April 15, 2026

Marie: I am out of commission for awhile. Update: back in business.

When I read Akhilleus' post this morning about Tom Homan, I couldn't believe it. I mean, Homan looks like a guy who would bow his head in genuine shame and say, "Sorry, Fadda," if the priest caught him in some boyish indiscretion. But no: ~~~

~~~ Charlie Nash of Mediaite: “... Newsmax host Rob Schmitt asked [Tom Homan], 'The Catholic Church is sending a pretty loud message that the West, the United States, needs to just accept masses and masses of migrants from all over the world. What’s your response to that?' 'Well, it’s unacceptable, and I’ve called the pope out before,' replied Homan. 'I’m a lifelong Catholic. Baptized, first communion, confirmation. Look, I’ve spent my whole life in the Catholic Church, but I’m disappointed that they want to weigh in on political issues like this. There are enough problems with the Catholic Church – and I know because I’m a member of the Catholic Church – that they need to fix and concentrate on and leave politics alone.'... Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Homan also urged the Vatican to 'stay out of immigration.'” Apparently, old Tom did not learn the lesson of humility in those confirmation classes. Maybe he was sitting in the back pew shooting spitwads. Sorry, Fadda. 

Here's how a socialist celebrates April 15:

     ~~~ BUT, as akaWendy proves, a Democrat doesn't have to be a socialist to favor taxing the ultra-wealthy.  

Andrew Ackerman of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell if he does not step down from the central bank.... 'Well then I’ll have to fire him, okay?' Trump said on Fox Business about Powell’s tenure as chairman, which ends May 15.... Trump also refused to distance himself from the Justice Department’s criminal probe into the Fed’s $2.5 billion office renovation, which prosecutors have used to ratchet up pressure on the Fed even as the department’s legal case has faced legal and political headwinds. Trump declined to direct the Justice Department to stand down from the investigation, which a federal judge last month found to be part of a broader White House pressure campaign against the Fed.... The central bank has denied any wrongdoing in the renovation, and a federal judge last month quashed a pair of grand jury subpoenas, finding that prosecutors had no evidence of a crime.... Fed governors generally can’t be removed except for cause, and Powell has said he has no plans to leave the agency until the probe is finished.”

 

~~~ This oldie but goodie came up automatically after I played the above on my teevee: ~~~

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The New York Times is liveblogging developments in the Iran War. From the pinned item at 5:30 am ET: “The U.S. military said early Wednesday Iran time that it had completely stopped all commercial trade to and from Iranian ports less than 36 hours after implementing a naval blockade.... [Donald] Trump had ordered the Navy to stop any ships from transiting the Strait of Hormuz.... But ship trackers showed that several Iran-linked vessels had traveled through the strait after Central Command began its blockade operation on Monday. It was not immediately clear ... if there was any Iranian shipping traffic in the region on Wednesday morning.... [Mr. Trump] reiterated on Tuesday that Iran was keen to negotiate a deal. He told The New York Post that new talks could take place over the next two days in Pakistan. And he said in a Fox News interview that the conflict was near its end.... Mr. Trump has previously indicated that the war was ending.”

Tara Copp & Victoria Craw of the Washington Post: “A U.S. blockade has 'completely halted economic trade' to and from Iranian ports by sea, the U.S. military said, hours after military officials said U.S. warships confronted six merchant vessels departing an Iranian port and forced them to turn back. The U.S. blockade, which took effect Monday amid a shaky ceasefire between the United States and Iran, involves 10,000 American troops, more than a dozen Navy ships positioned in the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, and an array of fighter jets and drones to surveil commercial vessels in the area, U.S. Central Command said in a post on social media.”

Troops on the Ground. Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: “The Pentagon is sending thousands of additional troops into the Middle East in the coming days, as the Trump administration attempts to pressure Iran into a deal that could end the weeks-long conflict there while considering the possibility of additional strikes or ground operations if a fragile ceasefire does not hold, U.S. officials said. The forces moving into the region include about 6,000 troops aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush and several warships escorting it.... About 4,200 others with the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group and its embarked Marine Corps task force, the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, are expected to arrive near the end of the month.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Has Drunk Pete ordered up a set to look like Churchill's WWII bunker with the maps on tables and the plotting rods to move troops about? Or has he modernized and limited his playtime strictly to video games? Has it ever occurred to him that these troops are real people whose lives are at stake?   

