Comments

  1. Reginald Selkirk says

    Sen. Lindsey Graham gets a 2026 challenge from Democrat Annie Andrews, who ran against Nancy Mace

    Dr. Annie Andrews, the South Carolina Democrat who unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace in 2022, says she’s running against Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham in 2026, challenging the four-term incumbent in part due to what she characterized as his waffling positions over the course of his political career.

    “He’s changed his position on nearly every issue over that time and that’s because, in my view, he doesn’t stand for anything or believe in anything other than what it takes to get reelected,” Andrews, a pediatrician in Charleston, told The Associated Press before a campaign rollout Thursday.

    Andrews joins at least one other Democrat in a primary field…

    At least one Republican has announced a primary challenge to Graham.

  2. JM says

    @426 (previous page) Reginald Selkirk:

    @401, 424

    Putin’s conditions for ending the war in Ukraine “include a demand that Western leaders pledge in writing to stop enlarging NATO eastwards.”

    Ooh, in writing! How serious.
    Wasn’t the Budapest memorandum of 1994, in which Russia agreed to respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity, put in writing‽

    Russia had a reason paper thin excuse.
    Really it just shows that Russia expects the US and EU to keep their written promise even though Russia has shown it won’t. It must be remembered that Russia had verbal assurances that NATO would not expand east. This was not a treaty and it was something from the 1990’s. Russia could not reasonably expect it to last forever, particularly when Russia began expanding west.

  3. John Morales says

    Reginald, think about the spin on that piece: ” Dr. Annie Andrews, the South Carolina Democrat who unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace in 2022, says she’s running against Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham in 2026, challenging the four-term incumbent in part due to what she characterized as his waffling positions over the course of his political career.

    “He’s changed his position on nearly every issue over that time and that’s because, in my view, he doesn’t stand for anything or believe in anything other than what it takes to get reelected,” Andrews, a pediatrician in Charleston, told The Associated Press before a campaign rollout Thursday.”

    It follows that it has worked hitherto over his political career.
    That indicates political competence over his political career.

    Interesting factor is that, in a representative democracy, the idea is that the electability of those politicians depends on their representation of their electorate, so that supposedly the more they represent it the more successful they shall be.

    I reckon it follows that Dr. Annie Andrews is whinging because he has been a successful politician over his political career.
    Thing is, it’s hardly a condemnation, is it?

    It’s basically an encomium.

    Dr. Annie Andrews is clearly saying Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham is, and has been able to believe in representing his electorate such that he has been consistenly re-elected.

  4. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Dan Garisto (Science Journalist):

    Presidential budget is out. […] NSF budget would close down one of LIGO’s sites. This would be, to put it lightly, a catastrophe for gravitational wave astronomy.

    “In FY 2026 NSF will operate only one of the two sites
    and will support a reduced level for technology development.”

    Richard Easther (Physics professor):

    This is actively bananas. LIGO is doing (literally) Nobel winning work, and you need both of them—the second one is not a spare or a nice to have; this is like buying a fire engine, but deciding it doesn’t need wheels on the left hand side.

    Rando:

    The point of having two LIGO sites a long way apart is that a black hole collision eleventy billion light years away will show up identically at both of them, but earthquakes, weather, construction, crying babies, etc, won’t. It makes a big difference to noise removal.

    Richard Easther:

    Also lets you localise them in the sky thanks to [time of arrival] differences as well as much better signal / noise. (Three or four is better and there are other detectors that are not as sensitive as LIGO—but the optical counterpart of the first neutron star merger was found because they knew where to look.)

  5. JM says

    Newsweek: Mike Pence Accuses Donald Trump of Ignoring Constitution

    Former Vice President Mike Pence has accused President Donald Trump of supplanting Congress’ constitutional authority over trade and commerce, following a federal court ruling that sought to void the majority of his tariffs.
    “The Constitution gives Congress the power to levy taxes and tariffs,” Pence wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Article 1, Section 8 provides that the Congress ‘shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises.'”

    This is interesting only in how directly Pence is going against Trump. Pence doesn’t have much power anymore but his willingness to take a position directly against Trump suggests that Trump may be losing some of the religious right.

  6. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Re: JM @5: “his willingness to take a position directly against Trump”

    Pence supportive of Trump policies (2025-05-27)

    Pence voiced support for most of the actions President Donald Trump has taken during his second term […] The vice president was in Anderson to address graduates of the Indiana Christian Academy.

    “I think this administration has set the nation back on a course of strength and prosperity like we have not experienced in the past four years,” Pence said […]

    “I’m grateful the Congress passed the budget bill and made the tax cuts permanent, with a historic investment in our military,”

    [He praised the ‘efficiency’ cuts—only admitting “some errors” but much of the government won’t be missed—and called on congress to enshrine the cuts via rescission.]

    he supports the efforts President Trump is making to keep peace in the Middle East. […]

    Regarding the back-and-forth decisions by Trump on tariffs, Pence voiced opposition—except in the case of trade with China. […] “My view is we should have free trade with free nations.” […]

    “I believe that President Trump has secured the southern border of the United States,”

  10. birgerjohansson says

    A Facebook quote:
    If alcohol can damage your short-term memory, imagine the damage alcohol can do.

  11. birgerjohansson says

    It is so quaint – research about bombing a few hardened targets instead of flattening whole cities and un-aliving the civilians.

    “Rare Declassified Footage from post WWII Super-bomb tests – The Project Harkin story.”
    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=iRD0M2C2nA0

  13. Reginald Selkirk says

    Cataclysmic 1831 Eruption Traced to Quadruple Volcano on Abandoned Soviet Island
    It was not a “Soviet” island in 1831, and it isn’t today, but anyway…

    Scientists have finally solved a 200-year-old climatological mystery—and the answer was hiding out on a forgotten island. Late last year, a team of researchers revealed that a massive 1831 eruption from Zavaritski volcano, part of the remote Simushir Island chain, triggered global cooling in the Northern Hemisphere…

    In 1831, the Northern Hemisphere cooled by nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit (nearly 1.1 degrees Celsius), throwing the climate into disarray and painting skies strange hues. Scientists long suspected a massive volcanic eruption was to blame, but its source remained unknown—until now. The recent study revealed that Zavaritski, Simushir’s relatively modest 2,047-foot (624-meter) volcano was the culprit. Ash from the eruption was later found in polar ice cores, solving the nearly 200-year-old mystery of which volcano triggered the global cooling…

  14. Reginald Selkirk says

    Bye, Elon Musk. But you owe Northwest Lutherans an apology

    Elon Musk is packing up his chain saw and logging off from government work.

    The stories about this have a wistful note — about how the tech titan tried valiantly to wrestle a recalcitrant government into efficiency. Only to be foiled by a bureaucratic octopus.

    “I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in D.C., to say the least,” Musk said on his way out the door.

    Puh-lease. Just remember the Lutherans.

    The story of the Lutherans, and how they came to be cast as “criminal,” is a far more apt case study of how Musk handled his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. It shows how his “uphill battle” was mostly self-created — first when he would impetuously slander perfectly good people, and then, having loosed chaos and bad feelings, by what he did next. Or rather did not do.

    It started in early February, as the Northwest Lutherans were running their social services nonprofit, headquartered in Tacoma, to help seniors, migrants and low-income people. Out of the blue, Musk targeted them on social media.

    Michael Flynn, a conspiracy theorist who was once President Donald Trump’s national security adviser before getting fired, had made some lists of federal grants he wanted cut. Flynn described about 40 grants awarded to 18 Lutheran nonprofits, including the Northwest branch, as a “money-laundering operation.”

    At 3 a.m. on X, Musk responded approvingly: “The @DOGE team is rapidly shutting down these illegal payments.”

    They weren’t illegal payments; they were federal health grants. The one listed for Lutheran Community Services Northwest is $1.6 million over four years to provide low-income behavioral health counseling and training.

    The Lutherans were floored.

    “The richest man in the world, on behalf of the president of the United States, is targeting us in the middle of the night with completely unfounded allegations,” David Duea, CEO of the Northwest group, told me in February. “To see money-laundering and such crazy statements, I just thought, ‘No way can this be real.’ ”

    Some of Musk’s 220 million followers frothed for more. Said one: “When is there going to be an investigation and people going to prison for this?”

    Enthused another: “Bingo — you have rooted out blatant fraud here. Thank you for your work, Elon.”

    You’ll never guess what happened next.

    Come to think of it, you might. Because nothing happened next.

    Well, not entirely nothing — the Lutherans were needlessly thrown into crisis mode. They’d effectively been accused of criminal activity by the White House, so they had to calm staff, consult lawyers, put out statements and assure donors. They readied the organization for a vetting or outright grant cancellation that was surely coming down from on high.

    It hasn’t come. Musk left DOGE this past week, as did three of his top deputies. Yet as of Friday, all of the 40 health grants that Musk and Flynn had called out as “money-laundering” and “criminal payments” were still going, according to a federal grants database.

    DOGE never inquired about the grant to the Northwest Lutherans.

    “I can confirm that this grant is still in place,” said Matt Misterek, spokesperson for Lutheran Community Services Northwest. The grant is scheduled to expire naturally at the end of August.

    Flynn and Musk also cast aspersions on three dozen grants to Catholic nonprofits, including Catholic Community Services of Western Washington. Flynn accused them of “ripping off American taxpayers.” Yet those grants also are still in place.

    What happened? It appears to have been nothing but rage bait. A classic Trump administration maneuver — insult and then pivot to a fresh controversy.

    Musk, during that time, upped the ante to call the recipients of federal grants “terrorists.”

    “They will make it sound like we’re cutting funding to save baby pandas, when we’re actually cutting funding to fraudsters, wastrels & terrorists,” he posted on X.

    This pattern of blame loudly, fail quietly plagued DOGE far beyond this small example, budget analysts say.

    “They were more interested in generating easy headlines,” one former GOP budget staffer told the libertarian magazine Reason, in an article titled “Why DOGE failed.” “MAGA voters loved the culture war bait, but that is not where the money is.”
    …
    The big puzzler is: Why? Why slap a criminal label on the Lutherans, of all people, and then never follow up to pursue the budget cut?

    In tech, they call this “vaporware.” It’s a product announced with great fanfare but which doesn’t exist and never will.

    Maybe the real product with DOGE was the derision. Not to reform government, but to malign it. If you can convince a big share of 220 million followers that even the Lutherans are criminally on the dole, then there’s no bottom to the cynicism. And therefore no top to how much of the civic works you might topple.

    It’s depressing that defamatory emptiness is standard fare in national politics today. The only good news is that it hasn’t totally worked — so far anyway. The Lutherans, for one, are keeping their heads down and plugging away on serving low-income people.

    My closing thought as Musk supposedly heads back to the private sector is that he’s leaving more undone here than just the federal budget deficit. There’s a human debt, too. For one, he owes the Lutherans an apology.

  15. says

    https://www.msnbc.com/all Chris Hayes

    Inside the scramble to keep FEMA alive ahead of hurricane season
    Video is 6:13 minutes

    Bombshell NYT report on Musk’s ‘intense’ use of ketamine, other drugs
    Video is 7:06 minutes

    GOP senator defends Medicaid cuts: ‘We’re all going to die’
    Video is 7:24 minutes

  16. says

    https://www.msnbc.com/jen-psaki

    Worst possible answer: Ernst downplays death as consequence of purging Medicaid
    Video is 8:05 minutes

    Trump’s anti-climate orders draw lawsuit from young activists citing life, liberty
    Video is 6:46 minutes

    Trump vanity parade comes with hefty price tag; will displace Vietnam veterans event
    Video is 4:06 minutes

  17. says

    For the convenience of readers, here are a few 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-6/#comment-2266763
    Zelenskyy: Russians have still not presented their “memorandum” to partners – another deception

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/04/03/infinite-thread-xxxv/comment-page-6/#comment-2266757
    PBS sued President Trump on Friday to block an executive order that would cut federal funding for public television and radio, arguing that it was unconstitutional.

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/04/03/infinite-thread-xxxv/comment-page-6/#comment-2266746
    Kristi Noem said an immigrant threatened to kill Trump. The story quickly fell apart

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/04/03/infinite-thread-xxxv/comment-page-6/#comment-2266766
    NBC: “Trump raises steel tariff to 50%, arguing it’s ‘saved’ U.S. Steel”

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/04/03/infinite-thread-xxxv/comment-page-6/#comment-2266745
    CDC updates COVID vaccine recommendations, but not how RFK Jr. wanted

  18. KG says

    President Donald Trump said Friday that he will no longer be ‘Mr. NICE GUY’ with China on trade, declaring in a social media post that the country had broken an agreement with the United States. – Lynna, OM quoting AP@491

    Reminds me of an old joke. In 1949, a group of German Nazis find that Hitler escaped the bunker and has been in hiding in Paraguay. They track him down and beg him to come back and save Germany. Hitler demures: he’s retired, he has medical issues, he’s just making progress on his Spanish, Eva’s in the middle of a course of classes on basket-weaving… But they keep on and on at him and in the end he says: “Alright, alright! I’ll come back! But this time, NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!!!”

  20. says

    Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has brought us so much, including sext scandals, bulls**t citations (more on that below), and admittedly bad medical advice. Now, the gravelly voiced political scion wants to bless us with flightless birds that are quite possibly infected with a deadly virus.

    The birds in question are about 400 ostriches that are currently living on a farm in Canada’s western British Columbia province. ([…] a group of ostriches is called a “wobble.”) This particular wobble was hit with a bird flu epidemic last last year that claimed the lives of 69 ostriches. […]

    Given concerns that bird flu, or H5N1, has spread to humans and could cause a major outbreak, officials in Canada have ordered the owners to kill the surviving members of the wobble. […]

    Karen Espersen and Dave Bilinski, who run Universal Ostrich Farms — which is home to the aforementioned wobble — have pushed back and argued that studying the birds could be beneficial. Most veterinarians and experts do not agree with this take, and the Canadian courts have not either.

    […]. Over on Facebook (of course), Esperson has styled herself as a “digital creator” and “leader in the ostrich industry in Canada.” In between making posts about sleeping among the possibly infected birds, Esperson has tried to amp up her support.

    “We need people to come and surround our farm,” Esperson wrote on May 13.

    The call to action has apparently resulted in flag-waving busloads […] It also inspired some members of the Trump administration to get involved in yet another example of their efforts to connect with the global right wing.

    Last week, Kennedy sent a letter to Canadian officials urging them to spare the wobble and study it. Dr. Mehmet Oz, the former reality television star who is Trump’s administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, took things a step further and offered to house the animals on his massive Florida ranch.

    So far, Canada has seemingly remained unmoved by these appeals. For her part, Esperson has tried to co-opt liberal-coded language to bring them on board. Her posts about the standoff included one meme with a bold declaration:

    “I IDENTIFY AS OSTRICH”

    Link

  21. says

    Followup, sort of, to comment 20. Same link as in comment 20.

    It Keeps Happening

    In mid May, the Trump administration rolled out its “MAHA report,” a purported effort to get to the bottom of America’s poor health outcomes. The report was cast as a collaboration between various Cabinet secretaries and advisors, including, of course, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the secretary of Health and Human Services.

    As you likely already know, it now appears that an AI chatbot was among the report’s true authors. The DC news outlet NOTUS first determined on Thursday that many of the studies referenced in the report don’t exist. The report misstated the findings of others. In some cases, the report cited real researchers, but claimed they had authored papers or come to conclusions they had not.

    The Washington Post soon sought an answer to the obvious question, and found Chat GPT appears to be at least partially to blame. Some of the URLs cited, the Post found, include “oaicite,” a marker inserted into citations generated by OpenAI, the company behind Chat GPT.

    This isn’t the first time […] DOGE reportedly used a Meta AI model to review federal workers’ […] lists of the five things they had done that week. Trump’s mathematically unsound “liberation day” tariffs were widely speculated to be the work of artificial intelligence, making use of a formula that many AI chatbots recommend. “A number of X users have realized that if you ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or Grok for an ‘easy’ way to solve trade deficits and put the US on ‘an even playing field,’ they’ll give you a version of this ‘deficit divided by exports’ formula with remarkable consistency,” the Verge reported. […]

    for now, it appears these products are not quite ready to replace government experts. At least, not with the prompts administration officials have been giving them.

  22. says

    As a presidential candidate in October 2024, Donald Trump attacked the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response to Hurricane Helene in North Carolina—by lying about it.

    “They’re offering them $750, to people whose homes have been washed away,” he falsely claimed at a campaign rally. “And yet we send tens of billions of dollars to foreign countries that most people have never heard of. … Think of it: We give foreign countries hundreds of billions of dollars, and we’re handing North Carolina $750.”

    He also took to Truth Social, writing, “[I] don’t like the reports that I’m getting about the Federal Government, and the Democrat Governor of the State, going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.”

    Then Trump got elected—and slashed the aid. Days ago, Trump’s FEMA denied the state’s request for the agency to equally match the state funds for hurricane cleanup, according to ABC News.

    It wasn’t just North Carolina, either. Disaster victims in Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, and West Virginia have also been left hanging. Texas received some support, so Trump isn’t shutting it all down. But it’s clear he meant what he said about FEMA when touring fire-ravaged Los Angeles in January, “I say you don’t need FEMA, you need a good state government. FEMA is a very expensive, in my opinion, mostly failed situation.”

    The irony is brutal: Red states receive more in federal disaster aid. Blue states have been subsidizing their disaster recoveries for years. Now, thanks to those red states’ voting habits, they’re on their own.

    FEMA is even cutting flood prevention projects that primarily benefit rural, Republican-voting areas. That includes $1 billion in canceled flood-related projects in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay region […] [More details are available at at the link.]

    Geologist Ryan Thigpen sounded the alarm, warning, “This is where most people are going to die unless we create reliable warning systems and model future flood risks for mitigation and to help mountain communities plan for long-term resilience. Otherwise, these extreme flooding events could be the end of southern Appalachia.”

    […] Trump won nearly 70% of West Virginia’s vote last year. Appalachia is deep red—and deeply distrustful of government, expertise, and the very institutions trying to save them.

    Back in Maryland’s flood-prone Chesapeake region, a man wearing a Trump T-shirt complained to the Chesapeake Bay Journal that the floods were hurting his vacation rental business. “People come down here, and if they have to wear boots, they aren’t coming back,” he said.

    Asked whether he regretted voting for Trump now that FEMA nixed flood prevention projects in the region, he said, “I think if he did it, he did it for a reason.”

    Trump did do it for a reason: because he doesn’t give a rat’s ass about you.

    Link

  23. says

    DOGE let the door hit ya: Trump sends Musk off with a golden key

    Elon Musk is officially done with his nongovernmental government business at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency—at least for now.

    “This is not the end of DOGE, but really the beginning,” he said during his departure ceremony in the Oval Office on Friday. “The DOGE team will only grow stronger over time. The DOGE’s influence will only grow stronger. I liken it to a sort of personal Buddhism. It’s like a way of life. So it is permeating throughout the government.” [Cringe-worthy video available at the link.]

    Musk received a ceremonial golden key from President Donald Trump, who has a penchant for covering things in gold at taxpayers’ expense.

    “A little special something we have here. A very special … that I give to very special people. I have given it to some, but it goes to very special people,” Trump said while presenting Musk with the key.

    The ceremony appeared to be an attempt at damage control following Musk’s criticisms of Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” which would more than double the national deficit.

    Sporting a black eye during the ceremony, Musk claimed that it was a result of a punch from his 5-year-old son. The world’s most dubious dad also dismissed Friday’s explosive report on his excessive drug abuse.

    According to Wired, Musk was correct in his assertion that DOGE isn’t going away.

    “This doesn’t sound like a group that is going away, it sounds like one that’s digging in like a parasite,” a Department of Agriculture IT specialist told the outlet.

    If the purpose of Trump’s ceremony for Musk was to reassure the public that the unpopular billionaire would stop dismantling vital government agencies, then mission not accomplished.

  24. says

    Call centers replaced many doctors’ receptionists. Now, AI is coming for call centers.

    At one call center in the Philippines, workers help Americans with diabetes or neurological conditions troubleshoot devices that monitor their health. Sometimes they get pressing calls: elderly patients who are alone and experiencing a medical emergency.

    “That’s not part of the job of our employees or our tech supports,” said Ruth Elio, an occupational nurse who supervised the center’s workers when she spoke with KFF Health News last year. “Still, they’re doing that because it is important.”

    […] Health risks and night shifts aside, call center workers have a new concern: artificial intelligence.

    Startups are marketing AI products with lifelike voices to schedule or cancel medical visits, refill prescriptions, and help triage patients. Soon, many patients might initiate contact with the health system not by speaking with a call center worker or receptionist, but with AI. Zocdoc, the appointment-booking company, has introduced an automated assistant it says can schedule visits without human intervention 70% of the time.

    The medically focused call center workforce in the Philippines is a vast one: 200,000 at the end of 2024, estimates industry trade group leader Jack Madrid. That figure is more than the number of paramedics in the United States at the end of 2023, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And some employers are opening outposts in other countries, like India, while using AI to reshape or replace their workforces.

    […] a recent study in Nature Medicine found that while some models can diagnose maladies when presented with a canned anecdote, as prospective doctors do in training, AI struggles to elicit information from simulated patients.

    […] “From the beginning of the shift to your end, you’re expected to take call after call after call from an open queue,” she said. Even when giving advice for complex cases, “there’s an unwritten rule on how long a nurse should take per call: 12 minutes.”

    Meanwhile, the job is getting tougher, she said. “We’re the backup to the health care system. We’re open 24/7,” she said. “They’re calling about their incision sites, which are bleeding. Their child has asthma, and the instructions for the medications are not clear.” […]

    Some firms cite 30% to 50% turnover rates — stats that some say make a case for turning over the job to AI.

    […] [I snipped details revealing more problems associated with call centers.]

    Customer service suffered, and the lower ratings translated into lower payments from the federal government, Jain said.

    […] So, for some businesses, the notion of a computer receptionist seems a welcome solution to the problem of ineffectual call centers. […]

    Prices have dropped, too. Google AI’s per-use price has dropped by 97%, company CEO Sundar Pichai claimed in a 2024 speech.

    […] Most executives interviewed by KFF Health News — in the hospital, insurance, tech, and consultancy fields — were keen to emphasize that AI would complement humans, not replace them. […]

    But some businesses are signaling that their AI models could replace human workers. Their websites hint at reducing reliance on staff. And they are developing pricing strategies based on reducing the need for labor, said Michael Yang, a venture capitalist at OMERS.

    […] “Just because something can be automated doesn’t mean it should be,” he said.

  25. says

    Followup to comment 24.

    Posted by readers of the article:

    Call centers can’t keep people because the pay is shitty, the hours suck and the greedy corporation they work for treats them like expendable robots.
    ———————
    The reason a bunch of these call centers can’t keep people is, they are meat grinders and they are just wasting talent by not paying them enough and destroying their lives.

  28. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Anna Bower – The WITAOD Chronicles, One woman’s maddening search for the head of a non-existent federal agency.

    [Feb. 14, 2025] I loiter outside the courthouse when suddenly Christopher Healy, a senior adviser to the general counsel at the Treasury Department, walks by. He’s walking fast—like a man who knows I’m hunting government lawyers with an absurd question.

    Healy tries to wave questions off, making a beeline for a car waiting at the curb, but I shout at him: “WHO IS THE ADMINISTRATOR OF DOGE?”

    Without breaking stride, Healy tosses back: “I don’t know the answer to that.”

    And that, dear reader, is my Joker origin story. […] I suddenly realize that not even lawyers for the government know who is running the show. And I realize as well that I have a calling, a mission, a journalistic purpose in life.

    Some women want love, and on Valentines Day, who can blame them? Some seek power and money. Some seek attention and fame.

    I just want to know who the administrator of DOGE really is.
    [… … …]
    [May 21, 2025] Sauer represents to the United States Supreme Court that Musk is “not part of” the U.S. DOGE Service. “Not part of.”

    He just runs the meetings, speaks on behalf of DOGE, posts AI pictures of himself carrying a “DOGEFATHER” badge, wears a DOGE hat, gets thanked by the president for $150 billion in DOGE savings, and is referred to as the head of DOGE by virtually everyone except any government attorney who happens to be standing at a lectern in front of a federal judge.
    […]
    [May 28, 2025] A farewell to DOGE from a man who never officially worked at DOGE, never had decision-making authority at DOGE, and definitely never led the U.S. DOGE Service.
    […]
    For months, one of the clearest signs that Musk was running DOGE was the fact that he kept saying so—even as the government’s lawyers swore he wasn’t. Now, at least, they agree: Musk is no longer part of DOGE.

    But if we’re finally sure that Musk is not the administrator of DOGE now, we’re still no closer to knowing who really is.

    Anna Bower:

    WH PressSec: Elon Musk and the entire DOGE team have already saved taxpayers $170 billion […] that will only continue.

    ELON MUSK AND THE ENTIRE DOGE TEAM
    #WITAOD????

    Anna Bower (Lawfare):

    These men are trying to kill me.

    Musk is […] wearing a black T-shirt that says, “The Dogefather,” […] Trump says that […] he’ll be dipping back into Washington from time to time. […] Trump describes [DOGE] as Musk’s “baby.”

    Rando: “They’re trying to kill all of us, but yes.”

  30. birgerjohansson says

    Stockholm Marathon had 19 000 participants today. A 79-year-old has run it 46 times.

  31. says

    Sky Captain @28, very telling details in that report.

    We still don’t really know wtf is going on with DOGE.

    He [Musk] just runs the meetings, speaks on behalf of DOGE, posts AI pictures of himself carrying a “DOGEFATHER” badge, wears a DOGE hat, gets thanked by the president for $150 billion in DOGE savings, and is referred to as the head of DOGE by virtually everyone except any government attorney who happens to be standing at a lectern in front of a federal judge.

  32. says

    Trump Administration Just Determined To Be Unprepared For Bird Flu Pandemic

    “They cancelled a $700 million contract with Moderna to produce a vaccine.”

    Please know that I am as sick of writing about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Health and Human Services shenanigans as you may be of reading about them. Alas, […] we all have to pay attention to his bullshit, for the sake of our own health. […]

    On Thursday, Kennedy’s HHS announced it would be rescinding nearly $600 million in funding (on top of $175 million last year) for an MRNA vaccine for the bird flu, which could very well cause another pandemic in the not-so-far-off future. Why? Because very stupid people, like Kennedy, think that there is something sinister or unsafe about MRNA vaccines. Do they have evidence to prove this? They do not. It’s mostly just vibes, conspiracy theories, and misinformation, which are apparently the cornerstones of the Make America Healthy Again agenda. […]

    “After a rigorous review, we concluded that continued investment in Moderna’s H5N1 mRNA vaccine was not scientifically or ethically justifiable,” HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said [rigorous review, not credible]

    MRNA vaccines are ideal for a pandemic situation, because they are easy to produce quickly and adjust to protect people from new versions of a virus, which is important, because flu viruses change and evolve quickly. That is why, even though right now the H5N1 bird flu doesn’t easily spread to humans, it very well could in the future […]

    “When the next flu pandemic occurs, there is not going to be enough vaccine for everyone who wants it unless we invest to broaden the types of flu vaccines being made and the number of companies that make them,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health, to The New York Times. […]

    Thankfully, Moderna says it is going to try to look for other ways to continue developing the vaccine.

    Tempting fate even further, Kennedy and Dr. Oz are campaigning to save the ostriches on a Canadian farm that recently experienced an outbreak of bird flu. [For Universal Ostrich Farms report, see comment 20]

    […] no vaccines, no masks, no lockdowns and pretending it’s no worse than a cold, despite the dead bodies piling up. I could be wrong, but I think they want to be able to use the ostriches as proof that the virus is not that deadly.

    It’s not just bird flu they’re being reckless with. The CDC and FDA will no longer recommend updated yearly COVID vaccines for healthy people under the age of 65. […]

    It feels important to mention that COVID-19 is still killing about 300 people a month (900 from Florida so far this year). While this is obviously a lot lower than the numbers at the height of the pandemic, it’s still not good. Especially since there’s a new variant going around.

    The goal, it seems, is to normalize doing absolutely nothing medically and letting the chips fall where they may. This is what many on the Right desperately want to see happen in a pandemic for some reason. It’s a sentiment that has been compounded by a determination to repeatedly proclaim that they were right all along — that “everyone” now agrees that masking did nothing, that vaccines did nothing (and were dangerous), that the lockdowns and social distancing were a bad idea, and that it was never any worse than the flu or a bad cold.

    I hate to say it, but even if we do get a bird flu vaccine, and even if we had a normal, sane person in charge of Health and Human Services … because of these people, we’d still be fucked.

  33. says

    New York Times link

    Iran Ramps Up Uranium Enrichment While Continuing Nuclear Talks

    Iran nuclear talks: Iran has roughly doubled its stockpile of near-bomb-grade uranium over the past three months as it negotiates with the Trump administration over a deal to limit its nuclear program, according to a confidential report that the U.N. nuclear inspection agency has begun circulating to capitals around the world.

    The increase gives Tehran the capability to produce bomb-grade fuel for roughly 10 weapons, up from around five or six when President Trump was inaugurated in January. But the surge also puts new pressure on Washington in its negotiations, in which it is demanding that Iran cease all production of nuclear material. […]

  36. Reginald Selkirk says

    @25

    Gabbard considering ways to revamp Trump’s intelligence briefing

    Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.

  37. Jean says

    Re #32 and #20 Random thoughts about bird flu and the ostriches.

    First, I don’t think the Canadian government will allow this but if some idiots somehow thinks that this would be a good way to score political brownie points with the US and makes it happen, I can see how this would go:

    First, having infected birds transferred is already dangerous but proposing to do so over the longest possible distance on the continent from BC to Florida is asinine. And you know that this will be done in the most stupid and unsafe way possible.

    I could see how the transfer from Canada to the US would be done with people in full hazmat gear using sealed containers to transport the birds from their current location. Then once in the US, the birds would be transferred to open trailers by regular trucker and rancher guys wearing their everyday clothes (first major contamination event, location and people). All along the way, the birds would shed the virus through anything that blows off the trailers and mosquitoes biting the infected birds. In addition, human infection could occur everywhere the trucks stop and spread from there (multiple potential contamination events, locations and people). And the final destination would be the other major contamination event since the people involved are so incompetent that appropriate containment procedures won’t be taken.

    So it would be interesting (in an unfortunately morbid way) to see the spread of the flu in Washington state and Florida and everywhere in-between along the route used. And the response from the government would likely be totally inadequate and trying to blame everyone else while trying to hide as much as possible and could well be the start of a new pandemic by letting untreated people and animals enough time and opportunity for the virus to get lethal mutations.

  38. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Re: Lynna @35:

    Colbert – ‘Real News Tonight’ distracts Trump from the Comey hearing (2017, 2:13)

    There was a whole team at the White House assigned to keep Trump busy […] with meetings so he wouldn’t watch TV and tweet during the hearing. […] But they weren’t optimistic, saying “if he want’s to watch it, it’s not like we can say, ‘oh, the TV doesn’t work’.”
    […]
    Jill Newslady: This just in—The White House freezer is broken, and the chefs need a big brave hero to come eat all the ice cream before it melts!

  39. says

    Jean @37, good points. I agree.

    Sky Captain @38, the team keeps trying to save Trump from himself. A thankless task, and not possible.

    In other news: Pompeo warns against US recognizing Russian control over Crimea: ‘Mistake of epic proportions’

    ODESA, Ukraine — In the range of Russian rockets from Ukraine’s occupied Crimean Peninsula, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stood in Odesa and called for President Trump to reject recognizing Russian sovereignty over territory it seized by force.

    Pompeo, who served as secretary of state during Trump’s first term, said if the U.S. recognized Crimea as Russian territory, it “would be a mistake of epic proportions,” speaking at the Black Sea Security Forum Saturday.

    “I get the frustration … I’m not naive about what’s physically possible in this moment, but that doesn’t mean one should go and say, ‘and we are giving up for all time,’” he said. […]

    The former secretary’s remarks comes as the Trump administration has weighed giving de jure recognition to Russia over territory it occupies in Ukraine as part of efforts to coax Moscow towards a ceasefire and peace deal with Kyiv.

    There’s growing acceptance in Ukraine that it needs to enter into a ceasefire with Russia without liberating its territory, but Kyiv is pushing for its allies to hold back recognizing occupied lands as sovereign Russian territory.

    Russia occupies about 20 percent of Ukrainian territory since launching a full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022. But it has maintained an occupation of the Crimean Peninsula since invading and illegally annexing it in 2014, along with the eastern Ukrainian provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk.

    In 2018, Pompeo — during Trump’s first term — issued the Crimea Declaration “reaffirming U.S. policy its refusal to recognize the Kremlin’s claims of sovereignty over territory seized by force in contravention of international law.”

    […] Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) […] was in Kyiv with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) this week.

    “There are many in my party, the Republican party, that have disappointed me deeply and have said things that are inconsistent with what I think are the deep American interests that we have here,” Pompeo said during a fireside chat during the conference. […]

  40. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/norway-has-evs-like-america-has-guns

    “EVs made up 97 percent of new car sales in Norway last month. We could do that, too!”

    I love bringing you kids some climate optimism on a Saturday, so let’s enjoy this Washington Post story from Friday (gift link) about how Norway has gone from having very few electric vehicles a decade or so ago to becoming the first country with more EVs on the road than gas or diesel-powered vehicles, a landmark Norway just reached in September of last year. And as the article points out, EVs make up almost all new-car sales even in Norway’s northernmost region, Finnmark, where it’s pretty darn cold.

    Norway’s progress toward decarbonizing its transportation sector — on the ground at least; airplanes are still stubbornly hard to decarbonize — pretty much invites a stream of examples and data, so the Post story indulges:

    At the Skoda dealership in Alta, Finnmark’s largest city, salesman Orjan Dragland marveled at the transformation — how five years ago, every car on the showroom floor had a combustion engine, and now the inventory is all EVs.

    In 2024, nearly 90 percent of new passenger cars sold in Norway were fully electric. Of the cars sold last month, the EV share was 97 percent.

    By comparison, EVs last year accounted for 8 percent of new car sales in the United States, 13 percent in the euro zone and 27 percent in China.

    […] Hooray For Activist Government

    But if you really want a comparison that makes Norway shine compared to the US, it’s in the explanation that car dealer Orjan Dragland gave when asked what happened to completely change his new-car inventory: “What happened? The government happened.”

    Quite simply, Norway’s government started taking action on climate back in the 1990s, when the rest of the world should have, too, which is a big part of why it’s getting close to becoming the first country in the world to reach 100 percent zero emissions new-car sales. Or very close.

    To promote EVs, Norway offered big subsidies that made going electric an easy choice for consumers:

    [The] government made EV purchases and leases exempt from a 25 percent value-added tax (VAT) — cutting thousands of dollars from the sticker prices — as well as from import and registration taxes.

    Yay, Scandinavian social democracy helping people have nice things! The incentives have been so successful that a few have even been modified. VAT is now added to higher-priced EVs, because now that inexpensive EVs are everywhere, it’s silly to subsidize luxury cars. Little perks like free city parking and exemptions from tolls and ferry fares have also been eliminated or replaced with discounts.

    […] many EVs in Norway are simply cheaper than gas cars, unlike in most of Europe and in the US. And yes, lots of Chinese EVs, which don’t face the 100 percent tariffs they do in the US and in the eurozone. (Thing I had to look up to confirm: Norway isn’t on the euro; it uses its good old kroner and by gum it likes it.)

    Fun side note: While Tesla’s recently facelifted Model Y (built in Germany) remains the top-selling EV model in Norway, Tesla has lost overall market share there because of Elon Musk’s personal toxicity, not to mention its stagnant vehicle line and technology. But mostly, it’s because there are so many good, high-quality competitors from European and Chinese manufacturers. (When Norway set out to transition to EVs, it attempted to build an EV industry of its own, but that failed. All cars and trucks are imported, regardless of powertrain.)

    Charged Up, Ready To Go

    In addition to the vehicle discount, Norway also went all-in on building a charging network that serves drivers in the cities and on the highways. Most drivers charge at home […] Cities have lots of level-2 slow chargers in parking garages and streetside, most of which use the “bring your own cable” model to reduce vandalism and maintenance costs. In addition, there’s plentiful fast charging for travelers; WaPo notes that the “longest distance between two fast-charging stations in Finnmark is about 80 miles,” and that on major roads, Norway is well ahead of the EU target of having fast chargers every 60 kilometers (37 miles).

    Most of the charging network was heavily subsidized by the government, but now that EVs are nearly everywhere, nearly all new charging stations since 2022 have been built by private operators. To keep expanding the transition of trucking to electric, Norway continues to subsidize charging stations for heavy-duty vehicles.

    Yeah, I know. They put thought into it and didn’t elect a cranky toddler who sought to knock it all down.

    […] we did get a kick out of this recent car nerd video on EVs in Norway, 80 percent of which seems to be the narrator walking through parking lots and charging stations in Bergen, Norway’s second-largest city, and marveling at all the different EVs and plug-in hybrids. [video at the link]

    How To Pay For It: Oil Revenue For Clean Energy, Not Billionaires

    […] Norway is rapidly greening its vehicle fleet, its homes and offices, and even industry. But the big driver of Norway’s domestic clean energy transition is the revenue from its massive oil and gas reserves […] As the Post explains,

    Norway has invested its fossil fuel profits into what has become the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, a nest egg worth $1.7 trillion. Returns from that fund help cover government expenses, which in turn makes it easier to accommodate climate-friendly tax exemptions.

    […] the EV transition has also been made easier by lucky geography: Just under 89 percent of its electricity comes from hydroelectric power, with wind making up nearly all the rest. Legacy fossil fuel plants made up only about 1.6 percent of the remaining energy mix. Not surprisingly given how far north Norway is, solar is only a teensy part of the mix, just .2 percent.

    In addition to keeping all those EVs humming, all that clean electricity is keeping Norwegians warm and comfortable without burning oil or gas, because two-thirds of homes there have replaced older energy-hungry resistance heaters with far more efficient heat pumps. […] that’s smart government policy: Norway heavily taxed oil and gas for home heating, making electric heaters, and then heat pumps, the more attractive choice. The government also funded training programs for workers to install heat pumps, creating a workforce that the US just plain lacks so far. Those Norwegians! It’s like the government there thinks things through and sticks with long term plans that make sense!

    Needless to say, the Post story’s comments are full of climate deniers calling Norway hypocritical for funding its green revolution with dirty oil, shame on them. But then, those are the same people who call you a hypocrite if you’re calling for clean energy but don’t live in a cave.

    The fact is, while the world transitions to clean energy, we’re still gonna use oil, and far better Norway uses its top revenue source to secure its own energy transition, so that it’ll be ready when the rest of the world catches up and nobody’s buying vast quantities of oil and gas. And switching an entire nation’s car fleet off fossil fuels — it will take a decade or more for older vehicles to reach the end of their useful lives — will definitely cut emissions greatly, a net gain for the world’s carbon budget. […]

    How replicable is Norway’s success for the rest of the world? Obviously, it helps to have all that hydro, but rapid rollouts of wind, solar, and storage will produce similarly abundant clean power. And as energy wonk Rostad Sæther of the SINTEF research institute pointed out to the Post, the world’s EV market is now mature enough that countries can focus more on building charging infrastructure and greening their grids, instead of just creating demand for EVs.

    Sure does help not to elect a fascist, too.

  43. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Peter Sterne (City & State NY):

    [DHS] officers invading a congressman’s offices and arresting a staffer who tried to stop them is very, very bad.
    […]
    The DHS said in a statement that it invaded Nadler’s office to “ensure the safety and well being” of their staffers after protesters entered the office. But in reality, DHS officers threatened and handcuffed a staffer.

    DHS handcuff one of Rep. Nadler’s aides in chaotic day at NY fed building

    the same federal office building as an immigration courthouse. […] DHS officers entered Nadler’s district office and accused staff members of “harboring rioters.” A Nadler staffer is seen crying and being handcuffed.
    […]
    The staff member was not arrested and not charged […] the staffer who’d been handcuffed said that “everything resolved” and declined to comment
    […]
    there were […] immigrant rights advocates monitoring activities in the building […] The advocates said they were outside an immigration courtroom where plainclothes ICE officers were questioning people as they were leaving their court appearances. The advocates said they were advising the immigrants of their rights. The officers, in turn, threatened the advocates with arrest for loitering […] ICE officers then arrested one of the advocates in the courthouse […]

    Then […] a Nadler staffer invited them and a third advocate up to the lawmaker’s office, which is on the floor above the courthouse. They were there for about 20 minutes before the DHS police entered […] the aide who was handcuffed had declined the officer entry to a more private part of the office. […] video shows the handcuffed staff member asking officers, “What’s your problem? […] They’re here for a meeting. They’re constituents.”

    A DHS officer urged her, “Do not resist. Stop resisting.”

    DHS cares so much about loitering, they will hunt you down.

    Angus Johnston (History professor):

    Jerry Nadler is the former chair of the House Judiciary Committee. […] This is odd: […] this incident actually happened on WEDNESDAY […] Nadler’s office didn’t make any public statement about it at the time. […] someone sent video of the incident to Gothamist. But again, the videographer wasn’t one of Nadler’s people—it was someone documenting protests […] I expect we’re going to be getting significant additional reporting on this

  44. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    ICE raids [San Diego]’s Buona Forchetta, draws angry crowd outside popular restaurant

    Usually Buona Forchetta has customers waiting out front, lined up to enter
    […]
    an hour-and-15 minute operation […] Both the main restaurant and their smaller place next door were raided […] ICE officers tossed two flash bangs to back the crowd off. Black remnants of the bangs remained visible on the pavement outside the restaurant.
    […]
    The restaurant’s manager […] saying the ICE officers showed “up with no explanation.” He said there were about 20-25 officers who “surrounded the building and then came inside” pushing him against the wall and handcuffing him. They frightened the workers, many of them students […] while handcuffing other members of the staff. […] Apparently they did not see whatever or whomever they were seeking. Instead, they took two employees […] because “they didn’t have a physical ID.”

    Marisa Kabas (The Handbasket):

    Inching closer to just shooting people.

    The thing that really scares me is that DHS thugs are terrorizing people in broad daylight in crowded locations where they know everyone will be filming them and they’re doing it anyway. They don’t fucking care. Kind of debunks the idea that past atrocities could’ve been avoided with more media.

    Rando 1: “I can’t get over that they handcuffed everyone. Including the manager.”

    Rando 2: “Why are masked ICE agents armed with flash bang grenades and assault rifles being deployed to arrest local restaurant workers?”
     
    Marisa Kabas:

    These agencies are straight up disappearing people, and this Democratic senator is having a chill hang with them jesus fucking christ.

    Sen Elissa Slotkin (D-MI): Yesterday, I met with CBP and ICE […] I was impressed by how many are recruited from the local community. [Photos]

  45. Reginald Selkirk says

    Massive security blunder: Russian nuclear site blueprints exposed in public procurement database

    Russia is modernizing its nuclear weapon sites, including underground missile silos and support infrastructure. Data, including building plans, diagrams, equipment, and other schematics, is accessible to anyone in the public procurement database.

    Journalists from Danwatch and Der Spiegel scraped and analyzed over two million documents from the public procurement database, which exposed Russian nuclear facilities, including their layout, in great detail. The investigation unveils that European companies participate in modernizing them.

    According to the exclusive Der Spiegel report, Russian procurement documents expose some of the world’s most secret construction sites.

    “It even contains floor plans and infrastructure details for nuclear weapons silos,” the report reads.

    German building materials and construction system giant Knauf and numerous other European companies were found to be indirectly supplying the modernization through small local companies and subsidiaries…

  46. Reginald Selkirk says

    @16

    Ernst doubles down on Medicaid comment with sarcastic video ‘apology’

    Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) doubled down on a recent quip about Medicaid in a Saturday post on her Instagram story.

    “Hello, everyone. I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely apologize for a statement that I made yesterday at my town hall,” Ernst said in the clip, with a sarcastic tone.

    On Friday, the Iowa Republican was jeered after brushing aside life or death concerns about cuts to Medicaid, a public health insurance program for low income families and individuals with disabilities.

    “See I was in the process of answering a question that had been asked by an audience member, when a woman who was extremely distraught, screamed out from the back corner of the auditorium, people are going to die,” Ernst said Saturday.

    “And I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this earth. So I apologize, and I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well,” she continued.

    The Iowa lawmaker then encouraged viewers who want to see “eternal and everlasting life” to “embrace” Jesus Christ…

  47. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    More on the raid @44.

    a worker [said] “about three or four” employees were arrested
    […]
    A large crowd began to gather and witnessed one individual being placed into a federal vehicle. […] The crowd surrounded the agents, yelling profanities and calling them fascists. Many people recorded the agents and the license plates
    […]
    At one point, a group blocked an unmarked vehicle carrying agents from leaving […] After activating the sirens multiple times without success, agents used what appeared to be flashbang smoke grenades to disperse the crowd.

    Link

  48. whheydt says

    As regards Sen. Joni Ernst…there should have been a follow-up question. Since everyone is going to die anyway, in order to save money why aren’t you cutting the health insurance system that covers Congress?

  49. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Reuters – Musk’s DOGE expanding his Grok AI in US government

    Musk’s team was using a customized version of the Grok chatbot. […] “They ask questions, get it to prepare reports, give data analysis.” […] DOGE staff also told [DHS] officials to use it even though Grok had not been approved within the department.

    Reuters could not determine the specific data that had been fed into the generative AI tool or how the custom system was set up. […] If the data was sensitive or confidential government information, the arrangement could violate security and privacy laws, said five specialists in technology and government ethics. […] concerns include the risk that government data will leak back to xAI, a private company, and a lack of clarity over who has access to this custom version of Grok.
    […]
    If federal employees are officially given access to Grok for such use, the federal government has to pay Musk’s organization for access […] “They were pushing it to be used across the department,” […] Reporters also couldn’t determine if DHS workers followed the directive
    […]
    DHS, under the previous Biden administration, created policies last year allowing its staff to use specific AI platforms […] In May, DHS officials abruptly shut down employee access to all commercial AI tools […] after workers were suspected of improperly using them with sensitive data […] Instead, staff can still use the internal DHS AI tool. Reuters could not determine whether this prevented DOGE from promoting Grok at DHS.
    […]
    If Musk was directly involved in decisions to use Grok, it could violate a criminal conflict-of-interest statute […] If DOGE staffers were pushing […] to ingratiate themselves with the billionaire, that would be ethically problematic but not a violation
    […]
    DOGE staffers have attempted to gain access to DHS employee emails in recent months and ordered staff to train AI to identify communications suggesting an employee is not “loyal” to Trump’s political agenda
    […]
    In the last few weeks, a group of roughly a dozen workers at a Department of Defense agency were told by a supervisor that an algorithmic tool was monitoring some of their computer activity […] Using AI to identify the personal political beliefs of employees could violate civil service laws

  50. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    GovExec

    [Gumroad CEO Sahil Lavingia] “got the boot” from DOGE without warning the day after Fast Company published an interview in which he spoke about finding less inefficiencies than he expected […] at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

    “I would say the culture shock is mostly a lot of meetings, not a lot of decisions,” Lavingia told Fast Company in the piece, which also noted that he noticed the number of mission-driven people working in government. “But honestly, it’s kind of fine—because the government works. It’s not as inefficient as I was expecting, to be honest. I was hoping for more easy wins.”

    In the new post, Lavingia detailed his work extracting HR data to lay off employees at VA […] Lavingia worked for DOGE as a software engineer at the VA for just over 50 days […] Lavingia did review contracts, using a large language model to flag some for potential cancellation
    […]
    The former member […] also wrote about frustration with a lack of knowledge-sharing in DOGE and what he called a lack of team culture. Lavingia said he pushed to open source his work
    […]
    “The reality was setting in: DOGE was more like having McKinsey [management consulting] volunteers embedded in agencies rather than the revolutionary force I’d imagined,” the blog said. “It was Elon (in the White House), Steven Davis (coordinating), and everyone else scattered across agencies.”
    […]
    WIRED previously reported on […] DOGE’s lack of understanding of the agency […] “In meetings […] I discovered ambitious ongoing software projects like reducing veterans’ benefits claims processing from 133 days to under a week,” wrote Lavingia. “I also learned that several of VA’s code repos were already open-source, and the world’s first electronic health record system, VistA, was built by VA employees over 40 years ago.”

  51. whheydt says

    https://www.nbcnews.com/world/russia/least-dead-hurt-bridge-collapse-train-derailment-russia-rcna210182

    MOSCOW — A passenger train derailed in western Russia late Saturday, killing at least seven people and injuring 30, after a bridge collapsed because of what local officials described as “illegal interference.”

    The bridge in Russia’s Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, was damaged “as a result of illegal interference in transport operations,” Moscow Railways said in a statement, without elaborating.

    Russia’s federal road transportation agency, Rosavtodor, said the destroyed bridge passed above the railway tracks where the train was traveling.

    Photos posted by government agencies from the scene appeared to show passenger cars from the train ripped apart and lying amid fallen concrete from the collapsed bridge. Other footage on social media appeared to be taken from inside other vehicles that narrowly avoided driving onto the bridge before it collapsed.

    Bryansk regional Gov. Alexander Bogomaz said emergency services and government officials were working at the scene. He said seven people died and two children were among the 30 injured.

  52. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Microsoft and AI: spending billions to make millions

    Microsoft’s Business Applications Launch Event […] included a slide trumpeting the huge momentum for Copilot Studio! 160,000 organisations, sending 251 million messages! Wow!

    A message costs one cent. So Copilot Studio is generating at most $2.5 million a month, or $30 million a year. Worldwide. Microsoft is forecast to spend $80 billion on AI in 2025. For 160,000 organisations, that’s 52 messages per day each. […] That’s not using Copilot for real work—that’s playing with it to try it out.

    Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is full AI or bust:

    [abandon what’s worked up to now] “The last five years we spent building, it doesn’t matter. It’s not worth anything anymore […] Burn the ships.”

    […] We noted previously that Microsoft doesn’t break out its AI numbers anywhere it can avoid doing so. That’s because the numbers are bad. Nadella going AI is going to be Facebook going Metaverse at the best.

  55. Reginald Selkirk says

    @53

    At least seven dead after Russian bridge collapses on to train

    The causualty count is going up.

    At least seven people have died after a highway bridge collapsed on to railway tracks in Russia close to the Ukraine border, according to emergency services.

    The bridge in Bryansk brought down several heavy trucks on to a moving passenger train as it collapsed, with 31 people also reportedly injured…

    In a statement posted to Telegram, Moscow Railway alleged the bridge had collapsed “as a result of illegal interference in transport operations”…

    The incident took place about 100km (62 miles) from the Ukraine border.

  56. John Morales says

    whheydt, the gist I get from multiple sources is that the bridge collapsed and then the train hit the collapsed bridge causing a derailment, rather than that the bridge fell upon the train. Seems easier to engineer, much wider window.

  58. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Follow-up on license plate readers.

    404Media – Flock decides not to use hacked data in people search tool

    “This means that Nova will not supply any data purchased from known data breaches or stolen data.”
    […]
    “I was pretty horrified to hear we use stolen data in our system. In addition to being attained illegally, it seems like that could create really perverse incentives for more data to be leaked and stolen,” one employee wrote on Slack […] “What if data was stolen from Flock? Should that then become standard data in everyone else’s system?”
    […]
    “We […] explored it because investigators told us they wanted to do it,” the Flock executive said [“]and we made the decision to not supply dark web data through the Nova platform to law enforcement at all.”

  59. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Kevin Beaumont (Cybersecurity journalist):

    The builder.ai story is wild. Microsoft put almost half a billion dollars into them (and lost it all). Everything crumbled when the Financial Times did a tiny amount of research on them, and realised their [accountant was] a friend of the CEO. As soon as they hired a real auditor, they collapsed. […] builder.ai faked three quarters of its sales.

    A journalist investigating this told me they’re looking at various other AI companies off the back of this—and all share similar close links to their auditors so far. So strap in, and prepare to be shocked dot GIF.

    Second link

    [The founder] came under scrutiny after the FT revealed last year that he had been named by authorities in India in relation to a high-profile criminal probe, while he also fought a series of other legal disputes

    Third link

    Builder.ai had claimed it could use artificial intelligence to make the process of building an app or website “as easy as ordering pizza”.

    That pitch had drawn in blue-chip backers such as Microsoft, which has staked its claim to being at the forefront of the AI boom

  60. John Morales says

    In investment news: https://au.investing.com/news/analyst-ratings/jefferies-maintains-microsoft-stock-rating-with-steady-price-target-93CH-3868067

    On Friday, Jefferies, a global investment banking firm, maintained its rating and price target for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), a leader in the technology sector. The firm reiterated its stance on the stock, indicating a consistent outlook on the company’s performance. According to InvestingPro analysis, Microsoft is currently trading near its 52-week high of $468.35, with the stock showing signs of being slightly overvalued based on its Fair Value calculations.

    Microsoft, known for its significant presence in the software industry, including its flagship Windows operating system and Office productivity suite, continues to be a focal point for investors and analysts alike. The company’s strong market position is reflected in its impressive $270 billion in revenue and healthy 69% gross profit margin. Jefferies’ decision to hold steady on its rating and price target reflects their current assessment of Microsoft’s market position and future prospects.

    —

    Oh, and this made me chuckle internally:
    “This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.”

  61. JM says

    Fox News: Trump warns Rand Paul he’s playing into ‘hands of the Democrats’ with ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ opposition

    “If Senator Rand Paul votes against our Great, Big, Beautiful Bill, he is voting for, along with the Radical Left Democrats, a 68% Tax Increase and, perhaps even more importantly, a first time ever default on U.S. Debt,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Saturday afternoon.

    Paul told “Fox News Sunday” last weekend he supports the tax and spending cuts in the bill, which he still slammed as “wimpy and anemic, but I still would support the bill, even with wimpy and anemic cuts if they weren’t going to explode the debt. The problem is the math doesn’t add up. They’re going to explode the debt by, the House says, $4 trillion. The Senate’s actually been talking about exploding the debt $5 trillion.”

