#Dept. of Defense

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

This political cartoon by Louis Dalrymple appeared in Judge magazine in 1903. It depicts European immigrants as rats. Nativism and anti-immigration have a long and sordid history in the United States.

* * * *

Trying to understand Senator Mike Lee.

June 17, 2025

Robert B. Hubbell

As I begin to write this newsletter on Monday evening, a sense of foreboding hangs over the news cycle. Trump cut short his disastrous appearance at the G7 meeting in Canada to return to DC for an emergency meeting of the National Security Council. Trump’s abrupt return followed a social media post in which he advised residents of Tehran, Iran, to flee.

Whatever is happening, the clueless Trump will be advised in the situation room by Marco Rubio (serving as Sec. of State and National Security Advisor), Pete Hegseth (cosplaying as Sec. of Defense), Pam Bondi (cosplaying as Atty. Gen.), Stephen Miller (Deputy W.H. Chief of Staff), Tulsi Gabbard (Dir. Nat. Intel.), Sebastian Gorka (Dir. Of Counterterrorism), among others. See Institute for Global Affairs, Who’s Who On Trump’s National Security Council?

Let’s hope and pray that the amateurs in the Situation Room have the humility and good sense to listen to lower-echelon advisers with actual knowledge of foreign affairs and experience in matters of war. Sadly, the National Security Council lost key staff members after fringe extremist Laura Loomer convinced Trump to rid the NSC of staff members who weren’t giving Trump the answers he wanted. See AP (4/3/2025), Trump fires several national security officials over loyalty concerns.

When partisan loyalty triumphs over truth-telling in national intelligence, the decision-makers are making decisions based on facts that cannot be trusted. A very dangerous situation.

Without knowing more, it feels like the US may be positioning itself to be an active participant in a shooting war in the Middle East—something that two decades of experience counsels against. See Institute for Study of War, Iran Update Special Report, June 16, 2025. (“The United States is deploying additional forces to the Middle East to “provide options to defend US assets and interests.”)

Update: The Lucian Truscott Newsletter has provided a much more detailed analysis of what is happening in the Middle East as of Monday evening. For those interested in the details, I highly recommend Lucian’s analysis: Something big is about to go down in the Middle East.

We often overlook the damage to national security that Trump's election inflicted on US interests. However, we may soon discover just how much we will regret the steady hand of a wise and experienced leader during a time of crisis.

Trump's short but disastrous trip to the G7 meeting in Canada.

The G7 is a voluntary forum for the world's leading economic powers, committed to liberal democracy and representative government. It is composed of the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the EU (as a non-voting member). Meetings of the G7 are high-profile events where world leaders discuss trade policy and global security.

By departing early, Trump avoided a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which was planned for Tuesday.

Despite his short stay, Trump inflicted maximal damage to relations with our closest allies by calling for the readmission of Russia into the G7. Russia was expelled from the group for its invasion of Ukraine. Trump also called for the admission of China, a country that (like Russia) fails the “liberal democracy, representative government” test for admission to the G7.

As noted above, in our rightful focus on resisting Trump's attempt to overthrow the Constitution, it is easy to overlook the damage he is causing to our relationships with our closest allies.

Trying to understand Senator Mike Lee

Following the horrific political killings and attempted assassinations in Minnesota, Senator Mike Lee posted a series of tweets that mocked the killings and falsely claimed that the perpetrator was a “Marxist” Democrat. See The Guardian, Trump and other Republicans mock Democrats after Minnesota lawmaker killings.

I won’t repeat Senator Lee’s cruel posts, but they have earned him more than the usual share of condemnation, although not a word has been heard from his fellow congressional Republicans.

Can we understand what motivated Senator Mike Lee to abandon his sense of decency, morality, religious principles, and empathy as a father and husband?

No, we can’t. Trying to understand Senator Mike Lee is a waste of time. There is no explaining, rationalizing, or excusing Senator Lee’s grotesque behavior. Instead, we should condemn Lee and everyone who fails to condemn him—and then move on.

There is a path for redemption for Mike Lee, but it is up to him to take it. That path involves a level of introspection, regret, shame, sorrow, and determination to be a better person that is far beyond Mike Lee’s current level of self-awareness. Let’s not wait for a sincere effort by Mike Lee to seek redemption and forgiveness. We have a democracy to save, and trying to understand Mike Lee’s depravity is a diversion we cannot afford.

