Grab Bag - 8/25/25
A LOT of news to catch up on and it’s nearly all horrific so I want to start with something positive. Sidney Reid was arrested by the federal officers occupying Washington DC, for allegedly assaulting them. DHS keeps touting a massive increase in assaults against officers because they are counting things like being brushed up against, someone moving their arms while being restrained, or getting hit with a sandwich as felony assault. I do not know all of the particulars of Reid’s case nor is there public video of what happened.
What I do know is that US Attorney and wine aficionado Jeanine Pirro REALLY wants everyone getting arrested in DC prosecuted on the federal level. In Ms. Reid’s case, the government says she made “flailing arm movements” as they were restraining her. In other words, she was moving as anyone would reflexively when someone tries to confine you. Police have a long history of using reflex actions as justification for filing resisting arrest charges.
In this case however, a grand jury failed to indict Reid after looking at the evidence.
Pirro brought the case to another grand jury which would not indict Reid.
Undeterred by two grand juries saying there was no evidence of a crime here, Pirro brought the case to a third grand jury.
Today that third grand jury declined to prosecute Reid. This has happened a few times now - federal law enforcement making ridiculous arrests and then being unable to find a grand jury to indict.
DHS tried to coerce Kilmar Abrego into confessing to their ludicrous criminal charges. They said if he pleaded guilty, they’d send him to Costa Rica and if not, he would be deported to Uganda. Our Department of Homeland Security is fine using deportation as a punishment to elicit false confessions. Judge Xinis, in a hearing today pointed out this was unconstitutional and issued an order that the government may not remove him this week while the legal issues regarding his detention and criminal case are further resolved.
The US Government is taking a 10% ownership stake in Intel. Intel agreed to this so they could access funding from the Chips Act passed in 2022. We have repeatedly seen things like this in 2025. The Chips Act is a law, passed by Congress, and spending the money that law delegated is required by said law and not up to the President’s discretion. OMB Director Russel Vought does not believe Congress may control spending despite the Constitution explicitly MANDATING Congress control spending. But as Vought is now in charge of such things for the White House, they can do things like illegally withholding funds in order to get a massive stake in a company. This is the exact sort of thing Republicans used to be apoplectic about, and rightfully so. The government taking large portions of private companies is a key component of fascist regimes. Trump has announced he wants to make similar arrangements with other companies. Asked why this move was not the exact sort of communism he accused Democrats of wanting, Trump replied, “I want to try and get as much as I can.”
Continuing the retribution against his critics he promised during his campaign, federal agents raided the home of John Bolton, hilariously in an investigation regarding classified documents. This is in service to the convicted felon who had hundreds of stolen classified documents in the bathroom of his resort - documents he showed to party goers.
Trump has continued his purge of FBI agents and DoJ prosecutors who investigated him or participants in the 1/6/21 attack on the Capitol.
Along similar lines, the Defense Department has fired their intelligence head because he accurately reported that US strikes in Iran did not dismantle their nuclear program as Trump and Pete Hegseth lied about.
Trump signed an executive order this morning he claims allows prosecutors to imprison someone for up to a year for burning the US flag. There are TWO Supreme Court cases confirming burning a flag is protected speech. And executive orders do not create law. There are huge legal issues with this EO, but as anyone could have predicted the immediate result is that someone has burned an American flag on the National Mall. I’ll note here that while burning the flag is protected speech, that does not mean you can simply do it ANYWHERE as a law preventing an open flame would be content neutral and not violate the first amendment.
The federal government is trying to kill a wind energy farm off the coast of Rhode Island that is already 80% finished. We saw this frequently with the USDS (Doge) cuts - killing a project that’s almost done and then claiming 100% of the cost as savings when the money has already been spent. Trump HATES wind energy, not because it doesn’t work, but because he fought against the government of Scotland placing windmills off the coast of his Scottish golf course and lost.
Scientists are removing words like “diversity” from grant proposals because the federal government continues to ban grants that contain words like “diversity” or “bias” even when the projects tied to the grants have nothing at all to do with human diversity or biases. They are having to do so because the government is flagging phrases like “diverse airborne toxicants” as “DEI" because they are idiots. This has been happening all year with completely normal use of words like bias, a statistical term, getting flagged by the government for being “woke.”
Finally, closing with some good news, a judge has ordered the closure of Florida’s concentration camp. Florida ignored numerous environmental laws in constructing it. Governor DeSantis pledged to ignore her order while simultaneously asking her for a stay, which has not been granted as of writing. Despite DeSantis’s pledge, it does appear that the immigrants detained there are leaving.
We still have a long way to go here. Savor these victories when you can find them.
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