RFK, Jr. Is Not Just A Hapless Loon — He’s A Dangerous… Luddite.

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Tonight, Wired has an exclusive story that a branch of NIH — the part housed at Fort Detrick, and tasked with studies on dangerous and highly-infectious human viral diseases — has been ordered to stand down, entirely. All research is at an end.

Kennedy is utterly beholden to Trump. And he is putting hundreds of thousands of American lives in real and present danger… just to curry favor with the boss:

…According to an email viewed by WIRED, the Integrated Research Facility in Frederick, Maryland, was told to stop all experimental work by April 29 at 5 pm. The facility is part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and is located at the US Army base Fort Detrick. It conducts research on the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases that are deemed “high consequence”—those that pose significant risks to public health. It has 168 employees, including federal workers and contractors….

The email, sent by Michael Holbrook, associate director for high containment at the Integrated Research Facility, says the lab is terminating studies on Lassa fever, SARS-Cov-2, and Eastern equine encephalitis, or EEE, a rare but lethal mosquito-borne disease that has been reported in several northern US states. “We are collecting as many samples as is reasonable to ensure these studies are of value,” he says in the email. “We have not been asked to euthanize any animals so these animals will continue to be managed.” Holbrook did not respond to an inquiry from WIRED….

In a word — deplorable. This is just profoundly backward thinking, all the way around. Out.

नमस्ते

Another Stupidly Evil Move By Noem/ICE: Blunted — Mr. Mahdawi Is… Set Free, On Bail/Bond…

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In the end, almost all evil… is revealed as banal. It is impotent. It is petty. And it is… transparently short-sighted.

So too this move to punish lawful US resident students who speak out in ways that this clown cabal disfavors. Pure free expression — without an exhortation to imminent violence — is always permitted. Noem and Tangerine 2.0 just learned this lesson — anew:

…Mahdawi was detained April 14 when he showed up to an immigration office in Vermont for a naturalization interview.

“I am saying it clear and loud,” Mahdawi said outside a federal courthouse shortly after U.S. District Judge William Sessions III ordered his release. “To President Trump and his Cabinet: I am not afraid of you.”

Sessions’ order does not end the Trump administration’s effort to deport Mahdawi. . . . Sessions, a Clinton appointee, also previously blocked immigration authorities from transferring Mahdawi to a detention facility in a more conservative judicial district — a strategy the Trump administration has used with other detainees….

Great news! Onward to the museums, this afternoon with the big guy….

नमस्ते

No Surprise: People Running World Liberty Financial Are… Dupes, Or Worse. Per CoinDesk.

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No surprise — if you’ve followed our posts on the sh!t-coins endorsed by and handed out to the Trump family and their business ventures.

By all appearances, they truly have zero compunction about ripping off their MAGA supporters, it seems — up to and including front running snd manipulative round trip trading — then pump and dumping. Here’s that still-developing story:

…Internal contracts show Rentech, a firm with no digital footprint, appearing on both sides of the deal, once as a Web3Port subsidiary and once as an agent of Movement Foundation, raising questions about self-dealing.

Foundation officials initially flagged the Rentech deal as “possibly the worst agreement” they had ever seen; experts warn it created incentives to pump MOVE’s price before dumping tokens onto retail investors.

The incident has exposed a rift within the Movement’s top leadership: executives, legal counsel and advisors are all under scrutiny for their roles in facilitating the arrangement despite internal objections…

Movement, the blockchain project behind the MOVE cryptocurrency, is investigating whether it was deceived into signing a financial agreement that granted a single entity outsized control over the market for its token, according to internal documents reviewed by CoinDesk.

The agreement led to 66 million MOVE tokens being sold onto the market the day after the asset’s December 9 exchange debut, triggering a steep price drop and allegations of insider dealing within a crypto project endorsed by World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture backed by Donald Trump….

If there are any functioning career attorneys left inside the SEC who haven’t been gagged or worse by the MAGA crowd… this ought to lead to civil enforcement suits, and then DoJ referrals — for all involved. Onward.

