Walker 🌕

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good *people* to do nothing.” —Edmond Burke.

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

Applebaum: What binds Russia, China, Iran and North Korea is not religion or ideology.

China is communist, Russia nationalist, Iran theocratic. What binds them is fear of liberal language: rights, rule of law, separation of powers and independent courts. 1/

[PBS News @NewsHour]

Hundreds of billions of dollars are being spent right now to construct massive facilities that will house and run the computers needed for the spiking demand for artificial intelligence

But as those centers are being built, communities across the country are in open revolt, protesting the enormous amounts of water and energy these centers require.

Host William Brangham explored how communities are pushing back on data center development with Michael E. Webber, author of "Power Trip: The Story of Energy."

Horizons from PBS News, dives into the science, health, technology and environmental issues making headlines each week. Visit the PBS News website to watch this week's episode.

[𐌁𐌉Ᏽ 𐌕𐌉𐌌𐌉 @OrevaZSN]

I saw a post on Reddit that said that “The underlying purpose of AI is to allow wealth to access skill while removing from the skilled the ability to access wealth.” And I don’t think I’ve ever seen AI described so incisively.

[LongTime🤓FirstTime👨‍💻 @LongTimeHistory]

FBI shows up to interrogate a U.S. citizen at his house—for writing an anti-ICE social media post.

"This is about comments that you posted online," said agent.

Orders homeowner to stop recording—refuses to even tell him which comments.

Agent wearing unique World Cup uniform to indicate he is currently assigned to work with ICE on immigration issues.

Craig Brittain has been actively documenting and participating in protests at the Delaney Hall ICE detention facility in Newark, New Jersey.

His social media posts videos of demonstrations, conflicts with agents, and calls for the facility’s closure.

[Brian Tyler Cohen @briantylercohen]

The 10 hours of erecting scaffolding wasn’t to strip the letters (something that 30 minutes in a boom lift could accomplish), it was to conceal the view with a curtain because Trump couldn’t handle the optics of the letters of his name being plucked off the building.

[sarah @sahouraxo]

This isn’t some post-apocalyptic movie scene.

This is what Israel is doing to Tyre in South Lebanon.

One of humanity’s oldest cities is being wiped off the map.

And US tax dollars are paying for it.

[Anonymous @YourAnonNews]

When billionaires own the platforms, the satellites, the payment rails, the AI models, and the political megaphones, that is not a free market. That is the private government of the oligarchs.

[Drop Site @DropSiteNews]

🇺🇸 🇵🇸 Sama Safi, a 20-year-old American citizen and honors psychology student at Birzeit University, remains in Israeli detention after soldiers seized her from her family’s home near Ramallah at 3 a.m. on June 2, with lawmakers warning her life is at risk.

Safi, whose family lives in Florida, was taken without charge and transferred to Ofer prison, then to the Moscovia interrogation center in Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society. Her family says she has a chronic condition that causes fevers up to 105°F and requires daily medication and a quarterly injection she travels abroad to receive.

She was one of five Palestinian women detained that week, including two members of the Palestinian women’s national football team. The Israeli military said the women were suspected of “promoting terrorist activities.”

Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Sen. Chris Van Hollen have both demanded her release. “I am really sick and tired of the Israeli government taking American taxpayer dollars and then mistreating Americans,” Van Hollen said. Israel has not told her family or the U.S. embassy where she is being held. Rep. Tlaib said, “Her life is at risk—our government must free her now!”

[Brennan Center @BrennanCenter]

The Trump administration has cut or frozen billions of dollars in scientific research funding. The consequences could be felt for decades, undermining American health care, scientific leadership, and economic prosperity. Here’s what you need to know.

[Parody Jeff @Parodyjeffx]

HOLY SHIT 🇫🇷🇮🇱

French authorities exposed Israeli Mossad-linked firm BlackCore interfering elections across France, Scotland, Angola, Togo and New York City.

They flooded everywhere with fake accounts, AI bots and vicious smear campaigns to steal votes

[Jesus Freakin Congress @TheJFreakinC]

🚨BREAKING: A U.S. citizen in, Vancouver, WA, was pulled over by FIVE police cars for legally observing and documenting ICE agents… then had to explain the Constitution to the officers detaining him…

And it was all caught on video.

In the video, an ICE agent didn’t like being watched, called local police…

Then suddenly, the U.S. citizen, exercising his constitutional rights, was surrounded by FIVE cop cars.

And most ridiculous part?

The officers who claimed “reasonable suspicion” for detaining the U.S. citizen, could not even answer this simple question…

Is it legal to observe and record law enforcement?

After refusing to answer, and arguing about the First Amendment for several minutes, the officer finally admitted…

Yes. It is legal to observe and record law enforcement.

So, if it’s a legally protected activity… then why was this U.S. citizen detained?

Federal courts, across the country, have repeatedly recognized that the First Amendment protects the right to record and observe government officials… including law enforcement performing their duties in public… as long as you aren’t interfering with them.

That means, local police, and ICE agents, don’t get to decide when that right applies… They don’t get to ignore the Constitution because they’re uncomfortable with public oversight.

