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Homestar Runner, Mystery Science Theater and Space Ghost Coast to Coast is superwholock for people who listen to They Might Be Giants
Reblogged skarchomp
Reblogged 3liza
In my first ever article for a print magazine, I'm analyzing Elon Musk's DOGE from the perspective of contractor capture: the notion that for-profit contractors like Musk desire not only money from the government, but also control over government itself.
You can read the full piece below, or pick up the April 2025 edition of The American Prospect at a local bookstore once it's available!
DOGE has been marketed as an organization aimed at cutting wasteful spending and increasing government efficiency, but it has quickly become apparent that this is not its primary function. Instead, DOGE has spent the first weeks of Trump’s second presidential term haphazardly dismantling the civil service, politically targeting spending that Musk and Trump dislike, centralizing decision-making power in the White House, and causing major disruptions to government operations that will decrease their overall efficiency. Still, one important aspect of this strategy has gone largely unexamined: the elevation of government contractors like Musk into government policymakers... Musk has acquired much of his tremendous wealth from the government he is now dismantling. Tesla Motors relied on significant support from the Department of Energy, which was criticized as government waste by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. SpaceX continues to receive billions of dollars each year in contract awards from NASA and the Defense Department, representing one of the company’s largest streams of income. Overall, Musk’s business ventures have benefited from more than $38 billion in government support, not including a new contract from the Federal Aviation Administration to upgrade its information technology systems. To hear Musk describe it, he is part of the solution, not the problem. He has argued that “there’s a vast federal bureaucracy that is implacably opposed to the … president and the Cabinet,” and thus that there is a need for a “thrashing of the bureaucracy as we try to restore democracy and the will of the people.” In this understanding, Musk is not a money-motivated billionaire riddled with conflicts of interest, but rather a selfless entrepreneur bringing private-sector efficiency to a sclerotic, wasteful government and “the Parasite Class” that depends on it. This view of government efficiency is impressively backwards. The civil service that Musk is attacking consists of millions of regular workers doing their best to transform the complexities of government into positive outcomes for the American people. The only parasitic class benefiting from government inefficiency consists of for-profit government contractors like Musk, who grow rich off of taxpayer dollars by providing overpriced services to compensate for a lack of state capacity, all while using their billions to rig the system in their favor. Allowing contractors like him to decide how the government spends money is both an affront to democracy and an open invitation to further corruption.
Reblogged galpalactic
stop eating turkish delight with the witch in white and come eat hummus with mr. tumnus
Reblogged alydra
UM GUYS. I JUST NOTICED A CRAZY ISSUE W THE TUMBLR UPDATE.
YOU CAN SEE THE ICONS OF ANONS SOMETIMES.
The way I was able to recognize several anons in one of my inboxes bc of this error. Oh my god. Guys. This isn’t supposed to happen.
Weighing in to say:
YES, I SEE THIS ON MOBILE. HOWEVER I DO **NOT** THINK IT'S SHOWING THE ANON'S REAL IDENTITY.
The profile pictures I see next to anon asks are profile pictures that belong to other, non-anon asks in my ask box also. Some info
- there are 14 asks in my inbox from the last ~5 days
- 9 anons, 5 logged in users
- ALL 14 show pfps, including the 9 anons
- ALL THE SHOWN PROFILE PICTURES BELONG TO THE 5 LOGGED IN USERS
I think the bug is the inbox INCORRECTLY attributing anons to neighboring, logged-in asks.
Which is still a bad bug! Considering it makes it look like a long-time follower of mine sent me a spam ask.
And is worse if, say, one of these was anon hate.
But it's NOT the anon's real identity. It's a neighboring ask asker's identity
So if you have anon hate in your inbox that looks like it's attributed to your dear friend, who sends you lovely asks all the time, it was Not them.
CONFIRMED THE BUG IS INCORRECT ATTRIBUTION.
Thanks @thepatchycat for being a test subject. As you can see the icon being attributed to this ask is NOT the patchy cat
The pictured icon belongs to @watchingforcomets who sent me a nice ask about nail polish yesterday which I have not yet answered!
Wow, a bug ideal for creating maximum painful interpersonal drama.
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matt just fired half the remaining tumblr support staff lmao
from my sources adjacent to tumblr--from which i can spread rumors and insider information freely because i dont give a fuck about ever working in the tech sector--im hearing this round of firings was focused on purging the senior staff, and not just from support but from the entire remaining tumblr workforce. i'm hearing there are about 25 people left.
Reblogged beesmygod
david lynch’s notes to a theater tattoo’d on user ginfantasy
Reblogged brucebocchi
made a milli off that bobby brown now they got me smoking stranger things
Reblogged beesmygod
reblog to pet his bald head
Reblogged maxknightley
yknow it is easy to joke about tumblr memes wreaking havoc on your vocabulary or whatever but when you are around people who are familiar with them it can be genuinely very useful to have a one-syllable noun meaning "unpopular yet heavily marketed streaming service that is going to inevitably go bankrupt in a year or two holding a show you want to watch hostage in the meantime"
Reblogged yuzupool
literally every music genre has at least one album that will absolutely change your life if you give it a shot
Reblogged davvvd
SORCERER (1977) dir. William Friedkin
Reblogged yuzupool
Reblogged brucebocchi