Tootfinder

A Trump administration letter to Congress outlines a plan to restructure VOA that would shrink the agency to 18 employees, down from roughly 1,400 in March (Minho Kim/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/us/politics/trump-voice-of-america.h…

Nearly All Remaining Voice of America Employees Could Be Fired Under Plan
A proposed restructuring would leave only 18 employees at the federally funded news agency, which was founded in 1942 to combat Nazi propaganda.

Two Parasites and a Corpse: Trump, Musk, and the Maggot Feud Inside America's Rotting Democracy: https://blog.rmendes.net/2025/06/06/two-parasites-and-a-corpse.html

Trump Can Resume Restricting AP's Access To Oval Office, Judges Rule
https://deadline.com/2025/06/trump-associated-press-oval-office-gulf-of-america-1236426455/

‪Langston Hughes
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)
full poem here:
#Poetry

"The world is full of darkness. So much is going wrong. Experts agree that America has succumbed to right-wing authoritarianism; call it fascism or something else, these are extraordinarily difficult times.
This post is a break from all of that. At least kind of.
In this piece, I will try and convince you that Doctor Who is the best TV show ever made, explain to you why it matters, and why it’s particularly important in our current context. In a time when cruelty and fear dominate headlines, it’s worth celebrating a show that insists on the power of kindness, intellect, and hope."
#DoctorWho
https://werd.io/2025/doctor-who-is-the-best-show-ever-made-heres-why

Nobel Prize Laureate Kip Thorne speaking yesterday at the Albert Einstein Institute in Postdam, Germany:
"Donald Trump is destroying America's capacity for [leading science].
We are counting on Europe to take over here and elsewhere." ⚛️
https://bsky.app/profile/abazajian.n…

Kev Abazajian (@abazajian.net)
Nobel Prize Laureate Kip Thorne speaking yesterday at the Albert Einstein Institute in Postdam, Germany: "Donald Trump is destroying America's capacity for [leading science]. We are counting on Europe to take over here and elsewhere." ⚛️ 🧪

"Trofim Lysenko était un scientifique soviétique dont le déni dogmatique de la science a conduit Š une famine de masse lorsque ses idées ont été appliquées Š l'agriculture. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ressemble beaucoup Š Lysenko dans son déni de la science. Ses résultats seront-ils aussi désastreux ?"
#lysenkisme

🔫 From Civil Wars to Neoliberalism in Central America
#globalsouth

From Civil Wars to Neoliberalism in Central America
The end of the bloody, US-backed civil wars across Central America led to a brutal neoliberal economic restructuring near the turn of the century — which then helped produce the 21st-century authoritarianism of Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele.

The Pentagon Disinformation That Fueled America's UFO Mythology (Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/ufo-us-disinformation-45376f7e?st=kEAaJz&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
http://www.memeorandum.com/250606/p160#a250606p160

Two Parasites and a Corpse: #Trump, #Musk, and the Maggot Feud Inside America's Rotting Democracy
#Resist

Elon is as fragile as the orange turd? Shocker.
https://www.axios.com/2025/06/05/elon-musk-new-party-poll-trump

Musk floats new party in signal he could torch GOP
"Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?"

"Gila River Tribes Intend to Float Solar Panels on a Reservoir. Could the Technology Help the Colorado River?"
#US #USA #America

Gila River Tribes Intend to Float Solar Panels on a Reservoir. Could the Technology Help the Colorado River? - Inside Climate News
On its surface, floating solar appears to conserve water while generating carbon-free electricity. River managers are cautious, but some say the West can’t afford to wait.

Yup I try to limit my intake as well
https://mas.to/@carnage4life/114630680918880682

Remaining Voice of America employees expected to receive termination notice this week, Politico reports: https://benborges.xyz/2025/05/29/remaining-voice-of-america-employees.html

After contractor cuts, Voice of America staffers brace for further layoffs - The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2025/05/28/voice-of-america-layoffs/

Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Netflix docuseries gets trailer for season 2 https://www.si.com/nfl/cowboys/news/dallas-cowboys-cheerleaders-netflix-docuseries-official-trailer-season-2

“‘It’s very difficult to not take corporate money … we’ve hired grant writers who have asked, “Well, how about Bank of America, how about Apple?” How about no,’ laughed Sullivan, who explained, ‘Even if a sponsor never asks you to edit any of your work, you are going to be censoring yourself, like, “If we say this, maybe they won’t give us money next year.”’”