DEAR READERS: Shortly before publishing, I made the decision to omit the remainder of my discussion regarding Senator Mike Lee. The discussion was too dark and angry for inclusion in this newsletter. I do not want to provoke anger or despair in readers. In place of the remainder of my essay, I link to a communication from a Senate staffer to Senator Mike Lee, as published in the Salt Lake Tribune: Minnesota US Senate staffer sends Mike Lee a scathing email. Read it here.

What Mike Lee did was reprehensible. Our remedy is to take control of the House and Senate in 2026 so that we can re-establish norms of decency and decorum among members of Congress. In a rational world, the Senate would censure Mike Lee, at least.

Republicans run roughshod over the Constitution and federal law every day.

In the noise, confusion, and chaos caused by Trump's high-velocity constitutional violations, it is difficult to see the pervasive way in which he is ignoring the Constitution and federal law every day.

On Monday, we learned the following:

The Department of Homeland Security is spending money in excess of its congressional appropriation and is diverting funds appropriated for one purpose to a different purpose. See Raw Story, 'Spending like drunken sailors': Kristi Noem risks criminal charges over ICE

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy threatened to withhold appropriated transportation funds from “blue states” based on Duffy’s subjective perception of whether those states were enforcing immigration laws. See Raw Story, Sean Duffy to withhold transportation funds from cities with anti-ICE protests.

Withholding funds appropriated by Congress is a violation of the Constitution and the Impoundment Control Act of 1974. Multiple court orders have ruled that efforts to withhold funds by other agencies violate federal law and the Constitution. Yet, Sean Duffy is proceeding as if those court rulings do not exist.

A US District Judge in Massachusetts ruled that cuts to funds appropriated to the NIH violate federal anti-discrimination law. See HuffPo, Judge Rules Some NIH Grant Cuts Illegal, Saying He's Never Seen Such Discrimination In 40 Years.

As reported by HuffPo, Judge William Young, Reagan-appointee, said,

After 40 years on the bench, “I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this,” Young added. He ended Monday’s hearing saying, “Have we no shame?”

The Guardian reported that the Veterans Administration had modified a rule so that it is now permissible for the VA to refuse to treat patients based on their party affiliation. See The Guardian, ‘Extremely disturbing and unethical’: new rules allow VA doctors to refuse to treat Democrats, unmarried veterans.

Per The Guardian, new regulations eliminated “[l]anguage requiring healthcare professionals to care for veterans regardless of their politics and marital status.”

A spokesperson for the VA initially seemed to confirm the change:

In an emailed response to questions, the VA press secretary, Peter Kasperowicz, did not dispute that the new rules allowed doctors to refuse to treat veteran patients based on their beliefs or that physicians could be dismissed based on their marital status or political affiliation, but said “all eligible veterans will always be welcome at VA and will always receive the benefits and services they’ve earned under the law”.

In a later response, the administration strongly denied it would refuse to treat patients based on party affiliation, but did not address the rule changes that omitted protections based on party affiliation. See The Hill, Trump administration denies report of new VA hospital rules.

Given the active efforts to deny federal funding to “blue states,” the removal of protections for patients based on party identification rightfully raised concerns about the intent of the rule change. It may be that the uproar over the rule change forced the administration to back down from a plan to deny healthcare to Democratic veterans.

Trump administration reverses reversal of decision regarding raids on farms, hotels, and restaurants.

Last week, Stephen Miller suffered a temporary setback to his plan to “Make America White Again.” The Department of Homeland Security issued an internal communication advising ICE agents to refrain from arresting immigrants working on farms, in hotels, and in restaurants.

On Monday, that “exemption” for farms, hotels, and restaurants was lifted and ICE agents were told they were free to resume raids at those locations. See Reuters, US reverses guidance pausing ICE raids on farms, hotels and restaurants, WaPo reports.

This development is bad news for all Americans, regardless of their immigration or citizenship status. ICE is detaining people based on their “appearance.” The agents are brandishing assault rifles while covered in body armor and emerging from unmarked cars.

After the tactics used by the killer in Minnesota—impersonating an officer, wearing a face mask to conceal his identity--the resumption of detentions in restaurants and hotels is likely to spread public panic and result in impromptu public resistance, the combustible mixture that led to unrest in San Diego and Los Angeles.

Richard North Patterson serializes a book-length essay on Substack called “America on the Precipice.”

