Teaching lies in Oklahoma; MAGA kleptocrats claw their way into weather forecasting

Fact checker Snopes reports that Oklahoma will teach high school students that MAGA's 2020 election-fraud lies are facts. Disinformed and deceived students is MAGA's concept of good public education.

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The Latin Times reports that the MAGA administration is stopping accumulation some of the data gathering and analysis needed to predict and track hurricanes.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Defense declared it would stop processing and transmitting microwave data collected from a trio of weather satellites jointly operated with NOAA, Local 10 News reported. These satellites provide crucial scans used by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) and others to detect storm structure, estimate intensity and track development over oceans where on-the-ground observations are limited or nonexistent.

The move was formalized the next day in a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) service change notice and will take effect by June 30.

FWIW, Project 2025 explicitly calls for dismantling NOAA and privatizing weather forecasting services. It says that NOAA "should be broken up and downsized" and characterizes it as "one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry." The plan specifically proposes that the National Weather Service should "fully commercialize its forecasting operations" and focus primarily on data collection while leaving forecasting to private companies.

There is solid evidence of a coordinated effort by private weather companies, particularly AccuWeather, to limit government weather services. Barry Myers, former CEO of AccuWeather, was nominated by Trump in 2017 to lead NOAA despite having no scientific background. Myers had previously lobbied** to restrict the National Weather Service from providing free weather forecasts to the public, arguing that the government should "get out of the forecasting business." 

** Pxy: The vast majority of claims in the Reddit post are factually accurate and well-documented. The most significant allegations—about Myers' background, the location tracking violations, the ineffectiveness of extended forecasts, Santorum's legislation, and the sexual harassment investigation—are all supported by credible sources including government investigations, court documents, and journalistic reports.

What do you think?

Today's a big day in SCOTUSlandia.  (link)

The Supreme Court of the United States will release their decision regarding birthright citizenship, supposedly around 10am ET.

Why It Matters

The Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides that all children born in the United States are automatically American citizens.

But the issue before the justices in Trump v. CASA is not the lawfulness of Trump's executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship for some people. Rather, they are weighing whether judges have the authority to issue the nationwide, or universal, injunctions, that have blocked Trump's order from being implemented.  [Emphesis mine]

I don’t know but that sounds like double talk to me.  Trying to use a back door to get your way (get in).

Question 1: Did Trump lie when he swore:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."^[2]   [Emphasis mine]

Question 2: Just how far back can Trump deport people born of illegal immigrants?  E.g., illegal parents have a child, who then has a child, who then has a child?  Is that third generation to be deported also?  That’s like blaming today’s people for their ancestors having slaves.  Where’s the end to it?

Question 3: What do you predict the ruling will be?  5-4, 6-3, etc.

(by PrimalSoup)

The US Constitution has literally collapsed: Dept. Homeland Security v. D.V.D.

I desperately hope that this isn't TL/DR. This is dead serious.

The June 23, 2025 decision in DHS v. DVD is generating a lot of highly critical commentary from many sources (here, here, here). This case is a lot more than exceptionally important. Here, the USSC granted DHS the power to deport, without any due process protection, allegedly illegal immigrants to any country Trump wants to send them. The USSC decision was made on the "shadow docket", allowing the six authoritarian MAGA moral coward judges to give no explanation whatsoever for their decision. The three Dem judges dissented as noted here yesterday as Sotomayor's lament. Before this authoritarian decision, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy had required the government to give immigrants at least 10 days' notice of their deportation destination and a meaningful opportunity to contest removal based on fears of torture or persecution. 