Bollywood, French films, Spaghetti westerns and others take note.
The orange stain known as the greatest actor to ever appear on the boob tube hereby proclaims.
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump · May 4, 2025, 7:18 PM

The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death. Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States. Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated. …

Calamus 23 This moment as I sit alone
A promise of global unity, Whitman sharing his adulation for men in other countries.
I guess this is an antidote to Whitman's nationalism? His celebrations of America seem sweet and sincere but they are very American-centric. Here he's explicitly saying men of other lands can be just as wise, beautiful, or benevolent as American men. It seems unusual that he feels he has to say it explicitly.
As for the queer reading, his conclusion is
I know we should be brethren and lovers
There's that word, "lovers". It's so brash it's hard to understand. It seems uncharacteristically direct even understanding Whitman as a gay poet. Maybe this is some 19th century romantic language, mixing what feels very gay in with a more general celebration of brotherhood? Or maybe it is literally what it says, Whitman eroticizing international men.

Went with wife to Memorial Day concert at Green-Wood Cemetery in NYC. Amazing program. Lots of takeaways.
https://www.risanye.com/the-house-i-live-in-thats-america-to-me/

This is how important tax incentives are and why countries that only reactively shape their tax systems will keep lagging behind.
https://qz.com/tech-layoffs-tax-code-trump-section-174-microsoft-meta-1851783502

The hidden time bomb in the tax code that's fueling mass tech layoffs
A decades-old tax rule helped build America's tech economy. A quiet change under Trump helped dismantle it

The investor and engineer
(who was employee No. 2 at Pinterest)
is ready to talk about his DOGE days.
Last week, he published a blogpost detailing his brief stint in government.
And in a 30-minute call with The Standard on Monday, Lavingia expanded on his life inside Musk’s controversial cost-cutting machine, from attending the DOGEfather’s awkward all-hands meeting to expediting the government’s use of AI.  

‘America is bigger than Elon’: Fired former DOGE employee speaks out
Sahil Lavingia opens up about his chaotic 53-day stint inside Elon Musk’s secretive task force.

I just wrote a letter demanding a fair contract for @Writers Guild of America East members at Vox Media! Write one here: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/help-union-members-at-vox-media-win-a-fair-contract

In West-Nordamerika ist der Einfluss des Menschen auf das #Feuerwetter (heißes, trockenes, windreiches Wetter) jetzt messbar.
Zwischen 81 % und 188 % des Anstiegs in den letzten 50 Jahren gehen auf menschgemachte #Klimaveränderungen zurück.
Temperatur,

Fingerprint of anthropogenic climate change detected in long-term western North American fire weather trends - Communications Earth & Environment
Anthropogenic climate change has been the dominant driver of increasing fire weather trends in western North America over the past 50 years, contributing 81–188% of the observed linear trends, according to regional optimal fingerprinting applied to large ensembles of high-resolution climate models.

"In America, the wealthiest 1% are protected by the law but not bound by it, and the bottom 99% are bound by the law but not protected by it." Pop quiz: in which other countries that same thing is true? ->
Galloway: 'I don't think there's that much difference between us and Germany in the 20s and 30s'
https://…

This is the modus operandi of most anti-vaxx propaganda and a core characteristic that links it to authoritarianism and Fascism IMHO:
Lies are accepted. "Evidence" only has to look scientific, it doesn't has to be actual science.
No false statement will ever be corrected..
https://

Cowboys Headlines: Trevon Diggs risking half a million, news on big energy, TV series https://cowboyswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/cowboys/2025/06/05/cowboys-headlines-trevon-diggs-contrac…

#DJTs volatile #tariff tantrums are inflicting greater damage than expected, but those caustic cash crisis effects are largely concentrated in the U.S. economy according to analysis by global experts studying matter with Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Mfg data in US at lowest numbers since 2009…

America is the biggest loser in Trump's trade war, OECD says
A brutal new forecast shows slowing economic growth. The irony? The U.S. is suffering the most from its own tariff policy

In America, when things go from bad to worse, people are sad. But in Germany when things go from Bad to Wurst, you are having a lovely time.

