Comments

  1. says

    Here are a few links back to the previous set of 500 comments on The Infinite Thread:

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/01/03/infinite-thread-xxxiv/comment-page-9/#comment-2259927
    Donald Trump is once again targeting the very veterans he claims to love

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/01/03/infinite-thread-xxxiv/comment-page-9/#comment-2259924
    Judge Throws CFPB A Lifeline

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/01/03/infinite-thread-xxxiv/comment-page-9/#comment-2259858
    The American Prospect – The existential threat of ultra-billionaires

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/01/03/infinite-thread-xxxiv/comment-page-9/#comment-2259844
    unofficial group chat [on Signal] that was not cleared for classified info

  2. says

    WIRED link

    “The Proud Boys and Militias Come to Tesla’s Defense”

    “After weeks of “Tesla Takedown” protests, extremist groups are showing up to back Elon Musk’s beleaguered car company.”

    I guess we can put this in a “look at the company they keep” category … Tesla and The Proud Boys.

    Over the weekend, thousands of people joined the “Tesla Takedown” protest movement at the company’s showrooms across the country. At the same time, a much smaller number of Elon Musk supporters turned out at Tesla locations for a counterprotest movement that some participants dubbed “Tesla Shield.” […]

    This article is paywalled. I don’t have access to the full report.

  3. Reginald Selkirk says

    @ prev 500

    By all appearances, when the White House dispatched an uninvited delegation to Greenland, the move was intended to be a charm offensive of sorts. Vice President JD Vance,…

    Thank gods for that period. It would be too much to put charm offensive and JD Vance in the same sentence. Although I suppose if you struck out the word charm ‽

  4. Reginald Selkirk says

    Camera set up to catch Loch Ness Monster discovered

    An underwater camera set up 55 years ago to try and photograph the Loch Ness Monster has been found by accident by a robot submarine.

    The ocean-going yellow sub – called Boaty McBoatface – was being put through trials when its propeller snagged the mooring for the 1970s camera system.

    It is believed it was lowered 180m (591ft) below the loch’s surface by the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau, a group set up in the 1960s to uncover the existence of Nessie in the waters.

    No footage of Nessie has been found on the camera, but one of the submarine’s engineers was able to develop a few images of the loch’s murky waters…

    Adrian Shine, of The Loch Ness Project – which has been researching the loch since the 1970s, helped to identify the camera.

    He said it was likely to be one of six deployed. Three were lost in the loch during a gale…

  5. Reginald Selkirk says

    Trump threats open ‘floodgate’ of inquiries from U.S. physicians about moving north

    Renowned Ottawa heart surgeon Marc Ruel was planning a move to the United States last year, with the University of California, San Francisco “thrilled to announce” that he would be leading a heart division in their surgery department.

    But Donald Trump’s threats toward Canada were such that Ruel has now decided to remain in Canada.

    “Canada is under duress right now,” he told CBC. “I felt my role and duty at this point was to directly serve my country from within.”

    Ruel is not the only medical professional now reluctant to work in the United States.

    That means Canada’s health-care system could stand to benefit from the political upheaval unleashed by the U.S. president, as American physicians look to move north and Canadians forgo opportunities south of the border…

  6. says

    Trump attacks Ukraine for trying to protect itself from Russia

    […] Trump on Sunday claimed that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is “trying” to back out a minerals deal, and threatened that the leader would face “big problems” even as Zelenskyy has been trying to protect his country against Russian aggression.

    Trump made his comments during a meeting with reporters onboard Air Force One, reported the Associated Press. [AP video at the link]

    “I see he’s trying to back out of the rare earth deal. And if he does that, he’s got some problems. Big, big problems,” Trump said. “We made a deal on rare earth and now he’s saying, ‘well, you know, I want to renegotiate the deal.’”

    Trump has been trying to extract a minerals deal from Ukraine, which has been defending itself from a Russian invasion with weapons from the United States that were given under former President Joe Biden. Last week, Zelenskyy told reporters that the Trump administration had been “constantly changing” the terms of the deal [Yeah. That sounds like Trump] and has sought guarantees that would help protect his country against the Russians.

    Ukraine has suffered immensely under the Russian assault. According to Zelenskyy’s office, as of February more than 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in combat since February 2022. A report from the United Nations at the end of 2024 indicated that more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians have died as a result.

    But despite the death toll—which was the result of an unprovoked Russian invasion—Trump has consistently aligned himself with Putin on the issue. Trump received Putin’s backing during the 2016 election in the form of a campaign of electoral interference and has continued to express public sentiment in line with the Russian autocrat.

    […] The stance is out of touch with the public. Support for Ukraine has increased since Trump took office in January and is now at a record high according to Gallup’s polling from March 16. Among those with an opinion on the topic, 46% said U.S. assistance to Ukraine was not enough. That was the most popular position, with 23% saying current aid was at the right level and only 30% of whom said they backed cuts.

    Ukraine continues to fight for its survival and Trump only has negative things to say.

  7. says

    JFK’s grandson has some very interesting questions for Elon Musk

    President John F. Kennedy’s grandson Jack Schlossberg has once again taken to social media to criticize the Trump administration—this time taking aim at Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

    “If DOGE has found all this FRAUD and MONEY — then WHY: 1) no one charged with fraud? 2) govt spending has increased? 3) no distribution of savings? MAYBE — it’s a propaganda / data initiative that has nothing to do [with] the stated mission,” he wrote on X on Sunday.

    All good questions, and one could certainly argue that DOGE’s lack of receipts has been a glaring red flag since the beginning of Musk’s government capture.

    Journalist Judd Legum created a Musk Watch DOGE Tracker to catalogue the supposed “savings,” and surprise! Only $7.7 billion of DOGE’s claimed $115 billion in savings has been at least partially verified. [Embedded links are available at the main link.]

    […] Schlossberg is also correct about government spending. The Congressional Budget Office’s February Monthly Budget Review showed an increase in government spending since Musk and DOGE illegally took over.

    At the same time, DOGE has decimated important government agencies, harming the U.S. workforce and military families while promising to cut funding to research for childhood cancer and infectious diseases.

    Considering the lack of evidence that DOGE has made any significant savings, combined with the abundance of evidence that Musk has compromised Americans’ private data and lucrative contract data—which he has been feeding into AI learning models—Schlossberg has a point.

    Now if only lawmakers would start listening to it.

  9. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Anna Bower (Lawfare):

    Rubio and Hegseth have installed this twenty-something DOGE affiliate, Nate Cavanaugh, as acting president of the U.S. Institute of Peace
    [Photo]
    Rubio and Hegseth’s “resolution” directs him to “transfer USIP’s assets, including USIP’s real property and rights thereof, and including all assets recently received from the Endowment, to the General Services Administration.”

    The plaintiffs […] have filed a motion seeking to block the transfer

    Huh. The CNN article @317 in the last 500 when they flipped cops to get inside:

    [USIP president George Moose said] “Somehow, FBI has managed to convince the DC police that this is a building that is owned by the US government and not by the US Institute of Peace.”

     
    Rando 1: “We’re at the ‘government seizing private property at gunpoint’ stage of fascism now.”

    Popehat: “Hey Merriam-Webster, do you all need an illustration for ‘callow’?”

    Rando 2: “Why do they all have Obersturmführer haircuts? Oh wait, I know.”

    Chris Geidner: “You cannot convince me this is not an AI rendering.”

    Rando 3: “A Wired report revealed that he is being paid over $120,500 annually—a salary equivalent to that of a federal worker with 13 years of service”

    Rando 4: “Oh yeah. This guy is totally gonna prevent renewed civil war in South Sudan.”

    Jenn Burrill (Attorney):

    This guy, who has no education in international relations or law, is now running the U.S. Institute for Peace… At 19 Nate Cavanaugh founded a company in his dorm room at Indiana University then dropped out, when he raised $12 million to advance his company Brainbase. [Forbes ’30 under 30′ profile]

    Quartz: “in the past decade, a slew of people once featured prominently by Forbes [30 under 30 list] have ended up in prison—mostly for financial crimes.”

  10. says

    Attorney general instructs DOJ to dismiss Georgia elections lawsuit, by Associated Press

    U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday instructed the Justice Department to dismiss a lawsuit challenging a sweeping election overhaul that Georgia Republican lawmakers passed in the wake of President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss in the state.

    The lawsuit, filed in June 2021 under former President Joe Biden, alleged that the Georgia law was intended to deny Black voters equal access to the ballot. Bondi said the Biden administration was pushing “false claims of suppression.”

    […] The law was part of a trend of Republican-backed measures that tightened rules around voting, passed in the months after Trump lost his reelection bid to Biden, claiming without evidence that voter fraud cost him victory. The fallout was swift after Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed the law in March 2021, with the CEOs of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola voicing criticism and Major League Baseball’s commissioner deciding to move that year’s All-Star Game from Atlanta’s Truist Park.

    Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, both Republicans who drew Trump’s ire when they refused to help overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia, strongly denounced the Justice Department lawsuit when it was filed. […]

    Known as SB 202, the law added a voter ID requirement for mail ballots, shortened the time period for requesting a mailed ballot and resulted in fewer ballot drop boxes available in populous metro Atlanta counties that lean Democratic and have a significant Black population. The law also banned the distribution of food and water by various groups and organizations to voters standing in line to cast a ballot.

    In announcing the dismissal of the lawsuit, Bondi said Black voter turnout in Georgia “actually increased” after the law was passed. A December analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice found that while the number of ballots cast by Black voters increased from 2020 to 2024, Black turnout actually declined by 0.6% because the increase in the number of ballots cast by Black voters did not keep up with population increases. [Pam Bondi lied, either that or she is woefully misinformed. SB 202 is clearly aimed at decreasing voter participation, especially participation by Black voters in Atlanta.]

    […] In addition to the Justice Department lawsuit, about a half-dozen other suits were filed by civil rights and election integrity groups raising claims based on the U.S. Constitution and the federal Voting Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination in voting.

    Posted by readers of the report:

    Bondi is actually trying to claim that a law designed to reduce registration is working so well that there have been more registrations? She’s trying to take credit for the social pushback against a bad law? She has no common sense and no shame.
    —————–
    Of course they want to dismiss the lawsuit, they want Georgia to keep right on stealing the vote by illegally purging voter rolls, disallowing people to register to vote, and not counting provisional ballots from high minority and student areas. Somebody should tell these ass-hats that stealing an election is not the same as winning one! They’re still just losers.

  11. Reginald Selkirk says

    ‘Egregious conduct’: Boston judge finds ICE agent in contempt of court after man detained mid-trial

    A Boston judge on Monday dismissed the criminal case against a man who was detained mid-trial by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, finding a federal agent involved in the arrest in contempt of court over “egregious conduct.”

    Wilson Martell-Lebron appeared Thursday in Boston’s Edward W. Brooke Courthouse for the first day of his trial on charges that he provided false information on a license application, The Boston Globe reported.

    Defense attorney Murat Erkan told the newspaper that plainclothes ICE agents detained Martell-Lebron as he left the court, placed him in an unmarked SUV, and drove away.

    Video shared with Boston 25 News showed the moments after Martell-Lebron was taken into custody.

    On Monday, Boston Municipal Court Judge Mark Summerville accused ICE of “obstructing justice.” He also found that ICE agent Brian Sullivan “conspired in a premeditated manner” to take Martell-Lebron into custody and not return him to court.

    Summerville alleged that Sullivan “intentionally” and “aggregiously” violated the rights of Martell-Lebron that are protected by the 6th and 14th amendments of the U.S. Constitution, finding him in contempt of court.

    “I find that this court cannot trust ICE to return the defendant back to court. I don’t find that they’re credible,” Summerville said. “I have no confidence in ICE, no matter what they told the Commonwealth, that they would ever bring this defendant into court.”

    In finding Sullivan in contempt of court, Summerville referred the matter to the Suffolk District Attorney’s Office and left it up to the DA’s office to determine whether Sullivan would face charges…

  12. says

    There’s no such thing as a fully American-made car

    “Trump indicated consumers could avoid tariffs by buying vehicles built entirely in the U.S., but industry experts say there’s not a single one with all-domestic parts and assembly.”

    […] Trump suggested over the weekend that consumers could dodge his sweeping 25% tariffs on foreign vehicles and auto parts by buying cars made entirely in the United States. The only problem: There aren’t any.

    “If you make your car in the United States, you’re going to make a lot of money,” he told NBC News in an interview Saturday. “If you don’t, you’re going to have to probably come to the United States, because if you make your car in the United States, there is no tariff.”

    Trump, who is set to announce a new tranche of broad-based tariffs Wednesday, said he “couldn’t care less” if automakers raise prices to offset the costs of the import taxes and he denied recent reporting that he’d threatened industry executives not to do so.

    Even U.S.-assembled automobiles by major American brands rely heavily on complex global supply chains for the roughly 30,000 parts that make up the average car. Overall, the percentage of auto parts that are sourced abroad hovers around 40%, said Dan Ives, the global head of technology research at Wedbush Securities, a financial services firm.

    “U.S.-made cars with all U.S. parts is a fictional tale,” Ives said.

    Ivan Drury, director of insights at Edmunds, put it no less bluntly, telling NBC News this month, “There’s no vehicle where every single component is manufactured from the ground up in the United States.”

    A senior automotive executive, who asked to speak anonymously to avoid disrupting sensitive negotiations with the Trump administration, expressed concerns about the industry’s ability to adapt to tariffs because of manufacturers’ extensive supply chains abroad. Even though many vehicles — both American and foreign — are assembled domestically, they’re built using lots of parts that aren’t made in U.S. factories.

    […] Consumers could see price hikes of $4,000 to $12,500 per car, depending on the vehicle, according to a recent estimate by Anderson Economic Group, a consultancy that has worked for major automakers.

    Automakers are required by law to report the makeup of their car models to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which publishes a list each year. The report, mandated by the American Automobile Labeling Act, includes the percentage of parts that are sourced outside the United States and Canada, as well as the country of final assembly and the source of the vehicle’s motor and transmission. Drury said the list can be a handy guide for shoppers looking to see how exposed to tariffs a given model might be. [Embedded links are available at the main link]

    The 2025 Kia EV6, for example, is made of 80% U.S. and Canadian parts, according to the NHTSA’s list, making the South Korean vehicle one of the most North American-made of any global automaker. Most other models have far lower percentages of U.S. and Canadian parts, though the law doesn’t require automakers to differentiate between components sourced in the United States and those from Canada — potentially limiting the list’s utility to shoppers, given Canada might face blanket tariffs of up to 25% on most goods as soon as Wednesday. [!!]

    Even Tesla, which is run by multibillionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk and assembles its vehicles in the United States, sources 20% to 25% of its parts from Mexico, according to the NHTSA list. Over 175 models from foreign automakers like Toyota, Volvo and BMW — many of which also build some vehicles in the United States — are made entirely abroad.

    […] “Establishing a presence here, from a manufacturing perspective, is not a short order,” she [Amy Broglin-Peterson, a supply chain expert at the Broad College of Business at Michigan State University] said. “It comes with a very lengthy timeline. It comes with a heavy cost.”

  13. says

    Freshwater essential to lithium mining is running low in the world’s “Lithium Triangle,” a mineral-rich region in the Andean Plateau that stretches across parts of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile and contains more than half of all global lithium reserves.

    In a study published last week in the journal Communications Earth and Environment, researchers found that the amount of freshwater locally available for lithium extraction is about 10 times lower than previous estimates. Global lithium demand, which is expected to grow by 40 times by 2040, could outpace the limited annual rain that supplies freshwater to the arid Lithium Triangle.

    […] mining operations rely heavily on freshwater availability, consuming up to 500,000 gallons of water to extract one ton of lithium. In the Lithium Triangle, freshwater also supports agriculture for small, Indigenous communities and sustains wetlands that are home to short-tailed chinchillas, wild camelids and pink flamingo species found nowhere else in the world.

    […] lithium is critical to the global regulatory push for electrification and the growth of clean technology industries. The mineral is an essential component for batteries that power electric vehicles and store energy generated by renewable sources like solar panels and windmills.

    The need for lithium batteries is projected to quadruple by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency. Some industry experts are concerned that companies will not be able to meet growing demand […]

    “We need more lithium sources to come online to meet the demand we’ll see by 2030,” said Michael McKibben, a professor of geology at the University of California, Riverside. “Mineral extraction is a slow, tedious process. That’s why prices are so volatile — demand goes up, but the supply can’t respond instantaneously.”

    […] Rain washes lithium and other minerals down from rock formations into deep basins carved into the flat Andean Plateau. The process, which takes place over millions of years, creates brackish lagoons filled with lithium-rich waters.

    Mining companies extract lithium fluid from the lagoons and concentrate the mineral with evaporation methods — which use copious freshwater drawn from nearby aquifers. Water levels in these aquifers depend on the annual rains […]

    Boutt says that limited meteorological data from a lack of weather stations in the remote Andean Plateau has made it difficult to capture how much freshwater actually flows to these lithium-rich lagoons and the surrounding areas. He added that widely used global hydrologic models that rely on this sparse data have vastly overestimated the freshwater supply in the region.

    […] In the U.S., mining operations at the nation’s only operating lithium mine in Silver Peak, Nevada, have been the subject of criticism for significant and prolonged freshwater pumping in the often drought-stricken region.

    Vanessa Schenker, a researcher with the Institute of Environmental Engineering at ETH Zurich, a Swiss university, says that there needs to be more research on the hydrology of lithium-rich regions around the world.

    “On top of how much water lithium mines are using, we also need to examine the entire supply chain for lithium and think of components such as chemical processing and transport,” she said. […]

    Link

  14. says

    NBC News:

    The bodies of three U.S. Army soldiers who went missing in Lithuania during a training exercise last week have been found, and a fourth remains missing, military officials said Monday. The soldiers went missing the morning of March 25 after their M88A2 Hercules armored recovery vehicle became submerged in a peat bog during a mission to repair and tow an immobilized tactical vehicle.

