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bambootoo.bsky.social
@bambootoo.bsky.social
1.7K followers 460 following 900 posts
she/her interested in sustainability, inventive technologies that actually help people, dogs, books, politics (reluctantly), Seattle, San Francisco Bay Area, Britain (my repost means “look”)
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bambootoo.bsky.social
Buttcrack Jack should take a long look in the mirror and ask himself why he’s afraid to show his face while he’s doing his “job.” Respectable, honorable professions don’t require identity-hiding masks.
Face of a bearded boy working for ICE in Tacoma with his mask down. Note distinctive decoration on his glasses.
June 13, 2025 at 2:27 AM
bambootoo.bsky.social
‘Fundamental Data did acknowledge that the purpose of the power plant was to support artificial intelligence and advanced computing.’ #CryptoMustDie #RegulateAI
autonomy. There are folks who would welcome the data center if they could have a little more say about maybe where it's sited, or if they could have a little more information about how much water the facility might use. You know, that's one of the things that we know nothing about so far. The air quality permit that's required doesn't require the company to disclose any information about water usage. So folks are really wondering, you know, where are they going to get all the water needed to cool these data centers? They typically require enormous amounts of water to cool these facilities. Have they perhaps come up with some new kind of technology that doesn't require as much water? We just don't know because we just don't have very much information about how these facilities will operate.
May 28, 2025 at 1:45 AM
bambootoo.bsky.social
‘Narrowing the field to apocalyptic extinction-level scenarios is not just analytically unsound; it results in worse governance. A wider view can save lives now and, by building institutional capacity, better protect the distant future.’ Excellent sane recommendations. #AI #regulation
could be strategically unwise. Systematic borrowing from earlier safety regimes—such as the Federal Aviation Administration's certification model, the Food and Drug Administration's pharmacovigilance system, or the National Institute of Standards and Technology's cyber-framework—can accelerate policy design and avoid relearning expensive lessons. Anchoring AI safety in broader engineering systems practice offers five concrete advantages for governance. First, legislation can target specific, observable failure modes without requiring lawmakers to adjudicate super-intelligence AI scenarios. Second, coalition building becomes easier: domain experts in software security, human-computer interaction, ethics, and safety engineering see their expertise recognised, reducing the divide between extinction-risk advocates and practitioners. Third, oversight can become more agile: tools similar to those proven in medical-device law fit naturally with AI deployment cycles. Fourth, compliance theatre shrinks: firms align with measurable standards rather than drafting speculative pledges about doomsday prevention. Finally, a pluralistic lens on safety creates room for moral disagreement: societies may never converge on extinction probabilities, but they can still agree that finance models should resist manipulation and autonomous vehicles should obey speed limits. Two frequent objections deserve a brief response. One argues that present-day fixes cannot scale to artificial super-intelligence; yet the history of safety engineering is incremental. Early aircraft inspections evolved into today's stringent airworthiness directives through decades of learning from failures. While AI systems present fundamentally different challenges, the same evolutionary logic could guide the development of deployment-worthiness standards for AI applications. A second objection holds that extinction-from-AI narratives usefully concentrate minds and funding on critical problems. While focus has value, it becomes counterproductive when it crowds out complementary research approaches or erodes public trust in AI governance. Demonstrating tangible short-term safety benefits can legitimize and sustain long-term existential risk investments. A pluralistic agenda for AI safety implies four lines of action. First, codify baseline safeguards: mandate adversarial-robustness testing, model-card disclosures, and secure data governance for any AI system used in safety-critical or rights-critical settings. Second, institutionalize incident reporting by creating an AI analogue to aviation's confidential near-miss database, complete with shared taxonomies for root-cause analysis. Third, fund "safety science courts"— interdisciplinary bodies that audit models, replicate claims, and publish advisories, echoing drug-safety committees. Fourth, invest in open-source oversight tools for mechanistic interpretability, red-team simulation, and
May 22, 2025 at 2:06 PM
bambootoo.bsky.social
“Right now they have just been deleting things. They haven’t added any value… If it is just us hatcheting things instead of improving or even replacing them, the goal, to me, is not actually about improving efficiency.” #DOGE #RAGE #networkstates

Free version. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
virus," all under the auspices of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency. For weeks, he and his merry band of DOGE bros gleefully jumped from agency to agency, terrorizing bureaucrats, demanding access to sensitive data, and leaving snack wrappers on employees' desks. But as Musk winds down his official time in Washington, he has found himself isolated within the upper reaches of the Trump administration, having failed to build necessary alliances and irritating many of the department and agency heads he was ostensibly there to help. His team failed to find anything close to the 13-figure savings hed promised. Court challenges clipped other projects. Cabinet secretaries blocked DOGE cuts they said reduced crucial services. All the while, Musk's net worth fell, his companies tanked in value, and he became an object of trequent gossip and ridicule. At the core of Musk's challenges was his unfamiliarity with reforming an organization that, unlike his own companies, he does not fully control. Rather than taking the time to navigate and understand the quirks and nuances of the federal government-yes, an often lumbering and inefficient institution— Musk instead told his team to move fast: It would be better to backtrack later, if necessary, than to proceed with caution. (One administration official told us that Musk's view was that if he hadn't fired so many people that he needed to rehire some, it would mean that he hadn't cut enough.) As he sought to solve spending and digital-infrastructure problems, he often created new issues for Trump, the president's top advisers, and Capitol Hill allies. "He came with a playbook that comes from outside government, and there were mixed Calkins told us that he very much supports Musk's stated goals: government efficiency and modernization, and harnessing technology to improve the lives of citizens. But, he explained, Washington will never work the way Silicon Valley dog Its capacity for disruption is lower; although people may enjoy summoning Uber rides or ordering food via their phone, they do not rely on these innovations the way many do say, public education or Medicaid. "Government is a foundation, versus a technology company that usually provides a bonus-something we enjoy consuming, but not something we count on," Calkins said. Musk's operation claims to have found $170 billion in savings by cutting grants, contracts, leases, and other spending, though the numbers have frequently been revised down owing to errors and program results have proved mixed. Some talented and experienced career bureaucrats-the sorts of officials Trump and Musk ostensibly wanted to retain —decamped to the private sector or took early retirement, and the general chaos led to some fired employees being hired back. At the Federal Aviation Administration, Musk's interference and cuts have caused mayhem, especially among already overtaxed air-traffic controllers. Musk also made himself the public face of the Trump administration's decision to shut down USAID, a decision that the Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates described as "the world's richest man killing the world's poorest children." (Musk, who'd initially earned the fraught designation of "co-president" and seemed destined for a rocket-fuel-caliber blowup with the actual president, also lasted much longer in government than many had surmised he would—and is exiting with something akin
May 21, 2025 at 8:51 PM
bambootoo.bsky.social
Good question. A whistleblower shared a while ago that DOGE may have shared National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) data with Russia. www.npr.org/2025/04/15/n...
