Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
cbabe
cbabe's Journal
cbabe's Journal
May 8, 2025
'You haven't read the Constitution?' Dem pummels Kash Patel for ignoring due process law
David Edwards
May 8, 2025 12:41PM ET
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) pressed FBI Director Kash Patel about why he refused to investigate agencies violating the U.S. Constitution by denying due process to migrants.
During a Thursday Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Merkley asked Patel if he was familiar with the Fifth Amendment.
"And you're familiar that that applies to all persons in the United States?" the senator said. "So there's been a lot of concern about the several hundred immigrants who were swept off the streets of America and sent to El Salvador without due process."
Patel, however, said he wasn't "in a position" to judge the treatment of migrants.
"Senator, I don't know that I agree with your characterization," Patel replied.
"Well, that was my first question, whether or not you agree with the Fifth Amendment and are prepared to defend it," the Democratic lawmaker noted.
… weasel weasel weasel… more …
(Audio at link)
'You haven't read the Constitution?' Dem pummels Kash Patel for ignoring due process law
https://www.rawstory.com/you-haven-t-read-the-constitution-dem-pummels-kash-patel-for-ignoring-due-process-law/'You haven't read the Constitution?' Dem pummels Kash Patel for ignoring due process law
David Edwards
May 8, 2025 12:41PM ET
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) pressed FBI Director Kash Patel about why he refused to investigate agencies violating the U.S. Constitution by denying due process to migrants.
During a Thursday Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Merkley asked Patel if he was familiar with the Fifth Amendment.
"And you're familiar that that applies to all persons in the United States?" the senator said. "So there's been a lot of concern about the several hundred immigrants who were swept off the streets of America and sent to El Salvador without due process."
Patel, however, said he wasn't "in a position" to judge the treatment of migrants.
"Senator, I don't know that I agree with your characterization," Patel replied.
"Well, that was my first question, whether or not you agree with the Fifth Amendment and are prepared to defend it," the Democratic lawmaker noted.
… weasel weasel weasel… more …
(Audio at link)
May 8, 2025
And the winner of this year’s ‘Dance Your Ph.D.’ contest is
Helsinki chemist’s food-themed frolic wins overall honors as other awards recognize physics laser raps, swaying leaf cells, and collective dancing takeovers
1 MAY 20258:00 AM ETBYALEXA ROBLES-GIL
The stinging heat of chili peppers, the cooling taste of mint, and the drying sensation from drinking tea were all part of Sulo Roukka’s winning entry in Science’s “Dance Your Ph.D.” contest this year. During the dance, the University of Helsinki food scientist flamboyantly sheds a white lab coat to reveal a red suit, complete with a coattail, symbolizing a chili pepper. He leaps and twirls with sequined partners amid flashing lights in his sensory lab and through the school’s hallways. To Roukka, the best part of the process was bringing friends together “to create something amazing.”
Based on the thesis he defended in January, Roukka’s dance explored the differing sensations among people caused by food compounds such as the fiery capsaicin found in chili (“Hot! Hot! Hot!” accompanying lyrics go) or the icy menthol found in mint (“Cool! Cool! Cool!”). Roukka studied how those sensations, known as chemesthesis, influence human experience, such as remembering the pleasantness of certain foods. These insights can help create better foods, such as plant-based products or nonalcoholic drinks.
Roukka, who took home the $2750 overall and chemistry category prizes, recruited some friends who created costumes, directed, and filmed the action. He also enlisted dancers from one of the university’s musical theater groups. “I got to experience a ‘Kylie Minogue’ fantasy,” he says, recalling a part of the video where he’s lifted up by other dancers in the same way that pop singer often is. The video also features a cameo by his Ph.D. supervisor, food chemist Mari Sandell.
… video at link …
Or watch here:
https://www.neatorama.com/2025/05/01/The-2025-Dance-Your-PhD-Winner-is-Hot/
(See what you’re missing if you don’t love science.)
And the winner of this year's 'Dance Your Ph.D.' contest is
https://www.science.org/content/article/winner-2025-dance-your-ph-d-contestAnd the winner of this year’s ‘Dance Your Ph.D.’ contest is
Helsinki chemist’s food-themed frolic wins overall honors as other awards recognize physics laser raps, swaying leaf cells, and collective dancing takeovers
1 MAY 20258:00 AM ETBYALEXA ROBLES-GIL
The stinging heat of chili peppers, the cooling taste of mint, and the drying sensation from drinking tea were all part of Sulo Roukka’s winning entry in Science’s “Dance Your Ph.D.” contest this year. During the dance, the University of Helsinki food scientist flamboyantly sheds a white lab coat to reveal a red suit, complete with a coattail, symbolizing a chili pepper. He leaps and twirls with sequined partners amid flashing lights in his sensory lab and through the school’s hallways. To Roukka, the best part of the process was bringing friends together “to create something amazing.”