Noted author, long-time reader of this newsletter, and friend, Richard North Patterson, has begun publishing a serialized book-length essay on Substack called “America on the Precipice.” It is a “bottom-up” review of how we got here, concluding with “Recovering American Democracy.” The first installment is here: America On the Precipice Section I and is free to read.

Ric and I don’t always see eye-to-eye on how to approach our democratic crisis, but his views represent the outlook of a good number of readers of this newsletter, especially those who favor the editorial stance of the Bulwark (my gloss, not Ric’s). Check out Ric’s America on the Precipice if you are looking for a deep and thoughtful dive into how we got here, and where we go from here.

Concluding Thoughts.

Apologies for a “tough news” edition of the newsletter. We should all still be riding high from the incredibly successful protests over the weekend. Like you, I am seeing ever-higher estimates of the total number of participants in the No Kings Day rallies. I will wait for a firmer estimate before amplifying the higher numbers, but I am inclined to believe that the initial 5 million estimate was low. Stay tuned.

The New York Times published an informative news analysis regarding the law firms that capitulated to Trump. See NYTimes, Trump’s Strategy in Law Firm Cases: Lose, Don’t Appeal, Yet Prevail (Accessible to all.)

The point of the article is that many (most?) of Trump's executive orders are so blatantly illegal that even he doesn’t believe they will hold up in court. The point is simply to cull the herd by picking off weak participants who would rather settle than fight an illegal order.

As the Times notes, Trump hasn’t even bothered to appeal the losses he suffered in court at the hands of law firms who refused to capitulate. Despite the obviously illegal and unconstitutional nature of the executive orders against the law firms, about a dozen concluded it was easier to surrender than undertake a principled defense of the Constitution.

There is a hugely consequential lesson for us in the capitulation of a dozen of the world's most powerful and wealthy law firms: Trump is nearly all bluster. He will press his advantage until someone stands up to him. He will then retreat and pick on someone else, until the new crop of victims finally stands up against him.

“We, the people,” are calling Trump's bluff and standing up to him in an unprecedented manner. We must continue that effort until he retreats--or rather, until his corporate overlords tell him to retreat because they cannot afford the disruption to their businesses. That day is closer than we think.

Keep up the good work—and look for the next opportunity to get back in the streets.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[revdrjamesjshowersjr]

Prayer requests for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, US Army Infectious Disease Control and Medical Research.

So Help Me God..Amen, Ameen, Amun, Amin, Aum..

[doueverwonder]

Gov: Today at 7 am, Defense poured a Monster energy drink into his coffee, said "I'm going to die" and drank the whole thing.

IDC: I watched Defense brew his coffee with Monster instead of water. Three cups in two hours. I think he ascended into the astral realm.

Treasury: The survivability of the human race never fails to amaze me.

[sonnetts-enclosure]

[via Voice In Sport]

[jadeseadragon]

[helenvaughans]

lbr if there was a WW3, nuclear weapons notwithstanding, it would be almost entirely conducted by drone strikes and hacking power grids/weapons systems/etc. people’s fear of being drafted is based on a fantasy of what war was like 50 years ago and assuming that we haven’t advanced technologically since then.

[flythesail]

What is the department of efficiency and why is... why is......

[workersolidarity]

🇺🇲 🪖🏦 🚨

UNITED STATES SENATE APPROVES $886 BILLION DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION BILL

The United States Senate overwhelmingly approved the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a bill funding the U.S. Defense Department to the tune of $886 Billion after abandoning some of the more controversial, hot-button social policies pushed by some Republican lawmakers on Wednesday.

The annual Defense Bill passed with 87 votes in favor and 13 against. A vote in the United States House could come as soon as Thursday morning, with the hope the President could have it signed soon after.

The Bill is the result of many months of negotiations between Democratic and Republican leadership, along with the White House, and remained deadlocked for some time over funding for the war in Ukraine, with the final bill approving the funding.

Earlier this summer, hard-line Republican lawmakers passed their own version of the NDAA including policies blocking medical treatment for transgender troops, the Pentagon's travel abortion policies, and programs to promote "diversity and inclusion". Democrats apposed this version of the NDAA, and the negotiations have been going on until now.

The Senate Bill however does not include the more contentious provisions, and has garnered strong bipartisan support. Language limiting funding for abortion services, transgender medical treatment and drag shows were not included in the final draft.

