Do you feel like the winds of change are blowing today too?
POSTED BY: 6ixStringJack
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 16:05
VIEWED: 185382
PAGE 107 of 479
Louisiana v. Callais, a case about whether Louisiana’s congressional maps are an illegal racial gerrymander, should be one of the easiest cases the justices have heard in many years. That’s because less than two years ago, the Supreme Court decided another gerrymandering case, known as Allen v. Milligan (2023), which by Louisiana’s lawyers’ own admission “presents the same question” as Callais.
The Court will hear oral arguments in Callais on March 24.
In Milligan, the Court — normally quite hostile to plaintiffs alleging violations of the Voting Rights Act, which is meant to protect minority ballot access — surprised most Court-watchers by reaffirming longstanding legal principles, first established in Thornburg v. Gingles (1986), which are intended to prevent states from drawing legislative maps that weaken the influence of voters of color. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, both Republicans, joined with all three of the Court’s Democrats in Milligan.
The dispute in Callais began with a Louisiana congressional map that included only one Black-majority district (out of six total), despite the fact that Black Americans make up about a third of Louisiana voters. In Milligan, the Supreme Court ordered Alabama to redraw a similarly gerrymandered map to include a second Black-majority district.
That similarity means there’s really no question how the Callais case should be decided. Nevertheless, this case is complicated because it forces the Supreme Court to resolve a conflict between two different federal courts, each of which has weighed in on Louisiana’s maps. One faithfully applied precedents like Milligan, ruling the state’s original maps needed to be redrawn; the other outright defied precedents requiring new maps.
Also complicating matters is that this Court’s Voting Rights Act decisions often depart from the text of the law, they frequently are at odds with established precedents, and they almost always seek to narrow the scope of this landmark statute. Moreover, while Kavanaugh provided the fifth vote to retain preexisting law in Milligan, he also penned a brief concurring opinion suggesting that Congress’s power to enact laws that sometimes require “race-based redistricting cannot extend indefinitely into the future.”
These factors make every racial gerrymandering case that reaches the Supreme Court an alarming event for voting rights lawyers, because each case provides an opportunity for the Court to do great damage to the Voting Rights Act.
And that means though this should be an open-and-shut case, there is still uncertainty about whether the Court will maintain the status quo, or if it will choose to radically reshape the country’s voting rights protections.
https://www.vox.com/scotus/403144/supreme-court-voting-rights-louisian
a-callais-gerrymandering
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Donald Trump apparently left one big point out of the readout of his call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded that the United States and its allies end military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine in order for hostilities to end.
Putin reportedly made this point during his phone call with President Trump on Tuesday, and the detail was conveniently not mentioned in the White House’s readout of the call.
Regardless of why Russia would want military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine to end, it’s telling that the White House didn’t mention this demand.
Perhaps they thought it would be hashed out in negotiations, or that Russia wouldn’t mention it again. Either way, it doesn’t speak well of Russia’s intentions for a postwar Ukraine, and no one outside of the White House or Kremlin is going to like it.
https://newrepublic.com/post/192885/putin-demand-ukraine-intel-trump-c
all
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Thanks to Trump, Germany Is Re-Arming For War With Russia. Here’s What Hundreds Of Billions Of Dollars Will Buy.
Mar 18, 2025, 05:52pm EDT
Berlin wants to add 20,000 people to its current military payroll. The extra billets will help the German army stand up a mechanized brigade it plans to permanently station in Lithuania as a deterrent against further Russian aggression.
