Month: May 2025

Republicans caused or did this. We should ban them.

Comer: James Comey Was “Trying To Jizz Up A Coup”

Trump Admin To Close Famed NASA Research Center

Photo: Acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro, who also serves as Kennedy Space Center director, a post she assumed in 2021. Trump elevated Petro to lead NASA after he ousted former Sen. Bill Nelson for believing in climate change.

 

WaPo: The Federal Brain Drain Is Rapidly Escalating

 As previously reported here, European governments have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to lure US scientists.

OK Schools Chief Calls Education Ranking “Fake News”

Newly-released data shows that Oklahoma ranks 46th in per-pupil spending, but Walters, who is eyeing a run for governor, has called for cuts to his state’s “wasteful” education spending, including $250,000 to provide school districts with emergency inhalers. 

In his KFOR interview, Walters did boast about getting new teachers a signing bonus, but as was widely reported the time, $290,000 of that money had to be clawed back because it had gone to teachers who did not qualify. Some of those teachers had already spent the money.

Combat Sports Clubs Are Recruiting White Nationalists

The SPLC’s report is here. The February 2024 report linked below shows that the same thing is happening in the UK.

Tesla Effectively Bans Its Investors From Suing Them

 Guess who donated to the Texas Republicans behind the new law?

 

Felon Has Another Screaming Fit On “Stolen Election”

Trump Demands That Walmart “EAT THE TARIFFS”

Feds Seize Shipment Of Shirts From Anti-ICE Brand

Something something free speech.

New: CBP seized a shipment of t-shirts from @cola.baby featuring a swarm of bees attacking a cop. The company also sells "ELIMINATE ICE" t-shirt and previously was threatened by LAPD for "FUCK THE LAPD" shirts and hats. Shirts to be "destroyed under CBP supervision"www.404media.co/cbp-seizes-s…

— Jason Koebler (@jasonkoebler.bsky.social) 2025-05-15T19:44:07.171Z

Forbes: Canadian US Tourism Boycott Is Growing

Canadian Travel Boycott Has Strengthened—Car Travel To U.S. Plummeted 35% In April, Fourth Consecutive Month Of Year-Over-Year Declines

— Forbes (@forbes.com) 2025-05-13T11:53:03.619Z

Trump Posts Video Claiming Hillary Is A Serial Killer

OH GOP Bill Would Designate “Natural Family Month”

Rep. Beth Lear first appeared here in January 2024 when she defended her anti-trans bathroom bill by citing the “millstones” bible verse which calls for drowning anyone who hurts children.

She later blamed “depraved monster” Alfred Kinsey, liberals, and the ACLU for transgender people even existing.

Rep. Josh Williams first appeared here in July 2024 for his bill that would criminalize drag shows in the presence of children. Williams reintroduced his bill last week.

 

Alliance Defending Freedom: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Happy Birthday Sir Bertrand Russell, and more in Peace & Justice History for 5/18

May 18, 1872

Bertrand Russell
Birthday of Sir Bertrand Russell, British philosopher, logician, essayist, and social critic, a leading figure in his country’s anti-nuclear movement. In 1954 he delivered his “Man’s Peril [from the Hydrogen Bomb]” broadcast on the BBC, condemning the Bikini H-bomb tests, and warning of the threat to humanity from the development of nuclear weapons: “. . . as a human being to other human beings: remember your humanity, and forget the rest.”
A year later, together with Albert Einstein nine other scientists, he released the Russell-Einstein Manifesto calling for the curtailment of nuclear weapons.
Text of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto 
He became the founding president of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in 1958. He resigned in 1960, however, and formed the more militant Committee of 100 with the overt aim of inciting mass civil disobedience, and he himself with Lady Russell led mass sit-ins in 1961 that brought them a two-month prison sentence, at the age of 89.

