Josh

I guess this kinda counts as good news? sort of?

Judge blocks Trump executive order that strips union rights from federal workers The judge suggested during a hearing Wednesday that the administration's moves appear targeted toward unions that have opposed his agenda.

Donald Trump keeps losing in court.

That's why he's lashing out at judges who go against his authoritarian agenda — even going as far as to have them arrested.

His regime is starting to crack bit by bit. Keep up the pressure. www.politico.com/news/2025/04...

In 2015 Stephen Hawking described two possible economic futures for humanity & how we're now choosing the bad one: reddit.com/r/science/co...

the de facto social contract in this country has been you don't get a good welfare state or infrastructure or (with few exceptions) a union job, but you do get access to a cornucopia of cheap consumer goods. I'd guess people will *flip the fuck out,* but we'll see!

Elon Musk’s DOGE Is Now Using AI to Spy on Federal Workers Be careful what you say if you’re a federal employee.

Elon Musk, who wants AI to replace federal workers, is now using it to spy on them.

The Trump administration told federal employees that DOGE “technologists” are using AI to monitor “anti-Trump or anti-Musk language” at the EPA.

We're doing AI generated smear campaigns now Yale University has suspended a law school scholar after an AI-generated news website claimed that she was a member of a terrorist organization

“Using AI to surveil and silence speech has long been raised as a boogeyman by privacy advocates—something that could happen, in theory. Now, it is actually happening, and anyone can be a target for anything they might say online.”

Aristotle was actually right, there is such a thing as "natural slaves".

Today we call them "conservatives", and they will do anything they can to turn themselves into docile servants to anyone with wealth and power.

Elon Musk is running Tesla into the ground His far-right politics aren’t the automaker’s only problem

Tesla is in big trouble. Sales are plummeting and consumers are boycotting the brand as Elon Musk champions far-right politics.

But the CEO’s reputation isn’t the only problem. He’s also made a series of bad business decisions that are coming back to haunt the automaker.

This is correct.

Health care is one of the data-driven ways you reduce crime 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

holy f*ck this is extremely important

this is actually insane

This guy is literally trying to access your banking information via the IRS.
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

It really is amazing how much cutting out vices like spending too much time watching TV/scrolling social media can do for being more productive and advancing our reading goals

Infrastructure neglect and poverty lead to parasites in the Mississippi Delta New research suggests parasitic infections in US south are far more widespread than previously acknowledged

Hookworm never went away, we just stopped looking for it. New research suggests parasitic infections are widespread across the South.

My latest:

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Termination notices going out this afternoon to more than 300 employees of the National Cancer Institute. Access likely ends today. Four weeks paid leave and that’s it.

Strong power move for Team Cancer.

Trump’s new passport rules are trapping transgender Americans in bureaucratic limbo “Can I leave the country, and how can I leave the country?”

Some transgender Americans report they’ve been refused a passport altogether — with any gender marker — in recent weeks. “The goal is to make life untenable”: www.vox.com/politics/399...

Alex Lawson: Pharma wants to charge prices that are so high so that some people die. They want some people to die so that everyone else is terrified enough to pay whatever they can afford and whatever they can borrow to keep them and their loved ones alive.

RFK Jr. Doesn't Seem To Understand How Medicaid Works

Under questioning, RFK Jr referred to the fact that people in Medicaid pay high premiums.
Here’s the thing: People in Medicaid don’t pay premiums, except in special circumstances or through state waivers.
www.huffpost.com/entry/donald...

this thing on here of people responding to arguments about legality/illegality of an action with nihilistic declarations that it doesn’t matter is infuriating and i share josh’s frustration with it

There is simply no plausible argument that the president has the constitutional authority to refuse to spend appropriated funds because he doesn’t like how the money is being spent.

The legality of policy impoundments is just not a close question.

Yooooo let’s be friends on Xiaohongshu (REDnote) 🙏

It’s the new SPOT !!

Same @

Please don't divorce Yoon Suk Yeol from the Biden administration that has backed him. The US has been pushing South Korea to enter into a military alliance with its former colonizer Japan. Yoon has been willing to do it.

Yoon has been a considerable asset in the US strategy to contain China.

Screenshot of tweet from Joseph Kim, with photo of a large group of Yoon Suk Yeol’s supporters. They’re waving US and South Korean flags. One in front is holding a sign that says “stop the steal” with picture of a hand coming out of a large Chinese flag dropping a ballot into a ballot box. Tweet says: ““Stop the Steal” isn’t the only rhetoric pro-Yoon supporters in South Korea have adopted from the US right. They’re also using xenophobic attacks, calling pro-democracy protesters “chinks” and yelling “go back to North Korea” like the epithet “go back to where you came from”

The American flags, the virulent Sinophobia…this tells you all you need to know about Yoon Suk Yeol’s supporters

adrian dittman may not be elon musk but it’s very funny if we continue to pretend he is

lmao yesss

I think it's fine to hate Jimmy Carter for his role in supporting the Gwangju Massacre (and his administration overseeing other atrocities), but I do think his role in preventing a nuclear strike on Korea is also something that should be weighed in assessing his legacy

In 1994, when Jimmy Carter learned that Bill Clinton was considering a nuclear first-strike on the DPRK's nuclear reactor in Yongbyon, he gathered a CNN crew to fly to Pyongyang and meet Kim Il Sung to sabotage Clinton & prevent that outcome, and hammer out a diplomatic agreement

Appeals Court Upholding TikTok Ban Is a Grim Sign for Press Freedom A US District Court of Appeals, with two Republican-appointed judges and one picked by a Democrat, has upheld a law forcing the sale of TikTok.

All corners of government, joined by members of both major parties, concur that national security concerns should allow the government to scrap First Amendment principles.

fair.org/home/appeals...

Murdoch Outlets and Bezos’ WaPo Demand More Sympathy for Health Insurance Execs Many news outlets’ pontificators were incensed that anyone would voice frustration with health insurance when an industry CEO has fallen.

Great piece from Ari Paul and @fairmediawatch.bsky.social on this week’s weird crocodile tears.

Iman Abid on Israeli Genocide While not the first to ask us to see the assault on Palestinians as genocide, Amnesty’s report offers an opening to ask why some are so invested in saying it isn’t.

Amnesty’s statement about Israeli genocide invokes an "international community" that will hopefully be roused to action. But what does it mean that many or most in that community receive their understanding from elite news media?

fair.org/home/iman-ab...

ABC Settles With Trump in a Case It Could Have Won ABC's $16 million settlement is a dangerous omen for press freedom, given Trump’s threats to use his power to go after his media critics.

The fact that the network is coughing up money as a result of Trump’s case sends a warning to other media that no media will be safe under a Trump regime.

fair.org/home/abc-set...