Emperor's Finest, Esq.

YouTube video by CNN Rats prefer driving over walking, researchers say

In not *world on fire* news, researchers taught rats to drive little cars and I fucking love it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mZO...

This

🎤 drop.

Keep scrolling if you’ve already watched a tortoise and a dachshund playing with a soccer ball today ⚽

📽️RudyJanssens

The freight guys have really started freaking out over the past 48-72 hours:

From The Onion: Historians: Quibbling Over Exact Definition Of Concentration Camp Sign Of Healthy Society

theonion.com/historians-q...

The United States Government has no legal authority to snatch a person who is lawfully present in the United States off the street and remove him from the country without due process. The Government's contention otherwise, and its argument that the federal courts are powerless to intervene, are unconscionable.

The Fourth Circuit is famously succinct. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

LOL

A reminder that if the government can send migrants to a prison camp without any due process, it can send U.S. citizens there, too. I know because this happened to me and my family in 1942.

Deeply strange entering middle-age at a time in world history where things are getting measurably worse. Just a continual psychic struggle of “is this fogeyism or are things just not what they used to be?”

I'd watch a series of films/shows set in this universe.

Already happening TMW cartoon for March 25, 2025

hey here's this week's cartoon (in phone friendly format) which regrettably hasn't become any less relevant since monday

tinyview.com/this-modern-...

It’s a DOGE eat DOGE World

Trump Decried Millions Spent 'Making Mice Transgender.' It Was Cancer and Asthma Research President Trump falsely claimed that Biden spent $8 million on 'making mice transgender,' but the real research was for human health.

Trump claimed the Biden administration spent $8 million "making mice transgender." The White House tried to back up this number with records of funding for research into cancer, asthma, and HIV, some of which used *transgenic* (genetically modified) mice.

How Federal Employees Are Fighting Back Against Elon Musk Some civil servants are using whatever levers they have to resist the orders of the world’s richest man, both in public and behind closed doors.

THIS IS HOW YOU STAND UP: EEOC admin judge Karen Ortiz resisted an order to hand over all LGBT cases for “review” and told colleagues to resist too. She knows she’ll likely to be fired.
“I can exist on cornflakes and community if it means that my soul is intact.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/22/u...

The screens at the Department of Housing and Urban Development were playing this video this morning

Your outie documented five things they accomplished in the past week.

There's definitely a ton of improvements to be made in SC's MH system, but warehousing is generally not an issue. Additional funding from Legislature for housing placements and community services would be great, and HHS de-linking SSI payments to CRCFs would also directly address the DOJ's concerns

Institutions are generally inpatient facilities, like the Bryan Psychiatric Hospital run by DMH. The DOJ did not identify issues with SC's use of inpatient commitments.

*Voluntary unless court ordered. Also "voluntary" for many patients because some $ from HHS can only be used for CRCFs

The issue at suit is actually the state's use of assisted living facilities (Community Residential Care Facilities), not "warehousing people in institutions." 'Warehousing' is a serious issue in some states, but that's not the issue here. CRCFs are voluntary* community based placements. 1/2

The notion that Trump's "I'm king" tweet is "just trolling" or "a joke" presents an opportunity to recreate my just-joking thread (porting it over from the Bad Place):

1. I wrote my PhD dissertation on the social function of humor (in literature & film) and here's the thing about "just joking."

Don't do this.

Bill Bramhall, @nydailynews.com

ICE Prosecutor in Dallas Runs White Supremacist X Account The Observer has identified the operator of “GlomarResponder,” an overtly racist social media account, as ICE Assistant Chief Counsel James Rodden, based on an overwhelming number of biographical details matched through publicly available documents, other social media activity, and courtroom observation.

REVEALED: we identified the operator of an overtly racist X account, "GlomarResponder," as ICE Assistant Chief Counsel James Rodden, based on an overwhelming number of biographical details matched through publicly available documents, other social media activity, and courtroom observation.

Damn, brah, take the L and move on.

Leaders of SC courts, DMV warn what could happen if 'ancient' technology isn't upgraded • SC Daily Gazette South Carolina’s courts and DMV are running on software systems that are decades old and in need of massive upgrades.

“People try to hack in every day.”

Leaders of SC courts, DMV warn what could happen if ‘ancient’ technology isn’t upgraded

scdailygazette.com/2025/02/19/s... by @jmholdman.bsky.social

Yep, DOGE is as incompetent as everyone thought. An $8 million "saving" has been listed as an $8 BILLION saving.

That is 14.5% of their total claimed $55 billion in "savings" having been completely made up.

I'm watching news in discrete batches only, with a primary focus on things I can do stuff about and things that directly affect me, not trying to be more than broadly informed about everything else, and aggressively and ruthlessly forcing myself to take large chunks of time for personal activities.

Holy Hell