Today's links

• Shopping isn't politics: The personal isn't political.
• Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
• Object permanence: Neither arphid nor RFID; Gor novel sex slave cult; Violent economist sex criminals; Vade et caca in pilleum et ipse traheatur super aures tuo; "We Stand on Guard"; Healthy FLOSS; Lawsuits 2.0; CDC v zombie apocalypse; Gandhi's speeches; Apple v games about Palestine; Second Life chuds v Bernie; UK was never a "white" country; Dead, broke; Who Broke the Internet? (III)
• Upcoming appearances: Hay-on-Wye, London, Kansas City, LA, Menlo Park, Toronto, NYC, Edinburgh.
• Recent appearances: Where I've been.
• Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
• Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
• Colophon: All the rest.

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Shopping isn't politics (permalink)

I've written before about the futility of "voting with your wallet." Billionaires love it when you try to vote with your wallet, because while billionaires only represent 0.00004% of the population, their wallets are 100,000 times larger than average, which means that when we vote with wallets, a billionaire's vote counts 100,000 times more than yours:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/09/13/consumption-choices/

The idea of voting with your wallet is fundamentally antiprogressive, and not only because wallet-voting favors the wealthy. The ideological basis for voting with your wallet is the belief that politics are slow and unresponsive, while markets dynamically optimize for human wellbeing. By voting with your wallet, you are supposedly injecting information about your preferences and dispreferences into a vast, distributed computer we call "the market," which uses "demand signals" to decide how we live our lives.

This belief is incompatible with the idea of politics – that is, the idea that our lives can be shaped by representative democracy, deliberation, and/or solidarity. It's a nihilistic view that insists that the only nice things we can have are the things that "the market" chooses for us. If "the market" doesn't decide to swap out fossil fuels for cleantech, then that's that – any attempt to draw down our carbon emissions through regulation will only "distort the market." If you're roasting in a drought, drowning in a flood, or being incinerated by a wildfire, your only move is to go shopping and hope that by buying a Tesla, you will emit a "demand signal" that "tips the market equilibrium" to "not killing you and everyone you love."

Shopping isn't politics. Politics are politics, and shopping is shopping.

This isn't to say shopping can't improve your life! I am a materialist, and having nice things is nice. If there's a lovely independent coffee shop in your neighborhood where the baristas are treated well and the coffee is delicious and the vibes are impeccable, then by all means, get your coffee there. If you love the staff and selections at your neighborhood indie bookstore, then you should buy your books there. If you love the discourse on Mastodon or Bluesky and find yourself feeling sick and angry when you use Twitter or Facebook, then ditch the legacy social media and take up residence in the Fediverse and/or Atmosphere.

But don't kid yourself that this is politics. No matter how indie your coffee, books and social media, your consumption choices will not have a material impact on Starbucks, Amazon or Twitter. Going vegan won't make the meat industry treat animals better. Taking the bus won't induce improvements to your town's public transit network.

Having nice things is nice, and the more nice things you have – good food, good health, good books, good coffee, good social media and good transit – the more space and energy you'll have to devote to politics.

But what about boycotts? Surely the Montgomery bus boycott, the anti-Apartheid boycott, the California grape boycott and the BDS movement were politics, right?

They sure were. But they weren't shopping. The Montgomery bus boycott lasted 382 days, during which time organizers worked with bus riders, cab drivers, the UAW and community groups to provide material and legal support and alternatives like car pools, all while communicating about their specific demands. After 382 days, the courts ruled in their favor, their demands were met, and Montgomery's buses desegregated:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_bus_boycott

That wasn't "shopping." The bus boycott didn't consist of a bunch of individual choices to walk to work, repeatedly made by a city full of Black people and their allies. The shopping part was the least important part of the whole matter, and the meaningful part of the shopping was never individual. If the boycott was nothing more than shopping, it would have broken as soon as individual people found themselves unable to convince their bosses to tolerate their late, sweaty arrival at work, day after day. The boycott worked because it was politics.

And because the boycott was politics, it left behind a movement: the boycott brought people into solidarity with each other, and when they comprehensively defeated their political adversary – National City Lines – they went on to form the backbone of the civil rights movement, going from strength to strength.

Of course, shopping is part of a boycott. It's the individual part that each participant in the boycott undertakes. But without the collective, organized part, shopping is no way to effect change.

Is voting politics? Well, sure, but voting is to politics as shopping is to boycotts. For several decades now, most voters have been asked to chose the lesser of two evils (and now they're asked to choose the significantly lesser of two evils). Voting can change things, when there's something good to vote for, or something very bad to vote against, and when lots of people show up at the polls.

But to make voting effective, you have to do politics. You have to get involved in the primary races that select the candidate. You have to go to candidates' meetings and ask tough questions. You have to ring doorbells for your chosen candidate, volunteer to take your neighbors to the polls and volunteer to defend the polls from chuds and ICE fascists. The part of voting that takes place in the booth is the least important part of politics.

It's obvious why we might prefer to substitute voting or shopping for politics: they're activities you do alone. You don't have to find anyone else to do them with you. You don't have to convince anyone else to do them with you. You don't have to argue about them or justify them. They are zipless fucks, a source of satisfaction without connection, compromise or complication.

Of course, that's also why voting and shopping make a poor substitute for politics. All the retail therapy in the world can't lift your spirits the way that solidarity and community will. Doing politics creates solidaristic ties with the people around you, who might help you if you lose your job and can't buy groceries, or break your leg and can't get to the grocery store, or if ICE fascists try to kidnap you while you're out shopping.

