muddy politics

(via United Airlines Will Offer Free Flight Changes To Avoid Trump International Airport)

Annie Farmer, an accuser of Epstein and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell said she found Blanche "abrasive, condescending, and intentionally noncommittal to survivors — a marked contrast to his public testimony during his confirmation hearing."

She alleged in a statement that Blanche's explanations for his interview with Maxwell and her transfer to a minimum security prison camp were "wholly dissatisfactory and contrived."

Dani Bensky, a survivor who testified against Blanche to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, said in an interview with MS NOW that while she previously felt "a small glimmer of hope," the meeting was not "substantive" or "productive."

"It had absolutely nothing to do with us," survivor Elizabeth Stein said, echoing her fellow survivors in an interview. "It had everything to do with Blanche checking a box so that he can get a promotion."

Stein said it was "demoralizing, to say the very least."

(via A Must Read and Truly Horrifying Story - TPM – Talking Points Memo)

The AP has just posted a detailed investigation into the background of David Brouillette, the recently hired ICE agent who shot and killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine. It’s genuinely horrifying on more levels than are easy to describe. Brouillette was hired during ICE’s recent hiring spree, as the agency attempted to rapidly staff up to manage a program of mass deportation. Brouillette has a long history of severe mental illness, a lengthy history of violence against at least two wives as well as his children, stalking, a seemingly endless list of restraining orders, violent threats against other family members and more.

According to one relative, Brouillette was diagnosed with severe bipolar disorder as a child as well as attention deficit disorder, twice tried to commit suicide at age 12 and was hospitalized multiple times. These early issues appear to have been compounded by service in the military and deployments to Afghanistan which left him with an increased propensity to violence as well as PTSD. A relative told the AP, “They took someone who was extremely mentally ill and turned him into a killing machine.” (An additional, horrifying detail: Brouillette was initially rejected by the military because of his mental health history. “But recruiters encouraged him to go off his medications for a year and reapply, which he did,” and he was then enlisted.) If all this weren’t enough, in 2021 he was broke and in some kind of firefighter training program when he was hit in the head by a steal beam and suffered a serious concussion and some sort of permanent brain damage, “with symptoms including impaired memory, cognitive deficits, headaches, vertigo and light sensitivity.”

Facing mounting pressure to acknowledge that Grok can still be used to generate non-consensual sexualized images of adults and minors, xAI filed a lawsuit Tuesday, suing the first user that Elon Musk’s firm has accused of using its chatbot to create illegal content.

(via ‘I’m His Lawyer,’ Explains Guy With Tongue In Trump’s Bottom Who Wants To Be AG)

“Are you and President Trump friends?” asked Kennedy.

“I’m his lawyer. Was his lawyer!

(via Elon Musk's promise of $1 million voter payouts likely illegal, panel says | AP News)

Headline:

New York became the first state to pause all construction of massive new data centers after Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul announced a one-year moratorium on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

The state-wide ban applies to data centers using 50 megawatts or more, officials told Reuters, and it won’t be lifted until the state figures out what “consistent standards” for responsible data center development in New York should look like.