One of the most common arguments you hear from fans of generative ‘AI’ is that it’s not plagiarizing people’s work, it’s just learning like a human learns. So I’m going to break down why that’s just not true, and why it can never be true, with the existing systems. 1/

Every mainstream attempt to grapple with the rise of Tate and other misogynist ideologues have posed them as a product of men’s despair. Few have posited them as an assault on women’s safety and dignity.

USAID contractors have urged the Supreme Court to require Trump administration to pay $2 billion for services rendered, as ordered by a federal judge.

Filing:
www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/24...

A small government team at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, responsible for regulating autonomous cars—which Elon Musk claims are the future of Tesla—is being cut nearly in half by Musk. Conflict of interest?

We had a ton of #snow lately so I think these will be appropriate for the weekend ❄️🌨️☃️

Tennessee Republicans want to hit nonprofits — including faith groups — who help migrants and undocumented people with possible felonies.

Incredible quote from the bill’s sponsor.

tennesseelookout.com/2025/02/17/b...

DOGE Mismanagement Principles Musk et al. don't know or care about the damage they are doing

DOGE is not a govt efficiency project. Firing 1 in 4 fed employees would cut govt spending by 1%. DOGE is a political control project. Firing and terrorizing public employees is a means to weakening state regulation & strengthening a personalist presidency donmoynihan.substack.com/p/doge-misma...

TheHill [Feb 12] -- For the 3rd year, Kansas’s Dem. Gov. Laura Kelly has vetoed a bill banning care for minors. One of the most evangelical Rep states in the nation, Kansas also defied conventional wisdom in 2022 when voters rejected an amendment outlawing abortion.

[HT @denisenorris.bsky.social]

They come up with lines such as "we have three branches of government, not a fourth one named Elon Musk." Weak, ineffective stuff. They need to use the words coup, lawlessness, chaos, economic calamity, and brand the entire party, not just Trump and Elon.

“An unelected citizen and a bunch of kids who are not old enough to rent a car are now taking over the US government.”

@mehdirhasan.bsky.social on Elon Musk and DOGE’s role in the Trump administration.

Watch our full report ⤵️
youtu.be/jt32cgpIYDw

🐰🌠⋆｡𖦹°‧★

President Trump campaigned on lowering costs. But he’s letting billionaire Elon Musk and Project 2025 Architect Russ Vought kill the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

If they succeed, CEOs on Wall Street will once again be free to cheat you out of your savings.

Elon Musk is calling for the impeachment of the federal judge who issued a ruling early Saturday morning, directing the Treasury Department to restrict access to its payment systems to ‘civil servants with a need for access to perform their job duties.’

Interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin says he will open an inquiry following a criminal “referral” of certain individuals by Elon Musk.

“If people are discovered to have broken the law or even acted simply unethically, we will chase them to the end of the Earth to hold them accountable,” Martin writes.

Yesterday republicans tried to block a budget amendment I carried to help renters get into homes. Their motion failed…

Must-Reads and Yes, It's a Coup Why would a billionaire raid the National Treasury? To get richer.

My weekly curated list of must-read articles, some organizing resources, and my thoughts on Musk's administrative coup.

Elon's DOGE Boy Who "Resigned" Was Apparently Doing Something Very Naughty With the Treasury's Code Did Elon Musk's DOGE boy resign because of racist tweets, or was he not allowed to make code changes to the US Treasury's payments system?

BLUE STATERS: Here is something we can do to make a big difference. Call your State Attorney General’s Office and demand that your State AG prosecute DOGE for these illegal data breaches. If your State AG is already suing, express your profound support. futurism.com/the-byte/elo...

238 law professors from across the country have signed on to a Statement of Urgency about the peril of the constitutional crisis that is now upon us. Complete list of signers below. Please read and repost!! Thank you!

Fascists always seek to remake arts and culture because these are the spaces that incubate freedom of expression, liberation of identity and openness of mind.

San Francisco Leads Lawsuit Against Trump’s Threats to Punish Sanctuary Cities | KQED San Francisco and Santa Clara counties are joined by three other cities and counties in accusing the Trump administration of illegally coercing them to carry out federal responsibilities.

San Francisco and Santa Clara counties, joined by three other cities and counties across the country, are suing the Trump administration over its threats to punish jurisdictions that have sanctuary immigration policies, calling the moves unconstitutional. via @kqednews.kqed.org

🚨 Griffin v. North Carolina State Board of Elections (II) Learn more.

🚨BREAKING: In a trio of rulings, North Carolina state court REJECTS Republican effort to overturn the results of the 2024 state Supreme Court election by throwing out 60,000 lawful ballots.

A big victory for voting rights and democracy!
www.democracydocket.com/cases/north-...

First military deportation flights from US take off for Guantanamo The first military flights to deport migrants from the United States to Naval Base Guantanamo Bay were slated to take off Tuesday.

"The first military flights to deport migrants [to] Guantanamo Bay were slated to take off Tuesday" as Trump is pushing to use the Alien Enemies Act, used to carry out Japanese Internment during WWII.

If we allow the State to expand its repressive apparatus, it will be used against all of us.

But what was once thought of as an outside advisory board is now very much inside the federal government and drawing an official salary, so to speak. Nearly $7 million has been “apportioned” over the past week to cover the agency’s expenses, while the administration tries to freeze big chunks of government funding as part of DOGE’s mandate to root out programs deemed wasteful or out of step with the president’s priorities.

It seems DOGE is costing taxpayers at least $7 million a week. That's a lot of money for a court injunction making machine.

rollcall.com/2025/02/04/w...

MAGA’s Sickening Hypocrisy: From ‘Save The Children’ To ‘Defund The Org That Actually Saves Children’ After years of screaming “save the children” while baselessly accusing others of exploiting kids, the Trump administration is now trying to destroy the actual infrastructure that saves …

Wrote up just how *actually evil* the demands from the Trump admin to NCMEC are and how they will *absolutely* lead to children dying. From the cultists who insisted they wanted to "save the children" to literally killing them deserves to be called out: www.techdirt.com/2025/02/07/m...

Screenshot of a newsletter excerpt: "Our goal in these monthly roundups is not to contribute to the overwhelm, but to help you sift through the firehose of information and focus in a few things we can and must do from wherever we are — as organizers, community members, health care providers, educators, legislators, and funders — to interrupt the criminalization that is the core mechanism and methodology of implementing and rationalizing Right-wing and fascist agendas."

With the waves of criminalizing legislation, EOs, and copaganda emanating from all directions, we're re-starting up our monthly criminalization roundups, written by our co-founder @dreanyc123.bsky.social. Here is our first one, focused on the criminalization of migrants: bit.ly/IC-TMIC1

This is a de facto massive budget cut to research universities. We are talking Great Recession size impacts.

Must be said again and again, the police are defunding us. Our schools our parks our trains, literally everything.

They’ve called armed federal officers to the scene. We aren’t dangerous. We are here to represent our people. To defend public education. This is an authoritarian regime. You cannot block members of Congress from entering the Department of Education.