#traffic law 2025

[diagnozabam]

Dacă aplici folie pe numărul de înmatriculare, scapi de rovinietă sau riști amendă?

Unii șoferi încearcă diverse metode pentru a evita plata rovinietei, de la numere rabatabile până la vopsele speciale. Una dintre metodele vehiculate pe internet este aplicarea unei folii pe plăcuța de înmatriculare, astfel încât camerele de supraveghere să nu poată citi corect numărul. Dar este această practică eficientă sau te poate costa scump? Aplicarea foliei pe numărul de înmatriculare: O…

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #21

May 31-June 7 2024

As part of President Biden's goal to bring the number of traffic deaths to zero, the Department of Transportation has sent $480 million in safety grants to all 50 states, DC, and all the US territories. The grants will focus on trucks, buses and other large vehicles. Thanks to DoT safety actions deaths involving heavy vehicles dropped by 8% from 2022 to 2023 and the department wants to keep pushing till the number is 0.

The Departments of Interior and Agriculture announced $2.8 billion plan to protect public land and support local government Conservation Efforts. $1.9 billion will be used to repair and restore national parks and public land, restoring historic sites, as well as Bureau of Indian Education-funded schools. $900 million will go to conservation funding, allowing the government to buy land to protect it. Half the funds will go to the federal government half to state and local governments and for the first time ever a tribal Conservation Land Acquisition program has been set up to allow tribal governments to buy land to protect nature.

The Department of Transportation announced that it had managed to get customers nearly $1 Billion dollars worth of flight reimbursements. The DoT reached an agreement with 3 airlines, Lufthansa, KLM, and South African Airways to pay between them $900 million to passengers effected by Covid related cancellations and delays. This adds to the $4 billion dollars of refunds and reimbursements to airline passengers under the Biden Administration.

The Department of Interior announced $725 million to clean up legacy coal pollution. This is the 3rd pay out from the $11.3 billion dollars President Biden signed into law in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to clean up coal pollution and invest in communities that used to rely on the coal industry. The money will be spent across 22 states and the Navajo Nation. Closing dangerous mine shafts, reclaim unstable slopes, improve water quality by treating acid mine drainage, and restore water supplies damaged by mining.

HUD launches the first of its kind investment program in manufactured homes. Manufactured homes represent a major market for affordable housing and the Biden Administration is the first to offer support to people trying to buy. HUD hopes the program will help 5,000 families and individuals buy their own home over the next 5 years.

The Department of the Interior announced $700 million for long-term water conservation projects across the Lower Colorado River Basin. The Colorado River Basin provides water for more than 40 million people, electric power to 7 US States and is a critical crucial resource for 30 Tribal nations and two Mexican states. The project hopes to save more than 700,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Mead. In the face of climate change causing a historic 23-year drought, there is record low water levels at Lake Powell and Lake Mead. The Biden Administration has moved aggressively to try to protect the Colorado River and make sure there's enough water in the West.

HUD makes $123 million for fighting Youth Homelessness available. This represents the 8th round of investment in Youth Homelessness since 2021 for a total of $440 million so far. The Biden Administration is focusing on innovative answers, like host homes, and kinship care models, with emphasis on creating equitable strategies to assist youth who are most vulnerable, including BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and youth with disabilities. This is part of the Biden Administration goal of cutting homelessness by 25% by the end of 2025

The Department of Agriculture announced a series of actions to strength Tribal food sovereignty. The USDA will grant tribes in Maine, Alaska, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oregon and Washington $42 million through the Indigenous Animals Harvesting and Meat Processing Grants to support native animal harvesting. $18 million for projects under the Tribal Forest Protection Act. As well as $2.3 million to support the service of Indigenous foods in school meal programs. The USDA also plans its first ever class of interns specifically focused on Tribal agriculture and food sovereignty. The USDA also plans to host a first ever international trade mission focused on Tribal Nation and Native Hawaiian Community businesses.

Bonus: President Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, and Secretaries of Defense Lloyd Austin and State Antony Blinken traveled to Normandy France to mark the 80th Anniversary of D-Day. They were joined by a handful of surviving veterans of the landings many over 100 years old.

[mleprae]

The year is 2025, a cliche zombie virus break out, but it's not like TV; it's slow and boring and nothing really comes out of it, in a few years most of humanity has adapted to the zombies.

Traffic is slowed down because a zombie has found its way on the highway and nobody wants to get bitten, they can't shoot it because the zombie has an ID vest, meaning that it has living family who couldn't afford to pay for the humane execution (because funeral homes won't do it themselves) so the body could be buried. The cheapest solution (that many took due to finantial reasons) was to just pay for an ID vest and let the body roam, because killing zombies is incredibly disrespectful and anti-ethical to the living members of the family.

Police arrives and remove the zombie, you resume your morning routine and hear on the radio that the goverment is actually considering passing a law that would allow hunters to kill unindetified zombies or those who have outlived their families (mostly the homeless) after a Tiktok challenge where teens tried to steal jewelry of the wandering zombies (dubbed 'smacking') went incredibly wrong. Years ago there would be an outroar as people saw killing zombies as anti-ethical but people are incredibly fed up with the zombies getting in the way of their work.

The law passes but hunters quickly break the law by also killing the ID zombies but since those belonged to poor families, they can't afford a lawyer, the only ones who could afford to presecute the hunters were followers of some weird instagram celebrity gury cult who believed the state of zombification is a natural part of the body, where the body would wander until it found it's last resting place before it finally passed away. The body without a soul meant it also could not sin, therefore, the longer a zombie wanders the world the longer it suffers to attone for it's sin and has its conscience cleared by the power of the Moon and stars.

On the other hand, tech bros and megacorps dump billion of dollars after a viral video of an employee died on site and reanimated into a zombie but kept working for aproximately 3 minutes before starting to bite people, into scientific research that zombies could be used as cheap labor. Scientists discover that zombies who did the same repetitive tasks for years may continue those tasks even in their state of zombification, the megacorps soon start a program in which "Associatives can become a permanent member of the family!" where people were contractually obligated to work ungodly hours to hijack their systems so they would become literaly dead slaves of the system. This practice was named 'necromancy'.

