Tom Durff

Liz Cheney:I know the nation can survive bad policy. We can’t survive a president who is willing to torch the Constitution.

[Tom Durff @tdurff]

Life, being alive, is wonder enough. Humans take it for granted and spend time searching for "the meaning of life." Dive deeply into the simple fact of being alive on a ball floating through the cosmos. The improbability of it all. https://t.co/gqItchEIZT

[Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla]

“.. The greatest danger facing society isn’t that software will awaken and overthrow its human masters. It is that we will allow the creators of the software to abdicate human responsibility for the systems they choose to build ..”

@WSJopinion
https://t.co/zXHA3U4h5F

[Tom Durff @tdurff]

@MelissaKester VERY good, right from the start.
Going back to the Texas legislature.

[James Surowiecki @JamesSurowiecki]

In 2005, less than 4% of UT undergrads were international students. Today, 4% of UT undergrads are international students. Sean Davis is lying and telling his followers that number is 30% in order to stir up hysteria.

[Christopher Webb @cwebbonline]

This is why Trump can’t stand Black women. They don’t take his shit.

Let’s appreciate Rep. Joyce Beatty for being the fighter we need.

Trump: “I think you’re incompetent.”

Beatty: “I know you’re incompetent.”

Then she reminded him: “You had more bankruptcies than anybody in the room.” 🔥

[Tom Durff @tdurff]

@MelissaKester Psychopath at the top. It bleeds down through the system and eventually affects us all. Especially after 10 years of it with more to go.

[NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day @apod]

The hydrogen in your body and present in every molecule of water came from the Big Bang. There are no other appreciable sources of hydrogen in the universe. The carbon in your body was made by nuclear fusion in the interior of stars, as was the oxygen. Much of the iron in your body was made during supernovas of stars that occurred long ago and far away. The gold in your jewelry was likely made from neutron stars during collisions that may have been visible as short-duration gamma-ray bursts or gravitational wave events. Elements like phosphorus and copper are present in our bodies in only small amounts but are essential to the functioning of all known life. The featured periodic table is color coded to indicate humanity's best guess as to the nuclear origin of all known elements. The sites of nuclear creation of some elements, such as copper, are not really well known and are continuing topics of observational and computational research.

Image Credit: NASA's GSFC, SVS

[Maria Popova @themarginalian]

Lovely lovely read on autumn and the sensual urgency of aliveness https://t.co/j4f5MG8aTP

[Don Winslow @donwinslow]

This is the "strength" that 77 million Americans wanted to lead the United States.

This is a fat clown in makeup and a diaper that is so old and medically deteriorated that he cannot even stay awake during a ceremony honoring 9/11.

This is a POS.

[Tom Durff @tdurff]

@jimsciutto How about Putin, North Korea, and other actors against humanity?

It's too late. Too many horses (with "recursive self-improvement" aboard) are already out of the barn and galloping.

[Ruben Gallego @RubenGallego]

Three AI CEOs just went on record admitting the technology they’re building is unsafe.

We can’t wait for a catastrophic failure or national security crisis to act. I’m pushing for a Select Committee on AI to give Congress the tools to protect the American people.

[David Agranovich @DavidAgranovich]

Breaking my X hiatus because this is fascinating. I ran threat disruption at Meta for 8 years, where we routinely released reports like the Anthropic report out today. It’s noteworthy that Anthropic is being this transparent, and they deserve credit if we want this level of visibility into AI companies going forward. Here's what stood out to me, and where I'd push back. 🧵

[Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowski]

When Joe diGenova resigns because the stuff he’s being asked to do by Trump and Blanche is too unethical for him, that’s when you know it was REALLY fucking shady shit.

[Tom Durff @tdurff]

@MelissaKester Might as well.

[James Surowiecki @JamesSurowiecki]

The argument here is straightforward: Single parents who are their families' sole earners are needier than parents who have a wage-earner in the household. Taking benefits from the former to give to the latter - as Vance's plan does - makes no sense ethically or economically.

[Sofia B. Kinzinger @sofiakinzinger]

Let me explain….

He takes the picture because the President is going to ask him how the coverage was, and he’ll be able to show him the screen with all four networks carrying his speech.

It’s not about the event or its significance. It’s about him. It’s about whether he got the attention he wanted…the kind that feeds his ego.

And notice how it doesn’t even cross his Comms Director’s mind to share a photo of the event itself and push the actual message. Instead, he’s proudly sharing with the world that the networks carried the President’s speech. 🤦🏻‍♀️

That tells you everything about the priorities: not the substance, not the significance, not the responsibility of governing…but the coverage. Clearly a fundamental misunderstanding of what governing is supposed to be about.

[Andrew McCarthy @AJamesMcCarthy]

Closeup of NGR on its way to L2

[Mark DeSaulnier @RepDeSaulnier]

I joined a local chapter of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association in Concord to share a legislative update, answer questions, and discuss legislation impacting federal employees. Nearly 400,000 federal employees call California home, representing federal agencies including the Forest Service, Army Corps of Engineers, Veterans Affairs, and Postal Service, and I was proud to gather with these dedicated current and retired federal employees.

[Josh Chambers @JoshChambers]

Steve Kerr says Roger Federer taught his Warriors team the secret to sustained success wasn’t outworking everyone, it was building a life around your craft you never want to escape from

“I’ll tell you a great story about Roger Federer. We were playing in China with the Warriors in 2017. Roger was in Shanghai for the Masters tournament, so we invited him to come speak to the team.”

“Draymond Green asked him, ‘How do you sustain success? How have you managed to win majors 20 years after you first won one?’ Everyone was expecting him to say, ‘I work harder than everybody,’ the will, all the clichés.”

“Roger Federer says, ‘I get up every morning and I make breakfast for my kids. Then I take them to school and drop them off. Then I go practice tennis for about two hours, and I’ve figured out a really good routine where I don’t destroy my body, but I can get all the work in I need.”

“‘Then I go have lunch with my wife. In the evening, we cook dinner together. The kids are all home from school. We ask them about school. There’s so much joy in the house. We put them to bed, and then I put my head on the pillow and go, “Man, that was just a great day.” And I’ve been doing that for 20 years.’”

“And it was like, yes. That’s it. That’s the formula. That’s what leads to sustained success. He loves tennis. He loves his family. He loves life. It’s not outworking everybody and banging your head against the wall, ‘I’m going to be better than everybody.’ It’s allowing your natural talent to shine through with a work ethic, with a great family life, with perspective, with peace, with mindfulness.”

“It’s perspective. It’s joy. It’s passion. It’s mindfulness. It’s an awareness that we are truly lucky. To get the most out of ourselves, it’s our daily rituals and experiences and love and joy.”

[Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowski]

The 75 Most Corrupt Things Trump Did in 2026. So far. The scams, schemes and grifts have been endless, as the Trump Family seems to spend most of their time and energy finding new ways to profit off the presidency. Here is my Top 75. https://t.co/WMXj13XLgy

[James Talarico @jamestalarico]

I wish our government would go after pedophiles like they go after brown men headed to work at 7 am.

I wish they would close billionaire tax loopholes like they close our public schools.

I wish they would fund healthcare like they fund forever wars in the Middle East.