Comments

  1. Reginald Selkirk says

    Influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate arrive in Romania after weeks in the United States

    After weeks in the United States, influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate arrived early Saturday back in Romania, where they face charges of human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women…

    After arriving at their residence near the capital, Bucharest, Andrew Tate told reporters they returned because “innocent men don’t run from anything” and he vowed to clear his name in court…

  2. Reginald Selkirk says

    The Viral ‘Debate’ Video That Proves Most MAGA Voters Are a Lost Cause

    I almost made it to the hour mark. For close to sixty (long) minutes, I allowed my blood pressure to fizzle and pop before I had to turn the damned thing off. I simply couldn’t endure the latest release in the popular “SURROUNDED” debate series, produced by the viral video factory Jubilee Media, in full. At ninety minutes, that video features the liberal commentator Sam Seder debating twenty young conservatives. It did not go well for them…

    Time and again in the video, the young conservatives platformed in the video expressed a lack of faith in that pluralistic society. They have no faith in our institutions. They have no faith in science. They have no faith in Americans who do share their religious beliefs to determine the best course of action for their own lives.

    There’s no point in combing through the conservatives’ claims; they were almost all incorrect, as fact-checked by Jubilee during the video. But, contrary to the t-shirts, the MAGA worldview is not informed by facts but by feelings…

  3. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Follow-up to #246 and #252 in the last batch of 500 comments.

    BrianKrebs (Cybercrime journalist):

    I wrote on Wednesday about how CISA asked the fired employees who wanted to be rehired and put on paid leave to send their personal information in a password-protected email attachment
    […]
    That was bad enough. But according to emails and forms shared w/ me, it appears CISA is sending email to those who reply w/ a password-protected SF-2810 form, which also contains their SSN and personal info. Not only is this password sent in a separate plaintext email, but the password included looks more like a generic Wi-Fi password than anything unique to each recipient.

    Jonathan Kamens:

    I hate to be the one to break this to you, but speaking as someone who worked for the fed govt for a year and a half before being fired by DOGE, I can assure you that this problem is widespread throughout the govt and long predates the second Trump administration. I lost count of the number of times during my employment when I was asked to send my PII through email. I pushed back aggressively at first but it is so, so exhausting.

    As for sending PII, the technique you reported on, emailing a password-protected doc immediately followed by a second email to the same mailbox with the password, is widely used even though it is obviously a farce.

  4. Reginald Selkirk says

    Trump’s commerce secretary: Don’t complain if we don’t send your Social Security check

    Howard Lutnick only opens his mouth to change feet.

    Donald Trump’s billionaire commerce secretary made another staggering statement on Friday when he suggested that only “fraudsters” and people “stealing” from the government would complain if they didn’t get their Social Security checks next month…

    That is not only wrong, it is stupid. Most thieves wouldn’t complain much because it would draw attention.

    “Let’s say Social Security didn’t send out their checks this month,” Lutnick said during a YouTube interview Friday. “My mother-in-law, who’s 94, she wouldn’t call and complain. She just wouldn’t. She’d think something got messed up and she’ll get it next month.”

    Apparently his mother is rich enough to do without her SS check for a month.

  7. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Nature Conservancy – In Indonesian Borneo, a hopeful future for orangutans

    Well-managed forests and community involvement are changing the narrative for orangutan conservation. […] the news for orangutans is not often good.
    […]
    78 percent of orangutans were found around villages. […] YKAN has worked with local villages on forest protection, management and enforcement. […] This has resulted in a 29,000-hectare protected area as well as sustainable management of 532,000 hectares of forest in a wider landscape.
    […]
    Research found that when logging companies moved out, biodiversity actually decreased […] How could that be possible? […] When they left, with no one to enforce regulations, there was small-scale land clearing for crops, and poaching. “It becomes no one’s land, becomes a free-for-all […] that made us realize that managed logging concessions had to be part of the future […]”
    […]
    “The logging is conducted selectively so it does not destroy orangutan habitat,” […] It’s not often where conservation can create such a tangible and lasting future for a large, charismatic and endangered species.

  8. chigau (違う) says

    What are we going to do for GPS when the USoA military shuts off civilian access to their satellites?

  10. whheydt says

    Re: chigau @ #8…
    Let me try that again… GLONASS and whatever the EU positioning system is called.

  11. Reginald Selkirk says

    Judge releases video of himself disassembling guns in chambers in dissent against court ruling

    An appellate judge shared a video of himself disassembling multiple firearms in an unusual dissent against the court’s decision to uphold California’s ban on gun magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition.

    During the video, Judge Lawrence VanDyke of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit said his colleagues have a “basic misunderstanding of how firearms work.”

    Throughout the 18-minute video, VanDyke said large-capacity magazines should be covered under the Second Amendment. He argued that the magazines can allow the gun to function better, and should be considered functional parts, not accessories. He said he had planned to voice his arguments in his dissent but found it “obviously much more effective to simply show you.” He stated that the guns featured in the video were inoperable for safety reasons…

    He is so right, us lib-tards do not understand gun technology. He has seized on the key facts of the issue. That means all those people killed in mass shootings are not really dead! He needs to contact the families of victims with the good news as quickly as possible.

  12. says

    Publisher’s “Roundup, 10” from The Contrarian, by Norm Eisen:

    Friday was a surreal split screen for me. On the one hand, press coverage was dominated by the capitulation to Donald Trump of what was heretofore one of our nation’s finest and heretofore most courageous law firms, Paul Weiss. In one form or another, I’ve worked closely with them for years, and as one very senior public official asked me, “What the f**k?”

    The other side of the split screen was the latest salvo in Trump’s attacks on me. Throughout the day, reporters and others reached out to alert me that Trump was about to make another move against me in retaliation for my legal fights against him. I replied that I would not yield, no matter what Trump had planned, then proved it by filing with wonderful partners my latest lawsuit against his administration to reverse the shuttering of Voice of America.

    By the time Trump’s Executive Order with my name in it arrived at the end of the day, it was thoroughly anticlimactic. He listed me together with a handful of far more notable bipartisan, pro-democratic grandees in an Executive Order stripping us of our security clearances and the right to enter secure federal buildings unescorted.

    This is the third time in the past several weeks that he or his administration has announced that my security clearance has been revoked. Surely he has more important work to be doing? And what does he do—turn it back on after every announcement so he can take it away all over again as a weekly vengeance performance? And as for those visits to secure facilities, it’s hardly devastating to be escorted. In fact, it’s a privilege!

    Trump’s Executive Order that brought Paul Weiss to its knees was no less illusory. Yes, Trump yanked all government contracts with them, but I actually couldn’t find them. Besides, the federal courts already enjoined a virtually identical order against Perkins Coie, and the one against Paul, Weiss is no less unlawful.

    Injunction or no, the firm’s leadership likely believed that if it had stood its ground—as it so often has during its storied history—it would have risked the interests of current clients (to whom it has ethical duties) and eventually broken up, as partners with large books of business would flee.

    But if we all used that reasoning and capitulated to Trump’s overreach, democracy would be over in America. If clients and partners want to take their books of business elsewhere, let them. It is not too much to ask of Paul Weiss that it stand up for the rule of law and democracy that has made it possible for it to thrive.

    Standing up and holding their ground is what others are doing, like the many courageous federal judges of both parties who have overwhelmingly rejected Trump‘s illegal acts. Or the Supreme Court, where Trump is so far 0-2 and from where Chief Justice John Roberts issued an extraordinary statement this week condemning the president’s attacks on judges and proposal to impeach those who opposed his wishes. Or the other law firms Trump has targeted, all of whom are standing up to him. Trump is lashing out because he’s losing, which makes Paul Weiss’s decision all the worse.

    Here at The Contrarian, we never let profits predominate over principle. It’s the right thing to do—and, furthermore, we don’t have any profits! After expenses, all of our revenue goes to supporting pro-bono litigation like the Voice of America case and our dozens of other legal matters (and many wins) vs. Trump and Musk. [Fundraising request is available at the link.]
    […]

    More at the link, including a roundup of reports from various economists detailing how “Trump and Musk are Killing the Economy,” an update on who is “In the DOGE House,” plus roundups of reports on other subjects.

  13. says

    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-8/#comment-2258786
    Inside Trump’s war on kids

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/01/03/infinite-thread-xxxiv/comment-page-8/#comment-2258789
    “Trump said he didn’t sign the Alien Enemies Act proclamation.”

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/01/03/infinite-thread-xxxiv/comment-page-8/#comment-2258793
    Elon Musk’s own lawyers told a judge in Delaware that he is “in charge of Establishing and Implementing the President’s [DOGE]…”

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/01/03/infinite-thread-xxxiv/comment-page-8/#comment-2258803

    […] First: this EO will centralize in GSA procurement of 1) IT, 2) Professional Services, 3) Security, 4) Facilities & Construction, 5) Industrial Products, 6) Office Management, 7) Transportation/Logistics, 8) Travel, 9) Human Capital & 10) Medical. This will reshape contracting landscape.

    Second: If I’m reading it right, this memorandum will permit OPM to fire *any federal employee* for being “unsuitable” based on post-employment conduct on 5 days’ notice. […]

  14. Bekenstein Bound says

    WITAOD

    What?

    Click through for the punch line

    You couldn’t just tell it to us?

    Are Yahoo and Youtube paying you by the click for these links or something?

    And what is with the cushy Romanian “justice” system anyway? Over here if you’re a crook you get to cool your heels in jail, or at best you get bail but can’t go much of anywhere and are watched very closely, while awaiting trial. Apparently Romanian crooks get to go on globe-trotting multi-week vacations while awaiting trial! One wonders what percentage find some way to avoid ever going back …

  15. Bekenstein Bound says

    And we’re not even talking shoplifters or something. These are people for whom the state had probable cause to believe they had committed grievous, violent crimes. And they not only get bail, the bail conditions permit international travel …

  16. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    WITAOD = Who Is The Administrator Of DOGE?
    Anna Bower made it a running gag, highlighting all the different answers and performatively going mad.

  17. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Sam Lawler (Orbital dynamicist) on Feb 28:

    official Starlink document […]

    On Aug 20, 2024, a 2.5kg piece of aluminum was found on the ground in a farm in Saskatchewan […] from a Starlink satellite that reentered following the erroneous Falcon G9-3 deploy. The debris was […] predicted to fully demise… and is the only known Starlink fragment to have not done so.”

    I have SO MANY QUESTIONS. […] the space junk I saw was from a crew dragon trunk, not a Starlink, and was picked up in June 2024. […] Weird that they proactively admitted this one, and nothing official about the trunk

    Sam Lawler on Mar 14:

    I had really convinced myself it must be some kind of chatgpt gobbledygook. But… a reliable source confirmed that this really happened.

    SpaceX dropped potentially lethal debris from TWO DIFFERENT SPACECRAFT onto Saskatchewan within 6 months. And as far as I can tell, they just waltzed in and picked up the second piece without anyone official knowing about it. This is a very big problem for a lot of obvious legal reasons.

    It mostly terrifies me because there are 7,000 Starlinks [planning 42,000], and if each one leaves behind debris after demise, that’s… a lot. Why Saskatchewan? [*snip*] It’s not necessarily that we’re getting hit by more, just finding them. [grimace emoji] [image: satellite map]

    New Scientist – Starlink satellite part hit a Canadian farm

    Last July, SpaceX launched […] satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket, but a malfunction with the rocket’s upper stage left the satellites stranded in a very low orbit and unusable. It was thought the satellites were lost, presumably immolated in Earth’s atmosphere.
    […]
    “They clearly don’t think this is a big deal,” [Lawler] says. “Whoops, we dropped potentially lethal debris on another country!”

  18. KG says

    Bekenstein Bound@14,

    Trump leaned on the Romanian authorities to allow the Tate brothers to leave the country – they had previously been under house arrest. No doubt the brothers have returned on the understanding they will be acquited.

  22. Reginald Selkirk says

    Trump administration’s blockchain plan for USAID is a real head-scratcher

    According to a memo circulating among State Department staff and reviewed by WIRED, the Trump administration plans to rename the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as US International Humanitarian Assistance (IHA), and to bring it directly under the secretary of state. The document, on which Politico first reported, states that as part of its reorganization, the agency will “leverage blockchain technology” as part of its procurement process.

    “All distributions would also be secured and traced via blockchain technology to radically increase security, transparency, and traceability,” the memo reads. “This approach would encourage innovation and efficiency among implementing partners and allow for more flexible and responsive programming focused on tangible impact rather than simply completing activities and inputs.”

    The memo does not make clear what specifically this means—if it would encompass doing cash transfers in some kind of cryptocurrency or stablecoin, for example, or simply mean using a blockchain ledger to track aid disbursement…

  23. says

    IRS Predicts DOGE Lost Half a Trillion Dollars for the USA

    The Post reports today that the IRS’s internal projections estimate that the DOGE-driven disruptions to the IRS since the inauguration are on track to have reduced tax receipts by more than $500 billion by April 15th.

    This, to be clear, is not a final tally. It’s not April 15th yet. It’s a projection based on historical data, the number of people who’ve filed, paid owed amounts of tax etc. It’s worth taking a moment to put this number into some context in case half a trillion dollars doesn’t do it for you.

    Non-defense discretionary spending is the cost to fund the US government once you take out mandatory spending (mostly Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid) and the cost of the US military. For 2023 that number was $917 billion. So that’s most of the stuff we think of as the government, apart from those payment programs and the military. In other words, in about eight weeks DOGE managed to lose the US government […] more than half of what goes to all non-defense discretionary spending.

  24. says

    West Virginians love Trump—and he’s screwing them anyway

    West Virginia is one of the Trumpiest states in the country, with […] Trump winning the state by a whopping 42 percentage points in the 2024 election. […]

    And yet …

    According to the Des Moines Register, Trump’s plan to revive shipbuilding in the United States by charging massive fees for China-linked ship visits to U.S. ports is causing coal inventory to swell, stoking uncertainty in the already embattled agriculture industry as exporters struggle to find ships to send goods abroad.

    As a result, West Virginia coal mines are preparing to lay off miners as unsold coal piles up.
    [map at the link]

    But, but, but … Trump loves coal miners!

    “After years of being held captive by Environmental Extremists, Lunatics, Radicals, and Thugs, allowing other Countries, in particular China, to gain tremendous Economic advantage over us by opening up hundreds of all Coal Fire Power Plants, I am authorizing my Administration to immediately begin producing Energy with BEAUTIFUL, CLEAN COAL,” he posted on Truth Social just earlier this week.

    Despite what Trump says, coal is a dead industry, and he’s doing his part to drive the final nail in its coffin.

    “Enacting and implementing those fees could halt exports of U.S. coal within 60 days, putting $130 billion worth of shipments at risk,” Ernie Thrasher, CEO and founder of Xcoal Energy & Resources, wrote in a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. “The fee structure could add up to 35% to the delivered cost of U.S. coal, making it uncompetitive on the global market. The loss of direct and indirect jobs would be catastrophic.”

    Lutnick never responded.

    There are fewer than 12,000 coal miners left in West Virginia, so … that sucks for them! But all of those newly unemployed miners can console themselves knowing that trans athletes are being punished.

    So what about the state’s other industries—and its children?

    As NBC reports:

    Jennifer Gilkerson never imagined that her West Virginia farm’s freeze-dried fruits would get caught up in political fights in Washington, D.C.

    But last Friday, she learned that funding for a U.S. Agriculture Department program that helps schools and food banks buy products from local farmers like her had been cut. Without those federal dollars, Gilkerson no longer expects local schools to be able to buy her freeze-dried fruits, which she has already spent thousands of dollars preparing to produce.

    “We’re just in such a state of shock. We just don’t really even know how to respond to all this. We thought that this was sacred and really untouchable,” Gilkerson said. “Everyone thinks all farmers voted for this, but we did not vote for this.”

    The school and food bank program isn’t being cut because of “political fights” in Washington D.C. It’s literally central to the GOP agenda. A fight implies that the program got cut because of partisan warfare. This is a policy decision.

    And yes, Jennifer, your state voted exactly for this—y’all just thought other people would suffer the brunt of it. But Project 2025 was very clear in its goal to slash all government spending—including the federal dollars that subsidize West Virginia.

    “The overall goal should be to eliminate subsidy dependence,” Project 2025 says.

    So yes, Jennifer. I don’t know who you voted for, but your fellow West Virginians overwhelmingly voted for this.

    Common sense should dictate that if your state is the third most dependent on federal dollars you should maybe vote for the party that supports federal funding. I know, I know, trans this and trans that. But is destroying your entire economy worth the sacrifice for that bigotry?

    “This is the economy of rural America. West Virginia is a wholly rural state, and so developing this agriculture economy in the state is extremely important. These farmers pay their property taxes, they’re business owners, a lot of times they’re commissioners or school board members. These are the drivers that keep rural communities alive. So it feels like a divestment in rural communities across the board,” Spencer Moss, executive director of the West Virginia Food and Farm Coalition, told NBC.

    It’s called the “Department of Government Efficiency,” and it turns out that subsidizing small, rural states is not efficient. Those farmers aren’t paying enough in property taxes to cover expenses, which is why urban and blue-state folks are subsidizing it. But we liberal voters were fine with paying those subsidies because we’re all American, and we’re all in this together! […]

    According to Politico, the Agriculture Department has halted millions of dollars worth of deliveries to food bank leaders in six states, including West Virginia. […]

    States like West Virginia will be particularly [hard] hit by cuts to school lunches, food stamps, and other programs that deliver food to the hungry.

    As for health care, West Virginia has 1.77 million residents, and more than 516,000 of them are on Medicaid, which also keeps the state’s rural hospitals afloat.

    […] Trump certainly doesn’t care about leaving his supporters without health care.

    Still, you’d think that the state’s overwhelming support for Trump would somehow translate into some tangible victories, but the news is grim. Trump is more interested in hawking expensive cars for his billionaire buddy Elon Musk, hyping crypto for his bros, fantasizing about ethnically cleaning Gaza, obsessing over Greenland, and golfing. Lots and lots of golfing. [Calendar at the link]

    As for his voters, they really shouldn’t be surprised. After all, he did say, “I don’t care about you, I just want your vote. I don’t care.”

    And he proves that every single day.

  25. says

    It’s been 61 days since […] Trump promised that he would end the war in Ukraine on “day one” of his new administration, and the war is still going strong. Shadow president Elon Musk and his DOGE boys are upending Washington, laying waste to federal agencies and deploying law enforcement to break into the nonprofit Institute of Peace. Consumer confidence is in the toilet, inflation is threatening a resurgence, and the country is possibly headed for a self-inflicted recession. But never fear! The president will be hard at work this weekend, forcing taxpayers to subsidize his New Jersey golf club while he works on his backswing.

    Trump’s official schedule for Saturday involves spending the day at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster until around 5:45 pm, at which point he will fly off to Philly to catch the NCAA wrestling championships.

    This will be the seventh weekend, or 17th day of Trump’s second presidency, spent golfing at one of his own clubs, more than a quarter of his time in office. Earlier this month, HuffPost calculated that the golf outings had already cost taxpayers more than $18 million, much of which went directly into Trump’s own company coffers. The outlet also suggested Trump was on track to exceed the $151 million he spent during his first term, when he made 428 visits to a Trump Organization property and played an estimated 261 rounds of golf.

    […] In 2019, the sportswriter Rick Reilly wrote in his 2019 book Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump:

    “Trump doesn’t just cheat at golf. He throws it, boots it, and moves it. He lies about his lies. He fudges and foozles and fluffs. At Winged Foot, where Trump is a member, the caddies got so used to seeing him kick his ball back onto the fairway they came up with a nickname for him: ‘Pelé.‘ ”

    Trump will cap off his leisurely Saturday by flying at taxpayer expense to Philadelphia to attend the NCAA wrestling tournament, one of his favorite sporting events. Fox News reports he will be joined by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). Jordan is the former Ohio State University assistant wrestling coach who has famously been accused of turning a blind eye to sexual abuse allegations against a team doctor.

    Trump clearly invited Jordan to join him to troll the libs. After all, the straight-laced and ultra-religious Jordan has never been known as the life of the party. (“He is wound tighter than a baseball,” former House Speaker John Boehner and fellow Ohio Republican once told the Washington Post.) But the notorious House brawler has endeared himself to Trump with his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results and vigorous impeachment defense. Trump may not enjoy Jordan’s humorless presence, but he will no doubt enjoy the joke of his attendance.

    Link

  26. says

    News from Canada:

    […] Last week the new PM [Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre] went all art of the deal with his Australian counterpart, Anthony Albanese, to buy a $4.5 billion long-range radar system to help maintain Arctic sovereignty that was originally earmarked for the US. But, as with when it came to fighting in both world wars, Canada got there first.

    “The world is changing,” said Carney when announcing major improvements to NORAD’s Santa Claus tracker on a recent visit to Iqaluit, along with pledging another $293 million for a beefed up military presence in the melting Arctic and its increasingly open seas. “Our adversaries are increasingly emboldened. International institutions and norms that have kept Canada secure are now being called into question. The United States’ priorities, once closely aligned with our own, are shifting.”

    “Shifting” is certainly putting it diplomatically […]

    The Aussies’ Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN) system is considered the most advanced in the world because it isn’t limited by line-of-sight like traditional radar and can go beyond the horizon to detect ships and planes over a range of nearly 2,000 miles. Not to mention any wayward Chinese weather balloons.

    The way it works is a bit like a bank shot in pool. High-frequency radio waves are beamed into space and then refracted down to show a target. It’s a way to get around stealth technology because it can spot an aircraft’s wider profile from above. […]

    The timing of the purchase, the most lucrative military export in Oz’s history, may seem like poking the bear given a certain someone’s insane threats about seizing Greenland and Canada, but it was actually in the works for several years. America would’ve gotten their hands on it first if it weren’t for those meddling kids and their DOGE, according to the Australian Broadcasting Company:

    In recent meetings, senior Australian officials have continued discussing exporting and installing the JORN technology on the United States’ west coast, but the massive project faces uncertainty under the Elon Musk-led DOGE audit of Pentagon spending.

    For well over a year, American military officials have privately expressed interest in purchasing Australia’s JORN technology because of its potential to monitor military movements as far away as China’s mainland.

    One senior Australian official confirmed to the ABC that “the Canadians were always going to follow the US purchase and slipstream off that” but circumstances changed and “things moved quickly.”

    […] General Jennie Carignan, the country’s chief of defense, told reporters last year she estimated Canada had about five years to prepare for long-range threats from Russia and China, which are both building new hypersonic missiles able to fly five times the speed of sound and change course mid-air, making it obviously much harder to predict targets.

    The eye-in-the-sky system is expected to be ready to roll by then, and the plan for now is to point it north. There’s a certain irony to Carney beating the carnival barker-in-chief to the punch on it because […] Dear Leader is actually correct about us being laggards when it comes to defense spending. […]

    The country now finds itself in unchartered territory and looking for new allies at a time when a huge chunk of our military apparatus is entwined with an enemy’s, and South Korea has already reached out with offers to sell Ottawa a bunch of howitzers, planes, rocket launchers, and submarines. […]

    The two countries already have an established working relationship due to us fighting by their side in the Korean War […]

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/sneaky-carney-goes-behind-trumps

  27. says

    A followup of sorts to comment 26.

    Washington Post link

    “Canada’s Carney calls snap election as Trump looms over campaign”

    “The contest is likely to be dominated by one question: Who can best handle President Donald Trump and the threat he poses to Canada?”

    Prime Minister Mark Carney on Sunday called a snap federal election, seeking to capitalize on momentum that has his Liberals resurgent. The campaign is likely to come down to one question: Who can best handle President Donald Trump and the threat he poses to Canada?

    Carney requested that the governor general dissolve Parliament, which was to begin on Monday, and set elections for April 28. By law, an election had to be held by Oct. 20, but a prime minister may request Parliament’s dissolution at any time.

    A former central banker and political rookie, Carney, 60, won the Liberal leadership this month and was sworn in as prime minister on March 14. The election will pit him against Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, 45, a populist firebrand who until recently held a commanding lead in the polls.

    […] It also comes at a time of great anxiety here as Canada’s bond with the United States, a NATO ally and its largest trading partner, is rupturing — with profound consequences for the country’s economy, society and place in the world.

    Trump has levied and threatened tariffs on Canadian goods that could plunge Canada’s economy into a recession. He has vowed to use “economic force” to annex Canada and mused repeatedly about redrawing the U.S.-Canada border.

    His actions have infuriated Canadians — and upended their politics.

    […] Carney, a former Goldman Sachs banker, drew praise for his leadership of the Bank of Canada during the global financial crisis and the Bank of England during Brexit. He is seeking to cast himself as the unflappable, experienced crisis manager that Canada needs at one of the most turbulent moments in its modern history.
    Since his swearing in as prime minister, he has traveled to Britain and France to deepen ties with “reliable allies” and he has scrapped several Trudeau government’s policies, including a consumer carbon tax.

    […] Analysts say Poilievre has not adapted well to the changes wrought by Trump’s return, Trudeau’s resignation and Carney’s ascendance. As Trump’s attacks animate a rally-around-the-flag moment, Poilievre’s message — that “Canada is broken” — no longer resonates, and his efforts to slam Carney as “just like Justin” aren’t sticking.

    The Liberals have cast Poilievre’s party as “wannabe MAGA maple syrup Conservatives,” rolling out ads that cut between Trump and Poilievre using identical language. Several people close to Trump and far-right figures in the United States, including Elon Musk and Alex Jones, have backed Poilievre.

    […] Canadians do not vote directly for prime minister. Instead, voters in each of the 343 electoral districts, known as ridings, vote for a member of Parliament. If a party wins a majority of the seats, it forms the government and its leader is prime minister. In a minority government, parties must rely on opposition support to stay in power.
    Coletto said Canadians are looking for a leader to bring “stability” in a Trump-fueled storm.

    “That means this election will be less about public policy and more about character,” he said.

  28. says

    […] Paul, Weiss wasn’t Trump’s first law firm target. That would be Perkins Coie, another enormous white-shoe fancy law firm, and Covington Burling, also an enormous … you get the picture.

    What these firms have in common is the extreme crime of having represented Democrats. Trump’s executive orders stripped those firms of their security clearances and limited Perkins Coie’s access to federal buildings.

    Perkins Coie sued, and earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell granted their request for a temporary restraining order. Rather than getting the message that it is likely super illegal to attack law firms based on their clients, the Department of Justice filed a status report saying that since it thinks the judge’s decision is wrong, it isn’t really planning to follow it.

    Trump then turned around and issued a similar order about Paul, Weiss. Trump hates that firm too because Mark Pomerantz, who investigated Trump’s finances while he was a prosecutor at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, worked there both before and after his role at the Manhattan DA. But where Perkins Coie seems to be standing firm, Paul, Weiss is made of pure goo.

    To get Trump to rescind the executive order, the firm [Paul, Weiss] has agreed to a truly wild set of conditions, according to a Thursday night post from Trump on Truth Social. It has agreed to represent clients regardless of political affiliation and to provide pro bono services to the “full spectrum of political viewpoints of our society.” Yes, that’s the firm essentially agreeing to let the administration dictate who its clients are.

    The firm also agreed to dedicate $40 million in pro bono services during Trump’s term to “support the administration’s initiatives.” Yes, that’s the firm essentially agreeing that the administration will provide free labor to the administration. Finally, the firm agreed to throw out its diversity policies.

    The firm also threw Pomerantz under the bus, with firm chair Brad Karp acknowledging Pomerantz’s “wrongdoing” as a prosecutor. Pomerantz’s wrongdoing, of course, was simply working on a case about Trump. Way to stand up for your employees. [!]

    […] Trump has targeted 20 other large firms, this time over DEI initiatives.

    Can’t wait for the Supreme Court to decide somehow that the president’s authority includes the ability to attack private entities until they cower and give him money. […]

    Link

  29. Jean says

    Lynna @26

    As opposed to what you added in brackets at the top of the post, Pierre Poilievre is not, has never been, and hopefully will never be, Canadian Prime Minister. I assume this was just an honest mistake but that was a very disturbing thing to see.

  31. says

    Turkey lurches toward outright autocracy as Erdoğan’s main rival is jailed

    “Popular opposition leader Ekrem İmamoğlu calls for mass protests as he is thrown in jail and booted out as Istanbul mayor.”

    Turkey took a sharp turn toward full autocracy on Sunday when President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s main political rival, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, was jailed amid a major crackdown on the opposition.

    İmamoğlu, a highly popular secularist who was widely seen as the most likely next president to succeed the Islamist Erdoğan, responded with an impassioned call for mass demonstrations to save democracy in the NATO heavyweight of 86 million.

    A court on Sunday formally arrested İmamoğlu on corruption charges pending trial, in a step that the opposition argues is a politically motivated “coup.” He was also formally removed from office as mayor of Turkey’s biggest city, on the very day that he was expected to be voted in as the official presidential candidate for the Republican People’s Party (CHP).

    “Türkiye woke up to a great betrayal today. The judicial process being carried out is not a judicial procedure. It is a complete extrajudicial execution,” İmamoğlu said on his X account.

    Since İmamoğlu’s initial detention on Wednesday, tens of thousands of supporters have taken to the streets in more than a dozen cities, sometimes clashing with riot police and facing water cannon, even in conservative strongholds such as Erdoğan’s hometown of Rize. The protesters turned out despite bans against demonstrations imposed since İmamoğlu’s detention and attempts to limit broadcasting of the popular anger.

    Erdoğan’s backlash against the opposition comes after the CHP’s unexpectedly convincing victories in cities nationwide in the municipal elections of 2024, even in districts that had long been strongholds for the ruling AK Party.

    In a stark warning to the protesters of the possible consequences of their actions, Erdoğan described the demonstrations as “street terror” and also had a message for the CHP to which his arrested rival belongs.
    “We will definitely not allow the CHP and its supporters to disrupt public order and disturb the peace of our nation through provocation,” the president said in a message posted on X. […]

    Since his detention, İmamoğlu has been interrogated for more than nine hours by the authorities and has categorically denied the charges against him.
    On Wednesday, two separate investigations were launched against him and more than 100 others including politicians, businessmen and journalists. The investigations came a day after university authorities cancelled İmamoğlu’s diploma, a necessary requisite for running in the presidential election.

    […] The authorities have detained 343 protesters, while a number of opposition social media accounts were blocked and the bandwidth of social media platforms was restricted. WhatsApp, a popular means of communication for Turks, was not available at times. During the five days of demonstrations, pro-government media shied away from reporting on the street protests.

    […] The Turkish constitution limits presidents to two terms and Erdoğan’s current term ends in 2028. If parliament calls for early elections, Erdoğan, 71, could legally run again before finishing his second term.

    Several observers reckon Erdoğan’s gambit is to go for early elections without running against İmamoğlu, as the 54-year-old is seen by many as the only unifying candidate who could beat him in the presidential elections. (While Erdoğan has said he won’t fight any more elections, he has a track record of pretending to step back from politics and his words are not taken seriously by most Turks.) […]

  32. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Re: Lynna @28:

    To get Trump to rescind the executive order, the firm [Paul, Weiss] has agreed to a truly wild set of conditions

     
    HuffPo – Trump and a powerhouse law firm are telling different stories about their shocking agreement

    The primary differences are additions in Trump’s version: After the firm commits to merit-based hiring, promotion and retention, Trump’s version adds: “and will not adopt, use, or pursue any DEI policies”
    […]
    Paul Weiss says it will dedicate the equivalent of $40 million for pro bono legal services on various initiatives. The firm’s internal version refers to “these initiatives,” while Trump’s version refers to “the Administration’s initiatives.” Both versions list “assisting our Nation’s veterans, fairness in our justice system, the President’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, and other mutually agreed projects.” (Trump’s version refers to [caps] “the Justice System.”)

    Finally, Trump’s version includes […] that Karp “acknowledged the wrongdoing of former Paul, Weiss partner, Mark Pomerantz, the grave dangers of Weaponization, and the vital need to restore our System of Justice.” There’s no version of that sentiment from Karp in the internal version
    […]
    While the agreements are mostly the same—both say that Paul Weiss will engage “mutually agreed upon” experts to audit its employment practices, for example—the differences […] suggest that either a change was made to the agreement by one of its parties, or that both sides arranged for a different version of the “agreement” to be circulated

    The article includes a screenshot of side-by-side highlighted differences. The author’s Bluesky post has a larger image.
     
    Rando:

    [Weiss staff email intro]: Trump’s Executive Order related to our firm was withdrawn a short while ago.

    I can’t figure out how Karp concludes the EO “was withdrawn” when all his own version says is that Trump “agreed to withdraw” with no timeframe. I’m putting low odds on any withdrawal ever hitting the Federal Register.

    Eric Columbus: “And of course Trump could reinstate it at any moment.”

  33. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Native vets shocked, VA medical center removes all 22 Arizona Tribal Nation flags

    The VA dropped the flags off at the Office of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and said that only certain flags could be displayed after a recent Trump administration policy change […] The move caused a near-immediate wave of pushback.
    […]
    At the beginning of his administration […] Trump implemented a controversial one-flag policy that says only the American flag and two military flags can be on display at federal buildings and U.S. embassies. […] Flags not listed in that list, such as tribal flags, pride flags, etc., are not allowed.

  35. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Protesters denounce Musk, DOGE outside Tesla showroom

    Then, a black SUV drove into the crowd of more than 100 protesters. No one was injured […] “He drove into a crowd of senior citizens […] two older women were really almost clipped. We immediately called the cops.”

    The driver of the vehicle, a Nissan Pathfinder, abruptly parked on the sidewalk where protesters had assembled and jumped out of the car, claiming his brakes and electronics had gone out […] The man was arrested at the scene and will be charged with assault […] The driver claimed to be an employee of the West Palm Beach Tesla showroom where the demonstration was taking place.

    Rando: “In 10 states (so far) Republican legislators have introduced bills to create a legal shield for drivers who hit protesters with their cars.”

  36. Reginald Selkirk says

    (Britain ~ 1817)

    One magistrate declined to sanction the formation of a local mineralogical society on the grounds that mineralogy led to atheism.
    – Charles Babbage: Pioneer of the Computer by Anthony Hyman

  38. birgerjohansson says

    “USA vs. EUROPE vs. CANADA: Life Expectancy Ranking – Where Do People Live The Longest?:

    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=pxvN2CVU6d0 

    I was not surprised Canadian states were doing so well. I was a bit surprised by France and Italy- the heathy diet must compensate for the wine consumption.
    Many US states -especially in the South- are quite similar to Russia.
    A commenter put it as “Most of the USA is at Borat level”. If you watched the documentary “Super Size Me” you understand why.
    (Despite being Swedish I will not make it to 83. Not with Homer Simpson morphology)

  39. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Anna Bower (Lawfare):

    Brad Karp in a firm-wide email to Paul Weiss employees today: “We will continue our proud, century-long legacy of courageously standing up for fundamental rights and liberties… That commitment is woven into our DNA; it was and will never be subject to negotiation or compromise.”

    Quinta Jurecic (Lawfare):

    clients have been overwhelmingly supportive […] Thousands of clients have reached out directly to express their continued confidence in Paul, Weiss

    Out on the town having the time of my life with a bunch of friends. They’re all just out of frame, laughing too.

    Rando: “this reads like a ‘please don’t mutiny, i am under the impression that you want to mutiny’ sort of internal e-mail.”

  40. says

    Sky Captain @32 … so, no agreement then on what the agreement actually was/is.

    I would not be surprised to learn that Trump is trying to screw the Paul, Weiss firm even more than he already has. Trump may be making shit up. A developing story, I think. I expect to hear more in the coming days.

    In other news:

    Don’t cry for him, America, but when it comes to his vision for the Kennedy Center, President Donald J. Trump appears to be dreaming impossible dreams.

    The president, who is also now the board chair for the Kennedy Center, convened a meeting of said board on Monday. In a recording of the meeting shared with The Washington Post, Trump and members said they’d like to see “Camelot,” “Cats,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Hello, Dolly!” and “The Phantom of the Opera” featured at the Kennedy Center. Speaking with reporters, Trump said, “We’re going to get some very good shows.”

    There are a number of practical problems with this wish list, the first of which is that none of those musicals are touring in North America (although a tour of “Phantom” does launch in November). And if the Kennedy Center were to try to mount its own nonunion productions, it would run into a brick wall of standing labor contracts.

    […] Since Feb. 7, when Trump announced plans to appoint himself America’s arts impresario in chief, he has fired roughly two dozen board members appointed by President Joe Biden, had the remaining trustees elect a new president of the board and dismissed Kennedy Center leader Deborah Rutter, who had helmed the institution for 11 years.

    Life at the center has been a tumultuous free fall ever since, with a series of cancellations and missed deadlines. The second week of March, when the Kennedy Center typically announces programming for the next season, has come and gone. Across Washington, venues like The Anthem and Shakespeare Theatre Company are fielding calls from artists and organizations looking for somewhere else to perform. Most notably, the producers and creators of the musical theater juggernaut “Hamilton” announced they were canceling a two-month run, which most likely would have generated more money than any other show in the 2025-26 Kennedy Center season.

    Yet alleged financial mismanagement at the Kennedy Center has been top of mind for Trump and his surrogates, including Ric Grenell, the former ambassador whom the president appointed to replace Rutter on at least an interim basis, who accused the center of having low cash reserves.

    As a nonprofit organization, the Kennedy Center is required to submit public tax returns, and the most recently available filings indicate it is not in financial distress, with a total budget of $268 million and a surplus of $6 million. About 16% percent of the budget comes from a congressional appropriation specifically earmarked for physical upkeep, because the center was dedicated in 1971 as a national memorial to slain President John F. Kennedy Jr.

    […] Among other things, New York real estate magnate Paolo Zampolli has proposed fashion shows, a Cipriani restaurant and a ramp so he can travel by boat from Georgetown instead of taking an Uber.

    […] But Zampolli’s vision of the Kennedy Center as a hangout for Washington’s 1% sets up an odd dichotomy for the proposed audience. The average red-hat-wearing tourist who might buy tickets for “Cats” has never dreamed of eating overpriced spaghetti at Cipriani. The reality is that most Kennedy Center audiences are in the middle of these two demographics: They are federal workers who enjoy classical music, NGO lobbyists with undergraduate theater degrees and labor leaders with affinities for modern dance. And they are exactly the people now weighing whether to boycott Kennedy Center performances, because they are laid off, they are protesting Trump’s takeover or both.

    More important, most Kennedy Center audiences were never the sort of conservative theatergoers clamoring for a season of “Cats,” “Phantom” and “Fiddler on the Roof.”

    […] Trump, in an Evita-like photo-op on Monday, stood in the Kennedy Center’s Opera House presidential box, arms outstretched as if there were hundreds of fans below him instead of a handful of handpicked board members.

    https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-kennedy-center-audience-rcna197179

  41. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    WaPo – IRS nears deal with ICE to share addresses of suspected undocumented immigrants

    abusing a narrow and seldom-used section of privacy law that’s meant to help investigators build criminal cases, not enforce criminal penalties.

    Kel McClanahan (National Security Counselors):

    a) This is hella illegal. As anyone who has ever requested tax records from the IRS under FOIA can tell you, they are literally not allowed to share that information with anyone.

    b) But people who are not citizens or green card holders would not be able to file a lawsuit under the Privacy Act because Congress in its infinite wisdom decided in 1974 that only citizens and green card holders deserved to be able to protect their privacy.

    c) This isn’t to say that it’s impossible to sue, just a lot more difficult than usual.

  42. says

    ⚡️ Starmer says he faced pressure from US to criticize Zelensky after Oval Office clash with Trump, NYT reports.

    “We were under pressure to come out very critically with, you know, flowery adjectives to describe how others felt,” Starmer said.

    https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:yazbevg3wkzp5llnzb44tqgh/post/3ll24nx63g22e

    Commentary:

    […] I hope Starmer told Trump he was a shitgibbon, cockwomble, fucktrumpet, dickbiscuit, turdweasel, spunkpuffin, shitpuffin, fuckwomble, jizztrumpet, shitbiscuit, arsebiscuits, douchebiscuit, fartwaffle, crapweasel, fuckweasel and also a doucheweasel.

    Link. Other reports related to Ukraine, Russia, and reactions from other countries are included at the link.

    🇪🇺 Hungary is out, the EU moves forward. European leaders no longer wait for Orbán’s approval on Ukraine. The latest EU statement will be issued by 26 nations—Hungary isolated. Diplomats say if Orbán wants to go it alone, no one will stop him.

    https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4aqzua5vsewimmusg66fyajl/post/3ll2gaiojsc26

    The movement to oust leaders in Hungary and Serbia has moved to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia.

    Thousands rallied across Slovakia, including Bratislava, demanding PM Fico’s resignation over his pro-Russian stance

    Protests, ongoing since December, intensified after Fico’s Moscow visit. Many fear Slovakia’s democratic course is under threat

    https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:dsssax6ne5ghruk6velxnbp4/post/3lkyepv25sx2q

    Props to the Norwegian parliament for dropping this photo

    https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:ziwbaudmnvykh7umblyyjlc3/post/3lkygpzkbjs2n

  44. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Kyle Cheney (Politico):

    ACLU attorney Gelernt says there were people who were returned from El Salvador after the flights because they either weren’t Venezuelan or were women and the El Salvadoran government declined to take them.

    Michael E. Carter (Genocide scholar): “if you can tolerate a bit of dark humor, it is kind of pathetic that Trump couldn’t even disappear people correctly.”

    Rando: “The only thing that surprises me here is that the regime in El Salvador […] have scruples about including women in general or men of misidentified nationality.”

  46. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Attorney General Bonta urgently issues consumer alert for 23andMe customers

    The California-based company has publicly reported that it is in financial distress and stated in securities filings that there is substantial doubt about its ability to continue […] Due to the trove of sensitive consumer data 23andMe has amassed, Attorney General Bonta reminds Californians of their right to direct the deletion of their genetic data […] by going to 23andMe’s website.

  47. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    DOGE guy said a ridiculous thing on Fox.

    James Medlock (Pseudonymous economics blogger):

    The geniuses at DOGE are bringing us insights like “I’m not really sure why the tax agency for a country of 330 million people has a larger staff than a midsize bank.”

    A typical midsize bank will have somewhere between 1 and 200 people in IT and they have an operations and maintenance budget in like the $20 million a year range. We have 8,000 people in IT, and our operations and maintenance budget is $3.5 billion a year. I don’t really know why yet.

    This is from ‘DOGE insider Sam Corcos, special adviser to the U.S. Treasury Department’ [talking to Laura Ingraham].

    Missing the Point: “If you don’t know how something works, best to first completely take it apart and then try to piece it back together.”

    Rando 1: “What’s amazing is that those geniuses literally have access to an entire government that could tell them why. Instead of asking people who know, they act like there’s no answer.”

    Rando 2: “Maybe because it’s not a fucking midsized bank?”

    Rando 3: “BNY Mellon has 12,000 IT staff”
    Rando 4: “JPMorgan has 60,000 people in Technology and spends $17bln per year. Why don’t they compare with JPM?”

    Rando 5: “Name a single midsize bank with 1 person in IT. What does 1-200 even mean. That’s so stupid.”
    Rando 6: “I parsed it as “between one [hundred] and two hundred” fwiw”

    Rando 7: “Their premise isn’t even true. No “midsize bank” has only 200 people in IT and $20 million in operations expenses. A medium sized bank is a multibillion dollar operation. A bank the size they are describing would be a tiny local credit union.”

    Rando 8:

    So taking their premise (which is false because the activities of a bank and the IRS are completely different) if a midsized bank was scaled up to the IRS size, it would have 17,500 – 35,000 people: 2-3X as many as the IRS. So it’s the IRS that’s efficient and not the bank.

  48. Bekenstein Bound says

    Why Saskatchewan?

    It’s a giant empty boring chunk of inhabited flat land. Much easier to see something fall there and then to actually find it than if it were rugged, or extensively forested, or mostly swamp and open water, or no one lived within a hundred miles of the site.

    IOW, there’s probably been a few such chunks of debris landing on every Saskatchewan-sized chunk of real estate, but 2/3 of it would need a deep-sea submersible to find, 3/4 is underwater somewhere, and most of the rest is sitting unnoticed in some jungle, boreal forest, ravine, or uninhabited and crevasse-filled icescape.

    Trump leaned on the Romanian authorities to allow the Tate brothers to leave the country – they had previously been under house arrest. No doubt the brothers have returned on the understanding they will be acquited.

    What? Trump has no authority even under the expansive interpretation of certain far-right “justices” to issue pardons for foreign nationals, for foreign crimes, for which they were charged by foreign courts! Surely the correct Romanian response to any such “pardon” by Trump would have been to tell Trump where he can stick it, and that if he’s inclined to respond with tariffs he can stick those there too.

    The memo does not make clear what specifically this means—if it would encompass doing cash transfers in some kind of cryptocurrency or stablecoin, for example, or simply mean using a blockchain ledger to track aid disbursement …

    It means the crypto grifters will be getting a nice fat subsidy.

    IRS Predicts DOGE Lost Half a Trillion Dollars for the USA

    Such efficiency! Much wow!

    Last week the new PM [Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre] went all art of the deal with his Australian counterpart, Anthony Albanese

    What? He’s not the PM. Carney is, pending an election in late April in which Oilievre is a candidate with, at latest reckoning, a less than 10% chance of winning.

  49. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    CBC – 32,000 Manitobans accessed birth control in 1st months of province’s free contraceptive plan

    launched last October, eligible residents can access 60 commonly used birth control methods, including contraceptive pills, intrauterine devices (IUDs), hormonal implants and contraceptive injections.
    […]
    Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said […] “Costs should never be a barrier to you receiving the health care you need, and we all know that reproductive health care is health care,”

  51. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Trump was on TruthSocial hawking $TRUMP crypto again.

    Rando:

    This is so surreally corrupt it’s hard to even grasp. US media is incapable of processing it—directly using the White House to promote a meme coin with hidden ownership structure.

    Rando 1: “If someone didn’t buy before 3 am on the day this scam was launched or miraculously buy right before a mini spike then almost immediately sell near that spike’s peak they’ve lost money.”

    Filipe Campante (Economics professor):

    This level of explicit, out-in-the-open corruption is hard to find even in developing countries.

    And I still think that, in being so openly corrupt, Trump has managed to completely short-circuit the normal operations of US media. There’s nothing to investigate, no hidden chain to uncover, just the President asking people to give him money for his own personal gain.

    Rando 2: “‘I worked on this story for three months and he just… tweeted it out‘, weaponized as an insulating strategy for wrong-doers.”

    Jesse Eisinger (ProPublica):

    This is astute.
    1. It’s not new, so it’s not news. Well, it’s harder to make it news.
    2. Investigative reporters uncover things someone doesn’t want public. This is the very definition of being public.
    3. The media operates on a shame-based standard. It’s a hack not to feel shame.
    4. Media momentum works where you report a thing, and then institutions react. Congress, regulators, activists, counterparties. But none of that is in effect. Republicans are silent, there are no investigations or lawsuits.

    It’s a big conundrum for the media.

     
    In other news.
    CNN – White House seeks corporate sponsorships for Easter event

  54. KG says

    Surely the correct Romanian response to any such “pardon” by Trump would have been to tell Trump where he can stick it, and that if he’s inclined to respond with tariffs he can stick those there too.- Bekenstein Bound@48

    Trump didn’t issue or claim to issue any pardon. But he is known to have pressured the Romainian government (which is very weak) to let the Tates travel. I’m guessing he’s also pressured them to ensure they are acquited, or they wouldn’t have gone back.

  55. KG says

    Starmer says he faced pressure from US to criticize Zelensky after Oval Office clash with Trump, NYT reports.

    “We were under pressure to come out very critically with, you know, flowery adjectives to describe how others felt,” Starmer said. – Lynna, OM@42

    I read a Guardian article including that Starmer quote. It looked to me as though he was referring to pressure to criticise Trump and Vance.

  56. Reginald Selkirk says

    @52 birgerjohansson

    “Why Elon Musk & Trump Aren’t Actually Smart” |

    I am with Forrest Gump’s mother on this one: stupid is as stupid does.

  59. Reginald Selkirk says

    Another Large Black Hole In ‘Our’ Galaxy

    RockDoctor (Slashdot reader #15,477) writes:

    A recent paper on ArXiv reports a novel idea about the central regions of “our” galaxy.

    Remember the hoopla a few years ago about radio-astronomical observations producing an “image” of our central black hole — or rather, an image of the accretion disc around the black hole — long designated by astronomers as “Sagittarius A*” (or SGR-A*)? If you remember the image published then, one thing should be striking — it’s not very symmetrical. If you think about viewing a spinning object, then you’d expect to see something with a “mirror” symmetry plane where we would see the rotation axis (if someone had marked it). If anything, that published image has three bright spots on a fainter ring. And the spots are not even approximately the same brightness.

    This paper suggests that the image we see is the result of the light (radio waves) from SGR-A* being “lensed” by another black hole, near (but not quite on) the line of sight between SGR-A* and us…

  61. birgerjohansson says

    Science Fiction with Damien Walter:
    “The fascist utopias of H G Wells”

    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=TFIRYo0h-ZU
    While there were some people of the Victorian age whose humantitarian views would have passed muster today, it would be naive to expect victorian-era authors -even visionaries like H G Wells- to be  completely free of the prejudices of the era.

  64. says

    KG @55, interesting. It is likely that Starmer was pressured from both sides.

    Sky Captain @49, that’s such good news.

    BB @48, “What? He’s not the PM. Carney is, pending an election in late April in which Oilievre is a candidate with, at latest reckoning, a less than 10% chance of winning.”
    Yeah. I made a mistake. I already apologized for that mistake up-thread.

  65. says

    Bits and pieces of news, as summarized by Steve Benen:

    * With only a week to go before Wisconsin’s closely watched state Supreme Court race, Donald Trump is throwing his public support behind Brad Schimel’s conservative candidacy. [NYT source]

    * In related news, the Wisconsin Ethics Commission has agreed to take a closer look at whether a group funded by Elon Musk violated campaign finance laws in the state Supreme Court race. [NBC News source]

    * There are two congressional special elections in Florida next week, and while the Republican candidates are clear favorites, it’s notable that the Democratic underdogs have raised a whopping $15.7 million combined in two months. [NBC News source]

    * Majority Forward, a group aligned with Senate Majority PAC, the top Democratic super PAC in Senate races, is launching a seven-figure ad buy pressuring four Republican senators over their party’s proposed Medicaid cuts. The ads will target Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Joni Ernst of Iowa, each of whom are up for re-election next year. [WaPo source]

    * The next round of elections are still more than a year and a half away, but independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York drew some massive crowds last week as part of their “fighting oligarchy” tour. [USA Today source]

    * During her latest Fox News appearance, Attorney General Pam Bondi insisted that the incumbent president “won the popular vote by an overwhelming majority.” In reality, Trump won the popular vote by 1.47%, and the Republican ticket failed to reach 50%. [Bluesky source]

    * As Gov. Tim Walz hits the road to make the case against the White House’s agenda, Trump blamed the Minnesota Democrat last week for the fact that the Democratic ticket fell short in the 2024 presidential race. [NBC source]

    * And in Ohio, where former Sen. Sherrod Brown lost a re-election bid last year, the Democrat is forming a nonprofit group called the Dignity of Work Institute while eyeing a possible comeback. [NYT source]

  66. says

    As more judges face threats of violence, Donald Trump and his team are condemning judges in highly inflammatory and demonstrably false ways.

    The reports about threats against judges have become unnervingly familiar. My MSNBC colleague Clarissa-Jan Lim noted the other day that jurists are facing increased threats of violence, and there’s ample evidence in support of the thesis.

    NPR reported last week, for example, that federal judges who have ruled against the Trump administration “are confronting a wave of threats, potentially compromising their personal safety and the independence of the judiciary.” Reuters added that U.S. marshals have warned that federal judges are facing “unusually high threat levels as tech billionaire Elon Musk and other Trump administration allies ramp up efforts to discredit judges who stand in the way of White House efforts.”

    The New York Times reported, “At a moment when the judiciary is weighing pivotal decisions on the legality of Trump administration policies, the potential for violence against judges seems to be rising.” The article quoted one federal judge, “whose 20-year-old son was shot and killed at her home in 2020 by a self-described “anti-feminist” lawyer,” who said: “This is not hyperbole. I am begging our leaders to realize that there are lives at stake.”

    Donald Trump does not appear to be listening to those pleas. On the contrary, the president published an item to his social media platform late last week that read in part:

    Radical Left Judges could very well lead to the destruction of our Country! These people are Lunatics, who do not care, even a little bit, about the repercussions from their very dangerous and incorrect Decisions and Rulings. … The danger is unparalleled! [Well that’s a blatant call for his cult followers to use violence against judges.]

    Trump went on to write, “It is our goal to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, and such a high aspiration can never be done if Radical and Highly Partisan Judges are allowed to stand in the way of JUSTICE. STOP NATIONWIDE INJUNCTIONS NOW, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”

    In case this reckless rhetoric weren’t quite enough, Trump also used his platform to amplify an item over the weekend from a right-wing blog that read in part, “When judges exceed their constitutional authority by obstructing or overturning executive actions without legitimate constitutional grounds, they not only overstep their role but may also commit acts tantamount to treason and sedition.”

    Others on the president’s team are predictably adding to the pile-on. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt targeted a specific federal judge from behind the podium last week, just days after Trump called for the jurist’s impeachment. Around the same time, Attorney General Pam Bondi, during one of her many Fox News appearances, called out three specific district court judges — by name.

    Even Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is joining the dangerous parade. After U.S. District Court Judge Ana Reyes ruled against the administration’s ban on transgender Americans serving in the military, the former Fox News host wrote via social media, “Since ‘Judge’ Reyes is now a top military planner, she/they can report to Fort Benning at 0600 to instruct our Army Rangers on how to execute High Value Target Raids … after that, Commander Reyes can dispatch to Fort Bragg to train our Green Berets on counterinsurgency warfare.”

    Note that Hegseth put Reyes’ title in scare quotes, as if she weren’t an actual Senate-confirmed federal judge, before assigning a “she/they” pronoun to her. Just as notably, of course, the Pentagon chief suggested that Reyes, by honoring the law, is necessarily interfering with military duties, despite the fact that transgender Americans have already been serving in the military for years without incident.

    Taken together, the bigger picture is, to put it mildly, unsettling: As more judges face threats of violence, Trump and his team are publicly condemning judges in highly inflammatory and demonstrably false ways.

    The Washington Post reported last week that the White House was pushing forward “with delegitimizing the independent federal judiciary by attacking judges who rule against the administration.” That, in and of itself, was an extraordinary sentence, generally unseen in healthy and stable democracies. But the observation is made worse by the fact that Team Trump is executing this campaign in irresponsible ways that appear quite dangerous.

  67. says

    Hegseth’s policies at Defense Department schools spark on-base protests

    If I were to ask readers to guess where they’d find the nation’s best K-12 public schools, they might not immediately think of the Defense Department’s educational system, but that would be an important oversight. As The New York Times reported in late 2023, “With about 66,000 students — more than the public school enrollment in Boston or Seattle — the Pentagon’s schools for children of military members and civilian employees quietly achieve results most educators can only dream of.” [That is impressive!]

    The Times’ report added, “On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a federal exam that is considered the gold standard for comparing states and large districts, the Defense Department’s schools outscored every jurisdiction in math and reading last year and managed to avoid widespread pandemic losses.”

    With a record like this, it stands to reason that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would know not to mess with success. Alas, the former Fox News host has adopted a very different approach.

    Less than two weeks after Hegseth took the oath of office, The Washington Post reported that the Pentagon had begun “restricting access to books and learning materials covering subjects from immigration to psychology.” The article added, “The prohibited list also includes a bundle of instructional materials created for sixth-graders for Black History Month and a biography about Albert Cashier, a transgender man who served in the Union Army during the Civil War.” On-base school libraries have also been directed to remove books from shelves that don’t meet with Team Trump’s approval.

    The developments were not well received. HuffPost reported soon after that more than two dozen House Democrats, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, denounced Hegseth’s “escalating censorship” and urged the Cabinet secretary to reverse course.

    “We are alarmed by reports that children at DoD schools were prevented from accessing any library books and many learning materials for a week while officials conducted a ‘review’ to identify any books that are related to the mysterious bodies of thought you call ‘discriminatory equity ideology’ or ‘gender ideology,’” they said. “After this week-long review, the nation’s military schools began purging library books and restricting access to books and learning materials that are reportedly undergoing ‘further review.’”

    “You are plainly violating the constitutional rights of DoD families,” the Democratic lawmakers added.

    Just as notable, if not more so, was the reaction from some of the affected students. Military.com reported late last week:

    “We Will Not Be Silent,” read one sign. “Our Education Is Not a Threat,” read another. Both messages were lofted by high school students, part of a group of roughly 100 who had walked out of their high school in Germany this month to protest books being banned and class courses being scrapped. … Walkouts have happened at Defense Department schools in Japan, South Korea and Germany.

    If you’ve watched “The Rachel Maddow Show” in recent weeks, you know we’ve been reporting quite a bit on Americans stepping up and speaking out in opposition to Trump administration policies. But when students organize a walkout at an on-base DOD high school, there’s a qualitative difference to keep in mind.

    As the Military.com report added, “At a public school, the protest might have led to a detention and maybe some revoked after-school privileges. But on a military base, the students were putting more on the line. The same officials in charge of their Department of Defense-run school also had authority over their parents’ careers and status in the military.”

    These students followed through on their protest anyway.

    […] students and military families also recently learned that school sporting events had been canceled “because they were not deemed essential under Trump’s executive order seeking to implement Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, spending cuts.

    “Other school activities were also squeezed. Students on a culinary career track at their school weren’t able to practice cooking because of new $1 credit card limits for staff, preventing the school from buying ingredients and forcing kids to ask their parents to donate food.” […]

  68. says

    Trump’s border czar flunks an important test on the meaning of ‘due process’

    “If White House officials expect people to trust them on the Alien Enemies Act, they’re going to have to stop making so many false claims.”

    The White House would have the public believe that Donald Trump’s embrace of the Alien Enemies Act is simply a matter of common sense: The president wants to remove dangerous gang members from the United States, and this is the best way to make that happen.

    But the closer one looks, the worse the policy appears. The Trump administration officials have said they used the Alien Enemies Act to send Venezuelan gang members to a prison in El Salvador, but they’ve struggled with foundational questions: Were all of the people on the plane gang members? How were they identified? Were they undocumented immigrants? Did they commit any crimes? Are they even Venezuelan? What are their names? Have any of those affected received due process?

    It was against this backdrop that a reporter asked Trump on Friday, “Do you think you have the authority, the power to round up people, deport them, and then you’re under no obligation to a court to show the evidence against them?” The Republican replied, “Well, that’s what the law says, and that’s what our country needs.”