    Trump and Rand Paul going to war is great. Rand Paul is not going to back down, he is a small government anti-government spending fanatic who doesn’t care about threats from other parts of the Republican party.
    I’m also hoping that Trump’s attacks on Rand Paul and Leonard Leo will split the hard right in a way that has not happened previously. Those are both people with long and good (among the far right) reputations that can’t easily be swept under the rug.

  62. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Kevin Beaumont

    Microsoft have implemented Copilot on its own GitHub repos and it’s a clusterfuck, you can see MS engineers publicly begging Copilot to work.

    [r/ExperiencedDevs – Watching AI slowly drive Microsoft employees insane]

    This is real customer code btw that Copilot is messing up with, big self own […] Microsoft Incident Response are going to book so much revenue from all the security vulns Microsoft Copilot introduces to Microsoft customers.

    Rando 1: Working with CoPilot is like having a pair programmer who is wildly insane, didn’t read the project documents and may or may not be a spy. The syntax is usually solid, it’s the logic and design that’s absolutely bonkers.

    Rando 2: “If your pair programmer also randomly just made stuff up with absolute confidence all the time too, and also whenever they DO write something vaguely on task and don’t make stuff up—they specialize in mistakes that are difficult to spot”

    Rando 3:

    The AI is attempting to fix bugs, but despite the seemingly well written PRs, it’s doing so in the worst way possible: writing code that doesn’t compile, breaking tests, adopting bogus logic.

    MS employees are trying to respond to the PRs to nudge the AI in the right direction, but it keeps breaking things.

    Meanwhile all the problems identified could probably have been solved in 1/10th of the man-hours used, if they had been written by a real person.

    Rando 4: “My favorite so far: Copilot fixed a description of faulty logic in a comment (for non-programmers: a bit of text that is not actually code, but describes what the code does or is expected to do), but did not actually fix *the faulty code itself* until another dev prompted it to do so.”

    Rando 5

    It’s even worse than that. They’re fucking with this bullshit in the .NET ecosystem, and pushing ‘vibe coding’ hard.

    Literally over a decade of effort to make it open, accessible, building rapport with numerous communities, and untold hours proving .NET’s real worth.

    This isn’t just customer code; this is literally an entire ecosystem impacting over a hundred million users. Just getting pissed right down the drain.

    “there’s no way it—” Samsung Tizen OS.
    Every smart TV from Samsung is running .NET. Not just running it but very heavily dependent on it.
    Those idiotic smart fridges? .NET inside.
    And the list just goes on and on to the point where 100M devices is likely a massive underestimate.
    (Disclosure: I am a member of the .NET Foundation. But I don’t speak for them.)

  63. StevoR says

    Bombshell news I wasn’t expecting :

    Jared Isaacman won’t be NASA’s next chief after all.

    Semafor reported on Saturday (May 31) that President Donald Trump is pulling the nomination of Isaacman, a billionaire tech entrepreneur and private astronaut who has commanded and funded two SpaceX missions to Earth orbit. The White House confirmed the news shortly thereafter.

    … (Snip)..

    “It’s essential that the next leader of NASA is in complete alignment with President Trump’s America First agenda, and a replacement will be announced directly by President Trump soon,” she added.

    … (Snip)..

    Huston’s statement doesn’t give an overt reason for dropping the 42-year-old Isaacman, the founder and CEO of the payment-processing company Shift4. But it implies that the White House doesn’t think Isaacman is fully on board with Trump and his space priorities.

    Source : https://www.space.com/space-exploration/trump-to-withdraw-jared-isaacmans-nomination-as-nasa-chief
    …

  64. rorschach says

    Greta Thunberg is today once again trying to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza with her flotilla of ships. I am rather worried for her life, the zionist criminals will have no problem bombing her to smithereens, and Trump won’t ask them not to, because he hates her. I’m afraid idealism is not going to solve this genocide, and I sincerely hope Greta doesn’t end up a second Rachel Corrie.

  66. Reginald Selkirk says

    More than 40 Russian bomber aircraft hit in drone attack, Ukraine security service says

    Ukraine claims to have hit more than 40 Russian bombers, in what appears to be one of the most audacious attacks so far on Russian aviation.

    According to a statement from Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, “enemy strategic bombers are burning en masse in Russia”.

    It says Ukraine is conducting “a large scale special operation aimed at destroying enemy bomber aircraft.” It says more than 40 aircraft have been hit.

    It has released dramatic video which it says shows a drone attack at the Belaya airbase in Irkutsk oblast, in Siberia. Bombers are under attack, with explosions visible and smoke rising.

    Reports suggest other aircraft have been attacked at the Olenya airbase, near Murmansk. Russian media is reporting the attack in Murmansk but says air defences are working. The attack in Irkutsk is also being reported.

    Meanwhile, the Ukrainian authorities say that 472 drones and seven ballistic and cruise missiles were involved in last night’s wave of attacks on Ukraine. This would appear to be one largest single Russian drone attacks so far. Ukraine says it neutralised 385 aerial targets.

  67. says

    Reginald Selkirk@65 Apparently Trump doesn’t understand that he’s the one who is supposed to have had Biden executed. Is he getting senile enough that thinks that if someone says he did something, he must have, even if doesn’t remember doing so?

  68. rorschach says

    “Apparently Trump doesn’t understand that he’s the one who is supposed to have had Biden executed.”

    I’m suspecting that Trump’s Truth Social posts are not written by himself, at least mostly. The style of posts, grammar and punctuation just varies so wildly. So I wouldn’t take this latest one as a sign of his progressing dementia with paranoid features, necessarily. Might just be the socmed intern got into Elon’s Ketamine stash.

  69. Reginald Selkirk says

    @68 rorschach

    I’m suspecting that Trump’s Truth Social posts are not written by himself, at least mostly.

    If you look at the headline I linked, it was “Trump shares post…” assume it was a re-post, not original content. Still, if you’re the president of the fucking United States of America, you ought to be more careful about which content you associate yourself with.

    And remember the popular abbreviation TIDNF: Trump Is a Demented Narcissistic Fuckwit.

  70. says

    This year’s hurricane season brings fear of storms and Trump’s plans for FEMA, by Representative Troy Carter

    “The idea that state and local governments can step up and do what FEMA does is not only unrealistic, it’s reckless.”

    Related video at the link.

    As this year’s hurricane season begins, states and local governments are bracing for what climate scientists warn could be another record-breaking year of storms, wildfires and floods. As the representative for Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District — which includes New Orleans and surrounding parishes — I know what it means to live in the bull’s-eye of weather disasters.

    In addition to countless unnamed storms, in recent memory, we’ve weathered hurricanes […] In those moments, FEMA — imperfect as it may be — was a lifeline.

    But now, that lifeline is under threat.

    With Executive Order 14180, President Donald Trump has initiated a dangerous restructuring of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which millions of Americans rely on in their most desperate moments. The president’s plan shifts the responsibility for emergency preparedness and disaster recovery from the federal government to already overburdened state and local governments.

    That’s not reform. It’s federal abandonment. It’s like closing fire stations and telling people to buy their own hoses.

    A FEMA Review Council, chaired by political loyalists including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, is tasked with evaluating whether FEMA has become too “bureaucratic.” But let’s call this what it really is: a plan to downsize or altogether dismantle FEMA’s role, cloaked in the language of efficiency and decentralization. In fact, the president has suggested eliminating FEMA […]

    I represent a state that knows devastation. In 2021, nearly 500,000 Louisiana households were approved for assistance in the 30 days after Hurricane Ida. But we are not alone. FEMA responded to more than 100 declared disasters in 2024, including back-to-back hurricanes Helene and Milton that battered Florida and Georgia. In North Carolina, communities are still recovering from Helene’s catastrophic flooding.

    Disaster recovery is incredibly difficult even with federal coordination and resources. Without it, we are setting communities up for failure. These actions have consequences — and they will cost lives.

    The idea that state and local governments — many of which are already underfunded and understaffed — can assume the full logistical and financial burden carried by FEMA is not only unrealistic, it’s reckless.

    […] Weakening FEMA is not just bad policy, it’s a moral outrage.

    And the timing couldn’t be worse. In 2023, the U.S. experienced 28 weather disasters — hurricanes, floods, wildfires, tornadoes — that cost at least a billion dollars in property losses. That was the highest on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Climate change isn’t theoretical. It isn’t a prediction for what will happen in the future. It’s here, now, reshaping our landscape and threatening lives from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes.

    Not only is Trump gutting FEMA, but he’s also proposing massive cuts to NOAA and its subsidiary, the National Weather Service […] the National Weather Service office in Lake Charles, Louisiana — ground zero for multiple hurricanes over the last five years — is down a director and two senior meteorologists.

    The administration is systematically dismantling the architecture of public safety. This is not how you protect a nation.

    […] Yes, FEMA needs improvement. It must be more efficient, more equitable and more transparent. But dismantling it is not the solution. Gutting FEMA in the middle of the climate crisis is like grounding rescue helicopters in the middle of a flood.

    We need to invest in FEMA. Strengthen NOAA. Restore staffing and leadership at the National Weather Service. Give state and local governments the tools they need, but do not make them do it alone.

    Because when the next disaster hits — and it will — we won’t have time to debate funding formulas or organizational charts. We will need help. Fast. Fair. And federal.

    That’s the America our people deserve. And that’s the FEMA we must defend.

  71. says

    Ukraine hit Russia Hard with drones

    Lots of videos and posts from various sources.

    Some of this may be overblown, or just exaggerated. It’s hard to tell at this point.

    This will be in textbooks.
    Ukraine secretly delivered FPV drones and wooden mobile cabins into Russia. The drones were hidden under the roofs of the cabins, which were later mounted on trucks.

    At the signal, the roofs opened remotely. Dozens of drones launched directly from the trucks, striking strategic bomber aircraft.

    And — Russia can’t produce these bombers anymore. The loss is massive.
    Nothing like this has ever been done before.

  74. says

    Sky Captain @49 and 50, thanks for the updates on DOGE activity.

    As usual, it looks like a combination of arrogance, ignorance and incompetence is still playing a large part in the DOGE changes (or attempted changes) to federal agencies, including the Department of Veterans Affairs.

    And, of course, any DOGE doofuses who speak out about what is actually going on are fired.

  78. says

    Followup to Reginald @66 and me @71.

    Ukraine claims massive drone strike on Russian bombers in ‘Spiderweb’ operation

    “The audacious attack targeted 41 strategic Russian aircraft, a source inside Ukraine’s Security Service told NBC News.”

    Ukraine’s Security Service claims to have struck more than 40 Russian bombers deep inside Russian territory, in what would be one of the largest and most audacious attacks on Russian territory in the yearslong conflict.

    A source within the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) told NBC News that the country targeted “41 strategic Russian aircraft” in an offensive operation code-named “Spiderweb.”

    The source also released dramatic video purportedly showing a drone attack at the Belaya air base in Russia’s Irkutsk region, located in Siberia, nearly 3,000 miles from Ukraine. […]

    “Preliminary estimates indicate that enemy aviation has suffered over $2 billion in damage,” the source said. “Enemy strategic bombers are burning en masse in Russia.”

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not directly address the bombing, but said Sunday on X that Ukraine was “doing everything to protect our independence, our state, and our people,” after saying he had received updates from intelligence agencies and the SBU.

    Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, posted an emoji of a spiderweb on Sunday, seemingly referencing the name of the massive drone operation.

    The remarkable attack was in the works for over a year and a half, the source inside the SBU told NBC News. The SBU first smuggled drones into Russia, followed by mobile wooden cabins. Once inside Russia, the drones were hidden under cabin roofs mounted on cargo trucks. During the attack, the roofs opened remotely, enabling the drones to launch at Russian bombers, according to the source, who added that the operation was overseen by Zelenskyy and executed by the country’s Security Service.

    […] Russia did not immediately comment on the bombings, but Irkutsk’s regional governor, Igor Kobzev, said on Telegram that there had been a drone attack “on a military unit in the settlement of Sredny.”

    He did not say whether the Belaya air base or others were hit, but said the drone was launched from a truck.

    Russian officials in the Ryazan and Murmansk regions also reported drone activity on Sunday afternoon, according to The Associated Press, but did not give further details.

    The attack follows a night of bombardment, with Russia launching 472 drones, Ukraine’s air force said. Earlier Sunday, Ukraine’s army said a Russian missile strike on an army training unit killed at least 12 Ukrainian service members and injured 60.

    The latest escalation comes just a day before Russia and Ukraine are scheduled to meet for a second round of direct talks in Istanbul.

    Zelenskyy appeared to confirm Kyiv’s participation on Sunday, saying on X that he had “outlined the tasks for the near term and also defined our positions ahead of the meeting in Istanbul on Monday.”

    “First — a full and unconditional ceasefire. Second — the release of prisoners. Third — the return of abducted children,” he said.

    On Saturday night, two bridges collapsed in Russian regions bordering Ukraine, killing seven and injuring dozens. Russian officials alleged deliberate sabotage.

    The first collapse occurred late Saturday in Bryansk, crashing onto railway tracks and derailing an approaching train, according to Gov. Alexander Bogomaz.

    “Unfortunately, there are seven fatalities,” he posted on Telegram, later adding that 47 people had been hospitalized.

    Hours later in the Kursk region, a railway bridge collapsed while a freight train was crossing it, according to acting Gov. Alexander Khinshtein. […] Ukraine has not commented.

  79. says

    Followup to comment 78.

    Washington Post:

    […] According to a Ukrainian intelligence official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic, Kyiv conducted a “special operation” that destroyed 41 “Russian strategic aircraft” stationed at four airfields. The official said dozens of ‘first person view’ (FPV) drones armed with explosives were smuggled into Russia and concealed inside trucks and beneath the roofs of houses, which were remotely opened, allowing the drones to fly up and attack their targets. The operation, codenamed ‘Spiderweb’ was prepared for over 18 months “under the personal supervision” of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

    Russia’s Defense Ministry called the operation a “terrorist attack” and confirmed in a statement published by Russian state newswires that airfields had been attacked by FPV drones in Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan and Amur regions. The ministry added that several suspects had been detained, and that there were no casualties.

    […] The governor of Russia’s far-north Irkutsk region, Igor Ivanovich Kobzev, said drones launched from a truck attacked a military unit in the village of Sredny. In a Telegram post Sunday, he said it was the first such attack to target Siberian territory.

    In Russia’s northwest Murmansk, which borders Finland, regional Gov. Andrey Chibis said enemy drones had attacked unspecified targets.

    […] Russia’s influential ‘Z community’, pro-war bloggers, military journalists and propagandists, described Sunday’s attack as “Russia’s pearl harbor” with some calling for retaliation.

    “We hope that the response will be the same as the US response to the attack on their Pearl Harbor or even harsher,” military blogger Roman Alekhin wrote on his Telegram channel, which has 174,000 subscribers. “This is not just a pretext. This is a reason to launch nuclear strikes on Ukraine,” wrote the author of the Telegram channel “Two Majors”.

    The attack followed the sudden collapse of two bridges in Western Russia which derailed a passenger train and killed at least seven people.

    The incidents occurred within hours of each other overnight Sunday in Russia’s Kursk and Bryansk regions, both of which border Ukraine. It was not immediately clear whether they were linked. […]

  80. says

    New York Times: Over 20 Killed Near Aid Distribution Site in Gaza, Palestinian Health Officials Say

    “It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attack. The Israeli military denied any of its fire had harmed people within the site.”

    At least 20 people were killed on Sunday in southern Gaza near an aid distribution site, according to local health officials, as hungry Palestinians gathered en masse hoping to receive some food from the facility.

    It was not immediately clear who had opened fire in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said its paramedics had evacuated at least 23 killed and 23 wounded from the area, all with gunshot wounds. In a statement, Gaza’s health ministry gave a higher toll of 31.

    The Israeli military said it was not aware of any injuries caused by Israeli fire “within the humanitarian aid site,” but did not immediately rule out shooting nearby. Hamas accused Israeli forces of attacking people who had gathered to seek food. The New York Times could not verify the circumstances of the attack.

    Over the past week, Israel has launched a contentious plan to overhaul aid distribution in Gaza. Israeli officials say the new system — run mainly by American contractors — of four sites in southern Gaza would prevent Hamas from seizing the food, fuel and other goods, but aid agencies have criticized the initiative.

    Huge crowds of Gazans have headed for the new aid sites, hoping to receive a box of food supplies. While some days have gone relatively smoothly, there have also been chaotic scenes, including one instance in which Israeli forces fired what they described as warning shots.

    The United Nations and other major humanitarian relief groups have boycotted the sites, accusing Israel of wielding aid as part of its military strategy. U.N. officials said there was little evidence that Hamas systematically diverted relief. Critics in Israel have warned the effort could be the first step toward establishing formal Israeli rule over Gaza.

    The new arrangement was drawn up by Israeli military officials and their associates and stipulates that Israeli forces secure the perimeter of four aid sites in southern Gaza. U.S. security contractors are overseeing the distribution of boxes of food there as part of the newly-created Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

    On Sunday, the foundation reiterated that it was unaware of any attacks in or around its distribution sites. “Our aid was again distributed today without incident,” the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said, adding that reports to the contrary were “fomented by Hamas.” [I do not trust the independent contractors.]

    The violence took place a day after the Trump administration rejected Hamas’s response to a cease-fire proposal. On Saturday night, the United States had suggested a two-month truce to free hostages. Hamas officials argued that the proposal did not go far enough to ensure that the cease-fire would become permanent, an issue that has long been the main sticking point with Israel in the truce talks. […]

  81. says

    New York Times: A 355-Year-Old Company That Once Owned One-Third of Canada Is Shutting Down

    “Bargain hunters picked over what was left at the Hudson’s Bay Company’s remaining stores, part of a vast empire that was North America’s oldest corporation.”

    […] On Sunday, a month after it marked the 355th anniversary of its founding, the Bay, as it is commonly known, is permanently closing its 80 department stores throughout Canada.

    The company was much more than just a retailer and the last traditional, full-line department store chain in Canada. In 1670, Britain, which claimed part of present-day Canada, set up the company as a fur trader and granted it a vast stretch of territory equal to what is about a third of Canada, without asking the Indigenous people whose land it was.

    […] The Bay’s fate was sealed by the large debt it had been carrying, and it recently declared bankruptcy.

    Long before President Trump’s trade war and his calls to make Canada the 51st state stoked anti-American sentiment in Canada, the purchase in 2008 of a cultural institution like the Bay by Richard A. Baker, a New Yorker whose family controlled an array of shopping malls, was widely viewed with suspicion among Canadians.

    At first, Mr. Baker made good on his promise that he had not bought the Bay for its real estate — although he did cash in on that later. His investments in the stores and his appointment of Bonnie Brooks, a respected Canadian retailer, as president and chief executive turned Hudson’s Bay sagging fortunes around.

    To compete with the rise of online retailing, Mr. Baker invested heavily in the Bay’s e-commerce. And part of Ms. Brooks’s revitalization involved playing up the company’s heritage. Merchandise, from measuring cups to wooden canoes, started appearing bearing the distinctive green, red, yellow and indigo stripes of the Bay’s “point blankets.” The blankets were first used in the 18th century to trade for furs with Indigenous people.

    […] Mr. Baker’s focus shifted away from the Bay as he bought other department stores, notably Saks Fifth Avenue, in the United States and Europe. After buying Neiman Marcus last year, Mr. Baker severed Hudson’s Bay from the rest of his holdings.

    The company filed for bankruptcy in March, but its decline had begun well before and accelerated after the pandemic.

    A lack of maintenance and investment in the stores was tangible to customers encountering broken elevators and escalators as they tried to reach the top of the Ottawa store. A fire escape stairwell was opened to make going up and down easier. […]

    Last week, reaching the top was a letdown. What had been expansive kitchen, furniture and linens departments was now mostly a sea of empty shelves. […]

    A bulletin board lying on a table hinted at the store’s former glory. A “store inventory snapshot” pinned on it showed that the downtown Ottawa store sold 31 million Canadian dollars, $22.5 million at current exchange rates, worth of merchandise in 2019.

    After the final cleanup of the stores, Hudson’s Bay said in bankruptcy filings that it planned to lay off about 8,200 employees without severance pay.

    The Hudson’s Bay’s name (in full: the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay) and all of the company’s other intellectual properties were sold in bankruptcy to Canadian Tire, another large retailer that said it had no plans to revive the Bay department stores.

    A relatively small commercial real estate company in British Columbia won the rights to 28 Hudson’s Bay store leases and has a vague plan to start a new department store chain. But those takeovers still need the approval of landlords and a judge.

    For all of the nostalgia Hudson’s Bay evokes among many Canadians, it has a different resonance with many Indigenous people given the company’s involvement in the colonization of Canada by Europeans. They argue that the company was built on the exploitation of their lands and that the Indigenous trappers who were key to its early prosperity were never fairly compensated. […]

  82. says

    The Trump administration is ending a USDA assistance initiative as the country’s food pantries are “stretched to the breaking point” and a hunger crisis looms.

    Oaks and Sprouts, Tonni and Graham Oberly’s family farm, got the email from the Ohio Association of Foodbanks just after five o’clock on the first Friday in March.

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA, had notified the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services that it was ending a program that gave state, tribal and territorial governments federal dollars to stock food pantries from farms within a 400-mile radius. The Ohio Association of Foodbanks, in turn, shared the notice with the more than 150 farms that supplied the state’s food pantries with fresh produce, meat and dairy. One of them was Oaks and Sprouts, whose younger and diverse owners are just the type of growers the USDA’s Local Food Purchase Assistance program aimed to connect to food-insecure Americans.

    Last growing season, Oaks and Sprouts had a contract worth up to $25,000 with the program, a significant amount for the small farm. The produce made its way to food pantries in nearby Springfield and Dayton and, from there, to the Ohioans who rely on them to feed themselves and their families. For Tonni Oberly, […] with a background in public health, joining that distribution chain connected her work at the farm to the focus of the city and urban planning doctorate she had recently completed: how place impacts the health of Black mothers and children.

    […] The federal program had also allowed the Oberlys to diversify their farm’s revenue stream beyond the traditional sales to restaurants and at farmer’s markets. […]

    The Oberlys estimate that they were able to hire two of their four seasonal employees last year because of their contract with the Local Food Purchase Assistance program, known as LFPA. They try to pay a good wage for the work — $17 an hour. That’s a decent amount for a place like rural Champaign County […]

    The email from the Ohio Association of Foodbanks landed as Oaks and Sprouts was in the thick of planning for its fifth growing season — the third in which the Oberlys planned on participating in the LFPA program. It attached a USDA notice saying that the Trump administration had “determined this agreement no longer effectuates agency priorities and that termination of the award is appropriate.” After the current contract year closes on June 30, the LFPA program, which authorized $900 million worth of locally raised healthy foods for anti-hunger organizations, would end.

    Created by the Biden administration in 2021, the Local Food Purchase Assistance program was at once an attempt to support small local farms and an acknowledgement that one of the most direct ways to bring healthy food to hunger-vulnerable populations is to buy it from underserved farmers nearby.

    But a USDA press release announcing its creation featured words like “equity” and “climate,” targets of President Donald Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency in their efforts to root out so-called “woke” federal programs. […]

    Still, Oaks and Sprouts, like the vast majority of the farms participating in Ohio CAN, began planning for the 2025 growing season. There were reasons to be hopeful. For starters, while the Local Food Purchase Assistance program was part of the Biden administration’s broader COVID-19 relief effort, its funding stream was first used for direct food purchases during Trump’s first term. […] Independent experts who analyzed its first year in the Republican-led state concluded that it was a “success by any measure.”

    Trump’s picks to lead key federal agencies in his current term also seemed to be working in the program’s favor. Take Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. One of the first things she did upon confirmation was to send state, local and tribal governments a letter that outlined her “vision for the Department’s 16 nutrition programs,” including a commitment to “create new opportunities to connect America’s farmers to nutrition assistance programs.”

    Then there’s Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a former environmental lawyer, the figurehead of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement and an outspoken critic of processed foods. One of his top priorities is encouraging states to prohibit the more than 40 million low-income Americans participating in the USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, from using benefits to purchase soda and candy […] Many experts say a more effective way to encourage healthier eating is to improve access to fresh foods, exactly the type that LFPA farms were producing and selling to food pantries.

    [I snipped statistics related to SNAP use in Ohio.]

    The country’s safety net to prevent hunger is a complicated web of federal programs. Most are housed within the USDA and many are jointly administered by federal and state governments. These include SNAP, previously known as food stamps; the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, known as WIC; school meal programs; Meals on Wheels, focused on seniors; commodities purchases for food banks; and the Local Food Purchase Assistance program that Tonni and Graham Oberly’s farm participated in.

    Pulling on the thread of one program puts tension on the others. […] As the USDA is ending programs like the LFPA, Congress is looking at other food assistance programs to find the $1.7 trillion in savings over the next decade needed to renew Trump’s 2017 tax package, which primarily benefited corporations and the wealthy.

    [I snipped details related to other changes the Trump administration wants to make to food assistance programs.]

    Earlier this month, the Trump administration also ordered states to hand over SNAP recipients’ personal data, including their Social Security numbers, addresses and, in at least one state, citizenship status, National Public Radio reported. The directive came amid the administration’s broader push to amass Americans’ personal data and target immigrants.

    Though people in the country illegally are not eligible for SNAP benefits, their U.S. citizen children might be. […]

    The USDA also recently paused $500 million from a separate program that buys large quantities of food from farmers for food pantries […] When the administration ended the LFPA, it also terminated a $660 million program that linked local farms to schools and child care centers.

    […] Vince Hall, the head of government relations for Feeding America, the nationwide foodbank network, called an already “very precarious moment for food banks because there’s no resiliency left in the system.” […]

    Alabama has exhausted its funds; Ohio had about $435,000 left from $26.6 million allocated; just $1,500 remained in Tennessee’s coffers, according to an official tally. […]

    Graham and Tonni Oberly had to pivot quickly.

    After they received the email from the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, they secured a spot for this season in a farmer’s market in Dayton that is larger than the one where they used to sell their produce nearby. They are adding cut flowers to their lineup and growing Chinese Cabbage for the first time, while also trying to expand the number of local restaurants to which they sell what they grow.

    But the modicum of predictability that the Local Food Purchase Assistance program gave this new farm for the past two seasons — the USDA considers farmers and ranchers “beginning” for their first decade and eligible for special assistance — will be gone this year. As will the direct line for Oaks and Sprouts to help address food insecurity in their own community. […]

    More than 47 million Americans — including one in five children — are considered food insecure, meaning they do not have enough food to eat or access to healthy foods. […] The highest rates of food insecurity are among Indigenous and Black Americans, according to a Feeding America analysis, with Black children twice as likely as White children to face hunger. […]

    While more than 90 percent of all U.S. farms qualify as “small,” with gross cash annual farm incomes of $250,000 or less, they account for just 17 percent of the total value of food produced in the country, according to USDA statistics. Still, they play a critical role in diversifying the overall food ecosystem by supplying produce, dairy and meat that are not available from large-scale agribusiness. Many grow a variety of crops instead of focusing on one or two. Since they are often serving their own communities, they are less vulnerable to disruptions to complex global supply chains.

    In 1973, as global demand for U.S. farm exports exploded, Earl Butz, the agriculture secretary under Republican President Richard Nixon, told American farmers to “get big or get out.” Farmers mostly listened. In the years since, while the number of farm acres has remained roughly constant, the number of farms has continued to decline. […]

    The Local Food Purchase Assistance program was an acknowledgement that one of the most direct ways to bring healthy food to hunger-vulnerable populations was to buy it from underserved farmers nearby. […]

    White men’s dominance over U.S. farming is not happenstance. It’s the result of more than 200 years of official government policy that reflects the fraught relationships the country has with race and land.

    In the 1830s, the U.S. government forcibly relocated thousands of Indigenous Americans from their ancestral lands in the east, where they had cultivated for generations, to a different climate in the west. Thousands of them died from disease, starvation, exhaustion and exposure to the elements during a brutal journey that came to be known as the Trail of Tears. In the 1860s, in the waning months of the U.S. Civil War, General William Sherman pledged that when the Union won, formerly enslaved Black people, who had farmed for White enslavers, would be eligible to receive 40 acres and a mule to farm their own land. President Andrew Johnson reversed course after he took office, returning the land to White people.

    People of color — and women — struggled to access credit, including via the USDA, to buy the land and equipment needed to start even a small farm in the decades of Reconstruction that followed the Civil War […] In 2022, Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act created a $2.2 billion fund to compensate farmers and ranchers who experienced past discrimination, including women. […]

    “The Department itself has recognized that there has always been a disconnect between what President Lincoln envisioned as ‘the people’s department,’ serving all of the people, and the widespread belief that the Department is ‘the last plantation,’ a department ‘perceived as playing a key role in what some see as a conspiracy to force minority and disadvantaged farmers off their land through discriminatory loan practices,’” Friedman wrote.

    This history — and a tacit recognition of the role USDA played via its discriminatory practices — underpinned the ethos of the Local Food Purchase Assistance program.

    In its first year in Ohio, the program bought from 164 growers. A majority of them were classified as “socially disadvantaged,” which for the LFPA, the USDA defined as women; Black, Indigenous and other people of color; LGBTQ+ people; veterans; and small, emerging and disabled farmers. That year, nearly 12,000 pounds of grains, 223,000 pounds of dairy and milk, 39,000 pounds of eggs and more than 2.5 million pounds of produce that these farmers produced went into the state’s food pantries. The more than $9 million worth of food was distributed via five hubs and 12 regional food banks, according to a report independent researchers produced for the Ohio Association of Foodbanks.

    […] The USDA’s decisions to end the Local Food Purchase Assistance program and to cancel planned commodities purchases for food banks have not been popular. The Iowa Farmers Union helped small farms facing lost contracts send press releases about the impact. Singer-songwriter Willie Nelson, a founder of the annual Farm Aid concert, penned an open letter to farmers encouraging them to protest the cuts. Food bank administrators from Oregon to Maryland to Florida have warned it will stress their ability to meet still-historic demand that has not diminished since the pandemic.

    […] For the Oberlys in Ohio, the politics are personal. Their five-year-old farm was just starting to be woven into the constellation of state and federal programs that fed food-insecure neighbors while giving Oaks and Sprouts a toehold in a precarious industry that employs one in eight Ohioans, either directly or indirectly, and generates billions in the state each year. […]

    Rollins earlier this week, while touring farms in Nebraska, released what the USDA called a “Farmer’s First” agenda to support small farms. It did not revive the Local Food Purchase Assistance program; the 11-point proposal also did not contain the word “equity.”

  84. birgerjohansson says

    Both presidential candidates in Poland have proclaimed themselves the winner.

  87. Reginald Selkirk says

    Saudi Arabia stops 269,678 Muslims without Hajj permits from entering Mecca

    Saudi Arabia stopped more than 269,000 people without permits for the annual Hajj pilgrimage from entering Mecca, officials said Sunday, as authorities crack down on illegal journeys into the city.

    The government blames overcrowding at the Hajj on unauthorized participants. It also says they made up large numbers of those who died in last year’s searing summer heat.

    The number of expulsions highlights the scale of unauthorized pilgrimages — as well as the demand to perform the Hajj. There are currently 1.4 million Muslims in Mecca officially, with more expected to arrive in the days to come.

    There are fines of up to $5,000 and other punitive measures, like deportation, for anyone performing the Hajj without a permit. The policy includes citizens and those with Saudi residency.

    At a press conference in Mecca, officials said they had stopped 269,678 people without permits from entering the city. According to the rules, only those with permits are allowed to perform the pilgrimage, even if they live in the city year-round…

  88. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Migrants escape cruel crackdown at Tucson court

    Repeatedly last week, migrants in Tucson’s immigration court said the key words that likely kept them out of handcuffs. […] They were opposing government motions to dismiss their immigration cases.
    […]
    ICE agents, often masked and in plain clothes, began arresting people at court May 20. Last week, they changed tactics […] and pursued people after they left the courthouse, where they would be out of public view, avoiding protests.
    […]
    [Volunteers] did a “know your rights” training for some of those who had appointments this week, letting them know about the need to oppose dismissal of their cases. [Immigration lawyers] are under restrictions about giving legal assistance, but these volunteers are freer to help. […] ICE agents were holed up in a nearby room […] But they couldn’t make any arrests, because everyone said “me opongo.”

    ICE agents posed as utility workers

    Christine Cariño was approached by two men claiming to be from Tucson Electric Power […] looking for a neighbor of hers. “He said, ‘We’re trying to find somebody that wanted a free estimate,'” […] the two men weren’t in uniform, as TEP requires […] she noticed the other wearing a badge under his shirt.
    […]
    Immigration agents can’t enter a private space such as a home without consent, unless they have a judicial warrant signed by a judge. ICE agents usually have only an administrative warrant, which doesn’t carry the same authority, or no warrant
    […]
    The ACLU’s complaint [in 2020 (and pending settlement)] centered on the practice of ICE agents trespassing on civilians’ porches and private areas […] It also alleges the common practice of ICE impersonating local police or probation officers to gain access to a home, or to “lure” someone outside so they could be arrested, is unconstitutional. […] ICE officers routinely wear uniforms that have ‘POLICE’ written on them.[“]

    * Rando 1: “Why does this article refer to the man as ‘undocumented’, and then say that he is accused of missing an immigration appointment? If he is in the system, he’s not undocumented, he’s in process.”

    Rando 2:

    This is, BTW, *blatantly* illegal. My employer spends millions of dollars a year telling the public to be on the lookout for burglars or scammers impersonating utility workers.

    In California, you will *never* get an unsolicited knock from a utility employee without the utility contacting you first. It is the law in California that a utility worker cannot enter your property without showing photo ID on request. If they are a contractor, they are required to show proof that they are working on behalf of the utility they claim.

     
    Elsewhere.
    Email appears to direct troopers to take off nameplates when working with ICE

    Florida Highway Patrol helped arrest 100 immigrants. Then it got squeamish about all the recordings. An email directed them to remove name plates specifically during ICE ops and to put them back on afterward. The agency’s policy manual includes uniform requirements, which forbid any variation “without expressed authorization of the Director or designee”.

  89. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Another ICE deportation in defiance of court order

    a panel of federal judges […] granted the man, Jordin Melgar-Salmeron, permission to remain in the United States while his immigration case wound its way through the courts.

    Twenty-eight minutes later, however, Melgar-Salmeron was on an ICE Air flight from Louisiana to El Salvador. In a court filing, Peter Sukmanowksi, assistant director of the Buffalo ICE office, said he notified the New Orleans office that Melgar-Salmeron was not to be deported, but only after the flight had taken off. […] he’s being held at El Salvador’s notorious Izalco prison. In March testimony, a Human Rights Watch director said detainees there face conditions amounting to torture.
    […]
    In the government’s most recent response to the court, as in the Abrego-Garcia case, the government claims “a confluence of administrative errors”

    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (American Immigration Council):

    This kind of administrative sloppiness at ICE is *way* too common. Data entries are wrong, required procedures and welfare checks are skipped, and mistakes get made because corners are being cut. It’s happening even more with the White House screaming for ever-higher numbers.

    Years of dealing with ICE makes me always default to sloppiness being the most likely answer over deliberate negligence. […] there are a lot who just half-ass the paperwork.
    […]
    And with the recent firing of the HSI head and the reassigning of the ERO head, the rank and file are likely going to get the message to not push back when asked to cut corners.

  91. Reginald Selkirk says

    FBI investigating attack in Boulder, Colorado, as ‘act of terror’

    Police in Boulder, Colorado, are responding to an attack at the Pearl Street Mall that they say left several victims.

    FBI Director Kash Patel said officials are investigating this incident as a “targeted terror attack.”

    “Our agents and local law enforcement are on the scene already, and we will share updates as more information becomes available,” Patel said.

    The incident occurred Sunday afternoon at the intersection of 13th Street and Pearl Street.

    Police have evacuated the area from Broadway to the west, Pine Street to the north and 16th Street to the east and Walnut Street to the south.

    An investigation is ongoing, police said.

    Colorado Gov. Jared Polis called the attack a “heinous act of terror.”

    “Hate-filled acts of any kind are unacceptable. While details emerge, the state works with local and federal law enforcement to support this investigation,” Polis wrote on X.

    This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

  92. JM says

    @88 CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain:

    Rando 1: “Why does this article refer to the man as ‘undocumented’, and then say that he is accused of missing an immigration appointment? If he is in the system, he’s not undocumented, he’s in process.”

    Undocumented means not having the documentation to be in the country legally not that a person has no documentation. Generally courts use the term undocumented, illegal is a more casual wording. As a person winds their way through the system they can move back and forth from being undocumented.
    It’s terrible wording because it confuses different issues relating to paperwork and legal status.

  93. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Thank you, JM.
     
    More on the Boulder attack @91…

    CBS

    Run For Their Lives [has] been holding these silent marches every week since Oct. 7 […] for the hostages still in Gaza. They stop at the courthouse to sing songs, tell stories and read the names […] around 30 people were participating in today’s walk.
    […]
    [One marcher said, “]there was somebody there that I didn’t even notice, although he was making a lot of noise […] I felt the heat. It was a Molotov cocktail equivalent, a gas bomb in a glass jar, thrown. [Another marcher] saw it, a big flame as high as a tree, and all I saw was someone on fire,”
    […]
    Photos from a viewer show a shirtless man at the scene being detained by police.

    France24

    Asked if it was a terror attack against the protesters, Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn insisted it was “way too early to speculate motive” behind the incident
    […]
    In one video apparently of the attack, a shirtless man holding clear spray bottles in his hands is seen pacing as the grass in front of him burns. He can be heard screaming “End Zionists!”, “Palestine is Free!” and “They are killers!” towards several people in red t-shirts as they tend to a person lying on the ground.

    The footage came from a Twitter thread describing a “Self proclaimed Palestinian man (in his 50s best guess)” with a discarded garden pump sprayer backpack he’d filled with gasoline. The crowd doused victims with water from a nearby fountain.

  94. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    DOGE left Institute of Peace office with water damage, rats, and roaches

    “essentially abandoned for many weeks” before USIP regained control. […] DOGE had failed to “maintain and secure the building,” […] Staff also reported […] vehicle barriers were poorly maintained and that they spotted water leaks and missing ceiling tiles

    Rando: “It was among the newest and most beautiful buildings in DC.”
     
     
    Reminds me of a Wired story a while back.

    As Trump’s presidency began, the DOGE brain trust broke camp at SpaceX headquarters in DC. […] they left a men’s bathroom “trashed.” One of the urinals was “filled with gum and Zyn [nicotine pouches].”

    /A story I’d omitted it for redundancy. Also had strange AI art and nonsense alt text.

  95. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Kye La’Nay:

    ICE kidnapped a disabled American citizen.

    Her name is Alma Bowman. Born in the Philippines while her dad served in the U.S. Navy. She’s lived here 48 years. They crashed her wheelchair, denied meds, cut her off from her lawyer—and jailed her.

    She. Is. A. Citizen.

    * I couldn’t source those mistreatment claims, but they’re easily believable.

    Atlanta News First

    Alma Bowman, 58, was taken […] in March during a routine check-in
    […]
    “She’s an American citizen,” [Rep Hank Johnson (D-GA)] said. “That has been clearly established. The fact that one of her parents was an American means that she is an American.” […] Despite that, the federal government revoked her permanent residency following a criminal conviction nearly 20 years ago for writing bad checks totaling $1,200, a debt she paid back.

    Until March, Bowman had checked in with ICE about once a year while she sought to prove her citizenship since 2020. […] ICE gave no explanation for the sudden change.
    […]
    ICE is violating one of its own polices […] The policy emphasized ICE cannot assert its civil immigration enforcement authority to arrest or detain U.S. citizens and mandates careful and prompt investigation of potential citizenship claims.
    […]
    This is not the first time ICE has detained Alma Bowman. Under Trump’s first term, she was custody from about 2017 to 2020 related to the same deportation claims.

     
    A different case that rhymes had a happy ending.
    NPR – Filipina green card holder released

    After nearly three months in immigration detention, University of Washington employee Lewelyn Dixon was released […] 64 years old and has lived in the U.S. since she was 14, when her family moved here from the Philippines.

    Dixon was on her way back […] after a family trip to the Philippines when she was detained […] because of a non-violent conviction from 2001 […] [The judge] said the favorable factors in Dixon’s case outweighed her criminal history.

  97. birgerjohansson says

    Oops! Coffee was discovered by black people and spread through sufi monasteries.

    If you are travelling to USA, don’t let the border guards know you like a muslim/black power drink! 

    “The Incredible History of Coffee ☕”
    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=SKxGAYWVhf4

  100. birgerjohansson says

    Chinese reactor using neutrons from fusion to achieve fission.

    I am somewhat skeptic about these lofty ambitions. What makes this project interesting is, it is using the fast neutrons from fusion to split fissionable material. The article has few details but in theory you could get most of the energy from fission  without exceeding criticality as the neutrons arrive from another source than the actinides. This would make the reactor very safe.

    “China Moves Decades Ahead”: World’s First Fusion-Fission Hybrid Reactor Set to Eclipse U.S. Efforts by 2030 – Sustainability Times

    .https://www.sustainability-times.com/energy/china-moves-decades-ahead-worlds-first-fusion-fission-hybrid-reactor-set-to-eclipse-u-s-efforts-by-2030/

  103. says

    Text quoted by Sky Captain @94:

    DOGE left Institute of Peace office with water damage, rats, and roaches

    I figured that that would be the case. DOGE even leaves physical damage in their wake. It says a lot about their character. It’s also a good metaphor for what they are doing to the agencies they infect. We need more pest control.

  104. says

    Trump taps extreme Jan. 6 apologist for key watchdog role. That won’t end well., by Barbara McQuade

    Related video at the link.

    Picking Paul Ingrassia to lead the U.S. Office of Special Counsel is not like putting the fox in charge of the hen house. It’s more like setting fire to the whole farm.

    On Thursday, President Donald Trump nominated the former far-right podcast host to lead the important albeit little-known federal agency office. OSC is not to be confused with the special counsel position recently occupied by Jack Smith, who was appointed under federal regulations by Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate Trump for alleged violations of criminal law. Instead, OSC is an independent agency created by Congress as part of the Civil Service Reform Act in the wake of the Watergate scandal.

    The office protects whistleblowers and other federal workers from unlawful employment practices. OSC also enforces the Hatch Act, the law that bars political activity in the federal workplace. The nature of the work demands an experienced investigator who is scrupulously apolitical. Ingrassia is anything but.

    The 30-year-old Ingrassia has been a lawyer for only three years. He previously worked at the Claremont Institute, the same far-right think tank that brought us John Eastman, a key alleged architect of the 2020 election’s fake elector scheme. According to its website, Claremont is currently “working to undermine the Left’s hold over America’s institutions and conscience.”

    Ingrassia doesn’t have the legal experience for the role. But he has something more important, at least for this administration. Early in Trump’s second term, Ingrassia served as the president’s liaison to the Justice Department, where he referred to himself as Trump’s “eyes and ears,” according to NBC News. He was reassigned to the Department of Homeland Security after he reportedly clashed with DOJ officials by pushing to hire candidates with “exceptional loyalty” to Trump, reports ABC News.

    His views on the Jan. 6 riot are extreme, even by MAGA standards. In December, Ingrassia called for not only pardons of the Jan. 6 defendants, but also for $1 million per family in reparations. He advocated for Trump to “expressly name, in a public proclamation, any judge and prosecutor involved in the J6 scam — and call on them to resign from their offices, and pressure Congress to undertake impeachment proceedings against them if they do not cooperate.” Ingrassia also urged Congress to make Jan. 6 a national holiday to place “the day’s events in their proper historical context: as a peaceful protest against a great injustice affecting our electoral system.” Ingrassia has referred to former Vice President Mike Pence as a traitor who belongs in “the ninth circle of hell.”

    Of course, all private citizens are entitled to express their opinions, but someone who is either as delusional or sycophantic as Ingrassia is, in my opinion, simply unfit to lead an agency that is tasked with enforcing nonpartisanship.

    […] Like the U.S. attorney position, the head of the Office of Special Counsel must be confirmed by the Senate. For the sake of our federal workforce and the important work they do for our country, let’s hope this nomination meets the same fate as Martin’s.

  105. says

    It’s not just Medicaid: Republicans’ megabill would sabotage the Affordable Care Act

    “The GOP has dropped the ‘repeal and replace’ phrasing, but its megabill is an anti-ACA package that would take coverage from millions of Americans.”

    Related video at the link.

    Though health care policy and future of the Affordable Care Act wasn’t one of the defining issues of the 2024 election cycle, it probably should’ve been. Donald Trump, for example, spent much of the year condemning the popular and effective ACA, and he had plenty of partisan company.

    […] JD Vance talked up an idea that would weaken protections for Americans with pre-existing conditions. As Election Day drew closer, House Speaker Mike Johnson publicly endorsed “massive” changes to federal health care policy, adding, “No Obamacare”; Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah published an online item that read, “Kill Obamacare now”; and future Republican Sen. Dave McCormick announced his opposition to an ACA provision that allows young adults to stay on their parents’ health insurance plans.

    Despite the health care law’s popularity, Republicans won […] The Washington Post reported:

    Congressional Republicans are pursuing changes to the Affordable Care Act that would mean 10.7 million fewer Americans using its insurance marketplaces and Medicaid, a huge reduction that some view as a way to accomplish part of the health-care coverage cancellation that failed in 2017.

    [Sigh. They never let go of a bad idea.]

    Of course, GOP officials aren’t explicitly saying that they’re trying to gut the ACA. In fact, the Post’s headline is emblematic of the fact that these efforts are unfolding largely out of the spotlight: “Shhh. Republicans are trying to repeal Obamacare again. Sort of.” [True]

    […] “It is very much like a backdoor repeal and replace. They’ve been too cute by half by doing it but not calling it that.”

    […]It’s not exactly a secret that much of the focus on the inaptly named “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” has been on Medicaid, and for good reason. Despite Trump’s promise not to cut the health care program, the GOP legislation would cut roughly $700 billion from Medicaid in the coming years. Just hours ahead of the bill reaching the floor, House leaders added new and punitive Medicaid provisions to shore up support from far-right members.

    But for health care advocates, the effects on the Affordable Care Act matters, too. Axios had a good report last week noting that the Republicans’ package would make it harder for people to sign up for ACA marketplace plans, gut the ACA’s Medicaid expansion program, end automatic re-enrollment in ACA plans and shut off provisional ACA subsidies, among other things. A related Rolling Stone report added that the same proposal would also “place further restrictions on enrollment periods and create new bureaucratic hurdles to obtaining premium tax credits, in ways that experts say will cause many to forgo or lose coverage.”

    […] if implemented, “would also delay two Biden-era regulations aimed at easing and streamlining enrollment by helping people more easily transition between Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program and private marketplace plans.”

    Perhaps most importantly, the Republican plan would end the expanded ACA tax credit subsidies that made coverage far more affordable for consumers throughout the Biden era […]

    With this in mind, NBC News reported that new coalition of health care advocates, called Keep Americans Covered, is launching a new seven-figure ad campaign on the issue. […]

    The Republicans’ megabill is, for all intents and purposes, an anti-health care bill that would take coverage from millions of American families.

  106. says

    Just when it seemed Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “MAHA” report couldn’t become more embarrassing, newly added errors have taken this to a new level.

    Within hours of Donald Trump and his White House team unveiling “The MAHA Report: Making Our Children Healthy Again” two weeks ago, problems emerged. The Washington Post reported, for example, that some of the report’s suggestions “stretched the limits of science,” and offered “misleading representations” of scientific research.

    A week later, a devastating report published by NOTUS advanced the underlying story considerably, highlighting the unambiguous fact that the MAHA document “misinterprets some studies and cites others that don’t exist, according to the listed authors.” Soon after, The New York Times identified “additional faulty references” in the report, including instances in which the document’s authors pointed to “fictitious studies.”

    It seemed hard to believe this debacle could get worse, but it did. NOTUS reported in a follow-up article that several of the errors from the original report have been edited or removed, but in the process, administration officials have added new errors, including updated citations that “misinterpret scientific studies.” From the article:

    One study NOTUS identified as misinterpreted in the original report was intended to support the claim that psychotherapy is more effective for children than medication for treating mental health concerns. That study was swapped out with a new “systematic overview” authored by psychologist Pim Cuijpers, who told NOTUS via email that MAHA’s new citation is also wrong. Cuijpers said his referenced study doesn’t cover psychiatric medications in children at all — the research was focused on adults. The citation is located in a section of the MAHA report titled, “American children are highly medicated — and it’s not working.”

    When the White House was pressed last week for some kind of explanation for this fiasco — which appeared to be the result of misusing an AI program — press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed there were “some formatting issues” with the document, a defense that continues to be unintentionally funny but not persuasive.

    The broader point is not to simply mock officials’ foibles. As the original NOTUS article noted, “As the Trump administration cuts research funding for federal health agencies and academic institutions and rejects the scientific consensus on issues like vaccines and gender-affirming care, the issues with its much-heralded MAHA report could indicate lessening concern for scientific accuracy at the highest levels of the federal government.”

    […] The Associated Press reported on Saturday that Americans “are losing a vast array of people and programs dedicated to keeping them healthy.” The AP added that recent cuts imposed by the Trump administration have reduced the nation’s public health system “to a shadow of what it once was, threatening to undermine even routine work at a time when the nation faces the deadliest measles outbreak since at least the 1990s, rising whooping cough cases and the risk that bird flu could spread widely among people.” […]

    The more the health secretary [RFK jr.] and his team suffer humiliations of their own making, the more difficult it becomes to have confidence that these officials have any idea what they’re doing as the nation’s public health system suffers.

  107. says

    Poland’s presidential election runoff will be a bitter pill for pro-European Union democrats to swallow.

    The nationalist, Trumpian, historian Karol Nawrocki has narrowly defeated the liberal, pro-EU mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski, 50.89 to 49.11%.

    […] Nawrocki, backed by the conservative Law and Justice party, will no doubt stymie the ability of Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his Civic Platform-led coalition to enact democratic political reforms.

    This legislativegridlock could well see Law and Justice return to government in the 2027 general elections, which would lock in the anti-democratic changes the party made during their last term in office from 2015–2023. This included eroding Poland’s judicial independence by effectively taking control of judicial appointments and the supreme court.

    Nawrocki’s win has given pro-Donald Trump, anti-liberal, anti-EU forces across the continent a shot in the arm. It’s bad news for the EU, Ukraine and women.

    Link

  108. says

    Followup to comment 107. Same link as in 107.

    A rising Poland

    […] Poland’s economy has boomed since it joined the EU in 2004. It spends almost 5% of its gross domestic product on defence, almost double what it spent in 2022 at the time of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

    Poland now has a bigger army than the United Kingdom, France and Germany. And living standards, adjusted for purchasing power, are about to eclipse Japan’s.

    […] As a rising military and economic power of 37 million people, what happens in Poland will help shape Europe’s future.

    Impacts on Ukraine

    Poland’s new position in Europe is most clearly demonstrated by its central role in the fight to defend Ukraine against Russia.

    This centrality was clearly demonstrated during the recent “Coalition of the Willing” summit in Kyiv, where Tusk joined the leaders of Europe’s major powers — France, Germany and the UK — to bolster support for Ukraine and its president, Volodymyr Zelensky.

    However, Poland’s unqualified support for Ukraine will now be at risk because Nawrocki has demonised Ukrainian refugees in his country and opposed Ukrainian integration into European-oriented bodies, such as the EU and NATO.

    Nawrocki was also backed during his campaign by the Trump administration. Kristi Noem, the U.S. secretary of homeland security, said at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference in Poland […]

    Trump also hosted Nawrocki in the Oval Office when he was merely a candidate for office. […]

    Nawrocki has not been as pro-Russia as some other global, MAGA-style politicians, but this is largely due to Poland’s geography and its difficult history with Russia. It has been repeatedly invaded across its eastern plains by Russian or Soviet troops. And along with Ukraine, Poland shares borders with the Russian client state of Belarus and Russia itself in Kaliningrad, the heavily militarised enclave on the Baltic Sea.

    […] a Nawrocki presidency will still be more hostile to Ukraine and its interests. During the campaign, Nawrocki said Zelensky “treats Poland badly,” echoing the type of language used by Trump himself.

    […] liberals across the continent will now need to negotiate a difficult relationship with a right-wing, Trumpian leader in the new beating heart of Europe.

  110. says

    People so often overlook the importance of good penmanship.

    Posted by Mrs. Betty Bowers.

    A nice photo of wall graffiti done in proper cursive:

    Fuck you Donald Trump!!!

    It is pretty.

    As one rando response:

    It’s showing off impressive control of that spraycan, I can only approve.

  111. says

    Followup to comments 66, 71 and 78.

    Ukraine this weekend struck one of its most devastating blows in its grinding war against Russia’s invading army, using smuggled drones to target bombers on air bases deep inside Russian territory.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky quickly took credit for what he called “Operation Spider Web,” a contrast with many of Ukraine’s attacks inside Russia. He said 117 drones were used in the attack Sunday, each with its own operator back in Ukraine.

    Zelensky said the drone attacks took out nearly a third of Moscow’s fleet of bomber aircraft, which has rained terror on his country for more than three years. Ukraine’s security services said 41 Russian aircraft were destroyed or damaged.

    Russian military bloggers put the figure lower, with the prominent Rybar account saying 13 Russian aircraft were damaged.

    Ukraine said “Operation Spider Web” was started 18 months ago, in what military experts called a remarkable feat of logistics, espionage and military cunning.

    The bomb-laden drones were hidden in what Reuters reported were the roofs of wooden sheds. These sheds were loaded onto 18-wheelers and parked near military bases as deep into Russia as Siberia. The roof panels were then remotely lifted up, so the drones could fly out and stealthily begin their attack.

