Josh

Powering AI Could Soon Use as Much Water as 10 Million Americans Fortunately, a new study outlines a strategy to significantly curb AI's water consumption and carbon emissions.

Every Sora user is a climate terrorist.

gizmodo.com/training-ai-...

NEW: The parties in the state court case challenging the New York congressional map have agreed to a January 6-7 preliminary injunction hearing.

www.citylandnyc.org/ny-elections...

Not that you are looking forward to it or anything...

A man from The Good Place’s Good Place Committee, played by Paul Scheer, stands outside among other committee members, speaking earnestly but absurdly. Subtitles read: “He’s got a point. The fair thing for us to do is just keep on giving up more and more stuff we want, unilaterally, until this demon is finally happy.”

Posted for no reason

Lucy Van Pelt holding a football for Charlie Brown to kick, saying "Come on Democrats, pass our budget. We promise this time we'll definitely work on funding the ACA afterwards. -- And the ball has a lit fuse, suggesting it is a bomb which will blow up in everybody's faces!

On the GOP promises to get the government reopened:

For the new proposal of a Continuing Resolution to be passed into law...

The House of Representatives would need to convene.

Election watchdog loses its enforcement powers as Trump seeks to exert more control over its decisions | CNN Politics The agency charged with policing federal campaign finance laws is losing its enforcement and policy-making powers with the resignation of a Republican commissioner.

“The FEC is the latest federal agency to lose its policymaking powers in recent months as Trump seeks more control over independent arms of the government.”

America -
It was fun while it lasted…

www.cnn.com/2025/04/30/p...

Not a single international cargo ship at the Port of Seattle. The port is dead. The last ship from China will dock at a West coast port on the 29th, and the last Chinese ship will dock on the East coast around May 10th. After that, there will be no more shipments arriving from China. We’re screwed.

Hoping Wall Street will be up in arms.

As if we need more evidence that the pro-life Republican party actually hates children - unless their labor can be exploited by business owners.

#resist

Breaking: DDC enjoins Trump Elections Executive Order #ELB The opinion is here. The order is here. The preliminary injunction covers two parts of the Executive Order: Section 2(a) (which mandated that the Election Assistance Commission revise the Federal Form...

A few thoughts on Judge Kollar-Kotelly's 120 page opinion preliminarily enjoining some key parts of President Trump's executive order on elections and election administration. Over at ELB, @traviscrum.bsky.social will be blogging on it here: electionlawblog.org?p=149610) /1

EEOC sends texts to Columbia and Barnard employees asking them to complete survey for Title VII investigation Columbia and Barnard faculty received text messages on Monday from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission asking them to complete a survey amid its ongoing Title VII investigation into the instit...

www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2025/04...

What could go wrong in telling the federal government that you are Jewish (to protect you, of course)?!

A bar chart showing that Teens are more likely to think social media is bad for their peers than for themselves

Teens are more likely to think social media sites are bad for their peers than for themselves. www.pewresearch.org/...

Department of Education policy targeting DEI and other race-related school programs is likely unconstitutional, judge rules | CNN Politics A federal judge significantly curtailed the Trump administration from implementing a policy that threatens to withhold federal funding from schools for engaging in diversity, equity and inclusion – or...

Good news, as far as it goes.

www.cnn.com/2025/04/24/p...

Tornado victims blocked from federal recovery aid after Trump denied request | CNN Trump’s disaster denial follows his executive order seeking to shift the burden of response and recovery from the federal government onto states.

Time to remove disaster aid from a president's control.

Past time.

www.cnn.com/2025/04/23/w...

Justices temporarily bar government from removing Venezuelan men under Alien Enemies Act - SCOTUSblog This article was updated on April 20 at 6:36 a.m. Over a dissent by two of the court’s conservative justices, the Supreme Court temporarily barred the Trump administration from removing a group of Ven...

This is another very solid discussion of that 1am SCOTUS decision. Nar the end of the post they have a link to Alito's scathing dissent which was not a part of the initial release, so hurried was the order.

www.scotusblog.com/2025/04/just...

Alito is frothing, ignoring the need to rush.

The Supreme Court’s Late-Night Rebuke to Trump Is Extraordinary in More Ways Than One The court didn't even wait to let Alito file his dissent.

This is an excellent read about the 1am SCOTUS order preventing the shipping of detainees to El Salvador, at least for the time being:
slate.com/news-and-pol...

1/4. On the White House’s theory, if they abduct you, get you on a helicopter, get to international waters, shoot you in the head, and drop your corpse into the ocean, that is legal, because it is the conduct of foreign affairs.

Trump seeks to end climate research at premier U.S. climate agency White House aims to end NOAA’s research office; NASA also targeted

BREAKING from @science.org: The Trump admin is seeking to kill nearly all climate research at NOAA, its climate science agency.

Its near-final budget proposal would end all NOAA research labs, academic institutes, and regional climate centers. And it wants to fully end the NOAA Research division.

State tells employees to report on one another for ‘anti-Christian bias’ - NewsBreak “It’s very ‘Handmaid’s Tale’-esque,” one official said.

Welcome to Stalinist Russia.

They're not kidding.

Neither am I.

www.newsbreak.com/news/3958849...

US intelligence investigating whether FBI involved in 2021 Capitol riot - NewsBreak WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. spy's chief of staff on Wednesday said the U.S. intelligence community is investigating whether the FBI was involved in

www.newsbreak.com/news/3956155...

Is there any chance of an honest answer?

Understanding Corruption and Conflicts of Interest in Government Corruption happens when powerful people abuse their positions for personal gain. Corruption can take many forms, like a politician accepting bribes or an official using their government position to ma...

Trump admin officials have thousands of conflicts of interest.

Elon Musk's companies, Tesla and SpaceX, have received at least $15.4 billion in government contracts over the past decade. Our officials should be prioritizing public good over private gain.

Decline of Christianity in the U.S. Has Slowed, May Have Leveled Off After years of decline, the U.S. Christian share now shows signs of leveling off. The new Religious Landscape Study explores trends in identity, beliefs and practices. Pew Research Center.

The U.S. census does not collect information about religion, so our Religious Landscape Study (RLS) aims to fill these gaps. www.pewresearch.org/...

www.usnews.com/news/health-...

Trump is driving American scientists into Europe’s arms But the continent will have to invest more to lure top talent

www.economist.com/europe/2025/...

The Trump administration has set up an email (airaction@epa.gov) allowing polluters to request exemptions from nine Clean Air Act rules. Under Section 112(i)(4) of the Clean Air Act, the president has the authority to grant these exemptions through a Presidential Exemption.

Convincig the people who need to learn this is the hard part.

Unfortunately.

Ideas on how to do that?!

Study of Lyft rideshare data confirms minorities get more tickets Researchers ascribe it to “animus or prejudice against minority drivers.”…

Ruling out other factors, researchers conclude that the disparity in tickets issued is “because of what they call ‘animus’ against minority drivers on the part of the police.”

CLC's @danilang-votes.bsky.social on Trump's anti-voter executive order that threatens millions of Americans' freedom to vote: “...none of this is within the province of the president, and I would expect that he’ll be met with legal challenges.”