orangecatstargrep.bsky.social

Enjoying my best day. Hoping you all get a few minutes to enjoy the sun and tranquility somewhere.

Far-right Republicans don't care about women's sports except as a means to terrify women. This ruse was laid bare in humiliating fashion the past two weeks in Atlanta when Phil Kent, an anti-immigrant activist who is a co-host of Fox 5's "Georgia Gang," badly botched two attempts to bash the WNBA.

Phil Kent is a perfect example of how racists are still allowed in Southern Republican politics. This guy was Strom Thurmond's press secretary, obviously hates black WNBA player Angel Reese, and runs an anti-immigration group once run by white nationalist Sam Francis. And yet he's on TV every week.

Another evil layer to this ad from Josh Turek: When he turns to say "stop the nonsense from both extremes," he opens with a clip of Rep. Becca Balint, the first openly gay woman to represent Vermont in congress and one of the few openly gay members of congress.

Democratic leaders knew for decades what the Federalist Society was doing, and about the numerous student radicalization groups like TPUSA. They knew that far-right investors were propping up people like Limbaugh and Hannity. And ignored the pleas of @hartmannreport.com to do something.

🧵 There's a very unfortunate tendency of some very loyal Democrats to misapply "Murc's Law." For those who don't know of it, Murc's Law is the concept that the mainstream media acts as if only Democrats have agency in politics, and that Republican can't choose to act more rightfully.

Zacharia-Scaramucci is the latin way of saying 5-10 business days. 🤡

A decade on from the Access Hollywood tape, the culture Trump wrought has metastasized, with rape and rape culture influencing campaigns at all levels. I reflected on what it was like covering that event, and how I feel similar fury now on Acton’s behalf: www.thehandbasket.co/p/vivek-rama...

🧵 Matt Yglesias is one of the biggest reasons the Democratic Party leadership is so feckless, cowardly, and lazy. I'm not exaggerating. Yglesias is often a featured speaker at private Democratic Party events, despite almost always being wrong. Let's discuss...

Matthew does a great job of explaining how AI LLMs / Chatbots are just software, not conscious things. Take a few minutes to read through and give him a follow… For us Old Timers, how is AI any different than Eliza or 20 Guesses programs we played in our misspent youth?

Not only are the evidentiary grounds insufficient to claim chatbots are conscious, proponents must address the ELIZA Effect and the copious evidence that humans did not evolve similar psychological detection mechanisms against linguistic simulacra that we have toward visual and aural imitation.

“The compromised eMudhra keys were defective at a level that’s challenging the imagination of many of the engineers studying the incident. ... ‘That is extremely in the ‘this should not be possible’ category,’ Valdorda said.”

truly a wild time to be alive when the cryptography world is split between those worried about quantum computers and those whose private key is “4”

Age verification “starts creating a serious risk for all internet users, not just young people, by requiring these companies that already collect a ton of data from us to collect even more,” EFF’s @davidgreene.bsky.social told @atlantanewsfirst.com.

this is like a reverse "daisy." an ad so reprehensible that it detonates the candidate's campaign. tiffinohio.net/posts/acton-...

This argument really just rubs me the wrong way: “Elizabeth Holmes must be a world-class master of manipulation, look at how all these powerful older men were taken by the fraud!” Powerful older men get taken by obvious lies all the time, in part because of this precise attitude that they can’t be.

James Carville lost the plot… AGAIN He would rather Republicans keep control of the House than see Democrats win with a narrow majority because he’s afraid of the left. Are you fucking kidding me? So we’re all fighting to stop Trump’s fascist agenda and Carville is more worried about the DSA.

This is capitalist propaganda. Billionaires don't care about employees; they care about profits. Which is why they are far more likely to use cash on hand to buy back stock than hire more employees or give the employees already there a raise. This is just "Trickle Down Economics" in corporate drag.

There are children in middle school today whose parents were not yet born the last time James Carville was relevant.

Another day, another group of actual Republican Nazis exposed. “It wasn’t a couple of crazies. The popular sentiment was, ‘Yes, slavery should be legal,’” a former member of Nevada Republican congressional candidate Marty O’Donnell's Discord says. Lots of Hitler fandom as well:

if you were wondering whether Alito's book is an embarrassing crock of shit, I can now officially answer your question with a resounding yes ballsandstrikes.org/legal-cultur...

