Katelyn

Is this so Trump doesn't get lost or forget where he is going? Why does it look so obviously shitty? But for real, why?

FBI Warns of Criminals Posing as ICE, Urges Agents to ID Themselves In a bulletin to law enforcement agencies, the FBI said criminal impersonators are exploiting ICE’s image and urged nationwide coordination to distinguish real operations from fakes.

“Three men in black vests entered a NY restaurant claiming to be ICE agents. Inside, they tied a worker’s hands and pulled a garbage bag over the person’s head. Another, believing the burglars’ story, surrendered themselves, only to be kicked to the ground and tied up as the intruders robbed an ATM”

Congrats to my wine mom brethren this evening

At this rate the 2026 Dem meta will be running dead-eyed CIA officers whose campaign ads are just them graphically describing what war crimes they will do to Republicans

how is this real

Once Direct File reached its full stride, it was estimated to save about $11 billion per year for taxpayers (an average of $160 per user) and help unlock about $12 billion in government benefits that those taxpayers were eligible for. The Direct File cost was relatively small, about about $32 million to get it going. This is peanuts compared to the billions that are often wasted on government tech projects that deliver little. One analysis found that it delivered about $106 in value for every dollar invested. Users loved Direct File. In 2024, 86% of users said it increased their trust in IRS, not the most beloved of organizations. The Direct File “net promoter score” (a measure of customer satisfaction and loyalty) is 84, well above that of TurboTax, and even Apple. In user surveys conducted by Code for America, 94% prefer Direct File and state equivalents to their previous filing method and 84% said they were “very satisfiedˮwith another 14% being “satisfied” with the product. Direct File expanded the tax filing pool. Over time, the federal government has shifted more and more of the safety net to the tax system, primarily via the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit. One problem is that people with very low incomes are not obliged to file, even when it’s in their interest to do so. By being truly free, Direct File captured some of those people. About 1 in 4 of Direct File users were non-filers the previous year, a much higher rate than any other filing alternative.

I'm doing more research on Direct File, interviewing people who worked on the project. Cancelling it is just an incredible own goal, not just because it allowed people to pay taxes for free, but because it was an incredible demonstration that government could build top quality tech products in-house

IRS tests free e-filing system that could compete with tax-prep giants The tax agency has quietly built its own prototype system for filing tax returns digitally and free of charge, according to current and former officials.

👀 Scoop: IRS Direct File, the free government-backed program that let you file your taxes for free, is dead.

IRS wrote to state tax agencies saying it would not be operational this coming tax season, per records I've obtained.

IRS Direct File: 2023-2025.

(Story from when the pilot launched.)

His Works Completed, Dick Cheney, Mass Murderer of Iraqis and American Democracy, Dies As much as the Trumpists claim to disavow the War on Terror, they walk a path paved by the most powerful vice president in U.S. history.

All day, many of you have been asking for a Cheney obituary from me. Get ready:

NEW: Footage of a US citizen in Chicago being rammed then dragged from her car on her way to work.

Abducted, with no warrant, her family couldn’t find her for hours.

She was later released with NO CHARGE.

A DHS statement said she “violently resisted arrest, injuring two officers”.

You decide…

While some states fight to restore Title X family planning funding, Idaho chooses to forfeit it The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare quietly declined the entirety of its annual $1.5 million federal Title X funding, leaving patients statewide without free and low-cost contraception and repr...

SCOOP: Idaho’s health department quietly declined the entirety of its annual $1.5 million federal Title X funding in April, leaving patients statewide without any access to the family planning program.

One Idaho health district no longer offers contraception at all.

From me:

Less heartening, there was an elderly woman getting her ballot who asked for the date, and was told it was November 3. She then followed with, "And the year?"

In line for early voting, there's a mom and her two children with her. Her daughter: "I want 5 children."
Her mom: "I hope they are all girls and just like you." *Hug*
Daughter: "I hope three of them are wild, and two of them are calm."

