Carrington
@carringtonking.bsky.social
NYC/mtk photographer "so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past" — F. Scott Fitzgerald "The Great Gatsby"
Why isn't the price of oil higher due to the Iran war? More specifically, why hasn't the price regained the decline that followed the US-Iran MOU, which has now clearly fallen apart? @pkrugman.bsky.social shows that it pretty much has, if you look at refined products (ie diesel) rather than crude.
Why Isn’t the Price of Oil Even Higher?
This is your economy on crack (spread)
paulkrugman.substack.com
Bluesky should go back to invites, continue aggressive bot bans, create a Craigslist-style marketplace (since you’re more likely to buy/get services from a educated or good person on here than any other social network), and market this place like a walled garden protected from enshittification.
🚨BREAKING: President Donald Trump signaled Tuesday he’s willing to declare a national security emergency in an attempt to take over American elections. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
Trump signals openness to unconstitutional plot to take over elections
"Stranger things have happened,” Trump said after a far-right media host implored him to declare a national security emergency on elections.
democracydocket.com
So all the people left on board AIr Force One were expendable? The entire plane was an unwitting DECOY? Reprehensible. 🎁 gift article www.nytimes.com/2026/08/10/u...
Trump Said to Have Secretly Used Military Jet to Leave Turkey Amid Threats (Gift Article)
President Trump hid in an airport catering container and was taken to a military jet for a secret flight out of country after the NATO summit last month.
nytimes.com
💰🧺... NYT gift article www.nytimes.com/2026/08/09/u...
Trump Crypto Took $100 Million From a Businessman With Red Flags (Gift Article)
The curious case of Guren “Bobby” Zhou shows the ease with which investors with shady backgrounds and unknown motivations can funnel money to the president.
nytimes.com
Internal National Park Service records shared with us: 2024 - $7 million allotted for White House grounds projects and upgrades 2026 - $323 million allotted for White House grounds projects and upgrades ===>
Scott MacFarlane@macfarlanenews.bsky.social · 5d agoEXCLUSIVE: Trump turns National Parks into "piggy bank" Funding shifts from parks to White House vanity projects macfarlanenews.substack.com/p/trump-turn...
Todd Blanche is now the US Attorney General. Senators Collins and Murkowski, joined the Democrats in opposing the nomination. This whole process felt performative. They only voted that way knowing it wouldn't matter. Midterms are coming. Free 🎁 www.nytimes.com/2026/08/07/u...
Blanche Is Confirmed as Attorney General After Overcoming G.O.P. Concerns (Gift Article)
Todd Blanche, who has served as acting attorney general since April, eked out Senate approval, despite growing unease about his willingness to rein in President Trump.
nytimes.com
New AI toolbars and prompts are showing up in Google Docs and Gmail. If you don’t want Gemini’s help in writing documents and emails, here’s how to turn that stuff off. www.wired.com/story/how-to...
How to Disable the AI Features in Gmail and Google Docs
New AI toolbars and prompts are showing up in Google Docs and Gmail. If you don’t want Gemini’s help in writing documents and emails, here’s how to turn that stuff off.
wired.com
Good work by Ars. "The claim of a link stems from an unethical, fraudulent study that was retracted years ago, and its author was stripped of his medical license."
Jennifer Ouellette@jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · last wk.Report: White House drafting executive order linking vaccines and autism arstechnica.com/health/2026/...
Confronted with an obvious need for renewable energy, Trump admin officials used taxpayer money to scuttle an offshore wind project. Then they did it again. And again. And again. And this week, again. Total price tag in wasted taxpayer money: ~$4 billion and counting www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
Team Trump uses taxpayer money to scuttle yet another renewable energy project
As one key Democratic member of Congress summarized, “It is hard to imagine a more backwards use of taxpayer money.”
ms.now
The US government now holds equity stakes in 30 private companies, up from zero just over a year ago. In some cases, it's the largest shareholder. This raises massive questions about capital misallocation, government neutrality, and cronyism, says Cato's Scott Lincicome on MS NOW.
NEW: The US military is about to enter its laser war era. @noahshachtman.bsky.social has the scoop: www.wired.com/story/landma...
