Comments

  1. Reginald Selkirk says

    Rescue underway at Northern California Amazon warehouse, woman trapped in machinery

    Rescue efforts are underway at a Northern California Amazon warehouse after a woman was found trapped 20 feet up in machinery.

    Around 8:59 a.m., the Sacramento Fire Department responded to the Amazon warehouse at 4930 Allbaugh Drive in Sacramento. A woman was reportedly stuck 20 feet above the ground inside of the Amazon warehouse.

    It is unclear how the woman got stuck, but firefighters said they are working to get her down.

    Additional information will be provided as it becomes available. ..

  3. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Re: Reginald Selkirk @499:
    Broken link. That was The Wrap (or a Yahoo mirror) echoing NYT.

    NYT – Hegseth said to have shared attack details in second Signal chat

    the same attack plans that he shared on a separate Signal chat the same day that mistakenly included the editor of The Atlantic.
    […]
    created by Mr. Hegseth. It included his wife and about a dozen other people from his personal and professional inner circle in January […] He used his private phone, rather than his government one […] it did not include other cabinet-level officials. […] until recently included about a dozen of Mr. Hegseth’s top aides, including Joe Kasper, Mr. Hegseth’s chief of staff, and [Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesman]. The chat also included two senior advisers to Mr. Hegseth—Dan Caldwell and Darin Selnick—who were accused of leaking unauthorized information last week and were fired. [Plus his brother and his personal lawyer.]
    […]
    Mr. Hegseth’s aides had warned him a day or two before the Yemen strikes not to discuss such sensitive operational details in his Signal group chat […] Several of [the combat veteran] staff members encouraged Mr. Hegseth to move the work-related matters […] to his government phone. But Mr. Hegseth never made the transition

  4. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Brian Greer (Former CIA attorney):

    Unlike the Goldberg chat, Hegseth knew that many of these people did not have security clearances, making this more clearly a potential crime under the Espionage Act. There must be an independent criminal investigation.

    EmptyWheel: “The nutty thing abt Tim Parlatore being included in Whiskey Pete Hegseth’s FAMILY Signal chat, along with the people ousted as scapegoats for leaks, is that Parlatore leaked all the time when he repped Trump.”

    Rando: “Somehow the Times managed to get four sources on a group chat that had [13] of the people closest to Hegseth. Literally everyone must hate this guy.”

  6. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Anna Bower (Lawfare):

    The government’s Easter Sunday status report in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case is in. A State Dept. official says that, according to the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador, Abrego Garcia told Sen. Van Hollen he was transferred from CECOT to a different detention facility approx. 8 days before April 17. [Screenshot]

    he had been placed in the administrative building of Centro Industrial, in a room of his own with a bed and furniture, and that he was not in a cell.

    Joe Dudek (Attorney): “They mocked a senator for giving a shit, then they used that senator’s extraordinary work to update their court filings.”

    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “What this tells me is that no one asked the embassy to even check with its Salvadoran government counterparts.”

    Jerry Edwards (ACLU): “Further proof that they are doing literally nothing.”
    Rando 1: “I declare under penalty of perjury, this is what I saw on TV…”

    Rando 2: “‘A room of his own.’ A funny way of referring to solitary confinement.”
    Rando 3: “‘Not a cell.’ It’s a room that he’s not free to leave. But don’t call it a cell.”

    Rando 4: “Centro Industrial is a penitentiary […] there are vids on line that seem to show it a fairly modern prison. The big issue, though, is why is he still in a prison if no charges have been made?”

  7. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    AP – Salvadoran President Bukele proposes prisoner swap with Maduro for Venezuelan deportees

    Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. [“]the repatriation of 100% of the 252 Venezuelans who were deported, in exchange for the release and surrender of an identical number (252) of the thousands of political prisoners you hold.”
    […]
    Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office responded […] calling […] the Salvadoran leader as a “neofascist.” It demanded […] a list of the people detained as well as their legal status and medical reports. “The treatment received by Venezuelans in the United States and El Salvador, constitutes a serious violation of international human rights law and constitutes a crime against humanity,”

    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick “people neither he nor the United States has any right to imprison or barter like objects.”

    Joshua Erlich (Civil rights lawyer): “Every single day DOJ’s ridiculous ‘we can’t get this guy back’ lie looks worse.”

    Rando: “We literally did not deport the Venezuelans to Venezuela because of the state of the government and dangers of that country. But now the place we DID deport them to, that we are paying to hold them (but who we claim to have no control over) is.”

  8. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Tesla whistleblower says Musk wanted to deport her team for raising brake issue

    she brought it up directly to Musk because… he told her to. Famously, in 2013, Musk sent out an email to the entire company [~Anyone can talk to anyone to fix problems, managers’ managers, VPs, even me. You’re obligated.~]

    when she showed up to the meeting, it was instead attended by a lawyer and some large men in uniforms […] Tesla’s lawyer threatened to deport many members of her team, who were currently waiting on green card applications, if she didn’t sign the resignation, seemingly in response to her team backing her up in raising these concerns. She ended up signing the resignation in protest
    […]
    When Balan’s case got coverage in Huffington Post in 2017, Tesla sent a statement that Balan had stolen company resources to work on a “secret” personal project (Tesla emails show that Balan was told to work on this project by leadership). After this, Balan says she faced difficulty in finding work as companies feared ending up on Musk’s blacklist.
    […]
    Balan filed a defamation suit over the press statement, but Tesla forced her case into arbitration and got the defamation suit thrown out. […] Balan then appealed that decision […] she finally succeeded in getting the arbitration thrown out on Monday

    The Times UK – Cristina Balan, video interview (16:00)

    (15:06): I won something that nobody else won before. I convinced the most senior federal judge of Washington State to void all the confidentiality clauses that Tesla and Musk had on me. And I convinced her to allow me to get into a public court.

  12. birgerjohansson says

    KG @ 10
    The government of Liz Truss was too much for the Queen.
    Meeting a member of the Trump administration drained too much life force from the Pope.

  14. KG says

    birgerjohansson@12,
    Vance will be claiming Pope Francis gave him his blessing as his true successor, whatever the College of Cardinals says! That’s why he poisoned him, to prevent him contradicting the claim.

  16. birgerjohansson says

    KG @ 14
    My theory is, both J D Vance and Liz Truss are ‘energy vampires’, like the one in What We Do In The Shadows. Or the extra-terrestrials in the second Stargate iteration.
    (Gasps!) -they are… the lizard aliens David Icke warned us of! Thump is just a quisling, not the actual boss. It tracks, Thump is not a leader in anything.

  18. Reginald Selkirk says

    Astronomers confirm the existence of a lone black hole

    A team of astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute, working with one colleague from the University of St Andrews’ Center for Exoplanet Science and another from the European Southern Observatory, has confirmed the existence of a lone black hole. In their paper published in The Astrophysical Journal, the group describes how they studied newer data regarding an object they had spotted several years ago to confirm its identity.

    In 2022, members of essentially the same team reported the discovery of what they described as a “dark object” moving through the constellation Sagittarius. They suggested it might be a lone black hole. Shortly thereafter, a second research team challenged that result, suggesting it was more likely a neutron star. After continuing to study the object, the original research team has found more evidence backing up their original claim that it is likely a lone black hole.

    Prior to this new finding, all the black holes that have been identified have also had a companion star—they are discovered due to their impact on light emitted by their companion star. Without such a companion star, it would be very difficult to see a black hole. The one identified by the team was only noticed because it passed in front of a distant non-companion star, magnifying its light and shifting its position in the sky for a short while…

  19. rorschach says

    The Pope and Queen Liz were killed by Covid, but it will never be counted as such in the statistics. They were not killed by randomly visiting fascists.

  20. Reginald Selkirk says

    Darth Jar Jar Rises in Fortnite’s Next Star Wars Event

    Disney made a sizable investment into Fortnite last year, but its connection to the popular battle royale is years old. One of the game’s biggest crossovers in its early days was with Star Wars in 2019, wherein it let the dead speak and provided a tie-in for the then-upcoming Rise of Skywalker. Since then, there’s been some more mixing in via The Mandalorian, but Epic Games has mainly focused expanding its IP scope to DC, Marvel, and pretty much everything in existence.

    But come May 2, Star Wars is making a big comeback with the five-part “Galactic Battle” event. Darth Jar Jar, a version of the Gungan who turned to the Dark Side, will also be included, but no word on if players will get to wear him as a skin. Mace Windu and other characters will be bought via the in-game shop, while others like Emperor Palpatine or Fortnite character Evie—dressed as a Wookiee Team Leader, or an Apprentice for the Jedi or Sith—are in the Battle Pass. Players can also take to the skies in the X-Wing or TIE Fighter and wield Force Lightning for themselves, because it’s one of the coolest Force powers in the arsenal…

  21. rorschach says

    “Darth Jar Jar Rises in Fortnite’s Next Star Wars Event”

    I have long emotionally disengaged from the Star Wars franchise, but I have played SWGOH on my phone since 2016 or so. There’s now a gazillion of characters from some or another spinoff there that I have never heard of, and I’m just not interested anymore, it’s too much, and it’s too commercial. They ruined it.

  23. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    WaPo – Immigrants forced to sleep on floors at overwhelmed ICE detention centers

    At a crowded Miami detention center, some immigrants are being held in conference rooms with no toilets. […] at Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, some immigrant women have been forced to sleep on thin mats on the concrete floor
    […]
    efforts to boost deportations has increased the number of immigrant detainees so quickly that the government is failing to provide basic necessities, including […] medical care […] Nearly half the people currently detained […] have no criminal charges, federal data show, yet some are being held in conditions that would be unacceptable in high-security prisons. At the same time, the administration has eliminated two oversight bodies that ensured that facilities met health and safety requirements.
    […]
    ICE authorities are not exercising their discretion to release people who would normally qualify for bond or parole—those with medical conditions or who present no threat to the community, for example […] “This is a crisis entirely manufactured by ICE,”
    […]
    inspection records from 17 ICE facilities from fiscal years 2020 to 2023 found evidence of deficient medical care at more than half the facilities and violations of environmental health and safety rules at more than one-third. In some places, these problems now appear to be exacerbated by the new influx […] the National Immigration Detention Hotline […] fielded 773 calls from detention centers from January to March—nearly double the 408 calls during the preceding three months.

  24. StevoR says

    @19. rorschach : “The Pope and Queen Liz were killed by Covid, but it will never be counted as such in the statistics.”

    What makes you say and think that? Where’s the evidence for covid killing them? Haven’t heard it mentioned but I admit its plausible. Not sure why they’d keep it secret either. Covid has not got the stigma that, say, AIDS does so..

  25. Reginald Selkirk says

    Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s bag, including $3,000 in cash, is stolen from DC restaurant

    Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem fell victim to a thief while eating dinner at a downtown Washington, DC, restaurant Sunday night, two sources familiar with the incident, including a law enforcement source, told CNN.

    The Secret Service, which provides security for Noem, reviewed security camera footage at the restaurant and saw an unknown white male wearing a medical mask steal her bag and leave the restaurant.

    The thief got away with Noem’s driver’s license, medication, apartment keys, passport, DHS access badge, makeup bag, blank checks, and about $3,000 in cash, the law enforcement source said.

    The Secret Service has launched an investigation to trace any use of Noem’s financial instruments, the person said…

    Who among us doesn’t carry around $3000 in cash?

  27. StevoR says

    The Lucy operations team has confirmed NASA’s Lucy spacecraft phoned home after its encounter with the main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson. The spacecraft’s closest approach to the asteroid occurred at 1:51 pm EDT on Sunday. Initial information indicates that the spacecraft is in good health. The team has commanded the spacecraft to start sending the data collected during the encounter back to Earth, a process that will take up to a week.

    Huh. I was hoping for more photos and news from asteroid fly-by much more quickly. I recall watching some other mnissions (eg DART) gettingt their images back in close to real time. Guess this isn;’t one of those missions and will take awhile. Hope it doesn’t mean there’s been any problems.

  29. StevoR says

    Its channel to channel Pope death coverage on the telly now and I can’t say I;ve been watching, er, religiously, so might;’ve misssed it (or not) but haven’t yet found any mention of the Pope’s penchant for using homophobic slurs :

    Pope Francis has apologised after he was quoted using a vulgar and derogatory term about gay men to reaffirm the Catholic Church’s ban on gay priests.

    The ruckus that ensued underscored how the church’s official teaching about homosexuality often bumps up against the unacknowledged reality that there are plenty of gay men in the priesthood, and plenty of LGBTQ+ Catholics who want to be fully part of the life and sacraments of the church.

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-29/pope-apologises-for-gay-slur-in-closed-door-meeting-with-bishops/103905780

    Oh & of course, they’re being very careful when discussing the catholic Chrchés sex abuse crimes and enabling of those too.

  30. rorschach says

    StevoR,
    “What makes you say and think that? Where’s the evidence for covid killing them?”

    Liz admitted it in an interview how Covid had affected her, and she died 3 months later, as would be expected with typical Covid complications. Francis reportedly had bilateral pneumonia, which is a feature of Covid and not most other winter bugs.

    “Not sure why they’d keep it secret either.”

    Capitalism vs public health, your naivete really surprises me, but then you’re Australian iirc, and they have been very successful at pandemic denialism since 2021. 4000 dead Australian health workers by 2023, and to this day noone is wearing a mask at work there anywhere. I know, my ex is an Australian ED nurse.

  31. StevoR says

    @ ^ rorschach : Fair enough – yes, I’m an Aussie.

    I was thinking it’s not a disaease people tend to hide out of shame or anything eg STDs but I guess…

  32. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Re: Reginald Selkirk @25:

    The thief got away with Noem’s driver’s license, medication, apartment keys, passport, DHS access badge, makeup bag, blank checks, and about $3,000 in cash

    Soon: An undocumented homeless woman was taken by DHS as she was attempting to break into an apartment. She was swiftly deported before anyone would listen to her rambling about being the Secretary. Her constant bragging about human trafficking didn’t help her case.

  33. says

    Links back to the previous set of 500 comments on The Infinite Thread.

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/04/03/infinite-thread-xxxv/comment-page-2/#comment-2262158
    Boeing, China, and tariffs

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/04/03/infinite-thread-xxxv/comment-page-2/#comment-2262146
    Alt National Park Service (reporting on protests against the Trump administration)

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/04/03/infinite-thread-xxxv/comment-page-2/#comment-2262143
    Billy Long’s bid to lead IRS under scrutiny

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/04/03/infinite-thread-xxxv/comment-page-2/#comment-2262138
    What is ranked-choice voting? Trump calls it fraudulent after Democrat Barbara Lee becomes Oakland mayor

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/04/03/infinite-thread-xxxv/comment-page-2/#comment-2262136
    Russia attacks Ukraine despite ongoing ‘Easter truce’

  34. JM says

    In regards to the previous post about living in China, if you want to see a more hostile take by some guys who lived for decades in China see Youtube: China Fact Chasers
    There most recent video Things are Getting Crazy in Rural China! is a typical mix of bits cut from their longer shows. It’s a mix of funny, odd and serious in short clips. With a focus on what the Chinese government doesn’t want you to see.
    Here mixed in with the other stuff they have a picture of an actual protest against the government that happened in China. Just some signs displayed at night but in country where that will get you arrested and likely disappered that is brave and rare.

  35. says

    Followup to Sky Captain in comment 3.

    ‘Full-blown meltdown’ at Trump’s Pentagon as Hegseth faces fresh Signal chat allegations

    “As Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faces new fallout from Signal chat, the Pentagon’s former spokesperson said there’s ‘total chaos’ at the DOD.”

    Related video at the link.

    As last week got underway, one of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s top advisers, Dan Caldwell, was escorted from the Pentagon. Soon after, Darin Selnick, another top member of Hegseth’s team was out, too.[!]

    The same day, nearly every member of the Pentagon’s Defense Digital Service — described as the department’s “fast-track tech development arm” — announced that they’re resigning. Soon after, Colin Carroll, the chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, was also removed from the Pentagon. [!]

    As the week progressed, so too did the turmoil. Joe Kasper, Hegseth’s chief of staff, wasn’t fired, but he was reassigned to a different role in the department. Around the same time, John Ullyot, the Pentagon’s former top spokesperson, was also asked to resign. [!] [Hegseth seems to be kicking out everyone but himself.]

    As the week came to an end, three of those who were ousted — Caldwell, Carroll and Selnick — issued a joint statement explaining that they were “incredibly disappointed” by how their service at the Pentagon ended, adding that “unnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks.”

    And just when it seemed things couldn’t get much worse, they got worse. NBC News reported:

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used his personal phone to send information about U.S. military operations in Yemen to a 13-person Signal group chat, including his wife and his brother, two sources with knowledge of the matter confirmed to NBC News. He did so after an aide had warned him to be careful not to share sensitive information on an unsecure communications system before the Yemen operation, the sources said.

    […] “You know, what a big surprise that a bunch of leakers get fired and suddenly a bunch of hit pieces come out from the same media that pedaled the Russia hoax,” Hegseth told reporters at the White House on Monday when asked about the latest revelations. He added: “This is what the media does. They take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees, and then they try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations. Not going to work with me.” [Heh. Nice try Pete, but your “Russia hoax” defense just doesn’t make sense.]

    The New York Times was first to report on the existence of the second Signal chat, and it relied on four Pentagon sources — reinforcing the point that there are some key figures in the Pentagon who aren’t just aware of Hegseth’s failures and abuses, but who are also letting journalists know about his failures and abuses.

    But wait, there’s more. As the public learned of these new allegations, Ullyot, who had been a top spokesman at the Defense Department before he left his job there last week, wrote a devastating piece for Politico describing the “total chaos” and “full-blown meltdown” at the Pentagon.

    “The building is in disarray under Hegseth’s leadership,” Ullyot wrote. “The dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president — who deserves better from his senior leadership.”

    Ullyot, who worked on Donald Trump’s campaign and held prominent posts in the president’s first term, added, “President Donald Trump has a strong record of holding his top officials to account. Given that, it’s hard to see Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remaining in his role for much longer.” [Actually, Trump has a strong record of throwing other people under the bus in order to save himself. I guess that might apply here.]

    […] [Trump] nominated a manifestly unqualified, scandal-plagued television personality to lead the Defense Department, and in a normal and healthy political environment, his nomination would’ve received zero confirmation votes in the Senate.

    Indeed, as the chaos intensifies at the Pentagon, I find myself looking anew at the roll call on Hegseth’s confirmation, when 50 Republican senators put aside everything they knew about the nominee and put him in an incredibly important and challenging position. As the scandal mounts, they bear as much responsibility as anyone.

  36. says

    In his latest salvo against Harvard University, […] Trump has threatened to block international students from enrolling in the university. If such a threat were fulfilled, it would transform the institution — about a quarter of the university’s student body is foreign. And if Trump tries to replicate this tactic with other schools across the country, he will likely rob American universities of their status as global beacons of intellectual production and incubators of the world’s premier talent.

    […] the administration is saying it won’t let the school enroll foreign students unless it hands over “detailed records” on foreign student visa holders’ “illegal and violent activities” by April 30. Once again, the White House alleges the university failed to crack down on antisemitism, despite its extensive and censorship-inducing efforts to do so.

    The financial impact for Harvard, should the White House follow through, is uncertain but likely significant. International students are often an important source of tuition dollars for universities, since they aren’t eligible for federal or state financial aid. Though Harvard offers some international students unusually generous aid packages out of its own wallet and it generally has a vast pot of resources, international students make up a quarter of the student body. It’s hard to imagine losing the revenue would be a welcome development — especially when the university is already losing funds from Trump’s previous penalty.

    […] Notably, Trump’s latest demands could damage the United States’ appeal to students abroad regardless of how Harvard or any other similarly targeted schools respond. The Trump administration is making it clear that it views international students not as assets to the nation, but as political bargaining chips who lack constitutionally protected rights. It has already revoked many student visas on political grounds and placed students in dehumanizing deportation facilities.

    Link

  37. Reginald Selkirk says

    Invasion of the ‘Journal Snatchers’: the Firms That Buy Science Publications and Turn Them Rogue

    Major scholarly databases have removed dozens of academic journals after researchers discovered they had been purchased by questionable companies and transformed into predatory publications. A January 2025 study identified 36 legitimate journals acquired by recently formed firms with no publishing experience, who then dramatically increased publication fees and output while lowering quality standards.

    According to information scientist Alberto Martin-Martin from the University of Granada, publishers are being offered up to hundreds of thousands of euros per journal title. Once acquired, journals typically introduce or raise article-processing charges while churning out papers often outside the publication’s original scope. Scopus has delisted all 36 identified journals, and Web of Science removed 11 of 17 affected titles from its index. “As there has been significant change (different ownership), there is no guarantee that review quality is at the same level as the original journals,” an Elsevier spokesperson told Nature.

  38. says

    When Kash Patel arrived at the FBI as its new director a couple of months ago, he faced the kind of credibility hurdles his predecessors didn’t have to worry about. If Patel was going to be seen as a serious and capable figure, one who is prepared to help lead federal law enforcement, he would have to invest time and energy into proving his mettle, rolling up his sleeves and doing real work on behalf of the bureau.

    Or perhaps not. The New York Times reported:

    Kash Patel flew to Miami on Air Force One last weekend to watch an Ultimate Fighting Championship event, […] at least the second time he has gone to a mixed-martial arts fight as F.B.I. director. Days earlier, he showed up at two N.H.L. games, grinning in photographs with the hockey legend Wayne Gretzky. … And since taking over the agency, Mr. Patel has been a noticeable presence at President Trump’s side, delivering a warm-up speech at the Justice Department before Mr. Trump himself spoke and hovering behind him during the U.F.C. match in Miami.

    The Times’ report added that while his FBI predecessors did their jobs with minimal fanfare, reluctant to detract from the bureau’s work, Patel has thrown caution to the win, “embracing the spotlight.”

    This included an instance last month in which Patel was included in an FBI recruitment video — wearing hunting camouflage — in a move that the Times said “rankled some former and current agents as performative.”

    Just as notably, the report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, alleged that Patel appears to have used FBI planes for personal travel […]

    As my MSNBC colleague Ja’han Jones summarized in February, “Patel’s confirmation makes a conspiracy theorist and Donald Trump loyalist the federal government’s top crime-fighter. Patel has issued public threats to go after Trump’s perceived political enemies, including publishing a list of members of the so-called deep state he’d investigate if given power. He has also openly promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory and shown support for the violent insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol to overturn the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021.”

    […] Republicans confirmed him anyway[…]

    Since taking office, Patel has misstated key elements of the FBI’s recent work. He reportedly confused intelligence and counterintelligence. He said he planned to spend a lot of time in Las Vegas, where he’s been living, even as others were told that remote work is prohibited.

    […] Patel went so far as to ask about creating a possible hotline that would facilitate direct communication between him and Trump. […]

  39. Reginald Selkirk says

    The partisan hack speaks

    Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito faulted his colleagues for temporarily halting deportation flights under the Alien Enemies Act “literally in the middle of the night.”

    Alito’s dissent, also sent out at nearly midnight Saturday, came after the court agreed in the early hours of the morning to block for now any additional flights that would transport migrants to a Salvadoran prison.

    “The Court issued unprecedented and legally questionable relief without giving the lower courts a chance to rule, without hearing from the opposing party, within eight hours of receiving the application, with dubious factual support for its order, and without providing any explanation for its order,” he wrote.

    “I refused to join the Court’s order because we had no good reason to think that, under the circumstances, issuing an order at midnight was necessary or appropriate.” …

    If the court rules in a timely fashion, who is harmed? The administration has the relevant people is custody, and just has to wait for a further ruling if they can establish cause.
    If the court fails to rule in a timely fashion, who is harmed? Quite a number of people whos lives will undergo upheaval as they are transported internationally without due process.

    Alito can go suck eggs, if he can afford them.

  40. Reginald Selkirk says

    Dow tumbles 1,100 points as Trump’s Powell attacks add to investors’ concerns: Live updates

    Stocks fell again on Monday as President Donald Trump ramped up his attacks on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, raising questions about the central bank’s independence, while traders received little signs of progress on global trade talks.

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average
    traded 1,163 points lower, or 3%. The S&P 500 shed 3.1%, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 3.4%…

  41. says

    Gun regulation … or not:

    On Thursday, a student at Florida State University shot and killed two people, while injuring six others, according to police. Soon after, a reporter asked Donald Trump for his reaction to the latest deadly school shooting, specifically inquiring as to whether the president would consider new legislation to prevent gun violence.

    Trump characterized the developments at FSU as a “shame,” but added, “These things are terrible, but the gun doesn’t do the shooting — the people do.” [head/desk]

    I suppose there’s a degree of truth to that — guns don’t pull their own triggers — but it’s also true that killers don’t throw their bullets at their victims. Rather, they use weapons, and those weapons can be regulated by the state.

    The president, however, apparently doesn’t want to take any such steps. On the contrary, as The New York Times reported, he and his administration seem eager to move in the opposite direction, with plans to “roll back an array of gun control measures.”

    The Justice Department also plans to create a path for people with criminal convictions to own guns again, and has threatened investigations of states it perceives to be violating Second Amendment rights. Since Mr. Trump took office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which is tasked with stemming the spread of illegal guns, has been weakened by staff departures and by the diversion of agents from core duties to immigration enforcement.

    […] in February 2018, in the wake of a mass school shooting, Trump held a televised, hourlong discussion with a group of lawmakers from both parties about gun violence. As part of the conversation, then-Vice President Mike Pence raised the prospect of empowering law enforcement to take weapons away from those who’ve been reported to be potentially dangerous, though he added that he expected to see “due process so no one’s rights are trampled.”

    “Take the firearms first and then go to court,” Trump interjected. At the same event, the then-president endorsed a law enforcement model in which police officers confiscated some Americans’ guns “whether they had the right or not.”

    When Republicans derailed those negotiations and nothing passed, there was another mass shooting a year later, at which point Trump again wanted a gun bill, including restrictions on assault rifles — which, according to multiple accounts, was one of his long-sought goals.

    In other words, as recently as his first term, Trump sought ambitious gun reforms — up to and including extrajudicial gun confiscations.

    Last week, after the FSU murders, Trumpn added, “I have an obligation to protect the Second Amendment.” But in the recent past, Trump had those same responsibilities, and it didn’t stop him from endorsing measures that might’ve saved lives. Now, evidently, he no longer wants to bother with the effort.

    Link

  42. Reginald Selkirk says

    @41

    Trump characterized the developments at FSU as a “shame,” but added, “These things are terrible, but the gun doesn’t do the shooting — the people do.”

    Guns don’t kill people.
    Bullets don’t kill people.
    Blood loss and tissue damage kill people.

  46. says

    I just read in @25 above: The Secret Service, which provides security for Noem, reviewed security camera footage at the restaurant and saw an unknown white male wearing a medical mask steal her bag and leave the restaurant.
    Well, obviously, anyone wearing a medical mask is an MS-13 member! (sarcasticus maximus)
    So, I should not go out in public for a while. I still/always mask-up in public due to allergies and medical frailty and because, even though I’m not contagious (yes, I know how that sounds) I don’t want to infect anyone and I don’t want anyone to infect me.
    Stay safe people, there are now brain-worms running our health agencies.

  47. Reginald Selkirk says

    Delta plane engine catches fire at Orlando airport, passengers evacuate on slides

    A Delta passenger jet caught fire on the tarmac at Orlando International Airport Monday and passengers had to evacuate via the emergency slides, the Federal Aviation Authority said Monday.

    Delta Air Lines Flight 1213, bound for Atlanta, was pushing back from the gate for departure at around 11:15 a.m. local time on Monday when an engine caught fire, the FAA said in a statement.

    There were no initial reports of injuries.

    “The fire was contained and is out,” a spokesperson for the Orlando airport said, adding that fire crews are on the scene.

    According to Delta, the plane, an Airbus 330, had 282 passengers, 10 flight attendants and two pilots on board. The airline said crews evacuated the cabin when flames were seen in the tailpipe of one of the plane’s two main engines….

    It’s not a Boeing ‽

  48. KG says

    Stay safe people, there are now brain-worms running our health agencies. – shermanj@46

    Has RFKJr recommended raw pork as a miracle cure for measles yet? If not, I feel it can only be a matter of time.

  49. says

    @48 KG asked: Has RFKJr recommended raw pork as a miracle cure for measles yet? If not, I feel it can only be a matter of time.
    I reply: that’s just a trick-I-knows-is bound to happen
    (Dear Lynna, 10,000 stand-up comedians out of work and you still allow me to comment here. Thanks. Sometimes, when I read what is happening, I must joke around a little or I’ll cry.)

  51. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Brad Heath (Reuters):

    In which DOJ tells a federal court that its computers can’t handle big spreadsheets.

    computer system began to crash […] the US Attorney’s Office realized that the 584 documents produced by EPA included extremely large spreadsheets converted to pdf format that became unmanageable for ECF filing.

    Do Not Convert Your Spreadsheets To PDFs.

    Charles Star (Attorney, ALAB podcast):

    You submit a slipsheet [that says “FILE PRODUCED NATIVELY”] to ECF and a cover letter that explains how the file will be transmitted to the court. […] THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT should be experienced enough litigators to know this.

    Rando 1:

    I like the options though:
    A) They have no one on staff competent to do this work.
    B) They’re dredging up weirder and weirder lies to avoid turning in evidence.

    Rando 2: “DOGE ate my homework.”
    Rando 3: “Converting large native excel to pdf as part of discovery is just pure evil.”

  52. says

    shermanj @49, humor is appreciated.

    In Pope-related news: Pope Francis shames the crap out of JD Vance in final acts on earth

    Hours before he shuffled off this mortal coil, Pope Francis not-so-subtly criticized Vice President JD Vance and President Donald Trump’s treatment of immigrants and the vulnerable.

    Francis briefly met with Vance at the Vatican on Easter Sunday, where the two exchanged quick pleasantries. But after the meeting, Francis—who was frail after battling double pneumonia—had an archbishop read his Easter message, which took clear potshots at how Vance and Trump are demonizing immigrants.

    “How much contempt is stirred up at times towards the vulnerable, the marginalized and migrants,” the pope wrote in the message that was delivered to tens of thousands of people gathered at the Vatican for Easter.

    “On this day, I would like all of us to hope anew and to revive our trust in others, including those who are different than ourselves, or who come from distant lands, bringing unfamiliar customs, ways of life and ideas! For all of us are children of God!” the pope continued.

    “I appeal to all those in positions of political responsibility in our world not to yield to the logic of fear which only leads to isolation from others,” he added, “but rather to use the resources available to help the needy, to fight hunger and to encourage initiatives that promote development. These are the ‘weapons’ of peace: weapons that build the future, instead of sowing seeds of death.”

    Meanwhile, one day prior, Francis set Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, to meet with Vance. The Vatican said there was an “exchange of opinions” about the Trump administration’s treatment of migrants and refugees.

    In layman’s terms, the pope’s emissaries dressed Vance down.

    […] Vance had invoked the Christian concept of “ordo amoris” to justify the isolationism, saying in a Fox News interview in January: “There is a Christian concept that you love your family and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens, and then after that, prioritize the rest of the world. A lot of the far left has completely inverted that.”

    But Francis said Vance had perverted that concept.

    “Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups,” Francis wrote in a letter to American bishops. “The true ordo amoris that must be promoted [is] love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.” […]

    “I don’t think JD Vance killed the Pope, I think meeting JD Vance probably drained the Pope’s will to live. It’s subtly different,” another X user wrote. […]

  53. says

    […] Now, with Musk’s “special government employee” status set to expire in May, Trump and his team seem a lot more comfortable sidelining him. Musk and Trump have both denied he’s leaving—but the writing’s on the wall.

    Either way, Musk’s time in the government has been a disaster.

    The Post reported that agencies are stuck navigating an inconsistent and chaotic patchwork of policies about how—or whether—to enforce Musk’s email stunt. Some agencies ditched the requirement entirely. Others never enforced it to begin with. [In February, Elon Musk demanded that federal workers submit via email their accomplishments that week—or risk getting fired.]

    Even the workers who still have to send emails seem to treat it like a joke. One employee admitted to submitting responses in a foreign language, according to the Post. Another, in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, reportedly said they use ChatGPT. A Defense Department worker told the Post they just copy-paste the same few lines every week. [LOL]

    “I don’t know anyone who’s manually creating a new response each week,” they said.

    All in all, Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency seems to have created a novel way for employees to waste time.

    Meanwhile, Musk’s business empire isn’t doing much better. On Sunday, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives publicly warned Musk to get out of Washington and focus on saving Tesla, where stock is tanking and buyers are turning away. Ives said the company is facing a “code red” moment ahead of its quarterly earnings report—and directly blamed Musk’s role in Trump’s administration for the fallout. […]

    Pushed out by DOGE just a few weeks into Trump’s second term, the email ordered every federal worker to send in five bullet points of their accomplishments each week. It instantly caused confusion, with many questioning whether Musk even had the authority to demand it.

    The president initially defended the move, but the White House later clarified that it was up to Cabinet secretaries to decide whether no response meant someone could be punished.

    Now, even that threat looks hollow.

    The Post reports that agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institutes of Health have stopped requiring the emails altogether. And among the few agencies that still do, there’s no clear sense of what the responses are even for.

    At this point, Trump, his Cabinet, and many federal employees aren’t taking Musk seriously. Maybe he should take the hint and exit the White House with whatever sliver of respect he’s still clinging to. Because it’s not much.

    Link

  54. says

    In a surreal pairing to anyone who’s been politically cognizant for the past decade, the Trump administration defended the Affordable Care Act at the Supreme Court Monday against a Christian-owned company seeking to end its free preventative care requirements.

    […] Trump has long despised former President Obama’s signature legislative achievement, and tried to overturn it for months in 2017 before failing, despite having a Republican trifecta.

    […] Braidwood Management, represented by former Texas Solicitor General Jonathan Mitchell (author of the infamous bounty hunter-style abortion ban), is targeting the structure of the task force that makes the recommendations of services insurers must offer for free.

    […] Monday’s case bubbled up to the Supreme Court while other cases more squarely addressing independent agencies wing that way as well. One, stemming from the unlawful firings of members of the National Labor Relations Board and Merit Systems Protection Board, may end with the Supreme Court knocking down one of the last means of protecting agency members from political retribution.

    Justice Elena Kagan seemed to gesture to that landscape Monday, as well as the more localized one of the Roberts Court’s consistent hostility to and chipping away at independent executive branch agencies.

    “We don’t go around just creating independent agencies — more often, we destroy independent agencies,” she quipped, prompting laughter in the courtroom.

    Link

  55. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Anna Bower (Lawfare):

    WITAOD WATCH: During a deposition […] [DOGE rep Kendall Lindeman] said [Amy Gleason] has “formal” authority over [Sr DOGE Steve Davis], but couldn’t cite any specific instances in which she has given him directions or orders.

    At least twice, Lindemann conspicuously described Gleason as having “formal authority” over DOGE & its employees.

    All of which raises the question: Does Gleason, the alleged acting administrator of DOGE, have any *actual* authority at the agency she supposedly runs? If not… WHOMST DOES?

  56. says

    Exclusive: The White House is looking to replace Pete Hegseth as defense secretary

    NPR link

    The White House has begun the process of looking for a new secretary of defense, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly.

    This comes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth continues to find himself mired in controversy. NPR has also confirmed with the same official that Hegseth shared details ahead of last month’s Yemen strikes with his wife and brother in a Signal chat on his personal phone, minutes after being updated by a senior U.S. military official. The news of the second Signal group chat about the mission was first reported by The New York Times.

    […] White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt denied that there’s an effort to replace Hegseth, posting on X that President Trump “stands strongly” behind him.

    This breaking story will be updated.

  58. says

    Followup to Reginald @25.

    […] the Trump administration cast suspicion on the wrongfully deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia for many bogus reasons—including the fact that he was carrying $1,178 in cash during a 2019 arrest that did not result in any charges. The Maryland man was detained in March, accused of being an MS-13 gang member, and sent to a notorious Salvadoran prison where he continues to be held while Democratic lawmakers fight for his release.

    So brown man carrying a lot of cash = violent gang member, but white woman [Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem] carrying more than double the amount = nothing to see here?

    Like many right-wing elected officials, Noem enjoys performing in costume, often throwing on pristine law enforcement and emergency responder gear in order to project the illusion of productivity. The Trump administration has even allocated $200 million in taxpayer dollars for Noem’s ongoing media campaign.

    So when you consider how much Noem’s publicity stunts cost the American taxpayer, $3,000 and a blank checkbook is chump change.

    Whether she’s flying down to El Salvador to hype up our human rights violations or pretending to be a border patrol agent, one thing is clear: Kristi Noem is a costly disgrace.

