But nothing will be done.

a twice-weekly news round-up,
usually on Tuesdays and Saturdays

Trump involved in discussions over suspending habeas corpus, sources say

Me, looking grumpy, reading the news

AND NOW THE NEWS
#517

MAY 10, 2025

USDA, DOGE demand states hand over personal data about food stamp recipients

Aviation clearinghouse collects data on air travelers from billions of past and future flights, and sells that info to Trump’s immigration enforcers

Boston-area climate activists report visits from the FBI

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka arrested at ICE detention facility in New Jersey

MALCOLM X: "o I must emphasize, we are dealing with a powerful enemy, and again, I am not anti-American or un-American. I think there are plenty of good people in America, but there are also plenty of bad people in America and the bad ones are the ones who seem to have all the power and be in these positions to block things that you and I need. Because this is the situation, you and I have to preserve the right to do what is necessary to bring an end to that situation, and it doesn’t mean that I advocate violence, but at the same time I am not against using violence in self-defense. I don’t even call it violence when it’s self-defense, I call it intelligence."

FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF DYSTOPIA

UnitedHealthcare sued by shareholders over reaction to CEO’s killing

Excerpt: The group, which is seeking unspecified damages, argued that the public backlash prevented the company from pursuing “the aggressive, anti-consumer tactics that it would need to achieve” its earnings goals.

“As such, the Company was deliberately reckless in doubling down on its previously issued guidance,” the suit reads.

How Trump will use “anti-Christian bias” to boost the political agenda of Christian nationalists while rolling back the civil liberties of everyone else

US Border Agents are asking for help taking photos of everyone entering the country by car

FedEx board member Steiner is picked to be next USPS postmaster general amid talk of privatization

Cartoon: King receiving tribute of treasure says, "Actually, place the spoils at the feet of my children. I'm trying to look less corrupt."

BULLSHIT

World’s wealthiest 10% have contributed to two-thirds of global warming since 1990, study finds

Bullshit. It’s not 2/3 of climate change caused by wealthy bastards, it’s 100%.

Non-wealthy people don’t own factories spewing heat and trash into the air. Non-wealthy people might own cars, but they don’t design and build those cars to constantly spew dangerous & deadly emissions — wealthy people and giant corporations are responsible for that, and for the lack of healthier, greener choices for transportation. It’s the rich who’ve fought against regulating and reducing pollution, the rich who oppose public transit, and the rich who profit from the climate change that’ll eventually kill the rest of us, wrapping everything in plastic like Laura Palmer.

Fuck if I’m causing 1/3 of climate change. Get outta here with that lie.

US expands attempt to blow up Google with proposed teardown of its ad technology

Everything about this shouts BS to me.
There’s no way the Trump regime would actually do something or allow anything to rein in Google.

Most likely, Trump’s DOJ hasn’t dropped the case yet because it wants something from Google — to make search results more MAGA-friendly, perhaps, or finger people making inquiries Trump wouldn’t like.

The end result will be a settlement, with Google paying a fine that sounds substantial but isn’t a fraction of 1% of the company’s net worth, plus something sweet under the table for Trump and/or the Trump regime.

Two arrested after neighbors try to stop ICE agents from detaining Massachusetts mother

Were the ICE agents wearing uniforms, or street clothes? Was their vehicle marked, or unmarked? How can a professional reporter leave these questions unanswered?

"Insomniac", a painting by Angela Smith, of a skyscraper at night with one light burning, in one office.

THE CRUELTY IS THE POINT

Oklahoma Republican legislators ask Supreme Court to overturn same-sex marriage

Jeez, this makes me sick in the heart.

Trump DOJ erases trans people from crime data surveys

Utah DHHS says it deleted trans kids’ mental health reports for ‘privacy concerns’

MARIO SAVIO: "There comes a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part, you can’t even passively take part; and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop, and you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, the people who own it, that unless you’re free the machine will be prevented from working at all."

GIVE US YOUR TIRED, YOUR POOR, YOUR HUDDLED MASSES YEARNING TO BREATHE FREE, SO WE CAN IMPRISON THEM

US declares “military zone” around El Paso, allowing soldiers to arrest migrants

Trump’s Border Czar secretly deported two US citizen children

First white Afrikaners granted refugee status due to arrive in US

PHILIP K DICK: "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."

ONLY THE RICH HAVE RIGHTS

Trump declares high-speed internet program for the poor ‘racist’ and ‘unconstitutional’

Large investors increased stake in Trump Media by hundreds of millions

Abortion legislation moving through the Texas Legislature would give the attorney general power to enforce a pre-Roe law that could criminalize pregnant people

Trump administration to garnish wages of 5.3 million defaulted student loan borrowers this summer

still from the film SLEEPERS WEST (1942)

A woman says, "Nobody wants reality."

TO HELL WITH HEALTH AND SCIENCE

RFK Jr.’s measles policy: deaths are expected and it’s the victim’s fault

Is measles spreading in Florida? Hard to know. State’s disease-tracking data no longer available.

