Losing My Perpsicacity, October 10, 2025

Good morning and Happy Friday! Thanks for starting your day with me.

It was legal-palooza yesterday, with no less than three big court cases being heard, another big indictment, and potentially-hilarious news about Elon Musk. I was frantically posting on social media from about 10:30 am into the evening, and I will be happy to see the back end of my laptop for the weekend.

I’m not going to go into a ton of detail on these cases, but you can go over to Bluesky and check out my threads (or other people’s threads) if you want in-depth coverage of anything.

Let’s start with the DOJ’s appeal of the lower court order granting a temporary injunction from federalizing National Guard troops in Oregon. District Court Judge Karin Immergut issued that ruling last week (she issued a second, more expansive TRO this week), and both sides argued before a three-judge panel at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. One of the judges (Hon. Susan Graber) was a Clinton appointee, the other two judges (Hon. Ryan Nelson and Hon. Bridget Bade) were Trump appointees. Now that you know that, it went about how you would expect.

Judge Graber was clearly the most experienced and respected of the three, and everyone seemed to defer to her when she jumped in or asked thoughtful, measured questions. Judge Nelson was a bit combative with the attorney for the State of Oregon, and he kept suggesting that maybe the President has reasons for deploying the National Guard to Portland that we don’t know about. Which is … not how we analyze evidence in this country. Nelson was also big into the “how can a City tell the President what he can’t do?” argument, which was disappointing, given that the Constitution lays it out pretty well.

It was also obvious that Nelson and Bade were taking the federal government at its word, despite pushback from the local attorneys and the findings of Judge Immergut that the DHS’s assessment of the level “violence” in Portland was not credible. I don’t hold out a lot of hope for that case, but I could be wrong. Perhaps Nelson and Bade were just putting on a good show for Trump. But even if this decision doesn’t go Portland’s way, they can ask for an en banc hearing of the entire Circuit Court, where 11 judges would rehear the case. All is not lost.

Moving on to the State of Illinois, where Chicago journalists obtained their own temporary restraining order against ICE yesterday. You can follow the thread below, or read the order here for yourself.

This would be a great result, except that we’ve seen all too clearly lately how willing ICE is to lie about what’s happening on the ground. Here’s where they claimed an ICE agent had “his beard ripped off.”

They’ve also been caught exaggerating injuries to agents and lying about violence by protestors.

But the main event today was the hearing at the federal courthouse, wherein the State of Illinois (joined by the City of Chicago and Cook County) sought a temporary restraining order to keep Trump from sending a federalized National Guard from Texas to Illinois. Long story short, the good guys won. For now. The DOJ will certainly appeal to the Seventh Circuit.

But there were some great moments in this hearing, including Judge Sara Ellis telling the DOJ that their claims were “not credible.”

And pointing out that DHS brought most of the violence with them to Chicago.

At that point, I was screaming at my laptop that those were the same arguments the State of Oregon had made earlier that morning, and that I hoped the Ninth Circuit judges would read the transcript of the Chicago hearing. The Courts are not under any obligation to believe the word of the President of the United States.

And here was my favorite moment of the entire ruling:

Are you listening, Ninth Circuit?!?

The DOJ’s argument in these cases has been that 10 USC 12406, the statute allowing the President to federalize the National Guard, is not reviewable by the courts. More than once today, the feds, in both Oregon and Chicago, claimed, “The President’s actions are not reviewable.” I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they meant within the confines of this statute, because saying the courts have no authority over the President of the United States is something we’re hearing more and more from the Stephen Miller camp.

For now, Chicago will take the win. But this fight is far from over. Gird your loins, everyone.

BTW, I promised you potentially hilarious news about Elon Musk, so here it is: After Musk started bragging about his security clearances all over X, NYT reporter Neil Bedi filed a lawsuit seeking more information about the extent of those clearances. On Wednesday, a federal judge granted Bedi’s motion, and now Musk has to go through the discovery process, which could be bad news for our favorite billionaire sex pest.

