Adam Conner

Hulk Hogan, lying inexplicably sideways in his open coffin, being visited by a chihuahua dog, who looks distraught. The people behind the coffin do too

I'm sorry, but this may be the funniest Facebook AI slop I have ever seen. Bury me sideways in my coffin, brother. Let my dog see

On Capitol Hill, I joined Sen. Bill Nelson @gretchentg.bsky.social @adamconner.bsky.social @cdelawalla.bsky.social to sound the alarm about the systematic dismantling of the US research infrastructure. The question isn't whether we can afford to invest in research. It's whether we can afford not to.

Alt Text: A graphic with a dark blue textured background features bold white text that reads: “The future of American science and innovation is at risk, but there’s still time to prevent more devastating cuts.” Below that, smaller white text says: “The Trump Administration slashed billions in federal research grants to universities, attacked scientific journals, restricted legal immigration for highly-skilled scientists, and proposed billions in budget cuts to the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Health, NASA, and more.” At the bottom, white text with a call to action reads: “Go to ProtectScienceAndInnovation.org and tell Congress to reject these funding cuts.” To the right is a stylized illustration of the torch from the Statue of Liberty with multicolored flames, overlaid by white atomic orbit lines.

Get on the phone. It's appropriations season in Congress. #StoptheCuts #ProtectScienceandInnovation.

I didn’t start out thinking there was some genuinely incriminating info about Trump in the DOJ files on Epstein but I’m definitely changing my mind!

After a brutal few weeks of work, of course I stayed up late writing about the afternoon before a three day weekend release of the TikTok Letters and my obsession with the TikTok ban non-enforcement for my new Substack, "The Fun's in the Fight."
thefunsinthefight.substack.com/p/the-tiktok...

25-3980 (N.D. Cal.) Response 07.03.2025

The FOIA releases are available here. Congratulations to Tony Tan for his dogged pursuit of these documents! www.documentcloud.org/documents/25...

REQUEST: If anyone still at DOJ knows anything about where these TikTok nonenforcement letters came from, who vetted them, if OLC had anything to say, or anything else of note, please reach out on a non-work phone and contact me on Signal: crg.32

The idea that "I am genuinely outraged by Mamdani's college application, and therefore will shift my allegiances to Cuomo or Adams" is pretty funny

Some people asked me why I, a guy who was indifferent about the TikTok ban, was so obsessed with it after Jan 19th. Because presidents can’t abdicate laws via EO and issue preemptive get out of jail cards.
www.americanprogress.org/article/publ...

techpolicy.press/apple-and-go...

(b) 6) Appetire ent of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Dear Ms. Adams: Article Il of the United States Constitution vests in the President the responsibility ove ational security and the conduct of foreign policy. The President previously determined that a abrupt shutdown of the TikTok platform would interfere with the execution of the President's constitutional duties to take care of the national security and foreign affairs of the United States. See Executive Order 14166 (E.O. 14166). The Attorney General has concluded that the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (the "Act") is properly read not to infringe upon such core Presidential national security and foreign affairs Executive Order 14166 instructed the Department of Justice not to take any action on behalf of the United States to enforce the Act for any conduct that occurred during the period of time from January 19, 2025 through April 5, 2025 (the "Covered Period"). Pursuant to the President's responsibility to protect national security and to conduct foreign policy, the President determined that a 75-day extension of the Covered Period to June 19, 2025 is appropriate and has signed a subsequent Executive Order to effectuate that determination (the "Extended Covered Period"). See Executive Order, Extending The TikTok Enforcement Delay (April 4, 2025). In the Executive Order signed on April 4, the President directed "the Attorney General to issue a letter to each provider stating that there has been no violation of the statute and that there is no liability for any conduct that occurred during" the Extended Covered Period as well as for any conduct from the effective date of the Act. Based on the Attorney General's review of the Katherine Adams Senior Vice President & General Counsel Apple Inc. Page 2 facts and circumstances, Apple Inc. has committed no violation of the Act and Apple Inc. has incurred no liability under the Act during the Covered…

If I’m an Apple or Google shareholder I’m looking at this letter from Pam Bondi promising not to enforce the TikTok ban and saying this is nowhere close to good enough given the potential scope of damages. It’s basically a pinky swear based on nothing. www.theverge.com/tiktok/69798...

Have you seen the insane disclosure Akamai had to make in their February SEC filings @reckless.bsky.social? It’s insane.

