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If there is a question to ask, then, it is this: Why does Musk get a pass? Why do politicians, journalists and commentators treat his far-right racist radicalism as a sideshow rather than the core of his political, ideological and industrial project, seen in everything from his deep support for Donald Trump in the United States and Restore Britain in Britain to his decision to construct a massive pollution-generating data center in predominantly Black Memphis, Tenn.   Musk spends a large part of his free time fomenting violence and spreading the same hateful ideology that motivated some of the deadliest shootings and attacks ever to happen on American soil. It is that fact, and not the cars he builds or the rockets he launches, that ought to define his place in public life.   ~Jamelle Bouie

Socialism is when the government owns the means of production.  “The Trump administration expanded the government's investment portfolio this week after six semiconductor companies signed letters of intent to receive government assistance in return for "a minority, non-controlling equity stake." "These new deals, set to be finalized in the months ahead, would bring the total number of companies in the Trump government portfolio to 30, according to a tally from Tad DeHaven of the Cato Institute. "Perhaps most striking about the announcement is how unremarkable government ownership is becoming," DeHaven said this week." IOKIYAR. https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/article/trump-administration-adds-6-chipmakers-to-the-governments-stock-portfolio-which-now-spans-30-companies-140535555.html  

During the height of the COVID pandemic, serious-sounding people were advocating herd immunity as an alternative to vaccination, masking and social distancing. Seriously. Probably the most devastating example of herd immunity in humans was the Black Plague. A third to a half of the human population in Europe (25-50 million) died from plague, but the survivors had herd immunity. Of course, a generation later, another cycle of plague killing was visited on the unexposed generation. Measles isn’t as deadly as the plague or even COVID, but it is far more contagious. There is a vaccine for measles, but the herd immunity boffins are frightening parents away. “Measles is back. Children are dying of diseases the United States once eliminated, not because medicine failed, but because ideology did. Under the banner of “Make America Healthy Again,” anti-vaccine politics have rebranded preventable death as freedom and neglect as nature. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said no vaccine is “safe and effect...

But we seem to have decided this is just how AI works: the technology is so amazing that it requires this kind of mutual leverage with no floor beneath it.     I’m reminded of some old Bugs Bunny or maybe Roadrunner cartoon where Bugs gets to the last rung at the top of his ladder. But he needs to go higher. So he grabs a rung from the bottom of the ladder and puts it on the top and keeps doing that and now he can just climb up without limit. As we know this only works with cartoon physics.    ~Josh Marshall

The current GOP is trying to reanimate the corpse of “Tail Gunner” Joe McCarthy. Trump is conflating Democratic Socialism with Communism and believes his base won’t understand the difference.   I’ve known people who grew up in the Soviet Union, mainland China, East Germany and Communist Poland. They all laugh out loud at the idea that there’s any significant communist party in America. Trump and his cult (the GOP, Fox News, Newsmax, etc) refer to all Democrats as “leftists,” “left wing,” “socialists” and “Marxists” as well as communists. They’re using these words as epithets, not according to any useful definition of the terms. The reality is that the Democratic Party is a bog ordinary center-right party. “The actual operational Democratic Party is a specific set of people. Its Senate leadership, its House leadership, its state-level executives, its mayors, its policy shops, its think tanks, its legislative directors, its floor managers, its committee staff, its campaign apparatus,...

Taxpayer subsidy of American business isn’t new. And although the GOP is bleating about socialism/communism, they’re conspicuously unbothered by flagrant federal subsidies to the means of production. “Amazon and Walmart are two of the largest and most profitable companies in the country —   collectively   generating   $100 billion in profits in 2025 — but many of their employees still qualify for Medicaid because their take-home pay hovers around (or below) the poverty line.   “As taxpayers keep their workers afloat, the wealth of the two companies’ largest shareholders is increasing exponentially. The Walton family, the largest shareholders of Walmart, saw their collective wealth increase from   $238 billion   in 2021 to   $513 billion   at the end of 2025. Meanwhile, Amazon founder and current executive chairman Jeff Bezos saw his net worth increase from   $187 billion   to   $255 billion   over roughly the same time period.”...