Daniel Marans

@dmarans

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Probably the best read yet on the Zizians AI doomer cult accused of several murders. The journalist got access to their chat logs. https://www.theguardian.com/global/ng-interactive/2025/mar/05/zizians-artificial-intelligence

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He has a teenager's way of absorbing information. Right or wrong, if it's presented by a perceived ally, Musk tends to treat it like exciting or novel new information. But he's too headstrong and incurious to obtain good information on his own. Sometimes, like this case though, Loomer's intervention may turn out to have worked.

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They would argue that the agency they are offering people is to join in solidarity with one another to curb billionaire power. They would say that is fundamentally something in individuals' control.

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I tend to agree. I actually think, for who he is and what his message is, Bernie has a simple charisma. But the bench is not deep in this respect.

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I'm not sure any of us wants to live through the transition period this would entail -- all for uncertain future gains.

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It feels somewhat analogous to how Kamala Harris ran (though of course, Liz Cheney was not the ideal surrogate on this front). And indeed, Democrats have been making steady gains in affluent Milwaukee, Atlanta, Philly and Detroit suburbs since 2016. But the reality is, there are far more non-college voters in the country, and they are more motivated by kitchen-table issues. It's not that I think the Russia message is entirely ineffectual. It's that it's already out there and most of the voters moved by it have already switched to Democrats.

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It's not just MTG, Republicans have been doing it for years. And one party is unlikely to unilaterally disarm for the sake of the broader system absent universal reform. This is just one manifestation -- Democrats impeached Trump twice (the first of which was questionable, imo); Republicans treated Obama as if he was illegitimate (Trump led the way on that) and refused to even vote on his Supreme Court nominee. I gave longer thoughts here, including a grading of Green's effectiveness (low, imo): https://warpcast.com/dmarans/0x038b674b

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Leighton Woodhouse

Me on Razib Khan’s podcast. https://www.razibkhan.com/p/leighton-woodhouse-against-the-rise?r=sm4k&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=audio-player

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Maybe so, but it's better than complaining that Trump isn't more like Reagan. The people lamenting Trump's Russia-Ukraine policy are highly educated voters already voting for Democrats.

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Leighton Woodhouse

I wrote on my substack about the fall of the Roman Empire, the conquests of the Vikings, and the passing of Pax Americana. https://open.substack.com/pub/leightonwoodhouse/p/the-fall-of-rome?r=sm4k&utm_medium=ios

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What's more, Poroshenko at least has positioned himself to Zelenskyy's right, iirc? In other words, it doesn't necessarily help the Trump team get a more pliant leader.

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As it stands, a lot of jobs already do this. Reporters are often asked to draft a story as part of the application process -- like an audition tape -- and public relations professionals are often asked to draft sample press strategy memos.

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I am often critical of leftists, but I do think they are correct that a class/economics-focused message is a better response to Trump than the hawkish Cold War bromides Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin delivered in response to his speech on Tuesday. At the same time, Bernie is ultimately not the ideal messenger for the national party. The public's appetite for a fairer economy where they're not at the mercy of unscrupulous corporate actors does not necessarily mean they have an appetite for Bernie's more sweeping vision for reform. https://x.com/jacobin/status/1897367238518485276

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The negativity in this case being the decision to disrupt the speech, I assume?

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Newsom is very savvy in terms of getting his name out there, embracing new media, and seeing where the political winds are blowing, but I think his hope that this kind of triangulating makes him nationally viable is likely a fantasy. He still has to answer for all of California's challenges (housing crisis, cities in disarray, fires), and nuanced but hard-to-explain trans rights legislation he signed.

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Palestinian scholar Mouin Rabbani suggests that Trump issues hawkish statements about Hamas/Palestinians to provide political cover for norm-breaking moves like the U.S. negotiating directly with Hamas for the first time. https://x.com/MouinRabbani/status/1897523469622882719

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To kick off his new podcast, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) told conservative activist Charlie Kirk that transgender girls and women should not be allowed to play in women's sports. https://x.com/ccadelago/status/1897653616015732765

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Some people over on X disagree with me that Rep. Al Green's protest during Trump's speech last night was ineffective. https://x.com/bhaviklathia/status/1897447897081503960

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