Ben Ames

International Fact-Checking Day 2025 - Poynter April 2 is International Fact-Checking Day, a global celebration of truth and accuracy. At the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), we honor fact-checkers everywhere who combat misinformation a...

www.poynter.org/ifcn/interna...

USDA rushing to rescind mistaken firings of key bird flu response personnel Firings of USDA employees who coordinated bird flu response were accidental, NBC quotes an agency spokesperson as saying

www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

It seems almost unavoidable at this point that we are headed for a deep, deep recession. Just based on 200K+ federal firings & pullback of contracts, the March employment report (to be released April 4) seems certain to show bigger job losses than any month ever outside of a few in 2008-9 and 2020.

We’ve seen this movie before.

Anyone know a good arborist?

Clay Bennett @BennettCartoons on Elon Musk & Child #NewConference #OvalOffice #PresidentMusk #SoEmbarrassing – political cartoon gallery in London original-political-cartoon.com

Our team reviewed the entire DOGE website. Nothing they have identified constitutes evidence of fraud or corruption—both of which are crimes. Feel free to audit us. The funds were allotted by Congress, and OIGs regularly reviewed expenditures for fraud.

New Yorker cartoon showing a cookie factory executive in front of a company podium with the Cookie Monster Frome Sesame Street by this side. Caption: “Let me assure you that as an unpaid ‘special factory employee’ Mr. Monster stands to gain nothing personally from his work.”

From the New Yorker

Christian Adams @Adamstoon1 @Telegraph on #JDVance #MAGA #MAGAMorons #MEGA #cartoon – political cartoon gallery in London original-political-cartoon.com

Spot on.

Fox News' Brit Hume: "There is no doubt that tariffs in the short run, and perhaps very much so in the long as well, raise prices"

Fox News' Brit Hume: “There is no doubt that tariffs in the short run, and perhaps very much so in the long as well, raise prices” www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox...

What it means to have a high trade deficit — and why it's not always a bad thing NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks with economist Mary Lovely of the Peterson Institute about trade deficits and the role they play in international trade.

Q: Does a trade deficit serve as a good measure of a country's economic strength or weakness when it comes to trade?

Mary Lovely: It's a very simple answer. No.

Listen to the @npr.org interview here:
www.npr.org/2025/02/09/n...

Bogus Claims that USAID Funded Politico and Epstein PLUS: Now the Russians Claim Zelensky Bought Hitler’s Mountain Retreat; NewsGuard Finds AI Models Spread False Claim Most Often in Russian and Chinese

Conservative commentators are advancing bogus accusations about the USAID, claiming to have uncovered wasteful and corrupt spending.

Read about these claims in Reality Check: www.newsguardrealitycheck.com/i/156854325/...

The Courts Blocked Trump’s Federal Funding Freeze. Agencies Are Withholding Money Anyway. Agencies continue to suspend funding, despite multiple court orders blocking the federal freeze. Experts say the Trump administration’s actions set the stage for challenges to Congress’ authority — an...

Courts *ordered* the Trump admin to stop its spending freeze

Yet ProPublica found place after place where $ is still frozen

-hot meals for elderly and disabled
-groceries for those in need
-maternal & child health services
-a clinic that serves the poor

www.propublica.org/article/trum...

Perfectly captured.

Mitch McConnell: Tariffs "will drive the cost of everything up. In other words, it will be paid for by American consumers. I mean, why would you want to get in a fight with your allies over this?"

Patrick Blower @Telegraph @blowercartoons on #tariffwar #tariffs #tariffwars #TrumpTariffsWars #TrumpTariffs #ChinaEconomy – political cartoon gallery in London original-political-cartoon.com

Pentagon Boots NBC, NPR, NYT, and Politico from Offices – To Be Replaced by Breitbart and One America News
Source: Mediaite

NFL POST:
I will never understand the modern obsession with going for the 2 point conversion. It’s consistently idiotic. It’s mass delusion, the football equivalent of flat Earth theory.

My coffee cup this morning.. let’s gooo Buffalooo!

Yesterday they renamed it the Gulf of America. Today it's snowing on the Gulf Coast. I'm not saying I did it... but I'm also not saying I didn't.

Reopening of Notre-Dame Marred by Appearance of Antichrist The Archfiend complained he came "all the way to Notre Dame and there was no football game.”

www.borowitzreport.com/p/reopening-...