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@swordsagedachsie
Temporary Restraining Order that protects First Amendment right to display flag depicting the message to latest Comey indictment for 14 days
WASHINGTON – A federal judge today issued a Temporary Restraining Order, prohibiting the National Park Service (NPS) from taking any action against Accountability Now USA for displaying an “8647” flag as part of the group’s permitted public demonstration on Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C. The demonstrators are represented by the ACLU of the District of Columbia (ACLU-D.C.).
In his order, U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss wrote, “The government seeks to squelch core political speech without any articulable—much less evidentiary—basis for concluding that the speech actually threatens the life or safety of the President.”
Top ‘60 Minutes’ Correspondent Scott Pelley Fired After He Calls Out CBS News Boss Bari Weiss
Scott Pelley issues new statement after being fired by CBS for opposing their pro-MAGA bias: “New management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I’ve been told to include assertions that are unverified. To date, in every case, I have managed to ignore these instructions or refuse them. Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for interviews on the broadcast. Giving politicians control over 60 Minutes interviews is not how this is done. Finally, incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc. In a case involving one of my stories, the entire program came within 19 minutes of not getting on the air at all.”
Scott Pelley issues new statement after being fired by CBS for opposing their pro-MAGA bias:
“New management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I’ve been told to include assertions that are unverified. To date, in every case, I have managed to ignore these instructions or refuse them.
Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for interviews on the broadcast. Giving politicians control over 60 Minutes interviews is not how this is done.
Finally, incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc. In a case involving one of my stories, the entire program came within 19 minutes of not getting on the air at all.”
UPDATED NEW STATEMENT: By Scott Pelley
New statement from Scott Pelley:
There has never been anything in America like 60 Minutes.
The Sunday tradition is the most successful program of any kind in history. For more than a decade, its innovative growth on every major online platform has extended its reach to countless millions around the world. This spring, at the end of our 58thseason, 60 Minutes grew rapidly with an unheard-of 9% jump in viewers on CBS.
“60” has been the number-one program in America for decades because our beloved audience finds integrity, quality, and humanity in our stories. When stewardship of the program passed to my colleagues and me, our responsibility was to expand energetically into a new age of media technology while preserving the values our audience expects. Now, the new owner of our network is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration.
The waste is heartbreaking.
Last month, 60 Minutes lost its DNA when our entire senior leadership and two of our best on-air correspondents were cruelly fired without cause. Good people were silenced because they stood up for our audience. They stood for fairness against the forces of political bias; they stood for professionalism against chaos.
For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I’ve been told to include assertions that are unverified. To date, in every case, I have managed to ignore these instructions or refuse them. Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for interviews on the broadcast. Giving politicians control over 60 Minutes interviews is not how this is done. Finally, incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc. In a case involving one of my stories, the entire program came within 19 minutes of not getting on the air at all.
At 60 Minutes, we have fought harder than anyone knows to save the program that became an American icon. We owed that to our millions of viewers. I am deeply moved by the thousands of wishes we have received to “keep up the good fight.” Most of the men and women of CBS News are still in that fight. But now the collapse of values at the top has become untenable. The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable. The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well.
I depart after 37 years at CBS with one emotion—a heart brimming with gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who encouraged and enriched my work, very often at the risk of their own lives. I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are honored again—a day when sanity, competence, and courage return.
Scott Pelley
You won’t find this pigeon on the streets of New York City. Meet the Pink-necked Green Pigeon (Treron vernans)! This colorful bird can be found throughout Southeast Asia, where it inhabits forests. It hangs out in small flocks in the treetops, foraging mainly for fruit. Distinguishing males from females isn’t too difficult: Females lack pink necks and are mostly olive-green in color!
Photo: Yi-Kai Tea, CC BY-SA 4.0, iNaturalist
Happy Pride month
When Rocky finds out earth memes and crabs
Or maybe Grace is having a weird dream
The U.S. House voted Wednesday to halt U.S. military action against Iran, digging in to defy President Donald Trump over the three-month-lon
The final vote was 215-208, with four Republicans joining Democrats in support of ending the war.
The war powers resolution from the House will not immediately stop the war, but it will provide a symbolic if not legal step against further military action.
It now goes to the Senate, where four Republican senators last month joined Democrats in advancing a similar measure to curtail the U.S. campaign against Iran. The Senate has yet to take a final vote to approve or reject its own war powers resolution.
