May 12, 2025

Pam Bondi's Qatar Links

Newsweek - Attorney General Pam Bondi's links to Qatar are under scrutiny again following reports that President Donald Trump will be gifted a luxury plane from the Qatari government.

Bondi worked as a foreign lobbyist for the nation of Qatar, earning $115,000 a month in the role which she held in 2020 and in the run up to the World Cup in 2022.

In this role, she lobbied Congress on behalf of Qatari interests. She also worked in a separate lobbying position for the Washington, D.C.-based firm Ballard Partners, where she also lobbied on behalf of Qatari interests and several conglomerates including Amazon.



Judges Raise Alarm Over Unsolicited Pizza Deliveries

 Newsweek -  U.S. Circuit Judge Michelle Childs, who serves in Washington D.C. spoke to The Washington Post and told the outlet she had seven pizzas delivered this year, starting in February when she was working on a case involving Trump. She described the incident as "unsettling."

U.S. District Judge Esther Salas, whose son Daniel Anderl was fatally shot by an attorney who was posing as a FedEx delivery driver, told the Post that she has heard from judges in multiple states who have been sent pizzas under the name of her son.

She told the outlet, "It went from judges getting pizzas, to then judges' children getting pizzas, to then judges getting pizzas or their children getting pizzas that they didn't order in my murdered son's name."

Trump regime

 Techcrunch -  President Donald Trump has fired Shira Perlmutter, who leads the U.S. Copyright Office.

The firing was reported by CBS News and Politico, and seemingly confirmed by a statement from Representative Joe Morelle, the top Democrat on the Committee for House Administration.

“Donald Trump’s termination of Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis,” Morelle said. “It is surely no coincidence he acted less than a day after she refused to rubber-stamp Elon Musk’s efforts to mine troves of copyrighted works to train AI models.”


Lucky Leo's brother isn't Pope

Huffington Post -  Pope Leo XIV’s brother Lou Prevost has been doing some of his own preaching ― for the right-wing flock.

He wrote that ex-President Barack Obama longed for a dictatorship, and shared a video that called Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) a “drunk c***” and a meme telling parents of trans kids that they’re “shitty.”

Prevost’s Facebook account was busy before his brother, Robert Francis Prevost, was elected the first U.S.-born pope following Pope Francis’ death. And it’s getting noticed by media outlets.

In an April 23 post, Prevost wrote that Obama longed “for the total destruction of our way of life and turning this country into a dictatorship, and a racist one on top of it.” Earlier he advanced a conspiracy theory that “OBAMA WAS A CIA ASSET, PUT IN PLACE TO DESTROY THE USA.”

On April 4, Prevost shared an old video of Pelosi’s since-reversed stance on China tariffs with the caption, “These fucking liberals crying about tariffs is just unreal. Do they not know that there is a thing called video? Just listen to what this drunk c*** has to say In the mid 90’s long before her husband had grindr dates.”

On Feb. 21, Prevost posted a meme with the caption, “Your child isn’t trans. You’re just a shitty parent.”

(Note: This is not about Leo. Siblings can be quite different. I, for example, had one who voted for Trump, although she's changed her mind - Sam Smith) 

Airlines Are Collecting Your Data And Selling It To ICE

 Lever News -  A massive aviation industry clearinghouse that processes data for 12 billion passenger flights per year is selling that information to the Trump administration amid the White House’s new immigration crackdown, according to documents reviewed by The Lever.

The data — including “full flight itineraries, passenger name records, and financial details, which are otherwise difficult or impossible to obtain” for past and future flights — is fed into a secretive government intelligence operation called the Travel Intelligence Program and provided to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agencies, records reveal.

Details of this program were outlined in procurement documents released Wednesday by ICE, which is a division of the Department of Homeland Security.

Privacy and travel industry experts interviewed by The Lever said that law enforcement’s access to such a vast database — with little information on what privacy or other restrictions are in place — raises serious civil liberties concerns.

