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Reposted by Elisabeth Bayer

Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social · 9h

"Christians United for Israel, the evangelical Zionist group founded in 2006 by Texas pastor John Hagee, claims 10 million members, more than the entire population of 7.5 million Jews in the United States." www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

God's "blank check": Christian Zionists are pouring billions of dollars into Israeli extremism

Evangelicals have become Israel's most important American allies.

www.motherjones.com

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Elisabeth Bayer @ejbayer.bsky.social · 9h

This is a beautiful journey.

Bevis Musson @bevismusson.bsky.social · 18h

You know what, let's do the Annual Mister Global National Costume thread tonight after all. Usual rules apply - this is all in fun, this isn't about the contestants looks or making fun of them, it's about the costumes and appreciating them (or, you know, making fun of them...)

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Reposted by Elisabeth Bayer

priscilla page @priscillapage.bsky.social · 11h

Diane Keaton in her Manhattan apartment with Buster, an Abyssinian, photographed by Jill Krementz in 1977

black & white photograph of young Diane Keaton smiling and standing next to a white refrigerator in a barren-looking kitchen. her cat Buster is crouched on top of the fridge playing with/swatting her hair in the upper right hand corner. she's wearing a long skinny white scarf with a dot-grid pattern, a high-neck white blouse with an ascot/kerchief around the neck, and a black blazer/skirt or blazer dress over what looks like a vest

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Dean Frey @dean.bsky.social · 21h

Inge Morath
Arthur Miller & Pablo Neruda at a bookshop in Greenwich Village, 1966

#BookshopDay

The two writers look at a book, Neruda wearing a soft white hat, Miller smoking a pipe

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Blake Leyh @earlofedgecombe.bsky.social · 21h

If you think you know why US newspapers died, this feature documentary now streaming for free on PBS might surprise you. It wasn't the Internet. Newspapers were specifically targeted by vulture capitalists.

I composed the score for the film, which features electric cello & Crowfoot guitars.

Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink

A handful of journalists rebel against a hedge fund that is gutting newspapers nationwide.

www.pbs.org

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Elisabeth Bayer @ejbayer.bsky.social · 12h

Even in blue, affluent localities, most people have to work hard to advocate for their children and make the school do what they’re required to do. The end of federal enforcement means a lot of kids will go without the accommodations that can make them succeed.

David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 14h

The end of federal enforcement of special ed laws. Some states - including MN - will likely be ok. But a lot of disabled kids in a lot of states are going to lose the education that federal law and decades of jurisprudence say they are owed.

Education Department wipes out special ed office in shutdown layoffs, union says

The Education Department laid off nearly everyone at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

www.usatoday.com

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Anna Merlan @annamerlan.bsky.social · 14h

One time I looked out the window of the thrift store I worked at and saw a beautiful woman hopping down the street on one leg. A second later she burst in the front door and it was Diane Keaton with a broken high heel in her hand. You’ve never seen someone get served by half the staff faster

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Helen Kennedy @helenkennedy.bsky.social · 15h

This was my first thought too. When the military became reliant on the leader and not the state, the republic died.

Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 15h

Many historians of Rome identify Roman generals becoming the personal sources of payment for their armies as a key step in the downfall of the Republic, since it personalized military authority and freed armies to fight for their immediate leader, who paid them, instead of for the Republic

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Matthew Terrill @matthewterrill.bsky.social · 19h

I was already a hard AI-skeptic but this cements my long suspicion that there is no feasible path to anything close to return on invested capital for these data centers. Tech would need 15 to 25 times current AI revenues within the next 2-3 years just to break even. Not financially viable.

"I clearly hit a nerve in the industry, when judging by the number of individuals who reached out to chat," he wrote in an followup blog post. "In total, l've spoken with over two-dozen rather senior people in the datacenter universe, and there was an interesting and overriding theme to our conversations: no one understands how the financial math is supposed to work. They are as baffled as I am, and they do this for a living."
Kupperman's original skepticism was built on a guess that the components in an average Al data center would take ten years to depreciate, requiring costly replacements. That was bad enough: "I don't see how there can ever be any return on investment given the current math," he wrote at the time.
But ten years, he now understands, is way too generous.
" had previously assumed a 10-year depreciation curve, which I now recognize as quite unrealistic based upon the speed with which Al datacenter technology is advancing," Kupperman wrote. "Based on my conversations over the past month, the physical data centers last for three to ten years, at most."
In his previous analysis, Kupperman assumed it would take the tech industry $160 billion of revenue to break even on data center spending in 2025 alone. And that's assuming an incredibly generous 25 percent gross margin - not to mention the fact that the industry's actual Al revenue is closer to $20 billion annually, as the investment manager noted in his previous blog.

"In reality, the industry probably needs a revenue range that is closer to the $320 billion to $480 billion range, just to break even on the capex to be spent this year," Kupperman posited in his updated essay. "No wonder my new contacts in the industry shoulder a heavy burden - heavier than I could ever imagine. They know the truth."
Kupperman called that gulf between tech industry spending and actual revenue in 2025 "astonishing."
However, it doesn't even begin to scratch the surface. For example, how does it all shake out when we account for 2026, when hundreds of new data centers are expected to pop up?
"Adding the two years together, and using the math from my prior post, you'd need approximately $1 trillion in revenue to hit break even, and many trillions more to earn an acceptable return on this spend," he writes.
"If the economics don't work, doing it at massive scale doesn't make the economics work any better
- it just takes an industry crisis and makes it into a national economic crisis," he concludes.
Overall, the pessimists broadly agree: it's no longer a matter of if Al is massively overhyped, but when the whole thing comes crashing down.
More on Al hype: Data Shows That Al Use Is Now Declining at Large Companies

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Reposted by Elisabeth Bayer

Brooke Harrington @ebharrington.bsky.social · 1d

What Thiel is saying about tax havens = what Altman is saying about copyright:

"I can't be rich unless you let me steal from you."

