Now I know what they do at faculty meetings on the humanities/social sciences side of campus » « They never learn

Infinite Thread XXXIX

It’s almost spring-like outside — the skies are clear, we’ve got cool breezes on a comfortable day, the plants are coming back… I know it can’t last but I’ll make the most of it. I’ve opened windows to let birdsong in and to drive the cat crazy.

Let the pleasant conversations flow!

Previous Thread

Now I know what they do at faculty meetings on the humanities/social sciences side of campus » « They never learn

Comments

  2. Reginald Selkirk says

    Sen. Rand Paul’s son confronted Rep. Mike Lawler in drunken, antisemitic rant

    Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York said he was approached at a bar by GOP Sen. Rand Paul’s “inebriated” son, who made antisemitic comments toward him.

    Lawler said he was at the Tune Inn in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday night having dinner with a friend and a reporter for the news outlet NOTUS, who first reported the interaction, when he was approached by William Paul.

    “Paul decided to interject into the conversation and start accosting me about if Thomas Massie loses, it’s because of my people,” Lawler recounted Wednesday, referring to a Kentucky Republican who is in a tight primary against a Trump-backed challenger. Rand Paul and his son are also from Kentucky.

    Lawler said he asked Paul, “Who is ‘my people’?”

    “And he yelled out, ‘Jews,'” Lawler told reporters. “And I asked him, ‘You think I’m Jewish?’ And he said, ‘Yes.'”

    Lawler said he told Paul he was not Jewish and that Paul responded, “Oh, I’m sorry to accuse you of that.”

    The congressman said Paul then went on a “10-minute diatribe about Israel, about Jews, about [Jewish GOP megadonor] Paul Singer and accusing Jews of being responsible for so many things, playing right into the typical antisemitic tropes that so many people rely on.” Paul also said he “hates Jews, hates gays and doesn’t care if they die,” according to Lawler…

  3. says

    SHANGHAI (The Borowitz Report)—Donald J. Trump accomplished what he called “the main goal” of his trip to China on Thursday by inspecting the printing plant where his $60 Trump Bibles are printed.

    Accompanied by Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump said he wanted “to be sure that the Chinese printed the lyrics to ‘God Bless the USA’ right, because those are Jesus’s most important words.”

    President Xi praised his American counterpart, telling him, “You have created more Chinese jobs than I have.”

    Trump cancelled plans to visit the factory that manufactures gold Trump Mobile phones after learning that it did not exist.

    https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/trump-tours-chinese-factory-that

    Satire

  4. says

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

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/03/30/infinite-thread-xxxix/comment-page-3/#comment-2300668
    Chevron Seeks Huge Tax Break to Build a Power Plant for a Texas Data Center

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/03/30/infinite-thread-xxxix/comment-page-3/#comment-2300666
    Wes Streeting has resigned his position as Health Secretary.
    Through the withdrawal of puberty blockers for trans youth, which has left vulnerable young people feeling that being dead would be preferrable to being alive, Streeting has been responsible for the deaths of several children and the maiming, by forcing their bodies to go unwanted, irreversible yet preventable damage, of many others.

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/03/30/infinite-thread-xxxix/comment-page-3/#comment-2300665
    Surprise! Trump’s ‘diplomatic’ China visit is just another grift.

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/03/30/infinite-thread-xxxix/comment-page-3/#comment-2300651
    Congresswoman Accuses 10-Year-Old Of Being Indoctrinated By Propaganda After He Sends Her A Letter About The Benefits Of EVs For A Class Assignment

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/03/30/infinite-thread-xxxix/comment-page-3/#comment-2300635
    Silicon carbide (SiC) dust is one of the most important ingredients in cosmic dust

  5. Reginald Selkirk says

    Judge probes whether Musk settlement with Trump admin is tainted by corruption

    A federal judge reportedly said she will not rubber-stamp a settlement between Elon Musk and the Securities and Exchange Commission, saying the deal raises red flags and needs scrutiny over whether Musk is getting special treatment from the Trump administration.

    As we reported last week, the Trump administration agreed to let Musk pay a $1.5 million fine to settle a lawsuit that originally sought at least $150 million. In 2022, before buying Twitter outright, Musk purchased a 9 percent stake in the social network and failed to disclose it within 10 days as required under US law. The SEC lawsuit filed during the Biden administration said the late disclosure allowed Musk to keep buying shares at artificially low prices and underpay shareholders by at least $150 million.

    Under the settlement with the SEC, a trust in Musk’s name would pay a $1.5 million civil penalty to the government and not admit that Musk committed any violation. The deal requires court approval, and Judge Sparkle Sooknanan expressed skepticism at a hearing yesterday in US District Court for the District of Columbia…

  6. says

    Trump’s DOJ files suit against the DC Bar, tries to protect key lawyer in 2020 plot

    Those looking for accountability for those who plotted against the 2020 presidential election have limited options. Donald Trump’s Justice Department, for example, certainly won’t punish lawyers who tried to overturn the will of the voters, and congressional Republicans won’t take an interest in holding them responsible, either.

    But bar associations are another matter entirely. In fact, Jeffrey Clark, a key figure in Trump’s 2020 crusade to remain in the White House, is facing possible disbarment in the nation’s capital as a result of an investigation from the District of Columbia Bar.

    […] Trump’s DOJ this week filed a lawsuit against the D.C. Bar — not because it did something wrong, but because of its efforts to discipline Trump administration lawyers, including Clark. The New York Times reported:

    The lawsuit defends Jeffrey Clark, a government lawyer in the first Trump administration who sought to undo the results of the 2020 presidential race, and Ed Martin, a current senior Justice Department official. The suit was filed by Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, and Stanley E. Woodward Jr., the No. 3 official at the Justice Department.

    In accompanying statements, Mr. Blanche accused the D.C. Bar of acting as a “blatantly partisan arm of leftist causes.”

    The same lawsuit goes so far as to say lawyers who work for the administration should necessarily be considered above scrutiny by legal ethics officials.

    In case that weren’t quite enough, Benjamin Weiss at CourtHouse News noticed the same lawsuit against the D.C. Bar references the Supreme Court’s ruling that extended immunity to presidential “official acts,” suggesting Blanche and his team believe lawyers in Trump’s employ are also protected from punishments.

    […] the fact that Blanche is pursuing such a case at all is a timely reminder that this guy really wants to be nominated for attorney general. [I snipped details regarding Blanche’s other unsubtle moves.]

    [Trump] did say earlier this week, “We have a man who’s doing a great job, I’ll tell you. I knew it because he kept me out of jail for years. Acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche, he kept me out of jail.”

  8. says

    The list of problems at Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s department could fill a lengthy book, but his personnel problems are among the most endemic.

    During his yearlong tenure leading the Food and Drug Administration, Marty Makary managed to bother various constituencies, including pharmaceutical companies and anti-abortion activists, but it was fruit-flavored vapes that apparently sealed his fate.

    Tobacco industry executives and lobbyists leaned on Donald Trump and his team to expand access to the flavored vaping products to consumers 21 and older, a move that Makary had been slow to approve. By some accounts, the president, convinced that young MAGA voters care about the issue, ended up personally “upbraiding” the FDA commissioner on the matter.

    The agency ultimately did what the White House wanted and authorized the fruit-flavored vapes, soon after Trump’s intervention, but the damage to Makary’s role at the FDA proved too much. He and the administration parted ways days later.

    As it turns out, however, he wasn’t the only one to exit as a result of the fight. The New York Times reported:

    The chief spokesman for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. resigned on Wednesday in protest over the administration’s push to allow major tobacco companies to begin selling flavored vapes that appeal to children. His departure came one day after the head of the Food and Drug Administration quit for the same reason.

    In a letter to Mr. Trump, obtained by The New York Times, the spokesman, Rich Danker, did not blame the president. … But he warned that authorizing flavored e-cigarettes would draw more children into vaping and increase their risk for a number of health issues, from addiction to cancer. [True!]

    The Times’ report added that Danker is the second assistant secretary for public affairs to quit during Kennedy’s tenure: The first, Thomas Corry, resigned last year, in part to protest the secretary’s handling of a measles outbreak in Texas.

    […] other vacancies the department is dealing with right now.
    – FDA commissioner
    – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director
    – surgeon general
    – Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research director

    While we’re at it, the CDC’s principal deputy director also recently resigned, as did Kennedy’s choice to help lead the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

    The list of problems at Kennedy’s HHS could fill a lengthy book, but his personnel problems are among the most endemic

  9. says

    Associated Press report, as summarized by Steve Benen:

    Louisiana Republicans are moving forward with a new congressional map that will eliminate one of the state’s two majority-Black districts. The next step is a vote in the state Senate, which could come as early as Thursday.

    New York Times report, as summarized by Steve Benen:

    Similarly, in South Carolina, Republican Gov. Henry McMaster is expected to call a legislative special session focused specifically on erasing the state’s only majority-Black district.

    Atlanta Journal constitution report, as summarized by Steve Benen:

    […] in Georgia, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp is also calling the state legislature back for a special session, also focused on redistricting, though unlike South Carolina and Louisiana, this plan would not take effect until after this year’s election cycle.

    New York Times:

    The biggest donor in the midterm elections is not Elon Musk, or George Soros, or any of the other billionaires who are often thought to wield the fattest wallets in politics. It is a venture capital firm: Andreessen Horowitz.

  10. says

    Even the Initially Hesitant Southern States Have Now Joined GOP Race to Eliminate Black Political Representation

    In the aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling earlier this month that struck down Louisiana’s second Black-majority congressional district in Louisiana v. Callais, red states across the South jumped at the new opportunity to gerrymander away the majority-minority districts in their states, in a blatant scramble to severely cut back Black electoral power. This week the Republican race to redistrict ahead of the midterms continues at a dizzying pace, with some states that initially appeared hesitant now jumping into the fray.

    Here’s the latest.

    In Alabama, the Supreme Court vacated a lower court’s decision this week that had, up until this point, blocked the state from using a 2023 map that had only one majority-Black district. The state’s current map has two majority-Black districts, which became a requirement when the lower court blocked the GOP-drawn 2023 map.

    The state can use the 2023 map for now, though there is ongoing litigation and it might be blocked again. Alabama Republican Gov. Kay Ivey is pushing ahead under the assumption that Alabama will be allowed to use it and called a special election for August 11, which will serve as a primary for the districts it redraws.

    Primaries are already scheduled for May 19, but Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen said that the regular May primaries will still take place, but votes in the four congressional districts impacted by the 2023 maps will be tossed and replaced with the votes from the additional special primary in August. [“Votes will be tossed.” Sheesh!]

    Meanwhile in South Carolina … Earlier this week, the state Senate rejected a new gerrymandered map proposal with five Republicans voting with state Dems to defy Trump’s calls for them to redistrict ahead of the midterms [good news]. The defiance was, for a moment, a brief brightspot in the distressing news cycle. South Carolina’s Republican Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey defended his vote against redistricting by saying that many in power have “lost their way.”

    But, as of Wednesday, redistricting is back on the table [bad news] after reports surfaced that the state’s GOP Gov. Henry McMaster is expected to call a special session on redistricting, leaving open the possibility for the state to approve a map that specifically targets Rep. Jim Clyburn’s (D-SC) district.

    Louisiana is also on track to approve a new gerrymandered map. The Louisiana Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee moved forward a proposal that would give Republicans a 5-1 advantage in the state. The proposal now heads to the state Senate floor for approval.

    Mississippi GOP Gov. Tate Reeves said this week that he is canceling a special session on judicial redistricting on May 20, but emphasized that the state would redraw congressional districts prior to the 2027 election.

    And, finally, in Georgia, GOP Gov. Brian Kemp announced a special session on redistricting for June 17, which will allow him to sign off on new gerrymandered maps for 2028 before he leaves office. Kemp always wanted to redraw maps for 2028, but he initially said the state would not redistrict ahead of the 2026 midterms. However, it appears someone may have convinced him of the riskiness of waiting with a gubernatorial race with no incumbent ahead of the state this fall.

    […] Trump Admin Expands its 2020 Redux Probe to Wisconsin [details of concerning the Wisconsin probe; the investigations in Fulton County, Georgia, Maricopa County, Arizona, and Wayne County, Michigan are available at the link. There’s also a note concerning the Trump administration’s directions to the FBI to seize voter data and voting records.]

  11. says

    Vance cuts off Medicaid funding to California families out of spite

    On Wednesday, the Trump administration announced that $1.3 billion in vital Medicaid funding would be deferred for six months for unspecified “fraud,” a significant financial punishment to the residents of a state that have voted overwhelmingly against President Donald Trump in every election he has run in.

    Vice President JD Vance made the announcement at a White House event, insinuating that money sent to the state has been used for people committing fraud who are “getting rich.” The decision came after Trump appointed Vance to lead an “anti-fraud” task force, which has been the administration’s cover for attacks on states led by Democrats.

    California officials immediately called out the partisan attack.

    “We hate fraud. But that’s NOT what this is,” Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said in a post. “Vance and [Dr. Mehmet] Oz are attacking programs that keep seniors and people with disabilities OUT of nursing homes. Pretty sick.”

    Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla was even more blunt, writing, “The Trump Administration is attacking California over claims that they can’t back up. Let’s be real, this isn’t about fraud—it’s about punishing a state that didn’t vote for him. Political retribution plain and simple.”

    California Attorney General Rob Bonta said that “California appears to be targeted solely for political reasons.” Bonta said his team would be reviewing the action and that “we have not hesitated to challenge unlawful actions by the Trump Administration, and we will continue to act whenever Californians’ rights or access to critical services are threatened.”

    The accusation of fraud in California’s Medicaid program is a distinct echo of the debunked claims Trump made about the use of federal money in Minnesota. Trump, basing his claims on edited video from a racist YouTube content creator, used those claims as an excuse for his armed federal invasion of the state while making a series of racist comments about Somali immigrants. […]

    Yes, there is evidence of fraud in California. However, California is already addressing that problem, just as Minnesota was doing before Trump barged in with ICE thugs and made things much, much worse. Also, both Trump and Vance lied about the extent of fraud in Minnesota, about the Somali community, and about the effectiveness of Minnesota’s efforts to combat fraud. Trump and Vance are looking for excuses to withhold funds from Democratic-leaning states.

  12. says

    Supreme Court allows abortion pill to remain available by mail nationwide

    “The decision indefinitely blocks an appeals court ruling that would have restricted availability of the drug, especially in states with strict anti-abortion laws.”

    The Supreme Court on Thursday ensured that the abortion pill mifepristone can continue to be available by mail without an in-person appointment with a clinician.

    A ruling by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on May 1 had imperiled widespread access to the pill. Now, the Supreme Court has granted emergency requests brought by drugmakers Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro seeking to block that ruling.

    The decision, a loss for the state of Louisiana, ensures there will not be any disruption to the availability of the drug as litigation continues. […]

    Two conservative members of the court, Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito, dissented.

    […] The FDA is currently reviewing the safety protocols for mifepristone, meaning that availability by mail could still be overturned. Louisiana’s lawsuit “not only would disrupt FDA’s ongoing review, and usurp FDA’s scientific role, but would also threaten chaos,” the Justice Department told the appeals court. […]

    Good news for now … could still turn into bad news later.

  13. says

    MS NOW:

    Chinese leader Xi Jinping offered stark warnings about avoiding possible clashes between his nation and the U.S. on Thursday, and even cautioned visiting President Donald Trump that Washington’s handling of its relations with Taiwan could lead to ‘conflicts.’

    Meanwhile, Trump was basically obsequious. He repeatedly told Xi that he was “a great leader.” Trump’s body language was also subservient, with Trump almost bowing toward Xi as he leaned in to talk and to press Xi’s hands.

    Trump’s whole approach was more person-to person friendship and less serious than Xi. For example, Xi did not bring along an entourage of rich businessmen and family members. Trump did. Trump called Xi his friend [repeatedly and effusively]. Xi did not return the compliment.

    Video

    Trump want’s to come back to the USA with a claim that China will buy Boeing’s planes, American beef, and American soy beans. He wants deals that benefit Apple, etc.

    Trump looks weak.

  14. says

    Washington Post:

    The Trump administration planned to start work at the site of the president’s proposed triumphal arch by piggybacking on an existing, unrelated contract for engineering services at the White House grounds more than a mile away, emails obtained by The Washington Post show.

  15. says

    MS NOW:

    Miami residents sued President Donald Trump, Miami Dade College and Florida state officials on Wednesday, alleging that the decision to donate an iconic stretch of downtown Miami property for Trump’s future presidential library — which might also house a hotel — is unconstitutional.

  16. says

    ‘No idea it was coming’: Pentagon officials stunned by Hegseth decision on troops in Poland

    “It wasn’t clear why the Defense secretary issued the order not to send troops on a routine mission to a country the administration refers to as a’“model ally.’ ”

    Pete Hegseth’s last-minute decision to cancel the deployment of 4,000 troops to Poland caught Pentagon staff and European allies by surprise — the latest example of an abrupt personnel move from the Defense secretary that blindsided both sides of the Atlantic.

    It wasn’t clear exactly why Hegseth issued the order, according to three defense officials familiar with the matter. President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed anger and frustration with European allies for their failure to help with the Iran war, although Trump has labeled Poland a “model ally” for its high defense spending.

    The decision was even more surprising because troops and equipment had already started to arrive in the country. It sent fresh waves of anxiety through European capitals and inside the Pentagon on Thursday about whether such moves could embolden Russia — and which ally might turn into the next target.

    “We had no idea this was coming,” said one of the U.S. officials, adding that European and American officials have spent the last 24 hours on the phone trying to understand the decision and figure out if more surprises are coming.

    […] The 4,000 Texas-based troops were preparing to leave on a long-planned nine month rotation to Poland that includes training with NATO allies when the order to halt came through. The cancellation of this routine mission is especially unusual given that American troops stationed on the continent are a key deterrent to Russia.

    […]

  17. says

    Streeting quits Starmer’s Cabinet as Burnham finds a way back — as it happened

    “The besieged British prime minister’s rivals spent the day clearing major hurdles to a run against him.”

    Keir Starmer’s potential rivals for the Labour leadership took leaps forward Thursday — but none yet has a clear path to oust the struggling prime minister.

    Health Secretary Wes Streeting resigned from Starmer’s government with a blast at the leadership “vacuum” from the current PM — yet he is keeping his powder dry on a direct leadership challenge to the embattled British prime minister amid speculation he does not yet have the backers required to launch.

    In a further twist Thursday, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has now found a route back into parliament that would let him challenge Starmer: Makerfield MP Josh Simons is standing aside to trigger a by-election in his seat. Burnham will have to contest it — and could still be blocked from running by Labour higher-ups.

    And Angela Rayner, another potential leadership hopeful popular on the party’s left-win, announced that a probe into her tax affairs had concluded — removing a significant barrier for any run at the top job. […]

    More at the link.

  18. JM says

    AP News: Emails show FBI Director Kash Patel’s Hawaii trip included ‘VIP snorkel’ at a Pearl Harbor memorial

    When Kash Patel visited Hawaii last summer, the FBI took pains to note the director was not on vacation, highlighting his walking tour of the bureau’s Honolulu field office and meetings with local law enforcement.
    Left out of the FBI’s news releases was an exclusive excursion that Patel took days later when he participated in what government officials described as a “VIP snorkel” around the USS Arizona in an outing coordinated by the military. The sunken battleship entombs more than 900 sailors and Marines at Pearl Harbor.

    This is just so stupidly bizarre I had to check multiple times that it wasn’t The Onion. It’s blindly offensive on a vast scale, using a war memorial as an adventure vacation spot. The combination of stupidity, alcohol and obliviousness that could produce this is just nuts and certainly shouldn’t be allowed in a government official. It’s what you expect from a bad tasteless influencer that has been drinking during their glamorous vacation tour.

  19. Militant Agnostic says

    Lynna @16

    ‘No idea it was coming’: Pentagon officials stunned by Hegseth decision on troops in Poland

    I suspect the girl that took Hegseth’s GI Joe doll away from him when he was a child was of Polish descent.

  20. says

    Militant Agnostic @19, LOL

    In other humorous interpretations of the news:

    BEIJING (The Borowitz Report)—President Xi Jinping’s humiliation of Donald J. Trump peaked on Thursday when the Chinese leader used a joint appearance to read aloud from the Epstein Files.

    Standing at a podium barely three feet away from his American counterpart, a stony-faced Xi recited a series of damning allegations about Trump that the DOJ’s redaction team had somehow missed.

    While the assembled press listened with rapt attention, Trump appeared oblivious to Xi’s audacious effort to embarrass him.

    “He’s a true friend,” Trump later said of Xi. “He said my name many, many times.”

    https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/xi-humiliates-trump-by-reading-aloud

    Satire

  22. birgerjohansson says

    Lynna @ 17
    Streeting is very pro-Israeli, I hope the other one replaces Starmer.

  27. StevoR says

    Whilst here in Adelaide, SA, in our Parklands on unceded Kaurna land today :

    … eight people (peaceful protesters -ed) have been arrested at the North Adelaide Golf Course redevelopment site (Pirltawardli – Possum Park – Public Park land & indigenous Kaurna land – ed) this morning. Officers were called to the premises on War Memorial Drive, North Adelaide at about 6.45am to reports of trespassers (peaceful protesters – ed) on the site. (Where nearly 600 trees including ancient giants older than any human now alive and full of tree hollows providing vital shelter for naive fauna inluding endnageered species -ed.)

    SAPOL said four people allegedly found inside the site were arrested and charged with being unlawfully on premises.(Whicha r epublic klands scared o the Kaurna People and meant to open to everyone. -ed.)

    A 27-year-old woman who allegedly chained herself to the outside of the site was arrested and charged with obstructing a public place and resisting arrest. A further three women, including a 78-year-old woman with a walker, were arrested at about 9.30am after also allegedly entering the site.

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-15/eight-arrested-north-adelaide-golf-course-police-say/106684474

  29. StevoR says

    @27. “premises” – Its our parklands! Public lands! For .. pities sake!

    Fix :

    “”…unlawfully on “premises.” (Which are public lands sacred to the Kaurna People and meant to open to everyone. -ed.)

  33. birgerjohansson says

    The Youtuber Ziroch tech has posted some interesting videos but I lack the depth of understanding to judge if the description of technology is overly optimistic. With this caveat here is a link.
    .
    “This Genius Drill Could Change Geothermal Forever”
    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=KlbfBrVAEH8

  40. says

    ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES: Trump reportedly to launch $1.7B ‘slush fund’ for ‘weaponization’ victims

    According to ABC News, Trump wants to drop his IRS lawsuit in exchange for a $1.7 billion fund for victims of government “weaponization.”

    WTF? Chris Hayes explains it all. Also, Trump’s entourage for his China trip raises corruption charges. Chris Hayes explores the issues.
    Video is 9:03 minutes.

    ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES: Chris Hayes answers questions about AI from MS NOW newsletter readers

    Chris Hayes talks about the biggest threats and potential benefits of artificial intelligence, as well as what inspired him to work on his new “Why Is This Happening” podcast series: “The AI End Game: Power, Profit, and Progress.”

    Video is 16:06 minutes.

  42. says

    Followup to the Chris Hayes video in comment 40.

    Democrats condemn ‘slush fund’ as Trump eyes possible settlement with the IRS

    “Sen. Elizabeth Warren characterized the purported deal as an ‘insane level of corruption — even for Trump.’ ”

    During Donald Trump’s first term, a former IRS contractor named Charles Littlejohn gained access to the president’s tax returns and shared the documents the Republican had been desperate to hide. Littlejohn was caught, charged, convicted and sent to prison.

    Earlier this year, however, Trump decided the criminal penalty wasn’t enough. [Trump] filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the federal tax agency in February, setting up an unprecedented situation in which a president sought a massive payout from the same executive branch he leads.

    […] (by any fair measure, frivolous) lawsuit, he told reporters that he assumed “nobody would care” if he received a giant check from the government because he and his team were “thinking about doing something for charity.”

    More than three months later, as settlement talks between the agency and the Republican’s lawyers continue, money for “charity” doesn’t appear to be the principal goal. ABC News reported:

    […] Trump is expected to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service in exchange for the creation of a $1.7 billion fund to compensate allies who claim they were wrongfully targeted by the Biden administration […]

    The commission overseeing the compensation fund would have the total authority to hand out approximately $1.7 billion in taxpayer funds to settle claims brought by anyone who alleges they were harmed by the Biden administration’s “weaponization” of the legal system, including the nearly 1,600 individuals charged in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol attack as well as potentially entities associated with President Trump himself.

    The arrangement, ABC News noted, “would be an unprecedented use of taxpayer dollars with little oversight.”

    […] (a) the deal would create a pool of money for his team to use at its discretion; and (b) “entities associated with Trump” would not be “explicitly barred” under the deal from seeking funds.

    While the structure of the proposed compensation fund is not yet clear, it would apparently resemble a victim compensation fund — despite the absence of any actual victims. Moreover, the suggestion that the Biden administration “weaponized” federal law enforcement is a conspiracy theory for which there is no evidence. [True]

    […] Sen. Elizabeth Warren characterized the purported deal on social media as an “insane level of corruption — even for Trump.” The Massachusetts Democrat said the agreement would create a “slush fund for Trump’s hand-picked stooges to hand money to January 6th insurrectionists and his political allies.” [!]

    Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, issued a related statement, saying, “Donald Trump is orchestrating a $1,700,000,000 fraud on the American taxpayer to line the pockets of his MAGA political allies, another installment in his ongoing effort to turn the federal government into a personal cash machine for his unpopular extremist movement. This is a massive and unprecedented presidential plunder of the American people.”

    Raskin’s statement went on, “The President has no authority to conjure up billion-dollar compensation schemes or raid the Judgment Fund which exists to settle valid lawsuits. Trump is systematically converting neutral government mechanisms into a presidential slush fund to build his army of political dependents. … This is a giant affront to the rule of law and a danger to the American system of justice.” [Yep]

    It’s easy to forget, but just two months into his second term, the president endorsed the idea of a possible “compensation fund” for rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol in his name. Trump didn’t elaborate on the details, but taken at face value, he appeared to describe what would effectively be financial rewards for the criminals he pardoned.

    It wasn’t clear at the time where exactly he expected to get the money. Fourteen months later, the answer appears to be coming into focus: Trump would get the money from taxpayers, in the form of a settlement agreement that results in a giant pool of money his team could use to reward his allies.

  43. says

    […] In Trump’s latest interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, [he boasted] that he has successfully lowered prices “incredibly.” [social media post, with video]

    “When they talk about high prices, I inherited the high prices. I’ve gotten them down incredibly. In fact, if I did not make the little excursion to the country of Iran, I had to do it.”

    This comes a week after the president also bragged about a “very substantial” drop in gas prices that did not happen in reality.

    What Trump continues to make clear is that he just doesn’t have anything coherent left in the tank. The president is peddling a combination of ignorance and self-defeating lies [all too true!] that the public recognizes as nonsense, not because of fact-checkers but because of their own life experiences.

    This underscores the potency of Trump expressing public indifference to the economic effects of the unnecessary war he launched in the Middle East. “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation,” he declared this week when asked about negotiations with Iran. “I don’t think about anybody.”

    Yeah, we’ve noticed.

    As inflation gets worse, Trump has nothing to offer but ignorance and incoherence

  44. says

    Trump Officials, Billionaires and the Quiet Reshaping of America’s Public Lands

    “A land swap orchestrated by the mega rich could be ‘a harbinger of what’s to come’ for public lands under Trump.”

    At the end of a dirt road along the northeastern edge of Montana’s Crazy Mountains, a simple sign warns visitors they are now entering private property.

    For fifth-generation Montanan Brad Wilson, the notice marks a defeat with implications far beyond the Crazies.

    “The fate of our public lands and our rights are in jeopardy right now,” Wilson told Floodlight.

    [I snipped some of Wilson’s personal story.]

    “The loss of this access means a lot to me and everybody else,” he said beside the gate, looking down and hiding the wet corners of his eyes.

    The road beyond the gate next to Wilson leads into what was, for more than a century, one of two historic public trails into the east side of the Crazies. The U.S. Forest Service relinquished the public’s access to the trail early last year as part of a land swap with the Yellowstone Club — an exclusive mountaintop retreat for the megarich […] [Related video]

    For many Montanans, the swap has come to symbolize the growing influence of wealthy private interests spreading across America’s public lands […]

    There are more than 600 million acres of federally owned public lands across America — from iconic national parks and monuments to forests, grasslands and seashores. But now, nearly 90 million of those acres are at risk of some kind of development due to what critics describe as an unprecedented shift in policies under the first and second Trump administrations.

    In Arizona, a sacred Indigenous site was handed over earlier this year to a copper-mining company. In Utah, Republican Sen. Mike Lee attached a provision last summer to the federal budget that would have sold up to 3.2 million acres of public land across the West. And just last month, the U.S. Senate voted to overturn a 20-year-old mining ban on federal lands in Minnesota, clearing the way for a foreign-owned copper mine.

    […] “This is a really simple issue,” said Andrew Posewitz, a Montana public lands advocate and the son of a renowned conservationist. “The public had some really good land and some really good access in the Crazy Mountains. Some really rich people decided they liked the Crazy Mountains a lot … And now the public doesn’t have that access.” [True.] […]

    “[…] it is very much a harbinger of potentially what could come.”

    Perched more than 7,000 feet above sea level, the Yellowstone Club was built atop former public lands acquired through land exchanges with the U.S. Forest Service in the 1990s. It has since converted more than 15,000 acres […] into one of the most exclusive communities on the planet. [!]

    The club’s membership has included familiar names: celebrities like Justin Timberlake, Tom Brady and Paris Hilton; tech titans like Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Eric Schmidt; and financial elites like Bill Ackman, Warren Buffett and Robert Herjavec.

    Inside its gates, the Yellowstone Club has an 18-hole golf course, a concert venue, a movie theater, a dedicated fire department, hundreds of luxury homes and nearly 3,000 acres of private ski slopes. Initiation runs in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and an undeveloped lot inside the gate has sold for as much as $10 million, according to Forbes.

    [I snipped the history of management and ownership.]

    “They’re gobbling up mass swaths of Montana,” said Erik Nylund, who served as a staffer for former Democratic Montana Sen. Jon Tester and met often with club representatives. “They will throw money around at anybody and everybody to get what they want.”

    In 2016, the Yellowstone Club drew criticism after more than 30 million gallons of its sewage overflowed into the headwaters of the Gallatin River, drawing over $300,000 in penalties and financial commitments from the company — and outraging locals.

    […] The club has also become a favorite refuge among high-level Trump administration officials: Energy Secretary Chris Wright owns a home there; Vice President JD Vance reportedly spent Christmas at the club; and Trump himself hosted a campaign fundraiser there in 2024.

    And the man in charge of most of America’s public lands is also a member.

    Interior Secretary Doug Burgum oversees 500 million acres of federal land in the U.S., and has referred multiple times to these parcels as “assets on America’s balance sheet.”