Based on the thesis he defended in January, Roukka’s dance explored the differing sensations among people caused by food compounds such as the fiery capsaicin found in chili (“Hot! Hot! Hot!” accompanying lyrics go) or the icy menthol found in mint (“Cool! Cool! Cool!”). Roukka studied how those sensations, known as chemesthesis, influence human experience, such as remembering the pleasantness of certain foods. These insights can help create better foods, such as plant-based products or nonalcoholic drinks.
Roukka, who took home the $2750 overall and chemistry category prizes, recruited some friends who created costumes, directed, and filmed the action. He also enlisted dancers from one of the university’s musical theater groups. “I got to experience a ‘Kylie Minogue’ fantasy,” he says, recalling a part of the video where he’s lifted up by other dancers in the same way that pop singer often is. The video also features a cameo by his Ph.D. supervisor, food chemist Mari Sandell.
… video at link …
Or watch here:
https://www.neatorama.com/2025/05/01/The-2025-Dance-Your-PhD-Winner-is-Hot/
(See what you’re missing if you don’t love science.)
May 8, 2025
Cliona Ward Released by ICE
(17 days in custody)
News May 08, 2025 by Ray O'Hanlon
Cliona Ward, an Irish woman who has been legally resident in the U.S. for 30 years but who was recently detained by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement, has been released.
The release followed a May 7 hearing in Tacoma, Washington where Ward, 54, was being held.
Last month she was detained by federal authorities at San Francisco International Airport after returning from Ireland where she had visited her father, who is in ill health.
…
Ward's imprisonment prompted considerable interest in California news outlets, not least due to the fact that she was a legal resident in the U.S.
…
"Unfortunately, the current Trump administration is unreasonably detaining and deporting foreign nationals from the United States for insufficient reasons or to deprive them of the right to freedom of speech in other cases."
… more …
Cliona Ward Released by ICE
https://www.irishecho.com/2025/5/cliona-ward-release-by-icedCliona Ward Released by ICE
(17 days in custody)
News May 08, 2025 by Ray O'Hanlon
Cliona Ward, an Irish woman who has been legally resident in the U.S. for 30 years but who was recently detained by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement, has been released.
The release followed a May 7 hearing in Tacoma, Washington where Ward, 54, was being held.
Last month she was detained by federal authorities at San Francisco International Airport after returning from Ireland where she had visited her father, who is in ill health.
…
Ward's imprisonment prompted considerable interest in California news outlets, not least due to the fact that she was a legal resident in the U.S.
…
"Unfortunately, the current Trump administration is unreasonably detaining and deporting foreign nationals from the United States for insufficient reasons or to deprive them of the right to freedom of speech in other cases."
… more …
May 8, 2025
Help me find this song. 'Sing aloha/the music of the land'
Not the well known aloha song.
Bright, lively, heartfelt.
Heard weekly opening on Hawaiian music show, kbcs fm.
Suggestions?
Tia!
May 8, 2025
'Deeply disturbing': Dem rakes 'insufficient' Kash Patel over the coals at budget hearing
David Edwards
May 8, 2025 10:34AM ET
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) grilled FBI Director Kash Patel after his agency purportedly violated the law by failing to provide a timely budget.
"As ranking member Van Hollen noted earlier, this hearing is being held without the FBI's fiscal year 2025 spend plan and a full budget request for fiscal year 2026," Murray told Patel at a Thursday hearing. "The spend plan is required by law. It was due to Congress over a week ago. We have not yet seen it. That is really absurd."
…
It was due last week by law," the senator noted.
"I understand," the FBI director replied.
"And your answer is you just understand," Murray observed. "You're not going to follow the law?"
… more weasel weasel …
'Deeply disturbing': Dem rakes 'insufficient' Kash Patel over the coals at budget hearing
https://www.rawstory.com/kash-patel-budget-grilling/'Deeply disturbing': Dem rakes 'insufficient' Kash Patel over the coals at budget hearing
David Edwards
May 8, 2025 10:34AM ET
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) grilled FBI Director Kash Patel after his agency purportedly violated the law by failing to provide a timely budget.
"As ranking member Van Hollen noted earlier, this hearing is being held without the FBI's fiscal year 2025 spend plan and a full budget request for fiscal year 2026," Murray told Patel at a Thursday hearing. "The spend plan is required by law. It was due to Congress over a week ago. We have not yet seen it. That is really absurd."
