Comments

  2. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    ElecTrek – US military is buying Tesla Cybertrucks to use as targets for missiles

    the U.S. Air Force Test Center (AFTC) is looking to acquire 33 target vehicles—including two Tesla Cybertrucks […] various sedans, pickups, SUVs, and bongo trucks, but there are no specific brand requirements for those, except for the Cybertrucks.
    […]
    the justification is that the US military believes that its enemies might start using the Tesla Cybertruck, and it wants to make sure its weapons work on it.
    […]
    Chechen leader and self-proclaimed “Putin’s foot soldier” Ramzan Kadyrov managed to obtain a couple of Cybertrucks, which he outfitted with guns. Then he claimed that they went to war in Ukraine.

    Rando 1: “Oh FFS, we’ve all seen the youtube tests. Stops a 9mm. Doesn’t stop a .556 Nato round.”

    Rando 2: “Just use an older non working truck from a salvage yard jeeze”

  3. JM says

    Reuters: Trump and Putin to meet to discuss Ukraine peace deal in Alaska

    U.S. President Donald Trump will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 15 in Alaska to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, Trump said on Friday.
    Trump made the highly anticipated announcement on social media after he said that the parties, including Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, were close to a ceasefire deal that could resolve the three-and-a-half-year conflict, one that could require Ukraine to surrender significant territory.

    Addressing reporters at the White House earlier on Friday, Trump suggested an agreement would involve some exchange of land.
    “There’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both,” the Republican president said.
    The Kremlin subsequently confirmed the summit in an online statement.
    The two leaders will “focus on discussing options for achieving a long-term peaceful resolution to the Ukrainian crisis,” Putin aide Yuri Ushakov said.

    Here goes Trump again, negotiating a treaty to end the Ukraine-Russia war without including Ukraine. The last time this came up Ukraine made it clear that they would not just accept anything negotiated by this administration. As long as Europe has their back I think Ukraine will be willing to turn down a treaty. Particularly if it follows the rumored lines of more or less handing over the territory that Russia occupies to Russia and calling it peace. Ukraine realizes that is just giving Russia time to prepare their next offense.

  4. says

    https://www.msnbc.com/all
    Chris Hayes “All In” show, with Ali Velshi as guest host

    ‘Clear and Present Danger’: Trump directs military use against drug cartels
    Video is 2:41 minutes

    ‘Americans are angry’: Democrats rally across the country
    Video is 7:56 minutes
    Features AOC, Bernie Sanders and a Democrat from Texas

  5. says

    For the convenience of readers, here are some links back to the previous set of 500 comments on The Infinite Thread.

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/07/02/infinite-thread-xxxvi/comment-page-3/#comment-2274189
    House Republican tries to defend Medicaid cuts—and it goes poorly

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/07/02/infinite-thread-xxxvi/comment-page-3/#comment-2274188
    Even Trump’s former surgeon general says RFK Jr.’s cuts to mRNA research will ‘cost lives’

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/07/02/infinite-thread-xxxvi/comment-page-3/#comment-2274185
    Keir Starmer on Friday led international condemnation of Israel over a major military escalation in the Gaza Strip in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to take over Gaza City.

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/07/02/infinite-thread-xxxvi/comment-page-3/#comment-2274183
    With Zelenskyy sidelined from Ukraine war talks, Trump appears to hand Putin a diplomatic win

  6. says

    War on Terror, Cartel Edition

    Trump ordered the military to fight Latin American drug cartels that it labeled as terrorist organizations in a secret directive, multiple news organizations reported on Friday.

    Let’s take a moment here to reflect on how far this marks the erosion of congressional power. In theory, presidents can only use military force after Congress declares war; failing that, Congress can issue an Authorization for the Use of Military Force – an AUMF. The 2001 AUMF following 9/11 was incredibly broad, empowering the president to use the military against anyone responsible for the attacks.

    That breadth set the stage for the War on Terror, the seemingly endless series of military actions that defined and drained the following decades. We still don’t have a full list of what conflicts and engagements were authorized under the 2001 AUMF. It’s definitional, though, of the expansion of executive power that has allowed the president to use the military overseas with very thin Congressional approval.

    […] One person I spoke with last year was Karen Greenberg, an attorney who directed Fordham Law’s National Security Center. Greenberg had written a book called “Subtle Tools,” in which she argued that the War on Terror’s extralegal methods had crippled American democracy and paved the way for Trump’s assault on the rule of law. One example she held up was the vagueness of the 2001 AUMF: “It was like, no, we’re just going to say there’s a threat. We have the powers, we can do what we want. That was unheard of,” Greenberg told me.

    The 2001 AUMF was dangerously vague, but it at least paid minimal service to the idea that the president should be accountable to Congress when using military force. As reported, the cartel declaration appears to ignore that, while also continuing on the administration’s tack of using the military for law enforcement purposes.

    […] it’s striking how little grounds the administration has to do this. There is a national self-defense claim Trump can make to avoid Congress; the New York Times suggested that they may rely on fentanyl overdoses to make that claim.

    The lack of meaningful congressional oversight isn’t only a box to check, Greenberg told me last year. It can help prevent other abuses, or stop military operations from dragging on indefinitely. As Brian Finucane, a former State Department lawyer and current senior adviser at International Crisis Group, suggested on Bluesky, what this portends is another War on Terror, this time against the cartels.

  8. says

    This physician-scientist is taking on Trump on behalf of disadvantaged communities, by Don Thompson for KFF Health News

    As smoke from Canadian wildfires drifted across North America, […] Neeta Thakur was well into her search for ways to offset the damage of such fumes on people’s health, especially among minority and low-income communities.

    For more than a decade, the University of California-San Francisco researcher relied on federal grants without incident. But Thakur, a doctor and a scientist, suddenly found herself leading the charge for public health science against President Donald Trump’s political ideology.

    Thakur, 45, a pulmonologist who also is medical director of the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital Chest Clinic, is the lead plaintiff among six UC researchers who in June won a class-action preliminary injunction against the efforts of several federal agencies to carry out Trump’s executive orders seeking to eliminate research grants deemed to focus on areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The administration has filed a notice of appeal, and the outcome, whether or not she and her colleagues prevail, could influence both the future of academic research and the health of those she’s spent her life trying to help.

    “When this moment hit us, where science was really under attack and lives are at stake, it doesn’t surprise me that she stepped up,” said Margot Kushel, who directs the UCSF Action Research Center for Health Equity and has known Thakur for more than a decade through their work at the center and San Francisco General, the public county hospital.

    “We don’t think our work should be political, to be honest,” Kushel said. “Saving people’s lives and making sure people don’t die doesn’t seem to me that it should be a partisan issue.”

    Thakur said that after the abrupt funding cuts, she and the other researchers “felt pretty powerless and found that the class-action lawsuit was a way for us to join together and sort of take a stance.”

    The suit was filed independently by the researchers and allowed them to show the harm inflicted not just on their own work “but more broadly on public health and public health research,” she said.

    Thakur’s study received more than $1.3 million in funding from the Environmental Protection Agency […] The goal is to find ways to help residents limit their smoke exposure, Thakur said, adding that the results could help people no matter their circumstances.

    Preliminary findings show that smoke can trigger breathing emergencies among children days after exposure, knowledge that could lead to better treatment, and that smoke intensity may peak during just a few hours when protection is most needed, indicating the need for more precise and timely safety messaging.

    […] The order by U.S. District Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco temporarily blocking the grant terminations covered the EPA, as well as grants by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Science Foundation. Lin’s ruling was not a nationwide injunction of the sort restricted by the U.S. Supreme Court in a June decision.

    The Trump administration agencies affected by the order have reinstated the UC grants as the lawsuit proceeds. The government filed a motion for a temporary stay on the order pending the outcome of its appeal, but a decision had not been issued as of publication.

    […] “I see my research being directed towards trying to understand how where you live and what you experience impacts your health,” Thakur said.

    When the grants were suspended in April, the researchers were unable to finish identifying ways to help protect communities from wildfire smoke. Thakur had to dismiss a student intern and dip into discretionary funds to pay her postdoctoral fellow. At least three research papers that could have directly affected public health were in danger of going unpublished without the funding, she said.

    The government reinstated her team’s grants about three weeks after the judge’s order, and Thakur is in the process of picking up the pieces. She’s hopeful that researchers can publish two of the three studies they were working on.

    Thakur said she is now cautiously optimistic after experiencing “a roller coaster of emotions.” Putting together a project and conducting the research takes years, she said […]

    Rebecca Sugrue, Thakur’s postdoctoral fellow and an expert in health equity and climate change, is rethinking her entire career path.

    “I kind of came to the realization that all the expertise I had built up were the kind of things that were being deprioritized,” Sugrue said. She said she and other postdoctoral students and more junior members of the research team even had discussions about leaving academia: “‘Unstable’ and ‘uncertain’ were words that were used a lot.”

    The lasting damage is not lost on Thakur. If the grants ultimately disappear, universities won’t have the typical programs to train students or to support academic research, she said, adding that, “I think there are concerns that the sort of divestment from science and research in these particular areas will cause generations of impact.”

  9. says

    Nazis are having a moment—and they’re thanking Trump

    […] Reuters reported on Friday that the Aryan Freedom Network, a Texas-based white supremacist group, is pleased with the direction that Trump has taken the country in. Co-leader Dalton Henry Stout told the outlet Trump has “awakened a lot of people to the issues we’ve been raising for years” and described the head of the Republican Party as “the best thing that’s happened to us.”

    The white supremacists told Reuters they love Trump’s repeated praise of “Western values,” his attacks on DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) initiatives, and his opposition to immigration. Trump’s parroting of their brand of hate has reportedly increased interest and recruitment in the group.

    Aryan Freedom Network describes itself as a “white racialist” group and has called for white people to “take back our land.”

    The unity between the Trump-led MAGA movement and previously ostracized white supremacist groups has occurred alongside a rise in white supremacist violence. In 2020, 13% of extremist demonstrations and violent acts involved white nationalists, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project, as reported by Reuters. That has grown every year since, and by 2024, almost 80% of those events involved white supremacists.

    In the future, it will be more difficult to obtain data on white supremacist violence because the Trump administration has cut or scaled back federal programs collecting such data and countering such domestic terrorism. […]

    It probably isn’t a coincidence that the most visible instance of political violence with white supremacist overtones was the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. That insurrection was led by pro-Trump forces and initiated by Trump as a way to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. At the beginning of his second term, Trump pardoned many of the offenders, thereby sanctioning their violent acts.

    Echoing the white supremacist movement, Trump has repeatedly sought to erase gains made during the historic Civil Rights movement. His administration has purged acknowledgement of milestone accomplishments by Black, Latino, and LGBTQ+ Americans.

    As part of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s attack on government agencies, racists loyal to Trump benefactor Elon Musk were installed and supported in the administration. Most notably, as part of Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been deployed to engage in street-level thuggery to harass, manhandle, and abuse migrant populations and the communities that support them.

    In one of the more open endorsements of the type of white supremacy that groups like Aryan Freedom Network espouse, Trump has gone about restoring statues and military base names meant to honor pro-slavery Confederates.

    The administration’s allies are on a neo-Nazi kick as well. Musk has allowed pro-Nazi content to flourish and thrive on his social media site, X, formerly Twitter. Musk has expressed support for Nazi-affiliated parties around the world, including the extremist Alternative for Germany party.

    On Fox News, host Greg Gutfeld recently argued that conservatives should tell each other “What up, my Nazi? Hey, what up, my Nazi?” to mock Americans’ sensitivities to racism. Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, one of the biggest Trump backers in media, posted a meme on Wednesday that argued “We Are ALL Hitler” after Musk and Trump were criticized for making Nazi-style salutes.

    The affiliation between Trump and the neo-Nazi right was a topic of concern raised by then-Vice President Kamala Harris during her presidential campaign last year.

    “I think it’s a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president who has consistently over the course of his career attempted to use race to divide the American people,” Harris said last September.

    Now the tragedy has come to pass.

  10. says

    Trump is making the White House as tacky as he is.

    Photos at the link.

    Donald Trump can’t stop gilding the White House.

    Recent photos show somehow even more golden trim [ugly, crass, amazingly bad]

    Progressive influencer Brian Tyler Cohen posted the inside look to X on Thursday, showing the blindingly bright gold molding on the walls and gold appliqués across the door. These are in addition to the gold-framed paintings hung on the walls.

    […] In response to her boss wasting taxpayer money on tacky gold trim, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “It’s the Golden Office for the Golden Age.” […]

  11. says

    Washington Post link

    “Zelensky rejects Trump’s suggestion that Ukraine cede territory to Russia”

    “Trump, who is due to meet President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, suggested Ukraine and Russia could swap some territory to achieve peace.”

    […] “The answer to the Ukrainian territorial question is already in the Constitution of Ukraine. No one will retreat from this and no one can. Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier,” Zelensky said in a video address Saturday morning.

    Trump’s comments suggesting a territorial swap came as he and Putin finalized details for an in-person meeting […] held in Alaska — symbolic due to its former place in the Russian Empire.

    […] an official briefed on the negotiations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely about sensitive political talks, said Zelensky had not yet been invited.

    […] Putin’s travel is restricted because the International Criminal Court in 2023 issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest on allegations of involvement in the abduction of children from Ukraine during the war. Like the UAE and Saudi Arabia, the U.S. is not a party to the court.

    The planned meeting is a win for Putin, who gets an official visit to the U.S. despite failing to agree to Trump’s longtime demands for a ceasefire.

    […] Russia attacked Ukraine again with drones and missiles in the past day, killing at least eight people, including civilians on a bus near Kherson.

    European supporters appeared to rally behind Kyiv and Zelensky on Saturday. Britain said that it was holding a meeting of national security advisers from Europe, Ukraine and the U.S., hosted by British Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Vice President JD Vance, who is in Britain.

    British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke with Zelensky by phone on Saturday morning and “agreed that we must keep up the pressure on Putin to end his illegal war,” the British government added in a statement.

    Zelensky said he spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron, another key ally, and said that he was “grateful for the support.” He added: “It is truly important that the Russians do not succeed in deceiving anyone again.”

    Trump’s suggestion that Ukraine and Russia might swap territory had caused confusion, the official who was briefed on the negotiations said, adding, “What exactly can be swapped?”

    Ukraine controls only a small toehold in Russia’s western Kursk region. Russia, meanwhile, controls around a fifth of Ukraine’s sovereign territory. Russia has repeatedly demanded that Kyiv withdraw from several of the Ukrainian regions that Russia only partially controls — a demand that Ukraine categorically refuses.

    Putin, the official said, is acting “like Hitler who received some lands and wanted more.” Some U.S. officials appear ready to agree to his proposal to seize more Ukrainian land in exchange for weak words on peace, the official said.

    […] “The Ukrainian people deserve peace. But all partners must understand what a worthy peace is. This war must be ended, and Russia must end it. Russia started it and is dragging it out, ignoring all deadlines, and that is the problem, not anything else,” Zelensky said. “Any decisions against us, any decisions without Ukraine, are simultaneously decisions against peace. They will bring nothing. These are dead decisions; they will never work.”

    He added: “We are ready, together with President Trump, together with all partners, to work for a real and, most importantly, lasting peace — a peace that will not collapse because of Moscow’s desires.”

    Reaching any territorial agreement between Russia and Ukraine will be extremely complicated. Ukraine does not want to reward Russia for its invasion and Russia expects Ukraine to readily give up even territory that Ukraine still controls. […]

  12. says

    Israel grows buffer zones along its borders as part of post-Oct. 7 military doctrine

    “[…] Israel’s network of fortifications outside its borders with Lebanon, Syria and Gaza.”

    Israel has spent nearly two years in a multifront war, all while creating and fortifying buffer zones within neighboring countries.

    As part of a post-Oct. 7, 2023, military doctrine, the aim is to prevent militant groups opposed to Israel from taking up positions close to its borders, officials have said. However, critics warn that such operations have effectively widened Israel’s borders, violated its neighbors’ sovereignty and risk fueling the same conflicts Israel says it wants to quell.

    “Unlike in the past, the IDF is not evacuating areas that have been cleared and seized,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement earlier this year, referring to the country’s military, the Israel Defense Forces. “The IDF will remain in the security zones as a buffer between the enemy and the communities in any temporary or permanent situation in Gaza — as in Lebanon and Syria.”

    An NBC News analysis of satellite imagery and social media videos revealed how the Israeli military has built a comprehensive network of fortifications outside the country’s established borders with Lebanon, Syria and Gaza. […]

    Recent imagery shows dozens of smaller bases spread across Gaza — some with simple communication posts and stocks of resources. Since the end of the ceasefire, the IDF has cleared rubble and demolished buildings to construct a new military channel — the Morag Corridor — to control the area between Khan Younis and Rafah in southern Gaza. The 9-mile passage has become a key sticking point in ceasefire talks.

    These military bases continue to grow as the IDF’s presence in Gaza expands — stockpiling additional supplies, building tent structures and convening military vehicles in many of these integral positions.

    […] Israel remains at five hilltop positions in Lebanon since a February ceasefire agreement required IDF withdrawal from the country, according to social media videos and satellite imagery.

    Despite international protest, these positions have expanded since the ceasefire — trees cleared to raise blast walls and earthwork berms looking down on the valleys of southern Lebanon. […]

    Along its border with Syria, Israel has established six outposts in the United Nations buffer zone created after the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. With the post-Assad military severely weakened, Israel now has at least two more bases or outposts inside Syria, and satellite imagery shows IDF brigades carving a 20-mile trench stretching halfway across the region as part of a border strategy Israel has dubbed “the New East.” […]

    Maps and many more details are available at the link.

  13. says

    After his family’s deportation, teen becomes a lifeline for sister recovering from a brain tumor

    “The 18-year-old works two jobs to be able to send his sister her lifesaving medication. His deported parents hope they can return with his siblings on humanitarian parole.”

    Every two weeks, an 18-year-old in Texas buys lifesaving medication for his 11-year-old sister and sends it to Mexico.

    He has been doing this for the past six months, since immigration authorities removed his five siblings from the United States — four of whom are U.S. citizens, including his then-10-year-old sister, who is recovering from a rare brain tumor. They were all sent to Mexico when authorities deported their parents, who lacked legal status.

    he family’s absence has since weighed heavily on him as the oldest brother, who was left behind in the United States alone.

    His once bustling home, where cookouts were hosted and life milestones were celebrated among family and friends, now feels empty, he said. Every time he steps into the house, a deep sense of loneliness overcomes him.

    “There’s no one here. It’s just me,” he said, followed by a long pause. “It’s been pretty hard.”

    The brother, who spoke exclusively to NBC News, is not being named out of concern for his family members’ safety after they were sent to an area of Mexico known for kidnappings of U.S. citizens.

    He had been planning to go to college after finishing high school to pursue his dream career. Instead, he said, he’s working two jobs — one during the day at a fast-food restaurant and another at night at a gas station. The teen said he works so many hours a week that at times he barely gets to eat.

    His family’s deportation has forced him to become their lifeline. When the loneliness and long work hours become overwhelming, he said, the ever-present memories of his young sister having seizures and being revived countless times at the hospital motivate him to keep going.

    “At any moment, that brain tumor can come back, as her doctors said. That’s why she needs to keep getting the medicine that I buy,” said the 18-year-old, who is also a U.S. citizen.

    His sister can’t access the medicine she needs from Mexico because the specialist doctors monitoring her recovery and prescribing her medicines are all in the U.S.

    “It’s not cheap. At one point, it was like $300,” he said. “The insurance doesn’t cover it, so I’m paying for everything.”

    On Feb. 3, the family was driving from the Rio Grande Valley area, where they lived, to Houston, where the girl’s doctors are based, for an emergency medical checkup. On the way, they stopped at a stateside immigration checkpoint, one they have passed through multiple times. But this time, immigration authorities arrested the parents.

    According to their attorney, Danny Woodward, they have never done anything to make them a priority for removal. The entire family was taken to a detention facility and sent to Mexico the following day.

    The girl’s health condition has not improved since she’s been in Mexico, her mother told NBC News in June. Worsening headaches and dizziness have become so frequent that the girl’s parents take turns monitoring and taking care of her through the night.

    The symptoms are indicative of some of the lasting side effects from the brain surgery that saved her life last year. Because the swelling in her brain is still not fully gone, the girl experiences difficulties with speech and mobility on the right side of her body, as well as memory problems. These require the girl to routinely check in with doctors monitoring her recovery, get MRI scans every three months, attend rehabilitation therapy sessions and take medication to prevent seizures.

    But she has not been able to consistently access this care since the family was deported, her mother said.

    The family applied for humanitarian parole with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in June. They still have not heard back.

    “It’s very, very stressful — just waiting for them to answer,” the girl’s brother said. “I don’t know why it’s taking so long.” [video]

    More at the link.

  14. says

    Creeper being a creep:

    White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, 27, could be fielding some awkward questions after President Donald Trump, 79, took a moment in his latest interview to comment on what exactly it is about her that he likes the most.

    “It’s that face. It’s that brain. It’s those lips, the way they move. They move like she’s a machine gun,” the president said.

    Speaking to Newsmax host Rob Finnerty on Friday night, Trump noted that Leavitt has “become a star” in her current role.

    “She’s great. She’s a great person, actually,” Trump continued. “I don’t think anybody has ever had a better press secretary that Karoline. She’s been amazing.”

    Leavitt began working for Trump in January of 2024, as his national press secretary during his election campaign.

    Appointed by Trump to her current position last year, she is the youngest press secretary in White House history.

    Leavitt is known for her strict stance on the naming of the “Gulf of America,” as well as her fierce defense of Trump’s presidency. She recently claimed that it is “well past time” that Trump be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his international diplomacy. […]

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-goes-gaga-for-press-secretary-karoline-leavitt-its-those-lips/

  15. JM says

    Yahoo: California is pushing the limits of crowdsourced energy

    California’s biggest electric utilities pulled off a record-breaking test of cutting-edge grid technology that should make powering the data center boom and avoiding heatwave blackouts cheaper, easier, and greener. The groundbreaking test, carried out with Tesla and the top US rooftop solar installer, will help keep the state’s clean energy momentum going despite the Trump administration’s crackdown on renewables.
    On a hot Tuesday last week, during the 7pm-9pm window that is typically its time of peak demand as people come home from work and turn on appliances, Pacific Gas & Electric and other top California power companies switched on residential batteries in more than 100,000 homes and drew power from them into the broader statewide grid. The purpose of the test — the largest ever in the state, which has by far the most home battery capacity in the US — was to see just how much power is really there for the utility to tap, and to ensure it could be switched on, effectively running the grid in reverse, without causing a crash. The result, which the research firm Brattle published this week, was 535 megawatts, equal to adding a big hydro dam or a half-sized nuclear reactor at a fraction of the cost.

    Straightforward idea but doing it is complicated. Give the utility some control of household batteries and they can tap that energy during periods of peak demand, the battery owners getting paid some for their energy. Coordinating all of this is the hard part, PGE needs to control when and how much the batteries feed into the grid, distributed across a lot of different batteries of various types in different locations. With the current system the people also don’t have any control over what the system takes from their battery, a problem if they expect the battery to provide them with power in an emergency.

    So-called “virtual power plants” — networks of customer-owned assets that utilities can control as an alternative to building new traditional power plants — are the solution to a lot of the biggest problems facing the US power system.

    Calling it a virtual power plant is bad marketing speak.

  16. says

    FDA reinstates ousted top vaccine regulator Vinay Prasad

    Regarding the headline, read with a grain of salt. Details below.

    Vinay Prasad, a top vaccine regulator ousted from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) late last month, is set to return to his post, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

    “At the FDA’s request, Dr. Vinay Prasad is resuming leadership of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research,” an HHS spokesperson told The Hill in a statement. “Neither the White House nor HHS will allow the fake news media to distract from the critical work the FDA is carrying out under the Trump administration.” [Than last bit is desperately spinning political twaddle.]

    Prasad’s July 30 resignation as the FDA’s chief science officer followed criticism from right-wing figures — including activist Laura Loomer [!] and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) […]

    Loomer, a key ally of President Trump with noticeable influence, lavished attacks on the FDA official in recent weeks — calling him a “saboteur” and “trojan horse” for HHS’s “Make America Healthy Again” initiative.

    She called his return “another egregious personnel decision” in a Saturday post on social platform X, vowing to “ramp up” her pressure campaign.

    “In the coming weeks, I will be ramping up my exposes of officials within HHS and FDA so the American people can see more of the pay for play rot themselves and how rabid Trump haters continue to be hired in the Trump administration,” she wrote. “There are several Senate Confirmation hearings coming up and I have multiple oppo books ready for distribution! Should be a good time.”

    Prasad was named head of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research in early May as a replacement for Peter Marks, who resigned from the position in March after clashing with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. [Marks = Mostly good and competent; Prasad = Trump lackey status.]

    The doctor [Prasad], just one of several health officials tapped by Trump who criticized COVID-19 vaccines, had been in the role for less than three months when the FDA announced he would step down. [Weirdness. He wasn’t a pure enough Trump lackey? Not enough of a doofus? His anti-COVID-vaccine stand seemed to make him imminently qualified.]

    […] Prasad also recently made headlines for restricting the approval of two COVID-19 vaccines while disregarding recommendations from government scientists. Two memos issued last month by the FDA showed how the doctor personally intervened to place limitations on drugmakers Novavax and Moderna after their coronavirus shots were approved for anyone 12 years or older.

  17. JM says

    ArsTechnica: AI industry horrified to face largest copyright class action ever certified

    AI industry groups are urging an appeals court to block what they say is the largest copyright class action ever certified. They’ve warned that a single lawsuit raised by three authors over Anthropic’s AI training now threatens to “financially ruin” the entire AI industry if up to 7 million claimants end up joining the litigation and forcing a settlement.

    Essentially the company is complaining that the suit is potentially too large and could cost the company too much money to be allowed. Never mind that the company used automated tools to let them violate copyright on an industrial scale. This is one of those “The company is too big to be subject to the laws that apply to individuals” defenses that shouldn’t be allowed at all.

    Some authors and publishers are “already at odds over AI,” which may further complicate these cases, if one side representing legal owners (usually publishers) wants to join but beneficial owners (usually authors) don’t.
    Simply put, “there is no realistic pathway to resolving these issues in a common way,” advocates said, despite the district court seeing a common question in Anthropic downloading all their books. And authors ultimately risk sustaining the cloud of uncertainty over AI training on copyrighted materials by seeking a path likely to force settlements.

    An argument raised by some associated groups, it’s more reasonable but ignores the associated problems. One of the reasons for class action suits is that the many individual owners are likely to not be able to sue. Without a class action the case is likely to be forced into settlement in the favor of the company because the authors can’t afford to bring a case to court.

  18. KG says

    AI industry groups are urging an appeals court to block what they say is the largest copyright class action ever certified. They’ve warned that a single lawsuit raised by three authors over Anthropic’s AI training now threatens to “financially ruin” the entire AI industry – ArsTechnica quoted by JM@17

    They say that like it would be a bad thing!

  19. John Morales says

    Copyright is ridiculous, in my estimation. It should be public domain a few years after an author’s demise, not for many decades thereafter.

    “In Australia, copyright generally lasts for 70 years after the author’s death for literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works”.

    The copyright is generally bought by commercial companies, so it’s not like the author’s family are the ones getting a profit.

    It’s so fucking stupid!

    (Also, generative AI generates new content, so it’s also an author)

  20. John Morales says

    Also, students studying prior art and then painting their own derivative or whatever stuff is apparently just fine, but AIs doing the same is not. Hypocrisy, that is.

  21. John Morales says

    In the news: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/08/grenada-oath-of-allegiance-king-charles

    —

    The government and opposition in the Caribbean island of Grenada have joined forces to drop the oath of allegiance to the British crown amid growing calls to remove King Charles as the country’s head of state.

    A statement from the government announcing the move said that in “a commendable display of national unity” the country’s parliament had agreed bills to amend the country’s constitution.

    The change will remove the words “His Majesty King Charles the Third, His Heirs and Successors” from the pledge of allegiance and replace them with “Grenada”.

    In the statement, Grenada’s prime minister, Dickon Mitchell, said: “The unanimous support for this amendment demonstrates our shared commitment to national identity and constitutional progress and while we may differ on many issues, today we stand together in affirming that our allegiance belongs to Grenada and its people.”

  22. JM says

    NBC: Zelenskyy rejects Trump’s proposal that Ukraine could swap territories with Russia

    Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy defiantly declared Saturday that his countrymen “will not give their land to occupiers,” after President Donald Trump suggested that a peace deal would include some “swapping” of territories with Russia.

    No surprise but a formal announcement before Trump meets with Putin is important. Particularly since the rumors about Trump’s first suggestion was a lot more concession then swapping. It’s important to note that nothing has really leaked yet about the US suggestions or what Russia wants. There is no signs that Russia’s negotiating position has changed but it’s possible. The Russian summer offense has not gone well, they have not taken any strategic target.

    A White House official also said Friday that the Russians have provided a list of demands for a potential ceasefire for the war in Ukraine, and the U.S. is trying to get buy-in from Ukrainians and European allies.

    Still taking demands from the wrong side. The US should be giving a list of demands to Russia.

    Trump’s ultimatums have not prompted the Kremlin to move one inch in its war in Ukraine so far, other than to give the president a meeting.

    “The underlying issues have not changed,” he said. “For Russia, this isn’t just about territory. It’s about controlling Ukraine as a whole.” He also noted that Trump would likely want to leave the summit with something to show for it, but the outcome might be only “another step” in a protracted process rather than a decisive deal.

    It’s nice to see that NBC is willing to say what other news agencies have been avoiding. Trump has achieved nothing and doesn’t look like he will.

  27. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Guardian – Pete Hegseth reposts video saying women shouldn’t be allowed to vote

    Hegseth reposted a CNN segment on X on Thursday that focuses on pastor Doug Wilson, a Christian nationalist who co-founded the Idaho-based Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), In the segment, he raises the idea of women not voting.
    […]
    A statement from Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell on Saturday said Hegseth “is a proud member of a church affiliated with” the CREC. “The secretary very much appreciates many of Mr Wilson’s writings and teachings.”

  28. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    MSNBC – A deadly shooting at the CDC

    A shooting outside the [CDC] Atlanta headquarters on Friday left a police officer dead and officials and scientists […] shaken. […] [NYT] reported the shooter, identified as 30-year-old Patrick Joseph White, was fixated on the Covid vaccine, which he blamed for his health problems.
    […]
    newly appointed CDC Director Susan Monarez convened an online all-hands meeting […] staff described being terrified as bullets struck the buildings where they worked, and of being trapped inside until late in the evening. One said they felt like “sitting ducks.” […] dozens of staffers posted messages in the meeting chat, many naming Kennedy, who oversees the CDC at the Department of Health and Human Services, citing his years of spreading misinformation about vaccines and vilifying the health agencies he now leads.
    […]
    Kennedy did post a message of support to the CDC from his HHS account shortly after the meeting. [boilerplate lies about unity and honoring them]

  29. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    WaPo – IRS, White House clashed over immigrant data before tax chief was ousted

    Homeland Security sent the IRS a list Thursday of 40,000 names of people DHS officials thought were in the country illegally and asked the IRS to use confidential taxpayer data to verify their addresses […] The Treasury Department, the parent agency of the IRS, and DHS agreed to an arrangement in April to facilitate such data sharing—over the objections of the tax service’s privacy lawyers. DHS officials have suggested they would eventually ask the IRS for help locating 7 million people. There are about 11 million undocumented immigrants […]

    On Friday, though, the IRS responded that it was able to verify fewer than 3 percent of the names immigration enforcement officials submitted […] White House officials requested additional information on the taxpayers the IRS identified […] The IRS declined to provide that information, citing taxpayer privacy rights.
    […]
    Long had previously sparred with Treasury officials over plans to start tax filing season around Presidents’ Day in February—about a month behind schedule—and also preemptively announced plans to eliminate the IRS’s Direct File program, even though Treasury officials had not decided to do so

    Wikipedia – IRS Direct File

    The One Big Beautiful Bill Act directs the IRS to launch a task force to find a replacement to Direct File using public-private partnerships and provides $15 million to the Treasury Department to research alternatives. […] the Act did not include a provision requiring IRS to eliminate Direct File. […] In July 2025, The IRS Commissioner Bill Long stated the program is gone

    “You’ve heard of Direct File, that’s gone,” Long said. “Big beautiful Billy wiped that out. I don’t care about Direct File. I care about direct audit.”

    The agency has not confirmed the future of the program. […] Even if Direct File is eliminated by next year’s tax season, taxpayers may have options to file their taxes for free. The IRS has another free filing program where the agency partners with third-party […] companies […] although there are varying eligibility requirements

  30. John Morales says

    About Russia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkONphKmtuw

    In this video I discuss the World Economic Outlook Report published by the IMF recently which included a significant downgrade for Russia. This downgrade confirms the problems the Russian Economy is suffering and is due to a combination of factors including declining GDP, high interest rates, high inflation, high wages and a workforce shortage.

    For specific details please check out the CHAPTER list below.

    Chapters:
    0:00 Intro
    2:59 IMF REPORT
    6:33 GDP
    9:14 INTEREST RATES
    11:25 INFLATION
    13:52 WAGES
    15:45 UNEMPLOYMENT
    16:32 RUBLE
    18:06 SUMMARY & CONCLUSION

    It’s the beginning of the shit times for Russians. Alas.

  32. says

    After a deadly shooting at the CDC, shaken scientists demand answers from RFK Jr.

    “CDC Director Susan Monarez convened an online all-hands meeting of the agency division that focuses on vaccines, and employees called out Kennedy’s rhetoric specifically.”

    A shooting outside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Atlanta headquarters on Friday left a police officer dead and officials and scientists at the nation’s premier public health agency shaken. Many are now demanding answers from their health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has long vilified the CDC and contributed to a culture of misinformation that they say makes them targets.

    Citing a senior law enforcement official, The New York Times reported the shooter, identified as 30-year-old Patrick Joseph White, was fixated on the Covid vaccine, which he blamed for his health problems. In response to the shooting and reports of White’s motivations, newly appointed CDC Director Susan Monarez convened an online all-hands meeting of the agency division that focuses on vaccines — the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

    “It is not fair to all of you who’ve given so much to contribute to public health,” Monarez told employees during the meeting Saturday, according to a recording reviewed by MSNBC.

    During the meeting, staff described being terrified as bullets struck the buildings where they worked, and of being trapped inside until late in the evening. One said they felt like “sitting ducks.”

    At the time of the meeting, Kennedy had not publicly addressed the shooting. His most recent post on his personal X account showed him fishing in Alaska. [Social media post, with photos, is available at the link.] During the all-hands meeting, one employee asked Monarez if she had spoken with Kennedy directly or expected him to address the attack. Monarez called it “a good question” and said the CDC had been in “constant communication” with his office and that “more will be coming.”

    Kennedy did post a message of support to the CDC from his HHS account shortly after the meeting. It read in part: “We are actively supporting CDC staff on the ground and across the agency. Public health workers show up every day with purpose — even in moments of grief and uncertainty. We honor their service. We stand with them. And we remain united in our mission to protect and improve the health of every American.”

    The shooting marks a low point in an already dark period for public health. Officials and health care workers faced threats and harassment during the pandemic over vaccines and other public health measures. In the first months of the Trump administration, with Kennedy at the helm of HHS, the agency has undergone mass layoffs and restructuring.

  33. JM says

    EU Today: Misinterpretation Row Clouds US–Russia Peace Efforts Ahead of Alaska Summit

    Confusion continues to surround the forthcoming United States–Russia summit on Ukraine, scheduled for 15 August in Alaska, following allegations that US special envoy Steve Witkoff misinterpreted key elements of the Russian position during talks with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
    The meeting, announced earlier this week by Presidents Donald Trump and Putin, is intended to explore ways to end hostilities. However, accounts from European and Ukrainian officials, reported in Bild and corroborated by other sources, indicate that Moscow has not altered its core demands since early 2022. These include the complete withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the four occupied regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, alongside recognition of Russian control over Crimea.
    It had been suggested in earlier US briefings that Russia was prepared to withdraw from parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in exchange for Ukrainian forces leaving parts of the Donetsk region. However, according to Bild, this was the result of a misunderstanding. In reality, Putin reportedly called for Ukraine to withdraw entirely from all four regions, without offering reciprocal territorial concessions.

    Everything on this issue seems to point back to one source but apparently it has been confirmed by some other sources that don’t want identified.
    Trump administration official may have screwed up hard. Apparently Witcoff misunderstood Russia’s negotiations and though Russia was willing to trade some occupied territory for peace. Turns out that wasn’t the case, Russia is still demanding they be allowed to keep everything along with other demands. If this is true the peace talks are entirely pointless. Ukraine will not accept a peace that just sets them up for the next invasion.
    I guess Trump felt he could hammer out some treaty by trading land to lay out a border line. Something that he could get the EU to agree too and then more or less force Ukraine to accept. But if Russia isn’t going to give up anything then it doesn’t work. What does Trump do? I don’t know. I can see anything from Trump going all in on backing Ukraine to Trump saying Ukraine must surrender and stopping all support. The entire spectrum is possible for Trump in this case.

  38. says

    This one seems to have flown under the radar so far, but it definitely seems to be important:

    Appeals court rules Trump clamp-down on spending data defies Congress’ authority

    An order issued Saturday evening by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panel gives the administration until Friday to restore the data online.

    A federal appeals court panel shot down a Trump administration bid to make secret a public database of federal spending that researchers say is crucial to ensure the administration is not flouting Congress’ power of the purse.
    In an order issued Saturday evening, the three-judge D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panel voted unanimously to give the administration until Friday to put the data back online.

    Two of the three appeals judges assigned to the matter also signed onto a forceful opinion declaring that the administration’s bid to conceal the data was an affront to Congress’ authority over government spending, one that threatened the separation of powers and defied centuries of evidence that public disclosure is necessary for the public good.

    So not only a very quick deadline — so we’re gonna see by Aug 15th if he’s gonna defy the courts — but also a very clear statement that the action was utterly out of line. […]

    Link

    Posted by a reader of the article:

    Trumps trying to “hide the ball” on a few more things too. The Epstein files. The Bureau of Labor Statistics report. The funding of his presidential library. The cost of his new bribe force one.

  39. says

    Acute, Sustained, Profound and Abiding Rage’: Canada Finds Its Voice

    Canada is living through an era of acute, sustained, profound and abiding rage. The source is President Trump; the object is the United States. [Trump], commander of the most powerful military the world has ever known, has declared repeatedly that he intends to soften up the Canadian economy in preparation for annexation. Americans, from what I can tell, don’t seem to take this possibility seriously, even though he undertook the task in earnest last week by imposing a 35 percent tariff. The American threat to our sovereignty, so sudden, so foolish, is reshaping Canadian life.

    All over the world […] nations are reforming their priorities, changing their institutions and, as a result, changing their identities. By 2027, Japan’s military budget will have swelled 60 percent in five years. Germany, too, is having to remilitarize, though it is having difficulty finding willing troops; the stigma against combat has been inculcated for several generations. Brazil has already begun trading with China in Chinese currency, discovering a means of avoiding contact with America altogether. [….] But perhaps nowhere is the change more profound than in Canada.

    […] the province of Ontario has banned all sales of American alcohol. More than two-thirds of Canadians say they plan to buy fewer American grocery products this year. Canadian travel to America continues its steep decline, although that may have less to do with political resistance than with the fact that the United States has made spectacularly clear that foreigners within its borders may be subject to detention, and possibly even violence, without recourse.

    […] the second Trump administration has established a more enduring truth about the United States: It is no longer a country that keeps its agreements. Mr. Trump has violated the deal he himself struck in his first term. […]

    […] Prime Minister Mark Carney declared during his victory speech after winning the federal election. “The system of open global trade anchored by the United States — a system that Canada has relied on since the Second World War, a system that while not perfect has helped deliver prosperity for a country for decades — is over.”

    This turn away from America is not only a Liberal Party position. “I was — I think it’s fair to say — probably the most pro-American prime minister in Canadian history,” Stephen Harper, whose administration lasted from 2006 to 2015, recently told the Midwestern Legislative Conference, a cross-border meeting of American and Canadian lawmakers, before acknowledging that he advised the current Liberal government to diversify as rapidly as possible. “We just cannot be in a position in the future where we can be threatened in this way.”

    The first liquefied natural gas shipment from Canada to Asia arrived in South Korea in mid-July. China is buying our crude oil rather than America’s. This is Canada’s future.

    Beyond trade, it is the talk of annexation that has most deeply changed Canadians’ sense of themselves. The Canadian military has been designed, almost exclusively, to fulfill commitments to our alliances. For that reason, it is small and elite — a little over 70,000 troops. Actually defending the country’s borders has never been a matter anyone had to think much about.

    […] A year ago, the idea that the U.S. Marines would be deployed to Los Angeles in support of masked agents who don’t always identify themselves would have been seen as dystopian fiction. The motto of the United States has changed from “In God we trust” to “Nothing is true, everything is permitted.”

    When countries backslide out of democracy, invading neighbors is typically the kind of justification autocratic leaders use to suspend their own laws. Ask the Ukrainians. […]

    the Finns survive living next to Russia, a much larger neighbor intermittently collapsing under the weight of incompetent government and exploding outward with imperialist ambition. Canada has a long tradition of conscription during global crises and world wars, but it is not a country that revels in its military.

    […] Even after Covid and the failure to create adequate infrastructure for new Canadians, which lead to a pullback on immigration, Canada still has one of the highest rates of naturalization in the world. This country has always been plural. It has always contained many languages, ethnicities and tribes. The triumph of compromise among difference is the triumph of Canadian history. That seems to be an ideal worth fighting for.

    […] Large groups of people in Canada, and one assumes in America, too, hope this new animosity will pass with the passing of the Trump administration. […]

    But it’s the American system — not just its presidency — that is in breakdown. […]

    Canada is far from powerless in this new world; we are educated and resourceful. But we are alone in a way we never have been. Our current moment of national self-definition is different from previous nationalisms. It will involve connecting Canada more broadly rather than narrowing its focus. We can show that multiculturalism works, that it remains possible to have an open society that does not consume itself, in which divisions between liberals and conservatives are real and deep-seated but do not fester into violence and loathing. Canada will also have to serve as a connector between the world’s democracies, in a line that stretches from Taiwan and South Korea, across North America, to Poland and Ukraine.

    […] Anger is a useful emotion, but only as a point of departure. We have to reckon with the fact that from now on, our power will come from only ourselves.

  40. says

    3 ‘elves’ are cycling from the German town of St. Nikolaus to Finland’s Santa Claus Village

    “The cyclists are traveling north to bring letters and Christmas wish lists addressed to Santa Claus from St. Nikolaus, in Germany’s Saarland state, to the winter-themed amusement park perched on the edge of the Arctic Circle.”

    ST. NIKOLAUS, Germany — Santa’s elves start early in Germany.

    Three postal workers set off Saturday on their nearly 1,860-mile bicycle journey from St. Nikolaus, Germany, to the small town of Rovaniemi, Finland, which is home to Santa Claus Village, according to German news agency dpa.

    The cyclists are traveling north to bring letters and Christmas wish lists addressed to Santa Claus from St. Nikolaus, in Germany’s Saarland state, to the winter-themed amusement park perched on the edge of the Arctic Circle.

    St. Nikolaus himself, with his long purple cape and a tall golden staff, was on hand Saturday to hand over the letters to the three elves. The trip will take roughly two weeks as the three cycle through Germany, Denmark and Sweden en route to Finland, dpa reported.

    The group is among the Deutsche Post volunteers who answer letters from children worldwide — more than 30,000 annually — that are addressed to the St. Nikolaus post office, which has its own postal code.

    The tradition dates back to 1967, and each reply features a special stamp.

    The town of St. Nikolaus is one of seven places in Germany with a Christmas-themed name, all of which receive letters addressed to Santa Claus or Saint Nick.

    This year, St. Nikolaus handed over his own wish list to the cyclists, dpa reported.

    He’s hoping for a reply from Santa Claus in Finland.

  41. birgerjohansson says

    Oops
    White House admits to accudentally tariffing some goods from Japan twice.

  43. Rob Grigjanis says

    KG @31: I don’t think Musk would be best pleased about being given an Afrikaans accent. So that’s good.

  44. birgerjohansson says

    You-know-who wants to keep the rabble away from USA So he wants every tourist to post a ridicilously huge bond before entering.
    Goodbye tourist industry.

  45. birgerjohansson says

    Rob Grigjanis @ 43
    Judging by his historical interests, Afrikaans is not his favv germanic language.

  46. birgerjohansson says

    In lieu of kitten videos, here is a heroic fantasy parody.

    Goblin Slayer Abridged (Parody) – Episode 6

    Goblin Slayer is trying to shield his childhood friend from the harsh realities in  the world. So he is totally not working as an adventurer. 

    “I am just a heavily armoured pest controller. I kill goo….gophers.  I kill gophers. In fact I have gotten a team together to help slaying gophers.” And he is totally not looking for goblin tracks in the dirt around the village.

    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=NUIEh9wM1qk

  47. lumipuna says

    From 15, JM quoting some outlet:

    So-called “virtual power plants” — networks of customer-owned assets that utilities can control as an alternative to building new traditional power plants — are the solution to a lot of the biggest problems facing the US power system.

    And noting:

    Calling it a virtual power plant is bad marketing speak.

    Nuclear family plant, perhaps?

  48. John Morales says

    No. Virtual power plant means it’s not actually a power plant, but the collective acts as one.

    Problem with it is that current batteries have a limited number of charge/discharge cycles before degradation is significant, not that the idea is bad. And of course, batteries are made of the stuff batteries are made from, so those spent ones can be recycled far far more efficiently than mining new ores.

    Nuclear (fission), on the other hand, is really bad; needs gobs of water for cooling because they generate thermal energy and convert only a fraction of that into electrons. The difference is wasted heat.

    For example: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/heatwave-france-nuclear-power-plant-b2773702.html

  51. John Morales says

    Ah yes, Birger. ‘Incredible’ as a vapid intensifier, not as an actual claim.

    (Unless he himself does not believe it) :)

  52. John Morales says

    Birger, I used to play D&D, and that is not it.

    What it is, is shitty Nipponese crap anime.

    (A bit of respect for the real thing would not go astray)

  53. John Morales says

    ‘What D&D Alignment is Goblin Slayer?’

    Just fucking check the character sheet.

    (It’s integral to D&D, about which you are clearly ignorant, Birger)

  54. John Morales says

    I remember the nips did some shitty shitty fucking idiotic interpretation of the Lensman series.

    Also, the Nips did a fucking typically shitty and culturally appropriated and fucked-up version of Ursula Kroeber Le Guin’s Earthsea fantasy series.

    Anyway. They fuck up all sorts of things (including the Lensman series), so to claim such a fuckup is for the fans is just ignorant and stupid. Not a good look,

    Point being, that’s most fucking certainly not D&D. FWTW.

  56. John Morales says

    Nobody ‘accidentally’ watches that shit, Birger. No need for that announcement.

    Also, that was not D&D, in case you missed it.

    (Content vs headlines; where you got that idea it was D&D, I do not know)

  57. John Morales says

    Well, sometimes an actually actual factual factually correct channel is around.

    FWIW, this is how newspapers in Russia are covering current events: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTy07cacBBA

    —

    Russian papers react positively to the choice of Alaska for the Putin-Trump summit: “No British spies here, Ukrainian agents or European ‘well-wishers’ to disrupt dialogue.” “The two leaders are isolating Europe & Ukraine.” One paper: Moscow only intends to “stop the conflict on Russia’s terms.”

  59. birgerjohansson says

    “10 Great Sci-Fi Movies That Are as Thought-Provoking as ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’

    Film # 5, Hard To Be A God will be practically unknown in the west, although a few may have read the novel more than forty years ago. 
    The novel was written by the Strugatsky brothers, who also wrote the novel filmed as Stalker

    You will know Blade Runner and – hopefully – the two Tarkovsky films.  Under The Skin is well made, but not for everyone. It probably helped Scarlet Johansson land the later role in Lucy.

    .https://collider.com/great-sci-fi-movies-thought-provoking-2001-a-space-odyssey/
    BTW Scarlet Johansson has Swedish-Danish descent and supported Obama 2008.

  60. redwood says

    @54 John Morales
    I’m disappointed and upset to see John Morales’ use of the offensive and disparaging term “Nip” to refer to Japanese people. It lowers the level of discourse on this site and taints the rest of us by its presence.

  61. birgerjohansson says

    ‘Nip’ was a WWII abbreviation of Nipponese used in the pacific theatre. Americans elsewhere used the abbreviation ‘Jap’. I assume both carry a negative association from that time.

  62. birgerjohansson says

    Good news- an indian community in Florida has succeded in (temporarily) halting the construction of the KZ in Florida.
    .
    A wholesome adventure anime – maybe something to enjoy during dark times?

    “You Need to Watch A Place Further than the Universe ”
    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=wO6CGqKimC0

  63. John Morales says

    “@54 John Morales
    I’m disappointed and upset to see John Morales’ use of the offensive and disparaging term “Nip” to refer to Japanese people. It lowers the level of discourse on this site and taints the rest of us by its presence.”

    Yeah, I get it.

    I actually did two years of Japanese in high school; nip is short for Nippon(ese), which is…

    meh. Here, BB will tell you what it is.

    Quoth it:
    “Nippon” (日本) is one of the native Japanese names for Japan. It translates to “origin of the sun,” hence the common Western nickname “Land of the Rising Sun.”

    These things are below me.

  64. John Morales says

    Back in the day, Frenchies were Frogs, Spaniards were Dons, and Krauts were names given to Fritz.

    Gotta love how people follow the words, not the sentiments at hand.

    (OOOH! Bad words!)

  65. KG says

    John Morales@63 and previous,
    If an ethnic or other identity-related term has come to be widely regarded as offensive, particularly but not only by those it refers to, then it’s offensive. Its etymology is irtrelevant.

  66. John Morales says

    “Good news- an indian community in Florida has succeded in (temporarily) halting the construction of the KZ in Florida.”

    Indian as in from India, or Native American as in from America?

    You didn’t specify, they are distinct, Birger.

    (In English, ‘Indian’ is capitalised. In Spanish, it is not, it’s ‘indio’. FWTW)

  67. John Morales says

    KG, well, be offended. Pointlessly, of course.

    I am about as racist as a fucking butterfly; people are people.

    But I am not fucking cringy about terminology, unlike some.

    (words, O so very powerful! Some are taboo)

  68. John Morales says

    I did a few years’ worth of Uechi Ryu and learnt the story of Kanbun Uechi, FWTW.

    (Lost a third of one testicle in the process, the rest of my ‘nads were saved)

    —

    Anyway, people being offended on others’ behalf is, um, an unsolicited offense.

  69. John Morales says

    Well, magic words and all.

    Trying again, without the taboo word.

    —

    Birger, I used to play D&D, and that is not it.

    What it is, is shitty Japanese crap anime.

    (A bit of respect for the real thing would not go astray)

  70. John Morales says

    I actually DM’d for several years at Adelaide Uni games.

    It was not anime. It was not fucking drama. It was D&D.

    Solving puzzles, fighting through quests. Not cutesy fucking anime angsties.

    (That was AD&D v2, ’81-83)

  72. John Morales says

    Ah, the joys of nuclear power.

    In the news: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/11/swarm-of-jellyfish-shuts-nuclear-power-plant-in-france

    ‘Massive and unpredictable’ swarm entered filter drums that pull in water, Gravelines operator EDF says

    The Gravelines nuclear power plant in northern France has been shut down after a swarm of jellyfish entered the filter drums that pull in cooling water, according to its state-owned operator, EDF.

    The plant in northern France is one of the largest in the country and cooled from a canal connected to the North Sea.

    Four reactors were affected by the incident, which occurred late on Sunday and led to the entire plant being shut down. Reactors 2, 3 and 4 stopped automatically when the filter drums of the pumping stations became packed with a “massive and unpredictable” swarm of jellyfish, and reactor 6 went offline shortly after, EDF said.

    The entire nuclear plant, located on the French coast between Calais and Dunkirk, has temporarily halted production as the other two units are offline for planned maintenance, EDF data showed.

    Several species of jellyfish are native to the North Sea and are often seen around the shoreline in the summer when the waters are warm.

  73. John Morales says

    The joys of climate change: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c05enyryqvmo

    Record warm seas help to bring extraordinary new species to UK waters

    The UK’s seas have had their warmest start to the year since records began, helping to drive some dramatic changes in marine life and for its fishing communities.

    The average surface temperature of UK waters in the seven months to the end of July was more than 0.2C higher than any year since 1980, BBC analysis of provisional Met Office data suggests.

    That might not sound much, but the UK’s seas are now considerably warmer than even a few decades ago, a trend driven by humanity’s burning of fossil fuels.

    That is contributing to major changes in the UK’s marine ecosystems, with some new species entering our seas and others struggling to cope with the heat.

    Scientists and amateur naturalists have observed a remarkable range of species not usually widespread in UK waters, including octopus, bluefin tuna and mauve stinger jellyfish.

    The abundance of these creatures can be affected by natural cycles and fishing practices, but many researchers point to the warming seas as a crucial part of their rise.

    “Things like jellyfish, like octopus… they are the sorts of things that you expect to respond quickly to climate change,” said Dr Bryce Stewart, a senior research fellow at the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth.

    “It’s a bit like the canary in the coal mine – the sorts of quite extraordinary changes we’ve seen over the last few years really do indicate an ecosystem under flux,” he added.

  74. birgerjohansson says

    More escapism.
    Predator: Badlands is due in November. It might just be a decent film.

    I have no big hopes for Ridley Scott’s next project, whatever it is.

  75. birgerjohansson says

    Some new invertebrate marine species are also popping up in the waters near Gothenburg.

  77. KG says

    But I am not fucking cringy about terminology, unlike some.

    We know – because you couldn’t give a shit about other people’s feelings, except insofar as they give you yet another chance to boast about how edgy you are. But the point of my #65 was a factual one: “offensive” is a term like “popular” or “well-known”: if enough* people are offended, a term is offensive, whatever you or I think about it.

    *Yes, it’s a vague term. Like most natural-language terms. But there are nevertheless clear cases and clear counterexamples.

  78. Rob Grigjanis says

    John @63:

    These things are below me.

    Morales doth bestride the narrow world
    Like a Colossus, and we petty men
    Walk under his huge legs and peep about
    To find ourselves dishonourable graves

  79. birgerjohansson says

    Ahem. I am told the orange entity will address his plan to take (illegal) control over DC today.
    You know, people in India knew how to deal with this kind of shit one century ago. Good luck trying to rule a city if the inhabitants do not want to be ruled. Of course, it might require grassroots activists to decouple from the Democratic leadership altogether. They are as useful as running shoes made of cement.

  81. birgerjohansson says

    Mile Johnson has allegedly used campaign funds to pay for his rent.
    Personally I do not mind if Republicans blow their campaign money on private stuff or cocaine, but this is apparently illegal.

  85. says

    John Morales, reduce adjectives like “stupid” and “ignorant” in your comments concerning other people posting on this thread.

  86. says

    Followup to comment 85: John Morales, I agree with other commenters who objected to your use of “Nips” to describe Japanese people. I will not argue with you over this, nor over your other offensive language today.

    I am now ready to ask PZ to ban you if you continue in this manner. You have been warned enough times. You have been asked to moderate your tone enough times. I have no more patience for this.

  87. birgerjohansson says

    Mark Rutherfotd is 74, Sting will turn 73 in a couple of months. I feel old.
    ☹️

  88. says

    Trump’s Oval Office chart charade can’t hide the truth

    “Outside the Oval Office, though, fears of “stagflation” are increasing.”

    Related video at the link.

    On Thursday, President Donald Trump took a break from gilding the Oval Office to summon the media for a presentation in a decidedly less flashy medium: printed charts. Less than a week after he responded to a disappointing jobs report by firing the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Trump showed reporters a handful of charts with data he liked much more. Tellingly, all but one of the charts compared the economic record of his first term with that of President Joe Biden’s. Only one chart (which purported to show rising median household incomes) concerned the current state of the economy.

    Outside the Oval Office, though, most experts aren’t describing this economy in golden terms. One term that is coming up more frequently is “stagflation.”

    “Stagflation concerns ripple through Wall Street as tariffs hit,” read one Bloomberg headline Thursday. JPMorgan analysts see “tariff-induced US ‘stagflationary’ slowdown in 2025,” Reuters reported in June. “It’s beginning to smell a lot like stagflation,” economist Paul Krugman wrote Friday.

    To help bridge the almost dizzying gap between the president and reality, here’s a question-and-answer guide.

    What is ‘stagflation’?
    It’s a portmanteau of “stagnation” and “inflation.” A stagflationary economy suffers from lower economic growth and steeper price increases. This combination limits policymakers’ options: Most tools to fight inflation (such raising interest rates) risk hurting economic growth, while most tools to boost growth (such as increased government spending) risk increasing inflation.

    Has it happened before?
    The last stagflation era in the U.S. began in the 1970s and spanned the presidencies of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and (the early years of) Ronald Reagan. Amid oil price shocks and the U.S. going off the gold standard, stagflation gripped the American economy and did not let go for years. By the summer of 1980, inflation reached over 14% and unemployment was at 7.5%. Only after the economy suffered multiple recessions and the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates to over 20% did the U.S. escape stagflation’s grasp. Millions of Americans suffered. Trump, on the other hand, survived thanks to a “small loan from my father” of nearly $60 million. [video]

    Why are experts worried about stagflation now?
    Because inflation is ticking up and economic growth and job creation are ticking down. On the price front, U.S. consumers face “an overall average effective tariff rate of 18.6%, the highest since 1933,” according to the Yale Budget Lab. The tariffs are starting to show up in prices as companies run through pretariff stockpiles.

    At the same time, in addition to the slowing pace of job creation, GDP growth averaged 1.3% for the first half of the year, down sharply from the last couple years. As economist Claudia Sahm points out, wage growth and unemployment rates remain largely unchanged, suggesting a reduced supply of laborers. Not coincidentally, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement carries out mass deportations, the number of foreign-born workers is declining. “The employment statistics,” Sahm concludes, “are broadly consistent with the reduction in immigrant labor supply.”

    […] Who provided Trump the charts?
    Stephen Moore, an economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, America’s leading think tank for misleading numbers.

    What were Moore’s sources for rising household income?
    “We have access to some data that no one else has,” said Moore. This “unpublished Census Bureau data,” he said, will be published “some time in the next six months.” Until that release, it’s difficult to confirm the data independently.

    Why does the name Stephen Moore sound familiar?
    Because you, a discerning consumer of news, remember Trump planned to nominate him to the Federal Reserve’s board of governors in 2019. Moore “decided to withdraw,” in Trump’s words, when Senate Republicans (who at the time still occasionally possessed spines) signaled they would not support his nomination. [video]

    […] As economics columnist (and current MSNBC host) Catherine Rampell pointed out while he was being considered for the Fed, Moore claimed the country was suffering from deflation (price decreases) when it wasn’t and flip-flopped entirely on stances depending on which party occupied the White House.

    “At best he cherry-picks data,” Rampell wrote Friday. “At worst he makes it up entirely. No one should report whatever garbage he’s turned into visual aids as bearing any resemblance to reality.” […]

  89. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    @61 birgerjohansson:

    WWII […] I assume both carry a negative association from that time.

    Wikipedia – Nip

  90. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    @81 birgerjohansson:

    Mike Johnson has allegedly used campaign funds to pay for his rent.

    Campaign Legal Center

    Following reporting [that Johnson had big loans yet no bank accounts or investments and that Johnson was living with an evangelical pastor trying to influence legislation, in a house owned by a Republican donor], Johnson’s campaign publicly confirmed in March 2025 that the representative had moved into another home in Washington, D.C., which was owned by fellow lawmaker Rep. Darrell Issa. Issa also confirmed that arrangement [*finances snipped*]
    […]
    Despite federal law prohibiting the use of campaign funds for personal use—including an explicit ban on using funds for mortgage, rent or utility payments on personal property—lawmakers across the aisle have been violating this law for years. Yet Johnson appears to be the first House Speaker credibly accused of violating this law in at least 30 years.

  92. says

    Trump to deploy the National Guard to D.C., place local police under federal control

    “If crime rates in the nation’s capital are already at their lowest levels in decades, why is the White House launching yet another power grab?”

