records are closely held secrets. The three sources who relayed their existence to Axios said they hadn't seen the documents.

But the discovery of thousands of records on one of the most scrutinized events in U.S. history is likely to raise questions about the procedures for vetting and releasing information across the entire government.

"This is huge. It shows the FBI is taking this seriously," said Jefferson Morley, an expert on the assassination and vice president of the nonpartisan Mary Ferrell Foundation, the nation's largest source of online records of Kennedy's killing. He sued the U.S. government for more records.

"The FBI is finally saying, 'Let's respond to the president's order,' instead of keeping the secrecy going," Morley said....

Rob's comment:

I'm skeptical, but we'll see. It's unlikely the assassin/assassins created paper work on the crime. 

On the other hand, why keep the documents secret for so long? Even circumstantial evidence could be revealing. 

The FBI's conduct for more than 60 years has been disgraceful. Hard to believe that 2,400 documents---14,000 pages!---were impossible to find until now. I suppose we should be grateful the documents weren't simply destroyed.

I think Trump is terrible president and a contemptible human being, but I will be surprised if he's actually doing something useful for a change.

Elon Musk: Still a crackpot and a right-wing jerk

Time Magazine

Elon Musk is now the man of the hour. More than two years ago, I blogged several times about him. 

In chronological order: Elon Musk is a crackpot, Twitter: Hellhole of hate, and Suspicions confirmed: Musk is a right-wing jerk.

Those posts hold up well today.

Later: Animals are abused in Musk's lab

Brandon Bell, Getty Images

Congestion pricing: A million cars disappear

Congestion Pricing

Fast Company:

New York City’s congestion pricing program has been in place for one month, implementing tolls on drivers who enter certain, often gridlocked, areas of Manhattan. 

And so far, the results are “undeniably positive,” transit officials say, with measurably reduced traffic and more commuters choosing public transit.

The traffic mitigation plan covers a “congestion relief zone” that spans almost all of Manhattan below 60th street and includes major routes like the Lincoln, Holland, and Hugh L. Carey Tunnels and bridges that go into both Brooklyn and Queens. Since its launch on January 5, one million fewer vehicles have entered that zone than they would have without the toll, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)....

JFK Disclosure Plan on Trump's Desk

Disclosure plan

JFK: Case still not closed

Worse than last time?

From bad to worse

Crime boss elected president

Family values in Texas

 From Daily Kos

What Republicans believe

 From Kevin Drum

Better than plastic

Gaza: Coming soon a Trump casino

Rob Rogers

United States: "Partner in genocide" in Gaza.

Israel destroys Gaza.

Bad news: Trump has God on his side

In today's NY Times:

Of all the many forms Donald J. Trump can take, maybe the most perplexing one is Pious Trump.

It is a shape he shifted into shortly after 8 o’clock on Thursday morning to deliver a sermon of sorts on Capitol Hill for the annual National Prayer Breakfast. In the grand amphitheater of National Statuary Hall, members of Congress sat before him. 

There were leaders of the Republican Party, never so in thrall to him as they are now. There were Democrats, never so lost and powerless in their struggle against him as they are now.

“Look at each other,” he urged. He said they were a “great group of people” and beseeched them to come together. “We have to make life better for everyone,” he said.

President Trump, appealing to the better angels?

....Mr. Trump told the story of his near assassination in Butler, Pa., last July, complete with all the miraculous details, by now familiar: The chart of immigration statistics he turned his head to look at as the second the bullet tore across the sky....

His retelling of that scary tale always arrives at the same three conclusions: God exists. He saved me. I am a changed man.

“Honestly, it changed something in me,” he said as the room began to applaud.

But did it?

There’s little evidence that a new Donald Trump has taken office. He posts dark missives and ideas that rattle his staff at odd hours. He talks about retribution against his foes, shutting down the media and invading allied nations. He cavalierly proposes displacing two million Palestinians to turn their homeland into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”

After he left the Capitol, he spoke to a packed ballroom at the Washington Hilton, where the actual breakfast was being held. He reflected again on the attempt on his life and said “It was God that saved me.”