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: Donald Trump “is in far over his head [in his war against Iran].... Unable to will a better outcome into existence ... and frustrated by his own impotence, his response, familiar to anyone who must manage the emotions of a young child, is to throw a tantrum.... Months before Trump won his second term..., the Supreme Court handed him ... the promise of an active, energetic administration free of what the court deemed unnecessary constraints. The president has used this power to run wild, trampling over constitutional government. But he has also, at the same time, shown himself to be the weakest and most ineffectual president of recent memory, less a man of commanding authority than, well, a buffoon.... Politically, the president’s unilateralism has been a disaster.... ike many such projects throughout history, [the Iran war] is a showcase for the pathologies and dysfunctions of the regime in question. Initial operational success has given way to what is essentially a stalemate, with Trump screaming at the world, unwilling to do much else.... If we can escape these years intact..., we may find that Trump stands less as an example and more as a cautionary tale of what happens when you embraces unaccountable, unilateral authority.” ~~~

~~~ Tom Nichols of the Atlantic: "On many recent nights, Donald Trump has been posting obsessively on his Truth Social site into the wee hours.... His emotional state seems to be fraying: This weekend, he attacked Pope Leo XIV, presented himself as Jesus Christ, and then jabbed at his phone until dawn.... Perhaps Trump’s narcissistic insistence that he is always successful in everything he undertakes is feeling the sting and strain of multiple public failures, including the collapse of his campaign to dislodge the Iranian regime, plummeting approval ratings, the decline of the U.S. economy, and, on Sunday, the crushing defeat of one of his favorite fellow authoritarians, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán.... [Americans] ... must demand that their elected representatives ask questions about the course of the war and whether Trump still has the capacity to fulfill his constitutional duty as commander in chief. Too much is at risk to dismiss his outbursts as just another idiosyncrasy[.]..." Thank you to akaWendy for this gift link. ~~~

~~~ Heather Cox Richardson: “Trump’s deteriorating mental state has become impossible to overlook, but Republicans are making excuses for it.... The Lincoln Project accused Republicans of 'ignoring Trump’s sharp mental decline the same way they’ve ignored his crimes.'”

Vlad Has a Friend in Washington. Ivan Nechepurenko of the New York Times: “Russian oil revenues nearly doubled in March, the International Energy Agency said in a report on Tuesday, as higher oil prices driven by the war in Iran provided a lifeline for the Kremlin while its budget ran record deficits. Revenues from Russian exports of crude and refined products rose to $19 billion in March from $9.7 billion in February, the report said. The conflict in the Middle East pushed the price of Russian crude to $78 a barrel, up from nearly $46 a barrel, alongside price hikes for diesel and fuel oil. The windfall arrived at a time of great need for the Kremlin.”

David Sanger & Tyler Pager of the New York Times: “When China declared on Monday that the U.S. blockade of Iranian oil leaving the Strait of Hormuz was 'dangerous and irresponsible,' it was a brief window into ... [Donald] Trump’s latest challenge: how to keep the Iran conflict from upending an emerging détente with China. Mr. Trump is expected to land in Beijing in four weeks, in what was imagined as a carefully planned, highly orchestrated effort to recast the relationship between the world’s two largest economies. The president has already delayed the trip once, and White House officials insist there is no discussion of putting it off again, even if the United States is still choking off Iranian oil exports. Ninety percent of those exports — more than 1.3 million barrels per day — were purchased by China before the American and Israeli attack began on Feb. 28....

“China’s leader, Xi Jinping, made his first public comments on the war on Tuesday, saying that the world could not risk reverting 'to the law of the jungle.'... During a meeting with the crown prince of Abu Dhabi that 'to maintain the authority of international rule of law, we cannot use it when it suits us and abandon it when it doesn’t.'... China’s foreign ministry ... took a tougher line, accusing the United States of a 'targeted blockade' that 'will only aggravate confrontation, escalate tension, under the already fragile cease-fire, and further jeopardize safe passage thorough the Strait of Hormuz.'”

