Missy 🦋

House Republicans include a 10-year ban on US states regulating AI in 'big, beautiful' bill House Republicans surprised tech industry watchers and outraged many state governments when they added a clause to Republicans’ signature “big, beautiful” tax bill that bans states and localities…

Tucked into the Big Bad Bill is the provision that prohibits any state from regulating AI for the next decade

I wonder if that has anything to do with Elon Musk, Sam Altman of OpenAI, Jensen Huang of Nvidia, Ruth Porat of Google and Andy Jassy of Amazon traveling to Saudi Arabia with POTUS recently

Biden wanted Medicaid to pay for weight-loss drugs. Trump just said it doesn’t have to.

The Trump administration this month scrapped a Biden-era proposal that would have required state Medicaid programs and allowed federal Medicare to pay for some GLP-1s for obesity treatment, reports @chatlanis.bsky.social.

So sweet while she’s sleeping. Ornery when she’s not❤️

Opinion | Musk Said No One Has Died Since Aid Was Cut. That Isn’t True. (Gift Article) A journey through the front lines of global poverty shows that when the world’s richest men slash aid for the world’s poorest children, the result is sickness, starvation and death.

Nick Kristof travelled to South Sudan to talk to people who are dying because Elon Musk cut their 12-cent-a-day HIV meds:

DOGE hunts for ‘wins’ amid tensions with Trump administration, backlash DOGE sees an urgent need to champion “wins,” as Elon Musk’s group finishes slashing federal bureaucracy and moves to building digital tools for the government.

The only win here would be to kick these miscreants out of the government and begin to fix all the things they've broken.

US added to international watchlist for rapid decline in civic freedoms Civicus, an international non-profit, puts country alongside Democratic Republic of Congo, Italy, Pakistan and Serbia

US added to international watchlist for rapid decline in civic freedoms

Civicus, an international non-profit, puts country alongside Democratic Republic of Congo, Italy, Pakistan and Serbia

Exclusive: A growing number of House Republicans are urging the party to preserve the clean energy tax credits in Democrats’ climate law — and warning they may oppose the party’s budget bill if those incentives get axed.

Homeland Security ends TSA collective bargaining agreement, in effort to dismantle union protections A union representing Transportation Security Administration workers calls the Department of Homeland Security's decision to end the collective bargaining agreement with them an “unprovoked attack.”

The Administration is attempting to strip our TSA workers of the union protections they deserve. These hardworking officers keep our airports & our skies safe.

My @laborcaucus.bsky.social colleagues & I know union busting when we see it.

apnews.com/article/coll...

Coups Aren’t What They Used To Be There is no longer a singular bright line that countries cross between democracy and authoritarianism.

I think a big reason you might feel crazy right now is the evolving nature of authoritarian takeovers.

There is no longer a singular bright line that countries cross between democracy and authoritarianism. That complicates things for everyone.

bad-faith-times.ghost.io/coups-arent-...

Major media outlets seem very into the prevalence of threats right now. I care a lot less about Republican senators getting mean emails than I do about immigrants who have been in the US for decades cowering in fear.

Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/o...

Sixty years after Bloody Sunday, civil rights leaders in Selma continue fight Election of Trump and threats to democracy front of mind as activists remember peaceful marchers attacked by police What would John Lewis do today? On a Sunday morning 60 years ago, activists rewrote the story of the civil rights movement in their own…

Sixty years after Bloody Sunday, civil rights leaders in Selma continue fight

NIH research cuts threaten the search for life-saving cures and jobs in every state Ripple effects of the Trump administration's crackdown on U.S. medical research promise to reach every corner of America.

NIH research cuts threaten the search for life-saving cures and jobs in every state

US stock futures drop after Trump says he won’t rule out a recession | CNN Business US stock futures fell Monday after President Donald Trump said the US economy would see “a period of transition” and refused to rule out a recession, in an interview that aired Sunday.

He will tank your 401k and destroy social security... for what? So he can grift off some crypto scam? So he can boost the Russian economy? So he can avoid standing up to Elon? All of the above? www.cnn.com/2025/03/10/i...

Secretary of State Rubio says purge of USAID programs complete, with 83% of agency's programs gone Secretary of State Marco Rubio is signaling that the Trump administration has finished its six-week dismantling of the six-decade-old U.S.

Secretary of State Rubio says purge of USAID programs complete, with 83% of agency’s programs gone

Zuckerberg’s Meta considered sharing user data with China, whistleblower alleges Meta went to extreme lengths, including developing a censorship system, in a failed attempt to bring Facebook to millions of internet users in China, according to a whistleblower complaint.

Zuckerberg’s Meta considered sharing user data with China, whistleblower alleges

Inside Trump’s War on the I.R.S.: Dropped Audits and a Skeleton Staff President Trump is planning to gut the work force while trying to turn the I.R.S. into a more political agency.

The DOGE minions claim to be upgrading the IRS software. If they ever get access to the code, I expect to see an "author_is_elon" exemption to tax audits.

