Donald Trump is the creepy, sleazy, car salesman of an uncle you tell your wife and kids to stay away from.
Donald Trump is the creepy, sleazy, car salesman of an uncle you tell your wife and kids to stay away from.
Douchebag of the day.
The billionaires made a promise — now some want out | TechCrunch
Not everyone agrees on what “giving back” even means. To the increasingly significant libertarian wing of tech, the entire framework is wrong: Building companies, creating jobs, and driving innovation are the real contributions, and the pressure to layer philanthropy on top is, at best, a social convention; at worst, a shakedown dressed up as virtue.
Few figures capture the current mood quite like Thiel, who never signed the Pledge himself and is no fan of Bill Gates (he has reportedly called Gates an “awful, awful person“). In fact, Thiel tells the Times he has privately encouraged around a dozen signers to undo their commitments, and has even gently pushed those already wavering to make their exits official.
It’s a real wonder why billionaires are under “attack” recently. To them, it’s the 1980’s again. And they fully believe they can make trickle down economics great again.
Judge orders Trump administration to halt construction of ballroom | AP News
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to suspend construction of a $400 million ballroom it demolished the East Wing of the White House to make space for, barring work from proceeding without congressional approval.
It’s not that hard to find the waste, fraud, and abuse.
Pete Hegseth’s broker attempted to make defense investments before Iran war
A broker for U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sought to make a large investment in major defense companies in the lead up to the Iran war, according to the Financial Times. The Pentagon has dismissed the report.
Real shocker, that one.
Just happened upon an artist named GITA singing a song called “All I Ask” (a phenomenal performance in the video, by the way). Apparently, it was an Adele song from 2015 off of her “25” album. Here are the lyrics she sings in this video:
‘Cause all I ask is If this is my last night with you Hold me like I’m more than just a friend Give me a memory I can use Take me by the hand while we do what lovers do It matters how this ends Cause what if I never love again?
That is…so real. And so good.
This little lizard guy was giving me his best side eye.
It’s easier to not be disappointed if your hopes are never up in the first place.
Way ahead of you, bro.
Been listening to the now 20-year old Dixie Chicks’ hit “Not Ready to Make Nice”.
No reason.
Isn’t it funny how we can always find funding for ICE (even during a DHS shutdown), but not for the TSA? It’s almost as if that’s on purpose.
Daring Fireball: ‘A List of Chain Restaurants Whose Names Contain Unusual Structures’
The closest, though, is ShowBiz Pizza Place, a 1980s archrival to Chuck E. Cheese. (Instead of a pizza-cooking rat, ShowBiz had Billy Bob, a pizza-cooking hillbilly bear.)
I always thought Chuck E Cheese was an offshoot of ShowBiz. I didn’t realize it was a rival.
I was today years old, and all that…
Pentagon seeks $200 billion in extra funds for the Iran war, AP source says | AP News
The Pentagon is seeking $200 billion in additional funds for the Iran war, a sizable amount that is certain to be met with questions from Congress, which would need to approve any new money.
We’d do almost anything to not pay for Americans’ healthcare.
This is just so gross. Gambling at our fingertips is quietly sneaking into every segment of our culture. It is a cancer, in every sense of the word, that has gotten lost in the news due to the revolving shit show that is the Trump administration.
“This Is Not The Computer For You”
Unrelatedly-ish, it is also really interesting that Apple’s answer to the AI gold rush is a $499 laptop (Neo price w/ educational discount). I don’t know if it suggests that the multi-trillion dollar, multinational corporation that Apple has become retains some institutional memory of what computing used to mean to people, but it’s something.
Agreed
Daring Fireball: Horace Dediu on Apple Sitting Out the AI Spending Race
Are they stuck in the past by sitting this out, or wisely passing on a mania?
Personally, I think they made the right call. The “Apple is falling behind” and “it’s all Tim Cook’s fault” crowd may disagree.
The Billionaire Backlash Against a Philanthropic Dream - The New York Times
Over the last two years, there has been a growing backlash from the billionaires who are its target donors. One of its first signers suggested he was “amending” his pledge to account for his for-profit ventures. Another signed it, and then in an occurrence without precedence, unsigned it.
No Oval Office visits anymore: President Trump’s team describes the Pledge as almost a punchline. There’s even a quiet campaign by one pro-Trump tech billionaire to destroy it. Instead of signing up for nonpartisan philanthropy, some billionaires seeking impact are looking for a more direct route, spending more than ever on American elections.
Imagine my surprise.
Why help people when you can hoard everything for yourself and your cronies? Where’s the fun in that?
I really hate that, in print, it says “Spotify Camp Nou”. It’d be like seeing “Nabisco Wrigley Field”.
4th time’s a charm!
Gone are the days when I just show up for a workout and go. There’s at least 10-15 min of warmup for my old ass.
Even 35 years later, too soon.
Never thought I’d see the day when my iPad fell into the devil’s space.
