Remember when Trump ordered that nursing babies be yanked away from their mothers during the first term? Yeah, that was really popular. Now they’re going after the unaccompanied minors who are in the U.S. usually living with relatives:
The Trump administration is directing immigration agents to track down hundreds of thousands of migrant children who entered the United States without their parents, expanding the president’s mass deportation effort, according to an internal memo reviewed by Reuters.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo outlines an unprecedented push to target migrant children who crossed the border illegally as unaccompanied minors. It lays out four phases of implementation, beginning with a planning phase on January 27, though it did not provide a start date for enforcement operations.
More than 600,000 immigrant children have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without a parent or legal guardian since 2019, according to government data, as the number of migrants caught crossing illegally reached record levels.
Tens of thousands have been ordered deported over the same time frame, including more than 31,000 for missing court hearings, immigration court data show.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and ICE did not respond to a request for comment about the memo and the Trump administration’s plans.
The Washington Post poll already shows this stuff isn’t popular and it’s going to get worse:
Americans strongly oppose deporting undocumented immigrants who aren’t criminals (57-39), who arrived as children (70-26) and who have U.S. citizen children (66-30).
70% do not want undocumented kids deported. This is going to be very ugly.
The psycho Trump has tapped as his immigration czar, Tom Homan, appeared at CPAC this weekend and I don’t think he got the memo:
I have faith that the immigration advocates in the country are preparing to document these atrocities and ensure that the American people can see it. Unfortunately they have a lot of practice.
Oh, and by the way, they know this is a dicey policy. Last week Trump’s wrecking crew eliminated legal aid for unaccompanied minors. As NBC news reported, “federal funds allow nonprofit groups to provide lawyers for children, some of whom are too young to speak and are making their way through the immigration system without parents or guardians.” These kids are often described as having” feet that don’t touch the floor,” meaning when they are sitting at the defendant’s table in a courtroom before a judge.
The good news is that the administration rescinded the order on Friday. I haven’t seen any explanation as to why they backed off but I think it’s fair to assume that somebody knows this deportation plan and withdrawal of legal representation for minor kids is a hot potato.
FOX: But fair to say Russia attacked unprovoked into Ukraine?
PETE HEGSETH: Fair to say it’s a very complicated situation.
Witkoff: "The war didn't need to happen. It was provoked. It doesn't necessarily mean it was provoked by the Russians. There were all kinds of conversations back then about Ukraine joining NATO. That didn't need to happen. It basically became a threat to the Russians." pic.twitter.com/ZimoQk7wbV
Trump’s special envoy to hell Steve Witkoff, real estate developer. He says:
“The war didn’t need to happen. It was provoked. It doesn’t necessarily mean it was provoked by the Russians. There were all kinds of conversations back then about Ukraine joining NATO. That didn’t need to happen. It basically became a threat to the Russians.
Witkoff can't name a single specific concession Russia will have to make as part of a peace deal pic.twitter.com/jHCVYlSYyc
Witkoff can’t name a single specific concession Russia will have to make as part of a peace deal
BARTIROMO: Can you acknowledge that Russia is the aggressor here?
WALTZ: Well, you know what? Who would you rather have going toe to toe with the likes of Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, Xi or anyone else — Joe Biden or Donald Trump? He's the deal maker in chief. pic.twitter.com/YYKyLudDvO
That’s Trump national Security Adviser sounding like a bootlicking submissive:
BARTIROMO: Can you acknowledge that Russia is the aggressor here?
WALTZ: Well, you know what? Who would you rather have going toe to toe with the likes of Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, Xi or anyone else — Joe Biden or Donald Trump? He’s the deal maker in chief.
Give me a break. Trump says he’s in love with those dictators! Literally!
These people say that Ukraine provoked the war by saying they wanted to join NATO, an idea which has not been seriously contemplated since 2008. Russia invaded Crimea in 2014, saying that it was a Russian speaking province that should be part of Russia — nothing about NATO. (Echoes of some earlier unpleasantness with Sudetenland back in the 1930s.) The world watched. Then he invaded in 2022 to take the whole country. We all saw it. They can try to gaslight us into believing that Russia was under some sort of threat that required them to invade but those of us who aren’t brainwashed by the glorious essense of Mar-a-Lago bronzer, know it isn’t true.
Trump is stealing Ukraine natural resources for himself and his billionaire buddies and allowing Putin to dissolve Ukraine as a sovereign country (which is what will happen.) Putin has to do nothing but give Trump a big, wet, sloppy kiss and call him a genius on television.
Many Americans reacted pointedly to Elon Musk’s “5 bullets” email ultimatum to 2.3 million federal employees on Saturday. Targets included “at least one judge and some law clerks.” * But Sen. Tina Smith (D) of Minnesota spoke for all of them, telling it like it is, just the way Trumpophiles like it: “This is the ultimate dick boss move from Musk – except he isn’t even the boss, he’s just a dick.” **
This is the ultimate dick boss move from Musk – except he isn’t even the boss, he’s just a dick.