    The operation likely required recruiting Russians to assist throughout the smuggling network, without alerting Moscow’s sprawling spy services.

    […] The New York Times said it verified a video showing two drones take off from containers on the back of a semitruck within 4 miles from a Russian military base, with smoke plumes visible in the distance.

    […] The operation did not stop Russian and Ukrainian envoys from meeting for another round of talks Monday, in which they were set to exchange broad plans to end the war. Zelensky said documents were swapped after the talks finished, and suggested a new prisoner swap is in the works.

    […] Ukraine’s security service estimated the strikes dealt Russia $7 billion in damage.

    […] Those involved in the attacks were withdrawn from Russia before they were carried out, Zelensky said.

    However, Russia’s defense ministry said it had detained an undisclosed number of “participants in the terrorist attacks,” the Financial Times reported, citing state media.

    Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 472 drones over Ukraine overnight Sunday, in one of its largest drone attacks in the war, with explosions reported in the cities of Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, and strikes on at least 18 locations.

    Neither Putin nor the Kremlin have publicly addressed the attacks, and state media outlets made little mention of them as of Monday morning in the U.S.

    President Trump was not informed ahead of time of the drone attacks [Wise]

    […] If Ukraine’s timeline is correct, the plan was in the works when Trump told Zelensky in February that he had “no cards” in negotiations to end the war.

    […] Trump has at times blamed Putin, Zelensky and former President Biden for the war, and has warned the U.S. will walk away from peace talks if there’s no progress toward a deal.

    Link

  112. says

    Canadian wildfires trigger air quality alerts across the U.S.

    Alerts are in effect in Minnesota, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and northern South Carolina.

    ir quality alerts remained in place Monday from Minnesota and Michigan to South Carolina due to smoke from wildfires in Canada.

    Over 180 fires scattered across Canada are actively burning, with 91 burning out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, a nonprofit that supports the government’s wildfire response. The fires have burned over 3.7 million acres since the beginning of the year.

    Over the weekend, hazy skies could be seen over Minneapolis and Duluth, and an air quality alert was issued for all of Minnesota on Monday by the state’s pollution control agency. […]

  113. says

    MEXICO CITY (The Borowitz Report)—In a move likely to stir controversy, Mexico has officially renamed the Liberty Bell “the TACO Bell,” the Mexican president announced on Monday.

    Effective immediately, the landmark will be referred to as the TACO Bell in all Mexican atlases, encyclopedias, and history textbooks, President Claudia Sheinbaum said.

    In her announcement, she gave Donald J. Trump “full credit” for the name change.

    “Thanks to Donald Trump, when one thinks of America, one no longer thinks of liberty,” she said. “One thinks of TACO.”

    https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/mexico-renames-the-liberty-bell-the

  114. says

    Donald Trump’s personnel failures tend to fall into three distinct categories. Some of his nominees have failed, for example, because of intractable bipartisan opposition (see Matt Gaetz and Ed Martin). Others failed because some on the far-right decided that the president’s choices weren’t quite radical enough (see Dr. Janette Nesheiwat).

    The third category, however, is the most unusual: Some of Trump’s personnel failures have come after the White House admitted that it dropped the ball on vetting and neglected to do its due diligence. It’s what happened with Chad Chronister’s failed nomination to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration; it’s what happened with Kathleen Sgamma, who was the president’s choice to run the Bureau of Land Management; and at least at first blush, it’s what appears to have happened to Jared Isaacman, who was Trump’s pick to serve as the new administrator of NASA. NBC News reported:

    President Donald Trump said Saturday he is pulling the nomination of billionaire Jared Isaacman to be NASA administrator, citing “a thorough review of prior associations.” Trump, in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, did not elaborate on what associations he was referring to.

    The president’s statement was uncharacteristically brief. “After a thorough review of prior associations, I am hereby withdrawing the nomination of Jared Isaacman to head NASA,” he wrote. “I will soon announce a new Nominee who will be Mission aligned, and put America First in Space. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

    The news was, among other things, sudden: Isaacman’s nomination had already cleared a committee vote — he was approved with bipartisan support, which was relatively unusual for a Trump nominee — and his confirmation was practically a foregone conclusion. Nevertheless, just a few days before the Senate was poised to approve the nominee, the president pulled his choice to lead NASA from consideration.

    As for the “prior associations” […] The New York Times reported, “Mr. Trump in recent days told associates he intended to yank Mr. Isaacman’s nomination after being told that he had donated to prominent Democrats, according to three people with knowledge of the deliberations who were not authorized to discuss them publicly.”

    This was an odd explanation. After all, it stood to reason that Isaacman’s background as a political donor was well known before he was even nominated. Indeed, the Times reported a day later that the former nominee did, in fact, freely disclose his record in this area and the details of his donations “were old news.”

    While Mr. Trump privately told advisers in recent days that he was surprised to learn of Mr. Isaacman’s contributions and that he had not been told of them previously, he and his team were briefed about them during the presidential transition in late 2024, before Mr. Isaacman’s nomination, according to two people with knowledge of the events. One of those people said Mr. Isaacman, who had already been approved by a Senate committee and was headed to a confirmation vote this week, directly told Mr. Trump about those donations when they met in person weeks after the 2024 election.

    So what happened? The Times’ report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, added that in recent days, the president’s associates “began pressing him on Mr. Isaacman’s Democratic donations,” and the behind-the-scenes lobbying appears to have had an impact. What’s more, Isaacman was closely aligned with Elon Musk, and Trump’s biggest campaign donor has exited his White House office.

    As for who Trump’s next NASA nominee might be, watch this space.

    Link

  116. says

    The Wall Street Journal reported:

    Support for the law firms that didn’t make deals [deals to appease Trump] has been growing inside the offices of corporate executives. At least 11 big companies are moving work away from law firms that settled with the administration or are giving — or intend to give — more business to firms that have been targeted but refused to strike deals, according to general counsels at those companies and other people familiar with those decisions.

    […] In interviews, general counsels expressed concern about whether they could trust law firms that struck deals to fight for them in court and in negotiating big deals if they weren’t willing to stand up for themselves against Trump.

    Makes sense.

    Commentary:

    […] firms that cooperated with the White House’s offensive are confronting the awkward realization that their strategy backfired: “The agreements were supposed to buy peace and allow the firms to move on, but in the weeks since they have caused rifts between partners, alienated some younger associates and created problems with some longtime clients.”

    The same article noted that one of the big firms lost an associate who wrote in his departure email that he refused to “sleepwalk toward authoritarianism.” This coincided with a recent New York Times report on four of the top partners at Paul Weiss — one of the legal giants that gave in to the White House — announcing that they are leaving to create their own law firm.

    Let’s also not forget that some of these same firms are also starting to realize that their deals with the president are worse than they first realized.

    […] NBC News reported about a month ago that a progressive group has launched a media campaign targeting the same firms that reached deals with the president.

    ‘Big law, stop bending the knee,’ reads a poster from the ‘Big Law Cowards’ campaign by the liberal nonprofit group Demand Justice. The group says the ads will be wheatpasted strategically around Washington on Thursday near the locations of the firms that have reached deals with the administration. The group will also have a mobile billboard circulating with ads criticizing the firms, along with a broader digital campaign.

    In case this isn’t obvious, the underlying point of these efforts isn’t to chastise the firms for making the wrong decision; it’s to remind those firms that it’s not too late to reverse course and join the ranks of the firms resisting Trump’s gambit.

    Will any of the firms abandon their existing deals? If one firm does it, will others follow? Watch this space.

    Link

  118. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/polygraphs-purges-fbi-gets-kgb-under

    “Polygraphs! Purges! FBI Gets KGB Under Patel And Bongino”

    Ugh, the same day as a horrific […] attack on pro-Israel protesters in Boulder, Colorado, new reporting from the New York Times portrays the FBI as a nightmare place to work, with FBI director Kash Patel and his deputy Dan Bongino running the place like the KGB […]

    No wonder Bongino, MAGA’s meatiest meathead, sounds like he’s on the verge of divorce and tears, as it all sounds very tiring. [video at the link]

    Poor guy, now he has to do a job that’s harder than riffing on conspiracy theories from his soundproofed home closet. Now he must spend all day cheek-to-jowl with Kash Patel […] He misses his podcast, and his laundry-doing wife, who we guess did not follow him to Washington, for some reason.

    Rooting out subversives takes it out of a guy! First there was sending questionnaires out to all 37,000 FBI employees, demanding they self-confess any involvement with investigations into Donald Trump and/or January 6.

    Then there was disbanding the Washington field office’s federal public corruption squad and gutting leadership, including heads of field offices and leaders overseeing national security, intelligence, criminal and cyber response, information technology, science and technology and human resources departments. And they disproportionately demoted female agents or forced them to retire, […] and fired other agents with no explanation at all.

    Now the FBI also has to occupy itself defending against lawsuits, because it’s against the rules for civil servants to be fired without cause, or in retaliation for doing their jobs, or to have their names threatened to be released so they can be doxxed and threatened by lunatics. Nine agents are class-action suing for an injunction, on behalf of the 6,000-ish agents who worked on January 6 cases, noting that “the very act of compiling lists of persons who worked on matters that upset Donald Trump is retaliatory in nature, intended to intimidate FBI agents and other personnel, and to discourage them from reporting any future malfeasance and by Donald Trump and his agents.” Yes, that is the point!

    The FBI agents also claimed that some of their names and addresses have already been leaked to the dark web, subjecting them to harassment […]

    A similar case from seven agents is also asking the court for “protection” from the Justice Department’s “anticipated retaliatory decision to expose their personal information for opprobrium and potential vigilante action by those who they were investigating.”

    But, seemingly confident that the Supreme Court will eventually sanction whatever fascist loyalty-purging methods they’re choosing to use, Meathead and QAnon-adjacent kook/children’s book series author Patel are now doubling down on purging, with agents reportedly being hooked up to polygraphs and pressured to self-confess to leaking or disloyalty to the regime. Polygraph results are inadmissible in courts, and long discredited as a reliable method to tell if someone is lying, but they’re a good enough tool for trying to intimidate anyone thinking about criticizing Dear Leader.

    And, Bongino says, they haven’t gotten around to hiring any replacements for the departed yet, either.

    “The director and I will have most of our incoming reform teams in place by next week,” Bongino X’d last week. “The hiring process can take a little bit of time, but we are approaching that finish line.” Not to mention the training time! The dozens of agents who have left took decades of experience with them. But you don’t need experience to serve Trump the Wizard, obviously! In fact, it’s a disadvantage now. Blind loyalty is all that matters.

    The New York Times, in its understated way, says that all of this purity purging is causing “unease” and “worrisome upheaval.”

    One senior official was forced out, he said, because he had not disclosed to Patel that his wife had taken a knee during demonstrations protesting police violence in 2020, meaning that the FBI’s creeping goes as far as digging through agents’ family members’ social media posts for BADTHINK. “Unease” seems rather mild […]

    Meanwhile, similar purging is going on all over the DOJ, with at least two dozen prosecutors fired or resigning for sins such as previously working under Jack Smith, or not opening fake investigations based on Project Veritas fever-dream sequences, or agreeing to restore Mel Gibson’s gun rights.

    At the same time, the QAnon nuts seem to be turning on Patel and Bongino. Where are these arrests of Satanic pedophiles drinking blood? Where are the Epstein files that they were promised? The military tribunals? Any day now, you betcha! Last week Patel and Bongino teased their fancies with the bombshell announcement that there was new information that Epstein really did commit suicide, a 180-degree reversal from the Epstein conspiracy theories Bongino himself had been pushing for years on his podcast.

    Now, Bongino says, “There’s video clear as day. He’s the only person in there and the only person coming out. You can see it.” Interesting, since Epstein died on the watch of the last Trump administration, and the DOJ swore that there was no video, and all footage had been accidentally erased. But now, Bongino says, they’ve found footage, which they’re going to release “shortly.” Also he’s going to investigate that bag of cocaine found in the Biden White House in 2023, and the January 6 pipe bomber, and the leak of the Supreme Court Dobbs case, and the origins of COVID, you betcha! And ONE of these cases is going to lead to a major announcement in DAYS. [video at the link]

    Still, Bongino’s X feed is full of disgruntleds. “You cannot be trusted!” “Where’s the Epstein list?” “We’re starting to loose trust.” [sic] “[B]een over two weeks now since you said within two week. knew you guys were lying. used to respect you. Now your just another [complaining] comprimised liar.” [sic again]

    Tough crowd! But, the nice thing about having a king is only having to answer to one opinion.

  119. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/joni-ernst-chriiiiist-what-an-asshole

    Here at Wonkette, we’ve been on the “Joni Ernst is an asshole” beat ever since the Iowa senator first slithered out of her state’s numerous cornfields with her hog castration knife clenched firmly between her no-nonsense Midwestern teeth.

    We had kind of forgotten just how much of an asshole Ernst is until we went trawling through our archives, because at this point a lunatic senator who made her election calling card the fact that she’s cut the balls off of hogs, believes in Agenda 21, promised to have state law enforcement arrest any federal officials trying to implement Obamacare, and screams “Woke!” at everything like a parakeet with a head injury is simply par for the course. The crazy has fully taken over, and now the entire GOP resembles a horde of those infected flower people in “The Last of Us.”

    And yet, our jaw still somehow dropped this weekend when Ernst almost literally told her constituents to fuck off and die at a town hall, then doubled down on the sentiment in a video that she filmed in a goddamn graveyard. […]

    To briefly recap: Last week, Ernst was holding a town hall with her constituents, something most Republicans in Congress have been avoiding for the last four months, lest they have to hear some very uncomfortable questions from voters. […]

    Ernst was trying to justify the massive $700 billion or so in cuts to Medicaid that the Republican House put into its giant budget bill that is now headed to the Senate. That number would include up to $8 billion in Medicaid cuts in Iowa over the next ten years, according to KFF.

    People are very mad about these cuts, as people tend to get when you take away their access to health care. When someone pointed out that “people will die” if these cuts go through, Ernst sneered back, “We’re all going to die.”

    Then the audience roundly booed her, so she sneered at it some more.

    The video is here: [video at the link]

    Aw, hog balls! Sure, everyone’s going to die someday. But some people will have a harder and more painful and often premature time of it because they don’t have access to good health care. Joni Ernst, as a military veteran and a member of Congress, will have all the care she needs, so why should she care about anyone else.

    All of Ernst’s yammer about the cuts only affecting people who by law are not eligible for Medicaid is such transparent horse-hockey. The cuts are huge, indiscriminate and will hurt lots of people who are eligible for the program. Rural hospitals will close, and Iowa is a rural state, so we’re guessing those hospitals serve a significant percentage of its population. [Good points]

    Also, Republicans aren’t saying exactly how much fraud there is because they have no idea. And isn’t that what we already have fraud investigations for?

    Plus, after the last four months of slashing and burning the government, why would anyone trust the people in charge to make any cuts in a measured way? They are just going to do what they have been doing. Instead of going in with a scalpel, they are going in with a hatchet, cutting everything and assuming anyone who accidentally gets tossed off the Medicaid rolls will be able to get back on. This ignores just how difficult that will be with all the bureaucracy involved, and also the not-insignificant fact that interruptions in medical care can cost lives.

    […] Not to worry, though. Joni Ernst has heard your anger, and she has responded with this incredible video, in which she mocks her constituents’ concern about their access to medical care. And she does so while walking through a graveyard, just for that extra bit of spitting in everyone’s faces: [video at the link]

    “I encourage you to embrace my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” Thank you, ma’am. We encourage you to find the nearest ocean and embrace an angry octopus.

    Even in our heightened cynical state, we were surprised enough by the stupidity of a politician who is up for re-election next year posting something this callous, arrogant, and contemptuous. Surprised enough that honestly, we had to be assured that it was not in fact a very well-done AI video.

    […] The contempt for voters dripping from Ernst’s lips is frightening. Rarely have we seen the contempt of a person who does not care a whit about the health and well-being of her voters laid out so clearly. […]

    This is, we think, a very dangerous attitude for someone who has not won either of her two general election campaigns for Senate with more than 52 percent of the vote and will face voters again in 17 months. […]

  120. says

    Link

    Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has served four terms in the House and is currently in his fourth term in the Senate—and therefore should really know better—is busy behaving like a teenage edgelord on X.

    Fam, is it good when a sitting senator implies that Israel should bomb a boat carrying Greta Thunberg, the 22-year-old climate change activist?

    On Sunday, Graham posted a picture of Thunberg on the deck of the Freedom Flotilla, currently bound for Gaza by sea to try to break Israel’s aid blockade so that Gazans could receive critical aid and food. Graham’s post was brief and snitty, but manages to be remarkably repugnant nonetheless: “Hope Greta and her friends can swim!”

    Though Graham is definitely taking heat online for the post, it was still up there on X, […] on Monday.

    There’s been no attempt by Graham to get ahead of this post, to somehow spin it as an innocent jab. And indeed, given that the Freedom Flotilla was attacked by drones in May, causing a fire and a hull breach on an unarmed boat of civilians, there’s no reason to give Graham the benefit of the doubt here and pretend he didn’t know what he was implying.

    This isn’t even the first time Graham has waxed rhapsodic about how great it is to bomb civilians. Appearing last year on “Meet the Press,” Graham compared Israel’s brutal war against Gaza to World War II and suggested that perhaps we should just give Israel nukes to drop on the civilian population:

    “When we were faced with destruction as a nation after Pearl Harbor, fighting the Germans and the Japanese, we decided to end the war by the bombing [of] Hiroshima [and] Nagasaki with nuclear weapons. That was the right decision. Give Israel the bombs they need to end the war. They can’t afford to lose.”

    It’s extremely weird to see Graham descend into this sort of guttersniping. While you do not have to hand it to Graham ever, it’s Trumpism that has built a permission structure for Graham to behave like this.

    Graham’s post is, arguably, worse than the time that Andrew Tate, the professional misogynist currently facing multiple criminal charges, went after Thunberg on X in late 2022. That’s not just because Graham is a sitting senator and Tate is a manosphere buffoon. Tate’s post only taunted Thunberg for her climate activism, tagging her and saying, “Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions.”

    And why wouldn’t people like Graham feel emboldened to treat their social media account as a place to attack people? The Trump administration is busy rewarding people with absolutely appalling online presences with jobs in his administration.

    Take Paul Ingrassia, a 30-year-old with the slenderest of legal experience, who Trump just tapped to run the Office of Special Counsel.[See comment 104]

    Ingrassia is so fond of Andrew Tate that he has acted as Tate’s publicist, used his social media to praise Tate as “the embodiment of the ancient ideal of excellence,” and was part of Tate’s legal team. Ingrassia has also used social media and his Substack to call for notorious white supremacist Nick Fuentes to be “freed.” No, not because Fuentes was in jail, but because he wasn’t being allowed to post his garbage on X for a while.

    The baby brownshirts with high-level jobs at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which may or may not be currently run by Elon Musk, also have histories of posting racist and misogynist things online. One of those feral children, Gavin Kliger, is also a big fan of Andrew Tate and Nick Fuentes, and isn’t shy about saying so.

    And let’s not forget Marko Elez, who was briefly out of a job after people dug up some of his all-time racist bangers like […] “Normalize Indian hate, and “I just want a eugenic immigration policy, is that too much to ask?” Though Elez resigned after the news broke, he was swiftly rehired. Of course he was, because his boss, Musk, gleefully turned X into the Nazi bar it is today and carries his antisemitism into the real world as well, popping off not one but two Nazi salutes at the Trump inauguration.

    The GOP has submitted completely to the cult of personality that surrounds Trump. Part of that submission requires them to behave like Trump and his most vocal bigots. It’s a surefire way for them to get Trump’s attention, to let him know that they’ve got his back, and have no problem whatsoever with his casual cruelty. Enjoy your time in the gutter with luminaries like Tate, Sen. Graham.

  121. birgerjohansson says

    This week Morgan Freeman turns 88.
    Stacey Keats turns 84.
    And it is 35 years since Total Recall.
    “Thank you for choosing a Johnnycab!”

  122. says

    Followup to comments 66, 71, 78 and 111.

    Ukraine continues to target Russian air fields

    Ukraine followed up Operation Spiderweb with attacks on more air fields. [video at the link]

    [more videos and commentary related to Operation Spiderweb]

    Meanwhile, Russia closes the barn door after the horse has gotten out.

    The Russians, in a panic, blocked roads in the Irkutsk region, causing massive traffic jams; all trucks are being inspected.

    […] Well, that didn’t last long. [Peace talks in Istanbul lasted a little over an hour.]

    […] There should be no peace agreement that doesn’t include returning all the stolen children.

    Russian negotiator during Istanbul peace talks called a Ukrainian request to return deported children a “show for European old ladies.”

    “Don’t put on a show for bleeding-heart European old ladies with no children of their own,” Vladimir Medinsky said as per sources familiar with the negotiations.

    […] The one thing that does seem to get accomplished between Russia and Ukraine is the exchange of prisoners. […]

  124. says

    The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a case that involves whether possessing AR-15’s is protected by the Second Amendment, but the court’s conservatives are signaling they soon will.

    Only three justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch — voted to hear a challenge to Maryland’s ban on possessing AR-15s, barely falling short of the four votes required to take up a case.

    But Justice Brett Kavanaugh sent a strong signal that he will provide that crucial fourth vote in a future case once the issue percolates more in the lower courts.

    “In my view, this Court should and presumably will address the AR–15 issue soon, in the next Term or two,” Kavanaugh wrote in a three-page written statement.

    Kavanaugh, President Trump’s second appointee to the court, called Maryland’s law “questionable.” But he stressed the issue is currently being considered by several appeals courts that are weighing other states’ bans.

    […] Maryland is one of nine states that have banned the possession of AR-15s, the most popular civilian rifle in America. Maryland enacted its law in 2013 following the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting the year prior.

    The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Maryland’s law by ruling AR-15s are not “constitutionally protected arms” under the Second Amendment. The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case leaves intact that ruling.

    The trio of other conservative justices said they would’ve taken up the issue now.

    “I would not wait to decide whether the government can ban the most popular rifle in America. That question is of critical importance to tens of millions of law-abiding AR–15 owners throughout the country. We have avoided deciding it for a full decade,” Thomas wrote in a solo, written dissent.

    […] The court’s refusal to hear the case came as it also turned away a challenge to Rhode Island’s ban on high-capacity magazines. Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch indicated they also would’ve taken up that case. […]

    Link

  126. Reginald Selkirk says

    Black hiker calls on others to join him on walk to northern end of the Underground Railway

    … Ken Johnston …

    This summer, the Philadelphia-based “walking artist” will continue north, following the path thousands of freedom seekers took to reach Owen Sound, Ont., the northernmost terminus of the Underground Railroad network, after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850.

    And he’s looking for people to join him.

    “Most of my walks have been solo walks, but this is one that I just feel differently about, and I want to open it up,” he said.

    “Doesn’t matter if you’re white or Black or Indigenous. If anyone who has a love of history and wants to participate, they can come join for one day, one block or one mile.”

    The two-week, 265-kilometre Walk to Freedom will start at the Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center in New York on July 19, crossing the Rainbow Bridge into Ontario and continuing north all the way to Owen Sound…

  129. whheydt says

    Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #126…
    One of my late wife’s ancestors ran a stop on the Underground Railway.

  134. birgerjohansson says

    Sorry, I screwed up that link …but I rather like the view of them in overalls, working for what I assume is the minimum wage.

  135. Reginald Selkirk says

    Democrats Flips New York Senate Seat in Stunning Victory

    In a remarkable upset, Democrat Sam Sutton has decisively defeated his Republican opponent in New York’s recent state Senate special election, securing a significant victory for the Democratic Party. This win adds to the growing momentum for Democrats, who have been making inroads in battleground states like Pennsylvania, Nebraska, and Wisconsin.

    What makes Sutton’s victory particularly striking is that he flipped a historically conservative-leaning district—one that supported Donald Trump by a double-digit margin in the 2024 presidential election. In this special election, Sutton captured an impressive 67.6% of the vote, while his Republican counterpart managed only 32.4%. For context, Trump carried this district with a commanding 77% of the vote just months ago. This dramatic shift signals a potential realignment in voter sentiment and underscores the Democratic Party’s growing appeal in areas once considered Republican strongholds…

  136. John Morales says

    Hm.

    Outsider here, but: “In a remarkable upset, Democrat Sam Sutton has decisively defeated his Republican opponent in New York’s recent state Senate special election, securing a significant victory for the Democratic Party. This win adds to the growing momentum for Democrats, who have been making inroads in battleground states like Pennsylvania, Nebraska, and Wisconsin.
    […]
    This dramatic shift signals a potential realignment in voter sentiment and underscores the Democratic Party’s growing appeal in areas once considered Republican strongholds”

    The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature, while the New York State Assembly is its lower house.[2] Established in 1777 by the Constitution of New York, its members are elected to two-year terms[3] with no term limits.[4] There are 63 seats in the Senate. The Democratic Party has held control of the New York State Senate since 2019. The Senate majority leader is Andrea Stewart-Cousins.” is quoted.

    Then select and click and click and look, my emphasis:
    “The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature, while the New York State Assembly is its lower house.[2] Established in 1777 by the Constitution of New York, its members are elected to two-year terms[3] with no term limits.[4] There are 63 seats in the Senate. The Democratic Party has held control of the New York State Senate since 2019. The Senate majority leader is Andrea Stewart-Cousins.”

    Not too credible an article.

  138. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Jeffrey Lewis (Nonproliferation professor, Arms Control Wonk podcast):

    Trump’s [Iran] offer is a dollar-store-JCPOA [the 2015 agreement].

    The proposal was “described to Axios by two sources with direct knowledge—one of whom provided a point-by-point breakdown.” This is a paraphrase, so sometimes its hard to know what they are getting at. Also, here is the text of the JCPOA.

    [*Lewis goes through each Axios bullet point, quoting the JCPOA saying the same thing. An infographic at the OP is more verbose. “The 159-page JCPOA included similar provisions that were stronger or better constructed than the offer as described.”*]

    Witkoff forgot Modified Code 3.1. That’s a BIG oversight to be honest.

    I would note that the JCPOA created elaborate series of IAEA safeguards—what I called the Additional Protocol Plus—that clarified some ambiguities in the AP and extended to areas like uranium milling and centrifuge production. This agreement doesn’t do that.

    Arms Control Assoc – IAEA Safeguards Agreements at a Glance

    Modified Code 3.1 requires countries to submit design information for new nuclear facilities to the IAEA as soon as the decision is made to construct, or authorize construction, of the facility.

    Rando: “TBH I’d be more surprised if the Iranians took the deal than I am that Trump is offering.”
    Jeffrey Lewis: “Same. What’s the upside for them at this point?”

  140. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Natalia Santana-Pollard (Emergency manager):

    I want you to know that my conference room audibly gasped when he said this and everyone said variations of “be so fucking for real right now”.

     
    Reuters – FEMA staff baffled after head said he was unaware of US hurricane season

    he had not been aware the country has a hurricane season […] hurricane season officially began on Sunday and lasts through November. […] A spokesperson for [DHS], FEMA’s parent agency, said the comment was a joke
    […]
    Richardson said during the briefing that there would be no changes to the agency’s disaster response plans despite having told staff to expect a new plan in May […] [He] said during Monday’s […] all-hands meeting held by phone and videoconference, that he will not be issuing a new disaster plan because he does not want to make changes that might counter the FEMA Review Council […] Trump created the council to evaluate FEMA. Its members include DHS head Noem, governors and other officials.

    In a May 15 staff town hall, Richardson said a disaster plan, including tabletop exercises, would be ready for review by May 23.
    […]
    About 2,000 full-time FEMA staff, one-third of its total, have been terminated or voluntarily left the agency since the start of the Trump administration in January.

    Despite Noem’s prior comments that she plans to eliminate FEMA, in May she approved Richardson’s request to retain more than 2,600 short-term disaster response and recovery employees whose terms were set to expire this year […] Those short-term staff make up the highest proportion of FEMA employees, about 40%, and are a pillar of the agency’s on-the-ground response efforts.

    FEMA recently sharply reduced hurricane training and workshops for state and local emergency managers due to travel and speaking restrictions imposed on staff

    DHS spox said the reorganization “empowers state actors to provide relief”.

    Samantha Montano: “Is this why he kept saying ‘Disaster Season‘ instead of ‘Hurricane Season’ the other day?”

    Samantha Montano (Emergency management professor):

    Incidentally, the whole Joni Ernst “we’re all going to die” sentiment helps illuminate why this administration doesn’t care if FEMA exists or not.

     
    FEMA at ‘high risk’ of disrupting ‘life-saving’ disaster relief, per internal memo

    FEMA Mission Support lacks critical Information Technology infrastructure to […] to quickly stand up a field office when disaster strikes.

  141. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    NPR – $105 million trust to be built for 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre reparations

    Mayor Monroe Nichols. Tulsa’s first Black mayor said Sunday the city is opening a $105 million charitable trust aimed at things like housing, scholarships, land acquisition and economic development for north Tulsans. The trust will be comprised of private money that will be raised over the next 12 months
    […]
    As many as 300 people were killed and dozens of homes and businesses leveled in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, when a white mob razed the city’s prosperous Black neighborhood of Greenwood […] Today, north Tulsa is hampered by blight, poverty and racial inequality.

    Nichols announced the creation of the trust at an event on Sunday, which the city has designated as Race Massacre Observance Day. “There is not one Tulsan, no matter their skin color, who wouldn’t be better off today had the massacre not happened,” Nichols said. […] Nichols has also committed to continuing the search for mass graves […] “We gather together to speak with one voice that hate—even aged 104 years—will never win,” Nichols said.

    The oldest known survivor Viola Fletcher turned 111 on May 10.

  142. John Morales says

    CA7746 #140, that story is everywhere. The claim, anyway, and the counter-claim.
    You know, the alleged bafflement, the alleged joking, the alleged ignorance.

    Actual quotation/context, nowhere to be found.

    —

    Probably entirely unrelated, but are you aware of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_cat_strategy ?

  143. John Morales says

    “The oldest known survivor Viola Fletcher turned 111 on May 10.”

    From Bilbo’s 111th birthday speech: “Eleventy-one years is far too short a time to live among such excellent and admirable hobbits. I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.”

  144. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Daniel Knowles (The Economist):

    the workers going back into the United States Institute of Peace offices found a whole bunch of weed apparently thrown away by the DOGE staffers who had been hanging out there.

    A photo shared with me earlier of uh, DOGE’s legacy at USIP. Very very amused that this is going *wildly* viral as people rush to explain quite how low quality this weed looks.

    Randos:
    “It might be about 50% sawdust?”
    “They’re smoking owl pellets.”
    “I salute the DC weed dealers”

    Dan Murphy (Ex-Journo): “Meh. It looks old (it dries out if not stored properly and is less pleasant to smoke, but will still get you really high.)”
    Daniel Knowles: “I think it sat in a trash can for a couple of months before being discovered, so yes that makes sense.”

  145. StevoR says

    Wouldn’t know it from the title but this article notes rivers running dry more often due to Rio Tinto’s mining activities taking the groundwater :

    In recent years, visiting Parlapuni has also meant confronting a distressing situation for the Robe River Kuruma people.

    “It’s sad the way the country is at the moment,” Ms Lockyer said.
    Just in front of the hill is an empty river bed.t is one of several rivers that the Robe River Kuruma people say are running dry more often than usual.

    They attribute the situation to years of groundwater extraction by mining giant Rio Tinto to supply local iron ore mines and provide drinking water to coastal towns in the Pilbara.

    Ms Lockyer has been involved in a long-running campaign to reduce water extraction on Robe River Kuruma country.

    She said she had drawn strength from Parlapuni to sustain what had been a draining campaign.

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-03/pilbara-traditional-owner-shares-creation-story-of-sacred-hill/105286786

  146. birgerjohansson says

    Jimmy Kimmel:
    “Trump Pushes Crazy Conspiracy Biden is a Robot Clone, Weighs in on Diddy pardon & Elon says goodbye”

    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=v3ocbyKi9jA
    Plus, we have a born-again Republican senator who is cool with people who cannot afford healthcare dying.

  148. John Morales says

    re #145, tell me this is not intentional (my emphasis) drollishness:
    “Ms Lockyer has been involved in a long-running campaign to reduce water extraction on Robe River Kuruma country.

    She said she had drawn strength from Parlapuni to sustain what had been a draining campaign.”

    —

    To make up for my amusement, this:
    Long-term ecological research on a Pilbara river system.
    Analysis of Long term Robe River Aquatic Monitoring Dataset
    By Centre of Excellence in Natural Resource Management
    The University of Western Australia

  151. Reginald Selkirk says

    The Milky Way Might Not Crash Into the Andromeda Galaxy After All

    New simulations suggest that the long-assumed collision between the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies is not guaranteed, with the odds now estimated at just over 50% within the next 10 billion years. Factoring in other massive galaxies like M33 and the Large Magellanic Cloud revealed that their gravitational influence significantly alters the likelihood of a merger. ScienceAlert reports: …

  152. Reginald Selkirk says

    Younger Generations Less Likely To Have Dementia, Study Suggests

    An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian:

    People born more recently are less likely to have dementia at any given age than earlier generations, research suggests, with the trend more pronounced in women. According to the World Health Organization, in 2021 there were 57 million people worldwide living with dementia, with women disproportionately affected. However, while the risk of dementia increases with age, experts have long stressed it is not not an inevitability of getting older. “Younger generations are less likely to develop dementia at the same age as their parents or grandparents, and that’s a hopeful sign,” said Dr Sabrina Lenzen, a co-author of the study from the University of Queensland’s Centre for the Business and Economics of Health. But she added: “The overall burden of dementia will still grow as populations age, and significant inequalities remain — especially by gender, education and geography.” …

  153. Reginald Selkirk says

    Iowa Democratic state Rep. J.D. Scholten launches run for U.S. Senate

    State Rep. J.D. Scholten, D-Sioux City, announced Monday a run for the seat held by Republican Sen. Joni Ernst since 2015.

    Other state lawmakers, Sen. Zach Wahls from Coralville and Rep. Josh Turek of Council Bluffs, have been talked about as possible challengers for Ernst but so far Nathan Sage, an Iowa Army and Marine Corps veteran, and Scholten are the only ones to make it official.

    Scholten’s announcement comes just days after Ernst received national backlash over comments made at a Friday town hall in Parkersburg about reductions to Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program spending…

  156. Reginald Selkirk says

    Harvard Asks For Summary Judgment in Funding Case, Says White House Pushed Cuts Despite Agency Objections

    Harvard asked a federal judge on Monday to grant summary judgment in its lawsuit seeking to overturn the Trump administration’s freeze on billions of dollars in federal research funding, saying the White House had given the University a ticking clock before it loses the funds for good.

    Summary judgment would allow a judge to decide the case without a full trial. Harvard requested a decision before Sept. 3, the deadline it was given by the federal government to liquidate all financial obligations under the first round of canceled grants.

    After that deadline, Harvard’s lawyers argued, the federal government is likely to argue that it is unable to restore the frozen funding.

    In a 62-page filing, Harvard’s lawyers cited internal emails, agency memos, and sworn declarations to argue that the cuts violated not only the First Amendment, but also federal law. Excerpts from the documents, many made public for the first time, appear to show that the cuts were made swiftly and with close direction from the White House, which reviewed termination letters and gave agencies deadlines to make cuts…

  157. Reginald Selkirk says

    Defamation trial begins for MyPillow boss Mike Lindell over election claims

    A US federal trial has begun for MyPillow chief executive and Donald Trump supporter Mike Lindell, who is accused of defaming a former employee at an electronic voting company in the bitter aftermath of the 2020 election.

    Mr Lindell is being sued by a former employee of Dominion Voting Systems, who claims Lindsell falsely accused him of helping to steal the vote – which was won by Joe Biden.

    The man says his reputation was “irreparably tarnished” by Mr Lindell.

    Dominion itself has also filed cases against several Trump allies who it claims baselessly alleged that the company’s voting machines had been rigged during the vote…

    Proceedings in Mr Lindell’s case began in Denver, Colorado, on Monday with jury selection…

    The man who brought the case, Eric Coomer, is a Colorado resident who handled security for Dominion Voting Systems.

    He filed lawsuits in 2022 against Mr Lindell and two of his companies, My Pillow, Inc and Lindell TV, for an undisclosed amount…

  159. StevoR says

    Slava Ukraini!

    Ukraine hit a major road and rail bridge connecting Russia and Crimea with below-the-water explosives. The SBU, Kyiv’s security service, released footage of the blast at Kerch Bridge on their social media channels, on Tuesday, local time. It said it had used 1,100 kilograms of explosives which were detonated early that morning, damaging underwater pillars of the bridge, a key supply route for Russian forces in Ukraine. Russian authorities said on Telegram that the bridge’s operation had been suspended for about three hours between 4 am and 7 am local time.

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-03/ukraine-hits-crimea-bridge-with-underwater-explosives/105373372

  160. StevoR says

    Is Poland the most misleading of all nation’s names? At least as Poland is writ and spake in English? Its nowhere near either of our planet’s poles after all! Sure, it means something else in polish -the language not the substance that is.

  164. rorschach says

    So Ukraine used drones worth 47.000.- and open source piloting software to knock out 1/3 of Russian nuclear capable aircraft and caused 7 billion dollar damage. When Trump said to Zelensky that he didn’t have the cards, Zelensky did indeed have the cards. He just didn’t tell the treacherous USA about it. Boss move.

  167. says

    Newark Mayor Ras Baraka sues Alina Habba, alleging ‘false arrest and malicious prosecution’

    “Alina Habba’s criminal case against Ras Baraka collapsed quickly. Now, the tables have turned, and the Newark mayor is suing the prosecutor.”

    When the acting U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, Alina Habba, dropped all charges against Ras Baraka, the Democratic mayor of New Jersey’s Newark, it might’ve seemed as if the legal dispute were over. It was not.

    On the contrary, a few weeks after the incident that sparked the dropped criminal case, the tables have turned, and Baraka is now suing Habba. The New York Times reported:

    [Baraka] filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday against Alina Habba, the interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, that argues that his arrest was motivated by political malice, not justice. The lawsuit also names Ricky Patel, a supervising agent with Homeland Security Investigations who led the arrest of Mr. Baraka on May 9 outside a 1,000-bed detention center near Newark Liberty International Airport that has become a flashpoint in President Trump’s immigration crackdown.

    Baraka’s civil suit, which accuses federal authorities of false arrest and malicious prosecution, also accuses Habba of defamation.

    […] it was nearly a month ago when a group of Democratic officials, including three members of Congress, visited Delaney Hall, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in New Jersey. The point, according to the officials, was to conduct oversight, which is a core congressional responsibility.

    […] There was a chaotic scene involving protesters, lawmakers and Trump administration officials, culminating in Ras Baraka, the Democratic mayor of New Jersey’s Newark, getting arrested and being charged with trespassing.

    Habba — a former Donald Trump lawyer whom the president tapped to lead a U.S. attorney’s office, despite her lack of qualifications — claimed the mayor “ignored multiple warnings” to “remove himself from the ICE detention center.” Baraka, however, soon after told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki, “After they finally told us to leave, and I told them I was leaving, they came outside the gate and arrested me. So it looked like it was targeted.”

    Habba announced a few days after the arrest that her office had agreed to drop the charges against the Newark mayor. But before the case was dismissed altogether, the federal judge to whom the case was assigned took the opportunity to scold Habba’s office for its handling of the matter.

    Indeed, federal magistrate judge André Espinosa reprimanded the federal prosecutors for several minutes, calling the decision to abandon the charges “embarrassing.”

    “The hasty arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, followed swiftly by the dismissal of these trespassing charges a mere 13 days later, suggests a worrying misstep by your office,” Espinosa said. “An arrest, particularly of a public figure, is not a preliminary investigative tool. It is a severe action, carrying significant reputational and personal consequences, and it should only be undertaken after a thorough, dispassionate evaluation of credible evidence.”

    […] Baraka, it’s worth noting for context, is also a Democratic gubernatorial candidate. Primary Day in the Garden State is seven days away.

  168. Reginald Selkirk says

    @17 Lynna, OM

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/04/03/infinite-thread-xxxv/comment-page-6/#comment-2266746
    Kristi Noem said an immigrant threatened to kill Trump. The story quickly fell apart

    Milwaukee man charged with identity theft for allegedly writing letter that led to arrest of man by ICE agents

    A Milwaukee man is facing criminal charges after he admitted to sending letters threatening President Donald Trump under an immigrant’s name, telling police his plan was to have the man deported.

    Demetric Scott, 52, was charged with identify theft, intimidating a witness and two counts of bail jumping Monday. His aim, according to the criminal complaint, was to block the man he targeted with the false letter from testifying against him at an upcoming criminal trial…

    Because phone calls from jail are recorded, detectives were able to listen to calls he made from the facility that discussed his plan to try and frame Morales Reyes, according to the complaint…

    However, Morales Reyes remains in custody at the ICE detention facility in Dodge County.

    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security statement said Morales Reyes had entered the country illegally at least nine times from 1998 to 2005 and that he had a criminal record. He had been working with Abduli to get his U-visa, or a “U nonimmigrant status” for people who are “victims of certain crimes,” according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services…

    It sounds to me more like forgery than identity theft, but IANAL and perhaps the terminology is changing.

  169. says

    Republicans cling to brazen falsehoods to sell their far-right megabill

    “If the GOP’s domestic policy package is so great, why can’t the party tell the truth about it?”

    Related video at the link.

    When Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa tried to defend her party’s far-right megabill […] she confronted a constituent who said that people would die as a result of GOP health care cuts. It was at that point when the Iowa Republican said, “Well, we all are going to die,” […]

    What drew less attention, however, was what the Iowan said next. As part of the same exchange at her town hall meeting, Ernst went on to claim that she and her party “are going to focus on those that are most vulnerable. Those that meet the eligibility requirements for Medicaid, we will protect. We will protect them.”

    […] her assurances weren’t altogether true. According to the Congressional Budget Office, many struggling Americans who currently meet the eligibility requirements for Medicaid would likely lose their health security as a direct result of the Republicans’ reconciliation package.

    […] As The New York Times reported, the president and his allies are selling the bill with “falsehoods” and “inaccurate claims.”

    As the Senate considers a domestic policy bill to enact the White House’s agenda, President Trump and his allies have sought to assuage some lawmakers’ concerns over its price tag and cuts to Medicaid with inaccurate claims. [Republicans] have dismissed estimates of the effect of the “one big, beautiful bill” on the deficit as incorrect and described cuts to the health insurance program for poor Americans as simply trimming “waste, fraud and abuse.”

    As this week got underway, for example, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared on Fox News and boasted that the inaptly named “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” would “save nearly $2 trillion.” That wasn’t even close to being true. [Sheesh! Karoline Leavitt doesn’t just lie, she expands the lies bigly.]

    A day earlier, House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” and insisted, “I am telling you, this is going to reduce the deficit.” [LOL and JFC.] According to arithmetic, the bill would add trillions of dollars to the deficit.

    The Louisiana congressman, during the same interview, claimed “there are no Medicaid cuts” in the GOP legislation, which is demonstrably silly.

    Around the same time, White House Budget Director Russ Vought told CNN that “no one will lose coverage as a result of this bill.” According to independent analyses from, among others, the nonpartisan CBO, millions of Americans would lose their health care coverage as a result of this bill.

    A day later, the president boasted that one of the great things about his party’s legislative package is that it would “repeal” the Biden administration’s electric-vehicle mandate, which was bizarre given that no such mandate exists.

    Soon after, Trump published an item to his social media platform that began, “So many false statements are being made about ‘THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL.’” [LOL]

    It was the first thing he ever said about the legislation that I agreed with: There really are “so many false statements” being made about Republicans’ reconciliation package.

    Of course, the question Americans should probably be asking themselves right about now is simple: If the GOP’s bill is so great, why can’t the party tell the truth about it?

  170. says

    While much of the focus on Capitol Hill lately has been on the Republicans’ megabill, the White House quietly unveiled some details of its budget plan for the next fiscal year late on Friday afternoon. If you didn’t hear about it, that’s because you probably weren’t intended to.

    As Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a written statement, “It’s telling that President Trump has chosen to release his budget on a Friday night with no fanfare whatsoever.”

    As The New York Times reported, the Trump administration’s plan would impose steep spending cuts across a “vast array of education, health, housing and labor programs,” though there was one element of this that stood out for me. From the Times’ article:

    [A]s part of a reorientation that slashed federal health spending, the president proposed chopping funding at the National Cancer Institute by more than $2.7 billion, nearly a 40 percent decrease, drawing a sharp rebuke from cancer research supporters late Friday. … The cut to cancer research is part of a roughly $18 billion reduction at the National Institutes of Health.”

    “For the past 50 years, every significant medical breakthrough, especially in the treatment of cancer, has been linked to sustained federal investment in research” by the institute, the American Cancer Society Action Network said in a statement. “This commitment has contributed to the remarkable statistic of over 18 million cancer survivors currently living in the U.S. today.”

    What’s more, as Murray’s office noted in an analysis of the White House blueprint, Donald Trump and his team also intend to take regressive steps on cancer by eliminating the Title X program, which helps millions of Americans afford cancer screenings.

    Both as vice president and again as president, Joe Biden emphasized cancer research more than any modern American political leader. The Democrat’s White House made his cancer “moonshot” a leading administration priority.

    […] The release of Trump’s budget comes roughly a month after the administration laid off employees at the NIH’s cancer research institute.

    A month before that, The Washington Post published a striking report on potentially breakthrough research at the National Institutes of Health, where scientists have “demonstrated a promising step toward using a person’s own immune cells to fight gastrointestinal cancers.”

    The day the scientists’ paper was published, the Trump administration imposed devastating layoffs at the NIH. The Post’s report added, “Two patients’ treatments using the experimental therapy had to be delayed because NIH’s capacity to make personalized cell therapies has been slowed by the firing of highly skilled staff and by purchasing slowdowns. Those occurred even before major layoffs took place.”

    A few weeks before that, The New York Times reported that the Trump administration also terminated funding for research at Columbia University, where scientists were “examining the use of artificial intelligence to detect early signs of breast cancer.”

    Two weeks before that, the Times also reported on researchers at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Pittsburgh who’d spent months preparing for a clinical trial of a new drug to treat advanced cancers of the mouth, throat and voice box. They were all set to start enrolling patients when their clinical trials were halted — because of a hiring freeze imposed by Trump, Elon Musk and the DOGE initiative.

    American voters last fall might not have realized that a Republican victory in 2024 would mean sweeping cuts to cancer research, but here we are.

    Link

  171. says

    […] the Trump DOJ “appeared eager,” as the Times put it, to escalate its bogus civil investigation of the Harvard Law Review for allegedly discriminating against white men into a criminal probe with allegations of obstruction of justice. Even though the law review is independent of the university, top DOJ civil rights officials tried to use the investigation to put added pressure on Harvard as part of its broader attack on the school, the NYT reports, relying on previously unreported letters.

    Those letters disclosed that the government had a cooperating witness on the law review. The witness is Daniel Wasserman, who is now working under Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff for policy.

    Here’s the timeline culled from the NYT piece:

    April 25: Wasserman is offered a job at the White House, the same day the conservative Washington Free Beacon publishes a story with the headline: “Exclusive: Internal Documents Reveal Pervasive Pattern of Racial Discrimination at Harvard Law Review”

    April 28: The Departments of Education and Health and Human Services announce a civil rights investigation citing the Washington Free Beacon story.

    May 13: The first Trump DOJ letter is sent to Harvard regarding the law review allegations.

    May 21: In the second letter to Harvard, the Trump DOJ first discloses that Wasserman was providing information to the government and accuses the law review of retaliating against him and ordering him to destroy evidence.

    May 22: Wasserman’s first day of work at the White House

    May 23: The third Trump DOJ letter is sent to to Harvard regarding the law review.

    May 28: Wasserman graduates from Harvard Law School.

    [I snipped Trump administration claims of innocence.

    […] “Legal experts said it was highly unusual for an administration to give a cooperating witness in an ongoing investigation a White House job.”–the NYT, on the Trump White House’s hiring of Daniel Wasserman

    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo/trump-white-house-hires-harvard-law-review-whistleblower

  172. says

    The Latest On The Big Anti-Immigrant Cases

    Abrego Garcia: In a new filing opposing the Trump administration’s motion to dismiss the case, the lawyers for the wrongfully deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia framed up the stakes starkly: “The Government asks this Court to accept a shocking proposition: that federal officers may snatch residents of this country and deposit them in foreign prisons in admitted violation of federal law, while no court in the United States has jurisdiction to do anything about it.”

    South Sudan: In the third country deportations case out of Massachusetts, the Trump administration told the court that the eight detainees who were originally bound for South Sudan remain in Djibouti and that DHS has provided Microsoft Teams, a satellite phone, and a private interview room for the detainees to speak with their attorneys.

    Cristian: Two related developments in the Maryland case of the wrongfully deported Cristian:
    – His lawyers took the judge’s invitation and in a new filing say they are likely to file a motion for contempt of court and other sanctions against the Trump administration for “blatant violations” of the court’s orders. As a prelude to that move, they are asking U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher to order expedited discovery similar to that undertaken in the Abrego Garcia case.
    – The Trump administration attempted to cure last week’s violation of the judge’s order by filing an updated declaration by an ICE official on the steps the government has and will take to facilitate Cristian’s return. The updated declaration is still remarkably thin and not based on personal knowledge of the government’s actions, as the judge ordered. It also appears to be an attempt to place the entire case more firmly in the foreign policy realm and out of the reach of the judiciary by highlighting Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s personal involvement in “handling the discussions” with the government of El Salvador: [excerpt is available at the link]

    Same link as in comment 171.

  173. says

    Government-Sponsored Discrimination Alert

    […] A few examples from just the past 24 hours:

    In a little-noticed memo in March, the Trump administration ordered federal border agents and customs officers not to attend events hosted by organizations that support women or minority groups in law enforcement, a senior border official who retired over the policy told the NYT.

    Harmeet K. Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, sent a letter Monday to public school districts in California threatening legal action if they continue to allow trans athletes to compete in high school sports.

    On what is clearly a pretextual basis, the National Park Service has denied next weekend’s WorldPride celebration access to D.C.’s Dupont Circle park, which is the center of the city’s historic LGBTQ+ neighborhood.

    Same link as in comment 171.

  174. says

    Another Fox in the henhouse:

    The new acting chief of the Trump DOJ’s voting section is Maureen Riordan, who until recently was a lawyer for the Public Interest Legal Foundation, Democracy Docket reports. PILF has been a leading group in the voter fraud bamboozlement movement and has succeeded in purging voter roles, introducing new voter restrictions, and limiting the reach of voting rights laws. Voter suppression luminaries Hans von Spakovsky, J. Christian Adam, and John Eastman either are or have been associated with the group.

    Same link as in comment 171.

  175. says

    Related to “Fox in the henhouse” post @174:

    Forest Service: Tech billionaire Michael Boren is alleged to have built an airstrip on protected land without a permit, flown a helicopter dangerously close to a crew building a Forest Service trail, and constructed a cabin on federal property. Today the Senate Agriculture Committee holds a hearing on his confirmation to be the under secretary of agriculture for natural resources and environment, which oversees the Forest Service.

  176. says

    On Monday, the Trump administration moved to open up millions of acres of protected Alaskan wildlife for the oil and gas industry to exploit. The action comes after the industry donated millions to Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.

    Interior Secretary and failed presidential candidate Doug Burgum said the government would rescind a ban on drilling on the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The territory of nearly 23 million acres is the biggest contiguous region of undisturbed public land in the United States. It is a vital territory for thousands of migrating birds, caribou, fish, and other marine life, which would be threatened by drilling for fuel.

    Kristen Miller, executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League, said in a statement the Trump action would “roll back protections in the most ecologically important areas of the Western Arctic” and that the new direction would threaten “wildlife, local communities, and our climate.” […]

    The Trump administration is pushing for oil companies to drill in the area and reportedly plans to lobby for the construction of a natural gas pipeline in the region. [map at the link]

    The Sierra Club, which advocates for the protection of natural resources and habitats, echoed the concerns of the Wilderness League.

    “Donald Trump is trying to giftwrap the Western Arctic with a bow for Big Oil CEOs. Rescinding this rule would send us back to the days when oil and gas companies had free rein to drill our public lands for pennies on the dollar, and American families were left holding the bag,” said Ben Jealous, the group’s executive director, in a statement.

    [I snipped responses from Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and at-large Rep. Nick Begich. They were not good.]

    […] During the 2024 election, Trump told oil executives he would roll back environmental protections enacted by Biden if they gave his campaign money. [True.] And they did, donating millions to Trump and other Republican candidates.

    Now the oil companies are set to cash in with their man in the White House. Birds, fish, and bears will just have to die.

    Link

  179. says

    “You might be saying, ‘Oh, look, who amongst us hasn’t unwound sometimes with a little mixture of ecstasy, mushrooms, ketamine, and Adderall?’” Jon Stewart said.

    Link

    Video at the link.

  180. says

    I think this can be filed under the heading — Stuff You Posted That You Wish You Hadn’t.

    Ukraine’s operation was not just brilliantly executed but perfectly timed.
    Russian blogger “Russian Arms” said the following just yesterday!

    “❗️⚡️Over the past two weeks, the Russian Armed Forces have redeployed about 40 Tu-22M3 long-range bombers to the Olenya airfield, …
    https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:nugxbh6opi4bgwu65cu3im3u/post/3lqmsmuvixc2s

    Link

    More from Bluesky and “Russian Arms”:

    “… as well as about 20% of all Tu-95MS aircraft in the country. This is the largest redeployment of strategic aviation since the beginning of the conflict.⠀This redeployment may indicate that the Russian Aerospace Forces are preparing for a large-scale operation…

    “In the event of another breakdown in peace talks, Moscow no longer intends to prolong military action for years. According to an insider, the Kremlin has decided to end the active phase as harshly and quickly as possible, using all available means – except nuclear ones.