"Hi all, I must apologize for the abrupt message...but I have urgent news," Suhaib Akhter wrote in a Feb. 18 email, a copy of which was reviewed by Bloomberg News. "Opexus/CasePoint hires Uncleared personnel to work with your data; I was one of these uncleared personnel. The databases are insecure, using the same use name and password to be accessed by all. They fired me because some of you determined I was unfit to deal with your data, but I'm telling you there are a lot more people in that organization like me. Please heed this message.” Dueling investigations The ease with which the Akhters were able to access Opexus data systems during their termination meeting triggered intense investigation-inside the company and out. The report noted that the tactics used by the Akhters to attack Opexus networks were "indicative of advanced persistent insider threat tactics, which are typically associated with nation state actors,l suggesting that Opexus's vulnerabinties could have broader implications for national security." It also took issue with how Opexus characterized the incident to its customers at various agencies. In one email, Opexus wrote that "there is no evidence that the former insiders exfiltrated sensitive customer information ... or performed any other harmful actions within the Opexus network." In its report, Mandiant said that its own investigation discovered Muneeb Akhter's user account had copied 1,805 files onto a USB drive-"a major lapse in security Inspectors general at more than a dozen federal agencies have been investigating the incident, and are still trying to identify the universe of government records and data potentially accessed, copied and removed by the Akhters, according to five people familiar with the matter. In March, Bloomberg News received several emails from government agencies in response to FOIA requests saying that any requests filed during a four-day window starting on Feb. 14 had been "lost" due to a "data failure experienced by its contractor, Opexus." At the Export-Import Bank of the United States, the outage was even longer. The agency said in response to a FOIA request that the outage affected all FOIA requests submitted between Feb. 18 and March 18.
May 21, 2025 at 2:02 PM
bambootoo.bsky.social
Remember during the Kavanaugh hearings Booker made a big deal out of sharing hidden emails that turned out to hold nothing of import? That behavior makes Dems look as corrupt as the GOP. It’s these character reveals that keep Booker down. www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/ka...
"I openly invite and accept the consequences of releasing that email right now," Booker said. "The emails are being withheld from the public have nothing to do with national security." Bill Burck, Bush's presidential record representative, said later Thursday, "We cleared the documents last night shortly after Senator Booker's staff asked us to. We were surprised to learn about Senator Booker's histrionics this morning because we had already told him he could use the documents publicly. In fact, we have said yes to every request made by the Senate Democrats to make documents public." Such theatrics have characterized Kavanaugh's hearings, in which Democrats have repeatedly complained that Republicans have withheld documents from the committee and the public that shed important light on Kavanaugh's past.
May 21, 2025 at 1:46 PM
bambootoo.bsky.social
America could use its own Zelenskyy about now. #Springsteen2028
The 'opt-out' presidency MAGA's greatest advantage is that it came along after, or because, the Republican Party had spent generations building a culture of newslessness. The only "consensus" media left in America is the right-wing media, which controls all the big incentives and generally drives what gets covered in what's left of real journalism. You can watch and listen to right-wing media all day and still be newsless. That's the whole point. Newspapers are pretty much done. Whole swaths of the country get their news from Sinclair or other GOP front groups. And the nihilism, contempt, and bigotry coursing through these stories either stimulate the worst instincts in the audience or turn them off entirely to politics-both are huge wins for Republicans. “Today's culture is no longer a creation of executives in New York City and Los Angeles. Thanks to algorithms and an endless set of media choices, what you see, read and hear is a personalized reflection of your own interests. It's like a city with a lot of different neighborhoods. You might live in the personal fitness neighborhood or the parenting neighborhood, and you'll never cross over into the equine science neighborhood or, say, the politics neighborhood. So if you don't care about politics — or more precisely, don't trust our politics — you don't have to hear about it at all. A voter can turn on, tune in or opt out.” Rob's convincing case is that Democrats are failing with these opt-out voters. I have several theories as to why that is. However, I also have plenty of evidence to support his claim. “Voters who have not heard much about some of the many major news events from the first 100 days of Mr. Trump's second term have a higher opinion of the job he is doing, according to the latest New York Times/Siena College poll.” The poll points to specific examples, notably finding that the more you know about Trump's horrific kidnapping and exile of American residents, the more you disapprove of his immigration policies: Do you approve or disapprove of the way Donald Trump has handled immigration? Among respondents who … Have heard about the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case 46% approve Have not heard about the case 55% approve Have heard about the Mahmoud Khalil case 40% approve Have not heard about the case 54% approve Based on a New York Times/Siena College poll of 913 voters nationwide conducted April 21 to 24. Note: Respondents were categorized as having heard about a story if they had heard "a lot" or "some" about it. Respondents were categorized as not having heard about a story if they had heard "only a little" or "none at all," or if they responded that they didn't know. By Alex Lemonides What will save us? Anat Shenker-Osorio explains this requires " a break from any sense of normalcy." [screen grab of a video presentation with slides] On using the "F" Word Utility of: * Clearer connection to personal harms * Break from sense of normalcy * Can't face, let alone overcome, what we can't name * Goal is sustaining mass resistance, refusal & ridicule, not achieving majority approval * Use it to name villains not to describe conditions Common objections: * Better to stick to inflation/economic issues • No one understands the word "fascism" • Using "fascism" is divisive, polarizing and/or will turn people off who don't like to pay attention to politics * "Fascist" makes Trump sound strong or unbeatable * Were not there yet To emphasize, she says, "our goal is sustaining mass resistance, refusal and ridicule, which is the only thing that has successfully confronted a fascist regime in That's exactly what Bruce was summoning. And unlike us, Bruce can break through to the "opt-out voters." He probably won't
May 20, 2025 at 4:18 PM
bambootoo.bsky.social
