#it was 8.8 billion

[floipenstein]

https://www.reuters.com/world/us-senate-rejects-effort-block-arms-sales-israel-2025-04-03

Literally not impressed at all about Cory Booker's long speech bullshit. It's called a fucking political stunt, to make you feel like he did good. You know what would actually be good? Voting against an arms sale to israel. Only THESE 15 PEOPLE voted against the arms sale today. Voting against this would have ACTUALLY been AMAZING. Instead of just stalling the Senate for 1 day. FUCK Cory Booker.

[realian]

since when did politicians stop having to earn our votes? since when has the presidential race been a contest of the lesser evils? if I don't like a politician I will not be voting for them. simple as.

[61below]

Now that we’re starting to flirt with the concept of Fall up here in the northwoods, I have to say that the most romantic thing I’ve ever written a character do remains making Kent Parson search the city for a cafe that sold PSLs yet, and failing that, he makes some himself. I hold all of my fics in my heart (for better or worse) but this one still makes me smile.

((Also, gfdi, PSLs should be made available as soon as the low temps get below 45° 😤))

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #14

April 12-19 2024

The Department of Commerce announced a deal with Samsung to help bring advanced semiconductor manufacturing and research and development to Texas. The deal will bring 45 billion dollars of investment to Texas to help build a research center in Taylor Texas and expand Samsung's Austin, Texas, semiconductor facility. The Biden Administration estimates this will create 21,000 new jobs. Since 1990 America has fallen from making nearly 40% of the world's semiconductor to just over 10% in 2020.

The Department of Energy announced it granted New York State $158 million to help support people making their homes more energy efficient. This is the first payment out of a $8.8 billion dollar program with 11 other states having already applied. The program will rebate Americans for improvements on their homes to lower energy usage. Americans could get as much as $8,000 off for installing a heat pump, as well as for improvements in insulation, wiring, and electrical panel. The program is expected to help save Americans $1 billion in electoral costs, and help create 50,000 new jobs.

The Department of Education began the formal process to make President Biden's new Student Loan Debt relief plan a reality. The Department published the first set of draft rules for the program. The rules will face 30 days of public comment before a second draft can be released. The Administration hopes the process can be finished by the Fall to bring debt relief to 30 million Americans, and totally eliminate the debt of 4 million former students. The Administration has already wiped out the debt of 4.3 million borrowers so far.

The Department of Agriculture announced a $1 billion dollar collaboration with USAID to buy American grown foods combat global hunger. Most of the money will go to traditional shelf stable goods distributed by USAID, like wheat, rice, sorghum, lentils, chickpeas, dry peas, vegetable oil, cornmeal, navy beans, pinto beans and kidney beans, while $50 million will go to a pilot program to see if USAID can expand what it normally gives to new products. The food aid will help feed people in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Haiti, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Yemen.

The Department of the Interior announced it's expanding four national wildlife refuges to protect 1.13 million wildlife habitat. The refuges are in New Mexico, North Carolina, and two in Texas. The Department also signed an order protecting parts of the Placitas area. The land is considered sacred by the Pueblos peoples of the area who have long lobbied for his protection. Security Deb Haaland the first Native American to serve as Interior Secretary and a Pueblo herself signed the order in her native New Mexico.

The Department of Labor announced new work place safety regulations about the safe amount of silica dust mine workers can be exposed to. The dust is known to cause scaring in the lungs often called black lung. It's estimated that the new regulations will save over 1,000 lives a year. The United Mine Workers have long fought for these changes and applauded the Biden Administration's actions.

The Biden Administration announced its progress in closing the racial wealth gap in America. Under President Biden the level of Black Unemployment is the lowest its ever been since it started being tracked in the 1970s, and the gap between white and black unemployment is the smallest its ever been as well. Black wealth is up 60% over where it was in 2019. The share of black owned businesses doubled between 2019 and 2022. New black businesses are being created at the fastest rate in 30 years. The Administration in 2021 Interagency Task Force to combat unfair house appraisals. Black homeowners regularly have their homes undervalued compared to whites who own comparable property. Since the Taskforce started the likelihood of such a gap has dropped by 40% and even disappeared in some states. 2023 represented a record breaking $76.2 billion in federal contracts going to small business owned by members of minority communities. This was 12% of federal contracts and the President aims to make it 15% for 2025.