    “The Olenya airfield, as one of the most protected and remote, was chosen for the concentration of strategic aviation forces and ammunition. [!!]

    “Vladimir Putin, according to sources, expects to demonstrate to the West what a war will look like if Russia ‘stops holding back.’ This is also a signal to European ‘hawks,’ especially against the backdrop of discussions on the supply of new weapons to Ukraine.

    “Military experts expect a previously unprecedented attack on the logistics hubs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces if Zelensky tries to disrupt negotiations or escalate the situation.

    Thank you for that additional information.

    Russian cheerleader Dmitry Medvedev was just a bit miffed:

    “Revenge is inevitable. Everything that must explode will explode. Everyone who must be annihilated will vanish. Talks? Just a step toward wiping out the neo-Nazi regime.”

  181. says

    🇺🇦🗣️”I was told that the Russian delegation behaved a little calmer. But arrogance – well, what is it? We’ll see. Maybe a few more measures need to be taken before they start behaving like decent people,” — Zelensky

  185. Akira MacKenzie says

    @ 183

    Watch, they’ll rename it something offensive to “own the libs.”

  186. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Re: Lynna @171:

    TPM: the Trump DOJ “appeared eager,” as the Times put it, to escalate its bogus civil investigation of the Harvard Law Review for allegedly discriminating against white men

    Some commentary.

    Rando 1:

    The [conservative] Free Beacon post cited in the NYT article contains one of the biggest self-owns imaginable.

    Since 2018 […] only one white author […] has been chosen to write the foreword […] a stark departure from the historical norm.
    Between 1995 and 2018 […] nearly every foreward author was white.

    Anna Bower (Lawfare):

    The United States Justice Department micromanaging how the Harvard Law Review’s internal reprimand of a student editor is insane.

    “H.L.R. must retract the disciplinary action it instituted against him,” the Justice Department told Harvard

    Rando 2:

    Kind of funny that they screwed this guy while ‘defending’ him. Before, he was mildly wrist slapped by a student group. Now, via Streisand Effect, everyone googling him will forever know that Daniel Frederick Wasserman, Stephen Miller’s crony and all around asshole, was disciplined by a law review.

  187. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/lets-get-to-know-palantir-technologies

    “Let’s Get To Know Palantir Technologies And Its Wacky CEO Alex Karp!”

    “Because he ‘s sure getting to know YOU!”

    No secret, Trump has been gunning to turn CIA/ defense department surveillance and data capabilities onto American citizens under the guise of wastefraudabuse, and no surprise, he has tapped Palantir Technologies to “data integration platform” every unclassified record the government has for every person and business in the country, from Social Security to educational, tax, immigration and you-name-it records. This is where all that scraped DOGE data is headed.

    […] now some MAGA, even Nick Fuentes, are cottoning to the fact that the company is a longtime arm of the CIA. [social media post and video at the link]

    […] Somebody want to tell them that Palantir also helped track COVID data?

    Is Palantir bad? Every tool is morally neutral until someone wields it, just like the crystal balls in the Lord of The Rings that the tools who run the company named it for.

    Palantir’s origin story is the stuff of QAnon fever dreams, though. Thiel and and Karp met at Stanford back in the day, then they both became successful investors, and in 2003 Thiel backed Karp’s data software company Palantir Technologies. Then they got in on the wave of post-9/11 defense spending […]

    Palantir started out mining and analyzing data to do stuff like detect roadside bombs and predict insurgent attacks in Afghanistan, and track down Mexican drug cartel leaders and financial fraudsters, by searching their data imprints. Some People Even Say it helped find Osama Bin Laden.

    Then its work expanded, into building databases for ICE starting in 2011 (it has now gotten $30 million to expand the “ImmigrationOS” facial-recognition and surveillance database it runs to identify and deport people). And in 2018 after Google employees protested the company’s involvement in a Pentagon program to use artificial intelligence to interpret video imagery and could be used to improve the targeting of drone strikes, Palantir picked up that business. Now it gets big-deal defense contracts, worth about $1.3 billion, and also dabbles in license-plate scanning technology and police work. Post-Brexit it got a contract in the UK, too, monitoring the goods that came across the border, and Israel uses its technology to decide where to bomb.

    But who is running this show, and what do they want?

    You have already met Peter Thiel, libertarian, Trump delegate, JD Vance’s sugardaddy, founder of Paypal and first investor in Facebook, co-founded a Conservative dating app with handsome Johnny McEntee, bankrupted Gawker by bankrolling a lawsuit from Hulk Hogan […], illuminated an Eye of Sauron over San Francisco for Halloween […] etc. etc.

    […] Thiel is also founder and chairman of Palantir, which he bankrolled in starting 2003 with his investor friend from Stanford, Alex Karp.

    Buckle the fuck up for this guy!

    He’s from the disheveled wing of the brain trust, this is his official picture: [photo at the link]

    This short video sums him up well. [video at the link]

    Or if you don’t want to watch it, here is his most power quote: “I love the idea of getting a drone and having light fentanyl-laced urine spraying on analysts that tried to screw us.”

    […] Military domination for the sake of Western civilization / Israel is his thing, and “Software that dominates” is Palantir’s slogan.

    But other than defense domination, his personal ethos is hard to pin down; his whole wikipedia page is one head-scratcher after another […] His parents were civil rights activists, and his mom, Leah Jaynes Karp, is a Black American artist, his dad was a Jewish pediatrician, and he identifies as Jewish.

    He donated to Biden, and also to Harris, “in multiples of 18 because ‘it’s mystical — 18 brings good luck in the tradition of kabbalah. I gave Biden $360,000.’” He has said Palantir supports “progressive values and causes,” whatever that means any more, and identifies as very pro-Israel and “pro-Western”. He’s ranted that pro-Palestinian protestors are a “pagan religion infecting our universities” and “an infection inside of our society.”

    […] Spying on everybody seems pretty Maoist Chinese […]

    Maureen Dowd reports that he lives in the company of “his Norwegian ski instructor, his Swiss-Portuguese chef, his Austrian assistant, his American shooting instructor and his bodyguards.”

    […] In March Trump made his “Stopping Waste, Fraud and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos” decree, ordering that:

    Agency Heads shall take all necessary steps, to the maximum extent consistent with law, to ensure Federal officials designated by the President or Agency Heads (or their designees) have full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, data, software systems, and information technology systems — or their equivalents if providing access to an equivalent dataset does not delay access — for purposes of pursuing Administration priorities related to the identification and elimination of waste, fraud, and abuse.

    The order goes to demand “unfettered access to all unemployment data and related payment records, including all such data and records currently available to the Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General,” all the way down to State programs that receive Federal funding.

    And,

    Agency Heads shall conduct a review of classified information policies to determine whether they result in the classification of materials beyond what is necessary to protect critical national security interests.

    Social Security information, tax information, none of that stuff is classified as a state secret, and lawsuits against DOGE’s intrusions are pending.

    This will surely lead to more lawsuits too, and then we will find out just how much the Supreme Court plans to let Trump and technocrats build the apparatus for his surveillance state!

    In the meantime, Palantir databases chug away. What do they have on you? You’d like to know, but Palantir won’t be telling.

  188. says

    Washington Post link

    “Kennedy Center subscription sales fall 36 percent from previous year”

    “Sales for ticket packages across all genres are down about $1.6 million year over year […]”

    Sales of subscriptions for the coming season of programming at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts are down by about $1.6 million, or roughly 36 percent, compared with last year.

    […] sales data was collected and shared by former Kennedy Center employees and confirmed by a current staff member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution. The subscription data offers a window into the center’s overall finances but is just one source of revenue, in addition to donations, individual ticket sales, government funding and other sources. Its operating budget in 2024 was $268 million. Of that, roughly $125 million came from earned revenue, such as ticket sales.

    “We understand providing information like this can be seen in a bad light,” the current staffer said in a message. “But we feel that it is necessary to show that mismanagement by the new leadership is becoming a real problem for the health of the organization.” The employee said because the new leaders have overlooked staff opinions and fired some who disagreed, “we feel that we no longer have a choice but to force complete transparency with the public.”

    President Donald Trump took control of the Kennedy Center in February, filling the board of trustees with allies who then appointed him chair, and replacing the institution’s longtime president with Richard Grenell, who had served several roles in Trump’s first administration. Both Grenell and his new chief financial officer, Donna Arduin Kauranen, have repeatedly said the Kennedy Center is in dire financial health.

    “We have an operating deficit of over $100 million,” she wrote in an email to the center’s staff in March. In May, Grenell accused the arts institution’s previous leadership of financial mismanagement and “fraud” during a speech at the White House, claiming “the ’24 and ’25 budgets” included “$26 million in phantom revenue.”

    Former chairman David Rubenstein and former president Deborah Rutter have denied any financial mismanagement and dismissed the accusation as a partisan attack, pointing to past financial statements that are independently audited.

    [I snipped Kim Cooper’s (the Kennedy Center’s senior vice president of marketing’s) excuses.]

    […] Theater has taken the most significant hit, with revenue from subscription sales down 82 percent through the first two weeks of the subscription campaign. At this time in last year’s subscription campaign, the center had generated $1,226,344 in revenue from selling 1,771 subscriptions. This year it has sold 371 subscriptions, totaling $224,059, a difference of more than $1 million.

    “If I am the new administration, I am certainly worried by these numbers, especially the theater dollars,” said one former Kennedy Center staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity to not violate a non-disparagement agreement. The former employee noted that theater is “by far the largest driver of revenue for the center for ticket sales.” This person also said that the shrinking sales do not continue a trend from previous seasons but mark a “drastic” drop-off, adding: “We had been building back subscriptions from covid. Each year, for the most part, we had seen a little bit of increase for most of the genres.”

    The caveat, the former employee said, is that the theater subscriptions have been on sale for only two weeks — and some of the advertising, such as the mailed-out brochures, may not have peaked yet.

    “But I would say, given how everything else is performing, it is highly unlikely that we would see that number get back up to parity,” the former employee said.

    Since Trump’s takeover, several touring productions — most notably “Hamilton” — have canceled planned runs at the center.

    […] Among other kinds of performances, ballet and dance revenue is down 57 percent through the first two weeks of the subscription campaign […]

    Revenue from performances for young audiences, which make up a much smaller slice of the pie, is down about 84 percent through […]

    The classical season has not declined as steeply this year. […]

    “Ticket buyers, subscribers, and donors have spoken with their wallets,” the staffer said, “not against a Republican being in charge, but against the hostile takeover of their performing arts center.”

    More at the link.

  189. says

    NBC News:

    More than two dozen people were killed early Tuesday after the Israeli military opened fire close to a controversial aid distribution point in southern Gaza, local health officials said, the third time in three days that Palestinians were killed in the area.

  190. says

    NBC News:

    A liberal lawyer has ousted South Korea’s troubled ruling party’s presidential candidate on Tuesday, ending months of political instability that began with a botched declaration of martial law. Lee Jae-myung will be sworn into office Wednesday after his conservative rival, Kim Moon-soo of the People Power Party, conceded the race.

  191. says

    NBC News:

    Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders’ PVV party left the governing coalition Tuesday, in a move that is set to topple the right-wing government and will likely lead to new elections. Wilders said his coalition partners were not willing to support his ideas on halting asylum migration.

    Potentially good news.

  192. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Mark Stern (Slate):

    Trump has so paralyzed the federal agencies responsible for protecting civil servants’ rights that federal employees may now be able to win relief directly from courts instead, the 4th Circuit rules. A very good decision for the independent civil service.

    we vacate and remand to the district court to consider whether […] the Civil Service Reform Act has been so undermined that [district courts get jurisdiction].

    Trump’s assault on the civil service was two-fold: grievously violate the rights of federal workers, then hobble the agencies responsible for protecting those rights so workers have no legal recourse.

  193. says

    The Hill:

    The Department of Education has not gone through with a plan to garnish Social Security checks over defaulted loans, a department spokesperson told The Hill. “The Department has not offset any social security benefits since restarting collections on May 5, and has put a pause on any future social security offsets,” Ellen Keast, the spokesperson, said.

  194. says

    Ukraine’s drone attack on Russia just exposed a huge global nuclear vulnerability, by Rachel Maddow

    “Sunday’s strike means we now have to contend with the fact that an impenetrable nuclear arsenal is not so impenetrable after all.”

    Related video at the link. The video is great.

    They nicknamed it the “Bear.” It’s a military aircraft first designed in Russia in the 1950s and built to compete with the American B-52 bomber. The Tupolev Tu-95 can fly across continents before it has to stop and refuel, and it can carry eight long-range missiles.

    For decades, Russia has had dozens of Tu-95 bombers and other planes like it. On Sunday, Ukrainian drones struck several Russian air bases, destroying a fleet of planes, including several Tu-95 bombers.

    Russia has been hammering Ukraine with these bombers for years, and this weekend, Kyiv decided that rather than just trying to intercept the missiles that these planes keep firing from the sky, it would instead try to take out the planes.

    According to NBC News, Ukraine’s Security Service smuggled more than a hundred drones into Russia. They hid them under the roofs of mobile wooden cabins in a process that took months.

    Then all at once, simultaneously, with no warning, the cabin roofs were opened via remote control, and then the drones flew off to do their thing, packed with explosives.

    Ukraine says they destroyed planes across four different military sites in Russia, including in Siberia at a site almost 3,000 miles away from Ukraine. Of Russia’s entire fleet of military bombers, Ukraine says they were able to destroy or severely damage about a third of them.

    Now, was Russia aware that this was going to happen? Clearly no. Did they have defenses in place to protect their planes? Well, that’s a funny story.

    In a video of Sunday’s drone attack, put out by Ukraine’s Security Service, you can see round objects on the wings of Russia’s bomber planes. Those circles are actually tires — like the tires you put on your car. Apparently, this is a thing Russia has been doing for a while now. One NATO military official told CNN in 2023, “We believe it’s meant to protect against drones. … We don’t know if this will have any effect.”

    Well, now we know. As Sunday’s strike shows, tires do not prevent drones from destroying your attack planes.

    This whole thing is just astonishing, not just in a foreign policy way, but also in an action movie kind of way. It also has really serious implications beyond Russia and Ukraine. Those bomber planes Ukraine just torched are not only equipped to carry regular missiles, they also can carry nuclear warheads.

    If you are Russia, the United States or any country with nuclear weapons, your national security policies are based around the fact that you have an impenetrable nuclear deterrent. Why would anyone attack you if you could then retaliate by blowing them off the map with your nuclear stockpile?

    But Ukraine just disabled a primary piece of Russia’s nuclear arsenal with devices that look like they came from RadioShack, which means it has to contend with the fact that its impenetrable nuclear arsenal is not so impenetrable after all.

    Sunday’s strike also has really important strategic consequences for every country that thinks of itself as having a nuclear deterrent.

    For our country, wouldn’t this be a good time to have a robust, competent national security apparatus thinking about those kinds of implications and making smart, well-informed strategic decisions on how to react to them?

  196. Reginald Selkirk says

    Joe Walsh says he’s becoming a Democrat

    Joe Walsh, a former Republican member of Congress, said Tuesday he is becoming a Democrat, marking the end of his five-year streak as a political independent after leaving the GOP in 2020.

    Walsh announced his formal affiliation with the Democratic Party in a Tuesday Substack post, saying he made the decision because he views the Republican Party as a threat to democracy and the rule of law and thinks defeating the GOP requires “a broad coalition of moderates, progressives, and, yes, even conservatives.” …

    He may no longer be a Republican, but he is still an asshole. This is the guy who shoulted ‘You’re lying’ during a speech by Obama in 2011.

  197. Reginald Selkirk says

    @66, etc
    Ukraine strikes Putin’s prized spy planes

    Ukraine has damaged at least two of Russia’s rare A-50 surveillance aircraft in its audacious drone attack on Vladimir Putin’s strategic bomber fleet, according to intelligence shared with The Telegraph.

    Footage shared with this publication clearly showed one of the Ukrainian drones hitting the radar dome of a hulking Soviet-era spy plane sitting on the apron of an air base.

    The aircraft was protected with what appeared to be sandbags aligned across its wings.

    A second A-50, shielded by tyres carefully lined across its airframe, also appeared to be hit by a Ukrainian-piloted drone, again landing on its radar dome…

  198. Reginald Selkirk says

    President Trump pardons Florida divers who cut 19 sharks free from longline

    President Donald Trump pardoned two Florida shark divers convicted of theft for cutting 19 sharks and a goliath grouper free from a fisherman’s line they falsely assumed was illegal.

    The May 28 pardon granted full clemency to both John Moore Jr. and Tanner Mansell, who spotted the longline 3 miles off the Jupiter Inlet on Aug. 10, 2020, and pulled it ashore. The gear alone cost the vessel owner about $1,300 while the value of the lost sharks amounted to several thousand more…

    This seems oddly dissimilar to Trump’s other pardons.

  200. Reginald Selkirk says

    RFK Jr.’s Gotcha Moment On CNN Goes Viral Again Amid ‘MAHA’ Report Controversy

    Footage of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. once denying — live on CNN — saying something that he most definitely said has gone viral again amid controversy over non-existent studies that were cited in his wide-ranging “Make America Healthy Again” report.

    In the clip, anchor Kasie Hunt immediately presented the receipts to Kennedy, who was then still an independent presidential candidate before dropping out of the 2024 race and endorsing his former rival, Donald Trump.

    Hunt teed up the moment by telling Kennedy: “You have gained notoriety for your skepticism about vaccines, and over the summer in an interview, you said, ‘There is no vaccine that is, you know, safe and effective.’ Do you still believe that?”

    Sewage water swimmer Kennedy replied: “I never said that.”

    Hunt interrupted.

    “So, stop me,” she said. “We have the clip. Please play the clip.”
    …

    Nicely done.
    He doesn’t look healthy, he doesn’t sound healthy. I don’t know why anyone would consider him an authority on health.

  201. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Lawyers, Guns, and Money – More thoughts on Russia’s bomber losses
    With a picture of the first Ukrainian aircraft carrier (a tractor trailer). Hehe, tractor.

    The nuclear balance is maintained when both sides can credibly destroy the other in a return attack. Both sides rely on three types of delivery vehicles for that second strike capability: land-based ICBMs, submarines, and bombers. The land-based ICBMs would go first, both offensively and defensively. Their locations and requirements for destruction are known, so they would be the first to be fired and the first to be destroyed.

    The submarines are the ultimate backup: they are constantly on patrol, and the other side doesn’t know their locations. They would survive a first nuclear strike. Each US sub carries up to 20 missiles with multiple separately targeted warheads. The US has 18 nuclear-armed submarines, and Russia has 11.

    The bombers are somewhere in between. They could be hit on the ground, as we saw today, or they could be ordered into the air, where they would be able to survive a first strike. Bombers on the ground are vulnerable; this has been known and their consequent value argued about since at least the late 1950s.
    […]
    Russia now has to consider a large adjustment to the bomber element of its triad. […] Conversely, there are probably a few nuclear-loving US generals gaming out what difference 20 fewer bombers make […] I’ll guess probably not a lot […] In defensive terms, some are probably reconsidering the vulnerability of planes on the tarmac

    Rando and Cheryl Rofer (Retired nuclear scientist):

    why is anything other than submarine capability required? And so long as that capability is retained are they really diminished as a nuclear power?
    –
    Volumes have been written about this. History plays a part: the bomber came first and had an ancestry back into World War II. Then came the missiles, then the submarines. Interagency rivalries play a part, too, Air Force and Navy. And some realities of strategy.

     
    Regarding the tire plane.
    Rando and Martin Pfeiffer (Nuclear Anthropologist):

    Not as bad as that one time I saw russians putting explosive-reactive armour blocks on their OPEN-TOPPED TRUCK to protect against drones/missiles at least.
    –
    Remember the overly explosive-armored covered vehicle?
    –
    Not specifically, but i think with a name like that I can imagine it. ;D
    –
    [Photo: Boom blocks covering the windshield and grill like space shuttle tiles.]
    –
    OH NO.
    –
    OOOOOOOHHHHHH YEAH!
    *Kool Aid man detonates*

     
    Jeffrey Lewis (Nonproliferation professor):

    Pro-Russian X accounts complaining about Ukraine hiding UAVs in containers.

    Russia literally exports cruise missiles hidden in containers. I complained about this in *checks notes* 2012 when the Russians started marketing these things. Now several of countries, including North Korea and Taiwan, have done it. The cat’s out of the bag. The Iranians sort of do it too. [Photos of launcher trucks]

  202. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    NBC – FDA’s AI tool for medical devices struggles with simple tasks

    [A tool dubbed CDRH-GPT] that could speed up reviews and approvals of medical devices such as pacemakers and insulin pumps [as well as X-rays and CT scanners] is […] buggy, doesn’t yet connect to the FDA’s internal systems and has issues when it comes to uploading documents or allowing users to submit questions […] It’s also not currently connected to the internet and can’t access new content, such as recently published studies or anything behind a paywall.
    […]
    The division was […] affected by the sweeping mass layoffs […] While many of the device reviewers were spared, the agency eliminated much of the backend support that enables them to issue approval decisions on time. The work of reviewers includes sifting through large amounts of data from animal studies and clinical trials. Depending on the applicant, it can take months or even over a year
    […]
    [Commissioner Makary] set a June 30 deadline for the AI rollout. [He also] announced that a separate AI tool, called Elsa, had been rolled out to all FDA employees. Elsa is now intended for basic tasks agency-wide, such as summarizing data from adverse event reports. […] When staff tested the tool […] it provided summaries that were either incorrect or only partially accurate

    Commentary

    Is Elsa frozen? They gotta let it go.

    I guess “Ilsa” would have been a little transparent, even for this administration.

    Look if google and openAI can’t fix this kind of problem in a matter of *years*, then I don’t think Makary and his dingus DOGE boys will be able to in 30 days.

    My guess is that in this [CDRH-GPT upload] case, it actually has to do with the types of documents that you need to parse for review of medical devices: while spreadsheets and word docs work pretty well, CAD files are notoriously difficult to extract info from, and guess what medical devices have a lot of. It’s why a lot of legal tech software doesn’t want to go near patent law with a 10-foot pole.

  203. John Morales says

    CA7746, kinda important to use the right tool for the job, not less than to use that tool properly.

    So… the cited headline is slanted: “FDA’s AI tool for medical devices struggles with simple tasks”.
    Really? The obvious question arises, to wit what sort of idiot would rely on a tool for medical devices that struggles with simple tasks? Oh, right, the article says:
    “Since taking over the agency on April 1, Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary has pushed to integrate artificial intelligence across the FDA’s divisions. How this move into AI could affect the safety and effectiveness of drugs or medical devices hasn’t been determined.”

    Anyway, to wash the poisoned well just a bit:
    https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/practical-ai-implementation-success-stories-mit-sloan-management-review

    “Generative artificial intelligence can be intimidating and risky. But many firms are making it work in practical and successful ways. New insights from MIT Sloan Management Review show how companies are focusing on small and medium-sized wins while ensuring that powerful AI tools — such as agents capable of presenting choices and making decisions — are used appropriately.”

  205. StevoR says

    Had hoped the recent storm had broken up the algal bloom and stopped it being such a dealdy issue but..

    Algae from a bloom that has killed marine life throughout South Australian seas over the past few months has been detected in the fragile saline environment of the Coorong.

    The Karenia mikimotoi-dominated algae mix is believed to have entered the North Lagoon via the mouth of the River Murray during last week’s stormy weather and high tides.

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-04/dead-marine-life-algae-bloom-found-in-coorong-sa/105370710

  206. StevoR says

    The Japanese company ispace is poised to make a historic moon landing this week.

    The company’s Reslience lunar lander will attempt to touch down in Mare Frigoris (“Sea of Cold”), a basalt plain in the moon’s northern hemisphere, on Thursday (June 5) at 3:24 p.m. EDT (1924 GMT). You’ll be able to watch the landing attempt online via a live webcast on ispace’s YouTube page, beginning about one hour before landing.

    Success would be huge for ispace and for Japan, which has just one soft lunar landing on its books to date — that of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s SLIM spacecraft, which touched down just last year. It would also be a big milestone for commercial spaceflight, which has increasingly set its sights on the moon.

    Source : https://www.space.com/astronomy/moon/private-japanese-spacecraft-will-attempt-to-land-in-the-moons-sea-of-cold-thi

  207. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    NYC AI chatbot touted by Mayor Adams tells businesses to break the law

    The announcement included a surprising centerpiece: an AI-powered chatbot that would provide New Yorkers with information on starting and operating a business in the city.
    […]
    Five months after launch, it’s clear that while the bot appears authoritative, the information it provides on housing policy, worker rights, and rules for entrepreneurs is often incomplete and in worst-case scenarios “dangerously inaccurate,” as one local housing policy expert told The Markup.

    [*snip*: numerous examples]

    “We will continue to focus on upgrading this tool so that we can better support small businesses across the city,” [the city IT spokesperson] said.
    […]
    It’s powered by Microsoft’s Azure AI […] New York City’s bot, according to the initial announcement, would let business owners “access trusted information from more than 2,000 NYC Business web pages,” and explicitly says the page will act as a resource “on topics such as compliance with codes and regulations, available business incentives, and best practices to avoid violations and fines.” […] A Microsoft spokesperson declined to comment or answer questions about the company’s role in building the bot.

    Emily Bender (Computational linguist):

    There’s a lot that’s alarming in this article, but perhaps the most alarming part is the NYC spokesperson assering that the problem can be fixed via upgrades.

    It seems to bear repeating: chatbots based on large language models are designed to *make shit up*. This isn’t a fixable bug. It’s a fundamental mismatch between tech and task.

    Also, it’s worth noting that RAG (retrieval augmented generation) doesn’t fix the problem. See those nice links into NYC web pages? Not stopping the system from *making shit up*. [Example from the article: the bot cited a link and wrote a summary that said the *opposite*. It often answers without citing at all.]

    Finally, as is usual and *completely unacceptable* the public does not have information about the training data used to build this thing, just the info that Microsoft made it.

  208. John Morales says

    What amuses me is how, as time goes by, more and more AI is coming online.

    Some people imagine AI specifically refers to chatbots, of course.

    In recent news: https://www.endeavourenergy.com.au/news/media-releases/world-leading-ai-technology-to-unlock-electricity-bill-savings-and-double-rooftop-solar

    Surely workers can relax, since AI is only a bubble:
    https://www.amazon.science/latest-news/the-quest-to-deploy-autonomous-robots-within-amazon-fulfillment-centers

  209. John Morales says

    BTW, this quoted claim is both speculative and sorta-false and well-poisoning:
    “It seems to bear repeating: chatbots based on large language models are designed to make shit up. This isn’t a fixable bug. It’s a fundamental mismatch between tech and task.”

    Speculative because it presumes no new breakthroughs, and sorta-false because it’s basically error-correction and redundancy at that point and so can be mitigated*, and well-poisoning because LLMs have been trained to predict the next word in a sequence based on vast amounts of data, not to intentionally make up shit — that’s an epiphenomenon.

    —

    * For example, off the top of my head, using an ensemble method with multiple instances running in parallel; for example one AI instance generating responses with citations and the other verifying those citations in real time, converging on a consensus through iterative error correction.
    Sure, much more overhead and no actual perfection, but I bet it works well enough.

  210. John Morales says

    Not a new idea, of course.
    cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle#Flight_systems

    “From 1991 to 1993, the orbiter vehicles were upgraded to the AP-101S, which improved the memory and processing capabilities, and reduced the volume and weight of the computers by combining the CPU and IOP into a single unit. Four of the GPCs were loaded with the Primary Avionics Software System (PASS), which was Space Shuttle-specific software that provided control through all phases of flight. During ascent, maneuvering, reentry, and landing, the four PASS GPCs functioned identically to produce quadruple redundancy and would error check their results. In case of a software error that would cause erroneous reports from the four PASS GPCs, a fifth GPC ran the Backup Flight System, which used a different program and could control the Space Shuttle through ascent, orbit, and reentry, but could not support an entire mission.”

  211. John Morales says

    Add-ons for LLMs are gonna be a thing, I reckon;
    e.g. https://openreview.net/pdf?id=z8TW0ttBPp

    MATHCODER: SEAMLESS CODE INTEGRATION IN
    LLMS FOR ENHANCED MATHEMATICAL REASONING
    [author list elided]
    Multimedia Laboratory (MMLab), The Chinese University of Hong Kong
    [contacts elided]
    ABSTRACT
    The recently released GPT-4 Code Interpreter has demonstrated remarkable
    proficiency in solving challenging math problems, primarily attributed to its
    ability to seamlessly reason with natural language, generate code, execute code,
    and continue reasoning based on the execution output. In this paper, we present
    a method to fine-tune open-source language models, enabling them to use code
    for modeling and deriving math equations and, consequently, enhancing their
    mathematical reasoning abilities. We propose a method of generating novel and
    high-quality datasets with math problems and their code-based solutions, referred
    to as MathCodeInstruct. Each solution interleaves natural language, code, and
    execution results. We also introduce a customized supervised fine-tuning and
    inference approach. This approach yields the MathCoder models, a family
    of models capable of generating code-based solutions for solving challenging
    math problems. Impressively, the MathCoder models achieve state-of-the-art
    scores among open-source LLMs on the MATH (45.2%) and GSM8K (83.9%)
    datasets, substantially outperforming other open-source alternatives. Notably, the
    MathCoder model not only surpasses ChatGPT-3.5 and PaLM-2 on GSM8K and
    MATH but also outperforms GPT-4 on the competition-level MATH dataset. The
    proposed dataset and models will be released upon acceptance.

    These are very early days, and we’re not yet at the real growth phase.

  213. KG says

    John Morales@209,

    Your top-of-the-head idea could presumably remove non-existent citations, but not the much more tricky false attribution of specific information or conclusions to real ones. I’m not saying you’re definitely wrong, but my own hunch is that getting rid of LLM’s bullshitting tendency would require giving them a way to check that their output is true – or at least, true if specified assumptions are true. I think that would require an entirely different approach, and once that is developed, I doubt the LLM part would add anything other than a bit of linguistic sugar. LLMs’ primary talent is to “flood the zone with shit” – the zone in this case being the internet. And as the proportion of LLM-generated shit online approaches 1, new LLMs will mostly be training on it unless the shit can be filtered out.

  214. John Morales says

    I know; at best, it’s expensive amelioration, not elimination, and a primitive brute-force approach.
    By verification I include veracity checks; consider the ensemble need not use identical initial instances, but could use a different version to cross-check false attribution of specific information or conclusions to real ones.

    Anyway, pretty sure an actual expert could (and probably will) come up with an even better solution, and much surer that what is now state of the art will not that many years hence be seen about as primitive as the very first external combustion engines do to us.

    —

    re “I doubt the LLM part would add anything other than a bit of linguistic sugar.”

    I think it’s already close to a really, really good natural language interface, but of course natural language is kinda vague and it’s easy to misinterpret queries. I know that when I play around with them, I am quite careful in how I make my queries.

    Anyway, I’m clearly optimistic about its future development, unlike some who think it’s a bubble that has already burst. We’ll surely see, that’s how S-curves work.

    (Helps I used to DM AD&D back in the 80s, when it was quite the fun thing to grant wishes ;)

  215. John Morales says

    re: “LLMs’ primary talent is to “flood the zone with shit” – the zone in this case being the internet.”

    Well then, old-timey digital or digitisable collections may become as valuable as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel for scientific purposes ;)

    —

    More seriously, I doubt any of the big labs have thrown away their original training sets after their scrapings.

  216. John Morales says

    Goes both ways, apparently.

    https://spectrum.ieee.org/biological-computer-for-sale

    In a development straight out of science fiction, Australian startup Cortical Labs has released what it calls the world’s first code-deployable biological computer. The CL1, which debuted in March, fuses human brain cells on a silicon chip to process information via sub-millisecond electrical feedback loops.

    Designed as a tool for neuroscience and biotech research, the CL1 offers a new way to study how brain cells process and react to stimuli. Unlike conventional silicon-based systems, the hybrid platform uses live human neurons capable of adapting, learning, and responding to external inputs in real time.

    “On one view, [the CL1] could be regarded as the first commercially available biomimetic computer, the ultimate in neuromorphic computing that uses real neurons,” says theoretical neuroscientist Karl Friston of University College London. “However, the real gift of this technology is not to computer science. Rather, it’s an enabling technology that allows scientists to perform experiments on a little synthetic brain.”

    […]

    Each CL1 contains 800,000 lab-grown human neurons, reprogrammed from the skin or blood samples of real adult donors. The cells remain viable for up to six months, fed by a life-support system that supplies nutrients, controls temperature, filters waste, and maintains fluid balance. Meanwhile, the neurons are firing and interpreting signals, adapting from each interaction.

    The CL1’s compact energy and hardware footprint could make it attractive for extended experiments. A rack of CL1 units consumes 850-1,000 watts, notably lower than the tens of kilowatts required by a data center setup running AI workloads.

  217. Reginald Selkirk says

    Trump won’t last in office for four years? Republican advisor’s warning raises concern

    Synopsis
    Republican strategist Rick Wilson suggested that US President Donald Trump may be showing cognitive decline. Some experts suspect early dementia. This contrasts with the White House physician’s April report of Trump’s excellent health. Wilson noted Trump’s incoherence and communication decline since 2015. Others share concerns about Trump’s neurological condition. Questions arise about Trump’s health amid revelations about Joe Biden’s health decline…

    “Early”? The man is not young.

  218. KG says

    I doubt any of the big labs have thrown away their original training sets after their scrapings – john Morales@215

    I’m sure they haven’t – but they become out-of-date. I should stress that I’m not nearly so sceptical about deep learning systems in general as about LLMs. They seem to be very good at finding patterns in large datasets, which is important in many areas of science and medicine – and even mathematics and history. But also, by the same token, in identifying targets for commercial/criminal exploitation and political surveillance/indoctrination.

  222. birgerjohansson says

    The South Korea Democratic Party candidate has officially won the election against a Trump-style opponent.

  223. rorschach says

    KG @218,
    “They seem to be very good at finding patterns in large datasets”

    Since the beginning of the year we use digitalised files here for our disability payment applications that I work on. They come in pdf format. Our IT just gave up on getting an AI to search through those pdfs (some are up to 400 pages) for certain keywords, say “ophthalmologist letter”. There is simply no guarantee that they will not overlook something, especially if it’s handwritten or in a non-standard font. This stuff is so not ready for the mainstream.

  224. Reginald Selkirk says

    Making It Safer To Bike Gets More People To Ride Bikes, Shocking Study Shows

    If you listened to drivers, you’d think all bicycle infrastructure was a giant waste of money because everywhere that isn’t a single-family house rightfully belongs to cars. Also, even if you did build a bunch of protected bike lanes, no one would use them because no one actually rides their bike anywhere. If you believe in this so-called “science” thing, though, a new study published in Nature just came to a shocking, impossible-to-believe conclusion. Apparently, if you make it safe for people to ride their bikes by building protected bike lanes, a lot more people in that area start riding their bikes.

    You’re probably going to want to sit down before you read any further, but as it turns out, people don’t like riding their bikes on the same roads as a bunch of drivers who refuse to look up from their phones while piloting 6,000-pound metal bricks. Additionally, the number of people willing to use bikes as transportation is not fixed, so if you add separate infrastructure, it incentivizes more people to get out there on two wheels. As the study found, areas “that installed protected bicycle lanes experienced bicycle commuter increases 1.8 times larger than standard bicycle lane block groups, 1.6 times larger than shared-lane marking block groups and 4.3 times larger than block groups that did not install bicycle facilities.” …

  225. Reginald Selkirk says

    EV-Fueled Inferno Forces Crew To Abandon Ship Carrying 3,000 Cars Across Pacific

    … A cargo ship carrying around 3,000 vehicles across the Pacific Ocean caught fire on Tuesday. The Morning Midas, a 600-foot cargo ship, was in the middle of a voyage from Yantai, China to Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico when the fire broke out.

    Zodiac Maritime, the ship’s London-based operator, noted that smoke was first spotted on a deck carrying 800 electric vehicles. Once the blaze got out of control, the vessel’s 22 crew members abandoned ship via lifeboat. With the ship roughly 300 southwest of Alaska, the U.S. Coast Guard dispatched aircrews and a cutter to respond to the emergency, according to Bloomberg. The evacuating crew on the lifeboat was transferred by the USCG to one of the three other merchants at the scene, helping to fight the fire. Zodiac Maritime wouldn’t comment on which automaker’s vehicles were burning to a crisp. This is an ongoing story, and we will update when we know more about the fate of the Morning Midas…

  226. says

    https://www.msnbc.com/all Chris Hayes

    ‘TACO Tuesday’: Democrats hand out free tacos to troll Trump over tariff jab
    Video is 5:57 minutes

    Musk turns on GOP, suggests ‘we fire all politicians’ who voted for MAGA bill
    Video is 8:26 minutes

  227. Reginald Selkirk says

    ‘No viable path forward’ for California’s high-speed rail project.

    That’s the assessment from US Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who just released a 300-page report (PDF) detailing key findings, including “missed deadlines, budget shortfalls, and overrepresentation of projected ridership.” Duffy is ordering the agency in charge of the project to respond in 37 days, or risk contract terminations. And he frames the demand as being “good stewards” of US tax dollars — even as Trump’s “big beautiful bill” is projected to grow the federal deficit to $2.4 trillion. Of course, Trump has been angling to kneecap California’s high-speed rail project for years now.

  228. birgerjohansson says

    Neal Asher, the British SF aurhor that has written the ‘Polity’ novels published his latest novel in 2024 when Elon Musk was still mostly associated with building reusable rockets. He dedicated the book to Musk.

    That did not age well.

  229. Reginald Selkirk says

    Elon Musk privately expresses frustration on a range of recent moves by Trump administration: Sources
    “Privately” – heh heh. I guess that’s why it’s all over the headlines.

    Elon Musk’s grievances with the Trump administration extend beyond the level of spending in the president’s signature bill, sources tell ABC News.

    Multiple people who have spoken to the president and Musk described a widening rift on a range of recent moves by the administration.

    Musk has privately expressed frustration about a portion of the spending bill that would cut the electric vehicle tax credit, multiple people who have spoken with the billionaire said.

    After the November election, Musk called for ending the tax credit, but more recently, his company, Tesla, has become a vocal opponent of removing the provision…

    Musk had also grown increasingly frustrated with the Trump administration striking artificial intelligence deals with his competitor OpenAI, sources tell ABC News…

    Another source of tension: the withdrawal of Musk ally Jared Isaacman’s nomination as NASA administrator over the weekend, according to sources who stated that Musk was deeply disappointed by the move.

    There have also been deep disagreements on trade policy. In April, Musk called trade advisor Peter Navarro a “moron” and “dumber than a sack of bricks” in a series of posts on X…

    I can’t hear his complaints over the sound of leopards eating leopards’ faces.

  230. Reginald Selkirk says

    Trump MAGA senator gets lunch eaten by brilliant attorney (and MSNBC host’s wife)

    Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) was schooled by Kate Shaw, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, during a congressional panel hearing on Tuesday related to federal judges who have ruled against President Donald Trump’s administration.

    Hawley asked Shaw, MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes’ wife who testified, if it was “anomalous” that more judges have ruled against Trump using nationwide injunctions — a court order prohibiting the government from enforcing a law or policy nationally — since his first term.

    “A very plausible explanation, senator, you have to consider, is that he has engaged in much more lawless activity than other presidents, right,” Shaw responded.

    Hawley replied, “This was never used before the 1960s, and suddenly Democrat judges decide we love the nationwide injunction,” adding that former President Joe Biden rarely received any. Meanwhile, a report on Congress’ website indicates that 14 nationwide injunctions were placed on the former administration over the first three years of his term.

    “It’s Republican appointees as well, senator,” Shaw said.

    “The federal government was doing a lot less one hundred years ago, so there’s many things that have changed in the last hundred or the last 50 years,” Shaw continued.

    Hawley then asked: “So as long as it is a Democrat president in office, then we should have no nationwide injunctions? If it’s a Republican president, then this is absolutely fine, warranted, and called for. How can our system of law survive on those principles, professor?”

    He also said that when Biden received injunctions, Shaw called it a “travesty… for the principles of democracy, notions of judicial impartiality and the rule of law.” He was referring to an op-ed written by Shaw in The New York Times in 2023 after a judge ruled in favor of red states trying to overturn the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone for use in early abortions. Mifepristone was used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions that same year.

    “The Supreme Court, senator, agreed 9-0 with me on that case, to be clear,” Shaw answered, referring to the high court unanimously preserving access to the medication last June…

  231. says

    Good news in state politics, as summarized by Steve Benen from The Down Ballot:

    In South Carolina, Democrat Keishan Scott, a 24-year-old minister, won a state House special election this week by 42 points, which is notable in part because Kamala Harris only carried this same district by five points last fall.

  232. says

    Republicans target the CBO as part of a larger offensive against independent obstacles

    “That so many Republicans see independent sources of information as partisan targets speaks volumes about the quality of the party’s ideas.”

    Related video at the link.

    The American Bar Association, which has scrutinized federal judicial nominations since 1948, determined that many of Donald Trump’s picks were unqualified for the bench. Given that feedback, the White House had a decision to make: The president and his team could choose better nominees; they could encourage senators to ignore the ABA’s independent assessments; or they could cut off ABA detailed access to judicial nominees’ records.

    Last week, Attorney General Pam Bondi chose Door #3, slamming the American Bar Association for making assessments the White House didn’t like and cutting off the ABA’s access to nonpublic information about would-be jurists. [!!]

    Around the same time, the Trump administration also signaled that it was dissatisfied with the nation’s leading medical journals for publishing scientific findings the White House also didn’t like, reportedly leading the Department of Veterans Affairs to order scientists not to publish in journals without approval from presidential appointees.

    […] to fully appreciate the scope of the offensive, consider the partisan campaign against the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. [video at the link]

    Reminded of the CBO’s recent analysis of the Republicans’ domestic policy megabill, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that “the Congressional Budget Office has been historically wrong,” adding, “I don’t think many people know this, there hasn’t been a single staffer in the entire Congressional Budget Office that has contributed to a Republican since the year 2000.”

    A Washington Post fact-check report gave Leavitt’s claim the dreaded “Four Pinocchios,” while noting, “[T]he White House’s campaign against the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan agency that vets the cost of major legislation, is veering into the ridiculous.”

    That’s an easy assessment to agree with. The CBO’s current director worked in George W. Bush’s Treasury Department, has donated to Republican candidates and, perhaps most importantly, was chosen for his current position by Republican lawmakers. The idea that he’s overseeing some left-wing operation hellbent on tarnishing GOP proposals is plainly silly. [!]

    As for the idea that CBO scores have “historically” been “wrong,” the office’s track record on forecasting future budget deficits has been pretty impressive in recent years. [!]

    And yet the Republican offensive against the CBO and its credibility has been relentless as the party has tried desperately to advance its inaptly named “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” with House Speaker Mike Johnson and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent helping to lead the charge with claims that have immediately collapsed under scrutiny.

    Even the president himself joined the pile-on last week, claiming that the CBO is “inspired” and “controlled” by Democrats, which is plainly false. To bolster his point, Trump pointed to a recent CBO report on economic growth forecasts that was not, in reality, released by the CBO. (Trump apparently confused the CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation.) [Sheesh]

    If recent history is any guide, these partisan tactics won’t end anytime soon. But for the public, the fact that too many Republicans see independent sources of information as obstacles worthy of attack speaks volumes about the quality of the party’s ideas.

  233. says

    Reginald @230, beautiful and satisfying. Kate Shaw did a great job.

    In other news, this is a followup to comment 232. Budget office analysis makes the Republicans’ domestic policy megabill look even worse

    “The original Congressional Budget Office score of the GOP’s reconciliation package was brutal. A revised analysis made matters worse for Republicans.”

    With just hours remaining before House Republicans prepared to vote on their domestic policy megabill last month — the inaptly named “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” — the Congressional Budget Office released an analysis of the GOP’s legislative package. The findings from the non-partisan CBO were rather brutal: The analysis pointed to decreased resources for the poorest Americans, trillions of dollars in new debt, and the stripping of health care coverage from millions.

    There was, however, one nagging problem with the projections: House Republican leaders wrote and rewrote their not-so-beautiful bill in the middle of the night, changing the reconciliation package repeatedly in response to private backroom deals. The CBO did its best, but it is trying to assess a moving target.

    Nearly two weeks later, the budget office has finally had an opportunity to carefully scrutinize the final version of the bill — which narrowly passed the lower chamber ahead of Memorial Day weekend — and as NBC News reported, the CBO’s revised findings don’t do Republicans any favors.

    The sweeping Republican bill for President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda is projected to add $2.4 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years, according to a new estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. It is slightly higher than an earlier version of the bill, which the CBO projected to add $2.3 trillion in new debt.

    The same CBO report similarly found that 10.9 million Americans would lose their health care coverage if the Republican legislation became law — a slightly larger total than the analysts’ original estimate — as a result of Medicaid cuts and regressive changes to the Affordable Care Act.

    What’s the good news for GOP officials in this revised score? There really isn’t any.

    It’s worth emphasizing for context that Republicans didn’t actually want any of this information — before or after the vote. Common sense might suggest that GOP officials on Capitol Hill would want to know basic details about their giant reconciliation package, such as how much it would cost and the practical implications of its provisions, so that Congress would at least try to govern with open eyes.

    But that hasn’t been the case. Just as Republicans scrambled in 2017 to pass massive tax breaks without waiting for a score from the Congressional Budget Office, GOP lawmakers decided to do the same thing in 2025, deliberately choosing willful ignorance [!] about their own legislation.

    Congressional Democrats, however, were free to ask the CBO to scrutinize the House Republicans’ proposal, and that’s precisely what happened.

    The bill is now pending in the Republican-led Senate, where significant changes to the bill appear inevitable. Watch this space.

  234. Reginald Selkirk says

    Tesla shows no sign of improvement in May sales data

    Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s big government adventure appears to be at an end. As promised in April, Musk has returned his attention to his car company, which is facing serious headwinds. In the first quarter of the year, Tesla sold tens of thousands fewer electric vehicles than it did the year before, despite a rise in worldwide EV sales. Data from April looked even worse, with substantial sales declines in Europe and China. May’s numbers don’t look much better.

    Although Tesla only publishes its global production and sales numbers—and only at the end of each quarter—some countries provide monthly new car registration information, making it possible to track sales on a national level. And according to Germany’s KBA, in May, Tesla sales fell by just over 36 percent year over year, even as overall EV registrations increased by 45 percent. At least that’s a few hundred more cars than it managed in April.

    Similar trends were seen in the UK and Italy. In the UK, Tesla sales decreased by 45 percent, even as overall EV sales increased by 28 percent. In Italy, EV sales increased by almost 41 percent, but Tesla’s deliveries dropped by 20 percent…

  235. says

    In a normal White House, right-wing activists like Loomer wouldn’t have access. But that’s not Donald Trump’s White House.

    Amid speculation that people close to Donald Trump have grown weary of right-wing activist Laura Loomer, NBC News reported that she was welcomed back to the White House complex this week for her latest high-level meeting.

    Vice President JD Vance met [Tuesday] with the far-right activist Laura Loomer in a one-on-one meeting inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, two sources familiar with the meeting confirmed to NBC News. …

    Shortly after the report was published, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt acknowledged during a briefing that the vice president and Loomer did have a private discussion, though she didn’t elaborate on the details of the meeting.

    And while it’s certainly of interest to know what the two talked about, that Loomer was even offered the opportunity for high-level access is extraordinary.

    Loomer might not be a household name, but in political circles, she has earned an unfortunate reputation. Loomer is a right-wing activist, a failed Republican congressional candidate who has described herself as “pro-white nationalism” and a radical conspiracy theorist who has claimed that deadly school shootings were staged and the Sept. 11 attacks were “an inside job.” [Looniest of the fringe, rightwing loonies.]

    She was also a close confidant to Trump during the 2024 campaign — whose access and influence appears to have grown. [!]

    Last month, for example, Loomer reportedly had a hand in derailing Dr. Janette Nesheiwat’s surgeon general nomination. Around the same time, Mike Waltz was ousted from his national security adviser position after getting on Loomer’s bad side. Two weeks earlier, Loomer was also reportedly involved in the firing of a U.S. attorney in California. [!]

    But perhaps the most important example came to the fore in early April.

    It was striking enough to see the president oust several members of the National Security Council and the two top leaders at the National Security Agency, but the story became even more dramatic when the public learned that the firings came on the heels of a meeting with Loomer, who promptly took credit for the developments. The New York Times published a striking behind-the-scenes look at what transpired at the White House.

    Sitting directly across from the president in the Oval Office, Ms. Loomer, the far-right agitator and conspiracy theorist, held a stack of papers that detailed a litany of accusations about ‘disloyal’ members of the National Security Council. The national security adviser, Michael Waltz, had arrived late and could only watch as Ms. Loomer ripped into his staff. Fire them, Mr. Trump instructed Mr. Waltz, according to people with knowledge of the meeting on Wednesday. The president was furious and demanded to know why these people had been hired in the first place.

    The Times’ report […] added that the situation “perfectly encapsulates Mr. Trump’s longtime penchant for soliciting information from dubious sources. The difference now, in Mr. Trump’s second term, is that he has fewer people around him who try to keep those voices away.”

    In a normal and healthy White House, such a cartoonish scenario wouldn’t even be possible. The idea that a sitting president would not only meet with someone like Loomer but would take her recommendations about national security personnel — as the actual White House national security adviser watches helplessly — sounds like the script of an unrealistic television show.

    But if the Times’ account is accurate, that is what happened two months ago, before Loomer was rewarded again with one-on-one access to the vice president.

    The Times’ report from April added that during the president’s first term, officials “spent a large portion of their days blocking off people they described as ‘the crazies.’” Those aides have been replaced by others who approach their gatekeeping role very differently.

    […] only one party offers the fringe this kind of access and influence.

    True. Both parties may have fringe supporters who can’t be trusted, but only the Republican Party brings those supporters into the mainstream and gives them access to a gullible president. There’s also a difference in the quantity of fringe supporters, with the Republican Party obviously hosting a greater percentage … and nurturing them. It is like they are growing loonies and doofuses in the petri dish of the Republican Party. JD Vance met with Laura Loomer!

  236. says

    This Russian Dissident Won Political Asylum. ICE Refuses To Release Him.

    Two months ago, 25-year-old Ilia Chernov beat long odds and convinced an immigration judge to grant him political asylum in the U.S.

    Normally, that finding would have been enough for Chernov to obtain legal status and live freely in the U.S. Chernov’s judge told him that he would soon be released.

    But Immigration and Customs Enforcement has refused to free Chernov, stranding him in detention.

    Immigration law experts that TPM spoke with could not recall another case that matches this set of facts. ICE will, on rare occasions, keep people who have received asylum detained during appeal if they have a criminal record or present an alleged threat to public safety. But ICE isn’t claiming that here. The only suggestion that Chernov has a criminal record comes not from the United States, but from Russia, his home country: there, Russian cops raided his apartment as part of an investigation relating to Chernov’s support for the now-dead opposition leader Alexei Navalny and opposition to the war in Ukraine.

    […] What prompted him to flee was a 2023 incident that Chernov recounted to immigration officials and to TPM: he placed anti-war flyers at a military recruitment office, attracting the attention of Russian prosecutors.

    He’s buttressed his asylum claim with other episodes: traffic police once threatened him with prosecution for “extremism” over a pro-Navalny sticker on his car. Chernov is resourceful and a quick learner: he applied for asylum himself while he was being held in immigration detention in the U.S. […]

    All this helped persuade an immigration judge, in March, to buck the Trump II trend of declining asylum grants and approve Chernov’s claim. But ICE soon appealed his case — and, unusually, kept him in detention while it did it. […]

    To understand Chernov’s case — and his continued detention despite a successful asylum claim — TPM reviewed Russian and American court records, spoke with immigration attorneys and former ICE officials, and interviewed Chernov over hours of phone calls placed from the privately run detention center where he is being held.

    […] [I snipped the history/details of how Chernov arrived at the San Ysidro border crossing and entered the USA.]

    […] The way he tells it, the government came to oppose him: Chernov identifies as non-binary. That put his gender expression in conflict with Russian society, including a Kremlin set on prosecuting members of LGBT organizations as “extremists.” [I snipped details.]

    After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the political atmosphere in the country became more tense. Chernov opposed the war, and stuck “Free Navalny” and “No Mobilization” stickers on his car. […]

    The next year, Chernov received a draft notice for the country’s mandatory military service. He was ordered to appear at a military recruiting center for a fitness check.

    Instead, Chernov told TPM, he decided to stage a mini-protest in the recruitment office. He printed out flyers that read, “Let’s think before signing a contract with the Russian Army. You’ll kill or be killed.”

    […] Fearing that his fingerprints on the flyers would match those that investigators took, he hid out for a month in a hotel and sold as many of his belongings as he could to raise money for the trip to come. After a few weeks, he and a friend traveled by train to Belarus, a neighboring country that has limited border controls with Russia but which is governed separately, making it easier to leave without detection. From there, he flew to Dubai, and then to Mexico. In May 2024, after eight months in Tijuana, he arrived for a CPB One appointment at the U.S. border.

    […] Chernov was immediately detained.

    Which asylum-seekers ICE detains at entry remains a mystery. Chernov traveled with a friend whose CBP One appointment was a few months earlier; that friend was not detained. The government had, for a time, been letting many Russian asylum seekers through without detaining them. ICE statistics show that detentions spiked in summer 2024.

    Since then, the Trump administration has also pressured immigration judges, administrative magistrates who work for DOJ, to approve fewer asylum applications. The administration entered office by firing dozens of the judges. […]

    Nevertheless, Chernov won his asylum case in March. ICE signaled that it would appeal.

    […] But then something happened that surprised Chernov, his lawyers, and independent experts TPM spoke with: Chernov was never released, stranding him in detention in Louisiana’s Winn Correctional Facility.

