Jon Gertner

The Rule of Law Is Dead in the US The rule of law presupposes that there are rules that provide a consistent, repeatable, and knowable set of outcomes. That’s no longer the case.

This will have to count as my Supreme Court term review.

I make that point that there's no point in reviewing what the Supreme Court has done because the rule of law is dead in this country anyway.

My latest in @thenation.com

NSF plans abrupt end to lone U.S. Antarctic research icebreaker Imminent termination of the RV Nathaniel B. Palmer shocks polar scientists

The National Science Foundation plans to abruptly end operation of the RV Nathaniel B. Palmer, the sole U.S. research ship capable of braving the farthest reaches of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. scim.ag/4mB8LOX

Very strange to be on the same page as Josh Hawley but the LLMs are plagiarism machines.

The Home Depot is the fourth largest retail store in the US by revenue. Its stores are being terrorized on a daily basis in California. Where are the articles being written about the company's response or lack of response?

Half-baked, uninformed nonsense that repeats mistaken information from another half-baked take.

Worth noting too that a democratic socialist is more frightening to them than an authoritarian narcissist.

Still too optimistic.

The number of satellites in Earth orbit is doubling every 18 months, which is hugely damaging to astronomy, near-Earth space and the upper atmosphere. We need a new approach to space environmentalism, writes @e-astronomer.bsky.social in his @science.org column. 🧪🔭☄️
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I think i’m beyond being surprised anymore . . . but then someone says something so stupid I find myself surprised.

One thing that's additionally awful here is Vought's attempt to tie Biden to the CDC's faltering performance (early) in the pandemic. Except that Donald Trump was actually the president.

POLITICS Wall Street Panics Over Prospect of a Socialist Running New York City Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani's stunning primary win is rattling the financial industry that had backed Andrew Cuomo https://www.wsj.com/us-news/wall-street-panics-over-prospect-of-a-socialist-running-new-york-city-da7db7e4?st=qugGN9&reflink=article_copyURL_share

This is insane. There is a madman in Washington creating fiscal policy that will bankrupt America, stifle innovation, and is just morally reprehensible.

But a “socialist” who wants to be mayor of NYC is what causes Wall St to panic?

Just clowning on themselves.

Bar chart titled “The Supreme Court vs. The Lower Courts: Rulings on the Trump Administration” showing three horizontal bar charts for May 1-June 23, 2025. Federal District Courts: large red bar (82 cases, 94.3% against) with tiny green bar (5 cases, 5.7% for). Circuit Courts of Appeal: medium red bar (15 cases, 68.2% against) with smaller green bar (7 cases, 31.8% for). Supreme Court: tiny red bar (1 case, 6.3% against) with large green bar (15 cases, 93.7% for). Shows dramatic reversal from lower courts ruling against Trump administration to Supreme Court ruling for it.

Since May:

Federal district courts have ruled against Trump admin 94% of the time.

Supreme Court has sided with the Trump admin 94% of the time.

A judiciary at war with itself.

Meta's AI memorised books verbatim – that could cost it billions Many AI models were trained on the text of books, but a new test found at least one model has directly memorised nearly the entirety of some books, including Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, which could complicate ongoing legal battles over copyright infringement

Many AI models were trained on the text of books, but a new test found at least one model has directly memorised nearly the entirety of some books, including Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, which could complicate ongoing legal battles over copyright infringement

Yes, indeed. Or to say: He is at war with the parts of America that despise him.

Graphs showing 25 years of budgets for the National Institute of Health, NASA, and the NSF. In all cases, the proposed budget for next year is far, far below any year of the previous quarter century.

There are 2 previous historical cases of countries destroying their science and universities, crippling them for decades: Lysenkoism in the USSR and Nazi Germany. The Trump administration will be the 3rd.
It's not just budgets but research, institutions, expertise, and training the next generation.

Opinion | Elon Musk’s Legacy Is Disease, Starvation and Death

From @nytopinion.nytimes.com:

Elon Musk “apparently did not anticipate that it would be bad PR for the world’s richest man to take food and medicine from the world’s poorest children,” our columnist Michelle Goldberg writes.

The flood of encomiums and morality tales about Elon's turn in Washington cldn't be more predictable, vapid & sickening. If you want a story, get me the story about the crisis comms team directing this. He ran anti-constitutional blitzkrieg thru the federal government, did massive harm, violated ...

I still think the best idea for progressive donors is to just revive every alt-weekly in the country and staff them with 10 reporters each.

Whatever you might hear from fascist billionaires, Mars is extremely dry, extremely cold—and extremely inhospitable.

For the energy, effort, and expense it takes to make Mars habitable for humans we could ensure that Earth is protected, cherished, and able to care for countless generations to come.

Atul Gawande on Instagram: "“No children are dying on my watch,” said Rubio. It's blatantly false. So far, 190,000 children and 90,000 adults have died due to the dismantling of USAID (even assuming... 9 likes, 0 comments - atul.gawande on May 24, 2025: "“No children are dying on my watch,” said Rubio. It's blatantly false. So far, 190,000 children and 90,000 adults have died due to the dismantlin...

“No children are dying on my watch,” said Rubio. It's blatantly false. Credible estimates count 190K deaths so far.

In Kenya, I am seeing devastating impact, incl this child's starvation & many deaths directly caused by Rubio’s actions. More in my @msnbc.com clip. www.instagram.com/atul.gawande...

Well, that’s horrifying as well as really really dumb.

Why Silicon Valley’s Most Powerful People Are So Obsessed With Hobbits

Excellent piece. As a culture we don't spend enough time talking about how silly Marc Andreessen is.

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/23/b...

The World’s Most Urgent Scientific Question https://wmo.int/news/media-centre/wmo-confirms-2024-warmest-year-record-about-155degc-above-pre-industrial-level There is no question more urgent than the one indicated by that red arrow in the graph...

Global average temperatures are spiking, rising faster than climate models seem able to explain, and in a sane world, every country would be united in a full-scale effort to figure this out & respond. Instead the US is dismantling its scientific infrastructure.

RFK Jr. said multiple times during his house and senate hearings today that no scientists have been fired from federal agencies. Our reporting has shown that hundreds, if not thousands, of scientists have been let go from NIH/CDC/FDA

Elon Musk’s Boring Company Is in Talks With Government Over Amtrak Project

Musk 'Boring Co' now trying to get contract for Amtrak tunnels.

Its history of over-promise and near-zero delivery is probably worst of all Musk enterprises. Makes his 'confident' 2020 forecast of manned SpaceX landings on Mars by 2026 (next year) seem realistic.

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/12/t...

Did not know that!

It’s natural, right? Does anyone on this thread have any good suggested academic reading on the spacecraft/anthropomorphise phenomenon? (Writing a book on the Voyagers.)

Beautiful and fascinating.

E.P.A. Plans to Shut Down the Energy Star Program

Seriously? Fuck these people. This is important information for me as a consumer. Even if I didn't care about the planet, which I do, I'm gonna care about the size of my power bill. This move helps nobody.

"WE'VE ARRANGED A society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. And this combustible mixture of ignorance and power, sooner or later, is going to blow up in our faces. Who is running the science and technology in a democracy if the people don't know anything about it?" "Science is more than a body of knowledge, it's a way of thinking. A way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we're up for grabs for the next charlatan, political or religious, who comes ambling along."

I think a lot about what Carl Sagan said in one of his final interviews.