Tessera

Semafor@semafor.com · 2w ago

This is even a question? Of course you need to pair it with anti-corruption rhetoric

🟡 NEW: Progressives are pushing Democrats to pair their cost-of-living message with anti-corruption rhetoric, and they’re rolling out new polling of battleground states and voters of color in the South to back up their argument. www.semafor.com/article/09/0...

Semafor@semafor.com · 2w ago

Of course he is. They don't care about running the Army, they care about the messaging

Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, is emerging as a top contender for the Army secretary role. www.semafor.com/article/09/0...

Ian Millhiser@imillhiser.bsky.social · 2w ago

A great indication of the state of the Supreme Court is that I know how they are going to rule without knowing *anything* about the case at all. We all know how they are going to rule

Republicans ask the Supreme Court to give them a huge discount on ad spending www.vox.com/politics/501...

Never thought I'd say this (I was not the fan some were), but I do wish John McCain were around for this. He would go absolutely apeshit insane over Hegseth's white supremacist destruction of the military leadership www.nytimes.com/2026/09/01/u...

Hegseth Targets 7 More Officers as His Frustrated Army Secretary Quits

The defense secretary’s cuts, which have hit about 10 percent of the military’s top officers, are dividing the Pentagon, officials said.

nytimes.com

Trump greatly admires the Gulf autocratic petrostates and the tremendously wealthy royal families and desperately wants to make the US just like them semafor.com/article/08/3...

US strikes deal for 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil reserves

US President Donald Trump announced Friday that the US had secured majority control over more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuela’s oil reserves, expanding Washington’s influence over the country’s e...

semafor.com

Price of everything is going up, we're getting measles and explosive diarrhea, but, hey, at least all of our maps are gonna have "AMERICA!" scribbled over bodies of water around the world Watch out, China! If you don't step right, Yangtze River absolutely gonna have America River written over it!

This story needs to be told, and it's interesting how much background info they have. Some folks in the Pentagon are trying to undermine Dumb McNamara www.nytimes.com/2026/08/25/u...

Hegseth’s Purge of Top Generals Leaves the Army Rudderless

The leadership vacuum comes as the Army is trying to adapt to a new kind of war dominated by deadly drones.

nytimes.com

Media Matters for America@mmfa.bsky.social · 3w ago

Conservative grifters continuing to defend women's sports, I see I was in a sports bar in a very conservative area of Montana last week, and they had a WNBA doubleheader on the TVs. I really don't think this is gonna play for these guys

Fox host: WNBA players are “proving that women shouldn't have a league. It's too dramatic.”

Jesse Felder@jessefelder.com · 3w ago

Holy smokes, it's really all coming apart isn't it? There's just nonsense all the way down, and no one seems to be able to point out the lack of clothes on the various emperors of our age

‘The maker of Claude is likely to tell investors its potential revenue opportunities are above $30 trillion, topping SpaceX’s $28.5 trillion estimate. WeWork cited a $3 trillion market opportunity in its ultimately abandoned IPO.‘ www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...

Semafor@semafor.com · 3w ago

Normalizing ties with Syria while starting a trade war with Canada is a look

US removes Syria from state sponsors of terrorism list www.semafor.com/article/08/2...

Greg Sargent@gregsargent.bsky.social · 3w ago

If you don't understand that this is fundamentally a revolutionary moment, tailoring your rhetoric to peel off a few undecideds makes sense. But this moment demands so much more than that, we need a new governing ideology. If Dems find that, they'll win elections for decades, not just the next two.

On some level, I think a lot of Dems just aren't willing to say flat out that Trump and Trumpism have failed in a very profound way. Dems have internalized the idea that this is too much for voters to hear. That's the source of a lot of problems. It's needlessly self-constraining.

Reuters@reuters.com · 3w ago

Robots drilling oil wells to feed power needs for AI data centers is ... quite a future

Exxon turns to automated drilling in the Permian in push for higher oil output reut.rs/3Swsiqf

It's always a lot harder for elites to feel when a regime is coming to an end, for obvious reasons. The signs of this are all around us now, from tone deaf politicians to tech oligarchs shocked at data center backlash

Semafor@semafor.com · last mo.

If I ask an AI agent to define an economic bubble, will I cause it to have self awareness? Seems dangerous

Nvidia says it will partner with lenders to help it finance the buildout of AI infrastructure through a series of vehicles totalling more than $500 billion.

Semafor@semafor.com · last mo.

Hahahahahaha, yeah, it's not paralysis, it's strategy, sure sure. "I'm just low-keying it," will absolutely be my excuse whenever I can't figure something out

Trump is ‘low-keying it’ in Iran, as he bets on the country buckling under economic pressure from the war rather than pressing for a deal.

Bill Grueskin@bgrueskin.bsky.social · last mo.