“This is probably the single most significant aggregated repository of data about American air travelers,” said Edward Hasbrouck, an expert in travel data privacy. “That the government has gotten access to it is a very big deal.”

Word

 David Atkins, Washington Monthly -  As Illinois Governor JB Pritzker put it, “Bullies respond to one thing only: a punch in the face.” Democrats don’t need to mimic MAGA’s tactics. But they must prove they have the spine to make authoritarians pay. Otherwise, they’re not a political opposition but a speed bump. 

Republicans have spent decades learning that they can get away with it. Nixon resigned but was pardoned. Reagan’s team sabotaged Carter and lied about Iran-Contra with no consequences. Bush officials misled the country into war, then walked into cushy think tank jobs. Trump’s first wave of cronies—Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Steve Bannon—faced slaps on the wrist. Trump himself walked free after legal institutions dragged their feet for four years. Why should this time be any different? 

MAGA doesn’t fear Democrats because history tells them they need not. They don’t believe that future Democratic presidents will use the IRS to crack down on Project 2025 architects, the DOJ to investigate Christian nationalist groups, or the FBI to follow foreign influence trails back to their political donors. But they should. 

Democrats don’t need to become liberal authoritarians. But they need to show they’re not afraid to use the levers of power to defend democracy, not just in lofty speeches but in institutional terms: subpoenas, audits, investigations, regulation, and prosecution....

Democrats can’t wait for economic conditions to shift or for voters to come to their senses 20 months from now. They need to act like a party that intends to govern and govern with force when it’s their turn again. The message has to be clear, consistent, and credible: if you break democracy, you don’t get a quiet retirement. You get consequences


Meanwhile. . .

 The Texas House has approved a bill that would permit election judges to carry firearms at polling sites to enhance security.  House Bill 1128 aims to permit election judges to carry guns at polling stations, adjusting current restrictions.

The threat of AI

Thom Hartmann -  Pope Leo XIV just labeled AI one of the main threats facing humanity, saying it poses challenges to “human dignity, justice and labor.” He’s right, but it’s even worse than that: it represents, unless it’s rigorously regulated, a threat to democracy itself...

Make no mistake: AI is not just another technology. It is power, scaled. And in the hands of the far right, it becomes the most effective tool for dismantling democracy ever invented.

Authoritarians — whether MAGA-aligned in the United States or part of the global movement that includes Putin, Orbán, Modi, Netanyahu, and others — are not blind to the potential of AI. They understand it instinctively: its ability to simulate, to deceive, to surveil, and to dominate. While progressives and democratic institutions have scrambled to comprehend its implications, the authoritarians have already started weaponizing it with devastating efficiency.

Let’s look at the mechanisms.

AI can now generate millions of personalized political messages in seconds, each calibrated to manipulate a voter’s specific fears or biases. It can create entire fake news outlets, populate them with AI-generated journalists, and flood your social feed with content that looks real, sounds real, and feels familiar, all without a single human behind it. Imagine the power of Joseph Goebbels’ propaganda machine, but with superintelligence behind the wheel and zero friction. That’s where we’re heading.

And that’s just the beginning.

Authoritarian regimes can — and already are — using AI to surveil and intimidate their citizens. What China has perfected with facial recognition and loyalty scoring, MAGA-aligned figures in the U.S. are watching closely, eager to adopt and adapt. Right-wing sheriffs and local governments could soon use AI to track protestors, compile digital dossiers, and “predict” criminal behavior in communities deemed politically undesirable.

If the government knows not just where you are, but what you’re thinking, organizing, or reading — and it can fabricate “evidence” to match — freedom of thought becomes a quaint memory.

This isn’t theoretical. In 2024, we saw AI-generated robocalls impersonating Joe Biden telling voters to stay home (and millions did). In the next cycle, we may see entire election campaigns waged by AI bots masquerading as voters, influencers, and even public officials.

