Dave Karpf

this is an absolute twenty alarm fire and I just cannot bring myself to believe capital, in one way or another, isn’t going to reel him in on this.

we can’t have a real economy without the goddamn labor numbers. it just doesn’t work.

The Trump Administration’s Campaign to Undermine the Next Election The executive branch is interfering in U.S. elections in unprecedented ways.

I’m not a doomer, but seeing all of this stuff laid out in one place, combined with seeing continued reports of businesses and universities and law firms capitulating to threats, combined with SCOTUS seemingly rubber stamping everything, makes me really, really apprehensive.

The Mothership Vortex: An Investigation Into the Firm at the Heart of the Democratic Spam Machine How a single consulting firm extracted $282 million from a network of spam PACs while delivering just $11 million to actual campaigns.

The annoying spam texts destroying the Democratic brand:

$678M raised through those spam tactics

$282M to one consulting firm: Mothership Strategies.

$11M to actual campaigns (1.6%)

The party isn’t just treating donors like marks—it’s being fleeced itself yet continues to back Mothership.

Mothership Strategies is destroying the Democratic Party to enrich itself.

you know the world is ending when Summers is supporting a woman in STEM

That’s God judging you.

Advertise your account with a GIF

The Groups versus The Groups The interminable fight over who gets to rule the void

A reply to Matthew Yglesias regarding "Big Ass Truck Abundance" publiccomment.blog/p/the-groups...

Schumer caving on the budget will probably be seen as the biggest legislative mistake of this administration but that crypto bill is gaining fast and probably ends up being an early exhibit in explaining how we lost a republic

Oh I haven’t heard of a couple of those. Gonna go check ‘em out!

Opinion | A.I. Is Not a 21st-Century Enlightenment

“We formulate the questions, drive the inquiry … and we search … for answers that reinforce what we already think we know. ChatGPT has often responded, with patently insincere flattery: ‘That’s a great question.’ It has never responded: ‘That’s the wrong question.’” www.nytimes.com/2025/08/02/o...

Do you read Flaming Hydra? It’s the best.

David Byrne came to my band’s show at a gay bar in Bed-Stuy and sang This Must Be The Place with us and I still haven’t processed it

Thanks. 🙏

Ugh. Of course he did.

Totally fair. It’s actually more like “I will stand on this stage with Nazis because I was already here and it’s free, while the OTHER stage costs a hundred bucks a month.”

But that’s still embarrassing enough that I deserve a bit of online grief for it.

Not to my knowledge. But rarely remember the guy, so I would’ve missed it.

The thing is it’s obviously a mortal threat to his career

If you work in/adjacent to Democratic politics, or even if you are an occasional Democratic donor, this new @adambonica.bsky.social piece is the most important thing you can read today.

The Democratic Party cannot build power if it allows scam pacs to thrive

open.substack.com/pub/data4dem...

If "GenAI is just another artistic tool" it's notably the first that artists are ashamed to admit using. Artists are normally quite open about what they used--"oil on canvas," "erasure poem of a found text," "this song used a drum machine," etc. So why are GenAI artists so desperate to hide its use?

homer simpson from the simpsons is standing in front of a grassy field . ALT: homer simpson from the simpsons is standing in front of a grassy field .

<stares in mirror, mumbles some excuses about pricing>

Can’t believe you would call me a stranger, illumi.

How very fucking dare you?

I’m mean if Francis Fukuyama is telling you a historical age is ending…

The Atlantic cuts ties with SAIS political scientist accused of rape The Atlantic announced on Sunday, Feb. 4 that it had suspended its relationship with Hopkins political scientist Yascha Mounk after a journalist accused him of rape on social media platform X, the sit...

www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2024...

OF COURSE Yascha is impressed by chatGPT.

ChatGPT strings together plausible sentences with no original thought behind them.

That’s Yascha’s whole bag.

a man in a suit and tie says i don t think about you at all ALT: a man in a suit and tie says i don t think about you at all

I had not realized that Yascha had seamlessly transitioned into an AI Guy.

It tracks. The dude’s entire schtick is to have Big, Sneering Opinions that confirm whatever the power elite has been mumbling of late.

It’s just that I hadn’t realized it because he has never written anything memorable.

ACAB includes Allen Dershowitz and excludes this one Farmers Market Cop.

Me: What kind of food do you like?
Dershowitz: Tamales I guess
[six months later]
Me in new food truck: Get your fresh tamales!
Dershowitz: I'll take two please
Me: No

Today I was reminded of the existence of Yascha Mounk before my morning coffee.

Today is a bad day.

#lifegoals, amirite?