The EPA announced (just now as I write this) that it plans to add PFAS, known as forever chemicals, to the Superfund law. This would require manufacturers to pay to clean up two PFAS, perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid. This move to force manufacturers to cover the costs of PFAS clean up comes after last week's new rule on drinking water which will remove PFAS from the nation's drinking water.

Bonus:

President Biden met a Senior named Bob in Pennsylvania who is personally benefiting from The President's capping the price of insulin for Seniors at $35, and Biden let Bob know about a cap on prosecution drug payments for seniors that will cut Bob's drug bills by more than half.

[transit-fag]

Here is a list of all US transport mega projects (according to Wikipedia and projects I can think of) and their costs, rail projects are marked in blue:

Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel - 3.1 billion dollars

The Big Dig in Boston - 24.3 billion

Brightline West - 10 billion

California High-speed Rail - 100 billion

Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program - 4.6 billion

CTA Red Line Extension - 3.7 billion

Cresent Corridor Expansion - 2.5 billion

East Side Access - 11.1 billion

Evergreen Point Floating Bridge - 4.56 billion

Gateway Program - 16 billion

Hampton Roads Bridge–Tunnel expansion- 3.9 billion

The Interstate Highway system - 500 billion

John F. Kennedy International Airport Redevelopment - 19 billion

LaGuardia Airport Project - 8 billion

LAX renovations - 14 billion

Newark Airport Terminal A - 14 billion

O'Hare Modernization Plan - 8.8 billion

Ohio River Bridges Project - 2.3 billion

Project Connect in Austin - 7.1 billion

Puget Sound Gateway Program - 2.38 billion

Reagan Airport's Project Journey - 1 billion

San Francisco International Airport Redevelopment - 2.4 billion

Eastern span replacement of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge - 6.4 billion

Second Avenue Subway - 17 billion

DC metro Silver Line - 6.8 billion

MTA purple Line - 10 billion

Sound transit 3 - 50 billion

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Qasim Rashid at Let's Address This:

In March the Netanyahu regime shattered the ceasefire it agreed to and killed at least 400 Palestinians. This week, Netanyahu again broke the ceasefire, bombing Gaza and killing at least 112 more Palestinian civilians, the majority of them women and children. In response, the United States Senate yesterday voted 85–15 to send Netanyahu more bombs. Let’s not mince words. This is genocide. And the U.S. Senate—by an overwhelming bipartisan vote—just signed off on it. Again. Let’s Address This.

Hypocrisy Kills Democracy

Ask yourself: How can we possibly hope to stop fascism at home, if we are arming fascists abroad? Senator Sanders explained what was at stake:

[The sales would provide almost $8.8 billion more in heavy bombs and other munitions to Netanyahu, including more than 35,000 massive 2,000-pound bombs. The first resolution, S.J.Res 33, would block a sale of $2.04 billion for 35,329 MK 84 2,000 lb. bombs and 4,000 I-2000 Penetrator warheads. The second resolution, S.J.Res.26, would block $6.75 billion for 2,800 500-pound bombs, 2,166 Small Diameter Bombs, and tens of thousands of JDAM guidance kits.]

In addition to a unanimous yes vote from MAGA Republicans, some 32 Democratic Senators voted yes to continue funding this mass atrocity. They are as follows:

[Duckworth, King, Alsobrooks, Peters, Slotkin, Klobuchar, Masto, Warner, Murray, Cantwell, Baldwin, Rosen, Shaheen, Hassan, Booker, Schumer, Gillibrand, Wyden, Fetterman, Reed, Whitehouse, Kelly, Gallego, Padilla, Schiff, Bennet, Hickenlooper, Blumenthal, Coons, Rochester, Ossoff, and Warnock.]

So while the Democratic Party tweets about saving democracy, and speaks from the podium for 25 hours and 5 minutes about the importance of human life and dignity for all, it simultaneously proudly votes to fund one of the gravest human rights catastrophes of our time. And remember, at least 77% of Democratic voters want Democrats to stop arming Netanyahu. How does party leadership expect to rally their base and win elections when they spit in the face of nearly 8 in 10 voters?

