CS:Sour Mash

Murphy: There’s no negotiation happening because Trump has told Republicans not to talk to Democrats.

And what are we even asking for?

Don’t raise people’s premiums, don’t break the law, and you might get our votes. But Republicans won’t even talk to us.

38. X deleted the account of Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. after he posted about President Trump’s allegedly illegal firings of Democratic CPSC commissioners. 39. The Trump Administration fired Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) commissioners after EEOC investigated Tesla for alleged racial harassment and retaliation at the company’s Fremont Facility. 40. The Trump Administration plans to cut potentially thousands of EPA employees, after the EPA found that SpaceX violated the Clean Water Act, investigated Tesla’s actions at its Austin Facility, and investigated an xAI facility in Tennessee for air pollution. 41. The Trump Administration began requiring any EPA spending greater than $50,000 to obtain DOGE approval, potentially allowing Musk to slow down environmental enforcement actions, like past investigations into Tesla and SpaceX for hazardous waste dumping and other alleged activity. 42. The Trump Administration attempted to fire hundreds of FAA employees, including some who directly contribute to air safety, after the FAA required SpaceX to abide by environmental requirements. 43. Even before Trump took office, Musk successfully pressured FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker — who regulated Musk companies — to resign, though his term was not set to end until 2028. 44. The Head of the Office of Commercial Space Transportation within the FAA, which Musk threatened to sue for “regulatory overreach” against SpaceX, departed under DOGE’s early retirement offer

I tried to do a version of this report that @warren.senate.gov did, but gave up. The task was too overwhelming!!

Two-plus full pages, 34 of 130 entries, focus on the regulatory help Musk got after buying the Presidency for Trump. (This is just a selection.)

www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/do...

One way of thinking about it is, why wouldn’t *I* use ChatGPT to write a paper?

1. It’s a matter of self-respect.
2. I believe my writing says something basic about who I am.
3. I believe research and writing are valuable activities.
+

YouTube video by MSNBC Trump is targeting Harvard to 'divide and conquer Americans': Harvard Prof. Cornell William Brooks

youtu.be/uV1z8G_zLkM

a woman is sitting on the floor with the words on the floor !!! ALT: a woman is sitting on the floor with the words on the floor !!!

💀

Stop using AI.

Yes, even just for fun.

AI is built on STOLEN images and text.

That’s right: by using it, you’re stealing from your friends. There is NOT ethical generative AI.

Bonus bullshit: it is HORRENOUS for the environment.

(Yes, even the cutesy profile photo cartoon things.)

Grimes: and he just got into weed cuz of me and he's super entertained by 420 so when he decided to take the stock private he calculated it was worth 419$ so he rounded up to 420 for a laugh and now the sec is investigating him for fraud cool! well that bodes well THU 3:51 PM Azealia: A pathological liar I'm like a very fierce protector of children and I can see them in the invisible world THU 3:51 PM

this Azealia Banks screenshot of her texts with Grimes belongs in the MOMA and i'm being fully serious

Here, of course, the application *was* referred (as the docket now reflects). It's just fascinating Kremlinology to try to figure out when that happened and why last night's order uses such bizarre language to get around that procedural step here.

Nothing turns on this; it's just all ... curious.

(ORDER LIST: 604 U.S.) SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2025 24A1007 ORDER IN PENDING CASE A.A.R.P., ET AL. V. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF U.S., ET AL. There is before the Court an application on behalf of a putative class of detainees seeking an injunction against their removal under the Alien Enemies Act. The matter is currently pending before the Fifth Circuit. Upon action by the Fifth Circuit, the Solicitor General is invited to file a response to the application before this Court as soon as possible. The Government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this Court. See 28 U. S. C. §1651(a). Justice Thomas and Justice Alito dissent from the Court's order. Statement from Justice Alito to follow.

UNPUBLISHED ORDER Before Ho, WILSON, and RaMIrez, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: Petitioners' opposed motion for a temporary administrative stay and an injunction pending appeal is DENIED as premature. "A court of appeals sits as a court of review, not of first view." Zaragoza v. Union Pacific Railroad Company, 112 F.4th 313, 322 (5th Cir. 2024) (cleaned up). That principle dictates our ruling today. Just yesterday, the district court entered an order indicating that "It]he government states that authorities will not remove the petitioners during this litigation, and it will alert the Court if that changes." If Petitioners are concerned that Respondents' position has changed, they should have litigated these concerns before the district court in the first instance. We do not doubt the diligence and ability of the respected district judge in this case to act expeditiously when circumstances warrant. Petitioners insist that they tried to proceed before the district court in the first instance, and that the district court simply "refus[ed] to act." But the district court's order today indicates that Petitioners gave the court only 42 minutes to act— and did not give Respondents an opportunity to respond. The appeal is DISMISSED for lack of subject matter jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291(a)(1), for substantially the reasons stated in Judge Ramirez's concurrence.

ICYMI: Overnight, SCOTUS (7–2) ordered the govt not to deport any Venezuelans in the ACLU's putative class as courts considered their petitions—AND the Fifth Circuit denied ACLU's motion for a stay.

We're now waiting for the US solicitor general to file a response with SCOTUS.

Trapped in my car bc I can't stop listening to the supremely delightful @joshgad.bsky.social #BearClaw on GPB/NPR

Not a native-born Floridian Miamian🎯

More than 1 in 4 people in the U.S. skip necessary medical care because of cost, and 68k Americans die each year because they can’t access the care they need.

