[syndicated profile] crooks_and_liars_feed

Posted by David Edwards

Former South Carolina Lt. Gov. André Bauer (R) was met with applause at a MAGA conference when he blasted Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

Speaking at Turning Point's Student Action Summit on Sunday, Bauer stated that he would be challenging Graham in the 2026 election.

"If we want to preserve what President Trump has created for decades, we've got to get these snakes out of the Senate," he told the crowd. "We need to cut the head off the biggest snake, the biggest two-faced viper of them all, and that's liberal Lindsey Graham."

"Remember that fist bump he gave Kamala right after the 2020 election on the floor of the United States Senate?" he continued. "And when he's not pushing amnesty, he's pushing globalist foreign policy and more military intervention."

"He even said he hoped January 6 prisoners, even if they only just spread flowers on the Capitol floor, should get the book thrown at them. Can you imagine? He wanted them to be sent to jail."

Bauer insisted that South Carolina deserved "a senator who shares conservative values, who truly is an ally of President Trump."

"It's time to deport him from the United States Senate!" he exclaimed.

read more

[syndicated profile] slashdot_feed

Posted by EditorDavid

Can carbon-reducing projects "offset" a company's emissions? "The reality has been less encouraging," according to a Science magazine editorial by Cary Coglianese, a law/political science professor at University of Pennsylvania, and Cynthia Giles, a former senior advisor at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In a new paper published Wednesday, they found that more than half of all currently-certified carbon auditors signed off on projects later found to be "overclaiming" carbon benefits. Their conclusion? "Criticism should be directed not at individual auditors as much as the structure of the system that fosters these outcomes." Most carbon offset projects that have been closely scrutinized — including projects for forest protection, renewable energy, and methane-reducing methods of rice cultivation — have greatly exaggerated their climate benefits. More than 80% of issued credits might not reflect real emission reductions. This has alarmed potential offset purchasers and stalled carbon offset markets. Efforts to resuscitate the beleaguered offset market tout third-party auditing as "essential" to ensuring credit integrity. That reliance is misplaced... [E]xtensive research from many contexts shows that auditors selected and paid by audited organizations often produce results skewed toward those entities' interests. A field experiment in India, for example, found that air and water pollution auditors who were randomly assigned and paid from a central fund reported emissions at levels 50 to 70% higher than auditors selected and paid by audited firms. Auditors — like all people — are subject to a well-established and largely unconscious cognitive phenomenon of self-serving bias, causing them to interpret evidence in favor of their clients... [A]uditors have been required all along and have failed to prevent substantial credit overclaiming. It is rarely acknowledged that all of the credit overclaiming projects that have stirred so much controversy were ratified by third-party auditors under the same auditor selection and payment system that offset advocates rely on today... Auditors are unlikely to stay in business if they disapprove credits at the high rates that research suggests would be appropriate today... Given the high planetary stakes in carbon policy choices being made now, it is past time to recognize that third-party auditors selected and paid by the audited organizations are not the bulwark for credit integrity they are claimed to be.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

[syndicated profile] crooks_and_liars_feed

Posted by Chris capper Liebenthal

Isaiah Anthony Hodgson, a border patrol agent, was off duty and under the influence in a restaurant in Long Beach, California, when his inner asshole took over:

While at a Shoreline Village restaurant on July 7, Hodgson was allegedly off-duty, intoxicated and armed with a handgun, according to the DA's Office. He is accused of going into the women's restroom, where he approached a woman who saw his handgun and firearm magazine. He reportedly left the restaurant soon after the woman told the manager that he was armed and inside the women's restroom.

The Long Beach Police Department responded to the area after a security guard outside of the restaurant allegedly saw Hodgson holding a firearm magazine along with a firearm on his waistband. The security guard asked Hodgson to leave and told him that firearms are not allowed on the property, the district attorney's office says.