    Link

  59. says

    “And these are kids who will never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball, they’ll never write a poem, they’ll never go out on a date,” Kennedy continued. “Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted. And we have to recognize we are doing this to our children.” –RFK, Jr. [Video at the link]

    I have no words. I really don’t. Except mockery: My son wrote a poem for his wife that expressed his relief that he’ll never pay taxes. [LOL]

    Yes, my son is autistic. Yes, he is married. Yes, he has a PhD in biochemistry. Yes, he played sports (rugby). He has overcome constant discriminatory obstacles—from elementary school through graduate school–to achieve his goals. I’ll never forget this from one of his psychologists: “Autistic children are as different from one another as neurotypical children are from one another. If you’ve met one autistic person, you’ve met one autistic person.”

    I am so much in awe of my son. He has taught me more than I ever taught him. (I gave up trying to “help” him with algebra in Jr. High). He always said, “Mom, I got this.” We got through meltdowns, heartaches, and my mess-ups with trying to understand his world. He worked hard on time-blindness and missed cues. He is kind, thoughtful, loving, and one of the best human beings on the planet. […]

    Link

  60. says

    Eyebrow-raising news regarding Trump’s plans to promote motherhood:

    On Monday, the New York Times reported that the Trump Administration is mulling a suite of initiatives aimed at encouraging Americans to have more babies. Some of the suggestions for these programs came from pronatalists, a loose network of activists who believe that the humanity is basically doomed unless people have more kids. A few weeks back, I hung out with some of them in Austin near their conference, which is called, naturally, NatalCon. To say that most of the conference goers leaned right would be an understatement; some of the topics under discussion were the ethics of gene-editing embryos to endow them with desired traits, how having more babies could save “the West,” and why most women should forego careers to be mothers.

    Some of the pronatalist proposals that the White House is said to be considering include are practical in nature: issuing a baby bonus of $5,000, reserving 30 percent of Fullbright Scholarships for applicants who are parents or are at least married, and offering classes to women to help them identify the most fertile times in their menstrual cycle.

    Other proposals, meanwhile, seem aimed at changing cultural attitudes toward childbearing. A prime example of this is the idea of bestowing a special medal on mothers of six or more children. This suggestion came from Malcolm and Simone Collins, a Pennsylvania couple who seem to have appointed themselves heads of the pronatalist movement and were the belles of the ball at NatalCon. The medal was part of a collection of draft executive orders on pronatalism that the Collinses recently sent to the Trump administration.

    […] France has issued a similar medal since 1920, but the idea really picked up steam when Adolf Hitler first conferred a similar honor on German mothers of eight or more children in 1939, calling it the Cross of Honour of the German Mother. (Naturally, Jews were not among the 3 million women who received the medal between 1939 and 1944.) The fascist Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin followed suit, offering a similar medal in 1944. The highest honor went to mothers of nine or more children, though mothers of seven and eight children were also recognized. Since then, the motherhood medal has been especially popular in authoritarian regimes the world over, including in Hungary, Kazakhstan, and Russia.

    [I snipped related news about Elon Musk.]

    […] Noticeably lacking from the pronatalist proposals discussed in the New York Times piece were policies that would help families manage the demands of parenting—things like childcare subsidies, expanded access to healthcare, and more support for caregivers of disabled children.

    Link

  61. birgerjohansson says

    Addendum. The very last QED conference will be 24-26 October in Manchester, Britain.

  62. says

    Everyone probably already knows this, but just in case:

    [The Pope’s] cause of death was a stroke that prompted irreversible heart failure, according to a death certificate issued by the Vatican.

    Link

  63. birgerjohansson says

    Lynna, OM @ 60
    Lynna, I just realised you might get ‘burned out’ by having to read up on all the details of the Trump crime family and their doings forever. Like that cop tracking the Zodiac killer. Four more years of this?
    I already have high blood pressure, but I can log out and concentrate on boring Scandinavian outrages whenever I want.

  64. says

    S&P 500 tumbles 3% as Trump ratchets up his attacks on Fed Chair Powell

    U.S. stocks plunged sharply Monday after President Donald Trump lobbed new insults at Fed Chair Jerome Powell, pressuring him to cut interest rates while markets are already contending with shocks from his tariff policy.

    In a post on Truth Social at 9:41 a.m., Trump claimed that “preemptive cuts” were being called for “by many […]” [no proof of the “many” was offered]

    […] The Fed most recently cut interest rates on Dec. 18, after Trump was re-elected.

    Though Trump has long criticized Powell, whom he appointed during his first term, Trump’s complaints have ramped up in recent days amid a major market reaction to his tariffs shock. [That’s Trump trying to blame someone else for the mess he made.]

    [Video at the link] […] Economic adviser Kevin Hassett also said last week that the administration was “study(ing)” Trump’s options for removing Powell. […]

  65. birgerjohansson says

    I am not an expert on the many ways covid harms the body, but I assume a stroke is one of them. I suppose this is not the worst way to go if it just stops the heart.

  66. says

    birger @63:

    Lynna, I just realised you might get ‘burned out’ by having to read up on all the details of the Trump crime family and their doings forever.

    Yes, I get fed up, and/or depressed occasionally. On those days, I make an effort to just carry on.

    I do have part-time, paying work to be done, and that provides a distraction from the abomination that is Trump and his ilk.

    Now that it is springtime in my neck of the woods, I also do some gardening.

  67. says

    Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson may be the Republican Party’s “foremost amplifier of conspiracy theories and disinformation.”

    Link

    […] The senator has seemed a little too eager to prove his critics right, peddling bizarre and easily discredited nonsense about Covid-19. And the Jan. 6 attack. And vaccines. And climate change. And the 2020 presidential election. And the 2024 presidential election.

    It’s apparently time to add the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to the list. Mediaite noted:

    Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) suggested Monday that the US government may have played a role in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks during an interview with MAGA influencer Benny Johnson on The Benny Show.

    Though it seemed difficult to believe, after the far-right host asked the Wisconsin Republican what he wants to know about 9/11, Johnson said, “Well, start with Building 7,” adding that he believes there was “a controlled demolition” at the World Trade Center.

    He went on to say, “Who ordered the removal and the destruction of all that evidence, totally contrary to any other firefighting investigation procedures? I mean, who ordered that? Who was in charge? I think there’s some basic information. Where’s all the documentation from this investigation? There are a host of questions that I want — and I will be asking, quite honestly, now that my eyes have been opened up.”

    He did not appear to be kidding. [video at the link]

    Johnson claimed he’s been in touch with former Rep. Curt Weldon about this (the Pennsylvania Republican talked to Tucker Carlson last week about his theories), and when the host asked whether the public might see hearings on the subject, Johnson replied, “I think so,” adding, “Hopefully, now with this administration, we can find out what is being covered up.”

    At this point, it’s probably worth reminding readers that, in the recent past, Senate Republicans thought it’d be a good idea to put Johnson in charge of the Senate Homeland Security Committee for six years.

    Larry Glickman, a historian at Cornell University, noted that it’s “incredible” that a sitting senator “can say something like this with every expectation that such comments will not be grounds for bipartisan calls for his immediate resignation or removal from office.”

    Ahead of his 2022 re-election campaign, the editorial board of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said Johnson was “unfit” for office and called him “the most irresponsible representative of Wisconsin citizens since the infamous Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy in the 1950s.”

    Four years later, he’s vastly worse. […]

  69. Reginald Selkirk says

    @67

    Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson may be the Republican Party’s “foremost amplifier of conspiracy theories and disinformation.”

    Wow, and just consider how tough the competition is for that title!

  70. says

    Well that’s crass:

    […] the White House Easter Egg Roll is now being sold to the highest bidder.

    Donald Trump’s White House opened the door for sponsorships to slap their logos across the South Lawn’s festivities Monday, and big tech came calling. Tech giants like Meta, Amazon, YouTube (owned by Google), and the New York Stock Exchange donated anywhere from $75,000 to $200,000.

    According to the administration, the money raised by these billionaires will go to the White House Historical Association.

    While this isn’t the first time the event has had some sort of sponsorship, it’s definitely the first time it’s been marketed to this degree. In the past, the White House has accepted private donations with minimal branding.

    At the event, children posed in front of pastel-colored, logo-plastered photo backdrops. “Expand your world with Meta AI,” one reads. Another photo area, listed as Amazon’s “reading nook,” is a photo area for children and parents to sit on a couch in front of the Amazon and White House logo alongside emojis reading books.

    “During my years as ethics czar in the White House, when my duties included overseeing these kinds of compliance issues … I never would have allowed this,” Norm Eisen, a longtime Trump critic who served as President Barack Obama’s special counsel for ethics and government reform, told Politico.

    […] The first lady’s office also announced that the White House would be using real eggs in place of plastic eggs this year despite the insane rise of consumer prices of eggs.

    “In addition to the classic Egg Roll and Egg Hunt—both featuring real, small- and medium-sized eggs donated by American egg farmers—guests will enjoy a wide array of entertaining activities thanks to the White House Historical Association and its partnerships,” Melania’s office said in a statement to Politico.

    Overall, the administration used approximately 30,000 eggs during the event Monday.

    “Trump’s White House is using 30,000 real eggs worth over $15,500 for their Easter Egg Roll,” the DNC tweeted in response to the choice. “Meanwhile, Americans dyed potatoes instead of eggs this Easter to save money.”

    Link

    Melania Trump is still alive. She appeared at the event in person.

  71. says

    Democrats defy GOP with El Salvador trip to try to rescue Maryland dad

    Democratic members of Congress are continuing to fight for the release of Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia, even as Republicans cheer his wrongful detention in El Salvador.

    A delegation of four House Democrats traveled to El Salvador on Monday. Reps. Robert Garcia of California, Maxwell Frost of Florida, Yassamin Ansari of Arizona, and Maxine Dexter of Oregon said in a joint release that they had done so to bring attention to “President Trump’s illegal defiance of the binding and unanimous Supreme Court decision” that ordered Abrego Garcia be returned.

    “Donald Trump and his Administration are running a government-funded kidnapping program– illegally arresting, jailing, and deporting innocent people with zero due process. Kilmar Abrego Garcia is Trump’s latest victim,” Frost noted in the press release.

    […] The trip is not an officially authorized congressional delegation. On April 15, Democrats requested that House Oversight Chair James Comer authorize a bipartisan delegation to secure Abrego Garcia’s release. This request was ignored by the Republicans in the House majority.

    […] Trump posed with a doctored photo purporting to be Abrego Garcia’s knuckles with the term “MS-13” tattooed on them. But it is a phony picture, and no such term is on the detained father of two’s knuckles.

  72. whheydt says

    Re: Lynna, OM @ #70…
    Are you sure that Melania’s appearance at the event proves that she is alive?

  74. birgerjohansson says

    Whheydt @ 72
    This could be a “True Blood” situation. There is no way Steve Miller is alive.

  75. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Re: Reginald Selkirk @68:

    paywalled

    Wasn’t for me. Here’s an archived link.

    A telomere-to-telomere genome assembly […] of hexaploid bread wheat

    The bread wheat genome, estimated at approximately 15 giga base pairs (Gbp) and containing three subgenomes with >85% repetitive sequences, presents major sequencing challenges […] Advances in sequencing technologies have greatly facilitated the assembly of over 20 bread wheat genomes. However, short sequencing read lengths and high error rates have generated 183,603 gaps
    […]
    The complete T2T assembly of the wheat CS successfully filled all the unassembled gaps that were reported by other assemblies. […] most unassembled regions were dominated by highly repetitive sequences.

    The insights are beyond me, but I can appreciate the difficulty in simultaneously assembling lots of differently-fragmented jigsaw puzzles of the same antarctic landscape without a box. Using Telomeres as landmarks like finding the edges.

  77. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Re: Lynna @70:

    Well that’s crass

     
    Mediaite – ‘A Very Happy Easter!!!’ Trump’s bizarre Easter Sunday message

    As has become custom, […] Trump has posted a wild attack on his political enemies to commemorate a holiday

    Happy Easter to all, including the Radical Left Lunatics who are fighting and scheming so hard to bring Murderers, Drug Lords, Dangerous Prisoners, the Mentally Insane, and well known MS-13 Gang Members and Wife Beaters, back into our Country. Happy Easter also to the WEAK and INEFFECTIVE Judges [blah blah blah]

    […] On Christmas Day in 2023, he famously went after Special Counsel Jack Smith. “ROT IN HELL […] AGAIN, MERRY CHRISTMAS!”

  78. Reginald Selkirk says

    Why this Canadian company is using technology developed in the heart of the Canadian oilpatch to build a giant underground radiator in Bavaria

    … Geothermal is the second least-used clean energy source in the world, after ocean energy, according to the International Energy Agency. But it also notes geothermal has major untapped potential, and that as the technology improves, it could meet up to 15 per cent of global electricity demand growth by 2050…

    Eavor says its technology, developed in the heart of the Canadian oilpatch, hits a sweet spot — more versatile than traditional geothermal and cleaner than fossil fuels — that could help geothermal become a bigger player in the overall energy mix.

    The advantage, the company says, is that it doesn’t need a source of hot, underground water to work. It just needs hot rock, which is available deep under the earth pretty much anywhere.

    The project site in Geretsried, about 44 kilometres south of Munich, was chosen in part to prove this point. It’s been drilled for traditional geothermal before and failed…

  79. Reginald Selkirk says

    An Uber drove away with her kid. Then Uber wouldn’t connect her or police with the driver

    … She, her boyfriend, and the four kids between them, took an Uber back to his place from a Toronto Raptors game during March Break because of a flat tire.

    Julia’s five-year-old daughter fell asleep in the far back row during the ride. Once they arrived, and before getting out of the vehicle, the couple discussed aloud their plan for how to unload everyone…

    “I’m returning to the road and I realized the car, it’s gone,” she said…

    Julia was stunned and her disbelief only grew when she says Uber representatives refused to help them or Toronto police contact the driver. CBC Toronto is only using her first name to protect the identity of her daughter.

    “All we wanted was for them to contact the driver — that’s it — and they refused…

    Julia called 911, and police arrived within a few minutes. An officer called Uber to get contact information for the driver but Julia says a representative for the ride-sharing company refused to provide it — stating the police needed to fill out a form.

    Uber’s guidelines for law enforcement say emergency disclosure requests must be submitted through the company’s public safety response portal or by email using its emergency disclosure form…

  82. Reginald Selkirk says

    Lancaster mayor’s remedy for homelessness: ‘Free fentanyl’ and ‘a purge’

    The mayor of Lancaster (California, USA), Rex Parris, has ignited a controversy after musing during a council meeting that one approach to homelessness would be to “give them free fentanyl … all the fentanyl they want.”

    Parris, a larger-than-life trial lawyer, made the incendiary comments about the drug — responsible for tens of thousands of overdose deaths — during a February City Council meeting, in a retort to a resident who objected to his musings of congregating unhoused residents into an “encampment.” …

    Seems like a nice guy.

  83. Reginald Selkirk says

    Wife of former US Sen. Bob Menendez convicted in bribery scheme

    Nadine Menendez, the wife of former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, was convicted Monday of teaming up with her husband to accept bribes of cash, gold bars and a luxury car from three New Jersey men looking for help with their business dealings or legal troubles.

    The jury returned a verdict of guilty on all counts in the same federal courthouse in Manhattan where a different jury convicted Bob Menendez of many of the same charges last year. The Democrat is supposed to begin serving an 11-year prison term in June.

    Nadine Menendez, who stood but did not appear to react as the verdict was delivered by the jury foreperson, was scheduled to be sentenced on June 12, six days after her husband is expected to report to prison…

  84. Reginald Selkirk says

    900-year-old Vatican doomsday prophecy resurfaces amid Pope Francis’ illness

    The health of Pope Francis has led to renewed interest in a 900-year-old book known as “The Prophecy of the Popes” (“Prophetia Sancti Malachiae Archiepiscopi, de Summis Pontificibus” – or “Prophecy of Saint-Archbishop Malachy, concerning the Supreme Pontiffs”), which claims to predict the year of Judgement Day.

    For those of you who need brushing up on your scripture, Judgement Day – also known as “The Final Judgement” or “the second coming of Jesus Christ” – is the day that Jesus returns to Earth to judge humanity and destroy Earth and Heaven.

    Essentially, the day we find out who will be saved and who will be damned.

    According to the 12th-century book credited to Irish bishop Saint Malachy, it’s going to take place in 2027.

    Located in the Vatican’s Secret Archives and discovered in 1590 by Benedictine monk Arnold Wion, “The Prophecy of the Popes” is making headlines due to a prophecy that ties with Pope Francis’ health…

    The book contains a series of Latin phrases in 112 mysterious sections which purport to predict the Catholic popes, beginning with Celestine II up to the Church’s current leader.

    One passage, attributed to Pope Sixtus V, reads: “Axle in the midst of a sign”.

    Pope Sixtus’ tenure began 442 years after the first Pope’s rule, and the passage suggests he is in the ‘middle’ of the papal lineage – thus indicating the end of the world would come 442 years later, in 2027.

    The last passage of the book reads: “In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Peter the Roman, who will feed his flock amid many tribulations, after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed, and the dreadful Judge will judge the people. The End.” …

    It’s worth noting that modern scholars have disputed the origins of the text, saying that the book is simply cryptic forgery created for partisan political reasons.

    Others also refer back to the Bible, which specifically warns against predicting the date of the second coming…

  86. Reginald Selkirk says

    Larry David Trolls Bill Maher’s Trump Meeting in ‘My Dinner With Adolf’ Op-Ed: ‘Private Hitler Was a Different Animal’

    It feels safe to say that Larry David wasn’t impressed with Bill Maher’s recent dinner with President Donald Trump. The “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” creator and star mocked the controversial meeting in a New York Times op-ed titled “My Dinner With Adolf.”

    “My Dinner With Adolf” is exactly what it sounds like — David recounting having an imagined dinner with Adolf Hitler in 1939. From the very beginning, the piece alludes that it’s about Maher, taking shots at the comedian’s center-left politics and softening toward the sitting president.

    “I knew I couldn’t change his views, but we need to talk to the other side — even if it has invaded and annexed other countries and committed unspeakable crimes against humanity,” David wrote in the Monday satire piece.

    But as it continues, it becomes clear that it’s less of a nod to Maher and more of a barely veiled takedown…

  87. says

    @72and 74, LOL. You both make a good point.

    More humor:

    WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Arguing that “it’s the smartest way to go,” Donald J. Trump urged the Vatican on Monday to select the next pope from the cast of “Fox & Friends.”

    “You want to have a pope who’s good on TV,” Trump said. “The ‘Fox & Friends’ people are the best TV people in the business.”

    Trump seemed to disqualify co-host Ainsley Earhardt, commenting, “I don’t know if you can have a girl pope. No knock on Ainsley, but I don’t think people are ready for that.”

    Alternatively, he added, “Maybe go with Doocy–he looks like he’s never had sex.”

    Link

  88. says

    UPDATE (April 21, 2025, 6:15 p.m. ET): On Monday, Harvard University filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, with the school’s president warning that “the consequences of the government’s overreach will be severe and long-lasting.”

    It started with a weird letter. On April 11, Harvard University officials received a series of outlandish written demands from the Trump administration, including a “request” to install outside auditors who would monitor the school’s academic departments.

    The university realized that failure to comply with the ridiculous demands would result in governmental punishment. But left with little choice, Harvard balked anyway.

    The retaliation was swift: Immediately after Harvard said it would not comply with the apparent extortion attempt, the Trump administration froze $2.2 billion in multiyear grants to Harvard. (There are federal requirements in place when imposing financial penalties like these, and the Republican White House appears to have ignored those requirements.) The Department of Homeland Security secretary also canceled nearly $3 million in agency grants to Harvard, and at Trump’s behest the IRS reportedly began scrutinizing the university’s tax-exempt status. [Yikes!]

    But what if the match that lit this fuse was dropped in error? [The Trump administration commits errors? Say it isn’t so.] The New York Times, citing multiple sources, reported that the original letter to Harvard “should not have been sent” and was “unauthorized.”

    Its content was authentic, the three people said, but there were differing accounts inside the administration of how it had been mishandled. Some people at the White House believed it had been sent prematurely, according to the three people, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about internal discussions. Others in the administration thought it had been meant to be circulated among the task force members rather than sent to Harvard.

    If the administration’s letter “should not have been sent,” was the White House prepared to retract it? Actually, no: Not only did a senior White House official tell the Times that the administration was standing by the letter, the same official went on the record to say it was “malpractice” for Harvard’s lawyers not to call administration officials about the contents of the ridiculous letter.

    Or put another way, the White House effectively argued, “This mess is Harvard’s fault for not realizing that we shouldn’t have sent our absurd correspondence.” [Hahahhaha]

    Harvard representatives issued an official response of their own, noting that the original letter “was signed by three federal officials, placed on official letterhead, was sent from the email inbox of a senior federal official and was sent on April 11 as promised.” The university added, “Recipients of such correspondence from the U.S. government — even when it contains sweeping demands that are astonishing in their overreach — do not question its authenticity or seriousness.”

    […] I won’t pretend to know what might happen next in this multifaceted fiasco, but the apparent fact that the Trump administration accidentally sent its threatening demands to Harvard — a point the White House is not contesting — is emblematic of Team Trump’s broader incompetence crisis.

    [I snipped examples of other errors made by the Trump administration]

    The common thread tying together too many of the developments surrounding Trump’s White House: These guys just don’t seem to have any idea what they’re doing.

    Link

  89. says

    Newly Minted DOJ Employee Michael Caputo Keeps Posting ‘Antifa’ Death Fantasies Online

    Totally normal guy, I’m sure.

    The week before last, veteran GOP operative Michael Caputo was hired by one of President Trump’s most controversial nominees to advise him ahead of what is expected to be a tough confirmation fight. It was a surprising pick, in part because Caputo has a history of his own that includes years of conspiratorial rants on social media. And, even in the days since he joined the Trump administration, Caputo has made multiple posts online continuing a long-running bit in which he muses about “antifa” coming to his home to threaten him, and instead being eaten by wild animals.

    In the early morning hours of April 14, Caputo posted a picture of a panther on Elon Musk’s “X” social network along with an ominous caption indicating it was lying in wait for “antifa” near his home.

    “This Florida Panther was in my neighborhood,” Caputo wrote. “Antifa may come again, but this time they won’t leave.”

    One day earlier, on April 13, Caputo posted a nearly identical message along with a picture of a black bear. And, on April 12, Caputo made a similar post featuring an image of an alligator and another message indicating “antifa” would meet its end in the creature’s jaws.

    The New York Times reported that Caputo was officially hired the week before last to advise Ed Martin, who Trump nominated in February to serve as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and who has held that role in an acting capacity for most of the administration so far. According to the Times, prior to his hiring, Caputo was “informally counseling” Martin, a longtime conservative activist who served as an attorney for some Jan. 6 defendants.

    Martin’s nomination has attracted controversy for his past work and his conduct since arriving in the U.S. attorney’s office, including sending letters to Democrats in Congress indicating their criticisms of Trump and the Supreme Court could be seen as “threats against public officials.” Senate Democrats have put a hold on Martin’s nomination, slowing down the process, and at least one Republican senator has expressed skepticism about his confirmation. When Caputo’s hiring was revealed, Martin gave a statement to the Times praising him as “a great fighter” with a long personal relationship with Trump.

    [I snipped examples of Caputo’s other whacko musings.]

    Yet even among these intense messages, Caputo’s dark musings about “antifa” stand out as particularly dramatic. […] Last week, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche sent out a letter to agency staff restricting their social media activity amid concerns about political rhetoric posted by some Trump appointees.

    […] In an email to TPM, Caputo suggested the posts were entirely joking.

    “To comply with the April 15 DOJ policy directive on personal use of social media, I have stopped training attack alligators, bears and panthers and returned to schooling humorless media,” Caputo wrote.

    […] Caputo has made multiple posts suggesting that he felt safer there [in Florida] because local laws would authorize him to defend his home with deadly force against any potential “antifa” intrusion.

    […] And along with his own weaponry, Caputo repeatedly indicated he had backup — from the animals.

    “I know: Antifa is afraid of Florida. Gators find skinny, black-bloc, pimpled weaklings delicioso,” Caputo wrote in April 2023.

    […] In multiple other “X” posts, Caputo has warned that Democrats are in league with “antifa.” […]

    “Antifa,” which is short for “antifascist,” has been a persistent fixation for many on the right during the Trump era. While some activists who identify as “antifa” have participated in protests and vandalism in recent years, the group is not a single, defined organization. […]

    Caputo, who describes Trump’s longtime adviser, Roger Stone, as akin to a “big brother” and mentor, has known the president since the 1980s. During that decade, he worked for the DC lobbying firm headed by Stone and Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. [snipped some Caputo work in Russia and in Ukraine.]

    […] during the first Trump administration, Caputo served as an assistant secretary for public affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services. Caputo’s ties to Russia also helped attract the interest of investigators with the House, Senate, and special counsel Robert Mueller who were examining the Kremlin’s interference into the 2016 election.

    […] He has also written publicly about how being “ensnared” in what he has called a “bogus” investigation kicked off a wave of danger. […]

    Caputo’s posts [also]contained what the network described as “racist and derogatory comments about Chinese people” and conspiratorial assertions both Democrats and the press were trying to benefit from the virus.

    […] All of this culminated in a September 2020 incident where Caputo made a 26 minute broadcast on Facebook Live where, without providing any evidence, he warned that government scientists and others in the federal bureaucracy were plotting “sedition” against President Trump. Caputo also claimed that there were anti-Trump “hit squads being trained all over this country.” At the time, Caputo had just been diagnosed with head and neck cancer. While he did not reveal that on the broadcast, Caputo said he was not in good physical health and declared that his “mental health has definitely failed.” He went on to describe feeling “alone” in Washington where there were “shadows on the ceiling in my apartment.”

    […] After the streaming session made headlines, Caputo apologized to HHS staff for bringing them negative attention. He attributed his statements on the broadcast to combined stress from his physical health issues and alleged death threats. He subsequently took a leave of absence.

    Caputo went on to drop out of the public eye to undergo cancer treatment. In the Politico profile, which was published in August 2021, Caputo indicated he turned to religion during this time and expressed a belief his disease was “stress-induced” after the Russia probes and his work on the pandemic response. […]

    However, a few years after that story of survival and redemption, Caputo is back in government and clearly back to brawling on social media. […] On April 17, Caputo shared an “X” post mocking the author Stephen King for criticizing Trump. He included a dramatic vow.

    “I’m never deleting this app,” Caputo said.

    All the best people.

  90. says

    Trump brags about bringing religion back after golfing on Easter Sunday

    President Donald Trump spent Easter Sunday hitting the links at his Virginia golf course, writing angry social media posts, and hanging out with his co-president, the recently born again Christian billionaire Elon Musk.

    But on Monday he was bragging about how he single-handedly brought religion back to America.

    “It brings the country together. It’s so important that we can do that,” Trump told reporters at the newly corporate-sponsored White House Easter Egg Roll. “Religion, I said bring religion back. Religion keeps you together. It’s such a great thing.” [video at the link]

    The famously philandering Trump, who reportedly discovered “his faith” while watching Christian television, seems to be a work in progress. This Easter he apparently decided to skip church in favor of golfing at his Sterling, Virginia, course and attacking his perceived enemies.

    “Melania and I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Easter!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site Sunday morning. “Whether you are heading out to Church or, watching Service from home, may this day be full of Peace and Joy for all who celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. HE IS RISEN!!”

    A short while later, Trump “truthed” out a much longer rant, attacking “Radical Left Lunatics,” lambasting federal judges who do not agree with his administration’s slew of unconstitutional and illegal activities, and spewing conspiracy theories involving former President Joe Biden and an autopen.

    […] golf remains one of Trump’s biggest priorities [Calenadar at the link]

  91. whheydt says

    Re: Lynna, OM @ #88…
    I think the “Oops! Send that was an accident!” is just a cover up. It’s to save–some or somebody’s–face when they got an unexpected push-back on their high-handed, and probably illegal demands.

  92. says

    whheydt @91, possibly true … but then they did not retract the letter supposedly sent by accident.

    The “Oops! Send that was an accident!” did cause of lot of confusion, and it added to the chaos. Signature Trump Administration move?

  93. says

    Geez, this guy!

    Stephen Miller, who serves as White House deputy chief of staff and homeland security adviser for […] Trump, appeared on the right-wing Newsmax network on Friday and demanded that immigrants pay the United States “reparations.”

    […] “For the love of God, where are the damages for Americans?” Miller yelled. “We used to have a functioning public school system in this country. Then we had open borders. Now our schools are in chaos and disarray. We need hundreds of translators. Nobody’s learning how to read or write.”

    He then claimed cities like Los Angeles had “entire neighborhoods” that are “occupied and controlled by foreign gangs.”

    “Where do all the residents that have been displaced, who have been forced out of Los Angeles—where do they go to get their reparations?” Miller asked. [video at the link]

    Everything Miller asserted was false or a distortion of reality, and his shrill tone is how he always communicates. The public school system continues to function—though the Trump administration is trying to dismantle the Department of Education. And there have never been open borders to the U.S., and children continue to learn reading and writing. There are also no neighborhoods controlled by foreign gangs.

    Reparatives have been discussed and debated for years as people try to contend with the disadvantages caused by hundreds of years of racist policy like slavery, Jim Crow, and the like. And by invoking the idea, Miller is taking a serious issue and perverting it to serve the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant zealotry. [True]

    [Miller] is the principal architect of Trump’s harsh immigration policies […]

    The centrality of Miller was on full display during the April 14 meeting at the White House between Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele. While discussing the case of Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s detention in El Salvador, Trump called on Miller to explain why his administration continues to resist efforts to return the father of two as Democrats have demanded.

    Miller lied and claimed the Supreme Court had sided with the administration in its ruling on the Abrego Garcia case. In reality, the court—even the conservative members—came down in favor of returning Abrego Garcia, which the administration has refused to do.

    […] Miller is making absurdist arguments about reparations and lying on Trump’s behalf because that is the lane he has built for himself in politics.

    From early in his political career, Miller has been entrenched in white supremacist politics. […] in a review of those emails, the Southern Poverty Law Center noted they were “unable to find any examples of Miller writing sympathetically or even in neutral tones about any person who is nonwhite or foreign-born.” […]

    Link

  94. StevoR says

    Yes! We have our first photos of asteroid Donaldjohanson back from the Lucy spacecraft here :

    The asteroid was previously observed to have large brightness variations over a 10-day period, so some of Lucy team members’ expectations were confirmed when the first images showed what appeared to be an elongated contact binary (an object formed when two smaller bodies collide). However, the team was surprised by the odd shape of the narrow neck connecting the two lobes, which looks like two nested ice cream cones.

    “Asteroid Donaldjohanson has strikingly complicated geology,” says Hal Levison, principal investigator for Lucy at Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado. “As we study the complex structures in detail, they will reveal important information about the building blocks and collisional processes that formed the planets in our Solar System.”

    From a preliminary analysis of the first available images collected by the spacecraft’s L’LORRI imager, the asteroid appears to be larger than originally estimated, about 5 miles (8 km) long and 2 miles (3.5 km) wide at the widest point. In this first set of high-resolution images returned from the spacecraft, the full asteroid is not visible as the asteroid is larger than the imager’s field of view. It will take up to a week for the team to downlink the remainder of the encounter data from the spacecraft; this dataset will give a more complete picture of the asteroid’s overall shape.

    Source : https://science.nasa.gov/image-article/nasas-lucy-spacecraft-images-asteroid-donaldjohanson/

  95. StevoR says

    @66. Lynna, OM : Respect and thankyou for running this thread. Know that it is appreciated by many including me.

  96. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Follow-up to #23.

    El País – ‘Inhumane conditions’ and death at Miami’s Krome detention center

    At Florida’s largest migrant detention facility […] known for its poor conditions since it began […] The situation is such that some detainees are requesting to be deported rather than spend more time there. It’s yet another example of the deployment of cruelty as a deterrent strategy.
    […]
    According to its official figures, there are 605 people detained […] although the capacity is 581. […] lawyers and activists estimate the real number is much higher. Some speak of double the capacity, others of up to 4,000.

    Examples of mistreatment at the link.

    Soraya Nadia McDonald (Culture critic):

    When you try to uphold white supremacy and memory hole history you recreate the middle passage. They are acting like slave catchers.

    [Syracuse – NY Border Patrol’s meaner tactics]

    Deputies are stopping Hispanic drivers for minor, unprovable traffic violations like veering left of center, then handing them over to Border Patrol agents who are sometimes already at the scene

  97. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Bloomberg – FDIC aims to cut 1,200 jobs

    will include 500 people that took the […] deferred resignation program offer earlier this year […] the agency will conduct a formal reduction in force effort beginning May 13 […] FDIC had approximately 6,200 employees at the start of the year.

  98. StevoR says

    Scientists estimate that the world has lost up to 170 frog species just in the last decade, and another 1,900 are threatened.

    Source : https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna27502386

    Also from there – from back in (yikes!) 2008 :

    Pick up a Mississippi gopher frog and it covers its eyes with its forefeet, like someone afraid to see what’s coming next. And for at least a decade, it’s had good reason not to look. … Mississippi gopher frogs breed only in ponds so shallow they dry up in summer. Hot, dry springs have stranded tadpoles every year since 1998, when 2,488 froglets hopped out of Glen’s Pond in coastal Harrison County, Miss.

    The pond held water longer this year. And 181 tadpoles survived a deadly parasite, made it through metamorphosis and headed into the surrounding DeSoto National Forest.

    Biologists saved seven generations. They wash some eggs in well water, apparently removing the parasite, hatch them in a lab and put the tadpoles in screen-covered outdoor tanks.

    Scientists believe fewer than 100 mature adults live in the wild. Five zoos — in Detroit, New Orleans, Memphis, Miami and Omaha, Neb. — have 75 more frogs.

    “Our efforts have managed to stave off likely extinction but there’s a long way to go,” said Joe Pechmann, an associate professor of biology at Western Carolina University who has studied the frogs since 2002.

    …(Snip)..

    They have other oddities. Their breeding call sounds like snoring. And, rather than the smooth backs of many frogs, theirs have bumps which secrete a bitter, milky fluid. Pechmann thinks their “see-no-evil” pose may protect frogs’ faces until predators taste the liquid and drop them.

    There’s a yt clip
    This Rare Frog’s Fate Depends on a Supreme Court Case     6 minutes in length.

    The case, of course, happened years ago :

    On November 27, 2018, the case was decided, with the Supreme Court vacating and remanding it back to the Court of Appeals.

    After that, dunno..

    Hope that frog is still out there and the people that care about are still looking after it and all those are doing okay.

  101. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Re: StevoR @98:

    Hope that frog is still out there

    Forest Service – Rediscovering the ‘snoring’ dusky gopher frog (2023)

    “They’d truck water in or pump it in from the well 24 hours a day […] It wasn’t sustainable.” […] [They] started collecting eggs and raising tadpoles in cattle tanks next to Glen’s Pond. In 2016, the cattle tanks were moved to the Harrison Experimental Forest. The tanks provide safer waters for the tadpoles. They are free from predators and, unlike the ponds, can be kept full of water.
    […]
    Dusky gopher frogs are among the hundreds of species that live in longleaf pine forests. After nearly vanishing—about 99% of the longleaf pine acres growing in the year 1700 are gone—there are now about 5 million acres of longleaf pine ecosystem. […] Fire is an essential ingredient […] land managers conduct prescribed fires to restore and maintain these ecosystems.

    On the De Soto National Forest, longleaf pine restoration has an added beneficiary, the dusky gopher frog. The teams of managers, wildlife experts and equipment operators have also made ponds deeper—less likely to dry out—and sunnier, which makes the water warmer.

    And researchers continue to watch over the frogs. “We installed drift fences to monitor their populations […] We track every one of them.” […] it is still on the edge of extinction. But for now, these frogs continue to exist

  107. StevoR says

    For any other Aussies her e who don’t know the final (?) leaders debate between Albo & the Gestapotato is on TV right now c9.

  111. birgerjohansson says

    Oops. I just realised the art-school reject from Austria was born 4/20. Not a day to celebrate, unless you are into datura rather than pot (it is insanely dangerous and makes you delirious).

  117. Reginald Selkirk says

    Archaeologists Unearth Roman Horse Cemetery With 100 Skeletons

    …
    In July 2024, a construction project in Stuttgart’s Bad Cannstatt borough unearthed approximately 100 horse skeletons. The subsequent excavation, supervised by the State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments, revealed that the animals dated to the second century CE and likely belonged to a Roman cavalry unit. One horse’s careful burial highlights the close relationship between some riders and their horses, suggesting that even 1,800 years ago, people mourned the loss of their animals as much as we do today.

