Well, it's been nice knowing you all!

“Israel has launched a preemptive attack on Iran, Defense Minister Israel Katz says. Katz says he declared an “immediate state of emergency throughout the entire country.’”

(Bloomberg) -- Israel said it launched a preventative attack on Iran as explosions were reported in Tehran.

The prosecutor IN THIS CASE is a Baby JAG officer ordered to fill in after the ethical AUSAs quit in MN. The Special AUSA in the case of the OTHER person charged for assaulting Bovino's goons (a really inexperienced lawyer but NOT a JAG) apparently already provided info on goons in discovery.

DOJ tried & failed to impose protective order on 1 of 2 defendants charged with assaulting some of Greg Bovino's goons at Roosevelt High the day of Renee Good's shooting, in part bc Pam Bondi violated sealing order by treating the defendant like a trophy. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

I'm begging my fellow politicians, Illinoisans, and Americans to realize that right now, we aren't fighting over policy or political party. We're fighting over whether we're going to be a country rooted in empathy and kindness — or one rooted in cruelty and rage.

Breaking news: the ‘Today’ programme is broken ft.trib.al/dX0vz6G | opinion

🚨 Israel has struck Iran 🚨

It’s looking more and more like Trump squeezing Anthropic was just in service of the other tech oligarchs Sam Altman and Elon Musk

… And here’s DoD’s list of schools to try instead, because of course Liberty U

Love it when our nation’s defense contractors all spend their Friday nights subtweeting each other about killing everyone in the world

Literal cancel culture: from the new Defense Dept directive

Timeline cleanse: kayaking with manatees in Florida’s Crystal River. #natureheals

I knew someone who went and visited Michael Tracey in his early days when he was trying to be a semi legit reporter. They said he lived with his parents in Jersey in a room with nothing but like a mattress on the floor and a cross on the wall.

I don’t know how much less surprised I could be that Trump isn’t familiar with Reconstruction.

Carr's attacks on free speech deservedly get so much hate all the terrible things he's doing on consolidation and consumer protection routinely fly under the radar authoritarian zealotry provides cover for more ordinary regulatory capture and assorted horrors

you see, telecom and media consolidation is perfectly fine if the consolidating companies promise to be more racist and sexist

If we're lucky it will be like France since forever, where their system delivers you a nazi Vs someone you have to hold your nose and vote for to stop the nazi, but people keep doing it because they actually know Nazis are bad.

More broadly, I think a lot of people need to get their head around the idea that even if Reform don't win the next election, there's every chance they win the one after that.

Claude😂

The most useful writing I’ve read on the subject remains this blog post from William Scheuerman about the dual state: Fraenkel’s argument—that capital requires a normative state—falls apart when economic power becomes highly consolidated verfassungsblog.de/trump-2-0-as...

Then the big CEOs start thinking they don’t need a predictable legal system because they can just make Deals with a personalist state. Yeah, well, that works until it doesn’t

Ladies and gentlemen... the weekend. (also: you are important and are not alone 🧡)

A worthwhile piece on Warner. "So Paramount, w/a $12 bil market cap, is doing a $111 bil acquisition, $33 billion of which is debt, $40 bil which is equity backed by Larry, whose wealth is tied to Oracle, which is leveraged to the gills. What could go wrong?" jmarie89.substack.com/p/paramount-...

The Anthropic v Pentagon battle is gonba be absorbing.

Hegseth is wholeheartedly endorsing the core premise of fascism: industry, as part of the private sphere, must be subordinated to the military objectives of the state.

if you believe in any form of free enterprise at all, the idea that the Pentagon can not only cut off your contract but designate you a supply chain risk and prevent other companies from buying from you just because you won't build killbots for the government should be terrifying

Happy 30th birthday to all Pokemons who like dancing to Enya

I taught mid-career military at the Kennedy School. They were great to have in class, not least because the other students learned so much from them. For Hegseth to suggest these impressive men and women are at risk of being "indoctrinated" is demeaning and insulting to them.

[sarcasm alert] The President can only get a rehearing on adverse rulings by SCOTUS if the Chief Justice wore the Rehnquist ceremonial robe with gold stripes at oral argument. [end sarcasm alert] Trump is the ne plus ultra combination of stupid, ignorant and loudly opinionated.

mood

Neil Sedaka was so talented, and he inspired me to follow my dream of being a songwriter. With love and gratitude and condolences to his family. www.hollywoodreporter.com/music/music-...

Xi is purging 80% of his generals, and the US is countering by going to war with the Pentagon's only cleared AI provider?

The Trump administration won’t seek an appeal of the dismissal of the so-called death-eligible counts against Luigi Mangione. The case will proceed as a non-capital case. Huge loss/face plant for Pam Bondi, who made a big show of this capital prosecution. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

In a single statement, Pete Hegseth has declared Anthropic a supply chain risk while *also* insisting it must continue to directly supply the Department of Defense for up to six months. He's also claiming that designation has powers it doesn't (to cut Anthropic off from all business to suppliers).

Have been thinking about this for a while, especially if it's "Reform kill it in the most self serving and scrutiny destroying way possible".

Trump: “We are in the golden age of America”

Neil Sedaka has died aged 86. Whoooo remembers him playing the piano with his feet on “Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush”? youtu.be/TBSBuDcNFgg?...

Trump: “We don’t want people who can’t love our country voting in elections”

It's here, there was a typo so I guess he deleted and reposted @ottoenglish.bsky.social

@ottoenglish.bsky.social >>

The data tells the perfect story for how not to run a prison service, in terms of experience and seniority of staff. It was absolutely shocking to see what happened under the Tories...and the arguments go that in the end the overall drop wansn't that big - but it's the LOST EXPERIENCE that matters.

Strange isn't it that Trump is talking about invading Cuba and attacking Iran on the day that another president is being questioned about his friendship with Epstein...

On the other hand it massively simplifies Anthropic's effort to present itself as reliable in the European markef