CONSERVING CONSERVATISM MOST CONSERVATIVELY:

Kristol tweeted the same thing, albeit slightly more fleshed out, at the start of Trump’s first term as well:

But now we know, thanks to Doge, why the founder of the late, lamented Weekly Standard is in reality such a big government guy:

As Steve wrote on Monday: The Dirty Truth Behind Bill Kristol’s ‘Private’ Funding.

PREPARE FOR FIREWORKS, TRUMP’S EDUCATION EXECUTIVE ORDER IS COMING:

According to Reason Magazine, the Department of Education was created in 1979 as a political payoff to the National Education Association (NEA), which had endorsed Jimmy Carter in 1976 after he promised to establish the agency. The NEA played a significant role in securing delegates for Carter, and its influence over the department’s creation was openly acknowledged by NEA executive director Terry Herndon, who admitted, “There’d be no department without the NEA.” By the time the bill passed Congress, Carter’s approval rating had plummeted below 30% due to economic turmoil and the ongoing energy crisis.

So, yeah… the department was actually a scheme to save Carter’s presidency, not so much about improving education—hence the reason why, in the decades since its establishment, education in the United States hasn’t improved. In fact, it’s gotten worse, with the United States falling behind other nations in education quality and outcomes.

CNN pointed out that while proposals to eliminate the Department of Education or merge it with another federal agency have been made before, they have consistently failed to gain traction in Congress. “When presidents have proposed cuts to the department’s budget in the past, Congress has resisted and appropriated more funding than what the president asked for about 71% of the time, according to an analysis from the Brookings Institution.”

Whether things have changed enough that Trump can succeed this time remains to be seen. One thing is for sure: during his first term, Trump wanted to reduce funding for the department, but Republicans still increased its funding.

Randi Weingarten, hardest hit:

PROTECTION RACKET MEDIA UPDATE: USAID Funded NY Times, BBC Too.

Well, well, well. So much for the value of an “independent press.” It turns out that even the most vaunted organizations within that industry covertly sucked at the taxpayer teat while supposedly reporting without fear or favor on the bureaucratic state that supports them. And they did that while the bureaucratic state targeted debate and dissent everywhere else.

Now that the US DOGE Service (USDS) — its actual name, which will become important later — has begun number-crunching federal outlays, this corrupt arrangement has become much clearer. Beege wrote about Politico’s income from its absurdly priced Politico PRO subscriptions, but a new pass through the data shows that both the New York Times and even the BBC had seven-figure income streams from USAID, too:

The BBC? Why is a state-owned media outlet in the UK receiving American government funding at all? The UK forces British subjects to underwrite the BBC through license fees, which calls the BBC’s credibility into question as a watchdog already. American taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to participate in that activity, too.

Hey, if I’m funding the BBC, I’m demanding that they reboot Top Gear with Clarkson, Hammond and May!

More locally, and more seriously: Too Funny to Check: USAID Checkbook Snaps Shut, Politico Paychecks Shut Down? “The fact that they — Politico — were being paid by the Biden administration certainly puts a different spin on why they muzzled [Marc Caputo] and fellow reporter Tara Palmeri, doesn’t it?”

Finally, the Martha Raddatz Award goes to Brian Stelter today:

Gee Brian, $8 million here and $8 million there, and sooner or later, you’re talking about real money.

To be fair, the above tweet isn’t Stelter’s worst take about cutting off the funding of the DNC-MSM:

OLD GODS ALMOST DEAD: ‘Into the heart of the whirlwind:’ How Led Zeppelin were sweet-talked into making a new film.

Bernard MacMahon says he knew he was taking a massive risk. The Irish-British film-maker and his Scottish partner Allison McGourty had spent 10 months researching a film about that massively successful but elusive rock band Led Zeppelin. They put together a storyboard, listened to every interview they could find, and started to dig out archive film to tell the story of the band’s early years in the late 60s.

That was when Jimmy Page, a successful session guitarist, joined the Yardbirds, then wanted to create a band of his own. He signed up John Paul Jones, another virtuoso session star, and two little-known West Midlands musicians: the wildly inventive drummer John Bonham, and singer Robert Plant. Overlooked in Britain, Led Zeppelin found fame in America, where they were attacked in the music press but became celebrities through their live shows, without the help of the media.

