How Trump's WH strangles research: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/conspiracy-of-silence-how-trump-is-covertly-strangling-billions-in-disease-cure-research
Here’s the mechanics of how these payments work: Payment comes at the end of each month and covers expenses for the research done over that month. So you do January’s work on your own dime and then at the end of January you get paid for the work you did. The stop work orders for the NIH grants never came at Northwestern. So the research continued. But at the end of the month (late April) the payments never came. So they not only had no warning the payments were getting stopped, it’s not entirely clear to me that they had permission to stop the research at all.
There was one news report saying this would happen. Last month Max Kozlov, a reporter for Nature, published an internal NIH email dated April 17th in which instructions were given to stop sending all money to the targeted universities. Critically it also included instructions not to “provide any communications to these schools about whether or why the funds are frozen.” So the strategy was intentional: create confusion about the status of grants and just have the money stop coming.
I know based on my own reporting that this is what happened at Northwestern, as Wu himself reported in the school paper yesterday. It seems almost certain that this happened at all the targeted universities but that everyone is being quiet about it. (See below for more evidence of this.) Why would the other schools be quiet about it? Well, that’s what’s happening at Northwestern. The University, both formally and informally, is itself remaining silent and doing everything it can to keep its researchers and faculty silent. Why? Because they’re still hoping something can be worked out with the administration to keep the money flowing. Meanwhile, I’m told that the White House (technically one of the several entities managing these cut-offs for the White House) has been following the same playbook as it did with Harvard. They’re refusing to say what it is they actually want and are thus making ‘negotiations’ difficult or impossible. The White House already has its freeze. So they’re not in any rush to solve anything. It is easy and correct to say that these Universities are timid or cowardly. But what you see when you look up close is that the universities simply lack the institutional muscle memory to handle a fight like this. There’s no institutional experience and they lack institutional cohesion between administrations, boards of trustees, faculties and major funders.
U.S. Government states no more federal grants for Harvard in bone-headed/bonkers letter which will be introduced into evidence. Linda MacMahon's letter simultaneously accused Harvard of having too large an endowment and being secretly bankrupt.
It seems like the Trump era involves finding out about a new horrible thing multiple-times a day: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/she-called-a-five-year-old-the-n-word-crowdfunding
N-word–slinging woman becomes right-wing hero
OVER THE PAST WEEK, portions of the American right have embraced a Minnesota woman whose claim to fame is that she allegedly called a 5-year-old boy the n-word, going so far as to help her raise hundreds of thousands of dollars.
But the development has also confounded others in the MAGA movement, including some well-known personalities who warn that it’s not the best of looks to celebrate an overtly racist, highly viral rant.
The episode centers on Shiloh Hendrix, who shot to infamy last week after a video showed her arguing with a Somali-American man on a playground.
In the video, a man claims he had just seen Hendrix call a black child the n-word before the recording started. Hendrix then confirms on video that she did, indeed, call the child the slur because he tried to steal from her bag. She then proceeds to call the man the same racial slur.
There aren’t really extenuating circumstances here. Hendrix, again, admits to deploying the racist epithet. Yet significant portions of MAGA media have championed her, arguing that they should do so as a matter of free speech and to fight the spread of “anti-white” racism.
Trump doesn't want one of his crazy right-wing appointees making an abortion related ruling in time for the midterms: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/05/health/trump-abortion-pill-case.html
The Trump administration on Monday asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit that seeks to sharply restrict access to the abortion pill mifepristone — taking the same position as the Biden administration in a closely watched case that has major implications for abortion access....
The Trump administration’s request made no mention of the merits of the case, which have not yet been considered by the courts. Rather, echoing the argument that the Biden administration made shortly before Mr. Trump took office, the court filing asserts that the case does not meet the legal standard to be heard in the federal district court in which it was filed.
The plaintiffs in the case are the conservative attorneys general of three states: Missouri, Idaho and Kansas, and the case was filed in a federal district court in Texas.
“The states do not dispute that their claims have no connection to the Northern District of Texas,” the Justice Department lawyers wrote in the filing.
“Regardless of the merits of the states’ claims, the states cannot proceed in this court,” they concluded, adding that the complaint “should be dismissed or transferred for lack of venue.”
Who gets to decide whether a Department or a law failed in its intent or not?
The Department of Education is also about enforcement of various provisions of the Civil Rights Act as they apply to schools and universities including but not limited to, making sure that the girl's softball team has adequate funding and it isn't all just funneled to Friday Night Lights. Also the DOE provides guidelines and support for parents of children with special needs in the public school systems. Shutting the DOE is just going to make it harder to educate children with special needs.
Basically, a reject JB's premise and framing of the issue and it gives too much good faith to Trump and Co or right-wingers.
