Temperature today: 60C. Calm but ominous

Maybe it’s just me but things seem curiously calm right now. Most people I know are doing their best to go about their lives while not losing sight of what we’re facing. Many people around the country are facing immediate and critical harms, but here in Illinois we are fairly sheltered. There are big protests planned for June but I didn’t hear about any this past weekend.

On the plus side, the courts are holding, mostly. A decision from Judge Beryl Howell was just announced in which she ordered the complete restoration of the US Institute for Peace (USIP), which was suddenly and completely taken over by DOGE back in March, the staff evicted and fired and their health insurance summarily terminated, and their building stolen and handed to the General Services Administration. Staff, building and computer/data systems are all to be returned. A very large number of other decisions has gone against the administration.

On the other hand, the Supreme Court continues to let us down as often as they hold the line. There appears to actually be a constitutional line that they will not cross as a group; individually I trust Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas not at all. We’ll give them some props for holding the line. Nevertheless, on Monday the Supreme Court stayed a lower court’s decision that had barred the Trump administration from stripping Temporary Protected Status from almost 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants. Now many of these immigrants are expected to face deportation.

Members of the House are working hard to strip Medicaid and other parts of the safety net from those who can afford it least, most of whom are actually in “red” states. The next budget committee meeting is scheduled for 1:00 AM on Wednesday; apparently they do not want anyone paying attention and they think enough of us can be fooled enough of the time. I think there are many of them with worms in their brains. The Department of “Justice” has arrested a judge, the mayor of a major city, and has threatened to arrest sitting members of Congress. We cannot allow this to happen.

And of course there’s the airplane, which is thirteen years old, full of gaudy and tawdry decorations, and cannot be brought up to Air Force One specifications before 2028, if ever.

The resistance needs to heat up in summer.