Judging the cyberautogolpe

Also: ski and weather reports, and the real estate section

Author

Brad Johnson
March 05, 2025

PRESENTED BY JEFF COMPUTERS
Rep. Melanie Stansbury behind Trump

Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) holds a “This is NOT normal” sign behind Trump before it was ripped away by Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas). She later walked out of the address.

COURTING DISASTER: Leaky pipeline giant Energy Transfer is trying to use the Standing Rock protests against their Dakota Access Pipeline to kill off Greenpeace with a $300 million lawsuit now taking place in Morton County, North Dakota. The polluters poisoned the jury pool with a “pink slime” newspaper sent to everyone in the county. The Standing Rock Sioux are pissed off, and Tribal witnesses are scorning the argument that Tribal nations couldn’t have organized themselves to fight the pipeline.

Yesterday, U.S. district judge Rudy Contreras ruled that the Trump regime’s attempted firing of Cathy Harris, the chair of the Merit Systems Protection Board, was “unlawful.” Harris and Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger, who Trump has also tried to illegally fire (but so far has failed to do so), play key roles in defending federal employees, including probationers, against politically motivated firings. Trump’s Department of Injustice has appealed.

Waiting until Trump’s rambling rant to Congress was over, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this morning in a 5-4 decision led by Chief Justice John Roberts and the four female justices that the Trump regime must pay out the $2 billion in USAID contracts for tuberculousis, HIV, malaria, and Ebola protection and other life-saving international aid, agreeing with the earlier lower court decision. Last week, Roberts had lifted the lower court’s emergency temporary restraining order, allowing the Trump regime to void hundreds of contracts and throw the humanitarian assistance community into chaos. On February 21st, Trump-appointed judge Carl Nichols ruled that the shuttering of the agency by firing all of its employees could go forward, claiming there would be “no irreparable harm.”

After Amy Coney Barrett ruled with the majority to unfreeze billions in foreign aid payments that were approved by Congress, MAGA is now calling her a "DEI Judge" and "Amy Commie Barrett"

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona.bsky.social)2025-03-05T18:06:59.063Z

Also this morning, judge Beryl Howell heard arguments about Gwynne Wilcox’s illegal firing from the National Labor Relations Board, as union members rallied outside the D.C. courthouse.

Meanwhile, the coup plotters are moving to take over the courts. Greg Sargent reports on a leaked Department of Justice memo asserting the ability to fire immigration judges at will, and a team of Reuters reporters alerts that the public persecution of federal judges by Elon Musk, JD Vance, and other insurgents in the GOP is leading to a sharp rise in violent threats to their safety.

And now, the ski report:

the VP of an actual country arguing online with fictional character Jeff Computers

— Ceej (@ceejoyner.bsky.social)2025-03-05T16:23:23.245Z

And now, What Appears To Be A Trenchant Political Metaphor About Trade Wars But In Actuality, It Was Bird Flu:

WILDFIRE SALE: The Trump coup is testing another means to kill off the government—by selling off all federal buildings. They know that if they can pull this off, it will be impossible to undo the damage, no matter what Congress or a new President later does. Last night, some DOGE hacker in the General Services Administration posted a “Non-core property list” that included the DC headquarters of most federal agencies as well as hundreds of other federal buildings. Around midnight, the DC buildings were taken off the list, leaving sites on the chopping block such as the Oklahoma City Federal Building, which replaced the building the radical right-wing terrorist Timothy McVeigh destroyed 30 years ago, and the giant Maj. Gen. Emmett Bean Federal Center in Indianapolis, where a 2MW solar array was recently installed. The Bean Federal Center houses the military's payment operations—the Defense Finance and Accounting Service—as well as several other agencies.

Closing the hundreds of buildings on the list across the nation would devastate local offices, power stations, and warehouses for USGS, Social Security, immigration, passport control, FBI, Army Corps of Engineers, IRS, EPA, Veterans Affairs, and on and on—basically every service the federal government provides. The listed buildings also house the local offices of Democratic senators in states such as Massachusetts, Illinois, and  California, and Republican senators in states like Alabama, Iowa, and Kentucky.

This morning, whatever hacker put up the list took it down.

At 2 pm this afternoon, there is a House hearing on federal real estate. The witnesses are former W public buildings commissioner and current corporate real estate lawyer David Winstead and GAO Physical Infrastructure Director David Marroni.

A large group of clergy have gathered in front of the Supreme Court, calling on Congress to pass a “moral budget” and particularly protesting proposed cuts of Medicaid.

Clergy march in the National Call for Repentance and Truth-Telling. Credit: Jack Jenkins

Marking the beginning of Lent, Rev. William J. Barber led an national call for repentance and truth-telling at St. Mark’s in downtown DC this morning, before marching on the Capitol and Supreme Court.

Flags and signs in front of the U.S. Capitol

Protesters gather outside the Capitol during Trump’s rant. Credit: Nikita Bourne

Hearings on the Hill:

Climate Action Today:

Thanks for subscribing and spreading the word. If you’ve got job listings, event listings, or other hot news, I want to hear it. Connect with me—@[email protected], @climatebrad on Threads, and @climatebrad.hillheat.com on BlueSky.

Hill Heat isn’t powered by fossil-fuel greenwashing cash. It’s powered by readers like you:

Reply

or to participate.