Ambrellite

Whether or not AI can be conscious, we are morally obligated to stop ordering it to do unethical tasks.

More needs to be said about how the failure of AI has demonstrated to everyone that the great majority of humanity strongly believes in the intrinsic value of labor. Trust in capitalism now rests on continued social stability in the form of racial hierarchy.

If the court can prioritize partisan gerrymandering above the constitution, they can prioritize it above state laws as well. We can expect R's to challenge blue state maps that follow requirements of the VRA, and they're likely to win--possibly just as midterm voting begins.

I'm thinking about how often crippling economic sanctions have been placed on countries in the global south to "incentivize" regime change. But not the US. Even now. We feel powerless to change *our* regime, and yet we call on those with far less to overthrow their oppressors.

Honestly, we're getting past rebuilding the existing system. Any change will have to be radical, not because I'm some sort of radical, but because so many systems have been broken. A new foundation has to be set, and that requires a sea change in public values.

1. In a new leaked memo, Pam Bondi is directing the DOJ to go after trans care providers under "anti-FGM" laws. She also has directed the investigation of HRT manufacturers. She calls transgender people "infectious." The latest from S. Baum. Subscribe to support our journalism.

People are running around looking for compost bags...Some scientists have bought their own soap and cleaning supplies. A snapshot of the chaos at one NOAA lab as contracts for basic services expire. My latest: www.propublica.org/article/noaa...

HAPPENING NOW: Following the Supreme Court's decision requiring the government to "facilitate" the release of Abrego Garcia, a hearing before Judge Paula Xinis is about to begin. I'm in Greenbelt, Maryland for @lawfare.bsky.social Follow along for updates

Leavitt confirmed that the WH is working on deporting US citizens to El Salvador

I’ll just point out he’s sure giving the govt a lot of that due process they’re denying everyone else

Updated just now. Six pages so far. The breadth of destruction is staggering.

🧵WaPo: A secret memo from SecDef Hegseth tells military: get ready for war with China over Taiwan. Everything else [Russia, Iran, terror groups] is secondary The memo copies parts of a 2024 Heritage Foundation report, now DOD guidance—almost word for word. The report’s co-author runs Pentagon policy

“We now expect a 3°C world,” Morgan Stanley analysts wrote earlier this month. They predicted this would be good for air conditioning stocks. Something it would not be good for? Life on Earth. www.eenews.net/articles/big...

NEW: @aclu.org obtained ICE's "Alien Enemies Act Validation Guide," confirming all it takes to be sent to rot in prison in El Salvador is being Venezuelan and 1) having a tattoo an ICE officer says is a "gang tattoo" and 2) displaying "logos," "symbols" or clothes an ICE officer says are gang signs.

SCOOP: DOGE wants to rebuild SSA's codebase in months, risking benefits and system collapse, sources tell me. The plan is to migrate all systems off COBOL quickly which would likely require the use of generative AI. www.wired.com/story/doge-r...

Holy shit. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential... He's actually doing it. Consolidating all payments under the Tsy. Not to toot my own horn too much, but this is exactly what my paper is trying to address and oppose. We need a strong digital fisc vision to counter this.

Included in this order is DOGE sifting through voter registration lists and "comparing" them against immigrant data. The objective is to fabricate voter fraud by immigrants and enable the fascist agenda. No state should cooperate with this.

The first and most important thing to know about last night's Exec order is that it's intended to break current law and allow people throughout the federal gov look at yr tax returns. Beyond that it's intended to compel states to turn over all their data to the fed govt.

I helped build a government AI system. DOGE fired me, rolled the AI out to the whole agency, and implied the AI can do my job and the jobs of the others they've fired. It can't. But, what DOGE accidentally revealed about themselves in the process is fascinating. 🧵

Last night’s article in the Washington Post about D.C. police responding to a 911 call by illegally letting DOGE onto private property is unlike any news story I have ever read. Every single person should read this article and think about where our society is going.

