Tom Donaldson

We added some nice features to our JWST Search interface. HST rolling out in next couple months, along with more goodies.

"NASA Has Been Implementing the President’s Proposed FY26 Budget Cuts Since Early Summer—In Clear Violation of the Constitution"

Appointees & politicians telling you the US will do more and be leaders in human spaceflight with this budget are lying to you.

www.commerce.senate.gov/services/fil...

We need to call it what it is: a president using government coercion to silence voices he doesn't agree with is authoritarianism, plain and simple.

It's the Orbán playbook, the Putin playbook, and now the Trump playbook. And it should alarm every American.

his father was unavailable for comment

The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city.

This is not a joke. This is not normal.

Donald Trump isn't a strongman, he's a scared man. Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator.

🧵 Authoritarianism, Democratization, and Coalition Politics.

The consensus around here is, more or less, that the United States is currently a consolidating authoritarian regime controlled by a mix of reactionary populists and fascists.

Heads up space folks - part of the National Weather Service job application - coming soon to NASA as they hire people to fill the big gaping expertise holes they made in the workforce. Loyalists need only apply.

Duffy Approves Moving a Space Shuttle to Houston spacepolicyonline.com/news/duffy-a...

Should ICE Agents Be Allowed to Wear Masks? It Depends Whom You Ask. Los Angeles’s mayor said Sunday that masked immigration agents helped create a “reign of terror.” ICE’s director said agents could wear masks to “keep them and their families safe.”

NY Times showing how to both sides the secret police abduction squads story

Never before in U.S. history has one man exercised such unbridled discretion affecting the lives of so many, while simultaneously preventing others — Congress, the courts, the American people — from having a say or even knowing what he’s going to do next.

This is dictatorship.

Not sure if it’s too late, but the decent people in power who are still silent need to wake the f up

FEMA Didn’t Answer Thousands of Calls From Flood Survivors, Documents Show

The floods ripped through Texas on July 4.

On July 5, FEMA received 3000 calls from survivors. 1% were unanswered.

That night, Trump/Noem fired the people who answer the calls.

On July 6, FEMA received 2,363 calls. 65% unanswered.

July 7: 85%.

Sick.

We are going back to the almshouses of the 1800s 😱

I’ll get to work on that right away!

As someone who studies political violence, here’s what scares me about the new Trump’s bill:

It’s not just the resources it gives to ICE which is already a human rights disaster.

It’s the signal it sends to ICE supervisors and agents.

Why didn’t George W. Bush say anything when there was a fight to be had over this? Ditto for Obama. Solidarity is better than condolences.

This has always been the GOP's strategy:

1) Cut taxes for the wealthy & corporations by claiming they'll pay for themselves.

2) Explode deficits

3) Use the debt as an excuse to demand cuts to vital programs that help millions.

4) Repeat.

Trump’s tactics of disappearing people in America should terrify everyone who still cherishes democracy and freedom. We reject this growing authoritarian assault.

A federal judge is keeping this man in jail to protect him from the federal government.

Audio from today's #NASA Town Hall: soundcloud.com/keith-cowing...
Speakers
- Janet Petro, Acting NASA Administrator
- Brian Hughes, NASA Chief of Staff
- Vanessa Wyche, Acting NASA Associate Administrator
- Casey Swails, Deputy Associate Administrator

Here's a longer video of Brad Lander's detention just now inside 26 Federal Plaza as he tried to walk a man out of immigration court, by masked federal agents.

Boston's "No Kings" event coincided with Pride so the organizations joined forces for a . . .
"No Kings but Yaaas Queen" event and tbh, I want a copy if this poster.
www.boston.com/news/local-n...

A cabinet of dunces In the Trump regime, incompetence is a job requirement.

"In an administration in which the sole goals are valorizing Trump & making him as rich as possible, any official who demonstrates an ability to effectively carry out the business of the govt is viewed w/ profound suspicion. But those willing to learn incompetence & moral obtuseness are promoted."

The Party of ‘Denihilism’ Republicans are rejecting reality while embracing destruction—just look at the House budget megabill.

My take on the cruel and all too usual Republican budget: Ignores reality, endangers everyone, and makes safety-net remedies as complicated as possible—knowing and perhaps even intending that the result will be stunted and wrecked lives. @thebulwark.com www.thebulwark.com/p/republican...

Thanks for playing, tho.

I don’t think we disagree on much. Both things can be true and relevant.

Of course those are more important. But addressing those important points requires convincing people that the dems aren’t as bad as they thought, now to call their reps and later to vote them out. Charismatic advocacy seems to require new strategies discussions (maybe even including mea culpas).

In the context of, “What strategies should the Democrats use moving forward?” it is relevant (and was before this book) to talk about the behaviors that cost the party votes last year. One of those behaviors was the staggering amount of indefensible gaslighting about the president’s condition.

A nice overview of the current NASA budget situation (before congress gets involved, for better or worse).