‘Buried deep in the House Energy & Commerce Committee’s additions to the sprawling budget reconciliation package was a sweeping provision imposing a 10-yr federal moratorium on all state and local regulation of artificial intelligence… [I]t would effectively wipe out hundreds of state-level laws’
artificial intelligence. As written, it would effectively wipe out hundreds of state-level laws already enacted to address issues like child-targeted companion chatbots, scams against the elderly, AI-generated pornography, election deepfakes, and autonomous vehicles. Because the language was inserted through the reconciliation process, it passed through the committee with minimal opportunities for bipartisan debate. It was a strikingly effective maneuver; after years of performative calls for "guardrails," tech giants like Meta and Google have lobbied relentlessly on Capitol Hill and have secured exactly what they've long sought—regulatory immunity—without a single public vote. The provision faces an uphill battle in the Senate: it runs afoul of the Byrd Rule, which blocks unrelated policy measures from reconciliation bills. But its mere appearance should sound alarms for all tech accountability advocates. This wasn't a fluke; it was a test
May 20, 2025 at 3:48 PM
bambootoo.bsky.social
‘It's going to be in everybody's 401(k). Everyone's going to have crypto exposure at least indirectly through Coinbase.’ Seems legit. #CryptoMustDie
The attackers gained control of customer information, including names, emails, physical addresses, phone numbers, and government identification details — including the last four digits of their Social Security numbers — along with some bank account identifiers and snapshots of customer balance data and transaction history. The news that the SEC still has an open investigation into Coinbase reinforced that the company's regulatory troubles may not be over, even after announcing in late February that the SEC had agreed to drop an enforcement case initiated by former Under Gensler, the agency had charged Coinbase with operating as an unregistered national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency. President Trump replaced Gensler with cryptocurrency advocate Paul Atkins. The outstanding SEC inquiry that remains open also began during the Biden administration, according to the New York Times. It centers on whether the company misstated its "verified user" numbers in financial disclosures as far back as its initial filing to go public, according to the Times. Coinbase stopped using the "verified user" metric in 2023. "Based on our evaluation of our Verified Users metric, we do not believe this metric, which is an indicator of the scale of our platform, provides meaningtul information related to our business performance," the company said in a February filling of that year. Grewal, Coinbase's chief legal officer, said
May 15, 2025 at 10:59 PM
bambootoo.bsky.social
Why do Trump and the tech broligarchs have such a hard-on for MBS and Saudi Arabia? Is it just the money? Network states in the desert? Is AI going to magick clean drinking water and livable temperatures into existence?
Trump's speech at the investment conference followed him signing several bilateral agreements during a state visit with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Among the agreements secured is a nearly $142 billion defense sales deal,| providing the kingdom with "state-of-the-art warfighting equipment and services from over a dozen U.S. defense firms," the White House said. That commitment is nearly double Saudi Arabia's 2025 defense budget, which totaled $78 billion. The White House's announcement does not say when the defense deal is expected to conclude. Bin Salman, who spoke before Trump at the investment conference, said the aim is to raise the U.S.-Saudi partnership to $1 trillion across the military, security, economic and technological sectors. Economists point out that making good on that investment pledge will be a challenge for the kingdom, which faces sky-high costs for its own Vision 2030 investment ambitions. Lower global oil prices and big-ticket public spending projects have brought about widening budget deficits for Riyadh. The White House also announced commitments from Saudi digital infrastructure business Data Volt to pursue a $20 billion investment in artificial intelligence data centers in the U.S. The total investment figure also includes a
May 15, 2025 at 4:23 PM
bambootoo.bsky.social
#DOGE #RAGE #AI #networkstates www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/u...
Here are some of the business executives and other guests for the lunch, according to a list provided by the White House: • Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX • Stephen A. Schwarzman, chief executive of the Blackstone Group • Larry Fink, chief executive of BlackRock • Arvind Krishna, chairman and chief executive of IBM • Jane Fraser, chief executive of Citigroup • Kelly Ortberg, chief executive of Boeing • Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer of Alphabet and Google • Andy Jassy, chief executive of Amazon • Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI • Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia • Alex Karp, chief executive of Palantir • Jeff Miller, chief executive of Halliburton • Travis Kalanick, former chief executive of Uber and founder of Cloud Kitchens • Kathy Warden, chief executive of Northrop Grumman • James Quincey, chief executive of Coca-Cola • Dara Khosrowshahi, chief executive of Uber • Francis Suarez, mayor of Miami • Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA • Patrick Soon-Shiong, executive chairman of Immunity Bio and owner of The Los Angeles Times
May 15, 2025 at 3:57 PM
bambootoo.bsky.social
Call your Congressperson if you have had enough of this shit. 5calls.org #ImpeachTheFelon
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, said transcriptions of a president's remarks have always been seen as historical records, not things to be politicized. "Making the words of the president readily available is part of the accountability obligation of the White House," she said. "The public has the right to know what the leader says... It's a mark of a democratic system," she added, saying that she could not speculate as to why Trump is withholding most of his transcripts' release. "Trying to figure out why this White House does what it does requires a skill far beyond mine." "They know the transcripts will reveal, on paper, the word salad and incoherence that characterizes Trump," said Norman Ornstein, a political scientist with the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute. "It is much easier to pore through written transcripts and compare them, which will show inconsistencies and reversals." Andrew Bates, a top press aide in the Joe Biden White House, said his counterparts in the Trump White House clearly understand that reading what Trump has said does not reflect well on him. "He keeps saying things that are a liability, like talking about dolls and pencils. Or just getting confused," Bates said. The Biden press office tamously altered punctuation in a transcript to make it seem that Biden was criticizing a smaller subset of Trump supporters than the transcript originally suggested. The Biden team, nonetheless, released that transcript and appears to have released all those prepared by the stenography office, totaling well over 2,000 over four years. The Trump press shop, in contrast, appears to have decided that the best way to avoid negative media coverage of his transcribed remarks is to not release them in the first place. A comparison of the posted transcripts versus the remarks for which the transcripts have been withheld suggests an effort to conceal "By the way, I took my cognitive exam as part of my physical exam, and I got the highest mark. And one of the doctors said, 'Sir, l've never seen anybody get that kind of — that was the highest mark. I hope you're happy with that, although they haven't been bugging me too much to take a cognitive. But I did do my physical, and it was released. I hope you're all happy with it. I noticed there's no questions, so probably you are. But the cognitive, they said to me, 'Sir, would you like to take a cognitive test?' I said, 'Did Biden take one?' 