The final bill did include a pay cap and hiring freeze for defense programs related to "diversity and inclusion". The approved version of the bill also includes provisions supported by Republicans prohibiting the promotion of Critical Race Theory and the display of "unapproved" flags at military instillations, with an eye towards targeting the gay pride and transgender flags.

Another provision pushed by Mississippi Republican Roger Wicker forces the Pentagon to formulate a plan for the use of unused border wall materials.

With some Republican lawmakers balking at the lack of oversight for Ukraine aid, negotiators finally agreed to create a new Special Inspector General for Operation Atlantic Resolve, the official name given to the operations responding to Russia's Special Military Operation in Ukraine.

Before the final vote, Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul attempted a last minute meneuver to strip out the four-month extension of the sweeping surveillance powers given through the highly controversial Section 702 affording Intelligence Agencies the power to spy on American citizens who get caught up in the dragnet of foreign surveillance, however that move was voted down 65 to 35.

The final bill also includes provisions to implement the AUKUS submarine sharing pact between the U.S., U.K. and Australia, including the delivery of Virginia-class subs.

Republican Senator Roger Wicker had initially blocked the sub deliveries, in order to secure an additional $3.4 Billion in Submarine Industrial base funding alongside Ukraine and Israel aid. The final deal delays the sub delivery until one year after the bill becomes Law.

The Bill also approves a 5.2% pay raise for troops.

#source

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Steve Brodner

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

February 21, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Feb 22, 2025

In an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) yesterday, billionaire Elon Musk seemed to be having difficulty speaking. Musk brandished a chainsaw like that Argentina's president Javier Milei used to symbolize the drastic cuts he intended to make to his country’s government, then posted that image to X, labeling it “The DogeFather,” although the administration has recently told a court that Musk is neither an employee nor the leader of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Politico called Musk’s behavior “eccentric.”

While attendees cheered Musk on, outside CPAC there appears to be a storm brewing. While Trump and his team have claimed they have a mandate, in fact more people voted for someone other than Trump in 2024, and his early approval ratings were only 47%, the lowest of any president going back to 1953, when Gallup began checking them. His approval has not grown as he has called himself a “king” and openly mused about running for a third term.

A Washington Post/Ipsos poll released yesterday shows that even that “honeymoon” is over. Only 45% approve of the “the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president,” while 53% disapprove. Forty-three percent of Americans say they support what Trump has done since he took office; 48% oppose his actions. The number of people who strongly support his actions sits at 27%; the number who strongly oppose them is twelve points higher, at 39%. Fifty-seven percent of Americans think Trump has gone beyond his authority as president.

Americans especially dislike his attempts to end USAID, his tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada, and his firing of large numbers of government workers. Even Trump’s signature issue of deporting undocumented immigrants receives 51% approval only if respondents think those deported are “criminals.” Fifty-seven percent opposed deporting those who are not accused of crimes, 70% oppose deporting those brought to the U.S. as children, and 66% oppose deporting those who have children who are U.S. citizens. Eighty-three percent of Americans oppose Trump’s pardon of the violent offenders convicted for their behavior during the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Even those who identify as Republican-leaning oppose those pardons 70 to 27 percent.

As Aaron Blake points out in the Washington Post, a new CNN poll, also released yesterday, shows that Musk is a major factor in Trump’s declining ratings. By nearly two to one, Americans see Musk having a prominent role in the administration as a “bad thing.” The ratio was 54 to 28. The Washington Post/Ipsos poll showed that Americans disapprove of Musk “shutting down federal government programs that he decides are unnecessary” by the wide margin of 52 to 26. Sixty-three percent of Americans are worried about Musk’s team getting access to their data.

Meanwhile, Jessica Piper of Politico noted that 62% of Americans in the CNN poll said that Trump has not done enough to try to reduce prices, and today’s economic news bears out that concern: not only are egg prices at an all-time high, but also consumer sentiment dropped to a 15-month low as people worry that Trump’s tariffs will raise prices. White House deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said in a statement: “[T]he American people actually feel great about the direction of the country…. What’s to hate? We are undoing the widely unpopular agenda of the previous office holder, uprooting waste, fraud, and abuse, and chugging along on the great American Comeback.”

