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If you think that they aren’t going after Social Security, think again: he newly installed caretaker at the Social Security Administration acknowledged this week that Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service is calling the shots as the agency races to slash thousands of jobs and shrink its budget, telling a group of advocates, “Things are currently operating in a way I have never seen in government before.” In a meeting Tuesday with his senior staff and about 50 legal-aid attorneys and other advocates for the disabled and elderly, acting SSA commissioner Leland Dudek referred to the tech billionaire’s cost-cutting team as “outsiders who are unfamiliar with nuances of SSA programs,” according to a meeting participant’s detailed notes that were obtained by The Washington Post. “DOGE people are learning and they will make mistakes, but we have to let them see what is going on at SSA,” Dudek told the group, according to the notes. “I am relying on longtime career people to inform my work, but I am receiving decisions that are made without my input.
An environmental chemist investigates the origins of her leukemia
The post When Did I Start Getting Cancer? appeared first on Nautilus.
A scientist floats a new idea for exploring Earth’s twin
The post Ballooning Around Venus appeared first on Nautilus.
Trump is going to make Ukrainians pay and pay hard for failing to immediately surrender to his “brilliant”, “savvy” friend Vladimir Putin three years ago: U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to revoke temporary legal status for some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the conflict with Russia, a senior Trump official and three sources familiar with the matter said, potentially putting them on a fast-track to deportation. The move, expected as soon as April, would be a stunning reversal of the welcome Ukrainians received under President Joe Biden’s administration. He’ll be deporting everyone under temporary immigration statuses including Afghans, Cubans, Haitians, etc. But I think the deportation of Ukrainians in the middle of the war is a Trump bully tactic to try to force Zelensky to lick his boots. It’s just cruel. The Trump administration last month paused processing immigration-related applications for people who entered the U.S. under certain Biden parole programs – placing Ukrainian Liana Avetisian, her husband and her 14-year-old daughter, in limbo.
Banks just raked in $250 billion by charging borrowers more than they pay depositors. Trump moves could make the scam worse.
Here’s a fascinating look at the DOGE actions by Harvard political scientists Ryan Enos and Sam Fuller. I urge you to read the whole post which but here’s the essence of their findings and it should give us some heart: Trump’s actions, matters of complex questions relating to civic and constitutional norms, are incredibly unpopular: they are not supported by an overwhelming majority of Democrats (unsurprising), a significant majority of Independents (more surprising), and nearly half(!) of Republicans (extremely surprising). And, particularly among Republicans, if you cut through the partisan blinders and remind people these actions are illegal and unconstitutional, people are even more likely to disapprove of his actions. We see this in data that comes from questions we asked about Trump’s actions on the most recent Harvard CAPS/Harris poll.1 In particular, we asked people how much they support the following authoritarian actions (full questions can be seen at the end of the post): Responses were on a five-point scale from “strongly support” to “strongly oppose”.
The past fourteen days, like all epochs reduced to memes and cable news chyrons, have revealed the cyclical farce of power—a pantomime of bullies, billionaires, and eggs priced like bullion. We chronicle here the struggles of the recently unemployed, the begrudging representatives of the people, along with their staff who really just want to drop the R and F word without repercussions… but now that woke is dead, they still won’t say it.
In the children’s theater of democracy, world leaders—continually summoned to the asphalt hinterlands of a metaphorical middle school called the White House—find themselves cornered in the empty government halls by the administration. Recently, in a taxpayer-funded episode of Mean Girls, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was reprimanded by hall monitor JD Vance, who demanded fealty to join the country’s kickball team, further proving he was most definitely not invited to the cool kids’ parties.
