As To DOJ’s Indictment Of Judge Boasberg:

I’m only about half-through reading this, and already know everyone else needs to see this, too. It’s important to keep up with the attacks on the judiciary. Only a decent-sized snippet here, but do go finish it. This is well written, and it informs. -A.

207. The Justice Department Beclowns Itself (Again)

The denouement of DOJ’s misconduct complaint against Chief Judge Boasberg provides useful lessons relating to both the Department’s continuing misbehavior and the emptiness of calls for impeachment.

Steve Vladeck Feb 02, 2026

There is, as ever, too much court- (and Court-)adjacent news to cover, including this morning’s New York Times double-feature on the Chief Justice’s move to have Court employees sign non-disclosure agreements and on the Times’s own expanding coverage of the Court. But I wanted to use today’s “Long Read” to come back to a post I wrote last July—shortly after the Department of Justice submitted (and then Attorney General Bondi tweeted about) an unprecedented judicial misconduct complaint against the chief judge of the D.C. federal district court, James E. Boasberg. As I wrote at the time, DOJ’s complaint was “almost laughably preposterous.” The gravamen of its charge was that Boasberg had violated the Code of Conduct for United States Judges by relaying (at a private breakfast with the Chief Justice and a group of other district judges before a meeting of the Judicial Conference of the United States) that several of his colleagues were worried about the Trump administration potentially defying their rulings.

That complaint is back in the news because late last week, we finally learned about its outcome. After a bit of procedural shuffling that I’ll explain below, it was dismissed, quite cursorily, by Sixth Circuit Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton in a … brusque … seven-page memorandum and order. Not only did Sutton pour cold water on DOJ’s theor(ies) of Boasberg’s misconduct, but he also expressed understandable frustration with the fact that DOJ never produced the document that it claimed memorialized Boasberg’s alleged misconduct—even after it was specifically told that it needed to do so to substantiate its claims.

In other words, after filing an unprecedented complaint against a sitting federal judge, making a big public stink about it (which, by the way, was itself a violation of the law), and having its complaint invoked as one of the grounds for the proposed impeachment charges against Chief Judge Boasberg, DOJ … never followed through. It turns out, it was never about adjudicating Boasberg’s behavior; it was about making splashy headlines and fueling right-wing attacks on the judiciary without regard to whether DOJ’s specious charges would withstand meaningful scrutiny.

The obvious takeaway is that the Department of Justice has once again beclowned itself. I’d say it has shredded even more of its credibility, but when you’re publicly soliciting for new lawyers to apply via Twitter (with the primary qualification being that they “support President Trump”), there may not be any credibility left to shred. Instead, the more significant takeaway is that this really ought to be the final nail in the coffin of congressional Republicans’ breathless efforts to gin up impeachment charges against a judge whose only actual sin, as it turns out, was to decline to roll over when the government defied one of his orders, and then lied about it.

(snip-graphic of pleading filed; just click through to see it. Then there is info on other cases of which we may want to be at least aware, then back to this one; a bit more below. Use this link to skip the other cases and get back to this.)

The One First “Long Read”:
The Denouement of the Boasberg Misconduct Mess

My post from last July walked through the background and details of the Justice Department’s judicial misconduct complaint against Chief Judge Boasberg (and why it suffered from four independently fatal defects). I’d encourage folks to refer back to that post if you could use more context.

In a nutshell, DOJ’s chief accusation was that Boasberg had violated the Code of Conduct for United States Judges by publicly suggesting that he had “pre-judged” the merits of specific cases involving the Trump administration (even though, in fact, Boasberg had only privately relayed concerns that his colleagues had raised about how the Trump administration might behave in unnamed future cases). Indeed, at the time Boasberg made the relevant comments, the lawsuit in which his interactions with the Trump administration have been most visible—the J.G.G. Alien Enemies Act case—hadn’t even been filed yet. Nonetheless, DOJ decided to make hay out of Boasberg’s alleged misbehavior, and six Republican senators have since piled on by urging D.C. Circuit Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan (who, by law, was the recipient of DOJ’s misconduct complaint) to suspend Boasberg while the complaint (and a potential impeachment investigation) was pending.2