Solidarity gets you through times of no money way better than money gets you through times of no solidarity – just ask the psycho billionaires who wanted Doug Rushkoff to invent a system of bomb-collars that would keep their post-apocalyptic mercenaries from whacking them and stealing their bunkers:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/09/13/collapse-porn/#collapse-porn

Last weekend, I walked through a crowd of tens of thousands of coked-up fascists in central London on my way to meet up with 250,000 comrades marching for an end to genocide in Palestine and a new British social compact based on mutual aid, pluralism, and care. Walking through those flag-draped chuds was incredibly demoralizing:

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2026/05/cokeheads-and-christians-a-day-at-tommy-robinsons-rally

But when I got off the tube at South Kensington and found there were so many of us we were backed up all the way from the every street entrance to the bottom of the escalators, my morale surged. Hours later, when we all reached Pall Mall together, I was ready to take on the world. That's what politics does for you: it makes you feel like you belong to a polity and that together, you can really change the world.

Politics runs on solidarity, but shopping destroys it. Individual consumption choices don't change the world, but if you've been convinced that the only way to change the world is by voting with your wallet then when the world stays terrible, you can only conclude that your friends and neighbors have ruined by things by voting (shopping) wrong.

In politics, we build bonds of mutual regard and understanding that we use to navigate our differences. But when you vote with your wallet, all that's left is the endless policing of your allies' consumption choices, endless scolding for their failure to leave Twitter, or give up meat, or eschew chatbots. Shopping for change ends up replacing politics with petty snooping and endless sniping and attempts to bully or shame people into consuming different things.

If "the personal is political," then every political disappointment in your life is down to your friends' personal defects. If you let yourself get tricked into organizing your life around "living your politics" – that is, giving up on nice things in the hope that this will make politics change, and then getting mad at people who consume different things from you – then you will end up sucked into the stupidest fights imaginable with the people you need to get along with in order to do politics.

Once again, this isn't to say that you shouldn't choose to have nice things. Buy stuff you like, shop at places you like. And when circumstances allow all of us to start making consumption choices in unison – as when Comrades Trump and Putin stage an orgy of demand-destruction for fossil fuels, catapulting the world into the Gretacene – then by all means, take the win. That is one of the rare instances in which we can do political change with consumption!

https://pluralistic.net/2026/05/04/hope-in-the-dark/#hormuzed-into-the-gretacene

And there definitely are times where a single individual can intervene in the system in a powerful way that really fucks up the worst actors in our society:

https://www.theverge.com/tech/931532/bambu-agpl-pawel-jarczak-open-source-threat-dmca-github

These usually involve using technology to "move fast and break things," which is fine, actually! It's fine to move fast and break things belonging to Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg or some other monster. Indeed, it's practically a moral imperative:

https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/30/zucksauce/#gandersauce

But even in those highly leveraged, highly individualized opportunities to make a dent in the universe, you'll make a bigger dent, and have more fun, if you do it as politics, with a big group of people, in bonds of solidarity.

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Hey look at this (permalink)

• The Workers Who Defy Gravity https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/05/20/ai-companies-organized-labor-actors-fight-back/

• Messages of Solidarity https://movement.wwwrise.org/solidarity

• The Enshittification of History https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2026/05/the-enshittification-of-histor.html

• Europe’s big tech bet is only as safe as its democracy https://defenddemocracy.eu/eu-tech-democracy/

• Iran demands Big Tech pay fees for undersea Internet cables in Strait of Hormuz https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/05/iran-demands-big-tech-pay-fees-for-undersea-internet-cables-in-strait-of-hormuz/

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Object permanence (permalink)

#25yrsago Software-based antennas https://web.archive.org/web/20010518225333/http://www.etenna.com/

#25yrsago Aimster loses trademark to AOL https://web.archive.org/web/20010523001415/http://msnbc.com/news/575492.asp?cp1=1

#25yrsago House to ban online anonymity https://web.archive.org/web/20010526220254/https://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,43938,00.html

#20yrsago Lawsuits of Web 2.0 https://web.archive.org/web/20060528001734/http://www.fuckedsuit.com/

#20yrsago Is one month’s piracy worth more than France’s GDP? https://decordove.com/one-month-of-torrents-is-worth-more-than-the-gdp-of-france-riaa-rant.php

#20yrsago Audio from Bruce Sterling’s “Neither Arphid nor RFID” rant https://web.archive.org/web/20060614140414/https://dev1.manme.org.uk/~luke/Sterling_SPACE_160506.mp3

#20yrsago Cops raid “sex slave cult” based on science fiction novels http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4996410.stm

#15yrsago Legal rebuttal: “vade et caca in pilleum et ipse traheatur super aures tuo” https://newyorkpersonalinjuryattorneyblog.com/2011/05/joseph-rakofsky-i-have-an-answer-for-you.html

#15yrsago List of economists involved in violent sex crimes, for Ben Stein https://blog.xkcd.com/2011/05/18/answering-ben-steins-question/

#15yrsago MAFIAA wants warrantless searches of CD and DVD factories https://web.archive.org/web/20110520232527/https://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/05/riaa-warrantless-seizures/

#15yrsago CDC explains how to prepare for a zombie apocalypse https://web.archive.org/web/20110519201602/http://emergency.cdc.gov/socialmedia/zombies_blog.asp

#10yrsago 129 of Gandhi’s speeches on India and self-rule https://archive.org/details/HindSwaraj?and[]=subject%3A"Post+Prayer+Speech"

#10yrsago A backer message as Earth leaves beta and goes 1.0 https://web.archive.org/web/20160521054706/http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v533/n7603/full/533432a.html