…
It was due last week by law," the senator noted.
"I understand," the FBI director replied.
"And your answer is you just understand," Murray observed. "You're not going to follow the law?"
… more weasel weasel …
May 4, 2025
Careless People/Sarah Wynn-Williams
First hand account of Facebook and the people and the decisions and the chaos, misogyny, racism, naïveté.
Watching entitled kids with way too much money and power.
Disturbing.
Thoughts?
May 3, 2025
Waltz Reportedly Archived Signal Messages on Israeli Intelligence-Linked App
A picture of Waltz’s phone showed him using an app founded by a former Israeli intelligence official.
By Sharon Zhang , TRUTHOUT
Published May 2, 2025
Former National Security Adviser Mike Waltz archived official government messages sent on Signal through an Israeli app with strong ties to Israeli intelligence and military, new reporting reveals, exposing a glaring data security vulnerability within the top ranks of the Trump administration.
On Thursday, a picture of Waltz’s phone in a cabinet meeting published by Reuters circulated on social media, with users noting that it appeared to show Waltz on the encrypted messaging app, Signal. The screen showed various message chains that appeared to be with figures like Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
However, as some journalists noted, a banner at the bottom of the screen showed that Waltz was using a companion app made by a firm called TeleMessage, which allows users to archive messages on Signal, where users can use settings to auto erase messages. This may be Waltz’s answer to attorneys suing the United States over officials like Waltz seemingly using Signal to discuss sensitive military and other top-level information to evade requirements for government records to be archived.
As Drop Site reported on Friday, TeleMessage is an Israeli firm founded by a former Israeli military intelligence official who was a leader in “one of the IDF’s Intelligence elite technical units,” his biography says.
In fact, many of TeleMessage’s executives and top employees have backgrounds within Israeli military intelligence, with experience in technology and computers within those roles. One employee served within Unit 8200, which has been likened to the U.S.’s National Security Agency and labeled as a spy agency.
… more …
(Using the app in the kremlin… who’s spying on whom…?)
Waltz Reportedly Archived Signal Messages on Israeli Intelligence-Linked App
https://truthout.org/articles/waltz-reportedly-archived-signal-messages-on-israeli-intelligence-linked-app/Waltz Reportedly Archived Signal Messages on Israeli Intelligence-Linked App
A picture of Waltz’s phone showed him using an app founded by a former Israeli intelligence official.
By Sharon Zhang , TRUTHOUT
Published May 2, 2025
Former National Security Adviser Mike Waltz archived official government messages sent on Signal through an Israeli app with strong ties to Israeli intelligence and military, new reporting reveals, exposing a glaring data security vulnerability within the top ranks of the Trump administration.
On Thursday, a picture of Waltz’s phone in a cabinet meeting published by Reuters circulated on social media, with users noting that it appeared to show Waltz on the encrypted messaging app, Signal. The screen showed various message chains that appeared to be with figures like Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
However, as some journalists noted, a banner at the bottom of the screen showed that Waltz was using a companion app made by a firm called TeleMessage, which allows users to archive messages on Signal, where users can use settings to auto erase messages. This may be Waltz’s answer to attorneys suing the United States over officials like Waltz seemingly using Signal to discuss sensitive military and other top-level information to evade requirements for government records to be archived.
As Drop Site reported on Friday, TeleMessage is an Israeli firm founded by a former Israeli military intelligence official who was a leader in “one of the IDF’s Intelligence elite technical units,” his biography says.
In fact, many of TeleMessage’s executives and top employees have backgrounds within Israeli military intelligence, with experience in technology and computers within those roles. One employee served within Unit 8200, which has been likened to the U.S.’s National Security Agency and labeled as a spy agency.
… more …
(Using the app in the kremlin… who’s spying on whom…?)
May 3, 2025
Clint Smith, writer: ‘It is impossible to understand the US economy without slavery’
The New Orleans academic invites readers to discover his country’s past in his book ‘How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America’
ÁNGELES LUCAS
Madrid - MAY 03, 2025 - 00:00 ED
“My grandfather’s grandfather was enslaved.” This is how writer and academic Clint Smith, 36, begins the epilogue of his book How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America.
The ties to that history aren’t so far in the past, yet those in power have been quick to overlook the deep human tragedy of slavery. Smith examines street names and questions the figures behind the monuments of New Orleans, New York, and Dakar in an effort to trace the roots of inequality.
Traffickers and politicians appear within the pages of a book that invites readers to unravel the unanswered questions of a history that was never written by the oppressed.