“As the Bible says, blessed are the peacemakers,” he told the crowd. “And, in that end, I hope my greatest legacy when it’s all finished will be known as a peacemaker and a unifier. I hope that’s going to be true."

Brandon Bell, Getty Images

Rob's comment:

Already the biggest asshole in the country's political history, Trump is adding religion to justify the madness and the bullshit. 

Look out: Trump now thinks he has God on his side!

Criminal hammers criminal court

The criminal: Getty Images

Newsweek:

President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Thursday to impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court for targeting the United States, Israel, and its allies, a White House official told Reuters.

The order will implement financial and visa sanctions on individuals and their family members who assist in ICC investigations of U.S. citizens or allies, the official said.

The move comes amid Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington, D.C.

The ICC sought arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over Israel's military actions in Gaza, sparking bipartisan backlash in the U.S.

This is the second time the Trump administration has sanctioned the court, highlighting ongoing tensions over jurisdiction and accountability. The U.S. has never been an ICC member and does not recognize its authority over American citizens.

The order is expected to be signed this afternoon, aligning with Netanyahu's visit to Washington, which included an Oval Office meeting on Tuesday.

Trump's executive order will impose financial and travel restrictions on ICC officials involved in cases against U.S. or Israeli personnel. The move aims to deter cooperation with ICC investigations, further isolating the court.

The ICC has alleged that Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant used "starvation as a method of warfare" by restricting humanitarian aid and deliberately targeting civilians in Gaza—claims Israeli officials have dismissed as false and antisemitic.

Trump sanctioned the ICC following a 2020 order targeting its investigation into alleged U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan. Israel also rejects the court's jurisdiction and has opposed its efforts to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant over the Israel-Hamas war.

Critics argue that Trump's order undermines international law, while supporters see it as necessary to protect American and Israeli interests.

The executive order follows Trump's proposal to have the U.S. take control of Gaza, relocate roughly 2 million Palestinians to neighboring countries, and transform the area into the "Riviera of the Middle East."

The plan sparked immediate backlash. Lawmakers from both parties questioned its practicality and ethics, while Egypt and Jordan flatly rejected the idea of accepting displaced Gazans, calling it a violation of international law. 

Palestinian leaders denounced it as an attempt to erase their presence from the region.

See also Israel destroys Gaza and Arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant: "Crimes against humanity"

The law won't stop Trump

From Counterpunch:

....There is little reason to believe that Trump and his followers will be constrained by the law. The Supreme Court has given Trump himself a get-out-of-jail free card for all official actions he takes as President. 

As all orders coming from him to government officials will be considered official, he can not be held liable for any of them—no matter how illegal. While his subordinates have not been given these free passes and thus are theoretically culpable for their illegal actions, Trump has the ability to pardon them. So they need not be constrained by the law either.

The reality of our crisis is demonstrated by what is actually taking place within government agencies. Trump is taking illegal actions and they are been carried out. He fired 17 or 18 inspectors general, effective immediately. 

This is illegal; Congress requires that it must be notified 30 days in advance for the firing of an inspector general, and a cause for this firing must be given. Neither of these things was done. 

By law, all of these individuals should have remained on the job, pending the proper procedures. 

One Inspector General challenged the order. Phyllis Fong, a 22-year veteran of the US Department of Agriculture, said she intended to stay because proper protocols had not been followed. She was escorted out of the building by security agents.

Trump’s take over of the Justice Department and the FBI makes it even more clear that he will be able to fire anyone and undertake any investigations or actions no matter their legality. 

He is firing apolitical federal prosecutors and agents for doing their jobs and participating in legitimate investigations—a violation of civil service protections. His followers will stock these institutions with their fellow believers and proceed. Whether or not charges brought by them are ultimately upheld in court is almost irrelevant. Years of litigation and prosecution will be sufficient to ruin people.

Other frightening actions are unfolding rapidly. Elon Musk’s surrogates have gotten access to the Treasury Department’s payments system. 

This system is responsible for sending out trillions of dollars in payments to individuals and groups, including Social Security payments. Anyone with control of the system could presumably target their “enemies” and withhold payments to them. Illegal? Yes! 

So what? Similar actions have shut down US AID operations around the world, causing large-scale suffering....

