halfassedzen.bsky.social

scott galloway and jessica tarlov held an event here in town yesterday where “don’t impeach or waste time on investigations because ‘28” was the consensus position of the panel. so yeah, this is something to anticipate.

Ukraine was winning the war, so Trump kneecapped Ukraine to help Russia. I wish it weren’t that simple, but it is. Our president is in bed with our enemies.

The cost of everything from groceries and gas to housing and childcare is going up because of choices made by Donald Trump's administration. Those choices have consequences. So do elections. The midterms are our chance to elect leaders who will fight for the people.

NEW: I dug into public records behind a secretive $66 billion data center and found General Catalyst and an energy startup founded by Palantir alumni are spearheading the project. www.inc.com/sam-blum/mys...

Huge follow-up reporting to my scoop: The Guardian confirmed America Next—the conservative nonprofit founded by Bobby Jindal that was offering students $ to disrupt El-Sayed events—paid a firm registered to Tommy Teepell’s dad Timmy $250k for “canvassing and influencer marketing” against El-Sayed.

@samsteindc.bsky.social on Twitter says “Surprised that folks think the Amy Acton mother ad will work“ which highlights that journalists still don’t see the water they’re swimming in. X is a GOP propaganda app. It exists to promote GOP propaganda. Don’t be surprised.

more criterion posters for movies that deserve them

I am convinced the median voter simply repeats phrases they have heard and believe make them sound informed even though it does exactly the opposite

🧵🧵🧵 The NY Times posted a 15-minute video today in which I got to tell NYT what’s wrong with its coverage. They said they saw my critical posts on Bluesky and invited me to do a video with them to air my grievances. Weird, right? I didn’t hold back. I blasted their sanewashing of MAGA extremism.

NEW: Ukrainian troops were caught off guard by restrictions on Starlink satellite internet systems that disrupted frontline operations, as Kyiv received no advance warning from its partners of a Russian missile attack on its energy facilities for the second day running, Ukrainian officials tell me.

The season of smiles is just beginning

David Brooks pearl-clutching over John Ossoff calling a white nationalist a “white nationalist,” as if the problem with violent white nationalism is people objecting to it, illustrates this point as well as humanly possible.

It's already illegal. Congress banned it near-unanimously in 2022. That law allows the ban to be lifted only if Russia withdraws from Ukraine. He's simply breaking the law that's already on the books.

Imagine being three weeks out and going on twitter with “boom! Years overdue cookie bill paid!” as your message of the day.

So we are warring with Iran And Russia is supplying weaponry to Iran. And we are paying Russia to send us diesel fuel. Because we are warring with Iran the ships with the diesel can't get to us. So we are buying it from Russia, which... Yeah, this is some three-dimensional chess right here.

President Zelenskyy’s comment on US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s remarks that the war in Ukraine is at a "strategic stalemate" and that there are now "no prospects for a negotiated settlement": "You cannot negotiate future economic projects with Russians on the one hand and, on the other,

Kimberly Guilfoyle was preparing for her congressional hearing to become U.S. ambassador to Greece when she reached out to a Trump donor with an urgent request: She needed $100,000 that she said she owed American Express—in a way that wouldn't leave a paper trail.

I've reached out to the campaign of Greene-Placentia's opponent, Republican incumbent Abe Hamadeh, for comment on her rape allegations. Will update if he responds.

4/ Fernando Vasquez, an 18-year-old citizen, was on break from work when agents chased and handcuffed him, then put him in their truck. After realizing their mistake, the agents left the teen alone in the woods, with no way to get home. Then they threw his ID out of the truck.

This is very true. A huge theme in a lot of recent coverage that AI is a bit like Saving Private Ryan. Everybody's gotta step up and adopt AI to get it across the goal line.

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In a stance that puts him at odds with other notable NBA stars, Victor Wembanyama says he would never lend his name to FanDuel, Polymarket or any other sports betting site. “Honestly, I think it’s very sad to see some players promote it,” he said. www.expressnews.com/sports/spurs...

The techno-dystopia I actually fear is a future where most people think truth is whatever Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or Grok say, and the very small number of people who control those systems use that to manipulate for their own ends, making our current epistemic crisis seem small in comparison.

My absolute favorite part. Jack Smith smirking after they rapidly lowered their poster that made absolutely no sense. This is one of the best "look at this dumbass" expressions I've seen in a minute. So satisfying.

A phenomenal moment in the Senate. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., claims he has evidence Jack Smith went to a HAWKS game in Atlanta. Smith denies it. Schmitt declares he has busted Jack Smith for perjury. Smith, vexed, says he went to HAWKEYES game in Maryland. WATCH IN FULL, UNINTERRUPTED

God I love Angie Nixon. I hope she wins

With the Strait of Hormuz closed, Iraq has resorted to moving its oil across the desert to Syria in hundreds of tanker trucks, in true Mad Max style. From there, it will be shipped to worldwide markets.

Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre just shared this on his Instagram

"why would I deceive you?"

Missed this last night but my favorite part of Ryan Hartman sending Justin Hryckowian's stick airborne is that he tried to do it again after Hryckowian retrieved his stick

We won’t resolve our current political moment by making gas cheaper or healthcare affordable or raising wages. Those are all components of it. But we need to visibly hold accountable and punish those who subverted democracy towards authoritarianism and show there are consequences.

Buddy, you claim to be God, you should be aware of 99.99% of human history before right now.

You know what's missing from the AI fears discussion? Stuxnet and NotPetya If you're familiar with those cyberweapons, then software that autonomously spreads, messes up computer systems, and ends up acting in ways beyond its creators' intentions or control isn't a brand new shock.

Existential emergency! Better threaten to knock down the Kennedy Center and whine about getting on Mount Rushmore.

How many horrible people does Bernie have to support before people stop giving him credit as a leftist?

Area econblogger has decided that superintelligent AI will kill us all with a doomsday virus. A lot of biologists say "no, econblogger, you don't actually know anything about viruses." Area econblogger responds "I urge you not to listen to these biologists."

@thebulwark.com did a supercut of all the prior times Trump said he was going to give Americans a $5000 check or whatever. It is glorious

Since becoming president again, Trump has promised: -$5000 stimulus checks via "DOGE dividend" -$2000 stimulus checks via "tariff dividend" -$1000+ checks via "savings" from expiring ACA subsidies -$5000 "dividend" if Rs win midterms No checks have been issued www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-magi...

"well Dems are actually betraying us-" you think that because there is a constant tide of coverage of dipshit nobody "strategists" always trying to make the great left-punching Fetch happen, not because there is an actual surge of treachery from the majority of Dems in office.

Jon Ossoff on the internal Dem center v. left conflict: “No Georgia voter has yet asked me about elections that were 800 miles away,” he tells me. “I don’t know why we do this to ourselves.” www.thenation.com/article/poli...