Jeff Schlangen

June 18, 2025 – The Trevor Project received official notice yesterday that the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is initiating the closure of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s LGBTQ+ Youth Specialized Services program within 30 days, effective July 17, 2025.

BREAKING

The Trevor Project confirms that the Trump administration is eliminating the LGBTQ+ option on the 988 suicide hotline.

Right now, LGBTQ+ people who dial 988 can access specialized services.

Sf no kings march

Ok to recap in SF: biggest crowd I’ve ever seen in Dolores Park, slowly marching down Dolores, Market and Van Ness, gathering people along h to r way. I’d say 40K minimum, could be a lot more. Vibes are great. Cops guarding Gov buildings and freeway entrances, otherwise not present.

"No Kings" anti-Trump protests attract millions, organizers say The movement marked the biggest single-day of anti-Trump protest of his second administration, per organizers.

Millions of protesters across the U.S. took to the streets in demonstrations against the Trump administration today, in stark counter-programming to the president's Washington, D.C., military parade planned to start this evening.

US agency to ease some safety rules for self-driving vehicles The Trump administration said on Thursday it aims to speed up deployment of self-driving vehicles by exempting some from certain safety requirements designed for human drivers and easing rules that require the reporting of safety incidents.

This is why Elon spent close to $300 million to elect Donald Trump.

🤔👇🏽

You use the officials USGovt secure channels to hide communications from bad actors. You use Signal to hide communications from the USGovt.

✅ Yes, the Arlington National Cemetery website removed links to webpages about Black, Hispanic and female veterans buried at the site.

As someone who used to manage transgenic mouse colonies, the deep apparent misunderstanding of "transgenic" vs. "transgender" here is fucking hilarious and sad (if true).

I have covered presidential politics for 40 years. This was the most juvenile display by a President and Vice President I have ever seen. Other presidents treated their enemies with more respect. This is a low point and a dark day for the US. Totally embarrassing.

My Open Letter to Elon Musk From Marc | Elon Musk recently posted on his site that another lawyer and I are “undermining civilization.” This is my response.

I will use every tool at my disposal to protect this country from Trump. I will litigate to defend voting rights until there are no cases left to bring. I will speak out against authoritarianism until my last breath.

I will not back down. I will not bow or scrape. I will never obey.

Trump administration set to purchase $400 million worth of armored Teslas That's according to a public State Department procurement document. It comes as ethics experts raise conflict of interest questions about the chief executive of Tesla, Elon Musk, who is a top White Ho...

A public State Department procurement document for fiscal year 2025 listed the purchase for $400 million. It comes as ethics experts raise conflict of interest questions about Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is a top White House official.

2.2 billion gallons of waters just wasted.

Remember this when you're paying sky-high prices for fruits and vegetables later this year.

Unreal.

2.2 billion gallons of water flowed out of California reservoirs because of Trump’s order to open dams | CNN There are two major problems with Trump’s order, water experts said: The water will not flow to Los Angeles, and it is being wasted by being released during the wet winter season.

Trump single-handedly wasted over 2.2 BILLION gallons of water in drought-stricken California.

Not only was the water never going to flow to Los Angeles, but California farmers are now at risk of water shortages in the coming months.

Trump's reckless impulses put all of us in danger.

The United States Is In Multiple Trade Wars | Everything You Need To Know The United States is now in multiple trade wars and here is everything you need to know.

BREAKING: The United States is officially in multiple trade wars. I break down all the developments, discuss what products will be impacted, and preview what's to come. open.substack.com/pub/aaronpar...

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Premier of Canada's British Columbia calls to stop buying liquor from US 'red' states and remove it from some shelves.

I do not recall a 24 hour or one week news cycle with more disturbing news about the state of the presidency and the US government in it than those of today and the past seven days. January 6 was nothing compared to this. But make no mistake, this too is the gov't being torn apart by a mob of thugs.

FCC Requests ‘60 Minutes’ Harris Interview Material as it Reviews Paramount-Skydance Merger The government has asked for the footage and transcript from the segment, which is the subject of a lawsuit against CBS by President Trump, according to people familiar with the situation.