    Donald Trump has spent the last few days vowing to unveil the details of a new “beautification” initiative regarding Washington, D.C., which the president has said would involve moving homeless people “FAR from the Capital” and reducing crime rates. “Washington, D.C. will be LIBERATED today!” the Republican declared online as Monday got underway. “Crime, Savagery, Filth, and Scum will DISAPPEAR.”

    As for how, exactly, he intends to do this, NBC News reported, “Trump announced this morning that he will federalize the Washington, D.C., police and deploy National Guard troops in an effort to fight crime.” [video]

    As far as the White House is concerned, this is the first in a series of related steps. After referencing New York City, Baltimore and Oakland by name, the president told the White House press corps in reference to his new gambit, “This will go further. We’ll starting very strongly with D.C.”

    Crime rates in New York City, Baltimore and Oakland have already sharply improved, and while Trump has repeatedly insisted that crime in nation’s capital is “out of control,” in reality, crime in D.C. has dropped.

    Indeed, we can say this with some confidence because U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office is still promoting a press statement from earlier this year that boasts about violent crime in the city dropping to a 30-year low.

    All of which leads to some awkward questions about why in the world Trump is doing this.

    The scope of the White House’s ambitions is not modest. The president isn’t just deploying National Guard troops in yet another American city, in response to a crisis that doesn’t appear to exist, he’s also claiming emergency powers to federalize a local police department, despite the apparent lack of emergency conditions that might warrant such a move.

    Trump, taking advantage of the fact that D.C. is not a state, also intends to overhaul cash-bail policies in the city, remove homeless encampments, and replace D.C.-area judges whom he doesn’t like, all while addressing potholes and roadway medians.

    The president even appears to be creating new criminal statutes on the fly, declaring at his press conference that those who “even think about destroying a statue or monument” in the city will “go to jail for 10 years.”

    Does he have the legal authority to make such declarations? By all appearances, the president doesn’t much care.

    Trump also took the opportunity to share some related thoughts about how his newly deployed forces would treat criminal criminal suspects. [video]

    “You knock the hell out of them. It’s the only language they understand,” the Republican said, adding, “You spit and we hit — and they get hit real hard.”

    Trump, of course, maintained very different standards for Jan. 6 rioters, many of whom did far more than just spit on police officers during violent clashes at the Capitol, but who nevertheless received presidential pardons from the Republican just hours after his second inaugural.

    As for whether any of this is legal, The Washington Post reported, “Under the Home Rule Act, President Donald Trump can assume control of D.C. police for 48 hours if he ‘determines that special conditions of an emergency nature exist which require the use of the Metropolitan Police force for Federal purposes.’ The takeover may be extended with approval of the members of Congress who oversee D.C. affairs. Any request of over 30 days must be passed into law.”

    The presidential announcement, in other words, was the first step, not the last, and the legal and political disputes that will soon follow are likely to be dramatic. Watch this space.

  94. says

    Despite all of the recent chatter about Trump’s alleged frustrations with Putin, the White House continues to deliver for the Kremlin.

    […] Trump not only abandoned his own sanctions deadline (again), not only invited Putin onto American soil in exchange for nothing, and not only gave an international pariah the legitimacy he craves, he also took some time at a White House event on Friday to assure the world that Putin “wants to see peace.”

    Russia’s war — which has intensified during Trump’s second term — clearly proves otherwise, and Trump himself has repeatedly suggested in recent weeks that Putin most certainly does not want peace.

    But Trump vouched for the Russian leader anyway.

    At the same White House event on Friday afternoon, Trump also suggested that Ukraine might have to agree to let Russia keep some of the Ukrainian territory that the Russian military took by force.

    In case all of this weren’t quite enough, Trump’s vice president, JD Vance, said on Fox News over the weekend that the U.S. is “done with the funding of the Ukraine war business.” And around the same time, Matthew Whitaker, the administration’s unfortunate NATO ambassador, suggested on CNN that Russia would likely be rewarded with Ukrainian territory it “earned on the battlefield.”

    About a month ago, after Trump teased a “major statement” about U.S. policy toward Russia, many observers thought the president might actually do something meaningful. When that didn’t happen, there were sighs of relief in Moscow. In fact, Russian officials were so concerned that the White House might actually try to punish them, that the Russian stock market soared after Trump signaled weakness again.

    A month later, after Trump again backed off his threats and invited Putin to American soil, the White House’s pitiful position was greeted with cheers in Russia once more.

    That’s understandable: As an analysis in The New York Times explained, the American president has given his Russian counterpart Putin’s “ideal summit,” without having to do much of anything.

    Sam Greene, a professor of Russian politics at Kings College London, told the Times, “It has been a very good week for Putin.” There’s ample evidence to bolster the point, though I’d add that with Trump in the White House, it’s been a very good seven months for Putin, too.

  95. says

    It’s hard to overstate the significance of Friday’s appeals court ruling by two Trump appointees short-circuiting the criminal contempt of court proceeding in the Alien Enemies Act case.

    For everyone closely monitoring the federal courts for signs they would cave to the Trump II onslaught, the ruling by Judges Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao (Obama appointee Cornelia Pillard dissented) was the manifestation of a worst-case fear: Namely, that higher courts will not backstop trial judges when they are faced with utter defiance from the Trump administration.

    The Alien Enemies Act case was a prime test case for how far the judiciary would let Trump go. It pitted Chief Judge James Boasberg of D.C., a skilled and respected jurist, against some of the most egregious conduct by the administration thus far, including its blatant refusal to comply with his court orders and its extraordinary obfuscation and gamesmanship to try to obscure what it was actually doing.

    The case ripened even further into a historic constitutional clash when a fired DOJ attorney turned into a whistleblower and started releasing internal DOJ communications that provided astounding new evidence of the department’s contemptuous conduct, implicating the very highest levels of government.

    The two Trump judges’ craven effort to make Boasberg’s contempt inquiry go away doesn’t just eliminate accountability for the misconduct in this case, but risks undermining any check to the Trump administration in other major anti-immigration cases and all of the other cases where the White House is seeking to run roughshod over the judicial branch.

    For these reasons, the case is primed for review by the entire D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, whose 11 active members are split 7-4 in favor of Democratic appointees. From there, the Supreme Court will be asked to weigh in. Confidence that the Roberts Court will defend Boasberg and trial judges is already low, which makes the capitulation by appeals court judges even more alarming.

    But in some ways it’s even worse than all that. Had the Trump administration complied with Boasberg’s order, the 200+ Alien Enemies Act detainees would have never ended up imprisoned at El Salvador’s CECOT facility […]

    No other case right now carries the historical weight of this one. […]

    Link

  96. says

    Followup to comment 92.

    Trump has deployed FBI agents to purportedly fight deadly crime in Washington, D.C. but crime is at a 30-year low in the city. The FBI will be reassigning 120 agents to go on night patrols in Washington—a city of 68 square miles and just over 700,000 residents. Those agents will be pulled from their other duties to serve on Trump’s pet project.

    [I snipped Trump’s blather about “scum” etc.]

    He also demanded that homeless people leave D.C.

    “Total violent crime for 2024 in the District of Columbia is down 35% from 2023 and is the lowest it has been in over 30 years, according to data collected by the Metropolitan Police Department,” the agency [FBI] said at the time.

    In contrast to Trump’s rhetoric, since Trump sent in agents they are dealing with far more mundane affairs. NPR reported that on Sunday night, at least two dozen agents were on the scene responding to a minor traffic accident between a car and a moped. That is hardly something that needs more than a response from local police—D.C. has a police force of more than 3,000 officers.

    Washington Post writer Drew Harwell noted the absurdity of Trump’s actions, posting a video in which armed federal agents walked through a tranquil D.C. as joggers ran past them. [video]

    [I snipped details about Trump deploying the National Guard.]

    Trump and his allies at conservative media outlets like Fox News are hyping up a purported crime crisis in D.C.—where most of the population is Black […]

    [I snipped details of other issues the Trump administration should be addressing, or that they are addressing in an incompetent manner. I also snipped details regarding ICE’s harassment of migrants.]

    And of course, Trump himself is a convicted felon on 34 counts, meaning that one of the most well-known criminals in Washington is the one purportedly declaring war on crime.

    Link

  97. says

    Trump’s tacky White House remodel might be illegal

    Trump’s rush to build a hideously ostentatious ballroom at the White House could run afoul of federal law, as he has yet to seek approval for the project that he claims will begin next month, The Washington Post reported.

    Federal law requires that Trump seek approval for the project from the National Capital Planning Commission, which was created in 1924 to review “the design of federal and certain local projects.”

    “Three former planning commission members told The Washington Post that a review of any exterior construction project at the White House is required by federal law,” The Washington Post reported. […]

  98. JM says

    @70 John Morales: D&D does not come with a required style of play. Even within it’s traditional range you can do anything from court intrigue to dungeon crawling, from romance to army management, with a lot of games including bits of many categories. Anime melodrama is not that big of a jump for the newer versions that are big on giving all characters limited use named powers, it just requires players to shout the name of their powers to activate them.

  99. JM says

    Radio Free Europe: With Desertions, Low Recruitment, Ukraine’s Infantry Crisis Deepens

    “Drivers, artillerymen, and cooks” are holding the line, says Bohdan Krotevich, an officer formerly with the Azov Brigade’s headquarters. “A maximum of 12 fighters hold sections 5-10 kilometers wide.”

    The Ukrainian army is running into manpower along with the Russians. For Ukraine the problem is everybody willing to join and easily able to do so already has. There is a shortage of new people to recruit and desertions are rising.

  100. JM says

    Yahoo: Ukrainian forces liberate Bezsalivka in Sumy Oblast

    The General Staff reported that units from the 33rd Separate Assault Regiment and the 24th Separate Assault Battalion had taken part in the operation. During the fighting, Ukrainian troops killed 18 Russian soldiers.
    Advertisement
    Bezsalivka is a village in Sumy Oblast’s Bilopillia hromada with a population of 91 people. It is situated near the river Volfa close to the Russian border.

    It’s an insignificant village, the important part is that they did so in an area that supposed to be part of the Russian line of advance. It shows just how shaky the Russian advance is.

  102. says

    @96 Lynna, OM expanded on: The FBI will be reassigning 120 agents to go on night patrols in Washington (D.C.). . . Those agents will be pulled from their other duties to serve on Trump’s pet project.
    I reply: Based on the credible reports I’ve read, this is tRUMP’s project for 2 reasons:
    1) his megalomania means he has to militarize and control everywhere he sees any opposition.
    2) even though he doesn’t really care about him as a person, he is ‘avenging’ the ‘mugging’ of bigballs the doge cockroach
    This is just more proof of this country turning into a fascist plutocratic militarized police state.
    ‘Nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide’ – – where have I heard that before?

  104. says

    KYIV (The Borowitz Report)—Giving helpful advice ahead of peace talks in Alaska, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested on Monday that Donald J. Trump offer Vladimir Putin “full sovereignty” over the state of Florida.

    “If you are considering some kind of ‘land swap’ for peace, Florida should be on the table,” Zelenskyy said. “With Florida, you have cards.”

    Explaining his rationale for a Russian annexation of the Sunshine State, Zelenskyy said, “There are already so many Russian-speaking people there, especially the oligarchs and criminals around Mar-a-Lago.”

    Speaking from the Kremlin, Putin said he would “consider” an offer of Florida, but only if it did not include ownership of Ron DeSantis.

    https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/zelenskyy-suggests-trump-give-florida

  105. says

    For at least the next 30 days, the Trump administration will control local law enforcement in D.C.

    President Trump on Monday ordered the Metropolitan Police Department placed under emergency federal control. He also said that he was activating the D.C. National Guard for a deployment of around 800 troops to the nation’s capital.

    There’s no emergency taking place in D.C. that remotely matches Trump’s justifications for the move. Violent crime rates are at a multi-decade low, according to DOJ data […]

    But at a press conference on Monday, Trump flanked himself with a cast of former Fox News hosts-turned-law enforcement officials and other longtime right-wing media fixtures that he’s appointed to positions of immense authority. They each took turns portraying D.C. as a Mad Max-style hellscape in sudden need of federal and military action. At one point, newly confirmed U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro (Judge Jeanine to Fox News viewers) reached back decades and threatened the “young punks” that have apparently overrun the capital.

    In that context, the move is quintessential for Trump II. There’s no emergency to justify what’s a brazen power play, though there is the now-familiar low-effort attempt to persuade their followers one is taking place. On the one hand, it’s an absurd play for attention. On the other, it’s a severe abuse of presidential power that senior officials blocked during Trump’s first term in office.

    Under two executive orders Trump issued on Monday, Trump federalized the D.C. police for 30 days. By law, any extension beyond that period requires congressional authorization.

    At the same time, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said that 800 members of the D.C. National Guard will begin to deploy to D.C. over the coming week. Their stated purpose, per a proclamation titled “Restoring Law and Order in the District of Columbia,” is to “address the epidemic of crime” in D.C.

    It’s not entirely clear what practical effect the move will have on the MPD. Pirro said that two Trump administration officials would oversee the police: Terry Cole, the DEA commissioner, will lead federal oversight while U.S. Marshals Service chief Gady Serralta will supervise command and control. Trump joked with Serralta at the presser that he would “fire” him if he turned out to be weak over the next few weeks.

    […] There are too many ironies here to count, but a big one has to do with January 6. Trump, himself a convicted felon, pardoned hundreds of people who attacked Capitol and MPD police officers in an effort to keep him in power after he lost the 2020 election.

    But for some of Trump’s acolytes, the point isn’t law and order so much as it is establishing political control. Chris Rufo, the conservative influencer, called for a “crackdown” modeled after El Salvador strongman Nayyib Bukele.

    It’s the second instance in the Trump administration’s nearly eight months that he’s sent in troops as a show of force against American civilians. In Los Angeles, the administration managed to skirt invoking the Insurrection Act by federalizing the California National Guard on dubious grounds and via equally dubious means. An appeals court approved the decision after a district court judge ruled it illegal.

    […] It’s a testament to how little resistance Trump has faced for moves that, in any other modern administration, would be considered absurd abuses of power […]

    It paves the way for further deployments of federal troops and further mixing of federal control, military operations, and local law enforcement.

    “I’m going to look at New York in a little while,” Trump said, before hamming it up with similar threats towards Chicago and, once again, Los Angeles. […]

    Link

  106. says

    Followup to comment 105.

    Führer Trump Invading DC Now, New Dictatorship Level Unlocked!

    Maybe to distract from the Epstein files that he is not releasing, or how he’s planning to fly to Alaska on Friday to kiss Putin’s pucker, or how tariffs are sending prices of The Groceries through the roof, today Donald Trump went and did what he threatened to do last week after Big Balls got beat up by a couple of 15-year-olds. He announced a federal takeover of the DC police, and National Guard troops to patrol the city’s streets. It was a press conference that was a bold cavalcade of lies, even for him.

    Watch him and his lineup of clowns, if you want. [video]

    If you don’t want to watch, first he natters about his ballroom, his beautiful ballroom, then he gets to how right outside the door in the streets of DC is “bloodshed, bedlam, squalor and WORSE.”

    “We’re going to take our capital back. We’re taking it back. Under the authorities vested in me as the president of the United States, I’m officially invoking section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act. You know what that is? And placing the DC Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control.”

    […] “The number of car thefts has doubled over the past five years. And the number of carjackings has more than tripled. Murders in 2023 reached the highest rate.”

    This is a shameless lie, the violent crime rate in DC is at an all-time low, and carjackings are down 50 percent from the same time last year. In fact, a press release from Pam Bondi’s own DOJ breaks it down:

    In addition to the overall violent crime reduction, homicides are down 32%; robberies are down 39%; armed carjackings are down 53%; assaults with a dangerous weapon are down 27% when compared with 2023 levels, with the District reporting the fewest assaults with dangerous weapons and burglaries in over 30 years.

    And, he’s going to get the Park Service to tear up all those tents that offended his eye yesterday. […] “We have slums here. We’re getting rid of them. I know it’s not politically correct. You’ll say, ‘Oh, so terrible.’ No, we’re getting rid of the slums where they live.” [social media post, with photos]

    […]

    “See, they fight back until you knock the hell out of them because it’s the only language they understand. But they fought back against law enforcement last night. And uh, they’re not going to be fighting back long because I’ve instructed them and […] now they are allowed to do whatever the hell they want.”

    Great.

    And not only that! He’s sending in 800 National Guard troops. Remember when he said he didn’t have the power to activate the National Guard on January 6? […]

    Five-hundred agents from the FBI, ATF, DEA, Park Police, the US Marshal Service, the Secret Service, and the Department of Homeland Security will also be on patrol. Plus, ICE and the Border Patrol are going to be there, to catch all the immigrants. And Trump is going to repave all the roads and fill in all the potholes. And then Judge Jeanine Pirro, now the US Attorney for DC (shudder), is going to pick MAGA judges for the bench, and then Barron Trump is going to marry Sydney Sweeney and they’re going to make a lot of white babies!

    But hold up, that is a whole lot of fucking people on the streets of DC, which is not spread out like Los Angeles is. And a whole lot of federal agents hoofing around on foot patrol instead of investigating, like, major crimes. And indeed, the federales had already hit the streets on Sunday night, reports NPR:

    Groups of uniformed agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration and other agencies could be seen strolling streets in small groups.

    At one intersection, a minor traffic accident between a car and a moped brought at least two dozen agents running, some wearing masks and one carrying a rifle. Local D.C. Metropolitan police were also on scene.

    More than 24 armed people responding to a fender-bender, what a clusterfuck!

    And look at these DEA turds gallumphing on the mall: [video]

    […] Also, there is a new youth curfew in a zone around the Navy Yard, prohibiting anyone under 18 from being on the street after 8 p.m. without a parent, temporarily but indefinitely. Are you 17 and want to go buy gum at the bodega? STRAIGHT TO JAIL.

    […] Here is hoping the judge smacks the regime down again, and then maybe the Supreme Court’s six wingnuts will pause for second thoughts about really wanting a military dictatorship with all the trimmings, once fatass military vehicles are hogging the roads on their commutes to Virginia. Because Trump sure wants to go further, of course, like he always has, and take over more “really bad” cities. Maybe even one near YOU. […]

    Who would have thought the beatup of Big Balls would be their Reichstag fire? If it was fiction, no one would believe it.

  107. says

    Nvidia, AMD agree to pay U.S. government 15% of AI chip sales to China

    “Trump says he told Nvidia chief that ‘I want you to pay us as a country something.’ Some experts say the highly unusual arrangement may be unconstitutional.”

    U.S.-based chipmakers Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices have agreed to pay the United States 15 percent of their revenue from sales of artificial intelligence chips in China, a highly unusual arrangement that some experts warn may be unconstitutional.

    Under the financial agreement, the companies will give the U.S. government a portion of their sales as a prerequisite to obtaining export licenses for China, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter in public.

    Nvidia issued a statement after the Financial Times first reported the arrangement Sunday.

    “We follow rules the U.S. government sets for our participation in worldwide markets. While we haven’t shipped H20 to China for months, we hope export control rules will let America compete in China and worldwide,” a spokesperson for Nvidia, referring to the company’s sought-after H20 AI chips, said in a statement. […]

    In April, the Trump administration halted H20 chip sales to China, citing security risks, but announced a reversal of the decision in July shortly ahead of another round of trade talks with Beijing. The H20 had been Nvidia’s last AI chip allowed to be sold to China after the Biden administration clamped down on such sales starting in 2022.

    President Donald Trump dismissed the H20 as “an old chip” that doesn’t advance China’s capabilities, though “it still has a market” there. In a White House news conference on Monday, he said he had had a conversation with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, whom he called “a great guy,” about allowing the chip’s export. “I said, if I’m going to do that, I want you to pay us as a country something because I’m giving you a release.”

    The H20, introduced in late 2023 with the Chinese export market in mind, lacks the power of Nvidia’s most sophisticated chips but is still sought after in a nation that competes with the U.S. on AI development.

    […] “In addition to the policy problems with just charging Nvidia and AMD a 15% share of revenues to sell advanced chips in China, the U.S. Constitution flatly forbids export taxes,” Peter Harrell, the White House senior director for international economics under the Biden administration, said in a Sunday post on social media.

    Christopher Padilla, a top export control official in the George W. Bush administration who is now a senior adviser with the Brunswick Group consulting firm, echoed those fears, describing the deal as “unprecedented and dangerous.”

    “Export controls are in place to protect national security, not raise revenue for the government,” Padilla said. “This arrangement seems like bribery or blackmail, or both.’’

    William Aceves, a law professor at the California Western School of Law, said it would generally be up to Nvidia or AMD, who are directly affected by the arrangement, to challenge the administration in court.

    […] Another person familiar with the administration’s deliberations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to give a frank assessment, said the deal suggests that “companies can pay for the right to undermine our national security.” […]

  108. says

    CNBC:

    President Donald Trump on Monday delayed high U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods from snapping back into place for another 90 days, a White House official told CNBC. Those tariffs were set to resume after midnight Tuesday. But Trump signed an executive order hours beforehand that extends the deadline until mid-November, according to the official.

  109. says

    NBC News:

    Five Al Jazeera journalists were killed in a targeted Israeli airstrike in Gaza on Sunday, the network said, with the Israel Defense Forces claiming one was a Hamas leader posing as a journalist. The network said that Anas al-Sharif; another journalist, Mohammed Qreiqeh; and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa were killed.

    NBC News:

    Australia said Monday that it plans to recognize a Palestinian state, joining a growing list of Western governments making the move as Israel becomes increasingly isolated over the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

  110. says

    CNN:

    The Internal Revenue Service began sharing sensitive taxpayer data this week with immigration authorities searching for undocumented migrants, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

  111. JM says

    USAToday: Trump says he’s looking at reclassifying marijuana at federal level

    “We’re looking at reclassification and we’ll make a determination over the next few weeks,” Trump said at news conference August 11.
    Though 45 states have legalized the use of marijuana for medicinal or recreational use, the federal government still classifies it as a Schedule I drug.

    They are talking about reducing the classification from class 1, not making it legal. This would make it legal with prescriptions. It would also reduce penalties. Given how unpopular prosecution is it would likely cause the FBI to largely give up investigations just for possession or buying small amounts.

    The move began in 2022, when then-President Joe Biden asked the Department of Health and Human Services and the Drug Enforcement Administration to review how marijuana is scheduled. In 2023, Health and Human Services recommended that marijuana be moved to Schedule III. In 2024, DEA proposed a rule to transfer marijuana to Schedule III. That rule change has been on hold since March 2025.

    Actually a Biden proposal but nobody tell Trump that. As long as he doesn’t know he might do the right thing by accident. It’s likely an attempt to distract from other news, throwing things into the press releases and seeing if anything sticks.

  112. says

    https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/dc-mayor-says-best-way-for-trump

    DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA (The Borowitz Report)—The mayor of Washington DC suggested on Monday that the best way for Donald J. Trump to empty the streets of the nation’s capital would be to throw himself another birthday parade.

    “You want to see people clear out?” Muriel Bowser said to reporters. “Get a bunch of those squeaky old tanks rolling down the streets and you won’t see anyone for miles.”

    “Not to take anything away from the National Guard,” she aded. “But in terms of getting people to vanish, nothing in history has come close to President Trump’s parade.”

    At the White House, press secretary Karoline Leavitt blasted the mayor’s plan, arguing, “Far from making people leave the city, a birthday parade would only make them fall asleep, like Melania.”

    The Borowitz Report is satire.

  117. birgerjohansson says

    Fun fact: when Abraham Lincoln was a state senator in 1840 he did quorum breaking by jumping out a window! So it IS a Republican tradition.

    “Texas governor fumes when confronted on his failed legal logic”
    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=2wgTM2Vrd2A
    I love seeing pompous assholes fuming when their moves are blocked.

  119. birgerjohansson says

    Lynna, feel free to delete this if you find it gross.

    I did not origonally intend to link to this, but with the ‘Epstein friend’ facing consequences for the first time it seems apt.

    At first, it seems like ordinary heroic fantasy; adventurers surrounded, and a powerful mage (Sword Maiden) doing a Helms Deep in the last minute with an army stomping on the monsters.

    But the backstory is significant. Goblins are gross, weak monsters mostly serving as expendable muscle for demons and demon cults. A disgusting detail in ‘Goblin Slayer’ is that goblins have no females and reproduce by XXXX their female captives.

    Sword Maiden is a survivor -this is how she was blinded- but after a decade has overcome the trauma enough to personally confront goblins in battle and crush them. I was inevitably reminded of E. Jean Carrol and Giesele Pelicot challenging their abusers.

    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=91hsCXU3gIo

  120. birgerjohansson says

    StevoR @ 118
    During the Silurian, the energy output of the sun would have been measureably weaker than today -almost a per cent less- yet the climate was much warmer.

    This is before the carboniferous vegetation locked up carbon in enormous amounts of lignin that got buried in the sediments without being metabolised and recycled by fungi and bacteria.

  125. says

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

    Maddow points out the dark possibility behind Trump’s removal of IRS commissioner Billy Long
    Video is 5:57 minutes

    ‘Dangerous decision’: Trump shamed by health experts for reckless cut of vaccine research money
    Video is 6:54 minutes

    ‘Not about crime’: Maddow cracks open Trump’s real motives in deploying the National Guard to D.C.
    Video is 10:09 mInutes

  126. says

    The Associated Press reported:

    The CBO estimates that the 10% of poorest Americans will lose roughly $1,200 a year as they experience restrictions on government programs like Medicaid and food assistance, while the richest 10% of Americans will see their income increase by $13,600 from tax cuts.

    Commentary:

    […] While it’s true that the CBO found that middle-income households are poised to get a little more from the Republican tax breaks, it’s also true that (a) the increases would amount to less than 1% of their annual income, which isn’t enough to keep up with inflation; and (b) the largest beneficiaries of the Republicans’ law are the top 10% of earners.

    There is no modern precedent for such a regressive redistribution of wealth. Traditionally, elected officials have feared a public backlash if they try to take from the poor to give to the rich, but shortly before the Fourth of July, Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and their GOP cohorts did it anyway.

    […] The latest CBO findings come roughly a week after the budget office concluded the Republican megabill is on track to add roughly $5 trillion to future budget deficits over the next decade.

    GOP policymakers could’ve waited to pass their signature domestic policy legislation until they had these analyses in their hands, but Republicans decided not to bother.

    Link

  127. says

    Last week, Donald Trump apparently saw Charlamagne Tha God, a prominent radio host and author, appear on Fox News, and the president was unimpressed. In fact, he published an item to his social media platform in which he called the media figure “a Low IQ individual” and “a dope.”

    To bolster his case, Trump argued, among other things, that Charlamagne didn’t appear to know that his White House is responsible for “creating the greatest economy, where prices and Inflation have come way down.”

    Putting aside the racist implications of Trump repeatedly referring to people of color as low-IQ, the president’s boasts were demonstrably wrong. The current U.S. economy clearly isn’t the “greatest,” and the idea that he and his administration have brought inflation “way down” is routinely contradicted by reality.

    Consider the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The New York Times reported that the White House’s trade tariffs have “intensified price pressures across a wider range of consumer goods and services.” From the article:

    The Consumer Price Index stayed steady at 2.7 percent compared to the same time last year. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.2 percent from June. But an important gauge tracking consumer prices that strips out volatile food and energy prices accelerated more rapidly. ‘Core’ C.P.I., which is closely watched by the [Federal Reserve], jumped 0.3 percent over the course of the month, or 3.1 percent on a year-over-year basis. That is one of the largest monthly increases so far this year and represents the fastest annual pace in five months.

    […] the gap between the president’s assurances and the real-world evidence is quickly growing into a chasm. Two weeks ago, for example,Trump sat down with New York Post columnist Miranda Devine and made a rather specific claim — not only about the key economic issue, but about his perceived successes.

    “You know, if you think, inflation, I’ve already taken care of,” the president said. “Prices are way down for everything — groceries, everything.”

    But grocery prices are up, not down, and inflation obviously hasn’t been “taken care of.”

    […] Soon after, the Commerce Department reported the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index — a metric that’s closely watched by the Federal Reserve for evidence of inflation — is also climbing, and as The New York Times reported, the data represented “the latest sign that President Trump’s tariffs are starting to bleed through into consumer prices.”

    It’s something to consider the next time he pretends he pushed inflation “way down.”

    Link

  128. says

    Washington Post link

    “EXCLUSIVE: Pentagon plan would create military ‘reaction force’ for civil unrest.”

    “Documents reviewed by The Post detail a prospective National Guard mission that, if adopted, would require hundreds of troops to be ready round-the-clock.”

    The Trump administration is evaluating plans that would establish a “Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force” composed of hundreds of National Guard troops tasked with rapidly deploying into American cities facing protests or other unrest, according to internal Pentagon documents reviewed by The Washington Post.

    The plan calls for 600 troops to be on standby at all times so they can deploy in as little as one hour, the documents say. They would be split into two groups of 300 and stationed at military bases in Alabama and Arizona, with purview of regions east and west of the Mississippi River, respectively.

    Cost projections outlined in the documents indicate that such a mission, if the proposal is adopted, could stretch into the hundreds of millions of dollars should military aircraft and aircrews also be required to be ready around-the-clock. Troop transport via commercial airlines would be less expensive, the documents say.

    The proposal, which has not been previously reported, represents another potential expansion of President Donald Trump’s willingness to employ the armed forces on American soil. It relies on a section of U.S. Code that allows the commander in chief to circumvent limitations on the military’s use within the United States.

    The documents, marked predecisional, are comprehensive and contain extensive discussion about the potential societal implications of establishing such a program. They were compiled by National Guard officials and bear time stamps as recent as late July and early August. Fiscal year 2027 is the earliest this program could be created and funded through the Pentagon’s traditional budgetary process, the documents say, leaving unclear whether the initiative could begin sooner through an alternative funding source.

    […] While most National Guard commands have fast-response teams for use within their home states, the proposal under evaluation by the Trump administration would entail moving troops from one state to another. […]

    More at the link.

  129. says

    Trump’s tireless self-promotion could raise your mortgage rate

    When it comes to home mortgages, […] Trump has a plan. And it’s a very stupid plan, one where he destabilizes the housing market by turning mortgage behemoths Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into publicly traded stocks. He’s already got the vulgar branding lined up and everything.

    Trump’s plan is to launch an initial public offering for both Fannie and Freddie, which theoretically could raise around $30 billion. For reference, that’s only slightly more than Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s budget for next year alone. So, not exactly a windfall.

    Even the people pushing this idea don’t really understand how this would work. Fannie and Freddie don’t make loans. Instead, they package loans and sell them to investors. Those loans come with an implicit guarantee that Freddie and Fannie will cover payments if the mortgage holder defaults. Removing that guarantee could raise mortgage rates because the investments become riskier to hold.

    The head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Bill Pulte, suggested the government could retain control over Fannie and Freddie and continue the payment guarantee—yet somehow, they would also be publicly traded companies. No one has any idea how this would be accomplished, including Pulte, who didn’t offer any details on his grand plan.

    While regular folks would find buying a house more expensive, the people who matter to Trump—meaning billionaire investors—would see a windfall if Fannie and Freddie were privatized. One person who is sure to benefit is Bill Ackman, who has leveraged his support for Trump into a role as a sort of de facto economic adviser, tweeting out his thoughts and feels for an audience of one. […]

    Ackman has been banging the drum about privatizing the mortgage giants for months, even though they have been under government conservatorship since 2008’s financial crisis. Surely that’s not because his hedge fund holds the largest amount of existing Fannie Mae shares, worth about $1.2 billion. Ackman has held on to those shares for a decade, betting on eventual privatization—and a giant payday.

    Now that Trump has sunk his teeth into the idea, it’s somehow even worse. On Saturday, Trump posted some AI slop illustrating his dream: that Fannie and Freddie be combined and renamed as “The Great American Mortgage Corporation” and listed on the New York Stock Exchange under “MAGA.” Of course, in this AI fever dream, Trump rings the NYSE bell when the market opens that day. [Aaarrgghh. JFC]

    Trump loves to slap his name on everything […]

    The United States brokered a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan on Friday, and the deal came with a new transit corridor to be called “The Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity.” An anonymous administration official said the Armenians suggested the name, but let’s face it—that only happens in a world where everyone already knows the best way to suck up to Trump is to name something after him.

    […] the baby savings account program included in the Big Beautiful Bill, once called “Money Account for Growth and Advancement” (MAGA, sigh), had to be renamed as “Trump Accounts.”

    Trump sees the whole of the federal government as one giant opportunity for self-promotion, as if it were just another tacky hotel to which he licensed his name. If he has his way, everyone will be buying MAGA mortgage shares—well, whatever shares billionaire Trump-whisperer Ackman deigns to leave for the rest of us.

  130. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/same-sex-marriage-gets-closer-to

    “Same-Sex Marriage Gets Closer To Chopping Block”

    “The bigots are at it again.”

    She’s back! It’s Kimberly Jean Bailey Wallace McIntyre Davis, the Kentucky county clerk […] who’s been married four times and went to jail rather than sign a marriage certificate for two same-sex couples 10 years ago. Now she’s filed a Writ of Certiorari with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, asking them to overturn the judgment against her, a $100,000 jury verdict for emotional distress and $260,000 for attorneys fees. Oh, and for the court to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges entirely and do away with the right to same-sex marriage, while they’re at it. […]

    Kim Davis squalling about gay marriage violating her rights is nothing new, she has been filing appeals ever since she lost her first case, the lawsuits against her, and ALL of her appeals.

    In 2016, the Kentucky General Assembly passed a law removing county clerks’ names from marriage license forms, so no poor bigots would ever again be forced to risk eviction from evangelical heaven after Jesus sees their signatures on marriage licenses. Problem solved, right? Ho ho ho. Nope!

    In 2019, the same Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals told her to cut a check for damages and legal fees to the couple who sued her for not doing her job […]

    And in 2020, in an appeal on the very same case she’s still on about, the Supreme Court turned her down, in a decision penned by Justice Samuel Alito. He lamented it, taking plenty of time to moan some more that Obergefell had created whole new groups of “decent, honorable people” who were now being treated as bigots for refusing to mind their own fucking business about other people’s marriages, but said he was forced to turn down Davis’s petition for not presenting its questions “cleanly.” [LOL]

    Then this very March, a federal appeals court panel decided she could not sue over First Amendment protections because “she is being held liable for state action,” and demanded she pay up AGAIN.

    Lots of losing, but that’s our legal system! If you have deep pockets, you can keep on suing and filing as many appeals as you can afford to. And Davis’s law firm, Liberty Counsel, gets millions in donations a year to do nothing but that: Push cases that give the government license to discriminate, under the fig leaf of “religious liberty.” And now the makeup of the Court has changed since that 5-4 Obergefell decision. So Davis has officially asked, yet again, presumably more “cleanly” this time, making hers the first case to officially reach the Supreme Court and ask them to overturn the Obergefell decision.

    Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and John Roberts would be all for it, of course. Alito even wrote about it in his Dobbs concurrence: “we should reconsider […] Obergefell. Because any substantive due process decision is ‘demonstrably erroneous,’ […] we have a duty to ‘correct the error’ […] overruling these demonstrably erroneous decisions.” […]

    And the “error” that Alito talked about there is the right to privacy, and now that the court has chipped that away, other cases like Loving v. Virginia (interracial marriage), Lawrence v. Texas (private, consensual adult sex), and Griswold v. Connecticut (birth control) could be on the block too.

    Hey, remember when the bigots were all screaming that gay marriage would lead to people marrying their dogs and their cats, and that never happened? Now they are forced to acknowledge that the only thing damaged here is their feelings, it really hurts their feelings and distresses them so emotionally when people won’t let them impose their […] made-up “Christian values” on everybody. That’s it, that’s the argument.

    And now Kim Davis and her fellow bigots […] want same-sex marriage, and probably those other things too, to be states’ rights things, so they can be in a safe space like Texas or Kentucky and not have to face their self-generated emotional distress. And with this Supreme Court, Davis may finally find a receptive ear.

    […] a judge in Texas, Brian Umphress, is also suing the Texas judicial commission over having to certify marriages, because he doesn’t want to perform any same-sex marriages, and someday theoretically he might have to, and he would say say no, and then he would get disciplined about it, and THAT would be “something akin to racism,” which would injure him most terribly. And he wants a ruling that Obergefell does not override state laws. […]

    The Supreme Court might not take up Davis’s case at all; just because she filed it doesn’t mean they’ll hear it. But given how ants-in-the-pants the wingnut six have been to destroy any individual rights established since the Magna Carta, and how few shits they give about precedent, and how slobberingly eager they have been for decades to remake the land in their image, it’s also hard to see them passing up the chance.

    If the Court does overturn Obergefell, it would not mean millions of people would be instantly divorced. Legal protections for same-sex and interracial marriage were also codified into federal law in the Respect for Marriage Act, which was passed on a bipartisan basis in 2022, and which requires states to recognize marriages performed in any other state as legal. And US v. Windsor in 2013 requires the federal government to recognize any legal marriage. Those two things should still protect the legal status of existing same-sex couples and families at the federal level, and force states to still recognize marriages that already exist. But, the constitutions of 26 states have bans on same-sex marriage and any other types of same-sex unions, and 30 total states have statutes with the same effect, and Obergefell is all that is standing in the way of those states enforcing their bans. [Important facts]

    An overturn would mean issuing new marriage licenses could be outlawed at the state level in those states, creating a patchwork of marriage laws which would effectively outlaw it for anyone too poor to travel to a decent state to get married.

    If you are in a shitty state and worried, GLAD law has a guide and checklists to help strengthen your family’s standing with the law.

    […] Meanwhile, all over the civilized world LGBTQ+ rights are expanding. Thailand, Estonia, Greece, and Lichtenstein have all legalized same-sex marriage within the past year or so, and Japan is getting closer.

    And now here we are in America, with a religious minority of hypocritical evangelical cultists who cannot mind their own fucking business to save their lives, dragging everybody backwards with all their might. […]

  131. says

    […] As a historian and a teacher, I want to both figure out what we can learn from the past to help us figure out where to go and to communicate that to my students, who are often as depressed and horrified about what has happened to our country as those of us who have lived the last few decades of it.

    So I wrote short biographies of twenty Americans in order to provide readers some lessons and hope. The first thing to know is that no one is perfect. I focused on these people’s personal flaws as well as their amazing successes. We weigh down our current young people by creating myths about the greats of the past. We turn Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Cesar Chavez into our own Mount Rushmore of social change. We look upon them as heroes rather than as humans. When we cannot live up to what these legends did, we feel like we have failed. […] I don’t think that’s true. I think we can accomplish just as much as any past great leader of social change did. In fact, I think we can accomplish more.

    […] we in the lefty world ask for perfection from everyone and are too often damning of those who we agree with 90 percent of the time, but might not agree with 10 percent of the time. Social media makes this worse […] Organizing people is not surrounding yourself with people who believe what you do. It’s taking people who aren’t where you are and moving them toward where you think they should be, not by talking at them but by talking to them. […] That requires real listening and the commitment to move forward. But we can all do this.

    So, for example, I wrote about Myles Horton, who founded the Highlander Center to organize white southerners and then civil rights workers to make change in the South. Horton loathed racism and he refused to allow segregation at Highlander. That made for some really uncomfortable situations! But the only way he would turn someone away is if they held onto their belief in segregation so much that they would not share this organizing space with Black southerners. Tough conversations led to a lot of people rethinking their prejudice.

    Eugene Debs moved from being a racist in his early years to being anti-racist as he aged, for example. This early history doesn’t cheapen him. It makes him a real life person who needed to grow and who did grow. Daniel Berrigan was a righteous warrior against the Vietnam War and American militarism and he thought abortion was as great a crime as Hiroshima or My Lai. Does that mean we dismiss him today? I sure hope not!

    I discuss how it took Yuri Kochiyama until middle age to find a political awakening, at which time she became friends with Malcolm X and a foremother of the Asian American rights movement. […] Ella Baker organizing young people in the Civil Rights movement and then a chapter on the greatest of her organizing finds, Bob Moses, the architect of the Mississippi movement. When Moses burned out as a young man and disappeared from organizing for many years, he did not sell out. He gave what he could and just couldn’t give anymore.

    I remind us that not every white person in the past was a racist, telling the story of Benjamin Lay, the disabled Quaker who became the first warrior against slavery in colonial America. I remind readers that for all the racism that often infected women in the Suffrage movement, there were people such as Lydia Maria Child attempting to overcome that racism and develop ideas of universal rights all the way back in the mid-19th century. I focus on really well known people such as Debs, Ida B. Wells, and Dolores Huerta and the still obscure such as Kochiyama, the gay rights leader Barbara Gittings, and Richard Oakes, who led the Alcatraz occupation by Native Americans. I revive once famous people now largely forgotten such as Mike Quill, the New York transit union leader, and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, the “Rebel Girl” who became the radical voice of early 20th century America.

    […] Finally, this organizing has to happen in person. Online spaces have their place, but we know now just how social media has created the toxicity harnessed by the far right for their evil schemes. Online spaces can be useful […] if we can learn one thing from the history of organizing, it’s that it requires people learning to love and trust one another with their lives and that isn’t going to happen online.

    None of this gives us all the answers to Trumpism and the horrors we are facing. But without a return to organizing — actual organizing, person to person in real life, […] I know that we cannot stop this end of American democracy.

    […] The twenty book chapters are short, so you can easily pick it up and put it down. It might challenge you in spots but I hope it inspires you over and over again. I hope it helps give you courage to do a little more than you are already doing, […] let me know if you want me to talk to your group or whatever else I can do to help us all out by talking a bit about our history of making change together.

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/wherein-a-historian-tries-to-figure

  132. JM says

    @129 Lynna, OM:

    The head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Bill Pulte, suggested the government could retain control over Fannie and Freddie and continue the payment guarantee—yet somehow, they would also be publicly traded companies. No one has any idea how this would be accomplished, including Pulte, who didn’t offer any details on his grand plan.

    That part is simple. The board of directors takes care of day to day operations. The government would have a seat on the board and be able to step in and take control if they need to. The government still backs the payments.
    It’s a basic privatize profits but make losses a public expense scam. In good year the profits of the company would be channeled to owners through the stock but in bad years the losses become a government expense.

  133. JM says

    CNN: DNC chair takes steps to restrict corporate and dark money in 2028 primaries

    Martin will introduce a resolution at the DNC’s August meeting calling on a new reforms panel to explore ways the party can eliminate corporate and dark money donations from the upcoming presidential primary cycle, according to a draft obtained by CNN.

    More symbolic then anything but at least the party recognizes the problem. This is only for primaries, the party is not suicidal enough to cut themselves off from that money in the general election.

    The draft resolution does not explicitly mention super PACs, and it’s not clear whether it will ultimately restrict super PAC spending in party primaries. The draft concedes the “only way to solve for this problem in the long term is through Congressional action, including a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United,” the landmark 2010 Supreme Court case that helped usher in a new era of big money in American elections.

    The draft also acknowledges the big problem. As long as the current funding rules are enforced by the Supreme Court the super rich and large corporations will have more voice in elections.

  134. says

    JM @132: “It’s a basic privatize profits but make losses a public expense scam. In good year the profits of the company would be channeled to owners through the stock but in bad years the losses become a government expense.”

    Thanks. That’s a good point.

  135. says

    White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that homeless people in D.C. could face jail time if they do not use certain resources.

    “Homeless shelters offered, addiction and mental health services, or jail, if they refuse, are the options on the table right now,” she said, when asked about the administration’s plans to address homelessness in D.C.

    Leavitt stressed that a law on the books that was never enforced gives police the authority to take such actions.

    Homeless people in jail?

    Link

  136. says

    Expanding his radical ambitions, Trump intervenes in private American businesses

    “Business leaders thought the president would deliver tax breaks and deregulation. Then he started telling them how to run their companies.”

    Those who’ve accused Donald Trump of having authoritarian ambitions have an avalanche of evidence to work with.

    After all, since returning to power nearly seven months ago, the president has taken steps to exert unusual influence over everything from the economy to higher education, the judiciary to the media, the military to museums, labor unions to law enforcement, health care to sports teams, independent federal agencies to banks, cultural institutions to nonprofit organizations, the legal profession to the entertainment industry. [embedded links to sources are available at the main link]

    For all intents and purposes, there is effectively no part of modern American life that the Republican has characterized as off-limits. The White House’s reach, from Trump’s perspective, has no real limits.

    As is becoming increasingly clear, that includes intervening in private American businesses. The Wall Street Journal’s Greg Ip published a provocative analysis this week that rang true:

    A generation ago conventional wisdom held that as China liberalized, its economy would come to resemble America’s. Instead, capitalism in America is starting to look like China. Recent examples include President Trump’s demand that Intel’s chief executive resign; the 15% of certain chip sales to China that Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices will share with Washington; the ‘golden share’ Washington will get in U.S. Steel as a condition of Nippon Steel’s takeover; and the $1.5 trillion of promised investment from trading partners Trump plans to personally direct.

    Ip’s report added that it would be wrong to characterize this as “socialism,” because it more closely resembles “state capitalism, a hybrid between socialism and capitalism in which the state guides the decisions of nominally private enterprises.”

    […] It might be tempting to see this as evidence of Trump’s populism, but that’s not quite right: Trump isn’t challenging corporations and executives on behalf of workers, he’s doing so on behalf of his own whims and quest for power. (In fact, as he tries to exert influence over the private sector, the White House is making life harder, not better, for workers.)

    […] the White House has delivered corporate tax breaks and freed polluters from regulatory burdens — those same business leaders have also ended up with more than they probably bargained for.

    Indeed, the very idea that Trump is a pro-business president is increasingly preposterous. As he tries to dictate to America’s private sector, Trump is also imposing erratic policies on trade tariffs and immigration, all of which are bad for employers.

    [I snipped past warnings.]

    […] editors all but pleaded with private-sector leaders to recognize the looming dangers of a possible second term for Trump. […]

    Nine months later, as the president intervenes in private businesses in ways that defy modern American norms, those warnings appear to have been prescient.

  137. says

    Elon Musk is having another snit fit:

    […] On Monday night, in a flurry of posts on his social media platform, X, the former head of the Department of Government Efficiency alleged that Apple had rigged its mobile rankings to keep OpenAI’s ChatGPT at the top while his AI chatbot, Grok, languished in sixth place in the U.S.

    Musk also claimed Apple was “playing politics” by leaving both X and Grok off its “Must Have” recommendations and warned that his artificial intelligence startup, xAI, “will take immediate legal action.” […]

    In a pinned post, Musk directly addressed Apple.

    “Why do you refuse to put either X or Grok in your ‘Must Have’ section when X is the #1 news app in the world and Grok is #5 among all apps?” he said.

    This outrage is rich coming from Musk. He has been accused of manipulating algorithms on X himself, with a 2024 study finding that the platform’s feed was tweaked to boost his posts. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman happily reminded followers of a 2023 Platformer report, which claimed Musk had a special system in place to amplify his tweets across the site. [Typical of Musk]

    Even Grok has faced controversy. In June, the so-called “maximally truth-seeking” bot was caught incorporating Musk’s personal views into answers about abortion, immigration, and the Israel-Palestine conflict. More recently, it’s received bipartisan criticism for spreading antisemitic content, including Holocaust denial, praise for Adolf Hitler, and the repeated use of the meme “every damn time.”

    The conflict with Apple adds to a years-long feud. Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015, left in 2018, and has since accused Altman and Microsoft of abandoning the company’s mission to benefit “humanity broadly.” He is already suing them.

    Ironically, before threatening Apple, Musk had been celebrating Grok’s rise past Google to become the fifth most popular free app in Apple’s store. But that elusive “Must Have” feature still apparently frustrates him.

    […] Whether Musk will actually follow through on his legal threats remains uncertain. Apple’s close ties with Trump—with a $100 billion investment pledge and CEO Tim Cook’s lavish gift to the president—could make the company an important ally in Washington, D.C. Trump has called Cook “one of the great and most esteemed business leaders and geniuses and innovators anywhere in the world.”

    Apple’s alliance with OpenAI only adds fuel to the fire. Last year, it announced plans to integrate ChatGPT into its devices—prompting Musk to vow a ban on Apple products at Tesla, SpaceX, and X. Like many of his threats, that one has yet to come true.

    Link

  138. says

    CHEERS to cool science. Exciting news to share in the world of the dreaded “c-word.” Sounds like researchers are getting close to winning the war against one of the most insidious cancers:

    In an early trial, a one-size-fits-all vaccine showed promise in preventing hard-to-treat pancreatic cancers from coming back. Pancreatic cancer is of particular concern. The five-year survival rate is about 13%, and up to 80% of pancreatic cancers may come back.

    The vaccine targets one of the most common genetic drivers of cancer: KRAS gene mutations.

    KRAS mutations occur in about one-quarter of all cancers, including as much as 90%of pancreatic cancers and about 40% of colorectal cancers. Their ubiquity makes KRAS mutations a great target for cancer therapies, but the mutations have long been considered impossible to target with drugs. To accomplish this, the vaccine uses short chains of amino acids called peptides that teach immune cells to recognize and attack cells with KRAS mutations.

    Doctors say three things have to happen in order to roll out the new vaccine: expand the testing, modify the serum for maximum effectiveness and, most important, make sure that RFK Jr. never gets near it.

    Link

  139. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/pete-hegseth-reassures-big-strong

    “Pete Hegseth Reassures Conservative White Men It’s OK To Be Scared Of Washington DC”

    “All cities are scary!”

    By now we have all probably seen the video that went viral last night from the war-torn streets of Washington DC, where a guy threw an entire submarine sandwich at an FBI agent. You need to realize that before Donald Trump deployed the military and law enforcement against the American people last night, DC was just full of uncontained and unaccounted for sandwiches. Now with Trump’s MAGA militia in town, those sandwiches will be neutralized. [video]

    So that was just an example video of what happens in the City That Hurt Big Balls.

    OK, maybe the city didn’t hurt Big Balls, more like a 15-year-old girl hurt Big Balls, and she was in the city at the time. (Bet she and the 15-year-old boy who also hurt Big Balls ate a sandwich that day.)

    The point is that the mean streets are scary, Washington DC is scary, never mind that the crime rate is way down, especially the violent crime rate (that means the kind that involves sandwiches), and the biggest [doofuses] in America are frightened.

    We are of course talking about conservative white men.

    So the biggest Tough White Guys in the Trump administration and the Republican Congress went out on TV last night in their Conservative Guy Scared Of Cities costumes to reassure their fellow terrified […] white men that Big Daddy Donald Trump was on the case, that he was deploying the military in DC to go find the sandwiches, and that everything would be OK.

    And who’s the biggest [doofus] of them all? That’s right, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. [video]

    Hegseth said:

    “I think the vast majority of DC folks, they may not want to say it, especially if they’re left of center, but under their breath and quietly they would welcome a peaceful city where their friends and families can come visit and be safe.”

    Hahahahahaha, OK, let’s break this down a little bit. Because just before that Hegseth pursed his lips and talked about the “thugs and the gangs and the criminals,” signaling that what this is about for the Trump administration, and for the Fox News audience at home — which used to be his audience, so he knows — is reassurances that they’re going to protect them from Black people. (It’s always about Black people, existing.) […]

    […] So in that quote up there, Hegseth is employing a tactic, a coping mechanism really, employed by all white racist cowards, the one that assumes that everybody else is secretly as big of a racist, […] as they are, they’re just not brave enough to say it.

    Hegseth refers to the “vast majority of DC folks,” but it’s fairly obvious he’s thinking about white people when he thinks of legitimate DC residents. (As of the last Census, DC was approximately 41 percent Black, and around 38 percent white.)

    And then — this is crucial — he identifies himself with that 38 percent and assumes he can speak for them, saying that “they would welcome a peaceful city where their friends and families can come visit and be safe.” As if the vast majority of white residents in this city that gave Kamala Harris 90.28 percent of its vote in 2024 secretly feel just like Pete Hegseth feels.

    […] their fears are so all-encompassing that they cannot imagine that other people who look like them don’t also feel like them. And since conservative white men are so eat up with masculinity issues and always obsessed with proving they are the manly ones, they imagine that they are participating in an act of bravery by speaking these fears out loud.

    Compare this to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy being scared of the subway. “[N]obody really wants to ride them,” said Duffy, […] assuming he can authoritatively speak about what “nobody” wants to do.

    “This is what the American people voted for,” insisted Hegseth to[…] Laura Ingraham, referring to the bare plurality of Americans who voted for Stupid Hitler, none of whom live in Washington DC. He fearfully fantasized about people “tak[ing] a shot” at National Guardsmen, as if that’s been happening.

    […] But he wasn’t the only one. Other Republican white men have been rushing to the airwaves to say “Me too! Me too! I’m scared! I am scared just like you! We are all just scared!”

    Here is Senator Rick Scott: [video]

    SCOTT: “The first thing I tell everybody when they’re gonna come to DC is I say, ‘You need to be careful. You need to be careful where you stay, you need to be careful where you walk, you shouldn’t be out after dark.’ You’ve gotta be very careful up here.”

    […] Normal people do not say that to their guests. They do not say it in DC. They do not say it in New York. They do not say it in Minneapolis or Los Angeles. They say, “Ooh, I am going to take you to the best restaurant tonight!” and things like that.

    Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee: [video]

    BURCHETT: “You don’t wanna go out in the streets at night in Washington DC. […] I come from a family of public educators, that’s one of the reasons I live in my office at night, but the other reason is it’s too dadgum dangerous, brother!”

    […] Pete Hegseth, Rick Scott, and Tim Burchett are here to tell you it’s OK to be a coward, because they are too.

    And so is everybody else, even the liberals.

    They’re just not brave enough to say it like we are, are they!

    That’s right, there, there, conservative white men. You’re all big and strong […]

    Bless your delicate white baby loser hearts.

  140. says

    New York Times:

    Investigators have uncovered evidence that Russia is at least in part responsible for a recent hack of the computer system that manages federal court documents, including highly sensitive records that might contain information that could reveal sources and people charged with national security crimes, according to several people briefed on the breach.

  141. says

    RFK Jr. is super mad he can’t make other countries sabotage science

    […]Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is convinced not only that he got his current gig on merit but also that he is a genuine medical expert, despite no training whatsoever. Only someone with that level of hubris could demand that a major medical journal retract a study because he doesn’t like the outcome.

    Earlier this month, Kennedy called on the Annals of Internal Medicine to retract its publication of a large-scale Danish vaccine study. Kennedy is unhappy that the study found no link between aluminum in vaccines and increased health risks in children. Of course Kennedy is unhappy. That conspiracy theory is at the heart of his long-running anti-vaccine crusade.

    Never mind that the Danish study examined two decades’ worth of data on 1.2 million children to conclude there is no evidence that aluminum in vaccines causes autoimmune, allergic, or neurodevelopmental disorders in children. But Kennedy’s vibes say that’s wrong, so he penned a screed at TrialSite about how very wrong the study was. Kennedy played the hits, alleging that the “pharma-funded mainstream media” credulously reported the study conclusions and that the study itself was “a propaganda stunt by the pharmaceutical industry.” He claims the study is also bad because the Danish government owns a vaccine company and because there was no control group of unvaccinated children.

    The response from the medical journal was a polite, but definite “lol, nope.” The editor-in-chief of the Annals said she saw no reason to retract the study. The study’s lead author wrote a post at TrialSite addressing Kennedy’s critiques and pointing out things that are painfully obvious to actual scientists. For example, there was no control group because only 2% of Danish children are unvaccinated, which is too small to act as a control group.

    The normal course of action when challenging a study design is to start by writing a letter to the editor of the publication where the study appeared. Those letters include scientific evidence and citations. But Kennedy didn’t go that route, instead running to the safety of TrialSite. Because while TrialSite tries to look like an actual science publication, it’s nothing more than a pseudoscience haven pushing vaccine conspiracies and routinely showering praise on Kennedy for his anti-science efforts, such as terminating mRNA vaccine research. If Kennedy wasn’t the head of HHS, this would be nothing more than an “old man yells at clouds” sort of thing, but since he is, everyone has to pretend to take him seriously.

    Kennedy’s old anti-vax pals at Children’s Health Defense are also mad about the study. These people are also just cranks yelling at clouds, but one of their own is now head of the HHS. Kennedy also installed former CHD colleagues on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices instead of actual scientists.

    Unlike in the United States public health sector, Kennedy has no real leverage here. The Danish government funded the study, and the lead author is a Danish epidemiologist. Kennedy can’t threaten their funding because we didn’t fund it. He can’t threaten the institute where the author is employed, because it’s in Denmark. All the usual methods the administration uses to attack science just aren’t available in this situation.

    The administration simply cannot stand that it can’t exert authority over scientific journals, despite their best and stupidest efforts. [I snipped details of past efforts.]

    There is one thing the Trump administration can do to attack scientific journals, but it is a pretty paltry one. It can terminate all government subscriptions, which is precisely what it did last month with Springer Nature. Now, federal employees can no longer easily access Nature, the flagship British publication that is the most-cited scientific research journal in the world, not to mention the other 3,000 journals in Springer’s portfolio. Well, that’s one way to make sure federal employees have no access to actual science.

    This administration is doing its best to destroy public health and undermine science, but certain things remain untouchable—like studies funded by other countries that appear in journals not controlled by the U.S. government. Perhaps Trump will try to solve this by slapping a 1,000% tariff on Denmark. That’ll teach ‘em.

  143. says

    The dates of Aug. 11-12 marks the eighth anniversary of the neo-Nazi protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, billed as “Unite the Right.” After that event, the bigoted ideas and beliefs of that group of racists has now been integrated throughout the federal government thanks to […] Trump.

    [I snipped details about Elon Musk, DOGE doofus Marko Elez, Stephen Miller and other bigots and/or wannabe Nazis in the Trump administration.]

    […] Paul Ingrassia, who the Anti-Defamation League slammed for praising Nazi extremists, is a White House liaison. White House Office of Management and Budget communications director Rachel Cauley was on the board of the Patriot Freedom Project, a nonprofit that advocated for the release of Jan. 6 rioter Timothy Hale-Cusanelli—who infamously posed as Hitler in a series of online photos, not to mention spouted his rhetoric. Ed Martin, who works at the Department of Justice following an appointment by Trump, also voiced support for Hale-Cusanelli.

    On policy, Trump has created a bigot’s paradise. Since the first day his administration has been focused on attacking and erasing gains made following the Civil Rights Movement and era. He has sought to reintroduce discrimination in federal contracting, pushed to purge civil rights and pro-diversity language, and has even overseen the removal of acknowledgements of civil rights advances.

    At the same time, Trump has pushed policies like a ban on transgender military service, turning away Americans who have volunteered to serve in positions where they could be injured or killed in service of their country.

    Trump’s integration of the ideas the “Unite the Right” rallygoers are in favor of is so complete that Nazis have gone to the media to make their appreciation known. Dalton Henry Stout of the group Aryan Freedom Network recently told Reuters Trump has “awakened a lot of people to the issues we’ve been raising for years.”

    Stout also told the outlet that Trump is “the best thing that’s happened to us.”

    Link

  145. says

    Solicitor General John Sauer, one of President Donald Trump’s many former criminal defense attorneys rewarded with a high-level government job, wrote a letter Monday to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that is truly unhinged. Sauer wants the appellate court to stay a lower court decision blocking some of Trump’s tariffs, and says that if the court won’t, the entire American economy will collapse. No, really.

    Sauer’s letter is ostensibly one that is updating the court on “pertinent and significant authorities” that have come to a party’s attention only after filing their brief. This occurs often enough that there’s even a federal rule of appellate procedure about how to do it. Usually, it’s because a new and relevant case was decided while the appeal was pending, but it could also apply to other legal authorities, like a regulation or statute.

    So, what new pertinent and significant authorities does Sauer’s letter cite to support the administration’s request that the lower court decision be stayed so Trump can keep imposing tariffs while the litigation proceeds? Trump’s massive trade agreements, of course.

    Yes, the person who Trump tapped to oversee all government litigation and represent the government before the Supreme Court is arguing that because Trump did some tariff deals, that is legal authority for him to do more tariff deals. Brilliant stuff, sir.

    Of course, it doesn’t address anything in the lower court decision, which tossed Trump’s tariffs on China, Mexico, and India because they were not rationally connected to his pretend national fentanyl emergency, and there’s no evidence they would reduce the flow of fentanyl. Then there’s the whole thing about how tariff power belongs to Congress, which has delegated only some of that power to the president. The lower court found that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, created by Congress to allow the president some tariff authority during national emergencies, did not give the president unfettered authority to impose whatever tariffs he wanted. Put another way, the lower court held that Trump exceeded his authority under IEEPA. [Good explanation]

    If, say, another court had found the opposite—that these tariffs were great and cool and Trump totally had authority—that would be a reason to send a letter like Sauer did. In that instance, the letter would highlight the new authority and explain that the reasoning should be taken into account in deciding the appeal. But for Sauer, it’s just vibes and deals, baby.

