“A Dishonorable Strike
Indulging all assumptions in favor of the administration’s boat strikes, killing helpless men is murder” By Harvard Law Professor Jack Goldsmith (a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute & former head of the Office of Legal Counsel) 1/
Two words come to mind: “hoist” and “petard.”
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Putin gives an investment conference in St Petersburg, and no one comes... highlighting the instability and fragility of the Russian economy. www.ft.com/content/36b8...
A paragraph followed by two graphs from Martin Wolf’s 17 June 2025 article “For whom does Trump govern? The Big Beautiful Bill Act is a classic example of pluto-populism” on the website of The Financial Times. The paragraph reads: “The Yale Budget Lab has estimated the impact of the tariffs implemented as of June 1 2025 and the OBBBA, as passed by the House of Representatives. Of course, the latter is likely to change. But the fact that it was passed by the House of Representatives at all is startling. In brief, the combination of tariff increases with the OBBBA “would reduce after-tax-and-transfer incomes on average among the bottom 80 per cent of US households. The bottom 10 per cent of households would see an average reduction of more than 6.5 per cent in incomes, while those at the top would see an increase of nearly 1.5 per cent.” (See charts.)” The graphs are titled “For unto every one that hath shall be given but from him that hath not shall be taken away,” and subtitled “Combined distributional effects of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and of tariffs (average annual change in household resources, 2026-34).”
The formidable Martin Wolf writes about the Trumpist “pluto-populism” — a term Wolf himself coined back in 2006 — evident in the appalling “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”:
www.ft.com/content/31f4...
A short video about Juneteenth:
A paragraph followed by two graphs from Martin Wolf’s 17 June 2025 article “For whom does Trump govern? The Big Beautiful Bill Act is a classic example of pluto-populism” on the website of The Financial Times. The paragraph reads: “The Yale Budget Lab has estimated the impact of the tariffs implemented as of June 1 2025 and the OBBBA, as passed by the House of Representatives. Of course, the latter is likely to change. But the fact that it was passed by the House of Representatives at all is startling. In brief, the combination of tariff increases with the OBBBA “would reduce after-tax-and-transfer incomes on average among the bottom 80 per cent of US households. The bottom 10 per cent of households would see an average reduction of more than 6.5 per cent in incomes, while those at the top would see an increase of nearly 1.5 per cent.” (See charts.)” The graphs are titled “For unto every one that hath shall be given but from him that hath not shall be taken away,” and subtitled “Combined distributional effects of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and of tariffs (average annual change in household resources, 2026-34).”
The formidable Martin Wolf writes about the Trumpist “pluto-populism” — a term Wolf himself coined back in 2006 — evident in the appalling “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”:
www.ft.com/content/31f4...
“Trump told reporters: ‘The UK is very well protected. You know why? Because I like them, that's why. That's the ultimate protection.’
Commenters often note that Trump talks like a mob boss, but rarely has his organized-crime style of governance been clearer than in yesterday’s statement.”
“In the past, the NSF has usually enjoyed bipartisan support... But the ravages currently being inflicted upon the agency may bring a truly golden era of American science to a halt. … The Trump forces now directing the NSF have been terminating existing grants at a record pace…”
“Trump told reporters: ‘The UK is very well protected. You know why? Because I like them, that's why. That's the ultimate protection.’
Commenters often note that Trump talks like a mob boss, but rarely has his organized-crime style of governance been clearer than in yesterday’s statement.”
Prof Krugman (@pkrugman.bsky.social):
“America is no longer a full-fledged democracy. We are currently living under a version of competitive authoritarianism... Trumpists, however, haven’t yet fully consolidated their hold.” 1/4
It seems hollering “woke” isn’t an argument:
“The court finds and rules that [NIH’s] explanations are bereft of reasoning, virtually in their entirety…”
And as for Trumpian anti-DEI rhetoric:
“I’ve sat on this bench now for 40 years and I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this”
A man with ALS who’d lost the ability to speak:
“The team asked the participant to attempt to make interjections such as ‘aah’, ‘ooh’ and ‘hmm’ and say made-up words. The BCI successfully produced these sounds, showing that it could generate speech without needing a fixed vocabulary.”
