bakiner.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

I began to write this article 6 yrs before Musk's Hitler salute and AfD's electoral success. It's about why coming to terms with the past should be a perpetual process touching every aspect of life so that we stop, in Adorno's words, fascist tendencies within (not just against) democracy.

submitted 23 hours ago • 1 comment

When Government Works: A Conversation with Lina Khan 🧡 podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTC_v._...

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

🗞️ Today in Government Officials Who Don't Understand how Data Processing Works (And Are Allowing it to be Used to Harm Americans). Let's take a look at the claim "data doesn't lie", shall we? 🧵

submitted 4 days ago • 12 comments

I fear that this is just a prelude to further purges, the installation of yes men (pun intended), and the introduction of loyalty oaths. These are the steps that destroy professionalism and make the use of violence to restore "domestic order" thinkable --- and more likely.

submitted 7 days ago • 19 comments

Just a reminder that the neither the U.S. Digital Service (which has been converted into DOGE) nor OPM has any legal authority to direct every single federal government employee to give them a job summary. Literally no such authority at all.

submitted 6 days ago • 16 comments

"... the twin ideas of American exceptionalism and exemptionalism often guide U.S. policy: The U.S. gov't presents itself as an authority on human rights while not always participating in the international human rights regime or complying with its precepts" by @kellyzvobgo.bsky.social

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

1st: vaccines work 2nd: social media companies developed their OG vaccine policies in response to outbreaks like this in Samoa & Bklyn. Not COVID! They boosted good info. They labeled false claims. That got redefined as “censorship” by ppl who profit from lies. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/22/u...

submitted 6 days ago • 9 comments

Last week, JD Vance gave Europe an ultimatum: it can align with the Trump administration, or face its wrath. To comply, Europe needs to embrace the extreme right, repeal tech rules the US “will not accept,” and allow Silicon Valley to dominate its market. It should tell the US to take a hike.

submitted 7 days ago • 44 comments

Someone making a Nazi salute is a Nazi. Someone making excuses about it is a Nazi apologist. There is nothing confusing or complex about this.

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

professor seaver, tell us what you really think

submitted 8 days ago • 3 comments

Brazil doing what the US justice system didn't/couldn't do. Expect pressure from Musk & Trump in support of their far-right Brazilian allies.

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

The trend of #techoligarchs going to any length to kiss the ring of President #DonaldTrump makes it even more urgent to pass #privacy, #competition, and #AI laws in US states and at the federal level, argues Ben Winters, Director of AI and Data Privacy at the Consumer Federation of America.

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

germany does have a free speech confusion, mostly involving the past year’s crackdown on gaza-related protest. but its anti-nazi speech rules are historic and, though not without problem, understandable considering the legacy of the shoah & contemporary extreme right wing violence.

submitted 13 days ago • 2 comments

Nothing makes me feel old like Seattle band lineups. It’s always like Wooden chainsaw Blue urinal insatisfecho Pickled tree-fecta or whatever and I can’t even figure out what genre this is.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

If you've ever used the Polity data, read this from Monty Marshall. tl;dr Polity is coding recent US events as an executive self-coup and an adverse regime change.

submitted 17 days ago • 55 comments

They implicitly admit that military AI cannot possibly respect international law and human rights, then.

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

Thomson Reuters has won the first major AI copyright case in the US. The decision has big implications for the battle between generative AI companies and rightsholders.

submitted 17 days ago • 44 comments

Danes offer to buy California to spite Trump’s Greenland aims: ‘We’ll bring hygge to Hollywood’

submitted 17 days ago • 99 comments

Sports-betting sites should have Super Bowl options for: franchise owners will bow to Trump / he will hand the trophy / he will lift the trophy / more…

submitted 19 days ago • 1 comment

NEW: The US is in the midst of a political coup that, if successful, would forever change the nature of its government, writes Eryk Salvaggio. But this coup is not taking place in the streets. It's taking place cubicle by cubicle in federal agencies and in the mundane automation of bureaucracy.

submitted 20 days ago • 5 comments

i know ppl here do not enjoy screenshots of X but this one is such a great encapsulation of what it's become

submitted 21 days ago • 254 comments

A new (perhaps controversial) paper that touches part of the current moment: How much deference, if any, should we give tech experts when making tech policy? The arguments for tech expertise are thin, and it leads policy astray ... as we're seeing now for realz. papers.ssrn.com/abstract=512...

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

Very useful list for those working on tech, tech governance, tech ethics, and more

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments

REALITY CHECK Doge has not discovered ANY actual fraud or crime. Musk and the DOGE youth have army of X trolls culling data from a gov funded transparency website called USAspending.gov. They gin up outrage by making wild accusations against granting agencies. It’s textbook media manipulation.

submitted 22 days ago • 31 comments

NEW: Washington’s governor signed an executive order forming a team to evaluate data centers’ impact on energy use, tax revenue and job creation. It follows a @theseattletimes.bsky.social and ProPublica investigation on the state’s power-guzzling data center industry.

submitted 24 days ago • 29 comments

The thousands of people who participated in the Civil Rights Movement – from Fannie Lou Hammer to the Black residents who boycotted segregated buses – knew barriers. They knew injustice. They faced those circumstances & continued to fight discrimination & oppression head on. That is our task today.

submitted 25 days ago • 1 comment

I grew up at a time when "international law and human rights" were observed in the breach. Now the powerful treat them like dirty words.

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

With Google removing their Responsible AI Principles, they no longer state that they will not engage in "Technologies whose purpose contravenes widely accepted principles of international law and human rights". Concerns about surveillance and injury are also erased. ai.google/responsibili...

submitted 24 days ago • 9 comments

I agree, but a lot of tech leaders are probably dreaming of eliminating the university system and its inconveniences (the scientific method, IRB, peer review, etc.) as a whole to recruit researchers directly into companies.

submitted 24 days ago • 2 comments

Google removes pledge to not use AI for weapons from website

submitted 24 days ago • 29 comments

I wouldn't count on it but there is a good chance the AI model will recommend eliminating fantasy projects like DOGE and focusing on meeting people's needs.

submitted 25 days ago • 2 comments

SCOOP: Elon Musk Ally Tells Staff 'AI-First' Is the Future of Key Government Agency How a Tesla engineer wants the Technology Transformation Service to operate like a "startup software company." www.wired.com/story/elon-m...

submitted 25 days ago • 64 comments

Think Tank Called ‘The Himmler Institute’ Assures Nation This All Legal theonion.com/think-t...

submitted 25 days ago • 200 comments

Oh, so he’s going to “Twitter Files” the USAID? People need to get up to speed real quick on this cast of characters and how they “work” to spin conspiracy theories and twist facts into false political narratives. Mr. “frame game” here (quoted by Musk) might be a good place to start.

submitted 25 days ago • 28 comments

New from me: Musk and his allies seem to be doing another thing common with tech startups in their government takeover--hiring very young technical talent. We identified several those young people who appear to have very high access. @wired.com www.wired.com/story/elon-m...

submitted 26 days ago • 54 comments

Breaking news: The White House has removed two top security officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development, the world’s largest provider of food assistance, after they refused to let representatives of Elon Musk access restricted spaces.

submitted 26 days ago • 177 comments