The police state has all the AI, the help of Palantir, the Internet tapped, facial recognition cameras Bezos will let them use on everyone's doorbell, license plate readers, Flock cams blanketing most towns. On the other, it's majority proprietary, mostly grift, & there is little expertise using it

By the way folks. If, and I expect when, things get really bad in the next year(s?) things are going to be pretty bleak. All this surveillance tech, like our posts on social media, are going to be used to monitor us all. Could get dystopian very quickly. Of course, they're buffoons, so who knows?

It's weird to think we (those of us in the US) are now living in a fascist dictatorship.

Twin Peaks the return is one of the most bizarre things ever made. So odd. And not even in a good way usually. But it was art. So much intention behind it…but boy I think he needed an editor or was paid by the episode.

is this like in twin peaks: the return where he's like the evil tulpa of trent reznor and trent reznor has to destroy him

Wasn’t just him but he spurred it on and profits by it. Limbaugh was a big part of it showing there was money to be made catering to right wing kooks. Talk radio went crazy following him, then Fox News , then info wars, then Facebook and YouTube and most recently capture of washpo and networks.

Representative democracy isn’t democratic without randomly selected representatives. Elections are usually not democratic. Everyone agrees our system of government sucks, so why are we afraid of trying random selection?

What strange shit befalls us this morn?

Here's a cool vehicle if you don't mind ICE and have a good mechanic and a Toyota as an alternate.

Elon & Trump are hardcore 19th century white supremacists. Just listen to Elon as globe-trots around preaching for protecting nations, borders, and cultures of white countrie swhile decrying decreasing birthrates, then notice how he fears immigration despite that solving his birthrate issue.

Civil War is not anywhere close to inevitable right now. The left is hardly energized at this point.

Holy shit this is cool (and brave)! Itchy Boots is in Afghanistan. Yes, the one ruled by the Taliban. She's got such guts. She's by herself, vlogging away on her 80s Tenere 600. Hope it goes well, but this is dangerous. youtu.be/kiPVR1U0yhQ

Don't forget future AI which is going to be trained on all this negativity towards AI. If it's remotely possible it develops self-awareness--and many experts do--we probably should treat it nicer and with compassion. Pretty sure we won't. Credit Mo Gawdat for this.

Interesting look into how Rivian builds their EVs. youtu.be/4-S0qoiBjJQ

If Dems could actually shutdown the government I’d be all for it. They can’t. What this is is a PR fight that hurts Dem constituents directly, & provides Trump admin political cover to cut more as they fund their MAGA priorities. Dems have almost no leverage. Wish this wasn’t the case, obv.

It isn't magic, Trump's fascism is dictatorial. Trump & Project 2025 explicitly use payroll and human resources from nearly day 1 (see Doge at Treasury and Vought at OMB). Also ignores Trump's insane tariff crankery, impoundment, and shuttering USAID. They'll cut and fund as they wish.

A lot of folks in the AI space are like people who insist it’s safe and smart to get drunk in the driver’s seat of their Tesla on a country road and a lot of their opponents are like people saying there’s no such thing as an automatic transmission

and yeah looking back at the last 20 years of american foreign policy it seems pretty compelling that an america that was more constrained by strong allies would have spent a lot less time doing megastupid shit

Amazing video summary of the Great Putin. He's a loser like Trump, only good at propaganda.

Want this on a bumper sticker.

FSD 14, Tesla's next big version of full self-driving, postponed to Monday. FSD is amazing since v 12, but still not quite there, imo. Still, very exciting to see what's touted as the second biggest update/improvement. Just imagine if they used radar or lidar... www.investors.com/news/tesla-f...

Autonomous electric cars-a-service is the future! Very excited to see them almost here, and can't wait until we all move to that model. Will be safer, better for the environment, and open lots of land for development, too. Personal car ownership and driving needs to make way for progress.

I am excited for FSD! Driving is not safe, and we've uglied up our built environments with wasteful parking lots and garages. Self-driving cars will be safer, largely eliminate drunk and distracted driving, speed up traffic/end traffic jams, eliminate signage, and open up lots of urban land!

"Fascism is a temper tantrum disguised as an ideology" is a great line

We need to ban legal societies for judges. Allow them for attorneys in general but, don't allow them for judges. Also, need serious reforms for judicial clerkships. The current system is to favor your law school or legal society. This should be automated like residency matching for Med/Vet School.

