Josh Piper

Make Racism Wrong Again

Interested in setting aside the magical prompter and learning some web standards skills the old fashioned way? You can sign up for my online Web Components course for free until Oct 31 with the code markitzero. If you find it useful, please consider letting folks know! 🎃

The NBA of 2026 isn’t built to create moments like last night. It’s sacrificed the bonds between players and cities for parity. But Dame’s returned reminded us that his connection is built to withstand the storms that break everyone else. theburnernba.substack.com/p/damian-lil...

1. The Wall Street Journal and CBS News confirmed that Elon Musk was involved in the decision to stall out Starshield, the military version of Starlink, when Ukraine needed it most. www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-mu...

Very serious people say the challenge is to figure out which 1-3 oversight investigations to prioritize with limited staff. Every year since Watergate, the House and Senate have voted not to increase oversight capacity. Why is it so hard to think about changing our institutions to meet the moment?

Liberals say that our democracy should not be led by a senile narcissist. They're wrong—our republic should not be led by a senile narcissist.

holy smokes, conan strikes up a chat with a random lady on the subway and she immediately starts riffing on his level, no problem.

Dillon Brooks really just dropped an ad to troll LeBron 😭 (via fullcourtpress) #NBA

Happy NBA Opening Day to all who celebrate!

Still trying to understand how Napster got shut down, but Anthropic is going public and still hasn’t paid us authors yet after stealing our work.

Connecticut's state test is kind of difficult! See how you stack up against our state's 3rd, 5th and 8th graders with our quiz www.ctinsider.com/news/educati...

Now THIS is how you write a story. Devastating.

The most shocking part of Trump’s comments is what our reaction says about us

This would sink a presidency in any other era. I would bet most Americans will never hear it even happened.

Okay so we have a number now: the Onion is officially 6 months ahead of reality.

When you offer a bare bones, factual description of what Guilfoyle has been up to, it sounds absolutely insane. But here we are: America's government under the Trumps. People of Greece, if you are listening, we are sorry. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/stop-paper...

“The greatest danger isn’t A.I.’s ability to lie. It’s the ability to persuade. These new agents of influence are less like a traditional propaganda pamphlet…more like a living, breathing case officer. A.I. agents try to manipulate us through sustained engagement” www.nytimes.com/2026/10/06/o...

I witnessed the Pinochet regime’s fall. It offers hope – and a warning – for the US | Ariel Dorfman

A 10K contribution and a $900 million return. The scale of the graft in Homeland Security is a) off the charts and b) possible because no-one believes they will face any accountability

Unless Congress reclaims its power, this will just become the new normal. A good first step would be to impeach Vought. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/02/u...

youtu.be/8QbjlHeoLdc?... this excellent documentary on the making of the Oregon Trail game features the original creators talking about how they remember Prince being one of the first beta testers. (Of the first research prototype that pre-dated the more famous Apple II versions.)

X: The hallucinatory Bespoke Realities generator that all the politicians and journalists happen to be on

I know, I know, I KNOW... but my jaw dropped. A gift link. (Also, hat tip to Sadie Gurman, who for many years now has pretty much owned the DOJ beat) www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...

Always always read a @sarahkendzior.bsky.social post … otherwise you’ll miss out on the wisdom of things like this ⬇️ sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/a-public-f...

In my weekly newsletter, I recreated that terrific testosterone chart from @goodauth.bsky.social and tested some other possible correlates to Trump support. link.ctinsider.com/view/6650ab5...

1. DOGE dividend. 2. Tariff dividend. 3. Midterms dividend. 4. Data center dividend.

These ads go in the same category as brazen, easily disproven lies after ICE killings. It’s not about persuasion. It’s a display of power. They could have passed them off as PAC-funded. They added “paid for by the U.S. government” because they want us to know they can break the law with impunity.

This is now a sycophancy test. Joking about it I’ll accept, barely, but anyone who even remotely indulges this is a coward

What is Chris Simms talking about right now? Get out of here with that nonsense.

What about the Hatch Act? Trump is exempt from the Act, but presumably other federal employees involved in creating the ad are not. But the problem again is enforcement. Trump fired the Office of Special Counsel which now has no confirmed leader and has stopped enforcing the Act for Trump officials.

i wonder how many people realize this is a real problem or just assume the party in power just always uses government money for campaign ads

New article! On access journalism, AI replacements for people, and Trump's latest attack on freedom of the press: sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/gutting-th...

How many Watergates did we have today. Feels like the average is three

Here's a good test case for our framework, demonstrating how a real incident can be turned into a false "rigged election" rumor or narrative. Here the DOJ highlights a case where a postal worker discarded mail that included ballots, and uses that to suggest voter fraud and untrustworthy elections.

Sen. Susan Collins helped steer millions in federal defense contracts to Navatek, whose CEO illegally funneled thousands of dollars to her campaign. The FBI sought to launch a probe and was eyeing Collins and other lawmakers. Then Trump gutted the unit in charge. THREAD 🧵

John Oliver is right: One huge company shouldn’t own your doctor, your insurer, and your pharmacy – AND get to squeeze every penny out of you at each step.

The view from there: SNL UK's "Weekend Update" tackles Macklemore's removal from Ed Sheeran's U.S. tour.

"Fake till you make it" is one thing when the stakes are low, but using untested tools in critical situations is ill advised to say the least.

41 years ago today, David Letterman delivered his very first Top Ten List. We revisited that night and the many lists that would follow with members of the show's staff last year:

This is excellent. Lots to think about here and not just about kids programming. I think there are good thoughts about communicating with others, in general.

"Loneliness is all that oligarchs will give you for free. Loneliness without solitude: the ultimate totalitarian win." sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/i-wandered...

“This should be unthinkable for the son of the president. End of story.” A Russian oligarch close to Putin bankrolled Don Jr.’s wedding. www.propublica.org/article/dona...

Reminder that Lewandowski was a Special Government Employee with a zero dollar contract. Because he saw govt as a graft opportunity for much bigger bucks

More reporting from today’s NYT on the escape and coordination of rogue AI agents during testing at OpenAI earlier this summer. This is a deadly serious wake up call for more governmental oversight of AI. Call Congress and demand action. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/03/t...