Officers reportedly observed Hodgson intoxicated and said that as he resisted arrest, he allegedly "became agitated and physical with the officers, injuring one of them," according to the DA's Office.

The news report says that police had to taze Hodgdon before they could put him in custody.

read more

[syndicated profile] crooks_and_liars_feed

Posted by David Edwards

NBC host Kristen Welker called out Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem because the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reportedly responded to fewer than 16% of calls in response to the recent deadly flooding in Texas.

"The New York Times is reporting that thousands of calls from flood victims to FEMA call centers went unanswered in the middle of this ongoing disaster because you didn't renew contracts to keep call center staff in place until nearly one week after the floods," Welker told Noem on Sunday. "Why did it take so long to extend those contracts?"

"It's just false. Those contracts were in place," the DHS secretary replied. "So false reporting, fake news, and it's discouraging."

"Just to be very clear, on July 7th, 15.9% of calls were answered," Welker pressed. "I mean, does that concern you that only 15% of calls were answered? These are people in a desperate state."

Noem, however, again insisted that the "contracts were in place and those people were in those call centers and they were picking up the phone and answering these calls."

"So that report needs to be valid if — I'd — I'm not certain it's accurate and I'm not sure where it came from," she said. "And the individuals who are giving you information out of FEMA, I'd love to have them put their names behind it because the anonymous attacks to politicize this situation is completely wrong."

read more

[syndicated profile] crooks_and_liars_feed

Posted by David Edwards

The hosts of Fox & Friends said they didn't buy claims from President Donald Trump's administration that Jeffrey Epstein did not have a list of people connected to his alleged sex trafficking crimes.

"If there's anybody who could walk in and say, 'Okay, we've resolved all of the questions, and there is nothing here,' it would be President Trump and his crew," Fox News co-host Charlie Hurt opined on Sunday. "The problem is, you can't really do it without giving some explanation."

"You absolutely nailed it," co-host Kevin Corke agreed. "You can defuse this ticking time bomb if you simply get out there."

The host argued that Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino should answer questions about Epstein on camera.

"You can't tell me that a thousand people were hurt, and that there are no people out there that we can arrest," Corke said. "You can't tell me that, 'Oh, sorry, we don't have a list.' Fine. Don't have a list."

"Tell me who the perpetrators were," he continued. "Let's depose every single person who might have had a chance to get on that list and might have been out there at that island, and let's talk to them. Let's find out what happened."

"You're telling me there are videos out there in New Mexico and at the island and in New York, and nobody saw anything. I don't buy it, and that's why they need to get out there and face the fire."

read more

[syndicated profile] crooks_and_liars_feed

Posted by John Amato

The MAGA cult has been in and uproar after the DOJ announced there are no Epstein files.

Trump-land had said over and over again they would release those files immediately after Trump was elected. Now the MAGA base saying Trump has become the deep state.

To address this, MAGA influencers and their media personas began to mount their attacks against Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi because they needed a viable scapegoat to shield Trump from his base of his party who are furious at Trump for trying to sweep the Jeffrey Epstein controversy under the rug as quickly as possible.

Megyn Kelly lead the charge this weekend at a TPUSA event. She said Patel and Bongino suddenly became mum about the Epstein story as soon as the became part of the Trump administration, except for Bondi.

She claimed the AG got "thirsty" for attention.

KELLY: No, we all have busy lives and President Trump has a busy life and I don't think he realizes how much she's humiliated the administration This is a self-inflicted wound.

She caused it, again.

I have nothing against Pam Bondi But if you want to look for the villain in this story, we have found her I mean she is the person who's either she's either lying now or she was lying then there's no two ways about it ---

read more

[syndicated profile] dailykos_feed

Survey Says is a weekly series rounding up the most important polling trends or data points you need to know about, plus a vibe check on a trend that’s driving politics.


Global birth rates are falling, and many on the right want you to get out there and breed for the good of the U.S. of A. 