The process created by the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act of 1980 is supposed to be almost entirely confidential (which is why Attorney General Bondi’s tweet announcing the complaint was itself likely a violation of the act). But we often learn about the dispositions, at least, once the complaint has been fully resolved. That’s why we learned last week about the result of DOJ’s complaint; not only had Chief Judge Sutton dismissed it, but the 30-day period within which DOJ could have sought further review of Sutton’s decision (by filing a “petition for review” with the full Sixth Circuit Judicial Council) had expired.3

As for how DOJ’s complaint made its way to Sutton, Sutton’s memorandum explains the procedural history:

On November 26, in view of several appellate challenges to the judge’s rulings in the underlying case [J.G.G.] and of concerns that the judges on the D.C. Circuit might have to recuse themselves from any proceedings before the Judicial Council, Chief Judge Srinivasan asked Chief Justice Roberts to transfer the judicial misconduct proceeding to another circuit. On December 5, the Chief Justice transferred the matter to the Judicial Council of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit for resolution.

Sutton, who I have to think the Chief Justice did not pick at random (Roberts could have referred the complaint to any of the chief judges of the other circuits), made quick work of DOJ’s complaint—dismissing it just two weeks after he received it. His seven-page ruling is worth reading—not just for its thoroughness, but because, if you’re not used to reading these kinds of rulings, it is all-but-dripping with contempt for the Department of Justice’s behavior.

In short, Sutton found four different problems with DOJ’s complaint:

(snip. Yup, you know you want to know, so go read his piece and give it a like if you care to, after you finish.)

https://open.substack.com/pub/stevevladeck/p/207-the-justice-department-beclowns?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

From ProPublica and MPS:

Pretti’s Killers Were Veterans Of DHS

ICE’s Tracing Tool

I saw this yesterday and intended to post it for Sunday morning. It’s suppertime on Sunday, so it goes live Monday morning. It’ll keep until then. Click on through; it’s not too long. There are good graphics there, and that helped me.

Here is the User Guide for ELITE, the Tool Palantir Made for ICE

Joseph Cox ·Jan 30, 2026 at 9:49 AM

404 Media is publishing a version of the user guide for ELITE, which lets ICE bring up dossiers on individual people and provides a “confidence score” of their address.

Earlier this month we revealed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is using a Palantir tool called ELITE to decide which neighborhoods to raid.

The tool lets ICE populate a map with potential deportation targets, bring up dossiers on each person, and view an address “confidence score” based on data sourced from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and other government agencies. This is according to a user guide for ELITE 404 Media obtained.

404 Media is now publishing a version of that user guide so people can read it for themselves. (snip-MORE)

An Especially Good One From The Bloggess

It’s okay to make due with what you have

Jenny Lawson (thebloggess) Jan 26, 2026

Hell, friend.

That was supposed to say “Hello, friend” but I fucked it up and I’m leaving it because it feels equally fitting. Maybe you, like me, are in the darkness right now and are just trying to get by until the light comes back. It will. I promise. Between the weather, tricksy brains and (motions wildly to everything) all of the traumatic bullshit going on in the world right now, your body is just acting the way it probably should and you need to take care of it and be gentle to yourself.

This week I was planning on getting organized but then a depression hit me and I found myself staring at the blank gridded planner I’d bought because SURELY THIS ONE WILL FIX ME but then it didn’t fix me and so instead of outlining all of the stuff I’m behind on I instead screamed into the internet for bit, donated to several important causes, amplified what I could and then I turned off my phone and found myself doodling on the planner because my brain was just not going to be able to work the way I needed it to.

Each line counted off a moment. A sort of meditation.

I didn’t even have the bandwidth to find my sketch book so I just kept drawing, using the strange grids to find my way, and knowing each mindless pattern would get me closer to the other side, when I’d have the energy to be human again.

Dorothy Barker helped.

I’m using the word “helped” lightly.

And each doodle got me through a bad hour.

The terrible messy ones I drew when my hands shook from anger or anxiety.

And the calmer ones I drew in the quiet, small hours of the night when I needed to remember that there is peace and light out there even if we can’t always see it.

I drew and drew and dropped each picture onto the floor where the cats could lay on them and contemplate why I still wasn’t in bed yet.

