Nearly 57 million workers, 35% of U.S. workers, are now disposable by design. They include contractors, from building cleaners to travel nurses; freelancers, from gig drivers to high-end programmers; and marginal workers, employees in name only, like adjunct professors & service and part-timers.

Companies’ use of ‘disposable workers’ is transforming employment | MIT Sloan

Freelancers, contractors, part-timers, gig workers, adjuncts, and other contingent workers deserve more respect, MIT Sloan professor emeritus Paul Osterman writes in his book “Disposable Workers.”

mitsloan.mit.edu

This is disgusting. The President has embraced Russia to try and lower diesel prices that HE is responsible for, and is now calling out Ukraine, a U.S. ally, for being effective fighting to defend themselves after being attacked by Russia.

Trump says Ukraine should get a new president as he blames Zelenskyy for US diesel prices

Former President Donald Trump says Ukraine needs a new leader, suggesting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hasn't done enough to end the war with Russia.

apnews.com

"As President, it is my job to ensure the laws are faithfully executed, including by firing subordinates who cannot be trusted to tell the truth and follow the law,' Trump said in a notice on the White House website on Oct. 9. SOMETIMES YOU JUST HAVE TO SHAKE YOUR HEAD ...

[The contractor] believes the order to build facilities with the worst possible conditions came from the White House, specifically from Miller. “Miller did not want the facilities that were humane. We were told point-blank that that was not what the administration wanted,” the contractor said.

DHS Rejected More Humane ICE Plan Because Miller Wanted ‘Cruel’ Conditions, Contractor Alleges

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is preparing to sell seven warehouses acquired during a $1.07 billion detention expansion, after reporting more than $20 million in unrecoverable expenses, as a con...

btimesonline.com

So now attempting to balance for past discrimination equals discrimination against whites? In this administration, increasingly what's up is down ...

Trump Administration Investigates Wells Fargo for Race-Based Lending (Gift Article)

The federal housing agency says the bank’s efforts to encourage Black homeownership amount to discrimination.

nytimes.com

Measles cases continue rise beyond 30-year high. What the hell are we doing??? VOTE BLUE!

Sure, we need to expose everyone, even children, to what it means to be masculine and tough. Pete Hegseth is a putz!

Pete Hegseth pushes for public firing squad execution for Fort Hood shooter

Hegseth says Hasan's firing-squad execution should be public, potentially the first U.S. public execution in nearly 90 years.

newsweek.com

The Associated Press spoke to a group of nine servicemembers who all claim that the U.S. military’s medical system failed them after they were injured in the deadly attack on March 1. IT'S PAST TIME TO GET RID OF HEGSETH

Soldiers Wounded in Iran Say DOD Made Them Get Their Own Treatment

The service members were left to fend for themselves.

newrepublic.com

The Supreme Court will be hearing St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy, brought by the Archdiocese of Denver challenging Colorado rules requiring preschools that receive public funding to accept the children of gay and transgender parents. The church argues doing so would be at odds with 1st Amendment.

NSF was founded 75+ years ago and it has spent nearly all of its budget on so-called basic research ... which has led to major advances in technology such as M.R.I.s, semiconductors and the internet. The White House wants to redirect the money to a limited set of administration priorities like AI.

National Science Foundation Diverted $1.4 Billion in Science Funds Mandated by Congress (Gift Article)

The move, affecting about one-fifth of the National Science Foundation’s primary research budget, is the latest sign of how the White House is asserting more control over grants.

nytimes.com

Just when you think it couldn't get any more weird ...

QAnon conspiracy theories continue to haunt US politics 10 years later

Amid the U.S. war with Iran, some government officials have turned to QAnon for inspiration

independent.co.uk

Seriously? How scared are Republicans??? "Republicans have filed lawsuits in multiple states trying to prevent those voters, who typically support Democrats, from casting ballots. Thursday’s lawsuit contends that the administration simply made the change on its own without giving proper notice."

