“The Trump administration began mass layoffs of 10,000 staffers at U.S. health agencies on Tuesday, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation, with security guards barring entry to some employees just hours after they received dismissal notices. The cuts, which affect several high-profile agencies under the Department of Health and Human Services, including the FDA, CDC and the National Institutes of Health, are part of a broad plan by President Donald Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk to shrink the federal government and slash spending.” (04/01/25)
“The late Justice Antonin Scalia famously said that Congress does not ‘hide elephants in mouseholes.’ His point was that courts are skeptical of using minor provisions in a statute to achieve sweeping new legal changes. The challenge of stuffing an elephant into a mousehole came to mind this week after President Donald Trump said that he is ‘not joking’ about considering a third term and that experts told him it is possible under the Constitution. … given the president’s statement, it is important to be clear about the basis for this theory, which has long been something of a parlor game for law professors on how a president might be able to circumvent the two-term limitation imposed by the 22nd Amendment.” (04/01/25)
“He wears his suits like armor, smiles like a pop star and boasts more than 2 million followers on TikTok. At just 29, Jordan Bardella has become the fresh-faced figurehead of France’s National Rally party and is now poised to inherit one of the most electorally successful far-right machines in Europe. But behind the image of youthful confidence lies a question increasingly whispered by allies and adversaries alike: Can Bardella, who has no experience in government, really lead? The presidential ambitions of Bardella’s mentor, Marine Le Pen, could be over after a French court convicted her of embezzling European Union funds and barred her from holding office for five years. That means Bardella finds himself the last man standing atop the largest party in the French National Assembly. But having the spotlight doesn’t mean he commands the stage. Critics call him Le Pen’s puppet. Le Pen calls him her asset.” (04/01/25)
“Elon Musk said that an alleged scammer who reportedly ripped off 400,000 Americans by selling their Social Security numbers is facing imminent arrest. ‘I believe someone is going to be arrested tomorrow, because there’s someone who actually stole 400,000 Social Security numbers and personal information from the Social Security database,’ Musk said during a tele-town hall with Wisconsin voters Monday evening. Wisconsin is holding a high-stakes state Supreme Court election Tuesday that will determine if the state’s highest court will hold a liberal or conservative majority by filing a retiring justice’s seat. The person was ‘selling Social Security numbers and all the identification information in order for people to basically steal money from Social Security,’ he continued. Musk was responding to a phone call from a Wisconsin voter who asked if Attorney General Pam Bondi had plans to investigate and prosecute fraud surrounding Social Security.” (04/01/25)
“I was content to sit out the Abundance[TM] deliberations. Two years ago, I wrote a long piece about the ways in which adherents to the new paradigm of ‘a liberalism that builds’ neglected any analysis of power, or the need to build coalitions to counteract that power. Ezra Klein engaged with my argument in his New York Times column and I responded. As a journal on the left, we were, I believe, contractually obligated to review Klein and Derek Thompson’s Abundance book, and we did so. But I personally felt like I said what I wanted to say. … However, I got a call last week from an NPR program called Open to Debate. They were having Derek Thompson on to talk about his book and wanted me to join.” (04/01/25)
“A volcano in southwestern Iceland that has erupted repeatedly for more than a year again belched lava and smoke into the air on Tuesday, just hours after authorities evacuated the few remaining residents of a nearby fishing village. The eruption began at 9:45 a.m. local time (0945 GMT), triggering warning sirens in the town of Grindavik where webcams showed molten rock spewing toward the community. It had subsided by late afternoon, though the volcano was still active, Iceland’s Met Office said. Police and civil defense officials evacuated Grindavik and the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, one of Iceland’s biggest tourist attractions, after an early morning earthquake swarm suggested an eruption was imminent. The community, located on the Reykjanes Peninsula, was largely evacuated in November 2023 when the volcano came to life after lying dormant for some 800 years. About 40 homes were evacuated on Tuesday, though police reported that some residents refused to leave their homes.” (04/01/25)
“Everyone in politics is against waste, fraud and abuse … until they find themselves in a position to do something about it, then they go radio silent. They talk a good game, but that’s it. Action, in politics at least, is a difficult commodity to come by. Rather than waiting for everyone to agree, or even some from the other side to come on board, Republicans need to strike hard while they can and gut as much of the garbage in government as they can, starting with National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service. Isn’t it odd how so many people get rich off taxpayer money? ” [editor’s note: Given that taxpayer support is only ONE PERCENT of “public airwaves” budgeting, it is hardly going to “kill” them, but the sentiment is correct – SAT] (04/01/25)
“Capitol Police arrested a staffer for Sen. Cory Booker who was carrying a gun Monday evening, as the New Jersey Democrat kicked off a marathon filibuster in the upper chamber. ‘Yesterday afternoon a Member of Congress led an IDed staff member around security screening at the Hart Senate Office Building. Later that evening, outside the Senate Galleries, the IDed staff member — who is a retired law enforcement officer — told our officers he was armed,’ a rep for US Capitol Police said in a statement Tuesday. ‘The staff member, 59-year-old Kevin A. Batts of New Jersey, was arrested for Carrying a Pistol Without a License. All weapons are prohibited from Capitol Grounds, even if you are a retired law enforcement officer, or have a permit to carry in another state or the District of Columbia.'” (04/01/25)
“Top minds at the world’s largest atom smasher have released a blueprint for a much bigger successor that could vastly improve research into the remaining enigmas of physics. The plans for the Future Circular Collider — a nearly 91-kilometer (56.5-mile) loop along the French-Swiss border and below Lake Geneva — published late Monday put the finishing details on a project roughly a decade in the making at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. The FCC would carry out high-precision experiments in the mid-2040s to study ‘known physics’ in greater detail, then enter a second phase — planned for 2070 — that would conduct high-energy collisions of protons and heavy ions that would ‘open the door to the unknown,’ said Giorgio Chiarelli, a research director at Italy’s National Institute of Nuclear Physics.” (04/01/25)
Source: In These Times
by Adam Johnson & Sarah Lazare
“President Trump’s unprecedented crackdown on constitutionally-protected speech has solicited crickets from key Democratic Party leaders and self-described ’free speech’ advocates in the U.S. media. A review of public statements from influential pundits and Democratic Party leadership shows that while there has been a smattering of (heavily qualified) support for Mahmoud Khalil and other Palestine solidarity activists who are being deported or threatened with deportation, most have been muted as Trump continues his war on free speech. Particularly notable is the absence of meaningful criticism from major Democratic Party luminaries such as former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, former Secretary of State, former Democratic nominee for president — and Columbia lecturer — Hillary Clinton, none of whom have commented on the Khalil case or any of the other individuals the Trump administration is kidnapping off the streets.” (04/01/25)
