Chet

That really sucks. I’m sorry.

Violence is never acceptable, say all leaders of nation that does violence everywhere and all the time against itself and everyone else

Some men improve the world only by leaving it - Oscar Wilde, written in fridge magnet letters

You are under no obligation to mourn the death of people who would’ve celebrated yours.

Performative public lying is a hallmark of far right authoritarian parties, & the judges who ignore the law, Constitution, & plain meaning of words to enable them

In an excellent bit of synchronicity, I had to go to a bank today — and discovered Regulator was RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET.

Thanks! Added to the list!

@charlottereads.com Hi. Longtime follower, recent Triangle resident. My wife and I are doing a bookstore tour bc OBVIOUSLY. Beyond QRB, where else do you suggest for mystery/genre work?

@grahamdalorian.bsky.social Chet here checking in. I support your deMeta-ing.

What’s next for Waltz and Hegseth

“There is no administration in the world — beyond this one — where a blunder of these proportions happens and nobody gets fired or resigns. Not in London. Not in Moscow. Not in Tokyo. Not in Pyongyang. Nowhere.” www.politico.com/newsletters/...

So the position of the Trump-Vance administration — and every member of Congress unless they explicitly say otherwise — is quite literally you do not have guaranteed free speech rights in America if you say things they don't like.

That is the headline.

Of course not. They're too busy investigating people protesting at Tesla dealerships to investigate the illegal discussion of war crime planning via sharing classified info on personal phones.

You mean Enron Field?

This is the op-ed Rumeysa Ozturk co-wrote in 2024 criticizing the Tufts administration’s response to student demands for action regarding Gaza and Israel. It is unquestionably speech protected by the First Amendment.

/1

www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2024...

Tufts international graduate student taken into ICE custody A Tufts University international graduate student was reportedly detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and remains in federal custody, according to an email sent by the university ...

A Tufts graduate student from Turkey has been taken into ICE custody. She had co-authored an op-ed calling on the school to divest from companies with ties to Israel.

www.wgbh.org/news/local/2...

Negligently disclosing national defense information is illegal — and it doesn't have to be classified The Espionage Act, the law that often has been used in criminal cases involving leaks or mishandling of classified information, contains a provision making it

NBC News: The Espionage Act contains a provision making it crime to disclose national defense secrets "through gross negligence."
 
The law does not require info be classified, because it was written before the classification system existed. The law refers simply to "national defense information."

Yup

A Trump-Musk memo telling US government employees to hide what’s happening from the public is a sign that:

1) Public legitimacy is a constraint for them, they know it, and will at times alter their behavior accordingly

2) Reporters should focus on it, revealing more of what they’re trying to hide

Don’t Buy a Tesla. Sell Your Tesla. Refuse a Tesla at the Rental Counter. Yes—It Will Help. Elon Musk’s car company is in a precarious spot.

Tesla's stock is ridiculously overvalued, and even a modest consumer boycott could tank the company, which accounts for the majority of Elon Musk's wealth.
The divestment movement weakened apartheid South Africa. Let's do that again. slate.com/business/202...

BREAKING: NIH admits funding freeze is illegal, will resume issuing grants An internal memo issued February 12 was obtained by Popular Information.

open.substack.com/pub/populari...

It's not complicated. They're just trying to stop women from being able to vote.

I still think about this show and how awesome it would have been.

Please participate to send Republicans a strong message…

Senator Murphy lays out exactly what is on the line.

"  There was a promise made to finance this tax cut with two trillion dollars of cuts to Medicaid and Medicare. Medicaid, poor kids, poor families, Medicare, seniors in this country."

Hands Off Our Medicaid!

Everyone in my hometown uses the right name and pronouns with me without issue and congratulated me when I came out, but some still post brain-rotted transphobic memes on Facebook. They know me, so they figure I have legit reasons to do this. They will not, however, extrapolate outward from there.

Katie Miller, 33 Spokesperson In December, during the transition, Trump named Miller, who served in the first administration as a press secretary to Vice President Mike Pence, as one of the first members of DOGE. She is the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. After reports that DOGE personnel accessed internal USAID data, Katie Miller defended the group, saying that “no classified material was accessed without proper security clearances.”

Stephanie Holmes, 43 Human Resources Holmes is running human resources at DOGE, according to government workers who have been in meetings with her. A former lawyer with Jones Day, a firm that frequently represents Trump, she was previously the chief people officer at Oklo, a nuclear energy company chaired by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. She also ran her own HR consulting firm, BrighterSideHR, which advised companies to pursue “non-woke” approaches to diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Brian Bjelde, 44 Senior Adviser Connected to: Office of Personnel Management Musk link: Vice president of people operations at SpaceX Bjelde is a longtime SpaceX employee who’s spent more than 20 years at the company, according to his LinkedIn profile, where he’s had a variety of jobs, including as managing director of the “food services group.” He previously worked for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He’s been referred to in press reports as a “top DOGE Lieutenant,” working at OPM to slash head count. CNN previously revealed that Bjelde had informed OPM staff of a plan to cut 70% of the agency’s workforce. The New York Times reported that Bjelde helped Musk cut staff at Twitter following its takeover.

Anthony Armstrong, 57 Senior Adviser to the Director Connected to: Office of Personnel Management Musk link: Worked on Musk’s purchase of Twitter Armstrong is a technology banker at Morgan Stanley who worked on Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter — since rebranded as X — in 2022. He has been given an influential role at OPM, which handles personnel issues across the federal government. Since Trump took office, OPM has spearheaded the new administration’s efforts to dramatically reduce the federal workforce and roll back telework and remote work policies.

So much attention has been paid to Elon's college-age DOGE bros.

But @propublica.org's roundup of 20+ members of Musk's demolition crew shows that it's largely comprised of alleged adults, including Katie Miller (wife of Trump whisperer Stephen Miller)

projects.propublica.org/elon-musk-do...

Happiness is seeing Zoe Keating live.