Trump officials changed forms for overseas voters amid a GOP push to restrict voting

The Pentagon made last-minute changes to forms that many overseas U.S. citizens use for absentee voting, removing a category of citizens that Republicans have been pushing to block from voting.

news.wfsu.org

China now generates nearly as much electricity from renewables alone as the entire U.S. power system produces from all sources. This includes solar, wind, and alternative energy. The U.S. needs to diversify way beyond just drilling for more oil or mining more coal.

The GOP sabotaged its own bill to stop Congress members from trading stocks. Now they will blame Democrats. What else is new?

Republicans sabotaged their own bill to prevent people in Congress from trading stocks. Why?

morningstar.com

You really can't even make this stuff up!

Decades later, Trump’s DOJ to review whether Nixon was mistreated during Watergate scandal

The DOJ is taking a fresh look at whether Nixon was some kind of victim — developments that would’ve seemed unthinkable a half-century ago.

ms.now

Implicit in the idea of A.I. self-regulation is that we are incapable of managing risk through our democratic government. But historically we have done just that, successfully building and regulating powerful new technologies including nuclear energy.

Opinion | Trump Wants A.I. Companies to Police Themselves. What Can Go Wrong? (Gift Article)

Government enforcers have the laws and the experience to control A.I.

nytimes.com

Religious Scholars Met With Anthropic. What They Heard Stunned Them. Mr. Olah and his team at Anthropic have been on a frantic and high stakes quest to ... convince the models to abide by a moral code that will protect humanity.

Is Claude Conscious? Inside Anthropic’s Quest to Instill Morality Into Its A.I. Models

In a series of private meetings, the company consulted religious scholars to help instill morality into its A.I. models — and make the case that Claude could be conscious.

nytimes.com

Practically everyone, regardless of political affiliation, must understand by now that there simply is no evidence of widespread — significant, meaningful — voter cheating in California or anywhere else in America.

Opinion | Trump’s Most Durable Lie: Election Rigging (Gift Article)

Trump’s most durable lie.

nytimes.com

The agency has lost its independence and nearly a third of its staff, as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and associates have tightened control. IF WE WANT TO SAVE FEDERAL MONEY, LET'S CUT ALL THE SWEETHEART DEALS BEING MADE WITH TRUMP FAMILY MEMBERS & BIG CORPS.

‘Zombified’ C.D.C., Hobbled by Cuts, Struggles to Fulfill Scientific Mission (Gift Article)

The agency has lost its independence and nearly a third of its staff, as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and associates have tightened control.

nytimes.com

The Justice Dept said on Thursday it had ended its watchdog role in more than 50 cases enforcing racial desegregation in schools, mostly in the Deep South, a significant milestone in the Trump administration’s bid to overhaul civil rights enforcement in America.

Justice Department Scraps Dozens of School Desegregation Cases (Gift Article)

Critics said the changes, mostly in the South, moved the nation “back toward the Jim Crow era.” Justice Department officials said the decrees were outdated.

nytimes.com

Lucy is definitely my avatar!

"For the US government to have an immigration enforcement system that complies with international human rights law and standards, ICE needs to be abolished and we need to start over.""

Amnesty International calls for ICE abolition: "We need to start over"

The human rights organization Amnesty International has called for the abolishment of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),

tag24.com

It's time to stop the ridiculous waste of time, money, and the misuse of government agencies. Continuing to indulge the President's paranoia and to indulge the violation of the Constitution about the states controlling our voting is stupid.

Nearly 200 people wrongly identified on Nevada’s voter rolls as non-citizens

State election officials said they reviewed 185 records homeland security sent them and confirmed they were US citizens

theguardian.com

Per "Salon": Trump stood before the UN to give a speech where he made clear that the US has now fully abandoned its last remaining fig leaf of decency and morality on the world stage... The world sees America as a threat now, and countries are making new arrangements. THIS IS HORRIFYING!