Aaron Stark

How a tiny, inexperienced firm landed a $1.3 billion detention deal To hold 5,000 human beings.

“It’s weird.”
“It seems messy.”

That’s what experts had to say about the $1.3 billion contract handed to a tiny firm called Acquisition Logisitics to run a detention facility at Texas’ Fort Bliss Army base.

Education Department wipes out special ed office in shutdown layoffs, union says The Education Department laid off nearly everyone at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

The Education Department laid off nearly everyone at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

Trump’s Argentina bailout enriches one well-connected US billionaire A $20 billion US rescue package is a gift for a hedge fund manager with ties to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

The US has finalized its $20 billion bailout for Argentina.

Too bad it only benefits one American: a billionaire hedge fund manager, who has placed large bets on the future of the Argentine economy.

I’m checking out the Mets.

Rubio says El Salvador offers to accept U.S. deportees of any nationality, including violent American criminals Secretary of State Marco Rubio says “there are obviously legalities involved” in Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s offer to accept and jail violent American criminals.

Rubio says that El Salvador has agreed to accept deportations of American citizens www.pbs.org/newshour/pol...

We are governed by a petty, thin-skinned, grievance-filled, insecure man-child.

I think we’re getting the answer to “How could someone have bankrupted a casino?”

US appears set on crushing Ukraine capacity to force Zelensky to submit. Never mind that this is a bonfire of leverage versus Russia, which has every reason to believe it can dictate terms or reject a ceasefire in the knowledge that Trump is likely to blame Ukraine. Criminally bad negotiating.

Read the Memo Nicholas Enrich, acting assistant administrator for global health at U.S.A.I.D., spelled out projections for human health following cuts to foreign aid. Mr. Enrich was placed on administrative leave o...

NYT has a scan of the original Enrich memo www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

12.5–17.9 million cases of malaria with an additional 71,000–166,000 deaths annually

An additional 200,000 paralytic polio cases a year

"The memo projected that nearly 17 million pregnant women would not be able to reach life-saving services if USAID programs were permanently halted"

"more than 11 million newborns would not get critical postnatal care. An estimated 1 million children would not be treated annually for severe acute malnutrition"

DOGE moves to cancel NOAA leases at critical forecasting centers NOAA's nerve center of national weather forecasting is on a lease cancellation list.

NEW: The Trump admin has informed NOAA that two buildings that are critical for weather forecasting will have their leases canceled. If this comes to pass, it's a really big deal. Includes weather fcst nerve center in College Park, Md.: www.axios.com/2025/03/03/d...

We Should All Be Paying Attention To What's Happening to the National Archives Guest post from Dominic Byrd-McDevitt: Open knowledge advocate | Dedicated to building community and serving the public interest via data & tech.

The national Archivist has important roles in other areas besides presidential documents… and we should be alarmed. action.everylibrary.org/we_should_al...?

To mark "Trump will declare a national emergency for mass deportations" day: here is the initial spreadsheet of our crowd-sourced *local* immigration advocacy/support organizations.

Please share widely, put to good use, and keep letting me know about more organizations folks can connect with.

CDC 'disease detectors' among hundreds fired as Trump administration ramps up agency cuts Administration officials last week informed CDC leaders of plans to cut up to 10% of its workforce as it targeted federal probationary employees.

New: Last night, hundreds of CDC post-doc fellows were fired, including all in the group who call themselves the "disease detectors," and are the future of public health lab leaders. One senior official told me, "It is going to cripple public health for decades."

www.nbcnews.com/politics/dog...

The irony of the richest man in the world almost single-handedly destroying an agency designed to help the world’s poor, so that the U.S. federal budget has more room for another giant tax cut for the richest man in the world and his pals, should not be lost on anyone. [Cartoon by Mike Luckovich]

Mike Pence just reposted an old article he wrote about the limitations on the powers of a president. For some reason. Here is a part of it.

LOUISIANA: “Half a billion dollars to send thousands of kids to private schools… voucher students fare worse on state tests than public school peers…”

Same story everywhere. But @GovBillLee does not care. #LeesVoucherScam
www.nola.com/news/educati...

Top US Election Security Watchdog Forced to Stop Election Security Work The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has frozen efforts to aid states in securing elections, according to an internal memo viewed by WIRED.

Last night, we broke the news that the top US election security watchdog has frozen all of its election security work and is reviewing everything it has done to help state and local officials secure their elections for the past eight years. https://wrd.cm/3QkfGh3

The @wired.com of DOGE.gov is superb, but misses a trend: we are no longer just seeing state power on social media, but the emergence of state social media on X that will superchange propaganda campaigns, crowd out journalism, & drown democracies in mistruths.
civic-texts.ghost.io/the-truman-c...

Trump-Musk Scandal at USAID Takes Unnerving Turn With Vile Leaked Memo Can Trump and his top advisers really just act with total impunity? Or is there, just maybe, a price to be paid for starving poor people and un-indicting a corrupt mayor?

Awful: Internal USAID memo instructs employees to refrain from talking to the media about cuts in assistance to the most vulnerable or they may get fired, WaPo reports.

Trumpworld knows this is a big political problem for them. Keep the focus on it.

New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/1915...

Photo taken soon after sunset from shore of lake on Mt. Everett in Massachusetts.

Hey. I haven’t found anyone else. Mainly I get lots of slightly off images of anime characters and pixel pictures. I haven’t liked any posts yet so the algorithm must be a bit confused. Reading on threads these days but it’s mostly doomscrolling. Not helping my election stress.