Catherine Hobbs

Holy shiitake! Trump fired Shira Perlmutter, the Director of the US Copyrights Office apparently because she refused to let Elon Musk raid the place to steal author’s intellectual property rights

democrats-cha.house.gov/media/press-...

Cory Booker, winding down: "We need a greater love in this country a greater fight in this country a greater determination." And re: Strom Thurmond: "I'm not here because of his speech. I'm here despite his speech. The people are more powerful."

This is going to be remembered for all time as Columbia’s response to having a student protestor kidnapped and held prisoner by a budding authoritarian regime. It is unspeakable cowardice.

The broad part of the oar would need to be turned perpendicular to the water's surface though. It's an even slower technique if attempted as pictured.

Elon Musk’s Starlink Expands Across White House Complex Trump administration officials said the company donated the internet service, saying the gift had been vetted by the lawyer overseeing ethics issues in the White House Counsel’s Office.

Hi, I'm the guy who used to oversee the federal government's agency IT telecommunications contracts. This is extremely bad. There is absolutely no need for this. Not only is it a huge security exposure, but the simplest explanation for this is that it is meant to be a security exposure.

"But beyond even the issues of right and wrong and reality and unreality is the issue of language and behavior...There is a long history of this, all around the world, including Hitler in 1933 and Stalin in 1934."

Some of my Columbia Law School colleagues and I offer our thoughts on legal issues with the Administration's March 13, 2025 letter to our University's president, and its threat to academic freedom. balkin.blogspot.com/2025/03/a-ti...

Hey! Are you an American considering a PhD or a postdoc, and the funding / academic situation just went absolutely bonkers?

Canada's federal funding awards just added eligibility for international applicants if at Cdn institutions.

www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/NewsDetail-D...

Johns Hopkins to lose 2,000 jobs after Trump’s $800m cut in USAid funding University says cut in funding ‘forcing us to wind down critical work’ as academics rally against job losses

Seems like they're striving to create a sick and broke society.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Since the Supreme Court's decision in Shelby County v. Holder, we found a widening disparity in turnout rates between white voters and voters of color. The #JohnLewisVRAA would restore the Voting Rights Act’s protections against racial discrimination in voting.

“Once Trump really cements his fascist power, that’ll be the moment when Senate Republicans will see reason and oppose him.”

Masterful gambit, sir.

These Words Are Disappearing in the New Trump Administration Federal agencies have issued guidance to employees on hundreds of terms to limit or avoid using. An analysis of government websites shows many of the same words being removed.

I wonder if Orwell would feel validated.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

I'm proud of my colleagues at Columbia U. Press for bringing us important works of literature in translation including recently two novels by Fang Fang.

"For people like us who work in literature, witnessing history is very important. I want to see where this history is headed...You use literary works to record society...For now, if all they do is censor my works, that's fine – I can still witness history. "

I know this is extremely vulgar idealism, but I do think we should try to aggressively reassert the norm that lying is bad. Not in a "Four Pinnochios" fact-checking kind of way, but in a way that frames this kind of lying as moral degeneracy that is fundamentally corrosive to the human spirit.

some helpful reminders:

-not all jews support israel
-criticizing israel is not the same as being antisemitic
-being pro-palestine does not equal being pro-hamas
-arresting someone for being pro-palestine is a violation of the first amendment
-violating someone’s first amendment rights is bad

"Trust, once destroyed," is the most difficult thing to restore."

Elon Musk just called Social Security a Ponzi scheme, so it’s worth reiterating: All functional retirement schemes, public or private, pre funded or pay as you go, are claims on future production - there's just no way, at scale, of storing current production for use during retirement

Excellent read for all of us in Virginia.

The governor and the attorney general are complicit in their silence about what is going on across the Potomac.

And they are both selling out regular working people in Virginia.

So here's a thought.

What if all the rest of the White House press corps stopped showing up until the AP's reinstated?

They're trying to nuke democracy by welcoming cyber attacks against election systems. If you're looking for a take-to-the-streets moment, this could be it.

Trump Targets Independent Campaign Finance Watchdog in Latest Ouster The president moved to fire the Democratic chair of the Federal Election Commission, opening the door to weaponizing the agency for political ends.

Trump’s firing of the chair of the Federal Election Commission could be the start of a partisan takeover of an agency that both sides of the aisle have long agreed needs to be independent.

is it woke to want to end cancer?

The SAVE Act Would Disenfranchise Millions of Citizens The SAVE Act would require all Americans to prove their citizenship with documentation unavailable to millions and upend the way every American citizen registers to vote.

The House of Representatives is considering a bill that will lead to voter purges and widespread disenfranchisement of eligible voters.

The SAVE Act stems from baseless claims of voter fraud and is part of a strategic, well-financed effort to suppress voting.

Virginia community health centers close over federal funding access Despite pause on federal funding freeze, centers unable to access grants

Community health centers are now starting to shut down across the country because of Trump’s executive orders.

These centers serve 1-in-5 rural patients in America.

Is it the floor to expect him to be in charge? He's just reading and signing the pieces of paper they put in front of him.

Does it even matter if Tulsi Gabbard is approved?

Screenshot of the National Weather Service page which includes the header "The National Weather Service webpages, especially at the local level (each NWS office), continue to experience technical difficulties. Technicians at the national level are working to resolve this issue."

I checked NWS to see what my local forecast is since there's a potential for ice tonight.

This is what I found.

The DOGE Goons have control.

Feeling safe yet?