If Russia defeats Ukraine — possibly as a consequence of Trump fully abandoning Ukraine or even actively siding with Russia — this brigade and other European forces might be the only thing standing between a battle-hardened Russian army and the free countries of Europe.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2025/03/18/germany-is-re-arming-
for-war-with-russia-heres-what-hundreds-of-billions-of-dollars-will-buy/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Germany is incapable of rearming. It doesn't have cheap energy and it doesn't have the basic resources (except coal), so it can't reindustrialize.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA
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Quote:Signym, what you just wrote is equivalent to claiming that Germany can't build nukes to hit Russia because Russia won't allow it. If Germany doesn't rearm, or doesn't build nukes, it is because Germans choose to lounge around as cheese-eating surrender monkeys would. In America, the typical Trumptard is an angry, hungry surrender monkey who blames Democrats for not giving them enough cheese. It is imaginable that Germans would have the same screwed up mental picture of reality that Trumptards have. Look at 6ixStringJack. He could have everything but he has almost nothing because of his poor behavior. Look at Trump's terrible personal behavior that he and his followers deny he did. So it is with Trumptards all around me. They don't get what they want because the amount of self-control, discipline and personal energy is higher than they have.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Germany is incapable of rearming. It doesn't have cheap energy and it doesn't have the basic resources (except coal), so it can't reindustrialize.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Smears, Sadism and Social Security
Why Elon Musk wants to make seniors suffer
By Paul Krugman | Mar 19, 2025
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/smears-sadism-and-social-security
We often think of Social Security as a retirement program, which it is; most Social Security beneficiaries achieve that status simply by reaching retirement age. But the program also helps Americans with disabilities that prevent them from working or limit their ability to work, and for millions of people these benefits are a crucial lifeline.
Now the Social Security Administration, following orders from Elon Musk’s DOGE, appears set to subject disabled Americans to immense hardship. And everything we know indicates that this act of cruelty is mainly motivated by a combination of ego and spite.
The story so far: On March 12 the Washington Post reported that the Social Security Administration was considering ending phone service for Americans filing retirement or disability claims. The SSA quickly backed off that idea — sort of. The day after the Post report, however, the agency circulated an internal memo — acquired by the newsletter Popular Information — laying out a plan that would be almost equally destructive.
Under this plan, beneficiaries would still be able to call the SSA. But they would have to verify their identity either over the internet or through in-person visits to field offices.
Bear in mind that we’re talking about older and/or disabled Americans, many of whom are unable to access the internet and physically unable to visit SSA offices — which would in any case be overwhelmed by the increased traffic, given that the agency is already facing large staffing cuts. So this would be a move of almost cartoonish cruelty and a nightmare for millions of Americans.
Why do this? The alleged justification is to combat fraud. But ProPublica has acquired audio of a closed meeting held with Leland Dudek, the Social Security Administration’s acting administrator, in which he acknowledged that fraudulent benefit claims are not, in fact, a serious problem.
So what the Musk is going on here? This plan would save some money, not by eliminating fraud, but by effectively cutting off aid to Americans who are legally entitled to that aid, and specifically those who need it most. But I don’t think the savings are the point.
My guess, instead, is that it’s an ego thing, that Social Security has become to Musk what Canada has become to Donald Trump. Both men at one point said something stupid, something that would have turned them into laughingstocks if there weren’t so much fear in the air. But both men have been unable to let go, doubling down in what amounts to an attempt to redeem their initial foolishness.
In case you’ve forgotten, back in December, when Justin Trudeau visited Mar-a-Lago, Trump taunted him by suggesting that Canada become a U.S. state, calling him “Governor Trudeau.” Some people suggested that it was meant as a joke, but it would be more accurate to call it a dominance display.
But once Trump realized how ridiculous the performance made him look, he refused to let go. Instead, annexing Canada seems to have become a fundamental plank of Trump’s foreign policy, with his demands getting ever more insistent the more obvious it becomes that Canadians loathe the idea.
Musk’s big blooper was his claim that millions of dead people are receiving Social Security checks. This claim probably reflected the failure of young Musk staffers — what Dudek called the “DOGE kids” — to understand how the SSA’s databases work, combined with a complete lack of common sense. I mean, if there really were huge numbers of dead people receiving Social Security payments, don’t you think someone else would have noticed?
In a normal political environment, getting something that big that wrong would have destroyed Musk’s credibility and led to his permanent exile from any role in setting policy. But this is America in 2025, so Trump amplified the already-refuted claim when addressing Congress, and Musk seems more powerful
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WHAT HAPPENED TODAY THAT YOU SHOULD KNOW - #47
Tuesday, March 18, 2025
https://govbrief.today/daily-posts/
1. Trump pledged during his campaign to end the Ukraine war within 24 hours, now admits achieving a ceasefire is "tough," after Putin agrees only to halt energy attacks.
