Moonwalking Away from Omelas

The figure of the modern oligarch is a troll with a bridge. You can’t cross the bridge until you pay the toll. He holds the bridge by the favor of a bigger troll.

The toll isn’t for upkeep; the bridge is rotting. The toll pays for the troll’s drugs, gambling debts, and luxury ideological beliefs.

2026 (planned) Data centers vs. megaprojects Inflation-adjusted costs, billions USD SIT- 2025₽ Data center capex =$930B in 6 years $750B- Interstate Highway System ® S620B, 37yr US Railroads $550B, 71yr $500B- F-35 Program $400B, 25yr (to date) $250B - $O Apollo Program $257B, 14yr Marshall Plan $170B, 4yr Manhattan-Project -$36B,Syr- 10 20 International Space Station $150B, 27yr- 30 40 Years from start of program 50 60 70 Sources: Company reports, Epoch AI • FHWA • NASA • CRS • GAO • Brookings Al capex = estimated data-centre share of global reported capex at the big-5 US hyperscalers (Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, Oracle; Epoch AI+ Platformonomics). Assuming DC share scales from +55% in 2020 to =80% by 2026. Excludes Chinese hyperscalers. All costs in 2024 dollars.

Absolutely insane numbers on data center buildout. I haven’t vetted these by they’re about right based on memory/back of the envelope.

A long text post by Tumblr user genderkoolaid. ""The House of D [was] 500 feet from the Stonewall Inn," Ryan says. "On the first night of the riots, people incarcerated in the prison could actually see what was happening out their windows, and they started a riot all their own, setting fire to their belongings and throwing them down to the streets below while chanting 'Gay rights! Gay rights! Gay rights!' "By the '50s and '60s, Ryan estimates, "around 75% of the people incarcerated in the House of D are queer in some way." In the 1960s, the prison began marking gay prisoners with a "D" for "degenerate," and placing them into solitary confinement because they were considered a "danger to other women." [...] The first waywardism laws in New York State start in the 1880s and they only apply to girls and women, originally ones who are arrested for prostitution and then expanded greatly in the late 1800s to women who might become prostitutes. And that's where they really get into danger, right? Because suddenly the charge of prostitution has nothing to do with sex work or exchanging sex for money. Instead, a wayward girl is anyone who was thought to be improperly feminine to the point where she has an invitation to prostitution. She's either too sexual or she's too masculine and unable to get any other kind of job. So of course she's going to end up being a prostitute."

screencap of a tweet with a photo at the bottom of JD Vance giving a talk, gesturing smugly with his hands Eric Daugherty • @EricLDaugh • 1h • JD VANCE RESPONDS TO POPE LEO: "When the Pope says that God is never on the side of those who wield the sword - there is more than a THOUSAND year tradition of Just war Theory." "In the same way that it's important for the vice president of the United States to be careful when I talk about matters of public policy, I think it's very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology." "And I think that one of these issues here is that there has been - if you're going to opine on matters of theology, you've got to be careful, you've got to make sure it's anchored in the truth, and that's one of the things that I try to do, and it's certainly something I would expect from the clergy, whether they're Catholic or Protestant."

I’ve given this a great deal of thought, trying to come up with the perfect joke for this moment, and this is what I have so far -

POPE LEO: our religion teaches that this war is bad

VANCE: wow, who died and made YOU head of the Catholic Church??

POPE LEO: well, you should know, you were there

It was ever thus.

Screen grab of the linked Harvard Crimson article, in a FedSoc student calls the accelerated hiring timeline a “race to the bottom.”

I don’t think this FedSoc student actually meant to express that hiring among conservative judges has become “a race to the bottom,” and yet, he’s accidentally right on the money.

Your Backpack Got Worse On Purpose In 1986, a corporation that made women's lingerie bought every backpack brand you've ever trusted.

For context - I bought a jansport travel backpack in.. 1993. My teenager still uses it. Worn, but still looks good and works.

Every jansport we've bought for my kids in the last 15 years has fallen apart in 1-2 years. Literally fabric coming apart.

I often miss living in New York, but I worked in the building across the street from this one for 6 years, and I don’t miss trying to focus during protest days.

A wooden eye.

Wouldn’t I?

I have a very deadline-heavy profession with bad consequences for missing deadlines, and so very often I have to lean into it, fully knowing it’s gonna be bad for my health.

you say "i asked chatgpt"
i hear "i asked [an improv comedy group]"

an improv group wrote this report
instead of a therapist i use an improv comedy group

The replies to this make me despair. People see a woman casually say “wtf are you talking about!?” to a man, see him immediately flash his “you may be right” face, and somehow misread this a mansplaining interaction. My man was clearly seeking her opinion and valued her perspective!

To everyone saying he’s a mansplaining conservative douchebag—have you never actually seen such a man get corrected by a woman?

She says “what the fuck are you talking about” and he immediately responds with his “you may have a point” face. He was seeking her opinion, y’all.

Driving a dually with *no trailer hitch* and a “farm truck” sticker on it is a level of poseurdom heretofore unknown to man.

Well regarded law schools keep right-wing cranks on the faculty for “ideological diversity;” said cranks use the school’s name to give legitimacy to their crank shit.

The Pentagon Threatened Pope Leo XIV’s Ambassador With the Avignon Papacy The Free Press has documented a closed-door Pentagon meeting in which a senior Trump official lectured Pope Leo XIV’s ambassador on American military supremacy.

…..WHAT?!??????

www.thelettersfromleo.com/p/the-pentag...

Phew.

Artemis II: The Bad News Bears Go To Japan.

I feel like I may be doing this wrong.

Also of note, Iowa paid Chris Rufo—perhaps the leading propagandist for the current assault on higher ed, an unqualified hack and admitted fabulist—$34,000 to speak. It's embarrassing that any higher ed institution would invite him, especially when they are cutting departmental budgets.

Absolutely not.

I keep seeing people say “why aren’t people doing something to stop this?” but this is the endpoint of the consolidation of executive power. There’s very little that can be done! One of the ways we’re going to have to fix things is figuring out what to do about that.

When an individual senator or congressperson posts a clear, unequivocal, and morally correct condemnation or call for action, and then dozens of people respond with variations on “Do something!”—those are my least favorite posters on BlueSky.

An online store hawking a t-shirt featuring a monochrome image of Abraham Lincoln playing a Telecaster.

How pathetic would it be to buy this t-shirt the algorithm just served me? I know it’s functionally the same as those “My wife is LIBRA and I ride a UNICYCLE” madlibs-for-Boomers t-shirts, but goddammit I actually like this one.

birdsrightsactivist has painted human babies and hidden them in the shrubbery.

My favorite movie is STAR WILP

All but three (!) of the 1,651 refugees admitted into the United States in the three most recent months we have data are white South Africans.

For comparison, in 2024, the U.S. admitted 100,060 refugees. It's an explicit white supremacist project.

www.rpc.state.gov/documents/Re...

Screenshot of Joker and Batman from the Adam West Batman series surfing. Joker says "Cowabunga, Bat-Drip! As surfers go, it looks like you're all wet! Ahahaha!", to which Batman replies "Shut the fuck up! Fuck you!"