Losing My Perspicacity, June 25, 2025

Farewell, Big Balls — we hardly knew ye

Author

Julie DiCaro
June 25, 2025

Good morning and Happy Wednesday! Thanks for reading today. Let’s get to the really big news right off the bat.

SCOOP: 'Big Balls' has officially left the building. 19-year-old technologist Edward Coristine, a key operative in Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) who's gone by the name "Big Balls" online, has resigned, the White House tells WIRED.

— WIRED (@wired.com)2025-06-24T21:19:43.160Z

Big Balls never should have been allowed anywhere near the federal government, but at least he had the perfect nickname for this era of American clusterfuckery. Someday, we will gather ‘round the campfire to tell our children’s children about Big Balls.

Now, for the second-biggest story of yesterday: Turns out Donald Trump was a little quick off the mark in claiming that he “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear facilities in a bombing strike last Saturday. I was out celebrating my anniversary at the time, and, after dinner, my husband went to get the car (it was HOT, okay?) and as soon as he pulled up and I got in, he said, “We’re bombing Iran.” So that was fun. Happy Anniversary to us.

Anyway, according to people much more reliable than our reality-TV show President, the bombs didn’t do nearly as much damage as he’d like to claim. Per a US intelligence report, we only caused Iran a few months’ delay in whatever it is Iran is doing.

A preliminary classified U.S. report says the American bombing of three nuclear sites in Iran set back the country’s nuclear program by only a few months, according to officials familiar with the findings.

The strikes sealed off the entrances to two of the facilities but did not collapse their underground buildings, the officials said the early findings concluded.

Before the attack, U.S. intelligence agencies had said that if Iran tried to rush to making a bomb, it would take about three months. After the U.S. bombing run and days of attacks by the Israeli Air Force, the report by the Defense Intelligence Agency estimated that the program had been delayed, but by less than six months.

Uh… how many millions did this operation cost us?

After crowing about his success in forcing a ceasefire between Iran and Israel all night Monday night, this was Trump yesterday afternoon:

He seems kind of angry.

— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social)2025-06-24T11:15:10.989Z

Well, that seems unnecessary, Donald. Such a nasty man. You’d be so much prettier if you smiled.

Meanwhile, Trump has pissed Iran off at the same time he’s gutted protections for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which protects such frivolous things as our power grids and water utilities. So we’re kinda twisting in the wind out here.

“We are less safe now than we were on Jan. 20 because of the indiscriminate cuts by DOGE, that shift in priority to focus exclusively on immigration and not on counterterrorism or other national security threats, and the loss of institutional knowledge about those national security threats,” said Mary Ellen Callahan, the former assistant secretary of homeland security for the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction office, which Mr. Trump has proposed disbanding. “We are less safe now and the risks are higher now.”

I feel great.

Today: Things are bad at DOJ; ICE is warehousing people like cattle; Some good news out of the vaccine community; and The High Note.

Let’s get to it.

The hell is happening at DOJ?

Obviously, we knew a lot of what’s happening at the DOJ — a bunch of sycophants with no moral compass and no love for the rule of law have taken over and flouted centuries of American jurisprudence. But there’s even more going on behind the scenes than we knew.

Yesterday, former DOJ lawyer Erez Reuveni, who was fired after he admitted to a judge that the DOJ mistakenly removed Kilmar Abrego-Garcia to El Salvador, released a whistleblower letter to members of Congress, many of whom are actual lawyers and know far better than they pretend how unlawfully the DOJ is comporting itself.

Emil Bove, the Department of Justice’s principal associate deputy attorney general, who Donald Trump nominated for the US court of appeals for the third circuit, reportedly said the department “would need to consider telling the courts ‘fuck you’” when it came to orders blocking the deportation of undocumented people.

Former attorney at the justice department, Erez Reuveni, claimed Bove said the agency should violate court orders. In a whistleblower letter to members of Congress first obtained by the New York Times, Reuveni painted the scene of a lawless justice department willingly to defy the courts and fire the people who stood in their way.

All of this is a bigger part of the GOP’s “we don’t have to obey any court orders that don’t come from the Supreme Court” thing. They’ve only taken this stance because the laws they seek to violate are not in their favor. If the law was on their side, they’d be screaming to high heaven about obeying the rule of law. These people have no worldview or political philosophy beyond “I can do what I want” and “If it makes me rich, it should be legal.”

And can we talk about Emil Bove for a minute? The DOJ’s current number two is a real candidate for “worst person” in a federal government that includes Stephen Miller, Peter Hegseth, and Kristi Noem.

Do we think he became evil despite looking like this or because of it? I still can’t decide. I’m generally against commenting on people’s looks, but in Bove’s case, I’m willing to make an exception.

Meanwhile, Trump has nominated Bove for a federal judgeship (of course, he has), and his confirmation hearing is tomorrow. So get the popcorn ready, because Cory Booker, Mazie Hirono, Alex Padilla, and Adam Schiff all sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee. The downside is that, to get to them skewering Bove, you’re going to have to sit through Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley’s grandstanding. Maybe pick up some Tums if you go out.