On Saturday night, Palm Beach TV apparently showed Escape from Alcatraz. Sometime later, also on Saturday night, Trump announced we should re-open and expand Alcatraz.
He also announced a 100 percent tariff on foreign movies so now incels will be against him for taking anime waifu.
Judge Beryl A. Howell declares Trump's Executive Order against Perkins Coie null and void in a blistering opinion: https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2025cv0716-185
She provides no mercy to firms that bent the knee: "Yet, some clients may harbor reservations about the
implications of such deals for the vigorous and zealous representation to which they are entitled from ethically responsible counsel, since at least the publicized deal terms appear only to forestall, rather than eliminate, the threat of being targeted in an Executive Order."
I agree the Democrats are not radically left. But I would argue Democrats need to win more heterogeneous districts and states for a majority and this makes governing hard.
SF’s suburbs are much more blue than NYC’s suburbs (which tend to light blue to medium red, Trump won Long Island, he got crushed in wealthy Marin and San Mateo Counties. But Democrats need to win the LI Congressional districts, at least some of them and they are not hankering for socialism.
Then you get weird issues like NIMBYism coding progressive in SF but moderate in Seattle.
But Trump won a narrow victory and is governing extremely and thermostatic voting is a very strong tendency in this country.
One of Trump's own judges said he can't use the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans to El Salvador Gulags: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/us/texas-judge-trump-alien-enemies-act.html
"Sitting in front of a packed auditorium in Dubai, a founder of the Trump family cryptocurrency business made a brief but monumental announcement on Thursday. A fund backed by Abu Dhabi, he said, would be making a $2 billion business deal using the Trump firm’s digital coins.
That transaction would be a major contribution by a foreign government to President Trump’s private venture — one that stands to generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the Trump family. And it is a public and vivid illustration of the ethical conflicts swirling around Mr. Trump’s crypto firm, which has blurred the boundary between business and government."
Governor Whitmer decided to commit political suicide yesterday: https://apnews.com/article/whitmer-trump-hug-michigan-fd8652c2a515ed356be16d16e875d0ae
From time to time, Democratic politicians will need to appear at things with Trump but you don't have to hug the man or appear at his rallies. He is underwater in Michigan and even more so nationally. Yeah she is term-limited but this is not going to help any hopes she had for the 2028 nomination for President. And I get that some Democrats think galaxy-brained bipartisanship is a thing but I think that is massively misreading the room.
The charitable reading is that she reversed her numbers. 22 million Americans popping pills from the street would still be very high though. Apparently she doubled down on the lie in front of Congress. I think these kind of lies serve two purposes:
1. They actually work on the most credulous of Trump supporters. Sorry for being uncharitable but think older ladies from small or smallish towns who think Bismark, North Dakota is a big city and have tastes which we would describe as kitsch.
2. They are meant to troll the libz because we are required to spend time correcting it. See quote above.
“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.” - Jean-Paul Sartre
The trolling and outrageous lies are the point.
Yesterday and Today:
1. Pam Bondi said Trump and Co took 22 million Fentanyl pills off the street and saved 119 million lives.
2. Trump went on ABC and apparently said something about Garcia having MS-13 tattooed on his fist.
3. Miller, a ghoul's ghoul if there ever was one, put up signs on the White House lawn about deported "violent criminals"
To the extent these are not meant to troll the libz, they are designed for the most "sweet" and credulous small-town Grandma who decorates her house in kitsch like Thomas Kinkade and Precious Moment stuff.
“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.” -Jean Paul Sartre.
It is amazing how many people refuse to learn that a lot of what Trump and Co do is nothing but bad-faith trolling
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Open Mic for the Week of 5/5/2025”
Why are you defending a woman who called a 5 year old kid the n-word?
Do you think it speaks well of right-wingers that they are turning this woman into a hero and giving her hundreds of thousands of dollars apparently?
You should face social shame for calling anyone a slur but especially a small child?
I get that you convinced others that your are loveable cuddly knee-jerk contrarian but it really isn't cute.
"
How Trump's WH strangles research: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/conspiracy-of-silence-how-trump-is-covertly-strangling-billions-in-disease-cure-research
Here’s the mechanics of how these payments work: Payment comes at the end of each month and covers expenses for the research done over that month. So you do January’s work on your own dime and then at the end of January you get paid for the work you did. The stop work orders for the NIH grants never came at Northwestern. So the research continued. But at the end of the month (late April) the payments never came. So they not only had no warning the payments were getting stopped, it’s not entirely clear to me that they had permission to stop the research at all.
