'Heavily Armed' Vance Boelter Taken Alive, Sounds About White—Conover Kennard at Crooks and Liars, commenting on the capture of alleged Minnesota assassin Vance Boelter
The headline is a commentary on how when the shooter is white, they are taken alive, and in some cases taken to Burger King, (Dylann Roof), while the more darkly complected suspects end up shot.
If that headline were any darker, a member of the Minneapolis Police Department would be choking it out under their knee.
In the race for the Democratic nomination for New York City Mayor, Zohran Mamdani has decisively defeated Andrew "Rat-Faced Andy" Cuomo.
In the first round, led Cuomo by43.5% of the vote to Cuomo's 36.4%.
Given that in subsequent rounds Cuomo would need almost 4 times as many 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. votes as Mamdani, and the fact that 3rd place finisher Brad Lander (11.3%) cross endorsed each other, he's pretty much a lead pipe cinch to get the Democratic Party nomination.
My guess here is that being a corrupt scumbag sexual harasser bully who colluded with Republicans to keep Democrats from controlling the state senate had something to do with this.
What also might have had something to do with this is his decades long record of outright hostility towards the City of New York.
None of the above were likely to endear Cuomo to the average New York City voter.
Given that the Republican nominee is Guardian Anglos founder right wing radio personality Curtis Sliwa, it can be concluded that the general election is not in doubt.
Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old democratic socialist who would become New York’s first Muslim mayor if elected, appeared set to win the city’s Democratic primary on Tuesday night, although it could be days before the final result is known.
After 91% of votes were counted in the primary’s first round, Mamdani, a state representative, had 43.5% of the vote. Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor who had been a heavy favorite until recent weeks, was at 36.4%, and conceded on Tuesday night. Speaking at a campaign rally Cuomo said Mamdani had run a “really smart and good and impactful campaign”.
“Tonight is his night. He deserved it. He won,” Cuomo said. Brad Lander, the progressive New York comptroller, was third with 11.4%.
New York City uses a ranked-choice voting system, and as neither candidate is likely to reach 50%, the board of elections will now tally people’s second-choice candidates. Mamdani, who cross-endorsed with Lander last week, is predicted to benefit more than Cuomo from the count.
Mamdani’s stunning rise will serve as a rebuke to the Democratic establishment, and give hope to other progressives hoping to run in elections around the country. Cuomo was backed by deep pocketed donors and endorsed by a wave of centrist figures including Bill Clinton, but Mamdani benefitted from a surge of grassroots support among young people in particular.
In addition to Bill Clinton, Cuomo got such endorsements as James Clyburn, Michael Bloomberg and the most passive aggressive endorsement ever (which they claimed was not an endorsement) from the New York Times, but it mattered for nought.
I guess being an avatar of a corrupt political polity did not play well with the voters.
The Supreme Court in an unsigned 6-3 decision has given the green light to deportations to 3rd countries without due process.
This is nakedly partisan and nakedly corrupt:
The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for the Trump administration to deport immigrants to countries where they are not citizens, temporarily blocking a decision by a lower-court judge who said migrants must have a “meaningful opportunity” to contest their removal.
The court’s order, which drew a sharp dissent from the three liberal justices, was the latest of several allowing President Donald Trump to move forward with a major change in policy while litigation on the issue continues in lower courts. Each has been made as part of the court’s “emergency docket,” which means they are decided based on truncated court filings, not oral argument, and the justices do not always explain their reasoning.
As part of Trump’s mass deportation efforts, the administration has attempted to send groups of migrants, some convicted of crimes in the United States, to countries other than their own, including to conflict-ridden South Sudan. Four individuals initially filed a lawsuit in Boston on behalf of all migrants potentially subject to third-country removals, saying they are entitled to notice and an opportunity to raise fear-based claims before deportation.………
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, wrote a nearly 20-page dissent, criticizing the administration for violating the lower-court order and trying to send migrants to “a nation the State Department considers too unsafe for all but its most critical personnel.”
“Rather than allowing our lower court colleagues to manage this high-stakes litigation with the care and attention it plainly requires,” the liberals wrote, the majority was “rewarding lawlessness” by halting an order the administration has repeatedly defied.“Apparently, the Court finds the idea that thousands will suffer violence in farflung locales more palatable than the remote possibility that a District Court exceeded its remedial powers when it ordered the Government to provide notice” to the targeted migrants, the dissent said. The conservative majority’s one-paragraph, unsigned statement did not explain its reasons for pausing Murphy’s decision.
I don't know how to handle such a nakedly corrupt and partisan body, but Congress can regulate the supreme court, it used to require that justices spend a part of their time on the circuit courts, for example, and it needs to do so.
Some Texas politicians have asked Tesla delay its Robotaxi rollout.
If I were to guess the source of this request, my guess would be Musk, because the program isn't working, which is par for the course for Teslas's self driving technology:
Texas lawmakers have officially requested that Tesla delay its planned Robotaxi launch in Austin by a few months due to a new law being implemented.
It’s a Godsend for Elon Musk.
As we previously reported, Tesla’s planned Robotaxi launch in Austin, Texas, now “tentatively” scheduled for June 22, is a moving of the goal post for Tesla.
CEO Elon Musk himself has previously described what Tesla plans to launch as “not really self-driving”, but the CEO is using the new strategy as a way to claim a win in autonomous driving after years of missed deadlines and failed promises.
Why this charlatan has been humored for so long is beyond me.
The Trump administration is making plans to reverse the ban on the import of asbestos.
Seriously?
The inexorable march of American public health forward into the past goes merrily onward. From The New York Times:
Known as “white” asbestos, chrysotile asbestos is banned in more than 50 countries for its link to lung cancer and mesothelioma, a cancer that forms in the lining of internal organs. White asbestos, however, has been imported for use in the United States for roofing materials, textiles and cement as well as gaskets, clutches, brake pads and other automotive parts. It is also used in chlorine manufacturing.Last year the Environmental Protection Agency, under President Joseph R. Biden, adopted a ban on the use, manufacture and import of chrysotile asbestos. It was the first legal constraint on a deadly substance since 2016, when Congress updated and strengthened the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act by requiring testing and regulation of thousands of chemicals used in everyday products.Lord above, I thought we’d all agreed on asbestos. The scientific consensus is undeniable. Huge settlements have been paid out in lawsuits on behalf of hundreds of thousands of victims over the years. Everybody knows how to spell mesothelioma. (Hell, it killed poor Warren Zevon at 56.) But we had not reckoned with the new philosophies of American public health—No Carcinogen Left Behind and Truncated Lives Matter.
Un-dirtyword-believable.
Is anyone at all surprised that Bill Clinton has endorsed Andrew Cuomo?
