genAI is morally wrong and disrespectful to the creatives in your life as long as the models are built with material stolen from unconsenting and uncompensated writers and artists there are a bunch of other reasons why it's bad - it's a rich tapestry - but that first one should be enough on its own

I will bet you all $1 that the person feeding all this stuff to journalists right now is Vance or someone Vance-adjacent.

Sort of curious to know why EVERY Republican in the House thought it necessary to block the release of files that their Attorney General assured them do not even exist.

What the left needs now is its own version of the demented right-wing Epstein conspiracy theorist universe, with an army of unblinking YouTubers whose full-time job is shouting questions at visibly uncomfortable Republican politicians in the Harris Teeter produce section. Okay fine I’ll do it

"Yup, there's your problem. You've mistaken arbitrary norms specific to your social group for sacred immutable truths and it has driven you insane."

I didn’t give a wit about new pope coverage, but the first American pope being a man with Black ancestry born in Chicago by way of New Orleans by way of Haiti. Names his self after the pope who condemned slavery? In the Trump era? Oh, baebae, I am HERE for it. www.wwltv.com/article/news...

It’s time for Congress to reign in the Mad King. These tariffs haven’t even hit for real and the world is off the rails. Politically, it’s helpful to Dems, but this is why I’m not a good politician b/c I care too deeply about the harm on all people, even on those that hate my very existence.

My favorite sign from the Albany #HandsOff rally.

The caption at the bottom is what really lifts this to the next level

The Trump administration feels like it's full of people who loved Paul Verhoeven's STARSHIP TROOPERS but didn't realize he was mocking the shit out of the dumb spiteful fascist characters.

Was just reading John Quincy Adams' oral arguments before SCOTUS in the Amistad case and this part seems, uh, pretty relevant

Hegseth: The DOD will be merit based and colorblind. You will be judged on how good you are at your job. Full stop.

From an operational security perspective, this is the highest level of fuckup imaginable. These people cannot keep America safe.

“Get ready for that spin, y’all”

Jeffrey Goldberg thinking he was being pranked and then realizing he was actually just in the war plans group chat is such a good microcosm of how it feels to be alive right now, everything seems fake until you realize it’s actually real and incredibly stupid

Just finished this. Among other things I take away, Sheryl Sandberg needs to Lean In to a motherfucking wood chipper.

By a former insider about how awful things are inside Meta/FB that Zuck has been working HARD to quash. Would suck if a bunch of people who could afford it bought multiple copies and donated them all over to free libraries, left them at coffee shops, or just otherwise distributed these around...

This is horrible to post, but I may as well post it. We are essentially shutting down research operations in my group, which is focused on treatments for pediatric brain cancer. I’m a well funded investigator, and there’s no choice. Science can’t function without the stability of NIH

“Allowed to wield silence so freely, any institution will become insatiable. It’s not only that the absence of information allows those complicit in but unaffected by wrongdoing to look away. The silence itself becomes an empty canvas, onto which any fantasy can be painted.” - Omar El Akkad

They're *already* shutting down large parts of the government and, as an added bonus, inflicting permanent damage on other parts of it. Shutting it all down would be a *better* route, honestly. All you've done here is give a bipartisan stamp of approval to their agenda of closures and cuts.

Ready for the next segment of my “Fresh Out of Fucks” tour.

And I’ll forget you but I’ll never forgive The smallest man who ever lived.

I don't know what Jeff Bezos means by "personal liberties and free markets." But I do know this: The biggest threat to personal liberties and free markets in America today is Donald Trump. My @postopinions.bsky.social column on this week's trauma at the Post. wapo.st/3DaSKxX

Republicans are too chickenshit to hold town halls. Shocker. Here’s an idea: Democrats, hold town halls in Republican districts.

In case anyone could use this today:

I should only get benefits from living in a society. If I also have obligations that's communism

Tesla paid $0 in federal income tax last year. 2022: $0 2021: $0 2020: $0 2019: $0 2018: $0 Tesla reported $6.7 billion in profit in those years.

I just lost my job, along with most of my coworkers, due to the illegal grant freeze. I worked at an organization that -helped veterans who have lost a limb -Assisted elderly and disabled people -Helped hospitals better treat people who have lost limbs

💀

Trump’s a fake businessman. Musk is a fake genius. Persist. Always call it like it is. #Persist #SpeakTruth #FakeLeaders #CallItOut #StayVigilant #NoMoreLies #ProtectDemocracy

This is absolutely sickening.

Trump is taking over the Kennedy Center board, appointing himself as chair. No president has ever done this. The last time the arts were forced to align with government messaging? WWII Germany. This is a power grab, not culture. Speak out. #HandsOffTheArts thehill.com/blogs/in-the...

🚨 BREAKING: ELON AND HIS STOOGES HAVE LOCKED THE AMERICAN PEOPLE OUT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. This is criminal and unacceptable. Hold the line! #ProtectEducation #DOE #Accountability #WeWillNotBeSilenced

A lot of us are rolling our eyes at how fascists are misusing the term “doxxing.” Alas, joke’s on us, because what they’re really doing—as fascism always does—is redefining language. They’re using “doxxing” as a synonym for “journalism,” enabling the criminalization of the latter.

Book rec/PSA from your friendly neighborhood librarian. Sovereign wealth funds are actual communism. www.cfr.org/book/soverei...

Not for nothing but everyone realizes that these teenagers and 20 somethings who have complete access to the Treasury payment source code are now #1 espionage recruitment targets for Russia and China, right?

Fellow scholars: we need to be paying real close attention to shit like this:

🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science.

Hi all, We’re still here at OPM. We have a situation where we MIGHT, and I do mean, MIGHT have four of Elon’s people blocked from the building. Can we get press or a member of Congress down here? We’ve blocked them for two hours and they keep coming back and trying to go in.

do you have any idea just how badly you have to fuck up to get Canada mad at you

Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were ordered to withdraw any pending publications, at any scientific journal, that mention terms such as “transgender,” “immigrant,” “L.G.B.T.” or “pregnant people.”

“A private citizen with zero Constitutional authority is effectively seizing control of critical government functions. The Constitution explicitly requires Senate confirmation for anyone wielding significant federal power — a requirement Musk has simply ignored."

Happy Black History Month, and yeah, we're still doing that.

Hero.

I'm keeping a running list of disappearing federal data in the 🧵 below. If there are others I missed let me know. crampell[at]washpost[dot]com or Signal username crampell.13

Super interesting find of the day: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26184

Fucking hell, guess we’re still doing January.

The people now in charge of the Office of Personnel Management apparently don’t know how to scrub PDF metadata, and have exposed the original authors of the guidance they’re publishing. Two, Noah Peters and James Sherk, have links to the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025.

I try not to doompost but right now I'm really feeling like the last off-ramp was fifteen miles ago and we're going wherever we're going at this point