    Since early 2025, Burgum — along with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins — has helped the Trump administration pursue major overhauls of public lands management, including a $1 billion cut to the National Park Service budget, opening the Arctic to potential oil and gas drilling and repealing the 2001 Roadless Rule, the safeguard that has kept new roads and clearcuts out of nearly 60 million acres.

    […] Burgum owns a $22 million condo at the Yellowstone Club […] It’s held through an entity called Lone View, LLC. [I snipped the records of Burgum renting the property for enormous sums of money.]

    Burgum’s latest financial disclosure form shows he did not divest from any of these interests upon taking office. […]

    “He shouldn’t be involved in residential development on public lands while he owns that,” said Richard Painter, former chief ethics lawyer to the George W. Bush administration. […]

    […] In the past, Burgum has argued his policies aim to lower the national debt and address the nation’s housing crisis.

    “They’ll say the words ‘affordable housing’ and there’s not going to be anything affordable about it,” said Nylund, arguing that only luxury home builders and private resorts would be interested in developing America’s largely remote and inaccessible public lands. [All too true. “Affordable housing” … scoff.]

    [I snipped the personal story of fifth-generation Montanan Brad Wilson.]

    The Crazies resemble a mountain fortress — an island of jagged peaks rising more than 7,000 feet above the surrounding high plains, complete with secluded river valleys and alpine lakes. […]

    In the late 1800s, Congress paid the transcontinental railroads for their work by giving them every other square mile of federal land across whole regions of the West, which resulted in a checkerboard pattern of private and public land ownership.

    Anyone could continue to use public roads and trails that crossed through these newly minted private parcels, according to congressional acts and court rulings. Over time, however, those parcels in the Crazies were bought up by some of the richest people in the state, some of whom objected to the public crossing through their land.

    […] a U.S. forest ranger began to defend public access in the range by putting up Forest Service signs along contested trails. The big landowners weren’t happy. They reached out to Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines and Trump’s then-Agriculture Secretary, Sonny Perdue. It wasn’t long before the ranger was reassigned.

    […] The ranger was eventually reinstated in 2017 after being cleared of any wrongdoing. Around the same time, Nylund said he was approached by a high-end consultant for an unnamed client seeking to swap land in the Crazies with the U.S. Forest Service.

    The unnamed client?

    “That was the Yellowstone Club,” Nylund said.

    Nylund later learned that in order to get the land they needed for an “expert ski run” in Big Sky, the club agreed to help the Forest Service solve access disputes in the Crazies by organizing a land exchange. […]

    Multiple people involved with early discussions around the land swap said the Yellowstone Club’s involvement in the exchange was kept secret and only revealed years into the process. Once the information did get out, the club’s representatives worked to reassure locals that they had no intention of developing the Crazies.

    “Then out of nowhere, it’s announced that they are purchasing the Crazy Mountain Ranch,” said Emily Cleveland, a program director at Wild Montana — a conservation group that works to protect public lands and wildlife in the state.

    Crazy Mountain Ranch is an 18,000-acre former dude ranch located at the foot of the range’s southern end. Cleveland called the club’s move a “bait and switch.”

    […] The Yellowstone Club is now converting the ranch into what it describes as “a private membership experience” featuring a luxury spa and a new 18-hole golf course.

    […] the ranch began illegally drawing water to irrigate its golf course in 2024 and Montana regulators sued them the following year. […]

    Fears surrounding the luxury developer’s potential impact on the Crazies reached a fever pitch after the Forest Service authorized the landswap the club helped orchestrate in January 2025.

    The deal, called the East Crazy Inspiration Divide Land Exchange, moved nearly 4,000 acres of public lands into private ownership. […] “All of the sort of prime habitat, that all went into private ownership, and then the tops of the mountains all went into public ownership,” said Posewitz. A person “would have to be a skilled rock climber” to navigate it, she wrote.

    The land swap also solved the checkerboard issue that has plagued the Crazies for decades by consolidating public lands in the center of the range.

    “What it’s resulting in is a ring of private ownership around a chunk of public land that has very limited access,” said Posewitz. [Unethical tactics]

    [I snipped details describing benefits to rich land owners.]

    The most contested piece of the deal was the trail network. Two historic public trails had appeared on Forest Service maps for more than a century. The exchange abandoned the public’s claim to both. […]

    [I snipped details describing unethical treatment of the Crow tribal people.]

    […] The proliferation of high-end private resorts, combined with the Trump administration’s pro-development policies, have only increased alarm among advocates across the country who say America’s public lands are now entering a very different era. […]

  47. says

    Exclusive: Cuba’s top diplomat outlines red lines to Trump as it braces for US invasion

    Cuba’s top diplomat in the U.S. said the country is sticking to its red lines amid faltering negotiations it says have made “no progress” and a looming threat from President Trump to invade the nation.

    Lianys Torres Rivera sat down with The Hill at a critical 24-hour period for Cuba. The island’s energy minister announced Thursday the country had completely exhausted its fuel supplies amid a U.S. blockade, leading to widespread protests in the streets of Havana after weeks of extended blackouts.

    The U.S. also publicly acknowledged what it called “numerous private offers” previously made to Cuba for $100 million in aid.

    CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Cuba on Thursday, meeting with officials as the agency warned the window for negotiations “will not stay open indefinitely” […]

    Torres Rivera repeated that Cuba’s independence was not up for negotiation.

    And while she said protests over the power outages are understandable, she cautioned against taking a “wrong reading” that they were a sign of weakening Cuban resolve.

    “When they are enduring 20 hours of blackouts, they have grievances, and they express it,” she told The Hill of her country’s citizens. But she added that the U.S. should not mistake that to mean “the Cuban people won’t defend [themselves] from a U.S. aggression, won’t defend our homeland from an invasion.”

    […] CBS News reported Thursday night that the Trump administration was preparing to indict former Cuban President Raúl Castro on charges in connection with shooting down planes 30 years ago, a move that would mirror the process for indicting deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro before his capture. [!!]

    Negotiations were launched after Trump floated a “friendly takeover” of what he called a “failed nation,” while Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the country would need to change not just its economic policies but move away from the current regime, which he has called “incompetent.”

    “It’s in our national interest, and to have a prosperous Cuba, not to have a failed state 90 miles from our shores,” Rubio told NBC News during a trip to China.

    […] Cuba has repeatedly said it is open to negotiations with the U.S., particularly on matters involving drugs and human trafficking.

    “The only exception,” she [Torres Rivera] said, is “our sovereignty, independence and right to self determination.”

    “We don’t see the need for a war or any military action from the U.S. towards Cuba, simply because we are not a threat to the U.S. in any way,” she said.

    […] The aid package proposed by the State Department would also include free satellite internet for all Cubans, something The Associated Press reported Elon Musk’s Starlink would provide for two years, as well as other aid that would be distributed through the Catholic Church.

    “There’s $100 million of food and medicine available for them right now,” Rubio told NBC News on Thursday. […] Torres Rivera said, however, that few details had been communicated to the Cuban government.

    […] Castro’s grandson, Raulito Rodríguez Castro, a great-nephew of Fidel Castro, has been playing a leading role in the process.

    It’s a surprising role for the younger Castro, as he holds no government or communist party title.
    His involvement has raised questions over whether the U.S. might be looking to install Rodríguez Castro in the same fashion it turned to Delcy Rodríguez, the Venezuelan vice president now serving as the leader of the country.

    […] Venezuela, long a critical ally of Cuba, has cut off a key source of fuel for Havana since it was invaded by the United States in early January, while Mexico also stopped shipments under threat of U.S. tariffs. [!]

    United Nations experts earlier this month said the blockage amounted to “energy starvation” — a move they say has devastated essential services and is “undermining their rights to food, education, health, and water and sanitation.” […]

    Basically, Trump is bullying Cuba.

  50. says

    […] I’m reminded of William Faulkner’s line, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

    Five years after Trump summoned a mob, filled them with lies and pointed them at the Capitol, the significance of the political violence hasn’t changed at all. Five years later, pardoned Jan. 6 rioters continue to get arrested and, in many instances, convicted of additional crimes. Five years later, the president continues to look for ways to reward those who targeted our seat of government in his name.

    Five years later, Republicans are still trying to rewrite the story of the attack. Five years later, Trump’s Justice Department is still eager to erase the convictions of those responsible for the violence. Five years later, parts of the GOP base still treat rioters like celebrities. Five years later, the Republican Party still rejects the very idea of Jan. 6 accountability. […]

    Link

  51. says

    Despite the hype, Trump leaves China empty-handed and no better off than he was before

    “The president’s first trip to China was largely a flop. Nearly a decade later, his second excursion was worse.”

    Before Donald Trump arrived in China, some of his supporters expressed confidence in his ability to deliver real results during the trip. Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, for example, emphasized Trump’s ghostwritten book “The Art of the Deal” and said the president had “what he needs” to reach breakthroughs with Xi Jinping.

    Around the same time, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin also cited the president’s book before telling Fox News viewers, “He’s the strongest leader of your and I’s time, period.”

    Apparently, officials in Beijing were less impressed. Reuters reported:

    U.S. President Donald Trump left China on Friday with no major breakthroughs on trade or tangible help from ​Beijing to end the Iran war, despite two days spent heaping praise on his host, Xi Jinping.

    Trump’s visit to America’s main strategic and economic rival, the first by a U.S. president since his last trip in 2017, had ‌aimed for tangible results to lift his sagging approval ratings before midterm elections in November. Xi will visit the U.S. in the fall at Trump’s invitation, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.

    […] the White House had nothing of substance to point to after the trip wrapped up.

    A related report from the Financial Times added that Xi “conceded little” to Trump and said that their discussions “yielded no clear breakthroughs on the big foreign policy and economic fissures between the two countries and fell short of delivering the sort of big business deals the White House covets from international summits.”

    [Trump], who arrived in China in a position of weakness was no better off upon exiting the country. If anything, Trump established a new equilibrium that elevated the U.S. rival. As a New York Times analysis explained:

    Mr. Xi arrived highly scripted, leaving no doubt that for all of China’s problems — deflation, depopulation, the bursting of the real estate bubble — the moment when China acts as a peer superpower had arrived.

    At every turn, at least as he began his two-day trip to China, Mr. Trump sounded conciliatory, the exact opposite of his portrayals of China in public appearances back home, where during his presidential campaigns he has talked about the country as a job-stealer and national security threat. Mr. Xi, while smiling and welcoming to Mr. Trump, was quietly more confrontational — especially on Taiwan, where he delivered an unequivocal warning.

    […] After the trip wrapped up, Trump apparently felt compelled to respond to a rather brutal claim from the Chinese leader that the public hadn’t heard. “When President Xi very elegantly referred to the United States as perhaps being a declining nation, he was referring to the tremendous damage we suffered during the four years of Sleepy Joe Biden and the Biden Administration, and on that score, he was 100% correct,” Trump argued by way of his social media platform. [Scoff. Laughable.]

    So to recap, Trump who traveled around the planet to make headway with China left empty-handed, though he was inclined to endorse the Chinese president’s unheard insult regarding the United States — amid reports that Beijing actually sees Trump as evidence of American decline.

    Trump’s first trip to China, in November 2017, was largely a flop. Nearly a decade later, his second excursion was worse

  54. says

    On Iran’s enriched uranium, Trump abandons the position he claimed to take seriously

    “I don’t think it’s necessary except from a public-relations standpoint,” the president said about Iran’s stockpiles.

    About a month after Donald Trump launched the war with Iran, he did something unexpected: The president suggested he was largely indifferent to one of the foundational reasons for the conflict.

    After countless comments about the importance of addressing Iran’s nuclear program, when asked about the country’s enriched uranium, he told Reuters, “That’s so far ⁠underground, I ​don’t care about that.” He went on to say Iran was “incapable” of developing a nuclear weapon in light of the damage it has suffered, fueling his passive attitude about its stockpiles.

    In the days and weeks since that April 1 interview, the president has not just shifted his focus back to the purported Iranian nuclear threat, he has also raised the possibility of some kind of invasion to seize the enriched uranium that he claimed not to “care about,” creating uncertainty about whether Trump was confused or has changed his mind.

    During his latest interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, however, [Trump] once again made it sound as if Iran’s enriched uranium just isn’t that important.

    “I don’t think it’s necessary except from a public relations standpoint,” Trump said about Iran’s stockpiles. He added that the issue is only important “for the fake news.”

    To be sure, it’s difficult to know whether the president believed what he said, whether he will change his mind at any given moment or whether he might pretend that he didn’t say what he clearly said.

    But if his on-air comments reflect his actual position, it has the potential to be quite important: After months of bold assertions about the importance of Iran’s enriched uranium, Trump appears to have told the world that he sees this as little more than a public relations annoyance, not a foundational priority for his administration’s national security policy.

    With this in mind, it’s an open question where Trump’s red lines are, or whether they exist at all. For that matter, there’s also new uncertainty about how and to what extent he’s undermined his administration’s own negotiating position, which continues to shift in erratic ways.

  55. says

    NAACP Files Brief with SCOTUS, Asking to Reinstate Virginia Redistricting Proposal

    In an amicus brief filed on Wednesday, the NAACP asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the Virginia State Supreme Court’s ruling that struck down a Democratic-led, voter-approved redistricting proposal this month. [It’s good to see that the NAACP is fighting back.]

    “The majority’s ruling broadens the definition of ‘election’ to include the entire early voting period and ignoring a score of federal and state statutes that compel a contrary conclusion,” the brief argues. “The Virginia Supreme Court’s expansive definition of ‘election’ not only does violence to Virginia law, but also conflicts with all relevant federal election statutes and risks creating unintended harms with respect to their future implementation.”

    “The NAACP will not stand by idly in the face of this blatant attempt to overrule the will of Virginia voters,” Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP, said in a statement on Wednesday. “Our volunteers made calls to 80,000 voters, knocked on doors across the Commonwealth to ensure Virginians have the right to elect who they’d like to represent them. The people have spoken, and we’ll fight to make sure they’re heard.”

  56. Reginald Selkirk says

    Canadian, U.S. fascist fight clubs joining forces south of the border, CBC investigation finds

    Members of Canada’s biggest white nationalist group trained this spring with U.S. counterparts south of the border and met with the founder of a global movement of fascist fight clubs, a CBC visual investigation has found.

    One expert called it a “very significant” signal of closer co-ordination between white supremacist groups on both sides of the border.

    A Telegram post with blurred faces shows Second Sons Canada members posing with an individual CBC identified as Robert Rundo, an American neo-Nazi who founded the “active club” movement. Other posts show them training and meeting with active club groups in Texas and South Carolina in late March…

    By border they mean the USA-Canada border; i.e. in the USA.

  58. says

    JD Vance makes ‘solemn promise’

    Vice President JD Vance delivered the keynote address Friday at the National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service, held on the West Front Lawn of the U.S. Capitol to honor law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty. The speech went down like a cement balloon.

    “You’re always going to have terrible people who want to do the worst things,” Vance said. “But allowing so many of those people free reign, allowing so many of them to strike at our law enforcement officers, ladies and gentlemen, that was a policy choice, and I make this solemn promise to every single person here, that so long as Donald J. Trump is the president and so long as I am the vice president, we will never again let policymakers in the building behind us allow violent criminals to tee off on our police officers.” [eyebrows raised]

    [Video]

    The solemnity of that “promise” might have sounded hollow considering more than a thousand Jan. 6 insurrectionists, many of whom were convicted of assaulting law enforcement, received pardons from Trump. [Understatement!]

    And it wasn’t just his abject hypocrisy that failed to inspire. Vance’s attempts to peddle clichéd tough-on-crime platitudes landed with all of the energy of a mandatory HR seminar at TGI Friday’s.

    By the time he finished speaking and stood behind a wall of bulletproof glass with the rest of Trump’s security team, it sounded as if only six people were left in the audience. [More videos, with one plainly revealing the underwhelming smattering of applause.]
    […]

  62. Reginald Selkirk says

    @57:

    …
    An outdated hallmark of pseudoscience is that its adherents are no fans of peer review. Scientific papers get published after being revised and commented upon by other scientists (the “peers” in “peer review”); but you wouldn’t want an actual scientist criticizing your paper on a nonsensical intervention and highlighting all the holes in it. This is why pseudoscientific services tended not to have papers published about them in the past.

    But this has changed. With the rise of predatory journals that will publish anything for a fee and the emergence of journals dedicated to a particular pseudoscience like homeopathy, ill-scrutinized papers can be weaponized to give credence to nonsense.
    …

  63. says

    In northern Ukraine, it was boy vs. Russian drone. The boy won.

    “A soldier taught a 12-year-old how to disable the fiber-optic drones that Russia has been using to hunt Ukrainian civilians in a campaign the U.N. has labeled a war crime.”

    […] 2-year-old Anatolii Prokhorenko was up in a pear tree, cutting off a damaged branch for a neighbor, when he heard the buzz of a drone.

    That sound often means death in Ukraine, and not just for soldiers on the front lines. Increasingly, civilians are tracked, chased and attacked by small, commercially available drones equipped with cameras, rigged with explosives and steered by fingers-on-joysticks […]

    Ukrainians, darkly, have dubbed this Xbox-inflected hunting of civilians as Russia’s “human safari” — a terror campaign that started in the once-occupied southern city of Kherson. In recent months, it has evolved with new technology and spread to border areas around the country.

    Anatolii knew it had recently reached the small farming village where he and his family live in Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region, seven miles from the Russian border. Tractors, like the one his father frequently drove, had been hit in the fields. In March, a drone blew up a car next to a shop. Another had exploded on Anatolii’s street just the day before.

    Now, the one he spotted was heading right for his house.

    As he clung to the tree trunk, the black quadcopter buzzed past, flying just off the ground and bearing down on a cluster of buildings where three of his younger siblings were playing with other kids in their yard.

    He watched as unseen eyes seemed to zero in on the structures and the drone began to climb, apparently rearing to strike.

    […] “That’s when I realized something was about to happen.”

    What Anatolii did next — something he had rehearsed, something few civilians in Ukraine have been taught — might have saved the lives of those children […]

    His story — and the fact that a 12-year-old in a pear tree knows how to fight back against a Russian drone — illustrates how deeply a tactic that the United Nations calls a war crime has dissolved the line between soldier and civilian in the fifth year of Russia’s war.

    Within drone range of Russian territory, survival itself has become a military skill.

    “It’s a really horrible problem the Russians are imposing on Ukrainian civilians in these towns where they’re using the human safari tactic,” said Robert Tollast, a military sciences researcher at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

    The attacks demoralize by design. And they force Ukrainian commanders to spread their drone defenses […]

    By April 2025, the attacks were killing 42 civilians a month and injuring nearly 300, according to report by an independent U.N. human rights commission.

    Investigators determined that the campaign was ordered by Moscow to systematically terrorize the populace and amounted to “murder as a crime against humanity.”

    Ukraine’s first response was jamming — flooding the frequencies the drones depend on with empty radio noise. For a time, it helped.

    But Russia’s answer was to equip drones with fiber-optic filament: a hair-thin tether that unspools in flight like a spiderweb for 12 miles — or twice that with smaller payloads — carrying video to the operator and commands back. Bypassing radio signals entirely, these drones can’t be jammed.

    […] Although the filament can tangle or break as it’s draped across miles of countryside, units often deploy two or three drones on each mission to provide backup and better targeting reconnaissance.

    […] Ukraine is catching up, and last year used long-range strikes to knock out Russia’s only domestic fiber-optic factory in Saransk, leaving the Russians dependent on Chinese imports. Both sides are dealing with rising costs of the hair-thin cable as more of it is gobbled up by the global boom in AI data centers.

    That hasn’t stopped Russia from adapting the same technology for attacks on civilians in border areas […]

    Anatolii and his father, Volodymyr Poltoratskyi, 49, had started noticing the glinting gossamer threads a few months earlier.

    “In winter, it’s actually beautiful in its own way,” Poltoratskyi said. “They hang across the road and on the trees like garlands, and frost forms on them.”

    One day in autumn, as father and son were cutting firewood in a nearby forest, Anatolii saw a soldier they knew handling some of the filaments. The boy asked what he was doing.

    The soldier — an explosives specialist who goes by the call sign “Dynamo” — showed him how the fiber-optic material, like a fishing line, was almost impossible to pull apart without slicing the skin. Then he demonstrated three techniques the soldiers had found to break it, a combination of loops and pinches. Best to count to 15 after a drone passes before trying it, Dynamo had said, so you’re out of the drone’s view and don’t become the target.

    […] The soldier — an explosives specialist who goes by the call sign “Dynamo” — showed him how the fiber-optic material, like a fishing line, was almost impossible to pull apart without slicing the skin. Then he demonstrated three techniques the soldiers had found to break it, a combination of loops and pinches. Best to count to 15 after a drone passes before trying it, Dynamo had said, so you’re out of the drone’s view and don’t become the target.

    […] Which is why when Anatolii heard the buzz from his tree, he looked up and saw nothing. It was below him, just a few feet above the ground.

    And he saw something else, glinting in the low evening sun: the very fine fiber-optic contrail behind it.

    As the drone moved toward his family, Anatolii dropped to the ground. He ran 20 yards and got his fingers around a hairlike umbilical running all the way to Russia. He made a loop, pulled it slightly, and remembered the soldier’s instruction: Count to 15.

    “I didn’t have time,” he said. “So I counted to 10 and I broke it.”

    The line snapped. The drone abruptly veered upward, banked away from the children and the houses, and spiraled into a section of wild ground next to the neighborhood.

    “I waited for an explosion, but there was nothing,” Anatolii said. He wondered if it landed on its back. Later, he would learn that it crashed in a dense, swampy thicket.

    […] Anatolii was feted as a hero in Ukraine, but more as a target by commenters on Russian Telegram channels, so his family of seven have moved for now to a borrowed two-room apartment in Chernihiv, the regional capital, two hours south.

    They travel back and forth to tend their potato crop and still find fiber-optic tracks. One of their neighbors, a 47-year-old woman, was injured Sunday when a drone struck her car.

    These high-tech hunters, the family knows, are now a regular part of rural life — and death.

  64. Reginald Selkirk says

    Colorado’s Democratic governor will let Trump ally Tina Peters out of prison early

    Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis has reduced the state prison sentence of Tina Peters, a former county clerk convicted of tampering with election equipment, allowing her to be eligible for parole on June 1.

    The controversial decision follows a months-long pressure campaign from President Trump and his administration to free Peters from state custody…

    Unrepentant, undeserving.

  65. Reginald Selkirk says

    DOJ pushing to indict Raúl Castro over 1996 downing of civilian planes, officials say

    The Justice Department is pushing to indict 94-year-old Raúl Castro, the former president of Cuba, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
    The potential criminal charges concern two civilian planes on a volunteer mission that were downed by Cuba in 1996, killing four Cuban Americans, one of the officials said…

    If T-Rump as president is immune to all prosecution, why does this logic not apply to other heads of state?

  67. StevoR says

    Latham being former ALP opposition leader and then a One Neuron (racist far reichwing) party MP and now sits as an independent.

    Contempt proceedings have been launched against Mark Latham after he attacked a tribunal that found he unlawfully vilified and sexually harassed another state MP. Independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich alleged Mr Latham scandalised the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) in a social media post, calling it “grossly political and incompetent”.

    Yesterday, Mr Greenwich asked NCAT to refer the upper house crossbencher to the Supreme Court, which has the power to jail anyone it finds guilty of contempt.

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-16/contempt-proceedings-launched-against-nsw-mp-mark-latham/106686454

  68. StevoR says

    NASA’s asteroid-bound Psyche mission is headed for an encounter with Mars today (May 15). The spacecraft, which is on its way to an asteroid also called Psyche, will come within around 2,800 miles (4,500 kilometers) of the Red Planet during the flyby.

    …(Snip)…

    …the Psyche spacecraft won’t just use the gravity of Mars to get a boost that will help it save its xenon gas propellant; the Red Planet flyby will also offer Psyche a chance to test and calibrate the instruments it will be using when it gets to the main asteroid belt. In order to do that, Psyche’s multispectral imager will be used to capture thousands of observations of Mars. This process began earlier this month.

    Source : https://www.space.com/space-exploration/asteroid-comet-missions/nasas-psyche-asteroid-probe-will-fly-within-3-000-miles-of-mars-on-may-15-heres-what-to-expect

  69. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    The Guardian – 13 men killed by US military boat strikes identified

    a joint effort by 20 journalists led by the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP) this week published the identities of 13 of those killed […] all the victims identified so far, including those who may have had some involvement in drug trafficking, came from extremely poor communities across Latin America and the Caribbean.

    “Despite the US claim that the strikes are fighting narco-terrorism, what is actually happening is that young people living in extremely precarious conditions, doing whatever work they can to support their families, are being targeted,” said María Teresa Ronderos, director and co-founder of the CLIP. “The US is not taking down any Pablo Escobar or Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán,” […]

    The investigation also underlined what other reports and security analysts have concluded: that the strikes have not reduced the flow of drugs to the US, but have instead torn apart communities already fractured and weakened by organised crime and state neglect. “There are communities where they stopped fishing for several weeks—and if they do that, people go hungry—because they were terrified of being bombed,”
    […]
    In several cases, the victims were fishers with no indication of involvement in the drug trade […] Ronderos said that even if all those killed had been transporting drugs, “there is no death penalty for cocaine trafficking. So the fact that they were killed without even having the chance to defend themselves is deeply troubling.”

  70. KG says

    amid reports that Beijing actually sees Trump as evidence of American decline. – Lynna, OM@51 quoting maddowshow.

    Rumour has it that Beijing also believes the Pope to be Catholic, and that pandas shit in the woods.

  71. KG says

    Basically, Trump is bullying Cuba. – Lynna, OM@47

    And murdering ordinary Cubans.

  73. StevoR says

    No surprise but the LNP opposition leader is a transphobic piece of shit :

    Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has vowed to amend the Sex Discrimination Act, after the Federal Court upheld a landmark ruling that the exclusion of a transgender woman from a female-only app was discriminatory.

    Yesterday Roxanne Tickle was awarded $20,000 in damages in the case against the Giggle for Girls app and its CEO, Sall Grover. A judge previously ruled Ms Tickle was discriminated against due to her gender identity after her access to the social media platform was restricted in 2021. In a statement posted to social media today, Mr Taylor said the outcome “confirmed that Australian law does not properly protect single sex spaces for women and girls”.

    “A Coalition government I lead will fix this. We will amend the Sex Discrimination Act to ensure that women and girls (and men and boys) have protections based on biological sex,” he said. “We will define biological sex in the Act. Male or female. The sex you are born. And we will protect single-sex spaces across Australian life.” The opposition leader described the proposal as “common sense” and denied the pledge is about targeting transgender Australians.

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-16/opposition-leader-angus-taylor-vows-amend-sex-discrimination-act/106688258

  74. says

    Sky Captain @69, thanks for posting the information about those poor and desperate people. The U.S. military is being used by Trump and Pete Hegseth to kill poor and desperate people. That’s not really having any effect on organized crime, nor on organized drug trafficking. “[…] the strikes have not reduced the flow of drugs to the US”

    Some of the people killed were fishermen.

    The Guardian picked up on two other essential facts:

    “[…] even if all those killed had been transporting drugs, “there is no death penalty for cocaine trafficking. So the fact that they were killed without even having the chance to defend themselves is deeply troubling.”

    “There are communities where they stopped fishing for several weeks—and if they do that, people go hungry—because they were terrified of being bombed,”

  75. says

    New York Times:

    After months of a debilitating energy crisis that has caused widespread power outages, Cuba’s oil reserves have run dry, the government said, which is likely to plunge the country into even more frequent, bigger and longer nationwide blackouts.

    Wall Street Journal:

    More than a dozen neighborhoods in the capital city of Havana erupted in protests Wednesday night, with residents banging pots and burning garbage amid rising anger over dayslong blackouts and deteriorating living conditions.

  76. says

    New York Times:

    The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed to repeal a Biden-era rule that prevents coal-burning power plants from releasing hundreds of millions of gallons of toxic metals into nearby waters.

    The Trump administration has a pro-pollution EPA.

    E.P.A. Moves to Weaken Water Pollution Rule for Coal Plants

    “The agency also said it would delay the implementation of an air pollution rule for cars and trucks by two years.”

  77. says

    Musk and Trump killed USAID—and they’ve got blood on their hands

    The scope of the destruction at the United States Agency for International Development is almost unimaginable. President Donald Trump, multibillionaire Elon Musk, and the DOGE boys slashed and burned the foreign aid program. That has already led to hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths, and new reports indicate it has also led to a spike in deadly violence in Africa.

    A new study in Science found that the lightning-fast dismantling of USAID and abrupt stop in funding “undermined democratic governance and precipitated civil unrest” on the African continent. Across the board, rates of violence were higher. Battle counts increased by 6.9%, battle-related fatalities went up 9.3%, and the number of conflict events increased by 10.6%. Riots and protests also went up.

    […] The swiftness of the cuts, the study notes, exacerbated the problems. This wasn’t wound down in some orderly fashion, giving USAID workers and aid recipients time to close out projects. Instead, USAID staffers were left to face political violence in Congo and had to flee Kinshasa because looters overran their homes. [!] The Trump administration obstructed medical evacuations for staffers and their spouses who had high-risk pregnancies, stranding them overseas. [!]

    The effect of shuttering USAID goes far beyond this, however. It led to an increase in child deaths for the first time in decades. [!] In January 2026, Impact Counter had estimated 762,000 people—over 500,000 of whom are children—had already died because of the cuts.

    As bad as those numbers are, the projections of future preventable deaths are far bleaker. A study in The Lancet from February modeled the impacts of the cuts, projecting from 2025 to 2030. We’re talking 4.1 million more deaths from HIV/AIDS and 606,900 additional deaths from tuberculosis, and 2.5 million additional child deaths from other causes.

    That’s over 7 million people who are going to die at the hands of Trump and Musk.

    The experts also project 40- to 55 million more unplanned pregnancies, leading to about 12- to 16 million unsafe abortions.

    Trump is leading the most pro-life administration in history, right?

    In the last 21 years, USAID is estimated to have prevented 91 million deaths. The United States’ contributions to foreign aid reduced HIV/AIDS mortality by 65%.

    And as much as conservatives like to pretend we were draining the country’s coffers to send kazillions of dollars in foreign aid, we actually kind of suck.

    Yes, the U.S. gives—well, gave—the most foreign aid because we have an enormous amount of money. However, as a percentage of the overall budget? We only spend 0.22% of our gross national income on foreign aid, far below the United Nations target of 0.7%. We’re 25th out of 31 countries. Norway spends 1.02% of its GNI on foreign aid. Germany gives out 0.67%, and Ireland spends 0.57%. We’re also well below the average of 0.33%.