With a U.S. president who has ordered an “ideological” purge of the Smithsonian museums and a “restoration” of U.S. history, Smith’s voice feels more urgent than ever.
“I’m concerned about a country that’s in some way heading toward fascism, where the executive branch tries to dictate what should and shouldn’t be taught. That’s how authoritarianism works. And we have to fight it,” he said via videoconference from Maryland.
…
I’m very proud to come from people who overcame more than I could have ever imagined. They fought for freedom, for emancipation, for liberation. And the vast majority of them never had the chance to enjoy this, but they fought anyway because they knew that one day someone would. And I think that my life and my children’s lives are only possible because of them. This makes me think about my responsibility: to try to build a better world, to create more opportunities for my people, my community.
… more …
Clint Smith, writer: 'It is impossible to understand the US economy without slavery'
https://english.elpais.com/culture/2025-05-03/clint-smith-writer-it-is-impossible-to-understand-the-us-economy-without-slavery.htmlClint Smith, writer: ‘It is impossible to understand the US economy without slavery’
The New Orleans academic invites readers to discover his country’s past in his book ‘How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America’
ÁNGELES LUCAS
Madrid - MAY 03, 2025 - 00:00 ED
“My grandfather’s grandfather was enslaved.” This is how writer and academic Clint Smith, 36, begins the epilogue of his book How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America.
The ties to that history aren’t so far in the past, yet those in power have been quick to overlook the deep human tragedy of slavery. Smith examines street names and questions the figures behind the monuments of New Orleans, New York, and Dakar in an effort to trace the roots of inequality.
Traffickers and politicians appear within the pages of a book that invites readers to unravel the unanswered questions of a history that was never written by the oppressed.
With a U.S. president who has ordered an “ideological” purge of the Smithsonian museums and a “restoration” of U.S. history, Smith’s voice feels more urgent than ever.
“I’m concerned about a country that’s in some way heading toward fascism, where the executive branch tries to dictate what should and shouldn’t be taught. That’s how authoritarianism works. And we have to fight it,” he said via videoconference from Maryland.
…
I’m very proud to come from people who overcame more than I could have ever imagined. They fought for freedom, for emancipation, for liberation. And the vast majority of them never had the chance to enjoy this, but they fought anyway because they knew that one day someone would. And I think that my life and my children’s lives are only possible because of them. This makes me think about my responsibility: to try to build a better world, to create more opportunities for my people, my community.
… more …
May 2, 2025
Woman raises $250,000 after hurling racist abuse at 5-year-old in viral video: report
Travis Gettys
May 2, 2025 10:28AM ET
A woman caught using racial slurs against a kindergarten-age boy in Minnesota has raised a quarter of a million dollars after video of the incident went viral, according to reports.
Cell phone video spread widely on social media Wednesday showing a man confronting a white woman at a playground at Soldiers Field Memorial Park for allegedly calling the boy the N-word, and she then repeats the slur to the man filming the video and accuses the child of stealing from her, reported the Star Tribune.
“If he acts like one then he’s going to be called one,” the woman says in the video.
…
The woman was identified on social media as Shiloh Hendrix, of Rochester, and a woman using that name set up a page on a Christian fundraising service saying the video had put her family into a “very dire situation" and justified her actions, saying the boy had stolen something from her 18-month-old’s diaper bag and claiming that she “called the kid out for what he was.”
“I fear that we must relocate,” Hendrix wrote. “I have two small children who do not deserve this. We have been threatened to the extreme by people online. Anything will help! We cannot, and will not live in fear!”
The fundraiser had a goal set for $250,000, and she appears to have collected that much by Friday morning.
One of the anonymous donors listed their name as "Dylan Roof," which is the name of a man who killed nine Black worshipers at a historic Black church in South Carolina in 2015.
…naacp hits back … more …
(Living in fear…Christian fundraising. Uh huh.)
Woman raises $250,000 after hurling racist abuse at 5-year-old in viral video: report
https://www.rawstory.com/shiloh-hendrix-rochester/Woman raises $250,000 after hurling racist abuse at 5-year-old in viral video: report
Travis Gettys
May 2, 2025 10:28AM ET
A woman caught using racial slurs against a kindergarten-age boy in Minnesota has raised a quarter of a million dollars after video of the incident went viral, according to reports.
Cell phone video spread widely on social media Wednesday showing a man confronting a white woman at a playground at Soldiers Field Memorial Park for allegedly calling the boy the N-word, and she then repeats the slur to the man filming the video and accuses the child of stealing from her, reported the Star Tribune.
