The Frankish Reich

Please read Andrew McCarthy's article in the National Review (link above). He's worked on prisoner return cases. So have I.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/salvadoran-presidents-remarks-do-not-alter-trump-administrations-duty-to-comply-with-court-order-to-facilitate-detainees-return/ This is by Andrew McCarthy, a conservative former U.S. Attorney. Paywalled in general, but you get 3 free articles without signing in. Read it! It may very well be that, legally, Abrego Garcia will never live in the United States again. But the truth is, he has never lived here legally. That, of course, didn’t stop him from living in Maryland for the last six years. That’s because the first Trump administration (a) failed to appeal an immigration judge’s 2019 order prohibiting Abrego Garcia’s repatriation to El Salvador on fear-of-persecution grounds, and (b) allowed him to be released from custody to live and work in Maryland, notwithstanding that federal immigration law calls for illegal aliens to be detained until the conclusion of their removal proceedings.

Remember that Trump used to phone-in to NY talk radio posing as his own press man, "John Barron."

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/on-tariffs-its-good-to-be-tim-cook-5b8f05ad Tariffs are advertised in the name of helping American workers, but what do you know? They turn out to favor the powerful and politically connected. That’s the main message of President Trump’s decision to exempt smartphones and assorted electronic goods from his most onerous tariffs.

I'm telling you that it is a term of art in immigration law that is not necessarily limited to the dictionary definition.

Why will no one admit that we like having cheap stuff from China? That's why we buy it, myself included. Wouldn't we be better off if we could buy the new Chinese BYD EVs? By most accounts they are better than comparable Teslas, and far, far cheaper. Passenger vehicles don't strike me as something that is a strong national security concern. Let me buy whatever the eff I want from whomever the eff I want. I notice Elon Musk hates Peter Retarrdo's tariff schemes. Elon Musk's entire core business - Tesla - is built on tariffs, import restrictions, and tax incentives.

Obsessing? No. Laughing.

It is actually a term of art in immigration law. I have never seen any confusion over this previously, which is why this is fake confusion. Again, who said he'll be at liberty in the USA, living "like a citizen?" I'm sure that's what his attorneys want, but he has no such right. Instead of trolling the courts and trying to confuse the American people, Trump should simply call his bluffs: we will bring him back, hold him in custody, and move to reopen his immigration case while also trying to find a third country willing to accept him. He really has no leg to stand on if these things happen. But this administration is all about posturing.

These are my convictions, and apparently they would constitute a hate crime for these MAGAs: 1. The October 7 attack on Israel and Israelis was horrific. It was organized by Hamas, the de facto government of Gaza. Israel's goal to eliminate Hamas was part of its inherent right to self-defense. 2. While many IDF attachs in Gaza are therefore justified, Israel has engaged in targeting of civilian sites without clear links to Hamas militants or leadership, and these attacks violate the rules of war.

Bad choice of photos since Melania no doubt has serious heels on and Barron is, well, freakishly tall

Standing next to Danny DeVito and Michael J. Fox will do that for you.

Yes, the Biden DEI/LGBTQ initiatives were an overreach. It would be perfectly acceptable for the new administration to rescind them (they did). But it is at least as bad - I'd say worse - to now attempt to mandate that universities ensure "viewpoint diversity" (read: conservative) in their faculties/students. That is precisely one of the demands the Trump Administration is making. Do we need "viewpoint diversity" on the faculty of a Catholic college? Are they required to hire/recruit, for example, pro-abortion rights scholars? This is obviously a bridge too far, and a serious infringement on 1st Amendment rights. Harvard is quite correct to do what their lily-livered Ivy sisters (including the barely-Ivy Penn) refused to do: fight on the merits.

And again, even underwater by a couple points in polling by the most favorable pollster, Rasmussen.

I get the confusion, because media reports - largely stemming from interest group/White House spin - have been so poor. We need to separate this guy, Abrego-Garcia, from all the other cases. There is a critical distinction in his case: Trump's Department of Justice, acting through the appointed officials, decided that Abrego-Garcia cannot be deported to El Salvador because he would likely face persecution there. That order remains intact. I'm not sure if Trump's DHS sought further review of that decision, but at any rate, that was a final order of his Attorney General at the time. That's why the new Trump Administration has admitted that he was removed to El Salvador by administrative error. It's not like he has a right to be free from custody in the USA. If he was released from custody (under Trump or Biden or both), well, that was likely a discretionary decision. And the new Trump Administration can go back to the court to ask them to "reopen" and change that decision based on major changes in El Salvador in the last few years, arguing that he no longer has any reason to fear being there. We can also ship him off to any other country that will take him, just not El Salvador unless/until that final order is overturned. But ignoring the court orders and throwing up your hands and saying "sorry, nothing we can do" is shameful. He is in prison in El Salvador based on a program in which the U.S. pays El Salvador to house people deported from the United States. We need to make our best efforts to "facilitate" his return, not pretend that we are suddenly powerless to do anything.

From a poster on the Know-Nothing thread: So ... are universities require to comply with any administration's interpretations of civil rights laws? It strikes me that this is exactly the point Biden's opponents were making: that there is freedom of choice/expression that cannot/should not be controlled by whatever a particular president decides.

Even Rasmussen's tracker has Trump underwater now. And 43% say the country is heading in the right direction. To ask that question is to answer it.

Don't feed the troll. A real conversation will be found in the Fight Fiercely, Harvard thread. Thanks.

Way to bury the lede ... https://www.zanesvilletimesrecorder.com/story/news/2025/04/15/trump-approval-rating-2025-latest-us-polls/83095426007/

Unless you're Evander Holyfield. Sorry, China is winning. Trump will be reduced to eat biting soon.

Finally, an institution with huevos.

Well well well, look who suddenly bought a bunch of tech stocks just before “the pause” https://www.businessinsider.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-purchased-stock-trump-tariff-pause-2025-4

Looks like a really reliable source you found there. (Except you didn't "find" it; it was pushed out to you by some algorithm that has identified you as an eager consumer of garbage.) NCRI? I can find either National Council of Resistance in Iran or a sketchy National Contagion Research Institute. Never hear of either one. Take your pick.

That too. And I'm pretty sure you can rearrange the letters in his name to spell V-O-L-D-E-M-O-R-T (I have kids, I've read/watched way too much Harry Potter)

Or the inverse, which seems more on point here: Trumpists want to lower corporate taxes and substitute regressive consumer taxes in the form of tariffs. All economists except Peter Retarrdo have already told them, over and over again.

What nonsense. Trump is either telling him not to cooperate or broadly signaling it, including in the briefs he's having DOJ file. He would be returned the way he left - in U.S. custody.