what communism and google and AI Musktopia have in common. when people disparage “bureaucracy” this is what they mean.

“new guilded age” reflects a kind of denialism of the problem we face.

i don’t know that we can afford centimillionaires.

"If you would have asked me a week ago, I'd have told you that this kind of thing would never in a million years happen. But now, who the fuck knows."

“The historian Douglas Brinkley described Mr. Musk as a ‘lone ranger’ with limitless running room. He noted that the billionaire was operating ‘beyond scrutiny,’ saying: ‘There is not one single entity holding Musk accountable. It’s a harbinger of the destruction of our basic institutions.’”

was today seriously or literally?

so i'm confused now. were the people who believed he would do what he repeatedly and forcefully said he would do get it right, or did the people who presumed he was bullshitting?

they made tax filing free for ordinary people, rather than forcing filers into the hands of tricky, sometimes predatory private prep products. revenue must be perpetual! they had to be deleted, for the wealth an safety of "us all"! thank you Elon! ht @costrike.bsky.social

cc @steveroth.bsky.social (you'll hate this, but i think it's pretty good context.)

it would be amusing if they drew down 5K in order to live up to their end of the bargain.

or who are in thrall in some form vague and ideological or some form more concrete to people who do understand.

i think we'll get the blockchain clause first.

if there is a new order made by this crowd, i don't think it will be rulebased at all. u must know Wilhoit's Law: "Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect."

yes. if the Republican Congress (probably meaning first the Republican public) comes around, we sanity might again prevail. it's maybe a long shot, but certainly one i am hoping for.

i think he has absurd hopes he can bully his way to annexing Canada. i think it's probably all part of a quite disorganized mix. maybe he can get Canada, maybe he can raise enough revenue to go back to the 19th C and abolish the income tax. i'll admit i was surpised Sheinbaum managed to charm him.

what if we formed an organization, in which people kept abreast of these things, notified others like minded, tried to encourage and track productive activism. we might get together, so these tasks would be less lonesome, intimidating, dull. it might be fun, even. call it a party.

better react to something than become bewildered or overwhelmed and react to nothing, is my theory. pick your poison, or as many poisons as you can handle.

what are the odds identities of confidential USAID funding recipients, named in classified files now accessed by 20-somethings with no vetting or counterintelligence training or legal authority, will evade professional intelligence activities of US adversaries? whose lives are in these kids’ hands?