We’re doing better than we think, or Trump is doing worse, or something
Which way is up?
Good news! Overruled!
Bad news! Overruled!
WTF????
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
It’s wonderful to see isn’t it? A snake in the grass slithering up to bite the ass of the person who had beckoned it forth?
That is the spectacle we have been treated to for these weeks and months since January 20, as one executive order signed by Trump after another has fallen to the considerations of judges who, one, can read the law, and two, require that assertions made in the executive orders, and those made by Trump’s DOJ lawyers in court, must be backed up by evidence and that pesky bane of every authoritarian, reason.
Lawsuits have been filed and Trump’s hastily written executive orders have been subjected to scrutiny by legal minds sharper than those which backed up Trump’s Sharpie. Most recently, the ordinarily somnolent Court of International Trade, in a 3-0 ruling, blocked almost all of Trump’s tariffs, which he had imposed using powers he asserted under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), a 1977 law which allows a president to regulate international commerce after declaring a “national emergency” due to an “unusual and extraordinary threat ... to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States" originating from outside the borders of the country. The court found that retaliating for tariffs imposed by other countries, or otherwise addressing trade imbalances, does not constitute such a threat and thus does not justify the declaration of national emergency necessary for the assertion of powers under the IEEPA.
The Trump administration quickly appealed, and a court of appeals issued a stay of the trade court’s injunction rejecting or limiting Trump’s tariffs, at least until the case can be heard and a ruling can be issued on the merits. In the meantime, a district court issued a similar ruling blocking Trump’s tariffs in response to a lawsuit filed by a toy company that had been hugely and negatively affected by Trump’s tariffs on trade with China. That ruling has also been temporarily stayed on appeal.
Trump reacted to the trade court ruling by attacking the Federalist Society and its leader, Leonard Leo, on whom he had relied for advice on judicial appointments during his first administration. In a rage-filled post on Truth Social, Trump called Leo “a sleazebag” and “a bad person who, in his own way, probably hates America,” his catchall criticism for anyone he feels has wronged him in some way.
Trump’s assertion of power using executive orders has run counter to a Supreme Court decision that he and his arch-conservative legal allies had long sought. The decision, in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, overturned the so-called “major questions doctrine” which dated back to 1984 and required courts to defer to federal agencies when interpreting complicated and ambiguous laws. The trade court cited the Loper decision in its ruling slamming Trump’s tariffs. Trump reacted with fury, writing, “The horrific decision stated that I would have to get the approval of Congress for these Tariffs.”
Well, yes, that is what the sting of the Loper decision feels like when it bites you in the ass.
We are witnessing a delicious moment best summed up by what we might call the hippie-era “what goes around, comes around” doctrine. That occurs when the thing that you wished for starts to affect you in ways that you had not contemplated, perhaps because your contemplation of what you wanted was inadequate in its consideration of what effect it might have in the future.
Multiple lawsuits and federal court rulings have kicked much of Trump’s executive order agenda to the curb. A federal court blocked Trump’s attempt to do away with birthright citizenship, which is written into the text of the Constitution. A federal judge in Boston ruled that Trump cannot stop Harvard from accepting foreign-born students. More lawsuits filed by Harvard seek to overturn Trump’s orders to strip Harvard of federal funds and grants. Legal experts say those lawsuits are likely to be successful because the reasoning behind Trump’s moves against Harvard is so blatantly punitive.
Other judges have overturned Trump’s attempts to bar several major law firms from entering federal government buildings, holding top secret security clearances, or representing companies doing business with the federal government, again because Trump’s orders have been nakedly punitive.
Other judges have ordered the return of people deported under false pretenses. The Supreme Court itself handed down an emergency ruling that the Trump administration must afford undocumented immigrants the same due process rights granted to everyone under the Constitution.
