22 Comments

If the DOGE teams defy court orders, they must be arrested. Otherwise, the Constitution and the rule of law will collapse. Whether the agencies comply with court orders or Trump will be the show down.

Expand full comment

You're right. However, the police forces that are responsible for making such arrests are underthe control of the people who would be defying the court orders.

Expand full comment

Then Congress must impeach Bondi and Trump. First, congress must legislate a veto against Trump's "reorganization/creation of DOGE within 60 days or they will have consented by default.

Expand full comment

Do any legal eagles here know if the courtroom bailiffs can arrest and detain any of the DOGEs or Trump should they actually show up at court? What about bench warrants that could be used to arrest them should they set foot within the jurisdiction. There has to be a mechanism for enforcement. Can't figure it out.

Expand full comment

No eagle, but I believe the United States Marshals Service (USMS) is the enforcement agency for writs and/or orders by courts having jurisdiction in federal districts.

However, being under the departmental parentage of the DOJ, that could end up boiling down to whether or not acting Director Mark Pittella honors his sworn oaths and stands up to/against AG Pam Bondi.

Expand full comment

the one saving grace of that literally incredible scene yesterday was the kid. when he wiped that booger on TFF's desk, I'll wager it set off a bit of incontinence. a kid's booger on the germphobe's desk? wonderful.

someone told me today that TFF told the kid to quiet down and the kid informed that he didn't have to because TFF isn't the president. I wonder who told him to say that.

last week I got shit for saying that Elmo's head needs to be blown off "and kill that fucking kid as well" because he's doomed. I'm about ready to take the part about the kid back because his presence is so bothersome to TFF (who almost gave him a poke or whatever, but pulled his hand back...TFF seems to know who's boss...for a change). obviously he spent no time at all with ANY of his kids, so kids are something he doesn't understand. oh yeah, he seems to have started liking Ivanka fine in her post-pubescence. sick fuck.

and the look on his face when Elmo was talking...when I was recovering from sepsis in a nursing home twenty-some years ago, my roommate was an old guy with Alzeimer's. when he wasn't obsessing about the operation of his penis and could relax a bit, he had that same expression. nothing going on under there but the impulse to smile mindlessly.

are we fucked, or what?

Expand full comment

The young child is innocent, as all such are, but the two in adult bodies who refused to develop sociologically - deserve to be raised up and exalted; to reach their rightful position and end, as piñatas.

Expand full comment

If you need some backbone to call Capitol Hill, read Heather Cox Richardson column on Lincoln, especially the last paragraph.

“Same old serpent”

https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/february-11-2025

Expand full comment

“We have to stand against this, and to do that, you need the information you find here at That’s Another Fine Mess.” Amen. Tom, I can’t fathom how you manage what you accomplish every day: reading, researching, assembling facts, authoring effectively and relaying to us… sheer brilliance, for starters. Motivation and focused commitment too. And in another post today, you mention a publisher breathing down your neck about a deadline six weeks down the pike.

Somehow this post sounds more directly straightforward than ever, with less profane seasoning than a TAFM post I listened to earlier.

I know how to read, but I often listen as I drive or snack on something healthy. I take it in differently than when I read, often go back and read later, to absorb in that mode.

Gearing up with umbrellas to hand out when attending demonstrations, should fellow attendees need a bit of help weathering whatever the heavens are raining down.

Expand full comment

It’s a coup—slow moving like an army of tanks. Soon the j6 militia will arrive to help out. Dems need to form a leadership team to speak out loudly and give us directions. Meanwhile use Capitol Hill switchboard to call ANY legislator and tell them why they need to vote NO to stop the confirmation of the latest and worst of the confirmations.

(202) 224-3121

Expand full comment

I'll confess, I didn't see DOGE coming. The rest, however, is right out of Project 2025.

Great article Tom.

Expand full comment

Musk has reported getting death threats, so what does he do? He hauls his four year-old around and drapes him around his head. That's your so-called genius running America, a guy who'd have his child take his headshot. That those control freaks use the term "common sense" is the joke of the century, so far.

Expand full comment

The last thing I would want for Trump or Musk is violence. They need to be criminally charged.

Expand full comment

No violence for sure, but it's unlikely that the corrupted justice system will criminally charge anyone in this administration. The US no longer charges or convicts the wealthy unless they rob the other wealthy folks like Bernie Madoff did.

Expand full comment

It's not just a coup but a

Constitutional crisis. The only

branch of government

holding so far is the Judicial.

Musk already doxxed the 1

justice' daughter. He's still

holding strong. And PINO's

airhead press sec. says the

courts have been

weaponized.

Musk can primary anyone in

either side house or senate.

Think about that! He has

more than enough money to

do it. This may be why many

of our dems are so low key.

Most of them are not

stepping up and speaking

out, but they want $ to

finance their campaigns.

Expand full comment

He wouldn't primary a Democrat, but he could sure finance a "credible opponent."

Expand full comment

I guess that's what I meant.

Thanks Tom.

Expand full comment

In the middle of that EO there is a little bit that describes who will be considered ripe for being RIF'd. It includes all "components and employees performing functions not mandated by statute or other law who are not typically designated as essential during a lapse in appropriations"

Few budget bills mandate the hiring of telephone answerers or data entry folks.

Remember the last shutdown, how you couldn't get through to Social Security or Medicare or the passport folks because there was no one to answer the phones, much less process new applications for any of those. This includes folks who clean up trash in the National Parks and presumably keep the toilets clean and unclogged. The new robo answering in any Federal office will say "your call will be answered in the order received. Your expected wait time is approximately 5 years."

There is another recent disturbing development--a judge just stopped the TRO against the deployment of the "buyout" offer because she held the unions bringing the suit lacked standing. Part of the trouble with the speed at which these lawsuits must be brought is that they tend to lack INDIVIDUALS as plaintiffs as well as the organizations suing. This was the reason another suit got stopped for standing, can't recall what it was about.

This is hideously ironic given the bizarre standing decisions by the Extremes, most notably the woman who'd never HAD a wedding website scared she MIGHT have to countenance a gay client.

Expand full comment

Well, the good news is that once half the staff of the IRS is fired or reassigned to border patrol duties, we can all stop paying and filing federal tax returns.

Expand full comment

Makes very ill. Thanks Tom.

Expand full comment

The visual confirmation of the richest racist in the world and his baby child now ruling the free world under the eye of the elderly patriarch’s patriarch was deliberate. It gives a green light to violent kleptocrats to take charge everywhere and to train their ‘man’ power of at least three generations in the effective terrorising ways of global mafiosa.

Expand full comment

Priceless info, thanks for shining the light into the darkest of holes.

Expand full comment