"America, you gotta wake up!"
Maria Ressa warns of authoritarianism in the US: “This is a pivotal moment"
@…
#FreePress #Autocracy #Press #Journalism

Interesting piece, especially when taken in conjunction with FFOTUS' crazy tariff wars.
"How America Lost Control of the Seas"
Of course, as with many things that have gone wrong in the US, it begins with Ronnie Reagan.
https://www.theatlantic.…

How America Lost Control of the Seas
Thanks to decades of misguided policy choices, the U.S. has an astonishing lack of maritime capacity.

A profile of prediction market Kalshi, which is using its federal financial license to open up sports gambling across the US, even in states where it is illegal (Justina Lee/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/20

Kalshi Pushes Sports Betting as Trump, Deregulation Boosts Prediction Market
Armed with a federal license and allies in Trumpworld, the tech start-up is pushing prediction markets across America into a legal gray zone: sports betting.

Bollywood, French films, Spaghetti westerns and others take note.
The orange stain known as the greatest actor to ever appear on the boob tube hereby proclaims.
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump · May 4, 2025, 7:18 PM

The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death. Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States. Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated. …

Right-wing media solidify around "able-bodied" myth as Senate GOP weighs Medicaid cuts (John Knefel/Media Matters for America)
https://www.mediamatters.org/health-care/right-wing-media-solidify-around-able-bodied-myth-senate-gop-weighs-medicaid-cuts
http://www.memeorandum.com/250604/p56#a250604p56

Michael Wessel has created the MIDI/80, a soundcard and MIDI interface for the Radio Shack TRS-80 #TRS80

It’s MIDI For The TRS-80!
The Radio Shack TRS-80 was a much-loved machine across America. However, one thing it lacked was MIDI. That’s not so strange given the era it was released in, of course. Nevertheless, [Michae…

Aurora activity could continue on Monday night, with displays possible in UK, North America and Australia | BBC Sky at Night Magazine
https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/aurora-june-2025

No bans, just fear: How Trump is quietly killing free speech in America - Raw Story
https://www.rawstory.com/no-bans-just-fear-how-trump-is-quietly-free-speech-in-america/

Trump just cut 50% of the budget of the critical organization that detects, prevents & treats the world's deadliest viruses, pandemics & diseases - INCLUDING EBOLA.
Sleep tight, America.
You did this, Trump voters.
#trump #maga

@… ‘Norse’ voyages to North America would be crewed by people who included Icelanders, Greenlanders, a Turk, and two Scots.
What an interesting new study!
https://

"US adds 7.4 GW of clean power in Q1 2025, led by solar and storage"
#US #USA #America #SolarPOwer

US adds 7.4 GW of clean power in Q1 2025, led by solar and storage
The United States also installed a record 1.6 GW of grid-scale energy storage in the first quarter of 2025, according to a report from the American Clean Power Association (ACP).

Right-wing America believes in 'replacement theory'. It's not theory, and they don't have to 'believe' it. They should know it's real, as America has been at it for hundreds of years already. In fact, America is responsible for the largest example of population replacement in modern history, virtually wiping out the original indigenous people.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/04/america-trump-authoritarianism-global/682528/
"At a time like this, hesitation can mean the difference between freedom and tyranny."

"Trofim Lysenko était un scientifique soviétique dont le déni dogmatique de la science a conduit Š une famine de masse lorsque ses idées ont été appliquées Š l'agriculture. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ressemble beaucoup Š Lysenko dans son déni de la science. Ses résultats seront-ils aussi désastreux ?"
#lysenkisme

Does Trump's Tariff Make America Great Again? An Empirical Analysis of US-China Trade War Impact on American Business Formation (2018-2025)
Ruiming Min
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.00999

Does Trump's Tariff Make America Great Again? An Empirical Analysis of US-China Trade War Impact on American Business Formation (2018-2025)
This study examines whether Donald Trump's tariff policies, particularly the US-China trade war initiated in 2018, delivered on promises to revitalize American manufacturing and create jobs. Using county-level business application data from 2018-2025, we analyze the relationship between tariff implementation and new business formation through linear regression analysis. Our findings reveal a statistically significant positive association between US tariffs on China and American business applica…

The Rest Is Entertainment has just informed me about Sleep Token who are apparently #1 in America and the UK and I am happy to report I don't hate them
Even though the first song on their hit album sounds like bit of songs by 5 different bands cut and shut together.
I'm getting nephilim, imagine dragons, Depeche mode, slipknot
And Coldplay

(2014) Watch the 'Fed Up' documentary #documentary

Fed Up
Fed Up blows the lid off everything we thought we knew about food and weight loss, revealing a 30-year campaign by the food industry, aided by the U.S. government, to mislead and confuse the American public, resulting in one of the largest health epidemics in history.