Trump, during the 2024 election campaign, reposted a fake AI image of Taylor Swift endorsing him, over her objection; many believed she’d become a Trump supporter. As the Carnegie Endowment for Peace noted:

“Meanwhile, deepfake audio clips of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Slovakia’s opposition head, Michal Šimečka, ignited social media controversies when they spread rapidly before fact-checkers exposed them as fabrications. The destructive power of deepfakes also hit home in Türkiye when a presidential candidate withdrew from the May 2023 election after explicit AI-generated videos went viral. In Argentina’s October 2023 presidential election, both leading candidates deployed deepfakes by creating campaign posters and materials that mocked their opponents—tactics that escalated into full-blown AI memetic warfare to sway voters.”

The goal often isn’t just to win; it’s to delegitimize the democratic process itself. Because once trust is broken — once people believe that “both sides lie” or that “you can’t believe anything anymore” — then strongmen step into the void with promises of order, purity, and salvation. More

Immigration

 NBC News - The Trump administration spent at least $21 million transporting migrants to Guantanamo Bay on military aircraft between Jan. 20 and April 8, according to figures from the U.S. military. Currently, the naval base there holds 32 migrants, a tiny fraction of the 30,000 Trump promised.

 How Columbia University and Barnard College fouled up handling of pro-Palestinian students

House Republicans propose Medicaid spending cuts

 NBC News -   House Republicans released legislative text of a key portion of their party-line agenda bill that includes cuts and other changes to Medicaid, one of the most contentious issues they face in trying to advance President Donald Trump's agenda in one sweeping package.

The bill, which heads to a markup Tuesday afternoon, would make a slew of Medicaid spending reductions through policies like stricter eligibility verification, citizenship checks, tougher screenings on providers who get reimbursements and federal Medicaid funding cuts to states that offer coverage to residents living in the U.S. illegally.


Trump and the courts

 Jennifer Rubin, Contrarian -   Donald Trump said he does not know if he has to uphold the Constitution, nor did he know if noncitizens have due process rights. His adviser Stephen Miller thinks the writ of habeas corpus (the legal writ that ensures law enforcement produce a prisoner and justify their detention before a court) is a “privilege,” which he insinuates the administration might suspend if the courts do not “do the right thing” (i.e. support Trump’s lawlessness).

In the words of constitutional scholar and The Contrarian contributor Steve Vladeck, Miller’s reckless comment is “both (1) wrong; and (2) profoundly dangerous.” Vladeck enumerates all the reasons Miller is wrong, concluding:

He’s suggesting that the administration would (unlawfully) suspend habeas corpus if (but apparently only if) it disagrees with how courts rule in these cases. In other words, it’s not the judicial review itself that’s imperiling national security; it’s the possibility that the government might lose. That’s not, and has never been, a viable argument for suspending habeas corpus. Were it otherwise, there’d be no point to having the writ in the first place—let alone to enshrining it in the Constitution.

It is yet another measure of how badly and regularly Trump is losing in the courts that his henchmen would make such a threat. On Friday alone, he lost on two key immigration motions (as discussed below). In a separate matter, a federal court judge in California enjoined Trump for two weeks from moving forward on “plans for mass layoffs and program closures, barring two dozen agencies from moving forward with the largest phase of the president’s downsizing efforts, which the judge said was illegal without congressional authorization.”

So it is a good thing then, as Chief Justice John Roberts reiterated last week, that the “Judiciary is a coequal branch of government, separate from the others with the authority to interpret the Constitution as law, and strike down, obviously, acts of Congress or acts of the president.” It is the courts’ job, Roberts pointed out, to “check the excesses of Congress or the executive.” There are plenty of executive excesses these days. Given Miller’s attempt to intimidate the courts, perhaps Roberts was wise to stress: “Judicial independence is crucial.”

Polls

 The Guardian - Six in 10 Americans said the economy has affected at least one of their major life goals, according to the Harris poll, citing either lack of affordability or anxiety around the current economy.

Though Donald Trump’s tariff policies have only been in place for a few weeks, and though the president has temporarily walked back on some of his harshest policies, the findings are a sign that Trump’s economic agenda could have long-term effects.