#10yrsago EFF files Chelsea Manning appeal on hacking conviction https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-asks-court-reverse-chelsea-mannings-conviction-violating-federal-anti-hacking-law

#10yrsago Apple rejects game about Palestine because political messages disqualify games from consideration https://web.archive.org/web/20160520111154/https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/05/apple-says-game-about-palestinian-child-isnt-a-game/

#10yrsago Nerdcore rapper Sammus’s amazing OSCON keynote https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELczJ07XPnw

#10yrsago Everything is a Remix on “The Force Awakens” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKvsc6a03Es

#10yrsago Angry dudes are downranking woman-oriented TV shows on review sites https://web.archive.org/web/20160519014153/https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/men-are-sabotaging-the-online-reviews-of-tv-shows-aimed-at-women/

#10yrsago Second Life’s Trump army lays siege to Bernie Sanders’s virtual HQ with swastika cannons https://web.archive.org/web/20160428093534/https://motherboard.vice.com/read/second-life-donald-trump-bernie-sanders

#10yrsago Xenophobic UK politician ranting about “political correctness” gets a public spanking from an historian https://web.archive.org/web/20160520224731/http://indy100.independent.co.uk/article/ukip-councillor-attempts-to-blast-bbc-for-historical-inaccuracy-gets-destroyed-by-actual-historian–ZyZAasU2fb

#10yrsago A look at digital habits of 13 year olds shows desire for privacy, face-to-face time https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/parenting4digitalfuture/2016/04/18/the-class-living-and-learning-in-the-digital-age/

#10yrsago Big Vitamin bankrolls naturopaths’ attempts to go legit and get public money https://web.archive.org/web/20160520123659/https://www.statnews.com/2016/05/17/naturopaths-go-mainstream/

#10yrsago We Stand on Guard: in 100 years, America seizes Canada for its water https://memex.craphound.com/2016/05/18/we-stand-on-guard-in-100-years-america-seizes-canada-for-its-water/

#5yrsago Apple's complicity in Chinese state oppressionhttps://pluralistic.net/2021/05/18/unhealthy-balance-sheet/#think-manorialism

#5yrsago Community Health Services sued its way through the pandemic https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/18/unhealthy-balance-sheet/#health-usury

#5yrsago What Would Open Source Look Like If It Were Healthy https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/18/unhealthy-balance-sheet/#user-personas

#5yrsago Dead, broke https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/19/zombie-debt/#damnation

#1yrago Who Broke the Internet? Part III https://pluralistic.net/2025/05/19/khan-thought/#they-were-warned

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Upcoming appearances (permalink)

• Hay-on-Wye: HowTheLightGetsIn, May 22-25
  https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/hay/big-ideas-2

• SXSW London, Jun 2
  https://www.sxswlondon.com/session/how-big-tech-broke-the-internet-b3c4a901

• Kansas City: Facing the Future (Woodneath Library Center), Jun 10
  https://www.mymcpl.org/events/119655/facing-future-cory-doctorow

• LA: The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI with Brian Merchant (Skylight Books), Jun 19
  https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-cory-doctorow-presents-reverse-centaurs-guide-life-after-ai-w-brian-merchant

• Menlo Park: The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI with Angie Coiro (Kepler's), Jun 21
  https://www.keplers.org/upcoming-events-internal/cory-doctorow-2026

• Toronto: TBA, Jun 23

• NYC: The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI with Jonathan Coulton (The Strand), Jun 24
  https://www.strandbooks.com/cory-doctorow-the-reverse-centaur-s-guide-to-life-after-ai.html

• Philadelphia: TBA, Jun 25

• Chicago: The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI with Rick Perlstein (Exile in Bookville), Jun 26
  https://exileinbookville.com/events/50628

• Edinburgh International Book Festival with Jimmy Wales, Aug 17
  https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/events/the-front-list-cory-doctorow-and-jimmy-wales

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Recent appearances (permalink)

• On Enshittification – and what can be done about it (Re:publica)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhINQgPMVSI

• EFFecting Change: How to Disenshittify the Internet (EFF, with Wendy Liu)
  https://archive.org/details/effecting-change-enshittification

• The “Enshittification” of Everything (Bioneers)
  https://bioneers.org/cory-doctorow-enshittification-of-everything-zstf2605/

• Enshittification (99% Invisible)
  https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/666-enshittification/

• Artificial Intelligence: The Ultimate Disruptor, with Astra Taylor and Yoshua Bengio (CBC Ideas)
  https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-23-ideas/clip/16210039-artificial-intelligence-the-ultimate-disruptor

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Latest books (permalink)

• "Canny Valley": A limited edition collection of the collages I create for Pluralistic, self-published, September 2025 https://pluralistic.net/2025/09/04/illustrious/#chairman-bruce

• "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," Farrar, Straus, Giroux, October 7 2025
  https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/

• "Picks and Shovels": a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2025 (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels).

• "The Bezzle": a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about prison-tech and other grifts, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2024 (thebezzle.org).

• "The Lost Cause:" a solarpunk novel of hope in the climate emergency, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), November 2023 (http://lost-cause.org).

• "The Internet Con": A nonfiction book about interoperability and Big Tech (Verso) September 2023 (http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org). Signed copies at Book Soup (https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245).

• "Red Team Blues": "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books http://redteamblues.com.