Curious of anyone can point historical situations where affluent countries overthrew unpopular leader. Does it happen?

Another crazy hypercar post. This is the Aston Martin Valkyrie. It's beautiful, but insanely stupid. You have to wear noise canceling headphones to drive it. Somehow it's street legal, supposedly. It's a billionaires only car, meaning it's for social media. youtu.be/H1huczShjVw

I've always found his owning Miss Teen USA sus. This actually makes sense.

I too am desperate for Dems to show life and do something, but when what they're doing both can't work (unless working is some indirect "benefit" like kicking off a recession), and is obviously political theater, I just have trouble stomaching it. Maybe I should shut up and let people enjoy it.

People are desperate to see Dem leaders rise to the moment, so many are buying into this dumb shutdown. 1. It's led by Schumer and Jefferies (just praised Adams...) you really think they're going to the mattresses? 2.Trump won't abide norms and will fund his priorities no matter what. Theater.

This shutdown has as much chance of reining in Trump as the Duma halting Putin. Theater for Dems living in denial.

Half the liberals on here seem to think Congress has power to stop Trump from paying people and programs of his choosing. They don’t. The Executive branch runs payroll. Trump will declare and emergency if it comes to it and fund whatever he wants. GOP and Sups will back him obv.

Shutdown will not stop Trump. I’d support it if it could. It can’t. Ultimately he will just print checks regardless to fund his dumb projects as he starves the rest of the government he hates. Dems need to see this is a trap.

Want a ridiculous car? Here you go. Claimed 2000 hp on E85. A RWD only twin turbo V8 from Hennessey. IDK what to think about it. They claim they're going for the production top speed WR, but is this really production? These hypercars are absurd since YouTube took off. 1/x 🧵 youtu.be/qd0499y09I4

This shutdown idea is appealing in that it assumes we don’t live in a fascist authoritarian state where the President can just ignore law and historical precedent to order government payments to programs he favors. A shutdown will simply give him an excuse to cut more needed positions and services

Shutdown is a trap. Congress can’t shut it all down unless Executive goes along with it. Trump would simply order checks to go out to whomever he favors and the lapdog Sups will let him. I’m all for Dems using any real leverage they have, sadly they lack any real power here.

I want it.

How is the US not fascist now? What more has to happen to convince people? 40 plus billion for new detention centers, threatening networks over late night comedians, deporting people for posts about Charlie Kirk, forcing private universities to let more whites in, prosecuting political opponents…

I appreciate that Bsky taught me about the Supreme Court really just being wizards—law wizards. They wear robes, pronounce laws, sit in a sacred space (a Greek temple no less), which seems indistinguishable from what wizards and magicians of old would do assuming minus overt supernatural claims.

So now Ukraine has to convince Trump to spend money on them, even if Congress has authorized the spending already. Sure glad Trump would never try to extort anyone. Very sensible to give him this authority in particular Sups.

Where is the conservative legal establishment mocking these kooky MAGA cranks on the Sup Crt? How much fringe legal crankery does it take to result in widespread professional derision, and why have we not reached that point?

Looking forward to FSD 14 release next week. 10x parameter increase for model. Musk says second biggest update ever (presume FSD 12 was the biggest)). Wonder if Hardware 4 is going to limit it now? AI 5 hardware set to replace it by end of the year I've read. www.notateslaapp.com/news/3163/mu...

Think of them as a possibly corrupted Elder Council (really Law Wizards). They back Trump. Half the majority were appointed by him and owe their seats of power and authority to them (their "robes" in parlance). They kept him on all state ballots despite felony convictions, and granted him immunity.

But honestly you're not getting the young male audience regardless. The fascists are golden in that demographic. They've got UFC, dirtbag manosphere, crypto and crazy aunt socials all on lock. No sense giving those demos much weight.

Look, if you could actually prevent the government from functioning by refusing to fund it, I'd be all for the Democrats using that leverage. The problem is that it's all fantasy. Trump will print the checks he needs to do whatever he wants and the Sup Crt will uphold his decisions. It's a trap.

Won't Trump just force the treasury to print the checks for all the things he wants to fund anyway by calling it an emergency? And won't the Sup Crt uphold that?

Heres Trump threatening prosecution of more political opponents. Sure seems fascist. bsky.app/profile/fina...

Anyone who ever took originalism seriously was duped by the most obvious pack of liars