Kris Hatcher 🏳️‍🌈

New Hampshire Defies DOJ Push for Voter Data Read more here.

NEW: New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan (R) has declined a request from the U.S. Department of Justice to turn over the state’s full statewide voter registration list, citing state law and cybersecurity concerns. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

Tom Lehrer, Musical Satirist With a Dark Streak, Dies at 97 A mathematician by training, he acquired a devoted following with songs that set sardonic lyrics to music that was often maddeningly cheerful.

Tom Lehrer, the Harvard-trained mathematician whose wickedly iconoclastic songs made him a favorite satirist in the 1950s and ’60s on college campuses and in all the Greenwich Villages of the country, died on Saturday at 97.

Tom's music played a formative part in my childhood. 😭

This is literally exhibit A for why queer joy is so profoundly subversive. Anger is important too. But joy -- "smiling and talking and crying and laughing" -- that's what the fascists want to stamp out. That's the real challenge to their reign.

Large, fully open, white peony bloom with dark green leaves in the background. One petal has a thin line of dark pink right at the edge of the petal. Other petals, upon closer inspection, have little dots of pink on their edges too.

Our second round of peonies are blooming right now. This one, with little "threads"of pink on the edge of white petals caught my eye this morning. #flowers

A day for the Democratic appointees on SCOTUS — but what does it mean? Justices Jackson, Sotomayor, and Kagan each wrote a majority decision on Thursday. The decisions provide some insights into their approach in this moment.

What did SCOTUS do today?

I have you covered at Law Dork:

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, AFL-CIO, et al., Plaintiffs, V. DONALD J. TRUMP, et al., Defendants. Case No. 25-cv-03698-SI ORDER GRANTING TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER AND COMPELLING CERTAIN DISCOVERY PRODUCTION Re: Dkt. No. 37 The new presidential administration has made clear that it intends to change the way the federal government operates. An Executive Order issued on February 11, 2025 seeks to "commence[] a critical transformation of the Federal bureaucracy" by "eliminating waste, bloat, and insularityLl Exec. Order No. 14210, 90 Fed. Reg. 9,669 (Feb. 11, 2025). It is the prerogative of presidents to pursue new policy priorities and to imprint their stamp on the federal government. But to make large-scale overhauls of federal agencies, any president must enlist the help of his co-equal branch and partner, the Congress. Federal courts should not micromanage the vast federal workforce, but courts must sometimes act to preserve the proper checks and balances between the three branches of government. As a group of conservative former government officials and advisors have written to the Court, "Unchecked presidential power is not what the Framers had in mind." Dkt. No. 69-1 at 1.

CONCLUSION The Court concludes where it began. The President has the authority to seek changes to executive branch agencies, but he must do so in lawful ways and, in the case of large-scale reorganizations, with the cooperation of the legislative branch. Many presidents have sought this cooperation before; many iterations of Congress have provided it. Nothing prevents the President from requesting this cooperation- as he did in his prior term of office. Indeed, the Court holds the President likely must request Congressional cooperation to order the changes he seeks, and thus issues a temporary restraining order to pause large-scale reductions in force in the meantime. A temporary restraining order is, by definition, temporary. The Court will not consider defendants' request for a stay of execution of the temporary restraining order, as doing so would render the exercise pointless. The Court must promptly proceed to consideration of a preliminary injunction. Plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction shall be filed no later than Wednesday, May 14, 2025 at 4:00 p.m. (PDT) and shall not exceed 25 pages; defendants' opposition is due by Monday, May 19, 2025 at 4:00 p.m. (PDT) and shall not exceed 25 pages. The Court shall hold a preliminary injunction hearing in person on Thursday, May 22, 2025 at 10:30 a.m. IT IS SO ORDERED. Dated: May 9, 2025 Suren Slaton SUSAN ILLSTON United States District Judge

BREAKING: Federal judge issues a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from implementing widespread RIFs and other efforts to dismantle wide swaths of the federal government for the next two weeks, during which time a preliminary injunction motion can be briefed and argued.

www.nokings.org

The Trump administration deported a 2-year-old U.S. citizen on Friday A conservative judge on Friday warned of his "strong suspicion" that the administration "just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process."

