🐈‍⬛

What?

They are depleted, but magically it’s Biden’s fault?

But they’re not depleted and anyone saying they are should be jailed?

An American hero, an award-winning scientist respected and revered all over the world, Dr. Fauci.

Summer sees both a drop off in donations and, at least for our trauma center, a spike in traumas. Trauma centers across the US are in danger of running out of blood for our trauma patients TODAY, which is very scary but, unlike much of the other scary national news coming across our screens these days, is something you can help fix immediately and directly.

There have been huge cuts to science funding in the US. Much has been written about the more important losses but one is personal.

NOAA's Polar Operational Environmental Satellites were a set of weather satellites launching from 1978 to 2009. Of those ~20 satellites, only 3 were still operational at the start of 2025. Their replacements, the JPSS program, are already in orbit (and at risk from anti-science garbage). Realistically, POES was going to hit end-of-life now separate from any budget cuts.

So why does it matter? Because getting data from these satellites was easy. One of their broadcasts was sent using APT; a protocol from the 60s that anyone can process without any experience. It's perfectly doable with a $30 radio, 2 aluminum rods, and a laptop (or even an android phone).

NOAA 15, the last survivor, was being shut down the week of Aug 18. It had been almost 10 years since I had last worked with 15 but I couldn't let it be decommissioned without seeing through its eyes one last time. My family took a trip to a nearby open-space, I set up my cheap dipole antenna, and plugged it into my laptop.

It was like hearing from an old friend.

You know when a website takes a long time to load and you see pictures come in 1 row at a time? As the satellite orbits, it constantly takes a picture beneath itself and broadcasts that out. (It doesn't actually photograph the ground beneath it. It only grabs information on cloud formations, rain, temps, etc. The image processing adds in the Earth beneath this data.) These little "cycles" you hear are basically it transmitting a picture 1 row at a time. That picture just happens to be of the Earth.

In the late 20th century, globally-available satellites like these were critical for weather prediction in countries that lacked the resources to launch their own. I can't speak to how helpful these satellites still were for weather prediction now that modern alternatives exist. But I know for a fact that they were still inspiring people just like me around the world.

Getting an image from a satellite is always awesome. But what really made it special was being able to share that with my family. We got to take an impromptu trip to somewhere beautiful.

Another family walked by and asked what we were doing. One of them used to work for NOAA and was so excited that I was collecting this data. We ended up talking to him for a while about changes in science funding and how his life has changed this year as an immigrant.

I’m sorry but that’s thinking way too small, hear me out:

We need to have Miss Piggy as Odysseus, and Kermit as Penelope.

Think about it… who’s the more fickle, prideful, warlike one in that relationship? Who is absolutely ready to go ham, at a moment’s notice?

🚨 **Breaking News: Reflecting Pool Drama!** 🚨

In a bizarre turn of events, it’s being reported that a freshly paved section of the Reflecting Pool was damaged after a full motorcade—led by none other than Donald Trump—insisted on driving over it for an "inspection" before it was refilled. 😳

Here’s the kicker: Trump’s close advisors are now suggesting that this reckless decision is the likely cause of the “rip” in the surface. But guess what? He’s already denying responsibility and blaming *liberals* instead!

- **Motorcade Mayhem**: A fresh surface and a heavy motorcade? Not the best combo! 🚙💨

- **Deflection Game**: Instead of owning up, Trump shifts the blame—classic move! 🤦‍♂️

- **Public Reaction**: The internet is buzzing with reactions, ranging from disbelief to outright hilarity!

Jacob Knutson at Democracy Docket:

Senate Republicans confirmed Jay Clayton, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, as the new head of the U.S. intelligence community, a position that’s become central to President Donald Trump’s efforts to undermine U.S. elections. With the Senate’s 51-47 vote Tuesday, Clayton will take control of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) after Trump has oriented the agency toward supporting his false election claims.  Clayton will replace Bill Pulte, a top housing finance official who has served as acting director of national intelligence (DNI) since former DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s resignation in June. Under Pulte and Gabbard, ODNI has probed election conspiracy theories and helped declassify intelligence to bolster Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

Clayton, a securities lawyer by trade who has no known intelligence background, assumes the DNI role after making alarming claims on U.S. elections in recent weeks.  Though he said he was “not an election denier” during his confirmation hearing earlier this month, Clayton repeatedly declined to clearly state who won the 2020 election.  Instead, he said “Biden was certified as the president of the United States,” which is a carefully worded statement several Trump nominees have used to avoid explicitly saying Biden won — and, by extension, that Trump lost the 2020 contest.

Days before Trump nominated him for DNI, Clayton perpetuated misinformation about California primary elections. Specifically, he took aim at California’s mail voting laws and, without providing evidence, implied that an unspecified “group” was abusing mail voting to throw elections in the state. Clayton made the claims as Trump and prominent anti-voting figures were spreading false claims about California’s prolonged vote count to push for the SAVE America Act and new restrictions on mail voting, which has been a leading target of the election denial movement. 

