Saturday, the story breaks that 25K unaccompanied immigrant children will no longer have a lawyer. TUESDAY, the gov announces it has awarded a $150 million contract to a law firm owned by a Trump associate that has no immigration practice. Are they desperate to get this story out of the headlines?

Compromised Courts

More news over the weekend of efforts to force immigration courts to be cogs in the deportation machine

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Immigration judges with low deportation rates are fired, replaced by others with no immigration experience. A politically connected firm with 26 lawyers - none with immigration experience - wins a contract to replace 100 nonprofits representing 25K immigrant children. It is weaponized incompetence

Compromised Courts

More news over the weekend of efforts to force immigration courts to be cogs in the deportation machine

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It’s no revelation to say that Donald Trump and by extension the Trump Administration is deeply racist. But when racism is a key feature of its foreign policy, it’s useful to pull it out and have a look. everyfingday.substack.com/p/trade-with...

Trade Without Mercy

What the Trump Administration's deals with Africa say about how it views Africans, and the rest of us, too.

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Elon Musk fed USAID to the wood chipper, and claimed that nobody died as a result. Marco Rubio said he'd resume some aid but bypass the "NGO-Industrial complex." Musk was wrong - it'll be a million dead before the new year. So was Rubio: he had to go crawling back to NGOs that can still deliver aid.

Crumbs

A trickle of U.S. humanitarian aid is flowing again. Meanwhile, more than 700,000 have died.

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Humanitarian aid is flowing again, through what Rubio attacked as the "NGO-industrial complex." The Admin. has recognized, at last, that keeping others safe keeps us safe, as well. But will that realization go far enough to restore the lifesaving assistance we used to offer? It seems unlikely.

Crumbs

A trickle of U.S. humanitarian aid is flowing again. Meanwhile, more than 700,000 have died.

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The nominee to head the CDC promised more "abortion surveillance" to uncover abortions hidden under the guise of emergency care. Most of the time, the Administration's attacks on reproductive rights are stealthy, but sometimes it breaks through to the surface.

The Trojan Horse

The Administration has been relatively quiet in attacking reproductive rights, but it broke the surface again twice last week.

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Michael Cohen. Rudy Giuliani. Jeffrey Clark. Kenneth Cheesbro. Christina Bobb. Jenna Ellis. Sidney Powell. No Trump lawyer survives with their career intact. Todd Blanche can't see the writing on the wall. But apparently, Jeanine Pirro can. open.substack.com/pub/everyfin...

No hero, Jeanine Pirro

But nevertheless, she’s done right by the nation.

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Are we heading into a post-liberal theocracy or a mafia state? The answer is both, and therefore hopefully neither. open.substack.com/pub/everyfin...

The Post-Liberals and the Nihiliberals

There is a schism in the White House. Who should we be rooting for?

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The incessant cruelty of the Administration is sometimes suffocating, the sense that they want and will create a world where there is no such thing as the common good. But this isn’t how human beings or human societies work. We look out for one another. And whatever they break, we will repair.

Mending Things

Trump is tearing down the vestiges of the New Deal, leaving a world where we are alone in the threats that come our way. But that will not stand.

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They are going after the International Criminal Court. Defunding and sidelining the United Nations. Threatening to leave NATO. The liberal international order that has fostered international cooperation and brought nations together is not the future the Trump Administration wants for us. Why?

Unraveling

He is wants a world where it’s every state for itself

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Several stories in July about the State Department are best seen as an effort to reshape the global far right into a cohesive movement, one centered on Donald Trump.

Bonding Over Breaking Bonds

Why the Trump Administration is endorsing "euroskepticism" and other far-right rallying cries around the world.

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Trump threatens attacks that violate the Geneva conventions, and I am reminded that if you are going to commit war crimes, you better go big: commit the Mai Lai Massacre and go to jail, but for 200,000 civilian deaths in Laos and Cambodia, go free. We need better deterrence for war crimes.

The right tool for the job

Why the ICC is the wrong approach for the era we are entering

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The State Department social media platform has been devoting nearly 50% of its energy to accusing Cuba of fomenting leftist violence in the US. It looks to be part and parcel of the new Red Scare. But in practice, it's doing something different from the other Republicans . Has Rubio gone rogue?

Divided Houses

As most Republicans see an electoral opportunity emerge, somebody in the Administration sees a different opportunity entirely.

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Oh look. Texas also made voter registration errors. They were caught and fixed, all without needing the SAVE act or a national voter roll database. CRAZY. www.kxxv.com/news/local-n...

Election errors found in Texas voter database ahead of November election

A campaign worker found errors in Texas's voter database. Here's what it means for McLennan County voters ahead of the November election.

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The state has certain basic functions that only it can perform. It enforces rules that help make society predictable. And it gathers data to assess the dangerous threats. The Trump Administration is actively undermining these basic government functions. Can a state like that long survive?

