Paul Konstant

As Bernie Sanders Comes to California, Wealth Tax Opponents Intensify Efforts

Read this sentence slowly:

“Gov. Gavin Newsom, crypto executives and business leaders are ramping up efforts this week to stop the proposed wealth tax...”

gift link:

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/u...

Alpha School, an “AI-powered private school” that heavily relies on AI to teach students and can cost up to $65,000 a year, is AI-generating faulty lesson plans that internal documentation finds. @evystadium.bsky.social has more.

Scoop by @emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social: www.404media.co/students-are...

The Quintessential Epstein Files Email - The American Prospect Jeffrey Epstein and his friends standing up for Mary Jo White against Elizabeth Warren tells you everything about the class war at the heart of the files.

Guys I found the best Epstein Files email. The one that illuminates an elite class that's cocooned themselves into an unaccountable shell of wealth and privilege, fighting to protect their secrets and offenses.
I could write a novel about this email.
prospect.org/2026/02/17/e...

Good 🧵. Amazing to me has been the silence on 🇺🇦 successful drone strikes on military targets in occupied areas and refineries deep inside 🇷🇺. They've hurt Putin and it should be more widely known

America, If You’re Listening: Denmark’s Example for Fixing Liberal Democracy Talking to Michael Bang Peterson on Denmark's recurring process of self-examination.

Today @paulrosenberg.bsky.social argues that Americans should learn from the Danish government's "multi-year “Power and Democracy study” to analyze how Denmark’s democracy is functioning, what challenges it faces, and what can be done to improve it." www.liberalcurrents.com/america-if-y...

Keep it in the headlines and in everyone's feeds

YouTube video by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Rep. James Talarico On Confronting Christian Nationalism, And Strange Days In The Texas Legislature

Colbert posted the interview to YouTube. This was his way around it.

youtu.be/oiTJ7Pz_59A?...

The regime is now dictating what political views are acceptable to air on television and paramount/cbs are collaborating in that censorship bsky.app/profile/ditz...

'I will not tolerate his insults': Backlash grows after US ambassador's outburst against Belgium Belgium's Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot has summoned Bill White to discuss the ambassador's "unacceptable" statements on X.

Following the insults and threats against Poland by the US ambassador there, the US ambassador to Belgium Bill White is getting in on the act.

His appointment was controversial because in the past he promoted a Belgian holocaust denier.
www.belganewsagency.eu/trumps-pick-...

It seems to me that Argentina has a lot to lose if their beef loses the EU market. But there are likely low expectations that Milei will make a rational decision.

EU to send commissioner for Mediterranean to Trump’s Board of Peace meeting Ursula von der Leyen won’t travel to Washington for Gaza talks, but Dubravka Šuica will be there.

Following Meloni's announcement that she'll make Italy an 'observer' in Trump's Board of Peace (defying EU understanding on non-participation), 🇪🇺President von der Leyen has had to scramble to send one of her commissioners to observe Thursday's meeting.

@unroll.skywriter.blue unroll please

‘Carnage of concern and upset’: Women’s Institute groups close after transgender ban Members warn NFWI decision has opened up toxic culture that deters younger women from joining

The Women’s Institute was pressured to exclude trans women by the threat of litigation brought and paid for by JKR’s legal fund.
So now the newly trans-hostile WI groups are haemorrhaging members and many groups are folding, closing opportunities for all women.
Well done JK and the GCs, eh?

Brexit’s slow‑burn hit to the UK economy The UK is once again debating why its economy has grown slowly since the mid‑2010s. This column examines the impact of the decision to leave the European Union in 2016. Using almost a decade of data s...

New data shows #Brexit has lowered UK GDP by 6-8% in 10 years. Investment down 18%, employment down 4%.

It's even worse than economists had predicted pre-referendum, because they thought there would be a bounce-back long term.

"Economists were roughly right on the magnitude of the impact, but...

❌ Telegram will allegedly be completely blocked in Russia from April 1. The RKN will proceed with a total blocking of the messenger by analogy with Instagram and Facebook, Russian media write.

layer cake of irony: plugging in and out itself, the thing machines cannot do

For whatever reason, Pam Bondi decided that all the Epstein files from the period around 9/11 were to be withheld from discovery. What's that about?

Their ideology, @xriskology.bsky.social and @timnitgebru.bsky.social
firstmonday.org/ojs/index.ph...

Note how US media doesn't report on any of this and pretends not to understand it.

Russia's war effort is unsustainable. That's an overarching, sometimes underrated, fact of the war.

Economy strained beyond capacity, and signs of growing problems.

Doesn't mean it's about to collapse. Doesn't mean we know when it'll break. But enough time failing to conquer Ukraine, and it will.

Should tag this in here, for reference
bsky.app/profile/wolv...

Sycophantic AI Decreases Prosocial Intentions and Promotes Dependence Both the general public and academic communities have raised concerns about sycophancy, the phenomenon of artificial intelligence (AI) excessively agreeing with or flattering users. Yet, beyond isolat...

Preliminary results show that the current framework of "AI" makes ppl less likely to help or seek help from other humans, or to seek to soothe conflict, and that people actively prefer that framework to any others, literally serving to make them more dependent on it.

🇺🇦🇺🇸 Zelensky: During a meeting with Senators Richard Blumenthal and Sheldon Whitehouse, I thanked the United States for its strong bipartisan support and work for peace. Before our meeting, the senators met with children whom Ukraine managed to return from Russia. Thank you, this is truly important.

The billionaires' eugenics project: how Epstein infiltrated Harvard, muzzled the humanities and preached master-race science Edge - Jeffrey Epstein's favourite intellectual salon - was sold to me as a gathering of the world's finest minds, writes Virginia Heffernan. The files reveal it was something far darker: a decades-lo...

About Epstein, Edge, eugenics, and finding my name in the Epstein files.

www.thenerve.news/p/epstein-bi...

SF is such a cooked place. The Mission used to be home to a massive Latine diaspora. And now it's filled with people who speak like this.

“Stop, or I’ll yell stop another 4,400 times again” is not (only) a legal/judicial/Article III problem. It’s the total failure of Article I. The constitutional order is completely non-functional right now.

Interesting… 🇺🇸

I'm reminded that a friend - PhD sexologist and burlesque performer - did a show that explained why Ev Psych was pseudoscience built on complete BS. I suspect she'd agree.

‘Who The F*ck Are The Right People?’ Social Media Melts Down Over Kristi Noem’s Comments on Voting Kristi Noem sent shockwaves through social media with her recent comments about ensuring the "right people" vote for the "right leaders". The post ‘Who The F*ck Are The Right People?’ Social Media Melts Down Over Kristi Noem’s Comments on Voting first appeared on Mediaite.

‘Who The F*ck Are The Right People?’ Social Media Melts Down Over Kristi Noem’s Comments on Voting

I promise I will stop banging on about this once Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, & co. cannot walk into the Capitol w/o being bombarded by media questions about why they are still violating their oaths & allowing the lawless authoritarianism to continue. 20 questions for them for every 1 for Dems.