Issues You May Know, 9 May 2025.
A list of things you might want to know about - or write your reps about.
USPS has been enlisted to assist with Trump deportation stuff.
USPS law enforcement assisting Trump's 'mass deportation' effort: WaPo - MSNBC - Apr 30, 2025
My letter to reps:
The postal service is a public service and I don't think it should be lending postal inspectors or enlisting postal carriers to help with deportation stuff because there's already government agencies doing that and there's all this talk about the US Postal Service being in trouble - of course it's because they're funding retirement pensions for workers who haven't even been born yet something no other company could possibly do and stay solvent, any business person ought to know this and I'm sick of politicians thinking I'm too stupid to understand that. But if that's going to remain the case, where's the money coming from to help these other government agencies? Someone needs to investigate this because it seems improper and inappropriate.
Please feel free to copy or repurpose for your own letters to reps.
Trump regime sticks it to the coal miners.
I'm not a big creator of fafo content, but this one hits close to home as both my grandpas were coal miners who died from black lung associated lung diseases. (They were old and therefore lucky, some coal miners with black lung die far too young.) And the Trump NIOSH cuts will affect me and so many workers, disabled, and seniors.
ABC News - 'I want to live': Coal miners speak out as Trump strips away health protections After 100 days, Trump's vow to boost coal belies cuts to miner health programs. By Dr. Mark Abdelmalek, Lauren Lantry, and Lucien Bruggeman April 29, 2025, 9:32 PM Black lung, the debilitating respiratory illness common in coal miners, has made a staggering resurgence in the past 25 years, particularly among the younger generation of miners as they cut through more rock to access deeper, hard-to-reach coal seams, exposing them to harmful dust particles called silica -- which experts say is about 20 times more toxic to the lungs than pure coal dust. And even as President Donald Trump vows to reinvigorate America's coal industry, critics say his administration has stripped away key protections for the miners. In his first 100 days in office, Trump's administration has decimated the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, the federal institute that protects miners from black lung, and paused enforcement of a new safety rule that would lower the level of silica dust in the mines.
My letter to reps:
Because of the cuts at NIOSH the National Personal Protective Technology Lab in Pennsylvania will shut down and that can't happen because this is the place that certifies all the N95 PPE for the whole country, for workers and the public for all types of respiratory protection including viruses, allergens, wildfire smoke, air pollutants. This is reversing decades of advancements in this area. It will set up an environment where counterfeit masks will proliferate worse than what happened during the shortages early in the pandemic, and will likely lead to countless dollars, including taxpayer dollars, spent in preventable adverse health effects, healthcare debacles, lawsuits, and criminal proceedings. You must do something to ensure that NIOSH is functional.
Please feel free to copy or repurpose for your own letters to reps.
Tech tycoon guru Curtis Yarvin repeats false conspiracy fiction covid denial at Harvard event.
Curtis Yarvin in the past has advocated for using covid style "lockdowns" in order to institute a forcible regime change to make America a monarchy. This goes along with the tech tycoons plans to have "network states" – fiefdoms ruled by kings like they were already trying to do in Honduras, and Peter Thiel reportedly wants to do after Trump seizes Greenland. And now he's repeating blatant Alex Jones Qanon conspiracy theory covid denial claims.
The Harvard Crimson - Far-Right Thinker Curtis Yarvin Argues for Remaking of Harvard at Faculty Club Debate May 6, 2025 By Elise A. Spenner, Crimson Staff Writer In his characteristically digressive mode — veering, at points, into the Salem Witch Trials, the trial of 20th-century fascist thinker Julius Evola, and a mix of debated and conspiracist claims on the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic — Yarvin made the case that American democracy had turned oligarchic and opaque. “Those institutions are quite unaccountable,” Yarvin said. “Nobody elected Anthony Fauci when he basically supervised the program to invent Covid. Nobody elected Anthony Fauci when he covered it up.”
Curtis Yarvin is Alex Jones for the uppity right-wing.
It's so ridiculous because a majority of people have now experienced covid, so many people know people who've died, been hospitalized, or become disabled from covid. It's amazing that these people are so privileged they don't realize just how blatantly obvious it is to most people that covid is definitely real. But monarchist tycoons and their propagandists will try to tell us that up is down, because that's what fascists do apparently.
I don't remember this many weird and scary stories about air travel a couple decades ago.
