Ugh: Elon Musk endures a lot. Just ask him. In recent weeks, he has again expounded upon his long workdays and his infrequent vacations, all while mocking workers who prefer working from home as living in “la-la land.” Since his first startup almost 30 years ago, the billionaire entrepreneur has epitomized the hustle culture of Silicon Valley that is all about grinding out late nights at the office. His public discussion of pain and sacrifice has helped him create a demanding culture at the companies he runs, including the car company Tesla TSLA 3.11%increase; green up pointing triangle and the rocket maker SpaceX. Now, with the social-media platform Twitter, which he gained control of late last year, that approach is being tested anew as he races to remake the company and its remaining workforce, an effort that he has described as “quite painful.” His live-at-work ethos, through which his own suffering is put on display to motivate others, runs counter to the work-from-home ideal embraced by a new era of employees openly questioning one’s commitment to a job.
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June is Supreme Court month, when Clarence Thomas gets to hand down one edict after another. As an antidote, my publisher is offering The Enigma of Clarence Thomas on sale! You can get the Kindle version for the low price of $2.99. Buy it now!
The virulent grow more virulent Throw “government closest to the people serves the people best” on the ashheap of history. Old-school conservatives may once have spouted that line, but MAGA authoritarians treat local democracy as quaint. Like the Geneva Convention that way. The New York Times Editorial Board comments on the trend among Republican-led state legislatures to put their thumbs on local democracies that buck the MAGA-red tide. For example, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will sign within day a bill stripping Texas cities of their power to govern themselves: The bill, recently approved by the Texas House and Senate, would nullify any city ordinance or regulation that conflicts with existing state policy in those crucial areas, and would give private citizens or businesses the right to sue and seek damages if they believe there is a discrepancy between city and state. That means no city could prohibit discrimination against L.G.B.T.Q. employees, as several Texas cities have done. No city could adopt new rules to limit predatory payday-lending practices. No city could restrict overgrown lots, or unsafe festivals, or inadequate waste storage.
Wonder why? Magadonian sounds more like a plump dinosaur than a macho Star Wars character, if that’s what Trump was going for. Pretty chunky. Probably has a “very, very large brain.” And very, very large on the other end.
It’s not going to work Well, it WAS a good place for them to live. It’s downright deadly for trans people right now. But the attacks on Pride show exactly what these people are up to. The share of people worldwide who say their area is a good place for gay or lesbian people to live doubled from 25% to 50% over 10 years, Axios’ Alice Feng writes from a Gallup poll. Zoom in: The countries with the highest percentage were Norway (92%), Sweden (91%) and the Netherlands (90%). The U.S. ranks 15th with 80%. Countries with the largest increases since 2012 were Nepal (+63 percentage points), India (+42) and Bangladesh (+35). There is no putting this genie back in the bottle.
Biden signed the debt ceiling bill today. Huzzah. Since there shouldn’t even be a debt ceiling it’s always a little bizarre to celebrate. But there was no default and Biden managed to let them extract as small a pound of flesh as we probably could have hope for. He spoke from the Oval Office last night and patted himself on the back for his success in making bipartisan deals. It is rather surprising that he managed to get a few GOP senators on board for the infrastructure bill, CHIP act and gun safety. And apparently, the MAGA caucus is saving its energy for the more important Hunter Biden laptop investigation and layed out of this one. None of this actually indicates that the right wing has sobered up and found sanity. It’s obvious that it hasn’t. Neither does it indicate that Biden has a magic touch for bipartisan legislation. All of this is Democratic Party driven and is largely successful because the left, understanding the threat of right wing power, is being a team player. But it is good for Biden’s presidential campaign.
It’s a big state. But they are a minority here, thankfully. But they can cause a lot of trouble in some of these small rural towns, just s they do in Texas: An ugly scene played out at the Temecula Valley School Board meeting as they voted 3-2 to reject an elementary school social studies book that contained information about pioneering California gay rights figure Harvey Milk. The board’s president made a baseless accusation that Milk was a pedophile before voting to ban the book. “My question is, why even mention a pedophile?” said Board President Dr. Joseph Komrosky. Temecula’s emotionally charged meeting resembles many others from here in Southern California and across the country as communities demand school boards to limit discussions of race and sexual orientation. The battle over books has been an ongoing conflict in Republican-controlled states. California Gov. Gavin Newsom interjected himself into the fray last summer in a series of commercials that aired in Florida. Now, he’s taking that message directly to educators in the state through a letter directed to superintendents and school administrators.
Yikes TPM’s Hunter Walker with a chilling tale that does not strike me as far fetched. There have been a number of attacks on power stations already: The first chapter of the black-and-white PDF magazine begins with an ominous warning. Over four dense pages, the anonymous writers paint a picture of “an anti-tech revolution, beginning with the annihilation of the U.S. energy grid.” “The horrific effects of a nationwide blackout cannot be understated. Hospitals would fail. … Financial collapse,” the magazine reads, continuing to detail traffic chaos, dwindling supplies of clean water and spreading disease before concluding that a successful attack targeting key points on the electrical grid would lead to “the collapse of the system … chaos, agony, and death” The magazine was obtained by TPM in a chat group on the encrypted app Telegram dedicated to “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski.
WTH went on down in Mar-a-Lago? I’ve been getting confused about all the latest ins and outs of the Mar-a-lago case with the boxes going in and out and who took what when. So I asked on twitter and people kindly pointed me to this speculation based upon various reports: THREAD: SPECULATION: This is what I think happened with the documents at Mar-a-Lago based on bits and pieces assembled from public reporting. THIS IS SPECULATION. 1/ May 11, 2022: The Office of Donald J. Trump is subpoenaed for all documents with classified markings. Trump asks his lawyer, Evan Corcoran, if there’s a way to defy the subpoena. Corcoran tells him there’s not and memorialized that conversation in detailed notes. 2/ Trump contacts his valet Walt nauta and tells him to move documents boxes from the storage area to his residence, and then Donald goes through the boxes and removes the classified documents he wants to keep. 3/ Trump then tells Corcoran to search the storage room.
I’m just watching SG-1 defeat the human and alien villains on PlutoTV today while playing games on my phone. I don’t want to think or write or move. Yet here I am. Writing. My thought last night was what I said on the Nicole Sandler show while talking about our mutual friend, the late great Joel Silberman. He taught progressive politicians to tell stories that illuminated their message. There is good news in the world. US job numbers are great. The Economy was not destroyed by GOP, THIS TIME. YET…. As Mrs. Spocko said, the relief that we feel when the GOP didn’t destroy the American and WORLD economy, doesn’t match the worry & anxiety that we have been feeling for weeks. Celebrating the win is important. But also infuriating when we shouldn’t have been here. I get Biden talking about “My friends across the aisle” since his plan worked. The MSM LOVES that bipartisan stuff. But I really want those assholes on the right who brought us here to be stopped. I’d like them to be punished, but that’s not Biden. So let’s look at how to punish them in their role in the insurrection.