More Republican Nonsense
Restore Medicaid’s intent: Prioritize the most vulnerable over able-bodied childless adults
Prepare for a lot of this ahistorical nonsense as the Republicans ramp up their effort to give money to billionaires by taking it away from everyone else. In fact, Medicaid grew out of Harry Truman’s push for universal healthcare and was envisioned as one of the first steps (along with Mediare) on that path by Lyndon Johnson, who was a savvy enough politican to get what he could passed instead of waiting for perfection.
All this bad AI is wrecking a whole generation of products
Personally, I look forward to the (unlikely) day when generative AI goes the way of the Cuecat and Microsoft Bob.
Regardless of their tagline, “playing with” your pets and kids via a $200 robot and your phone does not, in fact, make you “always there, always caring.”
Senate Democrats appear ready to back down in government shutdown fight
Have Senators not noticed that Musk&Trump are already shutting down the government? The lack of aggressive messaging from the Democrats is truly upsetting.
Why I Left the Washington Post
Ruth Marcus traces the decline and fall of the WP under Jeff Bezos, Includes a copy of the column that they wouldn’t run and which she resigned over - which shows just how thin-skinned the oligarch class has gotten, because it’s barely a defense of free speech.
Musk Seeks to Put $100 Million Directly Into Trump Political Operation
The corruption really is right out in the open, isn’t it?
Trump turns the White House lawn into a Tesla showroom
The only mystery here is how co-President Trump managed to find time in his busy schedule of screaming on Truth Social and doing Putin’s and Netanyahu’s bidding to kiss co-President Musk’s ass on the White House lawn.
TikTok will play ‘calming music’ to remind teens to stop using the app
It won’t work. No matter how good their AI-driven age verification technology gets, I have faith that teens will stay ahead with AI-driven age spoofing technology.
What Really Happened With the DDoS Attacks That Took Down X
Looks like co-President Musk was flat-out lying when he claimed last night (on Fox News, of course) that the latest round of attacks on Twitter, er, X originated in Ukraine. What a surprise, huh?
File under "Things we used to know"
Ran across this in the 1964 (!) ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA this morning in the article on AIR:
Carbon dioxide in the air reduces the loss of heat by infrared radiation from the earth. The widespread burning of fossil fuels (e.g., coal and oil) increased the carbon dioxide content of the air by about 12% during the first half of the 20th century. This, in turn, caused an increase in the average temperature of the earth of 1.1° C during the same period. It is estimated that all of the fossil fuels will be consumed in about 1,000 years, if the present rate of consumption is maintained. It has been further estimated that this will cause the temperature of the earth to rise 7° to 14° C. (13° to 25° F.), giving most of the earth a tropical and semitropical climate by the end of the period.
District Court ruling.
Prediction: it will turn out that DOGE didn’t write anything down, and still won’t, and there will never be any documents responsive to FOIA requests.
White House: Stock market plunge is not as ‘meaningful’ as business activity
Looks like the next administration tactic is whistling past the graveyard. Good luck with that. Dow futures are already off another three hundred bucks since the market close a few hours ago.
The Verge reports on the status of Mahmoud Khalil. This sort of coverage is the reason that I became a subscriber this year. With the shrinking number of free press outlets, it’s important to support the ones doing good work.
King Charles pays tribute to ‘marvellous’ Bob Marley as he shares favourite songs
In these troubled times, it is comforting that King Charles listens to Bob Marley, Kylie Minogue, and Beyonce.
I get an absurd amount of pleasure from swapping 10 watts of electrons with someone in Calgary.
Rubio says Ukraine will have to give up territory in a peace deal with Russia.
Shameful.
And I never expected to read this in my lifetime:
“I can assure you this, we will not be providing military aid to the Russians,” Mr. Rubio said.
Under Trump, that likely means we’ll send Putin tanks next week.
Top ‘Washington Post’ columnist resigns, accusing publisher of killing piece
The hollowing out of WaPo continues.
Every time I have to deal with Xfinity I think about getting into business as an ISP. I could eat a handful of iron filings and crap out a more reliable network.
“Not quite still waters”
Olympus E-M10 IV, M.Zuiko 60mm f/2.8 macro @ f/6.3, 1/30s, ISO 1250. Larison Creek.
CBP launches enhanced CBP Home mobile app with new Report Departure feature
Musk & Trump’s genius solution to the logistical impossibility of deporting millions of people: launch an app to help them deport themselves! RealityShowOcracy at its best.