Trouble

Jul 17, 2025

Monday Trouble

Justice rules again—though not in defense of the vulnerable. On Monday, the Supreme Court—more accurately, the Trump Court—lifted a lower court order, clearing the way for the administration to strike a death blow to the Department of Education. Funding for low-income school districts, students with disabilities, civil rights protections for vulnerable minorities—all to be wiped out. So far, the Trump Court has granted relief 15 out of 17 times in Trump’s favor. As expected, all three liberal justices dissented. The opinion was written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

“Indefensible”

“When the Executive publicly announces its intent to break the law, and then executes on that promise, it is the Judiciary’s duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it.”—Justice Sonia Sotomayor

Apparently, not anymore. The dissent is powerful enough, except that the three liberals might as well be speaking into the void. They were dissenting to a decision that came without a single word of justification. The six conservatives were saying, “we’re not going to bother explaining ourselves. Go ahead. Dissent.”

“O for a Supreme Court which shall be as true, as vigilant, as active, and exacting in maintaining laws enacted for the protection of human rights as in other days was that Court for the destruction of human rights!”—Frederick Douglass

O for that Supreme Court, we are still waiting, Mr. Douglass

Steve Vladeck, eminent scholar and Trump Court critic, reveals the tell: the six justices blocked Biden’s student debt relief for millions—but green-lighted Trump’s wrecking ball aimed at the Department of Education. Political hand—exposed.

Monday Relief

Despite this, the tariffs, the growing U.S. budget deficit, deportations of immigrants, the plight of U.S. universities, attacks on law firms, turmoil in the Middle East, Russia’s war in Ukraine, global warming—the whole gamut of abominations, the stock market just gave stressed out millions a welcome reprieve.

You can hear the trickle-up nation of “haves” breathing a sigh of relief.

Good for them.

But it confirms that James Carville’s “roll over” strategy isn’t exactly working as planned—the one where we’re supposed to let Trump policies take their course and watch his administration self-destruct. Stephen Miller, the reputed power behind the throne, is more clever than that.

M. Gessen anticipated this is their 2020 book Surviving Autocracy:

“One way out of that anxiety is to relieve the mind of stress by accepting Trumpian reality. Another—and this too is an option often exercised by people living under totalitarianism—is to stop paying attention, disengage, and retreat to one’s private sphere. Both approaches are victories for Trump in his attack on politics.”

Complacency is relief.

Tuesday Trouble

Russell Vought is now running DOGE as well as the Office of Management & Budget. But he’s no Musk. He’s much more—er—efficient and has yet to meet any Congressional funding that he considers more than a “mere suggestion,” much less the law.

“We’re certainly not taking impoundment off of the table.
We’re not in love with the law.”—Russell Vought

Last year he asserted to undercover journalists:

“I want to make sure that we can say we are a Christian nation. And my viewpoint is mostly that [it] would probably be Christian nation‑ism. That’s pretty close to Christian nationalism because I also believe in nationalism.”

Check and so noted by Christians Against Christian Nationalism.

Vought has allies in the Senate. On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Thune got to work whipping up votes for a rescission package that will cut $9.4 billion from approved Congressional spending. The package must pass by Friday. In effect it will gut public broadcasting—farewell Big Bird—and USAID—let them starve.

Tuesday also marked the expiration date for 500 metric tons of emergency protein‑fortified food bars to be distributed through USAID—enough to sustain about 1.5  million children for a week. Once expired they will be incinerated.

Tuesday Relief

Just in time, the New York Times posted a recipe for protein bars in the Tuesday Cooking section. This cringey coincidence is becoming increasingly common. But don’t worry. If you don’t have all the ingredients, the shelled pumpkin seeds are optional. As for the kids suffering from malnutrition—nothing. There was no recommendation that we all whip up a batch and send them off to South-Central Asia.

Complacency is relief.

Wednesday Trouble

Trump declares his domestic adversaries not just wrong, but “evil.” Seeds are now planted all over the ground springing up with threats of prosecution, imprisonment, denaturalization, threats of citizenship revocation, deportation…unlike ever before. Money is on the Trump Court allowing Trump to get away with it.

Rosie O’Donnell best remain in Ireland.

Professor Timothy Snyder warns of a new era of chain gang workers—a remnant of Reconstruction Jim Crow South. The Thirteenth Amendment permits enslavement “as punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” That won’t be hard given current trends. The DOJ is currently at work investigating legions of Trump’s “enemies.” If convicted and incarcerated, they could end up in fields picking produce or paving roads. Trump calls the system “owner responsibility.” This feudal throwback permits employers to pay the fines of incarcerated individuals and then to own their labor until those debts are paid.

Things are tilting. Mass deportations will eliminate millions from the workforce. Incarcerated “enemies” of Trump will take their place. MSNBC guest, one minute. Strawberry picker, the next.

Wednesday Relief

Wirecutter in the New York Times uncovers the best $400 sheets to keep us cool this summer.

Complacency is relief.

Thursday Trouble

Quick. What’s the difference between Ku Klux Klan members wearing hoods and carrying ropes and ICE agents wearing masks and carrying machine guns.

Answer: One was condemned by history. The other is funded by tax dollars.

Linda Greenhouse hits the mark in her New York Times editorial: “We Will Regret Not Standing Up to This Venomous Cruelty.” Describing these scenes written up in the Los Angeles Times:

“I could never have imagined just months ago: people snatched up while waiting at a bus stop in peaceful Pasadena; the undocumented father of three Marines taken at his landscaping job, pinned down and punched by masked federal agents before being thrown into detention.”

The last time she wrote about such cruelty fifteen years ago, she got mostly supportive responses. A few vituperative miscreants demanded that she be fired from her position teaching at Yale Law School.

Doesn’t matter. Greenhouse is going there again. I’m guessing the vituperative responses will increase since from some. The very venomous cruelty Greenhouse describes serves to mollify the aggrieved who have lost their freedoms to oppress.

Is that a thing? Freedoms to oppress?

Yes. History professor, Jefferson Cowie, provides details in his Pulitzer Prize winning book Freedom’s Dominion.

“Settlers demanded their freedom to take land,
slaveholders demanded their freedom to enslave,
secessionists proclaimed their freedom from ‘federal tyranny.’
Later generations of segregationists demanded
the freedoms offered by White supremacy.”

They still do.

Thursday Relief

Good Trouble.

Across the nation today, rallies, marches, protests, and events are planned in the honor and in the style of John Lewis, legendary racial equality and voting rights activist in the segregated South. In 1965 his honor and his style cost him a fractured skull at the hands of what Jefferson Cowie might describe as aggrieved segregationists. The sheer brutality of Lewis tackled to the ground—his head swollen and bleeding—shocked the nation. Do the sadistic and repressive policies of government today shock us enough? Will we find the right voice, the right tactics to reverse them?

“Never, ever be afraid to make some noise
and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”— John Lewis

Today!

There’s still time to find your local “good trouble” action. There is no time for complacency.

Musing

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