AQ

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[Morten N. Støstad @MortenStostad]

An extremely relevant paper, given the renewed concern that wealth taxes lead to massive out-migration:

The Norwegian wealth tax "exodus", discussed in global media, never happened. At most 100 individuals left. Tax revenue increased by +71.5%. No changes in business activity.

[More Perfect Union @MorePerfectUS]

NEW: The Trump admin is using AI to analyze Medicare prior authorizations, and companies get 25% of the "savings" the system generates.

We found Carlyle Group and Patient Square Capital, private equity firms, backing this process.

It's the latest oligarch attack on healthcare.

[Ed Newton-Rex @ednewtonrex]

Powerful statement from mathematicians around the world.

“We urge mathematicians to discontinue their work with OpenAI and to return to a vision of science that centers human understanding.”

The backlash to AI is only just beginning.

https://t.co/htUBHJl1AM

[More Perfect Union @MorePerfectUS]

It all comes back to this.

[Leo Papa XIV @Pontifex_ln]

Hac intellegentiae artificialis aetate, urgens fit humanam artem ab iis distinguere, quae machinis efficiuntur. Ars enim et ea, quae machina ex innumeris alienis imaginibus statisticae ope computationis generare potest, ontologice, prius etiam quam aesthetice, inter se differunt. Algorithmis humani deest favilla. Quapropter Ecclesia cum artificibus et humani cultus institutis foedus renovare cupit: foedus scilicet ad humanum custodiendum.

[AQ @QuinonesAdria]

@TheKarlKolchak @brendatracy24 What an off-handedly cruel person you are. Are you like this with your loved ones—I’m assuming you have loved ones, but maybe not.

Hope you get the help you need, good luck!

[More Perfect Union @MorePerfectUS]

You're not imagining it. Portions at fast food chains have gotten smaller, but these corporations use deceptive practices to try to stop you from seeing the truth.

We talked to a former McDonald’s chef about how fast food is disguised to seem like they're giving you more than they are.

[Migo @ReiteConMig0]

@HedgieMarkets Hospital AI found more diagnoses to bill. Insurer AI learned to deny them. Nearly $1B moved, treatment didn’t rise, and patients fund both systems through higher premiums. The machines got smarter. The patient just got a bigger bill.

[Hedgie @HedgieMarkets]

🦔The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association says insurers paid out nearly $1 billion more than usual from AI-assisted hospital documentation in 2024-2025. Hospitals use AI to scan records and find secondary diagnoses that human reviewers missed. More diagnoses means higher reimbursements. But treatment levels haven't gone up.
BCBSA's SVP of data science said AI is "identifying more billable conditions, not sicker patients." Insurers now deploy their own AI to deny those same claims. Patients pay for both through higher premiums.

My Take
This might be the most American healthcare story I've ever read. Hospitals bought AI to find more things to bill for. Insurers bought AI to deny those bills. The technology cost money on each end and the tab went straight to patients through higher premiums. A billion dollars moved and no one got any healthier. The only thing that changed was the size of the invoices.

Two sides of a trillion-dollar industry found a new tool to fight over the same pool of money and the person in the hospital bed pays for all of it. Premiums go up, denials go up, and the AI vendors collect from everyone. If you want to know who AI works for, stop reading the press releases and look at where the money goes. In healthcare it went straight into the billing department.

Hedgie🤗

[More Perfect Union @MorePerfectUS]

Billionaires spending $227 million to try to avoid paying a 5% wealth tax.

[Vanessa @Nessakins_]

You wanna know why? Cuz the nerd that created this map found more than 300,000 surveillance devices. Flock only publicly reported 120,000

[Sen. Bernie Sanders @SenSanders]

If you paid $1 in federal income taxes last year, you paid more than Citigroup after making $4 billion in profits, charging 32.74% interest on credit cards & slashing 20,000 jobs.

Trump said he'd cap credit card interest rates at 10% & his tax breaks would create jobs. He lied.

[More Perfect Union @MorePerfectUS]

NEW: The Senate is on the verge of passing the "Protect College Sports Act" after lobbying from Amazon, Disney, Paramount and more.

The bill would cap player compensation, but fails to address massive coach salaries, buyouts, or private equity.

Actual college athletes have been left out of the process, so while the NCAA would get an anti-trust exemption, players wouldn't get a seat at the table.

We talked to Stanford football players to learn more.

[Ben Inskeep @Ben_Inskeep]

Straight to jail

[Jason Kint @jason_kint]

woah. Court just unsealed Summary Judgment motions in New York Times v OpenAI / Microsoft.
Easy to see why the AI companies had so many redactions (pink). Their own people wrote the lede for NYT, the "largest theft of labor in human history"... "more and more substitutive..." /1

[Thomas Massie @RepThomasMassie]

And there it is. Just as I predicted. They’re canceling Congress tomorrow to avoid the vote on IMPEACHING @SecWar. It will also make it harder for us to reach 218 signatures on the Epstein Discharge Petition before the election. We were at 190+ signatures last night.

[theleahfiles @leahfiles]

People keep saying Trump term II is the most corrupt administration ever, so I built a model to find out if it was true.

I took the UN's definition of corruption, turned it into eight criteria and 100 points, and scored the leaders history remembers for looting their countries: Marcos, Suharto, Mobutu, Abacha, Obiang, Putin.

Then I put every president since Eisenhower on the same scale, both parties, with every exoneration counted right alongside the convictions.

Nixon scored 41 and no other American President scored over a 25.

Trump's second term scored a 91, which ties him with Suharto and Mobutu and puts him above Marcos and Abacha.

So he is not only the most corrupt president in American history. At this pace he finishes his term level with the most corrupt rulers of the last hundred years.

PSA: don't come in my comments arguing about the results if you haven't read the full article, because ignorance is a choice.

Full article is up now on my Substack (link in bio) and it's free.

[More Perfect Union @MorePerfectUS]

HUGE: Elizabeth Warren, AOC, and other members of Congress have introduced a bill to push private equity out of healthcare.

The Stop Corporate Takeovers of Physicians Act would make it illegal for private equity, insurance companies, and other for-profit corporations to own or control medical practices.

It would also close state-level loopholes that private equity firms have snuck through, prohibit corporate interference with clinical decisions, and more.

[Acyn @Acyn]

Garcia: So, to be clear, we have a president that is $2 billion richer just from this last year. We have a son whose wedding is being paid for by rich Russians and oligarchs that have connections to Putin. We have Jared Kushner, who got $2 billion for his investment firm from the Saudis while also doing diplomacy in the Middle East.

We have the Kushners who are trying to buy private islands and selling all sorts of merchandise that’s being promoted, oftentimes through government resources. We also have, of course, this insane amount of stock trading that the president himself is doing to enrich himself and his family.

And, of course, the sons sitting on boards of private companies that are then getting contracts from the federal government. The amount of corruption is unprecedented. And not only are they lining their pockets, they’re stealing the wealth of hardworking Americans, they’re stealing the hard-earned labor and wealth of working-class people, and then funneling that money to themselves and to the rich donors and large corporations and CEOs across this country.

As they get richer, costs go up for the American people. And we know that Republicans in the House and in the Senate are complicit by not calling out this corruption.