politics

Air Force Dumb

Qatar is gifting Trump a $400 million luxury 747 to serve as a temporary Air Force One, but experts warn that retrofitting it to meet presidential security standards could take years, cost hundreds of millions more, and risk national security due to potential embedded surveillance.

The current VC-25s aren't just repainted 747s. They're a pair of flying fortresses that must be capable of allowing the president to run the country, survive wartime conditions (even nuclear), and be totally secure from outside influence or intrusion. While the precise details of the current airframe are a tightly guarded secret, some details are included on government fact sheets or have been revealed in various media reports. For a start, it must have an in-flight refueling capability so the president can go anywhere in the world and stay up as long as needed. Retrofitting this to an existing 747 would be very expensive, as the feds would need to strengthen portions of the hull to handle the refueling system and reconfigure the fuel tanks to handle trim issues.

Then there's the hull, which is known to be armored, and the windows are also thicker than you'd find on a normal flight. The government would also need to build in weapons systems like the chaff rockets used against radar-guided missiles, flares against heat seekers, and AN/ALQ-204 Matador Infrared Countermeasure systems, or similar to try and confuse incoming missiles. Next up, the engines and electrical systems would have to be replaced. The electronics in the current VC-25s are hardened as much as possible against an electromagnetic pulse that would be generated by a nuclear detonation. There are also claims that the aircraft have extra shielding in the engines to help against missile fragments should a physical attack happen.

Next up are communications. Air Force One has air-to-ground, air-to-air, and satellite comms systems that are thought to be the equal of what's in the White House. There are at least two separate internal phone systems - one open and the other highly secure - that would need to be installed and checked as well. Then there are incidentals. Contrary to what films will tell you, there is no escape capsule on the current Air Force One, nor a rear parachute ramp, but there is a medical suite with emergency equipment and space for a physician which would already need to be installed, as well as a secured cargo area designed to prevent tampering or unauthorized access. As for the threat of embedded surveillance devices, Richard Aboulafia, managing director of aircraft consultancy AeroDynamic Advisory, said: "You'd have to take it apart piece by piece to stop a professional operator putting in lots of equipment to confuse things, like spare sensors and wiring."

"It wouldn't be in the air before 2030 at the earliest, long after he's left office and probably later than the existing planned replacements," said Aboulafia. "It makes no sense on any level, except that he wants a free 747 for himself. Nothing else makes any sense."

"What's sort of annoying about the whole thing is I'm not sure what's wrong with the current Air Force One," Aboulafia said. "Maybe if they gave it a gold makeover, he'd like it more."

The "problem" is that wind, solar, and batteries for overnight storage can now outcompete fossil fuel generation on price, which means that the patrons who back the Republican party stand to lose a lot of money.

Trump campaigned on a pledge to fight antisemitism. "Antisemitic bigotry has no place in a civilized society," Trump said at an event in 2024.

However, critics question whether antisemitism may have found a place within his administration.

NPR has identified three Trump officials with close ties to antisemitic extremists, including a man described by federal prosecutors as a "Nazi sympathizer," and a prominent Holocaust denier.

Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, argues that the administration is using antisemitism as a pretext.

https://archive.is/RVrk4

Corrupt POS

MAGA by not giving a sh*t about people.

Reasons:

1. Trump Tower Sinaloa

2. Free cocaine for Jr

3. Reclassified as Afrikaners

4. Massive Trumpcoin investment

Two more aides left John Fetterman’s office in recent weeks, the latest in a stream of staff exits amid the Pennsylvania senator’s shifting political persona and questions about his health.

Fetterman aides Madeleine Marr and Caroline Shaffer parted ways with his team, according to two people familiar with their departures and granted anonymity to speak freely. They left shortly before New York Magazine reported that current and former Fetterman staff are increasingly concerned about the Democratic senator’s mental and physical health, one of the people said.

Staff inside Fetterman’s office had been bracing for the magazine’s story in the days before it was published. Fetterman has denied that he is not fit to serve, calling the report “a one-source hit piece.”

Ripping off content to train AI wasn’t going to fly with either MAGA populists or MAGA media.