Any scientist that goes public after making progress for a zombie cure either disappears or commits "suicide" right after

[theliliesofthevalleies]

I saw this comedy set on TikTok and thought this was perfect for Tim

Tim hasn’t slept in days working on a drug case rambling about stupid bags.

Bruce walking by: what’s going on?

Dick eating popcorn with Dami: this case is about to make Timmy crack.

Tim slamming his coffee mug down: humans don’t know anything about irony!

Bruce: oh. I’m sorry chum anything I can to help?

Tim: February 2020 two men were pulled over by GCPD for speeding on the interstate. Upon inspection of the car officers found a quote “tan bag” with the words quote “bag full of drugs” printed on the outside.

Bruce: right

Tim: now having been trained in the art of law enforcement the officer made an educated assessment that perhaps. This tan bag may not be trying to be ironic and instead actually had drugs in it.

Dick: I can see the logic.

Tim: upon inspection of the bag the officer found that his theory was correct because inside the bag was 70 grams of meth, 1.36 kilograms of GHB, a gram of cocaine, 15 MDMA tablets, 3.6 grams of fentanyl. Thereby rendering the outside of the bag n understatement because that bag was full of EVERY drug!

Dami: wow.. talk about the understatement of the year.

Tim: when asked if it was common to come across a bag labeled “bag full of drugs” he was quoted as saying “yeah I’d say that’s rare.”

Dick: so clearly not a public speaker..

Tim: Tuesday July 20th 2024. GCPD pullover a woman just inside of Gotham. And upon inspection of her vehicle found a quote “tan bag” with the words quote “bag of drugs” printed on the outside in her purse. Upon removal of said “bag of drugs” the officer found that it was as advertised unironically containing 3.25 grams of cocaine, 1.75 grams of crack, 1 gram of meth, 1.5 pills of hydromorphone, 2 amphetamines, and 4.5 alprazolams! Again the lettering on the bag a distortion regardless of how technically accurate it is because this bag HAD ALL THE FUCKING DRUGS IN IT!

Bruce: language chum.

Tim: Tuesday October 8th 2024! Blüdhaven police located a stolen car. Inside the found a fully loaded firearm, cash, and a quote “tan bag” labeled quote “definitely not a bag full of drugs” law enforcement no doubt taking pointers from GCPD checked the contents of the bag quote “definitely not a bag full of drugs” and found that it was in fact full of drugs! 79 tabs of fentanyl! 230 grams of meth and 3 fake pills of oxycodone! Which if it was just that would have rendered the front an accurate description and thus a level of situational irony that would have been achieved that would have made Oscar Wilde blast his pants!

Jason being summoned at the mention of Oscar Wilde: what would make Oscar Wilde blast his pants?

Dick: shh he’s not done.

Tim: back in Gotham. January 19th 2025!

Dami: oh. Recent.

Tim: a woman was arrested at a traffic stop. The K-9 unit took an interest in a bunch of bags in the back of the car. When asked if they could search the car the woman said “yeah. There shouldn’t be anything illegal in there.”

Jason: oh. Not smart..

Tim: when the GCPD searched the car they found a quote “tan tote bag” with the words quote “definitely not a bag full of drugs” printed on the front. And upon inspection of the bag, despite her earlier assurance and the bags, law enforcement discovered that there was in fact FUCKING DRUGS IN THE BAG!

Bruce: language!

Tim: meth and Narcan if you’re keeping score! Enough to get the women re-arrested for felony possession with an intent to manufacture and deliver! And I say re-arrested because she had been arrested for the same charges 10! DAYS! EARLIER!

Dami: oh.

Tim pinching the bridge of his nose: which means a woman charged with having drugs was out on bond got caught with drugs again. In a bag that was labeled “definitely not a bag of drugs” which by the way is available online for purchase at lookhuman.com for $18.99 which is a deal considering how much money it’s gonna cost if ya get arrested with a bag full of drugs!

Jason: oh it’s a lot.

Tim: now! Humans. Here’s the news. Irony is not dead it’s everywhere the problem is it seems that no one knows exactly what it is. Is it ironic to have a bag full of drugs labeled “full of drugs”? Is it ironic to have a bag with “definitely not full of drugs” printed on the front and then fill it comically chuffed with a Costco amount of fucking drugs?

Bruce giving up: language…

Tim with eyes twitching: humans I ask you! Is it ironic do you think to have 3 of those stories start with in Gotham and end with “bag full of drugs”?! Because you saw it coming from the beginning?! Or is it the Blüdhaven story that’s ironic because you heard a bag in Blüdhaven labeled “definitely not full of drugs” and figured it wouldn’t be?! It’d be some bottled microbrews and high end cheeses and to find out that bag you thought was full of Blüdhaven artisanal turned out to be fucking jackpot crack and fools-oxy?!

Bruce: okay. I think it’s time for bed.

Tim literally losing his mind: is it ironic that I’m coming in hot when I said I wouldn’t because every day has been a fire hose of historical events coming out of all ends of the media and I didn’t want to give you a panic attack and now I’m having a panic attack because I’m so goddamned on edge all the time because January 2025 came in tweaking in a flaming geo metro wearing a bag labeled “definitely not full of drugs” printed on the front!

Everyone trying to get Tim to calm down while he continues ranting loudly.

Dick: we should really watch him closer..

Tim: and is that news?! Is that irony?! And what should I be panicking about?!

Dami: agreed. Drake needs more sleep.

Bruce pinching the bridge of his nose: who keeps giving him coffee?

More loud ranting can be heard in the background.

[ralfmaximus]

The number of pedestrian deaths in the United States is skyrocketing. In 2022 traffic crashes killed 7,805 people on foot—that’s an 83 percent rise from 2009, and a 40-year high. The vast majority of those deaths involved a car colliding into a human. In September, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration took a significant step toward addressing the crisis of killer cars, proposing a new federal rule that would require—not ask—carmakers to ensure that the front ends of their vehicles do not create excessive risk of pedestrian head injuries. Should the proposal become law, hulking SUVs and pickups would face particular challenges passing NHTSA’s mandatory tests. Some cars would have to get a little bit smaller.

It is a proposed rule, which means that if Trump gets elected they'll shitcan the whole thing and go back to planning next year's even bigger 2025 Canyonero.