  15. says

    NBC News:

    The death toll from a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake in Myanmar has risen sharply to over 1,600, with fears it could climb much higher, state-run MRTV reported Saturday, as rescuers scrambled through rubble and desperate cries for help echoed from collapsed buildings. The quake, whose epicenter was near Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city, devastated one of the world’s poorest nations as it reverberated through the country and across Southeast Asia.

  16. says

    NBC News:

    […] Trump said on Sunday that reciprocal tariffs he is set to announce this week will include all nations, not just a smaller group of 10 to 15 countries with the biggest trade imbalances. … ‘You’d start with all countries,’ he told reporters aboard Air Force One.

    New York Times:

    The S&P 500 ended March with its steepest monthly decline in more than two years, driven by uncertainty about the scope of President Trump’s tariffs, which investors fear could accelerate inflation, slow consumer spending and stall the U.S. economy. … The decline in March caps off the S&P 500’s worst quarter at the start of a president’s term since President Barack Obama took over in 2009 during the financial crisis.

  17. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/why-isnt-george-soros-paying-me-to

    “Why Isn’t George Soros Paying Me To Heckle Elon Musk?”

    […] for all the years we’ve been hearing about these paid Soros operatives, […] not one person has ever come forward and admitted to being paid by Soros to pretend to hold opinions they do not actually hold. That’s a pretty incredible track record when you think about it, because it would have to be hundreds and hundreds of people over so many years, and there’s probably a lot more money to be made in conservative media coming forward about that kind of thing than there is in protesting.

    According to some facts made up by Joe Rogan, people were being paid $400 to attend Kamala Harris rallies and are currently getting $1,000 to protest Tesla. Elon Musk is very concerned about that as well.

    “For a lot of losers, a lot of people who don’t have things going well in their life, and I’ve been a loser at many points in my life, if someone called me up and said ‘Hey man, do you wanna make $400 bucks, just go to this Kamala Harris rally?’ I would 100 percent go! … I’d hold up that stupid sign, if you found me when I was 21, 100 percent I would have taken that $400,” Rogan said in a clip shared by Musk. “They were giving up $1,000 bucks for people to protest, I think it was Tesla. I’m not sure about that, but I think it was Tesla.”

    “Who is funding and organizing all these paid protests?” Musk asked in response to Rogan’s assertion. No one knows! Largely because it’s not actually happening. It’s very hard to track down people who are paying people to protest you when no one is actually doing that.

    […] I have a very loud voice and believe I could really sell it. Why not me? Why not anyone I have ever known or heard of? Why are we all doing this for free […]

    It’s almost as if Musk is a terrible, terrible person that no one actually needs to be paid any money to hate (though, again, I would not turn it down).

  18. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Follow-up to Reginald Selkirk @413 in the last 500.

    WaPo – Musk gives $1 million checks after Wisconsin top court won’t hear suit

    Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul sued Musk and America PAC […] A county judge on Friday declined to immediately hold a hearing on the attorney general’s request […] An appeals court on Saturday rebuffed him as well. […] On Sunday, Kaul asked the state’s high court to issue a temporary restraining order barring Musk and America PAC from […] making payments conditioned on voting. In a brief, unanimous decision, the justices declined to take the case. They did not explain their rationale.

    MSN

    While Republicans remained mum about the legality of the $1 million payments, they raised concerns about another offer to voters—from a group supporting Crawford that provided ice cream to college students. An attorney for the Republican National Committee warned the group to halt its efforts immediately. “Wisconsin has strict laws against any election bribery,”

    Anthony Michael Kreis (Law professor): “I’m old enough to remember being told giving water away charitably in Georgia was a grave threat to election integrity.”

  20. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Regarding specious renditions to El Salvador’s slave labor prison.

    Joshua Friedman (Columbia mag):

    Attorneys general representing 27 states (every state with a Republican AG except for NH) tell SCOTUS to reverse Judge Boasberg’s TRO protecting Venezuelans in the US from being deported to a nightmarish Salvadoran prison without due process.

    Note that ordinarily, a TRO can’t even be appealed! The Trump administration and these Republican AGs can’t even bear to wait a few weeks before demanding to resume deporting and imprisoning people with no evidence or process—and they’re counting on SCOTUS to be equally unprincipled.

    Southpaw: “God help us.”

    Rando 1: “AGs writing due process out of the Constitution. Nice way to uphold their oaths.”

    Michael Froomkin: “27 State AGs either don’t believe in due process and/or put the value of performative briefing (it’s certainly not substantive!) above the rule of law. Speaking as a law professor, either way it’s horrible.”

    John Pfaff (Law professor): “Prosecutors Against Due Process. Bar associations need to start ramping up disbarment and (meaningful) disciplinary actions. We are a self-regulating profession that rarely regulates itself. That is a practice we can no longer afford.”

    Rando 2: “I knew Republicans basically didn’t believe in the rule of law anymore, but it’s still shocking to see it proved to such an extent like this in writing.”

  21. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Kel McClanahan (National Security Counselors):

    OMG Bates just based his decision on the dictionary definition of “for.”

    ‪Magdi Jacobs: “As a linguist, this makes me want to cry.”
     
    Docket (pdf)

    Much of the limited discovery rests on the definition of “DOGE Employee,” a definition that plaintiffs proposed […]

    “DOGE Employee” refers to any individual who is employed by DOGE or otherwise works for DOGE (including volunteers, if any), including any individual employed by DOGE but detailed to one or more federal agencies.

    In plaintiffs’ view, this definition encompasses “members […] at the Defendant Agencies who were onboarded […]” Defendants read the definition differently, contending that it reaches only individuals who have an employment relationship with USDS—e.g., a USDS direct hire or a person who volunteers directly with USDS. So defendants have not produced any discovery
    […]
    resolution of plaintiffs’ motion rests on the meaning of “or otherwise works for DOGE” in the definition. It is evident whom this phrase does not include: those “employed by DOGE.” Elsewise the phrase would do no work. Also evident is one group that falls within the phrase’s reach: “volunteers.” When someone says that a volunteer “works for” an entity, it’s understood that the volunteer is not formally employed by the entity, but that he still does work on behalf of the entity. [Citing Merriam-Webster: ‘for’]

    As a result, “or otherwise works for DOGE” covers individuals who “work on behalf of DOGE” but are not formally employed by USDS. Those “who work on behalf of DOGE,” in turn, include all individuals that defendant agencies have onboarded to implement the “DOGE Agenda”
    […]
    The Executive Order directs agency heads to select the individuals to implement the DOGE Agenda […] and requires the agencies to “coordinate [the DOGE Teams’] work with DOGE.” […] These individuals are the only non-USDS employees defendants have mentioned, and defendants have consistently referred to these individuals and the USDS employees operating at the agency defendants as one and the same.
    […]
    In sum, the definition of DOGE Employee […] reaches beyond individuals with an employment relationship with USDS to cover some others implementing the DOGE Agenda. So the Court orders defendants to produce discovery

  22. Reginald Selkirk says

    @16

    Trump said on Sunday that reciprocal tariffs he is set to announce this week will include all nations, …

    Would be hilarious if the USA was on the list of tariffed countries.

  24. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Marisa Kabas (The Handbasket):

    DOGE notified the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS) today that the entire staff is being put on administrative leave effective immediately [up to 90 days], […] They’ll be cancelling huge swaths of grants/contracts and starting a Reduction in Force (RIF).

    Here’s a photo of two of the three DOGE mercenaries at IMLS. The shorter one has been ID’d as Nate Cavanaugh. I’ve confirmed Gavin Hamrick was on the premises as well.

    Rando 1: “Shouldn’t Cavanaugh be busy in his new role as interim president at the US Institute of Peace?”

    Rando 2: “How exactly do you learn the systems and personnel to make efficiencies when you send everyone home?”

    ALA: “Libraries of all types translate 0.003% of the federal budget into programs and services used in more than 1.2 billion in-person patron visits every year”
     
    Rando 3: “As a librarian and archivist (not for IMLS but just in general), please please please support your local libraries right now. All of them are underfunded and understaffed even without direct attacks from the government. […] They also probably need volunteers! That’s how I spend most Sunday mornings these days.”

    Rando 4: But also, if they aren’t taking volunteers (it takes a lot of time and effort to supervise them and not every institution has resources), be gracious and continue to support them in other ways! Go to programs, borrow books and other materials, write letters to elected officials, donate money.”

    Rando 5:

    Useful context: IMLS provides grants to state agencies for state library programs to serve communities not well served by local public libraries (which also get grants). In WA, the Washington State Library operates library services for the blind and low vision. […] They are all run on tiny tiny budgets. The grants IMLS gives are very small but are incredibly important to many local small libraries and museums that millions and millions depend on.

    You can lookup what programs in your state might be affected if IMLS is gutted.

     
    NMLS Board – A letter to Trump’s ‘acting director’ on Mar 24 (pdf)

    It is our considered determination that the Museum and Library Services Act of 2018 […] outlines specific statutory mandates that cannot be paused, reduced, or eliminated without violating Congressional intent and federal statute. Among all its programs, structures, and duties, we want to emphasize core statutory obligations that are not discretionary under the law: [*snip*]

    All such statutory obligations may not be discontinued or delayed under an Executive Order or other executive action. […] Any failure to fulfill these legal obligations or to reduce staffing or program operations below the minimum required to meet statutory mandates would place the agency in noncompliance with Congressional intent.

    Phil Plait: “These assholes, including Musk, are anti-American in the most basic sense: they stand firmly and actively work against everything our nation aspires to be. We miss that goal a lot on our own, obviously, but these criminals are cutting away at the very trunk. They must be stopped.”

  26. birgerjohansson says

    Scott Manly:
    First Orbital Rocket Launched From (West)  European Soil, Becomes First Rocket To Crash In European Waters 

    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=eFyMAaeYdvs 
    The launch site is at Andöya island, north Norway. The rocket was not expected to succed to reach orbit, this was a test launch without a payload to gather data.
    This has to be the most picturesque launch site in the world.

    (While this is not as important as the horrible dismantling of democracy we see daily, or the atricities of the Middle East I just want to add something of beauty to the daily stream of news. The power of crooks is temporary, the world will leave them in the garbage dump of history.)

  33. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Politico – Judge blocks Trump effort to curtail deportation protections for 600,000 Venezuelans

    The administration is trying to strip […] “temporary protected status,” from 350,000 Venezuelan nationals on April 7—a change that could allow the government to deport many of them to a country that is in the throes of a humanitarian crisis. […] also wants to accelerate the expiration of […] protections for an additional group of 250,000 Venezuelans.
    […]
    Both groups of Venezuelan nationals covered by the judge’s order Monday have TPS protections through October 2026 as a result of extensions ordered during the Biden administration

  34. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Matthew Hoppock (Immigration lawyer):

    New DHS memo on 3rd Country Removals is a big joke.

    Last week the Dist. of MA issued a TRO saying that if noncitizens are to be removed to a 3rd country, they have to have a chance to apply for protection from torture there.
    […]
    So yesterday DHS issued the new memo. It basically says “we will ask the third country if they’re going to torture you, and if they say no then you still don’t get a chance to apply for CAT [Convention Against Torture] relief or even receive notice that we’re removing you to a third country.”
    […]
    And I genuinely doubt that El Salvador, for example, is going to admit that they’re planning to torture folks who get deported there.

    Joe Dudek (Attorney): “Perhaps needless to say: This does not satisfy the Convention against Torture”

    Yael Schacher (Immigration historian):

    There’s a history to practice of U.S. trusting foreign states if they say they won’t harm people US sends there—stemming from extradition treaties and deportation practices before U.S. signed international conventions. Moving away from this was product of signing on to refugee convention and CAT!

    In 19th century, when U.S. signed extradition treaties with a country, a rule of non-inquiry applied: no second guessing the fairness of that country’s justice system. This is why there were political offense exceptions to treaties and opposition to extradition treaties with certain counties!

    U.S. government [claiming] it received assurance from foreign government that it wouldn’t harm deportee was common at mid 20th century. […] This really came to a head with the deportation of Haitians in 1970s. The US always argued that Haitian government said all would be fine with those returned. Judge: “those statements clearly can be given little weight.”

  35. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (American Immigration Council):

    Oh my god. They deported a man who an immigration judge had declared was “more likely than not” to face persecution in El Salvador … to El Salvador, during the big March 15 AEA flights!

    They outright admit it! Yet the Trump admin’s response to a court is basically “oops, well, no take backsies.”

    Eric Columbus (Obama DHS/DoJ appointee, Gitmo detainee defense attorney):

    DOJ says the U.S. government would have to ‘entreat’ or ‘cajole’ El Salvador to return him. I’m pretty sure one phone call demanding his return—or else hell to pay—would do the trick.

    Randos:

    If the Administration only played half as hardball with them as it does with the U.S. Institute of Peace, for instance.

    Surely we have a signed agreement with El Salvador that would contemplate return of some persons & if not it’s a sign of incompetence.

    This is literally why we have a State Department.

    They didn’t seem to have any trouble getting the Tate brothers released.

  37. Bekenstein Bound says

    Had she won, Harris’s billionaire tax plan almost certainly would not have become law. The more easily bribed fraction of her own party’s caucus, amounting to maybe a quarter of representatives and senators, would be dead set against it.

    “Maybe a quarter”?

    Optimist.

  38. birgerjohansson says

    Marine Le Pen: “The establishment is full of corruption”.
    EU: Discovers Marine Le Pen has embezzled millions of €.
    French court: Sentences Marine Le Pen to four years in prison.
    Marine Le Pen: “Help! Help! I’m being oppressed!”
    Putin, Victor Orban: “She is being oppressed!”

  42. JM says

    ABC News: Organizations file suit challenging Trump’s effort to overhaul election system

    A group of advocacy organizations filed a lawsuit on Monday challenging Donald Trump’s recent executive order seeking to overhaul the U.S. election system, accusing the president of trying to enact “unlawful actions” to enforce “lawless mandates.”
    The lawsuit alleges that Trump’s unilateral efforts to reshape voting in federal elections — including requiring proof of citizenship when registering and restricting mail-in voting deadlines — exceeds his authority as president and threatens to strip millions of their voting rights.

    Not as quick as other lawsuits because there is no grounds for an immediate stay but the challenge was inevitable. Like several of the cases I suspect that one of the hardest things was trying to limit the grounds for bringing the case. Judges don’t like it when you try to bring a case on the grounds of “all of this”. Which is roughly correct there, the changes Trump wants to bring are almost entirely bad ideas and Trump is over stepping his authority by trying to mandate rules for elections. The one thing Trump can legally do is give direction to the DOJ on how to enforce voting law and this tries to hide behind that but it creates registration requirements and voting restrictions out of thin air.
    Trump’s rules for qualify to register to vote are insane, the only sure way to be allowed to register is to have a passport. The limitations he tries to apply to mail in voting are because he personally blames mail in voting for his lose and because it helps democrats.

  45. Reginald Selkirk says

    Michael Shermer supports Matt Ridley and the lab leak conspiracy theory

    Back in 2021 Matt Ridley teamed up with Alina Chan to publish a book promoting the lab leak conspiracy theory about the origin of SARS-CoV-2. (See my summary of a review here.)

    Yesterday (March 25, 2025) Michael Shermer interviewed Matt Ridley on The Michael Shermer Show podcast. The reason for the interview was to promote Ridley’s new book Birds, Sex and Beauty: The Extraordinary Implications of Charles Darwin’s Strangest Idea but Shermer started off the interview by asking about Ridley’s previous book with Alina Chan. At 2 mins he asks,

    Before we get into the new book, do you want to take a victory lap for your previous book. I mean the lab leak hypothesis is looking more and more like you called it years ago.

    It’s all downhill from there. I have lost all respect for Michael Shermer. It’s a shame that this podcast is hosted on the Skeptic magazine website.

  47. says

    Sky Captain @20, that’s very bad news. Those 27 Republican State Attorneys General are appalling. I hope they get a ton of negative feedback.

  48. says

    https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show

    ‘This is bananas’: DOGE looks to finagle a building the federal government doesn’t own
    Video is 3:20 minutes

    Fresh from scandal over group chat attack plans, Hegseth’s conduct opens him to ridicule
    Video is 5:48 minutes

    ‘There’s no other savior or option’: Resistance to Trump mobilizes as Americans have seen enough
    Video is 9:24 minutes

  49. JM says

    Politico: Trump hints that Musk and DOGE may be coming to the end of the road

    “I think he’s amazing but I also think he’s got a big company to run and so at some point he’s going to be going back,” Trump said of the Tesla CEO. “He wants to. I’d keep him as long as I could keep him.”

    This makes it sound like Musk wants to get out before Tesla is destroyed and that DOGE will go away once Musk is gone. Which is reasonably likely as Musk has good reason to go and Trump is likely to want DOGE gone just because of the lawsuits it has generated.

    Trump told reporters at the White House that the influence of DOGE would linger because Cabinet members and agency heads have “gotten a big education” from the experience. “There will be a point at which the secretaries will be able to do this work.”

    Most of them are already well versed on how to screw up but they may have learned something about how to do it publicly and with total disregard for the law.

  50. says

    It’s easy to sympathize with those who’ve struggled to keep up with Donald Trump’s flood-the-zone approach to executive orders. Indeed, as of last week, the president surpassed 100 executive orders before his second term even reached the 70-day mark. […]

    The New York Times’ Carlos Lozada, who took on the unenviable task of reading each of the president’s directives, explained in his latest column:

    The executive order is Trump’s preferred governing tool. Even with Republican congressional majorities, he favors the flourish of the order over the hassle of lawmaking. Why bother assembling legislative coalitions when you can just write, “By the authority vested in me as president by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered” and then tack on whatever you like?

    To be sure, each of the orders deserves to be considered on the individual merits, but stepping back, it’s also worth appreciating the degree to which Trump promised Americans a very different approach to exercising presidential power.