Congress Must Reject Trump's IRS Audit Deal https://robertreich.substack.com/p/congress-must-reject-trumps-irs-audit
Friends,
The Senate is set to vote this afternoon on a motion to proceed to Trump’s budget package. This will allow senators to vote against Trump’s $1.8 billion payout slush fund, via amendments before final passage. Trump and his Justice Department have already dropped the slush fund, but that should be codified into law.
Congress must also vote against the part of the deal that releases Trump and members of his family from any pending or future prosecutions or investigations involving their tax returns. At a hearing yesterday, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed that this part of the settlement remains intact.
This protection for Trump and his family is unprecedented in its scope and form. It even extends to “affiliates” of the Trumps. It’s potentially worth tens of millions of dollars. One estimate puts it at $100 million.
If it’s interpreted to mean that the Trumps are protected from future I.R.S. audits — and you can bet that Trump and his family will argue that in court, should they ever be audited again — all the self-dealing and the pay-to-play bribes that Trump and his family have collected will vanish.
Previous standard I.R.S. procedure was to audit the president every year, rather than confer on him sweeping protection from scrutiny on tax returns.
Senate Republicans have protested the $1.8 billion fund but have looked the other way at the audit protection. “I haven’t been focused on that to tell the truth,” said Maine’s Republican Senator Susan Collins. Well, it’s time that she and other Republicans did focus on it.
Only one Senate Republican — Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who’s not running for reelection — has been critical of the audit immunity. “How can you not at least have them be subject to the same thing that I’m subjected to, and every one of you?” he asked yesterday.
Blanche has tried to cast the audit protections as a “standard” and “typical” outcome of litigation against the I.R.S. “Like anytime the I.R.S. settles with an individual taxpayer or another company, as part of the settlement, it’s standard, it’s typical to get rid of past ongoing audits,” he testified yesterday.
Bullsh*t. First, Trump’s lawsuit against his own I.R.S. is hardly “typical.” No president has ever done this before.
Second, his lawsuit had nothing to do with an audit or tax issue. It focused on the leak of his tax returns by a former I.R.S. contractor during his first term.
Third, this “settlement” provision — giving the Trumps protection against I.R.S. scrutiny — directly violates a law barring the I.R.S. from dropping audits at the direction of the president or his aides.
Fourth, Blanche, the acting attorney general, doesn’t even have authority to order the I.R.S. — a separate agency that’s part of the Treasury Department — to stop civil tax audits.
Compounding all this is the fact that Blanche had been Trump’s personal defense attorney from April 2023 to March 2025, representing Trump in the New York hush-money case, the classified documents case, and election interference case. His conflict of interest now is so blatant that he should have recused himself from participating in Trump’s I.R.S. suit to begin with, along with its ersatz “settlement.”
Connecticut Representative Rosa DeLauro said at yesterday’s House hearing that the I.R.S. order proved that Blanche was continuing to act as Trump’s personal lawyer. “Do you not find there’s any conflict of interest in what you are doing here as the acting attorney general of the United States?” she asked. Blanche said there was none.
The vote is coming up in a few hours. Please call your senators and representatives now, and tell them you want them to reject Trump’s entire “settlement” — including both the $1.8 billion fund and the I.R.S. immunity.
Reminder: The congressional switchboard is (202) 224-3121. An operator will answer and connect you directly to the office of any Senator or Representative in Congress.
Congress Must Reject Trump's IRS Audit Deal https://robertreich.substack.com/p/congress-must-reject-trumps-irs-audit
Friends,
The Senate is set to vote this afternoon on a motion to proceed to Trump’s budget package. This will allow senators to vote against Trump’s $1.8 billion payout slush fund, via amendments before final passage. Trump and his Justice Department have already dropped the slush fund, but that should be codified into law.
Congress must also vote against the part of the deal that releases Trump and members of his family from any pending or future prosecutions or investigations involving their tax returns. At a hearing yesterday, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed that this part of the settlement remains intact.
This protection for Trump and his family is unprecedented in its scope and form. It even extends to “affiliates” of the Trumps. It’s potentially worth tens of millions of dollars. One estimate puts it at $100 million.
If it’s interpreted to mean that the Trumps are protected from future I.R.S. audits — and you can bet that Trump and his family will argue that in court, should they ever be audited again — all the self-dealing and the pay-to-play bribes that Trump and his family have collected will vanish.
Previous standard I.R.S. procedure was to audit the president every year, rather than confer on him sweeping protection from scrutiny on tax returns.