The Trump administration has said it wants to encourage Americans to have more babies, and is floating a $5,000 “baby bonus” for new mothers. But its economic policies appear to be a major stumbling block to that ambition. Of those who originally planned to have a child in 2025, a majority say the current economy has affected their plans in some way, by either being unable to afford having a child (32%) or being uncomfortable having one in the current economy (33%).


Mexico sues Google over its use of "Gulf of America"

 MSNBC - Mexico has sued Google for adopting the name “Gulf of America” for users of Google Maps in the United States, President Claudia Sheinbaum said, making good on an earlier threat to take legal action against the tech company over the name change...

In late January, after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to rename certain geographical locations to “honor American greatness,” Google said it would follow suit and use the name “Gulf of America” for the body of water that lies between the U.S. and Mexico’s borders.

Trump's impossible tax cut promises

 MSNBC -   President Donald Trump is not exactly known for being detail-oriented. As a candidate, he rattled off a slew of big promises during his rallies, talking up an ever-growing buffet of tax relief to his supporters. Taxes on tips? Consider them gone. Taxes on overtime? Out of here. And the tax cuts that Republicans passed in 2017 during his first term? He’d make them permanent before they expire at the start of 2026.

The problem is that (as per his idiom) Trump has managed to write a bunch of checks that he can’t cash on his own.

The problem is that (as per his idiom) Trump has managed to write a bunch of checks that he can’t cash on his own. It falls to congressional Republicans to make his dreams a reality — and they’re running up against stumbling block after stumbling block in the process. Even as Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., attempts to wrangle his caucus into shape, Trump is doing little to help.

If anything, as evidenced by the roller coaster ride that he engineered for his party on Friday, the president has been more of a carnival barker than a ringmaster for this legislative session, promising big results but offering little leadership. Even after the House Ways and Means Committee released the first preview of its plan on Friday night, it was still unclear what the final bill will look like or how much of the package Trump might ultimately sign off on.

U.S. and China Agree to Temporarily Slash Tariffs

 NY Times - The 145 percent U.S. tariff on Chinese goods will come down [for 90 days] to 30 percent under the deal. The U.S. Treasury secretary said “neither side wanted a decoupling.”


 How Each Generation’s Travel Habits Differ

How connected to their neighbors are Americans?

 Pew Research - About a quarter of U.S. adults (26%) say they know all or most of their neighbors. Another 62% know only some of them, and 12% don’t know any of them.

When it comes to trust, 44% of adults say they trust all or most of the people in their neighborhood. Another 46% trust some of the people in their neighborhood, while 9% trust none.

The shares of Americans who say they know and trust their neighbors have both decreased slightly in recent years. In 2018, 31% of Americans said they knew all or most of their neighbors, and 52% said in 2015 that they trusted all or most of their neighbors.

Some groups of Americans are more likely than others both to know all or most of their neighbors and to trust all or most of them:

  • Those ages 50 and older
  • White Americans
  • Upper-income Americans
  • People who live in rural or suburban areas
  • Those who attend in-person religious services at least monthly

Republicans are also more likely than Democrats to know and trust their neighbors, but these differences are largely related to race and ethnicity, education level and other factors.

May 11, 2025

Donald Trump

  Image

Via Annie

Trump and the Ten Commandments

The Lever   -   As President Donald Trump tries to bar almost all refugees from entering the country, his administration is planning to use federal funds reserved for sick, elderly, and at-risk refugee populations to facilitate an influx of white South Africans within days, according to a government source and an internal memo viewed by The Lever.

Axios - The Trump administration is preparing to accept a super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from Qatar's royal family, ABC's Jonathan Karl and Katherine Faulders scoop.

  • The jet is intended for President Trump's use as Air Force One. When he leaves office, ownership is to be transferred over to the Trump presidential library foundation, Karl and Faulders note of the gift's proposed terms.

It "may be the most valuable gift ever extended to the United States from a foreign government" and will raise questions.