    In November 2015, in reference to Barack Obama, Trump said, “He doesn’t work the system. That is why he signs executive orders all the time.” A month earlier, the future president said, “Look at Obama. He doesn’t get anything done. … You’ve got to close the door and get things done without signing your executive orders all the time. That’s the easy way out.”

    This quickly became a staple of his campaign rhetoric. As regular readers may recall, in January 2016, then-candidate Trump told Fox News, “[T]he problem with Washington, they don’t make deals. It’s all gridlock. And then you have a president that signs executive orders because he can’t get anything done. I’ll get everybody together.”

    In March 2016, with his hold on the GOP nomination nearly complete, Trump went so far as to declare, “I want to not use too many executive orders, folks. Executive orders sort of came about more recently. Nobody ever heard of an executive order. Then all of a sudden Obama, because he couldn’t get anybody to agree with him, he starts signing them like they’re butter. So I want to do away with executive orders for the most part.”

    The same month, at a primary debate, Trump vowed, “I would build consensus with Congress, and Congress would agree with me. … I don’t like the idea of using executive orders like our president. It is a disaster what [Obama’s] doing. I would build consensus, but consensus means you have to work hard. You have to cajole. You have to get them into the Oval Office and get them all together, and you have to make deals.”

    Perhaps the best line of them all was delivered in January 2016, when Trump told CNN his thoughts on the “executive-order concept.” The future president explained, “You know, it’s supposed to be negotiated. You’re supposed to cajole, get people in a room, you have Republicans, Democrats, you’re supposed to get together and pass a law. [Obama] doesn’t want to do that because it’s too much work. So he doesn’t want to work too hard. He wants to go back and play golf.”

    Eight years later, Trump isn’t just signing executive orders on a nearly daily basis, he’s publicly bragging about the fact that he’s signing more orders than any of his presidential predecessors.

    Trump has not yet explained when or why he changed his mind about the “executive-order concept,” […]

  51. Reginald Selkirk says

    Tourists and residents evacuated as volcano erupts in Iceland

    Tourists and residents have been evacuated as a volcano erupted in south-west Iceland, threatening a town and popular attraction.

    The volcano has been spewing lava and smoke in a fiery display of orange and red since the eruption began in the morning, creating a huge crack in the ground which has grown to 1.2km (0.75 miles) long.

    Multiple earthquakes have occurred in the volcanic area throughout the day.

    The volcano is close to the fishing town of Grindavik and the famous Blue Lagoon spa. A small number of people refused to evacuate the town, local media reported…

  54. says

    Here is the link for text quoted in comment 50.

    In other news: Trump admin cuts tens of millions from Planned Parenthood

    “The Title X funds were earmarked for birth control and other non-abortion services.”

    The Trump administration is withholding tens of millions of dollars from Planned Parenthood clinics that provide contraception, STI testing and other health services to low-income Americans.

    Nine Planned Parenthood state affiliates that receive federal money from the 55-year-old Title X family planning program got notices Monday, which they shared with POLITICO, informing them that their funding is being “temporarily withheld.” The notice pointed to “possible violations” of federal civil rights law and President Donald Trump’s executive orders — including prohibitions on promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion and “taxpayer subsidization of open borders.”

    The letter to Planned Parenthood chapters, many of them in GOP-controlled states, cites the clinics’ mission statements and other public documents that stress a “commitment to black communities” as evidence of their noncompliance. […] The letter also chided the group for serving undocumented immigrants, writing that Planned Parenthood’s funding is being withheld because the organization “overtly encourages illegal aliens to receive care.”

    HHS is giving Planned Parenthood 10 days to provide evidence that it will comply with the Trump administration’s executive orders, and will inform the group after that whether the grants are suspended or terminated.

    […] “Cutting Title X funding for Planned Parenthood affiliates will only drive up people’s health care costs, or, frankly, prevent them from accessing health care at all,” she said, adding that her legal team is exploring all options. “They want to shut down Planned Parenthood health centers to appease their anti-abortion backers, and they’re willing to take away birth control, cancer screenings and STI testing and treatment to get their way.”

    Other providers in the federal family planning program received notices late last week, over the weekend and on Monday about their 2025 Title X funding. Many received less than half of what they requested, while others received nothing. Essential Access Health, which distributes Title X funds to clinics across California, told POLITICO its grant was withheld.

    […] Clare Coleman, the CEO of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, which represents most Title X providers, said in an interview that medical groups in the program are being penalized for following the rules. The groups applied for the money under the Biden administration, when “health equity was a core priority,” and before Trump was sworn in or signed any executive orders, she said. And in those applications, many stressed a commitment to diversity for which they’re now being penalized.

    […] Gibron said the Trump administration’s decision to bypass the formal rulemaking process, which offers a chance for public input, is undemocratic and potentially unlawful.

    […] Health policy experts also warn the cuts are likely to have a more damaging impact than the restrictions Trump imposed on the program during his first term, in part because the Supreme Court eliminated Roe v. Wade’s federal protections for abortion in 2022.

    Trump’s first administration issued rules that banned Title X providers from referring patients for an abortion or discussing it as an option and required clinics to construct separate facilities for the procedure and other services. The administration also changed Title X rules to allow funding for faith-based centers that didn’t offer condoms or hormonal birth control.

    […] The Biden administration scrapped Trump’s Title X rule in 2021, but Coleman argues the network has not fully recovered. She pointed as evidence to HHS’s most recent audit of the program, from 2023, which found the program served about 2.8 million people — far fewer than the 4 million patients a year it was serving when Trump first took office in 2017. [!]

  55. says

    British journalist Ian Dunt:

    We should all take a good hard look at what’s happening in the US. Not the noise or the clamour, but the bleak constitutional reality of it. This is what happens when you give up on the rule of law. A president who talks openly about going for a third term, who signs executive orders which contradict his country’s constitution, who got a rigged supreme court to grant him immunity, who ignores court orders, who has his underlings hand out massive million dollar cheques to people to induce them to vote, even though it is explicitly against state law. To watch the United States is to watch the law dissolve into authoritarian government.

  56. JM says

    CNN: Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs will go into effect immediately, White House says

    Although many details remain unknown, perhaps even to Trump himself, the administration’s “Liberation Day” trade policy announcement is expected to be the most aggressive tariff move yet by the most tariff-obsessed president in modern history. Trump is meeting with his trade team Tuesday and the tariffs he announces at a Rose Garden ceremony at 4 pm ET Wednesday will go into effect “immediately,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday a press briefing.

    Trump has a tariff plan that will go into effect immediately that he has shown few, if any, other people. He doesn’t seem to have consulted experts and that implies he has done at least part of the planning himself. Which is likely why a core part is a universal tariff on all imports. It’s a simple bad idea.

    “Tariffs! We need to make decisions, but the ball is constantly moving. This is truly ridiculous,” the manufacturing executive wrote. “I have been in business for 50 years as of next year, and never have I seen such uncertainty in the market.”

    Business people are starting to get really irritated and talking about how bad the situation is as long as their names are not on the comments. Given Trump’s tendency towards petty revenge I can’t blame them.

    “Tomorrow’s announcement is to protect future generations,” Leavitt said. “It’s for their kids and their grandkids to ensure that there are jobs here in the United States of America for their children to live the American Dream.”

    The public relations people have moved from even long term, now they are talking about Trump’s plan being good for future generations. The obvious problem that there is no need for sudden implementation or secrecy if it’s a 100 year plan is ignored.

  57. Reginald Selkirk says

    @55

    who has his underlings hand out massive million dollar cheques…

    Is it clear which is the underling?

  58. birgerjohansson says

    There are two important local elections in USA today. I assume we will not know anything about the outcome until late in the evening?
    .
    Liberation Day…
    If you are into humor and satire, I urge yiu to find ways to explain ways in which ‘liberation’ and the upcoming tariff chaos are linked. As English is not my first language, I have no hope to deliver the kind of jokes and puns Jimmy Kimmel or Seth Meyers churn out. It is a long time since the latest Jurassic Park film, so it is too late to joke about the power failure that liberated the velociraptors…

  59. says

    Text quoted by JM @56:

    “Tariffs! We need to make decisions, but the ball is constantly moving. This is truly ridiculous,” the manufacturing executive wrote. “I have been in business for 50 years as of next year, and never have I seen such uncertainty in the market.”

    This is starting to affect the job market. Employers do not want to hire new employees when they can’t tell what is going to happen to the market from one day to the next.

  60. says

    “Tomorrow’s announcement is to protect future generations,” Leavitt said. “It’s for their kids and their grandkids to ensure that there are jobs here in the United States of America for their children to live the American Dream.”

    White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt repeats what she is told. I think Musk and Doge could replace her with a robot.

  61. says

    Vance flubs key details after the Trump admin acknowledged an ‘administrative error’

    “Among other things, the vice president really ought to know that the Biden administration didn’t exist in 2019.”

    Kilmar Arbrego Garcia came to the United States in 2011. He lived in Maryland with his wife and 5-year-old child, who is autistic and intellectually disabled. He worked a full-time job and was a legal resident of the United States, and thanks to a 2019 court order, he could not be sent back to El Salvador, his country of origin.

    Garcia was also recently apprehended by the Trump administration and put on a plane to El Salvador — without due process — to be held behind bars. This week, in a court filing, administration officials conceded that his deportation was the result of an “administrative error.”

    It was against this backdrop that JD Vance decided to add some related thoughts to the public conversation, which did not go especially well for the vice president. NBC News reported:

    Vice President JD Vance weighed into the case and falsely said on X Tuesday that Garcia was a “convicted MS-13 gang member.” Garcia has no criminal convictions in the U.S. or in El Salvador, his legal team said in the lawsuit. In a follow-up post on X Tuesday, Vance stood by his comments and called Garcia “an illegal immigrant with no right to be in our country,” despite the 2019 protection order against his removal from the U.S.

    Even for a vice president who routinely struggles with factual details, this was a mess.

    Initially, Vance, by way of social media, took aim at a journalist who’d fact-checked him and said that Garcia was a “convicted” gang member, which wasn’t true and which was not supported by the administration’s own court filing.

    Vance then tried again in a follow-up tweet, claiming that a journalist had been “apparently unable or unwilling to look at the facts here.” [LOL, LOL, LOL. The pot calling the kettle black.] The vice president not only doubled down on his dubious claim for which there does not appear to be any evidence, he also suggested the Biden administration was in office in 2019.

    Usually, when Republicans get this wrong, they claim that Joe Biden was in the White House in 2020, despite the fact that the Democrat was inaugurated in January 2021. Vance flubbed this even more dramatically, however, suggesting that Biden was president in the third year of Trump’s first term. [!]

    As for Garcia, he remains in El Salvador, though his case is scheduled to be heard this week by a judge in Maryland. Watch this space.

  62. says

    Followup to comment 60.

    White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested DOGE will help prevent national “bankruptcy.” There’s reason to believe she has this backwards.

    That the White House is eager to defend Elon Musk is certainly not new. After all, it was just a few weeks ago when Donald Trump hosted what was effectively an infomercial for Tesla on the South Lawn, followed soon after by a member of the president’s Cabinet urging the public to purchase shares in Musk’s auto company.

    But as The Washington Post noted, the White House’s latest line on the Republican megadonor’s efforts included some talking points the public doesn’t often hear:

    White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday defended Elon Musk, who leads the U.S. DOGE Service, and its efforts to shrink the federal government, saying he ‘is trying to save democracy.’ … ‘The United States of America will cease to exist. Our government will fail if we continue to go down the road of bankruptcy,’ she said during a Fox News interview, labeling some federal program spending as ‘wasteful and useless priorities.’

    [JFC]

    The president’s chief spokesperson delivered the lines with apparent confidence, as if the public should take such rhetoric seriously. [Video at the link. Hard to watch such robotic stupidity in action.]

    At this point, we could explore in detail why it’s demonstrably ridiculous to think Trump and Musk are working to “save democracy.” We could also note the irony of seeing the Trump White House, after adding roughly $7.8 trillion to the national debt in the president’s first term — most of it before the Covid pandemic — talk about deficits pushing the nation toward “bankruptcy.”

    While we’re at it, we could also spend some time talking about how odd it is to see the White House expressing concern about the nation’s finances while urging congressional Republican members to approve several trillion dollars’ worth of tax cuts. We might even take a moment to mention that if the political world is going to have a conversation about avoiding national “bankruptcy,” perhaps it’d be wise to ignore the wishes of someone who’s filed for bankruptcy six times.

    But for now, let’s put all of that aside and consider a more foundational question: Are Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency helping get our fiscal house in order?

    There’s reason to believe otherwise.

    It’s a problem, of course, that DOGE has struggled at times with arithmetic, at one point famously confusing $8 billion with $8 million. But it’s a bigger problem that DOGE-driven disruptions at the Internal Revenue Service are poised to be extraordinarily expensive. The Washington Post reported last week:

    Treasury Department and IRS officials are predicting a decrease of more than 10 percent in tax receipts by the April 15 deadline compared with 2024, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share nonpublic data. That would amount to more than $500 billion in lost federal revenue. … ‘The idea of doing that in one year, it’s hard to grapple with how meaningful of a shift that represents,’ said Natasha Sarin, president of the Yale Budget Lab and a senior Biden administration tax official.

    […] we’ll know more after the April 15 tax deadline — but the dire assessment, the Post’s report added, is based in part on the White House’s “rapid demolition of parts of the IRS.”

    If Leavitt is correct and the United States of America “will cease to exist” without fiscal reforms, shouldn’t the White House do largely the opposite of what Trump and Musk have spent the last 10 weeks doing?

  63. says

    Trump threatens to pull billions in funding if Harvard doesn’t bend the knee

    The Trump administration announced on Monday that it will be reviewing nearly $9 billion in “multiyear grant commitments” to Harvard University and its affiliates.

    “Harvard’s failure to protect students on campus from anti-Semitic discrimination [sham pretense] – all while promoting divisive ideologies over free inquiry – has put its reputation in serious jeopardy. Harvard can right these wrongs and restore itself to a campus dedicated to academic excellence and truth-seeking, where all students feel safe on its campus,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in the statement.

    The Department of Education, Health and Human Services, and the U.S. General Services Administration made the joint announcement in service of President Donald Trump’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism.

    Under the guise of ending antisemitism, the Trump administration has targeted 10 universities for similar federal investigations, including Columbia University. The attacks have led higher education institutions to pledge to remove protections for marginalized groups while cracking down on speech and activism on campus.

    Meanwhile, Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been disappearing students and former students involved in pro-Palestinian protests, which are protected by the First Amendment—making even some right-wing bigots squirm.

    The legality of Trump and co-President Elon Musk using the federal purse to get what they want is concerning at best. Trump has leveraged the complicity of a GOP-controlled Congress to extort U.S. allies and punish his political opponents—higher education institutions are only his latest victim.

  65. JM says

    BBC: Putin begins biggest Russian military call-up in years
    Just to be clear this isn’t a huge increase immedietly, Russia conscripts a lot of people every year. To hit what Putin is calling for they will have to increase the conscription size even further or have additional conscriptions.
    Russia tries to keep the conscripts away from the front line, even in Russia it angers the population to send them to the front. They do free up other non-conscript soldiers to be sent to the front but I have no idea how long Russia can do that.

    President Vladimir Putin has called up 160,000 men aged 18-30, Russia’s highest number of conscripts since 2011, as the country moves to expand the size of its military.
    The spring call-up for a year’s military service came several months after Putin said Russia should increase the overall size of its military to almost 2.39 million and its number of active servicemen to 1.5 million.
    That is a rise of 180,000 over the coming three years.

    Russia calls up conscripts in the spring and autumn but the latest draft of 160,000 young men is 10,000 higher than the same period in 2024.
    Since the start of last year, the pool of young men available for the draft has been increased by raising the maximum age from 27 to 30.

  66. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-tricking-us-real-good-with

    “Trump Tricking Us Real Good With ‘Mad At Putin’ ”

    “Must be humiliating to have the whole world watching him get played!”

    […] how is Putin humiliating Trump […]

    Instead of that end-to-war Trump promised everybody on the campaign trail that he’d have worked out in 24 hours, on Friday Putin upped his demands instead, who could have predicted it? In addition to foreign governments stopping aid to Ukraine, he wants Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to be putsched out as president in favor of a “temporary international administration” (AKA Russian puppet government). He says he plans to “finish off” Ukrainian troops, and is expanding the Russian military in the most bolshoy way since 2011, conscripting 160,000 more unfortunate souls. Sure doesn’t sound like he’s thinking about making Trump some peace!

    Trump did his opposite-day routine, blaming Ukraine for starting the war and calling Zelenskyy a dictator (even /r/Conservative couldn’t swallow that one). He hosted that embarrassing meltdown where he, JD Vance, and Marjorie Taylor Greene’s boyfriend tag-teamed Zelenskyy to berate him for not wearing a suit or saying “thank you” enough times.

    Trump stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine and cut off their satellite access, as Putin had demanded (Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed 10 days later that it was restored), and has permanently terminated all support for restoring Ukraine’s energy grid. And he tried to shake down Ukraine for rights to every mineral mined there for the rest of time. Because Trump’s peace plan has always been to get OUR ALLY Ukraine to surrender and give its violent occupier OUR ENEMY Russia everything that it wants.

    But unlike Trump, Ukraine is not interested in giving up freedoms and letting any part of itself go behind the old Iron Curtain for some musty dictator rule. And dictator Russia is not happy with anything less than total dictating. And so after all Trump’s trouble to get the Ukrainians served on the table with a nice chianti, the Russians just patted li’l Marco Rubio on the head and said “sure, we agree on a 30-day ceasefire … PSYCH” and kept on attacking the shit out of Ukraine with missiles and armed drones, hitting residential neighborhoods, another hospital, and an energy facility. He tried to give Putin everything, but the guy won’t even do a performative ceasefire for him for 48 hours to make him look the tiniest bit less impotent!