2. No New Revelations Yet in JFK Files Trump Calls 'Fully Declassified’
3. Second judge blocks Trump's transgender military ban, final order Friday.
4. Judge rules Musk's USAID purge violated Constitution, restores computer access but agency remains gutted.
5. Chief Justice Roberts rebukes calls for judge's impeachment; Trump claims statement wasn’t directed at him.
6. Social Security tightens ID rules, forcing millions into offices as closures worsen rural access.
7. Judge blocks Trump’s EPA from seizing $14B in climate grants-Citibank holds the funds in limbo.
8. White House torches France over a single MEP's Statue of Liberty comment, botches history in the process: "It's only because of the U.S. that the French aren't speaking German."
9. Trump fires FTC's only two Democrats, violating Supreme Court precedent, ex-commissioners say.
10. Minnesota senator behind 'Trump derangement syndrome' bill arrested for child solicitation. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/03/18/minnesota-sena
tor-justin-eichorn-trump-derangement-syndrome/82523535007/
11. Trump's EPA moves to eliminate science research office, cut 1,000+ experts, critics call it illegal.
12. Trump administration shuts down war crimes database, blocks transfer of records on kidnapped Ukrainian children.
13. AG Bondi calls Tesla vandalism 'domestic terrorism,' vows severe penalties as left-wing protesters target showrooms.
14. Trump administration threatens NYC commuter funding over subway crime, despite 40% drop since 2020.
15. Trump administration considers drastic cuts to HIV prevention funding, CDC reorganization looms.
16. Trump guts DHS unit credited with disrupting 1,000+ domestic terror plots.
17. Trump's FTC erases four years of consumer protection blogs, scrubbing Al and privacy guidance for Amazon, Microsoft, and Big Tech.
18. Trump administration considers giving up permanent U.S. command of NATO forces, seen as step toward exit from alliance. - https://govbrief.today/daily-headlines/trump-administration-considers-
giving-up-permanent-u-s-command-of-nato-forces-seen-as-step-toward-exit-from-alliance/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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As part of its evisceration of US international aid, the Trump administration is ending funding for its global TB programs.
More than 1 million people die of tuberculosis every year. They don’t have to.
By Dylan Scott / Mar 19, 2025 at 6:36 AM
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/404861/john-green-tuberculosis-trum
p-aid-cuts
Tuberculosis is no longer the threat it once was in the US and Europe, but the disease is still killing more than 1 million people worldwide every year.
Humanity’s battle against tuberculosis has been one of slow and imperfect progress. The disease no longer kills one in seven people in the US, as it did in the 19th century. But look elsewhere and its burden is still terrible: TB killed more than 1.2 million people in 2023, likely making it once again the deadliest infection on Earth, after it was briefly supplanted by Covid-19 during the pandemic.
And as John Green, the YA author, YouTuber, and author of the new book Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection, told me in an interview: “That number is about to go up.”
As part of its evisceration of US international aid, the Trump administration is ending funding for its global TB programs. The US is the world’s largest single funder of tuberculosis treatment, and the spending cuts quickly interrupted medical care for TB victims. And any delay in treatment can lead to worse outcomes for patients and makes it more likely the bacteria will evolve to resist antibiotics.
“All of this is a direct result of the decisions made by the US government,” Green told me. “Allowing tuberculosis to spread unchecked throughout the world is bad news for all humans.”
There may be as many as 10 million additional TB cases by 2030 because of the cuts, depending on how deep they ultimately are, according to one initial estimate. An additional 2.2 million people could die in that worst-case scenario.
It’s difficult to know what’s happening on the ground, as ongoing lawsuits try force aid funding to resume and the Trump administration itself has given conflicting information at times. One TB program director told The Guardian last week their funding had still not resumed despite receiving a reassurance from the administration that it would.
The funding freeze is not only a threat to people in the developing world who live with tuberculosis as an ever-present threat, Green told me — it also poses a risk to the US itself. Right now, Kansas has 68 active TB cases, one of the largest US outbreaks in recent history. One estimate from the Center for Global Development finds that US TB cases will rise in parallel with cases in the rest of the world. That won’t just increase health care costs — it will increase the risk that TB will become more drug-resistant and therefore deadlier to people around the world, including in the US.
I spoke with Green about the history of one of humanity’s oldest infectious diseases, the threat posed by the Trump administration’s cuts, and what concerned people can do in response.
