@maddow.bsky.social: This video clip cuts off at the end, but it also features Neal Katyal, who led the lawsuit challenging Donald Trump's arbitrary withholding of Federal funds, which had already been appropriated by Congress for the new rail tunnel between New York and New Jersey.

The ultimate irony about Trump's arbitrary tariffs is that they are one of the major inflationary forces that is slowing the economy and causing his poll numbers on economic management to plunge! His obsessive belief that foreign companies pay for his tariff fees is just flat out wrong!

@maddow.bsky.social: Neal Katyal is an extremely effective Washington D.C. lawyer who has argued dozens of important cases in front of the Supreme Court, none more important than last Fall's argument that only Congress can levy taxes and tariffs against importers of goods that Americans buy.

@maddow.bsky.social: The new mayor of New York is obviously a smart guy, so I would have assumed that he knew it's summer in Antarctica! Maybe he's not into science....

This reduction in economic activity includes area U.S. citizens who are frequently fearful of traveling near the border because ICE is now instituting random checkpoints and detaining anyone who doesn't have sufficient documentation to prove their citizenship. Foreign visitors simply avoid the area!

@maddow.bsky.social: On a more depressing note, the news division of my cable TV provider, @spectrumnewsny1.bsky.social, which is certainly no liberal news outlet, reports that businesses in the border area of South Texas, especially those in tourism, have had a 30% to 35% hit due to ICE activity!

@maddow.bsky.social: Our favorite food market in the state of Texas, @hebcenter.bsky.social, has donated $187,000,000 to the Austin Humane Society to encourage dog and cat adoption! This creates some serious economic muscle behind Super Bowl Sunday's "Puppy Bowl." H-E-B shoppers are the main donors!

I refer to the GOP as "Publicans," since they delight in disrespecting the Democratic Party by referring to the "Democrat Party," leaving two letters off of the official name, so it only seems fair to take away two letters from the beginning of their party name. Here's hoping it becomes commonplace!

@maddow.bsky.social: These seem to be very reasonable demands on the part of the Democratic Party. Despite resistance from Publicans, let us hope the Dems stick to their principles, in exchange for continued funding of ICE, which has been conducting a lawless invasion of Minneapolis for many weeks!

This comprehensive effort is always topical, covering current events that most of the mainstream media does not document, the current example being the harassment and actual suppression of legitimate journalists reporting on a demonstration at a church in Minneapolis whose pastor is a member of ICE.

@maddow.bsky.social: Rachel Maddow, since Trump's latest inauguration, has launched an effective effort during her weekly @MS.NOW broadcast to document the illegal abuses that this renegade POTUS has visited upon the world! In a series of multiple split screens, she simply describes the harms to us!

@maddow.bsky.social: OK, I was apparently wrong again! It turns out the new podcast, "The Best People," by @nicollewallace.bsky.social, does appear to have a regular TV slot on the @MS.NOW channel, which is an excellent development, because as I have written before, TV adds lots of unspoken info!

Silly me! The airing of "The Best People" podcast was apparently a one-time only event. I have looked for it in my Spectrum TV guide to no avail, which is a shame because the video version is much more impactful than the podcast. I don't drive for Uber anymore, so I don't listen to podcasts at all.

@maddow.bsky.social: I don't feel addicted to digital screens the way teenagers are today, but this video broadcast of Nicolle Wallace's podcast, #TheBestPeople, reveals so much more of the emotional content that a national security expert like Susan Rice brings to an interview! Good job, @MS.NOW!

@maddow.bsky.social: As a huge fan of @nicollewallace.bsky.social, it would be gratifying to take credit for suggesting to her that she publish her top-rated podcast, "The Best People," on @MS.NOW, but I almost failed to record what appears to be the FIRST EPISODE on my DVR. Anyway, happy I did!

@maddow.bsky.social: (7/7) This final clip is quite short, showing the benediction that this gentle VA nurse, Alex Pretti, gives to one of his deceased patients, at the medical facility where he worked. It flies in the face of the claim by administration officials and Trump that he was a terrorist!

@maddow.bsky.social: (6/7) This starts with a bit of football news and ends with Jimmy Kimmel's emotional mention of a video showing Alex Pretti, the second ICE shooting victim in the city of Minneapolis, about to send off one of his deceased patients at the Veterans Administration where he worked.

