David Segal

I understand why people are exhausted by AI hype, and why those of us squarely in the corner of "human dignity uber alles" see AI doomerism as self-serving hype, but I *really* think people on the left broadly need to start thinking seriously about the possibiltiy of the hype being...true.

Kat, this isn't complicated. AIPAC is lying about me, just like they lied about you. Don't take the bait.

Dan Goldman Supported Warrantless Spying on Americans. Now His Primary Opponent Is Hitting Him for It. New York Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman and others helped hand Trump warrantless spying powers. Now, that vote is an issue in their upcoming primaries.

The Trump Admin is wantonly abusing executive power & conducting warrantless spying.

But Congressmembers including Dan Goldman handed him the ability to do it by voting against a warrant requirement for using NSA surveillance of U.S. citizens last year.
theintercept.com/2025/12/28/f...

Heartbroken to hear about the passing of amazing Howie Klein - founder of the progressive blog @downwithtyranny.bsky.social.

He was a brilliant blogger (from OG netroots) who made his mark as a big time music exec. Most importantly he was a kind human & a good friend. Rest in power Howie.

My good friend Howie Klein passed away today and I am bereft. He was a fierce progressive, music impressario, creative organizer, passionate world traveller and the mensch of all mensches.

Howie always fought the good fight and inspired many to do the same. I will miss him terribly.

Jill Davidson, Democrat for Providence City Council - Ward 2

Exciting news: I am announcing my campaign for Ward 2 City Council!
With 20 years of supporting our public schools, advancing climate resilience, and advocating for responsive government—I am ready to bring my experience and collaborative spirit to City Hall.
Get involved at: www.jilldavidsonri.com

Poll: Democratic voters prefer "populism" over "abundance" Democrats are asking themselves some hard questions as they ponder how they lost the 2024 election.

Surprise!

Poll: Democratic voters prefer "populism" over "abundance" Democrats are asking themselves some hard questions as they ponder how they lost the 2024 election.

BREAKING an @axios.com: Our new poll tested how voters respond to populist arguments vs abundance-aligned arguments and found that voters clearly prefer populism.

Importantly, this was true not just among Dems but also independents — and in some cases even Republicans.

They are naming the wrong villains, and in so doing making it less likely that the problems get solved, and less likely that Democrats will win. (And more likely that the corporate media will elevate them and their paradigm.)

The difference is that Klein and Thompson say this decreased capacity mostly follows from barriers the left ("organized interest groups" "environmenalists" etc) put in place - and not mostly hurdles, outsourcing, and other manifestations of coporate influence.

Every single one of these clips, including this defensive one, entails obfuscating who/what object of Abundance's critique is. Yes - Biden admin officials generally agree with
@ezraklein.bsky.social and @dkthomp.bsky.social that it is too hard to build... 1/n

Jon Stewart And Ezra Klein Help GOP Paint Infrastructure Bill Broadband Grants As A Useless Boondoggle We’ve long noted how the 2021 infrastructure bill included $42.5 billion for broadband dubbed the Broadband, Equity, Access And Deployment (BEAD) program. Managed by the NTIA and individual s…

I wrote about Ezra Klein's "abundance" and how when it came to his examples in broadband, he had no idea what he was actually talking about:

And Zach used that broadband to make an open platform that enabled *thousands* of others to make sites and projects much more efficiently (and delightfully!), unlocking a massive amount of economic value. It was one reason we were able to build a multi-million-dollar business! Abundance!

The Last Abundance Agenda In the 1980s, Wall Street vowed to make housing more affordable through deregulation of housing finance. The result was the 2008 crisis.

Well, I finally got sucked into the Abundance debate.
An NPR show let me ask Derek Thompson one question.
I asked, "how come the last abundance agenda ended with the biggest economic downturn in 80 years?"
I elaborate here:
prospect.org/infrastructu...

This kind of combo of pompousness and obliviousness is a big part of why Dems lose

The Lost History of Trump’s Tariff War Trump’s costly trade policy is the culmination of a long-simmering backlash — but will tariffs hurt more than they help?

Trump’s problematic tariffs are the culmination of a 30-year backlash to liberal free traders helping corporations destroy the industrial heartland. It alienated Dems from the working class.

@petersgoodman.bsky.social on how Trump’s tariffs are likely to cause more pain — and more corruption

NYT's dismissive article about House's new Economic Patriotism group doesn't note that Reps like @deluzio.house.gov @pkryan.bsky.social
meaningfully outperformed Harris in swing dists while running on this populist agenda- by so much that neither is a frontliner anymore @anniekarni.bsky.social

You can watch the video yourself, starting at the 6:09 mark here. Let me know if you can understand what this guy's even talking about! live.house.gov?date=2025-03...

Yeah.... so I just don't get it. And unfortunately I don't have time right now to watch his colleagues' speeches about corporate power, monopolies, fair trade, and organized labor.

And, I can't fathom a guess as to whom he's referring to here, he thinks “The last thing we need is a bunch of wimps looking for a win win every time. There are villians in this society- we need to take them on.”

Out of control corporate power has "hurt small businesses across main streets all over our districts. it has crushed workers. it has led to rising costs that we all live with.”

He went on and on about how "We know that outta control corporate power leads to higher costs. It leads to worse safety, It leads to lower quality and we see it play out across so much of our economy. It’s weakend our defense industrial base and thus it’s weakened our military."

Then he said some stuff like “The economy and what life costs people should never be an afterthought” and that economic patriotism means "fighting for a life people can afford and it is bringing corporate power to heel.”

He says he wants to “Fight for a life people can afford, bringing corporate power to heel, taking on the corruption that pervades this town.”

Then he claimed that: “We need a fighting spirit of economic populism - it is patriotic” and that “Democrats need to stop defending elites and the establishment.”

So it looks like he opened by discussing how big corporations have too much power over our economy: for instance, monopolies are “jacking up prices and killing small businesses every chance they can get.”

The NYT couldn't manage to figure out what the new Economic Patriotism working group in the House stands for. I decided to watch ~5 minutes of the intro speech by @deluzio.house.gov to see if I could decipher his gibberish. I put a link to the video below - maybe you can help me out!

The Wuhan lab is STILL doing unsafe research that could trigger a pandemic AND getting prestigious pubs as incentive.😫

To fix this for the future, we have to admit we were deliberately misled on the possibility of a lab leak in the past. Horrid but true.

Gift link
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/o...

Democratic Senators who vote for the Trump-Musk budget are directly acting against the wishes of a union which represents more than 800,000 federal workers.