Bertrand Russell in front of the British Ministry of Defence, Whitehall, London
May 18, 1896
Supreme Court endorsed “separate but equal” facilities for those of different races with its Plessy v. Ferguson decision, a ruling that was overturned 58 years later.
May 18, 1972
Margaret (Maggie) Kuhn founded the Gray Panthers (originally called the Consultation of Older and Younger Adults for Social Change) to consider the common problems faced by retirees — loss of income, loss of contact with associates, and loss of one of society’s most distinguishing social roles, one’s job. The members discovered a new kind of freedom in their retirement — the freedom to speak personally and passionately about what they believed in, such as their collective opposition to the Vietnam War.


Maggie Kuhn, founder of the Gray Panthers

Gray Panther history 
May 18, 1974
In the Rajasthan Desert in the state of Pokhran, India successfully detonated its first nuclear weapon, a fission bomb similar in explosive power to the U.S. atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. 
The test fell on the traditional anniversary of the Buddha’s enlightenment, and Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi received the message “Buddha has smiled” from the exuberant test-site scientists after the detonation. The test, which made India the world’s sixth nuclear power, broke the nuclear monopoly of the five members of the U.N. Security Council—the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, China, and France.
Detailed background on India’s nuclear weapons program and its first test 
May 18, 1979
A jury in a federal court in Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee established a company’s responsibility for damage to the health of a worker in the nuclear industry. Karen Silkwood worked for the Kerr-McGee Nuclear Corporation at their Cimmaron, Texas, plant where plutonium was manufactured.
Silkwood had become the first female member of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers bargaining committee, focusing on worker safety issues, but had suffered radiation exposure in a series of unexplained incidents. The jury in Judge Frank G. Theis’s court awarded her estate $505,000 in actual damages, and $10 million punitive damages.

Karen Silkwood’s sisters and parents
She had died in a car accident on her way to a meeting with a The New York Times reporter five years earlier.
Karen Silkwood remembered 
The Supreme Court upheld the decision and the award 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorymay.htm#may18

“Libyan Gov’t Decries Fake News about Taking 1 mn. Palestinian Refugees: ‘Committed to the Palestinian Cause’”

Juan Cole 05/17/2025

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Abu Dhabi-based Erem News reports that the Prime Minister of Libya’s internationally recognized Government of National Unity (GNU) in Tripoli, Abdul Hamid al-Dbeibeh, has vehemently denied the report in the “American Thinker” by what Libya called the “notorious conspiracy theorist” Jerome Corsi that the Trump administration is negotiating with the Libyan government to take one million Palestinians. It is an absurd allegation on the face of it. Libyans have long been extremely pro-Palestinian and any leader that cooperated with the extremist government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in ethnically cleansing so many Palestinians from …

Read More Here:  https://www.juancole.com/2025/05/scurrilous-palestinian-committed.html

Sunday political cartoons / memes / news items. I think I held this batch to the right size.

I was reading up on the history of diphtheria and ran across this interesting fact.

— Mueller, She Wrote (@muellershewrote.com) 2025-05-16T06:02:11.757Z

He’s never visited a mosque in the country where he’s president but he’s happy to do it in a country where he can make money

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan.bsky.social) 2025-05-16T11:52:41.101Z

In the days of yore, this would end a political career. A DNI firing intel officials who reported something in contrast to a president trying to abuse emergency powers. We're the frogs and the water is at a rolling boil, folks.

— Mueller, She Wrote (@muellershewrote.com) 2025-05-16T01:09:09.011Z

The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the United States, not an individual. That’s why it is now a public monument and not sitting in Grover Cleveland’s presidential library (not sure if he even has one)

— Asha Rangappa (@asharangappa.bsky.social) 2025-05-15T16:27:59.795Z

More: http://www.facebook.com/share/r/15NM…

— Being Liberal ®🗽🇺🇲🇨🇦🇲🇽🇪🇺🇺🇳🇺🇦🏳️‍🌈 (@beingliberal.bsky.social) 2025-05-16T14:37:00.308Z

Among the victims of the Jabalia massacre were a group of orphaned children.They had gathered to receive financial aid from a charity when they were targeted.All the orphans were martyred, along with the charity’s staff, now raising their complaint of betrayal to their Creator.