Phone calls swamping the congressional switchboards and constituents turning out for town halls with House members disprove Fields’s statement. In packed rooms with overflow spaces, constituents have shown up this week both to demand that their representatives take a stand against Musk’s slashing of the federal government and access to personal data, and to protest Trump’s claim to be a king. In an eastern Oregon district that Trump won by 68%, constituents shouted at Representative Cliff Bentz: “tax Elon,” “tax the wealthy,” “tax the rich,” and “tax the billionaires.” In a solid-red Atlanta suburb, the crowd was so angry at Representative Richard McCormick that he has apparently gone to ground, bailing on a CNN interview about the disastrous town hall at the last minute.

That Trump is feeling the pressure from voters showed this week when he appeared to offer two major distractions: a pledge to consider using money from savings found by the “Department of Government Efficiency” to provide rebates to taxpayers—although so far it hasn’t shown any savings and economists say the promise of checks is unrealistic—and a claim that he would release a list of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s clients.

Trump is also under pressure from the law.

The Associated Press sued three officials in the Trump administration today for blocking AP journalists from presidential events because the AP continues to use the traditional name “Gulf of Mexico” for the gulf that Trump is trying to rename. The AP is suing over the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Today, a federal court granted a preliminary injunction to stop Musk and the DOGE team from accessing Americans’ private information in the Treasury Department’s central payment system. Eighteen states had filed the lawsuit.

Tonight, a federal court granted a nationwide injunction against Trump’s executive orders attacking diversity, equity, and inclusion, finding that they violate the First and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution.

Trump is also under pressure from principled state governors.

In his State of the State Address on Wednesday, February 19, Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker noted that “it’s in fashion at the federal level right now to just indiscriminately slash school funding, healthcare coverage, support for farmers, and veterans’ services. They say they’re doing it to eliminate inefficiencies. But only an idiot would think we should eliminate emergency response in a natural disaster, education and healthcare for disabled children, gang crime investigations, clean air and water programs, monitoring of nursing home abuse, nuclear reactor regulation, and cancer research.”

He recalled: “Here in Illinois, ten years ago we saw the consequences of a rampant ideological gutting of government. It genuinely harmed people. Our citizens hated it. Trust me—I won an entire election based in part on just how much they hated it.”

Pritzker went on to address the dangers of the Trump administration directly. “We don’t have kings in America,” he said, “and I don’t intend to bend the knee to one…. If you think I’m overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this: It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. All I’m saying is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control.”

He recalled how ordinary Illinoisans outnumbered Nazis who marched in Chicago in 1978 by about 2,000 to 20, and noted: “Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let the ‘tragic spirit of despair’ overcome us when our country needs us the most.”

Today, Maine governor Janet Mills took the fight against Trump’s overreach directly to him. At a meeting of the nation’s governors, in a rambling speech in which he was wandering through his false campaign stories about transgender athletes, Trump turned to his notes and suddenly appeared to remember his executive order banning transgender student athletes from playing on girls sports teams.

The body that governs sports in Maine, the Maine Principals’ Association, ruled that it would continue to allow transgender students to compete despite Trump's executive order because the Maine state Human Rights Law prohibits discrimination on the grounds of gender identity.

Trump asked if the governor of Maine was in the room.

“Yeah, I’m here,” replied Governor Mills.

“Are you not going to comply with it?” Trump asked.

“I’m complying with state and federal laws,” she said.

“We are the federal law,” Trump said. “You better do it because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t….”

“We’re going to follow the law,” she said.

“You’d better comply because otherwise you’re not going to get any federal funding,” he said.

Mills answered: “We’ll see you in court.”

As Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times put it: “Something happened at the White House Friday afternoon that almost never happens these days. Somebody defied President Trump. Right to his face.”

Hours later, the Trump administration launched an investigation into Maine’s Department of Education, specifically its policy on transgender athletes. Maine attorney general Aaron Frey said that any attempt to cut federal funding for the states over the issue “would be illegal and in direct violation of federal court orders…. Fortunately,” he said in a statement, “the rule of law still applies in this country, and I will do everything in my power to defend Maine’s laws and block efforts by the president to bully and threaten us.”

“[W]hat is at stake here [is] the rule of law in our country,” Mills said in a statement. “No President…can withhold Federal funding authorized and appropriated by Congress and paid for by Maine taxpayers in an attempt to coerce someone into compliance with his will. It is a violation of our Constitution and of our laws.”

