Mark Welch

I have just approved TINY CARS to be built in America. Manufacturers have long wanted to do this, just like they are so successfully built in other countries. They can be propelled by gasoline, electric, or hybrid. These cars of the very near future are inexpensive, safe, fuel efficient and, quite simply, AMAZING!!! START BUILDING THEM NOW! Thank you to the DOJ and the Departments of Transportation and Environment. ENJOY!!! President DONALD J. TRUMP

Chairman Mao announces his new state-run transportation plan

Hassett Backs Call for Fed Presidents to Have Lived in Districts National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett backed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s call for a new residency requirement in the appointment of presidents of Federal Reserve banks.

Yeah this is bad. Trump admin appears to be laying the groundwork to purge regional Fed presidents, all of whom are up for reappointment in February.

Makes sense. The Senate is no longer part of the United States government, right?

Mal Goes to War: A Novel Mal Goes to War: A Novel - Kindle edition by Ashton, Edward. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Mal Goes to War: A Novel.

Today's reading distraction: "Mal Goes to War" (2024) by Edward Ashton.
amzn.to/4iPkngn
@edashtonwriting.bsky.social

A war criminal without a war It's just murder.

New in PN: A war criminal without a war

"We’re watching the flimsy justifications fall apart in real time. They can try to shift the blame. They can try to say that people clinging to wreckage for dear life are somehow an active threat. But in the end, it’s just murder."

The new National Security Strategy is a propaganda document, designed to be widely read. It is also a performative suicide. Hard to think of another great power ever abdicating its influence so quickly and so publicly. It will be worth following the reactions around the world, not just in Europe.

Buying Time Warner is now an official point in every bubble

cool that the official position of the administration appears to be that black people don’t really count as americans

Every time I begin to wonder if my Pop Culture and Politics class isn't timely enough...

Company backed by Donald Trump Jr.'s firm nabs $620M government contract | TechCrunch Vulcan Elements, a rare-earth magnets startup, has secured a $620 million contract from the U.S. defense department.

By utterly amazing coincidence, a company backed by Trump son's VC firm got a $620 million military contract.

DOJ orders prison inspectors to stop considering LGBTQ safety standards A memo obtained by NPR shows the Justice Department is telling inspectors to stop evaluating prisons using standards designed to protect trans and other LGBTQ community members from sexual violence.

- Cruelty. The point
Internal memo halts oversight of prison rape protections for trans inmates  www.npr.org/2025/12/04/n...

I’m beyond tired with liberalism taking solace in dissents from the liberal justices. THEY ARE MEANINGLESS WORDS. THE DISSENTS MEAN NOTHING.

No they won’t, because it would spell absolute disaster for Amazon.

They have offloaded massive amounts of the most expensive (and difficult) part of the job to the USPS.

“Smile” will implode If they have to be responsible for “last mile”.

National parks change prioritizes Trump birthday over days honoring Black people Free entrance days at national parks no longer include MLK Day and Juneteenth.

"The Donald Trump administration has changed which holidays qualify for free entrance to national parks, removing two holidays celebrating Black people and adding the president’s birthday."

I give it six months before he’s donning a military uniform and giving four-hour speeches from balconies.

AHEM zeteo.com/p/trump-nati...

‘It’s attempted kidnapping’: Video shows masked agents chase US-born woman back to her Marrero home The woman told CNN she was born and raised in the New Orleans area.

Look at these ICE thugs with their masks on chasing this woman down the street. Terrifying and grotesque.
www.wwltv.com/article/news...

For my current work in progress, I'm trying to track (a representative sample of) litigation against the Trump administration that features First Amendment claims or otherwise implicates free speech. To that end, this tracker from @lawfaremedia.org has been incredibly helpful:

The Supreme Court lets the Texas racial gerrymander go forward, overruling the three-judge district court. In so doing, it tells us that as of December 2025 it is too close to the 2026 election to redraw maps.

1/2
www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

Supreme Court allows Texas to use Trump-backed congressional map in midterms | CNN Politics The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed Texas to use a congressional map that will boost President Donald Trump’s effort to keep Republicans in control of Congress, blocking a lower court decision that ...

The corrupt Supreme Court on Thursday allowed Texas to use a gerrymandered congressional map that will boost Trump’s effort to keep Republicans in control of Congress, blocking a lower court decision that found the new boundaries were likely unconstitutional because they were drawn based on race.

It's good—very good, and very important—that district courts keep issuing these 100-page rulings upholding the law. It must be incredibly dispiriting to see them overturned in a two-page, lawless, unsigned order, but please, keep them coming. They expose SCOTUS' corruption like nothing else.

Making America Great Again for international travelers seeking abuse.

‘Atoms for Algorithms:’ The Trump Administration’s Top Nuclear Scientists Think AI Can Replace Humans in Power Plants A presentation at the International Atomic Energy Agency unveiled Big Tech’s vision of an AI and nuclear fueled future.

What could possibly go wrong?

www.404media.co/nuclear-rian...

Russia’s Child Abductions Reach North Korea: A Crime With No Borders My article in today's London Business News

It's Worse Than You Can Imagine: Among the 35000 Ukrainian children that have been kidnapped by Russia, thousands are being shipped off to North Korea where they are held in military style detention camps.

Federal judge limits warrantless immigration arrests in D.C. Lawyers say federal agents unlawfully operated under an ‘arrest first, ask questions later’ policy.

Judge orders federal agents can no longer arrest people in D.C. on immigration violations without a warrant or probable cause to believe they could potentially flee if not detained

It's the 2nd significant legal loss for Trump over his raid on D.C. in the past 2 weeks.

✏️ by: @51st.news

“Her case is an unconstitutional horror show,” said her lawyer....

Trump can expand every DHS agency to have the capacity to invade our cities & do the job they are designed to do. Congress gave DHS for 2026:

💰 $43,800,000,000 in the reconciliation bill
+
💰 $178,000,000,000 in supplemental funding
+
💰 $115,500,000,000 Regular appropriations

Facial recognition could be used more widely by police under plans A new consultation aims to lead to new laws expanding the use of the technology by more police forces.

Expanding facial recognition without proper safeguards in place puts our rights on the back foot.

We should be able to walk down the street without being ID’d at every step.

Parliament must wake up and halt the march of this tech with its questionable accuracy.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

ChatGPT Told a Violent Stalker to Embrace the 'Haters,' Indictment Says A newly filed indictment claims a wannabe influencer used ChatGPT as his "therapist" and "best friend" in his pursuit of the "wife type," while harassing women so aggressively they had to miss work a...

New from 404 Media: ChatGPT told a violent stalker to continue running his misogynistic and threat-filled podcast despite the “haters,” and to visit more gyms to find women. The man stalked women in multiple states, including touching and following from work

www.404media.co/chatgpt-spot...