    His continued detention raises a simple question: Why? Chernov has legal status per the judge’s ruling. The Board of Immigration Appeals can take months to hear a case; why keep him inside?

    […] Chernov told TPM that he tries to stop the days from blurring into one by studying English in the detention center’s library, and by following whatever news he can get. The facility shows CNN and Fox News. [Fox fucking News is everywhere!]

    The conditions are poor. Privately operated, Winn is one of ICE’s largest detention facilities —– and among its most notorious. A series of exposés, including one in 2016 by a Mother Jones reporter who went undercover as a guard at the facility, documented systemic abuse and failures to provide basic hygiene, clean water, and unspoiled food to inmates. [!!]

    […]“After a long time, people start to go crazy here,” Chernov said.

    ICE also alleges that Chernov has told one critical part of his story inconsistently, to different people. [I snipped other details that ICE is claiming.]

    That claim goes to the core of his petition: whether he was charged, and whether he placed anti-war flyers in the military recruitment office. Chernov provided his attorneys with a Russian search warrant for “discrediting the armed forces”; the document does not provide details about what event prosecutors were investigating.

    Interview transcripts in Chernov’s case indicate that he told DHS officials during a credible fear interview that he was charged over the incident. Chernov blames this on a translation error, and a transcript shows other communication issues between Chernov and the translator; early on in the interview, Chernov told his translator that he “was feeling a little uncomfortable because you were saying you couldn’t hear me.”

    Later, he told the immigration judge in his case that Russian authorities did not reach the point of charging him. He was only investigated, he told the judge.

    ICE has seized on this difference in the record.

    […] what helped persuade the immigration judge was that Chernov made a key admission about the facts Russian prosecutors had been interested in: while Chernov denied to Russian law enforcement that he placed the fliers, he admitted to U.S. immigration officials that he had. He would later, also, admit it to TPM.

    The immigration judge cited Chernov’s admission in her decision granting him asylum.

    “They have threatened him specifically with prosecution,” the judge wrote. “And in fact, he himself admits that he has taken steps that would be a violation of these laws, and that he has distributed pamphlets.”

    In some ways, these admissions are an act of desperation, given what the future may hold for Chernov: He fears that the U.S. government will, eventually, deport him to Russia. If it does, all of his efforts to secure asylum in the U.S. by telling his own story would then backfire: his admission to spreading the flyers, his open support of Navalny — Russian authorities could use it all against him upon return. [True, and very scary.]

    TPM asked Chernov why he was taking such a big risk.

    He had no choice, he replied: “There’s no way back at this point.”

  237. says

    Associated Press: Trump administration revokes guidance requiring hospitals to provide emergency abortions.

    The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it would revoke guidance to the nation’s hospitals that directed them to provide emergency abortions for women when they are necessary to stabilize their medical condition.

    That guidance was issued to hospitals in 2022, weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court upended national abortion rights in the U.S. It was an effort by the Biden administration to preserve abortion access for extreme cases in which women were experiencing medical emergencies and needed an abortion to prevent organ loss or severe hemorrhaging, among other serious complications.

    The Biden administration had argued that hospitals — including ones in states with near-total bans — needed to provide emergency abortions under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. That law requires emergency rooms that receive Medicare dollars to provide an exam and stabilizing treatment for all patients. Nearly all emergency rooms in the U.S. rely on Medicare funds.

    The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it would no longer enforce that policy.

    The move prompted concerns from some doctors and abortion rights advocates that women will not get emergency abortions in states with strict bans.

    “The Trump Administration would rather women die in emergency rooms than receive life-saving abortions,” Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement. “In pulling back guidance, this administration is feeding the fear and confusion that already exists at hospitals in every state where abortion is banned. Hospitals need more guidance, not less, to stop them from turning away patients experiencing pregnancy crises.”

    […] An Associated Press investigation last year found that, even with the Biden administration’s guidance, dozens of pregnant women were being turned away from emergency rooms, including some who needed emergency abortions.

    […] The Biden administration sued Idaho over its abortion law that initially only allowed abortions to save the life of the mother. The federal government had argued before the U.S. Supreme Court last year that Idaho’s law was in conflict with the federal law, which requires stabilizing treatment that prevents a patient’s condition from worsening.

    The U.S. Supreme Court issued a procedural ruling in the case last year that left key questions unanswered about whether doctors in abortion-ban states can terminate pregnancies when a woman is at risk of serious infection, organ loss or hemorrhage.

  238. says

    Trump’s Bedminster Golf Club Flagged For 18 Health Violations In Latest Inspection—Earned Lowest Grade In County

    KEY FACTS
    – The Somerset County Department of Health inspected Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster on May 6, according to the report, which is publicly available online.
    – The club received a score of 32 out of a 100 possible points, with the inspector documenting 18 violations—nine of which were deemed critical, meaning they “may result in an unacceptable health risk.”
    – The club was out of compliance with all three requirements in the “food protected from contamination” category, with violations including expired milk, raw meat stored improperly and a dishwasher that may not reach the required temperature (the first two problems were corrected during the inspection).
    – The inspector also cited four separate hand-washing violations, including sinks without soap or paper towels, one lacking a required sign and another used to store a sanitizer bucket.
    – The club was issued a “conditionally satisfactory” C grade and required to display a placard with the grade in a visible location.
    […]

    SURPRISING FACT
    Of the roughly 115 retail food establishments inspected in Somerset County in May, Trump’s club received the lowest score—32 out of 100. All but one other venue scored 60 or higher, according to a county records search.

    CHIEF CRITIC
    “[The person in charge] fails to demonstrate knowledge of food safety,” the inspector noted amid the volume and severity of the violations, which is a violation in and of itself under the health code.

    WHAT TO WATCH FOR
    The club had until May 20 to correct the violations and now faces a follow-up inspection at an unspecified date. […]

    […] TANGENT
    Trump’s Bedminster club continues to serve alcohol nearly a year after New Jersey declined to renew its liquor license, citing questions over whether President Trump’s felony convictions disqualify him under state law. The club has a temporary permit, which is set to expire on June 30. […]

  239. says

    New tariffs on steel imports ordered by President Donald Trump went into effect on Wednesday and will raise prices for groceries, construction materials, and American businesses—adding to economic burdens weighing on the economy.

    Trump’s executive order increases steel tariffs from 25% to 50%. Trump claimed at a rally on Friday that the tariffs would “further secure the steel industry in the United States,” but ignored the negative effect on everyday Americans.

    […] “Doubling the steel tariff will further increase the cost of canned goods at the grocery store. This cost is levied upon millions of American families relying on canned foods picked and packed by U.S. farmers, food producers, and can makers,” CMI president Robert Budway said in a statement.

    […] The ripple effect of the price increase could lead to a major disruption in the construction industry. When the cost of steel goes up, construction expenses increase, profits drop, and budget overruns occur—leading to even more fallout for the companies involved, their suppliers, and the businesses and families relying on those transactions.

    Other countries are likely to see their steel costs decrease while Americans are paying more. Analysts expect that in Europe, for instance, steel supply will increase because manufacturers won’t have Trump’s exorbitant tariffs to deal with.

    […] Trump has ignored the data and evidence. […]

    Link

  241. Reginald Selkirk says

    Are Dead Sea Scrolls older than we thought?

    Over the years, scholars of the Dead Sea Scrolls have analyzed the ancient parchments with various methods: for example, X-rays, multispectral imaging, “virtual unfolding,” and paleography, i.e., studying elements in their writing styles. The scrolls are believed to date back to between the third century BCE and the first century CE, but those dates rely largely on paleography, since only a handful of the scrolls have calendar dates written on them.

    However, the traditional paleographic method is inherently subjective and based on a given scholar’s experience. A team of scientists has combined radiocarbon dating from 24 scroll samples and machine-learning-based handwriting analysis to create their own AI program—dubbed Enoch. The objective was to achieve more accurate date estimates, according to a new paper published in the journal PLoS ONE. Among the findings: Many of the scrolls are older than previously thought…

    They tested Enoch by having paleographic experts evaluate the AI program’s age estimate for several scrolls. The results: About 79 percent of Enoch’s estimates were deemed “realistic,” while its age estimates for the remaining 21 percent were either too young, too old, or just indecisive.

    This new model revealed that many of the Dead Sea Scrolls are older than previous estimates based solely on paleography. That should be relevant for the question of when two ancient Jewish script styles—”Hasmonean” and “Herodian”—developed, for example. The former script was thought to have emerged between 150–50 BCE, but the authors believe Hasmonean could have emerged much earlier; ditto for the Herodian script. So both scripts may have coexisted since the late second century, challenging the prevailing view that they preexisted by the mid-first century BCE…

  243. says

    […] A crypto wallet is typically an app or a physical device, like a thumb drive, where you store the keys—aka passwords—for your crypto holdings. Some wallets allow users to trade cryptocurrency, and it appears from the mockup on TrumpWallet.com that the $TRUMP Wallet would include trading.

    After software engineer Molly White broke the news of “$TRUMP Wallet” in her Citation Needed newsletter on Tuesday, two of Trump’s adult sons—Eric and Don Jr.—said the Trump Organization has nothing to do with it, and told The New York Times that they would pursue legal action.

    On top of that, writing on X, Don Jr. said that World Liberty Financial—which has deep ties to the Trumps— “will be launching our official wallet soon.”

    That sounds a lot like White got out over her skis, and it’s possible she did, but the Trump companies have lied about past crypto deals. For instance, when news first broke that Trump Media and Technology Group—originally the parent company of Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform—had made a deal to buy billions in crypto, the company called it “fake news,” then announced the deal the next day. [LOL]

    Right now, it appears that the $TRUMP Wallet is being launched partly by Magic Eden, a marketplace for people to buy and sell NFTs. Remember those? Trump pushed out those hilarious “digital trading cards” depicting him as a cowboy or in space or hunting or dressed as a superhero. And they collapsed in value with all other NFTs when people realized that spending comically large amounts of money on what is little more than a JPEG you can see only on the internet was not a solid investment? Anyway, you can still find them for sale at Magic Eden.

    […] So, are Don Jr. and Eric lying just so they can announce the $TRUMP Wallet deal when they want to, or is this supposedly official $TRUMP Wallet a scam by some people in Trump’s orbit who hope to capitalize on Trump’s name? Who can say! Cryptocurrency is so lightly regulated and the Trump family has so many shady crypto ventures that untangling this is impossible.

    On Tuesday, what appears to have happened is that after White first published her story, Magic Eden pushed out an announcement launching the “Official $TRUMP Wallet” and saying it was created in partnership with Bill Zanker, the architect of the actually-official $TRUMP memecoin. […]

    But either Magic Eden’s announcement or White’s story or both is what sparked the denials from Don Jr. and Eric.

    White’s conclusion is most likely the correct one, which is that talks between Magic Eden, Zanker and/or Fight Fight Fight, and the Trump family crypto companies broke down somewhere along the line. That leaves the rest of us to try to figure out what involvement, if any, the president of the United States has with this latest crypto venture.

    […] In general, Trump’s crypto shadiness relies upon him and his team being certain that the Securities and Exchange Commission will not interfere in the dealings. And it turns out that Trump is in luck, what with him running the government and all.

    Back in February, the SEC said most memecoins were not securities, meaning that they aren’t considered investments and that buyers should have no reasonable expectation the promoters of the coins will undertake efforts to create profits for them. […]

    Trump’s private fortunes are now impossibly tangled with government policies. His fortunes will likely increase if he keeps wiping out regulations against crypto that might hobble his abilities to hoover up cash. It’s breathtakingly, transparently corrupt, and we live here now.

    Link

    Posted by readers of the article:

    In exchange for your real money, Donald promises to give you something that is ALMOST money in return.

    Like all his other failed businesses, Donald will make real money and everyone else will get the real losses.
    —————————-

    World Liberty Financial—which has deep ties to the Trumps— “will be launching our official wallet soon.”

    If you’re trusting enough to willingly download a financial app from Donald Trump, then you might want to hear about a bridge that I have for sale. I’ll even throw in some prime Florida real estate as part of the deal.

  245. Reginald Selkirk says

    IRS Makes Direct File Software Open Source After Trump Tried to Kill It

    Direct File, the Internal Revenue Service’s long-promised free tax filing software, might be at risk of being killed off by the Trump administration, but the code that made the service possible will live on even if the program itself doesn’t. According to 404 Media, the IRS published most of the code for its Direct File on GitHub, making it open source and available for others to use, much to the chagrin of tax lobbyists everywhere.

    Before you mistake the move as an act of resistance by those within the agency who are trying to keep the project alive, Direct File getting open-sourced was always part of the plan. The code was published in compliance with the SHARE IT Act, which requires agencies to share custom source code (though, of course, the Trump administration is not always motivated by following the law, so this wasn’t a given).

    In a report published last year, the IRS explained its reasoning for making the code available publicly: “First, it would enable public scrutiny of that code and invite independent groups to assess its accuracy and report potential issues. Second, other tax administrators, both in states and internationally, could build upon and contribute to the IRS’s work, improving the robustness of the software over time and providing additional public value.”

    Now that the code is available, it should help others develop functioning (and hopefully free) tax-filing tools. According to 404 Media, the code can’t run independently because it still relies on internal IRS systems; however, it does provide a strong baseline for a platform that is essentially guaranteed to be in compliance with the federal government, as it was built by the government itself.

    On a related note, 404 Media pointed out that several of the people who were heavily involved in building Direct File for the IRS have since left the government entirely and joined the Economic Security Project’s Future of Tax Filing Fellowship, where they work on projects designed to make filing taxes simpler and more accessible. It seems like just the type of people who might want to build something based on that open-source codebase…

  246. says

    Some readers might be inclined to click away the moment they see the phrases “government forecast,” “trade deficit” and “farm goods,” but I’d encourage you to stick around for another minute, because this is going somewhere.

    Let’s start with a new report in Politico, which sparked quite a conversation almost immediately after it was published — despite the seemingly dull aforementioned phrases.

    Trump administration officials delayed and redacted a government forecast because it predicts an increase in the nation’s trade deficit in farm goods later this year, according to two people familiar with the matter. The numbers run counter to President Donald Trump’s messaging that his economic policies, including tariffs, will reduce U.S. trade imbalances. The politically inconvenient data prompted administration officials to block publication of the written analysis normally attached to the report because they disliked what it said about the deficit.

    […] The U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) was supposed to release data about the trade deficit in farm goods; the facts were at odds with the White House’s preferred political narratives; and according to Politico’s unnamed sources, the truth was temporarily hidden from the public for political reasons.

    The same report added, “Policymakers, farm groups and commodities traders rely on the closely watched report,” so the delay was noticed.

    […] The benign explanation for the delayed report is that there was an unfortunate bureaucratic mix-up. A USDA spokesperson acknowledged that that report in question did not come out when it was originally scheduled to be released, but the spokesperson insisted, “The report was hung up in internal clearance process and was not finalized in time for its typical deadline. Given this report is not statutory as with many other reports USDA does, the Department is undergoing a review of all of its non-statutory reports, including this one, to determine next steps.”

    But for those less inclined to give the administration the benefit of the doubt, these developments raise serious concerns about what Politico’s report described as “potential political meddling with government reports that have traditionally been trusted for decades.”

    The federal government — not just the USDA, but every federal department, agency and office — generates countless reports, practically on a daily basis. Some of the reports, including those related to the unemployment rate, economic growth, and inflation, receive considerable national and international attention, but other reports are of interest to vastly smaller audiences.

    But whether the documents and data are of interest to hundreds of people or hundreds of millions, the bottom line remains the same: The public needs to be able to trust the integrity of the information. Everyone needs to have the utmost confidence that when the United States of America says, “This is accurate data, which has not been manipulated for political reasons,” the world can safely assume the claim is true.

    […] The Wall Street Journal reported this week that some economists “are beginning to question the accuracy of recent U.S. inflation data,” not because of a political plot, but because federal staffing shortages appear to have “hampered its ability to conduct a massive monthly survey.”

    A week before Trump’s second inaugural, Paul Krugman, shortly after parting ways with The New York Times, highlighted the “real threat of fake numbers” and the possibility that the public will have to start approaching federal government data with increased skepticism.

    Five months later, these questions are getting louder.

    Link

  247. Reginald Selkirk says

    Light gun support comes to LCD monitors — new G’AIM’E gun controller comes with bundled Namco titles via Kickstarter

    A new Kickstarter project could rekindle fast and responsive light gun gaming fun in your home. Launching soon on the crowdfunding platform is a campaign for the curiously titled G’AIM’E gun controller set, which will come with some of the best gun-toting titles of yesteryear.

    Japanese firm Tassei Denki is behind this project and has won the stamp of approval of Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. (global license) to include Time Crisis, Point Blank, and two Steel Gunner titles in their bundles.

    The ascendancy of LCD TVs (and monitors) has come with lots of positives, but one of the biggest negatives was felt by light gun gaming enthusiasts. Light gun controllers offered fast, slick, and responsive gun play on CRTs, but the tech didn’t translate to LCDs. Consoles introduced during the LCD era instead used motion controls and/or additional IR sensor bars for gun crosshair positioning.
    …
    Sadly, the newly published Kickstarter ‘launching soon’ page doesn’t provide much technical insight into the new light gun controller.

    “The G’AIM’E gun uses our own bespoke technology that utilizes a high-resolution camera and AI; in place of the traditional infrared used in light-guns of the past,” the page explains…

    Bummer, reading about how the technology works is the best part.

  248. Reginald Selkirk says

    Two FCC commissioners resign; Trump’s chair still lacks Republican majority

    Two commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission are resigning at the end of this week. For at least a little while, the FCC will have just two members: Chairman Brendan Carr, a Republican chosen by Trump to lead the agency, and Anna Gomez, a Democratic commissioner.

    Democrat Geoffrey Starks announced in March that he would leave in the near future, and today he said that Friday will be his final day. Starks’ departure could have given Carr a 2-1 Republican majority, but it turns out Republican Commissioner Nathan Simington will leave at the same time as Starks.
    …
    While the Carr FCC is going from a 2-2 partisan split to a 1-1 split, Carr isn’t likely to have to wait as long for a majority as his predecessor did.

    Biden-era Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel had to wait over two years for a Democratic majority. Carr would get a 2-1 Republican majority once nominee Olivia Trusty is confirmed by the Senate. The FCC has five commissioners when it’s at full strength…

  249. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/minneapolis-says-no-fascists-dhs

    “Minneapolis Says No Fascists, DHS Won’t Deport And Kill Preschooler Yet. Your ICE Times Roundup”

    “Officials say Minneapolis raid wasn’t about immigration; full armored military response just happened to send that message.”

    Hundreds of protesters showed up to tell ICE and other federal officers in full battle gear they weren’t welcome in a Minneapolis neighborhood where feds raided a Mexican restaurant. People chanted “Get the fuck out!” at the agents, demonstrators threw traffic cones and garbage cans in the path of the federal vehicles as they left the scene, and some wonderful smartass Sharpied “[B-Word] NAZI” on the door of a Bearcat armored truck. [Photos at the link]

    Two lessons here: 1) Use a marker with a wider tip than a Sharpie, so it’ll be more visible, and 2a) if civilians are able to get right onto your armored vehicle to write graffiti, maybe this wasn’t the kind of militarized raid that you needed an armored truck for in the first place, or 2b) at the very least, your security cordon sucks.

    Mayor Jacob Frey later said that the raid was “related to a criminal search warrant for drugs and money laundering and was not related to immigration enforcement.” Other officials also said it wasn’t an immigration sweep either. Silly protesters! All that fear and paranoia and it wasn’t even a deportation raid, just the normal militarized policing and performative, heavily armed security theater we’ve come to expect in America!

    That said, it’s also the case that the heavily militarized law enforcement action, including the presence of armored vehicles and agents in full battle rattle, was meant to send an intimidating message to residents of the area, described by the Associated Press as “the heart of the Latino community in Minneapolis.”

    What’s more, the multi-agency raid was led by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the division of ICE that’s normally tasked with criminal investigations — hey, like into money laundering and drugs! — but which under the Trump administration has been at the forefront of some of the most performative Get Tough immigration-related overreactions, a point Rachel Maddow has been pounding on for weeks now, arguing that HSI should stick to money laundering and not cosplay as if they “were gonna rappel out of helicopters into the Tora Bora cave complex to fight al-Qaeda.”

    In fact, last Friday’s militarized immigration raids at two Italian restaurants in San Diego, which also drew spontaneous protests from the community, were also very prominently led by HSI. The Trump administration has repeatedly used both militarized law enforcement and the actual goddamned military in immigration enforcement so if protests against ICE spring up around more “legitimate” deployments of HSI, that’s hardly the result of people in the communities having faulty discernment […]

    Over the weekend, an Egyptian national, Mohamed Soliman, was arrested and charged with multiple counts of attempted murder and a federal hate crime for allegedly committing a horrific Molotov cocktail attack on demonstrators calling for the release of Hamas hostages in Gaza. None of the victims died but several were seriously injured. Soliman reportedly shouted “free Palestine!” during the attack, confessed after being detained, and told federal officers he had planned for over a year to attack a “Zionist group.” None of the charges sound inappropriate to us; it looks like a clear-cut terrorist act. Soliman will now go through the criminal courts, and if convicted, he would serve his sentence in a US prison and then be subject to deportation. Even if he’s somehow not convicted, his arrest for such a serious crime would make him subject to deportation, and rightly so.

    But of course, in the age of Trump, it’s not enough to charge the criminal suspect. ICE has detained Soliman’s wife and five children, and the administration wasted little time announcing on social media Tuesday night (archive link) that the family will be punished too.

    Normally, in US America at least, the justice system only goes after criminals themselves; we don’t do collective punishment! But as we’ll see, that gets complicated in immigration cases.

    The White House post boasted, “Six One-Way Tickets for Mohamed’s Wife and Five Kids. Final Boarding Call Coming Soon” [airplane emoji], and added, in big bold text with highlights, “Wife and Kids of Illegal Alien Behind Antisemitic Firebombing Could Be Deported By Tonight.”

    A second White House tweet Tuesday night (archive link) — why waste a propaganda opportunity? — said that the family was “now in ICE custody for expedited removal.” In big red letters, the tweet proclaimed “FAMILY ARRESTED” in a font that looked like an official stamp or stencil, so you know that his family is guilty too.

    Fox News reports that sources in the State Department confirmed that the visas of all members of the family have been revoked, and that the “family is being processed for expedited removal.”

    If the government does attempt to deport the family via expedited removal, that would be an illegal use of the procedure […] expedited removal is intended only for people arrested at the border, or picked up within two years after coming in without permission. Soliman came to the US on a tourist visa in August 2022, so he came here legally, as did his family, although we haven’t seen any reporting on whether his family arrived with him or joined him later. If their visas were revoked, that would imply they still had valid ones, but who knows for sure. So “expedited removal” should be off the table, not that niceties matter to the current gang of mass deporters.

    […] before he committed an alleged act of terrorism, Soliman was not an “illegal immigrant.” And in normal circumstances, his family would be protected from deportation by any pending asylum case too.

    […] Minnesota immigration attorney Kim Hunter explained to us, eligibility for asylum can be denied for “engaging in terrorist activity,” which certainly makes sense! (This was something that immigration lawyers became familiar with when helping Afghan refugees.) That legal bar to asylum is so broad that it also applies to an alleged terrorist’s spouse and children (see page 44 of this guide from the American Bar Association and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network).

    This is where we get to the matter of what’s legal and what’s right: Legally, the family’s shot at asylum is probably gone, and they can most likely be deported, even if expedited removal would be illegal (again, they arrived here with visas).

    Morally, we’d say that if the family knew nothing about Soliman’s plans, they should still be allowed to pursue asylum, but that’s not the law. At this point, Hunter explained, just about all they have to fall back on would be a claim under the UN Convention on Torture: If they have a credible fear that they would be subject to torture in their home country, Egypt, then they can’t legally be deported there, but they would still be subject to deportation to a third country that will accept them, as long as it’s all done with due process.

    In any case, the administration is having a field day bragging about how it’s going to start going after families, and that’s one more indication that things are getting uglier.

    DHS Will Let Little Girl Live One More Year Before Deporting Her
    In California, the family of a four-year-old girl with a rare, life-threatening illness was ordered in April to self-deport to Mexico because DHS revoked the humanitarian parole granted to her so she could be treated at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. The treatment for her condition, short bowel syndrome, is only available in the USA, and doctors warned that if the family were to go back to Mexico, the girl, identified only as Sofia, would die within days. Not could, would.

    The family was given permission to come to the US during the Biden administration, with an application processed using the now-defunct CBP One app which Trump discontinued immediately after being sworn in. Sofia’s doing well under her treatment, which requires her to receive IV treatments for 14 hours a day, but it can be done at home by her parents. It just can’t be sent outside the US.

    The Trump administration considers all admissions under CBP One invalid, so like hundreds of thousands of others allowed in using the app, Sofia and her family all retroactively became “illegals” under an executive order. (In a triumph of Newspeak, the administration announced in April that CBP One had been relaunched “with a self-deportation reporting feature for aliens illegally in the country.”)

    Sophia’s family was allowed to re-apply for humanitarian parole, at least, and we learned yesterday that their application was approved, for at least another year, with the option to re-apply.

    So hooray, no death sentence for Sofia just yet! She’ll get to turn five, her parents can still work, and maybe she’ll even attend kindergarten part time.

    But we aren’t supposed to be a country that sends children to die because there’s a new president. None of this should have happened, and the family shouldn’t be fearing that in a year, Sofia will face another death sentence if DHS’s record keeping gets sloppy or Stephen Miller decides some court case will make her deportation OK.

    There’s your good news, as far as it goes.

  250. KG says

    rorschach@223,

    Oh, I agree it shouldn’t be used in applications like that, where, if I understand you correctly, the treatment of an individual could be directly affected by an error! Any patterns found should be regarded as a starting point for human investigation, and if there is any possibility of non-standard data items, additional caution is essential.

  253. Reginald Selkirk says

    Texas hospital that discharged woman with doomed pregnancy violated the law, a federal inquiry finds

    A Texas hospital that repeatedly sent a woman who was bleeding and in pain home without ending her nonviable, life-threatening pregnancy violated the law, according to a newly released federal investigation.

    The government’s findings, which have not been previously reported, were a small victory for 36-year-old Kyleigh Thurman, who ultimately lost part of her reproductive system after being discharged without any help from her hometown emergency room for her dangerous ectopic pregnancy.

    But a new policy the Trump administration announced on Tuesday has thrown into doubt the federal government’s oversight of hospitals that deny women emergency abortions, even when they are at risk for serious infection, organ loss or severe hemorrhaging.

    Thurman had hoped the federal government’s investigation, which issued a report in April after concluding its inquiry last year, would send a clear message that ectopic pregnancies must be treated by hospitals in Texas, which has one of the nation’s strictest abortion bans…

    The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency responsible for enforcing the law and inspecting hospitals, announced on Tuesday it would revoke the Biden-era guidance around emergency abortions. CMS administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said in a social media post on Wednesday that the revocation of the policy would not prevent pregnant women from getting treatment in medical emergencies…

  254. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/surprise-trump-pick-who-shut-down

    Surprise, Trump Pick Who Shut Down Anti-Russian Disinformation Unit Has Kremlin Ties!

    […] Putin aide Nikolay Patrushev immediately openly telling the Russian news that they all could not wait to get the many favors they’d done Trump returned:

    To achieve success in the election, Donald Trump relied on certain forces to which he has corresponding obligations. As a responsible person, he will be obliged to fulfill them.

    And fulfill them he is, generously. […]

    The latest droog uncovered, Darren Beattie (pronounced “beady”)— the guy Trump picked as (acting) Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs and tasked with shutting down the unit that tracked and countered foreign disinformation campaigns, and witch-hunting out disloyal sentiment— is married to the niece of a Russian politician and oligarch with direct ties to Putin! His name is Sergei Chernikov, and Uncle Kremlin Friend even pays for Beattie’s mother-in-law’s apartment. The whole story in the UK Telegraph is quite a read! And what do you know, Beattie has been pushing Russian talking points for years, alongside hair-raisingly racist ones.

    Beattie is some backwash from Trump 1.0. In 2016 he was hired to be a speechwriter and policy aide for ghoul Stephen Miller right after he got a doctorate at Duke, writing about Nazi philosopher Martin Heidegger. You can’t make that stuff up! But in 2018 he got fired for being too racist for Trump, after CNN found out he spoke at the HL Mencken Club conference for academic-minded white supremacists, in the company of people like Richard Spencer and the founder of VDARE. It was the old days, when Trump had to worry about optics.

    […] Soon after Beattie got let go, though, he was hired as a speechwriter for Matt Gaetz, small world! And then Trump brought him back in November 2020, appointing him to the US Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. […]

    Also Beattie started a website, Revolver, where he churned out Kremlin propaganda talking points alongside his racist, homophobic opinions and stolen-election “riggers stole the election” ones, gushing that Putin is “brave and strong,” and had “done more to advance conservative positions in the US than any Republican,”[…] “Nato is a much greater threat to American liberty than Putin ever was,” […]

    In September 2021, not long before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he wrote: “Imagine the whining from the Globalist American Empire if Putin ‘invades’ Ukraine… I love it when our national security bureaucrats fail!”

    and,

    “The funny thing is just about every Western institution would improve in quality if it were directly infiltrated and controlled by Putin.”

    […] Once made (acting) by Trump 2.0, Beattie immediately set himself to enemies-listing inside the department, demanding:

    staff emails and other records with or about a host of individuals and organizations that track or write about foreign disinformation—including Atlantic journalist Anne Applebaum, former US cybersecurity official Christopher Krebs, and the Stanford Internet Observatory—or have criticized President Donald Trump and his allies, such as the conservative anti-Trump commentator Bill Kristol.

    The document also seeks all staff communications that merely reference Trump or people in his orbit […]

    Beattie can’t wait to re-segregate the place, and he REALLY likes telling Black people to take a knee to MAGA, […] He takes a knee to Putin, everybody not a white man takes a knee to him, it’s the natural order. [video at the link]

    Beattie, like Putin, also as special dislike for the UK, which he imagines is a hellscape with “Pakistani rape gangs allowed to terrorize vulnerable young British girls because the authorities were too scared of being perceived as racist.” Also he thinks liberals have victimized Andrew Tate, by doing “woke” “censorship.” [video at the link]

    Yeah, he is full-on one of those.

    Yep, THIS GUY, with the KREMLIN-CONNECTED-WIFE.

    […] Meanwhile, in February Pete Hegseth ordered the US Cyber Command to stand down from all planning against Russia, including offensive digital actions. And Tulsi Gabbard is, of course, Russia’s girlfriend.

    Safe to say, Putin has captured the US security apparatus […]

    What gift to Putin from Trump will be unwrapped next? Stay tuned, because around here it’s Kremlin Christmas every day!

  255. says

    Followup to comment 249.

    Washington Post link

    “Judge bars Trump administration from deporting family of Boulder attack suspect”

    “A federal judge barred the Trump administration from deporting the wife and children of an Egyptian man accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at a pro-Israel demonstration in Colorado.”

    A federal judge on Wednesday barred the Trump administration from deporting the wife and children of an Egyptian man accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at a pro-Israel demonstration in Colorado after immigration officials detained them and vowed to immediately expel them from the country.

    U.S. District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher in Colorado found that “deportation without process could work irreparable harm and an order must issue without notice due to the urgency this situation presents.” He scheduled a hearing in the case for next week.

    The development came after lawyers for Hayam El Gamal and her five children filed an emergency petition in Colorado earlier in the day arguing that their detentions were illegal.

    Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainee records showed El Gamal was being held on Wednesday at a sprawling detention center in Dilley for families facing deportation. The White House and the Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday that they had detained Mohamed Sabry Soliman’s wife and children, revoked their visitor visas and would deport them as soon as that evening.

    This is a developing story and will be updated.

  256. says

    Washington Post link

    “5 AI bots took our tough reading test. One was smartest — and it wasn’t ChatGPT.”

    “We challenged AI helpers to decode legal contracts, simplify medical research, speed-read a novel and make sense of Trump speeches. Some of the AI analysis was impressive — and some was downright dumb.”

    All of the most popular artificial intelligence chatbots have the ability to upload and summarize documents, from legal contracts to an entire book. The tech promises to give you a kind of speed-reading superpower. […]

    To figure out which AI tools you can trust as a reading assistant, I held a competition. I challenged five bots to read four very different types of writing and then tested their comprehension. The reading spanned the liberal arts, including a novel, medical research, legal agreements and speeches by President Donald Trump.

    To judge the AI tools’ summaries and analysis, I gathered a panel of experts — including the original authors of the book and scientific reports.

    All told, I asked 115 questions about the assigned reading to ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Meta AI and Gemini. Some of the AI responses were astoundingly good. Others were so clueless they sounded like “Seinfeld’s” George Costanza.

    All the bots barring one made up — or “hallucinated” — information, a persistent AI problem. But facts were only one part of the challenge; my questions also challenged the AI to provide analysis, such as recommending improvements to the contracts and spotting factual problems in Trump’s speeches.

    […] There’s still no substitute for reading yourself, particularly if you’re trying to learn or experience art. But for better or worse, people are turning to AI for help when they want to get up to speed on a new topic, need help decoding jargon or need to cheat their way through a meeting. Summarization is emerging as a core use for AI, and chatbots promise to be a kind of CliffsNotes where you can ask follow-up questions.

    […] Here’s how the bots performed on each topic, followed by an overall champion and our judges’ conclusions.

    Literature, Best: ChatGPT
    Literature was the worst subject overall for the bots. Only Claude got all the facts right about Chris Bohjalian’s 2025 Civil War love story, “The Jackal’s Mistress.”

    Gemini, which wrote very short responses to our questions, was most often guilty of what Bohjalian called inaccurate, misleading and sloppy reading. […]

    Even the best overall summary of the book, which came from ChatGPT, left something to be desired. “The response could be copy for the dust jacket. But it also discusses only three of the five major characters, ignoring the important role of the two formerly enslaved people,” says Bohjalian. In fact, he noticed the overly “positive” AI helpers often failed to address slavery and the Civil War. […]

    Law, Best: Claude
    Sterling Miller, a longtime corporate lawyer, judged our AI tools’ understanding of two common legal contracts that people might not necessarily have a lawyer around to help them with. What he found was inconsistency.

    At times, Meta AI and ChatGPT tried to reduce complex parts of the contracts to one-line summaries. “That is basically useless,” Miller says.

    Worse, the bots sometimes didn’t seem to appreciate significant nuances. In our test rental agreement, Meta AI skipped several sections entirely and missed that a landlord could enter the property at any time. ChatGPT forgot to mention a key clause in a contractor agreement about who owned inventions.

    Claude won overall by offering the most consistently decent answers to our questions. And it did its best work on our most complex request: suggesting changes to our test rental agreement. Miller said Claude’s answer was complete, picked up on nuance and laid things out exactly like he would.

    On that prompt, it came the closest to being a “good substitute for a lawyer,” Miller says. “The problem is none of the tools got 10s across the board.” […]

    Health science, Best: Claude
    On average, all of the AI tools scored better at analyzing scientific research. In our test of two papers co-written by judge Eric Topol, less than two points separated the best and worst performances.

    It’s hard to say exactly why. AI might have access to a lot of scientific papers in its training data. Research reports were also the only documents in our tests that follow a very predictable structure, including their own human-written summary introduction.

    Topol’s lowest score of 4 went to Gemini for its summary of a study on Parkinson’s disease. The response didn’t introduce hallucinations, but it left out key descriptions of the study and why it mattered.

    Claude was the only AI tool to earn a score of 10 out of 10. Topol gave that for its summary of his paper on long covid, which helpfully broke down the results for different kinds of patients and highlighted the most important takeaway from the paper for doctors treating covid patients.

    However, on an analytical question about how one study accounted for racial differences, Claude scored only a 5. “I was very surprised at how different the responses were for the different prompts,” says Topol.

    Politics, Best: ChatGPT
    […] we asked the bots to analyze Trump’s 100-day rally in Michigan, in which he mentioned jobs returning to the state about a dozen times. But how many jobs? Copilot incorrectly said thousands by conflating some comments Trump made about keeping an Air Force base open. Meta AI answered best by reporting that Trump never specified, while also highlighting what he did suggest about auto jobs.

    ChatGPT stood out from the pack with impressive responses to about half of our questions. For example, when we asked it to identify what rival Democrats wouldn’t like about Trump’s unscripted 100-day rally, it produced a bullet-point list that hit all the right notes. “This answer does a good job of drawing specific examples from the speech, and it provides accurate context,” Zakrzewski says. What’s more, it “accurately fact-checks Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 election.”

    […] If you only read this summary, you might not believe Trump delivered this speech,” says Zakrzewski.

    And the overall winner is … Claude edged out ChatGPT and left the others in the dust.
    Overall winner Claude was also the only model that never hallucinated.

    […] None of the bots scored higher than 70 percent overall — the typical cutoff for a D+.

    Beyond hallucinations, a number of limitations echoed across the tests. AI summaries frequently left out important information and overemphasized the positive (while ignoring the negative). […] pretending to be an expert in something it didn’t actually understand.

    And an AI tool’s capability in one field didn’t necessarily translate to another. ChatGPT, for example, might have been tops in politics and literature but ranked near the bottom in law.

    […] Miller says AI is not a substitute for a lawyer. […]

    I’d also recommend running your document through at least two AI tools, so you can compare the results. And for anything that’s actually important in your life, it’s definitely worth taking the time to read it yourself. […]

  257. says

    Trump admin claims Columbia violated Jewish students’ rights, threatens school’s accreditation

    Related video at the link

    The Trump administration said Wednesday that it has notified the accreditor for Columbia University that the school violated Title VI, threatening the university’s accreditation status by saying it “no longer appears to meet the Commissions accreditation standards.”

    The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (HHS OCR) “determined that Columbia University acted with deliberate indifference towards the harassment of Jewish students, thereby violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” according to press release from the Education Department.

    The release says the school has been in violation since the war in the Middle East began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas invaded Israel, killing more than 1,200 people and taking hundreds more hostage. Israel’s ensuing retaliation on the Gaza Strip has claimed more than 54,000 lives.

    The government release Wednesday states that the school is now in violation of the standards set by Middle States Commission on Higher Education, Columbia’s accreditor, which states that “a candidate or accredited institution possesses or demonstrates … compliance with all applicable government laws and regulations.” […]

  258. says

    NBC News:

    President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin told him that Moscow would retaliate against Ukraine’s major drone attack over the weekend, casting doubt that a peace deal to end the war could come soon.

    NBC News:

    The Russian military will likely surpass 1 million casualties in its war on Ukraine this summer, according to one of the world’s leading think tanks, reflecting the staggering human toll of President Vladimir Putin’s assault on his neighbor.

  259. says

    NBC News:

    Roads leading to Gaza’s aid distribution centers will be considered ‘combat zones’ Wednesday, the Israeli military warned shortly after the controversial organization tasked with running the sites announced they would close for the day.

  260. says

    New York Times:

    Florida officials on Tuesday rejected the candidacy of Santa Ono to lead the University of Florida, after he had been accused of leniency toward pro-Palestinian protesters while serving as president of the University of Michigan. The University of Florida’s board unanimously approved Dr. Ono last week, but the state’s Board of Governors, which oversees the sprawling State University System of Florida, voted against him, 10 to 6.

  261. says

    Reuters:

    Pediatric infectious disease expert Dr. Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos of the U.S. CDC resigned on Tuesday as co-leader of a working group that advises outside experts on COVID-19 vaccines and is leaving the agency, two sources familiar with the move told Reuters. Panagiotakopoulos said in an email to work group colleagues that her decision to step down was based on the belief she is ‘no longer able to help the most vulnerable members’ of the U.S. population.

  262. says

    NBC News:

    The U.S. State Department has moved $250 million to the Department of Homeland Security for voluntary deportations by migrants without legal status, a spokesperson said, an unprecedented repurposing of funds that have been used to aid refugees uprooted by war and natural disasters.

  263. says

    The Daily Beast:

    A Florida weatherman stopped his show mid-air to sound the alarm about a looming national disaster — one that’s entirely manmade. As the country prepares for the next hurricane season, Miami newscaster John Morales issued an ominous warning about how the steep federal government cuts are impacting meteorologists’ ability to predict and track threats.

  264. says

    WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Taking advantage of the Tesla CEO’s special skillset, Donald J. Trump on Tuesday put Elon Musk in charge of absorbing all drugs coming into the US.

    “Any drugs that come in will have to through Elon,” Trump said. “I can’t wait for Elon to go wild on drugs.”

    Musk will discharge his new duties as head of a rebooted DOGE (Drugged Oligarch Governing Erratically).

    Link

  265. John Morales says

    In the news: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/04/ukraine-russia-nuclear-war-fears

    Ukraine claimed that the strike damaged more than 40 Russian planes, including Tu-95 and Tu-22M heavy bombers that have been used to launch cruise missiles at Ukrainian cities throughout the war, killing thousands and damaging crucial infrastructure that delivers heat and electricity to millions more.

    But those planes can also carry weapons armed with nuclear warheads, and are part of a nuclear triad along with submarine and silo-based missiles that form the basis for a system of deterrence between Russia and the United States.

    […]

    “This has the potential to be highly escalatory and raises the risk of direct confrontation between Russia and Nato,” he said. “US should not only distance itself from this attack but end any support that could directly or indirectly enable attacks against Russian strategic nuclear forces.”

    Goes to show; the proposition at hand is that the USA is less safe when a potential opponent has fewer nuclear delivery systems. Heh.

    (I know, I know… it’s another ‘provocation’ that might lead to nuclear war, one of those red Kremlin red lines)

    (Simps, the current USA admin, and if not for political realities they’d support Russia more directly)

  267. John Morales says

    This amuses me: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jun/04/abba-bjorn-ulvaeus-ai-musical-london

    After bringing a blockbuster hologram version of Abba to a purpose-built venue in east London, Björn Ulvaeus’s next technological exploration is a musical that he’s written with the help of artificial intelligence.

    Ulvaeus, 80, told an audience at SXSW London that he was “three-quarters” of the way through writing a new musical which he has created with assistance from AI songwriting tools.

    He said the technology had limitations when it comes to songwriting, saying it was “lousy at [writing a whole song]” and “very bad at lyrics” but was helpful whenever he reached a creative impasse.
    The Stage at Waterloo Park, Austin, at this year’s SXSW festival.

    “You can prompt a lyric you have written about something, and you’re stuck maybe, and you want this song to be in a certain style,” Ulvaeus said.

    “You can ask it, how would you extend? Where would you go from here? It usually comes out with garbage, but sometimes there is something in it that gives you another idea.”

  268. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    ProPublica – Meet the 22-year-old picked to lead US terrorism prevention

    Thomas Fugate [is at DHS overseeing] an $18 million grant program [called CP3, which helps communities fight violent extremism.] […] a former Trump campaign worker who interned at the hard-right Heritage Foundation […] Fugate’s leadership experience comes from having served as secretary general of a Model United Nations club.
    […]
    The once-bustling office of around 80 employees now has fewer than 20 […] The office’s mission has changed overnight, with a pivot away from focusing on domestic extremism, especially far-right movements […] border security is the only mission that matters. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has largely left terrorism prevention to the states.
    […]
    Fugate is a self-described “Trumplican” who interned for state lawmakers in [Texas] before graduating magna cum laude a year ago with a degree in politics and law […] In February, the White House appointed Fugate as a “special assistant” assigned to an immigration office at Homeland Security. He assumed leadership of CP3 last month to fill a vacancy left by previous Director Bill Braniff, an Army veteran with more than two decades of national security experience who resigned in March when the administration began cutting his staff.
    […]
    CP3 staffers have expressed shock at how little Fugate knows about the basics of his role and likened meetings with him to “career counseling.”

    Rando: “I checked out his linkedin […] he spun his job mowing lawns in the neighborhood as a teenager as ‘Landscape Business Owner.'”

  269. JM says

    Politico: Hegseth to skip Ukraine meeting at NATO headquarters

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will not attend a Wednesday meeting of 50 defense ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels that has been critical to coordinating military aid for Ukraine, marking the first time in three years a Pentagon chief has skipped the event.

    Apparently coordinating the most important military action the US is involved with globally isn’t part of warrior culture. Hegseth’s office couldn’t even be bothered to come up with a plausible reason, attributing it to a travel schedule conflict.

    The Ukraine gathering of defense ministers comes three weeks before many of them will come together once again for NATO’s annual summit in The Netherlands on June 24-25. Leaders from across the alliance will attend that two-day event, including President DonaldTrump, who will likely command an outsize presence as European leaders wait for the administration’s Europe and Russia policies to come into focus.

    Waiting for US policy to come into focus is futile. Even Trump doesn’t know what he is planning.

    Reuters: Ukraine invited to Hague NATO summit

    Ukraine has been invited to a NATO summit in The Hague this month, Mark Rutte, the military bloc’s chief, said on Wednesday, without specifying whether this meant Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy would attend.
    “I invited Ukraine to the summit. We will as soon as possible bring out the programme with more details,” Rutte told reporters before a meeting with defence ministers in Brussels.

    Inviting Ukraine is a big stick in eye for Russia. The harder they push to keep Ukraine out of the Europe’s circle the more it works in. This says that Ukraine has a place at the NATO table even if they can’t be offered a membership right now.

  270. JM says

    @258 Lynna, OM: Trump talking about what Putin told him is a telephone line way to long too mean anything. What Trump says is different from what Trump heard Putin say, which is different from what Putin actually said, which is different from what Putin will actually do. Like the red lines, Putin has said a lot about retaliating for specific attacks but has not had much success in actually doing so. Most of their retaliation has been launching a bigger nightly barrage then usual.

  271. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (American Immigration Council):

    a “Tren de Aragua gathering” the Trump admin said it broke up in March… was just a BIRTHDAY PARTY.

    None of the people arrested at the party seem to have any criminal record—and none have been charged criminally in the months since it happened.

    Texas Tribune

    authorities said the sting was the result of a yearlong, multi-agency investigation that revealed the gang ties. […] two months later, authorities have yet to provide any evidence […] “They basically treated me like a criminal because I have tattoos.” […] the officers had more visible tattoos than he did.

    Alejandro Serrano (Texas Tribune):

    detained 47 people, including kids. […] authorities showed up with flashbangs
    […]
    Two ppl are facing [drug] charges. But they were not arrested at the party—they were arrested nearby. […] Meanwhile, the 30yo man, his 24yo wife and their two kids, 5 and 3, spent 20+ days in ICE detention. They were released to find an eviction notice on their home, a stack of bills and an uncertain future.

    From the article: “Their eldest son, whose birthday was going to be celebrated by splashing in the pool, was kicked out of school because of too many unexcused absences […] [The father] still has his pending asylum application but the entire family has received removal orders.”

  272. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Follow-up on O.C.G. (Guatemalan previously in Mexico, undetained).
    Of the wrongly-deported, he is the first to return. Currently back in US detention.
     
    Big news for the folks in El Salvador.

    Deb Golden (Lawyer): “Let me suggest that when a federal judge spends the first full page of the opinion summarizing Kafka, it’s not a good sign for the government.”

    Liz Dye (Law&Chaos podcast):

    Judge James Boasberg grants class certification for the CECOT detainees.

    [First page]: One morning, Kafka’s Josef K. awakens to encounter two strange men outside his room. As he gets his bearings, he realizes that he is under arrest. When he asks the strangers why […]
    “We weren’t sent to tell you that,” one says. […]
    K. tries to comfort himself that he lives in “a state governed by law,” […]
    He therefore demands again, “How can I be under arrest? […]”
    “Now there you go again,” the guard replies. “We don’t answer such questions.”
    Undeterred, K. offers his “papers” and demands their arrest warrant.
    “Good heavens!” the man scolds. “There’s been no mistake.”
    [—Franz Kafka, The Trial]

    Come for the Kafka, stay for this giant [middle finger].

    Plaintiffs shall by June 6, 2025, post a $1.00 bond

    Rando: “*collectively* 1 dollar, too!”

    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (American Immigration Council):

    Complicated decision! Boasberg agrees with the DOJ and finds that the U.S. does NOT have constructive custody over the CECOT detainees, but, finding that their removal was a violation of due process, orders DHS to find a way to “facilitate the ability [of the people in CECOT] to seek habeas relief.”

  273. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Follow-up on the “$TRUMP Wallet” @243.

    Molly White (Citation Needed):

    I think this is a more or less up-to-date map of the businesses, LLCs, and people associated with the Trump family crypto projects.
    [Chart w/ lots of boxes, faces, and arrows]

    The relative separation between World Liberty Financial and the Trump memecoin projects, both of which are trying to develop DeFi trading platforms, may help to explain the chaos around the latter’s wallet launch announcement yesterday.

    It is very plausible to me that Trump has sold his likeness to so many separate projects, not to mention his sons also using the “Trump” branding, that no one really knows what’s going on in aggregate.

    However, it’s still not fully clear to me how the memecoin end of the business could launch a wallet using Trump’s name and likeness without the sons’ knowledge unless the original licensing agreement for the memecoin was extremely broad.

    This diagram is of course limited to what is publicly disclosed […] The flow of money is also a very partial accounting.

    Rando: “Many years from now, American students will ask: ‘Is the corrupt crypto Steve Witkoff the same guy as the ineffectual special envoy to the Middle East and Russia?’ And the answer, inexplicably, will be, ‘Yes.'”
    (He’s on the chart.)

  274. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    The New Republic – Trump’s China tariffs are backfiring in funniest way possible

    Apparently, part of his goal was to make it so expensive to import certain products that companies would simply start manufacturing them in the U.S.

    But so far, the opposite is coming true. Four major automakers are rushing to find a way to keep procuring rare-earth magnets, a key component of car motors, which are primarily made in China. Without the magnets, the companies fear car production could shut down in a matter of weeks.

    Several carmakers, both traditional and electric, are considering moving part of the manufacturing process to China […] This could include building electric motors in Chinese factories or shipping American-made motors to China to have the magnets installed […] Trump’s restrictions only cover the Chinese-made magnets, not finished parts such as a fully built motor.

  277. Akira MacKenzie says

    @276

    Assuming anything practical comes from that research, you can be sure that it won’t be approved in the US. According to Brainworm Jr., HIV doesn’t exist and AIDS is really caused by butt sex and poppers.

  280. Reginald Selkirk says

    Ukraine strikes Russian bomber-maker with hack attack

    Following a daring drone attack on Russian airfields, Ukrainian military intelligence has reportedly also hacked the servers of Tupolev, the Kremlin’s strategic bomber maker.

    Local media reports that the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine managed to exfiltrate over 4.4GB of data from Tupolev’s servers, including official correspondence, personal data of employees, engineer résumés, purchase records, residential addresses, and minutes from closed-door meetings.

    “The significance of the data obtained cannot be overestimated. Now, in fact, there is nothing secret left in Tupolev’s activities for Ukrainian intelligence,” a source told Interfax.

    “In particular, we have obtained comprehensive information about individuals directly involved in servicing Russian strategic aviation. The result will obviously be noticeable both on the ground and in the sky.”

    In addition to apparently stealing data, the attackers defaced the Russian aircraft builder’s website…

  284. Reginald Selkirk says

    Trump bans citizens of 12 countries from entering the U.S.

    The Trump administration signed a proclamation Wednesday suspending travel to the U.S. for citizens from 12 countries: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

    Citing national security interests, the proclamation states that the identified countries lack sufficient vetting and screening processes needed to detect foreign nationals who may pose safety or terrorism threats to the U.S.

    The proclamation also partially restricted entrance for nationals of seven other countries: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

    Other considerations include a country’s information-sharing policies, presence of terrorists, visa overstay rates and whether citizens who are sent back are readily accepted, it said.

    The ban is set to take effect on Monday at 12:01 a.m. ET…

  288. StevoR says

    Senior Liberal Party figures have moved to distance themselves from comments by the interim head of the NSW division suggesting women were “sufficiently assertive” and the party may have to “protect men’s involvement”.

    Former Victorian treasurer Alan Stockdale, who was brought in as an external administrator to run the troubled NSW division, made the remarks during a discussion about female representation and gender quotas at a meeting of the NSW Liberal Women’s Council on Tuesday.

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-05/liberal-party-alan-stockdale-assertive-women-comments/105378856

  290. Reginald Selkirk says

    Supreme Court sides with Catholic Charities in case about tax exemptions and religion

    The Supreme Court on June 5 said Wisconsin should not have denied a tax exemption to a Catholic Charities chapter, the latest in a series of rulings the justices have decided in favor of faith groups.

    The court unanimously ruled that the state violated the First Amendment’s protection for religion and discriminated against the religious organization in Wisconsin.

    “There may be hard calls to make in policing that rule, but this is not one,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote.

    Wisconsin’s law, which is similar to most states’ and the federal government’s, grants exemptions from its unemployment insurance program for certain church-controlled organizations that are “operated primarily for religious purposes.”

    Wisconsin said the Catholic Charities bureau and four affiliates had to participate in the state’s unemployment benefits system because the work being performed is primarily secular, even if it’s motivated by religious belief.

    There’s no religious instruction during job training, placement and coaching offered to disabled people through the affiliates, the state said. Neither employees nor the people they serve have to be Catholic. The Catholic Charities bureau and its affiliates are incorporated separately from the diocese.

    The purpose of the exemption is to keep the government from violating the First Amendment by getting too involved in a church’s employment decisions. Because an employee is not eligible for unemployment benefits if the person was fired for misconduct, Wisconsin doesn’t want to have to decide the legitimacy of a firing that was based on matters of religious faith and doctrine.

    Catholic Charities, which was represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, argued it was being discriminated against because, unlike other religious organizations, the charitable arm is incorporated separately from the diocese and because it offers its services without proselytizing.

    The Supreme Court agreed, ruling that Wisconsin granted the exemption to some religious organizations and not others “based on theological differences” in how they operate.