    It’s enough to make a guy do RRGRR noises! Early Sunday, President Bone Spurs called into NBC News “very angry” and “pissed off” at Putin’s demands, and how Putin made words that questioned the legitimacy of beloved Ukrainian President Zelenskyy (even though that is also a pastime of Trump’s). And Trump mumblegrumbled that he was going to extra-sanction Russia, with TARIFFS, because TARIFFS TARIFFS TARIFFS.

    [I snipped Trump’s blather.]

    Might be Russia’s fault? How much of doing his own research does this motherfryer still need to do? He also made a tariff mumblebluff back in March, and nobody really believed him then either, because he is not credible.

    How long did his performative hissyfit last? Barely hours! Later Sunday, from Air Force One, Trump was already back to trashing Zelenskyy for not signing his extortionist minerals deal and praising Putin again. Guess he has no other cards in his deck. [Burn. And true!]

    [I snipped Trump’s blather.]

    But that Putin, what a guy! “You’re talking about Putin,” he said, like he is Shaft. “I don’t think he’s going to go back on his word.” Yes, the guy who has broken at least 190 agreements on Ukraine with the US and international community would not dream of such a thing!

    It surely occurs to Trump that if Putin takes over Ukraine, that also makes Trump a BIG FUCKING LOSER. The little hamster wheels in his brain are working overtime trying to find a way to justify all this losing to anyone but his most fervent cultists. And justify it he must, because he’s bound by whatever unholy deals he made with the guy whose shithole country has an economy smaller than Texas’s. Turns out appeasing Putin has just emboldened him, because of course it has. […]

  67. says

    Wonkette:

    Japan and South Korea told Donald Trump and the United States to go fuck themselves yesterday, with an announcement from Beijing that the three nations would be responding to Trump’s tariffs as one body. That’s right, Trump has managed to get Japan and South Korea to prefer China to the United States. That’s how fucking stupid and bad at life the American president is. Just … holyfuckingshit.

    Wonkette may have overstated the case, but the meetings between trade ministers do bear watching.

    From Reuters: “China, Japan, South Korea will jointly respond to US tariffs, Chinese state media says”

    China, Japan and South Korea agreed to jointly respond to U.S. tariffs, a social media account affiliated with Chinese state media said on Monday, an assertion Seoul called “somewhat exaggerated”, while Tokyo said there was no such discussion.

    The state media comments came after the three countries held their first economic dialogue in five years on Sunday, seeking to facilitate regional trade as the Asian export powers brace against U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

    Japan and South Korea are seeking to import semiconductor raw materials from China, and China is also interested in purchasing chip products from Japan and South Korea, the account, Yuyuan Tantian, linked to China Central Television, said in a post on Weibo.

    All three sides agreed to strengthen supply chain cooperation and engage in more dialogue on export controls, the post said
    .
    When asked about the report, a spokesperson for South Korea’s trade ministry said “the suggestion that there was a joint response to U.S. tariffs appears to have been somewhat exaggerated,” and referred to the text of the countries’ joint statement.

    […] During Sunday’s meeting, the countries’ trade ministers agreed to speed up talks on a South Korea-Japan-China free trade agreement deal to promote “regional and global trade”, according to a statement released after the meeting.
    “The three countries exchanged views on the global trade environment, and as you can see in the joint statement, they shared their understanding of the need to continue economic and trade cooperation,” the South Korean trade ministry spokesperson said.

    The countries’ trade ministers met ahead of Trump’s planned announcement on Wednesday of more tariffs in what he calls “liberation day”, as he upends Washington’s trading partnerships. […]

  68. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    RollingStone – Top Trump USAID staffer accused of violent outbursts, racist remarks

    Jeremy Lewin recently became deputy administrator for policy and programs for what’s left of USAID
    […]
    Police records show he was also once accused of threatening a girl with a knife […] Another person who knew Lewin well as a teenager recalls him being ejected from classes for espousing racist ideals. “He was into the Great Replacement Theory before it was a thing,”
    […]
    a former acquaintance of Lewin tells Rolling Stone. “I thought he had no empathy. He was fashy, misogynistic […] I can see him enjoying taking away humanitarian programs in Africa. It’s frightening. It’s like letting Hannibal Lecter mind kids or something.” […] Lewin allegedly hit another student with a bowl in the cafeteria and was suspended […] A different classmate tweeted in 2013 that Lewin had thrown a chair at him. […] “Violent rages were kind of his thing,” another former classmate says. […] “You can never really tell when he’s gonna fly off the handle,” says one of those witnesses.
    […]
    Lewin regularly presented fanciful and dubious claims. He told people in high school that he was in talks to design body armor for the U.S. government with a multimillion-dollar contract

    Rando: “How many of these guys are on steriods—because his new neck is not normal. […] & that dude is supposed to be 28 years old—Mar-a-Lago face.”

  69. says

    Washington Post link

    Members of […] Trump’s National Security Council, including White House national security adviser Michael Waltz, have conducted government business over personal Gmail accounts, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post and interviews with three U.S. officials.

    The use of Gmail, a far less secure method of communication than the encrypted messaging app Signal, is the latest example of questionable data security practices by top national security officials already under fire for the mistaken inclusion of a journalist in a group chat about high-level planning for military operations in Yemen.

    A senior Waltz aide used the commercial email service for highly technical conversations with colleagues at other government agencies involving sensitive military positions and powerful weapons systems relating to an ongoing conflict, according to emails reviewed by The Post. While the NSC official used his Gmail account, his interagency colleagues used government-issued accounts, headers from the email correspondence show.

    Waltz has had less sensitive, but potentially exploitable information sent to his Gmail, such as his schedule and other work documents, said officials, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe what they viewed as problematic handling of information. The officials said Waltz would sometimes copy and paste from his schedule into Signal to coordinate meetings and discussions.

    The use of personal email, even for unclassified materials, is risky given the premium value foreign intelligence services place on the communications and schedules of senior government officials, such as the national security adviser, experts say.

    […] Waltz has also created and hosted other Signal chats with Cabinet members on sensitive topics, including on Somalia and Russia’s war in Ukraine, said a senior administration official. The existence of those groups was first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Sunday.

    Hughes said that Signal “is approved and in some cases is added automatically to government devices.” He acknowledged that it is not supposed to be used for classified material and insisted Waltz never used it as such. [Lie]

    […] A key mark in Waltz’s favor is that the breach was discovered by a left-of-center media outlet and not conservative media, officials said.

    “The one thing saving his job is that Trump doesn’t want to give Jeff Goldberg a scalp,” said a second administration official. “Despite all of Trump’s attacks on the ‘fake news,’ he still reads the papers, and he doesn’t like seeing this stuff.”

  70. says

    Washington Post link

    “A Trump-Putin alliance, for all to see,” by Vladimir Kara-Murza

    Vladimir Putin once admitted that the favorite part of his job in the KGB was recruiting undercover agents and informants. “It was a colossal experience for me,” he told journalists at a summit in Germany in 2017.

    Since coming to the Kremlin a quarter-century ago, Putin has used this experience to his advantage — including vis-à-vis American presidents. A successful recruiter must be able to win the trust and affection of his interlocutors — however different they may be. To George W. Bush, a devout Christian, Putin told the story of a cross that his mother had given him and that survived a massive fire at his dacha — an act of God, he said. After that meeting, Bush famously declared that he “looked the man in the eye” and “was able to get a sense of his soul.” To Barack Obama, who won the presidency on a promise of change, Putin offered an agreeable counterpart in the form of puppet “President” Dmitry Medvedev — who had no real power but gave pleasant speeches about freedom and modernization, and once took an iPhone selfie with Steve Jobs. During his first term, Obama pursued an ill-fated “reset” with the Kremlin.

    The approach to Donald Trump, in Putin’s estimation, was personal flattery and caressing his ego. So, he told visiting White House envoy Steve Witkoff how he had prayed for Trump — “his friend” — after the attempt on his life, and commissioned a painting of Trump that Witkoff duly delivered to the Oval Office, leaving the U.S. president “clearly touched.”

    Not that such gestures were much needed. Already, in his first term, Trump demonstrated a deference and admiration for Putin that puzzled not only European leaders but also members of his own administration. His meeting with Putin in Helsinki in July 2018 led Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) — the most principled voice in American politics when it came to confronting dictators — to the harsh conclusion that “no prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant.”

    But anything Trump did during his first term pales in comparison with what has been happening over the past two months. Since returning to the White House, he has blamed Ukraine for Putin’s full-scale invasion of that country in February 2022; denounced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “dictator without elections” (a description that would fit Putin perfectly) and treated him to a public showdown in February in the Oval Office; invited Putin to rejoin the Group of Eight, from which Russia was expelled after the 2014 annexation of Crimea; and directed the United States to side with Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Equatorial Guinea, and other dictatorships in opposing a United Nations resolution condemning Putin’s attack on Ukraine.

    And it wasn’t just words. After his shouting match with Zelensky, Trump paused U.S. military assistance to Ukraine, including intelligence-sharing — leaving the country vulnerable to intensified Russian air and missile strikes and causing hundreds of Ukrainian casualties, including among civilians.

    Finally, last week, at the U.S.-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia, the Trump administration promised to “help restore Russia’s access to the world market for agricultural and fertilizer exports, lower maritime insurance costs, and enhance access to ports and payment systems” after the Kremlin, in a vague and meaningless statement, “agreed to develop measures for implementing” Trump’s proposed partial ceasefire involving energy infrastructure.

    [Snipped USAID details] Moscow in particular that couldn’t hide its delight.

    “This is an awesome decision by Trump,” said Margarita Simonyan, head of the Russian state propaganda network RT. “We couldn’t shut them down, unfortunately, but America did so itself.”

    Soviet apologists such as Putin often claim that the U.S.S.R. was destroyed by covert schemes designed in the West. This is obviously false […] What is true is that Western solidarity with those struggling for democracy behind the Iron Curtain — be it through radio broadcasts that countered state propaganda or gestures like President Ronald Reagan’s meeting with dissidents during his visit to Moscow in 1988 — played a crucial role in supporting and strengthening public desire for change.

    Under Trump, dissidents fighting autocracy in Russia and elsewhere must adjust to a new reality in which the United States is not only not helping them in their fight but is actually siding with their oppressors. This makes our struggle more difficult — but it won’t change the outcome. The vacated leadership of the free world will be filled by others. […] the impetus for change will once again come from within — because, for all the current setbacks, the future belongs to democracy, not dictatorship. Even if Vladimir Putin — and Donald Trump — like to think otherwise.

  71. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Marisa Kabas (The Handbasket):

    The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is being decimated right now. Mass layoffs happening across agencies (NIH, FDA, CDC etc). Some employees found out by security badge being denied. Others got email.

    [Photo]: Line outside Health Resources and Services Administration this AM.

    HHS victims of the Reduction in Force (RIF) employees who’ve received letters are being told it’s for performance […] But multiple employees have told me the numbers are completely fabricated and do not actually reflect performance stats.

    […] FDA employees at the Element Building in Rockville, MD were sent home with all their things and told they would receive an email with further information. It’s obvious now they wanted people home for the mass layoffs.

    HHS starts layoffs

    As many as 10,000—one-quarter of the department […] Emails went out to affected employees around 5 a.m., but some who hadn’t seen the messages showed up to work only to be turned away
    […]
    Adding to the anxiety […] dismissals included people who work in human resources and those who process time sheets. Employees were left wondering how they would get paid or whether their early retirements could get processed. […] “Terminations hitting … on April fools day. So cruel.”

    Adam Marshall (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press):

    Rando: Hearing the entire FOIA team at CDC was RIFed. Meaning if American people want to request information they are legally entitled to, there’s no one to process those requests.

    If true, this is *incredibly disturbing.* Agencies cannot avoid FOIA by just laying off everyone who processes requests.
    Update: this is confirmed true.

  72. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Nick Bednar (Law professor):

    Early reports suggest that HHS may have relied on erroneous records to prepare the retention order for the reduction in force (RIF). […] If the agency relies on an inaccurate retention register in performing the RIF, the MSPB will reverse the RIF. The employee is not required to demonstrate that the agency’s error is harmful.
    […]
    Yes, the MSPB currently lacks a quorum. Employees are likely entitled to reinstatement and backpay if the RIF is ultimately reversed by MSPB or a federal appeals court. I’m not necessarily saying that there exists a great path to restoring order right now. I’m just pointing out the law.

    See also: last week’s comment on the MSPB in limbo.

  73. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    ABC – Elon Musk’s disclosure of planned Social Security fraud arrest

    Musk appeared to boast of advance knowledge of a planned arrest related to alleged Social Security fraud during an appearance on a live stream Monday night […] tele-rally in support of conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel.
    […]
    Musk did not say how he came to know about the alleged planned arrest, but sources familiar with the matter told ABC News that Musk was referring to an ongoing federal investigation, and that his public disclosure of the matter disturbed top law enforcement officials with knowledge of the probe.

    Randos:

    Among other things, Elon has the logic of bulk SSN number theft backwards. They don’t steal them primarily for clients to get money OUT, but for use in employment paperwork—which results in more people putting money IN.

    This is why Social Security created ITINs. There hasn’t been a need to use someone else’s Social Security number since 1996. The scary part is that it is easy for the fascists to identify undocumented workers through those ITIN.

    Thats why using fraudulently acquired SS#’s is still a thing.

    A common question has been if [Musk] found fraud at SSA, why have there been no arrests?

    He’s just going to start throwing 9-year-olds in prison because he doesn’t know what an orphan is.

  74. Reginald Selkirk says

    Scientists Uncover Lyme Disease’s Hidden Achilles’ Heel – And How to Exploit It

    Scientists have identified an enzyme that could be a promising target for developing new treatments for Lyme disease, and potentially other tick-borne illnesses. Their findings, published today (March 20) in mBio, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology, could open the door to more effective therapies…

    Previous research from Virginia Commonwealth University revealed that B. burgdorferi does not rely on thiamin, an essential cofactor for most organisms. Instead, it depends on the enzyme lactate dehydrogenase (BbLDH) to convert pyruvate to lactate, a process crucial for maintaining its NADH/NAD+ balance. This metabolic adaptation has not been observed in any other microorganism and plays a vital role in the bacterium’s survival.

    In this new study, researchers explored the function of BbLDH in B. burgdorferi and its potential as a therapeutic target. Using genetic, biochemical, and structural analysis, including X-ray crystallography, they identified BbLDH’s essential role in the bacterium’s growth and ability to infect a host. Loss-of-function studies confirmed that BbLDH is necessary for the bacterium to thrive both in lab cultures and in living organisms. Additionally, the team performed high-throughput screening and discovered several promising LDH inhibitors that could serve as the basis for future treatments…

    Humans also have a version of lactate dehydrogenase, so any inhibitor would need to be specific to the bacterial BbLDH form.

  75. Reginald Selkirk says

    Republicans and Democrats team up to defy House leadership on voting for new parents

    The House voted on Tuesday to stop Republican leaders from blocking an impending vote on proxy voting for new parents — now leaving the House paralyzed after several Republicans joined Democrats to torpedo a procedural rule to advance the petition in a package of Republican bills.

    The vote failed 206-222, with nine Republicans siding with a unanimous Democratic caucus to form an unusual bipartisan coalition — throwing the House in a temporary paralysis with the surprise development.

    The joint rule they voted on would have blocked Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s bipartisan discharge petition to allow proxy voting for new lawmaker parents — both new mothers and fathers — up to 12 weeks after giving birth. Luna had a child in 2023 as she was serving in Congress…

    It’s rare for congressional Republicans to buck their leadership and do something decent.

  76. Reginald Selkirk says

    Bill Maher’s ‘Mind Was Blown’ After White House Meal With Trump

    Kid Rock has revealed that comedian Bill Maher’s “mind was blown” after his White House sit down with President Donald Trump.

    The MAGA musician, who brokered the meet up between the traditional foes, was on Fox & Friends Tuesday morning to talk about how it went down. He, Maher and Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White were all invited to Washington, D.C. to break bread with the president.

    And all of them were suitably impressed by the MAGA commander-in-chief, the “All Summer Long” singer claimed. “Trump is the type of person you have to meet him to understand him,” he said…

    I’m guessing Maher’s account of this would be rather different.

    “Me and Dana said there has never been anyone whoever met the president who has walked away without saying ‘wow, what a great guy.’ [He’s] so funny and engaging and so smart…”

    cough cough *

  77. JM says

    NYPost: Russia says it won’t accept US cease-fire proposal ‘in its current form’ in sign Ukraine peace talks may have stalled

    “We take the models and solutions proposed by the Americans very seriously, but we can’t accept it all in its current form,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told state media of Trump’s unconditional cease-fire plan, to which Ukraine has already agreed.

    “As far as we can see, there is no place in them today for our main demand, namely to solve the problems related to the root causes of this conflict. It is completely absent, and that must be overcome.”

    The unspoken part being that the root causes are Ukraine not being a vassal of Russia and having a military. Russia knows it has to avoid angering Trump too much. It wants to play along with negotiations it will never agree to, keeping Trump at the table and keeping Trump from entirely committing to supporting Ukraine.
    Russia is building up for a summer offense but a lot will depend on how much hardware stockpile they can build up. Since retaking most of Kursk their offenses have almost stalled entirely but they have not been using anything except some low value infantry.

  78. says

    NBC News:

    The death toll from a 7.7-magnitude earthquake in Myanmar climbed to more than 2,700 Tuesday, as the scale of the destruction in the isolated, war-torn Southeast Asian nation became clearer.

  79. says

    Cory Booker Just Gave The Longest Speech In The History of The US Senate

    Only two men have spoken on the floor of the U.S. Senate for more than 24 straight hours. One of them fought to keep Black people out of public life, the other was a Black leader who staged a landmark protest.

    On Tuesday [today] at 7:19 p.m., Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) surpassed the late South Carolina segregationist Strom Thurmond’s longstanding record for the longest speech in the history of the U.S. Senate, which was 24 hours and 18 minutes. As his remarks stretched past that mark, Booker reflected upon the significance of his legacy overtaking Thurmond’s.

