David Roberts

The US president trafficked & raped underage girls, the evidence is overwhelming, everyone knows it, and this country's elites & institutions are so broken, so insular, so decadent that we can't even bring ourselves to state it clearly, much less do anything about it. Contemptible & pathetic.

Feel free to continue arguing over the shooter's motives, but please understand that *it doesn't matter*. There's a organized political movement that plans to suppress, arrest, or kill its political opposition. It it seeking pretexts. Anything will do. If it's not this, it'll be something else.

Far as I can tell, Robert Redford was: * successful at everything he tried * genuinely intelligent & insightful * desired by women * envied by men * an absolute mensch to everyone he dealt with * a tireless, lifelong philanthropist ... and he died peacefully in his sleep. 10/10 life. No notes.

One thing I'm not clear on: when the AI bros say that AI might kill us all, what is it that they are envisioning? Has anyone spelled out a specific scenario? Are we talking terminator robots? Shutting down the power grid? Financial sabotage? Kill us all how exactly?

Gosh who ever could have predicted.

God the public is so confused about all this shit.

It's telling that nobody involved is even pretending to defend this on policy grounds. There's not even a facade, a patina, of policy rationale. Just brute power politics.

A book about how black people in the US came to be one of the most consistent & reliable Dem voting blocs, despite Dems often saying & supporting terrible things, for the ruthlessly pragmatic reason that progress is more likely under inconstant allies than under implacable opponents.

Kinda wild that Trump dismisses his long history of close ties with Putin's regime as a "Russia hoax" and just ... gets away with it.

Hoo boy, this episode of Odd Lots is ... bracing. To do any of the things we want to do -- clean energy, electrification, AI, name it -- we need *shitloads* more copper & right now it takes decades to open a new copper mine, much less produce anything. Same for several other metals/materials.

Hey where's Mitch McConnell anyway?

Not for the first time I wonder: what the fuck is wrong with men?

Some nerdy work from @berkeleylab.lbl.gov on utility tariff structures for large loads like data centers.