Surveillance capitalism turns on itself

Exclusive: ICE Glasses Homeland Security is making “smart glasses” to collect intelligence on Americans

ICE is developing its own model of smart glasses
www.kenklippenstein.com/p/exclusive-...

Thursday will just be the kick-off of days of severe weather threat across the southern U.S. Don't wait until the day you're under the threat for severe weather to put together a plan for your family, and check the latest through the week at weather.gov.

Logic Demands an Iran Deal. Will Trump’s Fantasies Allow One? In the logical world that markets seem to believe will prevail in the Middle East, this war will end — and soon — because there’s little realistic prospect of either side winning a decisive victory by...

"Unfortunately, that effort does not make Trump the adult in the room. When it comes to Iran, he seems to live in his own movie, reinventing reality to follow a script in which he plays the tough and ultimately triumphant hero, never mind the facts." (gift)

www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

The FBI Director Is MIA Kash Patel has alarmed colleagues with episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences.

No previous American president, in any era, of any party, would have tolerated a drunken, erratic, absent FBI chief
www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

The insider trading suspicions looming over Trump's presidency The BBC has found a pattern of spikes in trades ahead of public announcements by the US president.

Great journalism here: "The BBC... found a consistent pattern of spikes just hours, or sometimes minutes, before a social media post or media interview was made public.

Some analysts say it bears the hallmarks of illegal insider trading..."

Trump's "art of the deal" has always been about "negotiating for the right to save face after losing catastrophically on a dumb gamble, followed by furiously jumping into another investment so as to erase the memory of the last loss". That's his career. Nothing has changed.

A while back someone suggested ppl clear their shelves/closets of of old trophies, certificates of achievement, competition ribbons, participation awards the janky-er the better and send them to Trump. I kinda thought 4th place AKC dog show ribbons would be good.

I’m so fucking tired of having to do damage control with what I interface with.

2 ¶¶ of a warrant affidavit describing Joe DiGenova going on Laura Ingraham's show spewing conspiracy theories about Marie Yovanovitch, Joe and Hunter Biden, and the Mueller investigation, and Victoria Toensing pushing Lev Parnas about getting a retainer from Yuriy Lutsenko. The names are redacted but I've put them in in pink.

Here's the key reason why putting Joe DiGenova in charge of the Russian investigation is so suspect. On the same day Mueller finished Joe was spewing FALSE conspiracy theories abt Ru and the Bidens, hoping to get paid by Lutsenko for doing so.

emptywheel.net/2026/04/19/t...

Opening text of a thread by Palantir from X Because we get asked a lot. The Technological Republic, in brief. 1. Silicon Valley owes a moral debt to the country that made its rise possible. The engineering elite of Silicon Valley has an affirmative obligation to participate in the defense of the nation. 2. We must rebel against the tyranny of the apps. Is the iPhone our greatest creative if not crowning achievement as a civilization? The object has changed our lives, but it may also now be limiting and constraining our sense of the possible. 3. Free email is not enough. The decadence of a culture or civilization, and indeed its ruling class, will be forgiven only if that culture is capable of delivering economic growth and security for the public. 4. The limits of soft power, of soaring rhetoric alone, have been exposed. The ability of free and democratic societies to prevail requires something more than moral appeal. It requires hard power, and hard power in this century will be built on software.

Palantir put out a 22-point summary of their CEO's book The Technological Republic. It's pitched as a defence of the West, but if you read it through the VDA framework, verification, deliberation, accountability, what it's actually doing looks rather different.
twitter-thread.com/t/2045574398...

WEEKEND READ: What is the price of oil — the real one?

"My attempt to shed light into the PHYSICAL and FINANCIAL oil markets, and why you can pick up a barrel of crude for $78 in Kansas or $286 in Sri Lanka."

Terrific piece, TY @javierblas.bsky.social
Gift Link: www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

Trump convierte la IA en un arma de propaganda política Más de 60 publicaciones en sus redes muestran una estrategia que mezcla poder, espectáculo y cultura de internet que también marca el terreno para sus adversarios

Who's the most aggressive and absurdist promoter of AI to generate fake images in the social media sphere today? That's easily one figure: Donald Trump. We count more than 60 incidents in which Trump has published or promoted AI generated fakes on his social media accounts.

cc @pedinska.bsky.social

Ohio's public universities are eliminating nearly 90 degree programs as a result of Senate Bill 1 • Ohio Capital Journal Nearly 90 degree programs have been identified to be cut at Ohio’s public universities since Senate Bill 1 was signed into law a year ago.

If you think legislation that targets “low enrollment degrees” only impacts the humanities please look at this list. Degrees in chemistry, math, physics, political science, data analytics, psychology and economics are being eliminated. ohiocapitaljournal.com/2026/04/16/o...

(gift) www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/u...

Keep Pushing: We Get 10 More Days to Reform Section 702 In a dramatic middle-of-the-night stand off, a bipartisan set of lawmakers pushing for true reform and privacy protections for Americans bought us some more time to fight! They are holding out for, at...

Privacy stalwarts in Congress just bought us 10 more days to put together a bill that actually reforms Section 702. Keep pushing.

They worried they're next?

Mike Johnson Has a FISA Fiasco on His Hands - The American Prospect The House Speaker’s surprise five-year extension and bogus warrant provision backfired, but it was enough to get a gaggle of Democrats to break ranks.

Good summary of last night's ultimately failed shenanigans on FISA from @jamesjbaratta.bsky.social. Reform advocates are in the best position they've been maybe ever.

prospect.org/2026/04/17/m...

Opinion | A Stunning New Verdict Rewrites the Rules of Corporate Morality

(gift)

"Also exceptional was the scathing tone of Judge Isabelle Prévost-Desprez’s verdict, which took almost four hours to read."

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/o...

Canada Post taking steps to stop home mail delivery The government-owned corporation that delivers mail in Canada is taking steps to stop home delivery.

The government-owned corporation that delivers mail in Canada is taking steps to stop home delivery.

We should be learning from other countries...

LOS ANGELES - URGENT! I'm heartbroken that my friend and neighbor has only a few days to live. We must find a loving forever home for her 2 kitties, Kit (F/grey/white) & Caboodle (M/black). Both 3-4yrs old, total sweethearts. Please ask around and send anyone interested my way, thank you ❤️

A Powerful Health Task Force Is in Kennedy’s Cross Hairs

RFK Jr. said at a congressional hearing this morning that he would be "reforming" the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an important panel that determines what preventive services (colonoscopies, mammograms, PrEP, etc) are covered by insurance. He has been quietly undermining it since last year.

bluesky admins, have you tried jiggling the handle?

CC: @pedinska

Congress’ War Powers vote fails by exactly one vote (214-213).

Funny how this keeps happening!

Anyone else getting a "rate limit exceeded" ?