Democracy is dead in the bright light of midday, you fucking boot lickers.
This is my favorite line of code in our system.
Here’s a situation where I don’t think plugging this into any of the LLMs is going to help.
We are exploring moving away from Great Plains to Microsoft’s online platform Business Central. In our current workflows, we utilize both GP web services and eConnect API calls. Custom-written middleware, to be sure. Yet, BC doesn’t have the same API calls. Not only that, some of the API calls don’t exist in BC at all. Meaning we have to lean on 3rd party solutions. The one we’re talking with now is very new. And even with them, there will need to be some custom development done to accommodate .
I don’t think AI (I hate that term now) is going to help here. Real engineers and real software developers will be needed to find a solution. So, please, spare me the “we don’t ever need developers again” thought leader rhetoric.
Do Waymos know each other as they pass by? Do they do some kind of digital wave to each other or something?
On the most recent episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, he had entertainment commentator Matt Belloni on discussing the WB/Paramount deal. And in the course of the conversation, Matt stated something we all should be thinking really hard about:
A guy should not make $800 million off of a financial transaction that causes thousands of jobs to be lost. Like, what are we doing?
And yet, here we are. Capitalism is certainly not broken.
United Airlines can remove you from the plane if you make everyone listen to your music
United Airlines is laying down the law…quietly and without much fanfare. The airline updated its contract of carriage (the rules you agree to when you buy a flight) last Friday, adding a rule that passengers who listen to audio or video without headphones can be kicked off the flight and potentially banned from the airline.
I am so on board with this. Well done, United.
You can’t make this shit up even if you wanted to. It’s like a Mad Libs game at this point.
OpenAI’s Altman says defense deal ‘looked opportunistic and sloppy’
Altman shared what he described as a repost of an internal memo on X, saying the company would amend the contract to include new language regarding its principles on topics like surveillance.
That included wording to clarify that “the AI system shall not be intentionally used for domestic surveillance of U.S. persons and nationals.”
I, for one, totally believe him.
My wife, Jayme, received this lovely note from one of her students yesterday:
I personally want to thank you for everything. You’ve been a phenomenal professor. I was excited to take your class after reading reviews on RateMyProfessor and you did not disappoint. I’ve learned a lot, and much of that can be attributed to your carefully and thoughtfully constructed curriculum and course. I have never seen a professor create such thorough, detailed, and thought-provoking instruction. At the risk of sounding disingenuous, I’m genuinely disappointed that it’s already over. Thank you for everything you’ve done to foster an engaging and educational experience. There are few times in life where you meet someone that has so obviously discovered their gift and calling, and after being your student this semester, I honestly believe that describes you.
You grabbed all the best aspects of studying history (the critical thinking, asking questions, discovering different perspectives, imagining what it would be like to live in these different places and times, recognizing patterns, looking for the deeper lessons, and connecting all this to our own individual lives and future goals) and brought them to the forefront, inviting us not just to memorize dates and names, but to experience “doing” history. This was one of my favorite courses that I’ve taken and I really enjoyed getting to dig in and learn all that I did. I had no idea that world history was such a complex and unique approach to understanding the past. You really gave me an appreciation for this whole subject. This is definitely a class whose lessons will stay with me. Thank you for everything!
Whoever wrote this is spot-on. Jayme is, and has always been, a wonderful teacher. This is what she was born to do. No doubt in my mind.
So proud of her!!!
Not wrong.
Realizing that when I’m in “boss mode”, I can sound like a real nerd. Almost like the prototypical white dude nerd. Alas.
Daring Fireball: ‘Anthropic and Alignment’
I see it as the case against corporatocracy. Who sets our defense policies? Our democratically elected leaders, or the CEOs of corporate defense contractors?
In 2026, there is not a clear answered to this question. And that’s a problem.
Supreme Court blocks California schools' transgender policy | AP News
The Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for California schools to tell parents if their children identify as transgender without getting the student’s approval, granting an emergency appeal from a conservative legal group.
The order blocks for now a state law that bans automatic parental notification requirements if students change their pronouns or gender expression at school.
God forbid we let people live their own lives.
Michelangelo’s ‘The Last Judgement’ restoration underway | AP News
Vatican Museum officials on Saturday described a simple but important cleaning operation to remove the white film of salt that has accumulated on the fresco thanks to the nearly 25,000 people who pass through the Vatican Museums each day.
My bad.
A big Happy 19th birthday to my baby boy!
Something I will never utter: “this hat is too big for me!”
I just can’t get on board with all of the “Apple is messing things up in x, y, and z ways” (see the gasp window resizing “controversy”). Next to the state of the world, those things just seem…inconsequential.
I don’t know how universal this is, but I’ve really appreciated the call of Premier League matches on Peacock (and even La Ligua games on ESPN) recently.