Our conversation is below, edited for clarity and length.
What is the state of tuberculosis right now? Why do people in the US and other wealthy countries often think of it as a disease of the past, a problem that has been solved?
I used to think of it as a disease of the past as well. I thought of TB primarily as the disease that killed John Keats, and then we figured out a solution to it, so now it’s not a threat anymore.
But in fact, tuberculosis is still the world’s deadliest infectious disease. It kills over 1.2 million people per year. That number is about to go up. It sickens about 10 million people per year. Around a quarter of all living humans have experienced a TB infection.
Now, the vast majority of those people will never become sick. They’ll have what we call latent TB, where these clumps of white blood cells form what are called tubercles to surround the bacteria and keep it in check. But in about 10 percent of people who experience a TB infection, they will become sick
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‘It’s a Heist’: Real Federal Auditors Are Horrified by DOGE
By Vittoria Elliott | Mar 18, 2025 4:04 PM
https://www.wired.com/story/federal-auditors-doge-elon-musk/
Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has spent the first six weeks of the new Trump administration turning the federal government upside down. It has moved from agency to agency, accessing sensitive data and payment systems, all on a supposed crusade to audit the government and stop fraud, waste, and abuse. DOGE has posted some of its “findings” on its website, many of which have been revealed to be errors.
But two federal auditors with years of experience, who have both worked on financial and technical audits for the government, say that DOGE’s actions are the furthest thing from what an actual audit looks like. Both asked to speak on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t permitted to speak to the press.
“Honestly, comparing real auditing to what DOGE is doing, there’s no comparison,” says one of the auditors who spoke to WIRED. “None of them are auditors.”
In September, in a speech during the presidential campaign, then candidate Donald Trump said that he would create a government efficiency task force, headed by Musk, which would do a “complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government.” Musk initially said that he wanted to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, more than the entire 2023 discretionary budget of $1.7 trillion. Musk has since tempered his ambitions, saying he’d aim to cut $1 trillion in government spending. Still, he has alleged that much of this money can be cut by identifying waste, fraud, and abuse, and has continued to claim DOGE’s cuts of agency staff and resources are all part of an audit.
While there are certainly instances of government money siphoned off to fraud—a Government Accountability Office study published in 2024 estimated that the government loses between $233 billion and $521 billion to fraud each year—even recovering all that spending wouldn’t amount to the $1 trillion Musk hopes to cut from the budget.
The auditors who spoke to WIRED allege that not only is Musk’s claim not true, but also that DOGE appears to have completely eschewed the existing processes for actually rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse.
“An audit that follows Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS), also known as a Yellow Book audit, is conducted in accordance with the standards issued by the US Government Accountability Office,” says the first auditor. Audits can focus on the finances, compliance, or performance of an agency. “That is the gold standard for how you audit the government.”
There are generally five phases of a GAGAS audit, the auditors tell WIRED: planning, evidence gathering, evaluation, reporting, and follow up. Auditors work to define the scope of an audit, identify all the applicable laws and standards, and come up with an audit plan. Next, auditors conduct interviews with staff, review financial records, and comb through data, reports, and transactions, documenting all the way. From there, auditors will assess that information against policies or procedures to figure out if there’s been some kind of alleged waste, fraud, or abuse and issue a report detailing their findings and offering recommendations. Often, those reports are made available to the public. After an audit, the auditors can follow up with the agency to ensure changes are being made.
There are also very technical definitions for what constitutes waste, fraud, or abuse. Waste could mean that there are inefficiencies in a program that might lead to purchasing more of something that goes unused, or paying more for a service than is necessary. Fraud involves intentional deception—for instance, bribery or falsifying business records. Abuse means doing things that aren’t necessarily illegal, but that are unethical. This could look like nepotism or favoritism in hiring, or spending excessively on travel.
In a recent interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, Musk said
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Putin Trolls Trump with Power Station Strike After ‘Ceasefire’
The Russian president agreed to halt the targeting of Ukrainian energy infrastructure in a Tuesday call with Trump. That apparently didn’t last long.
By Julia Ornedo | Mar. 19 2025 9:34 AM EDT
https://www.thedailybeast.com/putin-trolls-trump-with-power-station-st
rike-after-ceasefire/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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