नमस्ते

There Are Over Ten Updates, At A Sister Property Already Today. Go There.

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Probably the biggest news is this 100 plus page opinion in Khalil, out of Newark. Again, Noem loses — due to her trampling of his due process rights for lawful student visa holders — rights established since 1999, minimum.

But do go read each and every post of the day, here — with that case being the last discussed.

I may be scarce rest of week, with the great, grown adult kids in town — and museums, plays, concerts and movies on tap — along with a Derby party.

Out.

In USDC Judge Chutkan’s Musk/DOGE Suit In DC — One Of The Plaintiffs Uncovered New Facts That Require Additions To The Discovery Orders…

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The plaintiffs are finding spiders under almost every rock they turn over, inside these constituent agencies. [DOGE-y lil’ brown-shirted spiders.]

And those spiders are about to be placed on museum boards, for all to see — on the ends of long thin gleaming steel pins. Here’s the latest, from this evening, in DC:

…Tyler Hassen [is] an official with Defendant Elon Musk’s so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE). Mr. Hassen was one of the DOGE officials who joined Mr. Musk for an interview with Fox News in late March. Mr. Hassen’s immensely outsized role in the Department of the Interior and the highly unusual Order issued by Secretary Burgum further illustrate the need for discovery to probe the nature of the relationship between DOGE officials and Defendant departments and agencies and the scope of DOGE’s authority over Defendant departments and agencies.

Second, discovery in National Treasury Employees Union v. Vought, No. 1:25-cv-00381 (D.D.C.), likewise demonstrates a broad role for DOGE officials in the dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), including in directing CFPB officials and actions. For example, DOGE official Gavin Kliger told the Office of Personnel Management that certain CFPB requests were “the highest priority review for today” and requested a call for discussion. Nat’l Treasury Emps. Union, No. 1:25-cv-00381 (D.D.C. Apr. 28, 2025), ECF No. 137-1 at 33. An OPM official memorialized the conversation, approving a “90 day competitive area waiver….”

This information made available from discovery in National Treasury Employees Union further illustrates the importance and salience of discovery, including as to communications involving DOGE officials, in this litigation. Such information is relevant to the nature and scope of DOGE’s actions at Defendant departments and agencies and the degree of control that DOGE exercises over decisions at Defendant departments and agencies regarding funding, personnel, and the departments’ and agencies’ ongoing ability to perform their work….

Buckle-up buttercup, this is only the start. These guys are being “found out” — as de facto running agency decision making, putting the lie/perjury to what Tangerine 2.0 lawyers have claimed in sworn pleadings. So these same guys… going to be ground to a fine powder, in the end — by the steel wheels of… justice.

नमस्ते

Local Rules Require A Plain English Summary Of Motion/Opposition Papers — This Is One Of The Best I’ve Seen…

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It was filed this afternoon, in the Chung/Columbia student case. Do go read it.

Here’s the excellent three pager — and a bit:

…Ms. Chung, a 21-year-old lawful permanent resident and junior at Columbia University, faces arrest and detention by the U.S. government because of her protected speech, pursuant to Defendants’ policy of targeting noncitizen students and academics across the country for actual or perceived speech in favor of Palestinian human rights or criticizing the Israeli government’s military campaign in Gaza or U.S. support for that campaign.

Since Ms. Chung filed her complaint, Defendants have continued their unconstitutional policy of targeting noncitizens for such speech. Hours after this Court issued a temporary restraining order preventing Ms. Chung’s arrest and detention, ICE agents arrested Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University doctoral student, for co-authoring an op-ed in a student newspaper about the university administration’s response to student senate resolutions concerning Palestine and divestment from Israel. ICE whisked Ms. Öztürk across several states to Louisiana where she has been detained since. And on April 14, 2025, ICE agents arrested Mohsen Mahdawi, a U.S. permanent resident of Palestinian descent, in Vermont after he completed his citizenship interview.

The government has invoked the same grounds of removability against Mr. Mahdawi as it has against Ms. Chung. Meanwhile, the minor charges against Ms. Chung flowing from her March 5, 2025 arrest have been dismissed, and she is in good standing at Columbia University. Nevertheless, Defendants have moved to dismiss her complaint….