Correct. As a parent, it is easier to put my children to bed if it gets dark at or before bedtime, and easier for everyone to get up if it's not still dark when leaving the house in the morning.

The USDA sent an email to grocery stores telling them they are prohibited from offering special discounts to customers affected by the SNAP funding lapse.
I'm aware of at least 2 stores that had offered struggling customers a discount, then withdrew it after receiving this email

Can we simply just clone Mary Peltola?

FBI Ousts Leader as Patel Fumes Over Attention to Agency Jet Use The FBI forced out a senior official overseeing aviation shortly after Director Kash Patel grew outraged about revelations of his publicly-available jet logs indicating he’d flown to see his musician ...

Scoop: FBI ousts senior official after Kash Patel’s fury over news of his use of government jet to see girlfriend perform. The removed head of critical incident response group was 27-year FBI veteran who oversaw aviation sections.
news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/fbi-o...

I really hope so. I feel like such a mom saying this, but you remember that these guys are essentially kids still and it absolutely kills me.

Absolutely sick about Ben Brahmer right now. As someone listening to the game, reading other places that he appeared to start seizing on the field, terrifying shit. #bluecy

a rocket is flying through a blue sky with a yellow sun behind it ALT: a rocket is flying through a blue sky with a yellow sun behind it

Fire Iowa State's special teams into the sun #bluecy

A woman I know from high school posted in the local mom Facebook group that she was moving into a new place and wasn't sure how she was going to feed her four boys, so today I took her about $100 worth of groceries, stuff from our house and fresh stuff in the store.

Sigh....

Iowa State football is mid, life is pain. #bluecy

Iowa State's failure to get into the end zone when in the red zone this season is truly something else. #bluecy

Judges order the Trump administration to use contingency funds for SNAP payments during the shutdown Two federal judge have ruled that the Trump administration must continue to fund the SNAP food aid program using contingency funds during the government shutdown.

BREAKING: Judges order the federal government to use contingency funds for SNAP food aid payments during the shutdown.

i don't throw around the word "hero" too often,

Got a new story about a little-known HHS agency with a massive job: the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR).
ASPR gave us Operation Warp Speed.
Now it's being run by a conspiracy theorist who calls those vaccines “genocide.” www.msnbc.com/msnbc/meet-a...

To be clear, someone posted about how Kim Reynolds has pledged to match "Up to $1 million in donations" to local food banks, and someone else pointed out that Iowa gets $45 million in SNAP a month, so this isn't doing nearly enough. Then it devolved into how the shut down is all Dems fault.

a man in a white tank top walks down a street with the words okay here we go again below him Alt: a man in a white tank top walks down a street with the words okay here we go again below him

Me heading into the comments to fight in the local moms' FB group over SNAP benefits and the shut down:

Ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee Bennie G. Thompson said in a statement “Mobile Fortify is a dangerous tool in the hands of ICE, and it puts American citizens at risk of detention and even deportation.” He also said “ICE officials have told us that an apparent biometric match by Mobile Fortify is a ‘definitive’ determination of a person’s status and that an ICE officer may ignore evidence of American citizenship—including a birth certificate—if the app says the person is an alien. ICE using a mobile biometrics app in ways its developers at CBP never intended or tested is a frightening, repugnant, and unconstitutional attack on Americans’ rights and freedoms.”

New incredible detail here: ICE says a match in its facial recognition app Mobile Fortify is a "definitive" determination of a person's status, and that this overrides birth certificates. This is an app ICE is using in the field to scan people

www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...

Screenshot featuring views of one of the voters in the survey. Antonio, a 45 y.o. Hispanic male voted for Donald Trump despite his opposition to deporting all immigrants illegally in the US, opposition to government vouchers for private schools, and his belief that the US government should do more to help needy Americans, even if it means going into deeper debt. He did so because of Trump's "support for Israel and the Second Amendment."

This whole thing really did not do much to help my general mood