18. The ruthless exposure of the private lives of public figures drives far too much talent away from government service. The public arena—and the shallow and petty assaults against those who dare to do something other than enrich themselves—has become so unforgiving that the republic is left with a significant roster of ineffectual, empty vessels whose ambition one would forgive if there were any genuine belief structure lurking within. 19. The caution in public life that we unwittingly encourage is corrosive. Those who say nothing wrong often say nothing much at all.

In the last year many public servants have had their lives ruined. People who knew less than they did pushed them out of work they loved with no real plan. Many were defamed and "put in trauma."
But that is not who Palantir is referring to. It views criticizing the tech bros as intolerable.

That, and Stanford pioneering a way for tech professors to make millions from side-gigs.

Their involvement should haunt every moment the rest of their lives. They were careless people - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.

i can't help but think about 10 or 11 years ago when conservatives insisted that obama was uniquely anti-catholic because his administration thought that catholic-led orgs could just fill out a form if they didn't want to cover contraceptives in their health plans for employees.

Map showing the following data: Children's uninsured rate by state, 2024 (ACS, under 19): Alabama 4.3%, Alaska 8.8%, Arizona 9.3%, Arkansas 7.7%, California 3.1%, Colorado 6.0%, Connecticut 2.6%, Delaware 5.8%, Florida 8.5%, Georgia 7.9%, Hawaii 2.9%, Idaho 8.1%, Illinois 3.6%, Indiana 6.1%, Iowa 3.8%, Kansas 7.0%, Kentucky 5.0%, Louisiana 4.1%, Maine 4.5%, Maryland 4.6%, Massachusetts 2.1%, Michigan 3.5%, Minnesota 3.7%, Mississippi 5.8%, Missouri 6.6%, Montana 7.7%, Nebraska 5.3%, Nevada 8.0%, New Hampshire 2.3%, New Jersey 4.7%, New Mexico 6.1%, New York 2.7%, North Carolina 5.5%, North Dakota 6.7%, Ohio 5.6%, Oklahoma 8.5%, Oregon 2.7%, Pennsylvania 5.4%, Rhode Island 3.7%, South Carolina 5.9%, South Dakota 8.0%, Tennessee 6.5%, Texas 13.6%, Utah 6.6%, Vermont 2.6%, Virginia 5.2%, Washington 3.9%, West Virginia 2.8%, Wisconsin 4.2%, Wyoming 9.0%. National average: 6.0%.

Uninsured rate for children, by state. Texas accounts for a quarter of all children without health insurance in America.

“The Alarm Bell”: Arizona's Drop in SNAP Participation Signals Potential Nationwide Impact of Trump Legislation Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act imposes stricter food stamp work requirements and shifts a larger share of the costs to states. Arizona's swift implementation has made it more difficult to apply and caused nearly half of recipients to lose benefits.

More than 400,000 Arizonans have lost their SNAP benefits since July — the largest decline in the nation by a wide margin — after the state implemented changes called for in Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

DOGE turbocharged the deficit.

budgetlab.yale.edu/research/wea...

My thinking on this case is that Clarence Thomas should have been removed from office immediately when we found out his wife had plotted to overthrow our constitutional republic

rax ‘levon honkers’ king‬ ‪@raxkingisdead.bsky.social‬ · 25m imo the theme of the second trump administration (and the COVID year of the first one!) is super rich guys being genuinely surprised when they can’t buy their way out of physical, material reality ‪ryan cooper‬ ‪@ryanlcooper.com‬ · 24m possible connection there. the oligarchs went insane having to deal with constraint for the first time, put billions into electing the senile maniac again as their avatar of impunity restored, and now he's well and truly fucked up ‪Nicholas Slayton‬ ‪@nslayton.bsky.social‬ · 6m "That's not fair!" a class of people who never heard the word "no" before shouted, to the detriment of the world

At this point Trump might as well just authorize a grant to Solyndra at the rate he’s overseeing things he once complained about incessantly.

I Wrote Research Funding Announcements for NIH for 22 Years. This Year They’ve Published 14 How NIH went from 756 funding announcements to 14 in two years — and what it means for every disease that depends on federal research

This is an incredible documentation of the systematic, intentional collapse of American health science, by Elizabeth Ginexi.

open.substack.com/pub/elizabet...

All of this incredibly obvious and infuriating welfare fraud happened under the first Trump administration and I don't recall them ever threatening to block funding to the state of Mississippi as a result.

At a high school event where kids are doing karaoke to kill time and a group just did Bowie’s “Starman.” The kids are alright.

I don’t know, there were thousands of people stuck in traffic around the stadium at kickoff….

Also alienating remaining season ticket holders…

Thousands of people are stuck in traffic.

Idaho considers an 'apocalyptic' choice for disabled people and families Difficult budget decisions in a number of states are threatening vital programs for disabled people at home and caregivers in the workforce.

19thnews.org/2026/03/idah...

discussions.apple.com/thread/25305...

I get that on my laptop but not on my phone or tv. And, man, is it irritating.

OFFS. When Iran tried to interefere in 2020, researchers caught them and called them out. Then the Benz-Weiss-Taibbi-Musk-Jordan-Trump axis labeled those researchers "censors" ... and set about defunding them and dismantling their organizations.

VP Vance is falsely claiming the Trump Admin somehow has the “inherent” authority to just unilaterally withhold from MN mandatory federal #Medicaid funding to which the state is entitled.

Noncitizen voting is rare. So why is Washington so focused on it? Republicans are zeroing in on proof-of-citizenship requirements — even as critics warn federal support for election cybersecurity is quietly shrinking.

Good to see Politico point out that non-citizen voting isn't really a thing. Kind of remarkable not to mention the racist thinking behind claiming it is:
www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

The Death of Direct File Tech for good not welcome in the Trump administration

Reminder when you watch the Intuit Super Bowl ads, they have Super Bowl ad money because they are a successful rent seekers who have worked for decades to kill free, quality, public tax preparation services donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-death-...

Watch in the coming years for the drumbeat to turn SNAP into a block grant, and remember what happened to TANF.
Same pattern: add so many administrative burdens that states say it would be easier to just take cash, and then fail to deliver that cash to the poor.

Drive-By Truckers - Ramon Casiano YouTube video by AeroCrespo

Just a reminder that @drivebytruckers.bsky.social called out the rot in immigration enforcement a decade ago…

youtu.be/mbXUyHo3eVM

Isn’t that @johnrogers.bsky.social’s music?

What the hell was Entwistle then? Boris the Spider and the rest of his odd songs while also boasting amazing technical skill

The Means-Testing Industrial Complex As Republicans tightened work requirements and eligibility rules for Medicaid and SNAP last year, Equifax’s CEO openly celebrated the profits to be made from administering this deprivation.

An important piece from Luke Farrell on the "means-testing industrial complex," especially when work reporting requirements are being imposed on so many in Medicaid.
lpeproject.org/blog/the-mea...

As someone in the US, I get Paramount + for the Champions League football.

Another reminder that the largest cuts in Medicaid’s history were made by this Congress in part to fund a tripling of ICE/DHS budget.