onfocus

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.

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.

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.

The President of the United States is aligning himself with the dictator of Russia, Vladimir Putin, to undermine the independence of Ukraine and its democracy.

The US Republican party is betraying our longtime allies and siding with the forces of oppression around the world. I don't think people voted for this.

I really like this text-only version of the NPR news site. I understand why more sites don't do this, but they should. I normally don't go to any NPR sites, but I do visit this page fairly often to scan the headlines. See also: CNN Lite, CBC Lite

"Although several positions supporting [bird flu efforts] were notified of their terminations over the weekend, we are working to swiftly rectify the situation and rescind those letters," a USDA spokesperson said in a statement. "USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service frontline positions are considered public safety positions, and we are continuing to hire the workforce necessary to ensure the safety and adequate supply of food to fulfill our statutory mission."

[clown emoji]

Four out of 10 Americans have shifted their spending over the last few months to align with their moral views, according to the Harris poll.

I am one of those four. I haven’t made any Amazon purchases in 2025 and canceled Prime.

“A lot of these diversity programs and multicultural centers on campuses were founded as retention tools to help students who had been shut out of higher education in some of these institutions for centuries,” Harris said. “To penalize institutions for taking those steps to help students, that is actually very much an echo of the segregation era.”

Not even trying to hide their racism.

“These reckless firings will slow down critical cleanup work and make workers less safe – trying to run Hanford with a skeleton crew is a recipe for disaster that could have irreversible impacts,” Murray said.

The federal government is not a social media company. Social media can go offline for a while, not a big deal. Nuclear accident, not reversible. This level of recklessness is distressing.

One disabled veteran who worked at Veterans Affairs overseeing patient care said he learned of his firing by email Thursday. He was one month shy of graduating from his probationary period, he said. The email cited “performance” as the reason. “This is ironic,” he said, “because my most recent — and granted, only — performance evaluation was the highest you could possibly achieve at my agency.”

The cruelty is the point. Horrible, horrible people. As I often say here, please vote for people who care about other people. There is a difference. (Linked to an archived version of this article because Bezos is the worst.)

“We have come up with a new slogan for LLS: ‘the disease detectors.’ If you’re not testing, you don’t know what disease is there,” a current fellow, who was among those who received termination notices, told NBC News

Trimming the fat.

The firings hit the FAA when it faces a shortfall in controllers. Federal officials have been raising concerns about an overtaxed and understaffed air traffic control system for years, especially after a series of close calls between planes at U.S. airports. Among the reasons they have cited for staffing shortages are uncompetitive pay, long shifts, intensive training and mandatory retirements.

Trimming the fat.