Blogging changed the media business for the worse, and the devolution continues.

also, unanimous decisions are typically arranged for the first majority decision by a newbie, but this was 7-2

...He told people he was encouraged to come to Texas to file for the seat by members of Trump's entourage and that he had come from Mar-a-Lago and would be returning there after...He said Cruz “wanted to see him in Congress,” as well...

Facebook gave $250,000 in 2018 to help fund Weave, Brooks' project at the Institute. A few months later Brooks began promoting Weave in the Times. He never disclosed the FB money, his salary, or other funders. Weave received just over 1.5 million in 2018, the latest $$ available.

— Craig Silverman (@CraigSilverman) March 3, 2021

I am quite inclined to believe this because: it just happened to me only a few weeks ago! Someone used my identity (including my name, SS# and address) to file for unemployment in NY state! I'm self-employed for years and I don't qualify, also now on SS. I only filed once with them, in the 80's. I was getting weird mail from Dept. of Labor I didn't understand. I filed a complaint online. They had already discovered the fraud but their letter took 10 days to reach me because of the USPS problems. I'm just crossing my fingers the perp doesn't try to steal something else; so far it's been okay.

By Charlie Savage & Michael Schmitt @NYTimes.com, March 3

[....] The military and the C.I.A. must now obtain White House permission to attack terrorism suspects in poorly governed places where there are scant American ground troops, like Somalia and Yemen. Under the Trump administration, they had been allowed to decide for themselves whether circumstances on the ground met certain conditions and an attack was justified.

Officials characterized the tighter controls as a stopgap while the Biden administration reviewed how targeting worked — both on paper and in practice — under former President Donald J. Trump and developed its own policy and procedures for counterterrorism kill-or-capture operations outside war zones, including how to minimize the risk of civilian casualties.

The Biden administration did not announce the new limits. But the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, issued the order on Jan. 20, the day of President Biden’s inauguration, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations [....]

Why are residents of the island commonwealth denied certain federal benefits that are given to U.S. citizens nearly everywhere else? The justices have decided to take up that question.

By Matt Ford @ newrepublic.com, March 2

In 2013, Jose Luis Vaello-Madero moved back to Puerto Rico. He had lived and worked in New York since 1985. His wife had already moved back to the island for medical reasons; now he would join her there to help take care of her. By then, he had developed health problems as well. And so, like millions of other Americans, he sought and received benefits under the Supplemental Security Income program that his taxes had helped fund over the years.

 If Vaello-Madero had moved to a remote cabin in Alaska or bought a houseboat in Florida, he would have been able to continue collecting SSI without a problem. But Congress had only authorized the SSI program in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the Northern Mariana Islands. When the Social Security Administration learned, three years later, that Vaello-Madero was still receiving payments inside Puerto Rico, it stopped disbursing them. Then the agency sued him to recover the $28,081 he had already received.

The justices agreed on Monday to hear the case at the urging of the Justice Department. If it rules in favor of Vaello-Madero, it could open up multiple nationwide benefits programs to the island’s three million residents, who are citizens of the United States. If the court sides with the Justice Department, however, the court could also take the opportunity to further entrench the colonial-era rulings that keep Puerto Ricans in what the commonwealth described to the court as a “second-class citizenship not supported in the Constitution.” [....]