markpalko.bsky.social

Immigration was a winning issue for Trump in 2024, but no issue is so popular that it can't be turned toxic by sufficient evil, overreach, and incompetence. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-b...

For the fabulously wealthy, paying taxes is pretty much optional. They can borrow against their vast wealth, which is mostly an untaxed capital gain, without paying taxes. When they die, the capital gain goes to zero. And loopholes exist to bypass the estate tax too.

This is a really hopeful story https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/10/26/silicon-valley-courted-trump-now-its-bracing-democratic-congress/

In his acceptance speech, Lula says he will work to regulate digital platforms in Brazil. “Digital crimes must be dealt with like real-life crimes.” This comes after Meta directly interfered with the Brazilian elections, favouring Flávio Bolsonaro.

To expand on my point about these “markets” I’m not getting into the issues w corruption or damaging impacts of gambling. Their supporters in the political space habitually argue they are superior to polls in their predictive ability. In the simplest sense they’re just not. But to the extent they …

Not sure about the bullet points, but this anecdote really is perfect.

Folks…

“Democrats will strenuously oppose efforts to restore things to the Obama-era status quo ante,” I say, presumably after suffering significant head trauma

In which the Speaker of the House learns the concept of polling for the first time.

The California Understander has logged on

It's important when discussing this to remember that the "zero" may be up for debate but the fact that the payoff is a fraction of where it needs to be is not.

marine corps boards crossing out their instructions "expel trans marines" and writing in "we keep this trans marine" is, frankly, a great example of what it means that a society is more than just its government

What these dumbass republicans dinging Obama for making light of the Cheesecake Factory don’t understand or pretend not to get is that people who go to the Cheesecake Factory don’t take it seriously

Take this for what it's worth but mainly lol

Musk said he restricted Starlink in Ukraine- causing fast moving drones to lose connectivity - and that he had every right to do so because of some terms of service or contract that he didn't show us. (He didn't address suddenly doing this with no warning to Kyiv.) www.cnbc.com/2026/10/24/u...

Trump wanted to create an Orban style autocracy & take away everyone’s liberties. But Orban knew u need to be popular when u put that into effect. But in just 20 months Trump failed so hard he’s more unpopular than any midterm Prez in 80 yrs. Chump just doesn’t have the cards. 🤣

In my lifetime, lots of things. Since the advent of social media, the list gets really small.

🧵🧵🧵 10 ways the planet’s richest person, Elon Musk, has been busy making the world worse. A thread. 1. Buying crooked politicians like Ken Paxton.

When first reported, 2025’s jobs reports added up to 1.2 million new jobs. After revisions, the economy added just 116,000 — 90% less.

The Justice Department's last-second letters about noncitizen voting contain people with no history of voting whatsoever, and they're moving so fast they sloppily sent one county the wrong list of names.

This is corruption by #Amazon It’s currying favor It’s a form of bribery It’s part of a RICO scheme But I am very doubtful anyone will investigate. This is also a state level crime. Any state where Amazon does business can investigate.

It's funny that normally right about now in an election cycle in North Carolina, I'd be complaining about the flood of political advertising. Except as far as I can tell the GOP has basically abandoned the state, so I haven't actually seen that much. 🤷‍♂️

Elon Musk's audacious campaign to keep Alex Gibney's Musk out of theaters and social media shows the fantastic power Musk wields in America today, especially the power to squelch his critics. www.status.news/p/elon-musk-...

This is why it's dangerous to give rich people so much power over our lives. Sometimes, they are appallingly ignorant. The Nazis added the word "socialist" to their name purely as propaganda to appeal more to workers. But the party--and Hitler--hated real socialists and communists.

do...do...do you think that the Germans chose the lesser evil in 1933? I would not, generally speaking, characterize the Nazis as a 'lesser evil' and think the world would have been a lot better off if, like, Zentrum or the SPD had won a plurality of the vote in 1933.

As expected, the CSS has an excellent deep dive on the roadster "demonstration." @commonsenseskeptic.bsky.social youtu.be/sm2VXGe-jpU?...

More than 40 farmers and agricultural industry groups are warning Washington leaders that the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration is affecting the nation’s food supply, hurting farmers and risking higher grocery prices. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Vivek Ramaswamy ran an ad attacking his opponent for being raped as a child. But he's also one of the few Republican politicians who is still allowed within 200 feet of a school or a Chuck E. Cheese.

I haven't confirmed that MUSK is being pulled from theaters, but here's reporting on the deal, including the Tosca Musk link www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...

Ah, the auto influencers have explained that this carbon fiber-wrapped ball, which sits right behind the driver's head, holds about 100kg of nitrogen pressurized to about 10,000 psi. Let me just go review the tolerances people found in their Cyber Trucks

“C.D.C. has lost about 30% of its staff since last year, including many members of the rabies team, which no longer has the capacity to advise state officials after hours…The agency also temporarily suspended rabies testing this spring, a pause that lasted for months.”

It's bleak that Serious News Outlets will tie themselves into knots writing headlines that obscure the horrors of a story while @people.com just waltzes in and calls it like it is.

Yes and also this sort of 'uniparty' nonsense feels so hollow deployed in the midst of a national stove-touching. It turns out the difference between a 'milquetoast corporate Democrat' and Trump was really big! President Harris would not be driving trans soldiers out of the military!

NEW AD: Have you seen these anti-Talarico attack ads? Elon Musk paid for nearly all of them. The world's first trillionaire knows if he drags the most corrupt politician in Texas across the finish line, Ken Paxton will owe him everything. Elon Musk: Texas is not for sale.

Enormous news. A melanoma vaccine, one of the most deadly cancers out there. Science is good and helpful and there should be more of it. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/...

I think that's probably overstating the case Musk contributed $1 billion to a company $80 billion in debt from the CBS and Warner acquisitions that is run by people who have no idea what they're doing

This is important to remember whenever tech guys talk about AI solving climate change (or curing cancer etc.)

Stocks in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) fell to their lowest level since 1982. @soberlook $USO thedailyshot.com/sub...

There goes 6250 tonnes of CO₂ removal every year…

For years what protected the USPS from antigovernment Republicans screwing with it too much was the fact that Republicans from rural areas would step up and say "Hey, the Postal Service is vital for our constituents." But when forced to choose between Trump and their own people, guess who they pick.

Long but well worth it. youtu.be/jt508VjX2H8?...

“The borrowing let Ellison keep his stock and avoid locking in taxable gains, and highlighted how billionaires often employ a strategy called ‘buy, borrow and die’ to retain their wealth without selling assets.”

I love the FT, but any article about this potential merger that doesn't mention the only obvious, screaming motivation for the whole thing happening is engaged in journalistic malpractice this is all about speedrunning a nearly trillion dollar pay package 🎁🔗: www.wsj.com/business/see...

the combined company would have a negative free cash flow of at least $54b, it would have to divest or ring-fence the Chinese operations that produce 22% of Tesla's global revenue, and the two firms do billions in related-party transactions, but the merger makes sense because ✨buzzwords✨

Yeah, this slop-project sucks, but on the upside, the view count suggests that it is boring and being ignored too. Let us hope it remains so.

I am old enough to remember when #Tesla was projecting 20 million/year *in new car sales* in 2030. At 50% margins! Complete with renders of plants totaling 80 million square feet at their Texas site. Any other company, in a sane market, would get a BIG re-rating… but not in this fake US economy.