Donald Trump is purposely trying to make our healthcare crisis a lot worse.

Jesus Christ this is so dark

Inside Elon Musk's Gleeful Destruction of the Government Trump’s DOGE chief, Elon Musk, has blazed a staggering trail of destruction, firing tens of thousands of workers while cashing in.

Rolling Stone Reports: Inside Elon Musk’s Gleeful Destruction of the Government

The world’s richest man has blazed a staggering trail of destruction as Trump’s DOGE chief, firing tens of thousands of workers while cashing in.

This is the OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE—so why is the GOP talking about vape pens and weight loss drugs rather than conducting oversight on Trump's firing of 10,000 federal healthcare workers at HHS and 3,500 scientists at the FDA?

These cuts WILL threaten the health and safety of our food and drug supply.

Hello to all the new people migrating from X. I'm a BBC journalist and fact-checker.

Please flag any potentially misleading viral claims either on Bluesky or any other social media platform that needs fact-checking via DM, and I'll do the rest.

Thank you!

Ukraine has raided Belgorod oblast while Putin and Trump were talking. They’re already several km into Russian territory.

it’s deportation in the same sense that Jews put on trains by Nazis to be “resettled” in camps in Poland were called deportees

If you thought Trump and his sycophants have forgotten about elections, you are wrong. The GOP voter suppression and election subversion war machine is already preparing for the next election.

Trump pointing down at Zelenskyy

Trump has declared that the US will not resume military aid to Ukraine unless Zelenskyy steps down. This comes after Trump cut supplies and intelligence to Ukraine air defences and frontline troopers in an effort to aid Russia. Countless Ukrainians have been killed as a result. #StandWithUkraine

I have heard this as well. Read this concerning report —>

Bonamici: "I wonder if Donald Trump or Elon Musk has ever been in a public school. Because I did all of my town hall meetings at public schools. People want us to protect public education."

New — The Social Security Administration (SSA) Acting General Counsel Grace Kim just announced her retirement to staff, a person who was present tells me.

Kim will be replaced by a private sector exec named Mark Steffensen, formerly of HSBC. Sources say he was directly picked by White House.

Delegation of Apportionment Authority I hereby delegate to the Program Associate Directors the authorities delegated by the President to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget for apportioning funds pursuant to 31 U.S.C. 1513(b). This delegation supersedes any previous delegation of such authority and will remain in place until revised or revoked. The Program Associate Directors may re-delegate this authority as necessary in writing. This delegation does not limit the authority of the Director to exercise the delegated authority. Russell T. Vought, Director, Office of Management and Budget.

Externally, the Director must ensure that OMB has sufficient visibility into the deep caverns of agency decision-making. One indispensable statutory tool to that end is to ensure that policy officials- the Program Associate Directors (PADs) managing the vast Resource Management Offices (RMOs)-personally sign what are known as the apportionments. In 1870, Congress passed the Anti-Deficiency Act® to prevent the common agency practice of spending down all appropriated funding, creating artificial funding shortfalls that Congress would have to fill. The law mandated that all funding be allotted or "apportioned" in installments. This process, whereby agencies come to OMB for allotments of appropriated funding, is essential to the effective financial stewardship of taxpayer dollars. OMB can then direct on behalf of a President the amount, duration, and purpose of any apportioned funding to ensure against waste, fraud, and abuse and ensure consistency with the President's agenda and applicable laws. The vast majority of these apportionments were signed by career officials- the Deputy Associate Directors (DADs)-until the Trump Administration placed this responsibility in the hands of the PADs and thereby opened wide vistas of oversight that had escaped the attention of policy officials. The Biden Administration subsequently reversed this decision. No Director should be chosen who is unwilling to restore apportionment decision-making to the PADs' personal review, who is not aggressive in wielding the tool on behalf of the President's agenda, or who is unable to defend the power against attacks from Congress.

OMB director Russ Vought has officially begun carrying out his section of Project 2025.

Technical thread to follow, but it’s really important - this is a major path through which the Trump administration will illegally impound funding, refusing to carry out some of our spending laws.

Over on X, simple tweets by my colleague Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal Constitution have been blocked. They were nothing but video of a town hall held by Rep. Rich McCormick R-GA where he was asked questions about DOGE

Gluten-Free Chicken Bulgogi-Gochujang Ramen

Another week another bowl of ramen!

If I had a nickel for every time that I found out I had a new half-sibling online, I'd have a few nickels- which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened SIX SEPARATE TIMES 💀

The Russians are celebrating, and our allies are horrified. Honestly, I don’t see how our allies can trust us and share sensitive intelligence with Tulsi Gabbard as DNI.

Strawberry & Marshmallow Cookie

World has gone to shit but I'm over here baking cookies.

Hi Bluesky! Glad to be here.

How a Canadian scientist and a venomous lizard helped pave the way for Ozempic - National | Globalnews.ca In 1984, Dr. Daniel Drucker, an endocrinologist from the University of Toronto, discovered a hormone that helped pave the way for popular diabetes drugs such as Ozempic.

This is the most relevant article to NIH and research cuts I’ve seen.

Imagine if this was today , how many people would be saying “Why are we studying Gila Monsters and their impact on diabetes ? That’s wasted money !”

globalnews.ca/news/9793403...