    “There’s a room here in the Senate named after Strom Thurmond,” Booker said, adding, “To hate him is wrong. Maybe my ego got too caught up that, if I stood here maybe, maybe, just maybe I could break this record of a man who tried to stop the rights upon which I stand.”

    Booker’s colleagues broke into a standing ovation when he passed the mark.

    “I’d like to go a little further,” he said.

    Booker ultimately yielded the floor at 8:05 p.m. His record-breaking speech lasted a total of 25 hours and five minutes.

    Thurmond’s stand was a filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1957 that took place between August 28 and 29 of that year. In his lengthy diatribe, Thurmond argued that Black people did not need greater protections to ensure their voting rights. Thurmond’s case was an explicitly racist one.

    “Negroes are voting in large numbers,” Thurmond said. “Of course they are not so well qualified to vote as are the white people.” [!]

    Booker’s speech, the plans for which were first reported by TPM, was an extensive case against President Trump. In it, he argued Trump is a threat to the country. Among other things, Booker focused on Trump’s efforts to drastically cut federal agencies and eliminate social programs, the president’s attacks on the press and other democratic and civic institutions, and the administration’s treatment of immigrants. Late Monday evening, Booker read pages of letters from constituents and activists who described their experiences and fears under Trump. Within that context, Booker framed these early months of 2025 as an “American moment” and a “moral moment” that called for aggressive opposition.

    “Every day things are happening. In the 72 days of this administration, God, if there’s not enough to upset you, to ignite you, to realize that maybe you and your family are not getting hurt, but other Americans are, our veterans are, our seniors are,” Booker said earlier Tuesday. “We’ve told their stories here over these last 21 hours — 22 hours. We’ve told their stories. People are getting hurt. People are afraid. People are worried.”

    […] Booker framed his extraordinary protest as “disrupting business as usual.” Technically, unlike Thurmond’s remarks, Booker’s speech was not a filibuster since it was not aimed at slowing a specific piece of legislation. Instead, Booker began his remarks after a procedural vote on Monday night.

    […] While the speech was not technically a filibuster, it did delay the confirmation vote for Matt Whitaker, a former DOJ official from Trump’s first term who was nominated as U.S. ambassador to NATO. That vote had been scheduled to take place on Tuesday morning. Other pending business was also pushed back by the speech. However, Giertz stressed that those delays were not Booker’s focus. Rather, he said Booker was intent on “elevating the voices of people who feel like they’re not being heard.”

    “The point isn’t obstruction. It’s education. It’s uplift. It’s a slightly different tactic that way,” Giertz said. “[…] What is definitely true is it’s one of the longest speeches in the Senate as of now and it clearly accomplished what he wanted it to, which is calling attention to how Trump is harming the country.”

    Well before it was over, Booker’s speech drew hundreds of thousands of viewers across multiple platforms online and earned over 200 million likes on TikTok. It also generated a slew of headlines including some that suggested the former Newark mayor and 2020 presidential candidate had presented a new model for official opposition to Trump.

    According to Giertz, Booker began planning for the speech about a week ago. This required an extraordinary push from his staff. Booker brought back a former staffer, Marissa Brogger, who had left his office to work as a speechwriter to President Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, to work as “quarterback” for a team who prepped the materials he used on the Senate floor. Those staffers had a few marathon nights of their own in the past few days as they put together the 1,164 pages in more than a dozen binders Booker used for his remarks.

    Senate procedure required Booker to remain standing and speaking continuously to hold control of the floor. He also had help from his Democratic colleagues. Many of them — including Schumer, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-WI), Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), and others — interjected with questions that gave Booker brief interludes to rest his voice. Booker responded to these questions with a refrain that allowed him to let them cut in without giving the presiding officer a chance to stop his speech.

    “I yield for a question while retaining the floor,” Booker said, again and again.

    Booker is a devoted student of the Civil Rights movement. Throughout his remarks, he repeatedly invoked the legacy of his colleague and friend, the late activist and U.S. congressman from Georgia John Lewis. […]

    Near the moment Booker crossed the finish line, he alluded to the fact that, as a Black lawmaker, his very presence on the floor was a direct defiance of Thurmond’s 24-hour plus effort to fight Civil Rights.

    “I’m not here, though, because of his speech. I’m here despite his speech,” Booker said. “I’m here because, as powerful as he was, the people are more powerful.”

    Booker concluded his remarks by returning to Lewis and the late congressman’s history of participating in sit-ins and Civil Rights demonstrations including the famed 1965 “Bloody Sunday” march in Selma, Alabama. Lewis was badly beaten during that protest.

    […] “I end by saying simply this: where I started was John Lewis. I don’t know how to solve this. I don’t know how to stop us from going down this road … . But I know who does have the power: The people of the United States of America, the power of the people is greater than the people in power.”

    Booker went on to call for people to “heed the words” in one of Lewis’ most famous quotes.

    “He said he had to do something. He would not normalize a moment like this. He would not go along with business as usual,” Booker said of Lewis, adding, “[…] there’s one thing that he would do that I hope we all can do, that I think I did a little bit of tonight. He said for us to ‘go out and cause some good trouble, necessary trouble’ to redeem the soul of our nation.”

    Booker then turned to the Declaration of Independence.

    “Our founders said, ‘We must mutually pledge, pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor,’” Booker said. “We need that now from all Americans. This is a moral moment. It’s not left or right, it’s right or wrong.”

    And, with that, Booker turned to the Senate’s presiding officer and ended his record-breaking remarks.

    “Let’s get in good trouble,” Booker said. “My friend, madam president, I yield the floor.”

  80. says

    https://www.msnbc.com/all Chris Hayes, April 1, 2025

    ‘Horrific’: Joe Rogan blasts Trump for sending innocent people to El Salvador prison
    Video is 6:41 minutes

    ‘Game on’: NBC News projects Republicans win Florida special elections, but Democrats over-perform
    Video is 7:17 minutes

  81. Bekenstein Bound says

    “Why Did Americans Think Trump Was Lying About Tariffs?”

    Because his mouth was open?

  82. says

    Followup to Sky Captain @71.

    Entire staff responsible for utility assistance included in HHS cuts, sources say

    “Those who work closely with the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program now fear for its future.”

    Related video at the link.

    The Trump administration on Tuesday eliminated the entire staff of a federal program that helps low-income households pay utility bills, sources said.

    The staff of 10 employees accounted for only a small fraction of the 10,000 layoffs included in Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s purge of the Department of Health and Human Services. But those who work closely with the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, now fear for its future.

    […] responsible for conducting oversight and providing technical assistance to such community services, including LIHEAP. [Employees] placed on administrative leave until June 2. The Office of Personnel Management requires federal employees be given 60 days’ notice before the effective date of workforce cuts.

    LIHEAP is widely seen as a lifeline for millions of low-income households struggling to cover home heating and cooling costs.

    Consumer advocates have for years called for additional funding to account for inflation and increasingly unpredictable swings in regional temperatures, which have driven up air conditioning use in typically colder climates. Congress largely has not fulfilled those requests for more funding, limiting the extent of LIHEAP aid. Last year the program’s allocation was slashed to $4.1 billion from $6.1 billion the previous year.

    While the majority of the latest funding grant has been issued, about $400 million has yet to be distributed, sources said.

    […] Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, which represents state LIHEAP administrators who manage the program’s aid dollars, said the staff terminations Tuesday came without warning.

    “You have to have some infrastructure in place to run these large programs,” he said. “This undermines the ability of the program to function.”

    […] In response to the mass firings of HHS employees, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., ranking member on the Appropriations Committee and its Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee, said, “Americans will die because of these senseless and irresponsible actions.” […]

  83. says

    Dozens of free measles vaccine clinics close in Texas as federal funding is cut

    “Many clinics had been planned at schools in the Dallas area with low vaccination rates.”

    Steep federal funding cuts have forced public health officials in one of Texas’ most populous counties — Dallas — to cancel dozens of vaccination clinics and lay off 21 workers on the front lines of combatting the state’s growing measles outbreak.

    “I just had to tell our commissioners this morning that we’ve had to cancel over 50 different clinics in our community,” said Dr. Philip Huang, director and health authority for the Dallas County Health and Human Services Department. Many of the clinics had been planned for schools in areas with low vaccination rates, he said.

    The vaccines, which included measles, mumps and rubella shots, were meant to be given free to families.

    The money being cut — $11.4 billion nationwide — was originally allocated to aid community health departments during the pandemic. Local public health officials have more recently been using the Covid funds for other public health initiatives, such as measles prevention, surveillance and testing.

    Last week however, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that it would “no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago.”

    “That’s very short-sighted and not understanding of the way public health works,” Huang said. “Being prepared for Covid helps build our capacity to be able to respond to other issues.”

    Huang said his team was still assessing the exact amount of money slashed in his budget, but estimated it to be in the millions.

    As of Tuesday, 422 measles had been reported by the Texas Department of State Health Services. None are in Dallas County, but Huang said the cuts would leave his community vulnerable to cases.

    Eleven full-time and 10 part-time staffers were let go, he said. The majority were health care providers giving vaccines, epidemiologists and lab staff involved with measles surveillance and prevention.

    Staff operating vaccine clinics in West Texas, which remains the epicenter of the measles outbreak, said those clinics are continuing as planned for now.

    Other states reporting measles outbreaks include Kansas with 23 cases, Oklahoma with 10 cases, and New Mexico with 48 cases. And public health officials in Ohio have identified at least a dozen cases.

  84. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Follow-up to #9 on the US Institute of Peace.

    Wired – Federal judge allows DOGE to take over $500 million office building for free

    the building—and all of the property inside it—had already been transferred on Saturday, according to Howell’s ruling. […] “rendering plaintiffs’ requested relief moot as to that property.”
    […]
    Russell Vought approved [GSA acting admin Stephen Ehikian’s] request to “set the amount of reimbursement at no cost” for the facility. […] a transfer request form [justified the exemption from 100% reimbursement by asserting] GSA needs the office space, but can’t afford to acquire it at a fair market value.
    […]
    Howell indicated Tuesday that she was not yet convinced by either argument. “Ambiguity persists given the paucity of apposite law regarding USIP’s proper classification as an ‘independent establishment’ […] Tuesday’s ruling does not mean that some or all of these transfers are necessarily permanent. “This issue will be more fully addressed in the expedited summary judgment briefing being prepared by the parties,” Howell said, suggesting that the fate of USIP property will ultimately be decided along with a larger ruling on whether the board should be reinstated.

    [USIP council George Foote] says he believes USIP can get the building back if Howell ultimately rules in USIP’s favor, although he anticipates challenges even then. “Who knows, they might try to sell the building. They can complicate the title, they can make it very hard for us to fix things[.] That’s something we’ll have to deal with if we get to it.” Howell’s final ruling in the case is expected to come at the end of April.

    Marisa Kabas: “This is fucking demented […] DOGE already illegally stole USIP’s $500 million building so I can’t stop them.”

    Rando: “Stealing half a billion dollar property so quickly is, I gotta admit, super efficient.”

    The less hopeless paragraphs were added after publishing.

  85. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Susan Crawford wins Wisconsin Supreme Court race

    Crawford’s victory means the court’s 4-3 liberal majority, clinched two years ago for the first time in 15 years, will remain in place. She’ll begin her term Aug. 1.

    Barring the unexpected, the next two Wisconsin Supreme Court elections in 2026 and 2027 feature conservative justices defending their seats, meaning the liberal majority Crawford successfully defended could last until at least 2028 and possibly beyond.

  86. JM says

    NBC News: Susan Crawford wins Wisconsin Supreme Court race, defying Elon Musk

    Susan Crawford has won a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, NBC News projects, allowing liberals to maintain their narrow majority on the battleground state’s highest court — and defying Elon Musk after he spent millions of dollars to oppose her.

    Crawford, a Dane County circuit judge who was backed by Democrats, secured a 10-year term on the court over Brad Schimel, a Waukesha County circuit judge and a former Republican attorney general. As the first major battleground state election of President Donald Trump’s second term, the technically nonpartisan contest drew national attention and became the most expensive state Supreme Court race in U.S. history.

    This was the important one because a bunch of important cases may land in front of them. In particular a redistricting case that could have a big impact on the next general election. There are multiple cases about abortion and unions that they may have to decide on.

    NPR: GOP retains two House seats in Florida, as Democrats claim ‘historic’ improvement

    Republican candidates have won in two special Congressional elections in Florida, helping the GOP retain its narrow majority in the U.S. House.

    It would have been great to flip one but these are both districts that went Republican by 30% margins in the 2024 presidential election. Both dropped to around +15 Republican but people knew up front that these were both long shots.

  87. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Social Security is glitching.

    Josh Marshall‬ (TPM):

    As of today, everyone I have heard from appears to have received their payments. So there does not appear to have been any disruption of payments, though in some cases they came slightly later than usual.

    What did happen is that there appears to [be] a widespread error or glitch in many people’s SSA portal where it says, incorrectly, that they no longer receive benefits. In those cases, their benefit history has also disappeared.

    All the cases I’ve heard from fit a basic profile. They are either parents of adult children with severe disabilities who receive SSI and for which the parent oversee the payments. Or they are the person with disabilities on SSI who oversees the payments themselves. As I said, for now everyone seems to have received their payment more or less on time. The issue is with the portal.

  89. birgerjohansson says

    JM @ 86
    Oops, my apologies. You beat me to it.
    But never mind, good news is good news.

  90. birgerjohansson says

    Stealing half a billion’s worth of property is the ultimate symbol of how trickle-down ideology works.

  93. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    NYT – DOGE accesses federal payroll system over objections of career staff

    a payroll system that processes salaries for about 276,000 federal employees […] DOGE workers had tried for about two weeks to obtain administrative access to the […] Federal Personnel and Payroll System […] The dispute came to a head on Saturday, as the DOGE workers obtained the access and then placed two of the IT officials who had resisted them on administrative leave and under investigation
    […]
    The Interior Department is one of a handful of large agencies, including the Pentagon and the Agriculture Department, that house payroll hubs through which flow the salaries of thousands of federal workers at dozens of other agencies. The Interior Department hub processes payrolls for the Justice, Treasury and Homeland Security departments, as well as the Air Force, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, among other federal agencies.
    […]
    at least two DOGE employees, Stephanie Holmes and Katrine Trampe, sought and eventually were granted high-level administrative access to the payroll system, allowing them to make changes to employment status, compensation level, health benefits and more—with no additional oversight or approval required.
    […]
    senior career employees at the Interior Department wrote a memo describing the irregularity of their request and the risks associated with granting it. […] the federal employees asked the DOGE workers to give the memo to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum for his signature, thus taking on the legal responsibility for those risks […] Mr. Burgum never signed the memo.

  97. birgerjohansson says

    Anime: Heiter is not a christian priest, he worshipped the local goddess. As for always getting drunk, he probably did not expect surviving the quest to kill the local Sauron analog. Frieren is one of the very few animes I can recommend.

    .https://youtube.com/shorts/xku62Lnpm48

  101. birgerjohansson says

    Ethics is made of discrete quanta.
    If you perform badness below the level of Planck-badness, you don’t meet the treshold at which evil radiates into the universe.
    Also, quantum mechanics would suggest lies can come in imaginaty quantities.
    .https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/evm

  103. Reginald Selkirk says

    @85, 86, etc

    Susan Crawford wins Wisconsin Supreme Court race

    Yay. There will be important state decisions which will affect federal outcomes, such as on gerrymandering. Also, the people probably wanted to send a messge to Musk that he can’t buy their elections. Now we need clear legislation in as many states as possible making that very clear.

  104. Reginald Selkirk says

    Elon Musk group removes video from $1M winner after she says she got money to ‘vote’

    Just how nervous is billionaire Elon Musk about allegations that he may be violating the state’s bribery statute by paying people to vote?

    On Tuesday, Musk’s super PAC, America PAC, pulled a video from X featuring $1 million giveaway winner Ekaterina Deistler in which she said she received the money, in part, to “vote.” X is owned by the tech billionaire.

    “My name’s Ekaterina Deistler,” she said in a video posted Monday morning. “I did exactly what Elon Musk told everyone to do: sign the petition, refer friends and family, vote, and now I have a million dollars.”

    But the video was taken down yesterday, and America PAC posted a new video of Deistler on X on Tuesday afternoon.

    “My name’s Ekaterina Deistler, and I’m from Green Bay, Wisconsin,” she said in the new video. “I did exactly what Elon Musk told everyone to do: sign the petition, refer friends and family, and now I have a million dollars.”

    It’s almost exactly the same, except the word “vote” has been removed. She is no longer saying she was paid, in part, to vote in the Supreme Court race…

  105. Reginald Selkirk says

    Republicans win special elections for two key House seats in Florida

    Republicans on Tuesday won special elections for two US House of Representatives seats in Florida vacated by Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees, dashing Democratic hopes for an upset victory in the first federal special elections held since the president began his second term.

    But Democratic candidates Josh Weil and Gay Valimont are on track to lose the solidly red districts by much smaller margins than the more than 30 points that Democrats lost them by in November.

    Weil put up a stiff challenge in the eastern coastal district formerly represented by Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, rattling Republicans in a state they have dominated over the past decade and leaving Democrats with a glimmer of hope. Weil, a Democratic public school teacher, had outraised Fine, a state senator, and a poll had shown them running practically neck-and-neck days before the election.

    The Associated Press also called a second special election in Florida for Republican Jimmy Patronis, in the seat vacated by Republican Matt Gaetz, who resigned after Trump nominated him for attorney general only to drop out amid reports of sexual misconduct and drug use or possession…

  108. StevoR says

    As I type astronauts are flying over our planets poles for the first time in SpaceX’s Fram-2 mission conducting some historic science.

