Moody’s downgrades the U.S.’s credit rating, citing rising debt levels and possible tax cuts.
The credit rating of the United States received a potentially costly downgrade on Friday, as the ratings firm Moody’s determined that the government’s fiscal outlook had deteriorated as a result of rising debt levels and stood to worsen further if Republicans enact a package of new tax cuts.
The downgrade, to one notch below the highest triple-A rating, amounted to a political and economic repudiation of Washington, where President Trump only hours earlier had pushed his party to adopt a sprawling package that might add trillions of dollars to the nation’s fiscal imbalance.
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Life in Post Democracy Era: The Trump 2/Elon Dictatatorship
Not that it took a crystal ball to predict this or anything, but I saw this coming. After all, who would have ever imagined that when you denigrate people and cut funding for their work, they'll look to go elsewhere? 
Sadly, for MAGATs, it's a feature, not a bug.
As the US Cuts Scientific Talent, Europe Launches an Initiative to Attract It
The European Commission has launched a new initiative to attract researchers and scientists to the European Union—especially those from the United States. The Choose Europe for Science program, backed with more than half a billion dollars, is designed to offer an alternative to researchers who have been forced to seek new opportunities following cuts in scientific funding imposed by President Donald Trump’s administration.
The program will invest €500 million ($568 million) between 2025 and 2027 to recruit specialists in various fields of knowledge to come and work in Europe. The initiative also includes a target for member states to allocate 3 percent of their GDP to R&D projects by 2030.
“The role of science in today’s world is questioned,” warned Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, in a statement on Tuesday. “What a gigantic miscalculation. I believe that science holds the key to our future here in Europe. Without it, we simply cannot address today’s global challenges—from health to new tech, from climate to oceans.”...
Sadly, for MAGATs, it's a feature, not a bug.As the US Cuts Scientific Talent, Europe Launches an Initiative to Attract It
The European Commission has launched a new initiative to attract researchers and scientists to the European Union—especially those from the United States. The Choose Europe for Science program, backed with more than half a billion dollars, is designed to offer an alternative to researchers who have been forced to seek new opportunities following cuts in scientific funding imposed by President Donald Trump’s administration.
The program will invest €500 million ($568 million) between 2025 and 2027 to recruit specialists in various fields of knowledge to come and work in Europe. The initiative also includes a target for member states to allocate 3 percent of their GDP to R&D projects by 2030.
“The role of science in today’s world is questioned,” warned Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, in a statement on Tuesday. “What a gigantic miscalculation. I believe that science holds the key to our future here in Europe. Without it, we simply cannot address today’s global challenges—from health to new tech, from climate to oceans.”...
The essence of fascism is to make laws forbidding everything and then enforce them selectively against your enemies. -John LesCroart
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skinsfan4128
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But only other countries pay the tariffs, according to the bumbling orange lunatic. Can't have it both ways. Wish more news reporters would call out his every dumbass post.
HTTR!
Kennedy Center employees make an effort to unionize in response to Trump takeoverChina wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2025 11:30 pmTrump has big dreams for the Kennedy Center but doesn't seem to know what it does
The president's hostile takeover of the Washington, D.C. cultural institution will probably chase away the very people who like to attend shows there.
The president, who is also now the board chair for the Kennedy Center, convened a meeting of said board on Monday. In a recording of the meeting shared with The Washington Post, Trump and members said they’d like to see “Camelot,” “Cats,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Hello, Dolly!” and “The Phantom of the Opera” featured at the Kennedy Center. Speaking with reporters, Trump said, “We’re going to get some very good shows.”
There are a number of practical problems with this wish list, the first of which is that none of those musicals are touring in North America (although a tour of “Phantom” does launch in November). And if the Kennedy Center were to try to mount its own nonunion productions, it would run into a brick wall of standing labor contracts.
“We’re gonna fix that,” the president said upon learning that the Kennedy Center would have had to pay the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees in order to have board member Lee Greenwood sing at the meeting. “They wanted $30,000 to move a piano,” Trump claimed.
And yet, none of these obstacles prevent the president of the United States from assuming “Cats” will be onstage at the Kennedy Center next year, as if he has the power to summon Mr. Mistoffelees and Rum Tum Tugger through sheer will.
Since Feb. 7, when Trump announced plans to appoint himself America’s arts impresario in chief, he has fired roughly two dozen board members appointed by President Joe Biden, had the remaining trustees elect a new president of the board and dismissed Kennedy Center leader Deborah Rutter, who had helmed the institution for 11 years.
Life at the center has been a tumultuous free fall ever since, with a series of cancellations and missed deadlines. The second week of March, when the Kennedy Center typically announces programming for the next season, has come and gone. Across Washington, venues like The Anthem and Shakespeare Theatre Company are fielding calls from artists and organizations looking for somewhere else to perform. Most notably, the producers and creators of the musical theater juggernaut “Hamilton” announced they were canceling a two-month run, which most likely have generated more money than any other show in the 2025-26 Kennedy Center season.
