‘One Way or Another’

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Judge Vows to End Trump Administration’s Noncompliance

Today On The Digital Diner: The Missing Trump Files

Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, a George W. Bush appointee, is drawing a line in the sand after documenting nearly 100 instances of ICE ignoring court orders in his Minneapolis courtroom. By threatening criminal contempt for “manifest recklessness,” Schiltz is signaling that the executive branch isn’t above the law. His vow to ensure compliance“one way or another” reminds the administration that while they run the country, they don’t run the bench.

This judicial pushback isn’t an isolated skirmish in a Minneapolis courtroom; it’s part of a growing judicial firewall against executive overreach. These judges are proving that the Constitution’s “checks and balances” system isn’t just a dusty theory—it’s a functioning emergency brake for a presidency moving at manifest recklessness.

Read the Trail Mix Brief: Roll Call for the Rule of Law — Judges Who Drew the Line

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54 thoughts on “‘One Way or Another’”

  1. Attribution: Trump Held In Contempt (REPOST) by Rick McKee, CagleCartoons.com
    Rick worked for decades as the cartoonist for the Augusta Chronicle in Georgia. Rick also draws the syndicated, daily comic panel “Pluggers.” Rick was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, along with everybody else.


  2. The House Oversight Committee dragged Hillary Clinton to testify under oath about Epstein even though there is no evidence she ever met him, Trump has denied that he didn’t write for Epstein’s 50th birthday book and turns there is an email from 2002 that specifically mentioned the fact that they asked him for a note, the co-inventor of the Squatty Potty was arrested, Trump got another visit from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is encouraging TV networks to celebrate our 250th anniversary by broadcasting civic-minded programming, we are proud to present another star-spangled edition of This Day in American History, and Yehya talks about the movie Scream 7.

  3. Attribution: Judge, Jury and Dictator by Milt Priggee, Oak Harbor, WA
    Milt Priggee is a freelance editorial cartoonist from northwest Washington State. His work has been reprinted in Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World report, The New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today.

  4. kudos to judicial branch’s one way or another moves

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/alarm-is-sounded-federal-judge-reverses-course-after-realizing-bondi-s-doj-can-t-be-trusted-and-blocks-their-latest-vindictive-move-in-trump-s-name/a

    Another day, another humiliating setback for President Donald Trump’s Justice Department — and another awkward moment for Attorney General Pam Bondi, repeatedly tasked with executing the president’s hard-edged agenda only to see it stall under judicial pushback.

    Federal agents swooped into a Virginia home in January, boxing up laptops, a recorder, a hard drive, even a Garmin watch. The target wasn’t a dangerous suspect but a Washington Post reporter who had done nothing more than her job. At the time, the Justice Department framed the raid as a routine leak investigation carried out in the name of national security.

    Weeks later, the very judge who authorized the takedown took a second look and reached a different conclusion: the government investigators now asking for trust no longer deserved it.

    Earlier this week, U.S. Magistrate Judge William Porter made that judgment explicit, blocking the Justice Department from searching the seized devices of journalist Hannah Natanson and sharply rebuking prosecutors for how they handled the case.

    In a blistering 22-page opinion, Porter reversed course after initially authorizing the seizure, ruling that the DOJ, led by Bondi, could not be trusted to police itself in light of its omissions, shifting explanations, and priorities that put hunting down leaks ahead of protecting First Amendment freedoms.

    Now, instead of allowing a government “filter team” to review the materials, Porter ordered that the court itself would conduct the examination — a rare and humiliating step that deepened the DOJ’s embarrassment and highlighted growing judicial skepticism of its actions.

    The ruling stems from a Jan. 14 pre-dawn raid on Natanson’s home, when FBI agents seized her electronic devices. Law enforcement officials said the search was tied to an investigation of Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a Pentagon contractor with top-secret clearance who was indicted in Maryland last month on charges of unlawfully obtaining and sharing classified materials. Natanson, a Harvard graduate, was told she was not the focus of the investigation.

