- Losing My Perspicacity
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- Losing My Perspicacity, June 12, 2025
Good morning and Happy Thursday! Thanks for stopping by this morning.
Let’s start with some good news: Federal judge Michael Farbiarz ruled late yesterday afternoon that the federal government could not detain or remove legal resident Mahmoud Khalil, who has been in ICE detention since March, on the basis of Marco Rubio’s determination that Khalil’s “continued activities or presence in the United States would “compromise a compelling . . . foreign policy interest.” Farbiarz paused his order until 9:30 am on Friday, suggesting that Khalil could be released anytime thereafter.
However, not only did the judge give the Trump administration’s lawyers time to appeal his ruling, he also didn’t address the second basis for Khalil’s detainment: The allegations by Rubio et al. that he falsified his visa application by not disclosing his membership in various organizations. Farbiarz stated that, as the government had not put forth any evidence on that claim or made any legal arguments addressing it, he was not addressing that issue. Unfortunately, that could still give the government a valid reason to hold Khalil.
If you’ll recall (I know a LOT has happened since March), Khalil was a grad student at Columbia who was snatched by ICE, who claimed he was antisemitic and in league with Hamas or some other garbage they’ve never been able to prove. While he’s been held in Louisiana, Khalil’s wife has had a child, and ICE would not allow Khalil to be present at the birth or to hold the baby. Khalil finally got to meet his son because Judge Farbiarz intervened and overruled the government’s objections.
While the Trump administration will almost certainly appeal, this is a rare bit of good news amid the shitshow happening in Los Angeles.
The entire order is here if you want to read it.
Today: More fun with ICE; A mashup of Republicans looking dumb; Female NCAA athletes sue over the NIL settlement; and The High Note.
Let’s get into it.
More fun with ICE
There was a lot of discussion in the last 48 hours about how Trump is abusing his power, beating up on California, and manufacturing a crisis to distract from things like his messy breakup with Elon Musk, his trade non-deal with China, and his determination to take Medicaid away from millions of people. I believe all of that is true.
However, I dislike discussing politics as an abstract concept that exists solely as an intellectual exercise for the elite in Washington. ICE and its law enforcement counterparts, the LAPD, are harming real people on the ground. We should never stop talking about that to speculate on Trump’s motives.
Like this woman who was just trying to get home when law enforcement intentionally took aim and shot her.
LAPD shoot US woman with a rubber bullet for trying to get into her home, they were blocking her entrance and there was no protest in sight. “Holy fuck — They literally just shot her point blank… I live here…” ( www.tiktok.com/@labyrinthlore) #3E #StopICE
— Anonymous (@youranoncentral.bsky.social)2025-06-11T05:05:40.177Z
And here’s an ICE agent chasing a migrant worker through the same fields where they pick most of our food. I’m sure that’ll end well for all of us. Who needs produce, anyway?
I saw someone on Nicole Wallace’s show today talking about how the military (meaning the National Guard and the Marines) don’t want to be in the streets of LA any more than the communities want them there. He suggested staying as far away from the Guard and Marines as possible. “Don’t wave foreign flags in their faces, don’t yell things at them,” he pleaded with viewers. “They don’t want to be there, either.”
Okay, but is anyone giving the same lecture to law enforcement? Like, I don’t know, “Don’t shoot at people just trying to live their lives and stop intentionally shooting at journalists”? Because they don’t want to be out there, either — none of us want to put our lives on hold to protest this garbage — and there are far too many of these videos floating around social media. According to the AP, more than two dozen journalists covering the protest have been injured by law enforcement. In fact, the Committee to Protect Journalists wrote a letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem saying, “federal officers appear to have deliberately targeted journalists who were doing nothing more than their job covering the news.” I’m shocked.
I’m also thankful for the age of the iPhone, because there was a time when public defenders would tell people about this kind of behavior from police, and the general public didn’t believe it.
Please enjoy this mix tape of Republicans looking dumb
Did I completely date myself by referencing a mix tape instead of a playlist? I probably did. Anyway.
Let’s begin with Pete Hegseth getting grilled by Congress and going all deer-in-the-headlights.
BALDWIN: What is the authority that the administration is using to deploy active duty Marines to California neighborhoods? HEGSETH: The president has constitutional authority BALDWIN: Cite the provision of the Constitution HEGSETH: I'd have to pull up the specific provision
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)2025-06-11T16:11:39.061Z
It’s so weird how being a FOX News host doesn’t prepare you at all for being Secretary of Defense. Anyway, there is no provision of the Constitution that allows the President to deploy the US Military against American citizens. Pretty sure the Founding Fathers would have called that “treason.”
Hegseth was on fire today.
McConnell: “Who’s the aggressor and who’s the victim in the conflict?” Hegseth: “Russia is the aggressor." McConnell: “Which side do you want to win?" Hegseth: "This president is committed to peace."
— The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com)2025-06-11T14:50:57.311Z
God, he’s so painfully bad at this.