The news website Axios summed up the “flood” of rulings against Trump this way: “The headlines are constant: Judge blocks X; Judge freezes Y; Court allows Z to continue. ”
On Friday, Trump bid farewell to his erstwhile ally, Elon Musk, at the end of his time as a so-called “temporary federal employee” overseeing his DOGE worm-burrowing into federal agencies seeking to eliminate or undermine them, as he did with USAID and the Department of Education. But even in those two cases, federal judges have reversed some of the DOGE moves and reinstated funding and in some cases order the rehiring of employees who had been summarily fired without cause in violation of federal regulations.
The effect of DOGE and Musk has been, by their own measure, lame. Musk announced on the campaign trail and after he was appointed to head DOGE that he would reduce the federal deficit by $2 trillion. Then it was $1 trillion, then $200 billion, and Musk had stopped talking about the federal deficit and started claiming “savings” from the discovery by DOGE of “waste, fraud, and abuse,” which in Washington D.C. could be uncovered by a street sweeper with a broom and dustpan.
In the end, Musk claimed that he had “saved” $175 billion. Robert Hubbell yesterday called that figure a “mirage,” citing “A study by the Budget Lab at Yale estimates that cuts to the IRS will result in $350 billion in reduced tax collections over the next ten years—an amount that is double the alleged ‘savings’ by DOGE.”
Much if not most of what Musk and Trump attempted to do with DOGE has been overturned by federal courts, which have found certain of their moves unconstitutional and others to have violated previous Supreme Court decisions such as the Loper decision. In the meantime, the New York Times headlined on the front page of the Sunday paper a major investigative story on Musk’s drug use during the campaign and afterwards while he was working as a temporary government employee. Musk was described as having used Ketamine, Ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms, the stimulant Adderall, and the sleeping medication Ambien. The Times reported that Musk, like all federal employees, was supposed to have been drug-tested periodically during his employment. He was said to have been forewarned of the drug tests so that he could pass them.
So, Donald Trump has relied on a drug-addled madman with Nazi sympathies to undertake his reform of the government he is charged with overseeing. And now Musk has turned on him, criticizing Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” and its lifting of the debt ceiling.
When Trump rolled out his plethora of executive orders, signing the first bunch before an adoring MAGA crowd at a sports facility in Washington on inauguration eve, I first thought, Oh-oh. They’re serious this time.
I should have known. The lawyers Trump used to write the executive orders were not from the big law firms he would soon move to eliminate from working on federal government cases, because those firms had long refused to do legal work for him. According to Adam Bonica, a professor of political science at Stanford, Trump lost a stunning 96 percent of the cases filed against him in federal court during May. During April, he lost 76 percent. During March, the number was 74 percent. The judges ruling against the Trump administration were appointed by both political parties, with those appointed by Democrats outnumbering Republican judges by only 8 percent.
The Washington Post reported today that Trump’s FBI is in “chaos” due to the mismanagement of Director Kash Patel. Over at the Department of Defense, the top aides to Secretary Pete Hegseth are said to be at each other’s throats.
Here is my estimation of where we are on the first day of June, 2025. Things could be a whole lot worse, and they’re showing signs of getting better, as Trump continues to attack the judges he appointed to the bench and former allies like Elon Musk are now off the White House leash and his Adderall-fueled tongue is bound to start wagging.
Chin up. We’ve got a long way to go, but Trump and the fools he appointed to his cabinet are living up to every expectation we should have had about them.
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It is odd that the pathetic looking Truscott hasn't mentioned the most important court case of all. That's the one the Supreme Court is considering involving the ultimate question of determining the limits of federal judges' power to decide questions of national and international policy.
I don't know Vic, what's up with the war between Mush and trump? You trump supporters must be really confused.
That is simple enough: Musk worked very hard (as a volunteer btw) on cutting government waste. Then he hears that the big, beautiful bill will add to the deficit. I guess anyone who worked so hard and saw their business being torched by the violent radical left would be upset.
Very understandable IMHO.