It is *wild* that Trump can start a war, give up sanctions on Iran, and give them control of the Strait with a MASSIVE new income stream to the country. It's a mind-boggling defeat

Reuters: Iran wants fees of 5%-7% of the price of cargo from ships using the strait; Oman wants 3%. "Making fees voluntary, at least nominally, could be a way out of the impasse, although an implied threat of Iranian attacks could mean shippers would be unlikely to risk transit without paying."

Semafor@semafor.com · last mo.

Democratic campaigns across the country are gonna start volunteering to pay Trump's travel costs if he'd hold a rally in their state

Trump hits the campaign trail in Las Vegas to highlight his administration’s efforts to address the cost of living. Republicans are facing a tough path to victory in the midterms, which has prompted the White House to get Trump out on the trail more regularly. www.semafor.com/article/08/0...

Jessy Edwards@jessyedwards.bsky.social · last mo.

Sending Eric Adams to Wisconsin to sell data centers is objectively funny. We have entered the performance art phase of the data center binge

A video taken Saturday shows former NYC Mayor Eric Adams in sales pitch mode in Wisconsin Rapids, as he's heckled by residents opposed to the data center he's trying to sell them on. "My name is Eric Adams," he begins, as the boos begin to rain down. "You belong in prison!" one attendee shouts.

Mike Nellis@mikenellis.bsky.social · last mo.

It's worse than if they had done nothing. The legal case against Trump immunity is that he as President is making a deal with himself. The Roberts Court will 100% treat Blanche confirmation as de facto Congressional approval for the deal because of what Cornyn and Tillis did

Cornyn and Tillis folding on Blanche is the most predictable thing ever. They are cowards. The minute Blanche is confirmed, there’s nothing stopping him from reneging on this weaponization fund deal they’ve made. Vote for Democrats if you want a Congress that might actually stand up to this fascist.

I have finally realized that Trump is actually some kind of vampire, and now that I have realized it, no one can convince me I am wrong. The way everything he touches withers and dies is too consistent for any other explanation www.bbc.com/sport/footba...

Gianni Infantino: FA set to withdraw support for Fifa president

The English Football Association is set to write to Fifa president Gianni Infantino withdrawing its support amid the fallout from his scrapped plans to sell off stakes in Fifa competitions to private ...

bbc.com

Josh Marshall@joshtpm.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Every lawyer in every DOJ case will be asking for a review of grand jury transcripts now. DOJ will dismiss before revealing the misconduct

lol “new information” … as in our case falling apart and us commiting prolly grand jury misconduct www.cbsnews.com/news/doj-dis...

Greg Sargent@gregsargent.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Voting for essentially unlimited funding for an authoritarian domestic paramilitary force and then taking credit for adding bodycams is the most Susan Collins thing ever

Susan Collins, who voted for $70 billion in no-strings-attached ICE funding, is now taking credit for securing new bodycams to distance herself from Trump and ICE. This is how Collins wins in Maine. Dems must go on offense on ICE to thwart this scam. New from me: newrepublic.com/article/2138...

Josh Marshall@joshtpm.bsky.social · 2mo ago

This is a revolutionary moment. People are unsure about what to do from an ideology/policy perspective because it's genuinely confusing and difficult. But people who don't realize that this is a revolutionary moment (people who signal caution rather than boldness) are clearly fundamentally wrong

Among many other things this is a good illustration of the necessity of untethering ideology and "fight" in intra-Democratic battles. The party is very united on fight, very divided on ideology. You unite on fight, let different constituencies/states find their center of gravity on ideology.

Slow growth and high inflation, well that's not great www.theguardian.com/business/202...

US economy grows sluggish 1.5% in second quarter as inflation tops Fed target

Consumer spending remained resilient even as policymakers kept interest rates on hold

theguardian.com

Semafor@semafor.com · 2mo ago

About 20 years ago, I started hearing about private equity buying up elder care homes, even hospice turned into a mostly PE-owned industry. It was a conscious business plan to capture the resources the baby boomer generation built up

An anticipated wealth transfer from baby boomers to their descendants is failing to materialize as elder care spending eats into seniors’ finances. www.semafor.com/article/07/2...

Simon Evans@drsimevans.carbonbrief.org · 2mo ago

It's great news that renewables are soaking up all of the new demand over the last few years. It's bad news that it's not yet lowering the use of coal and gas, which is absolutely necessary

Renewables are now the world's largest source of electricity – and the main source of new supplies

JoJoFromJerz@jojofromjerz.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Currently seeking investments from DC-area funds for my startup Gold Leaf Removal Specialists LLC

It looks less like the office of the President of the United States and more like the inside of a Fabergé egg that caught gonorrhea in the back room of a strip mall nail salon. open.substack.com/pub/jojofrom...

Semafor@semafor.com · 2mo ago

SpaceX is over 30%! That's a crazy heavy bet against the company's valuation

Bets against the stock market are at all-time highs, as investors doubt the S&P 500’s months-long rally can survive a potential AI bubble and the Iran war’s threat of renewed inflation. The total amount currently bet against shares of the S&P 500 companies recently hit $1.4 trillion.