cr: @nyankorooow

Q: How do you know it's Friday the 13th?

A: Because Microsoft email started working again.

In the future, every woman will be Jensen Huang's mistress for 15 minutes.
-- Andy Warhol

This editorial (gift link) from Josh Marshall at TPM gets at the heart of the Congressional leadership fight. The problem is much less the leaders than the filibuster. Nothing is going to happen in Congress as long as the filibuster remains intact, and a do-nothing Congress feeds the President's power. If Chuck Schumer is a problem, it's mostly because he's unwilling to ditch the filibuster, not because he's otherwise incapable of leading the Senate.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/forget-the-leadership-fights-everything-comes-back-to-the-filibuster/sharetoken/41077014-c246-41f1-aa68-7f7983d6d6f4

Perhaps we all misunderstood Jensen Huang when he said that we should be embracing agents in this age of AI.

Happy #FourSeasonsTotalLandScaping day to all who celebrate. Which apparently includes Donald Trump.

I've seen some people suggest the Democrats shouldn't ditch the filibuster yet and that instead they should wait until 2028. The basic idea is that the Democrats aren't going to be able to pass anything meaningful through Trump's veto anyway, so they should protect the filibuster in case they need it to guard against another Republican winning in 2028. This is a really dumb idea for two reasons.

For one thing, the filibuster is far more likely to hurt the Democrats in the future than help them. The only way it helps is if the Republicans win a trifecta in the future but keep the filibuster anyway. There's no reason to expect that to happen. It severely hurts the Democrats if they win the trifecta and can't pass anything because of the filibuster.

For another thing, the next two years give the Democrats a chance to show what they'll do if they win it all in 2028. Voters will understand the message if Congress passes a bunch of good bills only to have them vetoed. They can't do that if everything they try to do gets tied up by filibusters. That will show the opposite message: that electing Democrats is useless because they'll let themselves be hamstrung by stupid, arbitrary restrictions. Worse, it will convince some people the Democrats want the disfunction so they have an excuse for failing.

For people who are excited about the people potentially leaving Trump's cabinet, please remember his history. He has shown a remarkable ability to find worse replacements for everyone who leaves.

RE: https://flipboard.com/@latimes/california-2ijlpkgrz/-/a-Q3Q4hMeWT0a9bZ9Uf_esvg%3Aa%3A460011909-%2F0

Weiner has absolutely earned this. He's been incredible in pushing for more housing, which is probably the single biggest problem facing our state. The combination of recognizing what needs fixing, correctly identifying solutions, and showing courage and persistence pushing for them, he has shown exactly the kind of leadership we should demand from our elected officials.

There are a lot of things Dems should do for the next two years, but one of the most important is to pass bills that we need even if Trump vetoes them. Make the GOP publicly vote against what people actually want over and over, against the bills and against overriding Trump's vetoes. Then the Dem presidential candidate in 2028 can point at all the bills and say "Congress will pass all these laws again when I'm president, and I'll sign them all." And then they should do that too.
#politics #USPol

Everything is awesome. Everything is cool when you’re part of a team.

My heart is heavy. Walter Koenig, our Ensign Pavel Chekov, passed away early today.

Walter and I met on the bridge of the Enterprise in the 1960s, and we stayed friends for nearly six decades. When Brad and I married in 2008, Walter stood beside us as our best man. Just last month, on Sept. 14, he turned 90, on the same day Brad and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary. I will always treasure that he and I shared that date.

Walter was more than Chekov. He was a writer, a teacher, a thoughtful man, and a loyal friend. To the fans who loved him for so many years, thank you. He loved you too.

Rest well, my dear friend. Keep navigating a steady course.

– George

Edit: looks like it’s been shuttered.

pyconf dot org is a fake event, a scam.

Notes:

- Domain registered after CFP closed.

- Venue doesn't admit its existence: https://fortmason.org/events/

- AI gen headshots, and speakers who aren't, in 100% of the the companies my network can see into, employees at those companies and never have been. Those people don't exist.

A couple of the listed "sponsors'" corporate legal teams have already been advised and word is they're furious.

Gavin Newsom supporters are going to be so confused when the presidential debates begin and they finally learn that Gavin Newsom and Gavin Newsom's witty social media manager who regularly SLAMS Trump are not the same person.

How AI model collapse works in real time.

Technically, I describe the problem here

https://www.theregister.com/software/2025/05/27/ai-model-collapse-is-not-what-we-paid-for/1505941

Or you could just watch this video.

Just watched Samantha Libreri doing a piece on the new escooter laws. It segued from an interview with a paediatric surgeon talking about the dangers of escooters, to Samantha speaking to camera on a Dublin street. As she was talking, a Ford Ranger Raptor drove past behind her.

I look forward to the day that we take the danger of 2.5 tonne pickups being used as family cars as seriously as we do 15kg escooters being used by 17 year olds.

Last night, I dreamed one of my mobile devices- it kept switching between my phone and tablet- had been corrupted and needed to be reset. I had a terrible time getting the settings back to where they had been before. The background was the worst; I couldn't find the photo I had used for it no matter how long I looked.

#DreamDiary

Last night, I dreamed I knew a woman who was trying to collect all kinds of rare metal foil to turn into the perfect confetti.

#DreamDiary

I think I may have located Trump's electoral problems. This is an expensive station in a state where fuel is always expensive, but these prices are unreal.

Last night, I dreamed I ran into my stem cell recipient while on an errand around town. She had apparently moved here from her home in New Jersey and was commiserating with me about displacement by the Eaton Fire. The whole thing was mildly disturbing when I woke up, both because I'm still upset about the fire and because I never got a chance to meet her in person before she passed away.

#DreamDiary