merici

there's no rule that says you can't rewrite all the rules |📸 Dina Litovsky |ex CFPB, US Digital Service | co-founder @adaslist | yolo | direct file fan account

[merici @merici]

You can't automate trust. We took a slow and steady approach by putting it in front of real people and getting it right.

The tax code isn’t easy, and getting it wrong has real consequences for users.

I am keen to see if this work and, most importantly, is secure and accurate.

[merici @merici]

https://t.co/ycEaEGMOLZ will be an "AI-driven clearinghouse for Americans to get services from the federal government."
Functions to include passport renewals and tax filing.
https://t.co/uWrILLn0fp

[merici @merici]

On accuracy, we wanted to make sure that an IRS product could be trusted to always right, for all scenarios. The tax code is hard and to translate the tax code into a tax filing service, we worked with IRS and Treas lawyers to make sure that taxpayers got the right answers.

[Douglas Farrar @DouglasLFarrar]

The Trump admin is having DOGE set up an AI powered website called America dot gov where you can try to file your taxes or get a passport.

The main way to use it? An AI chat bot.

Getting stuck in a doom loop on America dot gov is a hell of a metaphor for the Trump era.

[Norman Ornstein @NormOrnstein]

Trump is a Russian asset

[Patrick Sullivan @PatchNavillus]

do our parents next

[Jeet Heer @HeerJeet]

I wasn't keen on elevating the Harp story but this usefully frames it in a way with real political salience.

[Acyn @Acyn]

MacFarlane: Some national park service workers are so alarmed, they leaked internal spreadsheets that show where the money is going. 

We added the numbers together and found for the white house grounds for the vanity projects, the beautification and the needed upgrades: They've set aside $323 million for this year…

$323 million compared to $7 million for the white house in 2024. That's a 5,000% increase. 

National mall has a ten fold increase from 2024 for projects that are the president's priority. 

Doesn't mean the money is directly being starved out of Yosemite, Yellowstone, Mount Zion, Grand Canyon. But we checked those parks all have significantly less funding allotted for them this year than they did two years ago, and there's a $30 billion backlog of deferred maintenance

They are going to have to shortchange important projects throughout America to marshal donated money or taxpayer money on things like a reflecting pool, a helipad, a ballroom, and other vanity projects.

[merici @merici]

The measles lobby - @JennyMcCarthy - thanks you

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr @RobertKennedyJr]

Finally, a President who stands for medical freedom, informed consent, and gold-standard science.

[Jonathan Reiner @JReinerMD]

“In 2014, Fauci managed and directed the funding for research for an Ebola vaccine. When a Dallas nurse caught the virus while she cared for a dying man, Fauci put onprotective gear and went into the isolation room himself. Eight days later, he walked the nurse out in public and hugged her.”
https://t.co/l9YOCpBXXh

[merici @merici]

@isamutlib I’m 💯 on the cheerleading team! They’ve got great leadership, super exciting!

[Heather Long @byHeatherLong]

This is a bleak July jobs report:

-23,000 jobs lost in July. (Losses occurred in retail, finance, hospitality, local gov't education)
-264,000 people leave the labor force
-Wage growth falls to 3.2% = lowest in 5 years (and totally wiped out by inflation right now)
***Lowest labor force participation rate since February 2021***

The Fed's job just got a lot harder. The labor market is stalling again. Many industries shedding jobs or flat.

[More Perfect Union @MorePerfectUS]

We got Amazon's own chatbot to snitch on Amazon.

We worked with a researcher to grill Walmart and Amazon's AI bots on the companies' Made in America labeling.

The bots revealed that Amazon and Walmart both made a calculated decision to let sellers lie about where products are made — because the business incentive to do so is larger than the legal risk of the FTC coming after them.

[John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch]

New from me:

Until recently, the gap between comfortably-off and just-getting-started could plausibly be crossed in a decade or two of hard work.

Growth in asset prices means that’s no longer true.

My column on moving from income world to wealth world: https://t.co/UDmzA8tmPA

[Douglas Farrar @DouglasLFarrar]

NEW INVESTIGATION: Ask Amazon's AI shopping assistant for "Made in USA" fly fishing reels, and it says, "Sorry, I don't have access to that information."

Ask for "Made in China" reels, and you get a full comparison table with purchase recommendations.

[Camryn @dancingofpens]

this graph from the AP stunned me into silence

[Katie Van Dyck @CapitolKVD]

Spain just won the World Cup. How do they develop these players?

Check out this thread from Merici. She’s been a soccer mom in both Spain and the US and happens to have expertise in government services. And she’s experiencing first hand the benefits of real federations and funding.

In the US, it’s all about profit. But change is afoot. The USMNT is talking about tearing down the system and starting over. The Let Kids Play Act from @ChrisForPA and @ChrisMurphyCT takes aim at the vulture investors that feed off our kids. It would kickstart efforts to bring a better system to our country.

[merici @merici]

7/ One system largely treats youth football as a public-interest activity with government-backed guardrails. The other has largely handed it to private organizations and market forces. My son's €500/year Segunda club fee w kids 2-3x better than the best in the DMV looks 😍

[merici @merici]

🇺🇸 soccer mom in 🇪🇸 👋

1/ My son plays federated football in Barcelona. It got me digging into how youth sports governance differs between Spain and the US — the contrast is stark. 🧵

[merici @merici]

6/ The numbers - $40B+ industry, participation down to 55% of kids 6–17 (from 61% pre-pandemic), average family spend up 46% since 2019, travel sports often running $3,000+/year.