The film-makers’ research was funded, says MacMahon, on the understanding that “it was incredibly likely that once I put in a phone call, the group might say they were not interested. There was every chance we would not even get a meeting.” After all, Led Zeppelin had always refused most interviews or TV appearances – let alone an authorised film biography in which the three surviving members would appear.

But Page did agree to a meeting, at a hotel in London in November 2017, to which he arrived carrying Waitrose shopping bags. “I wondered if he had brought sandwiches,” says MacMahon, who took out a leather-bound book with the storyboard – “pictures but no words” – and started talking through it. When he got to the part of the story where Page first meets Plant, the guitarist asked which band he was then in. “Hobbstweedle,” was the answer. “Very good,” said Page. “Carry on.”

Later he queried a date with MacMahon, “and opened the shopping bags to show he had brought his old diaries, dating back to the 60s”. After seven hours “with a break for afternoon tea”, Page said: “I’m in – but you have to get the others on board.”

* * * * * * * * *

[Becoming Led Zeppelin, out today in Imax] ends with What Is and What Should Never Be, filmed at Zeppelin’s headlining show at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in 1970. It is a triumphant finale that leaves out what was to follow – the exploration of more acoustic styles, Page’s fascination with Aleister Crowley and the occult, the decade of massive financial success, the stories of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll excess … and even Stairway to Heaven. So why stop there?

“Because I always felt this was a self-contained story,” says MacMahon. “In January 1970 they have become the most popular band in north America and now return to Britain. In that closing song the audience now accept them as returning heroes. All the band’s families are there and this is the coming together of their childhood story.”

Ending the film there also helps to avoid discussing so many of the unsavory details of the band’s travails in the 1970s, a subject Page in particular has always been reticent to discuss: That was a topic I wrote about in December: The Hammer of the Gods: The First Critical Biography of Led Zeppelin Finally Available on the Kindle.

In other news from the Jurassic era of hard rock: Ozzy Osbourne announces final show with Black Sabbath amid health struggles: ‘This is his full stop.’

UNEXPECTEDLY! Rep. Al Green Intends to Bring Articles of Impeachment Against Trump.

And still I rise. Mr. Speaker, and I rise today, Mr. Speaker, with a to whom it may concern message.

To whom it may concern, ethnic cleansing in Gaza is not a joke, especially when it emanates from the president of the United States, the most powerful person in the world. And he has the ability to perfect what he says. Ethnic cleansing in Gaza that is no joke. And the prime minister of Israel should be ashamed knowing the history of his people, to stand there and allow such things to be said.

Ethnic cleansing has been a crime against humanity. And I stand here today in the well to denounce what he was said, to denounce what the president said, to denounce the complicity of the prime minister of Israel and to remind people that Dr. King was right. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. And injustice in Gaza is a threat to justice in the United States of America.

I rise to announce that the movement to impeach the president has begun. I rise to announce that I will bring articles of impeachment against the president for dastardly deeds proposed and dastardly deeds done.

Hanna-Barbera could not be reached for comment. Neither could AC/DC: Dastardly Deeds Done Dirt Cheap! Congressman Al Green Files Articles of Impeachment Against Donald Trump.

At the PJ Mothership, Matt Margolis adds: Watch: Deranged Democrat Announces Plans to File Articles of Impeachment Against Trump.

I’m pretty sure that the words “dastardly deeds” don’t appear anywhere in the Constitution, but hey, since when have Democrats cared about the Constitution?

“The people have got to move forward,” Green continued. “The people have to demand it. And when the people demand it, it will be done. I did it before — I laid the foundation for impeachment — and it was done. Nobody knows more about it than I, and I know that it’s time for us to lay the foundation again. On some issues, it is better to stand alone than not stand at all. On this issue, I stand alone but I stand for justice.”

Green is no stranger to filing articles of impeachment against Trump, and I suspect it’s pretty much the only thing he knows how to do. Such articles don’t stand a chance, with Republicans controlling the House. Still, as we know from Trump’s first administration, when he took office with Republican control of the House and Senate, Democrats bide their time, waiting for their opportunity to impeach him for something.

