No surprise at all that “foreign aid recipients enjoy way more benefits than we do” is packaged with data center NIMBYism. These are the voters we have.

Amy and a Cat@amyandacat.bsky.social · 3h ago

1/4 I’m just a middle aged midwestern mom but I wish the democrats would listen to people like me. We’re not “going communist or socialist.” Most of us can’t define those terms. But we are pissed about the $$ we give to countries that enjoy way more benefits than we do.

Putting ridiculous names on legislation was just one step towards ridiculous names with no legislation attached. But faulting Congress for dragging its feet on passing nonexistent legislation is true art.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3h ago

Trump: "We will pass the Great Healthcare Plan. It's called the Great Healthcare Plan."

I haven't subscribed to The Economist in a decade, but I always loved that the avowed Righties I knew said it was progressive and the avowed Lefties said it was conservative. (There was also some disagreement over whether it counted as a British publication or not.)

T.J. Stiles@tj-stiles.bsky.social · 4h ago

As @kevinmkruse.bsky.social noted, this was the cover of the pro-free-market, not-progressive Economist one month before the election that brought Trump back to power. The economy had problems, hence the result, but a “total catastrophe” it was not.

I'm upping the stakes: are you *sure* you know how many 'b's there are in those small handheld barbells?

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 4h ago

Trump: "Nobody knows that 'dumb' doesn't have a B" (Dear reader, it has a B)

Trump is trying to pull off a US-style version of the Tiananmen Square Massacre coverup where everyone in China who remembered what happened on June 4, 1989 knows *exactly* what they must not admit and is utterly terrified to speak the truth. I never imagined seeing such abject cowardice in the US.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 8h ago

😮 Trump's nominees are the most pathetic men in the world 😮 During a hearing, Blumenthal made Trump nominees squirm by asking them who won the 2020 election -- a question they refuse to answer -- but then Schiff upped the ante by asking them *who won the 2016 election.* Here's a supercut:

The answer is "more humanoid robots". A reminder that the widely-reported galvanizing event for Musk's interest in AI was a childish misunderstanding of cocktail party conversation about AI as the child of humanity that colonizes the universe.

Ken Tremendous@kentremendous.bsky.social · 6h ago

To make what, out of what, how, and for whom?

An entry in the "gross but interesting" tech file: there are now official conventions for domain name squatting. The RFC goes farther than just using the DNS system to declare a domain "for sale": you can actually include a price, ad copy, and a sale mechanic.

RFC 10023: The "_for-sale" Underscored and Globally Scoped DNS Node Name | RFC Editor

This document defines an operational convention that uses the reserved underscored DNS leaf node name "_for-sale" to indicate the parent domain name is available for purchase. The convention...

rfc-editor.org

Imagine if we were to hyperscale energy storage instead of AI hardware.

Canary Media Inc.@canarymedia.com · 13h ago

Base Power just raised another $1 billion for its low-cost home battery subscriptions that cut home power costs and shore up the grid.

The failure of democracy is reflected in the privatization of space. How many voters understand this was a conscious policy choice? That it was funded out of NASA’s budget? How many do we expect to demand that NASA protect space from reckless nonense instead of cheering it on?

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 12h ago

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman on rockets crashing into the moon: "It's not a big deal right now. The moon has clearly seen better days."

“Somebody won their first Congressional primary; they’re practically President” is even dumber than pretending NYC mayors routinely become POTUS.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 11h ago

JD Vance: "We don't want the next administration, whoever -- god forbid you're gonna have President El-Sayed in three years ... "

Our politics is depressing in a lot of ways, but it’s amazing how often it triggers my deep fear of losing my mind as I age. This is an experience you should get from older relatives you love and want the best for, not the people entrusted to actively fight on your behalf for the future.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 11h ago

BLITZER: Why is Israel, another country, your red line right now, rather than a domestic issue that impacts Americans' everyday lives? FETTERMAN: Yeah, absolutely. And I agree with a lot of Democrats too. I called trash Platner.

My seething rage at "revenues collected by the federal government are just as good as money Americans hold themselves" coming from a party that has spent my entire life demonizing taxes. Fuck. You.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterday

Bessent: "Here at the Treasury, I had $168 billion of tariff revenues that we're gonna have to refund. So when the Democrats scream, "Oh, the refunds should go back to the American people!', well, the American people had it, it was in the Treasury and it was paying down the debt."

The funniest thing I’ve seen about Trump’s accounts being closed for money laundering is a MAGA bro dismissing them as “routine KYC red tape”. KYC stands for banks’ obligation to “know your customer”. I’m pretty sure they know who Trump is. Which I hope weighed in favor of money laundering…

A bold alternative theory: People who interpret any criticism from anyone left of center as “kicking them out of the Democratic Party” are fascists, and the GOP is currently the party of fascists.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias.bsky.social · yesterday

Part of Hauser’s schtick is that he kicks people out of the Democratic Party and then when they react by getting friendlier with Republicans claims that this vindicates him, so then he moves on to the next set of people to try to alienate.

The British university model is that you apply for a spot in a particular major. There are interesting arguments for and against that approach, and they have long-term cultural impact. As usual, MAGA has no interest in any of it: Trump had a whim, and that matters more than consequences.

Julian Sanchez@normative.bsky.social · yesterday

I’m a little puzzled about the logistics here. Lots of people don’t choose a major until the end of their first year, or go in thinking they’ll pursue one major but change their minds. But obviously you need to get loans sorted before that.