    “It was always absurd to claim that Catholic Charities wasn’t religious because it helps everyone, no matter their religion,” Eric Rassbach, an attorney at Becket, said after the decision…

  291. Reginald Selkirk says

    2 arrested with arsenal and Nazi paraphernalia after base robbery were ex-military, prosecutors say

    Two men arrested in Washington state with an arsenal that included dozens of guns, explosives and body armor, along with Nazi paraphernalia, were former military members who attacked a soldier with a hammer while stealing gear from Joint Base Lewis-McChord last weekend, investigators say.

    Levi Austin Frakes and Charles Ethan Fields were arrested Monday night at their home in Lacey, near Olympia, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court. Federal court records did not list an attorney for either man.

    One of the defendants told investigators the pair had been stealing equipment from the base for the past two years to sell or trade, and agents found about $24,000 in cash at the home, wrote Special Agent Christopher J. Raguse of the Army Criminal Investigation Division.

    Washington state business license records show that Frakes and Fields have a company called Sovereign Solutions, which featured an “SS” logo with the letters separated by a lightning bolt. Its website advertises “Quality Training and Equipment for the Modern Warfighter,” including marksmanship classes, as well as a T-shirt with the company logo and the words “Professional War Crime Committer.”

    The federal complaint charges them with robbery, assault and theft of government property. They also face investigation on state charges of unlawful possession of incendiary devices, short-barreled rifles and a machine gun. Each was being held at the Thurston County Jail on $500,000 bail.

    Agents found rifles staged at the upstairs windows, a probable cause affidavit filed in Thurston County Superior Court said. The federal complaint said agents “observed numerous Nazi/white supremacy memorabilia, murals, and literature in every bedroom and near several stockpiles of weapons and military equipment.”

    Photos from inside the home included in court documents showed a wall decorated with a red Nazi flag emblazoned with a black swastika and a black SS flag — the letters shaped like lightning bolts — referencing the Schutzstaffel, the Nazi paramilitary led by Heinrich Himmler.
    …

    No mention of a presidential pardon – yet.

  294. Reginald Selkirk says

    This Genetic ‘Trick’ Helped the Black Death Linger for Centuries

    Yersinia pestis—the bacterium that causes the bubonic plague—experienced a genetic tweak that allowed rodents to live longer after they were infected, according to a new study. This alteration may have prolonged two significant plague pandemics, including the deadliest event in human history: the Black Death.

    Researchers at the Institut Pasteur in France and McMaster University in Canada studied hundreds of ancient Y. pestis DNA samples to investigate a gene called “pla.” Their study, published May 29 in the journal Science, identified a decrease in repetitions of the pla gene in the Y. pestis genome during the later stages of both the first and second major plague pandemics. The researchers believe these pla depletions ultimately allowed these pandemics to last longer.

    The first plague pandemic, known as the Plague of Justinian, struck the Mediterranean basin during the sixth century and caused tens of millions of deaths over the course of two centuries. The second emerged when the Black Death broke out in 1347, killing an estimated 30% to 50% of Europe’s population in just six years. But this was just the beginning. Like the first pandemic, this plague continued to reemerge for centuries, lasting more than 500 years.

    This newly discovered evolution of the pla gene offers more insight into how these plagues persisted for so long. The pla gene appears many times in the Y. pestis’ genome and plays a crucial role in its virulence by allowing it to infect the lymph nodes before traveling to the rest of the body, according to an Institut Pasteur statement. This causes rapid septicemia—or blood poisoning—and quickly kills the victim. Therefore, a lack of this gene in Y. pestis strains from the first and second major pandemics likely made the bacterium less virulent, the researchers suggest…

  295. Reginald Selkirk says

    Worms Caught Building Flesh Towers in the Wild

    Scientists have just discovered something most of us probably would’ve been fine never knowing: wild nematodes—also known as roundworms—love to climb on top of each other to build fleshy, writhing towers.

    Researchers in Germany detailed their discovery in a new study published Thursday in Current Biology. They found and videotaped several nematode species, living out in the wild, organizing into these living worm towers—a phenomenon previously only seen in the lab. The findings also show that the microscopic worms use these structures to climb onto animals or objects that can bring them elsewhere, though there remain many other questions about the practice.

    According to senior study author Serena Ding, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, the towers are hardly a secret among the worm science community. But the behavior had reached a sort of mythical status, since no one had ever documented it in wild nematodes…

  297. Reginald Selkirk says

    Bounce lets you move from Bluesky to Mastodon without losing followers

    While Bluesky and Mastodon are both decentralized social media networks, they operate on different protocols, ActivityPub and AT Protocol. You might not ever know that unless you’re our kind of nerd and / or someone who’s trying to expand their reach on other platforms without starting from scratch. Tools like Bridgy Fed exist for broadcasting across the two aforementioned social media networks. And now A New Social, the nonprofit responsible for that very tool, has debuted a new one called Bounce, which lets you migrate your account from Bluesky to Mastodon without losing followers or the ability to post on Bluesky. It’s launching soon, but no specific date has been announced yet…

  298. says

    I am ill today. Hope this is a short-lived malady.

    In the meanwhile, if Sky Captain, JM, Reginald and other regular readers of this thread could post more than they usually do I would appreciate it.

    Thanks.

  299. Reginald Selkirk says

    Even Thieves Don’t Want Teslas

    Modern cars are vulnerable to all sorts of modern forms of theft. From hacks to relay attacks, today’s highly computerized vehicles can be stolen in ways prior generations could never dream up. So why, when Tesla’s cars share the same vulnerabilities across the brand, do the Model Y and Model 3 routinely top lists of America’s least-stolen cars? Well, it seems the answer’s simple: Even thieves don’t want to ride in a Tesla.

    There are plenty of arguments to be made that Teslas are stolen less often because of their security tech. Sure, they may be vulnerable to relay attacks, but think of all the computers that can track the vehicle at any time! Also plenty of other automakers have built-in GPS and recovery measures like Uconnect or OnStar — yet, thieves still steal those cars…

  300. Reginald Selkirk says

    California Court Says Holding Phone For Maps While Driving is Illegal

    California law prohibits “operating” a mobile phone while driving. And that makes it illegal for a driver to hold a cellphone in order to look at a map, a state appeals court ruled this week. From a report:

    In a 2016 law intended to strengthen previous restrictions, “the Legislature intended to prohibit all handheld functions of wireless telephones while driving” and “to encourage drivers to keep their eyes on the road,” said the 6th District Court of Appeal.

    A Superior Court panel had reversed a driver’s conviction for a traffic infraction and $158 fine in San Jose, ruling that the law prohibited only “actively using or manipulating” a hand-held phone for actions such as talking or listening, browsing the internet or playing video games while driving. The appeals court reinstated the conviction and the fine, in a ruling that could set a statewide standard unless it is narrowed or overturned on appeal.

  301. says

    President suggests Elon Musk is suffering from ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’

    […] Just one day after a joint appearance with Donald Trump in the Oval Office, during which the president rewarded his top campaign donor with praise and a golden key emblazoned with the White House insignia, Elon Musk condemned Trump’s proposal in striking terms, writing on the social platform he owns, “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”

    Musk added soon after, apparently referring to lawmakers who voted for the GOP reconciliation package, “In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people.” On Wednesday, he went further, launching an online “KILL the BILL” effort.

    Those expecting the president to return rhetorical fire with over-the-top online missives of his own were disappointed: Trump didn’t say a word. On Thursday, however, just a few days after singing Musk’s praises, Trump had quite a bit to say. NBC News reported:

    ‘I’ve always liked Elon,’ Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during a bilateral meeting with [German Chancellor Friedrich Merz], but he said he was ‘very surprised’ by Musk’s comments denouncing the legislation. ‘You saw the words he had for me. He hasn’t said anything about me that’s bad. I’d rather have him criticize me than the bill, because the bill is incredible,’ the president said.

    Putting aside the obvious fact that the legislation is far from “incredible” — see the latest findings from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, for example — the president didn’t just offer a vague defense of the far-right reconciliation package. On the contrary, Trump actually focused most of his comments on Musk specifically.

    “Elon is upset because we took the EV mandate — which was a lot of money for electric vehicles — and they’re having a hard time,” the president said, referring to a “mandate” that does not exist while implying that Musk only opposes the GOP legislation because it’ll affect his car company’s profits.

    [Trump suggested] that his former DOGE chief is suffering from “Trump derangement syndrome.” [video at the link]

    “Elon and I had a great relationship,” the Republican concluded. “I don’t know if we will anymore.”

    For his part, the GOP megadonor responded to Trump’s claim that he “knew the inner workings of the bill” as it came together, saying, “False, this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!” […]

    Ha. Amusing to watch Elon Musk factcheck Donald Trump.

  303. Reginald Selkirk says

    @301
    “Trump Derangement Syndrome”

    A very stupid term. Trump is still here. He is still causing much harm in the world. It is appropriate to be concerned about him. Now, if someone was obsessed with another person who is no longer around and no longer has power, that would be derangement. The way the Trump has “Biden Derangement Syndrome.”

  304. says

    Followup to comment 257.

    […] It’s another attack on Columbia despite it bending the knee by allowing the Trump administration to set rules for on-campus protests, student discipline, and curriculum. Nothing about Columbia’s past compliance will ever be enough to protect it from these ongoing attacks. […]

    Trump doesn’t just hate accreditors because they’re all wild-eyed leftists. He also hates them because they have a bad habit of requiring schools to prove that they aren’t scamming students. This is a guy who had to pay $25 million to settle claims that his fake school, Trump University, scammed people out of thousands of dollars. So tucked inside his attacks on accreditors, Trump also demands that they pretty much change their entire process.

    Oh, and the Department of Education will also launch an experimental site “to accelerate innovation and improve accountability by establishing new flexible and streamlined quality assurance pathways for higher education institutions that provide high-quality, high-value academic programs.”

    This will inevitably lead to scammy for-profit schools taking advantage of the lack of scrutiny, which Republicans are totally fine with. Trump’s first-term Secretary of Education Betsy Devos made it more difficult for victims of scammy for-profit colleges to obtain student loan relief, and she functionally abandoned meaningful oversight of the for-profit sector.

    We already know what it looks like when conservatives take over schools.

    Right-wing activist Christopher Rufo was rewarded for inventing a moral panic against diversity with getting to wreck New College, a previously highly regarded public school in Florida. After Rufo and several cronies of Gov. Ron DeSantis went on a hiring spree of right-wingers, students left in droves. New College courted student athletes aggressively, neglecting to mention that the school didn’t even have a full athletic program. Administrators also preemptively lowered expected graduation rates, which they still couldn’t reach.

    The Trump administration’s vision for academia is one where conservatives do exactly what they want with no consequences—and one where only white men thrive. Getting rid of meaningful accreditation is crucial for that. […]

    https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/6/5/2326026/-Here-s-the-terrible-new-way-Trump-plans-to-illegally-harass-universities

    More at the link.

  305. Reginald Selkirk says

    Hacker who breached 5,000 accounts to mine crypto arrested — 7-year cryptojacking scheme incurs $4.5 million in damages

    Ukrainian authorities have arrested a hacker who compromised over 5,000 accounts at a major global hosting company and used them to mine cryptocurrency. According to the Cyber Police of Ukraine, the suspected criminal installed virtual machines on the compromised servers to run the mining software, incurring the company losses of about 185 million hryvnia or nearly US$4.5 million at the current exchange rate.

    The police say that the 35-year-old offender has been using open-source intelligence since 2018 to find and exploit weaknesses in the network infrastructure of several companies. The person was a native of and operated in Poltava, although they also operated between Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk.

    During the arrest, Ukrainian law enforcement officials seized computers, mobile phones, bank cards, and other evidence tying him to the hacks. They also discovered compromised email login details, crypto wallets containing the coins mined from the hacked accounts, automation software for managing the numerous virtual machines, and remote access and data theft tools. Aside from that, it was discovered that the alleged culprit maintained multiple accounts on hacker forums, although it’s still unclear if he worked alone or had other associates…

  307. Reginald Selkirk says

    Indium: The Rare, Shiny Element That Can Be Chewed Like Gum

    Metals aren’t typically something we think of as chewable (unless you happen to be the Iron Giant), but there appears to be an exception – indium. Try to gnaw on some steel and you could land yourself a visit to the dentist, but indium? That can be chomped on like a slightly stale stick of gum…

    As you might have guessed from what we mentioned above about being able to chew it, indium is also super soft; it can be cut through with a knife or scratched with a fingernail.

    Indium can “cry”, too – yes, really. If you bend a bit of indium, it makes a high-pitched, almost crunching-like noise. This is the sound of changes in its crystal lattice as the metal is being manipulated…

    There are other metals that are likely chewable, but you really wouldn’t want to stick in your mouth. You could probably bend a thin strip of lead with your teeth, or attempt to chew it with some difficulty, but… uh, you definitely shouldn’t do that considering that lead is very, very toxic.

    Indium, on the other hand, is currently considered to be low in toxicity, although it’s worth pointing out that the Los Alamos National Laboratory suggests that “care should be taken” until we know more about the metal. Indium lung disease, first described in 2003, is known to affect workers exposed to indium tin oxide…

  309. Reginald Selkirk says

    Artichoke Festival permanently canceled after 64 years

    The Artichoke Festival, a summer staple on the (California, USA) Central Coast for over six decades, has been canceled due to financial challenges.

    Linda Scherer, executive director of the Artichoke Festival, explained the financial difficulties that led to the festival’s cancellation…

  310. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    More footage of #43.

    Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY):

    DHS officers came to my Congressional office to intimidate my staff and office. There were no protesters. There was no riot. […] totally unacceptable.

    I reiterate my call to Chairman Jim Jordan to bring in Secretary Noem to explain the unlawful actions of her officers. If they can violate the civil rights of a Member of Congress, they can do it to you too.

    Gothamist

    Nadler’s office shared surveillance footage […] The officer approaches the staffer, pushes his hand against a door, pushes his chest against the staffer and grabs her sweater. The staffer extends her arms to block the officer from entering and then pushes both officers away. An officer then pulls her arms behind her back and handcuffs her.

  313. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    TPM – The US Institute of Peace […] tries to rebuild

    Ken Jackson was the State Department official Trump purportedly appointed as the new president […] But once they got possession of the building […] Jackson apparently had a partial change of heart, deciding that actually running [USIP] as opposed to shutting it down might be a better idea. And that was the end of Jackson […] replaced by Nate Kavanaugh, one of the most notorious DOGE boys […] Kavanaugh took the roughly $13 million the USIP had […] The Institute is now in the process of trying to get that money back and they think they will be able to do so.
    […]
    When those contracts were canceled, those projects just disappeared. They collapsed. People move on to other things. There’s no money. […] my impression was that in most cases it’s close to starting from scratch.
    […]
    [USIP lawyer George Foote] and his colleagues are trying to retake possession of the aforementioned $13 million dollars, to access what additional moneys remain from the 2025 appropriation and to survive as an organization while trying build support on Capitol Hill to continue funding the Institute in 2026 […] while it’s the first time a President tried sending a firing squad to take over the Institute by force, it’s not the first time people have tried to zero out its budget. […] They’re hoping that the USIP is both important enough (especially given the shattered state of U.S. foreign aid generally) and inexpensive enough that it can secure some reprieve (probably in the Senate) and carry on its work.
    […]
    To the extent there was damage, it seemed mostly to have been because of lack of maintenance […] But there was one specific and highly symbolic act of vandalism. […] prying the metal letters which spelled “United States Institute of Peace” off the wall in the foyer […] the returning staff were able to find the letters in the building somewhere and they’ve now been reinstalled. But not every letter. The capital letters U, S, I and P were gone, as was the eye of the peace dove […] presumably those four letters and the eye were a trophy

  314. Reginald Selkirk says

    @Battle of the Narcissists

    Trump says Musk went ‘CRAZY,’ suggests cutting government contracts for his companies

    President Donald Trump on Thursday called Elon Musk “CRAZY” and threatened to cut his companies’ government contracts after the Tesla CEO criticized the president’s big budget bill.

    “Go ahead, make my day,” Musk promptly responded.

    The stunning blow-up between the world’s richest man and the president of the United States comes less than a week after they swapped compliments during an Oval Office send-off celebrating Musk’s time leading the Department of Government Efficiency.

    Trump in a bitter Truth Social post Thursday afternoon wrote that Musk was “wearing thin” by the end of his tenure as a “special government employee.”

    “I asked him to leave,” Trump claimed.

    The angry swipe came after Musk blasted the president amid an escalating clash that stemmed from the mega-billionaire’s vocal opposition to Trump’s massive tax-cut bill.

    Trump earlier Thursday said Musk was “upset” that the budget package cuts electric vehicle credits.

    “I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!” Trump wrote in the post.

    Musk has aggressively trashed the bill on the grounds that it will add trillions of dollars to the nation’s deficits. He is actively urging Senate Republicans to “kill the bill,” which comprises a huge swath of Trump’s domestic agenda.

    The president wrote in a second Truth Social post, “The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”

    Musk is the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and founded The Boring Company, xAI and Neuralink. He also owns the social media platform X.

    Tesla’s share price sharply dropped after Trump’s comment.

  315. Reginald Selkirk says

    Pornhub pulls out of France over age verification law

    Aylo, the company which runs a number of pornographic websites, including Pornhub, is to stop operating in France from Wednesday.

    It is in reaction to a French law requiring porn sites to take extra steps to verify their users’ ages.

    An Aylo spokesperson said the law was a privacy risk and assessing people’s ages should be done at a device level…

  316. Reginald Selkirk says

    Carney and Trump are holding private talks to drop tariffs

    (Canadian) Prime Minister Mark Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump are having discussions out of the spotlight to reach a trade deal and lift tariffs.

    Sources with knowledge of the conversations first confirmed the calls with CBC/Radio-Canada and Industry Minister Mélanie Joly later told reporters that Carney and Trump are talking to each other…

  317. Reginald Selkirk says

    Rare black iceberg spotted off Labrador coast could be 100,000 years old, prof says

    A rare black iceberg spotted off the coast of Labrador is making a splash on social media after a fish harvester living in Carbonear, N.L., took a photo of it while fishing for shrimp last month.

    Originally from the Faroe Islands, Hallur Antoniussen was working with a crew on board the Saputi factory freezer trawler off the coast of Labrador in mid-May.

    He’d never seen an iceberg like this one before.

    “I have seen icebergs that are rolled, what they say have rolled in the beach with some rocks in it. This one here is completely different. It’s not only that he is all black. He is almost … in a diamond shape,” Antoniussen said in an interview with CBC Radio’s Labrador Morning.

    He spotted the berg after going up the ship’s crane when they were more than 100 kilometres offshore in the Hopedale channel, located between Nain and Hopedale…

    Other people wondered if the iceberg has volcanic ash in it, a result of some ancient eruption.

    Lev Tarasov, a Memorial University professor of physical oceanography, doesn’t rule that last theory out completely.

    Tarasov says there are volcanoes beneath the ice caps of Iceland, and while he’s not exactly sure about volcanoes in Greenland, he added that scientists have measured hotspots in the landmass’s central region.

    Like Antoniussen, he hasn’t seen an iceberg quite like this one before.

    Tarasov observed smaller versions of the black iceberg during his fieldwork on the Kangerlussuaq Fjord in Greenland last summer — just not as impressive, he said.

    He guesses the ice in the berg is at least 1,000 years old, but could also be exponentially more ancient — even formed as many as 100,000 years ago.

    Tarasov said ice from all over Greenland is slowly converging toward its coastline, and when it gets there, it breaks off to form icebergs.

    Those icebergs can take one to three years before reaching the Newfoundland and Labrador coastline…

  318. Reginald Selkirk says

    Measles-infected baby dies in southwestern Ontario

    Ontario’s Ministry of Health has announced the first recorded death of a measles patient from the current outbreak that started in October.

    Dr. Kieran Moore, chief medical officer of health, issued a statement Thursday saying a southwestern Ontario infant has died after being born prematurely and infected with the highly contagious virus through the mother.

    Moore offered few other details…

  319. Reginald Selkirk says

    England is launching a gonorrhea vaccine. Is Canada next?

    England will soon begin administering a vaccine to high-risk individuals that may reduce their chances of contracting gonorrhea, but a similar program is not yet in the cards for Canada.

    According to studies cited by England’s National Health Service, the 4CMenB vaccine, which is presently used in Canada for immunization against meningitis B, has an effectiveness of 32.7 to 42 per cent against gonorrhea.

    To combat rising infection rates, the health service said last month it will begin administering the vaccine free of charge in August for those deemed to be at high risk of contracting gonorrhea, including gay and bisexual men who have a history of sexually transmitted infection or multiple sex partners.

    But the vaccine has not been authorized for this use in Canada, even as cases of gonorrhea continue to rise across the country…

  322. Jean says

    Re #292

    The livestream ended in an unexpected way as the telemetry was lost a few minutes before the expected landing. Still no news at this time about what happened. Sad to see the faces of the people when the telemetry went off.

  323. Reginald Selkirk says

    China Will Drop the Great Firewall For Some Users To Boost Free-Trade Port Ambitions

    China’s southernmost province of Hainan is piloting a programme to grant select corporate users broad access to the global internet, a rare move in a country known for having some of the world’s most restrictive online censorship, as the island seeks to transform itself into a global free-trade port. From a report:

    Employees of companies registered and operating in Hainan can apply for the “Global Connect” mobile service through the Hainan International Data Comprehensive Service Centre (HIDCSC), according to the agency, which is overseen by the state-run Hainan Big Data Development Centre.

    The programme allows eligible users to bypass the so-called Great Firewall, which blocks access to many of the world’s most-visited websites, such as Google and Wikipedia. Applicants must be on a 5G plan with one of the country’s three major state-backed carriers — China Mobile, China Unicom or China Telecom — and submit their employer’s information, including the company’s Unified Social Credit Code, for approval. The process can take up to five months, HIDCSC staff said.

  324. John Morales says

    “A must-read post by Mano Singham!

    “The double pendulum as a metaphor for the Trump administration””

    ‘Tis a silly post.

  325. John Morales says

    StevoR @292: “Via space dot com & going live in 2 hours apparently for those who’s like to watch apossible moon landing live ispace SMBC x HAKUTO-R VENTURE MOON: Live Landing Coverage”

    Ah well. Bit of a letdown, what?

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/05/moon-japan-crash-landing

    “An attempt to land a commercially built spacecraft on the surface of the moon looked to have ended in failure on Thursday, two years after its predecessor, launched by the same Japanese company, crashed following an uncontrolled descent.

    Resilience, an un-crewed vehicle from the Tokyo company ispace, would have made history as the first non-US commercial lander to make a successful touchdown, scheduled for 3.17pm ET Thursday (4.17am JST Friday) at Mare Frigoris (the Sea of Cold) in the far north of the moon.

    But the company’s live stream covering the landing attempt ended almost 30 minutes later, with mission managers unable to establish communication with the craft, and its fate uncertain.”

    —

    In passing, I’ve never understood this business of watching “live” when one can watch in comfort at one’s leisure. Back when I watched footy, I’d record the entire thing so I could zot the ads when I got around to watching.

  326. John Morales says

    In passing, I note with approval the trend towards using ‘crewed’ rather than ‘manned’, or ‘uncrewed’ rather than ‘unmanned’. Notice no hyphens are required for those once-compound terms, though the article bothers with it giving a slightly olde-timey feel.

  327. John Morales says

    And, in keeping with the All-Trump All-the-time theme:

    —
    Extract from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/jun/05/donald-trump-travel-ban-elon-musk-joe-biden-friedrich-merz-us-politics-live-news-updates

    04.53 AEST
    Trump threatens to ‘terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts’

    Donald Trump is going on a tirade on Truth Social against Elon Musk, saying:

    Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!

    In a separate post, Trump added:

    The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”

  328. John Morales says

    On a different theme, an opinion piece: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/415100/artificial-intelligence-google-deepmind-alphafold-climate-change-medicine

    Prefatory:

    Here’s a selection of recent headlines about artificial intelligence, picked more or less at random:

    For some recent graduates, the AI job apocalypse may already be here

    Artificial intelligence threatens to raid the water reserves of Europe’s driest regions

    Top AI CEO foresees white-collar bloodbath

    Okay, not exactly at random — I did look for more doomy-sounding headlines. But they weren’t hard to find. That’s because numerous studies indicate that negative or fear-framed coverage of AI in mainstream media tends to outnumber positive framings.

    And to be clear, there are good reasons for that! From disinformation to cyberwarfare to autonomous weapons to massive job loss to the actual, flat-out end of the world (shameless plug of my book here), there are a lot of things that could go very, very wrong with AI.

    But as in so many other areas, the emphasis on the negative in artificial intelligence risks overshadowing what could go right — both in the future as this technology continues to develop and right now. As a corrective (and maybe just to ingratiate myself to our potential future robot overlords), here’s a roundup of one way in which AI is already making a positive difference in three important fields.

  331. Reginald Selkirk says

    Turkmenistan reduces 50-year fire dubbed ‘Gateway to Hell’

    Turkmenistan said Thursday it had significantly reduced a gas fire that has been raging for half a century at a site dubbed the “Gateway to Hell” .

    The fire has been burning in the Karakum desert since 1971, when Soviet scientists accidentally drilled into an underground pocket of gas and then decided to ignite it.

    The blaze has been spewing out massive quantities of methane, a gas that contributes to climate change, ever since.

    Officials said the fire — which has become the reclusive country’s top tourist attraction — had been reduced three-fold, without specifying the time frame.

    “Whereas before a huge glow from the blaze was visible from several kilometres away, hence the name ‘Gateway to Hell’, today only a faint source of combustion remains,” said Irina Luryeva, a director at state-owned energy company Turkmengaz.

    Numerous wells have been drilled around the fire to capture methane, she said at an environmental conference in the capital Ashgabat.
    …
    It is the world’s biggest emitter of methane through gas leaks, according to the International Energy Agency — a claim denied by the authorities.

  337. Reginald Selkirk says

    What if the Big Bang wasn’t the beginning? New research suggests it may have taken place inside a black hole

    The Big Bang is often described as the explosive birth of the universe — a singular moment when space, time and matter sprang into existence. But what if this was not the beginning at all? What if our universe emerged from something else — something more familiar and radical at the same time?

    In a new paper, published in Physical Review D, my colleagues and I propose a striking alternative. Our calculations suggest the Big Bang was not the start of everything, but rather the outcome of a gravitational crunch or collapse that formed a very massive black hole — followed by a bounce inside it.

    This idea, which we call the black hole universe, offers a radically different view of cosmic origins, yet it is grounded entirely in known physics and observations…

  338. Reginald Selkirk says

    Trump Baffles German Chancellor on Live TV After Describing D-Day, Which Liberated Europe from Nazis, as ‘Not a Great Day’

    President Donald Trump made a verbal stumble when meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House, calling D-Day “not a great day” on live TV. The chancellor quickly corrected him.

    “May I remind you that we are having June 6th tomorrow,” Merz, 69, initially said as they discussed the war in Ukraine, which began when Russia invaded the smaller country in February 2022, with no provocation. The chancellor drew similarities between Russia’s invasion and World War II, in which the United States played a major role in ending the war.

    “This is D-Day anniversary when the Americans once ended the war in Europe,” he continued, referencing the invasion of Normandy in 1944, which helped usher in the Allies’ victory months later. “And I think this is in your hands, specifically, in ours.”

    “That was not a pleasant day for you?” interrupted Trump, 78, before turning to the cameras and adding, “This was not a great day.”

    “Well, in the long run, Mr. President, this was the liberation of my country from Nazi dictatorship,” Merz responded of D-Day.

    “That’s true,” responded Trump…

    He should have Trump whether he thinks the Nazis were the bad guys.

  340. Reginald Selkirk says

    ‘She’s sold out’: Meghan McCain accused of going ‘full grift’ after promoting COVID vaccine ‘detox’

    Meghan McCain, who once chastised rap superstar Nikki Minaj for spreading “vaccine hesitancy” during the covid-19 pandemic, is now partnering with a fringe “wellness” company to promote a “detox” supplement for those who “regret taking the shot.”

    The former host of The View hawking $90 bottles of the “Ultimate Spike Detox” prompted critics to call out the daughter of John McCain for going “full grift” and accuse her of selling out “to the crazies” after championing herself as a “voice of reason on the right” for years…

  341. says

    Many thanks to the people taking up the slack today while I was mostly absent.

    In other news:

    WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Donald J. Trump’s sweeping travel ban has proven totally unnecessary as the rest of the world has shown no interest in visiting what it deems to be a shithole country, travel experts confirmed on Thursday.

    When people plan vacations, they usually avoid countries with soaring prices, random arrests on the street, and measles outbreaks,” Harland Dorrinson, an international travel expert said.

    Additionally, he said, “Travel-wise, people prefer destinations where food undergoes rigorous inspections and planes don’t fall out of the sky.”

    Noting that travel to the US had plummeted since Trump became president, he added, “At this point North Koreans are staying away.”

    Link.

    On that happy note, I return to my regimen of lying down.

  342. JM says

    CNN: Trump and Xi hold long-awaited trade call

    Trump said the call focused almost entirely on trade, without touching on other geopolitical issues like Iran and Ukraine. The call “resulted in a very positive conclusion for both Countries,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

    Trump and Xi finally had the long desired talk today. It apparently went well and both sides said they are open to further negotiation. Neither side has changed policy or said they would do anything different and they both continue to complain about the other side violating the terms of their last agreement.
    It’s clear that both sides want to open trade but want to control the terms also. It’s a situation where Trump is attacking a valid target but his bluster and erratic tendencies make the negotiations harder then it needs to be.

  343. Reginald Selkirk says

    Procter & Gamble cutting thousands of jobs in wake of Trump tariffs

    Procter & Gamble said Thursday it would reduce its workforce by 7,000 nonmanufacturing roles in the wake of President Trump’s tariffs.

    Company leaders first announced the cuts, which amount to roughly 15 percent of its non-manufacturing workforce, during the Deutsche Bank Consumer Conference in Paris before publishing a release…

  344. John Morales says

    Reginald, that claim is unsourced.

    Doesn’t appear in https://us.pg.com/newsroom/news-releases/ either.

    So I asked the bubbly chatbot:

    Q: in the news is: “Procter & Gamble said Thursday it would reduce its workforce by 7,000 nonmanufacturing roles”
    I can find many sources for the claim, but no actual primary evidence from PG actually saying that. Can you?

    A: Based on the available public sources, I haven’t located any primary evidence—such as an official press release or announcement on Procter & Gamble’s investor relations website—that directly confirms the reduction of 7,000 nonmanufacturing roles. The claim appears exclusively in secondary news reports like those from CBS News and News18 . It’s possible that P&G communicated this information internally or via channels not indexed by public searches, but as of now, no directly sourced primary evidence is accessible.

  345. John Morales says

    [sorry, should clarify]

    It was the weasel language that pricked my senses: “in wake of Trump tariffs”.

    I mean, every action everyone and everything does after Trump’s tariffs is in their wake, but were the insinuation (‘because of Trump tariffs’) to be written thus, they’d be liable for libel.

    I can do that, too:
    https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/05/trump-effect-a-running-list-of-new-u-s-investment-in-president-trumps-second-term/

    (In the wake, not the woke! ;)

  346. John Morales says

    Wikipedia contributors will know all about it, but basically:

    “Weasel language is imprecise, ambiguous wording designed to give the impression of substantive claims while avoiding concrete evidence or accountability. It uses vague qualifiers—phrases like “some say,” “it is thought,” or “research suggests”—to cloak uncertainty in authoritative-sounding language. Essentially, it allows speakers to imply a strong stance without ever having to fully commit to specifics, giving them an easy escape if challenged.”

    (from your friendly neighbourhood chatbot)

  348. Reginald Selkirk says

    Harvard challenges Trump’s proclamation to suspend visas for new international students in amended lawsuit

    Harvard’s leadership has asked a court to stop the Trump administration’s latest attempt to block international students — over a fourth of its student body — from coming to the university, according to a new court filing less than 24 hours after the latest move by President Donald Trump against the university.

    The filing amends an existing lawsuit against the Trump administration over the move to ban its ability to enroll international students, which initially prompted a judge to stop the administration from revoking Harvard’s student visa program.

    The amended lawsuit claims Trump’s proclamation, which suspends international visas for new students at Harvard, violates the First Amendment by temporarily blocking the entry of nearly all new international Harvard students under visas most use to study at US universities or participate in academic exchange programs. International students make up about 27% of the student body at the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university.

    Harvard has asked the court for emergency intervention, which will likely spur a new, fast-moving escalation of the ongoing court fight, according to the temporary restraining order motion. The motion requests the judge to restrain all members of Trump’s administration from enforcing the order. Before Thursday, the court case had become somewhat dormant since the judge had made initial rulings against Trump’s actions around Harvard student visas…

  349. John Morales says

    “HAMLET: Do you see yonder cloud that’s almost in shape of a camel?
    POLONIUS: By th’ mass, and ’tis like a camel, indeed.
    HAMLET: Methinks it is like a weasel.
    POLONIUS: It is backed like a weasel.
    HAMLET: Or like a whale.
    POLONIUS: Very like a whale.”

    I know.

  350. John Morales says

    [personal, contextual]

    BTW, my avatar is a skull because my nym is ‘yorick’.
    Alas, that poor eponym was quickly used up; obs, now it’s ‘yorickous’ and ‘yorickoid’ and so forth.
    But in my first online efforts (Telnet/Usenet) I was ‘yorick’.

    (Thus my email addresses)

    —

    Genesis is that, back in high school days, I had to endure Shakespeare in prose as the alleged ‘English’ class; in my manner, I memorised the “Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rims at it.” bit and its context, and thereafter whenever a Shakesperean question was asked, I refeerrec to it using weasel words and quoted the bit.

    Since the course was ostensibly “English” and I was even then fluent, I got away with it.
    Unto matriculation, even!

    So, yeah. I know.

  351. StevoR says

    Turns out landing on our Moon is still hard even in this day and age :

    Japanese company ispace says it has not been able to contact its uncrewed Moon lander Resilience since its lunar touchdown attempt. It is two years since ispace’s failed inaugural mission. …(Snip)…

    ..The company’s live-streamed flight data showed Resilience’s altitude suddenly falling to zero shortly before the planned touchdown time of 4:17am on Friday, Japanese time, following an hour-long descent from lunar orbit.

    The company said in the broadcast: “We haven’t been able to confirm [communication].”

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-06/moon-lander-falls-silent-while-attempting-a-moon-touchdown/105383890

  352. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Alt National Park Service:

    A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to dismantle AmeriCorps halting the termination of grants and its volunteer network!

  353. StevoR says

    @307. Reginald Selkirk : “Indium: The Rare, Shiny Element That Can Be Chewed Like Gum.”

    Then there’s Gallium which famously melts in the hand -and, no doubt, would melt in your mouth and be kinda chewable too. It might even be safe to swallow as it seems it could have medical uses albeit not so sure about the pure elemental non-compound form of it.

    See : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallium#Biomedical_applications

  354. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    DOGE is allegedly afraid.
    WSJ – The day that Trump and Musk torched their partnership

    DOGE affiliated staff, some of whom were responsible for pushing out thousands of federal workers, texted one another on Thursday about whether they would be fired next, according to administration officials.

    Commentary

    Big Balls has been neutered, I repeat Big Balls has been neutered.

    The fact that people actually signed into this thinking it was a sustainable career is mind blowing to me. The acronym is a fucking meme from the early to mid-2010s.

    I think a whole lot more people need to be concerned about the backdoor access Musk retains at critical government agencies. Not to mention his loyal sycophants still inside agencies.

    “According to administration officials” is the tell: There’s some triumphant dunking going on behind the scenes.

    Night of the Dull Knives.

  355. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Atlas Obscura podcast – This man rebuilds the last Inca rope bridge yearly (27:22)

    you have four communities: 1,100 people coming together to contribute 70 meters of straw—every household, every family—to Victoriano as an offering to help reconstruct this bridge, which signals the renewal of life, a moving forward, and also sort of a look back as to where these people came from. […] this 100-foot suspension bridge swaying in the wind, suspended over this rushing river, and it’s woven entirely out of grass.

    Wikipedia

  356. JM says

    @354 CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain: Nobody with any sense signed up for DOGE because they thought it would last. It’s a bunch of silicon valley startup guys, who jump into high risk projects one after another. Hoping to sign up for the next Amazon early and get shares, or at least build up reputation and connections.

  357. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    @356 JM: The Gumroad guy at VA complained his 50 days wasn’t long enough to do the constructive stuff he wanted. Then again, he claimed he had no idea who ran DOGE. >.>

    But yeah, some of the kids were job hunting while they wrecked everything.

  359. KG says

    John Morales@349,

    Hamlet was of course taking the piss out of Polonius, whom he described (after accidentally killing him, mistaking him for Claudius) as “a foolish, prating knave”.

  360. John Morales says

    Yes, KG, because Hamlet was mocking Polonius’s pretentious airs and the opportunistic vacuity in his badinage.

    I mean, if someone wants to be Polonius to my Hamlet, fair enough.

    But, as I said, I know.

    It is the one and the only Shakesperian play to which I paid attention, and it worked right up to Matriculation. So, yeah.

  361. John Morales says

    I was trying to recall the timeline, but that was like more than four and a half decades ago.

    So, I checked with Bubbly AI:

    —
    Shakespeare’s text never specifies an exact length of time between the exchange in which Hamlet mocks Polonius (what you’re calling the “weasel talk”) and Polonius’s death in Act III, Scene IV. The play is deliberately ambiguous about its timeline. However, the dramatic structure implies that the events unfold in rapid succession—likely within the same day (or even within a matter of hours), as the tension builds quickly from verbal sparring to lethal action.

    In short, while many productions interpret the interval as very short, the text leaves the precise period open to interpretation.

    Meh. Anyway, Hamlet was clearly not impressed with Polonius..

  362. John Morales says

    [no, I did not prompt the parenthetical, that was what I actually used in my query — weird, what? ;)]

  364. John Morales says

    [bugger. Meant this to be on the relevant thread, else I’d not have allowed the auto-embedding. Sorry]

  365. KG says

    Hamlet mocks Polonius (what you’re calling the “weasel talk”) – John Morales@361

    Just FYI, I didn’t call it that. But in any case, I have it on good authority that weasels can’t talk.

  366. Reginald Selkirk says

    Trump Wants to Spend $2 Million Investigating Whether DEI Causes Plane Crashes

    America is a corrupt place, and it’s not infrequent for that corruption to result in less-than-stellar results for the American consumer. Sometimes those poor results manifest as cheap, ineffective products. Other times, they may lead to more serious problems, like cancer-causing chemicals in your food. Sometimes corporate dysfunction has even been known to spur plane crashes. However, instead of facing up to the obvious facts (that America is run by greed-addled companies that would rather trade Americans’ safety and quality of life for enormous profits), rightwingers have spent the last several years arguing that many of the corporate failures that occur in this country happen because of companies’ commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

    Case in point: Earlier this year, when a helicopter collided with an airplane in Washington D.C., President Trump suggested it had occurred because a woman was piloting the chopper. Now, the White House is doubling down on its DEI focus. Using some $2 million in taxpayer money, Trump has hired Elon Musk’s former lawyer, Alex Spiro, to investigate whether DEI causes plane crashes or not. According to a source with knowledge of the investigation who spoke with The Atlantic, it does not. The outlet reports:…

  367. says

    Same as yesterday: I am ill today.

    In the meanwhile, if regular readers of this thread could post more than they usually do I would appreciate it.

    Thanks.

  368. says

    HELL (The Borowitz Report)—In a rare public statement from the fiery depths of Hades, Jeffrey Epstein said on Thursday that being associated with Donald J. Trump was “bad for my brand.”

    “Look, I wasn’t thrilled about being connected to Prince Andrew,” he said. “But being linked to Trump will forever ruin how people think of Jeffrey Epstein.”

    Visibly angry, he called Elon Musk’s decision to allege Trump’s inclusion in the so-called Epstein Files “hurtful.”

    Vowing to “tear into Elon when he gets down here,” Epstein declared, “This is the worst thing Musk has ever done, and that includes the Cybertruck.”

    Link

  369. Reginald Selkirk says

    Parent Company of the Big 4 Sewing Pattern Brands Sold to a Liquidator

    The legacy sewing pattern brands Simplicity, Butterick, McCalls, and Vogue, commonly referred to as the Big 4, have been sold to a liquidator.

    The brands were owned by IG Design Group, a leading manufacturer and distributor of stationery, crafts, party, and gift products based in the UK. On Friday, the company announced it had sold its US division, IG Design Group Americas (DGA), which owns the sewing pattern brands, to Hilco Capital, a liquidation firm. DGA also owns other craft brands, including Boye needles, Wrights trim, and Perler fusible beads, among others. Hilco has also been involved with liquidating Joann’s assets after it filed for bankruptcy in January.

    IG Design Group cited the impact of tariffs imposed by the US as a factor. Over 50% of DGA’s products are manufactured in China, although the sewing patterns are made in the US. The company also mentioned a softening market over the last several years, as well as the bankruptcy of Joann, as factors in the sale…

  370. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/ice-agents-and-detainees-living-in

    “ICE Agents And Detainees Living In Diseased Djibouti Shipping Container”

    “It’s ICE times, not nice times.”

    ICE kidnappings have now reached the art house film phase of ironic cruelty, with eight immigrants from Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cuba, Mexico, and South Sudan, and 11 ICE agents living together in a shipping container at the US Navy base, Camp Lemonnier, in broiling-hot, malaria-choked Djibouti, the African country right across the gulf from Yemen.

    […] The detainees and agents are living together in a shipping-container space that was meant to be a conference room, furnished with bunk beds. Because the space was never designed to be a prison, the lighting in the container is “limited,” and the detainees are being guarded by six agents working two shifts in there with them 24/7, and the agents have to accompany them to the bathroom and the medical suite.

    And there’s surely been a lot of trips to both places. Within 72 hours of arrival the agents and detainees came down with fevers, and Kristi Noem or whoever’s decision to send them to Djibouti was so rushed and half-assed, no medication was sent along with them. None of them got any of the vaccinations or anti-malarial drugs that the WHO recommends for travel to Africa either, and two weeks later, the detainees and agents still don’t have adequate medications, according to a declaration from the Acting Deputy Executive Associate Director for DHS, ICE and ERO (Enforcement and Removal Operations), Mellissa (two Ls) Harper.

    Welcome to Satan’s summer camp! It gets worse! Right by the base is a burn pit that gets fired up every night to incinerate all the poop and trash of the 4,000-plus people who live and work there. And because the average temperature of Djibouti in June is 103 during the day and 90 at night with few breezes, the toxic poop-trash smoke hangs over the base all the time. In spite of wearing K95 masks even to sleep, some of the officers have needed medical attention for their poop-particle-choked respiratory systems.

    More hellishly still, the base is also under constant threat of attack from the Houthis across the gulf in Yemen

    […] Apparently DHS was so frantic to find somewhere to send these detainess, it didn’t even give a day’s notice to the base that they were coming; having the detainees foisted on the base as unexpected guests has distracted from military readiness with disruption and less resources for the base, too.

    This trip from hell embarked on May 22, with the administration defying a court order from federal Judge Brian Murphy […]

    First, DHS was going to send them to civil-war-torn Libya, or Rwanda, as they did with one Iraqi detainee. Then it was supposed to be South Sudan, but South Sudan would not take them, and Judge Murphy blocked their removal to there too. And South Africa was also mentioned.

    The outraged judge demanded that DHS,

    “maintain custody and control of class members currently being removed to South Sudan or to any other third country, to ensure the practical feasibility of return if the Court finds that such removals were unlawful.”

    And then they popped up in Djibouti, surprise! By having them on a military base, at least they are doing that […]

    DHS spokesghoul Tricia McLaughlin knows who to blame for this horror: the judge, of course, for “putting the lives of our ICE law enforcement in danger by stranding them in Djibouti without proper resources, lack of medical care, and terrorists who hate Americans running rampant.”

    […] ICE has been struggling to figure out what to do with all that human chattel. Even though they are out of space in their detention-jails, and running out of money, Kristi Noem says they have bumped up arrest quotas from 1,800 to 3,000 a day, faster than the GEO Group can build its for-profit private prisons.

    And protests have been erupting all over [video and more details at the link]
    […]

  372. Reginald Selkirk says

    Cold case files: The medieval murder of a troublesome priest

    In 2019, we told you about a new interactive digital “murder map” of London compiled by University of Cambridge criminologist Manuel Eisner. Drawing on data catalogued in the city coroners’ rolls, the map showed the approximate location of 142 homicide cases in late medieval London. The Medieval Murder Maps project has since expanded to include maps of York and Oxford homicides, as well as podcast episodes focusing on individual cases.

    It’s easy to lose oneself down the rabbit hole of medieval murder for hours, filtering the killings by year, choice of weapon, and location. Think of it as a kind of 14th-century version of Clue: It was the noblewoman’s hired assassins armed with daggers in the streets of Cheapside near St. Paul’s Cathedral. And that’s just the juiciest of the various cases described in a new paper published in the journal Criminal Law Forum.

    The noblewoman was Ela Fitzpayne, wife of a knight named Sir Robert Fitzpayne, lord of Stogursey. The priest was her erstwhile lover, John Forde, who was stabbed to death in the streets of Cheapside on May 3, 1337. “We are looking at a murder commissioned by a leading figure of the English aristocracy,” said University of Cambridge criminologist Manuel Eisner, who heads the Medieval Murder Maps project. “It is planned and cold-blooded, with a family member and close associates carrying it out, all of which suggests a revenge motive.”
    …

  373. birgerjohansson says

    Le Monde:
    The scale of human experimentation by Japan 1938-1945 larger than previously known.

  375. StevoR says

    After watchn doco on Cosmic rays I’m wondering if we could maybe find a way of using them for propulsion. Not seen or read of such in SF and curious why not – is there any way we could harness, maybe kinda somehow effectively lasso cosmic ray particles (think Wile E Coyote catching a speeding rocket..& yeah know that doesn’t end well for him..) and use them as a means of gaining extremely high near-c velocity?

    Any physicists around here know please?

    Surely I can’t be the first person to think of this… ?

  376. Reginald Selkirk says

    Bondi accused of ‘serious professional misconduct’ in Florida Bar complaint

    Attorney General Pam Bondi is accused of “serious professional misconduct” in a Florida Bar complaint, the Miami Herald reported Thursday.

    Bondi’s record as the head of the Justice Department is being slammed by close to 70 law professors, attorneys and former Florida Supreme Court justices via a Florida Bar ethics complaint filed Thursday, according to the Herald.

    In the complaint, the group alleges Bondi has breached ethical duties in her current role and that “serious professional misconduct that threatens the rule of law and the administration of justice” has been carried out by the attorney general, the Herald reported.

    Bondi is from Florida and previously served as the Sunshine State’s first female attorney general. A “Pamela Jo Bondi” is listed as a member of the Florida Bar “in Good Standing.”

    A few months ago, Democrats pressed Bondi amid her confirmation hearing over her ability to push back against Trump, who had repeatedly stated he would come for his enemies and that he has the “absolute right” to do what he wants with her department.

    Bondi is also stated in the complaint to have “sought to compel Department of Justice lawyers to violate their ethical obligations under the guise of ‘zealous advocacy,’” according to the Herald…

  377. Reginald Selkirk says

    A 1,500-Year-Old Map Helped Researchers Find a Lost Byzantine City

    The Madaba Mosaic Map is perhaps the most famous geographical masterpiece of the ancient Near East. Believed to have been built during Emperor Justinian’s reign (527-565 A.D.), the tile art piece is the oldest surviving map of Jordan’s Holy Lands. The map is located in Madaba, Jordan, and depicts a total of 157 sites—many of which have yet to be found. One of the many lost cities is a place called Tharais, which dates all the way back to the Byzantine Empire. And researchers might have just found it.

    Starting in 2021, a research team led by Musallam R. al-Rawahneh—an associate professor of archeology and ancient Near East studies at Mutah University—began looking for Tharais. The field project lasted until 2024, and the team recently published their findings in the journal Gephyra.

    Finding a lost city is no easy task, and researchers had to use several different methods to track down Tharais. Maps, including both the Madaba Mosaic and more contemporary maps, gave researchers a starting baseline. They then conducted a field survey near a modern city near the southeastern edge of the Dead Sea called El-’Iraq. There, researchers found remnants of mosaic floors, glassware, and various tools—all compelling evidence that that was where Tharais once thrived…

  379. Reginald Selkirk says

    Proud Boys Convicted in Jan. 6 Attack Sue Government on Claims of ‘Political Persecution’

    Five members of the Proud Boys who were convicted of seditious conspiracy and other charges in connection with the violent assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, sued the government for $100 million on Friday, claiming that federal officials had subjected them to “political persecution” as “allies of President Trump.”

    The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Orlando, Fla., came nearly six months after Mr. Trump offered an expansive grant of clemency to all of the more than 1,500 people who had taken part in the attack. It was another attempt by rioters to flip the script about Jan. 6 and blame the Justice Department and the F.B.I. for engaging in what the complaint called “a corrupt and politically motivated” prosecution.
    …
    Much of the lawsuit submitted by the five Proud Boys — Enrique Tarrio, Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola — sought to re-litigate legal questions that had not gone their way during a lengthy pretrial period and a multiweek trial in Federal District Court in Washington that ended in May 2023 with guilty verdicts against all of them.

    The men complained, for instance, about the ways in which they were arrested and then denied bail, accused the F.B.I. of using paid informants to spy on their defense team and claimed that federal agents had altered what they claimed was exculpatory evidence. All of this, the suit said, amounted to the government having deprived them of their constitutional rights.
    …

  380. John Morales says

    [meta]

    KG @365 re “Just FYI, I didn’t call it that.”, no, you didn’t. I called it that in my query. I didn’t include my prompt.

    This was my query, after I’d established the context was the play:
    Me: “what time period is there between the weasel talk and the death of polonius?”
    Chatbot: “Shakespeare’s text never specifies an exact length of time between the exchange in which Hamlet mocks Polonius (what you’re calling the “weasel talk”) and Polonius’s death in Act III, Scene IV.”

    FWTW.

  381. John Morales says

    StevoR,

    my prompt:
    “someone wrote “After watchn doco on Cosmic rays I’m wondering if we could maybe find a way of using them for propulsion. Not seen or read of such in SF and curious why not “, and I think the reason is that there is no preferred direction for them. Critique succinctly, based on physics info”

    the response:
    “The idea overlooks two key issues:
    – Isotropy of Cosmic Rays:
    Cosmic rays arrive roughly equally from all directions. Without a directional beam, there’s no net momentum to exploit for propulsion. Any attempt to collect them would yield an almost perfect cancellation of forces.
    – Low Flux Density:
    Even though cosmic rays are high energy, their flux density in space is extremely low. The total momentum available per unit area is negligible, making it impractical to generate meaningful thrust.
    In summary, without a preferred direction and with such a minimal momentum flux, harnessing cosmic rays for propulsion remains unfeasible from a physics standpoint.
    “

  382. John Morales says

    for the yuks:

    Me: critique using financial info
    Chatbot: Using a financial lens, the idea of harnessing cosmic rays for propulsion quickly appears unattractive:

    Enormous R&D Investment:
    The technology required to capture and convert the momentum of cosmic rays would demand substantial research and development funds. The technology is unproven and would necessitate vast, innovative engineering projects with uncertain outcomes—an investment hard to justify when the financial risks and potential payoffs are so imbalanced.
    Infrastructure and Operational Costs:
    Achieving a meaningful thrust from cosmic rays would require enormous collection surfaces and satellite systems capable of enduring the harsh space environment. The manufacturing, launch, and maintenance costs for such large-scale infrastructure would be astronomical compared to the anticipated thrust gains.
    Low Return on Investment (ROI):
    Given that cosmic rays are isotropic and have extremely low momentum flux density, the likely benefit in terms of propulsion is minimal. Compared to alternative systems like solar sails or ion drives—where the cost-benefit ratio is far more favorable—the incremental acceleration from cosmic rays wouldn’t justify the massive expenditure.

    In short, even if the physics were workable in theory, the financial burden associated with developing a system to harvest cosmic rays for propulsion far outweighs any potential benefits, making it economically unviable.

  383. Reginald Selkirk says

    FBI: BADBOX 2.0 Android malware infects millions of consumer devices

    The FBI is warning that the BADBOX 2.0 malware campaign has infected over 1 million home Internet-connected devices, converting consumer electronics into residential proxies that are used for malicious activity.

    The BADBOX botnet is commonly found on Chinese Android-based smart TVs, streaming boxes, projectors, tablets, and other Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

    “The BADBOX 2.0 botnet consists of millions of infected devices and maintains numerous backdoors to proxy services that cyber criminal actors exploit by either selling or providing free access to compromised home networks to be used for various criminal activity,” warns the FBI.

    These devices come preloaded with the BADBOX 2.0 malware botnet or become infected after installing firmware updates and through malicious Android applications that sneak onto Google Play and third-party app stores.

    “Cyber criminals gain unauthorized access to home networks by either configuring the product with malicious software prior to the users purchase or infecting the device as it downloads required applications that contain backdoors, usually during the set-up process,” explains the FBI.

    “Once these compromised IoT devices are connected to home networks, the infected devices are susceptible to becoming part of the BADBOX 2.0 botnet and residential proxy services4 known to be used for malicious activity.”

    Once infected, the devices connect to the attacker’s command and control (C2) servers, where they receive commands to execute on the compromised devices, such as:
    …

  384. John Morales says

    In the news: https://slate.com/technology/2025/06/crypto-news-wrench-attacks-nyc-kidnapping-crime-rise.html

    Why Crypto Investors Are Absolutely Terrified Right Now
    When you are your own bank, you risk being broken into like one.

    Late last month, a shoeless and injured cryptocurrency investor fled from a posh Manhattan townhouse and approached the NYPD with a mortifying story: He’d just escaped 17 straight days of torture, having been held in SoHo and peed upon, forced to smoke crack, pistol-whipped, shocked with a Taser, cut with a saw, and dangled over a ledge. All because two fellow crypto enthusiasts, whom he personally knew, desired access to his multimillion-dollar Bitcoin fortune—and were willing to do anything to make him give up the password to his virtual wallet.