Some corporate Democrats and pundits think the party has gone too far "left" and needs to readjust towards the “center.” Rubbish. Where’s the center between democracy and oligarchy, and why would Democrats want to be there?

Rather than being primarily defensive he is showing up what this young man is doing rhetorically and why his assumptions are inconsistent with constitutionalism. Would love to see others positively stake out ground on immigration, rule of law, civil rights, etc. Don’t accept your opponents’ frames

I just want to say if a character on West Wing gave this verbatim speech it would be an Emmy winning moment fans would love forever. I need normie blue dog libs to understand this is actually, right here, the kind of progressive person that should be in government. This is exactly who you want.

Can you arrest them for manipulating the algorithm and shit? Man I don't fucking know, you tell me. But you can make Mark Zuckerberg sit in a fucking chair in front of Congress for days on end just for the fuck of it

Most important to realize is that they're not conservatives. They're reactionaries. Their aim is to completely overturn the international rule of law and have great powers divide the world into areas that they have unlimited control over. They think this is the natural order.

There are actually 2 separate media scandals: 1. Soft-pedaling the MAGA march toward a fascist dictatorship 2. Generally ignoring or downplaying Trump's obvious mental unfitness for office

Character is still losing $9 million a month AFTER - laying off employees - making its model worse on purpose to be cheaper - moving to open source models - adding usage limits - spamming ads in its product - adding new in-app paid products

Okay, did not quite expect that. Cato Institute (a very conservative but libertarian) think tank is against ALPR. An interesting editorial to read if you want to see the conservative thoughts on those automatic camera poles.

"The elite moneyed class that the media too often represents may find accountability uncomfortable or discourteous, but the American people demand it and it so we are committed to it." Or more colloquially: "bitch all you want, we're putting some motherfuckers in jail."

The more combative Dems get, the more of this they will run into. It will be a coordinated wave of elite opinion, scolding them, tamping them down. The fight strategy *only* works if they are willing to bull their way through it, blow it off, mock it. (Their history does not raise one's hopes.)

question for brooks: what if they are, literally, nazis?

TFW EVEN LINKEDIN has spotted the very, very obvious and long predicted crisis:

This absolutely crazy message is fed to young evangelical girls constantly. No wonder so many are leaving. It's so harmful to the ones who stay.

I’m old enough to remember when California’s GOP was a going concern, then they f*cked themselves up for decades by veering too far into anti-Latino nativism. Oops.

With U.S. elections a month away now, Donald Trump's disapproval rating on the economy is now at an astonishing 73%. A 65% majority also blame Trump for higher costs due to his policies like tariffs and his stalemated war against Iran: apnews.com/article/trum...

Anthropic banning “abusive or cruel behavior” toward Claude in its new usage policies is proof to me that tech companies are going to moderate violence against AI before they ever moderate violence against women and minorities

If you've appreciated my coverage of Trump rallies over the past decade, please support what I do by signing up for my newsletter (we're running a 5th anniversary special right now). Paid subscribers make my work as an independent journalist possible, and I think you'll enjoy PN. Thanks.

My response to Democratic "centrists," their corporate donors, and their Republican allies who spend their time punching progressives and the left: we are going to take over the party, and we will replace them with fighters actually willing to represent the people and their needs. with Sam Seder

This is your occasional reminder that generative "AI" in particular could have been developed on public domain materials and/or licensed and compensated works but the major players intentionally, methodically and systemically chose to steal labor from working creative folks instead

Rahm Emanuel represents the last vestiges of dying, corporate do-nothing foolishness. He’s not a Democrat. He’s a wealthy, status quo strongly-worded letter in a suit. Anyone who listens to him is digging their own political grave.

Part of why I don't like the AI-or-bust economy is the constant flopsweat of people on the news who say this HAS to work. Quit making everyone so anxious. Goddamn. If this is the next Google then why are you acting like this? I don't remember being told to buy an iPhone at gunpoint.

someone call up will smith we need him to do something

What everyone has to prepare for is the constitutional crisis to accelerate if the Democrats take the House and the Senate. Vought has been allowed by the Republicans to act with impunity, so have he will continue to ignore Congress. This is why you have to impeach him immediately.