@jenniferplusplus the more I learn about the people who are building AI, and tech in general, the more I feel like Ripley in "Aliens".

This is Zach Dembo
– the Democrat and former DOJ prosecutor running to flip KY-06 from red to blue.

Attorney General Pam Bondi just testified under oath to Congress about Jeffrey Epstein
– and she made one thing crystal clear: 

𝗦𝗵𝗲’𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀, 𝘀𝗵𝗲’𝘀 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗽’𝘀 attorney --  Not accountable to the Constitution.
Not accountable to the rule of law. Accountable to 𝘩𝘪𝘮.

I saw this up close at the DOJ, and it’s why I resigned
– because the Justice Department was being twisted into a tool for a MAGA political agenda.

𝗡𝗼𝘄 𝗜’𝗺 𝗿𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗶𝘁. 

We need real accountability
– not corruption protected at the highest levels.

I’m fighting to flip KY-06 blue and stop Trump’s allies from dismantling our democracy.
Can you chip in $5, $35, or even $100 today?

https://dembo4congress.org/

Thank you,

Zach

Breaking hearts in Quakertown, Pennsylvania 💔

High school students were peacefully protesting when police allegedly escalated it after claiming snowballs were thrown. The chief in plainclothes put a teenage girl in a chokehold before others stepped in to protect her.

No child should face violence for demanding justice. ✊💙

#BlueCrew #ProudBlue #JusticeMatters #ProtectOurKids #YouthPower

Critics trash #Trump’s threat to 'destroy the country'

“Trump followed his #SCOTUS tantrum up with an unsettling threat:

“But I am allowed to cut off any and all trade or business with that same country; in other words, I can destroy the trade, I can destroy the country!” Trump blared.

“I'm even allowed to impose a foreign country-destroying embargo, I can embargo!

I can do anything I want, but I can't charge $1!”

https://www.alternet.org/trump-supeme-court-tariffs/

“The thought of holding thousands of families in massive warehouses should challenge the conscience of every American. Whatever their immigration status, these are human beings created in the image and likeness of God, and this is a moral inflection point for our country.”

~ Bishop Brendan J. Cahill, chair of the US Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration

#Trump #ICE #immigrants #MaskedThugs #EthnicCleansing #warehouses #detention #ConcentrationCamps #cruelty
/8

https://www.americamagazine.org/news/2026/02/21/ice-mega-centers-mass-detention-usccb-bishop-cahill/

Philip Bump offers a drawing of a planned ICE detention center, saying,

"This is what a planned ICE detention center a bit east of Atlanta would look like, once the large warehouse building is converted.

On the right side, you can see the intake and processing areas, as well as office space and a gun range. On the left: the 'dormitory pods' — meaning beds."

#Trump #ICE #immigrants #MaskedThugs #EthnicCleansing #warehouses #detention
/1

https://www.howtoreadthisch.art/a-visualization-you-should-see/?ref=how-to-read-this-chart-newsletter

I also want to point out (again) the ways in which lumping together all uses of LMs (like the lumping of technologies into "AI") obscures the issues at hand.

Language modeling is a useful component of many technologies that can be built without extractive, exploitative means. Take the automatic transcription built by and for the Māori people -- there's te reo Māori language model that's part of that.
>>

What we argued in Stochastic Parrots, however, was that you can get those benefits of the transformer architecture without ammassing datasets too large to collect with care (meaning consentfully, intentionally, and with the ability to document what's in the data).
>>

Meta adding face recognition technology to its smart glasses would violate the privacy rights of millions of people and cost the company billions of dollars legal battles. It should abandon its plans. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/02/seven-billion-reasons-facebook-abandon-its-face-recognition-plans

I largely agree with @tante’s take here.

However, I disagree that the people behind today’s AI don’t matter, and that LLMs are inherently exploitive. I think the people in today’s AI industry are the *reason* why today’s LLM’s are exploitive. They are the ones destroying the planet, exploiting the global south, relentlessly scraping websites despite their owners’ protests, and creating a Ponzi scheme despite the massive societal harms it produces. They are *very much* part of why I deeply dislike today’s AI products.

I *can* actually imagine a more ethical LLM that is developed slowly and with consent, deployed carefully to minimize human cost, and not made to do things beyond what they are reasonably good for (pattern matching). I have no problem with such creations being used widely.

You can’t separate the art from the artist, and that includes today’s LLMs. https://www.humancode.us/2023/02/26/separating-art-from-artist.html https://tldr.nettime.org/@tante/116108584916927073 https://tldr.nettime.org/@tante/116108584916927073

RE: https://vis.social/@infobeautiful/116109430224379547

So let me get this straight:

- Solar panels are more efficient and easier to install.
- They're becoming shockingly cheap, like TVs.
- They last much longer than expected.
- They provide unexpected environmental benefits.

That's a done deal.

#Solarpunk

NASA moon rocket hit by new problem, putting March launch with astronauts in jeopardy
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/nasa-moon-rocket-artemis-ii-rcna260052?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into Technology @technology-thenewsdesk

This is amazing, didn't see it mentioned anywhere but its surely the largest workers strike ever in the world 👀 #workersrights #solidarity

https://www.bwint.org/BwiNews/NewsDetails?newsId=1127

Great article but I don't think we'll have a moment where #bluesky is sold or most people agree that they've gone evil. That's why just having an exit isn't enough. For that to work, most of the people you want to connect to have to agree quickly. Or when many start to leave, the original network can just turn off federation and lock-in the majority who haven't left yet.

The good people at BS could end this fear by making clear their monetization plans today.

https://kevinak.se/blog/be-wary-of-bluesky

From bluesky- how twitter’s algorithm boosts far right opinions

https://bsky.app/profile/elizabethjacobs.bsky.social/post/3mfabjjhdls2l

Let's be honest, the thing that we find appalling about this story of a middle-aged white British woman being locked up for weeks by ICE isn't the fact that she was locked up; it's that it can happen to a white middle-aged British woman.

Immigration services across the West have been cruel for a very long time¹, but just not to people who look like this or come from here.

----
¹ ICE has got much worse recently

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/21/karen-newton-valid-visa-detained-ice?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

RE: https://masto.ai/@rbreich/116109604947705829

Interesting piece from Robert Reich!

"This is a big decision. It goes far beyond merely interpreting the 1997 International Emergency Economic Powers Act not to give Trump the power over tariffs that he claims to have. It reaffirms a basic constitutional principle about the division and separation of powers between Congress and the president."

@APBBlue

BTW, are you familiar with this tool supplier, Diamond Core Tools?

https://diamondcoretools.com/

Everything she asked for for Christmas was from them.

@APBBlue

There are certainly a lot of muddy messes lying around, and lids give her fits.

But, it is very cool to see her progress and enjoyment, and some are really beautiful.