'No. 'Did anybody take one?' 'No, not too many people took them. I said, 'What about Obama, did he take one?'" Trump said. "The totality of his statements clearly
May 15, 2025 at 2:34 PM
bambootoo.bsky.social
Who went: Elon (Tesla, SpaceX), Ruth Porat (Google), Andy Jassy (Amazon), Ben Horowitz (broligarch investor), Sam Altman (OpenAI), Jensen Huang (Nvidia), Lisa Su (AMD), Alex Karp (Palantir, co-founded by Peter Thiel), Travis Kalanick and Dara Khosrowshahi (Uber), Tim Sweeney (Epic Games)
Among the spate of deals announced on the trip was a promise from Nvidia that it will sell hundreds of thousands of its newest "Blackwell" chips to Humain, a start-up launched by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund. Chip designer Advanced Micro Devices also announced a $10 billion collaboration with Humain. Amazon announced major AWS data centers in the kingdom earlier this year. The public presence of so many executives is a far cry from 2018, when members of the business elite went so far as to boycott the kingdom's investment conference - dubbed Davos in the Desert - over the killing of the Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Notably, Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, who supported a high-profile campaien to draw attention to Khashoggi's Yet the goals of business leaders and the national interest are sometimes at odds. Foreign policy experts have questioned whether the U.S. is offering up access to core strategic technologies, such as valuable Al semiconductor chips, but getting too little in return - and potentially putting national security at risk by creating profound dependence on autocratic countries. And the question of whether helping big companies get "a lot of checks" benefits the nation appears to have receded to the background amid a cutthroat Al arms race with China. Trump has often been willing to marshal the authority of his administration to help American companies get access to big foreign coffers to stay competitive, even as some have warned that such an approach could put the U.S. at risk down the line. The president likes to play the role of convener, the most powerful person in a room of powerful people. This week he certainly did so.
May 15, 2025 at 1:52 AM
bambootoo.bsky.social
‘Someone said Trump lools like my Tupperware after I store spaghetti in it, and I fell on the floor laughing’ statuskuo.substack.com/p/just-for-s...
AI-generated image in the style of a wartime propaganda poster. Donald Trump, wearing communist garb, shouts into a bullhorn, the words “YOU WILL OWN NOTHING AND BE HAPPY!” blaring in all caps at the business end. A little girl cries, holding a sad white plush bunny, as in the background a bulldozer pushes a huge pile of toys, presumably off an aircraft carrier into the ocean or similar
May 14, 2025 at 3:30 AM
bambootoo.bsky.social
Free version. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
Most of the worId accepted this advice, only to discover the difficulty of making global trade deals with a president who doesn't seem to understand how trade works. Foreign diplomats expressed repeated frustration as they failed to ascertain what Trump even wanted from them, let alone what he was prepared to offer in return. To date, only the United Kingdom has managed to resolve its trade status with the United States. China, however, retaliated with countermeasures of its own, imposing steep tariffs on American imports. Trump decided to make an example of the country. "Based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World's Markets, I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately," he announced on Truth Social. (This figure eventually increased to 145 percent.) Other countries, which had showed proper respect, would receive a merciful reprieve. "The world is ready to Trump held out for one month before backing down. Under the new 90-day agreement, tarifts on Chinese goods will come down to 30 percent; China's tariffs on American goods will likewise decline to 10 percent. "The consensus from both delegations is that neither side wanted a decoupling," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced at a press conference in Geneva, as if the whole thing had been one big misunderstanding. The decades of China allegedly "ripping off" the United States were apparently forgotten, along with China's insolence in retaliating and the supposed need for the U.S. to reduce its reliance on Chinese imports. The administration isn't even pretending that it forced China to pay any special price for its defiance. It is memory-holing the entire "do not retaliate" episode and moving on as if the point this whole time was to get along better with Beijing. As an exercise in trade policy, this makes no sense. But to treat Trump's behavior as if it were narrowly tailored to the objective of reordering global trade misses the symbolic role it plays. Trump is performing a character, the presidential version of the boss he played in The Apprentice, sitting in a plush leather chair doling out justice to quavering supplicants. His threats of conquest against Canada, Greenland, and Panama, and his unilateral renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, advance no practical objective. Indeed, they generate resentment that weakens his leverage over those countries. Trump's best chance to add Greenland to the United States, for example, would have been to use a soft touch, rather than to insist that he would have it one way or another. The purpose that these gambits seem to serve is to establish Trump as the boss man lording his power over vulnerable targets. The original target of this ritual was Mexico. he stands little chance of winning in court, and defying court orders won't help him make Harvard pay taxes that it does not legally owe. Similarly, after Canadians elected Mark Carney as prime minister and he insisted that his country could never be purchased or taken, Trump responded with a friendly Oval Office meeting in which he seemed to accept Carney's refusal. The genuinely complicated factor in these negotiations is that "winning" with Trump is often impossible, because the relationship itself is lose-lose. Trump does not appear to recognize the possibility of a positive-sum engagement, and his attempts to turn a productive connection into an exploitative one create losses for both sides. This is most obvious in trade, where Trump's protectionist instincts have spread pain around the globe without generating any
