@j_feral it's not that that specifically is suspect, but that if you ask a DOGE person and an Abundance person for the answers, they both will tell you 1) less government, 2) trust technology, 3) let billionaires cook. And thus they are indistinguishable.

Germany bans a far-right group accused of trying to establish a "counter-state" within the country. https://www.dw.com/en/germany-detains-leader-of-far-right-kingdom-of-germany/a-72524557

Trump is executing an agenda disconnected from any intelligence reporting. "Trump has sat for only 12 'daily' intelligence briefings since taking office"
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/09/trump-intelligence-briefing-frequency-00338946

Republicans have inserted language into the budget reconciliation bill that would ban states from regulating AI in any capacity for 10 years. States are the only ones who can even try to regulate AI in the US, since Congress has been captured by Big Tech.

@angelastella you appear to not be using your brain in any way.

@LaNaehForaday you may be reading challenged. Read the article.

@angelastella no. That's not how that works.

📄 NEW: In the absence of effective political leadership, Pope Leo may provide an important cultural counterbalance to emergent global fascism — and the beginnings of a pathway out.
https://america2.news/the-papacy-and-the-pathway-out/

@leelavam per reporting from the Catholic publication America Magazine, that image has no bearing on the conclave. We overestimate importance of idiotic US chatter on world affairs.

MAGA, Opus Dei, Putin (and his Russian Orthodox Church/pet patriarch Kirill) have ideas about who should be Pope. But do they have the numbers? OPUS author Gareth Gore doesn't think so. Here's his analysis.
https://substack.com/inbox/post/162994753

It’s weird that Bessent won’t give a straight answer on the X-Date. As soon as he does, it creates a deadline for passage of the “big beautiful bill,” which perhaps cannot be met. We deserve full transparency on this.

Someone needs to do a PhD on why online prediction markets don’t work, because participants have zero actual pertinent information. They are, instead, a measure of chateratti vibes and stated desires of edgelords. Burn it all with fire.

ICYM my short piece of speculative fiction from last week, it touches on the meaning of the Papacy as respects current politics and is a good way to think about where things may be heading.

https://america2.news/a-letter-from-the-future-your-crisis-is-metaphysical/

Whether the Cardinals go along with this lunacy and select a compatible Pontifex is another question. But have no doubt that is the desired direction.

https://www.hoover.org/events/quest-third-rome-understanding-putins-apocalyptical-radicalization

Trump’s stupid Pope picture should be seen through the lens of “Project Russia” and “Third Rome” ideology; what they are broadcasting is a (desired) merger between US-Russia-Russian Orthodox Church-Catholic Church. Really.

https://washingtonspectator.org/project-russia-reveals-putins-playbook/

I had a great conversation with Reed Galen on 'The Home Front' podcast talking about the history behind what brought us to this moment and why conservatives and Russia both want to upend fiat currency. Check it out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ab1QAz7KBo

China can remain totalitarian longer than we can remain solvent. Never screw with people who have total control over their domestic information environment.

📄 NEW: A dispatch from the not too distant future warns that our crisis is more metaphysical than political, and urges us to use our collective imaginations to defeat autocracy. My latest.
https://america2.news/a-letter-from-the-future-your-crisis-is-metaphysical/

@leelavam yeah I am familiar and know him, and Anand misses key influences in that account. What counts in the end is direct influence, effectiveness and outcomes. I am saying there is reason to monitor the influences and to doubt the effectiveness and outcomes. If those doubts are unwarranted, great.

📄 NEW: A dispatch from the not too distant future warns that our crisis is more metaphysical than political, and urges us to use our collective imaginations to defeat autocracy. My latest.
https://america2.news/a-letter-from-the-future-your-crisis-is-metaphysical/