Michael Sheehan

On Wednesday, Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s chief executive, met with President Trump at the White House and agreed to give the federal government a 15 percent cut, essentially making the federal government a partner in Nvidia’s business in China, said the people familiar with the deal. The Commerce Department began granting licenses for A.I. chip sales two days later, these people said.

State capitalism? Unconstitutional export taxes? A straight up shakedown?

Whatever you call it, Ronald Reagan is rolling over in his fucking grave.

email to me: Our disabled son has CP and bladder spasms so urologist is recommending Botox treatments and we read your article and are concerned about the presence of mRNA in the Botox. Is mRNA in all brands? How can we know if it is in there? Is there a safe brand you recommend? He has to have this so what do we do? Thanks

my reply: personally, i'd recommend you follow the advice of your doctor. but what do i know, i'm just a random person you emailed. I have no more formal education around botox than the author Naomi Wolf, whose advice I assume you were actually seeking. but since you emailed me, my suggestion is that you listen to your kid's urologist, who is a trained medical professional, rather than seeking out medical advice from someone with an english degree and a history of making significant errors in her research. best of luck!

a specific skill I've developed over the past ~20 years is crafting responses to emails sent to me, but intended for that other Naomi Wolf

Robert Reich The Truth About Immigrants and the Economy | Robert Reich

Just a reminder that immigrants are good for society and the economy. https://youtu.be/LCl9-uaKzv8?feature=shared

Want to use rich people like me to your advantage? Incent us to help those who need it the most. Lower corp taxes for comps that pay a min of $25 per hour. Lower corp taxes if employees get stock at the same pct as the CEO.

Bottom up incentives work. Dems never innovate. They bitch

I'll keep saying it until someone does something about it: THE ONLY 'DEAL' TRUMP KNOWS HOW TO STRIKE IS EXTORTION

it’s basically trite to note at this point but if this were any other president, and certainly a democrat, spending a ton of money to gild the white house would be a legit scandal

BEHAVIOR IS THE WAY

Hello. The president's continued insistence that the BLS numbers are rigged, political, or otherwise manipulated is a lie. Please stop saying 'baseless claim.' Thank you.

I see why he bankrupted casinos.

It’s very strange that the Times is normalizing the fact that the whims of the president and the far-right ideologues who staff his “crusade against top schools” have become a predicate for “deals.” This is authoritarian behavior and should be covered as such.

Do they even once say what the money is actually for? Do they call it a fine? This is the fundamental thing I haven't seen in coverage of all this: what is the sum of money, fundamentally, and to whom is it paid?

Again, we have civil rights laws and if universities are violating the rights of Jewish students or faculty they should be held accountable within the framework of the existing legal process. This isn’t that.

Trump’s Deal-Making With Other Elite Schools Scrambles Harvard Negotiations

It is not “deal-making.” It is extortion built on Christopher Rufo’s idea of “taking down” one or more elite university.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/u...

i have been thinking a lot about how the entire concept of “the deal” is antithetical to transparency, fair play and rule of law, as larry notes. the deal is necessarily nonstandard, ad hoc and dependent on the whims of the dealmaker

Busting up big corporations and tackling Wall Street’s greed.

Getting big money out of politics. 

Strengthening unions and fighting for higher wages.

Medicare for all, paid family leave, universal childcare...

This is the progressive populist agenda we need in America.

This is what is happening right now.

He straight up, deliberately lies about demonstrable facts (the jobs revision happened before not after the election and Trump called it out at the time!) and no reporter challenges him on it. No
Sunday show host challenged his officials about his lies. He gets away with it.

still thinking about the Montana knife maker who said you don't have to worry about tariffs if you buy american. and then three months later, he realized he imports swedish steel and german equipment. and even MiUSA equipment costs $100k more now because of tariffs

Anglerfish shaped lantern

Mythical deer lantern

Tapir and young lantern

Ant lantern

Chinese lantern festival in Philadelphia - very cool event!!

I learned today that my 14 yo American Child had never heard of Paul Bunyan or Pecos Bill…what???

Not sure if this is a parenting, school, or culture fail

He gave 3 rally speeches during the campaign talking about getting “retribution & revenge” on his enemies.

But polls didn’t like that. So Hannity coached him to say, “the success of my admin will be my revenge.” That’s the line he used after that.

But it was always the former.

Legacy media keep referring to the Epstein cover-up as a “scandal,” when they should be calling it a crime.

orange cat lying on floor with square lights reflected on his flank that resembles lit windows

live action catbus looking pretty sweet

Trump’s illegal tariffs and budget-busting billionaire tax cuts have run down U.S. job growth but, instead of pulling back from these blunders, an inflamed Trump just blamed the messenger and fired the Commissioner of Labor Statistics.

Pretty soon all economic and jobs data released by the federal government will be handwritten with a black Sharpie

Interestingly, the Board *does have control. Powell only gets one vote

See also: not understanding how the economy works