“Blatantly unconstitutional.”

January 24, 2025

Trump's imaginary dictatorial powers ran into a judicial wall on Thursday. Judge John Coughenour temporarily blocked implementation of Trump's birthright citizenship executive order, and took the opportunity to excoriate the DOJ lawyer defending the order. In unusually blunt language, the judge said:

I’ve been on the bench for over four decades, I can’t remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one is. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order.

There are other times in world history where we look back and people of goodwill can say where were the judges, where were the lawyers?“

The judge continued with sharp questioning the DOJ attorney, :

Judge Coughenour: “In your opinion Is this executive order constitutional?”

[DOJ Attorney] Brett Shumate: “[I]t absolutely is.”

Judge Coughenour: “Frankly, I have difficulty understanding how a member of the Bar could state unequivocally that this is a constitutional order. It just boggles my mind.”

As Ian Millhhiser noted in Vox,

Coughenour is correct. There isn’t even a plausible argument that Trump’s order is constitutional. The Constitution is absolutely clear that all people born in the United States and subject to its laws are citizens, regardless of their parents’ immigration status. The Supreme Court recognized this principle more than 125 years ago.

But Secretary of State Marco Rubio wasted no time in ordering the State Department to cease accepting passport applications marked with a “X” in the “Gender” box. See The Intercept, Rubio Orders State Department to Stop Issuing Accurate Passports to Trans People

Although predicting the behavior of the reactionary majority on the Supreme Court is a tricky business, the Republican justices should have no trouble applying the plain words of the Constitution to strike down Trump's unconstitutional order. After all, they claim to be “textualists” and “originalists.”

Judge Coughenour’s action was unremarkable because it was a straightforward application of the law, but his comments from the bench should provide us with a sense of relief. We are not caught in a “Through the Looking Glass” world in which “up is down” and “right is wrong.”

True, Trump has assaulted and weakened judicial guardrails, but some remain in effect. Judge Coughenour’s ruling illustrates why we must continue to resist. Do not surrender to the cynical viewpoint that says that resistance is futile.

Trump was undoubtedly told by aides that the Supreme Court would strike down the birthright executive order, but he issued it nonetheless for its in terrorem in effect. The point of the order was to confuse and frighten Americans citizens and undocumented immigrants alike.

So, take heart! The spirit of democracy has seeped into to the bones of America and its people. It will outlast Trump—as long as we keep the faith!

---

Trump's decision to grant a mass pardon for J6 was an impetuous, last-minute decision

Trump's apologists claimed that he would grant pardons to January 6 insurrectionists on a “case-by-case” basis. We were told so by AG Pam Bondi, Vice President JD Vance, Senator Ted Cruz, and Fox personality Sean Hannity. Despite those assurances, Trump granted mass pardons to every January 6 insurrectionist without regard to the severity of their crimes.

Trump is famously impatient, unfocused, undisciplined, and lazy. Wading through 1,600 pardon cases is far beyond his short attention span and his feeble powers of concentration. So, it is no surprise that Trump granted the mass pardons out of sense of exasperation and laziness. See Axios, "F--k it: Release 'em all": Why Trump embraced broad Jan. 6 pardons.

A key point in the Axios article is that JD Vance always favored a blanket pardon, consistent with the Trump team’s view that “all prosecutions were tainted.” (The article does not explain why prosecuting violent criminals suggests “taint.”)

The Axios article also makes the point that Trump and his advisers did not believe that a mass pardon would hurt Trump politically. They were wrong—and undoubtedly regret their miscalculation (though they will never admit that fact).

Here’s the point: While other presidents make decisions by careful weighing of the alternatives based on a risk-benefit analysis, Trump is flying by the seat of his pants. We knew that already, but the mass pardons remind once again that Trump makes decisions in an impetuous, mercurial, unguided, and reckless manner.