— Mona Hijazi 🇵🇸🫒In Gaza (@monahijazi.bsky.social) 2025-05-16T09:05:43.156Z

Seems to me that if there’s a senile guy doing nothing in particular the usual way and a senile guy setting everything on fire, the fire guy is the one who should be the focus of media inquiry

— 86 47 Hat (@kenwhite.bsky.social) 2025-05-15T18:42:24.254Z

This can’t be true because Trump already declared victory over the Houthis & said he wiped them out already after a month of missile attacks that cost us 6 Reaper drones and 2 fighter jets, and the handful of remaining Houthis have surrendered because they are afraid of him.

— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) 2025-05-16T01:51:30.987Z

How about fixing the air traffic control system?

— MeidasTouch (@meidastouch.com) 2025-05-16T11:03:43.946Z

When that second intelligence memo came out that said Tren de Aragua was not a proxy for the Venezuelan government, I was certain someone was going to lose their job. Sure enough.

— Mueller, She Wrote (@muellershewrote.com) 2025-05-15T20:01:07.321Z

Let me get this straight. While this Admin is pushing to take $6 a day away from hungry kids on SNAP to root out "wasteful spending” they see no issue spending over a billion of your hard-earned tax dollars to replace Air Force One with a Qatari jet (the President got for free)??

— Rep. Angie Craig (@repangiecraig.bsky.social) 2025-05-15T14:10:11.073Z

The science is clear, there is no single, physiological or biological marker that allows for the simple categorisation of people as male or female.This means that you can’t use chromosomes alone, you can’t use genitalia, you can’t use testosterone levels to divide people into male or female.

— Kirsti Miller (@kirstimiller30.bsky.social) 2025-05-16T13:40:50.501Z

They're going to profile anyone gender nonconforming to push them out of the military. Too feminine as a man? You're out. Too butch as a woman? You're out. This will be a de facto ban on queer people as well.

— Alejandra Caraballo (@esqueer.net) 2025-05-15T22:47:17.087Z

 

 

 

 

Israeli strikes across Gaza kill dozens and force a main hospital to close, health officials say

https://apnews.com/article/mideast-wars-israel-gaza-hamas-hostages-18-05-2025-f325044576f1ac31e6083622242c9990
Israeli strikes across Gaza kill dozens and force a main hospital to close, health officials say

Best Wishes and Hugs,
Scottie

I Keep On Learning

Harry Potter, J K Rowling, and Transgender People: The Complex Relationship Between Art and Artist

They are doing it. Gross, corrupt, and hateful

WH Official Ordered Redo Of Venezuelan Gang Story

Kent, a twice-failed House candidate and self-professed fan of the Proud Boys, last appeared here when he declared that he would be keeping a $8600 campaign donation from a Capitol rioter then-facing felony assault charges. We first heard from Kent in 2022 when he gave an interview to a white nationalist Nazi podcaster.

New from Julian Barnes, Maggie Haberman and me:Trump Appointee Pressed Analyst to Redo Intelligence on Venezuelan GangThe move followed a disclosure that intelligence agencies disagree with a key factual claim Trump made to invoke a wartime deportation law.www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/u…

— Charlie Savage (@charliesavage.bsky.social) 2025-05-16T22:15:47.077Z

Moody’s Downgrades Credit Rating Of United States

Breaking news: The US has been stripped of its top-notch triple-a credit rating by Moody’s on concerns about rising levels of government debt http://www.ft.com/content/e456…

— Financial Times (@financialtimes.com) 2025-05-16T21:04:22.468Z

 

Fox Host Agrees With Oklahoma Schools Chief That Students Should Be Taught 2020 Election Was Stolen

Christian Nationalist Pastors To Open DC Church To Help The Trump Administration “Go After Sodomy” [VIDEO]

“And they’re like, ‘Yeah, yeah. Look, we’re doing it.’ But all the sodomites are still there and we’re not going to talk about that. And I need a guy there, I need a minister there who’s gonna say, ‘Oh, but we are. Obergefell is next, we’re coming for that,’ so that you calibrate the Christians in DC by the word of God and not by whatever the present administration can tolerate.