May 12, 2025 at 7:05 PM
bambootoo.bsky.social
‘Perhaps accepting a foreign plane that could be bugged, compromised, or surveilled isn’t the best idea if you’re trying to keep high-level information confidential. Then again, this Administration doesn’t care about exposing our military secrets to foreign countries’ #corruption #ImpeachTheFelon
accessed by our enemies. Second, if you accept a bribe, which is what this is, then you immediately become compromised and beholden to your benefactor. There's always a quid pro quo. The question remains what, or who, will Trump give up in exchange for such luxurious gifts? It seems Israel is an initial victim. (Sorry, not sorry, Israel.) Coinciding with this Qatar "gift,” Trump has decided to visit Qatar, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia for his first official foreign trip. Hamas, which Qatar sponsors, also gave Trump a win by releasing Edan Alexander, the last American hostage in Gaza. None of this should be surprising to anyone who has kept receipts. In the first Trump Administration, son-in-law Jared Kushner maintained a backdoor relationship with Saudi tyrant MBS, who bragged he had Kushner "in his pocket." After meeting with Kushner, MBS engaged in a Saudi "red wedding", sidelined his critics and control. Trump's first foreign trip was to Saudi Arabia, where Steve Bannon danced with swords and Trump did a curtsey to the Saudi king. In return, Kusher received a $2 billion investment for his fledgling firm. You see, it's perfectly fine to dance with Saudis, accept Qatari money, and deal with Gulf states when you're a Republican. You're not accused of being an extremist, a terrorist, or a supporter of Hamas and jihadists. That's only reserved for public Muslims, such as myself, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, or Mehdi Hasan - none of us, by the way, have ever received a jumbo jet, 100K, or billions of investments from Gulf states. It's all projection, all the time for MAGA. The rules are twisted, inverted, and thrown out the window when they can achieve more power and wealth, and accelerate the grift. Even if it means pissing off the Islamophobes of the base, like Laura Loomer, the Trump If you're a foreign country or an evil billionaire, I'd strongly recommend buying Trump's stupid digital coin to gain face-to-face access with him at a private dinner hosted at his golf course. Trump is openly inviting bribery by "auctioning" access to the highest bidder, who will also receive a tour of the White House. Trump is the easiest mark in the world. For some chump change, you can get pretty much anything you want from him for the right price. American tech billionaires, such as Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, understood the assignment, which is why they were seated in the first row during his inauguration. Corporate law firms have donated $1 billion in pro bono work to avoid retribution. Paramount will throw 60 Minutes under the bus to ensure Trump doesn't block a merger. In the Trump Gilded Age, everything is for sale. This includes aviation safety, which is
May 12, 2025 at 6:52 PM
bambootoo.bsky.social
‘47% of Latino voters had an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party, compared to 43% favorable. For Republicans, the gap was even wider: 53% unfavorable to just 37% favorable… how quickly trust can erode when campaign promises meet lived experience.’ #Trumpcession #TrumpTaxScam #TrumpTariffs
administration has ramped up mass immigration enforcement and broadcast Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids on traditional and social media. The White House lined up mug shots of arrested immigrants on the North Lawn. Reports surfaced of ICE profiling Latinos as gang members because of tattoos and baseball hats. The administration deported people with protected legal status to a prison in El Salvador. U.S.-citizen children are being deported. And Trump signed executive orders making English the country's official language and even requiring English "proficiency" for truck drivers. On the economy, a topic that still polls as Latinos' top issue, tariffs on imports from Mexico were announced, then switched, then announced again. The "Liberation Day" rollout of tariffs on most countries around the world was just as disastrous. Recession fears are real, and Latinos will feel the brunt of it. Elsewhere, Trump and Republicans seem likely to cut student loans and Medicaid, programs that disproportionately impact Latino communities. For instance, Latinos account for 30% of all Medicaid enrollees nationwide between 18 and 64 years old, a reflection of how deeply these public oystems are woven into Latino Community Foundation CEO Julian Castro. "At LCF, we are listening closely to the voices of our communities, and what we're hearing is deep concern abou the cost of living and the lack of real solutions. Economic relief was promised, and our community is still waiting. The Latino vote is not a blank check." [pull quote:] The LCF/VL poll found that both major parties are viewed more unfavorably than favorably. The LCF/VL poll found that 63% of Latino voters believe Trump has gone too far on immigration. Forty-four percent said they were worried someone close to them could be deported. On the economy, 68% said things are getting worse or staying the same in a bad way. Forty-three percent reported that their family is struggling to keep up with everyday expenses. And among those who rated their situation as "barely getting by," 91% said Trump's tariffs will increase inflation. When asked to describe how they felt about the administration's first 100 days, the The UnidosUS poll told a similar story. Nearly two-thirds of Latino voters said the country is heading in the wrong direction, and 70% of them blamed President Trump. Fifty-four percent said the economy is worse than it was a year ago, half expect things to keep getting worse and 49% blamed Trump for the rising cost of living. Sixty percent said the administration is not focused enough on making everyday necessities more affordable. And when asked about the broader impact, two-thirds said his tariffs will reduce their economic opportunity and security by raising prices on goods and services. Latino voters are living this every day, and the promises of a second Trump administration are already collapsing under the weight of reality. "Latino voters are frustrated that their economic priorities are being ignored and that a key promise made by President Trump during the election is not being kept. Economic discontent was the most potent driver in the 2024 election, helping President Trump increase support among Latinos. But over half of Hispanic voters feel the economy is worse now than a year ago, and nearly as many believe it will be worse a year from now," said Janet Murguia
May 12, 2025 at 6:42 PM
bambootoo.bsky.social
‘Trump’s 145 percent tariffs on Chinese goods — and Beijing’s triple-digit retaliation — are bringing a swift halt to the trans-Pacific flow of electronics, clothing, furniture, industrial parts and everything else that the world’s two largest economies exchange.’ #Trumpcession #TrumpTaxScam
