mastodon 4.7.3independent journalist and publisher of the Public Notice newsletter
BURGUM: When the sun goes down, solar produces zero electricity
HUFFMAN: I want to enter into the record this amazing new technology that apparently the secretary is unaware of -- it's a battery
New in PN: The vanity presidency
"America has suffered ignorant presidents, corrupt presidents, and incompetent presidents. Trump is all of these, yet something far worse: He’s the first to view the office not as a public obligation, but as a personal vanity project designed solely to serve himself." https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-vanity-presidency
New in PN: Josh Marshall on how US democracy can be saved
"The filibuster severed the tether that connects elections to policy outcomes. People get elected, they say they’re going to do X, Y, and Z, and then they can’t, because no party can amass 60 senators. That's one of the reasons you have Trumpism. So the filibuster absolutely has to go." https://www.publicnotice.co/p/josh-marshall-interview-2026
New in PN: Farmers are rightfully pissed at Trump
"Trump has put in place senseless policies that have devastated farmers. As a result, rural communities have lost faith in Trump and begun to realize, belatedly, that he hates them, as he hates anyone who fails to lick his boots as he kicks them in the face." https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-farmers
New in PN: No one is coming to bail Trump out of his disastrous war
"The problem may be that Trump is asking China to bail him out, but offering nothing in return for that favor. It’s one of his favorite negotiating techniques: Demand everything, offer nothing, and wait for the other side to submit. But it doesn’t work." https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-iran-war-deal
New in PN: Trump’s Reichstag fire presidency is immolating
"While America, and the world, is lucky that Trump — a far lazier man than the quite lazy Hitler — seems to be running out of steam well before he can hope to work horrors anything close to those achieved by the Nazi dictator, the two share a late-regime obsession with rewriting history and building monuments to justify their utterly failed rule." https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-reichstag-fire-presidency
New in PN: The dumbest week in DOJ history
"You’re forgiven if the comically thin Comey indictment overshadowed the absolute embarrassment of Monday's DOJ filing — the one where government attorneys apparently just let Trump write a Truth Social rant about his ballroom and sent it to the court." https://www.publicnotice.co/p/blanche-comey-ballroom
How dare you point out that Sam Alito is a partisan hack!
"Not content to undo civil rights and destroy the Court’s credibility, Alito and company are racing to ensure Republicans can redraw House districts even as voting is already underway. And if anyone points out their flagrant partisanship and clanging hypocrisy, they scream bloody murder, even — especially! — if the person pointing the finger is one of their fellow justices." https://www.publicnotice.co/p/alito-callais
New in PN: The assault on higher ed goes deeper than you think
"This is much bigger than budget cuts. It’s not merely a continuation of things like longtime GOP efforts to cut Pell Grants. It’s a far more wide-ranging assault designed to drastically limit access to higher ed for all but the rich and well-connected." https://www.publicnotice.co/p/the-assault-on-higher-ed-goes-deeper
New in PN: Trump's lies disgrace everyone around him
"When they parrot Trump’s lies verbatim, his lackeys must know in their hearts that they’re abasing themselves. That’s the price of pleasing the Liar-in-Chief—a president who has reduced truth-telling in the White House by 600 percent." https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-big-lie-judges
New in PN: FCC's Brendan Carr picks a fight with The View ... and winds up in a battle with Mickey Mouse
"Disney seems to have come to the belated realization that knuckling under to Trump is bad for the company’s bottom line. Allowing Carr to muzzle the ladies of The View would be a mistake akin to handing CBS News over to Bari Weiss. And since Trump is loyal to no one, it would only win them a temporary reprieve." https://www.publicnotice.co/p/fcc-brendan-carr-the-view
New in PN: Trump goes to China, without any cards
"Effectively addressing the rise of China has posed a difficult challenge for American presidents going back decades. But in Trump, Xi has found the most willing of dupes. It makes the Nixon era almost seem like the good old days." https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-china-summit-failure
New in PN: How Democrats can avenge the demise of the Voting Rights Act
"Trump’s extreme unpopularity has another effect: it supercharges Democratic opposition. Democratic voters are demanding their representatives fight as if the fascists are at the gate (which they are). And Democratic representatives have, after some hesitation, begun to respond." https://www.publicnotice.co/p/democrats-voting-rights-act-ruling
New in PN: Why fixing America is much harder than fixing Hungary
"I warned in 2020 that it would be dangerous to let Trump go out like Nixon, and the Biden administration’s subsequent decision to pursue healing instead of accountability turned out to be disastrous." https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-orban
I'm taking the rest of the day off to celebrate my son's birthday. Have a good afternoon, and if you'd like to support my work, please consider subscribing to my newsletter, where today we have a great piece up on Trump censor Brendan Carr and the weird fight he picked with the ladies of The View ⬇️ https://www.publicnotice.co/subscribe
New in PN: Trump's $1.8b slush fund could turn into giant can of worms
"The entire exercise is an elaborate troll. It is, as many people have commented, a vehicle for Trump to pay his supporters for the last attack, and maybe prepay for the next one using tax dollars. It’s also flagrantly illegal." https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-weaponization-fund
New in PN: Stephen Miller's closed system of white supremacy
"Trump believes anything he scribbles down is the law, Miller's firm treats it as such when complaining to government agencies, and then those agencies accept Trump’s blatherings as law too. It’s a perfectly closed system of white supremacy." https://www.publicnotice.co/p/stephen-miller-america-first-legal-trump
"What we've seen in the last 10 days has astonished me. I wasn't cynical enough. Because I thought the Callais ruling had come too late in the election cycle for these southern states with VRA-protected districts to dismantle them."
New episode of Nir & Rupar is live about the Virginia Supreme Court’s decision to invalidate the state’s new congressional map and what it means. Check it out: https://www.publicnotice.co/p/what-the-virginia-ruling-does-and
New in PN: This is a crisis of democracy. What will Dems do about it?
"Perhaps you’re uncomfortable with one or more of these proposals. That’s fine. At this point, the details are less important than preparing for a new approach to politics, procedures, and governing." https://www.publicnotice.co/p/vra-democracy-crisis-democrats
New in PN: Musk aims to kneecap OpenAI with Altman trollsuit
"Elon Musk and Sam Altman are currently kicking the shit out of each other in a federal courthouse in Oakland. Two of the most destructive men on earth are each claiming to be principled humanitarians, and Musk’s customary chaos monkey litigation strategy is on full display." https://www.publicnotice.co/p/musk-altman-trial
Pastor Robert Jeffress: "It looks like President Trump has a better understanding of what the Bible teaches than the Pope"
Q: Do you think the DOJ ought to settle the president's $10 billion lawsuit? Is there a conflict of interest there?
MIKE JOHNSON: Um. One of the things that is not in my purview is the DOJ, ok? I haven't thought about that or read into it. I got enough to say grace over every day. Go ask the executive branch.
