Latest @stephenhupp.bsky.social @skepticalinquirer.bsky.social editorial features a hefty plug for @shwood.com’s truly excellent World’s Greatest Con (season 3) telling of the “Project Alpha” story, which I also strongly recommend—it’s a heck of a listen, including new reappraisal for those familiar

The amount is meaningless — less than one day of salary. But the principle is important: once the armed services are paid by the oligarchs, they become a private militia, and we no longer have a country.
www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...

@metrolosangeles.bsky.social what is up with the gates from S Pas to HPark

Your friendly reminder that it is literally a federal felony punishable by up to five years in prison for the President, Vice President, or any employee of the White House to directly or indirectly ask the IRS to open an investigation into any specific taxpayer.

This is an obvious point, but cannot overstated. There is an enormous difference between deporting someone - where they get off a plane as a free citizen in their home country AND FUNNELING THEM INTO A BRUTAL PRISON FROM WHICH THEY HAVE NO CHANCE OF EVER EMERGING!!!

Sunday, April 13, 2025

Today missed being Easter by 22 minutes.

Gregorian Calendar’s definition: First Sunday after the first Full Moon after the March Equinox. If the Full Moon had occurred 22 minutes earlier, landing yesterday (GMT), then today would have been that first Sunday.

Today there was even a protest rally on Heard Island.

CARTOON OF THE DAY 😕🇺🇸

“In everyone’s pocket right now is a computer far more powerful than the one we flew on Voyager. I don’t mean your cell phone — I mean the key fob that unlocks your car.”

— Rich Terrile, JPL scientist and member of the Voyager imaging team

#space

Not the first person to make this observation, but it's so striking how the media covered the crack epidemic as a problem caused by black/urban drug users and the fentanyl epidemic as a problem imposed externally on white/rural drug users.

EXCLUSIVE: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week ordered U.S. Cyber Command to stand down from all planning against Russia, including offensive digital actions.

On @therecordmedia.bsky.social

therecord.media/hegseth-orde...

While you weren't looking, Trump rolled back Biden's ethics rules prohibiting executive branch employees from accepting major gifts from lobbyists.

So much for "drain the swamp."

➡️ January 20: FAA director fired
➡️ January 21: Air Traffic Controller hiring frozen
➡️ January 22: Aviation Safety Advisory Committee disbanded
➡️ January 28: Buyout/retirement demand sent to existing employees
➡️ January 29: First American mid-air collision in 16 years

Making America Great Again!

BREAKING NEWS: Research and basic information on subjects ranging from tuberculosis surveillance to adolescent health disappeared from federal health agency websites.