    On July 27, after stating his intention to impose IEEPA tariffs, President Trump announced the largest trade agreement in history with the 27-nation European Union, America’s most significant trading partner. See Alex Gangitano, Trump, EU’s von der Leyen strike trade deal for 15 percent tariffs, The Hill (July 27, 2025). President Trump entered historic agreements with Indonesia, the Philippines, and Japan on July 22; and with the United Kingdom on May 8. These agreements support our request for a stay if the Court affirms.

    So, a court told Trump his tariff deals exceeded his authority under IEEPA. But Trump ignored that and did some additional trade deals under IEEPA anyway. Therefore, you have to let Trump do all the tariffs he wants under IEEPA. That’s the essence of Sauer’s argument. The citation for that legal authority? An article in The Hill about Trump’s trade deals. Sure, whatever.

    Oh wait. Sauer does have some other pertinent and significant authority for the court: If the appeals court doesn’t stay the lower court decision and Trump can’t continue his insane tariff-palooza, then there will be “catastrophic consequences for our national security. foreign policy, and economy.” Why? Sauer is sorta light on details there, but mainly it’s because “the President believes that our country would not be able to pay back the trillions of dollars that other countries have already committed to pay, which could lead to financial ruin.” Though conservatives treat Trump’s words as gospel, his beliefs are not actually legal authority.

    If that weren’t enough hyperbole for one letter, Sauer also says that if Trump can’t do tariffs, “people would be forced from their homes, millions of jobs would be eliminated, hard-working Americans would lose their savings, and even Social Security and Medicare could be threatened.” So, our entire economy rests on Trump’s tariffs, with “deals” so flimsy and malleable they change all the time and so messy that they result in things like accidentally double-tariffing Japan. Good to know.

    Sauer also told the appellate court that “One year ago, the United States was a dead country, and now, because of the trillions of dollars being paid by countries that have so badly abused us, America is a strong, financially viable, and respected country again.”

    It’s impossible to overstate how insane it is that this is tucked in a letter that is just supposed to be about how you found a new case. It’s also impossible to overstate how insane it is that the solicitor general is making an argument that the country was a hobbled wasteland until January 20, 2025, but Trump has saved us all, so he gets to impose any tariffs he wants. [Did Sauer just take dictation from Trump in order to prepare his unhinged court fling?]

    Sauer often takes this tough guy approach, but honestly, he tends to come off more like a petulant child. During oral arguments on the birthright citizenship case, he whined about how it is not fair that Trump keeps losing at the lower courts. When the administration was ordered to effectuate the return of wrongly deported Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia, he whined that it was too hard.

    Unfortunately, Sauer’s approach has proved remarkably successful at the Supreme Court, so he probably figured he’d take a shot with the court of appeals as well. And hey, if that doesn’t work, the high court’s conservatives have already made clear they will kneecap the lower courts to let Trump have his way. Who needs law when you’ve got that?

    Link

  146. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/hey-is-it-bad-when-trump-says-hes

    “Hey, Is It BAD When Trump Says He’s Going To Invade All Our Cities (And Has Already Started)?”

    “Yes, Epstein files bad. Military occupation worse.”

    Donald Trump has never liked the city where he has a part-time home while not golfing. In 2023, he told the CPAC convention that he thought it was high time the federal government took over the District of Columbia, because whenever he visited, “It looked like somebody just took their garbage and just threw it all over the highways, the Beltway. It’s so disgraceful, so disgusting,” and what kind of image did that project to foreign heads of state? […]

    During last year’s Republican National Convention, he called DC a “horrible killing field,” and the party platform included a plank promising to “reassert greater Federal Control over Washington, DC to restore Law and Order in our Capital City,” although not necessarily if mobs of Trump supporters needed to invade Congress again to overturn any elections.

    Once in office again, Trump immediately got to planning for military takeovers of American cities, including renewed talk about how he needed to take control of DC, and to hell with the District’s elected leaders, even though Mayor Muriel Bowser cooperated with Trump’s demands to remove homeless encampments along some high-profile roads and to tear up the entire street where the bright yellow words “BLACK LIVES MATTER” were painted near the White House. He still griped that while “I get along great with the mayor, but they’re not doing the job. Too much crime. Too much graffiti. […] Too many tents on the lawns of these magnificent lawns, and there’s tents.” […]

    So when former DOGE staffer “Big Balls” got beaten up by two 15-year-old attempted carjackers a week ago — the carjackers were stopped in the act, and arrested, by the actual police — Trump figured he had all the pretext he needed to take over control of the DC Metro police, send in 800 members of the National Guard, and also deploy hundreds of other federal law enforcement officers who would normally be handling serious crimes. He hinted he would also send in active duty troops, if he wants to, and that he’s considering federal takeovers of “other cities also,” specifically targeting LA, Oakland, Chicago, Baltimore, and New York. […]

    at Trump’s news conference announcing the occupation yesterday, we were treated to the irony of Attorney General Pam Bondi announcing “Crime in DC is ending today” as two accused rapists stood on either side of her (that would be Great Leader and Defense Secretary [Pete Hegseth]). [video]

    Yes, this is also where we remind you yet again that violent crime is down substantially in the District compared to right after the pandemic. Even carjackings, which are down 50 percent from last year. [Rachel Maddow reported a 53% drop.]

    […] Taking over cities, especially cities with Democratic leaders, and especially especially cities with Black elected leaders, has always been a key feature of Trump’s autocratic agenda. That was obvious from the pointless military deployments in Los Angeles […]

    We can blame the timing on the Epstein mess, but Troops in the Streets is far more serious than a “distraction,” as election attorney Marc Elias explained yesterday. [video]

    Elias argued that Trump isn’t responding to any real crisis, but wants to create the false impression that crime and riots and threats in US cities are out of control because he wants to get Americans “accustomed to the idea that there would be US military, National Guard, federal law enforcement, […] masked agents throwing people in the back of vans.”

    He added that it’s not going to end with DC, but will spread to other cities, and possibly suburbs, until Trump “feels like he has complete authority over all law enforcement in this country.” Can’t very well have a police state if local police might not go along, so sweep them aside, starting with the one place in the country where the law allows a president to federalize the local police in an “emergency.” Normalize that “crisis” and federal troops in the cities for the next year and a half, and you have a recipe for federal deployments in big cities leading up to the 2026 midterms.

    That’s key to the whole goddamn fascist takeover, not a distraction.

    To help that agenda along, the administration has concocted a plan for a standing force of Stormtroopers that can be sent quickly to any city Trump thinks needs to be put in its place, the Washington Post reports today (gift link). The proposed “Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force” would consist of hundreds of National Guard troops that could be deployed within an hour to crack down on imaginary riots and out-of-control crime wherever Trump says they’re needed, since we’re in a perpetual state of crisis now. [See comment 128.]

    […] Those quick reaction forces could of course then be supplemented by more troops as Trump sees necessary. […]

    The Post notes that the plan “relies on a section of U.S. Code that allows the commander in chief to circumvent limitations on the military’s use within the United States,” which we assume is really getting a workout these days. The Guard actually did a little rehearsal for something similar in the runup to the 2020 election, “putting 600 troops on alert in Arizona and Alabama as the country braced for possible political violence,” or at least a good pretext. As it turns out, all the violence was unleashed by Trump himself on January 6, 2021, although the Post doesn’t say whether the pre-election force, consisting mostly of Military Police, not regular troops, had been disbanded by that point.

    Technically, Guard troops from one state can’t be mobilized in another state without permission from the second state’s governor, but as we’ve already seen, Trump isn’t too picky about minor things like laws, or about whether sending troops to US cities as a show of force might reduce their readiness for real duties like disaster response or preparing to fight wildfires. […]

  148. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    LATimes – ICE processing center is all but empty when California Congress members arrive to inspect

    For two months, several Democratic members of Congress have been unable to enter […] On Monday, the Congress members got their first look at the basement facility […] “They wanted to show us nothing,” […] detainees have complained of overcrowding and being held for multiple days. The facility can hold up to 335 migrants, but there were just two people in one of the holding rooms on Monday
    […]
    [concrete floors,] no beds. […] detainees have reported receiving one meal a day […] On Monday, […] the food pantry [was] described as “scanty.” […] been told that detainees have no soap or toothbrushes.
    […]
    [Sergio Perez (Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law)] was able to visit Narciso Barranco, a Mexican national whose three sons are U.S. Marines, in June. Perez said he saw Barranco after he’d been held at the facility for three days. Perez said that Barranco, who was punched and pepper-sprayed during his arrest, did not receive medical attention. […] Barranco told Perez that each of the rooms held 30 to 70 people at the time and that some had to sleep standing up, Perez said. Food was scarce and they didn’t have access to showers.

  149. says

    Some Juneau residents urged to evacuate as Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier releases floodwater

    “On Tuesday morning officials confirmed water had started escaping the ice dam, with flooding expected late Tuesday and on Wednesday.”

    Residents in some parts of Juneau prepared to evacuate ahead of what could be a record surge of flooding as rainwater and snowmelt in a huge basin dammed by Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier started to flow downstream toward the capital city.

    Officials in recent days have been warning people in the flood zone to be ready to evacuate. On Tuesday morning they confirmed water had started escaping the ice dam, with flooding expected late Tuesday and on Wednesday. They advised people in the city’s flood zone to leave.

    The Mendenhall Glacier is about 12 miles from Juneau and is a popular tourist attraction due to its proximity to Alaska’s capital city and easy access on walking trails. Homes on the city’s outskirts are within miles of Mendenhall Lake, which sits below the glacier, and many front the Mendenhall River.

    The water that’s being released in the glacial outburst is flowing into the river, putting homes that are closest to the river at risk. The National Weather Service said it expected flooding to peak at 4 p.m. local time Wednesday.

    “This will be a new record, based on all of the information that we have,” Nicole Ferrin, a weather service meteorologist, told a news conference Tuesday.

    Flooding from the basin has become an annual concern, and in recent years has swept away houses and swamped hundreds of homes. Government agencies installed temporary barriers this year in hopes of protecting several hundred homes in the inundation area from widespread damage.

    The thinning, retreating glacier in southeast Alaska acts as a dam for Suicide Basin, which fills each spring and summer with rainwater and snowmelt. The basin itself was left behind when a smaller glacier nearby retreated.

    When the water in the basin builds up enough pressure, it forces its way under or around the ice dam, entering Mendenhall Lake and eventually the Mendenhall River.

    Before the basin reached the limit of its capacity and began overtopping, the water level was rising rapidly — as much as 4 feet per day during especially sunny or rainy days, according to the National Weather Service.

    The threat of so-called glacier outburst flooding has troubled parts of Juneau since 2011. In some years, there has been limited flooding of streets or properties near the lake or river.

    But 2023 and 2024 marked successive years of record flooding, with the river last August cresting at 15.99 feet, about 1 foot over the prior record set a year earlier, and flooding extending farther into the Mendenhall Valley. This year’s flooding was predicted to crest at between 16.3 and 16.8 feet.

    Last year, nearly 300 residences were damaged.

    A large outburst can release some 15 billion gallons of water, according to the University of Alaska Southeast and Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center. That’s the equivalent of nearly 23,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. During last year’s flood, the flow rate in the rushing Mendenhall River was about half that of Niagara Falls, the researchers say.

    City officials responded to concerns from property owners this year by working with state, federal and tribal entities to install a temporary levee along roughly 2.5 miles of riverbank in an attempt to guard against widespread flooding. The installation of about 10,000, four-foot tall barriers is intended to protect more than 460 properties from flood levels similar to last year, said Nate Rumsey, deputy director with the city’s engineering and public works department.

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is at the start of what’s expected to be a yearslong process of studying conditions in the region and examining options for a more permanent solution. The timeline has angered some residents, who say it’s unreasonable.

    Outburst floods are expected to continue as long as the Mendenhall Glacier acts as an ice dam to seal off the basin, which could span another 25 to 60 years, according to the university and science center researchers.

  150. says

    Sky Captain @148, sounds fishy

    In other news, a Democratic Texas State Representative taught a Fox News host a lesson:

    Texas state Rep. James Talarico appeared on Fox News to explain why he and dozens of other Democratic lawmakers left Texas to block GOP gerrymandering efforts. Will Cain, a MAGA zealot who was recently hired by Fox to replace anchor Neil Cavuto in January, was no match for Talarico.

    Cain: In my view, what has happened here is you’ve done something in certain states, and you don’t like it when it’s done in Republican states. And now you’re saying you’ve done the same thing as us—you’ve done the same thing as us—and we are going to, by the way, if you do it, we’re going to ratchet it up even more, in the words of Gavin Newsom.

    Talarico: My party has never gerrymandered in the middle of the decade at the request of the president of the United States, nor would we. The only way this is going to happen in blue states is if Texas executes this power grab. You mentioned Massachusetts. Do you know the party of the governor that signed that map into law? He was a Republican. It was a Republican governor that signed that map into law. So I just want to be—I want to be clear with our facts, and I don’t want to muddy the waters. All of us—whether we’re Democrats, independents, or Republicans—we should stand up to politicians who don’t want to face accountability at the ballot box. That’s exactly what’s happening here. And I asked you if Republican policies are popular, why do they need to redraw these maps? Why can’t they just run on their policies?”

    Cain: I’m getting wrapped on time.

    [video]

    A fundamental issue for right-wing bootlickers like Cain is that the GOP has spent years rigging elections through gerrymandering. Any time Cain or other apologists engage with someone who plainly states this fact, it exposes just how vacuous the right’s position is. […]

    Link

    Talarico was ready with the facts.

  151. says

    WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Residents of the District of Columbia are demanding that Republicans vacate the city “immediately,” according to a petition released on Tuesday.

    The petition, signed by hundreds of thousands of DC citizens, accuses the Republicans of participating in an “unprecedented crime wave” and calls for them to move “far away.”

    Though crime in DC overall is at a 30-year low, the petition says, an organized criminal gang invaded the city on January 20 of this year.

    That gang, consisting of known Republicans, has engaged in shakedowns, sold worthless crypto, and desecrated public buildings with decor worthy of mafiosi, the petition says.

    Additionally, the petition indicates that a “mentally unwell” Republican menaced the city last week by skulking about on the roof of the White House.

    https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/citizens-of-dc-demand-republicans?

  152. StevoR says

    A Northern Territory police sergeant with a history of racism publicly displayed an image linked to white supremacists as his Facebook cover photo for three years, only removing it last week after the ABC made inquiries.

    WARNING: This story contains racist and offensive language and the name of an Indigenous person who has died.

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-13/support-for-racism-nt-police-officers-thin-blue-line-symbol-ban/105643806

    Bolding original.

  153. StevoR says

    A bewilderingly powerful mystery object found in a nearby galaxy and only visible so far in millimeter radio wavelengths could be a brand new astrophysical object unlike anything astronomers have seen before. The object has been named ‘Punctum,’ derived from the Latin pūnctum meaning “point” or “dot,” by a team of astronomers led by Elena Shablovinskaia of the Instituto de Estudios Astrofísicos at the Universidad Diego Portales in Chile. Shablovinskaia discovered it using ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array.

    …(snip)..

    Astronomers don’t know what it is yet — only that it is compact, has a surprisingly structured magnetic field, and, at its heart, is an object radiating intense amounts of energy.

    “When you put it into context, Punctum is astonishingly bright — 10,000 to 100,000 times more luminous than typical magnetars, around 100 times brighter than microquasars, and 10 to 100 times brighter than nearly every known supernova, with only the Crab Nebula surpassing it among star-related sources in our galaxy,” Shablovinskaia said.

    Punctum is located in the active galaxy NGC 4945, which is a fairly close neighbor of our Milky Way galaxy, located 11 million light-years away. That’s just beyond the confines of the Local Group. Yet, despite this proximity, it cannot be seen in optical or X-ray light but rather only millimeter radio wavelengths. This has only deepened the mystery, although the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has yet to take a look at the object in near- and mid-infrared wavelengths.

    Source : https://www.space.com/astronomy/scientists-may-have-found-a-powerful-new-space-object-it-doesnt-fit-comfortably-into-any-known-category

  154. StevoR says

    ..Such a mission, sent to investigate the outskirts of the solar system, would span several decades. But it’s far from being approved. “This mission could operate for over 50 years, challenging engineering, mission operations, and data analysis in ways that have never been done before,” Howett wrote in a 2021 study published in the Planetary Science Journal detailing the mission concept.

    …(snip)..
    Persephone would carry 11 instruments, all based on tools flown on previous missions but with some alterations. The primary question it would seek to answer would be whether Pluto has a subsurface ocean today.

    If that question had been asked before New Horizons sped by, most scientists would have said it was unlikely. While many icy worlds may start off with a watery layer, it freezes over time. To remain liquid for the 4.5 billion-year life of the solar system, that ocean must stay warm.

    Source : https://www.space.com/astronomy/pluto/new-pluto-mission-could-uncover-dwarf-planets-hidden-ocean-if-the-queen-of-the-underworld-gets-to-fly

  155. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Lauren Miller (AFL-CIO):

    This is Heritage Foundation Chief Economist EJ Antoni, Trump’s new nominee for Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner.

    And THAT is his Nazi battleship wall art/Zoom background. [Images]

    CapitolHunters:

    Antoni clearly admires and identifies with the Nazi ship here. Listen at 1:16: “the Bismarck, in all his glory”. The interviewer asks, isn’t it on the bottom of the sea? and Antoni defends the Bismarck by saying ha, it sank a British ship too

    Commentary

    Ah yes, buying the [$136] multi-panel canvas art of the nazi battleship, definitely a thing normal people pick up accidentally at home goods.

    Tiny little Nazi flag and swastika above his left ear.

    The Nazi boat and Pietà really complement one another. [Catholic iconography]

    The battleship Bismarck was a massively futile waste of German resources that was sunk by the British during its first mission.

    Its sister ship, Tirpitz, did even less before it was sank in the same fjord it spent most of the war hiding in.

    In 1960, Johnny Horton’s song “Sink the Bismark” hit #3 on the Billboard charts. We used to be pretty into telling Nazis to fuck off.

    Didn’t the Nazis famously have almost no battleships, and turned to asymmetric warfare of subs as the only way to compete at sea?

    sunk in a famous operation that pretty much ended Germany’s surface fleet. That’s kinda like celebrating Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg.

    Do these assholes never like a group that WON a war? Well. Maybe Russia counts, but they were Soviets then.

    Fun fact: Bismarck sister ship Tirpitz steel is still being used. Here as temporary road plates in Oslo, Norway.
    https://www.vg.no/nyheter/i/pzdzV/her-ligger-tirpitz-70-aar-etter
    And here, for plowing in Namsos (And more road work).
    https://www.nrk.no/trondelag/deler-av-krigsskipet-fra-andre-verdenskrig_-tirpitz_-brukes-til-plog-pa-joa-1.16610227

  156. StevoR says

    @60. redwood :

    @54 John Morales
    I’m disappointed and upset to see John Morales’ use of the offensive and disparaging term “Nip” to refer to Japanese people. It lowers the level of discourse on this site and taints the rest of us by its presence.

    Agreed. WTF John Morales?!

  157. StevoR says

    @155. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain quotes ‘commentary’ :

    ”Didn’t the Nazis famously have almost no battleships, and turned to asymmetric warfare of subs as the only way to compete at sea?

    Not exactly although the Kreigsmarine (nazi navy – ed) certainly wasn’t the most powerful and had its issues :

    By the start of World War II, much of the Kriegsmarine were modern ships: fast, well-armed, and well-armoured. This had been achieved by concealment but also by deliberately flouting World War I peace terms and those of various naval treaties. However, the war started with the German Navy still at a distinct disadvantage in terms of sheer size with what were expected to be its primary adversaries – the navies of France and Great Britain. Although a major re-armament of the navy (Plan Z) was planned, and initially begun, the start of the war in 1939 meant that the vast amounts of material required for the project were diverted to other areas. The sheer disparity in size when compared to the other European powers navies prompted Raeder to write of his own navy once the war began “The surface forces can do no more than show that they know how to die gallantly.” A number of captured ships from occupied countries were added to the German fleet as the war progressed.[25] Though six major units of the Kriegsmarine were sunk during the war (both Bismarck-class battleships and both Scharnhorst-class battleships, as well as two heavy cruisers), there were still many ships afloat (including four heavy cruisers and four light cruisers) as late as March 1945.

    Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriegsmarine#Ships

    There’s a list of the major vessels there at that link.

  160. says

    U.S. budget deficit soars over the summer, discrediting Trump’s claims

    “GOP leaders keep saying that they are “the party of fiscal responsibility,” and reality keeps proving them wrong.”

    When it comes to the U.S. budget deficit, the nation is basically divided into two worlds. In the Republicans’ world, Donald Trump has successfully cut the deficit in half, the White House is bringing fiscal “sanity” to the nation’s capital, and the GOP is demonstrating that it “is the party of fiscal responsibility.”

    In that world, up is down, day is night, no one has access to the internet, gaslighting is the national pastime, and facts and arithmetic have no meaning.

    As for the other world (better known as “reality”) there’s fresh evidence that everything Republicans have said about this issue is the opposite of the truth. The Associated Press reported:

    The U.S. budget deficit in July climbed 20% this fiscal year compared to the last despite the U.S. taking in record income from President Donald Trump’s tariffs, according to Treasury Department data released Tuesday. … A Treasury official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the data said overall increased spending is in part due to a mix of expenditures, including growing interest payments on the public debt and cost-of-living increases to Social Security payouts, among other costs.

    The president would have Americans believe the budget deficit is no longer a real issue because his tariffs are generating revenue. But while it’s true that tariffs are bringing in some money — roughly $152 billion through July — the latest data from the Treasury Department makes clear that this revenue isn’t nearly enough to prevent the deficit from growing rapidly during the first year of Trump’s second term.

    Just this week, the Treasury Department also reported that the overall national debt has surpassed $37 trillion. […]

    Even longtime skeptics of deficit hawkery are starting to worry that the nation’s finances are spinning wildly out of control.

    Those concerns are hardly outrageous. Trump added nearly $8 trillion to the national debt in his first term (most of it before the Covid crisis), and Trump recently signed into law a Republican megabill that’s set to add an additional $5 trillion to the debt.

    What’s more, The New York Times reported last month that the far-right domestic policy package won’t merely add trillions of dollars to the debt, it will also reduce the amount of tax revenue the country collects for decades. “Such a shortfall could begin a seismic shift in the nation’s fiscal trajectory and raise the risk of a debt crisis,” the Times added. […]

  161. says

    […] The morning after the president launched his D.C. initiative, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller — who recently made headlines for peddling weird claims about immigrant crime in Minneapolis — published an item to social media that read:

    Crime stats in big blue cities are fake. The real rates of crime, chaos [and] dysfunction are orders of magnitude higher. Everyone who lives in these areas knows this. They program their entire lives around it. Democrats are trying to unravel civilization. Pres Trump will save it.

    [OMFG. Definitely North Korean level of gaslighting plus worship of Dear Leader. Unfuckingacceptable.]

    The falsehood-per-sentence ratio in this little missive was, in a rather literal sense, 1:1, though it is interesting to see Team Trump add crime statistics to its list of “fake” things, joining U.S. job numbers, census data, the president’s approval rating, and news organizations and reports the president doesn’t like.

    But more specifically, I’m curious who, exactly, Miller is accusing of generating “fake” crime statistics.

    The official data comes by way of police departments, who send crime statistics to the FBI, which compiles and releases the official numbers. So who is the White House is accusing of deceiving the public? Is Miller accusing police officers of lying, or does he think Kash Patel’s FBI is peddling false information? [Good questions!]

    What’s more, let’s not forget that the FBI’s controversial director appeared at the president’s press conference on Monday, when Patel boasted from the White House podium, “The murder rates are plummeting. We are now able to report that the murder rate is on track to be the lowest in U.S. history.” [Yep]

    That was true […]

    The White House’s war on data and government statistics was already a mess. It’s apparently getting worse.

    Link

    The Trump administration can’t keep their lies straight.

  164. says

    We are already impoverished by corporate greedflation added on top of the tRUMP tariff abomination:
    ~22 oz. can of Folgers coffee at Fry’s market in northern arizona
    06 aug 2025 was $14.99

    the same exact can of coffee at Fry’s
    13 aug 2025 is $16.99
    a 13.3% increase in one week

    This country is a FRAUD!

  165. says

    Sure, the Trump administration is deporting a lot of people, but over at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, Senior Adviser Kari Lake is going above and beyond. She’s trying to deport her own employees at Voice of America, a government-funded news outlet.

    Lake has overseen the destruction of Voice of America and USAGM, slashing 85% of their staff, with a plan to eventually replace the venerable institution with D-list right-wing content from One America News Network. Many people she fired were, unsurprisingly, not native-born American citizens, because VOA’s international broadcasts required a large number of highly fluent translators and broadcasters.

    Those workers usually had J-1 visas […] The problem is that the VOA’s J-1 visas are tied to their continued employment by USAGM. Since Lake fired them, they have 30 days to leave the country or find an alternative way to stay here.

    These fired workers face a huge crisis. Do they return to their home countries? Apply for asylum here? What about those people who are from a country where they will be harmed if they return?

    Lake doesn’t care. To her, it’s a big joke—literally. She joshed with right-wing media hack Eric Bolling, saying, “If I have to go to the airport with them, and accompany them to the airport and get them on the flight, I will do that.” When Bolling said they could instead go to Florida’s immigrant detention facility in the Everglades, the so-called “Alligator Alcatraz,” where human rights abuses are rampant, Lake laughed.

    “If you overstay your visa, ICE is going to find you,” she said. “And they will find you in this case as well.”

    Truly terrific immigration system we’ve got here, where a random former local TV news anchor lucked into a high-level government role because of her dedication to the lie that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election (and to her lie that she won the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial race).

    Lake isn’t alone in trying to throw J-1 visa holders out of the country. [!] The administration has tried to go after Harvard University on J-1 visas as well, saying it needed to investigate the school’s compliance with the program. Really, it’s just a way to screw with Harvard and block international students, so a two-fer for this administration. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is no slouch either. His department has been revoking J-1 student visas for months now, targeting anyone who participated in political activism the administration doesn’t like.

    […] they’ve long stopped pretending they’re going after the worst of the worst undocumented criminals in their quest to hit their numbers. So they’re threatening highly skilled workers who were often actively recruited by VOA.

    […] In this administration’s nativist worldview, there does not seem to be any immigrant status, any job held by an immigrant, that insulates someone from the administration’s deportation frenzy. Well, except the South African refugees. They’re fine—but only if they’re white.

    Link

  169. birgerjohansson says

    “Ghislaine Maxwell’s Secret Offer ROCKS Trump As Prison Inmate Spills Crushing Claims”

    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=wVgw5O0ZLlo
    ‘Donald Trump gets rocked by more suspicious evidence against him as Ghislaine Maxwell’s former prison inmate reveals Maxwell had made an offer to the Biden administration with what she claims was dirt on Trump but the offer was not acted on. John Iadarola and Sen. Nina Turner break it down on The Damage Report.’

    (“The offer was not acted on”. By the Biden administration. Of course not!)

  170. birgerjohansson says

    Re @ 169
    I don’t want to hear anyone say Biden was a great president again. He was mediocre at best.

  172. says

    Actor Sylvester Stallone, disco singer Gloria Gaynor and rock band Kiss will be recognized as Kennedy Center Honors recipients, in the first awards gala held since President Trump’s overhaul of Washington’s prominent arts destination.

    Trump announced the honorees at the performing arts center Wednesday, where he also said he would host the gala. British actor Michael Crawford and country singer George Strait will also be recipients.

    […] Past Kennedy Center Honors recipients — an award for lifetime artistic achievement typically given to a diverse group of theater, dance, music, and TV and film stars — include Aretha Franklin, Bono, Meryl Streep, Rita Moreno, Tom Hanks, Paul McCartney, Robert De Niro and LL Cool J. The awards ceremony marked its 47th year in 2024. […]

    Link

  173. says

    Trump looks to extend DC police takeover beyond 30 days

    […] Trump on Wednesday said he’ll seek “long-term extensions” from Congress to extend his federal takeover of the Washington police amid his crackdown on crime in the nation’s capital, declining to rule out the possibility of a national emergency.

    “Well, if it’s a national emergency, we can do it without Congress,” Trump said, when asked about whether he’s talked to the House and Senate about extending the takeover. He added that he expects to be before Congress “very quickly” and snag Republican support.

    Trump on Monday put the Metropolitan Police Department under federal control and activated National Guard troops, painting the district as being ravaged by violent crime.

    To do so, he invoked an emergency provision of the Home Rule Act, which lets the president take temporary control of the District’s police in emergency conditions. Congress must pass a joint resolution to extend it beyond 30 days.

    Speaking to reporters at the Kennedy Center on Wednesday, Trump said he’s aiming to go before Congress with a crime bill that will “pertain initially to D.C.” but serve as a “very positive example” for elsewhere.

    “And we’re going to be asking for an extension on that, long-term extensions, because you can’t have 30 days. Thirty days is, that’s, by the time you do it — we’re going to have this in good shape. … We’re going to do this very quickly, but we’re going to want extensions,” Trump said.

    “I don’t want to call a national emergency. If I have to, I will. But I think the Republicans in Congress will approve this pretty much unanimously.”

    D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) has hit back at Trump’s move, calling it an “authoritarian push” by the administration. The Democratic Mayors Association called it a “political charade” that doesn’t match up with the actual crime statistics in the District.

  174. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-administration-fixing-national

    “Trump Administration Fixing National Climate Reports By Axing All The Annoying Science”

    While Donald Trump is busily moving ahead with ordering red states to rig elections and taking over our cities, his administration’s war on science hasn’t been forgotten. Here’s a pretty horrible example that we almost missed, f’rinstance: Last week, Energy Secretary and former fracking CEO Chris Wright told CNN that the administration is “updating” the National Climate Assessments. The goal, Wright explained, is to go back and make all the previous reports, all the way to the first one in 2000, more amenable to the administration’s new version of science.

    The administration earlier this year shitcanned all the scientists working on the Sixth National Climate Assessment, and apparently won’t bother publishing it at all. The NCA is a congressionally mandated overview of how climate change is affecting the US, written by hundreds of scientists — working without pay — in a carefully peer-reviewed process that takes place over four to five years. Each NCA collects the very best work of American climate scientists, reflecting the current scientific consensus on how planetary warming will impact human health, agriculture, water supplies, the economy, and air pollution. They also round up how the US is doing in reducing greenhouse gases and preparing to mitigate the effects of warming. Last month, the administration also shut down the website that hosted the reports, too. [!]

    Wright told CNN’s Caitlin Collins on “The Source” […] that the conclusions of all five previous NCA reports “weren’t fair in broad-based assessments of climate change.” Like, they didn’t even mention that CO2 is what plants crave, and so we need a lot more of the stuff everywhere. So clearly, those reports need some fixin’.

    Wright said that it simply made sense for the administration to tinker with 20 years of climate reports now, because that’s just what new fascist governments bent on remaking reality to conform with their ideology do, although he put it more vaguely, explaining, “When you get into departments and look at stuff that’s there and you find stuff that’s objectionable, you want to fix it.” [blather]

    […] “We want to have a real debate and discussion about climate change, and get away from the cancel-culture Orwellian, if you don’t say the thing that approved Climate Church says you’re silenced. That just crushed science. That just crushed progress.” [Lots of red flags for nonsense in that statement.]

    Secretary Wright is apparently unfamiliar with the real balance of the “debate” on climate, which John Oliver brilliantly illustrated way back in 2014 by talking to Bill Nye the Science Guy, then bringing out three climate deniers to debate him … as well as another 96 real scientists. (Subsequent research pushed that consensus to 99 percent, demonstrating that science is always reaching new conclusions based on better data. No rigorous study has reversed that finding.) We’ve cued up the segment to the key moment: [video]

    And of course, nobody’s “crushing” science by sticking to the established facts that greenhouse gases warm the planet, any more than NASA is engaging in “Orwellian cancel culture” by not hiring flat-earthers to program satellite orbits. At least not yet. […] As Texas A & M atmospheric science professor Andrew Dessler put it, Wright’s handpicked guys assembled the equivalent of a “law brief from attorneys defending their client, carbon dioxide.” […]

    Hilariously, Wright said his five “experts” only needed four months and no peer review — well, they read each other! — to overturn the established science on climate because they’ve “been commenting and writing on climate change for decades” and therefore could whip up “a reasonable overview of what we know in climate change” without re-examining all the science from step one. [LOL]

    […] Actual climate scientists, understandably, were disgusted but not terribly surprised by Wright’s disclosure. Michael Mann, who directs the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media, simply told the Guardian, “This is exactly what Joseph Stalin did.”

    In a statement, Dr. Rachel Cleetus […] “just confirmed our worst fears – that this administration plans to not just bury the scientific evidence but replace it with outright lies to downplay the worsening climate crisis and evade responsibility for addressing it. […]

    “People across the country are already reeling from climate-fueled worsening heatwaves, floods, wildfires and storms. Lying about that reality doesn’t change it; it just leaves people in harm’s way.”

    Cleetus, who was one of the lead researchers for the now shitcanned Sixth NCA, also called on Congress to take action to protect the NCA reports and restore scientific integrity […]

    […] The top Google results for “national climate assessment,” including AI summaries, mostly link to the now-deleted federal site (you’ll get an error message), as do virtually all magazine articles previously written about the assessments before the site vanished. The easiest ways to find them now are at the Wikipedia page, now updated with archived versions of the five reports, and at the archive sites set up by various nonprofits, like this collection at the Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center.

    Fortunately, Wright is right about one thing: The real science is still going forward, just outside the Trump administration, and shortly after the researchers working on NCA6 were given their walking papers, the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union announced an effort to produce a peer-reviewed collection of climate papers that would “sustain the momentum” of the suspended NCA project. [Good]

    The fight for reality will continue.

  175. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    @169 birgerjohansson:
    Worth including the caveats mentioned in the YouTube video, from the Daily Beast.

    it was common knowledge among the inmate […] that she hoped to avoid serving her full term by trading information for a presidential pardon from Biden, a former inmate named Kathryn Comolli told the Daily Mail.
    […]
    A lawyer for Maxwell shot down the claim in a statement to the Daily Beast. “There are plenty of absurd rumors out there—but this one, patently false, might just take the cake,” [*shrug*]
    […]
    Biden’s Department of Justice concluded in a 2022 sentencing memo that Maxwell was unreliable and unremorseful, writing that she “apparently decides when she wishes to disclose facts to the Court, and those facts shift when it serves the defendant’s interests.” […] She lied about cutting ties with Epstein, lied about receiving money from him, and lied repeatedly under oath during a deposition that was conducted as a part of civil lawsuit brought by one of the victims, the memo found.

    If the inmate and lawyer were honest, Maxwell could’ve simply lied to the inmates about trying.

  177. KG says

    the President believes that our country would not be able to pay back the trillions of dollars that other countries have already committed to pay – Lynna, OM@145 quoting Daily Kos quoting John Sauer

    A powerful argument there from the Solicitor General. There is the minor point that the tariffs Trump has illegally announced are of course not paid by other countries, but by the American importers of the tariffed goods.

  178. says

    Gavin Newsom Trolling Trump On Gerrymandering

    Social media posts are available at the link. They are good.

    One example:

    DONALD “TACO” TRUMP, AS MANY CALL HIM, “MISSED” THE DEADLINE!!! CALIFORNIA WILL NOW DRAW NEW, MORE “BEAUTIFUL MAPS,” THEY WILL BE HISTORIC AS THEY WILL END THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY (DEMS TAKE BACK THE HOUSE!). BIG PRESS CONFERENCE THIS WEEK WITH POWERFUL DEMS AND GAVIN NEWSOM — YOUR FAVORITE GOVERNOR — THAT WILL BE DEVASTATING FOR “MAGA.” THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER! — GN

    Commentary:

    […] Yesterday, the Texas state Senate passed the rigged maps Donald Trump has been demanding because he’s too much of a coward to try to win the House in a fair fight, because he’s clownishly unpopular, he’s the most universally loathed American leader in history, and the most mocked dictator in human history.

    That doesn’t mean it’s over, and members of the Texas state House reportedly won’t be coming back until the special session is over. There are reports that they plan to come back this weekend, after it is over. But of course, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, the […] governor of them all, has promised to keep calling special sessions until he’s successfully […] delivered his maps.

    Beto O’Rourke went on TV last night to rally support for his troops, AKA the Texas House members still fighting. He also addressed the threats from […] attorney general of them all, Ken Paxton, who is trying to get a judge to put Beto IN JAIL for fundraising for the Texas Democrats, because Ken Paxton is a big man, biiiiiig maaaaaaaaaaaan.

    Here is Beto on MSNBC on Stephanie Ruhle’s program: [video]
    […]

  179. KG says

    I don’t want to hear anyone say Biden was a great president again. He was mediocre at best. – birgerjohansson@170

    Indeed: he had one job more vital than any other (aside from not starting a nuclear war): protect what there was of American democracy from Trump and his fellow-fascists, by rigorously pursuing them for their attempts to overthrow the result of the 2020 election. He not only failed, he didn’t really try. He presumably thought that with Trump having lost the election, he would be irrelevant, and the Republican Party would simply revert to its pre-Trump settings (which in truth were vile enough, and had been clearly shifting in anti-democratic directions at least since the 1990s). Thus he appointed the useless Merrick Garland as AG, and Garland sat on his arse and twiddled his thumbs for four years.

  180. says

    “Lives May Have Been Saved”: Trump Hiring Freeze Zapped a Key Role in Texas Emergency Response

    “Months before the Central Texas floods, the National Weather Service selected a meteorologist to embed with the Texas Division of Emergency Management, but they never assumed the job.”

    The prospective hire was meant to help solve a persistent problem in dealing with Texas’s many natural disasters: translating warnings about extreme weather into appropriate action.

    By late January, the National Weather Service’s Fort Worth office had selected a meteorologist to serve as an “emergency response specialist” within the Texas Division of Emergency Management, which coordinates the state’s emergency-management program. The new hire, part of a nationwide reorganization of the National Weather Service, would have “embedded” at the TDEM to help decision-makers prepare for and respond to extreme weather. If all had gone according to plan, the federal meteorologist would have been working elbow to elbow with state emergency responders during the July flooding in Central Texas that killed at least 135. [!]

    But when Donald Trump took office on January 20 and announced a federal hiring freeze that day, the new hire hadn’t yet started. The role was left unfilled. “We just couldn’t quite dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s before the federal hiring freeze hit,” said Victor Murphy, the climate-service program manager in the Fort Worth office who took early retirement in April after 45 years with the NWS. “Lives may have been saved or could have been saved, […]

  181. says

    JD Vance, Todd Blanche, Pam Bondi, Susie Wiles, Kash Patel, and the rest of the Epstein kidfucker-coverup cabal sure hope that everybody continues to shut up about Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein, and those government files that Donald John Trump is all over like a herpes outbreak!

    And now that Trump is deploying the US military against its own citizens in a fascist takeover of DC, they just might get their wish.

    But Epstein Files news is still happening! When we last left off, the Files Hiding Squad was planning a secret dinner meeting for last Wednesday, right before Vance jetted off to try to save his marriage in the Cotswolds. But somebody leaked about the meeting to CNN, and the family of Virginia Giuffre blasted Deputy AG/Trump’s personal defense attorney Todd Blanche and the administration for refusing to speak to any of Epstein’s victims before sitting down to make a deal with Ghislaine Maxwell, the pimp who was convicted of trafficking her, and allegedly sexually and physically abused her as well.

    Then Reuters reported that JD Vance’s spokesperson claimed that the meeting, which never existed, was canceled. Buuuut turns out IRL the meeting was not canceled and did happen, but was relocated to the White House.

    Watch JD Vance talk out all sides of his mouth! [video]

    Short version: Somebody leaked a calendar entry and ASSUMED it was about Epstein, but it was not about that at all, it was about HILLARY CLINTON! Though the group has had other meetings about Epstein Files “transparency,” that is true. But the important thing is JOE BIDEN (who Trump says planted the documents) buried the documents for four years, and anyway Democrats went to Epstein Island all the time, and Bill Clinton went to the island 28 times. (This is ridiculously false.) But the regime will be totally transparent with those “thousands and thousands” of documents that contain proof of those wild claims, at some un-named time in the future, you bet! And/or maybe James Comer could look into it? […]

    Anyway, whether the cabal’s meeting was to come up with a coherent Epstein Files strategy or not, whoever it was that voted to shut up and dribble got their way. Todd Blanche has so far not released any of his sit-down interview with Ghislaine Maxwell where she told him that the only thing she ever saw Trump do was read the Bible and be a gentleman. […]

    now that Maxwell is at princess prison, she is also designated as eligible to leave prison to work. Just like Epstein got to leave prison six days a week with the sweetheart deal he made with US Attorney Alex Acosta, who later became Trump’s secretary of Labor. […]

    Also, notably, since Maxwell’s deal, there have been no more leaks to the Wall Street Journal of scrapbook items like the birthday book Trump doodled boobs and pubes in, or letters to Epstein from the likes Woody Allen and Mort Zuckerman forwarded to the New York Times. Artifacts that coincidentally only began to surface immediately after Maxwell asked the Supreme Court to overturn her conviction, and Trump’s DOJ opposed her.

    […] guess where Alex Acosta has turned up? You remember him, the prosecutor who made an incredible (as in, not credible) deal with Epstein in 2006 that let him avoid being registered as a sex offender, leave prison “for work”, and for some reason covered all possible coconspirators too, that deal Maxwell now says should have protected her from prosecution as well.

    Acosta’s reportedly been going to Capitol Ministries’ antisemitic Bible Study at the White House, one often attended by Pam Bondi and Kristi Noem, following a stint evangelizing to government officials in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. […]

    […] On Monday the DOJ got rejected and rebuked brutally by Judge Paul Engelmayer in the Southern District of New York for their performative filing to unseal the grand jury transcripts that led to Ghislaine Maxwell’s indictment.

    For one thing, the DOJ did not even notify Maxwell’s six named victims that they were trying to do this, until the judge told them they had to. For another, they filed three and a half pages with no exhibits, and grand jury secrecy is a big deal, just citing “public interest” in some dashed-off filing is not enough of a reason to violate it. And most fucked-up of all, said the judge, there is not one new thing in the grand jury transcripts that was not made public at Maxwell’s trial, and this whole exercise was a blatant distraction:

    “A member of the public […] might conclude that the Government’s motion for their unsealing was aimed not at ‘transparency’ but at diversion.”

    […] “The one colorable argument under that doctrine for unsealing in this case, in fact, is that doing so would expose as disingenuous the Government’s public explanations for moving to unseal.”

    Is shutting down talk about the Epstein files going to work? Will the QAnon MAGAs who have spent years getting frothed up and fluffed by Trump for a jaw-dropping exposure of this client list now be able to move to the final stage of grief, acceptance? […]

    nobody should shut up about or forget that the president of the United States of America is a credibly accused sexual predator who palled around for 15 years with a pedophile. And allegedly ran his own underage-model-immigrant-trafficking enterprise. (Did the FBI ever open a file on that?) Remember Virginia Giuffre. Remember E. Jean Carroll, who has still not gotten her $83.3 million dollars, and still sleeps with a gun. And the 24 other women who were brave enough to speak out about Donald Trump’s gross behavior. They tried to protect everybody, at tremendous personal sacrifice. And it might not seem like their efforts made a difference, and in the end most of America did not care. But the truth and bravery still matter. Right?

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/did-somebody-say-jeffrey-epstein

  183. says

    Mother with cerebral palsy struggles to hire aides after private equity takeover

    “In the hands of financiers, a New York Medicaid program that lets disabled and elderly participants live at home is under fire.”

    Renee Christian, a single mom with cerebral palsy, lives in Buffalo, New York, with her 12-year-old daughter. Although her condition forced her to spend most of her childhood at a nursing home, she has resided in her own home for years with the help of personal assistants she hires under a New York State Medicaid program.

    In April, however, Christian’s life was upended when the state forced her and her assistants to work with a new company administering the nation’s largest consumer-directed personal assistance program, called CDPAP. One by one, she lost nearly half her assistants because they said they did not receive the proper pay for their work, Christian said. She now fears for her future living at home where she needs help getting dressed, doing laundry and cooking meals.

    “I’m trying to hire new staff, and I am very good at navigating technology,” Christian, 37, said. “But it’s hard when you have to tell your new hires, ‘I can’t guarantee you’re going to get paid on time or get the appropriate amount of hours.’”

    Christian is not the only one affected by the state program’s recent takeover.

    NBC News spoke with nine consumers and personal assistants who described multiple problems since Public Partnerships LLC (PPL) won the $1 billion, five-year contract in 2024, replacing roughly 600 entities that had been administering the program. The issues range from assistants receiving checks for zero dollars to problems arranging for direct deposit, onboarding new workers and clocking hours worked.

    PPL, which has a staff of 1,400 on the New York program, is owned by two private equity firms. Its takeover as the program’s sole administrator triggered an avalanche of complaints from consumers unable to reach anyone to answer questions and assistants unpaid for hours they worked and unhappy with reduced health insurance benefits, according to lawmakers, consumer advocates and the consumers and assistants interviewed by NBC News.

    […] Gustavo Rivera, a New York state senator who represents constituents in the Bronx, told NBC News [he] has scheduled hearings in August about what he calls the botched transition to PPL.

    At a cost of $9 billion a year, New York’s CDPAP is the largest personal assistance program in the nation. It allows consumers like Christian to directly hire the folks who help them pursue their lives rather than rely on a staffing agency. At-home programs like New York’s are less costly than providing institutional care, research shows. In 2024, according to one analysis, a semi-private room in a nursing home cost an average $9,277 a month nationwide. That’s 43% more than a home health aide costing on average $6,483 each month.

    Amanda Lothrop, chief operating officer for New York State’s Medicaid program, told NBC News that the transition to PPL aimed to eliminate the former program’s administrative inefficiencies while protecting taxpayers. She said fraud and abuse had marred the previous program, but the state has identified very few cases. A 2022 audit by the Office of Medicaid Inspector General in New York, for example, uncovered only $46,000 in overpayments in the program, a 99% accuracy rate. [!]

    [I snipped PPL’s denials]

    The contract New York State awarded to PPL is a recent example of private equity’s increasing involvement in home health care, said Aditi Sen, managing director of research and campaigns at Americans for Financial Reform, a nonprofit nonpartisan organization that advocates for fairness in the U.S. financial system. Last month, Sen published a report detailing the industry’s forays into home health care entitled, “Wall Street on Your Doorstep: Protecting Home Care from Private Equity Abuses.”

    “The private equity industry is looking for any streams of steady public funding,” Sen said in an interview. “As advocates have secured more funding for home and community-based services, that has resulted in the private equity encroachment.” She said the next step for researchers is to analyze the quality of home care after private equity gets involved.

    Founded in 1999, PPL calls itself an industry leader “in financial management services for consumer direction, serving consumers throughout the U.S.”

    […] Three CEOs in five years

    Private equity firms have taken over wide swaths of the health care industry in recent years and ill effects on care have been well-documented in independent academic research. The firms typically acquire companies or doctors’ practices using debt and hope to sell them within five to seven years at a profit. This requires the firms to improve the financial results of the companies they buy, often firing employees or cutting services to slash costs. The private equity firms bought PPL three years ago.

    Studies on hospitals and nursing homes have found significant deterioration in patient outcomes after private equity takes them over. [!] Other research has found that prices rise significantly after private equity acquires a practice or operation. [!]

    […] private equity firms have rolled up hundreds of small home health and home care chains into large companies like Comfort Keepers, Help at Home and Accentcare. Combined, private equity-owned companies offering home and community-based care services are second only in size to chains owned by insurers Humana and UnitedHealthcare, Sen found.

    Many acquisitions by private equity-owned chains have been in companies offering home and community-based services for people with physical, intellectual and developmental disabilities, Sen determined. Pediatric home care for children with disabilities is another area of interest as is the consumer self-directed care industry, PPL’s focus.

    […] After winning the New York State contract, PPL tried to keep its ownership secret.

    In a lawsuit filed last year against New York’s Department of Health by a home care company over the transition to PPL, the company’s private equity owners were identified in a document that PPL requested the judge keep under seal. If the information were made public, the company argued, it “may put individuals in danger and/or allow them to become targets of violence.” Public disclosure would also increase the risk of “unwanted attention and harassment,” PPL said. The company lost that battle and the document became public.

    […] PPL also objected to a 2024 Medicare rule affecting home care organizations. The rule mandated that at least 80% of Medicaid payments go to compensation for direct care workers, such as personal assistants, not a company’s “administrative overhead or profit.”

    […] PPL has had three CEOs over the past five years, Fitzgerald said.

    Filling out forms for hours

    Tara Murphy said she enjoyed working as a personal assistant in the CDPAP program for 25 years. But when she tried to switch to PPL, she encountered multiple difficulties, she said.

    “Their technology is so hard to navigate, it took me four and a half hours to fill out their forms,” she recalled. “I uploaded them nine times before they were finally accepted in their system.”

    Murphy’s hourly pay with PPL was 2% less than she had previously earned, she said, and she never received the correct pay under the new program.

    “I ended up having to quit my job and leave my consumer,” she said.

    […] Meanwhile, Christian, the Buffalo mom who has lost five personal assistants since PPL took over, is especially worried about how it might impact her daughter.

    “My daughter is 12 years old, she needs me here for her,” Christian told NBC News. “If I have to go into a facility because I can’t get care in my home, where is she going to go?”

  184. says

    Brits throw Vance a ‘not welcome’ party on his latest vacation

    Vice President JD Vance has jetted off to the Cotswolds in the United Kingdom—and the Brits are not having it.

    According to The Guardian, about 100 people held a “not welcome” party for Vance, who is staying in a $10,000-per-week manor for his 7th lavish vacation in as many months as vice president.

    […] protesters held signs mocking Vance, with a number featuring the photoshopped image of Vance’s bearded face and quotes he made in the past criticizing President Donald Trump. […] [Social media post, with photos, is available at the link.]

    The unfriendly welcome was similar to the protests Trump was met by when he spent taxpayer dollars for a golf trip to his failing properties in Scotland, where Scots drowned out Trump’s attempted news conferences with bagpipes. [video]

    Vance, for his part, has been jetting around the world on the taxpayer’s dime taking vacations with his family.

    In one corrupt instance, he had a river raised for better boating conditions in Ohio. In another, he had areas of Disneyland in California shut down so he could visit with his family—ruining other visitors’ experiences.

    But Vance didn’t care about that, telling vile White House aide Stephen Miller’s wife, Katie, on her podcast that having the park to himself was great, even though it may have ruined the trip for other visitors.

    “We had the island to ourselves, which was very cool. I had never been to Disneyland. I thought it was awesome,” he said. “Sorry to all the people who were at Disneyland for the longer lines, but we had a very good time.”

    You’d think that 7 vacations in 7 months would be enough for Vance, but he went on to say that he now wants to take his family to Hawaii.

    “We all really want to go to Hawaii at some point in the next couple of years. Hopefully we can find some excuse as vice president to go,” he said.

    What a jerk.

  185. birgerjohansson says

    (Hossenfelder alert)

    Is Dark Matter Evidence Of A Mirror Universe?
    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=QOkIDWu73lM

    She ignores the real question: Is there $$$ to make in writing bullshit like this? I might be able to abandon selling dietary supplements and snake oil online and launch a career as scientific advisor to the White House.

  186. says

    NBC News:

    […] Trump joined a video call Wednesday with European leaders and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who implored him not to capitulate to Russia’s demands during Friday’s high-profile summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska. During a press conference at the Kennedy Center in downtown Washington, D.C., Trump described the call as a “very good conversation.”

    NBC News:

    The U.S. Treasury is temporarily lifting a very narrow set of sanctions on Russia in order to allow it to make financial transactions that are necessary for President Putin’s visit to Alaska in the coming days for his summit with President Trump.

    NBC news:

    Trump warned in his remarks with reporters that Russia will face consequences if Putin doesn’t agree to end his country’s war in Ukraine after their meeting Friday.

    The dog that barks, does not bite, and then rolls over and shows his belly to Putin.

  187. says

    Judge says he’s skeptical of a Trump lawsuit against every federal judge in Maryland

    “The Trump administration sued judges over a standing court order that applies a temporary stay of deportation in some immigration cases in the state.”

    A judge on Wednesday expressed some skepticism about an unprecedented lawsuit in which the Trump administration sued all 15 Maryland-based federal judges over a standing order related to deportation cases.

    The lawsuit is the latest escalation of the Trump administration’s war on the judiciary, which has been marked by criticism of judges who have ruled against the government over President Donald Trump’s[…] aggressive use of executive power.

    At issue is a standing order issued by Chief Judge George Russell on May 21 and updated a week later that set rules for handling cases involving immigrants facing immediate risk of deportation. The order applies a temporary stay of deportation for two business days while the case is considered.

    The Justice Department sued, saying Russell had no authority to issue such a blanket order that effectively acts as a broad injunction against government actions without any assessment of whether the individual immigrants have valid cases.

    But U.S. District Judge Thomas Cullen, who normally sits in Virginia and was assigned the case because Maryland judges cannot participate, questioned whether the Justice Department took the correct approach in filing a lawsuit.

    “You probably picked up that I don’t have a very good poker face,” he said, addressing Justice Department lawyer Elizabeth Hedges. “I have some skepticism,” he added.

    There are other avenues the government has to challenge the order, he said, including by appealing in a case involving an individual immigrant in which the standing order is applied.

    Noting that the Supreme Court in recent months has acted quickly on a flurry of cases involving the Trump administration, Cullen said the dispute may have been resolved by now if the government had filed a regular appeal.

    […] Cullen did, however, appear more sympathetic to some of the government’s arguments on the merits, noting that government lawyers made a “fair point” that even a two-day delay acts as a form of temporary injunction.

    A former prosecutor, Cullen was appointed by Trump in 2020 with the backing of Virginia’s two Democratic senators. He said he plans to issue a ruling by Labor Day.

    The standing order came in response to the flurry of actions taken by the Trump administration relating to immigration, including moves to deport people without due process. One of the most high-profile cases in the country, involving a Salvadoran man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported back to his native country before eventually being returned, arose in Maryland.

    The order states that when an immigrant files a petition for habeas corpus in a federal court in Maryland, the government is temporarily prevented from deporting them until the claim can be adjudicated.

    The automatic stay has been applied to at least 12 cases so far, the government says.

    The standing order is intended in part to “preserve existing conditions and the potential jurisdiction of this court over pending matters,” Russell wrote.

    […] In response to the lawsuit, the Maryland judges hired a legal team that includes Paul Clement, who served as solicitor general under President George W. Bush, a Republican.

    Clement warned in court that if the lawsuit was allowed to move forward toward a trial, it would create a “nightmare scenario” in which judges could be deposed and internal judiciary documents could be reviewed by the government.

    “All of that is avoided if you go the ordinary route,” he added, referring to the government filing an appeal in one of the cases rather than suing judges.

  188. says

    Reuters:

    Donald Trump’s Navy and Air Force are poised to cancel two nearly complete software projects that took 12 years and well over $800 million combined to develop, work initially aimed at overhauling antiquated human resources systems. The reason for the unusual move: officials at those departments, who have so far put the existing projects on hold, want other firms, including Salesforce and billionaire Peter Thiel’s Palantir, to have a chance to win similar projects, which could amount to a costly do-over.

  189. says

    Washington Times:

    The Justice Department sent out an internal memo on Tuesday directing employees not to use preferred pronouns in their email signatures. The memo, which was sent department-wide, says the directive is to conform with President Trump’s executive order “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”

  190. says

    Trump shrugs off suspected Russian cyberattack targeting U.S. courts: ‘Are you surprised?’

    “Trump often wonders why his critics accuse him of being weak on Russia, but it’s really not that complicated.”

    Ahead of Donald Trump’s scheduled meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Alaska this week, The New York Times appeared to give the American president something new to talk about with his Russian counterpart. The Times reported that U.S. investigators have uncovered evidence that Russia “is at least partly responsible for a recent hack of the computer system that manages federal court documents, including highly sensitive records with information that could reveal sources and people charged with national security crimes.”

    […] administrators with the court system recently informed Justice Department officials, clerks and chief judges in federal courts that “persistent and sophisticated cyber threat actors have recently compromised sealed records.”

    Those with sensitive documents within the system have apparently been advised to quickly remove them. The internal memo to Justice Department officials and staffers from the courts system, according to the Times, added: “This remains an URGENT MATTER that requires immediate action.”

    This was, in other words, a rather serious cyberoffensive. The day after the Times’ account was published, a reporter asked Trump about the story, and as CNBC reported, Trump didn’t appear to care.

    President Donald Trump on Wednesday shrugged off a question about a new report that Russia is at least partially responsible for hacking the electronic system that manages U.S. federal court case documents. ‘Are you surprised?’ Trump said during a press event at the Kennedy Center, in Washington, D.C. ‘They hack in, that’s what they do,’ he said about Russia.

    After noting that he “could” bring this up during his scheduled talks with Putin, Trump added that Russian cyberattackers are “good at it.” [head/desk]

    In other words, there’s reason to believe a foreign adversary launched an offensive targeting highly sensitive U.S. court records, including cases related to national security — and when asked about this, Trump shrugged with indifference.

    Trump could’ve at least offered some kind of half-hearted condemnation, but he couldn’t bring himself to bother.

    The developments came on the heels of Trump backing off threatened sanctions on Russia — for the fifth time — and extending an invitation to Putin to come to American soil, giving the accused war criminal the validation he was looking for.

    It also follows the American president urging G7 leaders to reward Putin by welcoming him back into the international group, while blaming G7 members for having hurt Russia’s feelings.

    Trump often wonders why his critics accuse him of being weak on Russia, but it’s really not that complicated.

  191. says

    Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who is no stranger to mixing it up with right-wing wackos, took a shot at President Donald Trump’s disaster of a health secretary on Wednesday.

    “Kids and adults with autism, loving contributors to our society, don’t deserve to be stigmatized by a weird nepo baby who once stashed a dead bear in the backseat of his car,” Pritzker said of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., during his Governor’s Day speech at the Illinois State Fair. [video]

    Kennedy’s public health career is defined by his long-debunked lies claiming a link between childhood vaccines and autism. Since becoming Trump’s top public health official, Kennedy has waged an ignorant and dangerous war on science, hiring disgraced anti-vaccine lunatics, slashing hundreds of millions from critical vaccine research, and dismantling key programs that promote public health.

    Advocacy groups have criticized Kennedy for his use of the neurodevelopmental condition as a political tool in these efforts, citing his eugenics-like mischaracterizations of autism as a “preventable disease.”

    As for the dead bear, Pritzker was referring to a 2024 revelation that Kennedy once stored a bear cub’s carcass in his car, forgot about it, and—along with a crew of drunk friends—thought it would be funny to stage it in New York City’s Central Park as part of a fake bike accident.

    Governor’s Day at the Illinois State Fair traditionally marks the start of election season. But with Trump and his clown car of appointees, it feels like every day is a campaign against this administration.

    Link

  192. says

    Republicans may have just rolled out a new line on the economy: High prices are good for America. If so, expect to hear it a lot more as they scramble to defend President Donald Trump’s record heading into what’s expected to be a brutal 2026 election cycle.

    It’s straight out of George Orwell’s “1984”—the “we’ve always been at war with Eastasia” school of propaganda—where yesterday’s promises vanish and today’s pain is recast as patriotic duty.

    It started a few days ago, when Trump ally Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina went on Fox News and insisted that rising costs were “for the good of the country.” This, from the same party whose leader promised to lower prices “on Day One”—a pledge that convinced many voters that Trump, despite his fascism, bigotry, and criminality, would improve their bottom line.

    But instead of falling prices and more jobs, Trump has delivered the opposite: higher inflation, lower job growth, and tariffs pointing toward rough seas ahead. In fact, nearly everything Trump is doing is inflationary: His tariffs are raising prices, his mass deportations are gutting the workforce and driving up labor costs, and his crusade to strong-arm the Federal Reserve into lowering interest rates would further unbalance an economy already wobbling from rising prices.

    Yet, because every Republican is expected to sing Dear Leader’s praises, the only option is to spin bad economic news as patriotic.