American media organizations have constitutional rights that are the envy of journalists around the world, but it seems they are just not brave enough to assert them. As we can now see, when press freedom dies in this country, it will die not with a bang but a whimper. www.wsj.com/business/med...

Exclusive: Musk aides lock government workers out of computer systems at US agency, sources say Aides to Elon Musk charged with running the U.S. government human resources agency have locked career civil servants out of computer systems that contain the personal data of millions of federal employees, according to two agency officials.

This is a hostile takeover of the federal government by a private citizen of unlimited means with no restrictions and no transparency. Welcome to the Deep State www.reuters.com/world/us/mus...

Two Viral Essays From Longtime Elon Musk Friends Have Just—Yes, Really—Revealed Musk’s Origin Story As a Global Supervillain The ten most stunning revelations from the Low and Harris Letters—documents unlike any other this Musk biographer has ever seen—lay bare what really happened to make Musk a threat to the world.

This is it. This is the one. I think this is my most important report on Elon Musk as a Musk biographer.

Read this and you will understand the man.

Warning: dark stuff inside.

By erasing it, or trying to, they make it more memorable. The Internet is written in indelible ink.

Hegseth confirmed as Trump's defense secretary in tie-breaking vote despite turmoil over his conduct The Senate confirmed Pete Hegseth as the nation’s defense secretary in a dramatic late-night vote. Republicans pushed back questions about Hegseth's qualifications amid allegations of heavy drinking…

Is Hegseth really the best we can do to lead our Defense Dept? What an insult to our dedicated service members.

this is actually more significant than a lot of social media protests, at least in the case of the large subreddits like r/nfl and r/nba

these are places with millions of subscribers that drive a whole lot of traffic - and may actually drive moves away from Twitter as a result

Trump pardoned the guy who ran the largest online (illegal) drug market--as payback for a political endorsement. Oh yeah, the guy, according to the feds, solicited murders. Real law-and-order stuff, right? More like corrupt political sleaze.

Even The WSJ pans the heinous J6 pardons

sure would Bee a shame if people misused this opportunity

Bishop Mariann Budde tells NPR 'I won't apologize' for sermon addressing Trump The Episcopal bishop of Washington spoke with NPR to discuss her sermon addressing President Trump and why she asked him to have mercy.

www.npr.org/2025/01/22/n...

This is what happens when you don't properly evaluate pardon requests on an individual basis. Trump didn't look at prior criminal history, behavior in prison, or risk of dangerousness to the community following release. Now we all pay the price for him using the pardon power as a political reward.

The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board tears Trump over his “rotten” January 6 pardons:

“This is a rotten message from a President about political violence done on his behalf…What happened that day is a stain on Mr. Trump’s legacy. By setting free the cop beaters, the President adds another.”

The Untold Story of Silk Road, Part 1 How a 29-year-old idealist built a global drug bazaar and became a murderous kingpin.

Now is a great time to read WIRED magazine’s 2015 feature story, “The Untold Story of Silk Road.”

There were good reasons why Ross Ulbricht was serving a double life sentence.

www.wired.com/2015/04/silk...

“The tech right is pro-American,” he said. But it’s pro-American in the sense that they see America as “an empire that takes over the world and goes interplanetary.” This was too rationalist of an approach for many on the MAGA side, which is shaped in large part by Christian faith and, at least for some, a belief that America should be a homeland for “heritage” Americans, of Northern European extraction. They are “not excited about the American Empire,” he said, or racing into space. They care more about the values of a “pre-1960s America, the values of a Western civilization.” Both sides see their path as the best approach to make America more dynamic — the MAGA intellectuals through a hoped-for refounding that would restore a sense of national identity and purpose and the tech right through drawing the best talent from a worldwide pool and letting competition and capitalism rip. Mr. Trump himself has kept something like a kingly remove from the early squabbles of the aristocracy emerging in his shadow. His vice president, JD Vance, might be able to act as an intermediary between these rival wings. A former venture capitalist married to the daughter of Indian immigrants, he nonetheless adopted the populist-nationalist style of politics.

Excellent piece on the factional and philosophical divides in the new Trump administration.
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/18/o...