Delta Airlines has always been total crap and I'm sure they have corporate capture of various and sundry regulatory agencies even before the Trump regime… I think flying has been a dubious transportation system for a number of years now, and especially since early in the pandemic. But it's actually pretty disturbingly ridiculous that passengers had to hold a falling ceiling up in the airplane until the attendants could duct tape.
Toronto Sun - Delta passengers forced to 'hold the plane together' after roof caves in Author of the article: Denette Wilford Published Apr 22, 2025 The clip, which he also shared on Instagram, shows someone panning around the aircraft capturing multiple hands of different passengers holding up ceiling panels that appear to be peeling away from the top of the cabin. “The attendants finally duct taped it after he held it up for a while,” Payne explained in the caption. “Delta offered 10,000 miles (about $100 dollars) after they had to go back to Atlanta, wait for hours and deplane and get on another plane to Chicago,” he continued.
$100 dollars seriously?
And now there’s an air traffic controller who warned people don’t fly into Newark airport because it’s unsafe. When someone from the inside warns you things are going haywire, I’d say it’s worth paying attention.
Air Traffic Controller WARNS PUBLIC ABOUT NEWARK AIRPORT!!! Jesse Dollemore May 5, 2025
There’s reports of people having walked off the job and or have taken trauma leave, and there was already staff shortages. Just think about all the staff shortages everywhere anymore and the extra work I hear everyone has at their jobs, and then realize that Trump and Musk cut a bunch more from where there were pre-existing staff shortages pre-dating the pandemic, and is now the worst in 30. years.
Not good. I haven’t used air travel in many years and at this rate I may never do so again.
But hey, respect all choices on risk appetite, amirite?
Trump administration privatized ICE flights on airline with poor cybersecurity.
404 Media - GlobalX, Airline for Trump’s Deportations, Hacked Joseph Cox , Jason Koebler · May 6, 2025 at 9:00 AM Hackers have targeted GlobalX Air, one of the main airlines the Trump administration is using as part of its deportation efforts, and stolen what they say are flight records and passenger manifests of all of its flights, including those for deportation, 404 Media has learned. The data, which the hackers contacted 404 Media and other journalists about unprompted, could provide granular insight into who exactly has been deported on GlobalX flights, when, and to where, with GlobalX being the charter company that facilitated the deportation of hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador.
My letter to reps:
The Trump administration is outsourcing government operations to network insecure airlines which then had a security data breach and the flight information that the federal government had claimed to the courts wasn't available, is now reported in the news leaked by hackers. Who is doing an investigation into ICE operations, failure to comply with court orders, and the outsourcing of government operations? ICE clearly needs oversight.
Please feel free to copy or repurpose for your own letters to reps.
Politicians say they care about people being harmed by drugs, but drop the life-saving Narcan program.
The Latin Times - RFK Jr. to End 'Godsend' Narcan Program That Helped Reduce Overdose Deaths Despite His Past Heroin Addiction - M.B. Mack / Published Apr 28 2025, 1:41 PM EDT Despite his own history of overcoming heroin addiction, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is backing plans to end a federal Narcan distribution program credited with helping drive a steep drop in U.S. overdose deaths. Narcan, the widely-used overdose reversal drug, has played a major role in reducing opioid-related deaths, particularly amid the fentanyl crisis.
Whenever a politician mentions fentanyl they should be asked about the Narcan program.
My letter to reps:
The Narcan distribution program should continue. Politicians say they are concerned about the fentanyl crisis, yet congress is letting the HHS end the federal Narcan distribution program that's led to less overdose deaths. Why is this ending? It needs to be expanded, not stopped!
Please feel free to copy or repurpose for your own letters to reps.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's son launching a crypto investment vehicle.
Citation Needed Issue 82 – E-moluments - As Celsius victims detail their devastation even under the weak crypto regulations of the past, the Trump administration continues to dismantle those same rules while he pumps his personal memecoin with promises of private access - Molly White 24 Apr 2025 Brandon Lutnick, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s son who replaced him as chair of Cantor Fitzgerald when he “divested” his interest, is launching a bitcoin investment vehicle called Twenty One Capital.23 The company is backed by the notorious Tether stablecoin issuer and its sister company Bitfinex, with a minority stake held by SoftBank. The venture is launching with 42,000 BTC, putting its value at launch at around $3.6 billion, and it seeks to be a MicroStrategy-esque “public stock, built by Bitcoiners, for Bitcoiners”.24 Howard Lutnick already faced scrutiny during his Senate confirmation about his firm’s close links to Tether, and this move only deepens his and his family’s ties to the business.