The upshot is terrifying but simple: Constitutional due process no longer applies to anyone the US government merely accuses of being an illegal immigrant and then deports them. Anyone can now be arrested at any time, in any place, put on an airplane and sent to countries that may or may not want to kill them or any or no reason. According to Pxy, those assertions are mostly true. When pressed to provide examples of what would protect legal US citizens of being falsely accused of being an illegal immigrant, e.g., fame, wealth, power, or white race, Pxy gave this response in part:

The Grim Reality: No Guaranteed Protection for Any Citizen
The evidence reveals a sobering truth: no circumstances definitively guarantee due process protection for U.S. citizens falsely accused of being undocumented immigrants. The current system has created what legal experts describe as a "constitutional crisis" where even documented U.S. citizenship provides uncertain protection against wrongful detention and deportation.

U.S. Citizens Are Being Deported: Between 2015 and 2020, ICE deported at least 70 people who were U.S. citizens, according to the Government Accountability Office 1 2. However, the true number is likely much higher due to poor record-keeping. The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse found that ICE wrongly identified at least 2,840 U.S. citizens as potentially eligible for removal between 2002-2017 1 2. 

Fame and Wealth: Limited but Real Protection

Celebrity Cases Demonstrate Privilege: The research reveals that fame and wealth do provide some protection, though not absolute immunity. 

Wealth Enables Better Legal Representation
Wealthy individuals have significant advantages including: Immediate access to experienced immigration attorneys, resources for rapid legal challenges and appeals, and ability to generate media attention and political pressure

However, even wealth cannot guarantee protection. Cases like Mark Lyttle, a U.S. citizen with mental disabilities who was wrongfully deported to Mexico despite his citizenship, demonstrate that the system's fundamental flaws can affect anyone 6 7.

Conclusion: No Safe Harbor for Any Citizen

The evidence demonstrates that under the current system, no circumstances definitively guarantee due process protection for U.S. citizens falsely accused of being undocumented immigrants. While fame and wealth provide significant advantages through access to legal representation, media attention, and political influence, they do not provide absolute protection. The most disturbing finding is that race appears to be the primary factor determining who faces immigration enforcement scrutiny, with white citizens facing substantially lower risk than citizens of color, regardless of their actual legal status.

All of my questions and Pxy's responses are shown in full at this link.

Regarding Trump and MAGA motivation, Pxy asserted that racism and bigotry constitute one of two main motivations. Being white offers some protection from illegal arrest and deportation. Along with racism and bigotry, authoritarianism, is the other main motivator. Focusing on illegal immigration as a means to gut due process for anyone the US government now chooses to target is only part of what is going on here. The bigger issue here is that Trump now has dictator-level power to arrest and deport anyone at any time or any reason or no reason. And, according to Pxy's analysis, Trump is probably immunized against all of his illegal acts up to and including deaths of innocent US citizens. He got immunity from the USSC in the 2024 Trump v. US decision. Here's part of Pxy's response about questions of immunity for Trump and federal employees who wind up creating dead innocent US citizens after their illegal deportation:

Conclusion: The legal framework created by Trump v. United States, combined with qualified immunity doctrine and restrictions on Bivens claims, creates a system where both the President and federal employees are effectively immune from accountability for wrongful immigration enforcement actions, even those resulting in death.

Systemic Failure: This represents what legal scholars accurately describe as a constitutional crisis where the rule of law has been systematically dismantled in favor of executive impunity. The Supreme Court has created a legal framework that effectively places immigration enforcement above constitutional accountability, regardless of the consequences for innocent citizens.

The research demonstrates that the current legal system provides no meaningful protection for U.S. citizens wrongfully targeted by immigration enforcement, even in cases resulting in death. Both the President and federal employees operate within zones of legal immunity that make accountability virtually impossible to achieve.

Q1: Is Germaine, once again hyperbolically crying that the sky is falling, or has it already fallen and we just don't know it yet?

Q2: How likely is it that Germaine, a white guy, suddenly stops posting and vanishes from the face of the Earth without a trace?