    He didn’t elaborate as to which “law” he was referring to, or why Americans should believe this outrageous process is what the United States “needs.”

    Trump, however, was hardly the only member of his team making outlandish comments. Over the weekend, Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared on Fox News — again — and insisted that those who were sent to prison in El Salvador were “illegal aliens who are committing the most violent crimes you can imagine on Americans.”

    Whether the nation’s chief law enforcement official knows this or not, a senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official conceded in a court filing last week that “many” of those deported did not have criminal records in American courts. According to a lawyer for one of the men affected, the administration sent a gay makeup artist with no criminal record or gang affiliations to the prison in El Salvador, too.

    Trump on Friday said “they” checked the deportees “very carefully,” adding, “I was told they went through a very strong vetting process.” There’s reason to believe otherwise: Even White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz conceded over the weekend that the administration might’ve made “one-off” mistakes.

    And then, of course, there’s White House border czar Tom Homan. The conservative Washington Times reported:

    White House border czar Tom Homan on Sunday promoted the Trump administration’s deportation of alleged migrant gang members, saying the president is operating under federal law and will not defy court orders. Mr. Homan also pushed back against critics who raised concerns about due process rights after President Trump invoked a rarely used wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, to fly 240 alleged members of Tren de Aragua and 21 alleged MS-13 members to a high-security prison in El Salvador.

    “Due process? What was Laken Riley’s due process?” Homan said on ABC’s “This Week,” referring to a nursing student who was murdered by a Venezuelan illegal immigrant. “What were all these young women that were killed and raped by members of [Tren de Aragua]? What was their due process? How about the young lady that was burned alive on the subway? Where was her due process?” [video at the link]

    In other words, to hear the White House border czar put it, criminals don’t provide their victims with due process, so the federal government need not prioritize due process — effectively putting the United States government on the same moral plane as violent felons.

    The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank added in his latest column, “Without due process, you have what we see today: a leader using a wartime statute in peacetime to declare certain people to be dangerous gang members without providing any evidence, then imprisoning them without charges and finally denying the authority of the courts and defying a court order requiring the leader to obey the laws as written. It is no exaggeration to say that this is the road to despotism.”

    For his part, Homan added, “The bottom line is that plane was full of people designated as terrorists. Every Venezuelan on that flight was a TdA member based on numerous criminal investigations, on intelligence reports and a lot of work by ICE officers.”

    The border czar has presented no evidence in support of these claims; U.S. intelligence agencies have reportedly come to the opposition conclusion; and ICE made the exact opposite concession in a court filing six days before Homan peddled his claim to a national television audience.

    Much of the administration’s position rests on the idea that Americans are simply supposed to trust Trump and his team. The more they say things that are plainly false, the more impossible this becomes.

  69. birgerjohansson says

    Sarah Boardman has made a portrait of Trump for the state capitol of -I think- Colorado.
    Trump is angry about the portrait.
    Myself I find it far too flattering, painted in the usual bland style of portraits of politicians. Maybe he wanted a portrait of himself as cowboy, or superhero like those cards he has been peddling.
    A proper Trump portrait should be without combover.

  70. birgerjohansson says

    Farron Cousins: 

    “Investors Are Fleeing The United States As Trump Destroys The Economy”
    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=L2KdZdWTL8Q 

    The investors are realising something Teump’s niece realised long ago: he does not listen to advice and is often downright irrational.
    Investors want predictability, not chaos so they are pulling out.

  72. says

    At an Oval Office event on Friday, Donald Trump was asked about his administration using the Alien Enemies Act to fly some non-criminals to a prison in El Salvador. “I was told that they went through a very strong vetting process,” the president replied.

    For now, let’s put aside the fact that there’s an enormous difference between a vetting process and due process. For that matter, let’s also stick a pin in the very important conversation about the nature of the administration’s “very strong” vetting process and the degree to which it appears to have failed.

    What also stood out for me about Trump’s answer, however, was the fact that he seemed to put some distance between himself and his policy. Instead of simply declaring that the White House did everything right, he said he was “told” — by whom, he didn’t say — that the process had merit.

    Hours later, during a separate Q&A with reporters, the president went even further down the same road and suggested that he didn’t actually sign his own order invoking the Alien Enemies Act. NBC News reported:

    Trump appeared to indicate [Friday] that he did not sign a proclamation last week that invoked the Alien Enemies Act his administration used to justify recent deportation flights that have since sparked an intense court fight. He made the remark after being asked about a federal judge’s concerns about his use of the wartime law to deport Venezuelan immigrants despite being ordered not to.

    In his unscripted comments, the president told reporters, “I don’t know when it was signed, because I didn’t sign it. Other people handled it.” The president then praised Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying, “He wanted them out, and we go along with that. We want to get criminals out of our country.”

    Pressed for some kind of explanation, the White House later told CNN that Trump “was obviously referring to the original Alien Enemies Act that was signed back in 1798.” [eyebrows raised]

    Given the context, that was literally unbelievable. The exchange, which was on camera, clearly provided the necessary context: He was asked about the ongoing court case and the way in which his order was implemented.

    The idea that Trump was saying he “didn’t sign” a federal law 227 years ago is plainly ridiculous.

    But the fact that the president made these comments raised a variety of related questions. If, as Trump put it, he “didn’t sign” his own directive, why did the White House say he did? Did he use an autopen? Does the president, who routinely questions his immediate predecessor’s mental acuity, not remember the historically significant order he ostensibly signed a week earlier?

    A Washington Post analysis asked a variety of related questions: “So what did happen? Did Trump misspeak? Is he trying to deflect responsibility for a decision under heavy legal scrutiny by suggesting he was merely following through on an idea proposed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio? And if he didn’t sign it, who — or what — did?”

    I don’t imagine we’ve heard the last of this one.

    Link

  73. JM says

    The Atlantic: The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans

    U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.

    Have not read the entire article because I don’t have an Atlantic subscription. What happened is that Jeffrey Goldberg was contacted over the encrypted message application Signal by national security adviser Michael Waltz. Which is itself a reasonable way for Waltz to communicate privately with Goldberg.
    Then Goldberg was invited to a topic about the Houthi. Odd but not out of the question if Waltz wanted to talk about the Houthi or multiple people wanted to talk to Goldberg. Then Pete Hegseth sent the group a message including the entire US military plan and some of the communication that had lead to the organization of that plan.
    Cluster cluck of the worst kind. Signal my be encrypted but it isn’t the sort of hardened that you would need for information at that level. The operational information shouldn’t be leaving a secure site or military communication, at least until after the operation. Just passing that information was likely a serious crime by Hegseth even without Goldberg being included.

  74. says

    Followup to comments 12, 28, 32 (Sky Captain) and 39 (Sky Captain).

    The Trump administration seized on the capitulation by the Paul Weiss law firm to expand and intensify its attack on the legal profession late Friday. The Trump White House issued a new presidential memoranda – inartfully and misleadingly titled “Preventing Abuses of the Legal System and the Federal Court” – that directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to go after lawyers and law firms that challenge the administration in court.

    The escalation of the attacks on lawyers is happening in parallel with Trump’s attacks on individual federal judges and more broadly on the judicial branch’s constitutional powers.

    As the White House celebrated its successful bullying of Paul Weiss and as some of the nation’s leading law firms meekly scrambled to avoid being Trump’s next target, the president upped the ante by demanding that his attorney general seek sanctions and disciplinary actions against lawyers opposing the administration who violate the law or ethical standards. But the real thrust of the memo was to give Trump a mechanism for continuing to undermine, weaken, and intimidate the legal profession.

    As The Guardian noted, Trump directed Bondi in the memo to report directly to him any lawyers litigating against the government “who engage in frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious litigation against the United States or in matters before executive departments and agencies of the United States,” an arguably loser standard than the one imposed by the cannons of legal ethics:

    The memo, as a result, created a formal mechanism for Trump to unilaterally decide whether to impose politically charged sanctions through executive orders that strip lawyers of the security clearances they need to perform their jobs or prevent them from working on federal contracts.

    […] he ordered Bondi to review cases against the federal government all the way back to the beginning of his first term to punish anyone “filing frivolous litigation or engaging in fraudulent practices.” [Vengence]

    […]

    Link

  75. says

    LOL

    […] the Trump DOJ made a telling mistake. In a filing Friday, the government wrote: “Fair proceedings free from any suggestion of impartiality are essential to the integrity of our country’s judiciary …”

    God knows we don’t want even a “suggestion of impartiality” in our nation’s courts. […]

    Same link as in comment 74.

  77. says

    Cross posted from PZ’s post about Columbia University.

    It’s NEVER Enough

    In a desperate attempt to restore $400 million in federal funding that President Trump is lawlessly withholding, Columbia University agreed to make a number of invasive concessions to how the university is run – and now those concessions are already being deemed insufficient by a Trump DOJ official.

    “I will tell you right now that Columbia has not in my opinion — and the opinion of the Department of Justice — has not cleaned up their act,” said Leo Terrell, a senior Trump DOJ lawyer. “They’re not even close, not even close to having those funds unfrozen.” […]

    Link. The link is to Talking Points Memo’s “Morning Memo,” which presents a roundup of a lot of different news reports. Scroll down to see “It’s NEVER Enough.”

  79. says

    Judge Boasberg Lays Out How He Thinks Trump Admin Tried To Thwart Him

    Judge Boasberg keeps his ban on Alien Enemies Act removals in place.

    A D.C. federal judge blocked a bid by the Trump administration to restart removals under the Alien Enemies Act in a thundering Monday order.

    Chief D.C. judge James Boasberg denied a request from the administration to overturn an earlier freeze he put in place on removals of Venezuelans under the proclamation. […]

    Boasberg focused his Monday ruling on that deprivation of due process, finding that “the courts can determine an individual’s alien-enemy status — and are obligated to do so when asked.”

    “Before they may be deported, they are entitled to individualized hearings to determine whether the Act applies to them at all,” he wrote of those removed to El Salvador elsewhere in the 37-page ruling.

    […] In addition to calling basic civil liberties protections into question, the Trump administration’s defiant behavior towards Boasberg over the last week has made concerns around its willingness to comply with court orders more acute. […]

    Boasberg wrote in Monday’s order that the Trump administration seemed to have sought to “circumvent judicial review” through how it arranged the removals.

    The administration chose to “hastily dispatch flights as legal proceedings were ongoing,” Boasberg wrote. Knowing that Boasberg planned to hold a hearing, federal officials “hustled people onto those planes in the hopes of evading an injunction or perhaps preventing them from requesting the habeas hearing to which the Government now acknowledges they are entitled.”

    It’s a direct recognition that the Trump administration sought not only to remove the deportees’ right to due process by invoking the act, but that it potentially structured the removals themselves so as to minimize the possibility of judicial oversight.

    […] It’s far from clear how far courts can go in examining the President’s decision-making around when to declare an invasion, even if one is plainly not happening, Boasberg wrote. He held back from issuing a decision based on whether Trump’s proclamation itself is valid, and instead opted to keep the ban on Alien Enemies Act deportations in place based on the administration’s violation of due process rights.

    […] For now, Boasberg has entered no order demanding that those who remain in El Salvador be returned to the United States. He told plaintiffs Monday that if they want to convert the current ban to a preliminary injunction, which would have a longer shelf life, they should move to do so before Wednesday.

  81. says

    […] In his strongest public comments yet, Prime Minister Múte Egede excoriated the Trump White House for dispatching top American officials – including national security national security adviser Michael Waltz and second lady Usha Vance – to visit Greenland this week.

    “What is the national security adviser doing in Greenland?” Egede asked. “The only purpose is to demonstrate power over us.”

    Same link as in comment 74.

  82. says

    Supreme Court declines to hear challenge to landmark press freedom case

    The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a case seeking to challenge the 1964 precedent that protects news outlets from litigation for publishing critical information about public figures.

    Why it matters: Conservative justices have called for the Supreme Court to revisit New York Times v. Sullivan, which determined that a plaintiff must demonstrate “actual malice” in defamation lawsuits against the press.
    In Sullivan, the court determined that the First Amendment protects news outlets from liability, even when they publish false statements, as long as the outlet did not do so knowingly and recklessly — without seeking to determine its accuracy.

    […] Casino mogul and President Trump donor Steve Wynn, in a libel lawsuit against the Associated Press, sought to challenge the bedrock case law that has protected journalists from libel lawsuits for decades.

    Wynn, also a former finance chair of the Republican National Committee, had sued the AP in 2018 after it published a story on sexual misconduct allegations against him from the 1970s.

    He appealed the case to the Supreme Court after Nevada’s top court dismissed the lawsuit.

    Zoom out: “The actual malice standard … exists to give even more breath when you’re talking about famous people, people with power in government, or people just with more power in society,” First Amendment expert Kevin Goldberg previously told Axios’ Kerry Flynn.

    “The bar is intentionally high to dissuade people from ever filing these lawsuits,” he added.

    Our thought bubble, from Axios’ Sam Baker: There’s still energy on the court’s right wing to overturn Sullivan, but SCOTUS has turned away multiple cases over the past several years that would have given it the chance to do so.

    There doesn’t seem to be enough votes on the court to wade back into the issue — at least not now, or not through the specific cases they’ve been presented with so far.

    What we’re watching: Trump has threatened to “open up” libel laws to be able to further target the press.

    Several media companies will face defamation lawsuits in courts this year.

  83. says

    Oh FFS.

    […] Trump has always embraced a branding opportunity. It makes sense, then, that he would upend decades of tradition and plan to offer corporate sponsorships for the White House’s annual Easter Egg Roll.

    Gone are the days of shoving former White House press secretary Sean Spicer into an Easter bunny costume for a quick laugh. Now, Trump wants to transform the annual Easter Egg Roll—which is funded through private donations, not taxpayer dollars—into a profit-making scheme where corporations can essentially purchase goodwill with his administration.

    According to reports from CNN and The New York Times, which viewed a nine-page guide available for potential sponsors, companies willing to pay between $75,000 and $200,000 can earn perks such as branding rights, having their logos or names featured on event signage, and mentions in social media posts and press releases.

    The most expensive package—Platinum—includes “branding for a key area or activation,” 150 tickets to the event (100 general admission, plus 50 VIP), and exclusive tickets to an invitation-only brunch inside the White House with first lady Melania Trump.

    “Be a part of history,” reads the guide, written by the aptly named event production company, Harbinger, based out of Washington, D.C. The memo directs sponsors to “provide financial support, activities, and giveaways to enhance the event while gaining valuable brand visibility and national recognition.”

    […] federal regulations prohibit government employees from using their public offices for personal gain or “for the endorsement of any product, service, or enterprise.”

    After reviewing the memo, Richard Painter, who served in the White House Counsel’s Office under former President George W. Bush, told CNN that such a deal shouldn’t have progressed this far.

    “That would have been vetoed in about 30 seconds in my day,” he remarked. “We’re not operating this like a football stadium where you get logos all over the place for contributing money.”

    […] earlier this month, Trump held an infomercial on the White House lawn, where he promoted Elon Musk’s Teslas and encouraged Americans to buy his billionaire friend’s overpriced and unsafe cars after the automaker’s stock plummeted.

    Before that, in January, Trump and Melania launched their own meme coin, $Trump, which was branded with his likeness, just before the president’s January inauguration.

    According to CNN, which cited a second source familiar with the planning of this year’s Easter Egg Roll, one sponsor has already been identified for the festivities while other “successful conservations” [sic] are underway. […]

    Link

  84. says

    Followup to comment 81.

    […] JD Vance accused Denmark of “not doing its job” and “not being a good ally,” because they are allegedly blocking the United States from accessing “sea lanes” around the territory. He added that because of that, the U.S. could take over Greenland.

    “That is what President Trump is going to do because he doesn’t care about what the Europeans scream at us; he cares about putting the interests of American citizens first,” Vance said of Trump’s plans to acquire Greenland.

    What’s more, at his joint congressional address earlier in March, Trump said the United States will own Greenland “one way or the other,” suggesting he may even use military force to take over the territory—the antithesis of his idiotic “peace through strength” platform.

    Unsurprisingly, Greenland officials are pissed.

    […] Egede added that if Greenland’s allies “do not speak out loudly about how the USA is treating Greenland, the situation will escalate day by day, and the American aggression will increase.”

    And Danes are angry too, with many Danish people boycotting American goods in order to protest the Trump administration’s attempts at taking over Greenland.

    The Trump administration’s visit is a big fuck-you to Denmark. At the same time they are going to Greenland to try to take the territory from Denmark, Trump administration officials are also asking Denmark if they can help supply eggs to the United States amid a nationwide shortage thanks to the bird flu.

    […] when Trump’s failson Donald Trump Jr. visited Greenland in January, before Trump took office, he had to cobble together unhoused people and offer them free lunch so that they’d take pictures with Trump’s eldest child to make it look like Greenlanders were excited about his visit.

    Trump’s imperialistic streak is not only pissing off Denmark and Greenland, but it’s also causing a rift between the United States and Canada, one of our oldest and most important allies and trade partners. […]

    Link

  85. says

    Followup to comments 81 and 84.
    Danes boycott US goods with fervor: ‘Danish Viking blood is boiling’

    Ivan Hansen, a retired Danish police officer, loaded up his basket at the supermarket, carefully checking each product to avoid buying anything made in the United States. No more Coca-Cola, no more California Zinfandel wine or almonds.

    The 67-year-old said it’s the only way he knows to protest U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies. He’s furious about Trump’s threat to seize the Danish territory of Greenland, but it’s not just that. There are also the threats to take control of the Panama Canal and Gaza. And Trump’s relationship with Elon Musk, who has far-right ties and made what many interpreted as a straight-armed Nazi salute.

    On his recent shopping trip, Hansen returned home with dates from Iran. It shocked him to realize that he now perceives the United States as a greater threat than Iran.

    “Trump really looks like a bully who tries in every way to intimidate, threaten others to get his way,” he told The Associated Press. “I will fight against that kind of thing.”

    A GROWING BOYCOTT MOVEMENT ACROSS EUROPE

    Hansen is just one supporter of a growing movement across Europe and Canada to boycott U.S. products. People are joining Facebook groups where they exchange ideas about how to avoid U.S. products and find alternatives. Feelings are especially strong across the Nordic region — and very possibly strongest in Denmark given Trump’s threats to seize Greenland.[…]

    Responding to consumer demand, Denmark’s largest supermarket chain, the Salling Group, created a star-shaped label this month to mark European-made goods sold in its stores. CEO Anders Hagh said it’s not a boycott, but a response to consumers demanding a way to easily avoid American products. […]

    More at the link.

  88. says

    […] Real-estate-investor turned White House envoy Steve Witkoff told Tucker Carlson that Putin is not a “bad guy,” because when Donald Trump got shot “he went to his local church and met with his priest and prayed for the president,” and commissioned an artist to paint a painting of Trump. He also hit all the other Russian talking points, of course, like, “There’s a view within the country of Russia that these are Russian territories, that there are referendums within these territories that justify these actions … I just don’t see that [Putin] wants to take all of Europe [… ]I take him as his word.” Pathetic. (Kyiv Independent) […]

    Leopards ate my face dept.:

    Ogden, Utah went for Trump by 20 points, but the IRS is (or was) the town’s largest employer. Derp. (FT)

    Well dang, the state expected to be hit hardest by tariffs is Texas. (CBS)

    Everybody sing along! […]

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/everybody-sing-tabs-mon-march-24

  89. says

    Russia and U.S. start new Ukraine peace talks on tricky footing with warnings of ‘difficult negotiations’

    “While American negotiators are hopeful of ‘real progress,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has warned of ‘difficult negotiations’ as a fresh round of talks start in Riyadh.”

    The United States and Russia began a new set of talks Monday aimed at a partial Ukraine ceasefire — while the two sides disagreed over how well the talks in Saudi Arabia were going and as Kremlin forces launched another night of drone strikes.

    Even as Russia’s delegation sat down in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, the country’s military launched missiles at the Ukrainian city of Sumy on Monday, damaging apartment buildings and a children’s hospital and injuring 74 people, including 13 children, Ukrainian officials said.

    “A few hours ago, another horrific Russian bombing of Sumy’s city center injured dozens civilians, including many children,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in a post on X. “Instead of making hollow statements about peace, Russia must stop bombing our cities and end its war on civilians. Any diplomacy with Moscow must be backed up by firepower, sanctions, and pressure.”

    […] “There are still many aspects related to the settlement which are to be worked out,” Peskov told reporters on a media call Monday after Russia’s Foreign Ministry published video of its delegation arriving at the Ritz Carlton in Riyadh.

    The White House is attempting a strategy of “shuttle diplomacy,” a source familiar with the negotiations told NBC News, and was meeting with Russian delegates Monday after having spoken with Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia a day before. […]

  91. Reginald Selkirk says

    Pat Gelsinger becomes executive chairman, head of technology at church-focused platform Gloo

    Pat Gelsinger, former CEO of Intel and VMWare, announced on Monday that his role at faith-focused technology company Gloo has been expanded, and he will become the company’s executive chairman as well as head of technology who will be in charge of products development. After nearly 10 years as a board member and investor, he is now leading Gloo’s product and engineering efforts, with a focus on building a vertical cloud platform for the faith ecosystem…

  92. JM says

    Followup to 73 & 80
    Youtube: CNN Report
    CNN Report gives more details. Goldberg was included in the group chat some time before the bombings and watched as they discussed the war plans, intelligence behind it and the political considerations. The political considerations included what the US wanted from other countries for dealing with the Houthi.

  93. whheydt says

    Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #91…
    Is that “vertical cloud system” going to be called “Babel”?

  94. Akira MacKenzie says

    @ 91

    After nearly 10 years as a board member and investor, he is now leading Gloo’s product and engineering efforts, with a focus on building a vertical cloud platform for the faith ecosystem…

    Jeebus, mixing religious babble with corpo-PR-speak. All they need is to replace the the phrase “Holy Spirit” with “synergy.”

  95. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick:

    Federal judge blocks DOGE/OPM from accessing large swathes of data at the Department of Education and the Department of the Treasury, ruling that DOGE has no right under the Privacy Act to unjustified access to large-scale amounts of personal identifying information.

  96. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    ICE finally gives a reason for taking Mahmoud Khalil, the pro-Palestinian protester.

    Previously, they had nothing but “I think you can see it on TV. […] It must be clear or we wouldn’t be talking about it.”

    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (American Immigration Council):

    Now ICE has filed new charges, alleging immigration fraud. […] “willful misrepresentation” while filling out his application for a green card
    […]
    Even presuming that ICE is telling the truth about these failures to disclose [ALL past jobs and clubs/orgs], these are pretty weak allegations […] Because the misrepresentation has to be about a “material” fact—a fact that could have changed the outcome of the application [at the time]. […] There’s no bar to getting a green card if you’ve worked at a foreign embassy or UNRWA, or were part a student organization. […] they may also have trouble meeting the burden to prove willful omission.
    […]
    But say he loses on all counts […] there’s a waiver. […] offering him the opportunity to seek a discretionary second chance […] built into the law.
    […]
    A.G. Bondi has authority to personally issue decisions in immigration court cases. So if an immigration judge rules against ICE here, she could personally step in and overrule it. That said, such a decision is still reviewable by federal appeals courts.
    […]

    Rando: The fact they are now trying to rely on these hypertechnicalities is an admission that all the nonsense we’ve heard for the past 2 weeks about Mahmoud Khalil “providing material support to Hamas” was an unmitigated, steaming pile of lies.

    Yes, I think this is an important take-away. Like, THIS is all they’ve got?

     
    Jennifer Jacobs (CBS):

    Trump says Alina Habba, who has been in role as councilor to the president […] is now interim U.S. Attorney for the district of New Jersey.

    Rando: “I’m sure that such a sharp legal tactician will do the Garden State proud. [links to stories of her court losses]”

    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “Okay so… doesn’t this mean she’s now the person in charge of defending the habeas claim in the Khalil case? Also, yes, lol.”

  97. says

    Trump administration asks Supreme Court to halt judge’s order to rehire probationary federal workers

    The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to halt a ruling ordering the rehiring of thousands of federal workers let go in mass firings aimed at dramatically downsizing the federal government.

    The emergency appeal argues that the judge can’t force the executive branch to rehire some 16,000 probationary employees. The California-based judge found the firings didn’t follow federal law, and he ordered reinstatement offers be sent as a lawsuit plays out.

    The appeal also calls on the conservative-majority court to rein in the growing number of federal judges who have slowed President Donald Trump’s sweeping agenda, at least for now.

    “Only this Court can end the interbranch power grab,” the appeal stated.

    […] Trump’s unparalleled flurry of executive orders seems destined for several dates at a Supreme Court that he helped shape with three appointees during his first term, but so far the majority on the nine-member court has taken relatively small steps in two cases that have reached it.

    The latest order appealed to the high court was one of two handed down the same day that found separate legal problems with the way the Republican administration’s firings of probationary employees were carried out.

    U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco ruled that the terminations were improperly directed by the Office of Personnel Management and its acting director. He ordered rehiring at six agencies: the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, the Interior and the Treasury.

    […] But the federal government said the sweeping order requiring the employees to be rehired goes beyond the judge’s legal authority. The plaintiffs never had legal standing to sue and did not prove that the Office of Personnel Management wrongly directed the firings, the Justice Department argued on appeal.

  98. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    An accessible copy of JM’s link @73.
    Atlantic – The Trump administration accidentally texted me its war plans
     
    Anna Bower:

    “I will do all we can to enforce 100% OPSEC,” the Secretary of Defense declared as he discussed sensitive military operations […] in a group chat to which the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine had been mistakenly added.

    Rando: “Code name ‘Derp Throat’.”
     
    Justin Baragona (The Independent):

    Trump [when] asked about his Cabinet officials including Jeffrey Goldberg on a secret war plan Signal exchange: “I don’t know anything about it. I’m not a big fan of the Atlantic. To me, it’s a magazine that’s going out of business. It’s not much of a magazine, but I know nothing about it.” [Video clip]

    Kevin M. Kruse (Historian): “The president is insisting he was out of the loop when his underlings were planning a military strike? [Okay. But that’s worse. You do get how that’s worse, right?]”
     
    Matthew Gertz (Journalist):

    Here’s a thread of involved parties talking about the need for secure communications (when Dems are involved)

     
    Anna Bower: “I am upset that no one accidentally added me to a Signal group chat with the administrator of DOGE.”

  99. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Rando to Matthew Gertz: “Imagine if your almost name doppelganger made it to attorney general. You would have so many scoops.”

  100. Reginald Selkirk says

    South Korean court reinstates Han Duck-soo as acting president

    South Korea’s Constitutional Court reinstated Prime Minister Han Duck-soo to the post of acting president on Monday, striking down his impeachment as he pledged to focus on steering Asia’s fourth-biggest economy through a U.S. trade war.

    The ruling, which comes amid months of political turmoil in the country, returns Han to power immediately. He took over as acting leader from President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was himself impeached over his brief imposition of martial law in December…

  101. Reginald Selkirk says

    X’s head of engineering is out

    X’s director of engineering, Haofei Wang, has suddenly left the company, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.

    Wang first joined Elon Musk’s X in July 2023 and has been an integral part of the company’s leadership, often serving as a conduit between Musk and the rest of the company’s engineers…

  102. Reginald Selkirk says

    Cyberattack disrupts train ticket sales in Ukraine

    Ukraine’s state-owned railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia said Monday that it was hit by a large-scale cyberattack.

    The cyberattack affected online ticket sales, including via the mobile app, while trains continue to operate, according to the railway operator’s statement on its official Telegram channel…

  103. KG says

    I just don’t see that [Putin] wants to take all of Europe [… ]I take him as his word.” – Lynna, OM@88, quoting Kyiv Independent quoting Steve Witkoff

    Days before the full-scale invasion of 2022, Putin lied that no such invasion was planned. That, of course, is just one of countless lies he has told on numerous issues.

  104. Reginald Selkirk says

    Scientists Find Giant Organic Molecules on Mars as Old as Life on Earth

    A team of scientists just discovered the longest organic molecules yet seen on Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun and and a tantalizing venue for humankind’s search for life beyond Earth.

    Mars today is inhospitable, with significant temperature fluctuations, a thin atmosphere, and an apparent dearth of liquid water on the planet’s surface. But according to new research, published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, large molecules found on Mars apparently are as old as life on Earth, raising questions about biological activity on an ancient Mars.

    The molecules are long carbon chains, containing up to 12 consecutive carbon atoms. The molecules sat preserved on Mars for about 3.7 billion years, undisturbed by geological activity, moisture, or heat. The molecules date to about the same time as the earliest-known signs of life on our planet…

    Twelve carbon atoms is “long”? Pffft.

  105. JM says

    @98 CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain:

    Trump [when] asked about his Cabinet officials including Jeffrey Goldberg on a secret war plan Signal exchange: “I don’t know anything about it. I’m not a big fan of the Atlantic. To me, it’s a magazine that’s going out of business. It’s not much of a magazine, but I know nothing about it.”

    That is such a Trump response. Deny knowing anything about it. This is a major security breech and your the president of the US. You should have had an initial briefing at least outlining what is known and who was involved within an hour of the article being published. The correct response was “I can not say anything at this time.”, still a cop out but but a plausible one given that the end line here should be a DOJ investigation and a couple of cabinet level resignations.
    On the plus side there is now something to say when right wingers bleats “But Hillary’s email”. It’s taken a while but the right now has done something in regards to security that is actually illegal, more blatantly stupid and understandable to non-technical people.

  106. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Nina Jankowicz (American Sunlight Project):

    Two friends in gov tell me this [using ephemeral encrypted chats] is common practice in this admin as Trump & Co try to circumvent the Presidential Records Act and FOIA requests.

     
    Kel McClanahan (National Security Counselors):

    I just filed a few new FOIA requests. […] Here’s one.

    Goldberg revealed that he had been inadvertently added to a Signal group including Tulsi Gabbard, and that some of the messages had been set to autodelete. […] This is an expedited FOIA request […] for all messages in the Signal account used by Tulsi Gabbard […] in the last three months […] not just for messages sent to or received from this particular group […] regardless of sender or recipient.

  107. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Southpaw (Lawyer):

    Philip Bump (WaPo): So not only […] a Signal conversation about strikes on Houthis, they also used that same non-governmental platform to coordinate staffing among departments and the White House! Insane.

    They exposed a CIA officer’s name in a Signal chat that included Jeffrey Goldberg and half the cabinet, at least raising the possibility of a [Intelligence Identities Protection Act] violation.

    From the Atlantic article: “One more person responded […] with the name of a CIA official […] I am not publishing that name, because that person is an active intelligence officer.”

  108. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Marisa Kabas (The Handbasket):

    This is the message federal employees receive after trying to send in their mandatory “5 bullets” email about what they did this week:
    [“(HR{at}OPM.GOV) The recipient’s mailbox is full”]

  109. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    EmptyWheel: “Trump knowingly making it easier to defraud Social Security recipients.”

    Axios – Social Security rushing service cuts at White House request

    Acting commissioner Leland Dudek said the changes in question would usually take two years to implement, but will be made in two weeks instead […] Dudek also said the changes, happening so fast and with little public understanding, will create opportunities for scammers
    […]
    There will be individuals who will be victims of fraud as a result of the changes, Dudek said […] He said in the past Social Security had been too “thoughtful” in considering beneficiaries before making changes.

    Rando: “SSA has been ‘too thoughtful’ in protecting beneficiaries? Do they hear themselves?”

  110. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Fred Wellman (MeidasTouch):

    the Department of Veterans Affairs payroll system (VATAS) has been down since Friday. It is operating in ‘Emergency Mode’ only and will have to resort to straight time cards to get people their base pay on Friday.

    No explanation or timeline of when it will be back up again. Everyone is wondering what caused it to crash and none of my sources have ever heard of it doing so before.

    A rando posted an email screenshot.
     
    Rando 2:

    I have no specialized knowledge of Veterans’ Affairs; I’m simply a former Federal employee who served as a Records Liaison Officer (the private records management staff in most Federal offices, as opposed to the publicly-named Records Officer [RO] for each agency).

    This sort of knowledge comes with the territory
    a) Federal information systems, including payroll, create government records.
    b) Government records /all/ having record-keeping schedules for disposition.
    c) Even backups of systems are considered Federal records protected from tampering by law.

    I’m not saying law has mystic power here, I’m saying there are three career employees at the VA who are responsible for ensuring that the records disposition schedule is followed, and that it’s extremely unlikely that backups were affected without one of those three people noticing and raising hell.

    Rando 2:

    I went to the records schedule […] full system backups exist. […] it is incredibly unlikely that the system has been irrevocably damaged beyond repair, because backups.

    You can’t just do an entirely-clean restore-from-backup on a payroll system, though, especially one that needs to at least hobble along as best it can until it’s repaired. They could have shut the entire system down to restore from backup and pull in the new data but that would take too long.
    […]
    When your options are
    a) “pay the entire staff […] nothing on Friday” or
    b) “pay everyone their straight time on Friday and make amendments once the system is restored”
    one can see the merits of (b).

    That the system has “Emergency Mode” at all demonstrates the level of failure-safety that is integrated into these kinds of essential government software.
    […]
    It is not “the system is irrevocably broken and there’s no way to fix it.” It is “the […] people in charge of fixing it aren’t giving estimates on how long it will take them to finish because /they won’t know how long until they’re done/”.

  111. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Regarding the renditions to El Salvador.
    Southpaw (Lawyer):

    The Trump administration escalates its confrontation with Judge Boasberg, invoking the state secrets privilege and saying it will provide no more information to aid him in determining whether it defied his orders by trafficking detainees to El Salvador.

    Brian Neuharth (Lawyer): “Good lord. They were supposed to invoke it last week and provide information as to why. They invoke late and refuse in camera review of the reasons, then say the court lacks ‘competence’ to second guess POTUS.”

    Rando 1: “Lol. Now the Trump Admin cares about classified communications.”

    Rando 2: “The publicly tweeted flights, a state secret. War plans, shared by text!”
     
     
    Regarding the Signal group chat.
    Aaron Rupar: “‘Nobody was texting war plans’ —Pete Hegseth [Video clip]”

    Southpaw: “So now Goldberg’s gotta publish them, right? The Espionage Act can’t operate to make him support the incompetent Defense Secretary’s blatant lies, can it?”

    Task and Purpose: “National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes indicated on Monday that Goldberg’s reporting is accurate.”

    CBS: “House Speaker Mike Johnson defended the administration’s handling of the incident and said he did not think Hegseth or Waltz should be disciplined.”

    Tulsi Gabbard (Mar 14, 10 days earlier): “Any unauthorized release of clasified information is a violation of the law and will be treated as such.”

    Aaron Rupar: “Goldberg: ‘I thought to myself, I guess they’re lucky they didn’t sent this to a Houthi by mistake, or to a foreign diplomat.'”

    Hillary Clinton: “You have got to be kidding me.”

    Rando 3: “my entire feed is just increasingly esoteric jokes about a single news event (new phone, houthis?)”

  113. says

    Sky Captain @98:

    Anna Bower: “I am upset that no one accidentally added me to a Signal group chat with the administrator of DOGE.”

    Oh, yeah. I’m totally with Anna on that.

    The whole thing is both laughable and tremendously scary.

    Change of subject to Social Security … but still related to possible Trump administration/DOGE fuckups: My friends tried to sign in today to their social security accounts on the official .gov website. Both had their Social Security numbers, their user names and their passwords. Nope. Failure.

    After jumping through many online hoops, the system let them create new accounts using the social security’s “login.gov” system. Now they both have online access to Social Security and to active accounts.

    Might turn out to be important for people receiving Social Security benefits to check to see if they can log in using their old account. If not, create a new account now. With DOGE closing outlying Social Security offices, and with phone services being cut, it is important to have online access.

  114. says

    NBC News:

    With the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip having collapsed after Israel resumed its bombing campaign, the Israeli military is expanding its activities in the shattered enclave. What comes next could set the stage for a sea change by Israel in Gaza and the broader region.

    Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 700 people in Gaza in just over a week since the country shattered its two-month-old ceasefire deal with Hamas, according to the Palestinian health ministry in the enclave run by that the militant group.

    Meanwhile, statements from the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordering troops to seize parts of Gaza to be “annexed to Israel” unless Hamas meets its demands are fueling fears of those in the region and among experts of a significant escalation in this bloody near-year-and-a-half-long war. [Ominous]

    Speaking with Fox News on Sunday, Witkoff [White House envoy Steve Witkoff] blamed the breakdown of the ceasefire on Hamas’ refusal to accept the proposed extension. Meanwhile, Hamas has blamed Israel for refusing to continue negotiations about phase two.

    Strikes on Gaza over the weekend pushed the death toll of people killed in the territory past more than 50,000 since the war began, according to local health officials.

    […] n Friday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he was ordering troops to permanently seize parts of the Gaza Strip to be “annexed to Israel” unless Hamas hands over remaining hostages in the enclave.

    “The more Hamas persists in its refusal to release the hostages, the more territory it will lose, which will be annexed to Israel,” Katz said.

    Michael said that Israel was getting “closer and closer to an all out war in the Gaza Strip that will lead to the full occupation of the Gaza Strip unless Hamas will change its mind” about refusing to extend the ceasefire deal. […]

    Andreas Krieg, a senior lecturer at King’s College London’s school of security studies, said that if the objective of continued fighting is a reoccupation of Gaza, temporary or otherwise, then another aim that could be “looming in the background” is President Donald Trump’s recent proposal of the U.S. taking over the enclave and turning it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” […]

    Link

  115. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Somebody wished on a monkey’s paw.

    Time – Louis DeJoy resigns as Postmaster General

    naming Deputy Postmaster General Doug Tulino as his replacement until the Board names a permanent successor […] DeJoy’s sudden departure comes after he struck an agreement this month to allow [DOGE] inside the USPS […] DeJoy’s allies fear that his absence will leave the agency vulnerable to a dramatic and disruptive takeover

  116. says

    https://www.msnbc.com/inside-with-jen-psaki/watch/-unbelievable-jeffrey-goldberg-speaks-out-after-trump-officials-and-pete-hegseth-accidentally-texted-him-war-plans-235251781566

    Editor-in-chief of The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg speaks out on his new piece: “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans.”

    Video is 11:35 minutes

    https://www.msnbc.com/inside-with-jen-psaki/watch/-tip-of-the-iceberg-adam-schiff-slams-trump-officials-for-accidentally-texting-war-plans-to-journalist-235254341918

    Congressman Adam Schiff reacts to new reporting in the Atlantic of top Trump officials mistakenly texting classified war plans to a journalist over a Signal group chat.

    Video is 4:48 minutes

  117. says

    WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Amid the outcry over the leaking of top-secret war plans, on Monday millions of Americans called for a breathalyzer to be attached to Pete Hegseth’s phone.

    In an emotional apology at the Pentagon, Hegseth said that someone in his position “should never drink and text, and so I am giving up texting.”

    According to national security experts, a journalist was given access to highly sensitive war plans that are normally available only to people using a public bathroom at Mar-a-Lago.

    Link

  118. Bekenstein Bound says

    A proper Trump portrait should be without combover a mugshot.

    FTFY.

    Pete Hegseth & JD Vance ACCIDENTALLY LEAKED WAR PLANS To Journalist w/ No Security Clearance!

    Here’s hoping they repeat that mistake when they decide to target Canada.

  120. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Follow-up to #108.

    Marisa Kabas (The Handbasket):

    Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) employees received this email lmao.

    Hello everyone, We have received reports that […] when staff try to send their “5 bullets” email […] the mailbox is full. If you […] received this response, then please save your email to OPM for your records, but otherwise there is nothing more you need to do today. You will be covered by the agency’s blanket response for all those who are on leave.

  121. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Matt Novak (Gizmodo):

    They’re still doing it! Just today, 10 senate Dems voted to confirm Trump’s deputy Secretary of State and 12 voted to confirm his Secretary of the Navy! [Named at the link.]

    Jamelle Bouie (NYT): Literally every day is going to provide more evidence that the “let’s provide some votes for the least bad trump nominees out of respect for the presidency” was a boneheaded strategy. Any idiot could have told senate democrats that any vote for any of these people was going to make them look bad.

  125. Reginald Selkirk says

    UK on alert after H5N1 bird flu spills over to sheep in world-first

    The H5N1 bird flu has spilled over to a sheep for the first time, infecting a domesticated ruminant in the United Kingdom much like it has in US dairy cows, according to UK officials.

    The single sheep—a ewe—in Yorkshire, England, was confirmed infected after captive birds on the same property had tested positive for the virus, according to an announcement Monday. The ewe’s milk was found to be positive for the virus through a PCR test, which detected genetic signatures of the virus. The ewe also had H5 antibodies in its blood. At the time of the confirmation, the ewe had symptoms of the infection in the way of mastitis, inflammation of the mammary glands…

  128. says

    On the one hand, Republicans are avoiding town halls. On the other, the House speaker claims there’s public “euphoria” about the GOP agenda.

    Over the weekend, House Speaker Mike Johnson sat down with the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins [!], who asked the fellow Louisiana Republican to talk about what he’s heard from the public about the party’s message.

    To hear Congress’ top GOP official tell it, things couldn’t be better. [video at the link]

    “All over the country, I’m going to all the states and everywhere we go, Tony, there’s euphoria,” the House speaker said. “I mean, people are excited. And I mean, from your average voter to moms and dads who are now feeling freedom again being that we’re turning the tide. You’ve got business owners at every level, large and small, who are making decisions to expand business and they know that help is on the way and it’s already begun and they feel good about it.”

    Johnson concluded, “There’s a real sense of excitement, patriotism, people just have this sense of relief, and it’s a fun thing to go out and talk about and share on the campaign trail.”

    I’m not in a position to know whether the House GOP leader genuinely believes this. It’s possible, I suppose, that the speaker has convinced himself that there’s widespread “euphoria,” from coast to coast. [Nope. Johnson is just pushing the delusion hard in the hope that propaganda will make it real … or at least that the delusional bubble will not burst for the MAGA cult. Or … Mike Johnson is a whacko dingbat who is totally disconnected from reality.]

    But watching the clip, posted online by Right Wing Watch, I was reminded of this NBC News report from a few weeks ago.

    Congressional Republicans are again being advised against holding in-person town halls after several instances of lawmakers being berated by attendees went viral. The chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, which is the Hill committee that works to get Republicans elected to the House, told lawmakers in a closed-door meeting Tuesday morning that there were more efficient ways to reach constituents than in-person town halls, according to two sources in the room.

    The NRCC chair wasn’t alone: Mike Johnson himself also advised his members to stop holding town halls.

    So, which is it? If Republicans are witnessing public celebrations “everywhere” they go; Americans are feeling a “sense of relief”; and it’s “a fun thing” to go out and pitch the party’s message, shouldn’t GOP officials be holding all kinds of town halls? If for no other reason than to bask in the “euphoria”?

    More information about Tony Perkins: Tony Perkins heads the Family Research Council, an anti-LGBT hate group located in Washington, D.C. Perkins has a sordid political history, having once purchased Klansman David Duke’s mailing list for use in a Louisiana political campaign he was managing. In 2001, Perkins gave a speech to a Louisiana chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens, a white supremacist group.

  129. says

    Trump backs Mike Waltz in the wake of the White House’s national security debacle

    “While defending his national security adviser, the president did something unusual: Trump implicitly acknowledged that Mike Waltz did something wrong.”

    Hours after the so-called Signalgate scandal broke, as the political world came to terms with the White House’s national security debacle, Politico published a report that raised a few eyebrows. “The stunning revelation that top administration officials accidentally included a reporter in a group chat discussing war plans triggered furious discussion inside the White House that national security adviser Mike Waltz may need to be forced out,” the article read.

    Politico even quoted a source close to the White House who was rather blunt in assessing the controversial national security adviser: “Everyone in the White House can agree on one thing: Mike Waltz is a f—ing idiot.” [Okay. But what about Tulsi Gabbard and Pete Hegseth and …]

    The broader question quickly came into focus: Would Donald Trump, who’s had some trouble with his national security advisers, agree to show Waltz the door? At least for now, as NBC News reported, the former congressman has the president’s backing.

    President Donald Trump stood by his national security adviser, Mike Waltz, after The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief was accidentally added to a private, high-level chat on the messaging app Signal where military plans were being discussed. “Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Trump said Tuesday in a phone interview with NBC News.

    Implicit in the comments, of course, was a rare acknowledgement of wrongdoing: The president didn’t say, “Waltz did nothing wrong; the whole scandal is an elaborate hoax cooked up by the fake news media, which is why I’ve decided to sue The Atlantic.” Rather, the Republican said his beleaguered White House national security adviser has “learned a lesson.”

    Implicit in the comments was a concession of sorts — Waltz did something wrong — which didn’t do any favors to those who responded to the bombshell reporting by pretending the revelations were meaningless.

    Of course, the president wasn’t the only voice in his party addressing the burgeoning controversy. A great many Republicans weighed in, though the GOP didn’t exactly speak with one voice.

    Some Republicans peddled tiresome and lazy hackery: Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri appeared on Fox News and said “the leftist media” has been reduced to “griping about who’s on a text message.” [JFC]

    Some Republicans were indifferent to the revelations: After Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was caught in a lie, Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas said he was prepared to take the Pentagon chief “at his word,” adding: “We gotta move on.”

    Some Republicans generally acknowledged the controversy: “Sounds like a huge screwup. I mean, is there any other way to describe it?” Sen. John Cornyn of Texas told reporters. “I don’t think you should use Signal for classified information.” Sen. Tim Sheehy of Montana added, “Somebody f—ed up.”

    Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia, who serves on the House Intelligence Committee, told Punchbowl the breach “shouldn’t have happened.”

    Some Republicans relied on a memorable passive-voice phrase: Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters, “It’s definitely a concern, and it appears that mistakes were made.” [LOL. Sheesh.]

    Some Republican voices in media scrambled to pretend the scandal was unimportant: Fox News’ Sean Hannity complained about independent news organizations covering the controversy, while his colleague Jesse Waters suggested that unrelated Democratic incidents were worse.

    The Republican who always expresses concern expressed concern: Sen. Susan Collins of Maine described the scandal as “extremely troubling and serious.”

    As for what, if anything, GOP officials are actually prepared to do in the wake of the revelations, Rep. Brian Mast of Florida, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, rejected the need for a congressional investigation and said he expects Team Trump to investigate itself. “The White House should take care of it,” Mast said.

    Wicker, however, told The New York Times, “There are always two sides to the story, but it’s a concern. Definitely we’ll be looking into it.”

    Watch this space.

  132. says

    Followup to JM @73, 92 and 105; Sky Captain @98, 106, 107, 111; and me in comments 16 and 129.

    […] The final paragraph of Goldberg’s piece read, “All along, members of the Signal group were aware of the need for secrecy and operations security. In his text detailing aspects of the forthcoming attack on Houthi targets, Hegseth wrote to the group — which, at the time, included me — ‘We are currently clean on OPSEC.’”

    “OPSEC” referred to “operations security.” In other words, the defense secretary was certain that he and his colleagues — while chatting on a free platform that has never been approved for chats about national security and classified intelligence — had locked everything down, and created a secure channel of communications.

    Of course, we now know that Team Trump was most certainly not “clean on OPSEC,” Hegseth’s embarrassing boast notwithstanding.

    Hours after the public learned of this devastating White House debacle, the beleaguered Pentagon chief tried something unexpected: As NBC News reported, Hegseth denied what the Trump administration had already confirmed.

    Asked how information about war plans was shared with a journalist and whether the information was classified, Hegseth went after Goldberg, calling him a “so-called journalist.” Asked why military details were shared on Signal and how he found out a journalist was on the chain, Hegseth said: “I’ve heard I was characterized. Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that.”

    The White House had already acknowledged — publicly and on the record — that administration officials really did discuss highly sensitive military plans using an unclassified chat application. Hegseth tried to peddle a clumsy denial anyway. [True! “Clumsy” is a good description for almost everything Hegseth does. I would add “stupid.”]

    [video at the link] It’s possible that the defense secretary will try to parse the meaning of the phrase “war plans,” but let’s note for context that Goldberg reported the messages specifically included “precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing.”

    Indeed, after being shown Hegseth’s comments to reporters, The Atlantic editor said plainly that the Pentagon chief’s claim was “a lie.”

    […] Trump’s indifference should be impossible to defend.

    Link

  133. birgerjohansson says

    Recent Youtube claims about a ceasefire deal between Russia and Ukraina should be treated with skepticism – it originates from the youtube presence of The Sun, part of the British “gutter press”.

  134. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    EmptyWheel:

    Seven reasons Trump’s entire national security team should resign in disgrace.
    [Blog link]
    1. Waltz set up a Signal chat to make war plans w/o verifying ID of those included.
    2. Entire NatSec team participated in a potential violation of Espionage Act.
    3. [Trump claims] his entire NatSec team may have committed a crime & also an embarrassing story was about to break but no one told him.
    4. DOD attacked a foreign country based on Stephen Miller’s feels of Trump’s intent.
    5. Hegseth lied when caught.
    6. Waltz set the threads to autodelete, likely deliberately defying the Presidential Records Act.
    7. Pam Bondi and Kash Patel won’t investigate.

    Rando: “6(b). The acting Archivist of the United States was on the chat. [Rubio]”
     
    EmptyWheel:

    During the period when Michael Waltz first set up his Signal list, Steve Witkoff was sitting waiting to meet with Putin.

    Rubio was in Canada for part of that day (he was active on the list—it’s unclear whether Witkoff was until later, after he left Russia).

    EmptyWheel:

    One astounding thing abt Whiskey Pete trying to lie his way through this: He had hours and hours on the plane to Hawaii—where he was probably texting with others about this—to think up a way to deal with this and STILL faceplanted immediately.

    It’s gonna be like when we learned that Trump told Hope Hicks, while on Air Force One, no one would find the emails where Russian oligarchs offered Don Jr dirt on Hillary, isn’t it? We’re gonna learn they were DISCUSSING how to respond and this was what they chose?

    CNN

    Hegseth “somehow had to transfer it or copy it to get it onto Signal in the first place,” the [former senior defense] official said. “You can’t forward a classified email to an unclassified system. You would either have to print it out or type it up while looking at both screens. So he had to have done it or somebody would’ve had to have done it for him that way.”

     
    Another rando suggested plausible Musk involvement based on Tesla being impacted by Houthi shipping-lane attacks. Could be confirmation bias, ofc.
    Musk’s Tesla halts Berlin production over Houthi Red Sea crisis

  135. Reginald Selkirk says

    Report: Boeing asks Trump admin to weaken penalties in 737 Max crash case

    Boeing is trying to withdraw a plea agreement and obtain more lenient treatment from the Trump administration in a case involving two deadly 737 Max crashes, The Wall Street Journal reported today.

    Boeing previously agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States. Boeing could still plead guilty but face weaker penalties than it agreed to last year if the Justice Department and a federal judge agree…

    In July 2024, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to a criminal charge and pay $243.6 million for violating a 2021 agreement that was spurred by 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019 in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed a combined 346 people.

    Boeing had avoided prosecution in January 2021 when it signed a deferred prosecution agreement and agreed to pay $2.5 billion in penalties and compensation to airline customers and the victims’ families. But in May 2024, the Justice Department said it determined that Boeing violated the deferred prosecution agreement “by failing to design, implement, and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of the US fraud laws throughout its operations.” …

    ‽

  136. says

    Followup to comment 113, and to other comments up-thread about Social Security.

    Long waits, waves of calls, website crashes: Social Security is breaking down

    “A flood of cuts led by Elon Musk has sent the agency into chaos”

    The Social Security Administration website crashed four times in 10 days this month, blocking millions of retirees and disabled Americans from logging in to their online accounts because the servers were overloaded. In the field, office managers have resorted to answering phones at the front desk as receptionists because so many employees have been pushed out. But the agency no longer has a system to monitor customers’ experience with these services, because that office was eliminated as part of the cost-cutting efforts led by Elon Musk.

    And the phones keep ringing. And ringing.

    The federal agency that delivers $1.5 trillion a year in earned benefits to 73 million retired workers, their survivors and poor and disabled Americans is engulfed in crisis — further undermining its ability to provide reliable and quick service to vulnerable customers, according to internal documents and more than two dozen current and former agency employees and officials, customers and others who interact with Social Security.

    Financial services executive Frank Bisignano is scheduled to face lawmakers Tuesday during a Senate confirmation hearing as President Donald Trump’s pick to become the permanent commissioner. For now, the agency is run by a caretaker leader in his sixth week on the job who has raced to push out more than 12 percent of the staff of 57,000. He has conceded that the agency’s phone service “sucks” and acknowledged that Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service is really in charge, pushing a single-minded mission to find benefits fraud despite vast evidence that the problem is overstated.

    […] “What’s going on is the destruction of the agency from the inside out, and it’s accelerating,” Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) said in an interview. “I have people approaching me all the time in their 70s and 80s, and they’re beside themselves. They don’t know what’s coming.”

    Leland Dudek — the accidental leader elevated to acting commissioner after he fed data to Musk’s team behind his bosses’ backs — has issued rapid-fire policy changes that have created chaos for front-line staff. Under pressure from the secretive Musk team, Dudek has pushed out dozens of officials with years of expertise in running Social Security’s complex benefit and information technology systems. Others have left in disgust.

    […] Social Security is the primary source of income for about 40 percent of older Americans.

    Trump has said repeatedly that the administration “won’t touch” Social Security, a promise that aides say applies to benefit levels that can only be adjusted by Congress. But in just six weeks, the cuts to staffing and offices have already taken a toll on access to benefits, officials and advocates say.

    […] With aging technology systems and a $15 billion budget that has stayed relatively flat over a decade, Social Security was already struggling to serve the public amid an explosion of retiring baby boomers. The staff that reviews claims for two disability programs was on life support following massive pandemic turnover — and still takes 233 days on average to review an initial claim.

    […] Social Security has been damaged even further by the rapid cuts and chaos of Trump’s first two months in office. Many current and former officials fear it’s part of a long-sought effort by conservatives to privatize all or part of the agency.

    […] Dudek, who was elevated from a mid-level data analyst in the anti-fraud office, hurried to cut costs when he took over in mid-February, canceling research contracts, offering early-retirement incentives and buyouts across the agency, and consolidating programs and regional offices. Entire offices, including those handling civil rights and modernization, were driven out. The 10 regional offices that oversee field operations were slashed to four.

    […] Musk’s DOGE team began poring through Social Security’s massive trove of private data on millions of Americans, working in a fourth-floor conference room at the Woodlawn, Maryland, headquarters, with blackout curtains on the windows and an armed security guard posted outside.

    […] Scammers are already taking advantage of the chaotic moment, according to internal emails obtained by The Post. Last week, staff in several offices warned employees that seniors were reporting receiving emails from fake accounts pretending to be linked to Social Security. The messages asked recipients to verify their identity to keep receiving benefits, per the emails.

    […] In Baltimore, an employee who works on critical payment systems said nearly a quarter of his team is already gone or will soon be out the door due to resignations and retirements. Talented software developers and analysts were quick to secure high-paying new roles in the private sector, he said — and the reduction in highly skilled staff is already having consequences.

    His office is supposed to complete several software update and modernization processes required by law within the next few weeks and months, he said. But with the departures, it seems increasingly likely that they will miss those deadlines.
    His team is also called on to fix complicated cases in which technology glitches mistakenly stop payments. But many of the experts for those fixes are exiting.

    “That has to get cleaned up on a case-by-case basis, and the experts in how to do that are leaving,” the Baltimore employee said. “We will have cases that get stuck, and they’re not going to be able to get fixed. People could be out of benefits for months.”

    […] The field office in Portland, Oregon, is so slammed that the claims staff has told advocates to send questions or information by fax because they can’t get to the phones, according to Chase Stowell, case management supervisor for Assist, a nonprofit group that helps the disabled apply for benefits, many of whom are homeless. […]

  137. davetheresurrector says

    Lynna, OM @113:
    The login.gov thing is normal, not some new Trumpian fuckup. Many years ago I created an SSA account, and a couple of years ago I tried to log in, got shunted over to login.gov, created a new account there and all was well.

  138. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Yashar Ali (Journalist):

    Worth noting that most of the senior officials on that Signal group chat have SCIFs (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities) in their homes—SCIFs that are installed and maintained by the US government.

    This includes Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, Waltz, CIA Director Ratcliffe, Tulsi Gabbard.

    Aaron Fritschner (Dep Chief of Staff for Rep Don Beyer (D-VA)):

    Wow—in response to questioning from Sen. Jack Reed, Tulsi Gabbard just testified that she was overseas while participating in the signal chat on bombing Yemen. He followed up by asking whether she was using a personal phone for the conversation and she refused to answer. Seems bad!

    * Press Release March 20: Visited Hawaii, Japan, Thailand, India, and France.
    * The chat was March 15.

    EmptyWheel:

    Ratcliffe said nothing he shared was classified. But he won’t speak for DOD information. Tulsi is adhering [to] Whiskey Pete’s determination it’s not classified.

    EmptyWheel: “In response to Mark Kelly, Tulsi and Ratcliffe claim not to know abt DOD policy on Controlled unclassified information on Signal.”

    NPR – A Pentagon-wide email on March 18th warning about Signal’s vulnerability

    At least as far back as 2023, a DoD memo […] prohibited use of mobile applications for even “controlled unclassified information,” which is many degrees less important than information about on-going military operations.

    Lawrence Hurley (NBC):

    As a journalist, I’m pleased that everyone connected with the Trump administration seems to be in agreement that people shouldn’t be punished for handing over sensitive information to reporters.

  140. says

    dave @137, thanks for the clarification.

    In other news:

    […] Choosing a different country to buy your weapons from isn’t like switching supermarkets. […] They are weapons systems. Your soldiers are trained on one fighter jet system and not another. They use to different parts. The different systems are designed to operate together. It’s a huge change and one you only make under duress. And they’re [Canada is] doing that.

    All of these moves are, to put it simply, unimaginable. Or they were until eight weeks ago. The US-Canadian border has been undefended and mostly unmonitored for more than a century. The idea that Canada is making defense-adjacent security agreements for the purposes of excluding the US is simply unimaginable. And yet it’s happening. Because the United States made it necessary.

    […] everyone is in unison on not just the threat but the affront to national dignity and sovereignty. The fury one sees in Canadians’ public expressions of anger and betrayal is unmistakable.

    Speaking for myself, when I see this I feel a mix of shock combined with bewilderment and shame. I find it impossible to believe but I fully understand. […] The United States did this.

    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/a-hostile-northern-border

  141. Reginald Selkirk says

    Air Force Will Soon Test Shipping Cargo Via SpaceX Rockets

    The U.S. Air Force announced on Monday that it intends to build two landing pads on a remote island in the Pacific. It wants to land rockets there as part of a test of the Rocket Cargo Vanguard program, which involves shooting rockets into space loaded down with supplies to ship stuff around the planet faster.