The US Senate vote 51-47 on party lines to confirm Jay Clayton as the next DNI, replacing Tulsi Gabbard as the Senate-confirmed holder while Bill Pulte filled in for the interim.

See Also:

AP, via HuffPost: Senate Confirms Jay Clayton As Nation's Intelligence Director

Kyle Mantyla at RWW:

As Trump's approval rating plummets and his former voters turn against him, Vaughn is lashing out at those who refuse to blindly support Trump as the midterm elections approach.  That was the subject of the monologue that Vaughn delivered during his livestream on Tuesday night, in which he literally declared that Trump voters who "think for themselves" are being "selfish." "Get behind your quarterback and shut your mouth about what you don't agree with," Vaughn demanded. "Do you agree the ball has been moved in the right direction? Then be a team player. Help us keep moving the ball and the only way you can help move the ball is if you support the man that's moving it: the quarterback."

MAGA cultist hack Shane Vaughn says that those who aren’t 100% behind Donald Trump are “selfish enough to think for themselves.”

Kyle Mantyla at RWW:

As Trump's approval rating plummets and his former voters turn against him, Vaughn is lashing out at those who refuse to blindly support Trump as the midterm elections approach.  That was the subject of the monologue that Vaughn delivered during his livestream on Tuesday night, in which he literally declared that Trump voters who "think for themselves" are being "selfish." "Get behind your quarterback and shut your mouth about what you don't agree with," Vaughn demanded. "Do you agree the ball has been moved in the right direction? Then be a team player. Help us keep moving the ball and the only way you can help move the ball is if you support the man that's moving it: the quarterback."

MAGA cultist hack Shane Vaughn says that those who aren’t 100% behind Donald Trump are “selfish enough to think for themselves.”

Emily Singer at Daily Kos:

It’s that time of the election cycle again where Republicans—desperate to save their congressional majorities—cook up an imaginary foe to scare their base. In 2018 and 2022, it was “migrant caravans.” And now they’ve settled on a new bogeyman to reenergize their depressed base ahead of this year’s midterms: communism. House Speaker Mike Johnson held a news conference on Tuesday, where he and other Republican leaders spoke of the evils of communism. “We’re fighting right now in Congress over whether we’re going to maintain our status as a constitutional republic or we’re going to trade that in, dismantle the foundations and go down this dark road of death to communism. That is the question on the ballot this fall,” Johnson said. He then launched into a tirade about socialists taking over the Democratic Party, listing off all of the scary things they’ll do if given power. “This is not a game. Everybody needs to understand,” he said. “These crazy little mini-Mamdanis who are popping up all around the country; they are a danger to you and your family. This is not a game. If they promise you free stuff, there is far more beneath those promises that even some of these people do not understand themselves.”

[...] He then warned that democracy is at risk if Americans do not give Republicans power—an even more absurd claim given that they’re the ones who are taking away rights and trying to rig elections to subvert the will of the people.  Indeed, in the same speech warning of the perils of communism, Johnson pushed the SAVE Act, a horrific piece of legislation that seeks to make it harder to vote.

Matt Gertz at MMFA:

The MAGA plot to subvert the 2026 midterm elections is coming into focus. Election denial bigwig Steve Bannon has outlined a scheme in which President Donald Trump — aided by right-wing journalist John Solomon at the White House and Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence — would declassify and release documents purporting to show significant foreign interference in past U.S. elections. The president would then use that theory as the “predicate” to declare a “national emergency” and try to seize control of the elections apparatus to curtail voting rights in November. The foundational lie of this scheme — and of election denial writ large — is that Trump is such a popular figure that only massive election fraud could explain the defeat of his movement at the polls. And the right’s propaganda apparatus is essential in buttressing that lie by ignoring or explaining away all evidence to the contrary. Outlets like Fox News don’t just celebrate the president as an heroic, visionary figure — they tell viewers that the polls are wrong and “The MAGA Momentum Is Unstoppable.” Here's how this scheme has worked in the past, and a glimpse into how Trump and his propagandists are kicking into gear again this cycle.

Poll trutherism is the foundation of election denial

Trump is an historically unpopular president. Polls over the decade since he entered the political spotlight have consistently found that he is broadly disliked, and his job approval is currently tracking near its all-time lows, according to poll aggregations from The New York Times, Nate Silver’s Silver Bulletin, and the conservative RealClearPolitics. The most recent results from pro-Trump Fox News are in line with those averages, showing 39% of respondents approve of the job Trump is doing while 60% disapprove, with his performance underwater by large margins on issues from the economy to immigration.    The president has responded to these dire numbers not by trying to appeal to a broader swath of the country but by declaring that he is actually popular and that news outlets have fabricated these results to damage his political standing. “Fake polls — I got one today,” the president told reporters in February. “I saw one today that I'm at 40%. I'm not at 40%. I'm at much higher than that. I'd love to run against anybody. The real polls say ‘you'd kill everybody, it wouldn't even be close.’”