If anything characterizes the the political career of Bill Clinton, it is his unwavering support for the corrupt Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment).
While not personally corrupt, his tolerance of, and willful blindness to, corruption from people percieved as his allies.
This was the case in Arkansas, this was the case in the White House, and this was the case with the Clinton Foundation.
Unethical but legal and willfully blindness, has always been Clinton's modus operandi.
To quote Zathras, "At least there is symmetry."
A new dwarf planet seems to put a nail in the coffin of the theory is that there is another planet further out.
Oregon has just passed a bill that
bans corporate control of doctors' practices.
It turns out that UnitedHealth Groups's attempts to use the failure of its own payment system to take over now cash strapped medical practices did not go over well in the Beaver State.
When further juxtaposed with other UHC actions, which consisted of f%$#ing with the healthcare of 2 Oregon state reps, led to this bill passing:
Two days ago, [June 9, I just found the story] Oregon Governor Tina Kotek signed the nation’s strictest law against corporate control of health care practices in the state. It’s a major defeat for private equity and large health insurers, and something that advocates and physicians have been advocating for years, as more and more of the state’s capacity got bought up by financiers. It’s also a ground-breaking event that could catalyze the creation of a new health care system, one managed by medical professionals and patients instead of Wall Street. And it’s all thanks to UnitedHealth Group.
………
The logic of the bill is clear. As Oregon nurses noted in lobbying for the bill, corporate control of medicine is fundamentally antagonistic to quality care, as it removes decision-making from medical professionals and patients and puts it in the hands of financiers. For instance, private equity owned clinics charge 20% more for the same procedures. Such ownership arrangements increase costs, make patient outcomes worse, and foster physician burnout, and of course, there are no improvements to quality or access.
………
And we can actually thank UnitedHealth Group, which provided Oregon with a particularly noxious experience in health care, and the political culture to do something about it. Because UHG’s tactics are so brazen and extensive the company actually screwed over two separate Oregon state representatives, both of whom have cancer, and both of whom in turn testified on behalf of the bill. To understand how UHG messed up so badly politically, it helps to look at the actual process of how the bill got passed.
In March of 2024, Optum, the largest for-profit medical provider in America and a unit of UnitedHealth Group, applied for emergency approval to take over a large primary and specialty physician practice in Oregon, the 600 person Corvallis Clinic in Western Oregon. If the Oregon Health Authority didn’t approve the acquisition immediately, the clinic claimed, it wouldn’t be able to cover rent, payroll or other expenses. Only UHG’s cash infusion could keep the doors open. And this claim was likely true, Corvallis was in desperate financial condition.
What caused Corvallis’ cash crunch? Well, its application to Oregon regulators was redacted, but the American Prospect reported what insiders all knew - a different UHG subsidiary, the Change Health payment network, had been hacked and was nonfunctional, which meant that hospitals, pharmacies, and clinics nationwide couldn’t get paid for their services. And that included Corvallis Clinic, which couldn’t get access to money it was supposed to be paid by, among others, UnitedHealth Group. In other words, UHG caused a cash flow crisis at Corvallis, and then swooped in to buy it on the cheap.
Two months ago, Oregon state representative Sarah Finger McDonald gave testimony to the state legislature on what happened next. It’s an ugly story.
The most obvious impact was on the working conditions in the Corvallis clinic; doctors had to see too many patients, and began burning out. Nine primary care doctors left. Now the clinic isn’t accepting new patients. All of the neurologists departed as well, leaving entire counties without any of those specialists. Three of five gastroenterologists departed, and the two remaining ones no longer do on-call work. Medicaid insured patients can’t really use the clinic anymore, and Optum closed the lab for six months. These experiences affected not just Corvallis patients, but the entire region. They put pressure on other physician practices to accept an extra caseload, especially of poorer patients. Similarly, the other labs in the area are overloaded, and patients have to wait hours for a simple blood draw. McDonald herself has cancer, and she explained how she has “spent a lot of time” sitting around at the remaining regional lab.
………
This new law is fairly simple; Oregon is simply closing up the loopholes that allow corporations to sidestep its CPOM rules. The law doesn’t block investment by corporations in medical practices, but it prohibits control of clinical practices by anyone but licensed medical providers. Now, a clinician, not a banker, must have decision-making authority over staffing levels, wait times, clinical decisions and operations, and as well diagnostic coding decisions, billing and collection policies, price setting, and payer contract negotiations.
The law also bans non-competes and gag clauses that lock in doctors and nurses, which was a major incentive for corporations to acquire practices and then worsen working conditions. It’s not ironclad; there are carve-outs for behavioral health, telehealth, and hospitals, and hospitals can still acquire clinical practices. iI’s also not immediate; It kicks into effect in three years, leaving substantial time to adjust, and it has a private right of action for enforcement, so aggrieved employees or competitors can litigate against lawbreakers. If you want the specifics, here’s the legislative analysis from the state Senate, and here’s a FAQ from Oregon Senator Deb Patterson, the main proponent of the bill.
The theory behind the corporatization of medical practices was that business guys could rein in excessive costs from those pesky medical professional.
This was never going to happen. The finance guys can't fix things, they can only loot and defraud.
Guess what? Condominium prices are falling sharply.
It's like that old joke, "Which of these does not belong? AIDS, Herpes, Gonorrhea, or a condo in St. Petersburg, Florida?"
The answer, of course, is , "Gonorrhea," because you can get rid of it.
This sounds an awful lot like the real estate collapse of 2008.
According to Rolling Stone, there was no intelligence indicating that Iran was attempting a nuclear weapons break-out, nor that such an activity was authorized in any way, and so, "Trump’s Attacks on Iran Were Based on Vibes.
Given that Trump is now calling for regime change in Iran, despite earlier claiming that there was no intent to cause regime change and that they wanted to resume negotiations:
President Donald Trump on Sunday called into question the future of Iran’s ruling theocracy after a surprise attack on three of the country’s nuclear sites, seemingly contradicting his administration’s earlier calls to resume negotiations and avoid an escalation in fighting.
“It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change???” Trump posted on social media. “MIGA!!!”
The posting on Truth Social marked something of a reversal from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Sunday morning news conference that detailed the aerial bombing.
“This mission was not and has not been about regime change,” Hegseth said.
I can think of no better reason for Iran to feel a need for nuclear weapons than the above.
Rather unsurprisingly, the Iranian parliament voted to close the Strait of Hormuz, the critical waterway through about ⅕ of the world's oil passes.
While that vote has no force, the actual decision would be made by the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, it is a significant step, and one which does not bode well for energy prices or the world economy.
It really is amazing just f%$#ing incompetent these guys are.