Public Companies Should Be Transparent About Not Complying With TikTok Ban Public companies’ reliance on Trump’s questionable executive orders allowing them to not comply with the TikTok ban raises questions about their potential liability and whether they should disclose th...

PREACH.
Me in April. www.americanprogress.org/article/publ...

Red alert for the big bill blocking state tech laws!

There’s a new draft of the AI moratorium and it’s WORSE. The exceptions narrowed so “generally applicable” laws only survive if they do not create an “undue OR disproportionate burden” on AI. This creates huge uncertainty for which laws survive.

The Senate’s AI Pause May Take Billions in State Broadband Funds Hostage U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s proposal to ban state and local regulation of AI could result in the loss of tens of billions of dollars in state broadband funds unless states comply with the AI pause.

Voting on the reconciliation bill could start as soon as tomorrow so it’s important for all senators to know how the AI Pause would impact the BEAD funding that every single state has requested. Read more here:

www.americanprogress.org/article/the-...

New from @nicole-alvarez.bsky.social and I, a new @americanprogress.bsky.social analysis of the Senate Commerce reconciliation bill’s rebranded “AI Pause,” & how contrary to the claim it’s optional for the new $500M in funding, the text implicates the entire $42.45B in BEAD broadband funding.

STATEMENT: Supreme Court Ruled Against Bodily Autonomy in Skrmetti Case

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Tennessee law barring lifesaving medical care for transgender minors. In response, @calebllsmith.bsky.social, director of LGBTQI+ Policy at the Center for American Progress, issued the following statement: www.americanprogress.org/press/statem...

i'm developing a heuristic for interpreting republican governance

Workshopping a take about how National Treasure, a movie about a conspiracy theorist who proves all those sneering academics wrong and also uncovers the true, dark origins of the US, is a proto-QAnon movie

They’re chaosmaxing.

NEW: MyPillowGuy Mike Lindell found liable for defamation for his statements about Dominion Voting Systems executive Eric Coomer. Federal jury orders Lindell to pay $2.3M, far less than the $62.7M requested by Coomer’s attorneys.

The Politics of Eternal Distraction To some Democrats, everything Trump does is designed to distract you

I wrote about Democrats' obsession with calling Trump's actions a "distraction," and how it reflects their failure to understand the modern media ecosystem.

Finance Committee text is out - this has the Medicaid cuts and the tax cuts. Will go through it in this thread.

But what we can say for certain is that, like the House version, this would be BY FAR the largest Medicaid cuts in history, kicking many millions of people off their health insurance.

Today's Something Censored - The VA used to have a comprehensive resource page for providing medical care to LGBTQI+ veterans. The page included resources everything from serving trans and non-binary vets - to details on suicide prevention services. All have been wiped from the VA site.

"Personalist" is key. Trump foreign policy doesn't have a coherent vision; "isolationist" springs to mind because he's dismantling alliances, but he's also imperialist, routinely threatening and meddling abroad on a whim. It's all less an ideology than a reactionary's emotional urge to cause damage.

"To everyone who pulls me aside to whisper with the best intentions 'You have already won', I am sorry, but the days of moral victories are over. And as my father told me years ago, 'When the Right wins power, the Left writes a great book.' Those days are over too."

-Zohran Mamdani

This is a United States Senator mocking the assassination of a Minnesota legislator and her husband. He pretends to be a good Mormon. He’s a sick fuck.

Trump’s FAA pick has claimed 'commercial' pilot license he doesn’t have Bryan Bedford, the nominee to head the Federal Aviation Administration, for years erroneously stated in his Republic Airways bio that he is a pilot with a “commercial” rating.

Bizarrely, it appears that Trump’s nominee to lead the FAA has been lying about holding a commercial pilot license www.politico.com/news/2025/06... #aviation

In our competitive society, where it seems that only the strong and winners deserve to live, sport also teaches us how to lose. It forces us, in learning the art of losing, to confront our fragility, our limitations and our imperfections. It is through the experience of these limits that we open our hearts to hope. Athletes who never make mistakes, who never lose, do not exist.

spoken like a diehard White Sox fan

Checked in with Tim Walz spokesperson and as of three min ago, President Trump had not called him, according to the governor’s office

If we are all willing to dig in and sacrifice, by growing our red bars we can do our part in making the green bar even bigger.