The Guardian
The Trump administration has publicly and privately signaled that it does not believe Russia represents a cyber threat against US national security or critical infrastructure, marking a radical departure from longstanding intelligence assessments.
US Republicans have betrayed their country. They are now the Russian party. Americans need to resist and vote for people who will protect the country, not lower its defenses for takeover.
The Hill
The cuts, which are said to affect between 560 and 1,830 workers at the agency, were planned for at least a week, contingent upon the confirmation of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who oversees the agency. NOAA reported a permanent workforce of 11,758 in fiscal 2023, meaning the cuts could affect more than 10 percent of employees. One source who asked to speak on background told The Hill the firings began Thursday and will continue Friday.
I like getting a heads up on bad weather headed my way. It sure seems like Republicans don't want anyone to have a heads up on bad weather for some reason.

Good commentary on this from climate scientist Daniel Swain on Mastodon.

bunny.net is a good CDN

Quick programming note. I host images and stylesheets for this site on a CDN, which is probably overkill these days since I'm not posting many photos. Anyway, I recently moved from AWS CloudFront to bunny.net and I recommend it. bunny.net is easier to use, cheaper, and isn't owned by Bezos. It's just another small step away from the big tech companies for me.
archive.is
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said on Tuesday that the Trump administration would start handpicking which media outlets were allowed to participate in the presidential pool, the small, rotating group of journalists who relay the president’s day-to-day activities to the public.
Media outlets didn't stand with the AP as they were pushed out. And now they're being pushed out anyway. There's power in numbers and they're coming for you anyway, why not band together and refuse to cover these propaganda events?
Nevada Appeal
“It should be done through layoffs rather than individual, performance-based firings," she said. "The government has processes to do, and we would have 60 days to look for a new job and, most importantly, acknowledgment that these terminations weren't our fault. Private companies have to do that, too.
This story is pretty rage-inducing. Part of how I process the rage is sharing it here on my weblog. I completely understand that it’s too much but the Republicans are too much right now.
text.npr.org
Federal workers across the U.S. government received an email on Saturday afternoon asking them to account for what they did in the past week — and Elon Musk says they will be fired if they don't respond.
Federal workers don’t deserve this bullying and disrespect. At some point Republicans are going to find there aren’t enough sycophants or party loyalists to do the things they want to do.

Update (2/25): AP: Federal technology staffers resign rather than help Musk and DOGE
MIT Technology Review
They warn that dismantling the behind-the-scenes scientific research programs that backstop American life could lead to long-lasting, perhaps irreparable damage to everything from the quality of health care to the public’s access to next-generation consumer technologies. The US took nearly a century to craft its rich scientific ecosystem; if the unraveling that has taken place over the past month continues, Americans will feel the effects for decades to come.
It's almost as if Republicans are trying to stop the American people. After all, their job has shifted from making their constituents happy to making a handful of billionaires happy. And those billionaires seem to feel like they'd be better off without the American people dragging them down.
lite.cnn.com
“I’m in close contact with the CDC. They have about what, 13,000 employees, 13,000 employees at the CDC. In the last couple years, those probationary people, which is about 10% of their employee base, about 1,300 people, which you’re referring to. A lot of the work they do is duplicitous with AI,” McCormick said. The mention of AI led to “no’s” and murmurs from the crowd, leading the Republican representative to say, “I happen to be a doctor. I know a few things.”
AI’s primary use right now is devaluing workers. Sounds like even Republican constituents have had enough of the AI snake oil.
micahflee.com
A lot of us know by now that Substack has a Nazi problem. It not only profits from fascist voices, it actively promotes their work and recruits them. And it's funded by Silicon Valley anti-democracy billionaires like Marc Andreesen — the same type of people who are, right now, raiding the US government to basically cut funding for social services and scientific research, and to steal money for themselves.
Every day I see more and more people starting their indie left-leaning journalism venture on Substack. Cut that out! They're taking your money and paying fascists to post. The slight boost you might see in list-building is not worth the trade-off of supporting their ideological project that is at odds with your values.
Slate
It’s one thing to be reminded that “elections have consequences,” but quite another to insist that the best response to the abuse of authority is to be restrained, demure, neutral.
Defending democracy takes work. Silence subverts the mission of education.
YouTube
The last portion of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker's 2025 State of the State and budget address included Pritzker invoking Nazis when criticizing President Donald Trump.
This is what defending our liberty really looks like. Don't fall for the scam of blaming our friends and neighbors for our problems.
Google Threat Intelligence Group
The operational emphasis on Signal from multiple threat actors in recent months serves as an important warning for the growing threat to secure messaging applications that is certain to intensify in the near-term.
Secure messaging apps under fire. Good to see the methods involved in gaining access to be aware of them.
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