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isagalaev ("Ivan Sagalaev :flag_wbw:") wrote:

Cherry blossom. This year I didn't forget to catch this short moment when cherries blossom all over our neighborhood.

#darktable

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

And not for nothing, but the Republican effort to groom their entire caucus for spineless capitulation and denial of obvious truths is gonna bake this pain in *hard*. There won't be any course correction because the tangelo fascist had them barricade the exits before lighting the house on fire:

https://www.wakeuptopolitics.com/p/house-quietly-ducks-trump-tariff

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

And y'all, it's no exaggeration that I felt stupider just reading the whole thing. Couldn't tell if they used ChatGPT to misunderstand every single paper they cited (lazy), or if the author was just that delusional (stupid). From the April 3rd perspective, it doesn't much matter...but woof.

Krugman linked this from his piece today, and it's so obvious they're playing with less than half a deck:

https://budgetlab.yale.edu/research/where-we-stand-fiscal-economic-and-distributional-effects-all-us-tariffs-enacted-2025-through-april

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

Over the weekend a friend convinced me to read the Miran "whitepaper", and that's how I knew this was going to be maximally stupid. I'm not an economist of any sort, never mind an international trade bod, but even I could smell the bullshit. The whole set of implausibilities and ahistorical retellings weren't just internally inconsistent, even the plausible ideas depended on a Trump administration acting in a coherent, thoughtful, disciplined manner.

A *Trump* administration!

Boosted by jwz:
jalefkowit@vmst.io ("Jason Lefkowitz") wrote:

This is why the tariff rates are shockingly high. They HAVE TO be shockingly high, because the point of them is not what they do to the economy. The point is to threaten businesses worldwide with pain -- so much pain that they recoil at the prospect.

And then Don can step in and say, you know I can make that pain go away for you, right? I can give you an exception to the tariffs. All I ask in return is that you do me this one favor...

So the more extortionate the tariffs are, the better they are for Don. They give him personal power; leverage. The rest of us suffer, but who cares about that? He certainly doesn't.

#USPol

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
sarahtaber@mastodon.online ("Sarah Taber") wrote:

Found a fluffy little moth who really wants us to think she's a big scary bee (you can tell bc she still got the moth antennae 😍)

Also she's sitting on what is currently my favorite fig so far for NC, Chicago Hardy.

jwz wrote:

Even the investment bankers have run entirely out of fucks.

Not known for being a particularly sarcastic people, my financial advisor at a major multinational bank just emailed an update with the subject, "They're eating the dogs, they're tarrifing the penguins" that began with: "In yesterday's episode of 'How to Lose All Allies in 65 Days'..."

So that's going great.
https://jwz.org/b/yklv

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
Windspeaker@mstdn.ca ("Windspeaker.com") wrote:

“I question a lot, because I am taking these stories that are supposed to be passed down verbally, but I want to preserve them, and I want to share them. That's a part of how I can be a part of reconciliation. My family is willing to share, and I have the ability to share these a little bit wider.”

#Indigenous #arts #film #animation

https://www.windspeaker.com/news/windspeaker-news/animated-film-explores-strength-found-shadow-demons

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
RickGaehl@mstdn.social ("Rick Gaehl") wrote:

It's spring across the northern hemisphere, the sun is shining, and the magnolia is out in our garden.
Luckily, no-one can put tariffs on any of this...

#Photography #Spring #Bloomscrolling #Gardening

mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

I’m no economist, but… maybe these guys aren’t, either.

Boosted by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
lawfare ("Lawfare") wrote:

Samuel Estreicher and Andrew Babbitt argue that "the Trump administration’s threats and imposition of tariffs are inconsistent with how tariffs are normally authorized by Congress and present a problematic invocation of IEEPA’s broad, seemingly uncabined language." https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/are-tariffs-an-emergency-power

pzmyers@freethought.online ("pzmyers 🕷") wrote:

They just keep on arguing and discussing…it's a new infinite thread.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/04/03/infinite-thread-xxxv/

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
wim_v12e@tilde.zone ("Wim 🅾→Ⓣ") wrote:

More magnolias. They fade so fast, have to grasp the moment.
#photography
#bloomscroling

Boosted by jwz:
peter@thepit.social ("Peter") wrote:

for the people in Europe wondering why Americans don't protest, they did. 2020-2021 saw the biggest protest movement in American history. and then the cops beat the shit out of everyone, and when the Democrats re-took power on the backs of those protesters, they gave all the cops raises and threw the movement under a bus.

mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

About a dozen of the students in my surveillance course surprised me by attending the hearing. Big thanks to the committee staff who went out of their way to accommodate everyone.

mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

For those who don't follow legislative minutiae, there was a hearing on Salt Typhoon (and, inevitably, Signal) yesterday in House Government Reform.