There was one news report saying this would happen. Last month Max Kozlov, a reporter for Nature, published an internal NIH email dated April 17th in which instructions were given to stop sending all money to the targeted universities. Critically it also included instructions not to “provide any communications to these schools about whether or why the funds are frozen.” So the strategy was intentional: create confusion about the status of grants and just have the money stop coming.
I know based on my own reporting that this is what happened at Northwestern, as Wu himself reported in the school paper yesterday. It seems almost certain that this happened at all the targeted universities but that everyone is being quiet about it. (See below for more evidence of this.) Why would the other schools be quiet about it? Well, that’s what’s happening at Northwestern. The University, both formally and informally, is itself remaining silent and doing everything it can to keep its researchers and faculty silent. Why? Because they’re still hoping something can be worked out with the administration to keep the money flowing. Meanwhile, I’m told that the White House (technically one of the several entities managing these cut-offs for the White House) has been following the same playbook as it did with Harvard. They’re refusing to say what it is they actually want and are thus making ‘negotiations’ difficult or impossible. The White House already has its freeze. So they’re not in any rush to solve anything. It is easy and correct to say that these Universities are timid or cowardly. But what you see when you look up close is that the universities simply lack the institutional muscle memory to handle a fight like this. There’s no institutional experience and they lack institutional cohesion between administrations, boards of trustees, faculties and major funders.
"
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/5/6/no-more-federal-grants/
U.S. Government states no more federal grants for Harvard in bone-headed/bonkers letter which will be introduced into evidence. Linda MacMahon's letter simultaneously accused Harvard of having too large an endowment and being secretly bankrupt.
"
It seems like the Trump era involves finding out about a new horrible thing multiple-times a day: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/she-called-a-five-year-old-the-n-word-crowdfunding
N-word–slinging woman becomes right-wing hero
OVER THE PAST WEEK, portions of the American right have embraced a Minnesota woman whose claim to fame is that she allegedly called a 5-year-old boy the n-word, going so far as to help her raise hundreds of thousands of dollars.
But the development has also confounded others in the MAGA movement, including some well-known personalities who warn that it’s not the best of looks to celebrate an overtly racist, highly viral rant.
The episode centers on Shiloh Hendrix, who shot to infamy last week after a video showed her arguing with a Somali-American man on a playground.
In the video, a man claims he had just seen Hendrix call a black child the n-word before the recording started. Hendrix then confirms on video that she did, indeed, call the child the slur because he tried to steal from her bag. She then proceeds to call the man the same racial slur.
There aren’t really extenuating circumstances here. Hendrix, again, admits to deploying the racist epithet. Yet significant portions of MAGA media have championed her, arguing that they should do so as a matter of free speech and to fight the spread of “anti-white” racism.
"
On the other hand, they have a lot to lose because a lot of them only get income per a class taught.
"
Trump doesn't want one of his crazy right-wing appointees making an abortion related ruling in time for the midterms: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/05/health/trump-abortion-pill-case.html
The Trump administration on Monday asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit that seeks to sharply restrict access to the abortion pill mifepristone — taking the same position as the Biden administration in a closely watched case that has major implications for abortion access....
The Trump administration’s request made no mention of the merits of the case, which have not yet been considered by the courts. Rather, echoing the argument that the Biden administration made shortly before Mr. Trump took office, the court filing asserts that the case does not meet the legal standard to be heard in the federal district court in which it was filed.
The plaintiffs in the case are the conservative attorneys general of three states: Missouri, Idaho and Kansas, and the case was filed in a federal district court in Texas.
“The states do not dispute that their claims have no connection to the Northern District of Texas,” the Justice Department lawyers wrote in the filing.
“Regardless of the merits of the states’ claims, the states cannot proceed in this court,” they concluded, adding that the complaint “should be dismissed or transferred for lack of venue.”
On “POETS Day! Things from William Carlos Williams”
https://www.facebook.com/ScarthinBooks/posts/the-american-poet-william-carlos-williams-was-born-on-this-day-september-17-1883/10158789142178330/
"
I like his poems inspired by Brughel paintings
On “The Department of Good Things”
Who gets to decide whether a Department or a law failed in its intent or not?
The Department of Education is also about enforcement of various provisions of the Civil Rights Act as they apply to schools and universities including but not limited to, making sure that the girl's softball team has adequate funding and it isn't all just funneled to Friday Night Lights. Also the DOE provides guidelines and support for parents of children with special needs in the public school systems. Shutting the DOE is just going to make it harder to educate children with special needs.
Basically, a reject JB's premise and framing of the issue and it gives too much good faith to Trump and Co or right-wingers.
On “Open Mic for the Week of 5/5/2025”
On Saturday night, Palm Beach TV apparently showed Escape from Alcatraz. Sometime later, also on Saturday night, Trump announced we should re-open and expand Alcatraz.
