We're all stories in the end ~

They called him a liar. He posted the receipts.

Shit is flying.

an article from PBS that only has a snippet, but is not paywalled

Edit: here's MSN, which has more details

Fully unpaywalled Atlantic here. Finally.

I'm really glad they unpaywalled it.

It is a HELL of a read. There are screenshots!

The comments over at the Fox News site, of all places, are overwhelmingly upset and angry at Hegseth & Co. I fully expected to see them supporting the "it wasn't a war plan" lie, but they are laying into Trump White House staff.

This makes Watergate look like a kid accidentally telling mom what dad got her for Christmas.

Daring Fireball's latest today shares an observation from Hannah Arendt about how the ranks of authoritarian governments inevitably wind up being filled with “crackpots and fools” because they’re the people whose loyalty is most assured:

The Fireball article goes on to say: "When The Atlantic’s initial story hit, everyone responsible in the Trump administration, right up to the president himself, just immediately began telling bald-faced lies about what happened, despite the fact that they knew Jeffrey Goldberg literally had the receipts to prove otherwise. That works, until it doesn’t."

Keep yelling the truth, folks. Keep showing the difference between real and false.

It may seem obvious and not worth mentioning, but apparently it is.

OK I'll bite. What's dragon age

Looks like at least 5000 years. [source] [another source]

Whoa, cool! That answers that.

miserable that there is no way 2 avoid being treated as either a man or woman

enjoy some aspects of masculinity enjoy some aspects of femininity but i really don't want to be any of this shit

You know that post that was going around like a year ago. That said something like 'hey you don't need to wear any makeup' and people kept commenting shit like 'yeah just a little eyeliner is enough'. This is how this post feels to me

The ultimate dream of any CEO is for people to become dependent on their product to the point where they can't picture living without it.

Amazon and its competitors rose to prominence via creating products that were so cheap and convenient that people gave in, they gave us a store where everything could be gotten in one place and with free two day shipping that was surely worth the then low subscription cost.

Now we're seeing brick and mortar stores as well as smaller online distributors shutter. We're also seeing Amazon hike up the prices of items and subscriptions because they know they're the only option for a lot of people now-- they've cut out the competition. This is how a lot of the big tech CEOs post dot com boom ensured their power.

Sam Altman and his peers are the next generation of that, and in the tradition of American innovation, their goal has always been to take what came before them and build it to new extremes.

So if Amazon's goal is to create a service that is cheap and easy to the point you stop going to the store (and then monetizing off your dependence once said store is gone), and Chatgpt is selling you intelligence...

I'm not saying this to be mean, but one of the major things Amazon did was put all the items you could want in one place, which also had the side effects of making it so a lot more people were further disconnected from the realities of the supply chain and just flat out didn't know where in real life they could get many of the specialty items they were looking for at their fair market prices.

Chatgpt similar disconnects you from the sources information is gathered from and robs you of the chance to approach their answers with a critical eye-- the consequences of which will extend past these AI engines because when you don't go to the websites you get answers from, you lose crucial opportunities to take in the information surrounding what you're looking for and begin to consider what you think a reputable source looks like and what your definition of normal looks like.

It essentially sets you up to fail, and hinders your skills in whatever areas you use it for because Sam Altman and his associates want you to become reliant on these ais and choose them over the alternatives so that you will be willing to pay more for them and see them as essential.

It's in their best interest for you to think less and seek instant gratification more for their ultimate bottom line, and as this post exemplifies, it's working.

The questions we ask AI are growing larger and larger to the point where essential life skills have been ceded to this soulless grasp for our wallets.

When Amazon first began to receive criticism for their practices and was accused of undercutting the competition, Jeff Bezos tried to say that they weren't focused on the competition but the customers and focused on what Amazon was doing that the competition wasn't capable of doing-- this is because Amazon wasn't focused on outdoing competitors but rather whole industries and changing consumer behavior. As a result, a sizeable portion of Americans will now learn that shopping online for things like fabric and books should be the new normal and, you know, there's only one place to go for that now if you're a casual consumer who doesn't live and breathe those communities.

Similarly, ais aren't so much competing against each other right now. That's not their competition. eBay was never a true threat to Amazon, the ease of going to a store and leaving with an item in your hands in an hour or less was.

Ai's largest competitor is your mind and what it's capable of doing.

The fact that tech is inserting it everywhere and constantly expanding the capabilities to target even the tiny, inconsequential decisions you make should make you terrified.

tangled gave us so much, but mostly it gave us the beautiful and intense love of a horse and the man he is chasing in order to imprison

i personally believe that maximus was the former captain of the guard who was cursed into horse form pretty recently, and everyone’s having trouble adjusting to it.

like, he’s entitled to sick leave, he really ought to take a couple months to break the curse and come to terms with whatever the fuck just happened to him, but instead of embarking on a journey of self-discovery and healing he just keeps showing up to work. no one can get captain maximus to go on his fucking voyage of self actualization and fix the curse because he’s obsessed with catching flinn ryder. everyone really fucking hopes that when he finally catches this guy the curse might be broken anyway, but it isn’t.

he just keeps showing up to work. he glares at the stablehands until they saddle him up. everyone’s gone over the regulations a dozen times but there’s nothing there saying you’re not allowed to saddle and ride the captain of the guard if he makes you do it. his former second in command rides him around like ‘sir i really don’t know about this’ and he’s just like ‘are we going to catch some criminals or what.’

you can see in the movie that everyone in the royal guard defers to this horse. it’s absolutely because that’s their boss. and secondarily because now he’s two thousand pounds of percheron.

there is no evidence against this theory and you cannot prove me wrong.

i am so serious when i say dark and quiet are both human rights.