Landmark Deal Would Officially Add Laser Weapons to US Army Arsenal
Facing a growing drone threat, the Pentagon is poised to sign a first-of-its-kind contract for “Enduring High Energy Lasers”—and make directed energy weapons an official part of the Army’s kit.
wired.com
NEW: Over the last few months, Meta has run dozens of paid ads that included AI-generated CSAM. The ads, some of which were linking out to “nudify” apps, targeted men in the US, UK, and a dozen European countries. Some were running in the last few days
Meta Ran Ads That Contained AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Imagery
More than 50 offending image and video ads were published across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or Threads, according to Meta’s ad library data. Some ran as recently as this week.
wired.com
@hcrichardson.bsky.social has a good point- Why are US tax dollars going to prop up Elon Musk when Musk is openly trying to usurp our Democracy? open.substack.com/live-stream/...
LIVE NOW: Scott MacFarlane | American Conversations
Heather Cox Richardson on Substack
open.substack.com
Brown University has a widget that tracks the cost of the Iran war to American consumers (as contrasted to whatever the Pentagon is spending). Per-household cost now exceeds $600. iranwarcost.watson.brown.edu
You could grow a spine and do your damn jobs.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last wk.Cornyn: "There's nothing we could do to rein in the president"
This is what Republicans think of your hard-earned benefits. Tuberville lays out the plan if they win in November: Hand Social Security over to Wall Street billionaires.
Senator Patty Murray@murray.senate.gov · 2w agoIf you're wondering what party will help you keep your Social Security benefits and which one is trying to take them away, this is a Republican on the Senate floor TODAY:
In other words, going from a constitutional right (Roe) to a constitutional state by state decision (Dobbs) to a constitutional rule of no abortions. What is the DOJ/legal underpinning for that? There isn't one. Ladies & Gentlemen, your lawless soon-to-be AG. www.politico.com/news/2026/08...
Blanche assures anti-abortion supporters that Dobbs will be ‘permanent in every single state’
The acting attorney general made the remarks during a private call with faith leaders.
politico.com
That’s a heck of a lot of advanced weaponry to use up while losing a war in record time…. www.reuters.com/world/us-has...
EXCLUSIVE: US has used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war, sources say
The U.S. Army has used up much of its stockpile of highly accurate long-range missiles during its five-month war with Iran, according to three people familiar with the data, raising concerns about the...
reuters.com
Kill the ticks... 🦌. This really is a public health emergency. 🎁 The Atlantic gift article www.theatlantic.com/health/2026/...
Kill the Ticks
America needs a bigger plan to control its tick problem.
theatlantic.com
“All of the speculation and hype around A.I. is hiding the fact that the technology isn’t just large language models or agents or data centers. It is the backbone of a superstructure that merges regressive politics with unchecked economic power in the guise of technological innovation.”
Opinion | Want to Fight Back Against Big Tech? Start Here. (Gift Article)
A.I. is a political theory. And it is gobbling up our democracy.
nytimes.com
NEW/EXCLUSIVE: Deutsche Bank failed to promptly report to US authorities more than $250M in suspicious transactions tied to Epstein, including funds used to pay women in Russia & other Eastern European countries, according to a new report from @wyden.senate.gov 🎁 🧵 www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, BofA Enabled Epstein, Wyden Report Says
Democrat Ron Wyden cited nonpublic documents held by the US Treasury in a report that says banks delayed reporting suspicious financial transactions and calls for tougher anti-money-laundering rules, ...
bloomberg.com
The “Why would a woman I’ve made worry that I will hurt her if she displeases me cook to placate me?” question is only asked by the least self-aware domestic abusers.
This order is, of course, meaningless: -Blanche (or his successor) could reverse it at any time. -More important: It explicitly does NOT revoke the utterly-illegal grant of immunity for all tax crimes Trump has committed.
The Associated Press@apnews.com · 2w agoBREAKING: Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche issues order terminating U.S. President Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion 'anti-weaponization fund' to compensate supporters after weeks of negotiations with two GOP senators who were blocking his nomination.
There were refrigerated trucks full of cadavers in the parking lot of one Weggman's. Unidentified bodies were being buried in stacks on Hart Island. The ambulance sirens never stopped. Health care workers risked everything and were worked to the bone. What was RFK doing during this time?
New EU rules stipulate that people must be told when they’re interacting with AI or looking at AI-generated or -edited content, leading to fear of “disclosure fatigue.” www.wired.com/story/europe...
wired.com
Data centers create heat, they create a drain on electricity, they create a lack of water, and they create worthless AI slop that allows students to cheat and Donald Trump to generate images in which he has a waist. What they *don’t* create is jobs. These people are shameless, tiresome LIARS.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2w agoHassett: "Data centers are very good for towns bc they create so many jobs & bring people in with high incomes that can buy houses & stuff like that. So if you take a sleepy town that hasn't seen much in the last 30 years & put a data center there, there are gonna be a bunch of happy residents."
