Penelope Wang

Trump Has Been Sued 198 Times for Withholding Funding. It Hasn’t Stopped Him. (Gift Article) Immigration demands for highway dollars, D.E.I. rules for homeless grants: how Trump has tried to wield spending to get his way.

We've been tracking nearly 200 lawsuits against the Trump administration over its attempts to leverage federal funding to impose the president's agenda.

The most startling pattern: The administration seems entirely undeterred when it loses in court.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

$250k to get out of Dubai.

@financialtimes.com
www.ft.com/content/23e0...

Stars are disappearing before our eyes — and something in us is shifting For most of human history, the night sky has been a shared inheritance, a source of wonder. Now, more than a billion children see barely any stars in the night sky above their homes. So what does that...

'We are losing the stars. Not all at once, but quietly, one streetlight, one neon sign, one expanding suburb at a time.'

🧪 🔭

Oil prices surged upon Trump’s attack on Iran, and Americans are already seeing the effects at the gas pump.

My @morningjoe-msnow.bsky.social Chart

Record Numbers of Workers Are Raiding Their 401(k) Savings A divergent economy has given people record retirement savings and more need to dig into them.

Hardship withdrawals from 401(k)s increased for the sixth straight year. Top reasons included avoiding foreclosure and eviction as well as paying medical expenses. (Gift link)
www.wsj.com/personal-fin...

Iran War Oil Shock Threatens to Unleash Wave of Global Inflation Sustained high oil prices would boost inflation and slow growth, putting central banks in a tough spot.

“Iran War Oil Shock Threatens to Unleash Wave of Global Inflation”

Trump helps MAGA influencers flee Middle East war zone on private jet Trump adviser Alex Bruesewitz, dogwalker Sarah Daither, former lobbyist Jay Footlik, and others managed to escape on a private plane thanks to the White House.

The White House has helped MAGA influencers escape the Middle East on a private jet while more than a million ordinary Americans are still trapped with no way out.

The Impossible Predicament of the Uninsured My aunt couldn’t afford to go to the hospital. She ended up there anyway.

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Once again there is this assertion that disabled/high risk/immunocompromised people live in a vacuum, like we don’t have healthy family members around us or caretakers who desperately need to stay healthy to avoid endangering our health or becoming disabled from their next Covid infection.

Again: Not hyperbole, misinterpretation, or a joke that Christian Dominionism is a strain of apocalyptic accelerationism which VERY LITERALLY SEEKS to hasten their vision of the Biblical end of the world, & the people who believe this have VERY CAREFULLY worked their way into the halls of U.S. power

Remember what I was saying? $80 billion in debt with $30 billion in revenue (not profit) and a $15 billion market cap?

They're dead. Even if they panic and try to spin off all of the properties they just bought, they'll never come close to profitable.

This is why Netflix walked away.

A deeply underreported story. I know so many people struggling to pay their electric bills

Trump, suffering from dementia, is confused about where his father was born. It was in the Bronx, not in Germany. Trump's grandfather was an immigrant who came here after getting kicked out of Germany for evading the draft.

What really strikes one is the galactic _lack_ of strategic thinking by Trump’s people.

His admin spent a year shivving EVs, championing AI investment that’s driven power bills higher, and snuffing renewables. Now, after all that: sure, start a war that could send gas prices soaring. Why not? 🫠

Trump admin evacuation plan: Take a tourist shuttle bus to Egypt and try to get out from there if you can.

Iran has notified UNESCO that U.S.-Israeli strikes have damaged two historical sites: Tehran’s grand bazaar and Golestan Palace, a complex in the Iranian capital known as the “Versailles of Persia."

Follow live updates: https://wapo.st/40r8B3D

SSDI Death Rates During Medicare Waiting Period Among SSDI beneficiaries waiting 24-months for Medicare eligibility, the overall mortality rates were substantially higher than those in the general population.

@davidpowell.bsky.social, Seth Hartig & Mireille Jacobson in Health Affairs: The share of Social Security Disability Insurance beneficiaries who die in the 2 years before they can access Medicare has risen since 2011 as the share with severe illness has risen. 🧵1/2 ldi.upenn.edu/our-work/res...

Also: “Still trying to wrap my head around Kash firing a unit that specializes in Iranian counter-intel LAST WEEK -- when they knew war was coming -- because the agents were involved in the Trump classified docs case.” Tim Miller

I took a minute to watch this Wood Duck in Central Park's Pool. He was bossing the male Mallards around, and then a female Mallard came over and gave him hell. He backed down immediately! 😂😂😂 #Ducks #CentralPark #birding

They literally spent the past 4-plus years blasting Biden over the withdrawal from Afghanistan and how "rushed" it was.

Threat from Iran conflict spreads across Middle East in 72 hours In less than three days, the conflict ricocheted beyond the original targets in Iran, Israel and Iraq to threaten some 300 million civilians across more than a dozen nations.

It took just 3 days for the US to put the lives of 300 million civilians at risk, for reasons the Administration still cannot fully or consistently articulate.

Gift link wapo.st/3NaHfLW

very efficiency, much technological advancement

It’s never that we are better at diagnosing various developmental disorders and catching them earlier in life than ever before. It’s always some nefarious sinister bullshit.

Two of the Biggest Patient-Assistance Charities Are Combining The merger will create a foundation with more than $800 million in assets to help patients afford drug copays and navigate health insurance.

The nonprofits said the combination will allow them to better serve low- and middle-income patients facing rising healthcare costs, including many who have lost insurance coverage. (gift link)
www.wsj.com/health/healt...

The US Has to Reopen the Strait of Hormuz as Soon as Possible Whether President Donald Trump wins the Third Gulf War will depend a lot on whether the Pentagon can effectively reopen the Strait of Hormuz for oil shipping, and soon. The American military doesn’t h...

BLAS: Whether Trump "wins the Third Gulf War will depend a lot on whether the Pentagon can effectively reopen the Strait of Hormuz for oil shipping, and soon. The American military doesn’t have weeks to do so — only days."

@javierblas.bsky.social #OOTT
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

wait, what?

Gambling as Journalism—Shall We Gamify the News? Newrooms collaborating with prediction markets will further degrade quality and trust in journalism.

A🧵
Our latest:
News orgs integrating Kalshi & Polymarket etc. are “Engaging what many consider “a couple of bookies” (at least metaphorically) to predict world events for natl news orgs—whose mission is to inform the public … —is a recipe for disaster.”
1/n
open.substack.com/pub/mediaand...

CBP Tapped Into the Online Advertising Ecosystem To Track Peoples’ Movements An internal DHS document obtained by 404 Media shows for the first time CBP used location data sourced from the online advertising industry to track phone locations. ICE has bought access to similar t...

SCOOP: An internal DHS document obtained by 404 Media shows for the first time CBP used location data sourced from the online advertising industry to track phone locations.

This surveillance can happen through all sorts of apps, such as video games, news apps, weather trackers, and dating apps.

Prof. Robert Pape:

"I have studied every air campaign since WWI... I've modelled the bombing of Fordow and regime change in Iran for 20 years... We are now in the grip of the escalation trap... This has never worked in over 100 years... Trump is up against the weight of history".