i don't mean like absolute silence. obviously in an ideal community, there would still be sound and noise from people and music and work etc. but it haunts me that when i camp in the forest i can hear the howl of semi trucks on the interstate miles away. and the people who live beside it never know quiet. it haunts me that many people will live their whole lives never seeing the stars in the sky that were fully visible with NO electric light pollution as recently as my great-grandparents' childhoods.

so much of our lives is bright bright unnecessary noise. neon mcdonalds signs 200 feet in the air so we can see it from the road. led lights over billboards. parking lots lit up like sports stadiums at closed office buildings. advertisements playing at gasoline pumps. streets lined with led porch lights and decorative garden lights that genuinely threaten entire species of wildlife. music blaring outside pharmacies to deter homeless people. everything always shining and wailing for no purpose but profit and cruelty.

obviously not everything can be turned off or made quiet and i wouldn't want it to be anyway and there is a lot of nuance and room for "but what about" here, but MANY things HAVE to change because none of us are supposed to live like this and we shouldn't have to!!!

This isn't a Gale blog but also I just love him so much I cannot help myself

Woman murders man in broad daylight

what you have to understand is that I love minding my business. and if you dont let me mind my business I'm going to kill everyone in the room.

Apparently boomer Democrats are having meltdowns over a gen-z progressive who is primarying an 80 year old Democrat because she "went on trans podcasts" and wore a Charizard kigurumi

ok but what is she running on

You can check her out here, but quick run down:

reblog if you’re a commie fuck who wants the USA destroyed

It makes me sad when I see women dating men who genuinely dont offer them any benefit whatsoever and I’m not talking about financial although that is one way they could benefit them. But no benefit whatsoever. No money, not nice, or funny, or fun to be around doesn’t affirm her but rather puts her down constantly, doesn’t spend enough time with her, doesn’t listen to her or let her get a word in edgewise, doesn’t help around the house or even just look after himself. Bad at sex. The most beautiful and sweetest woman will be head over heels in love with a man who genuinely sucks the air out of any room he enters. It happens all the time and the most evil part of it is a lot of them even get pregnant. I genuinely get a terrible feeling in my stomach when I see a woman get pregnant by a man like this. All children are blessings it’s just that I know she has a real mountain to climb for the rest of her life bc let’s be real ppl always talk about parenting being “18 years” but a good parent will try to support their child every way they can for the rest of their life and it’s really hard to do alone.

Anyway more often than not you see younger women stuck in this pattern when older women who have had plenty of time to experience being in relationships are choosing to be single which is why the birth rate is down and reproductive rights are being taken away They would force govt mandated wives and impregnation if they could. And I’m not the first to say this but the reason is because men have never really in history had to be dateable so most of them do not even try to make themselves appealing in any way. Women used to be forced into marriage and pregnancies and we couldn’t have a bank account until like 30 minutes ago in the scheme of human history. Also not the first to say this either but this is where the term crazy cat lady comes from. They want to scare those women into thinking they are crazy and lonely instead of intelligent and happy alone. The term spinster comes from the women who spun yarn in Middle English times who were some of the only paid women who therefore often stayed unmarried. So that tells you everything you need to know about those sentiments towards childless single women.

Also not even touching upon the fact that in many cases men who are this misogynistic are just not safe to be around and live with. But that could be another essay.

They’re not trying at all in fact many are doubling down and getting worse because they think women deserve worse and they are furious with women for expecting more and not settling for them.

why can't I fix a problem once and then it's fixed forever

when people put "trigger warning" on their content without specifying what the trigger warning is for

this post contains notes

does it?

does it though?

Fuck is going on here

post expired

Son of no notes ghost post.

obsessed with how tumblr just sometimes Does This 

"Dems aren't doing anything!"

Listen man, you need to read the news. Actually seek it out and read it. Preferably local or state news if you have it.

My congressman and Senators are the most boring moderate white guys to ever moderate white guy.

And they are out there every single fucking day raising hell like I haven't seen in ten years.

They're boycotting the joint address. Trying to block every piece of legislation and every nominee. They're trying to get into federal buildings to see what DOGE is doing. They're holding town halls every week. They're holding job fairs for laid off feds and connecting them to resources.

These boring white guys are getting up in republicans faces during hearings and screaming at them red faced with righteous fury.

My guys ALONE are doing a fuck ton.

Do you even know who yours are? What they're doing? Or do you just want to be angry?

And for those who don’t know where to look, Ariella Elm has been collecting wins and Dems fighting EVERY DAY SINCE THE INAUGURATION https://open.substack.com/pub/ariellaelm?r=25ocek&utm_medium=ios

And she’s noted, a lot of their best moments ARE posted, they just aren’t going viral

The "democrats are useless, don't bother even trying" narrative is being pushed by the fascist-owned corporate media to scare you into complying in advance.

Don't fall for it.

Chuck Schumer isn't fucking doing anything, or is actively obstructing the goals of his own party, and if you're upset about it call your own dem senator to demand he be removed as minority leader. Don't ignore the good work the fighters are ACTUALLY trying to do, and decry the morons who keep getting in the way

Polyamorous folks figure out REAL QUICK shit's so much easier if you just say it. "Hey, can you compliment me?" "Hey I want to do something special with you soon. Would you please schedule something for next week?" "I'm feeling really unloved, help me convince my brain its being dumb?"

If you can just duct tape over the voice in your head that says "its not real if you have to ask", long enough to get the words out, you could have it all, babe.

This is advice to everyone but especially cishet monogs

sincerely you do not have to kill the guilt. That sounds really difficult. You just have to not listen to the guilt (or whatever else) for the 10 seconds it takes to get the words out.

And 10 seconds is so easy. You can do anything for 10 measley seconds. That's so small and doable.

I needed "do it scared" but I'm starting to think y'all need "do it even if you feel guilty"