Tweet by “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth: “The War Department is once again restoring freedom to our Joint Force. We are discarding the mandatory flu vaccine requirement, effective immediately.” Below there is a video of the announcement for his many, many illiterate fans

Behind Hegseth’s big stupid face, a painting can be seen.

The painting is of George Washington crossing the Delaware. It is by Emanuel Leutze.

An article from the National Parks Service: Smallpox, Inoculation, and the Revolutionary War Boston National Historical Park During the 1700s, smallpox raged through the American colonies and the Continental Army. Smallpox impacted the Continental Army severely during the Revolutionary War, so much so that George Washington mandated inoculation for all Continental soldiers in 1777. Just fifty-six years earlier, in 1721, Bostonian doctors and clergy introduced the procedure to the American colonies. Without the vision and determination of these early Bostonians in normalizing inoculation, Washington may not have made the decision to mandate inoculation for the Continental Army. Though it was a controversial action, many historians credit the medical mandate with the colonists' victory in the Revolutionary War and the creation of the United States of America.

There’s a lot they want us to sacrifice in the pursuit of that goal: our information environment, human creativity, the quality of our communities, the health of our pocketbooks, and maybe even truth itself. But they’re not stopping there. The glorious AI future must be realized “even if there is temporary job displacement to deal with,” says Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas. Worried about losing your job? Srinivas wants you to see it as an opportunity. “People don't enjoy their jobs” anyway, he assured the All-In Podcast last month. Not to mention everyone being thrown into unemployment can just start their “own mini-business” with the help of the very tools making them redundant.

In an All-In interview, Aravind Srinivas said it was fine that people would lose their jobs because people don’t like them anyway. Instead, they could just make their own AI-powered mini-business.

It’s a narrative not unlike what we saw after the financial crisis.

disconnect.blog/sacrifice-yo...

This story is horrific. Worth noting that Target is not the only retailer using AI for theft prevention. It’s an entire industry. And if you’re looking for alternatives that are safer to shop at in this regard, you’re very likely out of luck. Small, non-corporate businesses probably your best bet.

Follow some of the links in the article to get a better idea who this bum is and the disingenuous image that the national media has bought into. He’s a plucky little David taking on Big Negro with nothing more than $12m from right wing think tanks and a $180k salary.

looks really interesting

When you add it all up, the collapse in immigration looks like this: a decline of roughly 50K for illegal (even including the people arrested and not released) and a decline of about 132K for legal. Over 70% of the cut in immigration has come from LEGAL immigration.

this is what i meant weeks ago when i said so much of the aggressive surge in migrant policing felt like a boundary test, where a period of highly visible violence would eventually recede in favor of less visible and more "professionalized" migrant policing at a level beyond its baseline pre-trump.

Anyway girls like I am constantly saying

I'll be there! So will @comixaction.com!

10 Years of Survived and Punished Join us virtually on April 28th from 6:30 to 8:00 pm ET to celebrate our collective accomplishments and to mourn our losses.

You can learn more about S & P's work at our 10 year anniversary virtual event: survivedpunished10years.eventbrite.com

Every single one of the astronauts who went to the moon and back on Artemis II was educated at a public school.

Thinking of the teachers who poured into Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen tonight. You helped send a kid to the moon!

🌕 💛

As someone who works on software at a primarily legal organization, I could not agree more strongly with you (for what my opinion's worth as a software man). One reason I like working on software problems is that outcomes are way more predictable and rules aren't nearly as subjective as w/ the law

PSA: *reporting* Israel is bombing “Hezbollah” in Lebanon is like saying Israel is only bombing “Hamas” in Gaza — when we can all see them hitting civilians, apartment buildings, ambulances etc… all you do when you use their preferred words is sacrifice your own credibility.

