Trump’s Work to Compile a ‘Master List of Personal Information on Americans’; Louisiana Moves to Ban ‘Chemtrails’–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: June 2, 2025

Indy Digest: June 2, 2025

The New York Times on Friday published a piece that was bone-chilling—and I do not use those words lightly. The lede:

In March, President Trump signed an executive order calling for the federal government to share data across agencies, raising questions over whether he might compile a master list of personal information on Americans that could give him untold surveillance power.

Mr. Trump has not publicly talked about the effort since. But behind the scenes, officials have quietly put technological building blocks into place to enable his plan. In particular, they have turned to one company: Palantir, the data analysis and technology firm.

The Trump administration has expanded Palantir’s work across the federal government in recent months. The company has received more than $113 million in federal government spending since Mr. Trump took office, according to public records, including additional funds from existing contracts as well as new contracts with the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon. (This does not include a $795 million contract that the Department of Defense awarded the company last week, which has not been spent.)

This story is not just recommended reading; I consider it mandatory reading. (If you run into a paywall, please email me, and I’ll be happy to share a gift link with you.) There are so many interesting—and alarming—details in the piece that you really need to read yourself.

To those of you out there who might try to dismiss concerns about what the Trump administration seems to be doing with Palantir as paranoia or, ugh, “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” two things:

1. If any presidential administration—Democrat, Republican, Whig, anything—were doing this, it would be alarming, but …

2. Trump has shown a penchant for going after people, companies, organizations and institutions he dislikes. That makes this whole thing extra concerning. (See: law firms, Harvard, 60 Minutes, etc.)

Our freedoms are in serious jeopardy. We’ll be watching this issue, and we’ll keep you informed on what you can do to fight.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• Our partners at Calmatters report on the decrease in the number of ships arriving at the state’s ports: “California’s port traffic is beginning to look worse now, under the effects of President Donald Trump’s fickle tariff policy, than it did at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. ‘The vessel calls, or cancellations, that we’re seeing today (are) starting to exceed the number that we saw in COVID-19,’ Mario Cordero, chief executive of the Port of Long Beach, said in an interview with CalMatters in early May. At Port of Los Angeles, Executive Director Gene Seroka said during a media briefing last week that the port expected 80 ships to arrive in May, but 17 have been canceled. By comparison, last year through May there were a total of 12 cancellations. There are 10 cancellations for June already, he added. Farther north, the Port of Oakland saw a 15% month-over-month drop in container activity in April, spokesperson Matt Davis said. It was the first significant decline this year, as tariffs went into effect.”

• Also from Calmatters: President Trump is threatening to cut community college budgets … due to the presence of LGBTQ+ pride centers that received federal funds. : “President Trump is proposing to cut more than $10 billion from the US Department of Education for the 2026 fiscal year. For each national program he wants to cut, the justification is usually general, pointing to the need to shrink the role of the federal government or to undermine “DEI” (diversity, equity and inclusion efforts) and ‘woke ideology.’ He singles out just one program by name: San Diego Community College District’s LGBTQ+ pride centers. In California, more than half of all undergraduates attend community colleges, but unlike Ivy League institutions and major research universities, such as UCLA, community colleges have largely avoided Trump’s spending cuts and ire—so far. But they’re bracing for changes to come. In 2023, each of San Diego’s four community colleges received over $225,000 through a federal grant to support spaces and programs for their LGBTQ+ students. That money is supporting ‘initiatives unrelated to students or institutional reforms,’ Trump’s budget proposal says.”

• The New York Times headline: “Trump Administration Ends Program Critical to Search for an H.I.V. Vaccine.” Sigh. Details: “The Trump administration has dealt a sharp blow to work on H.I.V. vaccines, terminating a $258 million program whose work was instrumental to the search for a vaccine. Officials from the H.I.V. division of the National Institutes of Health delivered the news on Friday to the program’s two leaders, at Duke University and the Scripps Research Institute. Both teams were collaborating with numerous other research partners. The work was broadly applicable to a wide range of treatments for other illnesses, from Covid drugs to snake antivenom and therapies for autoimmune diseases. ‘The consortia for H.I.V./AIDS vaccine development and immunology was reviewed by N.I.H. leadership, which does not support it moving forward,’ said a senior official at the agency who was not authorized to speak on the matter and asked not to be identified. … The program’s elimination is the latest in a series of cuts to H.I.V.-related initiatives, and to prevention of the disease in particular. Separately, the N.I.H. also paused funding for a clinical trial of an H.I.V. vaccine made by Moderna.”

• Meteorologists are expressing serious concerns about federal cuts as hurricane season approaches. CBS News says: “Through a combination of mass firings and buyouts since January, about 1,000 workers have left the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Weather Service’s parent agency and the nucleus of weather and climate information in the United States, multiple current and former employees told CBS News. Roughly 550 of those departures came out of the Weather Service, including its National Hurricane Center, which is the division focused on tropical storms, and numerous local forecast offices that monitor weather for their regions. … Bill Read, a retired Weather Service meteorologist and the director of the Hurricane Center from 2008 until 2012, told CBS News he believes the agency is committed to its mission to safeguard life and property and ‘will do whatever it takes to get the job done,’ even if that means employees take on additional work to make up for vacancies this summer and fall. … ‘They have a very difficult task, the folks that are still working there, trying to maintain the level of service that they’ve gotten used to giving, and that the public has gotten used to getting.’”

• Today’s recall news involves … beef stew! CBS News explains: “Hormel Foods Corporation is recalling over 256,000 pounds of canned beef stew nationwide due to potential contamination with wood fragments, according to federal health officials. In a recall notice posted Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service said the 20-oz. metal cans containing ‘Dinty Moore Beef Stew’ were shipped to retail locations nationwide. … ‘The problem was discovered after the establishment notified FSIS that they had received three consumer complaints reporting pieces of wood in the beef stew product,’ the notice read.”

• And finally … the Louisiana Legislature has voted to advance a bill banning chemtrails … you know, the trails left by planes that are controlling the weather. So what if there’s no actual evidence that chemtrails are a thing? Flying Magazine reports: “SB 46, passed by the state House of Representatives on May 29, would ban ‘chemtrails,’ the white streaks that trail from jets as they fly. The white lines are actually known as condensation trails or contrails, and they are the result of water vapor in hot aircraft engine exhaust hitting low temperatures at high altitudes. But backers of SB 46 believe the exhaust is mixed with chemicals that can create clouds, reflect sunlight, and change the weather. ‘This bill is to prevent any chemicals above us in the air, specifically to modify the weather,’ said State Representative Kimberly Landry Coates, according to a report from New Orleans’ WVUE-TV. When asked about the details of the bill on the House floor by a fellow lawmaker, Coates said aluminum, barium, and other chemicals have been found in aircraft engine exhaust, though she did not say where that information came from. Coates claimed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is responsible for chemtrails, together with ‘multiple’ other groups and contractors. She said she has seen documentation implicating ‘at least nine federal agencies.’”

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