“We’re gonna come for feminism. We’re going to go after sodomy. Those are the sins in that town. Those are sins that are acceptable among both parties in that town. And we want to plant that flag and say the Bible has something to say about this.” – Christian nationalist pastor Joe Rigney.

 

Trump Threatens “Dried Out Prune” Springsteen: He Better “Keep His Mouth Shut, Just An Obnoxious Jerk”

Trump: Taylor Swift Is “No Longer Hot” Because Of Me

Felon Threatens SCOTUS Justices In Birthright Rant

USAID Leaves 66,000 Metric Tons Of Food Relief To Rot

Food rations that could supply 3.5 million people for a month are mouldering in warehouses around the world because of U.S. aid cuts and risk becoming unusable, according to five people familiar with the situation. The food stocks have been stuck inside four U.S. government warehouses since the Trump administration’s decision in January to cut global aid programmes.

 

Trump Is Selling “VIP Access” To Birthday Parade

Those who give to America250, a committee created to support what Trump envisions as a large national celebration next year for America’s 250th birthday, will be given special access to three events, according to a pitch shared with donors. Those include a military parade Trump is planning on his birthday, a “military readiness” event he is leading at Fort Bragg military base with thousands of troops and an Independence Day celebration in Washington, the people said.

https://x.com/jdawsey1/status/1923335215700758761

 

FEMA Head: We Don’t Have A Hurricane Season Plan

On his first day on the job, Richardson threatened staffers, telling them “I’ll run right over you” if they object to his orders.

Duffy: FAA Is Scrounging Replacement Parts On eBay

Yesterday Duffy also posted a video about moving a painting of Jesus “out of the basement” at the Merchant Marine Academy.

https://x.com/MacFarlaneNews/status/1923120841413521425

 

Kid Rock: Birth Rate Is Low Due To “Ugly Ass Broke Crazy Deranged TDS Liberal Women” And Gay Men

He continued, “I mean, you look at these rallies, it’s like a bunch of women that no guy wants to sleep with and a bunch of dudes that want to sleep with each other.”

You’ll note that Watters did not ask Kid Rock about sending his undocumented kitchen staff home to evade arrest by ICE.

Trump Admin Fires 600 Voice Of America Employees And Puts Organization’s DC Headquarters Up For Sale

Trump Administration Fires Hundreds of Voice of America Employees – The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/u…

— Timothy McBride (@mcbridetd.bsky.social) 2025-05-16T06:24:06.074Z

ICE Barbie And “Duck Dynasty” Producer Plot Reality Show In Which Migrants Compete For US Citizenship

 

 

 

 

Trump Claims Hitler Gave “Speech At The Eiffel Tower”

https://x.com/atrupar/status/1923053942759358935

This is as close as Hitler got to the Tower. He couldn’t go up it because the French had cut the elevator cables.

Thumbnail

Some clips from TizzyEnt

Again their doing stuff that hurts others

 

 

DOJ Claims Prominent Law Firm Is National Security Threat For Working With LGBTQ Rights Group GLAD

 

 

 

 

Pentagon Has Spent $21M On Migrant Flights To Gitmo

Texas House Passes Anti-Trans “Biological Truth” Bill

OH Cultist Films Himself Burning LGBTQ Library Books

Trump Defense Lawyer Named Librarian Of Congress

Blanche last appeared here when he sanctioned the American Bar Association because its lawyers have failed to show suitable obedience to Glorious Leader.

DHS Terminates Protected Status Of Afghan Refugees

 

White South African “Refugees” Arrive At DC Airport

But Trump claimed Monday that a genocide was taking place in South Africa. “Farmers are being killed,” the president said. “They happen to be White.

But White farmers are being brutally killed and their land is being confiscated in South Africa.”

Trump has imported a new Mickey Mouse from South Africa.

Thumbnail