Does impeachment mean anything in 2025? Nixon resigned before being impeached in the 1970s and was treated as a pariah for the rest of his life by the DNC-MSM. Clinton was impeached by the House, and remained a rock star, even into the #MeToo era. Trump was impeached twice by the House during his first term and was reelected to the White House in November. In the 1970s, because it hadn’t been used in a century, impeaching a president was viewed by the public as something akin to dropping the A-bomb. Today’s it’s become a yawn thanks it having become a reflexive gesture by leftist Democrats.

KONSTANTIN KISIN: Why They Hate Churchill (Video).

JAMES PIERESON: Is this the end of the DEI regime?

The “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” regime originated and expanded mostly through executive and judicial power, not by legislative action or electoral mandate. It was never popular: on the few occasions in which voters had a say, the preference regime always lost, which is why advocates typically dialed things back whenever elections were near. There is an irony in the fact that President Trump is attacking the regime by the same means used to institute it: by using his control over the federal bureaucracy and federal spending to stamp it out. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

If Trump can keep the pressure on for four years, or especially if his successors can do so for another four or eight years, then advocates will find it difficult to recreate the regime if and when they regain power. After all, it took them decades to build it up, but it took Trump but a few days to bulldoze it to the ground. By that time, perhaps four or eight years hence, advocates will be out of their jobs and scattered to the four winds, their groups dormant or out of money, and their consulting companies and interest groups bankrupt and drained of funds. When the try to reconstruct the regime at some point in the future, they will have to reckon with the reality that the next Republican administration will once again knock it down with Trump-like executive orders. At that point, everyone may conclude that, after six decades, the old regime is dead once and for all.

It is a good question why opinions about the DEI regime changed so radically in recent years, when up to now corporate leaders and Republican presidents were willing to go along with it, up to a point, while ignoring conservative writers who had built a strong case against it. Republican presidents prior to Trump never made serious efforts to eliminate the diversity regime. Many point out that it originated in the first place under the Nixon administration in the early 1970s. There is little question now that Trump and his advisors view the DEI regime as hostile to their domestic agenda, perhaps as one of the pillars of the administrative state, and as an expensive operation to boot.

In the wake of the George Floyd episode in 2020 and the hysteria it induced around the country regarding race and diversity, advocates went too far in pushing the movement in an increasingly radical direction. They scrapped the concept of diversity in favor of “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” an ideological construct that took the movement far beyond ideals of equal opportunity and fair-hiring practices. They imposed ridiculous pronoun rules on employees under their supervision (rules now banned in the federal government by a new executive order). The regime’s transgender advocates insisted that men “transitioning” to women should be allowed to play on female athletic teams. Advocates embraced a new ideological doctrine of DEI from The New York Times’s 1619 Project, which declared that the United States was founded on the basis of racism and slavery, with those original sins embedded in its founding institutions.

Joel Kotkin adds: Trump’s assault on DEI will bring us closer to a post-racial America.

Indeed — which is why the army of grifters such policies enable will not go quietly into the night: Smashing the ‘rice bowls’ — how elites are lashing out at Trump and Musk’s reforms.

FIERY BUT MOSTLY PEACEFUL VIOLENT RHETORIC:

In accordance with the prophecy: Op-Ed: Citizens Being Able To Vote The Ruling Party Out Of Power Is The End Of Democracy.

—The Babylon Bee, October 29th 2022.

Related: A Clockwork Blue: How the Left Has Come to Excuse Away and Embrace Political Violence.

TRUMP IS GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL — AND USA TODAY’S “RACE AND INEQUALITY EDITOR” IS BIG MAD: Donald Trump is going to the Super Bowl — and ruining one of America’s best days.

Ahhh, the Super Bowl. Where families gather to watch the big game. Eat lots of food. Drink some. Party a little. Get together with friends to laugh, chill, hang out. It’s one of the few moments, the extremely few, few moments, where Americans genuinely come together.

We put aside politics. We put aside our differences. We take part in a great American tradition. It’s actually pretty cool. Well, it was. Because now President Donald Trump is attending the game.

Punchbowl News was the first to report that Trump will attend Super Bowl 59 between Philadelphia and Kansas City in New Orleans. So the most divisive president of our lifetime is attending a game that often serves as a genuine moment of unity. Trump soils everything. Now, he’s doing the same to the biggest game of the year.