David Pierson of the New York Times: “For much of the last two decades, China has maintained a delicate balance in its military relationship with Iran, offering often indirect assistance instead of arms sales. That approach is now drawing renewed attention after U.S. officials said intelligence agencies were assessing whether China may have shipped shoulder-fired missiles to Iran in recent weeks.... [Donald] Trump has said he would impose an additional 50 percent tariff on Chinese goods if the assessment proves accurate. China has denied the claim.... Chinese support for Iran in recent years has ... come in the form of components that could be used in both civilian technologies as well as missiles and drones.... Here is how China’s military support for Iran has evolved over the years[.]”

Michael Crowley & Euan Ward of the New York Times: “Israeli and Lebanese officials held rare direct talks on Tuesday.... The talks, hosted at the State Department by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, concluded with encouraging words and talk of further meetings, albeit no firm commitments and no change in Israel’s refusal to halt its punishing military campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in the country. But the very fact of the gathering underscored the degree to which Israel and Lebanon have come to share the goal of disarming Hezbollah, the militia group based in southern Lebanon. Neither Iran nor Hezbollah was part of the talks, which both oppose.”

Chris Cameron of the New York Times: “Vice President JD Vance was heckled at a Turning Point USA event at the University of Georgia on Tuesday in what appeared to be criticism of wars in the Middle East. About 10 minutes into the event, a member of the audience interrupted Mr. Vance’s remarks to yell out, 'Jesus Christ does not support genocide!' Minutes later, a voice yelled out, 'You’re killing children! You’re bombing children!' The person appeared to mention the war in Gaza. Later in his appearance, Mr. Vance appeared to express sympathy with critics of the Iran war. 'I recognize that young voters do not love the policy we have in the Middle East, OK,' he said. 'I understand.' The vice president’s conciliatory tone appeared to be an acknowledgment that many of ... [Donald] Trump’s supporters voted for him in 2024 on a promise of 'no new wars.'” ~~~

~~~ Evan Hurst of Wonkette does a full post mortem on the Turning Point USA event: "Nobody showed up, not even Erika Kirk and her tight pants and her mobile fireworks stand. Not to grift, not to hump up on that vice presidential couch. You think she hasn’t noticed what happens to people and things JD Vance touches? Let’s just say running your fingers through JD Vance’s mane isn’t the power move she might have originally thought. There is so much humiliation to get through here, where to start! Well, tickets were free at the Akins Ford Arena in Athens.... So it was really sad when the big event came but nobody else bothered to." And so on. MB: I'm having such a sad. But there's more on JayDee's Turning Point USA appearance linked below.

Theodoric Meyer & Noah Robertson of the Washington Post: “The Senate is set to vote Wednesday on a resolution to block ... Donald Trump from ordering further strikes on Iran after the two sides reached a fragile ceasefire. The vote is the latest test of lawmakers’ support for the unpopular conflict since Trump threatened to destroy Iran’s 'whole civilization.'... The resolution faces tough odds.... Democrats have forced votes on three similar measures since the war’s start, all of which have failed. Sen. Rand Paul (Kentucky) is the only Republican who has joined Democrats to support them, while Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania) has opposed them.”

~~~ David Kurtz of TPM: "...  the economic mess we’re in is entirely of Trump’s own doing.... In historic fashion, Trump has torpedoed key pillars of the global economy by launching unprecedented trade wars and an unjustified elective war in the Middle East that has bottled up world oil supplies to such an extent that it threatens a recession. At home, he has dramatically throttled back the economic engine of immigration, targeted America’s world leading universities, and decimated its vibrant scientific and biomedical research base. Except for the racist assault on immigrants, all of these moves are not driven by ideological imperatives but by corrupt impulses. The economic damage Trump has done was crafted purposely to create opportunities for self-enrichment for him and his allies." Read on. Via Heather Cox Richardson. More on Trumponomics, by Paul Krugman, linked under "Hungary" below. 

