Extreme Commanders

Ed Martin continues to go off the rails, threatening an illegal probe into Georgetown law:

Georgetown law dean condemns top DC prosecutor’s threat to not hire students over DEI

he dean of Georgetown University Law Center on Thursday rebuked a threat from the acting US attorney in Washington, DC, that he would not hire the law school’s students if it does not remove diversity, equity and inclusion from its curriculum.

Dean William Treanor accused Ed Martin, a Trump ally, of trying to interfere with the curriculum of the law school, which is private and therefore not regulated by the federal government.

“Your letter informs me that your office will deny our students and graduates government employment opportunities until you, as Interim United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, approve of our curriculum,” Treanor wrote to Martin in a letter dated Thursday. “Given the First Amendment’s protection of a university’s freedom to determine its own curriculum and how to deliver it, the constitutional violation behind this threat is clear, as is the attack on the University’s mission as a Jesuit and Catholic institution.”

Martin, in a letter emailed to the dean on Monday, said he had been notified that the law school “continues to promote and teach DEI,” according to the Associated Press.

“This is unacceptable,” he said, warning Treanor that Georgetown law students will not be selected for an internship, fellowship or employment at the US Attorney’s Office in Washington until his “letter of inquiry” is sorted out.

Martin’s letter comes as the Trump administration has moved to curb DEI practices.

Click on the link for the full article

A little more analysis of Ed Martin's latest stunt:

Judge finds Mike Lindell in contempt for failing to turn over documents in Smartmatic defamation case

A federal judge in Minnesota has found MyPillow CEO and Trump ally Mike Lindell in contempt of court for failing to provide discovery and financial documents in the defamation case brought by voting machine company Smartmatic.

Smartmatic sued Lindell for defamation in 2022, alleging that he lied about the company's role in the 2020 presidential election for his own financial gain.

In a filing on Thursday, Judge Jeffrey M. Bryan said Lindell failed to produce analytics data for his company's website and financial records to show Lindell's financial condition for the years 2022 and 2023.

"If Defendants do not comply, Smartmatic is invited to bring another motion for an order to show cause or to seek further relief," Judge Bryan wrote.

Click on the link for the full article

It should come as no surprise, but federal politicians (from both sides of the aisle) have horrendous taste in restaurants.

https://www.politico.com/interactives/2 ... nts-guide/

I have been to 85% of these places exactly one time with no plans on going back. I've been to Capitol Grille several times and it's no different or better than 10 other options. The Dubliner i've been to several times and it's a solid irish pub. The rest are garbage.

Shutdown looms as ‘unified’ U.S. Senate Dems oppose GOP’s stopgap spending bill

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer appeared to announce Wednesday that a partial government shutdown will begin on Friday at midnight, when a stopgap spending law expires.

“Funding the government should be a bipartisan effort, but Republicans chose a partisan path drafting their continuing resolution without any input, any input, from congressional Democrats,” Schumer said during a brief floor speech. “Because of that, Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House CR.”

Schumer, of New York, said Senate Democrats were “unified” on instead passing a stopgap spending bill that would fund the federal government through April 11, which he argued would give Congress more time to negotiate final agreement on the dozen full-year spending bills.

“I hope our Republican colleagues will join us to avoid a shutdown on Friday,” Schumer said.

While voters in November gave the GOP control of both chambers of Congress, the stopgap spending bill the House passed Tuesday cannot make it through the Senate without Democrats.

Republicans hold 53 seats at the moment, but moving past procedural votes requires at least 60 senators to vote in favor of limiting debate.

Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul has publicly opposed the House’s stopgap spending bill, meaning that at least eight Senate Democrats would have to break ranks to move toward final passage.

Further complicating matters, the House left Tuesday for its weeklong St. Patrick’s Day recess and won’t return to Capitol Hill until Monday, March 24.

So were the Senate to amend the House-passed stopgap spending bill, which funds the government through the end of September, that chamber wouldn’t be around to vote on it before the Friday shutdown deadline.

And even if the Senate were to pass Democrats’ month-long stopgap spending bill as Schumer suggested, which seems highly unlikely, the House wouldn’t be around to vote to send it to President Donald Trump.

Click on the link for the full article

Tennessee’s push to jail officials backing immigration ‘sanctuary’ raises alarm

Tennessee is known for taking a stricter line on immigration enforcement than many other US states. Now it has taken a step that has Democrats raising the alarm: threatening a minimum of one year in prison for lawmakers who vote the so-called wrong way on immigration policy.