“Meanwhile, Donald Trump got the military parade he wanted for his birthday. And it was a box-office bust, probably attracting far fewer people than the 250,000 the White House claimed. In fact, the optics were simply embarrassing.” 5/5
“[P]oll analyst G. Elliott Morris has worked with a number of independent journalists to produce rough estimates of how many people participated in the protests nationwide, and comes up with a number between 4 and 6 million. That’s a huge number.” 3/4
“America still has a chance of reclaiming itself from the grip of brazen corruption, mindless destruction, and contempt both for the rule of law and for our erstwhile allies. …
On Saturday I, along with friends, joined the No Kings Day protest…” 2/4
Prof Krugman (@pkrugman.bsky.social):
“America is no longer a full-fledged democracy. We are currently living under a version of competitive authoritarianism... Trumpists, however, haven’t yet fully consolidated their hold.” 1/4
It seems hollering “woke” isn’t an argument:
“The court finds and rules that [NIH’s] explanations are bereft of reasoning, virtually in their entirety…”
And as for Trumpian anti-DEI rhetoric:
“I’ve sat on this bench now for 40 years and I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this”
“This year, the BMJ, a publisher of medical journals based in London, has seen bot traffic to its websites surpass that of real users. The aggressive behaviour of these bots overloaded the publisher’s servers and led to interruptions in services for legitimate customers…”
Appalling. And so is:
"CBS reported Tuesday that the Navy is also considering renaming other John Lewis-class oilers including the USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and USNS Harriet Tubman."
Will the lead ship of the class keep the name John Lewis?
Another judge just ordered govt to reveal its deal with Bukele to another alien sent to CECOT. A magistrate judge in Columbus, GA (MDGa) did so in the case of Venezuelan EDQC, sent to CECOT on 3/15 without opportunity to raise a fear-of-torture claim.
1/5
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
I've seen folks talk about how "in four years" they'll be able to get back to their planned projects and I really don't think that's going to work out. People & projects losing funding now will not be able to hit pause and come back once funding is restored. Hard-won progress & capacity will be lost
Definitely cool. But he has a rough road ahead of him...
Decidedly cool. But he has a rough road ahead of him...
If RFK Jr. wants to identify toxins that are causing harm to Americans’ health, he should pick up his phone, open the camera, and flip it around to selfie mode.
In a decade, The Lancet will doubtless have published a study or two establishing which, Elon Musk or RFK Jr, was responsible for the greater number of deaths.
Post to the subreddit r/AskHistorians: What was navigation like for vehicle drivers in the United States before the internet and GPS? Before GPS devices and smartphones/cellular internet networks were a thing (Garmin company was founded 1989), millions of Americans were already getting around driving without the use of those inventions. How did they navigate? Did everyone need stacks of maps? Were drivers frequently lost? Did everyone have to understand the interstate system and use intuition to guide them? How burdensome was driving before GPS? Did drivers pay people to calculate an optimal route for them?
I am officially one of The Ancients, Keeper of Knowledge of the Before Time
Utterly appalling.
Republicans are determined to impoverish the U.S. with their attacks on #science.
Ardem Patapoutian's story is not just the American dream, it is the dream of American science. He arrived in Los Angeles in 1986 at age 18 after fleeing war-torn Lebanon. He spent a year writing for an Armenian newspaper and delivering Domino's at night to become eligible for the University of California, where he earned his undergraduate degree and a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience. He started a lab at Scripps Research in San Diego with a grant from the National Institutes of Health, discovered the way humans sense touch, and in 2021 won the Nobel Prize. But with the Trump administration slashing spending on science, Dr. Patapoutian's federal grant to develop new approaches to treating pain has been frozen. In late February, he posted on Bluesky that such cuts would damage biomedical research and prompt an exodus of talent from the United States. Within hours, he had an email from China, offering to move his lab to "any city, any university I want," he said, with a guarantee of funding for the next 20 years.
Man comes to the US from Lebanon. Starts out delivering pizzas, becomes a Nobel winning neuroscientist. Trump freezes his funding, he gets an email from China offering to move his lab “any city, any university I want" with guaranteed funding for 20 years.
What are we doing?
This is crazypants. Also funny.