[...]

15 Votes For Justice

But not everyone gave in. Below are the 15 Democratic and Independent Senators who voted NO on Trump’s arms deal to Netanyahu. The Senators who instead chose to fight for humanity, international law, and justice are as follows:

Chris Murphy (CT)

Mazie Hirono (HI)

Brian Schatz (HI)

Dick Durbin (IL)

Ed Markey (MA)

Elizabeth Warren (MA)

Chris Van Hollen (MD)

Tina Smith (MN)

Andy Kim (NJ)

Martin Heinrich (NM)

Ben Ray Luján (NM)

Jeff Merkley (OR)

Tim Kaine (VA)

Bernie Sanders (VT)

Peter Welch (VT)

We thank them. And we also acknowledge that this is the bare minimum. We need them to continue to expand this coalition and not relent in the fight for justice until we can force Netanyahu to relent in bombing civilians and honor the ceasefire. Because for the other 85 Senators who voted to fund war crimes and mass murder—do you realize that you are complicit? That you are failing the test of history, of morality, and of basic decency? Your vote for more war—especially in breach of the ceasefire you agreed to—betrays both the Palestinian people and the American people who entrusted you with the responsibility to uphold justice.

15 brave Senate Democrats courageously voted to block the sending of bombs to Israel Apartheid State PM Benjamin Netanyahu, including Warren, Durbin, Sanders, Markey, and Kaine.

[mariacallous]

Medicaid is on the chopping block. As Republicans on Capitol Hill try working through the details of their budget plan, the U.S. Congressional Budget Office has confirmed that achieving the level of spending cuts sought by the GOP will require steep cuts to the program. The House Committee on Energy and Commerce has been charged with making $880 billion in spending reductions from the programs over which it maintains jurisdiction. Certain large programs under the committee’s purview are deemed politically out-of-bounds—such as Medicare, which is federal health insurance for people age 65 and over (and for some people under 65 with certain disabilities and conditions).

Instead, it’s the 72 million Americans receiving Medicaid—a joint federal and state program that covers medical costs for people with limited resources—who are most likely to feel the bite.

Going after Medicaid will be dangerous, since the program has unexpectedly emerged as one of the most essential components of the country’s national health care system. According to the Congressional Budget Office, it constitutes $8.2 trillion of the $8.8 trillion of the committee’s 2023-2034 budget (excluding Medicare). Medicaid has provided health care for tens of millions of Americans deemed to be “medically indigent”—meaning that they are unable to pay for their services—as well as those who are physically disabled.

Unlike so many issues in our politics, Medicaid does not abide by the partisan color line. There are 72 million people receiving benefits. More than 40 percent of births take place with Medicaid dollars, which also pays for half of long-term nursing care. In certain respects, all Americans are Medicaid beneficiaries in 2025. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 40 percent of Americans want Medicaid funding to stay the same, 42 percent think that it should be raised, and only 17 percent believe that the numbers should go down.

Indeed, sizable numbers of voters who President Donald Trump attracted into his coalition—particularly working Americans who are struggling to survive in the modern economy—depend on Medicaid, which is the creation of former Democratic President Lyndon Johnson. Recent data from the New York Times showed that more than 40 percent of the population in a reliably Republican area of rural Kentucky depends on Medicaid. One-third of the constituency in Louisiana Republican Rep. Julia Letlow’s district received Medicaid.

As War Room podcast host Steve Bannon recently warned in an interview, “A lot of MAGA’s on Medicaid. If you don’t think so, you are dead wrong. You can’t just take a meat axe to it.”

When Congress created Medicaid through the Social Security Amendments of 1965, legislators likely never imagined that it would become a major program.

In fact, it was barely discussed. Most of the political debate centered on Medicare—hospital insurance coverage for elderly Americans that would be incorporated into the Social Security system. The federal government would administer Medicare, paid for through Social Security taxes, and coverage would be universal, so that anyone covered under Social Security received the benefit.

Medicaid actually originated with conservative legislators who were sympathetic to the American Medical Association’s attacks on Medicare as “socialized medicine,” and who for years had pushed a smaller, means-tested program that aimed to stave off demands for something bolder. For instance, in 1960, Oklahoma Sen. Robert Kerr and Arkansas Rep. Wilbur Mills, the chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee—both Democrats—had pushed a rather meager program called Medical Assistance for the Aged, modeled on public welfare, which involved a means test.