Rules and Regularities

On the different ways that Donald Trump has blinded our government

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I laughed when Donald Trump decided to slap tariffs on the wind. Why does denialism have such a strong hold on the right? I Trump's case, it is magical thinking, as so many things are. But for others in the oligarchic wing, I fear, the denial is altogether too clear-eyed.

Of Wind, Windbags, and Climate Change

Trump's attack on Canada over wildfires is laughable, but it reflects a mindset that is deadly serious

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Who is the State Department targeting with its new visa restrictions? Terrorists? Activists? The waning enthusiasm of the MAGA faithful? Depending on the answer and on how it is rolled out, the policy may be unconstitutional - and there may not be a damned thing we can do about it.

Viewpoints and Violence

Is the new visa ban tied to "far-left terrorism" or "far-left activism"? Is the policy really filling a gap, or just throwing red meat?

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Fearmongering reliably primes conservative responses. But the flip side of that is that conservatism is almost by definition a fearful ideology. And you really can't be robustly for liberty and worried about security, about losing liberty, at once. everyfingday.substack.com/p/trading-li...

Trading Liberty for Insecurity

How conservatives' love of liberty is oft overshadowed by their mouselike fearfulness.

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With Red Scare hysterics in Washington, I found myself thinking back to the confidence that Barry Goldwater lived by. The myth is a myth, and Goldwater is a complicated figure, when it comes to Republican commitment to liberty and its competing autocratic streak.

The Ghost of Barry Goldwater

Barry Goldwater is generally seen from all sides as a true believer, and the proponent of a form of uniquely American conservatism. Was he?

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I got a bit distracted, but I’m pretty sure Trump said: “I have here in my hand a list of 205 communist subversives in government.”

The Trump message of the week is that we should be afraid of the outside world. We should be afraid of our neighbors, for hostile foreign powers are infiltrating and compromising our way of life. It's a message of isolation and despair, conditions that are excellent for the aspiring authoritarian.

Pull up the Drawbridge

This week, the administration made several attacks on foreign enemies that aim, more than anything, to suppress domestic dissent.

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It's so great that we live in the era of generative AI. If this were even just a few short years ago, the entire White House staff would be working around the clock to fabricate all the documents he just said they have.

Florida resident who illegally ran to be an Alabama senator should shut his stupid pie hole about people getting senate seats illegally.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3w ago

Tuberville: "We probably have four or five senators that didn't legally win. They shouldn't be up here."

A fight has been brewing in the Administration this week, as backlash over another senseless murder of an immigrant intensified. Under the surface at first, it burst into the open twice, with anonymous officials pushing the blame onto the White House, and Donald Trump… accepting it.

Maine and Mai Lai

The palace intrigue over ICE murders burst into public view, and Donald Trump left himself holding the bag.

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Marco Rubio just launched a rabid attack on the International Criminal Court, promising a "whole of government" effort to tear it to the ground. Why? The court cannot indict Americans, and it is, in truth, a small thing, with only 10 convictions in 25 years. Why is this important to the US now?

A Great Game of Jenga

Why is Marco Rubio going on the attack against the International Criminal Court?

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It’s shaping up to be a doozy of a week. But let’s take a holiday, pretend we are French, and contemplate mortality and Le Republique-ans. everyfingday.substack.com/p/what-profi...

What Profit a Man?

Really, what is Trump's own endgame in all this?

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Trump almost seems to be going out of his way to screw over small farmers, one of the most reliably conservative voting blocs there is. It is foolish: the last time oligarchs had farmers' backs against the wall, they banded together, fought back, and the progressive movement was born.

Agrarian Revolution

Trump screws the small farmer again and again. If he had a sense of history, he would know better.

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I'm often puzzled by how deeply angry Americans have become around immigrants. Every element of what Miller tells us is a lie. But maybe he has tapped into something deeper, something that combines anxiety about the future with anxieties so ancient that we don't really know where they came from.

Immigrant Song

Speculations on why anti-immigrant rhetoric is so politically potent

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Marco Rubio sent out invitations, at regrettably short notice, inviting foreign ministers to DC for a summit on left-wing terrorism. Hopefully, the rest of the world will decline to participate in the pretext for modern-day Palmer Raids. open.substack.com/pub/everyfin...

A Global Menace?

The State Department is trying to corral other governments into giving cover to their immigration cruelties

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Mike Johnson is rested, and out there on the dance floor trying to fulfill Trump’s SAVE Act dream. The dancers are getting tired, and the goal keeps sliding out of reach, but Mike won’t quit moving his feet. Is it his dance partner’s desire for the prize that motivates him, or his own?

They Beat Dead Horses, Don't They?

Congressional Republicans continue to dance to Trump's arrhythmic beat

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