• "Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com

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Upcoming books (permalink)

• "The Reverse-Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book about being a better AI critic, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, June 2026 (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374621568/thereversecentaursguidetolifeafterai/)

• "Enshittification, Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It" (the graphic novel), Firstsecond, 2026

• "The Post-American Internet," a geopolitical sequel of sorts to Enshittification, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2027

• "Unauthorized Bread": a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, April 20, 2027

• "The Memex Method," Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2027

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Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources:

Currently writing: "The Post-American Internet," a sequel to "Enshittification," about the better world the rest of us get to have now that Trump has torched America. Third draft completed. Submitted to editor.

• "The Reverse Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book for Farrar, Straus and Giroux about being an effective AI critic. LEGAL REVIEW AND COPYEDIT COMPLETE.

• "The Post-American Internet," a short book about internet policy in the age of Trumpism. PLANNING.

• A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING

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Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.

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A lawsuit alleges the Trump administration awarded most new Texas border wall contracts to two firms. One has faced legal issues and shoddy construction claims.

For as long as his hair has been silver (going back to his 20s), John Cornyn has been winning elections. 

Among those victories seemed, perhaps, to be the 74-year-old U.S. senator’s surprising first-place finish in the March primary—over expected frontrunner Attorney General Ken Paxton—which set up next week’s decisive runoff. On primary night, Cornyn called the scandal-plagued AG “flawed, self-centered and shameless” and boldly called his shot: “Judgment Day is coming for Ken Paxton.”

The next day, The Atlantic published a purported scoop—reported by two prominent ex-Washington Post political correspondents—stating that President Donald Trump would soon throw his endorsement to Cornyn in an attempt to end what would otherwise be a protracted, expensive bloodbath. Trump confirmed he would be endorsing one of the two and calling on the other to bow out.

What a coup this would have been for Cornyn, the consummate Senate hand who had spent his life cultivating influence in the deepest ends of the D.C. swamp—the sort of figure that’s fallen out of fashion in the brash era of unbridled Trumpism. Here was a man who was never a full convert, who had the gall to—in brief spurts in the distant past—not always speak of Trump with pure reverence, now seemingly about to get the nod over Paxton, a favored MAGA son. 

Then came… nothing. Hours passed, then days, weeks, and months as the painfully long period between Texas primary and runoff dragged on without Trump intervening. 

Both camps kept lobbying Trumpworld for his endorsement—each playing to the president’s personal vanity, his guiding principle when it comes to picking sides. 

For Paxton, there was no amount of groveling that would come off as shocking. For Cornyn, though, it was sometimes cringeworthy to see him go through the motions: posing with The Art of the Deal and giving up on his beloved filibuster. 

Meanwhile, each also commenced with campaign bloodsport—spending tens of millions of dollars attacking the other (to be fair, more so the Cornyn side than Paxton). Then, just before noon on May 19, on the second day of early runoff voting in Texas, Trump put his proverbial hand on the shoulder of his chosen one, and lo, it was Warren Kenneth Paxton. 

In a 683-word, typically self-absorbed missive posted on Truth Social, where posts are supposed to be known as “truths,” Trump wrote that Paxton is “an America First Patriot, and someone who has always been extremely loyal to me and our AMAZING MAGA MOVEMENT.” 

Cornyn, on the other hand, was merely “a good man, and I worked well with him, but he was not supportive of me when times were tough.” 

In a tight runoff, the Trump endorsement, though late, almost certainly ensures the scandal-tarnished attorney general the nomination. (As incumbents from Louisiana to Kentucky—who’d risked considerably more independence than Cornyn, to be clear—recently discovered in their own primary contests.)

And, of course, this will almost certainly ensure that Cornyn’s decades-long run as a statewide official in Texas is brought to a likely end with a flippant tapping of a button on Trump’s own social media app. 

As John Cornyn rose, over the course of the 1980s, 90s, and 2000s, from a San Antonio lawyer to district court judge, from Texas Supreme Court justice to state attorney general, and ultimately to the Senate in 2002, he served in many ways as a sort of cipher for the political arc of the traditional Republican Party in Texas—its rise to power, its deepening and maintenance of that power, and, ultimately, the fading of that power in the face of insurgent forces. Cornyn pioneered the Republicanization of the Texas Attorney’s General Office that paved the way for his successors: Greg Abbott and Paxton. And, in the Senate, Cornyn helped usher in the 21st century brand of conservatism that fused the religious and social right with the power of Corporate America (while, in his own way,never really managing to become a consistent favorite of the hardcore base). 

All along the way, Cornyn was the most loyal of servants for the GOP cause—and he steadfastly rose through the ranks of power in Washington as his tenure advanced. 

Ken Paxton, meanwhile, has been a cipher for the Trumpification of the Republican Party in Texas and nationwide—the beneficiary of an era wherein one can enjoy the trappings of a Christian conservatism brand while possessing the personal ethics and morality of an unrepentant hustler. He is of the tendency that cast aside some traditional pro-business principles (including the tort reform revolution that Cornyn rode to power) in favor of a wildly vindictive, heat-seeking agenda to take out the scourge of “Woke,” “DEI”, etc. Despite his generally dull personal affect, Paxton has used each ounce of his official and political power to fan the flames of conspiracy theory and neo-McCarthyism. 

The day before Trump’s (likely) fateful endorsement, Cornyn was hitting the campaign trail across Texas. The list of guests who were at his side was instructive. Up in North Texas, there were the Republican state Representatives Jeff Leach and Matt Shaheen, both once faithful Collin County conservative allies with Paxton who have since become outspoken adversaries—and public enemies among the pro-Paxton grassroots. In Austin, Cornyn rallied a small crowd with Michael McCaul, a longtime congressman and Cornyn mentee who was once seen as his potential successor in the U.S. Senate, who’s now had his fill of Congress in the age of Trump. 