“Maine may be one of the first states to undergo an investigation by his Administration, but we won’t be the last. Today, the President of the United States has targeted one particular group on one particular issue which Maine law has addressed. But you must ask yourself: who and what will he target next, and what will he do? Will it be you? Will it be because of your race or your religion? Will it be because you look different or think differently? Where does it end? In America, the President is neither a King nor a dictator, as much as this one tries to act like it—and it is the rule of law that prevents him from being so.”

“[D]o not be misled: this is not just about who can compete on the athletic field, this is about whether a President can force compliance with his will, without regard for the rule of law that governs our nation. I believe he cannot.”

Americans’ sense that Musk has too much power is likely to be heightened by tonight’s report from Andrea Shalal and Joey Roulette of Reuters that the United States is trying to force Ukraine to sign away rights to its critical minerals by threatening to cut off access to Musk’s Starlink satellite system. Ukraine turned to that system after the Russians destroyed its communications services.

And Americans’ concerns about Trump acting like a dictator are unlikely to be calmed by tonight’s news that Trump has abruptly purged the leadership of the military in apparent unconcern over the message that such a sweeping purge sends to adversaries. He has fired the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Charles Q. Brown, who Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested got the job only because he is Black, and Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the Chief of Naval Operations, who was the first woman to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff and whom Hegseth called a “DEI hire.”

The vice chief of the Air Force, General James Slife, has also been fired, and Hegseth indicated he intends to fire the judge advocates general, or JAGs—the military lawyers who administer the military code of justice—for the Army, Navy, and Air Force. Trump has indicated he intends to nominate Air Force Lieutenant General John Dan “Razin” Caine to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Oren Liebermann and Haley Britzky of CNN call this “an extraordinary move,” since Caine is retired and is not a four-star general, a legal requirement, and will need a presidential waiver to take the job. Trump has referred to Caine as right out of “central casting.”

Defense One, which covers U.S. defense and international security, called the firings a “bloodbath.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[jkanelis]

Hegseth: disgrace to our military

Pete Hegseth’s smirking responses to serious questions from members of Congress only serve to remind many millions of us what a horrifying choice Donald Trump made in selecting him as our secretary of defense. Trump plucked Hegseth from the weekend TV talk show ranks to put him in charge of managing the most lethal military force in human history. Hegseth entered his new job with myriad issues:…

[doueverwonder]

pushing my IDC = Department of State hc the same way it went from DC = Gov

[mas-y-menos]

i live in central maryland and have a degree in computer animation so every job opportunity on indeed is either bethesda or the dod

[marxalittle]

"dark academia" yeah right listen the only thing dark about academia is the funding model, everything else is a comedy of errors/manners or a farce ending in death

One time I coauthored a satirical blood sacrifice-based open access/article processing charge model ("red oa") with a sliding scale of how much blood and from what to publish what and that's more transparent, more ethical, and more accessible than like 80% of all other academic funding.

[vriskarlmarx]

i do nooooot want to minimize that Aaron's action has had a positive and intended consequence here. but it is really so insane to me that usamericans are so far removed from thinking of any of us in the global south as real people that it takes seeing another usamerican setting himself on fire for them to see it. like intellectually i knew this but it doesn't stop being crazy to see play out.

[jcmarchi]

Innovation Crossroads Puts a Charge in Battery Startup, Accelerating Path from Lab to Market - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/innovation-crossroads-puts-a-charge-in-battery-startup-accelerating-path-from-lab-to-market-technology-org/

Innovation Crossroads Puts a Charge in Battery Startup, Accelerating Path from Lab to Market - Technology Org

After several years starting a company to produce a unique solvent-free battery component for manufacturing, Rajan Kumar joined Innovation Crossroads at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory to build his entrepreneurial skills.

ORNL scientist Zhijia Du, white coat; former ORNL scientist Jianlin Li, blue coat; and Ateios CEO Rajan Kumar inspect battery components during a pilot production run. Credit: Kurt Weiss/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Kumar, an engineer and the chief executive officer of Ateios Systems, is a Cohort 2022 fellow in Innovation Crossroads, or IC, a two-year DOE Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program node that helps innovators in energy and advanced manufacturing technologies take their ideas from research to the marketplace. The program affords invaluable assistance with financial resources, access to state-of-the-art research facilities and guidance from leading experts in business, engineering and science, Kumar said.

“This experience allows us to pursue key pilot projects that help validate the technology and the guidance needed to secure critical business requirements, such as contracts and partnerships, to help us get the technology to the next level,” he said.