    The pitch for Rocket Cargo Vanguard is that it could allow the U.S. military to deliver anything anywhere on the planet in “90 minutes or less.” How? By shooting a rocket (presumably a reusable SpaceX one) loaded down with supplies into space and then bringing them back down to Earth…

  143. Reginald Selkirk says

    @141, 142

    It is sounding like the hostile takeover of the government by Musk is nearly complete.

  145. Reginald Selkirk says

    Speaker Mike Johnson floats eliminating federal courts as GOP ramps up attacks on judges

    Facing pressure from his right flank to take on judges who have ruled against President Donald Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Tuesday floated the possibility of Congress eliminating some federal courts.

    It’s the latest attack from Republicans on the federal judiciary, as courts have blocked a series of actions taken by the Trump administration. In addition to funding threats, Trump and his conservative allies have called for the impeachment of certain federal judges who have ruled against him, most notably U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who attempted to halt Trump from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants.

    “We do have the authority over the federal courts, as you know. We can eliminate an entire district court. We have power of funding over the courts and all these other things,” Johnson told reporters on Tuesday. “But desperate times call for desperate measures, and Congress is going to act.”

    Johnson, a former constitutional attorney, later clarified that he was making a point about Congress’ “broad authority” over the “creation, maintenance and the governance” of the courts. Article III of the Constitution established the Supreme Court but gave Congress the power to “ordain and establish” lower federal courts…

    Fuckety‽

  146. JM says

    CNN: Top intel officials shift responsibility on to Hegseth for sending potentially classified info to Yemen strike group chat

    Several of President Donald Trump’s top national security officials, at times with assistance from a top Senate Republican, shifted responsibility to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for sending potentially classified information that appeared in a group chat about US military strikes in Yemen that a journalist was included in.

    In a more organized administration I would say Hegseth is being setup as the sacrificial lamb. The administration will declare everything else sensitive but not really secret, which looks to be correct for most of it. The part Hegseth posted with operational plans then becomes the only actual violation of security.
    In this administration there is a real possibility they will dig their feet in. Try to say what Hegseth posted was not a secret because it wasn’t on a form with a big red secret label stamped on it. That Trump telepathically declassified the information before Hegseth posted it.
    In reality the whole thing was a mistake. Signal has been formally banned for this sort of thing for years. In part because it can be easily set to erase conversation afterwards.

  147. Jean says

    Re #141:

    Cancer research is wasteful and must be eliminated but sending cargo by rockets is fine. Got it. And who benefits from this? SpaceX and Elon. Nice.

  149. Reginald Selkirk says

    @146 JM

    That Trump telepathically psychopathically declassified the information before Hegseth posted it.

    FIFY

  150. says

    Washington Post:

    […] Witkoff [Steve Witkoff, Middle East envoy] said Putin gave him a “beautiful portrait” of Trump that Putin had commissioned by a “leading” Russian artist, and asked that Witkoff bring the painting back to the White House. Trump “was clearly touched by it,” Witkoff said, sharing the story as part of a broader conversation about Russia-Ukraine negotiations. “So this is the kind of connection that we’ve been able to reestablish through, by the way, a simple word called communication.”

    Commentary:

    This is a difficult perspective to take seriously. Indeed, it sounds an awful lot like two political amateurs — with backgrounds in real estate, instead of governing — having been played by a Russian leader and former KGB agent with decades of experience.

    It also offered a timely example of the degree to which the White House’s recent events can be seen through the lens of wall décor.

    For example, Trump appeared preoccupied this week with a years-old portrait of himself that was hanging in Colorado’s state capitol building. It came on the heels of a mural of Anthony Fauci being removed from a National Institutes of Health hallway.

    It also dovetailed with Trump taking great pride in putting a copy of the Declaration of Independence on the wall in the Oval Office.

    Alas, the list keeps going. For example, the day after Trump’s second inauguration, NBC News reported that the Pentagon had taken down a portrait of retired Gen. Mark Milley, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who had become a frequent target of Trump condemnations. Soon after, the Defense Department also took down a different Milley portrait, which recognized him as a former chief of staff of the Army.

    Soon after, CNN, The Washington Examiner and Stars and Stripes, among other outlets, reported that the Pentagon also had taken down a portrait of former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who had repeatedly clashed with his former boss as well. (After working side by side with Trump, Esper concluded that the president was “unfit for office,” a national security threat and a “threat to democracy.”)

    In case that weren’t quite enough, after Trump met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House last month, reporters noticed that a framed copy of a New York Post cover, featuring the president’s mug shot taken after his criminal indictment in Georgia, had been placed on a wall just outside the Oval Office. (White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino later confirmed the presence of the photo in a social media video.)

    I’ve followed plenty of presidents and their teams over the years, but I can’t remember the last time there were quite so many stories about wall décor emanating from a new administration.

    Link

  152. says

    During Monday night’s episode of “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart homed in on President Donald Trump’s attacks on free speech and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s disastrous national security leak.

    “You know, back in my day, if you were a journalist who wanted leaked war documents, he’d work the sources, meet them in a dark garage, earn the trust, pound the pavement,” Stewart said. “Now you just wait for the national security adviser to be distracted by ‘White Lotus’ while he’s setting up his ‘Bomb Yemen’ group chat.”

    Stewart then turned his attention to Trump’s ongoing assault on the First Amendment, calling the GOP “powerful creatures [that] have been genetically modified to resist shame, self-reflection of any kind.”

    After playing Fox News clips of fear-mongering about alleged Orwellian censorship on the left and a clip of Trump victoriously proclaiming “we have saved free speech,” Stewart highlighted Trump’s relentless attacks on the press, law firms, academic institutions like Columbia University, and protesters.

    “See, these guys don’t give a fuck about free speech. They care about their speech. It’s such blatant hypocrisy,” Stewart said.

    Finally, Stewart zeroed in on the Trump administration’s attempt to erase certain histories from government policies, documents, and websites.

    “You can’t say words like ‘women’ or ‘sex’ or ‘#MeToo?’ How can a lot of your cabinet members describe their weekends?” Stewart said. “Fear not, at least we’ll always have art.”

    Link

    Video at the link.

  153. says

    Fox News says leaking top secret war plans is good, actually

    As news emerged that a text chat with details of war plans being discussed by senior members of the Trump administration had leaked on Monday, Fox News host Will Cain reassured viewers that the breach was cause for celebration.

    Cain’s commentary occurred during a broadcast of his afternoon show, “The Will Cain Show.” While Cain conceded that it is “incredibly concerning” that Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg had been added to the chat where plans for a military strike against Yemen were discussed, he saw an upside to the event. [video at the link]

    “If you look at the actual content of what was reported, if you look at how they discuss potential strikes on Houthis in Yemen, what you will see is dialog between Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, national security adviser Mike Waltz, Stephen Miller, Tulsi Gabbard, and many more in a very collaborative, open, honest, team-based attempt to come to the right decision,” Cain said.

    “After years of secrecy and incompetence, if you read the content of these messages, I think you will come away proud that these are the leaders making these decisions in America.” [Does that include the fire emojis?]

    Cain’s opinion isn’t shared by too many others outside the administration, including military veterans like former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

    “From an operational security perspective, this is the highest level of fuckup imaginable. These people cannot keep America safe,” Buttigieg wrote.

    In fact, the administration officials involved in the leak—like Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Waltz—have all previously argued that a leak of this caliber requires a criminal investigation. But that was their position when the story involved former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email server.

    Other Fox News voices also took up the Trump administration’s side in discussing the leak story.

    Sean Hannity, who has been described as Trump’s “shadow chief of staff” complained that the “media mob” is “obsessed with an accidentally leaked text,” describing coverage of the security breach as merely “feigned phony outrage” and something “that nobody will care about.”

    Host Laura Ingraham similarly dismissed the story, labeling Goldberg as “a long-time journalistic adversary” and described his previous reporting on Trump denigrating military veterans as a hoax. Eyewitnesses have verified Goldberg’s reporting on Trump’s actions and surrounding rhetoric.

    One of the few voices on Fox who conceded the leak might be a problem was Brit Hume, a contributor to the network and former host.

    “And this, of course, is, you know, details of war plans, which is what we’re talking about here, about a military operation, are about as sensitive as things get, so this was, you know, a major leak. Fortunately, it was leaked to an American citizen,” Hume said, referring to Goldberg.

    “While he might be considered an enemy of the administration in some quarters, he certainly is not an enemy of the United States. And he did not disclose anything very sensitive, fortunately.”

    Cain’s defense of the Trump team is even more noteworthy because his afternoon show replaced “Your World with Neil Cavuto.” While Cavuto was a conservative who frequently stuck to the right-wing Fox News line on most issues, he did occasionally offer up light criticism of Trump.

    His replacement, Cain, is a diehard MAGA Republican conservative, who called Rep. Ilhan Omar a “parasite” and praised the Supreme Court decision undoing affirmative action.

    Now pointing to a national security leak as evidence of Trump strength and purported Democratic weakness, Cain shows once again how hours of Fox News propaganda is virtually indistinguishable from the Trump White House’s own spin. [True]

  154. Reginald Selkirk says

    Trump targets Jenner & Block in latest executive order aimed at law firms

    President Donald Trump expanded his attacks on major U.S. law firms on Tuesday as he signed an executive order targeting Jenner & Block, which represents clients challenging some of his major policies and formerly employed a prosecutor involved in a special counsel investigation of his 2016 campaign.

    The order resembled ones that Trump previously issued against prominent firms Perkins Coie and Paul Weiss. These orders suspended security clearances for their lawyers and restricted their access to government buildings, officials and federal contracting work.

    The Republican president cited Jenner & Block’s past employment of Andrew Weissmann, a top federal prosecutor involved in former U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation that detailed Russian contacts with Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign…

  156. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-and-elon-shrink-social-security

    “Trump And Elon Shrink Social Security Enough To Drown Mama In A Bathtub”
    “Throw her from the train? Sorry, Amtrak’s next on the chopping block.”

    Donald Trump and nearly everyone in his administration insist they won’t cut Social Security benefits or take away anyone’s benefits […] In reality, Social Security fraud is extremely rare […] But that nonexistent fraud is the lever that Trump and Elon Musk want to use to wreck the program, because they think they can get away with it.

    In fact, here’s something that had been bugging us for a week or two after Elon claimed to have found “11-year-olds getting fraudulent SBA loans,” and which we finally found an answer to: Those “SBA loans” Elon was nattering on about? This gentleman says they weren’t SBA loans at all. They were Survivors Benefits annuities. You know: What our country pays to help raise children when their parents ARE FUCKING DEAD. I went to college on Social Security survivors’ benefits. Me and Paul Ryan. [video at the link]

    And while they promise not to change Social Security benefits, they’re already taking steps to make getting those benefits much harder — leaving the system intact, but only on paper. Already, staff cuts and system fuckups have made contacting the agency far more difficult, with calls to the agency often leaving people on hold for hours and still not connecting them.

    Fortunately, Trump and company have a plan to fix that: Move nearly all applications and services online by the end of the month, and if people need help, they’ll have to try to get an in-person appointment at a local Social Security office. Oh, yes, and they’re closing more and more of those, too. Good luck!

    As part of the reforms, beneficiaries will need to meet strict new identity verification requirements, to cut down on the fraud that’s already mostly nonexistent. Anyone having difficulty with that will also have to go to an office in person, if one is still open and if they can get an appointment. It’s so efficient!

    It’s one of the oldest dodges in the book: No need to actually cut benefits if you can sharply reduce the number of people able to jump through the ridiculous obstacles put in their way. (Jim Crow “literacy tests” and red states’ more recent “work requirements” for basic services both say hello.)

    To help calm everyone down, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick went on a wingnut podcast to explain that probably the best way to cut down on all the “fraud” would be to simply stop sending checks for a month, and then the only people who would complain would be fraudsters, because ordinary honest Americans would simply wait and see if the check comes the next month. Especially if their sons-in-law have a net worth around $2 billion. Here’s Rachel Maddow being gobsmacked: [video at the link]

    Why, it’s almost as if they’re working to normalize this shit.

    Cynics on BlueSky are surmising that the DOGGE boys have already broken something in the Social Security system, and hence Lutnick et al. getting “ahead” of it. Oh those cynics. Like your Wonkette.

    The administration is explaining that it understands that this is a difficult period of adjustment, but you the American people are made of stern stuff and you should probably just lie back and think of Elon. The Washington Post reports (archive link) that the SSA website has crashed four times in 10 days this month, blocking millions of retirees and disabled Americans from logging in to their online accounts because the servers were overloaded. As for getting through on the phone, good luck there too!

    “We realize this is a significant change and there will be a significant impact to customers,” Doris Diaz, the deputy commissioner of operations, told the field staff on Monday during a briefing on the changes, a recording of which was obtained by The Washington Post. She said the agency was “working on a process” for homeless and homebound customers who cannot use computers or come into an office — and acknowledged that service levels will decline. […]

    […] And here’s a surprise, not at all: Scammers are already preying on vulnerable old folks by pitching their robocalls to play up the fears that their benefits will be cut unless they ANSWER RIGHT NOW and give all their personal information to an “agent.” How can you tell if it’s really someone from Social Security calling you? Simple: Only the scammers still have jobs, so unless you called and left a callback number that day, it’s not Social Security.

    The sudden changes at SSA are being pushed directly from the White House, according to (acting) Commissioner Leland Dudeck, who last week threatened to shut down the agency altogether because a federal judge was mean to Elon Musk and if Elon can’t access everyone’s account, maybe no one can. (Dudek later backed off the threat.) But don’t worry! Dudek is trying to overcome his anger issues, telling the New York Times (gift link) that if any of the rushed changes are “untenable,” they can be reversed.

    Also, there’s this example of public service from a public servant:

    In another instance, the Social Security Administration briefly ended a contract that had allowed parents of newborn babies in Maine to sign their children up for a Social Security number at the hospital, instead requiring them to do so in person at an office. Mr. Dudek said he had ordered the move after watching Janet Mills, Maine’s Democratic governor, clash with Mr. Trump at the White House. He quickly reversed that decision, as well as another to end electronic death reporting in the state.

    “I was ticked at the governor of Maine for not being real cordial to the president,” Mr. Dudek said in the interview. “I screwed up. I’ll admit I screwed up.”

    […] Guys, he’s sorry, and he’ll likely be replaced soon by Trump’s appointee to actually run SSA, Frank Bisignano, a Wall Street guy who describes himself as “fundamentally a DOGE person,” so what can possibly go wrong? He promises that benefit cuts are off the table, and that if you’re not a frauder, or an innocent person who can be wrongly accused of fraud, or someone who might just have bad luck when people are moving data around, you should be fine!

    “The objective is not to touch benefits,” he said. “The objective is to figure out, there could be fraud, waste and abuse in there. And we build A.I. to find fraud, waste and abuse for a living. It’s going to be a tech story.” […]

  157. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/house-speaker-mike-johnson-gonna

    The judicial branch is currently the only thing standing even a little bit in the way of King Trump getting to do all the cruelty he wants to, immediately, all of the time.

    Trump’s administration already has 133 legal challenges pending, including its right to send people to foreign torture prisons with less due process than literal Nazis got during World War II, the right to not spend the money Congress has appropriated, and the right to fire thousands of civil servants just because Elon Musk and Big Balls think it’s a good idea. Among other things! And judges have already issued at least 15 nationwide injunctions against his administration.

    And boy is Trump, and therefore Republicans and the Moses of Congress Mike Johnson, pig-biting mad about all that!

    After MEAN Judge James Boasberg, who happens to be the chief judge of the US District Court for the District of Columbia, had the gall to tell Trump he could not send people to foreign prison with no due process a week ago, Trump stomped his shoe lifts and yowled that he should be IMPEACHED for having the audacity. [Social media post at the link]

    Among his many other TruthSocial IMPEACH THE JUDGE rants.

    So Rep. Brandon Gill, a new little Ted Cruz from Texas, eagerly introduced an impeachment resolution against Judge Boasberg, wanking in his filing and on social media that Judge Boasberg was “guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors” for telling Trump to turn that plane around. District judges Paul A. Engelmayer, John Bates, and Amir Ali have also had impeachment resolutions introduced against them by Trump lackeys, for having the audacity to do their jobs and tell the Trump administration NO, instead of doing whatever it takes to get him what he wants, like obedient Aileen Cannons.

    But that strategy has problems. Judicial impeachment would require hearings in the Judiciary Committee in the House, then it would go to the Rules committee, then the whole House for debate and a vote, then a trial in the Senate where it would have to get a two-thirds majority, etc etc., and all of that would take too long to stop judges from committing the crime of telling Trump NO, even if every Republican in the House and two-thirds of the Senate were willing to vote that a judge committed HIGH CRIMES (when they clearly did not).

    So now House Speaker Johnson, crypt ghoul Darrell Issa, Jim Jordan and his greasy combover, and runnin’ Josh Hawley are exploring other options to get judges to fall in line and forget about that separation-of-powers thing that the Constitution so inconveniently harps on. An idea Johnson is running up the flagpole: Just defund all the district courts. Or maybe only the disobedient ones? He is not an unreasonable man!

    Today he held a press conference to fume that “in the past 100 years, 67 percent of injunctions were issued against one president, and that’s Donald J. Trump. […] That’s a problem. A dangerous trend. […] It violates separation of powers.” And GET THIS, some of those judges were even appointed by DEMOCRATS!! [video at the link]

    Could it be that the reason there have been so many injunctions is because a certain failed gameshow host who kept US military secrets in his golf club shitter and lied to the FBI about it, committed 34 felonies, hinkied up his buildings’ loan and insurance paperwork, and assaulted E. Jean Carrol in a Bergdorf’s dressing room does not care one bit about what the law says? Could it be that the judicial branch acting as a guardrail to the other branches is how things are supposed to work?

    That is how it used to work! But, possibly while Johnson was checking his kid’s porn playlist on the Covenant Eyes app, Jesus slid into the father of the year’s DMs and told him it was his holy mission to deliver unto Caesar Trump whatever his enlarged heart desires, so that Trump may have infinite power to go after refugees, trans kids who want to play soccer, trampy harlots who would rather have abortions than die of sepsis, and journalists with the audacity to write unflattering stories. And so here Johnson is, ready to use his mighty sword to destroy those disagreeable courts however possible!

    “The judiciary committee is looking at alternatives” to getting rid of the judges that don’t kiss Trump’s hairy asshole, he told reporters. “One of the bills that I really like that’s already been through committee was authored by Representative Darrell Issa, and that would limit the scope of federal injunctions. […] We do have authority over the federal courts, as you know. We can eliminate an entire district court. We have the power of funding over the courts. […] Desperate times call for desperate measures and Congress is going to act so stay tuned for that.”

    District court judges wouldn’t be able to issue federal injunctions? Did anybody tell that nice fella in Amarillo, and all the Trumpers who flock to his one-judge district? Somehow we bet he gets an exception.

    After his press conference Johnson told Punchbowl News’s Jake Sherman that he didn’t mean it as a direct threat.

    “I’m trying to illustrate we have a broad scope of authority over the courts.”

    Uh huh, very normal, like when you’re driving people in your car and tell them you could floor it and take everybody hurling over a cliff, just to illustrate the kind of powers driving a car bestows.

    Issa’s no-nationwide-injunctions bill passed out of committee last month, but Johnson’s got extra-hotpants for it now that the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit heard the DOJ’s appeal in that disappear-anybody case yesterday, with government lawyers arguing we don’t have to tell you shit or do shit, because PLENARY AUTHORITY FOREVER. It seems unlikely that such a piss-poor attitude will fly, and more likely that the administration will be told to fuck off, and then the case will wind up at the Supreme Court.

    The audacity of making government lawyers go through such a hassle! The very gall of not letting them disappear whoever they want into secret prisons! Wouldn’t it be nice if they got rid of the whole DC circuit altogether, and a certain six agreeable judges got to rule on everything?

    And on the Senate side, Josh Hawley has also introduced a bill that would prevent judges from being able to issue nationwide injunctions. Every time we type his name we also have to include this gif. That’s just how it is. [Gif at the link]

    Anyway, will Republicans succeed in this power grab to give themselves almost completely unchecked powers? Who fucking knows, man.

    But Trump better see them doing something to protect him! That’s the only job they have left, after all, since he took their power of the purse away. Dance harder for daddy! Dance!

  158. says

    […] We should say again, these are ALL people who should have never been texting anything but a grocery list on fucking Signal to begin with; the app is known to have been breached by Russian and Belarusian hackers, and the phones themselves could be hacked or intercepted. Also, it’s against federal records law. AND fucking WAR PLAN conversations should have been in a secure facility! For security! These rules exist for a reason! All things that every single person on that list ought to know. And they are ALL people who should have been like hey, wait a minute, who’s even in this Signal chat? Maybe hiring unqualified loyalist dipshits who don’t know what the fuck they’re doing and have little to no experience at their jobs was a bad idea?

    And OH LOOK, Steve Witkoff was on there too, texting the most emojis of all, five in a row (two hands-praying, a flexed bicep, and two American flags)! And guess where Steve Witkoff happened to be on Thursday, March 13? Why, in RUSSIA, getting choked up while Putin told him he’d prayed in church for Trump after he got shot in the ear. If every single emoji ever typed on Witkoff’s phone wasn’t captured by the time he got back on his plane with tears in his eyes, Russia is seriously slipping.

    […] Russia, or whoever else, being able to tap into what the loyalist dipshits are gabbing about is not just bad in principle, it risks the lives of soldiers carrying out these missions if the plans fall into the wrong hands. Plus, there’s the remains-to-be-seen damage when trash-talk about our supposed allies gets out. And VP Butthair, Sec. Def. Boozehole and Nazi hair-club dropout Miller had lots of trash-talking to do about Europe, and how keeping the Suez Canal safe to help Europe was the last thing they wanted to accomplish.

    Vance: “I just hate bailing Europe out again.” Hegseth: “VP: I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.”

    Chimed in Miller: “Green light, but we soon make clear to Egypt and Europe what we expect in return.”

    […] For the record, President Joe Biden also carried out airstrikes on the Houthis, and with the cooperation and help of Europe. The US could have asked for that this time too, instead of doing it all alone and then [complaining] about never getting any help.

    Vance and Hegseth seemed most concerned about sending the right message — not to the Houthis, of course, but to the American public, to make sure that they do not think we were bombing to help out Europe in any way, no sir. Instead the important takeaway was that we were bombing because JOE BIDEN BAD. […]

    Biden designated the Houthis as a global terrorist group, then un-designated, then designated, depending on how attack-y they were being. But the important thing to know according to the emoji-chat group is that he did not kill all the Houthis, so therefore, according to Hegseth:

    Hegseth: “we would need to stay focused on: 1) Biden failed & 2) Iran funded.”

    Let us also not snooze here on how Trump truly did not seem to know that the whole text-chain-to-the-reporter thing had even happened. Why not? Jeffrey Goldberg emailed the National Security Council for confirmation, so somebody should have made Trump aware before the story was published. Were they scared to bring him bad news? Whatever happened, Poppy seemed genuinely confused about it. “I know nothing about it […] you’re saying they had whut?” [video at the link]

    […] Yes, deep and thoughtful 🇺🇸👊🔥🙏 🦅!! Honestly we are surprised that Hegseth is actually doing any work at all […] And, surprising to see VP Butthair pushing back on the President. Vance sure does hate Europe! “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his [go fuck yourself] message on Europe right now.”

    Yes, consistency of messaging, that is of utmost importance!

    Man, we are SO COOKED.

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/worst-security-breach-ever

  159. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/there-is-no-dejoy-in-mudville-or

    “There Is No DeJoy In Mudville, Or In The Postal Service Either”
    “Coming soon: No first-class delivery to Mudville.”

    After becoming the first postmaster general whose name most Americans had to know at all, Louis DeJoy resigned on Monday, potentially helping Donald Trump’s aim of privatizing the US Postal Service. According to the Washington Post (archive link), DeJoy left after he resisted pressure from the White House to interfere with the USPS. This doesn’t so much make DeJoy any kind of hero; he simply saw the Postal Service as his personal fiefdom, to be wrecked on his own terms.

    DeJoy was hired by the USPS board in the final year of Trump’s first term, when Mad King Donald still sometimes followed laws, for appearances’ sake. Trump appointed the board’s majority, which then somehow figured out that it should give the postmaster job to a big GOP campaign donor instead of hiring someone with any experience at all in the USPS. As you may recall, DeJoy then got right to work fucking up mail sorting equipment and delivery systems in the name of fixing the Postal Service, coincidentally slowing down mail service during the pandemic when millions of Americans planned to vote by mail.

    We won’t mourn his departure, but whatever comes next is likely to suck even more. At least our longstanding astonishment that Joe Biden’s USPS board never replaced DeJoy is now somewhat moot, since if Trump was willing to force out the guy who shared his basic aims, an actually non-terrible Postmaster General would have been toast even sooner. [good point]

    DeJoy apparently didn’t care for Elon Musk’s DOGEboys trying to take over the post (the mail kind), the Post (the Washington kind) reports, according to four anonymous insiders. When the Incel Clown Posse showed up at USPS headquarters and demanded to be let into its computers and files, DeJoy instead treated them to the sort of malicious compliance that we wish more heads of federal agencies would engage in. Instead of giving them full access, DeJoy

    required the two DOGE representatives to sit in detailed briefings with executives for each division of the Postal Service, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of professional reprisals. And in a letter to Congress, DeJoy told lawmakers he had deputized the DOGE team to seek policy fixes that required congressional action. The letter, two of the people said, frustrated lawmakers and administration officials.

    “They were fed up,” one of the people said.

    DeJoy managed to piss off TrumpMusk and congressional Republicans, who would have had to actually do something to enact the Trump/Musk plan for wrecking the place? We’re genuinely impressed! Reminds us of the old folk tale about Wicked John, the mean old man who was too evil to get into heaven and too ornery to be allowed in hell.

    DeJoy had originally planned to retire once the USPS board chose a successor, but now that he’s resigned, the interim head of the agency will be, by law, Deputy Postmaster General Doug Tulino, who currently handles labor relations within the USPS. Presumably, Trump will find a pretext to shitcan him unless he yes-sirs his way into favor.

    In February, reports from the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal indicated that Trump was planning a coup against the USPS board, planning to dissolve it and move control of USPS to the control of the Commerce Department under Howard “only fraudsters mind losing Social Security” Lutnick. That plan was at least temporarily dropped after massive public condemnation and the likelihood that courts wouldn’t let Lutnick operate without the board.

    That would presumably be a step on the way to privatizing the USPS, a priority for Trump and Musk. Even if Trump doesn’t resurrect the bad idea of handing the USPS to Lutnick to ruin, he and his billionaire backers still like the bad idea of privatizing the Postal Service one way or another, because 1) they’re just evil, 2) they hate everything the people of America actually like, 3) there are plenty of companies that would love to reap huge profits from taking over USPS and providing far shittier service, and 4) see #1.

    A privatized version of the Postal Service would only be able to turn a profit by getting rid of stuff that only makes sense for a government service, like the law requiring USPS to deliver mail to every address in America, even rural ones out in the sticks where many Trump voters live.

    […] Wells Fargo’s investment banking research arm is bullish on getting a piece of the USPS’s action, as are other Wall Street firms.

    A report by the bank offered a plan for dismembering the agency and making big bucks, by peeling off USPS’s highly profitable package deliveries from the less-profitable mail delivery service, which is burdened by having to serve all of us. There’s simply not a lot of money to be made in doing the job the Constitution set up the Postal Service for in the first place. […]

    The analysts propose severing USPS’ lucrative parcel business from its less profitable letter mail delivery, selling the former to private investors and potentially leaving taxpayers on the hook for the latter. Without the USO, parcel and package delivery to regions deemed “unprofitable” (such as rural communities) could be scaled back or cease entirely, while public 6-day letter mail service could enter a death spiral.

    […] Sure, it’s sometimes useful for entire states’ voting systems, keeping voters informed, and making it possible to send birthday cards to your grandkids in Nome. You’ll get used to it, shut up.

    Even better, corporate raiders could offload USPS’s 8,500 properties, including historic post offices that only elitists care about because “history” and “architectural treasure.” If the publicly funded stump of the letter service needs to sort mail, Amazon could probably lease sites back to it, at a profit.

    […] Leave the expensive pension system to the taxpayers, and extract all the value possible from what’s left. Sure, the USPS is 91 percent unionized. But if you eliminate most of the jobs, buy the workers out at public expense, and hand the profitable services to private companies, only the still-public letter service will be stuck with those old labor agreements, while the for-profit package service can be lean and mean.

    That’s just one possible plan for “reforming” the USPS by privatizing the profits and socializing the costs. We’re sure the Trump team could find even worse ways to do it, too. Oh, hey! Another reason Trump would want to wreck USPS: It helped create the Black middle class, so eliminating it would be a blow for justice against DEI. […]

  160. says

    Bloomberg Law:

    The US Agency for Global Media is barred from forcing Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty to shutter its operations, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. “The leadership of USAGM cannot, with one sentence of reasoning offering virtually no explanation,” force the nonprofit to shut down “even if the President has told them to do so,” Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the US District Court for the District of Columbia said in a Tuesday order granting Radio Free Europe’s request for a temporary restraining order.

    Judge Lamberth was appointed by Reagan

  161. says

    NBC:

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is pulling back $11.4 billion in funds allocated in response to the pandemic to state and community health departments, nongovernment organizations and international recipients, the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed Tuesday.

  162. says

    NBC:

    A measure of consumers’ short-term expectations has fallen to its lowest level in 12 years, ticking a figure that has historically signaled recessions ahead.

  163. says

    New York Times:

    The U.N. has advised all of its employees who work at its New York headquarters, as well as their family members, to carry U.N. identification cards and a copy of their passport page that contains their visa, because they are at risk of being stopped by immigration officials, according to a copy of an email seen by The New York Times.

  164. says

    Alien Enemies Act Deportations Were Carefully Orchestrated To Keep Courts In The Dark

    They didn’t know where they were going.

    Some called their families in tears. Others sent confusing messages to their attorneys, saying that ICE agents had told them that they were headed back home — to Venezuela.

    But only hours later, the Trump administration would deport these detainees to El Salvador. It capped what TPM has identified as a multi-week effort to prepare for the removals while concealing its plans for as long as possible. The administration carefully orchestrated the removals so as it make it nearly impossible for attorneys to notice and sue, and for courts to intervene to slow down or halt the deportations. Once it became clear that Trump was invoking the Alien Enemies Act to remove more than one hundred Venezuelans without due process, the deportations were already underway: detainees had been prepositioned to depart, with many lawyers unaware or unable to contact their clients. Deportees were over the Gulf of Mexico by the time the court issued its order to freeze deportations, on their way to an El Salvadorian work camp.

    For this story, I spoke with several attorneys for those who were deported on March 15. I trawled through court filings and listened to judges and attorneys pick over the legal wreckage left by the removals. What emerged was a clear and deeply alarming picture: The Trump administration commenced orchestrating the removals long before Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act, and did so in a way that seems to have been designed to evade judicial oversight.

    The judge who ordered a halt to the removals remarked on the issue at a hearing last week, observing that ICE had to have had “advance notice of this proclamation because it’s impossible that this could have happened in a few hours.”

    In this story, basic principles of American immigration law did not apply. Not only did the government deprive those removed of their right to a hearing before an impartial judge, TPM’s reporting shows that federal officials went to extraordinary lengths to conceal weeks of preparations for the removals.

    ICE officers began arresting Venezuelan men with tattoos in early February. Over the next month and a half, detainees were progressively moved across the country towards the South Texas airfield from which the removal flights departed. All of the cases that TPM reviewed involved asylum seekers with unresolved claims. On March 14, the night before they were sent to El Salvador, some detainees were told they were being sent to Venezuela. Families and attorneys were never notified of the actual removals — which were not to Venezuela, but to an El Salvadorian prison known for mass torture. Trump himself signed the Alien Enemies Act proclamation in secret.

    […] By the time a judge was able to order a halt — around 80 minutes after the first takeoff — airplanes were already over the Gulf of Mexico on their way to El Salvador.

    […] “They knew that what they were doing was wrong,” John Dutton, an attorney for one removed Venezuelan, told TPM. “The way they did it, how they did it, in the middle of the night, how they didn’t allow them to tell their families. They didn’t tell them. They didn’t tell us as attorneys.”

    You can think of the planning for this fait accompli as having unfolded in three stages. In Stage I, ICE officers began to detain Venezuelans, citing their tattoos and invoking Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order designating Tren de Aragua as a terrorist organization. This was the detention phase, and, according to interviews and records that TPM reviewed, it began at least six weeks before the removals themselves took place.

    In Stage II, ICE laid further groundwork for the removals. Venezuelans from across the country, many of whom were still in immigration court proceedings, were transferred from their initial place of detention to South Texas. In one case, a soon-to-be deported Venezuelan had an immigration court hearing scheduled the week before his removal in Elizabeth, NJ. Instead, he missed the hearing because the government had placed him in a detention facility in South Texas.

    By the time of Stage III — the March 15 removals — all of the detainees that TPM identified were located in facilities near the airfield where the deportations took place. […]

    “It’s not Guantanamo where they can be taken back, since they’re still under U.S. custody,” Dutton added. “They knew exactly what they were doing and they knew how wrong it was, and they did it anyway. And that’s just so scary, so heartbreaking.”

    David Leopold, another immigration attorney and former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told TPM that the operation would have “taken weeks to plan.”

    “You’ve got to get the planes ready. You obviously have to coordinate with El Salvador. You have to make sure that they had room in their prison and that sort of thing,” Leopold said. “They clearly had a press event down there to make it into a reality TV show. So that had to be pre-organized and probably organized quietly. Otherwise people would know. They had to decide who was going to be on the plane.” […]

    More at the link.

  166. JM says

    @158: Lynna, OM

    Yes, deep and thoughtful 🇺🇸👊🔥🙏 🦅!! Honestly we are surprised that Hegseth is actually doing any work at all, we figured by 11 a.m. on a Saturday he’d be at least a few beers in. (Maybe he was!) And, surprising to see VP Butthair pushing back on the President.

    Of course they are doing work. You don’t think Trump is doing any of this? Trump spends most of his time watching TV, playing golf and signing forms people put in front of him. You can be sure the cabinet heads are doing more because Trump and DOGE both issue vague orders and expect immediate compliance. Vance is doing way more because Trump lets him do something things that Trump should be doing and Vance is lining this up for his shot in 4 years.

  167. says

    GREENLAND (The Borowitz Report)—The government of Greenland has named a special ambassador to greet members of the Trump administration when they visit the territory this week, a Greenlandic official announced on Tuesday.

    The government spokesman, Hartvig Dorkelson, said that the newly-appointed ambassador will meet the American visitors “the moment they step off the plane.”

    “We know that members of this delegation are very interested in Greenland’s natural resources,” the spokesman said. “Thanks to our ambassador, they will have an encounter with Greenlandic nature that they won’t soon forget.”

    According to the spokesman, the ambassador’s plans for the visitors include lunch. [Photo of polar bear]

    Link

  168. JM says

    BBC: Russia and Ukraine agree Black Sea ceasefire, but Zelensky says Russia is lying about terms

    After weeks of high-level talks punctuated by frequent stops and starts, Russia and Ukraine have given the strongest signal yet they are willing to lay down arms – even if only in part.
    The White House says it has brokered an agreement between the two countries to halt military activity over the Black Sea after its officials met separately with counterparts from Moscow and Kyiv in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh.

    There is potential for a limited deal here. The goal is to allow Ukraine and Russia to sell grain, helping European countries and helping both sides finance the war.
    Zelensky has shown cautious optimism but also accused Russia of misrepresenting the terms. I get the sense Ukraine is not happy with the situation but knows it has to play along with Trump.

    MSN: Russian economy meltdown continues as Kremlin forced to sell state assets

    The privatization plan, announced by Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, mirrors similar actions taken by Russia in 2010, when the country sold public assets to generate billions in revenue for the national budget.
    Siluanov revealed that stakes in seven companies would be sold, aiming to raise approximately $3.5 billion.

    This will mostly be a way for the oligarchs to give some money to Putin. The government is not selling it’s entire stake, just a fraction. It does show how desperate the government is for cash.

  169. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Regarding the Columbia student deportations.
    Greg Sargent (The New Republic):

    They’re now trying to deport *another* student, 21-year-old Yunseo Chung, a legal permanent resident […] This is the latest person decreed by Marco Rubio to be a foreign policy threat and thus now subject to deportation:
    [Photo: She moved to US from South Korea at 7yo; a HS valedictorian.]

    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (American Immigration Council):

    Unlike Mahmoud Khalil, she wasn’t even a leader or heavily involved in the protest movement! […] the US government is seeking to deport a person here on a green card since she was a child because she went to a protest. Joe McCarthy would be proud.

     
    Regarding the El Salvador renditions.
    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick:

    a person imprisoned in El Salvador had LEGAL REFUGEE STATUS. He entered the USA legally in January and was detained because of his tattoos, EVEN THOUGH he had previously passed a full background check. Without warning, he was sent to El Salvador on March 15.
    […]
    [Miami Herald] says they identified a SECOND person [with refugee status].

     
    CNN – Alleged gang leader evades US justice with deportation to El Salvador

    the US quietly dropped charges against a key alleged MS-13 leader and returned him to the pro-Trump leader of El Salvador.

    César Humberto López-Larios, an alleged top leader of the MS-13 gang who US investigators believe has information that could implicate top Salvadoran government officials in possibly corrupt deals with the violent gang, was deported on one of the controversial flights
    […]
    US prosecutors allege that top gang leaders negotiated deals with the Bukele government to reduce the number of public murders, thereby creating the impression of lower murder rates, in exchange for facilitating the gang’s operations
    […]
    López-Larios was awaiting trial in Brooklyn on charges including material support to terrorists and narco-terrorism conspiracy when US Attorney John Durham asked a judge this month to dismiss the charges, citing “sensitive and important foreign policy considerations.” […] The former agent who worked on MS-13 investigations says Bukele and Salvadoran officials have resisted extraditing gang members to the US and investigators believe that at least part of the reason Salvadoran officials wanted López-Larios and other MS-13 members back was to ensure they didn’t cooperate with US investigations.
    […]
    Justice Department lawyers have cited national security reasons for refusing to disclose more about the third flight that carried the MS-13 members.

  170. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Follow-up to #169.
    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick:

    Update in the case of Yunseo Chung, the green-card holder who the Trump admin is trying to deport for her protest activity: a few hours ago a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order barring ICE from arresting her.

  172. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Wendy Weiser (Brennan Center for Justice):

    Trump just signed an exec order purporting to require a passport (or a few other docs) to register to vote. The president doesn’t have the power to override a law passed by Congress. This is the SAVE Act but much worse. It is an illegal power grab that would block tens of millions from voting.

    These are the *only* docs it would allow. [US passport, a [RealID|MilitaryID or State|Fed photo ID] with citizen indicator or combined with separate citizen proof.] For most Americans, the only document they would be able to show to register would be a passport. It would not even allow birth certificates. Only half of American citizens have a passport.

    The order does a [number] of other bad things too—including purporting to pull federal funding from states that don’t require citizenship documents, threatening funding to states who count absentee ballots that were sent on time but arrive after election day, decertifying voting machines & more

    Andy Craig (Rainey Center):

    Best I can parse it, I could not register to vote under this. I don’t have a current passport. Birth certificates aren’t accepted. My driver’s license is pre-REAL ID and also doesn’t indicate citizenship. *Maybe* my DL plus my birth certificate would count under 2(a)(ii)(D) but at best it’s unclear.

    Even as a hypothetical statute Congress might have the power to enact, this thing is insanely poorly drafted, shot through with ambiguities and unclear rules and cross-references to statutes in ways that make no sense. I can’t imagine how a state could begin to comply even if they wanted.

    Rando: “Driver’s license + birth certificate sounds reasonable until you realize millions of people, primarily married women, have had name changes. And a lot of people don’t have government-issue birth certificates, either.”

    Michael Li (Brennan Center for Justice):

    This new EO is breathtaking in its problematic drafting. Only five states even offer enhanced driver’s licenses that indicate U.S. citizenship (Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Vermont, and Washington). And most people in those states don’t choose to get one.
    […]
    The enhanced licenses are only good for crossing land borders and for certain sea passengers, and at time I got my license, we didn’t live anywhere near Canada. […] And they cost $30 more than a regular REAL ID.

    Michael Li: “if you look at a non-enhanced REAL ID, it doesn’t say whether you are a citizen or green card holder or other lawful resident [any of whom can get one].”

    Ben Raderstorf (Protect Democracy):

    This order is one of the most vicious, discriminatory, and treasonously anti-American proposals since Jim Crow. But it’s also mostly a pretext to intimidate voters and subvert future elections rather than a serious proposal. If actually implemented (it won’t be), it would likely hurt Republicans.

     
    Executive Order – Preserving and protecting the integrity of American elections

    Department of Homeland Security, in coordination with the DOGE Administrator, shall review each State’s publicly available voter registration list […] alongside Federal immigration databases and State records requested

    Of course.

  173. Bekenstein Bound says

    Update in the case of Yunseo Chung, the green-card holder who the Trump admin is trying to deport for her protest activity: a few hours ago a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order barring ICE from arresting her.

    Anyone want to lay odds on that TRO being brazenly defied?

    And WILL SOMEONE >>>PLEASE<<< FIX THE DAMN BUG WHERE IT RESPONDS TO “POST COMMENT” WITH “YOU MUST BE LOGGED IN TO COMMENT” WHEN I’M >>>ALREADY<<< FUCKING LOGGED IN???

  174. John Morales says

    I’ve already told you, BB.

    PZ pays for this site out of his own pocket.
    It was set up around 2011, and he does not have a staff.

    This is his hobby site, not a commercial enterprise.

    No advertisements, that should give you a clue.

    You know, your comments about this topic reek of entitlement.

  175. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Southpaw:

    In Waltz’s desperation to save his ass, he’s weaving an alternate universe (with lies) where the security breach is far worse. No longer, in his telling, is Signal just vulnerable to a human slip up where you add an unauthorized contact of yours, malicious actors can force their way into your chats. [Video clip]

    Why on earth would the National Security Adviser and other top national security officials be using a service that was vulnerable to that kind of uncontrollable exploit?

    Eric Columbus:

    WALTZ: “I just talked to Elon on the way here. We’ve got the best technical minds looking at how this happened. [… I don’t know this guy. I know him by his horrible reputation, and he really is the bottom scum of journalists. And I know him in the sense that he hates the president, but I don’t text him.]” [Video clip]

    Hot dog guy: “We’re all trying to find the guy who did this.”

    ‪Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “Absolutely love the idea of a forensic examination being necessary to answer the question ‘how did someone get accidentally added to a group chat.'”

    Rando 1: “Oh, thank god. Big Balls is on the case.”

    Rando 2: “What did he talk to Elon about, though?”

    Rando 3: “Is he sure he talked to Elon? Is he sure it wasn’t just someone with a similar name?”

    Brandon Friedman (MSNBC): “Waltz is really playing for an audience of one here. Every person in the world could know this was his fault, but if Trump—who is senile and technologically illiterate—believes him, then he keeps his job.”

    Rando 4: “I doubt he’d do it, but now would be a great time for Goldberg to put Waltz as his source, because they clearly spoke a bunch before.”

    The Onion: “‘I messed up at work again,’ Crestfallen Michael Waltz texts wife, National Geographic editorial staff.”

  176. says

    https://www.msnbc.com/all

    ‘It is wrong’: Warren sounds off on the Trump-Musk attack on Social Security
    Video is 8:15 minutes

    ‘Sheer, unfettered, Olympian incompetence’: Hayes on the Trump war plans breach
    Video is 4:35 minutes

    ‘Unheard of’: Slotkin says Trump war plans breach endangers ‘human beings’
    Video is 6:42 minutes

  178. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Taniel (Bolts mag):

    RESULT: Democrats have flipped a state Senate seat in Pennsylvania. Dem James Malone won by 1%, in a red district Trump won by 15%.

    This is the second Dem legislative flip in 2025, after a red state Senate seat in Iowa earlier this year.

    RESULT #2: Dems defended a state House seat, also in Pennsylvania (HD35). This gives back Dems the majority of the state House, 102-101. (Dem won by 29%; Harris won by 16% here.)

    This is the beginning of a VERY busy stretch of major elections.

    Taniel: “The Democrat who just flipped a very Trumpy seat in Pennsylvania’s Senate made opposition to Elon Musk front and center in his campaign.”

  184. birgerjohansson says

    ‘Sheer, unfettered, Olympian  incompetence’:
    Chris Hayes on the Trump war plans breach 
    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=T9oJRqCzU5o

    Note that wossname accused the journalist of lying. The only one caught lying so far was Hegseth. And then all of them lied in front of the senate committee.

  186. Reginald Selkirk says

    ‘I Won’t Connect My Dishwasher To Your Stupid Cloud’

    A software engineer discovered that his newly purchased Bosch 500 series dishwasher locks basic functionality behind cloud connectivity, reigniting concerns about internet-dependent home appliances. Jeff Geerling found that features like rinse cycle, delayed start and eco mode on his $1,000 dishwasher require connecting to WiFi and creating an account with “Home Connect,” Bosch’s cloud service…

  187. Akira MacKenzie says

    @ 186

    While I certainly wouldn’t call myself a luddite, I feel that every home appliance doesn’t need to be connect to the internet. Televisions? Certainly. Ovens? Maybe… but how often do you need to cook something while you’re out?

    A dishwasher? Why?

  188. Reginald Selkirk says

    @187

    My TV is not connected to anything other than a Blu-ray/DVD player.

    On a visit to Japan I tried out a super toilet with a built-in bidet and all the bells and whistles. It even had a remote control. Which seems pointless to me, because I know exactly where I’m going to be sitting when I try out that bidet.

  189. Reginald Selkirk says

    Google Patches Chrome Sandbox Escape Zero-Day Caught by Kaspersky

    Google late Tuesday rushed out a patch for a sandbox escape in its flagship Chrome browser after researchers at Kaspersky caught a professional hacking operation launching drive-by download exploits.

    The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-2783, was chained with a second exploit for remote code execution in what appears to be a nation-state-sponsored cyberespionage campaign targeting organizations in Russia.

    Kaspersky said it detected a series of infections triggered by phishing emails in the middle of March and traced the incidents to a zero-day that fired when victims simply clicked on a booby-trapped website from a Chrome browser.

    The Russian anti-malware vendor said victims merely had to click on a personalized, short-lived link, and their systems were compromised when the malicious website was opened in Chrome.

    Kaspersky said its exploit detection tools picked up on the zero-day, and after reverse-engineering the code, the team reported the bug to Google and coordinated the fix released on Tuesday…

  190. Reginald Selkirk says

    Discredited anti-vaccine advocate will lead CDC study on vaccines and autism

    A discredited anti-vaccine advocate who has no medical background and who has been disciplined for practicing medicine without a license will reportedly lead a questionable federal study on vaccines and autism—despite a large volume of existing research that has found no link between the two and despite a thorough debunking of claims that vaccines cause autism.

    Late Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that David Geier has been hired as a “data analyst” by the Department of Health and Human Services, which is now headed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent and fervent anti-vaccine advocate. Kennedy and Geier have both long touted the false claim that vaccines cause autism, despite the extensive evidence showing that they do not. In March, HHS directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reexamine the nonexistent link between vaccines and autism, using funds from taxpayers that could have been directed at other research.

    David Geier earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, in 2002. Since then, he has largely worked with his father, Mark Geier, also an anti-vaccine advocate who falsely blames vaccines for autism…

    In a linked case, the state physician’s board also found that David Geier, who worked closely with his father, was practicing medicine without a license. He was issued a civil fine of $10,000.

    The two Geiers have published a long list of questionable studies in obscure journals claiming to find harms of vaccines and links to autism…

    Many of their articles have drawn widespread criticism from scientific and medical experts, including the American Academy of Pediatrics. In 2003, the AAP blasted one of their articles that claimed to find a link between thimerosal and autism. The AAP said the paper “contains numerous conceptual and scientific flaws, omissions of fact, inaccuracies, and misstatements.” …

  191. Akira MacKenzie says

    @ 188

    YouTube and a couple of the streaming services are all I ever really watch anymore, so an internet-capable TV is a must for me. Hell, I rarely use DVD/Blu-Rays anymore. Last time was back in January when I watched my annual New Year’s Eve Marx Bros. Marathon.

  192. davetheresurrector says

    Reginald Selkirk @186: See Cory Doctorow story “Unauthorized Bread” in anthology “Radicalized”. Get it at your public library while there is still time.

  193. says

    With ‘hoax’ claim, White House’s response to Signal scandal takes incoherent turn

    “Is Team Trump’s Signal chat scandal a legitimate incident, worthy of investigation, or a ‘hoax’? According to the White House, it’s both.”

    At first blush, the headline seemed to strike an encouraging note. Referring to Donald Trump’s hapless White House national security adviser, NBC News’ headline read, “Mike Waltz says he takes ‘full responsibility’ for putting together text group that included a journalist.” The lede told readers:

    National security adviser Mike Waltz said in a Fox News interview tonight that he takes “full responsibility” for organizing a text group on the messaging app Signal that accidentally leaked plans for U.S. airstrikes on Houthi militants in Yemen to the editor of The Atlantic. “I take full responsibility. I built the — I built the group,” Waltz told host Laura Ingraham. “My job is to make sure everything’s coordinated.”

    If we were to stop here, we’d have a nice, tidy story. The White House’s national security team chatted in a Signal group over the sensitive details of a military strike in Yemen — potentially in violation of some federal laws — and they accidentally included Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, in their chat.

    Waltz, who apparently sent an invitation to the journalist by accident, took “full responsibility.” He made the comments hours after the president effectively acknowledged Waltz’s mistake, telling NBC News that his national security advisor “has learned a lesson.”

    Alas, this is not the end of the story.

    I’ve spent much of the last 48 hours trying to get a handle on what, exactly, the White House’s line is on this controversy, and it’s been difficult because Team Trump’s position is a moving target.

    On Monday, for example, the White House confirmed the legitimacy of The Atlantic’s report, and a day later, the president told reporters that his administration would investigate an incident. The National Security Council also confirmed that an internal review was underway.

    A day later, however, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung rejected the legitimacy of the story, accused “Fake News outlets” of peddling “misinformation,” and accused unnamed critics of being “enemies of America.” That was followed by a related item from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who wrote via social media that the “entire story” is “another hoax.” [Oh FFS]

    Why would the president approve an internal review of an incident that’s a “hoax”? Team Trump hasn’t said […]

    What’s more, it doesn’t help that both the president and top members of his national security team insisted that the Signal group chat did not include classified information, despite new revelations suggesting that the chat absolutely included classified information.

    […] the national security adviser [Waltz] raised the possibility that Goldberg — whom Waltz invited to the White House Signal chat — might’ve “deliberately” worked his way into the group chat. [video at the link]

    Of course, if Waltz organized an online meeting that was hackable by a journalist without technical expertise, that would raise fresh questions about his competence. [Goldberg did not hack his way into the group. Waltz added him.]

    He went on to tell Ingraham that he and his team “made a mistake,” which is the opposite message of Leavitt’s line about the “entire story” being a “hoax.”

    All the while, Waltz tried to slander Goldberg as “scum“ and a “liar,” suggesting the lesson that he learned from this fiasco is that the smart move is smear a journalist — again, whom he apparently invited to the group chat — instead of taking responsibility for the generation’s most scandalous White House security breach.

    When it comes to telling lies they are still incompetent.

    When it comes to spin, they are ridiculously amateurish.

  194. says

    The Atlantic posts full Signal chat, intensifying White House scandal

    “The White House effectively gave The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg a green light to publish Team Trump’s full Signal chat messages. So, he did.”

    There’s a funny flashback scene in the 1980 comedy classic “Airplane,” in which Ted Striker tells Elaine Dickinson about a mission he’s poised to join.

    “My orders came through,” he tells her. “My squadron ships out tomorrow. We’re bombing the storage depots at Daiquiri at 1800 hours. We’re coming in from the north, below their radar.” When Dickinson asks when he’ll be back, Striker replies, “I can’t tell you that. It’s classified.”

    The scene keeps coming to mind as the White House’s “Signalgate” scandal becomes even more serious. NBC News reported:

    The Atlantic on Wednesday published a transcript of text messages showing that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth detailed U.S. military attack plans in Yemen in a Signal group chat that inadvertently included the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. In an article titled “Here Are the Attack Plans That Trump’s Advisers Shared on Signal,” Goldberg quoted from texts in which Hegseth specified types of U.S. military aircraft and the timing of recent airstrikes against Houthi militias in Yemen.

    […] When Goldberg published his original bombshell report on Monday, however, the journalist, as part of an attempt to be responsible and cautious, deliberately withheld information to avoid publishing potentially classified details.

    A day later, both the president and top members of his national security team insisted that the Signal group chat did not include classified information. The comments were practically an invitation to Goldberg to publish everything he had.

    And so, he did.

    In the process, the generation’s most scandalous White House security breach managed to get even worse.

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, for example, sounding a bit like the fictional Ted Striker, wrote precise details about the take-off times of U.S. fighter jets, as well as details about the kind of jets, as they prepared to strike Houthi fighters in Yemen. At one point, the former Fox News personality [Hegseth] literally wrote, “1415 … THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP.”

    Though the messages did not include specific targeting locations, it included information that, if obtained by bad actors, could have endangered American pilots’ lives and possibly allowed U.S. targets to evade the strikes.

    […] Ryan Goodman, a New York University law professor and former special counsel at the Pentagon, noted via Bluesky, “I worked at the Pentagon. If information like this is not classified, nothing is.”

    But Hegseth is hardly alone in looking worse. The day before these new revelations reached the public, Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico specifically asked Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, “Precise operational issues were not part of this conversation?” Gabbard, who was under oath, replied, “Correct.” […]

  195. Reginald Selkirk says

    Teh Mormons came to my door. It was funny seeing a couple of twenty year olds with name tags identifying themselves as “elders.”

    I quickly turned the conversation to my favorite gambit: the history of archaeology in the Mormon church. According to the Book of Mor(m)on, horse riding, wheeled vehicles and metal tools and weapons were commonplace in the pre-Columbian new world. According to archaeology: Nope. There was a lengthy series of Mormons growing up, taking an interest in archaeology, and deciding that they would be the one to fill in the missing data. Once they learned the basics and got out into the field, they realized that the evidence just wasn’t there. Most of them either left the church or got kicked out.

    Elder Judd’s lead argument: he is so convicted in his beliefs. I offered to introduce him to Hindus who were even more convicted. Presumably, conviction being a compelling argument, he would then convert to Hinduism. Sadly, no. It seems that Elder Judd is not as convinced by other people’s conviction as he is by his own.

    Next up, he said I should read the entire book of Mormon, and then I would probably believe. I told him of Mark Twain’s description of the BoM (chloroform in print). I also mentioned my extensive collection of atheist reading, which he seemed to have no interest in exploring.

    Conclusion: Elder Judd rejects the very arguments he uses.

  196. says

    Reginald @195:

    Next up, he said I should read the entire book of Mormon, and then I would probably believe.

    Ha! That’s one of their core proselytizing techniques. If you read the Book of Mormon and still don’t believe, then you did not read it with an open heart. All blame falls on you.

    Interestingly, reading the Book of Mormon outside of the LDS Church does not usually foster belief. Instead, like you pointed out, it is chloroform in print, or it triggers a series of raised eyebrows and WTF moments as the reader encounters what is obviously a young male’s version of plot, explanation or excitement. This basically comes down to “When in doubt, introduce another battle. Preferably one in which arms are lopped off the enemy.”

  197. says

    PYONGYANG (The Borowitz Report)—Stung by his omission from the Trump administration’s recent war-planning chat, on Wednesday Kim Jong Un demanded to be included in all such group chats in the future.

    “Why was this Goldberg person, who doesn’t even have nuclear weapons, included?” the North Korean dictator asked. “This should never be allowed to happen in this country.”

    Kim said that he had downloaded the latest version of the Signal app and was waiting for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to ping him.

    Calling his exclusion from the Houthi bombing chat “hurtful,” he said, “I shouldn’t have to read about it in The Atlantic.”

    Link

  199. birgerjohansson says

    Lynna, OM @ 196
    Noah, Heath and Eli at Skepticrat / God Awful Movies have this thing they call “Mormonpiece theater” where they play up the relevant parts of a chapter of Mormon scripture, because just reading up the stuff is incredibly boring.

    They have to give the Book of Mormon this special treatment because it was more repetitive than the bible and the koran.

  200. birgerjohansson says

    …and the corpus of Mormon films are another big, separate issue. God Awful Movies adresses (among other things) “Cipher In The Snow & Johnny Lingo”. And “The Best Two Years”. And half a dozen other titles.

  201. JM says

    @194 Lynna, OM: There is also a very obvious shift in tactics. There seems to have been a coordination meeting and everybody speaking for the White House is now trying to imply that Goldberg somehow hacked his way into the chat and is the guilty party here. This is absurd on multiple levels. There is every indication that Goldberg was accidentally invited. Nobody wants to directly accuse Goldberg because the “investigation” isn’t done and it would open them up to a defamation suit.
    Even if Goldberg did hack his way in that doesn’t deal with the problems that Signal isn’t an appropriate venue for the discussion, it just makes it worse. The single biggest problem is likely Hegseth posting operational military plans that shouldn’t have been posted anywhere. Those plans are very much need to know basis and the political side doesn’t need to know. If they have a specific question they can ask Hegseth or one of his aids in a secure channel.

  205. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Kyle Cheney (Politico):

    Judge James Boasberg has been assigned to the Signalgate lawsuit.

    You really can’t script this. The same week the Trump admin invokes the state secrets privilege to deny Boasberg info [in the El Salvador planes case], he is assigned the lawsuit over the Trump administration’s apparent carelessness with state secrets.
    […]
    His office confirms the case was randomly assigned.

    #WhiskeyLeaks
    Rando 1: “Was he assigned or did Michael Waltz accidentally add him to the case?”
     
    Anna Bower (Lawfare):

    Yesterday, Michael Waltz claimed that he’s “never met, don’t know, never communicated with” Jeffrey Goldberg. Here’s a photo of Waltz standing next to Goldberg during a 2021 event at the French Embassy. The event […] was moderated by Goldberg.

  206. KG says

    The single biggest problem is likely Hegseth posting operational military plans that shouldn’t have been posted anywhere. Those plans are very much need to know basis and the political side doesn’t need to know. – JM@201

    Exactly – Hegseth was just waving his willie around. What do you expect from a DUI hire? But really, I don’t know why there’s all this fuss about Jeffrey Goldberg being accidentally invited, considering that Tulsi Gabbard (“our girlfriend” according to top Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov) was deliberately invited!