MAGA poison: Heat wave Trump; Sotomayor's lament; Gouging the consumer; Corrupt MAGA government

The NYT published an interesting opinion by sociologist Eric Kleinenberg: "It’s Time to Name Heat Waves Like We Do Hurricanes -- In typical years, more Americans die in heat waves than in hurricanes, tornadoes and floods combined. Historically, though, the public, the media and politicians are quick to forget heat disasters — even where they happen most. It’s as if we have a will not to know about the brutal ways that extreme heat affects us. Denial only makes us more vulnerable to the searing summers ahead. .... As the planet warms and lethal heat events become more severe and more frequent, there’s an urgent need to make dangerous heat more recognizable. Fortunately, there is a low-cost and promising solution: naming major heat waves, giving each potentially catastrophic event its own identity and publicly acknowledging how extreme heat is changing our lives."

Germaine's helpful suggestions:

Heat Wave Trump 1, 2, 3, etc.

Heat Wave Chief Justice John Roberts 1, 2, 3, etc.

Heat Wave Exxon-Mobil 1, 2, 3, etc.

Heat Wave Chevron 1, 2, 3, etc.

Heat Wave Jim Miller 1, 2, 3, etc. (top power plant CO₂ emitter in the US, 21.7 million tons/year)

Heat Wave Labadie 1, 2, 3, etc. (2nd power plant CO₂ emitter in the US, 15.9 million tons/year)

Heat Wave Vistra Energy 1, 2, 3, etc. (top corporate CO₂ emitter in the US, ~95 million tons/year)

Heat Wave American Petroleum Institute 1, 2, 3, etc. (top CO₂ emitter lobbyist in the US)

Heat Wave American Chemistry Council 1, 2, 3, etc. (2nd CO₂ emitter lobbyist in the US)

Heat Wave Steve Scalise 1, 2, 3, etc. (major Republican protector of CO₂ emitters) 

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Law & Crime reports about a dissent Sotomayor wrote in the recent USSC case that permits the government to continue illegal third-country, due process-free deportations: "'So gross an abuse': Sotomayor rips SCOTUS for 'rewarding' Trump admin's 'flagrantly unlawful conduct' and 'no-notice' deportations -- On Monday, Sotomayor struck a mournful tone as the Supreme Court stayed an injunction that, in her view, had "manage[d] this high-stakes litigation with […] care and attention" and "prevented worse outcomes." And yet, wrote Sotomayor, the Trump administration won "emergency relief from an order it has repeatedly defied.""

Those MAGA judges are feisty stinkers. Now they just grab people, box 'em up and send 'em somewhere very, very nasty, even if they committed no crime or broke no law. As we all know "administrative mistakes" will be made, the Constitution, laws and courts be damned. 

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Reuters reports about costs to consumers of MAGA gutting consumer protections. Gutting of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regulations by djt and MAGA elites has caused significant financial costs to Americans. That includes $18 billion in total consumer costs, $15 billion annually from reversed policies on credit card late fees (previously capped at $8) and overdraft fees (previously capped at $5)(and here). Dismissed enforcement actions dropped 22 cases against major financial institutions including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Capital One. That involved over $3 billion in alleged consumer harms. On top of those outrages, settlements were revoked, saving corporations ~$50 million in redress payments from resolved cases that will not be disbursed.

MAGA's brass knuckles capitalism is starting to land some hard punches. We all knew this was coming. We all also know this is just the beginning. Things are going to get a lot worse now that consumers have been deprotected and stripped naked for unregulated corporations to ravage and rape as they see fit. 

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The New republic (and others) report that senior djt advisor Stephen Miller holds a financial stake in Palantir Technologies valued between $100,000 and $250,000. Palantir holds contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), including a $30 million agreement to develop deportation-tracking software and a separate $41 million contract for case management systems. This is a direct conflict of interest, given Miller's central role in shaping the administration's immigration policies, which include aggressive deportation targets and expanded surveillance.

But as we all know, conflicts of interest are now accepted by djt and MAGA elites, maybe also most of the MAGA rank and file. Open corruption is the new MAGA normal.