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Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: Disinformation Nation [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-03-20
Let’s get right to the nitty gritty.
Natasha Bertrand, Haley Britzky, and Oren Libermann/CNN
Articles about the Holocaust, September 11, cancer awareness, sexual assault and suicide prevention are among the tens of thousands either removed or flagged for removal from Pentagon websites as the department has scrambled to comply with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s order to scrub “diversity” content from all its platforms. A database obtained by CNN shows that more than 24,000 articles could be purged, with many gone already. The scrub goes well beyond just the removal of images from the Pentagon’s visual database, known as DVIDS, and includes articles from across more than 1,000 websites hosted by the department. The Pentagon previously said in a memo last month that it would be removing news and feature articles promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) content. Pentagon Press Secretary John Ullyot said in a statement Wednesday that the Defense Department was “pleased by the rapid compliance” across the Pentagon with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms.
I’m incensed by all of these removals and flags but I’m shocked that material related to the September 11th attacks is included. OK, maybe I shouldn’t be shocked but I am.
What’s next, removing the Nuremberg War Tribunal papers from the National Archives? (The transcripts of a trial that I’ve wanted to research is located in the National Archives.)
Selena Simmons-Duffin of NPR reports that segregated facilities are no longer explicitly banned in federal government contracts.
The segregation clause is one of several identified in a public memo issued by the General Services Administration last month, affecting all civil federal agencies. The memo explains that it is making changes prompted by President Trump's executive order on diversity, equity and inclusion, which repealed an executive order signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965regarding federal contractors and nondiscrimination. The memo also addresses Trump's executive order on gender identity. While there are still state and federal laws that outlaw segregation and discrimination that companies need to comply with, legal experts say this change to contracts across the federal government is significant. [...] The clause in question is in the Federal Acquisition Regulation, known as the FAR — a huge document used by agencies to write contracts for anyone providing goods or services to the federal government. [...] It defines segregated facilities as work areas, restaurants, drinking fountains, transportation, housing and more — and it says you can't segregate based on "race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin."
Darrell M. West of the Brookings institution addresses the danger of disinformation about Social Security.
According to Social Security Administration data, about 89,000 peopleover the age of 100 receive benefits, and nearly all are legitimate recipients. The agency, along with the General Accounting Office, routinely audits beneficiaries to detect fraud and has found no evidence supporting Trump’s claim of millions of dead or fraudulent beneficiaries. Indeed, Wired Magazine reported on February 17 that computer programmers pointed out how the list of extremely old people on the Social Security rolls is the result of “…a weird quirk of the Social Security Administration’s benefits system, which was largely written in COBOL, a 60-year-old programming language that undergirds SSA’s databases as well as systems from many other US government agencies.” DOGE investigators suggest Social Security staff are inefficient and wasteful, independent analyses showing the agency is among the most cost-effective in processing claims. For example, Professor Pamela Herd of the University of Michigan notes that the agency’s administrative costs have declined “from 2.2% in 1957 to just 0.5% today”, making it one of the federal government’s most efficient agencies. [...] The harsh and often inaccurate rhetoric surrounding federal agencies represents a way to delegitimize government and justify deep cuts in agency operations and staffing. If government enterprises are seen as criminal, unlawful, or engaging in fraudulent actions, it becomes easy to justify draconian measures that dismantle those agencies—highlighting the powerful consequences words have on shaping beliefs and actions related to government functions.
Eric Berger of Ars Technica reports that there are misinformation and disinformation campaigns about the return of two astronauts from the International Space Station.
For those of us who have closely followed the story of Wilmore and Williams over the last nine months—and Ars Technica has had its share of exclusive stories about this long and strange saga—the final weeks before the landing have seen it take a disturbing turn. In February, President Trump and the chief executive of SpaceX, Elon Musk, began to say that the two astronauts were "stranded" in space because the Biden administration did not want to bring them home. "They got left in space," Trump said. "They were left up there for political reasons," Musk concluded. Just what those political reasons were was never specified. But the basic message was clear: Biden, bad; Trump, good. The reality is that NASA set a plan for the return of Wilmore and Williams last August. The spacecraft that brought them back to Earth on Tuesday safely docked to the space station in September. They could have come home at any time since. NASA—not the Biden administration, which all of my reporting indicates was not involved in any decision-making—decided the best and safest option was to keep Wilmore and Williams in orbit until early this year. Musk knew this plan. He had to sign off on it. Senior NASA officials earlier this month confirmed, publicly and on the record, that the decision was made by the space agency in the best interests of the International Space Station Program. Not for political reasons. And still, the lies came.
Finally today, while we’re on the subject of space, Matthew Ormsbee of War on the Rocks says that Cold War era laws that governed international space need to be updated ASAP.
Integrating autonomy into space operations has created a fundamental mismatch between the state-based, human-centric communication requirements of existing space law and the realities of autonomous space systems operated by both state and non-state actors. As I teach cadets at the United States Air Force Academy — some of whom will become operators managing these very systems — it has become clear that the existing understanding of harmful interference in space is dangerously outdated. To address the problem, the United States should work to modernize the legal framework governing space activities. The effort should focus on embracing instantaneous consultations between non-human actors to avoid space collisions, updating standards for harmful interference to include the potential for cascading damage in space, and amending U.S. space policy to identify when automated systems make decisions. The proliferation of AI-enabled autonomous systems in space and mounting collision-avoidance incidents in recent years demand an urgent update to international space law. [...] To address the integration of autonomy in space, the United States can take three steps toward establishing a new legal framework governing such activity. First, the United States should establish clear parameters for communications between automated systems. Space operators require greater transparency when autonomous systems are used in orbit by others, but operators should also reveal the extent to which they rely on autonomy for their systems. The United States should enforce clear usage of autonomy in space (and potential liability) using preexisting licensing requirements. For example, the Federal Aviation Administration currently licenses all launches and reentries from space. Additionally, the Federal Communications Commission allocates the radio frequency spectrum through which U.S. operators communicate with their satellites. These gatekeeper functions authorize space activities and can take steps to enforce the responsible use of automated systems in space. This is even more vital as AI is more likely to be integrated into space systems in the future.
It’s true enough that international space law is a rather highlyspecialized area of the law but... you never know...after all, there are reports that the pandemic response office is down to one staffer nowadays.
Try to have the best possible day that you can!
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