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Lloyd Doggett, Michael Shank @ Guardian:
The Iran war reminds us: we’ll never be energy-independent with fossil fuels

Energy security comes from using local, renewable resources to power, heat and cool communities, as Ukraine is doing

Donald Trump’s unjustified war on Iran and the resulting global fuel crisis is a continuing reminder that true energy security and independence will continue to elude us so long as we remain dependent on fossil fuels.

Whether it’s wars over oil and gas resource access or attacks on fossil fuel power plants and energy grids, this reliance on finite resources only worsens a country’s threat profile. News this month of Russia’s deadly attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, Russian drones swarming Ukrainian power stations and Kyiv running out of time to prepare for another winter of attacks on its energy grid illustrates this urgency.

No country will be energy-secure or independent as long as its fuel supply remains finite and fossilized and its power plants and energy grids centralized and fossil fuel-dependent. Those are sitting ducks, targets very vulnerable to attack by adversaries.

James Eagle: Solar is winning the growth race, but gas is still in it

Marisa Kabas: Hating AI is good, actually

Emily Biuso, Akshat Rathi, Olivia Rudgard @ Bloomberg: How Cities From Tokyo to Nairobi Are Becoming Flood-Proof

The business of adaptation—investing in climate resilience—is projected to be a $1.3 trillion market
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Ed Zitron: AI Is Too Expensive

AI is, as it stands, not economically viable for anybody involved other than the construction firms, NVIDIA, and the surrounding hardware companies benefitting from the irrational exuberance of a data center buildout that doesn’t appear to be happening at the speed we believed.

Every AI startup loses millions or billions of dollars a year, and nobody appears to have worked out a way to stop hemorrhaging cash. Hyperscalers have invested over $800 billion in the last three years, with plans to add another $700 billion or so in 2026 and another $1 trillion in 2027, meaning that they need to make at least three trillion dollars in AI specific revenue just to break even, and $6 trillion or more for AI to be anything other than a wash. I went into detail about this (albeit at a lower, pre-2026/2027 capex number) in a premium piece last year.

Sam Newman @ O’Reilly Radar: When an Agent Deletes the Production Database

Revisiting the PocketOS Incident

Medium: Software Engineer (named Vasilios Syrakis) at Atlassian was laid off on March 12 after 8 years.

Vasilios responded with a 40-minute YouTube video showing how the company’s entire tech works, free for anyone to copy.

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Solomon Crenshaw Jr.: From Selma to Montgomery, Alabama marches for civil rights once again

Annie Pearl Avery, 82, sat in a wheelchair at the bottom of the church steps in Selma on Saturday. The former activist said “we dropped the ball” when it came to protecting the rights for which she and others fought.

“We stopped doing certain things that we needed to do to secure what we have,” she said. “You’ve got to watch this stuff. You’ve got to protect it, just like you’re protecting a baby. You’ve got to watch everything, because it’ll get away from you real quick.”

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Sherrilyn Ifill: The Critical Connection Between Brown v. Board and Voting Rights

There Is a Reason That Dr. King Gave his Famous “Give Us the Ballot” Speech on the Third Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education

“But even more, all types of conniving methods are still being used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters. The denial of this sacred right is a tragic betrayal of the highest mandates of our democratic tradition. And so our most urgent request to the president of the United States and every member of Congress is to give us the right to vote.

“Give us the ballot, and we will no longer have to worry the federal government about our basic rights.

“Give us the ballot (Yes), and we will no longer plead to the federal government for passage of an anti-lynching law; we will by the power of our vote write the law on the statute books of the South (All right) and bring an end to the dastardly acts of the hooded perpetrators of violence.

“Give us the ballot, and we will transform the salient misdeeds of bloodthirsty mobs into the calculated good deeds of orderly citizens.

“Give us the ballot, and we will fill our legislative halls with men of goodwill and send to the sacred halls of Congress men who will not sign a “Southern Manifesto” because of their devotion to the manifesto of justice.

“Give us the ballot, and we will place judges on the benches of the South who will do justly and love mercy, and we will place at the head of the southern states governors who will, who have felt not only the tang of the human, but the glow of the Divine.”

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “Give Us The Ballot.” May 17, 1957.
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Dean Obeidallah: Dr. John Gartner: “I’m predicting that Donald Trump will kill more people than Hitler”

… Dr. John Gartner—a psychologist and founder of Duty To Warn—who for years had been raising red flags about Donald Trump’s cognitive decline. … But this is the first time he said something as blunt as, “I’m predicting that Donald Trump will kill more people than Hitler.”

Before you dismiss this as over the top, keep in mind … He has now seen Trump’s reaction to war and the joy it brings him. That is why Dr. Gartner has upped his warning. Plus it’s not just Dr. Gartner alerting us–36 leading medical experts recently signed a letter to Congress warning that Trump is mentally unfit to serve.

As Dr. Gartner explained in our discussion this week, during the Iran war we’ve seen Trump enjoy the bombing and killing of people. “Donald Trump is becoming pure, sadistic id with no brakes, with no frontal lobe,” he explained.
(Dean Obeidallah more…)

Allison Quinn, Mary Papenfuss @ Daily Beast: White House Reveals Secret New Hospital for Trump, 79

The president’s much-talked-about ballroom now inexplicably could double as a hospital.