There’s No Greater Joy Than Watching Ted Cruz Humiliate Himself—Dave Holmes at Esquire about Tucker Carlson destroying Ted Cruz in his interview
I've always wondered who I would choose in a cage match between Tucker Carlson and Ted Cruz. Now I know the answer, I would cheer for Tucker.
Hell, I AM cheering for Tucker.
As Mr. Holmes so aptly notes:
All living things are born with a desire to watch Ted Cruz be humiliated. It is natural and ineluctable, like the need for air. Even if you agree 100 percent with everything Ted Cruz has ever said, you have still imagined a scenario in which you see him in real life, he is eating a bowl of cereal, and you push his face down into it. In these divided times, it is comforting to know we can all come down on the same side of one thing, even if that thing is, “F%$# that guy.”
This is in the same vein as the famous Al Franken quote, "'I like Ted Cruz more than most of my other colleagues like Ted Cruz. And I hate Ted Cruz."
They were discussing the possibility (now reality) of a US strike on Iran, and Tucker Carlson did a commendable job showing that he knows nothing about the country that he wants to bomb. (I cannot believe that I am using the words, "Commendable," and, "Tucker Carlson," in the same sentence.)
If the temperature is 93°F, today is not the day to cook up some birch pitch using ancient techniques.
Lots of fire and lots of smoke and no shade is not a recipe for a happy Matthew.
Yes, I know what happened today in Iran, but I am too fatigued and out of it to say anything about it.
Over at The Atlantic, they are stating the obvious, "The Democrats Must Confront Their Gerontocracy," but getting the focus wrong:
Last week, something happened that is extremely rare in Washington, D.C., but completely normal outside of it: People openly described an octogenarian as frail and overdue for retirement. The subject of discussion was Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia’s nonvoting congressional delegate, who turned 88 on Friday. Recently, several D.C. figures have questioned her ability to serve.
………
To a degree that seems bizarre to me as an outsider, the American party system, particularly on the Democratic side, defers to incumbents. (Since the 2022 midterm election, eight members of Congress have died in office. All of them were Democrats.) But in Holmes Norton’s case, something unusual has occurred: People close to her have continued to express concern about her ability to serve, and, even more unusually, have done so under their own names. “As her friend and someone who deeply admires her, I’ve made my peace with recommending to her that I think this is her final term,” the Democratic strategist Donna Brazile told The New York Times. The candor of Perry, Brazile, and others allowed the media to report forthrightly about Holmes Norton’s decline—her forgetting names, communicating in broken sentences, and struggling to read prepared remarks or recognize long-standing colleagues.
They go on to mention Biden, of course, but not a whisper about Nancy Pelosi or Steny Hoyer's age, for example.
The author goes on to suggest something like the British Parliamentary system, which gave us a disastrously doddering Winston Churchill in his second time as PM from 1951-1955.
The real problem here though is not that elderly politicians lose their facilities, though obviously some do, it's that old politicians have old ideas, and that when they are unable to address new realities, they fail. (See Pelosi, Nancy)
Honda Launches A Reusable Rocket And It Didn't Even ExplodeJalopnik discussing the recent successful launch of a Honda prototype while throwing shade at SpaceX and Musk for their recent explosion on the launch pad
In case you are wondering,Jalopnik is an automotive publication, and only a few years ago was speaking of Musk and Tesla and SpaceX with awe, and now they are dunking on Elon. (Video of rocket blowing up below)
The Apartheid Era Emerald Heir Pedo Guy™ is going to spend the rest of his life as an object of mockery, and it must be killing him.
Unemployment Still High I had forgotten that the jobs report would be yesterday because the
Juneteenth holiday.
The unemployment numbers improved marginally, but they remain near the high for the year.
The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits fell last week, but stayed at levels consistent with a further loss of labor market momentum in June and softening economic activity.
The report from the Labor Department on Wednesday showed widespread layoffs in the prior week, which had boosted claims to an eight-month high. Though some technical factors accounted for the elevation in claims, layoffs have risen this year, with economists saying President Donald Trump's broad tariffs had created a challenging economic environment for businesses.
………
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 245,000 for the week ended June 14. Data for the prior week was revised to show 2,000 more applications received than previously reported, lifting claims for that week to the highest since October.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 245,000 claims for the latest week. The report was released a day early because of the Juneteenth National Independence Day holiday on Thursday.
………
The four-week moving average of claims, which strips out seasonal fluctuations from the data, increased 4,750 to 245,500 last week, the highest level since August 2023. But some economists do not view the labor market as having changed much.
………
The so-called continuing claims dropped 6,000 to a still-high seasonally adjusted 1.945 million during the week ending June 7. Recently laid-off workers are struggling to find work.
Yep, still struggling, that's me.
The Fed will be getting its recession
Reminds me of 2008
Also, it looks like housing is rapidly becoming complete pants:
Higher borrowing costs as the Federal Reserve responded to the heightened economic uncertainty from tariffs by pausing its interest rate cutting cycle have weighed on demand for homes, resulting in excess inventory of unsold houses.
The U.S. central bank on Wednesday kept its benchmark overnight interest rate in the 4.25%-4.50% range, where it has been since December. Policymakers in new economic projections sketched a modestly stagflationary picture of the economy. They forecast two rate cuts this year.
………
A separate report from the Commerce Department's Census Bureau showed permits for future construction of single-family housing dropped 2.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 898,000 units in May, the lowest level since April 2023.
Higher borrowing costs have sidelined potential buyers, boosting the supply of new single-family homes on the market to levels last seen in late 2007. That has left builders with little incentive to break ground on new housing projects.
An immigration crackdown that has seen raids at construction sites could lead to labor shortages, compounding problems for builders, economists said.
This is not going to end well.
A study from Michigan State University concluded that premature ending of school mask mandates during the pandemic resulted in 22,000 deaths.
So much for, "Kids don't get Covid."
Someday we Americans may stop quarreling over our response to the COVID-19 pandemic — lockdown orders, social distancing and so forth — but one category of debate may never become immune to second-guessing.
That’s the impact of anti-pandemic measures on schools and schoolchildren. According to popular opinion, these were almost entirely mistaken or ineffective.
A newly published study from data scientists at Michigan State University knocks one pillar out from under this claim. It finds that the abrupt removal in 2022 of mandates that children wear masks in school contributed to an estimated 21,800 COVID deaths that year — a shocking 9% of the total COVID deaths in the U.S. that year.
It should be noted here that while many of the deaths involved children, a lot of them were people like teachers, school janitors, etc.
………
In February 2022, about 50% of public school children, or more than 20 million pupils, were in districts with mask mandates; then, over a period of six weeks, almost all those districts rescinded their mandates. “You can see how that would create a pretty substantial surge in infections.”
Most of the surge, [Michigan State University Professor Scott] Imberman told me, was a “spillover effect” in the communities outside the schools themselves.
