Dr. Robin A. Bedenbaugh

genAI is morally wrong and disrespectful to the creatives in your life as long as the models are built with material stolen from unconsenting and uncompensated writers and artists

there are a bunch of other reasons why it's bad - it's a rich tapestry - but that first one should be enough on its own

I will bet you all $1 that the person feeding all this stuff to journalists right now is Vance or someone Vance-adjacent.

Sort of curious to know why EVERY Republican in the House thought it necessary to block the release of files that their Attorney General assured them do not even exist.

What the left needs now is its own version of the demented right-wing Epstein conspiracy theorist universe, with an army of unblinking YouTubers whose full-time job is shouting questions at visibly uncomfortable Republican politicians in the Harris Teeter produce section. Okay fine I’ll do it

"Yup, there's your problem. You've mistaken arbitrary norms specific to your social group for sacred immutable truths and it has driven you insane."

Pope Leo XIV's grandparents were 7th Ward Creoles The newly elected pontiff, born in Chicago, has ancestral ties to the city’s historic Seventh Ward, according to genealogists at The Historic New Orleans Collection.

I didn’t give a wit about new pope coverage, but the first American pope being a man with Black ancestry born in Chicago by way of New Orleans by way of Haiti. Names his self after the pope who condemned slavery? In the Trump era? Oh, baebae, I am HERE for it.

www.wwltv.com/article/news...

It’s time for Congress to reign in the Mad King. These tariffs haven’t even hit for real and the world is off the rails.

Politically, it’s helpful to Dems, but this is why I’m not a good politician b/c I care too deeply about the harm on all people, even on those that hate my very existence.

Protest sign at Albany Hands Off Rally

My favorite sign from the Albany #HandsOff rally.

The caption at the bottom is what really lifts this to the next level

a man in a tuxedo sits next to an older woman ALT: a man in a tuxedo sits next to an older woman

The Trump administration feels like it's full of people who loved Paul Verhoeven's STARSHIP TROOPERS but didn't realize he was mocking the shit out of the dumb spiteful fascist characters.

A portion of John Quincy Adams' Amistad argument before SCOTUS: "I will not recur to the Declaration of Independence--your Honors have it implanted in your hearts--but one of the grievous charges brought against George III. was, that he had made laws for sending men beyond seas for trial. That was one of the most odious of those acts of tyranny which occasioned the American revolution. The whole of the reasoning is not applicable to this case, but I submit to your Honors that, if the President has the power to do it in the case of Africans, and send them beyond seas for trial, he could do it by the same authority in the case of American citizens. By a simple order to the marshal of the district, he could just as well seize forty citizens of the United States, on the demand of a foreign minister, and send them beyond seas for trial before a foreign court."

Was just reading John Quincy Adams' oral arguments before SCOTUS in the Amistad case and this part seems, uh, pretty relevant

Hegseth: The DOD will be merit based and colorblind. You will be judged on how good you are at your job. Full stop.

The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.

From an operational security perspective, this is the highest level of fuckup imaginable. These people cannot keep America safe.

“Get ready for that spin, y’all”

Jeffrey Goldberg thinking he was being pranked and then realizing he was actually just in the war plans group chat is such a good microcosm of how it feels to be alive right now, everything seems fake until you realize it’s actually real and incredibly stupid

Just finished this. Among other things I take away, Sheryl Sandberg needs to Lean In to a motherfucking wood chipper.

Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism

By a former insider about how awful things are inside Meta/FB that Zuck has been working HARD to quash. Would suck if a bunch of people who could afford it bought multiple copies and donated them all over to free libraries, left them at coffee shops, or just otherwise distributed these around...

This is horrible to post, but I may as well post it. We are essentially shutting down research operations in my group, which is focused on treatments for pediatric brain cancer. I’m a well funded investigator, and there’s no choice. Science can’t function without the stability of NIH

“Allowed to wield silence so freely, any institution will become insatiable. It’s not only that the absence of information allows those complicit in but unaffected by wrongdoing to look away. The silence itself becomes an empty canvas, onto which any fantasy can be painted.” - Omar El Akkad

They're *already* shutting down large parts of the government and, as an added bonus, inflicting permanent damage on other parts of it.

Shutting it all down would be a *better* route, honestly.

All you've done here is give a bipartisan stamp of approval to their agenda of closures and cuts.

Would love to chat about this point sometime.

Ready for the next segment of my “Fresh Out of Fucks” tour.

And I’ll forget you but I’ll never forgive
The smallest man who ever lived.

Opinion | Here’s the real threat to ‘personal liberties and free markets’ The rapidly spreading authoritarianism coming from this administration threatens all of our freedoms.

I don't know what Jeff Bezos means by "personal liberties and free markets." But I do know this: The biggest threat to personal liberties and free markets in America today is Donald Trump. My @postopinions.bsky.social column on this week's trauma at the Post. wapo.st/3DaSKxX

Republicans are too chickenshit to hold town halls. Shocker.

Here’s an idea: Democrats, hold town halls in Republican districts.

In case anyone could use this today:

I should only get benefits from living in a society. If I also have obligations that's communism

Tesla paid $0 in federal income tax last year.

2022: $0
2021: $0
2020: $0
2019: $0
2018: $0

Tesla reported $6.7 billion in profit in those years.

I just lost my job, along with most of my coworkers, due to the illegal grant freeze.
I worked at an organization that
-helped veterans who have lost a limb
-Assisted elderly and disabled people
-Helped hospitals better treat people who have lost limbs