The good:
A small Georgia
town’s federal lawsuit opposing the Trump administration’s plans to
turn a warehouse into one of the largest immigration detention centers
in the US has the potential to create a wide impact as it uses novel
legal arguments, experts said.
The town of
Social Circle’s complaint goes further than other recently filed
lawsuits around the same issues, which assert that the US federal
government has not carried out environmental impact assessments for
proposed detention centers, as required by the National Environmental
Policy Act (Nepa).
The
town’s lawsuit goes on to allege that the homeland security department
and ICE have also violated the federal Administrative Procedures Act
(APA) – which “requires reasoned decision-making by federal agencies,
including consideration of adversely affected interests and any
reasonable alternatives”, according to the complaint.
Additionally,
the complaint asserts that locating what ICE has called “megacenters”
in the small town of about 5,000 residents would violate Georgia’s
“public nuisance” law – meaning it would “harm their health, safety, and
wellbeing”.
The approach shows that Social
Circle “is willing to pursue a new legal theory to defend their rights,
to defend their town”, said Adam Lauridsen, one of the plaintiff’s
attorneys.
The innovation may prove important.
“It’s significant that this is not just an environmental claim, but
also raises the two other types of claims,” said Timothy D Lytton, law
professor at Georgia State University. “This can frame placing these
facilities in these towns in a different way.”...
We're seeing mounting anger and activism around the siting of these ICE concentration camps, often in rural (MAGA) areas. Of course, it's likely more of a NIMBY phenomenon than local opposition to the Malignant Fascist's thug paramilitary force that ICE has become. But we'll take any frustration of the MFs plan to create concentration camps for undocumented immigrants as a good thing.
The bad:
President Donald Trump’s decision to gut America’s emergency disaster
response organization has left the United States vulnerable to upcoming
natural disasters — and now Trump is scrambling, likely too late, to fix his problem.
Describing
the decision of his past Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem, to
withhold billions in money from FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management
Agency), CNN’s Gabe Cohen reported
that “Vice President JD Vance suggested it was FEMA’s inability to get
money out the door that truly did her in. By the end of last year, FEMA
was sitting on more than $15 billion in unspent funds, according to
sources and internal figures reviewed by CNN. Lawmakers across the
country, including many Republicans, were left fuming after months of
asking for disaster money that had been awarded yet still awaited Noem’s
signature.”
Cohen added that “during her 13 months running DHS,
Noem, along with her de facto chief of staff Corey Lewandowski, waged
war on FEMA, throttling operations, stalling payments, and driving out
most of the senior leadership and by one count roughly 20% of the
workforce. Amid the havoc, multiple sources told CNN the agency failed
to make critical payments — from basic utilities to security operators
that protect dangerous materials like anthrax.”
Realizing that America is now uniquely vulnerable because the upcoming
summer will likely bring with it natural disasters from wildfires to
tropical storms, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is
reportedly working frantically to reverse many of the budget cuts and
bureaucratic red tape that Noem had implemented. [snip]
Last year it was reported
that Noem vowed to “eliminate” FEMA, with Trump laying off hundreds of
staff that focused on resilience and preparedness. At the time, this was
reportedly motivated in large part by the administration’s
determination to downplay the effects of man-made climate change. The
president also signed an executive order requiring state and local
governments to “play a more active and significant role in national
resilience and preparedness” and ordered agencies to “streamline” their
efforts to address disasters.
Elections have consequences, and when you elect a moron Malignant Fascist, you get all kinds of bad consequences.
The ugly:
An upcoming celebration of America’s 250th anniversary, “The Great American State Fair,” recently had several musical guests back out partly over the event’s ties to President Donald Trump. Now, Trump himself is slated to headline the festivities, the organizers said Saturday.
“I
understand Artists are getting ‘the yips’ having to do with their
performance,” Trump posted to his social media platform Truth Social
Saturday, adding that he was thinking of bringing “the man who some say
is the Greatest President in History (THE GOAT!), DONALD J. TRUMP, to
take the place of these highly paid, Third Rate ‘Artists.’”
The
group organizing the June fair on Washington’s National Mall, Freedom
250, confirmed the billing in a statement, writing, “we are excited to
announce that President Trump will personally kick off this historic
celebration on Wednesday, June 24.”
Trump’s social media post twice referenced him holding a rally
“Wednesday,” without a specific date. The White House did not
immediately clarify the discrepancy.
Danielle Alvarez, a
spokesperson for Freedom 250, emphasized the broader fair that is
scheduled from June 25 through July 10 includes an array of exhibits,
family friendly attractions, musical performances, flyovers and more.
Trump was dismissive of the acts that backed out, suggesting in a follow-up post that the solution is to “Cancel it.”
“We should have a giant MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN RALLY, for 250,
instead of having overpriced singers, who nobody wants to hear, whose
music is boring, and yet who do nothing but complain,” Trump said on
social media.
Freedom 250 is billed as nonpartisan, but was
launched last year by Trump and is led by a former State Department
appointee from Trump’s first term. Several artists, including Bret
Michaels, the Commodores and Martina McBride dropped out last week...
The MF's "Freedom 250" bungle has turned out to be the Fyre Festival of all of America's anniversary celebrations to date. And now the MF will be the "fat Elvis" main attraction. The MF is increasingly toxic to an ever larger majority of Americans, and entertainers know a career-killer when they see one. See also Jeff Slate's analysis of what the artists bailing on the MF-fest indicates.