If Trump persists in trying to remake the U.S. economy into a bastion of self-sufficiency, port communities will see growth prospects dented here [Los Angeles] and in places such as Seattle; Houston; Savannah, Georgia; Baltimore; and New York. One out of 9 jobs in a five-county Southern California region is tied to the flow of cargo, according to Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles. That's more than 1 million people, including freight forwarders, brokers, warehouse workers, truck drivers and dockworkers. "We are feeling the impact. It's already happening," she said. First to see their hours cut are the "casuals," on-call workers who do not have guaranteed schedules. Under the union contract, full-time dockworkers are guaranteed some pay even when there is no work. But some now are working fewer shifts or lower-paying jobs than they normally perform. On Friday, there was enough work for only 33 longshore "gangs," down from 50 in mid-April. (Gang sizes vary but generally include about 12 workers.) Sal DiCostanzo, the union's port liaison, with 18 years on the docks, said workers hope to stay busy during the current slowdown performing equipment maintenance. But the uncertainty is taking a toll. "The quieter it gets, the higher the anxiety will be. And we honestly don't know when this will end," he said. Trump so far has shown little sympathy for those affected by the port slowdown. Last week, he called it "a good thing, not a bad thing," since it means less of the "unfair" trade with China that he says has hollowed out American manufacturing. At least for now, Trump's tariffs are acting like a tourniquet on the flow of goods from Chinese factories to American customers. For the first time since China joined the global trading system in 2001, Americans are not buying large quantities of inexpensive made-in-China merchandise. Chinese export factories still hum. But increasingly, their products go to customers in Europe, Southeast Asia and Africa rather from a decade ago. A number of smaller trucking companies recently filed for bankruptcy, according to FreightWaves, an industry publication. The stock values of major trucking companies including J.B. Hunt and Schneider National have lost more than 20 percent this year. At TGS Logistics, a trucking firm based in Fresno, California, Robert Loya, the chief operating officer, has laid off 20 drivers and six office workers in the past three months. Unless cargo volumes rebound soon, he fears he will need to let more people go. To conserve cash, TGS abandoned the purchase of more than two dozen $250,000 trucks and is considering outsourcing some back-office jobs to nations such as Colombia, as many of its competitors already have done.
May 11, 2025 at 9:35 PM
bambootoo.bsky.social
“There’s three years of work behind it, and they canceled it to save $866.”

Elon, Trump, & GOP are LYING when they say DOGE is for saving money. It’s actually for destroying government while they raid the U.S. Treasury for gigantic tax cuts. #RAGE #Yarvin #TrumpTaxScam #TrumpTariffs #Trumpcession
Austin, though, studies air quality in the UW's Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences. She looks at how particulates or chemicals in the air affect people, from school kids to agricultural workers. [photo with this caption:] Elena Austin, a professor of environmental health at UW, holds an... (Ellen M. Banner / The Seattle Times) Shortly after DOGE listed her grant on its trophy wall, she got a termination email. It said her grant had been zeroed out "effective immediately, on the grounds that the award no longer effectuates the program's goals or agency priorities."
May 11, 2025 at 5:26 PM
bambootoo.bsky.social
‘Putin has been an ineffective and cautious war leader, failing to achieve almost any of his stated military objectives three years into Russia’s war against Ukraine, despite an estimated 900,000 Russians killed and wounded.’ #DeposePutin #SlavaUkraini
Putin has been an ineffective and cautious war leader, failing to achieve almost any of his stated military objectives three years into Russia's war against Ukraine, despite an estimated 900,000 Russians killed and wounded.[6] His forces have not captured Kyiv, as they set out to do in 2022, nor have they captured all of Kherson, Zaporizhia, or Donetsk oblasts. They have been on the offensive for roughly 18 months but have gained only limited territory — and almost no significant settlements — at a staggering cost in casualties and lost materiel. Putin failed to protect Russia's international borders, enabling Ukrainian forces to launch a months-long incursion into Kursk Oblast and to retain a small foothold in neighboring Belgorod Oblast. [7] Putin himself has publicly appeared on the frontlines in occupied Ukraine and Russia's border areas only three times in these three years. [8] Putin has been consistently risk-averse, including by delaying involuntary reserve mobilization. [9] Putin remains sufficiently afraid to push the limits of Russian society's support for the war that he brought North Korean soldiers to repel Ukraine's incursion into Kursk Oblast instead of declaring a renewed involuntary mobilization.[10] Putin has mismanaged Russia's economy, which is suffering from increased war spending, inflation, labor shortages, and reductions in Russia's sovereign wealth fund.[11] The Kremlin has been working hard to portray Putin as an effective wartime leader despite these realities through staged events and information campaigns. The Kremlin launched an effort to present Putin as an effective wartime leader after Russian military failures in The Kremlin is likely balancing Putin's domestic image against US President Donald Trump's image in Russia. The Kremlin reportedly ordered Russian media to reduce reporting about Trump and portray Putin as a strong and decisive leader after the February 2025 Trump-Putin phone call.[34] Meduza reported in February 2025 that the Kremlin instructed Russian state-run and pro-government media outlets to frame Trump and Putin's February 12 call as Putin's "initiative and victory" and to use Trump's name less frequently. [35] Meduza reported that the Kremlin was concerned that the Russian public might see Trump as a more "proactive and decisive" leader than Putin. An unnamed political strategist in the Russian Presidential Administration told Meduza that the Kremlin did not want the Russian public to perceive Trump as a "strong leader capable of changing the situation" and Putin as a passive or weak leader in comparison. [36] Putin has also been trying to present himself as equal to Trump and to present Russia as a global power comparable to the United States and as the heir to the Soviet Union's superpower status. [37] Portraying Putin as a 'caring' wartime leader Putin seems unconcerned by the estimated 900,000 Russian servicemen killed and wounded in a war in which Putin has so far failed to accomplish almost a single stated objective. Putin continues to develop new ways to punish anyone who speaks out against his war effort and views such people, including members of women's and veterans' movements, as threats to his Russian military gains have been mediocre compared to the Kremlin's stated war aims. Russia had not seized any large cities in Ukraine since Summer 2022 and remains unable to make dramatic advances on the battlefield.