Through Innovation Crossroads, fellows are connected to experts, mentors and networks in technology-related fields and are provided access to ORNL’s unique scientific resources and capabilities.

The postdoctoral fellowship includes stipends for two years, including travel and health benefits as well as R&D funding for collaboration with ORNL researchers, all of which are extremely important for an early stage entrepreneur trying to scale up a technology, Kumar said.

“Moving technology into the marketplace is key to the lab’s mission,” said Jennifer Caldwell, director of technology transfer at ORNL. “By partnering with entrepreneurs, the lab can transfer knowledge to businesses, ultimately providing economic benefits across the United States.”

In 2021, Ateios Systems licensed a technology from ORNL for solvent-free battery component production using electron curing.

The battery component is an electrode, a thin sheet of battery powder with a small amount of polymer. The polymer acts as a glue to hold the powder together, coated onto metal foils like copper and aluminum. The electrode is a critical component for batteries, accounting for 77% of the total battery cost, and is one of the essential factors in determining battery performance. This new method shortens processing times from minutes to seconds, significantly lowers capital and operating costs, and reduces emissions.

Within a year, Ateios Systems conducted multiple pilot productions and delivered batteries to more than 20 prospective electronics manufacturers to validate its claims. With the advent of the Internet of Things, devices that perform asset tracking or provide electronic shelf labels, and wearables and sensors need a simple, single-use battery. Although the battery may be simple, it is a critical component that allows these devices to monitor, collect and transmit data to their users to make better-informed decisions.

The development of the invention was led by ORNL’s Zhijia Du and Chris Janke along with former ORNL scientists David Wood, Jianlin Li and Claus Daniel. Caldwell and Susan Ochs led the commercialization efforts. The technology earned an R&D 100 Award in 2022.

Innovation Crossroads gives ORNL researchers a mechanism to work with industry, speeding the delivery from the lab bench to commercialization, Du said. Often, engineers and scientists developing technologies are unaware of how to take it beyond the lab, he said.

“The more you know about prototyping, the more you know how to move the technology to a higher level,” Du said. “Technology readiness definitely moves faster with Innovation Crossroads. The national lab-industry collaboration accelerates the pace of commercialization.”

Janke said the IC program is useful for researchers, not just the fellows. “I think it puts the technology at the forefront of that market push-pull that we don’t typically experience here at the lab,” he said. “It’s a different focus that we just don’t experience that often.”

The battery technology the ORNL team developed is a platform that will help improve performance and cost. In the long term, Ateios Systems seeks to expand into electric vehicles, power grid applications and key innovations to enable solid-state batteries. Although it’s an award-winning technology and licensed for commercialization, Kumar, Du and Janke all agree there is more research and development needed to advance the technology. For example, performance and cost benefits need to be achieved at the production level, with high yields and a clear profit margin.

That’s why Ateios is continuing its collaboration with ORNL, actively working to deliver production-quality battery components to end users.

“Although our key goal is to translate the technology to a production setting, we are actively working with IC on building next-generation battery technology. For example, with mentors’ guidance and reviewing their previous research, we were able to make a safe, solid-state battery technology for the Department of Defense,” Kumar said.

He added that companies benefit from working with a DOE national laboratory. “If the technology is compelling, then companies should consider this approach. ORNL researchers work on ambitious projects, are driven to see the research translated to industry and are leaders in their fields,” Kumar said.

Another advantage of the IC program, he said, is that fellows get technical and business mentors. Typically, a startup entrepreneur has expertise in one or the other, but not necessarily both.

“The technical mentor shares technical information based on their previous work and guidance on future projects,” Kumar said. “The business mentor helps with fundraising, sales and partnerships to help the company continue to access more resources to mature the technology further.”

UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. DOE’s Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit energy.gov/science.

Source: Oak Ridge National Laboratory

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[revdrjamesjshowersjr]

Thank you to Autom..I received the Saint Charles Borromeo Pendant yesterday. It was in the United States Postal Service, for my current compound.

Almighty Creator, bless the spirit of Saint Charles Borromeo, St. Jude and others, as we pray together for the victims of corruption, to include espionage, high treason, subversive activities, sedition, sabotage, racketeering, blackmail, graft and every other form of corruption.

So Help Me God..Amen, Ameen, Amun, Amin, Aum..

Espirit De Corpe..De Oppresso Liber..