My testimony focused on how Salt Typhoon was enabled by telecom wiretap mandates dating back to the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994.

Video of the hearing and written testimony are online here: https://oversight.house.gov/hearing/salt-typhoon-securing-americas-telecommunications-from-state-sponsored-cyber-attacks/

Boosted by jwz:
PhineasX@mastodon.art wrote:

Boosted by jwz:
ianb@well.com ("Ian Betteridge") wrote:

Sometimes the symbolism is heavy

Boosted by jwz:
oli@olifant.social ("D. Olifant") wrote:

Happy LINE GO DOWN day to all who celebrate.

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

yes, the world really *is* out to get you

Attachments:

• video: a2d1af9c3886a17b.mp4

mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

Me this morning. "Oh, hey, I haven't checked my retirement balance in a while."
...
"Never mind".

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
Flash@mastodon.world ("Flashdancer") wrote:

BREAKING: A massive protest is happening now on the Heard and McDonald Islands after Trump announced a 10% retaliatory tariff against the islands.

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
vees@epistolary.org ("Rob Carlson :ally: :BLM:") wrote:

The woman who handcuffed herself to the doors of Twitter office as a tantrum and then had to ask police to uncuff her because Twitter was like “eh, we’ve got lots of other doors” and ignored her now has veto power over U.S. national security personnel.

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
bourgwick@heads.social ("jesse jarnow") wrote:

bonus deadcast today! we get into robert hunter’s “tiger rose,” the only (released) full-length studio album by hunter & jerry garcia, made at mickey hart’s barn just as the dead began their brief retirement. archival interviews, lost road hog history, how it was almost "spider rose," & more. https://www.dead.net/deadcast/bonus-tiger-rose-50

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
benroyce ("Ben Royce 🇺🇦") wrote:

"It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop... ever"

Attachments:

• video: Shopping cart in a parking lot meanders towards a car, eventually hitting it, but not without an extraordinary level of variation that makes it seem almost sentient

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
taylorlorenz ("Taylor Lorenz") wrote:

SCOOP: YouTube removes 'gender identity' from hate speech policy. "YouTube quietly removing ‘gender identity and expression’ from its list of protected groups is a major radical shift away from best practices in the field of trust and safety." https://www.usermag.co/p/youtube-removes-gender-identity-from

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net ("Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:") wrote:

76 years ago: The General Agreement in Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was ratified and implemented. It brought down tariffs and connected markets. The idea was that global, interconnected trade would reduce the risk of a third world war.

It took Trump 73 days to tear it down.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General%5FAgreement%5Fon%5FTariffs%5Fand%5FTrade

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

JFC, taking a look at how the market is doing today was a real mistake

mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

The biggest security breach in that Signal transcript wasn't anything that was said, or even that a journalist was added to it. It was the complete absence of anyone saying "hey, should we really be discussing this over Signal?"

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
skinnylatte@hachyderm.io ("Adrianna Tan") wrote:

I just posted this at work and it seems like not everyone knows this.

You can take the Amtrak Coast Starlight from Seattle, Portland, Sacramento, Oakland, San Jose or LA in the other direction, to the Monterey Bay aquarium. On Amtrak.com, simply put Monterey Bay Aquarium as your destination and when you arrive in Salinas station at 12:20pm (daily), there will be a bus that waits for you and picks you up to send you to the doors of the Aquarium by 1:30pm (usually takes just 20min)

For a true car-free experience, book a hotel room in New Monterey near the Aquarium, like the Clement Intercontinental, Monterey Plaza, or Wave Street Inn or anything on that side of the tunnel (including Pacific Grove). You can walk / bike the coastal trail.

Rent a bike from Work Horse bicycles downtown.

If you bring your own bike on the train (check in without boxing!) you can put it on MST city bus no 20, the bus station is 5 min ride away. Wait at and have a taco at Tacos Don Beto next door. There is a small outdoor area for Covid cautious folks.

#Transit #Trains #Amtrak #Monterey #BikeTooter