Uwaine

First — and why aren’t more people saying this? — what the hell was the Treasury secretary doing giving a closed-door briefing on a significant policy change that hadn’t yet been officially announced? Isn’t that a setup for large-scale insider trading? Indeed, attendees at that conference surely made market bets before Bessent’s remarks became public. And since when are major policy announcements by government officials made off the record to closed private-sector meetings? One even wonders whether Bessent was announcing policy or making it: Did Trump back him up only after the fact? The content of his remarks aside, what was Bessent even doing at this event? Senior government officials aren’t supposed to be helping investment banks entertain their clients. Was Bessent paid for his appearance? That would have been inconceivable under any previous administration, but now God knows. Or are we now entering an era in which companies that do favors for Trump and co., either in the form of money or support for their policies, get lucrative insider briefings? Put it this way: New York Times conflict of interest rules would have prohibited me, as an opinion writer, from talking to a closed-door session at J.P. Morgan. For the Treasury secretary to do so — especially when announcing a major policy change — is a huge ethical breach.

Scott Bessent is easily Trump's most grown-up cabinet member (as low a bar as that is). And yet he committed a grave ethical lapse yesterday, as @pkrugman.bsky.social notes.

paulkrugman.substack.com/p/cronyism-c...

Amazing how England's Conservatives were in power for 14 years and everyone got completely fed up with them to the point that Labour clobbered them last year, only for them to turn around and say "haha just kidding, Tories again"

An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman took their wives to play a round of golf.

The damage is done. As an example soybeans need to be going into the ground right now. Farmers are sitting on millions of dollars in seeds alone and their export contacts are now gone. ADM just shut down a soybean processing plant in S. Carolina. No exports, no jobs. Done.

Pete Hegseth is clearly on his way out due to incompetence. I wonder if the next Secretary of Defense will be from Newsmax

Every conversation between a MAGA and a liberal…

Six months since leaving the ICU. Two months after that at Physical therapy they were like “what are your goals?”

I said “I want to be able to pick up all my kids at once”.

Helluva thing.

Law enforcement experts have raised concerns about whether the incident, which involved a thief getting so close to a Cabinet official and then absconding with her belongings, may have been a lapse in security.

Law enforcement experts
www.cnn.com/2025/04/22/p...

It's 5am, it's dark, and I'm starting the day as god intended humans to live: sending invoices to national newspapers who have been using London Centric pictures and video without permission.

Hegseth Pulled Airstrike Info from Secure Military Channel for Signal Posts, NBC News Reports Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pulled the airstrike information he posted into Signal chats with his wife, brother and dozens of others from a secure communications channel used by U.S. Central Comman...

He took TS/SCI info from the CENTCOM JWICS portal and texted it to his wife and friends.

I will die on this hill: everyone who has a star on their uniform would smile if they could shoot him!

One thing that should be said about every voter suppression law is how unnecessary they are. Voter impersonation is the one crime we have all but eliminated with extensive cross checks, burdens, & enforcement. Meanwhile, we do almost nothing to fight the most common crime in America—wage theft.

RFK Jr.'s autism study to amass medical records of many Americans The autism study is planning to link confidential data "with broad coverage in the U.S. population" in one place for the first time.

@azagmayes.bsky.social
@captmarkkelly.bsky.social @gallego.senate.gov
Please put a stop to this most egregious violation of HIPAA & our rights to privacy.
The administration needs to be immediately reigned in. This is sheer insanity!
#ProudBlue #OneV1 #MomSky
www.cbsnews.com/news/rfk-jr-...

If your religion is threatened by the existence of a book, then your religion is weak.

Feels like?
He was!
anyone who doesn’t recognize this very glaring fact is either
living in a cave
drunk/stoned
or just plain stupid.

"60 Minutes" executive producer Bill Owens to step down "60 Minutes" executive producer Bill Owens, whose career spans nearly four decades at CBS News, announced on Tuesday that he will depart the network, saying it has "become clear that I would not be al...

CBS Evening News did a remarkably frank and pro-Owens segment on his departure from "60 Minutes". www.cbsnews.com/video/60-min...

The S&P 500’s performance since Inauguration Day is now the worst for any president up to this point in data going back to 1928.

This image is a tweet from former U.S. President Barack Obama, posted in tribute to Pope Francis. In the tweet, Obama describes Pope Francis as a rare leader whose humility and compassionate actions inspired people to be better. He highlights the Pope’s acts of kindness—embracing the sick, helping the homeless, and washing the feet of prisoners—as reminders of moral responsibility to one another and to God. Obama ends the tweet by expressing shared mourning with Michelle and people around the world, urging others to follow the Pope’s call to engage actively in the “march of living hope.”

Reading Obama’s tribute to Pope Francis is a stark reminder of how far presidential dignity has fallen. Where there was once eloquence, compassion, and moral clarity, we now endure a swaggering caricature—petty, reckless, and painfully unworthy of the office.

🚨 Griffin v. North Carolina State Board of Elections (II) Learn more.

🚨BREAKING: In a win for voters, 4th Circuit BLOCKS North Carolina from beginning the state court ordered cure process while litigation continues in federal court. www.democracydocket.com/cases/north-...

Not for nothing but ‘Genocide Joe’ wouldn’t have deported you for protesting, even when the person being protested was him.

Objection: RFK Jr. Wants to Build a Registry of Autistic Americans A horrifying proposal rooted in ableism, surveillance, and control. We’ve seen this playbook before.

A database of autistic Americans? That’s not healthcare—it’s control.
Objection: RFK Jr. wants to build a registry of autistic Americans. New post up now.

open.substack.com/pub/objectio...

The Beehive star cluster at left of centre. Orange planet Mars above right of centre. Many faint star dots on a dark background.

Mars and the Beehive from last night. 22 April 2025. 🔭 🧪 🎨 #astrophotography #SciArt #photography #StormHour #ThePhotoHour

Columbia Canceled My Course on Race and Media. I'm Going to Teach It Anyway. This is not a time for media literacy or historical knowledge to be held hostage by institutions bending the knee to authoritarianism.

Update!

Over 1750 people have signed up for the Resistance Summer School pilot course!

This is the seed to a new movement and parallel education structure.

It won't put participants in lifelong student debt. Or be subject to attacks on diversity.

karenattiah.substack.com/p/columbia-c...

Many Canadian 'snowbirds' in US looking to pack up and fly north - for good The number of Canadian "snowbirds" planning to sell their second homes in sunny Florida and Arizona has surged this spring, many of them put off by the sudden chill that has blanketed relations between their homeland and the U.S.

Yeah no kidding. They want to play golf not end up in a Salvadoran gulag www.reuters.com/world/americ...

Stay loud
stay visible
stay brave

I hate the way media fall back on the word "controversy." MSNBC just called SignalGate a controversy, as if there's a rational debate over whether sharing military secrets with a journalist and your wife is a good or bad thing.

Serving in the Southern District of New York has been an honor. There is no greater privilege than to work for an institution whose mandate is to do the right thing, the right way, for the right reasons. We will not abandon this principle to keep our jobs. We resign.

It would be a laudable and modest goal to see one of the 5 people who resigned from SDNY on principle would one day lead it -- but we've got a shit-ton of work b4 that might happen.

static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics...

Well this is probably one of the more insane statements I'll read today

never forget that we’re currently facing total economic destruction because fox news got upset about 0.0001% of our population wanting equal rights

RFK jr may be the most dangerous member of this administration