Good listen: #AngryPlanet [PODCAST] America’s Favorite Gunfighters and the Birth of the Old West (subscriber episode)
https://open.substack.com/pub/angrypla

America’s Favorite Gunfighters and the Birth of the Old West
America loves the Western.

Good Morning #Canada
Former privateer, a polite name for a pirate, Martin Frobisher left England on May 31st, 1578, for his 3rd voyage seeking gold and the elusive Northwest Passage. On this voyage, he also held the 1st Thanksgiving in North America when he and his crew landed safely in Nunavut on the shore of Hudson Bay. Ultimately, the ore he mined was not gold, and the Northwest Passage remained elusive, but he had a bay named after him.
#CanadaIsAwesome #History
https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/frobisher_martin_1E.html

New Zealand prime minister Ardern was grappling with whether to go:
“Something had been loosened worldwide,” she says,
with rage everywhere,
public servants being followed and attacked,
as if they were “somehow distinct from being human”.
We all recognise this rage,
but Ardern was at the centre of it,
representing progressive politics, tough Covid measures, empathy, emotion, anti-racism, femaleness;
a symbol of a different time, more rational…

SCOTUS majority appears likely to OK nation's first religious charter school https://www.lawdork.com/p/scotus-oklahoma-religious-charter-school-arguments?r=e32bm&utm_campaign=post&amp…

SCOTUS majority appears likely to OK nation's first religious charter school
A ruling for Oklahoma's charter school board would further increase the role of religion in public life — and change public education in America.

"Solar panels' shade helps boost Colorado grassland productivity in dry years"
#US #USA #America #Colorado

Solar panels' shade helps boost Colorado grassland productivity in dry years
Grasses growing in the shade of a solar array were only a little less productive than those growing nearby in open grassland during years of average and above-average rainfall—but in a dry year, the shaded plants grew much better than those growing in full sun. That's the result of a four-year study we conducted in a semi-arid grassland of northern Colorado.

Norway Has EVs Like America Has Guns. We Should Do A Norway!
https://www.wonkette.com/p/norway-has-evs-like-america-has-guns

"...'Without press, we by default have to assume that our government relaying information to us, is true,' Cuccia wrote, calling that attitude 'the antithesis of what we believe in.'..."
She's just soooo close to finally get it... 🤞
It is surprising, but some Magas really seem to have a small sense of ethics and really want to advance the country and not the cult (although the exact arguments/means are still disputable).
🤔

Cowboys legend issues warning to NFL about sleeping on America's Team https://www.si.com/nfl/cowboys/news/dallas-cowboys-legend-issues-warning-nfl-about-sleeping-on-americas-team

I donated to the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law
https://www.brennancenter.org/
"The Brennan Center for Justice is an independent, nonpartisan law and policy organization that works to reform, revitalize, and when necessary, defend our country’s systems of democracy a…

In today's episode, CIDRAP Director Dr. Michael Osterholm discusses the latest federal actions on vaccine policy, reports on a new COVID variant sweeping Asia, and gives an update on measles cases across North America. https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/anti-science/episode-184-fools-gold-reframing-science

Stand Up for Science has a great campaign--"Summer Fight for Science in America!" It's a call to bring science to the people--open labs, etc. Check it out! https://actionnetwork.org/event_campaigns/summer-fight?source=Website

I think America was greater when the CDC was the global gold standard and not a pathetic political tool.

