David Spitzley

This isn’t Whedon’s version.

VA Just Terminated Most Federal Union Contracts, National Nurses United Included The VA has terminated union contracts for over 360,000 healthcare workers, including nurses—raising urgent concerns about staffing, patient safety, and veteran care nationwide.

The VA just terminated all union contracts, affecting about 360,000 workers, including the nursing staff who care for veterans nationwide. The stated intention is to cut the agency’s workforce by 30,000 by the end of the year. I suspect they may lose considerably more.

nurse.org/news/va-term...

Opinion | The Supreme Court Ruled in Favor of Trump, and That Is OK

This column is an interesting read, as it gives an insight into what may be going on in Chief Justice Robert’s’ head. The author clerked for him, and while he’s fine with unitary executive, he still thinks Trump is doing illegal stuff the courts should and will stop www.nytimes.com/2025/05/23/o...

ahem, “while failing to mention his role”

At Supreme Court, a Once-Fringe Birthright Citizenship Theory Takes the Spotlight

I find it… amusing that the NYT quoted John Yoo as their first source for this article while his role in the Bush administration devising legal rationales to normalize torture. Maybe the subtext is “Psst, remember this guy? Even he thinks this is off the rails.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/u...

Opinion | The so-called ‘woke right’ is just old-school racism by another name A woman earned over $700k in donations after calling a child the N-word. Trump-friendly pundits blamed it on the left for provoking the “woke right.”

“MAGA centrists”? Talk about the center not holding…

www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

Opinion | How I Describe Myself Politically These Days America needs to figure out how to dominate the industries of the future. Call me a “Waymo Democrat.”

Here’s a mental exercise for you: envision this essay in a world where Friedman was enamored of high-tech Japanese toilets. Honestly, the argument might make more sense… www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/o...

How the hell would IP cross the border illegally?

Supreme Court Sides With Migrant Trump Administration Wrongly Deported A trial judge had ordered the Trump administration to take steps to return the migrant, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, from a notorious prison in El Salvador.

Well, here’s a grain of good news at least… www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/u...

Something to add to your bingo cards: “Trump Food Riots”

What about “those who cared deeply about protecting the interests of the wealthy”? Or even “those who are still salty about desegregation, but you know, they’re not racist or anything”?

I Should Have Seen This Coming When I joined the conservative movement in the 1980s, there were two types of people: those who cared earnestly about ideas, and those who wanted only to shock the left. The reactionary fringe has won...

I’m impressed how deluded David Brooks was: “When I joined the conservative movement in the 1980s, there were two types of people: those who cared earnestly about ideas, and those who wanted only to shock the left.”

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

Since the bot-proofing is interfering, the title is “President Trump’s Tariff Formula Makes No Economic Sense. It’s Also Based on an Error.”

This is some next level incompetence…

www.aei.org/economics/pr...

This is nuts. And he’s been at Trump’s side for 8 years at this point…

The fundamental error in how immigration is being discussed in the courts and media is pretending that what happened to us over the last four years is a routine civil enforcement matter. NO. We were invaded and occupied. Entire neighborhoods were conquered. Entire towns were subjugated. Our treasury was in the plundered. Our democracy was torn apart piece by piece. A national referendum was held on whether to surrender to the invasion or repel it. America voted for liberation. If every foreign trespasser gets to have their own federal trial prior to removal then there is no liberation. There is no restoration. The invasion will be made complete. Article 4 Section 4 requires the president to halt any invasion and no district court can override that mandate. For the Constitution is the supreme law of the land. The invading armies and foreign trespassers will be expelled. The cartels will be smashed. Liberation will be achieved.

Alright, here’s an alt text that doesn’t send you there. Sorry.

Leopards and faces obviously enter into it…

/2 not to mention that the shotgun approach to tariffs the administration is using will undermine auto production here regardless of whatever impact cutting sales of foreign vehicles may have.

UAW's Shawn Fain slams Trump executive order targeting federal unions UAW president Shawn Fain said Trump's order to end collective bargaining for swath of federal workers would cost 700,000 people their union contracts.

I have been trying to understand the UAW’s thinking in cheering on Trump’s tariffs when moves like this to kill the union movement were kind of inevitable: www.cbsnews.com/news/shawn-f...

Ahem, this just in: “kobolds”

I’m feeling churlish so just to expand, there is no section of government that the administration has any real interest in retaining, Trump’s risible pledges to preserve Social Security and Medicare aside. Military and police are only useful as kobold to protect the dragons’ hoards.

I see statements about “the administration is claiming to be pursuing policy X, but that’s clearly contradicted by their most recent action Y”, and I’m getting to where I want to shake the reporters involved. The only policy being pursued by Trump is impunity for the rich, him in particular.

Brad Karp’s Message To Paul Weiss About Its Deal With The Trump Administration Here’s what Paul Weiss chair Brad Karp sent to his colleagues on Sunday afternoon.

David Lat at “Original Jurisdiction” just posted an internal memo from Paul Weiss, the law firm that made a deal to get Trump to drop the EO pulling all the security clearances from their lawyers and banning them from Federal buildings. It’s interesting: davidlat.substack.com/p/brad-karp-...

Chart from Financial Times showing “US Right” voter opinions clustering with Turkey and Russia in contrast with the “US Left” clustering in with most left-wing Europeans, and more similar to even right-wing Europeans than the US Right is.

Here’s a key chart from the Financial Times article referenced in the piece: substackcdn.com/image/fetch/...

New Data: Republican Voters Want Authoritarianism Inside the World Values Survey.

The original report is paywalled, but the coverage has been consistent. Basically GOP voters’ opinions on democracy, international cooperation etc. mirror those of Chinese and Russian respondents, in contrast with Democrats’ which resemble European citizens’ www.thebulwark.com/p/new-data-r...

It’s worth a shot. At least anybody really turned off by it is a moderate probability poor match.

I have a few friends who might find this worth printing and posting in their offices 😁

Given the current context, that’s saying something

Teff is also what the pancake-y bread at Ethiopian restaurants is made out of. Not surprised it’s tasty popped.

America needs to stop cheering for the pickled egg On madness, cynicism, absurdity, and the event horizon to the end of the republic

The eternal problem with this sort of analysis is that it doesn’t really give any suggestions for those of us who are pickled egg-averse. Still, not a bad essay.

www.greatpower.us/p/america-ne...