The Michigan State finding undermines several myths and misrepresentations about COVID spread by the right wing. These include the claim that children are virtually impervious to COVID, which has been refuted by the injury and death toll among children.
A related misrepresentation was that children can’t pass on the infection to adults. In fact, because many children didn’t show symptoms of the infection or had only mild, flu-like symptoms, they functioned almost like an undetected fifth column in spreading the virus to adults.
The rush to set aside Covid precautions, and note that this was done by the Biden Administration, and I would argue that this was their worst mistake. (maybe 2nd worst mistake when one looks at the 2024 campaign)
In shutting down public health emergency mitigations to soon, they extended the duration and incrased the duration of the public health emergency.
Economists and financiers can deal with risk. What they cannot deal with is uncertainty.
The former gives you at least a rough percentage chance of what might happen, while the latter case means that you have no idea what would happen.
An example of uncertainty would be a if we had an impulsive, petulant, narcissistic, and possibly senile person running US trade policy, for example.
It's a good thing that we don't have THAT in the United States, otherwise, the Federal Reserve might look at this uncertainty and hold off on rate cuts.
Oh, wait, the Fed did look at this uncertainty and hold off on rate cuts.
Funny, innit?
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell projected confidence when he insisted the central bank was in a good position to handle whatever the economy does next—all while repeatedly acknowledging the Fed has little idea what’s actually coming.
The Fed is trying to see how the dust will settle from the aftereffects of President Trump’s April 2 “Liberation Day” tariff announcements, among other policy changes. Most economists expect tariffs to lift prices over the coming months, and that is a worry for the Fed because officials still don’t feel as if they completely vanquished inflation after a three-year-long fight.
“We haven’t been through a situation like this, and I think we have to be humble about our ability to forecast it,” Powell said.
Inflation has eased recently, but tariff effects loom. The job market shows hints of softness, though unemployment remains low at 4.2%.
We are f%$#ed.
I am not sure if this would make it past the Supreme Court's expansive view of corporate free speech, but the proposal by Senators Bernie Sanders and Angus King to ban direct to consumer pharmaceutical advertising is still a good thing.
Sens. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and Angus King (I., Maine) introduced a bill Thursday that would ban pharmaceutical manufacturers from using direct-to-consumer advertising, including social media, to promote their products.
The bill would prohibit any promotional communications targeting consumers, including through television, radio, print, digital platforms and social media. It will apply to all prescription drug advertisements.
“The American people don’t want to see misleading and deceptive prescription drug ads on television,” Sanders said in a statement. “They want us to take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry and ban these bogus ads.”
The bill comes after repeated calls from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to end prescription drug advertising.
The fact that Sanders, King, and Kennedy are on the same page about ANYTHING is a complete mind-f%$#.
Donald Trump won't call Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to offer condolences over the assassination of a Minnesota state lawmakerby one of his MAGAt supporters, because Trump is a miserable excuse for a human being.
OK, the actual reason he gave was that he thought it was, "A waste of time."
President Trump said early Tuesday that he would not call Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) after two Democratic lawmakers in his state were shot at their homes in a “politically motivated” shooting spree over the weekend.
“I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out. I’m not calling,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on his way back from the Group of Seven (G7) summit. “Why would I call him?”
“The guy doesn’t have a clue. He’s a mess. So, you know, I could be nice and call, but why waste time?” the president added.
Not only is this narcissistic and cruel, it is narcissistic and cruel and STUPID.
It makes Trump look like a psychopath, which, oddly enough, might be the most genuine and honest thing that Trump has said in about a decade.
Oracle has a new program to "Help" small companies that want to get Pentagon contracts.
I do not know anything about the specifics of this program, but among software companies that are absolutely abusive toward their customers,
They are the Hotel California of businesses.
You can check out any time you'd like, but you can NEVER leave.
Do not touch:
Oracle said vendors participating in its Oracle Defense Ecosystem program will have access to the software giant’s office spaces and be able to tap its expertise on navigating the Pentagon’s procurement processes. Photo: Scott Coleman/ZUMA Press
Oracle is unveiling a program that it says will help vendors more easily sell technology, including artificial intelligence, to the Department of Defense.
The program, called the Oracle Defense Ecosystem, is structured to help smaller companies break through the challenges they typically face in selling tech to the Defense Department, said Rand Waldron, Oracle’s vice president of sovereign cloud.
“It is far too hard to serve the American defense enterprise,” Waldron said. “We can provide an easy path for these companies to better get access to the defense market.”
Oracle said vendors participating in its program will have access to Oracle’s office spaces and be able to tap its expertise on navigating the Pentagon’s procurement processes. Participants also will receive a discount to data-mining company Palantir Technologies’ cloud and AI platform, as well as Oracle’s NetSuite business software.
Oracle and Palantir. Now THERE is an unholy witches' brew.
This is about system lock-in. The licensing terms will make it almost impossible to terminate the contract, and every year, the costs will keep rising.
The stories about Oracle are legion.
There are literally hundreds of companies that are maintaining Oracle licenses that they no longer use for tens of thousands of dollars a year, because failing to dot or cross a t on termination can result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties and potential lawsuits.
He's already making public jokes and baseless accusations about the assassination in Minnesota.
Not a good look for a human being, much less for a US Senator.
To Quote Joseph Welch, "You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency??:
Over the past few years I have pointed out issues with the most used models for anthropogenic climate change.
When compared to the actual climate data, the predictions of the models always seem to be too conservative.
It's worse than the models predict.
Well, we now have a potential explanation for this, that the models underestimate the water content and temperature of polar clouds:
The Arctic is one of the coldest regions on Earth, but in recent decades it has been warming rapidly, three to four times faster than the global average. Yet current climate models have struggled to explain this accelerated warming.
Now, researchers from Kyushu University—graduate student Momoka Nakanishi of the Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Engineering Sciences and her adviser, Associate Professor Takuro Michibata of the Research Institute for Applied Mechanics—have suggested that clouds may be the key factor. Their findings were published in the journal Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Research.
Heat-trapping properties of mixed-phase clouds
The most common clouds in the Arctic are mixed-phase clouds, which contain both ice crystals and supercooled liquid water droplets. During the Arctic summer, when sunlight is constant, these clouds reflect sunlight back into space like a parasol, helping to cool the region. In contrast, during the long, dark Arctic winter, when there is no sunlight to reflect, the same clouds behave like a blanket, trapping heat radiated from the Earth’s surface and sending it back down to the ground.
“However, how well these mixed-phase clouds trap heat depends on their ratio of ice to liquid,” explains Nakanishi. “The more liquid water the clouds contain, the better they are at trapping heat. But many climate models have a large bias in representing this ratio, causing incorrect predictions.”