    Prosecutors later acknowledged that only a small portion of the information on Natanson’s devices would be relevant to the case. They asked Porter to allow government investigators to sift through the devices and pass along any responsive material. Porter refused.

    In his opinion, Porter concluded that “the government could not be trusted to conduct a review of the devices on its own.” Allowing prosecutors to oversee the search, he wrote, risked exposing more than 1,000 of the reporter’s confidential sources.

    “Given the documented reporting on government leak investigations and the government’s well chronicled efforts to stop them, allowing the government’s filter team to search a reporter’s work product — most of which consists of unrelated information from confidential sources — is the equivalent of leaving the government’s fox in charge of the Washington Post’s henhouse,” Porter wrote.

    He added: “The concern that a filter team may err by neglect, by malice, or by honest difference of opinion is heightened where its institutional interests are so directly at odds with the press freedom values at stake.”

    Rather than order the immediate return of the devices, Porter directed that the court itself would review the seized materials and flag anything relevant to the FBI’s probe — an extraordinary workaround that signals deep mistrust of the Justice Department.

    The ruling landed with force online, where critics of the administration framed it as confirmation of long-held fears about the weaponization of the Justice Department under President Donald Trump. [continues]

  6. “The court is not aware of another occasion in the history of the United States in which a federal court has had to threaten contempt — again and again and again — to force the United States government to comply with court orders,” wrote Judge Schiltz, who was nominated to the bench by President George W. Bush.

    “Judge Schiltz identified 210 orders issued in 143 cases in Minnesota in which he said Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials had not complied with court orders… Across the country, federal judges have repeatedly called out Trump administration officials in recent weeks for testifying dishonestly, representing the law inaccurately and failing to comply promptly with their orders, especially on immigration-related matters. Tensions between the judiciary and the Trump administration have been especially high in Minnesota, where the courts have been overwhelmed with lawsuits stemming from a crackdown on illegal immigration.”
    — New York Times (Trail Mix Free Link)
    📖 Read the Judges Order

  7. craig, fed judge michael simon is another good candidate for the list.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/26/salmon-dams-trump-admnistration-oregon-washington
    Judge sides with salmon against Trump administration in hydropower ruling
    Federal judge in Oregon rejects bid to overturn Biden-era agreement to protect endangered fish populations
    […]
    in a strongly worded ruling, issued late on Wednesday, the Oregon US district court judge Michael Simon rebuked the administration’s position and the “disappointing history of government avoidance and manipulation instead of sincere efforts at solving the problem”, and the evidence presented, which he said was created for the lawsuit and contradicted the scientific record.
    In a report issued under Biden in 2024 and removed from public access by the Trump administration, the Department of the Interior acknowledged that the dams inflicted harm on the river and the Native American tribes that depend on it. Construction of the dams at the turn of the 20th century transformed riparian ecosystems and devastated salmon runs, flooded villages and burial grounds, and pushed tribal members from their lands, traditions, culture and food sources.
    The Columbia River basin, which sprawls across a swath of land the size of Texas, once produced more salmon than any other system in the world. But out of the 16 stocks of salmon and steelhead that once thrived here, seven are listed under the Endangered Species Act and four have already been wiped from existence.
    “One of the foundational symbols of the West, a critical recreational, cultural, and economic driver for Western states, and the beating heart and guaranteed resource protected by treaties with several Native American tribes is disappearing from the landscape,” Simon wrote of the threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead.
    He lamented that the battle for the life of these declining and important species had “not been fought at the end of a hook and line, nor in the woven threads of a fishing net, nor even based on the appetites of sea lions, avian predators, or killer whales. Instead, the greatest battle has been waged in the courts,” he said.
    His order generally sustains the status quo, returning reservoir and flow levels to what they were last year with some small increases. The groups that sued for the injunction celebrated the order, and said the ruling was needed to prevent salmon extinction in the basin. [continues]

  8. ICE STILL THERE
    KARE TV (Minnesota): “Operation Metro Surge may be over, but there are still far more federal agents than before operation began. There are still about 400 federal agents here, and they could remain through March. Most of those are Homeland Security Investigations agents.Before the operation began at the start of December, there were about 190 federal agents covering five states: Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Iowa.”

