They laughed at us because Americans were stupid enough to "vote" him back into office. Now they look at us with disgust and distrust.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX Endgame The world’s richest man is accruing more power than ever before.

www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

Kevin Warsh just lost me. He argues he's going to be an independent Fed Chair, but refuses to acknowledge that Trump lost the 2020 election. If you can't state simple facts when you're in the political spotlight, you aren't independent. You're a coward.

Federal agents detain wife of another US army member: ‘ICE is out of control’ Jose Serrano, a sergeant, said Deisy Rivera Ortega, his wife, was arrested at an immigration appointment

A US army sergeant with 27 years of military service – including deployment to Afghanistan – has said that federal immigration agents recently arrested his wife during an appointment at an El Paso, Texas, immigration office.

Reports indicate Elon Musk controls a secretive network of over 90 companies and entities so he can hide how he spends his money.

No wonder he wanted the Trump admin to “look into” the Corporate Transparency Act, which would have regulated those companies.

Alright, I’m home now so here’s the Norm update. Yesterday at 4pm, I got a text from a family I’ve been helping who had a loved one abducted a couple of days after Renée Good’s murder. This was the family that Norm Nation kept from being evicted (and you delivered). ICE had released their loved one.

Southern Poverty Law Center says it is under Justice Department investigation The nonprofit on Tuesday said it is “the latest organization targeted by this administration.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which is best known for its tracking of hate groups, said that the Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into the nonprofit regarding their use of informants.

Oh look, what a shock, he's extending the ceasefire indefinitely.

I assume the market response will be 'oh good, no renewed war!' when it should be, 'uh oh, this 'almost no ships move, mutual blockade ceasefire could continue for a long time!'

Both sides think they gain from extending pressure.

So when it comes to beards and hairstyles, discipline requires strict conformity. When it comes to contracting and spreading a preventable illness that directly affects unit readiness, follow your bliss, man.

In February 1777, General George Washington ordered the first mass immunization campaign in American history by mandating that his troops be inoculated against smallpox. He protected the Continental Army from an epidemic that was deadlier than British forces.

249 years later, we have this idiot.

flipping through a proof of yet another book from a somewhat well known liberal voice diagnosing “where the left went wrong” and i’m struck, again, by the fact that a large part (if not most) of the liberal commentariat simply does not believe that the political right has agency.

Criminal negligence is the correct crime but enforcing it is inconvenient to the people who own Florida’s government

Power without accountability: The Palantir manifesto The problems with our tech philosopher kings

New, from me: Take the Palantir manifesto seriously, if not literally.
It reveals that our tech philosopher kings want public money, but without public accountability. This creates a dilemma for governments unaligned with its techno-fascist vision. 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/palantir-w...

Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive. All cultures are now equal. Criticism and value judgments are forbidden. Yet this new dogma glosses over the fact that certain cultures and indeed subcultures . . . have produced wonders. Others have proven middling, and worse, regressive and harmful. We must resist the shallow temptation of a vacant and hollow pluralism. We, in America and more broadly the West, have for the past half century resisted defining national cultures in the name of inclusivity. But inclusion into what?

The manifesto makes a straightforward case that government and Silicon Valley power must be fused in order to defend Western values - which are superior to others - with hard rather than soft power. For many, this sounds like techno-fascism.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/palantir-w...

The more I think about the techno-fascist tech nerds the more I wonder if the Nazis were just a bunch of angry nerds.

Equal On Paper As with "massive resistance" to Brown v. Board, Republicans today argue for a legal landscape where rights exist on paper but cannot be enforced.

“At the beginning of April, the conservative-dominated North Carolina Supreme Court put the final nail in the coffin of equitable education funding in the state.” www.liberalcurrents.com/equal-on-pap...

Faculty Defect From Texas Publics, Citing Censorship Fed up with the state’s censoring of Plato, Joan of Arc and Romeo and Juliet, humanities professors are leaving Texas public institutions in pursuit of academic freedom.

'Texas A&M philosophy professor Martin Peterson is leaving the university after administrators told him in January that he couldn’t teach Plato’s Symposium in his philosophy class; they said the ancient Greek philosopher’s work violated the system’s restrictions on gender and sexuality content.' 1/3

A clip from The New York Times reads: "But only the entities that officially paid the tariffs are eligible to recover that money. That means that the fuller universe of people affected by Mr. Trump’s policies — including millions of Americans who paid higher prices for the products they bought — are not able to apply for direct relief. The extent to which consumers realize any gain hinges on whether businesses share the proceeds, something that few have publicly committed to do. Some have started to band together in class-action lawsuits in the hopes of receiving a payout."

The average American family paid $1,700 in tariffs last year, according to the bipartisan Congressional Joint Economic Committee. Few will ever see any of that money back. The refunds will go to companies, if doled out at all. What a joke.

Leaving aside the basic fact of its absurdity - no, the average IQ in Somalia isn’t 70 - all I see here is a couple of idiots desperate for an unearned reason to think they’re better than others. Pathetic.

William Shakespeare wrote Edward de Vere's plays.

Chatbots often offer 'problematic' cancer advice, study finds Popular artificial intelligence programs told users where to find alternative, potentially dangerous treatments for cancer and other health scenarios.

Artificial intelligence chatbots will tell you where to find alternatives to chemotherapy if you ask them, a new study finds.

Hungary Must Arrest Visiting Leaders Sought by ICC, Magyar Says Hungary’s incoming Prime Minister Peter Magyar said he would halt the departure from the International Criminal Court that his predecessor Viktor Orban initiated, affirming that Hungary would respect ...

After Netanyahu's office claimed that Peter Magyar had invited him to visit Hungary, the PM-elected says that he will enforce all ICC arrest warrants once the country re-enters the Rome Statute.

[Hungary will] "have a legal obligation to enforce the ICC rulings and I'm sure [Netanyahu] knows this".

it’s a great day for transphobes to eat shit

For some in the prediction market space, the only value of news is that it can help bettors make more accurate wagers. With all the media companies partnering with Polymarket and Kalshi, it was only a matter of time before news orgs decided to just cut out the middleman.

When AIPAC gestures at "commitments" to Israel, it is always worth pointing out: not a treaty ally!

Palantir put out the most cartoonishly evil statement possible. They’re so arrogant and self-confident they don’t seem to believe their fascistic plans can be opposed.

We must get rid of Palantir altogether.

twitter-thread.com/t/2045574398...

this is one of the most offensive things I've seen in years

that's right theweek.com/articles/598...

incredible stuff

The Helium Crisis That Won’t Go Away The U.S. sold off a critical helium reserve despite decades of warnings — now, the war in Iran has exposed the consequences.

me, thrashing madly while four of my larger friends try to restrain me: IT'S CALLED HELIUM BECAUSE IT WAS OBSERVED IN THE CHROMOSPHERE OF THE SUN BEFORE IT WAS ISOLATED ON EARTH, AND HELIOS IS THE SUN GOD