Sources: all 800 full-time VOA staff are expected to receive reduction-in-force notices this week, after ~600 VOA contractors were dismissed earlier in May (Ben Johansen/Politico)
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/28/voice-of-america-r…

After Rubio seeks to revoke their visas, Chinese students say U.S. resembles the country they left (Kimmy Yam/NBC News)
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/rubio-revoke-student-visas-china-rcna209699
http://www.memeorandum.com/250531/p20#a250531p20

In the spring and summer of 2008, when Donald Trump was still a registered Democrat,
an anonymous blogger known as Mencius Moldbug posted a serial manifesto under the heading
“An Open Letter to Open-Minded Progressives.”
Written with the sneering disaffection of an ex-believer,
the hundred-and-twenty-thousand-word letter argued that egalitarianism,
far from improving the world,
was actually responsible for most of its ills.
That his bien-pensant re…

Curtis Yarvin’s Plot Against America
A Profile of Curtis Yarvin, the right-wing thinker behind the Substack “Gray Mirror,” who has been embraced by J. D. Vance, Marc Andreessen, Peter Thiel, and other supporters of Donald Trump. Ava Kofman reports.

Something here touching on people modelling systems based on a simplified abstraction. (aka why seemingly simple government processes are surprisingly expensive to run.)
https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s19e11-your-model-is-naive-and-its-not-the/…

s19e11: Your Model is Naive and it’s Not The Territory
0.0 Context Setting Friday, May 30, at the Code for America Summit in a hotel in Washington, D.C. I am in, fittingly, a hallway. I am also jetlagged. There...

Cowboys legend issues warning to NFL about sleeping on America's Team https://www.si.com/nfl/cowboys/news/dallas-cowboys-legend-issues-warning-nfl-about-sleeping-on-americas-team

David Brooks: "What’s Happening Is Not Normal. America Needs an Uprising That Is Not Normal"
- -
It’s time for a comprehensive national civic uprising. It’s time for Americans in universities, law, business, nonprofits and the scientific community, and civil servants and beyond to form one coordinated mass movement. Trump is about power. The only way he’s going to be stopped is if he’s confronted by some movement that possesses rival power."
--

Opinion | What’s Happening Is Not Normal. America Needs an Uprising That Is Not Normal.
It will take a concerted effort by every sector of our society to respond to Trumpism’s threat.

Bill Maher's "Is Anyone Else Seeing This" was unbearably annoying after a few minutes (who would have guessed), I made it through Bill Burr's "Drop Dead Years" and it was fine (I am not quite where he is yet) and I really enjoyed watching Ari Shaffir's "America's Sweetheart" (so _that_ kind of of white-privilege middle-age is #WhereIAmNow ).

Well, maybe we’ll get swamped with excellent applications when we (hopefully) have an opening for a PhD position in fall…
But requiring French limits the candidate pool so much, I guess it won’t make any difference.
https://mastodon.social/@Sheril/114557615125630255…

President Trump has pledged to bring more factory work back to the U.S., but many manufacturing jobs are already going unfilled
https://www.wsj.com/economy/jobs/will-anyone-take-the-factory-jobs-trump-wants…

[OT] NYT: How will we know when we have lost our democracy? https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/opinion/trump-authoritarianism-democracy.html?unlocked_article_code=1.KE8.FGmV.1w9_LDeDoILI&am…

Opinion | How Will We Know When We Have Lost Our Democracy?
And how exactly can we tell whether America has crossed the line?

We are witnessing the suicide of a superpower
No doubt Trump thinks that tanks and soldiers on display will make America, and its president, look tough and strong.

But the planned spectacle in June 14 is laughably hollow.
Even as the president wants to showcase U.S. military power,
he is doing grave and possibly irreparable damage to the real sources of U.S. strength,
including its long-term investment in scientific research.
Trump is declaring war on sc…

We are witnessing the suicide of a superpower
The president’s assault on science dangerously undermines America’s superpower status.

Musician Demian Licht on learning to go with the flow
https://thecreativeindependent.com/people/musician-demian-licht-on-learning-to…

Musician Demian Licht on learning to go with the flow – The Creative Independent
Musician Demian Licht discusses the feminine energy she's inspired by, teaching Ableton as a woman in Latin America, and identifying as an outsider in the music scene.

An abomination. Truly.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c05768jmm11o

Trump administration ends Harvard's ability to enrol international students - BBC News
The move escalates the administration's row with America's oldest university over hiring, admissions and teaching practices.

SCOTUS majority appears likely to OK nation's first religious charter school https://www.lawdork.com/p/scotus-oklahoma-religious-charter-school-arguments?r=e32bm&utm_campaign=post&amp…

SCOTUS majority appears likely to OK nation's first religious charter school
A ruling for Oklahoma's charter school board would further increase the role of religion in public life — and change public education in America.