JayDee Tells Off the Pope. Anton Troianovski of the New York Times: “Vice President JD Vance invoked World War II on Tuesday to defend the U.S. bombing of Iran from criticism by Pope Leo XIV, extending the Trump administration’s spat with the Catholic Church and underlining the White House’s struggle to justify an unpopular war. Mr. Vance, who is Catholic, told a conservative audience at the University of Georgia that the pope was wrong to say that disciples of Christ are 'never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.' 'Was God on the side of the Americans who liberated France from the Nazis?' Mr. Vance said... Mr. Vance admonished Leo, saying that if he was 'going to opine on matters of theology,' his comments needed to be 'anchored in the truth.... I think it’s very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology,' Mr. Vance said.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: An earlier pope might have excommunicated JayDee or, I don't know, sat by while an Inquisition panel tortured him or burned him at the stake? It really does take incredible cheek to lecture the pope on what to say on "matters of theology." ~~~

     ~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "Vance’s arrogance-to-achievement has always been staggeringly high even for an Ivy League/Silicon Valley doubleheader guy, but it’s hard to top this. My official position is that within a reasonable range of plausibility when it comes to presidential candidates nobody really knows anything, but my unofficial purely speculative position is that he just doesn’t have the juice." ~~~

     ~~~ Steve Benen of MS NOW: "As is often the case, it fell to JD Vance to try to help clean up [Donald Trump's] mess. Unfortunately for the vice president, that didn’t go especially well.... If the pope pontificated on the future of the Senate’s filibuster rule, that would likely be seen as an unfortunate intrusion into domestic political affairs. But for the vice president to argue that wars and the plight of immigrants were out of bounds, making it Leo’s fault that Trump went after him, was simply embarrassing. Or, more to the point, it was the latest in a series of humiliations for the beleaguered vice president." Read Benen's whole post. It seems JayDee also botched his defense of Trump's I-Am-Doctor-Jesus post. ~~~

~~~ Bible Mike Stands Up for Jesus. Mia McCarthy & Meredith Hill of Politico: “Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Tuesday he asked that ... Donald Trump take down an AI-generated image he’d posted on social media depicting himself as Jesus. 'I did ask him to delete it,' Johnson said.” MB: When even Trump supplicant Mike Johnson won't make excuses for Trump's supposedly-blasphemous post, it's easy to agree with Lemieux's assessment of JayDee. ~~~

~~~ AND digby posts a real photo of how Doc Jesus Trump really treats the sick. This is a reminder not only of the incident itself (the photo won a prize!) but also of the impassable distance between Trump's fantasy and his reality. ~~~  

~~~ Zachary Basu of Axios: "Donald Trump is torching the coalition that made him president, seemingly unaware of — or simply unconcerned by — the depth of discontent permeating his movement. Trump won back the White House with the most eclectic alliance in modern politics — a blend of MAGA diehards, crypto evangelists, nonwhite men, podcast bros, anti-war populists and culture-war Christians.... Over the last two weeks, Trump has tested the loyalty of MAGA's Christian base with a series of extraordinary provocations.... Trump's war on his own coalition extends far beyond the pews." MB Note: Axios now makes you sign up to read its content. Since the universe of "free" content continues to shrink, I decided to give them my email address. ~~~

