Notices by Matt Blaze (mattblaze@federate.social)

@ai6yr @steter He should be encouraged. "You're definitely the best lion tamer!" "You're ready to be a heavyweight boxing champion!" "You're a much better helicopter pilot than those Marine One guys". Etc.

Trump has now mentioned getting himself elected Pope several times in the last week, which means that the Vatican is in for years of frivilous lawsuits, death threats against Cardinals, and even weirder-than-usual papal conspiracy theories when the white smoke goes up and it's someone else on the balcony.

Personally, I am not running for Pope, but if elected, I will accept and serve just long enough for my papal name to be forever on the record as Pope Clumsy I.

If Trump *does* manage to get elected pope, his revenge powers will expand from mere executive orders and DoJ investigations to an actual Inquisition.

Background: Newark has about 600 round trips per day (arrival/departure pairs), so United's cancelations represent about 6% of the total traffic. United is the main tenant at EWR, and it's a major hub for them. It's by far the busiest of the NYC metro area's 3 main airports, handling over half the flights into the city.

Everything about this story either simply sucks, is terrifying, or both.

United has canceled 35 round trips out of EWR starting this weekend after FAA fails to agree to limit traffic to what the airport can handle and air traffic controllers left their posts amid radar problems.

Uh, yikes.

https://www.wsj.com/business/airlines/united-airlines-cancels-newark-flights-after-faa-staff-walks-out-e794b071?st=R7441a&

5 Thurloe Square ("The Thin House"), London, UK, 2024

All the pixels, bigger on the inside than outside, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/54192985864

#photography

“DISCO31”, a military E3B AWACS plane, appears to have declared an emergency (squawking 7700) , circling northeast of Las Vegas.

@Natasha_Jay Nice to see them being inclusive of the undead, TBH.

An emolumental deal for the Trump family.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/us/politics/trump-cryptocurrency-usd1-dubai-conference-announcement.html?unlocked_article_code=1.D08.MoO3.qzJCjzhVyk6M&smid=url-share

Also: outlived Henry Kissinger.

Julia Parsons, who worked on deciphering German Enigma traffic as a US Navy cryptologist in WW II, has died at the age of 104.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/30/world/julia-parsons-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Dk8.P_-G.KhlNj7GIVjhR&smid=url-share

Interesting tidbit from her obit: She didn't find out that her war work had been declassified (25 years earlier) until she visited, as a tourist, the NSA museum in 1997 and saw Enigma machines on open display.

Our friends at EFF have coordinated a letter signed (thus far) by 41 cybersecurity professionals (including me) condemning the administration's unwarranted and dangerous attacks against Chris Krebs.

https://www.eff.org/document/chris-krebs-support-letter-april-28-2025

- Mass deportations without trials
- Extrajudicial imprisonment in foreign concentration camps.
- National registry of autistic people, who are declared "nonproductive"
- Arrests of judges

History is rhyming pretty hard right now.

People are, reasonably enough, upset that Trump fell asleep during the Pope's funeral. But having him fall asleep during major events with other world leaders is probably less damaging than whatever he might have done if he had been awake.

If you (somehow) need more evidence that the anti-DEI stuff is just plain naked racism, look no further this latest set of executive orders, in which schools NOT punishing minority students more severely than white kids is now considered a form of "discrimination".

https://apnews.com/article/trump-executive-orders-education-9fb7e1f707f0df93e3b28d4eff984d04

@kims The government's response is the sort of too-cute-by-half thing you'd expect from a 14 year old (who's about to find out that they aren't being as cute as they thought).

@kims Agreed. Also, of all the things to be upset about with her, “carries stupidity large wads of cash” is pretty low on the list. “Is an all around monster” is much higher.