Crypto operations should all be investigated since they always seem connected to sketchy stuff.
Bitfarms Ltd. Announcement: If You Have Suffered Losses in Bitfarms Ltd. (NASDAQ: BITF), You Are Encouraged to Contact The Rosen Law Firm About Your Rights GlobeNewswire | The Rosen Law Firm PAYesterday at 5:34pm EDT NEW YORK, April 28, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, continues to investigate potential securities claims on behalf of shareholders of Bitfarms Ltd. (NASDAQ: BITF) resulting from allegations that Bitfarms may have issued materially misleading business information to the investing public.
Bitfarms is the crypto printing company that took over the Carbon County Pennsylvania power plant data center that's burning coal waste and not providing any power to the grid.
My letter to reps:
What are you doing to investigate and stop crypto scam operations? There are so many accusations of misleading business practices and all sorts of stuff. Yet I see politicians being on board with cryptocurrency and all this clearly bad practice. I’m concerned because Bitfarms has recently acquired that power plant in Carbon County, PA and this is a firm that already has litigation alleging materially misleading business information.
Please feel free to copy or repurpose for your own letters to reps.
Nobody likes it when governors like Gavin Newsom force state workers back to the office.
Norbert @norbertmadao.bsky.social THIS ASSHOLE SIGNED AN EXECUTIVE ORDER TO END WORK FROM HOME FOR STATE EMPLOYEES! I ALREADY DON'T GET TO WORK FROM HOME BUT NOW MY COMMUTE'S GONNA BE EVEN LONGER BECAUSE OF THE THOUSANDS OF NEW CARS ON THE ROAD! April 29, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Tricksters trying to sign people up for inappropriate hospice via a Medicare fraud scheme.
Hospice Fraud: it’s a thing now Putnam County District Library Apr 30, 2025
The commercials for Medicare beneficiaries advertising "free stuff" is often sketchy or outright fraud attempts. I feel this marketing uses the dishonest talking points of Republicans and Elon Musk, claiming beneficiaries get all sorts of free stuff, to dupe people into thinking that it is real, and therefore they're able to get people's personal data, or even run a scam on someone's Medicare account.
It’s true that Medicare will never come to your home. And I heard from people who’ve had this happen to them years ago about health insurance company salespeople showing up at the homes of people about to be eligible for Medicare, in order to give them a scary hard sales pitch to sign them up for Medicare Advantage plans (aka Medicare DISadvantage!).
When government uses “anxiety” as an excuse to not deal with a problem, the term for this is Political Abuse of Psychiatry.
The government used this to try to keep people engaged with the economy despite the threats of covid, and now they’re using “climate anxiety” to stop research on climate, in order to attempt to hide the public health effects that would come from environmental damage. Again and again it’s been clear that there’s an agenda against public health that is the same opposition to climate mitigation, it’s been obvious since they use the same tactics and the funding comes from the same fossil fuel sources.
NY Project Hope Coping with COVID - 5. Look at uncertainty from a different perspective… It’s been said that uncertainty can be an “emotional amplifier,” meaning that uncertainty amplifies the emotions of whatever you’re thinking about. For example, it can be unpleasant to be uncertain about whether you’re going catch COVID-19, but it’s pleasant to be uncertain about how the new food you’re trying will taste. Looking at uncertainty in the lense of unexpected joy can take away some of the fear. Leaning into uncertainty as you do when you’re going to a new place, reading a new book, eating new food, learning a new language, and traveling abroad can help you to be more open to uncertainty, and more creative. We don’t know how these experiences will turn out, but we are still willing to engage in them.
Just because something goes viral doesn't mean it's real, organic, or actually popular.
Tech Won't Save Us - 25 05 01 [#274] How Brainrot AI is Upending the Internet - Jason Koebler Paris Marx is joined by Jason Koebler to discuss the economy behind AI slop generation, how people are building businesses on AI-generated images, and the wider consequences of their proliferation on social media. Jason Koebler is a cofounder of 404 Media and cohost of the 404 Media Podcast.