    USAID’s budget is roughly $70 billion per year. That number fluctuates from year to year, as does federal spending, of course. USAID’s percentage of the budget fell between 0.7% to 1.2% of the overall federal budget.

    This is a pittance. Musk, who owns Tesla, SpaceX, and X, is currently worth $826 billion, or more than 10 times the USAID budget. $70 billion is pocket change to him. Since Trump took office, Musk has increased his wealth by about $234 billion, which could have covered three years of USAID funding.

    Musk, Trump, and DOGE will go down in history as the mass murderers they are. […]

  78. says

    Well this sounds like the right-wing folks are having a bit of a dust-up, and sometimes an all-out donnybrook:

    Right-wing podcaster and co-founder of The Daily Wire Ben Shapiro lashed out at his fellow conservatives Friday—the latest in a series of high-profile conflicts between conservative media personalities.

    Shapiro’s diatribe came in response to reports of problems at his company, which launched several years ago with lofty ambitions of being a conservative answer to “woke” media.

    The Daily Wire has seen a recent mass layoff of 13% of its workforce, and the Washington Post characterized the problems facing the company as a “MAGA meltdown” in which the “‘anti-woke’ company faces contentious layoffs, ideological battles, and dwindling relevance online.”

    During his rant, Shapiro described neo-Nazi podcaster Nick Fuentes as a “man who will never get a human woman pregnant through natural means.”

    He also called right-wing pundit Tucker Carlson a “confirmed anti-capitalist and Muslim apologist,” conspiracy theorist Candace Owens a “confirmed slanderer of widows” and a “connoisseur of French testicles,” and reporter Megyn Kelly a “clickwhoring grandma groyper.”

    […] But what’s happening is even more contentious than simple infighting.

    […] in Trump’s second term, they’re finding it hard to keep up the sustained attacks against Democrats while also making excuses for Trump’s increasingly unpopular policies
    .
    That has led to public spectacles, like Owens accusing Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, of profiting from her husband’s assassination, even implying that she played a role in his murder. [Whoo boy!]

    […] The right-wing media world is fundamentally based on decades of grift, where a willingly receptive audience is sold falsehoods, smears, and bigotry—where they’re constantly told to buy this product or donate to this campaign, all with the purported goal of defeating the left.

    […] Without their pro-Trump unity to bind them, right-wing media is breaking apart. But at least the fissures have become an entertaining spectacle as some of the worst people in the world tear each other down.

    Link

    Add in the financial troubles and it all looks like lots of fun.

  79. says

    Canada deepens Arctic defense ties with Nordics after Trump threats

    “Canada’s increased collaboration with the Nordics is part of an effort to strengthen alliances between “middle powers” in a world where ⁠the U.S. is considered a less reliable partner.”

    Since U.S. President Donald Trump’s barrage of threats to seize Greenland, authorities on the frozen island have been seeking help from a northern ally: Canada.

    A reserve unit of the Canadian armed forces called the Rangers has long maintained a year-round presence in mostly inaccessible Arctic communities. For three years, authorities in Greenland and Denmark have consulted with Canadian officials on how to set up their own version of the Rangers — conversations that grew more urgent with Trump’s threats and growing fears of Russian hostility in the Arctic.

    […] Whitney Lackenbauer, an honorary lieutenant-colonel Canadian Ranger involved in the talks, spoke with Reuters during a recent 5,000-kilometer Arctic snowmobile trek by the Rangers.

    “The Nordic countries and Canada, we’re increasingly realizing we can come together in military and diplomatic ways to send a message that carries moral weight.”

    As Canada attempts to pivot away from relying on the U.S. to protect its vast Arctic, Prime Minister Mark Carney is strengthening ties and exchanging security tips with the Nordic countries, which he describes as trusted partners.

    […] Alliances are shifting in the Arctic as climate change makes it more accessible. Russia ⁠has far more military bases than any other nation there and in recent years China has started to increase its presence in the mineral-rich area, mostly in partnership with Russia.

    […] Carney says ​[…] the Arctic’s greatest ‌threat is from Russia – and the Nordics have been boosting their own defenses since Russia invaded Ukraine.

    In March, Canada and the five Nordic countries — Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden — agreed to deepen their cooperation in military procurement and ramp up defense production to deal with security threats, including cyberattacks.

    A plan for how Greenland might adapt the Canadian Rangers is expected by the end of this year […]

    Canada’s ‌partnership with the United States through NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, remains critical, she said. But Canada is focused on bolstering new alliances. That includes the opening of a Canadian consulate in Nuuk in February and an invitation to her Nordic counterparts to visit Canada’s Arctic this year.

    […] n April, Alexander Stubb became the first Finnish president to visit ⁠Canada in a dozen years and signed several agreements on Arctic cooperation. Stubb and Carney took to the ice in Ottawa for a hockey practice, and afterward Stubb said he and Carney message each other almost every day.

    The two national leaders sometimes chat about hockey or baseball, Stubb told reporters, but “most of the time it’s about NATO or Ukraine or Iran.”

    […] Lackenbauer, the honorary Canadian Ranger lieutenant-colonel, is also an Arctic expert at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. He said Canada should overhaul its approach to Arctic security just as Nordic countries did after Russian troops marched into Ukraine in 2022.

    “The more we can go and help Canada’s allies in northern Europe, the more hostile nations will get the message that they do not get a free pass in the Arctic,” he said.

    […] Canada ⁠is also trying to learn more from Norway about how its maritime services handle emergency towing of vessels. […]

  80. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/oligarch-owned-media-continues-its

    One of the saddest spectacles of the last year and a half in American politics — besides pretty much everything — has been the sight of oligarchs and their hand-picked apple-polishers doing everything they can to turn some of the nation’s storied media properties into pathetic simulacra of right-wing outlets. This has all been done in the service of sucking up to Donald Trump, who people treat like the all-powerful Oz instead of what he actually is: the doddering, dementia-blasted near-octogenarian aging faster than a wheel of brie in the middle of the Sonoran Desert.

    It has been something to see. And in the last week, we have had prominent examples of why, instead of throwing your hard-earned money at David Ellison or Jeff Bezos, you should support independent media. […]

    First, the Post. The one-time home of such legends as Woodward and Bernstein, of David Broder, of Ben Bradlee and Marty Baron, laid off nearly half of its newsroom staff. But not to worry! The paper replaced all that wealth of knowledge of newsgathering with … with … with whatever the fuck this is: [Video]

    (It is a trailer for Make It Make Sense, a web show featuring WaPo opinion writers sitting in a living room, or on a set that looks like one, pretending to have a spontaneous chat about issues of the day. It is different from every other talking heads news-talk show in that they are on a couch and dressed casually. And no one will ever name a band after it. It’s more likely that WaPo will just Stop Making Make It Make Sense.)

    What we do not want is a podcast featuring some of the smuggest people we’ve ever seen in front of a camera yammering on and on with warmed-over dorm-room-level libertarianism like Hrrr-drrrr AKSHUALLY we have a very progressive tax code and the rich, contra that socialist Bernie Sanders, actually pay most of the nation’s taxes.

    Or perhaps you’d prefer this Harvard graduate sneering about a new program in California that gives 400 free diapers to any baby when it leaves the hospital: [social media, post with video]

    Personally, we think this is a good idea. Having enough diapers on hand is one less stress point for new parents trying to adjust to the fact that they are now charged with taking care of a squalling poop machine that needs nearly round-the-clock attention. Besides, 400 diapers is all of a little over one month’s supply for newborns, who go through 8 to 12 of the damn things per day. Since that needy loaf of not-yet-fully-developed brain is going to be in diapers for the next 18 to 36 months, giving parents one month’s worth is hardly that generous, seeing as how they are going to be on the hook for another 35 months.

    The diaper program will cost $12.7 million in the next fiscal year. That is a rounding error in California’s budget. If we were still a California taxpayer, we would approve of our tax dollars going to this way more than we would approve of them going to build another football stadium. […]

    As you can see from its YouTube page, the videos are all only getting a few hundred views. Pathetic numbers for a Washington Post property. Maybe the numbers will improve if they start throwing watermelons off the roof of the building like Letterman used to do.

    Which brings us to CBS News, which this week managed a fuck-up that we don’t think we have ever seen before:

    CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil failed to get his Chinese visa in time to cover President Donald Trump’s meeting with Xi Jinping.

    Dokoupil will instead broadcast from Taipei, while his competitors, NBC News’s Tom Llamas and ABC News’s David Muir, will be anchoring from Beijing, where the action is really happening.

    This trip to China has been on Trump’s schedule for months. How are you one of the three major broadcast networks and you couldn’t get a visa in time to get your anchor to a high-profile summit between the leaders of two of the world’s largest nations? There are entire groups at CBS that handle logistics for travel! Unless Bari Weiss has fired anyone who knows how to do that. Which, according to the Status podcast, she has.

    So while NBC and ABC had their anchors on the ground in Beijing, Dokoupil was broadcasting from a hotel over a thousand miles away. In the capital of an island whose status is a very touchy subject in China. In fact, Dokoupil and his crew got booted from the hotel because its management was worried about his comments about the conflict:

    A source told Status that the hotel management “was appalled” by the aggressive manner in which Dokoupil discussed the democratically governed island, which Beijing claims as its own, as Trump was meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

    So to sum up, CBS couldn’t get their anchor within a thousand miles – literally – of where the real action is because they screwed up one of the most basic parts of international travel. Then the anchor got booted out of his hotel and had to find another location from which to broadcast his regular evening news because he almost caused an international incident talking about something that everyone in news and politics knows you have to be very careful talking about.

    […] Speaking of CBS, this upcoming week will see the end of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The reasons for its cancellation remain mysterious. It remains the highest rated late-night show, yet CBS pulled the plug for allegedly financial reasons. No one has yet proven for sure that the cancellation happened because David Ellison wanted to get on Donald Trump’s good side so he could get approval for the big Paramount-Warner Brothers Discovery merger. But between the timing and Colbert being on top when he was taken out, it is an inescapable conclusion.

    Anyway, because we mentioned Letterman earlier: he was a guest on Thursday night’s episode, where he and Colbert went old school by throwing shit off the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater. As fan-servicey nostalgia goes, it was really great: [video]

  81. says

    New Yorker link

    “The End of Refugee Resettlement”

    “What happened when the Trump Administration turned its back on the world’s most vulnerable.” By Annie Hylton

    Trigger warning for descriptions of violence and of other forms of mistreatment.

    On a brisk morning this past fall, I took a taxi up the sloped roads of a densely populated neighborhood in the eastern part of Amman, the capital of Jordan. The neighborhood, called Jabal al-Joufeh, was historically home to merchants, politicians, and poets. More recently, it has become an informal settlement for refugee families.

    A Sudanese woman, Hiba, who wore a full-length navy dress and a leopard-print head scarf, greeted my car on the street. She ushered me up a flight of stairs to the one-bedroom home that she shared with her husband, Ibrahim, and their three children. (Both names are pseudonyms.) The living area, tidy and sparsely furnished, was lined with several mattresses; it doubled as the children’s bedroom. The insulation was poor, and the home had no heat. […]

    “We had some furniture that we sold because we assumed we were not going to spend another winter in Jordan,” Hiba told me. A portable heater, a gas cylinder, sofas, and carpets—all had recently been unloaded. Ibrahim entered the room, limping slightly—the result of an injury he’d sustained in Sudan […]

    The family belongs to Sudan’s Nuba minority, a Black, ethnically diverse group of some three million people indigenous to the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan, an oil-rich, agricultural region next to Darfur. Various armed groups have long vied for control of the area, and have been accused of engaging in a campaign of atrocities against the Nuba and other communities there. In 2013, Hiba and Ibrahim survived an attack that killed some of their family members; they were displaced several times.

    Ibrahim, whose legs were severely beaten in the incident, was unable to access proper medical treatment, and was in unrelenting pain. The family weighed their options. […] The prospects in Jordan seemed better. There, the family would be able to register with the United Nations Refugee Agency, or U.N.H.C.R., which could help them gain access to medical care and other services, and potentially refer them for resettlement in a third country.

    Jordan has long been a magnet for refugees fleeing wars in the surrounding region, hosting millions of Palestinians, Syrians, Iraqis, Yemenis, Sudanese, and Somalis. Many see Jordan as a way station to permanent resettlement in Canada, the United States, or Europe, where the economic opportunities are better. But the bureaucracy of resettlement can stretch on for years, and by the early twenty-tens Jordan had one of the largest per-capita refugee populations on earth. (A tiny fraction of refugees worldwide are ever permanently resettled.) It began to implement policies to curb the influx. Unbeknownst to Hiba, the government had asked U.N.H.C.R. to suspend registering asylum seekers who arrived in Jordan after January 23, 2019. She and her family arrived on January 24th of that year, meaning that they had no viable path to resettlement through the agency. Within months, their visas lapsed. Since then, they have been living without legal status, financial aid, or health insurance.

    Ibrahim’s injuries prevent him from working, so Hiba supports the household, often picking up private cleaning jobs […] A recent gig turned out to be a setup; when she arrived to clean the home, two men were waiting for her, and tried to grope and rape her—a common experience for refugee women […]

    Black refugees in Jordan have described widespread racially motivated attacks and discrimination. This is true for adults and children alike. Amar, who is nine years old, has been hit and bullied at school; once, a classmate strangled him. Recently, Hiba told me, he was walking to the neighborhood pharmacy when he was attacked and robbed by a group of locals. He screamed and broke free, but Hiba said that, afterward, he started wetting the bed at night and praying that he would die. “Why did God create me Black?” he would ask her. “Is this punishment?”

    […] In June, 2023, the family received a lifeline. A Sudanese acquaintance in Jordan informed them about an organization that helps refugees resettle in the United States. It was called the International Refugee Assistance Project. Hiba completed IRAP’s online form, and about eight months later, after several interviews, IRAP selected the family’s case for review and referral into the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. […]

    In December, 2024, the International Organization for Migration, a U.N. agency that works with the State Department to process refugee-resettlement cases, called the family for an interview. The vetting process to become a refugee in the U.S. is among the most robust and painstaking immigration procedures in the world. The interview, which covered their family history, claim for refugee status, and biographical information, was meant to be followed by another with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, as well as various medical and security screenings and a final orientation about U.S. culture. […]

    On the morning of January 21, 2025, Hiba received a phone call from a friend. President Donald Trump, just hours into his second term, had issued an executive order titled “Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program.” The policy suspended entry for all refugees and halted decisions on refugee applications; it also caused federal agencies to freeze millions of dollars in funding for resettlement. Hiba felt her body enter a state of shock […]

    chaos ensued. More than a hundred thousand people had been conditionally approved for resettlement, and many had been waiting for years. Refugee advocates and resettlement agencies called the order arbitrary, capricious, and illegal. The Refugee Act, passed by Congress, with bipartisan support, in 1980, requires the President to consult with lawmakers when establishing a ceiling for refugee admissions each year, based on humanitarian concerns. […]

    Federal agencies stopped processing refugee cases almost immediately. More than twelve thousand people whose trips had already been scheduled had their flights cancelled. The order stranded them indefinitely, sometimes in life-threatening conditions. […]

    In the lead-up to the suspension, IRAP had more than two hundred and fifty clients in Jordan. It scrambled to figure out what to do. Elisa Vari, a senior staff attorney based in Amman, told me that she had been expecting “delays, increased scrutiny, and security checks,” but that the reality—a “complete and indefinite halt”—was far worse than she feared. “It seemed too cruel,” she said. […]

    In 2024, more than a hundred thousand refugees were admitted to the U.S., mostly escaping violence and instability in Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. […] Without the U.S. program, “there are very, very few options,” Kurt Bonz, irap’s Jordan country director, told me. During Trump’s first term, Bonz explained, when the U.S. stepped back from refugee resettlement, “other countries stepped forward significantly.” Canada and several European countries, for instance, took in thousands more people. Now, Bonz continued, many of those same countries have reduced quotas or tightened criteria. In Europe, especially, several far-right and nationalist parties have made electoral gains on anti-immigrant platforms, including in Germany, France, Austria, and Italy. […]

    Trump has accused refugees and immigrants of “poisoning the blood of our country,” of being terrorists and criminals, of being freeloaders who “contribute nothing.” In fact, a recent study published by the Department of Health and Human Services found that, between 2005 and 2019, refugees and asylees paid more in taxes—an estimated five hundred and eighty-one billion dollars—than they cost in government expenditures. […]

    A country-wide resettlement network of nonprofit organizations, many of them faith-based, work with employers, schools, landlords, and state and local governments to help newly arrived refugees integrate. […]

    Nearly three weeks after Trump suspended the refugee program, he issued another executive order, “Addressing Egregious Actions of the Republic of South Africa,” calling for a new resettlement program exclusively for Afrikaners, the primarily white descendants of European colonists in South Africa. […]

    In February 2025, IRAP filed a class-action lawsuit, Pacito v. Trump, on behalf of a group of refugees and several U.S.-based organizations whose funding to provide resettlement services was frozen. […] In June, Trump issued a proclamation barring or restricting U.S. entry for certain nationals, including those from Sudan, Somalia, and Afghanistan, claiming that it was necessary to protect the country against terrorist threats. In December, he expanded the ban, which now covers thirty-nine countries […]

    Before coming to Jordan, Hiba and Ibrahim lived as subsistence farmers, growing corn in a village in Abu Karshola, in the foothills of the Nuba Mountains. The Nuba people in Abu Karshola have been systematically attacked by the Arab-controlled government in Khartoum and its allied militias for decades. In 1992, Bashir’s regime declared jihad against the Nuba […]

    Several men entered Hiba and Ibrahim’s hut. With the butts of their rifles, they beat Ibrahim’s head, genitals, and knees, tearing his cruciate ligaments. Several of them gang-raped Hiba as Ibrahim watched. Hiba and Ibrahim could tell that the men belonged to an Arab militia, likely the R.S.F. […]

    Hiba, who was pregnant, temporarily lost consciousness. After the attack, she and Ibrahim went to the home of his parents, only to discover that their hut had been reduced to ruins, and that they had been burned alive. Corpses were scattered across the village. Hiba’s family lived farther away; she and Ibrahim weren’t able to check on them before they had to flee. They still don’t know if her relatives survived.

    In a villager’s truck, the couple escaped to neighboring North Kordofan, to a camp for internally displaced people. There, Hiba bled through her skirt and had a miscarriage. The camp was rife with illnesses, including cholera […] Eventually, they were able to relocate to Khartoum. […]

    Meanwhile, Ibrahim’s health deteriorated. He had difficulty moving because of his leg injuries and had developed kidney problems, likely related to his ailments at the camp; at one point, he weighed less than ninety pounds. One night, when he was at work, a group of men broke in and attacked him with knives. […]

    One recent Sunday morning, I met Vari, the senior staff attorney, and Ra’ed Almasri, a casework manager, at irap’s Jordan offices. We packed into Almasri’s car and drove an hour and a half into the desert, to the Zaatari refugee camp. Zaatari, which is less than ten miles from the Syrian border, was established in 2012 to accommodate refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war. At its peak, the camp housed some two hundred thousand people. [snipped the details describing the history of the camp, and the current conditions]

    […] IRAP has struggled to resettle any of its Jordan clients who had been in the U.S. pipeline. […]
    [I snipped personal experiences]

    Now even refugees who are already living in the U.S. may be subjected to “re-vetting” procedures. This winter, during the Trump Administration’s immigration-enforcement surge in Minnesota, more than a hundred refugees were arrested, detained, transferred to facilities as far away as Texas, and interrogated. […] Courts have temporarily blocked this re-vetting effort, but refugee advocates are expecting the Department of Homeland Security to try to find workarounds. […]

    With nearly all resettlement options foreclosed, many IRAP clients are now living on the margins. [I snipped personal experiences]

    IRAP had previously referred clients in these circumstances to a nonprofit called the Center for Victims of Torture, which is based in the U.S. but has extensive operations overseas. […]

    When Trump returned to office, Osama Ahmad Al-Mohammad, who ran Jordan’s C.V.T. programming, received a stop-work order from the State Department. […]

    [I snipped personal stories]

    Bridget Crawford, director of law and policy at Immigration Equality, a U.S.-based nonprofit, told me, “It’s really being lost in the political narrative what’s at stake.” Crawford’s team had participated in a Biden-era pilot program meant to help vulnerable L.G.B.T.Q.+ people resettle in the U.S. One of the people they’d referred was a transgender Somali woman living in Kenya. She was an aspiring makeup artist and had recently escaped a forced-conversion center, where she was beaten, burned, and repeatedly raped. Her resettlement interview was approaching when refugee processing was suspended. Crawford’s team received news shortly afterward that she was murdered in an apparent anti-trans attack.

    […] Recently, I checked in with Hiba via a WhatsApp call. Her younger son has developed Bell’s palsy; she and Ibrahim can’t afford the cost of the specialized care he requires. They have also received an eviction notice; for months, they have been unable to pay rent and would have to vacate their home in two weeks. They weren’t sure where they would go. It was the holy month of Ramadan, and the family gathered in the evenings for their daily prayers. Every night was the same prayer: “Oh, God, we pray to be safe and to be in a place where we can be happy and help our children make up for what they’ve missed.”

  82. Pierce R. Butler says

    Lynna @ # 77, quoting Lisa Needham at DKos: That’s over 7 million people who are going to die at the hands of Trump and Musk.

    Adolf and Heinrich will feel so jealous.

  83. says

    In conjunction with @82 Pierce R. Butler’s insight on Lisa Needham’s warning:

    https://digbysblog.net/2026/05/16/what-now/
    Morris: We’re getting to the point where the structural bias in basically every electoral institution at the federal level is significantly overweighting Republican votes, just by the fact of where they live or who’s in charge of drawing the maps.
    That’s Paul Krugman and G. Elliott Morris about the redistricting mess
    Digby: I have my own theory which is that “the economy” is often a proxy for people’s feelings about society in general and when they feel that everything has gone off the rails, they blame it on the economy. It’s the language all Americans have in common. But who knows?

    DW founder of the Omnigma Organizations: For years I have carefully, thoughtfully observed the absurd confusion around the use of the term: economy.
    » The magat plutocrats say economy and all they mean is the stock market and the trillions floating into their safe, isolated world.
    » The mainslime media just parrots what the magat plutocrats say the economy is, without any consideration beyond what they are fed.
    » The populace exists in a world where the economy refers to the ever accelerating gap between what the magat plutocrats steal from them (low wages, no job security and ever-escalating prices) and their own real-world economy of food deserts, poor quality healthcare at profiteer corporation prices and increasing devastation of the environment in which they must live.

    I have and will continue to posit that this nation is in a Death Spiral for the populace, while the wealthy engage in rape and pillage and enjoy untouchable luxury.

  84. Reginald Selkirk says

    Chick-fil-A franchisee sued by US government for religious discrimination

    The US government is suing a Chick-fil-A franchisee for allegedly denying an employee’s request to take Saturdays off work for religious reasons.

    The lawsuit claims that Hatch Trick Inc, the franchisee, violated federal law by denying an employee’s request to refrain from work on Saturdays for religious reasons.

    The employee was a member of the United Church of God, which observes the Sabbath on that day, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) said in a press release.
    …

  88. Reginald Selkirk says

    Humans in The Andes Have Evolved a Strange Digestive Superpower

    … This population was among the first to domesticate the now-ubiquitous potato thousands of years ago – which could explain why their bodies show evidence of an enhanced ability to digest starch.
    …
    Now, the team has expanded their research to include genomes from around the world – and found that the Quechua people of highland Indigenous Andean ancestry seem better equipped for starch digestion than almost any other population on Earth…

  90. JM says

    Rawstory: Gulf states that bankrolled Trump’s son-in-law are now furious they got burned: report

    Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE funneled enormous sums into Affinity Partners, Kushner’s Florida-based investment vehicle, in hopes of securing White House influence and healthy portfolio returns, the outlet reported. Instead, Trump launched a war on Iran that all three states had opposed, leaving them with little to show for the arrangement.

    “The investments in Jared’s firm were meant to anchor ties with the Trump family,” Sanam Vakil, who heads the Middle East and North Africa portfolio at Chatham House, the London-based think tank, told the outlet. “The Gulf states likely felt very angered, if not let down, that the U.S. didn’t fully consider their security needs.”
    Cinzia Bianco, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, warned the fallout could prove lasting. The Gulf states are “grappling with the fact that their investments didn’t get them influence on something that’s really existential for them,” she said, adding that “this will result in them rethinking their investments and pledges going forward.”

    These middle eastern monarchies are so used to family based government and influence buying that they didn’t even really think about it when Kushner made investment pitches to them. They just assumed they were buying their way into Trump’s sphere. It didn’t work out that way, Kushner sometimes does footwork for Trump but he he doesn’t have much access and no control over Trump’s decisions.

  91. JM says

    The Guardian: Wood burning is reintroducing lead pollution into the air, US scientists find

    The research by academics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst began by analysing samples of particle pollution from five suburban and rural towns in the north-east US. They looked for tiny particles of potassium that are given off when wood is burned and also particles containing lead.

    Samples from seven winters revealed associations between potassium and lead. When there were more wood burning particles in a daily sample, there was more lead in the air, with clear straight-line relationships in four of the five towns.

    This is still under study and the mechanism is not entirely clear but it lines up with the obvious. When lead was allowed in the air and water the trees soaked it up, when those trees are burned the lead is released.
    No place studied so far has lead above the legal limit in the US but any exposure to lead is unhealthy.
    Depressing problem for those trying to use wood for winter heating.

  93. Reginald Selkirk says

    Trump-backed challenger defeats Republican senator who voted to convict president

    A Trump-backed challenger has defeated a two-term Republican senator who voted to convict the president at his 2021 impeachment trial.

    Congresswoman Julia Letlow will advance to a runoff next month, ousting incumbent Bill Cassidy, who President Donald Trump branded a “disloyal disaster” ahead of Louisiana’s high-stakes contest on Saturday.

    State treasurer John Fleming, another Trump-aligned candidate, also advanced to the Republican runoff for Louisiana’s Senate seat.

    The top two candidates, Letlow and Fleming, will face off again in late June as neither won a simple majority. The candidate who wins the runoff will then run against a Democratic candidate in the general election…

  95. JM says

    The Daily Beast: White House Reveals Secret New Hospital for Trump, 79

    The White House has unleashed a frantic new push to move ahead with construction on President Donald Trump’s ballroom, which they now say is also needed to give the aging president a “state-of-the-art hospital and medical facilities.”

    I suspected the hospital bit from the start. It’s hard for Trump to hid his medical problems when he has to leave the White House for most doctor’s trips. It’s possible that he wants to have a surgical center available in the White House so he can get various procedures done without having to tell the public or give up any power.

    Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche delivered the latest startling revelation in a court filing late Thursday that sounded as if much of it had been pulled straight from one of the 79-year-old president’s Truth Social tirades. It hailed the planned $400 million ballroom as a “gift to the People of the United States” that is being hampered only by preservationists suffering from “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

    “Plaintiff refused even to acknowledge the horrific seriousness of that planned massacre, calling it simply the ‘recent incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.’ Enough is enough,” a furious Blanche wrote in the latest court filing.

    Blanche and Trump are still trying for the sympathy vote here. Hopefully it has no impact on this case.

  96. says

    Pete Hegseth thinks the lawmakers who know the most about the military should have the least to say

    It is ironic as well as troubling that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently went on X to accuse Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., a decorated naval aviator who flew combat missions and served as a NASA astronaut, of improperly sharing privileged military information on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. [Yes, on Sunday. Today. Hegseth is still trying to silence a sitting US senator.]

    It’s ironic because Hegseth himself revealed classified information and compromised operational security last year by sharing sensitive targeting information with a journalist, as well as his wife and brother, over Signal chats regarding a U.S. bombing raid in Yemen. Kelly, on the other hand, in his “Face the Nation” appearance, merely repeated the general concern that U.S. weapons stores are being depleted due to the Iran war. Not only has that concern been reported in the media for weeks, but it has also been discussed with the defense secretary in open congressional hearings. [True]

    The “Signal Gate” defense secretary, whose own inspector general found that he mishandled classified information, should not be insinuating that Kelly’s public comments, such as “we’ve expended a lot of munitions,” violated any oath Kelly made, whether as a military officer or his Senate oath of office (senators do not take secrecy oaths, nor do they have security clearances). […]

    The defense secretary first targeted Kelly because he was one of the Senate Democrats who recorded a video reminding service members that they can disobey unlawful orders, and Hegseth declared that he was reducing Kelly’s rank and military pension. However, Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia temporarily enjoined the Pentagon from doing so.

    Alarmingly, Hegseth’s new attempt to mute his nemesis Kelly is part of the Pentagon’s larger effort to muzzle all of us military retirees, especially those with legislative power. […] the government argued that all military retirees have to essentially give up some of our free speech rights in order to retain the benefits we earned during long and honorable careers on active duty. Furthermore, the government argued that Kelly, instead of his speech being given even more protection due to his oversight role as a senator, should have fewer speech rights because his impact on the military could be greater.

    […] Clearly, the Trump administration, and Hegseth in particular, does not want its military narratives challenged by anyone who has the most credibility and experience to do so. [True]

    From the tenor of oral arguments, the D.C. Circuit seems poised to uphold Judge Leon’s ruling that Hegseth’s retaliatory attempt to censure Kelly and reduce his military pension was plainly unconstitutional.

    As for the “Face the Nation” interview, it seems clear that Kelly did not even come close to revealing any information that was gleaned from classified Pentagon briefings he was privy to as a member of the Senate Armed Service Committee. However, it’s important to mention that even if he did, that would be a matter for Congress to deal with, not the executive branch. […]

    Bravo to Kelly and other service members turned lawmakers who are willing to do their jobs despite harassment by those who’ve shown themselves willing to bend the law in an attempt to punish their political opponents.

  97. says

    WHO declares global health emergency over Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda

    “Though the virus is highly contagious, the outbreak does not meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency like COVID-19, according to the World Health Organization.”

    The World Health Organization declared the Ebola disease outbreak caused by a rare virus in Congo and neighboring Uganda a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday, after more than 300 suspected cases and 88 deaths.

    The WHO said the outbreak does not meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency like COVID-19, and advised against the closure of international borders.

    WHO said on X that a laboratory-confirmed case has also been reported in Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, which is about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from the outbreak’s epicenter in the eastern province of Ituri, suggesting a possible wider spread. […] other suspected cases have also been reported in North Kivu province […]

    WHO’s emergency declaration is meant to spur donor agencies and countries into action. By WHO’s standards, it shows the event is serious, there is a risk of international spread and it requires a coordinated international response.

    The global response to previous declarations has been mixed. In 2024, when the WHO declared mpox outbreaks in Congo and elsewhere in Africa a global emergency, experts at the time said it did little to get supplies like diagnostic tests, medicines and vaccines to affected countries quickly.

    It’s hard to treat a variant of Ebola

    Health authorities say the current outbreak, first confirmed on Friday, is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare variant of the Ebola disease that has no approved therapeutics or vaccines. Although more than 20 Ebola outbreaks have taken place in Congo and Uganda, this is only the third time the Bundibugyo virus has been detected.

