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Harvard’s pushback against Trump could be an early salvo in a war among the elites
This comes back to the simplest problem in negotiating with Trump: you can’t actually cut a deal, because he’ll always come back for more. American elites are beginning to realize that they can’t conditionally surrender: they can’t give Trump some stuff and expect to be otherwise left alone.
I think the odds of significant elite opposition are high. They don’t want to, but Trump has backed them into a corner.
This comes back to the simplest problem in negotiating with Trump: you can’t actually cut a deal, because he’ll always come back for more. American elites are beginning to realize that they can’t conditionally surrender: they can’t give Trump some stuff and expect to be otherwise left alone.
I think the odds of significant elite opposition are high. They don’t want to, but Trump has backed them into a corner.
And Zuckerberg is seeing that his paying off and sucking up to Trump and the right hasn’t bought Meta any protection. Trump is happy to take your money and sycophancy and then fuck you over anyway.
Due process is not optional
To say the administration must observe “due process” is to beg the question: what process is due is a function of our resources, the public interest, the status of the accused, the proposed punishment, and so many other factors. To put it in concrete terms, imposing the death penalty on an American citizen requires more legal process than deporting an illegal alien to their country of origin.
I try to only bust out the curses when they’re warranted on this blog, but fuck everything about this. This clown who pretends to be an intellectual argues that due process, which the US Constitution guarantees to all “persons” in the 5th Amendment is more of a suggestion than a mandate.
…
Vance argues that someone facing the death penalty obviously deserves more due process than someone facing deportation. But that misses the point: the purpose of due process is to determine whether the government’s charge is legitimate in the first place, not just to scale the process to the severity of the punishment.
Once Trump’s dictatorship is established there is no way back within the current US system. When his regime finally collapses the models for reform will be those of post-war reconstruction of a defeated and discredited state, a process which is sometimes successful, sometimes not, but always painful.
— Crooked Timber, The point of no return: Only days left to stop a totalitarian state in the US
Ezra Klein: The Emergency Is Here
The president of the United States is disappearing people to a Salvadoran prison for terrorists. A prison known by its initials — CECOT. A prison built for disappearance. A prison where there is no education or remediation or recreation, because it is a prison that does not intend to release its inhabitants back out into the world. It is a prison where the only way out, in the words of El Salvador’s so-called justice minister, is a coffin.
On Monday, President Trump said, in the Oval Office, in front of the cameras, sitting next to President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, that he would like to do this to U.S. citizens, as well.
Klein goes into some detail on the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, whom the Trump administration itself admits was mistakenly sent to CECOT. The Trump administration itself admits Garcia is no terrorist or gang member. But they won’t lift a finger to get him back.
If Trump can do this to Garcia, he can do this to anyone. You, me, anyone.
I rebooted my Mac and the Vivaldi browser deleted about 50 open tabs in a workspace. Argh. I think I’m going to take a little break from Vivaldi for a while. And I wish software was a solid object so I could stomp on it and throw it out the window.