Then, down in San Antonio, the senator was flanked by former Governor Rick Perry who has now been out of political office for nearly 12 years, plus Cornyn’s own predecessor, Phil Gramm. (Both men, it should be noted, made the transition from conservative Dem to Republican during the Texas political realignment of the 1980s.) 

In short, this was not really a crowd that met the current moment, even as Cornyn has sought to pucker up and display his Trump fealty. (One of his most recent official acts was a proposal to name a Texas highway after the president.) 

The undignified way in which Cornyn’s political career appears to be meeting its maker now begs a bigger question.

In many ways, his Senate career was already over—becoming so when he narrowly lost his long-coveted shot at becoming majority leader of the U.S. Senate last year. His path to power in that case was blocked, in part, by a pressure campaign led by Paxton and his allies. Trump ultimately chose not to endorse in that contest. 

So why exactly did he, well into his 70s, even want to spend another six years in the U.S. Senate, a political body that has lost its august sheen and become yet another venue for unvarnished politicking, a body that couldn’t even feign to pass a non-budgetary, non-defense piece of legislation. A body whose core tradition, the filibuster, he felt forced to abandon in a desperate campaign tactic? Why not retire and ride off into the sunset? 

Cornyn has explained repeatedly that this was mostly, perhaps entirely, about preventing a man of Paxton’s immoral character from ever stepping foot in the Senate—not about passing some long-denied piece of legislation, or solving the immigration policy dilemma that he helped blow up over a decade ago, or anything else beyond the symbolic. Congress, after all, is no longer a place where things get done. 

But now, it appears that even his seemingly straightforward goal of stopping Paxton’s ascent is on the verge of failure. 

In the end, Cornyn always had a rather unnatural, if not unpleasant, relationship with Trump and the Trump era—and those points where he chose to speak out against the GOP uberleader probably led to his (also probable) demise. Even still, his resistance ultimately amounted to little more than stray comments. 

So, if he loses his runoff, will Cornyn become another in the line of Jeff Flake, Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, or, most recently, Bill Cassidy, who at least managed to exit the stage with what seemed a genuine flourish of principle over position?

Don’t count on it.

The post Not with a Bang but with a ‘Truth’ appeared first on The Texas Observer.

In brief: A round of storms moving into the region today should impact areas south of Houston, including southern Brazoria County which has already been hard-hit by rainfall. Storms should be more scattered in nature on Friday before the likelihood of widespread heavy rainfall ramps up over Memorial Day Weekend.

Rains recap

Since the beginning of these late May storms on Tuesday, most of the Houston area has picked up 1 to 3 inches of rainfall, which has been manageable. However areas south of Houston, particularly in southern Brazoria County near Angleton and Lake Jackson, have had a far wetter time of it. Some of these locations have already received 6 to 8 inches of rainfall. Unfortunately for these locations, it appears that rainfall on Thursday will be mostly concentrated over areas south of Interstate 10.

Thursday

A check of the radar this morning shows a large mass of showers off to the southwest of Houston near Victoria Port Lavaca. These showers and thunderstorms should slowly move to the northeast, toward the metro area this morning. Our latest high-resolution guidance suggests these storms will largely remain confined to areas south of Interstate 10 as they move through during the morning hours, and likely exit to the east by early afternoon. Rain accumulations of 1 to 3 inches will be possible for coastal areas, but I’m hopeful that much of the heavier rain will fall just offshore.

For the rest of the Houston area rain showers and thunderstorms should be more scattered later this afternoon. Skies will be mostly cloudy with high temperatures in the upper 70s to lower 80s. (I have to say that afternoon temperatures on Wednesday afternoon were very comfortable for late May in Houston). Rain chances should be low overnight, with lows around 70 degrees.

Friday

This is looking like a day during which showers and thunderstorms are more scattered in nature rather than organized into a broader system; which is to say rain chances will be a bit lower than the weekend at about 50 percent. With mostly cloudy skies we can probably expect highs in the vicinity of 80 degrees.

Memorial Day Weekend

The upper-air pattern will become more amenable to supporting widespread showers and heavy rainfall this weekend as a low pressure system allows the passage of multiple disturbances over the region. Rain chances will be near 100 percent on Saturday and Sunday, and perhaps only a little bit lower on Monday. Most of the area is likely to pick up an additional 3 to 6 inches of rain this weekend, with higher isolated totals leading to at least street flooding, and possibly some flash flooding. For this reason we are maintaining our Stage 2 flood alert through the holiday weekend.

It’s still a little too early to have precise details about timing, but basically you should be prepared for some disruptions at any point this weekend. Certainly roads should be passable most of the time, but these are the conditions that support some impacts to mobility where rainfall is heaviest and/or prolonged. Basically we want you to be alert to the possibility of flooding, but not fear widespread mayhem.

High temperatures should remain in the low- to mid-80s this weekend with plenty of humidity, and nights not cooling down much. Saturday looks to be mostly cloudy, but we could see some breaks in the sky on Sunday and Monday when it’s not raining.

Next week

I don’t have great confidence in the forecast for next week. Daily rain chances continue to look healthy, perhaps in the vicinity of 50 percent or so, but at this point I think (and hope) amounts will be trending downward after Monday. Highs remain in the 80s, probably.

A reader writes:

I have an odd dilemma that I have no idea what to do about.

I started a new job recently and my cubicle has a really nice large window that looks out into the side garden, where there is a view of a hummingbird feeder and a bluebird nest box. I’m super appreciative of my nice view but the problem is, so is everybody else. As it’s warmed up and more birds are active, several coworkers have started just stopping in my doorway or stepping into my cubicle behind me to just … view the birds.

