🚨INVESTIGATION: Donors from a real estate/tech giant facing rent-gouging lawsuits funneled campaign cash to GOP lawmakers.
GOP lawmakers then slipped a line into their new tax bill that would block regulators from cracking down on the company. levernews.com/republicans-aim-…
Republicans Aim To Enshrine Rental Price-Fixing
Accused of price gouging renters, RealPage could now get a legal shield from GOP lawmakers — after a lobbying surge and a flood of campaign cash.The Lever
Wetenschappers gebruiken liever geen AI om een artikel te schrijven, maar een redigeer-bot juichen ze toe
Kunstmatige intelligentie: Tijdschrift ‘Nature’ onderzocht hoe wetenschappers staan tegenover het gebruik van AI. Jonge onderzoekers kijken er positiever naar.Laura Wismans (NRC)
Walmart says higher prices from tariffs coming as soon as this month
The world's largest retailer says it won't be able to absorb all the costs from higher tariffs on imported goods, particularly from China. Already in April, shoppers began tightening their budgets as retail spending did not grow compared to March.
#news #npr #publicradio #usa
posted by pod_feeder_v2
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Ti lavi i denti… e scopri quanto sei stressato. È il primo filo interdentale che misura il tuo cortisolo.
#sensori #stress #denti #igieneorale
futuroprossimo.it/2025/05/quan…
Quanto siete stressati? Ve lo dice il filo interdentale
Un innovativo filo interdentale con sensore integrato misura il cortisolo nella saliva, rivelando i livelli di stress mentre pulisce i denti.Gianluca Riccio (FuturoProssimo)
WATCH LIVE: VA Secretary Collins testifies on 2026 White House budget request
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-live-va-secretary-collins-testifies-on-2026-white-house-budget-request?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
Posted into Politics @politics-PBSNewsHour
WATCH LIVE: VA Secretary Collins testifies on 2026 White House budget request
President Donald Trump’s 2026 budget request so far includes a 4 percent increase for Department of Veterans Affairs programs.PBS News
"TIB builds Dark Archive for arXiv."
blog.tib.eu/2025/05/14/protect…
"What we [German National Library of Science and Technology, or Technische Informationsbibliothek, #TIB] have implemented over the last few weeks, is to build a Dark Archive of #arXiv contents…The data are being stored, but if push comes to shove it would need some more steps to make them publicly available."
#DefendResearch #Germany #Infrastructure #Preservation #Takedowns #Trump #TrumpVResearch #USPol #USPolitics
Protecting Science: TIB builds Dark Archive for arXiv - TIB-Blog
Research and science are international; it is not for nothing that we speak of international specialist communities.Micky Lindlar (TIB – Leibniz-Informationszentrum Technik und Naturwissenschaften und Universitätsbibliothek)
Trump State Dept. Leaned on African Nations to Help Musk’s Starlink
The State Department has intervened on behalf of Musk’s satellite internet company in five developing nations. In Gambia, U.S. diplomats have lobbied and browbeat at least seven government ministers as part of a “maximum pressure” campaign.ProPublica
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Nubs! Arena is a chaotic multiplayer brawler by ex-Awesomenauts devs, free for the first 24 hours gamingonlinux.com/2025/05/nubs…
#NubsArena #FreeGame #Gaming #Linux #SteamDeck
Nubs! Arena is a chaotic multiplayer brawler by ex-Awesomenauts devs, free for the first 24 hours
Act fast if you want a brand new free game, as Nubs! Arena from ex-Awesomenauts developers has released and it's free for the first 24 hours.Liam Dawe (GamingOnLinux)
In this love letter to the magic of storytelling and connection, a lonely old bird tells stories to a seed, which eventually grows into a tree where animals gather to listen.
#gifted by #randomhousekids ! #kidlit #books #bookstodon @kidlit @bookstodon
bookstodon group reshared this.
