Hilda Speidel

i love life and everyone in it.. : )

[Marc E. Elias @marceelias]

🚨EMERGENCY EPISODE: A bombshell whistleblower complaint, submitted to Sen. Richard Blumenthal's office, reveals that the U.S. Postal Service allegedly kept building a new system to restrict mail-in ballots even after federal courts ordered it to stop it. https://t.co/kfRy5h5TN7

[Meidas_Charise Lee @charise_lee]

John Morales, a meteorologist and hurricane specialist with NBC6 in South Florida, was reporting on an upcoming storm when he suddenly shifted gears, right in the middle of the broadcast.

Morales explains that in his 34 years of presenting the weather, he’s always been able to confidently tell his viewers when a hurricane might hit, or when it might turn away. He’s always been able to stand behind his data, modeling, and forecast in order to help protect the people of South Florida.

“I am here to tell you that I am not sure I can do that this year.”

Why? “Because of the cuts, the gutting, the sledgehammer attack on science in general.”

Morales then pulled up a graphic instead of his usual weather map. It laid out some stark realities about severe understaffing of the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Between brutal layoffs, employees accepting the recent DOGE buyout, and straight-up resignations, the agencies responsible for collecting weather data have lost hundreds and hundreds of valuable experts.

He also explained that due to federal government budget cuts, there’s been a sizable decrease in weather balloon launches across the country. Weather balloons are instruments that take crucial measurements of the upper atmosphere and send data that helps with forecasting. With less data available and lower-quality data, Morales says that “the quality of forecasts is becoming degraded.”

[Governor Kathy Hochul @GovKathyHochul]

New York won’t be calling it that.

[Occupy Democrats @OccupyDemocrats]

BREAKING: A Stars & Stripes reporter DEFIES Pete Hegseth by announcing that she works for her newspaper, not him or Trump — and ends up paying for it with her job.

This is what journalistic courage looks like...

"Today, I was informed that the Department of Defense is firing me for insubordination after I told a CBS reporter that I work for Stars and Stripes – not the Pentagon, not any administration, and not any policy maker," Lara Korte wrote on X.

"I consider it a great privilege to live alongside members of the military and share their stories. It’s a shame for the institution and service members, who swore to defend the Constitution and deserve the right to a free and independent press."

"I’m proud of the work my colleagues and I do at Stars and Stripes, especially the last six months covering the protracted conflict in Iran. Military families and service members have trusted us to share their experience with the world and I don’t take that lightly."

"In the meantime, please read my latest story about the struggles that military families are going through right now. Hundreds have been stuck in limbo after evacuating Bahrain and are facing emotional and financial hardships," she concluded, linking to a story about the 1,300 U.S. Navy family members who were evacuated from Bahrain at the start of Trump's illegal war and who are now being told they cannot return for the "foreseeable future" and need to find new homes elsewhere.

That story is worth a read in full, but this post is specifically about Korte's unceremonious termination. Her firing is part of a move by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to force out several top staffers at Stars & Stripes, including editor-in-chief Erik Slavin.

Slavin, like Korte, was dismissed today for supposed "insubordination." Of course, under this regime, penning anything less than nonstop, fawning coverage of our pedophile President and his illegal Iran War is seen as "insubordination." Slavin recently condemned "hypothetical censorship" that could soon hit the paper.

Publisher Max Lederer announced earlier this week that he would retire September 30 over fundamental differences with Pentagon leadership, only to receive a termination notice himself today. It comes after Hegseth installed MAGA apparatchik William Urban — who is an active-duty Navy captain and public affairs officer — as Lederer's deputy. Hegseth's tentacles have now snaked deeply inside the outlet.

Stars & Stripes, an official military publication, has long enjoyed editorial independence from the whims of the political appointees running the Pentagon, but this White House doesn't believe in independence of any sort. One need look no further than the political prosecutions coming out of the Justice Department for evidence of that. They believe in making everything partisan, as all fascist movements do.

The administration was particularly incensed by Stars & Stripes' coverage of the disgusting, inhumane conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, a state of affairs that has turned into a major scandal for the White House. The American people are outraged that our brave sailors are being abused by this administration in service of a failed, child-murdering war launched on behalf of Israel.

"In firing the editor of Stars and Stripes, Pentagon leadership is making clear their view that the newsroom should exist not as an independent outlet whose reporting serves to benefit U.S. troops, but as a mouthpiece to parrot Pentagon talking points," said National Press Club President Mark Schoeff Jr., calling the firings "another brazen attempt by the Pentagon to dictate coverage of the military."

Do you stand with these reporters?

Please ❤️ and share to demand that Congress investigate the terminations!

[Reggie B. @reggiebblue]

Mark Cuban: "James Talarico. Let's go. I'm a big fan. He's honest, trustworthy, he cares. He'll do the right thing as opposed to the politically expedient thing.
To Texans, do what's best for Texas. You've been voting for Republicans all these years, what have they done for you?"

[The Lincoln Project @ProjectLincoln]

The reason America is dealing with glass shards in popsicles and diarrhea lettuce this summer:

[Brian Allen @allenanalysis]

Republicans spent years demanding answers about Hunter Biden.