    […] Conflict and migration complicate effort to track outbreak

    Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Director-General Dr. Jean Kaseya said Saturday that a high number of active cases remain in the community, particularly in Mongwalu, where the first cases were reported, “significantly complicating containment and contact tracing efforts.”

    […] “There are significant uncertainties to the true number of infected persons and geographic spread associated with this event at the present time. In addition, there is limited understanding of the epidemiological links with known or suspected cases,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

    The two cases in Uganda include one person whom officials said had traveled from Congo and died at a hospital in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, and another the WHO said had also traveled from Congo.

    The WHO said the high percentage of positive cases among samples tested, the spread to Kampala and Uganda and the clusters of deaths across Ituri “all point toward a potentially much larger outbreak than what is currently being detected and reported, with significant local and regional risk of spread.”

    Congo outbreak killed 50 before it was detected

    Kaseya said slow detection delayed the response and gave the virus time to spread.

    “This outbreak started in April. So far, we don’t know the index case. It means we don’t know how far is the magnitude of this outbreak,” Kaseya said […]

    […] The WHO said at least four deaths have been reported among healthcare workers who showed Ebola symptoms.

    Diagnostics and vaccines have been a major problem for Africa

    Shanelle Hall, principal adviser to the head of Africa CDC, told reporters Saturday that there were four therapeutics under consideration for the Bundibugyo virus, but no vaccine was being actively considered.

    A bigger issue is that even existing vaccines and therapeutics for other Ebola viruses are not manufactured in Africa. Africa’s struggle to get vaccines from richer countries during the COVID-19 pandemic spurred different efforts to accelerate its capacity to manufacture shots, but resources remain scarce.

    Kaseya said the demand for a vaccine for a rare virus like Bundibugyo, which is not as deadly as the Ebola Zaire prominent in Congo’s past outbreaks, has been the recurring issue in discussions with pharmaceutical companies over vaccine manufacturing, […]

  98. says

    Senate candidate says foreign truckers are making America’s roads unsafe. His own truckers have caused harm. By ProPublica

    A Georgia congressman running for one of the country’s most competitive U.S. Senate seats has vowed in social media posts and interviews to make America’s roads safer — by taking commercial driver’s licenses away from noncitizens.

    […] Collins, the owner of a trucking business and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives’ transportation committee, is one of the loudest champions of the Trump administration’s effort to revoke licenses from nearly 200,000 noncitizen commercial drivers, including thousands of truckers. The Trump administration has pushed the policy forward even though its own officials have written that there’s no empirical evidence to show that foreign truckers cause more crashes than truckers who are American citizens.

    At the same time, however, Collins has opposed rules that experts say actually would reduce the odds of serious crashes. Those rules could have required that Collins’ family business sink substantial money into new safety measures for its fleet. [!]

    Over the past 25 years, crashes involving truckers for Collins’ business killed five people and injured more than 50 people — including one woman who now needs around-the-clock care due to a severe brain injury — according to federal data, court filings, plaintiffs’ attorneys and police records.

    […] ProPublica’s analysis of federal motor vehicle data from the past two years shows that Collins’ business has a higher rate of unsafe driving and speeding violations per mile than the majority of trucking companies with substantial mileage. The analysis also shows that the company’s recent crash rate sits around the median of similar companies, while the rate of injury from those crashes sits in the top fifth.

    [I snipped details describing technologies and devices on trucks that limit crashes and damage.]

    […] “We want to be safe,” Collins said in one congressional hearing. “I don’t know of a trucking company out there that doesn’t want to be safe. And when they are not safe, they are taken off the road.”

    [I snipped details of Biden-era safety regulations that were proposed.]

    […] American Trucking Associations, which that year had expressed support for capping the speeds of trucks between 65 and 70 miles per hour. […]

    In 2025, the Trump administration withdrew the speed limiter proposal. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy celebrated the decision as one that would get “D.C. bureaucrats OUT of your trucks.”

    […] Some of Collins’ truckers have been involved in crashes because of their alleged failure to slow down, according to citations and police reports obtained by ProPublica. Over the past five years, three people hurt in those crashes have sued Collins’ fleet because its truckers allegedly failed to maintain a safe distance, leading them to cause crashes. […] [video]

    [I snipped details describing crashes in which Collin’s truck drivers were involved.]

    […] The data ProPublica reviewed showed that truckers have gotten into more than 90 crashes that have led to at least 51 injuries and five deaths since 2001.

    […] During a televised debate in April, just weeks before the May 19 Republican primary for the U.S. Senate race, Collins told viewers that his time in the trucking business had taught him how to work across the aisle in Washington, D.C. His political ads feature him behind the wheel of a rig, and his yard signs have a logo of an American flag in the shape of a semi.

    Yet his messaging about making roads safer centers on one main idea: getting noncitizen truckers off the road. […]

    Collins went one step further and used the trucker’s story to attack the politician he’s trying to unseat, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., for not being tough enough on immigration. […] but Collins failed to present evidence that noncitizen truckers make the roads less safe.

    In March, the Trump administration enacted its rule that could eventually revoke commercial licenses from nearly 200,000 noncitizen drivers. But according to the administration’s initial analysis of its own rule last year, “There is not sufficient evidence, derived from well-designed, rigorous, quantitative analyses, to reliably demonstrate a measurable empirical relationship” between a trucker’s citizenship status and safety outcomes.

    A letter from nearly 20 Democratic state attorneys general pointed out that the Trump administration cited only five fatal crashes last year that were caused by noncitizens with commercial driver’s licenses, out of more than 4,000 deaths involving CDL drivers nationwide. The letter said that the Trump administration’s rule presented “no facts” to support the claim that revoking thousands of licenses would “benefit public safety.” […]

  99. says

    About Trump’s library

    Who would have thought that Miami residents wouldn’t love Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sliding a multimillion-dollar parcel of the city’s land over to President Donald Trump for free so he could build his Bribe Library/Hotel/Airplane Hanger?

    The residents are suing under the emoluments clause, which you will no doubt recall came up a lot in Trump’s first term, back when we thought it actually mattered that the president took gifts from foreign leaders. The president is also forbidden from receiving any emoluments from a state as well, and a parcel of prime real estate worth at least $67 million is quite the gift.

    […] The lawsuit was sparked in part by Trump declaring that it isn’t going to be a library but rather “most likely going to be a hotel with a beautiful building underneath and a 747 Air Force One in the lobby.” In essence, Trump seems to have gotten some of the best real estate in Miami for free, ostensibly for a library that will really be a hotel—and DeSantis engineered the giant giveaway. [A hotel!?] […]

  100. says

    Washington Post link

    “Trump-backed prayer festival on National Mall draws thousands: ‘We welcome Jesus!’ ”

    A crowd of thousands, many in red, white and blue, transformed a block of the National Mall into an evangelical-style worship service Sunday morning at a White House-led, day-long prayer festival tied to the country’s 250th anniversary.

    “We welcome Jesus into this place!” one of the first performers at “Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving” belted from a stage with ivory-colored pillars evoking the neoclassical architecture of the capital’s federal buildings.

    The event, funded with millions in public dollars, is to feature Christian clergy, music and in-person and virtual appearances by multiple senior government officials, including President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and House Speaker Mike Johnson. Most of the scheduled speakers are politically conservative evangelical Protestants.

    […] Some scholars of U.S. religious history and critics of the Trump administration say Sunday’s event whitewashes a much more complex founding story. They also note that the United States is far more diverse today that it was 250 years ago, and point out that, amid much debate, the founders chose to keep religion at arm’s length from government in the Constitution.

    “The agenda for this ‘jubilee’ reads less like a traditional religious event and more like a program for the Church of Trump,” the government watchdog group Public Citizen said in a statement Friday. “This highly politicized mess is not what Congress envisioned a decade ago in passing legislation creating an official commission for the 250th anniversary.”

    […] The purpose, he [George Tillis IV, a 27-year-old missionary] said, was “to rededicate the country back to God, and every Christian should be involved.”

    […] The atmosphere early Sunday was akin to that of an evangelical Protestant worship service, with mostly middle-aged or older people in casual clothes, praying with their arms outstretched to the sky as Christian broadcasters did live shots from multilevel television sets.

    People described a variety of reasons for coming — to bring awareness to what they see as harassment of or disfavor toward conservative Christians, to pray for the country to repent for its sins, or to fortify what they call the Christian roots of the country — in particular against Islam or other faiths outside Christianity or Judaism.

    […] A who’s who of evangelicals long close to Trump, are scheduled to speak later Sunday. They include Franklin Graham, CEO of the humanitarian organization Samaritan’s Purse and son of evangelical icon Billy Graham; the Rev. Jonathan Falwell, son of Moral Majority and Liberty University founder Jerry Falwell; and Christian Broadcasting Network President Gordon Robertson, son of Christian media titan Pat Robertson.

    Pop culture figures scheduled to appear include actress and podcaster Sadie Carroway Robertson, who appeared for years on the reality television show “Duck Dynasty,” and Jonathan Roumie, star of the television drama “The Chosen,” which is about Jesus.

    A few protests are planned, including one by the Freedom From Religion Foundation — a mostly secular group focused on church-state separation — and Faithful America, a Christian group focused on opposing religious nationalism. The organizations said they would erect a 15-foot-tall balloon of “a golden calf with a Trump-like visage” a few blocks away.

    Lisa Wyzkiewicz, 66, of Jeannette, Pennsylvania, planned to come to the event in a bus chartered by her church. She said that Trump is the “most Christian” president in her lifetime and that she was strongly encouraged by seeing more prayer in public life.

    […] In recent years, she said, she has come to see abortion and transgender rights as evidence that the nation had gone off its path. Listening to Charlie Kirk, Eric Metaxas and other public figures argue that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, she concluded that the federal government needs to be much more influenced by the faith.

    “They should almost be tied together,” she said. “I love Jesus, I love my country, and I really want us to come back to God.”

  102. Reginald Selkirk says

    Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt Fails to Read Room on AI, Gets Booed into Oblivion

    Here’s a rare news event that hasn’t occurred in, gosh, a week: a university commencement speech was greeted with hostility because the speaker praised AI.

    In fairness, the speaker, ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt was at least trying to thread the needle, vaguely empathizing with students. “There is a fear in your generation that the future has already been written, that the machines are coming, that the jobs are evaporating, that the climate is breaking, that politics are fractured, and that you are inheriting a mess that you did not create,” he said.

    But, as in the case of real estate executive Gloria Caulfield, whose pro-AI speech one week ago triggered an almost identical reaction, it’s easy to see how Schmidt’s words could be perceived as arrogant to a crowd that had heard the AI-inevitability message before a million times. He can be heard telling the crowd of young people they will “help shape artificial intelligence” and that, “If you don’t care about science, that’s okay, because AI is gonna touch everything else as well.”
    …

  103. Militant Agnostic says

    StevoR @92

    Jesus Haploid Christ what a fucking loon – maybe even crazier that Peter Theil

  104. says

    Republicans were against a gas tax holiday—before they were for it

    Trump on Monday said he wants to temporarily suspend the federal gas tax to try to lower fuel prices for Americans. He told CBS News that a gas tax holiday is “a great idea” and that he is “going to take off the gas tax for a period of time, and when gas goes down, we’ll let it phase back in.”

    Of course, the gas tax holiday would do little to help the pain Americans are feeling at the pump, as the 18-cent-per-gallon tax is a pittance compared to the more than $1.50 per gallon of gasoline rise that Americans have been hit with since Trump launched his ill-planned war in Iran.

    And it would likely hurt Americans more than help, as the gas tax goes toward highway repair projects across the country, and underfunding those projects would lead to deteriorating roads that damage drivers’ cars. [!]

    […] sycophantic congressional Republicans who constantly embarrass themselves as they try to stay in Trump’s good graces hopped right onboard with his plan, going as far as to immediately introduce legislation to make Trump’s gas tax holiday a reality.

    […] a number of Republicans who are now for suspending the gas tax were vehemently against the idea when former President Joe Biden suggested it back in 2022. Back then, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine and surging demand for fuel as the COVID-19 pandemic faded led to skyrocketing gas prices.

    For example, GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri introduced legislation on Monday to suspend the gas tax after Trump suggested it.

    “President Trump has proposed to suspend the federal gas tax and he’s exactly right,” Hawley wrote in a news release. “American workers and families deserve immediate relief and this legislation will do just that.”

    But in 2022, Hawley said that Biden’s call to suspend the gas tax was “one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard of.”

    […] Sen. Mike Lee, the Utah Republican who has gone all in on MAGA, also supported Trump’s idea for a gas tax holiday.

    “The federal gasoline tax was introduced to build the interstate highway system. That system is now built. We should now repeal the federal gasoline tax and let each state maintain its portion of the interstate highway system—with its own revenue—as was the plan from the beginning,” Lee wrote in a post on X on Monday.

    [Whoa. That sounds like a really bad idea Senator Lee.]

    And what did Lee say about suspending the gas tax in 2022 when Biden suggested it?

    Back then, he called suspending the tax “treacherous” and “wrong.”

    [I snipped more examples.] […] the surging gas prices in 2022 were not Biden’s fault […]

    In 2026, skyrocketing fuel prices are undeniably due to Trump’s idiotic decision to launch a war in Iran that he has no idea how to get out of. Polls show that Americans blame Trump for their gas price woes, and plan to punish his party for it in the fall.

    That’s why Republicans have all of a sudden come around on suspending the gas tax.

  107. says

    Midair jet collision forces lockdown at Idaho Air Force base show

    “The crash occurred during the second day of the Mountain Home Air Force Base Gunfighters Skies Air Show.”

    The Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho was locked down Sunday following a midair collision during a local air show that sent two fighter jets crashing to the ground.

    The incident occurred about 2 miles northwest of the base during the second day of the Gunfighter Skies Air Show, the base said on social media. […]

    The base, home to the U.S. Air Force’s 366th Fighter Wing, known as the “Gunfighters,” announced the lockdown at 12:30 p.m. local time.

    Video circulating on social media showed two fighter jets colliding midair before spinning toward the ground in a fiery crash amid black plumes of smoke. Four parachutes were visible deploying near the crash site.

    Another video shared on Instagram showed spectators at an aircraft hangar surrounded by planes, and black smoke from the crash rising in the background.

    “I heard someone next to me say ‘We are down,’ I turned around and saw four parachutes coming down, then black smoke appeared,” the witness who filmed the video told NBC News. “We are currently still on the airshow field and not allowed to leave at this time.”

    […] Mountain Home police announced Sunday the air show was canceled and warned the public to avoid traveling to the base. […]

    This is a developing story.

  113. birgerjohansson says

    House of El :

    “Trump Offered Putin Amnesty, 36 Countries Said NO – Europe Builds War Crimes Tribunal.”

    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=o-gC8GU3gzk
    Europe is building international law mechanisms without waiting for USA. GOOD! 🍾

    (I discovered House of El at Youtube often digs up interesting news not well covered by traditional media or social media. And it is nice to be spared the clickbait/ exaggeration treatment )

  115. birgerjohansson says

    ^ ^ ^
    The sodium ion battery by CATL is claimed to have lower cost, significantly better life span and better winter performance than extant batteries.
    And there is a potential for used batteries in the home storage niche.
    (Usual caveat about exaggerated PR)

  118. Reginald Selkirk says

    Clark sets WNBA record after stat change, then sets it again

    A statistical correction issued Sunday awarded Caitlin Clark with two more assists for her game against the Washington Mystics on Friday night, pushing her total from eight to 10 and helping her set a WNBA career record in the process.

    After earning the record in a strange manner, the third-year Indiana Fever guard went out and extended it Sunday.

    “That had to be a first, that’s a good point,” Clark said with a chuckle.

    Against the Mystics, Clark had her WNBA-record 11th career game with at least 20 points and 10 assists, breaking a tie with Courtney Vandersloot. Clark pushed that number to 12 in an 89-78 win over the Seattle Storm on Sunday with 21 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds in only 24 minutes. It was her fourth straight game with 20-plus points and five-plus assists, tied for the longest streak to start a season in WNBA history…

  124. Reginald Selkirk says

    Did Jesus Exist?

    Frank Zindler – American Atheists
    This piece is reprinted from the Summer 1998 edition of American Atheist magazine.

    For most of my life, I had taken it for granted that Jesus, although certainly not a god, was nevertheless an historical personage – perhaps a magician skilled in hypnosis. To be sure, I knew that some of the world’s greatest scholars had denied his existence. Nevertheless, I had always more or less supposed that it was improbable that so many stories could have sprung up about someone who had never existed. Even in the case of other deities, such as Zeus, Thor, Isis, and Osiris, I had always taken it for granted that they were merely deified human heroes: men and women who lived in the later stages of prehistory – persons whose reputations got better and better the longer the time elapsed after their deaths. Gods, like fine wines, I supposed, improved with age.

    About a decade ago, however, I began to reexamine the evidence for the historicity of Jesus. I was astounded at what I didn’t find. In this article, I would like to show how shaky the evidence is regarding the alleged existence of a would-be messiah named Jesus. I now feel it is more reasonable to suppose he never existed. It is easier to account for the facts of early Christian history if Jesus were a fiction than if he once were real…

  125. says

    Trump moves to withdraw $10 billion lawsuit against IRS amid reports of new ‘slush fund’

    “The president’s civil case against the IRS is likely over. What we don’t yet know is what kind of deal precipitated the withdrawal.”

    In recent weeks, there’s been ample reporting from multiple news organizations that Donald Trump was preparing to withdraw his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service. We now know those reports were true.

    In a court filing made official on Monday morning, the president’s lawyers said their clients, including Trump, his family business and two of his adult sons, are voluntarily dismissing their civil suit.

    The court filing, however, did not refer to or disclose any details about a potential settlement with the administration.

    The underlying case stems from an incident that occurred during Trump’s first term, when a former IRS contractor named Charles Littlejohn gained access to the president’s tax returns and shared the documents the Republican had been desperate to hide. Littlejohn was caught, charged, convicted and sent to prison.

    Earlier this year, however, Trump decided the criminal penalty wasn’t enough. […]

    More than three months later, as settlement talks between the agency and the Republican’s lawyers took shape, money for “charity” didn’t appear to be the principal goal. According to multiple reports, Trump instead envisioned a $1.7 billion fund for those who were allegedly harmed by the Biden administration’s “weaponization” of the legal system.

    The fund, which would have little oversight, was immediately condemned by congressional Democrats and legal experts as a “slush fund” that would be used to benefit the president’s political allies, including Jan. 6 rioters. […]

    It is not yet clear whether, and to what extent, this reported fund was part of Team Trump’s decision to withdraw the civil suit as this week got underway.

  126. birgerjohansson says

    Meidas Touch at Youtube claim another US plane may have been shot down.
    The absence of confirmation is not in itself debunking the claim, as central command under Hegseth is known to lie.
    I just wanted to put it out there in case someone has more definite information one way or another.
    .
    Also, take the opportunity to watch the very last TV episodes with Stephen Colbert.

  128. Reginald Selkirk says

    Pop star Shakira is acquitted in a Spanish tax fraud case

    A Spanish court acquitted Shakira in a tax fraud case, ordering the government to return more than 55 million euros ($64 million) in wrongly imposed fines, a court document seen Monday by The Associated Press said.

    The decision follows years of tax troubles in Spain for the Colombian superstar.

    The ruling relates to a dispute over the 2011 tax year in which Spanish authorities failed to prove that the singer was a resident of Spain, the Madrid-based court said in its decision.

    For a person to be considered a tax resident in Spain, she must spend more than 183 days in the country.

    Spanish authorities were only able to prove that Shakira lived in Spain that year for a total of 163 days, the court said, ordering the Treasury to reimburse the singer the tax paid plus interest…

  130. says

    Campaign-related news, as summarized by Steve Benen:

    * We’re one day out from one of the nation’s most closely watched U.S. House primaries, with incumbent Rep. Thomas Massie facing Trump-backed Ed Gallrein in a GOP primary in Kentucky. Ad spending in this race has made it the most expensive House primary in U.S. history. [Sources: Wall Street Journal and Politico]

    * On a related note, on the final day of campaigning before Kentucky’s primaries, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is hitting the trail with Gallrein. There is no modern precedent for a sitting Pentagon chief making in-person campaign stops for a candidate for public office. [Source: New York Times]

    * As for Massie, after the incumbent congressman received support from Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, Donald Trump, who’s desperate to destroy Massie, threatened to support a primary campaign against the Colorado congresswoman. [Source: USA Today]

    * With Tennessee Republicans approving a new gerrymandered map specifically targeting Rep. Steve Cohen’s district, the Democratic incumbent announced he’ll retire, though he left open the possibility of reversing course if the state’s new map is struck down in court. [Source: Roll Call]

    * The latest New York Times/Siena poll found Democrats with an 11-point advantage over Republicans on the congressional generic ballot. The same national survey pointed to an enthusiasm gap: The Times found that Democratic voters were 8 points more likely to say they were “almost certain” they would vote in the fall. [Source: New York Times]

    * Virginia Democrats turned to the U.S. Supreme Court after the state Supreme Court rejected a voter-approved redistricting plan. To the surprise of no one, that appeal did not go well. [Source: MS NOW]

    In the Supreme Court’s latest action that helps Republicans ahead of the midterms, the justices rejected Virginia Democrats’ emergency bid to save the state’s redistricting effort that voters approved last month.

    Friday’s order follows the GOP-appointed majority’s recent Voting Rights Act ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, which prompted Republican-led states to try to make their maps redder ahead of November’s elections. Earlier this week, the high court majority granted emergency relief to Alabama Republicans who cited Callais as justification to use a congressional map that was previously deemed discriminatory.

    The rejection of Virginia’s appeal is another court win for Republicans in this election season because the state’s voters had approved a process for new congressional districts that were poised to deliver more seats to Democrats […]

    * And in Connecticut, former New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart, one of the leading Republican gubernatorial candidates, suspended her campaign last week. As The Hartford Courant reported, the exit came “moments after new documentation surfaced of tens of thousands of dollars of apparent personal purchases charged to her city credit card, including photographs of her wearing clothing identical to items she billed to the city as office supplies.”

  131. says

    Thanks, Reginald @129. That’s good article from NPR describing the benefits of adding beans to one’s diet.

    In other news: U.S. hantavirus response led in part by conspiratorial penile implant specialist

    [I snipped many examples of unqualified officials in the Trump administration.]

    […] Though Christine [Dr. Brian Christine], who came highly recommended by Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, is not well known nationally, he recently spoke at the Trump administration’s press conference on the U.S. response to the hantavirus outbreak.

    Viewers probably didn’t fully appreciate why Christine was a provocative choice to speak on behalf of the administration. CNN reported:

    Before he joined the Trump administration last year, Christine was an Alabama-based urologist who specialized in penile implants. He has little public health experience and a history of far-right commentary and promoting conspiracy theories. He’s said the Covid pandemic led to a wider government plot to control people, compared the Biden administration to Nazi Germany and suggested the Covid vaccine had little effect in stopping the pandemic.

    He once hosted a YouTube show called “Erection Connection,” a professional YouTube series on erectile dysfunction for fellow urologists.

    Yes, the guy who’s helping lead the U.S. response to the hantavirus outbreak is a conspiratorial penile implant specialist.

    At the press conference, Christine assured Americans that the risk of hantavirus to the general public “remains very, very low.” That certainly sounds good, though given the circumstances, perhaps the Trump administration could find someone else with more credibility to make such a declaration?

  132. says

    Pardoned Jan. 6 rioter arrested again in Texas, extending brutal pattern

    “Trump’s pardons for Jan. 6 rioters were already indefensible. As many of them run into fresh trouble with the law, the move continues to look even worse.”

    Related video at the link.

    […] the relevance of the political violence hasn’t faded at all, especially as many of the rioters who received pardons from Donald Trump run into fresh trouble with the law. […] Law & Crime reported:

    A Jan. 6 rioter from Texas who was pardoned by President Donald Trump and claimed he had “completely changed” since the 2021 U.S. Capitol attack was arrested Sunday and charged with deadly conduct after allegedly threatening a churchgoer with a gun.

    Ryan Nichols, 36, is accused of displaying and grabbing the weapon, a pistol, while threatening and confronting a man over a “prior disagreement” in the parking lot of Oak Grove Baptist Church in Harleton, according to local police officials.

    If Nichols’ name sounds at all familiar, it might be because the Texan recently announced plans to run for Congress as a Republican, though he withdrew from the race soon after.

    He’s the same man who pleaded guilty in 2023 to crimes he committed on Jan. 6 telling a judge he was “very sorry” for the “bad choice” that he made in early 2021. Nichols further claimed that he had “completely changed” in the wake of the attack.

    Three years later, he’s due back in court in early June […]

    Just days before Nichols was taken into custody, law enforcement officials in Florida announced a prostitution, human trafficking and child predator sting, which led to the arrest of two more Jan. 6 participants who had received pardons from the incumbent president. [!!]

    Two weeks before that, a pardoned Jan. 6 rioter reached a plea agreement with prosecutors in North Carolina over charges of sexual exploitation of a minor and possessing sexually explicit images of children. [!!]

    Those developments come three weeks after a different Jan. 6 rioter who received a presidential pardon was sentenced to four years in prison on child pornography charges. Earlier in the month, a different Jan. 6 rioter, who was also rescued by Trump, was sentenced to life in prison for molesting two children. [!!]

    Around the same time, another pardoned Jan. 6 rioter was charged with threatening a police officer who served at the Capitol. This came roughly a month after the same man was arrested in Minneapolis after destroying an ice sculpture that was outside the state Capitol.

    Unfortunately, this is just the start of a larger list of insurrectionists who ran into trouble with the law after receiving clemency from Trump.

    In February, for example, a different pardoned Jan. 6 rioter was convicted in Florida of child molestation and exposing himself to children. [!!] (The man, Andrew Paul Johnson, attempted to bribe one of his victims by saying the administration would send him money as part of restitution for those who attacked the Capitol.)

    [I snipped most of the list.]

    […] What’s more, this growing list doesn’t include John Banuelos, a Jan. 6 rioter who was arrested in October on kidnapping and sexual assault charges. Banuelos wasn’t pardoned, but he saw his Jan. 6 criminal case dropped by the Justice Department the day after Trump’s second inauguration.

    To be sure, when making a list of the worst things the president has done since returning to power, the competition is fierce, but his decision to pardon Jan. 6 rioters, including violent felons, is near the top. But the fact that so many of these recipients continue to run into legal trouble makes Trump’s move look even worse.

    In light of the astonishing number of insurrectionists who have either been accused of or convicted of crimes after receiving a presidential pardon, the editorial board of the Times recently published a notable opinion piece that argued, “The American public deserves to understand the mayhem that the Jan. 6 pardons have unleashed.”

    Given the circumstances, the appeal was hardly unreasonable.

  133. says

    Followup to comment 125.

    Justice Department announces $1.7B fund to compensate Trump allies in deal to drop IRS suit. By Associated Press

    The Trump administration on Monday announced the creation a $1.7 billion fund to compensate allies of the Republican president who believe they were mistreated by the Biden administration Justice Department.

    The “Anti-Weaponization Fund” was announced by the Justice Department as part of a deal to resolve President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns.

    Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in announcing the fund in a statement that it was “a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.”

    Democrats and government watchdogs immediately pledged to fight what they called a “corrupt” and unprecedented resolution, warning that the arrangement would unjustly enrich people close to the president with taxpayer dollars and open the door to meritless claims of political persecution.

    […] The fund would represent not only a highly unorthodox resolution but also a further demonstration of the administration’s eagerness to reward allies who before Trump came to power were investigated and in some cases charged and convicted. Most notably, the president on his first day back in office pardoned or commuted the sentences of supporters who rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. [See comment 132] His Justice Department since then has approved payouts to supporters entangled in the Trump-Russia investigation and investigated and prosecuted some of his perceived adversaries.

    “This case is nothing but a racket designed to take $1.7 billion of taxpayer dollars out of the Treasury and pour it into a huge slush fund for Trump at DOJ to hand out to his private militia of insurrectionists, rioters, and white supremacists, including those who brutally beat police officers on January 6, 2021, and sycophant accomplices to his election stealing schemes,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement. [Well said]

    Trump’s attorneys suggested in their court filing seeking to dismiss the case that the resolution would not be reviewable by a judge. But a group of 93 members of Congress filed a brief teeing up a challenge. […]

    […] Trump filed a lawsuit earlier this year in a Florida federal court, alleging that a previous leak of his and the Trump Organization’s confidential tax records caused “reputational and financial harm, public embarrassment, unfairly tarnished their business reputations, portrayed them in a false light, and negatively affected President Trump, and the other Plaintiffs’ public standing.”

    The president’s sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, are also named plaintiffs in the suit.

    […] Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, an advocacy group that filed an earlier brief, said in response to the dismissal: “This case was always a sham, and another ploy by the President to access taxpayer funds to line his pockets.”

    Perryman vowed that her group would continue to fight the settlement.

  135. says

    Trump Begins Branding America’s 250th Anniversary as a Christian Celebration

    Donald Trump’s MAGA-style celebration of the 250th anniversary of American independence ramped up Sunday with a federally funded prayer service that organizers said would “rededicate America as One Nation Under God.”

    “Rededicate 250,” is one of a series of events that the Trump administration is holding to mark the country’s semiquincentennial on July 4. A UFC fight at the White House planned for Trump’s 80th birthday and an IndyCar race around the National Mall in August seem more the style of the 47th president, who was at his golf club in Virginia, not church, on Sunday. But the prayer event nods to his evangelical supporters by asserting that the United States is a Christian nation.

    “We welcome Jesus into this place!” proclaimed one performer on a stage on the National Mall, in the shadow of the Washington Monument.

    Speakers at the event, which I checked out on Sunday, included House Speaker Mike Johnson, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who controversially used a prayer service to ask God for “overwhelming violence against enemies” in the US war against Iran. Trump also addressed attendees via video. […]

  136. Reginald Selkirk says

    Tom Kane, Iconic ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Powerpuff Girls’ Voice Actor, Has Died

    Even if you didn’t know Tom Kane’s name, there’s a very good chance you knew his voice. Working in the field for the better part of 50 years, Kane lent his voice to film, TV, video games, and more. Basically, he was in everything: the Marvel Universe, Call of Duty, Powerpuff Girls, and Disney Parks, just to name a few. After suffering a stroke in 2020, Kane retired from voice acting, and this week, he passed away at the age of 64.

    Kane’s career was truly prolific, but most of us probably knew him best for his work in a galaxy far, far away. Kane was the voice of Yoda in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, a version of the character that over the years became probably just as beloved, if not more, than his film version. Kane even got into the Star Wars films, taking over the voice of Admiral Ackbar in 2017’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

    But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. If you want to be amazed for the 15 minutes it takes you to scroll through his list of credits, head over to his IMDB page. He had an almost infinite range to play characters of any shape or size…

  138. Pierce R. Butler says

    Oopsies on the closetag fail @ my # 136!