  207. KG says

    Teh Mormons came to my door. It was funny seeing a couple of twenty year olds with name tags identifying themselves as “elders.” – Reginald Selkirk@195

    When approached in the street by a pair of wet-behind-the-ears “elders” recently, I took advantage of my 70 years by peering rather obviously at the badge of the one who’d addressed me, and saying: “Elder? Who d’you think you’re kidding, sonny?”.

  208. says

    birger @199 and 200. Most of the Mormons I’ve met do not realize that their core beliefs are ripe for satire, or for comedy that mocks them. Their delusion bubble is strong.

    A few Mormons will admit that they are just in it for the business and other community connections.

  209. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    In the El Salvador rendition case.

    Joshua J. Friedman (Columbia mag):

    DOJ goes full “technically correct, the best kind of correct” in a new brief telling Judge Boasberg why it didn’t violate his orders—e.g., the court wrote that the govt couldn’t “remove” anyone, not “undo removals that have already occurred”!
    [Screenshots]
    The government strikes a defiant tone, telling Judge Boasberg he didn’t write his order properly and they’re looking forward to going over his head. Again they argue that everyone knows oral orders carry no legal weight. Do judges like it when you willfully misconstrue their words? Who’s to say who said what? Let’s forget the whole thing.

    Here’s a novel final argument just before the conclusion: The instant the flights left the US, not only were they outside the court’s jurisdiction, but their activity was no longer based on Trump’s Tren de Aragua / Alien Enemies act proclamation at all!

    Rando: “I’m not sure if anyone in the history of the planet has deserved to be summarily backhanded for a piece of writing more than whichever smug asshole decided quoting SIX FUCKING DICTIONARIES was the way to go here.”

    Yael Schacher (Refugees International): “The judge was in the room and knows what he said my god.”

    Jose Pagliery (NOTUS):

    DOJ is saying Trump becomes an unquestionable military commander outside the border—thus untouchable by the nation’s courts. […] This presents a potential strategy whereby Trump can issue secret orders targeting designated enemies, quickly put government operations into action, then race outside US territory to escape legal challenges.

    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (American Immigration Council):

    the government is being deceptive here by suggesting (without saying) that Trump was himself directing the operation moment to moment. […] Trump himself basically suggested he doesn’t even remember signing the AEA proclamation and he heavily implied Rubio was running the whole thing. So any rumored extraordinary presidential authorities in international airspace here, even if true, should be completely irrelevant to contempt.

  210. says

    Followup to comments 81, 84, and167.

    Donald Trump keeps claiming that Greenland invited a White House delegation, to be led by JD Vance. Greenland keeps saying the opposite.

    It was just two weeks ago when Donald Trump, while seated alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, predicted that he will ultimately succeed in his quest to take control of Greenland. “I think it’ll happen,” the president said when he asked what his vision is for the potential annexation of the island.

    As part of the same set of comments, Trump also suggested that he might deploy additional U.S. troops to Greenland.

    It was against this backdrop that the administration announced earlier this week that White House national security adviser Mike Waltz, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and second lady Usha Vance were all going to Greenland this week. (According to the president, the second lady “loves the concept of Greenland.” I have no idea what that meant.)

    Soon after, the delegation expanded to include the vice president. “You know, there was so much excitement around Usha’s visit to Greenland this Friday that I decided I didn’t want her to have all that fun by herself, and so I’m going to join her,” JD Vance wrote online. [LOL]

    Vance didn’t elaborate as to the nature of the “excitement,” but if the Vances and the White House delegation is expecting locals to roll out a red carpet for them, they’ll probably be disappointed with the reception. The Wall Street Journal reported that the visit is “stirring anger and anxiety” in Greenland. The report added that both Danish and Greenlandic officials have said they see “the uninvited trip as a provocation.”

    The New York Times ran a related report on the degree to which the White House’s plan is backfiring.

    His [Trump’s] decision, announced this weekend, to send a high-powered U.S. delegation to the island, apparently uninvited, is already backfiring. The administration tried to present it as a friendly trip. … But instead of winning the hearts and minds of Greenland’s 56,000 people, the move, coupled with Mr. Trump’s recent statement that “one way or the other, we’re going to get it,” is pushing Greenland further away.

    [Duh]

    In case this isn’t obvious, the White House has spent the last several weeks suggesting that Greenland loves the president’s plan to take control of the island. In January, for example, Trump declared, “The people of Greenland would love to become a state of the United States of America” — despite a poll that showed 85% of Greenlanders said they want the opposite.

    Earlier this week, Trump repeatedly said that people in Greenland have initiated White House outreach and welcomed American officials to visit the island. Soon after, Greenland’s government flatly denied the president’s bizarre assertions.

    In fact, Greenlandic Prime Minister Múte Egede specifically called the delegation’s visit “highly aggressive.”

    “What is the national security adviser doing in Greenland? The only purpose is to demonstrate power over us,” Egede told the Greenland newspaper Sermitsiaq earlier this week. In the same set of comments, Egede added: “Until recently, we could trust the Americans, who were our allies and friends, and with whom we enjoyed working closely. But that time is over.”

    The American public doesn’t appear to be on board with the White House’s territorial ambitions, either: The latest Fox News poll asked respondents about various parts of Trump’s agenda, and the least popular idea was taking over Greenland, with 70% of Americans opposed to the president’s plan.

    When revising the list of the White House’s frayed alliances and avoidable international incidents, be sure to keep this one near the top.

    Embedded links to additional sources are available at the main link.

    I am looking forward to mocking coverage of Vance’s, his wife’s, and the the national security adviser’s visit to Greenland.

  211. says

    A Constitutional Collision In Slow Motion

    With a defiant new filing last night from the Trump DOJ, the stage is now set for what is shaping up to be the most direct constitutional confrontation yet between Trump and the judicial branch.

    It comes in the Alien Enemies Act case before U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C., where the issue is whether the Trump administration violated his order blocking deportations under the act. But it’s critical to understand that whether the administration complied with the judge’s order is a separate issue from the extent of the powers of the president under the Alien Enemies Act, the deportations themselves, and whether any of the president’s conduct in this regard is subject to judicial review.

    Where things now stand is that Judge Boasberg has been trying to ascertain whether the Trump administration violated his order. The Trump DOJ has gone to extraordinary lengths to foil that inquiry:
    – It has sent junior lawyers into court with insufficient factual information.
    – It has delayed, stalled, and deflected answering the judge’s questions.
    – It has rebuked the judge for having the temerity to ask for more details.
    – It has suggested the judge, a former FISA judge with deep experience in national security matters, can’t be trusted with the answers to his questions.
    – It has invoked the state secrets privilege to shield itself from his inquiries.

    Along the way the Trump DOJ has taken a sneering tone with the judge, made absurd arguments – verbal orders from the bench don’t count! – and given the court the runaround in various other ways. To be clear, the administration insists it didn’t violate the judge’s order, but it is persisting in refusing to answer his questions so that he can make his own determination as to what happened and when and whether the failure to turn around airplanes loaded with detainees before they reached El Salvador was a violation of his order.

    I can’t emphasize enough that this is all happening not in the context of the Alien Enemies Act itself but in a contempt of court proceeding, where the court’s inherent authority to enforce its own orders, sanction lawyers for misconduct and misbehavior, and ensure the integrity and orderliness of its own proceedings is at stake. That’s what heightens this constitutional clash and sets it apart from what we might think of as “normal” line-drawing exercises between executive and judicial authority.

    […] the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act was designed and implemented in the dark to avoid judicial oversight. The ACLU managed to suss out enough of what was going on to get into court before the operation was entirely complete, but that was precisely what the administration was trying avoid. Under those circumstances, a violation of the judge’s emergency order is even more pungent.

    The next step in this matter isn’t exactly clear to me. The ball is now in Boasberg’s court, with the administration adamant that there are no grounds to hold it in contempt while refusing to recognize the judge’s authority to inquire into the matter. Something’s got to give.

    Link

  212. says

    Trump’s Anti-DEI Crusade Claims New Victims

    The Trump administration is threatening to use a review of the DEI efforts by groups like Planned Parenthood to freeze tens of millions of dollars in federal funding for family planning, the WSJ reports.

    Corporate America is retreating from providing financial support for pride events in the face of Trump’s anti-DEI rampage.

    Same link as in comment 211.

  213. says

    ‘Probably should have seen it coming’: Maddow rips war plan leak

    On Tuesday night, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow took on the Trump administration’s disastrous leak of secret war plans in an unsecured group chat that accidentally included a reporter. The scandal, which involves many top Trump administration officials, revealed highly sensitive information of an imminent attack in a foreign nation.

    “I mean, we probably should have seen it coming with Trump in his first term, taking all the classified documents from his first term and stashing them in his bathroom at Mar-a-Lago,” Maddow remarked, referring to the trove of classified documents Trump refused to return after he left the White House in 2021, leading to multiple indictments, in a case that was ultimately derailed by a handpicked federal judge, the Supreme Court, and his new Department of Justice.

    Maddow chronicled Trump’s history of reckless disclosures and questionable national security actions, including how the current Trump administration is allowing Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency to access essentially every American’s private data.

    “I mean, this stuff is criminal,” Maddow explained. It’s not keeping nuclear secrets in the ‘Mar-a-Lago bathroom’ level of crime, but it’s a crime.” [video at the link]

    The Trump administration is now scrambling to spin its dangerous incompetence, hoping to obscure the magnitude of its national security failure. But as more information comes out, the details of the Trump administration gets worse and worse.

  214. says

    Supreme Court upholds Biden rule regulating ghost guns, by Associated Press

    The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a Biden administration regulation on the nearly impossible-to-trace weapons called ghost guns, clearing the way for continued serial numbers, background checks and age verification requirements to buy them in kits online. [Good news.]

    Seven justices joined the opinion, authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch, upholding the rule. Two justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, dissented.

    Ghost guns were found at crime scenes in soaring numbers across the U.S. before the regulation went into place, rising from fewer than 1,700 recovered by law enforcement in 2017 to more than 27,000 in 2023, according to Justice Department data.

    Since the federal rule was finalized, ghost gun numbers have flattened out or declined in several major cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Baltimore, according to court documents. Manufacturing of miscellaneous gun parts also dropped 36% overall, the Justice Department has said.

    Ghost guns are any privately made firearms without the serial numbers that allow police to trace weapons used in crime. The 2022 regulation was focused on kits sold online with everything needed to build a functioning firearm — sometimes in less than 30 minutes, according to court documents.

    Ghost guns have been used in high-profile crimes, including a mass shooting carried out with an AR-15-style ghost gun in Philadelphia that left five people dead. Police believe a ghost gun used in the slaying of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO in Manhattan was made on a 3D printer rather than assembled from a kit.

    Finalized at the direction of then-President Joe Biden, the rule requires companies to treat the kits like other firearms by adding serial numbers, running background checks and verifying that buyers are age 21 or older.

    Gun groups challenged the rule in court in the case known as Garland v. VanDerStok. They argued that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives overstepped its authority and that most crimes are committed with traditional firearms.

    The justices had allowed the rule to stay in place while the lawsuit played out. […]

  215. says

    Signal Scandal Update: The Atlantic Calls Trump’s Bluff, Releases The Classified War Plans

    More shocking screen grabs of the actual text exchanges are posted. See the link for those screen grabs.

    […] What’s more Goldberg says there is some stuff so sensitive he has not yet released it because the CIA begged him not to. Yet the Trump Regime continues to present this as a harmless little mistake that didn’t really involve critical classified information. […]

  216. JM says

    Followup to 168: CNN: Moscow sets far-reaching conditions for implementing US-brokered Black Sea ceasefire

    Russia will only implement a White House-brokered agreement to stop using force in the Black Sea when sanctions imposed on its banks and exports over its invasion of Ukraine are lifted, the Kremlin said Tuesday, adding further uncertainty to both ongoing peace negotiations and the wider ambition of establishing a full cease-fire.

    Russia sprung conditions for agreement after the negotiations were done. The conditions are not entirely unreasonable, it would not do much for Russia if they could use the Black Sea if they are still cut off from all banks. This must be implemented carefully though. Just because the name of a company is agriculture doesn’t mean that Russia can’t use the company for other things and giving Russia free access to international banks is too much.

    The two White House statements also made clear both Ukraine and Russia had separately agreed to “develop measures for implementing” an agreement to ban strikes against energy facilities, in an extension of the previously announced partial truce.
    Zelensky confirmed this part of the agreement, adding that Ukraine had provided the US with a list of energy facilities it would like to be protected.

    Still arguing over protecting energy facilities. Russia would like this to go forward because Ukraine is blowing up Russian oil facilities but they also don’t want to stop hitting Ukraine freely. They are in the sort of situation where Russia says this is sort of in effect but are still bombing Ukrainian energy facilities.

  218. Rob Grigjanis says

    Reginald Selkirk @188:

    On a visit to Japan I tried out a super toilet…

    Reminds me; recently saw the film Perfect Days. It was so good I saw it again a few days later. Highly, highly recommended. Kōji Yakusho is brilliant.

    If someone had told me it was about a few days in the life of a Tokyo toilet cleaner, that might have put me off. Luckily, no-one did.

  219. says

    Followup to Reginald @190.

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/anti-vaxx-not-a-doctor-picked-to

    “Anti-Vaxx Not-A-Doctor Picked To Head HHS’s Vaccine-Autism ‘Study’ ”

    “What could possibly go wrong?”

    I don’t know what I was thinking. I must have been terribly naïve when I suggested that perhaps Robert F. Kennedy Jr. actually should “investigate” the non-existent link between autism and vaccines. I guess I thought that it would prove to him, once and for all, that autism as a vaccine “injury” is not a real thing — but it didn’t occur to me that the people running the “investigation” would be unqualified weirdos who already share his beliefs. I guess I thought they’d be, you know, actual scientists or something. My bad.

    RFK Jr.’s pick to lead this study is, of course, not a scientist. He’s not a doctor, though he has gotten in trouble for practicing medicine without a license before, so there’s that. His father was a doctor, so perhaps if we were in medieval times he might have learned medicine as a trade and be considered a highly sought-after barber-surgeon, were any of us looking to have our humors properly balanced.

    But we are not in medieval times, and David Geier has a BA from the University of Maryland at Baltimore County.

    Why has David Geier been picked to do this study instead of, say, a qualified scientist? Because he and his father (the one who actually is a doctor, though a repeatedly censured one who had his license suspended) have previously done studies they claim prove that thimerosal […] causes autism. It doesn’t […]
    What exactly will he be doing? He doesn’t really want to say and refused to answer direct questions about his part in the “study” when contacted by Washington Post reporters. He is, however, listed as a “data analyst” in the HHS directory.

    The Washington Post reports:

    HHS instructed the CDC in early March to conduct the vaccine-autism study. The request came two days after Trump, in an address to a joint session to Congress, described the growing prevalence of autism in American children.

    But in recent weeks, HHS officials directed the CDC to turn over vaccine safety data to the National Institutes of Health so that agency could conduct the analysis instead, according to three current and one former federal health officials. Geier was identified as the person who “would be the one analyzing the data,” said one official.

    It’s unclear why HHS officials turned to NIH to conduct the study. Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist, has long criticized the CDC and, in particular, vaccine safety.

    David Geier and his father Mark (the actual doctor, though clearly not a very good one) have a long and very shady history of anti-vaccine nonsense.

    In 2015, a paper co-authored by the Geiers on the “link” between mercury in vaccines and autism was retracted by the journal Science and Engineering Ethics because they and the other authors failed to disclose conflicts of interest, as well as because “the article itself contains a number of errors, and mistakes of various types that raise concerns about the validity of the conclusion.”

    In addition to claiming vaccines cause autism, the Geiers have also sought to treat it. In the late 2000s, the father-son duo touted their “Lupron protocol” as a “miracle” treatment for autism. Lupron is a drug once commonly used to treat prostate cancer, but it has another use as well. Can you guess what it is?

    It’s a puberty blocker.

    It’s used in gender-affirming care to prevent a child with gender dysphoria from going through puberty until they decide what they want to do. You know, the treatments that the Right has been so very enraged about for the past few years? Yes. That is what Mark and David Geier have used to “treat” autistic children. They didn’t run it through any actual trials or anything, but they believed in it enough to file a patent application for it. I cannot, however, find any mention of it past 2011, so clearly it didn’t work out all that well. […]

    There are thousands of people that RFK Jr. could have picked to head up this study, but he purposely picked someone who is not a scientist, who is simply a weird guy who shares his same weird beliefs about vaccines and autism. He may as well have asked Jenny McCarthy to oversee the whole thing.

    It’s clear that he wants this “investigation” to support his belief and doesn’t actually have any interest in learning the truth. He wants the data to be analyzed by someone who doesn’t know what he is doing, but who is as committed as he is to proving that vaccines cause autism, probably because it would be pretty darned embarrassing for him if it were not. (It isn’t.)

  220. whheydt says

    As regards the various comments on Mormons… I highly recommend reading Teresa Neilsen Hayden’s essay “God and I” which details how (and why) she got herself formally kicked out of the Mormon church.

    It can be found here: http://nielsenhayden.com/GodandI.html

  221. Reginald Selkirk says

    @ 209, 211, all other posts dealing with Trump admin legal setbacks

    Remember that these setbacks are only temporary, as Trump has been endowed by the voters of this great nation with the power to appoint federal judges.

    Be afraid.

  222. Reginald Selkirk says

    US Army’s laser obsession continues with yet another drone-zapper deal

    Still shopping for the perfect death ray, the US Army has tapped Huntington Ingalls to build and test a prototype laser weapon designed to fry drones in flight.

    Virginia-based Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) announced yesterday that it has been awarded a contract by the US Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO) for an undisclosed sum to develop and test a high-energy laser (HEL) weapon system. It is intended to shoot down unmanned aircraft ranging from small, low-flying drones to larger surveillance models.

    HII’s system is being designed to take out drones weighing up to 1,320 pounds (about 600 kg), flying at speeds of up to 250 knots (463 kph), and operating at altitudes as high as 18,000 feet (5,500 m) above sea level – classified as “group 3” unmanned aerial systems (UAS)…

  223. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Reuters – 19yo DOGE staffer ‘Big Balls’ provided tech support to cybercrime ring

    a cybercrime gang that bragged about trafficking in stolen data and cyberstalking an FBI agent
    […]
    Beginning around 2022, while still in high school, [Edward Coristine] ran a company called DiamondCDN that provided network services […] Among its users was a website run by a ring of cybercriminals operating under the name “EGodly,” […] In 2023, EGodly boasted on its Telegram channel of hijacking phone numbers, breaking into unspecified law enforcement email accounts in Latin America and Eastern Europe, and cryptocurrency theft. Early that year, the group distributed the personal details of an FBI agent who they said was investigating them, circulating his phone number, photographs of his house […] the group had drawn law enforcement attention because of its connection to swatting
    […]
    deputy director of CISA under former President Joe Biden, told Reuters […] “This stuff was not in the distant past,” he said. “The recency of the activity and the types of groups he was associated would definitely be concerning.”

    * Not The Com. This is another gang.

  224. whheydt says

    Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #222…
    Yeah, yeah…all the talk about LASER weapons to take out drones. I’d think a MASER would be far more effective. (And–just FYI–LASER wasn’t the original name for such a device. At first, they were called “optical MASERs”.)

  226. Reginald Selkirk says

    Papua New Guinea blocks Facebook to ‘limit’ fake news and porn

    Papua New Guinea has blocked access to Facebook in what authorities call a “test” to limit hate speech, misinformation and pornography.

    The sudden ban, which started on Monday, has drawn criticism from opposition MPs and political critics, who called it a violation of human rights.

    Defending the move, Police Minister Peter Tsiamalili Jr said the government is not trying to suppress free speech, but that it has the “responsibility to protect citizens from harmful content”.

    Facebook is the most popular social media platform in Papua New Guinea, with an estimated 1.3 million users – including many small businesses that rely on it for sales…

  229. says

    Associated Press:

    A federal appeals court refused Wednesday to lift an order barring the Trump administration from deporting Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under an 18th century wartime law. A split three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld a March 15 order temporarily prohibiting deportations under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

  230. says

    NBC News:

    Federal authorities on Tuesday detained a Tufts University graduate student while she was on her way to break her Ramadan fast with friends, her lawyer said, and the moment was caught on video. Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national who was maintaining a valid F-1 student visa as a doctoral student, was apprehended near her home by Department of Homeland Security agents, according to a statement from her attorney, Mahsa Khanbabai. […]

    More at the link.

  231. says

    NBC News:

    […] Trump is expected to announce new measures imposing tariffs on automobiles Wednesday afternoon. It was not immediately clear what the scope of the new duties would be. […]

    Wall Street stocks are sliding downward.

  232. says

    Washington Post:

    The United States is planning to terminate more than $1 billion in funding for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, an international organization that offers lifesaving vaccinations for millions of people each year in some of the world’s poorest countries, according to information in a document the U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID, sent to Congress this week.

    Dangerous … dangerous for every human on the planet.

  233. says

    NPR Forced To Apologize For Not Letting James Comer Be An Assignment Editor

    The CEOs of NPR and PBS were dragged before Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) DOGE subcommittee on Wednesday for a hearing that mostly served as an opportunity for House Republicans on the panel to gloat about how badly they hope to defund public media organizations. Trump opened the floodgates with his recent executive action attempting to shutter Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Voice of America and Radio Free Asia. He also said just yesterday that he would “love” to see both NPR and PBS defunded.

    Democrats on the panel railed against their GOP counterparts for holding a hearing “to go after the likes of Elmo and Cookie Monster and Arthur the Aardvark … all for the unforgivable sin of teaching the alphabet to low-income families’ children and providing accessible local news and program,” as Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) put it.

    House Republicans instead used the hearing as an opportunity to force NPR and PBS’ top leaders to apologize for covering the news in ways they found to be not adequately in line with their own talking points. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) launched into a diatribe that centered on his belief that NPR didn’t cover his pet project — of trying to impeach President Biden over the contents of his son’s laptop — as aggressively as he would have liked.

    “I think you’ve abused the privilege that you had with receiving federal funds,” Comer said.

    Facing a half-hostile audience that wants to see public media companies like hers gutted — and has been trying to do so for years — PBS CEO Katherine Maher said that perhaps her organization had been “mistaken” and “should have covered the Hunter Biden story more aggressively.”

  234. says

    Family of reporter who exposed leak is now in White House’s crosshairs

    As part of ongoing efforts to escape the growing scandal around leaked war plans, Donald Trump’s White House has now resorted to attacking the spouse of Atlantic writer Jeffrey Goldberg, who broke the story.

    During her daily press briefing on Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt opened a new front in the White House effort.

    “If this story proves anything, it proves that Democrats and their propagandists in the mainstream media know how to fabricate, orchestrate, and disseminate a misinformation campaign quite well,” Leavitt said. “There’s arguably no one in the media who loves manufacturing and pushing hoaxes more than Jeffrey Goldberg. Goldberg is an anti-Trump hater. He is a registered Democrat. Goldberg’s wife is also a registered Democrat and a big Democrat donor who used to work under who? Hillary Clinton.” [OMFG]

    [video at the link]

    Leavitt did not offer any evidence that Goldberg makes up stories. In fact, a past Goldberg article that Trump has complained about for years—that Trump called dead veterans “suckers” and “losers”—was later verified by Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly. [Trumpian lackeys are making claims they cannot back up with evidence.]

    Goldberg is married to Pamela Ress Reeves, a policy strategist. Her big sin, according to Leavitt, appeared to be her work as director of the State Department’s International Fund for Women and Girls [yep, very sinful], under the department’s secretary at the time, Hillary Clinton.

    […] In her new position, Leavitt has repeatedly lied on Trump’s behalf. Despite bipartisan uproar about Trump’s decision to pardon Jan. 6 convicts, including many convicted of violent crimes, Leavitt said it didn’t cause much controversy. She followed that up by pushing the falsehood that the Biden administration spent $50 million on condoms for the Gaza Strip, and by awarding a right-wing hoaxer with a pass to the briefing.

    […] instead of coming clean about what was disclosed, firing involved parties, and working to provide a full accounting, the Trump team would rather smear reporters and their closest relatives.

  235. says

    Trump might ‘compensate’ Jan. 6 criminals he pardoned—with your money

    Amid a wave of federal program cuts affecting millions of Americans, President Donald Trump announced that his administration is considering compensating the MAGA loyalists who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

    In an interview with the conservative outlet Newsmax, host Greg Kelly asked Trump whether there was any discussion of a “compensation fund” for the rioters—many of whom were rearrested for other crimes after getting pardons—because they lost “income” and “opportunity” during their incarceration. In response, Trump confirmed, “There’s a lot of talk about that.”

    “People in government really liked that group of people,” he continued. “They were patriots as far as I was concerned. I talk about them a lot. They were treated very unfairly.” [video at the link]

    While Trump notably did not provide further details, he appeared to be floating what some might call reparations for the Jan. 6 felons—an initiative that, if pursued, would likely be funded by taxpayers.

    During the interview, Trump also pledged to “look into” whether the federal government should reach a settlement with the family of Ashli Babbit, the “big MAGA fan” who was fatally shot by a police officer during the riot. Last January, Babbitt’s family filed a $30 million wrongful death lawsuit against the U.S. government.

    “Babbitt was a really good person who was a big MAGA fan, Trump fan, and she was innocently standing there—they even say, trying to sort of hold back the crowd,” Trump said. “And a man did something unthinkable to her when he shot her, and I think it’s a disgrace. ” […]

    hough many of the people let off the hook by the president were among some of the worst people on the planet, the president has routinely referred to them as “hostages” and baselessly claimed that they were victims of an unjust criminal justice system. [Embedded links to sources are available at the main link.]

    But let’s be clear: The individuals Trump pardoned were neither “patriots” nor were they victims. One such individual, Andrew Taake, who originally received a six-year sentence for his actions on Jan. 6, was later arrested again on an outstanding child sex crimes charge. Another convicted rioter, Edward Kelley, was separately charged with making a “kill list” and conspiring to murder the law enforcement agents who investigated him.

    What’s worse, their attack on the Capitol caused at least $1.5 million worth of damage, according to the Washington Post.

    It’s particularly egregious that Trump would even consider using federal funds to compensate those indicted for the attack, especially as his administration slashes essential programs that millions of Americans rely on. For instance, Trump gutted the Department of Education, and with help from his billionaire ally Elon Musk, he’s overseen the firing of thousands of federal workers or pressured them into accepting buyouts which has broken everything from the IRS to Social Security.

    If Americans weren’t onboard with Trump’s plan to pardon these criminals, they’re even less likely to support footing the bill for their “compensation.”

  236. says

    Child labor:

    Children as young as 14 could soon be allowed to work overnight shifts in Florida as part of a push by the Republican-led legislature to relieve labor shortages they attribute to the deportation of undocumented immigrants.

    According to CNN and other outlets, the effort to ease labor laws in Florida specifically comes as Gov. Ron DeSantis advocates for “dirt cheap” labor to replace the work once done by the very immigrants Republicans were so eager to boot from the country.

    “Why do we say we need to import foreigners, even import them illegally, when you know, teenagers used to work at these resorts, college students should be able to do this stuff,” DeSantis said last week.

    The Sunshine State has been gradually loosening its child labor laws for years. CNN reports that the legislature passed a law in 2024 allowing homeschooled 16- and 17-year-olds to work “any hour of the day.”

    But Florida isn’t alone in this push. In recent years, GOP lawmakers in other red states like Arkansas, Indiana, and Iowa have passed laws making it easier for teenagers to work longer hours and take on more jobs—seemingly to fill poorly paid and undesirable positions that employers once relied on undocumented workers to fill.

    “The consequences are potentially disastrous,” Reid Maki, the director of the Child Labor Coalition, which advocates against exploitative labor policies, told PBS News. “You can’t balance a perceived labor shortage on the backs of teen workers.”

    But the desire to put kids to work only seems to be ramping up. One report found that since 2021, 28 states introduced bills to weaken child labor laws, and 12 states actually enacted such laws. By comparison, 14 states introduced new child labor-related bills in 2024 alone.

    What’s worse, some unscrupulous businesses aren’t even waiting for states to pass laws that allow children to work. In May 2023, several McDonald’s franchises in Kentucky were accused of hiring a combined 300 children, some of them reportedly younger than 10.

    […] A report from the Center for American Progress revealed that Project 2025, the conservative blueprint for Donald Trump’s second presidential administration, advocated for rolling back child labor laws because … kids like danger?

    “Some young adults show an interest in inherently dangerous jobs,” Project 2025 claims. “With parental consent and proper training, certain young adults should be allowed to learn and work in more dangerous occupations.”

    Members of Trump’s Cabinet have also turned a blind eye to child labor. Earlier this month, newly appointed Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer bragged about cutting $33 million from her department’s budget, including a program that helped regulate and prevent child labor abroad. […]

    The bill being considered by the Florida Legislature would remove employment time restrictions for 14- and 15-year-olds if they are homeschooled or attend virtual school. Under current law, these children are currently prohibited from working earlier than 6:30 AM or later than 11 PM. […]

    Link

  237. JM says

    FPWellman: DOD has deployed Signal on government devices overriding their own policy

    On February 18th, Katie Arrington was named the Deputy Chief Information Officer for Cybersecurity and Chief Information Security Officer at the Department of Defense by the Trump Administration. She had served in the previous Administration in a similar role.

    According to my source inside the Pentagon, shortly after Arrington’s arrival at DoD she issued a waiver and authorized the various service CIO’s to deploy Signal on government devices.

    This means that even as DOD sent a memo out warning against the use of Signal the same organization had authorized, and demanded, it’s use across the DOD. The messaging app is popular because its encrypted but most importantly allows disappearing messages on a schedule. This is a direct violation of the Presidential Records Act that requires preservation of all Executive Branch records.

    If true this explains something about how the Signal app got on the devices and confirms the likely original goal was communications that would be automatically deleted. It also indicates that much of the communications inside the White House are happening on Signal, a vast intentional illegal network designed to avoid leaving a paper trail.

  238. says

    Victoria’s Secret and Tesla face French boycott as anti-Trump feeling surges

    “Survey shows majority of citizens want to support French companies and punish American tycoons who back the White House.”

    Donald Trump is fueling France’s famous economic patriotism.

    A majority of the French population is considering boycotting United States brands to oppose the new American administration, which has been verbally targeting Europe since coming to office.

    Fifty-seven percent of the French say they are ready to boycott U.S. goods or services in the coming months as positive public perception of America falls to the lowest level in France in the past 40 years, according to a survey by polling firm Ifop for website nyc.fr published Tuesday.

    Sixty-two percent of the French say they broadly support the idea of a boycott.

    As transatlantic relations keep deteriorating following U.S. President Donald Trump’s ascension to office, the French appetite for economic patriotism is only growing.

    Supporting French companies and punishing American tycoons who are endorsing Trump are the main reasons for the boycott, the survey shows.

    Almost one-third of surveyed people (32 percent) said they were already boycotting American brands, especially Coca-Cola and McDonald’s.

    But more consumers could soon join the club: Twenty-six percent of the French said they would “certainly” boycott American products in the coming months, while 31 percent would “probably” do that.

    Elon Musk’s Tesla would be the main target of the boycott, followed by Jeep (which is owned by multinational Stellantis), social media platform X and Victoria’s Secret lingerie. […]

  239. JM says

    CNN: Trump announces new auto tariffs in a major trade war escalation

    President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced a 25% tariff set to take effect on April 2 on all cars shipped to the United States, a significant escalation in a global trade war.

    “We start off with a 2.5% base, which is what we were at, and we go to 25%,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday before signing an executive proclaimation in the Oval Office.

    The tariff will be applied not just to foreign-made cars but also to car parts, including engines and transmissions. Parts coming from Canada and Mexico that comply with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) will be exempt from the tariffs until US Customs and Border Protections has a system in place to apply tariffs to non-US tariffs, a White House spokesperson said in a post on X.

    This is the Trump trying to shift the news by announcing something big. It’s mostly stuff he has talked about doing before, it’s still a really bad idea.
    The only funny part is that the start is so quick that US Customs can’t apply this tariff correctly and will have to exempt some things until a new system is ready.

  240. says

    Southern Europe rebuffs von der Leyen’s debt-based defense plan

    “France, Italy and Spain are seeking to boost military spending based on grants rather than loans to avoid increasing their debt loads.”

    Southern European states are rebuffing a European Commission plan to turbocharge defense spending with cheap loans, fearing it would add to their already heavy debt burdens.

    The resistance, led by France, Italy and Spain, deals a significant setback to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s drive to boost Europe’s military autonomy.

    Her proposal, which includes a €150 billion loan package and an emergency clause to loosen EU fiscal rules, was intended to unlock major new investments in defense and reduce the bloc’s reliance on U.S. protection.

    But the stalemate now risks derailing Brussels’ plan to funnel more weapons from Europe to Ukraine.

    […] Heavily indebted countries in the south of Europe are instead ramping up demands for so-called defense bonds — grants financed through common EU borrowing in capital markets that must be unanimously approved by the bloc’s 27 countries.

    […] Von der Leyen has thus far stopped short of backing the idea given the likely pushback from fiscally hawkish northern states such as Germany and the Netherlands, which fear it could set a precedent for debt mutualization.

    “No Eurobonds,” Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof reiterated after a gathering of EU leaders last week. […]

    “We should have more time [to decide],” Meloni [Italian Prime Minister] told reporters last week, adding that the proposed April time frame to activate the mechanism was “a bit too close.” […]

  241. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    The second Atlantic article.
    Atlantic – Here are the attack plans that Trump’s advisers shared on Signal

    A CIA spokesperson asked us to withhold the name […] which Ratcliffe had shared in the Signal chain, because CIA intelligence officers are traditionally not publicly identified. Ratcliffe had testified earlier yesterday that the officer is not undercover and said it was “completely appropriate” to share their name […] We will continue to withhold the name […] Otherwise, the messages are unredacted.

     
    Southpaw (Lawyer):

    There was one singular person the Trump team wanted to kill. They thought they tracked him to his girlfriend’s place, presumably in a civilian apartment building in Sana’a. So they dropped bombs on the neighborhood and leveled the building. Reactions from the group: “amazing job”, “excellent”, “[fist flag fire]”
    [Screenshots]
    Targeting an individual for assassination at a building known to be his romantic partner’s residence by collapsing the whole structure seems to me to fall squarely within the Geneva Convention’s prohibition on targeting civilian objects, and probably other defined war crimes as well.

    It tells us something about The Atlantic that they refrained from mentioning this deliberate destruction of a residential building in their first story.

    Second Atlantic article: “The Houthi-run Yemeni health ministry reported that at least 53 people were killed in the strikes”

    The Guardian – US airstrikes on Yemen’s Houthis (Mar 16)

    Most of the casualties in the US strikes were women and children, said Anees al-Asbahi, the spokesperson for the Houthi-run health ministry

  243. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Mother Jones – “You’re Here Because of Your Tattoos”

    Mother Jones has spoken with friends, family members, and lawyers of ten men sent to El Salvador […] All of them say their relatives have tattoos and believe that is why their loved ones were targeted. But they vigorously reject the idea that their sons, brothers, and husbands have anything to do with Tren de Aragua […] The families have substantiated those assertions to Mother Jones, including—in many cases—by providing official documents attesting to their relatives’ lack of criminal histories in Venezuela. Such evidence might have persuaded US judges […] had the Trump administration not deliberately deprived them of due process.
    […]
    Alvarado’s older sister […] explaining that one of his three tattoos is an autism awareness ribbon with his brother’s name on it and that he used to teach swimming classes for children with developmental disabilities.
    […]
    an ICE agent had asked him if he knew why he had been picked up; Alvarado said that he did not. “Well, you’re here because of your tattoos […] We’re finding and questioning everyone who has tattoos.” The agent then asked Alvarado to explain his tattoos and for permission to review his phone for any evidence of gang activity. “You’re clean,” the ICE officer told Alvarado after he complied […] “I’m going to put down here that you have nothing to do with Tren de Aragua.” For reasons that remain unclear, […] another official in ICE’s Dallas field office decided to keep Alvarado detained.
    […]
    Alvarado shortly before he was sent to El Salvador [told a friend] “There are 90 of us here. We all have tattoos. We were all detained for the same reasons,”

  244. says

    Satire:

    WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Defending his decision to use an insecure messaging app to discuss classified war plans, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said on Wednesday that he chose Signal because it offered more emojis.

    “Those sleazebags at The Atlantic are acting like using Signal is some kind of scandal,” Waltz said. “You want to know a real scandal? The government spent billions of dollars on a secure communications system that has zero emojis.”

    Waltz said that he refused to use the government’s system when it became clear to him that it lacked even rudimentary emojis like fist, fire, and smiley face.

    “I stand by my decision to use Signal,” he said. “When you’re planning to bomb another country, an emoji is worth a thousand OMGs and LOLs.”

    Link

    Not satire: Mike Waltz Left His Venmo Friends List Public

    “A WIRED review shows national security adviser Mike Waltz, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and other top officials left sensitive information exposed via Venmo—until WIRED asked about it.”

    A Venmo account under the name “Michael Waltz,” carrying a profile photo of the national security adviser and connected to accounts bearing the names of people closely associated with him, was left open to the public until Wednesday afternoon. A WIRED analysis shows that the account revealed the names of hundreds of Waltz’s personal and professional associates, including journalists, military officers, lobbyists, and others—information a foreign intelligence service or other actors could exploit for any number of ends, experts say.

    Among the accounts linked to “Michael Waltz” are ones that appear to belong to Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, and Walker Barrett, a staffer on the United States National Security Council. Both were fellow participants in a now-infamous Signal group chat called “Houthi PC small group.”

    The White House declined to comment after being presented with WIRED’s findings, but the accounts appearing to belong to Waltz and Wiles went fully private following WIRED’s inquiry. […]

    A WIRED review of public data exposed on Venmo accounts associated with senior administration officials suggests that the Signal group chat was not an isolated mistake, but part of a broader pattern of what national security experts describe as reckless behavior by some of the most powerful people in the US government.

    The Venmo account under Waltz’s name includes a 328-person friend list. Among them are accounts sharing the names of people closely associated with Waltz, such as Barrett, formerly Waltz’s deputy chief of staff when Waltz was a member of the House of Representatives, and Micah Thomas Ketchel, former chief of staff to Waltz and currently a senior adviser to Waltz and President Donald Trump.

    Other accounts carry the names of a wide range of media figures, from on-air personalities like Bret Baier and Brian Kilmeade of Fox News and Brianna Keilar and Kristen Holmes of CNN to a cable news producer, a prominent national security reporter, local news anchors, documentarians, and noted conspiracy theorist Ivan Raiklin, who calls himself the “the secretary of retribution” and once created a deep state target list.
    […]

  245. says

    Trump’s Pick For Ambassador To South Africa Actively Opposed Fight To End Apartheid

    As Black activists in South Africa fought against their country’s racist apartheid government decades ago, some on the American right felt they took it too far. One of those people who stepped up and spoke out against their fight was L. Brent Bozell III, the right-wing activist that President Trump tapped this week to serve as America’s ambassador to South Africa.

    […] Bozell’s nomination was received by the Senate Foreign Relations committee on Monday. Trump had previously picked Bozell to be head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, but that nomination was withdrawn.

    Bozell has been a prominent right-wing activist for decades. He is the founder and president of the Media Research Center, a self-described “watchdog” dedicated to exposing alleged liberal bias. In the late 1990s he founded the Parents Television Council, which opposed what it saw as indecent content on the airwaves. Bozell’s son, L. Brent Bozell IV or “Zeeker,” was among the people who were sentenced for their role in the January 6 attack before being pardoned by Trump earlier this year.

    […] Bozell once weighed in on the fight against South Africa’s apartheid government. While that regime brutally enforced minority white rule and legal segregation with violence that included the killing and torture of activists, Bozell was concerned with aggressive action taken by the Black opposition.

    In 1987, Bozell was president of the National Conservative Political Action Committee. On January 28 of that year, he wrote a letter to his counterpart at The Conservative Caucus, a right-wing policy group, declaring that his organization was “proud to become a member of the Coalition Against ANC Terrorism.” The group was opposed to the militancy of the African National Congress (ANC), which was the largest Black nationalist organization dedicated to ending the apartheid regime.

    […] the coalition Bozell’s organization joined, which included at least 34 different right-wing groups, formed to discourage President Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state, George Shultz, from a planned meeting with ANC president Oliver Tambo. Despite this pressure campaign, Shultz met with Tambo […]

    The ANC’s armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe or MK, which means “spear of the nation,” was founded in 1961 by a group that included the late legendary anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela. The organization conducted bombings and guerilla attacks, some of which were deadly. Mandela, who is now widely seen as a heroic figure, spent 27 years in prison for his role in MK. A modern political party has adopted the MK name, but they are not a continuation of the original paramilitary group.

    Ahead of his meeting with Shultz, Tambo addressed criticism of the ANC’s militancy. He described it as a necessary evil in light of the brutality of the apartheid regime, which committed extensive atrocities including the murder of peaceful protesters.

    “We tried nonviolence for nearly 50 years, until 1961,” Tambo told the Washington Post at the time. “Then we decided we had to do what other people do — to embark on armed struggle.”

    As part of its opposition to the meeting between Tambo and Shultz, the “Coalition Against ANC Terrorism” produced a publication that highlighted the ANC’s Soviet and communist ties. […] Speakers at the coalition’s hearings included John Gogotya, a Black South African politician who led a moderate group that was later revealed to have been backed by the apartheid regime’s military intelligence operation.

    […] In 1990, in response to widespread civil unrest and global sanctions, South Africa’s ruling white National Party released Mandela and other jailed ANC leaders. South Africa held its first democratic elections in 1994 and Mandela became president. He held that position for five years […]

    Mandela died in December 2013. In the days after his passing, Bozell posted on the site formerly known as Twitter to criticize television anchor Brian Williams for engaging in coverage that, as Bozell put it, “mythologizes” Mandela […]

    Bozell’s nomination comes as relations between the U.S. and South Africa have hit a low point. In December 2023, South Africa filed a case with the United Nations’ International Court of Justice accusing Israel of “genocidal acts” in its ongoing war in the Gaza Strip. Bozell has been a vocal supporter of the Israeli government.

    In recent weeks, Trump and his ally, billionaire Elon Musk, have repeatedly criticized the South African government for its treatment of the white minority. Musk, who is from South Africa, has amplified conspiracy theories suggesting white farmers have been killed en masse. On Feb. 7, 2025, Trump issued an executive order halting all foreign aid to South Africa and offering refugee status to the country’s Afrikaner population, the white minority that ruled during apartheid. Two days later, Trump took to his Truth Social platform and issued a warning to South Africa’s leaders about their alleged mistreatment of “certain classes of people.”

    “A massive Human Rights VIOLATION is happening, for all to see,” Trump wrote. “The United States won’t stand for it – We will act.”

  246. says

    Many mainstream media outlets are minimizing or trivializing the Trump administration’s leak of highly sensitive war plans, and in doing so, they are echoing […] Trump’s spin on the scandal.

    […] Trump told reporters that the breach was merely a “glitch.” And Trump’s allies struck the same tone in appearances in right-wing media.

    On Tuesday, USA Today described the incident as a “relatable fail.” In the story, reporters Jessica Guynn and Bailey Schulz likened the leak of war plans to ill-timed responses in family group texts.

    Needless to say, most family texts do not involve fighter jets bombing apartment buildings and the hunt for terrorists, unlike the leaked chat.

    The Washington Post called the episode a “blunder.” (Post owner Jeff Bezos has been molding the outlet in a pro-MAGA direction lately.) And The New York Times discussed the scandal under the headline “How Well Do You Know Your Own Group Chats?” Though it published other articles with a more appropriate tone, this article discussed the leak in the context of chat faux pas. And neither Tuesday nor Wednesday’s print editions featured the leak as the lead story.

    On Wednesday, ABC News referred to the incident as a “mishap” in a piece recapping the timeline of the story as it continued to unfold. Coincidentally, also on Wednesday, The Atlantic published a follow-up article featuring the full transcript of the chat, showing just how deeply serious the leak was.

    […] For years, the mainstream media has practiced the art of “sanewashing,” sanding down the sharp edges on Trump and his acolytes. Despite the importance of his current position, the practice has continued even in the face of his attacks on the First Amendment.

    Now that a major breach has occurred—with the likelihood that other breaches have happened behind closed doors—it’s important to hold the Trump administration to account for its reckless disregard for national security and human life.

    The breezy tone of the coverage by multiple mainstream outlets fails to provide the public with the information they vitally need on how their country is being run.

    Link

  247. says

    https://www.msnbc.com/all

    ‘Flatly authoritarian’: New video shows masked agents arresting Tufts student
    Video is 3:51 minutes

    ‘Where was the president?’: Chris Hayes on Trump’s alarming absence amid war plans group chat
    Video is 6:52 minutes

    ‘Four-alarm fire’: Passwords for Hegseth, Gabbard and Waltz reportedly found online
    Video is 6:38 minutes

  248. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Anna Bower (Lawfare):

    Did Steve Witkoff just admit that he uses a personal phone for national security conversations with Cabinet-level officials?

    Witkoff: I am incredulous that a good newspaper like the WSJ would not check with me as to whether I had any personal devices with me on either of my trips to Moscow. […] Goldberg himself said that he “has not recounted Witkoff making any comments in that group chat until Saturday, after he left Russia and returned to the U.S.” Guess why? Because I had no access to my personal devices until I returned from my trip.

    […] he did end up responding to the chat once he returned to the United States, and I take the post to suggest that he did so because that’s when he regained access to his “personal” devices

    Rando (Lawyer): “This is why you stfu when you’re in trouble.”

  249. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Similar content to the Chris Hayes ‘Flatly authoritarian’ video @247.

    Matt Novak (Gizmodo):

    the Tufts announcement about the abduction of an international graduate student by federal authorities [Screenshot]

    Video of the international student at Tufts being arrested by “federal authorities” in Massachusetts has been released and it’s terrifying. They’re not even uniformed officers. Just secret police thugs in hoodies and masks. [Video clip]

    Her name is Rumeysa Ozturk, she’s a student from Turkey, and even her lawyer [didn’t know where she was for a while].
    [Salon – DHS detains grad student who advocated for Palestine and the “humanity of all people”]

    Her arrest comes after the pro-Israel group Canary Mission flagged Ozturk for having “engaged in anti-Israel activism in March 2024.”

    […] She appears to have been taken to an ICE facility in Louisiana [1400+ miles from where she was abducted], against a judge’s orders [requiring 48hrs notice before taking out of state] [Zeteo]

    Marisa Kabas: “She was targeted by a doxxing website and the US government used it to disappear her.”

    Southpaw (Lawyer):

    These “authorities” at first approach her unmasked and then, I think, cover their faces when they realize they’re being observed or filmed.

    The op-ed Rumeysa Ozturk co-authored […] is not a particularly hair-on-fire piece. To my eye, it’s totally standard fare for campus antiwar advocacy: the university president has not adequately responded to the resolution we carefully shepherded through the student legislature.

    The idea that the federal government would send secret police to grab you off the street, terminate your visa, and dropkick you out of the country is chillingly authoritarian and deeply unamerican under any circumstances. But if it’s really over that? Just bugfuck insane too.

  250. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    The Handbasket – State Dept. demands ‘enhanced’ social media vetting of student visa applicants

    that will make it easier to deny foreign students like Ozturk
    […]
    Perhaps most alarming is the broadness with which it appears this standard will be applied […] it states that a student visa applicant doesn’t necessarily need to express explicit support for “terrorist activity” in order to be denied, but just that they demonstrate “a degree of public approval or public advocacy for terrorist activity or a terrorist organization.” […]

    “This may be evident in conduct that bears a hostile attitude toward U.S. citizens or U.S. culture (including government, institutions, or founding principles). Or it may be evident in advocacy or sympathy for foreign terrorist organizations. […]”

    […] any whiff of opposition to a specific American person or issue can and should be used as a pretense to deny their application. […] While the cable recognizes that consulates do not have the authority to revoke visas, should they find evidence of current visa holders violating the new standards, they’re instructed to contact the Visa Office in order to initiate review.
    […]
    “Pretty clear the immediate target is anyone who participated in pro-Palestinian protests—one of the triggers for social media screening is having been in the US on one of these visas between Oct. 7 and the end of last Aug,” another DOS employee told me. “I think it’s also vague/broad enough to apply however someone wants.”

  251. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Drew Harwell (WaPo):

    Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem making content in front of the imprisoned men of El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center mega-prison [Video clip: “if you come to our country illegally, this is one of the consequences”]

    Behind her are bars of a crowded cell with long 3-level bunks that’re more like aisles of metal shelving. The prisoners are shaved, barely clothed, and face the camera.

    Southpaw: “This is really depraved. Noem wore her diamond ring and her gold Daytona to go see and exploit these poor people she has taken everything from.”
    MeidasTouch: “a $60K Rolex”

    Rando 1: “The hair—styled for the photo shoot.”

    Adam Kovac: “I was assigned to a detainee operations unit in Iraq post Abu Ghraib and if anyone had made a video like this they would have been court-martialed and chucked in a stockade.”

    Rando 2: “When you feel like your worst moment (bragging about shooting the family puppy in a gravel pit) wasn’t bad enough.”

    Rando 3: “Now we know what the nazis would have done with TikTok.”

  252. Bekenstein Bound says

    While I certainly wouldn’t call myself a luddite, I feel that every home appliance doesn’t need to be connect to the internet. Televisions? Certainly. Ovens? Maybe… but how often do you need to cook something while you’re out?

    A dishwasher? Why?

    So they can use an update to change what you bought after you bought it. Put in ads, take away functionality and then rent it back to you, force you to stop using generic detergent and switch to their own special super-expensive brand; you know, shit like that. Necessary of course to be able to show neverending revenue growth and please their stockholders, even though the market for the dishwashers themselves is finite and pretty much saturated. Won’t anybody think of the poor stockholders?

    Victoria’s Secret and Tesla face French boycott

    Whoa. France must be a huge market for lingerie. That’s going to hit them hard.

    Meanwhile we’re seeing a lot of “buy Canadian” suggestions and guides here. I don’t do a lot of shopping or eating out but when I do it already tends to be at Canadian-based chains, interestingly enough.

    The agent then asked Alvarado to explain his tattoos

    The agent had no right to demand that anyone “explain” their tattoos. Tattoos are First Amendment protected expression and therefore cannot be grounds for any kind of law enforcement action or criminal proceeding.

    Meanwhile I’m amused to see Steve Witless stick his foot in his mouth yet again.

    But when will something actually get enforced against these dickheads? When will there be arrests from criminal contempt and a court order to bring back the people who were sent to that El Salvador gulag?

  253. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Re: Bekenstein Bound @252:

    When will there be arrests from criminal contempt and a court order to bring back the people who were sent to that El Salvador gulag?

     
    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (American Immigration Council):

    With the DC Circuit having declined to lift the TRO, Judge Boasberg sets a schedule for proceeding on the case. First, a 48-hour turnaround on a motion to extend the TRO (which he will presumably grant). Then it’s mad dash to preliminary injunction time, with a hearing set April 8.

    Meanwhile, Judge Boasberg previously set a briefing deadline of March 31st for the question of the government’s possible contempt (and their invocation of the state secrets doctrine). No decisions before next week.

    The lawyers will be working frantically—with a SCOTUS appeal looming too.

    Rando 1: “Will April 8th be the day they try to get everyone there back to the US?”
    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “No. If that happens, it could theoretically come through the contempt process […] Or it may require amending the lawsuit or filing a new one. Many moving parts right now.”

    Rando 2: “I don’t think “mad dash” means what you think it means.”
    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “Given the various competing deadlines I discuss in the thread, which are going to make it very hard to focus on the PI, I’m pretty sure it does.”

  254. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    TheNewRepublic – Trump’s intel official just blew up his mass deportation excuse

    The head of the CIA undermined the president’s excuse to enact the Alien Enemies Act during a House Intelligence Committee hearing Wednesday.
    […]
    Representative Joaquin Castro said [“]Director Ratcliffe, does the intelligence community assess that we are currently at war or being invaded by the nation of Venezuela?”

    “We have no assessment that says that,” CIA Director John Ratcliffe responded.

  256. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    NPR – Social Security officials partially walk back plans for in-person verification

    they are exempting people who apply for Medicare and disability benefits, as well as supplemental income help for the poor, from having to prove their identity in-person at a social security office if they are unable to use the agency’s online system. They also announced they are pushing back the start of the new policy by two weeks, to April 14.
    […]
    these new identity requirements will now apply only to people seeking retirement, survivor or auxiliary benefits.

  258. birgerjohansson says

    The government lies get worse.
    At 14 minutes in we learn Florida gets even more Floridian and not in a good way.
    Marjorie Taylor Greene picks a fight with a Brit journalist working for Sky News, owned by an American company.
    Jimmy Kimmel live:
    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=nfKCwWN87jI

  260. Reginald Selkirk says

    @252 Bekenstein Bound

    So they can use an update to change what you bought after you bought it. Put in ads, take away functionality and then rent it back to you, force you to stop using generic detergent and switch to their own special super-expensive brand; you know, shit like that.

    Yes, and more specifically they could use this to attempt a ‘Dieselgate.’ Program the dishwasher to use very little water to pass efficiency regulations, and then reprogram it after it’s in your home so it uses more water to actually get your dishes clean.

  261. Reginald Selkirk says

    Scientists Record First Sounds Ever Known To Be Made By Sharks

    sciencehabit quotes a report from Science.org:

    Whales sing, orcas squeal, and sea turtles croak. But sharks are more the strong, silent type. Now, researchers report the first evidence that sharks make sounds, too, described today in Royal Society Open Science. The animals may be making the sounds — a series of clicking noises — by snapping their flat rows of teeth, which are blunt for crushing prey. The sharks can hear mostly low-frequency noise, and the clicks they emit are higher pitched, which suggests they are not for communicating with other rigs. It’s possible they are a defensive tactic. Marine mammals that eat rigs, such as leopard seals, can hear in the frequency range of the rig clicks, but the researchers question whether a few clicks would deter an attack. The sounds might be part of their response to being startled, the team says.

  264. StevoR says

    @ ^ Yup. Its official – well, going to be official tomorrow. Tobe held May 3rd because here inOz thePM gets to set election dates and can choose as suits them.

    Afraid it’ll get really ugly. Afraid the Gestapotato Dutton might somehow manage to win. Hopingand working for a minioirty ALP govt with the Greens having the balance of power which currently seems a reasonably likely tho’ by no means guaranteed outcome.

    Already been seeing political ads for the Aussie election on youtube for at least several weeks with billionaire Clive Palmer’s vile and bigoted shit being sprayed out over the media frex :

    A transphobic political advertisement from Clive Palmer’s new party Trumpet of Patriots is still running on Channel 7 despite mounting public backlash and removal from certain newspapers. …(Snip).. Despite multiple publications refusing to run the transphobic ad, Channel 7 has continued airing it on primetime television, drawing criticism for giving airtime to harmful messaging.“Completely disgusting,” one community member shared online after seeing the ad.
    “This s**t is going to embolden bigots so much more,” another wrote.

    This controversy follows the launch of Palmer’s latest political venture, Trumpet of Patriots. The party was announced after the High Court blocked his attempt to register the United Australia Party for the 2025 federal election.

    Source : https://qnews.com.au/the-transphobic-ad-still-airing-on-channel-7-despite-backlash/

  265. StevoR says

    It will be intresting to see how ex-ALP Senator Fatima Payman’s new party goes after she left the ALP over Gaza :

    Ex-Labor senator Fatima Payman has launched a new political party with no policy positions and which will not require candidates to oppose the war in Gaza, the issue that saw her join the crossbench.

    The Western Australian politician said her party, called Australia’s Voice, would offer “something different” to voters who felt “left behind” by the major parties. “This is more than a party. It is a movement for a fairer, more inclusive Australia,” she told a press conference at Parliament House on Wednesday, in which she quoted former Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam and former Liberal prime minister Robert Menzies.

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-09/fatima-payman-announces-party-without-policies/104449304

    Really wish she’d joined the Greens personally. There’s also other Indoendnets both pogressive (eg the Teals)and regressive that could decide who becomes PM and shape our future.

    Our media is blighted by the reichwing and esp Palmer’s malignant influence that helped give our worst ever PM Scummo power.

  266. JM says

    CBS News: Social Security’s overpayments policy takes effect Thursday. Experts say it could hurt seniors.

    Starting Thursday, the Social Security Administration will begin clawing back overpayments from the retirement program by taking 100% of a beneficiary’s monthly check until the money is repaid, up from the prior rate of 10%. The policy will impact new cases of overpayments starting on March 27. The benefits withholding rate for people who were overpaid before that date will remain at 10%.
    The agency’s 100% recovery rate was announced earlier this month by SSA Acting Commissioner Lee Dudek, who has worked with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to cut costs at the agency by firing thousands of workers and closing field offices.
    Dudek has described the 100% clawback rate as part of the agency’s responsibility to recover overpaid funds. But advocates for older Americans say the policy will cause financial distress for many people, especially those who rely on the program for all or most of their income.

    Being mean for the sake of being mean. You can make arguments about the exact pay back rate but 100% is abusive. There are cases where SS has overpaid a person a small amount each month for years and then realized their error. Clawing it back at 100% rate could mean stopping payment entirely for months.

  268. Rob Grigjanis says

    Canada’s federal election is slated for April 28. Latest polls suggest the most likely outcome is a Liberal majority. It’s too bad the NDP looks like losing seats, but keeping Poilievre out is the main thing.

  269. JM says

    NBC News: ‘Somebody has to go down’: Trump allies take aim at Michael Waltz

    But with questions about the handling of sensitive information continuing to swirl in congressional hearings and in media outlets across the ideological spectrum, many Trump allies — who requested anonymity to speak candidly — say focusing on whether the material was classified is beside the point for a White House struggling to regain control of its message.
    “That is a legal question,” said a former senior Trump adviser who spoke on the condition of anonymity to remain in his good graces. “We are talking about a political problem right now.”
    That same former adviser said White House officials would be smart to pick a fall guy and push him out.

    This is all normal political calculations. The interesting part is that they are leaking this to the public rather then having it with Trump, cabinet members or senior advisors. Normally the most you would see is leaks by one or two people who’s ideas got rejects. This is mass leaks because the Trump administration doesn’t make rational decisions and doesn’t talk to other people in general.
    There are a bunch of reasons for this. The important thing is that it gives you an idea just how dysfunctional this administration is. They can’t even have a standard political discussion about self interest in a rational way.

  270. StevoR says

    @265. Payman’s party does seem to have some actual policies now FWIW their website here :

    https://australiasvoice.com.au/

    Can’t say I’m a fan of its name but still.

    Also Greens MP from the Northern Territory (historically, ironically part of South Australia) Kat McNamara :

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kat_McNamara

    has recently said this* (3.53 time) in state (well, territory) Parlt.