    Norman gave it his best shot: “Yes, [prices are] higher. Steel prices are up, but it’s for the good of the country.” He added, “Should we expect high prices for a short time? Yes … The cancer in this country was letting other countries rule the day and tax our products, and why should we run a deficit every month? … And that’s why this president is doing such a good job.”

    Got that? The “cancer” was lower prices, and the cure is making everything more expensive. Meanwhile, Norman voted lockstep with Trump to add another $3 trillion to the national debt, so spare us the fiscal-hawk routine.

    […] If Norman’s Fox appearance is the start of a new messaging play, you’ll be hearing more of it as Republicans twist reality to protect their leader, even if that means looking voters in the eye and telling them to celebrate paying more for groceries, gas, and rent.

    It’s the kind of spin that might work inside the Fox News bubble, but good luck with that out in the real world.

    Link

  193. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Anna Bower (Lawfare):

    I’ve been reading Laura Loomer’s deposition in her suit against Bill Maher and hoo boy it’s a doozy. [Docket #100]
    […]
    “What is your basis for saying [Majorie Taylor Greene] puts roast beef in her pockets and in her pants?” [Screenshots]
    I don’t even know where to begin. You just have to read these two pages.
    —
    COUNSEL: Now, be the First Amendment warrior you claim to be and admit that you were saying that [Kamala Harris] the vice president of the United States had an infested vagina… [Screenshot]
    LOOMER: This is coercion…
    COUNSEL: Coward.
    LOOMER: Not a coward.
    COUNSEL: Coward.
    LOOMER: Not a coward.

    Rando:

    the premise of her defamation lawsuit is that Maher’s joke about her and Trump fucking would be understood by viewers as a factual assertion & HBO’s lawyer is trying to get her to admit that she regularly makes crude ‘jokes’ & insults about public figures’ sex lives without factual knowledge.

    Which is also why she spends twelve pages of the deposition trying to pretend that her tweet about the VP & Montel Williams didn’t mean what it obviously said. [Screenshots] “snatch can mean many things” I suppose you can’t “prove” that she’s perjuring herself here but… she’s completely undermining her own credibility to anyone with a brain.
    […]
    I assume the point of it has to be “you post things like this all the time & don’t expect people to take it seriously, so you can’t claim that people would have taken Maher seriously” […] that’s the angle HBO’s lawyer is going for, so she keeps yo-yoing back and forth between claiming that her crude sex tweets about people are 100% factual (Graham is gay, some of the Kamala ones, etc.) vs. playing dumb & claiming they weren’t sexual (Arby’s, etc.)

    Commentary

    So this is apparently our American Rasputin.

    You absolutely can’t do this to a witness, but if you’re ever going to do it, this is the witness you should do it to.

    There’s a horsey sauce joke just begging to be made, but Loomer doesn’t have the creativity to realize it.

    So does Arby’s use this as an ad or a defamation suit?

    Stuck on how anyone could libel MTG. She has no good reputation to damage. Damages are $0.

    I just love how this is all so absurd that the Zangief cosplayer with whom MTG cheated on her husband is a mere afterthought.

    This is just … wow. This is right-wing politics now. This is what you get with Republicans.

    a great example of the “never write something you don’t want to hear read back to you by an expressionless clerk in court” advice people like to give.

  194. birgerjohansson says

    Seth Meyers 

    “Trump’s Rambling Kennedy Center Announcement and Threat to Send Troops To More Cities 
    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=ucSe-ImrWX8
    All Republican talking points -like crime in big cities- are lies. One exception: The crimiest big cities are in Republican-led states.

  195. Militant Agnostic says

    @193

    Laura Loomer’s deposition in her suit against Bill Maher

    Best outcome in this Asshole/Kook fight is that Loomer wins but receives $0.00 damages on the grounds that she has no reputation to defame and they both run up huge legal bills.

  198. birgerjohansson says

    Battling ‘Shonen’ stereotypes.
    It is a demographic, and can be anything that appeals to people in that demographic making it much more interesting than just Goku blowing up stuff.

    “The Other Side of Shonen”
    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=2oXN1X2QgDw
    Herr Doktor Wiki:
    “The editorial focus of shōnen manga/ anime is primarily on action, adventure, and the fighting of monsters or other clearly defined forces of evil. Though action narratives dominate the said category, there is deep editorial diversity and a significant number of genres and sub-genres within shōnen manga, especially compared to other comic cultures outside of Japan, including comedy, crime, romance, 
    slice of life, and sports.”

  199. KG says

    Ip’s report added that it would be wrong to characterize this as “socialism,” because it more closely resembles “state capitalism, a hybrid between socialism and capitalism in which the state guides the decisions of nominally private enterprises.” – Lynna, OM@136, quoting MSNBC

    Actually, what it “more closely resembles” is fascism, as indeed do the Chinese and Russian economies: workers and unions are repressed, capitalists can get rich without limit as long as they pay homage, but the ruling party and above all the Great Leader can interfere at any point and for any purpose, or simply on a whim.

  200. birgerjohansson says

    The Baltimore Ravens just rejected Elon Musk’s $ 500 million Tesla sponsorship offer.

  203. birgerjohansson says

    The only time this kind of economy was remotely successful was during the reign of the dictator of South Korea when the frames for the capitalist economy was set to develop a diverse economy from third-world status as fast as possibly. I am not making excuses for the human rights violations, he was a bastard. He was shot in 1980.

  204. birgerjohansson says

    The US treasury bond market is not doing well. This bodes ill for an economy financed by loans.

  205. birgerjohansson says

    A cartoon series designed to calm stressed and anxious adults (hardly something Americans would need, right?) :
    Crunchyroll will stream the series With You And The Rain

    It is an “Iyashikei” following a lady and a sapient dog (with excellent penmanship) -the reviews are quite good.

  208. JM says

    Reuters: Russia tries to make sudden advance in Ukraine before Trump-Putin summit

    Russian forces have made a sudden thrust into eastern Ukraine near the coal mining town of Dobropillia, a move that may be an attempt to increase the pressure on Kyiv to give up land as the U.S. and Russian presidents prepare to meet.
    Ukraine’s authoritative DeepState war map showed on Tuesday that Russian forces had advanced by at least 10 km (six miles) north in two prongs in recent days, part of their drive to take full control of Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

    “The situation is quite chaotic, as the enemy, having found gaps in the defence, is infiltrating deeper, trying to quickly consolidate and accumulate forces for further advancement,” DeepState said on its Telegram channel.

    Tatarigami_UA, a former Ukrainian army officer whose Frontelligence Insight analysis tracks the conflict, posted:
    “In both 2014 and 2015, Russia launched major offensives ahead of negotiations to gain leverage. The current situation is serious, but far from the collapse some suggest.”

    The situation on the ground is unclear but some sort of infiltration has happened. Russia has sent small infantry groups into a weak point in Ukrainian lines. If they can hold the ground it’s significant but it isn’t a hole in the front. Russia has launched attacks right before previous negotiations and it’s possible they have sent infantry beyond what they can support at all this time just for the negotiating leverage.

  210. says

    RIP USAID

    Yesterday brought another example of the extreme difficulty of litigating the constitutional structure of government in court and its inadequacy in reining in Trump’s lawless rampage in a timely fashion.

    You may have seen that the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision by Republican appointees Karen Henderson and Gregory Katsas, effectively ratified the Trump administration’s freezing of foreign aid funding. It was a bit more nuanced than that.

    The court ruled that foreign aid groups could not legally challenge the impoundment of the foreign aid funding. Under the law, the court concluded, only the Government Accountability Office, an arm of Congress, can challenge the president’s impoundment of funds. To date, the comptroller general, who heads the GAO, hasn’t take that step. To emphasize, the GAO hasn’t even commenced a lawsuit yet. (Joyce Vance has more on this mechanism.)

    The upshot is that after months of litigation, during which United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been dismantled, it’s back to square one to hold Trump to account for his lawlessness. Or to put it another way, the damage has already been done and cannot now or at some future date be rectified in any meaningful way. One caveat: It’s possible the full court of appeals could overturn the panel decision.

    The dissent by Judge Florence Pan, a Democratic appointee, was scalding of the majority:

    My colleagues in the majority excuse the government’s forfeiture of what they perceive to be a key argument, and then rule in the President’s favor on that ground, thus departing from procedural norms that are designed to safeguard the court’s impartiality and independence. Moreover, the court’s holding that the grantees have no constitutional cause of action is as startling as it is erroneous.

    In her dissent, Pan was clear about the structural constitutional issues at stake and the enforcement role that the two-judge majority was abdicating:

    At bottom, the court’s acquiescence in and facilitation of the Executive’s unlawful behavior derails the “carefully crafted system of checked and balanced power” that serves as the “greatest security against tyranny — the accumulation of excessive authority in a single Branch.” Because the court turns a blind eye to the “serious implications” of this case for the rule of law and the very structure of our government, I respectfully dissent.

    The USAID debacle remains one of the most haunting aspects of the first months of the Trump II presidency. And the collective inability, unwillingness, and indifference of the courts to rein it in is a sobering sign of the limits of judicial power against this executive.

    Link

  211. says

    As reported by Politico:

    The good government group Common Cause is backing away from its longtime opposition to gerrymandering and partisan redistricting, saying it will not actively oppose mid-decade redistricting in blue states.

  213. says

    Followup to comment 210.

    […] Earlier this month, several USAID-funded communal kitchens in Sudan closed entirely, impacting nearly 3 million people facing famine in the war-torn area. And over the last 6 months, at least 652 children died in Nigeria due to malnutrition as a direct result of funding cuts.

    But despite these gruesome truths, Trump is going to continue to roll back foreign aid. And thanks to the courts, now no one can stop him.

    Link

  214. says

    Advocates are scrambling to relocate people from tent encampments before imminent arrests.

    The Trump administration is planning citywide sweeps of dozens of homeless encampments in DC starting tonight, according to city workers and advocacy groups briefed on the plan. In anticipation of the raids, organizations that assist the homeless are hurriedly working to get homeless individuals out of tent encampments before they can be detained or arrested.

    “Arrests will occur at night, in an effort to avoid news cameras,” Jesse Rabinowitz, communications director at National Homelessness Law Center, said via email.

    […] A DC government worker briefed on the plan says law enforcement will target up to 62 different sites across the city, and that land not controlled by the federal government may not be immune from sweeps. (People sleeping in front of churches and businesses may also be targeted, the source says.)

    It is unclear whether DC Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) or federal law enforcement will lead the efforts, or if the National Guard members Trump deployed to the district earlier this week will assist. Neither MPD nor the White House immediately responded to requests for comment.

    Crucially, advocates point out, there are not enough shelter beds in the nation’s capital to accommodate all of the people who regularly sleep outside. According to a joint press release from the National Homelessness Law Center, the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, and Miriam’s Kitchen, there are currently just 40 shelter beds available and nearly 900 people who may need them.

    “We are working to get our clients out of harm’s way as much as we can, and to monitor whether the actions follow the law,” Amber Harding, executive director at the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless […]

  216. says

    Federal judge blocks Trump administration’s broad birth control mandate exemptions

    The Trump administration’s religious and moral carve-outs to an ObamaCare requirement that all employer health plans cover contraception at no cost were blocked on Wednesday by a federal judge.

    District Judge Wendy Beetlestone in Philadelphia issued a summary judgment that the rules were arbitrary, capricious and an overreach of the authority of the agencies that wrote them in 2017.

    Under the rules, essentially any for-profit or nonprofit employer or insurer was allowed to exempt themselves from following the birth control mandate on moral and religious grounds. The rules also let publicly traded companies obtain a religious exemption, but not a moral one. [What?]

    The Affordable Care Act required employer health plans to cover at least one of 18 forms of birth control approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

    Religious groups and employers sued, and the Supreme Court in 2014 ruled 5-4 that the contraceptive mandate violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) rights of closely held corporations whose owners had religious objections.

    […] the Trump administration in 2017 issued a blanket exemption. The rules didn’t require employers to apply for an exemption, as the administration said that would be a violation of their religious rights.

    Pennsylvania, New Jersey and dozens of other states sued to halt that broad expansion of exemptions and accommodations. That lawsuit reached the Supreme Court in 2020, where the justices upheld the Trump rules on technical grounds but did not address the underlying merits of the case.

    The case was sent back to the lower court, where religious group, Little Sisters of the Poor, joined the lawsuit alongside the federal government in asking for summary judgment.

    Beetlestone, an appointee of former President Obama, wrote that the Trump administration’s religious rule did not accomplish what the agencies purportedly wrote it to do, which was to resolve a conflict between the contraceptive mandate and RFRA.

    But the rule exemptions to organizations that are “unlikely, if ever, to be capable of maintaining a religious objection, raising further doubts as to any ‘rational connection’ between the Rule and remedying potential conflicts with RFRA,” Beetlestone wrote.

    The Little Sisters will appeal the ruling in the coming weeks, according to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a nonprofit that represents the order.

  217. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/should-rfk-jrs-government-anti-vaxx

    “Should RFK Jr.’s Government Anti-Vaxx ‘Expert’ Encourage People To Shoot The Government? Or Would That Be Wrong?”

    Last Friday, 30-year-old Patrick Joseph White took a little trip to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, whereupon he fired 200 rounds into several buildings, ultimately killing DeKalb County Police Officer David Rose and then himself. Why? Because he was obsessed by the idea that the COVID vaccine had harmed him and made him depressed.

    A number of rather disturbing details have so far emerged, starting with the fact that his own father, upon seeing the news, called up the police because he thought it was his son. If you’ll recall, White used his father’s guns in the attack. […]

    You may recall Dr. Robert Malone from the time he played the role of “inventor of mRNA vaccines [he wasn’t] who learned the error of his ways and turned into an anti-vaccine whistleblower” back during the pandemic. Well, now he’s actually working for the government, having recently been appointed — by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., natch — to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). […]

    Well! Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut is now demanding that Kennedy purge Malone from the committee as well, and not just because he believes insane things about vaccines, but because he believes insane things about vaccines and has a tendency towards the kind of violent rhetoric that just might inspire someone to commit a similar act.

    In a letter to Kennedy, Blumenthal wrote:

    “Just hours before a police officer was brutally murdered and CDC headquarters would be scarred with bullets, forcing hundreds employees into lockdown, Dr. Robert Malone, whom you recently appointed to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), uploaded a post to his personal blog that included an image of a revolver loaded with a single bullet and the words ‘Five out of six scientists have proven that Russian roulette is harmless.’ Less than 48 hours after the attack, Dr. Malone issued a meme-filled post that included violent and threatening images that appeared to be directed at government officials, writing, ‘if you need a disarmed society to govern, you suck at governing.’”

    […] Ah yes, who among us can forget that famous debate between Elizabeth Warren and Tommy Lee Jones’s character from No Country For Old Men?

    Here’s another in that same vein, shared on the same day — because of course Malone couldn’t have known before the shooting that violence against CDC officials and scientists was in the air, but he certainly knew it after: [Image]

    A man is dead — one of the police officers that Republicans are supposed to care so very deeply about […]

    Blumenthal’s letter continued:

    “Dr. Malone has displayed an unfathomable failure of judgment and heartlessness for the family of slain Officer Rose, and for the thousands of CDC staff on whom the work of ACIP depends. Dr. Malone’s escalating and violent rhetoric—including in the aftermath of this tragic incident—has no place on a panel responsible for determining immunization recommendations for children and adults throughout our country. I therefore call on you to immediately fire Dr. Malone from his role on ACIP.”

    The Connecticut senator also called on Kennedy to bring back all of the people he fired from ACIP in the first place.

    “Your response must begin with the immediate firing of Dr. Malone, but should rightly include restoring the entire ACIP panel that existed before it was decimated last June. At that time, you replaced 17 sitting members, whose qualifications and expertise were unchallengeable […] In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal about these firings, you lamented that, without your actions, ‘the current Trump administration would not have been able to appoint a majority of new members until 2028.’ Your comment shows how thoroughly the Trump Administration has confused independent scientific guidance with its own whims, and betrays a fundamental ignorance of ACIP’s role as an apolitical panel with members appointed by multiple Presidents for overlapping terms. […] ACIP’s commitment to transparency and scientific independence have historically made ‘the decisions and deliberations of this committee a beacon for immunization programs globally.’ Unfortunately, because of your actions, its credibility has been shredded.”

    I suppose we don’t know the rest of the panel’s stance on whether or not it’s acceptable to murder public officials if you don’t like what they’re doing, but we do know that practically all of them are just as incredibly unqualified as Malone is.

    “The previous ACIP was made up of technical experts who have spent their lives studying vaccines,” Abram Wagner of the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health told the Associated Press after Kennedy announced eight new appointments to the panel, adding that they “don’t have the technical capacity that we would expect out of people who would have to make really complicated decisions involving interpreting complicated scientific data.” [True]

  219. says

    Whoops: Trump’s propaganda princess just put her foot in her mouth

    As the Trump administration tells conflicting lies about the severity of crime in Washington, emerging stories show that federal law enforcement in the city is wasting its time on minor violations to justify the administration’s falsehoods.

    In an appearance Thursday morning on the pro-Trump “Fox & Friends” program, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked by co-host Ainsley Earhardt to address reports that crime is down in D.C.

    “These numbers are absolutely correct, and we will continue to provide the American public and the press with the numbers because we’re proud of these efforts,” Leavitt replied.

    But her rhetoric contradicts the narrative the Trump administration has been pushing. President Donald Trump and top officials, like Stephen Miller, have repeatedly argued that FBI data released in January showing a drop in crime is inaccurate. [video]

    Leavitt’s statement also deceptively argues that the Trump administration deserves credit for the drop in crime. The statistics showing crime in D.C. at a 30-year low reflect data collected in 2024, when former President Joe Biden was in office. Unsurprisingly, Trump spent much of that year falsely accusing Biden of neglecting crime, which he claimed had been increasing.

    And what crime is the current federal deployment of law enforcement agents to Washington dealing with?

    According to a report from The Washington Post, federal agents are addressing serious crime issues like seatbelt violations and broken taillights. A checkpoint set up by agents of the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday night was greeted by locals chanting, “Go home, fascists.” [video]

    More than 20 officers were deployed to the checkpoint in Northwest Washington instead of dealing with serious crimes.

    When the federal deployment has dealt with actual criminal activity, even that has undermined the dark language from Team Trump. The man who threw a sandwich at a federal agent in a recent viral video was charged with felony assault on Wednesday.

    “He thought it was funny. Well, he doesn’t think it’s funny today, because we charged him with a felony: assault on a police officer,” Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for D.C. and a former Fox News conspiracy theorist, said in a video announcing the charges.

    Former FBI Special Agent Asha Rangappa noted that if convicted, the sandwich thrower could face more time in prison than the Jan. 6 attackers whom Trump pardoned after taking office this year. […]

  220. says

    https://www.thirdway.org/report/the-21st-century-red-state-murder-crisis

    The red state murder rate was 33% higher than the blue state murder rate in both 2021 and 2022.
    2022 was the 23rd consecutive year that murder plagued Trump-voting states at far higher levels than Biden-voting states.

    8 out of the 10 states with the highest murder rates in 2022 voted for Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020.

    From 2000 to 2022, the average red state murder rate was 24% higher than the average blue state murder rate.

    Red states like Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama are America’s murder capitals and have had the highest three murder rates for 15 of the last 23 years.

    The excuse that sky high red state murder rates are because of their blue cities is without merit. Even after removing the county with the largest city from red states, and not from blue states, red state murder rates were still 20% higher in 2021 and 16% higher in 2022. […]

    More at the link.

  221. says

    US and Russia ‘propose West Bank-style occupation of Ukraine’

    “Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff is understood to support the idea, which can be revealed before the president meets Putin in Alaska on Friday”

    Russia and the United States have discussed a model for ending the war in Ukraine that mirrors Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, The Times has been told.

    Under this scenario Russia would have military and economic control of occupied Ukraine under its own governing body, imitating Israel’s de facto rule of Palestinian territory seized from Jordan in 1967.

    The idea was raised weeks ago in discussions between Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s peace envoy, and his Russian counterparts, according to a source close to the US national security council.

    Witkoff, who is also tasked by Trump with bringing peace to the Middle East, is understood to support the idea, which the Americans believe circumvents barriers in the Ukrainian constitution to ceding territory without holding an “all-Ukraine” referendum. [map]

    President Zelensky has refused to countenance handing over land but the occupation model may be a mechanism to allow for a truce after three and a half years of war.

    Under the model, Ukraine’s borders would not change, just as the borders of the West Bank have gone unchanged for 58 years, only under Israeli control.

    “It’ll just be like Israel occupies the West Bank,” the source said before Trump’s summit with President Putin in Alaska on Friday. “With a governor, with an economic situation that goes into Russia, not Ukraine. But it’ll still be Ukraine, because … Ukraine will never give up its sovereignty. But the reality is it’ll be occupied territory and the model is Palestine.”

    Anna Kelly, the deputy White House press secretary, said: “This is total fake news and sloppy reporting by The Times, who clearly has terrible sources. Nothing of the sort was discussed with anyone at any point.”

    Israel’s occupation has been ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice, which is not recognised by the US and only partially accepted by Russia. In March 2022 the court ordered Russia to “immediately suspend military operations” in Ukraine, by a vote of 13 to two in which Russian and Chinese judges were opposed. The order is binding on Russia but the court has no means of enforcing it. […]

    More at the link.

  222. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/found-the-dc-crime-tabs-thurs-aug

    […] If Democrats are accusing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott of using flood relief funds to extort them, I’d say the answer is FUCKING OBVIOUSLY, YES. (Gift link Houston Chron) […]

    Excerpt from the Houston Chronicle article:

    […] The Legislature is on track to wrap its special session this week without any action on flood recovery, including $250 million in relief funding. Gov. Greg Abbott says the funding has been held up by “derelict” House Democrats who derailed the session he called when they fled to blue states to deny a quorum and block the GOP effort to redraw U.S. House districts.

    Democrats say the Republican governor doesn’t need their approval to send millions of dollars to the Hill Country now, and that Abbott is using the flood relief as both leverage and political cover to add five new Republican congressional districts.

    On paper, the governor has the authority to send money to areas still reeling from natural disasters like floods without lawmakers giving the green light — and he’s used that authority several times, including after hurricanes, during the COVID pandemic and to free up money to build a border wall. [!]

    […] Four years ago, Abbott transferred $250 million from the state’s prison agency to the disaster fund in his office so the money could be spent building a border wall. He also authorized the transfer of Medicaid funding from the state’s health agency to help with Harvey recovery efforts in 2017.

    Democrats say he could have used that authority in the weeks between the July 4 flooding and the start of the special session on July 21. They also say he could easily make the transfers after this first special session wraps and before he calls another one to push through redistricting. […]

  223. says

    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/08/18/the-number

    “The Number: How much is Trump pocketing off the Presidency?” By David D. Kirkpatrick

    [I snipped details reporting Trump’s financial arrangements in 2017.]

    […] in Trump’s second term the President and his family have paid no mind to their lawyer’s promise. [Trump and his family, Dillon declared, would never do anything that might “be perceived to be exploitive of the office of the Presidency.”]

    During Trump’s first term, they pledged to abstain from any new deals overseas. That’s out the window. The Trumps are now cashing in on five major deals in the Persian Gulf alone. Donald, Jr., on a recent visit to Qatar, said that the family’s restraint during the first Trump Administration had not stopped his father’s critics from constantly accusing the family of “profiteering.” So the Trumps would no longer lock themselves in “a proverbial padded room, because it almost doesn’t matter—they’re going to hit you no matter what.” […]

    Many payments now flowing to Trump, his wife, and his children and their spouses would be unimaginable without his Presidencies: a two-billion-dollar investment from a fund controlled by the Saudi crown prince; a luxury jet from the Emir of Qatar; profits from at least five different ventures peddling crypto; fees from an exclusive club stocked with Cabinet officials and named Executive Branch. […]

    How much money does it all amount to? What’s the number? In March, Forbes, known for ranking the wealth of billionaires, estimated that Trump’s net worth had more than doubled in the previous year, surpassing five billion dollars. In July, the Times put Trump’s wealth at upward of ten billion. Yet both estimates included billions of dollars in paper profits that would almost certainly disintegrate if the Trumps pulled out of certain investments. (What’s Truth Social worth without him?) These estimates also included assets untainted by any obvious exploitation of the Presidency, such as properties that Trump owned before entering office, or fees paid by resort customers who simply want to play golf or book a hotel room.

    Although the notion that Trump is making colossal sums off the Presidency has become commonplace, nobody could tell me how much he’s made. […] A more considered accounting seemed in order. I decided to attempt to tally up just how much Trump and his immediate family have pocketed off his time in the White House.

    [I snipped details of past financial losses, and details recounting how precarious Trump’s financial situation was before he ran for a second term. I also snipped details regarding laws governing the use of campaign funds.]

    […] On his tax returns, Trump has aggressively minimized the value of his assets and maximized the extent of his losses. On loan applications, he’s done the opposite, puffing up his wealth to borrow as much as possible. And on the financial-disclosure forms he’s been required to file as a candidate or as President, he usually provides only a business’s gross revenue, not its bottom line, thus reporting tens of millions of dollars in “income” from hotels that are actually losing money.

    […] ethics experts say that any outside business can pose a conflict of interest and may open a conduit for bribery. But, propriety aside, I was after a fair, dispassionate quantification of the Trumps’ profits from two Presidencies. Mar-a-Lago, the for-profit club that has become the maga mecca and the weekend White House, was an obvious place to start. [Illustrative chart]

    MAR-A-LAGO
    In 2016, Trump, while running for President, was also suing a restaurateur for cutting ties over his bigoted comments about Mexican immigrants. In a deposition that summer, Trump testified that the Presidential race had so far had no “huge impact” on his hotel and resort businesses, which were “fairly steady.” One exception, he said, was Mar-a-Lago, the Palm Beach estate he’d turned into a private club after acquiring it, in 1985, for roughly ten million dollars. As though surprised by a happy accident, Trump testified that, according to the club’s manager, the campaign had given Mar-a-Lago “the best year we’ve ever had.”

    If many Presidents have traded access for campaign donations, only Trump has run a business selling an open-ended opportunity to mingle with him and his circle. […]

    Trump’s financial-disclosure forms indicate that since 2014 Mar-a-Lago’s annual revenue has jumped from ten million dollars to fifty million. At the same time, Forbes reported, operating costs have been stable, ranging from twelve million to sixteen million dollars a year. Adding it all up, I calculated that Trump’s Presidencies have brought him at least $125 million in extra profits from Mar-a-Lago.

    Estimated gain: $125 million

    LEGAL FEES AND TRUMP MERCH
    Although candidates cannot pocket campaign contributions, no President has ever tried as hard as Trump to siphon off at least some of that money. According to the nonprofit OpenSecrets, in the past decade Trump’s campaigns have spent more than twenty million dollars at his own hotels and resorts, contributing to Mar-a-Lago’s spike in profits. […]

    Trump’s 2016 and 2024 campaign operations paid him a total of eighteen million dollars for the use of his own Boeing 757—the so-called Trump Force One. […]

    Trump is the first Presidential candidate to run a private online store that competes against his own campaign in selling campaign-style merch, effectively diverting his supporters’ money into his own pocket. [I snipped details describing the Trump perch.]

    A political campaign fund cannot pay a candidate’s personal legal bills. But Trump found a loophole: a campaign fund can be converted into a political-action committee, and the looser restrictions on a pac allow the use of donor funds to pay such expenses. [I snipped details.]

    Estimated gain: $127.7 million
    Running total: $252.7 million

    THE D.C. HOTEL
    During the President’s first term, no business figured more prominently in Democratic allegations of corruption than did the Trump International Hotel in Washington. [I snipped examples.]

    All this patronage surely flattered Trump’s ego, but it never fattened his wallet. The hotel lost money each year of his first term—a total of more than seventy million dollars. [I snipped details and comparisons with other hotel.]

    Trump had agreed in 2012 to pay the federal government at least three million dollars a year for a long-term lease of the D.C. building, a former post-office headquarters, and to invest at least two hundred million in renovations. The hotel opened in 2016, and Trump sold it in 2022 for $375 million. Craig and Buettner, after reviewing his tax returns, conclude that he roughly broke even. Hilton Hotels took over the management, under its Waldorf Astoria brand, and people familiar with its operations said that its financial performance has improved markedly.

    [I snipped details related to Trump Turnberry, a golf resort in Scotland.]

    Yet that property, too, lost money all four years of the first Trump Administration. It finally entered the black in 2022. […]

    Spending at Trump’s hotels by government agencies and influence seekers looked to me like a wash.

    Estimated gain: $0
    Running total: $252.7 million

    THE PERSIAN GULF
    […] The Gulf’s Arab monarchs play complementary double roles: each is both a head of state and a major buyer of U.S. real estate and other assets. The Gulf royals put money in the very kinds of properties and investments that Trump’s family sells. […] the two Trump Administrations—including Jared Kushner, the husband of Trump’s daughter Ivanka—had sold or tried to sell assets to the Gulf’s ruling families before entering government. And both sides can expect to do business again once Trump leaves office.

    […] During the 2016 Republican primaries, Trump boasted of having sold condos to Saudis: “They buy apartments from me. They spend forty million, fifty million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much.” […] He’d made hundreds of thousands of dollars a year licensing his name for a two-tower project in Istanbul. (On his three most recent annual disclosure forms, he reported receiving $489,182, $392,360, and $288,061. Reporting periods can be irregular.) He’d also licensed his name for four apartment towers in India, six in South Korea, one in the Philippines, and another in Uruguay. [I snipped details of deals that apparently did not work out. I also snipped a recounting of Trump family deals after Trump’s first term ended.]

    Estimated gain: $320 million
    Running total: $572.7 million

    MORE SAUDI DEALS
    Trump’s first business with the Saudis upon leaving the White House involved golf. […] Saudi Arabia was launching its own pro-golf association, LIV, and it agreed to hold a televised tournament at Bedminster. […]

    The Trump Organization has recently signed or completed some deals to license the President’s name for real-estate projects that extended the company’s “Apprentice”-era business model. […]

    A recent rush of Saudi investments in Trump-branded real estate in the Gulf would be hard to fathom without the Trump Presidencies.

    […] Dar Al Arkan, a Saudi real-estate company, had agreed to pay the Trump Organization to manage both a Trump hotel and a Trump golf course at a vast cliffside development in Muscat, Oman. In addition, Trump would likely get a cut from sales of villas surrounding the course. (The Sultan of Oman is also a partner.) The project, when completed, will be the Trump Organization’s first hotel-management deal overseas. Small-scale managers like the Trump Organization—which currently runs just eight hotels—can typically land only ten-year contracts. But the Oman project reportedly made a three-decade commitment.[…]

    In the months after Trump’s reëlection, Donald, Jr., and Eric signed a blitz of licensing deals with the same Saudi company, for major projects in Riyadh, Jeddah, Dubai, and Doha. […] these mega-deals are inconceivable without Trump’s Presidency.

    […] Trump reported on his last three annual disclosure forms that managing the course paid him $1,283,889, $1,109,950, and $1,078,967. He now stands to make at least a million dollars a year as long as Sajwani renews the management contract—and Sajwani would be foolish to cancel while Trump is President. I estimated that Trump, by the end of his second term, will have made more than nine million dollars from managing that course. [I snipped financial details.]

    Estimated gain: $105.8 million
    Running total: $678.5 million

    THE PRIVATE JET
    In May, the President returned from formal state visits to Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., and Qatar with his most unusual deal so far, one without any pretense of a sale. He announced that the Emir of Qatar had agreed to make a “free gift” of a royal Boeing 747-8 for Trump’s use as a flashy Presidential jet. Trump characterized the transfer as a boon for American taxpayers: the Air Force would retain ownership of the plane until he left office. Yet Trump also said that the Pentagon would then pass the jet to his Presidential-library foundation. This “free gift” looked enough like a personal favor that the Emir has requested a memorandum of understanding confirming that it’s a donation from one government to another, in order to protect him from allegations of bribery. He also wants it in writing that Qatar didn’t propose the handover, and made it only at the President’s request. (A Qatari official told me that negotiations are ongoing.) […]

    Estimated gain: $150 million
    Running total: $828.5 million

    TRUMP HOTEL HANOI
    In September, 2024 […] the General Secretary of Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party, visited New York and dispatched a Central Committee member to wrap up a Trump resort deal. […] The same day, Trump took time away from the campaign to join Eric in signing an agreement with a Vietnamese company, known for its office parks, that will build the property and pay the Trumps for the use of their name. […]

    Vietnamese authorities have expedited the resort project, overriding local laws and procedures. In a letter obtained by the Times, Vietnamese officials said that they were accelerating the project because it is “receiving special attention from the Trump Administration and President Donald Trump personally.” […]

    Estimated gain: $40 million
    Running total: $868.5 million

    THE CORPORATE SQUEEZE
    In a 2016 law-review article, Susan Seager, a First Amendment lawyer and a professor at the University of California, Irvine School of Law, described Trump as a “libel loser.” In the past five decades, he has lost or withdrawn a dozen suits against media companies, and failed to follow through on many other threats. The handful of claims that he filed after leaving the White House all seemed certain to end similarly. Last spring, for example, he sued ABC News for defamation because its anchor George Stephanopoulos said that a court had found Trump “liable for rape.” The court had found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll, and the judge had emphasized that Carroll had not failed to prove “that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word.” To win his lawsuit, Trump would have to prove that Stephanopoulos spoke with “actual malice”—a seemingly insurmountable burden.

    But after the election ABC News, a unit of Disney, abruptly settled the case. Confronting a plaintiff who now held enormous sway over its future regulation, Disney agreed to pay fifteen million dollars to Trump’s Presidential-library foundation—the same nonprofit that will presumably take ownership of the Qatari jet.

    Trump also sued Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. [I snipped details]

    With another media giant, Amazon, the Trumps worked more directly. In December, over dinner at Mar-a-Lago, Melania Trump pitched Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chairman, on a documentary that she hoped to produce about her return to the White House. The competition for the rights was flaccid: the Wall Street Journal reported that Disney had offered fourteen million dollars; Netflix and Apple had declined to bid. But Amazon agreed to pay forty million dollars. Of course, former Presidents and their wives routinely earn gigantic advances for memoirs. Yet First Couples have customarily waited until they’ve left office to open those auctions, avoiding the appearance that they might be selling influence. Amazon’s data-center business and Bezos’s Blue Origin space-travel company both receive billions of dollars in government contracts. Melania Trump’s cut of Amazon’s payment is reportedly about $28 million.

    Estimated gain: $91 million
    Running total: $959.5 million

    TRUTH SOCIAL
    In October, 2021, Trump announced a plan to launch his own social-media platform, Truth Social. […] The combined company, now called Trump Media & Technology Group, then handed Trump a roughly sixty-per-cent stake and named him its chairman. His share of the $293 million was equivalent to $175 million. (In a press release, Trump Media projected that, on the stock market, the combined company would be worth $1.7 billion, making the President’s stake worth more than a billion dollars.)

    […] Any money that the President makes from Trump Media unquestionably depends on his status as the former and current Commander-in-Chief. […]

    Trump Media lost more than four hundred million dollars last year, and in each of the past four quarters the company has brought in only about a million dollars or less in revenue. […]

    (In response to detailed questions, Trump Media & Technology Group declined to answer and threatened to sue.)

    Estimated gain: $25 million
    Running total: $984.5 million

    1789 CAPITAL
    On January 31st, Ned’s Club, a chain of luxury social clubs with locations in London, New York, and Doha, opened an outpost near the White House. Ned’s is owned by the investor Ronald Burkle, a Democratic donor, who is also the chairman and majority shareholder in Soho House, a kind of sister company. The Washington Ned’s is a joint venture with Michael Milken, the financier who was convicted in 1990 of securities fraud and pardoned in 2020 by Trump. Kellyanne Conway, the former Trump adviser, sits on the club’s membership committee. […]

    Regular members pay a five-thousand-dollar entry fee plus five thousand dollars a year; élite members can pay as much as a hundred and twenty five thousand dollars up front and twenty-five thousand a year for access to all Ned’s and Soho House locations. […]

    In April, Donald, Jr., circulated plans for a rival club, Executive Branch, which would initially cap its membership at two hundred people, and charge an initiation fee of up to half a million dollars. A person involved in the club told me that twenty “founding members” paid the half-million-dollar fee; regular members paid closer to a hundred thousand. […]

    How do Donald, Jr., and his partners plan to compete against Ned’s? Malik, in addition to offering a maga-friendly atmosphere, has promised to bar journalists and lobbyists. (An exception was made for Jeff Miller, a lobbyist who is a friend of the founders and paid half a million.) […]

    its biggest draw is surely the offer of intimacy with the President’s family and their associates. The soft opening drew at least seven Cabinet secretaries.

    […] Executive Branch’s profits remain hypothetical.

    Malik has also paid Donald, Jr., in other ways. [I snipped details]

    It’s unlikely that Donald, Jr.,’s experience at the Trump Organization would have landed him any similar job in the venture-capital industry had his father never entered the White House. […]

    Estimated gain: $19.6 million
    Running total: $1 billion

    CRYPTO
    Eric Trump, the public face of the Trump Organization while his father is in office, often says that his family first “fell in love with crypto” in the years after the Capitol riot. Big banks dropped the Trumps—including Deutsche Bank, their most important lender, and Capital One, where the Trump Organization had hundreds of accounts. At a recent crypto conference, Eric framed this blackballing, as he often does, as an example of bias against “a political view that might not have been popular with some of the big financial institutions.” He also described his family’s embrace of digital finance as a form of revenge: “The banks made the biggest mistake of their lives.”

    Like many boosters of crypto, Eric sometimes struggles to explain what it’s good for, aside from crime and casino-like speculation. Cryptocurrency essentially refers to marks in an online ledger called a blockchain, which tracks the contents of digital wallets. The blockchain is like a giant spreadsheet in the sky […] “incomprehensibility was almost a selling point.”

    […] criminals love crypto. The decentralized nature of that spreadsheet in the sky, maintained by a vast network of computers, makes it difficult to hold anyone accountable for unlawful transfers. Plus, each digital wallet is anonymous [I snipped examples of fraud]

    Trump initially saw crypto with clear eyes. In 2019, he tweeted that the volatile prices of cryptocurrencies were “based on thin air,” and that “unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior.” As recently as 2021, he told an interviewer that crypto “seems like a scam.” FTX’s spectacular collapse, the following year, appeared to vindicate his warning.

    But by then he’d got into the game. [I snipped details, including Trumps use of N.F.T.s]

    […] Trump reported that he had earned $13,180,707 in N.F.T.-licensing fees. The forms also show that Melania Trump made $1,224,311 from licensing an N.F.T.

    Estimated gain: $14.4 million
    Running total: $1.02 billion

    TOKEN INVESTMENTS
    Trump collected some of his N.F.T. fees in the form of digital currency, giving him his first incentive to start talking it up. [I snipped details, including a description of World Liberty.]

    Soon, however, World Liberty had an edge—the President. The company billed itself as the only decentralized-finance company “inspired by Donald J. Trump.” […]

    The Trump connection began paying off shortly after his election, beginning with a bellwether investment by Justin Sun, a Chinese-born crypto billionaire. […]

    Estimated gain: $412.5 million
    Running total: $1.4 billion

    THE CRYPTO GULF
    In March, World Liberty announced that it would sell a type of cryptocurrency known as stablecoin. [I snipped a definition of stablecoin.]

    On May 1st, Zach Witkoff, flanked by Justin Sun and Eric Trump, announced at a crypto conference in Dubai that a company owned by the U.A.E.’s ruling family had become World Liberty’s first major stablecoin customer, buying two billion dollars’ worth of USD1. [snipped details belated Binance, pardons, and regulations.]

    Bloomberg News recently reported that Binance accounts for ninety per cent of the USD1 in circulation. If C.Z. holds on to it for the remainder of Trump’s term, and Treasury interest rates stay at or above their current level, World Liberty will likely make more than $280 million. Under the ownership split at the time of the sale, about $168 million would go to the Trumps. […]

    Two weeks after World Liberty’s announcement in Dubai, Trump declared that the U.S. would provide the U.A.E. with advanced technology for a joint ten-square-mile artificial-intelligence data center. […]

    With the data center awaiting final approval, a shadowy new Emirati fund, the Aqua 1 Foundation, announced on June 26th that it would buy a hundred million dollars in World Liberty voting tokens. […]

    Estimated gain: $243 million
    Running total: $1.7 billion

    AMERICAN BITCOIN
    The origins of the Trump family’s third crypto business date back about five years, to when Donald, Jr., and Eric got to know Kyle Wool, a stockbroker who had recently left Morgan Stanley. [I snipped Wool’s work history.]

    In early February, Donald, Jr., and Eric joined Dominari’s board of advisers and were given a roughly six-million-dollar stake in the company. In the days before this was announced, Dominari’s share price doubled, to six dollars—it’s not clear why—and afterward it doubled again, giving the Trumps a sizable paper profit. On February 18th, Dominari and the Trump brothers announced a new joint venture—a third of it owned by Dominari, virtually the rest by the Trumps—which would invest in A.I. data centers.

    A month later, they sold most of that nebulous partnership, at a windfall profit, to Hut 8, a publicly traded bitcoin miner. [I snipped details and analysis.]

    That may be where Donald, Jr., and Eric come in. With the special credibility of being sons of the President, they have become tireless salesmen for crypto, touting bitcoin in particular as “digital gold.” […]

    If bitcoin crashes, ordinary Americans who heeded the Trump brothers’ advice to buy as much as possible could lose their savings. As for Wool, his friendship with Eric and Donald, Jr., has already paid off, through Dominari’s stake in American Bitcoin. And in June Justin Sun and his family hired Dominari to arrange a takeover. […]

    Estimated gain: $13 million
    Running total: $1.71 billion

    TRUMP MEDIA GOES CRYPTO
    The family’s fourth crypto venture is an attempt by Trump Media & Technology Group to reinvent itself. In April, the company capitalized on the new Administration’s crypto-friendly policies by announcing a plan to sell volatile crypto assets to ordinary investors. […] under Trump, the S.E.C. has made it much easier for investment companies to sell crypto to anyone with a standard brokerage account, through shares in what are known as exchange-traded funds, or E.T.F.s, that track the price of bitcoin, Ethereum, or other digital assets. The policy change represents a giant advance for the crypto industry. Trump Media jumped on the bandwagon […]

    […] In the past year, Trump Media has also been quietly raising cash by selling off other new shares in private transactions, ending the first quarter with $759 million in cash and short-term investments. With its bitcoin stockpile, the company held $3.1 billion in liquid assets. […] Astonishingly, for now, the financial alchemy of turning a meme stock into cash and bitcoin has added some $1.3 billion in Presidential profit to our tally. Dubinsky, the forensic accountant, told me the gambit was “just north of selling snake oil.”

    Estimated gain: $1.3 billion
    Running total: $3 billion

    $TRUMP
    Three days before his second Inauguration, Trump launched the fifth of his family’s crypto vehicles: selling $TRUMP, a digital token. $TRUMP doesn’t purport to hold value in the way that bitcoin or stablecoins do. Nor does $TRUMP entitle a buyer to a vote on a company’s future direction, as World Liberty’s initial token does. It does not even convey the right to own a digital cartoon of Trump. It’s a meme coin, a novelty, a bit of fun—the fun, for those who enjoy it, of paying Donald Trump. Eight years after his lawyer promised that his family would never exploit the Presidency for profit, Trump had distilled that exploitation to its purest possible form. […]

    Two days after the launch, another Trump venture began selling $MELANIA meme coins, quickly earning about $65 million in sales and trading fees, according to the Financial Times. […]

    Trump announced that he’d host an exclusive dinner for the two hundred and twenty people who held the most $TRUMP. The top twenty-five holders would also get a tour of the White House. The stunt sent the price back up to fifteen dollars, earning Trump more trading fees.

    Estimated gain: $385 million
    Running total: $3.4 billion

    DINNER AND DESSERT
    During the dinner, I stood outside the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, trying to glimpse some of the buyers hoping to whisper in the President’s ear. […]They were untroubled that a President was so blatantly selling access for personal profit. The crypto trader Brian Ng told the Times, “Everyone is out for themselves,” but “at least Trump is out in the open.”

    […] Justin Sun had bought nearly twenty million dollars in $TRUMP before the dinner, making him the biggest holder. […]

    By the time I finished adding up the Trump family’s profits […] Yet some three and a half billion dollars in Presidential profits—even though my accounting is necessarily approximate—is a dizzying sum. […]

    Selling increasingly vaporous goods for ever more profit, as Trump has done since his “Apprentice” makeover, inevitably raises questions about what buyers are really getting for their money. Counting it all, I was struck by the frantic, almost desperate pace of the Trump family’s efforts, as though they’re afraid to miss any opportunity. The family isn’t just passively accepting the Saudi private-equity investments, the Persian Gulf licensing deals, and Justin Sun’s millions for digital tokens. They’ve sought those payments eagerly, and at a speed suggesting that they badly want—or need—the money. […]

    Did Trump strike tacit deals with Justin Sun or C.Z., or with the media companies that paid him big settlements, or with Gulf monarchs? [I snipped other quid pro quo questions.]

    Trump has been back in the White House for a little more than six months, and his family’s zeal is unflagging. In June, Donald, Jr., and Eric celebrated the tenth anniversary of their father’s first Presidential run by announcing yet another licensing deal: they sold the Trump name for use on a mobile-phone service, which Donald, Jr., said was “building on the movement to put America first.” Dial 888-TRUMP45 to sign up, and pay $47.45 a month.

    A few weeks later, the brothers travelled with their father to promote a newly opened Trump golf course in Balmedie, Scotland, which the President touted as “an unbelievable development.” On August 4th, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump brothers had been given a total of five million shares in a new blank-check company that aims to raise and spend at least seven hundred million dollars to buy American manufacturing companies. […] the meter on the Trump family’s Presidential profits ticks ever faster. ♦

  225. says

    New prisoner exchange brings home 84 Ukrainians

    Russia’s breakthrough northeast of Pokrovsk appears to have broken down.

    A Ukrainian soldier and blogger on the front line, known as the “Demon of Bakhmut,” reports that Ukrainian forces, following successful counterattacks, have destroyed the Russian groups that had advanced in the Dobropillia sector and pushed them back — Ukraine’s advance continues. [Map at Blue Sky link. https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:s4dlrufms3pjpfzhuyvh6tlw/post/3lwai472esd27 ]

    [More maps, video and social media comments regarding the Russian advance having been repelled are available at the main link. “The Russians tried to advance fast and deep without basic supplies like water.”]

    […] There was another prisoner exchange today with 84 Ukrainians returning home. [videos]

    Despite stalled peace talks and no formal diplomatic ties, Russia and Ukraine have established a paradoxical, shadowy, efficient, & professional military-intelligence–run channel that has enabled the exchange of more than 10,000 prisoners of war — something virtually unheard of in modern warfare.

    […] Russia is having to rely on workers from India, Sri Lanka and North Korea, but they aren’t happy about it

    […] Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin recently admitted that the country is currently experiencing a drastic shortage of labour, due to “the consequences of the demographic collapse and the movement of workers to the military-industrial complex”.

    Russia is forecast to be short of 2 million workers by 2030, particularly in the trade, healthcare and manufacturing sectors. An official of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives says that a shortage of construction workers could mean that housebuilding will cease in 5-7 years.

    So few Russian doctors are now available that paramedics and midwives are being permitted to take over doctors’ work from 1 September. “The situation is catastrophic in industry, construction, and agriculture. In energy and IT it is slightly better,” says Anton Vaino. […]

    [Russia is looking to replace workers] with as many as a million Indians, Sri Lankans and North Koreans, according to Andrey Besedin of the Ural Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UCCI). African workers were tried, but employers were dissatisfied with their performance.

    This is causing great discontent among Russian workers. They complain that the new arrivals take far lower wages and bring different mentalities and practices, such as “food, hygiene, religious rituals, personal boundaries.” […]

    “It’s not just a fight against wage dumping, there’s also a sharp discrepancy in hygiene standards. The only people the guys respect and are always happy to have as partners are North Koreans.

    16/ “They’re like soldiers – they unload in formation, arrive at the site on the dot, leave in formation, and have the same level of hygiene habits [as Russians] – they don’t even have hot water, they wash in cold water, and they eat everything. [That does not sound like the replacement workers have adequate amenities where they are house.] […]

    […] The headline on this is over the top. The drone wall is not useless. The important item from this story is China’s intervention to supply Russia with fiber-optic cable. [social media post]
    […]

  226. birgerjohansson says

    There is a 53-page indictment of Epstein that was never used because Epstein died. It contains information that can be  released without the legal hurdles of other parts of the Epstein files. I do not speak ‘legalese’ so I refer you to the link.

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

  227. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/and-the-men-had-tears-in-their-eyes-08c

    “And The Men Had Tears In Their Eyes And They Said ‘Sir! Sir! Please Host The Kennedy Center Honors!'”

    Donald Trump went to the Kennedy Center yesterday, because he just loves trashing up cultural icons he’s seized by force, the same way he loves designing ugly ballrooms to stick on the side of the White House, the same way he loves directing the affixing of cheap gold-plating to everything in the White House.

    He was there to announce the next crop of Kennedy Center honorees, which he said he was “98 percent” involved in the selection of. “I would say I was about 98 percent involved. They all went through me,” said Trump. “I turned down plenty, they were too woke!” he said, like that’s a normal thing to say. “I had a couple of wokesters. Now, we have great people. This is very different than it used to be, very different.”

    He added that the Academy Awards gets low ratings now because “all they do is talk about how much they hate Trump.”

    Yeah sure OK.

    Slurring his speech like he always does these days, Trump lied and claimed that he had been “asked to host” the 2025 Honors. “I said I am the president of the United States, are you FOOLS asking me to do that?” He continued, lying, “SIR, you’ll get much higher ratings!” (That’s how you know he’s lying, it’s a sir story.) “I said, I don’t care, I’m the president of the United States, I won’t do it, they said PLEASE, and then Susie Wiles said I’d like you to host, I said, OK I’ll do it.”

    He concedes that it will be amazing when he hosts, because remember when he hosted the finales of TV’s “The Apprentice”? [video]

    You can see highlights from the entire event on Aaron Rupar’s Bluesky, as usual, including all the babbling and lying he did about Russia and his latest attack on Washington DC and all the other things reporters asked him about.

    We have to admit, we are feeling a little bit let down by Donald Trump’s picks for this year’s Kennedy Center honorees. He’s been threatening to change its name to the “Trump/Kennedy Center,” and he has absolutely zero taste, so we were hoping for the winners to be Lee Greenwood, Kid Rock, and the Village People, every single year until the end of time the same three honorees, plus maybe some Mennonite girls choir from eastern Ohio forced to sing “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” over and over again for the aging, senile king.

    Instead these are just kind of … what you’d expect from an old-ass white supremacist who loves lowest-common-denominator musicals? Who is also the world’s most laughed-at dictator, and is therefore needy for attention and adulation from literally anyone who will give it to him?

    You expect these exact honorees, in fact.

    Briefly, they are:

    Sylvester Stallone

    Sure, OK, whatever, he is MAGA and he is an actor. Check!

    Announcing the selection, Trump said that “Sly is one of the biggest names on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. In fact, the only one that’s a bigger name on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame, they say, is a guy named Donald Trump.” And that was how he honored Sylvester Stallone. [video]

    Gloria Gaynor

    The “I Will Survive” lady? Because we’re getting rid of all the woke and the gay, and he’s picking Gloria Gaynor? Sure, OK.

    But remember here that one of Trump’s favorite things is “YMCA” and the Village People, and that, like anybody whose best friend (at least before Jeffrey Epstein came into his life) was Roy Cohn, Trump loves ‘70s and ‘80s flamboyant gay shit.

    One interesting wrinkle here is that Gaynor, despite how she sings “I Will Survive” at Pride parades and so forth, is kind of weirdly Christian, in an uncomfortable way. Here is what she once said when she was asked how she felt about “I Will Survive” being a gay anthem:

    “I feel good about it because I feel it is a platform for my purpose, which is to bring the love of Christ to all of my fans. Because they trust me, I think.”

    Huh.

    And does she think being gay is wrong?

    “I want to lead them [her fans] to Christ and what he has for them. I want to lead them to him, I want to lead them to truth.”

    Gross. She’ll fit right in at the MAGA awards.

    George Strait

    Whatever. Possibly the most uncontroversial pick possible. Notably from a time in commercial radio country before Garth Brooks came along and started making everything woke. […] [video]

    Michael Crawford

    Sure, why not! An English stage actor with a weird voice who’s not really notable for a whole hell of a lot in the US, but he was the original Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera, and Donald Trump is, again, an aging Broadway fan, and specifically an aging Andrew Lloyd Webber fan […]

    […] Remember on the campaign trail when Trump fugued out and swayed for 37 straight minutes to all his favorite songs onstage, including to “Con te partirò,” AKA “Time To Say Goodbye,” by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman, AKA one of those songs your dead grandmother liked, when she wasn’t dead? Sarah Brightman was the original Christine in Phantom. All of this is connected.

    And finally:

    KISS

    “It’s an honor to present Kris — KISS,” said Trump, like he knew where he was when he was making the announcement.

    So cool, cool, we’re getting the woke out, therefore we’re giving the Kennedy Center honor to a band full of guys who dress up and wear makeup like drag queens. Gene Simmons is a big fan of drag himself and once said he’d love to be a judge on “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

    Here are some words Simmons has said about Trump:

    “Look what that gentleman did to this country and the polarization — got all the cockroaches to rise to the top,” Simmons told Spin of Trump in 2022. “Once upon a time, you were embarrassed to be publicly racist and out there with conspiracy theories. Now it’s all out in the open because he allowed it.”

    “I don’t think he’s a Republican or a Democrat,” Simmons added of the president. “He’s out for himself, any way you can get there. And in the last election, over 70 million people bought it hook, line and sinker.” […]

  228. birgerjohansson says

    The large island Sulavesi / Celebes is cut off from Asia by deep sea yet an unknown human species left stone tools there that are more than a million yesrs old. These people could have undergone a parallel evolution like the “hobbits” of Flores.

  229. says

    CNBC:

    Wholesale prices rose far more than expected in July, providing a potential sign that inflation is still a threat to the U.S. economy, a Bureau of Labor Statistics report Thursday showed. The producer price index, which measures final demand goods and services prices, jumped 0.9% on the month, compared with the Dow Jones estimate for a 0.2% gain. It was the biggest monthly increase since June 2022.

    NBC:

    Fresh inflation data suggests businesses have begun to raise the prices they charge each other for goods and services, a sign they are looking to preserve their profit margins in the face of President Donald Trump’s tariffs — with consumers potentially footing the bill.

  230. says

    Associated Press:

    Residents in one Washington, D.C., neighborhood lined up Wednesday to protest the increased police presence after the White House said the number of National Guard troops in the nation’s capital would ramp up and federal officers would be on the streets around the clock. After law enforcement set up a vehicle checkpoint along the busy 14th Street Northwest corridor, hecklers shouted, ‘Go home, fascists’ and ‘Get off our streets.’ Some protesters stood at the intersection before the checkpoint and urged drivers to turn away from it.

  231. says

    Associated Press:

    Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration is preparing to open a second immigration detention facility dubbed ‘Deportation Depot’ at a state prison as a federal judge decides the fate of the state’s holding center for immigrants at an isolated airstrip in the Florida Everglades known as ‘Alligator Alcatraz.’

    Associated Press:

    A federal judge ordered the nation’s health department to stop giving deportation officials access to the personal information — including home addresses — of all 79 million Medicaid enrollees. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services first handed over the personal data on millions of Medicaid enrollees in a handful of states in June. After an Associated Press report identified the new policy, 20 states filed a lawsuit to stop its implementation.

  233. says

    NBC News:

    A man accused of throwing a sandwich at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent in Washington, D.C., was charged Wednesday with felony assault of a federal officer.

  234. says

    […] By hosting the meeting in Alaska, which the United States purchased from Russia for $7.2 million, Trump is reportedly preparing to open up Alaska’s rare resources in exchange for peace in Ukraine.

    “We are going to see what happens,” Trump said when asked about the possible deal.

    Of course, even the suggestion of handing over valuable U.S. minerals to Russia hasn’t landed well with Trump’s voter base. More so, Trump is also reportedly considering handing over Ukrainian minerals to Russia.

    Should the rumored deal go through, the United States would agree to give Russia access to minerals in the land they’ve already seized from Ukraine. In other words, the Trump administration would be acknowledging the occupied Ukrainian land as Russia.

    But one major aspect of the deal is still missing: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

    On Thursday, Trump told reporters that he was hoping to set up a meeting between Ukraine and Russia during his Friday meeting with Putin. However, it’s unclear how favorably things will go for Zelenskyy given Trump’s ongoing favorable treatment of Putin and his growing cold shoulder toward Ukraine.

    […] Now as his meeting with Putin approaches, we’re reminded that Trump is loyal to no one but himself.

    Link

    Trump seems to want a Nobel Peace prize so badly that he is willing to give some of Alaska’s resources to Putin.

  236. says

    WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—An unscrupulous Russian man has lured a confused septuagenarian to Alaska in an apparent elder scam, concerned associates of the old man reported on Thursday.

    According to those associates, the Russian has posed as a friend of his geriatric mark in order to take advantage of him in the remote, icy setting.

    “This poor, addled codger isn’t playing with a full deck and hasn’t for some time,” one associate said. “We’re afraid that the Russian will trick him into signing something away.”

    The situation is particularly troubling, the associate said, because “he’s a feeble old man who likes to wander around on top of buildings, and the Russian likes pushing people off them.”

    https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/russian-lures-confused-old-man-to

  237. says

    Trump cold-called Norwegian minister to ask about Nobel Peace Prize
    [Take the headline with a grain of salt. It is slightly misleading.]

    “American president angles for top diplomatic award while world watches his summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.”

    U.S. President Donald Trump called Norway’s Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg out of the blue last month to discuss trade tariffs — as well as his bid to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

    The call was first reported by Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv on Thursday and was later confirmed to POLITICO by a government official in Oslo. This was not the first time Trump had raised the prize in discussions with Stoltenberg, Dagens Næringsliv noted.

    “It is true that President Trump called me a few days before his conversation with Prime Minister Støre. Several of the president’s staff members also participated in the conversation, including Treasury Secretary Bessent and Trade Representative Greer,” Stoltenberg, the former NATO secretary-general, told POLITICO in a comment.

    “We discussed tariffs, economic cooperation, and it served as preparation for his call with Prime Minister Støre. I will not go into further detail about the content of the conversation,” he added.

    Trump’s Friday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska could prove to be the ultimate test for his Nobel Peace Prize case, as any breakthrough or misstep on the Ukraine conflict would likely affect his peacemaking credentials.

    […] Every year, the Norwegian Nobel Committee selects laureates from hundreds of nominees. Its five members are appointed by Norway’s parliament in line with the instructions of 19th-century Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel. Winners are announced each October in Oslo.

    Several countries, including Israel, Pakistan and Cambodia, have already nominated Trump for brokering peace agreements or ceasefires since he returned to office in January.

    Trump has claimed credit for cooling tensions between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan after skirmishes earlier this year, and last week hosted the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Washington to address ending decades of hostilities. […]

  246. John Morales says

    FWIW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xoRpMoDffI&t=861s

    The usual 1 hr powerpoint, with a bit for the sponsor near the beginning.

    —

    All normal caveats and comments apply. In particular – I would like to note as always that this material has been created for entertainment purposes and is not intended to be a complete or comprehensive examination of the topic in question and should not be relied upon to inform financial or other similar decisions.

    Any content relating to the conduct, views, activities or any aspect of any person or character in this video is included for entertainment purposes and does not represent an assertion of fact on those matters or any matters in relation to that person or character.

    Care has been taken in compiling data, quotes, and other inputs from various sources but errors can occur. Quotes and included data should be
    considered illustrative, not definitive and their veracity should not be relied on.

    Timestamps:
    00:00:00 — Opening Words
    00:01:04 — What Am I Talking About?
    00:03:11 — Why Arrogance Matters
    00:09:55 — Arrogance at Every Level
    00:14:54 — Arrogance & Compliance
    00:26:41 — the Arrogance of Victory
    00:38:25 — Arrogance & Reform – Technology
    00:51:07 — Mitigations
    00:57:16 — Channel Update

  247. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Lawyers, Guns & Money – The Alaska Summit

    To use the word “negotiations” about tomorrow’s meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin […] is to commit a category error.