Gosh, that’s a real shame. But these immigrants, you know. Can’t let them lie on their immigration papers. They have to get residency “the right way.”

I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring you this critical public health update, just issued yesterday.

(pinches bridge of nose) I can’t with these people. I feel like I’m going insane every hour of every day.

Today: The revenge indictment of Letitia James; What is going on in Oklahoma?; Norway steels itself for Trump’s wrath; and The High Note.

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Here we go.

The perfidious indictment of Letitia James

On Wednesday, we watched former FBI chief James Comey being frogmarched into federal court because the President of the United States is a whiny baby who has to get revenge on all who have wronged him. And by “wronged,” I mean “attempted to hold him accountable for his misdeeds.”

Yesterday, it was NY Attorney General Letitia James, one of the most feared and respected prosecutors in the country. Her crime? Charging Donald Trump with fraud.

As with Comey, Trump had to bring in personal crony Lindsey Halligan to prosecute the case, as the attorney who had the job before her, Erik Siebert, refused to indict people solely because of Trump’s petty grievances. The case against James is exceedingly thin on the merits and another example of Trump’s weaponized Department of Justice. The indictment accuses James of getting a mortgage on a property that required her to reside there, when she actually used it as a rental property. Even if it were true (it’s not), it pales in comparison to the litany of crimes Trump and his minions have been accused of.

The general consensus is that her case may be dismissed relatively quickly as a vindictive prosecution, but lawsuits are stressful no matter the circumstances, and no one deserves to go through that for the sake of one man’s petty ego. I was a witness in a case recently, and I was anxious about that for months.

Here’s James’ defiant statement.

The hell is going on in Oklahoma?

Earlier this week (honestly, all the days are blurring together at this point), several states, including Iowa, Oklahoma, Montana, South Carolina, and just about every red state in the country, filed an amicus brief in the National Guard cases, both in Oregon and in Illinois, supporting Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Chicago and Portland. You’ll notice that Oklahoma was one of the states siding with Trump.

Then today, I saw this quote Oklahoma’s governor gave to the NYT:

Despite Stitt’s weirdo “I support the President but not the way he did this” position, I was still confused. Doesn’t the governor speak for the state? Why did Oklahoma sign on to the amicus brief if the governor doesn’t support it? I even emailed Stitt’s office and asked for clarification, but didn’t get any.

After asking around on social media, it turns out that Oklahoma’s governor and attorney general do not get along, and the current AG is expected to run for governor when Stitt’s term ends. Still, how can you have a governor and an attorney general who are not on the same page about something like this? Red states are wild, man.

Norway is preparing for Trump’s wrath

God, he’s so embarrassing. Norway is trying to prepare for Trump’s international temper tantrum when he doesn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Meanwhile, kids are dying because of the end of USAID. But Trump is demanding the Nobel Prize. I would like off this timeline now, please. Just close the tab on America and I’ll be on my way.

The High Note

Each Day, I do my best to leave you with a smile on your face, a song in your heart, and the will to fight another day.

Marjorie Taylor-Greene, welcome to The Resistance.

(Kidding! She’s still awful.)

There was a terrible article in the WSJ today, which claimed that Johnny Cash was “deeply uncool.” I have no idea why someone would write something so blatantly untrue, or how such a piece ever got greenlighted.

I’m sorry, did you just arrive on this planet yesterday? Who else is “uncool?” I’m dying to know. Janis Joplin? Led Zeppelin? Dolly Parton? The Who? Get out of here.

Johnny Cash went before Congress and argued for prison reform in 1972. He has always been cool—the coolest, in fact.

So here he is with Bob Dylan on The Johnny Cash Show.

Don’t ever bait me with this kind of crap again, WSJ.

Survive and advance out there today, kids. Don’t let the bastards get you down. And have a great weekend!