@maddow.bsky.social: (5/7) Jimmy brings up the 25th Amendment here, as a follow-on to the list of Trump's accomplishments, and there's also a funny video of an Amish horse and buggy driver doing "donuts" in the snow! Kimmel seems positively liberated, since his show was rescued by his viewers!

@maddow.bsky.social: (4/7) This clip begins with the demotion of Greg Bovino, the proto-Nazi who had been parading around the frozen streets of Minneapolis in his SS trench coat, and ends with a complete summary of Trump's so-called accomplishments to date. Nothing on the list polls well!

@maddow.bsky.social: (3/7) Ever since Jimmy Kimmel was returned to his ABC network show by concerted collective efforts of the public, he has been more willing to show his emotions, as revealed by breaks in his voice here. He also goes after Trump's enablers, like Attorney General Pam Bondi.

@maddow.bsky.social: (2/7) If you're searching on YouTube, just type in 23rd anniversary Jimmy Kimmel. Part of this clip shows some of the insane comments from Fox News, basically blaming the victims and the demonstrators for daring to carry licensed concealed weapons as the Second Amendment allows.

@maddow.bsky.social: (1/7) This series of seven postings are from a few days ago, so it's got some overlap, but our resurrected late night host, @jimmykimmellive.bsky.social, does a great job of summarizing all the illegal doings of the Trump administration! (It's probably on YouTube as well.)

@maddow.bsky.social: At the risk of being tracked by the ICE goons with their surveillance equipment (but there are too many of us), the end of this video clip has the first part of Bruce Springsteen's new song in support of Minneapolis. The dude's never going to quit in the pursuit of justice!

@maddow.bsky.social: I don't know if the Hall of Fame has a morals clause, but if it does, it would not be surprising that Belichick failed to receive enough votes during his first year of eligibility! "Relationship Timeline: Bill Belichick and Girlfriend Jordon Hudson Have a 48-Year Age Gap."

@maddow.bsky.social: One of the top podcasts lately has been "The Best People" by one of my fave anchors for @MS.NOW, @nicollewallace.bsky.social. This week's featured guest is Susan Rice, who has served as a senior national security advisor for several Democratic presidents.

@maddow.bsky.social: Obama's Deputy Chief of Staff and national security guru, @milestaylor.bsky.social, tells the horrifying tale about the inhumanity of ICE agents who eat lunch at a local Mexican restaurant, then return in the evening to detain workers and possibly the owner of El Tapatio.

@sarahlongwell25.bsky.social: The following link doesn't mention anything about leaning forward, but it does discuss the prevalence of poor decision making, which fits the big guy to a T! www.solace.health/articles/7-s...

@maddow.bsky.social: It's difficult for me to get to my local post office to return the piece of crap, so I'll probably just eat the wasted nearly 20 bucks! It was a complete "bait and switch" scam, so I had no way of knowing that it was essentially worthless, but here's the company's name to avoid!

@maddow.bsky.social: The advertised German-engineered cutting blades turned out to be a totally bogus, relatively fine-grained battery-operated sanding disc, which did a good job of smoothing out the edges of my overgrown toenails, but did nothing to reduce them in length!

@maddow.bsky.social: It's apparently going to get worse before it gets better! My travel trailer's lighting isn't the worst, and I was using a flashlight when I cut my flesh, so I thought I had control over the toenail clippers, but obviously not! This is why I purchased the supposedly safer tool.

@maddow.bsky.social: Not a promising start to trimming my out-of-control toenails! I purchased for under $20 a battery-operated trimmer that was supposed to do the job more safely, which I suppose it did do, because it didn't work at all! The online ad talked about German-engineered blades, etc.

I don't watch much PBS, because they show a lot of murder mystery series that I can't stand, but "All Creatures Great and Small" captures the charming family dynamics of a multi-generational team of vets, and goes into a fair amount of useful detail regarding the care and feeding of farm animals!

@maddow.bsky.social: I was way too cool to watch "All Creatures Great and Small" with my parents on PBS in the late 1970s, but 40 years later it's been completely reimagined as the story of a Scottish veterinarian who moves to England for his first job. Coming this Sunday, January 11th! Must see TV!