MS NOW asked them about 15 companies backed by Trump’s sons receiving $3.2 billion in federal support.

Suddenly, they had nothing to say.

Apparently, corruption only matters when a Democrat can be blamed.

[Marc E. Elias @marceelias]

🚨BREAKING: Federal Court REJECTS Department of Justice lawsuit seeking to compel Minnesota to provide access to its statewide voter registration data. Another victory for my firm and our clients.

DOJ is now 0-23. ELG is undefeated. https://t.co/T4NWD3D1yH

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

The conditions in ICE detention centers are outrageous. Worms. Standing sewage water. Measles outbreaks.

52 people have died so far. No American - no matter what your view is on immigration - should stand for this inhumanity.

[Hillary Clinton @HillaryClinton]

The president is making US policy friendlier to North Korea and Russia than Canada and Oman. Are you kidding me?

[BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️ @mmpadellan]

Pete Hegseth, who CONSTANTLY denigrates "DEI" as people having no merit, is one of the most merit-less people in the entire Pentagon.

Anyone with his undisputed track record of failures, buffoonery, and mid-energy would have been FIRED.

He is an embarrassment.

[Amy McGrath @AmyMcGrathKY]

We need term limits.

[The Lincoln Project @ProjectLincoln]

Just for anyone not keeping track, we are now in the "we actually love North Korea, and we shit on American soldiers on the USS Lincoln" phase of MAGA.

[CALL TO ACTIVISM @CalltoActivism]

Jon Ossoff didn't just cook Trump, he leveled him.

"They made you pay more for everything and took us to war on lies and spent most of last year trying to cover up for the world's most famous pedophile.

While the crook president and his crook family raked in billions."

Volume up. Send it to someone who needs to see it. 🔊

[Brian Allen @allenanalysis]

Jon Ossoff Unloads on Trump’s January 6 Mob:

“They hunted the vice president to kill him. They built a gallows on the Capitol lawn. They assaulted police officers with flagpoles and bear spray. And they tried to seize the presidency for Donald Trump.”

January 6 was not a protest. It was an attempt to overturn the will of the American people and Ossoff refuses to let anyone rewrite that history.

[Acyn @Acyn]

Ossoff: When he first announced the tariffs, you remember that? He called it Liberation Day, and it crashed the markets because it was clown policy. You remember that?

OK, so follow me through on this. He announces the tariffs on April 2 of last year. The markets tank nonstop for like a week because it’s a disastrous trade policy, and six days into the crash, April 8, Trump buys millions in stock. I’m talking Amazon, Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Berkshire Hathaway, and then the very next morning, April 9, he posts on Truth Social, quote, “This is a great time to buy.” Three exclamation marks.

OK, now listen to this. Three hours and 41 minutes after that post, one day after he bought millions in stock, he canceled the tariffs and triggered one of the biggest same-day rebound rallies in market history.

He’s trying to get money. And you saw, now he’s offering paid subscriptions to presidential announcements, right? Just understand what’s for sale here: The sitting president’s pronouncements on war and peace and economic policy delivered first to paying customers.

What an absolute crook.

[International Cyber Digest @IntCyberDigest]

‼️ BREAKING: Journalists hid an Airtag in a rare book shipment and confirmed Amazon to be one of the buyers behind the bulk orders destroying rare-books to feed their AI.

They tracked it to Amazon's LAS8 warehouse in Las Vegas, home to VGT3 (see logo below), a scanning operation feeding Amazon's AI training data, where workers say they cut the bindings off books to scan them faster.

Amazon won't say why the books are destroyed.

[Jessica Tarlov @JessicaTarlov]

Karoline Leavitt is getting glowing reviews of her performance as press secretary when she dodged, attacked, and obfuscated for the most part. A few examples of the lies we heard: claiming the US spent $50M on condoms for Gaza, calling the Epstein files a 'hoax,' denying war plans were shared with Jeffrey Goldberg over Signal, branding Abrego Garcia a gang member with zero evidence, and insisting America is more affordable under Trump.

That's not a press secretary doing her job well. That's demeaning the press and calling the public insane for noticing the gaslighting.

[Karen Piper @PiperK]

Wow. I've never seen an Attorney General and an FBI Director at a presidential rally in all of American history. It violates all kinds of constitutional principles.

[Jack Hopkins @thejackhopkins]

Since the focus has been on the sailors of the USS Lincoln, I will comment…briefly…on my experience on an aircraft carrier.
I worked on the flight deck of the USS Nimitz for the entire 6-month deployment, launching aircraft during combat operations, 12 hours a day, 7 days a week.
After leaving the Navy, I briefly worked as a nurse in a correctional facility (prison)
I have said many times, if I had to choose…to spend another 6 months at sea, doing the work I did then, in the conditions I did that work, or spend 6 months in a medium security prison..as an inmate… I would choose the latter.
It’s some of the toughest, most dangerous work on the planet. I collapsed into my “bed” each night…every night.
Only a miserable fuck like Donald Trump, who has never done an hour of hard physical labor in his life…would make an ignorant ass comment like, “…not long enough..” when a reporter asked him if he felt the Lincoln deployment was too long.