macron chimes in with the most french thing said in human history: "this is impossible"

Man receives a $5k Scott Alexander grant to write 1,000 self-fulfilling prophecies about transformative AI going well. This is awesome

One of the problems of modern politics is that everybody - Democrats, Republicans, and Independents - expects Democratic politicians to be the responsible adults, while Trump can do basically anything and his voters will be confused but still vote GOP.

How Elle Bisgaard-Church became Zohran Mamdani’s most trusted adviser, by Holly Pretsky: cityandstateny.com/personality/20…

Watch the full Mark Cuban vs. @pablotorre sit-down interview on Kawhi, Ballmer, Aspiration and more: youtube.com/watch?v=9xYerU…

It is precisely China’s belief that Trump will fold that has led them to massively escalate. They think he is weak, and also crazy, but more weak than crazy. But he has cards, is being backed into a corner, and may escalate. If he folds again, the tectonic plates will shift.

No, this is escalatory and Beijing officials privately admit it (just ask them). The equivalent action to what the PRC did on rare earths would be to require all chips made using US tech to *have a license* in order to be sold globally. We have never done that.

my latest investigation for Consumer Reports is based on months of reporting and 60+ lab tests of leading protein supplements we found that most protein powders and shakes have more lead in one serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day — some by more than 10 times !

The Death Star was round?

Since when did MAGA become Make Argentina Great Again?

The rules here are that you can't call them fascists but they themselves can say they are nazis x.com/JasonBeeferman…

MURKOWSKI blames Russ Vought for making it harder to negotiate shutdown end: "The appropriations process is being run over, and that, to me, is absolutely unacceptable." She understands why Democrats don't trust them given Vought's rescissions and layoffs. "Why would you?"

Three senior Republican appropriators agree it doesn't make any sense for Democrats to agree to a government funding deal unless Trump actually adheres to the deal. The Democratic alternative CR has language that would address this, but Trump and Vought are completely opposed.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) has given Speaker Mike Johnson until Thursday to tell Mayes when and where Adelita Grijalva will be sworn in. If Grijalva is not sworn in by Friday, Mayes likely will sue, according to a The Washington Post source familiar with deliberations.

Every time this topic comes up, someone Explains that McConnell wouldn't have let 55 Democratic senators replace a liberal justice with a younger liberal justice. It's not just cope, it speaks to a loser mindset deep inside the liberal amygdala.

Good: Rep Eric Swalwell tells me House Dems are now discussing making an end to masked raids a precondition for ICE funding. "When we are in the majority, the masks are coming off," he says. It's the next frontier in anti-Trump resistance. New piece: newrepublic.com/article/201802…

TIL Honeycrisp dominates the apple market. Who knew!

Trump's mechanism to pay the troops during the shutdown is by far the most illegal budgetary action he's taken as POTUS, potentially setting the stage to break everything It's also needless bcuz Congress would easily pass a troop pay bill if Johnson were willing to gavel in 🧵

There are going to be some House Dems in safe D seats who lose in primaries to even less well funded challengers simply because they are very old and the Dem base took one very clear lesson from 2024. It won't be all of them but it'll surprise some folks when it shouldn't.