  10. TRUMP IN TEXAS TODAY
    Will he endorse in Tuesday’s U.S. Senate primary?

    Trump is scheduled to be in Corpus Christi today, his first major stop following the State of the Union address. He will be joined by all three major Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate—incumbent John Cornyn, Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Rep. Wesley Hunt.

    So far, Trump hasn’t endorsed, although he gripes a lot about Cornyn and for years he has praised Paxton, a staunch supporter.

    Last week Trump said, “I just haven’t made a decision on that race yet… I like all three of them, actually. Those are the toughest races. They’ve all supported me. I support all three.”

  11. The Digital Diner crew is getting ready for Tuesday’s U.S. Senate primary in Texas. We love Jasmine Crockett’s spunk and we’re talking a lot about rising star James Talarico ➡️

  12. Lincoln At Cooper Union

    Abraham Lincoln was born on 12 February 1809.

    If you Google “Abraham Lincoln”, the search will turn up a mere 10,800,000 references, so if you are doing research you may need some additional terms to narrow things down a bit. If you go to Amazon for books on Lincoln there are more than 53,000 entries. Each year produces more and more entries. I would recommend Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals” and on the Civil War Drew Faust’s “This Republic of Suffering”. There are two books on the specific subject of today’s blog: Lincoln at Cooper Union by John A. Corry and Lincoln At Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President by Harold Holzer.

    In 1860 Lincoln gained national fame because of his powerful speech at Cooper Union in New York City on February 27th. He toured New England making more speeches. Regarding the presidency, he wrote a friend on April 29th that “The taste is in my mouth a little.” We now refer to this as a politician getting the “fire in his belly” for the Presidency. On May 18th he was nominated for president at the Republican National Convention in Chicago. At this time, Lincoln was still beardless until he received a letter from 11-year-old Grace Bedell of Westfield, New York, suggesting he grow a beard. He decided to follow her advice. Another example of the hoops politician goes through to create an “Image”. Too often we put the all too human Presidents of the past on a pedestal with all their flaws erased and their virtues enshrined. For the most part the great Presidents were good, ambitious men who simply landed in very momentous times and managed to get the nation through them.

    If you have never read the Cooper Union speech, this is your chance, or just print it out and tuck it away somewhere for later reference. It is worth the time and the impact on America was significant. We are not used to speeches of this length these days in a world that moves at a much faster pace. Then they were popular, well attended public events. So, if you do nothing else, try the closing sentence on for size.

    Full speech on link. Closing statement –

    Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. LET US HAVE FAITH THAT RIGHT MAKES MIGHT, AND IN THAT FAITH, LET US, TO THE END, DARE TO DO OUR DUTY AS WE UNDERSTAND IT.

  14. Order Up!
    Post your comments, questions or links now for us to read at the top of today’s podcast.
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  15. That’s funny……Usually you don’t hear the “whispers in the air” until AFTER you take the psychedelics.

  16. Well, do any of them actually want tRUMP’s endorsement?

    I don’t think he’ll endorse Hunt unless he thinks people are interchangeable and Hunt would cancel Crockett. But he might want Hunt if he thinks Talarico will win the primary, because he wants to set this up as a race war.

    Worst case scenario for Republicans: Talarico v Paxton (a grifter, adulterer, and lots of legal baggage)

    Worst case scenario for Dems: I’m not sure there is one, but Crockett’s PAC money has labeled her as established in the DC swamp which sets her up on even ground with human-bowl-of-oatmeal, Cornyn. Crockett could shred Paxton in a debate.

