"We never have seen anything like this.”
February 11, 2025
Be sure to visit KGB Overset for all the memes, cartoons, humor, news, and miscellany that didn’t fit in today’s newsletter.
Gift articles:
New York Times: Trump’s actions have created a constitutional crisis, scholars say. Law professors have long debated what the term means. But now many have concluded that the nation faces a reckoning as President Trump tests the boundaries of executive power. “There have been so many unconstitutional and illegal actions in the first 18 days of the Trump presidency. We never have seen anything like this.”
The Atlantic: Trump signals he might ignore the courts. Not only has the Trump administration seized for itself extraconstitutional powers, but yesterday, it raised the specter that, should the courts apply the text of the Constitution and negate its plans, it will simply ignore them. Vance proposed in 2021 that Republicans, when they regain power, should replace the entire federal bureaucracy with political loyalists, and be prepared to refuse court rulings against such a clearly illegal act. “And when the courts—because you will get taken to court—and when the courts stop you,” he urged, “stand before the country like Andrew Jackson did and say: ‘The chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.’”
With firings and lax enforcement, Trump moving to dismantle government’s public integrity guardrails. In a span of hours on Monday, word came that he had forced out leaders of offices responsible for government ethics and whistleblower complaints. And in a boon to corporations, he ordered a pause to enforcement of a decades-old law that prohibits American companies from bribing foreign governments to win business. All of that came on top of the earlier late-night purge of more than a dozen inspectors general who are tasked with rooting out waste, fraud and abuse at government agencies.
Top Justice Department official orders prosecutors to drop charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams. The Justice Department on Monday ordered federal prosecutors to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, arguing in a remarkable departure from long-standing norms that the case was interfering with the mayor’s ability to aid the president’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
Trump pardons ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich 5 years after commuting his sentence.
Knee Deep in the Hoopla
February 9 is now Gulf of America Day
‘Back to plastic': Trump signs order for plastic straws as he declares paper ones ‘don’t work’.
From Daily Kos: Republican Rep. Riley Moore of West Virginia, told Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo on Monday that Republicans have been “discussing” cutting mandatory spending—that is Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and veterans benefits—in order to pass Trump's tax cut agenda, which will require trillions in reciprocal cuts if Republicans want to make it a reality.
"That's what we've been discussing," Moore said. "This is our once in a lifetime opportunity."
New strain of bird flu is detected in a Nevada dairy worker, CDC says.
Fifteen cases of measles reported in small West Texas county with high rate of vaccine exemptions.
Trump warns ‘all hell is going to break out’ if Gaza hostages are not returned by Hamas.
Tuna cans sold at Trader Joe’s, Walmart and Costco recalled due to contamination risk. The recall came after a manufacturing defect in the tuna cans’ ‘easy open’ lids was discovered.
Shirt of the Day
(click on image)
Among other things, today is- in no particular order of importance-
Be Electrific Day, Extraterrestrial Culture Day, Get Out Your Guitar Day, Grandmother Achievement Day, International Day of Women and Girls in Science, National Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk Day, National Inventors’ Day, National Latte Day, National Make A Friend Day, National Peppermint Patty Day, National Shut-in Visitation Day, Promise Day, Pro Sports Wives Day, Safer Internet Day, Satisfied Staying Single Day, and White Shirt Day.
Some persons born on this date with quotable quotes (Click on link after name for quotes):
1847 – Thomas Edison, American engineer and businessman, developed the light bulb and phonograph (d. 1931)
1909 – Joseph L. Mankiewicz, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1993)
Other birthdays:
1919 – Eva Gabor, Hungarian-American actress (d. 1995)
1926 – Leslie Nielsen, Canadian-American actor and producer (d. 2010)
1934 – Tina Louise, American actress and singer
1941 – Sérgio Mendes, Brazilian pianist and composer (d. 2024)
1962 – Sheryl Crow, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1964 – Sarah Palin, American politician, 9th Governor of Alaska
1969 – Jennifer Aniston, American actress and producer
1974 – Alex Jones, American radio show host and conspiracy theorist
On This Day:
1794 – First session of United States Senate opened to the public
1812 – Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry is accused of "gerrymandering" for the first time
1938 – BBC Television produced the world's first ever science fiction television programme, an adaptation of a section of the Karel Čapek play R.U.R., that coined the term "robot"
1946 – The New Testament of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, the first significant challenge to the Authorized King James Version, was published
1960 – Jack Paar walked off The Tonight Show
1963 — The Beatles recorded their first album Please Please Me
1979 "They're Playing Our Song", starring Robert Klein and Lucie Arnaz, opened on Broadway
1983 Bonnie Tyler’s single "Total Eclipse of the Heart" was released in the UK.
1990 – Nelson Mandela was released from Victor Verster Prison outside Cape Town, South Africa after 27 years as a political prisoner
2020 – COVID-19 pandemic: The World Health Organization officially names the coronavirus outbreak as COVID-19, with the virus being designated SARS-CoV-2
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