---

Musk doubles down on Nazi-themed symbolism

Earlier this week, when Elon Musk used a hand gesture that mimicked the Nazi salute, many commentators and politicians went out of their way to claim that Musk made an involuntary, “awkward” gesture that should not be interpreted as a Nazi salute.

But Musk never denied that the gesture was a Nazi salute—something he could have and should have done if his gesture was innocent. He did no such thing.

Instead, on Thursday, Musk posted a series of Nazi-themed jokes on Twitter that mocked the critics who claimed he gave a Nazi salute. For example, Musk wrote, “Bet you did Nazi see that coming.” Other jokes referenced Himmler, Goebbels and Hess—each an infamous senior member of the Nazi party and advisor to Hitler.

The Anti-Defamation League initially defended Musk after he gave his salute, but the ADL switched positions to condemn Musk after the tasteless and offensive Nazi-themed jokes. See Axios, ADL condemns Musk's Nazi "jokes" after salute controversy

Let’s hope that everyone who criticized Musk’s critics for “being too quick to judge” has learned their lesson. There is nothing innocent or unintentional about Trump and Musk’s race-baiting and white supremacist flirtations. They know exactly what they are doing, what dog-whistles to blow, and which code words to say. We are long past “giving them the benefit of the doubt.”

---

Is DOGE faltering before it achieves lift off?

Vivek Ramaswamy apparently left the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) because of conflicts with Musk over the objectives of DOGE. See WSJ, Inside the Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy DOGE Divorce. Ramaswamy wanted to cut regulations, while Musk was interested only in cutting spending.

Another point of tension was the nature of DOGE itself. Ramaswamy wanted it to be an outside think tank. But Trump signed an executive order that renamed an existing executive branch office as the United States DOGE Service. The executive order requires every government agency to appoint a “DOGE” sleeper cell within the agency, consisting of an attorney, engineer, and HR specialist.

But there are rumors that Musk will not be long for DOGE. Musk is now becoming a headache for the Trump administration. As noted by Robert Reich, Musk has disagreed with Trump on investments in artificial intelligence and is drawing unwanted attention over Nazi salutes. Robert Reich is predicting that Musk will be gone in a week. See Robert Reich on Substack, The Muskrat Strikes Back.

We can only hope!

---

Trump blathers at Davos, Putin yawns at Trump's threat of sanctions, and a timid press corps fails us (again)

We are already 48-hours past the deadline Trump set for settling Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and there is no settlement in sight. Yesterday, Trump came up with the unoriginal idea of imposing sanctions on Russia if Putin does not agree to a cease-fire. Putin’s spokesperson responded by saying that Trump's threats introduced “no new elements” and that Russia was accustomed to threats of sanctions from Trump. See CNN, Video: The Kremlin responds to Trump calling on Putin to make a ‘deal’ with Ukraine.

Trump renewed his calls for peace in Ukraine at the Davos conference. In a speech that screamed “cognitive decline,” Trump repeatedly said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had resulted in “millions and millions” of soldiers being killed on both sides.

While the war is tragic and hundreds of thousands have died (combined), the exaggeration is symptomatic of cognitive decline. Per the NYTimes, best estimates suggest that 62,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed, and 150,000 Russian soldiers have died. See NYTimes, Ukraine Is Losing Fewer Soldiers Than Russia — but It’s Still Losing the War

At the very least, an attentive press corps should have called out Trump for the wild exaggeration of “millions and millions” of death. Instead, there is only the sound of crickets from the pathetic, obedient, cowed Washington press pool reporters.

At least Business Insider made an effort at noting the bewilderment that Trump's speech caused among the Davos attendees. See Business Insider, I was in the packed hall at Davos to hear Trump speak. The audience went from laughter to silence in seconds. After describing Trump’s desultory responses to questions from panelists and the puzzled reaction of the audience, the Business Insider article concludes with a cup of lukewarm milk. The author of the article writes:

Trump's speech reminded me how different his style is from the measured, diplomatic tone that usually defines Davos. Whether his message landed the way he intended, however, is another question.