[aragonlediagon]

Shingyoku lore post [LONG POST]

I made this as a little introduction to my Shingies's personalities headcanons. This is a post for those who wished to know about it because I cant recall making a proper post for that. Orochi and Toru are personal names I give to "the human-like forms" of the Touhou HRtP boss Shingyoku. Fair warning were very much entering OC territory here.

Or rather, this is a resumed introduction. I wont go into details too much here, as Id prefer to share it in a different format. For 2025, Ill introduce it through a series of posts starting from the very beginning of this story, each part with a drawing to go with it, because I think it will be better rather than one post with a massive wall of text.

My direction for Shingyoku is to do a mix of the "2 distinct entities" and "same person/shapeshifter" routes. Usually headcanons pick one of the two takes. I came up with a story which is very headcanon heavy and can be read by people who know nothing about Touhou as it barely refers to its codes or established figures.

(Its important I first state that they lived during edo Japan (early to mid 1800) and not Gensokyo.)

Orochi is from an upper class family. Her family were merchants from west Europe who found success and settled down in Japan before strict laws established regarding oversea traffic. Being the 2nd child, the focus of attention was pushed onto her older brother who would later lead the family. Orochi spent her early childhood raised by her retired great grandfather who gave her a taste for adventures telling of his past oversea travels. He would however pass away of old age, and Orochi would get entrusted to a shrine her family has a long, great partnership with, the "Shrine of Borders", which is the central location of this story, the shrine getting this name due to its location next to mountains speculated as housing entrances to underworlds. Her family often sending funds to the shrine, as their connection had started decades ago at the contruction of large gates said to prevent intervention of the supernatural from said underworlds.

Toru's backstory is long and complicated, as he's a part of the shinto god of the moon Tsukuyomi who landed on Earth, and the unfolding of events which led to this happening needs a post of its own since it dives a lot into shinto mythology. But basically, he landed on the grounds of an isolated fraudulent shrine led by fanatics, and ended up running away with a miko who had already questionned their doings. But later on, due to how harsh life would be at this time for a single adult and a child in the countryside, she wouldnt be able to provide him care and entrusted him to a shrine, which coincidentally, was the Shrine of Borders.

Both of them arrived at the shrine at about the same time (they were 8 years old). Toru was adopted by the shrine's head priest, Orochi was raised in a nearby village by retired mikos, but they got their traditional training at the shrine together. They quickly became very close friends (even if they fought a lot at first).

They underwent their initiation rite in their early teen age. They would communicate for the first time with a deity, "Shingyoku", who claimed to have been in a deep slumber for a very long time, the arrival of the pair wakening it. Shingyoku had no body of its own, but the pair would allow it to join the physical world of the living once they'd each reached enlightement. Orochi and Toru would report it to the head priest, who wasnt familiar with the name "Shingyoku", the Shrine of Borders having a long history of struggles communicating with the local god. In this story, Shingyoku makes it clear that its the deity of the shrine's pond and not the borders gates despite what HRtP make you theorize due to the boss's location; in this take the gates are purely human made. Because Shingyoku had no body of its own, it would try to possess people to use their bodies as a vessel, but because it had only weak powers, it could only possess for a short amount of time like possessing Orochi or Toru to communicate with them, or small animals, its favorite being the pair's pet koi fish from the shrine's pond.

For a couple years, the story focuses on Orochi's and Toru's daily life and duties at the shrine, but is relatively mundane, as I said is detached from Touhou codes and doesnt take place in Gensokyo, so it rather refers to history at that time with a small hint of fantasy with occasional intervention of the supernatural, youkais's appearance following more how they were depicted in art of the time. People also dont have magical abilities, there are no such things as bullet battle and spell cards. Orochi is skilled at some martial art due to a personal intensive physical training; Toru acquire healing abilities only due to his godly nature. They would share tasks and complete each others with what theyre best at.

Once in their early twenties, Orochi was summoned back to her family's home to lead as her older brother perished in battle (indicative to more events happening at the time approaching end edo). She would take Toru as her spouse, but as they would grow so much stress from the marriage's and leading's expectation coupled with the shut in life, they would end up running away without a word 4 years later.

They would escape and live isolated in the mountains close to the Shrine of Borders so they could be remotely close from Shingyoku, where they would dedicate their lives serving their god.

A decade later, they would reach enlightement, but passed away as their mortal bodies couldnt handle it (and the harsh living conditions).

Shingyoku, still using the koi fish's body as a vessel, swam up the mountains to reach the pair whose spirits parted from their bodies and fused into one. Shingyoku absorbed the fused spirit, acquiring the pair's powers, allowing it to transform into a dragon before setting the pair's body on fire (to spare them a trip to the Yomi, the "shinto hell", which has a capital importance later in my whole story but isnt part of Orochi's and Toru's story).

*I use "fusion" as an umbrella term, but as explained here, its not a straight up fusion of the 2 people's body fusing into one. Here the deity and the 2 shrine officiants are distinct people, the officiants serving the deity, and the deity later absorbing the officiants's spirits to acquire their powers after reaching enlightement. Shingyoku the deity shares no DNA with Orochi and Toru, the body of the koi fish, which then transforms into a dragon, ended up being its official DNA. The separation is capital for the following part of the story which focuses on Shingyoku's life after joining the physical world of the living. But this will be for an other post, as the focus here was on the miko and the priest.

[sarahlizziewrites]

OC Kiss Week 2025 - Day 1 - “Desperate”

In which Wills has to restrain himself. (398 words) WIP: Til Death Do Us Part Characters: Williamson Jones, Navraj Choudhury  taglist: @vacantgodling, @imsoveryveryconfusedatlife @mrbexwrites, @glbettwrites, @writingrosesonneptune (+/-)

I wanted to kiss you when it began to rain, and you held up the umbrella for us both; just right for me, and a fraction too low for you. It would have been so easy just to lean in and meet you, and dip in for a kiss - instead, I had to settle for a friendly, distanced, ‘Cheers ever so’. And when you got doughnut sugar on your fingers and licked it off, I badly wanted to grab a hold of your face and taste your tongue, right there in public, chasing the sweetness.