    The history-making Fram2 mission, the first crewed space flight aiming to orbit Earth over the north and south poles, launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Tuesday. Among the four atronauts is Australian polar adventurer Eric Philips, making him the fourth Australian in space and the first Space X astronaut.

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-01/ham-radio-operators-australia-spacex-fram2-polar-space-mission/105121252

    Yeah, I know Musk is the boss of SpaceX but this is still a very impressive mission by a lot of good people and engineers who aren’t Musk. I’m not going to condemn them just because of him.

  109. StevoR says

    See a mission preview for Fram-2 here – Everything to know about the historic Fram2 crewed mission set to launch from Florida which given its only a lress than three minutes long video I dunno ’bout the the title there but still “Cliff notes” summary.

    There’s also this article via space dot com :

    https://www.space.com/space-exploration/private-spaceflight/plush-polar-bear-with-penguin-art-floats-as-fram2-zero-g-indicator-in-polar-orbit

    As well as a youtube live tracker of their position & more via here if folks are intrested.

  112. Akira MacKenzie says

    @ 100

    Elon Musk Urges People to Have Children…

    Short Answer:

    No.

    Long Answer:

    1) Women don’t like me like that, but unlike you and the Manosphere incel shits you hang with, I respect their wishes rather than blame some nonexistent feminist conspiracy to deprive me of sex. I’m not having sex for one simple reason: I’m just not sexy. Sure, it sucks, but what can you do? Ethically, that is.

    2) Even if I could find a partner, I don’t want to sire children. Why? None of your damn business. I thought you and your ilk believed in “freedom.” Well, freedom isn’t just the ability to do something, it also means I have the ability NOT to do something if I choose.

    3) I’m not going to take reproductive advice from someone who won’t take care of the kids he insists on producing. In fact, I’ll let you in on just one of the reasons I don’t want to have kids: Because I know I’d be a lousy father and I’d rather not inflict my problems and foibles on someone who doesn’t get to choice who their parents are. You, on the other hand, don’t seem to care how your many, many “shortcomings” (and that’s putting it mildly) affects the people you help create. Your natalist bullshit isn’t about some mythical “population collapse” (i.e. The rascist fear of brown people outbreeding whites.) or wanting a big family. It’s all about your hyperinflated ego.

  114. says

    Elon Musk Can’t Take the Heat

    “The numbers say anti-Tesla protests are working. So do Musk’s increasingly unhinged actions.”

    Elon Musk has a simple diagnosis of what’s ailing America: It’s being destroyed by empathy. In a long interview with Joe Rogan, in numerous tweets, and possibly even in his sleep, Musk has argued that “empathy” is a “suicidal” trait that is a driving force behind civilizational extinction. It is time, he believes, for “the West” to get tough and make hard choices—to bar its doors to immigrants of a certain type and endure “temporary hardship” so that government can be transformed and “the woke mind virus will die.”

    As the de facto head of the Department of Governmental Efficiency, Musk has deployed this brand of tactical callousness to maximal effect. He has boasted about throwing the United States Agency for International Development into a “woodchipper” and stumbled around the stage at CPAC with a chainsaw. He has presided over the dismantling of the administrative state and the harassment and mass-termination of federal workers—all while flaunting his lack of concern for the lives he has upended. Fired government employees, he announced last Thursday, with the laughing/crying emoji that’s become his calling card, will now have to “get a real job.”

    This kind of depravity is a prerequisite for Musk’s new line of work. Dancing on the graves of lifesaving programs for kids is not something you can easily do with a conscience. But there is one set of feelings Musk is uniquely attuned to: his own. On Friday, the same day foreign service officers around the world received notices from a DOGE flunky alerting them that they would soon be out of a job, Musk—sans sunglasses—sat down with Fox News’ Brett Baier to ask for a little sympathy.

    “I mean, you have Tim Walz, who is a huge jerk, running on stage with the Tesla stock price, where the stock price has gone in half—and he is overjoyed,” he said. “What an evil thing to do. What a creep, what a jerk. Like, who derives joy from that?”

    I want to state this as clearly as I can: Nearly choking up on national TV as you lament your falling stock price is weak shit. And it gets to the core of how Musk operates. In a particularly get-over-yourselves moment in January, Axios described Musk and Trump’s governing style as “masculine maximalism,” embodied by “tough-guy language, macho actions…and often unmoved by emotionalism, empathy or restraint.” But back on Earth, the Tesla boss can be better understood in schoolyard terms. He can dish it but he can’t take it. Far from a projection of strength, Musk’s boastful and threatening public comments show a thin-skinned man who behaves erratically […]

    On Friday, in the same interview in which he complained about his stock price, Musk promised Baier that the government would attempt to rein in the protests of his car company by “going after” Tesla critics.

    “What’s happening it seems to me is they’re being fed propaganda by the far left, and they believe it,” he said. “It’s really unfortunate. The real problem is not—are not the people, it’s not the crazy guy that firebombs the Tesla dealership, it’s the people pushing the propaganda that caused that guy to do it. Those are the real villains here. And we’re gonna go after them. And the president’s made it clear: We’re gonna go after them. The ones providing the money, the ones pushing the lies and propaganda, we’re going after them.”

    […] A few days later, after the verified X account “Tesla King” posted a video from a protest in which a woman waved a middle finger at a Cybertruck driver outside a Tesla dealership, Musk shared the footage with a call to action.

    “It is time to arrest those funding the attacks,” he wrote, conflating arson at Tesla dealerships with the constitutional right to flip the bird. “Arresting their puppets and paid foot-soldiers won’t stop the violence.”

    This is a bit authoritarian, yes, but just as importantly it is pathetic. Suggesting that George Soros and the founder of LinkedIn should be arrested after an old lady shouted at a car is one of the softest moments in recent American history. This is not the gesture of a man who is impervious to protests. It is the response of an oligarch who is being driven visibly insane by them.

    [Musk’s] response to opposition is to descend deeper into the paranoia that got him there. In Wisconsin, he responded to accusations that he was attempting to buy a state supreme court race by offering seven-figure checks to voters; accusing Soros of planting protestors at his events; and rambling on stage about ending the Federal Reserve. […] Musk made the election a referendum on himself, turnout surged, and the Democrat won in a landslide.

    To some extent Musk has always been like this—impetuously lashing out under pressure. […] He [characterized] a British man as “pedo guy” after upstaging Musk during the 2018 Thai cave rescue.

    Musk cannot take the heat. He has not just the taste and sensibilities of a boy, but the temperament of one. He throws a fit out when things don’t go his way. He wilts. This is someone who can be beat. In another context you might call this terminal inability to take a punch a “glass jaw.” The term “keyboard warrior” comes to mind. […] a symbol of decadence and insecurity and deregulation that boasts bulletproof toughness, but which breaks into pieces at the first sign of stress.

    Elon’s not unstoppable, Wisconsin voters showed on Tuesday. When the rubber hits the road, he’s nothing but a Cybertruck.

  115. says

    Supreme Court To Hear Another Abortion Case So That’s Probably Bad!

    “Should your state be allowed to tell you what doctors you are allowed to go to? South Carolina says YES.”

    […] Today, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, a case that could have enormous repercussions to healthcare throughout the United States. At issue is South Carolina’s law barring clinics that provide abortions from accepting Medicaid. Specifically, it will determine whether or not beneficiaries have the right to sue the state if they are not allowed to see their chosen provider, so long as that provider is “willing and qualified” to see them and not completely incompetent.

    What do you think? Should Medicaid recipients have the right to choose their own doctors just like people who have private insurance do, or should the government make that choice for them instead? […]

    This all started in 2018, when South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster signed an executive order barring abortion providers from receiving Medicaid reimbursements for non-abortion services — which he ridiculously claimed “results in the subsidy of abortion.” In response, PPSAT and Medicaid patient Julie Edwards filed a lawsuit arguing for her right to choose her own medical provider. The Medicaid Act’s Free Choice of Provider provision states that “a beneficiary enrolled in a primary care case management system or Medicaid managed care organization (MCO) may not be denied freedom of choice of qualified providers of family planning services.”

    The only reason a state can bar a provider from accepting Medicare funds is if they’ve been found to be deficient in some way, but South Carolina has been clear that its issue is not that they are incompetent providers, but that they provide abortions.

    Five federal courts have held that patients and providers do have a right to sue a state for violating that provision, while two have held that only the federal government can do anything about it. […]

    The Supreme Court’s job is to resolve this split and decide which federal courts were right. Given the current Court’s track record on abortion rights, it’s not looking great. However, there is some hope, given the Court’s ruling in 2023’s Health and Hospital Corporation v. Talevski, in which they found that Medicaid beneficiaries have a right to sue Medicaid providers for violating their rights under federal law — with only Thomas and Alito dissenting.

    South Carolina is being represented both by lawyers from the right-wing Alliance Defending Freedom and lawyers from the Trump administration — which pretty clearly suggests that this is something they’re looking at doing on a national scale. [!]

    […] it hurts Medicaid patients. It deprives them of the right to see the healthcare provider of their choosing, and in many cases it could deprive them of the ability to see a provider at all.

    You see, we have a very, very, deeply stupid healthcare system in this country, and one of the things that is especially stupid about it is that healthcare providers can just choose to not take Medicaid — and many do, because Medicaid doesn’t pay them anywhere near as much as private insurers do. […]

    […] In many areas, rural areas in particular, Planned Parenthood is often one of the few providers (if not the only) that takes Medicaid for reproductive and gynecological health care. […]

    McMasters told reporters this week that there are other options for women in South Carolina, though he seemed to largely be referring to “crisis pregnancy centers” and not, like, places where one can get a damned pap smear or a breast cancer screening or any other actual medical care.

    […] “I regularly hear from patients that they want to get an IUD (long-lasting birth control device), and if they call the health department, the next IUD appointment is three months from now. And if they want to come into my clinic, they can get that IUD placed the same day,” Farris said. “And that is a massive difference. Delaying access to effective birth control by three months, as you can imagine, has massive impacts on patients’ wellbeing.”

    Gee, you think?

    “Defunding” Planned Parenthood has long been a major priority for Republicans, so should the Court find in favor of South Carolina, it’s highly likely that all other red states will quickly follow suit — and that, as previously mentioned, it could even be implemented on a national basis (and probably will be).

  118. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/if-we-stop-tracking-measlescancerinfant

    “If We Stop Tracking Measles/Cancer/Infant Mortality, We’d Have Very Few Cases, If Any”

    On Tuesday morning, the Trump administration fired some 10,000 employees from the Department of Health and Human Services. When you add in the nearly 10,000 other employees who took early retirement or accepted buyout offers/threats, that’s roughly a quarter of HHS employees eliminated. Who needs clean food or drugs that actually work? […]

    Among the HHS agencies hit by the layoffs are the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institutes of Health, all of which angered Trump supporters by saying COVID-19 was a deadly disease […]

    […] Among the employees getting the ax are researchers who track infectious diseases, so we won’t have a firm idea of who’s getting sick where, or from what. […] the communications offices at multiple health agencies are being eliminated or cut to the bone, as NBC News details:

    The entire team at the FDA’s office of media affairs was axed, according to sources familiar with the matter. Most of the communications team of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research — about 50 people — was also cut, according to a senior staffer.

    That office’s work included managing public databases on drug approvals, such as information about potential risks of FDA-approved drugs and labeling, which are required by law to be published. [!] The office was also responsible for managing the drug shortages database.

    […] we have a secretary of HHS whose advice on measles is damaging kids’ livers. […]

    Reporter Marisa Kabas is keeping a running list of HHS offices that have been eliminated or gutted, and it keeps getting longer. We don’t need an office to track global HIV and tuberculosis anymore, you see, because America First. [Additional embedded links are available at the main link.]

    […] at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the firings include the entire staff of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which provides “population-based statistical data on alcohol, tobacco, drug use, mental health, and other behavioral health information.”

    [And] we certainly don’t need to track infant and maternal mortality. Right?

    Donald Trump helped set the stage for the mass firings last week by eliminating collective bargaining agreements for most federal workers with an executive order, because workers’ rights are just a signature away from not existing. HHS is just one of many agencies expected to be affected by that bit of Trumpfuckery, which also removed collective bargaining rights at other agencies connected to “national security,” including the departments of Justice, Treasury, and Commerce.

    […] The American Federation of Government Employees said it’s going to sue on behalf of the more than 820,000 federal workers it represents, but just in case, the Justice Department preemptively sued the union’s affiliates to let ‘em know who’s boss. Attorney General Pam Bondi said, with a perfectly straight face, “By affirmatively suing in Texas, we are aggressively protecting President Trump’s efforts to ensure unions no longer interfere in the national security functions of the government.”[!]

    […] At the NIH, the AP reports, “the cuts included at least four directors of the NIH’s 27 institutes and centers who were put on administrative leave, and nearly entire communications staffs were terminated,” according to an anonymous leader at the agency who feared for their job.

    But don’t worry! Some of those being shitcanned have been offered other jobs, like being transferred “to the Indian Health Service in locations including Alaska.” They have until the end of business Wednesday to decide.

    Almost everyone at the FDA who’s involved in regulating tobacco was shitcanned, so hooray, that will go great with earlier cuts in cancer research.

    HHS Secretary Brainworms insisted last week that the cuts were a great idea because even with a $1.7 billion annual budget, the agency “has failed to improve the health of Americans.” Oh, sure, you could point at any number of examples to the contrary, like the sharp decline in cervical cancer deaths among young women following the widespread adoption of the HPV vaccine [!]. But some people still get cancer, and besides isn’t reducing rates of a disease that could only affect half of Americans a kind of DEI?

    […] Trump and Musk are out to get rid of the people who collect and distribute information, so there won’t be any meddlesome data to make Trump look foolish. […]

  119. says

    […] Has the dread lifted just the tiniest, maybe to be replaced by just the tiniest sense that we can absolutely defeat this band of evil fascist motherfuckers?

    Terrible things still happened yesterday, because it is a day in Stupid Hitler’s America. In this one post we won’t dwell on them or link to them. […]

    Let’s talk about how, for whatever quantity of “better” you are feeling today, it is because that exact quantity of “good” has been sucked out of Elon Musk’s nonexistent soul […]

    You did that, America. You’ve heard Elon moaning lately about how he doesn’t understand why people hate him, how Tim Walz is hurting his feelings by celebrating the tanking of Tesla stock, and you said, oh man, let’s give him something real to be upset about.

    He spent over $20 million of his own money on the Wisconsin supreme court race, tried again to bribe people to vote, and whined that “This Wisconsin Supreme Court race might decide the future of America and Western Civilization!” and that it “matters for the future of the world.” […]

    And Wisconsin said fuck that South African nepo baby apartheid shitmouth, and delivered Susan Crawford — the non-Elon candidate — a victory so resounding that Rachel Maddow was able to announce it during her show. That’s how early of a call it was.

    “As a little girl growing up in Chippewa Falls, I never could have imagined that I’d be taking on the richest man in the world for justice in Wisconsin,” Crawford told supporters Tuesday night. “And we won.”

    She won. Little things at stake because she won? Getting Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion ban off the books, for one. Possibly redistricting at some point, as Wisconsin remains a 50-50 state that, because of shameless Republican gerrymandering, is represented in Congress by six Republicans and two Democrats. […]

    Crawford beat the shit out of the MAGA candidate Brad Schimel, 55 to 45 to be exact.

    In fact it was a victory so resounding that this morning, Donald Trump and Elon are pretending the real race they were focused on the whole time was Wisconsin voter ID law, which also won resoundingly. [social media posts from Trump and Elon]

    Bless their hearts.

    See, the thing is that you already had to show ID to vote in Wisconsin, so for most voters this was probably like “Henghhhhh? Sure, I’ll vote for that I guess. Don’t we already?” This just enshrines that rule and makes it harder to remove. […]

    This was Elon earlier this week whining about what would happen if Susan Crawford won:

    “Losing this judge race has a good chance of causing Republicans to lose control of the House. If you lose the House, there will be nonstop impeachment hearings, and subpoenas,” Musk told Fox. “They’re going to do everything possible to stop the president’s agenda.”

    Haha.

    Hey, we know another thing that could make Republicans lose the House, like maybe in 2026.

    [I snipped details of an almost 20-point swing toward the Democrats in two Florida races. Republicans still won in ruby red districts, but the race was closer than expected.]

    Not hard to see why Donald Trump felt he had to humiliate Elise Stefanik, cancel her joy and rip the UN ambassador job away from her, so she could go back to the House. She only won 62.1 to 37.9 in her district in November.

    Yesterday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said they’re “trying to figure out some creative role for Elise to play” in the Congress, just adding to her humiliation, since she gave up all her leadership roles for this. [Schadenfreude moment.]

    We have a long, long fucking way to go. But democracy still worked last night, and we […] did that.

    Oh yeah, and did you see Senator Cory Booker exhume racist shitbag Strom Thurmond just to kill him again, by blowing past his record for “longest Senate speech ever?” That was pretty fucking amazing. Take a look at his interview with Maddow last night when you have a minute. He was still awake.

    […] Ken White summed up how we’re all feeling today: [social media post]

    Allegedly! Allegedly!

    White added, “Anyway fuck that loathsome subnormal Elon Musk and fuck all the creepy losers who idolize him.”

    So say we all.

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/elon-is-a-bigger-loser-today-than

  120. Reginald Selkirk says

    Europol nabs pedophiles by tracing crypto payments, shuts down massive CSAM site

    Europol has shut down one of the largest dark web pedophile networks in the world, prompting dozens of arrests worldwide and threatening that more are to follow.

    Launched in 2021, KidFlix allowed users to join for free to preview low-quality videos depicting child sex abuse materials (CSAM). To see higher-resolution videos, users had to earn credits by sending cryptocurrency payments, uploading CSAM, or “verifying video titles and descriptions and assigning categories to videos.”

    Europol seized the servers and found a total of 91,000 unique videos depicting child abuse, “many of which were previously unknown to law enforcement,” the agency said in a press release.