Yet alleged financial mismanagement at the Kennedy Center has been top of mind for Trump and his surrogates, including Ric Grenell, the former ambassador whom the president appointed to replace Rutter on at least an interim basis, who accused the center of having low cash reserves.
As a nonprofit organization, the Kennedy Center is required to submit public tax returns, and the most recently available filings indicate it is not in financial distress, with a total budget of $268 million and a surplus of $6 million. About 16% percent of the budget comes from a congressional appropriation specifically earmarked for physical upkeep, because the center was dedicated in 1971 as a national memorial to slain President John F. Kennedy Jr.
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John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts employees announced Thursday their plan to unionize.
The union will be called the “Kennedy Center United Arts Workers,” or the KCUAW, and will be in partnership with The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, or the UAW, according to an Instagram post.
About 60% of eligible employees have signed up to be in the union, and organizers have submitted the request to form the union to the National Labor Relations Board. The board will then notify the Kennedy Center’s management team that a request for a union has been made, according to The Washington Post.
Employees say they’re unionizing in response to President Donald Trump’s leadership takeover at the Kennedy Center in February.
“The Kennedy Center’s new management has communicated its intention to radically alter the Center’s programming priorities, eliminate staff, and dismantle our mission-essential programs,” the KCUAW website said.
The president made himself chairman after firing members of the board of trustees.
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Trump’s USDA tried to erase climate data. This lawsuit forced it back online
The United States Department of Agriculture says it will restore climate-related information on its websites, following a lawsuit filed earlier this year by agriculture and environmental groups that say farmers rely heavily on these critical resources to adapt to warming temperatures.
In January, following President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the USDA’s communications office instructed employees to “identify and archive or unpublish any landing pages focused on climate change” and flag other pages that mention climate for review — a policy first reported by Politico. The following month, the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, or NOFA-NY, joined the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Working Group in suing the agency to republish the pages, which included information about federal loans for farmers and an interactive climate map.
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The United States Department of Agriculture says it will restore climate-related information on its websites, following a lawsuit filed earlier this year by agriculture and environmental groups that say farmers rely heavily on these critical resources to adapt to warming temperatures.
In January, following President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the USDA’s communications office instructed employees to “identify and archive or unpublish any landing pages focused on climate change” and flag other pages that mention climate for review — a policy first reported by Politico. The following month, the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, or NOFA-NY, joined the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Working Group in suing the agency to republish the pages, which included information about federal loans for farmers and an interactive climate map.
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The corruption is off the charts...
Vietnam approves a $1.5 billion Trump golf resort project as tariff talks loom
As trade tensions between Washington and Hanoi escalate, Vietnam has approved a $1.5 billion investment from the Trump Organization to build golf courses, hotels, and real estate — in a move that might be as much about economics as it is about optics.
The investment’s approval comes as the U.S. ramps up pressure over Vietnam’s trade surplus and its alleged role in facilitating backdoor access for Chinese goods to enter American markets.
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Vietnam approves a $1.5 billion Trump golf resort project as tariff talks loom
As trade tensions between Washington and Hanoi escalate, Vietnam has approved a $1.5 billion investment from the Trump Organization to build golf courses, hotels, and real estate — in a move that might be as much about economics as it is about optics.
The investment’s approval comes as the U.S. ramps up pressure over Vietnam’s trade surplus and its alleged role in facilitating backdoor access for Chinese goods to enter American markets.
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He’s gone completely bonkers. Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen are now living rent free in his head. Where cringe meets crazy 
Click on the link for the video
Click on the link for the video
DHS asks for 20,000 National Guard troops for immigration roundups, Pentagon reviewing request
The Department of Homeland Security has asked for 20,000 National Guard troops to assist with immigration roundups across the country, and the Pentagon is reviewing the unusual request, a U.S. official confirmed to The Associated Press.
DHS asked for the troops to help carry out President Donald Trump’s “mandate from the American people to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens,” department spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said. She said DHS will ”use every tool and resource available” to do so because the “safety of American citizens comes first.”
Unlike the troops deployed at the southern border, these National Guard units would come from the states and be used to assist in deportation operations in the interior of the country.
How the troops would be used may depend on whether they remain under state governors’ control. Under the Posse Comitatus Act, troops under federal orders cannot be used for domestic law enforcement, but units under state control can.
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The Department of Homeland Security has asked for 20,000 National Guard troops to assist with immigration roundups across the country, and the Pentagon is reviewing the unusual request, a U.S. official confirmed to The Associated Press.
DHS asked for the troops to help carry out President Donald Trump’s “mandate from the American people to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens,” department spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said. She said DHS will ”use every tool and resource available” to do so because the “safety of American citizens comes first.”
Unlike the troops deployed at the southern border, these National Guard units would come from the states and be used to assist in deportation operations in the interior of the country.
How the troops would be used may depend on whether they remain under state governors’ control. Under the Posse Comitatus Act, troops under federal orders cannot be used for domestic law enforcement, but units under state control can.
Click on the link for the full article