@maddow.bsky.social: (2/2) I assume "The Hobbit" and "The Ring Trilogy" are more popular as major movies than as books, but the books have a kind of intimacy, with the only special effects being created in one's mind, so that they occupy a specific place in the reader's heart that lives on forever!

@maddow.bsky.social: (1/2) I'm not quite sure why this edition of the PBS series "Antiques Roadshow" turned up on my DVR, but it wasn't a conscious decision on my part! They always save the best (as in, highest valuation) for last, and this show was no exception with a first edition "The Hobbit."

@maddow.bsky.social: A few brave Republicans, like Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who also led the effort to release the Epstein files, have been critical of Trump's illegal activities in Venezuela, but it will take many more such leaders to rein in such a clearly authoritarian POTUS!

@maddow.bsky.social: (2/2) I encourage folks to find their own pathway for processing such images, but my surefire method to enhance the original image's complexity and brilliance is to click on edit, and adjust, followed by maximizing contrast, saturation and exposure. Go for it! You might like it!

@maddow.bsky.social: (1/2) You'd have to be pretty skinny to slip through this doorway, leading to everlasting peace and tranquility! I find these "motion-camera" studies themselves to be peace-inducing, because they tend to blur the difficulties associated with everyone's existence.

@maddow.bsky.social: (2/2) It's probably repetitive to keep telling folks how I process these motion-camera studies, but just for the sake of consistency, click on the "edit" and "adjust" buttons of the unprocessed image, then maximize contrast, saturation and exposure. It's actually fun...for me!

@maddow.bsky.social: (1/2) Here's another in my "Gateway to Heaven" series, which is simply a bright light at the top of the frame and some kind of ramp or stairway heading upward. We should all be so lucky If heaven is so easy to waltz into! Most religions require more effort regarding good deeds.

@maddow.bsky.social: News from Venezuela is inescapable, but the reports are filled with speculation and uncertainty, so I'll take a day off from the news of the day! The only thing I know for certain is that Donald Trump has no clue about what's happening there. There is no way we are in control!

@maddow.bsky.social: (2/2) The processed image often comes alive in terms of brightness and structural differentiation, which is a reliable outcome produced by first clicking on the original image "edit" function, then "adjust," followed by maximizing the contrast, saturation and exposure. It's fun!

@maddow.bsky.social: (1/2) Given the aerial attacks on Caracas, Venezuela yesterday, this seems like an appropriate image of incoming missiles or whatever, but it's really just another in my series of "motion-camera" studies, where the camera itself is moved rapidly as the shutter is being released.

@maddow.bsky.social: I have not seen this law professor before on @MS.NOW, but I suspect Trump's hasty decision to authorize the extraction of Venezuela's admittedly illegitimate leader, putting our Special Forces teams at risk, will mean he has a soon-to-be starring role!

@maddow.bsky.social: (2/2) For anyone interested in this "motion-camera" transformation, it starts with the unedited photo, first clicking on "edit," then "adjust," followed by hitting the controls for maximizing contrast, saturation and exposure, but feel free to experiment with your own ideas!

@maddow.bsky.social: (1/2) It's a bit of a stretch, but this photo through a virtual hole in the wall resolves itself into an elongated peace sign, which if it were really true, would provide some comfort, especially to the victims of Putin's aggression in Ukraine, who could use a happier New Year!

@maddow.bsky.social: (7/7) The mechanism for the protection of technology bad actors is Section 230 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which despite the toothless pledges on the part of politicians to repeal the law, provides immunity from liability to providers of interactive computer services.

@maddow.bsky.social: (6/7) The corporate titans who run these immensely influential and profitable megatechnology enterprises are not concerned about being assigned blame for the diminishment of huge swaths of our young male citizens, because they have been protected by complicit politicians!

@maddow.bsky.social: (5/7) Despite the harmful impact that technology and social media have had on young men, keeping them isolated and discouraging them from acquiring the skills to succeed in business and society at large, the major tech corporations have no interest in changing their algorithms!

@maddow.bsky.social: (4/7) This problem of young men falling behind is a massive threat that has a variety of knock-on effects, like an inability to form stable relationships, yet the political parties in this country have essentially ignored the situation, despite the dire consequences of doing so!