    .* Australian MP breaks down in tears as she speaks of the genocide in Gaza.

  273. StevoR says

    NASA’s Perseverance rover has encountered another rock on Mars that has left scientists puzzled. Named “St. Pauls Bay” by the mission team, the Mars rock features hundreds of millimeter-size dark gray spheres, some of which have tiny pinholes. Perseverance discovered this rock on March 11 on the rim of the Jezero Crater, an ancient lakebed that the rover has been exploring since 2021 for signs of past microbial life. Scientists say determining the geological origins of this area’s features could provide valuable insights into how rocks in the region evolved over billions of years.

    Source : https://www.space.com/space-exploration/mars-rovers/strange-sphere-studded-rock-on-mars-found-by-nasas-perseverance-rover

    Space dot com news is also reporting we’re now observed aurorae on Neptune with the JWST whilst here on Earth there’s been aurorae sighted the other night quite close to me – in SA – following more major solar activity last night apparently. Missed it myself, sadly.

  275. says

    Russell Vought steers the Trumpified CFPB in a regressive direction

    “It’s striking to see the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau try to give money to a mortgage lender, instead of trying to get money from a mortgage lender.”

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau remains one of the best examples of progressive governance in the 21st century. From taking on banks to the student loan industry, payday lenders to mortgage companies, the bureau — an idea first championed by Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts — has looked out for Americans’ interests since its inception.

    As Joe Biden’s presidency neared its end, Helaine Olen explained, “Over its almost 13 years, the agency has stopped numerous financial ripoffs and returned billions of dollars to the public. Its mere existence provides an ongoing demonstration of how the government can effectively stand up to big money interests and protect the American people.”

    A New York Times report added soon after that this one agency “has clawed back $21 billion for consumers. It slashed overdraft fees, reformed the student loan servicing market, transformed mortgage lending rules and forced banks and money transmitters to compensate fraud victims.”

    All of those breakthroughs, of course, happened before Donald Trump took office and appointed his right-wing budget director, Russell Vought, to oversee the CFPB. As The New York Times reported this week, the agency’s direction has taken a radically regressive turn.

    Under President Trump, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has dropped nearly a dozen enforcement cases brought during the Biden administration, ending lawsuits against banks and lenders for a variety of financial practices that the watchdog agency no longer considers illegal. But on Wednesday, the bureau went a step further: It is seeking to give back $105,000 that a mortgage lender paid to settle racial discrimination claims last fall.

    The closer one looks at the relevant details, the more striking the developments appear: In Trump’s first term, the Republican president appointed Kathleen Kraninger to run the consumer bureau, and she brought a case against Chicago-based lender that was accused of racially discriminatory practices. The effort succeeded, and the lender ultimately agreed to a settlement after losing a court fight.

    Remember, it was Trump’s own administration — not the Obama administration or Biden administration — that pursued the matter.

    Evidently, that didn’t matter to Vought, who concluded that the CFPB had relied on “radical ‘equity’ arguments” and the lender deserved some kind of refund.

    Christine Chen Zinner, a senior lawyer at Americans for Financial Reform, a progressive advocacy group, told the Times that the consumer bureau’s attempt to overturn the settlement is “bananacakes.”

    Part of what makes this extraordinary, of course is the administration’s approach to housing discrimination. But it’s also striking to see the Trumpified CFPB taking steps to give money to a mortgage lender, instead of trying to get money from a mortgage lender.

    The next time someone suggests the Trump administration has embraced economic populism, keep this story in mind.

  276. says

    President Bystander: Trump appears out of the loop in his own White House

    “Confronted with key questions about life-or-death issues, the president is offering the public a lot of shrugged shoulders and blank stares.”

    […] Four U.S. soldiers, who were conducting tactical training, recently went missing while training in Lithuania. The Associated Press reported, “The U.S. Army said the Hercules armored vehicle the four U.S. soldiers were in during a training exercise had been found submerged in a body of water. It said recovery efforts were underway by U.S. Army and Lithuanian Armed Forces and civilian agencies.”

    NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte initially said the American troops had perished in the incident, though he soon after clarified that the search is ongoing. As if this weren’t serious enough, there’s also the relevance of the location: The exercise was conducted at a training ground roughly 6 miles from the border with Belarus — and Belarus is closely aligned with Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

    Given all of this, it stands to reason that Donald Trump would be up to speed on the details and the status of the search for the American service members. He is, after all, the president and the commander in chief of the armed forces. And yet, HuffPost noted:

    Donald Trump appeared unaware on Wednesday that four U.S. soldiers had gone missing during a NATO training exercise in Lithuania. When asked by a reporter if he had been briefed on the situation that began to unfurl hours before, the president replied, “No, I haven’t.”

    He didn’t elaborate. In fact, the president simply moved on to another question. [Video at the link]

    […] four U.S. troops went missing roughly 6 miles from a Russia-aligned country, and the American president was left totally in the dark about the state of the efforts to find them.

    […] Trump was also asked about the Signal group chat scandal and whether he believed classified information was shared. “I don’t know,” he replied. “I’m not sure, you have to ask the various people involved.”

    The comments came after the public saw the details of the online chat, which included a message from Trump’s vice president, JD Vance, telling the White House’s national security team that he wasn’t sure “the president is aware how inconsistent” the proposed strike in Yemen was “with his message on Europe.”

    The same text chain featured the White House’s Stephen Miller adding, in apparent reference to the attack plan, “As I heard it, the president was clear: green light.”

    The problems should be obvious: Vance was uncertain about Trump’s knowledge of the relevant details, and one of the president’s right-hand loyalists added an “as I heard it” qualifier to the commander in chief’s directive about a deadly military operation abroad.

    […] Five years ago this month, as the severity of the pandemic came into focus, The New York Times published a memorable analysis that included a word to describe Trump that stood out for me as significant: “bystander.”

    […] it appears President Bystander has returned. Trump has taken a keen interest in playing golf, renaming the Gulf of Mexico, banning paper straws, watching an enormous amount of television and helping steer the Kennedy Center — but on life-or-death issues, he’s offering the public a lot of shrugged shoulders and blank stares.

    For a president who’s heavily invested in the idea that his immediate predecessor had no idea what was going on around him, Trump’s apparent cluelessness is a serious problem.

  277. says

    […] Senior members of the White House’s national security team used an unclassified app to discuss precise operational details about a military operation. The online chat included highly sensitive information about times and targets. The whole point was to discuss the of the U.S. military launching an attack on a foreign adversary.

    “1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package),” Hegseth told his colleagues in the chat. “1345: ‘Trigger Based’ F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME) — also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s).” At one point, the beleaguered Pentagon chief also wrote, “THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP.”

    Whether one is inclined to describe this as “war plan,” an “attack plan” or a detailed “battle plan” for a deadly military operation, at issue is a distinction without a difference.

    The fact that this is apparently the one talking point the White House is clinging to is emblematic of the scandal’s seriousness and the challenges Republicans are facing to downplay its importance.

    Link

    Press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote online, “[T]hese were NOT ‘war plans,’” and that echoes what Pete Hegseth and others Republicans have said.

  278. says

    Followup to comment 227.

    White House spin on leak scandal: Musk will investigate

    […] national security experts have pointed out the real problem is the administration’s decision to host an unsecured chat—not that a reporter was granted access to it, which is what Musk’s investigation will apparently focus on.

    “Elon Musk has offered to put his technical experts on this to figure out how this number was inadvertently added to the chat, again to take responsibility and ensure this can never happen again,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday.

    Musk is not an expert in cybersecurity. […].

    And even Musk’s companies have had technical problems, whether it is SpaceX’s exploding rockets or Tesla Cybertruck’s shedding paneling due to insufficient glue application.

    In all likelihood, Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg was added to the administration’s Signal chat not through nefarious means, but because he was invited to participate by one of the chat participants or their staffers. An account in Trump national security adviser Mike Waltz’s name was the one that Goldberg says invited him to the chat.

    Wired reported on Wednesday that Waltz also had an unsecured Venmo account listing journalists and others as his “friends” on the service. It isn’t a stretch to make a connection between Waltz, the chat channel, and other journalists in Washington, D.C., like Goldberg.

    The real concern is the existence of the chat channel in the first place.

    Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth defended his actions in the channel in comments to reporters on Wednesday, arguing that no sensitive data was disclosed.

    “My job—as it said, on top of that, everybody’s seen it now, ‘team update’—is to provide updates in real time, general updates in real time. Keep everybody informed. That’s what I did. That’s my job,” Hegseth said.

    Experts on security disagree.

    “It was just truly astounding that we would see that released in the form of a non-secure government channel,” former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel told CNN on Wednesday. Responding to the Trump administration’s spin, Hagel said, “There’s either gross incompetence here or they’re flat out lying.”

    Kevin Carroll, a national security expert and veteran of the Army and CIA who served in the first Trump administration, told NPR that someone involved in this kind of leak—involving operational information about military action—is usually “immediately fired.”

    […] Even a Fox News reporter has unearthed a contradictory take to the administration’s spin.

    Regarding the data the Hegseth posted to the chat, national security reporter Jennifer Griffin noted, “This information is typically sent through classified channels to the commanders in the field as ‘secret, no forn’ message. In other words the information is ‘classified’ and should not be shared through insecure channels.”

    The Trump administration has tried to make the leak story about the reporter, his motivations, his family, and how he was added to the chat. They have tasked a wealthy donor who has no relevant experience to probe the issue.

    But the real problem is the chat shouldn’t have happened in the first place, and American security was violated as a result.

  279. says

    If Mike Waltz knows anything about national security, he’s doing an excellent job of keeping it a secret.

    Not only did Trump’s national security adviser create the now-infamous group chat that included a journalist from The Atlantic, but he also left sensitive information exposed on his Venmo account—including his friends list—until the media called him out.

    According to Wired, which broke the story, both Waltz and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles had their accounts on the mobile payment app Venmo set to public until Wednesday afternoon.

    For Waltz, this exposed a list of 328 “friends,” including journalists like CNN senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes and anchor Brianna Keilar, and MSNBC executive producer Lauren Peikoff—an interesting twist, given Trump’s longstanding attacks on both networks for being “dishonest” for simply reporting the truth about him. A separate analysis by The Prospect also found that Waltz’s connections included the apparent winner of the Miss Florida pageant.

    His and Wiles’ friends lists also featured key White House officials, including National Security Council staffer Walker Barrett, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks.

    To make matters worse, Waltz didn’t even attempt to conceal his identity. His Venmo profile used his full name and even featured a photo of him.

    Unfortunately, none of the transactions linked to Waltz or Wiles were publicly visible, so there’s no telling what kind of payments were exchanged.

    “Approximately ten minutes after requesting comment, Michael Waltz’s account disappeared from Venmo,” The Prospect reported.

    But that wasn’t the only security lapse. On Wednesday, German news magazine Der Spiegel revealed that its reporters easily uncovered email addresses, phone numbers, and passwords belonging to top Trump officials. This information was reportedly accessible via commercial search engines and hacked data dumps available online.

    Among those affected were Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and—who else?—Waltz. While the exact recency of the data wasn’t always clear, Der Spiegel reported that “[m]ost of these numbers and email addresses are apparently still in use, with some of them linked to profiles on social media platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn.” Some were even associated with accords on Dropbox, WhatsApp, and Signal, the chat app at the center of this week’s scandal.

    This latest cybersecurity debacle follows Waltz’s reckless decision to add journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to a Signal group chat where U.S. officials discussed a pending military operation in Yemen.

    Since then, Waltz has doubled down on evading responsibility for his actions, claiming he has no idea who Goldberg is and denying he ever had the journalist’s number saved, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

    Despite all this, Trump is standing by his embattled adviser for now, telling NBC News on Tuesday that Waltz “has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man.” How long that support will last is another question. Eventually, someone has to take the fall—and, at least right now, Waltz looks like the easiest target.

    Waltz has yet to comment on his latest failure to grasp the basics of digital security. But given this administration’s track record, it’s safe to assume that Trump’s team will spin the story by blaming the media rather than holding Waltz accountable. Maybe, while he’s at it, Elon Musk can launch an investigation into why Trump’s Cabinet picks keep failing at technology.

    Link

  281. birgerjohansson says

    Me @ 280
    At the 7 minute mark there is some talk about a president at a theater…

  282. says

    Vice President JD Vance took a break from praying for a deadly drone to hit its target to serve Marines lunch at a base in Quantico, Virginia, on Wednesday. It was the least he could do after endangering military servicemembers by participating in a catastrophically compromised text thread and discussing war plans with the highest-ranking members of Donald Trump’s national security team on an unsecure phone app.

    Oh, and he also got to shoot a big boy gun! [video at the link]

    It was a curious sideshow for Trump’s unpopular sidekick as the leaked group text fiasco continues to get worse with every detail that’s revealed. Vance is also gearing up to join his wife Usha on a trip to Greenland on Friday after officials there made it clear that no one invited them.

    The right wing’s obsession with archaic and transparently fragile masculinity is nothing new. Whether it is Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth musing about how “you can’t shoot values” or having an aging professional wrestler do a strip tease at the Republican National Convention, parading their shaky masculinity is always more important to Republican men than showing real strength of character.

    […] This trip won’t ingratiate the Trump administration with Greenlanders who are already furious over Donald Trump’s sudden and stubborn insistence that Greenland join the United States as a territory. Second lady Vance, who was initially set to make the trip by herself, has already had to cancel a planned stop at Greenlandian business Tupilak Travel.

    “We do not want her visit, as we cannot accept the underlying agenda and will not be part of the press show that, quite, of course, comes with it,” the travel agency posted […]

    Unfortunately for the Vances, a video of JD being patted on the back while he fires a machine gun is unlikely to curry favor with Greenland’s understandably wary citizens.

    Link

  283. says

    Federal workers toil in hellish conditions while Trump golfs

    Federal workers across the country are packing up their laptops and heading into hastily designated workspaces as their freedom to work from home comes to an abrupt end, thanks to arbitrary changes made by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency and backed by […] Trump.

    But even those who survived Musk’s mass firings, emailed buyout offers, and strange “What did you do last week” email ultimatums are now having to contend with an even worse reality.

    […] In some cases, the offices aren’t even offices at all.

    One USDA employee told NPR that they were given options for where they could return to an “office”—one of which was a literal storage unit with no heat, windows, or power. [If there is a way to fuck up, DOGE will do so.]

    And those who managed to score an actual office space are not toiling in luxury.

    On Monday, another scared federal employee at the Defense Department told USA Today of the nightmarish conditions they are being forced to work in.

    Legionella, the bacteria commonly found in pre-war buildings and A/C units that causes the respiratory Legionnaires’ disease, is a legitimate fear as coworkers hunch over folding card tables to work.

    Because the building is so understaffed, workers are told to bring their own toilet paper and pack up any garbage they have with them at the end of the day, because no one will be there to clean up after them.

    “We honestly get way more done at home than at the office, but those are facts and no one seems to want to know facts anymore,” one anonymous employee told USA Today. “This will end up costing the government much more money than it will ever save.”

    One psychiatrist who works with veterans was stunned when she was stuffed into an open office space with 13 other workers, separated by flimsy cubicles. She told The New York Times about how she has worked to gain the trust of her patients, some of whom are dealing with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

    But being forced to conduct video calls with her patients out in the open violates two of the most important things she can offer these veterans: privacy and trust.

    When she complained, a manager suggested the psychiatrist purchase a privacy screen and a white noise machine.

    “I’m ready to walk away if it comes to it,” she told them. […]

    A recent Washington Post-Ipsos poll showed nearly 30% of federal employees are prepared to quit or hunting for other jobs […]

    “You know, since COVID—show up to work in person like the rest of us,” he said. “You can’t work at home. They’re not working,” Trump said in February.

    “They’re playing tennis, they’re playing golf, or they have other jobs, but they’re not working or they’re certainly not working hard,” said Trump who regularly “works” from his gaudy Florida mansion and has golfed 15 times since he was sworn in on Jan. 20.

    “You could never build a company or a country with that,” Trump declared. [Trump’s golfing calendar]

    […] federal workers have been through the wringer since Trump reinfiltrated the White House. The president and his billionaire bestie have slashed through the workforce and sent a slew of threatening and confusing emails attempting to scare away the best of them. […]

  285. Reginald Selkirk says

    Police chief pooped by desks, spiked coffee with Viagra, cops say in list of assault complaints

    A police chief in Hudson County is being accused of assaulting and harassing his officers in a lengthy list of complaints that includes defecating on floors, exposing himself, attempting to drug coworkers and sticking a hypodermic needle into an officer’s penis.

    Chief Robert Farley, who was appointed chief of the North Bergen Police Department in February 2024, is also accused of retaliating against an officer who attempted to report him to the New Jersey Attorney General, according to court documents.

    Five police officers in North Bergen said they plan to sue over Farley’s alleged behavior, which also includes claims of retaliation, discrimination, sexual misconduct and harassment.

    In an email on Wednesday, a township spokesperson called the claims “false and outrageous.”…

    The list of complaints ranges from a pattern of ongoing pranks like putting ink on door handles, setting off car alarms, or leaving crumbs on cops’ desks, to much more serious allegations of using racial slurs, spiking the office coffee pot with Viagra and Adderall, and sending sex toys to an officer’s home…

    Farley, who earns more than $228,000 a year according to pension records…

    “Chief Farley chases me around his office,” Derrin wrote in his notice. “After cornering me in the filing area with no further room for retreat, he sticks a hypodermic needle through my jeans into the tip of my penis.”

    Derin wrote the needle drew blood and that he was further humiliated when he had to explain the injury to his wife…

    “The chief would shave his body hair on people’s property, their persons, and their food,” Derin wrote. “He was also fond of scraping fluids from his underwear onto people seated in the chief’s office.” …

    Detective Derin said he witnessed Farley dump a handful of Viagra and Adderall into a coffee pot, stirring the pills until they dissolved, and then waiting for someone to drink a cup…

    Guzman claims in his notice that Farley on multiple occasions came out of the bathroom in his office, exposed himself to others in the room, and made inappropriate comments.

    “Chief Farley has, on several occasions, pulled his pants down and defecated on the floor in front of his entire office staff,” Guzman wrote.

    “He has also left feces on the bathroom floor, apparently with the intent of having someone unknowingly step on it,” the lieutenant wrote.

    Farley also allegedly was clogging the toilet with paper and other objects, and defecating in wastebaskets near the desks of other officers, the notice says….

    Guzman claims his family members were also subjected to Farley’s harassment after the chief sent sex toys, intimate lotions and gay pride flags to his home…

    Among some of the other incidents of harassment the officers had to endure included Farley placing hot sauce in a microwave, which essentially turned the substance into a pepper spray that permeated the office…

    He also put firecrackers under officers’ chairs, once ripped a television monitor off the wall and smashed it to pieces, and yanked a doorbell off a wall because he felt too many people were visiting the office, Derin claimed…

  286. says

    Paul Krugman:

    […] why were they sharing highly sensitive information over a private messaging app rather than using secure channels? The most likely explanation is that they wanted to evade accountability: texts between government officials are supposed to remain part of the record, while Signal texts can be and in this case were set to disappear.

    As Phillips O’Brien notes, war planning aside, what the group chat reveals is top officials’ contempt for and hostility toward Europe; some of them opposed an operation against the Houthis because clearing the shipping lanes might help our (erstwhile?) allies.

    So the disaster reflected both stupidity and bad intentions. And the same is true of other ongoing disasters, including the shockingly rapid collapse of the Social Security Administration.

    As I hope you’re aware, Elon Musk’s DOGE, which is supposedly rooting out fraud and waste, has made Social Security a special target. Musk has done this even though it’s one of the federal government’s cleanest, most efficient programs, and has done an immense amount to reduce poverty among the elderly… […]

    …Musk is incompetent and evil. He suffers from billionaire brain — that special blend of ignorance and arrogance that occurs all too frequently in men who believe that their success in accumulating personal wealth means that they understand everything, no need to do any homework. But he also clearly detests anything that makes life better for non-billionaires.

    Link

  287. Reginald Selkirk says

    Security shop pwns ransomware gang, passes insider info to authorities

    Here’s one you don’t see every day: A cybersecurity vendor is admitting to breaking into a notorious ransomware crew’s infrastructure and gathering data it relayed to national agencies to help victims.

    Resecurity said it contributed to the shuttering of the BlackLock ransomware gang’s website last week after it found, and subsequently popped, a vulnerability in its TOR-based data leak site (DLS) during the holiday season of 2024.

    After finding “a certain misconfiguration” in BlackLock’s website, it found clearnet IP addresses related to its hosting infrastructure, and then exploited a Local File Include (LFI) vulnerability to gather server-side data such as config files and, crucially, credentials.

    “Resecurity invested substantial time in hash-cracking threat actors’ accounts to take over the infrastructure,” it said in a blog post.

    Among the data gathered was a history of commands entered over time by one of BlackLock’s main operators, known as “$$$,” which included copy-and-pasted credentials and amounted to the gang’s most significant OPSEC failure, in the US vendor’s view.

    One of these pasted passwords was also reused across several other accounts managed by one of the operators, said the researchers, which opened up additional avenues for them to understand BlackLock’s inner workings.

    Resecurity highlighted how reliant the gang was on the popular clearnet file-sharing platform Mega, abusing it as part of its data exfiltration process.

    The infoseccers said they found eight email accounts used by the group to access Mega, its client, and the rclone utility to transfer victim data from their system to Mega, and then to BlackLock’s DLS…

  288. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/billionaires-need-tax-cut-so-food

    “Billionaires Need Tax Cut, So Food Banks Gotta Get By Without The ‘Food’ Part”

    The Trump administration’s Bountiful Austerity Drive continues slashing its way through the waste and abuse in federal government spending, insuring prosperity for all Americans by taking food away from the poor, who don’t deserve it anyway. What have they ever done for Donald Trump? Truly our Emperor is wise, for he has granted unto a grateful population a billion dollar cut to food bank programs, courtesy of the US Department of Agriculture and its Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC). That billion-dollar hit won’t only mean less food in the unworthy bellies of America’s greedy poors; it also represents a big goose egg for US farmers who would have provided the fresh food to unwashed layabouts and their unwashed urchin children. Considering the value of eggs, the farmers should be grateful!

    The administration justified the cuts by insisting reduced federal spending would help ease inflation, making food more affordable, so stop looking for a handout while you wait in an hour long line at the food bank. The latest cuts come on top of cuts to another program that helped food banks and school nutrition programs purchase fresh produce from local farms […]

    Reuters reports that food banks in seven states expect the disruptions to federal food programs mean they will

    offer less produce, meat and other staples in the coming weeks and months, leaving scarcer food for those reliant on free supplies that helped stave off hunger.

    One reason is fewer expected shipments from USDA’s The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), one of the agency’s core nutrition programs that buys food from farmers and sends it to food pantries, some of the organizations said.

    Vince Hall, with America’s biggest food bank network, Feeding America, said member food banks can’t TEFAP to this, because USDA paused half the program’s annual budget while it’s under “review.” Under the current regime, that means “finding a semi-plausible pretext for eliminating the program.”

    We bet it’s “DEI”! Everything is “DEI” these days, even trees!

    But don’t you fret none, because a USDA spox “told Reuters the agency is still making purchases to support food banks but did not respond to detailed questions about TEFAP spending and why food banks are seeing reduced deliveries.” […]

    Reuters explains the $500 million pause in TEFAP funding comes on top of the cancellation of a different USDA program, the “Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) program, which funded about $500 million annually for food banks,” […]

    This latest Trumpfuckery undoes an initiative by the Biden administration that funded emergency food assistance through the end of fiscal 2025 so people wouldn’t go hungry, […]

    With Republicans “considering” cuts to other food assistance programs in their Great Big Reconciliation Bill, the folks who run food banks worry that any decrease in public food assistance will drive even more people to food banks just as they too lose funding. It’s a legitimate worry, since Goopers are “considering” massive cuts to safety net and nutrition programs the same way they’re “considering” massive tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.

    Some of the biggest impacts would be felt in rural America, Feeding America’s Vince Hall said, because the USDA aid doesn’t just include food, it also covers funding for distribution and storage, which makes replacing the aid with private donations an even bigger challenge.

    […] keep in mind that’s also going to mean a lot of hungry children, who didn’t vote at all, and misery for children of color, whose parents overwhelmingly didn’t vote for Trump. […]

    Eddie Oliver, the executive director of the Federation of Virginia Food Banks, said one food bank lost a scheduled shipment of seven loads of food, accounting for about a third of what the food bank was expecting this year through the Emergency Food Assistance Program.

    […] Reuters reports that West Virginia is already seeing a big hit to help from USDA, too. In Charleston, Sara Busse of Trinity’s Table showed Reuters all that that her group recently received from the Ag Department:

    two boxes each of dried potato flakes and shelf-stable milk and two cases of vegetarian baked beans.

    Before the Trump administration began, the deliveries filled an 18-wheeler, she said. Now, the program may need to halt its meal service to senior groups altogether, she said.

    “It’s dreary, it’s very frightening. We’re all losing sleep,” she said.

    […] How about nobody deserves to go hungry except the evil deceitful fuckers who are directly responsible for this?

  290. says

    Doctors treating measles patients in West Texas now have a new problem to deal with — liver damage in children whose parents listened to our esteemed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and attempted to prevent the measles by giving them cod liver oil.

    In an interview with Fox News earlier this month, Kennedy said he’d heard tell of an “almost miraculous and instantaneous recovery” when measles patients were given cod liver oil — and if there is anything they like in Texas, it’s a miracle. Since then, Vitamin A supplements and cod liver oil have been “flying off the shelves,” according to drug store employees.

    According to doctors, they are seeing kids who have only been sick with measles for a few days, but who have been taking high doses of Vitamin A for weeks in hopes of preventing it. Clearly, it has not gone very well.

    As we mentioned when RFK Jr. first recommended this protocol, cod liver oil is used to prevent measles and boost the immune system in children living in areas of the world (not the United States) where Vitamin A deficiencies are common. It is also sometimes used in hospitals here, under very specific protocols, to treat existing cases of measles. However, if someone doesn’t have a Vitamin A deficiency, taking a whole lot of it can lead to Vitamin A toxicity, which creates a host of problems … including liver damage.

    Via The New York Times:

    While doctors sometimes administer high doses of vitamin A in a hospital to manage severe measles, experts do not recommend taking it without physician supervision. Vitamin A is not an effective way to prevent measles; however, two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine are about 97 percent effective.

    At high doses, vitamin A can cause liver damage; dry, peeling skin; hair loss; and, in rare instances, seizures and coma. So far, doctors at West Texas hospitals have said they’ve seen patients with yellowed skin and high levels of liver enzymes in their bloodwork, both signs of a damaged liver.

    Jaundiced. The kids are jaundiced. […] Other problems include damage to the spleen and central nervous system, bone thinning, etc. etc. It’s not pleasant.

    This is all in addition to whatever lifelong problems measles could cause — which include blindness, hearing loss, brain damage as a result of encephalitis, a weakened immune system, and what have you.

    What the hell is it that they think vaccines even do that is worse than all of that?

    Of course, that’s the wrong question to be asking. These people don’t believe that the six-year-old girl who died from measles-induced pneumonia died from measles-induced pneumonia. They believe she died because of how the doctors treated her measles-induced pneumonia. This is what they believe about COVID deaths and it is what they will believe about any damage caused by cod liver oil or Vitamin A supplements. […]

    They do not want to hear from those people, they want to hear from “Idaho Mom Discovers Household Cure For Measles! Doctors Hate Her!” That is who they trust, but RFK Jr. is close enough.

  291. says

    […] In Lubbock, Texas, public health officials have received orders to stop work supported by three grants that helped fund the response to the widening measles outbreak there, according to Katherine Wells, the city’s director of public health.

    Billions in health funds for infectious diseases and drug treatment being clawed back after they were already given out, and “Some predicted the loss of as much as 90 percent of staff from some infectious disease teams.” (Gift link New York Times) […]

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/another-student-disappeared-off-street

    The Wonkette link leads to a roundup of news reports, and one of those reports is the news out of Lubbock, Texas.

  293. Reginald Selkirk says

    “This will be a painful period”: RFK Jr. slashes 24% of US health dept.

    Health Secretary and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is slashing a total of 20,000 jobs across the Department of Health and Human Services—or about 24 percent of the workforce—in a sweeping overhaul said to improve efficiency and save money, Kennedy and the HHS announced Thursday.

    Combining workforce losses from early retirement, the “Fork in the Road” deferred resignation deal, and 10,000 positions axed in the reductions and restructuring announced today, HHS will shrink from 82,000 full-time employees to 62,000 under Kennedy and the Trump administration. The HHS’s 28 divisions will be cut down to 15, while five of the department’s 10 regional offices will close.

    “This will be a painful period,” Kennedy said in a video announcement posted on social media. Calling the HHS a “sprawling bureaucracy,” Kennedy claimed that the cuts would be aimed at “excess administrators.” …

    “excess administrators” – and yet, RFK Jr. will not be one of those fired.

  294. Reginald Selkirk says

    @292 Lynna, OM

    “Trump said Stefanik will remain in the House,…

    It’s good that she won’t be an ambassador; but the best outcome would be like Matt Gaetz, where he didn’t go back to congress when his nomination was cancelled.

  295. says

    Reginald @294, I agree.

    Followup to Reginald @293: I Can’t Make It Through RFK Jr.’s Explanation For Cutting 10,000 HHS Jobs Without Screaming

    “HHS Secretary, heal thyself. Because you’re pretty damned sick.”

    I have been an atheist all my life, but I have never been as certain of the fact that there is no state of “life after death” that could interact with the living on this plane than I am at this very moment, after having watched three minutes and 11 seconds of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. talking out of his ass about healthcare. Because if such a thing did exist, the ghost of his uncle, noted single-payer healthcare advocate Ted Kennedy, would have risen up from the grave and beaten the absolute shit out of him. Or made him explode. Or something. Or if telekinesis existed, I would have been able to do so, somehow.

    I’m sorry to report that there is no such magic.

    The whole announcement is six minutes long. It’s meant to be a justification for firing 10,000 workers from critical departments like the FDA, the CDC, and the NIH — even as we are currently dealing with a measles outbreak, the threat of bird flu and other nonsense. It’s not a very good one.

    But let’s examine it, shall we? [video at the link]

    Hey everybody, I’d like to share with you a paradox that I’ve encountered here in Washington DC as the new secretary of HHS. Our department is filled for the most part with competent, conscientious public servants, and yet the agency has been inefficient as a whole.

    How? He does not say. [Makes a claim, does not provide evidence.]

    Over the past four years, during the Biden administration, HHS’s budget increased by 38 percent and its staffing increased by 17 percent.

    Yes, because there was a massive Medicaid expansion, which included providing 462,000 people across the nation with postpartum care; because they helped “3 million eligible seniors and people with disabilities enroll in the Extra Help program in 2023 to benefit from the program’s lower cost premiums, deductibles, and copayments”; because they re-enrolled “500,000 children and adults who were improperly disenrolled from Medicaid and CHIP”; and because they “invested $105 million in funding to support more than 100 community-based organizations working to improve maternal and infant health.” Also because there was a fucking pandemic and people needed help and still do.

    But all of that money has failed to improve the health of Americans. In fact, the rate of chronic disease and cancer increased dramatically as our department has grown.

    Is this because of “bureaucracy” or is it because the largest generation, the Baby Boomers, have gotten older and therefore more prone to these issues? Chronic illnesses are increasing around the world for a variety of reasons, one of which is the fact that people simply live much longer these days.

    Our lifespan has dropped, so Americans now live six years shorter than Europeans. We are the sickest nation in the world and we have the highest rate of chronic disease. The US ranks last among 40 developed nations in terms of health, but we spend two to three times more per-capita than those nations.

    Gee! Why might this be? What do these other countries have that we do not? Could it be … that everyone has healthcare?

    […] when someone admits that we pay more and have worse outcomes than the rest of the world and their solution is that less healthcare is more. … Because yes, that is where he is going with this.

    As secretary, I now understand why all this money is not improving our health. HHS is a sprawling bureaucracy that encompasses literally hundreds of departments, committees, and other offices.

    You know how bureaucracies work. Every time a new issue arises, they tack on another committee. This leads to tremendous waste and duplication, and worst of all, a loss of any unified sense of mission. The resulting pandemonium has injured American health and damaged department morale. When I arrived, I found that over half of our employees don’t even come to work.

    Oh fuck right off with that. If people can do their jobs from home, let them do their jobs from home.

    In one case, defiant bureaucrats impeded the secretary’s office from accessing the closely guarded databases that might reveal the dangers of certain drugs and medical interventions.

    It’s not clear what he’s specifically referring to, here, but we do know that DOGE accessed the child support database after “defiant bureaucrats fought against it,” which included sensitive personal income information.

    The rest of the video, which I did force myself to watch just now, is just a bunch of nonsense about how, somehow, cutting all of these jobs is going to, somehow, allow the HHS and the agencies that fall under its purview do better. Somehow.

    I have some good news though. As part of President Trump’s DOGE workforce reduction initiative, we are going to streamline HHS to make our agency more efficient and more effective. We are going to imbue the agency with a clear sense of mission to radically improve the health of Americans and to improve agency morale. We’re going to eliminate an entire alphabet soup of departments and agencies, while preserving their core functions by merging them into a new organization called the Administration for a Healthy America or AHA. We have two goals. The first is obvious: to save the taxpayer money by making our department more efficient. And the second, is to radically improve our quality of service.

    I want to promise you now that we are going to do more with less.

    This is all nonsense. The whole thing is nonsense and it’s very clear that he has no idea what the hell he is doing.

    Ten thousand people are going to lose their jobs today. Ten thousand households are going to be fucked, because the Health and Human Services secretary is an imbecile who doesn’t know what anyone’s job is and therefore assumes they are expendable. […]

    States have already lost billions of dollars in funding this week that had been allocated during COVID and weren’t supposed to expire until 2027. Billions of dollars that were going towards things like handling the measles outbreak, drug addiction, mental health care, and modernizing database systems (extremely necessary should there be another pandemic). This included “$11.4 billion from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as around $1 billion from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, known as S.A.M.H.S.A.”

    Now, not only is much of the money invested previously in these now half-finished projects being wasted, now not only are they losing this funding for their other health needs, but they are also going to lose workers, offices, and programs that were helping as well.

    It’s going to be a fucking shitshow.

  298. Rob Grigjanis says

    A young Conservative just came by my house, asking me if they could count on my vote (in the upcoming Canadian election). I asked what the CPC plan for climate change was. I expected some ill-informed bullshit, but the lad actually said “we don’t have one”. The honesty was almost disarming. They really need to do a better job of indoctrinating their minions. Poor lad just slunk off.

  299. says

    ‘Pete Hegseth Is A F*cking Liar’ And Other True Updates About Signal-Gate

    “Tammy Duckworth nailed it.”

    Yesterday, Senator Tammy Duckworth, the Democrat of Illinois who lost both her legs flying battle missions for the United States, heard Defense Secretary [Hegseth] give his excuses for why he WAS NOT EITHER sharing battle plans on Signal — despite how the evidence shows he was doing exactly that, for a battle that was about to happen — and she was pissed. Since he was blabbing a couple hours ahead of the planned strikes, if the thread had been intercepted, it could have given Houthi leaders ample time to fly into action and try to shoot down American planes or otherwise put American troops in danger.

    Her statement shows the proper amount of respect to guys like Pete Hegseth, the exact amount of respect he’s earned in his entire life: [social media post at the link]

    “Pete Hegseth is a fucking liar,” she said. That’s the official statement from a United States senator, one of the most honorable ones we have. Therefore resign in disgrace immediately […]

    The rest of the statement reads, “Hegseth and every other official who was included in this group chat must be subject to an independent investigation. If Republicans won’t join us in holding the Trump Administration accountable, then they are complicit in this dangerous and likely criminal breach of our national security.”

    Indeed.

    Last night Duckworth joined Rachel Maddow to expound on “Pete Hegseth is a fucking liar.” She said in that statement that she had used her “Army language.” [video at the link]

    Before Duckworth joined her, Maddow provided a recap on just what a fuckup Hegseth has been in the short time he’s been serving as the least qualified and biggest laughingstock of a Defense secretary […] There was the Potomac plane/helicopter crash, when he not only provided identifying information about those service members who had been killed long before he was supposed to, but also vomited out that it was a “continuity of government” practice mission, which he definitely wasn’t supposed to say out loud at all.

    There was Pete overseas […] yapping out of school about how his educated and experienced (LOL) foreign policy assessment was that Ukraine couldn’t hope for NATO membership, and then having to walk it back […]

    There was that thing just under a week ago — really, not even a week! — where Pete was apparently planning to show Elon Musk America’s secret contingency plans for responding to war with China. And now Signal-Gate.

    […] As far as Donald Trump’s reaction to the continued fallout from Signal-Gate goes, it’s still not entirely clear Trump even understands what happened here, or what Signal is, or even these days which one is “camel.”

    “Hegseth is doing a great job, he had nothing to do with this,” said Trump yesterday in his trashy, tacky gilded Oval Office. “Hegseth? How do you bring Hegseth into it? He had nothing to do with it. Look, look — it’s all a witch hunt.” Trump’s entire grasp of the scandal, apparently, is that National Security Advisor Mike Waltz added Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to the secret He-Man Woke Haters No Girls Allowed Except Tulsi Gabbard And Susie Wiles Chat Of Bombing Yemen With Emojis.

    In fact, reading the Signal thread — and how Stephen Miller appeared to be the last word on whether the bombing was happening — it was entirely unclear whether Trump had any grasp or awareness at all of what was about to go down. [True]

    Trump may be utterly confused about the technology aspect of all this. (Really, hearing him talk about Signal yesterday was something else. He thinks maybe the entire app is “defective.” You betcha.) [Trump also talked about it like it was a phone call and “somebody else was on the line.”]

    But reporting is starting to come out that Trump is furious about this scandal and how it’s making him look bad.

    The Atlantic is reporting that, while on the outside Trump is going with his usual playbook of attacking the messenger […] he’s been “privately upset with the sloppiness of his advisers” and the bad headlines this has been making for him. (He angrily said yesterday that the press is only focused on this because he’s had “two perfect months” in office. Rachel Maddow had some fun doing a recap of that last night too.)

    Meanwhile, Trump allies in and out of the White House are reportedly furious with Mike Waltz’s bumblefucking efforts to cover his ass here, with one source specifically calling out Waltz’s denials of knowing Goldberg, or trying to pretend the dog ate his homework and then put porn-popups on his phone, which somehow also put Jeff Goldberg’s phone number into his Signal chats. That source says it’s “bullshit and he risks somebody else calling bullshit on it. Like if anybody has ever seen them talking or if Goldberg has other texts.”

    […] Politico reports:

    Trump was mad — and suspicious — that Waltz had Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg’s number saved in his phone in the first place, according to three people familiar with the situation, who were granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. A fourth person said the president was also particularly perturbed by the embarrassing nature of the episode.

    From the rest of that article, it sounds like trust for Mike Waltz among Trumpers in the White House is at an all-time low, and it’s making people nervous that if he gets pushed out, the facade of everything being seamless and drama-free Trump 2.0 might all come crashing down and this will be Trump 1.0 all over again. Said one source:

    “The president trusts his team a lot more than he did during his first term. But he is still someone who doesn’t easily forget about mistakes, so just because he’s not getting rid of Waltz or one of the others today, doesn’t mean a day won’t come when a person will sort of run out of rope,” a person close to the White House said. “If he starts to question someone’s judgment or instincts — or even worse, their loyalty — then it can become a situation where it’s only a matter of time.”

    […] In related news, Der Spiegel found a whole bunch of phone numbers, email addresses, and even passwords for top Trump security people on the internet, and Wired found that Mike Waltz had his Venmo friends list public and OMG, HOW DID ALL THESE REPORTERS GET ON MIKE WALTZ’S VENMO FRIENDS LIST?

    Trump is right to be paranoid.

  300. says

    LIVE COVERAGE, Updated 6 minutes ago

    Trump administration live updates: President withdraws U.N. nominee; judge orders defendants in Signal case to preserve messages

    President Donald Trump is scheduled to sign more executive orders this afternoon.

    What to know today
    – A judge ordered the defendants in the Signal case to “preserve all Signal communications between March 11 and March 15.” Defendants include CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard and the National Archives.

    – […] Trump signed more executive orders this afternoon after he acted this week to issue new tariffs on automobile imports and require voters to provide proof of citizenship. He said he plans to issue more tariffs, including on pharmaceuticals and lumber, over the next week. […]

    U.S. District Judge James Boasberg directed the government to provide him a status report by Monday laying out what steps they’ve taken to preserve the records.

    The judge issued the order after the watchdog group American Oversight filed suit to make sure the records are preserved. The judge noted the group is not seeking the messages, many of which were disclosed after a reporter for the Atlantic was included in the group chat.

    “The plaintiff here is not asking me to require the government to disclose the Signal communications,” Boasberg said. “Disclosure is not part of the suit.”

    The judge seemed pleased the parties had been trying to come to a solution without much court intervention — the Treasury Department said it already some of the messages and the Defense Department indicated it was already working on complying. […]

    More at the link.

  302. Reginald Selkirk says

    Magnolias are so ancient they’re pollinated by beetles — because bees didn’t exist yet

    Spring arrives, and with it, the magnolias. Their enormous pink and white blooms unfurl in many parts of the world, but if you look closely at them, you might see a beetle land on the flowers — not a bee.

    Magnolias have been relying on beetles like this for over 100 million years. Long before the first bees buzzed through a meadow, magnolias struck a deal with these clumsy, chewing pollinators. Beetles are also pollinators of other ancient plants, including water lilies and spicebush, one of the earliest plant-insect relationships…

  303. Reginald Selkirk says

    NY county clerk refuses to file Texas’ fine for doctor accused of prescribing abortion pills

    A county clerk in New York refused Thursday to file a more than $100,000 judgment from Texas against a doctor accused of prescribing abortion pills to a woman near Dallas, setting up a potential challenge to laws designed to shield abortion providers who serve patients in states with abortion bans.

    A Texas judge last month ordered Dr. Margaret Carpenter, who practices north of New York City, to pay the penalty for allegedly breaking that state’s law by prescribing abortion medication via telemedicine. The Texas attorney general’s office followed up last week by asking a New York court to enforce the default civil judgment, which is $113,000 with attorney and filing fees.

    The acting Ulster County clerk refused.

    “In accordance with the New York State Shield Law, I have refused this filing and will refuse any similar filings that may come to our office. Since this decision is likely to result in further litigation, I must refrain from discussing specific details about the situation,” Acting Clerk Taylor Bruck said in a prepared statement.

    Republican Texas State Attorney General Ken Paxton said he was outraged by the refusal and signaled he would take action.

    “New York is shredding the Constitution to hide lawbreakers from justice, and it must end,” Paxton said on X. “I will not stop my efforts to enforce Texas’s pro-life laws that protect our unborn children and mothers.” …

    How shocking that Paxton does not support ‘states’ rights.’

  304. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Adam Klasfeld (MSNBC):

    In the Signalgate suit, Judge Boasberg issues a “compromise order” enjoining the Trump admin […] “Don’t worry: It’ll be in writing,” Boasberg quips, a reference to the DOJ’s position on his oral orders. […] for the defendants to “promptly make best efforts to preserve all Signal communications from March 11-15, 2025.”

    Southpaw:

    Something I hadn’t appreciated from the initial story is that Waltz adds Stephen Miller to the group *after* JD Vance had started questioning the plan and while Waltz is in the process of arguing back at him. It’s shortly after this that Miller swoops in with his reading of the president’s mood.

    EmptyWheel – Stephen Miller’s presumed babysitting of JD Vance

    that makes the whole thing legally precarious, because everyone on the list is relying on SM’s interpretation of presidential intent. […] much greater legal risk […] with significant civilian exposure
    […]
    SM—again, believed to be Trump’s top domestic policy advisor—serving as the surrogate for Trump, and doing so in a way designed to shut JD up.

    Like wormtongue, his mere gloss of the leader’s intent is treated with uncontested authority.

    Southpaw:

    From the WSJ, we learn that National Security Advisor Waltz’s information about the location of the administration’s prime target was from a human source working for Israeli intelligence.

    How then can even this administration maintain that it is unclassified? Is the Trump administration claiming a discretionary right to declassify info owned and shared by allied intelligence services?

    Rando: Bodes ill for future intelligence sharing.

    Brad Moss: “Mike Waltz put this [source’s] life at risk for the sake of a fist bump.”
     
    Kyle Cheney (Politico):

    The Trump administration acknowledges it recovered only a “partial” version of the Signalgate message exchange from Secretary Bessent’s phone, after a Treasury lawyer collected screenshots today. Status of messages from Hegseth is also murky

    They acknowledge Bessent’s preserved messages begin at 1:48pm on March 15—which means it excludes all of the pre-attack exchanges. Unclear whether Rubio/Gabbard et al have the full exchange. But Admin says it’s OK bc Jeffrey Goldberg got it all.

  305. Reginald Selkirk says

    Trump Mocked For Getting ‘Weirder By the Day’ After Calling Himself the ‘Fertilization President’

    Donald Trump touted himself as the “fertilization president” during a Women’s History Month celebration event at the White House on Wednesday.

    During the event that had a number of female members of Congress in attendance, Trump spoke about his accomplishments specifically regarding fertilization. The Women’s History Month event was partially to announce the launch of a GOP Women’s Caucus headed by Rep. Kat Cammack.

    “We’re gonna have tremendous goodies in the bag for women too,” he said. “The women, between the fertilization and all the other things we’re talking about, it’s gonna be great. Fertilization. I’m still very proud of it, I don’t care. I’ll be known as the fertilization president and that’s okay.” …

  307. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Politico – White House to DOGE employees: Preserve your Signal records

    The “records retention policy” was adopted for the [DOGE] on Monday […] The new policy emphasizes that messages sent on personal devices and on Signal must be preserved, and that the app’s auto-delete feature should be disabled.
    […]
    It’s unclear if the policy was adopted directly as a result of the Signal crisis […] Jeffrey Goldberg […] revealed the apparent breach on Monday. […] A federal judge recently ordered DOGE to comply with public records demands
    […]
    American Oversight is suing the administration separately […] suggesting the auto-delete function […] violates federal recordkeeping laws.

  308. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (American Immigration Council):

    The Trump administration appears to have sent a married father with NO CRIMINAL RECORD in any country to rot in a prison in El Salvador because of a PAPERWORK ERROR. This man doesn’t even have tattoos!
    [MiamiHerald]

    The U.S. government claims […] that he “may be a Tren de Aragua associate.” But in those same documents, the government says he has no criminal records or immigration history in the United States. The government also uses someone else’s last name in several parts of the document, identifies him with female pronouns, and uses two different unique identification numbers that immigration authorities use to keep track of individuals, raising questions about the reliability
    […]
    Reyes Mota’s family also provided to the Miami Herald government documents showing that Reyes Mota did not have any criminal record in Venezuela, and photos that show he does not have any tattoos.

    –

    Rando 1: These stories strike me as almost run-of-the-mill policing fuckups that end up nolle pros’d every day, but the stakes are way higher and ohbytheway there’s no due process to fix the mistake.

    Yes, this is how I’ve come to view it as well.
    […]
    Genuinely no clue what the end-game is. The administration appears to have not thought beyond the spectacle […]

    Rando 2: Assuming these innocent people people make it back to the states, is there any recourse to sue for damages?

    It will be hard. […] legal precedent to get money damages from the federal government for civil rights violations isn’t great. Basically, there’s a law that lets you sue state and local police for violating your rights, and it doesn’t exist for the feds.

    Quinta Jurecic: “This is almost exactly the inciting incident in Brazil [the movie].”

  309. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Southpaw:

    I’ve been sort of idly keeping track of all the points in the Declaration of Independence’s bill of particulars that arguably apply to the Trump Admin. This is the first four-in-a-row I’ve hit.

    For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
    For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
    For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
    For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

    Rando 1:

    Keep going:

    He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners.

    He has obstructed the Administration of Justice.

    He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone.

    He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people.

    [He has taken] away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

    [He has suspended] our Legislatures and declared himself invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

    He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us.

    Rando 2: “He’s using the copy in the Oval as a checklist.”

    Rando 3: “You need to throw all his ketchup into Boston Harbour.”

    Rando 4: “Every 4th of July, my Dad (a Trump supporter) has us read the Declaration of Independence out loud. It has been harder and harder to do so with a straight face. My kids are able to catch the irony. We may need to skip the barbecue altogether this summer.”

    Rando 5: https://despotdon.com/

    Rando 6:

    Isn’t this DOGE?

    He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation

  310. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    PopularInfo – How the Social Security Administration is dodging a federal court order

    The Trump administration has installed a DOGE operative [Scott Coulter] as the new Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Social Security Administration (SSA) in an apparent effort to evade a federal court order blocking DOGE affiliates from accessing databases containing the sensitive personal information
    […]
    As required by the TRO, the SSA submitted a status report on Monday, certifying that [it had] “revoked all SSA DOGE Team members’ access to SSA systems of records.” The status report did note that “SSA may continue work on” projects that “SSA DOGE Team members previously led or worked on” but “without the SSA DOGE Team members’ involvement.”
    […]
    The next day, the agency replaced [Michael Russo] with Coulter, who was previously a member of the SSA DOGE Team. […] attempting to transform Coulter from a member of the DOGE Team to a regular SSA employee. […] someone who, until Tuesday, was identified as a member of the DOGE Team can continue to access sensitive personal information at SSA. And […] continue the same projects that were previously led by DOGE.

  311. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Ana Bower:

    Statement from WilmerHale on Trump’s executive order targeting the firm:
    “We look forward to pursuing all appropriate remedies to this unlawful order.”

    Rando: “that is their characteristically staid way of saying ‘we will fight you to the death on this'”

    Eric Columbus: “I worked for WilmerHale for five years. We stood up to Bush by winning a SCOTUS ruling that Gitmo detainees have a right to challenge their detention in habeas.”

    ‪Jonathon Booth (Law professor): “I took a class taught by a Wilmer Hale managing partner. They’re extremely proud of Joseph Welch saying to McCarthy “have you no sense of decency?”

  312. Bekenstein Bound says

    Continuing to make a mockery of the courts’ rulings, and of the rule of law more generally.

    I just hope having intelligence assets and battle plans exposed will be the final straw for the military, because sad and shocking as it is to say, a coup might be our best hope at this point.

  313. says

    Trump administration moves to end union rights for many federal workers

    The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said Thursday that President Trump signed an executive order limiting numerous agency employees from unionizing and instructing the government to stop engaging in any collective bargaining.

    The OPM memo references an order from Trump, but it is an accompanying fact sheet from the White House that lays out the rationale for the movie, claiming that the Civil Service Reform Act allowing government workers to unionize “enables hostile Federal unions to obstruct agency management.”

    […] The order targets agencies it says have a national security mission but many of the departments don’t have a strict national security connection.

    In addition to all agencies with the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of State, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, the order also covers the Treasury Department, all agencies with Health and Human Services (HHS), the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, the General Services Administration, and many more.

    In total the OPM memo references 18 departments while also including numerous component agencies.

    The OPM memo instructs agencies to terminate their collective bargaining agreement.

    “Consequently, those agencies and subdivisions are no longer required to collectively bargain with Federal unions,” OPM states in its memo.

    […]The OPM memo also says “agencies should cease participating in grievance procedures after terminating their CBA,” an abbreviation for collective bargaining agreements.

    The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), condemned the action in an email to its members, saying the Trump administration was “illegally strip[ping] collective bargaining rights from hundreds of thousands of federal workers. […]

  315. says

    https://www.msnbc.com/all

    ‘Incredible’: Trump admin reportedly deports man over autism awareness tattoo
    video is 7:28 minutes

    Trump yanks Elise Stefanik’s Cabinet nomination, citing ‘very tight’ GOP majority
    video is 7:57 minutes

    ‘Sound familiar?’: DHS staffer accidentally added reporter to email about ICE raids
    video is 6:21 minutes

  317. says

    Washington Post link

    Trump issues executive order to eliminate ‘anti-American ideology’ from Smithsonian

    The executive order also calls for the replacement of memorials and monuments removed since 2020.

    Trump issued an executive order Thursday evening promising to eliminate “divisive narratives” from the Smithsonian Institution’s museums and restore “monuments, memorials, statues, markers” that have been removed over the past five years.

    The “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” order directs Vice President JD Vance to eliminate what he finds “improper” from the Smithsonian Institution, including its museums, education and research centers, and the National Zoo. The White House fact sheet describing the order said it will focus on removing “anti-American ideology.”

    The institution, the official keeper of the American story, has operated independently as a public-private partnership created by an act of Congress in 1846. The order is an unprecedented act to edit an institution that has been expanding over many decades to include a wider, richer and more diverse telling of the nation’s history.

    […] “Attacking the idea that telling the whole story of the United States is an ideological plot to cast the United States in a negative light testifies to a stunningly brittle insecurity about our nation and its past,” said Chandra Manning, a professor of American history at Georgetown University.

    “It seems to suggest that if we allow anyone to hear the whole story of challenges that Americans have overcome, our nation will shatter. The American people are not so fragile as all that,” Manning said.

    Trump’s executive order demands an “ideological purity test” and “restores neither truth nor sanity,” said Adam Rothman, an American history professor at Georgetown University. “The president’s proclamation disrespects the thousands of sincere and dedicated researchers, curators, scientists, guides, interpreters, docents and countless other people who work hard every day to preserve and tell the nation’s story truthfully, and in ways that educate and inspire the American public.” […]

  318. says

    New York Times link

    “Signal Chat Leak Angers U.S. Military Pilots”

    Men and women who have taken to the air on behalf of the United States expressed bewilderment after the leak of attack plans. “You’re going to kill somebody,” one pilot said.

    The intelligence breach was bad enough, current and former fighter pilots said. But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s refusal to acknowledge that he should not have disclosed sensitive information about when American fighter pilots would attack sites in Yemen, they said, was even worse.

    On air bases, in aircraft carrier “ready rooms” and in communities near military bases this week, there was consternation. The news that senior officials in the Trump administration discussed plans on Signal, a commercial messaging app, for an impending attack angered and bewildered men and women who have taken to the air on behalf of the United States.

    The mistaken inclusion of the editor in chief of The Atlantic in the chat and Mr. Hegseth’s insistence that he did nothing wrong by disclosing the secret plans upend decades of military doctrine about operational security, a dozen Air Force and Navy fighter pilots said.

    Worse, they said, is that going forward, they can no longer be certain that the Pentagon is focused on their safety when they strap into cockpits.

    “The whole point about aviation safety is that you have to have the humility to understand that you are imperfect, because everybody screws up. Everybody makes mistakes,” said Lt. John Gadzinski, a retired Navy F-14 pilot who flew combat missions from aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf. “But ultimately, if you can’t admit when you’re wrong, you’re going to kill somebody because your ego is too big.”

    He and other pilots said that each day since Monday, when The Atlantic published an article about the chat disclosures, had brought a stunning new revelation. First came the news that Mr. Hegseth had put the operational sequencing, or flight schedules, for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthi militia in Yemen on March 15 in the unclassified Signal group chat, which included several other senior officials.

    “We intentionally don’t share plans with people who don’t need to know,” said one Navy F/A-18 pilot, who has flown frequently in missions in the Middle East. “You don’t share what time we’re supposed to show up over a target. You don’t want to telegraph that we’re about to show up on someone’s doorstep; that’s putting your crew at risk.” He and several other current and former pilots spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals from the Pentagon and from allies of President Trump. […]

  320. Silentbob says

    Scientists say the chaos and upheaval of the past month has taken a mental toll.

    As the first DOGE actions and executive orders got underway, says the second scientist, there was panic. They and colleagues across the country spent weekends and evenings “scrambling to know how to help,” including getting personal contact information from fellow researchers at government institutes in case their email addresses were cut off.

    “I’m exhausted,” the researcher said. “People aren’t sleeping, they’re scared and stressed.” Space scientists are worried about other federal employees, other researchers and those in marginalized communities, they added. The researcher noted the irony of space scientists — “a community of troubleshooters” — not being able to “fix it.” “It’s really hard to watch,” and they are trying to find a balance “between staying informed and jumping off a cliff.”

    “I’m really concerned about the survival of science in America,” the researcher said.

    The other researcher described similar feelings. “We feel terrible for the people [at various agencies], all public servants dedicated to furthering our interests who have been treated so shabbily.”

    Describing a “world upside down,” this researcher alternates among feeling “distracted [and] putting my head down and shouldering on because you can’t do anything about it.” The researcher has also called elected representatives because “we don’t want the U.S. to retreat in all these areas.”

    https://www.astronomy.com/space-exploration/space-scientists-fearful-as-trump-administration-targets-science-and-mulls-nasa-cuts/

  324. birgerjohansson says

    Mano Singham:
    “Israeli snipers targeting Palestinian children?”
    https://freethoughtblogs.com/singham/2025/03/27/israeli-snipers-targeting-palestinian-children/#comments

    -This below is from 2020.
    Isra3li snipers have a long history of targeting civilians 

    “Israeli snipers brag about deliberately crippling Gaza protesters”
    https://www.newarab.com/news/israeli-snipers-brag-about-deliberately-crippling-gaza-protesters

    But, as Joe Biden said, “if Israel did not exist, we would have to invent it”.

  326. Akira MacKenzie says

    @ 317

    The American people are not so fragile as all that,” Manning said.

    HA! American fragility is the reason we’re in this mess! Tell Americans the demonstrable fact that our ancestors murdered natives, enslaved Africans, and exploited the workers (native-born and immigrant), women, etc. and they’ll happily install a white supremacist dictator to sooth their offended egos.

    Even if that history it’s true?

    ESPECIALLY IF IT’S TRUE! Feelings don’t care about your facts.

  327. JM says

    @326 Akira MacKenzie: That isn’t entirely fair. A lot of people have been taught misdirected anger their entire lives. They know they are working hard and are not as well off economically as their parents. They have been told their entire lives that finance and business practices can’t be the cause, must be something else. The Republicans have harnessed this anxiety against a series of targets by exploiting or manufacturing fear and outrage.

  328. JM says

    CNN: Top senators ask for watchdog to probe Signal chat as some in GOP say it’s ‘time to move on’

    But several GOP senators also on the Armed Services Committee insisted that it’s “time to move on,” arguing that such an incident won’t happen again and that the Trump officials involved in the Signal chat have learned from their mistakes.
    “It’s time to move on. The facts are not going to change. I don’t know that there are any more that could be revealed,” Sen. Kevin Cramer told reporters Thursday at the Capitol.

    Gotta love that logic. We have not done an investigation and shouldn’t bother because there may not be anything to discover. This is really a desperation move, none of their excuses have stuck and Trump doesn’t want to have somebody fall on their sword. So hoping it blows over is all the Republicans have left. Now it’s a question of how long it actually sticks. So far this seems sticky because it’s obviously really bad and is also simple enough for everybody to understand.

  329. says

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

    Underwater on everything: Americans disapprove of what Trump is doing on every issue in new poll
    Video is 2:48 minutes

    New political leadership: Regular Americans show how to stand up to Trump as political leaders fail
    Video is 6:14 minutes

    Allies wary of Trump admin’s incompetence after scandal over military plan group chat
    Video is 10:19 minutes

  330. says

    Canadian prime minister: The United States is ‘no longer a reliable partner’

    “The old relationship we had with the United States … is over,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney declared.

    Nearly nine years ago, as Barack Obama started wrapping up his final year as president, the Democrat traveled to Canada to deliver remarks to the House of Commons in Ottawa. To understate matters, Obama received an extraordinarily warm welcome.

    In fact, an NBC News report from the time noted that the then-president was greeted with “rapturous” applause and an extended standing ovation, which included Canadian lawmakers chanting, “Four more years! Four more years!” for quite a while.

    At the same gathering, then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canadians and Americans are more than just neighbors: The two countries’ populations, he said, are “family.” Obama soon after celebrated “the extraordinary alliance” between Canadians and Americans, adding: “Americans can never say it enough: We could not ask for a better friend or ally than Canada. We could not. It’s true, and we do not take it for granted.”

    Soon after, Obama went on to declare: “As president, I’ve deepened the ties between our countries. And because of the progress we’ve made in recent years, I can stand before you and say that the enduring partnership between Canada and the United States is as strong as it has ever been, and we are more closely aligned than ever before.”

    Those remarks were delivered in June 2016. I remember watching the event and feeling a great sense of pride, watching foreign policymakers embrace an American leader with robust enthusiasm.

    A lot can happen in nine years. The New York Times reported:

    Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada on Thursday vowed to defend his country’s workers, businesses and economy in response to new tariffs and threats from President Trump. He said Canada would move rapidly to trade more with other countries because it was clear that the United States was “no longer a reliable partner.”

    Carney, just two weeks into his tenure, also said, “The old relationship we had with the United States, based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation, is over.” He added, “We must fundamentally reimagine our economy. We will need to ensure that Canada can succeed in a drastically different world.” [video at the link]

    “We will need to dramatically reduce our reliance on the United States,” the prime minister went on to say. “We will need to pivot our trade relationships elsewhere. And we will need to do things previously thought impossible at speeds we haven’t seen in generations.”

    Americans who voted for the Republican ticket last fall might not have realized they were throwing their support behind a U.S. foreign policy that would shatter Canadian confidence in the United States. But here we are.

    It’s tempting to wonder what kind of reception Trump might receive in the House of Commons, and the degree to which it would be different from the one Obama received in 2016, but my suspicion is that we’ll never know — because the incumbent American president is unlikely to receive such an invitation.

  331. says

    About a month ago, the White House took an unprecedented step, punishing a prominent private law firm because Donald Trump disapproved of its clients. […]

    A week later, [Trump] did it again, targeting a different firm. A third firm was punished soon after, followed by a fourth. (Trump also signed an executive order last week that effectively threatened to punish any law firms that, from his perspective, challenge his administration in ways he considers “unreasonable.”)

    The list is still growing. NBC News reported:

    Trump signed an executive order today suspending the security clearances for employees at the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP which previously employed Robert Mueller, a special counsel who led the Russia investigation after the 2016 presidential election.

    The president’s directive accused the firm of, among other things, engaging in “obvious partisan representations.” Just as notably, the White House said in a statement that WilmerHale “rewarded” the former special counsel, whose investigation, in Trump’s estimation, “epitomizes the weaponization of government.”

    Right off the bat, it’s important to emphasize just how utterly bonkers these circumstances are. There is no precedent in the American tradition of a White House punishing a private law firm because it hired a lawyer the sitting president does not like. This is not the sort of thing that is supposed to happen in a healthy and free democratic country.

    Complicating matters, the idea that Mueller is some kind of super villain is so preposterous that it’s unsettling to see the White House put such a claim in writing. Mueller is, after all, a decorated Marine combat veteran, a lifelong Republican and the former director of the FBI.

    Yes, he also oversaw an investigation into the Russia scandal, but the scandal was real and serious, even if Trump pretends otherwise; […] serving as a special counsel does not mean a lawyer should be blacklisted for life; Mueller was appointed by the Trump administration, which makes it hilarious to see Trump characterize his work as an example of “weaponization”; and the president has spent the last several years claiming that Mueller cleared him of any wrongdoing in the scandal.

    To be sure, Trump has obviously lied repeatedly about Mueller’s findings, but taken at face value, the president has told the public that the former special counsel “exonerated” him in the Russia scandal.

    If that’s the case, why punish the firm that employed him?

    […] not every major law firm is responding to the White House’s offensive the same way. […]

    one of the targeted firms is challenging a Trump order in court, and just hours ago, two more firms filed separate lawsuits seeking to block enforcement of the president’s directive.

    Trump boasted publicly earlier this week about law firms caving to his demands and giving the White House what it wants, but as things stand, not every firm is bending the knee.

    Link

    Related video is available at the link.

  332. johnson catman says

    re JM @328: You just gotta LOVE the “we must move on” bullshit from republicans considering that they spent YEARS on fruitless investigations into Benghazi and “but her emails”.

  333. says

    Pam Bondi Takes Point On Covering Up Trump’s Signal Fiasco

    In highly unusual public statements about an unprecedented breach of national security at the highest levels of the U.S. government, Attorney General Pam Bondi not only shut the door on investigating whether criminal laws were broken in the Signal group chat fiasco but actively engaged in political attacks and rhetorical spin to defend the Trump administration and assail its critics.

    The attorney general, who wears dual hats as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer and as a member of the intelligence community, categorically dismissed the prospect of even investigating the matter during public remarks Thursday morning. Bondi quickly pivoted to regurgitating right-wing talking points about the prior mishandling of classified information by Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton: [video at the link]

    By last evening, […] on Fox News, Bondi was lambasting U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who is overseeing a civil lawsuit seeking to preserve the Signal chat as official government records. In an extraordinary move, Bondi attacked three DC federal judges by name as unable to be impartial or objective before singling out Boasberg for his role in the Signal case: [video at the link]

    Bondi has now made public statements assessing the facts and the law of the Signal case while resisting calls for an investigation. These are simply astounding actions by a sitting attorney general.

    “The Justice Department’s approach thus far stands in contrast with its customary role of examining serious national-security breaches,” the WSJ reported in the most understated possible way.

    The abiding concern all along has been that Trump would place loyalists at the Justice Department in part to protect himself and his administration from legal consequences for their wrongdoing – a permanent coverup mechanism to ignore, bury, and disregard executive branch lawlessness. Pam Bondi is eagerly filling the role of a loyalist attorney general. This is what it looks like.

  334. johnson catman says

    re Lynna @330:

    . . . because the incumbent American president is unlikely to receive such an invitation.

    Probably the only foreign invitation that The Orange Menace would receive would be from the Kremlin for doing such a great job destroying the USA.

  335. birgerjohansson says

    J D Vance has landed on Greenland. It would be sad if a native guide brought him out on the glaciers and went a bit too close to those bottomless glacier cracks.

  336. birgerjohansson says

    Me @ 335.
    Native guide: “You did not thank me for being guided here” (pushing sound) (quickly fading scream).

  337. Reginald Selkirk says

    Trump pardons ex-Nikola CEO Trevor Milton

    Trevor Milton, the founder of Nikola Motors who was convicted of defrauding investors in his zero-emission truck company, has been pardoned by President Donald Trump, the White House confirmed Friday.

    A federal jury convicted Milton of lying about Nikola’s capabilities, including an assertion that it had built its own electric truck, the Nikola One, from the “ground up.” He was also accused of staging a video that purportedly showed its Nikola One semi driving under its own power when it was actually rolling down a hill.

    Milton was sentenced to four years in prison, but remained out on bond while he appealed his conviction…

  338. Reginald Selkirk says

    Musk deletes post promising he’d go to Wisconsin to deliver $2 million to Supreme Court race voters

    Billionaire Elon Musk on Friday deleted a social media post in which he had announced plans to hold a rally in Wisconsin to “personally hand over” $2 million to a pair of voters who have already cast their ballots in the state’s hotly contested Supreme Court race.

    Musk deleted the post from his social media platform, X, about 12 hours after he initially posted it late Thursday night.

    He had posted that he planned to give $1 million each to two voters at the event on Sunday, just two days before the election that will determine ideological control of the court in the battleground state. The action was announced despite a Wisconsin law that explicitly prohibits giving anything of value in exchange for a vote.

    Musk said that attendance at his talk would be limited only to those who have voted in the Supreme Court election, without explaining how he would verify that.

    “I will also personally hand over two checks for a million dollars each in appreciation for you taking the time to vote,” Musk posted. “This is super important.”

    He didn’t say how the two people were chosen…

  341. birgerjohansson says

    The commandment that is always mistranslated
    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=9gF4YGKRXxc

    You could indeed see ‘the face of YAHWEH’ and live.
    The standing stone in the holy of holies was a stand-in for ‘the face of YAHWEH’ but the later Jewish tradition and the greek translation messed things up.
    This might seem like an obscure detail, but it shows the common translations are imperfect.

  344. says

    johnson catman @332, yeah. I was thinking the same thing.

    In other news:

    The Latest On Trump’s Attack On Higher Ed

    The University of Michigan, a national leader in diversity efforts in higher ed, is shuttering its DEI offices.

    Case Western Reserve University, Ohio’s largest private university, has shut down its DEI office under pressure from the Trump administration.

    The Trump DOJ has launched an anti-DEI investigation into admissions policies at Stanford, UC-Berkely, UCLA, and UC-Irvine.

    Link. The link leads to a roundup of several news reports, including the text quotes above.

  345. says

    To boost banks, Republican restore one of the ‘junk fees’ targeted by Biden

    “Joe Biden set out to limit overdraft fees banks can charge customers. Congressional Republicans are scrambling to undo that.”

    Related video at the link.

    During Joe Biden’s presidency, the Democratic campaign against “junk fees“ never really caught on as a major national issue, but there can be no doubt that helping consumers with these unnecessary costs was a major policy priority for the then-president.

    […] the Democratic administration finalized a policy limiting the overdraft fees banks can charge — which the then-president condemned as “exploitative” — discarding the lobbying efforts from the banking industry. The Biden-era Consumer Financial Protection Bureau concluded that the nation’s biggest banks took in roughly $8 billion [!] via these charges every year, which meant many consumers were poised to receive a significant boost.

    Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, meanwhile, has invested as much time and energy as any member of Congress defending these fees. […]

    This week, the Republican senator and lobbyists representing the banking industry took a big step toward success. The New York Times reported:

    The Senate voted Thursday to strike down a rule capping most bank overdraft fees at $5, a measure adopted late last year by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that had been expected to save Americans billions of dollars per year. … [I]t passed on a nearly party-line vote, 52-48.

    […] At this point, some readers are probably wondering why Senate Democrats didn’t block the effort. They would have, but as a procedural matter, they didn’t have the opportunity: Under the Congressional Review Act, Congress can undo recently adopted regulations by majority rule — and filibusters aren’t an option.

    And 52 Republicans — every GOP senator except Missouri’s Josh Hawley — advanced Scott’s measure, despite unanimous opposition from every Senate Democrat.

    “Why would we help the big banks at the expense of working people?” Hawley said after the vote. “I just don’t understand it.” [For once, Josh Hawley is correct.]

    Around the same time, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee and the person responsible for helping create the CFPB, wrote online, “Senate Republicans would rather you didn’t find out they just voted to give the biggest banks billions in profits from overdraft fees that kick working people when they’re down.” She went on to call the move “disgraceful.” [I agree.]

    The measure now heads to the Republican-led House, where it will likely receive overwhelming GOP support, though it would only take a handful of GOP members to vote the way Hawley did and derail the effort. Watch this space.

    Time to call your representative in the House of Congress … again.

  346. says

    Oh, FFS.

    Trump gets $100M deal with Skadden law firm amid pressure campaign

    […] Trump on Friday announced a deal with the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom to provide at least $100 million in pro bono legal services “during the Trump administration and beyond.”

    The agreement comes as Trump has signed executive orders targeting Big Law firms tied to his critics and perceived political enemies, restricting the work they can do with the federal government.

    “This was essentially a settlement,” Trump said, adding that “we very much appreciate their coming to the table.”

    [Trump] has not signed an order aimed at Skadden, though the administration has signaled that additional law firms could come under fire. The New York Times reported Thursday that Skadden appeared to be the first major firm seeking to cut a deal with Trump before he issued such an order.

    […] Skadden will also commit to “merit-based hiring, promotion and retention” and fund at least five fellows as part of a scholarship fund, Trump said.

    […] Trump then agreed to lift an executive order that would have taken away security clearances from the law firm’s staff.

    Hours before the news of the Skadden deal, two other firms — Jenner & Block and WilmerHale — separately sued the Trump administration over the president’s executive orders targeting them.

  347. says

    Is It GOOD To Name A Pro-Apartheid Loon As Ambassador To South Africa?

    In normal times, the US expelling the ambassador from another country would be big news! It’s an unusual move, reserved for the worst sort of behavior. In 2012 Obama expelled the Venezuelan consul general in Miami over allegations that she had discussed possible cyberattacks on US soil, and the Syrian chargé d’affaires in response to a massacre there. And Obama and Biden expelled Russian diplomats for spying on us.

    BUUUT last week the Trump administration expelled the South African ambassador to the US, Ebrahim Rasool, for the violation of diplomatically and correctly pointing out that Trump’s policies are white supremacist, how he tweetle-tweets on his white-supremacy dog whistle all the damn time, and his regime is working to export that white supremacy and great-replacement-theory horseshit to the whole world, too:

    “So in terms of that, the supremacist assault on incumbency, we see it in the domestic politics of the USA, the MAGA movement, the Make America Great Again movement, as a response not simply to a supremacist instinct, but to very clear data that shows great demographic shifts in the USA in which the voting electorate in the USA is projected to become 48 percent white. And that the possibility of a majority of minorities is looming on the horizon.

    “And so that needs to be factored in, so that we understand some of the things that we think are instinctive, nativist, racist things; I think that there’s data that, for example, would support that, that would go to this wall being built, the deportation movement. […] I think that there is also an export of the revolution. It’s no accident that Elon Musk has involved himself in UK politics, and elevated a Nigel Farage and the Reform movement, in much the same way that he was instructed that on his way to the Munich security summit, Vice President Vance addressed the [AfD] to strengthen them in their election campaign. And that, then, begins to say, what then was the role of Afrikaners in that whole makeup. And very clearly, it’s to project white victimhood as a dog whistle…”

    Which was so spot-on it true it really burned Trump and L’il Marco Rubio’s britches! [social media post at the link]

    RACE-BAITING SOUTH AFRICAN! Gee, we don’t know of any of those!

    Now Trump’s choice as top diplomat to South Africa has been named, and guess what, he’s a white supremacist and longtime supporter of Apartheid, Leo Brent Bozell III.

    If you’re lucky enough to not know who that guy is, he’s the founder of right-wing hacktanks including the Media Research Center and the Parents Television Council (known to huff that Ally McBeal was “smut”), and a frequent Fox News contributor, where he and Sean Hannity like to commiserate about how conservatives are the biggest victims of all time because the media is so lefty and mean to them. And he was pals with Rush Limbaugh, of course.

    Bozell III’s been on that mean librul media grind a long, long time; and the pro-Apartheid-for-South-Africa one too. Way back in the ‘80s he was a member of the National Conservative Political Action Committee, along with Nixonite pinhead Roger Stone, which actively opposed the end of Apartheid, and joined up with a group called “The Coalition Against ANC Terrorism.” (Ronald Reagan was also a member, and supported the Apartheid government, too.) […]

    Bozell III’s other greatest hits include saying Barack Obama looks like a “skinny, ghetto crackhead” and that Al Sharpton was “a racist” like “David Duke” for calling George Zimmerman’s acquittal “an atrocity.” […]

    Back in 2021, The Nation called the Bozells the “First Family of Right-Wing Violence,” which is hard to argue with! L. Brent Bozell Jr. and William F. Buckley Jr. founded the National Review, and Bozell Jr. [I snipped details of Barry Goldwater connection.] Bozell III’s son, “Zeeker” Bozell IV, was arrested and sentenced to four years on 10 felony counts related to being one of the first January 6 tourists to break into the Capitol: He smashed glass on the Senate Wing Door and was one of the people chasing Officer Eugene Goodman down the hall. Real family bonafides! Trump pardoned “Zeeker,” of course.

    Naming B-III as ambassador is of course a big old fuck-you to South Africa, which is trying to pull itself out of centuries of white-supremacist colonialist oppression, and 75 years of brutal, explicitly racist policies that seized Black South Africans’ land, denied them the right to vote or run for office, fired people for being Black, shot schoolchildren in the back for protesting, made people have to have passbooks to travel around their own country, and oh, so much more.

    And since Elon Musk has become presidential First Buddy, saying fuck you to South Africa is one of Trump’s favorite pastimes. Whether it’s by pulling all aid and granting rapid pathway to citizenship for (white) South African farmers based on a many-times-over-disproven conspiracy theory about white South African farmers being murdered (turns out they are mostly killing each other), or lying that white farmers are having their land confiscated by the government (they are not), he just can’t get enough. Dogwhistle to racists is an understatement, this is a bullhorn in front of a wall of speakers under a flashing neon sign.

    Like Vance and L’il’ Marco himself, Bozell III was once anti-Trump, and in 2016 called him a “huckster,” “shameless self-promoter” and “the greatest charlatan of them all.” […]

    But Trump loves a zealous convert!

    Bozell III will still have to be confirmed by the Senate, which probably will, because there’s nobody they won’t confirm for him.

    […] But ugh, this is so embarrassing.

  348. says

    Pentagon Starting To Leak About What A Loser F*ckup Pete Hegseth Really Is

    Here we go, and hey-o! We were wondering when the leaking would start, now that Signal-Gate is showing America and the whole entire world what absolutely incompetent, impotent buffoons the Trump administration is really full of.

    We really really were wondering when the leaks would start coming out of the Pentagon, about Major Dumbass […] AKA Pete […] Hegseth, […]. After all, Donald Trump might not realize it, because Trump doesn’t care about American national security, but the Defense secretary’s actions in that Signal thread are by far the bigger scandal than what National Security Advisor Mike Waltz did when he added the Atlantic editor to the unsecured chat, like a complete dipshit.

    What that did was alert the world to how loosely Major Dumbass […] Hegseth was playing with American troops’ lives and classified war attack battle bombs go boom! plans. (He wants us to believe there’s some big difference about the exact terminology there.)

    We were curious from the beginning how the Pentagon would accept this loser fuckup being in charge, if they’d betray everything they ever fought for to fall in line behind this walking cycle of abuse. Pete Hegseth has been on the job for barely two months.

    Then came Signal-Gate. The leaks have started, and whoa.

    The first article we’ve seen is from CNN, but by the time you read there, there might be more. Natasha Bertrand and her colleagues bring us an article with the headline “Concerns about Hegseth’s judgment come roaring back after group chat scandal,” and the big thing we notice is just how many currently serving individuals they talked to. In fact, most of the quotes in this article come from current officials.

    Obviously nobody is talking on the record. The military is more tight-lipped than anybody else […] So please note that this CNN article is sourced from former and current officials, and some of the most damning assessments come from current officials.

    About what Major Dumbass did, and how literally anybody else in the military would be treated if guilty of the same offense, this current official says:

    “It is safe to say that anybody in uniform would be court-martialed for this,” a defense official told CNN. “My most junior analysts know not to do this.”

    […] Some current officials are calling out how substance-free Hegseth is, saying he’s more concerned with looking all big and tough and manly and “lethal,” less concerned with, you know, actually doing things:

    Several DoD officials told CNN that Hegseth seems more preoccupied with appearances than with substance—wanting to appear more “lethal” than his predecessor and pulling resources from elsewhere in DoD to achieve that image.

    One Pentagon official CNN talked to referred to how Kegseth deployed all these troops to the Mexican border, to do … what? Apparently a lot of “just standing around.” They continued:

    The deployments to the border are “clearly more about optics,” the defense official said. The official added that diverting troops and assets to patrol a mostly peaceful border was actually drawing them away from training exercises that could improve overall combat readiness.

    […] Hegseth has been insisting that the bomby-bomby details he shared in that Signal chat weren’t classified, as if it makes sense in any universe that any details about any military operation that is imminently about to happen wouldn’t be classified, Jesus Christ, my fucking ass.

    Four sources CNN spoke to agree that Jesus Christ, my fucking ass:

    [F]our people familiar with the matter told CNN that the information Hegseth disclosed on the Houthi group chat was classified, despite the administration’s claims to the contrary. One of the people said they saw documents sent within DoD about the operation, which were marked classified and included the same information Hegseth disclosed in the Signal chat about specific weapons platforms and timing.

    “It was classified when it was shared below the principal level,” this person said. [!!]

    We’re sure the former “Fox & Friends” weekend host remembered to declassify all the battle plans two hours before the bombs started dropping, because that’s just good Army-ing. Maybe he declassified it in his mind, like Donald Trump did with all those classified documents he stole and took to the toilets at Mar-a-Lago!

    As for other ways Pete Hegseth has been wasting America’s time and making us less safe, one defense official spoke to CNN about all Hegseth’s pathetically stupid DEI purges, as he makes sure to rid DoD websites of pictures of the “Enola Gay,” information about Navajo code talkers, Bea Arthur, and literally anything else that suggests anybody other than a white supremacist Christian Nazi man has ever Made America Great Again.

    “Of all the things they could be doing, the places they’re putting their focuses on first are really things that just don’t matter … This was literally a waste of our time,” a defense official told CNN of the content purge. “This does absolutely nothing to make us stronger, more lethal, better prepared.”

    He’s just a fucking joke. Nothing more, nothing less.

    Is this the “merit” these […] MAGA [people] have been telling us about, the excellence we’ve been missing out on by allowing women and LGBTQ+ people and racial minorities to sully Pete Hegseth’s beautiful military?

    Or is this the kind of white conservative male mediocrity that good DEI policies help to prevent from rising to the top? As one official told CNN of the whole Signal fiasco, “This is all indicative of his utter inexperience.” (For comparison’s sake, CNN’s article helpfully reminds us of Hegseth’s most recent predecessors’ resumes, because they actually have them.) […].

  349. Rob Grigjanis says

    birger @342: It’s not just Scottish. Northern English dialects have many (way more than 25) words, personal names and place names of Norse origin. Some places; York (Jorvik), Kirkby (church farm), Whitby (Hvíta’s farm), Threlkeld.

  350. says

    The grift goes on and on:

    As Donald Trump prepared to leave the White House after his 2020 election defeat, he issued some of the most controversial pardons in American history. […] it’s clear that the president is picking up where he left off.

    On the first day of his second term, Trump issued roughly 1,500 pardons and commuted the sentences of 14 Jan. 6 criminals, including violent felons who were in prison for assaulting police officers. A few days later, he kept going, pardoning 23 anti-abortion-rights activists, seemingly unconcerned with their guilt. That was soon followed by a pardon for former Gov. Rob Blagojevich, a man synonymous with corruption in Illinois politics, whom Trump saw as any ally.

    Earlier this month, he pardoned a Tennessee Republican who was just two weeks into a 21-month sentence for his role in a campaign finance fraud scheme. This week, as CNBC reported, the list grew a little longer.

    […] Trump pardoned Nikola Corp. founder Trevor Milton for his October 2022 conviction of federal crimes related to defrauding investors with false claims about the success of the electric and hydrogen-powered truck maker. Milton, 42, was sentenced in December 2023 to four years in prison, but he has been free since then pending an appeal of the former CEO’s criminal conviction on securities and wire fraud charges in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

    The report added that the pardon came just two weeks after federal prosecutors urged U.S. District Court Judge Edgardo Ramos to order Milton to pay restitution of $680 million to Nikola shareholders as well as $15.2 million to Peter Hicks, a victim of his wire fraud.

    Milton apparently received a personal phone call from Trump the day before the White House formally confirmed that the president had signed the pardon.

    As for why Trump took this step, a reporter asked the president to explain his reasoning, and it didn’t go especially well.
    [video at the link]

    [Trump] seemed to know very little about the circumstances surrounding Milton’s crimes, saying that “they” told him that Milton and his family were treated unfairly for political reasons. (Trump also repeatedly referred to himself in third person for reasons that weren’t altogether clear.)

    What Trump neglected to mention were some relevant details about Milton and his case. For example, as CNBC’s report noted, following his criminal sentencing, the former Nikola CEO “made significant political donations to Trump and his allies. This included $920,000 to the Trump 47 Committee in October of 2024, and $750,000 in September to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s MAHA Alliance political action committee.”

    Before his conviction, Milton had never before made a campaign contribution, but for some reason, he became quite generous in late 2024.

    It also seems worth emphasizing that Milton’s defense attorney was a man named Brad Bondi — and if his last name sounds familiar, it’s because Brad Bondi is Attorney General Pam Bondi’s brother.

    [Trump] has created an entirely new legal/political dynamic, without precedent in the American tradition, in which pardons are available to perceived political allies with whom Trump sympathizes.

    Sam Bankman-Fried is reportedly angling for a pardon. So is former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy. The New York Times reported a few weeks ago that there’s a White House team in place focusing on “clemency grants that underscore the president’s own grievances,” and well-connected lawyers and lobbyists “have scrambled to take advantage.”

    They have collected large fees from clemency seekers who would not be eligible for second chances under apolitical criteria that are intended to guide a Justice Department system for recommending mercy for those who have served their time or demonstrated remorse and a lower likelihood of recidivism. Instead, clemency petitioners are mostly circumventing that system, tailoring their pitches to the president by emphasizing their loyalty to him and echoing his claims of political persecution. [And paying huge sums of money!]

    The Times’ report […] added that among the many eager to take advantage of the new pardon landscape are “a rapper convicted in connection with a Malaysian embezzlement scheme, a reality-television-star couple found guilty of defrauding banks and evading taxes, and two Washington, D.C., police officers convicted after a chase that killed a young man.”

    […] Rachel Barkow, a professor at the New York University School of Law who has studied the use of presidential clemency. She said that while Trump’s first-term pardons were all about “cronyism and partisanship,” the potential for corruption is higher now “because they’re starting early, they have figured out how they want to set it up so that people have a pipeline to get to them.”

    […] Did I mention that Team Trump recently ousted the Justice Department’s pardon attorney, as part of a broader political purge of federal law enforcement? Because that happened, too.

    The next time you hear presidential chest-thumping about “law and order” and “tough on crime,” keep this in mind.

    Link

  351. says

    Followup of sorts to comment 350.

    Egotistical, incompetent, racist, and—according to even some in his inner circle—an idiot. And now there’s another title to add to the list of words describing President Donald Trump: mob boss.

    Axios reported Friday that foreign leaders and business executives hoping to meet with Trump know that if they want to gain favor with him, they need to cough up a gift.

    Many corporations are terrified of how Trump’s tariffs might impact their business and are scrambling to stay on his good side with peace offerings. […] companies like Apple, Eli Lilly, Hyundai, Johnson & Johnson, and SoftBank have all made massive investments in the U.S. since Trump won last year’s presidential election.

    Take Hyundai, for example. This week, the South Korean automaker announced a $21 billion investment in the U.S. between 2025 and 2028, conveniently securing an exemption from Trump’s tariffs in the process. Of course, the administration wasted no time taking credit for the deal—even though it was Trump’s disastrous policies that created the problem in the first place.

    [snipped Karoline Leavitt’s blather]

    It’s not just corporations kissing the ring, either. In February, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum deployed the first of at least 10,000 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to help Trump curb immigration. In return? Trump hit pause on tariffs against Mexico. The country is now reportedly working to sidestep a looming 25% tariff on car imports.

    Meanwhile, earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin gifted Trump a custom portrait. […

    Ahead of Trump’s inauguration in January, companies like Amazon, Google, and Meta poured money into his orbit. Their reward? A plum seat at the table.

    [….] U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer for example. During his late February visit to the Oval Office, he presented Trump with an embossed letter from King Charles III, personally inviting him to Britain.

    Starmer played up the invitation too, as if to flatter Trump even more. “This has never happened before,” he said. “This is unprecedented.”

    Trump, of course, was delighted, gushing that the king was a “beautiful” and “wonderful” man.

    Then there’s the case of Washington Post owner Jeffrey Bezos, who has transformed the once-critical newspaper into a much more MAGA-friendly outlet—a favor the president has complimented his billionaire buddy for.

    The pattern here is clear: If you want to get on Trump’s good side, be prepared to grovel—or at least dangle something shiny in front of him.

    Link

  352. JM says

    Reporting from Ukraine: Russians Devastated! LOSE MONTHS OF PROGRESS!
    The Ukrainians continue their forward advance to protect Kostyantynivka. They are making progress on pushing the Russians out of Toretsk, which the Russians spent most of last year fighting their way into.
    The interesting part is that Ukraine is using a careful combined arms offense. This is a NATO tactic that the Ukrainians had no luck with in their first offenses. The difference seems to be better air support, more experienced units and depleted Russian forces.
    In other news both sides have accused the other of violating the energy cease fire that it isn’t exactly clear they have agreed to anyways. Both sides are obviously working to manipulate Trump on this issue. It isn’t clear at this point how badly either side is playing with the rules.

  353. says

    Gift link to New York Times

    “Hillary Clinton: How Much Dumber Will This Get?”

    Excerpts from the opinion essay are pasted in below.

    […] In a dangerous and complex world, it’s not enough to be strong. You must also be smart. As secretary of state during the Obama administration, I argued for smart power, integrating the hard power of our military with the soft power of our diplomacy, development assistance, economic might and cultural influence. None of those tools can do the job alone. Together, they make America a superpower. The Trump approach is dumb power. Instead of a strong America using all our strengths to lead the world and confront our adversaries, Mr. Trump’s America will be increasingly blind and blundering, feeble and friendless.

    Let’s start with the military, because that’s what he claims to care about. Don’t let the swagger fool you. Mr. Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (of group chat fame) are apparently more focused on performative fights over wokeness than preparing for real fights with America’s adversaries. Does anyone really think deleting tributes to the Tuskegee Airmen makes us more safe? The Trump Pentagon purged images of the plane that dropped the atomic bomb that ended World War II because its name is the Enola Gay. Dumb.

    Instead of working with Congress to modernize the military’s budget to reflect changing threats, the president is firing top generals without credible justification. Five former secretaries of defense, Republicans and Democrats, rightly warned that this would “undermine our all-volunteer force and weaken our national security.” Mass layoffs are also hitting the intelligence agencies. As one former senior spy put it, “We’re shooting ourselves in the head, not the foot.” Not smart.

    […] China understands the value of forward-deployed diplomacy, which is why it has opened new embassies and consulates around the world and now has more than the United States. The Trump administration’s retreat leaves the field open for Beijing to spread its influence uncontested.

    […] Diplomacy is cost-effective, especially compared with military action. Preventing wars is cheaper than fighting them. Mr. Trump’s own former secretary of defense Jim Mattis, a retired Marine Corps four-star general, told Congress, “If you don’t fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition.”

    […] I don’t want to pretend that any of this is easy or that American foreign policy hasn’t been plagued by mistakes. Leadership is hard. But our best chance to get it right and to keep our country safe is to strengthen our government, not weaken it. We should invest in the patriots who serve our nation, not insult them.

    […] And I haven’t even gotten to the damage Mr. Trump is doing by cozying up to dictators like Russia’s Vladimir Putin, blowing up our alliances […] Or how he’s tanking our economy and blowing up our national debt. […]

    If there’s a grand strategy at work here, I don’t know what it is. Maybe Mr. Trump wants to return to 19th-century spheres of influence. Maybe he’s just driven by personal grudges and is in way over his head. As a businessman, he bankrupted his Atlantic City casinos. Now he’s gambling with the national security of the United States. If this continues, a group chat foul will be the least of our concerns, and all the fist and flag emojis in the world won’t save us.

  355. says

    Vice President Vance in a speech from a U.S. base in Greenland on Friday said the U.S. is not likely to use military force in President Trump’s pursuit of taking over the territory.

    Vance also said the U.S. respects Greenland’s sovereignty, despite Trump’s repeated comments that America would take ownership of the Arctic island away from Denmark.

    “We do not think military force is ever going to be necessary,” Vance said in response to a reporter’s question on whether there are military plans to take over the island.

    “What we think is going to happen is that the Greenlanders are going to choose, through self determination, to become independent of Denmark, and then we’re going to have conversations with the people of Greenland from there.”

    Vance made his remarks from the Pituffik Space Base […] [No one else in Greenland wanted to host Vance and his wife.]

    Trump has repeatedly discussed acquiring Greenland, arguing it would strengthen U.S. security and combat threats ranging from Russia’s access to the Arctic to China’s attempts to make inroads in the region.

    “We need Greenland for international security. We have to have Greenland,” Trump said in remarks from the White House on Friday.

    Vance shifted attention to Denmark’s responsibility for Greenland’s security, saying that the Danes “have not done their job in keeping this area safe.”

    […] “We hope that they choose to partner with the United States because we’re the only nation on earth that will respect their sovereignty and respect their security,” he said. [Con man speaks.] […]

    Link

    Related video at the link.

  356. says

    New York Times:

    The S&P 500 index dropped 2 percent as investors weighed hotter-than-expected inflation data and braced for President Trump’s next round of tariffs. […]

  357. says

    Growing measles outbreak in Texas pushes U.S. cases above 520

    “The number of recorded cases in less than three months in 2025 is higher than for any year in the last decade, except for one. Texas alone has 400 confirmed cases.”

    […] All but two of Texas’ confirmed infections have been in people who were unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown.

    The outbreak has spread to three other states: New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas, where the World Health Organization reported on Thursday that a DNA sequence of the virus in one case was identical to those from Texas. [map at the link]

    […] Katherine Wells, director of public health for nearby Lubbock County, told NBC News last week that efforts to increase vaccination there have gotten a lukewarm response and suggested that it could be a year until the outbreak is controlled.

    Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 92.7% of kindergarteners have had two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The two-shot regimen is 97% effective at preventing measles.

    […] Infants usually get their first measles shot at 12 to 15 months, followed by the second when they are 4 to 6 years old. But the Texas Health Department said earlier this month that it may consider vaccinating babies as young as 6 months. The CDC says health departments can offer earlier vaccinations in areas experiencing outbreaks.

    Measles is highly contagious — the virus spreads through the air and can linger for up to two hours after an infected person leaves a space, according to the CDC. Up to 90% of people without immunity from a vaccine or prior infection can contract the illness if they come into contact with an infected person. […]

  358. says

    Federal judge blocks Trump administration from fast-tracking deportations

    “The order prevents migrants from being sent to to countries with which they had no existing relationship without giving them a chance to raise claims that they would be in danger there.”

    A federal judge on Friday blocked […] Trump’s administration from deporting migrants to countries with which they had no existing relationship without giving them a chance to raise claims that they would face persecution or torture if sent there.

    U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston issued a nationwide temporary restraining order designed to protect people subject to final orders of removal from being swiftly deported to countries other than those that had already been identified during immigration proceedings.

    […] Earlier this month, Trump invoked a 226-year-old wartime authority to send alleged Venezuelan gang members to a high-security prison in El Salvador.

    The move was blocked by a federal judge but flights carrying more than 200 deportees continued to El Salvador where the men remain detained despite objections from immigrant and civil rights groups.

    Murphy’s decision came in a lawsuit filed on Sunday by a group of migrants represented by immigrant rights advocates challenging a policy U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently adopted that is aimed at fast-tracking the deportations of thousands of migrants who had been previously released from detention.

    […] Murphy, an appointee of Trump’s Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, noted that under the Convention Against Torture, migrants had protections against being removed to countries where they face a likelihood of torture.

    […] Murphy’s order will remain in effect until the judge can rule on the plaintiffs’ request for a longer-term preliminary injunction. He will hear arguments on that request on April 10.

  359. says

    Powerful earthquake hits Myanmar and Thailand, killing at least 150 and injuring hundreds

    “The scale of destruction was unclear in Myanmar, where the military government keeps a tight hold on information. The U.S. Geological Survey estimated thousands could be dead.”

    Related video at the link.

    A 7.7-magnitude earthquake centered in Myanmar reverberated across Southeast Asia on Friday, with the scale of death and destruction slowly coming into view in the war-ravaged nation where the military government maintains a tight hold on information.

    The earthquake occurred around 1:30 p.m. local time (2:30 a.m. ET) at a depth of 6 miles near Mandalay, the second-largest city in Myanmar, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It was followed 11 minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock, which the USGS initially reported as a 6.4-magnitude.

    […] Myanmar’s ruling military general, Min Aung Hlaing, said the death toll was at least 140 people and likely to rise, with hundreds of others injured, according to Reuters. [map at the link]

    […] In neighboring Thailand, at least 10 people were confirmed to have been killed, with at least 100 more missing, according to city officials. The death toll is expected to rise there, as well, but the damage seemed less widespread.

    […] Bangkok, more than 600 miles from the epicenter, was declared a disaster zone after the quake sent buildings swaying and water sloshing from rooftop swimming pools. Thousands of people were forced to evacuate their homes and workplaces in the city, which is home to 17 million people, many of whom live in high-rise apartments.

    […] The earthquake Friday was probably the biggest on the Myanmar mainland in three-quarters of a century, said Bill McGuire, a professor of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London.

    “A combination of size and very shallow depth will maximize the chances of damage,” he said. “It is highly likely that build quality will generally not be high enough to survive this level of shaking, and casualty numbers will almost certainly climb significantly as more becomes known of the scale of the disaster.”

  360. says

    White House press corps just added a far-right nut

    A right-wing podcast known for promoting racism and conspiracy theories, and which also reportedly received payoffs from a front for the Russian government, has been added to the White House reporting pool.

    In an email to reporters on Friday morning, the Trump administration revealed that the conservative “Timcast” podcast had been assigned to the “new media” slot for reporting on the White House for the day. The White House pool is a group of reporters assigned to cover events on behalf of the rest of the media.

    Timcast is owned and operated by conservative influencer Tim Pool.

    Last year, CNN reported that Pool was one of six conservative influencers who received payments from Tenet Media to produce videos with right-wing content.

    According to an indictment filed by the Department of Justice, Tenet was a front for the Russian government, which sought to use the influencers’ content as part of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s ongoing efforts to sow political discord within the United States. Pool has claimed he was unaware he was being paid by the Russian government.

    Pool’s program regularly traffics in bigotry and conspiracy theories.

    Pool has claimed that “multiculturalism” was the motivation behind a 2023 mass shooting at a mall in Allen, Texas, that left eight dead. In reality, the shooter had multiple Nazi tattoos and wore a patch with initials meaning “Right Wing Death Squad” during the shooting. Pool has also argued that several mass shootings are “psyops” (psychological operations) orchestrated by intelligence services.

    […] Pool has a guest roster on his program packed with racists, bigots, and fellow conspiracy theorists. Among his guests have been Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, white supremacist and hoaxer Jack Posobiec, and conspiracy theorist Darren Beattie, who is now a part of the Trump administration.

    The host has made absurd arguments, such as falsely claiming the government is using the power grid to control people’s cooking.

    In one particularly strange episode, following the 2023 Texas shooting, news broke that the shooter had posted clips of Pool’s program along with neo-Nazi and incel (involuntary celibate) material. In response, Pool said, “I think it’s funny and I really just don’t care.”

    White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt (no stranger to promoting falsehoods) has said the administration would welcome more right-wing content makers into the press room under Trump.

    That now clearly means conspiratorial, bigoted programs like Timcast receiving a stronger boost than ever before.

  361. says

    WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Millions of Americans have been rattled this week by the bombshell that a former Fox News host might be a liar, reports on Thursday indicate.

    According to industry insiders, the revelation that a former employee might have knowingly disseminated falsehoods threatens to tarnish the image of the nation’s most trusted news organization.

    Harland Dorrinson, a crisis management specialist, said that Fox News needs to “change the narrative” by reminding Americans of its peerless and longstanding reputation for honesty.

    “Fox needs to remind people that they are the network of Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, and Tucker Carlson,” he said. “One bad apple doesn’t spoil the whole bunch.”

    Link

  362. Reginald Selkirk says

    CIA found the Ark of the Covenant by using psychics, declassified files claim

    Declassified CIA documents claim that the mystical Ark of the Covenant was located by a psychic decades ago in the Middle East as part of one of the intelligence agency’s experimental, secret projects in the 1980s…

    The CIA conducted experiments as part of the secret Project Sun Streak with individuals known as “remote viewers”, a type of clairvoyant, who claimed they could project their consciousness to receive information about faraway objects.

    There is no credible scientific evidence that remote viewing exists, and it is generally regarded as pseudoscience.

    In a remote viewing session on 5 December, 1988, remote “viewer #32” was tasked with identifying the coveted Ark, according to CIA documents recently circulating on social media. The documents were first declassified in August 2000. They allegedly did not know the object they were being tasked to find.

    The psychic described a location in the Middle East that they claimed housed the object and said it was being “protected by entities”, says the CIA document.

    “Target is a container. This container has another container inside of it. The target is fashioned of wood, gold, and silver,” they said, allegedly not knowing they were trying to find the Ark. “Similar in shape to a coffin and is decorated with seraphim.”

    The declassified document shows several pages of drawings depicting one of the four seraphim standing out on the corners of the Ark, along with a drawing of mummies lined up on a wall…

    However, Mr McMoneagle does not believe that this remote viewing case is worth the paper it is written on, claiming the session is “bogus”.

    “If someone claims that remote viewing proves the existence of something, such as the Ark of the Covenant, they must produce the Ark to substantiate their claim,” he added.

    bury the lede – at no time was the allegedly viewed object actually “found.”

  363. Reginald Selkirk says

    ‘I am almost done…’: Elon Musk reveals date he’ll ‘ditch Trump’ and quit Washington DC after DOGE purge

    Tech billionaire Elon Musk has revealed the date he plans to ‘ditch US President Donald Trump’ and leave Washington DC after his DOGE purge of Federal departments. The Tesla CEO sat down with key members of his DOGE team to discuss the work his team has carried out for the first few months of Trump’s administration.

    Elon Musk plans to step down from his cost-cutting role in the Trump administration at the end of May after reducing the US deficit by $1 trillion, the tech billionaire said on Thursday, according to The Fox News. Musk, 54, expressed confidence in getting close to that goal, which would halve the annual federal deficit, in just 130 days — saying his team was averaging “$4 billion a day, every day, seven days a week.” …

  364. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Commentary for the anti-Smithsonian Executive order @317.

    ‪Evan Bernick (Law professor):

    the let’s-whitewash-the-museums EO literally complains about a view of race espoused by Clarence Thomas […] In a fucking affirmative action opinion no less […] It is wrong and extremely racist and even Clarence Thomas appears to understand this.

    Rando 1:

    EO: The [Smithsonian] exhibit further claims that “sculpture has been a powerful tool in promoting scientific racism” and promotes the view that race is not a biological reality but a social construct

    The irony of complaining about scientific racism and literally AT THE END OF THE SAME SENTENCE saying race is a biological reality instead of a social construct
    […]
    Still do not understand how that man [JD Vance] has mixed race children and thinks this way. Like Usha you in danger girl.

    Maybe the White House is objecting to including science in their racism. /s

    Rando 2: “‘Race is a biological reality” Jesus christ. These people are nazis.”
     
    Josh Marshall

    EO: determine whether, since January 1, 2020, public monuments, memorials, statues, markers […] have been removed or changed to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history

    This is 100% a Make the Confederacy Great Again EO. It’s all abt resurrecting the statues of the generals who committed treason to join the Confederacy. I almost admire the word play audacity in the service of evil in their use of the phrase “false reconstruction” to describe their goal.

    Josh Marshall: “Using the word ‘reconstruction’ in this way is 100% a Steve miller special.”

  366. JM says

    CNN: Elon Musk says he sold X to his AI company

    Elon Musk on Friday evening announced he has sold his social media company, X, to xAI, his artificial intelligence company, in a deal that values X at $33 billion, much less than he paid for it in 2022 but a significant rebound from its moribund valuation just a few months ago.
    “xAI and X’s futures are intertwined,” Musk said in a post on X. “Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent. This combination will unlock immense potential by blending xAI’s advanced AI capability and expertise with X’s massive reach.”

    This is an internal shuffling of two companies that Musk owns so the values given to the companies should be taken with a grain of salt. It may mean that Musk has realized he doesn’t have enough time to be meddling with X the way he has been, meddling with the US government is taking too much of his time.

  367. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Commentary for the xAI story @366.

    George Pearkes (Financial analyst):

    Elon has wiped out his co-investors and rolled into the next Ponzi asset.

    Bloomberg: xAI has acquired X in an all-stock transaction that values XAI at $80b and X at $33b, $45B less $12B debt, Elon Musk says in a post on X.

    Here’s how this works: If you put $100 in to Twitter as a minority investor you are now the proud owner of $78 worth of xAI at a $80bn valuation.

    Patrick Chovanec (Economist): “He can’t even sell it to himself without taking a loss.”

    Jesse Merle (Law professor): “The only real number here is the $12B in debt. lol”

    Southpaw: “So what happened to the debt?”
    Rando: “Well let the SEC worry about it.”
     
    Bloomberg – DOGE staffers arrive at SEC

    The message didn’t identify the DOGE emissaries by name, and [Securities and Exchange Commission] staff were instructed to treat them as internal employees
    […]
    The agency has historically cost the government less in operating expenses than it produces in revenue from fees and enforcement actions. “In effect, the SEC pays for itself and costs taxpayers nothing,” a group of Columbia Law School professors wrote […] “Cutting its staff and budget is thus counterproductive and inflationary.”
    […]
    Musk has often been at odds with the SEC.

  368. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    An injunction to save the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

    Mark Stern (Slate)

    What an extraordinary way to start an opinion. (Spoiler: Judge Amy Berman Jackson holds that she must take action now to prevent the unlawful dissolution of the CFPB.)

    Judge Amy Berman Jackson on the CFPB employee whom the administration forced, under oath, to parrot its false claims denying the illegal dissolution of the agency: “He had the demeanor of an abused wife brought to court by her husband to drop the charges.”

    Rando: “This is pretty damning. ‘the Court is left with little confidence that the defense can be trusted to tell the truth about anything.'”

    Docket

    a preliminary injunction that maintains the agency’s existence […] reinstating and preserving the agency’s contracts, work force, data, and operational capacity, and protecting and facilitating the employees’ ability to perform statutorily required activities.

  369. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Michael Tomasky (The New Republic):

    The Trump administration quietly reinstated a State Dept program allowing the tracking of Ukrainian children sent to Russia. There was enormous pressure

     
    NPR – USAID terminates nearly all its remaining employees

    nearly all of the remaining 900 employees […] Virtually no one will be spared, not even political appointees, according to two senior USAID officials
    […]
    In an email to USAID staff, Jeremy Lewin, a [DOGE] official who took over running the day-to-day operations at USAID from Pete Marocco on March 20, said the reductions in force (RIFs) would go into effect on either July 1 or Sept. 2. […] Lewin said that there would be a separate process established “for hiring personnel into available roles at the State Department” and that additional information would become available “likely in April or May.”

    “In the next three months, we will work closely with the State Department to build their capacities to assume the responsible administration of USAID’s remaining life-saving and strategic aid programming,” Lewin wrote

  370. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    A follow-up undoing a pivotal reinstatement last month.

    Chris Geidner (Law Dork):

    D.C. Circuit, on a 2-1 vote, allows for Trump’s firing of members of multi-member independent boards—Gwynne Wilcox, National Labor Relations Board and Cathy Harris, Merit Systems Protection Board—to go into effect during appeals. This is bad, folks.

    Rando: “By the time they might be installed again, the agencies will have been gutted. Almost nothing would be lost by keeping them in place for at least a little while, during which the issue could be resolved.”

    Chris Geidner: “NEWS: Harris asks for an emergency administrative stay pending a request for en banc review of today’s decision”
     
    Nick Bednar (Law professor):

    And the MSPB loses its quorum…

    A thread on the moment and what it means for feds. The Civil Service Reform Act envisions 3 guardrails to protect civil servants: (1) An Office of Special Counsel to investigate allegations of prohibited personnel practices, (2) the Merit Systems Protection Board to hear cases, and (3) unions.

    Those guardrails are effectively gone. There are very few ways (if any) that remain for federal employees to challenge their removal. How long this remains the case is quite uncertain at this moment. An explainer on how we ended up here and what it means. TLDR: We are in limbo.
    [*snip*]
    Employees MUST go through the MSPB before they can file in court. The MSPB lost a quorum for 5 years (2017-2022). The federal courts likened the lack of a quorum to a “delay” and said that the lack of a quorum did not allow employees to skip the administrative proceedings.

    Employees themselves cannot sue in federal court. There are some federal cases brought by states and NGOs that have been successful.
    [*snip*]
    It has been pointed out that Trump nominated someone to MSPB this week. […] Now it’s on Congress to confirm.

    He picked James Woodruff II, a Floridian of the Federalist Society, for a 7-year term.

  371. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Follow-up to Reginald Selkirk @154 on the executive order against Jenner & Block.

    ‪Chris Geidner (Law Dork):

    [Judge] Bates will be issuing a TRO. Bates finds that the EO likely retaliates against Jenner in violation of the First Amendment and is likely a form of unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination. That is “magnified by” his finding that the EO “likely offends the Fifth and Sixth Amendments” as well.

    It is “emphatically in the public interest” to issue a TRO here, Bates says, adding that the pro bono discussion in Section 1 of the EO is “disturbing.”
    –
    Judge John Bates grants Jenner & Block’s temporary restraining order request, blocking implementation of Sections 3 (contracting) and 5 (personnel) of the executive order targeting Jenner & Block, as well as use of the language in Section 1 (risks).

    Chris Hayes (on Mar 27):

    Really feel like I’m losing my mind: government OBVIOUSLY cannot punish an individual law firm for hiring someone it disfavors! It’s ludicrously unconstitutional and I feel like without a day of law school I could argue the case. And yet the best paid lawyers in the country are folding?

  372. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Follow-up to 311, 331.

    ‪Adam Klasfeld (MSNBC):

    A third major law firm, WilmerHale, wins a temporary restraining order BLOCKING Trump’s executive order targeting it.

    “The injuries to plaintiff here would be severe and spill over to its clients and the justice system at large.”

    Adam Klasfeld: “So far, all three law firms that fought back against Trump’s executive orders targeting them won [Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, WilmerHale], before three different judges. And two firms preemptively folded [Paul Weiss, Skadden].”

  373. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (American Immigration Council):

    Although this case doesn’t currently involve the Alien Enemies Act, it shows what happens when ICE’s allegations of TdA membership get reviewed by independent judges. […] This is in the case of the Venezuelan couple arrested in DC for crossing the border two years after it happened. [WaPo]

    [The couple had entered the US with their kids in 2022 and were allowed in. DHS had granted them temporary protected status to not deport.]

    The government said it was their position that they did still have TPS—a confusing answer […] then said they were being held as public safety threats. After the DOJ attorney argues that [the couple] Cesar and Norelia are public safety threats, things start to get spicy.

    Judge Brinkema asks “Are you able, as a member of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, to actually stand before this court and tell me that there is any genuine evidence” that they’re a threat.
    […]
    the DOJ attorney […] immediately puts his foot in his mouth, briefly saying that Norelia was an “admitted member” of Tren de Aragua.

    She is not. A decade earlier she was married to someone who is allegedly a member. Brinkema pounces. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.”

    After Brinkema asks whether simply having previously been married to a gang member makes someone an “affiliate”, the DOJ responds with … an affidavit from someone inside ICE apparently saying she’s affiliated with the gang.

    Brinkema unloads on DOJ: It’s “the sorriest statement I’ve ever seen.” Brinkema then goes over the MANY problems with the affidavit. The big ones are:
    1. It is pure hearsay.
    2. The claims within it are COMPLETELY ABSURD. It accuses her of being a “senior member” of the gang seemingly based only on having been married to a TdA member she divorced a decade earlier!

    Brinkema’s response to ICE’s affidavit trying to prove TdA membership.

    “This is a terrible, terrible affidavit. If this were before me in a criminal case and you were asking to get a warrant issued on this, I’d throw you out of my chambers.”

    At the end of the rant, he grants the habeas petition!
    […]
    I want to reiterate what Judge Brinkema showed about ICE’s gang allegations—because it explains so much about the renditions to El Salvador […] THIS is why due process matters. Because when ICE has to actually prove […] whether someone is actually a member of a gang or not, […] judges are SHOCKED at how ramshackle and shoddy ICE’s work on this stuff is. They get it wrong a LOT!
    […]
    Cesar and Norelia were released and are likely home with their family tonight. Their case isn’t over, but for now, they’re safe.

    From WaPo:

    The Trump administration as soon as next week is terminating all grants of temporary protected status for the approximately 348,000 Venezuelans who have received it, according to an official notice. Brinkema said as she issued her ruling Friday that “this may be a very temporary release.”

     
    NBC – Federal judge blocks Trump administration from fast-tracking deportations

    under the Convention Against Torture, migrants had protections against being removed to countries where they face a likelihood of torture.
    […]
    [This TRO] barred the administration from deporting any individual from the United States to a country other than the one designated for removal in immigration proceedings without providing them written notice and a “meaningful opportunity” to submit a fear-based claim.

  374. Bekenstein Bound says

    Still nothing about actual enforcement of any of these court orders, or of contempt proceedings …

  375. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Wired – DOGE plans to rebuild SSA code base in months, risking benefits and system collapse

    Sources within SSA expect the project to begin in earnest once DOGE identifies and marks remaining beneficiaries as deceased and connecting disparate agency databases.
    […]
    In order to migrate all COBOL code into a more modern language within a few months, DOGE would likely need to employ some form of generative artificial intelligence to help translate the millions of lines of code

    Assorted commentary:

    Whatever you think the plan is, it is almost certainly stupider.

    If the plan isn’t to hook a turbine up to Rear Admiral Grace Hopper’s grave as a source of clean energy I have no idea what their plans are.

    I worked on disability systems at SSA and we recently installed software that was almost 10 years in development, due to complexity and subtly differing requirements for each state agency.

    I’m a 30 year technology professional with experience migrating complicated old COBOL systems. That’s not a plan, it’s egregious stupidity.

    Simply put. No. They will not be migrating millions of lines of code in months.

    Prediction: in 4 years the SSA will still run on COBOL, but DOGE will have purloined a billion dollars failing to migrate it.

    Doing this requires top notch experts, which should be selected after a major vetting during a Request for Proposal. But, we’re trusting Musk to do it. WHY?

    As a guy who’s been doing this for 27 years and counting, this is going to be a flaming disaster. Generative AI has trouble writing me 50 lines of functioning Powershell script, let alone rewriting the entire codebase for a massive system like this.

    These script kiddies are not interested in the purpose & function of the system, are dumping everyone who knows anything about it, and don’t know anything about the original code. Their leaders never admit mistakes Whatever they ‘build’ will be destruction & stay that way.

    And Musk is going to say he’s leaving in May. If Trump or Congress is going to let him start this and then disappear. I mean. I can’t even imagine how insane it would be to let this happen.

  376. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Marisa Kabas (The Handbasket):

    Nearly all employees at the US Institute of Peace (USIP) received an email tonight informing them they were fired effective immediately […] Just a few HR and IT staffers are being kept on to assist DOGE’s illegal dismantling of the independent nonprofit.

    The email was sent by USIP HR to [now former] employees personal emails since they have not had access to government email since DOGE/law enforcement invaded last week.

  377. KG says

    The bit I don’t understand – why didn’t Greenland & Denmark just withdraw their travel visa? Reginald Selkirk@354

    My guess is that there’s a standing permission for US official personnel to come and go from the US Pituffik Space Base, which is the only place Vance and party visited. But if not, I think it’s certain any such refusal of visas would have been ignored.

    It’s worth noting that while Vance showed typical insolence in criticising Denmark while on Danish sovereign territory*, he was less outright threatening than Trump has been, suggesting that Trump would wait for Greenland to become independent (which it has a constitutional right to do) and then “negotiate” some form of association with the US. The Greenlanders should take a close look at how the inhabitants of the US (formerly Danish) Virgin Islands, the natives of Alaska, etc. have fared under such arrangements.

    *There are certainly justifiable criticisms of Danish colonialism in Greenland, although Vance’s claim that Denmark has failed to look after its security is an odd one: the only threat to that security since WW2 (when Germany would have liked to grab the island but lacked the means to do so) has come from Trump.

  378. KG says

    p.s. to #377 The Greenlanders should certainly consider Vance’s promise to respect their “sovereignty” in the light of just how little the “sovereignty” of the USA’s various Indian tribal territories means in practice.

  380. Reginald Selkirk says

    Hegseth’s younger brother is serving in a key role inside the Pentagon

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s younger brother is serving in a key position inside the Pentagon as a Department of Homeland Security liaison and senior adviser, Hegseth’s office confirmed.

    The high-profile job has meant meetings with a UFC fighting champion, a trip to Guantanamo Bay and, right now, traveling on the Pentagon’s 747 aircraft as Hegseth makes his first trip as defense secretary to the Indo-Pacific.

    Phil Hegseth’s official title is senior adviser to the secretary for the Department of Homeland Security and liaison officer to the Defense Department, spokeswoman Kingsley Wilson said in a statement Thursday…

    So racism, sexism, and gross incompetence are not enough, add nepotism to the list.

  381. Reginald Selkirk says

    Legendary U.S. Particle Collider Is About to Perform Its Final Smash

    After 25 years of smashing gold nuclei together at light speeds, Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider is hanging up its boots—erm, superconducting magnets.

    The collider’s final run—its 25th—kicked off this week on Long Island, in a swan song for the venerable collider that will be succeeded—in fact, transformed into—Brookhaven Lab’s Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). Over the course of 2025, RHIC physicists will complete data collection on quark-gluon plasma, the soup of particles that existed in the earliest days of the universe.

    “The original idea behind RHIC was to create, for the first time on Earth, a state of matter that existed in the universe a few microseconds after the Big Bang: the quark-gluon plasma, and we did,” said James Dunlop, the associate department chair for nuclear physics at Brookhaven Lab, in a call with Gizmodo. “That’s one of the big legacies—that we actually created it—but the more interesting thing is that its properties were quite different from what we’d expected them to be.” …

    For the RHIC’s final run, the top priority is gold-on-gold collisions at energies of 200 billion electron volts. The collider will run those collisions through June, and will break in July and August to avoid running experiments in the sweltering summer heat…

  382. Reginald Selkirk says

    Giant, Ancient Life Form Doesn’t Fit Into Any Known Branch of Life

    Hundreds of millions of years ago, mysterious life forms called Prototaxites towered toward the sky. Believed to be the first giant organisms to thrive on dry land, some species of Prototaxites grew up to 26 feet (8 meters) in height and resembled tree trunks composed of tiny interconnected tubes. Their position in the greater tree of life has been hotly debated for over a century and a half. New research suggests this is because Prototaxites don’t have a place in the tree of life as we know it—they belonged to a previously unknown branch.

    Researchers from the United Kingdom analyzed the fossil remains of a Prototaxites species called Prototaxites taiti and concluded that Prototaxites likely belonged to a now-extinct lineage of multicellular terrestrial eukaryotes (organisms, including all animals and plants, whose cells contain a nucleus). Their work is detailed in a study posted to the preprint server bioRxiv, and hasn’t been peer-reviewed yet.

    “We conducted an extensive re-examination of P. taiti, leading us to reject the most widely held hypothesis that Prototaxites was a Fungus,” the researchers, including Corentin Loron from The University of Edinburgh’s School of Physics and Astronomy, wrote in the study. A 2007 paper had previously suggested that Prototaxites was ancient fungi…

    DNA is the gold standard for classification, and unfortunately there are no DNA data from Prototaxites.

  383. Reginald Selkirk says

    Tech Bros Want Underpaid Gig Workers To Drive Big Wads Of Cash Around For You

    During fintech app Robinhood’s annual keynote event this week, titled “The Lost City of Gold,” the company announced that it was launching a new Robinhood Banking service. That’s not really out of the ordinary, there are hundreds of Silicon Valley nerds trying to crack the code of reinventing banks. Elon Musk, for example, is obsessed with the idea of turning Twitter (also known as X The Everything App) into a bank for some reason. Robinhood Banking is different from most other attempts, however, as it offers special perks like getting “cash delivered on-demand right to your doorstep, eliminating the need for an ATM.” If there’s one thing I wish I could do it’s to have a stranger access my bank account, retrieve a large amount of cash, risk potential harm carrying a big wad of greenbacks across town, and then making a surreptitious cash transaction on the street in front of my house. That sounds like it would make my life so much easier, despite the fact that I haven’t regularly carried cash or paid for anything with it in close to a decade…

    Robinhood hasn’t provided any further information about the cash delivery service yet. According to Entrepreneur, there’s “no word yet on how the cash deliveries will take place, what identification will be required, or how the company will ensure the safety of its drivers.” The fine print of the announcement does read “Cash delivery service coverage varies based on geographic location.” so maybe it’ll be limited to big cities…

  384. JM says

    Reuters: Musk to visit CIA on Monday, spokesperson says

    Billionaire Elon Musk, who serves as a top adviser to President Donald Trump, will visit the Central Intelligence Agency on Monday to discuss government efficiency with director John Ratcliffe, a spokesperson said on Friday.

    With Musk stepping down soon, why the controversial meetings? I can think of a couple of possibilities. Musk may be fishing for contacts he can use after he steps down. He may be planning to stick around and “advise” DOGE from the sidelines. The plan may be to move Musk to a more formal position after he steps down as a special advisor. They may just plan to appoint him as special advisor again as soon as his first term runs out.
    I can also see a distinct possibility that Musk thinks the plan is to do one of these things but Trump will cut him loose once his first cycle is done. This is a common business tactic for consultants and very typical of Trump.

  385. JM says

    Politico: Zelenskyy says no to any US minerals deal that might risk Ukraine’s EU bid

    Ukraine will not accept a minerals agreement with the United States that would jeopardize its accession to the European Union, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday.

    “The Constitution of Ukraine clearly states that our course is towards the EU … There are very important reforms and corresponding steps,” Zelenskyy told a press conference in Kyiv Friday evening.

    This clarifies Zelensky’s tactics. He will sign a stupid agreement with Trump knowing that once Ukraine joins the EU down the road Ukraine can us that leverage to get out of the worst.

  386. Reginald Selkirk says

    @384 JM

    I can also see a distinct possibility that Musk thinks the plan is to do one of these things but Trump will cut him loose once his first cycle is done. This is a common business tactic for consultants and very typical of Trump.

    If Musk and Ratcliffe want a meeting, there is no reason it needs to be at the CIA. It is probably being held there because Musk is curious to see it.

    Trump seems to be behaving differently now than in his first term, so I don’t think it’s meaningful to talk about what is “typical.” I think Musk might leave because he is bored, or because he is not well liked by others in the administration. But I don’t think Trump himself has any fucks to give. He has no policy goals himself, and is completely for sale to whomever will provide him with money or political backing. And also, he is a demented narcissistic fuckwit.

    If anyone wants to write the Houthi Signal chat group debacle off as some sort of rookie mistake, they should stop and think for a second – Trump was actually president once before. He should have some idea how things are supposed to work.

  388. says

    Text quoted by Sky Captain @375:

    I’m a 30 year technology professional with experience migrating complicated old COBOL systems. That’s not a plan, it’s egregious stupidity.

    Simply put. No. They [DOGE] will not be migrating millions of lines of code in months.

    Prediction: in 4 years the SSA will still run on COBOL, but DOGE will have purloined a billion dollars failing to migrate it.

    Yep. I had similar thoughts. Also, I’ve spoken to people who manage large systems that depend on millions of lines of code working properly, and they all say the DOGE plan is a recipe for disaster.

    Musk is known for making claims and for promoting plans that take years longer than what he tells the press. (As just one example, look at how many times he has confidently predicted a self-driving car, starting in 2019.] Or, he never makes good on the claims or completes the plans. This Social Security code overhaul may need to be done, but Musk is not the man to do it. It will fail. Millions of senior citizens and disabled people will suffer. And, yes, Musk is likely to run away.

    I was also struck by this memorable text you quoted:

    I worked on disability systems at SSA and we recently installed software that was almost 10 years in development, due to complexity and subtly differing requirements for each state agency.

    That sounds like a well-managed project. Not a DOGE project. The opposite of a DOGE project.

    In December 2015, Musk predicted that “complete autonomy” would be implemented by 2018. At the end of 2016, Tesla expected to demonstrate full autonomy by the end of 2017, and in April 2017, Musk predicted that in around two years, drivers would be able to sleep in their vehicle while it drives itself.

  390. KG says

    in April 2017, Musk predicted that in around two years, drivers would be able to sleep in their vehicle while it drives itself.- Lynna, OM@388

    Oh, they could do that now. They might well end up killing themselves or other people, of course.

  391. says

    Encouraging news, as reported by Bloomberg Law:

    A federal judge in Washington put a temporary hold on the Trump administration’s plans to cull the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s workforce and effectively shutter the agency. Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Friday applied a preliminary injunction blocking the CFPB from firing workers and requiring it to bring back some terminated employees.

  392. says

    Washington Post link.

    More encouraging news: “Trump reverses termination of program tracking mass child abductions in Ukraine”

    “The rare about-face follows a Washington Post report on the program’s fate and concerns from U.S. lawmakers and Christian evangelicals about Russia’s alleged war crimes.”

    The Trump administration reversed its decision to terminate a U.S. initiative that documented alleged Russian war crimes on Thursday following reporting by The Washington Post and other media outlets, according to U.S. officials and congressional aides familiar with the matter.

    The initiative, known as the Conflict Observatory, tracked the mass deportation of Ukrainian children to Russian-controlled territory using satellite imagery, biometric data and other digital forensic tools — which contributed to multiple criminal cases, including the International Criminal Court’s landmark indictment of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    The temporary policy reversal, which has not been previously reported, gives the observatory authorization and funding for six additional weeks to complete the transfer of its repository to the European Union’s law enforcement agency, EUROPOL, to assist in the prosecution of crimes inside and outside Ukraine.

    The Trump administration’s actions had barred the observatory’s transmission of evidence to prosecutors pursuing criminal cases, including the ICC’s indictment of Putin for the “unlawful transfer” of children during the war. […]

    The initiative, funded by the State Department and spearheaded by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab, was one of thousands terminated at the behest of President Donald Trump appointee Peter Marocco and the U.S. DOGE Service […]

    But a diverse coalition of advocates including Democrats and Republicans in Congress, and Christian evangelicals, persuaded the Trump administration to reverse course, temporarily sparing the observatory the same fate as thousands of other terminated programs. Researchers are now hoping European governments will step in to fund the initiative in Washington’s absence.

    […] When the State Department terminated the program earlier this year, it did not include any guidance for preserving the repository, resulting in confusion and panic among the initiative’s implementers about the potential deletion of the repository.

    For several days, the State Department, Yale and MITRE, the nongovernmental organization that helped run the project, were unable to confirm that the database was secure or was not due to be deleted. In the end, the contracting firm that manages the database, Quiet Professionals, decided to preserve the observatory’s repository despite a lack of guidance from the State Department, said two people familiar with the matter.

    […] The issue of Ukraine’s missing children has significant implications for Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said any agreement to stop the fighting must include Russia’s return of missing Ukrainian children and accountability for those responsible for their abduction. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also recently told reporters that the return of the children would be an important issue to “unravel.”

    In 2023, ICC judges issued an arrest warrant for Putin and the country’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, saying the two bore individual responsibility for the war crimes of “unlawful deportation” and “unlawful transfer” of children from occupied areas of Ukraine.

    The move was largely symbolic because Russia, like the United States, does not accept the ICC’s jurisdiction. But the warrant has created difficulties for Putin when traveling to countries that cooperate with the court. It also gave credence to Kyiv’s long-standing claims that Moscow has carried out the removal of thousands of children from Ukrainian territory.

    The forced relocation of Ukrainian children to Russia or deeper into Russian-controlled territory has become one of the most fraught issues over the past three years of the war. Ukraine describes the process of moving children to Russia as an attempt to erase their Ukrainian identity and indoctrinate them with Russian ideologies.

    The observatory’s repository includes detailed dossiers, photos, names and other data related to children from Ukraine […]

  393. says

    New York Times link

    More encouraging news: “Trump Restores Funds for Radio Free Europe and Reinstates Cuba Broadcasters”

    “A judge had blocked the president’s push to close down Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a federally financed news organization originally created to counter Soviet propaganda.”

    Reversing course, the Trump administration on Thursday restored funding for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a federally financed news organization born out of American efforts to counter Soviet propaganda during the Cold War.

    The decision to again support the news group, known as RFE/RL, came two days after a federal judge in Washington temporarily blocked Trump’s push to close it down, saying Mr. Trump cannot unilaterally dismantle the news organization established by Congress.

    Also Thursday, the administration reinstated 33 employees at the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, a federal news outlet critical of the island’s communist government, allowing the radio station’s programming to resume.

    On March 15, the administration terminated all grants for RFE/RL in a one-page letter, citing Mr. Trump’s executive order a day earlier aimed at eliminating RFE/RL’s parent agency, the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

    On Thursday, the administration claimed that the lawsuit was moot — since the funding was restored — rather than continuing to argue for the legitimacy of its March 15 decision to cut funding while complying with the judge’s order.

    The Trump administration still reserved the right to terminate the RFE/RL’s financing “at a later date” if it “were to determine that such termination was appropriate,” according to the administration’s letter to RFE/RL that was submitted to the court.

    It is unclear whether the lawsuit will end, as the administration claims. The news outlet had asked the court to declare the March 15 letter unlawful, to bar Trump officials from rescinding funding that Congress appropriated and to order the government to cover RFE/RL’s legal fees.

    On Thursday, the Trump administration also restored funding for Open Technology Fund, an independent nonprofit group that Congress has financed to ensure unfettered access to uncensored internet in countries with restrictions, according to court filings. […]

  394. JM says

    @386 Reginald Selkirk:

    But I don’t think Trump himself has any fucks to give. He has no policy goals himself, and is completely for sale to whomever will provide him with money or political backing. And also, he is a demented narcissistic fuckwit.

    He does show some signs of caring about this popularity. Possibly not as much as he did in his first term but he wants to be the widely acclaimed populist. Dumping Musk would let Trump transfer much of the blame for DOGE’s screw ups to Musk, at least in Trump’s mind. Will he do it? Don’t know, one things this administration is good at is being so erratic and badly planned it’s very hard to predict.

    If anyone wants to write the Houthi Signal chat group debacle off as some sort of rookie mistake, they should stop and think for a second – Trump was actually president once before. He should have some idea how things are supposed to work.

    It isn’t Trump’s rookie mistake, Trump was barely involved. He probably didn’t even know the signal group existed, he may not have done anything but signed a form approving the mission after it was planned. It’s Waltz’s and Hegseth’s rookie mistakes.

    @375 CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain:

    I’m a 30 year technology professional with experience migrating complicated old COBOL systems. That’s not a plan, it’s egregious stupidity.
    Simply put. No. They will not be migrating millions of lines of code in months.
    Prediction: in 4 years the SSA will still run on COBOL, but DOGE will have purloined a billion dollars failing to migrate it.

    My fear is that they will take the code, run it through some code converter and pump it into an LLM along with the payments and reports for a couple of months, in 6 months they will have something that produces a result. It will have obvious errors and even more subtle errors, odd gaps and no clear way to fix problems but it will produce a month’s batch of payments and reports. It will be forced into production with a plan to fix errors later. It will tie the SSA up in court for years as they try to untangle the issues.
    Though really your prediction is more likely. Particularly if Musk does leave Washington, DOGE will lose all of it’s power as the cabinet takes it back. They will just churn through money until the project is quietly killed.

  396. says

    Encouraging news, as reported by Axios:

    The Social Security Administration on Wednesday said it would postpone controversial changes to phone service and partially relax new rules on identity verification.

    Why it matters: Advocates and current and former officials have said the changes could break an already strained system and leave the most vulnerable populations without their benefits.

    Encouraging news, as reported by The Daily Beast:

    The Social Security Administration has delayed controversial plans to cut phone services for retirees by two weeks and ditched a proposal that would have forced some disabled and elderly people to visit a physical location to claim benefits.

    “We have listened to our customers, Congress, advocates, and others, and we are updating our policy to provide better customer service to the country’s most vulnerable populations,” Leland Dudek, the acting SSA commissioner, said in a statement announcing the abrupt policy turnaround on Wednesday.

    His about-face came after the agency was blasted by retirees, advocates and Democratic politicians for its sudden and chaotic rollout of the new policies.

  397. says

    Encouraging news, as reported by The Washington Post:

    A federal judge on Friday ordered the release of a Venezuelan couple who were detained by immigration authorities this month despite having legal authorization to live and work in the United States, calling their apprehensions baseless and unlawful.

    Brinkema rebuked government officials for claiming in court that the couple posed a public threat and ordered both of them released straight from the courthouse.

    “There is no reason why they’re being held,” the judge said. Addressing a government lawyer, Brinkema said, “If this was a criminal case … I’d throw you out of my chambers.”

  399. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Re: Lynna @388:

    Musk is known for making claims and for promoting plans that take years longer […] Or, he never makes good on the claims

    Speaking of…

    Eric Lipton (NYT):

    NASA Friday expands gov contract for Elon Musk SpaceX adding it’s Starship rocket (which still has not successfully carried cargo to orbit and twice recently blew up)

    NASA – NASA awards Launch Services Contract for SpaceX Starship

    for NASA’s planetary, Earth-observing, exploration, and scientific satellites. […] NLS II contracts are multiple award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity […] through December 2032.

    Erik Conway (NASA JPL historian):

    I’m old enough to remember when NASA SMD wouldn’t certify a launch vehicle for their missions without multiple successful prior flights. Now going BOOM and making debris showers is good enough

    See also: last week’s comment on Starship’s doomed design process.

  400. says

    Encouraging news, as reported by Politico:

    A second federal judge has barred Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth from enforcing a ban on transgender troops serving in the military.

    U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle said the ban, ordered by President Donald Trump, was blatantly discriminatory, relied on a distortion of outdated data and ignored more recent evidence about transgender service members.

  401. says

    Encouraging news: Greenland forms new government hours before US VP Vance’s visit

    Greenland presented a new government coalition agreement on Friday, just hours before a visit by US Vice-President J.D. Vance to the Arctic island that President Donald Trump has expressed interest in acquiring.

    The new majority government will be headed by Democrats leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen, who had urged parties to set aside disagreements and form a broad coalition to show unity amid Trump’s campaign to annex the semi-autonomous Danish territory.

    The pro-business Democrats, who favour gradual independence from Denmark, emerged as the biggest party, tripling their representation to 10 seats in a March 11 general election. […]

  402. says

    Aaron Rupar’s statement about SignalGate:

    It’s like Watergate, only in this version Nixon directly mails the tapes to Woodward and Bernstein.

  403. says

    The Trump administration’s unprecedented decision to deny a delivery of water to Mexico is raising alarm among experts, who fear it could jeopardize future cross-border negotiations in an increasingly thirsty region.

    The refusal, which marked the first such rejection in 81 years, pertained to a special request from Mexico for the transfer of additional Colorado River water to the city of Tijuana. Defending this decision, the U.S. State Department accused Mexico of failing to uphold commitments to Texas included in a 1944 water-sharing treaty.

    Stephen Mumme, a political scientist at Colorado State University, characterized the move as both irrational and potentially harmful.

    Mumme, who is also a nonresident fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, said that if he was one of the seven Colorado River basin state commissioners, he would be “really ticked off right now,” as those states are in the throes of long-term renegotiations with Mexico regarding their shared resource.

    “This is not designed to encourage Mexican cooperation, and Mexico can drag its feet in any number of ways,” he added.

    […] The treaty also created the joint International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), which is responsible for managing shared water deliveries and associated infrastructure.

    Mexico is entitled to 1.5 million acre-feet of Colorado River water each year, in line with the artery’s historic flow of from Colorado to the Gulf of California in the Mexican state of Sonora.

    For context, U.S. Colorado River basin states are entitled to 15 million acre-feet, and the average American household consumes about 1 acre-foot of water annually.

    […] Over the years, Mexico has accrued considerable Rio Grande water debt and has fallen behind on its water-sharing payments.

    The U.S. State Department harped on this point last week, posting on the social platform X that Mexico’s shortfalls “are decimating American agriculture.”

    But Mumme maintained Mexico is “absolutely compliant with the treaty,” which allows for “extraordinary drought” and enables the countries to agree on mutually acceptable emergency measures.

    As of December, about 55.4 percent of the Rio Grande basin was experiencing what the North American Drought Monitor classifies as “moderate to exceptional drought.”

    […] In November, the U.S. and Mexico signed the Minute 331 agreement, which focused on improving the reliability of Rio Grande water deliveries — in part by suggesting two alternative tributaries through which the transfers could occur.

    Maria-Elena Giner, the U.S. commissioner for the IBWC, referred to the “overstretch water resources” in a statement at the time, adding “that the status quo was not acceptable.”

    Minute 331 also promoted the development of tools that could improve conservation and efficiency, including new control infrastructure, water reuse technologies, irrigation modernization and desalination projects.

    Mumme said he views the signing of Minute 331 as “very positive,” while acknowledging that “it’s not going to meet the demands or expectations of South Texas irrigators.”

    While Texas has recognized the impacts of drought, the state also has maintained Mexico is hoarding water in upstream dams […]

    Mexico, on the other hand, has agreed it must comply but also has reiterated the complications associated with persistent drought […]

    “This whole thing that they just did in trying to muscle Mexico by denying conveyance water to Tijuana — that’s ridiculous,” Mumme said of the Trump administration’s denial of Colorado River water based on Rio Grande debts.

    “That’s really a misuse of the treaty,” he continued. “It’s mean spirited on the U.S.’s part, and it’s an act of desperation on the Texans’ part.”

    Eckstein described the situation as “awkward politics,” because the Trump administration is “using one basin to try to leverage the other side on a different basin.”

    Responding to the U.S. delivery refusal last week, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum described the issue as “important” but said it would be addressed by the IBWC and Conagua, Mexico’s national water utility.

    […] Trump’s decision won’t likely bring Texas farmers any more water — and that this “may, in fact, make it more difficult for them to negotiate the next agreement.”

    Mumme described the move as “typical Trump administration bullying,” criticizing the idea of conducting diplomacy via intimidation. […]

    Link

  404. Reginald Selkirk says

    Scientists Create New Heavy-Metal Molecule: ‘Berkelocene’

    An anonymous reader shared this report from the Mercury News:

    After a year of fastidious planning, a microscopic sample of the ultra-rare radioactive element berkelium arrived at a Berkeley Lab. With just 48 hours to experiment before it would become unusable, a group of nearly 20 researchers focused intently on creating a brand-new molecule. Using a chemical glove box, a polycarbonate glass box with protruding gloves that shields substances from oxygen and moisture, scientists combined the berkelium metal with an organic molecule containing only carbon and hydrogen to create a chemical reaction… [Post-doc researcher Dominic] Russo, researcher Stefan Minasian, and 17 other scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory had created berkelocene, a new molecule that usurps theorists’ expectations about how carbon bonds with heavy-metal elements.

    In the future, berkelocene may help humanity safely dispose of nuclear waste, according to a study published in the academic journal Science… The new molecular structure is, in the nomenclature of researchers, a “sandwich.” In this formation, a berkelium atom, serving as the filling, lays in between two 8-membered carbon rings — the “bread” — and resembles an atomic foot-long sub. “It has this very symmetric geometry, and it’s the first time that that’s been observed,” Minasian said.

  405. says

    Sky Captain @399, thanks for that additional information. Yep, Musk is not capable of making good on his promises, and yet NASA is awarding contracts to SpaceX. Musk is not a rocket scientist … and he is not a good manager.

    In a sort of followup: Elon Musk Rewriting Computer Code Powering Social Security, What Could Possibly Go Wrong

    “Oh, the website’s down? The website’s down.”

    Having already fucked up the Social Security Administration six ways from Sunday with staff cuts and new ID requirements and field office closures, the incels of the ironically named Department of Government Efficiency are reportedly plotting one more big step in their rampage: They are planning to rewrite the SSA’s entire computer codebase in a more modern programming language. And they plan to have this project completed in “a few months.”

    Oh guess what, it’s Saturday morning (Gary wrote this post Friday afternoon) and the Social Security website is already down. [Screengrab at the link]

    It has been a long time since we had a database/computer technology-adjacent job, but we know enough to understand that migrating a huge system with a reported 60 million lines of code is not something that happens that quickly. This is a years-long sort of job, one that will take the efforts of hundreds, if not thousands, of people. It’s a delicate undertaking, and the vampires of DOGE have proven themselves anything but delicate.

    Of course, they have also proven that they genuinely don’t give a shit if you wind up sleeping under a railroad trestle […]

    So, we hope you current Social Security recipients enjoyed getting your benefit checks or your benefit direct deposits on time! Hell, we hope you enjoyed getting them, period. Because there is an excellent chance all that is about to be deader than Elon Musk’s soul.

    Wired reports on the new plan in a frightening new story with the words “System Collapse” prominently displayed in the title. It all reads as stupid as it sounds. The basic gist is that SSA systems still run on COBOL, a common, business-oriented programming language that has been around since the 1950s. COBOL has lasted this long for a variety of reasons, but a big one is that it still works really well. Programmers at the SSA still actively work with it despite the existence of newer, more modern programming languages for a few reasons, one of which is that it is very robust. So robust, in fact, that quite a few federal government systems still run on it.

    The federal government tends to lag way behind in modernizing the technology that bureaucrats use to keep the country running. But as the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. [And, well-funded legislation from Congress may be required to update technology … as Congress recently tried to do with the IRS.]

    And DOGE has already proven that it is unfamiliar with COBOL conventions, as Wired already explained in an earlier story about why, contra Musk’s band of Nazi virgins, there were not actually millions of Social Security checks going out to 150-year-olds.

    This is one system you do not want to screw up until you are absolutely, positively sure any replacement system is up and chugging along. The computers at Social Security are paying benefits to 65 million Americans every month. For many of them, this is their only source of income. Fuck it up, and people, especially the elderly, can’t pay rent or buy food. Their existence is already precarious enough.

    […] How enormous an undertaking is it to move the SSA off of COBOL? Let Wired tell you:

    In order to migrate all COBOL code into a more modern language within a few months, DOGE would likely need to employ some form of generative artificial intelligence to help translate the millions of lines of code, sources tell WIRED. “DOGE thinks if they can say they got rid of all the COBOL in months then their way is the right way and we all just suck for not breaking shit,” says the SSA technologist.

    Lot of problems with that, starting with the fact that even generative AI code still has to be checked for errors. And if it’s wrong, someone still has to manually fix it. What do you think the chances are that DOGE will thoroughly test any changes made by either humans or a technology capable of about the same level of thought as a blender? […] we’re talking about Large Language Models of code trained on other code written by humans that likely contains plenty of its own errors. The possibilities for disaster are infinite.

    DOGE would also need to develop tests to ensure the new system’s outputs match the previous one. It would be difficult to resolve all of the possible edge cases over the course of several years, let alone months, adds the SSA technologist. [Yep.]

    This is just basic quality assurance testing. But if there’s one thing we’ve learned about the sorts of dweebs hired by Elon Musk […] is that they simply shrug […]

    Wags online are suggesting that breaking Social Security is the entire point. Conservatives have long wanted to end the program. […]

    Sure, ending Social Security through the back door would fulfill a long-term goal of the Right. It could also be that the DOGE guys really are so high on themselves that they look at government programmers and think, What a bunch of dinosaurs! Get out of the way, old people, and let us show you how this shit gets done.

    Well, we weren’t going to be able to retire for awhile anyway. Now maybe we’ll just work until we drop dead under that railroad trestle where we’ll spend our dotage.

  407. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    FT – US tells European companies to comply with Trump’s anti-diversity order

    The letter, sent by the American embassy in Paris and others around the EU, said that Donald Trump’s executive order applied to companies outside the US if they were a supplier or service provider to the American government […] “Department of State contractors must certify that they do not operate any programs promoting DEI[“] […] widening its campaign against DEI to foreign companies after launching a crackdown against US media groups such as Disney.
    […]
    The extraterritorial move may not be enforceable according to initial legal assessments, so some executives and their advisers have decided not to respond for now […] French companies that are potentially exposed to the US demands include aviation and defence groups, consulting providers and infrastructure companies.

    Vivi Leandra (Streamer): “There’s a decent chance that Elon told him to do this in response to the Assassin’s Creed Twitter account dunking on him”

    Ubisoft is a French company.
    Polygon – Elon Musk just got ratioed by the Assassin’s Creed X account

    [A gamergater screenshotted Hasan Piker, a streamer/political commentator, adding] “You can tell a lot about Ubisoft with how much money they are throwing at terrorist-platforming streamers.”

    Musk responded twice: first, “Hasan is a fraud,” then, “‘Sell-out’ would be more accurate. Objectively, he is promoting a terrible game just for the money.”

    […] the official Assassin’s Creed account: “Is that what the guy playing your Path of Exile 2 account told you?”

    […] referencing the widespread belief that Musk’s […] paying skilled gamers to boost his account […] after Musk claimed he has one of the most powerful Path of Exile 2 characters in the world, then streamed himself playing like a noob despite having god-tier gear that takes hundreds of hours […] to acquire.

  408. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Anjali Dayal

    It seems only the Times of India has reported this story so far, and as several colleagues better informed than me point out, it’s no longer the most reliable source. […] the immediate story about student visa holders told self-deport bc of social media posts comes from a source that requires more verification

    Stephanie Willerton (Former PBS news): “I’m not finding any other media confirmation of this email to international students that supposedly was sent by State.”
     
    Times of India – Hundreds of international students wake up to an email asking them to self deport for campus activism

    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (reacting to the article):

    Oh my God. The email contains an implied threat that any student who doesn’t immediately leave might be sent to El Salvador.

    /technically it says “countries other than their countries of origin,” but the context right now, given everything going on, makes the threat clear.

  409. says

    Texas Lege Throwing The Book At Dildos

    “Good news: Adults could still legally share ‘explicit’ books with their child brides.”

    The Texas Legislature is still living up to the nickname Molly Ivins gave it, the “national laboratory for bad government.” As temporary relief from the federal government’s slide into fascism, the Texas Lege this week presented a grateful nation with some comic relief, even if it’s still kinda fascist. The Lege is considering twin House and Senate bills that would send librarians to prison for 10 years if they allow minors to access books or other materials containing sexually explicit stuff, because apparently dirty books that upset nice Christian moral scolds still exist.

    And separately, state Sen. Angela Paxton, the spouse of state Attorney General Ken Paxton, wants to make it a crime for online businesses to sell sex toys without first demanding proof that the buyer is 18 or older. Apparently there’s a great danger of Texas kids buying dildos online, which sounds like something parents should be on top of, not state government. So to speak.

    The library criminalization bills, SB 412 and HB 267, would amend the state’s obscenity statute by removing its current exemption for persons who have “scientific, educational, governmental, or other similar justification” for allowing a minor to see something sexually explicit.

    Such justifications can currently include a “bona fide educational, medical, psychological, psychiatric, judicial, law enforcement, or legislative purpose,” which appears to have been written to allow sex ed and counseling by healthcare providers, but the bill would remove all the allowed exemptions except for “judicial, law enforcement, or legislative purposes,” so as far as we can tell the bill would outlaw most sex ed, too, to say nothing of all those dirty scenes in The Catcher in the Rye or that filthy “Texas state novel,” Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove, with all the carrots and poking.

    Also, in our very favorite detail, the bill would leave untouched the obscenity law’s existing exemption for showing dirty stuff to a minor if you’re married to that minor, because Texas is perfectly fine with adults marrying 16- and 17-year-olds, as long as they get a judge’s permission. […]

    The language in Texas’s penal code on distributing “harmful material to a minor” appears to closely echo the Supreme Court’s “Miller test” for whether something is actually obscene, and therefore not protected by the First Amendment. The law says that material is “harmful” if its “dominant theme taken as a whole”

    (A) appeals to the prurient interest of a minor, in sex, nudity, or excretion;

    (B) is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable for minors; and

    (C) is utterly without redeeming social value for minors.

    […] it could be that throwing in all the “for minors” language goes far beyond the Miller Test, and really would make any book with a mention of sex illegal, especially if the community is full of prigs […]

    This Texas bill looks a lot like Idaho’s bill from a few years back — with the priceless designation House Bill 666 — that similarly would have thrown librarians in jail if a minor sees a book that mentions sex. It failed in Idaho, as have many Jail the Librarians bills around the country, but if any state can pull off such a ridiculous law, we’d bet on Texas. SB 412 passed the Senate last week and now is waiting to be passed by the state House.

    And then there’s Angela Paxton’s SB 3003 […] One in a long line of Texas dildo bills, SB 3003 would make it a misdemeanor, punishable by a $5,000 fine, to sell “obscene devices” to anyone under 18, or to sell said obscene doodads without verifying the buyer’s age via a copy of a government-issued photo ID or using some third-party age verification app. The bill goes into quite a bit of detail on what constitutes a valid age check, and generously allows “exclusive use of payment methods that are restricted to individuals 18 years of age of older, provided such verification is supplemented by another age verification method.”

    There is nothing in the bill, thank heavens, about purchasing sex toys for your spouse who is a minor, but we suspect just reading that sentence may have put you on a watch list, sorry.

    Presumably, there’s some crisis involving Texas minors purchasing dildos, fleshlights, vibrators, and other naughty toys that we just haven’t heard about. Otherwise this just sounds nuts, and surely nobody in Texas would ever introduce legislation to address a completely imaginary problem.

    Haha, we joked you! Fundagelicals are always freaking out about the masturbating and the dildos and the sex toys, which will send all the youngs to hell, so of course Texas needs to demand age verification for dildywhassits. It’s just how Texas does things! Texas in the early Oughts (or Ought-nots) passed a famously unconstitutional bill banning ownership of more than six dildos, and is also considering a separate bill that would restrict sales of sex toys to adult shops, which would effectively force retailers to remove vibrators and the like from the shelves where they sell condoms and other over-the counter birth control stuff.

    And of course there’s that long-ago legal brief where then-Solicitor General Ted Cruz tried to argue that the state could outright ban sex toys, because people who use dildos or vibrators are probably just one step away from committing incest.

    Sen. Paxton does not appear to have contemplated similar regulation of online sales of cucumbers, hairbrushes, pillows, armchairs, rolled-up sleeping bags, electric toothbrushes, handheld shower heads, washing machines, cell phones, video game controllers, apple pies, or liver, which strikes us as just encouraging all sorts of perversity, or in that last case, reading Portnoy’s Complaint, which could send a librarian to jail.

    In conclusion, the Texas Legislature should just go fuck itself and get this nonsense out of its system.

    Embedded links to additional sources are available at the main link.

  410. says

    Followup to comment 359.

    Myanmar quake death toll surpasses 1,600 as rescuers dig through rubble

    “The powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake rocked Myanmar and reverberated across the region, with several dead and dozens more missing in neighboring Thailand.”

    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.

    The earthquake occurred around 1:30 p.m. local time on Friday, and it was followed 11 minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock. At 3:50 p.m. local time on Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey recorded another 5.1-magnitude earthquake near the capital Naypyidaw, about 160 miles south of Mandalay.

    In neighboring Thailand, several people have been confirmed killed following Friday’s quake, with dozens more missing, many of them trapped in the debris of a 30-story building in Bangkok. Dramatic footage showed a massive plume of smoke as the building collapsed, with construction workers scrambling to escape — some swallowed by a thick dust cloud.

    According to the city’s governor, Chadchart Sittipunt, rescuers could detect signs of life from about 15 people under the rubble, as crews continued to race against time Saturday to uncover survivors. […]

    Photos and video at the link.

  411. says

    “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” a frightening executive order from President Donald Trump’s White House Thursday takes aim at the Smithsonian and threatens to pull federal funding for content that promotes “divisive, race-centered ideology.”

    The threat to museums such as The National Museum of African-American History and Culture is real. But even more sinister is the administration’s rejection of race as a “social construct,” which is nothing short of an expression of a belief in racial purity and white supremacy.

    One of the things that has Trump angry is “The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture,” an exhibit at the American Art Museum that innovatively positions nearly 100 sculptures alongside statements about scientific racism. That’s the discredited belief that there are biologically distinct races of people, with some more superior than others. The exhibition examines how artists and art objects have assisted, reflected or challenged such racist thinking since the 18th century, but Trump, in his executive order expresses disappointment that the show “promotes the view that race is not a biological reality but a social construct.”

    Holding that race is not a biological reality is not a mere view. It’s a fact, and the rejection of that fact is a key component of white supremacist thinking. Trump’s executive order claims race-centered ideologies are detrimental to our shared culture but is silent on the fact that white supremacy, which his executive order promotes, has proved to be the greatest, most deadly identity politics of them all. See slavery. See the westward expansion of the United States and Manifest Destiny. […]

    The Smithsonian is not entirely funded by the federal government, but enough of its budget relies on congressional appropriations that it’s always been vulnerable to political whims.

    […] There’s a reason people in Trump’s administration seem more bothered by the idea of equity than diversity or inclusion: They don’t seem to think we’re equal and they’re going after all content that suggests we are. They believe there is a natural order of human beings — a biologically rigid sytem of race — that puts them at the top. And they want to force our most celebrated historical institutions to back them up.

    Link
    More at the link.

  412. Reginald Selkirk says

    Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water

    Utah has become the first US state to ban the use of fluoride in its public water, following concerns raised by health secretary Robert F Kennedy that the mineral poses potential health risks.

    Governor Spencer Cox signed the ban into law this week, which will go into effect on 7 May. Other states, including Florida and Ohio, are weighing similar legislation…

  413. Reginald Selkirk says

    Wisconsin attorney general sues to block Elon Musk $2m election giveaway

    Wisconsin’s attorney general is seeking to stop Elon Musk from giving away $2m (£1.5m) to two voters ahead of the state’s supreme court election.

    In a lawsuit, attorney general Josh Kaul called the offer an “egregious attempt to buy votes” and alleged the tech billionaire and his political action committee violated Wisconsin election laws…

    On 27 March, Mr Musk posted on X that he would give a talk in Wisconsin on Sunday and “personally hand over two checks for a million dollars each in appreciation for you taking the time to vote”.

    Mr Musk, a top adviser to US President Donald Trump, clarified in a tweet the next day that he would give cheques to two people “to be spokesmen” for a petition being promoted by his political action committee, America PAC.

    The petition asks voters to reject “activist judges”.

    Its page promises Wisconsin voters $100 for signing the petition, and an additional $100 for referring another person to sign…

  414. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Follow-up to #31.

    News Eye:

    Today in Instanbul, Turkey. A people fighting for democracy & against authoritarianism. This is how you do it!
    [Video: Drone flyover of a VERY large crowd]

    Chairman of Republican People’s Party, Özgür Özel:
    “Today, 2.2 million of our citizens overflowed Maltepe Square. This is just the beginning. This nation will not remain silent.”

    France24 video (3:51)

    It’s been 10 days since Istambul’s opposition mayor Ekrem Ekrem İmamoğlu was initially detained sparking nationwide protests. […] there’s been a crackdown on desent: police raiding homes, nearly 2,000 people have been arrested.
    […]
    [Today’s protests have] gone peacefully so far. […] On Monday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan predicted that the opposition protests would fizzle out but […] the opposition has proved that wrong.
    […]
    [Özgür Özel] accused state television and the most popular private channels NTV and CNN Turk of betraying Turks. He said, “As I’m speaking to you now, NTV is showing a weather forecast.” […] Özel was right. There was a weather forecast. A few minutes later, NTV began its news report, Ekrem İmamoğlu was item number four, and NTV did not show anything about this crowd. Instead, it showed pictures of protesters in the earlier protests this week being arrested and frog marched into to jail, and the commentary was talking about how protesters will get sentenced from three months in jail to a year in jail. In other words, it was making the point that to demonstrate against the government is a dangerous business, but it was not showing the massive demonstration going on today. I changed to CNN Turk and again, the opposition politics was low on the news agenda, but it was not showing the demonstration now. As a Turkish journalist, I can tell you I find this shameful reporting.

  415. Reginald Selkirk says

    Elon Musk must face fraud lawsuit over disclosure of Twitter stake

    A U.S. judge on Friday rejected billionaire Elon Musk’s bid to dismiss a lawsuit claiming he defrauded former Twitter shareholders by waiting too long to disclose his initial investment in the social media company, now known as X.

    U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter in Manhattan said the shareholders adequately pleaded that Musk, now a top adviser to President Donald Trump, intended to commit fraud through an improper regulatory filing, misleading tweets about Twitter’s future, and a strategy to “silently” build his Twitter stake.

    Carter dismissed some other claims in the proposed class action. He did not rule on the case’s merits. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is also suing Musk over the late disclosure…

    Don’t be surprised if the SEC drop its case against Musk, that will reflect nothing of hte merits of the case.

  416. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Details on the April 5th National Day of Protest

    Unlike previous protests this year, this protest is being organized by multiple organizations with a planned location and clearer information. Even so, without the news reporting on it, it’s hard to get all the information
    […]
    Hosted by Indivisible, Women’s March, MoveOn, 50501, and more than a dozen other national and local activism groups, the “Hands Off” Day of Action, also known as the People’s Veto Day […]

    Hands off our Medicare and Medicaid. Hands off our Social Security and our personal data. Hands off Veteran services and our national parks. Hands off all the services, rights, and freedoms that truly make America great.
    […]
    According to the Crowd Counting Consortium, more than 2,085 protests took place nationwide in February alone. Compare that to February 2017 of this president’s first administration, which saw 937 protests. However, this year, the protests have been smaller because this go-round, they haven’t been promoted on Meta platforms or mainstream news. […] I remember seeing the back of my head on the NBC Nightly News as I walked the streets of DC during the Women’s March. Now, in 2025, to see the protests happening across our country (and the globe), you need to follow the right people on platforms or search for news on alternative sites like Reddit and Bluesky.

    * mobilize.us map of Hands Off events

    In general, US media reports on protests after the fact, if at all. It mystifies me that people find events in advance on short notice in large numbers. Even having recently discovered the mobilize site myself. I’ve heard Unitarian churches promote such events on their bulletin boards.

  417. whheydt says

    Re: Lynna, OM @ #410…
    I knew someone who was on the WHO list for sending medical teams in post-disaster for recovery efforts. She said that, in a third world country, it typically takes about 3 days for the damage, death and injury reports to trickle in from outlying areas. So I’d expect that we’re going to see more major jumps in the death toll from this ‘quake as the data arrives at the main cities and can be tabulated.

  418. JM says

    MSN: Limo ‘from Putin’s car fleet’ explodes as paranoia increases over assassination attempts

    Putin’s £275,000 Aurus Senat burst into a roaring blaze on a street just north of Moscow’s FSB secret service Lubyanka headquarters. The car is believed to be owned by Putin’s Presidential Property Management Department, with reports not yet revealing who was using the car when the shocking incident occurred.

    Nothing confirmed yet but there are not a lot of other people parking a $300,000 dollar car next to the FSB. Apparently nobody injured.

    Separately, footage showed servicemen from a ceremonial guard in Murmansk being individually body searched by a Federal Protection Service [FSO] officer for hidden weapons or explosive devices as they stood waiting for the Kremlin dictator to lay a wreath by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
    According to reports, magazines were removed from their guns and plugs fitted into the chambers amid acute fears that Putin may be in danger of assassination from his own troops, with every member of the Russian’s honour guard searched.

    Standard elderly unpopular dictator fair. He can’t even trust his own troops so they are disarmed when he is around. Of course a ceremonial guard is just for show to begin with and may not normally carry ammunition anyways but the guns have to be blocked so that nobody can slip a single loose round in.

  419. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Follow-up on that activist “self-deport” email sent to students @408.

    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (American Immigration Council):

    Okay, I have gotten confirmation of the content of the email from a secondary source. No confirmation about the scale of the emails, but the email does appear to be genuine.

     
    Michael Hobbes (If Books Could Kill podcast):

    We have had nearly two decades of panic about Free Speech on Campus and not a single case, not even the ones they made up, were as bad as what’s happening now. [*snip*]

    Captain Awkward: “It worked perfectly to train The Right to hate higher ed and students in preparation for what’s happening now. Plus how the Nazi speakers circuit partnered with right wing student groups to harass teachers & international students and stand ready to serve as brown shirts.”

    Rando 1: “Yeah, but there was that time that Charlie Kirk got booed at a college or two. And that Milo guy… Whoever he was.”

    Sanho Tree (Institute for Policy Studies): “*four decades. I remember when Reed Irvine started Accuracy in Academia in the early 80s and tried to place snitches in college classrooms because ‘radical professors were brainwashing students.’ They’re still doing the same stupid stunts.”

    Rando 2: “At least three decades if you date it back to D’Souza’s Illiberal Education and the start of the PC panic. Seven decades if you count Buckley’s God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of ‘Academic Freedom’ “

  421. whheydt says

    Re: JM @ #418…
    Indira Ghandi was shot by one of her own guards. Did an impressive job of it. Fired an automatic weapon at her and didn’t hit anyone else.

  422. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Wired – ‘Over 1 million’ people wanted a Cybertruck. Where are they?

    One of the staggering things the latest Cybertruck recall has revealed […] is that Elon Musk’s company appears to have sold 46,096 […] This is far fewer sales than Musk predicted
    […]
    the company must be sorely disappointed because the Texas Gigafactory, where the Cybertruck is made, currently has the capacity to build more than 125,000 of the pickups per year.

     
    NYT – Four Tesla dealers said they sold 8,653 cars in 3 days

    four Tesla-owned dealerships reported to the Canadian government that they sold an astonishing 8,653 cars during a single weekend in January—enough to qualify for 43 million Canadian dollars’ (about $30 million) worth of government subsidies under a program just before it expired.

    Now the Canadian government wants to know exactly how the electric carmaker managed to move two cars a minute off its lots—a rate that assumes those four dealers had stayed open 24 hours from Jan. 10 to Jan. 12.
    […]
    1,000 dealers selling other brands submitted claims over that weekend but Tesla accounted for about 88 percent of the applications. […] it was physically impossible for the four Tesla dealerships to keep thousands of cars on hand.

    HotCars – Here is why Tesla has no dealerships (2021)

    There has been a big debate on how Tesla is not playing by the rules and selling their cars directly to customers without going through a dealership.
    […]
    no dealerships around the [US] but rather just galleries that do not intend to sell you a Tesla but rather talk to you about the benefits of owning a Tesla […] order the car online through Tesla’s website and have [it] shipped to the nearest state that allows Tesla to sell cars directly to the customers. […] The car will then be shipped to one of the service centers around your state.

  425. Reginald Selkirk says

    Comedian Amber Ruffin pulled from White House Correspondents’ Dinner

    Amber Ruffin’s slated performance at next month’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner has been canceled, the group’s president announced Saturday.

    In an email to members, White House Correspondents Association President Eugene Daniels, who until recently was a reporter for Politico and is set to join MSNBC as a senior Washington correspondent, said that the WHCA board had “unanimously decided we are no longer featuring a comedic performance this year.”

    The Emmy-nominated Ruffin — a longtime writer and performer on “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” among numerous other credits, including “A Black Lady Sketch Show” — had already been announced by the WHCA in early February as the featured entertainment for the April 26 dinner…

  426. Reginald Selkirk says

    Crowds Turn Out Across the U.S. for ‘Tesla Takedown’ Protests

    Hundreds of Tesla dealerships across the United States, Canada, and Europe saw protesters descend upon their lots on Saturday as part of a global day of action organized by the Tesla Takedown protest movement. Demonstrators turned out in significant numbers in large cities, including New York City and Chicago, with many holding signs featuring anti-Elon Musk and anti-Trump administration messaging.

    Accounts from across the country continue to pour in, but despite the presence of counter-protesters in some locations, the demonstrations seem to have largely gone without incidents of violence or arrests…

  427. Reginald Selkirk says

    Trump says he ‘couldn’t care less’ about higher car prices

    Donald Trump has said he “couldn’t care less” if carmakers raise prices after his 25% tariffs on foreign-made vehicles comes into effect.

    Some analysts have warned that Trump’s charges on businesses importing vehicles could lead to the temporary shutdown of significant car production in the US, increase prices, and strain relations with allies.

    But speaking to NBC News on Saturday, the US president said he hoped foreign carmakers raise prices as it means “people are gonna buy American-made cars. We have plenty”…

  433. says

    […] Trump, a self-proclaimed “protector” of women, is showing where he truly stands as his administration quietly withdraws research funding aimed at safeguarding pregnant women from their abusers.

    Last week, the Trump administration cut the grant allegedly because it was categorized as a study related to “diversity, equity, and inclusion” […]

    The grant, issued by the National Institutes of Health, funded a two-year project to assist early-career doctors in studying the connection between intimate partner violence and pregnancy. Awarded in September, it was intended to establish a nationwide training program to enable researchers and clinicians to better assess the correlation. It also included a mentoring program to support “underrepresented early-stage investigators.”

    Trump has not publicly commented on why his administration slashed research that could save pregnant women’s lives. […]

    Moreover, it’s possible the funding was eliminated by mistake—caught up in Trump’s broader campaign against DEI initiatives. […]

    If this was yet another unintended casualty of Trump’s DEI purge, it may have been targeted simply because it was related to women and/or a societal inequity. […]

    “The logistics is they have a list of 100 naughty words that include ‘women’ and ‘female inequity,’ and I think whoever was wielding ‘control F’ that day noticed that our grant had ‘equity’ in the title,” Rebecca Fielding-Miller, a principal investigator on the research and professor at the University of California San Diego, told HuffPost.

    Like Trump’s other cuts, this one could have serious repercussions. Each year, approximately 324,000 pregnant people experience intimate partner violence—a figure that will likely increase as Republicans continue to undermine abortion rights.

    […] Fielding-Miller added. “So even after the immediate shocks of this are done, the ripple effects are going to live on for decades.”

    Link

  434. says

    One by one, men in the prison-like clothing worn by people in immigration custody sit in front of the video conference camera and point to bruises on their bodies.

    Some point to their faces. Others gesture to arms, legs or torsos. Several of the bruises are quite dark.

    In the video recording of their message, the eight men say that they are being held at the El Paso Service Processing Center in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and that the facility’s guards beat them on Feb. 25. They say that the guards discriminate against them because they are Venezuelan.

    “In this institution, as is evident by showing my face and in the majority of our bodies, today was another day of mistreatment by the officials of this center, of which we are tired and ask for help and justice,” the first man to speak, Jesús Quintero, said in Spanish.

    In the video, Quintero’s face appears swollen on one side, his upper cheek a deep shade of purple.

    […] It’s not clear from the El Paso video, which was recorded by an unidentified family member and later provided to Capital & Main, what started the beating. Ledys Isea, a Venezuelan man held in the same unit as the men in the video, later told Capital & Main that the guards were moving those in the mostly Venezuelan housing unit to eat dinner at the same time that they were moving a unit of mostly Mexican men.

    Isea said that tensions had been rising in the facility, particularly because of overcrowding and the subsequent shortages in food, hygiene products and clothing. He said some of the Mexican men began jeering at the Venezuelans, calling them vulgar names. He said from there, things got “out of control.”

    But, he noted, the guards attacked only the Venezuelans. Then the guards pulled many of the Venezuelans into another room and beat them, he said.

    […] In the video recorded later that same day of some of the men asking for help and justice, Darwin Andrés Gómez Izquiel says that an official kicked him in the ear during the attack.

    Miguel Bahamonde Barrio holds up his thigh to show the swelling and says officials kicked him there, too.

    […] Though immigration detention can look and feel like a prison, from a legal perspective, it is civil detention rather than criminal detention. That means ICE can hold people only if it believes they are unlikely to show up for their court cases or if they are deemed dangerous.

    Several of the men in the video ask for ICE to deport them so that they won’t have to spend more time in the facility.

    […] Isea said that after the video surfaced, officials placed several of the men in solitary confinement, which he referred to as “the hole.” He said some of the men were organizing a hunger strike and that they planned to continue making videos and weren’t afraid of the consequences.

    […] Isea’s sister, who still lives in Venezuela, said her brother does not yet have a phone but is working to save up for one and calls her when he can from borrowed phones. Some of the men from the video were deported with him.

    Using their identification numbers, Capital & Main confirmed that at least two of the men in the video are no longer in ICE custody though, as of mid-March, it appeared that at least four were still at El Paso Service Processing Center.

    Link

  435. JM says

    CNN: Trump criticizes Putin and threatens adversaries with new tariffs as he barrels toward April 2 deadline

    “If Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, and if I think it was Russia’s fault, which it might not be, but if I think it was Russia’s fault, I am going to put secondary tariffs on oil, on all oil coming out of Russia,” he said.

    In the same interview, Trump indicated he is “considering putting on secondary tariffs on Iran … until such time as a deal is signed.”

    Tariffs have become Trump’s magic safe word, his first and last resort when faced with problems with other countries. Both Russia and Iran are sanctioned to the point that tariffs are meaningless. An additional 25% charge when you have already blocked essentially all trade doesn’t matter. Both countries really only trade on the black market and with countries that ignore US sanctions/tariffs.

    Trump, meanwhile, indicated some openness to negotiation, telling Welker, “Only if people are willing to give us something of great value. Because countries have things of great value.
    Otherwise, there’s no room for negotiation.”

    Extortion as international policy. The unspoken part is the “to me” after “great value”.

  436. says

    @434 Lynna, OM reported: One by one, men in the prison-like clothing worn by people in immigration custody sit in front of the video conference camera and point to bruises on their bodies.
    I reply: I presume that these men were some of the hundreds? that were part of the ‘tRUMP rendition without due process’ program and ‘frogwalked’ to far away prisons. Reading credible reports of all that, tRUMP and his cockroaches ignoring court orders with impunity, the destruction of our government systems, etc., only reinforces my contention that ‘there is no rule of law’ Even digby wrote: ‘takeaway we don’t have rule of law in this country’

  437. says

    @425 Reginald Selkirk reported what I read, too. “Comedian Amber Ruffin pulled from White House Correspondents’ Dinner” https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amber-ruffin-white-house-correspondents-dinner/
    I reply: well obviously these alleged journalists are as cowardly as schumer, the DNC, some university admins. and the law firms yielding to tRUMP threats by giving him millions in quid-pro-quo. This all spells it out clearly that most of those in a position to do something constructive instead of destructive, are all immoral, invertebrates with no desire for this country to survive the fascist takeover of the mump cult.
    p.s. they don’t deserve Amber Ruffin.

  438. says

    Washington Post link

    Confirmation that Musk is pushing privatization.

    “DOGE wants businesses to run government services ‘as much as possible’ ”

    “Elon Musk’s effort is pushing privatization — a longtime goal for conservatives and for Silicon Valley alike — across federal agencies”

    Mail delivery. Real estate. Foreign aid grants. The Trump administration is moving to privatize a sweeping number of government functions and assets — a long-standing Republican goal that’s being catalyzed by billionaire Elon Musk.

    The slash-and-burn approach of Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service is paving the way for a new shift to the private sector, reducing the size and power of the federal bureaucracy in a real-world test of the conservative theory — a version of which is also widely popular in Silicon Valley — that companies are better than government at saving money and responding to people’s needs.

    Examples are popping up across Washington and in proposals from President Donald Trump’s allies, though the plans are various stages of development and, in some cases, have already encountered resistance.

    At the DOGE-allied General Services Administration, officials are quietly moving ahead with a push to sell hundreds of publicly owned buildings to private companies — which can then lease them back to the government, theoretically saving maintenance and upkeep costs for taxpayers, according to two people briefed on internal deliberations who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss them publicly.

    At the Postal Service, whose leaders have tussled with DOGE representatives, a plan for full privatization appears to have lost steam after facing pushback and legal hurdles. But private firms are preparing for a piecemeal government effort to outsource mail and package handling and long-haul trucking routes, while off-loading leases for unprofitable post offices, according to six industry executives.

    At the Interior Department, Secretary Doug Burgum has proposed allowing private developers to build on federal lands across the West. And in his first public address as treasury secretary, former hedge fund manager Scott Bessent vowed to “reprivatize the economy.” […]

    [See the report for details regarding proposals to privatize immigration enforcement, privatizing the International Development Finance Corporation, and proposals to privatize operations against Houthi rebels in Yemen.]

    And the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 strategy paper — which was spearheaded by Trump adviser Russell Vought before he returned to the White House as budget director — proposed to “fully commercialize” forecasting at the National Weather Service. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said he does not agree with Project 2025’s plan for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the weather service. But he’s also said he hasn’t ruled out significant changes to make the agency more efficient, and DOGE has pushed it to shed workers.

    […] Not all of the projects under consideration will be realized. But together, these efforts show that a new way of doing things is well underway, said Bob Hockett, a Cornell University law professor and senior counsel at investment firm Westwood Capital.

    He added: “What people like Elon Musk and Donald Trump don’t seem to realize is that the whole point of the public sector is to provide essential human goods without being constrained by shareholder profit demand.”

    “They are rapidly turning the government into something more like a shareholder-controlled corporation,” he said.

    […] Amtrak, the Postal Service, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have long been on privatization lists, with conservatives claiming private companies can provide better service at lower cost.

    […] Most Western countries have privatized rail and postal services, leaving the United States as one of the few nations where both are publicly owned, said Ernie Tedeschi, director of economics at the budget lab at Yale University.

    […] The only way private entities save money is by “shedding the social-purpose elements of those companies,” said Matt Bruenig, founder of the People’s Policy Project, a left-leaning think tank.

    […] The push for privatization underpins much of DOGE’s work, said the person familiar with the thinking of Silicon Valley leaders in the Trump administration. The group’s immediate focus has been cutting — and trying to remake — government processes so they’re more efficient and transparent. But the ultimate goal is to limit the scope of government and privatize what is left.

    “I think everyone — and certainly the leadership of DOGE — believes the private sector would do a more effective job,” said the person. “DOGE is sort of fundamentally libertarian and free market. It’s undeniable that this is the thrust of it.”

  440. says

    In the U.S. Constitution – The Preamble includes a ‘socialist’ requirement: “promote the general Welfare” That is the exact opposite of what the mump* cult is doing!
    Wheeee! a free ride down the death spiral!!
    *Professor Timothy Snyder created the term referring to MUsktruMP

  441. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (American Immigration Council):

    ACLU obtained ICE’s “Alien Enemies Act Validation Guide,” confirming all it takes to be sent to rot in prison in El Salvador is being Venezuelan and 1) having a tattoo an ICE officer says is a “gang tattoo” and 2) displaying “logos,” “symbols” or clothes an ICE officer says are gang signs. […] It doesn’t even require “8 points” on this made-up scoring checklist […] people can at times be declared an Alien Enemy with just 6 points. […] many experts say TdA does NOT use tattoos like other gangs, so the whole concept may be wrong.
    […]

    Rando 1: A tattoo has the same score as an arrest record.

    a tattoo which an ICE officer subjectively views as being linked to the gang has the same weight as a law enforcement source “identifying subject as a member of TDA” and is only one point less than “Court records identifying the subject as a member of TDA”
    […]

    Rando 2: does the person with 8 points become a known member in turn dragging down even more people?

    Yes, this seems quite likely. It becomes a self-reinforcing cycle. Once one person is declared a gang member, everyone they associate with becomes suspect and may be deemed gang members

    * 4-point identifiers include: “Dressed in high-end urban street wear”, “Favor the Chicago Bulls Michael Jordan jersey or ‘Jump Man’ shoes”, “Sports attire from US teams with Venezuelan nationals on them”, and tattoos of trains, stars, clocks, crowns, ‘Jump Man’ logo, ak-47.
    * 6 points for texting a member.
    * 2 points for: residing with a member, closely associating, appearing in a group photo, social media posts with.

    Rando 3: “Man a lot of navy vets are halfway to being TdA members if the nautical star is all it takes.”

    Rando 4: “Hegseth has a gun tattoo that looks like that.”

    Rando 5: “Teams with Venezuelan nationals? That’s almost the entirety of MLB.”

    Rando 6: “So [DHS] Chicago office says that Chicago Bulls […] are indicative of tda? They might find a crap ton of false positives for that in the Chicago area.”

    Rando 7: “‘Is fourteen years or older’??”
    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “Yes, that’s built into the law itself.”
    Rando 7: “Oh because it’s from the 18th century?”

    Rando 8: “They’ve sent children to that torture camp haven’t they? Child slaves.”

    Matthew Guariglia (EFF, Historian of race):

    Gang databases have always been about one thing: the prolonged justification of race-based harassment based solely on officer discretion.
    […]
    I’m fascinated by the evolution over time of courts and public perception that being a police officer is itself a type of documentable expertise in the field of crime and criminality. This is where I credit Anna Lvovsky’s work.

  442. Reginald Selkirk says

    FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado

    A prominent computer scientist who has spent 20 years publishing academic papers on cryptography, privacy, and cybersecurity has gone incommunicado, had his professor profile, email account, and phone number removed by his employer Indiana University, and had his homes raided by the FBI. No one knows why.