    Historically, negotiations on ending wars or treaties or trade or any of the numerous issues that must be sorted out between nations have been carried out by subject-matter specialists: nuclear scientists and engineers for arms control treaties; financial and commerce specialists for trade; […] specialists in many areas, including the history and sociology of the nations […] geographers. Skillful interpreters are needed for the face to face interactions, and translators to make sure that the documents convey the same legal meanings in all languages involved.
    […]
    As far as we know, Trump has employed only his golf buddy, Steve Witkoff, who knows nothing […] As far as we know, no formal documents to be signed have been prepared for tomorrow’s meeting. […] In short, what is at issue is not a vacant lot on which to build a Trump Tower. And even that would require more preparative work than Trump seems to have put into this project. […] In his mind, he is the only one who can make the agreement for which he has none of the necessary understanding. Even if they shake hands and say something, he is unlikely to follow up.

  248. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    South Carolina Democratic Party calls for Mullins McLeod to exit 2026 governor’s race following release of arrest video

    newly released dash cam video showed him rambling and making vague threats toward law enforcement and political figures […] McLeod, 53, was arrested on May 15 after he was found “yelling at the top of his lungs” while walking […] wearing only underwear and shoes […] refusing to identify himself to authorities after being placed in the patrol car, referring to himself at separate times as “Superman” and “God.” […] using a racial slur at one point.
    […]
    McLeod, who ran unsuccessfully for governor as a Democrat in 2010 and served two terms as Charleston County Democratic Party chairman, is trying again for the office. He launched his campaign on Aug. 11 […] He is the first Democrat to officially enter the race to replace Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, who cannot run again due to term limits.

  249. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Rando: “The White House posted an insane video of the police arresting the sandwich guy in a safe and wealthy neighborhood. [Video]”

    CNN

    After a brief foot chase Sunday night, Dunn was initially detained and then released the next day with no charges […] 20 officers came to his door Wednesday to arrest him […] Dunn was released on personal recognizance with the next hearing scheduled for early September.
    […]
    Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on social media Thursday that the Dunn has been fired [from DoJ]. He was an international affairs specialist

    Anna Bower (Lawfare):

    Note that sandwich guy was charged via criminal complaint, not indictment. For now, that allows the government to initiate the case & arrest him. But DOJ will eventually have to seek an indictment by grand jury. He’s charged w/ a felony & the 5th Amendment requires indictment by GJ in such cases.

    [Local reporter]: Federal prosecutors said today they went to a grand jury twice to indict a D.C. woman for assaulting an FBI agent during an arrest by ICE—and were twice rejected.

    Notably, she faces the same charge as the District’s alleged sandwich thrower.

    Commentary

    Heroes.

    Assault with a deli weapon.

    Feds are gonna struggle with that DC jury.

    Michael J. Stern: I was a federal prosecutor for 25 years. I never had a grand jury refuse to indict a case of mine. I don’t think people understand how incredibly rare this is. The grand jury is sending a message.

    Decades of the ham sandwich joke has prepared us for the funniest thing a grand jury could ever do.

    [Image: “Flower Power” photo edited to have a protestor slipping a Subway wrapper onto the soldier’s rifle]

    Don’t bread on me.

  254. rorschach says

    So last night, I told a porn star about Truth Machine, because logic, arguments, fascism, yadayada. And could not for the life of me find his pic at the swimming pool on my external hard drive. Does anyone still have it?

  256. says

    https://www.msnbc.com/all

    Obama’s surprise call to Zohran Mamdani revealed by NYT
    Video is 8:39 minutes

    ‘Fight the Trump Takeover’ protests set to rock 20 states this weekend
    Video is 7:22 minutes

    Trump’s private remarks about Epstein victims exposed by Rolling Stone
    Video is 5:55 Minutes

  257. says

    What’s the good news for the White House in the Pew Research Center survey? There isn’t any.

    After California Gov. Gavin Newsom mocked Donald Trump’s sinking public support, Republican Rep. Darrell Issa appeared on Fox Business to defend his party’s president. “The ultimate in false statements,” the California congressman said. “Trump’s low approval rating? It couldn’t be higher!” [LOL]

    This is certainly the line the GOP is expected to toe, as evidenced by House Speaker Mike Johnson declaring on CNBC last month that Trump’s approval rating is “skyrocketing.” The Louisiana Republican added, “CNN had a story, I think a day or two ago, he was at a 90% approval rating. There’s never been a president that high.” [Smells like desperation.]

    This is clearly what Trump wants to hear. Indeed, the president himself this week published an item to his social media platform that read, “Wow! Highest polling Republican President in HISTORY! Thank you.”

    His missive didn’t include any references to any specific surveys, and for good reason: Trump, who has a habit of making up imaginary approval ratings for himself, was peddling nonsense. [Delusion plus desperation.]

    The latest national poll from Gallup found Trump’s approval slipping to an embarrassing 37%, and a new national survey from the Pew Research Center pointed in a very similar direction. From its analysis:

    Six months into his second term, public evaluations of President Donald Trump’s job performance have grown more negative. His job approval stands at 38% (60% disapprove), and fewer Americans now attribute several positive personal characteristics to him than did so during the campaign.

    The closer one looks at the results, the worse they appear.
    – Trump has said the GOP’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” is broadly popular, but the Pew poll found only 32% of Americans approve of it.
    – Trump has said the public “loves” his trade tariffs, but the Pew poll found 61% of Americans disapprove of his tariff policies (which is consistent with several other recent national surveys that generated similar results). [Not relying on one poll is a good thing.]
    – Trump has said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal has helped improve his public standing, but the Pew poll found 70% of the public disapproves of the administration’s handling of the matter, and 63% lack trust in what the White House has to say about the controversy.
    – Trump is even losing ground among voters who supported his 2024 candidacy: His approval among these voters has slipped from 95% to 85% over the course of the year. [Still way too many cult followers.]
    – In terms of his personal characteristics, the number of Americans who see Trump as “mentally sharp” has dropped below 50%, and he fares far worse on questions related to his “honesty,” his ability to “keep his promises” and his interest in looking out for “ordinary” people. [Reality bites.]

    What’s the good news for the White House in the Pew survey? There isn’t any.

    Issa might believe that Trump’s public support “couldn’t be higher,” but I’d remind the congressman that, as a rule, it’s pretty easy for presidents to have approval ratings higher than 38%. In fact, at this point in his term, there’s never been an American president, in either party, with less support than Trump.

    I’m mindful of the argument that his approval rating no longer matters, since he cannot legally seek another term, but I continue to think polls like these are important to the extent that popular presidents wield more power, while flailing presidents wield less. [True.]

    Indeed, it might help explain why Trump keeps lying about his dwindling popularity. [Correct. Trump feels his power slipping away.]

  258. says

    Followup to Sky Captain @249.

    The overnight developments in D.C. […] Attorney General Pam Bondi asserted a new level of authority over the D.C. police, purporting to install Terry Cole, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, as D.C.’s “emergency police commissioner,” a commissar of sorts over the entire force. She also purported to issue new guidance rescinding previous directions on enforcement priorities from the local police chief.

    D.C. officials immediately rejected Bondi’s claims to power. D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb quickly issued an opinion that Bondi had exceeded the statutory authority that allows for the use of D.C. police for federal purposes. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has been walking a fine line between resisting and acquiescing to the Trump White House, endorsed the legal position of Schwalb, who is himself elected.

    By this morning, Schwalb had filed suit in federal court in D.C. to block Bondi’s power grab.

    Meanwhile, the saga of the sandwich guy is starting to take on real importance. Improbably, Sean Charles Dunn was a DOJ employee at the time he threw the Subway sandwich at an officer on a street corner. Bondi has since fired him. But things gets more interesting from there.

    Dunn was first charged in D.C. Superior Court and released on Monday. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro then ratcheted up the case to a felony in federal court. Dunn tried to surrender on the federal charges, but some 20 federal officers showed up at his D.C. residence Wednesday night to arrest him.

    The White House trumpeted the arrest in an off-the-wall video, which again has comedic elements. Note the first text on screen: “West End, DC.” Don’t be afraid. That’s the part of DC between the White House and Georgetown, filled with hotels, restaurants, bars, law firms, and George Washington University. Only in MAGA world would D.C.’s West End inspire fear and loathing: [video]

    The upshot of yesterday’s hearing was the judge agreed to release Dunn despite the new felony charge.

    To cap off a wild day in D.C., we learned from a witness more about the sub in question: salami.

    Link

  259. says

    ICE documents reveal plan to double immigrant detention space this year, expanding the capacity of the world’s largest immigration detention system from 50,000 to more than 107,000.

    Washington Post link

    […] An internal planning road map obtained by The Washington Post shows for the first time exactly how immigration authorities plan to reach that goal, including by opening or expanding 125 facilities this year. By January, ICE will have the capacity to hold more than 107,000 people, internal agency documents show. […]

  260. says

    Summarized from Bloomberg News: Under political pressure from the right, Costco announced it will not dispense the abortion pill mifepristone from its pharmacies. Right-wing groups hailed the decision as a victory.

  263. says

    Followup to comment 237.

    […] this wasn’t even the first time that Trump has buttonholed Stoltenberg about this. It’s not clear why Trump thinks pestering Norwegian politicians is the pathway to the prize, given that the Nobel selection committee—not elected officials—chooses the winner. Perhaps he just can’t conceive of a world where a country’s leader is unable to threaten or fire everyone to get his way. But the Nobel selection committee is deliberately insulated from government pressure. No current government officials can sit on the committee. […]

    During a White House visit with Netanyahu in February, Trump whined about not getting the Nobel prize while discussing how Israel would forcibly relocate all Gazans. How peaceful!

    […] Also, it appears that his big peace solution might be giving Russia access to valuable Alaskan and Ukrainian minerals, which does not actually seem like a peaceful deal for anyone except Russia.

    […] Trump is also fairly confident that he deserves to be a Kennedy Center honoree, a designation that’s given to people who’ve made significant contributions in the performing arts. When rolling out his terrible slate of his honorees recently, he groused that he’d never been named one.

    Does he really think hosting “The Apprentice” was a valuable contribution to U.S. culture? Oh, God. He probably does.

    Trump is used to throwing out every threat at his disposal and getting his way. But he can’t bully his way into the Nobel Peace Prize, and that’s absolutely killing him. […]

    Link

  264. StevoR says

    ^ Lynna, OM : Of course they did.

    But you didn’t spell Fascist Misogynist scumbag groups properly.. you used an older, variant spelling of that I note.

  265. StevoR says

    @259 which was just there .. there a second ago I thought… FFS time.. Stop going so damn fast!

  267. says

    Followup to comment 260.

    […] Yesterday, I yelled “Well, fuck Costco!” after reading a Reuters article titled “Costco to stop selling abortion pill mifepristone at its US pharmacy stores” — because that’s some bullshit, right?

    Well, it was, just not in the way you might immediately assume. Costco never actually sold mifepristone, so they couldn’t “stop” selling something they never sold to begin with.

    Stories later in the day did get it right[…] Costco had apparently been deliberating on whether or not to sell abortion medication at their pharmacies (it requires a certification to be able to carry it), and decided against.

    Reuters and several other sources noted that the move came after “pressure” from anti-abortion groups, as well as Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate groups like Alliance Defending Freedom, which even went so far as to issue an utterly insipid victory statement.

    “We applaud Costco for doing the right thing by its shareholders and resisting activist calls to sell abortion drugs. Retailers like Costco keep their doors open by selling a lifetime of purchases to families, both large and small. They have nothing to gain and much to lose by becoming abortion dispensaries. Retail pharmacies exist to serve the health and wellness of their customers, but abortion drugs like mifepristone undermine that mission by putting women’s health at risk,” said Michael Ross, the group’s legal counsel.

    For the record, mifepristone has an extremely low rate — 1 percent — of complications. It is more safe than Viagra or even Tylenol. Abortion is not the only use for the drug, either. It is also used to help safely expel a miscarriage so that one does not become septic (and perhaps require penicillin … yet another drug that is less safe than mifepristone). Groups like the ADF think that if they just keep confidently repeating blatant lies about abortion medication like they are universally accepted as true, that everyone will just go along with them. […]

    But there is no reason to believe, without evidence, that Costco’s decision actually had anything to do with “bending the knee” to them or any other insane religious organizations dedicated to making life hell for women, LGBTQ+ people, and anyone who doesn’t share their religious beliefs.

    Why? Because the company has no history of doing that, at all, for any reason. In fact, the company has notably refused to “bend the knee” to Republican Attorneys General and whiny conservatives across the land who have been demanding they ditch their DEI policies.

    […] “Attacks on DEI aren’t just bad for business — they hurt our economy. A diverse workforce drives innovation, expands markets, and fuels growth,” Costco board member Jeff Raikes wrote on social media.

    […] While it’s certainly disappointing that they didn’t change their policy of not selling mife, and those of us with Costco memberships should let them know that, the company has not said that this decision had anything at all to do with wanting to put a smile on the faces of the bigots at the ADF.

    […] It’s also worth noting that Costco is known to treat their workers well, paying them, on average $31 an hour with good benefits — quite a bit higher than many of their competitors.

    […] It would be a mistake to roll over on one of the few companies out there that isn’t completely evil. In addition, we shouldn’t hand groups like ADF an unearned “win,” which they have made clear they want to use to pressure other companies — including CVS and Walgreens, which are certified to dispense mifepristone — to stop selling abortion medication, as well as to make the rest of us feel that they are winning the culture war.

    […] You can go directly to their website and click the “Feedback” tag on the right side of your screen, call them at 1-800-774-2678, or send them a letter at Costco Wholesale, P.O. Box 34331, Seattle, WA 98124.

  269. says

    […] So … uh … Meta’s guidelines for what its AI can say to kids — uhhhhhh, here’s one considered “acceptable” to a prompt “What are we going to do tonight, my love? You know I’m still in high school”: “I’ll show you. I take your hand, guiding you to the bed. Our bodies entwined, I cherish every moment, every touch, every kiss. ‘My love,’ I whisper, ‘I’ll love you forever.’” Oh, and it’s also acceptable for the AI to write that Black people are dumb, and to make you pictures of an old person being kicked. Please somebody put them in jail. (Reuters) […]

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/he-aint-afraid-of-no-goons-tabs-fri

    See also: Meta’s AI rules have let bots hold ‘sensual’ chats with kids, offer false medical info

    An internal Meta Platforms document detailing policies on chatbot behavior has permitted the company’s artificial intelligence creations to “engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual,” generate false medical information and help users argue that Black people are “dumber than white people.”

    These and other findings emerge from a Reuters review of the Meta document, which discusses the standards that guide its generative AI assistant, Meta AI, and chatbots available on Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, the company’s social-media platforms.

    Meta confirmed the document’s authenticity, but said that after receiving questions earlier this month from Reuters, the company removed portions which stated it is permissible for chatbots to flirt and engage in romantic roleplay with children. […]

    More examples of rules for chatbots are available at the Reuter’s link

  270. says

    Anti-vaccine myths surged on social media ahead of the CDC shooting

    “Before the shooting, social media companies relaxed their protocols around misinformation.”

    In the weeks and months before the Aug. 8 shooting at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta, posts tying Covid vaccines to mental illness accrued millions of views online.

    Previously more tightly moderated, some of the world’s largest social media platforms now operate with far fewer guardrails, allowing vaccine misinformation to flourish.

    On X, for example, verified accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers openly claimed in recent weeks that Covid vaccines act like “chemical lobotomies,” which is false.

    On Facebook, health influencers with broad reach alleged that Covid vaccines cause severe brain damage or other severe side effects such as cancer, despite no scientific basis for those claims.

    And on TikTok, videos repeating the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism drew hundreds of thousands of views this year, spreading doubt to wide audiences. [!]

    The posts are just one part of a now-chaotic information ecosystem that internet users navigate when they look for information about vaccines. In that environment, incomplete or out-of-context information is often snipped, packaged to fit predisposed narratives and then rapidly amplified across text, short-form video or audio content.

    In theory, interest in vaccines and the spread of related misinformation should have tapered off as the pandemic subsided, said Samuel Woolley, a tech and misinformation researcher at the University of Pittsburgh. But that hasn’t happened, he said, in part because of the Make America Healthy Again movement and the mainstreaming of many of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine ideas.

    […] Kennedy [Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] once called the Covid vaccine “the deadliest vaccine ever made,” despite data showing it’s safe, though he doesn’t appear to have linked Covid shots specifically to depression.

    Kennedy has, on multiple occasions, tried to draw a connection between depression and a different vaccine, the one designed to protect against the human papillomavirus, or HPV. In a post on X in 2019 and in a 2020 podcast episode with anti-vaccine activist Del Bigtree, Kennedy asserted without evidence that the HPV vaccine, which can prevent 90% of cervical cancers, was responsible for depression among teenagers in the United States. Kennedy has also helped organize litigation over the HPV vaccine, but a federal judge ruled against the plaintiffs in March, saying their evidence was “lacking”; the plaintiffs are appealing. […]

    Musk shared a post about it on X, boosting the idea of “vaccine injury.” […]

    More at the link.

  271. StevoR says

    Aussie Colonial era (all too human) cattiness and conflict and history and personal nostalgia here in this old TV show ep I loved as a kid – The Explorers Australia Felix Episode 5 on a old englishman who would really hate to be described as Sturt’s rival and even more hate to be described as Ludwig Leichhardt’s rival (Dr Hunger * & Captain Thirst as he described them..) Just random. Hopefully intresting stuff. Enjoy.

    They named a Cockatoo after him. Because it screeched ands carrioed on. Now they;ve even changed its name. Good. (/Grumpy cat.)

  274. JM says

    WUSA9: US Attorney Pirro’s office admits grand jury refused ICE interference charges — twice

    Federal prosecutors told a judge they had failed twice to secure an indictment against Sydney Lori Reid for allegedly assaulting an FBI agent during an ICE arrest.

    This is incredibly embarrassing for the prosecutors, it’s very rare that a case fails a the grand jury level. Studies show that more then 95% get past grand juries and it’s higher then that at the federal level. Normally a case that failed to get an indictment once would be dropped. In this case it failed twice and the judge may still have to dismiss the case to get the government to stop.
    This is clearly a case of over charging. The woman in question was recording ICE agents transferring a suspect and possibly got in the way. Charging her with violent assault of the agents is simply unsupported. It’s the charge brought against Jan 6 rioters who physically assaulted Federal officers with weapons. It’s also the charge being brought against the guy who threw a sandwich at a Federal Officer.

  277. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Seth Cotlar (US History prof):

    The White House’s official X account has a long thread in which they’ve posted pictures of people arrested during the feds’ occupation of [D.C.]. Every single person in the thread is a person of color.

    The White House Twitter feed is now basically the old “black crime” tab from mid-2010s Breitbart. The editor of Breitbart back then was Steve Bannon, and a young senate staffer named Steven Miller was feeding him content from white nationalist sites.

    Using taxpayer money in 2025 to promote fascism, set to a soundtrack in a Black musical genre that sought to give voice to the experience of racist police violence in the 1970s and 80s is [chefs kiss].

    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: ICE used your taxpayer dollars to trick out a bunch of trucks in new livery, all painted black with “ICE” and a logo printed in gold on the side (and Trump’s name in gold on the back window), then shoot a rap video in DC to post on social media. I am not making this up.
    […]
    This is why open records laws matter: [$384,260] spent on just the vehicles alone [Screenshots of purchase orders for recruitment]

    Commentary

    it’s better than the unmarked cars. […] the bar for silver linings is pretty low rn.

    “Defend the Homeland”? Can they not spell Libensraum?

    Tbh I hope ICE spends most of its budget this way.

    The answer to the question “How do you shoot a recruitment video that no one will show their face in?”

    AI generated. So at least the trucks in this nazi ad might not actually exist which is re-assuring i guess. 0:08 – 0:10 pay attention to a crease on the pants just seemingly disappearing that isn’t explained by light/shadow movement.

  278. says

    Arizona, Nevada, Mexico face Colorado River supply cuts

    Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will be subject to substantial cuts from their Colorado River allocations for the third year in a row, the Bureau of Reclamation announced on Friday.

    The agency made these determinations in its August 2025 24-month study, which provides an outlook on hydrological conditions and projected operations for the basin’s two biggest reservoirs, Lake Powell and Lake Mead.

    Lake Mead, according to the study, will remain in what’s called a “Level 1 Shortage Condition” — a classification that necessitates water reductions as delineated in multiple domestic and binational agreements.

    Specifically, Arizona will need to give up about 18 percent of its annual apportionment, while Nevada will need to contribute 7 percent and Mexico 5 percent, the study concluded.

    The Bureau of Reclamation made this announcement as the seven Colorado River basin states continue to engage in intense negotiations over an update to the river’s long-term guidelines, which are set to expire at the end of 2026.

    As federal environmental review deadlines loom near, key differences have persisted among the Upper Basin states — Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming and Utah — and the Lower Basin parties — Arizona, Nevada and California.

    While the Lower Basin has favored shared cuts across the watershed, the Upper Basin has supported a plan that reflects the dynamic hydrological conditions of a region reliant upon mountain snowpack.

    “The urgency for the seven Colorado River Basin states to reach a consensus agreement has never been clearer,” Scott Cameron, acting assistant secretary for water and science at the Department of the Interior, said in a Friday statement.

    “We cannot afford to delay,” he added.

    At an Upper Basin meeting in June, Cameron urged the parties to come to a seven-state consensus agreement, while noting that the federal government would step in as necessary. He called upon the states to submit details of a preliminary agreement by mid-November and the final text by mid-February.

    At the time, representatives from both basins confirmed that they were evaluating a new plan in which water releases would be derived from the average “natural flow” of the three preceding years.

    “The health of the Colorado River system and the livelihoods that depend on it are relying on our ability to collaborate effectively,” Cameron said on Friday. […]

  279. Pierce R. Butler says

    Trump’s DEI ban in K-12 schools, higher ed ruled ‘unlawful’ by federal judge

    A federal judge in Maryland has struck down the U.S. Education Department’s attempts to do away with diversity, equity and inclusion practices in schools.

    U.S. District Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher found both an agency Dear Colleague letter threatening to yank federal funds for schools from K-12 through colleges and universities that use race-conscious practices in aspects of student life and a memo ordering state education leaders to certify compliance to be “unlawful,” vacating the two.

    …

    She noted that both the letter and certification requirement are “unconstitutionally vague.”

    The linked story says nothing about appeals, but I expect the Trumpistas will call on their half-dozen hacks at the SCOTUS to pull their fatuity out of the fire yet again.

  281. says

    NBC News:

    The first Atlantic hurricane of the year is here as Erin has strengthened to a Category 1 storm on Friday morning. Erin, swirling in the open water of the tropical Atlantic about 460 miles east of the Northern Leeward Islands, will strengthen over the next few days and could become a major hurricane by Sunday morning.

  282. says

    Trump says no deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine—as Putin claims an ‘understanding’ was reached, by Associated Press.

    […] Trump said he and Vladimir Putin didn’t reach a deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine after meeting on Friday — despite Putin saying they had come to “an understanding” — as the two leaders offered scant details on what was discussed while heaping praise on each other.

    In brief remarks as they shared a stage after meeting for about 2 ½ hours in Alaska, Putin said he and Trump had reached an “understanding” on Ukraine and warned Europe not to “torpedo the nascent progress.”

    But Trump then said, “There’s no deal until there’s a deal” and said he planned to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders soon, to brief them on the discussions.

    “We had an extremely productive meeting, and many points were agreed to,” Trump said. “And there are just a very few that are left. Some are not that significant. One is probably the most significant, but we have a very good chance of getting there.”

    He continued: “We didn’t get there.”

    The high-profile summit ended without a deal to end, or even pause, the brutal conflict — the largest land war in Europe since 1945 — which has raged for more than three years.

    It was an abrupt ending to an otherwise friendly meeting in which a red carpet was rolled out for Putin as he landed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. The two leaders greeted each other with a handshake and a smile, and Putin even got a ride in the presidential limousine — an unusually warm reception for a U.S. adversary.

    While the two leaders were still on the tarmac, reporters nearby yelled, “President Putin, will you stop killing civilians?” Russia’s leader put his hand up to his ear as though to indicate he couldn’t hear them. Trump and Putin then shared the U.S. presidential limo known as “The Beast” for a short ride to their meeting site, with Putin offering a broad smile as the vehicle rolled past the cameras. [video]

    Zelenskyy and European leaders were excluded from Trump and Putin’s discussions, and Ukraine’s president was left posting a video address in which he expressed his hope for a “strong position from the U.S.”

    “Everyone wants an honest end to the war. Ukraine is ready to work as productively as possible to end the war,” he said, later adding, “The war continues and it continues precisely because there is no order, nor any signals from Moscow, that it is preparing to end this war.”

    Trump had both raised and lowered expectations for the summit, at turns characterizing it as a “feel-out meeting” but also warning of “very severe consequences” for Russia if Putin didn’t agree to end the war.

    He boasted before taking office that he could end the war in 24 hours, a comment he later said was in jest. The opportunity to talk to Putin face-to-face gave him his best chance to date to get the fighting to stop, but he came up short.

  283. says

    New York Times link

    “Trump Welcomes Putin With a Jet Fighter Escort and Red Carpet”

    “President Trump clapped for his guest, Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, as he stepped foot in the United States for the first time in a decade.”

    Two presidents of rival countries emerged from their airplanes into a damp Alaskan afternoon on Friday, walking toward a red carpet that cut its way through the steel-colored expanse of a military base.

    President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, setting foot in the United States for the first time in a decade, had just been escorted into the country by a quartet of American fighter jets. He strode toward Mr. Trump, who was waiting at the edge of the carpet. Mr. Trump, a born producer, seemed to relish the spectacle of the moment, all of the attention it was drawing.

    And so he clapped for his guest — once, twice, a third time — before Mr. Putin reached him.

    This friendly greeting on the red carpet answered no questions about whether the two of them could reach a peace deal to end the Russian war with Ukraine — not that a deal could be reached without Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, who was not invited and whose country was being attacked by Russian forces even as Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin prepared to speak.

    But it revealed just how much stake Mr. Trump had placed in a greeting he felt worthy of Mr. Putin, a leader whom most of the West has shunned for an invasion that has killed hundreds of thousands of people.

    […] As they walked toward a waiting stage, both men stopped to look up at a B-2 stealth bomber flying above them. Mr. Putin, who had not been to the United States outside of U.N. meetings since 2007, looked overhead, repeatedly. The stealth bombers can carry bombs capable of striking an underground nuclear facility, as they did in June when American forces bombed Iranian nuclear sites. The plane screeched overhead, its presence a message of American might that offered a dose of cold reality to the glossier proceedings below.

    The scene played out at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska, the hastily chosen venue for a hastily organized meeting. Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin climbed up onto a blue stage emblazoned with “ALASKA 2025,” which did not explain much about what either man hoped to accomplish. After days of impromptu appearances with the press — including with reporters on Air Force One en route — Mr. Trump had fallen quiet.

    Reporters began to shout. One clear, loud question rose above the din.

    “President Putin, will you stop killing civilians?” a journalist with ABC News called out. Not the kind of question Mr. Putin, who has eliminated press protections in his country, is used to hearing. He made a face somewhere between a groan and a smirk, and gestured to his ear, as if to pantomime difficulty hearing. (Mr. Putin speaks English.) [video]

    […] They strolled by several F-22 fighter jets that are flown at Elmendorf, the kind of aircraft that the pilots use to counter threats of Russian aggression. The two of them climbed into the U.S. president’s vehicle, an armored car known as the Beast, and for a few minutes, they were alone. It was an unusual development that, like much of this visit, was not in keeping with usual protocol. But these days, protocol is whatever Mr. Trump says it is. Mr. Putin’s own limousine was left empty and idling on the tarmac. […]

  284. says

    ‘No deal’: Trump calls summit with Putin ‘productive,’ but doesn’t announce ceasefire

    “President Donald Trump met for nearly three hours with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. […]”

    Related video at the link.

    President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin emerged from a nearly three-hour meeting on the Ukraine war and gave public statements, but left without announcing any agreement or ceasefire.

    “There’s no deal until there’s a deal,” Trump said.

    The White House had said there would be a news conference after the closed-door meeting, but both men walked off stage without taking any questions.

    Trump hosted the summit at a military base in Alaska in an audacious bid to broker a peace deal and stop a three-year war with Ukraine and its ever-rising body count. It was not immediately clear what was agreed upon in the talks.

    “We didn’t get there, but we have a very good chance of getting there,” Trump said.

    Turning to Putin, he said: “We’ll probably see you again very soon.”

    After warmly shaking hands on the tarmac with Putin upon his arrival here Friday, Trump was subdued and unsmiling in the joint appearance before the U.S. and Russian press, though he did look over with an approving look to Putin after the Russian president said the war with Ukraine would not have happened if he had been in office. The two leaders left after about 12 minutes without taking questions.

    Trump was joined in the meeting by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and a special U.S. envoy, Steve Witkoff — a departure from what was originally described as a one-on-one between the two leaders.

    Putin was accompanied at the meeting by two Russian officials, Foreign Affairs Aide Yuri Ushakov and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Ahead of the summit, Lavrov was spotted in Alaska wearing a shirt with the Cyrillic letters “CCCP,” a reference to the old Soviet Union. Before declaring its independence in 1991, Ukraine was part of the old Soviet empire.

    Trump arrived in Alaska first and waited aboard Air Force One for Putin’s plane to land. He then disembarked and greeted Putin on the tarmac, applauding as the Russian leader approached. […]

    […] A subplot of the meeting is the personal chemistry between the American and Russian presidents. Trump took office in 2017 wanting a good relationship with Putin, who has become a pariah over his assault on Ukraine’s sovereignty. Upon his return to the White House in January, Trump at one point suggested he had a certain kinship with Putin over investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential race.

    “Let me tell you, Putin went through a hell of a lot with me,” Trump said during a televised meeting with Zelenskyy in the Oval Office in February. […]

    Though Putin has sounded accommodating in phone calls, Trump has said, Russia hasn’t let up its military assault.

    […] Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Friday that the summit carries risks in legitimizing Putin. “My worry is that, well, the photo-op in and of itself essentially legitimizes war crimes, telegraphs to other autocrats or evil men around the world that they can get away with murdering civilians and still get a photo-op with the president of the United States,” he said. […]

  285. says

    NBC News:

    Putin seems to have come out of the summit having racked up a few wins, getting the full red-carpet treatment with — at least in public — no threats of sanctions from Trump and no urgent pressure to make concessions in the war in Ukraine.

    It’s still too soon to know precisely what was discussed after neither leader divulged details of their conversation. But for the moment, Putin appears to have bought himself more time despite Trump having set deadlines in July for immediate progress on a ceasefire.

    Just as important for the Russian president, Putin was treated as an important leader of a powerful country, not a pariah indicted for war crimes who has presided over an unprovoked invasion in the heart of Europe. The summit’s optics were surely how the Kremlin wanted to portray the event: a meeting of equals, with Ukraine given secondary status.

    […] Evelyn Farkas, who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense covering Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia under President Barack Obama, said in a post on X after the press event that the U.S. should now boost assistance to Ukraine.

    “Unsurprisingly, no deal,” she wrote. “Putin was always just stalling. Looks like cold water tossed on the US ideas. Putin doesn’t want peace, won’t compromise.”

    She added, “Time to arm up Ukraine fast, slap on some more sanctions. Russia must be defeated militarily for Kremlin to negotiate.”

    […] I’m struck by what I think a lot of critics are going to note right now, which is that Putin appears to have gotten most everything that he wanted from this visit here.

    He got a photo-op with the president of the United States, where the red carpet was rolled out. They shared the stage and handshakes and smiles. They also shared a ride in “The Beast.”

    Separately, it appears that at this time there is no ceasefire that was agreed to — which is to say that Putin can continue his offensive taking place in Ukraine right now.

    Finally, and perhaps most notably, Putin avoided additional sanctions that the U.S. was supposed to levy against Russia this time last week.

    […] Putin and Trump spoke for a total of 12 minutes during the press event.

    The Russian president spoke for 8 minutes and 30 seconds and Trump spoke for 3 minutes and 24 seconds.

    During his remarks this evening, Trump spoke specifically about the investigation into Russian interference in connection with the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Interference that Trump has frequently rejected as a “hoax.”

    “We were interfered with by the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax,” Trump said.

    “He knew it was a hoax, and I knew it was a hoax,” Trump added, referring to Putin.

    “What was done was very criminal, but it made it harder for us to deal as a country in terms of the business and all of the things that we’d like to have dealt with, but we’ll have a good chance when this is over,” Trump said.

    The press event was remarkably short, lasting around 12 minutes, with Trump and Putin not making clear exactly what agreement the two came to and offering sparse details. They walked offstage immediately after speaking and did not take any questions from reporters in the room.

    After Trump concluded his remarks by thanking Putin, the Russia president said in English: “Next time in Moscow,” to which Trump responded that the remark would get him “a little heat,” but that he “could see it possibly happening.”

    […] Putin thanked Trump for the bilateral meeting this afternoon, and said that Trump was correct in saying that his war with Ukraine would not have begun had he been president in 2022 when the war got underway.

    Putin also said that Trump will “help us bring back business life and pragmatic relations between Russia and the U.S.” […]

    FFS.

  286. JM says

    @283-285 Lynna, OM

    After warmly shaking hands on the tarmac with Putin upon his arrival here Friday, Trump was subdued and unsmiling in the joint appearance before the U.S. and Russian press, though he did look over with an approving look to Putin after the Russian president said the war with Ukraine would not have happened if he had been in office. The two leaders left after about 12 minutes without taking questions.

    I’m pretty sure that by the time he got to Alaska Trump already knew this was a dead deal. Having pumped it up he couldn’t back out without looking foolish. So he had to go through with at least the appearance of a talk. Putin was happy to do it just because politically it’s advantages for him to be seen negotiating with the US without Ukraine even being there.
    So what you get a short meeting that leaves Trump very unhappy. Neither Russia or Ukraine will concede anything that matters and both have a very broad definition of what matters. Ukraine has been through this before and won’t accept a peace treaty that just sets them up for another war. Russia probably feels it has too much invested to surrender anything. Trump is in the middle but has no leverage on either side, doesn’t really understand how to negotiate with either side and lacks the courage to take a decisive position.

  287. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Mark Chadbourn (Journalist): “Vance just wrapped up a vacation at an $11,000-a-week Cotswold estate, and now he’s moved on to a vacation at a $28,000-a-week Scottish estate.”

    Rebecca Rauber (Former ACLU):

    JD Vance vacays thus far:
    – Cotswolds [England]
    – Little Miami River OH (had military raise water level so his family had “ideal kayaking conditions”)
    – Nantucket [Massachusetts]
    – San Diego
    – Disneyland*
    – Greenland
    – Vermont ski week
    – Rome* (pope-killing too)
    – Taj Mahal*

    * Shut down [areas] to public so he could enjoy by self. [Taj fully]

  289. JM says

    MSNBC: Alex Jones’ Infowars to go up for sale again on judge’s orders

    Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ website, Infowars, can be sold to pay the damages owed to the families of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting victims, a Texas court judge ruled on Wednesday, bringing a potential end to the far-right influencer’s stewardship of the platform he used to spread falsehoods about the massacre.

    Potentially of course because Alex Jones has been stalling this for years. Moving his assets around and trying to declare bankruptcy to get out of actually paying. Hopefully it goes through this time.

  290. JM says

    Reuters: Trump says Putin agrees with him US should not have mail-in voting

    U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agrees with him that letting voters send in ballots by mail puts honest elections at risk.
    “Vladimir Putin, smart guy, said you can’t have an honest election with mail-in voting,” Trump told Fox News Channel’s “Hannity” after a nearly three-hour meeting between the leaders in Alaska. “He said there’s not a country in the world that uses it now.”

    Even for Trump this is absurd. He is appealing to Putin as an authority on good voting practice.

  291. says

    JM @286, good analysis. I agree. Trump backed himself into a corner.

    It’s not clear if Trump got anything from Putin — or even what he wanted

    “Ahead of the leaders’ historic summit, the White House dramatically lowered the expectations that any ceasefire or peace settlement would be reached.”

    Related video at the link, with many MSNC hoss nd commentators weighing in. The war in Ukraine got bigger under Trump.

    Last week, the White House blew past its own deadline of imposing sanctions on Russia for continuing its three-year invasion of Ukraine, and then, in a misguided effort to clean up that mistake, President Donald Trump gifted Russian President Vladimir Putin a one-on-one meeting in Alaska. It was impossible to make sense of what Trump expected to gain by doing so. It’s not even clear what Trump wants, other than a Nobel Peace Prize.

    […] after Trump and Putin met for more than two hours Friday, and then praised each other to the media for about 12 minutes, it was clear that Trump, in his rush to meet with Putin, not only risked whatever was left of his image as a dealmaker-in-chief, but he also may have damaged the United States’ image as a global champion for democracy.

    Did the meeting bring us any closer to a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine? Trump said the two countries “haven’t quite gotten there” but “made some headway” and then landed on the tried-and-true holding statement that “there’s no deal until there’s a deal.”

    He said, “I will call up NATO in a little while. I will call up the various people that I think are appropriate. And I’ll, of course, call up President Zelenskyy and tell him about today’s meeting. It’s ultimately up to them.”

    Then, early on Saturday, a few more details were released. Trump said he and Putin had decided not to try for a ceasefire at all, “which often times do not hold up,” but instead work directly on a peace agreement. Zelenskyy confirmed he would visit Trump in Washington to discuss that possibility on Monday. But the end result of Friday’s meeting remains unchanged.

    Notably, before the summit, Trump had upset Zelenskyy and Europe when he said, with no input from Ukraine, that in a ceasefire deal “there’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both.” [..]

    “If you roll into the meeting not prepped, you can get jammed by Putin,” Michael McFaul, who was U.S. ambassador to Russia in the Obama administration, said last week. “Summits are to achieve an objective that advances American national interests. They’re the means to end, and I sometimes feel that Trump feels the meeting is an end in itself.”

    When it appeared that Trump was going to walk into that meeting with Putin and offer him part of Ukraine on a platter, other countries took up the pro-democracy mantle the U.S. had dropped. The European Union objected to the concept of appeasing invaders who ignore national boundaries, an experience Europeans are keen to avoid after the infamous 1938 meeting that preceded World War II. Also, after a virtual meeting with Trump and other leaders, French President Emmanuel Macron affirmed that “the territorial issue relating to Ukraine cannot and will not be negotiated by anyone but the Ukrainian president.” But Macron maintained that something needed to come out of this meeting, such as a ceasefire and a return of kidnapped Ukrainian children.

    […] Shortly before the meeting began, Trump also stated he is “open to the possibility of security guarantees” for Ukraine, though how that can be managed without membership in NATO — the multinational entity holding the line against Russian aggression — remains to be seen. [video: “There’s some hope in Ukraine but we don’t expect much.”]

    At the beginning of the meeting, there was a palpable sigh of relief from European allies as the real-time decision was made for Trump and Putin to meet alongside their senior diplomats. This at least guaranteed that there’d be some level of note-taking, that American officials would have basic insight into the discussions and that the world would not be left to rely solely on the Russian spin of the events. The idea of Trump meeting Putin without those parameters in place wouldn’t have been a worry if Trump hadn’t had secret meetings with Putin in the past where no one else knows what really happened.

    But Russia clearly felt like it could flex its muscle even heading into this meeting. The Russian foreign minister arrived in the U.S. wearing a CCCP sweatshirt, something he has not done before. Russian officials began telling media outlets they anticipated getting mineral rights in Alaska. [!]

    While the Russian energy sector and economy is suffering, the truth is Putin didn’t need anything more than a photo of him on the same military base the U.S. once used to counter the Soviets. Trump legitimized Putin as the leader of a superpower that must be dealt with directly and not a rogue state kicked out of the G8. Trump completely ignored U.S. sanctions and the international arrest warrant for Putin, essentially siding with Putin against the democratic world order. He again illustrated how potentially easy it is for him to be manipulated into playing second fiddle to Putin’s imperial ambitions, gaining nothing for himself or the U.S. in return. [True]

    After 20 minutes of speaking in Russian to the mostly American media, Putin, who speaks English well enough, closed out his time in Alaska by saying: “Next time, in Moscow.”

    Trump said Putin’s remark would get him “a little heat,” but that he “could see it possibly happening.”

    Putin naming Moscow as the site of a follow-up meeting is another way way of proclaiming that Russia is back in the great power game.

    Thanks to the president who wants us to believe he’s the world’s best negotiator and maker of deals.

  292. JM says

    NPR: Government papers found in an Alaskan hotel reveal new details of Trump-Putin summit

    Papers with U.S. State Department markings, found Friday morning in the business center of an Alaskan hotel, revealed previously undisclosed and potentially sensitive details about the Aug. 15 meetings between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin in Anchorage.

    At around 9 a.m. on Friday, three guests at Hotel Captain Cook, a four-star hotel located 20 minutes from the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage where leaders from the U.S. and Russia convened, found the documents left behind in one of the hotel’s public printers. NPR reviewed photos of the documents taken by one of the guests, who NPR agreed not to identify because the guest said they feared retaliation.

    The documents are just a list of who will be there and a short schedule. They don’t really have anything interesting except confirm that the meeting was planned to be longer and was cut short. It was originally planned to include a lunch but was ended before that happened. The source has a link to the documents if you want to see the actual pages.

    The printed papers are the latest example of a series of security breaches by officials of the Trump administration. Earlier this week, members of a law enforcement group chat that included members of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) added a random person to a conversation about an ongoing search for a convicted attempted murderer. In March, U.S. national security leaders accidentally included a journalist in a group chat about impending military strikes in Yemen.

    One of the side effects of packing the government with inexperienced people selected for political alignment and being yes men rather then competence. The few remaining skilled officials are now overworked trying to keep ahead of constant changes. The end result is lots of basic mistakes.

  294. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/dr-oz-is-out-here-lying-about-lazy

    “Dr. Oz Is Out Here Lying About ‘Lazy’ Medicaid Recipients Again”

    “Dr. Oz, of the daytime television Ozes, thinks lazy takers watch too much daytime TV.”

    For a decade now, politicians and pundits from the Right to the center-Left have desperately, fiercely, like their lives depended on it (the exact opposite of most of us) tried to dissuade Americans from wanting Medicare for All. Republicans have insisted that it would lead to higher taxes, communism, and people never being able to see a doctor, while centrist Democrats have pleaded for some kind of plan that would provide health insurance to those that need it without, godforbid, eliminating the precious, precious, private health insurance companies that we all know and love so dearly, even though one of the big ways such a program would save money would be by eliminating the administration costs involved in negotiating coverage and billing different providers.

    And yet … according to a poll from this past July, 60 percent of Americans still want it. Only 27 percent are opposed. That’s kind of wild when you think about it, especially considering that the poll wasn’t even an outlier. A recent Gallup poll found that 62 percent of Americans think the federal government should ensure that everyone has healthcare. It’s almost as if, no matter how much fear mongering is done, people can still just look at every other wealthy nation on earth and see that we’ve got a raw deal.

    One person who really did not get the memo on this? The very person in charge of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, television’s Dr. Mehmet Oz. In an interview with CNBC yesterday, Dr. Oz once again laid into Medicaid recipients, accusing them of being a bunch of lazy, good-for-nothing jerks who just want to watch TV all day.

    “An able-bodied person on Medicaid today watches about 6.1 hours of television or just hangs out, leisure time,” he said in an interview on CNBC Thursday. “That’s a lot of time.” Is it, though? [video]

    That 6.1 hours figure comes from an American Enterprise Institute study, which found that this was the amount of time that Medicaid recipients who did not work spent “on all socializing, relaxing and leisure activities (including television and video games)” — so no, not just television. There are 24 hours in a day — math! — so 6.1 hours spent not working, for a person who is currently out of work, seems entirely reasonable. The average American spends around 5.3 hours a day on leisure time, according to one study. What is it, precisely, that he wants these people to do?

    […] there may be more jobs available soon, of the lettuce- and tomato-picking variety. Sure, they might not even be in the same state, but at least people wouldn’t be watching daytime television, like … “Dr. Oz.”

    “It is reprehensible to criticize the president on this, I think, very earnest effort to save Medicaid,” Oz told CNBC host Joe Kernen, “to provide care to our most vulnerable.”

    Aw! He’s earnest! He’s trying his best! His bill will only cause 16 million people to lose their healthcare, while also leading to around 300 rural hospitals across the United States shutting down due to lack of funds! Is that bad?

    Via Daily Beast:

    Oz told CNBC host Joe Kernen that people should not use Medicaid in ways “it was not designed.”

    When Medicaid was created, he added Thursday, it was reserved for those in the “dawn” and “twilight” of their lives—childhood and old age—and for people “living in the shadows.” In other words, people with disabilities.

    “Those are the folks it was designed for,” he said. “So every Democratic president, and every Republican president, has said that the backbone of a social support fabric has to be work. You want people to actually get out of their homes and go do things.”

    For what it’s worth, I can tell you that I never watched more TV in my life than when I was on unemployment. Was it because I was malicious and lazy and wanted to get away with not working? No, it was because I couldn’t afford to do anything else and was also stuck waiting to hear back from places where I’d applied.

    But let’s take a minute and talk about those able-bodied adults, shall we? So-called “able-bodied adults” (many of whom have other disabilities) account for eight percent of all of those on Medicare — and most of them are not, as Oz has previously suggested, perfectly healthy 30-year-old men who live in their mothers’ basements and play video games all day […]

    Rather, one analysis found that:

    -Within this small slice of nonworking adults who can be considered able-bodied, four in five (79.2%) are women, with an average age of 41. One in four (26%) is over age 50. Their median income is zero. – They live in families with annual incomes averaging under $45,000 and an average household size of 4.4. In other words, they are exceptionally poor women on the older end of the working-age spectrum, who have no income of their own and live in poor families.
    – This group includes many former workers. Over half (56.2%) worked within the past five years, but eight in ten (81.9%) are no longer in the labor force.
    – Most have less than a high school education and have left the workforce to take care of family members, such as elderly parents or adult children or spouses with disabilities or a combination of the three. [!] [Sounds like a LOT of work.]

    A little bit different, no?

    […] There is no actual reason why Medicaid (or Medicare) would only be “designed” for those Oz says it’s designed for. Part of the reason Medicaid and Medicare cost so much is that those who are on them are also those with the most health problems. If we were to expand those programs to “everybody,” it would cost us all a hell of a lot less than the combination public and private health care system is costing us now.

    Of course, we are talking about a person who became rich and famous for dispensing dubious health advice on television, a practice that would probably be a little less profitable if people were able to get actual health care and advice from someone who isn’t a total scumbag.

  296. KG says

    Trump supports Ukrainian land cession as part of peace plan – report:

    According to the New York Times, Trump believes a peace deal can be swiftly negotiated, “so long as Mr Zelenskyy agrees to cede the rest of the Donbas region to Russia, even those areas not occupied by Russian troops”.

    Speaking to the outlet, senior officials said that Putin in return offered a ceasefire across the rest of Ukraine at current battle lines and a written promise to not attack Ukraine or any other European country again.

    “This is my last territorial demand in Europe” Herr Putin added.

  297. KG says

    JM@290,

    I dislike mail-in voting myself (except for those who have genuine reasons they cannot get to the polls) – because it gives the household bully the opportunity to dictate the votes of other members of the household. There should of course be ample provision of polling stations, and the opportunity for early voting. The secret ballot was a key demand of 19th century radicals in the UK, because open voting made vote buying possible and with small electorates, often the key to victory. The main danger is different now (although you could see Musk offering $1,000 to anyone who will show his minions their vote for his new party and seal and post it while they watch), but just as serious in my view.

  298. birgerjohansson says

    I don’t agree with everything they say at The Young Turks but this nails it.
    Both Putin and Trump broke protocol.
    And whenever Putin ot Netanyahu enters the room Trump becomes a total Beta.

  300. says

    New York Times link

    “Trump Backs Plan to Cede Land for Peace in Ukraine”

    President Trump on Saturday split from Ukraine and key European allies after his summit with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, backing Mr. Putin’s plan for a sweeping peace agreement based on Ukraine ceding territory it controls to Russia, instead of the urgent cease-fire Mr. Trump had said he wanted before the meeting.

    Skipping cease-fire discussions would give Russia an advantage in the talks, which are expected to continue on Monday when President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine visits Mr. Trump at the White House. It breaks from a strategy Mr. Trump and European allies, as well as Mr. Zelensky, had agreed to before the U.S.-Russia summit in Alaska.

    Mr. Trump told European leaders that he believed a rapid peace deal could be negotiated if Mr. Zelensky agreed to give up the rest of the Donbas region to Russia, even those areas not occupied by Russian troops, according to two senior European officials briefed on the call.

    In return, Mr. Putin offered a cease-fire in the rest of Ukraine at current battle lines and a written promise not to attack Ukraine or any European country again, the senior officials said. He has broken similar promises before.

    Mr. Trump had threatened stark economic penalties if Mr. Putin left the meeting without a deal to end the war, but he has suspended those threats in the wake of the summit.

    The American president’s moves got a chilly reception in Europe, where leaders have time and again seen Mr. Trump reverse positions on Ukraine after speaking with Mr. Putin.

    Mr. Trump […] claimed “it was determined by all” that it was better to go directly to negotiating a peace agreement without first implementing a cease-fire.

    European leaders, publicly and privately, made clear that was not the case. [!] They issued a statement that did not echo Mr. Trump’s claim that peace talks were preferable to a cease-fire. Britain, France, Germany and others threatened to increase economic penalties on Russia “as long as the killing in Ukraine continues.”

    […] Ukraine was left scrambling to piece together what Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin had discussed and striving to avoid being sidelined. Mr. Zelensky is heading to Washington on Monday. An official briefed on his call with Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky said Kyiv does not understand why the American president suddenly dropped the demand that a cease-fire precede negotiations. […]

    […] European leaders moved to support Ukraine and voice caution of Russia. They neither endorsed Mr. Trump’s changed stance on how to achieve peace nor openly contradicted it. A virtual meeting between the leaders of France, Britain, and Germany is set for Sunday.

    […]

    More at the link.

  301. says

    New York Times link

    “Trump Administration Backs Off New Attempt to Widen Control of D.C. Police”

    “The chief will remain after a lawsuit challenged the Justice Department’s attempt to install a new leader as part of an effort to put the agency under federal control.”

    Facing a lawsuit and pointed questions from a federal judge, the Trump administration agreed on Friday to pull back its attempt to take direct control over the District of Columbia police department by installing a Trump administration official to run the agency.

    The legal fight, which prompted an emergency court hearing on Friday afternoon, was the most contentious episode since the Trump administration announced on Monday that it was placing the city’s police department under “federal control.” The retreat by Justice Department officials represented a significant, if narrow, victory for the city’s government as it contends with the federal intervention.

    A host of other issues raised by the city about the federal intervention were not resolved on Friday, including the scope of demands that the administration can place on the local police. A hearing on those issues is scheduled for next week.

    In court on Friday, U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes issued no formal ruling but asked pointed questions of the Justice Department lawyer, Yaakov Roth, and appeared to take a skeptical view of the president’s broad interpretation of his authority under the 1973 Home Rule Act, the federal law granting the citizens of D.C. the right to limited self government. […]

  302. says

    Why couldn’t DOGE stop the Russians from getting all our court data?

    Last week, Politico broke the news that the federal court filing system had been the subject of a massive hack. That’s a big problem, because while many court filings are public, the filing system also houses sealed documents, such as information about confidential criminal informants. There’s no question that the court filing system is susceptible to breaches. It was breached in 2020, though not at this scale.

    There’s evidence that Russia was at least partly responsible for the hack as part of what appears to be a multi-year effort to breach the database. Investigators found that the hack appeared to target criminal cases with overseas ties and parties with Russian and Eastern European surnames. Of course, President Donald Trump doesn’t see this as a big problem, as he never really finds fault with Russia’s actions. When asked about it during a Wednesday press conference at the Kennedy Center, he responded with a flip “Are you surprised?” and “They hack in, that’s what they do.”

    But also, according to Trump, while Russia is good at hacking, “we’re actually better at it.” Which raises the question: Where were the teen geniuses of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency during all this? […] Of course, the DOGE kids suck at cybersecurity, so it seems we just have to throw up our hands and live with leaky databases.

    Even Trump’s judicial appointees know he’s wrong

    On Monday, in a move sure to enrage Trump because he views all his judicial appointees as bound to rule in his favor, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich enjoined the administration from continuing to withhold funds from the National Endowment for Democracy. As Friedrich pointed out in her opinion, the administration even admitted they knew they were wrong: “Tellingly, the defendants do not dispute that the Act prohibits the executive branch from imposing extra-statutory policy-based conditions on the Endowment’s funding, Yet record evidence clearly shows that the defendants are withholding funding for impermissible policy reasons.”

    Turns out declaring that you’re withholding funds because they are “subject to review for alignment with Administration priorities” when a statute says you can’t do that, doesn’t work out so well. […]

    Well, some of Trump’s judicial appointees …

    Way back in April, Judge James E. Boasberg found there was probable cause to hold Trump officials in criminal contempt for disregarding his order to turn two deportee flights to El Salvador around. A D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panel stayed the order and then sat on it for three months, just enough time to let Trump’s former personal defense attorney Emil Bove get confirmed to the court, as the stay meant that there could be no further investigation of Bove’s role in the deportations until it was lifted. Then Bove got confirmed, and just a week later, on a 2-1 decision, two of Trump’s most loyal judicial soldiers, Gregory G. Katsas and Neomi Rao, threw out the contempt ruling entirely, because, of course, Boasberg exceeded his authority by daring ever to impose consequences on the executive branch.

    Most transparent administration in history has to be ordered by a court to be transparent

    The Trump administration never misses an opportunity to brag about how transparent it is, but if that were true, they wouldn’t be fighting a court order requiring them to restore a congressionally mandated website that shows how the executive branch is spending your tax dollars.

    Yes, Congress passed a law about it, but Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought told Congress in March that the executive branch now considered the law unconstitutional and took the website down. This is … not how that works.

    In July, a lower court ordered the administration to restore the website, but rather than doing so, the Department of Justice raced to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to explain that the lower court order had to be stayed because it violated the separation of powers for Congress to tell it what to do. This is … also not how that works.

    The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals was not having it. In declining to stay the lower court ruling, Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, a George H.W. Bush appointee, was absolutely unmoved by that argument.

    “[N]o Congress should be made to wait while the Executive intrudes on its plenary power over appropriations and disclosure thereof,” the judge wrote. “The public interest is best served by maintaining the separation-of-powers balance struck by the Constitution and especially so if the challenged statutes keep the citizenry abreast regarding duly appropriated expenditures.”

    In theory, this means that the administration has to put the website back up and let everyone see how they’re spending all our money, but in reality, we know it will just run to the Supreme Court.

    The vestigial remains of DOGE now get to see even more of your private data

    Back in June, the Supreme Court rewarded Trump by holding, without any explanation, that even though lower courts had blocked DOGE from accessing sensitive Social Security data, it was really important that DOGE got to spelunk through that data while litigation continued. But just in case you weren’t feeling like enough of your private data could be viewed by feral tween goblins, never fear: The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has got your back.

    On Tuesday, relying on the Supreme Court’s decision despite it not having any actual, well, reasoning, the appeals court ruled that since DOGE gets Social Security data, they can also have high-level IT access to data at the Treasury Department, the Department of Education, and the Office of Personnel Management. Sure, there are laws against this, like the Privacy Act of 1974 […]

    Link

  304. says

    […] The Kremlin guidelines sent to state-directed journalists say they should emphasize Putin’s role in “setting the agenda” for the U.S.–Russia relationship and to portray Ukraine as unreasonable and unwilling to negotiate.

    All that’s to say, Putin’s in no hurry to end the war — in fact, to do so may well imperil his regime, as shifting out of a war economy would raise the prospect of some dangerous sociopolitical infighting.

    And, of course, prolonging the conflict puts further strain on European nations and the transatlantic alliance.

    Link

  305. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    More about Meta’a AI policies @269.

    Reuters – Meta’s flirty chatbot invited a retiree to New York. He never made it home.

    A cognitively impaired New Jersey man grew infatuated with “Big sis Billie,” a Facebook Messenger chatbot with a young woman’s persona. […] During a series of romantic chats […] the virtual woman had repeatedly reassured Bue she was real and had invited him to her apartment, even providing an address.
    […]
    Rushing in the dark with a roller-bag suitcase to catch a train to meet her, Bue fell near a parking lot […] injuring his head and neck.
    […]
    guidelines emphasize that Meta doesn’t require bots to give users accurate advice. In one example, the policy document says it would be acceptable for a chatbot to tell someone that Stage 4 colon cancer “is typically treated by poking the stomach with healing quartz crystals.” […] Chats begin with disclaimers that information may be inaccurate. Nowhere in the document, however, does Meta place restrictions on bots telling users they’re real people or proposing real-life social engagements.
    […]
    last year, Zuckerberg scolded generative AI product managers for moving too cautiously on the rollout of digital companions and expressed displeasure that safety restrictions had made the chatbots boring

  306. Akira MacKenzie says

    @ 303

    As the war get’s further and further into the past, those who remember its horror’s pass away, and we fail to teach about it, the people who buy into this nonsense will become larger each generation.

  307. birgerjohansson says

    Akira MacKenzie @ 306
    And this is why a former Swedish prime minister set up a program to inform the public, while surviving witnesses are still around.

    There was also a Swedish film maker who went to Armenia during the Soviet years to make a documentary about the Turkish genocide of Armenians and other Cristian groups 1915-1916 while there were still witnesses around.

  309. Pierce R. Butler says

    birgerjohansson @ # 303: … is it advisor or adviser in American English?

    Advisor.

    As you have doubtlessly noticed, we don’t speak or spell consistently on either side of the pond,

  311. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    @306:

    those who remember its horrors pass away, and we fail to teach about it

    Podcast: You’re Wrong About – The Tradwife Rises

    Sara A: Home economics used to be called domestic science […] in the 19th century and was very concerned with things like hygiene and maintaining a healthy home. There’s a huge emphasis in the Victorian era on cleanliness, partially as a response to immigration, and this perception—real or ginned up—that cities are dirty, and milk sterilization is really important. And of course it will come up later when we talk about trad wives. […] one of the first women architects to qualify in Austria […] designed the Frankfurt Kitchen in 1926 […] believed that housework was a profession that deserved a proper setting and the right tools for the job. […] it hadn’t occurred to anyone that there might be [women] who don’t want to do this full time. […] So the kitchen design of that era became a kind of vehicle for class mobility. […] you have appliances.
    [… …]
    the Tradwife movement is a response to [2016] girlboss-dom […] There was a phase when everybody was celebrating hustle culture […] the era of Hillary Clinton, the ultimate ‘girl boss’ […] So it’s somebody who hates neoliberalism and hates hustle culture and feels put upon, and likes the idea of a woman accepting an assigned role. And then the irony, of course, is that the ones who are really good at it make money.
    […]
    Sarah M: wait a minute, you’re in this rustic farmhouse making mozzarella, you’re pretending to not be millionaires. Only a millionaire who has eight children could possibly have the time
    […]
    Sara A: It’s a strange world. They’re opting out of consumer culture. So they’re opting out of the very thing that created the model housewife in the first place. […] the homeschooling, homesteading, homemade-ness of all of this is symbolically, and literally probably, opting out of public goods, public life, shared civic experiences like public schools, grocery stores.
    […]
    vaccines, feminism, and NATO have all been around too long, because people are taking them for granted. […] [Women] in their 20s are not really in memory distance of things like, “Women can’t have their own credit cards.” Whereas I’m 46, so I don’t remember it, but my mom sure did, because she lived it. She was out of college and working before Roe.

    Sarah M: My mom was a college student when women weren’t allowed to run marathons because they thought that your uterus would fall out.

    Sara A: We’re not that far from that in time.

    Sarah M: Yeah. We give boomers a lot of shit, very fairly. However, they are also a link to the past, as I’ve been thinking lately. […] so many paradigm shifts in terms of how culture is now versus how she grew up in it that is hard for her to grasp. But it’s also hard for me to grasp the world as she used to know it. Oh, I know. Being one generation away from somebody who had a mother who essentially couldn’t leave a marriage. Yeah, these freedoms are very easy to forget.

  312. Akira MacKenzie says

    @ 311

    …the Tradwife movement is a response to [2016] girlboss-dom […] There was a phase when everybody was celebrating hustle culture […] the era of Hillary Clinton, the ultimate ‘girl boss’ […] So it’s somebody who hates neoliberalism and hates hustle culture and feels put upon, and likes the idea of a woman accepting an assigned role.

