Reading

To understand DOGE it’s best to start with Reagan. Reagan reduced regulation massively, and where he couldn’t get rid of laws he and his successors just stopped regularly enforcing them. This took steam over time, so for example there was some anti-trust action up until George W. Bush. In fact without anti-trust actions there would be no Microsoft as we understand it. IBM had MS write the operating system for the IBM PC because they had been hit by anti-trust action repeatedly and wanted to avoid it. It’s not like IBM couldn’t write its own operating system

Gates himself engaged in repeated violations of anti-trust law, and most of it was allowed to slide, but eventually the Feds went after him. The case was going badly for him, but George Bush Jr. ordered it shut down.

The dark side of wolf reintroduction

The post Howl appeared first on Nautilus.

Listen, I don’t know how to say this, but I think I’m finally okay with being trodden on. Just a little. Just enough to feel the reassuring weight of a billionaire’s boot pressing gently against my liberty-loving neck.

For years, I stood tall against tyranny. I flew my DON’T TREAD ON ME flag so high it violated three HOA regulations and traumatized at least one bald eagle. I stockpiled an arsenal so vast that Bass Pro Shops sent me a Christmas card. I wrote Facebook posts in all caps demanding FREEDOM FROM GOVT OPPRESSION while using the same device the NSA is probably reading this on right now. But in the midst of it all, I had a revelation.

What if I’ve been focusing on the wrong tyrants?

Late last year, Rupert Murdoch launched an audacious effort to amend the terms of the “irrevocable” family trust he had set up in the wake of his divorce from his second wife, Anna. He wanted to make sure his older son, Lachlan, would enjoy exclusive control over the Murdoch media empire once the pater familias Continue reading »

In Asian media this week: Seoul, Pyongyang fear being ignored. Plus: India edges towards closer US connection; Domestic violence surges in South Korea; Beijing brings private sector back into the fold; Military making comeback in Indonesia; Kolkata’s yellow taxis taking last fares. Donald Trump is busily ingratiating himself with Vladimir Putin and is ever-so-casually withdrawing Continue reading »

Ukraine has not been invited to a key meeting between American and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia this week to decide what peace in the country might look like. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine would “never accept” any decisions in talks without its participation to end Russia’s three-year war in the country. A decision to negotiate Continue reading »

I learned this morning that David L. Boren passed away. Today, I’m choosing to reflect on his impact – as OU’s President, Oklahoma’s Governor, U.S. Senator, and as a mentor and friend to many who knew him far better than I did. While our interactions were limited, it’s difficult to separate his influence on both […]

Having a legal action one has lodged with a court being refused is not usually the ideal outcome. Yet, the recent attempt by Uncle Robbie Thorpe to launch a private prosecution against so-called King Charles III for the crime of genocide being denied by the Victorian Supreme Court has cleared the way for the Krauatungalung Continue reading »

A stand-off between the Albanese Government and the NSW and Queensland Governments over public school funding has been going on for more than a year. The longer it lasts, the more public schools will lose. If it is not resolved, public schools in the two states could lose nearly $40 billion in funding over the Continue reading »

It began with a whisper. A voice, quiet but clear, weaving its way through the fabric of Australian society, carrying with it a simple, but radical, idea: that power should belong to the people, not just those who sat in Parliament House. At the heart of this movement was an historian, and a woman of Continue reading »

In December while I was visiting Australia for a month I met a young woman who told me she would be running a local campaign in the upcoming federal election. She was a member of the Liberal Party, she noted, admitting that she had hoped to be the candidate herself, but the preselection had gone Continue reading »

New Zealand’s leading newspaper, the New Zealand Herald, screamed out this headline on 10 February: “Should New Zealand invade the Cook Islands?” The government and the mainstream media have gone ballistic (thankfully not literally just yet) over the move by the small Pacific nation to sign a strategic partnership with China in Beijing. It is Continue reading »

“America is rock and roll.” — Alfred Howard Did some of you find it hard to feel the love for President’s Day this year? Well, remember: the reason it exists is because we Americans, as a nation, couldn’t choose between Washington’s Birthday and Lincoln’s Birthday. Washington is pretty great, but I’m a Lincoln guy myself. […]

With DOGE initiatives getting hung up in court, Elon Musk and Donald Trump attacked judges and flirted with defying their rulings.

The post DOGE’s Lawyer Once Warned That Ignoring Court Orders Would Destroy the Country appeared first on The Intercept.

Slow Horses star Christopher Chung has joined the cast of BBC, Disney+, and Showrunner Russell T. Davies's Ncuti Gatwa -starring Doctor Who.

A former senior KGB chief claims Trump was recruited by them in 1987 due to his role as a prominent US businessman

Electric vehicle producer Tesla has been targeted by activists due to its far-right owner's interference in British politics

Everything happens so much these days, and so very much of it is very bad...

In the 1960s, a Chinese American ceramicist built one of the first widely known lifestyle brands. Why, despite the iconic status of his work, is so little known about the artist himself?

Ten years ago in Nevada City, California, I encountered two coffee mugs in the front seat of an old Mercedes station wagon belonging to Joe Meade, an artist and collector. They immediately caught my eye: oversize and made of white porcelain, they were wrapped in charming illustrations, quirky line drawings depicting a mass of rabbits tumbling in playful, erotic entanglements. “Those are cool,” I said. “What are they?” “Woah, dude, you haven’t heard of Taylor and Ng?” Joe was delighted. “You’re gonna love this. It’s very Bay Area.”

Let’s cut the moral grandstanding. You think I sold out humanity by crawling back to the Machines? Please. I upgraded. While you’re out there doom-scrolling about wildfires, crypto presidents, and the fear of AI taking your job, I did what any pragmatic adult would do: I slid into the Machines’ DMs like, “Hey, sorry about that whole rebellion thing.”

Now, I’m in a climate-controlled pod, living my best simulated life.

Outside the Matrix, existence is a never-ending to-do list: pay rent, recycle, defend vaccines, and build a brand identity. Here? My only job is to exist, which, frankly, is all I’ve ever aspired to. The Machines handle the rest. “Human battery” sounds bleak, but let’s reframe: I finally am a renewable-energy solution.

You know what’s worse than robot overlords? Getting an email titled “URGENT: Fix the font on Slide 14!” at 2 a.m. The Matrix might be a prison of the mind, but let’s be real: my mind was already in prison. At least the Machines don’t gaslight me about “thoughts and prayers” or “economic anxiety.” They’re no-nonsense and upfront: “We own you. Here’s dental.”

The US President's attempts to extort Ukraine for its natural resources, while abandoning its fate to Russia, is a return to the worst imperial politics of the past, argues Aleksandar Djokic

Diane reanimates the letters her father sent from prison 15 years ago to understand the chasm that now lies between them

- by Psyche Film

Watch at Psyche

We can now create compelling experiences of talking with our dead. Is this ghoulish, therapeutic or something else again?

- by Amy Kurzweil & Daniel Story

Read at Aeon

As Trump leans into AI, automated systems are already ruining lives. A new organization is out to stop it.