But when the political climate changed after the 1964 election, after Johnson enjoyed a landslide victory over Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater and Democrats obtained massive majorities in the House and Senate, Congress moved forward to pass an ambitious heath care plan that included Medicare A (hospital insurance for Americans 65 and over, paid for by Social Security taxes), Medicare B (physicians insurance for Americans 65 or over, paid for by general tax revenue and contributions from those who wished to receive benefits), and Medicaid (an extension of the Kerr-Mills Act).

Under Medicaid—the part of the legislation that received the least attention—federal and state funds would assist elderly Americans who could not pay for their medical expenses through their existing income. This was an expansion of the Kerr-Mills program that Congress enacted five years earlier. Mills, who had stood as the chief obstacle to Medicare until 1965, changed his tune once it was clear that larger and liberal Democratic majorities, along with the bulldozer of a President Johnson, were going to succeed with or without him. Mills seized the spotlight by putting together a package more grandiose that what Johnson had envisioned.

While Medicaid started as a footnote, though, the program quickly expanded. Under Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, New York quickly capitalized on this barely noticed measure. Using state authority to expand rather than contract policy (as Southerners had done with anything related to civil rights), the state’s Department of Social Services coordinated with local districts to liberalize eligibility to the program and expand the range of benefits.

As one aide to then-New York Sen. Jacob Javits explained to the New York Times, “Congress had absolutely no idea Title 19 [of the Social Security Amendments of 1965, Medicaid] could turn into a multi-billion-dollar program approaching national medical insurance.” Fiscally conservative members of Congress, such as Mills, were so frustrated by New York’s actions that they passed legislation in 1967 in an attempt to force the state to reduce benefits and curtail the number who were eligible. The federal crackdown, however, had limits.

Medicaid continued to grow. In 1972, Congress passed the Supplementary Security Income program (SSI) which combined a number of cash-assistance programs run by the states into a single program run by the federal government.

At the same time, Medicaid did continue to come under pressure as politics shifted rightward. In 1977, the House passed Republican Rep. Henry Hyde’s amendment restricting the use of Medicaid funds to finance abortion (other than in the cases of rape, incest, or danger to the mother’s life). President Ronald Reagan’s 1981 budget removed many working Americans from Medicaid and reduced the types of coverage that could be provided by the states. Within some conservative states, elected officials took advantage of federal guidelines to further shrink coverage. These were significant changes, though Congress rejected Reagan’s proposal effort to turn Medicaid into a block grant.

Yet in this era of retrenchment, other forms of liberalization continued. In 1982, Arizona finally embraced the program, thereby ending its role as the final state to hold out from participation. During the 1980s and 1990s, Medicaid expanded by incorporating new categories of citizens such as pregnant women and infants. Several states capitalized on federal waivers to introduce  home- and community-based services for beneficiaries.

As the political scientists Colleen Grogan and Eric Patashnik argued in a 2003 article for the Journal of Health, Politics, Policy and Law, policymakers won support for the expansions by focusing on parts of the population perceived to be “deserving” of help and by justifying the changes on the grounds that Medicaid was economically efficient.

The political strength of the program had become evident by 1995-1996, when it was one of the programs that then-President Bill Clinton defended when he attacked the Republican budget during a prolonged federal shutdown. Almost 36 million Americans benefited from Medicaid by 1996—compared to about 23.5 million in 1989.

In 1997, Clinton won support from a Republican-led Congress for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which offered health care services to children whose families earned too much to qualify for Medicaid. A few states included pregnant women under the same economic circumstances.

The final period of major expansion took place with the Affordable Care Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010. The ACA authorized states to expand eligibility upward to people who had incomes that reached 138 percent of the federal poverty level. While the original legislation mandated this change, the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that states had the option of doing so.

For some time, red states resisted the change—despite immense pressure from their electorates, health care institutions, and elected officials to take the offer. Over time, the resistance withered as the Affordable Care Act provided another boost to Medicaid; by the end of 2024, 41 states and the District of Columbia had undertaken the expansion. Medicaid enrollment boomed further during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Congress boosted funding and required states to maintain continuous enrollment until Congress deemed that the public health crisis ended, which ultimately occurred in 2023.