On one hand, I get it. I have a nice big window and most people don’t. But also, I find it super distracting to have people sneak up on me or just stand there creepily behind me while I’m trying to work.

What’s a nice way to handle this? I’m on the verge of being like, CAN I HELP YOU? I thought briefly about moving the feeder, but the box can’t be moved and it wouldn’t solve the problem, really.

Yeah, this was foreordained as soon as they put the nest box and feeder there. Of course people will want to look at it.

It would likely have been better located by a conference room or kitchen window, rather than at one person’s desk, but here you are.

Is there any chance you can just move desks? Maybe there’s not, but it might be worth saying to your boss, “I love the view at my desk, but I’m realizing people stop by all day to watch the birds and it’s really distracting. Any chance there’s a different desk I could use?”

If not, can you change the direction you’re facing so that people who stop by aren’t right in your line of sight? It’s still unnerving to know someone is standing behind you, but you might get better at blocking that out over time. You could also try arranging a piece of furniture to stop people from standing right behind you.

If none of that works, you could ask people who are lingering, “Do you need me?” and look at them expectantly. With some people, that will be enough to make them realize this is someone’s workspace they’re standing in. But other people will say no, they don’t need you, they’re just watching the birds. In those cases, you can decide if you want to say, “Yeah, they’re really cute! It’s hard to work with so many people coming in to watch them though.” You might not go straight to this the first time someone does it, but you might after the second or third.

That said, this is trickier because you’re new and you want to be warm and friendly to your new colleagues and not end up as The New Hire Who Ruined Our Bird Fun. Or possibly, The New Hire Who Kept the Birds All For Herself. So before you move to that, the better plan might be to spend a few weeks really trying to block people out. Realistically, I don’t know if you’ll be able to — I think I would find that really distracting too, and I am someone who can normally block out distractions when I’m working — but if you’ve made a good faith effort to do that before asking people to stop (plus allowed that additional time for people to get to know you as someone other than Bird Fun Destroyer) it’ll likely go over better when you do.

The post my window has become the bird-watching window appeared first on Ask a Manager.

After you, my dear… in case there’s any danger.

The post OpenAI Announces Construction Of New Data Center On Top Of Sick Child appeared first on The Onion.

SUN PRAIRIE, WI—Struggling feebly against the temptation to abandon the ethical standards he swore to uphold upon his election to the position, local student council treasurer Grayson Burner’s deepest convictions were reportedly tested Thursday after he obtained access to $52 in singles. “Let’s not do anything too hasty—this kind of money doesn’t come along every day,” the Sun Prairie High School sophomore and aspiring civil servant is said to have muttered to himself in a fit of sudden greed, feeling the heft of the stack of bills in its manila envelope as he conjured up mad power fantasies about the lavish indulgences the $52 intended for the quarterly pizza budget could be spent on instead. “ I can’t just let this moment pass me by. Imagine the doors this could open for me. This money could change my life. I always told myself I’d be able to resist the pull, but…she’s a foul seductress, wealth.” At press time, reports confirmed Grayson was screaming incoherently as rubbed the dollar bills against his face.

The post Student Council Treasurer’s Deepest Convictions Tested By Access To $52 In Singles appeared first on The Onion.

The post Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Trying To Draw Foul While Shooting Free Throw appeared first on The Onion.

The Department of Justice filed charges, including murder and conspiring to kill U.S. nationals, against former Cuban President Raúl Castro for the 1996 downing of civilian aircraft, raising the specter of war as tensions ramp up with the Communist island nation. What do you think?

The post U.S. Indicts Former Cuban President appeared first on The Onion.

You aren’t alone. It happens to every majority government. One minute, you’re engaged in a lively debate at a bipartisan committee meeting. The next thing you know, the press release you already wrote because the meeting was just a sham to appease your opposition is coming out and making a giant mess. It’s everywhere. The […]

The post Five tips to avoid prematurely releasing your referendum announcement appeared first on The Beaverton.

With apologies to Wallace Stevens.

I
Meeting with the academic dean
I asked him to share with faculty
How admin are using AI.

II
A colleague shares a short story:
Kafka sitting in a sales meeting
For AI.

III
AI can help faculty take
Burdensome things off their plate,
Says the dean who doesn’t use it
Or know how the plates will empty.

IV
Students want faculty to teach them
Responsible use of AI.
Students refuse to read AI statements in
Syllabuses.

V
The thinker and the thought
Are one.
The thinker and the AI thought partner
Are less than one.

VI
O slumped and gray writing professors,
Why do you imagine human-filled writing?
Do you not see that AI is the future?

VII
A philosopher writes doggerel for
An English professor
Frustrated about the lack of leadership
Regarding AI in higher ed.

VIII
I know what transformative learning can be,
And I know that outsourcing
Wonder—perhaps to a generative AI—
Transforms no one
And leaves landscapes
Ravaged.

IX
Copilot will protect your data
From outsiders;
Your campus owns your private
Questions.

X
I asked ChatGPT to review
My thyroid levels,
And was prepared for the doctor’s phone call.

XI
Is this strong student writing or
Is this a revised draft of a strong
AI prompt?

XII
It’s finals week.
Can we map electricity spikes
To college towns
To academic integrity reports?

XIII
It was the semester’s twilight.
No one knew what AI would look like
In the morning.

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
I want to be buried at the K-T boundary holding a box of brass gears marked Time Machine.

Today's News:

An American infected with Ebola is being treated in Berlin, while another exposed to the deadly virus is being sent to Prague after the White House reportedly resisted allowing citizens to return to the US for care and monitoring.

