There was a lot not to like about Trump’s speech yesterday, but some folks are pointing to this post-speech moment as the absolute nadir:
“Thank you again. Thank you again. Won’t forget it,” Trump says while shaking the hand of Supreme Court Justice John Roberts after the State of the Union.
— Anna Bower (@annabower.bsky.social) March 5, 2025 at 12:18 AM
Yes, it’s Trump deeply thanking Chief Justice John Roberts. For what? Keeping him out of jail?
Trump may be less grateful today. The Supreme Court sided with a lower court, 5 to 4, that at least some frozen foreign aid had to be unfrozen.
A sharply divided Supreme Court on Wednesday reinstated a lower-court order for the Trump administration to release frozen foreign aid, but it was not clear how quickly money would start flowing.
By a 5-4 vote, the court rejected an emergency appeal from the Republican administration, while also telling U.S. District Judge Amir Ali to clarify his earlier order that required the quick release of nearly $2 billion in aid for work that had already been done.
Although the outcome is a short-term loss for President Donald Trump’s administration, the nonprofit groups and businesses that sued are still waiting for the money they say they are owed. One of the organizations last week was forced to lay off 110 employees as a result, according to court papers.
Justice Samuel Alito led four conservative justices in dissent, saying Ali lacks the authority to order the payments. Alito wrote that he is stunned the court is rewarding “an act of judicial hubris and imposes a $2 billion penalty on American taxpayers.”
So Alito (and Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh) think it’s outrageous the government must pay for contracted work that has been completed? I know stiffing the vendors has long been central to Trump’s business plan, but I didn’t know it was okay for the government, too. Especially since the 14th Amendment says the public debt of the United States must not be questioned. Anyway, Roberts and Barrett sided with the three liberals and said the debt cannot be dismissed. Whether it’s paid any time during this decade is another matter.
Just to show how clear-headed and decisive the executive branch has become — yesterday the General Services Administration released a list of 443 office properties that were being put up for sale. The announcement said these spaces were “vacant or underutilized.” Reuters:
The list includes the headquarters for several major government agencies, including the Veterans Administration, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Energy, the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Federal Aviation Administration.
GSA’s own headquarters were also on the list.
The list includes skyscrapers in Chicago, Atlanta and Cleveland, as well as several Internal Revenue Service hubs that process tax returns.
The list also includes the J. Edgar Hoover building that houses the FBI, although there have been plans to replace that building for a long time. But it hasn’t been replaced, yet.
That was the plan early yesterday, anyway. According to several reports, by yesterday evening all the D.C.-area properties had been removed from the list. And then this morning the entire list disappeared, to be replaced on the Web with a note that the list of properties would be “coming soon.”
Likewise the infamous tariffs may be off again, or not. I take it today the markets are bounding around like a yo-yo on word that Trump may be rethinking some of his tariffs. Or not. Most of these stories seem to be coming from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who appears to be trying to mitigate some of the damage. Lutnick says Trump will make an announcement today, but he hasn’t yet. Maybe he’ll exclude some products. Maybe he’ll pause the tariffs another month. Maybe. But, yeah, real decisive. Real clear-headed.
Summing it all up: Do read Paul Krugman’s latest, America is trapped in a burning Tesla. Apparently some of our tycoons of industry and the stock-market players haven’t fully realized that Trump and Musk have no idea what they’re doing. Something major is going to break, and probably sooner rather than later. And Krugman thinks Social Security is the most likely candidate.
Oh, and DOGE plans to leave a massive nuclear waste site unattended.
The world has only one working deep geologic repository for nuclear waste — and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is trying to close down the 90,000-square-foot building in Carlsbad, New Mexico, where workers are tasked with directly managing the radioactive site.
Two sources confirmed to NOTUS that the General Services Administration is trying to end the government’s lease for the Skeen-Whitlock Building in Carlsbad, where at least 200 people work to supervise highly radioactive waste from the U.S.’s nuclear defense activities.
Maybe Elon thinks he can just sell it “as is.” Charming property! Needs some TLC and cleanup!
The crew at DOGE seems blissfully unaware of a thing called "consequences." It does look like, "Let's do this and see what happens." Part of this comes from the underlying philosophy of attacking fast and in multiple directions. Add to that that they have a limited staff, compared to the 2.4 million federal employees they want to dominate. And I use the word "dominate" in a BDSM context. Everyone who does not leave federal service must abandon the concept of being a public servant and devote themselves to being bootlickers with no ethics.
There's a problem with the blitzkrieg strategy, It's based on massive destruction, which does not take talent. But all these agencies have a purpose. The media is looking for the victims of the demolition of USAID. I think there will be a lot of dead bodies, not just economic ruin. Various bootlickers are lying their asses off about restarting essential branches of USAID, like Ebola. It will catch up to them.
The world's biggest garage sale of premium real estate got called off. I'm not sure who got to who in the Administration with a cease and desist. The liquidation of assets looks to me like Trump is trying to raise cash not appropriated by Congress that Trump can spend any way he wants. The problem is that those assets serve various essential functions. Tor example, Maha cited two facilities that are hubs for processing tax returns. The lost revenue would be enormous and combined with slashing the staff at IRS, it might be impossible to get back on track for years.
Another example: 70 thousand jobs at the VA will be slashed. This will kill vets who can't get essential medical services. It will also turn every major veterans group against Trump. My guess is that VA cuts won't happen because of the HUGE ill will that Trump will bear the brunt of.
Trump modified the tariffs today to exclude autos, bowing to pressure from the auto titans. But Trump wants the revenue from tariffs to be huge because they are part of budget gamesmanship that extends anticipated revenue from tariffs for ten years to offset making the tax cuts for billionaires. If u can't keep the tariffs up for thirty days straight, the Freedom Caucus isn't going to buy the fraud that they will be permanent. Farm states are pushing back – it Trump says that Ag tariffs are forever, Trump will lose the support of several red states.
So Project 2025 is the scheme of crackpots being executed by imbeciles colliding with the reality that the unanticipated damage will generate resistance from the people who elected Trump. I'm traumatized by the hits we're taking and certain of more blows to come. But this is not going well for the administration, and they're in too deep to moderate what they've started.
My business relies on a nationally peculiar, very traditional, Federal Government/private partnership that has been in place for about 150 years or so. With the proposed fire sale of the national property assets on the docket and the abandonment of government and governing, I am facing ruination. I will watch the local oligarchs and multinationals bid me out of my position and ruin three generations of work.
I have never been a Democrat, a Marxist or whatever bogeyman the pearl-clutching fascists ate frightened of, and am a lifelong small business owner, but the radical Republicans don't give one half of one shit about longstanding agreements and traditional ways of commerce. As I look into planning for the future of my business, in pursuit of their weird goals it looks they will betray everyone around them, give the dealsies to their cronies, then call average Joes like me collateral damage (there will be a "little hardship" or whatever the Mango Goblin in that speech said). I don't want to disclose too much because it is private matter, not for the social media harpies out there, and, in the end, just too depressing for me… so you have to take my word for leaving out the details.
Trauma? Well yes, the betrayal by the Washington Government looks like it will leave me with the choices of peonage, pauper, or the pistol.