Left unsaid in the discussion about Anthropic's (correct!) decision to decline the Pentagon's ultimatum: Anthropic did not *have* to get into business with the Pentagon or Palantir, especially after Trump won again. But it did! This was a self-inflicted mess. Anthropic stands to benefit anyway.

Got my Anthropic take/prediction in before Pete Hegseth’s 5:01 pm deadline on Friday

NEW from ProPublica: Guards at Trump's family detention camp are grabbing kids' writing, artwork, and crayons. They've even taken one kid's drawing of Bratz dolls. www.propublica.org/article/dill... by @mckenziefunk.com and @micarosenberg.bsky.social

*very* odd story: Cuban Coast Guard killed 4, wounded 6 who showed up on a speedboat w/Florida plates & opened fire on the Cuban Coast Guard. Someone only identified as a "U.S. official" told NYT "the firefight involved a U.S. civilian boat that was part of flotilla to get relatives out of Cuba"

San Francisco Giants principal owner Charles B. Johnson was a 2023 Bohemian Grove attendee according to this list; so was his son Gregory Johnson, who's the chairman of the Giants. They were part of the same "camp" as Henry Kissinger, now-Sen. Dave McCormick, Niall Ferguson, and Mike Bloomberg

btw the guy who's presumably (?) going to beat Rep. Tony Gonzales in the March primaries and then replace him in Congress is Brandon Herrera, a YouTuber who goes by "The AK Guy" for reasons you can glean from this screenshot

There are a few outlets who routinely do this -- they consider it to be fact-checking/verifying a reporter's work, which is fine/good, but it's *also* news aggregation. It wasn't your idea or "exclusive"! If you aggregate reporting, you gotta credit w/a link by the end of your nut graf at the latest

Setting aside the hypocrisy of Anthropic's complaint (difficult!), I find this update to be v peculiarly timed. We don't know *when* these attacks happened, but we do know that right now, Anthropic's trying to save face w/the Pentagon. Seems not-coincidental they're pushing the China Scary button.

Last week I went to Arizona to take in the media circus surrounding Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance. It left me feeling pretty gross about the true crime ecosystem.

Matt Yglesias (badly) riffing off a surface-level Nate Silver analysis about my favorite team.....what have I done to deserve this......I'm already a Wizards fan......

Sifting through just-released court filings in the lawsuits against Meta/Alphabet, just spotted this Google slide from what I think was an early-2010s presentation about their efforts to get YouTube into more schools

My Clavicular take is that he's probably going to end up in prison and the coverage about him being ascendent will look pretty silly

After a discussion with their attorney, I have confirmed that Juan, his 16-month-old sister, his mom, and his dad have been deported.

"Unfortunately I went from a mid level position with 25 years of experience to sleeping in my car driving uber. " A reddit comment in response to @alexshultz.bsky.social's story on @hardresetmedia.com yesterday www.reddit.com/r/technology...

As we await the latest Marc Benioff apology…

Realizing Jake Paul spent the hours before the most important moment of his fiancé's career self-immolating over Bad Bunny lol

I admit I thought the Will Lewis firing would take more than three days

There's a creeping, conservative shift in what is considered to be a "neutral" framing to Post stories, I've been told www.hardresetmedia.com/p/jeff-bezos...

Wrote about The Washington Post layoffs, and dug into what's left of the tech section

You may feel like you've read a lot on this topic already, but check this one out. It's different because of its specificity, and it's illuminating to see how coverage of things as objective as smartphone coverage and privacy concerns are getting hamstrung by constant fear of offending Dear Leader.

Wrote about The Washington Post layoffs, and dug into what's left of the tech section

"I spoke to some of the Post journalists who were laid off, and from what I’ve gathered, the tech section was decimated. It was slashed by more than half, from 20-something to 10ish." Exclusive details from @alexshultz.bsky.social on the WaPo layoffs: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/jeff-bezos...

as one of 17 Wizards fans, I must weigh in on Anthony Davis trade. It's good! Wiz were never gonna sign good FAs with their cap space. Their young guys are 2-4 years away from extensions. Davis is either All-Star level next year, or he's hurt/doesn't play and the team stinks again. Both are fine.

man who runs a website about collecting trading cards defends jeff bezos, explains journalism to the rest of us

Will Lewis will frame layoffs as inevitable, given the Post's reported losses (~100M in '24). But owner Jeff Bezos is worth ~$250B. Assuming no changes to his net worth or inflation (lol) Bezos could absorb Post's losses until he's 2,562 years old. Instead, he's killing off his investment on purpose

Jeffrey Epstein had 2 Twitter accounts: jeffrey_epstein and jeffreyepstein1. He also had 2 IG accounts. DOJ redacted his Signal, WhatsApp, Confide, Telegram & Skype usernames. His Skype was jeevacation (DOJ didn't redact it in other files). He frequently talked w/victims on Skype

A note from our editors:

In 2015, Jeffrey Epstein attended a private dinner at the now-closed Palo Alto restaurant Baumé. Listed attendees included Mark Zuckerberg, Priscilla Chan, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and Reid Hoffman.