[50] The Russian gains came at the cost of massive personnel losses.[51] Russia only gained 1,627 square kilometers in Ukraine and Russia's Kursk Oblast between January and April 2025 at a reported cost of 160,600 casualties. [52] Russian forces occupy around 20 percent of Ukraine. At the current monthly rate of advance in Ukraine, it would take Russian forces over 152 years to capture the remaining 80 percent of Ukraine, if Russia can sustain massive personnel losses indefinitely. Russian victory is thus hardly inevitable. Ukraine has achieved many successes against a larger and wealthier adversary. Ukraine denied Russia its objective of seizing Kyiv. Ukrainian counteroffensives liberated a significant portion of Kharkiv Oblast and Kherson City in November 2022. Ukraine has driven Russia's Black Sea Fleet out of the western Black Sea and the occupied ports in Crimea.[53] Ukraine destroyed expensive and hard-to-replace Russian weapon systems with Western weapons and Ukraine's own low- and medium-cost unmanned systems.[54] Ukraine holds targets deep in the Russian rear at risk through its long-range attack capability. Ukraine stood up large-scale domestic development and production of drones within just three years.[55] Ukraine pioneered the establishment of an Unmanned Systems Forces (USF) command to adapt to the realities of modern warfare, and Russia is trying to catch up to Ukraine's successful integration of drones into its force structure and on the Russian efforts to cover up its weakness have mixed success and often backfire. Russian state media was unprepared to cover the rout of Russian forces from Kharkiv Oblast in Fall 2022. The Russian MoD's inability to admit Russian failures in Kharkiv Oblast and effectively set information conditions led to a crisis in the Russian information space. Kremlin-sponsored TV propagandists offered a wide range of confused explanations for Ukrainian successes, ranging from justifications that Russian forces were fighting against the entire Western Bloc to downplaying the importance of Russian ground lines of communication in Kupyansk, which the counteroffensive liberated. [76] The Kremlin's propagandists were disorganized in their narratives, with some confirming the liberation of certain towns and others refuting such reports. Conclusion The Kremlin relies on numerous information efforts to conceal Putin's and Russia's weaknesses. These efforts include but are not limited to grandiose military parades, demonstrative war zone visits, meetings with veterans and their families, and misrepresentation of Russia's battlefield realities. These efforts allow the Kremlin to justify its war efforts in Ukraine, legitimize its rule, and manipulate the Western perception of Russia's capabilities. The abundance and the Kremlin's prioritization of these information efforts, however, reveal that the Kremlin is plagued with military, domestic, and diplomatic weaknesses that it desperately tries to misrepresent and conceal. Western leaders and observers of this war should focus on the realities of the situation on the battlefield and the very real constraints on
May 10, 2025 at 11:19 AM
bambootoo.bsky.social
‘many countries have serious concerns about Chinese trade practices. But Trump’s tariffs have given Xi an opportunity to portray himself as the more responsible & reliable statesman. [Trump], meanwhile, has evinced no consistent vision or commitment’

Free version www.theatlantic.com/internationa...
Trump's negotiating position will be the weaker one. Already in recent months, U.S. policy has appeared to vacillate, its strategy and goals uncertain, while Chinese leader Xi Jinping has held fast, presented an image of strength, and kept his larger geopolitical goals in focus. China has taken the opportunity of the chaos of Trump's trade policy to draw other countries, including American allies, closer to itself. None of this was the White House's plan. When he imposed the tariffs, Trump seems to have expected that Xi would rush to negotiate their removal. Instead, the Chinese leader matched Trump tariff for tariff and hit back at the United States-for instance, with export restrictions on rare-earth metals that the American tech industry relies on. And Xi began making his own demands. China's Commerce Ministry said in a statement last month that Washington should remove all "unilateral" tariffs on China. The confusion has chacterized much of Trump's trade strategy. His senior policy makers have variously said that the purpose of the tariffs was to bring factories back to the U.S., raise revenue for the federal government, and bargain for trade deals with targeted countries—goals that clearly conflict. Trump declared April 2, when he announced his worldwide tariff plan, a "Liberation Day" that would free the country from unjust foreign trade practices. A week later, he suspended most of those tariffs and started negotiating them away in trade pacts. Just days ahead of talks with China, Trump's goals remain unclear. Bessent, in an interview after the meeting was announced, said that the immediate purpose was "de-escalation"—implying the postponement, reduction, or removal of the tariffs Trump has just imposed. He went on to say that forcing manufacturing back to the U.S., beyond a few strategic sectors, was not the administration's intent after all. "In terms of to no avail. Instead, Xi will probably seek some small agreements-such as a deal related to TikTok, in which Trump has already expressed an interest-while protecting his core economic policies. He may even press Trump for concessions, such as the removal of U.S. export controls on chip technology. In the meantime, Trump continues to overestimate his leverage "I own the store, and I set prices, and I'll say, 'If you want to shop here, this is what you have to pay," Trump said about negotiating with China. "They can go someplace else, but there aren't too many places they can go." In fact, there are. Xi has been working to reduce his country's reliance on the American market for more than a decade. As a result, America's importance to Chinese trade has been consistently declining. In 2018, China shipped more than 19 percent of its exports to the United States; last year, that number was less than 15 percent. At the same time, China's total stalemate. Executives from Walmart and other major retailers warned the president in mid-April of rising prices and product shortages if his tariffs stayed in place. With the U.S. economy contracting in the first quarter, recession fears rising, and the stock market sinking, the administration has already been forced to backtrack: Last month, it exempted mobile phones, computers, and other electronics from most tariffs, and then reduced the impact on automakers by excluding them from some tariffs. To be sure, the trade war has created some economic problems for Xi as well. Data released last week indicated a sharp drop in export orders for Chinese manufacturers. But while Trump is buffeted by the movements of stock and bond markets, the concerns of big-business backers, dissenting voices within his own White House, and public opinion, Xi governs unchallenged and is largely insulated from such hour-to-hour pressures.
