So Anthropic partnered w/ Musk, huh? Disappointing but not at all surprising. Again: They never truly resisted the kyriarchal, hegemonic, carceral, militaristic, eugenic, white supremacist leanings of "AI;" they've always been willing to walk those roads, just so long as they get to set the schedule

He looks like a deflated basketball that someone left out all winter.

When I taught at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville we shut down the campus so literal Nazis could speak to a room of 8 or so white supremacist peers in the name of “free speech.”

In education we need a name for the teacher who constantly gossips with a small range of high-status students, then comes into every faculty discussion claiming to have received knowledge from on high from "the kids" that magically matches their priorities.

1. Poorly conceived idea announced with great fanfair. 2. Instantly declared the greatest success in history. 3. Terrible incompetent execution. 4. Hide failure with more success rhetoric. 5. Bankruptcy. In other words, the usual.

Certified “actually rural voters are an untapped well of socialists in waiting who love big progressive policy proposals that would help them, if only mean urban liberal elites would stop leaving them behind” moment

it is really important to emphasize, once again, that republicans are betting the house on us being afraid of them--so afraid of them we fold without a fight. but actually if we fight we can win. don't surrender preemptively.

This is very bad, since it looks like Trump's endorsements (he brought challengers to the White House, showered them with money) will mostly remove anti-gerrymandering officials in Indiana. Makes it more likely legislators in Southern states will fall in line.

He dies of natural causes in his second term.

We are entering the second week of May and commercial cargo vehicles are getting bombed in the strait of hormuz a full 67 days after the ailing pedophile nazi president started a war over nukes that do not exist to get a regime that never changed to secure a peace we no longer have

cool

Class in the US is entirely a matter of aesthetics now. Rich suburban kids are “country”. Beard Dudes who look like they love IPAs are “working class.” Teachers who make $32,000 a year but have to dress up sort of nice in JCPenney clothes are “elites“. None of these words mean anything anymore.

Glad your vibe coded personalized keto assistant has increased your protein input or whatever but people actually hate this shit for reasons that have nothing to do with pollution or structural power, which are also bad. They hate this shit because it is making their lives, personally, worse.

Oh, the people who blow up ships are the bad guys? Huh.

Similar discourse back home in Nebraska. The people lamenting the loss of young people never consider they are the reason why people with options leave!

I think about this every day.

Look if you've got a better way to run a country than "putting an illiterate octogenarian bigot on TV every few days to free associate and complain, and then everyone tries to figure out if it means we're about to start a war or not" I'd love to hear it. But the constitution says this is it.

I had really hoped COVID would have ended the White House Correspondents Dinner, the Met Gala, and high school prom, but alas.

Tried to catch the rainbow and lightning photobombed my iPhone shot. #WXsky #ILwx

the kind of 'ron paul to bernie to rfk to trump' voter, just buffeted around like a cork on the ocean based on some vague animus toward 'the system' - real moron shit

I have a buddy at work who’s also into film, music and literature. We always talk about those things when we see each other, never about work or especially office intrigue. I hope you all have a work buddy like that.

Once again the Republicans have valiantly attempted to destroy the laptop class but the missile missed its target and hit your rural manufacturing business.

Hoover is a classic example of a good, hyper-competent man who should never, ever be put in charge of anything other than a specific agency with a specific, well-defined mission.

This could be business casual if we even gave a shit

Recent events have me putting on the tinfoil hat in regards to where right wing media gets its money. I used to think it was just reactionary billionaires but with this and events in Hungary mean state actors play a big part. The turnout at the Vance Turning Point rally shows it’s not the masses!

this is like out of succession it’s so on the nose

Calling Congressional Republicans cowardly, spineless, or similar terms implies that they think what's happening is bad but are just too scared to do the right thing. I see no evidence for that overly generous interpretation. They're empowered adults with agency making a choice. I's what they want.

He also seems to think 2024 was some permanent victory that can never be undone, which was—to be honest—the view of our entire elite through 2025.

Remember how one week ago we were told liberals were causing political violent by speaking intemperately?

Also might want to pick a lane between “higher Ed is a worthless fraud” and “my kid’s life is ruined forever if he has to settle for UCLA”

Jacksonville is talking about moving back to at-large elections. It is starting.

I intentionally steered clear of the discourse about shoplifting being good in the New York Times so it was only today that I found out that Jia Tolentino was involved in it which only confirmed the correctness of my immediate instinct to stay away.

Anyway I think we should ban short-form video platforms because the people who rely on them for their information act perpetually concussed

clear goal of republicans in these states is to, in the words of carter glass, “eliminate every Negro voter who can be gotten rid of, legally, without materially impairing the numerical strength of the white electorate.”

This would target my disabled cousin as well as my cousin who takes care of her, who is dealing with cancer right now.

I think about this all the time.

Just realized the writer of “we should all smoke again” also wrote “not liking noise pollution is white supremacy.” The Atlantic still publishes some good stuff but my God they love to promote fatuous contrarians.

People really memory holed-covid, due to a huge far right propaganda effort. That's why all you hear about is lockdowns, and not: - hospitals out of capacity - Skype calls with family members in quarantine as they died - bodies stored in freezer trailors - mass graves in NYC

we're gonna find out that the entire formidable Daily Wire audience was just a product of 1) a contiunous flow of oligarch money into buying algorithmic promotion for its content 2) conservatives inside meta, X and google pressuring the algorithm into promoting their content

The Balcony, by Édouard Manet, 1868-69, 📸 by Sarah Stier

Just saw Project Hail Mary and yeah, it lives up to the hype. A hard-sci movie with a heart, something almost impossible to pull off.

My latest, on how if moderates really do want their vaunted political peace and quiet achieved through lawful means they ought to back impeachment before things get even more out of hand. open.substack.com/pub/jasonteb...

Three’s Company. So stupid it requires nothing from me.

While I’m happy no longer being in academia, I miss being surrounded by people who weren’t popular in high school. That kind of person eventually becomes an adult and is still just as vexing to be around, or even worse as the frustrations of middle age make them crazy.

Dems In Array.

a reminder that a lot of the things people find unpleasant about cities - along with the noise and dirtiness - are largely a product of filling them with cars. get rid of the cars and the pleasantness of the environment improves dramatically

Exactly and that’s precisely why they do it.

A non working class candidate cosplaying as working class to successfully convince non working class voters to support him on the basis of his appeal to the working class feels appropriately postmodern

I know in the minds of Democrats the ballroom, the arch, the golden statues, putting his name on everything are nothingburger issues next to health care or whatever, but they’re actually a lot easier to grasp and firmly demonstrate how ABNORMAL this all is.