See also Here’s How Unpopular Elon Musk Is

Rob's comment:

This is what right-wing government looks like in the United States.

American fascism and Elon Musk

American fascist 

William Kristol:

It’s grim out there. Limiting the damage done by Donald Trump and the Trumpists to our government and the rule of law, and reversing the momentum of Trumpism politically and culturally—all of this seems difficult and daunting.

Let’s be honest: It doesn’t just seem difficult and daunting. It is difficult and daunting.

It’s also as important a task as any in my political lifetime. And the good news is that difficult doesn’t mean impossible. Daunting needn’t be frightening.

Even critics must concede that the Trump blitzkrieg has been impressive. Many of our laws, norms, and procedures designed to provide guardrails against arbitrary, reckless, and lawless actions have proven ineffective.

But defensive lines can fall and the forces of freedom can still ultimately prevail. And vulnerabilities in the apparently formidable Trumpist movement have already begun to appear. 

Here’s one vulnerability: Elon Musk.

No one voted for Musk. Trump, on the other hand, has won the votes of 63 million, 74 million, and 77 million Americans in the last three presidential elections. Trump was sworn in as president just two weeks ago. 

For better or worse, the half of the country who voted for him is going to be reluctant to rush to judgment—however warranted that judgment might be!—that they made a mistake....

Tough talk by Republican bullies

The New Republic:

It makes a certain awful sense that Trump’s lackeys would stage the president’s promised mass deportations as a media event. 

On Sunday, “border czar” Tom Homan invited TV’s Dr. Phil McGraw to “embed” with him on a mission to arrest immigrants in Chicago, viewing the inside of a “command center” and narrating arrests, all streamed as “exclusive” programming on Dr. Phil’s own channel (launched when his long-running CBS show was canceled, after McGraw welcomed the far right and conspiracy theorists to his couch). 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement said they lack the manpower and necessary logistics to implement the Laken Riley Act, requiring they arrest every undocumented person accused of low-level theft offenses; if that is true, they certainly lack the resources to arrest, detain, and remove from the U.S. the millions of immigrants that Trump claims will be deported under his watch. 

But what Homan can do right now is put on a show.

That Dr. Phil is here to livestream your arrest is almost too stupid to take seriously. But that may prove to be the defining feature of life under the second Trump administration: For now, to survive and move strategically, we will have to live with the whiplash of having to take the cruelty of men who are not very bright very seriously.

There is no shortage of not very bright guys to point to: from the new head of the Department of Defense Pete Hegseth, whose qualifications include running two different veterans’ nonprofits into the ground and showing up to work drunk (along with multiple allegations of sexual misconduct), to Kristi Noem, the admitted puppy-killing governor of South Dakota—not a guy, but now running the agency housing ICE, the Department of Homeland Security. 

It feels a bit gauche to point to the typos and bizarre syntax of the Trump executive orders (ghostwritten by AI, some suspect) and other official releases (they will “catch criminal aliens—including murders[sic] and rapists,” a DHS spokesperson promised). 

But of all Trump’s lackluster crew, Tom Homan has had the most opportunity to do the most harm very badly.

Phil McGraw may seem ridiculous with his attempts to parrot the militaristic lingo of anti-immigration cops like Homan, a verbal shock-and-awe campaign in which arrests are “surgical”; human beings are “high-value targets.” 

But this is part of the propaganda. The immigrants they will arrest are “dangerous people,” McGraw said in one video shot in a nice-looking hotel room. “If they resist,” said McGraw in another video, “if they open fire on the agents who have to return fire, then people can get caught in the crossfire.” 

After the pair had encountered immigrants without any such threats to their safety, the story expanded. “We’re saving children,” Homan told McGraw’s cameras. “Every sexual predator we arrest means more saved children.” 

We are left only with Homan’s tough-guy talk as proof that anyone they arrested was a threat to children.... 

Melissa Gira Grant

See also Welcome to Trump 2.0: Stupid and Evil.

1957: Buddy Holly in Union Square

 Rob Rogers

"Smart" growth?

Approved: 400 Divisadero

203 housing units in this building.

Smart growth for this neighborhood?