    Bad Cannstatt was an important Roman military site during the first half of the second century AD. The local cavalry likely maintained over 700 animals—animals that needed food, shelter, and, when the time came, burials. Archaeologists first suggested the existence of a Roman horse cemetery in the 1920s, when a local housing project revealed horse skeletons in the region. The recent excavation, detailed in a statement from the regional government of Baden-Württemberg on Wednesday, confirms this interpretation…

  118. says

    StevoR @108, thanks for that!

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

    Musk eyes the exit after humiliating turn in politics: report
    Video is 5:14 minutes

    Anti-Trump protests sweep the nation, crossing the threshold of mainstream media attention
    Video is 14:21 minutes

    Maddow on Pope Francis, advocate for migrants: ‘He changed the world, he changed the church’
    Video is 3:11 minutes

  120. rorschach says

    “Musk eyes the exit after humiliating turn in politics: report”

    Tesla is reporting earnings after the close of market today, and it is expected to be a disaster. If he exits the government, it will be to avoid margin calls, not because he failed at fash politics.

  121. says

    birger @102, that’s a good one!

    In other news: Trump revises his claims about tariff revenue, but he’s still wrong

    “How do we know that the president’s claims about tariff revenue are false? Because of the evidence provided by his own administration.”

    It was just last week when Donald Trump used his social media platform to boast, “The United States is taking in RECORD NUMBERS in Tariffs.” It was not an isolated claim: The president has repeatedly asserted of late that, thanks to his highly controversial tariffs policy, American coffers are filling at a rate of roughly $2 billion per day. [Wildly exaggerated]

    CNBC reported that data from Customs and Border Protection appear to contradict the Republican’s claims, and a new analysis from The Associated Press advanced the reporting, documenting the extent to which Trump has wildly inflated the facts. Indeed, the AP concluded that the president’s preferred statistic is simply “false.”

    Trump began raising tariffs in February. That month, about $7.247 billion in customs duties were collected, or $258.82 million per day. In March, the most recent monthly figure available, a total of about $8.168 billion in customs duties was collected, or approximately $263.48 million per day. A customs duty is a type of tariff. … The U.S. has collected approximately $3.076 billion in customs and certain excise taxes so far this month, coming out to about $180.94 million per day, according to the Treasury Department’s data.

    [Trump] didn’t stick to his false claim about $2 billion a day in tax revenue: At a White House event last week, Trump decided that his boasts were understating matters. “Now we’re making $3 billion a day,” he claimed on April 14. [LOL]

    The Washington Post published a fact-check report noting data from the Treasury Department and Customs and Border Protection that showed that Trump was “way off the mark.” Indeed, the Post’s analysis concluded that Trump peddled “nonsense numbers.”

    […] I continue to believe there’s a broader significance to all of this.

    For one thing, the White House is doing real and consequential harm — to the U.S. economy, to the country’s international credibility and reputation, and even to our global partnerships and alliances — based on Trump’s assumptions about the value of his trade tariffs. If he’s wrong about the most basic elements of the policy, it’s a painful and timely reminder that the American president is harming his own country as a direct result of his incompetence.

    But let’s also not forget that the Republican continues to suggest — out loud, on the record, in apparent seriousness — that tariffs will generate so much revenue that income taxes might soon be unnecessary.

    This idea, which he’s peddled before, has always been bananas. In fact, “It is literally impossible for tariffs to fully replace income taxes,” as Kimberly Clausing and Maurice Obstfeld, two senior fellows at nonpartisan think tank the Peterson Institute for International Economics, wrote last year.

    Trump keeps talking about the idea anyway. […]

    The president’s allies quickly chimed in. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick boasted last month, “We’re gonna make the External Revenue Service replace the Internal Revenue Service.” Around the same time, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri added, “I love Trump’s idea to get rid of the Internal Revenue Service. Let’s make it the External Revenue Service.”

    But the latest data reinforces the inconvenient fact that this entire approach is folly. The White House is clearly destabilizing the existing tax agency, but if the president and his cohorts believe the IRS can simply be mothballed while the U.S. government relies on tariff revenue, the evidence proves otherwise.

  122. says

    Among the many unfortunate consequences of the Supreme Court’s decision to take the Alien Enemies Act case away from U.S. District Judge James Boasberg of D.C. was that it ended the nationwide injunction against AEA deportations and has forced the ACLU to contend with filing cases in all 94 federal judicial districts to make sure all detainees under the act are covered.

    Link

    That link leads to a roundup of news reports that cover various topic.

    Trump’s Next Civil Society Target: NGOs
    Non-governmental organizations have already been decimated by moves like the dismantling of USAID, but President Trump’s threat to revoke the tax-exempt status of NGOs based on viewpoints he deems unacceptable represents the crossing of a new threshold. A new round of executive orders pegged to today’s Earth Day are reportedly in the works that would target environmental nonprofits.

    Another one:

    America, You Are Running Out Of Time
    The Atlantic’s Adrienne LaFrance talks to people who have experienced the descent into authoritarianism:

    The chorus of people who have lived through democratic ruin will all tell you the same thing: Do not make the mistake of assuming you still have time. Put another way: You think you can wait and see, and keep democracy intact? Wanna bet? […] Unless Trump’s power is checked, and soon, things will get much worse very quickly. When people lose their freedoms, it can take a generation or more to claw them back—and that’s if you’re lucky.

    Another one:

    What You Can Do
    It’s the question I’ve gotten more than any other since Jan. 20: What can I do? Protect Democracy has produced a guide of 29 concrete action items for your consideration.

  125. JM says

    NBC News: Info Hegseth shared with wife and brother came from top general’s secure messages

    Minutes before U.S. fighter jets took off to begin strikes against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen last month, Army Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, who leads U.S. Central Command, used a secure U.S. government system to send detailed information about the operation to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

    This confirms what everybody already knew. Hegseth had received the information he leaked over Signal through the US government secure communication system. That the information was highly sensitive and Hegseth knew it.
    More importantly is that this is obviously a planned leak to keep Hegseth in the news. He has angered the DOD to the point that somebody is running an operation to keep the pressure on him.

  126. JM says

    CNN: Putin says he’s open to direct talks with Ukraine as US pressure builds

    Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday he is open to the possibility of bilateral talks with Ukraine for the first time in years, as pressure from the United States builds on both sides to agree to a quick peace deal.
    US, European and Ukrainian officials are set to meet this week in London after Washington warned that it could abandon its efforts on ending the conflict if there were no signs of progress.

    Likely more stalling but there are probably two other factors in play. Russia’s ability to make forward progress in the war is grinding down to nothing. Putin may be seriously considering negotiations as a way out if he can get enough concessions. Second, Putin may actually be concerned with the US walking away. If the US walks away then Europe will step up to some degree. The European powers won’t be as open to negotiations on terms favorable to Russia, are more likely to put feet on the ground in Ukraine and having them more involved increases the risk of a more general war.

    Speaking to reporters, Putin said it could be possible to discuss the halting of strikes against civilian infrastructure directly with Kyiv.

    That is pure publicity. On both sides military and civilian targets are close and just getting closer as both sides stand up war time factories. The Russians also use a lot of low accuracy saturation attacks, making hits against civilian targets impossible to avoid.

    Zelensky has expressed willingness to agree to a peace deal with Moscow but said last month that his government would not recognize any occupied territories as Russian, calling that a “red line.”

    That probably reflects the desire on the ground in Ukraine but practically speaking Crimea is gone without the US or Europe backing a larger war with more supplies and soldiers.

    Trump has declined to say whether he is prepared to walk away completely from the talks or whether the US would support Ukraine militarily if talks fall through.

    For once he is doing the right thing. Likely but accident but that uncertainty is one of the things likely to bring Russia to the table.

  127. birgerjohansson says

    “Bird flu studies show variant from 2016 was one mutation away from binding to human receptors”
    Scary. Imagine if this had happened under the reign of the orange gibbon.

  129. Reginald Selkirk says

    Florida Bill Would Let Florida Men Shoot Down Intrusive Drones

    Over the years, the increasingly ubiquitous use of drones in the United States has raised a lot of privacy concerns. But if a random drone is hovering around your home, what can you do about it? Well, a new bill in Florida’s Senate would let property owners use “reasonable force” against them.

    The bill aims to expand Florida’s overall restrictions on “Unmanned Aircraft Systems,” redefining no-fly zones to include airports and prisons. But its proposal for property owners is generating the most controversy. Currently, it would let anyone with a “reasonable expectation of privacy” on their property use “reasonable force” to stop drones from conducting surveillance.

    What constitutes reasonable force, though? Chucking rocks? Or flat out shooting it?

    Your guess is as good as mine.

    Right now, the bill doesn’t put limits on what property owners can do to drones. The only thing that the bill does specify is that drones must be flying under 500 feet over someone’s property to take action. It’s not hard to imagine what some Florida man’s first choice might be, though…

    However, drones are not totally unregulated. They’re considered aircraft, so they fall under FAA guidelines. That’s where problems with Florida’s current bill come in. Even if state lawmakers try to say otherwise, it’s not OK to shoot down your neighbor’s drone under federal law. If you do, you may be looking at two decades in prison or a hefty fine.

    “An unmanned aircraft hit by gunfire could crash, causing damage to persons or property on the ground, or it could collide with other objects in the air,” the FAA told Gizmodo via email. “Shooting at an unmanned aircraft could result in a civil penalty from the FAA and/or criminal charges from federal, state, or local law enforcement.”

    These concerns were also expressed by Florida state Sen. Jason Pizzo (D-Hollywood) during a committee hearing last week. He stated, “There was mention that ‘reasonable force’ might include shooting it down…But I don’t want anyone under the notion that they can go and just shoot things down from the air, which is actually punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison.”

    Still, the bill made its way through multiple committees without much opposition. Its next step is a vote by the full Senate. If approved, it could take effect as early as October 2025.

  131. whheydt says

    Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #129…
    IIRC, Federal regs require drones to fly below 500 feet (or maybe it’s below 400 feet and all other aircraft are above 500 feet). As for force, I’m waiting for someone to develop a gun-like device that fires a weighted net to entangle drones. Or one could get a falconers license and train a raptor to take out drones (the Dutch police actually did that, though they decided not to “deploy” the “weapon”).

  133. Reginald Selkirk says

    Mysterious Undocumented Vehicle Found in Wreckage of WWII Ship

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wants YOU—to help identify a car that evidently sank to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean with the USS Yorktown in 1942.

    A NOAA-led team spotted the previously unknown car (pictured above) during a recent dive to the wreck, which hadn’t been known to be carrying a vehicle. In June 1942, Yorktown was stricken by Japanese vessels, including the aircraft carrier Hiryu and the submarine I-168, during the Battle of Midway—a naval battle that marked a critical turning point in the war for the Allies…

    The wreck of Yorktown sits upright more than 3 miles (5 kilometers) under the sea, about 1,000 miles (1,610 km) northwest of Honolulu. The wreck, discovered in 1998, now serves as an ideal testing ground for NOAA equipment used to gather archaeological and biological data from the seafloor…

    The Miami Herald reported two possible explanations for the vehicular presence on the ship: it may have been Rear Admiral Frank Fletcher’s flag car, or it was brought on board for repairs before meeting an untimely end.

    According to NOAA Ocean Exploration, the car is thought to be a 1940-41 Ford Super Deluxe “Woody” with black trim. Part of the vehicle’s front license plate reads “SHIP SERVICE,” but the rest has corroded away.

    “Here’s an open request to all your automobile vehicle folks out there,” a NOAA researcher said during a livefeed, according to the Herald. “I’m sure you are being attentive to this and you understand what you are looking at. Please post on this. It really helps.” Unsurprisingly, Reddit threads are filling with speculation about the car’s make and the possible reasons it may have ended up on the ill-fated carrier…

  136. Reginald Selkirk says

    Scientists Made Chewing Gum That Combats Herpes and the Flu

    Here’s something to chew on: antiviral gum. Scientists have developed chewing gum that can safely trap the influenza virus and the viruses that cause herpes, at least in the lab.

    Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Dental Medicine developed the gum, made from bean powder. In various experiments, a protein found in the gum substantially neutered two flu strains and the herpes simplex viruses 1 and 2 (HSV-1 and HSV-2). The gum could prove to be a potent and easy-to-use tool for preventing the spread of these infections, the researchers say…

    Their latest creation relies on a similar approach but uses a different plant that’s native to sub-Saharan Africa and commonly eaten in tropical areas: Lablab purpureus, also known as the lablab bean. Past research has shown that the lablab bean naturally carries a protein that can bind to a wide variety of viruses. This protein is called Flt3 Receptor Interacting Lectin, or FRIL for short…

  138. Reginald Selkirk says

    US sets tariffs of up to 3,521% on South East Asia solar panels

    The US Commerce Department has announced plans to impose tariffs of up to 3,521% on imports of solar panels from four South East Asian countries.

    It comes after an investigation that began a year ago when several major solar equipment producers asked the administration of then-President Joe Biden to protect their US operations.

    The proposed levies – targeting companies in Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam – are in response to allegations of subsidies from China and the dumping of unfairly cheap products in the US market.

    A separate US government agency, the International Trade Commission, is due to reach a final decision on the new tariffs in June…

  139. Reginald Selkirk says

    Large explosions at Russian ammunition depot east of Moscow

    Explosions have taken place at a Russian ammunition depot east of Moscow, the country’s defence ministry has said.

    The blasts occurred in an ammunition warehouse at a defence facility in the western Vladimir region on Tuesday. The site is believed to be a key ammunition storage site for the Russian army.

    Russia’s military blamed the blast on ammunition which had detonated after the storage building caught fire due to a “violation of safety requirements”.

    A state of emergency has been declared in the Kirzhach district and residents of nearby villages have been evacuated…

    Alexander Avdeyev also threatened journalists and residents with fines if they shared unofficial information about the blast.

  140. Reginald Selkirk says

    ‘Hats off’: Cafe owner in Canada praises Aussie PM for helping in Vegemite row

    An Australian cafe owner in Canada has praised Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for intervening in a row about a popular dark food spread on the other side of the world – while fighting for re-election.

    Toronto-based Leighton Walters said he had been told by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to remove the jars of Vegemite from his shelves, because they did not meet local standards.

    After posting about the issue on social media, Mr Walters was surprised to hear a response from Albanese, who gave his vocal backing to the Australian-made product.

    Mr Walters ended up claiming victory after the agency changed course and said he could continue selling the spread.

    Recounting the events, Mr Walters told the BBC World Service’s Newshour programme that the inspector’s original decision had been “a bit confusing” to him.

    “The reason the inspector gave was that there’s added vitamin B in Vegemite,” Mr Walters said. “But most of it is naturally formed through the fermentation process”.

    “So, it seemed to be a misunderstood product, and the inspector didn’t really want to hear about its cultural significance. And so we basically had to comply.” …

  141. birgerjohansson says

    Fun factoid.
    The largest Swedish conservative newspaper Svenska Dagbladet just published a column saying, “No, you don’t need religion”
    This is an example of how religion is seen as a personal thing, not something connected to political beliefs.

  142. says

    Maddow torches Musk’s Trump alliance as a total flop

    On the eve of what most analysts believe will be a grim earnings report from carmaker Tesla, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow took on the disastrous tenure of the company’s CEO, Elon Musk, in his dual role as Donald Trump’s co-president.

    “His time in Washington kind of started bad and has just been scuttling worse and worse all the time,” Maddow began. “His Department of Government Efficiency thing is a mix of embarrassment for its errors and its palpable confusion, and horror and anger for how much damage it is doing to the U.S. government, with really nothing positive to show for itself at all.”

    “The Trump administration is spending more on a daily basis than the Biden administration was,” Maddow continued. “So even if the whole good idea of DOGE is less government spending, it has absolutely failed at that.” [video at the link]

    Musk’s DOGE, and its abject failure to create any meaningful savings, is just one part of the story. Every turn for Musk has included failure, including his dubious and ultimately embarrassing attempt to buy a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat.

    On top of that, there’s been the ongoing debacle of stories of people growing increasingly fed up with Musk, his public spats with White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, and his attempts to gain access to top-secret information about U.S. military plans for China.

    Tesla’s stock has dropped nearly 50% from its record high, which might give Musk an excuse for turning tail and running out of the Washington, D.C. spotlight. He’s the world’s richest man, so he won’t go very far, but fingers crossed, he steps far enough away to lessen some of the harm he’s done to our country.

  143. Reginald Selkirk says

    Jury finds The New York Times did not libel former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin

    A jury concluded Tuesday that The New York Times did not libel former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for an error in a 2017 editorial that she says damaged her reputation.

    The jury deliberated a little over two hours before reaching its verdict after lawyers for Palin and the newspaper delivered closing arguments at a Manhattan federal court civil trial that is in its second week.

    Palin testified Monday that death threats against her increased and her spirits drooped after an editorial about gun violence said her political action committee had contributed to political rhetoric that enabled an atmosphere of violence.

    The Times corrected the article less than 14 hours after it was published…

  144. says

    Judge orders Trump administration to restore Voice of America

    A federal judge on Tuesday found the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle Voice of America (VOA) and affiliated news services likely were unlawful, indefinitely blocking the shuttering of the government-funded news outlet and affiliated news services.

    U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ordered VOA’s parent agency, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), to restore VOA and other outlets under the USAGM’s umbrella and barred the agency from preventing them from serving as “consistently reliable and authoritative” news sources, as is required by law.

    He also directed the USAGM to restore employment to its workers placed on leave and not reduce its workforce while litigation continues, in addition to continuing funding for international broadcasting.

    “In short, the defendants had no method or approach towards shutting down USAGM that this Court can discern,” said Lamberth, an appointee of former President Reagan. “They took immediate and drastic action to slash USAGM, without considering its statutorily or constitutionally required functions as required by the plain language of the EO, and without regard to the harm inflicted on employees, contractors, journalists, and media consumers around the world.

    “It is hard to fathom a more straightforward display of arbitrary and capricious actions than the Defendants’ actions here.”

    A handful of VOA reporters, unions and the international free press advocacy nonprofit Reporters Without Borders sued the Trump administration last month over its effort to disband the news outlets.

    After Trump penned an executive order to shutter the USAGM, its employees and contractors were put on administrative leave. The coalition that sued also sought to restore funding for VOA’s sister networks, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Radio Free Asia, Middle Eastern Broadcast Network and the Open Technology Fund.

    However, Lamberth said his order does not apply to RFE/RL or the Open Technology Fund because other litigation involves some of the issues at hand. […]

  145. says

    Tesla earnings plunge 71 percent in first quarter

    Tesla’s quarterly earnings dropped by 71 percent, the company announced Monday, marking the latest sign of bad news for Elon Musk’s electric vehicle manufacturer as scrutiny of the tech billionaire persists.

    […] The full financial report comes after Tesla revealed earlier this month its first-quarter sales dropped nearly 13 percent. The company reported 336,000 vehicle deliveries in the January to March quarter, a notable dip from the 387,000 vehicles in the same period a year ago.

    The quarter marks its worst showing since 2022 and fell far lower than analysts’ expectations.

    […] Tesla’s stock plummeted nearly 50 percent since late December as Musk, its chief executive officer, got closer into President Trump’s orbit amid Musk’s increasing power in the White House and leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). […]

  146. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/donald-trump-wants-your-children

    “Donald Trump Wants Your Children To Get AI In School So He Looks Like Rambo To Them Too”

    “We must close the Department of Education and get Big Tech subsidies into every school.”

    Even though the Trump administration wants to shut down the US Department of Education and is slashing funding for education and science across the federal government, the White House has also drafted an executive order that would mandate schools integrate artificial intelligence in K-12 education […]

    The Washington Post got its hands on a copy of the draft order, titled “Advancing artificial intelligence education for American youth,” and it sounds like it originated with tech companies who want to sell some systems to every school in America, ideally with a taxpayer subsidy:

    AI is “driving innovation across industries, enhancing productivity, and reshaping the way we live and work,” the draft order reads. “To ensure the United States remains a global leader in this technological revolution, we must provide our Nation’s youth with opportunities to cultivate the skills and understanding necessary to use and create the next generation of AI technology.”

    […] The Post notes that the draft is marked “predecisional,” meaning that the order could change before it’s signed, or it could just go into a drawer somewhere to surface again only after it’s found stuffed into a box with top secret nuclear weapons information and a menu from the 2029 Grand Opening of Trump Tower Vladivostok.

    The order would direct federal agencies to figure out how to train kids in using AI, how to cram AI into teaching whether it makes sense or not, and of course to create partnerships with private sector companies to bring the wonders of AI slop to schools. It would even create a TASK FORCE on AI, which would include “the secretaries of education, agriculture, labor and energy,” at least once someone finally teaches Linda McMahon that “AI” is not pronounced like the steak sauce. [video at the link]

    […] There’s a lot of stuff about building “public-private partnerships” with industry and universities (if any are left) and nonprofits (ditto) that would come up with ways to teach students “foundational AI literacy and critical thinking skills,” unless the critical thinking leads them to doubt authority figures who lie to them constantly. The Post also says the order

    also instruct the education secretary, Linda McMahon, to prioritize federal grant funding for training teachers on how to use AI, including for administrative tasks and teacher training and evaluation. All educators should undergo professional development to integrate AI into all subject areas, the draft order says.

    This is where we again jump in to point out that the draft EO is calling for a raft of new teacher training grants and training programs at a time when existing teacher training grants are being thrown into the wood chipper and the Education Department’s key functions are supposedly slated to be outsourced to other Cabinet agencies (whose staff and budgets are also being slashed) in preparation of the department’s eventual drowning in Steve Bannon’s hot tub.

    Also, for what it’s worth, the Ed Department’s Office of Education Technology has already been dismantled. Seems like maybe that could have been useful in this quest, somehow.

    The draft even calls for establishing an annual competition, the “Presidential AI Challenge,” for both students and educators to show off their mad AI skills. Winners might be invited to the White House or might be ignored if Trump has a pressing golf tournament at one of his Trash Palaces. The winners could probably whip up a picture of themselves being awarded medals by the Great Leader, although the real challenge would be creating a large-language model stupid enough to spit out a realistic simulation of the speech Trump might give to laud the winners and call for the immediate military invasion of Latveria.

  147. Reginald Selkirk says

    Sweden eyes purchase of combat vehicles with Norway, Lithuania, Finland

    Sweden, Lithuania, Norway and Finland are considering a coordinated acquisition of hundreds of CV90 infantry combat vehicles made by BAE Systems, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Tuesday.

    The four countries are now drafting a statement of intent on cooperation for a purchase of the military vehicles, Kristersson told a joint press conference with his Lithuanian counterpart Gintautas Paluckas…

    The CV90 is produced by a Sweden-based subsidiary of Britain’s BAE Systems, Europe’s biggest defence company.

  148. Reginald Selkirk says

    Colorado fights Trump administration bid to help imprisoned loyalist Tina Peters

    Colorado officials say President Donald Trump’s administration appears to be wielding its “political power” to give unprecedented help to a former county election clerk convicted of letting Trump supporters access election equipment after his 2020 defeat.

    The U.S. Justice Department is trying to intervene in the case of Tina Peters, who wants to be released from prison while she appeals her conviction. A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon in federal court in Denver.

    There have been “reasonable concerns” raised about Peters’ prosecution, wrote acting U.S. Assistant Attorney General Yaakov M. Roth in a court filing last month. Peters’ case is among those the government has said it is reviewing for “abuses of the criminal justice process.”

    But Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser wants Magistrate Judge Scott T. Varholak to block the Justice Department’s involvement. Lawyers from Weiser’s office said the Justice Department has not given any good reason why it should intervene and has just repeated Peters’ arguments…

  151. says

    The New York Times did not libel former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, jury finds

    A jury concluded Tuesday that The New York Times did not libel former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for an error in a 2017 editorial that she says damaged her reputation.

    […] Palin testified Monday that death threats against her increased and her spirits drooped after an editorial about gun violence said her political action committee had contributed to political rhetoric that enabled an atmosphere of violence.

    The Times corrected the article less than 14 hours after it was published.

    Kenneth Turkel, an attorney for Palin, urged the jury to find the Times liable for defamation on the grounds that its former editorial page editor, James Bennet, either knew what he was publishing was wrong or acted with “reckless disregard” for the truth.

    […] He told jurors not to be deceived by Palin’s “bouncy” persona on the witness stand.

    […] Palin, who earned a journalist degree in college, sued the Times for unspecified damages in 2017 […]

    Her lawsuit stemmed from an editorial about gun control published after U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, was wounded in 2017 when a man with a history of anti-GOP activity opened fire on a Congressional baseball team practice in Washington.

    In the editorial, the Times wrote that before the 2011 mass shooting in Arizona that severely wounded former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords and killed six others, Palin’s political action committee had contributed to an atmosphere of violence by circulating a map of electoral districts that put Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized crosshairs.

    In a correction, The Times said the editorial had “incorrectly stated that a link existed between political rhetoric and the 2011 shooting” and that it had “incorrectly described” the map.

    […] Felicia Ellsworth, an attorney for the Times, said the jury cannot find the newspaper or Bennet liable because it would have to conclude that the error was intentionally published by editors who knew it was wrong.

    […] The lawyer pointed out that several Times editors testified consistently about the effort to correct the error and the importance they placed on accuracy while Palin’s claims were “supported by nothing other than her say so.”

    […]. “To Governor Palin, this is just another opportunity to take on fake news. To James Bennet, the truth matters,” Ellsworth said. [video at the link]

    In February 2022, Judge Jed S. Rakoff rejected Palin’s claims in a ruling issued while a jury deliberated. The judge then let jurors deliver their verdict, which also went against Palin.

    The trial is occurring after the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan restored the case last year.

    The appeals court said Rakoff’s dismissal ruling improperly intruded on the jury’s work. It also cited flaws in the trial, saying there was erroneous exclusion of evidence, an inaccurate jury instruction and a mistaken response to a question from the jury.

  153. says

    Followup to Reginal @135.

    Reuters reported:

    The Food and Drug Administration is suspending a quality control program for testing of fluid milk and other dairy products due to reduced capacity in its food safety and nutrition division, according to an internal email seen by Reuters. … The FDA this month also suspended existing and developing programs that ensured accurate testing for bird flu in milk and cheese and pathogens like the parasite Cyclospora in other food products.

  154. says

    NBC News:

    A groundbreaking microscope at Harvard Medical School could lead to breakthroughs in cancer detection and research into longevity. But the scientist who developed computer scripts to read its images and unlock its full potential has been in an immigration detention center for two months — putting crucial scientific advancements at risk.

  155. says

    Washington Post:

    Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has given a former oil executive and aide to Elon Musk broad latitude to cut costs and consolidate work within his vast department, which oversees more than 500 million acres of land across the United States.

  160. JM says

    MSN: Colombian mercenaries alleged in Kursk: Truth or propaganda?

    The Russians claim that in the Kursk region they are encountering not only soldiers from the Ukrainian Armed Forces but also Colombian mercenaries. However, neither side, neither Ukraine nor Russia, provides official information about foreign volunteers on the front.

    EAD: The command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine transferred Colombian mercenaries to the Kursk region

    The military command of the Kiev regime has transferred units of Colombian mercenaries to the Kursk region, tasked with stopping the advance of Russian troops.
    This was reported on April 8 by the RIA Novosti news agency, citing an informed source in the North group of troops. According to him, the Colombian “soldiers of fortune” are already occupying positions on the border of the Kursk and Sumy regions.

    Multiple source, both Ukrainian and Russian, so I am confident it is happening. These are technically mercenaries but the Colombian government is not stopping it and it appears that soldiers from elite Colombian units are fighting for the Ukrainians. Nobody is really talking about the actual scale though. It’s enough that the Russians are talking about multiple encounters and the Ukrainians are talking hundreds of soldiers.
    The Ukrainians trust the Colombians enough to put at some units of them in the front in one of the most active zones, after some training. The Colombians moving to the front are experienced soldiers used to fighting the cartels. They are not that experienced with drones or the level of coordinated warfare the Ukrainians are running. I’m sure the weather is a shock to the Colombian soldiers also. The Russians are saying the Ukrainians are using the Colombians as cannon fodder but I don’t see any reason to believe it.

  161. JM says

    Business Insider: Elon Musk says he’s stepping back from DOGE

    “Starting next month, I will be allocating far more of my time to Tesla,” Musk said Tuesday during Tesla’s earnings call, noting that “the major work of establishing the Department of Government Efficiency” was done.
    He said he’ll continue to spend a day or two a week on government matters, “as long as it is useful,” and the president wants him to do so.

    He obviously wants to save Tesla but doesn’t want to leave Washington entirely. Particularly if he has to leave looking like a failure. He is talking about splitting the difference so no telling what he actually does, or is allowed to do. It isn’t clear where Trump stands and there are cabinet members who would like to see him gone. Splitting the difference is likely to keep him from being able to help his reputation but his ego will probably keep him from admitting that problem.
    He surely wants to keep that channel to Trump open and you can’t do that remotely with Trump. It will also help his business to keep contacts in Washington, not just for US business. It will help dealing with the Chinese government and Tesla has a lot of business there. How much he actually wants to run DOGE, who knows? The command structure of DOGE is so obscure it isn’t clear who is running it right now.

  162. whheydt says

    Re: JM @ #160…
    The Russians may be accusing the Ukrainians of using Colombians as cannon fodder because that’s exactly what they (the Russians) would do.

  163. StevoR says

    @161. JM : DOGE was always F-Elon Musk’s baby – metaphorically speaking. Whoever was officially in charge I reckon he was behind and dictating it.

  164. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Re: JM @161:

    How much he actually wants to run DOGE, who knows? The command structure of DOGE is so obscure it isn’t clear who is running it right now.

    According to the 2014 Tesla whistleblower @8, “he was a mostly-absent CEO who only showed up to the office twice a month”.

    He’d spent over a year networking and hyping his DOGE scheme until the election, and then “Musk was elated by Mr. Trump’s win, but he had done virtually no preparation for his new initiative.”

  169. says

    White House press briefing just keeps getting worse

    White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt used Tuesday’s briefing with reporters to praise right-wing podcaster Tim Pool, who was granted the privilege of asking her the first question of the day.

    Pool then proceeded to team up with the White House spokesperson to spew lies about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran immigrant who was abducted due to an “administrative error” by the Trump administration and deported to El Salvador, where he was held in a notorious maximum security prison.

    Leavitt gushed in her introduction that Pool has “millions of followers, a very big platform,” and promoted the podcasts that he produces. She described Pool’s guests as having a “diverse range” of opinions but failed to note that Pool has frequently platformed white supremacists.

    Pool launched into a tirade about news organizations purportedly promoting “false narratives,” […] Right-wing media and the Trump administration have insisted that Abrego Garcia, who lives in Maryland with his wife and children, is not a “Maryland man.” He is, in fact, a Maryland man and union member who works as a sheet metal apprentice, as well as a father to three children. […]

    More at the link, including Pool’s history as a conspiracy theorist.

  172. birgerjohansson says

    KG @ 159

    To quote Churchill even fools are right sometimes.
    I am aware SH is not reliable on issues outside ‘hard science’, and is negative to particle accellerators.

    On other hard science issues SH sometimes digs up useful news items, just as you can find useful items in WSJ despite editorial bias.
    All news sources need critical filtering, this is generally easier with physics than social sciences.

    In regard to energy, renewable power is an urgent concern. Solar/wind needs supplemental power sources to replace the last coal powerplants. One source is traditional nuclear power, further down the road is the possibility of fusion.

    Substantial advances in stellarator technology are of interest in the same way that substantial improvements of durability of perovskite solar cells (much cheaper than silica-based panels) are of interest for the long-term energy transition

    And, yes, everyone is aware that fusion tech is a very long-term target.

  173. birgerjohansson says

    John Morales @ 170

    For a party with no agenda beyond “we want power” and “support the rich” optics are the central component of politics as they provide zero tangible benefit to their voters.

    Other examples (Britain): Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage.
    And the flag-waving populists everywhere in the world.

  174. birgerjohansson says

    President Gollum is backing down and saying Chinese tariffs will be reduced.

    Now it will be interesting to see if he will tank the US dollar by firing the chairman of the Federal Reserve.

  176. KG says

    birgerjohansson@172,

    Well, up to you of course, but could you add a “Hossenfelder warning”? I’d say (as would “Professor Dave” at my link) that she’s become completely unreliable on hard science as well as everything else.

    In regard to energy, renewable power is an urgent concern. Solar/wind needs supplemental power sources to replace the last coal powerplants. One source is traditional nuclear power, further down the road is the possibility of fusion.

    Substantial advances in stellarator technology are of interest in the same way that substantial improvements of durability of perovskite solar cells (much cheaper than silica-based panels) are of interest for the long-term energy transition

    And, yes, everyone is aware that fusion tech is a very long-term target.

    Two problems with that:
    1) Energy storage is the key to replacing the last fossil fuel plants. Even if we use fission, or had fusion, that would be true, as most transport cannot be powered by any kind of nuclear plant.
    2) If fusion is ever going to work, it’s not going to be in time to make any difference to the climate emergency. It’s a ludicrous waste of research resources, a complete boondoggle, an excuse for failing to cut greenhouse gas emissions now.

  177. KG says

    most transport cannot be powered by any kind of nuclear plant – me@176

    I mean of course that you can’t stick a reactor in a car, truck, plane, or any but a large ship. Whatever makes the energy, it has to be transferred to portable sources such as chemical batteries, fuel cells, or compressed/liquified gases.

  181. birgerjohansson says

    KG @ 176
    OK, “Hossenfelder Wsrning” it is.

    In regard to transportation I hope we will get GM organisms for ‘biorefineries’ that can provde bioguels at competitive price.

    Biodiesel, or butanol (more energy-dense than ethanol/methanol, and without water dissolved in the liquid).

    This will require considerable progress in processing cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin.
    Maybe we will also need GM energy crops that are modified to produce cellulase enzyme when exposed to a chemical trigger shortly before harvest.

  182. Reginald Selkirk says

    Two CISA officials jump ship, both proud of pushing for Secure by Design software

    Two top officials have resigned from Uncle Sam’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, aka CISA, furthering fears of a brain drain amid White House cuts to the federal workforce.

    In Monday posts on LinkedIn, Bob Lord and Lauren Zabierek both announced they were leaving the agency – tasked with, among other things, protecting America’s critical infrastructure from cyberattacks – highlighting their work on the Secure by Design program, which pressed software makers to build better security into their products from the get go…

  183. Reginald Selkirk says

    California Is About To Run Out of License Plate Numbers

    California is projected to run out of its current license plate number format by the end of 2025, prompting a transition to a new sequence that flips the current structure. The new format will consist of three numbers, three letters, and one number and will debut soon. The Drive reports: …

  185. KG says

    birgerjohansson@181,
    Thanks!

    You can also produce hydrocarbon fuels from carbon dioxide and water using electricity – P2G is the acronym I think. Very inefficient at present but another possible way forward.

  186. birgerjohansson says

    KG @ 185
    One idea I have is using methane – the major ingedient of natural gas- to create longer hydrocarbon chains using captured carbon (also, the gas coming from the ground contains a lot of carbon dioxide).
    Wether this is cost-efficient is another matter.

    Finally, methane is hydrogen-rich. Instead of burning it, it would be good to use the hydrogen for power cells, extracting 80% of the energy. But with current tech the catalysts are far too expensive.

  187. birgerjohansson says

    There has been a lot of work on small, modular reactors. Why stay small?

    Building larger powerplants is very expensive and time-consuming. For instance, just the tubing for the heat exchangers are practically done in an artisanal way.
    But if we use big modular construction elements we could make low-tolerance elements in chunks hundreds of tons each in a central facility, like an aircraft factory but bigger.
    Ground transport could be done by ground-effect vehicles, I think they are already capable of several hundred tons.

    Flying them across continents can be done by the abandoned deriatives of Antonov 225 (planned to lift massive rockets for air launches)

    And when it is time to service the heat exchangers 1-2 decades into operation you lift off the shielding and then the modules like a giant lego structure.

  188. birgerjohansson says

    “American Reacts to UNIMOG vs HMMWV / Hummer Off-road Test”

    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=CYR9qDNyX6w
    I think the British Land Rover would be a better comparison to the Unimog. But still, off-road vehicles are impressive. Too bad the high wheelbase inevitably has balance consequences when driving fast on ordinary roads.

  189. KG says

    birgerjohansson@186,
    Hydrocarbons are much more energy-dense than hydrogen. Both have their place.

  191. birgerjohansson says

    Trump opens up nation’s aquariums for commercial fishing.
    .
    Why are the British speaking English, an American language instead of a European language?

  192. JM says

    NBC News: Key piece of Trump administration plan to expand migrant detention space appears to have fallen through

    Facing a shortage of immigration detention space, President Donald Trump first announced he would add 30,000 beds for immigrants at Guantánamo Bay, the U.S. naval base in Cuba. When that plan fell through over cost and logistical issues, the plan shifted to Fort Bliss, a military base in Texas, to build a sprawling tent city for immigrants to be held before deportation.

