ICE’s new funding level is larger than the combined budgets of the FBI, DEA, ATF, Bureau of Prisons, and U.S. Marshals Service. Who are these people? “ICE was generally known as a place made up of people who couldn’t get jobs at the more established and reputable federal policing agencies — so, FBI, U.S. Marshals, […]
For eight years, we had rooftop solar. We wouldn’t have done it except that because of state law, Ameren paid half the cost. We also got a 30% tax rebate on the difference. Since we moved, there are too many trees around our house for rooftop solar, but there are more solar panels in our […]
I’ve been a bit baffled recently by comments by friends expressing anxiety about NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. Yeah, I ignore the right-wing wind machine over at Fox. But since I stopped reading the gray lady, I missed the propaganda and misdirection she’s been pumping out. “The Times has it out for Zohran Mamdani. The […]
The words “socialism” and “Marxism” have long been synonymous with the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China. Oddly, because neither country was socialist or Marxist. Lenin and the Bolsheviks (bolshevik means “majoritarian,” even though it was a minority party, a triumph of propaganda) crushed Marxist/socialist worker-led organizations after the 1917 Revolution (really a […]
Do we say that a blackmailer is trying to reach a “deal?” Is a successful extortion a “deal?” “Harvard’s hundreds of unionized professors are pushing the university not to make any deal with President Trump in its deepening dispute with the White House, and they say they hope to flex their increasing organizing prowess to […]
I was born squarely in the middle of the “baby boom” generation. We had daily bible readings in my first grade public school class. We said the pledge of allegiance through high school in my public school system. Boomers are sometimes identified with the protests, rebelliousness and non-conformity of the ‘60s, but many or most […]
I see where Elon has announced that he’s starting a third party. Setting aside the problem that he backed Trump in the last election and was in the tank with the Trump administration blowing up the federal government with DOGE, what are we to make of this? Ross Perot was the most successful third party […]
“The court announced that it will hear two voting-related challenges when the court resumes in October: a reargument of a long-running dispute of Louisiana’s congressional map and a case that could erode one of the few existing limits on campaign funding. “The Louisiana case is a challenge to the state’s congressional map, which includes two […]
“Autonomous driving is the core promise around which Elon Musk has built his company. Tesla has never delivered a truly self-driving vehicle, yet the richest person in the world keeps repeating the claim that his cars will soon drive entirely without human help. Is Tesla’s autopilot really as advanced as he says? “The Tesla Files […]
Trump’s BBB is a huge windfall for the Department of Homeland Security: “The bill gives ICE $29.8 billion to hire new staff and conduct deportations. That will lead to a hiring spurt of deportation officers; an additional $4.1 billion bump goes to Customs and Border Protection for new personnel. “For immigration detention, also overseen by […]