Seriously, this article makes me want to cry.

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/u...

Rubio and homeland security confirm arrest of Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia protests Mahmoud Khalil was detained by Ice despite having a green card and his lawyers do not know where he’s being held * US politics live – latest updates A spokesperson for the US’s homeland security department – as well as the country’s top diplomat –…

Rubio and homeland security confirm arrest of Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia protests

DOGE's effort to slash government is now coming for buildings and people who run them The federal government is preparing to shed up to a quarter of its 360 million square feet of real estate, an NPR analysis finds. The agency in charge of federal real estate is also slashing staff.

Over the weekend, we published a feature on the little-known gov. agency that maintains federal buildings across the country, GSA.

Under Trump and DOGE, it's being decimated: threatening agencies' ability to offer public services from Social Security to tax help.

www.npr.org/2025/03/08/n...

Musk and DOGE try to slash government by cutting out those who answer to voters The dynamic of cutting government while also cutting out those who answer to voters has alarmed even some fiscal conservatives who have long pushed for Congress to reduce spending.

'Holtz-Eakin said there are initial signs of voter discontent over the pace, depth and chaos of the cuts. “The usual way you visit that on a president is you wipe out his party in the midterms,” Holtz-Eakin said. “You never evade the voters.”'

apnews.com/article/trum...

Drawing huge crowds, Bernie Sanders steps into leadership of the anti-Trump resistance At 83 years old, Bernie Sanders has emerged as an unlikely leader of the Democratic resistance to Donald Trump.

'“You look around — who else is doing it? No one,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said of Sanders’ efforts. “My hope is that the dam will break in terms of Democrats going on the offense ... We need to take the argument directly to the people.”'

apnews.com/article/bern...

ICE arrests Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University protests Mahmoud Khalil was inside his university-owned apartment Saturday night when several Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered and took him into custody.

DJT is now deporting green card holders whose politics he disagrees with.
When are all the "if they come here legally, I'm good with them being here" folks going to cry foul?
Our democracy is in the rearview mirror.

www.npr.org/2025/03/10/g...

Trump puts new limits on Elon Musk The president convened his secretaries, with Musk, to clarify power.

While everyone focused on Trump & Elon falling out, it’s actually Trump’s newly appointed cabinet members that are up in arms about DOGE.

Turns out it’s bad enough being unqualified for the job of running a government department, let alone dealing with Elon firing half your competent workers.

Judge orders Trump administration to pay some foreign-aid bills by Monday Judge Amir Ali gave the State Department four days to pay past invoices from groups suing over the aid freeze.

NEW: After 4-hour hearing, judge gives Trump administration new deadline of Monday to pay bills for past foreign aid work, but only for aid groups/contractors that filed suits. Judge Amir Ali said he was taking 'very seriously' #SCOTUS order in the cases www.politico.com/news/2025/03...

FACT FOCUS: A look at false and misleading claims made by Trump during his address to Congress President Donald Trump's one-hour and 40-minute address to Congress highlighted many of his initiatives, from an immigration crackdown to tariffs and energy policy.

FACT FOCUS: A look at false and misleading claims made by Trump during his address to Congress - The Associated Press apnews.com/article/fact... via Google News

SpaceX's Starship explodes in space, again raining debris over Caribbean SpaceX lost contact with its Starship rocket in space on Thursday during the company's eighth test mission, dooming a satellite deployment demonstration in the company's second consecutive Starship fa...

The war profiteers needed a new way to pilfer money, so they became space profiteers. Charging the taxpayers obscene amounts of money with NO results. Call it what it is. same old song and dance my friend

SpaceX’s Starship explodes in space raining debris over Caribbean www.cnbc.com/2025/03/06/s...

Justice Amy Coney Barrett ignites anger on the right after ruling against Trump Conservative allies of President Donald Trump called Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett “evil,” a “closet Democrat” and a “DEI hire.”

My belief has long been that Trump will find the SCOTUS far less receptive to his Constitutional overreaches than he imagines. In his world, loyalty to him is the only virtue. But that's not their world.

Stand tough against the thugs, Amy. And God bless you.

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Stranded Nasa astronauts to finally return to Earth after nine months in space Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been at the International Space Station for nine months

If I'm an astronaut stuck on the Space Station I'd be very worried about getting on Elon Musk's Space Coffin made by SpaceX. Very worried.

US judge reinstates Democratic labor board member fired by Trump A federal judge on Thursday said President Donald Trump's firing of a Democratic member of the National Labor Relations Board was illegal and ordered that she be reinstated to her post.

US judge reinstates Democratic labor board member fired by Trump

SpaceX's latest Starship test flight ends with another explosion SpaceX has blown up another Starship mega rocket on a test flight. Nearly two months since the last explosion, SpaceX launched another 403-foot Starship from Texas on Thursday, but lost contact with t...

SpaceX’s latest Starship test flight ends with another explosion