He also announced a 100 percent tariff on foreign movies so now incels will be against him for taking anime waifu.
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/28/2025”
Australian Labor Party increases its majority by at least 9. Greens lost all their seats. Dutton lost his seat
On “A Backlash Is Coming”
You also cropped the weirdest part of this photo which was the guy literally bending the knee to Trump like Trump was his king.
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/28/2025”
Judge Beryl A. Howell declares Trump's Executive Order against Perkins Coie null and void in a blistering opinion: https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2025cv0716-185
She provides no mercy to firms that bent the knee: "Yet, some clients may harbor reservations about the
implications of such deals for the vigorous and zealous representation to which they are entitled from ethically responsible counsel, since at least the publicized deal terms appear only to forestall, rather than eliminate, the threat of being targeted in an Executive Order."
"
"The only way you run out of toilet paper is people being stupid panicked."
What about cholera or dysentery outbreaks or the annual irritable bowel syndrome conventions?
On “A Backlash Is Coming”
I agree the Democrats are not radically left. But I would argue Democrats need to win more heterogeneous districts and states for a majority and this makes governing hard.
SF’s suburbs are much more blue than NYC’s suburbs (which tend to light blue to medium red, Trump won Long Island, he got crushed in wealthy Marin and San Mateo Counties. But Democrats need to win the LI Congressional districts, at least some of them and they are not hankering for socialism.
Then you get weird issues like NIMBYism coding progressive in SF but moderate in Seattle.
But Trump won a narrow victory and is governing extremely and thermostatic voting is a very strong tendency in this country.
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/28/2025”
MORAN: Even some people who voted for you are saying, 'I didn't sign up for this.' So how do you answer those concerns?
TRUMP: Well, they did sign up for it actually
Headline: Federal officials want to take back $56 million from Kentucky schools
"
One of Trump's own judges said he can't use the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans to El Salvador Gulags: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/us/texas-judge-trump-alien-enemies-act.html
On “US Department of Education Announces that it is Restarting Loan Collection”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/us/politics/trump-cryptocurrency-usd1-dubai-conference-announcement.html
"Sitting in front of a packed auditorium in Dubai, a founder of the Trump family cryptocurrency business made a brief but monumental announcement on Thursday. A fund backed by Abu Dhabi, he said, would be making a $2 billion business deal using the Trump firm’s digital coins.
That transaction would be a major contribution by a foreign government to President Trump’s private venture — one that stands to generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the Trump family. And it is a public and vivid illustration of the ethical conflicts swirling around Mr. Trump’s crypto firm, which has blurred the boundary between business and government."
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/28/2025”
Governor Whitmer decided to commit political suicide yesterday: https://apnews.com/article/whitmer-trump-hug-michigan-fd8652c2a515ed356be16d16e875d0ae
From time to time, Democratic politicians will need to appear at things with Trump but you don't have to hug the man or appear at his rallies. He is underwater in Michigan and even more so nationally. Yeah she is term-limited but this is not going to help any hopes she had for the 2028 nomination for President. And I get that some Democrats think galaxy-brained bipartisanship is a thing but I think that is massively misreading the room.
"
I unfortunately have to admit that their ability to lie with impunity is awe inspiring (in the original bad sense of the word)
"
"I assume you’re inquiring in good faith"
Why?
"
The charitable reading is that she reversed her numbers. 22 million Americans popping pills from the street would still be very high though. Apparently she doubled down on the lie in front of Congress. I think these kind of lies serve two purposes:
1. They actually work on the most credulous of Trump supporters. Sorry for being uncharitable but think older ladies from small or smallish towns who think Bismark, North Dakota is a big city and have tastes which we would describe as kitsch.
2. They are meant to troll the libz because we are required to spend time correcting it. See quote above.
"
1. No.
2. They get filed a lot and most go nowhere because it is more of an airing of grievances than actual misconduct.
3. Never
"
“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.” - Jean-Paul Sartre
The trolling and outrageous lies are the point.
Yesterday and Today:
1. Pam Bondi said Trump and Co took 22 million Fentanyl pills off the street and saved 119 million lives.
2. Trump went on ABC and apparently said something about Garcia having MS-13 tattooed on his fist.
3. Miller, a ghoul's ghoul if there ever was one, put up signs on the White House lawn about deported "violent criminals"
To the extent these are not meant to troll the libz, they are designed for the most "sweet" and credulous small-town Grandma who decorates her house in kitsch like Thomas Kinkade and Precious Moment stuff.
"
“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.” -Jean Paul Sartre.
It is amazing how many people refuse to learn that a lot of what Trump and Co do is nothing but bad-faith trolling
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.