Lainna Fader

@lainna.bsky.social

2672 Followers 531 Following

Politics, labor, art, graffiti, and dogs Work: newsletter strategy at Forbes

Batya Ungar-Sargon claimed that Trump’s recent tariff offensive proves he is “waging class warfare on Wall Street for the sake of the working class."
NY Times: “The people at the center of Signalgate — the national security adviser, Michael Waltz; the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth; the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard; to name a few — all know this. They all served in the military. They no doubt heard innumerable lectures from counterintelligence experts about all the different ways an adversary can make off with sensitive data. But this is an administration that actively, proudly rejects expertise. It casts those who have it as the corrupt old guard, the real enemy, the “deep state,” and it touts its own refusal to heed them as proof of its legitimacy and righteousness. By that view, the security establishment must be bent to the White House’s will, and if the people at the top don’t have the traditional qualifications for their positions, all the better. This is an administration that makes a weekend Fox News host the leader of the world’s largest military, puts a conspiracy-minded podcaster in charge of the F.B.I., and has at its pinnacle a reality star turned president. Blunders like this are an inevitable consequence.”
A large scruffy white dog cuddling next to me on the couch
LA Times: Huntington Beach resident Chris Kluwe was arrested during Tuesday night’s Huntington Beach City Council meeting after moving toward the dais following his public comments. Kluwe, a former pro football punter, has long spoken out about social issues. He attended Tuesday’s meeting to protest a proposed MAGA acrostic plaque outside of the Central Library for the library’s 50th anniversary, as he did at the Community and Library Services Commission meeting a week before. “I want our elected democratic officials to start engaging in civil disobedience,” Kluwe said Wednesday. “People need to be aware that what’s going on with this administration is leading us down a really dark path. Right now, no one is willing to step up and do that. So, if I want to ask them to do it, then I have to be willing to do it too.” City Council member Gracey Van Der Mark said it was pretty scary for a few seconds as Kluwe walked onto the platform in front of the dais, before she saw him turn around and put his hands behind his back. “He wanted his five minutes of fame, and that’s what he got,” she said. She said that Kluwe’s comments are an insult to Jewish people who support President Trump and called Huntington Beach a “beautiful conservative city.”
Rolling Stone: Since Trump took office, there has been a spate of terrifying air accidents — including a deadly mid-air collision just outside Washington, D.C., between an American Airlines regional jet and a U.S. Army helicopter; a fatal plane crash in Philadelphia; and another fatal plane crash off the coast of Alaska. On Monday, a plane traveling from Minneapolis crash-landed in Toronto, Canada.
Washington Post: The Federal Aviation Administration let go hundreds of technicians and engineers just weeks after a midair collision a few miles from the White House killed 67 people, eliciting promises from Trump officials to improve air safety, workers said in interviews. FEMA, which handles the nation’s natural disasters, is preparing to fire hundreds of probationary employees, according to four people familiar with the situation who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. The agency is already stretched thin responding to fires in California and floods in Kentucky. And the administration terminated scores of employees who work to bolster the nation’s nuclear defense, only to realize its error and start reversing the firings.
ProPublica: “Rent and income restrictions are supposed to last at least 30 years. But, after just 14 years, property owners may ask their states to find buyers. This opt-out clause was meant to offer wary investors an early exit from the program while retaining the affordability protections on the properties. But it included a critical unintended flaw: States can only sell at prices set by a formula that almost always overvalues the properties. As a result, buyers are rarely found. If states can't find buyers within a year, owners are free to raise rents on vacant units and, a few years later, on existing tenants as well.”
New York Times: “Trump and Musk have been dismantling federal agencies across the government … At least 11 federal agencies that have been affected by those moves have more than 32 continuing investigations, pending complaints or enforcement actions into Musk’s six companies.”
Jessica Valenti: Breaking: Trump is Scrubbing HIPAA Info off HHS Website
Wall Street Journal: Trump Advisers Weigh Plan to Dismantle Education Department