The fact Trump will be at the same game as someone as thoughtful as Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is playing in, is a remarkable contradiction. This week, Hurts spoke about the evolution of the Black quarterback, and how he doesn’t take this moment lightly, where two Black quarterbacks are again playing in the Super Bowl. It’s the kind of thoughtfulness we’ve come to expect from him; that kind of depth Trump doesn’t possess.

Yeah, it’s not like the guy ever owned a professional football team himself. Oh wait:

A year ago, NBC ran the following bit of gaslighting about Biden: Biden is skipping a Super Bowl interview. His advisers say it’s part of the plan.

For the second year in a row, President Joe Biden is passing on the opportunity to sit down for a Super Bowl interview that could reach millions of Americans on Sunday — a move his advisers say is part of their larger communication strategy.

So Biden couldn’t even do a TV interview before the game his last two years in office, let alone appear there in person. In contrast, according to CBS, Trump will be the “first sitting president to attend NFL’s biggest game.”

Related: “NFL to remove ‘End Racism’ messaging in end zone ahead of Super Bowl: Sources,” and the New York Times is almost as angry at that prospect as USA Today is about Trump appearing at the game:

At his annual Super Bowl news conference Monday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell strongly supported the league’s policies designed to promote diversity at the club-employment level and said they would continue.

But during Super Bowl LIX, and with President Donald Trump apparently planning to attend on Sunday, the NFL might be making another kind of statement on the Caesars Superdome field itself. According to two league sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions, league officials recently changed one of the slogans expected to be stenciled in the back of an end zone from “End Racism” to “Choose Love.”

The game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles will mark the first time since February 2021 that “End Racism” is not included as a message in the back of a Super Bowl end zone.

The switch, conveyed internally to high-level employees earlier this week, could be perceived as a nod to the current political climate. Following the lead of Trump, who was inaugurated last month, many corporations and institutions are abandoning their diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Goodell did not follow suit when asked about the league’s policies on Monday, saying he was “proud” of the league’s diversity efforts.

“We got into diversity efforts because we felt it was the right thing for the National Football League,” Goodell said. “And we’re going to continue those efforts, because we’ve not only convinced ourselves we’ve proven it to ourselves — it does make the NFL better.”

Regarding that last paragraph, Roger Goodell morphed into Howell Raines so slowly, I hardly even noticed. As Jonah Goldberg wrote in 2003:

Diversity is another of those words we imbue with all nobility and goodness without question or reservation. And that’s nonsense. If diversity were always and everywhere good we would be clamoring for more midgets in the NBA. We would demand that mobsters get jobs at the FBI and we would consider it a grave problem that not enough blind men — and women! — were applying to be crossing guards, snipers, and surgeons.

I think the FBI may have taken that comment a bit too literally, based on their actions of the last eight or nine years…

GABBARD, RFK JR. PASS COMMITTEE HURDLES IN WIN FOR TRUMP.

DO NOT TRUST CHINA, CHINA IS ASSHOLE: Chinese-Made Patient Monitor Contains a Secret Backdoor.

A medical device used in hospitals has been found hosting a backdoor, paving the way for an unauthorized user to remotely control and tamper with the equipment.

The threat was discovered in three firmware versions for a patient monitor called the Contec CMS8000 (also sold as the Epsimed MN-120), which can display a user’s vitals, including heart rate, according to an advisory from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

The equipment, from China-based Contec Medical Systems, was mysteriously configured to connect to an IP address for a third-party university with no connection to the manufacturer.

The backdoor enables the IP address at the unnamed university to remotely download and execute unverified files on the patient monitor, CISA’s report says. In addition, the same backdoor automatically sends patient data to the IP address.

“Once the patient monitor is connected to the internet, it begins gathering patient data, including personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI), and exfiltrating (withdrawing) the data outside of the health care delivery environment,” an advisory from the Food and Drug Administration adds.

Funny how this keeps happening:

● “Federal authorities have long harbored concerns that DJI drones flying in American airspace surreptitiously transmit sensitive surveillance data back to the Chinese Communist Party. After all, Beijing’s national security laws require Chinese companies to provide ‘mandatory access to devices and programs through backdoors’ to the CCP. At least seven states have in recent years grounded their fleets of DJI drones amid the concerns. The company was sanctioned in 2021 for its involvement in surveilling Uyghur Muslims, and the Department of Defense classified DJI a ‘Chinese Military Company’ in 2022.”

