The federal government if demanding children’s private medical records without even telling their families. If that’s OK with HIPPA then there’s simply no such thing as privacy.

The lower court’s ruling said the map discriminates against black people in violation of the Constitution, but the Republican Supreme Court is saying that’s not only AOK, but it’s so obviously AOK we won’t even explain it.

Imagine the literal tons of ink that could be saved if the media simply said “lies” instead of “claims without proof” every time Trump lies.

There’s nothing “new” about it.

All across the right-wing, assorted hatred of brown and black people, gays, queers, and trans people, immigrants, non-Christians, workers, the poor, the disabled, the left, the media, the well-educated, science, expertise of any kind, etc, is always a powerful force, but any of those hatreds are optional for any specific right-wing group. Hatred of women is the hatred that seems to be required — that’s the hatred that ties all right-wing hatreds together.

Excerpt: Maine, Washington, Oregon and Massachusetts were all hit with lawsuits May 27 from the DOJ, which alleges that their unwillingness to provide confidential, or undercover, license plates for federal immigration agents is “discriminatory” and unconstitutional.

I’m old and not in great health, but please Lord, let me live long enough to celebrate Trump’s death.

The Washington Post did the work here, then (intentionally?) buried the lede with that boring headline. Here’s what matters:

Trump’s Office of Legal Counsel has quietly issued a memo declaring the Presidential Records Act unconstitutional, AOK to ignore. You’ve never heard of the Office of Legal Counsel, but in sane administrations OLC memos are considered The Law, so this is effectively a cloaking device, allowing the Trump regime to withhold or destroy whatever records might prove the administration’s routine daily lawbreaking.

Excerpt: The government could not issue grants to projects or groups that “deny the biological reality of sex or the sex binary in humans,” for example. Nor could it seek to fund initiatives that “promote anti-American values,” contribute to illegal immigration, advance diversity, equity and inclusion or assist in voter registration.

The rules would further limit the ability of grant recipients to engage in some “issue advocacy.” Those that are funded would be scrutinized for their compliance with “religious liberty laws” and their “memberships and affiliations” with outside groups. And they could face the outright termination of their grants if the Trump administration someday determines that their actions are not in the “public interest.”

White House plan to vet grants puts climate science in jeopardy

White House reclassifies federal epidemiologists and other scientists from civil servants to ‘at-will’ hires

Who else has disputes with the IRS and somehow the media calls it a “feud”?

Video shows Pentagon counterterrorism hire Elias Irizarry clambering into Capitol on Jan. 6

One of these two terribly uninspiring Democrats will probably get the Democratic nomination. My pledge: I’ll vote for neither.

It’s peculiar, ain’t it, that the media is endlessly faskinated with the Senate race in Maine, one of dozens of Senate elections this year.

I’ll stick with my earlier assessment of Graham Platner: he’s flawed as fuck, but so’s most everyone in life. Most folks just keep it hidden.

Toss in half a dozen more Platner scandals, and he’d still be an improvement over the monstrous forever incumbent, Susan Collins.

60 Minutes has always been overrated, but it was the best journalism allowed on commercial TV. We’ll be a shittier nation as CBS News murders that show.

Scott Pelley on the Bari Weiss era and his last days at 60 Minutes

Excerpt: “I felt it was very important to identify that the protesters themselves were being very aggressive and that they were half of these confrontations, and so I instructed my producers to find images in which we see the protesters acting aggressively. We found a picture of a protester chest-bumping an officer. We found a picture of an officer being hit in the head with a snowball…

“And about four hours after our deadline, Bari Weiss sends an email to my boss, Tanya Simon. Two of the things in the email include, can we make the protesters look more violent? Now, I’m paraphrasing. I don’t have the quote, but that’s what was communicated to me. And the other thing, Renee Good’s car. You need to describe her as driving toward the officer.”

Me again: Pelley had already reported a falsehood, both-sidesing that “the protesters themselves were being very aggressive and that they were half of these confrontations,” so it’s a little late and lame to be shocked, shocked when the boss asks for further falsehoods.

Late and lame is better than never, though.

Ali Velshi is a bald man who had a weekend show on MS NOW. I’d never heard of Velshi, never watched his show, and I seriously doubt much of it was worth watching, or I would’ve heard of it.

But if every episode had been like this — his going-away speech from his show’s final episode — I would’ve been watching Ali Velshi every weekend.

What’s a press office for?

Excerpt: The [sham] effort is expected to take about six months, meaning its results would come after the midterm elections.

I have never & will never see the appeal of a “password manager.” Why trust software to handle your security, when you could, you know, know your own passwords.

Iran’s soccer team allowed into US for World Cup, but many staff denied

Iraq World Cup star Aymen Hussein questioned for ‘seven hours’ by US immigration officials

Iranian and African journalists denied necessary World Cup visas, sports press association says

As AI makes strides in mathematics, mathematicians urge caution

Excerpt: Aliyah, a light-skinned Black woman dressed in country-western gear, is struggling to sell metal buckles she handmade on TikTok. In a video for the social media platform from March, she cries to the camera and pleads for views: “Even as a black woman, I have more faith that white women will stay 13 seconds [on this video] to save my belt buckle business,” the onscreen text reads. She wipes a tear off her cheek.

But Aliyah isn’t real, and neither are her supposedly handmade products — she’s one of many AI-generated influencers created to sell mass-produced products via dropshipping on TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram. Identical belt buckles — sunflower design, detachable knife inlay, and all — are sold on the fast-fashion site Shein, and for a quarter of the price.

Excerpt: The Trump administration’s decision to dismantle most of a $386 million federal ocean-observing network will leave scientists without an irreplaceable source of data used to understand how climate change is affecting crucial currents and marine ecosystems and increasing coastal flooding.

Me again: The article says this is going to happen, but apparently it’s already underway:

Ocean observatories go dark off Pacific Northwest coast