Satellite comparison reveals model bias
In this study, Nakanishi and Michibata analyzed 30 climate models and compared them to satellite observations of clouds in the Arctic during winter over the last decade. They found that 21 of the 30 models significantly overestimated the fraction of ice to liquid in wintertime Arctic clouds.
“These ice-dominant models are not properly accounting for the present-day warming potential of the clouds during the winter,” says Nakanishi. “That’s why they cannot account for the rapid warming we are currently seeing.”
Yeah, it's a lot worse than we thought.
So, today we had massive "No Kings" protests, and Trump's birthday parade was a fizzle. and neither was the story of the day.
Instead the story of the day was right wing political violence. in Minnesota, we had the assassination of a Minnesota State Representative and the attempted assassination of a Minnesota State Senator:
Last night, a gunman impersonating a police officer and wearing body armor, murdered Minnesota State Congresswoman Melissa Hortman and her husband, traveled to State Senator John Hoffman’s house and shot him and his wife. Both politicians are Democrats.
After the first shooting, MN State Police did a proactive check on Hoffman’s house and saw the suspect come out the front door and flee on foot.
Both Hortman and Hoffman are members of an extremely divided Minnesota Congress. By taking out a member of each house, the gunman effectively flipped the state from Blue to Red.
The suspect, Vance Luther Boelter, is the owner of a private security company in Minnesota called “Praetorian Guards” which he runs with his wife.
………
The gunman had nearly 70 targets on a list to murder including a number of abortion providers, and numerous other Democrats including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
Challenging the narrative of this event is the fact that in 2019 Tim Walz appointed Vance Luther Boelter to the bipartisan Minnesota Workforce Development Board, which Walz’s predecessor had also done in 2016. This perfunctory nomination by Walz is being spun by right-wing media into some sinister connection between the killer and Walz. Given that Walz was on a list to be murdered, it’s preposterous.
We have the resume of the alleged gunman here.
He definitely had ties to right wing Evangelical Christian groups, and in speeches he gave, he echoes the rhetoric of the Christo-Fascist New Apostolic Reformation cult.
Meanwhile, in Virginia and California, drivers deliberately drove into crowds at the "No King" protests, though in this case there were no deaths.
This sort of political violence is being aggressively fomented by Trump and his allies, though you cannot find any direct links.
They are exhorting their followers to political violence, knowing that there is a statistical certainty that they will get their violence without direct ties pointingng back to them.
This is deliberate stochastic terrorism.
23andMe is going through bankruptcy, and as a part of the process, it will be selling off DNA data of its customers.
Even if a company promises to be good with your personal data, in bankruptcy, you are f%$#ed.
Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia have sued the genetic-testing company 23andMe to oppose the sale of DNA data from its customers without their direct consent.
The suit, filed on Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Eastern District of Missouri, argues that 23andMe needs to have permission from each and every customer before their data is potentially sold. The company had entered an agreement to sell itself and its assets in bankruptcy court.
The information for sale “comprises an unprecedented compilation of highly sensitive and immutable personal data of consumers,” according to the lawsuit.
“This isn’t just data — it’s your DNA. It’s personal, permanent and deeply private,” Dan Rayfield, the Oregon attorney general, said in a statement. “People did not submit their personal data to 23andMe thinking their genetic blueprint would later be sold off to the highest bidder.”
We don't need to just fix federal privacy laws, we need to fix federal corporate bankruptcy laws as well.
Donald Trump showed up to the Kennedy Center to see Les Miserables and got booed.
This is not surprising, since he took a wrecking ball to the institution.
Good.
I am not sure if Boeing deserves to catch a break, but whether it is the fault of Boeing, or the airline, or a flock of birds, the first fatal crash of a B787 is yet another bump in the already pothole infested road that is Boeing.
Officials have revealed few clues that would explain why a London-bound Air India Boeing 787 went down about 30 sec. after liftoff from Ahmedabad airport, making a seemingly controlled descent into a residential area after failing to maintain altitude.
Air India Flight 171 (AI 171) was airborne for less than 30 sec., surveillance video from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport’ shows. The aircraft rotates near the end of Runway 23 and climbs for about 12 sec. It then levels off for a moment before entering a sudden but steady descent into a nearby area about 1 nm from the runway end. Its landing gear remained down throughout the entire flight sequence.
The pilots issued a mayday call to air traffic control immediately after liftoff “but thereafter no response was given by the aircraft to the calls made by ATC,” India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said. Several news outlets in India said the mayday message included a description of “no thrust,” but Aviation Week could not independently verify the reports.
There were fatalities on the ground, and one survivor on the aircraft, who reported hearing a bang before the crash.
We should get more information over the next few weeks.
The entire Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board has resigned in response to political interference in the grants that they make.
The board of the Fulbright Program, the international educational exchange initiative sponsored by the US government, has resigned in protest at what it has described as the Trump administration’s political interference in its operations.In a statement the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board said the government had been meddling in its selection process, which it states is “based on merit, not ideology”, and has traditionally been insulated from political interference. It said the integrity of that process was “now undermined”.Political appointees at the state department had cancelled Fulbright scholarships for dozens of academics and students, mainly on the basis of their research topics, according to people familiar with the matter.………People familiar with the matter said the Fulbright awards were being cancelled in many instances by Darren Beattie, acting under-secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs. He worked as a speechwriter for Trump during his first term but left his post in 2018 after it was reported that he had spoken at a conference attended by white nationalists.
So, not just a political hack, it's a literal Nazi who is doing this.
Ours is the worst, and stupidest, timeline.
Is it any surprise that, " Almost Every NYPD Cop Charged with Excessive Force During the George Floyd Protests Escaped Serious Punishment?"
The state of policing in the United States is that the cops corrupting their own is the rule, and not the exception:
Ten minutes after the city’s emergency curfew kicked in on a sunny evening five years ago, NYPD detective Jason Ragoo stood over a female protester he had just taken to the ground on West Street in Lower Manhattan.
As the woman covered her head and bent her knees in a fetal position, Ragoo gripped his baton like a battering ram, swung his arms back, and jabbed the end of the nightstick into her ribs, video of the incident newly obtained by THE CITY shows.
It was one of scores of incidents involving local police and demonstrators at the height of protests prompted by George Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis police that prompted more than a thousand complaints of excessive force to the Civilian Complaint Review Board, which investigates police misconduct.
The outcome of the case involving Ragoo is reflective of a pattern in which the most serious uses of force by police officers during the protests — even those that sparked outrage and calls for “defunding” the police — were often met with little to no discipline from the NYPD.
In the aftermath, Ragoo was issued “instructions” by the department on proper procedures, a low level of discipline that’s mirrored across dozens of similar cases.
