Tootfinder

The Trump people have just announced that they have sent a letter to Columbia’s accreditor, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, accusing Columbia of being in violation of civil rights law.
My initial reaction is that this is good news since it implies both that Columbia hasn’t further caved-in yet and makes clear that the Trump people have run out of ammunition

The Situation at Columbia XXIII
This week I’m very happy to not be at Columbia, and not in the US, enjoying spending the week at the Perimeter Institute at a conference in honor of Lee Smolin. Since there’s a little b…

Sonnet 133 - CXXXIII
Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan
For that deep wound it gives my friend and me!
Is't not enough to torture me alone,
But slave to slavery my sweet'st friend must be?
Me from myself thy cruel eye hath taken,
And my next self thou harder hast engrossed:
Of him, myself, and thee I am forsaken;
A torment thrice three-fold thus to be crossed.
Prison my heart in thy steel bosom's ward,
But t…

As the Senate weighs possible changes to the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap as part of the tax portion of the "big, beautiful bill,"
House Republicans from blue states are already threatening to derail the bill's prospects.
"Let's be clear — no SALT, no deal," New York Republican Mike Lawler said Wednesday in a post on X

Trump admin live updates: Trump signs proclamation banning travel from 12 countries
The president cited national security concerns for enacting the ban.

Series C, Episode 12 - Death-Watch
AVON: Put it on the main screen.
ORAC: I must point out that this is a gross misuse and an absurd waste of my capabilities.
AVON: Put it on the main screen.
ORAC: I will do it only under protest.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/312/115

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🧪Explore this gift article from The New York Times.
You can read it for free without a subscription.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/06/04/health/trump-cuts-ni…

Here Are the Nearly 2,500 Medical Research Grants Canceled or Delayed by Trump
Some cuts have been starkly visible, but the country’s medical grant-making machinery has also radically transformed outside the public eye.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, is doubling down on his concerns about a bill that would make sweeping changes to taxes, Medicaid, food stamps and more
after it was passed last month in the Republican-led House at the urging of President Donald Trump.
It's completely unsustainable," Johnson said in an interview on Fox's "Sunday Morning Futures."
The bill is expected to add somewhere around $3 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years and swell the…

'It's completely unsustainable': Republican lawmaker doubles down, knocks Trump tax bill
Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin says he supports the president but wants to see the price of his sweeping tax bill come down before he supports it.

Several significant pieces of the House-approved spending bill are at risk of falling out of the legislation as it moves through the Senate
At least one of Thune’s members is already publicly floating that his party should be willing to directly overrule Senate Parlementarian MacDonough on the reconciliation bill.
In a tweet last month, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) wrote on X that “disagreeing with the Senate parliamentarian may be warranted if the parliamentarian gives bad advice, and …

The Trump administration deported a 31-year-old Salvadoran man minutes after a federal appeals court barred his removal while his case proceeded, the government admitted in a court filing this week.
In its filing, the government denied that it had violated the order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York, instead blaming “a confluence of administrative errors.”
The government had previously given the court what the judges called “express assurance” that…

Trump Officials Deported Another Man Despite Court Order
A federal appeals panel ordered officials not to deport a 31-year-old to El Salvador. Minutes later, it happened anyway. The government blamed “administrative errors.”

For Trump,
“it’s no billionaire left behind
— and good luck to everyone else.”
“It’s telling that President Trump has chosen to release his budget on a Friday night with no fanfare whatsoever,”
said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee,
following the administration’s release of approximately 1,200 pages of budget documents.
“That’s probably because his budget would raise costs for working people,
destroy basic s…

'No Billionaire Left Behind' in Trump Budget Request That Trashes Workers, Struggling Families | Common Dreams
One expert critic said the updated request "confirms once again that the president continues to break his promises to lower families' costs and help people who are struggling to make ends meet."

As the debate over the BBB moves to the Senate, the immediate imperative is to
expose the damage the bill does to millions of Trump’s voters
to benefit his Mar-a-Lago and crypto-wealthy friends.
But it’s also an occasion to shatter the illusion that Trump is some sort of policy innovator.
Extremism and authoritarianism are not new ideas, and his legislative program would be familiar to Calvin Coolidge. 

A New Working-Class GOP? If “Working-Class” Means $4.3 Million a Year!
Last year, Trump won praise for building a new GOP. But the Big, Beautiful Bill utterly shatters the illusion that he is some sort of brilliant policy innovator.