NEW YORK, NY | MAY 19 AT STRAND BOOKS with SAMHITA MUKHOPODHYAY, Author of The Myth of Making It and special guests syreeta Mcfadden, Una Osato and Afeef Nessouli ATLANTA, GA | MAY 20 AT CHARIS BOOKS with DONOVAN X. RAMSEY, Author of When Crack Was king CHICAGO, IL | MAY 21 AT PILSEN COMMUNITY BOOKS with ADAM H. JOHNSON, Author of How to Sell a Genocide and host of Citations Needed BALTIMORE, MD | MAY 27 AT RED EMMA'S with LISA SNOWEDEN, CEO and co-founder, Baltimore Beat WASHINGTON, DC | MAY 28 AT POLITICS & PROSE CONNECTICUT AVE WITH VICTOR RAY, Author of On Critical Race Theory

1/6 Hey y'all, we're going on tour! Catch The Overeer Class & friends in New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Baltimore and DC! @amistadbooks.bsky.social @harpercollins.bsky.social

Tickets at steventhrasher.com/overseertour/

Always exciting to see the Avignon Papacy in the news

In Bariworld world, Kanye releasing a single literally called "Heil Hitler" is less antisemitic than Ms. Rachel.

Unionized ProPublica staff are on strike over AI, layoffs, and wages A key issue is protections against layoffs from AI

New: 150 unionized ProPublica workers are on strike TODAY over AI, layoff protections, wages, and more.

They're asking readers to not visit ProPublica or engage with content on other platforms. It's the first work stoppage of its kind at the newsroom.

www.theverge.com/news/908401/...

A 'Self-Doxing' Rave Helps Trans People Stay Safe Online At a New York party, attendees spent Trans Day of Visibility dancing, DJing, and learning how to become less visible online.

“In this world of hyper-surveillance, I want to make sure all my stuff is safe and that no one is trying to harvest my data for anything.” www.404media.co/trans-rights...

We have an Iranian friend in Tehran who has devoted his career to translating Thoreau for an Iranian readership. Starting with 'Walden,' through Thoreau's anti-slavery works and essays on civil disobedience, the lot.

We have not heard anything from him since the bombardment began.

Perhaps even more than complication risk is that so many mutations likely increase the potential it will be vaccine-resistant, making the case for non-pharmaceutical interventions (like masking) much strong

Friends, the social pressure not to mask is real, and it is strong. I truly get it. But we must overcome that pressure to keep one another safe, for Long Covid is also real and strong. The emergence of a new variant will likely add to the potential complications that can arise. So mask up, friends 😷

It would be so cool if they did more than post, too, fwiw

Communist party recruitment video bsky.app/profile/bran...

Another quick question (more for the publisher/ editors): it's clear that your article was well-researched by people talking to people and that you, your co-author, and editors actually did work hands-on to refine, fact-check, and polish the piece. So why go with "AI" slop for the lede image/ video

Not sure if I agree with that, since "AI" proponents aren't "pro free culture;" they're in favor of scraping everything they can for free and then selling it back at a premium. While that shares one edge with what Swartz did, it's fundamentally different in objective and outcome

Meanwhile Altman & both his colleagues *& competitors* hide behind terms like "alignment" & "safety" while sitting atop a pyramid scheme with myriad real-world negative consequences today, including using these systems to produce pretexts for illegal wars & international violence 2/2

Solid piece; I particularly appreciate you pulling back the curtain on Altman publicly arguing for regulation & privately undermining it. That said, I wonder why the words "bias" or "carbon" don't even show up in the piece given how the real "dooms" of "AI" are already happening... 1/2

Jesus wept.

I just called my US rep and senators and told them they have to do everything they can to stop this genocide. I told them I don't care if they're in the minority. They have options. I told them to chain themselves to the White House fence.

Please call your reps, too. reps.fyi

Urgent Aid For Sahar’s Family Hi world , it’s Sahar

Sahar's son Odai needs foot surgery. It costs $4000. Since yesterday, we've raised 1181 pounds or $1564 towards the goal. There's $2436 left to go. If you can contribute any amount to the goal, I'd appreciate it. chuffed.org/project/1656... - it would be great to meet the goal by Friday.

Bay of Pigs in a Blanket