In January, the state general assembly passed legislation, by about a three-to-one majority, to make it a felony for a local lawmaker, such as a school board member or a city councilperson, to vote affirmatively on a local ordinance that adopts any “sanctuary city” policy of noncompliance with federal immigration law enforcement officials.

The new law does not distinguish cases where a local measure is adopted or not, nor does the enforceability of the local ordinance matter. This crime of voting would be punishable by at least one year in prison – and as many as six years – as well as a fine and removal from office “as soon as practicable”.

Representative Chris Todd, the chair of the immigration committee in the Tennessee house and a Republican from western Tennessee, argues that the legislation authentically represents the will of voters across the state.

“We wanted to make sure that we drove a stake in the ground and said, at least on this issue, ‘This is not going to be a law that you’re going to be able to circumvent, or tie up in court,’ or anything like that. This is going to be serious, and we want to make sure that that’s very clear.”

But making a local vote an imprisonable offense is a new line in the war conservative legislatures have been waging on wayward progressive municipalities.

The prospect of a class C felony charge and prison time for voting the wrong way raises questions about how local leaders can – or should – stand up for their beliefs as they defend democratic dissent, said the Knoxville councilperson Seema Singh.

“It feels like I’m getting orders from above to cooperate on things that I think are morally incorrect,” she said.

“Do I step aside? Do I speak up? Do I get arrested? Do I quietly finish my term?”

Click on the link for the full article

Costco is looking like the big winner after Target's DEI rollback

The backlash to the backlash over DEI is starting to show up at Target and Costco.

While both retailers have long made so-called corporate social responsibility a big part of their brand identities, they responded in remarkably different ways regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion policies in the face of the second Donald Trump presidency.

In January, Target said it was scrapping some of its DEI-related programs, while Costco's shareholders successfully defended the wholesaler's against an activist shareholder proposal.

Now, a survey from the consumer analytics firm Numerator has found customer foot traffic and market share have shifted from Target to Costco, particularly among shoppers who say DEI is important.

In terms of year-over-year visits, the firm said Target saw nearly 5 million fewer shopping trips during the four weeks ending on February 9. By contrast, Costco saw nearly 7.7 million more visits during the same period.

Click on the link for the full article

I enjoyed this article so I thought I'd post this for others...

In loving memory of my very dear 6-foot-7-inch Republican senator friend
In memory of Alan Simpson, who died this morning
Robert Reich
Mar 14, 2025

Friends,

My old friend Senator Alan Simpson died this morning. He was 93.

Our friendship began at one of those interminable Washington receptions I had grown to hate. They were always stand-up events where I was expected to engage in small talk with dozens if not hundreds of people I didn’t know, moving among groups while trying to balance a drink with a napkin containing cheese puffs or tiny cucumber sandwiches, and shaking hands as if enjoying myself.

The hardest part was deciphering what people were saying to me because their voices emanated a foot or more above my ears and the ballrooms were invariably noisy. When encircled by the taller-than-normal men who tended to be senators and members of Congress, I felt as if I’d fallen into a well.

At this particular reception, a senior senator on the Judiciary Committee began telling me something with apparent glee, but he was so very tall and the crowd so noisy that I couldn’t hear a word. So I grabbed a nearby chair and stood on it, which put our heads at about the same level.

“I’m Alan Simpson,” he said, with great amusement.

“Well, Senator, I’m Robert Reich, and I’m glad to be up here in the stratosphere with you.” We shook hands.

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/in-l ... -very-dear

GOP leaders call on Sen. Eichorn to resign after arrest for allegedly soliciting a minor

Minnesota state Sen. Justin Eichorn was arrested Monday in Bloomington for allegedly soliciting a minor for prostitution.

Bloomington police said Eichorn was arrested near the 8300 block of Normandale Avenue at around 6 p.m. Eichorn, R-Grand Rapids, was booked into the Bloomington city jail and remains in custody.

A range of political voices on Tuesday called for Eichorn’s resignation from the Senate given his arrest.

“The felony allegation against Senator Eichorn is deeply disturbing, and raises serious questions that will need to be answered by the court, as well as his caucus and constituents, Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, said in a statement.

A Senate Republican Caucus statement said, “We are shocked by these reports and this alleged conduct demands an immediate resignation … Justin has a difficult road ahead and he needs to focus on his family.”

House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said in a joint statement with another House Republican leader that Eichorn’s arrest involved serious allegations that warrant his resignation. “While he is entitled to due process, we must hold legislators to a higher standard,” Demuth’s statement said.

Eichorn’s arrest on Monday came hours after he and four other Republican senators introduced legislation to designate “Trump Derangement Syndrome” as a mental illness.

Click on the link for the full article

Civil political discourse?