According to The Washington Post, five people close to the Ebola response said that, over the weekend, the Trump administration resisted allowing the return of Peter Stafford, a 39-year-old surgeon working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo amid a raging Ebola outbreak. The resistance allegedly delayed Stafford's evacuation and care, risking his health, as experts note that early treatment is critical for Ebola, which can turn deadly in days.

On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Stafford had developed symptoms over the weekend and tested positive for Ebola late Sunday. In a press briefing on Wednesday, Satish Pillai, the CDC's incident response manager for the Ebola outbreak, said Stafford had arrived in Germany and is in stable condition. His wife, Rebekah Stafford—also a doctor who was exposed to the virus in DRC but is asymptomatic—along with the couple's four children, have been flown to Germany as well.

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The 119th Congress might be one of the most dysfunctional and least productive legislative sessions in the 250-year history of the United States, but it seems there's one thing it can agree on: Electric vehicles don't cost their owners enough money. The Transportation and Infrastructure committee has published its bill to fund surface transportation for the next half-decade, and among the provisions in the "Building Unrivaled Infrastructure and Long-term Development for America’s 250th Act" is an annual fee levied against owners of EVs.

“I’m extremely proud of the historic level of investment in America’s bridges—at more than $50 billion, it’s the largest such investment in our history. And the BUILD America 250 Act ensures that electric vehicle owners begin paying their fair share for the use of our roads," said committee chairperson Sam Graves (R-Mo.).

Should the bill pass—and it enjoys support from the Democratic Party, too—you will be required to pay a $130 federal registration fee to drive an EV. And starting in 2029, that fee will increase by $5 each year until it reaches $150. Plug-in hybrids don't escape untaxed, either; the fee for a PHEV begins at $35 a year and will escalate by $5 each year until it reaches $50 annually. And if state departments of transport don't collect this federal EV tax, the federal government will "withhold an amount equal to 125 percent of the amount owed from the state’s highway apportionment."

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Comments

WASHINGTON—Stressing that they couldn’t get enough of the bland icy husks that crumble apart in their mouths, the American people reportedly begged frozen fruit companies this week to keep the giant flavorless blackberries coming. “If you can keep making bags of ice-caked blackberries with no taste whatsoever, we’ll take everything you got,” said Nevada resident Conner Morris, echoing the sentiment of all 340 million Americans as he revealed their strong desire to eat nothing but bitter, frosty blackberries the size of golf balls for the rest of their lives. “If we get even a hint of sweetness, though, we’re not going to be happy. Just make them huge, frost-covered, and insipid. Keep shoveling them at us, and we’ll keep slurping them up. And if you could jack up the price more, too, that would be perfect.” The U.S. populace added that the bags of frozen blackberries should ideally be fused into one giant freezer-burnt chunk.

The post Nation Begs Frozen Fruit Companies To Keep The Giant Flavorless Blackberries Coming  appeared first on The Onion.

Since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, hostilities have escalated into naval blockades and threats from both sides that could spark a wider war. The Onion examines the key facts and figures behind the conflict.

10-20

Synonyms for “boondoggle” journalists aren’t allowed to use

8.6 million

Schoolchildren remaining in Iranian stockpiles

19-ish

Missiles U.S. will have left for next three decades of global conflicts

2104

Year the last Strait of Hormuz mine is discovered by a Carnival Cruise ship

3

Number of future generations that will fight this war

1

Number of blood clots it would take to end this all

The post The Iran War By The Numbers appeared first on The Onion.

LOS ANGELES—Flashing her freshly manicured nails in a show of dominance, Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills cast member Kyle Richards was seen Thursday circling menacingly around the table where The Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives ’ California spinoff was filming. “I don’t care what you Mormon wives get up to in Utah, but California is mine, do you hear me?” said Richards, who snarled at the cast and crew of the competing reality franchise, causing at least one frightened boom-mic operator to drop his pole and flee the scene. “You want to star in a frothy reality show about your friend group, you gotta get through me. And don’t even think about calling yourselves wives. Now back off my turf, before I make you.” At press time, the cowering group of Mormon reality stars had retreated to Newport Beach, only for The Real Housewives Of Orange County star Tamra Judge to urinate on the crew’s camera equipment.

The post Kyle Richards Menacingly Circles ‘Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives’ Spinoff Shoot appeared first on The Onion.

Foreign Affairs Minister and “deep concern” enthusiast Penny Wong has taken swift and decisive action following Israeli officials posting footage of Israeli officers assaulting activists from the flotilla bringing aid to Gaza who were being held illegally, including multiple Australians.

Initially Wong responded on behalf of the Australian government by tweeting that she didn’t like that Israel posted the video. Which by condemnation of Israeli actions standards, was already considered one of her strongest stances thus far.

But Labor insiders have revealed that Wong has even gone to the extreme of sending an email to Netanyahu about the incident, where she didn’t include “hope you’re well” after the hello.

Sources suggest that she hopes things don’t escalate to the point where she needs to send a follow up with “as per my last email”.

Wong has also called in the ambassador, who has still not been expelled, to have a chat where reportedly the ambassador will only be offered instant coffee instead of sending a staffer to a cafe for latte.

The post Wong takes strong stance on Israel abusing Aussies by not including a ‘hope you’re well’ in latest email appeared first on The Chaser.

Elora, ON ― First-time parents Felicity and Ivan Jennings welcomed an enormous waste of time, money, and effort into the world yesterday, which they refer to as their “son,” or Jody. Friends of the temporarily happy couple report that Felicity is doing well and getting some rest, the last she will get for eighteen years, […]

The post New parents celebrate beginning of 18-year, $300,000 failed investment appeared first on The Beaverton.

