Political violence has become illegible, and increasingly, politics and language have too.
The Financial Times reporting on the delayed Trump Mobile phone that’s definitely not made in the USA:
Trump Mobile’s customer service team told the Financial Times that the recent US government shutdown had delayed deliveries of the phone.
Sure.
It added there was a “strong possibility” the device would not be shipped this month.
Duh.
A private swearing-in ceremony for New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will take place inside the original City Hall station at midnight on January 1st, ahead of a public ceremony at City Hall later that day. Mamdani’s subway PR continues to be a delightful vibe. In a statement to Streetsblog, he said:
“When Old City Hall Station first opened in 1904 — one of New York’s 28 original subway stations — it was a physical monument to a city that dared to be both beautiful and build great things that would transform working peoples’ lives.”
The proposed rules would be among the toughest global AI regulations if passed. Minors and elderly users would be required to register a guardian to use AI services, who’d be notified if topics like suicide come up, and chatbots would be banned from emotional manipulation and promoting violence, crime, or self-harm.
Several polls from Gallup and Pew reveal that voters overwhelmingly view the rise of AI as a net negative:
There is hardly any issue that polls lower than unchecked AI development among Americans. Gallup polling showed that 80 percent of American adults think the government should regulate AI, even if it means growing more slowly.
And much like their MAGA populist counterparts, Democrats are beginning to take notice.
Most of us have been rolling our eyes at the (likely illegally) renamed The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. But Toby Morton, a comedian who has written for Mad TV and South Park, saw the move coming and snatched up trumpkennedycenter.org and trumpkennedycenter.com a while back. Morton told the Washington Post:
“As soon as Trump began gutting the Kennedy Center board earlier this year, I thought, ‘Yep, that name’s going on the building.’”
The CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) is suing Trump administration officials after they targeted him for deportation from the US because of his online content moderation work.
On Thursday morning, he announced that US District Judge Vernon Broderick granted a TRO and preliminary injunction blocking his arrest or detainment. A hearing has been scheduled for Monday.
[DocumentCloud]
The Trump administration just sanctioned five people, including Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) founder Imran Ahmed, over their work in content moderation and anti-disinformation. On Wednesday he filed a lawsuit (pdf) to stop their “unconstitutional attempt to arrest and expel him.”
Ahmed:
My life’s work is to protect children from the dangers of unregulated social media and AI and fight the spread of antisemitism online. That mission has pitted me against big tech executives – and Elon Musk in particular – multiple times. I am proud to call the United States my home. My wife and daughter are American, and instead of spending Christmas with them, I am fighting to prevent my unlawful deportation from my home country.
The feds have spent the last day or so replying to @PopBase on X and sloppily redacting documents. Now it’s claiming “The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York and the FBI have informed the Department of Justice that they have uncovered over a million more documents potentially related to the Jeffrey Epstein case,” which could take weeks to release.
2025 was the year the federal government and consumer protections were gutted.
Bitcoin tried to evade the Feds. Now it wants to share a beer with them.