New York Times article: Who Pays for Tariffs? Here's What You Need to Know. President Trump has insisted that his new tariffs on Americas largest trading partners will not increase prices for Americans. But a review of how they work suggests that is not the case.
Substack says: Elon Musk has been a vocal supporter of free speech. It’s no secret that we haven’t always seen eye to eye, but he deserves a lot of credit for advancing freedom of speech on X, before it was popular and in the face of fierce criticism and opposition. But Musk’s record is not perfect—he has been credibly accused of censoring his political opponents in addition to his commercial ones. Mark Zuckerberg recently announced favorable changes in policy for Meta that should result in freer expression on its platforms. His stated reasons were a change in public sentiment and a new administration, reflecting a real change in the culture. Those who welcome the press freedom changes at Meta owe a debt to those who took a principled stand when the wind was blowing the other way. But just because the winds have changed does not mean we can now take freedom of the press for granted. In politics and business, it is easy to stand for free speech for your own side, but once given the power to censor, it is tempting to use it. President Trump campaigned on supporting free speech but has filed lawsuits against news outlets whose election coverage he didn’t like, raising questions about how consistent that support will be now that he’s in office.
New York Times quote: Not satisfied to simply eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, he ordered government workers to snitch on anyone suspected of not going along or face “adverse consequences,” a practice familiar to anyone of a certain age who lived in Russia. He fired at least a dozen inspectors general who monitor departments for corruption and abuse in a late-night purge on Friday, ignoring a law requiring him to give Congress 30 days’ notice and provide specific reasons. In doing so, Mr. Trump in effect declared that he was willing and even eager to push the boundaries of his authority, the resilience of American institutions, the strength of the nearly two-and-a-half-century-old system and the tolerance of some of his own allies. Even more than in his first term, he has mounted a fundamental challenge to expectations of what a president can and should do, demonstrating a belief that the rules his predecessors largely followed are meant to be bent, bypassed or broken.
Clip from a WSJ article that says: Some of the groups seem eager to demonstrate their loyalty to the president by directly participating in his initiatives, including his promised mass deportations. "1/20/25: Trump is sworn in as President," a recent Telegram post by an Ohio Proud Boys group said. "1/21/25: Me and the Proud Boys begin the deportations.
A large fluffy white jindo mix dog and a small brindle chihuahua snoozing together
A little brindle chihuahua named Ollie
A huge fluffy white jindo mix dog
A brindle chihuahua
A big shaggy white dog and a brindle chihuahua
View of smoke in LA
A fake Ryan J Reilly
Current fire conditions in LA
Fry, a big fluffy white dog
Wildfires in LA
Wildfires in LA
Wildfire in Los Angeles
Say Nothing Black Doves The Lincoln Lawyer The Diplomat Evil The Acolyte Presumed Innocent Disclaimer Silo Foundation
All We Imagine As Light Anora Green Border Will & Harper Hitman The Remarkable Life of Ibelin Wicked The Brutalist
Here are the best books I read in 2024: Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter (2024) by Kate Conger and Ryan Mac Dream: The Life and Legacy of Hakeem Olajuwon (2024) by Mirin Fader The Message (2024) by Ta-Nehisi Coates Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews Foiled Nazi Plots Against Hollywood and America (2018) by Steven J. Ross Coming Home (2024) by Brittney Griner This American Ex-Wife (2024) by Lyn Lenz Cuba: An American History (2021) by Ada Ferrer The Disney Revolt: The Great Labor War of Animation's Golden Age (2022) by Jake S Friedman A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy (2023) by Nathan Thrall Dark Wire: The Incredible True Story of the Largest Sting Operation Ever (2024) by Joseph Cox
A scruffy 60lb white dog wearing a cone
A dumb take by Bret Stephens in New York Times Opinion in which he calls Brian Thompson a working class hero, “not Luigi Mangione”
A 65lb scruffy white Sapsali dog and his brother a 12lb chihuahua mix
A 65lb white scruffy Sapsali dog and a 12lb brindle chihuahua mix
A silly quote from a NYPD detective about the healthcare exec gunman’s motives
My living room, with an art wall, red couch, pink Eames rocking chair, Noguchi floor lamp, and my white Sapsali dog
A 65lb white fluffy Sapsali dog
A big white Sapsali dog and a tiny brindle chihuahua cuddling together
My giant fluffy white dog is pawing at me to get a piece of my bagel
A 60lb white Sapsali dog named Fry
A shit headline from the New York Times
A sleepy chihuahua tucked himself into bed
A bird of paradise with googly eyes
A big white dog named Fry and a small brindle dog named Ollie cuddling