Trump Threatens The NY Times

Some news for you today, and a cartoon that may or may not relate to what I wrote below. Sometimes I think it’s nice to just see a cartoon that is not necessarily political!

Within the last hour, the right-wing activist and close ally of Trump, Charlie Kirk, was killed by a gunman. He was the founder of the nation’s pre-eminent right-wing youth activist organization, Turning Point USA in 2012, and had become a fixture on college campuses, where he hosted rallies. This happened while he was beginning to speak at a university in Utah, Trump posted about his death on social media. The shooter is still at large.

A federal judge ruled yesterday that Trump cannot fire Federal Reserve govenor Lisa Cook. She can stay in her role while she fights his accusations of mortgage fraud in court. While I don’t fully understand those accusations, my guess is that they are a non-entity, because Trump is looking for any possible, tiny thing to fire those on the Fed who disagree with him. Judge Cobb said Trump’s justifications for removing Cook “did not meet the threshold for sufficient cause,” in part because the action in question took place before her tenure as a Fed governor began. Trump wants to control the Federal Reserve, which is a dangerous prospect and is appealing this ruling.

Trump is threatening a lawsuit against the NY Times on their reporting about the drawing of a young girl’s body that is attributed to him in the Epstein Birthday Book. A spokeswoman for Times, Danielle Rhoades Ha, responded on Wednesday: “Our journalists reported the facts, provided the visual evidence and printed the president’s denial. It’s all there for the American people to see and to make up their own minds about.”

“We will continue to pursue the facts without fear or favor and stand up for journalists’ First Amendment right to ask questions on behalf of the American people,” she added.

Yesterday I wrote about the two cartoons in that disturbing birthday book, but did not write about a potentially revealing photograph that references Trump. The photo is of Jeffrey Epstein and Joel Pashow (and two other blocked out people), who created the book, holding a large doctored check that has a fake “DJ TRUMP” signature. A handwritten note under the photo, says that Epstein showed “early talents with money + women,” and had sold a “fully depreciated” woman to Mr. Trump for $22,500. The NY Times reports in a story by Matthew Goldstein, Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Steve Eder, that the woman, whos name is withheld, was someone who dated both Epstein and Trump in the 1990’s.

This is a very good piece in the Guardian: “Plane purgatory, How Trump’s Deportation Program Shuttles Immigrants into Lawless Limbo.”

This is what happened in Los Angles, right after the Supreme Court lifted the ban on racial profiling this week, which I wrote about yesterday. Frightening.

I don’t usually venture far into foreign affairs in my commentary, I try to stick to US politics in my effort to stop Trump any way I can. But I want to bring up the story about the US destroying a Venezuelan boat in the Carribean just because it suspected drug traffickers to be on board. Eleven people were killed. Trump’s order to strike this boat is a major departure from acceptable international behavior. Leaders don’t just decide to attack a boat of suspected low-level drug traffickers just because you can. The NY Times reports:

“The disclosures provide new details about a military operation that was a startling departure from using law enforcement means to interdict suspected drug boats. Legal specialists who have called it a crime to summarily kill suspected low-level smugglers as if they were wartime combatants said the revelations further undercut the administration’s claim that the strike was legally justified as self-defense…..Secretary of State Marco Rubio said people suspected of smuggling drugs toward the United States pose “an immediate threat.” Mr. Trump, in a letter to Congress, justified the attack as a matter of self-defense.”

Trump, Vance, Rubio and Hegseth are like little boys playing with boats, playing with people’s lives, pretending to act tough. It is alarming, is clearly theater, and becoming typical Trump. This action is an effort by Trump’s to play up the erroneous idea that the US is under attack, and hence would justify his using Marshall Law.

I hope you all are doing okay, as okay as is possible. Pet a dog, a cat, hug a loved one. We will get through this. Stay informed, help others. I am so glad you are here.

Happy Wednesday.