In late June, he likewise argued that other, unnamed surveys show his “REAL POLL NUMBERS ARE THE HIGHEST THEY HAVE EVER BEEN,” with his job approval at “at 65%, and more!” As with so many of Trump’s actions, this is simultaneously laughable and menacing. It is ridiculous on its face that the president of the United States is so unwilling to accept that the majority of the public don’t like him that he’s instead concocted a vast conspiracy theory implicating the bulk of the nation’s pollsters and media outlets while apparently inventing “REAL POLL NUMBERS” that show he is beloved.  But Trump inevitably carries that absurd argument to its logical conclusion: When election results correspond with the public polls and Trump loses, he decries those elections as “rigged.” He famously attributed both his popular vote defeat in 2016 and his popular and electoral vote losses in 2020 to election fraud, and baselessly warned in the leadup to the 2024 election that only rigging could explain it if he lost again (this time he won both the popular and electoral votes despite his low favorability).

[...]

MAGA media are hiding Trump’s unpopularity from their audience

The right-wing propaganda machine plays a key role in this farce.  Republicans spent decades tearing down the press and urging their supporters to get their information only from ideological allies. That opened up the party base to Trumpian lies, like his claims about news outlets producing fake polls. 

MAGA media could try to keep their audiences grounded in reality, leveling with them about Trump’s unpopularity and pushing the party to change course. But in the lead-up to both the 2020 and 2024 elections, they portrayed Trump as the odds-on favorite and suggested a defeat could only result from fraud. And since Trump returned to office, the right-wing commentariat has largely toed the president’s line and hidden worrying signs about his faltering support. 

The strategy is particularly obvious — and noxious — on Fox. The network’s hosts and commentators are aware that Trump is deeply unpopular, as it employs pollsters whose own surveys show it. But they are concealing that knowledge from viewers — a group that often includes the Fox-obsessed president himself — rather than leveling with them. Fox hosts hide the network’s brutal polls while touting Trump as “the ultimate dealmaker” ushering in a “golden age” that makes the United States “the envy of the world” — and that “America, just like McDonald’s, we’re loving it.” Its pundits swoon over how his “support among his base, among Republicans, is as strong as any president we've seen in modern history” and assure viewers that “the polling that you're seeing come in on Trump is incorrect.” 

They point to outdated polls that suggest Trump’s actions are popular over their own survey data when it says otherwise.  After the crowd at Madison Square Garden loudly jeered the president when he appeared on the Jumbotron at Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the hometown New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs, Fox & Friends claimed his reception was actually “mixed.”  And when dismal turnout marred Trump’s efforts to make the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence all about himself, they pretended otherwise.

Lisa Needham at Daily Kos:

One of the worst things about the Trump administration is the warping of government agency missions, stripping them of their ability to help people and converting them into ways to harm them instead. 

The latest—and extremely worrisome—move comes from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which is supposed to track and recall dangerous products. Instead, agency officials are using their authority to demand that hospitals share extensive private medical data with a private contractor.  The CPSC has been sending letters to major hospital systems, demanding that they give a private company the personally identifiable medical records of everyone who visits their emergency rooms. There isn’t really even a pretense that the supposed watchdog agency is doing this to track whether certain consumer products are disproportionately resulting in injuries, which is what it was created to track. Instead, this requires reporting on pretty much everything—broken bones, overdoses, suicide attempts, adverse reactions to medications, and so on. 

Hospitals have been participating in CPSC voluntary surveillance reporting for years, but that’s not what this is. The way that surveillance is supposed to work is that trained hospital workers provide data on injuries caused by specific categories of household products, typically stripped of any identifying data. The CPSC’s own manual instructs hospitals not to provide any identifying information at first, and stipulates that the agency only gets that data when following up on a product investigation, which the manual says happens in under 1% of the cases. The manual also specifies that only certain types of emergency room visit data are to be shared, and excludes injuries from food, medical devices, illegal drugs, or anything that doesn’t involve a consumer product. The current demand from the CPSC is for pretty much everything.

This is getting pushed as “modernization” of surveillance for product safety issues. The agency brags about how cool and great it will be just to have the government automatically scan everyone’s medical records, and then it will magically save lives.  By demanding medical records from ER visits that have nothing to do with injuries from consumer products, the Trump administration is making it pretty clear it is just using the CPSC as another tool in its quest to put Americans under constant surveillance. 

State Department official calls for pre-crime approach to combat "far-left terrorists" to prevent "plots before they happen."