The roundup, and an open thread

The horrible, no-good week in review

Greetings, readers.

So I’ve received some feedback from folks who’ve said that instead of less frequent, more comprehensive roundups, they’d prefer shorter but more frequent updates about what I’m reading. So I’m happy to oblige!

I’m going to try to do one of these per week, usually over the weekend. It’ll include a batch of stories from the week, personal updates, recommendations, reader mail, and of course, dog content.

I think I’ll also open the comments to non-subscribers. At least for now. We’ll see how it goes.

First, a few personal updates:

• If you’ve been reading my work for a (very) long time, you’ll know the name Jimmie Duncan, the Louisiana man sentenced to death in 1997 thanks to bitemark evidence that was fabricated by the forensic charlatan Michael West. I’m delighted to report that Duncan, who now goes by Chris, was finally released from prison on the day before Thanksgiving. This is wonderful news, but he isn’t out of the woods yet. I’m working on a three-part series about his case, the most insane bail hearing I’ve ever witnessed, and what’s ahead. In the meantime, enjoy this heartwarming photo.

  

  Photo by Jamal Barnes, via the Innocence Project

• The final episode of my podcast Collateral Damage is up. It looks at the 1993 killing of Donald Scott at the hands of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Scott spent much of his final years worrying that the government wanted to take his beloved Trails End Ranch in Malibu. His friends thought he was paranoid. He was right. The L.A. Sheriff’s Department did want his land, and would end up killing him for it. The craziest part is that Scott didn’t even live in Los Angeles County. If you enjoy the podcast, I hope you’ll consider giving it a positive rating and review on your favorite podcast platform.

• My forthcoming book on public defenders is getting pushed back by a year. So it’ll come out in the spring of 2027. There are two reasons for this. First, we didn’t want the book to get lost in the midterms. Second, we’ll also be publishing a new addition of Rise of the Warrior Cop, which will include a new chapter about the second Trump administration.

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What I’m reading

• Trump corruption watch: Here’s a good primer on how the president has monetized the pardon power. And here’s an analysis of how his pardons “cover every conceivable form of corruption.” Meanwhile, Eric Trump has increased his net worth tenfold in the eleven months since his dad retook the White House. Don Jr. has also reaped a windfall. Much of that is in crypto schemes, but it also includes a series of Pentagon contracts for companies in which he — completely coincidentally, I’m sure — obtained a stake in just the last couple years.

• Trump cult watch: The president has renamed the Institute for Peace . . . after himself. This, as he continues to carry out extrajudicial executions on the open seas and threatens war with Venezuela. The Trump administration will also stop allowing free admittance to national parks on MLK Day and Juneteenth, and will instead allow free admittance on Trump’s birthday. And, of course, FIFA just gave Trump his own, very special “peace prize” — which he can add to his large and growing haul of participation trophies.

• Immigration watch: The “Kavanaugh stops” continue, as legal residents and U.S. citizens who “look foreign” are harassed, abused, and detained in Florida, Louisiana, Oregon, and Minnesota. The administration is also ignoring DACA protection, and continues to fire immigration judges. Meanwhile, the abusive crackdown tour continues, now in Minneapolis and New Orleans. Finally, a NY Times investigation finds that less than 10 percent of the people ICE has arrested since Trump took office have a violent criminal record. About a third don’t even have a misdemeanor, including more than half of those arrested in Chicago, Los Angeles, and D.C.

• Racism watch: The president unleashed multiple, unhinged and stunningly racist (even for him) rants against Somali immigrants this week, followed by some follow-up bigotry from officials in his administration, far right think tanks, and leaders of his party. He then sent his federal immigration goons to Minnesota on explicitly racist orders to sweep up Somali immigrants. A few days before that, Trump was railing against Afghan immigrants. And of course, he’s been condemning and lying about immigrants from Haiti, the Congo, and Venezuela for months. What do these targeted groups have in common, I wonder?

• Here’s a quick summary of the history of Somali immigrants and Minnesota, and here’s a firsthand account from a former FBI agent of how innocent and patriotic Somali-Americans were targeted and harassed by the federal government after September 11th.

• The Trump administration will end federal prison rape protections for trans and intersex people.

• The administration plans to deny visas to anyone who works in combatting “misinformation and disinformation” or does “content moderation, fact-checking, compliance and online safety.” It also plans to deny visas to the families of those people.

• The pro-disease tenure of RFJ Jr. continues at HHS. His self-selected Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices stopped recommending the Hepatitis B vaccine for children this week, a particular concern for Sen. Bill Cassidy, who of course voted for RFK on assurances that he would not do precisely what he is now doing. RFK also appointed Louisiana’s former surgeon general, a man who called the Covid vaccine “dangerous,” wanted to end childhood vaccines, and promoted Ivermectin during the pandemic . . . to the number two position at the CDC.

• Global deaths of children under 5 years of age have declined every year for the last 35 years. This year, they’re expected to increase by a quarter million.

• On the shadow docket, the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority overruled a lower court, allowing Texas’s Trump-ordered gerrymandered to proceed. It’s going to be fun when they try figure out a way to block the proposed gerrymander in California.

• Despite resistance from career agents, the podcast bros leading the FBI are pushing for a ridiculous “seditious conspiracy” investigation of the six Democratic lawmakers who made a video urging the military not to follow illegal orders. This of course happened during the same week that it became increasingly clear that defense secretary Pete Hegseth has been and continues to order the military to commit war crimes. Also, CNN found a 2016 video in which Hegseth himself said that the military . . . should not follow unlawful orders.

• I’m working on a separate posts about the boat strikes. But Greg Sargent has a thorough review of what we learned this week.

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  Recommend

  I’m really enjoying the fascinating podcast Tough Cookie, which is the story of Wally “Famous” Amos, the guy behind the cookies. It’s the a rich, complicated story about an immensely complicated man, thoroughly researched and narrated by his daughter, Sarah Amos.

  A few things I learned: Prior to building his cookie empire, Amos was a talent agent for William Morris. He’s the guy who discovered Simon & Garfunkel. He started the cookie company while still working as an agent, and was able to get off the ground in part because of investment and support from some pretty famous people, including Marvin Gaye, Andy Warhol, and Andy Kaufman. As you might guess, the story takes some turns from there.

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  Photo

  Outside of Missoula, Montana

  

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  Dog

  Here are out pups, Oscar and Fiona. Please feel free to send photos of your own dogs. I’ll be happy to post them on these roundup posts.

  

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