● Vodafone Found Hidden Backdoors in Huawei Equipment.

● Former TikTok exec: Chinese Communist Party had “God mode” entry to US data.

● DeepSeek’s Popular AI App Is Explicitly Sending US Data to China.

SHOCK AND AWE: Purge begins as DOGE enters FBI to obtain names of 5,000 agents who worked January 6 cases and face firing.

The FBI is being forced by Elon Musk’s DOGE to hand over the names of 5,000 officials who worked on January 6 cases.

Those officials could face being fired for failing the Trump ‘loyalty test’ being given to rank-and-file employees.

Officials working for Musk at DOGE were spotted by CNN entering FBI headquarters on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., to collect the information.

FBI agents filed a lawsuit Tuesday trying to block the release of their names or identifying details after Trump administration officials demanded documents about who worked on January 6-related cases.

The agents say their jobs could be terminated within days.

The ‘loyalty’ test asks questions such as: ‘What was your/your employee role in the investigation(s) or prosecutions(s) relating to events that occurred at or near the US Capitol on January 6, 2021? Select all that apply.’

It then lists a series of boxes that includes investigatory work such as surveillance, a grand jury subpoena, or an arrest.

According to the lawsuit ‘the very act of compiling lists of persons who worked on matters that upset Donald Trump is retaliatory in nature.’

It said the move was ‘intended to intimidate FBI agents and other personnel, and to discourage them from reporting any future malfeasance and by Donald Trump and his agents.’

The group of agents warned of ‘unlawful and retaliatory’ actions against them, and said the information sweep could violate civil service protections.

As long as they haven’t done anything wrong, what do they need to worry about? (To coin a phrase.)

YOU DON’T NEED A WEATHERMAN TO SEE WHICH WAY THE WIND IS BLOWING: DC Council expels Trayon White over allegations he took bribes.

The D.C. Council voted unanimously Tuesday to expel Council member Trayon White Sr., an unprecedented rebuke stemming from federal allegations that he took $35,000 in bribes from a government contractor.

White’s expulsion — the first imposed by the council in its 51-year history — forces the Democrat to immediately surrender his seat representing Ward 8, a swath of blue-collar neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River.

White, 40, who has pleaded not guilty to the bribery charge, is scheduled to go on trial next January. Despite the council’s action, he is eligible to run in a special election to fill his seat and represent the ward, where he won reelection to a third term in November, four months after his arrest.

Touted as a potent new political voice when he joined the council in 2017, White styled himself as an acolyte of the late former mayor Marion Barry, whose populist touch and deep connections with Black Washingtonians helped him also win a seat on the council representing Ward 8.

Like Barry, White achieved political success despite making critical missteps, including in 2018 when he claimed on social media that a Jewish banking family controlled the weather, an assertion that made him the target of international scorn.

Flashback to 2018: Holocaust Museum tour by lawmaker who said Jews control the weather does not go well.

The photo, taken in 1935, depicts a woman in a dark dress shuffling down a street in Norden, Germany. A large sign hangs from her neck: “I am a German girl and allowed myself to be defiled by a Jew.” She is surrounded by Nazi stormtroopers.

D.C. Council member Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8) studied the image. “Are they protecting her?”

Lynn Williams, an expert on educational programs at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and White’s tour guide for the day, stared at the photo.

“No,” she said. “They’re marching her through.”

“Marching through is protecting,” White said.

“I think they’re humiliating her,” Williams replied.

* * * * * * *

The tour, scheduled to last 90 minutes, was halfway done. Seven of White’s staff members stayed with the guide, who soon was showing them an exhibit on the Warsaw Ghetto. As she explained the walling in of Polish Jews, one aide asked whether it was similar to “a gated community.”

Glazer spoke up.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t call it a gated community,” she said. “More like a prison.”

As I said at the time, Larry David’s next Curb Your Enthusiasm just wrote itself:

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Trump Becomes First* Fascist In History To Reduce Size Of Government.

President Donald Trump has just become the first fascist in the history of humankind to use his despotic powers to reduce the size of the government.

While most other fascist leaders throughout history have used their power to increase the scope of government influence in their respective countries, Trump has broken with tradition to become the very first fascist with a focus on dismantling his own government’s overreaches.