Of the 1,052 excessive force complaints fielded by CCRB investigators during the 2020 protests, the board concluded that 66 involved force that was improper, excessive or unnecessary enough for the NYPD to administer the most severe level of discipline, which at minimum calls for the loss of 11 vacation days.
So, is this typical?
Yes it is:
………
The stiffest penalty in the 66 cases was issued to Officer Brian Mahon, who the CCRB found had in one incident improperly shoved two protesters and hit two others with a baton, and then gave misleading statements about it to board investigators. In a plea deal reached under former NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell, Mahon agreed to a year’s probation and the loss of 40 vacation days.
………
Last year, as soon as his probationary period ended, Mahon was promoted to detective. He couldn’t be reached for comment and no one responded to a voicemail left with his union.
But the aggressiveness of the police response spurred three investigations by government entities, dozens of civil lawsuits that cost the city tens of millions of dollars in settlements, and a finding by the advocacy group Human Rights Watch that, during the NYPD’s mass arrest of protesters in The Bronx, the department had violated international human rights laws.
There needs to be a way to fix the problem that police often more like a criminal gang covering for each other than they do peace officers.
If just because Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez scares the bejesus out of Republicans:
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) got a Republican lawmaker to strike his comments after she accused him of trying to intimidate Democratic governors during an immigration-focused hearing.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D), Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D), and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker (D) went before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on Thursday, where Republican lawmakers railed against their states’ “sanctuary” laws.
………
“You are engaged in operations against federal government attempts to enforce federal law that I think now constitutes a threat to our national security, and you’re in violation of federal law,” Palmer said.
“That’s 100% false,” Hochul pushed back.
“And charges should be — for obstruction — should be brought against each one of you for doing this. I’ll leave that up to the Department of Justice,” Palmer said.
………
“Mr. Chair, point of order, point of order. That was a form of intimidation of the witness,” Ocasio-Cortez told Comer.
“Do you have a point of inquiry?” Comer asked.
“Yes, I have a point of inquiry,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“State your point,” Comer said.
“Raising the prospect of charges against witnesses is a form of intimidation, is it not?” the congresswoman asked.
Palmer can be heard off-mic saying he “strikes” his statement, leading Ocasio-Cortez to withdraw her question.
Making nice to Republicans is a losing proposition. We need a fighter to run in 2028 for President.
That's what the DoJ implied to a judge Kilmar Abrego Garcia deportation case.
They were arguing that Trump says all sorts of deranged sh%$:
A lawyer for Donald Trump’s Justice Department recently argued in court that sometimes the president just says stuff — and it doesn’t matter if what Trump says is or isn’t accurate, because his comments aren’t necessarily reflective of the government’s position on a given matter.
During an April 30 court hearing related to the government’s unlawful imprisonment of Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador, Judge Paula Xinis asked attorneys representing the Trump administration why they were saying they had no ability to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. when Trump had publicly acknowledged he “could” compel the man’s return if he wanted to. Elsewhere, she noted, Trump said he was leaving the matter up to his lawyers.
Jonathan Guynn, a Justice Department attorney, responded: “President Trump is a master messenger in many ways, but he also doesn’t speak with precision about things sometimes. And I think that this might be one of those situations where perhaps his comments were based on what he was recalling may have been the state of play previously.”
This is about as explicit a statement on Trump's mental facilities, or lack thereof that one could expect from in such a court proceeding.
So, Israel has launched massive airstrikes against Iran, and Iran is retaliating.
The obvious question is, "Why Now?" but in this case the answer is easy
Heredi parties were threatening to leave the coalition, and bring down the government over the extension of conscription to Orthodox Jews in Israel
This left Benjamin Netanyahu (יִמַּח שְׁמו) with no choice but to launch the attack, because if the government falls, Bibi's corrupt ass will end up in jail.
This was not about an imminent threat, this was about Netanyahu clinging to power.
The Trump administration probably gave its assent, but it the primary driver is the Israeli PM's current amorality and corruption.
Initial Claims and Separations
Continuing Claims and 4-Week Moving Average
Not good news.
Recurring applications for US unemployment benefits rose to the highest since the end of 2021, adding to evidence that it is taking unemployed Americans longer to find a new job.
Continuing claims, a proxy for the number of people receiving benefits, advanced to 1.96 million in the week ended May 31, according to Labor Department data released Thursday. That was above all estimates in a Bloomberg survey.
Meanwhile, a measure of new filings that smooths volatility climbed to the highest since August 2023.The spike in recurring claims coincides with a slowdown in hiring, suggesting that out-of-work people are struggling to find employment. However, the report covers periods that included Memorial Day and the start of summer school breaks in some states, which tends to make the data more volatile.
At least the inflation numbers are good for now:
………
In a separate report Thursday, US producer price inflation remained muted in May across the board, another sign that higher levies have yet to result in higher prices for consumers and businesses. Treasury yields and the dollar fell after the economic data.
Not good.
Over at The New York Post, they are wondering why so many young people are having strokes lately.
They are wondering if it's excess caffeine consumption, like that hasn't been the case for about 400 years, or maybe hormonal birth control (70 years), or Adderall abuse (30 or 60 years depending on how you count).
Why has there been a spike in strokes among younger people, "With a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealing that between 2020 and 2022, there was a 14.6% increase of strokes among people aged 18 to 44."
2020? What happened in 2020? Do you remember anything happening 2020? I know that I remember something.Well, if you click through to the article, something that I recommend that you do NOT do, you will note that there is a word missing. It does not appear once in the article. That word?
Covid!
Yeah, what could Possibly have happened in 2020 that led to a spike in strokes?
Maybe a disease that is known to attack the epithelial cells lining the circulatory system causing clots might have something to do with this.
Morons.
It appears that the usual suspects in the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) are determined to make a play for Elon Musk's approval and money.
The man is a narcissist racist, as sexist, a junkie, a pathological liar, a ferociously virulent anti-labor union employer, and f%$#ing insane, at least in the eyes of this non-psychologist.
Attempting to rehabilitate him is nuts. Attempting to do so without any indication that he has made even a perfunctory effort to change borders on criminal incompetence.
Add to that the fact that this guy is more widely loathed than Ted "I like Ted Cruz more than most of my other colleagues like Ted Cruz. And I hate Ted Cruz" Cruz, and this becomes what Tallyrand did not say, "Worse than a crime, it is a mistake."
Elon Musk has been the Democratic Party’s boogeyman since shortly after President Donald Trump deputized him as a top adviser. Their bitter breakup could complicate that.
After Musk called the GOP’s “big beautiful bill” a “disgusting abomination” and threatened to “fire all politicians” who backed it, the president mused on Thursday that he didn’t know if the two would still have a “great relationship.” Musk responded on his powerful platform X, “Without me, Trump would have lost,” adding “Such ingratitude.”
