📝 Housekeeping notes: I’m re-categorizing posts and updating the categories I use on this site, so if you spot things that seem miscategorized, that’s because they are. I may eventually get them all updated, but I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting on it to happen.
🦤 Twitter is still, technically, there. Y’know, functioning. You can go post a tweet, other people can still see it, etc. But… probably not for much longer? Musk activated Hardcore Mode on Twitter yesterday at 5pm on the West Coast and it seems like most of the remaining employees bowed out, leaving Musk with something that, by all reports, barely qualifies as a skeleton crew. The World Cup starts tomorrow, and apparently that kicks Twitter’s ass as far as site traffic and whatnot goes. A lot of people who should know about such things think Twitter may buckle under the stress and lack of help. I guess we’ll see.
- Futurism: Panicked Elon Musk Reportedly Begging Engineers Not to Leave
- NPR: Twitter employees quit in droves after Elon Musk’s ultimatum passes
- CNN: Inside Twitter as ‘mass exodus’ of staffers throws platform’s future into uncertainty
- Mosquito Capital on Twitter, Thread: “As an SRE and sysadmin with 10+ years of industry experience, I wanted to write up a few scenarios that are real threats to the integrity of the bird site over the coming weeks.” (Better hustle and read that thread while it still exists.)
🏛️ Nancy Pelosi stepped down from Dem leadership yesterday. A few contenders for the throne include Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark, and Pete Aguilar.
⚖️ Jesse Benton, a Republican political strategist who was pardoned by Trump in 2020 for a campaign finance crime, just got convicted of another campaign finance crime. He helped Russian businessman, pyramid scheme-runner, and former Russian naval officer Roman Vasilenko illegally contribute to Trump’s campaign.
🍊 Hey, remember when Trump tweeted that classified photo from a secret intelligence satellite? Good times.
🇰🇵 In case you don’t have enough to fret about, North Korea just tested an ICBM that could probably hit mainland US.
🍊 Speaking of Trump, the Mercers claim they won’t be funding him this go around. Pretty sure Murdoch and the Koch brothers have told him to piss in the wind, too. With three major GOP donors telling him to go pound sand, I’d be keeping a mighty close eye on Trump’s campaign funding if I were a person in charge of such things.
🍊 Still speaking of Trump, the DoJ has appointed a special counselor, Jack Smith, to oversee the investigations over the stolen documents found at Mar-A-Lago and Trump’s involvement in Jan. 6. I’m seeing a lot of people online either complaining because it’ll slow down investigations or hush them up or some such, or treating this like the second coming of Robert Mueller, only, y’know, this time we’ll get him for sure, guys! I think that about the most it shows is that the DoJ is taking things seriously, I guess?
💉 There’s a vaccine for aggressive breast cancers going into Phase II human trials. Neat!
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Notes & Thoughts 