And as of today I have not gotten anything organized at all and my planner is a mess of pointless drawings. Except (I remind myself) they’re not pointless at all, if you look at them with the right eyes.

“I am not good at planning. Or organizing. Or calculations. Or any of the things this ledger is supposed to be for. But I am quite good at silly little doodles. And that is worthwhile too.”

So this is just my little reminder to you…find joy…create…don’t be afraid to use a ledger as an easel or a dog as a paperweight or this letter as a hug. It’s okay if all you are doing right now is surviving. That is sometimes one of the hardest things you will do.

Keep going.

It will get better.

Yours,

Jenny

https://open.substack.com/pub/thebloggess/p/its-okay-to-make-due-with-what-you?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

It Gave Me A Good Giggle!

It’s a well done short.

Beginning Black History Month 2026

So far, it’s not illegal for us to acknowledge that February is Black History Month, so here we are, doing just that. Ha! There is even some Black History for this very date in Peace and Justice History:

In light of current events, I thought it’d be good to review how Black History Month came to be. Below is a bit on its beginnings.

The History of Black History Month

Black History Month was first observed as Negro History Week in February 1926, but the inspiration for the commemoration began over a decade earlier through a steady stream of electrifying events, discoveries, and other celebrations of Black excellence. In 1915, American historian Dr. Carter G. Woodson attended the national celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of emancipation in Washington D.C. This event was widely attended and proved to be profoundly inspiring for Dr. Woodson who, later that year, joined forces with A. L. Jackson, William B. Hartgrove, George Cleveland Hall, and James E. Stamps to establish the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, known today as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH 2024). ASALH had the ambitious goal of educating the public about the achievements, inventions, and progress made by Black Americans, and though the Association’s intellectual efforts were remarkable – they began to publish The Journal of Negro History in 1916 and founded Negro History and Literature Week in 1924 – Dr. Woodson had a wider vision of his mission. Wishing to continue to discover and celebrate the history of the Black past, Dr. Woodson announced the celebration of Negro History Week through a press release.

Accounts of the contributions of Black Americans were notably absent from history books, credited to white men, or omitted altogether. Progressive communities and schools were ripe for the rich history that Negro History Week offered. Matching the popularity of the week, Woodson and the Association established an annual theme for the celebration to guide and inspire educators. Weary of those simply wishing to capitalize on a popular event, “Woodson warned teachers not to invite speakers who had less knowledge than the students themselves” (ASALH 2024). Additionally, ASALH expanded their offerings to provide study materials: pictures, lessons for teachers, plays for historical performances, and posters of important dates and people. This cemented the celebration of Black history in schools and communities, and Negro History Week grew in popularity throughout the following decades, with mayors across the United States endorsing it as a holiday.

Negro History Week grew into Black History Month in 1970 under the leadership of Black educators and students at Kent State University and would become a federally recognized event six years later. President Gerald Ford recognized Black History Month in 1976 during the celebration of the United States Bicentennial. He urged Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history” (Franklin 2022). Today, nearly one hundred years after that initial celebration, it is prudent to reflect on the designed purpose of Black History Month and discover that after all this time, these lessons are still relevant, inspiring, and necessary. As Dr. Woodson said, “Real education means to inspire people to live more abundantly, to learn to begin with life as they find it and make it better” (Woodson 1933).

Pictured: Dr. Carter G. Woodson, The “father of Black history”

Photo Credit: Addison Norton Scurlock, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography

ASALH. 2024. The Founders of Black History Month: The Origins of Black History Month. December 18. Accessed January 16, 2025. asalh.org/about-us/origins-of-black-history-month/.

ASALH. 2024. Carter G. Woodson Timeline: ASALH – the Founders of Black History Month. December 19. Accessed January 16, 2025. asalh.org/carter-g-woodson-timeline/.

Franklin, Jonathan. 2022. Here’s the Story behind Black History Month – and Why It’s Celebrated in February. February 1. Accessed January 16, 2025. www.npr.org/2022/02/01/1075623826/why-is-february-black-history-month.

Woodson, Carter G. 1933. The Mis-Education of the Negro. Trenton: Africa World Press.