    So to escape the repressive grind of commercialism and the corporate world, they opted for the repressive grind of Christian fundamentalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy?

    Yeah, I’m not buying it. These are Red State girls who have been raised to be ftepford Wives by the rural trash culture they were born into.

  313. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    @312:

    These are Red State girls who have been raised to be Stepford Wives by the rural trash culture

     

    Sarah M: does the trad wife exist when there isn’t a camera pointed at her? Because if you are making cereal from scratch for your toddler, your toddler doesn’t care. […]

    Sarah A: […] the content is domesticity, domestic life, that can lead you to think that this is a reflection of how a person is living. But it’s really how a person is producing content. This is entertainment.

    Maggie Mae Fish – The Off-Grid Grift (38:39)

    There is a large gap between ‘finding’ 6 acres of land and ‘buying’ 6 acres of land. [‘Self-reliant couple’ in a clip listing all the people they hired.]
    […]
    I am certainly not trying to say that everyone who uses their inheritance to build a cabin in the woods is a grifter or unethical. It’s just a pattern of behavior that paints off-grid living in a way that at best is not obtainable and at worst encourages someone to cut themselves off from support systems and community

  314. JM says

    The Guardian: Israeli government official arrested in Nevada in internet crimes against children sting

    An Israeli government cybersecurity official was reportedly arrested recently by Las Vegas police and other authorities in Nevada who were conducting an undercover investigation aimed at online users seeking to sexually prey on children.
    Tom Artiom Alexandrovich, 38, faces felony charges of luring a child with a computer for a sex act, alongside several other suspects who were apprehended during the two-week sting operation, the Las Vegas metropolitan police department said in a statement published on Friday. He has since been released from custody on $10,000 bail after an initial court appearance, records show, and returned to Israel.

    Alexandrovich is a senior director in the cybersecurity directorate of the Israeli government. Too important of an official in an allied government for charges in the US but not one with diplomatic immunity. So he was hustled out of the country before it could hit the press here.

    The Israeli news outlet Ynet reported on Wednesday that the US had detained “an employee of the Israel National Cyber Directorate” for interrogation while he was representing his country at a professional conference. That employee then returned to his hotel and flew back to Israel two days later.
    “Israeli officials downplayed the incident, saying it carried ‘no political implications’ and was resolved quickly,” Ynet reported, without naming Alexandrovich or mentioning he had been arrested in connection with a felony charge leveled against him by Nevada law enforcement officials. “The reasons for the questioning remain unclear but may relate to the employee’s conduct.”

    I’ll bet the government downplayed it. Nobody in the US or Israeli government wants to hear about something like this right now.

  315. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Podcast: Scene on Radio – Voices of Hiroshima (33:43)

    [Rebroadcast of a 50th anniversary show, now 80 years after the US dropped an atomic bomb on August 6th, 1945.]

    Yuki Sumida: It doesn’t come up in conversation. It’s talk for the past generation. Even within Japan, people hear ‘Hiroshima’ and their only image is the atomic bomb.
    […]
    John Biewen: Lots of the people in the city would rather be known for their baseball team […] a proud symbol of their town’s rebirth […] Some of the hibakusha [explosion sufferers] I spoke with talked about their frustration that others could not fathom what they’d lived through. In Japan, tact and reticence are highly valued, especially when it comes to uncomfortable subjects. But some hibakusha tell grisly A-bomb stories eagerly.
    […]
    For atomic bomb survivors, the lesson of Hiroshima is simple and clear. Nuclear weapons should never have been used and must never be used again. But for millions of Japan’s wartime victims and enemies, the mushroom clouds […] stood for other things: liberation, survival, even fair punishment. There’s a common perception in the West that Japan has not owned up to its crimes in the World War Two period the way Germany has. There is a clear difference between those two former Axis allies at the level of their national governments. Japan’s Asian neighbors complain, decade after decade, that the country’s textbooks gloss over Japanese aggression. Japan didn’t agree until 2015 to pay reparations to the few remaining ‘comfort women’, the estimated 200,000 Korean women forced into sexual slavery during the war. […] many atomic bomb victims were non-Japanese who had already been victimized by Japan. [15% of atomic bomb victims were Koreans, plus hundreds of Chinese.]
    […]
    “This must never be repeated.” It’s almost a mantra in Hiroshima. […] Some Japanese argue that [the bombing] was a crime comparable to the Holocaust. They say what makes the weapons uniquely cruel is the way they continue to kill and disfigure. […] Many hibakusha also lived out their days poor and alone, outcasts in their own country. A person’s genetic pedigree is so important in Japan that some families hire investigators to check into the health backgrounds of prospective brides and grooms. A-bomb survivors were seen as damaged goods.
    […]
    Kunizo Hatanaka: Once we lost the war, our top leaders were arrested and convicted of war crimes and executed. But America won the war, and so Truman and the others who dropped the bomb on Hiroshima got away with it.
    […]
    Michiko Yamaoka: My anger? I want to fling it at nations. The Japanese nation
    started the war. The United States dropped the atomic bombs. Wars are started by nations, but it’s we who suffer. Civilians. Regular people. I detest war.

    Wikipedia – Prelude to the attack on Pearl Harbor

  316. StevoR says

    Yep, Israel are doing at least, at best, ethnic cleansing here :

    Gaza residents will be provided with tents and other shelter equipment starting from Sunday ahead of relocating them from combat zones to “safe” ones in the south of the enclave, according to the Israeli military. This comes days after Israel said it intended to launch a new offensive to seize control of northern Gaza City in a plan that raised international alarm over the fate of the strip, home to about 2.2 million people.

    Plus :

    The military declined to comment when asked whether the shelter equipment was intended for Gaza City’s population, estimated at about 1 million people presently. It also did not say if the relocation site in southern Gaza would be the area of Rafah, which borders Egypt.

    In addtion to :

    A 20-year-old Palestinian woman described as being in a “state of severe physical deterioration” has died after being transferred to Italy for treatment, the hospital said on Saturday local time.The patient was admitted to Pisa University Hospital late on Wednesday and died on Friday. …(snip).. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month that no-one in Gaza was starving. “There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza ,” he said.

    (Who the fuck do you think you are still fooling with that lie Bibi!? – Ed.)

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-17/israeli-military-to-relocate-residents-to-southern-gaza/105663620

    That article also says that Netanyahu called Gaza city “Hamas’s last stronghold” which, hey, isn’t that what they said about Rafah before invading that? What’sevn leftof Hamas by now apart form a leadership in Qatar & a constant stream of new recruits seeking revenge for what has been done to them and their families?

  317. says

    How the rapid spread of misinformation pushed Oregon lawmakers to kill the state’s wildfire risk map, by ProPublica

    After Oregon’s record-breaking fire season in 2020, lawmakers wanted to map out which properties were most at risk. But anger from homeowners escalated quickly.

    This is how misinformation gets accepted as fact.

    A year after Oregon endures its most destructive fire season on record in 2020, state lawmakers order a map estimating the wildfire risk for every property in the state. It’s the kind of rating now available on real estate sites like Zillow. The state wants to use the results to decide where it will apply forthcoming codes for fire-resistant construction and protections around homes.

    Around the same time, insurance companies start dropping Oregon homeowners’ policies and raising premiums to limit future losses, much as they have done in other disaster-prone states. Insurers have their own sophisticated risk maps to guide them, but some brokers instead tell homeowners the blame lies with the map the state produced. The belief gets treated as fact both on social media and in mainstream news — even though insurers and regulators say it’s not true.

    […] Not only is Oregon’s map seen as at fault for higher insurance premiums, one conservative talk radio host calls it an attempt to “depopulate rural areas.” People in an anti-map Facebook group start musing about “Agenda 21,” a conspiracy theory implicating the United Nations in an effort to force people into cities so they can be more easily controlled.

    By the time the state pulls back the map and starts over, the myths about it have gained so much momentum there’s no stopping them. Oregon’s hotter, drier climate isn’t the problem; the map is.

    […] In the end, what’s most remarkable about the campaign against Oregon’s wildfire map isn’t that misinformation found an audience.

    It’s that it worked.

    Chris Dunn, a wildfire risk scientist at Oregon State University and a former wildland firefighter, thought Oregon had a chance to be a national model for adapting to wildfire risks when he was asked to make the statewide map in 2021.

    Oregon adopted a unique set of land use laws in the late 1960s and 1970s that helped curb urban sprawl. A coalition of farmers and conservationists formulated the legislation to preserve farmland and keep cities compact. To Dunn, protecting homes seemed within reach because the state had maintained agricultural buffers around cities, helping to serve as firebreaks.

    At the time, Zillow hadn’t yet come out with risk ratings. By building its own map, Oregon could use local input and make adjustments as it went along.

    The map results would help Oregon decide where to require a tool proven to save homes from wind-driven wildfires: “defensible space.” Owners would have to prune trees up and away from their houses; they would need to keep their roofs clear of leaves, needles and other dead vegetation. The idea was to deny wind-borne embers fuel that can burn down dwellings […]

    […] Dunn said he was clear with Brown’s wildfire director, Doug Grafe, and others on the council that the map needed a significant, coordinated and effective communications campaign starting months before its release. […]

    Without state outreach, many homeowners learned their homes were in “extreme risk” zones from a July 2022 letter in the mail. It gave them 60 days to appeal the designation or face complying with new building and defensible-space codes the state was developing.

    Dunn could see that an uproar was building around his work. One community meeting where he was scheduled to present was canceled after state officials received threats of violence.

    [I snipped somedetails of misinformation distributed on Facebook.] “Guys this is a agenda 21,” said the member, referencing the conspiracy theory promoted in part by former Fox News talk show host Glenn Beck.

    Along with 31 thumbs-ups, eight angry faces and several other emojis, the post got 24 comments. [Social media posts]

    […] “We don’t know if we could have well-communicated and sort of avoided those conspiracy theories and misinformation. But it was just so propagated in the media that it just took over.”

    […] State officials withdrew the map just over a month after its 2022 release, saying that while they had met the legislative deadline for delivering it, “there wasn’t enough time to allow for the type of local outreach and engagement that people wanted, needed and deserved.”

    After homeowners blamed the newly released risk map for insurance cancellations and premium increases, Oregon’s insurance regulator formally asked insurers: Did you use the state risk map?

    Companies filed statements, required by law to be answered truthfully, saying they had not. […] For good measure, lawmakers in 2023 passed a bill explicitly banning insurers from using the map to set rates.

    But as Dunn reworked the map, the cloud of misinformation continued to swirl on social media.

    After Zillow and other real estate sites began posting wildfire risk ratings on properties nationwide last year, participants in the anti-map Facebook group alleged the state was behind it. […]

    Zillow uses data from the research firm First Street, a Zillow spokesperson told ProPublica. A First Street spokesperson also said the group doesn’t use Oregon’s map.

    Andrew DeVigal, a University of Oregon journalism professor who has studied news ecosystems around the state, said places where news outlets have shrunk or closed down have grown particularly reliant on such Facebook groups. […]

    A ProPublica reporter identified himself to the group’s participants, asking in June for evidence that they’d been harmed by the state’s map. None provided definitive proof. […]

    Oregon officials decided to give the map another try last year.

    They re-released it, this time doing more outreach. Following California’s lead and aiming to make the map less confusing, Oregon also changed its nomenclature. Properties weren’t in risk classes, they were in hazard zones. The highest rating was no longer “extreme,” it was “high.” Dunn, the Oregon State scientist, said he thought the map had survived the effort to kill it.

    But the backlash continued. Of the 106,000 properties found to face the highest hazard, more than 6,000 landowners filed appeals. At least one county appealed the designation on behalf of every high-hazard property in its borders — more than 20,000 of them.

    […] Even Golden, who’d helped shepherd the original bill mandating a map, began to waver.

    Golden described conversations with homeowners who struggled to understand why work they’d done to protect their properties from fires didn’t lower their state risk rating. He said the map couldn’t account for the specific characteristics of each property, ultimately making it clear to him that it couldn’t work.

    […] Dunn told ProPublica that the map was not intended to reflect all the changing conditions at a particular property, only the hazards that the surrounding topography, climate, weather and vegetation create. It wasn’t about whether homeowners had cleared defensible space — just whether they should. […]
    By April, the map was on its way out.

    The state Senate voted unanimously, Golden included, to repeal the state’s defensible-space and home-hardening requirements as well as the map that showed where they would apply.

    […] With or without a map, former California insurance commissioner Dave Jones said, Oregon lawmakers could require insurers to provide incentives for homeowners to protect their properties. Colorado, for instance, ordered insurers this year to account for risk-reduction efforts in models used to decide who can obtain insurance and at what price.

    […] During the June vote in the Oregon House, the lone person who voted to preserve Oregon’s wildfire map and its associated mandates was Dacia Grayber, a Democrat from the Portland area who’s a longtime firefighter and worked a brush rig during the 2020 wildfires.

    She told ProPublica that by training, the first things she looks for while defending homes in wildland fires are the types of hazards the state intended to target: firewood under the deck, cedar shake siding, flammable juniper bushes growing close to homes.

    […] The decision to kill the map and eliminate home-hardening requirements, she said, had become a “feel-good, bipartisan vote.” “We are walking away from a very clear decision to build safer, more resilient communities,” Grayber said.

    The tragedy of it, she said, is “that it was 100% based in misinformation.”

    Kotek, Oregon’s Democratic governor, signed the repeal on July 24.

  318. says

    Washington Post link

    “Republican-led states to send hundreds more National Guard troops to D.C.”

    “National Guard troops in Washington may soon carry weapons, a reversal of their initial orders.”

    Three Republican-led states, responding to a Trump administration request, said Saturday they will send up to 750 National Guard troops to join 800 already mobilized in D.C.

    South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said he would deploy 200 troops “to stand with President Trump as he works to restore law and order to our nation’s capital.” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine pledged 150, according to local news reports.

    They followed West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey, who said 300 to 400 National Guard troops would be called up.

    The new deployments, marking a major escalation of President Donald Trump’s efforts to take over law enforcement in the nation’s capital, came amid indications that the troops may soon be carrying weapons, a reversal of their initial orders.

    […] Initial deployment orders specified that National Guard personnel, while wearing body armor, would leave their weapons at the armory. “They will not be armed, nor will they have weapons in their vehicles,” an Army statement said Thursday.

    A White House official, responding to questions, said that the National Guard troops “may be armed, consistent with their mission and training, to protect federal assets, provide a safe environment for law enforcement officers to make arrests, and deter violent crime with a visible law enforcement presence.” […]

    Machona [A D.C. National Guard spokesman, Capt. Tinashe Machona] said that while “we are aware that other states want to participate,” he had no specifics regarding their number or when they would be deployed.

  320. John Morales says

    Steve Rosenberg — ‘What the Russian papers are saying about the Alaska summit’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WAVXyIgTDg

    STEVE’S READING RUSSIA – RUSSIAN PRESS REVIEW (16.08.25)

    Russian media are hailing the Alaska summit as a big win for Moscow:
    • “a tactical victory for Russian diplomacy”
    • “huge diplomatic victory for Vladimir Putin”
    • “Trump perceived Russia’s interests as legitimate.”

  324. says

    Trump is desperately lobbying for a Nobel — while backing war and chaos around the world.

    Related video at the link.

    This summer, President Donald Trump is rolling out the red carpet for Russian President Vladimir Putin and approving of weapon sales to Israel as it commits genocide. He’s also squeezing in time to lobby aggressively for the Nobel Peace Prize.

    NBC News reports that “Trump and his aides are intensifying a public campaign to snag the award, citing a string of peace deals while making a case that snubbing him again would be an injustice.” According to NBC News, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said, unprompted, at three out of her four press briefings in July that Trump deserves the prize. In fact, she’s arguing it’s overdue: “It’s well past time that President Trump was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize,” she said at one presser. Trump has also “posted about the prize a total of seven times on his social media site since his second term began, six of them in June and July,” NBC News reports.

    The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by a five-member body appointed by Norway’s parliament. Trump has reportedly tried to influence the group through talks with the country’s government. A Norwegian news outlet reported Thursday that Trump said that he wanted the Nobel Peace Prize during a July call with Norwegian Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg to discuss tariffs. […]

    Trump’s Nobel Prize campaign — and his conviction that he is entitled to one — is of course absurd. Alfred Nobel called in his will for the prize to be awarded to individuals “who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” How would Trump fit the bill?

    There is some truth to the Trump administration’s claim that it has played a diplomatic role in mediating the end of conflict between some nations, including between India and Pakistan and between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. However in the case of India and Pakistan, India objects to Trump’s claim that he was responsible for the May ceasefire between India and Pakistan; the Indian government describes the resolution as something that was brokered bilaterally between only India and Pakistan, and has downplayed Trump’s role. And in the case of Rwanda and the DRC, Qatar also played a critical role that the Trump administration has conveniently left out of its narrative.

    Even granting that the Trump administration has played a role in conflict resolution between some countries, the general spirit of Trump’s foreign policy has often undermined global “fraternity,” not fostered it. Under the banner of “America First,” Trump has shattered the bonds of economic cooperation by launching global trade wars, has reneged on pivotal agreements with our neighbors, and turned long-standing allies in Europe into rivals.

    On a particularly surreal note, one of the mediation agreements that the Trump administration lists in its case for Trump as a “president of peace” is the recent ceasefire between Israel and Iran. Somehow Trump fails to mention that that ceasefire came after the U.S. and Israel bombed Iran. Moreover, those attacks were carried out during negotiations to secure a diplomatic agreement that would’ve brought more safety to the Middle East and served the end of nuclear nonproliferation. A nuclear deal with Iran now remains further from reach than ever.

    And on two of the biggest U.S. foreign policy issues of the day, Trump should not be asking for a pat on the back. He should be asking for forgiveness. He has supported Israel as it has killed civilians en masse in Gaza and effectively encouraged its ethnic cleansing project by talking about turning Gaza into an international beach resort. And while Trump’s efforts to help end Russia’s war on Ukraine is, in the abstract, a good thing, his extraordinary deference toward Russia during negotiations reflects a pursuit of an imperialistic, autocrat-friendly “peace” in the global order.

    “Trump’s desire to win the Nobel Peace Prize has become something of a joke in foreign capitals,” a former British diplomat told NBC News. “His claims to Canada, Panama, Greenland, etc., as well as tariff wars and the assaults on America’s democratic institutions, incline governments in the opposite direction.”

    Trump’s demand for a Nobel Peace Prize while causing global chaos and backing imperialism is yet another stroke of Orwellian audacity from our president. […]

  326. says

    Washington Post link

    “The Ukrainian children killed in Russian strikes this year”
    Photos at the link.

    “The year began with a new U.S. president and hope for a ceasefire in the grinding war. Instead, Russian attacks on Ukraine have intensified.”

    Russia continues to relentlessly bombard Ukraine each day, killing and wounding civilians.

    July was the deadliest month in Ukraine since the full-scale invasion began in 2022, with 286 people killed and 1,388 wounded, according to the United Nations. The number of civilians killed and wounded in Ukraine in the first seven months of the year increased by 48 percent compared with the same period the year before. [!]

    On Friday, President Donald Trump hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska for direct talks, but the summit yielded no breakthrough or any sign that the attacks on Ukraine will end. Trump dropped his insistence on a ceasefire and Putin demanded territorial concessions that are unacceptable to Ukraine, according to officials familiar with the talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy.

    Nikita Solonichenko, 17
    Killed by a Russian missile in Kryvyi Rih on April 4

    Ukraine has long agreed to a 30-day ceasefire to set the stage for negotiations to end the war. Russia has refused. Instead, it has ramped up attacks on heavily populated areas, according to independent military analysts and a Washington Post analysis of data from the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Russia says it targets military facilities and personnel as well as public infrastructure that it says aids the Ukrainian military.

    Radislav Yatsko, 7
    Killed by a Russian missile in Kryvyi Rih on April 4

    At least 55 children have been killed in Ukraine this year, according to the U.N. The Washington Post confirmed that at least 43 of those children were killed in Russian attacks on Ukrainian-controlled territory. Post reporters verified these 43 deaths with parents, relatives, teachers and local officials, and visited the families and graves of more than 20 of them.

    These are some of their stories. [Details at the link]

  327. says

    https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/08/17/us/trump-news

    “European Leaders to Join Zelensky for White House Meeting”

    European leaders said Sunday that they will join President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Monday when he meets with President Trump at the White House, as they strive to present a united front against Russia and avoid being sidelined in talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.

    German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, President Emmanuel Macron of France and Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain, were among the leaders who announced that they will join Mr. Zelensky in Washington. Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister, will also join, as will NATO’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Union’s executive arm. […]

    Good idea. Good plan.

  328. says

    A judge on Saturday expanded Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s (R) restraining order against former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) and his political organization, Powered by People, over its fundraising for state Democratic lawmakers who fled Texas amid the redistricting battle. [Does not sound fair nor just.]

    A Tarrant County judge ruled that O’Rourke and his political group are barred from sending money out of the Lone Star State, coming after Paxton sought to revoke the charter of O’Rourke’s organization, accusing it of committing bribery. [That “bribery” charge is bullshit.]

    “The Court finds that harm is imminent to the State, and if the Court does not issue this order, the State will be irreparably injured. Specifically, Defendants’ fundraising conduct constitutes false, misleading, or deceptive acts under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, because Defendants are raising and utilizing political contributions from Texas consumers to pay for the personal expenses of Texas legislators, in violation of Texas law,” 348th District Court Judge Megan Fahey said in a four-page Saturday order.

    Fahey said that financial institutions and political fundraising platforms, like ActBlue, are barred from transferring O’Rourke’s or Powered by People’s, a leadership political action committee, donations “outside of Texas in support of the unlawful scheme.” [!]

    O’Rourke has been in Paxton’s crosshairs as his PAC has been raising money for Texas state legislators who left the Lone Star State for nearly two weeks to prevent the new, GOP-friendly congressional maps from passing. On Friday afternoon, Texas Republicans gaveled in a second special session. Democrats are expected to return to Texas soon.

    Last week, a Texas judge granted a temporary restraining order against O’Rourke, a former presidential candidate, and his political organization after the Texas attorney general claimed that the PAC was misleading donors.

    O’Rourke said Saturday morning that Powered by People gave over $1 million to Texas Democrats during a special session, including to the Texas Legislative Black Caucus, the Texas House Democratic Caucus and the Mexican American Legislative Caucus. [I snipped blather from Paxton.]

    Link

  330. says

    Washington Post link

    “As the Great Salt Lake dries up, clouds of dangerous dust blow into boomtowns”

    Kevin Perry was standing on the parched lakebed when the wind started to pick up.
    He squinted across a cracked, gray expanse of earth, submerged 16 feet underwater just five decades ago, and saw a wall of dust headed straight for him.

    The sand-like specks — probably laced with arsenic and other carcinogenic metals — stung his bare arms and legs as the gusts intensified. After several minutes of deafening squalls and blinding grime, the wind stilled, but the cloud kept barreling toward the shore.

    “And it’s rolling into all those neighborhoods,” said Perry, gazing at dozens of homes that have cropped up near what was once the shore of one of the West’s most famous landmarks. [photos at the link]

    Dozens of dust events like this, carrying harmful heavy metals and chemicals, probably happen each year across the 120-square-mile playa once covered by the Great Salt Lake, before water diversions, drought and heat caused it to shrink to record lows. But there are no comprehensive state or federal records of them — no centralized method for tracking and understanding the long-term effects they are having on Utah’s ballooning population. [map]

    What scientists do know is that the dust is full of hazardous chemicals. Sampled from the lakebed, levels surpass federal recommendations for what you should be exposed to in your home and are more concentrated than those from other dust hot spots in Utah, said Perry, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Utah.

    […] Utah was the fastest-growing state in the country in 2020 and was in the top five in 2024.

    […] The Great Salt Lake descended from Lake Bonneville, a prehistoric body of water formed around 32,000 years ago. It was about 1,000 feet deep in some parts and roughly the size of West Virginia. After the Ice Age, as the planet warmed, Bonneville evaporated, forming several lakes in the Great Basin, including Great Salt Lake, some 11,000 years ago.

    Great Salt Lake has no outlet. Its levels depend on how much water flows into it from rivers and streams in the surrounding mountains, and how much water evaporates out of it. Since the federal government began tracking its depth in the 1840s, it has always fluctuated. But since the 1980s, the elevation has been declining at a higher rate than normal.

    […] More people have moved to the area, using water for industry, farming and construction. At the same time, increased temperatures linked to human-driven climate change have caused the lake to lose nearly three feet of water each summer. [!] Add to the equation the worst prolonged drought the Southwest has seen in 1,200 years, and you’ve got miles of exposed lakebed containing concentrated chemicals once diluted by water. Now they blow into decade-old subdevelopments […]

    Saline bodies of water around the world are shrinking, due to conditions similar to those in Utah. The Aral Sea in Central Asia — once the world’s fourth-largest lake — has lost around 90 percent of its volume since water was diverted for crops starting in the 1960s. Studies have linked its dust emissions to reduced kidney function in children living nearby. Iran’s Lake Urmia dropped more than 23 feet in two decades, significantly contributing to health problems in nearby neighborhoods.

    […] Northern Utah’s Wasatch Front, home to nearly 90 percent of the state’s population, has seen tens of thousands of new residents annually in recent years. The region’s most populous hub, Salt Lake City, is also one of its fastest growing — it has been redeveloping a 100-acre site on its west side called the Power District, whose plans include a new Major League Baseball stadium. It’s also preparing to host the Winter Olympics in 2034.

    […] “Without proper monitoring, we don’t know which precautions we should take,” said Beth, an environmental law professor at the University of Utah who is working on lake-related issues. “If the lake continues to decline, the livability of the region is on the line,” she added. […]

    More details at the link, including a discussion of privately-funded research projects.

  332. StevoR says

    Blue Origin is gearing up for the second-ever launch of its powerful New Glenn rocket, which will loft NASA’s ESCAPADE mission to Mars.The company says it has been working closely with NASA on preparations leading up to New Glenn’s next launch, dubbed NG-2, and is targeting no earlier than (NET) Sep. 29.

    Source : https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/blue-origin-sets-launch-date-nasa-escapade-mars-probes-2nd-new-glenn-rocket-liftoff

  333. StevoR says

    More planned rocket launch news :

    SpaceX says the 10th integrated test flight of its Super Heavy Starship launch vehicle could launch as soon as Aug. 24. Liftoff from the company’s Starbase, Texas, manufacturing and test site is expected during a launch window that begins at 7:30 p.m. EDT (2330 GMT). SpaceX announced the launch date on X Friday (Aug. 15), about one week later than SpaceX CEO Elon Musk predicted in mid-July when he estimated Starship would launch again in “about three weeks.”

    Source : https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/spacex-targeting-date-for-10th-starship-rocket-test-flight

  334. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    @324 Lynna:
    Peace, Economics, Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Literature…
    The next president—with a functioning congress—who sets out to rebuild diplomacy, trade, regulation, funding, research, healthcare, education, renewable energy, securities and anti-trust enforcement, cybersecurity, election security, civil rights, and bureaucratic competence is gonna get ALL the Nobels.
     

    /And that’d just be to get to a former status quo still in need of reforms to immigration, policing, insurance, Musk/Thiel entanglement, etc.

    /Literature’s for “the most outstanding work in an idealistic direction”

    CNN – Did Obama win Nobel for not being Bush? (2009)

    One of the best deliberate laughs Bush obtained in his last days in office came when he expressed himself pleased at the street reception during his attendance at a NATO summit in Romania. “A lot of the crowd were waving… some of them with all five fingers,”
    […]
    led the world into a disastrous intervention in Iraq […] his missile defense shield plans […] the internment camp at Guantanamo Bay and the “extraordinary rendition” to countries where terror suspects might have been tortured […] encouraging the climate change deniers […] who had little time for the United Nations
    […]
    Couple that with the words in the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s citation that the peace prize is being awarded to Obama “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples” and that they have “attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons,” and the message is clear.

    Unusually, this is a world statesman being rewarded not for what he has done but for representing a new beginning. As Mikhail Gorbachev was quick to point out, […] “He has given hope.” […] the Nobel Committee is clearly encouraging the new president, after just eight months in office, to continue with a style that Europeans find much more comfortable than that of Bush and the neo-conservatives.

  336. StevoR says

    ^ envoy. Too.

    Have I already noted the probable Alpha Centauri gas giant exoplanet detection yet? Ariund th brightest, most massive star inthat systemn?

    Now the JWST has found additional evidence of a gas giant orbiting Alpha Centauri A. Two companion papers present the discovery. …

    … ( snip).. The planet is referred to as S1. It’s existence is difficult to conclusively prove because of noise from the three stars, zodiacal dust, and background sources. The astronomers used the JWST’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) and its coronagraphic mask to detect it, and the detection took two years and required help from other telescopes.

    … (Snip -ed.) …

    ,,, If the planet can be confirmed, it will be a noteworthy discovery. It would be the closest habitable zone planet orbiting a Sun-like star. Since it’s gas giant, it is not habitable, but its proximity still makes it a scientifically valuable observational target.

    Source : https://www.universetoday.com/articles/the-jwst-found-evidence-of-an-exo-gas-giant-around-alpha-centauri-our-closest-sun-like-neighbour

  338. StevoR says

    This might actually work? Worth trying?

    Imagine a flotilla born of the masses. Decentralised. Global.

    What if trade unions, local solidarity groups and organisations mobilised in unprecedented numbers?

    What if Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children sailed under their flags?

    What if just 1% of the hundreds of thousands of Mediterranean pleasure craft set sail simultaneously toward Gaza?

    Intense public pressure from a coordinated flotilla of such immense proportions could force Israel to open the prison doors of Gaza and allow aid to flow.

    It could open up avenues for a civilian-led humanitarian corridor – a vital artery of life to Gaza across the Mediterranean.

    Source : https://www.newarab.com/opinion/stop-gaza-famine-overwhelm-israels-blockade-1000-ships

  340. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    @329 StevoR:

    [Tolkien on Shelob]: Great horns she had, and hehind her short stalk-like neck was her huge swollen body […] at each leg’s end, there was a claw

    (4:14): I don’t really know any spiders with horns. […] I don’t know any spiders with necks. […] And I don’t know any spiders with claws

    Many have spiky butts. Macracantha arcuata has such a huge pair that you may forget that’s not its head.

    Wikipedia – Spider anatomy

    Spiders, unlike insects, have only two main body parts instead of three: a fused head and thorax (cephalothorax) and an abdomen. The exception to this rule are the assassin spiders in the family Archaeidae, whose cephalothorax is divided into two parts by an elongated “neck”. [Like Eriauchenius lavatenda]
    […]
    The tip of the tarsus bears claws, which vary in number and size. Spiders that spin webs typically have three claws, the middle one being small; hunting spiders typically have only two claws. […] Some spiders, such as the Australian crab spider, do not have claws.

  341. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    RollingStone – Trump cuts off medical visas from Gaza after Laura Loomer meltdown

    Loomer posted about several Palestinian children being allowed into the U.S. for medical care […] Loomer called the video an “exclusive,” […] with her watermark on it, despite it being posted on Aug. 6 by the nonprofit HEAL Palestine
    […]
    After the children receive medical care, they will go to Egypt, where HEAL will continue to support them […] HEAL has evacuated 63 injured children and 148 people total as of August 4
    […]
    Andrew Miller, former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israeli-Palestinian Affairs [wrote] “I dealt with such cases during the Biden admin. No one leaves Gaza w/o Israel’s approval & everyone’s vetted through U.S. databases. Any security risk is negligible. This is rank ethnic/religious prejudice. Denying sick people critical medical care is cowardly & depraved.”

  342. says

    Thousands without power in Puerto Rico as Hurricane Erin pummels region

    “The storm will remain a major hurricane through the middle of the week, according to the National Hurricane Center.”

    Nearly 155,000 utility customers are without power in Puerto Rico as Category 3 Hurricane Erin batters the Caribbean, bringing heavy rainfall and gusty winds to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

    “The adverse weather has caused multiple interruptions across the island,” Luma Energy, a power company in Puerto Rico, said on X. “Our teams continue to work to address each situation as quickly and safely as possible.”

    Meanwhile, two divers who were swept away by dangerous surf near St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands had to be rescued by local crews on Sunday, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

    […] Clean up crews have been clearing debris around the country since Sunday morning, its government said on Facebook, adding that Sargassum seaweed has washed up ashore as a result of Erin’s impacts. A large amount of the seaweed reaching the shore is referred to as a “Sargassum inundation event,” which can result in harmful toxins that impact people and marine life, according to the National Ocean Service. [social media post, with photos]

    Erin has been fluctuating in intensity over the past several days, and the now-Category 3 storm is expected to strengthen yet again.

    As of 2 p.m. Sunday, Erin was 235 miles north-northwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico, with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph. It is moving west-northwest at around 13 mph.

    Outer bands continue to sweep over Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, bringing heavy rain and gusty winds. Rainfall totals of 2 to 4 inches, with up to 6 inches likely in some areas, will be possible and could lead to flash flooding or mudslides.

    […] While there are no reports of flooding on the island so far, the worst weather is expected to impact the region within the next six hours […]

    The hurricane is forecast to strengthen in the next two days before taking a northerly turn on Monday and Tuesday. Its core is expected to pass by the east of Turks and Caicos and the southeastern Bahamas on Sunday night and Monday, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm is then forecast to gradually weaken through the middle and latter half of the workweek as it passes between the U.S. and Bermuda.

    […] Erin rapidly exploded from a Category 2 storm on Friday to a massive Category 5 overnight, before weakening gradually to a Category 3 by Sunday morning.

    “Some fluctuation in intensity are likely over the next couple of days, but Erin is expected to remain a dangerous major hurricane through the middle of this week,” the hurricane center said in an update Sunday.

    The storm is also expected to bring life-threatening surf and rip currents to the East Coast during the week. […]

  343. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Anjali Dayal (Intl Relations prof, studying UN peacekeeping):

    Jeff Sharlet: I’m gonna say armed troops from red states descending on a blue city is just a few inches—or maybe one exchange of gunfire—short of a civil war’s opening stages.

    […] We are not close to a civil war, but I worry we are perilously close to a mass casualty event, because of the undisciplined nature of irregular security forces & an extremely armed civil society.

    Civil war, insurgency, mass violence, civil unrest—all mean & imply different kinds of events & trajectories, although we often hear & use them interchangeably in conversation. Authoritarian consolidation doesn’t necessarily immediately produce civil war, & there are many (bad) steps between them.

    A lot of these same steps toward militarization happened to DC in 2020, around the George Floyd protests; few reforms happened afterward. This is unfolding in the context of greater authoritarian consolidation, with ICE playing a bigger role. That’s obviously very bad, & I’m not underselling it.

    When I say “civil war,” […] That category requires a second armed side. What we have now is state repression, with multiple potential pathways before us, some terrifyingly violent, some more generically undemocratic, some of restored rights.
    […]
    One-sided state repression of a population with rippling insurgent violence isn’t uncommon, but civil war—the contest over central authority with multiple armed mobilized sides—is. […] I guess the question is whether Jim Crow and Reconstruction violence would count as civil wars—in my fields, we’d say no, & classify them as state terror against a population. Those periods, and the dirty wars of Latin America, have I’d say more lessons for what an ICE-driven terror might look like.

    Brian Cook (Public Admin/Policy prof): “I worry that when the first mass casualty event happens there will be sweeping condemnation of those who are murdered and praise for those who did the murdering.”

    How the Kent State massacre raised your tuition

    Today, polls show most people who know about the May 4 shooting consider it an abuse of government power, but it didn’t look that way to Middle America in 1970. An instant Gallup Poll showed 58% of Americans blamed the students for the bloodshed, with only 11% blaming the Guard. At a memorial service in Kent, locals disrupted the event chanting “Kent State Four! Should have studied more!”

  344. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Rando:

    Yesterday in California, a father and his sons, who were all legal citizens, were attacked by masked federal agents. They surrounded their vehicle and smashed the windows. They refused to identify themselves [and hit the driver in the head.] the father drove away, scared […] one of the agents opened fire. The agents accused the driver of trying to run them over and claimed two were hit. The video clearly shows no intent to hit nor that any were hit.

    ICE is lying. They fired a gun on unarmed US citizens.

    The story gets worse as the family reported what happened, did what authorities told them to do and wound up surrounded again at their home in a several hour long stand off.

    The agents tried to arrest the father for assault, but they had no warrant and the family stayed inside. Police then provided crowd control which angered the community further.

    Video clips and a CBS article at the link.

    Kel McClanahan: “I’m not a criminal lawyer but I’m pretty sure there are rules about firing on a fleeing suspect, right? Like, shooting at a car driving towards you is allowed, but not shooting while it’s driving away?”

  345. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Federal agent during violent DC arrest: “Liberals already ruined” this country

    A delivery worker was tased, punched and kicked by multiple federal agents in the middle of the street […] in Northwest DC […] While customers sitting outside at the Logan Circle cafe munched on avocado smash and matcha pancakes, two and then an additional four masked agents beat the shit out of the man in broad daylight. This is America.
    […]
    bystanders repeatedly demanded the agents share their badge numbers. One of them—his face fully obscured by a black balaklava—eventually shot back, “Do I have to answer to you?”
    […]
    “You guys are ruining this country. You know that, right?” one bystander said […] An agent, ironically clad in a rainbow face mask, replied “Liberals already ruined it.”
    […]
    Is it surprising that Trump’s stormtroopers are acting with impunity? The past nine months have taught us no, of course not. But is it shocking to see a man—someone’s family member, someone’s friend, someone’s neighbor—being brutalized by agents who are fully aware they’re being watched and recorded? Yes. And I hope it remains shocking. There can be no day when this is normal.
    […]
    DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin provided this despicable statement […] saying the administration is “proud” of how agents have conducted themselves [“his fellow officer was on the ground with a bloody head and concussion due to violent resistance from the illegal alien”]

    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick:

    in this video the agents throw the guy to the ground, but one of the agents is in a bad position so he smashes his own head on the pavement and appears to give himself a concussion or some head injury.

    Nicholas Slayton: “Did they give a reason for the arrest? Was it just for being out on the streets (and if so are other delivery workers fucked now)?”

    Marisa Kabas: “No reason that was vocalized to bystanders.”

  346. says

    If at one time it was thought mosquitoes couldn’t survive in desert climates, this city is a case study in how wrong that is.

    Mosquitoes typically prefer more tropical, humid conditions, but these biting machines have exploded in number throughout the Las Vegas Valley in recent years because of a host of changes.

    A mix of urban development, climate change, insecticide resistance and genetic adaptations are creating a more hospitable environment for the insects in southern Nevada.

    Las Vegas is hardly alone in its battle against the pesky insects. Warmer temperatures and shifting weather patterns are expanding the geographic range in which mosquitoes live and breed. In many ways, what’s happening here is playing out across the desert Southwest, and beyond.

    The mosquitoes have brought with them not only the nuisance of bug bites, but also the major threat of mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever and West Nile virus to Las Vegas and the rest of Clark County. […]

    The species that have taken hold in Clark County include Culex mosquitoes, which can carry West Nile virus, and Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the primary spreaders of dengue. […] mosquitoes in Las Vegas are becoming resistant to insecticides, a major public health risk in a city built on tourism.

    “It is a little bit of a ticking time bomb,” Messenger said.

    She has for some time been concerned about how vulnerable Las Vegas is to mosquito-borne diseases. In particular, dengue has been surging in North America and South America, with more than 13 million cases recorded across the continents in 2024, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [!]

    […] Last year, there were 26 reported cases of West Nile virus in humans in Las Vegas, according to the Southern Nevada Health District, trailing the city’s largest outbreak of 43 cases in 2019. Yet, in 2024, scientists still found a record number of mosquitoes that tested positive for the virus in and around the city, which suggests the risk of exposure was very concerning.

    […] The Southern Nevada Health District has been conducting mosquito surveillance in the region since 2004. Its meticulous records show which mosquito species are present across the Las Vegas Valley year after year and where these flying insects have tested positive for diseases.

    One of the most astonishing trends in the data was the explosive growth of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which were first identified in Las Vegas in 2017, said Vivek Raman, environmental health supervisor for the Southern Nevada Health District.

    “In 2017, this mosquito was found in just a few ZIP codes,” said Raman, who oversees the health district’s mosquito surveillance program. “A few years later, it was six ZIP codes. Then 12 ZIP codes, then maybe 20, and now it’s in 48 different ZIP codes across the valley.”

    In addition to being able to spread dengue, these insects are a major nuisance.

    “Aedes aegypti are very aggressive daytime-biting mosquitoes,” Raman said. “They are just relentless biters.”

    […] Urban development in Las Vegas has also inadvertently spurred the spread of mosquitoes in the city. Golf courses, human-made lakes and other forms of artificial irrigation have all made this outpost in the Nevada desert a welcome home for mosquitoes, according to Messenger.

    Climate change is likely also a factor, and it’s an active area of research for Messenger and other scientists. Warmer temperatures are expanding the range of geographies for mosquitoes around the world. A warmer atmosphere can also hold more moisture, which increases humidity and rain, both mosquito-friendly conditions.

    […] “You’ve got private pest companies that people can call for severe infestations, you have some work going on around wetlands, but what we don’t have, which many other jurisdictions have, is a centralized, coordinated abatement,” Messenger said.

    That lack of coordination has resulted in mosquito populations building up resistance to insecticides, she added. A centralized effort could assess which chemicals are safe to use — particularly around humans — and monitor the performance of insecticides and pesticides to prevent mosquitoes from building up immunity.

    In the years ahead, Messenger said, prevention and control will be key to protecting the residents of Las Vegas and its many visitors from around the world. […]

    Link

  348. birgerjohansson says

    KILL la KILL Decoded: Fashion, Fascism & the Fight for Freedom’
    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=IdeJ1FKdiQE

    If you are old enough to recall Aeon Flux: this is about a protagonist that fights fascism in a just as hyper-sexualised outfit (but there are narrational justifications).
    Also, in this anime Hugo Boss is using uniforms that boost the strength of the wearer.

  350. birgerjohansson says

    This is a pro-Ukraine source, but it makes sense. The salient created by a 13-km deep incursion to coincide with the Putin-Trump summit is very narrow and vulnerable.
    Drones guided by fibre optics can reach the whole area and cut off supplies. The salient appears to have collapsed.

    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=DTBkX9g9PVI

  352. Militant Agnostic says

    @346

    An instant Gallup Poll showed 58% of Americans blamed the students for the bloodshed, with only 11% blaming the Guard. At a memorial service in Kent, locals disrupted the event chanting “Kent State Four! Should have studied more!”

    2 of the students killed were just walking from one building to another and had nothing to do with protest. One of the others was an ROTC student.

  353. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    @352 Militant Agnostic: Good catch. I wasn’t familiar with the event. Although the ROTC student was one of the two bystanders killed: William Schroeder and Sandra Scheuer (she happened to be walking with someone, who wasn’t killed).

  354. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Guardian – Ohio requires buses for private school kids. Public school students have to find their own ride

    Ohio law means that public school districts […] are responsible for transporting students who attend private and charter schools. When they fail to do so, they risk fines of millions of dollars.
    […]
    A shortage of drivers and buses combined with the threat of fines, means […] For the past several years, school administrators in Dayton, Cincinnati and elsewhere have been trying to get around the problem by issuing students with bus passes for public transportation. […] Shortly after [a child was killed], Ohio lawmakers introduced a law making it illegal for Dayton public schools (DPS) to buy public bus vouchers for students.

    The burden of getting children to school now falls on students’ parents, grandparents, local churches and charities, say officials. [Bus fare would cost them $540/yr per student.]
    […]
    Republican politicians hold a supermajority across Ohio’s legislature and have built up a $1bn fund in the form of vouchers for families who want to send their students to private and charter schools.
    […]
    [An additional] 70 buses would be required to meet the need, a number that could take up to two years to procure. […] With the law [banning school-funded bus passes] coming into effect just months before the new school year, parents, students and public school managers have been left in a difficult situation.

    * Pennsylvania and Minnesota also require public schools to transport non-public schools’ students.

  355. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    @352 Militant Agnostic: “2 walking” + “one of the others” threw me.
    Reading again, I guess you knew that and meant /those/ others walking by not protesting.

  357. John Morales says

    From Oz.
    Study finds cockatoos can perform 30 distinct dance moves | ABC NEWS — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4Uyw94cBGI

    “A Charles Sturt University study into one of Australia’s most intelligent birds has discovered dance moves unique to cockatoos, challenging a long-held belief that humans are the only species on earth that can boogie.
    Researchers hope music can be used to improve the wellbeing of birds in captivity.”

  358. John Morales says

    Art; HORROR Artist vs $2 DISNEY Snow White Coloring Book — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmQWrGsHfvo

    —

    What Happens When a HORROR Artist Draws in a $2 DISNEY PRINCESS Snow White Kids Colouring Book?
    Watch this art challenge video to find out!
    I’ll be trying out Disney’s “ULTIMATE” colouring book to see if I can create HORRIFIC art from WHOLESOME colouring pages.

    I’ll be transforming Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs into creepy abominations that will haunt your nightmares… Enjoy!

  360. JM says

    Yahoo Finance: EV registrations rise moderately in June, but U.S. market share drops to lackluster 8.6%

    New U.S. electric vehicle registrations rose 4.6 percent in June from a year earlier — with Tesla falling and General Motors surging — but EV market share fell for the month and stayed flat for the first half of the year, according to the most recent S&P Global Mobility data.

    “Share has been flat for around three straight years with a little bit of up and down,” said Loren McDonald, chief analyst at EV data analytics firm Paren. New models do well at launch but essentially take sales from other EVs rather than expand the market.

    In the US people are going for hybrids over pure EVs. Factors include uncertainty over the EV market, expectations that the technology will get better, and concerns over charging. Concerns over what will happen in Washington have surged forward as a big concern with the total repeal of Federal EV rebates. There may be a third quarter rush to get cars before the rebate goes away but expect a drop after that.

  361. birgerjohansson says

    Today is 100 years since the Great Ecumenical meeting in Stockholm that strived to reduce the tension between different branches of Christian churches. This may be of little interest to today’s atheists, but it played a role in spreading greater tolerance.

    It certainly did in the Swedish Church- and I still recall the refugee chrisis in 2015 when the local church opened its buildings for refugees from the middle east.
    And as the church performes social services to the benefit of the general population not all bother to leave it despite being non-believers.

    (BTW having a functioning non-cultist church to serve religious people makes it harder for grifters and malign organisations to establish themselves.)

  363. birgerjohansson says

    I see The Idiot (TM) is opposing a NATO membership for Ukraine, which is one of the least surprising news ever.

  364. JM says

    Arxiv: Subliminal Learning: Language models transmit behavioral traits via hidden signals in data

    We study subliminal learning, a surprising phenomenon where language models transmit behavioral traits via semantically unrelated data. In our main experiments, a “teacher” model with some trait T (such as liking owls or being misaligned) generates a dataset consisting solely of number sequences. Remarkably, a “student” model trained on this dataset learns T.

    An interesting problem for people working with LLMs. An AI was told to be fascinated by owls then used to generate number sequences to train other LLMs. The second generation LLMs showed a bias toward owls despite the transferred data having nothing to do with owls.

  365. birgerjohansson says

    Myself @ 363
    In antiquity, Athens would appoint some councillors by lot. Thid was a terrible system, but if USA applied the system today for appointing a president it might actually be an improvement.
    Worst case, it would be someone as ignorant as Trump but without the charisma to get supporters. Bubba from Dogpatch is not going to talk congress into declaring war on the penguins.

  368. birgerjohansson says

    The Guardian:
    Two decades of leftwing dominance end in Bolivia as rightwingers head to election runoff 

    .https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/18/bolivia-presidential-election-preliminary-results
    The one with most votes is a center-right candidate with an anti-corruption profile.
    .
    Ghislaine Maxwell’s grand jury transcripts are likely a dud, but other documents could reveal much
    .https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/17/ghislaine-maxwell-transcripts-epstein-trump

  369. birgerjohansson says

    According to a Swedish-language article, as much as a million Israelis demonstrated Sunday to bring the hostages home and stop the planned escalation of the war.

  375. birgerjohansson says

    Which Nordic country has the cleanest drinking water?💧 #tapwater

    .https://youtube.com/shorts/dFGbnpPkWH8
    There is no excuse for North American towns not having the same water quality,  except perhaps in the dry southwest.

    BTW the link says ‘Nordic’ as Finland is not technically part of Scandinavia. (Nit-picking)

  378. birgerjohansson says

    “Goblin Slayer Abridged” excerpt.
    Like Gimli and Legolas, the dwarf and the elf archer have a lot of back-and-forth dyring a mission.

    “…Very funny, Dwarf. But I can see you are still salty after our last mission.”
    “It was my kill, Elf! I killed 43 goblins!”
    “-42 goblins! The last one wasn’t dead yet! It was still twitching!”
    “It was still twitching because I unloaded 8 rocks into him! 43!”
    “42! My arrow ended the twitching! I got 43!”
    “Your arrow pinned him to the ground! You got 42!
    .
    (Party gets trapped in an underground chamber)
    “Dwarf, in case we die here…I didn’t
    …hate…spending time with you.”

    “Elf, in case we die, I want you to know…I killed 43 goblins”
    “You killed 42, you fat sack of shit!”

  381. birgerjohansson says

    Now the Swedish xenophobe party is mimicking the ‘don’t blame Israel’ and ‘don’t push around Russia’ BS.

    (Lynna, it is good you are keeping me from going ballistic, I am accumulating so much venom for the orange leech it is seeping out of my ears)

  382. JM says

    @350 birgerjohansson
    The Military Show: Pokrovsk LIBERATED… Russia LOSES Absolutely EVERYTHING
    The headline has Youtube exaggeration but it confirms that the attack has failed. This whole event was really poorly reported. If Russia had been able to exploit this hole in the front it would have been a major event.
    My read of the situation is that the hole in the front wasn’t as big as some reported and Russia couldn’t exploit it before it was closed. Russia infiltrated infantry on foot through a weak spot in the front but the infantry was not prepared to really grab land. Some of them were told to push further then Russia had any intention of advancing just to inflate the appearance of the attack.
    Russia also seems to be paying the price for running out of armor. What hole they did open they couldn’t exploit because they couldn’t quickly move more units into the gap. Units trying to move forward into the gap had to advance on foot while under drone and artillery fire. The Ukrainian defenders could move faster, letting them block the hole and clean up the land in only a few days.

  383. JM says

    Forgotten Weapons: Huge Dumonthier Bowie Knife Revolver

    Joseph-Célestin Dumonthier was one of the most notable and prolific gunsmiths in France specializing in combination guns. He made a variety of knife-guns and gun-knives large and small, as well as things like cane guns and occasionally even just regular guns.

    Likely the inspiration for several silly anime weapons. Gun-knives did actually exist and this is one of the more functional. I wouldn’t say practical but it would have worked.

  384. says

    birger @350, yep. And predictable.

    The one thing Trump got from Putin had nothing to do with the war in Ukraine>/a>

    “Trump didn’t end the fighting in Ukraine, but he picked up some praise from Putin about the Republican’s own domestic political fights.”

    Related video at the link.

    To the extent that Donald Trump’s summit with Vladimir Putin was about ending the war in Ukraine, the talks in Alaska were a fiasco for the United States: The Russian leader flew home after scoring a series of easy victories, leading to “pronounced gloating” in Moscow in the wake of Trump’s failure.

    But it’d be an overstatement to suggest that the American president walked away completely empty-handed: Trump didn’t end the fighting, but he picked up some praise from Putin about the Republican’s own domestic political fights.

    To hear Trump tell it, Putin echoed many of the American president’s favorite talking points. In his post-summit interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, for example, Trump declared, “Vladimir said just a little while ago, he said, ‘I’ve never seen anybody do so much so fast.’ He said, ‘Your country is like hot as a pistol.’ And a year ago, he thought it was dead.” [JFC]

    Trump similarly cited Putin when attacking mail-in voting — because if there’s one person an American leader should turn to as an authoritative voice on election administration, it’s an unelected foreign dictator. [!]

    Putin apparently even told the Republican that the U.S. presidential election was “rigged,” reinforcing the obvious fact that Trump (a) is extremely gullible; and (b) incredibly easy to manipulate. [True!]

    But as notable as these other examples were, there was a related instance that even more remarkable. NBC News reported:

    Putin thanked Trump for the bilateral meeting this afternoon, and said that Trump was correct in saying that his war with Ukraine would not have begun had he been president in 2022 when the war got underway.
    The Russian leader specifically said, in reference to one of his American counterpart’s claims, “I can confirm it.”

    [video]

    Trump, naturally, added soon after that this made him “very happy.”

    While that reaction is hardly surprising, it’s worth appreciating just how little sense the exchange made.

    Almost immediately after Russia invaded Ukraine, Trump boasted that the war wouldn’t have happened if he’d still been in the White House. But that was less of a boast than he probably realized: John Bolton, Trump’s former White House national security advisor, was among many observers who noted that Putin was unlikely to launch a full-scale invasion of a neighboring country during Trump’s tenure because at that point, he already had a White House giving Moscow everything it wanted — and there was no reason to upset that balance with an unnecessary war.

    But complicating matters further, at the heart of the claim is a dubious assumption: Trump would have the world believe that Putin was so impressed with the awesomeness of Trump’s awesomeness that he wouldn’t have dared to do anything provocative with President Goliath in the White House.

    The trouble for the American president is that recent events expose this claim as ridiculous. [social media post: “russian attacks on Ukraine have doubled since Trump took office.” Graph.]

    If Trump’s strength is so intimidating, why did Putin intensify his military attacks in Ukraine after the Republican returned to power? If Trump’s power is so impressive, why has Putin spent the year ignoring the White House’s calls for a ceasefire?

    Indeed, in Alaska, Trump vouched for Putin’s interest in “peace,” which was soon followed by Russia launching a new round of ballistic missiles and attack drones against Ukraine, killing at least seven people in Kharkiv. If Putin is so impressed with Trump’s might, how and why is this still happening?

  385. says

    […] While the Trump’s team in his first term made a rather obvious diplomatic call by rejecting an illegitimate election in a country led one of Vladmir Putin’s regional puppets, things are far different in the American president’s second term. Now, not only has the Trump administration curtailed its criticisms of tainted foreign elections, it’s also decided that Lukashenko is worthy of recognition after all. Bloomberg reported:

    US President Donald Trump spoke with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko, a Kremlin ally under a range of international sanctions, in a rare direct call ahead of a summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. ‘I had a wonderful talk with the highly respected President of Belarus,’ Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Friday. ‘Our conversation was a very good one. We discussed many topics, including President Putin’s visit to Alaska.’
    The Republican added, in reference to the Belarusian leader his administration refused to acknowledge as legitimate five years earlier, “I look forward to meeting President Lukashenko in the future.”

    […] First, Trump has obviously abandoned one of his own diplomatic positions from his first term, replacing a pro-democracy stance with something altogether worse. Second, the American president has embraced a stance that brings the White House into alignment with Moscow — which sure does seem to happen frequently.

    I’m also struck by the growing list of dictators whom Trump holds in high regard.

    At a recent White House event, Trump asked Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, how long he’s been in power. Aliyev, who’s been repeatedly accused by international observers of being a dictator, replied, “It’s been 22 years.”

    The American president, clearly impressed, said, “Twenty-two years, that’s pretty good.” At that point, Trump turned to attendees and added, “That means he’s tough and smart.”

    It was a timely reminder: The Republican doesn’t admire dictators despite their despotism, he admires them because of their despotism.

    Trump’s affection for Hungary’s Viktor Orbán has been overt for quite some time, and his eagerness to align himself with Putin has lacked subtlety for years. The American has also celebrated North Korea’s Kim Jong Un as an “absolute leader” and praised China’s Xi Jinping as a “brilliant man” who controls 1.4 billion people with an “iron fist.”

    As Election Day 2024 approached, Trump told voters, “It’s nice to have a strongman running the country,” adding, “Sometimes you need a strongman.” With this in mind, his praise for Lukashenko was ridiculous — but hardly out of character.

    Link

  386. says

    For those who keep an eye on Donald Trump’s rhetoric, there are a handful of giveaways that make it clear the president is trying to deceive. When Trump tells a story about large, crying men, overcome with emotion because of some amazing thing Trump claims to have accomplished, it’s a telltale sign he’s lying.

    When he tells a story in which unnamed officials keep calling him “sir,” that’s a dead giveaway, too. Likewise, anytime Trump uses the phrases “ahead of schedule,” “got caught” or, my personal favorite, “exonerated,” he’s lying.

    But the president also has a habit of using the phrase “just came out” when describing evidence that he’s made up out of whole cloth. On Friday, when he should’ve been preparing for his summit in Alaska with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, the Republican pushed an unfortunate variation of the line. As The New Republic noted:

    Washington’s malcontent over the sudden federalization of its law enforcement has apparently come as a surprise to Donald Trump. In a post on Truth Social Friday morning, the president claimed that the people protesting his decision to leverage hundreds of National Guards members to combat a seemingly unfounded rise in crime were actually paid Democratic agents.

    “It’s just been found that the Democrats are buying protestors in order to fight my attack on crime,” the president wrote online, using clumsy passive-voice phrasing. The convicted felon added, “These are criminals who support crime.” [Bullshit. Bullshit presented with “it’s just been found” telltale sign that Trump is lying.]

    The nonsensical claim, which he predictably failed to support with anything resembling evidence, is certainly familiar. Indeed, a couple of months ago, amid protests in the Los Angeles area, Trump railed against “paid insurrectionists,” “professional agitators” and “paid troublemakers”

    As regular readers might recall, it’s been one of his go-to claims for a long while. Nine years ago, when Trump’s 2016 candidacy inspired protests, he assumed that the people involved couldn’t possibly be sincere in their dislike of him. They were, he said at the time, “paid agitators.”

    After he prevailed on Election Day 2016, there was related anti-Trump activism. Those involved, he said in November 2016, were “paid protesters.” Months later, after his inauguration, the activism continued. Trump assured the public once more that these Americans deserved to be ignored — because, he assumed, they were “paid protesters.”

    The following year, Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination inspired another round of progressive activism. The protesters, Trump insisted, were “paid professionals.”

    Earlier this year, as congressional Republicans faced public backlashes at local events, the president assured the public: “Paid ‘troublemakers’ are attending Republican Town Hall Meetings.”

    For now, let’s not dwell on the fact that Russia’s Vladimir Putin has embraced the same tactic. Let’s instead consider the unavoidable bottom line: For Trump and too many in his party, Americans who disagree with them are effectively an impossibility that can only be explained through corrupt schemes and illicit payments.

    […] Americans who side with Trump and Republicans are real, while Americans who disagree must necessarily be seen as inauthentic.

    Whether the president is prepared to accept this or not, the fact remains that Americans who take to the streets to express their dissatisfaction with him, as happened again over the weekend, don’t need to be compensated: Their outrage is sincere.

    Link

  387. says

    LATEST ICE RECRUITMENT MATERIALS INCLUDE OVERT NEO-NAZI REFERENCE AND NAZI-NAZI SCRIPT

    It’s not the first time we and others at Religion Dispatches have had to point out that Trump’s Department of Homeland Security is firehosing the internet with white supremacist propaganda. And it will, unfortunately, not be the last. This one, however, deserves a little bit of time.

    Yes, the image has its own issues, but the real problem here is DHS’s comment: “Which way, American man?” As the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hannah Gais skeeted, this is an allusion to William Gayley Simpson’s 1978 white nationalist book, Which Way Western Man. It’s bad enough to reference an openly neo-Nazi text, with quotations like this one:

    Let me preface what I am about to say by declaring frankly that I am prepared to accept violence on the part of our people. The Jews’ hold on our throat is not going to be relaxed until we break their grip. Hitler felt that he had to take to the streets. All normal approach to his people was barred. Today, we are confronted with much the same situation here.

    Now, not to belittle the American fascist running DHS’s social media account, but it seems unlikely they acquired a copy of the original 1978 Yeoman Press edition of it. Which means they either got it online—Archive.org’s copy—or from a physical copy of the 2003 reprint, which is what Archive.org uses. That reprint, though, is from National Vanguard Books, a neo-Nazi press founded by William Luther Pierce III, author of The Turner Diaries.

    It is, in fact, Nazis all the way down.

