Brendan Mapes

Someone should do something

House votes down latest war powers resolution to block Trump from putting troops in Venezuela The failed vote comes a week after the White House peeled off GOP support for a similar measure in the Senate.

At the risk of sounding redundant... (nothing will stop the US war machine)

www.cbsnews.com/news/house-v...

Despite Authoritarian Warnings, 149 House Democrats Vote to Hand Trump $840 Billion for Military | Common Dreams "If an opposition party votes like this, it's not in opposition. It may not even be a party."

www.commondreams.org/news/democra...

“If an opposition party votes like this, it’s not in opposition. It may not even be a party”

Nothing stops the US war machine!

As far as I can tell, Congress’ job is to call what the White House is doing illegal and then rubber stamp its budget

House approves spending bills despite many Democrats' objections to ICE funds The House has approved the final set of spending bills to avoid a government shutdown, despite objections from Democrats to the funding levels set for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Pouring more money into DHS while it operates with impunity and a blatant disregard for human life is unconscionable.

You don’t fix abuse by funding it. You stop it by cutting off its funding and dismantling the institution that’s terrorizing communities.
tinyurl.com/mr3em3k8

Lmao what.

"Losing it was like losing the laboratory notebooks behind published research — the end results remain, but the developmental record and reusable building blocks are gone."

Can't imagine so blissfully trusting ChatGPT that I don't even take NOTES anymore WHAT

read theory

www.bostonreview.net/articles/emp...

On the 10th Anniversary of the Paris Agreement, you’re going to hear a lot about the progress we’ve made — people saying we “are” heading to 2.5 degrees heating instead of four.

I deeply regret to tell you that this is complacent misinformation.

🧵

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what do you MEAN Al Gore heckled Lutnick at Davos

Call for papers

Attention researchers and practitioners!

The International Review of the Red Cross calls for papers on 'Addressing the Human Cost of Weapons: Past, Present and Future'. Submit by 20 March 2026, and contribute to this vital discussion.

Read more: ms.spr.ly/63327Q6p55

I'm sorry. As a technology writer, I'm supposed to be telling you that this bet will some day pay off, because one day we will have shoveled so many words into the word-guessing program that it wakes up and learns how to actually do the jobs it is failing spectacularly at today. This is a proposition akin to the idea that if we keep breeding horses to run faster and faster, one of them will give birth to a locomotive. Humans possess intelligence, and machines do not. The difference between a human and a word-guessing program isn't how many words the human knows. I'm sorry. I know that when we talk about "digital sovereignty," we're obliged to talk about how we can build more data-centres that we can fill up with money-losing chips from American silicon monopolists in the hopes of destroying as many jobs as possible while blowing through our clean energy goals and enshittifying as much of our potable water as possible.

Córy Doctorow with another verbal bullseye: pluralistic.net/2026/01/13/n...

Canada reaches tariff deal with China on electric vehicles, canola In a break with the U.S., Ottawa will roll back tariffs on thousands of Chinese-made autos in exchange for major cuts to Beijing’s levies on agricultural products and seafood

Carney *literally* choosing between the two great powers on EV tariffs. If ever there was a symbol of how decarbonization policy and geopolitics are colliding, this is it.
www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

Trump Administration Orders USDA Employees to Investigate Foreign Researchers They Work With The new directive asks workers to check the backgrounds of foreign nationals collaborating with the department’s scientists for evidence of “subversive or criminal activity.” Their names are being sen...

www.propublica.org/article/trum...

"...the latest USDA instructions represent a significant escalation, casting suspicion on all researchers from outside the U.S. and asking agency staff to vet the foreign nationals they collaborate with."

Two Months After Cease-Fire, Israel Is Still Demolishing Gaza More than 2,500 buildings have been destroyed since the start of the cease-fire, according to a New York Times analysis. Israel says it is demilitarizing Gaza.

It’s been over three months since a ceasefire was announced in Gaza, but Israel’s destruction of the strip still continues.

Since the beginning of the ceasefire, Israel has demolished more than 2,500 buildings in Gaza, per a report from @nytimes.com.