Senate Republicans have protested the $1.8 billion fund but have looked the other way at the audit protection. “I haven’t been focused on that to tell the truth,” said Maine’s Republican Senator Susan Collins. Well, it’s time that she and other Republicans did focus on it.
Only one Senate Republican — Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who’s not running for reelection — has been critical of the audit immunity. “How can you not at least have them be subject to the same thing that I’m subjected to, and every one of you?” he asked yesterday.
Blanche has tried to cast the audit protections as a “standard” and “typical” outcome of litigation against the I.R.S. “Like anytime the I.R.S. settles with an individual taxpayer or another company, as part of the settlement, it’s standard, it’s typical to get rid of past ongoing audits,” he testified yesterday.
Bullsh*t. First, Trump’s lawsuit against his own I.R.S. is hardly “typical.” No president has ever done this before.
Second, his lawsuit had nothing to do with an audit or tax issue. It focused on the leak of his tax returns by a former I.R.S. contractor during his first term.
Third, this “settlement” provision — giving the Trumps protection against I.R.S. scrutiny — directly violates a law barring the I.R.S. from dropping audits at the direction of the president or his aides.
Fourth, Blanche, the acting attorney general, doesn’t even have authority to order the I.R.S. — a separate agency that’s part of the Treasury Department — to stop civil tax audits.
Compounding all this is the fact that Blanche had been Trump’s personal defense attorney from April 2023 to March 2025, representing Trump in the New York hush-money case, the classified documents case, and election interference case. His conflict of interest now is so blatant that he should have recused himself from participating in Trump’s I.R.S. suit to begin with, along with its ersatz “settlement.”
Connecticut Representative Rosa DeLauro said at yesterday’s House hearing that the I.R.S. order proved that Blanche was continuing to act as Trump’s personal lawyer. “Do you not find there’s any conflict of interest in what you are doing here as the acting attorney general of the United States?” she asked. Blanche said there was none.
The vote is coming up in a few hours. Please call your senators and representatives now, and tell them you want them to reject Trump’s entire “settlement” — including both the $1.8 billion fund and the I.R.S. immunity.
Reminder: The congressional switchboard is (202) 224-3121. An operator will answer and connect you directly to the office of any Senator or Representative in Congress.
Bazelgeuse
Image © Capcom
[Sponsored by Prom on the Patreon, who specifically wanted me to bring in the fanon interpretation of the Bazelgeuse as a kleptoparasite. I love kleptoparasitism, and so was happy to oblige. My biggest challenge with this monster was in interpreting the blasting scales in such a way where they worked at the table--if each scale exploded separately like a grenade, that would be a lot of frustrating bookkeeping for a GM.
If you'd like to sponsor monsters like Prom, or just help out an unemployed writer, check out the Creature Codex Patreon here!]
Bazelgeuse CR 17 N Dragon This immense draconic creature has a metallic hide, and its wings are shaped like corrugated sheet metal. It has a short stout neck bristling with oversized overlapping scales like those of a pine cone, and similar appendages hang down from the base of its tail. Its head is dwarfed by the cluster of scales, squared off and with an underslung jaw.
A bazelgeuse, sometimes called an invading tyrant or bombard wyvern, is an enormous animalistic dragon feared by all who live in its territory. With their incredible sense of hearing, a bazelgeuse can detect the sound of combat miles away. Bazelgeuses attack with their blasting scales, explosive weapons that constantly grow along the underside of its body and drop off like bombs. A bazelgeuse prefers to keep some distance, making multiple passes over the battlefield to explode anything that remains, but if its prey fights back will attack with its natural weapons. The jaws of a bazelgeuse are not suited for combat, but it slams foes with its neck and tail. Its most feared attack is to crash into a single target and detonate its attached blasting scales at the same time. Like many dragons, bazelgeuses have a breath weapon, but this is a relatively weak spray of flaming liquid, the same material as is contained within their blasting scales. Bazelgeuses usually use this in order to detonate their blasting scales. An injured bazelgeuse enters a state of metabolic frenzy, making faster strikes and generating even more explosive blasting scales. In this state, the bazelgeuse’s blasting scales and the gaps between its ordinary scales glow orange.