College students and professors are protesting with mock funerals across Texas, saying universities are dying from political interference. School officials say they’re responding to shifting needs.

“In the end, only one will remain and will leave the island with one million dollars in cash as their reward.” — Jeff Probst, host of Survivor

“For the moment, the fund has been capped at the patriotically symbolic sum of $1.776 billion, and many Jan. 6ers have already done the math in an effort to determine the maximum amount that each of them could get. If all of them sought money and received the same amount, the payouts would be around $1.125 million each.” — New York Times

*-“Paramount Is Rolling Back DEI Initiatives to Align With Trump Mandates.” — Variety

#CowboyWho

The x86-64 architecture inherited the parity flag (PF) from the x86-32, which in turn inherited it from the 8080, which inherited it from the 8008, which implemented it because it was the processor for the Datapoint 2200 serial terminal.

The parity flag also has a secondary purpose of being a place for the FXAM (x87) and UCOMISD (SSE) instructions to record the results of floating point comparisons. You can still entice compilers into checking the parity flag by checking a value for NaN or performing a floating point equality or inequality comparison (because NaN always fails equality and inequality comparison).

It turns out that the Windows debugging engine for x86-64 had a bug where it reported the parity flag as the opposite of what it actually is. When the parity flag was set, it said “po” instead of “pe”, and vice versa.

The fact that this went unreported for over two decades tells you that nobody cares about debugging the parity flag.

A fix has gone in. We’ll see if it makes it out before this article gets posted.

The post Just shows that nobody cares about debugging the parity flag any more appeared first on The Old New Thing.

A reader writes:

I am a senior administrator, with a team of 10. Most of the positions that I supervise are entry level, a lot of recent college grads. I am happy to have these folks on my team and enjoy mentoring them. Generally, I expect people to stay in this role for 2-5 years before advancing to a different department or a different company, sometimes a different field altogether.

Last year, a woman who had been working on my team for five years, Milly, let me know that she was looking for a new job with more growth. I encouraged her and said that I was happy to help however I could and to serve as a reference. She was generally a good employee. While she needed a lot of coaching on professional norms and communication, I expect that in this role, and she had shown growth in her time here.

A few months later, Milly went to my grandboss with a litany of complaints about me and the job, none of which she had ever brought up to me in any way. He referred the issue to my direct supervisor, and we met to discuss her concerns. Many of them had to do with confusion around exempt vs non-exempt employees. At the time, we put some things in place to help with some of her biggest complaints around scheduling and communication.

A few months later she quit, and on her way out she went full scorched earth on me to my direct supervisor. There were dozens of complaints about me, my team, and the department, most of which were objectively and demonstrably not true. Several were things that I could easily prove were simply fabrications.

I certainly have growth areas, but many of her complaints were things that I’ve never heard from anyone I’ve managed in 20 years of management. That said, I really sat with all the feedback and tried to lift out what was true. I processed it with my supervisor (who I have a great relationship with). I made some structural changes that I think have really helped our team (including clarifying roles and lines of communication) that were probably overdue. Things are good. Recent reviews and surveys indicate that the team is happy.

That was six months ago. I am now hiring for a recently created position that is a middle management position. This position and I will work very closely together. Shortly after the position was posted publicly, Milly applied for it.

How do I proceed with this hiring process in a way that is fair? Before she left, I probably would have considered her for this role, but would have had reservations about her communication and professionalism. Those reservations have only increased since she left since I’ve also learned some things since she left that demonstrate questionable judgment in her previous role.

I have a committee that will help with the hiring, so it won’t be down to me alone, but ultimately I will have the final say on who we hire. I think it’s unlikely that Milly will emerge as a top candidate, although she does have some good friends who will be part of that process. I want to give her a fair chance, but I also can’t imagine working so closely with someone who said such awful things about me. I also worry that if she is not selected it may look like retaliation. What is the best way for me to proceed?

You can just say no. You don’t need to meet some outside standard of objectivity where you pretend that you don’t have the knowledge about Milly that you do have, or where you assess her the way you would if you had never worked together.

It is completely normal for a manager to consider what they know about a candidate from working with them previously and to decide, based on that experience, that they don’t want to hire them again, and not to advance them in the hiring process as a result. You don’t need to go through the charade of interviewing her; that’s a waste of your time and her time. And really, offering her an interview out of “fairness” sends her a message that’s strangely out of sync with the reality of the situation, which is that if you tell a bunch of lies as you leave a job, you’ve burned that bridge and that manager isn’t going to want to rehire you later.

(Frankly, it’s bizarre that Milly applied for the position at all, if she realizes that you’re the manager of it! Which might be further illustration that her judgment is weird, which you already knew.)

Even though you’re part of a hiring committee, if you’re the manager for the open position, you are on very solid ground in saying, “I worked with Milly in the past, we did not work together well, and I am not interested in bringing her back.” It would be highly unusual for the rest of the hiring committee to push back on that as long as you’re known to have good judgment, but if you need to enlist your manager in backing you up, do. If anything, I’d think your manager would be surprised to learn you’re even considering interviewing her!

You said that you’re worried not hiring her will look retaliation, but it’s not retaliation to factor in firsthand knowledge of a former employee. It’s an expected and natural outcome.

The post do I have to hire an employee who went scorched earth after she left? appeared first on Ask a Manager.

The goal of the program is to teach the trainers skills and give dogs a better chance for adoption.

#Ryo #RoninWarriors