Seriously?? He didn't know what Trump was going to do, C'mon, Vic!
the violent radical left
Every time I see that phrase I laugh a little and think of the ultra right MAGA-ites that trashed the Capitol building on Jan 6 and then were pardoned by the orange haired man
Actually he figured out that it would affect his business and his money
Musk got and is getting and will get exactly what he deserves from Trump
You forgot the 2020 riots?
You haven't noticed what is happening in LA?
I think you don't want to see it.
No, I didn't forget the 2020 riots after George Floyd's murder by the police
Yes, I am aware of the violence in LA because of the ICE operations
And I stand by the statement I made - anytime I hear "the violent radical left', I think of the MAGA-ites storming the capitol building resulting in sever e damage and the deaths of public servants
You seem to forget about The Bogaloo Bois, QAnon, The Proud Boys, The Three Percenters, The Wolverine Watchmen and other ultra right, violent Trump aligned groups
You stand by it, and you have to live by it. Most recently a Supreme Court Justice almost lost his life to a radical leftist, a Republican congressman was shot by a radical leftist, the President had two attempts on his life and an irresponsible Capitol cop shot and killed a female veteran for trespassing.
And there is one more thing:
I didn't forget the 2020 riots after George Floyd's murder by the police
There were conflicting autopsies were there not? Either way, the cop in question was put on trial and will likely be in jail for the rest of his life. None of which justified 100 days of murder, arson and looting.
I am aware of the violence in LA because of the ICE operations
Because of what? Enforcing the law encouraged riots and attempts at setting people on fire?
You need to accept FACTS.
You can embellish to support your point - I answered your questions
If you wanted to answer them, you should have done so when you presented the question.
George Floyd was murdered by the police. (period, full stop no more conversation needed). You need to accept that. The destruction that followed was not justified but it was understandable to many millions of rational people, who hated the destruction but understood the anger.
As to LA, you are right - the immigration laws are being enforced and the violence is not justified, but anger the anger can be understood by a rational person.
You need to accept the facts and accept the reality of the society.
A quick search about killings by police - overall numbers and breakdown of victims' ethnicity - is kinda terrifying.
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So you, as a rational person, understand their anger.
As usual you manipulate the words -- I understood the rage of the people rioting after George Floyd's death and the anger of the people in LA right now.
I do not understand or accept the violent actions of
The Bogaloo Bois, QAnon, The Proud Boys, The Three Percenters, The Wolverine Watchmen and other ultra right, violent Trump aligned groups
Of course, of course. You understand progressives rioting and killing dozens over a false belief about the number of minorities killed by police and the federal government enforcing its laws and deporting felons, including rapists, from LA. But you refuse to understand the mindset of people you disagree with.
Got it.
George Floyd was a career felon. He was in the process of trying to pass off counterfeit bills. The police were called. At the time he was under the influence of powerful drugs. He had a heart condition. He was just coming off an arrest for thrusting a gun into a woman's stomach during a home invasion. When the Minneapolis police arrived, he immediately tried to resist arrest. Floyd was a very large man and officer Chauvin administered a technique that was common procedure for the Minneapolis Police. Floyd may have died from being pinned down under officer Chauvin's knee or he may have died from one of the many other things he suffered from. The bottom line was the story that the media wanted: Black man dies at the hands of white cop. If the roles were reversed there would be no story.
The destruction that followed was not justified but it was understandable to many millions of rational people, who hated the destruction but understood the anger.
Rational people understood the anger? Is that how they felt in Ohio? Remember there was no hesitation to hold officer Chauvin accountable. He had a timely trial in which he pled guilty in a plea deal that put him in jail for 22 and a half years. He will be imprisoned for most if not all of his life.