When you cocked your hat and winked one eye shut at the shooting gallery, I wanted to take the BB gun from your hands and pin you against the fairground stand, just to kiss you silly in front of all the other fairgoers.

I didn’t, of course. But once - just once - I wanted to ignore the laws and the society that forced us to hide in any place that wasn’t our home. I wanted to show the world the love that threatened to choke me at times; wanted to pull your hand from the armour of its glove and hold it to mine, palm to palm. 

I waited, instead. Waited until the door had closed behind us, key in a deadbolt, traffic and rain dimming outside. Waited until we were alone, and the world didn’t see us as two men - one English, one dark-skinned and foreign - and we were allowed to be only what we were to each other.

I pressed close when I kissed you in the hallway, stray raindrops dripping from my nose. Your lips were cold, but the inside of your mouth was warm, and there was still a hint of that doughnut-sugar sweetness - though that may have been my imagination. Once you realised what was going on, one of your arms slid beneath my coat, battling for yet more closeness, and a hum of satisfaction formed in your chest.

“What’s this all about?” you asked when our lips parted, your words quiet and damp across my mouth as the rain began to evaporate from our clothes. You smiled, and I stroked a thumb across your brow before a stray raindrop slid into your eye.

“Oh, nothing,” I replied, breezy but breathless, drugged on the warmth of your body pressed close. “I’ve just been desperate to kiss you all day.”

[souptastical]

putting both important posts for pinned in one for ease & bc i don't wanna torture you guys with copied long ass messages anymore in reply to my folder lmao. Literally all i ask in return for access to this collection is that you read this all, as its important to not only me, but the peer-to-peer (p2p) community as a whole💖

|𝐁𝐄𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐂𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐊 𝐅𝐎𝐋𝐃𝐄𝐑|

》 From the evening of Feb 19th (pst) and on, the Cursed Child Repository will be password protected. This feels like the only way I can protect this collection from being entirely public- there's more of an explanation in the third point. I previously said the password and link would stay the same for 4 hours, but that will be hell with how many messages I'm getting so the link/password will now stay active for 1 day. Only PM me for the password when you're able to download- but am totally still down for you to PM me anytime about inquiries regarding which performances are in the folder. And pls babes stop with the apologies omg, I'm doing this because I want to share the joy- its not a bother in any form💞

》 I NEED you to read the "README.txt" in the repository before downloading- skip the file descriptions if you like, my main concern is people understanding the disclaimers about the 2025 Revised Script transcription and Italian translation of that script, both done by fans- I want to make sure that if you download those, you understand the transcriptionist + transcribers wishes as it is tedious and tiring work to do what they did, speaking as a fellow transcriber. I also need you to read the short, general disclaimer at the top of the page.

》 Keep in mind that the entire collection is 90 GB. Each folder is roughly 20 GB and each file is roughly 5-20 GB (spare for the two low quality versions). This is an important note if you are downloading on low bandwith. By low, I mean 50 mbps or less. Use Ookla Speed Test app if you are uncertain what yours is (android + ios).

》 I'm only sharing 10% of the transfer quota to you guys. I wish I could share more, but I only get so much per month. The transfer does cap usually under 10 GB, but that all depends on server traffic/ other, so i can't really tell you what your quota would be within a 24 hr period-I've downloaded as high as 30 GB before via free version. If you can't download via mega, I can upload the file you want with drive (though only if it's under 14 GB) and share it with you that way. Note I can only do this on a couple accounts, so the speed of your link depends on how many requests I get in this regard.

》 I kindly ask that you not share these downloads in public folders/links, and strongly command that you not sell them. I would like to lessen the possibility of law violation as much as possible. This is not meant for profit, and I strongly am against them being sold due to the fact it takes financial revenue away from rights holders like JKR, Warner Bros and Broadway Licensing. I'm not part of the amazing communties I obtained these from, but out of respect for their longevity and surface level presence on the net, I am trying to make sure this collection stays within the not for profit, solely peer-to-peer range.

》Please don't make your own repository from my collected files unless you are 100% willing to relay and abide by the same disclaimers, uphold and visibly advocate for the law and morals about not selling the performances and educate yourself on the history and present of the p2p community.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

An upwelling of outrage spreads across America

January 29, 2025

Robert B. Hubbell

Trump plunged America into chaos on Tuesday as the implications of his unconstitutional “freeze” on federal grants and loans began to sink in. In a gigantic miscalculation, Trump risked driving the US economy into a tailspin that would take years to overcome.

Or not.

Trump has the opportunity to blink (voluntarily or involuntarily)—but that window is closing rapidly. There are three offramps to this crisis caused by his illegal “freeze” on all federal grants and loans:

Public outrage will force Trump to retreat. A massive upwelling of public outrage is spreading across America. It may take a day or two for MAGA members of Congress to absorb the outrage from their constituents who suddenly realize Trump's thoughtless action has threatened their constituent’s economic security. Millions of Americans have been plunged into uncertainty over government benefits, loans, grants, and payments. They are letting their representatives know how they feel. See Politico, Trump's spending freeze spreads chaos across US. Indivisible has called on congressional Democrats to oppose all nominees until Trump repeals the unconstitutional freeze, saying, “Shut down the Senate.”

The markets may tell Trump to retreat. In a day or two, the money managers on Wall Street will realize that freezing government benefits to seniors, students, veterans, families, government contractors, and people in general will cause a sudden, massive contraction in consumer spending. A shrinking economy will instill fear in the most bullish fund managers. If the markets drop over worries of recession, Trump will hear from the only constituency he fears: Megadonors upset over losses in their portfolios.

Private litigants should be able to obtain an injunction. It is also possible that a judge will pick up a copy of the Constitution and read it. If they do so, they will grant a permanent injunction against Trump's unconstitutional order. On Tuesday, a federal judge granted an “administrative stay,” but that stay was ambiguous and limited. The stay was designed to allow the parties to submit briefing for a hearing next Monday. Moreover, the stay appeared to allow some portions of the “freeze” to remain in effect. See CNN, Judge temporarily blocks part of Trump administration’s plans to freeze federal aid.

