Vannevar

Vannevar

@vannevar.bsky.social

The scene changes but the aspirations of men of good will persist.

682 followers77 following500 posts

America is becoming a giant nursing home. And MAGA is hell-bent on reversing our primary source of population growth—immigration. What happens to an aging nation with a declining population?

The New York Times@nytimes.com

For years, the U.S. labor market has been undergoing a structural transformation. As jobs in manufacturing have receded, slowly but steadily, the health care industry has more than replaced them, representing a third of all employment growth over the past year.

In the party of the ignorant, the halfwit with a thesaurus is the intellectual.

Will Sommer@willsommer.bsky.social

The @newyorker.com has a great new profile of fascist ideologue Curtis Yarvin / Mencius Moldbug, who's been praised by JD Vance. Yarvin insisted on wearing a bike helmet in college classes, and was dubbed "helmet-head" by his classmates. And it gets crazier! www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Trump’s doctors will tell you that the hardest part of giving him a colonoscopy is working around Ted Cruz. So when Lyin’ Ted has “concerns” about something Trump does, you can be sure there is trouble in MAGA-land and the magic is wearing off.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Ted Cruz: "I also think the plane poses significant espionage and surveillance problems ... I certainly have concerns."

This is interesting. If bonds sold off after the tariff retreat, you’d just assume it was all the people who fled to bonds when the market tanked, running back when the market rose.

But if the retreat was *in response* to a bond sell-off, that could signify a warning shot across the bow from China, which holds a lot of US bonds. So…who was selling the bonds that forced Trump to back down?

Today! Social media posts are not going to be enough. We need to show up.

Robert Reich@rbreich.bsky.social

Dictators of all stripes hate solidarity. They’d prefer that we cower alone. They want us to feel powerless. This is why I encourage you to participate in the peaceful demonstrations planned for today across America. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/april-5-hands-off-our-healthcare

For a country that was supposedly getting ripped off for 80 years, we seemed to be doing pretty good. Maybe the guy convicted of felony lying isn’t totally accurate on his economics.

Mina Kimes@minakimes.bsky.social

This was….five months ago

“The penguins have treated us very badly…”

The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com

The Australian territory of Heard Island in the Southern Ocean is unoccupied by humans and had zero trade with the United States last year, according to the latest available U.S. figures. That makes the 10 percent tariff imposed Wednesday moot.

Let’s be clear, the reason Trump is so keen on Greenland is that he’s pulling out of NATO in order to ally with Russia. Which in his mind means Greenland is in ‘enemy’ hands with Denmark.

This is the way. People in the street, in numbers too big to ignore. From 34,000 to 300,000 to 3 million. We can do this.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez@aoc.bsky.social

Tonight an unbelievable **34,000 people** gathered for our Denver rally to take on billionaires and win our country back. This was the largest political gathering in Denver since Obama in 2008. Also bigger than the 2024 DNC. And the largest ever rally in Bernie’s career (and obviously, mine too).

Elon Musk claims he’s “never physically hurt anyone.” The hell he hasn’t.

Jon Rauch@jonrauch.bsky.social

A friend drove two hours today for her breast cancer chemotherapy only to learn it was canceled due to NIH cuts. Clinical trial ended midstream. No treatment, no restart, no plan, no information. Her bro-in-law's chemo was also canceled.

@mcuban.bsky.social It would be amazing if the 10,000 CF affiliates could form a co-op and buy the company. A CrossFit by and for the community is what it really always should have been. Could you facilitate such an effort, perhaps in coordination with some of the top CrossFit athletes?

Trump trying to rally MAGA to buy Teslas. Unfortunately his supporters have already blown their life savings on Trump meme coins and $60 “American” bibles made in China.

Alt National Park Service@altnps.bsky.social

Trump is upset that Tesla’s stock is performing poorly, so he plans to buy a Tesla to support Elon. Lol. 😂

A preview of rulings to come? Roberts and Coney Barrett still take their judicial responsibilities seriously. Alito and Thomas are hacks. Kavanaugh and Gorsuch will probably go back and forth. So there’s still hope, assuming Trump obeys Supreme Court rulings. Not a given. apnews.com/article/supr...

apnews.comDivided Supreme Court rejects Trump bid to freeze nearly $2 billion in foreign aidA sharply divided Supreme Court has rejected a Trump administration push to rebuke a federal judge who imposed a quick deadline to release billions of dollars in foreign aid.

At least the WSJ is still Republican and not MAGA. Probably because they realize how bad fascism is for business.

Joshua J. Friedman@joshuajfriedman.com

WSJ editorial board: "But as with the war, Mr. Zelensky didn’t start this Oval Office exchange. Was he supposed to tolerate an extended public denigration of the Ukrainian people, who have been fighting a war for survival for three years?"

On February 28, buy from local small business only. And I’m going to use the occasion to cancel my Amazon Prime membership. I encourage you to join me.

Stephen King@stephenking.bsky.social

Voted for Trump, now have buyer’s remorse? The Trump philosophy seems to be his version of FAFO. Don’t buy anything on the 28th unless you absolutely have to. #Resist

There’s a consumer strike this Friday, Feb 28. Join us in firing an economic warning shot at the oligarchy. Buy nothing unless it’s from a local small business.

While we’re forcing Ukraine to pay back the aid we gave them to fight for democracy, can we also get Tesla to pay back the $15B in aid we gave Elon?

Scott Galloway@profgalloway.com

DOGE savings (WSJ): $2.6b TSLA subsidies (10 years): $15b Annual increase in deficit: $900b Cuts to Medicare: $880b

Can we still use the present tense?

Thomas Zeitzoff@zeitzoff.bsky.social

Three things that make the U.S. the envy of the world: 1) Professionalized military with strong norm of civilian control 2) Higher education and cutting-edge scientific research 3) Ability to welcome immigrants and attract the “best and the brightest” All three are under threat.

Google and Apple caved. The AP is standing strong despite retaliation by the Musk Administration. Please consider showing them your support, I did: apnews.com/donate

The White House blocked an AP reporter from President Trump's news conference with India's prime minister over AP's style decision to stick with the name “Gulf of Mexico." apnews.com/article/ap-w...

These are the people that have been given access to critical Treasury Department data and payment systems, including personal and classified information. There is no evidence that they have been subject to any kind of background check. www.wired.com/story/elon-m...

wired.comThe Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Government TakeoverEngineers between 19 and 24, most linked to Musk’s companies, are playing a key role as he seizes control of federal infrastructure.

Let the conflicts of interest begin. Co-President Musk forcing NTSB (which oversees the safety of his Tesla vehicles) to use his media channel as its exclusive press outlet.

WakeMeWhenItsOver😴@zelbel.bsky.social

Plane crash notifications will be made on X going forward, NO information directly given to journalists! Guess X is state media now.😱 thedesk.net/2025/02/ntsb...

“Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you’ve got to go deeper. Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure. They’re huge and abstract. And they’re very beautiful.” -David Lynch

If TikTok makes good on its threat to shut down, it certainly lends credence to the government’s assertion that it’s primarily a Chinese intelligence asset. A real business would limit its losses and sell. But maybe they’re counting on Trump to save them in return for a real estate deal in China?