GOOD MORNING, 
THIS IS THE INDIGNITY MORNING PODCAST
I AM YOUR HOST, JOE MACLEOD, 
TAKING A LOOK AT THE DAY AND THE NEWS
TURNING TO THE PAGES OF THE NEW YORK POST, ASLL THE WAY AT THE TOP OF PAGE ONE,
“BAT’S INCREDIBLE!
INSIDE NEW DESIGN THAT FUELED THE YANKEES HOME-RUN SPREE”
THE YANKEES HAVE A BAT, AND IT’S SHAPED DIFFERENT, AND PEOPLE ARE MAD, WHICH I GUESS FALLS UNDER THE CATEGORY OF “SHOW ME IN THE RULE BOOK WHERE IT SAYS A ROBOT CAN’T PLAY BASEBALL WITH A DIFFERENT-SHAPED BAT” JUST WIN, BABY!
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OK, I WAS SUPPOSED TO SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THE WEATHER

First of all, it is April 1st. Good morning. It is a cool and brightening morning here in New York City. And this is your Indignity Morning Podcast. I remain your host, Tom Scocca, taking a look at the day and the news. The Trump administration story that the people it put through forcible rendition to a notoriously brutal prison in El Salvador, were hardened, dangerous Venezuelan gang members, is continuing to dissolve under scrutiny.

The Trump administration, the Atlantic wrote yesterday, “acknowledged in a court filing Monday that it had grabbed a Maryland father with protected legal status and mistakenly deported him to El Salvador, but said that U.S. courts lack jurisdiction to order his return from the mega prison where he's now locked up. Attorneys for the government,” the Atlantic continued, “admitted that the Salvadoran man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, was deported accidentally. ‘Although ICE was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error,’ the government told the court. Trump lawyers said the court has no ability to bring him back now that Abrego Garcia is in Salvador in custody.” He has no criminal record in the United States and the Atlantic writes. “He works full time as a union sheet metal apprentice, has complied with requirements to check in annually with ICE and cares for his five year old son who has autism and a hearing defect and is unable to communicate verbally. His attorney,” the story says, “is asking the court to order the Trump administration to ask for Abrego Garcia's return and, if necessary, to withhold payment to the Salvadoran government, which says it's charging the United States $6 million a year to jail U.S. deportees. Trump administration attorneys told the court to dismiss the request on multiple grounds, including that Trump's primacy in foreign affairs outweighs the interests of Abrego Garcia and his family.” 

Meanwhile, yesterday, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration's order to rescind temporary protected status from hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in the United States until after a lawsuit against the order can be resolved. The Miami Herald writes, “it is evident that the secretary made sweeping negative generalizations about Venezuelan TPS beneficiaries, the judge said in a 78-page order. Acting on the basis of a negative group stereotype and generalizing such stereotype to the entire group is the classic example of racism.”

Going into further detail in the order, the judge wrote, “although the Secretary’s actions appear predicated on negative stereotypes casting class-wide aspersions on their character (insinuating they were released from Venezuelan prisons and mental health facilities and imposed huge financial burdens on local communities), the undisputed record establishes that Venezuelan TPS beneficiaries, in fact, have higher education attainment than mostU.S. citizens (40-54% have bachelor degrees), have high labor participation rates (80-96%), earn nearly all their personal income, 96 percent, and annually contribute billions of dollars to the U.S. economy and pay hundreds of millions, if not billions, in Social Security taxes. They also have lower rates of criminality than the general U.S. population.” 

In the Senate, Cory Booker of New Jersey has been giving a speech since 7 p.m. last night to lodge his objections to the Trump administration.

The speech is not a filibuster because there's no particular piece of business that it's interfering with, and it won't get in the way of the scheduled activities of the Senate unless it lasts past noon today. Still, even a symbolic gesture against business as usual seems preferable to business as usual. 