Let’s move on to Pam Bondi, who wants you to know that the LA protestors are “very different” from the January 6 insurrectionists.
"Well, this is very different," Bondi said Wednesday in an on-camera gaggle with reporters at the White House. "These are people out there hurting people in California right now. This is ongoing."
Great answer, Pammy. Maybe you could talk to some of the Capitol Police about the difference.
And finally, there’s a very funny piece by Jennifer Bendery over on HuffPo about how Republicans in Congress are attempting to dodge questions about Trump’s upcoming military parade:
WASHINGTON – They snapped. They stared off into space. They zipped into Senate elevators and smiled as the doors closed with them safely inside.
This is how nearly a dozen Senate Republicans reacted Wednesday when asked the simplest question: Do you plan to attend President Donald Trump’s military parade in D.C. on Saturday, and are you comfortable with its estimated $45 million price tag?
***
“I won’t be here in town, but I wish I was,” lamented Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.).
Asked about the tens of millions of dollars the event is going to cost taxpayers, Fischer walked into a nearby Senate elevator and gazed into nothingness as the doors closed.
***
At least the Nebraska senator spoke. Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) clocked in at eight seconds of silence in response to HuffPost asking the same question. With a big grin, Budd slipped into another elevator and stood there, waiting for the doors to close.
The piece goes on and on like this for paragraphs. Go for the awkwardness, stay for the hysterical picture of Todd Young (R-IN).
Eight women athletes appeal NCAA settlement
If you missed it in all the ICE chaos, the NCAA settled its lawsuit brought by several “student athletes,” who claimed the organization was violating antitrust laws by limiting the amount athletes were allowed to earn while in school. Now, several women are appealing the settlement, claiming that the deal violates Title IX and that women'sa sports get the short end of the stick when it comes to the back damages paid out to athletes.
(A) recently graduated soccer player, said she joined the appeal because female athletes have not been given the same priority as male athletes, especially those that compete in traditional revenue-generating sports such as football and basketball.
“I think for so long female athletes have just been OK with getting whatever scraps are left and are told just to be thankful that they’re even competing and not aspire for more,” said Drumm, a business administration and political science major who is heading to law school in the fall. “Title IX is supposed to be a promise to get a full seat at that table and not just get the scraps.”
The appeal argues that the $2.8 billion in damages set to be distributed to former athletes who couldn’t earn NIL (name, image and likeness) money before 2021 violates Title IX because female athletes will be paid less than football and men’s basketball players.
The attorney for the appellants, John Clune, claims that the NCAA is mandated by law to abide by the terms of Title IX in dividing up the settlement money.
Clune said the settlement suggests “schools would have paid male athletes over 90 percent of their revenue over the past six years as though Title IX didn’t apply. If Nike wants to do that, that is their choice. If the school, or a conference acting on the school’s behalf tries to do that, they are violating the law.”
My guess is this appeal gets shot down, as heavy hitters like Jeffrey Kessler are arguing that the Title IX issue has nothing to do with the settlement, but I’ll keep an eye on it for you.
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.
If there were a personification of The High Note in a person, it might be Brian Wilson. Wilson, a musical genius if one ever existed, suffered brutal physical, emotional, and verbal abuse from his father, Murray Wilson, who was also the manager of the Beach Boys.
“My dad was violent. He was cruel,” Wilson wrote in his 2016 memoir I Am Brian Wilson. “He drank too much and became a monster- and he didn’t know how to deal with his son’s fears. Whenever I got afraid, he would yell at me or slap me or call me a pussy.
Murray Wilson was so violent with his son that he reportedly contributed to Brian’s partial deafness. Wilson never really recovered from his father, and his abuse of alcohol and drugs is legendarily on par with Keith Richards’. But Brian Wilson also gave us some of the most beautiful harmonies ever written. As good as his songs were, Brian said that he could never quite get them to sound the way they did in his head.
Can you imagine hearing this in your head and trying to translate it to music for your band?
As I kid, I loved the Beach Boys for what they represented: Sun, surf, California, and an endless summer. But as I grew older, I began to appreciate their music on a much deeper level. I mean, just listen to them:
And that’s just the Beach Boys goofing around - you can hear someone say, “Use the ashtray!” about halfway through. Just incredible stuff. Who comes up with something like this?
Despite all the unsavory stories about the band (Dennis getting tangled up with Charles Manson, Dennis marrying Mike’s (alleged) teenage daughter (who was also his cousin), Dr. Eugene Landy’s control of Brian, all the drug arrests, Mike Love’s affinity for Donald Trump, the fact that Kokomo exists), the Beach Boys still represent something important — that something so beautiful can come from so much pain. And that, no matter where you are, all you need to get to the beach is a speaker and a Beach Boys song.
Of the five original members, only Mike Love and Al Jardine are still with us.
So RIP, Brian. You were one of a kind. Wherever you are, may you only know a golden, endless summer.
Survive and advance out there today. Don’t let the bastards get you down.
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