But this isn’t the only incident.

Across America, we’re watching local law enforcement work alongside ICE, while ordinary citizens, journalists, and legal observers are being questioned, detained, and intimidated for exercising their constitutional rights.

And the fact that a U.S. citizen had to educate the officers, who were detaining HIM, about the Constitution… should outrage every single person.

Because if the people enforcing the law don’t understand the constitutional rights they’re sworn to protect…

That puts every American in danger.

[Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt @FranceskAlbs]

WHY are we letting Israeli soldiers destroy every inch of Palestine? Is it ''a war''? Would you accept others do this to you and your home?

Let's stop this genocide together.
Diplomats
Politicians
Judges
Police officers
Journalists
Citizens
Anyone can and must take action.

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

Some thoughts on the new Epstein Files revelations:

I’ve now read everything that’s come out from the new Haberman and Swan book, and the thing I keep coming back to is the Situation Room. They held multiple meetings in the Situation Room about the Epstein files. That room is for war. It’s for national security emergencies. It is not for figuring out how to spin a scandal you’re telling the country is a hoax.

While the President was deflecting or calling this old news, his own Vice President and Chief of Staff were huddled in the most leak-proof room in America because they knew how bad it really was.

You don’t take a nothingburger to the Situation Room.

And I have to be honest, reading all this brings back a lot of frustration about what happened in the House of Representatives. I sat there and watched Mike Johnson send the House home early to dodge a vote on releasing these files. I watched him refuse to swear in a duly elected colleague for months just to stall the discharge petition. Month after month of excuses, arm twisting, and procedural games, all to keep this information from the public. We only got the files because survivors, families, and a handful of members in both parties simply refused to let it go.

So when people ask me why I talk so much about transparency and accountability, this is why. The truth eventually comes out. It always does.

The only question is whether your leaders helped reveal it or helped bury it.

Everyone who voted to keep these files hidden should have to answer for that.

Finally, notice what’s missing from all of this is any sign that Trump’s DOJ will actually investigate the powerful men named in these files.

Draw your own conclusions about why a Justice Department run by the President’s former defense lawyers might not be eager to pull that thread.

[LongTime🤓FirstTime👨‍💻 @LongTimeHistory]

ICE tackle U.S. citizen—shoot him with taser after already pinned to ground.

4 agents hold the man face down—while 5th agent tazed him in the back.

Another agent points a weapon at a witness.

"Don't point that at me again," man says.

"I don't feel safe," agent yells back. "It's whatever I say—Get back!"

The man detained was a community volunteer with VC Defensa.

Incident occurred in an area open to the public at the Ventura County Government Center in Ventura, California.

[Jennifer Get In Good Trouble @TheJenniWren]

Trump’s FBI showed up, without warrants, at the homes of Black and Brown voter registration canvassers in Ohio. They raided the Ohio Organizing Coalition’s offices.

Over 100 agents. No charges. No crime. This is federal voter intimidation, happening right now, ahead of a major election cycle in a purple state.

Wake up and fight back people because it’s coming to your state too.

[Saganism @Saganismm]

“When our genes could not store all the information necessary for survival, we slowly invented brains. But then the time came, perhaps ten thousand years ago, when we needed to know more than could conveniently be contained in brains. So we learned to stockpile enormous quantities of information outside our bodies. We are the only species on the planet, so far as we know, to have invented a communal memory stored neither in our genes nor in our brains. The warehouse of that memory is called the library.

A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called ‘leaves’) imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person - perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time, proof that humans can work magic.”

— Carl Sagan

[Pramila Jayapal @PramilaJayapal]

UnitedHealth continuously denied rehab care for seniors on Medicare Advantage recovering from surgery. But when patients appealed, they reversed 99.7% of denials.

So they knew the denials were wrong, they just hoped people wouldn't fight back.

That's a predatory business model. No more profit-driven claim denials: we need Medicare for All.

[Johanna Nyman @JohannaNyman5]

It is frankly embarrassing that a sitting U.S. Vice President is unaware of one of the most elementary facts of World War II. Nazi Germany did not negotiate an end to World War II. The war in Europe ended with Germany’s unconditional surrender after total military defeat and the collapse of the regime in May 1945.

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

69 people baked to death when Portland hit 116 degrees.

Scientists concluded that heat wave would have been extraordinarily unlikely without human-caused climate change.

Before the National Academies of Sciences could even publish its report on that science, the campaign to discredit it was already underway.

Opposition researchers digging through scientists’ emails. One panel member resigning out of fear she’d be targeted. Another removed the same day an oil-industry website attacked her.

A member of congress heavily funded by oil and gas demanding records from the National Academies.

All before a single page was released.

If you think the science is wrong, argue with the science.

Going after the scientists before the report even exists is something else entirely.
https://t.co/B4IW9MW7is

[Texas Democratic Party @texasdemocrats]

Governor Abbott closed out his speech at the Texas GOP convention with a live elephant. It then peed on the floor as it left the room.

The perfect metaphor for the Texas Republican Party.