fluxt [née fluxed]

singer from brass solidarity band shatters a sheet of ice as the band plays “lovely day” at the abolish ICE benefit festival in minneapolis held across the street from where federal agents murdered alex pretti in january

"The scale is truly alarming and this war has made it impossible to ignore now…

The barrier to creating convincing synthetic conflict footage has essentially collapsed.”

“How do you have this vehicle?”

“Dismantle authoritarian capacities… Rein in the excessive power of the state to intimidate, defund, or discriminate…

Structurally limit private control of information, media, and other critical free expression infrastructures…

Innovate… investments in a civic-minded information infrastructure.” 👍

A 1975 article reporting that President Ford's annual budget proposal amounted to nearly $1 billion a day.

And for comparison, just 15 years before in 1975, President Ford introduced an annual U.S. budget proposal that amounted to about $1 billion a day for the operations of the entire federal government.

Interestingly, that number — "$1 billion a day" — was bandied about in 1990 as the first Gulf War ramped up. The war's ultimate cost was about $61 billion, most paid by allies.

But the multi-year Iraq War quagmire that followed will likely end up having cost the U.S. $2.9 trillion (!) by 2050.

"I don't think Trump is deliberately trying to raise prices. But if he were, it’s not clear how much he’d be doing differently right now."

A brief look by @crampell.bsky.social at the global knock-on effects of Trump's warmongering, as he single-handedly destabilizes the world economy (no paywall).

bsky.app/profile/flux...

First they came for the journalists.

We don't know what happened after that.

They're already fundraising off of Kristi Noem's departure...

Glossing over the details — "Kristi Noem is moving on from the Department of Homeland Security" — and yes, blaming "the Left."

“have intersected frequently” is comically suggestive, today anyway

Trump in 1999, defending the embargo at a museum devoted to the failed effort to overthrow Castro:

"He's been a killer, he's a criminal, and I don't think you should reward people who have done what he's done."

Also Trump:

"I think the concept of shaking hands is not the most sanitary of things."

CBGB's — A NYC STORY YouTube video by ernie fritz

You're at 4:24. It looks like you were doing an interview with a woman who was involved with the effort to get a historical designation for the club before it eventually closed. (I had forgotten about the attempt to reopen it in Vegas!)

Possibly the only time you were in a video Robin Leach was in?

Done! Behind the News has been, and remains, a bedrock.

(BTW, I saw the Doug Henwood visage pop up for approximately two seconds onscreen when I was watching a documentary about CBGB this week...)

'It is what it is': Trump in interview on COVID-19 death toll in U.S. The president told Axios in a recent interview that the "horrible plague" is "under control."

This was the Jonathan Swan interview where Trump said, on the death of John Lewis, "I don't know John Lewis. He chose not to come to my inauguration."

And on whether he found Lewis impressive: "I can't say one way or the other. I find a lot of people impressive. I find many people not impressive."

MN Soldier Killed In Iran War A Mom Of 2, Days From Return Home "You don't go to Kuwait thinking something's going to happen, and for her to be one of the first – it hurts," Joey Amor, her husband, said.

Trump on deaths of U.S. soldiers this week in Kuwait:

“Sadly, there will likely be more, before it ends. That’s the way it is.”

Trump in August, 2020, on the (up to that time) 156,500 U.S. COVID deaths:

"They are dying, that's true. And you have — it is what it is."

There's actual research on this: support for wars always goes down over time, and never up. I've never seen support for a war start at such a low level, and it will only go down from here.

Worth watching the whole ten minutes of Tillis laying into Noem. He’s a still dick and he starts out with tired lies about Biden but then …yowza.

youtu.be/Jijg5z0r6k8

On the topic of depleted stores of U.S. military munitions amidst Trump's bluster about a "virtually unlimited supply of weapons," Garrett Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social highlighted some analysis (from David Axe and Tim Mak) in his newsletter yesterday:

www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/upheaval-i...

But, the drapes...

the LA mayoral race is shaping up to be the most obvious local election in a while.

progressive YIMBY (Raman) vs. incompetent NIMBY (Bass) vs. insane NIMBY (Pratt)

Raman is like Zohran/Zellnor/Lander fusion vs. Cuomo (Bass) vs. Sliwa (Pratt)

“In recent years, many of the museum’s exhibits focused on social issues concerning race, gender & climate change. ‘It’s been a place for students to focus on and contemplate the complexities of these issues’…

The university currently has plans to build a $42 million basketball practice facility.”

In greater Minnesota, immigration debate hits close to home for a GOP leader, Trump backer Rodney Johnson is an avid Trump supporter. But as his friend faces possible deportation, he’s wrestling with how immigration enforcement is being carried out in the state.

A (still) Trump-supporting, "biblical, born-again Christian guy" and chair of the Clay County Republicans in north-central Minnesota — near the border with North Dakota — has been facing a crisis of conscience, as a young Nicaraguan woman he knows may be facing deportation.

(read or listen, 4 min.)

Updated:

Let’s hear it for America’s mayor.

The Disastrous First Year of RFK Jr. The damage the HHS secretary has done to science and public health is appalling—and it could have been avoided.

"It is beyond comprehension that the Senate confirmed this man to oversee America’s health."

“Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities say they have launched attacks against Pakistan’s military positions along their border…

‘Heavy clashes’ began late on Thursday in response to the recent air strikes carried out by Pakistani forces…

Relations between the neighbours have plunged in recent months.”

“Shah Alam’s guilty plea to charges of trespassing and possession of a weapon — a curtain rod he used as a walking stick — allowed him to ‘clear’ the detainer and avoid detention by ICE or another immigration agency…

His death comes just 15 months after his arrival in Buffalo in December 2024.”

As if we’re not facing enough trouble already, from all sides…

Here we have an Illinois state Dem candidate going after another (progressive, union-backed) Dem over alleged “ICE ties.”

And the aggressor in this instance has the backing of DraftKings, Meta, and the state Democratic Party machine…