“Only time will tell, but Trump must have something extremely nefarious up his sleeve if he’s doing his fascism by making government smaller,” said Lee Glyde-Jennings, who teaches several classes on the history of fascism at Harvard. “It’s entirely unlike every other fascism in history to this point — I’m just waiting to see how he’s going to wind up instituting a fascist dictatorship by carefully picking apart the government bureaucracy.”

* FDR, who retroactively smeared Calvin Coolidge, a proponent of a much smaller government, as being a fascist in his 1944 State of the Union speech might like a word here.

CLIFTON DUNCAN: The Suicide of the Celebrity.

Imagine losing to literally Hitler.

Such was the fate of soon-to-be-ex Vice President Kamala Harris—a brown woman who inspired antiracists across America to form whites-only advocacy groups without a shred of self-awareness.

But Madame Harris and her white saviors didn’t suffer defeat alone—the stars who gave their all to ensure her triumph over Donald Trump also lost bigly. It was a valiant effort: Hamill harangued; Ruffalo ranted; Deniro raged; JLo cried; Cardi B powered through a reading assignment. And so on.

Alas, America overwhelmingly preferred Hitler to Hollywood. Defeat was decisive: Trump would not just take the electoral college, he would become the first Republican in 20 years to win the popular vote, and the second president in American history to serve two non-consecutive terms.

But how could the electorate shun the cast of The Avengers? How could Julia Roberts’ appeal to politically closeted (presumably battered) wives fail to win more women? Why did Meghan Thee Stallion’s cheek-clapping not mesmerize more black men? How could George Clooney—who helped raise millions for Joe Biden (weeks before urging him to step aside)—make so little impact?

BLUFF CALLED: Phil Murphy Splutters After Tom Homan Goes FAFO on Story of Garage-Dwelling Illegal Immigrant.

On Monday, we wrote about the stunning claim made by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) during a recent interview in which he strongly implied he and his wife, NJ First Lady Tammy Murphy, were harboring a female illegal immigrant above their garage.

“Tammy and I were talking about – I don’t want to get into too much detail, but there is someone in our broader universe whose immigration status is not yet at the point that they are trying to get it to,” Murphy stated. “And we said, you know what? Let’s have her live at our house above our garage.”

Even more shockingly, Murphy appeared to taunt ICE to try and take the alleged illegal immigrant he was allegedly harboring from them.

“And good luck to the feds coming in to try to get her,” he dared.

As RedState’s Rusty Weiss reported, border czar Tom Homan responded accordingly to Murphy’s statement, confirming on Fox News that “I got note of it. Won’t let it go. We’ll look into it.”

“And if he’s knowingly harboring and concealing an illegal alien, that’s a violation of Title VIII of the United States Code 1324,” Homan also observed, while adding that prosecution would then be sought.

Perhaps with the thought in mind that their boss might have just admitted to a federal crime, Murphy’s office hit the panic button, and suggested the governor, who is serving his last year in office due to term limits, had been wildly taken out of context:

To be fair, Murphy wouldn’t be the first Democrat governor of New Jersey who was simply living “his truth” to the max.

HOW IT STARTED:

In the 1960s, Afghan women studied alongside men at universities. Today, it’s illegal for Afghan women to have an education.

Women in Afghanistan had more rights 60
years ago than today!

This is how quickly things can change when Sharia takes over!

pic.twitter.com/UX9AWMbwA4

— Dr. Maalouf ‏ (@realMaalouf) November 26, 2024

How it’s going: Taliban minister ‘forced to flee Afghanistan’ after speech in support of girls’ education.

FASTER, PLEASE: U.S. Begins Migrant Flights to Guantanamo Bay.

The first two flights carrying detained migrants from the U.S. to Guantanamo Bay have headed to the naval base in Cuba, as the Trump administration begins to expand a small migrant-detention center there.

One flight from Fort Bliss to Guantanamo has roughly a dozen migrants on board, people familiar with the matter said. An additional flight left the U.S. on Monday, one of the people said.

The U.S. base at Guantanamo has always had a facility to detain some migrants, typically those caught heading for the U.S. at sea. The base is now equipped to hold 120 migrants, and the administration has said it would expand operations there to hold up to 30,000.

CTRL-F “Illegal” brings up zero results, curiously enough.

NEW DNC CHAIR: Democratic Party ‘not dead.’