In 2025, Medicaid is a major health care program that affects millions of Americans and has become integral to health care, health care systems, and the budgets of state governments. So successful has this been that even many conservatives don’t consider this to be an example of “big government.”

Should Republicans really decide to take a deep bite into this program to pay for the extension of Trump’s tax cuts, then they risk losing the goodwill of many voters who believed in Trump’s promise of a new conservative populism.

[mikaila-orchard]

On Thursday, Cory Booker joined every Republican Senator by refusing to support joint resolutions of disapproval that tried to block $8.8 billion worth of offensive weapons being sent to Israel by the Trump admin (without Congressional approval). Now, >35,000 one-ton bombs from America (paid by our tax dollars) will be added to Israel’s arsenal. Booker cannot be an ally in the struggle against Trump when he supports Trump's genocide in Palestine. Palestinian blood is on his hands, too.

Understood

[follow-up-news]

House Republicans can’t meet their own budget target that is necessary to pass President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda without making significant cuts to Medicare or Medicaid, the official budget scorekeeper confirmed Wednesday. House Republicans adopted a budget blueprint last week that opens the door to pass Trump’s policy priorities on immigration, energy and taxes. It instructs the House Energy and Commerce Committee to cut spending under its jurisdiction by $880 billion. The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan in-house think tank that referees the process, said that when Medicare is set aside, the total funding under the committee’s jurisdiction is $8.8 trillion over 10 years. Medicaid accounts for $8.2 trillion of that, or 93%.

[tieflingkisser]

Only 15 Senators Back Sanders Bid to Block Arms to Israel as Gaza Deaths Top 50k

The resolutions failed by a larger margin than in similar votes in November, with several Democrats flipping to “no.”

On Thursday, the Senate rejected Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vermont) resolutions to block the sale of $8.8 billion in weapons to Israel by an even wider margin than in similar votes last year — despite Israel having since violated the Gaza ceasefire agreement. The Senate’s opposition to the resolutions comes as Israel has maintained a total humanitarian aid blockade on Gaza for over a month. Sanders forced votes on two resolutions on Thursday, the first to block the sale of 35,000 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, worth $2 billion, and the second on the sale of tens of thousands of other bombs and JDAMs, worth $6.75 billion. Both resolutions failed with overwhelming bipartisan opposition, by a vote of 15 in favor and 82 against for the first vote and 83 against for the second. Similar votes on Joint Resolutions of Disapproval brought by Sanders in November, to block $1 billion of tank rounds, mortar rounds, and JDAMs, failed but with smaller margins; several Democrats flipped their votes, despite the sales being pushed by the Trump administration this time around. Those who backed Sanders’s resolutions were: Senators Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Virginia), Andy Kim (D-New Jersey), Ben Ray Luján (D-New Mexico), Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts), Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon), Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Tina Smith (D-Minnesota), Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland), Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) and Peter Welch (D-Vermont). All Republicans voted against the resolutions. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) voted “present” on both resolutions.

[...]

“As bad as the last year and a half has been, at least Israel let some — some, not enough, but some aid through. But what is happening right now is unthinkable,” Sanders said. “Today, it is 31 days and counting with absolutely no humanitarian aid getting into Gaza. Nothing. No food, no water, no medicine, no fuel, for over a month. That is a clear violation of the Geneva Conventions, the Foreign Assistance Act, and basic human decency. It is a war crime. You don’t starve children.” “All of this is unconscionable. We are talking about a mass atrocity. And what makes it even worse … is that we, as Americans, are deeply complicit in all that is happening in Gaza,” he said, adding that all of the weapons the resolutions would block “have been linked to illegal airstrikes, including on designated humanitarian sites, resulting in thousands of civilian casualties.”

[enlightenedsloth]

A small catch for humanity

This is an engineering marvel; nothing has been seen like this before. A rocket propeller, roughly the size of a 20-storey building, falling at a speed of 8000 km/h, was caught between metal chopsticks (Mechazilla), after descending from earth’s orbit. The propeller weighs 3500 tons, justifying its name- Super Heavy. They have made the whole world root for rocket launches, which I don’t think ever happened after the 1969 Saturn V launch.