Nonetheless, there were riots that lasted over 100 days. Kamala Harris said it wasn't going to stop, nor should it. There was $2 billion in damage, a police precinct was burned to the ground, the historic St John's church was torched, a mob tried to go onto the White House grounds, presumably to get the President, and two dozen people were killed. And one great lie grew out of it: That Floyd was emblematic of young black men, being killed by the police. Even the Washington Post had to confront the lie: That year a grand total of 18 black men were stopped by police out of a population of 340 million people. Black Lives Matter which was so prominent in the riots, no longer exists because its leaders took the money that it had.
You mentioned FACTS. After 5 years, maybe we can finally agree on the FACTS.
100% The system worked as it was supposed to.
Don't bother, Robert.
The fact that Floyd was a felon is 100%totally irrelevant to the fact that he was murdered by the police.
The people in Ohio understood why the people were anger (which is what I said) they did not support the destruction of property or violence obviously.
He will be imprisoned for most if not all of his life.
Good, George Floyd will be dead forever.
You distort the fact to support your view, statistic s can be used to prove almost anything. This was a specific case - the police murdered George Floyd and the people of Minneapolis reacted badly and illegally.
Don't bother, Robert.
I know, but ........
Sean
You speak too much in generalities - do you have a question or a point?
Source?
I'm literally just using your words.
do you have a question or a point?
Just pointing out the humor in you patting yourself on the back for understanding why progressives riot and kill people, but refusing to understand the motivations for others. Seems to me "rationale people" as you put it try to understand everyone. But that's just me.
I wonder is it because you expect progressives to act irrationally and hold them to a low standard? Or are just you to too close minded to understand the motivations of those you don't agree with.
I'm sure anyone who lived in his neighborhood is breathing a sigh of relief.
I read it in the Washington Post late in 2020. I'm sorry, but I can't find the article and I meant killed rather than stopped.
Well, here's an article from WaPo, tracking fatal police shootings from 2015 to 2024.
Again - read closely and understand! I understand why the people were angry after George Floyd's murder and I in no way support the violence or destruction that was carried out in Minneapolis and elsewhere as a result.
I do not understand the motivation of a crowd of malcontents (nicest word I could think of) to destroy historic property and trample on one of the pillars of our nation (the congress) causing the deaths of public servants.
What was the end game? Did they think they would occupy the Capitol and blackmail the government to do what they want.
IMO, they just wanted to create havoc and the death and property destruction was a byproduct and the architect of the chaos urging them on was Mr. Trump.
I cannot make my point any clearer than that
One of the crudest, inhuman statements I have ever heard
You place no value on human life - oh and by the way his family lived in the neighborhood, and they were not relieved.
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In 2019, 19 unarmed black people were shot and killed by police. In 2020, after Floyd, polling revealed that a majority of liberals believed that number was over 1,000. 20% of liberals believed it was 10,000 or more. It's that sort of rabid ignorance that fueled the Floyd riots.
Not really the same as Vic's claim, is it?
Thank you, sir. Evidently, I read it in late 2019.
It just proves that I have fans on both sides of the aisle. They read every word, some hoping for a mistake and others call me a "gaslighting fool."
I just keep delivering the truth.
Except you literally didn't here.
You just stick to defending Biden. You must think I'm a "gaslighting fool" too.
I think you made false statements, and are still insisting that you "deliver the truth", despite evidence to the contrary. That's a situation you might want to remedy, rather than give orders to deflect from the fact that you made a false statement.
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You do not appear to be well grounded when it comes to dates and the spans between them ... Floyd was convicted in 2009, paroled in 2013 and murdered in 2020.
the limits of federal judges' power to decide questions of national and international policy.
Isn't the case more about process and procedure within the constraints of existing law being followed by the executive branch in implementing and executing rather than the courts actually deciding questions national/international policy?
Perhaps more fundamentally - does the system of checks and balances extend to all areas?
Yes, it does. Those with a complaint and proper standing always get to go to the SCOTUS.
When the ACLU (or a similar organization) takes issue with the due process or other procedural inconsistency with a government action - they have a complaint and they have standing as far as the legal system goes.
