Friday, January 31, 2025
Psychologist: How to influence anyone who disagrees with you
US Treasury Department withdraws from global regulatory climate change group | Reuters
Rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa made transitional president of Syria
US-born teenager murdered by father in Pakistan over TikTok content
Fact or fiction? Trump repeats false claim that US sends condoms to Gaza
To Pay for Trump Tax Cuts, House GOP Could Slash Benefits for Poor, Working Class — ProPublica
Meta agrees to pay Trump $25m for suspending accounts over Capitol riots | Meta | The Guardian
What Republicans and RFK Jr. tried to hide from you about Medicaid
Q&A on Trump’s Impending Exit from the World Health Organization - FactCheck.org
Trump backs yet another former GOP lawmaker accused of corruption
A combative nomination hearing raises more questions about Gabbard - POLITICO
Trump begins term with historically low approval rating, poll shows | Donald Trump | The Guardian
Government Tech Workers Forced to Defend Projects to Random Elon Musk Bros | WIRED
Christian Nationalists Are Swooning Over JD Vance’s Remarks on Fox News – Mother Jones
Thursday, January 30, 2025
‘Headed for technofascism’: the rightwing roots of Silicon Valley
The Silicon Valley titans of 2025 are following the same blueprint. Last week, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta was ending its DEI programs and changing its platform policies to allow more discriminatory and harassing posts. On Joe Rogan's podcast, Zuckerberg made his motivations clear: he claimed that corporate culture had moved away from "masculine energy" and needed to reinstate it after getting "neutered". Elon Musk has reshaped Twitter into X, a platform in large part operating as a response to claims of a "woke mind virus"– the newest iteration of "political correctness". And Marc Andreessen himself, the "boy genius" of the 1990s, has increasingly drawn inspiration from the Italian futurists, a movement of fascist artists in the early 20th century who glorified technology while seeking to "demolish" feminism...
New opinion poll shows 85% of Greenlanders do not want to join US
Despite Donald Trump claiming the island's population 'want to be with us', Greenlanders overwhelmingly rejected the idea…
Republicans cling to false ‘condoms in Gaza’ claim, despite reality
Trump and some of his GOP allies have argued that the U.S. approved $50 million for condoms in Gaza. A fact-check report called the claim "preposterous."…
GOP steps aside as Trump assaults Congress’ power - POLITICO
President Donald Trump has declared an all-out war on congressional power. And his allies on Capitol Hill aren't doing much to fend off the invasion...
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/28/trump-gop-leaders-congress-power-assault-00002129
Federal workers warned not to take Trump resignation offer : NPR
Unions and attorneys who represent federal employees are telling workers not to take the offer from the Trump administration to resign from their jobs by Feb. 6 and still be paid through September...
https://www.npr.org/2025/01/29/nx-s1-5279365/federal-workers-resign-offer-buyout
Democrats leave 'emergency' meeting vowing to fight Trump actions
Jeffries and his leadership team are calling on all rank-and-file Democrats to stage "a day of action" this week, while the House is in recess. And lawmakers said they're already taking that message to heart, staging town halls with voters and Zoom calls with advocacy groups to warn against what they see as a dire threat to America's democratic traditions.
In blue districts, that might mean preaching largely to the choir. But Huffman, for one, said he's planning to step into more hostile territory to deliver the message.
"I had a jam-packed town hall last night — I'm going to be doing more of them," he said. "But I am looking at going into the Republican parts of my district to show what a wrecking ball this federal spending freeze is for the very people in communities who think Trump cares about them."…
White House acknowledges truth about N.J. drones and it doesn't make Trump look good
Nicolle Wallace Says Trump Funding Freeze Stunt Has A Huge Silver Lining | HuffPost Latest News
Trump executive orders target indoctrination, vouchers and antisemitism - The Washington Post
"This order hijacks federal money used to level the playing field for poor and disadvantaged kids and hands it directly to unaccountable private operators," she said in a statement...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/01/29/trump-education-orders-indoctrination-school-choice-antisemitism/
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
New AI tool counters health insurance denials decided by automated algorithms
The lawsuit against them alleged that nH Predict has a 90% error rate, meaning nine out of 10 denials are reversed upon appeal – but that vanishingly few patients (about 0.2%) appeal their denied claims, leading them to pay bills out of pocket or forgo necessary treatment…
Doctor's offices now have entire departments devoted to processing and appealing prior authorization decisions…
Recent school shooters appear to have crossed paths in online extremist groups
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/25/school-shooters-online-extremist-groups
Scammers Are Creating Fake News Videos to Blackmail Victims | WIRED
Caroline Kennedy warns senators about cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - The Washington Post
US education department ends ‘hoax’ investigations into book bans
The ALA released a statement in response to the education department's actions, stating: "In their cruel and headlong effort to terminate protections from discrimination for LGBTQIA+ students and students of color, the Department of Education advances the demonstrably false claim that book bans are not real. Book bans are real." It goes on to say that "the new administration is not above the US constitution"...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/27/education-department-book-ban-investigations
How the roots of the ‘PayPal mafia’ extend to apartheid South Africa | Elon Musk | The Guardian
"What is indisputable is that Musk and Thiel grew up amid incredible privilege where the racial hierarchy was clear. Those who claimed to reject apartheid sought to explain this privilege not as the result of systemic racial oppression but the natural order of things thanks to their own abilities. That in turn led some to regard all forms government as oppressive and true liberty as an individual battle for survival…"
"You can call this anti-democratic principle dictatorship if you wish. In Italy it is called 'Fascism', in Germany 'German National Socialism' and in South Africa 'Christian nationalism'."…
"We all [white South Africans], by the very nature of our privileges and our place in the racial hierarchy, grew up believing we were the master race, even if we didn't actively think about it,"…
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/26/elon-musk-peter-thiel-apartheid-south-africa
Defectors offer insight into mindset of North Korean soldiers fighting in Ukraine
"When North Korean workers, who have lived their entire lives trapped in a restrictive system, experience life abroad, they come to see North Korea as nothing short of a prison," Ahn said. "Once they realize what freedom could mean, it's hard to imagine they wouldn't consider breaking free to live a freer life."