The split is giving some Democrats pause in their portrayal of Musk as a chainsaw-wielding, bureaucracy-breaking villain — with some saying they should give him another chance. After all, the billionaire tech mogul said he voted for former President Joe Biden in 2020 and gave a tour of SpaceX to then-President Barack Obama.
The Apartheid Era Emerald Heir Pedo Guy™ has shown us who he is, and it is that he is a miserable and pathetic excuse as a human being. (This was obvious for years before his turn on Ecch [Twitter], but his cunning as a sales weasel seemed to confuse a lot of people)
………Yeah, WelcomeFest, where "Democrats" were on stage complaining that labor unions are just so inconvenient.
Other Democrats are warming back up to Musk as he leaves the White House and starts to break with his former boss in ways that could benefit the opposition.
“I’m a believer in redemption, and he is telling the truth about the legislation,” said Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.). But, he added, Musk has “done an enormous amount of damage” and “there are Democrats who see his decimation of the federal workforce and the federal government as an unforgivable sin.”
Liam Kerr, co-founder of the group behind the centrist Democrats’ WelcomeFest meeting this week in Washington, said “of course” Democrats should open the door if Musk wants back into the party.
“You don’t want anyone wildly distorting your politics, which he has a unique capability to do. But it’s a zero-sum game,” Kerr said. “Anything that he does that moves more toward Democrats hurts Republicans.”
Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), the chair of the New Democrat Coalition who earlier this year supported the party’s targeting of Musk as the Department of Government Efficiency slashed through federal agencies, said that with his departure from Washington, Democrats shouldn’t make Musk their focus. “We should be talking about what we’re doing for the American people,” he said.
What you should be doing for the American people is fighting against people like Elon Musk.
It's only amoral careerists, like, for example, the chair of the New Democrat Coalition, who only care about their careers and where they are getting their next campaign donation from, who think that this is a good idea.
To quote Robert Graves on Germanic tribes, Elon Musk, "Must be struck into the dust, struck down again as they rise. Struck again while they lie groaning, while their wounds still pain them; they will respect the hand that dealt them."
He is not just a cancer on society, he is the avatar of what is wrong with our society.
In response to a law recently passed in Montana which forbids, "The display
of flags or banners on government property to the United States flag, an
official flag of the state, other municipality or special district, tribal
nations, foreign nations, as well as certain historical, military, law
enforcement and school district or mascot flags," the Missoula city council
adopted the pride flag as their city flag.
This not only allows Missoula to fly the pride flag, but it allows the pride flag to be flown on government property throughout the state.
The law that was passed was intended to ban the pride flag.
Good work:
The Missoula City Council on Monday recognized the LGBTQ Pride flag as an official flag of the city in response to a new state law restricting the display of the flag on government property, including in public schools.
House Bill 819 limits the display of flags or banners on government property to the United States flag, an official flag of the state, other municipality or special district, tribal nations, foreign nations, as well as certain historical, military, law enforcement and school district or mascot flags. The measure does not apply to personal clothing, jewelry or accessories worn by government employees outside of dress codes. Gov. Greg Gianforte signed the bill into law on May 13.
Missoula City Attorney Ryan Sudbury said that, as he interprets the bill, the city has one official flag. It did not have a previously adopted flag, and if the council wanted to adopt a new flag, it would have to repeal the old one, Sudbury said.
………
Missoula’s adoption of the Pride flag allows it to be displayed in government buildings statewide, as the bill does not limit where a municipality’s flag can be displayed, Sudbury told Montana Free Press.
The cities of Salt Lake City and Boise adopted similar measures last month in response to state laws banning traditional rainbow Pride flags at schools and government buildings, the Associated Press reported.Council Member Jennifer Savage said during the council meeting Monday that she proposed the measure after receiving emails from parents, students and other community members concerned about Pride flags being removed from classrooms last month.
Good.
Not one step back. Make the fascists choke on it.
Investor Roberto Faller is suing UnitedHealth because they have stopped cheating their customers in the aftermath of the assassination of their president.
As Anna Russel would say, "I'm not making this up, you know."
A health care industry giant’s Wall Street overlords just admitted that the company’s sky-high health insurance coverage denial rates reaped them enormous profits — and to keep the money flowing, they’re suing to stop the insurer from approving more patient care.
………
UnitedHealth Group has been facing growing discontent from its investors, a battle that — as the corporation faces mounting public scrutiny over its care denials — could shape the future of health insurance for 29 million people.
A May 7 lawsuit brought by a small-time investor in UnitedHealth Group is one of the latest chapters in the battle, arguing that the company’s tanking stock performance this spring had cost its investors unfairly. Some corporate media reports framed the suit as investors taking on the company for its “aggressive, anti-consumer tactics.”
But in reality, court documents reveal, some of UnitedHealth Group’s investors are concerned that the company’s changing “corporate practices” have been too consumer-friendly. And they suggest that these practices are a driving force behind UnitedHealth Group’s disastrous first quarter of 2025, which saw cratering stock value and the departure of longtime CEO Andrew Witty.
The investor lawsuit has now been consolidated into a larger ongoing shareholder suit against UnitedHealth Group. In its annual shareholder meeting this week, the company tried its best to quell the growing discontent among investors, who are increasingly shaken by the company’s tanking stock value and poor financial outlook.
As UnitedHealth Group’s investors revolt, the admissions in the lawsuit serve as a reminder that Wall Street greed is one of the reasons for its tendency to deny patients care.
I hope that Mr. Faller lives a long and painful life, and that his health insurance f%$#s him like a drunk sorority girl.
I would not piss on this man if he were on fire.
This is true as turnips is. It was as true as taxes is. And nothing's truer than them.ABC has fired Terry Moran because he called Trump aide a hater.
I understand that his (since deleted) post is not the most decorous thing, but it's the truth, which (of course) counts for nothing at ABC, because they just paid a bribe to Trump. (They pretended that it was a, "Settlement.")
The management at ABC can best be described as scumbag weasels.
ABC News is cutting ties with the correspondent Terry Moran after he wrote derisive comments on social media that attacked President Trump and Stephen Miller, the deputy White House chief of staff, referring to both men with the term “world-class hater.”
The network said on Tuesday that it had decided not to renew Mr. Moran’s contract. He had worked at ABC News for 28 years.
“We are at the end of our agreement with Terry Moran, and based on his recent post — which was a clear violation of ABC News policies — we have made the decision to not renew,” a network spokesman said in a statement. “At ABC News, we hold all of our reporters to the highest standards of objectivity, fairness and professionalism, and we remain committed to delivering straightforward, trusted journalism.”