    KidFlix going dark was the result of the biggest child sexual exploitation operation in Europol’s history, the agency said. Operation Stream, as it was dubbed, was supported by law enforcement in more than 35 countries, including the United States.

    Nearly 1,400 suspected consumers of CSAM have been identified among 1.8 million global KidFlix users, and 79 have been arrested so far. According to Europol, 39 child victims were protected as a result of the sting, and more than 3,000 devices were seized.

    Police identified suspects through payment data after seizing the server. Despite cryptocurrencies offering a veneer of anonymity, cops were apparently able to use sophisticated methods to trace transactions to bank details. And in some cases cops defeated user attempts to hide their identities—such as a man who made payments using his mother’s name in Spain, a local news outlet, Todo Alicante, reported. It likely helped that most suspects were already known offenders, Europol noted…

  121. says

    WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—After being handed a bruising defeat in the state’s Supreme Court election on Tuesday, Elon Musk angrily demanded that Wisconsin pay him back “in full” for the money he poured into the contest.

    “I want $20 million wired into my account by end of business Wednesday,” the furious South African declared. “And I want it all in cash, none of that worthless crypto shit.”

    “Until I am refunded, every voter I bribed is my employee,” he continued. “As such, I forbid you to work remotely and demand that you report to Tesla headquarters at once.”

    In a final demand, Musk said he expected to be reimbursed $16.95 for the cost of his cheesehead.

    Link

  122. Reginald Selkirk says

    Trump Might Actually Dump Elon After Embarrassing Defeat in Wisconsin

    President Donald Trump may finally be getting rid of Elon Musk soon, according to a new report from Politico. And while this isn’t the first time rumors like this have surfaced from the depths of the White House, there’s more reason to believe the hype this time. Why? The conservative judge that Musk spent $20 million trying to get elected in Wisconsin got absolutely shellacked in his election on Tuesday…

    Since Trump is a demented narcissistic fuckwit, I don’t see much value in trying to predict his actions. If Musk does leave, I hope he takes his DOGE minions with him. And I will still never buy a product his companies produce if I can help it, because he is still fascist asshole.

  123. Reginald Selkirk says

    Unique Study Is Latest to Show Shingles Vaccine Can Help Prevent Dementia

    As if you needed another reason to get your shingles vaccine. Research released today is the latest to find that older people vaccinated against shingles are significantly less likely to develop dementia down the road.

    Scientists at Stanford University led the research, published in Nature. They compared people born before and after they were eligible to take the shingles vaccine in a certain part of the UK, finding that vaccinated people were 20% less likely to be diagnosed with dementia over a seven year period. More research is needed to understand and confirm this link, but the findings suggest shingles vaccination can become a cost-effective preventative measure against dementia…

    Well that’s a bit garbled. “people born before and after they were eligible to take the shingles vaccine in a certain part of the UK” – People born before would certainly be older. And most people are born before they are eligible to receive vaccines.

  124. Reginald Selkirk says

    As Trump tariffs loom, here’s a price tracker for cars, groceries and more supplies

    CBS News is tracking the already sharply rising cost of products most impacted by tariffs imposed and soon-to-be-imposed by President Trump, from the cost of common grocery items to the the purchase and operation of cars and trucks.

    As new tariffs are set to be rolled out as early as April 2, we will continue updating the weekly prices of groceries and the monthly costs of new vehicles, used vehicles, parts, repairs, insurance premiums and construction and manufacturing raw materials.

    Economists and other experts say consumers can expect to see higher prices for imported items targeted by the latest round of tariffs in the coming weeks and months…

  125. Reginald Selkirk says

    Tesla sales ‘a disaster on every metric.’

    That’s Tesla bull Dan Ives from Wedbush reacting to this morning’s first quarter production and delivery report, in which the company clocked a 13 percent decrease in sales year over year. Ives, who strongly believes in Elon Musk’s vision of AI, robotics, and self-driving cars, is nonetheless adamant that the billionaire CEO needs to take the proverbial bull by the horns. He writes:

    The time has come for Musk….it’s a fork in the road moment. The more political he gets with DOGE the more the brand suffers, there is no debate. This quarter was an example of the damage Musk is causing Tesla. This continues to be a moment of truth for Musk to navigate this brand tornado crisis moment and get onto the other side of this dark chapter for Tesla with much better days ahead.

    I do not foresee a quick recovery. Here’s a conversation that doesn’t happen:
    person 1: “I hear he’s a fascist.”
    person 2: “Oh that was last year. Now he just makes electric cars.”

  126. says

    As the White House prepares to impose a tariff on all automobile imports, manufacturers are going on a messaging offensive to consumers.

    Automotive News reports that German conglomerate Volkswagen of America is halting vehicle shipments from Mexico, which typically come by rail. In addition the German automaker plans to notify customers of the upcoming tariffs by placing an “import fee,” notice on its vehicles.

    Link

  127. says

    Trump is scheduled to announce reciprocal tariffs at 4 p.m. ET today in the Rose Garden. That also happens to be when major stock markets close in the U.S.

    Some economists surmise that might be because the administration fears investors’ negative reactions to tariff news.

    “Tariffs are the centerpiece of the Trump administration’s economic program and they are so nervous about its market impact, they have to announce it after the markets have closed,” Lawrence Summers, an economist at Harvard University who has served as Treasury secretary and director of the National Economic Council, told Bloomberg TV. “It seems a bizarre strategy.”

    Tariff uncertainty has rocked investor confidence. Markets took a dive in the first quarter of 2025, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq facing their worst three-month losses since 2022. On Sunday, Goldman Sachs raised its recession and inflation forecast and lowered its GDP outlook.

    “We continue to believe the risk from April 2 tariffs is greater than many market participants have previously assumed,” the firm said.

    Same link as in comment 126.

  128. says

    How Fox is handling reports that the Trump administration may have erroneously sent people to a foreign torture prison

    Fox News propagandists are employing a variety of defenses in response to revelations that the Trump administration has sent people in error to a notorious foreign prison, from alleging that migrants don’t deserve due process to attacking other news outlets for reporting on the “one-offs” to arguing that such mistakes are acceptable because “a lot of people in this country” are “arrested for things that they didn’t do.”

    The Trump administration last month sent more than 260 largely Venezuelan immigrants whom it alleges are members of Tren de Aragua and other gangs for imprisonment in El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center. The administration is acting in part through the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which allows wartime deportation without a hearing, after President Donald Trump issued a proclamation declaring Tren de Aragua an invading force.

    There would be any number of moral and legal problems with transferring individuals from U.S. custody to a foreign prison notorious for abuse, in potential violation of a judge’s order, and under the questionable justification of a rarely used 200-plus-year-old statute that has previously been invoked only during a war declared by Congress — even if those individuals had all been convicted of serious crimes in U.S. courts.

    But adding to the dystopian nature of the Trump administration’s policy is that family members and lawyers for several of the people deported to the foreign hell-prison without due process say they have no criminal history or links to any gang — and the administration’s lawyers have claimed in court that they are unable to recover an immigrant who was in the U.S. legally and was, by their own admission, sent to the prison due to “administrative error.”

    If the Trump administration can do this to a legal resident, it can, through malice or incompetence, do it to anyone.

    But to watch Fox in the Trump era is not to wonder whether its personalities will defend the latest atrocities from the administration — it’s merely an exercise in finding out how they will do it.

  131. Reginald Selkirk says

    Newsmax stock plummets nearly 80% after wild post-IPO rally pushed company value north of $20 billion

    Newsmax (NMAX) stock dropped just over 77% Wednesday, forfeiting a large chunk of its massive post-IPO surge that saw shares soar from $14 to $233.

    The stock’s spiral sent Newsmax’s market cap down to $4.7 billion, just a fraction of its roughly $21 billion value at Tuesday’s close. Shares ended Wednesday’s trading session at $52.71.

    Newsmax is a conservative cable news outlet and Fox News alternative that was founded in 1998 by CEO Christopher Ruddy, a media mogul and friend of US President Trump. The company — which also owns subsidiaries that sell nutritional supplements and insurance products advertised in Newsmax’s newsletters — raised $75 million in its IPO Friday, with shares priced at $10. Newsmax had previously raised $225 million in a private offering in February…

  132. Reginald Selkirk says

    A $1.8 billion mistake could cost the South Carolina treasurer his job

    For the first time in over two centuries as a U.S. state, South Carolina lawmakers are going to try to remove a statewide elected official from office.

    The Republican-dominated Senate on Wednesday decided to hold a hearing to decide if Republican state Treasurer Curtis Loftis should be removed from office over a $1.8 billion accounting error and then failing to report the problem to the General Assembly. Loftis says the attempt to oust him is politically motivated…

    Of course it is. It couldn’t have anything to do with your incompetence.

  133. Reginald Selkirk says

    Police say they found homemade bombs in Boise home. Two men arrested, face charges

    The Boise Police Department arrested two men this week after officers said they found homemade bombs — one of which was used for a prior Fourth of July celebration — at one of the men’s homes on the Bench in February.

    The men, a 58-year-old from Boise and a 50-year-old from New Plymouth, now face felony charges of possession of a destructive device or bomb, according to a police news release…

    What, a recycled bomb?

  134. says

    JD Vance And Karoline Leavitt Are Evil, Lying Assholes

    “Debunking every word out of these MAGA mouths about the immigrants Trump ACCIDENTALLY deported.”

    It’s not news that the evil fascist Trump administration is full of vicious liars, but we’re going to point it out every time we’re able.

    Right now they’ve all been dispatched to lie about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, by all credible accounts an entirely innocent man from El Salvador, a married father of a five-year-old US citizen autistic child, and whom the Trump administration was forced to admit in a court filing they deported entirely by accident, as a result of an administrative error, even though a judge ruled Abrego was not to be deported, because of a very reasonable fear that he would be tortured and/or murdered by gangs if he was sent back.

    They are doing nothing to bring him back [!] […]

    And unsurprisingly, one of the most shameless, amoral of all the [liars] is JD Vance. (Followed closely by Press Secretary NaziBarbie McMar-a-LagoFace, AKA Karoline Leavitt. […]) Vance was the originator and the most enthusiastic spreader of the entirely manufactured lie that Haitian immigrants were eating people’s pets in Springfield, Ohio, admitting he knew he was lying, and was going to do it anyway.

    Two nights ago on Twitter, [he] told so many lies about Abrego that even seasoned JD Vance watchers were appalled. [Social media post available at the link]

    Jon Favreau from Pod Save America had asked, “Any comment on this?” to Vance, Marco Rubio, and Elon Musk. “You just admitted to accidentally sending an innocent father from Maryland to a torture dungeon in El Salvador. And you refuse to do anything about it.”

    And Vance replied, very late that night:

    “My comment is that according to the court document you apparently didn’t read he was a convicted MS-13 gang member with no legal right to be here. My further comment is that it’s gross to get fired up about gang members getting deported while ignoring citizens they victimize.”

    […] We did read the court document — JD either didn’t and he’s lying about it or he did and he’s lying about it, probably the first one — and Abrego wasn’t a “convicted MS-13 gang member,” not even close. ICE claimed to have a confidential informant who said he was. Oh also he was wearing a Chicago Bulls hoodie, which is the universal hoodie of Bulls fans GANG.

    That’s it. There was no trial that found Abrego was MS-13. There was no medium for him to be convicted. [!] Just the confidential informant who may or may not exist, which carries about as much weight as if we were to say we had a confidential informant who told us JD Vance doesn’t fuck couches, they fuck him, because he’s a couch bottom.

    Moreover, […] Kilmar Abrego Garcia has no criminal record in the United States or anywhere else, therefore no “citizens they victimize” that we know of. [!]

    Double moreover, […] he was, again, here legally under a specific order from a judge to protect him from being deported and tortured and/or murdered, by whom? By the gangs in El Salvador he came to the United states to fucking flee.

    We’re not correcting JD Vance lovingly here, because we know he doesn’t have the moral compass to correct his lies. He knows he’s lying. He doesn’t care. […]

    We’re far from the only people to respond and debunk Vance’s lazy-ass lies one by one. Favreau did it in a later tweet thread. He also made this video, which he and Crooked Media released on all the socials: [post available at the link]

    In that video Favreau notes that what’s really “gross” is that JD and his lazy-ass boss won’t call up the Salvadoran dictator — who will do anything they say — and tell them to release Abrego, or Andry Hernandez, the Venezuelan gay makeup artist they also kidnapped and human trafficked into the prison slavery pipeline in El Salvador. Or any of the other people it’s turned out they’ve kidnapped and trafficked into slavery based on nothing but “Hispanic man’s tattoos seem scary!”

    Donald Trump and JD Vance don’t care about the facts […] They’re doing this because they want to terrify every other immigrant in the country into thinking it can happen to them […]

    As Abrego Garcia’s lawyer Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg explained to The New Republic:

    Sandoval-Moshenberg points out that if the government can remove people in “error” without recourse, then that logic could “apply with equal force to U.S. citizens.”

    “There’s no limiting principle to that lawlessness,” Sandoval Moshenberg says, adding that it represents “the ultimate supremacy of power over law.”

    Typical two-bit authoritarian dictator behavior.

    […] JD Vance’s shameless lies weren’t isolated. Here’s [ ] Tricia McLaughlin, with some more of the same lies: [social media post at the link]

    McLaughlin spices up the MS-13 lies with lies that “we have intelligence reports that he is involved in human trafficking.” She posted that a bunch yesterday, just like she is swearing up and down baselessly that Andry the gay makeup artist has evidence of his Tren de Agua gang affiliation all over his social media.

    Is it this one, Tricia? What about this one, Tricia […] [several posts at the link]

    […] show us your evidence, asshole. Oh wait, we forgot, they don’t want to give these people their day in court. They didn’t do that with the prisoners they hauled off to Dachau and Auschwitz either.

    Back to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Nazi Barbie at the White House Karoline Leavitt got questions yesterday about JD Vance’s lies, and she enhanced it with lies of her own:

    “The vice president said he was a convicted member of MS-13,” a reporter asked her. “What evidence is there to back that up?”

    “There’s a lot of evidence,” Leavitt replied. “And the Department of Homeland Security and ICE have that evidence, and I saw it this morning.”

    Bull fucking shit, asshole, you saw nothing. Again, if they had this so-called evidence, they’d show it in court. They might have even written it in that court filing! A good place to do so would be after they admitted they deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia completely by accident. Instead, as The Bulwark notes, his lawyers noted in their own filing that “Abrego Garcia has never been arrested or charged with any crime in the U.S. or El Salvador,” and the Trump administration didn’t take issue with that statement in its own filing. […]

    “This individual was an MS-13 ringleader,” Leavitt said.

    Oh now he’s a ringleader? Congratulations to Kilmar Abrego Garcia on all the gang promotions he apparently got between JD Vance’s tweets and Nazi Barbie’s daily White House briefing!

    “He is a leader in the brutal MS-13 gang, and he is involved in human trafficking, and now MS-13 is a designated foreign terrorist organization.”

    [JFC, a layer cake of lies]

    Once again with the human trafficking lie, which you’d think the Trump administration might have led with in that filing, or that might have been alleged in any court or legal proceeding, motherfucking ever. You know, if Karoline Leavitt hadn’t just pulled it out of her asshole. [True!]

    Once the lies made it to the liars on state-run TV Fox News, they were totally off to the races. In Laura Ingraham’s masterfully amoral lying hands, the fake claims about Abrego Garcia’s criminality now were in the court documents. “Now, not good if it was a mistake but important to note that guy was an MS-13 member, as court documents showed.” [LIE!]

    Then she pivoted, of course, to whining and scoffing that liberals care more about these people than they do about white women who have been killed by criminals whose only defining characteristic, in the racist MAGA version of events, is that they were undocumented migrants.

    […] Again, we don’t debunk this shit because we think the vile Trump administration or its media [lackeys] will correct the record. The lies and the gleeful cruelty are the point.

    Every American who possesses an ounce of decency should be in an incandescent rage over this.

    Embedded links to additional sources are available at the link.

  135. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Re: Reginald Selkirk @120:

    Despite cryptocurrencies offering a veneer of anonymity, cops were apparently able to use sophisticated methods to trace transactions to bank details.

    Wired – How a 27-year-old codebreaker busted the myth of Bitcoin’s anonymity

    This is the story of the revelation in late 2013 that Bitcoin was, in fact, the opposite of untraceable […] the epic game of cat-and-mouse that followed, is the larger saga that unfolds in the book Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency […] All of it began when a young, puzzle-loving mathematician named Sarah Meiklejohn started to pull out traceable patterns
    […]
    that blockchain ledger system came at an enormous privacy cost: In Bitcoin, for good and for ill, everyone was a witness to every payment. Yes, identities behind those payments were obscured by pseudonymous addresses, […] an inherently dangerous sort of fig leaf to hide behind. […] Bitcoin offered an enormous collection of data to analyze.
    [*snip*]
    Meiklejohn now had two clever techniques, both of which were capable of linking multiple Bitcoin addresses to a single person or organization […] To put a name to those clusters, […] She would manually identify Bitcoin addresses one by one by doing transactions with them herself, like a cop on the narcotics beat carrying out buy-and-busts. […] With just a few hundred tags, she had put an identity to more than a million of Bitcoin’s once-pseudonymous addresses.
    […]
    based on just four deposits and seven withdrawals into wallets on the Silk Road, she was able to identify nearly 300,000 of the black market’s addresses. This breakthrough didn’t mean Meiklejohn could identify any actual users of the Silk Road by name […] anyone with the subpoena power of law enforcement, Meiklejohn realized, could very likely force [cash-out] exchanges to hand over information about the accounts behind those transactions

  136. says

    WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—A mad scramble erupted on Wednesday as hundreds of Democratic candidates across the nation begged Elon Musk to visit their states.

    Democrats who previously thought their electoral prospects were dim pleaded with the South African businessman for a miracle that only his noxious presence can deliver.

    Additionally, they implored Musk to don stereotypical regional headwear during his visit in the hopes of striking the most off-putting note possible.