Trump attempted to quiet the growing sense of panic by claiming that the freeze would not affect individuals receiving “direct assistance” from the federal government. That assurance is illusory because most federal grants and loans are not paid directly to individuals but rather, are paid through states, federal agencies, and third-party programs that manage federal grants and loans—e.g., Head Start, scientific research grants, federal infrastructure projects, educational subsidies to state schools, programs to support and house veterans.

And despite the assurances from the White House that “direct assistance” to individuals would not be affected, the facts proved otherwise. The Medicaid portal was closed to states (who administer Medicaid funds) for much of the day. See Quartz, Trump Medicaid freeze locks 72 million Americans out of their health insurance. The administration claimed that the shutdown of the Medicaid portal was a “fluke” unrelated to the freeze—a lie so transparent it hurts to repeat it.

Here is the (semi) good news: The Trump administration has already begun to walk-back the reach of the ill-considered freeze, claiming that the following grants and loans are not affected by the freeze: Medicaid, student loans, small business loans, and SNAP food assistance. It is likely that as the media and constituents identify more crucial programs—like food inspection, air traffic control improvements, law enforcement subsidies, veterans’ programs--the administration will make case-by-case exceptions that will swallow the rule.

Although millions of Americans may suffer economic hardship and extreme anxiety in the short term, the financial crisis of withholding hundreds of billions of dollars with no notice may be averted. But the constitutional crisis remains front and center. We cannot allow the constitutional questions to be lost in the understandable focus on the financial implications of Trump's order.

Trump's order is unconstitutional—and it is important that we not lose sight of that fact

Many in the media are downplaying the illegality and unconstitutionality of Trump's “freeze” order. Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC described the illegal order as “controversial.” The New York Times covered the freeze order as a political kerfuffle: “Trump’s ‘Flood the Zone’ Strategy Leaves Opponents Gasping in Outrage.” The NYTimes Editorial Board had nothing to say about Trump's blatant effort to rewrite the Constitution by demoting Congress to an advisory body subject to being overridden on presidential whim.

Congressional Republicans defended the order’s legality. The few Republicans who criticized the order did so only on the ground that it “went too far” in affecting their constituents. Susan Collins said,

I think the administration needs to be more selective and look at it one department at a time, for example. But make sure important direct service programs are not affected.

Here’s the problem with Susan Collins’s analysis: The order is unconstitutional not because it is overbroad but because the president has no authority to freeze funds appropriated by Congress. Period. See ABC News, Trump funding freeze a blatant violation of Constitution, federal law: Legal experts.

As I wrote yesterday, we need to set aside euphemisms and niceties in raising the alarm. Rebecca Solnit (of The Guardian) rose to the challenge with a post on BlueSky:

[T]hat was a coup last night in case no one mentioned that to you. The executive branch seized the power of the purse the Constitution gave to Congress, which is a pretty authoritarian / illegal consolidation of powers move. Time to go yell at your reps, the media, etc.

Senator Angus King of Maine said,

This is a profound constitutional issue. What happened last night is the most direct assault on the authority of Congress, I believe, in the history of the United States.

See Charles P. Pierce, Esquire, Trump’s Federal Grant Freeze Looks Like an Assault on the Authority of Congress.

The grassroots organization Indivisible likewise pulled no punches with a special alert to its members, headlined: Trump’s Dictatorial Power Grab: Chaos, Cruelty, and Constitutional Collapse.

Indivisible wrote:

Congress Controls Federal Spending. The Constitution explicitly gives Congress—not the president—the power to allocate and control federal funds. By freezing funds Congress appropriated, Trump is undermining a foundational principle of democracy. The Impoundment Control Act (ICA). Enacted after Nixon’s abuses, the ICA explicitly prohibits the president from withholding funds appropriated by Congress without following a strict process. Trump has not followed this process, and in many cases, the ICA outright bars the impoundment of these funds.

Indivisible suggests a “no holds barred” response (with which I wholeheartedly agree):

Refuse to Negotiate. Trump is using federal programs as hostages in a power grab. Democrats must refuse to engage in any funding or debt ceiling negotiations while this freeze remains in place. No compromises with dictatorship. Sound the Alarm. Every senator must become a megaphone for what’s at stake. Go on TV, hold town halls, and flood social media with the stories of families who will lose food, homes, and healthcare because of Trump’s chaos. Back Legal Challenges. Support every lawsuit challenging this freeze. File amicus briefs, amplify cases, and make it clear this isn’t just morally wrong—it’s illegal.

All good suggestions. And the point about backing legal challenges may be the best way to fight this power grab. US District Judge Loren L. AliKhan issued a short-term administrative stay to allow further briefing on an application for an injunction. See CNN, Judge temporarily blocks part of Trump administration’s plans to freeze federal aid.

The lawsuit before Judge AliKhan makes an important point: The memo was issued by the Acting Director of the OMB. Per the lawsuit, the OMB has no authority to direct agencies to freeze funds appropriated by Congress. Per the plaintiffs in the lawsuit:

The [OMB] Memo fails to explain the source of (the Office of Management and Budget’s) purported legal authority to gut every program in the federal government.

Good point. While the OMB is integral to the preparation and monitoring of congressional appropriations, OMB has no authority to override a congressional appropriation. See, generally, Congressional Research Service, Office of Management and Budget (OMB): An Overview.

Here are the takeaways:

First, the freeze threatens the separation of powers specified in the Constitution. We must not allow that point to be lost in the chaos and pain that the illegal order will cause.

Second, the upwelling of public outrage spreading across America is already having an impact! This is the path forward! We must do more of it consistently over the long term. We are off to a good start!

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[deviiancetv]

TikTok Has FINALLY Closed Up Shop 🎉🙌🏽

Well, it’s official. TikTok has been banned here in the United States, the land of the “free” and home of future tyrants. I’ve never been the fondest of TikTok in terms of how it’s treated black content creators, the entertainment industry being completely altered by its presence, and the microwavable content we’ve seen over these past 6 years.

I mean, with my last few blog posts being TikTok related, you know this app was NEVER my cup of tea… it barely gave matcha.

TikTok is not my nooch

Is TikTok getting banned?