Smith wasn’t done commenting on the Musk-Trump hostile takeover of the U.S. government:
I bet a lot of people have had an experience like this with a bad boss – there’s an email in your inbox on Saturday night saying, “Prove to me your worthiness by Monday or else.” I’m on the side of the workers, not the billionaire asshole bosses.
“It’s unclear what legal authority, if any, Musk is relying on” for this action, Politico notes:
Michael Fallings, an attorney specializing in federal employment law, told POLITICO the actions Musk described in the post would be illegal.
“I don’t believe it would be legal, and I don’t think he really understands right now how he will even do what he’s threatened to do,” Fallings said.
Beyond Musk’s illegal attempt to amuse himself by seeing how high he can get 2.3 million public servants to jump, other Donald Trump administration dysfunctionaries flatly told their people to ignore Musk’s directive.
Over the course of the evening top leadership at the FBI, the State Department, the VA, the Department of the Navy (to its civilian employees) and other parts of the government have explicitly instructed employees in their departments and agencies to ignore the email. Meanwhile the DOJ seems to be instructing its employees to follow it. (And yes, FBI is sort of under DOJ and that’s kind of weird but that’s where we are.)
It’s important to note that these emails are authorized or allowed if not directed by the President of the United States. And yet whole wings of the government are saying to ignore it. I mentioned to someone this evening that they’re treating a presidentially authorized email as some kind of insider threat. And this person says, we’re surprised that Trump is an insider threat? To which I said, yes, I’m surprised that his own appointees are doing so.
We are watching state disintegration in real time, Marshall observes both wryly and with some trepidation. As one might treat fantastic statements from a parent in the throes of dementia, it seems to me.
Fascinating watching this. Seeing similar "ignore this shit" directives at State & Dept of the Navy (for civilian employees). Wild that DOJ seems odd man out. Mind boggling seeing department countermand instructions being allowed if not directed by POTUS and treating almost like insider threat.
Similarly disturbing is watching the press treat Musk’s antics seriously rather than comically disruptive for a supposed superpower that’s invested decades on preparedness for its military and for natural and manmade disasters.
People have a basic need to believe everything is going to be okay, and tomorrow will be like today, Anat Shenker-Osorio noted last week [timestamp 13:55]. To acknowledge the badness, she suggests, “requires a level of upset and … a level of awareness that is understandably difficult for most people.” (See system justification theory.) Our republic isn’t slowly boiling. We’re enjoying a cozy hot tub, right?
Just Security treats Musk’s trolling over two million federal employees far more seriously than some of Trump’s department heads, but notes his email follows the contours of “running government like a business,” as Smith observed:
The email follows a pattern of Musk borrowing tactics from the private sector in his efforts to shrink the federal workforce. Following his acquisition of Twitter in 2022, Musk instructed Twitter’s engineers to “email [him] a bullet point summary of what your code commits have achieved in the past ~6 months, along with up to 10 screenshots of the most salient lines of code.”
Brian Klaas describes Musk’s slash-and-burn tactics as shortsighted, and a “perfect illustration of the ‘penny wise, pound foolish’ principle.” Whereas Musk’s Silicon Valley brethren celebrate risk-taking and strive to cut waste to maximize profit, governments need to build in resilience:
As I’ve written previously, there is an inherent tradeoff in complex systems between resilience and optimization. Similarly, a system that is constantly taut with tension is more likely to catastrophically snap than one that stabilizes with some protective slack.
In the United States, the federal government is routinely tasked with tackling the unexpected. It is not always a nimble system, and it certainly does contain some waste, fraud, and abuse embedded in mismanagement of the public purse. But what Musk is touting as “waste” is too often simply the inevitable byproduct of a governance strategy that can respond effectively to crises that will crop up in such an uncertain world.
Furthermore, applying a private-sector mindset to public- sector operations is a profound category error, Klaas suggests. Something like assuming “dishwashers and washing machines are the same thing because they both use detergent to wash things.”
It’s one thing if Musk slashes his new Twitter workforce until the platform breaks down. It’s another thing to break government:
By contrast, if the United States federal government breaks—even just a bit—people will die. People have died, as a result of the chaos unleashed on USAID, and as reporting continues to flow in during the coming weeks, the unacceptable and needless scale of deaths will become apparent. Many more will inevitably follow—and that’s without any Black Swans walloping us from out of the blue.
Moreover, we are often saved from such needless disasters from an under-appreciated feature of public governance: that it has lower levels of risk tolerance than the private sector. Risk tolerance is a measure of how much you’re willing to experiment and try risky things—even if doing so might lead to failure.