  17. From ‘Drop Dead’ to ‘Let’s Build’: Mamdani pitches Queens housing development to Trump during surprise Washington trip

    Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Thursday that his unannounced meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office was productive and expressed optimism about his pitch to build 12,000 units of affordable housing at Sunnyside Yards in Queens with the president’s support.

    In a photo posted following the meeting, Trump is seen holding two front pages of the Daily News. One is from 1975, when then‑President Gerald Ford famously told New York City to “drop dead” (as the tabloid put it) after City Hall requested an emergency loan to prevent bankruptcy. The other is a mock-up with the headline, “Trump to City: Let’s Build,” with a subheading noting, “Trump delivers 12,000 homes.”

    Mamdani’s Press Secretary Joe Calvello said Thursday evening that the mayor presented Trump with the mock-up front pages as he pitched “a project with an estimated 12,000 units.”

    *And that’s how you play tRUMP; it doesn’t have to be real, it just has to feed that never-ending hole of an ego.

  18. https://nationaltoday.com/us/ny/new-york/news/2026/02/16/nyc-hospitals-face-backlash-over-4m-palantir-contract/

    New York City’s public hospital system, NYC Health and Hospitals (NYCHH), is facing scrutiny over a nearly $4 million contract with Palantir, a data analytics firm with a history of involvement in immigration enforcement, mass surveillance, and military operations.

    The deal allows Palantir to work with patients’ protected health information, sparking debates about data privacy and the ethics of partnering with such a controversial company.

    *Peter Thiel is evil; he thinks humans don’t matter. Nobody should do business with him. And, he’s deeply tied to Epstein in medical experiments on humans at Zorro Ranch…allegedly.
    He probably just wants to find organ donors to keep himself alive.

  23. he DOJ is playing a massive shell game with the Epstein files. While everyone points at Hillary Clinton as the ultimate distraction, certain records are conveniently missing.

    TODAY’S RUNDOWN
    00:00 Intro
    03:28 Minnesota Judge Threatens Prosecutors
    05:37 Hillary Clinton & The Epstein Files
    10:30 Trump’s Missing DOJ Records
    24:43 Les Wexner, Victoria’s Secret & Missing Republicans
    34:16 CNN’s Fate & The Italian Singing Festival
    38:05 Texas Primary Showdown: Crockett vs. Talarico
    51:11 Throwback to Imus in the Morning

    We’re digging into the coverup on today’s Digital Diner podcast:

  29. https://time.com/7381561/united-states-texas-mexico-border-drone-shot-down-airspace-closed/

    Democratic lawmakers are criticising the Trump Administration after a government-owned drone was reportedly shot down with a laser by the U.S. military in Texas.

    The incident led to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) closing the airspace above Fort Hancock at 6:30 p.m., local time, on Thursday, citing “special security reasons.”

    Congressional aides reportedly told Reuters that the Pentagon had used a “high-energy laser system” to shoot down the CBP drone near Fort Hancock, by the U.S.-Mexico border.

    The Department of Defense, FAA, and CBP acknowledged the incident, but made no specific reference to an anti-drone laser.

    “This reported engagement occurred when the Department of War [Defense] employed counter-unmanned aircraft system authorities to mitigate a seemingly threatening unmanned aerial system operating within military airspace,” read a joint statement sent to TIME.

    “The engagement took place far away from populated areas and there were no commercial aircraft in the vicinity,” they added. “These agencies will continue to work on increased cooperation and communication to prevent such incidents in the future.”

    *JFC

  30. Hope everyone is ready for the war in Iran to begin…because tRUMPco won’t wait for the Khanna-Massie thing requiring Congressional War Powers to be adhered to get to a vote. (It seems redundant; he should be going to Congress and is violating the Constitution by doing whatever the hell he wants.)

    Getting very close to something with Donald and a minor, so boom goes Iran.