I am officially "homeless"... Had to sell my apartment because of runaway cost increases, and today the new owner officially took it over. Currently living partly in a borrowed house, and partially couch surfing, while trying to find out what to do next... I am strongly considering just packing up everything and moving to South America. Brazil is nice, and so is the Caribbean...

"The first medium for humor was plain text, as was the first age of the Internet. There are Usenet groups entirely dedicated to jokes, such as rec.humor.funny or alt.humor.best-of-usenet. It was through those pre-web media that some classics were published first, like the epic Bastard Operator From Hell (BOFH) series, or the DEC WARS! storyline, a parody of Star Wars adapted to the world of UNIX and VMS minicomputers."

fun fact: It's faster to drive to Ottawa from Vancouver than take the train (also alot cheaper for more than 1 person) 🙄 North America is so stoopid #stupid #NorthAmericaIsStupid #Trains
For fun if you're interested: Here's a rough breakdown of options to get one or two or 4 people across Canada and back from Port Alberni, BC on Vancouver Island to Ottawa Ontario in as quick and cheap as possible.
This is a 9900km round trip, so it's not like it's a hop skip jump :)
#planning #travel

I just heard that in Greenland now, MAGA stands for Make America Go Away.

Musk Isn't "Gone" -- and Tech Fascism Is Running Rampant (Dave Troy/America 2.0)
https://america2.news/musk-isnt-gone-and-tech-fascism-is-running-rampant/
http://www.memeorandum.com/250603/p1#a250603p1

Nieman Lab:
As Trump silences Voice of America, Russia and China seize the opportunity to reshape Africa’s news ecosystem
#Press

A profile of Kari Lake, a former TV anchor who won two regional Emmy Awards for her work in Cambodia and is now tasked with dismantling the USAGM (Scott Nover/Washington Post)

Kari Lake won awards for overseas reporting. Now she has the job of cutting it.
Kari Lake won TV news Emmys years ago for work she did in Cambodia, one of the countries affected by sweeping layoffs at Voice of America and Radio Free Asia.

Senior State Department staffer Darren Beattie,
a passionate Putin supporter behind the move to dismantle a key agency fighting Russian propaganda,
is married to a Russian woman whose uncle is a longtime Kremlin ally, according to The Telegraph.
Yulia Kirillova grew up in Moscow, studied abroad in North America, and married Beattie in 2021 in Florida.
She moved to D.C. in January.
Her uncle Sergei Cherniko is a drinks magnate who had an estimated net worth of $1…

Trump Official Behind Controversial Russia Decision Has Kremlin Ties
Darren Beattie dismantled a key agency fighting Russian propaganda. There’s a reason why.

America 'being ripped apart': Vietnam vet removes U.S. flag in Trump protest - Alternet.org
https://www.alternet.org/donald-trump-veterans-2672248921/

"MAPPED: 70 Percent of Trump’s Cabinet Tied to Project 2025 Groups"
#US #USA #America #Climate

MAPPED: 70 Percent of Trump’s Cabinet Tied to Project 2025 Groups
More than 50 high-level Trump administration officials have links to groups behind the Heritage Foundation-backed plan, a DeSmog analysis found.

The Great Play on [any country]'s Inferiority Complex (markdown formatting is mine) ->
‘"President Trump pledged to put **America First**, and the administration is committed to using every lever of executive **power** to address this **crisis** and **restore** American **greatness**," [Kush Desai] added.’
US trade court blocks Trump's sweeping tariffs in blow to trade policies | BBC

This is the real America: Immigrants with the courage to move halfway round the world to build a new life.
Also, dim sum.

America is going to be Trump's 7th Bankruptcy

"Cardinal George of Chicago, of happy memory, was one of my great mentors, and he said: ‘Look, until America goes into political decline, there won’t be an American pope.’ And his point was, if America is kind of running the world politically, culturally, economically, they don’t want America running the world religiously. So, I think there’s some truth to that, that we’re such a superpower and so dominant, they don’t wanna give us, also, control over the church."

MAGA and the American Pope
Seven things to know about Pope Leo XIV.

