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Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: Is it legal? [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-09-04

We begin today with Rex Huppke of USA Today announcing that the tacky shoe salesman can expect a frosty reception in Chicago.

A brief note: I will be off of APR all next week beginning Sunday, Sept. 7 and will return Sunday, Sept. 14.

Robin Pogrebin and Graham Bowley of The New York Times writes that Smithsonian secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III has responded to Trump’s demand for a review of exhibits at multiple museums.

The Smithsonian offered the first indication on Wednesday afternoon when Lonnie G. Bunch III, the Smithsonian’s secretary, sent a letter to the staff indicating that the institution had agreed to set up a team to review turning over materials to the White House, as requested, but to do so as an autonomous institution. “I take my responsibility to steward the institution on behalf of the American people very seriously,” the letter to staff said, adding, “Our independence is paramount.” [...] While complimenting Mr. Trump’s “admiration and regard for the Smithsonian,” Mr. Bunch told the staff that his response to the White House, sent in a letter on Tuesday, had reiterated the institution’s intention to rigorously review its content for inappropriate partisanship. But he said it would be the Smithsonian, not the executive branch, that would direct the effort. “Our own review of content to ensure our programming is nonpartisan and factual is ongoing, and it is consistent with our authority over our programming and content,” Mr. Bunch wrote in his letter to the staff.

Paul Krugman thinks that a “national housing emergency” is coming next.

..Donald Trump loves emergencies. He has been in office less than 8 months, but has already formally declared 9 national emergencies, as well as a “crime emergency” in Washington DC. He’s probably about to use similar claims about an urban crime emergency to send the National Guard into Chicago — which, as Jeff Asher notes, “has likely had fewer shootings this year than any year since 1965 or 1966.” As far as I can tell, so far all of Trump’s claims about emergency have been false excuses for power grabs. There is no national crime wave demanding military action — America’s big cities are, on average, safer than they’ve been since the 1960s. There is no economic emergency to justify the highest tariffs in 90 years — Trump himself keeps insisting that the U.S. economy is doing great. Given this pattern, the scariest words in the English language right now may be “Trump officials declare that we are facing a national emergency.” So I got a sinking feeling when I saw Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, saying that the administration may soon declare a national housing emergency.

The Editorial Board of the Harvard Crimson says that now is the time to double down on resistance to the Trump regime following a ruling that by a federal judge that the Trump regime cannot block billions in federal grants to Harvard.

Yesterday, a federal judge ruled in favor of Harvard in its lawsuit against the Trump administration for cancelling $2.6 billion worth of federal grants. The decision marks a new phase in the fight against authoritarianism in America. If the rest of civil society, from universities to law firms to everyday people, learn one thing this week, let it be this: Resistance is possible, necessary, and — most importantly — it can work. Harvard wasn’t the first institution to face a federal shakedown. In the early months of the second Trump administration, Columbia University confronted fire from Washington and accepted a host of reforms seemingly handed down from the White House. Many law firms, facing pressure over factors including associations with clients adversarial to Trump and firmwide DEI policies, also bent the knee. The message was clear: Get in line. [...] Now is the time to steel ourselves for what’s to come. The University should take the ruling as an opportunity to hold true to the principled stance it espoused when it first sued the Trump administration. The decision should embolden Harvard to reject a dangerous settlement and prompt a rethinking of the internal changes it’s made, seemingly with the aim of pleasing the White House.

Matt Murphy and Joshua Cheetham of BBC News asked international law experts whether the U.S. strike on an alleged Venezuelan “drug boat” was legal.

BBC Verify reached out to a range of experts in international and maritime law, with several saying that US may have acted illegally in attacking the vessel. The US is not a signatory to United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, but the US military's legal advisors have previously said that the US should "act in a manner consistent with its provisions". Under the convention, countries agree not to interfere with vessels operating in international waters. There are limited exceptions to this which allow a state to seize a ship, such as a "hot pursuit" where a vessel is chased from a country's waters into the high seas. "Force can be used to stop a boat but generally this should be non-lethal measures," Prof Luke Moffett of Queens University Belfast said. But he added that the use of aggressive tactics must be "reasonable and necessary in self-defence where there is immediate threat of serious injury or loss of life to enforcement officials", noting that the US moves were likely "unlawful under the law of the sea".

Serena Williams Alex Ohanian as they talked about everything from his new social network start-up to his immigrant mom to his favorite pizza topping to his ownerships and investments in women’s sports. Finally today, I thoroughly enjoyed Katie Drummond of Wired’s interview with Mr.Alex Ohanian as they talked about everything from his new social network start-up to his immigrant mom to his favorite pizza topping to his ownerships and investments in women’s sports.

DRUMMOND: ...What's your most active text thread? OHANIAN: With my wife and our nannies. DRUMMOND:That sounds right. Parent of two over there. ChatGPT or Claude? OHANIAN: You know, I dabble between both. I'd say I use ChatGPT more, but I feel like Claude does a much better job writing and programming. ChatGPT was trained largely on tons and tons and tons of Reddit data, so I guess I should use it more. DRUMMOND: We're going to talk a little bit about that later. Now I hate to do this, but you did work at Pizza Hut in high school. OHANIAN: I did. Nothing I hate about that. DRUMMOND: I worked at Tim Horton's, so I agree. Favorite pizza topping? OHANIAN: Jalapenos.

I love all kinds of peppers on pizza including jalapeños and even habaneros (bring on all the smoke!) but my absolute favorite topping is black olives.

Everyone have the best possible day that you can!

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