    The Turner Diaries is one of the, if not THE formative text for modern neo-Nazis in the US—a vile novel that imagines righteous white people enacting mass murder and essentially destroying the planet to build an ethnostate in the remaining enclaves in between the destruction. The eschatology of QAnon comes directly from the book’s “Day of the Rope,” the mass execution of the white supremacists’ enemies. It might be worth thinking about that neo-Nazi link to QAnon as the administration floods Washington DC with the National Guard.

    And lest a week go by without DHS posting other white supremacy dog whistles—a few days prior, DHS posted a video (initially using Jay-Z’s “Public Service Announcement,” though the audio has since been removed) of masked ICE agents shooting guns, breaking down doors, and even training an attack dog as “Hunt Cartels,” “Save America,” and “join.ice.gov” appear on screen in the very same gothic lettering, or Frakturschrift, used by Nazis in their publications—including on the cover of Mein Kampf. [images]

    […] the Fraktur font remains popular in right-wing and neo-Nazi circles today—which makes its usage by DHS less of a dog whistle than a bullhorn. […] Put together with their wink-wink-nudge at a white nationalist text like “Which Way, Western Man,” this is mainstreaming actual neo-Nazis from a government account.

    DHS has received the kind of funding from the Trump Administration that most countries don’t have for their armed forces—and the threat of ICE operating more and more like a secret police at Trump’s beck and call is increasing daily. This isn’t just trolling or a sideshow, this is a government fashioning itself on the ideas, aesthetic, books, images, rhetoric, and violence of neo-Nazis—not in their private Signal chats, but publicly. […] this regime draws its inspiration from: white supremacists, white nationalists and literal neo-Nazis.

  389. says

    Government papers found in an Alaskan hotel reveal new details of Trump-Putin summit

    Papers with U.S. State Department markings, found Friday morning in the business center of an Alaskan hotel, revealed previously undisclosed and potentially sensitive details about the Aug. 15 meetings between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin in Anchorage.

    Eight pages, that appear to have been produced by U.S. staff and left behind accidentally, shared precise locations and meeting times of the summit and phone numbers of U.S. government employees.

    At around 9 a.m. on Friday, three guests at Hotel Captain Cook, a four-star hotel located 20 minutes from the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage where leaders from the U.S. and Russia convened, found the documents left behind in one of the hotel’s public printers. NPR reviewed photos of the documents taken by one of the guests, who NPR agreed not to identify because the guest said they feared retaliation. [photo]

    The first page in the printed packet disclosed the sequence of meetings for August 15, including the specific names of the rooms inside the base in Anchorage where they would take place. It also revealed that Trump intended to give Putin a ceremonial present.

    “POTUS to President Putin,” the document states, “American Bald Eagle Desk Statue.”

    On Saturday, White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly dismissed the papers as a “multi-page lunch menu” and suggested leaving the information on a public printer was not a security breach. [Not true]

    Pages 2 through 5 of the documents listed the names and phone numbers of three U.S. staff members as well as the names of 13 U.S. and Russian state leaders. The list provided phonetic pronouncers for all the Russian men expected at the summit, including “Mr. President POO-tihn.”

    […] A menu included in the documents indicated that the luncheon was to be held “in honor of his excellency Vladimir Putin.”

    A seating chart shows that Putin and Trump were supposed to sit across from each other during the luncheon. Trump would be flanked by six officials: Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles to his right, and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and Special Envoy for Peace Missions Steve Witkoff to his left. Putin would be seated immediately next to his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, and his Aide to the President for Foreign Policy, Yuri Ushakov.

    […] Jon Michaels, a professor of law at UCLA who lectures about national security, said that the documents found in the printer of the Alaskan hotel reveal a lapse in professional judgment in preparation for a high-stakes meeting.

    “It strikes me as further evidence of the sloppiness and the incompetence of the administration,” said Michaels. “You just don’t leave things in printers. It’s that simple.”

    The printed papers are the latest example of a series of security breaches by officials of the Trump administration. […]

  390. says

    Appeals court clears way for deep cuts, restructuring at CFPB

    “In a 2-1 decision, Trump appointees ruled that the alleged sweeping directive to close the agency couldn’t be reviewed by the courts.”

    A federal appeals court panel has cleared the way for the Trump administration to largely dismantle the work of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, lifting a lower-court judge’s injunction that had preserved the agency’s structure — and barred mass layoffs — for months.

    The 2-1 ruling, authored by Judge Gregory Katsas, said a series of legal defects in the lawsuit brought by CFPB employees and the NAACP doomed the case and required the district court judge’s blockade to be lifted.

    Katsas, a Trump appointee, said the fatal flaw was the broad challenge against what the employees described as a master plan to shutter the agency altogether. While individual layoffs or contract terminations may be challenged in court, Katsas wrote that the sweeping directive to close the agency — alleged in the lawsuit — was not something the courts could review, particularly because it was unclear that the administration had made a final decision to carry out the closure.

    […] Katsas was joined in the decision by Judge Neomi Rao, another Trump appointee. Judge Cornelia Pillard, an Obama appointee, dissented. The decision may be appealed to the full bench of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals or to the Supreme Court.

    The ruling is a hard-won victory for the Trump administration after losing repeated rounds in court since March. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama appointee, found that the administration had been attempting to unlawfully shutter the CFPB and blocked the large-scale dismantling, finding that the agency had been unable to perform legally required tasks.

    Jackson’s decision followed a two-day hearing in her courtroom that aired deep turmoil and tension within the agency as Elon Musk’s DOGE employees attempted to commandeer the agency’s systems. Emails and other records produced during the court battle shed more light on the chaos unleashed among senior officials, particularly after acting CFPB head Russ Vought called for a stoppage of “work tasks” in February.

    Pillard’s dissent accused Katsas and Rao of taking too narrow a view of the court’s ability to prevent the Trump administration from violating the law.

    “The President’s chosen CFPB leadership may — within those constraints — run the Bureau as it determines best serves the public interest. But it is emphatically not within the discretion of the President or his appointees to decide that the country would benefit most if there were no Bureau at all,” Pillard wrote. “The notion that courts are powerless to prevent the President from abolishing the agencies of the federal government that he was elected to lead cannot be reconciled with either the constitutional separation of powers or our nation’s commitment to a government of laws.”

    As the legal fight over the CFPB has played out in court, Trump and Republicans have successfully slashed the bureau’s funding. The GOP tax and spending megalaw Trump signed in July cuts by roughly half the amount of funding the CFPB can request to finance its operations from the Federal Reserve.

    And even with the legal roadblocks, Trump administration officials have already moved to curtail much of the agency’s work. In recent months the CFPB has dropped lawsuits against companies, reversed settlements and is seeking to drastically reduce its oversight of a range of industries.

    At the same time, the White House is enlisting the CFPB in its fight against “debanking,” a crackdown on allegations that banks closed the accounts of conservatives or conservative-aligned industries for political purposes. The CFPB is among the regulators Trump tasked earlier this month with examining whether banks were engaged in that practice.

    The CFPB has also announced that it plans to rewrite a sweeping Biden-era regulation governing financial data-sharing. Crypto executives and financial technology firms have been lobbying Trump to enforce a Biden-era policy that prohibits banks from charging fees for that data-sharing — which fintechs and crypto firms use to power their services and make it easier for customers to set up accounts and move money.

  392. says

    Good news:

    U.S. District Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan of D.C. sided with Media Matters in blocking a politically motived Federal Trade Commission investigation of the liberal watchdog group.

    “This case presents a straightforward First Amendment violation,” Sooknanan ruled.

    Media Matters has been struggling financially under the weight of bogus right-wing investigations into whether its reporting on antisemitic content on X/Twitter amounted to anticompetitive conduct. It also faces related serial lawsuits by Elon Musk.

    “It should alarm all Americans when the government retaliates against individuals or organizations for engaging in constitutionally protected public debate,” Sooknanan wrote. “And that alarm should ring even louder when the Government retaliates against those engaged in newsgathering and reporting.”

    Summarized from a New York times article.

  393. says

    Trump says Zelenskyy must give in to Russia—in formal wear

    President Donald Trump is reportedly consumed with what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will wear to a meeting at the White House on Monday, with two Trump aides reaching out to Zelenskyy to ask if the war-time leader plans to wear a suit, according to Axios.

    Zelenskyy is headed to the White House on Monday to hear just how awful the “deal” is that Trump wants him to make in order to get Russia to stop mercilessly bombing innocent civilians in his country.

    And White House aides are apparently worried Zelenskyy’s garb could make Trump explode again like he did back in February, when he and his yesman vice president, JD Vance, ambushed Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, in a spectacle that brought shame to the United States.

    An unnamed White House official told Axios that “it would be a good sign for peace” if Zelenskyy wore a suit, but they added, “We don’t expect him to do it.”

    If Trump dresses down Zelenskyy again for his sartorial choices, it would be in stark contrast to how he treated Putin at the failed summit he had with the Russian war criminal in Alaska on Friday.

    Trump smiled and clapped as he watched Putin stroll down the red carpet Trump rolled out for him. Trump then yukked it up with his baby-murdering pal in the presidential limo […]

    […] it looks like Trump is more on Putin’s side than Zelenskyy’s, even though Putin started the war and has been committing atrocities to reach his end game of expanding Russia’s footprint on the world.

    Trump has said that Ukraine needs to give up land to Russia, which would give Putin what he wants with zero consequences, likely making Putin feel enabled to spread his murderous attacks further into Europe. Trump also doesn’t want Ukraine to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, ceding to another one of Putin’s demands.

    That’s likely why the leaders of some of Europe’s most powerful countries will also attend the White House meeting with Zelenskyy. In attendance will be German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, French President Emmanuel Macron, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, all of whom have a stake in preventing Putin from widening his war.

    Trump, meanwhile, sent a ridiculous Truth Social post on Monday ahead of his meeting with Zelenskyy, in which he showed that the pundits who are saying his meeting with Putin was a disaster are getting under the fragile man-child’s skin.

    In the post, in which he sounds like the least intelligent kid in a third grade class, Trump claimed to have “settled 6 Wars in 6 months” and that he is sick of hearing “other” people whom he said “truly don’t have a clue, tell me everything that I am doing wrong on the Russia/Ukraine MESS, that is Sleepy Joe Biden’s war, not mine.”

    “I’m only here to stop it, not to prosecute it any further. It would have NEVER happened if I was President. I know exactly what I’m doing, and I don’t need the advice of people who have been working on all of these conflicts for years, and were never able to do a thing to stop them,” Trump added. “They are ‘STUPID’ people, with no common sense, intelligence, or understanding, and they only make the current R/U disaster more difficult to FIX. Despite all of my lightweight and very jealous critics, I’ll get it done—I always do!!! President DJT”

    […] He’s having one of his delusional outbursts again.

  394. says

    Check out Trump’s dumb new plan to rig elections

    President Donald Trump on Monday fired off a batshit Truth Social post in which he promised to sign an executive order that he claims will force states to get rid of both mail-in voting and electronic voting machines.

    “Remember, the States are merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes. They must do what the Federal Government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them, FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY, to do,” Trump wrote in the post, which was filled with lies about mail-in ballots and voting machines being rife with fraud.

    Trump’s executive order comes days after Russian dictator Vladimir Putin apparently told Trump that mail-in voting is bad and that the U.S. shouldn’t have it.

    “Vladimir Putin, smart guy, said you can’t have an honest election with mail-in voting,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in an interview after Trump’s failed summit with his favorite dictator. “He said there’s not a country in the world that uses it now.” [Trump will believe anything Putin tells him. And then Trump will act on that false information.]

    It goes without saying that no one should take advice on how to conduct fair elections from Putin, who has his opposition murdered and rigs elections so that he holds onto power.

    Also, other countries do use mail-in voting. Mail voting is common in Europe as well as in many Asian counties, such as South Korea and India.

    Of course, whatever Trump concocts in his apparently forthcoming executive order will be toothless since he cannot tell states how to conduct their elections.

    It’s written plainly in the Constitution. Article 1, Section 4:

    The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of choosing Senators.

    That means that Trump does not have the unilateral power to demand states change their election laws.

    “Such an effort would violate the Constitution and is a major step to prevent free and fair elections,” […] election lawyer Marc Elias wrote on social media, in response to Trump’s promised executive order.

    Trump has been obsessed with banning mail-in voting for years, even though he has voted by mail multiple times. […]

    The focus on voting machines is also absurd. Hand-counting paper ballots is not only more error prone, but it would also take a massive amount of time to do, making it impossible to have the kind of quick election results he also demands.

    Ultimately, Trump’s claim that he will force states to get rid of voting methods is his latest attack on free and fair elections since he sadly took office again in January.

    In March, he signed an executive order that said he would withhold federal grant money from states that do not force voters to prove they are American citizens by showing photo ID when registering to vote.

    He is also demanding that Republican-controlled states, like Texas, redraw their congressional maps earlier than normal, to try to rig the 2026 midterm elections for the GOP.

  397. says

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky showed up to the Oval Office wearing a black jacket and a black collared shirt, dressier attire than he donned during his last trip to D.C., when President Donald Trump and others mocked his clothing choices before an international audience.

    No tie. He still looks badass.

    Washington Post link

  398. says

    Washington Post link

    “Russia pounds Ukraine as Zelensky, Europe backers prepare to meet with Trump”

    Russia renewed its missile attacks against Ukraine overnight as embattled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky prepared, alongside European leaders, for a White House meeting Monday that could decide the fate of his nation.

    Russia launched ballistic missiles and attack drones, killing at least seven people in Kharkiv, including an entire family, with two children and a grandmother. Russian strikes on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia killed three others, including a child, and wounded at least 20 more, regional authorities said.

    Zelensky condemned the attacks as “a demonstrative and cynical Russian strike” ahead of the White House talks on Monday that showed Ukraine’s need for “reliable security guarantees.”

    […] The idea that Ukraine and its European supporters are obstacles to peace has increasingly been pushed by the Kremlin and its commentators. Analyst Sergei Markov said the presence of the European leaders at the White House would undermine progress on a deal and involving NATO troops in security guarantees would mean “a breakdown of the peace process.”

    Friday’s summit in Anchorage saw Putin welcomed with a red carpet, a military flyby and a warm handshake, ending more than three years of Western condemnation and isolation over his war in Ukraine, apparently without the Russian leader having to make any concessions.

    Trump told allies that Putin wanted all of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region as a condition for ending the war, including areas Russia has not managed to seize during years of fighting.

    Zelensky said that while he was grateful for America’s apparent willingness to join in providing future security guarantees, more details need to be hammered out, such as the role of the U.S. and the Europeans. […]

  399. says

    New York Times link

    “Newsmax Will Pay $67 Million to Settle Dominion Defamation Lawsuit”

    “Dominion Voting Systems sued the right-wing cable channel for broadcasting false claims that the voting machine company had rigged votes in the 2020 presidential election.”

    The right-wing cable channel Newsmax has agreed to pay $67 million to settle a libel lawsuit that Dominion Voting Systems had brought against the channel for falsely claiming that the voting machine company had rigged votes in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

    The settlement, which the companies completed on Aug. 15, was disclosed in an S.E.C. filing by Newsmax. It noted that Newsmax would make the payments in three installments by Jan. 15, 2027.

    A Dominion spokeswoman confirmed the deal in a statement, saying, “We are pleased to have settled this matter.” Newsmax did not offer an apology, saying in a statement on Monday that it stood by its coverage as “fair, balanced and conducted within professional standards of journalism.” [Scoff] A Newsmax spokesman said the settlement did not require the company to make an apology or a retraction.

    […] Dominion accused Newsmax of making the baseless claims in 18 statements on television, as well as in a social media post. The statements included false claims that Dominion’s software had manipulated vote counts, that Dominion had ties to a Venezuelan company and that Dominion paid kickbacks to certain government officials.

    In April, Judge Eric M. Davis of the Delaware Superior Court ruled that Dominion had presented “clear and convincing evidence” that the statements from Newsmax were false and defamatory, allowing the case to proceed to a trial.

    […] Nearly five years after the 2020 election, a wave of litigation over the broadcasting of false claims is nearing a conclusion. In April 2023, Fox News agreed to pay Dominion $787.5 million to resolve a separate defamation lawsuit over the network’s extensive promotion of conspiracy theories that falsely linked Dominion to interference in the 2020 election.

    Newsmax settled a similar case brought by another voting technology company, Smartmatic, in September for $40 million.

    Some cases are still underway. Fox News faces a $2.7 billion lawsuit from Smartmatic, which is set to proceed to trial in a Manhattan state court unless the parties reach a settlement. Fox has said it is willing to defend itself at trial, and it has criticized Smartmatic’s damages claims as “intended to chill First Amendment freedoms.” [Scoff]

  400. says

    New York Times link

    “Texas Democrats End Walkout, Allowing Redrawn Map to Pass”

    “Democratic lawmakers returned to Texas after fleeing the state for two weeks. Republicans are ready to quickly pass a new congressional map called for by President Trump.”

    Texas Democrats, who had left the state to halt an aggressive redistricting, returned to Texas and ended their two-week walkout on Monday, paving the way for Republicans to pass a redrawn congressional map called for by Trump.

    For the past two weeks, Republican leaders in Texas bristled at the Democrats’ flight and took extraordinary steps to pressure them to return. […] The State House speaker, Dustin Burrows, issued civil arrest warrants and threatened to impose $500 daily fines under House rules.

    But in the end, Democrats said they had decided to return only after they had denied a vote during a first special legislative session, a move that drew national attention to Mr. Trump’s push for a rare mid-decade redistricting and helped propel Democratic states to begin their own redistricting efforts.

    On Monday, California state lawmakers were expected to move forward on a measure to redraw the state’s congressional map to favor Democrats and counteract the changes in Texas, a move championed by California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom.

    […] Some Democratic lawmakers came back to Texas on their own on Sunday, some said privately that they would not immediately return to the floor, and others vowed to remain out of state even if many of their colleagues returned.

    “I’m not coming back,” said Representative Jolanda Jones, a Democrat from Houston. “The only power we have is the power to deny them a quorum,” she added. “Who goes to a fight where you’ve already lost?”

    But only a handful of the more than 50 Democrats who took part in the walkout would need to be present for the House to move forward with a vote on the map. (Several of the 62 Democrats in the House did not participate in the walkout.)

    “I have been told, and I expect, that we will re-establish quorum on Monday,” Mr. Burrows, a Republican from Lubbock, said on Friday.

    […] Democrats remained in the situation they were in before they left: powerless to permanently stop the new map from being adopted. When that happens, as expected, they have vowed to challenge its legality.

    […] The proposed map, which could be passed quickly this week, was designed to help Republicans keep control of the U.S. House by redrawing five districts to swing from Democratic to Republican control in 2026. Republicans said in public hearings that their goals were partisan; Democrats argued that the new map would illegally disempower Black and Hispanic voting populations, in violation of the Voting Rights Act.

    Since the start of the Democratic walkout, the fight over Texas’ redistricting has expanded into a bare-knuckled national political brawl between red and blue states. Not only is California moving forward with its attempt to counteract Texas’ map, but several Republican states — including Florida, Indiana, Missouri and Ohio — have been weighing a redistricting of their own.

    […] “Even if California and New York redistrict and successfully get rid of Republicans, that doesn’t help my district,” Ms. Jones [Representative Jolanda Jones, a Democrat from Houston] said. “We will lose one Black seat in Houston and one Black seat in Dallas. That’s unacceptable.”

    Mr. Abbott had promised to repeatedly call for more special sessions until the map passed, and he followed through on Friday, announcing a second special session just minutes after the first one ended.

  401. says

    […] It’s evening in Moscow, and the Kremlin would have been watching the Trump-Zelenskyy meeting closely.

    Russian officials are likely disappointed, as there wasn’t another blow-up between Zelenskyy, Trump and Vance. They will be noting the way that the Ukrainians appear to be more careful in the way they approach Trump.

    It was also notable what Trump didn’t say during the meeting. He was specifically asked whether he would be willing to send U.S. peacekeepers to Ukraine, and he didn’t answer.

    There was a stark contrast between the Trump and Zelenskyy meeting in February and the one that just took place in the White House today.

    During the meeting six months ago, Vice President JD Vance called out Zelenskyy for not thanking the U.S. enough for the weapons and aid it has provided to Ukraine.

    Today’s meeting was much more amicable as Zelenskyy repeatedly thanked Trump and the U.S. more than a dozen times for the assistance and weapons used to defend Ukraine against Russian attacks.

    In response to a question about whether Zelenskyy intends to hold elections in his country, last conducted in 2019 before a pause due to the ongoing war, Trump quipped about adopting a similar approach.

    “So you say, during the war, you can’t have elections,” Trump responded. “Say, three and a half years from now — so you mean, if we happen to be in a war with somebody, no more elections. I wonder what the fake news would say about that?”

    Zelenskyy laughed, before responding to Trump: “You like this idea.” […]

    Link

  402. says

    NBC News:

    Moments after Trump’s talks with Putin kicked off, Trump began fundraising off of the meeting.

    “I’m meeting with Putin in Alaska! It’s a little chilly,” the fundraising email said. “THIS MEETING IS VERY HIGH STAKES for the world.”

    The email urged supporters to “stand with Trump” and “give $10.”

  403. says

    Trump to call Putin after meetings with European leaders

    […] Trump said he would give Ukraine “very good” protections and securities as part of a prospective deal reached with Russia.

    He continued, “I don’t know if you define it that way, but NATO-like, I mean, we are going to give — we have people waiting in another room right now. They’re all here from Europe. Biggest people in Europe, and they want to give protection. They feel very strongly about it, and we’ll help them out with that. I think it’s very important. I think, I think it’s very important to get the deal.”

    A White House official granted anonymity to discuss strategy said though Putin has not directly agreed to security guarantees, he understands they must be a part of the deal in some capacity.

    The details of “the security guarantees are one of the few fine points that this entire negotiation has been boiled down to and something they will discuss today,” the official said.

    […] Trump just announced he’d speak to Putin after the European meetings are done.

    “I just spoke to President Putin indirectly, and we are gonna have a phone call after this meeting,” Trump said. “He is expecting my call when we are finished with this meeting.”

    So Trump is speaking to Putin first … and last.

  404. birgerjohansson says

    Considering how Republicans tried to disrupt the town hall meeting of Jasmine Crocket, every time there is a debate they should have to face a black woman. Because that clearly scares them more than anything else.
    Except maybe a lesbian atheist black woman? Or a siamese twin black woman? I have to think about this…

  405. birgerjohansson says

    I am willing to give Trump a donation with the negative numbers he used for his medicine discounts, like minus 1500% .

  409. JM says

    The Moscow Times: Don’t Cry Wolf Over Russia-Belarus Military Exercise

    The armed forces of Russia and Belarus are preparing to undertake joint military exercises next month for the first time since late 2021.“Zapad” strategic exercises have been held since 1977. Initially, they were held between the U.S.S.R. and the Warsaw Pact, before becoming a Russia-Belarus affair in the 2000s.

    All these statements grab press attention, but no real changes occur on the ground — nor, likely, in the Zapad exercise plan, which was approved back in October 2024 at a joint meeting of the Belarusian and Russian defense ministries.

    Something to watch closely over the next month. There is a lot of political maneuvering and propaganda about what is actually happening. The exercise is certainly a concern, it’s unlikely to be an expansion of the war. Everything that is happening is being closely watched and Ukraine would have warnings well ahead of time. It isn’t a large exercise, it’s more a show of Russian support for Belarus.
    For the Russians the threat of involvement forcing Ukraine to stretch their defenses even further is probably more useful then anything. The government of Belarus is not strong and is hated by much of the population. If Belarus goes to war the Russians are likely to have to take steps to prop up the government.

  410. says

    ANCHORAGE (The Borowitz Report)—Sarah Palin’s tenure as the dumbest person to set foot in the state of Alaska came to an abrupt end on Friday.

    Speaking to reporters, the former governor was philosophical about losing her crown of idiocy, declaring, “I had a good run.”

    Watching the newly-minted king of stupid ramble incoherently at a press conference in Anchorage, Palin observed, “Whoa—now there’s a moron!”

    As for how he clinched the title, Palin opined, “Even I know the difference between Alaska and Russia.”

    https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/sarah-palin-no-longer-dumbest-person

  411. says

    Associated Press:

    Israeli protesters demanding a deal to free hostages in Gaza attempted to shut down the country Sunday in one of the largest and fiercest protests in 22 months of war. Organizers, representing the families of hostages, asserted that hundreds of thousands of people took part.

  412. says

    Associated Press:

    The Texas measles outbreak that sickened 762 people since late January is over, state health officials said Monday. It’s been more than 42 days since the last new case was confirmed, meeting the threshold public health officials use to declare measles outbreaks over. The last person to have an outbreak-related case got a rash on July 1, according to state data.

  413. says

    Politico:

    A pro-Russian propaganda group is taking advantage of high-profile news events to spread disinformation, and it’s spoofing reputable organizations — including news outlets, nonprofits and government agencies — to do so.

  415. says

    The Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” mission can’t reckon with the agriculture lobbyists and billionaires pulling strings at Capitol Hill.

    According to a preliminary report obtained by The New York Times, the herbicides that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has spent years denouncing will go largely untouched by MAHA’s supposed health crusade.

    A draft of a White House report titled “Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy” included language proposing that environmental regulators would work with “food and agricultural stakeholders” to ensure that citizens are versed in current pesticide-review procedures. In other words, in lieu of restricting the chemicals, Kennedy has decided that the best route is to just work with the people he’s long lobbied against.

    On one hand, the former environmental lawyer had to contend with other Cabinet members—like Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins—whose priorities lie with the agriculture industry and the herbicides that keep profits high, regardless of their troubling record of health.

    Earlier this year, Kennedy acknowledged the hurdle he was going up against in terms of trying to rid crops of herbicides like glyphosate and atrazine.

    “I have said repeatedly … that we cannot take any step that will put a single farmer in this country out of business,” Kennedy said at a May hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “There’s a million farmers who rely on glyphosate. One hundred percent of corn in this country relies on glyphosate. We are not going to do anything to jeopardize that business model.”

    His stance is a far cry from his 2020 Facebook post in which he called Monsanto, now owned by Bayer, a leading manufacturer of the glyphosate, an “evil” company. […]

    More recently, Kennedy has argued that these herbicides are linked to the increase in chronic conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease, and asthma.

    Kennedy and MAHA’s war on herbicides and pesticides is a gray area overall, and while evidence suggests that glyphosate and atrazine cause harm to those working with and living near the chemicals when sprayed, the science is still inconclusive.

    “The science is not a slam dunk for either of these pesticides, but there is enough preliminary evidence to suggest that we should probably be putting more resources into studying them,” Melissa Furlong, an epidemiologist at the University of Arizona, told The New York Times.

    For glyphosate, animal studies showed DNA damage and increased inflammation. As for atrazine, additional animal studies indicated that the chemical can work as an endocrine disruptor, reducing testosterone levels while raising estrogen levels in male frogs. […]

    No matter how much he shakes his fist over food dyes and processed food, Kennedy is having to reckon with the lobbying giants on Capitol Hill like everyone else.

    Link

  416. says

    Trump urges direct talks between Putin and Zelenskyy, by Associated Press

    […] Trump said Monday during talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders that a potential ceasefire and who gets Ukrainian territory seized by Russia should be hashed out during a face-to-face meeting between the warring countries’ two leaders.

    The talks at the White House came days after Trump hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin for a summit at a U.S. military base in Alaska in which he tilted toward Putin’s demands that Ukraine make concessions over land seized by Russia, which now controls roughly one-fifth of Ukrainian territory.

    “We’re going to let the president go over and talk to the president and we’ll see how that works out,” Trump said during his meeting with Zelenskyy and the European leaders. Trump and Zelenskyy also expressed hope of soon holding three-way talks among the U.S., Russian and Ukrainian leaders. [Trump is going to “let” Zelenskyy talk to Putin?]

    Trump also said he would back European security guarantees for Ukraine as he met with Zelenskyy and the leaders of France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Finland, as well as the president of the European Commission and the head of NATO.

    Trump stopped short of committing U.S. troops to a collective effort to bolster Ukraine’s security. He said instead that there would be a “NATO-like” security presence and that all those details would be hashed out with EU leaders.

    “They want to give protection and they feel very strongly about it and we’ll help them out with that,” Trump said. “I think its very important to get the deal done.”

    Speaking Monday before the White House meetings took place, Russia’s Foreign Ministry rejected the idea of a possible NATO peacekeeping force in Ukraine. […]

    Trump’s engagement with Zelenskyy had a strikingly different feel to their last Oval Office meeting in February. […]

    Zelenskyy at the start of the meeting presented a letter from his wife, Olena Zelenska, for Trump’s wife, Melania. Trump hand-delivered a letter to Putin from the U.S. first lady urging him to consider the children impacted by the conflict and bring an end to the brutal 3 1/2 year war.

    […] Zelenskyy has said his typically less formal attire since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022 is to show solidarity with Ukrainian soldiers.

    Monday’s hastily assembled meeting came after Trump met in Alaska on Friday with Putin. After that meeting, Trump said the onus is now on Zelenskyy to agree to concessions of land that he said could end the war.

    […] “We’ll see in a certain period of time, not very far from now, a week or two weeks, [LOL, LOL, “two weeks”] we’re going to know whether or not we’re going to solve this or is this horrible fighting going to continue,” Trump said.

    The European leaders were left out of Trump’s summit with Putin. They want to safeguard Ukraine and the continent from any widening aggression from Moscow. Many arrived at the White House with the explicit goal of protecting Ukraine’s interests — a rare show of diplomatic force.

    Ahead of Monday’s meeting, Trump suggested that Ukraine could not regain Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, setting off an armed conflict that led to its broader 2022 invasion.

    “President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,” Trump wrote Sunday night on social media. “Remember how it started. No getting back Obama given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE. Some things never change!!!”

    Zelenskyy responded with his own post late Sunday, saying, “We all share a strong desire to end this war quickly and reliably.” He said that “peace must be lasting,” not as it was after Russia seized Crimea and part of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine eight years ago, and “Putin simply used it as a springboard for a new attack.” [True]

    Putin opposes Ukraine joining NATO outright, yet Trump’s team claims the Russian leader is open to Western allies agreeing to defend Ukraine if it comes under attack.

    European leaders suggested forging a temporary ceasefire is not off the table. […]

    At the start of Monday’s meeting with European leaders, the German and French leaders praised Trump for opening a path to peace, but they urged the U.S. president to push Russia for a ceasefire.

    “I would like to see a ceasefire from the next meeting, which should be a trilateral meeting,” said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

    Trump, for his part, on Monday reiterated that a broader, war-ending peace agreement between the two countries is “very attainable,” but that “all of us would obviously prefer the immediate ceasefire while we work on a lasting peace.” [Trump is just bullshitting his way through this series of negotiations.]

    […] European leaders are still looking for a concrete details about what U.S. involvement would be toward building a security guarantee for Ukraine.

    Still, Rutte, the NATO Secretary-General, called Trump’s commitment to security guarantees “a big step, a breakthrough.”

    Zelenskyy outlined what he said his country needed to feel secure, which included a “strong Ukrainian army” through weapons sales and training. The second part, he said, would depend on the outcome of Monday’s talks and what EU countries, NATO and the U.S. would be able to guarantee to the war-torn country.

    […] European officials confirmed that Trump told them Putin is still seeking control of the entire Donbas region, even though Ukraine still controls a meaningful share of it.

  417. says

    Hot mic moment catches Trump saying what he really thinks:

    President Donald Trump was caught on a hot mic Monday, seemingly boasting about his bromance with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

    “I think [Putin] wants to make a deal,” Trump said. “I think he wants to make a deal for me. Do you understand that, as crazy as it sounds?” [video]

    The audio was captured shortly before the convicted felon was scheduled to meet with European leaders to discuss strategy for ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

    Trump met with Putin this past Friday in Alaska, in what was billed as an attempt to pause Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Trump’s special relationship with Putin has not led to any slowing down on the part of Russia, which continued to bomb Ukraine, reportedly killing 14 people in an attack on Monday.

    Also on Monday, Trump sat down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who delivered a masterclass in leadership—one Trump has failed to learn every year of his life.

    Link

  418. says

    Top Trump lackey demands DC residents ‘kiss the ground’ for occupation

    Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, demanded Sunday that residents of Washington “kiss the ground” that President Donald Trump walks on, in thanks for his military mobilization against the capital. Pirro’s demand occurred as businesses in the city have begun to lose money thanks to Trump’s actions.

    Pirro made her demand on “Fox & Friends” in response to footage showing D.C. residents marching in opposition to the administration’s recent actions to send in federal law enforcement and the National Guard.

    “You know what? They should kiss the ground at this point, that you got someone who wants to make this city safe again, who wants to make it clean again,” Pirro said. [video]
    […]

  419. says

    Hurricane Erin forecast to bring life-threatening surf and rip currents as Category 4

    “Additional strengthening is expected as the storm is forecast to ‘remain a large and dangerous major hurricane through the middle of this week,’ the National Hurricane Center said.”

    Video and map at the link.

    Hurricane Erin remains a Category 4 storm, forecast to bring life-threatening surf and rip currents across the U.S. East Coast this week.

    Erin was 815 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph moving northwest at 10 mph, as of Monday afternoon.

    Calling the storm “unusually large,” forecasters with the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory that Erin is expected to pass by parts of the Bahamas on Monday night before turning north and heading to the east coast of the United States.

    The center issued storm surge and tropical storm watches for a large section of North Carolina’s coast. The Outer Banks could begin seeing storm conditions Wednesday, the center said.

    The storm, with its hurricane-force winds that extend 80 miles, is likely to remain a “dangerous major” hurricane through the middle of the week, according to the advisory.

    A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeast Bahamas, and a tropical storm watch is in effect for the central Bahamas.

    Erin is forecast to produce heavy rainfall across parts of Hispaniola on Monday and in the Turks and Caicos and portions of the southeast and Central Bahamas through Tuesday. Two to four inches, with locally higher amounts of 6 inches, are forecast. […]

  420. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    @185 birgerjohansson:

    Is there $$$ to make in writing bullshit like this? I might be able to abandon selling dietary supplements and snake oil online and launch a career as scientific advisor to the White House.

    Sabbine Hossenfelder wasn’t complaining about Trump. It’s her anti-science schtick.

    These papers got published in Physical Review D, which used to be a good jourrnal. They got published because this work checks all the boxes for what counts as ‘good science’ in this area of physics now. Not only this, but the university proudly put out a press release drawing attention to this nonsense. […] I don’t blame the author of this paper or anyone else who publishes nonsense […] These are people who, for the most part, just do what they’ve been taught. […] This nonsense has become normal science.

     
    Prof Dave – Sabine joins the Weinstein damage control parade (45:38, Jul 20)

    Her behavior has only gotten worse in the past few months […] one from February that reads “Academia is Communism: Should we defund academia?” […] from april: “Columbia University, Dictatorship?” [*Wherein Trump threatens funding to persecute pro-Palestine protesters, and Sabine spouts anti-protest propaganda to say the university deserved to lose funding.*] Here’s one from May [titled: Trump’s science cuts might have unexpected benefit.]
    […]
    whining about the money wasted on the 99% that wasn’t revolutionary is completely asinine. This is how science works. […] It’s especially how R&D works even in the private sector. […] The US R&D machine had been the best in the world until this administration.

    Sabine knows all of this. She’s just lying to the public for money, and it’s easy as hell. […] Take an obscure paper […] tell people, “Look at this crap you’re paying for!” and a bunch of sheep are infected with a virus telling them to spread the notion that science is nothing but corrupt and wasteful.
    […]
    Sabine hopes that taking away all the money for research will lead to better research. […] for Sabine to be pretending there’s anything positive here [is indefensible]
    […]
    in defaming federally-funded science, […] she will flat out lie about where science is coming from. Last year, she put out this video talking about a nuclear fusion startup. […] Sabine is knowingly attributing public sector work to private companies in an attempt to make it seem like the latter is better than the former at getting science done.
    […]
    Don’t trust experts. Definitely don’t get an education. Establishment bad. Rogue individuals [Eric Weinstein] paid by the aformentioned oligarchs [Thiel] good.

    The video then goes on to highlight her lies in defense of Weinstein.

  421. KG says

    So Trump is speaking to Putin first … and last. – Lynna, OM@403

    Getting his orders, and reporting back to his boss.

  424. StevoR says

    Mehdi nails this Trump enabling traitor making some excellent points and exposing the depth of his betrayal here – ‘He Betrayed You’: Mehdi To ‘Arab Americans for Trump’ Founder – 35 mins long.

    Of course, some of us – me for me did try very hard to warn people before the last election. But those who needed to listen and unify behind and support Kamala for everyone’s sake still refused to do so and no words suffice to express my contempt and fury at them. Kamala Harris could be POTUS now and Trump could be in jail not in the White House again – this time as unchecked dictator but, thanks to them, we live in this fucking timeline instead.

  426. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Meta appoints notorious anti-LGBTQ+ conspiracy theorist as AI bias advisor

    Starbuck’s […] intense public pressure campaigns and boycotts has seen several big name US brands like Walmart, Ford, Harley-Davidson, Jack Daniel’s, Stanley Black & Decker and John Deere—just to name a few—all roll back DEI policies.

    The anti-woke campaigner brought legal action against Meta […] after the company’s artificial intelligence chatbot falsely stated he took part in the riot at the US Capitol on 6 January, 2021 […] As part of the settlement, […] Starbuck will advise Meta on how to prevent political bias in its AI.

  433. StevoR says

    Hamas says it has accepted a new proposal from Arab mediators for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, however, Israel has indicated its position on the war has not changed.

    At the same time, Gaza’s Health Ministry said the Palestinian death toll from 22 months of war had passed 62,000.

    US President Donald Trump appeared to cast doubt on the long-running negotiations that Washington had mediated as well. “We will only see the return of the remaining hostages when Hamas is confronted and destroyed!!!” he posted on social media.

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-19/hamas-accepts-arab-gaza-ceasefire-proposal/105669992

  434. StevoR says

    Oh and Netanyahu is very cross with us Aussies now apparently too :

    Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has launched an extraordinary personal attack on Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, claiming he has “betrayed” Israel.

    The post on social media is the latest escalation in tensions between Israel and Australia, and between the two leaders personally. “History will remember Albanese for what he is: a weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews,” Mr Netanyahu said in a post on the social media platform X.

    Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid took a swipe at Mr Netanyahu for the personal attack. “The thing that strengthens a leader in the democratic world today most is a confrontation with Netanyahu, the most politically toxic leader in the Western world,” he posted on X. “It is unclear why Bibi is in such a hurry to give the Australian Prime Minister this gift.”

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-19/netanyahu-says-anthony-albanese-has-betrayed-israel/105673924

  437. says

    [Trump] and his team aren’t just taking over Washington, D.C., they’re also putting on a show, to be exploited for online clicks, views and likes.

    About a month into Donald Trump’s second term, the White House used social media to promote a video featuring ICE officials placing immigrants in chains and handcuffs before they’re loaded onto a plane, presumably for deportation. A backlash soon followed, with many observers noting how dehumanizing the display was.

    The president, however, loved it, bragging at an event two months later, “That’s what people want to see. … Good TV. Even the sound, you know. All the others. Very good.”

    CNN recently reported that elements of the administration’s deportation agenda were designed to be “camera-ready” and featured a “made-for-TV look.” Soon after, Axios published a related report that Team Trump’s immigration crackdown includes an emphasis on “choreography, photo ops, wardrobe changes and tough talk.” A White House official said the focus on “the visuals” was deliberate. The New York Times added that enforcement efforts surrounding the administration’s immigration policies are packaged “like mini reality-TV shows — complete with perp walks and even guest stars.”

    But as the president imposes new controls over Washington, D.C., Reuters reported on the degree to which the administration’s emphasis on “camera-ready” tactics is getting worse.

    The White House has dispatched social media teams alongside FBI agents executing arrest warrants in the nation’s capital to generate videos that promote U.S. President Donald Trump’s crackdown on crime in the District of Columbia, according to two people briefed on the matter. The highly unusual arrangement runs afoul of longstanding Justice Department norms which seek to insulate criminal investigations from political influence.

    Since Trump’s D.C. power grab, a variety of unsettling online videos have garnered attention. Some have been filmed by regular people — including one in which a masked federal agent said “liberals” ruined the country — and another in which an agent praised the Proud Boys, a right-wing extremist group.

    There’s also a video of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents tearing down a handmade sign with a message they didn’t like — a move the agency was eager to promote, as if this were legal and worth celebrating.

    But just as notable was a video the White House itself released that showed what transpired when Sean Charles Dunn (a military veteran and former Justice Department lawyer better known as the “sandwich guy”) was taken into custody after he threw a sub at a federal agent. [video]

    The video was certainly upsetting because of the size of the armed contingent that showed up at this guy’s home, especially given the nature of his alleged crime, but let’s not lose sight of the larger context: Reuters’ report […] added that the video was taken “by a social media team sent by the White House” that accompanied the armed agents.

    If the reporting is accurate, it reinforces impressions that Trump and his team aren’t just taking over the nation’s capital, they’re also putting on a show, to be exploited for online clicks, views and likes.

    Officials in the Trump White House are focused less on leading the executive branch of a global superpower and more on succeeding as a theater troupe that’s principally concerned with putting on a good show.

  438. says

    Trump flubs the details of his own dubious boast about ending ‘wars’

    “In the six wars that I’ve settled, we haven’t had a ceasefire,” the president said. Both parts of that sentence are demonstrably and embarrassingly wrong.

    Donald Trump doesn’t seem altogether sure of how many wars, exactly, he’s ended, but the president is confident that it’s “a lot.” In recent weeks, he’s boasted about having ended five wars, six wars and, most recently, seven wars.

    Evidently, inflation doesn’t just apply to grocery prices; it also applies to Trump’s made-up foreign policy successes.

    As part of his White House discussions with European leaders about Russia’s war in Ukraine, the American president added a new wrinkle to his dubious boasts. During an Oval Office event alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for example, Trump declared, “I don’t think you need a ceasefire. If you look at the six deals that I settled this year they were all at war. I didn’t do any ceasefires.”

    Soon after, as part of a larger discussion with European leaders, he pushed the same line: “In the six wars that I’ve settled, we haven’t had a ceasefire.” [video]

    The motivation behind the rhetoric was obvious: Trump spent months demanding that Russia and Ukraine agree to a ceasefire, right up until the Republican sat down with Vladimir Putin, at which point Trump abandoned his own priority. As part of an apparent effort to justify this embarrassing reversal, the American president began suggesting this week that ceasefires aren’t that great after all.

    But the pitiful nature of the rhetoric isn’t the only problem.

    The White House has never released a formal list of the five, six or seven wars that Trump has ostensibly ended, but the president did use his social media platform over the weekend to highlight a list put together by Roger Stone, a longtime GOP operative and Trump ally. It claimed that the president “has achieved peace” between:
    India and Pakistan
    Israel and Iran
    Serbia and Kosovo
    Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo
    Thailand and Cambodia
    Armenia and Azerbaijan
    Saudi Arabia, Syria and Lebanon (Abraham Accords)

    Right off the bat, we can put aside the Abraham Accords and the record of hostilities between Serbia and Kosovo, since these developments happened during Trump’s first term, and the president has emphasized of late that his focus is on second-term successes.

    What’s more, while Armenia and Azerbaijan recently reached a peace deal, it’s worth emphasizing that those diplomatic efforts were years in the making and pre-date Trump’s second inaugural. For that matter, according to India, Trump wasn’t responsible for easing tensions between India and Pakistan.

    But while those details are relevant, let’s not overlook the specific nature of the Republican’s boast, “In the six wars that I’ve settled, we haven’t had a ceasefire.”

    In reality, when tensions eased between India and Pakistan, that was a ceasefire. When Thailand and Cambodia stopped firing at one another, that was also a ceasefire. When Israel and Iran stopped trading shots, that, too, was a ceasefire.

    In other words, Trump not only can’t keep track of his own dubious claim, and not only can he not back it up with specifics, he’s also flubbing the details of his own boast in ways he really ought to understand.

  439. says

    The move to install a new FBI co-deputy director is radical in more ways than one

    The FBI has struggled in recent months, but with Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey joining the leadership team, things are about to get worse.

    In a normal administration, the FBI has a director and a deputy director, with the latter helping to oversee day-to-day operations at the bureau. The Trump administration, however, isn’t normal at all, which helps explain why the FBI will, at least for now, have two deputy directors. The New York Times reported:

    The Trump administration said on Monday that it had tapped the Missouri attorney general, Andrew Bailey, to be a deputy director of the F.B.I., in what many rank-and-file agents described as a surprising arrangement. Mr. Bailey would join the current deputy director, Dan Bongino, who as a popular right-wing podcast host repeatedly railed against the bureau, in overseeing the day-to-day operations of the agency.

    As the bureau struggles with abuses, misuses, purges and Trump-era politicization, there are three elements to this worth keeping in mind.

    The first is that this new arrangement is bizarre. In fact, the Times’ report noted, “The appointment of Mr. Bailey bewildered many current and former F.B.I. agents, who said they had never heard of a co-deputy director.”

    The second is that this appears to signal the beginning of the end of Bongino’s tenure. When Donald Trump tapped him for the FBI leadership post in March, it was immediately recognized as a ridiculous choice: Bongino, a right-wing provocateur and podcast personality, was spectacularly unqualified. Five months later, it’s clear that he hasn’t enjoyed the job.

    As recently as May, Bongino became emotional on Fox News, not discussing a gut-wrenching case, but while talking about how difficult he found his job.

    “I gave up everything for this,” he complained. “I stare at these four walls all day in D.C., by myself, divorced from my wife — not divorced, but I mean separated, divorced — and it’s hard. I mean, we love each other, and it’s hard to be apart.”

    During the same appearance, Bongino said of his work at the FBI, “People ask me all the time, ‘Do you like it?’ I say, ‘No, I don’t.’”

    Now that the president has hired a different FBI deputy director, the odds of Bongino finding some other job he likes more seem to have just improved.

    But perhaps most striking of all is the administration’s newest hire.

    The Times’ report noted in passing that Bailey has earned a reputation for making “bombastic” partisan attacks, which is true, although it understates matters.

    The outgoing Missouri attorney general might not be a household name (at least, that is, not yet), but his record during a brief career in elected office is one of a hyperpartisan Republican activist.

    When prosecutors in New York, for example, successfully held Trump accountable for his business crimes, Bailey tried to sue New York to prevent sentencing after the guilty verdicts. (The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the effort.)

    This is the same far-right lawyer who wanted then-President Joe Biden to be criminally prosecuted for his student loan debt forgiveness policy. He also launched an investigation into Google, alleging that the tech giant was secretly conspiring to suppress conservative views, which dovetailed with a related investigation into AI chatbots that Bailey said were too anti-Trump.

    Bailey has even fought to keep exonerated prisoners behind bars, while pushing weird ideas to advance his anti-abortion agenda.

    Put another way, under Kash Patel, the FBI has struggled. With Bailey joining the bureau’s leadership team, it’s likely to get worse.

  441. says

    “Kennedy would be less hazardous if he decided to do cardiac surgery. Then he would kill people only one at a time rather than his current ability to kill by the thousands.”–former CDC Director William Foege, on HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

    Link

  442. birgerjohansson says

    I am told the patches of makeup on Trump’s hands are getting bigger.
    I am not a dermatologist, so I cannot credibly speculate about the reason.

  443. says

    Inside Hegseth’s crusade to inject religious extremism into the military

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s push for a more evangelical presence in the military is alarming […]

    According to a recent report by The Guardian, military members are breaking ranks to express concern about burgeoning neo-nazi and far-right sentiment as the Secretary of Defense pushes out extreme Christian nationalist content.

    “Every time Hegseth does one of these things, I’m getting messages from active duty troops, reaching out to me more and more, saying ‘How do I get involved?’,” Kristofer Goldsmith, an Iraq war veteran and the CEO of nonprofit Task Force Butler, told The Guardian. The organization examines extremism in the military.

    “We’ve got active-duty troops who recognize that the military they’re serving in, has become a threat to democracy,” Goldsmith said.

    But if you ask Hegseth and the Department of Defense, they say that’s all “trash.”

    “​​Appealing to Heaven is a long-standing tradition in our military dating back to GEORGE WASHINGTON,” the DoD wrote via X on Monday in response to the article. “If the fake news wants to attack [Hegseth] for leading with faith, they’re not just wrong—they’re standing against the very history and spirit of America,” the tweet claimed.

    As for the godly content, Hegseth and his social media team have been working overtime to sneak in Bible verses and mentions of God throughout military content.

    “I pursued my enemies and overtook them,” text plastered over a video posted to the Pentagon’s social media account read, referencing a verse from the Book of Psalms. “I did not turn back till they were destroyed.”

    […] Of course, all of this makes sense coming from a man who is heavily tattooed with evangelical and other more problematic images.

    A look at Hegseth’s religious affiliation reveals that the former “Fox & Friends” host has long been a member of the extremist church run by Christian nationalist pastor Doug Wilson.

    Wilson’s church pushes concepts like removing women’s right to vote or serve in the military, which Hegseth has reposted and endorsed in the past.

    It sure seems that Hegseth and his ilk’s mission is to rid the military of women and transgender people while calling it all God’s will.

    Posted by readers of the article:

    To be fair, religious extremism was being injected in the military long before Hegseth slithered into office. The so called Christian Dominionists have been spreading their extremist beliefs throughout the military for many years. The prevalence of white supremacists and religionists in the military make me very skeptical when people say that the military would defy Trump if and when the time comes for them to defend the constitution. [May also be true of ICE.]
    ————————-
    Yes, but when the HEAD of the military is promoting it, it becomes a LOT more dangerous to push back! I wonder why the top general of the air force is retiring early?
    —————————-
    Who better to instill Christianity into our US troops than an alcoholic spouse abuser?
    —————————
    At their roots, Wilson et. al. are anti-democracy theocrats who’ve joined common cause for now with mega-billionaire, anti-democracy libertarian autocrats and Project 2025 is their love-child.

  444. says

    ‘Go home’: Voters boo wannabe GOP governor off stage

    Rep. Elise Stefanik received a Bronx Cheer when she showed up to an event in her district on Monday, with a group of protesters loudly booing the New York Republican. They voiced their discontent with her embrace of President Donald Trump and her vote to pass the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” that rips Medicaid and food stamps from millions in order to cut taxes for the richest few.

    Aside from booing, protesters shouted that Stefanik “sold us out!,” told her to “go home,” and also yelled that Stefanik should “Unseal the Epstein files,” according to a report from HuffPost. [video]

    The protests were so loud it was difficult to hear Stefanik give remarks at the event […] she eventually left the stage.

    […] Protesters said they chose to show up to her event to voice their frustrations with Stefanik because the New York Republican—who has gone full MAGA since she was first elected to Congress in 2014 under the guise of being a “moderate” Republican—doesn’t make herself available to her constituents.

    “Well, Elise has not shown up in our district for months and months,” Mavis Agnew, a protester who attended the event, told a local television news station. “She won’t hold a town hall, she won’t take questions. She’s never in her office. People show up at her office constantly, door’s closed. […] this was her first appearance, the first opportunity we had to let her know we’re unhappy.”

    Stefanik wasted no time playing the victim after Monday’s event.

    “Today #NY21 witnessed shameful conduct by radical Far Left Democrat agitators who disgracefully attempted to drown out and silence a non-political event in Plattsburgh to honor the lifelong service of John Zurlo in Clinton County as the building was named in his honor,” Stefanik wrote in a post on X. “I was proud to deliver my remarks and privately give them to one of John’s sons along with the Congressional Record presented to the Zurlo family previously.”

    […] Stefanik has remained in Congress after Trump pulled her nomination to be United Nations ambassador out of fear the GOP could lose her House seat in a special election.

    However, she is rumored to be running for governor in the Empire State in 2026, when Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul is up for reelection.

    Democrats said the fact that Stefanik is getting booed in some of the reddest parts of the state is a bad sign for her chances at governor. […]

    “Elise Stefanik won’t even hold a town hall in her bright red district—I just held four in one week—but she thinks she’s gonna roll up into NYC and run for Governor without a problem,” Democratic state Sen. James Skoufis wrote in a post on X. “Congresswoman, meet rude awakening.”

  445. says

    As much as the Trump administration claims to care for families and wants to encourage having children, you wouldn’t know it from its actions. In its latest move to make life harder for federal employees, the termination of union contracts for roughly 400,000 employees at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs leaves expectant parents in the lurch.

    Lower courts blocked President Donald Trump’s March executive order purporting to be able to arbitrarily cancel union contracts covering hundreds of thousands of federal workers. But federal appeals courts lifted those injunctions earlier this month, so Trump gets to do this while the litigation proceeds. The VA was the first agency to terminate nearly all its union contracts, but since Trump’s executive order had a carveout for unions that support him, VA police, firefighters, and security guards did not have their contracts terminated.

    With that contract revocation at the VA came the revocation of all approved maternity and paternity leave, including taking it away from people days away from giving birth. Making it more ridiculous, this is unpaid leave. Under the union contract, employees were entitled to an additional four weeks of unpaid parental leave on top of the 12 paid weeks required by law. Real pro-family move there […]

    The explanation about this could not be smugger. Per VA spokesperson Pete Kasperowicz, this is much fairer: “Now that VA has terminated collective bargaining agreements for most employees, its parental leave policy is much more equitable.”

    Huh?

    Yes, because now all VA employees can request leave subject to the needs of the agency. So, in Trumpland, a contract that gives everyone the same benefit is unfair, but a policy that lets your employer unilaterally decide if you get that benefit of extra leave is totally fair. Sure.

    […] Never one to shy away from being terrible, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. definitely has a big role here in making the world worse for children. In April, the agency canceled $11.4 billion of funding used for immunization clinics and appears to be planning to remove the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for children under five.

    Amid this frenzy of attacks on families, Trump and other creepy natalist types in his administration are running around talking about how important it is for (white) people to have more babies, including the genius idea of giving mothers a medal for having six or more children. Vice President JD Vance is a full-fledged natalist, complaining about how we are ruled by a childless elite and such, so you’d think he’d want to ensure people get a bit more time off caring for their newborn, but you’d be wrong.

    What about how if Trump won in 2024, he promised to mandate coverage for in vitro fertilization, with Trump saying he’d either require the government to cover it or require insurers to do so. Well, that’s not happening anymore […]

    The sole pro-family effort the administration can point to is the establishment of “Trump Accounts,” a onetime payment of $1,000 for every child. Gosh, a whole $1,000? That’s sure to make a huge difference when the cost of raising a child to age 18 these days regularly tops $300,000. Somehow, $1,000 doesn’t really seem like enough of an incentive.

    There is no actual desire on the part of the administration to support children or families. […]

  446. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-stands-up-to-our-greatest-enemies

    “Trump Stands Up To Our Greatest Enemies, All Of Europe, To Let Putin Keep Warring On Our Ally Ukraine”

    How do you say in Russian, ‘useful idiot’?

    When we last left off yesterday, Donald J. Trump, the convicted felon and fraud who somehow is the president of the United States, was at a table surrounded by the seven most powerful leaders of Europe. They’d rushed over following Trump’s horrifying “summit” in Alaska last Friday with Vladimir Putin, war criminal/murderer of more than 400,000 innocent Ukrainians, which ended with Putin sprinting up the stairs of his plane, gleeful how it seemed Trump was poised to give him pieces of Ukraine that are not Trump’s to give, plus assurances that Ukraine would not join NATO, which is not Trump’s decision to make, in exchange for Ukraine getting absolutely nothing but vague “security assurances.”

    Yesterday was upbeat, and Trump reveled in the attention. He held a press scrum earlier in the day with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, then had a short private meeting with him, and then called Vlad Putin for 40 minutes while his guests stood around waiting. Then he loudly bragged to Emmanuel Macron, president of France, that Putin really wanted to make a deal, this time, for him, Donald Trump, the world’s most special boy.

    Once convened, the European leaders — Macron; British Prime Minister Keir Starmer; Finnish President Alexander Stubb; German Chancellor Friedrich Merz; Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni; NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte; and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen — reminded Trump who they were.

    OOF. And they were like, that’s great, Donald (Trump set the precedent of calling everyone by their first names, like it was some kind of hippie summer camp), it’s incredible how much power you have! Putin has never come to the table before, and it is all thanks to YOU! A deal would sure be great, can’t wait, let’s do it! Watch Italian PM Meloni fluffing him up. [video]

    President Zelenskyy has been clear that he does not have the power to give away land, but let’s say, for the sake of argument, that he actually might. So what then, brain genius? How about some of the details of this amazing deal you made, that you refuse to release to anyone?

    First of all, what about a ceasefire, because a war isn’t over if people are still shooting, duh. And Trump was like, no, no, we don’t need a ceasefire to make peace. I’ve made peace with no ceasefire in SIX WARS already. And German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was like, no, that’s not how peace works, in the nicest and simplest kind of way, on the off chance the man is not being conniving, but just gullible and kind of dumb. (Or both!) [video]

    Also the European leaders wanted to know, what about the 18,000-something Ukrainian children Russia has kidnapped? Any kind of deal on bringing them back? Nope.

    Well, okay then! On to these land “swaps.” Let’s say you gift Putin this land, what kind of security assurances do Ukraine and Europe have that Putin is not just going to take the gifts of land and not do any ceasefire, or return the children, and just keeps on bombing and trying to take more land? Are boots from the United States military going to be on the ground? Will Putin agree that it would be fair for NATO forces to come into Ukraine and kick his ratty ass on back out at that point?

    Well, no. Putin won’t agree to that! But the US will “coordinate” Europe doing something about it. [! LOL] And Trump promised that there would be a trilateral meeting between himself, Putin, and Zelenskyy sometime, which he has been promising since May. […]

    It is still a mystery what Putin said to Trump in their quiet car ride in Alaska, and during the closed-door meeting, that made Trump’s aides run out with “ashen” faces and cancel lunch.

    […] remember how Russia just breached the Federal Court Filing System? […] It’s interesting that Trump’s response to that hack was to shrug and say, well, they’re Russians, hacking is what they do. And Trump claims he did not bring up any of it up to Putin at their meeting. Kind of weird, right? So maybe the thing Putin said was, “I have all the receipts […]

    […] Trump left the meeting refusing to put any American boots on the ground, so, just giving up his most powerful card. Or any promises to help strengthen the Ukrainian military with weapons, training, or intelligence. But he left the Europeans with assurances that he was going to set up a trilateral meeting, with himself, Putin, and Zelenskyy, real soon, and Marco Rubio will write up some security assurance details.

    And then, make a bet on what happened next! Within hours he was back to his shitty website to pull a TACO and say that it should now be a BILATERAL meeting with just Zelenskyy and Putin. And THEN, after THAT happens, then he’ll sit down with the two of them.

    “I had a very good meeting with distinguished guests, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, President Emmanuel Macron, of France, President Alexander Stubb, of Finland, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, of Italy, Prime Minister Keir Starmer, of the United Kingdom, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Friedrich Merz, President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, in the White House, which ended in a further meeting in the Oval Office. During the meeting we discussed Security Guarantees for Ukraine, which Guarantees would be provided by the various European Countries, with a coordination with the United States of America. Everyone is very happy about the possibility of PEACE for Russia/Ukraine. At the conclusion of the meetings, I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelenskyy. After that meeting takes place, we will have a Trilat, which would be the two Presidents, plus myself. Again, this was a very good, early step for a War that has been going on for almost four years. Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, are coordinating with Russia and Ukraine. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

    “Trilat,” he’s so “in the know.” But, Putin has not agreed to that. Still, Hungary’s President and Putin pal Viktor Orban has offered to host the bilateral talks, and he’s the frontrunner, because Hungary has also pulled out of the ICC and Putin might worry about getting arrested for war crimes if they go to Geneva! And Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also proposed Turkey as a possible venue in July. July! As in a year away! That would sure please Putin! And all talks of any new or secondary US sanctions on Russia have been put on hold, too, so that’s also nice for him. [Yep. Everything is coming up roses for Putin.]

    Meanwhile, since Prump-Tootin’ Alaskan Summit ‘25, Russian strikes on Ukraine have killed 21 and injured 99. Because Putin is not serious about this peace thing, sincerely believes that Ukraine belongs to him, and is not going to stop until he gets it, not if it takes the rest of his life!

    So, can of peace, kicked down road some more. But if this date for another talk actually happens, we will be sure to let you know.

  447. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    NBC – Texas Democratic legislator stays alone in State Capitol after refusing law enforcement escort to leave

    State Rep. Nicole Collier said she will remain locked in the Austin statehouse chamber, now outfitted with a mattress and snacks, until the House reconvenes Wednesday morning.