Georgia Fort, an independent journalist and vice president of the Minnesota NABJ chapter, was also arrested by federal agents this morning I was sent this video of agents at her door:

"A marriage of convenience between American oligarchs and Donald Trump is running into reality, where normal people are furious about ICE killing two people." must read from @alexshultz.bsky.social for @hardresetmedia.com www.hardresetmedia.com/p/big-tech-l...

Rest in peace to one of the great bloggers and the de facto mayor of Philadelphia. It was my honor and pleasure to work with him. defector.com/dan-mcquade-...

Eleanor Holmes Norton's staff just announced her retirement at the end of this term, aka Jan '27. That means DC has another year of being represented by someone whose staff & campaign won't answer q's about whether she has dementia, or whether her campaign manager/treasurer has power of attorney

Will Lewis will frame layoffs as inevitable, given the Post's reported losses (~100M in '24). But owner Jeff Bezos is worth ~$250B. Assuming no changes to his net worth or inflation (lol) Bezos could absorb Post's losses until he's 2,562 years old. Instead, he's killing off his investment on purpose

The campaign for 88-year-old Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton filed a termination report this a.m., though no announcements yet from her team. Her campaign hasn't received a donation since October. Norton loaned her campaign $110k over the last few years, amid q's about her mental acuity.

Minneapolis police chief Brian O'Hara says that the victim was a 37-year-old white man and US citizen with no criminal record and that he was a legally permitted gun owner.

Tim Walz isn’t running for reelection. He’s not constrained by Dem Party’s strategic paralysis about ICE. (Not excusing party leadership in the slightest, just noting that they will never *not* be motivated by cowardice.) And yet Walz is still only mustering furrowed-brow posts. A complete failure.

The 5-year-old arrested by ICE In Minnesota is detained at Dilley. We reported on conditions there in the below article. Parents said the food was contaminated with mold and worms & that children were so under so much stress that they were hitting their own faces & wetting themselves.

Today at Davos, Elon Musk said every single person will be able to own a humanoid robot and humanoids will lead to "abundance for all." Not gonna happen! If you want a real-world example of how robots are being deployed/developed, we investigated Amazon's unusual biz deal with a robotics startup.

In Jan '25, a whistleblower filed a complaint to the FTC about Amazon’s deal w/robotics startup Covariant. The FTC hasn't said a peep since. @aristeinhorn.bsky.social & I dug into the whistleblower complaint, the FTC's shoddy state, Big Tech’s reverse acquihire reliance, & Amazon's robotics plans

In Jan '25, a whistleblower filed a complaint to the FTC about Amazon’s deal w/robotics startup Covariant. The FTC hasn't said a peep since. @aristeinhorn.bsky.social & I dug into the whistleblower complaint, the FTC's shoddy state, Big Tech’s reverse acquihire reliance, & Amazon's robotics plans

I currently have no cell reception, which appears to be a nationwide issue, and... this is Verizon Support's most recent social media post

Usually when Newsom tries to dilute/kill a bill, etc, his office refuses to talk about it. I've gotten "we do not comment on pending legislation" replies from his team. But a ballot measure for a billionaires tax is apparently compelling enough for him to broadcast his behind-the-scenes politicking

America's new food pyramid is almost indistinguishable from the diet of a hardcore CrossFitter www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...

WaPo is reporting that one of 88-year-old Eleanor Holmes Norton's top staffers just resigned to run for her seat. The fact that one of Norton's top staffers is jumping in the race to replace her, but is also unwilling to comment on Norton's acuity or address reports about her, really sums things up

This AI-generated smear was a success for the Redditor. They got millions of views on a falsified post & compelled statements from DoorDash + Uber. Part 2 of their scheme—getting a journalist to publish libelous documents—didn’t work. But there’s a blueprint here that other fraudsters will emulate

“ChatGPT started coaching Sam on how to take drugs, recover from them and plan further binges. It gave him specific doses of illegal substances, and in one chat, it wrote, ‘Hell yes—let’s go full trippy mode’” www.sfgate.com/tech/article...

A self-identified “engineer” went viral on Reddit (& on social media) w/damning allegations about one of the food delivery apps. Then they circulated a legit-looking “internal document” to journalists, including me. The whole thing was an AI-generated scam intended to smear Uber. Here’s the story

A self-identified “engineer” went viral on Reddit (& on social media) w/damning allegations about one of the food delivery apps. Then they circulated a legit-looking “internal document” to journalists, including me. The whole thing was an AI-generated scam intended to smear Uber. Here’s the story

Trump visibly falling asleep in the background, very inspiring.

Charging someone in a different country with “possession of machine guns” the day after the Ninth Circuit ruled it’s unconstitutional for California to ban open carry of firearms in populated areas