==========

All right! So, we see that Black History Week then Month has been around for at least 20 years longer than our current POTUS, who seems to be ignoring the month’s existence. But, there’s no reason any of the rest of we the people have to! Including all history makes the US so much richer in knowledge. Most local historical and cultural organizations are going to have commemorations this month. What fun it will be, and how community-unifying for each of us to find an activity near us, and join in!

A Couple Of Things I Received Today-

A bag of tiny chocolate chip cookies from the company who was here a few weeks ago working in my bathroom. I’m off cookies until my jeans are looser again like they were in November, so these will go into the freezer, but anyway, they still brightened the day!

Next, a cool Substack post from Worriedman. I’ve shared his posts here before. Today’s is extra cool.

In the pewter mornings, the cat, a black fur sausage with yellow Houdini eyes, jumps up on the bed and tries to get onto my head. It’s his way of telling whether or not I’m dead.

Margaret Atwood – February

Worriedman Jan 31, 2026

The whole poem –

February

by Margaret Atwood

Winter. Time to eat fat
and watch hockey. In the pewter mornings, the cat,
a black fur sausage with yellow
Houdini eyes, jumps up on the bed and tries
to get onto my head. It’s his
way of telling whether or not I’m dead.
If I’m not, he wants to be scratched; if I am
He’ll think of something. He settles
on my chest, breathing his breath
of burped-up meat and musty sofas,
purring like a washboard. Some other tomcat,
not yet a capon, has been spraying our front door,
declaring war. It’s all about sex and territory,
which are what will finish us off
in the long run. Some cat owners around here
should snip a few testicles. If we wise
hominids were sensible, we’d do that too,
or eat our young, like sharks.
But it’s love that does us in. Over and over
again, He shoots, he scores! and famine
crouches in the bedsheets, ambushing the pulsing
eiderdown, and the windchill factor hits
thirty below, and pollution pours
out of our chimneys to keep us warm.
February, month of despair,
with a skewered heart in the centre.
I think dire thoughts, and lust for French fries
with a splash of vinegar.
Cat, enough of your greedy whining
and your small pink bumhole.
Off my face! You’re the life principle,
more or less, so get going
on a little optimism around here.
Get rid of death. Celebrate increase. Make it be spring.

Presented complete for educational purposes. And because no page celebrating the work of the great Margret Catwood is complete without the phrase "Cat, enough of your greedy whining and your small pink bumhole."

It's the last Saturday before February. It's wicked cold - 2 degrees with a breeze.

It's Caturday, though Hello Barncat!

Sam, in repose

Amos , paying attention!

Cold assed….ass.

One more ! 
Soon ...

That's all I got room for - Thanks for dropping by !

https://open.substack.com/pub/brawlatthepoetscafe/p/in-the-pewter-mornings-the-cat-a?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

Look Who Visited Scottie’s Playtime!

Just a quick one to let readers know, and to thank Panagah Amn-Pet Safe Shelter in Kabul, Afghanistan, for visiting Scottie’s Playtime! Give them a look whenever you have a minute. I looked around and did not find anything disturbing, though of course the stories are sad; yet the writing is poetic. (Most of the Humane Society ads in the US are more disturbing than what I saw here, as a comparison point.)

Two From Clay Jones

I haven’t shared this guy’s work in some time, either.

I am a member of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, and I also sit on its board of directors. Today, our president, Marc Murphy, wrote a statement for the organization in defense of journalist Don Lemon, who was arrested by the Trump regime for doing his job.

(snip-MORE, and it’s hot; go read it!)

https://open.substack.com/pub/claytoonz/p/mango-lemon-hater?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

=====

My favorite part of Raiders of the Lost Ark is when they remove the lid, and Greg Bovino’s face melts off. Of course, that would be impossible. He’s not tall enough to reach the top of the ark. By the way, I love this woman.

You know Donald Trump only cares about the optics because he has been perfectly happy with Greg Bovino’s job performance. Trump doesn’t have a problem with American citizens protesting ICE being murdered in the streets. It’s just too bad the optics aren’t good about that, as even Republicans are starting to cringe. Notice that Trump didn’t have any empathy for Congresswoman Ilhan Omar being attacked? And it’s probably his fault.

(snip-MORE, and it, too, is quite hot!)

https://open.substack.com/pub/claytoonz/p/bye-bye-bovino?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web