This is how Broligarchs differ from oligarchs of yore: the latter tried to hide their thievery; the Broligarchs trumpet their entitlement to steal as a natural right.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 21h

an incontestable fact of the second trump administration is it is actively trying to sicken and kill as many americans as it can

Lena Sun @lenasun.bsky.social · 1d

NEW: @CDCgov hit hard by massive firings that several staff describe to me as a “bloodbath.”
Among those RIFd:
—leadership of the center for immunization and respiratory diseases;
—leadership of global health center
—leadership of the measles outbreak response; 1/4

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Dan McCrum @mccrum.bsky.social · 22h

This isn’t funny. Judges only speak to the press when they’re in extreme distress

Leah Litman @leahlitman.bsky.social · 1d

More judges speak to the press (the NYT) about what a disaster the Supreme Court (specifically the shadow docket) has been - “incredibly demoralizing & troubling”; a “judicial crisis”; a “slap in the face to district courts.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

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darth™️ @darthbluesky.bsky.social · 1d

maybe some of these guys just *like* extra innings

it is just an observation if i loved doing something i would also not want it to end

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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 1d

A few minutes ago in the House:

- Speaker Mike Johnson officially cancels votes next week, extending the House recess through a fourth week

- House Republicans block Democrats from passing a bill to pay the troops during the shutdown, ensuring they will miss paychecks next week

House Press Gallery: During today's pro forma session, the Clerk read a message from the Speaker designating Tuesday, October 14 through Sunday, October 19 as a district work period.

Punchbowl's Briana Reilly: House gaveled in and out of its pro forma just now w/o recognizing Rep Elfreth, who was seeking to UC a mil pay bill from Rep Sykes.

Elfreth told reporters after that House Dems stand “ready and willing to take” up standalone legislation to pay troops.

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Micah @rincewind.run · 1d

this is a recipe for a four year government shutdown

you simply cannot make deals with people who are telling you up front they are going to break those deals and claw back everything you won in them

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Q: Rescission are something Dems have said is a reason for a lack of trust. What rescissions are you discussing?

JOHNSON: We have more than $37t in debt. We're doing everything we can to get us back to sound fiscal responsibility. What does that include? A rescission package is part of our process

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ceej @ceej.online · 2d

damn. hoping it at least signifies something

William Shakespeare @shakespeare.lol · 2d

It is a tale
Told by an idiot

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Elisabeth Bayer @ejbayer.bsky.social · 2d

the giant frog religionnews.com/2024/01/09/w...

Why I am obsessed with an ancient story about giant frogs

(RNS) — Yes, they are a metaphor for the challenges of our time.

religionnews.com

Elisabeth Bayer @ejbayer.bsky.social · 2d

Tzfardeah. Arov.

The Oregonian @oregonian.com · 2d

Things are happening at Portland's ICE facility tonight.

Read more of our protest coverage here: www.oregonlive.com/crime/2025/1...

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Emmy™️ @babkastreisand.bsky.social · 2d

We’ll always have our Phanatic mocking Tommy Lasorda tho 😔 Go Phils

Emmy™️ @babkastreisand.bsky.social · 26d

Good evening. Go Phils.

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Reposted by Elisabeth Bayer

Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 2d

www.wweek.com/culture/2025...

Can you put into words what that purpose is? You and the frog have really become icons of this protest.

There’s been a nice overall whimsy that has shown up. The frog is amazing. We had a bunch of other inflatable people here last night, too. I saw people playing Twister the other day.

What they rely on is fear. So by coming out in an absurdist manner, it speaks to them, to some extent, that we’re actually not that afraid.

It also dismantles their narrative a little bit. When they try to describe this situation as “war-torn,” it becomes much harder to take them seriously when they have to post a video saying [U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security] Kristi Noem is up on the balcony staring over the Antifa Army and it’s, like, eight journalists and five protesters and one of them is in a chicken suit.

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Elisabeth Bayer @ejbayer.bsky.social · 2d

I like a Halloween costume that comes with seating.

Getty @gettymuseum.bsky.social · 2d

Cat sculpture that reads:
Turquoise cat costume
Gold throne
Unnerving smile

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"spooky sukkot" daniel s. @self.agency · 2d

JVP and IfNotNow, two Jewish groups principally committed to nonviolence, are both on the government’s list of left-wing violent extremist groups

Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 2d

Admin cracking down on Soros, Indivisible, ActBlue, & Jewish peace groups is incredible projection in light of federal contractor El*n M*sk spending more on politics in 2024 than anybody in human history and all the big money corruption of 2025

www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

www.reuters.com

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darth™️ @darthbluesky.bsky.social · 3d

"we are going to murder americans without due process"
~pam bondi, US attorney general

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 3d

My gosh. After the US bombed multiple boats in the middle of the ocean, murdering people on grounds that they were allegedly "carrying drugs," the US Attorney General says "Just like we did with cartels, we're going to take the same approach, President Trump, with Antifa."

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Elisabeth Bayer @ejbayer.bsky.social · 2d

He really hates trees

Elisabeth Bayer @ejbayer.bsky.social · 2d

That’s horrible

Charles T. Downey @ionarts.bsky.social · 3d

Surprised by yet more changes being made (chopped down) at the Kennedy Center, this time on the lower terrace

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