On the front of this morning's New York Times, the paper showcases its commitment to vibes over news by giving the lead column to a NEWS ANALYSIS story. “Ban of Le Pen Sets Up Fight Over France / Verdict Tests the Law As an Election Nears.” Anyone who still gets their news from the print newspaper has not yet been informed what “Ban of Le Pen” means, and they only get it in a subordinate clause. “Last year,” the Times writes, “Marine Le Pen spoke menacingly of the possible fallout from her trial on embezzlement charges. Tomorrow, potentially, millions and millions of French people will see themselves deprived of their candidate for the presidency.” Then, “after a court disqualified her on Monday from running for public office for five years, those millions of French voters are adrift and angry.” The thing that happened is just the time peg for the mood of the country, as discerned by the Times. 

The proper news story is tucked away on page A12, the jump page, “Guilty of embezzlement and barred from running. Marine Le Pen, the French far-right leader, was found guilty of embezzlement by a criminal court in Paris on Monday and immediately barred from running for public office for five years.” But even that nice, clean, factual news lead has appended at the end, “setting off a democratic crisis in France.” Does the criminal conviction of a would-be presidential candidate set off a democratic crisis? 

Or does having a would be presidential candidate who commits crimes already constitute a democratic crisis of which a conviction in a court of law represents a form of resolution. You would think that a newspaper in the United States of America might think a little bit more rigorously about these questions given that we tried to avoid prosecuting our own criminal political leader and vacillated on that and ended up neither sidelining him nor protecting the rule of law from destruction in the name of politics. 

Because the far right is always presumed to represent some true and dangerous will of the people, the analysis of cause and effect in the two stories revolves around whether the conviction and ineligibility will inflame Le Pen's National Rally Party to greater success. 

Far down in the inside story, where it discusses the crime, the Times writes, “Until Monday, the accusations that Ms. Le Pen and her party had embezzled a sum of close to $5 million in European Parliament funds had done little to hinder the National Rally's rise from the fringes of French politics to its heart.” Then the story says, “The court ruled that Ms. Le Pen had played a ‘central role’ in the scheme to siphon funds from the European Parliament and to fill up its coffers at a time when they were precariously empty.” So maybe the National Rally's advancement from the fringes to the heart of French politics was materially made possible by that infusion of stolen funds. 

Back on page one, the second news column is a sort of update on the absence of updates about Ukraine. “Russia Testing Trump’s Mettle Over Ukraine / Kremlin Stalls on Talks as It Presses Attacks.” 

The lead is “the White House for two months has warmly embraced the Kremlin. But President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has given little in return, despite his professed willingness to cooperate. His forces, the Times writes, have carried on bombarding Ukraine, both on the front and deep into the Ukrainian heartland. He has barely budged in peace negotiations, breaking an agreement to an unconditional 30-day ceasefire with myriad conditions. His subordinates have dragged out talks voicing requirements for a limited Black Sea truce in recent days.” Then it gets into the back and forth where Trump told NBC News this weekend he was “very angry” about Putin's comments about the need to replace the Ukrainian government. 

“The result, the Times writes, is question of increasing relevance for the most Russia-friendly American administration in decades. Is Washington prepared to pile pressure on Mr. Putin, whose authoritarian power, disregard for return limits, and crusade against liberals have long appealed to Mr. Trump? Seems like they're answering that question even as they ask it. 

Next to that, “Pitch on tariffs is that people can take pain.” 

“President Trump's sweeping tariffs are expected to raise the cost of cars, electronics, metals, lumber, pharmaceuticals, and other products that American consumers and businesses buy from overseas” the Times writes. “But Mr. Trump and his advisors are betting that they can sell an inflation-weary public on a provocative idea. Cheap stuff is not the American dream.” If there was one thing people signed on for when they voted for Donald Trump, surely it was an end to hollow materialism. That is the news. Thank you for listening. The Indignity Morning Podcast is edited by Joe MacLeod. The theme song is composed and performed by Mack Scocca-Ho. You, the listeners, keep us going with your paid subscriptions to Indignity and your tips. Keep sending those along if you are able. And if nothing unexpected gets in the way, we will talk again tomorrow.