Noem/Miller/Rubio/Trump. These names will echo in eternity — with the likes of Joe McCarthy, J. Edgar Hoover — and dare I say it? Yep: Mussolini, Goebbels, Göring and yes. . . old ‘Dolph hssssself. Out.

नमस्ते

Tangerine 2.0 Sees Forceful Resistance — To His DC Slow Walk — In The Litigation Surrounding His Dismantling Of USAID…

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The American Foreign Service Association is telling USDC Judge Nichols in DC to not to let Trump drag his feet. That is exactly what he is trying here (through Musk’s DOGE and OPM).

This litigation is on an expedited calendar precisely because babies are getting sicker — and dying — everyday by the thousands, around the globe… due to Trump’s hasty, ill-considered, capricious decisions. Here is that well-taken, and concise three page argument — and a bit (now we wait for a decision from the able Judge Nichols):

…The same injuries that led Plaintiffs to seek an expedited briefing schedule have not been ameliorated, and indeed, only worsen with time. It is uncontested that Defendants “anticipate[]” that, by July 1 of this year, the Department of State will absorb certain functions of USAID, and by September 2, the remaining functions will be “wound down,” thereby “retir[ing] USAID’s independent operation.” AR_0003–04; AR_0148. That process, Defendants explain, will entail eliminating “substantially all non-statutory positions” at the agency. AR_0004. Consequently, Defendants have notified “USAID personnel globally, across the civil and foreign services… of a consolidated agency-wide Reduction-In-Force (‘RIF’) action.” Id. Any personnel who currently remain are expected to participate in the “decommissioning of USAID assets and the wind-down of the Agency’s independent operations.” AR_0006. This process is active and ongoing, and becomes harder to undo with each passing day. Cf. March 3 H’rg Trans., Nat’l Treas. Emps. Union v. Vought, No. 25-cv-381 (D.D.C), p. 29 (fashioning relief to prevent defendants from “chok[ing]” a federal agency “out of existence” before the Court “get[s] to rule on the merits”)….

The humanitarian crisis begotten by Defendants’ actions likewise becomes more severe by the day. To take just one example: Because of Defendants’ actions, every day that passes, 1,400 infants are infected by HIV who otherwise would not have been. [See, Jessica Hamzelou, HIV could infect 1,400 infants every day because of US aid disruptions, MIT Technology Review (Mar. 18, 2025)]….

Onward. Resolutely — onward.

नमस्ते

Treasury Sec. Bessent Called These Tariffs… A Policy Of… Wait For It! “STRATEGIC UNCERTAINTY”. WTAH?!?

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On the Sunday talkers just past, this willing stooge adopted Pete Navarro’s (a pardoned felon, he!) BS — whole cloth.

But he went two grades beyond… loony.

And of course, Powerline will avoid this topic like the plague — but Bessent (once a fairly astute financier, he) called this scattershot nonsense… a “policy”.

A policy… Navarro and Tangerine are calling “strategic uncertainty”. The very notion is to torture the word policy, in an economic context.

Sure, the in-theory, academic-idea of “uncertainty” as a motivator, may have merit — on battlefields where blood and guts, open hot warfare — with tanks and rifles and bayonets… is underway — but as applied to global trade… the last thing US business want is more… “uncertainty“.

Maybe these jokers think they are keeping China “off balance“. They are not. China is now selling tons and tons of lithium, and copper, that used to go to the US (for Musk’s batteries and Apple’s and others’ computer parts)… direct to the EU, where it gets 75% better net pricing.

Xi doesn’t care.

Xi is not responsive to — or worried about — “uncertain times”. He will just let millions of Chinese die. [Sadly, that’s the comparative advantage he possesses here. Trump cannot ever afford to match him, death for death.]

That is, Navarro and Trump absolutely cannot do the same. “Uncertainty” — as to the price US businesses must pay for raw materials, and finished goods and consumers must pay for… avocados (for example)… these are ALL KILLERS, to the US growth in GNP.

