onfocus

In many cases it’s still unclear what exactly DOGE engineers have done or intend to do with that data. Despite Elon Musk’s protestations to the contrary, DOGE is as opaque as Vantablack. But recent reporting from WIRED and elsewhere begins to fill in the picture: For DOGE, data is a tool. It’s also a weapon.

Sounds like blackmail everyone all the time is the strategy.

If a ludicrous idea started building momentum, the ringleader and their affiliates would get pushed out of an organization, then another one, and another one, before being deemed so poisonous that society in general would exile them to some tract of rural land to farm beets and / or start a cult. If they were still interested in spreading their ideas, their options were limited to the physical media they could afford to purchase — a monthly pamphlet sent through the mail, a ham radio, or a sign on the side of the road. Barricaded from the tightly controlled mass communication networks of print distribution and broadcast signals that informed the nation and the leaders they chose, they were forever stuck on the fringes.

That was where “crazy” used to die.

We also got wikipedia so maybe we can start shunning weirdos again and keep the good parts of the Internet.

The FDA this month also suspended existing and developing programs that ensured accurate testing for bird flu in milk and cheese and pathogens like the parasite Cyclospora in other food products.

Seems like a bad time to cut back on testing. But maybe they're trying to thin out the population? Maybe we just all do our own food safety testing individually?

Sarahi says what followed her arrest "felt like a kidnapping." She told NPR that her family was placed in a windowless office space near the bridge. For close to six days, she said they were given no access to a lawyer, told to sleep on cots without proper accommodations for the children (no diapers or appropriate food). She says a few days in, her children began to get sick, and there was no first aid available.

Who are these Americans keeping families with sick kids in a windowless room for a week because they took a wrong turn?

The White House kept hinting that the Chinese were beginning to negotiate, seeking a way to end the tariffs. In fact, the strategy that Beijing appeared to be following was to wait for Mr. Trump to feel the pain of his own actions. The expected phone call from President Xi Jinping never came. And Mr. Trump didn’t want to be the first to call, either — a sign of desperation.

The maga tough-guy shtick is not working vs. reality. Cult leaders can create a convincing reality for their followers but they can't coerce everyone in the world to go along with it.

“I can’t think of anything more vile and small and pathetic than terrorising the smallest, most vulnerable community of people who want nothing from you, except the right to exist.”

Pedro Pascal is right. Grow up, idiots.

In the 24 hours after Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 announced that he would not comply with the White House, the University received more than 3,800 online donations totaling more than $1 million, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Universities are important institutions and people are willing to support them even if the government is attacking them.

The majority’s decision to wade in straightaway points to a skepticism that the Justice Department was telling the truth. It’s damning, too, that the majority did not even wait for DOJ to file a brief with the court before acting. The only plausible explanation for the court’s order is that a majority feared the government would whisk away the migrants to El Salvador if it did not intervene immediately.

Trying to stop the lawlessness.

Round and round it goes with no resolution.

I don't think this is an accurate description. The constitutional crisis arrived when the administration pretended to not know what 'facilitates' means. That was the fuck you to the Supreme Court that signaled they were done pretending this is America.

The Food and Drug Administration is drawing up plans that would end most of its routine food safety inspections work, multiple federal health officials tell CBS News, and effectively outsource this oversight to state and local authorities.

I’m sure state and local authorities have the budget, staff, and training to make this a smooth transition. In the meantime we can all reread The Jungle.

Many of the things that winemakers regularly buy often come from abroad. Three notable examples: glass bottles, corks and barrels (which are used to age wine and refine its flavor).

Just one of the (checks notes) every industry that is going to be hurt by trying stop a global economy.

“Failure to provide notice and an opportunity to be heard violated Mr. Ortega Gonzalez’s rights under the Fifth Amendment,” attorney Stephen Manning, executive director of Innovation Law Lab, wrote in the complaint. Ortega Gonzalez is at risk of arrest and detention for removal proceedings, Manning said.

I'd be worried about even just trying the leave the country at this point. You have to interact at the border and there's no guarantee you'd get due process there. I think suing for rights is the right thing to do.