  • "Attorney General Pam Bondi and Trump's top White House lawyer David Warrington concluded it would be 'legally permissible' for the donation of the aircraft to be conditioned on transferring its ownership to Trump's presidential library before the end of his term," ABC reports.

What the Constitution says about Trump's new gift plane


"No Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State" - U.S. constitution

 

New postal rates

Newsweek -  The USPS has announced it plans to increase prices for its Ground Advantage, Priority Mail and Parcel Select products beginning on July 13, according to a filing from the agency made on Friday.

Priority Mail service will increase in price by 6.3 percent; 7.1 percent for USPS Ground Advantage; and 7.6 percent for Parcel Select.

"Although mailing services price increases are based on the Consumer Price Index, shipping services prices are primarily adjusted according to market conditions," the postal service said in the announcement. "The USPS governors believe these new rates will keep the Postal Service competitive while providing the agency with needed revenue."

 

Voluntary deportation

US applications for UK citizenship hit a record high last year at more than 6,100, a 26% increase from 2023. There was a 40% year-on-year rise during the final three months of the year, around the time of Trump’s re-election.

Health

 Rite Aid announced it is declaring bankruptcy for the second time in less than two years. But this time it's final. The pharmacy chain's ignominious end is an instructional tale about a mismanaged company so fatally weakened it couldn't survive in the face of competition from monopolistic pharmacy benefit managers. But these PBMs, which now process four out of five prescriptions in the U.S., also threaten small independent pharmacies, writes Helaine Olen, managing editor at the American Economic Liberties Project.

Word

 Republicans against Trump Milton Friedman on tariffs: "It protects the consumer very well against one thing. It protects the consumer against low prices."

Driving

A full-on bison traffic jam in Yellowstone. Dozens of bison and red dogs casually lead a long line of cars down a winding road. No rush, they have the right-of-way and they know it.

Department of Interior -
Rush hour traffic in Yellowstone National Park can be a beast!

With 2,000-pound road hazards like these, it’s important to follow speed limits and stay in your car during a wildlife jam.   Photo by Jacob W. Frank / NP
S

 

Elon Musk

 NBC News -   Bill Gates accused Elon Musk of killing poor children as he announced Thursday that he would donate his remaining fortune to his charity, the Gates Foundation.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Financial Times, Gates addressed Musk's recent cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development, the federal agency responsible for distributing foreign aid around the world. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, effectively shut down the agency in February.

Gates, 69, criticized the shuttering of the agency, accusing Musk of risking a resurgence of diseases such as measles, HIV and polio.

“The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,” he told the Financial Times.


Real take on Real ID

Newsworthy

  • REAL ID enforcement has begun, requiring compliant identification for domestic flights and federal facility access
  • Scammers have created fraudulent websites claiming to offer REAL IDs online
  • The only legitimate way to get a REAL ID is by visiting your DMV in person
  • Never provide personal or financial information to unsolicited websites or messages
  • Valid passports remain acceptable alternatives to REAL IDs for air travel

Catholics in America

Time - As of March 2025, there are an estimated 53 million adult Catholics across the U.S. Whilst the number of Catholics remains steady, demographic changes are taking place. The share of American Catholics that are white has fallen by 10%, whilst Hispanic Catholics have increased by 7%, according to the Pew Research Center.

Despite making up a significant share of the national Catholic population, the religion amongst Hispanics in the U.S. has dropped from 67% to 46% between 2010 and 2023.



I was Hitler’s neighbor: ‘If he’d known we were Jewish, we’d have been sent to Dachau’

Clean energy

LCV -  Even in the face of an unfriendly administration, clean energy continues to make strides across the country. In March 2025, renewable energy provided more electricity to the U.S. grid than fossil fuels for the first time ever. During that month, clean energy provided 51% of U.S. electricity, compared to fossil fuels’ 49%. This is a major milestone for clean energy in the U.S. which continues to prove its strength despite the constant barrage of attacks from the administration.