Mine and Everyone’s Problem with TikTok

The Problem with Social Media (Podcast Video)

I’ll admit, I did TRY redownloading the app last year to commence my *✴︎𝒜𝑉𝒜𝒩𝒯𝐼𝒵𝐸𝒩✴︎* agenda, but that did not work… I gave up after not getting the high volumes of traffic, and to be honest, I got bored of making short-form content that I could care less about to begin with. I’m ready for a YouTube competitor to hop into the ring. Let’s bring long-form content back to its roots with an innovative platform, less strict copyright/DMCA laws, and reachable audience access via an algorithm replicating TikToks reach.

However, there’s a part of my brain that is conspiracizing that once Trump gets into office, he’s going to get an executive order to keep TikTok, but only sell it to an American owner (most likely someone in his family, Elon, Zuckerberg or a wealthy billionaire). TikTok has too much of a monopoly on content creation at this current time *sadly* and America only cares so much about making the data safety concerns an issue because they’re not making money off of profits from the app. They don’t care about Gen-Z Zoomer conspiracy theories and celebrity gossip, they just want a piece of the profit and TikTok doesn’t make any money over here, yet.

While it’ll be a huge shift for TikTok to no longer exist in our country, I think it’s all for the better to get REAL creativity back into the mainstream media, as well as regain people’s attention spans. 2025 numerologically is a year 9, this year is all about transformation, big shifts, rebirth and change to prepare for the restart to come next year. TikTok getting banned was all a part of the change too…

I’ve heard there are other apps people are looking to join, but let’s be real, y’all never give any of these new apps a chance for no longer than a week to a month. RedNote will be a flop soon, Lemon8 is likely next to be banned, that Neptune beta app probably will be forgotten as soon as it hits the app store, and whatever else people are talking about joining won’t matter. You can’t make fetch happen sadly, that’s always the case whenever a new app goes viral but loses momentum shortly after its release.

[mariacallous]

The US Federal Communications Commission voted on Thursday to lower price caps on prison phone calls and closed a loophole that allowed prison telecoms to charge high rates for intrastate calls. The vote will cut the price of interstate calls in half and set price caps on intrastate calls for the first time.

The FCC said it “voted to end exorbitant phone and video call rates that have burdened incarcerated people and their families for decades. Under the new rules, the cost of a 15-minute phone call will drop to 90 cents from as much as $11.35 in large jails and, in small jails, to $1.35 from $12.10.”

The new rules are expected to take effect in January 2025 for all prisons and for jails with at least 1,000 incarcerated people. The rate caps would take effect in smaller jails in April 2025.

Worth Rises, a nonprofit group advocating for prison reform, estimates that the new rules “will impact 83 percent of incarcerated people (about 1.4 million) and save impacted families at least $500 million annually."

New Power Over Intrastate Calls

The FCC has taken numerous votes to lower prison phone rates over the years, but Thursday's is particularly significant. While the FCC was previously able to cap prices of interstate calls, an attempt to set prices for intrastate calls was struck down in court in 2017.

Prison phone companies could sue again. But the FCC said it now has authority over intrastate prison phone prices because of the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act, which was approved by Congress and signed by President Biden in January 2023. The new law "empowered the FCC to close the final loopholes in the communications system," the commission said.

The 2023 law—named for a grandmother who campaigned for lower prison phone rates—“removes the principal statutory limitations that had prevented the commission from setting comprehensive just and reasonable rates," the FCC said. Specifically, the law removed "limits to the commission's ability to regulate rates for intrastate calls and video communications."

More than half of prison audio call traffic is intrastate, with the calling and called parties both in the same state, according to data in a draft of the FCC order released before the meeting.

The FCC's work to reduce prison phone rates "was not always embraced by the courts," FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel said. "We were told—over and over again—that the commission did not have the authority to address every aspect of these rates, because while interstate calls fell within our jurisdiction, intrastate calls did not."

Previously, the FCC imposed price caps on interstate calls ranging from 14 to 21 cents per minute for audio calls, depending on the size of the facility. Going forward, a uniform set of price caps ranging from 6 to 12 cents per minute will apply to both interstate and intrastate calls.

Ban on Other Fees

The FCC also adopted video call rate caps for the first time. The video call caps range from 11 to 25 cents per minute. These caps are classified as "interim" and could be lowered in the future.

Other fees will be prohibited, too. “Using this new law, we fix what has been wrong for too long," Rosenworcel said. “We reduce calling rates by more than half. We stop tacked-on costs like ancillary fees and prohibit special fees for site commissions. We make clear these policies apply to both interstate and intrastate rates. We also set rates for video calls for the first time. On top of that, we strengthen accessibility requirements for incarcerated people with disabilities and improve consumer disclosures.”

Site commissions are payments that phone companies make to prisons and jails in exchange for the exclusive right to offer service to inmates. FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said that banning the commissions will "end the practice of provider kickbacks to correctional facilities and payments for costs irrelevant to providing services so callers will no longer be forced to bear the financial burden of these costs."

The nonprofit Prison Policy Institute said that prison phone companies charge ancillary fees for things "like making a deposit to fund an account." The ban on those fees "also effectively blocks a practice that we have been campaigning against for years: companies charging fees to consumers who choose to make single calls rather than fund a calling account, and deliberately steering new consumers to this higher-cost option in order to increase fee revenue," the group said.

The ancillary fee ban is a “technical-sounding change” but will help “eliminate some of the industry's dirtiest tricks that shortchange both the families and the facilities,” the group said.

FCC: Revenue Will Still Exceed Costs

The FCC's draft order said that even with the new caps, potential "revenues for eight out of 12 [Incarcerated People's Communications Services] providers exceed their total reported costs when excluding site commissions and safety and security categories that generally are not used and useful in the provision of IPCS. These eight firms represent over 90 percent of revenue, 96 percent of [average jail and prison population], and 96 percent of billed and unbilled minutes in the data set."

Worth Rises said that the "primary factors driving the FCC's lower rate caps is the exclusion of security and surveillance costs as well as the exclusion of commissions. For decades, the cost of an ever-expanding suite of invasive surveillance services has been passed on to incarcerated people and their loved ones. With [the] new rules, prison telecoms will be barred from recovering the cost of the majority of such services from ratepayers."