In its response to AUKUS with its objective of militarily confronting China in the South China Sea, we should not be surprised by Chinese naval vessels sailing around Australia to pick up some intelligence or at least showing us their growing naval power. For China, it would be a good training experience in new waters. Continue reading »
The Australian labels Albanese a “jellyfish” in the face of Chinese naval vessels, ironically the barbs came from a faceless columnist. Kudos to The Australian for keeping tabs on a US nuclear submarine in our waters, but the headline act for the Murdoch masthead was hosting its own event for weapons makers and China hawks. Continue reading »
We need to tell a new/old story. Humans are social creatures of a shared story. We tell ourselves into being who we are by the stories we share. From First Peoples’ Songlines, rhythmically repeated and updated to incorporate the latest world developments, to Harry Potter novels and The Matrix movies, we remember and become the Continue reading »
News out of the US on the firing of public servants by the Trump administration has consequences worldwide. Downsizing of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will potentially impact many nations including our capacity to forecast extreme weather events and understand the consequences of climate change. The Trump administration has it in for NOAA. Continue reading »
Violence is initiated by those who oppress, who exploit, who fail to recognise others as persons – not by those who are oppressed, exploited and unrecognised. Paulo Freire (1921-1997) was a Brazilian philosopher and educator. His Pedagogy of the Oppressed, originally published in Spanish in 1968. The text below was translated by Myra Bergman Ramos. Continue reading »
There is a certain cadence to decline, a rhythm of arrogance and desperation, of miscalculation and delusion. The late-stage empire, unmoored from reality yet clinging to myths of its own indispensability, lashes out at perceived threats not because they are real, but because it cannot conceive of a world in which it is no longer Continue reading »
Donald Trump has resorted to tariffs, imposed against friend and foe alike. There are no compromises or special deals because it’s not about favours for friends, or compliance, or punishment. Tariffs are part of a desperate bid to stave off insolvency. Presidential adviser Elon Musk has provided an important insight into the slew of seemingly Continue reading »
The Cambridge Dictionary defines a bigot as “a person who has strong, unreasonable beliefs, and who does not like other people who have different beliefs or a different way of life”. Bigotry is an individual attitude characterised by two distinct dimensions, baseless beliefs and an intolerance of others, and is exemplified by xenophobia, racism and Continue reading »
Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman reaped a $1 billion payout, and then the Justice Department announced a landmark antitrust lawsuit.
Perfectly sane, perfectly normal. Lol. Yeah right. Uh huh. At least it didn’t get under his skin or anything… He’s fine though. Don’t spend even a minute worrying that this manchild has the nuclear codes.
At CPAC, Stefanik admitted what was long suspected—university presidents weren’t forced out over “anti-Semitism,” but for not cracking down hard enough on pro-Palestine protests. The crackdown on campus free speech is now official U.S. policy.
The post Elise Stefanik Brags About Purging University Leaders for Failing Israel’s Loyalty Test appeared first on MintPress News.
It’s not a joke anymore “This is not a joke anymore,” and normal is not dead. Yet. (CBC): The man behind an iconic Canadian beer ad is back, 25 years later, with a new patriotic rallying cry. But this time, it’s not about selling drinks. Jeff Douglas, from Truro, N.S., became a national sensation after starring as flannel-wearing Joe Canadian in Molson Canadian’s 2000 ad “The Rant,” which was a huge success for the beer company and popularized the slogan, “I am Canadian!” On Wednesday, a new video appeared on YouTube featuring Douglas, back on stage in flannel, this time defending Canada from attacks by U.S. President Donald Trump, before launching into a similar string of boasts about his home country. After my post below, I needed this. You probably do too: For reference, here’s the original Molson ad from 2000. (h/t ER) * * * * * Have you fought the coup today?Choose DemocracyIndivisible: A Guide to Democracy on the BrinkYou Have PowerChop Wood, Carry Water
Freddie Fox is set for a villain role during the second season of Ncuti Gatwa, Millie Gibson, and Varada Sethu-starring Doctor Who.
Private messages between Boris Johnson and his team reveal they were "on a mission" to secure the contract with leading Brexiteer James Dyson
The opening weeks of the second Trump administration have produced daily headlines that read — no, this is not hyperbole! — like science fiction. The spectacle of a South African tech billionaire and his cronies staging a twenty-first-century cybercoup with the acquiescence of an aging lunatic of a president beggars belief. Elon Musk has given vast powers to young, even teenaged plenipotentiaries like Edward “Big Balls” Coristine, 19, who had earlier been employed by Musk’s brain-chip project Neuralink and has now been made a special adviser to the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Technology and the Department of Homeland Security. The Trumpian lists of forbidden words and concepts have reminded some observers of George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984. High Technology... Read more
Source: Cyberpunk Nation appeared first on TomDispatch.com.