Tonight, hours after the Paul Weiss news broke, an associate at Skadden Arps sent a firm-wide email: "Please consider this email my two week notice, revocable if the firm comes up with a satisfactory response to the current moment...We do not have time. It is now or it is never..."

one of the most important things to learn, if you're out there doing things: you don't get to talk about it. you don't get to brag about it, you don't get to tell your friends, you don't get drinks bought for you in the bar off the story. it's *always* shut the fuck up friday

This is wild. Trump says he’s withdrawing his executive order targeting the Paul Weiss law firm because they acknowledged “wrongdoing.” They’re also going to provide “$40 million in pro bono legal services over the course of President Trump's term to support the Administration's initiatives”

Letter signed by members of the Columbia History Department urging resistance to the Trump Administration's efforts to dictate university policy. "Should this control be realized, here or elsewhere, it would make any real historical scholarship, teaching, and intellectual community impossible."

New Yorkers, please call your state rep, state senator, and Kathy Hochul and tell them NO MASK BANS. This garbage proposal would kill people. We're on the verge of a measles epidemic and this terrible governor is pushing this? NO. Find your reps here: reps.fyi gothamist.com/news/gov-hoc...

From a source: “Just had a co-presenter for a buildings research conference bow out. She’s a dual citizen and the FBI came knocking to ask her about her involvement in coauthoring chunks of the Paris Agreement. Climate science is being literally (and I mean literally) criminalized.”

SCOOP—Trump plans to issue an executive order designating fentanyl as a "Weapon of Mass Destruction," per copy of EO reviewed by me. Source at State speculates purpose is to designate cartels as terrorist orgs/justify military ops in Mexico/Canada. Context/full text of draft only on The Handbasket:

UNREAL. ICE implies in a sworn declaration that MOST of the Venezuelans sentenced to hard labor in a brutal Central American prison without charge or trial or so much as a cursory hearing had never been convicted or even charged with ANY CRIME whatsoever, not even a trivial one, anywhere, ever!

EPA warning: do not go outside in the Central U.S. dust storm! Hazardous dust covers parts of OK, MO, IL, TX, IA, AR. On Fri, St. Louis AQI peaked at 3,372 from PM10 (dust); on Sat morning it was 556. AQI over 300 is “Hazardous”, over 500 is off-scale. Consult airnow.gov.

*sigh* Totalitarian regimes are not ones in which people stop working. The world does not suddenly become tinged with sepia when you are no longer free. Sunlight will still shine. Jobs will still exist—indeed, the issue you may have is it becomes harder to not work than ever before.

Trump is planning to invoke a wartime law known as the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 as soon as tomorrow to authorize the summary deportation of migrants, CBS reports.

Here’s the problem: Even if we somehow get these fuckers out, how can we be assured that the same shit won’t happen again in 4 years? Are we supposed to rebuild institutions twice a decade? Will our former allies bother with us again knowing another asshole will be elected by the next Olympics?

BREAKING: Judge Alsup orders the VA to offer reinstatement to all fired probationary employees, saying their terminations were "unlawful" directive from OPM.

“I don’t want the system to collapse,” Dudek said in a closed-door meeting last week. He also said that it “would be catastrophic for the people in our country” if DOGE were to make changes at his agency that they made in others. www.propublica.org/article/reco...

i find this notion that public spending is illegitimate bizarre as a matter of economics but totally legible as a statement of moral economy. and as per any strict system of morality, the punishment is part of the appeal. they are punishing the american people for believing in the public good.

Sent to USAID essential personnel this morning

Anyone find it funny how when the UK releases the Cass review to ban trans care, we get everything ranging from New York Times push notifs to op-eds in every major US paper... But when Germany, Switzerland, and Austria release pro-trans youth care guidelines, not a single article anywhere but mine?

Last year, Republicans silenced her. This year, many stood beside her and defeated four anti-trans bills. This is the power of standing up for your beliefs and for what's right, and good trouble. National Democrats, take notice. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...