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said the party was “not dead” despite the party’s loss of the White House and Senate majority in last fall’s elections.

“We’re not dead as a party. We’re still alive and kicking, and we’re going to fight for our values, and we’re going to fight for American values at this time, when people are seeing what Donald Trump and the Republicans are doing at this time,” Martin said during a Monday appearance on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.”

Martin won the race to become the next DNC chair on Saturday in a highly-contested race. Democrats are looking to Martin to reestablish the party’s presence in states across the nation as preparations for midterm elections kickoff.

Live look at Martin uttering his stirring cri de coeur:

TRUMP’S TRADE WAR EXPOSES GERMAN CARMAKERS TO A ‘FULL-ON STORM:’

The German chancellor’s visit to Chequers, in Buckinghamshire, the Prime Minister’s countryside retreat, was supposed to demonstrate thawing relations between Britain and the Continent ahead of a key European summit.

Instead, the pair’s carefully choreographed diplomacy was being drowned out by a cacophony of threats emanating from Washington.

Hours earlier, Donald Trump had stunned allies by announcing US tariffs on all goods imported from neighbours Canada and Mexico – and threatened to do the same to the European Union “soon”.

While tariffs on Mexico and Canada have since been delayed by a month after last-minute concessions, the threat remains.

For Scholz, the moves risk creating another almighty headache for Germany’s flatlining economy – and in particular the country’s prized carmaking industry.

American tariffs on EU exports threaten to clobber German automotive champions such as Volkswagen, BMW and Audi, at a time when they are already battling cut-throat competition from China and tough EU emissions rules.

“This isn’t a headwind for German carmaking, it’s a full-on storm,” says Sander Tordoir, the chief economist at the Centre for European Reform think tank.

Nick Parker, an automotive expert at AlixPartners, agrees, warning: “I think this does become an existential threat.”

Germany’s automotive industry will be the biggest loser by far if Europe is dragged into a trade war, according to modelling by Oxford Economics.

Should the US and the EU hit each other with 25pc tariffs, the consultancy estimates that German car exports to the US will drop by 7pc.

But that’s good, right? German greens have been pushing for “deindustrialization” for years, a sort of self-inflicted Morgenthau Plan. Trump appears to be eager to help them finish the job.

ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: How Emilia Pérez Is Being Removed from the Emilia Pérez Oscar Campaign.

Saturday, Feb. 8, presented a dilemma for a lot of talent: the Directors Guild Awards and the Producers Guild Awards are happening opposite each other, and Emilia Pérez is nominated for the top awards of both. [Trans actress Karla Sofía Gascón] was to be deployed to the PGA Awards, at Century City’s Fairmont Century Plaza hotel, where she was to serve as a presenter.

And then on Sunday, Feb. 9, she was to have made the drive up to Santa Barbara to be feted as one of this year’s nine Virtuoso Award recipients at an Arlington Theatre ceremony at which the honorees would be interviewed individually and then collectively. The others set to be feted include her costar Gomez and fellow best actress nominees Fernanda Torres (I’m Still Here).

However, given the massive controversy that has engulfed Gascón in recent days regarding commentary that she posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) — posts about which Gascón has, in recent days, been regularly writing on social media and discussing in interviews, without consultation or coordination with Netflix, which owns Emilia Pérez’s distribution rights in the United States, Canada and the UK — The Hollywood Reporter has learned that she will not be coming to town at all.

Tensions are said to be high between Gascón and the streamer, which has invested millions in the film’s awards push. It was flourishing as recently as Jan. 23, when the film received a field-leading 13 Oscar nominations, just one shy of the all-time record. But now, at the most inopportune moment, it is on life support thanks to the Gascón revelations.

The two parties are now said to be communicating only through Gascón’s agent, Jeremy Barber of UTA. And it is my understanding that there is no great interest on the part of Netflix to provide the usual courtesies afforded by a studio to an Oscar contender, such as transportation and accommodations, to facilitate her attendance at the remaining award season gatherings.

It’s a film with something for everyone!

● Emilia Pérez: Latinos Say It’s Racist, but Does the Academy Care?

● Emilia Pérez is Not Good Trans Representation.

● As a trans woman, this is why I think Emilia Pérez is sub-par, disingenuous, harmful nonsense.