~~~ Megan Messerly & Alex Gangitano of Politico: “... Donald Trump’s weekend tirade against the pope — capped off by an AI-generated depiction of the president as Jesus — was, for some of his supporters, just too much. Their unusually severe backlash comes as many once-devout Trump supporters are having a crisis of faith. Upset over what they feel is a too timid deportation agenda, a sputtering economy and another war in the Middle East, many couldn’t stomach the affront the way they might have in the past.... To some, the Jesus meme — which Trump later said was never meant to liken him to Jesus but was instead supposed to depict the president as a Red Cross worker — exhausted whatever goodwill remained.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Get that? These twisted sisters think Trump is not deporting enough immigrants. The MAGA movement is a tribal, sadist cult. Why, here's someone the dummkopfs want out. Now! ~~~  

~~~ The Worst of the Worst. Kim Willsher of the Guardian: “An 86-year-old French woman who moved to the US to marry her 1950s sweetheart is being held in a crowded detention centre in Louisiana after she was arrested by immigration agents and cuffed by her hands and feet. The family of the woman, named only as Marie-Thérèse, said they feared for her health as French consular officials attempted to secure her release. One of her sons told the Ouest-France newspaper that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had treated his mother like a hardened criminal.... Her son said Billy, a retired colonel and helicopter pilot in the US army, was 'a charming, adorable man. They were like a couple of teenagers.' However, when Billy died in January 2026, Marie-Thérèse had not yet obtained a green card allowing her to remain in the US, leaving her status unclear.”

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “The U.S. attorney’s office in Washington asked a federal appeals court on Tuesday to throw out the convictions of 12 members of two far-right extremist groups, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers militia, after they were found guilty years ago of charges in connection with the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The move was the opening step in erasing the guilty verdicts of the last few Jan. 6 rioters who were not granted total clemency by the pardons ... [Donald] Trump handed out on his first day back in the White House last year. As part of his clemency decree, Mr. Trump commuted the lengthy sentences of the 12 Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, prompting their release from federal prison.... Hoping to expunge their records altogether, the members of the two groups challenged their convictions in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.... By asking the appeals court to toss out their guilty verdicts, the Justice Department avoided the awkward situation of having to defend the convictions. Such a move would likely have required administration officials to assert that the far-right groups were acting on behalf of Mr. Trump on Jan. 6.” The AP's report is here. ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "Another Jan. 6 rioter pardoned by ... Donald Trump will plead guilty in a separate case involving child exploitation of multiple victims, according to federal court records. David Daniel has reached a plea agreement in connection with a pending charge of sexual exploitation of a minor and possessing sexually explicit images of children in federal court in the Western District of North Carolina. According to court documents Daniel’s lawyer signed Tuesday, in 2015 and 2016 Daniel enticed a minor under age 12 'to engage in sexually explicit conduct' for the purpose of producing 'a visual depiction' of the conduct.”

Colby Smith & Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: “Prosecutors sent by Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, made a surprise visit on Tuesday to the Federal Reserve’s construction site, which is at the center of an investigation into the central bank.... The highly unusual ... visit ... underscored Ms. Pirro’s intention to aggressively pursue her investigation into Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair. Mr. Powell has been targeted by ... [Donald] Trump, who has blasted the chair for refusing to slash interest rates.... Mr. Trump’s push to investigate Mr. Powell ... appears to be colliding with the reality that the Pirro-led investigation imperils chances of quickly confirming a successor when Mr. Powell’s term ends on May 15. On Tuesday, the Senate Banking Committee announced it would hold a confirmation hearing next week for Kevin M. Warsh, Mr. Trump’s pick to replace Mr. Powell. The hearing will proceed despite the fact that a key Republican on the committee, Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, has said he will not advance Mr. Warsh unless the Justice Department drops the Powell investigation.” Read on. (One of members of the prosecution's team has the unfortunate surname of Fox-Moles.) A CBS News story is here. ~~~

~~~ Colby Smith, et al., of the New York Times: “The Senate will hold a hearing next week to consider Kevin M. Warsh as the next chair of the Federal Reserve, after Mr. Warsh submitted detailed disclosures showing that he would divest a substantial amount of his more than $100 million in assets.... Mr. Warsh’s 69-page financial document shows that his assets may be valued between $131 million and $209 million, making him significantly wealthier than any previous Fed chair.... Mr. Warsh is married to Jane Lauder, the daughter of Ronald Lauder, who is the billionaire heir to the Estée Lauder fortune. Ms. Lauder also holds hundreds of millions of dollars in additional assets.... Mr. Warsh, who previously served as a governor at the Fed between 2006 and 2011, will be questioned by members of the powerful Senate Banking Committee, which oversees the central bank.... But Mr. Warsh’s path to confirmation is unlikely to be smooth.”