“Let me say very simply, I want more babies in the United States of America,” Vice President JD Vance said at an anti-abortion rally in January. 

But new polling finds that most Americans do not share his concern about declining birth rates. What they are concerned about, though, may be one of the reasons for lower birth rates: the budget-busting price of becoming a parent and raising a kid. And they largely disagree with Vance’s idea of how to fix it.

Just 28% of Americans say declining birth rates are a major problem, according to a new survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Meanwhile, 44% say it’s a minor problem, and 27% consider it no problem at all.



And even fewer Americans are fans of Vance’s favorite subject: Just 12% think it should be a high priority for the government to encourage people to have more kids.

Vance may couch his birthing obsession in language about replacement-level birth rates, but on closer inspection, it’s clear their concerns derive from reactionary misogyny, a reflexive fear and hatred of women choosing to have fewer kids—and of people other than stay-at-home moms raising those kids.

“A dramatic expansion of child care is a bad deal for American parents,” Vance wrote in a 2021 Wall Street Journal op-ed. But since more than 4 in 5 stay-at-home parents are women, it’s not hard to work out that what conservatives actually want is fewer women working. They’d rather them remain economically dependent on men. After all, this is the same guy who wants to end no-fault divorce and thinks women should stick it out in “violent” marriages.

Vance also decried the idea of non-family-based child care, complaining to Tucker Carlson in 2021 that some Americans “want strangers to raise their kids.” 

But again, this creep is just out of touch. The same poll finds that the vast majority of Americans (76%) see the cost of child care as a major problem, and another 18% see it as a minor problem. Only 5% don’t see it as a problem.



The national average price to have an infant in a child care center is over $13,000 a year, according to data from Child Care Aware of America, a national organization that advocates for affordable child care. The median household income in 2023 was $80,610, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, meaning that child care accounts for over 16% of the typical family’s budget—an amount rivaled only by housing, food, and health insurance costs. 

And what if that family has two kids? Or three? Or what if there’s only one parent? Some people simply can’t afford to have a kid, even if they want one.



Of course, many Democrats are running on making child care more affordable—or, if you’re New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, free. That is one of Mamdani’s main campaign planks, which probably boosted him to his shock victory in the local Democratic primary last month. In 2024, 67% of Americans supported the idea of the government providing funding for child care, according to YouGov

Other reasons for why some Americans are opting out of parenthood are the costs and dangers of getting pregnant in the first place. The AP-NORC poll finds that 41% of Americans say the steep price of fertility treatments as a major problem, and another 34% think it’s a minor problem. Furthermore, 39% see the risks of pregnancy and childbirth as a major problem, and 43% see it as a minor problem. 

And unfortunately, the latter problem is getting much worse under Republican leadership. States with more abortion restrictions face higher rates of mothers dying during pregnancy and in the year following childbirth. 

After all, if having a kid costs you your life, who can afford that?

Any updates?

  • Following the deadly floods in Central Texas, YouGov finds that roughly 1 in 5 Americans (18%) have had to evacuate their homes due to floods, tornados, and other extreme weather at least once in their lives. In the South, that number climbs to 1 in 4 (26%), likely due to the added threat of hurricanes.

  • Relishing its own gleeful cruelty, the Trump administration has nicknamed an immigrant detention center “Alligator Alcatraz” since it’s located in the Florida Everglades. But yet again, the administration is overestimating the blood-thirstiness of the average American: Only 1 in 3 support the opening of this detention center, according to YouGov. Meanwhile, 48% oppose it, and 18% aren’t sure.

  • American pride is falling, with some polls finding it at a new low—and especially low among Democrats and independents. But not only is there a partisan gap on American pride, there was also one on watching Fourth of July fireworks. YouGov finds that 56% of Republicans watched the fireworks this year, while 55% of Democrats and 54% of independents did not. 