    Re # 135, Lynna quoting Mother Jones: Donald Trump’s MAGA-style celebration …

    turns out, per Daily Beast, to have been a true Trump™ event:

    The president spoke via video to a sea of empty seats.

    (Photos at link to illustrate the point.)

  139. Reginald Selkirk says

    Elon Musk took too long to sue OpenAI, jury unanimously agrees

    Elon Musk took too long to file his lawsuit that accused OpenAI of stealing a charity, a nine-person jury unanimously decided Monday.

    Musk sued OpenAI in 2024 for making a “fool” out of him after Musk donated $38 million to kick-start OpenAI as a nonprofit, only to later be blindsided when OpenAI created a for-profit arm that he felt gutted funding for the charity while enriching executives like Sam Altman and Greg Brockman.

    But the jury found that Musk was aware of OpenAI’s restructuring plans as early as 2021 and therefore missed the statute of limitations requiring him to bring the lawsuit within three years, The New York Times reported. Because Musk took too long to file the litigation, the jury deemed Altman and Brockman not liable for any of the claims that Musk brought against OpenAI, the NYT reported. The jury also let Microsoft off the hook, finding no liability for the OpenAI investor after Musk alleged they aided OpenAI’s get-rich scheme.

    Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers almost instantly agreed with the jury’s decision, the NYT reported.
    …

  140. says

    Selma Rejects Jim Crow 2.0

    [I snipped history from 1965.]

    Protest is brewing again in Selma. In the wake of Callais, and the overt gerrymandering and dilution of the Black vote that the Supreme Court now says is legal, protestors marched today.

    People came from across Alabama and the South, and others, including members of Congress, flew in from across the country. There has been some coverage, but it’s not the front-burner major national story it should be yet.

    There was no speech from our president Sunday night like there was from Lyndon Johnson after Bloody Sunday. It’s up to us to make sure what’s happening sears the consciences of our friends and neighbors. So tonight, I’m sharing pictures with you, because they tell the story better than anything else could. The message is clear, Americans stood strong together today in Alabama. We are not going back. There will be no Jim Crow 2.0.

    [… IIt was a day of solidarity, and perhaps a hint of local politics. That’s one of the Democratic primary candidates to be Alabama’s next Governor, Doug Jones, in the crowd of protestors in Montgomery today. He and Alabama Representative Terri Sewell, who we spoke with Thursday night, were joined by members of Congress including Senators Cory Booker and Raphael Warnock.

    […] Journalists like April Ryan and lawyers like Norm Eisen came down because they understood it was important for them to be present. Because it was the press and the lawyers who turned the tide in 1965, and they are prepared to do it again.

    Lawyer-activists like Maya Wiley joined with civil rights leaders, like Lauren Groh-Wargo, the President of Fair Fight.

    There were echoes of that moment decades ago when protestors marched across the Edmund Pettus bridge and into history and broke the back of segregation. [I snipped some historical details, including an excerpt from Dr. King’s speech in March of 1965.]

    We should not have to march in 2026 to protect voting rights for all Americans. We are at a moral low as a nation when people are stripped of their right to vote because of the color of their skin. But if we have to fight that same fight again, we will. And no one will turn us around.

    The stories and photographs from today’s voting rights marches in Alabama deserve to be seen by people who weren’t able to stand there in person. If this piece moves you, please share it widely and help make sure these voices aren’t lost in the noise of a crowded news cycle. And if you value this kind of history in real time reporting, please subscribe to Civil Discourse if you don’t already, and be part of the community that keeps these stories alive.

    We’re in this together.

    Lots of good photos at the link.

  141. says

    https://www.instagram.com/p/DYa–n1DtZ0/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=19ce2967-f6cc-4cea-8156-badd6ffa46e1

    We are in a battle against the new Confederacy for multiracial democracy and the South is the frontline!

    Today the movement returned to Montgomery, Alabama, to defiantly declare: WE WILL NOT GO BACK.

    We came together in Southern Solidarity because it’s going to take a united front of united states to take on this new Confederacy. Their Jim Crow racially gerrymandered maps are a desperate attempt to turn back the clock of history and dismantle Black political power in the South. But we defeated them once before, and we will do it again.

    The mass gathering today showed that the people are ready to fight

  142. says

    Washington Post link

    “EPA wants to repeal limits on ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water”

    “If finalized, the proposal would end the Biden-era restritions for four toxic PFAS compounds and give utilities two more years to comply with limits on two other compounds.”

    The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday proposed repealing limits on four types of “forever chemicals” in drinking water, while delaying regulations on two others.

    Shortly after President Donald Trump took office, the EPA signaled its plans to rescind the 2024 protections against per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS. But the agency waited more than a year to issue a formal proposal.

    If finalized, the EPA’s proposal would end the Biden-era drinking water limits for four toxic PFAS compounds: GenX, PFHxS, PFNA, and PFBS. It also would give utilities two additional years to comply with limits on the amounts of two other prevalent compounds, known as PFOS and PFOA. The agency said in a statement that it would evaluate those PFAS and issue new regulations, while stating it “cannot predetermine the outcome” of that process.

    The EPA said that, separate from drinking water standards, it will issue limits for discharge of PFAS by the chemical industry and other sources in coming months.

    PFAS are used in a variety of products like nonstick pans and firefighting foam and have been linked to cancer, immune system problems and infertility. They are called forever chemicals as they can take years to break down in the environment.

    All 50 states have recorded levels of PFAS in drinking water above the EPA standards, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. Numerous communities around the country, such as those in North Carolina along the Cape Fear River, have battled for years to clean up man-made chemicals in drinking water sources. […]

    “I don’t see how you put a positive light on this,” said David Andrews, chief science officer for the Environmental Working Group. “Ultimately, I see this as a betrayal of public health and the mission of making America healthier. Safe and clean drinking water should be a right for everyone in this country.”

    […] Andrews noted that scientific evidence for the potential harms posed by PFAS has continued to grow in recent years. Exposure to the chemicals has been linked to an increased risk of certain types of cancer, low birth weight, high cholesterol, and negative effects on the liver, thyroid and immune system.

    Given those realities, he said, the EPA should be speeding up implementation of the stricter drinking water standards rather than weakening them.

    […] The proposal will be open for public comment for 60 days. That input will be considered before the proposal is revised and finalized.

  143. says

    Followup to comment 97.

    American working in Congo tests positive for Ebola, CDC says

    The person was exposed as part of their work in Congo and developed symptoms over the weekend, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Related video at the link.

    A person from the United States has tested positive for Ebola in connection with the deadly outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Monday.

    The person was exposed as part of their work in Congo, developed symptoms over the weekend and tested positive late Sunday, according to Dr. Satish Pillai, the CDC’s Ebola response incident manager. […]

    In addition to the one symptomatic American, six others are being moved for treatment or observation.

    The CDC said Monday that the U.S. is restricting entry for non-U.S. passport holders who have been in Uganda, Congo or South Sudan in the past 21 days.

    “To the American public: The risk to the United States remains low. Travelers to the region should avoid contact with sick people, report symptoms immediately and follow our travel guidance,” Pillai said.

    […] The Bundibugyo virus involved in the outbreak leads to a rare type of Ebola for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment. There have only been a couple of prior Bundibugyo outbreaks — one in Uganda in 2007 and one in Congo in 2012. The fatality rate during those outbreaks ranged from 30% to 50%, according to the WHO.

    Pillai said the CDC and the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response are “looking at monoclonal therapies,” which use antibodies to neutralize the virus. The therapies have shown some potential to prevent or treat Ebola caused by the Bundibugyo virus in rhesus monkeys […]

  144. says

    In New SCOTUS Move, ‘The Court Gives Mississippi Relief It Did Not Even Request’

    Remember, the lower court here had decided that the gerrymander was invalid, and then the question about Section 2’s private right of action was brought in. But the Court proactively zeroed out that earlier finding of racial dilution in the map as well.

    “In remanding this case for further consideration in light of Callais, the Court gives Mississippi relief it did not even request,” Rob Weiner, Voting Rights Project director at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said in a statement. “The only issue the State presented for the Court’s review was whether private parties can sue for violations of the Voting Rights Act. In sending the case to the lower court for further review of other issues, the Supreme Court confirms once again that the normal rules do not apply when it considers voting rights cases.

  145. Steve Morrison says

    @134:
    I’m relieved. For a moment there, I thought you were going to say the Pope had used AI to write his encyclical!

  146. says

    Followup to comment 140.

    Registered Dems in Georgia Put up Record Numbers in Early Voting Period

    From the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

    – “Compared to the 2022 primary, the number of Democratic ballots increased by 53% while Republican ballots decreased by 13%. And Democrats cast more in-person ballots on every day but one in the early voting period that ran April 27 through Friday.”

    – “Ballots from Black voters, the largest group of Democratic primary voters, increased by 46% — more than 113,000 more votes than the same period in 2022. Ballots from white Democratic voters increased by 65% and ballots from Hispanic voters nearly tripled.”

    Good News

  147. says

    Talking Points Memo:

    All Eyes on South Carolina

    All eyes are on South Carolina as lawmakers convene for a special session on redistricting on Monday.

    Republicans are hoping to approve a new gerrymandered map that targets the only Democratic district in the state, which is held by Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC).

    “I live in three districts. I’ll decide which one to run in,” Clyburn told reporters last week, per the AP. “It ain’t about Jim Clyburn’s district. This isn’t about voting. This is about turning the clock back to Jim Crow 2.0.”

    South Carolina’s primaries begin on June 9, with early voting set to begin next week.

  148. says

    Trump delays major strikes on Iran at request of Middle East leaders

    […] Trump announced Monday he would delay his plan to strike Iran in hopes of further diplomatic negotiations.

    The U.S. plan to further strike Iran was scheduled for Tuesday, Trump wrote on Truth Social. He met with his national security team over the weekend after no movement on a deal with Iran, and threatened on Sunday that Iran “better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them.

    The president said he reconsidered the strikes after requests made by Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, and President of the United Arab Emirates Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

    The regional leaders asked him “to hold off on our planned Military attack of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was scheduled for tomorrow, in that serious negotiations are now taking place, and that, in their opinion, as Great Leaders and Allies, a Deal will be made, which will be very acceptable to the United States of America, as well as all Countries in the Middle East, and beyond,” Trump wrote in a lengthy post on his social media platform. […]

  149. says

    BEIJING (The Borowitz Report)—Calling it a landmark deal, on Monday Presidents Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir Putin of Russia inked an agreement to jointly own Donald J. Trump.

    According to sources familiar with the deal, the two leaders crafted a timeshare arrangement under which each will have the right to use Trump when the other is not.

    Putin and Xi scooped up Trump at a bargain price since they acquired him in distressed or “as is” condition, sources said.

    Both presidents were reportedly offered joint ownership of Eric Trump but passed.

    https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/xi-and-putin-reach-agreement-on-joint

  152. Militant Agnostic says

    Lynna @146

    Is it possible that support for Democratic Party candidates will reach the tipping point where Republican gerrymandering backfires.

    Here in Alberta our Trumpette premier Daniel Smith is going to try to retain power by gerrymandering.

  153. Reginald Selkirk says

    Massive Crypto ATM Company Bitcoin Depot Is Shutting Down as the Whole Industry Collapses

    Bitcoin Depot, once the largest network of crypto ATMs in North America, is calling it quits following mounting legal scrutiny and a state-by-state crackdown on Bitcoin teller machines (BTMs) over fraud concerns.

    The company, which operated kiosks where customers could exchange cash for Bitcoin, announced Monday that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is winding down its operations. It operated 9,276 kiosks across the U.S., Canada, and Australia.

    In a press release, the company said its network of ATMs has already been taken offline and that it plans to sell its assets through a court-supervised process.

    Bitcoin Depot CEO Alex Holmes said in the press release that the current regulatory environment had made the company’s business model unsustainable.

    The news arrives as Bitcoin Depot is facing lawsuits from the attorneys general in Massachusetts and Iowa over allegations that it helped facilitate crypto scams…

    “With this lawsuit, we’re alleging that instead of handling consumers’ money in good faith, Bitcoin Depot used misleading sales tactics to overcharge its customers and knowingly facilitated crypto scams that robbed Massachusetts consumers of more than $10 million dollars – all while removing safeguards against fraud and misleading investors in order to line their own pockets,” Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell said in a press release in February.

    The Massachusetts lawsuit alleges that Bitcoin Depot knew about high levels of scam activity on its machines and removed safeguards like asking customers questions before they made large transactions.

    Additionally, when customers who were scammed into depositing cash into scammers’ accounts contacted the company, Bitcoin Depot allegedly often told them there was nothing it could do…

  154. Reginald Selkirk says

    Elon Musk Offered to Pay Employees for Their Tax Returns, You Can Probably Guess What Happened Next

    Elon Musk’s xAI recently offered employees payments of $420 to hand over their completed tax returns for use in training Grok, according to a new report from Bloomberg. But that same report notes employees haven’t seen a penny of that promised cash. And it’s not clear when it’s coming.
    …
    According to Bloomberg, employees who’ve asked about the $420 payments have been told that “the manager in charge of the program is no longer working there.” …

  155. says

    Followup to Reginald @150.

    The latest from San Diego: “At least three people are dead following a shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego on Monday, a mosque leader told MS NOW. The deceased include a security guard and two staff members of the Islamic school on the center’s grounds, said Imam Taha Hassane, director of the mosque targeted in the shooting. Police said the threat has been ‘neutralized’ after responding to a reported active shooter situation on Monday.” [Source: MS NOW]

  156. says

    Washington Post:

    Three people were killed overnight Saturday and at least a dozen were injured in a wide-scale drone strike on Moscow and the surrounding region, Russian authorities said. It was the largest and deadliest attack on the Russian capital region since President Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and it showed Kyiv’s increasing ability to carry out long-range strikes and penetrate air defenses.

  157. says

    Followup to comments 150 and 155:

    […] Both suspects are believed to be teens and the case is considered to be a hate crime, San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said at a news conference. […]

    Source: Associated Press

  158. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/i-am-the-lord-thy-god-and-donald

    “I Am The Lord Thy God And Donald Trump’s Ballroom Is Very Low On My Priorities List”

    I am the Lord your God. I am Yahweh, Adonai, El Shaddai, the Almighty, whichever name you wish to use. And I promise you, from the bottom of My heart, that I do not give a tinned shit about the White House ballroom.

    Seriously, Eric Metaxas. As the kids say, what in the actual fuck is this? [social media post, with video; “beyond parody,” as Aaron Rupar notes]

    Buddy, I promise you, it did not take Me, the Lord, 200 years to raise up a great man to put that ballroom in place. Do you know why? Because I never cared enough to bother. It was not a matter of no president being worthy before. It was not a matter of none of them being available. Do you think if I had told Millard Fillmore to put up a giant White House ballroom, that he would have refused? Do you think that if I had wanted to, I could not have raised William Henry Harrison off his deathbed long enough for him to build a great ballroom at the White House if that had been My will?

    Shoot, I could have had Nancy Reagan nag Ronnie into building a ballroom, she would have loved that instead of doing anti-drug cameos on Diff’rent Strokes. […]

    But no, apparently in your shriveled brain […] I looked at all the men who served as president before Donald Trump, accomplished men, Jefferson, Lincoln, both Roosevelts, shoot, even the mediocre dipwad that was Franklin Pierce, and I said Donald Trump! Finally! An energetic go-getter who can build the gilded palatial ballroom that I have always wanted for the White House!

    Please. If I thought the White House needed a ballroom, I’d have done better than raising up Donald Trump to build it. The White House is a classy building. I’m not putting it in the hands of a guy with taste so tacky that King Solomon would have told him to take it down several notches. Solomon could have risen from his grave and warned Trump explicitly about the dangers of idolatry, and that idiot would still be praising the giant gold statue of himself that some of My weirder supporters put up at his golf club.

    No one wanted to read the Book of Kings, huh? No one wanted to learn a lesson? […] Maybe I need to send 20 plagues next time I want to get a point across.

    While I’m here, Eric, do you mind telling Me where in the Bible I told you it was OK to sucker-punch someone and then run away, backpedaling jauntily like the least skilled benchwarmer on a Division III basketball team? So much for all that “muscular Jesus standing up to the unbelievers” crap your kind is so fond of. […]

    Allow Me to tell you some other things I don’t give a tinned shit about besides the ballroom: public displays of your alleged piety. And yet there many of you were, participating in that whole Rededicate 250 crap-fest on […]

    Y’all skipped Matthew at the same time you were deciding the Book of Kings was optional, huh?

    What a mess. There’s Pete Hegseth yammering about George Washington winning the Revolutionary War because he knelt in prayer at Valley Forge, which is one of those apocryphal stories that you would expect a braindead nimrod like Hegseth to take as gospel, no pun intended. There’s Marco Rubio doing this: [social media post, with video]

    Even your “great man” Trump couldn’t be arsed to make it to this great event. No, he was too busy golfing like he does every Sunday. In his place, he sent in a video that he had recorded for a different event three weeks ago, and the lemmings in the crowd ate it right up. [video]

    Dude is sitting in a room decorated like King Midas threw up all over it and has the gall to read a Bible verse where I told people to be humble.

    And don’t even get me started on Mike Johnson, who seems to think Christian Nationalism is some brand-new term the left recently made up just to insult him. Then there was Franklin Graham whining about transgender people and gay people and whatever other allegedly un-Christian behavior that’s had his tits in a wringer for 40 years or so.

    A hint from Me, though I’m pretty sure the people do not need Me, the Lord your God, to tell you this: sometimes when a guy is that obsessed with other people’s naughty bits, you should check his browser history. And again, keep him 500 feet away from elementary schools. […]

    Listen, Eric, I know you and your kind would love it if America had been created as a Christian nation, particularly if we’re talking about your version of Christ and not the namby-pamby guy who healed the lepers and preached tolerance and maybe (wink wink) even got laid once in awhile.

    But Medammit, you’re all out of control. Look at what government Twitter accounts are putting out, for crying out loud: [Christian-themed social media post from Homeland Security]

    Okay, I am the Lord thy God, and even I find this level of religious intrusion on government to be creepy. Especially with Homeland Security. Like, where in My works did you people get the idea that shackling people and sticking them on flights to Liberia was a requirement for you to receive My glory? Shut down all the detention camps, and then we can talk about grace and eternal rewards.

    It’s my fault. I should have been a little clearer in my communication with people. I could have flat-out said every time you Americans claimed the protection of the Kingdom of Heaven that I would like to be excluded from this narrative.

    So let me say this to you once again: I the Lord did not raise Donald Trump up to build a ballroom at the White House, because I the Lord do not care. If I wanted to look at that much tacky gilded crap, I’d hang out with Middle Eastern sheikhs. In fact, maybe I should start doing that more. […].

  159. Reginald Selkirk says

    Wildfire at Calif. national park continues growing with 0% containment

    A sailor stranded in Channel Islands National Park started California’s largest wildfire of the year so far after he set off a flare following a sailboat crash on Santa Rosa Island on Friday, according to a post from the U.S. Coast Guard.

    The 67-year-old man was stranded after his sailboat ran onto the rocks of Santa Rosa Island. The man was stranded overnight before rescue swimmers reached him the following morning at about 10:30 a.m. Images from the scene show he had written “SOS” in the charred grasslands.

    “The sailor fired emergency flares to signal for help, which inadvertently sparked a wildfire that grew to 1,000 acres by Friday afternoon,” officials from the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Ventura said in a post…

  160. Reginald Selkirk says

    Anaerobic carbon fixation in ancient prokaryotes

    Most of us were taught that plants are the main source of fixing carbon from carbon dioxide…

    It turns out that the Calvin Cycle isn’t restricted to plants and it doesn’t even require oxygen. Anaerobic bacteria also have a version of the Calvin Cycle and they are perfectly capable of fixing carbon without a major energy source like photosynthesis…

    This early pathway is thought to resemble the modern Wood-Ljungdahl pathway (WLP) that’s common in bacteria. It is responsible for about 20% of biological carbon fixation today. The pathway is also known as the reductive acetyl-coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) pathway and the main enzymes responsible for this reaction are carbon monoxide dehydrogenase (CODH) and acetyl-CoA synthase (ACS)…

  161. Militant Agnostic says

    Stochastic Terrorism – After the shooters failed to get into the mosque they shot at a landscaper before killing themselves

    There was no specific threat made against the Islamic Center of San Diego but authorities found evidence that the suspects engaged in “generalized hate rhetoric,” San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said. He declined to give more details, but said the “circumstances that led up to this” would come out in the days ahead.

    Before the attack, officers were already looking for one of the teenagers since his mother called police concerned that her son was suicidal and had run away, Wahl said. There were weapons missing from the home and the mother’s vehicle was gone, he added.

    The search took on even more urgency as police learned that he was dressed in camouflage and with an acquaintance — details that were unexpected for someone about to die by suicide, he said.

    Police began using whatever technology they could to find the 17- and 18-year-old, including automated license plate readers. The department dispatched authorities to a mall near where the car had been tracked by police, and officers alerted a school where at least one of the suspects had been a student, Wahl said.

    As officers continued interviewing the mother about places the teens might be, they got reports of a shooting at the mosque.

    Among those killed was a mosque security guard, who police believe “played a pivotal role” in keeping the attack from being “much worse,” Wahl said.

    “It’s fair to say his actions were heroic,” the chief said at a later news conference. “Undoubtedly he saved lives today.”

    Police responded within four minutes of being called, Wahl said. As they arrived, gunshots rang out a few blocks away where a landscaper was shot at but uninjured. The shooters were found dead in a vehicle stopped in the middle of a road nearby, he said.

  167. StevoR says

    PBS Newshour :

    Amna Nawaz:

    For more, we’re joined now by Dr. Craig Spencer. He’s an associate professor of public health and emergency medicine at Brown University. He also contracted Ebola himself while working as a physician in West Africa during a 2014 outbreak.

    ..(Snip).. Dr. Craig Spencer:

    What concerns me most is that we learned way too much, way too quickly for this to be anything but really bad.

    I am concerned about the next few weeks or the next few months. We have found ourselves weeks, maybe months behind when this first started spreading. Over the last year, we have lost a lot of the response capacity, particularly here in the U.S.

    And I’m also concerned about the fact that this is in a really tough region, not just because of this outbreak, not just because it’s at a border, but because it’s a place with a lot of conflict with mobile populations. This would be a hard outbreak to manage in an ideal situation. This is absolutely not the ideal situation.

    Source : https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/doctor-who-survived-ebola-shares-concerns-about-latest-outbreak-in-central-africa

  169. StevoR says

    Retired Anglican bishop and former governor-general Peter Hollingworth, who resigned in 2003 amid controversy over his handling of child abuse in the church, has died, aged 91.

    … (Snip)…

    After 11 years leading the Brisbane diocese, Dr Hollingworth was appointed the 23rd governor-general of Australia in 2001, the personal choice of then-prime minister John Howard. He was the first and only cleric to serve in the vice-regal office.

    Just six months into his term, Dr Hollingworth came under fire over allegations he failed to act on child sex abuse claims against Anglican clergy during his Brisbane tenure in the 1990s. An Anglican church inquiry later found he failed to remove late paedophile priests Donald Shearman and John Elliot from the ministry, despite knowing they had sexually assaulted children.

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-19/former-governor-general-peter-hollingworth-dies/106554086

  170. birgerjohansson says

    The soundtrack of 2026
    Tom Waits God’s Away on Business

    “It’s all over.
    It’s all over.
    There’s a leak , there’s a leak in the boiler room.
    Who are the ones we put in charge
    Killers, thieves, lawyers”

  171. StevoR says

    Via Occupy Democrats on fb but important IF true :

    BREAKING: Elon Musk’s baby mama reveals that he used “space technology” in the 2024 election and implies that he STOLE it for Donald Trump.

    This deserves a full federal investigation by Democrats…

    “In October, Elon tells me that he is ready to release his, in his words ‘anomaly in the matrix’ And I am like, oh, like, who’s that? And he says that he has 10,000 lasers in space, referring to his satellites,” said Ashley St. Clair, one of the many women whom Musk has impregnated and then promptly began treating like dirt.
    “I say, because I am like, rather uncomfortable, and I know the gravity of what he’s trying to tell me right now. I say, ‘Wow, finally, a focus on the Jewish vote. He keeps going,” she continued. “And he says, you know, this is not something on, this is not a piece that they’ll see on the chessboard.”
    “And I straight up tell him, I say, I would ask more, but I really don’t want to be deposed, to which he says, very wise,” she added.

    The implication here is clearly that Musk was doing something illegal and that St. Clair wanted plausible deniability.

    “Shortly after that, you know, he’s involved with AmericaPAC and all of this other stuff, and he’s sending me some internal data from AmericaPAC, real time delta vote metrics,” recounted St. Clair. “And I am just like, how the f*ck do you have this sort of data? You don’t get this from door knocking, because one of my first jobs in politics was in campaigns and cleaning up this bad data from door knocking, because the vendors that AmericaPAC is using at this point is a vendor that hires Craigslist crackheads for door knocking. And I wish I was exaggerating there, but I’m not.”

    St. Clair said that she now recognizes that she “caused harm” with her “rhetoric” when she was leaning into being a far-right persona, but claimed that she only ever wanted what’s “best” for America. Clearly, she feels that she can no longer in good conscience remain silent on 2024.

    “And one thing is I have always, always hated big tech,” she said. “So then to have arguably the most powerful man in the world, who is sending me things about, you know, using his space technology in the election. I should also say that I have all of this backed up with many people with explicit instructions, should anything happen to me, okay.”

    “But this was something that I was internally wrestling with, while publicly not really showing that I was having any of these internal ethical conflicts with myself regarding this information,” she went on.

    “And then on election night itself, Elon, you know, left Mar-a-Lago early. I was at Mar-a-Lago and he told me, he told me over text, he’s like, ‘Yeah, I knew hours ago that Trump won. My team has the best real-time data anywhere,'” said St. Clair.

    “First of all, how the f*ck do you have real-time data on elections?” she continued. “How do you have real-time data? I could not understand that. I don’t know that I ever will. I just, I saw some shit, guys. Like, I saw some shit and I’m fighting really hard to keep my voice because I saw shit that impacts everyone. And if I was self-interested, I have been offered the self-interested deal to shut up and not talk about anything. But what I can tell you is I’ve not been offered certain deals just because I know that he’s weird.”

    “Okay. I saw some shit,” she concluded.

    This woman must be immediately subpoenaed to testify before Congress under oath about the “shit” that she saw. If Elon Musk — who spent $291 million to help Republicans win during the 2024 cycle — really used his technology to illegally interfere in our elections, he must be prosecuted and imprisoned. And if any votes were tampered with, the election must be overturned!

    Source : https://www.facebook.com/OccupyDemocrats/posts/pfbid02Dvd6vBJAQ59J2taqXhDZacqFJ8jgs2zaPcwrtBgmJXtVo4ZSEc1gp57oedNhn218l

  173. StevoR says

    Plus looking into this more checked and found this Ashley St Clair’s wikipage which among other things notes :

    Ashley St. Clair (born July 31, 1998) is an American influencer, author, and political commentator.[1][2] She was an outspoken proponent of conservative and anti-transgender politics. She and Elon Musk had a child together in 2024. In 2026, she denounced her previous anti-trans activism.

    On February 14, 2025, St. Clair publicly acknowledged the child’s existence and Musk’s paternity. On March 31, she sold her Tesla, which she said was because her child support payments had been cut by 60% as punishment by Musk for “disobedience”.[3] She sought full custody over their son and described the battle with Musk as “unplanned career suicide” and “a gap in my LinkedIn profile that can’t be legally explained”. St. Clair started a podcast to avoid an imminent eviction.[6]

    St. Clair became a target for abuse from supporters of Musk. After the rollout of Twitter’s Grok image-editing feature, St. Clair reported being deluged with images of herself that had been AI-edited to show her naked and in sexual positions, including some based on photos when she was underage. She said both Musk and Twitter did nothing to counteract the images.[1][7] She filed suit in New York State against xAI for punitive and compensatory damages.

    n January 2026, St. Clair expressed remorse for her previous anti-trans activism in a response to criticism by American Twitter user Junlper, saying “I feel immense guilt for my role”, in particular towards her child’s half-sister, Vivian Wilson, and that she has been “trying incredibly hard privately to learn + advocate for those within the trans community that I’ve hurt”, and expressed that she did not know how to make amends.[10][2] Musk responded by filing for full custody of their son, saying her apology implied she might try to “transition a one-year old boy.”[6][11][12] Also in January 2026, St. Clair stated that politically she identifies as “dark woke.”

    Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_St._Clair

  174. StevoR says

    ^ Missed a snip there so note edited..

    Also first time I think I’ve heard of the Dark Woke thing..

  177. birgerjohansson says

    A Colorado Republican Party chair is facing charges for… do I even have to spell it out?

  179. StevoR says

    The continental United States has not recorded a drier start to a year since 1910. That record stood for 116 years before falling in 2026. Drought usually concentrates in a particular region such as the parched Southwest or the dry Plains. This one has spread into places that rarely dry out at the same time.

    Andrew Ellis is a climatologist at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). Eliis has spent decades tracking rain, snow, and heat across the country. He said that this spring stands out.

    Drought now covers more than 60 percent of the country. More than 20 percent is in extreme drought. Such breadth and depth have not stacked up this way in years. “The current conditions are among the worst in decades because the combination of intensity and aerial coverage is rare,” Ellis said. A monthly NOAA climate report puts those numbers in record territory: January through March 2026 was the driest year-to-date on record for the lower 48, going back to 1895.

    Source : https://www.earth.com/news/historic-drought-now-grips-more-than-60-of-the-united-states/

  180. says

    RACHEL MADDOW: Reports pair Trump stock buys with official acts to show alarming pattern

    Rachel Maddow looks at a collection of reports that show stock purchases made by Donald Trump that were followed by federal actions or specific statements by Donald Trump that affected the price of those stocks.

    Video is 4:06 minutes.

    RACHEL MADDOW: ‘The biggest presidential corruption scandal in U.S. history’: Trump shocks nation with brazen grab

    Rachel Maddow looks at Donald Trump’s attempt to have $1.8 billion taxpayer dollars handed to him to distribute to his friends and allies, and debunks the notion that this money-grab has anything to do with suing the IRS. Rep. Jamie Raskin, who calls Trump’s scheme “nothing but a racket,” joins to discuss Trump’s increasingly open, shameless corruption.

    Video is 10:07 minutes.

    RACHEL MADDOW: Maddow: Rubio’s State Department becomes a ‘junk drawer’ with diplomacy sidelined under Trump

    With the major foreign affairs of the United States being handled by Donald Trump’s son-in-law and his real estate buddy, Marco Rubio’s State Department has become a catch-all for loose ends where officials are dumped after falling out of favor and Rubio’s assignments become increasingly disparate.