“DOGE is on track to turn America’s public sector strength into a dangerous weakness,” Klaas concludes.
Others across the internet responded to Musk’s ultimatum with the ridicule it richly deserves. They suggested fucking with the fucker, so to speak, by sending their own mocking bullet lists of accomplishments to HR@opm.gov.
The reply email inbox for this “what did you do last week” email is HR@opm.gov, so, you know, definitely don’t send them any unrelated messages that would interfere with their ability to carry out Elon’s dumbass bullshit
Nothin’ but Blue Skies from now on was happy to oblige (at top). Allison Gill compiled a short list of others.
If I were conspiracy minded, I’d view Musk-Trump’s attacks on government servants over the last few weeks not as reform, or even incompetence, but deliberate sabotage.
(h/t DJ)
* I was busy all day on the other side of the state reelecting Anderson Clayton for two more years as NC Democrats’ state party chair.
Congratulations to our friend and fellow Young Democrat @abreezeclayton.bsky.social on being re-elected as Chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party! Let’s keep building a New South, together. 💪
** I tried to send Tina Smith a Scoobie Snack only to find she’d announced ten days ago she would not seek reelection in 2026, thus freeing herself to let billionaire Musk know what she really thinks of him. Minnesotans, brace for impact.
Despite a slow-burning start, once I got pulled into writer-director Maura Velpero’s intimate World War 2 family drama Vermiglio (winner of the Silver Lion at the 2024 Venice Film Festival and Italy’s Official Selection for the 2025 Academy Awards), I didn’t want it to end.
Imbued with shades of The Leopard, The Last Valley, and Little Women, this tale (set in 1944) takes place in an Alpine hamlet in Italy. Save the occasional sound of a passing aircraft, the war doesn’t intrude directly into the villagers’ daily life. However, the effects of war are palpable; food is scarce (money even more so), infant mortality is high, and most of the young men are serving at the front.
Valpero frames her narrative around a year or so in the life of the populous Graziadei family. The patriarch is Caesare (Tommaso Ragno). Caesar is the village’s resident schoolteacher, conducting general ed classes for children and reading classes for illiterate adults.
His visibly life-tired wife Adele (Roberta Rovelli) is pregnant with their 11th child (two of their children died as infants), and is chagrined that Caesare continues to take money out of their meager finances to purchase classical records (he haughtily defends the purchases as necessary tools to teach the arts).
He counts a number of his own children among the students in the one-room school; he is hardest on his eldest son Dino (Patrick Gardner), who he cruelly browbeats in front of his classmates. He shows a soft spot for his daughters, particularly precocious Flavia (Anna Thaler), who is one of his brightest students.
The heart of the tale is parlayed via the tight relationship between three of the sisters: the aforementioned Flavia and her older siblings Ada (Rachele Potrich) and the enigmatic Lucia (Martina Scrinzi), who all share a bed (and their secrets).
One day, a Sicilian army deserter (Giuseppe De Domenico) takes refuge in the village. Lucia is instantly smitten; the feeling appears to be mutual. Once nature takes its inevitable course, a seismic shift ensues within the family’s dynamics.
This is a simple, yet universal tale that transcends the era it is set in (which is captured with great verisimilitude). I think the story also works as both an elegy to the final vestiges of Old World traditionalism and as a harbinger of post-war mores (I gleaned a nascent feminism in Lucia’s character, a la “Linda” in David Leland’s Wish You Were Here).
Naturalistic performances all around; particularly from first-time actor Scrinzi. Lovely cinematography by Mikhail Krichman (that lush Alpine scenery paints itself). An honest, raw, and emotionally resonant film.
(Opens in Seattle February 28; check for theaters near you here)
We were told last week that Musk has no authority and is simply a presidential adviser. So is Trump telling him to be more aggressive in how he advises him?
No, of course not. Everyone knows that Trump’s delegated the torture and destruction of the federal workforce to Musk and he wants him to really stick it to those workers. Really cause them some pain. Musk saluted smartly and followed those orders:
BREAKING: As Elon Musk said on X would be happening, I can now report that all federal employees are receiving an email directing them to provide “approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week.” It directs them not to send any classified information and is due by 11:59p Monday.
I highly recommend this piece (gift link) by Adam Serwer about the right wing crusade against DEI. It’s the best thing I’ve read on the subject and it’s profoundly distressing:
The nostalgia behind the slogan “Make America great again” has always provoked the obvious questions of just when America was great, and for whom. Early in the second Trump administration, we are getting the answer.
