Media and Society class was fun today

Welcome to the Heritage Foundation's Christian Nationalist America, co-sponsored by the Federalist Society and Palantir Technologies, hosted by reality TV's Donald Trump.

US added 177,000 in April, but most of those went to Marco Rubio.

it really is astounding that a presidential administration crashed the growth trajectory of the wealthiest country on the planet in basically two months

Here's a great NFL mock draft by Stevenson student Jimmy Rudolph: stevensonvillager.com/34616/uncate...

A draft of an executive order to gut the State Department includes eliminating Africa operations, ending the foreign service exam and closing offices that focus on climate change, democracy and human rights. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/20/us/politics/trump-state-department-overhaul.html?unlocke

In fiscal year 2024, Target CEO Brian Cornell received total compensation of $19,203,353. This included a base salary of $1.4 million, $14.7 million in stock awards, and $3.1 million in other compensation. This compensation was 719 times the median employee pay of $26,696.

NOTE: There are more people *in this frame of television* than there are transgender athletes in the State of Maine *All* of this is theater for stupid people

You do realize this is where Trump is taking us, right? Let’s support the truth tellers among American journalists. Without them, we really have no country anymore www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/w...

What has the demented, criminal dictator decreed today?

We have the most anti-free speech government in modern American history. (And yet, in true Orwellian fashion, they claim to be champions of free speech.)

Journalists: you cannot deport U.S. citizens out of their own country. Do not simply regurgitate the words of the administration if those words are inaccurate. To do so is spreading disinformation. Deportation, according to the govt itself, is for people with no legal right to be here.

A great story by Stevenson student Daniel Mihm. Your feel-good news for today. stevensonvillager.com/34361/featur...

Americans voted against the most successful economic recovery of any nation on the planet for this, because they were mad at their servants being paid more and listened to liars who made them feel good.

“This is not what we voted for.” Yes, yes, it is. You just didn’t think it could destroy you, too.

The 400 books on racism, gender and inequality (in addition to other subjects) pulled off the shelvers of the U.S. Naval Academy's library. media.defense.gov/2025/Apr/04/...

He doesn’t care about those who’ve served. Never has. Never will.

It's broken 40,000. In the wrong direction.

What's up? No, the question is "What's down?" The answer: Everything.

France is really making America look like the shitty city on the hill today. We have a convicted felon squatting in the WH cuz there is no rule of law.

Black history is American history.

Yep

The sheer existence of DOGE and the incredible access it has enjoyed is failed state shit. It simply couldn’t exist in a country on anything but a rapid downward trajectory.

Future history books will refer to the "Great American scientific migration of the 21st century," that time when most of America's great young minds fled to other countries to pursue what became illegal in the U.S.: honest scientific inquiry.

Outsourcing Cruelty: Immigrants Sent to El Salvador's Prisons Likely to Face Human Rights Abuses Marco Rubio's Department of State is fully aware of the human rights abuses in Bukele's El Salvador as shown in their country conditions reports. austinkocher.substack.com/p/outsourcin...

Columbia Journalism Review tested eight generative AI search tools and found their answers were wrong 60% of the time, and the paid ones actually fared worse than the free ones. Meanwhile, millions of people trust the way they present total bullshit with confident language.

GOP representative: “I support Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency.” Town hall crowd: “BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!” Let’s keep making Republicans own their complicity in President Musk’s hostile takeover. Take action near you during this congressional recess: indivisible.org/muskorus

When you erase the history of the code talkers, you are erasing the history of the Second World War. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

Several politicians just bought shares of Palantir, a data analytics firms with ties to Trump and Musk that specializes in defense and surveillance. The company is poised to benefit from outsourcing and privatizing the federal government. From @sludge.bsky.social: readsludge.com/2025/03/18/l....

They're called public records for a reason. Starting today, WIRED will *stop paywalling* articles that are primarily based on public records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, becoming the first publication to partner with @freedom.press to offer this for our new coverage.

Lede: As President Donald Trump’s anti-media rhetoric turns into action, educators are reminding student journalists that this is when “journalism is needed most.” Chatwan Mongkol Mar 17, 2025

The White House did not *obey.* That is the more relevant verb, given that this is about flouting a court order, separation of powers, and the Constitutional crisis we are in. This kind of word choice is critical.

Book club has been postponed, Charm City.

I have to stop doom scrolling. And by that, I mean, looking at my retirement accounts. Oy.

Tune in at 3pm EST for our Scrap the Cap Day Townhall! We will be joined by special guests Congressman John Larson, patient advocate Peter Morley, former SSA Commissioner Martin O'Malley, and Social Security Works President Nancy Altman. Watch live here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU9i...

In the last five years, 44 eliminations have been confirmed by WHO. What does it take to eliminate a disease? What needs to happen before WHO can certify an elimination? Once eliminated, can these diseases come back? Dr Jérôme Salomon explains on Science in 5. Watch full episode: bit.ly/3XrK6C2

Tonight on @SiriusXM #127 we're covering Combover Caligula's address to Congress w/live, in the moment fact-checking. Join me & @themaxburns.bsky.social as we do what TV News can't: calling out lies in real time - and you get to be part of the show. 866.997.GRIT @SiriusXMProg

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It’s “America First” until Netanyahu asks for money and bombs. It’s “America First” until Americans demand universal healthcare. It’s “America First” until Americans demand tuition-free college. It’s “America First” until Americans demand housing for all.

The Republic of Gilead is emerging from a townhome in DC.

Our schools are not your churches. No taxpayer vouchers for private religious schools.

The rapidity with which major media outlets are just rolling over for this administration and making a grab for authoritarian approval and cash is absolutely craven and disgusting. Treating journalism as an extractive, for-profit enterprise is an insult to the profession, and to society.

gravedigger of american democracy. a more malign influence than john c calhoun.

I don’t often feel rage. That said, I’ve been getting pretty damn close, watching one of the few truly warrior like heroes in the world of leadership…Zelensky…being rat fucked by two of the biggest pieces of shit on the planet.

I’ve said this so many times, people assume people are rich because they are so much smarter than the rest of us and this will be the downfall of us all.