As Republicans hone the details of their plan to strip $880 billion in federal funding from Medicaid and similar programs, right-wing ads claim that Republicans love Medicaid

Europe launches program to lure scientists away from the US

still from the film EASY LIVING (1937)

An angry chef yells at a rich man: "Go and fry yourself in lard, you dirty capitalist."

GOOD NEWS

Salt Lake City and Boise make pride flags official city emblems, skirting flag ban laws

Rümeysa Öztürk, Tufts student held by ICE, is released from Louisiana jail by court order

Irish woman kidnapped by US immigration is released after 17 days in jail

BARRY GOLDWATER, 1965: "Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them."

BACK TO THE BAD NEWS

Radar screens at Newark airport went black again overnight

Much of this problem is over my head (get it?) but what I do know is:

① Newark air traffic control was moved from Long Island NY to Philadelphia last year, though the union opposed it and thought it unsafe.

② Several times since at least last autumn, the electronics of data tunneling that distance has glitched out like this.

③ MAGA and MTV nitwit Sean Duffy is overseeing the response, which is hilarious.

④ There’s a big shortage of air traffic controllers nationwide, with mandatory overtime the norm.

And ⑤ Musk and ‘DOGE’ laid off FAA new hires a few months ago, because ‘efficiency’ dontchaknow.

Trump tightens control of independent agency overseeing nuclear safety

Excerpt: Going forward, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) must send new rules regarding reactor safety to the White House, where they will be reviewed and possibly edited. That is a radical departure for the watchdog agency, which historically has been among the most independent in the government.

Me again: Can’t see any downside to that.

"Fordite, born from the discarded paint payers of Detroit's car factories. This stunning specimen showcases the intricate patterns formed over decades of industrial history."

AND I SAY TO MYSELF, WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD

US, Israel discuss possible US-led administration for Gaza, sources say

Trump using pointless, shitty tariffs to bully countries into coddling Elon Musk’s Starlink

Right-wing One America News to provide newsfeed to Voice of America

Comic, in which a recently deceased angel in heaven checks on the welfare of his cat, and learns that the cat is eating his corpse.

AND ALSO

Source code for classic video games preserved only through one person refusing orders to delete it

Federal prosecutors open criminal investigation into New York Attorney General who sued Trump

Jonestown Massacre site to reopen as tourist destination in Guyana

Done right, this could be excellent — a standing monument to the dangers and stupidity of obedience to idiot leaders.

"I think in many cases your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. That's not pro-life. That's pro-birth."

HORRID, HORRID PEOPLE

JD Vance jokes about deporting tourists attending 2026 World Cup

After six months of trying to disqualify tens of thousands of votes, Republican concedes defeat in North Carolina judicial race

There will be people in your life that say you have too many books. Those are not your people.

EYE ON AI

Meta is recruiting former Pentagon officials as it ramps up AI military sales

Elon Musk’s Grok AI will ‘remove her clothes’ in public, on Xitter

Zuckerberg’s grand vision: most of your friends will be AI

Bruce Campbell, with his father and his body doubles on the set of ARMY OF DARKNESS (1992)

MY BROWSER HISTORY, MINUS THE PORN

The Energy Star program works, so it has to go

98-year-old veteran drives a tank over a Tesla [2 min VIDEO]

American police are out of control — 5/7/2025

Dead people — 5/4/2025

Ignoring the climate emergency — 5/5/2025

The Lord works in mysterious ways — 5/9/2025

Three light switches, all 'off'.

— Bottom line —

Any single Trump headline on this page should be sufficient for impeachment, removal from office, and life in prison for Donald Trump, with each and all his appointees and advisors soon to follow. But nothing will be done.

And that’s the way it is,
and nothing will
meaningfully improve
until billionaires fear for their lives

a dead woman awakens, with glowing eyes

5/10/2025

Logo illustration by Jeff Meyer. Tip ‘o the hat to the Anderson Valley Advertiser, Bleepity-Bleep, Lorem Ipsum Dolor, Sloth Unleashed, Toad’s Lily Pad, Voenix Rising, and anywhere else I’ve stolen links, illustrations, or inspiration.

Special thanks to Linden Arden, Becky Jo, Joey Jo Jo emeritus, Jeff Meyer, John the Basket, Dave S, Name Withheld, and always extra special thanks to my lovely late Stephanie, who gave me 21 years and proved that the world isn’t always shitty.

And Now the News

itsdougholland.com
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6 responses to “But nothing will be done.”

  1. no name Avatar
    no name

    South African here. You are welcome to these emmigrants. To a soul they are awful people, the old-guard who think apartheid was the good old days. Their leaving will make my country better and they will feel at home in Donald Trump’s America.

    1. Doug Holland Avatar

      My words have traveled to Africa, and I didn’t even have to spring for extra postage. Very sci-fi.

      Any room in your basement for a refugee?

      1. johnthebasket Avatar
        johnthebasket

        Sure, but we’ve long ago hit our quota of Nazis, which is zero.

        jtb

        1. Doug Holland Avatar

          My quota is -3, if you know what I mean and I think you do.

  2.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Nazis and fascists comprehend only two forms of communication: threats of violence, and violence. They are not open to dialogue. Words won’t do shit.

    1. Doug Holland Avatar

      I agree that they’re useless, but words are all I have.

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