Fridays@Fettermens & pro-Mahmoud Khalil
We started off lined up along Chestnut St in front of Senator Fettermen’s office.
If there’s a phrase for these first few weeks of the 2nd Trump term as president, I think it’ll be FAFO, (eff) Around and Find Out! This poor fellow thought he’d “own the libs” by voting for Trump in the 2024 election.
Bradley Bartell, a man from Wisconsin, met and fell in love with Camila Muñoz from Peru. But when they returned from a trip to Puerto Rico, Camila was taken and detained as an unauthorized immigrant, thanks to Trump being President. Bradley had, of course, voted for Trump.
Bartell said that the money they were saving to buy a house is gone in legal bills and that they haven’t seen each other in weeks.
FAFO!
Video.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is asked if we’re in a Constitutional crisis. Disapppoingly, he waffles on that. Various Democrats have suggested that Democrats need new leadership, a leadership that’s up to the task of opposing the Trump Administration. Personally, I think that when Elon Musk and his merry minions in DOGE demanded and got access to the Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service payment system on or around January 31st, that was when the Constitututional crisis began. Cyberscoop:
More broadly, the actions of DOGE have raised concerns with cybersecurity experts who view the activity as, functionally, a data breach.
The public has never been provided with an explanation as to exactly what DOGE has been looking for.
We shifted location to the Philadelphia field office of ICE.
Fortunately, US District Judge Theodore Chuang of Maryland ruled on DOGE’s dismantling of USAID:
The effort was likely illegal for two reasons, the judge wrote. First, it appeared to violate the Constitution’s “appointments clause,” which says that government officials wielding significant power must be appointed by the president — and confirmed by the Senate — to offices established by Congress. Musk has not gone through that process. Second, the judge wrote, DOGE’s bid to effectively eliminate USAID appeared to violate laws passed by Congress that dictate the agency’s functions.
The TPM memo says judges have been “standing tall” in response to Trump, Musk and DOGE!
Trump has been attempting to justify his removal of what he alleges are members of a gang from Venezuela. As the Trump Administration did not give the “gang members” due process, the rest of us can’t be sure they’re all Venezuelans, let alone gang members who have committed crimes. So on Wednesday, the White House Press Secretary targeted the federal judge who said the alleged gang members had to be returned from where they had been shipped. She tried to claim the judge was appointed by a Democratic President. Why that would be relevant is unclear, but she was wrong. The judge was appointed by the younger George Bush. The Press Secretary made what she clearly thought was a killer argument:
“67% of all of the injunctions in this century have come against which president? Donald J. Trump.”
In response, a lawyer argued:
“Maybe, just maybe, it is an indication that Trump — a convicted felon — habitually breaks the law.”
Video.
Mahmoud Khalil, the subject of the demonstration carried out on Monday, wrote a letter to declare himself a political prisoner of the Trump Administration. He testified that:
On March 8, I was taken by DHS agents who refused to provide a warrant, and accosted my wife and me as we returned from dinner.
…
DHS would not tell me anything for hours — I did not know the cause of my arrest or if I was facing immediate deportation.
…
My arrest was a direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza, which resumed in full force Monday night.
Clearly, Khalil was imprisioned because the Trump Administration didn’t like what Khalil was saying. Secretary of State Rubio was asked
…whether he could provide evidence to support a link to terrorism, or whether Khalil was simply espousing a controversial political point of view, Rubio cited news footage, saying “these guys take over entire buildings, they vandalize colleges.”
In other words, no. Rubio was unable to provide any evidence that Khalil was actually guilty of anything.
Tuesday morning (March 18th), Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu decided to restart the war on Gaza.
The first wave of airstrikes killed over 400 Palestinians, including 130 children, and wounded more than 500, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
In a direct assault on the ability of Hamas to govern after peace had supposedly been achieved, Gaza’s civil administration came under fire.This is after Netanyahu kept resisting starting the second phase of the ceasefire agreement. This was after a lengthy period when Israel was not permitting food to be brought into Gaza.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainian children were abducted by Russia. The State Department and the Yale School of Public Health Humanitarian Research Lab were keeping a database of who the children were and any information on their whereabouts. As far as can be determined at this time, that database has been deleted.
How are things going with the truce that Ukraine agreed to on the 11th of March? Russia agreed to a ceasefire, but Putin appears to have changed his mind a few hours later. The essential problem with Trump mediating between Ukraine and Russia is that Trump doesn’t appear to have any answer to the fact that Russia has broken numerous agreements previously. How is Ukraine to have any confidence that Russia will keep any further agreements? Personally, my theory is that Trump sees all fighting persons as “suckers & losers” and thereby has no idea why nations fight to begin with. Trump can’t possibly make peace between Russia and Ukraine because he has no idea what motivates either side.
Interestingly, Russia and the US seem to have completely different ideas as to what exactly the two countries have agreed to.
The Kremlin readout of the call stated that Putin called for a halt to all foreign military aid to Ukraine.[11] Peskov claimed on March 19 that Putin and Trump “touched upon” the topic of continuing military aid to Ukraine in their call.[12] Trump stated on March 18 that he and Putin “did not talk about aid at all.”[13]
Given their respective credibility, I’m inclined to believe the Russian version of how the talks actually went.
The same piece publishes the Ukrainian General Staff’s estimates as to Russia’s losses in the war. Their estimate of Russian personnel losses is nearly 900k. That’s approaching what the US lost in the Civil War and World War II combined! And after only three years!
Sigh! Back in the old days, the mob or the Mafia had the decency to not go after family members. We’re clearly in a new era as the Trump Administration “goes after judge’s wife.” Granted, Trump’s people aren’t exactly assassinating people, at least not yet, but this item seems awfully sinister:
a series of anonymous Domino’s pizza deliveries to the homes of judges, including the immediate family of Justice Barrett, suggesting “we know where you live.”
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