Joseph Gedeon, Cate Brown @ Guardian: Pentagon quietly shut legally required program to prevent civilian deaths by military, watchdog finds

Jason Sattler: Why Trump can’t quit Stephen Miller

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Jennifer Rubin: Undaunted

On Saturday, a massive civil rights organizing response to the Jim Crow redistricting enabled by the MAGA Supreme Court justices — then rammed through by MAGA-controlled state legislatures — will kick off in Alabama. Who is behind this bold campaign, and what can we expect?

“All Roads Lead to the South,” focused on Selma and Montgomery (two iconic sites in civil rights history), is a coordinated effort championed by Black Voters Matter and over 200 (!) civil rights and pro-democracy organizations (including #WinWithBlack Women, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the ACLU, Democracy Defenders Action, The Lawyers’ Committee, LULAC, The Brennan Center, SPLC, The Transformative Justice Coalition, and Fair Fight) as well as the broader No Kings Day coalition. A massive response to the re-imposition of Jim Crow, one-party rule (with Republicans racing to redrawn lines to eliminate batches of Black and Hispanic House members and dilute Black and Hispanic voting power) could not be more urgent.
(Jennifer Rubin more…)

Mark Gruenberg @ People’s World: Selma revisited: Mass voting rights march happening May 16

Maya Miller, Lisa Song @ ProPublica: At 17, He Was Tear-Gassed at Selma. At 78, He’s Watching Kids Tear-Gassed During Trump’s Deportation Campaign.

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Borowitz: Xi Humiliates Trump by Reading Aloud From Epstein Files

BEIJING—President Xi Jinping’s humiliation of Donald J. Trump peaked on Thursday when the Chinese leader used a joint appearance to read aloud from the Epstein Files.

Standing at a podium barely three feet away from his American counterpart, a stony-faced Xi recited a series of damning allegations about Trump that the DOJ’s redaction team had somehow missed.

While the assembled press listened with rapt attention, Trump appeared oblivious to Xi’s audacious effort to embarrass him.

“He’s a true friend,” Trump later said of Xi. “He said my name many, many times.”

Joyce Vance: Forgetting About Jeffrey Epstein

Jaidyn Bridgeforth @ Atlanta Black Star: ‘An Abomination’: A Congresswoman Just Tore Apart the System That Let Epstein Walk Free for Years, and What She Revealed About Who Protected Him Is Absolutely Damning

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Siyi Liu @ Independent: Chinese supertanker carrying two million barrels of Iraqi crude oil attempts to pass Strait of Hormuz

A Chinese supertanker, laden with two million barrels of Iraqi crude, was reportedly navigating the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, according to LSEG and Kpler ship-tracking data.

The Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) Yuan Hua Hu was observed past Iran’s Larak Island, on the eastern side of the strait and heading south.

This voyage, if successful, would mark the third known passage by a Chinese oil tanker through the Strait since the US-Israeli war with Iran began on 28 February.

Adam Entous, Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan @ NY Times: U.S. Intelligence Shows Iran Retains Substantial Missile Capabilities

Secret new assessments say Iran has operational access to 30 of its 33 missile sites along the Strait of Hormuz, suggesting that its military remains far stronger than President Trump has asserted.

Cliff Schecter, David Shuster, Alan Eyre @ Blue Amp: Iran Has 1,000 Pounds of 60% Enriched Uranium. The Inspectors Are Locked Out.

… why Iran’s nuclear calculus has now shifted from “hedge” to “weapon.”

Jason Sattler: Trump Heads to China to Celebrate Losing in Iran

Adam Lynch @ AlterNet: Former diplomat hits White House nerve with a single fact

…
“Not a single China expert. POTUS would normally have at least one NSC/State official to provide briefings,” posted Bruen on Tuesday. “Underlines how utterly unprepared he is for meetings with Xi.”
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Mostafa Salem @ CNN: Iran’s ‘garbage’ peace offering is proof it thinks it has won the war

The United States waited 10 days for Iran’s response to its framework for ending the war. When Tehran’s demands arrived Sunday, they signaled that the Islamic Republic remains intent on extracting victory despite President Donald Trump’s push for regime surrender.

Neither side has publicly released the exact terms under negotiation, but Iranian state media reported that Tehran sought in its response a complete end to the war, formal recognition of its sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz and full sanctions relief.

The emboldened demands formed a counterproposal that Trump swiftly rejected. He deemed it “totally unacceptable” before calling it “a piece of garbage.”

It remains unclear which specific elements Trump objected to amid the obscurity shrouding the proposal. Iranian state media have consistently framed Tehran’s position throughout the war as one of strength in keeping with the government’s apparent effort to project an Iranian victory to its domestic audience.

Laurence Norman, Robbie Gramer @ WSJ: U.S. and Iran Are Locked in a Stalemate That’s Neither Peace nor War

The two sides are far apart from a deal but also don’t want to resume fighting
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Shannon Pettypiece @ NBC: The families going hungry because of Trump’s food stamp cuts

Under President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” food stamp applicants are fighting to prove eligibility and facing questions about birthday gifts sent over Zelle. A crisis in Arizona offers a warning for America.

PHOENIX — The line outside a suburban office building was already 15 people long when Tiffany Hudson showed up with her 7-year-old son cradling his blanket. It was 7 a.m. At the front of the line was a woman hooked up to an oxygen tank who had arrived 90 minutes before the building opened.

Like others there, Husdon had come to the Arizona Department of Economic Security office in Surprise, a Phoenix suburb, to find out why the food stamp benefits for her and her two children were cut off after the state began implementing new eligibility requirements under President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”
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