Why do I say that? Because they simply call the games. They don’t wax poetic with storylines about the teams and their past/future the entire game. It’s something that really gets on my nerves with MLS announcers.
Live updates: US and Israel strike Iran | AP News
The strikes opened a stunning new chapter in U.S. intervention in Iran and marked the second time in eight months that the Trump administration has used military force against the Islamic Republic.
“No more forever wars!” Yet another lie.
Transgender Kansans sue over new law invalidating their driver’s licenses
The law also applies to birth certificates, declaring those that don’t align with a person’s biological sex to be invalid; and it requires that bathrooms, locker rooms and other “multiple-occupancy private spaces” in state buildings be designated for use according to people’s biological sexes, establishing steep penalties for government agencies that violate the requirement.
The shit people choose to care about. Honestly.
The law allows people “aggrieved” by the presence of someone of the opposite sex in single-sex spaces like restrooms to sue them for damages of $1,000.
Whoever files for this should be publicly shamed. You fucking snowflakes.
This is where we really should be asking the question: “What’s (actually) wrong with Kansas?”
Just watched the first episode of the “Scrubs” reboot. Made me smile the entire time. Nostalgia is a powerful drug.
Contrast this with the soaring rhetoric from Tuesday night’s State of the Union and you can see what a smoke and mirrors show this administration is.
I don’t know what it’s going to take to get though to MAGA voters anymore. I just don’t. There’s not a shortage of evidence.
In last night’s monologue:
This is the real state of the union, ok. We have a nut job wanna-be-king who’s doing everything he can to censor opinions he doesn’t want to hear. He has his goons arresting, incarcerating, and killing American citizens. He’s cut funding for cancer research and children’s hospitals while he rakes in literally billions of dollars for himself and his family. He’s coming after our right to vote. He’s protecting pedophiles and won’t explain it. He’s lining the pockets of billionaires. All while neglecting the sick, the poor, hungry in the name of Jesus, by the way, who you could read all about in the Donald Trump edition of the “God Bless the USA” Bible that is made in China and available for $99.99. That is the state of the union.
No notes.
Exclusive | Trump Administration Considers Requiring Banks to Collect Citizenship Information - WSJ
Banks in the U.S. are required to collect certain information under “know your customers” rules to guard against money laundering and crime. That often includes collecting passports and Social Security numbers. But those rules don’t include gathering citizenship status specifically, and banks don’t routinely share that information with the government. There is no prohibition on banks opening accounts for noncitizens in the U.S.
More totally normal behavior.
One Foot Tsunami: We Are the One and Only You
Below, I have transcribed all 68 words of nonsense that Lipinski utters:
“The one and only you is the human forged by the path that only you are on. Facing the not-knowing, putting one foot in front of the other. She’s not your trophies. Because our trophies sit on the shelf. It’s the bonds we forge with one another that can guide us to what we’re here to do, and to be who we are: the one and only you.”
Do you have any idea what this ad could possibly be pitching? On my first viewing, I surely did not. I was, however, deeply confused by the repeated pronoun switches. I suppose I still am. You. She. Our. We. Us. You. It’s a real mess!
Same, Paul. Same.
A few days ago I saw an Instagram reel of a young woman talking about how she had been raped six years ago, struggled with thoughts of suicide afterwards, but managed to rebuild her life again. Among the comments – the majority of which were from men – were things like “Well at least you had some”, “No way, she’s unrapeable”, “Hope you didn’t talk this much when it happened”, “Bro could have picked a better option.” Reading those comments, which had thousands of likes and many boys agreeing with them, made me feel sick.
I’m sick just reading this. Just abhorrent behavior.
On the most recent episode of the NYT “The Opinions” podcast, writer Binyamin Appelbaum said the following:
Where Democrats continue to struggle is in explaining what they would do differently. This is a party that continues to lack a coherent, economic vision. I don’t think it’s just a civil war problem. There are different wings of the party ideallogically and they have some definable differences over what economic policy might look like. But I’m not even sure any of those wings has defined to completely coherent plan for moving forward. It is really a party in search of answers. They know what the questions are and they’re putting them increasingly forcefully and successfully, and that may be enough to prevail in the midterms (to be clear). But going forward, they need to start articulating answers to those questions. That to me is the singular challenge confronting the Democrat party right now.
Here’s the thing. I don’t disagree with him. The Democratic Party should have answers to these questions. I just bump up against this political criticism when I hear it. And I think the reason is because this is what is said about either party when the other one has won (normally all sides of the government). I remember this very well when the Democrats controlled the presidency and both houses of Congress under Obama.
And let’s be clear, the only “strategy” the Republicans had walking in to 2024 was “We hate Biden!” It was a coherent vision, for sure. But I don’t think it’s proving to be a productive one for the actual state of the country. Other than “tariff the shit out of everybody”, what are the Republic economic ideas? Where are the Republican plans for healthcare? AI response? Foreign relations? Etc.
We can play this game all day long.