Mr. Moran’s contract is set to expire on Friday, according to a person with knowledge of his deal who requested anonymity to disclose sensitive details. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
I'm not sure what made Moran get to the, "F%$# it all," stage of truth-telling, but I approve, and I wish that more journalists would do the same.
"You sent your troops here without fuel, food, water or a place to sleep. Here they are-being forced to sleep on the floor, piled on top of one another. If anyone is treating our troops disrespectfully, it is you @realDonaldTrump." @GavinNewsom https://t.co/ggBuk2WaLK pic.twitter.com/IWcpFF6zkH
— Mary Rose G. B. (Striving Ethnologist) (@mare_se) June 10, 2025
I think that the current protests and violence in Los Angeles are the result of a deliberate provocation by ICE at the direction of the Trump administration.
Donald Trump’s administration promised to crush opposition in Los Angeles.
Late on Saturday night, the US president deployed national guard soldiers in LA following protests against immigration raids in the city – a stunning escalation in the administration’s promise of “mass deportations”. His administration has promised to quell protests, and warned local leaders to brace for at least 30 days of ramped-up immigration enforcement.
But the overwhelming show of force may have awoken something else. The city is responding with a roaring backlash.………
Fueling the fury was the brutality with which federal agents had approached their targets, including a clothing manufacturer in Los Angeles’s garment district, and Home Depot in the Westlake district and a warehouse in South Los Angeles. The arrests were carried out without judicial warrants, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) – advocates say that more than 200 people were taken.
Lawyers reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been holding detained families in the basements of federal immigration facilities, separating children and mothers from their fathers. Agents have refused access to attorneys and family members, according to the Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef).
As masked immigration officers ripped workers away from their jobs, other agents in riot gear attacked protesters with teargas and flash-bang grenades, escalating a handful of isolated demonstrations into a clash that roiled the city and spurred several hundred to join the protest.
Among the protesters arrested was the union leader David Huerta, president of SEIU-USWW and SEIU California. The images of a middle-aged man in a plaid button-down shirt who was shoved down to the ground have angered millions of union workers across the US, wrote the LA Times columnist Anita Chabria. “The battleground has been redrawn in ways we don’t fully yet appreciate,” she wrote.
We have, of course, seen the random condemnations from the Republican never-Trumpers, like David Frum at The Atlantic, but that and $15.54 will get you a Venti as Starbucks. It really does not matter.
What DOES matter is that it's pretty clear that Trump and his Evil Minions™ are attempting to create a situation where he can declare something akin to martial law.
I think that the goal is to allow Trump to take direct control of the 2026 elections and engage in mass arrests of his opponents.
Kristi Noem is asking the Secretary of Defense to use the military to arrest, "Lawbreakers," which appears to me to be a attempt to create conditions to justify the military intervention in civilian governance.
One day before the Trump administration deployed U.S. Marines to confront protesters in Los Angeles, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to direct the military to detain or arrest “lawbreakers,” a move one expert called “a grave escalation.”
A letter sent Sunday from Noem to Hegseth, obtained by the Chronicle, requested that the Pentagon give “Direction to DoD forces to either detain, just as they would at any federal facility guarded by military, lawbreakers under Title 18 until they can be arrested and processed by federal law enforcement, or arrest them.”The military is generally barred under federal laws from taking part in domestic law enforcement. Granting Noem’s request would likely require the administration to sidestep those laws by invoking the Insurrection Act, two legal experts said in interviews.
Yeah, I'm worried about a 7 Days in May scenario.
A Libertarian These Days Is Usually Just a Republican Who Thinks the Government Shouldn’t Force Their Girlfriend to Use a Car Seat
I'm really not sure where it came from.
I have seen dozens of permutations of this in various comment sections, particularly on Reddit, but I do not know who came up with this.
They deserve a Nobel Prize of some sort for this.
I never thought that I would be writing about elections at the Washington, DC Bar, but the fact that Attorney General Pam Bondi's was trounced in his run for Bar president in an election that about 5x the normal turnout.
Same happened for Alicia Long, who ran for Bar treasurer, who is best known as being the evil minion of former nominee for DC US Attorney Ed Martin
Martin, if you are unfamiliar with him, threatened members of Congress, law firms, Wikipedia, The New England Journal of Medicine, and retaliated against lawyers in the DC US Attorney's office, and admitted that his pardon recommendations were explicitly partisan.
Lawyers casting a secret ballot did not approve of these mooks:
Brad Bondi, the brother of Attorney General Pam Bondi, overwhelmingly lost his bid to lead the D.C. Bar Association in a race with record turnout, the organization announced Monday.
Bondi, who is global co-chair of the law firm Paul Hastings’s investigations and white-collar defense practice, earned just 3,490 votes, or 9.1 percent, in the D.C. Bar’s presidential election. His opponent, employment lawyer Diane Seltzer, won 34,982 votes, or 90.9 percent.
More than 10:1. Sweet.
………
The D.C. Bar is the largest unified bar in the country, with roughly 121,000 members. As concern about his effort to lead the group mounted, Bondi vowed to ensure the group would remain nonpartisan.
In the past, Bondi represented billionaire Elon Musk and Tesla, the Trump Media & Technology Group and a group linked to YouTuber MrBeast in its bid to purchase TikTok.
Bondi is now publicly rending his clothes, claiming that "Rabid partisans lurched this election into the political gutter."
That doesn't sound like someone who was committed to nonpartisan fairness.
And then there was
………
Alicia Long, a top deputy to interim U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, also lost her bid for treasurer, earning 8,854 votes, or 25.1 percent of ballots cast. Cybersecurity lawyer Amanda Molina won that race with 26,380 votes, or 74.9 percent.
D.C. Bar CEO Robert Spagnoletti said on a press call Monday afternoon that the election saw record engagement from D.C. Bar members.
Over the past 50 years, the average number of ballots cast in an election was 7,444. This year, some 38,646 votes were cast in the race, or 43.26 percent of all eligible voters, he said.
Guess what, they hate you. Both of you.
I approve.
I reserve the right to reprint any email correspondence on my blog.
If you want to keep your correspondence private, please tell me.
A member of the Democratic wing of the Democratic party, and a fan of Bernie who thinks Neoliberal (DLC/New Dem) trickle down conomics sucks.Mechanical Engineer with a background in defense, electronics packaging, medical & food equipment, transportation, and manufacturing.
In my spare time (Hah!), I am the developer of the Firefox addon, bbCode for Web Extensions (bbCodeWebEx).
I have two cats, a black cat, and a gray and white long hair cat, who keep me on my toes. (Because he keeps attacking my feet)
I am a Jew and a Zionist, who is married to a woman with exquisitely bad taste in men, and I have two remarkable children with her.