A plethora of mechanisms had to work in tandem to make this possible. GPS and various other sensors such as RADAR- used for measuring the height of the rocket by bouncing off radio waves from the ground, LIDAR- to make a 3D model of the surrounding area by throwing laser pulses, had a part to play in the precision. The rocket propeller is specifically designed to launch Starship, a spacecraft which will potentially take astronauts to the Moon and Mars, and over the years, SpaceX has invested billions into this world-bending transporter.

Why billions? Why world-bending? Why should we care?

All of this to make our species multi-planetary. Every human, every living being that ever breathed for even a second has done it only at one place-earth (at least that’s what we know as of now), a small, rocky, gaseous ball floating in the vast expanse of 8.8 x 10^23 kilometers (diameter of the observable universe), our home. But if everything goes right, consciousness will have a new place to prosper in and become more self-aware. The starship is at the heart of this plan, as it will be a fully reusable rocket, capable of being refueled in the orbit, significantly bringing down the cost of rocket launches and increasing the travel duration per trip. The starship is the biggest rocket ever built which is capable of carrying large payloads and hence, it is the perfect tool to build a colony on Mars. Once the colony is built, they also plan to make it self-sustaining by terraforming the planet by releasing greenhouse gases to alter the atmosphere that will be suitable to us. The greenhouse gases will make the planet warm which increase atmospheric pressure and melt the large frozen water reservoirs on Mars.

Building a colony on Mars seems to be out of Hollywood sci-fi, but we as a species have always had it in us. Human migration to Australia 65000 odd years ago was a significant step. They didn’t have compasses, maps, or safety measures, but somehow, they crossed large seas with primitive hand-made boats and settled there. Even the 1969 Apollo 11 mission is a perfect analogy as the technology, Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) had a memory of 64 KB and could perform just 85000 instructions per second compared to modern smartphones, which have millions of times more processing power.

Ah! I want to live to see a self-sustaining colony being built on Mars.

[theivorybilledwoodpecker]

On April 3, 2025, the U.S. Senate refused to block $8.8 billion in arms to Israel.

[starstruckbyacomet]

Inside Disney’s ‘Snow White’ Fiasco: Death Threats, Beefed-Up Security and a Social Media Guru for Rachel Zegler

By Tatiana Siegel

On Aug. 12, 2024, three days after Rachel Zegler hit the stage at Disney’s D23 fan event to introduce the first official trailer of “Snow White,” she thanked supporters effusively in an X post for driving the teaser to 120 million views in 24 hours. One minute later, she added an afterthought in the same thread: “and always remember, free palestine.”

Marc Platt. Photo Source: Joseph Viles/Fox.

Jonah Platt (left) and his now-deleted Instagram post, responding to a crificism about his father's action.

That addendum, which amassed 8.8 million views, nearly four times the number for the initial post, quickly made the rounds, with many inside the studio expressing shock that the “Snow White” star would commingle the promotion of its $270 million tentpole with any kind of political statement. A Disney executive raised the studio’s concerns with Zegler’s team, while the film’s producer Marc Platt flew to New York to speak directly with her. But the actress, whose relationship with the studio began to unravel in 2022 during a contentious “West Side Story” awards season campaign and continued as she trashed the beloved original “Snow White,” stood her ground, and the post remained. Behind the scenes, death threats toward Zegler’s co-star Gal Gadot, who is Israeli, spiked, and Disney had to pay for additional security for the mother of four. 

“She didn’t understand the repercussions of her actions as far as what that meant for the film, for Gal, for anyone,” says one insider.

Three months later, following the presidential election, Zegler posted “Fuck Donald Trump” and “May Trump supporters … never know peace” on Instagram. Disney had had enough, given that the star was signaling to half the potential audience of an already troubled film plagued by costly reshoots to stay home. Platt made the case again to Zegler. After a back and forth, she began working with a social media guru paid for by Disney to vet any posts before the film’s March 21 bow. Disney declined comment. Zegler did not respond to a request for comment.