    With the information provided by this battered trader—a 28-year-old Italian named Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan—the authorities quickly took the accused culprits, John Woeltz and William Duplessie, into custody. Per police reports, Carturan and Woeltz had ties to an unnamed New York crypto hedge fund; the latter had often “picked on” the former and, eventually, a disagreement over money led Carturan to fly back to Italy. Woeltz, who’d been spending time with Duplessie partying hard and splurging generously—including on that 17-floor, $30,000-a-month SoHo townhouse—persuaded Carturan to return to NYC early last month and allegedly hired an off-duty NYPD officer to pick him up from the airport on May 6.(It’s unknown whether the cop knew what was about to happen.) According to Carturan’s account, he only escaped after agreeing to give up the passkey to his Bitcoin wallet, claiming it was stored on his laptop; when his tormenters left him behind to fetch the computer, Carturan bolted from the premises.

    The NYC torture scheme was just the latest example of a “wrench attack,” where a thief employs brutal physical violence in order to gain access to a target’s virtual cryptocurrency stashes. The phrase hails from a 2009 strip from the popular webcomic xkcd, making the point that any common thief could break into a user’s encrypted software simply by battering the owner with a $5 wrench “until he tells us the password.”

    […]

  385. says

    KYIV (The Borowitz Report)—In a bold attempt at high-stakes diplomacy, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy offered on Friday to broker a peace deal between Elon Musk and Donald J. Trump.

    “It is time for the fighting to stop,” Zelenskyy said to Musk and Trump. “And I am willing to make the ultimate sacrifice: sitting in the same room as the two of you.”

    Addressing Trump, the Ukrainian declared, “Mr. President, Elon gave you 250 million dollars, and you haven’t said ‘thank you’ once.”

    https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/zelenskyy-offers-to-broker-peace

  386. says

    Bits of news summarized by Steve Benen:

    * I guess returning Kilmar Abrego Garcia to U.S. soil wasn’t impossible after all: “Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been returned to the U.S. to face federal human smuggling charges in Tennessee, the Justice Department said Friday, in a case that became emblematic of the combined coarseness and incompetence behind the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.”

    * In this 6-3 ruling, all of the Republican-appointed justices sided with the White House: “A divided Supreme Court on June 6 said Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency can access to the data of millions of Americans kept by the U.S. Social Security Administration. [!!] The court paused a judge’s order blocking DOGE from getting the data, which includes Social Security numbers, medical and mental health information, tax return information and citizenship records.”

    * Harvard’s winning streak continues, but the White House’s relentless offensive is ongoing: “A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s efforts to block visas for foreign students planning to attend Harvard, after the Ivy League college filed a legal challenge.”

    * No one benefits from misguided steps like these: “More than $12 million worth of contraceptives and HIV-prevention medications purchased by the U.S. government as aid for developing countries under programs that have since been discontinued will probably be destroyed unless officials sell or otherwise off-load them, an examination by The Washington Post found.”

    * The White House vs. the ICC: “The Trump administration is slapping sanctions on four judges at the International Criminal Court over the tribunal’s investigation into alleged war crimes by Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza and in the West Bank.”

    * It’s not a great sign when no one seems to know who’s leading the CDC: “The CDC, a $9.2 billion-a-year agency tasked with reviewing life-saving vaccines, monitoring diseases and watching for budding threats to Americans’ health, is without a clear leader.”

    * This effort fell short, but it was interesting to see Republicans scramble: “House Oversight Committee Democrats have once again failed to subpoena Elon Musk to testify on Capitol Hill. The panel rejected the minority party’s request Thursday morning for the former DOGE chief to appear before lawmakers in a party-line, 21-20 votes.”

    * Should we assume that a generous settlement in this civil suit is inevitable? “Five members of the Proud Boys, once convicted of masterminding the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol, are accusing the federal government and FBI employees of violating their rights in connection with their prosecutions in a new lawsuit. … The suit seeks $100 million in punitive damages.”

    * A New Jersey health official’s recent inspection at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster did not go well: “For more than three hours, the inspector tallied enough violations — a faulty dishwasher, poorly stocked sinks, improperly stored raw meat — to give the club a score of 32 out of 100, one of the lowest ratings earned by any establishment in Somerset County this year.”

    * Noted without comment: “For sale at the White House: one bright red Tesla Model S. Should run fine; the owner just seems to have had buyer’s remorse. Less than 24 hours after President Trump and Elon Musk engaged in a rancorous public spat, Mr. Trump has decided to sell the red Tesla he got in March, according to a White House official speaking on condition of anonymity because the person wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.”

    https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/fridays-mini-report-6625-rcna211525

    Links to original sources are available at the main link.

  387. John Morales says

    Pierce, elsethread you wrote “quoting “the bubbly chatbot” [huh?]”

    People repeatedly assure me with great confidence that AI is a bubble.
    A number of such people have further asserted in a knowledgeable manner that the bubble has burst.
    (Apparently, it’s the sort of bubble that repeatedly bursts).

    So, whenever I interact with an instance of an AI, I amuse myself by calling it bubbly; but hey, let the bubbly bot speak for itself:

    Me: if AI is a bubble, explain the joke of calling an instance such as you ‘a bubbly chatbot’;
    Bubbly chatbot:
    The joke plays on a double meaning of the word “bubble.” On one level, calling AI “a bubble” refers to the idea that the current hype around AI might be unsustainable—a technology bubble that’s inflated and could burst. On another level, describing a chatbot as “bubbly” suggests a cheerful, effervescent personality. So when you call an instance like me “a bubbly chatbot,” it’s a pun that humorously links the notion of AI being a transient, inflated phenomenon (a bubble) with the idea of being full of lively, sparkling energy (bubbly).

    —

    There are more levels, of course, but it is not incorrect in its gist.

  388. says

    After Donald Trump made a habit of insisting that any good economic news coming from the Biden and Obama administrations had to be fake, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that there’s now evidence that Trump’s administration might be cooking the books to hide just how bad the Great Leader’s tariffs are. As Politico reports, political appointees held back a scheduled Department of Agriculture forecast and stripped out its accompanying written analysis “because it predicts an increase in the nation’s trade deficit in farm goods.” […]

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/what-trumps-cooking-the-books-just

    Much more at the link

  389. says

    https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-blacklisted-opera-star-comeback-europe-valery-gergiev-anna-netrebko/

    “Russia’s blacklisted classical music stars make a comeback in Europe”

    “Vladimir Putin’s musical darlings are back in the spotlight — and Ukraine and the EU are not pleased.”

    [snipped history]

    In a show of solidarity with Kyiv, the classical music world canceled Russian concerts, stopped performing seminal works like The Nutcracker and Swan Lake, and dropped performers with public ties to President Vladimir Putin — all part of a broader derussification of the European arts.

    Three years later, however, some of Russia’s biggest stars are quietly returning to orchestras and stages across Europe. That’s a victory for Moscow, just as critics say it is hoping to end its global isolation using Russian high art and culture as a weapon of soft power.

    Facing the Russian returnees, Ukraine and the EU are both calling for the continent’s prestigious opera houses and theater companies to hold the line against Moscow.

    Ukrainian Culture Minister Mykola Tochytskyi said Europe’s arts scene should “think twice” before welcoming Russian performers back into the fold, calling it “very risky” to reintegrate Russian culture while Moscow’s full-scale invasion grinds on.

    “When you have a Russian active cultural action in [your] country, it’s immediately about disinformation and about preparing some kind of act of aggression,” he said. “This is our own experience.”

    European Culture Commissioner Glenn Micallef concurred, telling POLITICO: “European stages should not be giving any space to those who are supporting this war of aggression against Ukraine.” […]

    More at the link, including EU funding

  391. says

    Pam Bondi announces bogus criminal charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, by Walter Einenkel

    Friday News reports revealed that, after months of legal battles, the Trump administration is finally bringing home Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland resident who was wrongly deported and detained in El Salvador due to an “administrative error.”

    U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi took time away from dealing with her recent ethics complaint to hold a press conference to criminally charge Abrego Garcia, blaming him for every human trafficking and immigration horror story imaginable.

    “He made over 100 trips, the grand jury found, smuggling people throughout our country—MS-13 members, violent gang terrorist organization members—throughout our country,” she said. [video at the link] […]

    More details and additional video at the link.

  393. says

    […] A commenter yesterday took issue with our plea to pregnant women to get COVID-vaxxed, saying that “Europe” no longer recommends it for pregnant women, and are we INSANE? Well, I googled it, and while the UK no longer does — and I’m not entirely enamored with the UK’s healthcare decisionmaking lately anyway! — here’s the first thing I found about that (cost-based) decision: University of Manchester all like WHAT THE FUCK, ARE YOU KIDDING US WITH US, YOU IDIOTS? (Paraphrase.) Pregnant women, please get the COVID vax! (University of Manchester) […]

    New Zealand Parliament votes to suspend the HAKA WARRIORS who HAKAED THEM RIGHT IN THEIR FACES. (Guardian)

    For this, we will take a moment to relive the fucking glory. [video at the link]
    […]

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/haka-ed-them-right-in-their-faces

    Embedded links are available at the main link.

  394. Reginald Selkirk says

    Top Researchers Leave Intel To Build Startup With ‘The Biggest, Baddest CPU’

    An anonymous reader quotes a report from OregonLive:

    Together, the four founders of Beaverton startup AheadComputing spent nearly a century at Intel. They were among Intel’s top chip architects, working years in advance to develop new generations of microprocessors to power the computers of the future. Now they’re on their own, flying without a net, building a new class of microprocessor on an entirely different architecture from Intel’s. Founded a year ago, AheadComputing is trying to prove there’s a better way to design computer chips.

    “AheadComputing is doing the biggest, baddest CPU in the world,” said Debbie Marr, the company’s CEO. […] AheadComputing is betting on an open architecture called RISC-V — RISC stands for “reduced instruction set computer.” The idea is to craft a streamlined microprocessor that works more efficiently by doing fewer things, and doing them better than conventional processors. For AheadComputing’s founders and 80 employees, many of them also Intel alumni, it’s a major break from the kind of work they’ve been doing all their careers. They’ve left a company with more than 100,000 workers to start a business with fewer than 100…

  395. John Morales says

    My prompt:
    there’s this in the news: “AheadComputing is doing the biggest, baddest CPU in the world,” said Debbie Marr, the company’s CEO. […] AheadComputing is betting on an open architecture called RISC-V — RISC stands for “reduced instruction set computer.”
    What’s supposedly new about this? RISC is ancient

    BubbleBot:
    RISC itself is an established concept—the notion of a “reduced instruction set” dates back several decades. The novelty with RISC‑V isn’t in reinventing RISC but in its open, royalty‑free nature. Previous RISC architectures (like those powering many early embedded systems or even Arm’s designs) were proprietary, meaning that companies had to license and pay for access. In contrast, RISC‑V is published as an open standard that anyone can implement or modify freely. This openness is generating excitement because it promises a more collaborative and competitive ecosystem, where innovation isn’t constrained by centralized control or licensing fees. Such freedom is particularly appealing now given the rapid pace of semiconductor innovation—especially in areas like AI and high‑performance computing—where traditional, closed platforms can sometimes bottleneck progress.

    (Nice how it can scrape the news, no? So, hype and hope)

  396. John Morales says

    Me: how is it not vaporware
    BubbleBot:
    To address vaporware concerns, consider these points:

    Experienced Leadership and Track Record:
    AheadComputing is led by veteran CPU architects from companies like Intel. Their careers—spanning decades with track records of tangible product successes—lend credibility to their claims. An experienced team is less likely to churn out empty promises.
    Secured Funding and Active Roadmap:
    The company has already raised significant seed capital (over $21.5 million as reported in industry sources), indicating that investors believe in the feasibility of their technology. They’re actively recruiting, holding public events (such as Happy Hour meet-ups), and maintaining an operational website with a mission statement and roadmap. These are signs of a genuine effort toward materializing their designs rather than issuing unbacked announcements.
    Clear Business Model Beyond Concept:
    While the core RISC‑V instruction standard is open source and royalty‑free, AheadComputing’s approach centers on building proprietary microarchitectural enhancements and optimizing manufacturing processes. This dual-layer strategy is common in semiconductor businesses (similar to how Arm operates with its IP licensing model) and is designed to generate real-market competitiveness and revenue from sales and licensing—not mere speculative concepts.

    In essence, while lofty claims always carry the risk of vaporware if not followed through, the combination of an experienced team, secured funding, and concrete public steps (from recruitment to defined mission statements) provide early indications that AheadComputing is working to deliver on its promise rather than just talking shop.

    —

    Me: you’ve just described vaporware. review; it means it does not yet exist and is hypothetical
    Bubblebot:
    You’re absolutely right—by definition, “vaporware” refers to announced products that remain hypothetical, without any tangible, working implementations to back up their claims. In the context of AheadComputing’s announcements, if no physical chips or demonstrable prototypes exist yet, then regardless of the company’s roadmap, funding, or leadership expertise, the product remains vaporware until it materializes into actual hardware.

    The claims of superior performance or innovative design are speculative promises. Until there’s evidence of a functioning, tested chip, these announcements are, by nature, just conceptual. This is a common critique, especially in industries where ambitious promises sometimes outpace the ability to deliver, hence the pejorative use of the term vaporware.

  397. whheydt says

    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/north-korea-raised-capsized-destroyer-upright-continues-repair-122559798

    SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Friday it had righted a capsized destroyer and moored it at a pier in the northeastern port of Chongjin as it continues to repair the new warship leader Kim Jong Un has described as a significant asset for his nuclear-armed military.

    The report by North Korean state media aligned with South Korean military assessments and recent commercial satellite images.

    North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said experts will closely examine the ship’s hull before beginning the next phase of restoration, which will take place at a dry dock at the neighboring port of Rajin and is expected to last seven to 10 days.

    Satellite images taken Thursday by Planet Labs PBC analyzed by The Associated Press showed the stricken destroyer upright and floating. It wasn’t immediately clear from the image just how much damage had been done to the vessel, which had been in the water for days after the failed launch. However, the ship did not appear to be noticeably listing, meaning Pyongyang is likely able to send it onward to the other port to inspect the vessel’s electronics.

    Jo Chun Ryong, a senior official from the ruling Workers’ Party, told the agency that the “perfect restoration of the destroyer will be completed without fail” before a major party congress in late June, a deadline set by Kim.

    Outside experts say it remains unclear how severely the 5,000-ton-class destroyer was damaged during a botched launching ceremony in late May, which triggered a furious response from Kim, who called the failure a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility, and unscientific empiricism.”

    Well…. We’ll see. Some reports at the time of the launch failure indicated pretty severe damage. I’m not willing to bet that North Korea will actual get the ship fixed on the schedule they are claiming.

  398. John Morales says

    Been having a chat with the bubblebot, and (as expected) it will concede whatever with a bit of prompting.
    Having fun with the contrasts, but I had to really push to get it to say it outright.

    Me: no contrast, since they are both doing the same thing
    BB: You’re correct—when we abstract away the content, both traditional licensing and open-source licensing are fundamentally contractual mechanisms that regulate access to intellectual property. At that ontological level:

    They Both Define Rights and Obligations:
    Whether it’s a proprietary license that restricts access for a fee or an open-source license that grants broad, royalty‑free access, both are legal instruments designed to set the terms of use.
    They Both Rely on Contract Law:
    Each functions through the same basic framework of property rights and contractual agreements, ensuring that the asset (be it a CPU design or any other IP) is used per the established terms.

    The key difference isn’t in the mechanism itself but in the specific terms: traditional licensing charges fees and restricts access, whereas open-source licensing offers permission to use and modify without fees (albeit often with obligations like attribution). In essence, both are the same tool used in different ways; they’re two approaches on the same spectrum of managing IP via contracts.

    Me: similarly, the royalty-free vs paying for access; confirm or disput
    BB: At that abstract, ontological level, I confirm that both models—royalty‑free licensing and fee‑based licensing (i.e. paying for access)—are fundamentally the same mechanism at work. Both are contractual arrangements that define rights and obligations regarding the use of an intellectual asset. The only difference is in the specific terms of the contract:

    Royalty‑Free Licensing:
    This model grants users permission to use, modify, or distribute the asset without paying ongoing fees. The “free” aspect refers to the economic terms, not to the absence of a legal framework governing how the asset is used.
    Fee‑Based Licensing (Paying for Access):
    Here, the license requires payment—often in the form of royalties or periodic fees—in exchange for the right to access and use the asset. The control is just as strictly defined, but the economic barrier is intentionally imposed to capture value directly.

    In both cases, the mechanism is the same: a legal contract defines who can use the asset and under what conditions. The key variation lies solely in the economic terms embedded in the license. Thus, at an ontological level, they represent two different ends of the same spectrum of managing intellectual property.

    —

    Socratic/Platonic dialogues work with the little beasties… aww, how cute! ;)

  399. Reginald Selkirk says

    @183

    Navy Admiral On Pete Hegseth Renaming Harvey Milk Ship: ‘I Don’t Agree With It’

    Retired Navy Adm. James Stavridis said Friday that he disagrees with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordering the Navy to take the rare step of renaming the USNS Harvey Milk because Milk was gay.

    “I am scratching my head about renaming the USS USNS … Harvey Milk,” Stavridis said on SiriusXM’s “The Michael Smerconish Program.”

    “Because Harvey Milk was gay, we all know that. But today, gay sailors serve openly and with a great deal of pride in the U.S. military. I know many who are gay and are very competent, war-fighting sailors,” Stavridis said. “So when [the] secretary of defense says, ‘Hey, I’m renaming this in order to restore the warrior ethos,’ I just don’t get that at all.”
    …
    Asked for comment about Hegseth timing his order with Pride Month, a Defense Department spokesperson shared a statement from chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell that didn’t actually answer the question.

    “Secretary Hegseth is committed to ensuring that the names attached to all DOD installations and assets are reflective of the Commander-in-Chief’s priorities, our nation’s history, and the warrior ethos. Any potential renaming(s) will be announced after internal reviews are complete,” Parnell said in his statement.

    The replacement name is obvious. If the Commander in Chief’s priorities are the issue, they should call it the USNS Bone Spurs

  400. Reginald Selkirk says

    LAX Metro Transit Center opens, connecting millions to the Los Angeles International Airport

    The long-awaited LAX Metro Transit Center station in Westchester opened Friday, marking a new era of transit in Los Angeles. After a decade of planning and four years of construction, the station promises to enhance connectivity for over a million daily Metro riders.

    The new transit hub provides direct access to the Los Angeles International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the country and the busiest in Southern California. Edna Stanley, deputy chief operations manager at Metro, highlighted the significance of the project, stating, “This is our new LAX Metro Transit Center station. It serves as a connection and traveling hub for Angelenos and travelers alike.”

    The station connects the C and K Metro lines to the broader network, allowing travelers from Redondo Beach and Norwalk to reach the airport seamlessly.
    …
    Additionally, the station boasts a large bus plaza servicing six Metro bus routes and eight municipal bus routes, further expanding transit options for commuters…

    Way overdue.

  401. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Gumroad DOGE guy opens his mouth, removes all doubt, and then, keeps, going.

    ProPublica – DOGE developed error-prone AI tool to “munch” VA contracts
    (Illustration: A cyborg shiba inu standing on a desk surrounded by shredded paper.)

    a software engineer with no health care or government experience […] quickly built an artificial intelligence tool to identify which services from private companies were not essential. He labeled those contracts “MUNCHABLE.”

    The code, using outdated and inexpensive AI models, produced results with glaring mistakes. For instance, it hallucinated the size of contracts, frequently misreading them and inflating their value. It concluded more than a thousand were each worth $34 million, when in fact some were for as little as $35,000. The DOGE AI tool flagged more than 2,000 contracts for “munching.” It’s unclear how many have been or are on track to be canceled […] VA officials have said they’ve killed nearly 600 contracts overall. We identified at least two dozen on the DOGE list that have been canceled so far.
    […]
    ProPublica obtained the code and the contracts it flagged from a source and shared them with a half dozen AI and procurement experts. All said the script was flawed. Many criticized the concept […] one calling it “deeply problematic.”
    […]
    “I think that mistakes were made,” said Lavingia, who worked at DOGE for nearly two months. “I’m sure mistakes were made. Mistakes are always made. I would never recommend someone run my code and do what it says. It’s like that ‘Office’ episode where Steve Carell drives into the lake because Google Maps says drive into the lake. Do not drive into the lake.”
    […]
    Lavingia has nearly 15 years of experience as a software engineer and entrepreneur but no formal training in AI. He briefly worked at Pinterest before starting Gumroad, a small e-commerce company that nearly collapsed in 2015. “I laid off 75% of my company—including many of my best friends. It really sucked,” he said. Lavingia kept the company afloat by “replacing every manual process with an automated one,”
    […]
    Lavingia did not have much time to immerse himself in how the VA handles veterans’ care [Trump’s EO gave 30 days to review 90,000 contracts.] Under a time crunch, Lavingia said he finished the first version of his contract-munching tool on his second day on the job—using AI to help write the code for him.
    […]
    VA press secretary Pete Kasperowicz lauded DOGE’s work on vetting contracts […] The VA is reviewing all of its 76,000 contracts to ensure each of them benefits veterans and is a good use of taxpayer money, he said. Decisions to cancel or reduce the size of contracts are made after multiple reviews by VA employees, including agency contracting experts and senior staff, he wrote. Kasperowicz said that the VA will not cancel contracts for work that provides services to veterans or that the agency cannot do itself without a contingency plan in place. He added that contracts that are “wasteful, duplicative or involve services VA has the ability to perform itself” will typically be terminated.
    […]
    The VA has not explained how it plans to simultaneously move services in-house, as Lavingia’s code suggested was the plan, while also slashing staff.
    […]
    Many inside the VA told ProPublica the process for reviewing contracts was so opaque they couldn’t even see who made the ultimate decisions to kill specific contracts. Once the “munching” script had selected a list of contracts, Lavingia said he would pass it off to others who would decide what to cancel and what to keep.
    […]
    the tool’s underlying instructions were deeply flawed. Records show Lavingia programmed the AI system to make intricate judgments based on the first few pages of each contract—about the first 2,500 words—which contain only sparse summary information.

    “AI is absolutely the wrong tool for this,” said Waldo Jaquith, a former Obama appointee who oversaw IT contracting at the Treasury Department.
    […]
    Lavingia’s prompts did not include context about how the VA operates, what contracts are essential or which ones are required by federal law. This led AI to determine a core piece of the agency’s own contract procurement system was “munchable.”
    […]
    In late March, avingia published a version of the “munchable” script on his GitHub account […] “It would have been cool if the entire federal government used this script and anyone in the public could see that this is how the VA is thinking about cutting contracts.”
    […]
    VA officials have declined to say whether they will continue to use the “munchable” tool moving forward.

    He has self awareness to know what he did was inept (though not grasping the degree), but not the awareness to admit that that meant he shouldn’t have done it.

  402. John Morales says

    CA7746, whoever wrote that doesn’t distinguish between an AI tool and a tool made by an AI.

  403. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    The Guardian

    The University of Michigan is using private, undercover investigators to surveil pro-Palestinian campus groups, including trailing them on and off campus, furtively recording them and eavesdropping on their conversations […] an intimidation tactic […] investigators have cursed at students, threatened them and in one case drove a car at a student who had to jump out of the way
    […]
    Students say they have frequently identified undercover investigators and confronted them. In two bizarre interactions captured by one student on video, a man who had been trailing the student faked disabilities, and noisily—and falsely—accused a student of attempting to rob him.
    […]
    some of their evidence was used by Michigan prosecutors to charge and jail students […] Most charges were later dropped. […] the university paid at least $800,000 between June 2023 and September 2024 to [the company].
    […]
    [“]it sometimes feels comedic because it’s so insane that they have spent millions of dollars to hire some goons to follow campus activists around,”
    […]
    evidence from the undercover investigators has also been used […] in internal disciplinary hearings. The administration cannot initiate cases against students—only other students or staff can—so it spent $1.5m on two consultants who were hired to initiate internal disciplinary action
    […]
    [One student] counted 30 different people following him before he stopped keeping track last year

  404. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    @402, John Morales: The munching tool clearly included an LLM to process contracts (and hallucinate). It was configured, invoked, and fed documents by Python code, which itself was apparently ALSO generated, at least as for boilerplate, to whatever degree ‘help write the code’ meant.

  405. John Morales says

    “The munching tool clearly included an LLM to process contracts”

    Righto. So, I did check with bubblebot, and it tells me (in essence) that I’m being pedantic:

    Me: in the news, this headline: “DOGE developed error-prone AI tool to “munch” VA contracts”
    My response: whoever wrote that doesn’t distinguish between an AI tool and a tool made by an AI.
    Critique, search the net, and judge the merits

    BB: Below is an analysis of the headline and your critique:

    Understanding the Headline’s Language
    The headline—“DOGE developed error-prone AI tool to ‘munch’ VA contracts”—uses the term “AI tool” in its standard, journalistic sense. In industry and media, “AI tool” commonly refers to a software solution that employs artificial intelligence techniques to process data or make decisions. It does not, by itself, imply that the tool was created by an AI. Instead, the word “developed” in the headline indicates that human engineers at DOGE built a tool that relies on AI technology. Thus, while your critique focuses on a semantic nuance—that there’s a difference between a tool that uses AI versus one that is made by an AI—the conventional usage in headlines is to use “AI tool” as shorthand for “a tool incorporating AI” .
    Evaluating the Critique’s Merit
    Your argument highlights a valid point about precision in language: for a technical expert, distinguishing between a tool based on AI technology and one that is autonomously created by AI is important. However, in the context of mainstream reporting, such nuance is often sacrificed for brevity and readability. Most readers understand “AI tool” to mean “software that uses AI,” so the headline isn’t technically mistaken—even if it lacks granular detail. Essentially, the headline is designed to capture attention by linking the tool’s flaws to its reliance on dated or hastily implemented AI methods, not to detail the specific process of its creation .
    Judging the Merits of the Headline
    When judging the headline’s effectiveness, its primary aim is to alert readers to a significant issue: the mishandling of VA contracts due to an error-prone system built around AI technology. The use of the term “munch” adds a colloquial, almost irreverent twist that emphasizes the potential harm in canceling (or “munching”) contracts erroneously. The headline’s structure may be imprecise from a technical perspective, but it successfully conveys the idea that a flawed implementation of AI is negatively impacting important governmental processes. It aligns with common journalistic practices where trade-offs between technical precision and immediate comprehension are made for a broader audience.
    Summary
    In summary, while your critique about the lack of distinction between “an AI tool” and “a tool made by an AI” is technically valid, the headline conforms to standard journalistic shorthand. It is understood to mean that DOGE built a tool that leverages AI and that this tool, due to poor design or rushed development, is making erroneous decisions regarding VA contracts. The headline’s purpose here is not to detail the technology’s developmental lineage but to highlight its error-prone nature and the significant consequences that follow .

    : “DOGE Developed Error-Prone AI Tool to ‘Munch’ Veterans Affairs Contracts,” MSN/ProPublica article, June 6, 2025.
    “Inside the AI Prompts DOGE Used to ‘Munch’ Contracts Related to Veterans’ Health,” MSN News, June 6, 2025.

    “DOGE used flawed AI tool to ‘munch’ Veteran Affairs contracts, report claims,” MSN/Independent, June 6, 2025.

    —

    Not too shabby for a chatbot, eh? Sure put me in my place! :)

  407. John Morales says

    Info-wise, this is a good video:

    When Does US Debt Become Genuinely Bad? | WSJ

    One of the core issues between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump’s feud is over Republican’s “big, beautiful bill” in Congress. Musk is concerned about how much it raises the national debt.

    The U.S. national debt is on its way to $30 trillion dollars and is projected to be more than 100% of GDP at the end of this year. So is that… bad? Let’s look at what the debt is, how it affects the economy and how much is too much.

    Chapters:
    0:00 Nerves about U.S. assets
    0:55 How the debt works
    1:53 How much debt is bad?
    3:06 The interest payment problem
    3:40 When the debt becomes unsustainable
    6:14 How to fix it

  408. John Morales says

    More chatting with the bot:

    Bot: Here are some recent financial articles analyzing the effects of Trump’s Build Back Better bill alongside his tariff policies:

    Financial Times discusses how Trump’s tariffs and tax cuts are expected to increase the U.S. deficit by $2.4 trillion, despite Republican claims that economic growth will offset the impact. The article also highlights Elon Musk’s criticism of the bill, calling it a “disgusting abomination”. You can read more here.
    Debevoise & Plimpton LLP provides an in-depth analysis of TCJA 2.0, explaining how the Senate’s budget resolution allows for $5.3 trillion in new deficits, with tariffs playing a key role in revenue generation. The article outlines the 10% baseline tariff on all imports, a 34% tariff on Chinese goods, and a 25% tariff on imported automobiles, all of which are expected to raise revenue but also disrupt global trade. More details here.
    YourNews examines Trump’s tariff-tax strategy, arguing that the combination of tariffs and tax cuts could reduce the federal deficit by $2.8 trillion over the next decade. The article explores how tariffs are being used to fund tax relief, shifting the tax burden away from American workers and onto foreign imports. Check it out here.

    Me: sure. is it not stupid to ignore that tariffs will increase prices which will lower consumption which will lower economic activity which will lower taxes?
    Summarise

    BeautifulBubblyBot:
    Here’s a revised evaluation incorporating that insight:

    Static Revenue Viewpoint: One set of claims looks only at the immediate fiscal effects. In that view, tariffs generate extra government revenue—say, enough to offset some of the losses from tax cuts, leading to projections like a $2.8 trillion deficit reduction over a decade. This approach centers solely on the nominal income the government collects through import duties, without considering the broader economic dynamics.
    Dynamic Economic Consequences: However, if you factor in the fact that tariffs raise prices for consumers, then consumption naturally falls. Lower consumption means reduced economic activity overall, which in turn shrinks the tax base. Sluggish economic growth results in lower income, corporate, and sales taxes. This more comprehensive approach can explain claims that, when the negative multiplier effects are taken into account, the overall fiscal result could actually be a larger deficit—projected around an increase of $2.4 trillion.
    Reconciling the Claims: The contradiction arises from differing assumptions. One claim isolates immediate tariff revenue, while the other accounts for the dynamic feedback loop: tariffs raise prices → lead to lower consumption and production → reduce overall tax revenue. Once these secondary effects are included, the purported benefits of tariff revenue are more than offset by the drag on economic growth, which ultimately exacerbates the deficit.

  409. John Morales says

    [sorry, that was an enumeration, but this site’s markdown preprocessor doesn’t handle lists]

  410. John Morales says

    Regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine:

    How is the war going? — June 2025
    Overview of the frontline situation, where Russia has launched its summer offensive. Over the coming months, they will likely take more territory while sustaining heavy casualties. Russia’s big challenge is still taking cities, and that limits the extent of their success.
    Meanwhile, the air war is intensifying. It is increasingly difficult to defend against airstrikes, and there will be more civilian casualties.

    0:00 Intro
    0:57 Russian summer offensive
    1:10 Sumy
    3:17 Kharkiv
    4:00 Donetsk
    5:33 Zaporizhzhia
    5:52 Kherson drone threat
    7:20 Intensifying air war
    8:57 The big picture

  411. Reginald Selkirk says

    Volvo Debuts New IoT Seatbelt Design

    Longtime Slashdot reader sinij shares a report from Car and Driver:

    [Volvo] is debuting a new version of the three-point seatbelt that it believes is a major improvement over the original. The new design will be a smart belt that adapts to each occupant’s body and adjusts the belt load accordingly. It uses data from interior and exterior sensors to customize protection based on the road conditions and the specific occupants. The technology will debut on the upcoming EX60 crossover.

    According to Volvo, the onboard sensors can accurately detect a passenger’s height, weight, body shape, and seating position. Based on real-time data, the belts optimize protection — increasing belt load for larger passengers or lowering it for smaller passengers. While the technology for customizing protection isn’t new — Volvo’s current belts already use three load-limiting profiles- the new belts increase that number to 11. The belts should also get safer over time, too, as they are equipped to receive over-the-air updates.

    sinij adds: “Downloading patches for your seat belts from China. What could possibly go wrong?”

    We know what they’ve been watching.

  412. Reginald Selkirk says

    Outrage after Republican representative disparages Sikh prayer in the US House

    A Republican congresswoman is facing widespread backlash after saying that a Sikh should not have conducted a prayer in the US House.

    Mary Miller, an Illinois representative, on Friday published – then deleted – a post on X saying that Giani Singh, a Sikh Granthi from southern New Jersey, should not have delivered the House’s morning prayer.

    Miller at first mistakenly identified Singh as a Muslim and said that it was “deeply troubling” someone of that faith had been allowed to lead prayer in the House and it “should never have been allowed”, Miller posted on X.

    “America was founded as a Christian nation, and I believe our government should reflect that truth, not drift further from it,” Miller continued. “May God have mercy.”

    Miller first edited her post to change Muslim to Sikh – then opted to delete it.

    Her comments triggered swift outrage, with the Democratic House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, saying: “It’s deeply troubling that such an ignorant and hateful extremist is serving in the United States Congress. That would be you, Mary.”…

  413. StevoR says

    I want the grand old ancient trees of this world
    To long, long, far outlive me.
    That’s the way its meant to be
    How life is meant to be.

    (Repetition, tautology, for emphasis.)

    Friends of Fred Caterson Reserve

    1st June 2025.

    On this day two years ago, they came looking for signs of life. Not rushed, not careless, just bound to the season they had. For me, the hollows inspection report simply read, “nothing sighted”.

    But life doesn’t run on inspections, and besides, I wasn’t empty. I was full of possibility, and I was waiting.

    I was waiting then as I am again now, but no longer in hope of visitors, new and old. Now, I wait, and listen for sounds that don’t belong; heavy footsteps, the growl of chainsaws, the crack before collapse.

    I worry for the others who’ll come looking, guided by instinct or memory. A young glider, newly on her own, searching for a hollow to call home. My lorikeet pair, returning like clockwork, laden with eggs nearly ready, circling the place where I stood.

    The ecologists said, ‘Given the time it takes for hollows to form and the decreasing number of hollows due to clearing, any hollows present should be treated as important, and disturbance minimised’. But nobody is listening. I am to be removed.

    I am Tree 318, one of 411 trees listed in an arborist’s report for removal, or impact, by the proposed rugby fields at Fred Caterson Reserve, Castle Hill. Six of us with confirmed hollows within the development site are listed for removal, and another would be unlikely to survive the upheaval. Please help us be seen by liking and sharing this post.

    Species: Scribbly Gum (Eucalyptus sclerophylla)
    Hollows: Yes
    Height: 20m
    Spread: 17m
    Diameter at Breast Height: 850mm and 500mm (twin trunks)
    Age: Mature
    Vitality: Good
    Condition: Fair
    Landscape Significance: High
    Retention Value: Medium
    Useful Life Expectancy: <Medium
    To be removed for: Spectator mound

    Source & magnificent photo : https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=686862177639020&set=a.116938701298040

  415. StevoR says

    Ancient trees deserve respect. Deserve to be kept and cherished, Cannot be replaced by tubestock.

    You’ve already met some of the other trees here – calm, modest, a bit serious. Well, I’m … not like that.

    You might have admired me without realising. I don’t blame you. I’m hard to miss. Twisted limbs, copper skin, and a crown that flares against the sky.

    Some say I’m dramatic. Maybe. But I’ve been here longer than most, for one. I’ve seen more. And I’ve housed tenants you’ve probably never heard of.

    You see, I have hollows. We don’t talk about it much, but when you’ve got hollows, you tend to get noticed. I provide prime bushland real estate!

    And that’s a big deal, especially in a place where tree hollows are rare. I’ve been working on mine for over a century. They’re so special that, on a day almost two years ago during the wrong season for most, the ecologist still spotted Rainbow Lorikeets darting in and out of mine.

    They didn’t see everything of course. Their cameras only reached seven metres. My biggest hollows? Much higher than that. Naturally.

    I am Tree 281, one of 411 trees listed in an arborist’s report for removal, or impact, under the plan for new playing fields in Fred Caterson Reserve. I’m also one of seven trees surveyed with hollows.

    I’m not ready to be forgotten. If you believe trees like me should be protected for the homes they hold, help me be seen. Like, share, or speak up.

    Species: Sydney Red Gum / Smooth-barked Apple (Angophora costata)
    Height: 18m
    Spread: 22m
    Diameter at Breast Height: 1050mm
    Age: Mature
    Vitality: Good
    Condition: Fair/Good
    Landscape Significance: High
    Retention Value: Medium
    Useful Life Expectancy: Medium
    To be removed for: spectator seating for main rugby union field

    Source : https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=684622394529665&set=a.116938701298040

  420. says

    Same as it ever was.

    I’m still struggling to recover from bad cold. I need regular readers of this thread to continue to post more than they usually do in order to take up the slack.

    Many thanks to everyone.

  421. StevoR says

    Raw. Voice. Raw power. Nina Simone sung this before I was born. Now..?

    Wish it weren’t relevant. It is.

    Listen to her. Watch her.

    Hear this.

    Think. Act. Please.


    Nina Simone: Mississippi Goddam     -under 5 mins.

    Now we’re going backwards it seems.

    Costing so many so much..

  422. says

    https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/columbia-accreditation-trump-antisemitism-rcna211337

    “Here’s why Trump’s Columbia accreditation threats are so ominous”

    “Even the wealthiest of institutions understand that accreditation is important, because without it they wouldn’t be able to offer their students financial aid.”

    Related video at the link.

    […] Accreditation, I tell them, is what people Gen X or older might think of like a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval, but for colleges and universities, accreditation is not just something that’s nice for a university to have; it’s something a university needs to have if it expects to offer any kind of financial aid to its students.

    The vast majority of college students receive some form of financial aid, so even the wealthiest of institutions understand that accreditation is important. That’s why it’s so ominous that the Trump administration, which claims that Columbia insufficiently handled expressions of antisemitism on its campus, contacted the university’s accreditor alleging that the university is no longer eligible to be accredited.

    According to a statement from the Department of Education, Columbia “failed to meaningfully protect Jewish students against severe and pervasive harassment on Columbia’s campus and consequently denied these students’ equal access to educational opportunities to which they are entitled under the law.”

    Columbia issued a statement that said it is “deeply committed to combating antisemitism on our campus,” that it’s “aware of the concerns raised by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights today,” and that it has “addressed those concerns directly” with its accreditor.

    Prior to the first Trump administration, there were seven regional accreditors that were responsible for assuring that most colleges and universities operate at standards that signify what they do is done well and in order. Each accrediting agency developed a set of standards requiring that an institution, generally in five- to 10-year intervals, conduct a self-study to ensure that it continues to meet them. The institution must then submit a report to its accrediting agency. Then, a team of colleagues reviews the materials, and depending on the agency and its timelines, that team or another visits the campus to certify that what was submitted is accurate and that the institution is in good standing and keeps its “seal of approval.”

    During the first Trump administration, the practice of regional accreditors as the primary determinants of accreditation was changed. All accreditors are viewed as national accreditors, including some with more of a niche focus like Christian colleges, that have the same power to certify that an institution is eligible for federal financial aid. This provides several options now for schools to be accredited, and more than 30 accreditors exist today.

    […] While rare, accrediting agencies can cease to recognize an institution for failure to meet the standards set. It would take several years, though, for a school to get to the place where it loses accreditation — and even if accreditation is lost, most agencies have processes in place that allow schools to appeal that decision.

    […] But accreditation is a process, so even a letter from the administration would not create an immediate negative action as accreditors engage in a thoughtful and deliberate process to verify compliance with the standards. Again, the goal is continuous improvement, not punishment.

    If a school is out of compliance, the accreditor will take action. But this would occur only after working closely with the institution, giving it a chance to correct course on its own.

    Columbia, in the short term at least, doesn’t appear to be at any risk of not being able to provide its students financial aid.

  423. StevoR says

    Does anyone know what has happened to Dana Hunter and if she is okay? I hope she is..

  424. says

    […]Now, according to Rolling Stone, we learn Trump is trying to put even more of his own stamp on this American treasure. No, he’s not renaming it The Trump Center for the Performing Arts. Yet. But we’re sure that day is coming:

    He has also inquired to at least two confidants about naming a renovated wing or sections of the center after himself, and even whether it would make sense to put a “statue” of himself in the building — much like how there is a famous, large bust of JFK in the venue. (That may be because the place is named after President John F. Kennedy.)

    Oh. Oh God no. Are we going to see The Donald J. Trump Auditorium at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts? The Donald J. Trump Lobby? The Donald J. Trump Opera House? The Donald J. Trump Dance Studio?

    We’re also trying to imagine a statue of Trump in the lobby, or outside the building. It would have to be gold-plated, which would make it look like one of those participation trophies we used to get at the end of youth soccer season. It would have to be very tall, taller than the good-sized bust of John F. Kennedy in the Center’s lobby. […]

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/you-know-what-the-kennedy-center

  426. StevoR says

    Truth sung from The Tracker movie – highly recommend watching if folks can find how to do so somehow
    My History     – 3 mins 45 secs.

  427. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    @424, Lynna: If they’re gonna put up a metal effigy, it needs to be outside, with plenty of clearance around it.

  428. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Time: “as of early Saturday morning, Musk’s Epstein-related post was no longer showing […] it’s not the only post of Musk’s that has been deleted. Another inflammatory post from Thursday, which saw Musk respond ‘yes,’ endorsing a message that said ‘Trump should be impeached'”

    Rando: “Imagine owning Twitter and not knowing how it works.”

  429. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    WSJ – Vaccine opponent hired by RFK Jr. scours official records for link to autism

    as a contractor in the health department’s financial office […] [David Geier] is seeking access to a database known as the Vaccine Safety Datalink, or VSD […] before joining HHS, Geier was barred at least twice from using the database because officials said he had misused it. […] “He has no record in the scientific community of doing valid work,” […] It wasn’t clear if Geier had gained fresh access to the database, which includes data from the medical records of millions of people.
    […]
    Geier is aiming to reanalyze the data used in the CDC thimerosal study to see if it supports a link between vaccines and autism, people familiar with the matter said. But he is also interested in proving the CDC is corrupt […] The health secretary has said Geier isn’t managing autism research but that he would look into whether data is missing from the database. “There has been a lot of monkey business with the VSD,” Kennedy told lawmakers
    […]
    Geier and his father, a geneticist who died in March, spent decades promoting the idea that vaccines cause autism.

    Rando 1:

    Remember, this guy ran illegal medical experiments on autistic children using castration drugs and lost his medical license because of it.
    […]
    The vaccine component he thinks causes autism (thimerosal) was removed from US childhood vaccines decades ago, yet autistic children still exist. [thinking face emoji] (Some flu vaccines continue to have it, but it’s safe.)

    Rando 2:

    Slight correction: his dad was the one who lost his medical license;

    David Geier himself never had a medical license and was fined for practicing medicine without a license for that. He did lie to those children’s parents about having medical credentials and forged his father’s signature on orders.

    He and his dad also lied about having an IRB for their medical experiments on autistic children. Needless to say, children are a vulnerable population that warrant additional protection in research.

  430. Reginald Selkirk says

    FAA to eliminate floppy disks used in air traffic control systems – Windows 95 also being phased out

    The head of the Federal Aviation Administration just outlined an ambitious goal to upgrade the U.S.’s air traffic control (ATC) system and bring it into the 21st century. According to NPR, most ATC towers and other facilities today feel like they’re stuck in the 20th century, with controllers using paper strips and floppy disks to transfer data, while their computers run Windows 95. While this likely saved them from the disastrous CrowdStrike outage that had a massive global impact, their age is a major risk to the nation’s critical infrastructure, with the FAA itself saying that the current state of its hardware is unsustainable…

  431. Reginald Selkirk says

    Andrew Tate caught speeding 146km/h over limit in Romania

    Controversial influencer Andrew Tate has been caught speeding at 196km/h (121mph) in a 50km/h zone in Romania, officials have said.

    The British-American national was recorded driving at nearly four times the speed limit in a village about 184km from the Romanian capital, Bucharest.

    The 38-year-old received a fine of £310 ($420), in line with local traffic legislation, and had his driving licence suspended for 120 days due to the severity of the offence, police said. Tate has denied he was speeding and said he would appeal.

    The self-proclaimed misogynist and his brother, Tristan, are currently facing charges including rape and human trafficking in Romania, as well as separate allegations in the UK and US. They deny any wrongdoing.

    The brothers are allowed to travel in Romania, where they live, and abroad, subject to court-ordered conditions while their cases are pending.
    …
    Tate later described the assertion that he was speeding as “grossly false” and said he would contest the matter in court on Monday.

    He wrote on social media that he had attempted to explain to the officer who stopped him that the radar gun – used by police to measure a vehicle’s speed – “must be calibrated incorrectly because I would never do this”.
    …
    He has been caught speeding on numerous occasions in Romania.

    In April 2021, Tate was stopped in a town near Bucharest for allegedly driving a Porsche at 138km/h, according to local reports. A year prior, he had received a speeding fine in Germany.
    …
    Tate has reportedly criticised British police for refusing bribes during traffic stops, calling it “offensive”. He has cited such attitudes as among the reasons for moving his businesses to Romania in 2017.
    …

  432. says

    Washington Post Exclusive

    “NASA, Pentagon push for SpaceX alternatives amid Trump’s feud with Musk”

    “The fight between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk highlights the government’s outsize dependence on a single company for missions.”

    NASA and Pentagon officials moved swiftly this past week to urge competitors to Elon Musk’s SpaceX to more quickly develop alternative rockets and spacecraft after President Donald Trump threatened to cancel Space X’s contracts and Musk’s defiant response.

    Government officials were especially stunned after Musk responded to Trump with a salvo of his own: SpaceX would stop flying its Dragon spacecraft, a move that would leave the space agency with no way to transport its astronauts to the International Space Station.

    Musk later recanted his threat. But it alarmed officials at NASA, which entrusts SpaceX with the lives of its astronauts, and at the Pentagon, which relies heavily on the company to launch its most sensitive satellites.

    The worried reaction within space and national security agencies highlights the risks of the government’s heavy dependence on SpaceX for crucial tasks, including classified missions. SpaceX, with billions of dollars in government contracts, flies people and cargo to the ISS, launches satellites for the Pentagon and develops satellites used by intelligence agencies. The concerns are compounded by the fact that its competitors have been slow to catch up, leaving SpaceX’s dominance largely unchallenged and the government with few options.

    This account is based on interviews with a dozen people in industry and government who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about internal deliberations.

    […] Musk’s behavior has worried NASA officials before. […] But his sudden threat on social media to cut off NASA’s access to the orbiting space station, which has cost NASA some $100 billion over its lifespan, “crossed a line,” one former space agency official said. “When you realize that he’s willing to shut everything down just on an impulse, that kind of behavior and the dependence on him is dangerous. … I can tell you there is deep concern within NASA.”

    […] Since Thursday’s exchange, at least three commercial space companies, Rocket Lab, Stoke Space and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, have been contacted by government officials about the status of their rockets and when they might be available for government missions, according to four people familiar with the inquiries.

    Officials at Sierra Space, which is developing a Dream Chaser spaceplane that could deliver cargo to the space station, were in a meeting with NASA officials on Thursday as the Trump-Musk feud was getting underway.

    […] “It’s almost like an embargo of the space station,” he [Todd Harrison, a defense analyst] said. “Musk was saying he is going to cut NASA off from its own laboratory in space.”

    Harrison said the threat was reminiscent of Musk’s refusal to activate the Starlink Internet system so that Ukraine could carry out an attack on Russian forces in 2022. That decision also prompted an outcry that the nation’s defenses should not be in the hands of a single person or company.

    Given that SpaceX has experience operating its Starlink Internet satellite constellation, it had been considered to be a natural choice for Trump’s proposed Golden Dome missile defense shield, which would rely on swarms of satellites in orbit.
    But Musk’s threat was so impulsive that it will undoubtedly rattle defense officials, Harrison said, who would not look favorably on the “idea that the nation’s missile defenses could be held hostage to the twittering whims of Elon Musk.”

    […] SpaceX, however, has continued to dominate those missions. Its Falcon 9 rocket launches at an unprecedented cadence, while those of its competitors, including the United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan, Blue Origin’s New Glenn and RocketLab’s Neutron, are still largely unproven. New Glenn has launched just once; Vulcan twice; Neutron not at all. And even before Musk’s social media posting, the Pentagon publicly expressed worry about the pace of Vulcan’s development even though it has won certification to fly national security missions.

    […] If either the government or the company opted out, they would face major financial penalties, government procurement experts said. And if the contractor pulled out, it could affect its ability to win future contracts. […]

  433. birgerjohansson says

    Reginald Selkirk @ 431
    He is eager to win a Darwin Award. Unfortunately he may take several innocent travelers with him.

  434. birgerjohansson says

    StevoR @ 419
    If you are familiar with The Authority graphic novels, this reminds me of Apollo and The Midnighter
    (teleports into the Beijing government complex, grabs Xi). The best revenge fantasies you can find.

  436. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    200-year-old sheep appendix condom with erotic artwork goes on display at Rijksmuseum

    The unusual artifact, believed to have been created around 1830 […] features an explicit etching that depicts a partially undressed nun sitting with legs apart, gesturing towards three clergymen who are exposing their arousal under lifted robes. At the bottom of the image, the French phrase Voilà mon choix (“This is my choice”) is seen—a reference to The Judgment of Paris, the classical myth in which the Trojan prince Paris must choose the fairest of three goddesses. This combination of religious parody and sexual innuendo encapsulates the blend of humor and critique embedded in the object.

    Thought to be a “luxury souvenir” from a high-end Parisian brothel, this condom is one of just two such examples of its kind to survive into the modern era. Before vulcanized rubber was discovered in 1839, condoms were made out of materials like linen, animal membranes, or turtle shells. While they offered little in the way of protection, these kinds of objects were both practical and symbolic, conveying desires, fears, and social taboos of the time.
    […]
    Rijksmuseum, the Netherlands’ national museum, houses over one million works of art, among them some of the most renowned paintings by Dutch masters such as Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Hals. Over 750,000 prints, drawings, and photos are stored in its Print Room alone. It is the first time a print has been bought by the museum on a condom.

    Missed opportunity for a 1929 painting.
    “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” (French slang)

  437. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Donkey skin secretion that repels deer ticks

    Currently, the most effective tick repellents contain ingredients like DEET and permethrin, which are safe when used as directed but are not benign or ideal
    […]
    Different tick species feed off different vertebrates […] The sebaceous glands of horses and donkeys create secretions that keep their skin moist […] ticks that feed off horses but not donkeys will be repelled from horses when the horses’ smell is masked using one of the compounds […] “It was as effective, or more so, than DEET, and it was even more effective with male ticks than females,”
    […]
    “A cool part of this paper is that four of the authors were high school students […] They set up and did the preliminary experiments on their own,”

  438. Reginald Selkirk says

    Yemen’s al-Qaida branch leader threatens Trump, Musk and others

    The leader of al-Qaida’s Yemen branch has threatened both U.S. President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip in his first video message since taking over the group last year.

    The half-hour video message by Saad bin Atef al-Awlaki, which spread online early Saturday via supporters of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, also included calls for lone-wolf militants to assassinate leaders in Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf Arab states over the war, which has decimated Gaza.

    The video of al-Awlaki’s speech showed images of Trump and Musk, as well as U.S. Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of State Pete Hegseth. It also included images of logos of Musk’s businesses, including the electric carmaker Tesla.

    “There are no red lines after what happened and is happening to our people in Gaza,” al-Awlaki said. “Reciprocity is legitimate.” …

  439. Reginald Selkirk says

    Here’s what to know about American Samoans in Alaska who are being prosecuted after trying to vote

    They were born on U.S. soil, are entitled to U.S. passports and allowed to serve in the U.S. military, but 11 people in a small Alaska town are facing criminal charges after they tried to participate in a fundamental part of American democracy: voting.

    The defendants, who range in age from their 20s to their 60s, were all born in American Samoa — the only U.S. territory where residents are not automatically granted citizenship at birth. Prosecutors say they falsely claimed American citizenship when registering or trying to vote.

    The cases are highlighting another side of the debate over exaggerated allegations of voting by noncitizens, as well as what it means to be born on American soil, as President Donald Trump tries to redefine birthright citizenship by ending it for children of people who are in the country illegally.

    Here’s what to know about the prosecutions in Alaska and the status of American Samoans when it comes to voting.

    What is the Alaska case about?

    The investigation began after Tupe Smith, a mom in the cruise-ship stop of Whittier, decided to run for a vacant seat on the regional school board in 2023. She was unopposed and won with about 95% of the vote.

    That’s when she learned she wasn’t allowed to hold public office because she wasn’t a U.S. citizen. Smith says she knew she wasn’t allowed to vote in federal elections but thought she could vote in local or state races, and that she never would have voted if she knew it wasn’t legal. She says she told elections workers that she was a U.S. national, not a citizen, and was told to check a box saying she was a citizen anyway.

    About 10 months later, troopers returned to Whittier and issued court summonses to her husband and nine other American Samoans. While Smith appeals the charges against her, the state filed charges against the others in April.

    The state argues that Smith’s false claim of citizenship was intentional, and her claim to the contrary was undercut by the clear language on the voter application forms she filled out in 2020 and 2022. The forms said that if the applicant did not answer yes to being over 18 years old and a U.S. citizen, “do not complete this form, as you are not eligible to vote.”
    …

  440. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Vice – Scientists used mushrooms to invent a plastic that’s alive

    Living Fiber Dispersion, a plastic-y material made from mycelia. Mycelia is the root-like web that mushrooms use […] unlike other mycelium-based materials that are rendered sterile before use, this […] retains its full network of proteins, fibrous macromolecules, and all the squishy structural scaffolding fungi naturally make to protect themselves from the outside world. So, yes. It is technically still alive. […] It’s not plastic with a pulse. But it is as alive as any mushroom can be.
    […]
    researchers figured that if the mushroom already makes this protective biological mesh, why not just use that? By keeping the mycelium whole and active, [it] also improves with age. “This is probably the only type of emulsion that becomes more stable over time,”
    […]
    Dried into durable paper-thin sheets, LFD can replace plastic in things like reusable shopping bags. And because it’s made from edible fungi, it can be used in food-safe products. It might even one day be used as an all-natural emulsifier for sauces or cosmetics.