The price-cap order was fully supported by the FCC's three Democrats and Republican Nathan Simington. Republican Brendan Carr approved in part and concurred in part, saying he had concerns about the rate structure.

[eddsworld-blog-huzz]

I seriously believe Lankybox is evil and is corrupting us.

They post around 2-5 videos back to back almost pretty much daily, and those ‘sisters’ they have? Adam’s female counterpart/‘sister’ is replaced constantly with different girls. Their merch is everywhere in stores I enter, seeing that stupid purple cat with a box on it’s head or figurine blind bags.

I believe they’re corrupted by the government and all of their videos work behind the scenes to get foot traffic to Project 2025 and Trump’s law, and their silly cartoon stupid looking mascots are to drive little impressionable prepubescent kids to become religious psychotic twerps who scream at you that you’ll go to hell if you don’t immediately turn to God (which in this situation they would believe is Trump) because that’s how they were raised from unrestricted internet access and constantly watching Lankybox.

(no actual hate to Christians, the good ones are the ones I respect. The ones who are mentally psychotic under the Bible’s every verse or who use Christianity as an excuse to be a straight up dick are the cuntbags in this Lankybox scandal.)

Lankybox are scammers, corrupted, abusive and work under the government. I hate Lankybox.

- mod Tom (no I’m not high again.)

[vivaciouscynner]

Contingency Plan

I am hopeful that we will miraculously be smart enough to not allow a fascist to be elected president again.

I am hopeful that people will realize everything will be worse under Republican rule - read up on project 2025 to give you a clearer idea what that looks like. Listen to the awful rally at MSG last weekend.

I am hopeful the arrogance of the privileged that are aiming to "protest" by not voting will change their mind as they will be the reason for more blood to be shed. Not just in Palestine, but also right here. School shootings will increase. Deaths among women, be it by abuse or being forced to carry to term. Deaths among minorities.

I am hopeful, however.

But if this election turns to shit, you're going to need to understand how to stay safe - as safe as you are able.

There are many things you need to change regarding your online and offline life.

Online:

If you feel you are a target of republican policies, you'll want to purge or just simply stop posting data about yourself regarding your online presence.

selfies

pictures of your home inside or out

pictures of trips you've been on and posted online

any reference to your real name

any reference to your real home address or general area

jobs (where you work or what you do)

Privacy is REALLY important to me.

update your DNS settings, preferably on the router you use, but you can also do it on your PC, to use cloudflare dns 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 Updating the DNS to cloudflare will prevent your ISP seeing some traffic and will actually improve website response times too)

please use a VPN like NordVPN or something. There's a lot of them out there. Using a VPN will not only encrypt data, it will also hide your ip.

Use a more secure browser - Tor Browser is good for that given it goes through the onion network - but it can make websites harder to use because of how strict it is. You can use LibreWolf as an alternative which comes with pretty secure settings "right out of the box".

Use offline Password Managers (don't use or let your browser remember them). I use KeePass

Get off any app that tracks anything. This includes but not limited to period trackers, fitness trackers, anything that tracks your location and uploads it to the app developers. An app that says "We don't track your data" today does NOT mean that they won't update and start tracking you tomorrow. Be VERY wary of all app privacy policies. You will need to literally read them now. If they share your data, don't use it. Because these companies sell your data to not only advertisers but also law enforcement.

[Please take some time to search and understand the above by yourself, otherwise this will be a gargantuan post if I have to explain it all.]

Offline

You're going to have to accept that convenience is no longer possible or feasible. Everyone's situation is different and I can only recommend looking to the people you trust the most for help in any which way you can. Even crossing state boarders is dangerous for some people.

Breathe. Think it through. Ask for help.

Please also provide resources if you have any to this post so we can send it around.

[trivialbob]

Minnesota is legalizing motorcycle lane splitting and filtering, effective July 1, 2025. If traffic is slow or stopped, motorcyclists will be able to filter though the cars. For as long as I remember this was only legal in California. Now about six states have legalized it.

Motorcyclists in Minnesota will now be allowed to filter through traffic “at not more than 25 miles per hour and no more than 15 miles per hour over the speed of traffic in relevant traffic lanes.”

I don't think I would do this through moving traffic, but the idea of doing it in stopped traffic interests me.

It's not just about letting motorcycles pass people. There is a safety aspect to it. If a motorcyclist can stop between cars it lessens the chance of being rear ended.

There will be public service announcements to introduce the law. That's good, because I can picture some drivers getting really ticked off by lane splitting. There's even a penalty for drivers who may feel the need to interfere:

In addition to the lane-filtering aspects, [the law] also added punishments for drivers that impede motorcyclists on the open road, stating that “an operator of a motor vehicle must not intentionally impede or attempt to prevent the operation of a motorcycle” when filtering.

The last time I was in the Los Angeles area I remember seeing some motorcyclists splitting lanes. It made me a little nervous, but I wasn't used to seeing it.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Carter Sherman at The Guardian:

Legislators in at least four states have introduced bills this year that would change the legal definition of “homicide” to include abortion – proposals that pave the way for states to charge abortion patients with murder. Pregnancy Justice, a group that tracks these kinds of efforts, says it has recorded more “homicide” bills this year than ever before. Abortion bans have typically penalized providers, rather than patients. “That raises significant alarm – both that we’ve seen more than we have in the past in a single legislative session already, and that they’re not generating the level of outrage or attention or scrutiny that they have in years past,” said Dana Sussman, senior vice-president at Pregnancy Justice. “The more of these kinds of bills that get introduced, people get numb to the idea of them, and they seem less and less radical.”

With Donald Trump returning to power in Washington DC, abortion rights supporters and opponents are waiting to see how the new president will handle one of the most divisive issues in US life. But red-state lawmakers have already filed a host of anti-abortion proposals over the last few weeks. In addition to the “homicide” bills, many of these bills target access to abortion pills – which account for more than 60% of US abortions – and seek to limit minors’ ability to obtain abortions. In at least two states, Montana and Missouri, lawmakers are also seeking to implement legislation that would in effect roll back the abortion protections guaranteed by recent ballot measures. Last year, when elections loomed over legislators’ heads, states passed fewer abortion-related laws than they had in the five years prior, according to the the Center for Reproductive Rights. But this year, Kimya Forouzan, principal state policy adviser at the Guttmacher Institute, suspects that lawmakers will take Trump’s victory in 2024 as a green light to pursue anti-abortion policies more aggressively. “There’s generally going to be an emboldening of state legislators who are opposed to reproductive and sexual health and rights, given the new administration,” Forouzan said.