    Video is 5:39 minutes.

  183. says

    HuffPost reported:

    Senate Republicans voted Monday night to confirm dozens of President Donald Trump’s nominees — including three U.S. attorney picks who have no prosecutorial experience and who fueled lies about the 2020 election being stolen from Trump. […]

    The package of 49 of Trump’s nominees was confirmed 46-43, in a party-line vote. Eleven senators missed the vote.

    Commentary:

    […] Let’s consider the three nominees, one at a time.

    Darin Smith, the newly confirmed U.S. attorney for the District of Wyoming, is a failed Republican congressional candidate who freely admits that he participated in Jan. 6 protests at the U.S. Capitol, though he has said he never entered the building. As his nomination progressed, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in floor remarks, “Smith was present at the Capitol on Jan. 6, and now Trump wants him to uphold law and order. What hypocrisy. What fakery. How disgusting.”

    Smith is a lawyer but has never tried a case in federal or state courts. Republicans confirmed him anyway as part of a bloc of nominees.

    Phillip Williams, the newly confirmed U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, is on record as having publicly condemned law enforcement for having “hunted down” Jan. 6 rioters, comparing the insurrectionists’ prosecutions to the Salem witch trials of the late 1600s.

    Williams has also never tried a criminal case in court. Republicans confirmed him, too.

    Dan Bishop, the newly confirmed U.S. attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina, is a former Republican congressman who lost a state attorney general race in the last election cycle. As my MS NOW colleague Ja’han Jones explained in November, Bishop has earned a reputation as an election denier — in the U.S. House, he voted against certifying the 2020 results — who believes in using the courts to go after his political and ideological foes.

    More recently, the White House eyed Bishop for a role in which he would help search for evidence related to Trump’s conspiracy theories about the 2024 presidential election.

    In an opinion piece for The New York Times, Jeffrey Toobin recently described the trio as “chillingly unqualified,” a concern echoed by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who recently told HuffPost that this batch of nominees is “particularly egregious.”

    But when it came time to vote, zero GOP senators balked at this slate. The so-called moderates were among those who supported these nominees.

    Toobin’s piece added, “It’s possible to see U.S. attorneys as just another set of midlevel political appointees with a timer on their jobs, but that understates their importance. … U.S. attorneys have almost unlimited discretion to launch criminal investigations.”

  184. says

    Picking Through the Wreckage From the Worst Day of Trump II So Far

    Not Possible in a Functioning Democracy

    A whirlwind of developments closed the deal yesterday on what is arguably the single most corrupt scheme of the Trump II presidency to date.

    In broad daylight, President Trump raided the U.S. treasury to the tune of $1.776 billion, to be disbursed at his discretion to an assortment of insurrectionists, pardoned criminals, and disgraced former officials whom he counts among his political allies.

    The day unfolded like this:
    – A settlement agreement is signed by Trump’s personal attorney, the DOJ’s No. 3, and the IRS commissioner to resolve Trump’s collusive lawsuit against the IRS in federal court in Miami and establish an “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”
    – Trump dismisses his lawsuit before U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams can weigh in on whether the IRS and Treasury Department are under Trump’s effective control, which would have ended the lawsuit and prevented any “settlement.” [!!!]
    – The DOJ touts the settlement in a press release and issues a bare-bones summary of the “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”
    – With obvious reluctance, Williams, whose hands are tied by court rules, orders the Trump case closed.
    The DOJ releases the settlement agreement itself.
    – Brian Morrissey, the general counsel of the Treasury Department, resigned Monday just hours after the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” was announced and only seven months after he was confirmed as the department’s top lawyer.

    A few observations:

    Six pages! The settlement agreement, at a mere six substantive pages, has to be among the skimpiest legal documents ever drafted for a settlement of this scale. The ratio of settlement agreement pages drafted to dollars committed is off the charts.

    How convenient! The settlement agreement contains a nifty provision that purports to allow only the collusive parties to the agreement — and no one else — to challenge it. [!]

    Conflict of interest much? The No. 3 at DOJ, Stanley Woodward, represented a host of clients, including Jan. 6 defendants, who stand to be beneficiaries of the “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”

    A free-for-all! None of the documents released by the DOJ, including the settlement agreement itself, defines “weaponization,” provides clear standards for reviewing claims, or otherwise establishes any guardrails for transparency of accountability.

    In a normal, functioning democracy, none of this would be possible. If it were attempted, the legal and political blowback would ruin careers, lead to prosecutions, end in impeachments, and might shift the balance of power away from those associated with the culprits for a generation for more.

    The importance of what happened yesterday is that Trump and his cabinet declared to the world that they can do anything they want — and they will. Unshackled by the Roberts Court before he was even sworn in and backed since then by a supine Republican Congress, Trump is free to raid the Treasury, to use public funds to prop up his political machine, to use the federal courts to launder his schemes, and to unleash upon civil society domestic terrorists, insurrectionists, and other bad actors to perpetuate his regime. […]

  185. says

    President Donald Trump’s decision to create a $1.7 billion taxpayer-financed slush fund for his political allies, cronies, and associates—including the Jan. 6 attackers—is an impeachable offense, Rep. Dan Goldman of New York told CNN on Monday night.

    Appearing on “Laura Coates Live,” Goldman said he agreed with legal commentator Harry Litman’s reasoning that there’s a “strong argument” that the creation of Trump’s fund is grounds for impeachment.
    [Video]

    […] Nobel Prize-winning economist and commentator Paul Krugman summed up the spectacle in his latest column: “We are, in effect, watching what happens when a quasi-authoritarian regime’s corruption and criminality pass the point of no return.” […]

    Link

    More at the link.

  186. says

    […] It’s absurd that this arrangement purports to settle Trump’s claims. There is no world where Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns by an IRS contractor is somehow resolved by a $1.7 billion settlement going to entirely different people for entirely different things. That’s just not how lawsuits work.

    The Department of Justice is calling this an “Anti-Weaponization Fund” and issued a slender little two-pager that does not at all specify who will get this money or how much money they will get. The only requirement, it seems, is that someone alleges they suffered “weaponization and lawfare.”

    The attorney general gets to appoint the five people who will oversee the slush fund, though one has to be chosen “in consultation with Congressional leadership.” That’s a very weaselly way of saying the administration will only be checking in with Republicans, since they currently control both houses.

    Trump can remove anyone he wants for any reason, but the replacement “must be chosen the same way as the replaced member was selected.” On the surface, that sounds like some sort of meaningful restriction on Trump until you remember that the DOJ is nothing but Trump’s puppet and personal law firm these days, so any replacement tapped by the attorney general will no doubt be Trump’s pick.

    So, it’s going to be cronies managing the money, but it gets worse. There’s a neat little provision in the agreement that absolves the cronies of all responsibility or consequences, no matter what they do with all this government money. After taxpayer funds are deposited in the slush fund account, “the United States has no liability whatsoever for the protection or safeguarding of those funds, regardless of bank failure, fraudulent transfers, or any other fraud or misuse of the funds.”

    So, the money goes into a fund controlled by Trump stooges, and then, if they do some fraud or if any of the recipients were paid out based on fraudulent claims, the government is not responsible and won’t try to get it back. [!]

    Moreover, there’s no evidence that there will even be any sort of reporting requirement for those administering the fund to explain what was disbursed and to whom.

    The Keepseagle fund was set up in 2011 to resolve a lawsuit where Native American farmers sued the government, alleging longtime, systemic discrimination by the Department of Agriculture in the distribution and servicing of farm loans from 1981 to 1999. The settlement was for $760 million, or less than one-half of Trump’s little slush fund.

    The settlement capped most claims at $50,000, provided up to $12,500 to the IRS on the claimant’s behalf, and forgave USDA loan debt. Farmers who provided additional documentation of damages could receive up to $250,000 and forgiveness of farm debt. Out of 3,601 eligible claimants, 3,587 were paid $50,000, with only 14 farmers eligible for the higher payout.

    Moreover, the Keepseagle settlement resolved a case that had been going on since 1999, ran 52 pages, and was required to be approved by the court. [I snipped more details.]

    […] Similarly, the settlement in Pigford v. Glickman over discrimination against Black farmers was reached only after nearly two years of litigation and, as with Keepseagle, was approved by the court. Class members had to show the USDA discriminated against them by denying loans or providing less favorable terms than those to white farmers. Those claims were also largely capped at $50,000, and over 20,000 claimants received a portion of the $1.01 billion in the settlement.

    A second lawsuit, known as Pigford II, was resolved in 2010 for $1.25 billion, with Congress passing the Claims Resolution Act by unanimous consent to appropriate $1.15 billion of the funds.

    The Trump Slush Fund is nothing like these settlements. It doesn’t resolve any longstanding litigation. It won’t be approved by a court. There are no restrictions on who can receive money or caps on how much they can get. It massively dwarfs the few million dollars here and there that Trump’s DOJ has showered on Trump cronies and insurrectionists thus far.

    This is nothing but a transfer of your tax dollars to the pockets of Jan. 6 insurrectionists and Trump pals, simply because Trump demanded it. [All too true.]

    It’s getting really tiresome to say that this is not how government works, but this is really, really not how government works.

    Link

  187. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/louisiana-republican-dipsht-in-greenland

    “Louisiana Republican Dipsh*t In Greenland Plying Children With Cookies”

    There’s some stranger danger with a cajun accent, y’all, and it’s been spotted in Greenland. And wearing combat fatigues for some reason. [social media post, with photo]

    Yes, Jeff Landry, the governor of the US’s always-ranked-last state of Louisiana, is Donald Trump’s special envoy for helping him rape and pillage Greenland, and now Landry has shown up there this week for some fucking reason.

    Immediately everybody in Greenland was suspicious of the strange […] white MAGA fascist who showed up without an invitation […]

    “I’m here to simply to build relationships and to look and listen and to learn and to see if there are opportunities to expand the relationship between Greenland and the United States and Denmark,” said Landry to the local media. “It’s a great day. I’m excited, I really am.”

    […] He is there for the “Future Greenland” business conference! (They didn’t invite him, he paid for a ticket […]) He is going to meet with the Greenlandic prime minister!

    And he’s trying to bribe the children with cookies?

    On Sunday, he walked around Nyuuk, Greenland’s capital city, handing out chocolate doubloons and promising locals unlimited cookies if they ever visit the Governor’s Mansion in Baton Rouge, according to scenes captured by TV cameras.

    Here is video of Landry telling a child that if they come to his house in Louisiana he will give them cookies: [Video]

    […] Landry’s little creepshow around Nyuuk prompted said prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, to remind him through local media that Greenland is not for sale and is not interested in being taken advantage of or otherwise touched by Landry or his disgusting boss, no matter how many cookies he tries to lure their children away with:

    [Nielsen told Landry on Monday] that the Danish protectorate still is not interested in joining the U.S. “no matter how many ‘chocolate cookies’ we get,” according to a Danish television network. […]

    “Our position is clear. We have our red lines, and no matter how many “chocolate cookies” we get, we will not change them,” Nielsen said on on TV Avisen 21, a newscast on Danish public broadcasting. […]

    “The Greenlandic people are not for sale. Greenlandic self-determination is not something that can be negotiated,” Nielsen was quoted by Danish TV 2 as saying after visiting with Landry.

    He also said his meeting with Landry on Monday was a “courtesy meeting.” Which, in Greenlandic, and also in every other human language, means it was a meeting he didn’t want to go to.

    All the news reporting about Landry’s attendance at this business event that didn’t invite him in this Danish territory that didn’t invite him is absolutely humiliating for the United States. He brought a surgeon from Baton Rouge to “assess the medical needs,” as if any one of them wants [to be examined by] some creepy Republican doctor from Louisiana […] (Hey remember that hospital boat Donald Trump was going to send but then Greenland told him to [fuck off]?)

    Landry told DR, a Danish broadcast network, that he spoke Saturday night to Trump, who suggested he “go over there and make a bunch of friends, as many friends as we can.”

    Apparently with the children too.

    On behalf of all decent Americans, Greenland, we are so, so fucking sorry and embarrassed. Truly.

  188. whheydt says

    That Felon in the White House has endorsed Ken Paxton in the Texas US Senate race.
    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/trump-endorses-ken-paxton-sen-john-cornyn-ahead-texas-republican-senat-rcna345898

    President Donald Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for Senate, dealing a massive political blow to longtime Sen. John Cornyn as he faces off against Paxton in an upcoming Republican primary runoff.
    “Ken is a true MAGA Warrior who has ALWAYS delivered for Texas, and will continue to do so in the United States Senate,” Trump wrote in a lengthy post on Truth Social.

  189. Reginald Selkirk says

    Justice Department expands Trump settlement to cover his tax audits

    The Justice Department on Tuesday expanded the just-announced settlement of President Donald Trump’s lawsuit over the leaking of his tax returns to include a pledge that the IRS will no longer pursue any claims it may have against Trump, his family members and his companies over unpaid taxes.

    The nine-page settlement agreement DOJ released Monday, setting up a nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate victims of alleged weaponization of law enforcement, did not mention any resolution of disputes over Trump’s tax returns, which he has repeatedly claimed were under protracted audits by the IRS.

    However, a one-page document posted on the DOJ website early Tuesday includes a sweeping release under which the IRS is “forever barred and precluded” from pursuing “examinations” of Trump, “related or affiliated individuals,” and related trusts and businesses.

    The waiver specifically encompasses “tax returns filed before the effective date” of the settlement, which was Monday…

  190. Reginald Selkirk says

    @ 95, 158

    Trump: White House ballroom to be ‘drone-proof’ with military complex

    US President Donald Trump spoke to reporters at the construction site of his planned White House ballroom, saying the estimated $400 million project is set to be “drone-proof” and include a military-style complex beneath the facility.

    Trump said the ballroom is being funded by private donors and is ahead of schedule. The project, however, has faced new hurdles after the Senate parliamentarian ruled against a $1 billion provision in a bill intended to help fund it.

    1) Why provide $1 billion if its only going to cost $400 million?
    2) He is just making stuff up as he goes along.

  191. Reginald Selkirk says

    ‘Smallest statue in the world’: Irish councillor proposes monument for mosquito that killed Cromwell

    A city councillor in Cork, Ireland is advocating to erect a public statue of a mosquito.

    It wouldn’t be a statue of just any mosquito , but of the pest that some — at least in Cork — believe bit the English invader, Oliver Cromwell, sending him home to die of what was once known as “Cork fever,” an old name for malaria.

    If built, it would be “definitely … the smallest public statue in the world,” Green Party councillor, Oliver Moran told As It Happens guest host Nora Young. Moran is proposing the diminutive statue be placed atop an empty plinth outside Cork City Hall, among some other ideas he’s considering…

  192. Reginald Selkirk says

    Montreal F1 stripper strike part of fight to legitimize and decriminalize sex work

    … That’s why Montreal sex worker Adore Goldman is organizing another strike, this time in the midst of F1 weekend — one of the busiest times of the year for the city’s clubs — to demand greater labour protections and push for the decriminalization of sex work.

    She says strippers’ employment status as independent contractors, which is now an industry-wide norm, has for too long shielded club owners from ensuring safe working conditions.

    On Saturday, she and members of the advocacy group she co-founded, the Sex Work Autonomous Committee (SWAC), will be zeroing in on the “bar fee” that clubs charge dancers to work.

    Bar fees can range between $15 to $100 and are sometimes raised during F1 — even though working on those days isn’t especially lucrative for dancers, according to Goldman…

  194. JM says

    Reuters: Exclusive: Russians covertly trained by China return to fight in Ukraine, sources say

    China’s armed forces secretly trained about 200 Russian military personnel in China late last year and some have since returned to fight in Ukraine, according to three European intelligence agencies and documents seen by Reuters.

    The covert training sessions, which predominantly focused on the use of drones, were outlined in a dual-language Russian-Chinese agreement signed by senior Russian and Chinese officers in Beijing on July 2, 2025.
    The agreement, ‌reviewed by Reuters, said about 200 Russian troops would be trained at military facilities in locations including Beijing and the eastern city of Nanjing. The sources said around this number subsequently trained in China.

    200 soldiers is not in itself important but the information those troops could have and share on handing, using and defending against drones could be very important. The experience they could get using drones could also be very important. China doesn’t have any big secrets on drones as far as I know but just the supplies to freely train would be an advantage to troopers from Russia. The Russians probably also transferred information to the Chinese, who have the equipment but a real shortage of field experience.
    That this was made public days after Trump’s trip to China was surely not accidental either. European officials have reasons of their own to make Trump look bad and put some pressure on him.

  196. says

    Followup to Reginald @189.

    […] A New York Times report added, “[P]rotection from audit could be quite remunerative for Mr. Trump. In 2024, The Times reported that a loss in an I.R.S. audit could cost Mr. Trump more than $100 million.”

    The same report noted that existing federal law already prohibits the White House from instructing the IRS to start or stop specific audits, “but that broad prohibition does appear to include a carve out for the attorney general.”

    The “slush fund” scandal was already shaping up to be one of the most important corruption controversies in recent memory. Though it hardly seemed possible, it just got worse.

    Link

  197. says

    Reuters reported:

    U.S. Treasury Secretary ​Scott Bessent on Monday announced another 30-day extension of a sanctions waiver allowing purchases of Russian seaborne oil to aid “energy-vulnerable” countries hit by the Iran war, reversing plans ‌not to grant an extension.

    Bessent said in a posting on X that the Treasury was issuing the 30-day general license after a previous waiver lapsed on Saturday. This will allow temporary access to Russian oil and petroleum products stranded on tankers without violating severe U.S. sanctions on Russian oil majors, he said.

    Commentary:

    […] The news was not well received among many on Capitol Hill. In a joint statement, Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts argued, “The Trump Administration is delivering another dangerous and indefensible gift to Vladimir Putin by extending sanctions relief for Russian oil yet again. Every additional dollar the Kremlin earns from this license helps Putin finance his illegal war against Ukraine and kill innocent Ukrainians. … Continuing to show weakness like this will only invite more aggression and put a just end to the war in Ukraine further away.”

    The political pushback was clearly warranted given the circumstances, but the Trump administration’s newest favor for the Kremlin was the latest in a recent series. The president and his team have also recently:
    – Shrugged off compelling evidence that Russia has helped Iran target American assets in the Middle East.
    – Looked the other way after Russia attacked American-owned business interests in Ukraine.
    – Allowed Russia to bypass a U.S. oil blockade intended to smother the Cuban government.
    – Vouched for Putin’s trustworthiness.
    – Echoed Kremlin talking points.
    – Bragged about curtailing U.S. aid to Ukraine, which is still trying to defend itself in response to Russia’s invasion.

    It’s worth emphasizing that all of these developments have unfolded over the past couple of months, and this list doesn’t include the many steps Trump and his team took that benefited Russia in 2025, including a humiliating attempt at direct diplomacy with Putin during a failed summit in Alaska, in which the American president slunk away empty-handed.

    The next time Trump brags about how “tough” he is with Putin, be sure to keep all of this in mind.

    Link

  198. says

    So, the tRUMP owned DOJ created an illegal taxpayer funded $1.776Billion slush fund that only Congress is authorized to create. And, it will be distributed by the tRUMP admin. cockroaches at tRUMP’s direction to all the J6 and other magat criminals. The IRS issued a disclaimer that they are not responsible for any fraud or other criminal activity in giving out this money. And, Blanche has said that even though they control all aspects of this criminal slush fund, anyone can apply for money (WTF).

    The above is just one tip of the icebergs this ‘titanic’ country is sailing through. And, you want me to be ‘patriotic’ regarding this magat Death Spiral country?

  199. says

    @189 Reginald Selkirk commented:
    The Justice Department on Tuesday expanded the just-announced settlement of President Donald Trump’s lawsuit over the leaking of his tax returns to include a pledge that the IRS will no longer pursue any claims it may have against Trump, his family members and his companies over unpaid taxes.

    I am SOOO ANGRY, all these billions of dollars in crimes by the magat crime family and now the entire magat family is safe from all audits of their criminal financial activities. What is left of this country is being DESTROYED by the magat cult admin.
    Doesn’t everyone with a conscience now clearly hear Martha and the Vandellas: ‘nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide’.

  200. says

    Trump is still trying to make ‘white genocide’ a thing

    Do you know about the world’s worst refugee crisis? Where masses of people have been displaced by brutal violence in their homeland?

    Is it Syria, where 7.4 million people have been internally displaced, and over 2.3 million have fled to neighboring Turkey? No, silly.

    Is it Sudanese refugees, who have jumped to 2.1 million due to ongoing military conflict? Of course not.

    The world’s worst refugee crisis is in South Africa, where the brutal “white genocide” continues to take its toll, and America has simply got to do something.

    Sure, the whole idea of a white genocide is a lie invented out of whole cloth by racists like Elon Musk, but that tiny detail can’t get in the way of President Donald Trump deciding that it is an extreme emergency, one that must be met by letting even more racist white Afrikaners into the United States.

    Trump had originally capped all refugee admissions for 2026 at 7,500, and made very clear that those 7,500 were going to be only white Afrikaners. But now, he’s bumping that up to 17,500 because, “This escalating hostility heightens the risks to Afrikaners in South Africa, who are already subject to far-reaching government-sponsored race-based discrimination.”

    […] This is a thing that has actually been investigated and found to be untrue, unlike just enacting policy based on Musk and Trump’s racist vibes. Indeed, even the Afrikaner political parties in South Africa do not claim there is a white genocide.

    But what about all that escalating hostility? Well, in the fourth quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025, there were a total of 18 farm-related murders, which might seem like an oddly narrow way of looking at things until you learn that the ostensible locus of all the anti-white racism is the treatment of white farmers. Out of those 18 people killed, two were white.

    [I snipped a lot of details describing the Trump administration claim that “South Africa “across multiple ministries and political parties has sought to undermine the US resettlement program and attacked Afrikaners.” Not true.]

    […] Meanwhile, the administration is also considering forcing Afghans who helped us with our ill-advised, endless war there to either be sent to the Democratic Republic of Congo, despite that country being absolutely war-torn, or they can go home to get murdered by the Taliban for being collaborators. […]

  201. says

    New York Times:

    Global health officials warned on Tuesday that the number of people infected in an Ebola outbreak in central Africa could be much higher than reported and that the outbreak could last for months. The suspected death toll stood Tuesday at more than 130 people.

  202. says

    Associated Press:

    The teenagers who killed three people at a San Diego mosque met online and shared a ‘broad hatred’ toward different religions and races, authorities said Tuesday. Mark Remily of the FBI said during a news conference that authorities have uncovered writings by the suspects. Authorities declined to specify what ideologies or views were expressed by the shooters. Authorities have also recovered 30 firearms and a crossbow from two residences searched in connection to the investigation.

  203. says

    The Hill:

    The Pentagon’s policy chief announced Monday that the United States will suspend its involvement in a joint body that coordinates military consultation with Canada, pointing to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s address to the World Economic Forum earlier this year […]

    In that address, Carney sounded a warning about the risks of relying on global “hegemons” and called on middle powers to take a new approach to projecting strength.

    […] “The middle powers must act together, because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu,” he said, in a speech widely seen as a shot at Trump’s alienation of U.S. allies.

    “We know the old order is not coming back. We shouldn’t mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy. But we believe that from the fracture, we can build something bigger, better, stronger, more just,” Carney added.

    “This is the task of the middle powers, the countries that have the most to lose from a world of fortresses and most to gain from genuine cooperation.”

    […] The Permanent Joint Board on Defense was established in August 1940 in an agreement signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, in the midst of World War II.

    The board includes military leaders and civilians from both countries, meeting semiannually […]

    Carney announced in March that Canada had hit its 2 percent defense spending target years ahead of schedule and was on track to hit 3.5 percent by 2035. […]

  205. says

    Yet another judge is rightfully furious with ICE

    Lower-court judges continue to try to hold the line against the brutal excesses of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel issuing a ruling earlier this week that drastically restricts ICE agents’ ability to arrest people at immigration courts in Manhattan.

    This is an about-face from Judge Castel, who had ruled in favor of the Trump administration in September 2025, giving the go-ahead to its practice of arresting immigrants who were following the law by attending their required immigration court appearances. Castel’s decision relied heavily on the Department of Justice’s claim that internal ICE guidance said arrests at or near immigration courts was totally fine and dandy. [!\

    It turns out that isn’t what the internal ICE guidance said at all [!], a thing the Department of Justice only got around to telling the court in March, some six months after Judge Castel’s ruling. Somehow the DOJ was totally misled by ICE, its own client. […]

    Castel made no bones that his new order was necessary because of these lies.

    “Here, defendants’ concession that the 2025 ICE courthouse arrest policies never applied to immigration courts warrants reexamination of the prior ruling, both to correct a clear error and prevent a manifest injustice,” his ruling said. [!]

    […] Trump and his lackeys can howl all they want that Judge Castel is an evil, deep-state progressive or something, which would be news to Castel and George W. Bush, who appointed him to the federal bench. But the current administration is losing across the board.

    Judges have ruled individual immigration detentions illegal in over 10,000 cases, or close to 90% of the 11,600 reviewed by Politico. Its database shows that, sure, Trump’s judicial appointees are ruling in favor of the administration’s detentions more often than other judges. However, even those judges have ruled that a detention is illegal over twice as often as they have ruled in favor of Trump, with 1,347 rulings against the administration to 623 for it.

    That’s true across all Republican appointees. George W. Bush judges? 1,830 rulings against the administration, and only 120 times in favor of it. George H. W. Bush? 125 against, 38 for. Reagan? 127 against, 62 for.

    These wrongful detentions have devastating consequences for immigrants, while somehow creating no long-lasting consequences for ICE. Indeed, the agency is currently blaming a woman it detained and deported, a domestic violence victim with no criminal record, for the death of her own U.S. citizen child after she was forcibly seized and deported to Honduras. [!]

    Acting ICE director Todd M. Lyons sneered that Wendy Hernandez Reyes “chose to leave her son here with a violent murderer who took his life” when her toddler was left with the child’s uncle—as if Reyes was responsible for that decision. [!]

    Of course, what actually happened is that Reyes first begged ICE to let her go so she could care for her toddler son, but was forced to turn him over to someone else when she was detained. While she was imprisoned and awaiting deportation, she repeatedly asked ICE to have her son leave the United States with her, to no avail. [!!]

    Or how about the wrongfully detained Freddy Cortez Lugos, a Guatemalan immigrant who the court ordered ICE to immediately release? They just didn’t, so he missed the birth of his child. [!]

    The Trump administration’s lawless immigration crackdown has hurt so many people, and it aims to hurt so many more. […] Trump’s minions at the Justice Department have to lie to courts to make that happen […]

  206. Militant Agnostic says

    From Lynna 25

    Authorities declined to specify what ideologies or views were expressed by the shooters.

    Probably because those views aligned with Trump/Magat perfectly.

    Authorities have also recovered 30 firearms and a crossbow from two residences searched in connection to the investigation.

    I think I know where the the shooters picked up their ideology – apples not falling far from trees.

  212. birgerjohansson says

    ^ ^ ^
    I especially enjoyed the video of DJT where he promised the war would be over quickly, that the gas prices would be coming down and that this war (attempting to overthrow the regime) should have been done 47 years ago.
    Gee, I wonder why Carter, Reagan George H Bush, Clinton, Dubya and Obama chose not to do it…

  214. birgerjohansson says

    “Sweden Called Them Obsolete… Then Ukraine Unleashed Them on Russia”

    Battlefield taxis and ambulances – not bad for a 1966 APC.
    I should add that the Soviet-designed vehicles on the other side are prone to burn when hit, and have no easy egress. So this vehicle is a decent choice. 
    Even the more modern Russian APCs have so poor protection the soldiers prefer to sit on top.

  219. Reginald Selkirk says

    Tesla Cybertruck owner believed Elon Musk when he said it could cross a lake — now he’s in jail

    A Tesla Cybertruck owner drove his electric pickup truck into Grapevine Lake in Texas to test the vehicle’s “Wade Mode” feature. The Cybertruck became disabled in the water and the driver was arrested.
    …
    The driver was arrested and charged with operating a vehicle in a closed section of park/lake, having no valid boat registration, and numerous water safety equipment violations…

  220. Reginald Selkirk says

    Empty rooms and Fifa cancellations – US hotels fear World Cup washout

    Its report partially puts the blame at the door of Fifa, accusing world football’s governing body of block-booking far too many rooms for its own use and creating false demand.

    This, the AHLA said, led to artificially high pricing which, after Fifa cancelled a large number of rooms, has been replaced by a vacuum of availability…

    I think we all have a good idea of the root of the problem, and the current USA government has been antagonistic towards foreigners and has secret police committing unchecked violence on the streets.

  221. JM says

    @220 Reginald Selkirk: FIFA also raised the prices on game tickets and loosened rules on official resale, making scalping easier. FIFA is supposed to set aside some blocks with lower prices for poor countries that back FIFA or where soccer is particularly popular. Screwing that up has angered a lot of fans and kept them from getting tickets.
    Some of the FIFA cancellations are the consequences of all the other problems. With fewer people coming to the US to go to games FIFA is reducing the amount of international help it’s bringing in. Which makes sense for FIFA but is a problem for the hotels that are getting stuck with cancellations from FIFA just as the rest of the market is going down.

  223. JM says

    The Guardian: US and Israel ‘hoped to install Ahmadinejad as Iran’s leader’

    Fresh questions have been raised over the US and Israeli effort to depose the Iranian regime after it was claimed that Israel wanted to put the populist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in power.
    Ahmadinejad’s turbulent presidency, from 2005 to 2013, was marked by incendiary attacks on Israel but he recast himself as a critic of the regime and champion of the poor after falling out with the supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

    Shaky story despite being reported by the New York Times. If true it would be another case of Israel supporting their enemies. Ahmadenejad has been a strong critic of Israel and supported Iran’s nuclear program. It seems he has moderated his positions since leaving office but but isn’t pro-Israel.
    The US government might see him as a practical leader who would be willing to negotiate. While being anti-Israel he was also a leader who had a practical economic policy.

  224. JM says

    Yahoo Tech: The Trump cell phone has finally arrived – but is no longer ‘Made in the USA’ and the American flag design is missing two stripes

    After a nine-month delay, the Trump Mobile “T1” smartphone was sent out this week to pre-order customers and some members of the media. There was just a slight problem.

    Trump Mobile CEO Pat O’Brien told USA Today that the phones were “assembled” in the U.S. and that models will use components “primarily manufactured in America.” Tech experts told NBC News that the phone appears to resemble an HTC U-24 Pro, which is made in Taiwan.
    “It looks physically very similar, and that matches with what we’ve been told so far,” Shahram Mokhtari, an engineer at tech repair company iFixit told NBC News. Tech outlet The Verge also reported that the phone was likely a U-24 Pro device.