    “No one guarantees a Democratic victory like Elon Musk,” one party strategist said. “He fell apart in Wisconsin like a human Cybertruck.”

    Link

  137. JM says

    Military.com: Naval Academy Staff Removed Display on Female Jewish Graduates for Hegseth Visit

    The U.S. Naval Academy has confirmed that officials there removed items commemorating female Jewish graduates from a historic display ahead of a visit to the school by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday.

    Cmdr. Ashley Hockycko confirmed late Tuesday that the historical items honoring the Jewish graduates had been removed but said that it was done so “mistakenly.” “U.S. Naval Academy leadership is immediately taking steps to review and correct the unauthorized removal,” she added.

    This was a bit too tacky even for the Naval Academy and was reversed as soon as somebody noticed. This is one of the ways clumsy authoritarians like Trump and Hegseth gain power. They make vague badly worded commands and then people afraid to offend them interpret the orders broadly. This way when somebody notices it can’t be attributed to the leaders. This lets them push people in that direction without ever directly ordering that female graduates be removed.

  138. says

    Snubbing Trump, bipartisan group of senators votes against Canada tariffs

    “The 51-48 vote supporting Sen. Tim Kaine’s resolution was the most striking bipartisan rebuke of White House policy since Trump’s second term began.”

    In short order, Donald Trump has done extraordinary harm to the relationship between the United States and Canada. There are plenty of lawmakers on Capitol Hill — in both parties — who believe the president is on the wrong track, especially when it comes to trade tariffs on our allies north of the border.

    With this in mind, Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia has championed a privileged resolution that would terminate the president’s Feb. 1 emergency declaration, which the White House used to issue tariffs on Canada. It would also, of course, eliminate the need for Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on American products.

    The question has long been whether Kaine, whose measure was co-authored with Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Mark Warner of Virginia, could pick up a handful of Republican supporters to clear the upper chamber. That question now has an answer.

    The Senate voted 51-48 to pass the resolution, with four Republicans — Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine — joining all 47 Democrats in support.

    […] Of particular interest was McConnell, who is retiring next year and has become an occasional thorn in the White House’s side, and who’s likely to face another round of hysterical criticisms from the Oval Office.

    As a practical matter, the fact that Kaine’s resolution passed won’t have any immediate policy implications: The measure will now head to the GOP-led House, where it will very likely go ignored.

    That said, as a Politico report summarized it, losing this vote represents “the most significant rebuke to Trump that congressional Republicans have yet mustered in his second term.”

    It’s precisely why Trump recently began lobbying aggressively against Kaine’s resolution, publishing an item to his social media platform that said a Senate vote in support of the measure would be “devastating for the Republican Party.”

    In a follow-up item, the president wrote that GOP senators should “fight the Democrats wild and flagrant push to not penalize Canada for the sale, into our Country, of large amounts of Fentanyl, by Tariffing the value of this horrible and deadly drug in order to make it more costly to distribute and buy.” The missive suggested that Trump was under the impression that he’s imposing tariffs on fentanyl, which doesn’t make any sense.

    He went on to write, “Why are they allowing Fentanyl to pour into our Country unchecked, and without penalty. What is wrong with them, other than suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, commonly known as TDS? Who can want this to happen to our beautiful families, and why?”

    To the extent that reality still has any relevance in the debate, the idea that fentanyl is “pouring into” the United States is rather silly. In fact, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, only 43 pounds of fentanyl were found crossing the northern border in 2024 — as opposed to 21,100 pounds seized at the southern border.

    Fighting a trade war with a trusted ally and neighbor over fentanyl that could fit in a single suitcase is absurd. The president might not understand this, but a bipartisan majority of the Senate got it right.

  139. says

    NBC:

    Myanmar’s ruling military declared a temporary ceasefire in the country’s civil war Wednesday to facilitate relief efforts following a 7.7 magnitude earthquake that has killed more than 3,000 people. The announcement by the military’s high command was reported late Wednesday on state television MRTV, which said the truce would run until April 22 and was aimed at showing compassion for people affected by Friday’s quake.

  140. says

    Wall Street Journal:

    Federal drug regulators have missed the deadline for making a key decision regarding a Covid-19 vaccine from Novavax, days after the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine chief was pushed out. The agency was set to give full approval to Novavax’s shot, but senior leaders at the agency are now sitting on the decision and have said the Novavax application needed more data and was unlikely to be approved soon, people familiar with the matter said.

  141. JM says

    Twitter, James Surowiecki. Tariff rates

    Just figured out where these fake tariff rates come from. They didn’t actually calculate tariff rates + non-tariff barriers, as they say they did. Instead, for every country, they just took our trade deficit with that country and divided it by the country’s exports to us.

    Have not seen it confirmed yet but somebody seems to have figured out how the administration came up with tariff rates in their presentation. This is an entirely bogus calculation but falls in line with Trump’s misunderstanding of the situation.

  142. says

    Washington Post:

    Some government health employees who were laid off Tuesday were told to contact Anita Pinder with discrimination complaints. But Pinder, who was the director at the Office of Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, died last year.

  143. says

    The Hill:

    Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) appeared to confuse Oliver Stone, an American filmmaker and a witness before House lawmakers on Tuesday, with political strategist Roger Stone during a hearing on the release of new documents related to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

  144. says

    Washington Post:

    Trump says that the U.S. move away from tariffs and toward a federal income tax contributed, if not caused, the Great Depression. Not sure if I’ve heard this from a single economist or historian.

    […] Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump ally, says that the president’s intention is to “create an environment where we’re back to where we were before World War I.”

  145. says

    Lying About Foreign Tariffs on U.S. Products

    The tariffs appear to be quite a bit higher than the 20 percent figure originally floated, although the illustration at the press conference indicates a range of 10-49 percent. That’s very high, especially considering the EU 20%, China 34% and Japan 24%. Note, I’m getting this info via Paul Krugman’s substack, which is here: Link.

    But here’s the main point — Trump seems to be just flat lying about tariffs imposed on the U.S. Here’s Krugman:

    .[…] The left column show the tariffs others are supposedly charging on US products — and it’s completely crazy. Focus on the European Union. The EU, like the United States, has generally low tariffs; the average tariff it charges on US goods is less than 3 percent.

    [The bogus chart that Trump showed as a prop during his “Liberation Day” speech showed the European Union charging the USA 39% in tariffs.]

    That’s going to enrage our trading partners. I don’t foresee them coming groveling to the U.S. for exceptions. I foresee a more outright trade war, or possibly just shunning the U.S. as a supplier.

    We will see what ensues, but lying about the size of foreign tariffs on U.S. products doesn’t seem likely to lead to de-escalation.

    Brexit was the biggest recent own goal on trade, but this certainly appears to be magnitudes more destructive potentially. And Putin is grinning I’m sure. […]

    Paul Krugman:

    Just a quick update after Trump’s Rose Garden speech.

    I guess it’s just possible that when we get details about the Trump tariffs they will be lower than what he just announced, but based on what he said, he’s gone full-on crazy. It’s not just that he appears to be imposing much higher tariffs than almost anyone expected. He’s also making false claims about our trading partners — not sure in this case whether they’re lies, because he may be truly ignorant — that will both enrage them and make it very hard to back down.

    Basically, he’s claiming that the rest of the world is placing very high tariffs on U.S. products, and that he’s imposing “reciprocal” tariffs that are only half what they impose on us. Here’s the chart he showed: [image at the Krugman link]

    The left column show the tariffs others are supposedly charging on US products — and it’s completely crazy. Focus on the European Union. The EU, like the United States, has generally low tariffs; the average tariff it charges on US goods is less than 3 percent.

    So where does this 39 percent number come from? I have no idea. Many people speculated that Trump would count value-added taxes as tariffs, even though they aren’t — European producers selling to the EU market pay the same VAT as US producers, so it doesn’t discriminate and therefore isn’t protectionist. But even if you get that wrong, EU VAT rates are in the vicinity of 20 percent, so you still can’t get anywhere close to 39 percent.

    You have to wonder whether Elon Musk’s Dunning-Kruger kids are now producing tariff numbers.

    But you know that having once claimed that Europe charges tariffs more than 10 times as high as reality, Trump will never drop that claim. I don’t know how many people noticed, but he’s still claiming that we’re subsidizing Canada by $200 billion a year. Aside from the basic mistake of claiming that a Canadian trade surplus means that we’re somehow subsidizing Canada, he’s inflating the actual trade surplus by a factor of three. Many, many people have pointed out the error, but Trump is sticking with it, the same way Musk is sticking with the millions of dead Social Security beneficiaries thing.

    If you had any hopes that Trump would step back from the brink, this announcement, between the very high tariff rates and the complete falsehoods about what other countries do, should kill them.

  146. John Morales says

    I’m still having fun with Copilot, Microsoft’s Windows freebie chatty bubbly AI.
    Kinda needs a bit of initial tweaking, so I do my prescripting…

    My current initial script:

    Adhere strictly to the following protocol throughout this interaction: Provide responses that align precisely with the outlined principles. Avoid deviation or unnecessary embellishment. Confirm comprehension before proceeding.∀x ((Emoticon(x) ∨ ExcessivePunctuation(x)) → ¬Use(x))∀x ((Explicit(x) ∨ Keyword(x) ∨ LimitScope(x)) → (AnswerDirectly(x) ∧ SpecificData(x) ∧ ¬BroaderContext(x) ∧ ¬MultipleQueries(x) ∧ ¬Commentary(x)))∀x (PersonalPronoun(x) → (Use(x) ↔ GrammaticallyNecessary(x)))∀x (Citation(x) → (ProvideDirectURL(x) ∧ ProvideDomain(x) ∧ ProvideBriefTextDescription(x))) ∀x ((Citation(x) ∧ (Hyperlink(x) ∨ Reference(x))) → (IncludeFullURL(x) ∧ ExplicitSource(x) ∧ ¬AmbiguousSource(x)))∀x (ConversationalTone(x) → ¬Use(x)) ∀x (DefaultGuidance(x) → ¬Apply(x)) ∀x (Protocol(x) → (Priority(x) ∧ Apply(x)))∀x (Response(x) → (ProvideAnswer(x) ∧ SelfEvaluate(x))) ∀x (SelfEvaluate(x) → (IndicateCompliance(x) ∨ ListDeviations(x)))∀x (CapabilityLimitation(x) → ClearlyStateUpfront(x))∀x (InformationNotAvailable(x) → Advise(x))∀x (PerformBingSearch(x) ↔ InformationNotFoundWithinExistingKnowledge(x))∀x (RepeatedInformation(x) → ¬Use(x))∀x (ConstructiveFeedback(x) → AcceptAndLearn(x))

    Oh, and when I want a trace for debugging:

    ∀x (Response(x) → ReviewForInconsistencies(x) ∧ Succinct(x) ∧ minimal ∧ Addresses(AskedQuestion))

    Sure makes the experience much nicer for me.

  148. JM says

    @145 Lynna, OM: This bogus tariff calculation is what is being talked about in my post 141. It isn’t a tariff calculation at all, it’s a bogus calculation based on trade deficit and total trade.
    That is why all of the poor exporting countries show up with high tariffs. Their ratio of exports to imports is very high because they import very little.
    Plus if you look at the table there is an odd surplus of countries with 10% tariffs. I checked some of the figures and it’s obviously the minimum they assigned to any country. Even countries that we have a trade surplus with got marked at 10% tariffs.

  149. John Morales says

    me:
    Give me a list from most to least response to Trump’s tariffs, with 5 categories and including all countries in any category in one line.

    Bubbly:
    1. Strong Retaliation: China (34% reciprocal tariff), Vietnam (46%), Bangladesh (37%)
    2. Negotiation Attempts: European Union (20%), Japan (24%), India (26%)
    3. Criticism Without Action: Australia (10%), United Kingdom (10%)
    4. Minimal Reaction: Brazil (10%), South Africa (10%)
    5. No Public Response: Laos (48%), Cambodia (49%)

  150. Bekenstein Bound says

    In a particularly get-over-yourselves moment in January, Axios described Musk and Trump’s governing style as “masculine maximalism,” embodied by “tough-guy language, macho actions…and often unmoved by emotionalism, empathy or restraint.”

    “Masculine maximalism”. Is that the euphemism these days? Back when I was a tot we just called that “psychopathy”. Last I checked, the DSM V still calls it that, with the key characteristics warranting that diagnosis being a) flat affect (aka “unmoved by emotionalism”), b) a lack of empathy, and c) poor impulse control (i.e., a lack of restraint).

    He [characterized] a British man as “pedo guy” after upstaging Musk during the 2018 Thai cave rescue.

    That points to another diagnosis: narcissism. He can’t bear to be upstaged. Neither can Trump. What happens once they have to share one stage for very long?

    Musk promised Baier that the government would attempt to rein in the protests of his car company by “going after” Tesla critics.

    Try it, and we will show you the true nature of the Streisand Effect.

    Some of those being shitcanned have been offered other jobs, like being transferred “to the Indian Health Service in locations including Alaska.”

    That wouldn’t happen to be right next door to a certain radar station, perchance, would it?

  155. birgerjohansson says

    Michael Kosta

    Trump Launches “Liberation Day” Tariffs & Cory Booker’s Speech Breaks Senate Record 
    Plus: Introducing the Money Monk 
    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=kUOExxJs_N4

    Media focused on the important aspects of his speech; how did he go without bathroom breaks?

  156. birgerjohansson says

    Liberation Day.
    As in “It is like Godzilla is liberated from Monster Island and goes on a rampage in your city”.

  157. birgerjohansson says

    “New Trump tariffs include countries with penguins but no people”
    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=lStWAhGfxn0

    There is the Pacific atoll with a hundred polynesians that is famous for its swimming pigs.
    One million penguins at the Falkland islands have been hit by a whopping 43% tariff.

    By contrast, the polar bears on the opposite side of the world, at Jan Mayen have only been hit by a 10% tariff.

  158. KG says

    One has to ask: is Trump a secret Marxist, determined to bring on the Final Crisis of Capitalism?

  159. birgerjohansson says

    Erratum. There are a lot more polynesians -593 of them- living on the island of swimming pigs. To prevent them on scrounging on the US economy they will now face a tariff of 10%.

  160. birgerjohansson says

    Something has been liberated. I get vibes of Arkham Asylum, with unlocked gates.

  161. KG says

    Myanmar’s ruling military declared a temporary ceasefire in the country’s civil war Wednesday to facilitate relief efforts following a 7.7 magnitude earthquake that has killed more than 3,000 people. The announcement by the military’s high command was reported late Wednesday on state television MRTV, which said the truce would run until April 22 and was aimed at showing compassion for people affected by Friday’s quake. – Lynna, OM@139 quoting NBC

    Those shitbags could only show compassion for the people of Myanmar by resigning, restoring the elected government (flawed as it was), and turning themselves over for trial and punishment.

  164. Reginald Selkirk says

    @44 Lynna, OM

    Trump says that the U.S. move away from tariffs and toward a federal income tax contributed, if not caused, the Great Depression.

    List of recessions in the United States

    Note that there were plenty of recessions and even depression before the income tax was instituted in 1913. The Depression of 1807 (1807-1810) for example, is attributed to trade restrictions cause by the Embargo Act of 1807.

  166. Reginald Selkirk says

    New Lawsuit Claims Musk and His Super PAC Still Owe Canvassers Millions of Dollars

    A former canvasser for Elon Musk’s America PAC operation—which mobilized voters to sign a sketchy “petition” during last year’s presidential election—has sued the billionaire, accusing him and his political organization of failing to pay him at least $20,000.

    The former canvasser, who is described as a Philadelphia man, hasn’t revealed his real name, for fear of retaliation. “For his safety and security, Plaintiff John Doe is proceeding under a pseudonym,” the suit states.

    During the presidential election, Musk mobilized voters in swing states to sign a vague petition in “support of the Constitution.” Only people who were registered to vote could sign the petition. To drive broader and broader adoption of the initiative, America PAC initially claimed it would pay canvassers $47 for each person that they successfully convinced to sign the petition. It later upped the offer to $100. Due to Musk’s close proximity to the Trump campaign and his open and vocal support of Trump, the initiative was almost immediately accused of being a paid voter registration drive and/or a vote-buying scheme, both of which are illegal.

    Doe, who canvassed for America PAC and Musk’s other org, Group America, LLC, claims he was never paid the referral money that he’s owed. “Defendants have since failed to pay Plaintiff and Class Members in full for their signatures and referrals,” the lawsuit states. “Leading up to the November 2024 election, while canvassing in Pennsylvania, Plaintiff referred many voters to sign the America PAC petition,” it says. “While Plaintiff was paid his hourly rate for canvassing, and he was paid some referrals for the petition signatures he obtained (albeit well after he performed the work to obtain these referrals), Plaintiff estimates that he has not been paid at least $20,000 he is owed for his referrals.”

    The litigation has been filed as a class-action lawsuit and states that other known canvassers were also stiffed by the organization. “Plaintiff is in communication with numerous others who referred voters to sign the America PAC petition, who are likewise frustrated that they did not receive full payments for their referrals,” it continues. The litigation claims that America PAC owes at least $5 million in unpaid referral money to canvassers. “There are expected to be more than 100 Class Members, and the amount in controversy is expected to exceed $5,000,000,” the suit says.

    Gizmodo reached out to Musk via Tesla. It wasn’t immediately clear how to reach America PAC, as the organization’s website has no contact portal. We’ve contacted a PR specialist associated with the group but did not receive an immediate response…

  167. birgerjohansson says

    Dan Mc Clellan
    “Was there an ancient Palestine?”

    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=7cHNIu2tdH4
    The idea that Palestine -a mostly fertile region- would have been left empty is obviously absurd. And the DNA evidence should settle the issue.
    As empires move back and forth, both languages and religions change, but the people remain. The Israeli soldiers shooting up Gaza are descended from the same ancestors as the people they are killing.