Now that the film’s dismal opening weekend — $87 million worldwide — is in the rearview mirror, Burbank brass are evaluating what went wrong. To put “Snow White’s” global box office haul into perspective, it’s about $34 million less than Warner Bros.’ “Joker: Folie à Deux” in October but with a bigger budget by $70 million.

“You can’t say that a live-action remake of the most iconic film in the vault that cost [$270] million and has been reshot multiple times opening to $50 million is OK. The math does not work. That movie should be a billion-dollar movie,” said an executive at a rival studio when the film was tracking for a $45 million-$55 million domestic opening. (It ended up at below even the low-end figure, at $43 million.)

Sean Bailey. Photo source: Philip Cheung for The New York Times.

The Disney-Zegler standoffs underscore the challenge Hollywood studios face as they attempt to rein in stars who court controversy on social media. For her part, Gadot kept her comments on geopolitics limited to offering support for the civilian hostages taken during the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and did not mix that message with the promotion of the film. Zegler had already strained nerves at both the studio and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners when she complained on social media that she wasn’t invited to the 2022 Oscars as the star of best picture nominee “West Side Story,” a film distributed by Disney. Sources say she had just begun production on “Snow White” in London and Sean Bailey, then-president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production, declined to cut her loose for the telecast. After Zegler aired her grievances publicly, the Academy provided her with a ticket even though she wasn’t nominated. (Bailey was gone from the job by February 2024.)

Months later at D23, she criticized the original 1937 “Snow White,” noting that the prince “literally stalks” the heroine. One top agent says that was the moment that Disney allowed Zegler to control the narrative: “The first time she shoots her mouth off, you nip it in the bud.” Instead, the studio said nothing, and purists began to revolt. And as time went on, Disney became increasingly loath to weigh in on anyone’s speech considering that the studio was sued in 2024 by actress Gina Carano, who claims she was fired from “The Mandalorian” for voicing her opinions on hot-button issues.

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection.

“They say all press is good press, but in ‘Snow White’s’ case, they were unabashedly wrong,” says box office analyst Jeff Bock of Exhibitor Relations. “Too much negative controversy surrounded this film for years, and it didn’t help that the reviews were subpar, likely rendering this latest live-action adventure to D+ for many potential ticket buyers. A possible saving grace? A feeble marketplace where ‘Snow White’ could stay awhile — as many family films have — despite the lackluster debut.” 

Many additional factors contributed to the film’s woes, including a COVID-related production delay and a fire on set, while the actors strike scuttled some reshoots. Meanwhile, Disney’s live-action movies, which were once reliable box office draws, have looked shakier in recent years, with the likes of “Dumbo” and “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” bombing and “Peter Pan & Wendy” getting shipped to Disney+.

Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot presented the Oscar for Best Visual Effects together at the 2025 Academy Awards. Photo source: Frank Micelotta / Disney via Getty Images.

Still, there was no bad blood between the two “Snow White” leads despite press reports to the contrary. Sources say the actresses got along well during production, and things only got awkward during the run-up to release. Case in point: Zegler referred to Gadot as “a professional pageant queen” in one Instagram reply that followed their joint appearance as presenters at the Oscars this month, considered a dismissive way to describe a fellow actress.

Marc E. Platt, Marc Webb, Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot, Benj Pasek, Justin Paul and Jared LeBoff attend the world premiere of Disney’s “Snow White.” Photo source: Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images for Disney.

Some observers say Disney fueled the perception of a feud by scheduling the actresses for separate events during junketing. At the March 15 premiere, which eschewed traditional red-carpet interviews and opted for photos only, the two stars were mostly kept apart. Inside the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles, Zegler sat two rows ahead of Gadot and her family.

But by that point, Disney had given up hope that the film could overcome the backlash that had been brewing like a fairy tale cauldron for years.

[girlactionfigure]

ISRAEL REALTIME - "Connecting the World to Israel in Realtime"

Mid day - Nov. 27

🔸HOSTAGE ESCAPED, GAZA CIVILIANS TURNED HIM IN… The abductee who was released yesterday, Roni Kariboy, says that the building where he was being held in Gaza was bombed and collapsed, and he himself managed to escape and for 4 days tried to reach the Israeli border. In the end he was captured by "Gaza civilians” who handed him over to Hamas. (!!!)