    After months of delays and being called out in public the first Trump Phones have shipped. They appear to be a HTC U-24 with a gold case, surprisingly that is only somewhat outdated and overpriced. They have an incorrect US flag on the back.
    I would guess that when this became a big enough public issue to make it up to Trump he ordered them to ship. The fastest way for them to do that was to buy a common phone from Taiwan and put a gold case on it.

  225. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    birgerjohansson @204: Weird that the YouTuber reported the story a year late but missed the update on the press release.

    Planck Institute – Wendelstein 7-X sets new performance records (2025-06-03)

    they sustained […] for 43 seconds. Wendelstein 7-X thus surpassed the best performances of fusion devices of the tokamak type

    [UPDATE on 2025-06-30]: After publishing this news item, members of the JET community informed us about previously unpublished results from the now decommissioned tokamak in the United Kingdom. At the end of JET’s operating life, […] JET also achieved a new world records for triple products. These are comparable to the best values achieved by Wendelstein 7-X. The record pulses were even sustained for up to 60 seconds. The corresponding technical article is currently being reviewed and will soon be published in a scientific journal.

    JET’s successor, ITER is still under construction.

  226. JM says

    Roll call: GOP senators push for challenge to House maps in Democratic states

    At the opening of the hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution, subcommittee Chair Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., urged the Justice Department and any possible private litigants to challenge maps in states such as California and Illinois, arguing that efforts to have the maps maximize minority representation violate the Constitution.

    “These maps do not become constitutional because they’re already in use; they do not survive because politicians call them voting rights maps, and they will not disappear on their own,” Schmitt said.

    Partisan politics at it’s worst. The Republicans are mostly just setting up this topic to be a midterm and post midterm political topic. It’s unlikely that any case started now will get anywhere in the limited time before the next election.
    They may be hoping to get a judge to step in and impose a map also. The Republicans are well aware that any maps drawn by most of these states under the new standards that allows unlimited partisan gerrymandering without concern for any standard of fairness are not going to help them. If the case gets tied up in court though they might be able to convince the judge to impose a district map until the case is resolved. Judge drawn maps are likely to be more helpful to Republicans.

  227. says

    ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES: Massie concedes after ‘most expensive’ primary in U.S. history

    GOP Rep. Thomas Massie delivers a concession speech after losing his primary in Kentucky following an intense effort by Trump to oust him.

    Video is 3:38 minutes

    ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES: ‘What are you going to do, baby?’: Warren dares Trump on childcare

    “What are you going to do, baby?” Sen. Elizabeth Warren says a Democratic Congress could push childcare through and dare Trump to veto help for American families.

    Video is 11:56 minutes.

  228. lumipuna says

    Hello.

    Re: Lynna at 156, on a successful Ukrainian drone strike on Moscow area

    These strikes continue also in St. Petersburg area, though there’s almost no coverage on them (and very little on the Russia/Ukraine war in general) on Finnish media, except occasionally when some Ukrainian drones stray into Finland or the Baltic countries. There’s been a lot of that in recent days, after a mostly uneventful spring. There are increasing suspicions that Russia intentionally misdirects these drones into neighboring countries, while also accusing said countries of collaborating on Ukraine’s strikes into northwestern Russia. Some details are available in English here:

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/may/20/lithuania-ukraine-belarus-estonia-baltcis-drones-air-alert-europe-vladimir-putin-xi-jinping-china-eu-nato-latest-news-updates

    Drones were sighted last week in Latvia, and Finland was on high alert on Friday morning. Yesterday (this Tuesday) a drone crossed via Latvia into Estonia and was shot down there by regular Nato air defense. Incidentally, Estonia is currently also hosting a multinational Nato exercise. Today, people in Vilnius area in Lithuania were apparently told to actually go to bomb shelters (as opposed to just staying indoors, which would provide some protection from shrapnel in case a drone’s warhead explodes nearby).

    In early April or thereabouts, I wrote about how two drones had entered and crashed into southern Finland. Shortly after that, two others were found lying in the woods, one of them deep inside the country. These two had entered entirely undetected. There was much discussion and concern on how reliably our air defense can actually detect and intercept foreign assault drones as they enter. The Finnish Defense Force has been scrambling to get things in order, if only to demonstrate Russia that they shouldn’t try anything with their own drones. There is also the question on whether the public can and should be immediately alerted in the event of a drone incursion. This is somewhat relevant even when the drones in question are presumed non-hostile, as they might pose danger by sheer accident. Thus far, there is no efficient way to reach all citizens via their cellphones, unlike in many other European countries.

    In the wee hours of last Friday, there was a tip from our allies that one or more drones were detected approaching Helsinki area over the gulf of Finland, heading straight to the most densely populated part of Finland. This resulted in a massive (over)reaction, apparently because both the military and the civil authorities sought to demonstrate their vigilance. Several fighter jets cruised over Helsinki in the early dawn hours (as I was sleeping, like almost everyone else), prepared to shoot down any drones despite the risk of collateral damage. In the end, no drones entered Finnish airspace this time.

    Meanwhile, a public danger alert was declared for the entire Uusimaa region, which has a quarter of Finland’s population. People were strongly advised to stay indoors, or seek shelter if they were outdoors and saw a drone flying nearby. Most people, of course, only noticed the alert after waking up around 7am, just when it was revoked. There was some confusion on whether people should actually not leave their homes for work and school, which services should or should not open and so on. This could have escalated into a full chaos, if the situation had continued longer into the morning. It was a sorry affair, but also a very useful call for further emergency preparation and planning.

  229. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Militant Agnostic @206:

    [Quote via Lynna @202]: Authorities declined to specify what ideologies or views were expressed by the [San Diego mosque] shooters.

    Probably because those views aligned with Trump/Magat

    Hannah Gais (SPLC):

    The manifesto, which I’m reading right now, is a total slop-bucket of neo-Nazi accelerationism with misogynistic rants and multiple sections that are completely unfinished. It lionizes Brenton Tarrant, who murdered 51 people in a NZ mosque in 2019. The alleged shooter’s heroes are a mix of white supremacists and mass shooters. Includes: Hitler, James Mason, author of neo-Nazi tome “Siege”; Brandon Russell, former Atomwaffen Division member; the Columbine shooters; James Huberty, mass shooter; Elliot Rodgers, incel.

    The “honorable mentions” in the alleged shooters’ manifesto are even more scattered. It’s a mixture of mass shooters (or attempted mass shooters), white supremacists, Confederate references, and extremist brainrot (e.g., “Noctulian Freakybob”).

    Rando 1: “Luigi Mangione mention. [Large oof.]”
    Rando 2: “That [honorable mentions] list is so completely politically incoherent it made my head spin.”
    Rando 1: “It’s coherent in one way: Notoriety associated with successfully killing other people.”

    Jeff Tischauser (SPLC):

    The alleged shooter incubated in the far-right media ecosystem since 2022, meaning he started forming his violent worldview at around 13 or 14 years old. He fried his brain with neo-Nazi accelerationist slop throughout high school.

    Journalists: I dunno, it looks like these guys were just showing racial pride.

    An alleged shooter: Let me first introduce myself by citing a neo-Nazi domestic terrorist.

  230. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    JM @223: Not only the goal, but the means was bonkers.

    Elia Ayoub (Journalist, Lebanese diasporan):

    NYT Article: Ahmadinejad was injured on the war’s first day by an Israeli strike at his home in Tehran that had been designed to free him from house arrest […] He survived the strike, […] but after the near miss he became disillusioned with the regime change plan. […] How Mr. Ahmadinejad was recruited to take part remains unknown.

    Israel and the US actually believed that they could get Ahmadinejad by bombing his place to ‘free’ him and, somehow, he would then lead a coup d’etat against a regime he supports.

    This is the same Ahmadinejad with a long history of antisemitic comments btw. That’s who Israel wanted. Not that anything Israel does ever surprises me anymore.

  231. says

    lumipuna @228, thank you for that update. Sounds like a lack of adequate planning caused some of the confusion. Finnish residents will likely demand some changes. Apart from that, I too have noticed that a lot of media outlets have dropped coverage of Ukraine’s fight against Russia.

    Sky Captain @229, thanks for that additional information. “a total slop-bucket of neo-Nazi accelerationism with misogynistic rants” … well, that’s pretty definitive right there. I’m amazed that the officials investigating the San Diego mosque shooting didn’t report on that. It’s almost as if they are trying to minimize the shooters connections to rightwing extremism.

  232. says

    Election news, as summarized by Steve Benen:

    Donald Trump set out to destroy Republican Rep. Thomas Massie in a Kentucky primary, and the president secured the results he wanted: Ed Gallrein defeated the incumbent by roughly 10 points. [Source: MS NOW]

    On a related note, another intraparty Trump foe, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, fell short in his Republican primary in Georgia’s gubernatorial race. Trump-endorsed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and billionaire CEO Rick Jackson advanced to a primary runoff, and the winner will face former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who easily won a Democratic primary. [Source: MS NOW]

    In Georgia’s Republican Senate primary, Rep. Mike Collins will face former football coach Derek Dooley in a runoff election, and the winner will take on incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in November. [Source: MS NOW]

    As for the Georgia Supreme Court election I’ve been keeping an eye on, the conservative justices beat back challenges from two progressive rivals, despite the fact that Democratic turnout topped GOP turnout in the state. A New York Times analysis noted, “The difference suggests that Georgia Democrats did not have a turnout problem as much as they did a voter education problem.” <Source: New York Times]

    As expected, South Carolina’s Republican-led state House again approved a newly gerrymandered map on Wednesday morning, intended to erase the state’s only majority-Black district. The map now heads to the GOP-led state Senate, where it faces an uncertain fate. [Source: MS NOW]

    In Colorado, where Democratic Gov. Jared Polis commuted Tina Peters’ sentence late last week, Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet confirmed this week that if he’s elected governor, he will not appoint Polis to fill his Senate vacancy. Bennett called Polis’ decision on Peters “disqualifying.” [Source: Bluesky post]

    And in Texas’ closely watched Republican Senate primary, Rep. Wesley Hunt, who came in third in the first round of balloting, has thrown his support behind state Attorney General Ken Paxton over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn. The move came a day after Trump also endorsed Paxton. The runoff primary is now just six days away. [Source: Texas Tribune]

  233. says

    JD Vance points to Tina Peters as someone deserving of a taxpayer-financed check

    The vice president’s comments reinforced concerns that the new fund exists to send taxpayer money to Donald Trump’s favorite criminals.

    It’ll be a while before Americans learn who, exactly, will get checks from the Trump administration’s $1.7 billion fund, but JD Vance pointed to someone specific whom he sees as worthy of a taxpayer-financed check. [social media post, with video]

    “Tina Peters is this woman who is about to get out of prison, thanks in large part to [Donald Trump’s] good work in Colorado,” the vice president told reporters at a White House briefing. “This is a woman who, at worst, if you believe everything that the prosecutor said about her, committed misdemeanor trespassing and somebody threw the book at her.” [OMFG]

    Vance went on to say Peters was “innocent,” before concluding, “Is it reasonable for her to get some compensation for the fact that she was treated unfairly? I think the answer is yes.”

    At the outset, it’s important to emphasize the vice president’s claims are spectacularly wrong. For example, Peters didn’t just commit a misdemeanor; she was charged and convicted of several felonies.

    […] a jury found her guilty.

    But to fully appreciate the inanity of Vance’s pitch, we have to dig deeper. To hear the vice president tell it, Peters is entitled to “some compensation” from a so-called anti-weaponization fund (condemned by critics as a “slush fund”) because of the way she was treated during the Biden administration.

    What the vice president either didn’t know or didn’t acknowledge, however, was that the Biden administration had literally nothing to do with Peters’ case: The Coloradan faced state charges, in a state court. Her indictment was brought by a state prosecutor (who, incidentally, is a Republican). She was sentenced by a state judge and sent to a state prison Her sentence was ultimately commuted by her state’s governor (who, incidentally, is a Democrat).

    That Peters would get a check from the federal government, from a fund ostensibly created to address federal abuses, reinforces rather obvious concerns that this fund has nothing to do with righting wrongs and everything to do with sending taxpayer money to Trump’s favorite criminals.

  234. says

    NOTUS reported:

    Former Trump administration official Michael Caputo on Tuesday filed the first known claim under the Justice Department’s new $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” claiming he was the target of “political weaponization.” […]

    “I was the target of the illegal Crossfire Hurricane investigation and our family suffered greatly during that dark era of political weaponization,” Caputo wrote in a letter to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, referencing the FBI’s 2016 investigation into possible collusion between the Russian government and individuals associated with Trump’s first presidential campaign.

    Commentary:

    […] Caputo has generated plenty of headlines in recent years. Over several months in 2020, for example, the longtime Republican political operative and Roger Stone protégé served in a leadership role at the Department of Health and Human Services, which did not go well: After allegedly trying to interfere with scientific reports and clashing with career government scientists, whom he accused of “sedition,” Caputo declared in a Facebook video that his “mental health has definitely failed.”

    After the Republican president returned to the White House, Caputo returned to Trump’s camp, joining Ed Martin’s team.

    Caputo was never charged, but former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report identified an instance in which Caputo had a covert interaction with Russia and brokered a meeting between Stone and a Russian operative.

    In his letter to Blanche, Caputo also said that in 2021, he was subjected to another investigation as part of a One America News documentary about Joe Biden and Ukraine.

    Now, evidently, Caputo believes he’s entitled to $2.7 million from a fund that hasn’t yet begun writing checks.

    Link

  235. says

    2 Jan. 6 police officers sue to block Trump DOJ’s ‘slush fund’

    […] Is the so-called anti-weaponization fund even legal?

    On Wednesday morning, former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, perhaps best known to much of the public for his testimony to the bipartisan House Jan. 6 committee, and former Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges, who also defended the Capitol on Jan. 6, filed a lawsuit to block the Trump administration’s fund. The lawsuit, filed with the Public Integrity Project, seeks to invalidate the Republican administration’s fund, claiming that it emboldens violence against police and rewards sedition.

    MS NOW’s Britt Miller spoke to Dunn about the lawsuit and this week’s developments. The decorated officer said:

    I had the opportunity to talk with lawyers about this. And we are going to sue to stop this illegal slush fund. Now, obviously, we encourage everybody else to sue. Everybody should, this can’t happen. So, we believe that we, the officers in this suit, will be harmed by this. We have been subjected to countless death threats in addition to all the violence that we faced on Jan. 6. But for just speaking out the truth, I mean, I guarantee you somebody’s watching this right now and typing death threats to us right now. […] continue to embolden and potentially continue to arm a militia that Donald Trump will have on retainer.

    Commenting on those expected to benefit from the fund, Dunn added, “These guys are asking for handouts and grifting and just wanting taxpayer money.”

    The lawsuit comes one day after former New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin appeared on MS NOW and argued that Trump’s fund is “illegal.”

    Time will tell whether the new lawsuit gains traction, but as the case moves forward, its existence is a reminder that the “slush fund” controversy is unfolding on multiple fronts, from Capitol Hill, where it is facing bipartisan pushback, to the public debate, to the courts.

  237. says

    Russian drone base struck in occupied Donetsk

    Russia’s refinery in Kstovo was revisited as well as a chemical plant near Stavropol. Attacks by Ukrainian drones deep inside Russia were once remarkable because of their rarity and for the shock value. Now they are becoming routine with plants and refineries getting hit multiple times each. [social media posts, with images]

    🔥🛢️Russian Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez Oil Refinery, in Kstovo was targeted early this morning.

    This refinery has an annual capacity of 17ml tons and is the fourth largest in Russia. 800km from the front line.

    Ukraine struck a Russian drone base at a mine in occupied Donetsk. Snizhne is east of the city of Donetsk. [social media posts, with video]

    […]

  238. says

    Trump Has Been Investing in Companies and Then Pumping Them in His Speeches

    “Yet another extraordinary example of a president milking his office for personal profit.”

    On March 11, President Trump took a tour of a manufacturing facility in Reading, Ohio, owned by Thermo Fisher Scientific, a medical supply company. During the tour, Trump lavished praise on Thermo Fisher which uses the facility to manufacture prescription drugs on a contract basis. “It’s a great honor being here. It’s a great company,” Trump said, appearing alongside CEO Marc Casper. “You have done a fantastic job and I’d like to congratulate you.”

    Later, Trump asked another Thermo Fisher executive to share “some great information about this incredible company.” The executive talked about how Thermo Fisher is producing drugs for Merck and others at the facility. Trump then explicitly encouraged other pharmaceutical companies to contract with Thermo Fisher to “on-shore” more jobs. He claimed that some pharmaceutical companies were building their own US manufacturing facilities but said “they can get here a lot faster by using this great company.”

    Trump did not mention that, the same day of the tour, March 11, he purchased between $15,000 and $50,000 of Thermo Fisher stock. (Federal disclosure rules only require filers to list their transactions in broad ranges.) Trump did not publicly disclose the purchase until May 14. […]

    Trump also purchased between $51,000 and $115,000 worth of Thermo Fisher stock about one month before his visit on February 12. He made another purchase of Thermo Fisher valued between $15,000 and $50,000 on March 2. So at the time of Trump’s effusive remarks about Thermo Fisher, he had purchased as much as $215,000 worth of the company’s stock over the previous month. [!]

    The fact that Trump visited a Thermo Fisher facility on the same day he purchased the company’s stock—and bought Thermo Fisher stock repeatedly in the weeks before his visit—has not previously been reported.

    […] “President Trump’s investment holdings are maintained exclusively through fully discretionary accounts independently managed by third-party financial institutions with sole and exclusive authority over all investment decisions,” the spokesperson said. “Trades are executed and portfolios are balanced through automated investment processes and systems administered by those institutions.”

    The fact that Trump purchased stock in Thermo Fisher the same day that he toured its facility undercuts this claim. [!]

    […] There are no legal or practical barriers preventing Trump from being involved in the management of his assets. But it’s a whopper of an ethical conflict. “When we say Donald Trump is the most corrupt president in American history, it’s because of conduct like this,” says Meghan Faulkner, a spokesperson for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which has been involved in several lawsuits involving Trump and his administration. “It could not be clearer that he views the presidency as a get-rich-quick scheme, and that’s a slap in the face to countless Americans struggling financially thanks to Trump administration policies.”

    […] After touring the Thermo Fisher facility in Ohio, Trump traveled to Kentucky and delivered a speech that afternoon. During his remarks, Trump singled out Apple and CEO Tim Cook for praise. “Apple, a great company, $2.5 billion to manufacture 100 percent of the glass for iPhones and Apple Watches right here in Kentucky factories,” Trump declared. “Apple [is] spending $650 billion on new plants all over the United States. Think of that. Who the hell else could have done this, nobody else. Nobody else. I say it kiddingly, but I’m actually not kidding. Nobody else could…He’s done a good job, Tim Cook.”

    The same day, March 11, Trump purchased between $250,000 and $500,000 of Apple stock. [!]

    Trump had purchased between $1,000,000 and $5,000,000 of Apple stock in an unsolicited purchase on March 2. In total, Trump purchased between $2 million and $7.2 million in Apple stock during the month of March 2026, including five unsolicited purchases. […]

    […] On March 25, Trump purchased between $50,000 and $100,000 in Micron stock. The transaction was marked unsolicited.

    The next day, Trump called in to Fox News’ popular talk show, “The Five.” In the interview, he said he had recently met with Micron’s top executive and talked up the company’s prospects. “I just left the head of Micron. It’s one of the hottest companies,” Trump said.

    Overall, Trump purchased between $217,000 and $530,000 in Micron from March 2 to March 25, including four unsolicited transactions. The fact that Trump touted Micron after building up a large position in its stock has not been previously reported. [!]

    There was also overlap between Trump’s public remarks and his investment in Dell Technologies. On February 10, Trump purchased between $1 million and $5 million worth of Dell stock.

    During an economic speech in Georgia nine days later, Trump told the audience to “go out and buy a Dell computer,” adding the company made “phenomenal products.” Trump also praised Dell CEO Michael Dell and his wife for financially supporting “Trump Accounts” for newborns. The proximity of Trump’s February 19 speech to his purchase of at least $1 million in Dell stock has not been previously reported. [!]

    Trump also purchased between $15,000 and $50,000 of Dell stock on March 2 and again on March 11. Both transactions were marked unsolicited. He made a final purchase of Dell stock, valued between $1,000 and $15,000 on March 23.

    Trump also continued to encourage people to buy Dell computers. He pitched Dell products on February 27, March 9, April 16, and May 8. The May 8 remarks, delivered at a Mother’s Day event, helped propel Dell’s stock to an all-time high.

    […] Trump’s trades, Magaziner noted, “show that he continues to put his own self-enrichment ahead of the interests of the American people,” and outlawing such behavior “is a necessary step to cleaning up the corruption that has plagued Washington for too long.”

    […] Other Trump stock purchases appear well timed to take advantage of Trump administration policies. For example, NOTUS reported that Trump “purchased $500,000 to $1 million worth of Nvidia stock on January 6, a week before the Commerce Department officially approved the sale of some Nvidia chips to China.” Similarly, NOTUS found that Trump, on January 6, purchased between $50,000 and $100,000 worth of stock in AMD, another chipmaker that was approved to do business with China on January 13. […]

  240. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-now-witness-the-firepower-of

    Yesterday, Donald Trump took reporters on a tour of the construction site for his insane, unnecessary ballroom and cool fort, which will be cooler than any other world leader’s ballroom fort anywhere. It really is the only thing he cares about in the world, since he’s grown bored with his stupid war on Iran and other dumb stuff like the economy, which is great so shut up about gas prices.

    We will admit that we have not subjected ourselves to the full 45-minute video of the tour released by the White House, but it exists. We skipped around in it, though, and caught a moment where he praised himself for how well he’d read a bit of Scripture at the White House Jesus Fest over the weekend, marveling, “I did Scripture. You think it’s easy to read Scripture? It’s not easy to read Scripture! That’s a whole different ballgame! That’s not like reading a speech — ‘We will build the wall!’ — this is a whole different deal, but I did it proudly.”

    […] But we’re not here to discuss Trump’s theological insights; we’re here to discuss Trump’s vision of his cool ballroom fort, which will be able to withstand any attempt to drive him out by military force. As usual with Trump, his fantasies about the capabilities of the invulnerable ballroom military complex were scattered in with patter about the architecture and how beautiful it will be, but this clip from CBS’s Albany affiliate catches the highlights: [Video]

    Showing off some new renderings of the enormous ballroom, which will be larger than the White House itself, Trump enthusiastically said the building would be a mishmash of classical styles “taken out of different parts of the world from very glamorous times,” […]

    But Trump got especially excited when talking about the military uses of the dance hall, because “on top of the roof we’re gonna have the greatest drone empire that you’ve ever seen, and it’s gonna protect Washington.” [video]

    Trump said that the underground part of the ballroom will go six stories down, and that it would contain a full military hospital and “all sorts of research facilities,” although as Reuters points out, “Trump did not explain the focus of the research. The White House declined to provide further details.” […]

    [I snlpped more of Trump’s comments about drones.] [video]

    Great Leader has given a lot of thought to how secure his bunker must be, with all sorts of “meeting rooms and rooms that go hand in hand for the military using the ballroom. And the ballroom is really a shield, and protecting all of the things that are built here.” It will all be interconnected, very complex, and apparently built to withstand a sustained siege […]

    […] “I hate to use the word snipers, but we have great sniper capacity. It’s built for our snipers, not the enemy’s snipers, our snipers. And because of the height we get a very clear view of everything all over Washington.”

    A really paranoid person might even think that Trump is already planning to hole up inside his special fort and never leave the place alive. Especially now that he’s set up a fund to reward the loyalty of cannon fodder who have already stormed the Capitol once.

    But as we say, that’s crazy talk. Good thing the president isn’t a paranoid old power freak.

  241. says

    Washington Post link

    “Former Cuban president Raúl Castro indicted in U.S. on murder, conspiracy charges”

    A federal grand jury in Miami has indicted former Cuban president Raúl Castro in an attempt to hold him accountable for the 1996 killing of four people, three of them Americans.

    Top Justice Department announced the indictment Wednesday in Miami, the heart of the Cuban exile community.

    The extraordinary indictment, which was returned by a grand jury in April, comes as the Trump administration has ratcheted up pressure to try to force political turnover in communist Cuba, and it is the latest example of the administration using its Justice Department to sway foreign policy.

    […] Castro, 94, took over the presidency of Cuba when his brother, Fidel Castro, stepped down in 2008. With Fidel’s death in 2016, Raúl Castro became the island’s preeminent revolutionary hero. Although he left the presidency in 2018, he remained first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba until 2021.

    It is unlikely that Castro will be extradited to the U.S. to appear in court and face the charges. Absent Cuba’s cooperation, the indictment is likely to remain symbolic unless the U.S. takes aggressive action to remove Castro from Cuba.

    The murder charges in the indictment stem from the 1996 shooting-down of two jets flown by Brothers to the Rescue, a U.S.-based humanitarian group formed in 1991 by Cuban exiles in Miami and headed by Jose Basulto, a veteran of the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.

    […] President Donald Trump, in an executive order issued in the first week of his second term, declared a national emergency regarding Cuba, saying it presents “an unusual and extraordinary threat” because it has aligned itself with countries hostile to the U.S., including Iran, Russia and China.

    Amid these tensions, CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Havana last week for meetings with senior Cuban security and intelligence officials, including Raúl Rodriguez Castro, the powerful grandson of Castro.
    The meeting came as extensive blackouts continued on the island, with the government acknowledging it was “without any reserves” to fuel power plants.

    The Trump administration has adopted a policy of economic strangulation to try to drive the current leadership from power, actions that have gone above and beyond the U.S. economic embargo imposed more than six decades ago. […] Trump has suggested he could utilize a playbook in Cuba similar to the one he used in Venezuela earlier this year.

    […] Trump has said that Cuba is “next in line” as soon as he finishes his war with Iran, although the administration has not publicly declared that it intends to use military force to achieve its goals in Cuba. […]

  242. Reginald Selkirk says

    Jailed for 37 days for posting a meme of Pres. Trump, Tenn. man reaches settlement for civil rights violation

    He spent 37 days in a rural Tennessee county jail for posting a meme about President Donald Trump.

    Now, Lexington, Tenn., resident Larry Bushart — who was finally freed following a NewsChannel 5 investigation — will collect an $835,000 settlement from Perry County, his attorneys announced Wednesday.

    In return, Bushart will drop the federal civil rights lawsuit he filed against Sheriff Nick Weems, investigator Jason Morrow and the county for violating his constitutional rights…

    Bushart posted the meme in a Perry County Facebook group following the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

    Alongside a photo of the president, it included the quote “we have to get over it” and noted that Trump had made that remark “on the Perry High School mass shooting one day after.” The meme included the caption, “This seems relevant today.”

    Two people were killed and six injured during the shooting in Perry, Iowa, back in January 2025.

    But, because some people misinterpreted that meme as a threat to shoot up Perry County High School in Linden, Tenn., sheriff’s deputies arrested Bushart for threatening to commit an act of mass violence at a school. He was held for 37 days, unable to make the $2 million bond set by a local magistrate…

    Weak. The writer caves in and repeats the fascist pretense.

  243. says

    Trump dispatched some Republican foes, but his momentum is still a mirage

    “Whether he wants to admit it or not, the president is racking up legislative defeats, even as he racks up primary wins.”

    The morning after one of the busiest primary election days of the year, Donald Trump chatted briefly with reporters and took aim at one of his own party’s members of Congress. Referring to Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania (while also referring to himself in third person), the president said, “He likes voting against Trump. You know what happens with that? It doesn’t work out well.” [social media post, with video]

    […] Over the course of just two weeks, the president orchestrated the defeats of Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and several Republican state senators in Indiana who refused to go along with a White House-backed gerrymandering scheme. The back-to-back-to-back results have not only left Trump with renewed confidence about his political power, they have also led to the kind of message he seemed eager to tout on Wednesday morning: GOP officials who fail to obey his demands should expect to lose.

    Whether the president appreciates this or not, however, his momentum is a mirage. He’s no better off now than he was two weeks ago.

    There’s no denying the recent success of his revenge tour. […]

    But it’s hard not to notice the applicable limits of Trump’s influence. Just in recent days, we’ve seen:
    – several congressional Republicans express public discomfort with the president’s $1.7 billion fund (with one GOP senator going so far as to label it a “slush fund”);
    – several congressional Republicans express opposition to public funding for his ballroom vanity project;
    – several congressional Republicans voice public disagreement with Trump after his endorsement in Texas’ Senate primary;
    – and growing Republican support for limiting Trump’s war powers in Iran.

    If the president were some kind of political colossus, inspiring fear in his skeptics, none of this would have happened. […] the developments dovetail with GOP lawmakers also ignoring Trump’s demands on everything from the SAVE Act to the gas tax, the future of the filibuster to the job security of the Senate parliamentarian.

    It’s best not to overstate matters, and I’ll gladly concede most congressional Republicans still act like mindless presidential employees who left their free will in the Oval Office. But that doesn’t change the fact that the president is racking up a series of legislative defeats, even as he racks up a series of primary wins.

    This, coupled with his awful poll numbers and a growing Democratic advantage on the generic ballot, leave little doubt that reports of Trump’s upswing have been greatly exaggerated.

  244. says

    Trump says he’d win California if Jesus Christ counted votes

    […] Trump’s rambling got especially delusional when he spoke with White House press pool reporters before boarding Air Force One on Wednesday.

    […] Trump launched into his ever-expanding lies about elections, saying, “If we had Jesus Christ come down and count the votes, I would have won California because I do great with Hispanics, but it’s a rigged vote.”

    The last time a Republican presidential candidate won a majority of votes in California? 1988. [video]

    Trump also had thoughts about Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping shortly after Trump’s own visit.

    “I get along with both of them,” Trump bragged. “I don’t know if the ceremony is quite as brilliant as mine. I watched. I think we topped them.”

    Considering this was the Russian head’s 25th trip to China as leader, boasting that there was more pomp and circumstance over your second visit isn’t really a win. [video]

    And if you thought Trump might try to massage his callous “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation” remarks, you would be wrong.

    “I’m in no hurry,” Trump told reporters when asked about making a deal to open the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil route that Iran has blocked, leading to rising inflation in the U.S. “You think, ‘Oh, the midterms, I’m in a hurry.’ I’m in no hurry.” [video]

    […] Unfortunately, Trump is “in no hurry” to fix any of the messes he’s created.

  245. birgerjohansson says

    Trump’s purging of two Republican senators in the primaries is not giving him any advantage, apart from petty revenge.
    Neither now has anything to lose, and can vote as they please without thinking of the orange ogre.
    Already, one of them has voted with the Democrats.
    And when they have to step down the Dems will hopefully have a senate majority, with the independent from Nebraska negating the influence of Fetterman.

  248. says

    A note about my schedule: I will not be able to post on The Infinite Thread tomorrow (eye surgery). I would very much appreciate it if regular readers and posters would take up the slack.