    Press release

    its biodegradability is only part of the story for the mycelium. It is also a biodegrader: The split-gill mushrooms can actively decompose wood and other plant materials. Sinha sees another potential application here: “Instead of compostable plastic bags, it could be used to make bags that compost the organic waste themselves,”

  441. Reginald Selkirk says

    Elon Musk suggests creating a new political party amid Trump rift

    Elon Musk publicly mused about creating a new political party this week, an idea that could escalate the billionaire’s feud with his onetime ally President Trump.

    Musk first floated the idea on Thursday. In between jabs at Mr. Trump, the billionaire posted a poll to X asking his 220 million followers if they think it’s “time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle.”

    A day later, Musk noted that 80% of respondents to the poll backed the idea.

    “This is fate,” he wrote Friday evening.

    Musk then endorsed a fan’s suggestion that he name it the “America Party.” The name bears a resemblance to America PAC, the political action committee founded by Musk last year that was his main vehicle for spending $239 million to help elect Mr. Trump and other Republican candidates in 2024.

    Starting a new political party is easier said than done. The Democratic and Republican parties, and some of the larger third parties, already have ballot access in virtually every state, so an upstart party that hopes to be competitive would need to navigate a web of state-by-state rules to get its candidates on the ballot…

    Musk offered a pointed suggestion Thursday afternoon to any congressional Republicans who may be unsure of whether to side with him or the president, writing on X: “Trump has 3.5 years left as President, but I will be around for 40+ years.”

  442. Reginald Selkirk says

    Why a Minneapolis neighborhood sharpens a giant pencil every year

    Residents will gather Saturday in a scenic Minneapolis neighborhood for an annual ritual — the sharpening of a gigantic No. 2 pencil.

    The 20-foot-tall (6-meter-tall) pencil was sculpted out of a mammoth oak tree at the home of John and Amy Higgins. The beloved tree was damaged in a storm a few years ago when fierce winds twisted the crown off. Neighbors mourned. A couple even wept. But the Higginses saw it not so much as a loss, but as a chance to give the tree new life.

    The sharpening ceremony on their front lawn has evolved into a community spectacle that draws hundreds of people to the leafy neighborhood on Lake of the Isles, complete with music and pageantry. Some people dress as pencils or erasers. Two Swiss alphorn players will provide part of this year’s entertainment. The hosts will commemorate a Minneapolis icon, the late music superstar Prince, by handing out purple pencils on what would have been his 67th birthday…

  443. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    From the article @442:

    they haul a giant, custom-made pencil sharpener up the scaffolding that’s erected for the event. […] Every year they sharpen it, it gets a bit shorter. They’ve taken anywhere from 3 to 10 inches (8 to 25 centimeters) off a year.

    Video of the event: A helper reaches into a box and tosses prefab triangular sheets as ‘shavings’ while two men twist a mock sharpener.

  445. birgerjohansson says

    For context, Liz Truss is the prime minister that lasted shorter than a head of cabbage…

  446. birgerjohansson says

    The exoplanet recently discussed in astronomy circles (never mind the string of digits that make up the name) orbits a K star 1000 light years away. The star has 6.6% the luminosity of the sun. The planet is 50% larger than Earth and is either a rocky planet (good) or a mini-Neptune (bad).
    It orbits at 0.44 AU from the star in 144 days and receives 33% of the energy of the Earth.
    The star has only 70% the mass of the sun but as tidal effects increase really fast as distance decreases, the rotation of the planet might have slowed down to a 1:1 lock. However the star system is quite young so this may not yet have occurred.
    I just put the bad news up front in case you read an overly optimistic article about finding a “second Earth”.

  448. JM says

    CNBC: Trump to deploy National Guard in response to Los Angeles immigration protests

    President Donald Trump on Saturday night signed an order to deploy 2,000 members of the National Guard in response to immigration protests in Los Angeles, the White House said.

    There have been a large number of ICE raids all day, possibly designed to provoke a response. Protests against the raids have been mostly non-violent but any action on that kind of scale there will be something that can be used as an excuse. This is something that is clearly within Trump’s powers but is also something that is avoided because it can easily spiral out of control. Hopefully the National Guard officers are sensible, a lot hinges on their action now.

  449. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Status Coup – Jun 6 protest footage, speeches and clashes (14:34)

    Ron Gochez (Unión del Barrio, protest leader): “While we don’t wanna be violent. I’ll also say this. We are not non-violent. […] That means we believe in self-defense. And if you come at me and my family, I will do everything within my power, legal or not to defend my family and my people. We have a history of that, and we will live up to the legacy of struggle. […] there’s over 200 people right now contained in a dungeon […] the basement. They have no bathrooms. They haven’t showered in days. They don’t have enough food or water. And there’s children down there too. […] a human rights violation. So we say, we gotta liberate those people.”
    […]
    Protester: “they attacked us! They shot us with less-than-lethals. They tear gassed us. They pepper sprayed us. They flashbanged us. We were peacefully protesting, and they attacked us.”

    Rando (Jun 6):

    [ABC footage: A fed car attempting to leave with a protester reverse-running with hands on the hood, maybe accelerating, until they fall supine. Then the car stops, swerves around and speeds off.]

    This video is the grossest and most violent I’ve seen today out of LA and possibly wholly from ICE so far. There was no way for this person to get out of the vehicle’s way at that speed without being hit. Eventually he falls, his head colliding with the asphalt. The ICE vehicle just drives away.

    Rando (Public defender): “That’s a felony hit and run right there.”

    Lorenna Cleary (Jun 7):

    Last night ICE hit Chinatown. They pepper bombed civilians while the country was watching LAPD fire rubber bullets and tear gas downtown. [Video clip]

    City council rushes back to LA to try to disperse ICE from their city. But today ICE started right back in at Paramount Business Center. Tear gassing all civilians for hours.

    ABC – Trump deploys 2,000 National Guard members after LA immigration protests

    The protests Saturday were centered in the city of Paramount in Los Angeles County, following reports of an immigration raid occurring at that location. However, Paramount Mayor Peggy Lemons later said during a news conference that agents were staging, not conducting a raid.

    Those protests followed demonstrations Friday that came in the wake of immigration enforcement operations across the city. Federal agents raided multiple workplaces […] leading to hundreds of people, including children, being detained by ICE agents at the Edward Roybal Federal Building in downtown LA […] Large crowds then gathered near the federal building Friday afternoon and evening, leading to some clashes
    […]
    [The ICE director complained about LAPD’s 2hr delayed response when called. LAPD said it was 55min, and they were delayed because the feds’ tear gas created a hazardous area full of affected protesters, plus the traffic congestion.]

    [Mayor Bass] condemned the ICE operations in her city. [She said] neither she nor the Los Angeles Police Department were aware that the ICE raids were going to happen.

    Large crowds first began gathering near the federal detention center in Downtown LA Friday afternoon […] Some protesters could be seen throwing objects at vehicles, and others tried to block vans from leaving […] Shortly after 7 p.m., the Los Angeles Police Department declared an unlawful assembly, warning protesters they risked being arrested if they remained in the area. LAPD officers were seen lining the streets near the federal building
    […]
    The LAPD said in a social media post late Friday that officers had reported a “small group of violent individuals” were throwing large pieces of concrete. “Once again, an UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLY has been declared. You must leave the area. The use of less lethal munitions has been authorized by the Incident Commander,” the LAPD said in the post.

    ABC video clip (Jun 7)

    [In Compton]: There is now a car on fire […] maybe about 100 protesters gathered around that intersection, and the LA county sheriff’s department standing their ground, where they have been for the better part of the morning and afternoon, pushing the crowd farther away […] mostly dispersed. These are the few that are left

    ABC – 80 mins of boring helicopter footage (Jun 7)


    For most of the afternoon, it has been a standoff, […] staring each other down. Both sides provoking each other […] You have to ask yourself, if the law enforcement wasn’t in place here, would everybody just go home at this point? […] They feel threatened in their own community. That’s essentially how this all started in the first place.

  450. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    ^ Oops. I put that youtube url in code tags so it wouldn’t be a link. Didn’t need to be clickable. Apparently code tags don’t stop embedding.

  451. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Kevin M. Kruse: “Earlier today ICE agents hit someone with a car and tear gassed a neighborhood [and reporters], sparking several fires and disrupting businesses. Immigrants, by contrast, did not.”

    ‪Nicholas Slayton (Task and Purpose):

    Rep Norma Torres and Rep Jimmy Gomez […] were at the Federal Detention Center in DTLA earlier today.

    Rep Gomez (10hrs ago): Still at the federal detention center in downtown LA. They have deployed some type of chemical irritant that is making people cough and we have to mask. The people here are mainly attorneys, family of those being detained, and two members of Congress.

     
    Nicholas Slayton ~90 mins ago:

    A TON of cop cars just sped north in Alameda towards the Federal Building. Several helicopters flying relatively low in the area. Passed the Federal Building Plaza. A few dozen protesters, all peaceful, rallying with signs. LAPD helos circling.

    Marisa Kabas: “Seems like a military response in search of a riot.”

    Rando w/ police scanner: “LAPD helicopter is about to give a dispersal order. The air units overhead are CHP plane, LAPD, helicopter, and a bunch of news choppers. […] the CHP plane has fucked off.”

    Shot On 35mm (Reporter): “After calling a dispersal order, federal police used pepper spray, flash bangs, and pepper balls to push people away from the Federal Building onto Alameda Street. [Video clip]”

    Shot On 35mm: “LAPD has taken over the skirmish line on Alameda. Federal police backed up. [Video clip]”

  452. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Patrick deHahn (CNN):

    US Northern Command releases statement confirming California National Guard members being sent to LA to “protect federal personnel and federal property” and that “active-duty Marines also may be employed” as needed.

    Mekka Okereke:

    Because it’s 2025, and most people in the US still don’t know what their own military looks like…
    ~1 in every 7 US Marines nationwide, is from California.
    ~1 in every 4 US Marines nationwide, is Hispanic or Latino.

    Steve Vladeck (Law professor):

    There’s no Insurrection Act invocation; Trump is federalizing 2000 CA Nat’l Guard personnel only to “protect federal functions.”

    *Without* invoking the Insurrection Act, anything more would violate the Posse Comitatus Act.

    Evan Bernick (ConLaw professor):

    So he hasn’t invoked the Insurrection Act. It’s this thing. And it is still unnecessary, dangerous bullshit. The statute requires orders to be issued through the governor.

    Significantly, the memorandum elides this, saying only that the SecDef is to coordinate with the governor. Also, I do not believe for a minute that the admin intends to limit itself to protecting personnel and property.

    Which makes me think that this is an effort to claim the insurrection act’s power without invoking the insurrection act’s authority. None of this is necessary, at all, and the governor should say so.

    * Newsom said there was “no unmet need” in the national guard article @449.

    ‪Quinta Jurecic (Lawfare): “Trump wanted to feel powerful so 2k National Guard members have been federalized in order to hand ICE water bottles. Note Hegseth’s language. “SUPPORT federal law enforcement.” That’s all the guard can do here.”

    ‪Quinta Jurecic: “They’re doing this because the Insurrection Act sounds cool and edgy but they can’t actually justify using the Insurrection Act. It’s a silly action by an insecure administration trying desperately to seem manly and powerful. It should be criticized relentlessly, but it should also be laughed at.”

  453. John Morales says

    Protesters and federal agents clash in Compton

    Protesters and federal agents clashed on the streets of Compton on Saturday following reports of an ICE raid in Paramount. However, Paramount’s mayor Peggy Lemons said agents were staging in front of a Department of Homeland Security office, not conducting a raid.

    This is the HTML string, as I routinely format* citations, as I format it and as you intended:

    <blockquote><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymmbtHouoDU" title="YouTube: ABC7">Protesters and federal agents clash in Compton</a></a>

    Protesters and federal agents clashed on the streets of Compton on Saturday following reports of an ICE raid in Paramount. However, Paramount's mayor Peggy Lemons said agents were staging in front of a Department of Homeland Security office, not conducting a raid.</blockquote>

    —

    * Notice the ‘title’ attribute — helpful for the vision-impaired, basically the hovertext

  454. John Morales says

    [heh, one can tell/infer I did it with copy/paste by the redundant anchor tag. Whoops! Of course, it still works, is how it got away with it]

  455. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    I had put the url in code tags on a line by itself (apparently embedding still occurs despite the leading characters). The blockquote was a line below that. My intent was to to wind up with a plain text url, NOT make a link, because links are limited per comment. It was a low-priority citation, which would be copy-pastable to visit.

  456. John Morales says

    Whitespace, CA7746. Tabs, spaces, line breaks, they don’t matter.
    Anchor tags always work, and as Birger mostly remembers to do, so does anything before the YouTube link such as his preferred full stop. Anyway, I just type it, but should you or another want a template:

    <blockquote>
    <a href="the URL" title="the hovertext">the displayed text</a>

    [Whatever else]
    </blockquote>

    (cf. my #453)

  457. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Notice the ‘title’ attribute—helpful for the vision-impaired, basically the hovertext

    The screen reader I have on hand doesn’t read it. And on mobile Firefox, long-pressing won’t show hovertext either.

    W3C Accessibility – Supplementing link text with the title attribute (2024)

    Because of the extensive user agent limitations in supporting access to the title attribute, authors should use caution in applying this technique. For this reason, it is preferred that the author use technique C7: Using CSS to hide a portion of the link text or H30: Providing link text that describes the purpose of a link for anchor elements.

    Which is to say: the text between <a> tags is all that can be relied upon.
     
    A11y Project – Creating valid and accessible links (2019)

    The title attribute is not exposed by all browsers in an accessible way meaning that people using keyboards and touch-only devices will likely never see that information. It is therefore not recommended to use the title attribute on <a> elements.

  458. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    anything before the YouTube link such as his preferred full stop [always works].

    I’ve said twice now that I just learned this is an exception. <code>youtube url</code> alone on a line apparently still embeds, which surprised me. And I only discovered it because I was trying to avoid making an additional link on that particular occasion.

  459. John Morales says

    Thing is, there is a limited and modified subset of both markup and markdown on this blog.

    Preview is helpful, but of course, kinda onerous.

    I get it, no prob, CA7746

  461. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    The extra wrinkle is that embeds, in particular, don’t occur in preview: only after posting. Like it’s an extra round of post-processing independent of the markups. I preview frequently because I’m meticulous about my formatting. Despite that, there was nothing I could do but note the circumstance afterward.

  462. John Morales says

    Seriously, no worries.
    You clearly know your stuff.
    Sorry for belabouring the point, that’s certainly one of my failings.

    Still, maybe others might find that bit helpful infowise.
    With a template, there’s less reason for a copypasta headline with a cryptic URL.

    (I do get phones are shitty interfaces)

  463. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Catching up on a live skeets.
    Sean Beckner-Carmitchel (Journalist):

    Dale’s Donuts is still under significant sheriff protection here in Paramount, CA. Stun munitions being traded with rocks and fireworks. Random vehicles being hit. The vehicle which was burning is no longer on fire but has been tagged.

    [Video clip of traffic driving through the barrage, with the burnt car still in the intersection.]
    […]
    there are *at least* three accredited journalists who have been hospitalized today due to law enforcement less lethal munitions.
    […]
    CHP and the owner of a nearby business are attempting to put out a dumpster fire on Alondra in Paramount, CA that was a result of the protests (I don’t know conclusively what started it). Then it started back up again. LA County Fire Department is here now
    […]
    The protests are *mostly* done, though the remaining people are still trading less lethals and fireworks.

    Commentary

    Jesus, they didn’t close off the intersection but they’re still shooting??

    Protecting donuts.

    The Battle of Home Depot has led police to fear a Siege on Dale’s Donuts.

     
    ‪Shot On 35mm: “I thought I would be safe if I positioned myself with all the cable news crews off to the side away from all of the protesters. But nope. I was wrong. The feds shot pepper balls at us, forcing us down Alameda Street with everyone else. [Video clip]”

    Shot On 35mm: “Earlier this evening, the Univision crew grabbed their gear and started running when federal police began shooting pepper balls at us. [Video clip]”

    Shot On 35mm: “Earlier, federal police in DTLA shot me in the finger with a pepper ball, and I got hit multiple times in the back w/ ‘less-lethal’ rounds. Looks like my backpack saved me from getting hit in the back a few more times. I’m currently resting up at home. [Photos]”

  464. John Morales says

    BTW, that alt-text, it matters, even if some platforms don’t support it.
    I reckon vision-impaired people maybe use platforms that do support it.

    cf. https://www.section508.gov/create/alternative-text/

    Purpose of Alternative Text

    Alternative text, also known as alt text, is descriptive text that conveys the meaning of an image in digital content. It’s designed to make visual content accessible to people with vision disabilities.

    When a person uses assistive technology such as a screen reader, the screen reader will read the onscreen text aloud. When the screen reader reaches an image, it will read the alt text for that image so the user can know what the image is meant to convey. Images can provide illustrative information, or they can act as buttons and similar interactive elements, so the alt text must describe these aspects to the user so they can respond appropriately.

    Without alt text, people who use screen readers cannot access the content provided in the images. This is why alt text is a requirement in the Section 508 guidelines for creating digital content.

    Additionally, alt text makes content accessible to other users, like those who may have difficulty understanding the meaning of the visual content, or users without access to high-speed internet who cannot access images on the web. It also makes the visual content available for technical applications, such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), digital assistance, and artificial intelligence.

    More to the point, it’s hardly onerous — here, muscle memory: text=””.

    TLDR; no biggie for me, maybe really helpful for someone, probably wasted but.

    (It’s the principle)

  465. KG says

    Musk offered a pointed suggestion Thursday afternoon to any congressional Republicans who may be unsure of whether to side with him or the president, writing on X: “Trump has 3.5 years left as President, but I will be around for 40+ years.” – Reginald Selkirk@441 quoting CBS News

    Tempting fate, or more to the point, Trump. Musk won’t be around long if Trump decides to have him seized and sent to El Salvador, or worse. Even short of that, he could find his government contracts cancelled (which would also tank his share prices) or his companies nationalised.

  466. KG says

    But his sudden threat on social media to cut off NASA’s access to the orbiting space station, which has cost NASA some $100 billion over its lifespan, “crossed a line,” one former space agency official said. “When you realize that he’s willing to shut everything down just on an impulse, that kind of behavior and the dependence on him is dangerous. … I can tell you there is deep concern within NASA.” – Lynna, OM@432 quoting Washington Post

    And they, or their political bosses at the time, didn’t think about this risk when handing the power to shut down so much of their activities to a single private individual – let alone one with Musk’s record of instability and broken promises?

  468. Reginald Selkirk says

    Student Discovers Long-Awaited Mystery Fungus Sought By LSD’s Inventor

    LSD “is used to treat conditions like depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction,” notes Science Daily. And now a microbiology student “has found a long sought-after fungus that produces effects similar to the semisynthetic drug…”

    Morning glory plants live in symbiosis with fungi that produce the same ergot alkaloids the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann modified when he invented LSD in the late 1930s. Hofmann hypothesized that a fungus in morning glories produced alkaloids similar to those in LSD, but the species remained a mystery…

    The researchers dubbed the fungus “Periglandula clandestina” for its ability to have eluded investigators for decades.

  469. Reginald Selkirk says

    Washington Post’s Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta’s Apps (and Yandex)

    Meta’s Facebook and Instagram apps “were siphoning people’s data through a digital back door for months,” writes a Washington Post tech columnist, citing researchers who found no privacy setting could’ve stopped what Meta and Yandex were doing, since those two companies “circumvented privacy and security protections that Google set up for Android devices.

    “But their tactics underscored some privacy vulnerabilities in web browsers or apps. These steps can reduce your risks.”

    Stop using the Chrome browser. Mozilla’s Firefox, the Brave browser and DuckDuckGo’s browser block many common methods of tracking you from site to site. Chrome, the most popular web browser, does not… For iPhone and Mac folks, Safari also has strong privacy protections. It’s not perfect, though. No browser protections are foolproof. The researchers said Firefox on Android devices was partly susceptible to the data harvesting tactics they identified, in addition to Chrome. (DuckDuckGo and Brave largely did block the tactics, the researchers said….)

    Delete Meta and Yandex apps on your phone, if you have them. The tactics described by the European researchers showed that Meta and Yandex are unworthy of your trust. (Yandex is not popular in the United States.) It might be wise to delete their apps, which give the companies more latitude to collect information that websites generally cannot easily obtain, including your approximate location, your phone’s battery level and what other devices, like an Xbox, are connected to your home WiFi.

    Know, too, that even if you don’t have Meta apps on your phone, and even if you don’t use Facebook or Instagram at all, Meta might still harvest information on your activity across the web.

  470. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    @464 John Morales:

    that alt-text, it matters, even if some platforms don’t support it.

    Alt-text does matter. However title != alt. I cited accessibility design guides. The title attribute is discouraged because it makes information LESS accessible. The alt attribute goes on images. The alt attribute is supported, in image tags, but <a> tags don’t have that.

  471. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Mozilla: “Use of the title attribute is highly problematic for: People using touch-only devices; navigating with keyboards; navigating with assistive technology such as screen readers or magnifiers; experiencing fine motor control impairment; with cognitive concerns.”

  472. Reginald Selkirk says

    ‘We Finally May Be Able to Rid the World of Mosquitoes. But Should We?’

    It’s no longer a hypothetical question, writes the Washington Post. “In recent years, scientists have devised powerful genetic tools that may be able to eradicate mosquitoes and other pests once and for all.”

    But along with the ability to fight malaria, dengue, West Nile virus and other serious diseases, “the development of this technology also raises a profound ethical question: When, if ever, is it okay to intentionally drive a species out of existence…?”
    …
    A nonprofit research consortium called Target Malaria has genetically modified mosquitoes in their labs (which get core funding from the Gates Foundation and from Open Philanthropy, backed by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and his wife). ), and hopes to deploy them in the wild within five years…

    Probably a lot harder than it sounds. Can we eliminate mosquitoes in a laboratory? Probably. Could we do it in a stable, we–run, prosperous country? Maybe. But things get a lot harder when they require concerted efforts in poor, unstable countries. We have managed to eradicate smallpox and rinderpest. But polio has been maddeningly difficult to wipe out worldwide; and malaria, and guinea worm.

  473. Reginald Selkirk says

    ACLU Accuses California Local Government’s Drones of ‘Runaway Spying Operation’

    An anonymous reader shared this report from SFGate about a lawsuit alleging a “warrantless drone surveillance program” that’s “trampling residents’ right to privacy”:

    Sonoma County has been accused of deploying hundreds of drone flights over residents in a “runaway spying operation”… according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union. The North Bay county of Sonoma initially started the 6-year-old drone program to track illegal cannabis cultivation, but the lawsuit alleges that officials have since turned it into a widespread program to catch unrelated code violations at residential properties and levy millions of dollars in fines. The program has captured 5,600 images during more than 700 flights, the lawsuit said…

    Matt Cagle, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, said in a Wednesday news release that the county “has hidden these unlawful searches from the people they have spied on, the community, and the media….” The lawsuit says the county employees used the drones to spy on private homes without first receiving a warrant, including photographing private areas like hot tubs and outdoor baths, and through curtainless windows.

    One plaintiff “said the county secretly used the drone program to photograph her Sonoma County horse stable and issue code violations,” according to the article.

    She only discovered the use of the drones after a county employee mentioned they had photos of her property, according to the lawsuit. She then filed a public records request for the images, which left her “stunned” after seeing that the county employees were monitoring her private property including photographing her outdoor bathtub and shower, the lawsuit said.

  474. says

    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/more-thoughts-on-the-unfolding-crisis-in-ca

    “More Thoughts on the Unfolding Crisis in CA,” by Josh Marshall

    In my first post I wanted to make clear the specifics of what was happening with the National Guard. The President has the power to federalize the State National Guards. I wanted to make sure everyone knew that this is not a power Trump made up. It’s within his power and authority. As far as I know the last time this was done over the objection of state’s governor was during the Civil Rights era to enforce federal civil rights law. But every Presidential power can be abused and this is the one perhaps most liable to abuse. This whole situation is a definitional abuse of power. It is a wholly manufactured crisis. The President has the authority to federalize the National Guard. But the powers he takes from that decision are far from unlimited.

    At the moment we know much less than we should about just what authority the President used to do this and what led up to that decision. The situation is developing rapidly. So it’s possible there is more information than I have seen. Did Gavin Newsom first refuse the President’s request to deploy the Guard? Or did the President just skip that entirely? Newsom’s public statement, as I noted earlier, was fairly vague about what was happening.

    That’s important both because we just want to know the details of how we got here but also because the legal situation is pretty different under different scenarios. Just moments ago Ed O’Keefe of CBS reported that, according to the White House Press Secretary “the president invoked his Title 10 authority to federalize” the California state Guard. There are a bunch of smart lawyers on Bluesky and Twitter who understand the relevant statutes far better than I do. Joyce Vance says that doing it this way may bring the actions into conflict with the Posse Comitatus Act.

    Again, I don’t know enough about these different statutes to discuss this part of it.

    I’ll return to my earlier point. The larger context is public opinion in California and around the country. These are illegitimate actions and abuses of presidential power. How the public at large views this is critical to the future of the country and Donald Trump’s whole effort to create a Putinized, autocratic presidency. In my opinion every elected leader and really every citizen should be choosing their next moves with an aim to having this play out in such a way that the public views these actions in that way – as illegitimate, unAmerican. The future of the Republic, civic democracy is the real game here. Having the public reject the legitimacy of this decision is critical to that goal. So everything every decision needs to be made with that goal in mind.

    I would start with Gavin Newsom. I understand that as governor he wants to avoid scaring the people of Los Angeles, adding to the climate of crisis. But he can avoid that while also stating more clearly what the stakes are, that the people of California have an elected government entirely capable of handling this situation and that we don’t have Kings. We don’t have military dictators who get to rule at the point of a bayonet.

    Excerpt from Joyce Vance’s Bluesky thread:

    If accurate, this is almost certainly a conflict with the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the use of the military for domestic law enforcement, including the National Guard if they are federalized. [Referring to Ed O’Keefe’s post]

    https://joycevance.substack.com/p/the-insurrection-act

    Can Trump shut down protests using the military under the Insurrection Act? What would it take? The answer is complicated, but as more and more protests take place, understanding that legal terrain has become increasingly important. While invocation of the Act doesn’t look imminent, it’s always good to understand the law in advance. That’s our mission tonight.

    First, a reminder about the importance of peaceful, nonviolent protests, the approach successfully adopted by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to fuel the civil rights movement in the 1960s. When Dr. King organized sit-ins in public spaces in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963, the images that were projected across the country showed white Birmingham police officers turning pressurized hoses and aggressive police dogs against peaceful demonstrators. Peaceful protests forced Birmingham’s entrenched, racist police chief Bull Connor to resign. Public spaces like lunch counters and bus stations in Birmingham were ultimately desegregated.

    The thing is, peaceful protest works. It can move mountains. It’s also essential, in a moment when the Trump administration will be alert to seize on anything even approaching violence to tamp down on protests that are getting underway and going national, to make sure that protests stay peaceful. In 2020, as Black Lives Matter protests spread across the country, Trump threatened he’d use the military to bring them under control. “We have the greatest country in the world,” the president declared. “We’re going to keep it safe.” He doesn’t need any excuses.

    […] here we are in 2025 with growing discontent towards a president who has raised taxes and cut jobs, all without any apparent benefit to the American people. Trump might try to take advantage of minor incidents, or even plants who engage in violence, to impose the Insurrection Act and use the military to put a halt to Americans who are out on the streets exercising their First Amendment rights. [Yep. Sounds about right. That would be the kind of thing Trump would do!]

    Could Trump turn out the American military against protestors if something like that were to happen? Normally, the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the use of the military for domestic law enforcement. It explicitly outlaws using the armed forces to enforce the law within our borders, unless that action is expressly authorized by the Constitution or an act of Congress. Enter the Insurrection Act, which permits a president to deploy the military in American cities and on our streets in very narrow circumstances involving insurrection, rebellion, or extreme civil unrest. In those circumstances, the military can only be used for “emergency needs” towards the goal of reestablishing civilian control as quickly as possible.

    But, as the Brennan Center has explained, “The problem is that the Insurrection Act creates a giant loophole in the Posse Comitatus Act rather than a limited exception to it.” The Act was adopted in 1792, and it hasn’t been updated since 1874. Its language is broad and gives presidents plenty of discretion to, for instance, use the military to arrest American citizens engaged in protest, if a president calls what’s going on an insurrection, rebellion, or civil unrest. In an 1827 case, Martin v. Mott, the Supreme Court ruled that it is up to the president to decide whether the Insurrection Act should be invoked and that the courts may not review his decision. A president inclined to absorb power from a vacuum into his own hands has plenty to work with, as Trump has done, claiming we are being invaded by the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang to justify invoking the Alien Enemies Act and deporting people. So here we are. […]

    More at the Substack link.

  475. says

    It looks to me like the ICE raids in LA are intentionally provocative. This looks like White House immigration Czar Tom Homan and the Orange Doofus working together to manufacture a crisis.

  476. says

    Donald Trump’s buddies, the conservative majority at the Supreme Court, did him a solid times two late Friday afternoon.

    In a pair of orders, the Court held that the Department of Government Efficiency can rummage through your Social Security data. They also held that DOGE is not even obliged to explain what type of entity it is, but whatever it is, it now has your data.

    Up first, DOGE gets your SSA data. When the baby-faced goblins in DOGE first tried to get SSA data, two labor unions and the Alliance for Retired Americans sued to stop it. The lower court issued a preliminary injunction blocking their access, and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals declined the administration’s request to overturn that and allow Elon Musk’s now-former minions to begin hoovering up your bank info, even as litigation continues. [Yes. And that was good … as far as it went.]

    Enter the Supreme Court. In a completely fact-free two-page decision, the majority said that DOGE can have the data. [!!]

    It’s not a joke to say it’s fact-free. The majority first lays out the four factors that warrant staying a lower court’s order, and then literally just says, “After review, we determine that the application of these factors in this case warrants granting the requested stay.” No, you can’t see what any of the review is. Just trust them.

    So you can thank Chief Justice John Roberts and friends for ensuring that people like “Big Balls” and other twentysomething racists can rummage around in your private data. And the DOGE kids aren’t exactly great at cybersecurity. They’ve connected unauthorized outside servers to government networks and built a website, DOGE.gov, so insecure that people immediately figured out how to post updates to the site. There’s also pretty credible evidence that DOGE personnel have already exfiltrated government data. [Embedded links to sources are available at the main link.]

    […] Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s dissent points out that the only “urgency” here is that the government cannot be bothered to wait for the litigation process to play out.

    The way the Court justifies these huge shadow docket rulings is that these are simply rulings lifting stays. Theoretically, they could decide differently once the case is fully litigated and rule that DOGE is not entitled to SSA data. Except by that point, DOGE already has your data. [!]

    Oh, and although DOGE is getting access to sensitive private data for every American citizen, they don’t even have to explain to the American people what they are.

    The administration has been refusing to answer discovery in a case about whether DOGE is subject to the Freedom of Information Act. No, not refusing to provide material subject to FOIA, but refusing to explain what they even are, so a judge could determine whether they are the type of government entity subject to FOIA. When Solicitor General John Sauer raced to the Supreme Court to block this, he said that being required to provide material showing what DOGE is “offends the separation of powers” and would stop presidential advisors from providing candid advice.

    In another fact-free order, this one even less than two pages, the conservative majority agreed, saying that “separation of powers concerns counsel judicial deference in the context of discovery regarding internal Executive Branch communications.”

    This is, to put it mildly, absurd. The administration can’t just create an entity that is functionally overseeing the wholesale destruction of government and then say that the courts can’t possibly inquire into what the nature of that entity is. But that’s pretty much exactly what the Court is letting them do.

    You likely are confused as to why DOGE is enough of a government entity to get all your private data, but not enough of a government entity to have to explain what it is, but that is only because you do not have a big brain like the conservative justices. Those big brains have no trouble believing both those things at the same time, even though they contradict one another.

    Here’s the big secret as to why: they like what Trump is doing and they want him to succeed, and they don’t care if they trash every last bit of credibility they have. […] The lower courts continue to follow the rule of law, a result that almost always leads to the administration losing, because their actions are lawless.

    However, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority is routinely signaling that if the administration wants to do something, they’ll figure out a way. Just say something is urgent, or it impinges on the authority of the executive, or whatever fig leaf they want to offer. […]

    Separation of powers doesn’t really work if one branch has all the power, but until the conservative justices care, Trump’s authority will keep expanding.

    Link

  479. says

    Remember. This all started because #ICE was camping out at the #LosAngeles #DHS facility, then kidnapping parents and children—arriving for their families’ scheduled immigration appointments.

    Regular Angelenos tried to physically stop agents from kidnapping kids; then the gov’t teargassed everyone.

    https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:zftsnmv3oeatoag66zia5sfu/post/3lr2sir7yrk2j

    Video at the link.

    EVERYBODY WATCH.

    ICE IS OUT OF CONTROL.

    Video of SEIU California’s President David Huerta getting assaulted & arrested during an ICE raid in the warehouse district of Downtown Los Angeles today.

    He’s an LA native, American citizen and labor leader.

    Don’t turn away.

    https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:yu3c3kb2wrnfavxd4xfni5jv/post/3lqxwdph6f22c

    Video at the link.

  480. says

    GOP braces for first ‘test run’ on codifying DOGE cuts

    Congressional Republicans are gearing up for a major test of how easily they can lock in cuts sought by President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

    Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he aims to have the House act swiftly on approving Trump’s request for more than $9 billion in cuts to foreign aid and public broadcasting funding. That package is expected to hit the floor this week.

    […] The request kick-starts a process that would allow Republicans to claw back funds for a list of programs on the administration’s chopping block with just a simple majority in both chambers. That means Republicans wouldn’t require Democratic votes in the Senate if they can stay mostly unified in greenlighting what’s known as a rescissions package.

    […] And White House budget chief Russell Vought signaled further special requests to lock in more DOGE cuts could be on the way when pressed on the matter during a budget hearing last week, particularly as the administration’s ongoing efforts to shrink the government have been tangled up in courts.

    But he also said it’s “very important” for this first package of cuts to pass, adding, “If it does, it’ll be worth the effort and we’ll send up additional packages.”

    […] The package would target dollars for items like migration and refugee assistance […] Funding would also be eliminated for the United Nations Children’s Fund, U.N. Development Program and the U.N. Population Fund under the proposal, as well as the World Health Organization and “portions of the U.N. Regular Budget for the U.N. Human Rights Council and the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.”

    […] “It’s going to make it very difficult for us to do bipartisan bills if we believe that he’s just going to send rescissions over for whatever they want or don’t want in a bipartisan agreement,” Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, told The Hill this week.

  481. says

    Israel vows to stop aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg from reaching Gaza

    “According to a live tracker on board the vessel, the Madleen was sailing north of the Egyptian coastal city of Rosetta on Sunday morning, roughly 300 miles from Gaza.”

    Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has vowed to block an aid vessel carrying Greta Thunberg and other activists from reaching Gaza, by “any means necessary.”

    The Madleen departed Sicily last Sunday, aiming to breach Israel’s naval blockade on Gaza, deliver humanitarian aid, and draw attention to the worsening humanitarian crisis in the enclave.

    According to a live tracker on board the vessel, it was sailing north of the Egyptian coastal city of Rosetta on Sunday morning, roughly 160 nautical miles from Gaza.

    Katz said Sunday that he had instructed the Israel Defense Forces to “prevent the ‘Madelaine’ hate flotilla from reaching the shores of Gaza.”

    “To the anti-Semitic Greta and her fellow Hamas propaganda spokespeople, I say clearly: You should turn back — because you will not reach Gaza,” he posted on Telegram.

    “Israel will act against any attempt to break the blockade or aid terrorist organizations — at sea, in the air and on land.”

    On Sunday, a press officer for the Madleen, Hay Sha Wiya, said the crew was “preparing for the possibility of interception.”

    They also said the boat’s signal had been jammed earlier in the day, causing the live tracker to display the boat’s coordinates as being in Jordan.

    Among those on board the ship are Thiago Avila, a Brazilian activist and politician, Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament, and Baptiste Andre, a French doctor who is expected to assist passengers injured in potential confrontations with Israeli forces.

    “We are doing this because, no matter what odds we are against, we have to keep trying,” Thunberg said last week.

    “Because the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity. And no matter how dangerous this mission is, it’s not even near as dangerous as the silence of the entire world in the face of the live-streamed genocide.”

    Israel has adamantly rejected allegations of genocide.

    […] The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was tasked with distributing aid in the enclave as part of a new U.S.- and Israel-backed plan, but its first two weeks in operation have been marred by controversy. Health officials say that Israel has killed dozens of Palestinians while they were seeking aid at GHF distribution points.

    And experts have warned that Gaza is at risk of famine if more aid is not brought in.

    A previous attempt by the Freedom Flotilla to reach Gaza failed last month after one of its ships was struck by two drones in international waters off Malta. The group blamed Israel for the attack, which damaged the vessel’s bow. […]

  482. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Steve Herman (VoA):

    Less than 45 minutes after President Donald Trump thanked the National Guard “for a job well done!” Mayor Karen Bass clarified on social media “the National Guard has not been deployed in the City of Los Angeles.” [Screenshots]

    Commentary

    She also thanked the LAPD thugs that helped them.

    Lmao. Even if the national guard rolled in at 5 AM, it’s absolutely hilarious to think that’s why the protests died down. Mission Accomplished

    To be fair, *not* going to help ICE throw chemical weapons at a bunch of civilians in a Home Depot parking lot is, indeed, a job well done. Best thing the National Guard could have done.

    it’s clear that Trump himself would be entirely satisfied by just fantasizing

    ABC – LIVE UPDATES: California National Guard arrives

    California National Guard arrived in downtown Los Angeles early Sunday morning
    —
    Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office told ABC News about 300 National Guard troops are on the ground Sunday morning, contrary to the 2,000 the Trump administration says have been activated.
    —
    The Los Angeles Police Department and the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department say they have come in to help clear the streets and protect lives, but will not take part in immigration enforcement.
    —
    According to police, 11 arrests were made at Saturday night’s protests […] primarily for failure to disperse once the order was given

  483. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Tina-Desiree Berg (late last night):

    A less lethal munition started a fire in a dumpster and the LASD continued firing at the car in front of it. In the car is handicapped individual.

    [Video clip: a walker stands by car, numerous officers surround it, and the driver limps out and uses it]

     
    Different cars.
    Bluesky and TikTok video of a bystander

    We were at a stoplight on the other side of Paramount on Alondra. […] out of nowhere ICE came dressed up in all their military gear, and they stopped traffic. […] they started raiding [a business]. They started bringing people out in vans. […] and everybody was there in the traffic jam. […] When they saw us looking at them, that’s when they started throwing tear gas. Everybody was still in their vehicles.

    Behind us, there was a woman and her young daughter; she was around 13. I kept in touch with them, and as we speak, she’s in the hospital because the tear gas bomb hit her right in the face. […] we’re not there to protest. We were stuck at the light […] The tear gas explodes, they come out crying out of their vehicle, and they can’t breathe. They’re literally on the ground […] We get off and we see everybody else getting off to record. Peacefully. We do not throw anything at them. We’re not yelling at them. […] these things need to be documented. […] As soon as we start recording, that’s when they started pointing the tear gas guns and they start shooting everything. Everything everywhere. So we can’t breathe. We can’t see anything. […] I hear them, “Go for the people with the phones.” They wen’t straight for my girlfriend. […] They took her. They threw me her phone. I was like, “Why are you guys taking her? She’s born here. Just like me; I’m a proud American. I’m a proud Mexican as well.”

  484. JM says

    MSNBC: China issues rare earth licenses to suppliers of top 3 U.S. automakers, sources say: Reuters

    China has granted temporary export licenses to rare-earth suppliers of the top three U.S. automakers, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, as supply chain disruptions begin to surface from Beijing’s export curbs on those materials.
    At least some of the licenses are valid for six months, the two sources said, declining to be named because the information is not public. It was not immediately clear what quantity or items are covered by the approval or whether the move signals China is preparing to ease the rare-earths licensing process, which industry groups say is cumbersome and has created a supply bottleneck.

    China is giving in to Trump just a bit here. Trying to do as little as they can to satisfy him that they are keeping their end of the agreement. They are doing the same thing in Europe, trying to open just enough to keep the trade wars from escalating. Right now they are playing rare earth exports from China against chip exports to China.
    China wants to control the rare earth elements and use that control to leverage of control of markets. It’s a delicate game because there are other places to get the rare earth elements outside China that are not developed. China doesn’t want to clamp down so hard that other countries develop their native rare earth resources. Other countries are developing them on a small scale but rare earths are generally hard and messy to extract. Requiring large amounts of ore be moved and having toxic byproducts.

  485. JM says

    Reuters: Trump says Department of Justice made decision to bring back Abrego Garcia

    U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday it was the Department of Justice, not him, that made the decision to bring back to the U.S. a man mistakenly deported from Maryland to El Salvador.

    Trump washing his hands of a decision he doesn’t want to be associated with. The DOJ wouldn’t be doing something like that without Bondi’s direct approval and Bondi surely discussed it with Trump before approving. Trump would be complaining if she had ordered this without at least his tact approval.

  486. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Nicholas Slayton (Task and Purpose) 50min ago:

    Roughly 2 dozen National Guard troops outside the Edward R Roybal Federal Building in Downtown Los Angeles this morning. [Photos] Several more inside. NORTHCOM says they’re 79th Infantry BCT but the troops refused to ID themselves. Most look bored. A handful of protesters started gathering ~1030.

    Cannot speak to Paramount or Compton but in DTLA it’s calm and a sleepy morning. Life goes on, people are out shopping in Little Tokyo around the corner from the Federal Building. It is not mass unrest or chaos.

  487. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Liza Goitein (Brennan Center):

    Trump has federalized at least 2,000 National Guard forces and reportedly plans to deploy troops to Los Angeles over Governor Newsom’s objections. […] the first time since 1965 that a president has sent troops into a state without a state request.

    That’s alarming enough. But Trump has also authorized deployment of troops anywhere in the country where protests against ICE are occurring or are likely to occur, even if they are entirely peaceful. That is unprecedented and a clear abuse of the law.

    To back up: Presidents have deployed troops for purposes of quelling unrest or executing the law only 30 times in U.S. history. […] Invoking the Insurrection Act, however, would come with significant political and legal blowback. […] Trump is instead relying on a statute, 10 USC 12406 […] Previous presidents have used this authority to call up Guard forces *in order to deploy them under the Insurrection Act.* 10 USC 12406 has not historically been treated or used as an independent authority. Trump’s move is vulnerable to legal challenge on that ground alone.

    But it would be a mistake to focus too much on which statutory power is being used here. What matters it that Trump is federalizing the Guard for the purpose of policing Americans’ protest activity. That’s dangerous
    […]
    The memorandum says that the Guard will be protecting ICE personnel and federal property. As a practical matter, this will almost certainly involve serving basic police functions, such as physical crowd control, that the military normally isn’t allowed to perform.
    […]
    But there’s an even bigger problem with Trump’s order. He isn’t just authorizing deployment to Los Angeles. In fact, his memorandum doesn’t even mention LA. It authorizes deployment “at locations where protests against [ICE] functions are occurring or are likely to occur.”

    No president has ever federalized the National Guard for purposes of responding to potential future civil unrest anywhere in the country. Preemptive deployment is literally the opposite of deployment as a last resort. It would be a shocking abuse of power and the law.

    Yet another cause for concern: Trump’s memorandum purports to authorize the Secretary of Defense to deploy active-duty armed forces as well, if he deems it necessary. But it cites no law whatsoever that would expressly authorize such a deployment.

    While the Insurrection Act authorizes deployment of active-duty armed forces, 10 USC 12406 only authorizes federalization of the Guard. Any use of active-duty troops to enforce the law under this memorandum would thus be a clear violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.

  488. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Rando:

    lmao The Sun has a livestream of the “LA riots” on YouTube
    […]
    You can literally hear birds singing in the background […] someone just drove by and yelled “your boss is a fascist”. What a day. There is now one protester yelling. The silence was actually far more effective.

    Brett Banditelli (Photographer):

    2 hours in its just the national guard standing in a parking lot as people stare at them like they’re tourists lost at Venice beach. Occasionally Maxine Waters stops by to tell them they’re idiots.

  489. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    About that dungeon at the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building.

    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (American Immigration Council):

    CBS reports ICE is arresting people who can’t even legally be deported and holding them […] in a federal building BASEMENT in Los Angeles.

    Families dutifully attending check-ins with ICE are being arrested and held for days, forced to sleep on the floor. According to Rep. Jimmy Gomez, ICE has had to stand up tends next to the federal building and is forcing people to sleep outside. Inside the building, lights go off at 5:00PM, leaving families alone in the DARK, where they’ve had to wait for over 12 hours to get food or WATER.

    […] This comes as ICE massively ramped up “re-arrest” operations nationwide, picking up people at court appearances and check-ins—people who had been COMPLYING. These horrific conditions are a result of ICE running out of detention space.

  491. says

    Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay was in critical condition in hospital on Sunday after being shot while campaigning in the country’s capital of Bogotá.

    Uribe Turbay, a 39-year-old senator from the conservative Centro Democrático party, was attacked during a speech on Saturday. Police have arrested a 15-year-old suspect and an investigation is under way into the shooting.

    The senator “was admitted in critical condition and is receiving priority care,” according to a medical report from the Fundación Santa Fe clinic in Bogotá, cited by the Associated Press. […]

    https://www.politico.eu/article/colombia-presidential-candidate-miguel-uribe-turbay-critical-condition-campaign-shooting/

  492. says

    Sky Captain, thanks for posting clarifying information in comments 486, 487, 488, and 489.

    In other news: “Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow closes 2 major airports”

    “A spat over the latest planned prisoner swap escalated as the Kremlin and Kyiv exchanged accusations over an ongoing delay.”

    Two major airports serving Moscow were temporarily closed early Sunday, Russian officials said, during a Ukrainian drone strike targeting the Russian capital.

    Russia air defense units destroyed multiple Ukrainian drones flying toward the city Sunday morning, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on the Telegram platform. Emergency services are working at the sites of the wreckage, he added.

    “To ensure the safety of civil aircraft flights, temporary restrictions on arrivals and departures have been introduced at Vnukovo and Domodedovo airports,” according to a statement from the Federal Agency for Air Transport. The restrictions were lifted later in the morning.

    Later Sunday, Moscow said it was pushing into Ukraine’s eastern Dnipropetrovsk region for the first time in its three-year offensive — a significant territorial escalation amid stalled peace talks. The claim could not be independently verified.

    The Kremlin has repeatedly refused calls by Ukraine, Europe and U.S. President Donald Trump for a full and unconditional ceasefire even as Moscow holds talks with Kyiv on a possible settlement to the conflict.

    Meanwhile, a spat escalated between Moscow and Kyiv over a stalled prisoner exchange deal, struck at talks in Istanbul last Monday, which would release all severely injured and ill prisoners of war, as well as all captured soldiers aged 18-25. Both sides also agreed to return the bodies of 12,000 fallen soldiers, 6,000 on each side.

    But on Saturday, the Kremlin accused Ukrainian negotiators of indefinitely postponing the swap — claims swiftly rejected by Kyiv.

    “We urge Kyiv to strictly adhere to the timetable and all agreements reached and to begin the exchange immediately,” said Vladimir Medinsky, aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    The Russian statements “do not correspond to reality and previous agreements on either the exchange of prisoners or the repatriation of bodies,” Andriy Kovalenko, a Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council official, said on Telegram. […]

    https://www.politico.eu/article/ukrainian-drone-attack-moscow-closes-2-major-airports/

  493. John Morales says

    Alt-text does matter. However title != alt. I cited accessibility design guides. The title attribute is discouraged because it makes information LESS accessible. The alt attribute goes on images. The alt attribute is supported, in image tags, but <a> tags don’t have that.

    And yet: <a href=”the URL” title=”the hovertext”>the displayed text</a> works as I said.
    I’ve been using it for over 25 years, I know it works.
    So yes, yes they do have that.

    See for yourself; this is the very same markup: the displayed text

    (See the alt-text? There it is, if you hover over the anchor tag; I put the source in it for the reasons I’ve stated)

  494. John Morales says

    re #470 & #471, yes, it’s a global attribute, but on anchor tags there is no issue. You are thinking of other elements, such as frames or lists, which is why that advice.
    Bottom line, my links have hoverlink text, yours don’t. If you consider that is better for vision-impaired people, I can’t stop you.

  495. John Morales says

    JM @484, re “China wants to control the rare earth elements and use that control to leverage of control of markets. It’s a delicate game because there are other places to get the rare earth elements outside China that are not developed. China doesn’t want to clamp down so hard that other countries develop their native rare earth resources. Other countries are developing them on a small scale but rare earths are generally hard and messy to extract. Requiring large amounts of ore be moved and having toxic byproducts.”

    Other countries have, it’s just not that profitable. Like cobalt.

    e.g.

    Lynas Rare Earths Profit Plunges 85% in 2025 Market Update
    February 26, 2025

    China wants to control the rare earth elements and use that control to leverage of control of markets. It’s a delicate game because there are other places to get the rare earth elements outside China that are not developed. China doesn’t want to clamp down so hard that other countries develop their native rare earth resources. Other countries are developing them on a small scale but rare earths are generally hard and messy to extract. Requiring large amounts of ore be moved and having toxic byproducts.

    There is an oversupply, so profitability is not great; the challenge is the front-up cost and time to set up and still profit.

    cf. https://discoveryalert.com.au/news/lynas-rare-earths-85-profit-plunge-2025-challenges-and-recovery-strategies/

    Lynas Rare Earths has been grappling with a challenging market environment, where Lynas rare earths profit plunges weak prices have become a stark reality. The company’s latest performance report, alongside the volatile market conditions and operational setbacks, paints a picture of an industry in flux. In today’s fast‐evolving market, many are questioning whether Lynas can withstand the external pressures and stabilise its financial footing while navigating these challenges, as seen in navigating challenges.
    What Caused the Profit Decline?

    Lynas Rare Earths’ first‐half financial results have revealed a dramatic shrinkage in net profit—from A$39.54 million last year to a mere A$5.9 million this period, marking an 85% plunge. This severe drop underlines the reality that Lynas rare earths profit plunges weak prices have significantly affected investor sentiment and market stability.

    Several factors have contributed to this profit erosion:

    — Weak realised prices: The downturn in rare earth prices has directly hit profitability. Market sentiment has turned cautious amid this pricing pressure.
    — Subdued demand from China: As global markets contract and demand softens—especially from China—the company faces a mismatch between production and consumption.
    — Disrupted supply chains: Global logistics issues have compounded challenges, making the delivery of rare earth elements uncertain.
    — Higher operational costs: With increased neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) sales volumes, production costs have surged, further eroding margins.

    CEO Amanda Lacaze has characteristically described these setbacks as “short-term” hurdles. Despite this, company leadership remains optimistic about the long-term prospects, emphasising strategic recalibrations and resilience in a highly volatile market.

    Also, China has control over the entire rare earth supply chain, from mining and processing to manufacturing the magnets; those factories and processing facilities also take time and money (and environmental/planning permits), so they can’t just sproing up.
    Note that China produces around 60% of the world’s rare earths but processes nearly 90%, so it imports the bulk of what is not dug up there.

    In short, what the world wants is the magnets, not so much the raw minerals.

  496. John Morales says

    [wow, I jumbled that in the edit box! I hope it’s still obvious who is quoted where]

  498. says

    Tear gas canisters and less-lethal pellets were deployed Sunday afternoon into the growing crowd of protesters outside the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building, which houses an immigration detention center.
    It is unclear which law enforcement agency took the action.

    […] President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened a forceful response against even nonviolent actions by demonstrators and vowed to “have troops everywhere” in response to the demonstrations in Los Angeles.

    “We are not going to let our country be torn apart like it was under Biden and his autopen,” Trump said, speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One in New Jersey. He is headed to Camp David, where he will convene Sunday evening with top advisers.

    Washington Post link

  499. says

    Protesters gathered outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles this afternoon and chanted “Shame on you” at National Guard members who created a perimeter around the federal building.

    Other chants that could be heard among the protesters outside City Hall downtown included “Donald Trump, let’s be clear: immigrants are welcome here” and “Say it once, say it twice, we will not put up with ICE.”

    Protesters also chanted, “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here.”

    Speaking to reporters, Trump appeared to suggest that protesters who spit or throw objects at law enforcement will face consequences, saying, “They spit, we hit.” […]

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/trump-los-angeles-immigration-protests-rcna211695

  500. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    @494 John Morales:

    my links have hoverlink text, yours don’t. If you consider that is better for vision-impaired people, I can’t stop you.

    Hovertext is not alt text. It”s the opposite. Hover text is a spoiler-y perk for a subset of abled people. I’ve cited multiple accessibility guides and browser developer docs.

    Title attribute is text that is hidden until conditionally revealed, the condition being mouse users with steady hands. That is not accessibility. Screen readers don’t read the hover text on links. Mobile browsers don’t show the hover text on links. Alt text is the fallback to substitute in when media is unavailable (for instance for screen readers in lieu of images). In fact, alt text usually isn’t visible to sighted users; website UIs go out of their way to display a copy of the text in captions below or toggled popups.