A bazelgeuse will hunt over a remarkable area, and their bombing runs are sometimes mistaken for territorial belligerence. The truth of the matter is that bazelgeuses are as much kleptoparasites as they are hunters, preferring to attack other large predators in order to drive them away from prey so they can steal it. Their jaws are better suited for intimidation than for rending flesh, and they will gladly scavenge if they come across a sizable carcass. Bazelgeuses use their blasting scales to explosively “tenderize” food, which serves as an audible warning for other predators to steer clear. The movement of a bazelgeuse through a habitat may initiate a trophic cascade, as it drives away apex predators, leading to surges in prey population, which then overgraze. As such, areas inhabited by a bazelgeuse are often less vegetated than the surrounding regions. Bazelgeuses are solitary creatures, and only associate with each other on rare occasions in order to mate.
hey friends where is that picture of boromir with the gondor flag except its a pride flag?
Couldn’t find it so I made another because you’re right that it’s a crime and it’s definitely my duty to remedy it
Nickelate reveals nodeless gap, providing key clue to high-temperature superconductivity
The mechanism of high-temperature (TC) superconductivity is a key challenge in condensed matter physics. Recently, Chinese scientists made significant progress in the study of high-TC nickelate superconductors. Landmark observations in nickelate films For the first time, scientists observed a nodeless superconducting gap and discovered electron-boson coupling by measuring the electronic structures of Ruddlesden-Popper bilayer nickelate superconducting thin films. These results provide crucial evidence for two fundamental issues in the mechanism of high-TC nickelates: "superconducting gap symmetry" and "superconducting pairing mechanism."
Read more.
The new law comes two months after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the state's previous ban on the dangerous and discredited practice.
Jack Walker at The Advocate:
On the heels of a court decision that Colorado LGBTQ+ advocates worried weakened protections against so-called “conversion therapy” in the state, a new law signed Monday will codify protections against the widely debunked practice. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, joined elected officials in Denver Monday morning to sign into law HB26-1322, a bill that bans therapists in the state from imposing a “predetermined outcome” around sexual orientation or gender identity onto a young patient. The bill was passed by Democrats in the Colorado statehouse last month, and Polis signed the bill on the first day of Pride Month. “Conversion Therapy is harmful, can traumatize kids, and is a scam to waste people's hard-earned money,” Polis, who is gay, said in a Monday press release. “This new law provides Coloradans who have been subject to this dehumanizing treatment with the tools to heal and move on to live strong, healthy and authentic lives.” Colorado state lawmakers championed the bill after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in March that Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy was not “viewpoint neutral.” Colorado Democrats said the new bill modifies language around the state’s previous conversion therapy laws to ensure that LGBTQ+ residents retain protection from the practice. [...] The law also extends the statute of limitations for cases of malpractice tied to conversion therapy, giving survivors more time to pursue legal and financial claims.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) signs a Chiles-compliant law (HB26-1322) banning conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ children.
Movement nudge, getting up off the floor!
X
real talk, i saw this other vid 7 years ago where a trainer like this lady gave some of the most important physical health advice I ever heard that changed my life:
#1. You should be able to lay down on the floor (face down or back) and be able to get up without your hands. If you can't? Spend a little bit every day just doing that, laying on the floor and getting up again no hands style, then laying down again (you'd be surprised how fast it wears you out after a few times)
#2. You should be able to get up out of a chair without using your hands or grabbing on to anything. Can't? Fucking start training mother fucker! Just a few uppies every day could save your damn life when you get older!
#3. You should be able to turn your neck to the side without twisting your upper body in the same direction, you should be able to turn your head freely without moving your shoulders, chest or torso! Start looking up loosy goosy neck exercises! It makes such a HUGE difference!
#4. You should be able to motherfucking stand on one foot and keep your balance for longer then 15 seconds. Haha sounds easy right? Thats what I thought when I tried after watching that vid, i was horrified to find how hard it was! I started doing "one leggy style" standing any chance I got, when I'm in line somewhere, when I'm watching a video... just do a few rounds of 10 seconds on each leg for like 5 min every day!
Like for real I work out 3 times a week and walk all the damn time, but damn this advice was so eye opening to younger me
You get older and you think you still have all the same limberness as you did when you were 8, but whens the last fucking time you ran around and played like an 8 year old? You loose that flexibility from crawling around and being all wiggles and rolling around on the floor... and then one day when you need it? BAM ITS GONE. Well fuck that, thats not gonna be me when i'm like 60 plus
Start getting into these habits now, i don't care if you're 18/25/30/45/50 OR WHATEVER JUST START YOU WON'T REGRET IT! Don't think "lol I'm young, shut up olds" cos thats what i thought when i saw that vid at first, but if you don't maintain your body in all these small ways yer gonna wake up at 35 unable to turn your damn neck without moving your entire body above the hips