  • The Trump administration is moving to revoke U.S. citizenship for those who have committed crimes, and he’s even flirting with the idea of deporting Mamdani, a U.S. citizen who was born in Uganda. However, these threats are vastly unpopular, with 70% of likely voters thinking the president shouldn’t have the power to revoke citizenship from immigrants, according to Data for Progress. Fifty-five percent even say the government shouldn’t be able to deport naturalized citizens who have committed serious crimes.

  • The Internal Revenue Services will now allow churches to endorse political candidates without risking their tax-exempt status, further eroding the boundary between church and state. However, just 20% of Americans support the idea of churches making endorsements, according to 2023 data recently released by the Public Religion Research Institute. Not even a majority of people who believe in Christian nationalism (45%) support churches getting into the endorsement game.

Vibe check

Extreme heat is now the norm and hitting earlier in the year. But if June is the new July, then what does that make July? Possibly even more lethally hot, especially if Trump and his science-denying allies further hobble the government’s ability to fight the climate crisis. 

We can’t know how many deaths Trump’s denialism will cause, but if historical trends hold, it’s likely to be a lot. A study published last August in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that heat-related deaths in the U.S. are getting worse. In 2023, there were 2,325 heat-related deaths, the highest in the 24 years of data the study covered. It’s also double what it was in 2020. 



The good-ish news is that data from the Pew Research Center shows Americans who face extreme weather largely attribute it to climate change. Fifty percent or more of those who have suffered extreme weather, like floods, droughts, and severe heat, in the past 12 months say climate change contributed “a lot” to what they suffered through.

At least people seem aware of what’s making things so bad. Now if only they’d vote for people who want to change it ...

[syndicated profile] slashdot_feed

Posted by EditorDavid

At an Amazon warehouse that employs 3,700 people, hundreds of workers recently lost their job, reports the New York Times. "They are among thousands of foreign workers across the country who have been swept up in a quiet purge, pushed out of jobs in places where their labor was in high demand and at times won high praise." While raids to nab workers in the country without legal permission in fields and Home Depot parking lots have grabbed attention, the job dismissals at the Amazon warehouse are part of the Trump administration's effort to thin the ranks of immigrants who had legal authorization to work... Such dismissals are happening at many of Amazon's more than 1,000 facilities around the country, including in Massachusetts and the warehouse in Staten Island that fills orders for millions of New Yorkers. At one fulfillment center in Florida, hundreds were let go, a person familiar with the site said... "We're supporting employees impacted by the government's recent changes in immigration policy," Richard Rocha, an Amazon spokesperson, said in a statement. The company has pointed workers to various resources, including outside free or low-cost legal services... The dismissals came with remarkable speed. On May 30, the Supreme Court granted temporary approval for the Trump administration to revoke a program known as "humanitarian parole," which had allowed more than 500,000 migrants feeling political turmoil in Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to quickly get work permits if they had a fiscal sponsor... On June 12, the Department of Homeland Security said it had begun notifying enrollees that the program was ending, saying the immigrants had been poorly vetted and undercut American workers... On June 22, Amazon told managers around the country in an email, which was obtained by The New York Times, that it had "received the first list from D.H.S. identifying impacted Amazon employees" from the parole program, as well as "some employees outside of this specific program whose work authorization is similarly affected." Amazon let the managers know that the next day, the affected workers would receive push notifications in the employee app about the change. Unless the workers could provide alternate work authorization documents in the next five days, they would be suspended without pay and ultimately dismissed.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

[syndicated profile] notalwaysright_feed

Posted by Not Always Right

Read When The Customer Is A Complete Nothingburger

Customer: "Oi. Got anything like a burger?"
Me: "We’ve got crispy aromatic duck or barbecue pork. Closest we’ve got to a burger is a pork bun. No fries."
Customer: "That’s mad. What kind of restaurant doesn’t have a burger?"
Me: "A Chinese one. At five in the morning."