● Emilia Pérez Star Karla Sofía Gascón Under Fire Over Tweets About Muslims, George Floyd, Oscars Diversity.

It’s also a film that’s come full circle. On January 24^th, John Podhoretz wrote, “Why did it get 13 Oscar nominations? Guess why. You know why. It’s the same reason the movie nobody has seen about Donald Trump got Oscar nominations for the guy playing Trump and the guy playing Roy Cohn.” But yesterday, Christian Toto spotted industry bible Variety comparing its “Best Actress nominee to Trump in latest skewering:”

Gascón is under fire for old social media posts. Some merely contrast with the preferred progressive narrative. The actress’ cynical take on the late George Floyd comes to mind.

Others are more alarming, like a post that goes shockingly soft on Adolf Hitler. The story has serious legs, with various outlets finding new ways to extend the narrative.

Day after day. Article after article. That’s no accident.

Gascón helped, in part, by crying through a new interview on the subject. The actress played the Victim Card along the way.

Here’s how Variety is framing the story now.

Karla Sofía Gascón may not be running for office, but her off-the-rails Oscar campaign has sucked all the energy out of this year’s award season — and made her look less like the anti-Trump and, well, more like the 45th and 47th President himself.

Comparing Gascón to Trump is the very worst thing Variety could say about the “Emilia Pérez” nominee. Full stop.

Previously, Variety said the actress’ comments cast a pall on the upcoming Oscars ceremony.

Gascón is “An awards-season star whose existence makes one wish the Oscars weren’t even happening.”

Speak for yourself, Variety!

WORST. NAZIS. EVER:

IT’S COME TO THIS: Joe Biden Signs With CAA Talent Agency For Representation.

Donald Trump might be absorbing all the political oxygen right now, but his successor and predecessor isn’t ready to totally exit the stage.

Joe Biden has signed with Creative Artists Agency in all areas, the agency said Monday.

“President Biden is one of America’s most respected and influential voices in national and global affairs,” Richard Lovett, co-chairman of CAA, said today of the agency’s former and now present client. “His lifelong commitment to public service is one of unity, optimism, dignity, and possibility. We are profoundly honored to partner with him again.”

In July, after Biden had been yanked off the stage, Sonny Bunch expl0red: Why Hollywood Turned on Biden First.

Even in an age of aging heroes—one in which the biggest box office draws are Tom Cruise (62) and Denzel Washington (69) and Will Smith (55) and Keanu Reeves (59)—what’s being sold is not that they’re old but that they’re effective, that they’ve got verve, that they can outperform men and women half their age. It’s why Biden embraced the Onion’s vision of him as the aging bro washing his Trans Am, it’s why he goes everywhere he can in Top Gun-style aviators. It’s why the Dark Brandon meme took off in certain quarters of the Democratic party: He’s not nearing death, he’s old and wily and still vibrant enough to crush his enemies.

Call it shallow, call it whatever you want: politics is the art of persuasion and perception, and people are less likely to be persuaded by someone they perceive to be incapable of doing the job. People are also less likely to be persuaded by folks who lie to their face and tell them everything is just fine with Biden, that he’s clearly together enough to get the job done. For what it’s worth, I am incredibly ambivalent about the effort to replace Biden: the unknown unknowns that come with either a mini-primary at the convention or simply replacing Biden with Harris atop the ticket are vast and, potentially, destabilizing. And maybe Biden rights the ship with a series of command performances in front of the press and population alike. Maybe it was a one-off thing and his standing will improve in the polls.

But pretending there isn’t a conversation to be had at all is foolish and self-defeating. The voters have seen what they have seen. Again: politics is perception. And right now, the perception is bad.

Perhaps Biden has merely sold the rights to image and voice, and Industrial Light and Magic can de-age his image like Michael Douglas in Ant Man and Respeecher can de-age his voice, as the Star Wars spinoffs did for the voice of  James Earl Jones, shortly before he passed away last year. But even with all of that digital firepower now at Hollywood’s disposal, unlike Obama, it’s tough to picture Biden having much of a future in Tinseltown.

THE CRITICAL DRINKER: Emilia Perez — Everything Wrong With Modern Hollywood.

Related: The racist, misogynistic transgender actress destroying Netflix’s Oscar dreams.

OH NO, NOT THAT: US to again withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council, stop UNRWA funding.