If you take a walk along the coast, near Caleta Camarones in northern Chile, near an old archeological site called Camarones 15, it is hard not to spot evidence of the mummies.
Cloth, rope, hair, tiny fragments of bones, and pieces of wood, an item that is nowhere to be seen growing anywhere nearby, but which the Chinchorro people used to keep their mummies intact like little dolls.
The Chinchorro mummies are considered the oldest mummies in the world.
Thousands of years olde…

The Chinchorro Mummies: Resisting in the Desert
Seven thousand years ago, the Chinchorro people, along the Pacific coast of South America, began to mummify their dead. Their bodies remain hidden in the desert. This is episode 41 of Stories of Resistance.

"America Is Becoming the World’s Largest Tax Haven"
By Joseph E. Stiglitz
https://rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/largest-tax-haven/

"Trump’s Budget Wish Could Threaten Billions in Clean Energy Investment in Virginia"
#US #USA #America #Virginia

Trump’s Budget Wish Could Threaten Billions in Clean Energy Investment in Virginia - Inside Climate News
A range of solar, offshore wind and manufacturing jobs would be jeopardized if the president’s One Big Beautiful Bill clears the Senate in its current form.

For Europe, America was the future. Now what? (Mark Mazower/Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/4f11cdfb-ff57-49e4-a2af-f9fcaf278940
http://www.memeorandum.com/250531/p12#a250531p12

The Economist this week:
"MAGA'S assault on science is an act of grievous self-harm — America will pay the price most of all"

"The American elites of the past 20 years have called their foremost principle freedom, but what they meant was impunity. That’s what the original slave masters built: a world where they could do whatever they wanted to whomever they wanted, without consequences. That’s what the techlords dream of today."

Political turmoil in Washington has dried up job opportunities in what Professor Ladher calls
“the best research ecosystem in the world.”
Some decided they would now rather take their skills elsewhere, including Austria, Japan and Australia,
while others opted to stay in India.
As the Trump administration moves with abandon to deny visas,
expel foreign students and slash spending on research,
scientists in the United States are becoming increasingly alarm…

World Scientists Look Elsewhere as U.S. Labs Stagger Under Trump Cuts
With the welcome mat withdrawn for promising researchers from around the world, America is at risk of losing its longstanding pre-eminence in the sciences.

"The quiet demise of Texas’ anti-renewables legislation"
#US #USA #America #Texas

The quiet demise of Texas’ anti-renewables legislation
Three bills that would’ve hurt solar and wind development are on track to expire as some Republicans and business groups show support for renewables.

"The Republican Party is a hollow, decrepit husk. It is not a political movement. It is not a governing apparatus. It is not even an ideology with any internal coherence. It is a decaying vessel for a set of impulses: authoritarianism, greed, cruelty, nostalgia, and fear. And now, with the party marching in lockstep behind a man openly exploring how to violate the Constitution to seize a third term in office, it is fair to say the Republican Party has collapsed into something far worse than irrelevance. It is a clear and present danger to democracy."
#USPolitics
https://www.theindex.media/the-gop-is-the-most-dangerous-organization-in-america/?ref=dispatches-newsletter

All of a sudden muffins went from being — this would’ve been super large,”
she said, holding her modestly sized muffin aloft.
“And bagels! Bagels are completely shocking. When did bagels get that big?"
https://www.

The Nutritionist Marion Nestle Meets Her Moment, at 88
After five decades in the field of nutrition, Dr. Marion Nestle thought she had seen it all. Then came “Make America Healthy Again.”

The White House has withdrawn Jared Isaacman as its nominee for Nasa administrator,
abruptly yanking a close ally of Elon Muskfrom consideration to lead the space agency.
Donald Trump said he would announce a new candidate soon.
“After a thorough review of prior associations, I am hereby withdrawing the nomination of Jared Isaacman to head Nasa,”
Trump posted online.
“I will soon announce a new Nominee who will be mission aligned, and put America first in space.”…

Enormous early-season wildfireshave erupted across the prairie provinces of Canada this week,
taxing local emergency response and threatening a long stretch of dangerous air quality across eastern North America.
The country’s largest fires
– the Bird River fire and the Border fire
– remain completely uncontained in northern Manitoba.
In Manitoba alone, wildfires have burned about 200,000 hectares already this year – already about three times the recent full-year …