🔸RELEASE CONFLICTS, AGAIN… Reuters: Israel and Hamas have raised claims and concerns about the lists of abductees and prisoners of those who are supposed to be released today.  Both sides present objections.  Families have not been informed, indicating the list remains in flux.

🔸HAMAS GAMES (7)… Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told the Qatari channel: "The discussion on extending the ceasefire depends on finding more hostages in Gaza.  (( They lost them? )). A diplomatic source told CNN that there are over 40 hostages who are not being held by Hamas ((that leaves about 150 to release — so what’s the problem? )).  In addition, there are some problems with the current pace of releasing the abductees. (( They prefer them to die first??? )))

🔸RELEASED HOSTAGE CONDITION WORSENS… Alma Avraham, add some tehillim (psalms) for her recovery.  “Soroka Hospital: her continues to worsen, her life is in danger.”

◾️PALLYWOOD 3.0… The Palestinians publish a video of a Gaza family that decided to continue living under the ruins of their home.  Except their clothes and implements (making coffee over a fire) are completely clean and dust free - fake, staged for the photographer.

◾️ISRAELI POLITICS… fighting between the elected coalition and the State Camp added for national unity over the adjusted war budget, which is up for approval today.  War cost: 26 billion shekels. 17 billion military costs,  8.8 billion civilian costs.

◾️ELON MUSK IN ISRAEL… visits Kfar Aza, sees the horror video.  Min. Of Communications says agreements “in principle” for use of Starlink satellite internet in Israel and Gaza.

◾️ISRAELI INTEREST RATES… likely to be lowered.

◾️ATTACK IN MITZPE YERICHO… A Jewish resident was attacked in the head with an iron bar by 3 Israeli Arabs garbage workers.  He was evacuated to Sha'are Zedek hospital, the attackers arrested.

[eretzyisrael]

by Stacy Gittleman

Tlaib repeatedly used the term genocide — a term originally coined to describe the murder of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust — when describing the tragic deaths of Gazan civilians. All casualty figures from the now eight-month war come from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health. Leading urban war experts, including West Point’s John Spencer, repeatedly stated that the precautions Israel has taken to prevent civilian harm during this war not only surpasses that of any military in history, including the United States, but also go above and beyond what is required by international law, according to reporting from Tablet magazine.

According to reports from the Israel Defense Forces, 12,000 Hamas terrorists have been killed and most of these are men.

Tlaib also repeatedly delivered a message that providing Israel with military aid takes away from funding social issues that are important to her progressive constituents. According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the federal government allocated about 1% of total spending to foreign aid. This is consistent with trends over the past 20 years.

According to the Congressional Research Service, the United States committed over $3.3 billion in foreign assistance to Israel in 2022, with $8.8 million allocated to the country’s economy and the rest toward the Israeli military.

All current military aid to Israel is part of the 10-year, $38 billion Memorandum of Understanding signed with the U.S. in 2016. The MOU supports updating the Israeli aircraft fleet and maintaining the country’s missile defense system. The agreement commits $500 million in missile defense funding and $3.3 billion in other military funding each year from 2019 to 2028.

In February, Congress passed an emergency package of military aid to Israel to the tune of $14 billion. To this, Tlaib decried the decision as “funding genocide.”

To the responses of “shame” from the audience, Tlaib said: “I watched my colleagues, one by one voting yes to send $14 billion to the apartheid regime. All I kept thinking is that the United States is the primary investor and funder of genocide. We are literally co-conspirators.”

Getting it wrong

Of local interest was Tlaib’s misleading claim that there is currently no lead-free drinking water for Detroit’s schoolchildren.

In 2018, lead and copper were detected in water from drinking fountains in many Detroit Public Schools Community District buildings. All drinking fountains were disabled and covered with garbage bags.

In 2019, according to Chalk-beat, over 500 water hydration stations were installed at every district school with built-in filters to purify the water from any lead or copper. The project was made possible by $3 million in donations from companies, foundations, organizations and individual donors. No taxpayer money was on the project.

Additional funding signed into law by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in February 2024 provided $50 million in state funding to install lead-reducing water stations at schools and childcare centers throughout the state.

All state public schools and childcare centers must test their drinking water every two years, according to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.