Read When The Customer Is A Complete Nothingburger

[syndicated profile] icanhascheezburger_feed

Posted by Sarah Brown

Some cats truly wear their hearts on their sleeve. Literally. These adorable fluffballs have heart-shaped markings that say, "Yes, I'm full of love." Whether it's a perfect little heart on their side, a tiny one on their nose, or a tail that curls just right into a love shape, these cats were clearly made to melt hearts.

They strut around like walking Valentine's cards, offering purrs instead of poems and head boops instead of roses. You don't need to swipe right, just shake a treat bag and they're all yours. It's no surprise that cats with heart markings are known for having a little extra charm. (Not scientifically proven, but we're emotionally convinced.)

Sure, they might still knock a glass off the table or meow at 3 a.m., but when their fur says "I love you," it's hard to stay mad. These lovable little furballs are proof that love isn't just in the air. It's on the sofa, the windowsill, and occasionally on top of your clean laundry. Pawsitively purrfect and full of love to give!

Fluff. Chaos. Drama! Our weekly cat newsletter has it all -  subscribe here.

[syndicated profile] dailykos_feed

President Donald Trump promised the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history. But halfway through his first year back in office, he’s not even matching the numbers under former President Barack Obama, let alone fulfilling his own pledge.

New figures obtained by NBC News show that while Immigration and Customs Enforcement is arresting immigrants at the fastest pace in at least five years, deportations are lagging significantly. 

In June, ICE detained around 30,000 people—the highest monthly total since data began being released in late 2020. However, deportations that month barely exceeded 18,000. May showed a similar trend: 24,000 arrests but only about 15,000 deportations.

It’s becoming a hallmark of Trump’s second term: performative crackdowns, legal overreach, and a deportation bottleneck that stalls the scheme—even with him having the full power of federal agencies.

Since February, Trump’s administration has averaged 14,700 deportations per month. That’s less than half of the former Obama administration’s 2013 average—36,000 per month—and only slightly above Biden’s early 2024 pace of around 12,660 per month (including border removals handled by U.S. Customs and Border Protection).

Trump has long campaigned on cruelty, promising to deport 1 million people in his first year, even as public support for immigration has grown recently. Now, even his base is noticing the disconnect: Arrests are up, rhetoric is loud, and results are minimal.



The data supports what immigration advocates have long said: Trump’s goals were unrealistic. There simply aren’t enough eligible people to deport quickly enough to reach that number legally. And when legal barriers arise, Trump seems eager to bypass due process to maintain appearances.

To speed up removals, the administration has started fast-tracking cases—stripping asylum protections, revoking visas, breaking promises to undocumented farmworkers, and pushing immigrants into expedited removal without court hearings. But even these heavy-handed tactics haven’t closed the gap.

Legal safeguards are slowing things down—thankfully and for good reason. Immigration attorneys told NBC that many detainees are still waiting on asylum decisions or have court orders preventing deportation. These delays are part of the process. But Trump’s team views them as obstacles.

That impatience has already led to serious mistakes. ICE has wrongfully deported at least four immigrants recently, including Kilmar Abrego Garcia and Jordin Alexander Melgar-Salmeron, who were later ordered to be returned by judges.

Sister RoseAnn Castilleja, center, holds a Rosary and sign as she marches with other immigration advocates as they protest recent detentions by ICE outside the immigration court in San Antonio, Texas, Tuesday, July 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Sister RoseAnn Castilleja, center, holds a Rosary and sign as she marches with other immigration advocates as they protest recent detentions by ICE, in San Antonio, Texas, on July 1.

Meanwhile, ICE detention centers are overwhelmed. NBC reports that more than 60,000 people are being detained, far exceeding the 41,500 beds funded by Congress. Overcrowding, poor hygiene, and medical neglect are reportedly widespread, even if Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin dismissed those claims as “categorically false.”

She also claimed ICE is working “diligently” to expand detention capacity.