    But last week, new language appeared on the Deployed Resources contract posted to a public records database that says it was terminated. The document says it was terminated “for convenience” and cites Trump’s executive order about “radical transparency” and “wasteful spending,” but it is unclear whether cost savings played into the decision.

    The poor management of the Trump administration has gotten in the way of their bad operations. Somebody canceled the expansion of holding space for undocumented migrants because it seemed like an inefficient contract. Without more holding space ICE is running into the limit of the number of people they can arrest to be shipped out of the country.

  194. says

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

    Polling debunks Musk excuse that his unpopularity, collapse of Tesla, is because of paid protesters
    Video is 7:20 minutes
    Yet another example that reveals Musk is not a smart man.

    New details of the conditions in ICE detainment centers in Louisiana exposed by Congressional visit
    Video is 11:46 minutes

  195. says

    The Biden administration sought evidence of alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine. The Trump administration is reportedly undoing those efforts.

    After Russia launched an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, it wasn’t long before the world confronted serious allegations of war crimes being committed by the Russian military. The Biden administration, not surprisingly, launched an investigative effort to compile evidence, with the hopes of holding Russian officials accountable.

    The Washington Post reported that the Trump administration is engaged in “a concerted effort to undo” those initiatives.

    [T]he administration has moved to withdraw from an international group led by the European Union that was created to punish Moscow for violating international law in its invasion of Ukraine. The White House has also reduced the work of the Justice Department’s War Crimes Accountability Team. … And in a previously unreported move, it has vacated a coordinator position — mandated by law — to gather intelligence from across the government on Russian atrocities committed in Ukraine, according to two people familiar with the matter, who like others interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.

    […] the vacated coordinator position was created by legislation co-authored by then-Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla.

    Waltz is now Trump’s White House national security adviser — who presumably knows that the law he helped write hasn’t been repealed […]

    Eli Rosenbaum, the former head of the Justice Department war crimes team who retired in January 2024, told the Post, “It’s a very disturbing retreat from the U.S. commitment to holding accountable the perpetrators of war crimes and aggression, particularly in the bloodiest conflict that Europe has seen since World War II.”

    [I snipped a list of other actions the Trump administration has taken to help Putin.]

    Imagine a hypothetical scenario in which Putin spoke privately with Trump and provided the American president with a to-do list. Would it look much different than the White House’s agenda from the last few months?

  196. says

    The closer one looks at the context around Bill Owens’ departure as the executive producer of “60 Minutes,” the worse it appears.

    Donald Trump’s whining about “60 Minutes” has long been routine, but the president published an especially aggressive online rant last week. The meltdown began with a missive in which he accused CBS News’ longtime news magazine of deceptively editing a Kamala Harris interview last year — claims that have been discredited, despite his ongoing civil case against CBS — before he published a follow-up item that went considerably further.

    […] Trump accused the news program of “fraud,” airing “defamatory” segments, “illegally” intervening in the last presidential election, “corruptly changing major answers to Interview questions” and being a “Political Operative” that has engaged in “unlawful and illegal behavior.” He added that CBS “should lose” its broadcast license and “pay a big price,” while calling on the FCC to “impose the maximum fines and punishment.”

    In theory, it was a timely reminder that the legendary news program would need to stand its ground and maintain its journalistic focus despite the White House’s assault. In practice, that’s apparently not what happened. NBC News reported that the program’s executive produced resigned.

    ‘Over the past months, it has … become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it,’ Bill Owens said in a memo to staff members, which was obtained by NBC News. ‘To make independent decisions based on what was right for ‘60 Minutes,’ right for the audience.’ … ‘So, having defended this show — and what we stand for — from every angle, over time with everything I could, I am stepping aside so the show can move forward,’ Owens added.

    As is always the case, the broader context matters. For one thing, Owens is leaving “60 Minutes” in the midst of a bizarre Trump suit against CBS, in which Trump is asking for $20 billion in damages — that’s not a typo — as part of the president’s conspiratorial beliefs about the news magazine’s election coverage.

    For another, there’s a broader corporate dimension to the story.

    “I do think this will be a moment for the corporation to take a hard look at itself and its relationship with us,” Owens said in his departure memo. As for what this might’ve been in reference to, The New York Times noted, “Paramount’s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, is eager to secure the Trump administration’s approval for a multibillion-dollar sale of her company to Skydance, a company run by the son of the tech billionaire Larry Ellison.” (Redstone has also, of course, expressed an interest in trying to settle Trump’s civil case, despite its lack of merit.)

    These circumstances were not lost on Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson, the co-hosts of “CBS Evening News,” who ended their latest broadcast not only celebrating Owens’ work but also reminding viewers that CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global, is trying to “complete a merger” that needs the Trump administration’s approval. [video at the link]

    Wendy McMahon, the president of CBS News, wrote in a separate message that she remained “committed to ‘60 Minutes’ and to ensuring that the mission and the work remain our priority.”

  197. says

    One of the weirdest myths in contemporary politics is that the president is good at deal-making. This has never been true, and it’s certainly not true now.

    Shortly after Donald Trump backed down on trade tariffs, pausing much (but not all) of his failing policy, the White House emphasized that the shift would be temporary. In fact, Peter Navarro, the president’s highly controversial trade adviser, said the move would open the door to exciting new opportunities that would unfold very quickly.

    “We’re going to run 90 deals in 90 days,” Navarro told Fox Business a couple of weeks ago, adding that such a plan “is possible” in part because “the boss is going to be the chief negotiator.” [Bluster and lies.]

    It was an odd claim, in part because crafting actual trade deals can take months, if not years, and the process invariably involves dozens of officials across federal agencies. […]

    Worse still, there have been reports of late that foreign officials have struggled to understand what exactly the White House wants from the negotiations it ostensibly welcomed, and these officials aren’t even sure who’s in a position of authority within the administration.

    As a result, there have been a grand total of zero new trade deals […]

    As The New York Times reported, this is part of a broader pattern.[…] Trump came into office promising to strike “big, beautiful” deals. He quickly opened a dizzying number of negotiations to, naming just a few of his aims, end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours, bring peace to the Middle East and usher in dozens of trade deals in record time. … But so far, the goals of many of Mr. Trump’s negotiations have been unrealized, even those that he said would be accomplished in days or weeks. [True.]

    […] One of the weirdest myths in contemporary politics is that Trump is a world-class dealmaker. This has never been true, and it’s certainly not true now. […]

    For example, the State Department’s Tammy Bruce told Fox Business last week, “President Trump is, as we know, the best dealmaker in the world.” Earlier this month, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins made related on-air comments, telling Fox News that Trump’s deal-making abilities are “unlike anything I think any of us have ever seen.” [I snipped similar remarks.]

    [I snipped a roundup of Trump’s previous remarks touting himself as a great dealmaker.]

    But the evidence of Trump actually succeeding on this front does not exist. There were literally zero instances in which he successfully brought Democratic and Republican leaders together and negotiated a major legislative breakthrough ahead of his 2020 defeat. Indeed, toward the end of his first term, Trump largely gave up on even trying to make deals with Congress, and in the opening months of his second term, we’ve seen more of the same.

    […] The Washington Post’s Jackson Diehl explainied, in reference to Trump: “He’s not up to serious negotiation. He can’t be expected to seriously weigh costs and benefits, or make complex trade-offs. He’s good at bluster, hype and showy gestures, but little else. In short, he may be the worst presidential deal maker in modern history.” […]

  198. says

    Trump pretends he never suggested potentially firing the Fed’s Jerome Powell

    To hear Donald Trump tell it, there was just a big misunderstanding, and he really has “no intention” of firing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. The Washington Post reported:

    […] Trump said he has “no intention” of firing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell, despite his recent criticism and the pressure the president has put on the leader of the central bank to cut interest rates more quickly. Asked whether he intends to fire Powell if interest rates are not lowered soon, Trump said, “I don’t want to talk about that because I have no intention of firing him.” Pressed again about efforts to remove him, the president said there are “none whatsoever.”

    For good measure, the president added that he “never” had any intention of trying to oust the Fed chair. “The press runs away with things,” he added. [video at the link]

    Perhaps a timeline of recent events would help clarify matters.
    April 17: In an item published to his social media platform, Trump wrote that the Fed chair is “always” wrong, adding, “Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!”

    April 17: Hours later, Trump said he’s never been “fond of” Powell, and suggested that the Fed chair — whom he first appointed — is “politically” conspiring against him.

    April 17: Around the same time, Trump bragged about his power to fire the “terrible” Fed chair. “If I want him out, he’ll be out of there real fast, believe me,” the president told reporters, adding that he believes Powell is failing to “do the job.”

    April 18: Kevin Hassett, the chair of Trump’s National Economic Council, said White House officials would “continue to study” whether Powell could be fired.

    April 21: Trump published another online item, called Powell a “major loser” and accused the Fed chair of having secretly conspired to help Democrats win elections.

    It was against this backdrop that the president effectively told reporters, “Who, me? Powell? Who said anything about trying to fire Powell?”

    There’s no great mystery here: When Trump targeted the Fed chair, markets fell sharply, reinforcing the impression that investors care more about keeping Powell in place than keeping the president in place. […]

  199. johnson catman says

    re Lynna @197:

    In short, he may be the worst presidential deal maker in modern [all of] history.

    There, fixed it for you.

  200. says

    After getting bruised trying to play hardball, the American president has decided he no longer wants to “play hardball” with China.

    Related video at the link.

    Two weeks ago, amid global economic turmoil that he’d created, Donald Trump backed down on trade tariffs, pausing much (but not all) of his failing policy. There was, however, a nagging detail that initially went overlooked: The president’s “pause” actually resulted in a net increase in U.S. tariff rates.

    That happened because the Republican specifically excluded China from his reversal. In fact, he went in the opposite direction, raising tariffs on China, even as he paused tariffs elsewhere, because of “the lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets.”

    Two days later, the White House clarified that U.S. duties on Beijing had reached 145% because of earlier fentanyl-related levies. The point, obviously, was to tighten the screws on the U.S. rival.

    That was before the latest in a series of hedges. The New York Times reported:

    Speaking in the Oval Office, […] Trump suggested that his high tariffs against China were ultimately a temporary negotiating tactic to strike a trade deal, rather than a longer-term trade policy.

    As part of his unscripted comments, Trump seemed critical of his own tariffs — he described the 145% rate as “very high” — before offering assurances that the tariffs “will come down substantially.” He added that his administration intends to move toward a rate that “won’t be anywhere near that high.”

    After trying to play hardball with China, the American president went on to say that he isn’t going to “play hardball” with China.

    […] Trump’s erratic approach to tariffs is a sight to behold. […]

    Just as notably, it’s hard not to notice just how frequently Trump retreats under pressure, even as he and his team pretend otherwise. “MY POLICIES WILL NEVER CHANGE,” Trump recently wrote online, shortly before his policies started changing.

    […] In his first term, Trump repeatedly backed down in confrontations with China, on everything from currency manipulation to ZTE to the “One China“ policy.

    It reached a point where China’s state-run media, mocking the American president as a paper tiger, ran a headline in 2017 that read, “Trump slaps self in face, again.”

    The White House should probably expect similar headlines any day now.

  201. says

    The heads of three major big-box stores met with President Donald Trump on Monday, to warn him that in two weeks, store shelves will be bare and prices will skyrocket thanks to his nonsensical trade policy, Axios reported.

    According to Axios, the CEOs of Home Depot, Target, and Walmart were blunt about the impacts the massive “Liberation Day” tariffs he’s placed on China and other major U.S. trade partners will have on consumers and the economy.

    “The big box CEOs flat out told him [Trump] the prices aren’t going up, they’re steady right now, but they will go up. And this wasn’t about food. But he was told that shelves will be empty,” an unnamed Trump administration official told Axios.

    The warning must have really spooked Trump, as Tuesday night he said that he is likely to lower the punishing 145% tariffs he’s levied on Chinese imports—though he said the tariffs “won’t be zero.”

    “We’re doing fine with China,” Trump told reporters.

    “We’re going to live together very happily and ideally work together,” he added, saying he’s likely to “substantially” lower the tariffs on the country that produces the vast majority of the electronics, clothing, and toys Americans buy. […]

    Import bookings at ports across the U.S. were down 64% the week of April 9—after Trump announced the tariffs—according to a report from Reuters.

    “It’s a tough environment to operate in because there’s no certainty around what’s happening or not happening,” Lee Mayer, CEO and founder of the company Havenly Brands, told Reuters. “There’s a lot standing in place. No one wants to talk costs yet. No one wants to talk re-sourcing yet.” […]

    Link

    Video at the link.

  203. says

    It’s all a matter of ideas, and God is just one idea I don’t accept. It’s not important. I am not going out and be immoral or commit crimes because I don’t believe in God. I don’t even think about it. It’s just that I get tired of Him getting credit for all the things the human race achieves through its own stubborn effort. There simply is no blasted God—there is only man and it is he who makes miracles!

    — Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965), A Raisin in the Sun

  204. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/rfk-jr-pretty-sure-anything-he-didnt

    “RFK Jr. Pretty Sure Anything He Didn’t Know About As A Kid Is Not Real”

    An especially curious thing about the MAGA mindset, you may have noticed, is the fervent belief that the only things that are real and true are the things they knew about and understood as children with a child’s somewhat narrow view of the world. Science hasn’t progressed, history isn’t slightly less pleasant than stories about George Washington’s cherry tree, and transgender people don’t exist. Or, if their moms let them watch Dog Day Afternoon, they exist but are all in cahoots with bank robbers.

    During a press conference on Tuesday, […] Robert F. Kennedy Jr. complained about all of the diseases and conditions people have now that definitely did not exist when he was a kid — the point of which was to suggest that somehow, we are being made sick by vaccines, food dyes, and unidentified “toxins.” [video at the link]

    “ADD, ADHD, speech delay, language delay, tics, Tourette’s syndrome, narcolepsy, ASD, autism — all of these are injuries I never heard of when I was a kid, were not part of the nomenclature, they weren’t part of the dialogue. There was zero spent in this country treating chronic disease when my uncle was president, today it’s about 1.8 trillion dollars annually. It’s bankrupting our nation. Seventy-four percent of American kids cannot qualify for military service. How are we going to maintain our global leadership with such a sick population?

    “We have all these autoimmune diseases, these exotic diseases again, I never heard of. Juvenile diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, Crohn’s disease, and a hundred others that, again, were just unknown when I was a kid.”

    […] ADD, ADHD: The term “ADD (Attention-Deficit Disorder) with or without hyperactivity” was added to the DSM in 1980. Prior to that, it was known as hyperkinetic disorder or “hyperkinetic reaction of childhood,” and prior to that it was usually just classified as a learning disability, hyperactivity or something similar. Does this mean that we, as a nation, defeated the scourge of hyperkinetic disorder? No. It just has a different name now.

    That being said, the symptoms we now recognize as ADHD were first described in an official capacity by English pediatrician Sir George Frederic Still … in 1902.

    Speech delay, language delay: Not only did these things exist, but his Aunt Rosemary had them and was sent to a special boarding school for children with learning disabilities. Which, incredibly, existed at the time. Though, to be fair, no one in the family knew about it, because, again, people felt ashamed by those kinds of things.

    Tourette Syndrome: Well, Georges Gilles de la Tourette died in 1904, so I’m pretty sure people had Tourette Syndrome when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was a child. Also, Dan Aykroyd has it and they’re around the same age.

    Narcolepsy: Winston fucking Churchill had narcolepsy, my dude. […]

    ASD, autism: For the 80 millionth time, Autism Spectrum Disorder was not coined until 2011, and up until then, there were different names for things. The term was first coined in 1911 by psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler, and later studied more fully by Leo Kanner and Nazi Hans Asperger, which is why, for a long time, people who would now be considered on the Spectrum were said to have Kanner’s Syndrome or Asperger’s Syndrome.

    Juvenile Diabetes: Mary Tyler Moore had Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes. Jerry Lewis had Type 1 diabetes. Carol Channing? Type 1 diabetes.

    To be fair, I think that a good number of the years Mary Tyler Moore spent raising awareness of Type 1 diabetes were the same years when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was high on smack.

    I could go on, but I won’t. The idea that people in the past were fabulously healthy and mentally perfect, while we are all feeble and sick and neurologically damaged, is completely ridiculous. [I snipped more history, including some related to health care, insurance and Lyndon Johnson signing Medicare/Medicaid legislation in 1965.]

    This idea that everyone way back when consumed only pure, whole foods with no bad additives or used anything with bad chemicals in it or bad dyes is completely insane. Victorians had freaking arsenic wallpaper. Arsenic everything! Hell, I am currently looking straight at some Victorian medicinal/cosmetic containers on my bureau and it’s all arsenic and strychnine all the way.

    One thing that has to throw just a bit of a wrench into RFK Jr.’s theories, or would if he ever thought about things for more than two seconds before he said them, is a little thing called Grey Gardens, the famous documentary about Jackie Kennedy’s cousins, Little Edie and Big Edie Bouvier-Beale. [video at the link]

    […] The world was just a little bigger than what 10-year-old Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would have known about or understood.

    That being said, of course we have health concerns that we didn’t have 60 years ago, just as some of the health concerns we had back then do not exist now (or that, like measles, shouldn’t exist now). They also don’t diagnose women with hysteria for having opinions now, either. With changing lifestyles come changing health concerns. With scientific advancements come greater understandings. Unless you are Robert F. Kennedy Jr. […]

  205. says

    NBC News:

    […] Trump said this morning that his administration is “actively” engaging with China on a potential deal to lower tariffs. A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Beijing is open to talks, but the U.S. “should stop threatening and blackmailing China.” […]

    Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun warned the U.S. today against continuing its current approach in trying to find a solution to the trade war.

    “Our doors are open, if the U.S. wants to talk. If a negotiated solution is truly what the U.S. wants, it should stop threatening and blackmailing China and seek dialogue based on equality, respect and mutual benefit,” Jiakun said, according to a video released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry on X.

    “To keep asking for a deal while exerting extreme pressure is not the right way to deal with China and simply will not work,” he added. […]

  206. Reginald Selkirk says

    Apple and Meta furious at EU over fines totaling €700 million

    The European Commission issued a €500 million fine to Apple and a €200 million fine to Meta yesterday, saying that both companies violated the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The companies are required to bring their platforms into compliance within 60 days or face “periodic penalty payments,” the EC said.

    These are the first two non-compliance decisions adopted by the commission under the DMA. The EC said it determined that Apple breached its anti-steering obligation and that “Meta breached the DMA obligation to give consumers the choice of a service that uses less of their personal data.”

    “Apple and Meta have fallen short of compliance with the DMA by implementing measures that reinforce the dependence of business users and consumers on their platforms,” said European Commissioner for Competition Teresa Ribera.

    Both companies criticized the fines…

  207. says

    84% of the world’s coral reefs hit by worst bleaching event on record

    “Harmful bleaching of the world’s coral has grown following the most intense event of its kind in recorded history.”

    […] It’s the fourth global bleaching event since 1998, and has now surpassed bleaching from 2014-17 that hit some two-thirds of reefs, said the ICRI, a mix of more than 100 governments, nongovernmental organizations and others. And it’s not clear when the current crisis, which began in 2023 and is blamed on warming oceans, will end.

    “We may never see the heat stress that causes bleaching dropping below the threshold that triggers a global event,” said Mark Eakin, executive secretary for the International Coral Reef Society and retired coral monitoring chief for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

    “We’re looking at something that’s completely changing the face of our planet and the ability of our oceans to sustain lives and livelihoods,” Eakin said.

    Last year was Earth’s hottest year on record, and much of that is going into oceans. The average annual sea surface temperature of oceans away from the poles was a record 20.87 degrees Celsius (69.57 degrees Fahrenheit).

    That’s deadly to corals, which are key to seafood production, tourism and protecting coastlines from erosion and storms. Coral reefs are sometimes dubbed “rainforests of the sea” because they support high levels of biodiversity — approximately 25% of all marine species can be found in, on and around coral reefs.

    Coral get their bright colors from the colorful algae that live inside them and are a food source for the corals. Prolonged warmth causes the algae to release toxic compounds, and the coral eject them. A stark white skeleton is left behind, and the weakened coral is at heightened risk of dying.

    The bleaching event has been so severe that NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch program has had to add levels to its bleaching alert scale to account for the growing risk of coral death. […]

    More at the link, including descriptions of Dutch efforts to propagate coral fragments in a zoo so that they can be used to repopulate wild coral reefs.

  208. JM says

    @205 Lynna, OM: It would be funny if the trade war wasn’t so damaging. The Chinese government and the Trump administration want to negotiate don’t know how to talk to each other. The Trump administration runs on commands from Trump, insults and chaos. The Chinese government is actually more authoritarian but it expects the appearance of respect and honor in public.
    The trade war is worse for China in the long run but the Chinese government can probably wait it out longer. They are more willing to let their own country suffer and use force to maintain their power.

  209. says

    JM @208:

    The trade war is worse for China in the long run but the Chinese government can probably wait it out longer. They are more willing to let their own country suffer and use force to maintain their power.

    And the Chinese government knows that Trump is likely to change his mind any minute, any hour, any day.

  211. says

    Trump’s just fine with queer kids killing themselves

    The Trump administration’s proposed budget would cut all funding to specialized services for LGBTQ+ youth who call the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

    LGBTQ+ youth are at an elevated risk for suicide. In 2021, 45% of LGTBQ+ high school students said they seriously considered suicide in the past year. Since 2022, 988’s LGBTQ+ service has received nearly 1.3 million contacts, including almost 59,000 just this past February, the most recent month of published data.

    “I worry deeply that we will see more LGBTQ young people reach a crisis state and not have anyone there to help them through that,” Janson Wu, the director of advocacy and government affairs at the Trevor Project, told Mother Jones. “I worry that LGBTQ young people will reach out to 988 and not receive a compassionate and welcoming voice on the other end—and that will only deepen their crisis.”

    If […] Trump’s budget is passed, the specialized service for LGBTQ+ youth would end this October.

    It is just the latest Republican attack on vulnerable LGBTQ+ youth. After stoking panic around transgender children during last year’s election, Trump spent his first days in office signing executive orders that curtail access to gender-affirming care and protections for LGBTQ+ children in schools. […]

  212. says

    Link

    “Abortions are resuming at a Wyoming clinic after judge suspends laws,” by Associated Press.

    Wyoming’s only abortion clinic is resuming abortions after a judge on Monday suspended two state laws.

    One suspended law would require clinics providing surgical abortions to be licensed as outpatient surgical centers. The other would require women to get an ultrasound before a medication abortion.

    Wyoming Health Access in Casper had stopped providing abortions Feb. 28, the day after Republican Gov. Mark Gordon signed the licensing requirement into effect.

    The result: At least some women seeking abortions had to travel out of state. Now, women will once again be able to get abortions in central Wyoming while the two laws continue to be contested in court, Wellspring Health Access founder and president Julie Burkhart said Monday.

    “We are immediately shouting it from the rooftop to make sure our patients know,” Burkhart said following the ruling. “We are back to seeing patients the way we were on Feb. 27.”

    […] Abortion has remained legal in Wyoming despite bans passed since 2022. The bans include the nation’s first explicit ban on abortion pills.

    A judge in Jackson blocked the bans then struck them down in November on the grounds that abortion is allowed by a 2012 state constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right of competent adults to make their own health care decisions.

    The Wyoming Supreme Court heard arguments in that case Wednesday and is unlikely to rule for at least several weeks.

    Meanwhile, the same people challenging the bans — Wellspring Health Access, the abortion access advocacy group Chelsea’s Fund, and four women, including two obstetricians — have sued to block Wyoming’s most recent two abortion laws.

    The surgical center licensing requirement would require costly renovations to make Wellspring Health Access compliant, the clinic said in its lawsuit.

    Gordon vetoed the requirement for an ultrasound at least 48 hours before a pill abortion, calling it onerous in cases of abuse, rape, or when a woman’s health is at risk. State lawmakers voted to override the veto on March 5.

    […] Opponents call laws like Wyoming’s requirements “targeted restrictions on abortion providers” because they can regulate clinics and abortion access out of existence even if abortion remains legal.

    In blocking the laws while the lawsuit proceeds, District Judge Thomas Campbell in Casper ruled that they too stand to violate the constitution.

    Despite the new restrictions, Wellspring Health Access has remained open to consult with patients and provide hormone replacement therapy for transgender patients. The clinic opened in 2023, almost a year late after heavy damage from an arson attack.

  213. says

    It is easy to become inured to the constant stream of horrific stories about the lawless and cruel events that the fascist Trump regime is foisting upon the world. However, every once in a while, one of those stories rises above (or perhaps sinks below) the others in the depths of this regime’s depravity.

    This story is one of those. My first reaction was disbelief; surely this must be an Onion satire or another of those partially true stories only loosely associated with facts. However, the details of the story appear to be true, based on corroborating sources. The facts are this: US officials are forcing children as young as four years old to represent themselves in court as they face deportation hearings.

    […] undocumented immigrants are not guaranteed free legal representation in deportation proceedings, unlike those facing criminal charges, where the right to counsel is generally protected. However, they do have the right to hire an attorney, and various non-profit organizations and volunteer lawyers offer free or reduced-cost legal assistance.

    Here’s where the cruelty of the Trump regime comes into play. On March 21st, 2025, the Trump administration terminated part of a $200 million contract that funds attorneys and other legal services for unaccompanied children who arrived in the United States without parents or legal guardians. This has left these children, some as young as four years old, to fend for themselves in front of the court. Without representation, the outcome in most of these cases is that the children are deported.

    Non-profit legal groups representing these children are scrambling to find new funding sources and a federal judge recently ordered the Trump administration to temporarily restore the contract, but funding still isn’t flowing to legal providers. In the meantime, these children continue to be paraded in front of the court in a legal and moral travesty. Every day, I believe that there is no way the Trump regime could outdo itself in its turpitude, and every day they continue to plumb new lows. […]

    Link

    Ways to help are listed at the link.

  216. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/supreme-court-open-to-ordering-religious

    “Supreme Court Open To Ordering ‘Religious’ Exemptions From Learning Anything”

    “You can demand ANYTHING with a ‘sincere religious objection’!”

    The Supreme Court yesterday heard arguments on a Maryland case in which a group of parents and a rightwing “parents’ rights” group are suing the Montgomery County School Board over the optional inclusion of LGBTQ+ friendly story books in the reading curriculum. The lawsuit claims that the parents’ ability to freely exercise their religion will be unfairly burdened if the school doesn’t provide a formal opt-out process whenever a teacher might read aloud one of the books including LGBTQ+ characters. Just the existence of gay or trans characters in a storybook, the suit claims, will “indoctrinate” kids with “gender ideology” unless they can flee the classroom at the hint of a rainbow flag or a drawing of two men holding hands.

    Let’s be clear on the content here: The books at issue here are aimed at first through fifth grade, and do not contain any discussion of sex, genitalia, tearing down heteronormativity, or gender-affirming medical care. They’re also not a formal, mandatory part of the reading curriculum, but as the school argues in its brief to the Court, the district decided in 2022 to add

    a handful of storybooks featuring lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer characters for use in the language-arts curriculum, alongside the many books already in the curriculum that feature heterosexual characters in traditional gender roles.

    The schools initially provided parents advance notice if the books were going to be read and offered an opt-out, but dropped both policies because they proved unwieldy to administer, led to a lot of absences, and posed “the risk of exposing students who believe the storybooks represent them and their families to social stigma and isolation.”

    So what are these terrible faith-destroying books? The four that are upsetting the parents the most are:
    Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, a story about a little girl who frets she’ll “lose” her favorite uncle when he gets married, but then he and his fiancé tell her she’ll be gaining a second uncle who loves her too. The fact that Bobby is marrying a man isn’t even presented as a problem; it’s about the girl’s realizing that families may change but are still family. […]

    Prince and Knight, a good old save the kingdom from a dragon story where the brave prince falls for a knight who helps him defeat the dragon (they capture it; no slaying) and then everyone celebrates. No sex, but one racy scene of the prince holding the knight in a hug, egad. They live happily ever after and get a sequel too. […]

    Born Ready: The True Story of a Boy Named Penelope, about a trans boy who wants to be a ninja and wins a martial arts competition. His older brother scoffs that “You can’t become a boy. You have to be born one,” but their mom explains, “Not everything needs to make sense. This is about love.” […]

    Love, Violet, about a girl who gets a crush on another girl in her […]

    The county last fall dropped another book, Pride Puppy, an alphabet book about a runaway puppy whose owners follow it through a Pride parade […] it’s now just in the library, not even an option on the supplemental reading list.

    Like most states in the country, Maryland allows parents to opt their kids out of sex education classes, but opt-outs from the English curriculum are new, and could pretty obviously lead to parents demanding their precious children be exempt from having to learn about evolution, the Civil Rights movement, the women’s rights movement, or anything else that offends religious fundamentalists, which seems to be endless.

    The case lost at the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals last May, because, as the majority opinion held, the plaintiffs hadn’t shown that they were really burdened by an optional selection of books, and hadn’t shown that “the storybooks are being implemented in a way that directly or indirectly coerces the parents or their children to believe or act contrary to their religious faith.”

    But apparently the Supreme Court, since the Hobby Lobby case always eager to side with people who insist they’re being oppressed by things that don’t directly affect them, took up the appeal, and worse, several of the justices appear ready to impose a new precedent for opt-outs from school instruction.

    Several of the justices, Law Dork Chris Geidner notes, sounded less like judges than like they too “were among the parents fighting the school board’s policy.” […]

    Many of the arguments also focused on “instructional materials” […] Justice Amy Coney Barrett thought those materials sounded pretty indoctrinatey, particularly the line “people of any gender can like whoever they like,” which sounds to us like an objective statement of reality but apparently struck her as an imperative. Barrett also quoted the materials about trans people, which say

    When we’re born, people make a guess about our gender and label us boy or girl based on our body parts. Sometimes they’re right; sometimes they’re wrong. When someone’s transgender, they guess wrong. When someone’s cisgender, they guessed right.

    That sounds to us like an attempt to explain what being transgender means, but Barrett was pretty certain it was “more about influence, right, and shaping of ideas and less about communicating respect” because it told children “how to think about sexuality.” We’re kind of stumped there. Is it possible to define “transgender” in a way that respects them but doesn’t “indoctrinate” kids into thinking trans people are not defined solely by their physical/genetic characteristics at birth?

    As to how this will all fall out when the Court rules, it seems likely the Supremes will mandate some kind of “opt out” policies. The only question is how broad it might be. Justice Elana Kagan asked plaintiff’s attorney Eric Baxter where those lines should be drawn, and by whom. Would schools have to provide an opt-out any time anything in a class might conflict with a student or parent’s religious beliefs, once they say it’s a conflict?

    Yup, Baxter agreed. That was exactly what he wanted. Parents decide, schools must comply, no matter what the allegedly offensive material might be.

    If the Court goes that far, there’s no telling what sort of Pandora’s box could be opened for schools. Like for instance, maybe kids would have to be excused for any lesson mentioning Pandora and her box, since Pagan gods and stories conflict with the one true faith, the end.

  217. says

    Bondi launches dubious ‘Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias’ in U.S. government

    The first hint of things to come came two weeks ago, when State Department encouraged employees to report — even anonymously — allegations of anti-Christian bias within the agency. The Department of Veterans Affairs took a nearly identical step soon after.

    Evidently, these weren’t just random memos. The Washington Post reported:

    Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday convened the first meeting of a task force President Donald Trump has charged with searching for and eradicating what he’s described as “anti-Christian bias” within federal agencies and regulatory practices. Joined by other Cabinet officials, Bondi kicked off the session by attacking the administration of former president Joe Biden, who she said had “abused and targeted Christians.”

    So, a few things.

    First, the idea that Biden — a devout and lifelong church-going Roman Catholic — “abused and targeted Christians” is absurd and beneath the office of the attorney general. Indeed, congressional Republicans spent much of the former president’s term raising similar allegations, but an inspector general’s report found no evidence to support the claims.

    If Bondi has new evidence to support her partisan attacks, she’s kept it to herself.

    Second, it’s hard not to notice the faith-specific drive of this new administrative task force. The attorney general and her colleagues aren’t focused on “anti-religion bias” within the government; they’re focused only on “anti-Christian bias” within the government.

    The Post’s report noted, “[E]ven before the group’s inaugural meeting, critics have assailed its mission as a bald attempt by government to elevate one faith over others and to rewrite recent history under the guise of protecting religious freedoms.” Given the circumstances, it’s not hard to conclude that these critics have a point.

    But I was also struck by just how many Cabinet secretaries and prominent federal officials have joined this endeavor. While the increasingly hyper-partisan attorney general is serving as the task force’s chair, she’s serving alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez DeRemer, and FBI Director Kash Patel.

    Also on hand for the inaugural meeting of this group was Small Business Administration chief Kelly Loeffler, Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkende, White House Domestic Policy Council Vince Haley, and a variety of leading officials from the Justice Department, FEMA, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and Office of Management and Budget.

    Given the inconvenient fact that the task force is focused on a problem that doesn’t appear to exist, that was quite a turnout.

  218. Reginald Selkirk says

    The record-breaking tunnel being built from Denmark to Germany

    A record-breaking tunnel is being built under the Baltic Sea between Denmark and Germany, which will slash travel times and improve Scandinavia’s links with the rest of Europe.

    Running for 18km (11 miles), the Fehmarnbelt will be the world’s longest pre-fabricated road and rail tunnel.

    It’s also a remarkable feat of engineering, that will see segments of the tunnel placed on top of the seafloor, and then joined together…

  219. says

    […] new article from the Times on the battle between Trump and Harvard University […] It contains good factual detail. But it radiates what I can only describe as a Chernobyl-level condescension and contempt not so much for anything ‘liberal’ but anything not conservative or what it terms the “rightward shift of the country” or anything that can be construed as a posture of opposition to Donald Trump. The Harvard board is portrayed as reflexively and out-of-touchedly liberal, repeatedly shocked in a weak-kneed sort of way and yet also, paradoxically, headstrong […] In a few words, weak, out-of-touch and contemptible.

    There’s not a single mention of the fact that the entire campaign is illegal on its face and an unprecedented and corrupt power grab with no antecedent in the US government’s almost eighty year research-focused partnership with the country’s leading university’s. […]

    There’s one dynamic which I think has been lost in most of the commentary on free speech, higher education and Trump going back over the last eighteen months. It was in the background of Columbia’s justifications of its original deal with the White House. It was closer to the foreground in the University of Michigan’s decision to shutter its DEI Office in favor of aid guarantees for students from underprivileged backgrounds. ‘Anti-semitism’ is in many ways a loaded phrase. […] a less fraught and perhaps more functional definition is simply a climate or attitude of hostility toward those who are conspicuously Jewish or identified as such. […] at a number of campuses the administration and a significant portion of faculties thought that some of that did exist. That doesn’t mean they thought the protests themselves were anti-Semitic or targeted Jews. Maybe some did or didn’t. […]

    universities aren’t immune from the political winds of the larger society. […] no university can ignore the views of its major donors. […] what Trump has been trying to do has been to use Jews and purported concern about anti-Semitism as a cudgel to put universities into de facto receivership, disappear non-citizen pro-Palestine activists and turn back the clock on the whole spectrum of civil rights-DEI to like 1950 or 1955. […]

    [I snipped discussion of Universities not being prepared to fight back.]

    […] My sense is that White House’s war on universities is at least partly slipping out of its grip. The whole game here is that the White House needs to mutilate a handful of universities but do so one by one, each isolated and on its own as it happens.[…] the White House cannot manage this if universities are banding together. […] The Times did its best to put it in a bad light (stubborn, not listening to reason). But Harvard has hit back hard at the White House and doesn’t seem inclined to pull back, even after what the Times says were quiet attempts on the White House’s part to bring them back to the table. The whole ‘Oh, we sent that letter on accident’ thing was bizarre and made the White House look silly. We didn’t mean to send it. And you should have known that. But also we meant it. And can you please start negotiating again. That’s weak and pathetic. [Yep]

    All the Trump White House knows is gangster tactics. Because that’s all Trump knows. […]

    I’m not sure they [the White House] have another card to play. The second is that they’re facing small but discernible losses on a number of fronts. It’s harder to assert power in the face of waning power. […]

    I’m no big fanboy of Harvard. […]

    But Harvard has great power and social and culture clout and vast reserves of money. They’re one of the few institutions with the resources to hold out in a litigation posture for a significant period of time […] My hope is that they will eventually win legal rulings that provide cover for small or less wealthy institutions. Anything like that is still a ways off. It will important to watch to see if other universities start making similar statements backing Harvard and risking the White House’s retaliation. If enough do that I think the whole thing will start to fall apart.

    Link

  221. Reginald Selkirk says

    Letter reveals Shakespeare did not abandon his wife

    The relationship between William Shakespeare and his wife Anne Hathaway may have been happier than previously thought, according to new research.

    For more than 200 years it has been believed that Shakespeare left his wife in Stratford-upon-Avon when he travelled to London and that a decision to leave her almost nothing in his will meant he probably felt bitterness towards her.

    However, examination of a fragment of a letter, which is addressed to “good Mrs Shakespeare”, appears to show they did live together in central London between 1600-1610.

    The research was carried out by Prof Matthew Steggle from the University of Bristol’s Department of English.

    In the letter, which was preserved by accident in the binding of a book in Hereford, it is alleged that Shakespeare is withholding money from an orphan boy named John Butts, with the letter asking Mrs Shakespeare for money instead.

    Prof Steggle said: “First discovered in 1978, the letter’s been known for a while, but no-one could identify the names or places involved or see any reason to think that the Mr Shakespeare in the letter was necessarily William rather than anyone else of the same name in the general period.

    “So, it’s a story about the Shakespeares’ marriage, really, as well as about Shakespeare’s London contacts.

    “And if the writing on the back of the letter is a reply, then it’s also a story about the first ever bit of writing which can be attributed to Anne Hathaway.” …

    But if they lived together, why would he need to write her a letter?

  222. says

    Republicans forced to beg Trump to help their state after he said no

    Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas requested federal assistance after 15 tornadoes hit the state on March 14. But President Donald Trump said no.

    Now fellow Arkansas Republicans are asking him to “reconsider the denial.”

    Sens. John Boozman and Tom Cotton and Rep. Rick Crawford sent a letter to Trump on Monday in support of Sanders’ appeal last week to Trump to reconsider his rejection. Sanders said that Arkansas is in “dire need of federal assistance” as more severe weather hits the state.

    “As Governor Sanders noted in her request, these storms caused catastrophic damage across the state, resulting in disastrous amounts of debris, widespread destruction to homes and businesses, the deaths of three Arkansans, and injuries to many more,” the GOP lawmakers’ letter said.

    According to the Arkansas Times, Sanders’ appeal has yet to receive a response from the White House.

    [I snipped history of Republicans railing against government handouts and now begging for federal subsidies or for FEMA assistance, etc.]

    […] By cutting federal budgets, pausing essential operations, and undermining emergency services, Trump seems ready to destroy the system on which red states depend for disaster relief. […]

  223. Reginald Selkirk says

    Director of Utah charter school arrested for alleged production, distribution of child pornography

    The director of a K-6 charter school in Utah was arrested Tuesday for allegedly producing, selling, and distributing child sexual abuse material (CSAM), which is colloquially referred to as child pornography.

    Jared Dallan Buckley, 40, was arrested on two counts of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor, both first-degree felonies; and one count of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony…

  224. Reginald Selkirk says

    Donald Trump plans ‘2 beautiful poles’ to display US flags on White House grounds

    President Donald Trump has his eyes set on “two beautiful poles” to display the American flag on the White House grounds.

    Trump scouted one location for what he described as nearly 100-foot flag poles on Wednesday during a surprise visit with a handful of staff members to the White House North Lawn. He said he’s planning to have an identical flag pole installed on the south side of the White House campus.

    “They’ve needed flag poles for 200 years,” Trump told reporters outside the West Wing. “I’ve often said, you know, they don’t have a flag pole, per se. So we’re putting one right where you saw us, and we’re putting another one on the other side, on top of the mounds. It’s going to be two beautiful poles.” …

    The most prominent U.S. flag currently displayed outside on the White House grounds sits atop the White House…

  225. Reginald Selkirk says

    Sarah Sanders begs her old boss Trump to reconsider after president rejects Arkansas’ request for disaster relief funds

    Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has begged President Donald Trump to reconsider his rejection of her request for disaster relief funds after tornadoes devastated her state last month.

    The former Trump White House press secretary wrote to Trump in March after storms ravaged the state, killing three people…

    Sorry, I can’t hear you over the sound of leopards eating your face.

  227. says

    YEMEN (The Borowitz Report)—In what they called an effort to “stay in the loop,” Houthi rebels disclosed on Tuesday that they had sent a friend request to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s wife.

    An official Houthi rebel spokesperson said that the request had been sent on several social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

    “It’s important that we have each other’s contact info,” the spokesperson said. “Our number isn’t going to just get sucked into Mrs. Hegseth’s phone.”

    According to the spokesperson, the outreach has already paid dividends, as the Houthis have been invited to the Hegseths’ Memorial Day clambake.

    Link

  228. says

    Von der Leyen: World is ‘lining up’ to work with Europe amid Trump’s trade war

    “In exclusive comments to POLITICO, the European Commission president touted the EU as a safe haven in an unpredictable world.”

    Countries are ready to work with reliable trade partners in Europe after United States President Donald Trump’s blanket trade tariffs upended global markets, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told POLITICO.

    “In a more and more unpredictable global environment, countries are lining up to work with us,” the Commission president said without naming Trump or the U.S.

    In recent weeks she has spoken to leaders from Iceland, New Zealand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Canada, India and the United Arab Emirates who were looking for “strong, reliable partners.”

    The global order is “shifting more deeply than at any time since the Cold War ended,” von der Leyen added.

    Trump announced the reciprocal tariffs on April 2 — hitting the EU with a 20 percent levy and most of the rest of the world with a baseline tariff of 10 percent. As financial markets melted down a week later, Trump suspended the higher tariffs for 90 days to open the way for talks on a trade deal.

    In the EU’s case, it is still paying that 10 percent rate, as well as 25 percent on exports of steel, aluminum and cars — while the U.S. and China have hit each other with triple-digit tariffs. If Trump reimposes those reciprocal tariffs, global merchandise trade could shrink by 1.5 percent this year, with North America hardest hit, the World Trade Organization forecasts.

    Von der Leyen has contrasted this volatility by playing up Europe’s steadfastness. Amid such upheaval, confidence in the EU was on the rise, she argued, including from the bloc’s own citizens, referring to a Eurobarometer survey showing support for membership in the bloc at 74 percent, its highest level in 40 years.

    “That says something. In the middle of the chaos, Europe stands firm, grounded in values, ready to shape what comes next,” von der Leyen said.

    […] senior EU officials — whom Trump has systematically shunned in favor of national leaders — are ramping up their diplomatic outreach, with von der Leyen reportedly planning a trip to China to meet President Xi Jinping later this year.

  229. Reginald Selkirk says

    Army Suspends Base’s First Female Commander After Trump Photo Rumors

    The Army suspended the first female commander of Fort McCoy following a controversy involving photos of President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

    Col. Sheyla Baez Ramirez has been suspended as garrison commander of Fort McCoy in Wisconsin, according to the Army. Just last year, she became the first woman to assume that role in Fort McCoy’s 110-plus-year history…

    But an X post by the Department of Defense might offer clues into her suspension.

    Last week, the Defense Department’s Rapid Response team posted photos of the Chain of Command wall at Fort McCoy.

    The wall held portraits of the fort’s leadership. Noticeably, however, the photos of Trump and Hegseth at the very top row were facing the wall instead of the hallway.

    “An investigation has begun to figure out exactly what happened,” the Defense Department said, adding that it “fixed” the issue by turning the portraits around…

  230. Reginald Selkirk says

    Japan unveils railgun that can shoot down China’s hypersonic missiles

    Japan’s navy has unveiled a ship-mounted electromagnetic railgun intended to shoot down incoming Chinese hypersonic missiles.

    The large futuristic-looking weapon system was pictured last week undergoing advanced stages of testing on the flight deck of the experimental JS Asuka warship…

    The railgun does not require explosives or propellant but relies on electromagnetic energy to launch projectiles at supersonic speeds, providing a cost-effective and quick response to potential fast-moving missile threats.

    It fires at higher velocities than regular weaponry, with its ammunition travelling at 2,500 metres per second (m/s), compared to traditional tank guns, which fire shells at speeds of around 1,750 m/s…

  231. Reginald Selkirk says

    Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, won’t seek reelection to a sixth term in 2026

    Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said Wednesday he will not seek reelection in 2026, ending his more than four-decade career representing Illinois and accelerating a generational shift in Senate Democratic leadership where he has long held the No. 2 position.

    Durbin, 80, is in his fifth Senate term and was first elected to the House in 1982. His decision not to run will set off a scramble for his Senate seat in solidly Democratic Illinois and for his leadership position in Washington as many in the party agitate for a new and more aggressive approach to confronting Republican President Donald Trump in his second term…

    If he had run and won, he would be 87 at the end of the next 6 year term.

  232. Reginald Selkirk says

    Elon Musk’s robotaxi could be Tesla’s final all-new EV: ‘The reality is, in the future, most people are not going to buy cars’

    That’s because Musk believes the auto market fundamentally is on the verge of an inflection point, where household ownership of vehicles is no longer the default.

    The vast majority, he believes, will rely on autonomous ride-hailing fleets using products like his upcoming Cybercab to get where they want to go.

    “The reality is, in the future, most people are not going to buy cars,” Musk said…

    Out of touch billionaire does not realize that normal people do not live like him. Good luck taking your child’s soccer team to their next match in Musk’s silly two-seat cybercab.

  233. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Lynna @216:

    Wonkette: Several of the justices, Law Dork Chris Geidner notes, sounded less like judges than like they too “were among the parents fighting the school board’s policy.”

     
    Balls and Strikes – Let’s take a look at the children’s books Sam Alito is so afraid of

    At one point, Justice Samuel Alito referred to a hypothetical classroom scenario in which students are exposed to the fact that the law allows same-sex couples to marry—an accurate statement of Supreme Court precedent—as imparting “moral principles that are highly objectionable to parents,” and thus legally questionable.
    […]
    The Becket lawyers and conservative justices spent comparatively little time discussing the actual books that prompted this lawsuit. This is because doing so would make abundantly clear that the books are not, in fact, lurid smut that fuels the scourge of anti-Christian bigotry
    […]
    to support his assertion that Uncle Bobby’s Wedding is pro-gay agitprop intended to indoctrinate young readers, Alito pointed out that Chloe’s mother “corrects” her when Chloe expresses “reservations” about the wedding, as if Alito, an adult man, understood Chloe to be concerned not about the possibility of seeing her uncle less often, but instead about the prospect of Uncle Bobby going to hell.

    There are only two explanations for how Alito arrived at this conclusion: Either his brain is so hopelessly poisoned by homophobia masquerading as religion that he is incapable of correctly identifying the thuddingly obvious moral of a story written for five-year-olds, or he was simply lying about Uncle Bobby’s Wedding and hoping no one would notice.
    […]
    Justice Neil Gorsuch bringing up Pride Puppy at oral argument to incorrectly assert that it exposes pre-K students to “bondage” and “sex workers.”

    Rando:

    1. This case is absurd.
    A. Families have no kids in public school.
    B. Those books were never used in a classroom.
    C. Funded by moms4liberty.

    Jay Willis (Balls and Strikes):

    it is impossible to overstate how contemptuous Sam Alito is of the idea of treating LGBTQ people with respect. He is a rank homophobe. Nancy Mace in a robe. […] Scalia had some shocking moments of bigotry on and off the bench, but I do not think I’ve ever heard a justice talk like Alito is today. He is not even trying to make legal arguments. He’s disgusted by the idea of gay people, and arguing the case for parents who feel the same way. Absolutely vile.

     
    SCOTUS language in earlier cases.
    Same-sex marriage litigation and children’s right to be queer (abstract and pdf)

    [Lawrence v. Texas (2003)]
    Chief Justice William Rehnquist asked […] “If you prevail, Mr. Smith, and this [sodomy] law is struck down, do you think that would also mean that a State could not prefer heterosexuals to homosexuals to teach kindergarten?”

    Smith […] proposed that “the State would have to come in with some sort of a justification.”

    Taking up Smith’s challenge, Justice Antonin Scalia gamely asked whether the state’s justification could be “the same that’s alluded to here, disapproval of
    homosexuality.” Smith replied, “Well, I think it would be highly—highly problematic, such a—justification… if that were the only justification that could be offered, there was not some showing that there would be any more concrete harm to the children in the school.” Now that the tables had turned, it was Justice Scalia who seemed to struggle to express himself in suitable language: “Only that the children might—might—might be induced to, uh—to, to—to, to follow the path of homosexuality.”

    Given that Justice Scalia is rarely at a loss for words, the pauses in this sentence seem especially significant. In 1978, then-Justice Rehnquist had colorfully compared the contagiousness of homosexuality and measles; by 2003, Justice Scalia was apparently uncomfortable speaking in such colorful metaphors. Rather than suggest that a gay teacher would “seduce,” “indoctrinate,” or “recruit” children into homosexuality, he felt compelled to articulate the fear of the queer child in more neutral terms. But in another sign of the times, Justice Scalia’s attempt at subtlety did not seem to pay off with the spectators […] noises from the gallery were audible: some laughed; others groaned.

  234. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    The Handbasket – US “relocates” Iraqi refugee to Rwanda via new diplomatic arrangement

    the administration has opted to quietly send Iraqi national Omar Abdulsattar Ameen from the US to Rwanda, wherein Rwanda acts as a “third country.” But it remains unclear what legal processes allowed for this to happen. […] Ameen’s “relocation” has already happened.
    […]
    The cable references a “wish list” of policy concessions provided by Rwanda and a request for “a one-time payment of $100,000 to support social services, residency documents, and work permits.” […] the payment was made […] “Rwanda also agreed to accept another ten TCNs of various nationalities,” the cable states […] So far neither party has made a public statement about the relocation.
    […]
    He was a target of deportation by the first Trump administration, which attempted to smear him as a “terrorist” and “member of ISIS” who had abused the refugee resettlement program to gain entry to the US. […] His case was profiled in a 2020 issue of the New Yorker under the headline, “The Fight to Save an Innocent Refugee from Almost Certain Death.” [audio (m4a)] […] Federal Judge Edmund F. Brennan ruled in 2021 that the Justice Department’s case was “dubious”, with “unreliable” witnesses and allegations that were “simply not plausible,” and ordered his immediate release. Once released however, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—under President Biden’s control—picked him up immediately and began deportation proceedings. […] remained in ICE custody ever since.
    […]
    the idea of using Rwanda as a third country is not new. In 2022, the UK government under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak attempted a similar arrangement, passing a bill that would allow them to send migrants on a one-way trip to Rwanda. […] But the bill became mired in litigation, going all the way up to Britain’s Supreme Court, which ruled Rwanda was not a safe country for which to send asylum seekers.

    “The judges said there was evidence Rwanda had a culture that misunderstood its obligations under the Refugee Convention, was dismissive toward asylum-seekers from the Middle East and Afghanistan […]” The AP reported
    […]
    It’s unclear if this new US arrangement with Rwanda is part of the Trump administration’s larger mass deportation project, or limited to more targeted cases. […] certainly newsworthy.

    Rando:

    This Rwanda??? The one the US State Dept has an active Level 2 (exercise increased caution) AND a Level 4 (Do Not Travel) warning for on their Consular website?

    ‪Anjali Dayal (International relations prof): “We have international agreements and obligations that this kind of arrangement contravenes.”
     
    Emily Hawley (Ameen’s Lawyer):

    The Biden administration had four fucking years to release Omar. They knew he was innocent. We *obliterated* the extradition case, demonstrating it was entirely based on false witness testimony.

    And yet, it was under the Biden administration that Omar had to fight deportation to Iraq, where he would have faced certain torture and likely execution for a crime he did not commit. Deportation was only averted because the Convention Against Torture forbade it.

    The Trump administration deserves the lion’s share of the blame here. They sought out a case like Omar’s, disregarded the absurd, incongruous allegations and set out to ruin an innocent man’s life all to justify further slashing of the refugee resettlement program.

    We had so much hope for Omar when Biden was elected. But Omar languished in immigration detention, fighting deportation under Biden for almost four years. The Biden administration could have opted to free him to reunite with his wife and kids in Sacramento at any moment.

    Today, Omar is free. The Rwandan government has proved far more generous and humane than our own.

    I’ll be letting this domain lapse [freeomarameen.com] and will just add that Omar is not the first immigrant the US Government has deported to Rwanda.

    The Trump administration deported Adham Hassoun, a Bush administration scapegoat in the war on terror, to Rwanda in 2020.

  236. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    ProPublica – Americans have already been caught in Trump’s immigration dragnet

    Spanning both Obama administrations, an NPR investigation found, immigration authorities asked local authorities to detain about 700 Americans. Meanwhile, a U.S. Government Accountability Office report found that immigration authorities asked to hold roughly 600 likely citizens during Trump’s first term. The GAO also found that Trump actually deported about 70 likely citizens.

    The article is mainly a series of incidents.

  237. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    CBS – After Kashmir attack leaves 26 dead, India revokes key treaty, tells Pakistani nationals to leave

    after […] an attack by suspected Pakistan-based militants in Indian-controlled Kashmir, […] India’s External Affairs Ministry said on Wednesday night that the Indus Water Treaty “will be held in abeyance with immediate effect, until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism.” The suspension […] would mean India would stop the water supply of Indus River and its tributaries […] to Pakistan, impacting millions of people
    […]
    Tuesday’s attack in picturesque Pahalgam area of Indian-controlled Kashmir left 26 people dead—25 of them tourists—and 17 others injured […] The majority of the victims were Hindus. […] one of the worst in Kashmir’s history—at one of its most popular tourist spots
    […]
    A lesser-known militant group called The Resistance Front claimed responsibility for the attack on social media. CBS News cannot independently verify the claim. India media outlets reported the group was backed by Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT).
    […]
    India also ordered all Pakistani nationals currently in the country to leave within 48 hours […] Kashmir is claimed in full by both India and Pakistan, but each nation has controlled its own portion of the mountainous region for decades. The scenic Himalayan region has been hit regularly by militant violence since an armed anti-Indian insurgency began in 1989.
    […]
    The attack came as U.S. Vice President JD Vance, along with his wife Usha and their children, paid a largely personal visit to India. Vance met earlier in the week with India’s leader, Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Usha Vance is a practicing Hindu whose parents are from India.

    Wikipedia – Lashkar-e-Taiba

    a Pakistani Islamist Salafi jihadist organisation. The organisation’s primary stated objective is to merge the whole of Kashmir with Pakistan.

    AP

    Kashmir has seen a spate of targeted killings of Hindus, including immigrant workers from Indian states, after New Delhi ended the region’s semi-autonomy in 2019 and drastically curbed dissent, civil liberties and media freedoms. […] The region has drawn millions of visitors who enjoy a strange peace kept by ubiquitous security checkpoints, armored vehicles and patrolling soldiers.
    […]
    India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.

  241. birgerjohansson says

    Miscellaneous medical news from Medicalxpress.com

    “3D bioprinting uses collagen to bring vascularized tissue one step closer”
    Pretty darn important if you need a vital organ.
    .https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-04-3d-bioprinting-collagen-vascularized-tissue.html

    “Clinical trials are the next step for testing vaccine against Alzheimer’s-promoting tau protein”
    .https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-04-clinical-trials-vaccine-alzheimer-tau.html
    Already tested on non-human primates, next step human trials.

  242. Reginald Selkirk says

    Tapeworm in fox poop that will slowly destroy your organs is on the rise

    No matter how bad things might seem, at least you haven’t accidentally eaten fox poop and developed an insidious tapeworm infection that masquerades as a cancerous liver tumor while it slowly destroys your organs and eventually kills you—or, you probably haven’t done that.

    What’s more, according to a newly published study in Emerging Infectious Diseases, even if you have somehow feasted on fox feces and acquired this nightmare parasite, it’s looking less likely that doctors will need to hack out chunks of your organs to try to stop it.

    That’s the good news from the new study. The bad news is that, while this infection is fairly rare, it appears to be increasing. And, if you do get it, you might have a shorter lifespan than the uninfected and may be sicker in general…

  245. KG says

    Trump published another online item, called Powell a “major loser” and accused the Fed chair of having secretly conspired to help Democrats win elections. – Lynna, OM@197 quoting MSNBC

    Well it’s surely part of Powell’s job to try to prevent financial catastrophe!

  248. birgerjohansson says

    Lynna @ 247
    Myself @ 238
    Great minds think alike, or at least listen alike. :-)

  250. says

    Followup to comments 126 and 195.

    The White House makes an offer Ukraine had no choice but to refuse

    “How one-sided is Donald Trump’s plan for peace in Ukraine? A Democratic senator called the Republican “the Neville Chamberlain of our time.’ ”

    Related video at the link.

    As Wednesday got underway, many looked to peace talks that were scheduled to take place in London, as diplomats continued to work on a possible solution to Russia’s war in Ukraine. The negotiations were thrown into disarray, however, when Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff pulled out of the talks.

    Around the same time, JD Vance sketched out his vision for ending the devastating conflict. When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the American vice president’s plan was a nonstarter, Donald Trump renewed his rhetorical attacks on his counterpart, accusing him of derailing negotiations to end the war.

    All of these developments were quite notable, though let’s not miss the forest for the trees: More than three years into the most devastating war in Europe since World War II, the public is just now getting a sense of what the White House has in mind for a proposed resolution. And what, pray tell, has Team Trump put on the table? The New York Times reported:

    […[ Trump and his top aides demanded on Wednesday that Ukraine accede to an American-designed proposal that would essentially grant Russia all the territory it has gained in the war, while offering Kyiv only vague security assurances. The American plan, which would also explicitly block Ukraine from ever joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, was rejected by President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. … The proposal also appears to call for the United States to recognize Russia’s 2014 takeover of Crimea, a region of Ukraine.

    The “plan” (I’m using the word loosely) might as well have been crafted by the Kremlin. Indeed, one NATO official, when asked for a reaction to the plan, replied, “Did Putin write this for him?”

    If implemented, Russia would get to keep the Ukrainian land it seized by force — an extraordinary reward for launching an unprovoked invasion on its neighbor — while Ukraine would be prohibited from joining NATO, further cementing one of Moscow’s principal goals.

    Complicating matters, such a resolution would be at odds with American law: As a Politico report noted, in 2022, Congress barred any U.S. recognition of Ukrainian territory annexed by Russia.

    The measure was written by a Republican senator from Florida named Marco Rubio — three years before he became Trump’s secretary of state.

    If recent history is any guide, the White House will continue to suggest that Zelenskyy, by brushing away the Trump administration’s one-sided solution, is standing in the way of an agreement. But no one should be fooled, the American president and his team presented an offer that Ukraine had no choice but to refuse.

    Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California characterized the proposal as Trump’s latest “surrender to a murderous dictator,” adding, “More ‘peace in our time,’ from the Neville Chamberlain of our time.”

  251. KG says

    Lynna, OM@250,

    Trump to Zelensky: “I’m gonna make you an offer you can’t accept”.

    He literally can’t, in terms of Ukraine’s constitution. Assuming Trump actually has some idea what he’s doing, the “peace plan” looks like the prelude to permanently cutting off all aid to Ukraine. At least that would save Zelensky from having to accede to Trump’s extortionate economic demands in an effort to avoid this. Meanwhile, I see Trump has mildly rebuked Putin for his latest murderous bombing of Kyiv, saying it was “badly timed” – i.e., that Putin should wait until Trump declares Zelensky is to blame for the “peace plan” failing.

  252. says

    Judge Pauses Abrego Garcia Case After Parties Reach Secret Agreement

    TPM link

    Details at the link. Apparently, the Trump administration did something (we don’t know what because the court documents are sealed) that might indicate they are following the judge’s orders to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia.

  253. says

    KG @251:

    […]Assuming Trump actually has some idea what he’s doing, the “peace plan” looks like the prelude to permanently cutting off all aid to Ukraine. At least that would save Zelensky from having to accede to Trump’s extortionate economic demands in an effort to avoid this. Meanwhile, I see Trump has mildly rebuked Putin for his latest murderous bombing of Kyiv, saying it was “badly timed” – i.e., that Putin should wait until Trump declares Zelensky is to blame for the “peace plan” failing.

    I agree. All of Trump’s machinations make me feel sick to my stomach.

  254. says

    Trump Admin Mistakenly Shares Doomed Plan to Kill Congestion Pricing

    Despite Donald Trump’s attempts to vanquish it, New York City’s congestion-pricing program has continued unabated, blowing past a mandated April 20 deadline from the federal government to end the toll for drivers traveling at or below 60th Street. Since then, the Trump administration has threatened to withhold billions of dollars in federal transit dollars if New York officials don’t wind down the tolling program by May 21.

    “The federal government sends billions to New York — but we won’t foot the bill if Governor Hochul continues to implement an illegal toll to backfill the budget of New York’s failing transit system,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote in a letter to Governor Kathy Hochul.

    Though the Trump administration is playing hardball in public, a recent misstep in court filings shows that there are some internal concerns about the strength of its case to end congestion pricing.

    On Wednesday, attorneys for the federal government seemingly filed an internal memo from Justice Department officials that laid out the weaknesses of the case in striking detail. Duffy has argued that the city’s congestion-pricing program is at odds with the intent of the Federal Highway Administration’s Value Pricing Pilot Program, allowing the government to revoke its previous approval for the project. But assistant U.S. attorneys Dominika Tarczynska, David Farber, and Christine S. Poscablo wrote that it was “unlikely that Judge Liman or further courts of review will accept the argument” that the congestion-pricing program was “not a statutorily authorized ‘value pricing’ pilot.”

    The officials also challenged Duffy’s own assertion that the city’s congestion-pricing program is required to provide a toll-free option for commuters, writing that they “have not identified a provision that requires there to be a non-Interstate route to a particular location, or a requirement that that route not be tolled.”

    In the memo, the Justice Department officials floated a potential new direction for the case, suggesting that the government could utilize pre-existing Office of Management and Budget regulations for ending “cooperative agreements” to terminate the congestion-pricing deal. But the U.S. attorneys noted this might not be a sure success, writing that the tolling-program agreement “does not have any explicit termination provisions, which may make this argument more difficult.”

    Duffy has yet to publicly comment on the letter that has since been removed from the court website. For her part, Hochul has shown no signs of complying with the federal government’s May 21 deadline. “Let me repeat this for those who didn’t hear me the first ten or 11 times,” she said in a video shared to social media. “Congestion pricing is legal. It’s working. Business is up, traffic is down, and the cameras are staying on.”

    We should add this latest “oops!” to Rachel Maddow’s list. [see comments 238 and 247]

  255. says

    Yes, Trump’s order to gut the Civil Rights Act is as bad as you think

    A new Trump executive order just dropped and it’s got all the standard Trumpian features: There’s the pompous title. There’s the predictable overreach. And then there’s the equally predictable, but still absolutely wild, racism.

    Wednesday’s “Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy” executive order purports to eliminate disparate-impact liability in both Title VI and Title VII civil rights cases. Title VI prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in any program or activity that receives federal funding. Title VII prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. Getting rid of disparate impact liability would make it much more difficult to prove discrimination, which is, of course, the whole point.

    Broadly speaking, two types of discrimination cases arise under Title VI and Title VII. [I snipped details of the explanation]

    […] Trump is racist, and he wants companies, schools, the government—you name it—to be racist without consequences. Without disparate impact, discrimination is essentially fine as long as a defendant doesn’t run around yelling, “I am doing a racist, discriminatory thing right now!”

    […] Like all other Trump executive orders, this isn’t a law, even though Trump seems to think he’s signing legislation when he scribbles his name on these things. [social media post and video at the link: “Trump ahead of signing executive order: ‘We’re signing some important legislation.’ “]

    Also like all other Trump executive orders, this thing is a mess. One part of it is Trump asserting he can just wipe out decades of civil rights regulations by saying so. Another part is his usual whining about how American greatness is undermined […] there’s the demand that all agencies find and eliminate any rule that mentions disparate impact. The worst part, though, is at the end, where it lays out how the government is simply going to stop most civil rights enforcement.

    The groundwork for that has already been laid. Harmeet Dhillon, the new head of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, forced out most of the career attorneys in what was described as a “bloodbath.” The division will no longer focus on enforcing civil rights laws, but instead is going to prioritize implementing Trump’s culture war executive orders about trans athletes and “radical indoctrination” in schools.

    […] All agencies are also supposed to evaluate existing consent judgments and injunctions based on disparate impact liability.

    It’s tempting to raise the usual—and completely correct—objection, which is that he can’t repeal these rules via an executive order. These rules were promulgated via formal agency rulemaking. That’s a lengthy process where the agency proposes a rule, allows the public to comment, reviews the comments, and issues a final rule. The president can direct an agency to review and revise or repeal those types of rules, but he can’t wipe them out with the stroke of a pen.

    There’s a “good cause” exception to this, which is that notice-and-comment rulemaking can be dispensed with if doing so would be “impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest.” Trump latched onto this a couple of weeks ago, issuing a less-noticed executive order that purports to invoke the good cause exception for pretty much everything.

    […] You can thank the Supreme Court for this, because that’s where Trump got the idea that no one has to listen to agencies or let them make rules. , […] the Supreme Court overturned Chevron deference, which required courts to defer to an agency’s reasonable interpretation of an ambiguous statute. [I snipped details of the explanation.]

    In Loper Bright, the conservative majority wrenched statutory interpretation away from agencies and gave it to the courts. Yes, now, rather than having Environmental Protection Agency scientists determine how to implement reductions in ozone pollution, the Supreme Court will decide it instead.

    In case you’re wondering how that will go, in Ohio v. EPA, decided the day before Loper Bright, Justice Neil Gorsuch’s majority opinion boasted of “put[ting] a tombstone” on Chevron and how great it will be now that judges interpret complicated agency statutes. Then Gorsuch utterly beclowned himself by repeatedly referring to “nitrous oxide”—the stuff you get at the dentist—when the case was about nitrogen oxides that the EPA was trying to regulate. […]

    Ultimately, this [new executive order] will be in the hands of the court that eliminated affirmative action, gutted the Voting Rights Act, and invented immunity for Trump. There may very well be five votes in favor of letting Trump wipe away a chunk of the Civil Rights Act, which is a very grim place to be.

  257. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/hear-ye-hear-ye-new-holy-executive

    “Hear Ye, Hear Ye, New Holy Executive Orders Just Dropped!”

    Dear Leader signed 10 Holy Executive Orders last night. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll say, “this is the most un-American thing I’ve ever seen!” Starting with how they all begin “By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America,” and then decreeing rules that the Constitution makes clear are supposed to be made by Congress.

    An Executive Order is a wish list, a statement of intent, it is not law. But with Congress rolling over and playing dead, and the Supreme Court willing to let him do just about whatever, the orders are more like “this is what’s happening until a court steps in to stop it.” Okay, probably you won’t laugh. We were just trying to hook you with the lede.

    So what is this pile of dogshit, let’s see! Most of them are about giving the government even more new, unprecedented powers to control schools, so it can effectively shut down colleges by taking away their ability to offer financial aid, and/or micromanage what they teach.

    There’s Transparency Regarding Foreign Influence at Universities; Trump insists that a whole lot of foreign money is flowing into universities, and the universities are hiding it, so he wants to “protect the marketplace of ideas from propaganda sponsored by foreign governments.” […]

    White House staff secretary Will Scharf gave away the game: “We believe that certain universities, including, for example, Harvard, have routinely violated this law, and this law has not been effectively enforced.” Oh, let me just pull an example out of thin air, shall we say, could it be, HARVARD?

    […] He’s taking on college accreditation!

    “President Trump is tackling the broken accreditation system that has left students with soaring debt, low graduation rates, and degrees of questionable value.” Hoo boy is that rich, coming from the guy who was found to have defrauded students with Trump University […]

    Linda McMahon will choose new accreditors to do the blessing and/or yanking. […]

    Accreditation started in an official kind of way with the GI Bill in the 1950s, because the government wanted to make sure that veterans using GI Bill funds to go to college weren’t getting ripped off by some kind of early version of Trump University. […]

    And, but, then he goes on to decree we shall strengthen Historically Black Colleges and Universities. […] but he says he wants to help them out, by having the EPA (why the EPA?) terminate the HBCU and Minority Serving Institutions Advisory Council, revoking Biden’s Executive Order on White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity Through Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and instead making a new presidential council to oversee them, which will increase the private-sector role. [I snipped details]

    […] Ho ho, he’s just getting started! There’s “restoring equality of opportunity,” which instructs the attorney general to “repeal or amend” Title VI regulations that include “disparate impact liability,” [see comment 255]

    In the meantime, it’s been a “bloodbath” at the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, more than a dozen of its lawyers have quit […]

    But we digress! There is also an order to make a task force to “promote AI literacy” in students starting in kindergarten […]

    Other EOs: that April 20-27 are days of Holocaust-victim remembrance, and April 20 through April 26, 2025, is National Volunteer Week, and also proclaiming that April 19 through April 27, 2025 is National Park Week, though that is eight days, and all of these weeks are already more than half over. But the 1,000 workers cut from the Park Service and 3,400 people laid off from the Forest Service surely appreciate the sentiment of making an eight-day week for them! And he encourages everyone to visit the national parks, even if the trails are closed and trash is piling up because there’s no one there to collect it, and toilets are backing up because there’s no one to plumb them.

    And, he is establishing the “National Garden of American Heroes — a new monument honoring 250 American patriots who embodied the virtues of courage, love of country, and devotion to our Nation’s highest ideals.” Can’t wait to see who makes that cut. […]

  258. Reginald Selkirk says

    ‘Vladimir, STOP!’ Trump says to Putin after deadliest Russian strike on Kyiv in months

    At least 12 people were killed and dozens more were injured in an overnight Russian attack on several districts and residential areas in Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said on Thursday, prompting President Donald Trump to issue a directive to Russian President Vladimir Putin: “Vladimir, STOP!”

    “I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing,” Trump said on social media Thursday. “Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!”

    When asked by a reporter at the White House on Thursday if he thinks Putin will listen to him, Trump responded, “I do, yeah.” …

  259. says

    VATICAN CITY (The Borowitz Report)—JD Vance will represent Satan at Pope Francis’s funeral this weekend, the Devil confirmed on Thursday.

    In a rare public statement, the Prince of Darkness said that he could not attend the funeral himself because it conflicts with a Tesla board meeting.

    Explaining his choice of Vance, Beelzebub said, “If you can’t have me, JD is the next best thing.”

    But longtime Vatican-watcher Harland Dorrinson criticized Satan’s decision to send Vance, noting, “With Trump in attendance, this seems like overkill.”

    Link

  260. JM says

    @225 Reginald Selkirk: This is perfectly consistent with Trump’s policy of transferring this duty to the states. The states are not going to be given any time to prepare and the money is going to be used to finance federal tax cuts but it fit’s Trumps plan.
    A bunch of the changes Trump wants to make work this way. They are not designed to actually save money overall, instead the work is transferred to the state without any federal money. The states will have to raise taxes to cover the costs themselves. It’s just shuffling around who collects the money so that Trump can claim a tax cut. It will likely be less efficient also because the states will need redundant management administration.

  261. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Regarding India and Pakistan.

    Evergreen Intel (Aviation consultant, OSINT):

    What may have the potential to be the most significant international crisis for the 2nd Trump administration so far.
    […]
    Balakot [a 2019 conflict] was so serious that, according to then SecState Pompeo, Indian Min of External Affairs informed him Indian gov’t believed Pakistan was preparing a nuke attack and that India was preparing one in response. Pompeo claims his and NatSec Advisor Bolton’s overnight diplomacy talked each down.
    […]
    [Headline: Indian airlines add extra flights and offer waivers as tourists rush to exit Kashmir]
    […]
    India has, at least temporarily, suspended the Indus Water Treaty. This treaty survived in spite of several conflicts over the years between the two nuclear powers, until now. This a huge impact: 23% of Pakistan’s economy is dependent on Indus waters, as is 34% of the workforce. Diversion of waters is considered a violation of international law and is often considered a casus belli (an act or situation provoking or justifying war).
    […]
    Developing: heavy exchanges of gunfire in the Basantgarh area, some 80+ miles to the south of Pahalgam [the town of the original attack]. Fight between suspected militants and security forces ongoing. As many as three suspected terrorists involved. Unclear if connected to Pahalgam.
    […]
    Modi vowed an unforgiving response to Pahalgam, declaring every part of the conspiracy would be punished “beyond their imagination.” […] any land being used for terror activities will be destroyed. “We will destroy every inch of it.”
    […]
    [An] Indian Navy […] stealth guided-missile destroyer […] conducted a successful live test-fire of a medium-range SAM
    […]
    Pakistan has formally rejected the decision of India to suspend the Indus Water Treaty, says it is a lifeline for 240 million Pakistanis.
    […]
    Pakistan suspended the Simla Agreement of 1972 with India which established both sides would respect the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir.

    At almost the same time, an Indian Border Security Force (BSF) constable was detained by Pakistani Rangers after he accidentally crossed the Punjab border. The constable was in uniform and carrying his rifle. Talks are underway in attempts to secure his release.

    Pakistan has closed airspace to all Indian airlines.

