It won’t happen quickly—and with Republicans in power it won’t happen at all—but we need to begin taking power from our rogue Supreme Court. Like this: https://hci.social/@bkeegan/112718009105258956
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) continues to be the member of Congress who best demonstrates the qualities of leadership so badly needed by her party. She will not succeed in impeaching these Supreme Court justices, but she will shine a light on their corruption and lay down a marker for voters.
Once again, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is saying out loud just how corrupt and politically motivated the Supreme Court majority has become. https://masto.ai/@Nonilex/112685094145453092
1. Should people convicted of serious crimes be barred from voting permanently (as in many Republican states) or should their rights be reinstated after they are released from prison?
2. Which crimes do you consider most serious: falsifying business records, tax fraud, or rape?
This smells like a real story. The headline says “mystery fundraising firm,” but there’s no evidence of a fundraising firm. There is a Delaware LLC, apparently a ghost or a shell—no address except a post-office box—that has received $3.1 million in Trump campaign cash.
“The thing with Sam Alito is that he doesn’t give a fuck. He is a seventy-something Fox News watcher and religious fundamentalist who happens to find himself in a position of immense and almost incomparable power over all of American society and he’s going to take that power to the limit to advance his own political preferences. He’s not even going to go through the motions of pretending that’s not the case.”
Josh Marshall understands Alito all too well. Gift link:
Meta is deploying chatbots powered by AI to impersonate humans in its discussion groups. The chatbots make stuff up—that is their nature. One invents a nonexistent child. Another pretends to have nonexistent merchandise. It shouldn’t be necessary to explain how vile and poisonous this is, but Casey Fiesler spells it out:
Trump is testing the mainstream press. He’s saying in every way possible: Yes, I really am going to be a dictator. Yes, I really am going to dismantle the democratic institutions that have defined this country for 250 years. Yes, this really will be the last election, if I win it. And by the way, of course that means the end of a free press.
The Republican House has established a Piggy Bank for members of Congress. They can claim tens of thousands of dollars in expenses without itemizing them or providing receipts.
Guess which Congressman has grabbed the most money.
“I did not find the case trivial. I found it nauseating, a grouping of some of the least attractive and sleaziest human beings I have ever imagined in proximity to the levers of power. And critically, these were people actively and consciously engaged in an effort to corrupt an election. I came away from the trial thinking it was actually important that Trump had to answer for this conduct.”
When deciding what sentence to impose on a convicted #felon in New York State, does the judge take into consideration the defendant’s contrition or lack thereof? Does anyone know?
May 27 — The social-media account of Donald Trump today posted, in place of a Memorial Day message, an angry stream-of-consciousness rant, apparently by the former president himself, directing invective against “Human Scum” and the judges handling his various federal and state trials. He referred to the United States as “our Once Great Country,” to the CNN journalist Anderson Cooper as “Alison Cooper,” and to the judges as “Wacko” and “Trump Hating.” (1/2)
It’s hard to convey how impossible these numbers are for a publicly traded company. Alarm bells should be ringing at the SEC.
Imagine if you were running a lemonade stand, and you sold 77 cents worth of lemonade—and to generate that 77 cents in revenue, you spent $327. https://mastodon.social/@sjvn/112479834471695251
If only OpenAI were some kind of outlier. It’s the same all over: the tech giants take it for granted that what’s yours is theirs. Props to Scarlett Johansson for pushing back.
James Fallows, who should know, explains why debates are WORSE than useless.
There’s one more reason this year. By sharing a stage, Biden will normalize the idea that it’s all right for Trump to be a free man, as opposed to an incarcerated criminal.
Another crime committed in plain sight. It will never be prosecuted:
In contemptuous violation of his gag order, Trump coordinated with a team of “surrogates” (his own word)—including the House Speaker and and US Senator—to attack witnesses, the judge’s family, and the jury.