  31. https://jmail.world/

    “You are logged in as Jeffrey Epstein. These are real emails released by Congress. Explore by name, search, visit a random page, contribute to the starred list, or vote for an
    unredaction.”

  32. The DOJ files on Epstein are dripping out, and one major name is suspiciously missing from the newly released batch despite a witness coming forward. Are the records being hidden?

    Watch the moment in today’s Trail Mix podcast:

  33. Timothée Chalamet felt ‘forced’ to turn on Woody Allen, Epstein email says

    As Timothée Chalamet campaigns to win a best actor Oscar in March, the “Marty Supreme” actor may have to contend with being the latest boldface name to have potentially embarrassing information about him revealed in the Epstein files.

    An email to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which is part of more than 3.5 million files released by the U.S. Justice Department, suggests that the media-savvy actor didn’t publicly renounce director Woody Allen in 2018 out of any principled support for the #MeToo movement or victims of sexual assault. Rather, he did so for public-relations purposes, according to the email.

    But prior to getting the nomination [for Call Me By Your Name], Chalamet publicly distanced himself from the legendary “Annie Hall” director — even though he was “sick about being forced into any action by the press,” according to the January 27, 2018 email from Siegal.

    In the email, Siegal told Epstein how their mutual friend Allen had become the latest target of the “#MeToo witch hunt.” She wrote: “I am sick about Woody. This ‘#Me Too’ witch hunt is out to destroy an 80 year old global cinematic treasure and it makes me so sad.”

    Allen’s past conduct came under scrutiny due to renewed interest in allegations made by his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow, who alleged that Allen molested her in 1992 when she was 7. Journalist Ronan Farrow, who authored the New Yorker’s Weinstein story, also is Allen’s son and Dylan Farrow’s younger brother. Ronan Farrow took his sister’s side and used his platform to promote her decades-old allegations against their father.

    Allen was never formally charged and has consistently denied abusing his daughter. In 2021, he and his wife Soon-Yi Previn, with whom he began an affair while in long-term relationship with her adopted mother Mia Farrow, called the allegations against him “categorically false.”

    According to Siegal, Chalamet “could not go anyplace on his ‘Call Me By Your Name’ Oscar campaign without the press hounding him about working with Woody.” As Vanity Fair reported at the time, Chalamet had been asked several times at press events about working with Allen.

    Chalamet finally responded to those questions by announcing on Instagram on Jan. 15 that he had donated his salary for “A Rainy Day in New York” to three different charities, including the anti-sexual violence organization RAINN, Vanity Fair and CNN reported.

    But Siegal explained to Epstein that it wasn’t Chalamet’s choice to donate his salary or to make that kind of statement.

    “His agents made him give his money away, supposedly not as a sign of Woody’s guilt, but (in) support of hysterical woman and media,” Siegal said. “He is genuinely upset about the whole thing and at 22 is a pawn in a bigger game.”

    The financier famously cultivated access to rich and powerful men in media, business and politics, and the newly released Epstein files “provide a window into how he reacted and strategized in real time to the political and cultural earthquake of #MeToo,” according to The 19th News. The emails show him getting input from Siegal and other associates on the public response to the allegations against Allen and Weinstein, as well as those involving talk show host Charlie Rose, comedian Louis C.K., former “Today Show” host Matt Lauer and ex-CBS chairman Les Moonves.

    “The world is topsy-turvy,” Siegal wrote in a Nov. 17, 2017 email. “That has been going on since the beginning of time (that is not an excuse) and has suddenly erupted in our day of massive global information as a new moral code of behavior.”

    Allen’s wife of 28 years, Soon-Yi Previn, also had a lot to say to their friend Epstein about the #MeToo movement, saying it has “gone too far,” according to her emails to the late financier, which also have become public, the Daily Beast reported.