ICE is warehousing people like livestock

I know it’s tough to hear about all the atrocities ICE is committing every day, which is why I’ve tried to pull back on including their shenanigans in every newsletter. Each day, we get roughly 150 stories about how cruel, inhumane, and illegal their actions are. I know well how frustrating it is to see that each morning and feel powerless to stop it, so I am trying to include stories on them in measured doses.

But the story that came out yesterday about how ICE is housing immigrants is one I feel people need to see. Currently, ICE is holding approximately 59,000 people, many of whom have no criminal record, in rapidly deteriorating conditions.

On Monday, June 23, ICE's detention level was — on paper at least — at over 140% capacity, since Congress last allocated 41,500 detainee beds for the agency, the figures show.

The federal statistics show nearly half — or 47% — of those currently detained by ICE lack a criminal record and fewer than 30% have been convicted of crimes, a sign of the widening scope of President Trump's escalating crackdown on illegal immigration. On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump vowed to expel dangerous criminal migrants, though top officials in his administration have said no one in the U.S. illegally will be immune from deportation.

***

Two former senior ICE officials said they had never seen the agency holding that many detainees.

And, as you’d expect when facilities are at 140 percent of capacity, things inside are not good. We’re getting stories like this from all over the country.

People held in detention told Congress members that “they did not have a change of clothes for 10 days, nor a change of underwear and they had the same towel that they had to use over and over again”, said Judy Chu, a congressperson who represents the San Gabriel Valley east of LA. The bathrooms inside didn’t look clean, she said – and detainees reported they decided to clean the showers themselves so that they could maintain sanitary conditions.

Here’s another story from Burlington, Massachusetts:

 In sworn affidavits filed in federal court this week, and in interviews with WBUR, several lawyers said clients being held in Burlington described being hungry, cold and terrified. They said clients lacked access to showers and sinks, meaning they couldn't wash their hands after using the toilet, and that they were sleeping on concrete floors with a single mylar blanket each — the sort given to marathon runners after a race.

"There is no privacy, no beds, no medical care, very limited food," said Sarah Sherman-Stokes, a law professor and associate director of Boston University's Immigrants' Rights & Human Trafficking clinic. "It's absolutely inhumane and it's a violation of these peoples' rights."

There are many stories like this being reported all over the US.

It’s so easy to ignore all of this. So easy just to go about your day and not think about it. So let’s not do that. Call your reps, blow up their phones, and tell them how outraged you are by this. Threaten to give all the money to whoever primaries them. We can’t stand by and do nothing. If you haven’t already, check out the Five Calls app! It makes harassing your Congresspeople really easy. I do it pretty much daily (I’m definitely on some no-fly list somewhere).

Finally, some good news about vaccines

While RFK Jr. was flailing around in front of Congress today, pretending not to know anything that’s happening on his watch, the medical community was making plans to get us our vaccines.

Ruiz: Why did the report include citations that don’t exist? RFK JR: All of the foundational assertions in that report are accurate Ruiz: How can they be accurate if they did not exist?

— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social)2025-06-24T15:20:44.513Z

There are apparently some workarounds to RFK Jr and HHS in the offing.

Professional medical societies, pharmacists, state health officials and vaccine manufacturers, as well as a new advocacy group, are mobilizing behind the scenes to preserve access for vaccines as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. works to upend the nation’s decades-old vaccine system, according to public health experts.

The groups are discussing ordering vaccines directly from manufacturers and giving greater weight to vaccine recommendations from medical associations. And they are asking insurance companies to continue covering shots based on professional societies’ guidance instead of the federal government’s, according to more than a dozen people familiar with the conversations, including some who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share private discussions.

All of this comes, of course, after RFK Jr. fired all the members of the Vaccine Advisory Committee (ACIP) and replaced them with anti-vaxxers. But the medical community is prepared.

The American College of Physicians, one group involved in the talks, said Kennedy’s recent changes to the ACIP and lack of transparency in the process “puts at risk decades of progress in vaccine development, access, and public trust, and contributes to confusion and uncertainty.”

If the panel departs from long-standing recommendations, “we will need to look elsewhere for reliable information guided by the best-available evidence to guide the use of vaccines,” said Jason Goldman, the group’s president, in a statement.

Yeehaw. Go science, and let’s keep those vaccines coming. Also, let’s watch Rep. Kim Schrier (D-WA), a pediatrician, light RFK Jr. up.

Schrier to RFK Jr: You gave Cassidy the answer he needed to hear in order to get his confirmation vote, then as soon as you were secretary you turned around & fired all 17 members. You lied. I also want to be clear that I will lay all responsibility for every vaccine-preventable death at your feet.

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)2025-06-24T15:54:44.705Z

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.

We’ve never needed the best guitar solo in rock history (starts at 3:27) more than we do today.

Two things: 1) Where did his guitar go at the end? To heaven?

2) I really miss Tom Petty.

Survive and advance out there today, kids. Don’t let the bastards get you down.

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