.entry-header In December 2016, when then-President-elect Donald Trump summoned tech leaders to Trump Tower for a roundtable discussion, there was considerable debate about whether or not executives like Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Google’s Larry Page, Apple’s Tim Cook, and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella should accept the invitation. I argued that they absolutely should in this Daily Update […]
Politics
Mouthbreathing Machiavellis Dream of a Silicon Reich
One day in March of this year, a Google engineer named Justine Tunney created a strange and ultimately doomed petition at the White House website. The petition proposed a three-point national referendum, as follows: 1. Retire all government employees with full pensions. 2. Transfer administrative authority to the tech industry. 3. Appoint [Google executive chairman] […]
Elizabeth Warren ‘Electability’ Critics Just Cover for Sexism
Things are looking good for Elizabeth Warren right now: she has been rising steadily in the polls and now leads Joe Biden in Iowa by two percentage points—the first time she’s polled ahead of the former vice president in the state. She’s been drawing massive crowds, from New York City to Iowa City, and is […]
The Misogyny of Climate Deniers | The New Republic
Why do right-wing men hate Greta Thunberg and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez so much? Researchers have some troubling answers to that question. Climate skeptic Bjørn Lomborg has built his global brand on keeping his cool. “Cool it,” his best-selling book told those worried about the warming planet. For some reason, however, he seems to have difficulty sticking […]
Elizabeth Warren’s September NYC Rally Has Crowd of 20,000
NEW YORK—On Monday evening, Elizabeth Warren stood in front of Washington Square Park’s floodlit arches for what was certainly her largest campaign rally to date: the campaign put the crowd at 20,000, though of course, campaigns tend to inflate. “We’re not here today because of famous arches or famous men,” the Massachusetts Senator said. “In fact, […]
California can’t set higher auto emissions standards, Trump says – CNNPolitics
“The Trump Administration is revoking California’s Federal Waiver on emissions in order to produce far less expensive cars for the consumer, while at the same time making the cars substantially SAFER,” Trump tweeted. The President made the announcement while visiting California for fundraisers. He was in his hotel in Los Angeles when he sent […]
The Electoral College massively favors Republicans in close races, really, a new economics paper finds.
Democrats are not fond of the Electoral College these days, for obvious reasons. Two Republicans, George W. Bush and Donald Trump, have won the presidency in the past 20 years, and both of them galumphed into the Oval Office after losing the popular vote. In this era of tight national races, the system has clearly given Republicans a […]
The Democratic Party is suffused with wretched cowardice
In the run-up to the 2018 midterms, a major element of Democratic Party messaging was that the party would serve as a check on President Trump and the Republican Party. Incoming Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi “will place the emphasis on investigations by Democratic-led committees in the House to keep the Trump administration in […]
Trump Asks Supporter If He Loves ‘Country’ or ‘Hispanics’ More
Donald Trump thinks he can flip New Mexico, a state he lost by eight percentage points, in 2020. That task will require him to win over a significant portion of the 49.1 percent of New Mexicans who identify as Latinx, a demographic he’s having some trouble with, for some reason. So, at a rally in […]
Sell Your Beach House
After completely devastating the Bahamas and teasing the entire southeastern coast of America with destruction, Hurricane Dorian made landfall in North Carolina today. That reminds me: sell your beach house. Specifically, your beach house located on the southeastern coast of America, or in the Caribbean. Sell that shit quick. The world’s financial system is based, […]