    The year before, Previn also joined Epstein in defending disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner, according to one email. She called the 15-year-old girl Weiner sent nudes to and requested participation in rape fantasies from, “despicable and disgusting.”
    Weiner pled guilty to transferring obscene material to a minor in 2017 and spent 15 months in federal prison for the crime.

    *So, the girl Woody groomed & then married when she was of legal age defended Weiner and call his 15-year old victim “disgusting”?

  36. you cannot attack house of worship

    was already illegal, these fuckers are so dumb

    oh wait they’re calling that peaceful protest an attack? the Don Lemon thing? what scum all magas are

    if the church welcomed to anybody into it and the doors were open, all 33 cases should be thrown right out

  37. The “no tax on tips” promise is colliding with reality.

    Hard caps, strict IRS job lists, and a built-in expiration date. If politicians are banking on this for the midterms, they’re hoping you ignore the footnotes.

    Watch the reality check:

  39. A long show with Sedaka…..talks about growing up in Brooklyn, early music, the music business etc

    Can’t make it copy/paste but if interested, it’s “Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Collossal (?) Podcast” Of
    July 29, 2019, Episode #270
    He plays, he sings, he even sings with Gilbert, he tells stories….a jolly good show.

  40. Pre-Show Live Chat is NOW OPEN! 🚨

    We are getting ready to tackle the “Texas Mess” 11am ET. From the final closing arguments in the Senate Primary to the massive impact of Donald Trump’s visit today, there is a lot to ponder.

    The onscreen YouTube live chat is open comments now. help us set the table for going live tomorrow.

    Don’t wait—click the link below to jump into the live chat and questions, theories, rants and comments right now so we can get them “on air”.

    👉 Join the Pre-Show Conversation

  42. In today’s Diner we plan Eurovision coverage with our European chatters. We remember ABBA’s breakout there. Plus, the wild royal Swedish backstory behind “Dancing Queen” you probably never knew.
    Catch this moment in today’s podcast:

  44. Search Assust-

    “A 17-page draft executive order is circulating among Trump allies, proposing to declare a national emergency regarding elections, citing alleged foreign interference. This order would grant the president significant control over voting processes, including banning mail-in ballots and requiring hand-counted paper ballots, although its legality is highly disputed. truthout.org/PBS

    Overview of the Draft Executive Order
    A draft executive order is circulating among allies of President Donald Trump, proposing to declare a national emergency regarding elections. This 17-page document claims that foreign interference, particularly from China, justifies extraordinary presidential powers over voting processes.

    Key Provisions of the Draft Order Proposed

    Changes to Voting Procedures

    Ban on all electronic voting machines, requiring only hand-marked paper ballots.

    VoterRegistration
    Mandates in-person re-registration for the 2026 elections, eliminating online registration.

    Voter Identification
    Requires proof of citizenship and voter ID at polling places.

    Mail-inVoting
    Proposes to ban no-excuse mail-in
    ***
    https://www.rawstory.com/trump-voting-order/

    Under Section d.I, voters must “register in person or at a County satellite office anew for the 2026 United States election.”

    As of last year, 174 million people were registered to vote in the United States.

    *EVERYONE would have to go to their county election office to RE-REGISTER before the midterms in November, proving citizenship. All 174 million voters who already registered. ~Sounds totally doable and not like a clusterfk at all ~

    (Then, everyone would need to prove citizenship, again, when they go to vote.)

    Some Republican tool bought voting machine company, so I guess Repugz don’t trust being able to rig those machines? A long vote count, for sure, and who would monkey with those paper ballots? Marked ballots or do we go back to Gore/Bush “hanging chads”? Interesting that it was Palm Beach, FL (home of Epstein and Epstein’s best friend) that had voting issues. Republicans have been working on this for awhile; they saw the US looking less white and more liberal.

  45. I have 57,689 screenshots. Really need to organize it into folders, but a lot of it is just Epstein files in case they scrub stuff, again.

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