NYU Tisch School of Arts' ITP/IMA Makerspace Lab implements 3DPrinterOS' management software to streamline 3D printer set-up
Described as a ‘previously chaotic environment’ the Makerspace Lab serves more than 600 students across the NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), Interactive Media Arts (IMA) undergraduate program, and a low-residency master’s program.TCT Magazine
"On May 8, political scientists Steven Levitsky, Lucan Way, and Daniel Ziblatt published an op-ed in the New York Times reminding readers that most modern authoritarian leaders are elected. They maintain their power by using the power of the government—arrests, tax audits, defamation suits, politically targeted investigations, and so on—to punish and silence their opponents."
~ Heather Cox Richardson
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Walmart's tariff price hikes are likely weeks away
Walmart said Trump’s import taxes remain too high to avoid passing along to shoppers, who could start paying more for some items as soon as late May.Steve Kopack (NBC News)
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William Lindsey
in reply to William Lindsey • • •"They either buy or bully the media and civil society until opposing voices cave to their power.
Levitsky, Way, and Ziblatt call this system 'competitive authoritarianism.' A country that has fallen to it still holds elections, but the party in power has so weighted the system in its favor that it’s virtually impossible for it to lose."
#Trump #authoritarianism
/2
William Lindsey
in reply to William Lindsey • • •"The way to tell if the United States has crossed the line from democracy to competitive authoritarianism, the political scientists explain, is to see if people feel safe opposing those in power. Can they safely protest? Publish criticism of the government? Support opposition candidates? Or does taking a stand against those in power lead to punishment either by the government or by government supporters?"
#Trump #authoritarianism
/3
William Lindsey
in reply to William Lindsey • • •"Looking at the many ways the Trump administration has been harassing critics, law firms, universities, judges, and media stations, they conclude that 'America has crossed the line into competitive authoritarianism.'”
#Trump #authoritarianism
/4
William Lindsey
in reply to William Lindsey • • •"An authoritarian project has to come out of the shadows to really succeed. The ultimate intimidation of many depends on some early and well-publicized assaults against a few. The harassment of individuals at the border, the assault on some universities and law firms, the targeting of some opposition figures—all of these acts need to be public and publicized to have the desired effect."
~ William Kristol
#Trump #authoritarianism
/5
thebulwark.com/p/trump-wants-h…
Trump Wants His Corruption to Be Public
William Kristol (The Bulwark)William Lindsey
in reply to William Lindsey • • •Arwa Mahdawi reports that if you're planning to enter the US now, either as a citizen or someone with a visa, or a foreign traveler, "It’s also prudent to assume that your social media activity has been examined."
She writes,
"It is not only non-citizens who should be worried."
#Trump #authoritarianism #borders #CBF
/6
theguardian.com/us-news/2025/m…
Keep calm (but delete your nudes): the new rules for travelling to and from Trump’s America
Arwa Mahdawi (The Guardian)William Lindsey
in reply to William Lindsey • • •"Hasan Piker, a left-wing YouTuber and US citizen, was recently held and questioned for hours by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials in Chicago after returning from France. In a video, Piker says the agents seemed to know who he was and asked about his political beliefs, including repeated questions about his views of Hamas."
#Trump #authoritarianism #borders #CBF
/7
William Lindsey
in reply to William Lindsey • • •"Claiming to be a moderate or a centrist is one of the most detestable tricks imaginable. Like crypto-Nazis who have learned to mask their detestable views behind parlor tricks and advantageous deniability, so-called Moderates have hidden their true selves for forever."
~ Jared Yates Sexton
#Trump #authoritarianism #centrists #BothSidesism #media
/8
jaredyatessexton.substack.com/…
What They Always Wanted: "Moderates" During Authoritarian Crisis
Jared Yates Sexton (Dispatches From A Collapsing State | Jared Yates Sexton)William Lindsey
in reply to William Lindsey • • •"They [i.e., "moderates"] hold few actual principles or beliefs beyond the need for power at all costs. In this, they are siblings of authoritarians, willing to say whatever and claim whatever in order to continue getting closer and closer to control."
#Trump #authoritarianism #centrists #BothSidesism #media
/9
samiamsam
in reply to William Lindsey • • •Dave Volek
in reply to William Lindsey • • •Thanks for quips.
The USSR and their satellite countries used to have elections, so they would justify calling themselves "democratic."
I often get comments that the USA has never been a true democracy. Some truth to that.
I wrote Democracy is a Greyscale
medium.com/the-political-prism…