RE: https://flipboard.social/@newsguyusa/116850483168352774
Am I literally the only person in the world that remembers when Donald Trump fired everyone at the BLS because he didn't like their numbers and then installed people who would lie for him?
Hey everyone: have any of you heard of LC causing blood in urine but no assoc kidney issues, and preventing the body from using testosterone, causing a huge increase in free testosterone?
I have an old friend who posted on socials that they're dealing with that and wanted to poke the COVID hive mind
In fact, I'd guess that *efficient use of power* by appliances and computers is an area of technology with a lot of expansion possible.
Add to that electrification (imho a necessary step toward real degrowth bc of its defraying of powerful interests and the intimacy of the technology to communities [it's hard to hide malfunction or waste]) and I think with Trump's ongoing evisceration of the petrodollar and the coming oil shocks we have the recipe for a historic turnaround.
Something that gives me hope about power use growth (and consequent carbon pollution) is that in modern countries for more than a decade I suspect it's been *artificial*.
Meaning, the vast majority of people had all the computing they needed 10 years ago, and the growth in power use is worthless feature creep, IoT abuses, and flagrant waste by companies unwilling to invest in *real* efficiency (e.g. power-use efficiency, not human labor efficiency) absent any substantive legal demands.
Good. Train your employees and citizens to conserve electricity so that after we bulldoze your planet-destruction machines they're...*doing exactly what they should have been doing all along*.
I am actually interested in stuff like this, but the IoT aspect of it makes me not even think about trying it.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jun/30/oura-ring-5-review-smart-ring-health-tracking
Basically, I don't think "AI" is going to do much of anything at all; it will collapse before most of its damage is permanent; and the damage it does cause, and the bits of the internet that survive that damage, will reveal the parts of the plane that are weakest and need reinforcing.
BUT
The neofascist shift of education over two generations away from liberal arts and toward STEM/"empiricism" - a result of which is the current "AI" bullshit - is going to take generations to undo.
These are folks who *literally* think that the most basic and base expressions of intelligence are, somehow, it's entirety.
What does that say about *them*, or the society that elevates them and their skillset?
What it says to me is that many of us aren't qualified to have opinions on the structure, content, and nature of human society or culture. Or perhaps, even able to participate in it.
And that our education infra seems to be producing this kind of perspective at a dizzying rate
2/
Reading an article about how "AI" has "solved intelligence" and
I'm trying to imagine being so small-minded and parched for imagination that you think "intelligence" is bounded by the ability to, like, *do chess* or *parse language using averages*.
The externalities and ethical depravity of "AI" are enough to render it non-viable as a technology; but consider the people who find it astonishing:
I've always felt like "AI"s real tell was the pathetic scope of the people who fall for it.
The character of Democrats and their party has been apparent to the left for a long time. But only recently has the progressive wing of "lesser evil" voters started to see that "lesser" is a relative term that, to put it lightly, means less than nothing when it comes to the Democratic party and the people who control it.
I sincerely hope that Carville et al. live to see literally their entire life's work and project wiped away like the shitstain on history it is.
Imagine being these corrupt pieces of shit who literally haven't read the Constitution. These fuckers.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/30/supreme-court-ruling-birthright-citizenship
None of the stories about Birthright Citizenship go on to say how fucking stupid the whole thing is anyway because *it's literally explicit language in the US Constitution* and no *Congress can't undo it* because
IT'S EXPLICIT LANGUAGE IN THE CONSTITUTION
RE: https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/116840727885067097
Mandatory thread
Calling our cultural rot caused by neofascist manipulations a "loneliness epidemic" is like calling COVID a "coughing epidemic"
Doesn't even come close to describing the disease or the symptoms or long term implications, but does help the ruling class hand wave for a few more years while they try to figure out how to escape with their wealth.
It's actually super telling that the centrists have formed a group to frame this as a "reputational liability", not a group to argue the merits of their policy ideas or direction for the country - largely because *both of those* are so deeply, extraordinarily unpopular that if they did that, they'd supercharge their extinction.
Which, it bears without saying, cannot happen quickly enough.
Let centrism die for a thousand generations. Around the time the planet recovers from their depraved ideas
I will point out that the plan was *always* to get ~60% of the country far left or far right, then take the "centrists" e.g. neofascists from *both parties* and create a "Unity Party* that completed the fascist takeover.
I'll also point out that the Democrats routinely say self-destructive shit like this just before elections they know they'll win *precisely* so they don't win *too much* and can rehash the whole "if you'd just given us another Senator!" bullshit
I am *begging* the few "vote your heart in the primary" folks within the sound of my voice to recognize that the Democratic party has *never* made that argument in good faith. The evidence has been clear for decades, but now they're just literally
*telling you to your face*
You thought Trump was a liar? Allow me to introduce you to *centrism*
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/29/centrist-democrats-democratic-socialists-backlash
I'll also point out two key aspects of this:
Democrats will never use this power because they will secretly love what the MAGA appointees do and will have an out that makes them "heartbroken but steadfast"
Trump *already did this* and *never reversed it* and everyone was like 🤷♂️ so I don't know why this is even relevant in our post-law, post-constitution national context.
SCOTUS rubber stamping what everyone already let the Emperor get away with is just a dead body's toenails growing
🤷♂️
Looks like this time he *will* be anointed with the Oils of Eternal Power
Experiencing SCOTUS "interpreting the Constitution" is like watching a rodent look for his shadow to predict the length of the seasons tbh
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/29/us-supreme-court-ftc-ruling-slaughter
This is why I think services like CallOnDoc and other online prescription services are actually revolutionary and an unvarnished good: they eviscerate the MD+Rx regime in a way that makes it significantly easier for most people to access necessary medicine that they would otherwise not simply because the logistical hoops were too onerous and/or expensive.