“If he acts like one then he’s going to be called one,” the woman says in the video.
…
The woman was identified on social media as Shiloh Hendrix, of Rochester, and a woman using that name set up a page on a Christian fundraising service saying the video had put her family into a “very dire situation" and justified her actions, saying the boy had stolen something from her 18-month-old’s diaper bag and claiming that she “called the kid out for what he was.”
“I fear that we must relocate,” Hendrix wrote. “I have two small children who do not deserve this. We have been threatened to the extreme by people online. Anything will help! We cannot, and will not live in fear!”
The fundraiser had a goal set for $250,000, and she appears to have collected that much by Friday morning.
One of the anonymous donors listed their name as "Dylan Roof," which is the name of a man who killed nine Black worshipers at a historic Black church in South Carolina in 2015.
…naacp hits back … more …
(Living in fear…Christian fundraising. Uh huh.)
May 1, 2025
‘She changed the face of London’: statue to be unveiled of suffragist gardener
Fanny Wilkinson designed 75 parks in the capital, the first UK female landscape gardener to be paid for her work
Donna Ferguson
Thu 1 May 2025 12.00 EDT
She was a proto-feminist pioneer who blazed a trail for female gardeners and changed the face of London by creating “green lungs” in the capital for Victorians suffering from pollution and overcrowding.
Now a charity is seeking to shine a light on Fanny Wilkinson, the UK’s first professional female landscape gardener, by unveiling the first ever statue of the suffragist at one of the 75 London parks she designed more than a century ago.
“Fanny was an incredibly important figure in her time – and she was really inspirational,” said Nicola Stacey, the director of Heritage of London Trust. “She trained as a gardener when women did not do so, and led the way for other women in being paid for her work, opening up opportunities for women in the profession of landscape design and gardening that, of course, many generations have since benefited from.”
In 1882, Wilkinson became the first female pupil of the newly formed Crystal Palace School of Landscape Gardening and Practical Horticulture: all her fellow students were male.
After graduating, she took an unpaid position as an “honorary” landscape gardener for the Metropolitan Public Gardens, Boulevard and Playground Association (MPGA), a new organisation founded by the philanthropist Lord Brabazon to facilitate the creation of public gardens and children’s playgrounds in London.
Two years later, in 1886, she had the courage – and self-belief – to write to Brabazon to say: “I feel it would be better for me to drop the ‘hon’ and make a charge which would fully cover all expenses.”
At this point, “she became the first professional female landscape gardener who was paid for her services, as opposed to advising for free”, Stacey said. “She then took on female employees and was a pioneering figure in the campaign for equal pay.”
… more …
'She changed the face of London': statue to be unveiled of suffragist gardener
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/may/01/she-changed-the-face-of-london-statue-to-be-unveiled-of-suffragist-gardener‘She changed the face of London’: statue to be unveiled of suffragist gardener
Fanny Wilkinson designed 75 parks in the capital, the first UK female landscape gardener to be paid for her work
Donna Ferguson
Thu 1 May 2025 12.00 EDT
She was a proto-feminist pioneer who blazed a trail for female gardeners and changed the face of London by creating “green lungs” in the capital for Victorians suffering from pollution and overcrowding.
Now a charity is seeking to shine a light on Fanny Wilkinson, the UK’s first professional female landscape gardener, by unveiling the first ever statue of the suffragist at one of the 75 London parks she designed more than a century ago.
“Fanny was an incredibly important figure in her time – and she was really inspirational,” said Nicola Stacey, the director of Heritage of London Trust. “She trained as a gardener when women did not do so, and led the way for other women in being paid for her work, opening up opportunities for women in the profession of landscape design and gardening that, of course, many generations have since benefited from.”
In 1882, Wilkinson became the first female pupil of the newly formed Crystal Palace School of Landscape Gardening and Practical Horticulture: all her fellow students were male.
After graduating, she took an unpaid position as an “honorary” landscape gardener for the Metropolitan Public Gardens, Boulevard and Playground Association (MPGA), a new organisation founded by the philanthropist Lord Brabazon to facilitate the creation of public gardens and children’s playgrounds in London.
Two years later, in 1886, she had the courage – and self-belief – to write to Brabazon to say: “I feel it would be better for me to drop the ‘hon’ and make a charge which would fully cover all expenses.”
At this point, “she became the first professional female landscape gardener who was paid for her services, as opposed to advising for free”, Stacey said. “She then took on female employees and was a pioneering figure in the campaign for equal pay.”
… more …
Profile Information
Member since: Wed Jun 2, 2021, 01:24 PMNumber of posts: 4,945