More generally: Trump’s economic policy makes more sense once you recognize it’s just an elaborate bribe-solicitation mechanism.

Just reeking of contempt and corruption.

Another Fed paper finds Americans paid almost all Trump's 2025 tariffs ("pass-through of realized tariffs into import prices was close to one hundred percent"), AND that local labor market effects were "economically negligible."

All pain, no gain. www.richmondfed.org/publications...

Mr. Jacobson tapped his phone on a conference table. "It's on the app," he said. In a year he had wagered about $4.46 million on DraftKings and FanDuel accounts, two of the nation's leading online sports betting sites, according to investigators.

Sports gambling is a scourge and it is a shame on our country that we’ve allowed this to proliferate

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/n...

BREAKING: Maryland is about to become the first state in the nation to ban the use of surveillance data and dynamic pricing at grocery stores.

The Maryland House has just passed the Protection from Predatory Pricing Act.

Governor Wes Moore plans to sign the bill.

Remember when Trump threatened to wipe out a whole civilization? And then backed out of that and talked about forming a deal with Iran? And then dropped that and went to a UFC fight as negotiations fell apart? And then unveiled a triumphal arch and a photo of himself as Jesus?

That was this week.

Pro-Trump media bias: frame world events as a reality show with Trump as protagonist.

As @larryglickman.bsky.social explains, it’s absurd to cast the Pope saying war is bad as a “punch” Trump is responding to. But also, he didn’t take any action. He just said words nonsensically insulting the Pope.

We need a Nuremberg-style tribunal for Trump and his enablers. Ignore pardons. Strip federal jurisdiction to hear any case related to the tribunal’s work. Make defiance of the jurisdiction strip a crime to be prosecuted before the tribunal.

How Accurate Are Google’s A.I. Overviews?

Important reporting from NYT
AI overviews above search results are wrong about 10% of the time, but the scale of this is so vast that it really matters.
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/t...

We are not in the "AI era." We are in the "source: trust me, bro" era.

That's not the worst of it.

Google AI overviews decimate clickthroughs from Google search results to websites. That wrecks commercial viability of those websites, which are the actual source of data.

I'm a very small fish, but traffic to railmaps.com.au fell 95% since AI summaries were introduced.

Trump Attacks On Public Media Blocked By Judge (But It’s Too Little, Too Late)

A federal judge has ruled that President Trump’s executive order last year defunding PBS and NPR violated the First Amendment, and has issued a permanent injunction insisting that executive branch agencies cannot…

Sam Altman Says It'll Take Another Year Before ChatGPT Can Start a Timer An $852 billion company, ladies and gentlemen.

Putting aside Sam Altman just continuing to emit huge lies constantly, this is an amazing example of what I mean when I talk about how GenAI is replacing *extremely low energy* digital tasks with *WAY WAY HIGHER ENERGY* replacements that *do not even work*

Why TF is anyone using ChatGPT as a timer!

College Students Losing Ability to Participate in Class Discussions Since They Offloaded Their Thinking to AI "Everyone now kind of sounds the same."

This isn’t a lamentable side effect of these products. It’s the actual reason they exist.

This is simply genocidal language and is a horror in itself.

fake meme image from Battlefield 6 that says "take a shower, you have been playing for 16 hours straight we cannot allow you to continue onto Battlefield 6 servers. we have restricted your account for a few hours please take a break. we have an obligation to keep our players and community safe. this ban is only temporary please try again soon." again I'm aware it's fake and just a meme but it applies

when is bluesky adding this feature

They own it, folks!

Donald Trump telegraphs war crimes in profanity-filled Easter Sunday Iran threat The president warned that there “will be nothing like it,” in an Easter Sunday social media message invoking Allah.

That‘s the headline: “Donald Trump telegraphs war crimes in profanity-filled Easter Sunday Iran threat” www.advocate.com/politics/nat...

President Trump, apparently emboldened by the rescue of the downed American airman, renewed his threat to attack vital Iranian infrastructure if the Strait of Hormuz was not opened soon to all shipping traffic. “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!!” Trump warned in a social media post that was laced with expletives. Trump had set Monday as his latest deadline for striking Iranian power plants unless Iran halted its effective blockade of the strategic waterway for Persian Gulf oil and gas.

Nearly an hour and a half after Trump’s unhinged post, the NY Times finally gets on the board with a blog post that doesn’t quote his “Open the Fuckin’ Strait” line nor cite his reference to Allah. Can’t wait to see what headline they write.

If this was AI, boosters would claim selfiehood.

This

Regulating Manipulative Design is Not Preempted by CDA 230 or the First Amendment

ssrn.com/abstract=558...

another round of edits/updates ... publication in May 2026

The fear mongering about the demise of cda 230, free speech, social media and of course the internet itself is so exhausting.

Holding tech companies liable for manipulative design will not destroy the internet, disable all forms of digital communication and social media, destroy encryption, …

"CEO Said A Thing!" Journalism "CEO said a thing!" journalism involves parroting the claims of a business leader or executive with absolutely no context, correction, or challenge whatsoever, no matter how elaborate the delusion.

Over at the newsletter I wrote about the unholy scourge that is "CEO said a thing!" journalism:

the thing thats just not coming through in the coverage of, well of anything but particularly the war, is that theres literally no reason for any of it and republicans are making your life worse but cant explain why or what the payoff is supposed to be

Glad you’re on it @chup.blakereid.org

Yep. Good thread. And fixating on social media (or genAI) hides a series of interdependent problems and governance dilemmas. Someone should think seriously about these complex wicked problems!

Hashing isn’t a magic incantation that anonymizes your data.

Agreed