My one conflicting observation is judging by all the leaks to news outlets, they certain do not sound like a party that is gung ho on a coup attempt. It's clear there is a lot of disagreement in their ranks about this and they do not expect to rig things.
But they are terrified of Trump.
I've always maintained that most senate Republicans hate Trump's guts but they are also extremely cowardly weasels.
Remember they gave him unfathomable sums of money for his secret police force. Are they going to hold the line on a procedural tool of all things?
Furthermore, if this bill is passed in any capacity, any semblance of free elections are over.
Forgetting the underlying bill itself, if he can just randomly change how elections are run on a whim, that's extremely difficult to deal with.
I've seen some people very dismissive of this but I am not.
We are relying on a majority of Republicans in the Senate refusing to change a procedural tool. He's got a lot of leverage to force them to change their minds.
I'm a reformer, not an abolitionist on this front.
There is no way these models would be what they were if they weren't relying on stolen information.
I am not advocating for this. But that is effectively what happened except the only people who had access to this lack of copyright were AI companies.
Something I can't get over is for all the talk about how revolutionary AI is, what would also be revolutionary is just removing copyright for everything.
Imagine what everyone would create with that!
As the US senselessly bombs Iran, I’m thinking about how the US military has virtually NEVER been a force for good—almost always evil.
WWII was a good cause but the US purposely murdered ~1 million civilians. Civil War & Reconstruction might be the only clear good. The other big ones are atrocious.
I was very moved by this piece on Khalil's current status so I'm glad he had a nice place to go and break the fast.
This is lovely.
The most impt change at #NIH and to US science this year is bigger than grant cancellations— it’s how the agency is governed.
For 75 years NIH has been largely independent of presidential control. That’s changed this year. New piece from me and @nataliebaviles.bsky.social in @nature.com
🧪
The Senate's digital situation is such a disaster right now.
It is genuinely crazy how little they have improved since I left. In fact I think they have regressed in many ways.
The new influencer briefings are good I guess. Except of course the influencers are paid political hacks.
I would just like to note that Cory had a nicely produced video (by senate standards anyway) and it didn't matter because the idea sucked.
Comms person listening, take note.
I am not doing any direct congressional advocacy anymore and haven't for a long time.
She's a strange case. Her public statements clearly indicate interest in pushing forward. She even STILL wants to impeach Noem! And yet I can't square it with her actions.
There are some exceptions. A lot of the chiefs of staff are at least somewhat competent. But the farm system for talent is so ridiculously narrow and insular. And the place has repeatedly shown zero interest in doing anything to rectify that.
It wasn't the sole reason I quit but in retrospect this nagging feeling that we needed to do something about that was a factor.
It still absolutely blows my mind that people tried to murder them and the democrats just let it go.
They have access to some of the best policy researchers in the world. If they wanted to seriously look for good talent they could find it.
Instead the place heavily resembles a Soviet style bureaucracy where only the dumb sycophants get elevated. Catastrophic for a complex system like government.
Man, I experience literal pain imagining how cool it would be if United States Senators actually took time to think of good policy instead of bullshit like this.
The standard you walk past is the standard you accept
Trump ignores the Constitution. It's everyone in Congress who has been tearing it up.
www.techdirt.com/2025/11/26/o...
THREAD: I got laid off from NYMag/Vulture after 14 years. The family lost 75% of income + medical. Now mzs.press bookstore, once a side project. is do-or-die for Judith & I. I feel weird telling you this because others are doing much worse. But if you could like or share this, we'd be so grateful!
The worst part of this is Al Green made clear he was planning to file articles over Venezuela and never did.
If an official commits an impeachable offense and nobody acts to impeach, it is no longer an impeachable offense.
People who oppose impeachment as “pointless” because it seems unlikely to result in removal do not understand this very simple point and seem unwilling to even try to understand it.
Maybe it is because I worked in Congress at the time but January 6th is the central rupture for me. When it became clear beyond a reasonable doubt that the leader of a major party wanted his opponents to be executed.
Fundamentally I don't really know how you can have a stable ruling class when large factions are actively working to murder everyone else.
CLASSIC Cory.
Hey that sounds like the CEOs that run the companies too!
"It’s time for a radical shift [in Greens' allegiances]. Rather than backing Labor against the LNP and Hanson, it’s necessary to point out that they are all on the same side: for Trump and therefore against global democracy." - @johnquiggin.bsky.social
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open.substack.com/pub/johnquig...