    The Indian Air Force is conducting major air Exercise […] practicing “complex ground attack missions for operations in different terrains, including plains and mountains,” per Times of India. The ‘plains and mountains’ comment is a subtle mention of Pakistan’s overall terrain being on the table and not just focusing on the disputed regions.

    The Indian central government All-Party meeting has concluded and the opposition, though critical of the intelligence failure of Pahalgam, gives full support to “take any action.” The political will standing in the way of a peaceful solution from within the gov’t just became a lot smaller.

    Pakistani government declares any attempt by India to divert Indus water would be considered “an act of war.”

    Evergreen Intel:

    One thing I wanted to impart to the OSINT community is that India handles what military info gets out very differently. They have censors that work hard to squash troop movement info on their social media end. As such, you may not see much evidence (warning) of any buildup.

  262. says

    Followup to Reginald @258.

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/vladimir-stop-cries-trump-who-still

    Donald Trump started lashing out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Truth Social yesterday […]

    The text, because we need to parse this out:

    Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is boasting on the front page of The Wall Street Journal that, “Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea. There’s nothing to talk about here.” This statement is very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia

    […] You don’t get to tell Ukraine what’s “harmful” to peace negotiations when they’re the country that was invaded, raped, and pillaged entirely unprovoked. […]

    in that Crimea was lost years ago under the auspices of President Barack Hussein Obama, and is not even a point of discussion. Nobody is asking Zelenskyy to recognize Crimea as Russian Territory but, if he wants Crimea, why didn’t they fight for it eleven years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired?

    “Why was Crimea taken so easily?” It’s a fucking video! Watch a history video on the toilet, Trump!

    More on “Nobody is asking Zelenskyy to recognize Crimea as Russian Territory” in a minute.

    The area also houses, for many years before “the Obama handover,” major Russian submarine bases. It’s inflammatory statements like Zelenskyy’s that makes it so difficult to settle this War. He has nothing to boast about! The situation for Ukraine is dire — He can have Peace or, he can fight for another three years before losing the whole Country.

    Or the US can continue helping its historical allies Europe and Ukraine blow Moscow into the fucking sun. That’s an entirely acceptable choice.

    I have nothing to do with Russia,

    He feels the need to insist.

    but have much to do with wanting to save, on average, five thousand Russian and Ukrainian soldiers a week, who are dying for no reason whatsoever. The statement made by Zelenskyy today will do nothing but prolong the “killing field,” and nobody wants that! We are very close to a Deal,

    You are not.

    but the man with “no cards to play”

    Zelenskyy has no cards to play? Because we feel like it’s Trump who has no cards to play.

    should now, finally, GET IT DONE. I look forward to being able to help Ukraine, and Russia, get out of this Complete and Total MESS, that would have never started if I were President!

    Right, Grandpa Dementia Poops, it never would have started if you were president, just like you’re gonna end this war in your first 24 hours in office. […]

    So that’s some lashing out from yesterday, as we said.

    Today, he’s whining and lashing out that he’s not happy with Putin continuing to do strikes on Kyiv. [social media post at the link]

    […] Begging Putin to get a peace deal done, as if Putin even considers him a real character in this drama, or respects him as a world leader?

    Hahahahahahaha, hard nyet. [I snipped a lot of text that included a roundup of other actions Trump has taken to help Putin and to damage Ukraine.]

    Also Ukraine gets to “keep” the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, but America gets to run it for some reason. And “minerals deal,” where Ukraine gets to give America lots of money. (There’s that Trump griiiiiiift!)

    Axios reports that this document came about last week after Trump’s Russian envoy Steve Witkoff, the mouthbreathing dipshit who believes everything Putin says and doesn’t think he’s a tyrant, met with Putin for four hours. He’s meeting with him some more this week!

    But of course, Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio didn’t participate in talks in London on Wednesday with the Ukrainians and the Europeans — they pulled out at the last minute. […]

    So this is where they are. Trump and his minions are insisting Ukraine accept their offer of “nothing,” or they’re going to walk away and stop trying to get “nothing” for Ukraine. Meanwhile, Trump is whining on Truth Social because Putin won’t stop bombing, even though he’s giving him everything he wanted […]

    We recently revisited the idea of “peace plans” for Ukraine […] It has always, always, always, meant surrender to Russia. […]

    And as we wrote almost two months ago:

    During the 2016 campaign and shortly after, Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort — who you’ll remember was mysteriously chairing the campaign for “free” after doing similar work to install pro-Russian stooge Viktor Yanukovych in power in Ukraine in 2010 — was shopping a “peace plan” for Russia and Ukraine, which would include sanctions relief and letting Russia carve out whatever parts of Ukraine it wanted. […] (Important context: Putin blamed the United States, and specifically Hillary Clinton, for orchestrating the 2013-14 Euromaidan protests that toppled Yanukovych. Invading and seizing Crimea directly after was his temper tantrum response.)

    Manafort lied to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators about that, specifically about his conversations with his Russian spy buddy Konstantin Kilimnik about the “peace plan.” That plan was to make Eastern Ukraine “autonomous,” in order to set it up for Russia eventually just taking it. Kilimnik was, of course, the same Russian spy Manafort was handing Trump campaign modeling data about the Rust Belt to, to hand over to their oligarch buddy Oleg Deripaska.

    And on and on and on. Through the 2016 campaign, into Trump’s first presidency, “peace plan,” sanctions relief, carve up Ukraine to give Putin the pieces he wants, “peace plan,” sanctions relief, carve up Ukraine.

    […] Heather Cox Richardson detailed in her newsletter last night just how precisely Trump’s so-called “final offer” to Zelenskyy lines up with what his Kremlin operative buddies have been shopping for the benefit of Russia for a full decade now, how it’s literally Manafort’s plan from 2016.

    She writes:

    Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 2019 report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election explained that Manafort in summer 2016 “discussed a plan to resolve the ongoing political problems in Ukraine by creating an autonomous republic in its more industrialized eastern region of Donbas, and having [Russian-backed Viktor] Yanukovych, the Ukrainian President ousted in 2014, elected to head that republic.”

    The Mueller Report continued: “That plan, Manafort later acknowledged, constituted a ‘backdoor’ means for Russia to control eastern Ukraine.” The region that Putin wanted was the country’s industrial heartland. He was offering a “peace” plan that carved off much of Ukraine and made it subservient to him.

    [Putin’s] his own “peace plan” in 2024 was basically the “Mariupol Plan” that Manafort had been working with his Russian spy buddy Konstantin Kilimnik.

    On June 14, 2024, as he was wrongly imprisoning American journalist Evan Gershkovich, Putin made a “peace proposal” to Ukraine that sounded much like the Mariupol Plan. He offered a ceasefire if Ukraine would give up Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, including far more territory than Putin’s troops occupy, and abandon plans to join NATO. “If Kyiv and the Western capitals refuse it, as before,” Putin said, “then in the end, that’s their…political and moral responsibility for the continuation of bloodshed.”

    They’re all working together, for Putin, against America, and against Ukraine.

    Trump, Putin, Marco Rubio, Paul Manafort, Paul Witkoff, the whole fucking traitor lot of them.

    Except Trump’s all upset now because Putin won’t stop bombing so Trump can declare Art Of The Deal and Flawless Victory! […]

  263. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    NYT – An immigrant held in U.S. custody ‘simply disappeared’

    In late January, Ricardo Prada Vásquez, a Venezuelan immigrant working in a delivery job in Detroit, picked up an order at a McDonald’s. He was heading to the address when he erroneously turned onto the Ambassador Bridge, [a one-way road] which leads to Canada. It is a common mistake even for those who live in the Michigan border city. But for Mr. Prada, 32, it proved fateful. […] he was put in detention […] On March 15, he told a friend in Chicago that he was among a number of detainees housed in Texas who expected to be repatriated to Venezuela. […] He is not on a list of 238 people who were deported to El Salvador that day. He does not appear in the photos and videos released by the authorities […] authorities confirmed that he was removed from the United States. But to where?
    […]
    On Tuesday, after the story published, [DHS] said that Mr. Prada had been sent to El Salvador […] Mr. Prada’s case suggests a new level of disarray […] While hundreds of thousands of immigrants have been deported under various administrations in recent years, it is extraordinarily unusual for them to disappear without a legal record. “I have not heard of a disappearance like this in my 40-plus years of practicing and teaching immigration law,” […] Mr. Prada’s family had no ability to go to court: His name did not appear on the list of people on the flights
    […]
    [The Tren de Aragua accusation came out of nowhere.] Mr. Prada’s Social Security card and government-issued work permit had arrived in the mail on Monday. […] Mr. Prada had tattoos, but he was not a gang member, according to his family and friends. […] “How can they leave us in the dark for so long and then accuse him of something without proof?”

    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick‬ (American Immigration Council):

    it wasn’t 238, it was 239, and he somehow got onto the plane but wasn’t added to the flight manifest. By all reports the operation was a rushed clusterf***, with people being taken off planes and people being added on until the last moment.

  264. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Politico – Trump admin must seek return of another man who was improperly deported to El Salvador, judge rules

    the administration deported a 20-year-old Venezuelan man last month in violation of a legally binding, court-approved settlement agreement reached in a [nationwide class-action] lawsuit last year. […] the U.S. agreed not to deport migrants who arrived as unaccompanied minors until their asylum claims are fully adjudicated.
    […]
    Unlike Abrego Garcia — who has never been charged with any crime—Cristian was convicted in Texas of possessing cocaine […] After his conviction, immigration officials detained him in January 2025, during the final days of the Biden administration.
    […]
    the Trump administration has refused to say whether “Cristian” is the only person covered by the settlement who has been deported.

     
    Other news of ICE losing in court.
    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (American Immigration Council):

    ICE went into the database where foreign students are tracked and deleted the record of at least 1,700 or more people because they had some minor interaction with law enforcement—speeding tickets, fishing citations, and other minor things.

    Judges are ruling that was illegal.

  265. Reginald Selkirk says

    Woman who tricked her way into men-only Magic Circle finally allowed in

    A magician who tricked her way into the Magic Circle is finally being granted membership – 34 years after she was kicked out.

    Sophie Lloyd says she disguised herself as a man to fool examiners into letting her join the elite society in 1991, at a time female magicians were not allowed to be members.

    When the Circle announced it was permitting women to join later that year, Ms Lloyd revealed her deception, prompting the society to expel her at the very same meeting it admitted its first female magicians.

    Following a public search to find her, the Circle has now apologised to Ms Lloyd and is presenting her with a membership certificate on Thursday evening…

    “I felt it important that the Magic Circle should be able to recognise Sophie as the role model for women magicians, as well as show that we are now a completely open society,” said Laura London, the society’s first female chair…

  266. Reginald Selkirk says

    Moon Jae-in becomes 4th consecutive elected South Korean president to be indicted

    South Korean prosecutors indicted former liberal president Moon Jae-in on bribery charges on Thursday, saying that a budget airline gave his son-in-law a lucrative no-show job during Moon’s term in office.

    Moon’s indictment adds him to a long list of South Korean leaders who have faced trials or scandals at the close of their terms or after leaving office.

    Prosecutors allege that Moon, who served as president from 2017 to 2022, received bribes totalling 217 million won ($209,600 Cdn) from Lee Sang-jik, founder of the budget carrier Thai Eastar Jet, in the form of wages, housing expenses and other financial assistance provided to Moon’s then-son-in-law from 2018 to 2020.

    South Korean media reported that Moon’s daughter and her husband were divorced in 2021. The Jeonju District Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement that Lee was also indicted on charges of paying bribes to Moon and committing breaches of trust…

  267. Reginald Selkirk says

    Pentagon to resume medical care for transgender troops

    The Pentagon will resume gender-affirming care for transgender service members, according to a memo obtained by POLITICO, an embarrassing setback to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s efforts to restrict their participation.

    The memo says the Defense Department is returning to the Biden-era medical policy for transgender service members due to a court order that struck down Hegseth’s restrictions as unconstitutional. The administration is appealing the move, but a federal appeals court in California denied the department’s effort to halt the policy while its challenge is pending.

    As a result, the administration is barred from removing transgender service members or restricting their medical care, a priority of President Donald Trump and Hegseth. The administration insisted its restrictions were geared toward people experiencing medical challenges related to “gender dysphoria,” but two federal judges said in March that the policy was a thinly veiled ban on transgender people that violated the Constitution…

  268. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    David Burbach (Professor of international relations and natsec):

    DOJ is to be claiming that the Defense Dept, entirely on its own initiative no DHS or judicial involvement, is choosing to deport people out of US custody at GTMO and handing them over to El Salvadorian custody.

    Chris Geidner (Law Dork):

    DOJ claims that the Trump administration did not violate a court order barring it from third-country removals without providing process when three people were sent to El Salvador b/c the Defense Department sent them to El Salvador on March 31, not DHS, and DOD isn’t a defendant.
    […]
    TRO: “Defendants, and all of their officers, agents, servants, employees, attorneys, successors, assigns, and persons acting in concert or participation with them are hereby ENJOINED and RESTRAINED from” taking the action I described
    […]
    Cannot see how that is going to work.

    Brad Moss (Attorney): “Dear god it’s like they WANT the courts to get pissed at them.”

    Heather Walter-McCabe (Law prof): “I keep begging my students, no matter their politics, to follow this as an exercise in the law. It is wild out there.”

    Rando 1: “Unitary Executive except when it’s not.”

    Rando 2: “The ‘we didn’t break that law because we were breaking an entirely different law at the time (using the military domestically)’ is an interesting defense.”

  269. Reginald Selkirk says

    Wife of wrongly deported Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia forced into safe house after government posts address online

    The wife of a wrongly deported Salvadoran father living in Maryland was moved to a safe house after Donald Trump’s administration posted a court document that included her address on social media.

    In an interview with The Washington Post, Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura said she began fearing for her safety and the safety of her three children after the Department of Homeland Security shared a protective order from 2021 that prominently featured her address to the department’s 2.4 million followers on X…

  270. Reginald Selkirk says

    Bill Maher Responds to Larry David’s NY Times Story Ridiculing His Trump Dinner: ‘Insulting to 6 Million Dead Jews’

    Bill Maher has responded to Larry David’s criticism of his recent meeting with President Trump at the White House, with the “Real Time” host saying the comedian’s New York Times op-ed was “kind of insulting to 6 million dead Jews.”

    Maher’s comment was shared by Piers Morgan on Thursday on X, in a teaser clip for an upcoming conversation on his YouTube show, “Piers Morgan Uncensored.”

    His response comes a few days after David, without naming the comedian specifically, skewered Maher in a guest post titled “My Dinner With Adolf,” which effectively compared Maher’s visit with the president to someone meeting with Hitler in 1939…

    He then said it was insulting for David or anyone else to compare Trump to Hitler. “I just think it’s kind of insulting to 6 million dead Jews, you know,” Maher said. “That should kind of be in its own place in history.” …

  271. Reginald Selkirk says

    North Carolina judges block GOP law to strip governor’s election board powers

    North Carolina trial judges threw out on Wednesday another Republican attempt to strip the governor of his authority to appoint State Board of Elections members, declaring that a law shifting the task to the state auditor is unconstitutional.

    One registered Republican judge and one Democratic judge on the three-member panel sided with Democratic Gov. Josh Stein, who with his predecessor Roy Cooper sued over the law finalized by the GOP-dominated General Assembly in December. The third judge, a Republican, dissented.

    The governor picks the five board members, three of whom are traditionally members of the governor’s party. Appointments are made from candidates provided by the two major political parties.

    The latest law would have given the responsibility to new GOP state Auditor Dave Boliek starting May 1, with the expectation that Republicans would assume a majority on the board…

  272. JM says

    NPR: Judge pauses parts of Trump’s sweeping executive order on voting

    The executive order instructs the independent Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to change the national mail voter registration form to require that applicants show a document proving U.S. citizenship before they can be registered to vote.
    But a court order issued Thursday puts that instruction on hold.
    “Our Constitution entrusts Congress and the States—not the President—with the authority to regulate federal elections,” wrote Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in a 120-page opinion, while noting that Congress is currently debating legislation — the SAVE Act — that would require showing proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.

    The judge also said it would be premature to block other parts of the order that do nothing for a couple of years. The important thing is the position the judge is taking on the order, election law is almost entirely in the hands of Congress and the states.
    The government has been reduced to weak arguments about standing to bring the case instead of arguing the merits of the law or Trump’s ability to issue it.

  273. JM says

    @268 CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain: It would be clearly illegal for the President to order the DOD to deport them either. So this is the DOD taking it’s own initiative to punish prisoners that are not under DOD authority. Clearly illegal and at that point arguably a war crime.

  274. John Morales says

    “It would be clearly illegal for the President to order the DOD to deport them either. So this is the DOD taking it’s own initiative to punish prisoners that are not under DOD authority.”

    This inference is predicated on the President not issuing illegal orders.

  275. Reginald Selkirk says

    What the Idaho ‘Hetero Awesome Festival’ organizers don’t understand

    Scott McIntosh

    I have never been spit on for holding my wife’s hand while walking down the street.

    I have never been called a slur for kissing her in public.

    I have never been enjoying a cocktail at my local watering hole with my wife and our friends when the police bust in and arrest us all, clobbering us with their nightsticks and fists and throwing us in jail.

    I have never been afraid of putting a photo of me and my wife on my desk at work, fearful that someone might hate me, call me names under their breath or discriminate against me.
    …
    These are the reasons we don’t need a celebration of heterosexuality. We’re not discriminated against, we’re not targeted, we’re not beaten or killed just because of whom we are attracted to.

    But these are the reasons we need gay pride celebrations…

  276. says

    […] Politico was first to report that Trump planned to issue a presidential memorandum directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate ActBlue; the memorandum waves toward unsubstantiated security concerns related to straw donors and foreign contributions. (Republicans in Congress have cited similar concerns in launching their own investigations, but have not substantiated the claims.) Trump asks Bondi and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to look into the claims and to bring a report on the results of her investigation directly to him. Writes Trump:

    These activities undermine the integrity of our electoral process. Therefore, I direct the Attorney General, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, to use all lawful authority, as necessary, to investigate allegations regarding the unlawful use of online fundraising platforms to make “straw” or “dummy” contributions or foreign contributions to political candidates and committees, and to take all appropriate actions to enforce the law. I further direct the Attorney General to report back to me through the Counsel to the President within 180 days of the date of this memorandum on the results of the investigation.

    […] by targeting ActBlue, which serves as the main pillar of the Democratic Party’s digital fundraising apparatus, Trump is attacking the infrastructure of the Democratic Party and its ability to effectively compete in elections. Since its inception in 2004, ActBlue has raised nearly $16 billion for Democratic candidates and Democratic causes. In an email to Democrats Wednesday warning of potential White House action against the group, CEO Regina Wallace-Jones called it out for what it appears to be.

    “[…] This is the next version of ‘the big lie.’”

    House Republicans have been angling to target ActBlue for some time, claiming the fundraising tool didn’t have proper security protocols in place to block foreign donations. Those efforts have not borne fruit; a recent congressional subpoena revealed that the organization has policies in place to immediately reject foreign donations.

    But Elon Musk has, in recent weeks, made ActBlue a target of his screeds on X. In March he suggested without evidence that “ActBlue-funded groups” were behind the spate of protests against Tesla, as Americans object to his rampage through their federal government.

    Link

  277. says

    […] We now know how the Trump administration is interpreting SCOTUS’s requirement that those set for removal under the Alien Enemies Act receive notice before being expelled and have enough time to file a habeas corpus claim. The answer is 12 hours. If you want to file a habeas claim, then they’ll give you a total of 24 hours to go to court before you become acquainted with the Salvadoran detention system.

    Stingy puts it mildly. The notices are offered in English, and only make a vague reference to the ability to object to removal. Does this comply with the Supreme Court’s order? Clearly not in spirit. And even in deed, only maybe in the flimsiest, narrowest way.

    Same link as in comment 276.

  279. says

    NBC News:

    A federal judge in California issued an injunction Thursday blocking President Donald Trump’s efforts to halt federal funds from going to several cities and counties considered sanctuary jurisdictions.

    Also from NBC News:

    A federal judge today directed the Department of Education to pause its enforcement of the anti-DEI initiatives it outlined in a February letter sent to schools that receive federal funding instructing educators to comply with anti-DEI teachings or risk losing their federal funding.

    Boston Globe:

    Federal immigration officials must transport Rümeysa Öztürk back to Vermont, a federal judge ruled Thursday after the government continued to fight to keep the Tufts PhD candidate in Louisiana as she faces deportation proceedings.

    Reuters:

    President Donald Trump’s administration moved a Venezuelan man who had worked in construction in Philadelphia to Texas for possible deportation after a federal judge had issued an order blocking his removal from Pennsylvania or the United States, according to court records.

    NBC News:

    Twelve states filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging the legality of President Donald Trump’s broad tariff agenda, arguing it unlawfully undermines Congress’ constitutional authority to regulate foreign commerce.

    Politico:

    The White House is partnering with a prominent conservative Christian college in Michigan to produce videos ahead of the United States’ 250th anniversary. […]

    The White House’s rapid response team announced a partnership with Hillsdale College on a video series related to the upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States’ independence, in a post to X this week that included the first installment of the project.

  280. says

    New York Times:

    The flashy online announcement called it “the most EXCLUSIVE INVITATION in the World,” a chance to have “an intimate private dinner” with President Trump at his members-only golf club in Virginia, followed by a tour of the White House. A seat would be reserved for each of the top 220 investors in $TRUMP, a cryptocurrency that Mr. Trump launched on the eve of his inauguration.[…]

    “Have Dinner with President Trump and the $TRUMP Community!” the invitation said. “Let the President know how many $TRUMP coins YOU own!”

  282. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    HHS adviser, and RFK Jr associate, Calley Means suggested “demonic forces” were to blame for chronic childhood diseases and depression. “Because chronic disease, it is evil.”

    It was otherwise boilerplate RFK Jr. babbling (pharma, trans, processed foods, phones), with no explanation of demons. I didn’t find him espousing demonology anywhere in the past. Demons were conspicuously absent in promoting his 2024 book. So “demonic” here was functionally just a synonym for “undesirable”.

    Who Is RFK Jr.’s Special Adviser Calley Means?

    In 2019, Casey founded Levels, an app that for $200 a year serves as a food and overall health journal with the option to upgrade to continuous glucose monitoring and blood tests.

    Exploiting chronic disease for profit? Demonic!

    Similarly, last year…
    RollingStone – RFK Jr. Running Mate Decries ‘Demonic’ Influence in Government

    A lawyer by training, Shanahan is a political neophyte, but she’s no dummy. Rhetoric about demonic possession of government plays to two crowds prone to dark superstition: adherents of the QAnon conspiracy theory and Christian nationalists. The former believe that a luciferian cabal have taken over the highest levels of government, and that this evil group of power players traffic children and harvest their blood to extend their own lives. Many Christian nationalists also believe that their movement is wrestling against demonic forces, and that their political opponents do not simply disagree with them over principle, but are in fact controlled by Satan and must be countered through “spiritual warfare.” There is considerable overlap between the two crowds.
    […]
    When Rolling Stone asked Shanahan and the Kennedy campaign to clarify what demonic or satanic forces she has been referring to, the campaign sent a oblique statement from Shanahan: “Corporate capture of the government has resulted in massive harm to human and ecological life,” she said. “I believe that is evil.”

    Call something evil, therefore caused by demons. End of thought. Implications for dealing with that are an exorcise for the audience.

  284. says

    Trump Hardball With China Just Trump Getting Kicked Hard In The Balls By China

    “Dude, they’re not going to call you.”

    The stock market paused its freefall on Tuesday after Art O’Deal said he was not going to “play hardball” with China, insisting that he was in contact with China “every day” and that tariffs “will come down substantially.” But, two days later, in spite of rumors that they could go down to 35 to 65 percent (which is still insane and economy-wrecking) his 145 percent tariff has still not come down. And the only “hardball” is Trump getting kicked in the balls, hard. By China!

    Within hours of Trump’s Oval Office press conference, China said it was FAKE NEWS, 假新闻, they had not been talking to Trump at all, and a spokesman re-iterated that they plan to “fight until the end.” Because guess who manufactures and prints all the cards Trump claims to be holding?

    Then today, Trump insisted that he WAS TOO talking to China, but he can’t tell you with whom, it’s a big secret!

    “Well, they had a meeting this morning, so I can’t tell you. It doesn’t matter who ‘they’ is. We may reveal it later, but they had meetings this morning, and we’ve been meeting with China.” [video at the link]

    What a state of affairs, when you can trust China’s word over the US president’s, but here we are.

    This self-started trade war hurts the US more than China. The US represents only 12 percent of China’s export market, but 16.5 percent of American imports. And Trump’s erratic, crazed bullying and YA TARIFFED, EVERYBODY is helping China find new markets and trade alliances that were unthinkable just a few months ago. […]

    Now China says it’s working on a partnership with Canada. And China, Japan and South Korea held their first joint trade talks in five years, agreeing to speed up talks on a South Korea-Japan-China free trade agreement. […] Before January, all anyone in the West could seem to talk about was China’s dismal human rights record. But now everybody’s having too much fun laughing at all the hilarious TikToks trolling Trump and worrying about all the human rights violations in the US to fret much about any of that any more!

    Oh boy, guess who’s mad that China called him a liar and won’t let itself be bullied into buying American goods at a hotel-minibar markup? [social media post at the link]

    In case you missed it, Boeing, America’s largest exporter, tried to deliver two 737 MAX 8s to China, and China said “turn around and go back from whence you came, and shove your 50 other planes […]”

    […] maybe it will make Boeing feel better to yell “default” at China, while watching Airbus and the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China get all of that plane business.

    Mean China, they’ve been abusing us so hard with all of those iPhones, XBoxes, Barbies, and cheap pairs of yoga pants. […]

    Stable Genius also pounded out that he’s mad at the Wall Street Journal, in which pollsters Mark Penn and Andrew Stein found […] only 45 percent approve of his tariff plans, and only 41 percent of his efforts to curb inflation. [social media post at the link.]

    […] The tariffs could go to zero tomorrow, or five thousand percent tomorrow, and US investment is not coming back until sometime after He Alone Can Fix It is gone. Nobody can commit to a financial plan when future costs can potentially change day-by-day based on the whimsy of a septuagenarian who bankrupted six companies! […] And he’s not the only problem, it’s also how Congress can’t be trusted anymore to stop him. Before January, the world assumed that the US economic system was so stable that one man’s delusional whims couldn’t wreck it. So much for that idea!

    Transitioning the US to a bribe-based patronage system sure doesn’t help either. […]

  285. says

    ‘A devastating blow’: Trump guts funding for U.S.’s largest health study of women, by Chris Hayes.

    As Donald Trump and Elon Musk continue to gut all kinds of key federal programs, we are once again asking: Who voted for this? This week’s example: the Women’s Health Initiative.

    The National Institutes of Health began the initiative back in 1991. The project started under the leadership of Bernadine Healy, a practicing cardiologist and legendary figure in public health. She was appointed by then-President George H.W. Bush to be the first woman to run the NIH. Healy called the initiative — the largest women’s health prevention study in the U.S. — a “moon walk” for women.

    The purpose of the long-term project was to research cancer, heart disease and osteoporosis in postmenopausal women, a group that had been historically neglected by disease prevention researchers.

    The initiative is possibly best known for its study of the potential risks of estrogen-plus-progestin hormone therapy to treat the symptoms of menopause. The Women’s Health Initiative estimates that research prevented 126,000 cases of breast cancer and 76,000 cases of heart disease over the following decade. Which, in turn, saved more than $35 billion in direct medical costs.

    The initiative produces important research to this day. For example, just last May, it released a study finding that calcium-plus-vitamin D supplements do not prevent bone fractures in menopausal women.

    But this week, the Women’s Health Initiative announced that the Trump administration is cutting its funding. Its regional research centers will close in September. The main research center’s future also remains uncertain after January of next year. The funding, in totality, amounts to a mere $10 million annually. (And $10 million is less than half of what U.S. taxpayers have reportedly spent for Trump’s golf trips in these first three months of his term.)

    JoAnn Manson, a doctor with Harvard Medical School, told Science that the cuts are a “devastating blow to the health of all older adults in the U.S. and throughout the world.” She added, “No study is a better example of the enormous scientific impact of research on the prevention of chronic disease in the population.” Chronic disease prevention — that is the point of this research. It’s not a partisan issue.

    So, the question still stands: Who voted for this? Because I sure don’t remember Trump’s campaign promise to cut breast cancer research and to make menopause harder for American women.

  286. says

    Head Start’s success undermines Trump’s narrative on waste, fraud and abuse

    “The gutting of Head Start would force vulnerable people to labor in more difficult or demeaning conditions for the benefit of the privileged.”

    Related video at the link.

    Head Start is the poster child for public spending. The 60-year-old program and its newer offshoot, Early Head Start, currently provide preschool and child care for roughly 800,000 children in low-income families. Studies find that the programs boost kids’ health and school readiness, increase their earnings in adulthood and their chances to attend college and reduce their likelihood of crime. These programs are so popular that many centers have long waitlists, and they’re so successful that Head Start’s $12 billion-a-year budget effectively pays for itself.

    So why does the White House have Head Start and Early Head Start on the chopping block? Especially given that The New York Times reports that “advocates of boosting the birthrate have been meeting with White House aides,” according to four sources.

    The “problem” with Head Start is that its success counters the administration’s narrative of “waste, fraud and abuse” in government spending and disrupts its efforts to create a highly precarious class of people to exploit. The gutting of Head Start would force vulnerable people to labor in more difficult or demeaning conditions for the benefit of big corporations, billionaires and other privileged people.

    Consider, for example, what eliminating Head Start would do to mothers. Without Head Start, hundreds of thousands of these women would likely have to settle for less-than-ideal partners, less-than-ideal child care or less-than-ideal jobs.

    Unlike other anti-poverty programs, like welfare and food stamps, Head Start recipients aren’t burdened with counterproductive work requirements. So, rather than have to take the first low-paying, entry-level jobs they can find, mothers often use their children’s enrollment in Head Start as opportunities to develop their parenting skills and get more involved in their communities. Many even go back to school themselves, gaining the knowledge and credentials they need to set themselves up for better jobs long term.

    Head Start also connects mothers with other government services, facilitating enrollment in programs like welfare, food stamps and Medicaid. This helps to ensure that families receive all the assistance for which they qualify, lessens the stigma around government support and reduces pressure on mothers to find ways to make ends meet financially or to find partners who can provide that financial support.

    To understand the consequences of eliminating Head Start, it’s useful to examine what happens under the current system to families who need but can’t access Head Start services, whether because they live far from the available Head Start centers, they get stuck on waitlists that prioritize households facing even more hardship or they make just a little bit too much money to qualify.

    Take, for example, a mom I interviewed in my research for my recent book. For privacy reasons, I’ll call her Tara. Tara, who grew up in a rural community in Indiana, got pregnant in high school in 2013. Her white, evangelical Christian family persuaded her to have the baby and marry her high school boyfriend, rather than finish her degree. Tara and her husband both found full-time jobs at a manufacturing facility, and their combined income was roughly $40,000 a year.

    That income wasn’t high enough to afford market rates for child care, but it was too high to qualify for Early Head Start. Though, even if Tara qualified, the nearest Early Head Start Center was more than 15 miles away, and in the opposite direction from work.

    Ultimately, then, Tara asked her mother to care for her daughter, paying her what money she could. That choice, though, came with its own complications, because Tara’s mom struggled with drug addiction and alcohol abuse. Those struggles eventually led to a falling-out between Tara and her mother when Tara learned that her mother had sold her dog for money for drugs. Tara decided that she could no longer trust her mom to provide child care and opted to leave the workforce and stay home full time, instead.

    That transition, plus the stress of living on one income, took a toll on Tara’s relationship with her husband. They divorced in 2019, just before Tara gave birth to their third child. The following year, though, Tara’s ex-husband lost his job at the manufacturing facility during the Covid-19 pandemic. He ended up moving back into Tara’s 500-square-foot mobile home—and, leaning heavily on her for emotional support.

    All of this has exacted a cost on Tara’s mental health. She told me that she frequently suffers from panic attacks but that she hasn’t sought treatment, because she’s worried about paying the out-of-pocket costs. Instead, she tries to find a quiet place to hide for a minute — not an easy feat in the mobile home’s tight quarters — and use breathing techniques to calm herself down so she can be patient with her ex-husband and their kids.

    Eliminating Head Start and Early Head Start risks pushing more families into this kind of precarity. And, arguably, that kind of precarity is the point. Because precarity limits people’s choices, and limited choices make people easier to exploit. Sadly, it seems this White House may be just fine with that.

  288. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Southpaw (Lawyer):

    According to [Ed Martin] the very serious US Attorney in DC, he’s collared a domestic terrorist, charged him with a misdemeanor, and released him without bond.

    Press Release: four counts of defacing public or private property […] involving multiple Tesla vehicles […] released on personal recognizance. His misdemeanor initial status hearing is scheduled […]

    “The so-called ‘Tesla Takedown’ is domestic terrorism, and my team is taking it on front and center,” said U.S. Attorney Martin […]

    “If you target Tesla and break the law, then you can expect consequences,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi.

    ‪Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “So… the ATTORNEY GENERAL of the United States took time out of her day to comment on misdemeanor vandalism of a car?”

    Rando 1:

    The misdemeanor “terrorist” is not even accused of vandalism (i.e., property damage) which is §22–303, but merely defacement, §22–312.01. The charging affidavit just says he wrote on cars with a “marker” and acknowledges that at least one victim was able to immediately simply “erase” the terrorism.

    Rando 2: “‘Misdemeanor terrorism’ is a thing now. What a time to be alive.”

    Rando 3: “[Photo: ‘Wash Me’] We’re going to need bigger gulags.”

  289. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (American Immigration Council):

    Remember this case, where a federal judge savaged the Trump administration’s “evidence” that a woman was in Tren de Aragua?

    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.

    Well, last week the Trump administration arrested her and her husband for the THIRD TIME—and now they say they’ll use the Alien Enemies Act on them!

    Every single judge to have ever reviewed the government’s evidence against this couple has dismissed it as insufficient and ordered them to be released from jail. Every one. The only criminal charges they currently face is misdemeanor unlawful entry. Yet the Trump admin keeps trying to get them.

    On X, the ICE ERO account in El Paso touted their arrest, saying they were “senior members” of Tren de Aragua […] even though when they previously presented evidence of TdA membership to a judge, it went TERRIBLY for them.

  291. birgerjohansson says

    Lawrence O’Donnell on Trump’s second term: ‘He is in his 94th consecutive day of failure’
    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=WMV48-Qoe2k

    I didn’t know Hegseth had yelled “I’ll hook you up to a fucking polygraph” to an admiral. Interesting. Time to cut down on the booze.

  293. KG says

    Lynna, OM@259 quoting the Borowitz Report,

    In a rare public statement, the Prince of Darkness said that he could not attend the funeral himself because it conflicts with a Tesla board meeting.

    Explaining his choice of Vance, Beelzebub said, “If you can’t have me, JD is the next best thing.”

    But longtime Vatican-watcher Harland Dorrinson criticized Satan’s decision to send Vance, noting, “With Trump in attendance, this seems like overkill.”

    I thought that Beelzebub is not supposed to be identical with Satan, but is instead Vance’s equivalent – the VPOD!

  295. birgerjohansson says

    John Morales:

    Which group is most whining about everything everywhere everytime? (There are some on the left, but they lack the massive media bullhorns)

    Who is complaining about not being allowed to use the N word? Complaining about the mildest criticism? Complaining about not getting to buy AKs from abroad? Complaining about goddamn Doctor Who going woke?

    Oh, it is probably some transgender Black leftie from California.

  298. John Morales says

    “Which group is most whining about everything everywhere everytime? (There are some on the left, but they lack the massive media bullhorns)”

    I don’t know to which group you refer.

    “Who is complaining about not being allowed to use the N word? Complaining about the mildest criticism? Complaining about not getting to buy AKs from abroad? Complaining about goddamn Doctor Who going woke?”

    I don’t know.

    “Oh, it is probably some transgender Black leftie from California.”

    Who?

  301. birgerjohansson says

    China apparently just ordered its major exporters to stop using US $.
    I will try to find more details, if this is confirmed it is a biggie.

  302. Reginald Selkirk says

    Trump Takes Aim at Democrats’ Online Fundraising Platforms

    President Trump has decided to target the online fundraising websites that power a majority of Democrats’ political campaigns. In an executive order on Thursday, the Trump administration initiated a plan to investigate ActBlue, the Democratic Party’s primary grassroots fundraising tool.

    The executive order, which was published on the White House website on Thursday, claims that “foreign nationals” could be using fundraising sites like ActBlue to make contributions to American elections. The order authorizes the new Attorney General, Pam Bondi, and the Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessant, to probe such sites for evidence of malfeasance. It states:…

  303. rorschach says

    “China apparently just ordered its major exporters to stop using US $.”