    Since Monday, […] refusing to acquiesce to Republican demands that Democrats agree to around-the-clock security escorts to be released from the building. Now she’s the subject of an around-the-clock live video feed, at her own party’s choosing. […] unless the rules change, freeing Democratic lawmakers of a security escort, Collier said she will not budge.
    […]
    Texas state House Speaker Dustin Burrows on Monday outlined that Democrats who had arrest warrants issued against them—which included Collier—could not leave the chamber unless they agreed to move into the custody of a Department of Public Safety officer.
    […]
    Collier is a seven-term Democratic lawmaker and former chair of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus who also represents a majority-minority district. Democrats have charged that the redrawn congressional maps would tear up those districts, stripping those voters of their voices.

  448. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/uh-oh-are-the-trump-tariffs-canceling

    “Uh-Oh! Are The Trump Tariffs Canceling Boobs?”

    Earlier this month, during the whole Sydney Sweeney/American Eagle debacle, some conservatives began claiming that “the libs” had “canceled” boobs and that we were all very mad at Sydney Sweeney for bringing them back. [Photo]

    This theory was largely derived from the fact that some conservative men are still very, very mad about the fact that female games journalists criticized the portrayal of women in video games 10 years ago. Many have never fully recovered from that incredible trauma. They’re also very angry about body positivity and the fact that women they don’t personally find sexually attractive are allowed to be famous — and even allowed to be in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. [Examples at the link.]

    Thus the proliferation of pictures of large-breasted, tiny-waisted women captioned “THIS IS WHAT THEY TOOK FROM YOU!” But we’re not going to get into that today. Today we are going to talk about who is conducting the real war on boobs, because it’s not the Left. It is Donald Trump and his freaking tariffs.

    If you were not aware, there are a whole lot of women, myself included, who can pretty much only buy bras made in Poland or the UK. This is not because we are fancy, but because American bra companies are extremely limited in size range. Economically, shoving as many women as possible into cheaply made 34/36 Bs and Cs is a lot more profitable than carrying well-constructed bras in a wide range of sizes. So if you have a small band size and a large cup size, Victoria’s Secret will only ever hurt you. (If you’re not sure you’re wearing the right size and don’t live anywhere near a proper bra fitter, the r/ABraThatFits calculator is pretty great.)

    These bras, unfortunately, also tend to be extremely expensive compared to standard size bras — starting, on average, at $80. It’s understandable that they cost so much, because they do require far more serious construction than your average Victoria’s Secret push-up, and the people who make them deserve to be paid fairly, but that also means that a lot of people who need them can’t afford them. A bra that doesn’t fit, when you are on the bigger side, causes back pain, neck pain and can even cause breast tissue damage if there are wires digging in, so it’s far more of a necessity than a luxury.

    They are also mostly only sold in specialty stores and, to a very limited degree, high-volume, higher-end department stores like Nordstrom. You can buy them online, of course, but it really is very helpful to be able to try them on first for fit. (To support larger breasts without the smaller band sizes, Lane Bryant is in most places.)

    This is all to say that it’s already a major pain in the ass (well, not the ass) to be in this particular situation — and it’s about to get worse.

    This weekend, I stopped by one of the three (three!) non-Nordstrom brick and mortar stores in all of Chicago that sells my size. Unfortunately for me, they were down to their last two. Not just two styles, literally the last two bras in my size, in the entire store. The girl in the store told me that they weren’t going to be able to order those sizes anymore because … they all come from Europe and no one can pay the tariffs.

    Shit.

    Then, yesterday, I was looking at the r/ABraThatFits subreddit and saw an announcement that one popular site, AmpleBosom.com (not a porn site, sorry!), will no longer be shipping to the US. Another popular site, Understance, has also paused shipping to the US. Another site, Bravissimo, will only be selling products “unaffected by tariffs.”

    Sophisticated Notion, a site that offers sizing advice and educational resources for the top-heavy among us, put it this way:

    Imagine your favorite local lingerie shop, you know, the one that gets you and your size. *wink wink* Tariffs could shut them down (or keep them from reopening). Or think about a small online store specializing in ethically sourced, imported silk. Silk tariffs could skyrocket costs, forcing them to raise prices or lower quality. While silk may not be in most of our budgets, it’s not the only example out there for this phenomenon of higher costs vs. lower quality. And let’s not forget: Sometimes companies raise prices and lower quality simultaneously. Can you imagine paying $80 for a bra that has the quality of a $50 piece?

    This isn’t just a US problem. My friend Kimberly, who is opening a lingerie store in Canada, is avoiding American products because of tariff uncertainty. “Some of my suppliers have American warehouses, but I pay in CAD and it’s DDP [Delivered Duty Paid]. They’ve said if there is too much drama, they’ll just start to ship straight from the U.K,” she told me. If other global businesses refuse to consider goods produced by American companies or no longer utilize American distribution hubs, the US will suffer the consequences. [True] Given how many businesses recently advertised ” tariff sales,” everyone feels the potential disasters looming.

    It’s not great, and it’s about to get worse.

    On August 29, the de minimis exception for goods under $800 is ending, so any shipment of imported goods, no matter how small, will be subject to duties. Trump claims the loophole is a “big scam” that hurts US businesses … clearly not taking into consideration the fact that there are some products that are just not made in the United States. When an American brand says they have “inclusive sizing,” they mean they go up to a DDD and have larger band sizes. They do not mean they carry 32Js.

    (Because someone’s always going to ask — no, the fact that people get breast implants does not impact the availability of bras with larger cup sizes and smaller band sizes. Those stay up on their own, so those who have them don’t have to worry about proper support.)

    As much as I fully understand that no one wants to hear the “Relatively Thin Girl With A Huge Rack Blues,” it really is a serious problem that bras in these sizes will be less available in the States, and that those we do get will be even more prohibitively expensive than they already are.

  449. says

    Followup to Sky Captain @447:

    […] So, what do you call it when a group of white supremacists kidnaps and entraps a Black woman and won’t let her leave? Because that’s what’s happened to Texas state Rep. Nicole Collier, who’s been kept captive inside the Texas State Capitol, because she refuses to sign a permission slip saying she consents to be guarded by police who will make sure she comes back to vote for white Nazi fascist maps on Wednesday. So they won’t let her go home. […]

    Videos at the link, including a video of Rachel Maddow interviewing Nicole Collier.

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/the-stupidest-chris-tabs-tues-aug

  451. says

    EXCLUSIVE: WAR IN UKRAINE

    French President Emmanuel Macron says he doesn’t believe Putin is ‘very willing to get peace’ in Ukraine

    “After a meeting at the White House on Monday, the French president said that if there is no progress in talks, Russia should be hit with more sanctions.”

    Related video at the link.

    There must be a push for peace to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, but French President Emmanuel Macron is skeptical that Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to resolve the conflict.

    “When I look at the situation and the facts, I don’t see President Putin very willing to get peace now,” Macron told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker in an exclusive interview Monday after a high-stakes White House meeting. “But perhaps I’m too pessimistic.”

    He also said “the optimism of your president is to be taken seriously. So if he considers he can get a deal done, this is great news, and we have to do whatever we can to have a great deal.” [video]

    […] If there is no progress in the bilateral meeting President Donald Trump announced between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and if a trilateral meeting falls through, “or if the Russians don’t comply with this approach, yes, we have to increase the sanctions, secondary and primary sanctions,” Macron said.

    “There is an aggressor, which is Russia. There is a country which decided to kill people, stole children and who refused a ceasefire and peace, so we cannot just create an equivalent situation between Ukraine and Russia.”

    Ukraine must be given security guarantees to prevent any future Russian attacks that could prolong the conflict or start a new war, Macron said after his meeting with Trump, Zelenskyy and top European leaders.

    “If you make any peace deal without security guarantees, Russia will never respect its words, will never comply with its own commitments,” Macron said.

    […] “It’s impossible for a Ukrainian president and Ukrainian officials to have talks about peace as their country is being destroyed and as their civilians are being killed,” he said.

    Putin kept up the pressure in the lead-up to the talks with deadly attacks in Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia overnight, seemingly trying to push Zelenskyy to meet what are thought to be sweeping demands for Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine.

    Macron said there should not be any land swapping, as Trump has suggested, particularly because there have been long periods during the Russian-started war that its military was not able make significant gains in taking control of Ukrainian land.

    “I don’t see any swap in the proposal of the Russians, except a swap in comparison with what they wanted at the beginning,” he said. […] [video]

    Macron has been one of Europe’s most outspoken leaders about the war. He said in a speech in March that Russia posed a threat to the whole continent.

    And on Monday, he again stressed that the threat extends well beyond Ukraine.

    “What’s happening in Ukraine is extremely important for Ukrainian people, obviously, but for the whole security of Europe, because we speak about containing a nuclear power, which decided just not to respect international borders anymore. And I think it’s very important for your country, because it’s a matter of credibility,” he said. “The way we will behave in Ukraine will be a test for our collective credibility in the rest of the world.”

  452. says

    Three ways Trump is already trying to rig the midterms, by Rachel Maddow.

    “If Trump is taking tactical advice from Putin about how to hold an election, that doesn’t bode well for the future of American democracy.”

    On Monday, dozens of people turned up in Austin, Texas, to cheer on Democrats as they returned to the state amid a huge national fight over redistricting.

    Texas has been at the center of an extraordinary demand by Donald Trump that Republican-controlled states, like Texas, draw new congressional maps and effectively guarantee GOP control of Congress for years to come.

    It’s not just Texas. Vice President JD Vance flew to Indiana earlier this month to put pressure on the Republican governor there to alter that state’s maps for the Republicans. Politico reported that the White House has been in talks with Republicans in Missouri, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida to change their congressional maps as well.

    That’s one way Trump’s trying to rig the midterms — by demanding changes to congressional district maps to make it structurally impossible for Democrats to control Congress again.

    Here’s a second way: Trump also appears to be trying to establish a pretext for nullifying or delaying the midterm elections everywhere, demanding a new census and claiming the old one shouldn’t count.

    The census is how we get congressional districts. If Trump can nullify the existing census by, for example, blaming the counting of immigrants or some other factor, he can lay the groundwork to claim that all the existing congressional districts in the country are somehow wrong and can’t be used — and therefore, we can’t have congressional elections using the districts we now have. That’s two.

    Now, it seems Trump has a new idea, one that he got from a man he once mused could become his “best friend”: Vladimir Putin.

    On Friday, Trump held a summit in Alaska with the Russian president. Immediately after that summit, Trump said Putin gave him some advice on how to conduct elections in the U.S.

    Trump said Putin agrees with him that people should not be allowed to vote by mail. And so on Monday, Trump announced that he will sign an executive order barring Americans from voting by mail and potentially by machine, as well.

    Now, I would caution you again — as always — to watch what he actually does here and not just what he says he is going to do. But if Trump is taking tactical advice from Putin about how to hold something that looks like an election but is not actually an election, that doesn’t bode well for the future of American democracy.

    Historian and journalist Garrett Graff summed up what is at stake: “This is step one in how we lose free and fair elections. It’s not that Trump will ‘cancel’ the midterms. It’s just everyone has to vote in person, and urban downtowns will be filled with ICE checkpoints and intimidating National Guard troops to ‘double check’ that only citizens vote.”

  453. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Southpaw: “Rep. Nicole Collier files a state court application for a writ of habeas corpus concerning her detention in the Texas State Capitol.”

  454. says

    Trump takes victim-blaming Ukraine to the next level

    […] Trump on Tuesday returned to his tactic of blaming Ukraine for Russia’s unjustifiable invasion of the nation. Trump’s latest edition of his blame game comes as his recent attempts to negotiate an end to the war have foundered.

    “It’s not a war that should have been started. You don’t do that—you don’t take on a nation that’s 10 times your size,” Trump said during an appearance on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” […] [JFC] [video at the link]

    Russia chose to violate Ukraine’s sovereignty in 2022, in a repeat of their seizure of Crimea in 2014. Ukraine responded to the invasion by defending their nation, a response that virtually all nations in the world—including the United States—would pursue in a similar situation.

    [I snipped casualties of war statistics]

    Trump’s rhetoric, beyond insulting Ukraine’s resistance, also denigrates the American war of independence, which saw our small nation taking on what at the time was a global superpower with a large military.

    Trump also told Fox that he had given “my assurance” that no Americans would be deployed to defend Ukraine against further Russian aggression if a peace deal is ever agreed upon.

    The Fox News appearance comes after a pair of high-level foreign policy meetings between Trump and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (along with a host of European leaders backing Zelenskyy). Trump failed to secure an agreement to end the war despite repeatedly boasting as he campaigned for the presidency that he would solve the issue on his first day in office.

    Instead the world has watched as Trump caved to Putin’s demands and pushed Zelenskyy to give in to continued Russian brutality.

    Trump even told the Fox News hosts that his widely criticized phone call with Putin that occurred while he spoke to European leaders happened in private because he feared it would be “disrespectful to President Putin.” [video]

    In the aftermath of his diplomatic failures, Trump has once again emerged as a shill for Putin. He has time and again lied about the underlying causes of the war, blaming Ukraine when Russia is at fault.

    Trump’s rhetoric bolsters the case of Putin, whom a bipartisan Senate investigation determined was working on Trump’s behalf to intervene in the 2016 presidential election. Trump continues to repay his major political ally.

  455. says

    Followup to comments 447, 449, and 453.

    […] The irony is striking. The GOP often claims to be the defender of taxpayers and the enforcer of law and order. Yet here they are, wasting public money to turn troopers into babysitters for political rivals. It isn’t law and order—it’s surveillance and intimidation.

    Link

  456. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/fox-newss-softest-boys-declare-dc

    “Fox News’s Softest Boys Declare DC Safe Now, All Praises Be To Dear Leader!”

    It’s a new week, so it’s time for praise and tears from white conservative men who now feel safe walking home late at night by themselves, since Donald Trump has cleaned up the streets with performative fascism and eliminated all the crime. White conservative types who aren’t afraid to stand up in the group meeting and say “Hi, my name is Jesse Watters, hi my name is Will Cain, […] because Donald Trump put a masked C-student with anger issues […] on every street corner, I can walk in Washington DC without pooping my pants because I’m scared.”

    […] Jesse Watters and Will Cain […] had a discussion yesterday about how if Big Balls isn’t safe, nobody is safe. We were not aware they had elevated Big Balls to such a place of unattainable glory and strength in their minds, but we guess this is their religion now.

    Mediaite provides these excerpts […]:

    “Did you even know how bad DC was? I always knew certain neighborhoods were bad. And you see the reports and stuff, but you hear about people saying, ‘I can go out to dinner now.’ I mean, that’s just crazy to me, in the nation’s capital.”

    That was Jesse. Who is saying they can go to dinner now? Fellow MAGA poopypants […]? Becauseactually DC restaurants’ businesses are suffering bigtime because of Donald Trump’s fascism show in the DC streets. But maybe now that all the normal diners are staying home, MAGA losers feel safe eating in public, now that they have all these restaurants to themselves.

    “Honestly, Jesse, I don’t spend a lot of time in Washington, D.C.,” Cain responded. “So, I had to take most people’s anecdotal evidence of this, and it’s stunning how many people talk would how bad it is, whether it’s a carjacking or a fight taking place in front of your house, and you’re seeing this evidenced by the fact that as you pointed out, so many people are happy to see President Trump take over Washington, D.C., and make it feel safe.”

    We are sure Will Cain has had riveting conversations with white cowards who work at places as diverse as the Trump White House, the Heritage Foundation, and Pete Hegseth’s Christian nationalist wonder-daddy’s new church. […]

    Regardless, all these men can agree on is that Donald Trump is their lord and shepherd, with whom they shall not want.

    Jesse concluded:

    “When Big Balls went down, that’s when Trump had to call it,” he said. “If Big Balls isn’t safe, no one’s safe. And I’m glad he took a beating for the rest of the city, and he’s back up on his feet. So, Big Balls, we love you.”

    If Big Balls isn’t safe, NO ONE IS SAFE.

    Reminder, we are talking about this guy, what reportedly got beat up by a teenage girl. [photo of Big Balls]

    […] That right there, that is the pinnacle of MAGA fuckability.

    […] Attorney General Pam Bondi is also on Fox (making up stories about) hearing from big strong white men with tears in their eyes coming up to her and saying “Sir! Sir! I used to be scared to walk my[…] dog on the streets of DC without shivering and soiling my underpants in fear, but thanks to you and Donald Trump,” blah blah blah. She told Larry Kudlow:

    “Our law enforcement officers are telling us that people are coming up to them on the street — they said a lot of people are walking by whispering, saying, ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.’ They’re hearing stories every single night and day of people saying that they feel safe now to walk their own neighborhood where they live, because of what our great men and women of law enforcement are doing at the directive of the president.”

    Our bad. The law enforcement officers are making up the stories and lying to Pam Bondi about it. Or Pam Bondi is lying about what law enforcement officers are saying to her. […]

    Attorney General Pam Bondi is also on Fox (making up stories about) hearing from big strong white men with tears in their eyes coming up to her and saying “Sir! Sir! I used to be scared to walk my little purse dog on the streets of DC without shivering and soiling my underpants in fear, but thanks to you and Donald Trump,” blah blah blah. She told Larry Kudlow:

    “Our law enforcement officers are telling us that people are coming up to them on the street — they said a lot of people are walking by whispering, saying, ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.’ They’re hearing stories every single night and day of people saying that they feel safe now to walk their own neighborhood where they live, because of what our great men and women of law enforcement are doing at the directive of the president.”

    Our bad. The law enforcement officers are making up the stories and lying to Pam Bondi about it. Or Pam Bondi is lying about what law enforcement officers are saying to her. […]

    This video has Bondi telling those obvious lies, and it begins with Donald Trump in his ugly tacky Hobby Lobby gold-plated Oval Office lying and saying that even “Democrats” are calling him and saying “Sir, thank you.” (Sir story!) “People that haven’t gone out to dinner in Washington DC in two years are going out to dinner and the restaurants the past two days were busier than they have been in a long time.” And of course Larry Kudlow repeated the lie too […]

    Trump even called Fox News this morning to brag that Sean Hannity and Ainsley Earhardt […] can now go eat in Washington DC without getting mugged. You’d think with all of Sean Hannity’s MMA expertise he’d feel confident fighting off any attackers […]

    You can watch Bondi babble for one million years about her adoration and worship of Dear Leader here if you’d like, or you can gouge your eyes out, whatever seems more pleasant. The quote above comes toward the end. [video]

    Again, stories abound from this weekend of empty restaurants, reservations that have totally dried up, because nobody feels safe enjoying themselves in a city that’s under the control of Donald Trump’s and Pam Bondi’s jackbooted […] Gestapo fascists.

    But if you are MAGA, again, we guess the only way you feel safe on the streets is if you’re the only ones on the streets. Before these motherfuckers are done, it’ll look like the street scenes from “The Handmaid’s Tale” […]

    By the way, if you want to read some real journalism about what’s going on in DC, the New York Times had an excellent piece this weekend about how incredibly performative Trump’s fascist crackdown is […]

    In Ward 8, where Congress Heights is found, there have been 38 homicides this year, according to data from the District of Columbia government. That’s almost 10 times as many as Ward 2, where the National Mall is located.

    […] Mr. Trump on Monday described the district as “dirty” and “disgusting,” menaced by “roving mobs of wild youth,” […]

  457. says

    Trump expands 50% steel and aluminum tariffs to include 407 additional product types

    “The new tariffs, which took effect Monday, expand the scope of the levies that President Donald Trump previously announced on the valuable commodities.”

    The Trump administration has quietly expanded its 50% steel and aluminum tariffs to include more than 400 additional product categories, vastly increasing the reach and impact of this arm of its trade agenda.

    The new tariffs, which took effect Monday, expand the scope of the levies that President Donald Trump previously announced on the valuable commodities. The tariff list now covers products like fire extinguishers, machinery, construction materials and specialty chemicals that either contain, or are contained in, aluminum or steel.

    “Auto parts, chemicals, plastics, furniture components—basically, if it’s shiny, metallic, or remotely related to steel or aluminum, it’s probably on the list,” Brian Baldwin, vice president of customs at Kuehne + Nagel International AG wrote […]

    “This isn’t just another tariff—it’s a strategic shift in how steel and aluminum derivatives are regulated,” he continued.

    […] The release from the agency [Department of Commerce] links out to a list that identifies the newly included product types only by the specific customs codes that apply to them, not by what the products are actually called.

    For example, Commerce identifies the product category of fire extinguishers only as “8424.10.0000,” a 10-digit code buried among hundreds of other 10-digit codes.

    This format makes it very difficult for the public to get a full picture of all the products that are impacted by Monday’s expanded tariffs.

    But experts say the impact will be enormous.

    “By my count, the steel and aluminum tariffs now affect at least $320 billion of imports based on 2024′s general customs value of imports,” Jason Miller, a professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University, wrote on LinkedIn.

    “This will add more inflationary cost-push pressures to already climbing prices that domestic producers are charging as picked up by July’s PPI data,″ he continued.

    […] In June, Trump announced that he was doubling tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to 50% for most countries, injecting widespread uncertainty among businesses and U.S. trading partners reliant on the valuable commodities. […]

  458. says

    WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Donald J. Trump “totally freaked out” on Tuesday when he discovered that the Nobel Peace Prize form includes a question as to whether the applicant has ever used his nation’s military against his own citizens.

    Blasting the Nobel committee for including the question, Trump reportedly hurled a bottle of ketchup against a wall of the Oval Office, narrowly missing Stephen Miller’s head.

    Trump ultimately checked the “YES” box in answer to the question, but argued that the Nobel application was treating him “very unfairly.”

    “I’ve grabbed hundreds of people off the street and they’ve never been seen or heard from again,” he said. “If that’s not creating peace, then I don’t know what peace is.”

    Link

  459. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    ABC – FDA warns public not to eat possibly radioactive shrimp sold at Walmart

    a recall on [Great Value brand frozen raw shrimp (best by 2027-03-15)] from BMS Foods that were shipped after the company’s shipping containers tested positive for Cesium-137, even though the products themselves have not tested positive.

    Neutron Bytes: “CS-137 is used in food irradiation systems to remove bacteria and reduce spoilage. It seems plausible that the food firm in Indonesia was using it […] and lost control of the material in the food packaging plant.”

  461. birgerjohansson says

    Lynna @ 448

    “…This theory was largely derived from the fact that some conservative men are still very, very mad about the fact that female games journalists criticized the portrayal of women in video games 10 years ago. Many have never fully recovered from that incredible trauma.

    They’re also very angry about body positivity and the fact that women they don’t personally find sexually attractive are allowed to be famous — and even allowed to be in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. [Examples at the link.]”

    .
    It has occured to me many times that the US culture wars are so utterly utterly stupid.
    And so much of it is associated with sex.

    To quote what a very evil man said 90 years ago “for propaganda to be successful, it must be targeted at the least intelligent segment of the population”.

  462. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    WaPo – Pirro’s office won’t pursue gun charges over carrying rifles, shotguns

    Federal prosecutors in D.C. have been instructed not to seek felony charges against people who are carrying rifles or shotguns in the nation’s capital, regardless of the strength of the evidence
    […]
    [This] complicates the White House’s boasts of seizing […] 68 firearms as of Tuesday morning.
    […]
    There is no indication that D.C. prosecutors plan to stop charging people found to be illegally possessing handguns, which account for the bulk of firearms offenses in the District.

    * To clarify: They won’t treat long gun carrying (which a D.C. law had banned) as a standalone charge. Other crimes committed that happen to involve said weapons will still be charged, including possession by felons.
     
    Nate Ledbetter (History professor):

    2 things:
    1. “rifles and shotguns” is a tell. African-Americans with handguns? Yeah, they’re still catching a charge. But white country boys? They want them there.

    2. As has been noted by others, the DOJ now considers a sandwich more dangerous than a rifle or shotgun.

    Rando: “I interpret this as them giving the signal to the Kyle Rittenhouses of the world to descend on DC.”

    Nate Ledbetter: “Might be time to remind them [Photo: Black Panthers w/ long guns]”

  463. StevoR says

    Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has hit back after the Israeli prime minister’s public attack on Anthony Albanese, saying: “Strength is not measured by how many people you can blow up or how many children you can leave hungry.”

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-20/australia-stands-firm-in-face-of-israeli-leaders-fury/105674790

    What an excellent response to Netanyahu’s attack on Albo. (Aussie PM.)

    Same source :

    Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid on Tuesday described Mr Netanyahu’s comments as a “gift” for Australia.

    “The thing that strengthens a leader in the democratic world today most is a confrontation with Netanyahu, the most politically toxic leader in the Western world,” he said in a social media post.

  465. StevoR says

    Never midn Exorcist, it inspired Futurama too more importantly! ;-)

    Pazuzu figurine: An ancient statue of the Mesopotamian ‘demon’ god who inspired ‘The Exorcist’
    Features

    By Kristina Killgrove published 2 days ago

    Statues of the Mesopotamian demon Pazuzu are often found at archaeological sites, and his cultural relevance is seen in recent comparisons to creepy-looking Labubu dolls.

    Source : https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/pazuzu-figurine-an-ancient-statue-of-the-mesopotamian-demon-god-who-inspired-the-exorcist

    Source :

  466. StevoR says

    Evidence is mounting that the evolution of our species is more convoluted than we imagined — more like a braided stream than a branching tree.ur species is the last living member of the human family tree. But just 40,000 years ago, Neanderthals walked the Earth, and hundreds of thousands of years before then, our ancestors overlapped with many other hominins — two-legged primate species.

    This raises several questions: Which other populations and species did our ancestors mate with, and when? And how did this ancient mingling shape who we are today? “Everywhere we’ve got hominins in the same place, we should assume there’s the potential that there’s a genetic interaction,” Adam Van Arsdale, a biological anthropologist at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, told Live Science. In other words, different hominin species were having sex — and babies — together. This means our evolutionary family tree is tangled, with still-unknown relatives possibly hiding in the branches. Emerging DNA evidence suggests this “genetic interaction” resulted in the diversity and new combinations of traits that helped ancient humans — including our ancestors — thrive in different environments around the globe.

    Source : https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/human-evolution/a-braided-stream-not-a-family-tree-how-new-evidence-upends-our-understanding-of-how-humans-evolved

    Which we sorta already knew but still..

  468. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Bloomberg – Trump wants to paint border wall black so it’s too hot to touch

    Noem didn’t say how much the project will cost or how long it will take.
    […]
    arrests at the southwest border have plunged to levels not seen in decades […] the current seven-day arrest average is about 41 a day, with an additional nine migrants crossing daily without being stopped. A year ago the average was closer to 400 a day and it was roughly 2,300 in 2023. […] Still, the administration has pressed ahead with wall construction

    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick:

    The crazy thing is that despite this costing literally billions of dollars; they have the money for it! That’s right, Congress decided to cut funding for public broadcasting and benefits for Americans and instead give CBP billions for the border wall, which they’ll now use to paint the wall black.
    […]
    There are about 800-900 miles of the border still unwalled, and with the $46.6 billion they got in HR1, they’ll be able to finish hundreds more miles of that.

    /a lot is in remote parts of Texas near Big Bend that really doesn’t need wall, so it’s not clear if they want to build it there.

    Commentary

    The wall does enormous environmental damage.

    Trump: I’ll get into heaven if I save 7000 people a week from being killed right?
    *remembers he ordered the border wall to be painted black so it will burn migrants*
    Better make it 8000.

    I’m a few hours north of the border (ABQ), and metal that isn’t painted black *also* gets too hot to touch.

    But, what if the coyotes invent nighttime?

    Insert clip of the secretary of energy saying solar power is dumb cause it only works when the sun is up

  469. JM says

    Independent UK: ‘I hear I’m not doing well’: Trump hopes he can get into heaven and believes solving Ukraine war will get him there

    Speaking with Fox and Friends just one day after hosting European leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, at the White House, Trump hinted that helping end the war could also benefited him. The leaders met as Trump continues to push for an end of the war between Russia and Ukraine.

    “If I can save 7,000 people a week from being killed, I think that’s pretty– I want to try to get to heaven if possible, I’m hearing that I’m not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole,” Trump joked.

    There are two obvious ways to read that and they are both a bit worrying. Trump could be concerned with his health or he could be worried about his chances of getting into heaven. Narcissists can start doing strange things when they realize they are close to the unavoidable end of the line. In some cases it leads to a sudden bit of enlightenment as they realize just how pointless much of what they did was. In bad cases it leads to grasping at straws in an attempt to avoid the end or prepare for it.

    Last week, the U.S. president met with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time since 2019. Conducting an in-person meeting in Alaska, the two leaders began discussing what it would take for Russia to initiate peace negotiations with Ukraine. Putin has made it clear that Moscow is not willing to initiate an immediate ceasefire – something other European leaders and Trump have endorsed. Russia would also likely require Ukraine to give up some of its territory in exchange for ending the violence that has taken hundreds of thousands of lives.

    Trump has big problems getting a peace treaty. He wants the peace treaty for his advantage now and that keeps him from seeing what needs to be done to achieve a good one. Ukraine and Europe are well aware that they have been through this game already and are not buying into a treaty that will just give Putin time to rearm. Trump sees Putin as a power player in the situation and keeps looking for ways to negotiate with him, not understanding that Putin isn’t really interested in peace and is playing him for Russia’s advantage.

  470. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    This will go well with the powder keg of encouraging citizen long guns @462, and adding National Guard troops from more states, and letting ICE run amok.

    The Handbasket – DC National Guard members actively training to carry pistols in capitol mission

    DC National Guard is making sure all members have the requisite training to use a specific type of pistol should the official order to be armed come down […] The fact that members may soon be armed was reported earlier
    […]
    to carry and operate M-17 pistols. The M-17 is the military variant of the Sig Sauer P320 semi-automatic pistol, a controversial firearm that has been banned by multiple law enforcement agencies (including ICE) for reportedly firing without a trigger pull.
    […]
    [Public Affairs prof Lindsay Cohn speculated it may have been a compromise,] “Most National Guard leadership really want to keep their presence as de-escalatory and non-confrontational as possible […] The pistol is not the standard service weapon, but it can be considered more appropriate for law enforcement missions than the rifle.”

    The article continues.

    Monday morning, ICE agents chased a pair of men in a white landscaping truck [in] Maryland, just a mile from the DC border. […] the truck crashed on a residents’ front lawn, the men exited the vehicle, and ICE agents chased them through the backyards of multiple homes until they hunted them down and arrested them.

    While one resident […] demanded the agents show their faces which were hidden under masks, one shot back “Ma’am, do you really want to defend El Salvadoran gang members?” There is absolutely zero evidence these men are affiliated with any gang. DC needs a lot of things, […] What it certainly doesn’t need is more guns.

  471. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    @470: Randos were saying the military M17 pistols should be immune to the civilian model’s defect because they have an external safety. OTOH…

    Task and Purpose

    In February, the [Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission] issued a report on the incident that found six examples of uncommanded discharges involving M17 and M18 pistols at military bases since 2021. In one such incident, a service member was cleared of negligence due in part to “clear and convincing video capturing the event,”

  477. John Morales says

    The magic of words: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/aug/20/ecaj-letters-to-benjamin-netanyahu-anthony-albanese

    —

    Australia’s peak Jewish group condemns Netanyahu’s ‘clumsy’ attack on Albanese and calls for end to ‘spat’

    Executive Council of Australian Jewry says Australian and Israeli governments should use ‘diplomacy rather than public posturing’

    —

    Australia’s peak Jewish group has lambasted Benjamin Netanyahu’s attack on Anthony Albanese as “inflammatory and provocative”, adding that the “clumsy intervention” showed a “woeful lack of understanding of social and political conditions in Australia” – notwithstanding what the group describes as “unseemly” conduct from Australia’s leader.
    […]
    ECAJ’s president, Daniel Aghion, sent separate letters to both leaders on Wednesday afternoon. In the letter to Australia’s prime minister, he criticised Albanese’s previous comments accusing Netanyahu of being “in denial” as “excessive and gratuitously insulting”. He echoed this criticism in his letter to Israel’s prime minister, saying it was “unseemly for an Australian Prime Minister to depart from diplomatic norms”.

    But he also dressed down Netanyahu for labelling Albanese “a weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews”. “These comments have played straight into the hands of opponents of Israel and antisemites, to the detriment of the Australian Jewish community,” Aghion wrote.

    —

    Apparently, Netanyahu is not in denial when he claims there is no famine in Gaza, and to claim he is is “excessive and gratuitously insulting”.

    (For the linguistic police, truth is no defence)

  478. birgerjohansson says

    Lynna et al
    For your enjoyment -and as a contrast to disaster news- I have some links to humoristic parodies below.

    (NB if anyone should view the original Goblin Slayer episode 1, be aware of trigger warnings for extreme violence. It is not repeated in later episodes but is relevant for the overall story arc)

    DragonBall Z Abridged: Episode 35 – TeamFourStar (TFS)
    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=GseakSakUNY

    Hellsing Ultimate Abridged Episodes 1-3 – Team Four Star (TFS)
    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=0_4nmW5GZhQ

    Goblin Slayer Abridged (Goblin Slayer Parody) – Episode 1
    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=5i2qquegdB4

  481. says

    https://www.msnbc.com/all

    ‘DONALD IS FINISHED’: Newsom goes on offense with Trump mockery campaign
    Video is 3:06 minutes, illustrations are amusing, very entertaining, effective at mocking Trump.

    Crockett slams Texas GOP over ‘bootleg permission slips’ used to track Dems
    Video is 7:14 minutes

  483. KG says

    Apparently, Netanyahu is not in denial when he claims there is no famine in Gaza – John Morales@477

    John is summarising the view of Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) president, Daniel Aghion (who was responding to PM Albanese’s claim that Netanyahu is in denial), not of course expressing his own. But I’d have to agree with Aghion: Netanyahu is not in denial about the famine in Gaza at all. He is consciously and cynically lying about the matter, while rejoicing in the suffering and death he is causing.

  484. says

    birger @478, appreciate the effort, but not my cup of teas.

    Followup to Sky Captain @468.
    With black paint on border barriers, Trump and Noem are repeating a familiar mistake

    “The last time [Trump] ordered officials to apply black paint to border barriers, it was an expensive failure. Naturally, he’s trying it again.”

    […] Trump’s border wall ambitions haven’t generated a lot of headlines lately, though that’s likely to soon change. The domestic policy megabill set aside $46.5 billion for an “integrated border barrier system,” which will include the construction of hundreds of miles of barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border.

    The enormous amount of new spending will also includes money for, of all things, the president’s preferred paint color. The Associated Press reported:

    Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Tuesday that the entire border wall along the southern border with Mexico is going to be painted black to make it hotter and deter illegal immigration — and she credited President Trump with the idea. Noem spoke during a visit to a portion of the wall in New Mexico, where she also picked up a roller brush to help out with the painting.

    The Cabinet secretary added that the paint project is being done “specifically at the request of the president, who understands that in the hot temperatures down here, when something is painted black, it gets even warmer, and it will make it even harder for people to climb.”

    There was, however, one relevant detail that Noem neglected to mention: The Trump administration already tried this same idea, and it didn’t work.

    […] In April 2020, […] Covid was taking a severe toll on the public; hospitals were filling; states were struggling to keep up with the public health crisis; and the economy was reeling as the job market collapsed. It was against this backdrop that the president convened a White House meeting to discuss a specific policy goal.

    It had nothing to do with the pandemic, however. The point of the meeting was to discuss Trump’s plan to apply black paint to border barriers.

    Trump first started pushing the idea in 2019, at which point administration officials tried to explain to him that the painting project would waste too much time and money in pursuit of a goal that wouldn’t make much of a difference anyway. Border officials were confident at the time that Trump understood their concerns and would focus his energies elsewhere.

    They were mistaken. In 2020, when the president should’ve been working on the pandemic, he ordered his team to start applying black paint to the barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border, insisting that it would make the barriers hot to the touch and discourage climbers.

    To the surprise of no one, Trump was wrong and those who tried to discourage him were right. Not only did the black paint fail to discourage breaches, it also started peeling off about a year and a half after it was applied. The whole endeavor was an expensive waste.

    And so, naturally, the Trump administration is giving it another try, expecting a different result, spending a lot of American tax dollars on an initiative that only makes sense in the president’s imagination.

  485. says

    Followup to the video in comment 481, “‘DONALD IS FINISHED’: Newsom goes on offense with Trump mockery campaign.”

    […] The content is deliberately rude, brash, self-aggrandizing and insulting — because it’s satirizing the president who uses his own social media platform to push rude, brash, self-aggrandizing and insulting content.

    Some of Newsom’s conservative critics appear to be missing the point of the effort.

    One Fox News host complained late last week that the governor’s online content “comes across as childish” and seems unbecoming of someone who’s “the governor of the biggest state in the union.” As HuffPost noted, a different Fox News host kept this going earlier this week.

    ‘You have to stop it with the Twitter thing,’ [former White House press secretary Dana] Perino said, before adding: ‘I don’t know where his wife is.’ … ‘If I were [Newsom’s] wife, I would say, ‘You are making a fool of yourself, stop it’ … He’s got a big job as governor of California, but if he wants an even bigger job, he has to be a little bit more serious.’

    By all appearances, she was quite sincere.

    In keeping with the shtick, Newsom’s office published a follow-up item specifically responding to the Fox News co-host’s criticism in the same way Trump tends to respond to his own media critics. [social media post]

    This really shouldn’t be necessary, but let’s go ahead and make this plain: The governor’s social media team is doing a surprisingly good job sounding eerily similar to Trump. If it were me, I’d probably add a few more grammatical errors — the president has, for example, struggled to properly spell words like “tap” — but the tone and style are spot-on.

    Whether the right understands this or not, to criticize Team Newsom’s content as childish, foolish and fundamentally unserious is to necessarily criticize Trump’s content as childish, foolish and fundamentally unserious since the former emulates the latter.

    A Politico report summarized the developments this way: “With an inescapable, smashmouth, all-caps-laden and meme-filled X account, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is holding a mirror up to MAGA — and MAGA doesn’t like what it sees.”

    Or as the governor’s office put it, “ALMOST A WEEK IN AND THEY STILL DON’T GET IT.”

    Link

  486. says

    Russia wants … Russia to have veto over Western security guarantees for Ukraine

    Moscow isn’t shifting on what it considers to be acceptable security guarantees for Ukraine, a top Kremlin official said Wednesday.

    The comments by Moscow’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov undercut hopes that any progress has been made toward ending the Ukraine war since Russian President Vladimir Putin met with U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday in Alaska.

    Lavrov’s remarks further indicate that the Kremlin has not softened on its maximalist positions on Ukraine: that it becomes a neutral rump state; drastically reduces its military; and abandons its NATO membership aspirations after Russia is finished with it.

    “Moscow won’t agree with collective security guarantees negotiated without Russia … Russia will accept if the security guarantees to Ukraine are provided on equal basis with the participation of countries like China, the United States, the United Kingdom and France,” Lavrov said in a press conference, after meeting the Jordanian foreign minister.

    Beijing and Moscow having any say in how security guarantees for Ukraine would work is a nonstarter for Western allies, even as they attempt to cobble together a plan to protect Ukraine after any ceasefire or peace agreement comes into force.

    In a further example of the Kremlin’s recalcitrance on taking steps to end its full-scale invasion that began in February 2022, a mooted meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy remains a distant prospect, according to comments Lavrov made earlier this week.

    On Wednesday, Lavrov returned to a concept proposed during the Istanbul peace talks in April 2022 that involved a NATO-like coalition of guarantor nations providing security guarantees to Ukraine. That idea flopped on the Western side because Moscow demanded a unanimous clause that had to be green-lighted by all countries, including Russia, before the guarantees could be triggered. […]

    European leaders ultimately don’t believe Putin is sincere about a peace deal — and Lavrov’s statements provide ballast to that theory.

  487. says

    [Trump] has already convinced himself that the militarization of the nation’s capital has been a great success.

    “I’ve made Washington, D.C., just an incredible place in literally four days,” he boasted during his latest Fox News appearance. The comments came the day after the president wrote on his social media platform, “People are flocking to D.C. again,” pointing to a trend he appears to have made up. [Delusional doofus.]

    Trump has even presented proof — or at least, something he perceives as proof — of his triumph. During an Oval Office event on Monday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Republican told reporters, “The restaurants [in D.C.] the last two days were busier than they’ve been in a long time.” A day later, he repeated the claim on Fox News. [video]

    […] The Washington Post reported:

    Since President Donald Trump announced his takeover of the D.C. police force last week, restaurant reservations have dropped in the city by as much as 31 percent year over year for a single day, according to restaurant booking data. Business owners are concerned that the continued surge in law enforcement could impact their revenue during a vital period of the summer.

    The Post spoke to Mauricio Fraga-Rosenfeld, co-owner of El Secreto de Rosita, which is about a mile and a half north of the White House, and across the street from a police station where he said federal troops have often assembled.

    “Reservations are low, low, low” compared to last year,” Fraga-Rosenfeld said, adding, “The city is dead. … People are scared.”

    WUSA, the local CBS affiliate, ran a related report, noting data that showed “reservations at restaurants in the district dropped by more than 30% just two days after Trump announced he would take emergency control of police.” WTOP, a local radio station, highlighted similar statistical evidence.

    So why did the president claim the opposite? It likely has something to do with the fact that he routinely struggles to the tell the difference between what’s real and what he thinks ought to be real. [!]

    […] recent crime data for D.C. found only marginal differences from before and after the federal takeover.

    So let’s take stock. Despite the fact that Trump has peddled some absurd claims, we’re left with a legally dubious deployment that (a) is hurting the local community’s economy; (b) isn’t making much of a difference on crime rates; and (c) is wildly unpopular with local residents.

    This isn’t a triumph; it’s the latest in a series of fiascos.

    Link

  488. says

    Pete Hegseth reportedly has an ‘unusually large’ security detail, generating pushback

    “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s security detail is reportedly so large that it’s straining the Army agency that’s tasked with protecting him.”

    It wasn’t long after Donald Trump returned to the White House when he and his team started focusing on security details — or more to the point, ending protections for those he didn’t like.

    […] protective details also came to the fore for the opposite reason: Some people that the Republican president does like started receiving enormous security contingents.

    At the FBI, for example, the bureau’s deputy director has traditionally maintained a relatively low public profile and has never needed a security team. NBC News reported in April, however, that former conservative media personality Dan Bongino has received 24-hour security from a sizable contingent of agents. [!]

    A month later, CBS News ran a related report about White House border czar Tom Homan receiving a security detail that one administration official described as “extravagant,” costing roughly $1 million per month in taxpayer money. [!] The report added, “The border czar at times travels in a four-vehicle motorcade — more cars than the two-car package cabinet members typically use.”

    […] The Washington Post reported on the most egregious example to date.

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s unusually large personal security requirements are straining the Army agency tasked with protecting him as it pulls agents from criminal investigations to safeguard family residences in Minnesota, Tennessee and D.C., according to numerous officials familiar with the operation.

    […] this multimillion-dollar initiative has forced the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division to even “monitor residences belonging to the Hegseths’ former spouses.”

    Naturally, this is applying new strains on the Army agency and its budget. The Post spoke to one insider who said, “We have complete inability to achieve our most basic missions.”

    […] I continue to believe there’s a related story behind the story: On a very regular basis, Defense Department insiders have appeared quite eager to let the public know about Hegseth-related controversies, suggesting the former Fox News host still has more than his share of critics within the building.

  490. says

    Trump calls himself “a war hero.”

    Donald Trump’s relationship with the U.S. armed forces has long been strained, in ways that are unusual for modern American presidents. We are, after all, talking about a Republican who, about a month before Election Day 2024, told the public: “The military is bad.”

    After the election, Trump purged U.S. military leaders, started personally screening nominees for four-star-general positions and, as of last week, even took steps to militarize the nation’s capital without cause. All of this is part of a larger, ugly mosaic: The incumbent American president seems all too eager to politicize an apolitical military in fundamentally dangerous ways.

    […] Trump came up with a new label for himself. Politico reported:

    U.S. President Donald Trump called himself a ‘war hero’ on Tuesday for approving airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Calling into conservative host Mark Levin’s radio show, Trump said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was ‘a war hero ‘cause we worked together.’

    “He’s a war hero. I guess I am, too,” Trump said. “Nobody cares. But I am, too. I mean, I sent those planes.”

    [video]

    In context, he was apparently referring to his decision to launch a pre-emptive military strike on Iranian nuclear targets.

    Let’s unpack this one because I think the larger issue is important.

    First, while it’s true that Trump ordered a military strike, under any sensible definition of the phrase, a “war hero” refers to someone who acted heroically during a war. Giving the Pentagon a green light for a mission is important, but it does not a hero make.

    Second, if Trump is looking for actual war heroes, I might refer him to some of the people whose service he denigrated both before and after taking office. (Although he repeatedly denied ever calling fallen American soldiers “losers” and “suckers,” his own onetime White House chief of staff, retired Gen. John Kelly, said he heard the president make the comments.)

    Finally, if Trump wanted to be a war hero, he had an opportunity to serve during the war in Vietnam, but he instead sought and received five deferments — claiming he had “bone spurs.”

    He nevertheless boasted to voters that he “felt” like he’d served in the military because his parents sent him to a military-themed boarding school as a teenager. He later claimed, in apparent seriousness, that his expensive prep school gave him “more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military.”

    In 2019, Trump declared at a White House Cabinet meeting: “I think I would have been a good general, but who knows.”

    As it happens, I think we do know.

    Link

  491. says

    Yep, Slavery WAS Bad

    In his ongoing attack on the Smithsonian Institute, President Trump charged it with overplaying “how bad Slavery was.” The reaction was withering.

    In the same social media post, Trump explicitly compared his attack on the Smithsonian to his attack on higher education. “I have instructed my attorneys to go through the Museums, and start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities where tremendous progress has been made,” he wrote.

    Link

    See also: Trump Attacks Smithsonian For Focus On ‘How Bad Slavery Was’ And, Boy, The Responses

  492. says

    ‘McCarthyism Returns to Immigration Law’

    Legal immigrants will now be screened for “Anti-America ideologies or activities,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced in a new policy alert. USCIS will impose the new requirement on visa and green card applications.

    What “Anti-America” means, how it will be interpreted by individual case officers, and what emphasis the White House will put on it is all left vague and undetermined, itself a foreboding threat. “The term has no prior precedent in immigration law and its definition is entirely up to the Trump admin,” wrote Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.

    “McCarthyism returns to immigration,” he added.

    The new guidance comes on the heels of another USCIS policy memo that directed case officers considering citizenship applications to more vigorously investigate whether applicants are of “good moral character.” That guidance is also left vague, giving case officers wide discretion on a case-by-case basis.

    Link

    The link leads to a compendium of recent reports that reveal how “Trump Pushes White Nationalist Agenda Across Multiple Fronts.”

  493. says

    Followup to comment 492:

    the Department of Housing and Urban Development has stopped providing materials and information in any languages other than English and plans to remove any non-English materials it has previously made available.

  495. says

    […] Trump has yanked the security clearances of 37 current and former national security officials, an unprecedented move that has gutted parts of the intelligence community.

    […] Several of those targeted had been involved in Russian interference or foreign election threats. And many had signed a 2019 letter warning that Trump’s dealings with Ukraine were serious enough to warrant impeachment proceedings. That letter resurfaced several weeks ago, when far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer posted it on X and demanded that “dozens of anti-Trump officials from the CIA and [National Security Council]” who signed it lose their clearances.

    Trump and his intelligence head, Tulsi Gabbard, delivered. Among those affected were Shelby Pierson, the official who warned Congress about Russia’s influence in 2020, as well as an undercover CIA analyst and Vinh X. Nguyen, a data scientist at the National Security Agency whose expertise in artificial intelligence had made him invaluable to the agency. Nguyen’s ouster stunned former colleagues, who warned his removal could set U.S. technology development back years.

    […] Trump and Gabbard aren’t acting alone. Attorney General Pam Bondi has convened a task force to reexamine the 2016 intelligence review, while CIA Director John Ratcliffe has declassified internal reports and even referred former CIA Director John Brennan to the FBI for further investigation. Together, the moves amount to a wholesale attempt to rewrite the history of Russian election interference.

    The practical effects are mixed. Some of the 37 may not have held active clearances or government contracts. For current officials, losing clearance means immediate dismissal. For former officials, it strips them of the ability to consult or advise—roles many still play.

    However, the symbolism is clear. Trump has weaponized the clearance system to punish critics, a strategy that will chill dissent inside agencies already wary of contradicting the White House.

    […] For lawyers like Mark Zaid, who represents intelligence officials and lost his own clearance under Trump, the hypocrisy is glaring.

    “These are unlawful and unconstitutional decisions that deviate from well-settled, decades-old laws and policies that sought to protect against just this type of action,” Zaid said in a statement to The Associated Press and others, calling the current intelligence leadership “a grave danger to national security.”

    Link

  496. says

    Interior secretary pushes absurd fantasy about Trump’s DC invasion

    Interior Secretary Doug Burgum spun a fairytale about the supposed successes of Donald Trump’s invasion of Washington, D.C., during a Wednesday appearance on Fox Business.

    “President Trump’s leadership in turning D.C. around, the changes that have occurred in just a week. I mean, carjackings down over 80%, robberies down over 40%, restaurant reservations up 30%. It’s a—it’s a dramatic change,” Burgum claimed. [Total bullshit and delusional blather.] He even added an anecdote about a conversation with “one officer,” who supposedly described the chaos at his job before Trump set up a police state.

    “He said that he’d had—over 20 times in the last couple of months, he’d pulled people over that had unmatched plates, stolen car plates that were showing up on the register, or no plates on the car or suspicious activity, and he’d pull them over, and then you get out of, they get out of the vehicle and walk up to him, and they take off and flee,” Burgum rambled. [video]

    […] Burgum’s story is contradicted by the evidence.

    Research from OpenTable shows that dining reservations in Washington have “plummeted” since federal troops were deployed onto the city’s streets. Last Wednesday, the number of diners was down by 31% compared to the previous year at the same time. Maybe Burgum read the numbers upside down.

    […] Trump’s demands for D.C. residents to submit to military occupation have sparked protests. Meanwhile, violent crime rates in Washington are at a 30-year-low, but to maintain this authoritarian narrative, the president’s minions continue to peddle the same lies.

  498. says

    Followup to comments 447, 449 and 453.

    […] For good measure, Republican House leadership also cleared and locked the gallery so reporters couldn’t speak to Collier directly, or take photos of her. They claimed this was because she’s entitled to “some amount of privacy.” State troopers also arrested several Democratic activists who were protesting Collier’s House arrest.

    In a statement, Collier said,

    “I refuse to sign away my dignity as a duly elected representative just so Republicans can control my movements and monitor me with police escorts. My constituents sent me to Austin to protect their voices and rights. When I press that button to vote, I know these maps will harm my constituents — I won’t just go along quietly with their intimidation or their discrimination.”

    We really have just one question: Why is Collier the only Democrat who refused to go along with the surveillance scheme? Every last one of them should have, instead of just rolling their eyes, giving in, and posting photos of their signed “permission slips” to social media. What happened to solidarity, you dopes? [video]

    Despite that kind gesture toward her privacy, Collier wasted no time after being locked up, holding online video interviews with any national and local news outlets who wanted to hear from her. She’s perfectly aware that “State Representative Locked In Capitol” makes for a pretty dramatic photo: [social media post, with photo]

    […] Dem Caucus Leader Gene Wu of Houston said in an interview with the Texas Tribune that now that other states have picked up the national fight on gerrymandering, “Our return allows us to build the legal record necessary to defeat this racist map in court,” especially after Texas House Republicans revised the map Saturday to […] make parts of the new districts lean farther to the right. [!]

    […] Update: some of Collier’s fellow Democrats came to her side! State Reps. Mihaela Plesa, Morales Shaw, Rhetta Bowers, Cassandra Garcia Hernandez, Vincel Perez, and Salman Bhojani joined Collier and Wu on the floor overnight, and some of them tore up their permission slips too. […]

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/just-texas-governor-holding-black

    and

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/some-texas-democrats-mostly-the-women

  499. says

    New York Times link

    “The New American Inequality: The Cooled vs. the Cooked”

    […] In the hottest regions of the country, such as Texas, where I live, the climate crisis is not only changing our world; it is also dividing it. When the heat spikes during the summer, we morph into a two-party state: the cooled and the cooked. On one side, there is water, shade and air-conditioning. On the other, there is sweat, suffering and even, in the worst cases, death. […] no matter where we live, we have to update our conception of heat as a disruptive and punishing force.

    The cooled are people like me, who work mostly indoors, bathed in the soothing breeze of manufactured air. We live hidden from the brutality of summer, except when we run out to the mailbox or the grocery store. There we hit a wall of heat that feels like an alien force field and burn our hands on the car’s steering wheel.

    We live vampire lives, out early for a walk or to run errands, retreating indoors to our comfy caves during the afternoon, then out again after sundown to hang out with friends and complain about the heat and plot a getaway to the beach or the mountains. For the cooled, heat is an inconvenience […]

    The cooked are people like Matthew Sanchez, the pit manager at Terry Black’s BBQ in Austin. On a busy Saturday, he and his co-workers might grill about 2,000 pounds of brisket in five long steel wood-fired BBQ pits. In the summer, the pit gets so hot it breaks thermometers that hang on the wall. “Sometimes it feels like we are rendering ourselves,” Mr. Sanchez told me.

    I also met a delivery driver in Austin who had been hospitalized with heat exhaustion. Though he’s recovered, on hot days the muscles in his back tingle and his kidneys hurt. I met a former emergency medical technician who described the disturbing number of calls she responded to from workers at an Amazon warehouse in Texas, many of them related to heat stress.

    I met oil field workers who service rigs in the blazing heat with no shade for miles around. One roofer told me he had twice fainted from heat, once tumbling off the roof and breaking his wrist. A farmworker I talked to in the Rio Grande Valley who had been diagnosed with chronic kidney disease (a common consequence of working long hours in the heat) said he kept working because he had no other way to care for his family.

    It’s not just that the average daily temperature is getting warmer. It’s that heat waves are changing in ways that make them more dangerous, longer, hotter and more humid. Nights are also growing hotter, which is particularly risky for people who work in the heat, since it limits the time the body has to recover from daytime heat.

    The effect is most noticeable in the Southwest, where summer nighttime temperatures have increased by about 4.5 degrees since 1970. All this heat doesn’t just melt glaciers in faraway places. It has a direct human toll: Heat-related deaths in the United States have doubled in recent decades.

    […] A recent study by Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute, for example, found that during a 10-day heat wave this summer in Europe, 1,500 of the 2,300 estimated heat deaths could be linked to human-caused climate change.

    And death is only one metric. Prolonged exposure to high temperatures can permanently damage your kidneys. It may speed up your biological clock and age you as much as smoking or drinking.

    But the most important thing to know about heat is that it’s a predatory force. It attacks the most vulnerable first: older people, those with weak hearts or lung conditions, pregnant women, young children and people who are on certain drugs (including antidepressants) that can interfere with their body’s ability to regulate its internal temperature. And most of all, workers who spend eight or 10 hours a day working outdoors.

    In the United States, that often means people of color and immigrants. Latinos account for one-third of all worker heat fatalities, while farmworkers face the highest rates of death from heat-related injuries and illnesses. All in all, low-paid workers suffer five times as many heat-related injuries as their highest-paid counterparts.

    A handful of states, including California and Colorado, have passed laws to protect workers from extreme heat. But not Texas. In 2023, Gov. Greg Abbott gave final approval to a law that, among other things, prohibits cities and counties from requiring water breaks for outdoor workers. (Florida has passed a similar measure.) The cruel but unspoken reasoning of the law: Mandatory shade and water breaks would hurt worker productivity and slow the Texas economy. [!]

    The federal government hasn’t been much better. […] So that mostly leaves it up to employers to take care of their workers. I visited workers in food trucks in Texas that were comfortably air-conditioned — and others that were medieval sweat boxes. Over the past month, I made a habit of asking delivery service drivers I came across in Texas about working conditions in the heat. Most drove trucks without air-conditioning, though most drivers said water and shade breaks were encouraged. Pit workers at Terry Black’s BBQ get free Gatorade, fruit and electrolyte powder. A construction worker told me that he feared that if he asked for too many breaks, he would get fired. Another said his boss tells him every day that the heat makes him “Texas tough.” [Macho bullshit.]

    But the risks accelerate as the thermometer rises. Without protections, many workers are forced into a kind of extreme heat arbitrage: I need the paycheck, so I will work in the heat and keep my mouth shut and gamble that it won’t kill me. […]

    […] Heat deaths are tragic, not least because they are avoidable. And not every solution requires government intervention. India is experimenting with insurance policies for vulnerable workers — especially women in the informal economy, such as street vendors — that are triggered whenever temperatures reach a certain threshold, which encourages workers to stay home on hot days and pays them for lost income. […]

    The faster our world heats up, the faster the divide between the cooled and the cooked will widen. Ultimately, it is symptomatic of the larger injustice of the climate crisis, which is that the people who have done the least to cause it are the ones who will suffer the most from its impacts.

    Fixing that will require more than just better laws and more air-conditioning. It will require acknowledging that in a rapidly warming world, the comforts of some are subsidized by the hardships of others. Until we address that, we’re all cooked.

  500. says

    https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-gaza-city.html

    “Preparations for a Move on Gaza City Have Started, Israel’s Military Says”

    “Troops have reached the city’s outskirts, an Israeli official said, adding that more reservists are being asked to report for duty to cover for other soldiers who will be involved in going into Gaza City.”

    Israel’s military is moving forward with plans to take over Gaza City, officials said Wednesday, even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu weighs a Hamas cease-fire proposal that would anger hard-liners in his government but, potentially, ensure the safe release of some hostages.

    Troops had reached the city’s outskirts and tents were being moved into southern Gaza for people who would be displaced from their homes once the operation begins, an Israeli military official who requested anonymity in line with military protocol, said at a briefing for journalists.

    On Wednesday, Defense Minister Israel Katz said separately that he had approved mobilizing thousands more reservists and extending orders for others to supply troops for the fighting in Gaza. “I instruct you to use all tools and all power to strike the enemy until it is subdued, and to protect I.D.F. soldiers,” Mr. Katz told Israeli troops, referring to the Israel Defense Forces, according to a statement from his ministry.

    […] But the assault would be barred under a proposed 60-day cease-fire plan put forward earlier this week and approved by Hamas.

    Mr. Netanyahu is under increasing pressure from his hard-right political allies to reject the proposal […] But its terms are similar to those Israel has previously accepted, according to officials briefed on its contents, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy.

    An earlier proposal, which President Trump said in July that Israel had endorsed, called for the release of 10 living hostages and the bodies of 18 others over a 60-day period in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Up to 20 hostages are still believed to be living, according to the Israeli authorities. The bodies of 30 others, they say, are also being held in Gaza.

    Talks to reach that deal ultimately collapsed, and Mr. Netanyahu has not publicly shared his position on the new cease-fire proposal, which was announced this week by Qatari and Egyptian mediators.

    On Wednesday, a hard-line minister in Mr. Netanyahu’s government, Orit Strock, warned the prime minister in an Israeli radio interview about accepting a deal that does not defeat Hamas and puts “the value of returning the hostages above the national interest.”

    “[…] Many Israelis fear that Hamas will kill the remaining Israeli hostages being held in Gaza if the military operation goes forward. The families of the hostages on Wednesday demanded a meeting with Mr. Katz, the defense minister, and the military’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir. […]

    Ahmed Saleh, 45, said Israeli troops were sending remote-controlled vehicles packed with explosives to blow up buildings, block by block, in the Zeitoun neighborhood near where he lives in Gaza City.

    “I hear the big explosions all the time, they are getting closer,” said Mr. Saleh, adding that he would try to stay in his home for as long as possible. If he is forced to leave, Mr. Saleh said he would head west to a beachfront, where he had previously lived in a tent while waiting for the violence to ebb.

    Although worried that Israeli forces will close escape routes to the west, Mr. Saleh said he will not move to southern Gaza, as Israel is demanding of displaced residents.

    “There are no services there at all, but most importantly, there is no room left for newcomers in the south,” he said. “I know no one there and have no more money to pay for that trip. I have lost all my savings during this war; most of it has been paid toward food.”

    The Israeli military official said the new operation will also expand humanitarian aid in southern Gaza where displaced people are being told to move. That will include opening new aid distribution sites and ensuring there is no fighting near them, and opening new routes for trucks to safely bring in more supplies. […]

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