In addition to finding freedom, they could provide the U.S. and others with valuable intelligence regarding the North Korean military's strategies and capabilities, which are often exaggerated by the North Korean government…
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/north-korea-ukraine-soldiers-defectors-russia-rcna187547
Banking regulator rescinds more than 200 job offers for examiners it needs - The Washington Post
A federal hiring freeze has made the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. even more short-handed...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/01/27/fdic-bank-examiners-job-offers-rescinded/
Navajo alarmed by reports of Indigenous people caught up in Trump immigration raids
That came alongside reports of at least 15 Indigenous people in Arizona and New Mexico having reported being stopped at their homes and workplaces, questioned or detained by federal law enforcement and asked to produce proof of citizenship during immigration raids that began last week...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/27/navajo-nation-immigration-raids
Trump’s TikTok Bailout Is Worse Than It Looks - POLITICO
The TikTok ban was supposed to be a critical national security response to the threat posed by the Chinese government and its control over an app with 170 million users in our country. Shortly before the law went into effect, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said in a speech on the Senate floor that "without question, TikTok's lethal algorithm has cost the lives of many American kids." He announced that there would "be no extensions, no concessions and no compromises for TikTok."…
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/01/28/trump-tiktok-bailout-00200800
Adam Schiff Names One Reason Trump May Have Fired Several Inspectors General | HuffPost Latest News
"This is Donald Trump's way of telling us he's terrified of accountability," Schumer said...
US court throws out Biden-era rules designed to protect car buyers | Reuters
A U.S. appeals court on Monday threw out rules adopted by the Biden administration to ban bait-and-switch tactics and prohibit auto dealers charging for add-on costs that do not benefit new car buyers...
By killing remote work, DOGE will only bleed taxpayers dry
Policymakers have a clear choice. They can follow the evidence and embrace telework as a tool for modernizing the federal workforce, or they can cling to outdated notions of productivity that prioritize appearances over outcomes. Telework offers a proven path to reducing costs, improving efficiency, and enhancing employee satisfaction, all while maintaining high standards of accountability. Rather than dismantle telework, DOGE should focus on leveraging its benefits to create a more agile and effective public sector.
The attacks on telework are rooted in ideology rather than evidence. The alignment between Republican criticisms and DOGE's agenda suggests that their true goal is not to improve government efficiency but to shrink the federal workforce and weaken unions. This approach would come at a steep price for taxpayers, businesses, and the broader economy…
https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/5108526-republicans-criticize-telework/
California Officials Fact-Check Trump’s Latest Claim About The State’s Water Supply | HuffPost Latest News
Trump has continued to make misleading statements about California's water supply, attacking Democratic lawmakers in the state, including Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The state has contested Trump's assertions, noting that there is no issue with the volume of water available. While some fire hydrants ran dry while firefighters were combatting the Palisades fire, officials maintained that this was due to the damaging effects the fire had on the system…
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/california-fact-checks-trump_n_6798cc08e4b08bc8f37bcba8
History Will Judge (Andrew McCabe and Allison Gill; Jack: A Special Counsel podcast, Episode #111 )
Tuesday, January 28, 2025
Food Banks See Rising Hunger Among Working Americans: CityLab Daily - Bloomberg
Food banks across the US are seeing a post-pandemic wave of demand driven by working people caught in America's cost-of-living crunch. In Flagstaff, Arizona, a pantry that served 127,000 meals in all of 2015 now serves 40,000 meals a month. In the Washington, DC, metro region, the Capital Area Food Bank distributed 5 million more meals than it did the previous fiscal year...
Trump’s attack on the federal workforce is an attack on the Black middle class
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-dei-federal-workers-civil-rights-rcna188966
Energized neo-Nazis feel their moment has come as Trump changes everything | Far right (US) | The Guardian
"Get the bag, infiltrate existing institutions with power, build new institutions while we have breathing room, and tear down anything leftist."…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/26/neo-nazis-trump-extremism
Krugman warns of Trump immigration plans harming food production, construction
The agriculture industry might be hit the hardest, he suggested, noting that many farm laborers lack permanent legal status.
"Push those workers out, either by actual deportation or detention or simply by creating a climate of fear, and just watch what happens to grocery prices," he wrote...
Here's Why It's Hard To Find Eggs At The Grocery Store | HuffPost Life
Colombia lifts ban on deportation flights after Trump tariff threat
Colombia's president posted: "A migrant is not a criminal and must be treated with the dignity that every human being deserves....
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/26/colombia-gustavo-petro-trump-deportation-flights
JD Vance clashes with Catholic bishops as GOP line on religion evolves
As last week began, Republicans targeted an Episcopal bishop. As last week ended, the vice president clashed with Roman Catholic bishops...
January 6 rioter pardoned by Trump is killed by police in traffic stop | Indiana | The Guardian
Indiana state police say Matthew Huttle, who was given six months in prison, was shot after allegedly resisting arrest…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/27/jan-6-pardon-police-killing-matthew-huttle
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