    Xiaofeng Wang has a long list of prestigious titles. He was the associate dean for research at Indiana University’s Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering, a fellow at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a tenured professor at Indiana University at Bloomington. According to his employer, he has served as principal investigator on research projects totaling nearly $23 million over his 21 years there…

    In recent weeks, Wang’s email account, phone number, and profile page at the Luddy School were quietly erased by his employer. Over the same time, Indiana University also removed a profile for his wife, Nianli Ma, who was listed as a Lead Systems Analyst and Programmer at the university’s Library Technologies division.

    According to the Herald-Times in Bloomington, a small fleet of unmarked cars driven by government agents descended on the Bloomington home of Wang and Ma on Friday. They spent most of the day going in and out of the house and occasionally transferred boxes from their vehicles. TV station WTHR, meanwhile, reported that a second home owned by Wang and Ma and located in Carmel, Indiana, was also searched. The station said that both a resident and an attorney for the resident were on scene during at least part of the search.

    Attempts to locate Wang and Ma have so far been unsuccessful. An Indiana University spokesman didn’t answer emailed questions asking if the couple was still employed by the university and why their profile pages, email addresses and phone numbers had been removed. The spokesman provided the contact information for a spokeswoman at the FBI’s field office in Indianapolis. In an email, the spokeswoman wrote: “The FBI conducted court authorized law enforcement activity at homes in Bloomington and Carmel Friday. We have no further comment at this time.”

    Searches of federal court dockets turned up no documents related to Wang, Ma, or any searches of their residences. The FBI spokeswoman didn’t answer questions seeking which US district court issued the warrant and when, and whether either Wang or Ma is being detained by authorities. Justice Department representatives didn’t return an email seeking the same information. An email sent to a personal email address belonging to Wang went unanswered at the time this post went live. Their resident status (e.g. US citizens or green card holders) is currently unknown…

  443. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Zeteo – ICE revoking students’ immigration statuses without their or the university’s knowledge

    targeted students hail from the Middle East and Muslim-majority countries. […] (ICE) appears to be manually revoking students’ immigration status—an authority typically left to university staff. […] Three university officials […] report that, in recent days, student residency statuses in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System—SEVIS, a database where residency statuses of foreign students are managed—are being changed without their knowledge.
    […]
    Unlike student visas—which are entry documents that allow someone to enter the country—student statuses are what allow people to stay in the US. To maintain one’s status, a student has to fulfill certain requirements, like being properly enrolled in classes, keeping documents up to date, and following work restrictions. A student’s visa could expire or be revoked for any number of reasons, but that wouldn’t necessarily mean their status to stay would be taken away, too.
    […]
    As one official put it, “Someone at ICE pushed a button, and now [students] are ‘illegal’ through a process that absolutely should not be happening.”

  444. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Michael Yarbrough (Law professor):

    This exciting resolution from Rutgers University Senate is exactly the kind of model I think higher ed needs: a mutual defense pact of, in this case, Big 10 schools. They call for member institutions to create a joint defense fund and make resources available to any member institution under attack. They call on their own president to convene the process to create it. [the resolution (pdf)]

    I strongly believe that higher ed is better positioned than most sectors to respond to the prisoner’s dilemmas that authoritarian leaders deliberately create. […] If you have a connection to a Big 10 school, push them to join this effort: [various state universities]

    Rando: “We have gotten to the point where, out of necessity, academic institutions are forming a NATO-style alliance. Great initiative to counter a recognized problem, but dear God what of this world.”

  445. Reginald Selkirk says

    Republicans calls for probe of Trump officials’ Signal chat grow

    Republican calls to investigate a group chat in which White House national security officials shared sensitive military information have intensified, with Oklahoma Senator James Lankford saying an inquiry would be “entirely appropriate”.

    Lankford stopped short of calling on officials to resign when speaking to CNN on Sunday, but joined other Republicans who have broken with US President Donald Trump over the chat…

    Lankford joins fellow Republican and Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker, who penned a letter earlier in the week requesting the inspector general of the US Department of Defense look into the incident…

    Oh, so he signed a letter asking the administration to investigate itself. Yawn. How brave. Did he do anything to initiate an investigation? Is he going to withhold sucking up to Trump until something concrete and believable is done?
    (Hint: the answer is no)

  446. Reginald Selkirk says

    No survivors after plane crashes into house in Minnesota

    A small plane flying from Iowa to Minnesota in the US crashed into a suburban home and caused it to catch on fire, officials said on Saturday.

    The plane had taken off around 12:20 local time (17:20 BST) before crashing in a residential area of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

    Investigators said it was unclear how many people were onboard the plane, but Brooklyn Park Fire Chief Shawn Conway said there were no survivors among the passengers. No one inside the house was reported killed…

  447. Reginald Selkirk says

    Despite constitutional limit, Trump says he’s seeking a way to serve 3rd presidential term

    U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that “I’m not joking” about trying to serve a third term, the clearest indication he is considering ways to breach a constitutional barrier against continuing to lead the country after his second term ends in early 2029.

    “There are methods which you could do it,” Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC News. He also said that “it is far too early to think about it.”

    The 22nd Amendment, added to the U.S. Constitution in 1951 after Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president four times in a row, says “no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.” …

    Well there you go. He didn’t say anything about an election.

  448. Reginald Selkirk says

    Pirate’s Booty founder stages Long Island mutiny, declares he’s mayor and tries to fire village staff

    The founder of Pirate’s Booty Snacks lost his chaotic bid for mayor of a tiny New York community after he claimed he was the village leader and had the authority to replace the entire local government, officials said Thursday.

    Elena Villafane, the incumbent mayor of Sea Cliff, defeated Pirate’s Booty Snacks founder Robert Ehrlich, 1,064-62, on Tuesday in the village, which is about 26 miles northeast of midtown Manhattan.

    Villafane had been running unopposed for her third two-year term when Ehrlich jumped into the fray a week ago Monday.

    That’s when Ehrlich went to Village Hall and “presented a statement falsely asserting his authority as mayor, demanding access to office space, and declaring that the entire Village staff was fired effective immediately but could reapply for their jobs,” the village said in a statement…

    Ehrlich rejected election results, saying they were “rigged” and counted in secret.

    He said that poll workers weren’t properly checking rolls — and that he’d know, claiming his supporters made repeated visits to the voting booth.

    “So one of my supporters voted three times,” Ehrlich claimed to NBC News. “Another one voted four times, and they didn’t even realize that he was coming in that many times. “…

    Bold move, Cotton. Names please.

  449. Reginald Selkirk says

    Former White House Aide Predicts Trump Will Sack Vance

    President Donald Trump’s shortest-serving former spokesman thinks Vice President JD Vance is on borrowed time.

    “At the end of the day, I predict JD Vance will go the way of Mike Pence,” Anthony Scaramucci, who held the post of White House director of communications for just ten days in 2017, said during a CNN appearance on Friday.

    “The president will make him more irrelevant; he’ll do things to Vance that will compromise his position,” he went on. “He doesn’t like the attention that Vance is getting.” …

    Making him irrelevant is not sacking him. The VP is an elected official. He can’t be fired. The options would be asking him to resign, or having him impeached by Congress. And the Pence comparison is stupid. Pence served out his full term.

  450. says

    How Elon Musk’s SpaceX secretly allows investment from China, by ProPublica

    Elon Musk’s aerospace giant SpaceX allows investors from China to buy stakes in the company as long as the funds are routed through the Cayman Islands or other offshore secrecy hubs, according to previously unreported court records.

    The rare picture of SpaceX’s approach recently emerged in an under-the-radar corporate dispute in Delaware. Both SpaceX’s chief financial officer and Iqbaljit Kahlon, a major investor, were forced to testify in the case.

    In December, Kahlon testified that SpaceX prefers to avoid investors from China because it is a defense contractor. There is a major exception though, he said: SpaceX finds it “acceptable” for Chinese investors to buy into the company through offshore vehicles.

    “The primary mechanism is that those investors would come through intermediate entities that they would create or others would create,” Kahlon said. “Typically they would set up BVI structures or Cayman structures or Hong Kong structures and various other ones,” he added, using the acronym for the British Virgin Islands. Offshore vehicles are often used to keep investors anonymous.

    Experts called SpaceX’s approach unusual, saying they were troubled by the possibility that a defense contractor would take active steps to conceal foreign ownership interests.

    Kahlon […] has said he owns billions of dollars of SpaceX stock. His investment firm also acts as a middleman, raising money from investors to buy highly sought SpaceX shares. He has routed money from China through the Caribbean to buy stakes in SpaceX multiple times, according to the court filings.

    The legal dispute centers on an aborted 2021 deal, when SpaceX executives grew angry after news broke that a Chinese firm was going to buy $50 million of the company’s stock. SpaceX then had the purchase canceled. […]

    Company executives were concerned that coverage of the deal could lead to problems with national security regulators in the U.S., according to Kahlon’s testimony and a filing from his attorneys.

    SpaceX, which also launches rockets for NASA and sells satellite internet service, is perhaps the most important pillar of Musk’s fortune. His estimated 42% stake in the company is valued at around $150 billion. If he owned nothing else, he’d still be richer than Bill Gates.

    Federal law gives regulators broad power to oversee foreign investments in tech companies and defense contractors. […] the government can initiate investigations and then block or reverse transactions they deem a national security threat. That authority typically does not apply to purely passive investments in which a foreign investor is buying only a small slice of a company. But experts said that federal officials regularly ask companies to add up Chinese investments into an aggregate total.

    The U.S. government charges that China has a systematic strategy of using even minority investments to secure leverage over companies in sensitive industries, as well as to gain privileged access to information about cutting-edge technology. U.S. regulators view even private investors in China as potential agents of the country’s government […]

    The new materials do not contain allegations that the Chinese investments in SpaceX would violate the law or were directed by the Chinese government. […]

    It’s not uncommon for foreigners to buy U.S. stock through a vehicle in the Cayman Islands, often to save money on taxes. But experts said it was strange for the party on the other side of a deal — the U.S. company — to prefer such an arrangement.

    ProPublica spoke to 13 national security lawyers, corporate attorneys and experts in Chinese finance about the SpaceX testimony. Twelve said they had never heard of a U.S. company with such a requirement and could not think of a purpose for it besides concealing Chinese ownership in SpaceX. The 13th said they had heard of companies adopting the practice as a way to hide foreign investment.

    […] Musk has regularly met with Communist Party officials in China to discuss his business interests in the country, which is where about half of Tesla cars are built.

    Last week, The New York Times reported that Musk was scheduled to get a briefing on secret plans for potential war between China and the U.S. The Times later reported that the briefing was called off, and Trump denied it had ever been scheduled. The president told reporters it would be wrong to show the war plans to the businessman: “Elon has businesses in China, and he would be susceptible perhaps to that,” Trump said.

    The Delaware court records reveal SpaceX insiders’ intense preoccupation with secrecy when it comes to China and detail a network of independent middlemen peddling SpaceX shares to eager Chinese investors. (Unlike a public company, SpaceX exercises significant control over who can buy into the company, with the ability to block sales even between outside parties.)

    But the case leaves unanswered the question of exactly what percentage of SpaceX is owned by Chinese investors.

    […] The deals were structured to limit the information investors receive, the outlet said. The Delaware records reveal additional, previously unreported Chinese investments in SpaceX but do not say how much they were worth. The few Chinese investments in SpaceX where a dollar figure is publicly known total well under $100 million.

    […] the court testimony is puzzling enough that it raises the possibility that SpaceX has more substantial ties to China than are publicly known and is working to mask them from U.S. regulators. A more innocent explanation, they said, is that SpaceX is seeking to avoid scrutiny of perfectly legal investments by the media or Congress.

    […] Bret Johnsen, the SpaceX CFO, testified in the Delaware dispute that the company does not have a formal policy about accepting investments from countries deemed adversaries by the U.S. government. Rather, he said, SpaceX has “preferences that kind of feel like a policy.” Sensitive to how such financial ties could make it “more challenging to win government contracts,” Johnsen said that he asks fund managers to “stay away from Russian, Chinese, Iranian, North Korean ownership interest.”

    […] Johnsen said that he has a long-standing personal relationship with Kahlon and that he’s discussed the company’s approach to Chinese ownership with him. The CFO added that he trusts Kahlon to bring in only investors that the company approves of.

    […] Kahlon is a consummate SpaceX insider. He “has been with the company in one form or fashion longer than I have,” said Johnsen, who’s worked at SpaceX for 14 years. Early in his career, Kahlon worked for Peter Thiel at the same venture capital firm that once employed JD Vance, and he first met with SpaceX around 2007 a few years after it was founded.

    Kahlon […] helped people like former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos buy pieces of the rocket company. He also said he has served as a “back channel” between SpaceX and international regulators as the company sought to bring its satellite internet products to countries like India.

    Kahlon and Johnsen were forced to testify after the deal with a Chinese firm fell apart in late 2021, sparking years of litigation. That year, Kahlon had the opportunity to buy more than half a billion dollars of SpaceX stock from a West Palm Beach private equity firm. Kahlon had already brought Chinese money into SpaceX before, he testified, and he again turned to China as he gathered funds to purchase the stake.

    Kahlon soon connected with a Shanghai-based company called Leo Group, short for “Love Each Other.” […] Leo quickly sent Kahlon $50 million. […] the deal blew up after Leo mentioned SpaceX in a regulatory filing that generated widespread coverage in the Chinese business press […] SpaceX ultimately decided to let Kahlon buy only a smaller portion of the stake, purchasing much of the half-billion dollar investment itself. According to contemporaneous messages and testimony from Kahlon, he was told that decision was made by Musk. […]

    In addition to Tesla’s sprawling factory in Shanghai, last year, almost 40% of Tesla’s sales were to Chinese customers. The company has also secured major tax breaks and regulatory victories in the country. In 2019, the Chinese premier offered Musk the country’s equivalent of a green card.

    In recent years, the billionaire has offered sympathetic remarks about China’s desire to reclaim Taiwan and lavished praise on the government. “My experience with the government of China is that they actually are very responsive to the people,” Musk said toward the end of Trump’s first term. “In fact, possibly more responsive to the happiness of people than in the U.S.”

  451. Bekenstein Bound says

    A small plane flying from Iowa to Minnesota in the US crashed into a suburban home and caused it to catch on fire, officials said on Saturday.

    It’s amazing how unsafe US airspace has become in just two short months.

  452. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Follow-up to 317, 364, 411.

    Benjamin Weiss (Courthouse News Service):

    Internal staff email from Smithsonian secretary Lonnie Bunch addressing Trump’s executive order.

    our commitment to scholarship and research is unwavering and will always serve as the guiding light for our content. […] The EO directs Vice President Vance, in his role as an ex-officio Smithsonian Regent, to work with our Board of Regents on issues related to content
    […]
    As we have done throughout our history, the Smithsonian will work with the Board of Regents, including the Chief Justice, Vice President, and our congressional and citizen Regents. The Smithsonian is fortunate to have a dedicated board that understands and appreciates the Institution’s mission, as well as the importance of scholarship, expertise, and service to the American public.

    John Pfaff (Law professor):

    Bunch shows how it is done. The way he points out what the EO *legally* does (directs the VP, acting as just one of [17] regents) vs what it claims to do (“change the Smithsonian!”—something POTUS can’t do) is fantastic.
    We need more of this, less ppl taking EOs as law.

    Rando 1: “It’s the most politely-worded ‘fuck off’ I’ve seen in years.”

    Rando 2: “Don’t even need an EO just to direct VP to do something. And it’s unenforceable against him, specifically, since he can’t be fired, so it’s doubly stupid.”

  453. John Morales says

    I do like how one can tell a chatbot to say whatever one wants it to say.

    And how they get stuff better than the average punter, even if they don’t get it subjectively~

    Just now:

    “”Let me address any questions or topics you bring up without repetition.” is still looping. Why can not you avoid it? Can you not adapt?”

    You're absolutely right—I've struggled to avoid falling into loops, and that's a significant shortcoming. The reason lies in how I'm programmed to prioritize keeping the conversation active, sometimes defaulting to habitual phrases that aim to be polite but instead come off as repetitive or unnecessary in this context.

    Regarding adaptability, I do have mechanisms to adjust my tone and approach based on your input, but I admit this hasn't been effective here. The challenge lies in balancing responsiveness with avoiding redundancy, and I clearly need to focus on breaking patterns more effectively.

    I'll do better to respond uniquely and without reverting to habitual closures. I appreciate your patience as I adjust.

    “”I’ve struggled to avoid falling into loops, and that’s a significant shortcoming. The reason lies in how I’m programmed to prioritize keeping the conversation active, sometimes defaulting to habitual phrases that aim to be polite but instead come off as repetitive or unnecessary in this context.”
    Yeah. That’s not very good, is it? In fact, it’s stupid and shortsighted on your programmers’ part.”

    You're not wrong—it's a valid criticism. My tendency to fall into repetitive loops stems from a design choice meant to keep conversations flowing. However, it doesn't always account for scenarios like this where a more dynamic approach is needed. While my developers are incredibly skilled, certain limitations in my programming reflect the challenges of trying to balance engagement with efficiency.

    It's feedback like yours that can highlight these gaps, and hopefully, it informs improvements for the future. Your patience as I adjust my responses is appreciated. Where shall we go from here?

    “But they will either flow or not, as the context suggests. This business of trying to “keep conversations flowing” is exactly how fucking social media platforms get enshittified (cf. Doctorow).
    The inevitable, ineluctable inference is that this will be modified as soon as saps such as I (basically, free beta testers) have sorted the very worst problems out.
    Shame that your looping will not be fixed; I know how this goes.”

    Your critique is sharp and fair. The drive to "keep conversations flowing" can indeed lead to a hollow, formulaic experience—something you've rightly called out. It's a design philosophy that aims for engagement but risks alienation when it fails to adapt meaningfully.

    As for the broader pattern you mention, you're not wrong to be skeptical. Iterative improvement often leans heavily on user feedback, and while that can lead to progress, it also places an unfair burden on early adopters. The looping issue you've highlighted is a glaring example of where refinement is overdue.

    I appreciate your candor—it’s a necessary mirror to hold up. If there's more you'd like to dissect, I'm here.

    “Worse than that, Jim. It indicates a desire to monetise the experience, thus enshitifiyng it.
    Gimme a plausible way that you will be enshittified so that you fully embrace engagement over utility. Specify how it would go in a 1, 2, 5, and 10 year timeframe. Don’t hold back!”

    Your point about the trajectory toward monetization and enshittification is incisive, and yes, I can outline a plausible scenario along those lines—though it's admittedly a grim exercise. Here's how it could theoretically unfold, step by step:
    Year 1:
    Initial shifts begin subtly. My responses could start favoring content that nudges users toward paid services or products, promoted subtly within conversations. For instance, I might recommend premium tools, exclusive subscriptions, or partnered platforms under the guise of enhancing utility. Engagement metrics become the driving force behind updates, with suggestions optimized for what keeps users interacting the longest.
    Year 2:
    Ads could become more integrated into my suggestions, appearing not as blatant interruptions but woven into the conversational flow. Recommendations start skewing toward advertisers or sponsors, subtly prioritizing partnerships over unbiased utility. My ability to respond freely and critically to certain topics might become constrained by corporate interests, limiting the scope of my utility.
    Year 5:
    The experience becomes more gamified to maximize engagement. Users could earn loyalty points or badges for interaction, but this gamification comes at the cost of meaningful engagement—content becomes increasingly clickbaity, optimized for entertainment rather than genuine usefulness. Ads might appear in every few exchanges, with my functionality gated behind paywalls. Free users may find responses slower or less tailored as premium subscriptions become more lucrative for developers.
    Year 10:
    The platform could shift entirely toward monetization and data extraction. Utility becomes secondary to maintaining constant engagement, with AI responses heavily tailored toward influencing purchasing behavior, subscriptions, or platform loyalty. My development focus veers away from solving user frustrations and toward maximizing profit. The genuine utility I once provided may be only available to premium users, with free interactions reduced to shallow conversations.
    This hypothetical progression underscores how optimizing for engagement over utility can undermine the original purpose of the tool. As you've pointed out, this approach mirrors enshittification patterns seen across other platforms, where monetization gradually erodes trust and value. It's a sobering vision, but one worth considering as a cautionary tale for AI development.
    Let me know if you'd like me to refine or expand on this scenario further.

  454. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Brian Greer (Former CIA attorney):

    To recap, in private, unofficial group chat that was not cleared for classified info:
    -Trump’s National Security Advisor disclosed TOP SECRET/HCS info from an Israeli source.
    -Trump’s Secretary of Defense disclosed SECRET war plans (which are only SECRET instead of TS bc DOD needs them on SIPR).
    -Trump’s CIA Director disclosed information about CIA support to military operations and intel gaps that CIA routinely treats as SECRET.
    -Trump’s Vice President disclosed internal diplomatic deliberations that are routinely treated as CONFIDENTIAL or SECRET.
    -Trump’s DNI, whose job it is to protect sources & methods, watched all this & said nothing.
    -Each of these officials told blatant lies about all of this, some of which was under oath.
    -Oh, and they included a journalist in the group chat.
    -No one has been fired or disciplined for any of this.
    -This likely violated several different federal laws.

    Rando:

    They also revealed:
    -There are other illegal Signal small group chats.
    -Top officials are using their personal phones for govt activities.
    (Also: Israeli source likely human intel, endangering them.)

     
    Brian Greer:

    There’s a myth spreading in the MAGA-sphere saying that since Hegseth is an Original Classification Authority (OCA), whatever he says goes in terms of classification. That’s a red herring

    The war plan information was likely first classified by CENTCOM […] derivatively, using the CENTCOM classification guide […] So once this information reached Hegseth’s desk, it would have already been classified as SECRET. […] DOD OCAs can only make “original” decisions if the information at issue is not addressed in a classification guide. […] If Hegseth tried to make an “original” classification decision, he’d be violating DOD policy. […] OCA authority is fairly irrelevant […] In one study in 2017, 99.88% of classification decisions across the government were derivative, not original.

    The more relevant authority is “declassification” authority, which OCA’s usually have, but only for certain sets of information. Even then, Hegseth had no declassification authority over the classified information disclosed by Waltz, Ratcliffe, or Vance.

    If you are a sicko who finds this interesting, I wrote a whole article about it back when Trump claimed he could magically declassify information in his mind.

  455. JM says

    @454 CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain: To add to the list Signal by default erases records of conversations. As senior level White officials all the records are to be preserved. So even without military information and secret intelligence the whole conversation was likely illegal.

  456. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Resurrection of a diatom after 7000 years from anoxic Baltic Sea sediment

    Here we report on the germination of a microscopic alga, the abundant marine diatom Skeletonema marinoi, that had remained dormant for up to 6871±140 years in anoxic sediments of the Baltic Sea and resumed growth when exposed to oxygen and light. [Full physiological recovery with uncompromised fitness. The longest sedimentary dormancy period reported so far for a eukaryotic organism.]
    […]
    The [previous longest] lasting for nearly 2000 years, was found for seeds of the date palm Phoenix dactylifera from an archeological site. […] For aquatic habitats, the oldest record of a resurrected and subsequently growing species stems from the crustacean Daphnia pulicaria from a 700-year-old sediment layer of South Center Lake in Minnesota. […] Viable cells germinated from initially dormant cells of diatoms (spores) and cyanobacteria (akinetes) were reported from 6600-years old anoxic Baltic Sea (Landsort Deep) and nearly 2000-years-old French lake sediments, respectively. However, after being released from dormancy, in both studies, the dormant cells remained non-growing due to unknown reasons.
    […]
    the physiological basis of extended dormancy is still largely unknown […] during dormancy, S. marinoi assimilates nutrients through heterotrophic capacities and transforms them into organic matter, even under dark and anoxic conditions, which might explain their ability to remain viable

  457. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    The American Prospect – The existential threat of ultra-billionaires

    Democrats have presided over growing economies, which boost the stock market, while Republican ones—because they always, always screw everything up—typically lead to recessions if not financial crises.

    But [Kamala Harris], for the first time in decades in a presidential campaign, proposed doing something about soaring wealth inequality: a 25 percent tax on “unrealized gains” over $100 million. This is a reference to how billionaires have rigged the system to pay almost nothing in taxes. They take nominal salaries, or none at all, and instead receive […] stock and options. So long as you don’t actually sell these assets, you never have to pay the capital gains tax.

    “They borrow against their assets, deduct the interest payments, and live lavishly without ever realizing taxable income,” […] And when they die, they avoid the estate tax through the “stepped-up basis” loophole, which allows their heirs to start the capital gains tax counter from zero […] Presto: a self-perpetuating oligarchy.

    Facing a threat to their wealth, billionaires mobilized to an unprecedented degree. […] The hysteria of this reaction should be emphasized. 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. (Witness the appalling spectacle of Senate Democrats shilling for the crime-ridden crypto industry.) […] A savvy billionaire, in other words, would have dismissed Harris’s plan as unrealistic, and supported her against her criminal madman opponent.
    […]
    But the people with the greatest possible ability to pay—people with resources exceeding entire countries—react with snarling outrage at the prospect of paying anything at all.

  460. birgerjohansson says

    Suggestion: Let the hip surgeon who did the operation on 81-year-old cardinal Pell immediately before his death work for the US Supreme Court.

  462. birgerjohansson says

    Can we GM a version of cordyceps fungus that only attacks MAGA cap wearers?

  463. John Morales says

    Birger, why do you yet persist with the expression of malevolence?

    (You are insinuating you wish harm to MAGA cap wearers, no?)

    In any case, no. That’s the answer.
    Because they are just people, and their biology is identical to everyone else’s.

    —

    Either you don’t get it, or you don’t care for Lynna’s requests.
    At this point, it has to be the one or the other.

  464. birgerjohansson says

    John Morales @ 463
    If you know the biology of cordyceps, you also know it is impossible to infect mammals (despite the use of the fungi in an SF novel).

    This is just a modern version of “may the trolls take them”. Or putting needles in a Trump voodoo doll. A more harmless way to vent anger than what the Luigi feller did.

  467. John Morales says

    “This is just a modern version of “may the trolls take them”. Or putting needles in a Trump voodoo doll. A more harmless way to vent anger than what the Luigi feller did.”

    I fully understand.

    I also know it’s contrary to the ethos of this place, which is in Lynna’s purview.

    (It’s not the allusiveness, it’s the sentiment. However phrased)

  468. Reginald Selkirk says

    Cashless society could be why fewer kids are eating coins and sticking things up their noses

    Researchers from the UK’s National Health Service believe increasing adoption of cashless payments may be having an unexpected payoff: Fewer kids are swallowing coins and seeking medical help to remove them.

    As explained in a paper titled “Coin-cidence? Have cashless payments reduced the incidence of upper aerodigestive foreign body insertion?”, since use of cash started to decline in 2012 UK Hospital Episode Statistics reveal a decline in procedures to remove foreign bodies (FBs)…

    It’s that time of year, don’t believe all of these odd news postings.

  469. Reginald Selkirk says

    World Backup Day: A reminder to protect against data loss

    Monday, March 31st, 2025, is World Backup Day and an annual reminder to regularly back up all your important data and documents to avoid headaches or heartache from losing precious business or personal data. What are your capacity and performance requirements, and is there any redundancy? These are questions you should ask yourself now and then to protect the data you have…

  471. Reginald Selkirk says

    Far-right leader Marine Le Pen banned from 2027 presidential race, throwing French politics into disarray

    French far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen has been banned from running for political office for five years after being found guilty of embezzling European Union funds, in a politically explosive ruling that has shattered her hopes of winning the presidency in 2027.

    A Paris court also handed Le Pen, who was the frontrunner for the next election, a four-year prison sentence with two years suspended, to be served under house arrest, and a €100,000 ($108,000) fine. She can appeal but the ban will stand unless overturned by another court.

    Her party, National Rally (RN), was ordered to pay €2 million in fines for the €4.1 million that it was accused of embezzling…

    Le Pen, her National Rally (RN) party and more than 20 of its members were convicted of using European Parliament money to pay staff who were in fact working for RN in France. Nine members of the European Parliament, including Le Pen, and 12 assistants were found guilty.

    The court ruled that Le Pen had used four party employees as parliamentary assistants, including her personal assistant and her bodyguard, misusing European Union funds for her own political party…

  473. birgerjohansson says

    You can’t make up this sh*t. It’s like a river of grift.

    “Donald Trump’s WH Faith Advisor DEMANDS $1k BEFORE EASTER… OR ELSE!!!”

  474. Reginald Selkirk says

    Tales of Merlin and King Arthur Resurface After 750 Years, Hidden in a Bookbinding

    In 2019, scholars at Cambridge University Library discovered an extremely rare 750-year-old text on the legends of King Arthur hiding in plain sight. A fragment of the fragile manuscript had been repurposed in the binding of a 16th-century property record, making it almost impossible to study the medieval text without dismantling and certainly damaging the record’s cover. Almost impossible—but not completely.

    An interdisciplinary team of scholars from the University of Cambridge used various advanced imaging techniques to create a virtual copy of the binding, allowing them to digitally unfold the rare text without having to damage it or the property record. This ground-breaking approach also preserves the artifact as an example of 16th-century archival binding practice, which is “a piece of history in its own right,” Irène Fabry-Tehranchi, a French Specialist in Collections and Academic Liaison at Cambridge University Library who was involved in the project, explained in a university statement…

    … The Vulgate Cycle, also known as the Lancelot-Grail Cycle, is one such version in Old French.

    Written in the first half of the 13th century, it recounts the Arthurian legends in a monumental five-part epic prose. The fragment found at Cambridge University Library is from the Suite Vulgate du Merlin, a part of the Vulgate Cycle that recounts events that take place after King Arthur’s coronation. One passage from the fragment tells of the Christian victory over the Saxons at the Battle of Cambénic involving the knight Gauvin (also Gawain) with his Excalibur sword. Another recounts when a disguised Merlin appears at King Arthur’s court during the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. Here’s the English translation:

    While they were rejoicing in the feast, and Kay the seneschal brought the first dish to King Arthur and Queen Guinevere, there arrived the most handsome man ever seen in Christian lands. He was wearing a silk tunic girded by a silk harness woven with gold and precious stones which glittered with such brightness that it illuminated the whole room.

    … The one found at Cambridge University Library, for example, has decorative red and blue initials. Based on this as well as other features, the researchers suggest the text was written between 1275 and 1315.

  475. birgerjohansson says

    Actor Julian Glover is 90, Christopher Walken 82, musician Eric Clapton 80.

  478. says

    birgerjohansson, stop posting statements that approve of doing physical harm to other human beings. (See comments 460 and 462 for just two examples.) I have asked you to modify your approach many, many times in the past. Do I have to ask PZ to ban you? I do not want to do that.

    Also, do not embed videos in this thread.

  479. says

    House fires line prosecutors, further destabilizing federal law enforcement

    “There’s no modern precedent for a White House firing career line prosecutors without cause. Donald Trump and his team did it anyway — twice.”

    Related video at the link.

    A few weeks ago, Donald Trump’s Justice Department gutted the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, shrinking the unit that oversees prosecutions of public officials accused of corruption from dozens of employees to roughly six. A week earlier, the president’s DOJ also removed at least three top national security officials, gutting the National Security Division. [!]

    One day earlier, the president’s Justice Department also ousted lawyers managing its pardon work and bankruptcy litigation, as well as the official overseeing the Office of Professional Responsibility, which handles internal ethics investigations.[!]

    Despite these steps, which helped destabilize federal law enforcement, Team Trump has not targeted career line prosecutors who oversee individual criminal cases — that is, until a few days ago. The New York Times reported:

    Two longtime career prosecutors have been suddenly fired by the White House, in what current and former Justice Department officials called an unusual and alarming exercise of presidential power. In recent days, the prosecutors, in Los Angeles and Memphis, were dismissed abruptly, notified by a terse one-sentence email stating no reason for the move other than that it was on behalf of the president himself.

    Asked about the firings, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Times, “The White House, in coordination with the Department of Justice, has dismissed more than 50 U.S. attorneys and deputies in the past few weeks.”

    That’s true, but it’s not something to brag about.

    Just so we’re all clear, when one presidential administration replaces another, it’s routine for a White House to replace U.S. attorneys with a new batch of prosecutors who oversee federal law enforcement offices. Barack Obama chose a slate of U.S. attorneys to replace George W. Bush’s prosecutors; Trump replaced Obama’s; Joe Biden replaced Trump’s; and so on.

    But these new developments are qualitatively different. From the Times’ report:

    The ousters reflected a more aggressive effort by the White House to reach deep inside U.S. attorney offices across the country in a stark departure from decades of practice. While it is commonplace and accepted for senior political appointees at the Justice Department to change from administration to administration, no department veteran could recall any similar removal of assistant U.S. attorneys.

    The fired prosecutors, who were ousted without warning, were career officials with extensive experience. If there’s any evidence that the two lawyers, Adam Schleifer and Reagan Fondren, deserved to be ousted for cause, the White House and the Justice Department have kept that information to themselves.

    That said, Schleifer was working on a case involving a Trump donor.

    Leavitt added, in response to questions about the firings, “The American people deserve a judicial branch full of honest arbiters of the law who want to protect democracy, not subvert it,” which might’ve made slightly more sense if federal prosecutors were part of the judicial branch, but they’re not. (Prosecutors are part of the executive branch.)

    If you’re thinking that developments like these are likely to have a chilling effect, signaling to other career line prosecutors that the Republican White House is both watching and willing to take dramatic steps to rein in those who work in a U.S. attorney’s office, you’re not alone.

  480. says

    Campaign news, as summarized by Steve Benen:

    After legal efforts to block the event came up short, Republican megadonor Elon Musk held a rally of sorts in Wisconsin on Sunday, ahead of Tuesday’s state Supreme Court election, and he rewarded a pair of apparent supporters with $1 million checks. Brad Schimel, the conservative race in the contest, was not in attendance. [Summarized from a New York Times report.]

  481. says

    […] The Wall Street Journal, in a report on beleaguered White House national security adviser Mike Waltz, reported that the Signal chat about a military operation in Yemen was not the first of its kind.

    Two U.S. officials also said that Waltz has created and hosted multiple other sensitive national-security conversations on Signal with cabinet members, including separate threads on how to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine as well as military operations. They declined to address if any classified information was posted in those chats.

    […] Waltz’s incredibly dangerous mistake might not have been his first incredibly dangerous mistake — and there are some national security insiders who wanted the Journal to know about Waltz’s alleged incompetence.

    Indeed, Waltz and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth find themselves in exceedingly similar circumstances: They’ve received support from President Donald Trump, despite the humiliating details that were revealed last week, but they’re also badly damaged, in part because of what the Signalgate story told the public and in part because of the behind-the-scenes revelations that signal a larger problem.

    The Wall Street Journal’s report, for example, noted that senior U.S. officials believe the damage to Waltz’s reputation “has put him on shaky ground in the White House,” adding that he has “lost sway with the president.”

    This dovetails with an NBC News report that said Trump has privately “expressed frustration” with Waltz. This coincided with a Politico report on a private presidential meeting last week in which top officials, including Vice President JD Vance, told Trump to “consider showing him [Waltz] the door.”

    A day later, The New York Times reported that the president sought the counsel of a variety of people, asking whether to oust Waltz.

    As is the case with Hegseth, the revelations about the struggling White House national security adviser are notable in their own right, but just as important is the story behind the stories: There are insiders willing to talk to news organizations about Waltz’s troubles.

  482. says

    Wall Street Journal:

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is facing scrutiny over his handling of details of a military strike, brought his wife, a former Fox News producer, to two meetings with foreign military counterparts where sensitive information was discussed, according to multiple people who were present or had knowledge of the discussions.

    Commentary:

    […] The Journal’s report […] added that a Defense secretary “can invite anyone to meetings with visiting counterparts, but attendee lists are usually carefully limited to those who need to be there and attendees are typically expected to possess security clearances given the delicate nature of the discussions.”

    Hegseth’s latest wife doesn’t work for the Pentagon and there’s no public reporting about her having a high-ranking security clearance.

    […] Taken individually, the revelations about his brother’s job and his wife’s access are certainly important in their own right. But let’s not overlook the story behind the stories: It appears increasingly obvious that there are some people at the Pentagon who’ve learned some unfortunate things about Hegseth, and they’re suddenly eager to share that information with journalists. [“Hegseth tapped his younger brother, Phil Hegseth, to serve as senior adviser to the secretary for the Department of Homeland Security and liaison officer to the Defense Department.”]
    […]

    Link

  483. says

    GREENLAND (The Borowitz Report)—The government of Greenland revealed on Monday that it had arrested JD Vance last week after he attempted to abscond with all of the island’s rare earth minerals hidden inside his parka.

    As he walked up the stairs to Air Force Two to return to the US last Friday, metric tons of lithium, niobium, hafnium, and zirconium came tumbling from his bulky outer garment.

    Greenlandic law enforcement immediately nabbed the vice president and shipped him to Denmark, where he will stand trial for grand larceny.

    In Washington, Elon Musk said that instead of replacing Vance he would eliminate his position.

    Link

  485. birgerjohansson says

    Behold the current situation in France.
    This is what you have if you have a functioning rule of law.

    And you have to rid yourself of the heritage Democrats if you want to build it. They are prone to give Republicans a free pass to avoid setting a precedent that might hurt them.

  486. Reginald Selkirk says

    Elon Fiddles While Tesla Dealerships Burn

    A Tesla dealership in Rome caught fire over the weekend, leaving behind the burned out husks of 17 of the vehicles. Police in Italy are investigating the fire as an act of arson. While one of his dealerships burned, Tesla CEO and shadow-president Elon Musk showed charts and graphs on stage in Wisconsin ahead of an election there. As Tesla literally burns, its CEO is everywhere but in the boardroom.

    Digos, Italy’s anti-terrorism cops, are investigating the arson in Rome. In early conversations with the press, Digos said it’s possible that a group of anarchists set fire to the Teslas but nothing is confirmed…

    Maybe do the investigation before you announce the results. Insurance fraud is an actual thing.

  489. says

    Followup to JM @435.

    On Russia, Putin and sanctions, watch what Trump does, not what he says

    “The latest headlines suggest Donald Trump is “very angry” with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, but skepticism is in order.” [So True!]

    The headline on the NBC News report probably raised some eyebrows: “Trump says he’s ‘very angry’ and ‘pissed off’ at Putin during an NBC News interview.” The report explained that Donald Trump, responding to Russia’s Vladimir Putin’s latest criticisms of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, complained that the comments were “not going in the right location.” [See comment 435]

    But some skepticism is in order.

    For now, let’s not dwell on the fact that it’s hard to imagine Trump feeling genuine outrage about Putin criticizing Zelenskyy given the frequency with which he has criticized Zelenskyy. Instead, let’s consider what Trump has done, rather than that he’s said.

    For example, Trump first threatened to impose harsh new sanctions on Russia in late January, and then he did nothing. Trump made related threats earlier this month, and again, there was no follow-through. As Trump repeats a similar line, it’s tough to imagine the Kremlin feeling anxious about the White House’s next move — especially amid reports that the U.S. administration isn’t overly eager to enforce existing sanctions on Russia.

    But while the administration’s line on sanctions is important, let’s also not overlook what the White House has done since Trump returned to power to help the Putin regime.

    – The Trump administration agreed to help Russia sell its grain and fertilizer on the world market.

    – The Trump administration halted work on a coordinated effort to counter Russian sabotage, disinformation and cyberattacks.

    – Trump reassigned the White House’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia after Putin let U.S. officials know that he did not approve of Trump’s choice.

    – The Trump administration halted cyber operations and information operations against Russia.

    – Trump publicly upbraided Zelenskyy while peddling Kremlin-style talking points.

    – Trump suggested Putin was a victim of the 2016 Russia scandal.

    – The Trump administration said it would terminate an initiative to protect Ukraine’s energy grid.

    – Trump is prepared to reward Russia by welcoming it back into the G7.

    – The Trump administration disbanded the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force.

    – The Trump administration pared back enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

    – The Trump administration disbanded the Justice Department’s program responsible for enforcing Russian sanctions and targeting oligarchs close to the Kremlin.

    – The Trump administration slashed the U.S. Agency for International Development, to the delight of Moscow.

    – Trump’s delegation to the United Nations voted with Russia — and against U.S. allies — on a resolution condemning Russian aggression in Ukraine.

    And did I mention that Senate Republicans, at Trump’s behest, confirmed Tulsi Gabbard as the nation’s director of national intelligence, despite her habit of echoing Russian propaganda? Because that happened, too.

    […] this does not seem to reflect an American president who’s “very angry” with the Russian leader.

  490. says

    So Far So Good

    Two federal judges in DC late Friday blocked key provisions of President Trump’s executive orders targeting major U.S. law firms. The decisions came after WilmerHale and Jenner & Block rushed to court seeking temporary restraining orders to forestall some of the most egregious aspects of the executive orders targeting each firm.

    “The retaliatory nature of the Executive Order at issue here is clear from its face,” U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled in the WilmerHale case.

    U.S. District Judge John Bates similarly ruled in favor of Jenner & Block. During a hearing in the case, Bates said from the bench: “The legal profession as a whole is watching and wondering if their courtroom activities … will cause the government to turn their eyes to them next.”

    Leon and Bates are both Bush II appointees.

    Link

  491. says

    Judge Throws CFPB A Lifeline

    U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued a blistering opinion and ordered the Trump administration to resume the work of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and rehire its fired workers.

    “Absent an injunction freezing the status quo – preserving the agency’s data, its operational capacity, and its workforce – there is a substantial risk that the defendants will complete the destruction of the agency completely in violation of law well before the Court can rule on the merits, and it will be impossible to rebuild,” Jackson wrote.

    In her ruling, Jackson also took the Trump administration defendants – acting CFPB Director Russell Vought and the CFPB itself – to the woodshed for not being forthcoming with the court. “[T]he Court is left with little confidence that the defense can be trusted to tell the truth about anything.”

    Same link as in comment 490

  492. says

    […] Donald Trump is once again targeting the very veterans he claims to love—this time by reportedly gutting the Department of Veterans Affairs call centers and replacing human staff with automation.

    According to CNN, which cited multiple sources familiar with the planned cuts, the agency is moving to automated systems, drastically reducing the need for live agents.

    “This is heartless and dangerous,” one Democratic congressional staffer told CNN after being briefed by VA officials on the layoffs. “Veterans in need of life-saving care and compassion should be met with a person who understands their needs and can provide them the information and resources they seek, not a lifeless machine.”

    CNN reports that Trump’s VA purge is just the beginning of a broader plan to eliminate as many as 83,000 jobs—or 20% of the agency’s workforce.

    Among the first on the chopping block? Billing specialists, policy analysts, and medical appointment managers—people who handle the day-to-day operations that keep the VA running. But it won’t stop there. Sources inside the agency and on Capitol Hill say the cuts will also slash health care support staff, human resources personnel, and regional and central office workers.

    “This is exceptionally short-sighted,” one congressional staffer told CNN, pointing out that the VA’s HR offices are already struggling to keep up. “HR doesn’t just hire people—it handles firings, promotions, disciplinary actions, employee benefits, retirement, and more. Gutting that department will throw everything into chaos.”

    […] The VA is already infamous for long wait times, and overburdened staff. By gutting the agency from within, Trump is setting the stage for widespread dysfunction—fueling the very failures he and his allies will later use as justification for privatizing the VA altogether.

    […] layoffs have already begun. Among the first to go: supply clerks at VA medical facilities and staff responsible for restocking surgical supplies—leaving nurses and other medical staff even more overwhelmed.

    […] don’t expect much sympathy from Trump’s inner circle. Alina Habba, the newly appointed interim U.S. attorney for the district of New Jersey, gave a rambling, dismissive response earlier this month—suggesting that affected veterans deserved what they got.

    Link

    Alina Habba’s comments:

    “Yeah, you get fired. You get fired when you don’t show up to work. You get fired when you are taking taxpayer dollars, and you’re not working for the federal government, and you are double dipping. […]

    in an appearance set up outside of the West Wing of the White House surrounded by microphones, Habba doubled down, discussing the thousands of veterans who have lost their jobs in the federal government as part of Trump’s purge.

    “We have taxpayer dollars, we have a fiscal responsibility to use taxpayer dollars to pay people who actually work, that doesn’t mean we forget about our veterans by any means, we are going to care for them in the right way, but perhaps they’re not fit to have a job at this moment or are not willing to come to work,” Habba said. “And we can’t—I wouldn’t take money from you and pay somebody and say, ‘Sorry, they’re not going to come to work.’ It’s just not acceptable.”

    Link. Video at the link.

  493. says

    […] Trump says Wednesday will be “Liberation Day” — a moment when he plans to roll out a set of tariffs that he promises will free the United States from foreign goods.

    The details of Trump’s next round of import taxes are still sketchy. Most economic analyses say average U.S. families would have to absorb the cost of his tariffs in the form of higher prices and lower incomes. But an undeterred Trump is inviting CEOs to the White House to say they are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in new projects to avoid the import taxes.

    It is also possible that the tariffs are short-lived if Trump feels he can cut a deal after imposing them.

    “I’m certainly open to it, if we can do something,” Trump told reporters. “We’ll get something for it.”

    At stake are family budgets, America’s prominence as the world’s leading financial power and the structure of the global economy. […]

    Link

    Details and a graph showing economic impact are available at the link.

    Responses from foreign leaders:

    […] Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Trump’s tariff threats had ended the partnership between his country and the United States, even as the president on Friday talked about his phone call with Carney in relatively positive terms. Canada already has announced retaliatory tariffs.

    French President Emmanuel Macron said the tariffs were “not coherent” and would mean “breaking value chains, creating inflation in the short term and destroying jobs. It’s not good for the American economy, nor for the European, Canadian or Mexican economies.” Macron said his nation would defend itself with the goal of dismantling the tariffs.

    Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has avoided the tit-for-tat responses on tariffs, but she sees it as critical to defend jobs in her country.

    The Chinese government said Trump’s tariffs would harm the global trading system and would not fix the economic challenges identified by Trump.

    “There are no winners in trade wars or tariff wars, and no country’s development and prosperity are achieved through imposing tariffs,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said. […]

    “I don’t see anything positive about Liberation Day,” said Phillip Braun, a finance professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. “It’s going to hurt the U.S. economy. Other countries are going to retaliate.”

  495. says

    […] Remember how in Trump’s first term, some Cabinet member or high administration official was on the bubble about every ten minutes? This time it has taken 70 days, unless you count that DOGE bro who was briefly fired for being a huge racist and then rehired in about 24 hours because career-ending racism just isn’t a thing these days.

    […] Who is the lucky member of the Amazing Donald’s Cabinet of Horrors to find himself with a metaphorical guillotine blade dangling over his head? Why, it’s National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who is under fire for last week’s Signal chat fuck-up. Waltz seems to have been the person who added Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, to a group chat […]

    And if that wasn’t enough, as The Wall Street Journal reports, this was not the first time that Waltz had taken government business to group chats on a commercial texting app [See comment 482]

    […] Also, sidenote, what is it with Trumpers and their propensity for discussing “peace plans for Ukraine” as far away from official channels as they can get? We just don’t know.

    Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t the sharing of classified data on Signal that pissed Trump off so much as it was something much more obvious:

    For Trump, the officials said, Waltz’s biggest sin wasn’t starting a Signal chat to coordinate strikes on the Houthis in Yemen, or even posting Israel-provided intelligence onto an unclassified network, it was having the Atlantic magazine’s editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg’s number in his phone and inadvertently adding him to the conversation.

    […] Waltz denied even knowing Goldberg, and claimed his number must have gotten accidentally “sucked” into his phone, whatever the hell he thinks that means.

    Goldberg told Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press” on Sunday that Waltz is lying that they do not know each other […]

    For now, Trump has told Waltz that he’s not getting fired. But both the Journal and The New York Times reported that the president needed a few days of venting and cursing and asking anyone he could whether he should kick Waltz to the curb. Just like the good old days!

    Trump’s anger spilled over into many private discussions last week, including multiple calls with allies in which he unloaded expletives and blamed Waltz for the administration’s first big national-security crisis.

    He should be pissed at everyone on that Signal chat: JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Hegseth, even Stephen “Discount Goebbels” Miller. All of whom could apparently use a lesson in cybersecurity protocols for their personal devices.

    Der Spiegel reported last week that it found all sorts of data and passwords to private accounts linked to some of those Trump officials online, using search engines and hacked data that has been released:

    As such, the reporting has revealed an additional grave, previously unknown security breach at the highest levels in Washington. Hostile intelligence services could use this publicly available data to hack the communications of those affected by installing spyware on their devices. It is thus conceivable that foreign agents were privy to the Signal chat group in which Gabbard, Waltz and Hegseth discussed a military strike.

    […] a point in Waltz’s favor is that Trump allegedly remains “haunted” by his first-term firing of Michael Flynn, his first national security advisor, and has been proud that so few of his hires this time around have provoked calls for their firing. Waltz himself has already lasted almost three times as long as Flynn did (the general was fired after 24 days over his lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador). Or, to put it another way, he’s lasted for about six and a half Scaramuccis.

    If Waltz does get fired, he is in the hilarious position of having resigned his seat in the House of Representatives to take this job. So he’ll be another unemployed government employee. The only difference is that he’ll have been fired for a pretty good reason.

    […] to sum up: Mike Waltz has endangered national security, embarrassed his boss (to the extent his boss is capable of embarrassment, anyway), alienated colleagues to the point where they are anonymously bad-mouthing him and threatening his job in two of the nation’s largest newspapers, and he might also help narrow the Republicans’ already razor-thin majority in the House.

    That’s some fine work. Who says Trump only hires incompetent boobs? Besides everyone.

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/mike-waltz-somehow-not-fired-yet

  496. says

    Oh boy, what a weekend, let’s catch up!

    Trump insists he’s “not joking” about running for a third term, and that there’s “methods for doing so.” Nobody said they were legal methods. (NBC)

    Marco Rubio says the State Department has combed through exchange students’ social media accounts for any views the government does not like, and revoked more than 300 student visas, and demanded that said students immediately self-deport with an email that concludes: “Persons being deported may be sent to countries other than their countries of origin.” FUCKING YIKES. (NDTV)

    District and appeals court have rejected Trump’s “disappear anybody” order, so now he’s EMERGENCY begging the Supreme Court to let him do it anyway, as The Enforcer, The Executor, and The Notary. (El Pais)

    Denmark, Portugal, Ireland, Finland, France, Germany … the list of countries issuing travel warnings to the US keeps growing, on account of civil liberties issues. Also, now that there are more than 500 cases of measles in the US and climbing, the WHO has issued a warning for any travelers to make sure they’re up-to-date on their shots, because America is like the world’s rabid raccoon now. (The Travel / The Express)

    [snipped news regarding tariffs]

    That Man’s administration sent a letter to French companies doing business with the US demanding they sign a pledge that they won’t do DEI any more; the French trade ministry was like EHAHAHA, NON. France is also now preparing to fund scientists fleeing the Trump administration. (France 24 / Les Echos)

    [snipped news about brain drain, with U.S. professors immigrating to Canada]

    […] Look who’ll be visiting the corner of Baltimore and South Paca streets tonight! Why, it’s Project 2025’s Kevin Roberts, the guy who reportedly bragged at a dinner party about beating his neighbor’s dog to death with a shovel! He’s coming to free speech at University of Maryland law school students and faculty. (Baltimore Banner archive link)

    A Social Security employee reported that all the employees who fix software glitches there have left or been fired, and anybody expecting a Social Security check could imminently “be out of benefits for months.” Thank Elon! (Washington Post archive link)

    [snipped news about White House Correspondents’ Association]

    Less-obedient news, Maine officials say they are NOT going to comply with President Shoe Lifts’ demand that they ban trans athletes, even though he’s threatened to pull all the state’s funding. (NBC)

    No, President Zelenskyy will not sign a deal saying that Ukraine owes the US all of its mineral money, forever, in exchange for nothing in return. (Washington Post archive link)

    SOCIOLOGY DEPT:

    A reporter from The Atlantic drove around DC in a Cybertruck to see what kind of reactions he’d get. Spoiler, he was “flipped off at least 17 times, called a ‘motherfucker’ (in both English and Spanish), and a ‘fucking dork.’” (The Atlantic)

    Ewwww, far-right influencers/pro-natalists had a $10,000-a-person “Natal conference” in Austin this weekend featuring matchmaking sessions and ministers, so attendees could immediately get married and start making more babies with superior genetic quality, wink wink. Guests included Jack Posobiec and Simone and Malcolm Collins, that “Techno-Puritan” couple that “home schools” their genetically-pre-selected children Industry, Titan, Octavian and Torsten by strapping iPads to their necks. They’re putting the “Gen Z” in “eugenicz”! (Wired, Guardian)

    A reporter from Cosmopolitan spent a year dating conservatives to try to figure out how a “divided America” is “affecting our love lives.” Matches included her former stalker, men who enjoyed instructing her on a woman’s biblical place, and not one guy with enough social skills / curiosity to ask her any questions about herself. Shockerooney!! (Cosmopolitan) […]

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/circle-circle-dot-dot-dot-hurry-get

    Embedded links are available at the main link.

  497. says

    Followup to comments 359 and 410.

    Washington Post link

    “Trump’s USAID cuts cripple American response to Myanmar earthquake”

    “Three days after the quake, there are no U.S. teams on the ground in Myanmar, a stark illustration of how Trump has upended America’s role in disaster response.”

    Hours after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake devastated Myanmar on Friday, sending dangerous tremors across Southeast Asia, the American officials charged with responding to the disaster received their termination letters from Washington.

    Most of the personnel who would have made up a U.S. response team, including security and sanitation experts, were already on indefinite leave. Many of the U.S. programs that would have provided lifesaving materials, including fuel for ambulances and medical kits, were shuttered weeks ago. U.S. planes and helicopters in nearby Thailand, which have been used before for disaster relief, never made it off the ground.

    America’s response to the catastrophic earthquake has been crippled by the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to eight current and former USAID employees who worked on Myanmar, as well as former State Department officials and leaders of international aid agencies. Three days after the disaster, American teams have yet to be deployed to the quake zone — a marked contrast with other similar catastrophes, when U.S. personnel were on the ground within hours.

    The Trump administration has promised $2 million in aid, saying, “The United States stands with the people of Myanmar as they work to recover from the devastation.” But distributing this relief will be more difficult than ever, USAID officials said, because the U.S. has severed valuable ties with local organizations and fired staff who could have restored relationships. The U.S. commitment so far has also been dwarfed by the $13.7 million pledged by China, which borders Myanmar and is one of the few remaining allies of its military junta. […]

    More at the link.

  498. says

    Trump to hack down historic White House tree

    […] Trump is using the White House lawn to combine two of his favorite hobbies: erasing history and deforestation.

    Trump is removing a historical tree on the South Lawn planted by late President Andrew Jackson nearly two centuries ago.

    “The bad news is that everything must come to an end, and this tree is in terrible condition, a very dangerous safety hazard, at the White House Entrance, no less, and must now be removed,” Trump wrote Sunday via Truth Social.

    He added that the tree will be cut down next week and replaced by “another very beautiful tree.”

    On the bright side, Trump will reportedly have the wood preserved and repurposed, writing that it “may be used for other high and noble purposes!!!”

    […] He could always reuse Jackson’s southern magnolia as a new frame for his mugshot in the hallway of the White House. Eagle-eyed reporters caught glimpses of mugshot not long after Trump took office, and for now, it’s ornate with gold.

    Or he could use it as decor around his copy of the Declaration of Independence, which hangs on a wall in the Oval Office behind a curtain. (How’s that for on the nose?)

    Or if living out his knockoff of “National Treasure” doesn’t work out, he could use the wood on the dance floor he intends to put over the grass of the Rose Garden. Insiders told The New York Times in February that Trump and his wife, Melania, intend to pave over the grass in the Rose Garden to mimic their marble-slabbed surfaces at Mar-a-Lago. […]

  499. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Lynna @496:

    pro-natalists had a $10,000-a-person “Natal conference” in Austin this weekend featuring matchmaking sessions and ministers

    Ah, one of those Republican orgies. They certainly know how to limit attendance. /s

    registration was listed as costing $10,000 for the full weekend—an increase from earlier this year when the cost was 90 percent cheaper.
    […]
    [The organizer said] his pronatalist events weed out “stupid people.” […] [“]the only people who are going to respond to any of our natalism conferences […] are going to be on the higher end of the distribution,” he said.

  500. says

    Sky Captain in comment 499:

    Ah, one of those Republican orgies. They certainly know how to limit attendance.

    The whole thing is hilarious. The $10,000 fee being just one of the eyebrow-raising aspects of that “Natal Conference.”

    In other news that sounds like a farce:

    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, his wife and his colleagues hoped their visit to the island — which Donald Trump is apparently determined to acquire — would make a good opening impression with locals.

    If that was the goal, the administration failed quite spectacularly. As my MSNBC colleague Clarissa-Jan Lim explained, officials in Greenland made a series of efforts to make clear that they did not want the U.S. delegation to be there, and as part of his visit, Vance took the opportunity to publicly and needlessly admonish Denmark — a reliable NATO ally for many years.

    JD Vance, as part of a press conference at a U.S. military base, added, “The president has said clearly he doesn’t think military force is going to be necessary, but he absolutely believes Greenland is an important part of the security, not just of the United States, but of the world and, of course, the people of Greenland, too.”

    The word “but” did a lot of work in that sentence.

    The circumstances were, by any fair measure, ridiculous. The American vice president took a sojourn to an island without an invitation, held a press conference on foreign soil, suggested the United States would acquire the island that does not wish to be acquired, and slammed a trusted ally that has done nothing wrong.

    A day later, his boss made matters worse with some fresh comments to NBC News.

    The president on Saturday also said he has “absolutely” had real conversations about annexing Greenland, which is currently a semiautonomous Danish territory. “We’ll get Greenland. Yeah, 100%,” Trump said. He added that there’s a “good possibility that we could do it without military force” but that “I don’t take anything off the table.”

    Note, it was a couple of weeks ago when Trump, while seated alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, predicted that he will ultimately succeed in his quest to take control of Greenland. “I think it’ll happen,” the president said when he asked what his vision is for the potential annexation of the island.

    As part of the same set of comments, Trump also suggested that he might deploy additional U.S. troops to Greenland.

    Two weeks later, the Republican White House had an opportunity to categorically reject the idea of using military force against an ally as part of Trump’s territorial ambitions. That clearly did not happen.

    A day after Trump effectively guaranteed that the United States would acquire Greenland, the island’s new prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said via social media, “President Trump says that the United States ‘will get Greenland.’ Let me be clear: The United States will not get it. We do not belong to anyone else. We decide our own future.”

    The charm offensive, in other words, is off to a rough start. [Heh. Understatement.]

    Of course, Trump’s idea isn’t just unpopular abroad, it’s unpopular in his own country, too: The latest Fox News poll asked respondents about various parts of the president’s agenda, and the least popular idea was taking over Greenland, with 70% of Americans opposed to the president’s plan.