‘Homicide’ and ‘fetal personhood’

Bills that redefine abortion as “homicide” strengthen a legal doctrine known as “fetal personhood”, which seeks to grant embryos and fetuses legal rights and protections – sometimes at the expense of the women carrying them. If fully enacted, fetal personhood would not only ban abortion but would rewrite entire arenas of US law, from traffic regulations to taxes. So far in 2025, lawmakers in at least six states have introduced bills to strengthen fetal personhood, while Trump has tucked fetal personhood language into one of his executive orders. [...]

Limits on abortion pills

In the years since Roe fell, anti-abortion activists have lobbed attack after attack on abortion pills, or medication abortion, which are increasingly facilitated by the mail. In spring 2024, more than 19,000 abortions were provided each month through telehealth appointments, which rely on the mail to deliver the pills, according to #WeCount, a research project by the Society of Family Planning. “Mailed medication abortion is an existential threat to the anti-abortion movement,” said Rachel Rebouché, the dean of Temple University’s law school. “It’s hard to police.” Red states, however, are going to try. Indiana, which bans virtually all abortions, has introduced three separate bills that would ban people from sending abortion pills to individuals in the state. One of those bills also outlaws the possession of abortion pills. Over in Oklahoma and Tennessee, which ban almost all abortions, lawmakers have introduced similar bills that would also ban people from mailing abortion pills – and, in the case of the Tennessee bill, hold them liable for $5m if those pills were used in an abortion.

With the return of Donald Trump to the White House, anti-abortion extremists are further emboldened to push extreme bills that would treat abortion as “homicide” and restrictions on abortion medications in the states.

[thearoaceplantmom]

some context on the election that's happening in Germany today:

why is there an election today?

Germany is electing the "Bundestag" (the parliament). This usually happens even four years in late September. The last election was in September 2021 and the next one was supposed to happen in September 2025. The election is happening earlier because of the coalition breaking apart in November 2024, but I'll explain that later.

2. which parties are up for election?

SPD: "Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands", Social Democratic Party of Germany, center to left-leaning, important issues are worker's rights and social justice. They were part of the last government and the "Bundeskanzler" (Federal Chancellor, essentially the president of the parliament) is from the SPD.

CDU: "Christlich-Demokratische Union", Christian-Democratic Union, right leaning, essentially the conservative party. They've been part of the government for decades except in the last four years, the Federal Chancellor before the current one, Angela Merkel, had also been from the CDU and had been in office for 16 years.

CSU: "Christlich-Soziale Union", Christian-Social Union, basically the same as the CDU, the two are sister parties and are together referred to as the Union. While the CSU is only up for election in one of Germany's 16 states (Bavaria), the CDU is on the ballot in the remaining 15 ones. In parliament, they usually sit together as part of the same "Fraktion".

Bündnis 90/Die Grünen: the Green Party, center to left-leaning, important issues are climate change and social justice. They were also part of the last coalition.

FDP: "Freie Demokratische Partei", Free Democratic Party, center to right-leaning, very liberal. They were also part of the last coalition.

Die Linke: the Left Party, far-left populism.

BSW: "Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht", Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht, far-left populism, they used to be part of the Left Party until they decided to leave and found their own party in January 2024. In Germany, when voting for the parliament you don't just vote for the party but also the candidates, and once someone is in the parliament, they theoretically can do anything they want, they don't have to vote for what the party wants (this just reduces their odds of the party putting them up for election again), Sahra Wagenknecht and some others decided to do their own thing, which is theoretically perfectly legal.

AfD: "Alternative für Deutschland", Alternative for Germany, far-right populism, racism, homophobia, currently being monitored by the "Verfassungsschutz" (Constitution Protection) because they're so right wing.

3. who was part of the last coalition?

SPD, the Green Party and FDP. Because the SPD's color is red, the Green Party's is green and the FDP's is yellow, it was commonly referred to as the "Ampelkoalition" (traffic light coalition).

In early November 2024, the FDP decided to leave the coalition, leaving the governing parties without a majority in parliament. The Federal Chanceller, Olaf Scholz, asked the parliament the "Vertrauensfrage" (Question of Trust), to determine if he still had a majority behind him. This was not the case.

In agreement with the Bundespräsident (Federal President), the date of the new election was set to be today, February 23rd, 2025.

4. what repercussions could the results of the election have?

First, the obvious one: the governing parties can (and will, probably) change.

Second, the AfD could get a Blocking Minority, which means they get more than 1/3 of votes, meaning they could block decisions that require a 2/3 majority in parliament.

Third, years ago, all parties declared they wouldn't work on anything with the AfD, even if they actually agreed with the issue, just because the AfD put it forth. In January, an immigrant attacked people with a knife in Aschaffenburg (a German city), giving the AfD an opportunity to try and put a new immigration law into place. Despite earlier claims that the CDU wouldn't vote for anything the AfD put forth, they voted in favor of the law, however, it ended up not passing. This sparked outrage, causing demonstrations against the right wing all over Germany. It is unclear if the CDU will gain many votes due to not being part of the failed coalition or lose votes because they worked with the AfD.

5. how does voting work in Germany?

Everyone gets two votes, the first one for a person running in the district, the second one for a party. You can split your vote, that means voting for a candidate of a different party than you're giving your second vote to.

It used to be the case that every candidate who won their district automatically had a spot in parliament, but the voting system has been changed because the parliament got too big. Now the number of MPs is limited to 630. The number of seats that every party gets is determined by the percentage of second votes the party gets, which means not everyone who won their district can get into parliament.

Another thing is that in order to be allowed in parliament, a party needs to either win 3 districts or get 5% of the second votes, otherwise their fraction isn't allowed. For example, the Left Party, BSW and FDP are regularly worried if they can get above this.

It is worth noting that some parties are excempt from this rule, but they usually can't do much with the 1-2 seats they get.