could ramble about effective altruism). Coding and hacking rarely contribute to any monitoring and evaluation on aid or development projects. Let alone deciding whether an agency needs to be "fed into the wood-chipper". It must be a nightmare, where "the cruelty is the point" underlies everything. 2

Anyone who's worked a while with a humanitarian organisation would be quite familiar with constant retraining and endless restructures. But there'd be precious few who would welcome a gaggle of post-teen disciples of a libertarian billionaires (even if he [it's always a he] . . . 1.

Trump and Musk Take a Hammer to America’s Reputation Their version of America is selfish, wasteful, and cruel.

1/ The people drawn to work in humanitarian assistance are the polar opposite of Elon Musk. Some were refugees or other recipients of aid when they were young & want to pay it forward.

The CFPB shutdown is a flashing warning that no one in the Trump administration is interested in better or more efficient consumer financial regulation.

Trump is aiming to slam a wrecking ball into a critical oversight agency that safeguards consumers from unfair and predatory business…

Same here.🙏🙏🙏

An excerpt from a memo which reads: 1. There is currently no legal authority for OPM to offer a "deferred resignation" program. (For a detailed legal analysis see the non-partisan Lawfare blog.) 2. There is no budgetary authority to guarantee employees who resign will be paid through their resignation date. The federal government is funded by Continuing Resolution through March 14, 2025 and funding past that date is dependent on Congress. 3. A nearly identical email was sent to Twitter employees in 2022. Many who accepted the terms later sued claiming they did not receive the compensation that was promised. Written agreements sent to federal employees on February 3, 2025, include language that would prevent you from suing. 4.There are legal protections for civil service employees who do not resign, including the right to two-months notice before being laid off.

A friend of mine passed me the memo (full text linked below) which is being circulated among civil servants laying out the truth of the “buyouts” they’re being offered.

If you know anyone working in the federal government, consider circulating to them, but do NOT use their work email to do so.

The OCCRP was the perfect group to tie all this together. They had exponentially more receipts than you had access to a decade ago. Edward Lucas was saying much the same things as you a decade ago, when The Economist let him. Francoise Thom (Desk Russie) & others were crying in the wilderness, too.

Context:

Tesla’s market valuation is nuts. P/E ratio is 161, compared to 7-9 for other carmakers. That assumes *massive* profit growth b/c:

🔹 For years, sales skyrocketed in Europe, USA, & China
🔹 Musk was seen as a magician conjuring amazing products out of thin air

Neither is true anymore.

Remember, the same clowns claiming they've found widespread government fraud also claimed that they found widespread election fraud

Court case after court case proved them to be liars. Their lawyers even plead guilty, were disbarred

Their circus tent is erected on a hill of lies & conspiracies

Home | Micah Projects Home on the Micah Projects website.

If any other developed democracy abolished its official government aid & development agency, all Christian & other religious and secular NGOs would be apoplectic . The silence of American evangelicals & their NGOs is another example of their descent into fascism.

www.micahprojects.org.au

And semi-literate stoners the world over cry out in grief over that, Ed. (Actually, I spent over 5 days in the ICU on PCA ketamine and I became convinced the unit was running a secretive Kinsey-like sex lab under the nose of the hospital/society, and I alone could see the whole conspiracy.)

Blah, blah, blah. Like fascist liar Trump & all his corrupt, deluded, insincere MAGA Republican GOP cronies, Mike Johnson has nothing but babble to defend Trump & Musk's lawlessness, stolen data. Nothing he says is meaningful nor true; just distraction, deflection, denialism, false "what-about-isms"

German war reparations loom large in Polish election race Presidential candidates focus on historical grievances ahead of May vote

Given everything that’s happening in the world and Europe, a Polish-German spat is quite high on the list of things we don’t need right now.

on.ft.com/4hTEhFh German war reparations loom large in Polish election race

Apple changes Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America based on Trump's order Apple has changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America on its maps after an order by President Donald Trump was made official by the U.S. Geographic Names Information System

Let’s be clear in this.

An executive order is a directive from the president to the executive branch.

It is not a law. Places like Google and Apple do not have to comply with this nonsense.

They choose to.

Just like we can choose Android devices and engines like Duck Duck Go…

#RadioFreeAmerica

It's Intenational Celebration of Women in Science Day!

The CERN Lab in Geneva has this page in honor of the day.

home.cern/news/news/ce...

Events in the DRC show a new realpolitik is emerging in Africa – one that is fraught with danger Apart from the heavy human cost, the return of hybrid warfare to the Democratic Republic of the Congo risks stability on the continent.

The crisis in the DRC’s eastern provinces marks the third time since the end of the Second Congo War that a group receiving significant support from Rwanda has seized DRC territory.

Forget DEI!
START THINKING ABOUT DISCRIMINATION... AGAIN!
Women, black & brown skin ethnicities, college applicants (any federal grants left?), the disabled, seniors, etc.
We fought for EQUALITY! With the stroke of a pen, Trump made it go away and called it discrimination against white men!
😠👊🏼👊🏽

🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Watchdog Group SUES Musk In one of the first major tests of DOGE's transparency, American Oversight is suing under FOIA for DOGE records regarding the firing of Inspectors General across the federal government.

Here we go!

Watchdog group @weareoversight.bsky.social is SUING Elon Musk.

Can DOGE conceal its records from FOIA requests?

Only one way to find out…

This is one to watch. 👀

Very much like the MSM covers Trump in the US. They're stenographers of bullshit, not journalists.

🎯🎯🎯🎯

This is a flat-out, clear-cut violation of the First Amendment.

The Hang Seng Tech Index, tracking top 30 Hong Kong-listed tech groups, is up 25% since January 13, entering a bull market after the DeepSeek breakthrough (Arjun Neil Alim/Financial Times)

Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Vance Says ‘Judges Aren’t Allowed to Control’ Trump’s ‘Legitimate Power’ The declaration by the vice president came as court orders have temporarily blocked parts of the Trump administration’s agenda.

We all need to start using the word "coup." They're well past the point where Hitler starts dictates his Enabling Act. I talk to Very Serious People who actually believe courts telling Trump that they he is breaking the law will stop this. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/u...

This administration & the GOP are completely rewriting the events of January 6. The president is doing it right here. They pretend all the evidence, footage, confessions, & documents just don't exist, that we didn't see it happen. It is an authoritarian move, and it should terrify all of us.