    Carl Quintanilla from CNBC just posted “He said, Xi said”.

  304. rorschach says

    Also, Trump said he made deals with 200 countries which will come into effect in the next 3-4 weeks.

    There are 195 countries in the world.

  307. Reginald Selkirk says

    Katty Kay: Joe Manchin has a tough message for Democrats on Trump

    Three months into Donald Trump’s second term, Democrats are struggling with how to counter the White House juggernaut.

    Some are trying to revive the 2016 resistance. Some suggest “playing dead” in the hope that Trump flames out.

    But former Democratic Senator Joe Manchin suggests a very different way, one many Democrats may find unpalatable – work with the president.

    In a recent interview, one of the few he’s given since leaving Congress in January, he told me:

    “[Trump] is the leader of our country. Why would you not work with him? Just because he’s a different party? Didn’t vote for him? That’s not a reason.”

    No, Joe, those aren’t the reasons.
    What would you work with him on? Deporting non-citizens and citizens? Destroying the economy? Eviscerating the constitution and the rule of law?
    The reasons you wouldn’t work with him are that 1) Everything he is trying to do is bad, and probably illegal, and 2) By treating him as a normal president you would be helping to normalize fascism.

    Let’s be clear, Joe: fascism is bad..

  308. Reginald Selkirk says

    TikTok astrologer arrested for predicting new Myanmar quake

    Myanmar authorities have arrested an astrologer for causing panic by predicting a new earthquake in a viral TikTok video.

    John Moe The posted his prediction on 9 April, just two weeks after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake killed 3,500 people and destroyed centuries-old temples in the South East Asian nation.

    He was arrested Tuesday for making “false statements with the intention of causing public panic”, Myanmar’s information ministry said.

    John Moe The had warned that an earthquake would “hit every city in Myanmar” on 21 April. But experts say earthquakes are impossible to predict due to the complexity of the factors involved in such disasters…

    His now-defunct TikTok account, which has more than 300,000 followers, claims to make predictions based on astrology and palmistry…

  309. Reginald Selkirk says

    California passes Japan as fourth largest economy

    California’s economy has overtaken that of the country of Japan, making the US state the fourth largest global economic force.

    Governor Gavin Newsom touted new data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the US Bureau of Economic Analysis showing California’s growth.

    The data shows California’s gross domestic product (GDP) hit $4.10 trillion (£3.08 trillion) in 2024, surpassing Japan, which was marked at $4.01 trillion. The state now only trails Germany, China and the US as a whole…

    It seems to me unlikely that California will ever overtake the ‘US as a whole.’

  311. rorschach says

    “Could this molecule be ‘checkmate’ for coronaviruses like SARS-CoV-2?”

    No. And not because it’s not possible that it might. But because capitalism won’t allow it. I’ve used a caragellose nasal spray for 5 years and never had Covid, these things exist. Cuba has had a nasal vaccine for Covid for 3 years. Other countries have the technique to produce an immunising mucosal vaccine, and here we are in 2025 and there still isn’t one available. I can only conclude that western governments don’t want one.

  313. JM says

    ISW: Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, April 24, 2025

    Ukrainian forces recently advanced near Toretsk. Russian forces recently advanced in Belgorod and Sumy oblasts and near Toretsk.

    What is happening politically is more important then what is happening on the ground. Russia is trying to start up their summer offense but are not making any real progress, they are grinding out little chunks of land at great expense. Ukraine is carefully making little advances where it is advantageous to do so. That Ukraine continues to make these little advances is probably the most important thing going on.

    The official Kremlin spokesperson and the Russian Security Council secretary repeated a series of long-standing Russian demands that purposely preclude the establishment of a stable and enduring peace in Ukraine and set conditions for future Russian aggression from an advantaged position.

    Russia continues to make demands that would just setup the next war. They are doing this because Trump is more interested in ending the current round of fighting then sustainable peace.

    A Russian military court sentenced former 58th Combined Arms Army (CAA) Commander Major General Ivan Popov to imprisonment, likely as part of an ongoing Kremlin effort to punish Russian military commanders who weaponized the information space to advance their political goals that undermine Putin’s power vertical.

    The translation here is that Popov was becoming popular so had to be removed. Popular enough that it was considered risky to send him to Ukraine, he had to be stripped of rank and power and shipped off to some prison where he can be kept out of public. The Russian MOD actually said they didn’t send him to Ukraine due to “lack of vacancies”, something laughable even in Russia.

  315. JM says

    Axios: Mahmoud Khalil was arrested without a warrant, DHS lawyers say

    The big picture: Khalil, a leader of Columbia’s pro-Palestinian protests, is a legal U.S. resident who has been in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since last month. His arrest sparked outcry across the U.S.
    Zoom in: Government lawyers argue in the filing that DHS was not required to obtain a judicial arrest warrant before taking Khalil, a U.S. green card holder from Syria, into custody on March 8.
    The “officers had exigent circumstances to conduct the warrantless arrest, it is the pattern and practice of DHS to fully process a respondent once in custody,” wrote the lawyers in the document that was originally filed in immigration court Wednesday and submitted to federal court Thursday
    They argued agents had reasons to believe Khalil “would escape before they could obtain a warrant” when they approached him inside the foyer of his apartment building.

    This contradicts what Khalil was told, what was on his arrest report and what was initial told to the judge. This is the DOJ fudging up something afterwards that isn’t obviously wrong and illegal. It’s still wrong and illegal but not obviously, it’s complex enough and gets into the weeds of the law enough that they can argue about it for a while.

  316. JM says

    Euromaidan: Son of senior CIA official died fighting for Russian forces in Ukraine

    Michael Gloss, the 21-year-old son of a CIA deputy director, was killed in April 2024 while fighting for Russia in Ukraine after signing a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry, Russian investigative outlet “Important Stories” (Vazhnye Istorii) reported on 25 April.
    Gloss was the son of Juliane Gallina Gloss, who serves as CIA Deputy Director for Digital Innovation, and Larry Gloss, a US Navy veteran who participated in Operation Desert Storm. According to documents reviewed by the publication, Michael signed a contract with the Russian military in September 2023.

    Volunteered for a Russian force made of of non-Russians looking to get a Russian citizenship after service. Oddly they threw him into the front instead of sitting him in a desk job, mining him for information and political leverage. The Russians may not have realized who he was beyond being American.
    I’m sure there is an interesting and sad story of a messed up family and/or insanity there. I’m not sure I want to hear it, way to much depressing news as it is.

  317. birgerjohansson says

    Animarchy History: 

    “Ukraine: Three Years Later –  A Strategic Overview of the Peace Talks”
    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=tvuKvAsGmEo
    I am posting this entry to get an overview even if this entry is a month old. We now know Trump is taking his ball and going home, while western Europe finally is comitted to push back against Russia regardless of what Trump does.

  319. birgerjohansson says

    JM @ 316
    “Oddly they threw him into the front instead of sitting him in a desk job, mining him for information and political leverage.”
    This is hardly the greatest display of incompetence Russia has provided since Putin took over. Tyranny hobbled by stupidity and corruption.

  320. says

    NBC News, summarized by Steve Benen:

    While the Constitution prohibits Donald Trump from even trying to seek a third term, the Trump Organization has begun selling merchandise — including familiar red caps — featuring the words “Trump 2028” in white.

  321. says

    Musk’s actually costing Americans billions while touting fake savings

    The ineptitude of Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency is set to cost taxpayers billions of dollars in the next fiscal year, according to an analysis published on Friday.

    The nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit studying the government’s workforce, estimates that DOGE’s actions will cost at least $135 billion. That cost may erase the purported savings touted by the group, which was authorized by President Donald Trump as part of an effort to theoretically cut government waste, fraud, and abuse.

    DOGE is costing taxpayers so much because of the haphazard directives issued by Musk and Trump. Agencies have been told to fire civil service employees, only to have federal judges rule that DOGE overstepped its authority—and then those employees have to be rehired. PPS said this process, along with paid leave costs and lost productivity, will lead to billions in wasted tax dollars.

    [I snipped examples]

    “Not only is Musk vastly overinflating the money he has saved, he is not accounting for the exponentially larger waste that he is creating,” Max Stier, chief executive of PPS, told The New York Times.

    […] the toxic legacy of DOGE is already being cemented, and Musk and Trump are forever linked to an estimated multibillion-dollar mistake.

  322. says

    […] Last week, with no notice or fanfare, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum signed over his agency to the so-called Department of Government Efficiency—the latest step in DOGE’s takeover of the federal government.

    Burgum is probably best known for his lackluster presidential bid that involved literally bribing people with gift cards so he could qualify for the first GOP primary debate. After that flamed out, he became a big supporter of Donald Trump’s and was ostensibly on the shortlist for vice president. […]

    Instead, Burgum settled for the Department of the Interior, which was supposedly a good fit because he’s outdoorsy. He’s also stupendously rich, which also seems to be a qualification for Trump’s inner circle. But Burgum wasn’t really all that interested in leading the department, given that he just handed over the reins to DOGE staffer Tyler Hassen.

    Hassen is now able to issue policy directives, make funding decisions, and transfer funds. He’s also in charge of the “consolidation” of technology, communications, financial management, contracting, and human resources—thinly veiled code for “trash the divisions and fire everyone.” Hassan is also reviewing every grant over $50,000 with fellow DOGE denizen Matt Luby, who requested access to the department’s grant system.

    […] Hassen has no government background, but he does have a long career as an oil executive. Under Trump, the Department of the Interior is shifting from protecting the environment to giving away public lands to oil and gas companies for drilling. And for that, Hassen is perfect.

    […] Hassen was never confirmed by the Senate, but now he’s in charge of a federal agency while still working for DOGE, which isn’t an official government entity. It’s the very definition of an unelected, unaccountable bureaucrat.

    […] Burgum has been unusually deferential to DOGE, even by the standards of an administration that has routinely bent the knee.

    In February, Burgum appeared on Fox News, gushing that his agency was “completely embracing the DOGE effort. Part of what DOGE is bringing is awareness to the public, to the people that are in our country.”

    Well, that’s true. But probably not in the way Burgum meant it.

    […] When former U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy happily announced an alliance with DOGE, 10,000 jobs were cut. Over at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth praised DOGE for finding “waste,” which resulted in axing $580 million of contracts, programs, and grants. And NASA jumped to fire people and shutter three divisions simply because DOGE said so.

    […] It’s a shadow presidency that no longer really requires Musk. And it’s a shadow presidency that utterly obscures the workings of government.

    Whatever this is, it’s definitely not accountability.

    Link

  323. Reginald Selkirk says

    This Novel Substance Might One Day Block Severe Inflammatory Reactions Like IBS and Asthma

    …
    As detailed in a study published Monday in the journal Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, researchers have developed a compound that blocks mast cells from triggering particularly hard-to-treat and sometimes life-threatening reactions. These include irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), asthma, chronic itching, and migraines. Traditionally considered pseudo-allergic reactions, these conditions have more recently been classified as a type of allergy, according to the researchers. The compound seems to greatly reduce symptoms, and as a consequence, lower fatality risk…

    Unlike some allergic reactions, in which immune cells called antibodies alert mast cells to the presence of invaders, these hard-to-treat conditions occur when mast cells are triggered through direct activation not involving antibodies. This triggers reactions “of a specific nature that have been difficult to treat, and remain so to this day,” Müller explained.

    15 years ago, Müller and colleagues identified a receptor named MRGPRX2 in the mast cells’ membrane that “switches on” these sorts of reactions when certain molecules attach to it. “To prevent this reaction, the switch would have to be blocked somehow,” Müller continued. “The question was: how?” …

    In this way, the team discovered a molecule that can attach to the receptor and block it, effectively switching it off…

    They used that molecule to develop a substance that still works in very low doses, and proved its efficacy at eliminating life-threatening allergic reactions in lab mice and blocking the MRGPRX2 receptor on isolated human mast cells. They also claimed the molecule only blocks the intended receptor, which avoids the risk of side effects.

    While Al Hamwi, Müller, and their colleagues have since improved the substance’s efficacy and duration, more animal and eventually human trials will have to take place before it can be approved and commercialized as a drug…

  327. says

    Trump has expectations about what quality journalism looks like. It seems to involve asking him how awesome his awesomeness is.

    Nearly 35 years ago, there was an episode of “The Simpsons” in which Mr. Burns decides to run for governor, and his campaign team arranges for a staged interaction at the Simpsons’ family home. As part of the photo-op, Lisa Simpson is told to ask her father’s boss, “Mr. Burns, your campaign seems to have the momentum of a runaway freight train. Why are you so popular?”

    When she does as instructed, Mr. Burns responds, “Ooh, a tough question, but a fair one.”

    The episode has come to mind a lot lately, including a handful of times this week. Mediaite noted:

    […] Trump expressed approval Thursday after a reporter asked Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store whether Trump should be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.

    The Norwegian leader didn’t answer the question directly, though Trump took a moment to say, “Thank you very much for that question. I like that question.”

    […] Trump has made no effort to hide his hysterical contempt for media professionals, having referred to journalists as “the enemy of the people,” media outlets as “evil” and reporters as “scum.”

    […] as Trump-aligned conservatives have started populating press pools alongside actual journalists, the president has started to hear the kinds of questions that make him happy.

    This started just a few days after Inauguration Day, when Trump held a brief Q&A with the press, and one conservative actually asked, out loud and in apparent seriousness, “You’re putting the American people first. Your thoughts on that?” The president was delighted.

    “I like that question. Boy, I want more questions like that,” Trump said, adding that the person who asked the question is “a very professional reporter, I have to say.” [JFC]

    [I snipped some more examples.]

    Soon after, a different conservative asked the president to explain why his administration is so “effective” at apprehending “violent illegal migrants.” Trump responded, “I love this guy. I wish more people would ask questions like that.”

    […] That Trump approves of sycophants might seem inherently uninteresting, but the pattern stands out because of what it tells us about the president’s twisted perspective when it comes to the free press.

    In Trump’s mind, journalists — good journalists, with the highest professional standards — ask “questions” that allow him to reflect on how impressed he is with himself. […]

    Meanwhile, reporters from independent news organizations, who fail to shower him with affection are “fake,” “nasty,” “threats to democracy” and “enemies of the state.”

    He has certain expectations about what quality journalism looks like, and it involves asking him how awesome his awesomeness is. […] as far as this president is apparently concerned, there should be no meaningful line between reporters covering the White House and the talking points issued by the White House press office.

    In other words, Trump celebrating far-right figures who present themselves as White House correspondents isn’t funny; it’s additional evidence of his authoritarian instincts.

  328. says

    The Purges

    – Gov’t-wide: President Trump signed an executive order Thursday making it easier to fire probationary government employees.
    – VA: The Veterans Affairs Department is forcing staff in workforce reduction discussions to sign non-disclosure agreements.
    – SSA: Acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek is moving to convert the status of many of his agencies employees to the new Schedule F.

    […] Pete Hegseth Watch

    – WSJ: Polygraph Threats, Leaks and Infighting: The Chaos Inside Hegseth’s Pentagon
    – AP: Hegseth had an unsecured internet line set up in his office to connect to Signal
    – NYT: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s personal phone number, the one used in a recent Signal chat, was easily accessible on the internet and public apps as recently as March, potentially exposing national security secrets to foreign adversaries.”

    Link. The link leads to a roundup of various news reports.

  329. says

    Fox News released a new poll on Wednesday that shows that President Donald Trump’s approval rating has fallen to a new low, with only 44% approving and 55% disapproving. But apparently the right-ring network doesn’t want its viewers to know the bad news.

    Compared to other presidents in the same poll, Trump’s numbers are anemic. At this point in their presidencies, Joe Biden had 54% approval, Barack Obama had 62%, and George W. Bush had 63%.

    But during Thursday morning’s broadcast of “Fox & Friends,” which has often been described as Trump’s favorite show on the network, the bad news was hidden.

    The broadcast highlighted Trump’s approval on the issue of border security—one of the few areas where he’s doing well—instead of showing the audience Trump’s overwhelmingly weak support elsewhere. […]

    Link.

    See also the Rachel Maddow segment that covers polling in more depth. Link in comment 314.

  330. says

    Federal authorities arrest Wisconsin judge over immigration battle

    Federal authorities have arrested a Wisconsin-based judge amid an investigation into whether she tried to help a migrant lacking permanent legal status avoid arrest after he appeared in her courtroom.

    Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested Friday on charges connected to obstructing a proceeding and concealing an individual to prevent their arrest.

    “I can confirm that our @FBI agents just arrested Hannah Dugan – a county judge in Milwaukee – for allegedly helping an illegal alien avoid an arrest by @ICEgov,” Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote. “No one is above the law.” [Laughable]

    Dugan’s arrest marks an aggressive move by the administration on immigration enforcement and a major escalation in its battles with the courts, which have issued decisions pushing back on some of the administration’s actions.

    […] “We believe Judge Dugan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse, Eduardo Flores Ruiz, allowing the subject — an illegal alien — to evade arrest.”

    [Kash] Patel added Flores Ruiz was later “chased down … on foot” and is also in custody.

    Dugan has already been released and is set to have an arraignment hearing May 15. […]

  331. says

    China cancels 12,000 metric tons of US pork shipments

    […] The move represents the biggest cancellation of pork orders since the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted supply chains and stalled economies around the world, Bloomberg News reported.

    China, behind Mexico and Japan, was the U.S.’s third-biggest market for pork in 2024, importing some 475,000 metric tons valued at more than $1.1 billion.

    China is the world’s biggest producer of pork, accounting for nearly 50 percent of global supply at around 57 million metric tons, according to the USDA. The U.S. was ranked third at 11 percent with 12 million metric tons.

    […] After the tariff hikes, China inked two agricultural trade agreements with Spain, for pork and cherries, as Beijing looks to strengthen relations with European countries, Reuters reported.

    U.S. pork imports are now facing a 172 percent tariff, the U.S. Meat Export Federation said, according to Bloomberg News.

  332. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/tulsi-gabbard-found-some-deep-state

    “Tulsi Gabbard Found Some Deep State Criminals, It Is ‘All The Intelligence Agencies’ ”

    “Managing by the dictum of ‘tell me what I want to hear or I’ll arrest you.’ ”

    Tulsi Gabbard, […] Director of National Intelligence, has a problem. Her boss, Donald Trump, needs a legal justification for rounding up undocumented Venezuelan immigrants and sending them to an El Salvadoran gulag so that America can inch closer towards being the white nation he and the neo-Confederates in his administration want it to be.

    One solution the Trump team hit on is to claim that many Venezuelans are members of the criminal gang Tren de Aragua, declare that the gang is “invading” America, and then invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to justify loading as many shackled, brown-skinned men as they can fit onto planes and flying them out of the country.

    But you can’t just say a group is “invading” the country because lots of its members have migrated here through both legal and illegal means. If that were the case, what’s stopping you from declaring that the US has been invaded by British au pairs […]

    But if you claim that TdA has created a national security emergency because it is secretly working with the Venezuelan government to destabilize America by adding to the burden of angry white people who hate having to press 1 for English, then you can designate the gang as a foreign terrorist organization, and voila! No due process, no court hearings, no legal rights. It’s just instant imprisonment in a foreign labor camp for the alleged invasion force.

    The problem for Gabbard is that 17 of America’s 18 intelligence agencies, which she oversees, have concluded that TdA is not being directed by the Venezuelan government. That kills the entire Trump administration rationale for its actions.

    The solution? Claim that all the intelligence agencies are liars who have been infiltrated by “deep state” agents determined to sabotage Trump’s presidency and undermine democracy. Then, unilaterally overrule the agencies’ conclusions so Trump won’t get mad at you. [aarrgghh]

    Sounds foolproof! Or galactically stupid. Either way, it’s what Gabbard is going with: [social media post at the link]

    Since this all came to light a week ago, the DNI’s office has apparently done the fastest mole hunt in the history of mole hunts. On Thursday, Gabbard announced she has referred the leakers, whom she called “deep state criminals,” to the Department of Justice for possible prosecution.

    […] If this all sounds familiar, it’s because America faced such a situation with high-stakes consequences in very recent memory.

    Cast your minds back to the early days of the War on Terror, when the Bush administration was desperate to prove that Iraq under Saddam Hussein had massive stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. Who can forget all the talk about a secret nuclear weapons program, or biological warfare labs and artillery shells full of nerve gas? Who can forget Condi Rice trying to scare the shit out of everyone in America with her “We don’t want the smoking gun to be in the shape of a mushroom cloud” drivel?

    This was all supposed to justify invading and occupying Iraq. The only problem was that America’s intelligence apparatus kept reporting that it was all bullshit. There were no biolabs. There was no yellowcake uranium, no briefcase nukes that could be smuggled into midtown Manhattan […]

    This was no problem for the likes of Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Cheney ordered the CIA to “stovepipe” raw intelligence up to his office. That way, he could present unvetted information to the president and the public as being somehow legit.

    Meanwhile, Rumsfeld set up in the Pentagon the Office of Special Plans, headed by a man named Douglas Feith whom one of the military’s top generals called “the dumbest fucking guy on the planet.” The OSP was tasked with a similar job as the CIA, namely, stovepiping raw intelligence up the chain of command to make the case for invading Iraq.

    We’re sure we do not need to remind any of our faithful readers how all this worked out for the world.

    That was 2002 and 2003. In 2025, the government isn’t even bothering to try and get raw intelligence out ahead of the vetted stuff. Now it’s just flat out repeating conspiratorial horse-hockey about Deep State actors and the public enemy that is the left-wing media and treasonous efforts to undermine our God-King Donald Trump.

    The Post reports that Democrats in Congress have been trying to get Gabbard to fess up, but she keeps lying right to their faces:

    Castro asked Gabbard at an Intelligence Committee hearing in late March whether U.S. spy agencies assessed that the Maduro government is directing “any hostile actions against the United States.”

    “There are varied assessments that came from different intelligence community elements,” Gabbard replied. She did not disclose that almost all U.S. intelligence agencies, with the exception of the FBI, did not see evidence of such links.

    Meanwhile, a Venezuela expert at a think tank called the idea that Venezuela’s government is sending Tda to “infiltrate” the United States “ludicrous.” [Yep. It is ludicrous.]

    […] We’re trying to imagine how the experts in the nation’s intelligence community must feel to have their work product ignored and even publicly diminished by the Russian asset that oversees your agencies. We’re guessing it sucks.

    […] Tulsi Gabbard is there to make sure all the spies get with the program, and send them to prison when they don’t.

  333. says

    […] Trump said in a new interview that he was joking when he promised to end the Russia-Ukraine war in the first 24 hours of his second term.

    Trump also said Chinese President Xi Jinping has called him about tariffs, and he addressed the Supreme Court’s order that his administration work to facilitate the release of Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia from an El Salvador prison.

    Those were just some of the areas the president touched upon in a wide-ranging interview with Time magazine to mark his first 100 days in office […]

    Trump also told Time that he doesn’t think Ukraine will ever be able to join NATO and that its government’s aspirations to join the alliance provoked Russia. “That’s, I think, what caused the war to start was when they started talking about joining NATO. If that weren’t brought up, there would have been a much better chance that it wouldn’t have started.” [Trump is still taking the time to betray Ukraine on a daily basis.]

    […] Trump said in the interview that China’s Xi called him about tariffs, though he didn’t provide any details about when their conversation took place. NBC News has reached out to the White House for comment.

    “He’s called,” Trump said, “And I don’t think that’s a sign of weakness on his behalf.”

    Asked what Xi said to him, Trump said, “We all want to make deals. But I am this giant store. It’s a giant, beautiful store, and everybody wants to go shopping there. And on behalf of the American people, I own the store, and I set prices, and I’ll say, if you want to shop here, this is what you have to pay.”

    […] Trump claimed in the Time interview that he has “made 200 deals” when it comes to tariffs, but there’s no evidence that any agreement has been presented so far. His goal has been to broker trade agreements with 75 countries in less than 90 days.

    Asked to clarify his comment that he has made 200 deals, Trump said, “100%.” The president was then asked to share with whom these deals have been made and gave a long answer about his tariff plans without naming any country.

    Trump said that the deals would be announced “over the next three to four weeks, and we’re finished, by the way.”

    […] Trump said he hasn’t asked El Salvador President Nayib Bukele to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. “I haven’t been asked to ask him by my attorneys. Nobody asked me to ask him that question, except you,” Trump said to Time.

    The White House has said that Abrego Garcia will “never” come back to the U.S., and officials have maintained that he is a member of the MS-13 gang, which his lawyers and family have denied.

    Asked if he’s violating his oath by not obeying a Supreme Court order, Trump said, “I’m not defying the Supreme Court. I never defy the Supreme Court. I wouldn’t do that. […]

    Link

  334. says

    WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In the latest embarrassment to rock the Trump administration, Pete Hegseth admitted on Friday that he accidentally texted Houthi rebels a detailed list of the makeup products he uses before appearing on television.

    The embattled defense secretary said that he had mistakenly sent the Houthis a cosmetics order intended for Sephora.

    A spokesman for the Houthis thanked Hegseth for continuing to share his personal information with them, adding that his NFL draft predictions helped them win thousands of dollars Thursday night on FanDuel.

    Link

  335. Reginald Selkirk says

    Silicon Valley billionaires literally want the impossible

    Ars chats with physicist and science journalist Adam Becker about his new book, More Everything Forever.
    …
    Ars Technica: The title of your book is More Everything Forever. Speaking as a physicist, is there such a thing?

    Adam Becker: No, of course not. The one thing we know that’s absolutely always true about exponential growth is that it ends. If something is growing exponentially, you can just say, “Oh, well, that’s not going to last.”
    …
    Ars Technica: One doesn’t usually think of this community as being anti-science. Yet in your book you argue that these futuristic visions aren’t based on sound science at all, which seems paradoxical.

    Adam Becker: They actually have a great contempt for expertise. They don’t see it as necessary because they think that they’re the smartest people who’ve ever lived, because they’re the wealthiest people who’ve ever lived. If they were wrong about anything, then why would they have been so financially successful? This is also where you get the obsession with things like prediction markets. They believe that there are super predictors, that expertise is not necessary to understand or predict what’s going to happen in the world, and that they themselves must be experts because they have enormous amounts of money.
    …
    Adam Becker: Kurzweil tries to get around this by saying that you’re not going to be immortal, but you can live as long as you want to. Sure, that gets around some of it. But Kurzweil also thinks that we’re going to find a way around the second law of thermodynamics, which we’re not.
    …

  336. birgerjohansson says

    Lynna @ 334
    The problem with the Borowitz report is, it is too plausible. Eventually, some journalist will pass it on as real news.
    .
    “13 Bizarre 70s Movies You Won’t Believe Actually Exist (Ep-4)”

    ‘Pink Angels’ (1971) -a gang of gay bikers on the way to a drag queen contest fights racists and cops.
    ‘Thousand Masks’ -a group of Mexican luchadors take on midget vampires.
    Also, undead blind knights that hunt by sound.
    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=hBWyhglSVAU

  337. birgerjohansson says

    OK. This is cringeworthy. DJT clearly makes up stuff as he goes along, and it is not even marginally believable things.

    Meidas Touch:
    “Trump has Major Cognitive Issues in Friday Disaster.”
    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=7AOSxqOZRdE

    (And myself, I totally have a girlfriend…in Canada, that is why you have never seen her)

  339. whheydt says

    Re: birgerjohansson @ #338…
    There aren’t. I believe the current count is 195.

  340. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Re: Lyna @332:

    what’s stopping you from declaring that the US has been invaded by British

    I fell down a British Invasion Beatles rabbit hole. =)

    Wikipedia – John Lennon

    Lennon was sympathetic to the International Marxist Group […] the FBI considered Lennon to have limited effectiveness as a revolutionary, as he was “constantly under the influence of narcotics”.
    […]
    Following the impact of “Give Peace a Chance” and “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” on the anti-war movement, the Nixon administration heard rumours of Lennon’s involvement in a concert to be held in San Diego at the same time as the 1972 Republican National Convention and tried to have him deported. Nixon believed that Lennon’s anti-war activities could cost him his reelection […] [INS] began deportation proceedings, arguing that his 1968 misdemeanour conviction for cannabis possession in London had made him ineligible for admission to the United States. Lennon spent the next 3+1⁄2 years in and out of deportation hearings until 8 October 1975, when a court of appeals barred the deportation attempt, stating “the courts will not condone selective deportation based upon secret political grounds”

    NPR – Lennon’s FBI Files

    In 1971, shortly after Lennon went to New York on a visa and met up with radical anti-war activists, the FBI put Lennon under surveillance
    […]
    the ’72 election was going to be the first in which 18-year olds had the right to vote. Before that, you had to be 21. [Nixon’s plan was to] deport Lennon so he won’t be able to take this tour that would register young voters.
    […]
    for much of 1972 and ’73, Lennon was under an order to leave the country within 60 days. He […] kept getting these deadlines extended. […] it wasnt until after Watergate […] that the Gerald Ford administration […] agreed to grant Lennon his green card on very narrow legal grounds. So for two years he was under a 60 day order to leave the country, almost continuously.
    […]
    documents make the FBI look more like the Keystone Cops than the Gestapo. […] J. Edgar Hoover sends out instructions to locate Lennon as quickly as possible [but gives the wrong address, for a famous building, that Lennon wasn’t at]. The FBI proposed that “Lennon should be arrested, if at all possible, on possession of narcotics charges […] which would make him more immediately deportable.” And these instructions to local police officials include a wanted poster. […] You’d think that they wouldn’t really need this. […] But the strangest thing is the picture isn’t of John Lennon. It’s of another guy.
    […]
    the Immigration Service and the FBI […] succeeded in pressuring Lennon to cancel his plans for this national concert tour and to withdraw from anti-war activity.
    […]
    it’s a little hard to believe today [in 2010] that a president would fear the power of a rock star. […] maybe the whole thing was just paranoia on the part of Nixon matched by paranoia on the part of Lennon and his friends.

    /Double checks that Taylor Swift is American.

  341. birgerjohansson says

    Whheydt @ 339
    Thank you.
    .
    I am sensing a theme for what DJT is saying / writing recently.

    Farron Balanced:
    “Very Confused Trump Shows Off His Dementia In Bizarre Truth Social Rant”
    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=PzbXv7NubcM
    If I confuse “I am suing them” and “they are suing me”, would that be considered normal in a political context?

  343. Reginald Selkirk says

    Democrat is nearly boo’ed out of hour-long town hall as voters bash her for supporting SAVE voting rights act

    A Washington state Democrat came under fire during a town hall after backing a bill that would require voters to prove their citizenship when casting a ballot.

    On Thursday, U.S. Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez walked into a town hall attended by hundreds of her constituents in Vancouver (Washington, USA) and was met with resounding boos.

    Voters were upset she’d voted for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act and other pieces of legislation.

    The second-term congresswoman struggled to speak over the disturbances during the hour-long event, according to KOIN 6.

    Attendees told the outlet they wanted their representative to know they were outraged, even though Gluesenkamp Perez had told them the bill wouldn’t pass in the Senate…

  344. Reginald Selkirk says

    Trump pardons Nevada politician who paid for cosmetic surgery with funds to honor a slain officer

    President Donald Trump has pardoned a Nevada Republican politician who was awaiting sentencing on federal charges that she used money meant for a statue honoring a slain police officer for personal costs, including plastic surgery.

    Michele Fiore, a former Las Vegas city councilwoman and state lawmaker who ran unsuccessfully in 2022 for state treasurer, was found guilty in October of six counts of federal wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She was out of custody ahead of her sentencing, which had been scheduled for next month…

  345. Reginald Selkirk says

    @344
    State could charge ex-Las Vegas city leader for her crimes, according to legal expert

    Michele Fiore, the disgraced politician once convicted of scheming to capitalize on a community tragedy and now pardoned by the President of the United States, could face state charges for fraud or election finance crimes, according to a legal expert interviewed by the 8 News Now Investigators…

    On June 8, 2014, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers Alyn Beck and Igor Soldo were gunned down while they were on their lunch break in northeast Las Vegas. Fiore claimed to raise money for statues for the fallen officers, and some of the high-profile citizens from whom she collected donations were Local 872 union boss Tommy White and Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, both of whom testified at trial…

    But whether Ford or Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson decide to charge Fiore for state crimes may depend on the statute of limitations for her crimes – which federal prosecutors say occurred in 2019-2020.

    There is, however, no shield from double jeopardy, which is Fiore’s right against being tried in different courts for the same crime.

    “The state and the federal government are different sovereigns,” Benjamin Edwards, a professor at UNLV’s William S. Boyd School of Law, told the 8 News Now Investigators. “It’s not double jeopardy if the state prosecutes you for the same crime.”

    Edwards continued: “She [Fiore] still has exposure here. The underlying conduct that led to this conviction is still available if the state wants to go after her for it.” …

  347. Reginald Selkirk says

    Mike Lindell’s lawyers used AI to write brief—judge finds nearly 30 mistakes

    A lawyer representing MyPillow and its CEO Mike Lindell in a defamation case admitted using artificial intelligence in a brief that has nearly 30 defective citations, including misquotes and citations to fictional cases, a federal judge said.

    “[T]he Court identified nearly thirty defective citations in the Opposition. These defects include but are not limited to misquotes of cited cases; misrepresentations of principles of law associated with cited cases, including discussions of legal principles that simply do not appear within such decisions; misstatements regarding whether case law originated from a binding authority such as the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit; misattributions of case law to this District; and most egregiously, citation of cases that do not exist,” US District Judge Nina Wang wrote in an order to show cause Wednesday.

    Wang ordered attorneys Christopher Kachouroff and Jennifer DeMaster to show cause as to why the court should not sanction the defendants, law firm, and individual attorneys. Kachouroff and DeMaster also have to explain why they should not be referred to disciplinary proceedings for violations of the rules of professional conduct.

    Kachouroff and DeMaster, who are defending Lindell against a lawsuit filed by former Dominion Voting Systems employee Eric Coomer, both signed the February 25 brief with the defective citations. Kachouroff, representing defendants as lead counsel, admitted using AI to write the brief at an April 21 hearing, the judge wrote. The case is in the US District Court for the District of Colorado…

  348. says

    Text quoted by Reginald @335:

    They actually have a great contempt for expertise. They don’t see it as necessary because they think that they’re the smartest people who’ve ever lived, because they’re the wealthiest people who’ve ever lived.

    Well put. Good point.

  349. says

    US News:

    A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the administration of President Donald Trump from stripping hundreds of thousands of federal employees of the ability to unionize and collectively bargain over working conditions. U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman in Washington, D.C., blocked a March executive order by Trump from being implemented pending the outcome of a lawsuit by the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents about 160,000 federal employees.

  350. says

    NPR:

    The Trump administration is restoring financial support for a landmark study of women’s health, an official said Thursday, reversing a defunding decision that shocked medical researchers.

    New York Times:

    Federal health officials have reversed the decision to fire a few dozen scientists at the Food and Drug Administration’s food-safety labs, and say they are conducting a review to determine if other critical posts were cut.

    Associated Press:

    Nineteen states that refused to comply with a Trump administration directive aimed at eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs in public schools went a step further Friday, filing a federal lawsuit challenging what they consider an illegal threat to cut federal funding.

  351. says

    Washington Post:

    President Donald Trump on Thursday destabilized a global effort to limit mining in the deep sea, signing an executive order that could eventually open up international waters to excavation firms that the United States unilaterally deems worthy.

  352. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/nice-time-dhs-backs-down-says-it

    “Nice Time: DHS Backs Down, Says It Will Restore International Students’ Records After All”

    Hey, the federal government just did a 180, and announced in court that it’s going to quit going around deleting students’ visa registrations! Until Immigration and Customs Enforcement comes up with a new policy that will “provide a framework for status record termination,” anyway. But in the meantime, one more setback for Trump’s mass-deportation machine.

    Starting sometime in March, the State Department under son-of-immigrants Marco Rubio has been mass-deleting visa registrations of more than 4,700 foreign students with F-1 visas at more than 250 universities and colleges, and setting the students’ status to “inactive” in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, a web database used by ICE’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) to track nonimmigrant students and visitors. Without an active status, students can’t enroll in school and access university housing and so on, they become a digital persona non grata.

    Simply marking someone “inactive” in the system is not the same thing as revoking their permission to be here, or a judge telling someone to leave. Visas allow someone to enter the country, but a student can continue to stay in the US with a lawful status, even after their visa expires. Or at least that’s how it’s supposed to be. Even ICE’s own web page advises students, “You can stay in the United States on an expired F-1 visa as long as you maintain your student status.”

    Nevertheless, some of those students with revoked visas got letters demanding that they leave the country anyway, with threats to deport them to countries other than their countries of origin if they didn’t leave on their own. Like perhaps a Central American country with a good supermax prison. Other students or their colleges were not notified of a status change at all, and only found out after they or their schools checked their status online.

