Happy Star Wars Day to all who celebrate. Please enjoy this sprawling space saga of romance, rebellion, and household appliances.
“Critics warned that the Biden administration put so many conditions on the grants it offered to semiconductor manufacturers that the centerpiece of its industrial policy would fail. Those conditions turned out to be key to the program’s success.”
“Reborn in the USA: has cricket finally cracked the American market?”
On Christmas decorations, the story of Joseph and the Pharoah, and extortion opportunities.
RIP, Virginia Giuffre, the woman who accused Jeffrey Epstein and Prince Andrew of sexual abuse.
“If the administration took the radical action of listening to women, they’d know exactly what women need to feel more comfortable having children.”
“Still, whatever impact it may or may not have within the four corners of the Amica case, the new information reflects an important factual development in the public record concerning DOGE and its activities. The government’s administrative record provides documentary evidence that, at least in some instances, DOGE and its agents are not merely advising but are in fact directing agency action.”
“The difference between the police and the secret police”.
“If we’re dismantling the FCC because of Trump, can one boon, can one silver lining be that we get to say shit and fuck? It would bring a sketch to the next level. Shit and fuck are so comedically powerful.”
“Political and economic turmoil may slow down clean energy, but the sector has built up so much momentum that it’s become nigh unstoppable.”
Hey, remember Sam Brownbeck? That experience didn’t work out so well for the Republicans.
“A year after his presidential ambitions collapsed, Gov. Ron DeSantis and his wife Casey can no longer lay claim to the future of the Republican Party. And in Florida, even their present is in jeopardy.” Breaks your heart it does.
“Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre was voted out of his own seat in Parliament as Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal Party won Canada’s federal election”. He can thank Donald Trump, and his own decision to try to emulate Trump, for that result.
RIP, Mike Peters, frontman for the 80s New Wave band the Alarm.
“President Donald Trump personally called Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Tuesday to complain about about a report that the online retail giant was considering displaying U.S. tariff costs on its product listings, a source familiar with the matter told NBC News. Within hours of the call, Amazon publicly downplayed the scope of its plan — and then announced that it had been scrapped entirely.”
“The parent company of PBS and NPR sued President Donald Trump on Tuesday following his latest attempt to undermine America’s public media infrastructure.”
“But if you’re a Republican politician committing real crimes you give Donald Trump quite a big piece bundle of leverage over you if the relationship should ever break down or if the political winds change and you want to break with Trump. And that’s even more the case if you’re someone like Ron DeSantis with a history of pretty intense bad blood with the Imperial Top Cheese tied to Ron’s failed challenge to Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. (Yeah, remember that?)”
“A research facility within the US National Institutes of Health that is tasked with studying Ebola and other deadly infectious diseases has been instructed by the Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to stop research activities.”
“The Trump administration has cancelled federal participation in Safe to Sleep, a 30-year campaign to prevent babies from dying in their sleep”. Most pro-life President ever, baby!
“An employee at Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI leaked a private key on GitHub that for the past two months could have allowed anyone to query private xAI large language models (LLMs) which appear to have been custom made for working with internal data from Musk’s companies, including SpaceX, Tesla and Twitter/X, KrebsOnSecurity has learned.”
RIP, Jill Sobule, singer/songwriter best known for “I Kissed A Girl” and “Supermodel”.
RIP, Ruth Buzzi, actor and comedian who had a long career in theater, TV, and movies. She was best known for her roles on Sesame Street and Laugh-In. Mark Evanier has a few words of remembrance.
David Horowitz has died. Whether or not that name rings a bell with you, but especially if it does, click the link and read on.
“But Sarah is right. We’re all on the clock, and celebrating the mere act of living is something worth doing.” You should really read all of this one.
RIP, Scott Gertner, Grammy-nominated musician and singer who ran two of the more popular live music venues in Houston.
Nomo-mania, thirty years later.
That Patheos piece is a big old fail, and sadly, the author doesn’t even appear to know about Bronner’s Christmas store in Frankenmuth, Michigan, which sells American product as much as possible, setting aside authentic European imports.
If you want some excellent insight into the economic repercussions of the policies of our new Emperor of America, Crapulous I, it is worth it to subscribe to Jared Bernstein’s substack. Free for now, I find it easier to comprehend than Krugman’s.
https://econjared.substack.com/