I think that most people do not have a problem with the deportation of criminals (to their own country or origin) or to the enforcement of existing immigration laws, so long as due process and judicial review is a part of the process.
I agree. The problem we have is that the Trump Administration is ignoring due process and judicial review.
The generous law was written at a time when nobody thought that one of our own presidents would admit 12 million illegal, unvetted aliens. You know damn right well that it is impossible to give every fucking one of them a trial. If a Republican congress, sometime in the near future were to take that right away from non-citizens, we might have justice. For now, I have the will under Trump.
I agree. The problem we have is that the Trump Administration is ignoring due process and judicial review.
Absolutely true!
It's a good thing that so far, what you describe HAS NEVER FUCKING HAPPENED. Biden did not "admit 12 million illegal, unvetted aliens". That is just pure unmitigated bullshit. Just because there happen to be 11 million undocumented immigrants doesn't mean Biden let them all in unvetted. It's moronic on the face of it.
Notice that little word there "TO"? I know conservatives tend to be lazy or illiterate and don't like to read but making obviously false claims just makes one look like a fucking uneducated moron.
Also of note, notice that there were 10 million in 2020 and now we have about 11.7 million. So yes, it increased by 1.7 million under Biden, NOT FUCKING 12 MILLION like some dumber than rocks conservatives apparently like to claim.
That's not true. The Supreme Court receives approximately 7,000-8,000 petitions for a writ of certiorari each Term. The Court grants and hears oral argument in about 80 cases. That doesn't mean the cases they refuse to hear don't have proper standing.
The generous law was written at a time when nobody thought that one of our own presidents would admit 12 million illegal, unvetted aliens. You know damn right well that it is impossible to give every fucking one of them a trial. If a Republican congress, sometime in the near future were to take that right away from non-citizens, we might have justice. For now, I have the will under Trump.
Vic
You are obfuscating
The "due process" is not something that we do sometimes, it is how our country works.
Trump chooses the laws and processes he wants to follow and ignores others when it suits him.
Stay in Mexico was a nice plan. And stay until your court date.
Full scale authoritarian action. Didn't think we'd see that yet.
Hmmmm, let's see what small actions I can magnify into an "emergency"
According to Trump he is duty bound to "liberate" Los Angeles.
Trump is so full of shit it's pathetic. He must be foaming at the mouth with excitement.
He's so excited he tripped going up the steps of air force one today.
This is all started because ICE arrested illegal alien felons and the leadership in California can't tolerate that. They have to protect to protect their base of mexican flag waiving hamas supporters who attack LEOs.
Trump and his cabinet are claiming the entire city of Los Angeles is under some sort of siege that requires military intervention. It is an authoritarian play, pure and simple.
It keeps getting worse. Trump looks prescient, his critics wrong, again.
Trump has never looked like anything other than a criminal moron.
LMAO. And after almost 10 years of investigating the best that could be done was fictitious "felonies".
Trump must be the luckiest politician ever. He has a huge embarrassing blow up with his Elon Musk, and democrats immediately ride to the rescue by waving mexican flags, attacking police and burning cars in order to make criminal illegal aliens remain in the country and more are allowed in. Harris and other dmeocrats are publicly defening foreign aliens against American LEOs. So many photos make perfect campaign ads for '28.
Blow up? Try deranged spectacle.
Why did Musk say Trump should be impeached? We're still waiting for that.
Who knows? Who cares? Musk is already retweeting his posts. That newscycle is over.
This will dominate what people are talking about. Trump does best when Democrats get on the wrong side of another 80/20 issue and Democrats are gifting him another one, namely supporting foreigners rioting on behalf of illegal alien criminals and Democrats.
Has a single prominent democrat come forward and said criminal illegal aliens should be deported?
Nothing like showing how much one "represent US Citizens" like ignoring them and supporting illegals, drug runner, human traffickers, and the like.
And the Democrats and left wonder why they lost the election.