These jamokes have killed this next four years, already. Trump’s now a dead letter buffoon, exclusively. And Bessent beclowns himself… by lying and saying there is ANY rational plan, afoot.

This is just a slow motion trainwreck.

Damn. The masthead as revised will stay though summer — when US consumers get desperate for affordable basic goods.

D A M N A T I O N.

The Rhode Island TRO On The “Freeze” Case (A Complete Loss For Tangerine 2.0!) Has Been Appealed To The First Circuit. YAWN.

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This appeal will fall flat on its face — as all others have.

Team Tangerine either doesn’t want to accept, or never bother to study the rudiments of how a federal government… works. So he will keep on losing… because we know he refuses to see anyone’s perspective — except his own. And in his warped view of the world, he believes he is an absolute monarch, accountable to no one — and no institution of government. Not so. [Is he getting tired of being 3 for 102, so far?] Here’s the latest on this one — from this morning:

…NOTICE OF APPEAL…

…by Donald Trump, U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Matthew Vaeth, U.S. Department of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, Patricia Collins, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, Cameron Hamilton, U.S. Department of Transportation, Judith Kaleta, U.S. Department of Labor, Vince Micone, U.S. Department of Energy, Ingrid Kolb, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, James Payne, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, U.S. Department of Justice, James R McHenry, III, The National Science Foundation, Sethuraman Panchanathan, Lee Michael Zeldin, Christopher Allen Wright, Sean P. Duffy, Russell Vought, U.S. Department of the Interior, Douglas Burgum, Pamela Bondi, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Scott Turner, U.S. Department of State, Marco Rubio, U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. Department of Defense, Peter Hegseth, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Douglas Collins, U.S. Department of Commerce, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Janet Petro, Corporation for National and Community Service, Jennifer Bastress Tahmasebi, U.S. Social Security Administration, U.S. Small Business Administration, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Linda McMahon, Brooke Rollins, Howard Lutnick, Leland C. Dudek, Kelly Loeffler as to [182]…

Order on Motion for Reconsideration, Order on Motion to Alter Judgment, [175] Order on Motion for Miscellaneous Relief….

See ya’ in the funny papers, old Donnie Dotard. Out.

नमस्ते

[U: Schedule Set!] Several Crackpots Are Trying To File “Amicus” Briefs, In The Boston/Harvard v. Trump Matter — But We still Expect Some Real, Meaningful News, Later Today…

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It is increasingly common that hard-right crackpots, mostly not practicing lawyers at all (but occasionally, lawyers, too) file reams and reams of meaningless diatribe in prominent Trump related federal cases. This morning… is no exception. A guy from rural Mizzou tries to say that the Boston judges in federal court cannot hear any case related to Trump, under its own local federal rules. Huh. That’s a new one. No, he possesses no legal training (and may not have even ever finished a college level US history course). Whatever, dude — cool story.

[I think this is a would-be MAGA “strategy” — to (hilariously and impotently, see video below) slow the courts down. How silly is that? The filings are generally denied and dumped the morning after they appear. Very much like… Goobs tee-peeing the Robinson Empire to bring it to its knees!] We will update the readership when something more meaningful, or news-worthy — or even just more… interesting takes place in Boston:

…Electronic Clerk’s Notes for proceedings held before Judge Allison D. Burroughs:

Status Conference held on 4/28/2025. Parties would like to go straight to summary judgment and have an agreed upon briefing schedule.

Administrative record by 5/19/25, Motion for SJ filed by 6/2/25, amicus briefs by 6/9/25, govt. opposition and cross motions by 6/16/25, amicus briefs 6/23/25, plaintiff’s opposition/reply 6/30/25, govt. reply briefs 7/14/25. Hearing on the motion will be 7/21/25 at 9:30 a.m.

Related case will have until 5/5/25 to amend complaint and will follow the same briefing schedule.

Scheduling Order to issue. [More here, late afternoon, after initial status conference]…

Welp, there you have it. Now, go — be excellent to one another. Onward. Harvard will win — and win, resoundingly, here.


नमस्ते