Oh, come on! Just say that Trump's speech was a train wreck—which is precisely what everyone was thinking.

Raw Story summarized the reaction on social media in its article entitled, 'Blathering in Davos': Trump mocked for 'lies and moronic claims' in big economic speech.

Trump is a laughingstock on the international stage. No surprise there. He was last term, as well.

---

The hypocrisy of the “party of family values”

It appears that the Senate will confirm the nomination of Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. Hegseth’s nomination has so many red flags it should have been withdrawn. Particularly troubling are allegations of repeated instances of abuse and assaults against women. The latest revelations—by Hegeseth’s former sister-in-law- were enough to give two Republican Senators grounds to vote against Hegseth—Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins. See The Hill, Senate advances Pete Hegseth nomination, two GOP senators vote no.

But Hegseth’s nomination will likely pass on a 51-49 vote, or a 50-50 vote with JD Vance as tiebreaker. It is truly shocking to see Republican men and women in the Senate ignore serious allegations of domestic abuse and sexual assault. But, having excused and ignored those same traits in their president, it is unsurprising that the GOP caucus in the Senate will confirm Hegseth.

In a disturbing report that contextualizes the GOP’s acceptance of sexual abuse and assault, Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan to jump start an investigation of the January 6 insurrection hit a bump in the road. Eager investigators planned to subpoena Cassidy Hutchinson’s text messages.

And then Republicans in the House begged Mike Johnson not to issue the subpoena because—wait for it—of the sexually explicit text messages that Republicans in the House had sent to Cassidy Hutchinson. See Anchorage Daily News, Aide to House Speaker Johnson advised against subpoena of Jan. 6 witness over concerns about ‘sexual texts’ from lawmakers.

Per the Alaska Daily News story (sourced to WaPo),

[An aide to Speaker] Johnson told [Rep.] Loudermilk’s staff that multiple colleagues had raised concerns with the speaker’s office about the potential for public disclosure of “sexual texts from members who were trying to engage in sexual favors” with Hutchinson

There is no suggestion that Hutchinson did anything inappropriate. Rather, the strong implication is that she was sexually harassed by Republican representatives in the House who sent sexually explicit requests to Hutchinson. To avoid revealing those texts, GOP Rep. Loudermilk has concluded that the J6 Revenge Committee does not need Hutchinson’s texts after all.

The behavior of the GOP representatives in the House is disgusting—both because it occurred and because it is being covered up with the cooperation of Speaker Mike Johnson. The obvious response of a Speaker with any sense of decency and ethics would be to commence an investigation to see which members of the House were harassing a young White House staffer. But no, as with the Matt Gaetz investigation files, Johnson wants to pretend that the conduct did not happen.

Here's the point: It is a consistent pattern with Republican members of Congress that they accept, excuse, and commit sexual harassment, abuse, and assault. The GOP congressional caucus is like a middle school locker room.

---

Concluding Thoughts

I will hold a Substack livestream on Saturday, January 25 at 9:00 AM PST / 12:00 Noon EST. The livestream is open to everyone, you just need to have the Substack App on your phone or tablet. I will send a notice when I “go live” and you just need to click on the notice from within the App to join.

It has been only three days since the inauguration. It feels like three months. The good news is that Trump's campaign of shock and awe is already crashing into the immovable object known as reality.

While there is more pain ahead, we have made it through one of the most challenging periods we will face. Not only are we still standing, but we have gained purchase in several key areas that will allow us to leverage our way to high ground.

Stay strong, do not lose faith, and try to serve as an example to others looking for inspiration during these difficult days.

Talk to you tomorrow!

---

Daily Dose of Perspective

Galaxy NGC 2903 is 30 million light-years from Earth and was misidentified as a “double nebula” when it was first classified in 1784. The spiral structure of the galaxy was resolved in the mid-nineteenth century. After Edwin Hubble’s discovery that galaxies existed outside of the Milky Way, NGC 2903 was (correctly) classified as a distant galaxy.

Enjoy!