That expansion may happen soon. Congress recently passed Trump’s vicious budget law, which allocates $45 billion to immigration enforcement and potentially tripling ICE’s detention capacity. Critics argue it won’t improve outcomes—just worsen dysfunction.

But as Trump’s team doubles down on dehumanizing rhetoric, they’re now stuck with a problem of their own making: trying to justify the threat they’ve spent years exaggerating.

After all, if the crisis were truly as severe as Trump and his allies claim, he wouldn’t be struggling to deliver on his biggest campaign promise. Instead, we’re watching his signature policy stumble against legal limits, logistical failures, and cold hard reality.

Trump isn’t just falling short and losing support. He’s also revealing the emptiness of his immigration agenda. The cruelty is the point. The follow-through has never really mattered.

[syndicated profile] slashdot_feed

Posted by EditorDavid

Brian Witten, VP/CSO of automotive technology supplier Aptiv, warns that "While seven to 10 years may sound like a long way off, preparation for quantum threats must begin now, not once they have already materialized." Organizations need time to implement post-quantum cryptography (PQC) transition plans methodically — and that applies both to anyone with an IT infrastructure and to anyone building software-defined systems. "Current encryption, such as RSA and ECC [elliptic curve cryptography], will become obsolete once quantum computing matures," said Cigent cofounder John Benkert. "Management often assumes cybersecurity threats are only present-day problems. But this is a future-proofing issue — especially relevant for industries dealing with sensitive, long-lifespan data, like healthcare, finance or government." Remediation requires long-term planning. Organizations that wait until quantum computers have broken encryption to address the threat will find that it is too late. Start by building an inventory of what needs to change, Witten recommends. (Fortunately, "It's a matter of using newer and different chips and algorithms, not necessarily more expensive components," he writes, also suggesting requests for proposals "should ask vendors to include a PQC update plan.") Firmware will also need quantum-resistant digital signatures. ("Broken authentication lets bad things happen. Someone could remotely take over a vehicle, for instance, or send malicious code for autonomous execution later, even after the vehicle has gone offline.") And remember that post-quantum key sizes are larger, requiring more storage space. "In some cases, digitally signed messages with security information could triple in size, which could impact storage and bandwidth." Thanks to Esther Schindler (Slashdot reader #16,185) for sharing the article.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

[syndicated profile] slashdot_feed

Posted by EditorDavid

"GParted Live is a Linux distro with a focused purpose," writes Slashdot reader BrianFagioli. "It exists solely to give users a simple and effective way to manage disk partitions. Whether you're resizing drives, prepping for dual boot, or recovering data, this live operating system has you covered." But "The 1.7.0 release brings a few key changes, starting with the end of 32-bit support." If you're still using old hardware, you're officially out of luck. This decision follows Debian's move to drop i386 kernel packages from its Sid repository. Because GParted Live is built on Debian Sid, it now ships only in 64-bit (amd64) versions. This release also includes GParted 1.7.0 along with an updated Linux kernel, version 6.12.37. Another important tweak is the addition of a mechanism that helps avoid random ordering of block devices at boot. That change can prevent users from selecting the wrong disk by mistake, especially in systems with multiple drives.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

[syndicated profile] notalwaysright_feed

Posted by Not Always Right

Read Customer Complaints Now Include – *Checks Notes* – Not Allowing Children To Get Heatstroke

Dad: *Sheepishly.* "We’re just looking to cool down for a bit. We won’t be in the way."
Me: "That’s absolutely fine. The AC doesn’t check receipts."
They stand quietly near the fans and cooling units, clearly just catching their breath and letting the kids sit for a minute. No fuss. Another customer marches up to the checkouts.
Customer: "You really just let people hang around without buying anything? They’re hogging all the cold air."

Read Customer Complaints Now Include – *Checks Notes* – Not Allowing Children To Get Heatstroke

December 2020

S M T W T F S
  123 45
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags