Justin du Coeur

Every blue-haired they/them liberal arts grad living in NYC is tougher than this sad little bitch.

Oh My God, TAKE IT DOWN Kills Parody

Donald Trump is a notorious media bully. He uses lawsuits, executive power, and political pressure to punish critics and bend institutions to his will. Disney, Meta, and Paramount have since paid out multi-million-dollar settlements over content disputes. CBS…

Good morning! I'm in Uganda to visit family and friends.

But depending on your perspective, don't worry or I'm sorry: I'll be back by the end of the month.

See you soon, NYC.

For those who haven't already seen this horror story: it appears that at least some #Hyatt hotels are using smoke detectors *specifically designed* to falsely claim that you were smoking in your room, and slap a huge fine on you.

threadreaderapp.com/thread/19459...

#NameAndShame time -- #Citibank has managed to lose us as CC customers, after many years of using them heavily, by not only managing to charge us over $200 in late fees for a *four day* late payment, but then adding yet more because they *lost our check* for two weeks.

Bloody incompetents...

Donate to Help the Foglios Through Unexpected Challenges, organized by Phil Foglio We are Kaja & Phil Foglio, creators of the Girl Genius webcomic and owners … Phil Foglio needs your support for Help the Foglios Through Unexpected Challenges

#girlgenius Hated to do it, but we started a GoFundMe. These are chaotic times, and no mistake, and all of a sudden we realized they were chaosing all over us. (www.gofundme.com/f/help-the-f...) Any help would be greatly appreciated.

We ran a randomized controlled trial to see how much AI coding tools speed up experienced open-source developers.

The results surprised us: Developers thought they were 20% faster with AI tools, but they were actually 19% slower when they had access to AI than when they didn't.

The Arisia Long Range Planning Committee would like you to join them to talk about...The Future of Arisia.
In-person: Th, July 24, 7-9pm at the Hyatt Regency Cambridge
Online: Sun, July 27, 2-4pm on zoom at buff.ly/b7hAi1z
If you can’t make either meeting, email us at lrp@arisia.org

Due to Donald Trump, the US now has zero global credibility. It will take many years to repair this damage.

VA hospitals remove politics and marital status from guidelines protecting patients from discrimination Department of Veterans Affairs says the changes come in response to a Trump executive order ‘defending women’

Horrible to realize that something like this has largely been missed in all the other horrors: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

The idea that veterans can lose their hospital support for their political views is very on-brand for the Trumpists, but wildly anti-American...

Reported numbers vary widely for each, but the No Kings protests probably got between twenty to a hundred times as many people as Trump's pathetic little parade. (Maybe even more.)

It was loud, joyful, and generally great.

Stuff like that gives me hope that we will yet get out of this mess...

No Kings On June 14—Flag Day—Donald Trump wants tanks in the street and a made-for-TV display of dominance for his birthday. A spectacle meant to look like strength. But real power isn’t staged in Washington. ...

For those in the US who haven't already heard -- Trump's birthday (and tinpot-dictator military parade) on Saturday is an *excellent* time for nationwide mass protest: nokings.org

Y'all join in if you can -- it's time to upstage the asshole.

Spread the word!

Mayor's call for four-year terms by 2028 holds up Somerville charter change process, councilors say - Cambridge Day The clock is ticking on an attempt to let voters decide this fall on changes to the governing system and structure of the city, and some officials in Somerville are frustrated that approval is delayed...

Clicking the "previous story" link at the bottom of the article (just below the credulous quote from the Mayor's chief of staff) brings us to a more balanced take from just two weeks ago.

The Mayor's intransigence on four years terms has cost us -years-.

www.cambridgeday.com/2025/04/12/m...

2/?

Strengthening and Unleashing America's Law Enforcement to Pursue Criminals and Protect Innocent Citizens By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:Section 1.  Purpose and

Things are getting scarier, and this one is particularly worth paying attention to. Note the later provisions here, and think about their implications. Put it together, and this is none-too-quietly laying the groundwork for martial law: www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

There are over 700 Oregon businesses that have chosen to be listed as pro-MAGA businesses on this website, including the CrossFit gym in my neighborhood. www.publicsquare.com/search/busin...

USDA withdraws a plan to limit salmonella levels in raw poultry The Agriculture Department says it is withdrawing a plan to limit salmonella bacteria in poultry products.

"The Agriculture Department will not require poultry companies to limit salmonella bacteria in their products, halting a Biden Administration effort to prevent food poisoning from contaminated meat."

www.seattletimes.com/business/usd...

Christ alive.

We’re all doomed.

Shepherd of the faithful and master of the sick burn...

NEW: The National Intelligence Council determined in a secret assessment early this month that Venezuela is not directing an invasion of the United States by the prison gang Tren de Aragua, a judgment that contradicts Trump’s public statements
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

It's hard to express just how scary this is.

tl;dr - there is credible reason to believe that, whether due to incompetence or intent, DOGE has given Russia deep access to critical government systems.

Speakers | LambdaConf Mind-expanding talks on new theory and practice behind the hottest and latest developments in software development.

looks like #lambdaconf has invited #moldbug back this year: www.lambdaconf.us/speakers

Americans of Conscience Checklist: April 11, 2025 - Americans of Conscience Protect the right to vote, demand due process, & prepare for electronic device searches when entering the U.S., & more in the April 11th, 2025 issue of the Americans of Conscience Checklist.

Time-critical CTA from the Americans of Conscience Checklist: americansofconscience.com/04-11-2025/

tl;dr - DHS is changing the rules, to enforce registration of undocumented residents. Given ICE's current behavior, this is terrifying.

This is imminent, so speak up *today*.

Spread the word...

Now, the administration is taking drastic steps to pressure some of those immigrants and others who had legal status to “self-deport” by effectively canceling the Social Security numbers they had lawfully obtained, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times and interviews with six people familiar with the plans. The goal is to cut those people off from using crucial financial services like bank accounts and credit cards, along with their access to government benefits. The effort hinges on a surprising new tactic: repurposing Social Security’s “death master file,” which for years has been used to track dead people who should no longer receive benefits, to include the names of living people who the government believes should be treated as if they are dead. As a result, they would be blacklisted from a coveted form of identity that allows them to make and spend money.

The Trump administration is now canceling people's Social Security Numbers, treating them as if they are legally dead. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/u...

Facebook Pushes Its Llama 4 AI Model to the Right, Wants to Present “Both Sides” Meta’s Llama 4 model is worried about left leaning bias in the data, and wants to be more like Elon Musk’s Grok.

Today from @404media.co is a reminder that “open(ish)” does not imply "not evil”: www.404media.co/facebook-pus...

tl;dr -- Meta's Llama 4 LLM is jumping on the bandwagon of claiming that it is "reducing bias” by becoming more biased in favor of the fascists. Time to drop it, if you were using it.

I was thinking about what "other methods" of staying in office he'd be considering and one scary possibility that came to mind is that he could embroil the US in an active war with Canada and then try to use an EO to postpone federal elections, claiming it would be too dangerous for people to vote.

Might want to think about buying exclusively halal/kosher for a while. At least you know it was inspected.

Elon Musk & @elonmusk • 1h I don't know if the child is mine or not, but am not against finding out. No court order is needed. Despite not knowing for sure, I have given Ashley $2.5M and am sending her $500k/year. 17 3.3K • 19K Ill 793K 贝 企 Ashley St. Clair @stclairashley Elon, we asked you to confirm paternity through a test before our child (who you named) was even born. You refused. And you weren't sending *me* money, you were sending support for your child that you thought was necessary... until you withdrew most of it to maintain control and punish me for "disobedience." But you're really only punishing your son. It's ironic that your last effort in court was to try to gag me while you use a social media channel you literally own to distribute derogatory messages about me and our child to the entire world. It's all about control with you, and everyone can see it. America needs you to grow up, you petulant man-child.

Ashley St. Clair, the mother of Elon Musk’s 13th child, responds to his post.

This comes after she says she was forced to sell the Tesla he gifted her because he had cut child support significantly.

My friends, I have BIG #VOYNICH NEWS! #MedievalSky 🧵

It begins:

When they came for the migrants I said nothing, because America is for Americans.

When they came for the "transes" I said nothing, because my bathroom is sacred.

When they came for the Gaza protestors I said nothing, because I am pro-Israel.

Speak out, while you still can.

The mainstream media ignores or at best severely downplays unhinged lunacy like this but every cough and gaffe from Democrats is huge front page news for days. People are going to die because of it, just like they did under Reagan, Bush and Bush II. The msm is cancerous.