In August, speaking with someone he believed to be a sympathetic donor, one of the Project 2025 architects, Russell Vought, said that a goal of the next Trump administration would be to “get us off of multiculturalism” in America. Now Vought is running Donald Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, and the plan to end multiculturalism is proceeding apace. Much of the chaos, lawlessness, and destruction of the past few weeks can be understood as part of the administration’s central ideological project: restoring America’s traditional hierarchies of race and gender. Call it the “Great Resegregation.”
[…]
If the Great Resegregation proves successful, it will restore an America past where racial and ethnic minorities were the occasional token presence in an otherwise white-dominated landscape. It would repeal the gains of the civil-rights era in their entirety. What its advocates want is not a restoration of explicit Jim Crow segregation—that would shatter the illusion that their own achievements are based in a color-blind meritocracy. They want an arrangement that perpetuates racial inequality indefinitely while retaining some plausible deniability, a rigged system that maintains a mirage of equal opportunity while maintaining an unofficial racial hierarchy. Like elections in authoritarian countries where the autocrat is always reelected in a landslide, they want a system in which they never risk losing but can still pretend they won fairly.
Just seeing Trump fire the Black Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Hegseth take out the first female Naval top officer in one night shows you that they aren’t even trying to hide it anymore. This is more than just another backlash. It’s a full-fledged cultural revolution.
Read Serwer’s piece if you have the time. It’s important.
This is the best summary of the current geopolitical situation I have seen. Sir Alex Younger was head of MI6 between 2014 and 2020. Really worth watching. pic.twitter.com/XByVBAd5Ri
I found that very interesting. If you can take 7 minutes to listen I think you’ll find it interesting too. And, I’m afraid I have to agree with him although I have zero faith that Donald Trump can see the forest for the trees. Younger’s description of what Trump did with Afghanistan is right on and since he is incapable of ever learning anything, I just can’t see how this ends up any better unless it’s by accident.
I’ve been writing about the inevitability of a new arms race ever since Donald Trump won the election in 2016. It was clear that he was so stupid that he was prepared to tear up the existing world order without any thought for the future except his own ego being stroked. It’s happening now and these escalations almost always result in somebody deciding to use their toys.
The Department of Homeland Securityhas budgeted up to $200 million to run anti-immigrant ads in the United States and overseas that repeatedly thank President Donald Trump for leading an immigration crackdown. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Friday night that these ads were Trump’s idea, and during the administration’s transition to power, the president asked her to star in ads thanking him “for closing the border.”
Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference’s Ronald Reagan dinner on Friday night — at a tux and gown affair that served striploin, mashed potatoes, and raspberry cake — Noem recalled Trump telling her after she was nominated: “I want you to do [ads] for the border, and I want you to do those everywhere, not just in the United States, but I want them around the world. I want you to tell people not to come to this country if they’re going to come here illegally.”
She said the president continued: “We’re not going to let the media tell this story, because the media will never tell the truth. We’re going to run a marketing campaign to make sure the American people know the truth of what you’re doing.”
[…]
Noem said that Trump instructed that he didn’t want to be in the ads himself, telling her: “I want you in the ads, and I want your face in the ads … but I want the first ad, I want you to thank me. I want you to thank me for closing the border.”
$200 million for Kristi to fluff Trump on TV. Meanwhile, veterans, scientists, researchers public servants all over the federal government are abruptly losing their jobs.
Trump wants those minerals and he wants them now. He believes he will be hailed as a big hero, the prince of peace, if he obtains Ukrainian natural resources as compensation for the U.S. military support and then forces them to surrender to the murderous dictator who invaded them. He really believes that.
U.S. negotiators pressing Kyiv for access to Ukraine’s critical minerals have raised the possibility of cutting the country’s access to Elon Musk’s vital Starlink satellite internet system, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Ukraine’s continued access to SpaceX-owned Starlink was brought up in discussions between U.S. and Ukrainian officials after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy turned down an initial proposal from U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the sources said.
Starlink provides crucial internet connectivity to war-torn Ukraine and its military.
The issue was raised again on Thursday during meetings between Keith Kellogg, the U.S. special Ukraine envoy, and Zelenskiy, said one of the sources, who was briefed on the talks.
During the meeting, Ukraine was told it faced imminent shutoff of the service if it did not reach a deal on critical minerals, said the source, who requested anonymity to discuss closed negotiations.
“Ukraine runs on Starlink. They consider it their North Star,” said the source. “Losing Starlink … would be a massive blow.”
Imminent shutdown. How many people do you suppose would die as a result of all communications being shut off during as the war still rages? (Russia has been mercilessly bombarding Kyiv for the last couple of weeks.)
I would normally say that no country should never be dependent on one madman for essential communications equipment. But now that Musk is the U.S. government, what difference does it make? If Trump wants Ukraine punished, as he obviously does, or if Musk simply wants to please his pal Vlad, they could do this and there would be nothing anyone could do about it.
Would Trump and Musk do it? I have no doubt. We are a gangster state now.
