Alexander Stille

Opinion | As the Texas Floodwaters Rose, One Indispensable Voice Was Silent

Official who could have warned of imminent forced into early retiredment by DOGE: As the Texas Floodwaters Rose, One Indispensable Voice Was Silent www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/o...

.https://shorturl.at/FkMlu

The Trump administration has cut 100s of jobs at NWS, with staffing down by at least 20% at nearly half of the 122 NWS field offices nationally and at least half dozen no longer staffed 24 hours. 100s forecasters were encouraged to retire early.https://shorturl.at/FkMlu

Opinion | West Point Is Supposed to Educate, Not Indoctrinate

West Point Is Supposed to Educate, Not Indoctrinate www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/o...

Greyhound, I promise I will never talk smack about you ever again.

Bravo

Carl Sagan on how humanity can create its purpose and make its existence meaningful.

"WE'VE ARRANGED A society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. And this combustible mixture of ignorance and power, sooner or later, is going to blow up in our faces. Who is running the science and technology in a democracy if the people don't know anything about it?" "Science is more than a body of knowledge, it's a way of thinking. A way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we're up for grabs for the next charlatan, political or religious, who comes ambling along."

I think a lot about what Carl Sagan said in one of his final interviews.

@nathantankus.bsky.From conversation on @pkrugman.bsky.social 's substack: "this is an extraordinary financial crisis because it is a financial crisis, more than any other financial crisis ever, that is directly connected to the erratic and bizarre and dangerous behavior of one person."

Opinion | Time for a Civic Uprising It will take a concerted effort by every sector of our society to respond to Trumpism’s threat.

From ultramoderate D. Brooks: "It’s time for a national civic uprising. It’s time for Americans in universities, law, business, nonprofits and the scientific community, and civil servants and beyond to form one coordinated mass movement." www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/o...

Opinion | Trump is killing one of our strongest exports The president wants to balance U.S. trade deficits? He can’t do it without this industry he hates.

shorturl.at/HYPjD Trump is killing a major export: Colleges and universities are among America’s most competitive international exporters. In dollar terms, last year, the US sold more educational services to the rest of the world than it sold in natural gas and coal combined.

Incredible: you would think you should a little something about the thing you shoot your mouth off on national TV. Survivor benefits: an essential feature of social security

You may be fearing your 401k is no longer enough for you to retire. But with all the cuts to NIH and Medicare you also won't live as long. So the policies are integrated.

Hi, how are you? Are you still running your hotel, cooking and writing?

Trump touts airstrike on Houthis, showing video: Will 'never sink our ships again' President Trump on Friday shared a video that showed a U.S. attack on Houthi rebels as the administration continues its daily attacks on the terrorist organization.

“Target destroyed!” On #FoxNews you would never know that #Trump tanked stock market in the worst week since the pandemic. It’s not a news network. www.foxnews.com/politics/tru...

In 73 days Trump started a trade war, poisoned our closest alliances, threatened Canada and Greenland, blown up NATO, offered Ukraine to Putin, gutted scientific research & tanked the economy. If U wanted to destroy our country couldnt have done better than #Trump

Can’t help but feel that if President Bernie Sanders pulled this move the entirety of American business would try to get him pushed out of office immediately.

2 months in: Start a trade war with our closest allies, blow up NATO, hand Ukraine to Putin, crash the economy, kill scientific research, threaten to invade Canada and Greenland. If you wanted to design a president to destroy our country you could do much better than #Trump

The IRS is in turmoil. Taxpayers are taking notice. - The Washington Post The IRS is bracing for a $500 billion drop in tax revenue this year, in part due to President Donald Trump’s rapid demolition of parts of the agency. And a look at the unprecedented deal brewing betwe...

Along with gutting IRS to make it harder to collect taxes, Trump using IRS to track down illegal immigrants -- individual returns have ALWAYS BEEN PRIVATE -- now illegal immigrants who work, pay taxes without getting benefits will get arrested..https://shorturl.at/xxMBz

The problem is that the #Trump administration is likely to keep moving the goal posts to make #Columbia make concession after concession. It is not a good faith actor. If they cared about antisemitism and hate speech they wouldnt have released the 1600 people who stormed the capitol

Trump’s Deportation Agenda Expands to Legal Immigrants and Tourists U.S. border officials are using more aggressive tactics at ports of entry as the administration scrutinizes green card and visa holders who have expressed opposition to its policies.

if this isnt McCarthyism, what is it? "the administration is targeting legal immigrants who have expressed views that the government believes threaten national security and undermine foreign policy." Crackdown Expands to Legal Immigrants and Tourists www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/u...

Law Firm Bends in Face of Trump Demands Paul, Weiss — one of three law firms targeted by President Trump as part of his retribution campaign — said it resolved the conflict by agreeing to a range of commitments.

More tribute to the Sultan: The firm agreed to contribute $40 million in legal services to causes Mr. Trump has championed, including “the President’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, www.nytimes.com/2025/03/20/u...

I don’t want to exaggerate my powers of prediction but I posted this ten years ago:

Exactly

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I think some in the Senate have convinced themselves that the backlash to folding will be limited to “the left” and therefore ignorable.

Those people are deeply and profoundly misreading the moment and the stakes.

Virtually every swing district House Dem walked the plank to vote NO for a reason.

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All you have to do is ask what would Mitch McConnell do if the shoe was on the other foot? Sad to say, the GOP knows much better how to play power politics. Chuck is hopeless