April 10, 2025: Hell is empty and all the devils are here.

We’ve rather literally given him a Get Out of Jail Free card, and boy oh boy, he is using it.

I have a digital archive now.

Something like 60 full posts (and adding daily) that should house within it some interesting data and, hopefully, some hidden facts. Democracy’s Diary, written by an Amateur Archivist. Lol

I’m still mulling over what exactly to do with all of it, how to make it most useful. The book is coming along, but every time I think I’m done, something else comes to mind that I should add to really make it extra useful for readers. Can’t tell yet if that’s my anxiety working against me, or my inner overachiever wanting things to be just right.

This has been the biggest thing on my mind today:

Now, I’d like to see some more extensive coverage on this part before we call it fact, but The New Republic is reporting that there was some kinda NASCAR thing in the Oval Office a few hours after tariffs were paused, and Donald Trump is supposedly on tape bragging about his friends making money.

“He made $2.5 million today, and he made $900 million! That’s not bad,” Trump said, pointing to financial investor Charles Schwab and Roger Penske, a NASCAR team owner, respectively.

Marjorie Taylor Greene seemed to make some VERY well-time investments too. Lucky her.

… And the amazing part is, it’s definitely illegal, but who would charge the President of the United States? We’ve rather literally given him a Get Out of Jail Free card, and boy oh boy, he is using it.

Let’s check the news…

• WBUR: Supreme Court says Trump officials should help return wrongly deported Maryland man

  • This article is worth quoting at length: Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, a Reagan appointee, had strong words for the administration."There is no question that the government screwed up here," he wrote, adding that "the government here took the only action which was expressly prohibited." Regarding the government's admission of its mistake, Judge Wilkinson said "one would also expect the government to do what it can to rectify it. Most of us attempt to undo, to the extent that we can, the mistakes that we have made. But, to the best of my knowledge, the government has not made the attempt here."

  • I’m really glad this was a Reagan appointee, and I’m REALLY glad he pointed out how the court had to intervene when this was so clearly right and wrong… the fact that this administration had to be ORDERED to fix their own mistake, an incredibly heinous mistake… the blatant lack of basic regard for human life never fails to catch me by surprise.

• IT’S IMPORTANT TO REALIZE: Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s could be far from over: the Court, in its ruling, objected to the term “effectuate”, instead ordering them to “facilitate” his return. Joyce Vance points out the obvious issue: “It’s easy to imagine the Trump administration telling the court they asked the Bukele administration to release Abrego Garcia, but it didn’t happen, and then declining to say more, perhaps invoking the official secrets act… It’s wrong. And it also means that none of us are safe.”

  • In essence, the Trump administration got a kind of back door way out. Still, it’s the first notable demand the Supreme Court has made of Trump so far. Adam Serwer of The Atlantic notes: “The fact that the order was issued without dissent was remarkable. The Roberts Court has indulged Trump at nearly every turn… Yet the confrontation they sought to avoid has arrived nonetheless, and even the Trumpiest justices, such as Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, joined their colleagues in informing the Trump administration that what it had done was illegal and should be remedied.”

    • So, will they get away with this back-door trick, or has the Supreme Court and Executive Branch showdown finally here? Only time will tell, but it is worth noting that we seem to be discussing the potential of constitutional crises these days like it’s more of a guarantee and not a possibility.

• Gothamist: Helicopter crashes into Hudson River, at least 6 reported dead, including 3 children

  • Tourists from Spain… I wonder how many air crashes there have been since I started archiving…

• New York Times: House Votes to Require Proof of Citizenship in Federal Elections

  • The House on Thursday passed legislation that would require people to prove that they are U.S. citizens when they register to vote, the latest effort in a Republican-led push to tighten voting laws that is tied to President Trump’s debunked claims of widespread election fraud.

  • Exactly the type of law a government body passes when your agenda is set by a man who refuses to acknowledge reality. All of the real, genuine problems facing We The People, and they’re trying to fix something that ain't broke. Peachy.

• I’mma just let this one from NYT speak for itself…

  • Plane Carrying 6 Members of Congress Is Clipped at Reagan Airport

    • An American Airlines plane bumped into another one on a taxiway, officials said. The episode brought further scrutiny to the airport in Washington.

  • Bruh. Should I really start counting?

• Reuters sums up the state of the market pretty well with their lead story:

  

  • From Reuters, Adam Hetts, global head of multi-asset at Janus Henderson in Denver: "This has gone from a disorderly selloff to hopefully back to more of an orderly selloff because recession risk is much, much higher now than it was a couple weeks ago."

  • There was a sort of “euphoria” yesterday (at least, that’s the term I heard a lot in the podcasts) where the markets had a sort of epic bounce back… but as the country sat with the baseline 10% tariff worldwide combined with the over 100% tariff on China… reality kinda sank back in today. This is a wildly unpredictable President, changing SO many facets of society in such a short amount of time… everybody feels jittery and I don’t blame ‘em. I was driving home from work today, and the latest tariff rate I heard for China on the radio was like 142% (145%, according to the Times)... it’s gonna hurt. You can’t not feel that in your pocketbook.

Lastly, I present to you a little gift, because I am a nerd:

I didn’t get to go to the #HandsOff protest, but I had SUCH a good time looking at the photos, I found myself just collecting them… little messages from the country at large… Saved all my favorites, mixed in the cutest floofs who ever fought fascism, and I gotta tell ya, it’s a pretty cool album. Please enjoy!

PHOTOS: 120 Kick-Ass Signs (and 30 Cutest Snoots) from the #HandsOff Protest - April 5, 2025