Chinese buffets are the dive bars of the food world. And dive bars are the best bars.

I just read the comments under a MSM story on the cyclosporiasis outbreak, and I’m shook. *Most* commenters were sure it wasn’t actually the lettuce. And “must be in the water” was quickly upped to “Iran is poisoning the water supply”, which is doing big numbers. I miss reality.

I’m putting this in the same category as the “it’s just as easy to kill people with a knife as a gun” comment I got from a gun nut yesterday. What political motivations make people unashamed of such embarrassing lies?

The best possible spin is that this is where the “tariff Iran!” idea came from.

Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 3d ago

PENTAGON: Anyone got any ideas? @cnn.com www.cnn.com/2026/08/03/p...

The WNBA has a strange identity as mostly politics and only kinda sports. “No trans women in elite sport” is how most world-class female athletes feel…but WNBA fans (are they fans if they don’t care who wins?) don’t want to hear it. And of course trans WNBA players would destroy the league.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3d ago

Sophie Cunningham is getting booed every time she touches the ball here in Minneapolis

There are larger economic lessons here. The EU has spent the past decade trying to make big tech products (from America) worse instead of trying to get their own tech companies to be competitive. Hating winners is good politics; not always good policy.

Jason Fry@jasoncfry.bsky.social · 3d ago

Those of you eager to serve wealthy MLB owners as volunteer Pinkertons won’t like to read this, but as usual Joe Sheehan nails the real problem:

1. We—@eduede.bsky.social, @mjcrockett.bsky.social, Kevin Gross, and I—have a new preprint on the arXiv today, based on ideas that emerged during an @sfiscience.bsky.social workshop in November 2024: The unintended consequences of large language models as a labor-augmenting technology in science.

The unintended consequences of large language models as a labor-augmenting technology in science

As a labor-augmenting technology, large language models (LLMs) have the potential to accelerate scientific activity across the research pipeline. But even if LLMs perform on par with human experts at ...

arxiv.org

My immediate thoughts went to the *many* Trumpists who did media hits assuring the public they had proof, and how those outlets should treat these people if they ever come back. But also: imagine you’re a grand juror. You were tricked. Lied to. I doubt they have grounds to sue, but I’d want to sue.

Scott MacFarlane@macfarlanenews.bsky.social · 5d ago

FLASH: Justice Dept seeks to dismiss Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool criminal case against former Olympian David Hearn Trump Admin acknowledges: "Damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June 2026 was the result of flawed installation by the contractor"

Profitable businesses have an incentive not to destroy the world. Businesses that lose money on their operations but make billions from (credulous) investors have an incentive to take the money and run. There's a difference, and if you haven't seen it you haven't been paying attention.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 6d ago

BARTIROMO: It feels like we're moving into a Terminator-type world HASSETT: I hope not and I think not. AI companies definitely have an incentive not to destroy the world. That would destroy their companies too.

I've made a thing of calling out the NIMBY case against data centers as (mostly) a bunch of lies. But hoo boy. None of those lies are as blatant—as completely at odds with the reality of data centers—as this. Nobody works in data centers. That's the whole point.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 6d ago

Hassett: "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."

It’s kind of amazing that Trump’s second term was exactly when it became clear that fossil fuel electricity generation is over. A long phaseout to get through, but that’s obviously the stage we’ve reached. And Trump has staked out the position against renewables. Against reality.

Bruno J. Navarro@brunojnavarro.bsky.social · 4w ago

“Spending $700 million to bail out the coal industry is like throwing a lifeline to a ship that has already sunk.”

Never think it can’t get dumber.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last wk.

Trump: "I'd like them to add Iran as tariffs, not just sanctions. That's what Lindsey wanted. I'd like to see tariffs on Iran. That's really what Lindsey wanted."

Number one is “grant any wish”. “Any”. Again: ANY wish. Number three is that people will be pleased and excited by the “space of wishes” that it can grant. JFC, bro. A Slinky can grant any wish, within a space of wishes that includes going down stairs. Alone *or* in pairs!

Dare Obasanjo@carnage4life.bsky.social · last wk.

“What we need to explain to the world: Number one, we are close to creating a genie that can grant any wish. Number two, we are going to make sure that our first wishes broadly benefit humanity” - Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI — This is definitely the opposite of Anthropic’s AI kills all jobs pitch.

My current bugaboo: AI. I am *appalled* by the blatantly false NIMBY arguments against data center construction. That doesn’t mean I support the insane hyperscaling plans, let alone AI hype in general.

paul khruangbin (Dan Lehner)@danlehner.bsky.social · last wk.

if there’s anything I would want to drill into the public consciousness it’s that there are almost always like a dozen ways to approach any given problem and some of them will be more effective than others and we have to stop acting like the questions around it are against fixing the issue

This is another litmus test for non-Trumpists: is flouting investigation and oversight fine as long as it’s being done by someone “on your team” and you believe that those holding democratically-mandated power are illegitimate because they are “on the other team”? Have you thought this through?

Josh Chafetz@joshchafetz.bsky.social · last wk.

I just know I'm gonna get yelled at about this, but since it is squarely within my area of expertise ... Fauci is probably right that Paul has an "unhinged obsession with" him. Nevertheless, that doesn't excuse Fauci from the obligation of testifying truthfully before a Senate committee.