NEW: The Trump administration deported a 2-year-old U.S. citizen on Friday.

Hours later, a conservative judge who tried to intervene warned of his "strong suspicion" that the administration "just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process."

I want politics to be about a better everyday life.

Here's what that can look like:

Bluesky’s logo, a trusted verifier’s scalloped checkmark, and a standard verified blue check mark.

We’re introducing a new layer of verification on Bluesky — a user-friendly, easily recognizable blue check.

In addition to account verification issued by Bluesky, we're also introducing Trusted Verifiers. Select independent organizations can verify accounts directly.

Mack Trucks announces layoffs at Lehigh Valley plant, blames tariffs • Pennsylvania Capital-Star Union leaders announced the company had confirmed layoffs Thursday afternoon. The plant in Macungie employs around 1,200 workers.

Tariffs lead to large layoffs at Mack Trucks penncapital-star.com/briefs/mack-...

This is some sick shit

A town hall for Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia on Tuesday quickly deteriorated into chaos, as police officers forcibly removed several protesters and subdued two of them with stun guns.

Read more: nyti.ms/42MLMZV

"Biological sex is not binary."

Grabbed at his appointment to become a citizen. Is this who we are? 😕🇺🇸

good analogy

Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions - rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking steps to make sure students can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect. Let’s hope others follow suit.

Derek is doing better trade and supply chain analysis than most people in DC

Official count from the Hands Off Protest is 5.2 million people at over 1600 protests nationwide. Next day of action is April 19th.

On Monday, the five men on the U.S. Supreme Court said they would take President Donald Trump and his administration at their word in litigation over Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. This despite the fact that these are the very people who have spent the past 24 days trying to avoid; manipulate; deceive; and, in at least one instance, likely outright ignore the courts in the litigation. The four women justices would do no such thing and said so — although Justice Amy Coney Barrett held back a little more than the others.

My full report at Law Dork on what happened at SCOTUS tonight. www.lawdork.com/p/scotus-5-4...

Tariffs xkcd.com/3073

Streamlit This app was built in Streamlit! Check it out and visit https://streamlit.io for more awesome community apps. 🎈

Visualize the DOGE api data, in all it's questionable detail. (Courtesy of linkedin.com/in/richiegarafola) dogesavings.streamlit.app

James Franco "first time?" meme

Elder millennials watching traders freak out about a global economic collapse that will wreck tens of millions of lives and livelihoods, possibly irreparably

Yesterday was incredible. The official count is in — 5.2 million people joined the #HandsOff protest nationwide. So many are asking: what’s next? Mark your calendars: 4/19 is the next nationwide day of protest.

Absolutely proud of you all! HUG! So far, 3.1 million protesters counted today — that’s nearly 1% of the U.S. population! Photos are flooding social media everywhere. Still waiting on more numbers to come in.

Wow! Updated estimates now put turnout at 2.3 million — and we’re still waiting on reports from coalition members in other areas, with some events yet to begin! If you’re free, come out and join us. Over 1,400 events are planned across the country.

“Dutch computer scientist and intelligence expert Bert Hubert explains why European governments should urgently exit the American clouds and how to do this fastest” | republik.ch The problem is: administrations, governments and parliaments do not want to change anything, certainly not to migrate anything. They are not only technophobic, they hate new technologies. Our publi…

“Dutch computer scientist and intelligence expert Bert Hubert explains why European governments should urgently exit the American clouds and how to do this fastest” | republik.ch
https://alecmuffett.com/article/113085
#BertHubert #cloud #europe #regulation

Same here - @eggsistenti.bsky.social and I have been proud Costco members for more than a decade!

I mean, not not this...