May 8, 2025 at 2:52 PM
bambootoo.bsky.social
‘A $2 billion crypto deal involving President Trump's family and a foreign government is threatening to derail bipartisan stablecoin legislation that Congress has been working on for months.’ The grifter in chief loves crypto—untraceable fountains of unearned wealth, based on nothing. #CryptoMustDie
Why it matters: Democrats see the potential for gob-smacking corruption in Trump's lucrative crypto projects, which they consider to be the clearest conflicts of interest in a sea of new business ventures launched by the president and his inner circle. • The Trump family's crypto dealings could now jeopardize legislation that the crypto industry has aggressively lobbied for as a way to gain legitimacy and legal clarity in the U.S. What's happening: Senate Democrats unveiled a sweeping new proposal Tuesday to ban presidents, lawmakers and their families from issuing, endorsing or sponsoring crypto assets, Axios' Stephen Neukam scooped. • The new bill comes days after Senate Democrats suddenly voiced opposition to the GENIUS Act - landmark bipartisan legislation that would create the first-ever regulatory framework for stablecoins. • Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Rep. Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.) introduced bills targeting Trump's multibillion-dollar meme coin, which Murphy called "the single most corrupt act ever committed by a president." Over in the House, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) led a Democratic walkout of a joint hearing on crypto regulation, plunging the session into chaos in hopes of drawing new attention to Trump's alleged "corruption." Between the lines: Democrats have long accused Trump and his family of profiting from the presidency. But on two particularly brazen crypto projects, Trumpworld may have flown too close to the sun. 1. The official website for Trump's meme coin invited its top 220 investors to an "intimate private dinner" with the president later this month, with a "VIP White House Tour" offered to the top 25 holders. References to the White House
May 7, 2025 at 1:52 PM
bambootoo.bsky.social
This. He failed to lead well or to set a good example for his son, who promptly fell into the arms of MAGA. Now instead of leading well, he’s following his son, who is probably crying somewhere deep inside.
Gavin Newsom with ex-wife Kimberly Guilfoyle, embracing awkwardly facing the camera while sprawled on a carpet together
May 6, 2025 at 1:15 PM
bambootoo.bsky.social
‘Republicans want to permanently extend [Trump’s tax cuts for the rich] before they expire… The likeliest outcome…is a bill that adds trillions to federal deficits, which could cause an already shaky economy to collapse.’ #TrumpTaxScam #Trumpcession
Free version. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
For years, fiscal hawks have warned that America's ever-increasing debt (now more than $36 trillion) will provoke a crisis: Markets will crater and interest rates will spike. Even as both parties have run up the nation's tab, these doomsday predictions haven't come true, leading to an unspoken bipartisan understanding that growing the deficit would never really wreck the economy. But Trump's proposals could shatter that assumption. Read: Congressional Republicans might set off the debt bomb "It's a significant risk," Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody's Analytics, told me. Enacting Trump's agenda would probably be a "corrosive event" rather than an immediate disaster, he said, but "there is a reasonable probability that we go over the cliff." Trump's aggressive tariffs already prompted a steep sell-off in the bond markets, which analysts monitor for signs In addition to making his first-term tax cuts permanent, Trump wants Congress to eliminate a suite of taxes—on tips, overtime pay, and Social Security benefits—while adding hundreds of billions in new spending to secure the southern border and bolster the military. As the fiscal analyst Jessica Reidl observed last month in The Atlantic, the GOP's budget resolution would, if enacted, add more to federal deficits than the four costliest bills signed by Trump (during his first term) and former President Joe Biden combined. A more fiscally responsible approach would offset Trump's tax cuts with spending reductions and revenue increases elsewhere. Both House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune have said Republicans want to cut as much as $1.5 trillion in spending over the next decade. But most analysts doubt they'll be able to trim nearly that much. Tax hikes are anathema to most Republicans, and a push by conservatives for deep spending has met resistance from moderate and electorally Meanwhile, Republicans are loath to cut any of the main drivers of debt: Medicare, Social Security, and defense spending. (In fact, they are planning to increase the Pentagon's budget.) The most expensive program they're targeting is Medicaid, but a sizable group of lawmakers in the House and Senate fears that cutting health-care benefits for the poor will lead to voter backlash—a concern the White House reportedly shares. Even if Republicans manage to slash $1.5 trillion, they would cover only a fraction of the price of extending the Trump tax cuts. The party claims that lower taxes will generate more revenue through economic growth, and the president says his tariffs can make up the rest of the cost. But analysts are, once again, doubtful. Holtz-Eakin, who advised the late Senator John McCain and now heads the center-right think tank American Action Forum, told me the tariffs won't generate anywhere close to enough money. "The administration is completely incoherent on this stuff," Holtz-Eakin said. about the proposal. If the plan collapses, taxes will automatically go up for nearly all Americans next year, which Holtz-Eakin described as the worst-case scenario. If the economy isn't already in a recession by that point, the resulting tax hike could trigger one. "Failure is not an option," he told me. "They have to avoid the sunset." To prevent this outcome, Republicans have some decisions to make. Here are five of the biggest. 1) Medicaid The most substantial source of potential spending cuts for the GOP is also the most politically fraught. Republicans are considering two major changes to Medicaid: instituting work requirements for some recipients, and scaling back the expansion that Democrats enacted in 2010 through the Affordable Care Act. The party's budget instructs the House committee that oversees federal health insurance to find $880 billion in cuts, much of which would likely come fuom Medicaid Rut at lanet a dosen
May 5, 2025 at 11:20 PM
bambootoo.bsky.social
"I watched the Russian news and compared it with Ukrainian and American news that I could see using a VPN [an online virtual private network]. And I figured out what was true and what was false. It was just common sense."
Sarancha says the tension was unbearable. But he was somehow able to remain calm and they finally opened the barrier and let him through. He walked the few hundred feet to the Ukrainian border and freedom. Sarancha says he likes everything about Ukraine. "Everyone is united for the sake of one goal," he says. He says at first his parents didn't believe he was in Ukraine. His mother was hysterical. He says he wants his parents to recognize the truth about the war and has threatened to block them on his phone until they do. He also misses them terribly. Sarancha wants to become a sculptor and hopes to enter the Kyiv Art Academy next fall. But for now he admits he doesn't mind the media attention. Ukrainian TV reporter Karina Kyrychenko who has come to interview him says Sarancha's bravery is an inspiration for the entire country.
May 5, 2025 at 3:21 AM