    I may also be limited to only a small amount of reading or posting on Friday. If you see that is the case, please fill in for me.

    Thanks.

  250. Reginald Selkirk says

    Did Trump Accidentally Buy Stock in a Sushi Restaurant Instead of a Tech Company?

    President Donald Trump bought millions of dollars of stock in drug companies, defense contractors, and tech firms during the first three months of this year, according to new financial disclosures released this week. It’s astounding to watch a sitting president profit in such a nakedly corrupt way. But there is one potentially funny trade in the new disclosure.

    Trump purchased somewhere between $1 million and $5 million worth of stock in Kura Sushi, the conveyor belt sushi chain, on Feb. 2…
    Some people are speculating that perhaps Trump (and the people managing his investment portfolio) intended to buy something like FujiKura, an electrical equipment company that also makes golf equipment, or Kura Oncology, which develops cancer treatments and has the stock ticker KURA…

  251. Reginald Selkirk says

    Samsung narrowly avoids 18-day chip strike after last-minute wage deal with 48,000-worker union — tentative deal, subject to workers’ vote, suspends billions of dollars worth of potential losses

    Samsung Electronics has narrowly avoided an 18-day strike at its South Korean chip operations after reaching a last-minute tentative wage agreement with its labor union on Wednesday — just hours before workers were due to walk out.

    The union, representing nearly 48,000 members, said it would suspend the general strike planned for May 21 to June 7 and put the deal to an internal vote. Voting is expected to run from May 22 to May 27, though some notices put the window at May 23 to May 28. If members approve it, the tentative agreement becomes formal; if they reject it, the strike threat could return…

  254. birgerjohansson says

    A 6,000-year-old necropolis in central Spain is forcing a radical rethink of who built Europe’s first great tombs
    (And since people would have travelled along trade networks ideas would have spread)

    .https://sciencex.com/news/2026-05-year-necropolis-central-spain-radical.html

    .
    Early complex life clung to oxygenated seafloors for hundreds of millions of years, scientists discover
    .https://phys.org/news/2026-05-early-complex-life-clung-oxygenated.html

    .
    Asteroid impact site reveals possible traces of early life

    .https://phys.org/news/2026-05-asteroid-impact-site-reveals-early.html

  258. Reginald Selkirk says

    @224

    Customers say Trump Mobile is leaking their personal information

    President Trump’s namesake cell phone provider and smartphone maker Trump Mobile is leaking customer data, including mailing addresses and email addresses, according to reports.

    On Tuesday, YouTubers Coffeezilla and penguinz0, who both said they ordered Trump Mobile’s gold-colored T1 phone, said they had been alerted by a researcher who found the exposed data online.

    “I know that because sadly I am one of those customers whose mailing address, email address, you know, everything short of credit card number is being leaked,” said Coffeezilla, who has risen to fame investigating crypto scams. “Do not order on trumpmobile.com unless you’re ready for your information to be leaked. It’s basically that bad.” …

  259. Reginald Selkirk says

    @ ebola

    Trump admin didn’t want Ebola-exposed Americans, sent them to Berlin, Prague

    An American infected with Ebola is being treated in Berlin, while another exposed to the deadly virus is being sent to Prague after the White House reportedly resisted allowing citizens to return to the US for care and monitoring.

    According to The Washington Post, five people close to the Ebola response said that, over the weekend, the Trump administration resisted allowing the return of Peter Stafford, a 39-year-old surgeon working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo amid a raging Ebola outbreak. The resistance allegedly delayed Stafford’s evacuation and care, risking his health, as experts note that early treatment is critical for Ebola, which can turn deadly in days…

  260. whheydt says

    Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #259…
    That Felon in the White House pulled the same sort of nonsense during the early phases of COVID.

  264. birgerjohansson says

    Both Wolkswagen and CATL have developed very impressive sodium-ion batteries.

  265. StevoR says

    Israel’s ambassador to Australia Hillel Newman has stopped short of apologising to the Global Sumud Flotilla activists detained in Israel – who had been taunted by far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

    …(Snip)..

    ,, Mr Newman said the Israeli government joined them in condemning Mr Ben-Gvir’s actions.”The actions of Ben-Gvir himself have been condemned from wall-to-wall,” Mr Newman told 7.30.

    ..(Snip)…

    …Federal government MP Julian Hill earlier called for Mr Ben-Gvir to be sacked while speaking to the ABC.

    “To tolerate that man remaining a cabinet minister for one more day seems unconscionable,” Mr Hill said.

    “If Prime Minister Netanyahu was serious about those values, and Israel’s reputation, he’d sack him.”

    Asked on 7.30 if Mr Netanyahu should fire Mr Ben-Gvir, the ambassador said Israel was heading to the polls soon and he wouldn’t share political advice. “The law in Israel is such that when a transitional government begins, you cannot expel,” Mr Newman said.

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-21/israel-ambassador-wont-apologise-for-ben-gvir-actions/106707956

  266. birgerjohansson says

    Just in fron Meidas Touch: the total number of US aircraft destroyed: 42.
    Cost $ 29 billion for this alone.

  268. birgerjohansson says

    Suggestion. If someone complains that you are not speaking “American” , just switch to Navaho.

  270. Reginald Selkirk says

    Scoop: Fetterman’s chief of staff resigns

    Sen. John Fetterman’s chief of staff resigned Wednesday, a source familiar with the move told Axios.

    Why it matters: The Pennsylvania Democrat has had a serious staff retention problem as he’s faced scrutiny over his health struggles and changing political brand.

    Driving the news: Cabelle St. John has served on Fetterman’s team since he first came to Washington about three-and-a-half years ago. She became his chief of staff in 2025.
    …

  271. Reginald Selkirk says

    @266 birgerjohansson

    Just in fron Meidas Touch: the total number of US aircraft destroyed: 42.
    Cost $ 29 billion for this alone.

    No link, no context. What are you talking about?

  272. birgerjohansson says

    “Why Wasn’t There Farming Before the Ice Age?” – David Reich

    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=O-jL0cwFsTM

    -I will add some ideas from the comment section There was certainly horticulture of various kinds before agriculture became dominant.

    A lot of things happened at the low-laying lands that are now under the sea, so we don’t have the whole story. Most crops depend on C3 photosynthesis, which performs poorly during the low atmospheric rates of CO2 during the ice ages. During the ice age there was plenty of big herbivores to hunt, in addition to plant-based food and fish.

    During the Eem warm period the climate was nowhere as stable as it is today.

    Finally, the conditions need to be right for anatomically modern humans to migrate from Africa and successfully replace archaic humans.

  273. Reginald Selkirk says

    MIT Media Lab Researchers Turn Everyday LiDAR Into an Around-the-Corner Camera

    The same LiDAR sensor that helps your iPhone autofocus, powers depth on your Vision Pro, or guides your robot vacuum across the living room floor can now do something far more surprising: see around corners.

    In a paper published today in Nature, a team led by MIT Media Lab researcher Siddharth Somasundaram demonstrates that consumer-grade smartphone LiDAR can be used for non-line-of-sight (NLOS) imaging. Using off-the-shelf hardware costing less than $100 and no specialized calibration, the team reconstructs hidden 3D objects, tracks moving targets (including a user’s hands), and even uses hidden objects as landmarks to figure out where a camera is in space.

    The technical breakthrough is a new technique the team calls motion-induced aperture sampling, inspired by two ideas familiar from modern imaging: burst photography (the rapid-fire frame stacking your phone uses for low-light shots) and synthetic aperture radar (the satellite technique that turns motion into resolution). The method turns the natural shake of a handheld device into an asset, stitching together faint signals from light that bounces off nearby walls and floors to reveal what’s hidden just out of view…

  274. Reginald Selkirk says

    Man sues Nintendo after his Pokémon Professor application was denied

    A 34-year-old Iowa resident is seeking $341,000 in damages

    Put some respect on Professor Oak’s name: Becoming a Pokémon expert isn’t easy. A man from Iowa named Kyle Lee Owens found this out the hard way, after submitting an application to be an officially designated Pokémon Professor. The Pokémon Company evidently did not feel his credentials were up to snuff, and now the rejection has turned into a legal rigmarole.

    As trading card fans might be aware, Pokémon Professors don’t just exist in the pocket monster universe. The Pokémon Company trains people to oversee competitive matches, and the associated job title for this role is Pokémon Professor. There are perks to becoming a teacher, like unique swag and special tournaments…

  275. Reginald Selkirk says

    Google publishes exploit code threatening millions of Chromium users

    Google publishes exploit code before patch, reported 29 months earlier, is fixed.

    Google on Wednesday published exploit code for an unfixed vulnerability in its Chromium browser codebase that threatens millions of people using Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and virtually all other Chromium-based browsers.

    The proof-of-concept code exploits the Browser Fetch programming interface, a standard that allows long videos and other large files to be downloaded in the background. An attacker can use the exploit to create a connection for monitoring some aspects of a user’s browser usage and as a proxy for viewing sites and launching denial-of-service attacks. Depending on the browser, the connections either reopen or remain open even after it or the device running it has rebooted.

    The unfixed vulnerability can be exploited by any website a user visits. In effect, a compromise amounts to a limited backdoor that makes a device part of a limited botnet. The capabilities are limited to the same things a browser can do, such as visit malicious sites, provide anonymous proxy browsing by others, enable proxied DDoS attacks, and monitor user activity. Nonetheless, the exploit could allow an attacker to wrangle thousands, possibly millions, of devices into a network. Once a separate vulnerability becomes available, the attacker could use it to then compromise all those devices…

  276. Reginald Selkirk says

    US government takes $2 billion equity stake in nine quantum computing firms

    The US government will take equity stakes worth a total of $2 billion in a slew of quantum computing companies, including a startup backed by a firm with links to the Trump family and one taken public by a Pentagon official.

    The announcement by the commerce department that it had signed letters of intent with nine companies—including GlobalFoundries and IBM—sent shares in quantum specialists soaring on Thursday.

    Both IBM, which is set to get $1 billion, and GlobalFoundries, which will receive $375 million, were up more than 6 percent in pre-market trading. D-Wave Quantum, an awardee that was taken public in 2022 by Emil Michael—now a top Pentagon official—was up more than 20 percent.

    Among the recipients was also PsiQuantum, which last year raised money from a group of investors including 1789 Capital, the venture capital firm at which Donald Trump Jr is a partner.

    The company, which has sealed partnerships with Democratic and Republican administrations, is set to receive $100 million, by far its largest US government award to date…

  277. Reginald Selkirk says

    Radio station apologizes for mistakenly announcing King Charles’ death

    A radio station in the United Kingdom has apologized after mistakenly announcing the death of King Charles III.

    Radio Caroline falsely said the king had died during a broadcast on Tuesday, May 19, the station’s manager, Peter Moore, said in a social media statement…

    As for how the mistake happened, Moore attributed it to a “computer error” at the station’s main studio.

    “The Death of a Monarch procedure, which all UK stations hold in readiness while hoping not to require, was accidentally activated on Tuesday afternoon (19 May), mistakenly announcing that HM the King had passed away,” Moore’s statement said…

  278. Reginald Selkirk says

    US-bound plane diverts to Canada after person from Ebola-hit region boards ‘in error’

    A plane from Paris to Detroit was forced to divert to Canada after a passenger from the Ebola-hit Democratic Republic of Congo boarded the plane “in error”, officials have said.

    US entry restrictions aimed at limiting the spread of the deadly virus meant the passenger should not have boarded the Air France plane, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency told the BBC.
    …

  279. Reginald Selkirk says

    Gonorrhoea and syphilis hit record levels in Europe

    Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including gonorrhoea and syphilis have hit record levels in Europe, according to new data.

    The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said both diseases had reached their highest levels in over 10 years in 2024.

    Gonorrhoea hit 106,331 cases – a 303% increase since 2015 – while syphilis more than doubled in the same period to 45,557…

  280. Reginald Selkirk says

    Gene Editing Could Make Cane Toad-Resistant ‘Super Quolls’ Within a Year, Colossal Biosciences Says

    Gene editing cane toad-resistant super quolls is now within a year’s reach, according to Colossal Biosciences, the Dallas-based de-extinction and conservation biotech working to prevent the imminent extinction of the northern quoll. The project targets a single nucleotide in the quoll’s 3-billion-letter genome — the precise genetic difference between an animal that can safely eat a cane toad and one that will die within minutes of doing so…

  282. Reginald Selkirk says

    US-Iran deal in flux as Hollywood greenlights first movie on war

    As a deal to end the war in the Middle East is in flux, Michael Bay has taken a step to produce a movie on it.

    According to Deadline, he is zeroing in on the daring two U.S. pilots rescued from Iran during Operation Epic Fury.

    This movie, it appears, will be the first in Hollywood inspired by US attacks on Iran.
    …
    Meanwhile, the movie is adapted from author Mitchell Zuckoff’s upcoming 2027 book on the matter.
    …

  283. Reginald Selkirk says

    Scientists Identify Atomic Trick That Keeps Gold Shiny

    If you own gold jewelry, you might notice that it doesn’t tarnish as easily as other materials, like silver. For a long time, scientists understood that this was because gold doesn’t interact strongly with oxygen, although the exact physical mechanisms behind this property weren’t as well understood.

    But a new discovery, published today in Physical Review Letters, finally identifies how gold retains its golden glow for so long. Essentially, gold’s surface atoms rearrange themselves into distinct patterns that suppress oxygen reactions by a factor of a billion to a trillion…

  284. Reginald Selkirk says

    Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

    Waymo has now paused service in two cities because its robotaxis are struggling to deal with heavy rain and flooded roads, a problem that already prompted the company to issue a recall last week.

    One of Waymo’s robotaxis was spotted driving through a flooded street in Atlanta, Georgia on Wednesday before it ultimately got stuck for about an hour, according to local news reports. The vehicle was recovered and removed from the scene, Waymo told TechCrunch. Waymo says it paused service in the city, just like it has in San Antonio, Texas, while it figures out a solution…

  285. Reginald Selkirk says

    Republicans cancel votes amid fight over Trump’s ‘anti-weaponization’ fund

    Objections to the Trump administration’s controversial anti-weaponization fund prompted Senate Republican leaders on Thursday to punt a vote on a GOP package to fund ICE and Border Patrol until June, two GOP sources familiar with the discussions told NBC News.

    Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., had aimed to get the reconciliation package through the Senate and onto the House before the Memorial Day holiday. But GOP senators emerged from a closed-door briefing with top Justice Department officials about the weaponization fund with more questions than answers, and it became clear that Republicans did not have consensus on moving forward.

    The Justice Department has said it plans to make $1.776 billion in taxpayer money available for the fund. Given Democratic opposition, the only method of passing that through Congress would be to add it to the immigration “reconciliation” package, which can pass with only Republican votes…

    Republicans have had countless opportunities to block Trump and his schemes, including two opportunities to convict him after impeachment. It is amazing that anything would be considered ‘too far’ by them.

  286. whheydt says

    Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #285…
    The ones that aren’t running for re-election or have been primaried by That Felon in the White House have discovered that spines exist…if you have nothing to lose, anyway,

  288. Reginald Selkirk says

    How to fireproof a city

    Down the street from the Los Angeles Angels’ stadium in Anaheim, a crowd gathers to watch two homes burn.

    In less than 30 minutes, one structure is reduced to its smoldering, blackened wood frame, while the other, thanks to simple changes to its design, is remarkably unscathed. Of course, this was the point of the demonstration, which was held last June by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) at a firefighting training center.
    …

  290. Reginald Selkirk says

    Law enforcement shuts down VPN service used by two dozen ransomware gangs

    An international coalition of law enforcement agencies announced Thursday that they took down a popular virtual private network service used by cybercriminals and arrested its administrator.

    The FBI said in an alert that First VPN was so popular that “at least” 25 ransomware gangs used the service to hide their malicious activity. Cybercriminals also relied on the VPN to scan the internet, run botnets, launch distributed denial-of-service attacks, and for running scams. First VPN operated servers across 27 different countries, according to the bureau.

    Europol said in an announcement that, apart from offering anonymous connections, First VPN offered cybercriminals anonymous payments, hidden infrastructure, and other services specifically marketed for criminal hackers.

    “First VPN had become deeply embedded in the cybercrime ecosystem, appearing in almost every major cybercrime investigation supported by Europol in recent years,” read the announcement. “Criminals used it to conceal their identities and infrastructure while carrying out ransomware attacks, large-scale fraud, data theft, and other serious offences.”

    The service advertised on known cybercrime forums, including at least two Russian-speaking marketplaces, promising criminals protection against being identified…

  292. Reginald Selkirk says

    Pony rescued after being trapped in tractor tire

    This is the bizarre moment a pony was saved after getting trapped inside a tractor tire in a freak accident.

    Panicked residents raised the alarm after spotting the animal wedged inside the Michelin Agribib wheel lying on its side in a field.

    RSPCA rescuers rushed to the scene near Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, last Friday, May 15, morning.

    Locals helped lift the 196-pound tire up while officer Nicola Riley worked to release the “understandably very scared and uncomfortable animal” from the 20-inch (50cm) wide hole.

    The trapped pony was freed bit by bit as the team eased out his front feet, then his shoulder, before finally pulling his neck clear…

  293. JM says

    CNN: Takeaways from the DNC autopsy

    And for much of that time, there’s been anticipation about an “autopsy” from the Democratic National Committee that drilled down on that precise question.
    Except that autopsy never actually arrived. And eventually DNC Chairman Ken Martin said he wouldn’t release it.
    But now Martin is reversing course and releasing an incomplete version of the document, after an outcry from some in the party.

    Pressure from inside the party has forced the release of the incomplete report. It is clearly incomplete, with sections not being done and other still containing obvious errors.

    It says that since Barack Obama’s big 2008 win, the party has “vacillated between stagnation and retrogression.” And it notes that, on the whole, Democrats have steadily lost ground since Obama’s success.
    “These losses are the direct result of missed opportunities to invest in our states, counties, and local parties and candidates,” the report says.

    It does have some very valid points though. Too much of the party just coasted and too many in congress just aimed for reelection without doing anything noteworthy. This bit also points out something important for reading the autopsy, it is only talking about how policy and action effected elections. Not if those polices were good ideas for country.

    Former Vice President Kamala Harris had to run a highly unusual campaign, in that she was thrust to the top of the ticket with just three and a half months to go before the election.
    The autopsy says former President Joe Biden’s campaign and White House failed to set her up for success.

    Seems true but also true of every VP in my adult life.

    Perhaps no ad is more closely associated with the 2024 campaign than the Trump campaign’s anti-transgender spot, with the tagline of “Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you.”
    And the autopsy casts the ad – and Harris’ comments which it was based on – as an irreconcilable problem.

    One phrase repeatedly gets mentioned derisively, and that’s “identity politics.”
    It’s repeatedly cast as a crutch that Democrats need to move away from, in favor of kitchen-table issues like affordability and middle-class appeal.
    The report says Stein’s huge win showed how to “focus less on abstract issues and identity politics, and connect with voters on the issues they say matter most, including the economy, disaster relief, and addressing housing affordability.”

    True in the sense that talking about identity politics with the average person works about as well as talking about the details of international trade policy. It turns out that it does really matter and does effect people but the average person doesn’t care and is just turned off by talking about it. The Democrats need to get better at turning good policy ideas into good campaign slogans.

  294. JM says

    CNN: Iran rebuilding military industrial base faster than expected, already producing drones, according to US intel

    Iran has already restarted some of its drone production during the six-week ceasefire that began in early April, one sign it is rapidly rebuilding certain military capabilities degraded by US-Israeli strikes, according to two sources familiar with US intelligence assessments. Four sources told CNN that US intelligence indicates Iran’s military is reconstituting much faster than initially estimated.

    I doubt that drone production stopped entirely at any point. The Iranians have had a long time to plan for this and knew their air defense wouldn’t stop a strong attack. Production would be protected and scattered to make attacking it hard.

    Iran has been able to rebuild much faster than expected due to a combination of factors, ranging from support it is receiving from Russia and China to the fact that the US and Israel did not inflict as much damage as the two countries had hoped, one of the sources told CNN. For example, China has continued to provide Iran with components during the conflict that can be used to build missiles, two sources familiar with US intelligence assessments told CNN, though that has likely been curtailed by the ongoing US blockade.

    Right now is probably a terrible time for trying to shut down Iranian production. Russia is going to help them to keep production going just because Russia is buying some of those drones. And China is happy to give Iran a small supply of parts secretly just to get in the US’s way.

  295. Reginald Selkirk says

    Sinkhole shuts down runway at LaGuardia International Airport

    A sinkhole shut down one of the runways at LaGuardia International Airport in New York City, prompting cancellations and delays, according to officials.

    Crews found the sinkhole around 11 a.m. on Wednesday, while conducting a daily morning inspection of the airport’s airfield, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

    The sinkhole was located near Runway 4/22, one of the airport’s two runways, according to the Port Authority…

  296. Reginald Selkirk says

    What to know about ‘Lulu’s Law’ requiring emergency shark attack notifications

    A new bill that would require Amber Alert-type notifications to warn beachgoers of shark attacks is one step closer to becoming law.

    The legislation, “Lulu’s Law,” is headed to President Donald Trump’s desk after passing both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, which approved the bill on Wednesday.

    The legislation is spearheaded by 17-year-old shark attack survivor Lulu Gribbin and is aimed at saving lives ahead of the summer beach season.
    …
    “Lulu’s Law” would require the Federal Communications Commission to send out a wireless emergency alert to cellphones in the event of a shark attack, according to the bill’s text.

    The alert system uses geolocation services to identify cellphones within a certain radius of an emergency and sends a warning notification to all WEA-enabled mobile devices in that zone, according to the FCC. This system is also used during severe weather events, natural disasters, or when authorities need to issue Amber Alert notifications in the event of a missing child, the agency’s website states…

  297. Reginald Selkirk says

    I mentioned this on a previous page.

    After languishing in state legislatures across the country, a novel approach to curtailing money in politics becomes law in Hawaii

    Hawaii is on a collision course with legal precedents that allow corporations to pump billions into elections after its governor signed a first-of-its-kind campaign finance reform bill into law.

    The bill, SB 2471, was crafted to curb political spending by leveraging the state’s ability to define the powers of a corporation. Due to the new law’s sweeping implications for political speech and elections, it seems almost certain to draw legal challenges…

  298. JM says

    Political Wire: Trump Will ‘Try’ to Attend His Son’s Wedding

    President Trump said he’s going to try to make his eldest son Don Jr.’s wedding to Bettina Anderson this weekend, the New York Post reports.
    Said Trump: “He’d like me to go, but it’s going to be just a small little private affair, and I’m going to try and make it.”
    He added: “This is not good timing for me. Everything called Iran and other things.”

    Trump’s statement is the usual incoherent for his second term.

    Still, he admitted, “that’s one I can’t win on. If I do attend, I get killed. If I don’t attend, I get killed.”

    For once he is right. The wedding is being held on a private island in the Bahamas. It will look bad if he goes and look bad if he doesn’t.

  300. Reginald Selkirk says

    ‘Chocolate cake recipe’ used to disguise DOJ files, former federal prosecutor charged

    A former federal prosecutor allegedly disguised sensitive Justice Department records under file names like “chocolate cake recipe” and “bundt cake recipe” before emailing them to her personal accounts, according to a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday.

    Carmen Mercedes Lineberger, 62, of Port St. Lucie, has been charged with theft of government property, falsifying records in a federal investigation, and concealing public records, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida announced…

  301. Reginald Selkirk says

    Santa Barbara’s Chocolate Farm Is Working

    There’s nothing easy about growing chocolate in Santa Barbara (California, USA), far from the tropical jungles that the cacao tree usually calls home.

    After somehow acquiring cacao pods full of healthy seeds and getting them to grow in a hot and humid greenhouse, the emerging flowers of one tree must be hand-pollinated with pollen from the flowers of another. This requires a tiny paint brush — trimmed so that just a couple bristles extend — and then someone with expert training and perfect eyesight must directly apply the pollen to the nearly invisible stigmas inside Theobroma cacao’sminiscule flowers.
    …
    Just last week, Michael Orlando at Twenty-Four Blackbirds cracked open his fifth-ever Santa Barbara–grown cacao pod, grown in the small greenhouse he built back in 2016 when he moved his bean-to-bar company into a factory on East Haley Street.
    …
    At this point, everything sorta works,” Orlando told me as we stood in the damp heat of the greenhouse, home to cacao trees of various sizes, all the way down to seedlings that came from those first homegrown pods.
    …
    “By having no budget, we are naturally selecting cold-climate trees,” said Orlando, explaining that a similar — though much better funded — quest is underway at UC Davis, sponsored by Mars, Incorporated…

    e has higher profitability hopes for vanilla, which he grows in the greenhouses, though none have sprouted beans yet. Based on the spice’s current commodity prices, Orlando’s little vanilla block could generate $250,000 annually if it works. Like the chocolate, a commercial vanilla farm in Santa Barbara would be the first of its kind in the continental United States. “No one is doing this,” he said…

  302. KG says

    Reginald Selkirk@291,

    Just standard-issue American exceptionalism – so standard those pushing it won’t even have noticed what they’re doing: US presidents and ex-presidents are to be immune from prosecution whateve rheir crimes, while the heads and ex-heads of state or govenment of all other countries are subject to US law.

  303. JM says

    @271 Reginald Selkirk & @266 birgerjohansson:
    Yahoo News: True Scale of Trump’s Secret Military Disaster Is Revealed

    President Donald Trump’s war with Iran has left dozens of U.S. airplanes damaged and destroyed, a new congressional report has revealed.
    Casualties and equipment loss reports have been few and far between for a war that has cost the U.S. billions, with the Defense Department failing to publish its own comprehensive summary of the damage suffered during the fighting.
    Several major incidents, such as the downing of two F-15E Strike Eagle pilots over Iran, have garnered significant attention, while other incidents have flown more under the radar. Now the Congressional Research Service says the total number of lost or damaged aerial vehicles could be as high as 42.

    This isn’t a comprehensive or precise number, it the Congressional Research Service working from public data to try and built a full list because the DOD isn’t making that information available.
    The price of that is conjecture but probably in the low hundreds of millions. That low only because a bunch of the downed planes are unmanned Reaper drones that are comparatively cheap at $30 million.

    On May 12, Acting Pentagon Comptroller Jules Hurst said that the number had now gone up to $29 billion, saying, “A lot of that increase comes from having a refined estimate on repair or replacement costs for equipment.”
    U.S. officials familiar with internal assessments told CBS News that the offensive’s true price tag to date is closer to $50 billion.

    Real figure is surely higher but a precise figure will also never be calculated. The DOD accounting is so bad that they have not been able to complete an audit or precisely chart a budget for decades. The price of extended combat operations when the White House is trying to obscure them will be impossible to calculate.

  304. StevoR says

    Kyle Kulinski spens just over 8 mins discussing how Experts are terrified as a deadly ‘SUPER EL-NINO’ forms with beyond hyperbole grim global implications here.

  305. StevoR says

    Plus Carrick Ryan talks on this on fb here :

    What we are witnessing might be the beginning of the perfect storm that has the potential to impact the entire planet…

    … but to truly understand what we’re looking at, we need to step back.

    Whether you believe in it or not, the changing climate has already induced food insecurity across the Sahel region of Africa, forcing nomadic herders to move south into farming land, already providing the friction needed to spark multiple conflicts.

    These conflicts have already forced millions to flee their homes, placing incredible strains on already buckling food supply chains.

    A few hundred kilometres away, the ongoing blockade of the Hormuz Strait has meant that at least a third of the world’s fertiliser supply has been inaccessible to farmers across the world, just as climate pressures have necessitated their use more than ever.

    On top of this, oil supply shocks have already made every aspect of the supply chains that feed us more expensive, but these market prices continue to operate on the presumption that the blockade will end in the next two or three weeks. The moment it decides this is unlikely, panic buying of oil and fertiliser will simply price poorer nation’s out as the world scrambles to secure its share of a significantly reduced supply.

    For wealthier nations, this will mean unprecedented inflation and a sky-rocketing grocery bill. For poorer nations, this means widespread calorie deficiency.

    This would be a humanitarian crisis unfolding at a historical moment where the superpowers are too preoccupied with domestic challenges or more immediate geopolitical threats to pay meaningful attention to the well being of marginalised masses that are already easy to ignore.

    The US has slashed its foreign aid budget to end 83% of USAID programs, and Europe faces too many existential threats to commit its resources abroad. China, meanwhile, a country where almost 40 million starved to death in a famine only 65 years ago, must focus on how it will feed its 1.4 billion people while importing 20% of its food supply.

    But while humanity conceivably has the ability to mitigate the consequences of this worst case scenario, there is nothing we can do to the change what scientists are seeing in this photo.

    Most meteorological models are predicting an El Niño with more than 90% certainty, a weather event that almost always induces devastating floods and droughts across the world. But what has scientists concerned is that early measurements are pointing towards a “Super El Niño” with unprecedented intensity.

    The last “Super El Niño” occurred in 2015 and caused a drought in Ethiopia that resulted in around 10 million Ethiopians requiring emergency food assistance. Only five years after this natural calamity, the country collapsed into a civil war that killed more than 600,000 people.

    But with current forecasts suggesting the sea surface temperature could rise as high as 3.4 degrees above average in the coming months, this could be a truly unprecedented weather event.

    The 1877 El Niño was caused by sea surface temperatures somewhere between 2.7 and 3.5 degrees above average… it resulted in more than 50 million people dying from hunger or famine related causes. A figure that, at the time, equated for about 3% of the global population.

    The advantage we have this time is that we know its coming; we have the time to prepare and begin to coordinate our response if it is needed. The question that remains to be answered is whether or not the international institutions we established to overcome these global challenges still have the funding and political support they need to do their job.

    Since returning to office, Trump has halted all US funding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the World Health Organisation, and withdrawn from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

    Carrick Ryan

    Source : https://www.facebook.com/realcarrickryan/posts/pfbid0geY1TNK8mZjBZ1r4ntWd9CLoJz13JmTyuzZGoLVQRLSrjf2NPTHqDzwViZUnw5fNl

    Humanity is in such huge trouble and not enough people seem to have even an inklng of how bad things are heading towards being.

  306. StevoR says

    Unsuprirising news really but still FYI folks.

    Brand-new rocket, brand-new pad — a scrub wasn’t exactly surprising.

    We’ll all have to wait at least one more day to see the most powerful rocket ever built take to the skies — even “Starships” singer Nicki Minaj.

    SpaceX tried to launch its new Starship V3 megarocket for the first time ever this evening (May 21), from the company’s Starbase site in South Texas. Technical issues cropped up late in the countdown, however, and SpaceX couldn’t resolve them in time to get Starship V3 off the ground.

    I’m sure it will soon launch and fly successfully eventually but not today.

    Astoundingly impressive technology. Shame about the utter literal nazi scumbag running the company building it.

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