Scott Boehmer

Author: Scott Boehmer

  • WTF Just Happened Today

    WTF Just Happened Today is a newsletter from Matt Kiser that gives an overview of political news. It is sent out four times a week. Each one starts with “Today in one sentence”, which only works thanks to a generous application of semi-colons, and then gives more details on each bit of that overview. This structure is nice because you can read the quick summary and then jump to the details for any parts that catch your attention from it.

    You can read past newsletters and subscribe at whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com

  • Another ICE Story

    He had planned to return to Ireland in December, but was briefly unable to fly due to a health issue, his medical records show. He was only three days overdue to leave the US when an encounter with police landed him in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) custody.

    From there, what should have been a minor incident became a nightmarish ordeal: he was detained by Ice in three different facilities, ultimately spending roughly 100 days behind bars with little understanding of why he was being held – or when he’d get out.

    Sam Levin

    Irish tourist jailed by Ice for months after overstaying US visit by three days: ‘Nobody is safe’ (The Guardian)

  • The OBBB and North Carolina

    The OBBB contains provisions that will harm millions of North Carolinians and numerous sectors of our economy. While the effects of this bill were enough to lead Senator Tillis to flip (and now retire), every House Republican voted for this bill. Often, we view what goes on in Washington as detached from our lives here at home, but the effects of this bill will be felt at kitchen tables, in hospitals, and bank accounts all across the state. It’s on us to make sure that the lawmakers who voted for it, including every House Republican from North Carolina, feel what we feel, too.

    Miles Kirkpatrick

    One Big Beautiful Bill, One Big Blow to North Carolina (Carolina Forward)

  • Does Giving Money for Housing Work?

    Governments around the world have tried it: giving people cash to make housing more affordable. But does it actually work? We dive into one of the most misunderstood dynamics in housing economics — and reveal the single factor that determines whether cash assistance helps homebuyers… or just fuels even higher prices.

    Justine Underhill

    They Tried Giving People Money to Buy Homes – Here’s What Happened (Justine Underhill – YouTube)

  • BS Machines Broken By BS

    You can trick AI chatbots like ChatGPT or Gemini into teaching you how to make a bomb or hack an ATM if you make the question complicated, full of academic jargon, and cite sources that do not exist.

    Aedrian Salazar

    Researchers Jailbreak AI by Flooding It With Bullshit Jargon (404 Media)

  • Radio

    Like Daughter of Swords, Sylvan Esso is a group that I learned about by way of an article about Psychic Hotline. I bought their album What Now, and Radio is my favorite song from it.

    Sylvan Esso – Radio (Music Video) (Sylvan Esso – YouTube)

  • JD Vance, Nationalism, and the GOP Megabill

    Part of the American creed is that we don’t care where anyone’s ancestors are buried. Vance’s debased version of patriotism says that we’re just a tribe like any other: insular, fearful and hateful, believing in nothing more morally ambitious. It’s small and ugly — and, dare I say, un-American.

    Paul Waldman

    The GOP megabill fulfills JD Vance’s incredibly depressing vision of patriotism (MSNBC)

  • Why They Hate Education

    In their quest to destroy democracy, Trump, Vance, and their cronies are intent on shutting the American mind.

    Robert Reich

    Why They Hate Education (Robert Reich)

  • The AI Con

    Never underestimate the power of saying no. Just as AI hypers say that the technology is inevitable and you need to just shut up and deal with it, you, the reader, can just as well say “absolutely not” and refuse to accept a future which you have had little hand in shaping. Our tech futures are not prefigured, nor are they handed to us from on high. Tech futures should be ours to shape and to mold.

    Emily M. Bender & Alex Hanna

    I recently read The AI Con by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna. It was a solid summary of problems with the current wave of “Artificial Intelligence” that has so completely captured the attention of tech leaders over the past few years. It examines how these pieces of software have numerous negative impacts with very little real upside, and how talk of achieving artificial general intelligence or superintelligence is just marketing with no real substance behind it. While the concepts covered won’t be new if you’ve followed the authors or other critics of the current AI push, like Timnit Gebru, it was a great collection of the information in one place. If you haven’t been paying attention to them, then it is definitely worth reading for a perspective that is often missing from coverage of AI companies and products.

  • The American System of Democracy Has Crashed

    As Donald Trump’s imperial presidency rolls forward across the wreckage of Congress on tank treads greased by the Supreme Court, there’s scant evidence of a legal movement for limited government or states’ rights. Trump is not the useful tool of an aggressive right-wing movement. Why look for complex explanations when there is a very simple one at hand? He is the king they serve enthusiastically, a leader whose lies and lawlessness they both enable and mirror.

    Elizabeth Lopatto & Sarah Jeong

    The American system of democracy has crashed (The Verge)