Jill Cowan & Madison Kircher of the New York Times: “A woman who turned to Representative Eric Swalwell of California for political help said on Tuesday that he raped her in a West Hollywood hotel, the latest in a series of accusations that have ended his political career and put him in legal jeopardy. The woman, Lonna Drewes, a model who works in fashion technology, said at a news conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., that in 2018 Mr. Swalwell had promised to take her to a political event before drugging and sexually assaulting her.... Ms. Drewes said she told people close to her about the episode at the time it happened, but her lawyers did not make any of them available for comment on Tuesday, saying that they planned to share evidence with law enforcement.... The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department confirmed in a statement that its Special Victims Bureau is investigating a case in which a woman said she was sexually assaulted by Mr. Swalwell in July 2018.... Less than two hours after Ms. Drewes’s accusations were made public, Mr. Swalwell’s office said his resignation from Congress would take effect at 2 p.m. Eastern time. Later on Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom scheduled a special election to fill his seat.” An ABC News report is here. ~~~

~~~ Michael Gold of the New York Times: “Senator Ruben Gallego, Democrat of Arizona, acknowledged on Tuesday that he had long heard rumors that Representative Eric Swalwell was 'flirty' with women, but had allowed his longtime friendship with the California Democrat to cloud his judgment and never said or did anything about it.... His account provided a glimpse into the roots of a culture of secrecy and silence on Capitol Hill that, years after the #MeToo movement, has continued to allow men like Mr. Swalwell to serve and ascend the ranks of power even when there are whispers of misbehavior with women.... [Mr. Gallego] appeared to concede that his attitude was part of a pervasive pattern in Congress and throughout Washington of ignoring or dismissing hints of impropriety as routine, rather than something to be taken seriously and addressed.... The accusations facing both Mr. Swalwell and Tony Gonzales, a Texas Republican who also resigned from the House on Tuesday in the face of sexual misconduct allegations, have shone a harsh spotlight on the failure by Congress to hold its own members accountable when they face charges of wrongdoing. ” ~~~

~~~ Ashleigh Fields of the Hill: “White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller on Tuesday claimed that Democrats keep 'blackmail files' for when it suits them, following a push to oust Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) from his seat due to allegations of sexual misconduct and sexual assault. 'The real story here is how the Democrat Party controls its members through blackmail. It’s got a blackmail file on ALL of its politicians, and it uses them to leverage and control them until it’s time to release it,' Miller said during an appearance on Fox News’s 'Jesse Waters Primetime.' 'That is how sick and twisted the Democrat Party is. That’s the next thread we’ve got to pull out here,' he added.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Huh. I wonder why the "Democrat party" didn't use its secret blackmail files against Miller. Or other Trumplodytes. One might conclude Miller's paranoid conspiracy theory is ridiculous. But not surprising to see Miller is kinda sticking up for an (alleged!) serial sex abuser who is not his boss.  

Annals of Journalism, Ctd. David Bauder of the AP: “Barely two weeks before it was due to shut down, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said Tuesday it had found a last-minute buyer — a successful nonprofit journalism operation [-- the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism --] that has agreed to keep the struggling newspaper open. The resolution to a months-long worry in western Pennsylvania about the paper’s shutdown comes at a difficult moment for the American newspaper industry, which has shed jobs, resources and sometimes entire companies due to the upending of the traditional revenue model by the internet at the beginning of this century. The Post-Gazette dates its ancestry to 1786, the first newspaper to open west of the Allegheny Mountains, and its closure would have left Pittsburgh as the nation’s largest community without a city-based paper.” The New York Times story is here. MB: Although the paper has had many owners & many different structures, in recent years, its editorial page has been decidedly right-wing. 

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Maine. Peter McGuire of Maine Public: "Maine is poised to become the first state in the nation to temporarily ban the development of large data centers. But Gov. Janet Mills has said the measure needs to have an exemption for a proposed $550 million project at the former Androscoggin paper mill in Jay to get her support. 'The people of Jay need those jobs, with appropriate guardrails on preserving water resources, electricity resources, local generation and all those things,' Mills told reporters during an event in Bangor last week.... The proposed bill passed by the Maine Legislature earlier this month would enact an 18-month moratorium on new data centers using more than 20 megawatts of power. In the meantime, a coordinating council of government officials, experts and other stakeholders would come up with policy recommendations and guidelines to limit the impact of future data centers in the state."

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Hungary. Paul Krugman: “... there were three main factors that led to Orbán’s overthrow. And understanding these factors is important if Americans are to defeat Trump’s MAGA regime. First, Hungarians view themselves as part of democratic Europe – not as a satellite of Russia. Hence they wanted an end to autocracy and their freedoms restored. Second, but just as importantly, they were voting against Orbánist corruption.... In practice [autocracy and corruption] inevitably go hand in hand ... because authoritarian rule removes accountability and opens the door for Grand Theft Autocracy. There’s even solid statistical evidence[.]... The third factor is that Hungary was a 'soft' autocracy: Orbán maintained the superficial trappings of democracy, such as elections, while undermining the underpinnings of democracy.... The good news from Hungary is that blatant corruption doesn’t have to be normalized.”