    Some students seemed to have been flagged for removal in the system for minor infractions like a speeding ticket or fishing without a license. And about 1,400 students have also had their visas revoked on top of having their status changed to “inactive,” some for WRONGTHINK reasons, such as allegedly attending demonstrations or publicly expressing support for Palestinians, though again, also some for no apparent reason at all. Authoritarians love arbitrariness, really keeps everybody on their toes!

    The whole shitshow situation created a mess that one judge called “Schrödinger’s visa,” with students here both legally and not. This led to courtroom exchanges like the one reported by Baniaslaw on Xitter: [social media post at the link]

    THE COURT: Do you realize that this is Kafkaesque? I’ve got two experienced immigration lawyers on behalf of a client who is months away from graduation, who has done nothing wrong, who has been terminated from a system that you all keep telling me has no effect on his immigration status, although that clearly is BS. And now his two experienced lawyers can’t even tell him whether or not he’s here legally, because the Court can’t tell him whether or not he’s here legally, because the government’s counsel can’t tell him if he’s here legally.

    […] On Tuesday a federal judge in Georgia ordered that 133 students have their statuses restored, and a similar case is pending in New Hampshire.

    With the writing on the wall, Justice Department attorney Elizabeth D. Kurlan announced during a hearing in the Northern District of California in Oakland on Friday that the government won’t be deleting records any more, reading from a written statement she was authorized to make on ICE’s behalf.

    ICE is developing a policy that will provide a framework for SEVIS record terminations. Until such a policy is issued, the SEVIS records for plaintiff(s) in this case (and other similarly situated plaintiffs) will remain active or shall be reactivated if not currently active, and ICE will not modify the record solely based on the NCIC [National Crime Information Center] finding that resulted in the recent SEVIS record termination.

    ICE maintains the authority to terminate a SEVIS record for other reasons, such as if the plaintiff fails to maintain his or her nonimmigrant status after the record is reactivated or engages in other unlawful activity that would render him or her removable from the United States under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

    And magically, over the past few days, some students whose records were deleted found that they had been restored, with no explanation given, though others haven’t been.

    It’s still a mess for the students. Some have already left the country. Some have been restored in the system but still had their visas revoked, making it uncertain if they could get OOPS arrested anyway, legal status or not. And still having a visa revocation on their record can make students ineligible to apply again. And all of the foreign students are understandably in a state of freakout and uncertainty. […]

  353. Reginald Selkirk says

    Trump’s surgeon general nominee, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, faces scrutiny over credentials

    President Trump’s nominee to be the U.S. surgeon general, the Fox News contributor and family medicine physician Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, has described herself as a double board-certified physician with a degree from the University of Arkansas School of Medicine — credentials the president touted in his announcement.

    But those claims about her certification and schooling appear to be misleading.

    Nesheiwat actually earned her medical degree from the American University of the Caribbean (AUC) School of Medicine, located in St. Maarten, in the Caribbean, according to records reviewed by CBS News. A spokesperson for the University of Arkansas confirmed to CBS News she completed her residency through its family medicine program in Fayetteville, Arkansas, but did not obtain her medical degree there…

    Currently, Nesheiwat’s LinkedIn profile incorrectly lists a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Arkansas School of Medicine, while omitting any mention of AUC. In at least one instance on social media, she has referenced attending “American University” when describing her education — without clarifying that it was not the similarly named American University in Washington, D.C., which does not have a medical school. In that same posting she said she completed her medical training at St. Thomas & Guy Hospital in London…

  354. Reginald Selkirk says

    Trump DOJ goon threatens Wikipedia

    Interim DC attorney Ed Martin has written a letter to the Wikimedia Foundation — the organization behind Wikipedia — that calls into question its status as a nonprofit entity. In the letter, which was obtained by The Free Press, Martin claims he found that Wikipedia “is engaging in a series of activities that could violate its obligations” under US law about tax-exempt organizations.

    Under the law (Section 501(c)(3) of Title 26), tax-exempt organizations must operate “exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, testing for public safety, literary, or educational purposes.” Martin alleges that Wikipedia is “allowing foreign actors to manipulate information and spread propaganda,” including by “rewriting” historical events and through “other matters implicating the national security and the interests of the United States.”

    Martin is known for thinly justified legal threats against media organizations. In recent days, Martin has sent letters to the New England Journal of Medicine, the CHEST Journal, and Obstetrics and Gynecology, accusing them of being “partisan in various scientific debates.” …

  358. birgerjohansson says

    Bernie Sanders:
    Judge’s Arrest Is Trump Moving ‘Toward Authoritarianism’

  359. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Follow-up on the law firm deals investigations.

    Jen Bendery (HuffPo):

    Holy crap. Here are 91 pages of letters that 14 House Democrats just sent to the nine law firms that have paid off Trump to not attack them. [pdf] Lots of Qs aimed at sorting out if they violated federal bribery/anti-fraud/racketeering laws.

    This […] after two other Dems, Rep. Jamie Raskin and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, sent their own letters on Tuesday. Their letters were more scathing. “An illegal shakedown of the legal profession.” [HuffPo]

    None of the five firms that received Democrats’ letter has actually been targeted by Trump’s executive actions. They are preemptively caving to his demands out of fear that he could come after them—and hurt their bottom lines

    […] Worth noting that the House Democrats who sent letters to all these law firms are also… lawyers!

  360. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    GovExec – VA forces staff in workforce reduction discussions to sign NDAs

    VA plans to cut its workforce down to fiscal 2019 levels, leading to cuts of around 80,000 employees.
    […]
    NDAs for issues such as personnel matters are highly unusual in government […] One senior human resources official in another part of government called the agreements “strange, technically unnecessary and redundant.” Federal employees already agree to not disclose deliberative matters to the public as part of their jobs and therefore the substance of the NDA is already implied and expected […] The official speculated VA was seeking to limit what employees can say about those discussions in the event that they are themselves part of a reduction in force, as the NDA would likely extend beyond their termination.
    […]
    the top Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said the NDAs could illegally circumvent whistleblower protection laws and encouraged employees to come forward

     
    RollingStone – Musk allies made FAA staff sign NDAs to keep new project secret

    Starlink has denied wanting to replace Verizon on the $2.4 billion contract. But recently, DOGE staffers who now work at the FAA have been directing FAA funds to a new initiative called “Project Lift,” and employees involved have been made to sign NDAs to keep the details under wraps
    […]
    Project Lift is meant to upgrade the FAA’s [air traffic] communications to more modern technologies, and touches on some of the same work as the Verizon project […] “Project Lift” was forced on the agency by DOGE.

    After Rolling Stone reported that FAA staffers were told to hunt for money for a Starlink deal, […] “They switched tactics—limited the pool of people who know about it and made them sign NDAs.” […] “DOGE staffers who are now FAA employees are calling the shots.”
    […]
    Some FAA personnel have been implicitly threatened with having their lives ruined by potential criminal charges […] Recently, when one FAA staffer was warned about leaking by a Musk-aligned superior, the staffer found the threat of prosecution laughable, given that none of the information they were aware of sounded classified
    […]
    [Musk] said Tuesday he expects to continue working with DOGE in some capacity for the rest of Trump’s term. […] “It makes no difference […] His guys are here […] giving orders on this stuff.”

  361. John Morales says

    Everything You Need to Know About China’s Ruthless Economy

    With everything going on between China and the U.S. right now—trade wars, tariffs, and shifting global power—we figured it was the perfect time to put everything we’ve learned about China’s economy in one convenient place for you.
    Bringing together our most important stories on how China became the world’s manufacturing superpower, why it’s facing serious economic challenges, and what its future might look like in a rapidly changing global order.

  362. Silentbob says

    Excellent interview with one of those dreaded “TrAnS AcTiViStS” about the recent disastrous UK Supreme Court decision that set trans equality and acceptance back about 50 years:

    Recommended for those who want to understand what’s going on.

  363. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Re: Silentbob @362: Bare YT urls alone on a line become embedded videos, which can bog down the thread if allowed to accumulate. They should be avoided. The simplest way is prepending such lines with a period, as birgerjohansson does. Or using html anchor tags.

  364. KG says

    CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain@340,

    Of course if Lennon had allowed himself to be deported, he might still be alive today.

  365. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Follow-up to #289.

    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (American Immigration Council):

    In a SCATHING decision, Judge Briones of the Western District of Texas absolutely SAVAGED the government over this case, tearing to shreds ICE’s hearsay “evidence” that this husband and wife were in Tren de Aragua as “completely and wholly unsubstantiated”—and ordered their immediate release!

    Briones’ decision is the first time ICE’s allegations that someone was in Tren de Aragua and subject to the Alien Enemies Act was tested in court—and ICE utterly failed the test! “This Court takes clear offense to Respondents wasting judicial resources to admit to the Court it has no evidence”.

    Briones didn’t even get to the question of whether the Alien Enemies Act was involved lawfully—because the government’s evidence was so incredibly weak! All the government had was hearsay. It had NOTHING ELSE. […] Judge Briones called out ICE for “contradict[ing] themselves throughout the entire record.”
    […]
    It gets WORSE for the government. ICE also accused her husband of being in Tren de Aragua. […] quite literally nothing more than “he’s married to her, she’s in Tren de Aragua, therefore he’s in Tren de Aragua.” Seriously, that’s IT!
    […]
    BUT THERE’S MORE: After declaring that both the wife and husband are not in Tren de Aragua and must be released, Judge Briones SPONTANEOUSLY (without being asked) issued an injunction blocking the use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport anyone in the Western District of Texas without 21 days notice!
    […]
    This husband and wife got their day in court. And they won spectacularly, setting important precedent, and exposed the sham of what ICE is doing to people.

    THIS IS WHY DUE PROCESS MATTERS.
    […]
    they have already been released and are likely on their way back to their children

    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick:

    immigration lawyers will recognize the theme of this case as “ERO goes into big boy court and quickly figures out that it can’t get away with the lax evidentiary standards it’s used to in [immigration court—those judges are bound by precedent to presume whatever the ERO writes about an arrest is reliable].”

    /ERO = ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, the “cops” […]
     

    Rando: I really fail to see how the “immigration court” system is anywhere near constitutional.

    It’s because the Supreme Court ruled in the late 19th century that all this immigration enforcement stuff is fundamentally different than criminal law, so the procedures are just the ones Congress sets down and they can be pretty darn minimal and that’s okay because deportation isn’t punishment.

    Michael Anderson (Attorney): “I wonder if those precedents should come in to question when the deportation result is not sending someone to roam free in their country of origin and is instead rendering them to a foreign torture prison?”

  367. Reginald Selkirk says

    New senior staff announced as White House looks to ‘right the ship’ at the Pentagon

    Normally the names of senior staff at the Pentagon don’t make the news, but the precarious position of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth means that every move is drawing scrutiny. NPR reported this week that the White House is looking for possible replacements with Hegseth under fire for putting sensitive military attack plans into at least two insecure group chats.

    In-fighting over alleged leaks from the secretary’s office have now resulted in five senior advisers resigning or being fired. On Friday the Pentagon announced four new senior advisers had been promoted; they include Col. Ricky Buria, a former junior military assistant; Justin Fulcher, a member of the DOGE team embedded at the Pentagon, and Patrick Weaver, formerly a Department of Defense “special assistant.”

    Sean Parnell, who had been the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, has been promoted to assistant to the secretary of defense and senior adviser…

  368. Reginald Selkirk says

    Scientists May Have Figured Out Why Young People Are Getting Colorectal Cancer More Often

    A common bacteria in our gut might be stirring up more trouble than we knew. A study out this week has found evidence that a mutagenic toxin produced by some strains of Escherichia coli can trigger early onset colorectal cancer.

    Scientists at the University of California, San Diego led the research, published Wednesday in Nature. They found a link between exposure to the toxin, called colibactin, and colorectal cancers more likely to happen in young adults. The findings could help explain why the rate of early onset colorectal cancer has mysteriously risen in recent years, though more research is needed to confirm a causative connection, the researchers say…

  370. says

    I posted this on BlueSky and figured I’d post it here too:

    Speaking of #Autism #Awareness, would anyone care to weigh in on the #Accountant #movies? Do they paint an accurate or realistic picture of how #autistic kids function and develop? Of how an autistic child might respond to hardcore militaristic parenting to “toughen them up?”

    Our #entertainment #media feed us notions, ideas and preconceptions in fictional productions. We need to always be aware of this, and ask whether they’re feeding us something close to reality, or just #exploitative #harmful propaganda about innocent people (in this case, #neurodivergent people).

  371. says

    Sky Captain @363, thank you.

    In other news:

    […] Trump’s dubious use of the Alien Enemies Act to try to deport large numbers of Venezuelan men — and the lives he’s consequently endangered — have gobbled up so much national attention that it’s easy to forget that no judge has ruled that Trump even can use this law in this way in the first place.

    Even a plain reading shows why it’s a stretch: The act only kicks in when a “foreign nation or government, or any invasion or predatory incursion” is being carried out against the United States. The Trump administration has tried to contort this language by arguing that the gang Tren de Aragua is a) intertwined with the actual Venezuelan government and b) currently “invading” the U.S. by means of illegal immigration.

    But because of the flurry of procedural motions — the Trump administration’s attempt to smuggle the detainees out of the country before judges can stop it, and the detainees’ lawyers trying to stop that from happening — no court has reached that fundamental question yet. And a couple hundred men have already been deported to an El Salvador torture prison anyway.

    U.S. intelligence agencies have found that the crux of the administration’s justification for invoking the law is not true — that the gang is not working alongside Nicolás Maduro’s regime to invade the United States.

    The Alien Enemies Act, the last vestige of the infamous Alien and Sedition Acts, had only been previously invoked before this in times of clear-cut war: The War of 1812 and the First and Second World Wars.

    It’s not at all clear that courts will buy the attempt when they finally hear the case on the merits — the trick is to keep the Trump administration from permanently disappearing more Venezuelan men in the meantime.

    Link

  372. says

    Even MAGA loyalists are getting sick of Trump’s lies

    About that headline: I would say some MAGA loyalists are tired of the lies, but some are still making excuses like, “Trump is talking about wholesale prices.” It is not clear that the fog of delusion has lifted.

    […] Trump just can’t stop lying about egg prices.

    “Gas and grocery prices are WAY DOWN, just like I said they would be. Eggs are plentiful, and down 87%. NICE!” he wrote on Truth Social Thursday.

    The reality is that egg prices are up and gas and grocery prices are still higher than when Trump took office. And tariffs have only just begun to hit, which will further impact prices in the coming months.

    Reality has never deterred Trump from making bold lies, as he’s more than happy to gaslight the entire country—including his own base. But a funny thing is happening: Those crazy MAGA supporters seem to be getting less and less pleased with Trump’s lies.

    On Patriots.win, the far-right online forum created as a successor to the r/The_Donald subreddit, respondents have not taken lightly to Trump’s Truth Social post. Their responses were shockingly and consistently negative.

    Here’s a screenshot in case the thread gets deleted—a common occurrence in conservative forums: [Screenshot available at the link. Example: “For the love of god, Trump STFU” and “Don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining.”]

    Let’s take a closer look at some of these comments.

    Greed is going on. Trump is going to have to publicly put the squeeze on the individuals who are refusing to lower prices on things like gas and eggs (and many others).
    Remember when Vice President Kamala Harris proposed cracking down on corporate greed, and conservatives screeched about “socialism?”

    Prices will absolutely not drop as long as the free market is allowed to price-gouge consumers, so I wouldn’t hate it if Trump set the precedent for a little socialism.

    Sadly Trump is talking about bulk prices. [Bullshit] In the end, people will pay whatever they think something is worth, and everyone takes advantage. Corporate greed.

    […] Look at MAGA loyalists suddenly discovering corporate greed! Feels like progress, doesn’t it? Or will they forget all about it the second they can use high prices to attack Democrats?

    Yeah, yeah … of course they’ll revert to form once Democrats are back in power. […]

    Trump sold those voters on the promise that he would lower prices on Day 1, and as stupid as that promise was—and as stupid as Trump is—people were desperate enough to vote for it.

    But these aren’t people who will suddenly forget that prices are still kicking their asses. So Trump telling them that those prices are “WAY DOWN” isn’t flying.

    The good news is that’s what’s going to take down the GOP in the 2026 midterms.

    As much as I want the election to be about democracy, abortion rights, due process, and all that good stuff, if we want a massive blue tsunami, it’s going to be on the economy and nothing else.

    I’m not saying that we should ignore the other stuff! Trump certainly didn’t ignore the base-building stuff like transphobia and anti-immigrant xenophobia. But when we message the broader electorate, it has to be economy, economy, economy.

    Shit went up like 30%, down by 1 %… overall still up 29%… MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

    […]

    The impression is that nothing more will be done to fix the prices. We should accept crumbs instead of the whole cookie.

    [Likely true. Trump want’s to move past the issue of high prices for food and other goods because he can’t fix it, because he is doing nothing to mitigate it, and because he knows it is going to get worse thanks to his tariffs.]

    […] People are taking close note of prices because they have no choice. And they sure as hell will notice when prices start going back up because of Trump’s tariffs and the mass deportation of agriculture workers. […]

  375. says

    Agency that targets corporate crooks shuttered by Trump—of course

    […] Trump is shutting down a division of the Department of Justice meant to protect consumers from fraud and dangerous products.

    According to The American Prospect, the Consumer Protection Branch, which was established in 1971, will be dissolved at the end of September, and staff will be reassigned to other areas of the DOJ.

    In a 2024 document during the Biden administration, the DOJ said that the branch “pursued criminal and civil actions that helped to ensure the safety of critical food and medication relied upon by consumers across the country,” while investigating domestic and international fraud.

    One of those actions led to a historic $19.2 million fine in 2023 against the Kerry Group, a food and ingredients company that manufactured Honey Smacks cereal tainted with salmonella at a facility in Illinois. The cereal was distributed to 36 states and infected at least 135 people […]

    The Consumer Protection Branch also went after companies that produced defective medicine and sold illegal medical devices, a psychic mail order fraud, lottery frauds, and a woman peddling a structured settlement scam that ripped off veterans. [Good work … now being shut down]

    […] Trump’s actions will roll back federal protections for all U.S. consumers, while he and big businesses keep on grifting their way to the top.

  376. JM says

    NBC News: 2-year-old U.S. citizen apparently deported ‘with no meaningful process,’ judge says

    A federal judge in Louisiana on Friday said that a 2-year-old U.S. citizen appears to have been deported with her mother to Honduras with no meaningful due process.
    In an order scheduling a hearing for next month, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty wrote that the child was sent to Honduras on Friday with her mother, who had been ordered to be removed.
    “The Government contends that this is all okay because the mother wishes that the child be deported with her,” Doughty wrote. “But the Court doesn’t know that.”

    A two year old probably does want to stay with their mother and it is likely in the child’s best interest but ICE shouldn’t be agency making those decisions.

    Lawyers for the government said that the child’s mother has legal custody of the child and that she indicated in a letter she would take her daughter to Honduras.
    The letter, in Spanish, reads, “I will take my daughter … with me to Honduras.”
    An image of the handwritten letter is dated Thursday at 6:23 p.m., when the woman and child were in ICE custody and before they were deported Friday.

    A letter written by the woman in detention isn’t exactly a free decision.

  377. says

    Maddow’s Back! The Resistance Is Rising! So Why Is MSNBC’s Future Uncertain?

    What becomes of every liberal’s favorite TV network once it loses its connection to NBC?

    […] In a process that internally has been likened to the Hunger Games, the top brass, including NBC’s Cesar Conde and Rebecca Blumenstein and MSNBC’s Rebecca Kutler, are dividing anchors, hosts and correspondents into a few buckets as MSNBC prepares to spin off from its mothership, NBC News.

    There are those NBC News wants and MSNBC doesn’t. The ones MSNBC is keen to nab that NBC is happy to see go. And the lucky few whom both networks would love to keep, granting those journalists the luxury of deciding between the two. Sunday Today Show anchor and Morning Joe co-host Willie Geist is one of the rare exceptions that will be allowed to appear on both channels. But layoffs await a sizable number of those neither network wants.

    “It’s a clusterfuck,” a person familiar with the negotiations told me.

    This is, by many accounts, a time of soul searching for MSNBC. After the election, the liberal network’s primetime ratings cratered, falling by 57 percent in the key 25-to-54 demo after Election Day. But in recent months, MSNBC’s faithful have tuned back in, and it regularly draws more viewers than its main rival, CNN. Rachel Maddow, the star of the network and its highest-rated host, is, at least for now, back on air five nights a week. And a second Donald Trump presidency seems to have provided a new sense of purpose to a network beloved by the anti-Trump resistance.

    Still, the looming split from NBC has stirred deep uncertainty within MSNBC — not just about who stays and who goes, but about what kind of network it wants to be and whether it can survive on its own. Will its future be beholden to resistance viewers, or do they want to hire nonpartisan journalists focused on scoops and beating out their soon-to-be rivals at NBC News? How they square that and resolve those competing interests will define the network’s future.

    To the surprise of staffers Comcast announced late last year that it was, largely, getting out of the cable TV business. Eleven channels will depart the NBC mothership later this year, including CNBC, USA, E!, Syfy and, of course, MSNBC. For lack of a better name, Comcast has so far dubbed the new entity “SpinCo,” and tasked company veteran Mark Lazarus with running it and ensuring the new entity does not end up in palliative care. […]

    Comcast is consciously uncoupling an asset that reliably provokes the president’s hatred. Just last week, Trump unleashed on Roberts on Truth Social, labeling MSNBC “fake news.” “Comcast, which also has the ailing network known as NBC, is trying to stay away from lawsuits by disassociating NBC from MSNBC, but it won’t work. Comcast, the owner of both, and its Chairman, Brian Roberts, are a disgrace to the integrity of Broadcasting!!!,” Trump posted.

    Extricating MSNBC and building up SpinCo mean big changes, some of which are only visible behind the scenes, and some of which will drastically alter what viewers see at home. Election expert Steve Kornacki is taking his “Kornacki cam” to NBC, or “RemainCo” as it is widely known within 30 Rock. [I snipped details regarding other personnel.]

    One of the biggest shocks of the spinoff is that MSNBC will lose the newsgathering talent of NBC. While most people at home will just notice the new hosts, behind the scenes MSNBC is creating an entire newsroom from scratch. Until now, MSNBC directly employed anchors and producers but turned to NBC News when they needed Richard Engel in Ukraine or Vaughn Hillyard at the White House or Keir Simmons outside Buckingham Palace. […]

    On the air, MSNBC continues to give viewers the blow-by-blow of Trump and the fate of democracy. Behind the scenes, staffers operate with limited information about their fates and the editorial direction of the new leadership. […] executive producers have been told by the new boss to incorporate more hopeful news to give viewers a break from the bleakness. They have been instructed to incorporate guests with competing viewpoints [Uh-oh, red flag for false equivalence]

    […] MSNBC is the primary major resistance outlet left standing as Trump’s second term creates an unrelenting news cycle. If Lazarus and Kutler can figure it out, they can safeguard the future of MSNBC. If they screw it up, they risk alienating loyal viewers and tanking the network.

    […] MSNBC has always been a cash cow. They now have the opportunity to use those rivers of gold as they please instead of Comcast dictating it. Kutler has been busy pushing her people to have MSNBC everywhere. On YouTube. TikTok [Seems like a good idea.]

    […] The network name also caused much consternation, particularly for Maddow. When alternate names were floated, she pushed back. Staffers were relieved when Lazarus told them they were keeping MSNBC. The decision avoided costly rebranding, yes, but more importantly, it demonstrates that despite any political differences, Lazarus knows better than to offend the one person in the building who matters most.

    […] To mark the first 100 days of Trump’s second presidency, Maddow returned to her old schedule, appearing every weeknight. But that revival will be short-lived. Network insiders tell me she is exhausted, and once Trump’s 100 days is up, she will drop back to only popping by on Monday nights before decamping to her Massachusetts cabin. “It’s criminal,” one rival executive told me while noting that the next hundred days will be more consequential than the first. Her bosses at 30 Rock acknowledge they would like to see her on air more where her appearances have been labeled by executives as “ratings Viagra.” (The Rachel Maddow Show is the only non-Fox show to crack the list of the top 15 cable shows in terms of ratings for the first three months of 2025.)

    […] Behind the scenes, the 100-person newsroom being created is a bright spot for a beleaguered industry battered by layoffs. It’s being overseen by Scott Matthews […] When it comes to reporters, Matthews is looking for people who not only write, but also shoot, produce, edit and report while juggling the technology necessary to do a live report solo. […]

    “NBC profits are put back into Peacock and Universal. NBC News will continue to shrink. MSNBC and CNBC can invest in their core business.” The consensus is that if you’re a correspondent, SpinCo rather than RemainCo is your best bet for the future.

    […] Whether they like to admit it or not MSNBC’s fortunes are intertwined with Trump’s. Trump cares deeply about NBC. After all, NBC’s The Apprentice revitalized his public image as a savvy businessman when he was floundering as tabloid fodder. And it’s clear MSNBC is never far from his mind. In March, sitting at his desk in the Oval Office, the president criticized “MS-DNC” as he termed it. “They have lost such credibility […] “And Rachel Maddow should be forced to resign. Nobody watches her anyway. I don’t know if — it’s not possible they pay her as much money as I hear — but certainly she’s lost all credibility,” he added. Kutler didn’t take the bait and backed her anchors. […]

  380. Reginald Selkirk says

    Russian satellite linked to nuclear weapon program appears out of control, U.S. analysts say

    The secretive Russian satellite in space that U.S. officials believe is connected to a nuclear anti-satellite weapon program has appeared to be spinning uncontrollably, suggesting it may no longer be functioning in what could be a setback for Moscow’s space weapon efforts, according to U.S. analysts.

    The Cosmos 2553 satellite, launched by Russia weeks before invading Ukraine in 2022, has had various bouts of what appears to be errant spinning over the past year, according to Doppler radar data from space-tracking firm LeoLabs and optical data from Slingshot Aerospace shared with Reuters.

    Believed to be a radar satellite for Russian intelligence as well as a radiation testing platform, the satellite last year became the center of U.S. allegations that Russia for years has been developing a nuclear weapon capable of destroying entire satellite networks, such as SpaceX’s vast Starlink internet system that Ukrainian troops have been using…

  381. Reginald Selkirk says

    Iowa governor sues the Des Moines Register to stop request of emails she claims are protected

    Iowa’s governor on Friday sued the Des Moines Register over the newspaper’s open records request, asking the court to validate her office’s withholding of certain emails she claims are protected.

    A Register reporter submitted a records request in February to Gov. Kim Reynolds’ office, according to the complaint. In response, the Republican governor’s office provided 825 pages of relevant documents and withheld four emails, asserting they were protected because they were “intended to be confidential, and disclosure would inhibit the governor’s ability to receive candid, fulsome, and robust information in the future,” according to the office’s response included in filings.

    An attorney followed up on the Register’s behalf last week, according to court filings, arguing that so-called executive privilege is not an exemption in Iowa’s open records law and, even if it was, there was no indication the governor sent or received the emails. The attorney, Susan P. Elgin, called the withholding “legally indefensible” and asked the records be produced in a week’s time…

    “I didn’t want anyone to find out, so I wrote it into an email aned sent it over the Internet from a government account.” – Bwa ha ha! ‽

  382. Reginald Selkirk says

    71 percent in Maine say Collins doesn’t deserve to be reelected

    A statewide poll found that a majority of Maine residents don’t believe Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) deserves to be reelected.

    The University of New Hampshire and the American Association of Public Opinion Research reported that 71 percent of survey takers said they don’t think Collins should return to Washington in the next election cycle, while 21 percent of people said she deserves another term and 8 percent are unsure or have no opinion.

    Collins has been a fierce critic of President Trump’s new tariffs and has voted against GOP measures in the upper chamber, siding with Democrats in their fight to ensure funds for Medicaid are not reduced…

    Stupidly, the article does not mention when Collins would be up for reelection; it would be 2026.

    And I don’t believe she has been a “fierce critic” of anything. She is famous for agaonizing over whether she should support bad Republican initiatives, only to cave in and toe the party line in the end. Occasionally the GOP allows individual senators to oppose one of their measures, but only when they have sufficient votes to pass it anyway.

  383. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    WaPo – Three U.S. citizens, ages 2, 4 and 7, swiftly [exiled] from Louisiana

    Three U.S. citizen children from two different families were deported with their mothers by [ICE] during the early hours of Friday morning. One of them is a 4-year-old with Stage 4 cancer who was deported without medication or the ability to contact their doctors
    […]
    both families were taken into custody while attending routine check-ins this week in New Orleans as part of the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, which allows individuals to remain in their communities while undergoing immigration proceedings.
    […]
    The government is not disputing the immigration status of any of the three children. Instead, officials contend that the undocumented mothers opted to take their citizen children with them back to Honduras.

    Rando: “Pretty fucking terrifying that the line in the sand is NOT ‘Four yr old dying from cancer'”

    The 2-year-old in the headline is V.M.L, previously @376.
     
    Not even the first.
    The Independent – A family tried to rush their U.S. born 10-year-old to the hospital. They landed on a deportation bus to Mexico instead (Mar 18)

    Maria and Juan have six children ages 6, 8, 10, 13, 15 and 17. Five are U.S. citizens […] The undocumented couple has lived in the U.S. since 2013 and has no criminal record. In addition to Sara’s complex medical needs, her 15-year-old brother, Manuel, and 13-year-old sister, Elizabeth, were born with a rare heart rhythm disorder called Long QT Syndrome.
    […]
    Maria and Juan explained their situation to the officers and showed them the children’s birth certificates to prove they were U.S. citizens. They also handed officers a letter that explained Sara is a patient at the hospital undergoing treatment for a brain tumor and that because of “the grave nature and complexity of her disease,” she must be able to get to the hospital.

    “Rather than let Sara proceed to Texas Children’s, CBP officers detained the entire family,” […] An officer then called staff at Texas Children’s Hospital and received confirmation […] “Officers took no action at all to ensure Sara got the care she needed. Instead, they confiscated her medication.”

    After six hours […] transferred to a nearby detention facility where they allege they suffered a series of “abuses and humiliation” from customs officers. After 24 hours, the whole family was put in a van and dropped off in Mexico. […] All the while, their 17-year-old son Fernando remains in the U.S. separated from his family.

    10-Year-old cancer patient EXPELLED […] to medical desert in Mexico (Apr 14)

    Since their deportation, Sara’s condition has deteriorated significantly. Her mother reports persistent brain swelling […] The rural Mexican community where they now reside lacks even basic medical facilities
    […]
    The Texas Civil Rights Project has filed a formal complaint against CBP […] Meanwhile, the family’s attorneys have submitted a humanitarian parole request to allow them back into the U.S.

  386. StevoR says

    @ ^ Or, so I’d thought & expected but seems its actually not on telly till 8.12pm on c7..

  388. rorschach says

    @379,

    “Woman who accused Prince Andrew of sexual abuse has committed suicide.”

    Her name was Virginia Giuffre. One of her abusers allegedly was Prince Andrew. Btw, there is a tweet from her from 2019 where she clearly stated that she was absolutely not suicidal, and if she ever ended up dead it would not be from suicide. Make of that what you will.

  390. Reginald Selkirk says

    Nine people killed after car plows into crowd at Vancouver Filipino festival

    A driver plowed a car into a crowd at a street festival celebrating Filipino heritage in Vancouver on Saturday night, killing at least nine people and injuring others.

    Some of those attending the festival helped arrest the suspect at the scene, who police identified as a 30-year-old man…

    No motive has been given, although police have said they are “confident” it was not an act of terrorism. Canadian officials are investigating whether mental health issues may have factored into the incident, a law enforcement source briefed on the investigation told CNN…

  392. birgerjohansson says

    Men’s soccer: Barcelona beats Real Madrid.
    Women’s soccer: Barcelona beats Chelsea.
    I have not checked the US sports, they are as odd as cricket. OK, maybe not quite that odd.

  394. birgerjohansson says

    BTW the Japanese economy is in trouble, partly because they are too jingoistic to take in immigrants to solve the problem of the demographic ‘pyramid’ (not longer a pyramid because of low nativity).
    California accepts a lot of immigrants. There is a lesson here.

  395. says

    Sadly, two more indications that there is no political party opposing tRUMP

    https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/26/2319026/-He-wanted-to-primary-Democrats-who-roll-over-and-die-Now-the-Democratic-Party-wants-to-oust-him?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web
    He wanted to primary Democrats who “roll over and die.” Now the Democratic Party wants to oust him
    AND
    https://mockpaperscissors.com/2025/04/27/area-man-sends-letter-to-illiterate-degenerate/
    “Schumer on the Democratic response to [The Orange Magat] shakedown of Harvard: “We sent him a very strong letter just the other day asking eight very strong questions.””
    (crossposted to PZ on fascists in control)

  398. StevoR says

    ^ Even tho ‘its now the 28th April here in Oz.

    Timezones how do they work?

    Well, Oz is far ahead of most places ‘çept Aotearoa / NZ, some Pacific islands and just a bit past China and roughly equal w Japan and then the rest of the world gets more and more durn flippin’ sluggish compared with real, TRUE!!ty! (Aussie natch!) time and the USA is pretty much the furthest behind place on Earth* of all..

    That’s totes fair ain’t it? ;-)

    /. Does this really need a sarc tag?

    .* A joke which has become a lot less funny lately somehow..

    Ofc being prouid of ones timezone is about as ratonal as being proud of ones’ skin colour … çept you can choose what timezone you live in so.. yeah.

  400. Reginald Selkirk says

    @391 three fifths compromise

    non-paywalled article

    …
    After Thursday’s debate, Beckwith took to X to post a video that he called a history lesson for Indiana’s Senate Democrats. In the clip, which is just under four minutes long, Beckwith sits on the edge of his desk and speaks directly to the camera, arguing that the Three-Fifths Compromise actually worked against slavery rather than promoting it.

    “I would like to share with you, the Three-Fifths Compromise is not a pro-discrimination compromise. It was not a pro-discrimination or a slave-driving compromise that the founders made. It was actually just the opposite,” Beckwith says.

    The compromise gave slave states less representation than they would have had if slaves were counted as people, preventing the constitutional enshrinement of slavery, he argues.

    He does not address the fact that the law increased slaveholding states’ representation in U.S. Congress relative to their number of voters, making it difficult — if not impossible — to pass an amendment abolishing slavery…

    Beckwith — who is himself a pastor…

  401. says

    Recent filings with the Federal Election Commission have revealed the scale of record-breaking corporate donations to the Donald Trump-JD Vance Inaugural Committee. Trump smashed his previous inaugural donation record of $107 million for his first presidency, raising more than twice as much, with 650 donors—140 of whom gave no less than $1 million. This includes the tech billionaires who ponied up and got VIP seats at the dreary event.

    Trump’s top donor, Elon Musk, has benefited from his co-presidency, growing even wealthier while not worrying about conflicts of interest when it comes to protecting his companies and government contracts. Then there are individual billionaires, like crypto mogul Justin Sun, who has had his criminally fraudulent activities wiped away with help from large donations to Trump. But there are a whole lot of others filling up the swamp and wetting their beaks.

    The crypto industry donated a total of $18 million to Trump’s inaugural committee, and has been one of the biggest winners so far. Trump courted cryptocurrency firms during his campaign, promising to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet.”

    Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, which dropped a cool $1 million on Trump, watched the Securities and Exchange Commission drop its lawsuit against them after Trump came into office. And Trump Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche recently announced that the Justice Department’s unit that investigated cryptocurrency fraud-related crimes would be disbanded. [snipped details regarding Apple and Intuit]

    Pilgrim Pride, a poultry company owned by Brazilian meat conglomerate JBS, reportedly made the largest donation to Trump’s inaugural committee, $5 million. What did they get in return so far? Trump recently paused enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a law that has allowed the U.S. to investigate and prosecute foreign corruption tied to America’s trade interests since 1977. JBS knows this law intimately, having already paid out more than a quarter of a billion dollars in criminal bribery charges under the FCPA.

    And there is no end in sight for billionaires who want to make payments to Trump in some form or another. Major companies like Meta, Amazon, Tesla, and X, which all face ongoing government lawsuits, are settling cases, many of which are considered by critics to be baseless, with Trump himself.

    Both Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta and Elon Musk’s X went so far as to settle long-standing, questionable lawsuits from Trump, with Meta sending $22 million to his presidential library and X sending another $10 million in settlement money.

    At the same time Musk, whether or not he decides to step out of the political spotlight to try and repair the terrible branding effect he’s had on Tesla, is still reportedly ready to hand over $100 million to Trump-controlled super PACs.

    With hundreds of billions of dollars in government contracts on the line, and many companies coincidentally linked to investors with names like Musk, Vice President JD Vance, and venture capitalist Peter Thiel, you don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to connect the swampy dots in Trump’s White House.

    Link

Leave a Reply