What initially appeared to be a power play by Elon Musk and DOGE to take over the US Copyright Office by having Donald Trump remove the officials in charge has now backfired in spectacular fashion, as Trump’s acting replacements are known to be unfriendly — and even downright hostile — to the tech industry.

The appointments of Blanche, Perkins, and Nieves are the result of furious lobbying over the weekend by the conservative content industry — as jealously protective of its copyrighted works as any other media companies — as well as populist Republican lawmakers and lawyers, all enraged that Silicon Valley had somehow persuaded Trump to fire someone who’d recently criticized AI companies.

The city hasn’t had a Democratic mayor since 2013

EDIT: Not only that, but looking to win by a large margin while heavily outspent. The Republican spent around ~$1.3 million vs the Democrats spending ~$550 thousand

https://www.wowt.com/video/2025/05/07/officials-release-update-campaign-spending-omaha-mayoral-race/

Exactly why they're increasing the debt limit by $4 trillion.

Ocasio-Cortez took to Instagram after the Department of Homeland Security suggested they may pursue arrests of three Democratic lawmakers who partook in a protest outside of an ICE facility in Newark, New Jersey. Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), Rob Menendez (D-NJ) and LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) all attended the protest.

Lawmakers are raising separation-of-powers concerns as the White House seeks to install a Justice Department official at the legislative branch institution.

In a rare bipartisan effort to defend its institutional authority, Congress is quietly resisting President Donald Trump’s attempt to assert control over the Library of Congress — a move that experts say threatens the separation of powers and the integrity of the legislative branch’s premier research body.

On Capitol Hill, Democrats said Tuesday they did not believe Blanche was the acting librarian — and Republicans, who have repeatedly deferred to Trump even as he has wrested control of federal spending from authorities, indicated that they wanted to maintain their power around the library, which is part of the legislative branch even though the president nominates its leader.

“It’s the Library of Congress, not the library of the executive branch,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) told reporters. “This is an example of executive overreach.”

Non-paywall link

Summary

During a welcome ceremony in Riyadh, Donald Trump, 78, appeared to nod off multiple times while seated next to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Trump was in Saudi Arabia on a four-day Middle East trip aiming to secure major investment deals.

Social media users mocked his apparent drowsiness, drawing comparisons to past criticisms Trump made of Biden. The White House denied he was disengaged.

Trump has previously been accused of dozing off, notably during his 2024 hush money trial, which he denied, claiming he was just “listening intensely.”

Schumer also called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to testify before Congress and answer a number of questions related to the potential gift.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Tuesday he is placing a hold on all Trump Justice Department nominees as he seeks answers on the administration's plan to accept a luxury jet from Qatar to be used as Air Force One.

"In light of the deeply troubling news of a possible Qatari-funded Air Force One, and the reports that the Attorney General personally signed off on this clearly unethical deal, I am announcing a hold on all DOJ political nominees, until we get more answers,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.

The minority leader presented a list of questions and demands he says the Trump administration must respond to before he lifts his hold on nominees.

Without naming any names, the conservative justice also said during an event with students at Georgetown University that recent attacks against Supreme Court justices have gone too far.

“The notion that rule of law governs is the basic proposition,” Roberts said, according to Politico. “We need to stop and reflect every now and then how rare that is, certainly rare throughout history, and rare in the world today.”

In response to a student’s question, he also said criticism of the Supreme Court is a good thing—“so long as it is not trashing the justices,”

The two officials—Paul Perkins, an associate deputy attorney general, and Brian Nieves, a deputy chief of staff and senior policy counsel—were seeking access to the U.S. Copyright Office but were denied entry at around 9 a.m., sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity told The New York Times.

Despite Trump’s appointment of Blanche as acting librarian of Congress, library staff have reportedly been recognizing Robert Newlen as their interim replacement instead, according to The Times’ sources. Newlen was principal deputy librarian and Hayden’s second-in-command.

Staff seem to be waiting for direction from Congress, with Newlen additionally sending an email to employees saying he did not recognize Blanche’s appointment as valid, according to Politico.

AutoMod removed this post from yesterday because it was crossposted without the same title as the article.

TL;DR: #Winning