How popular is Donald Trump?

Silver Bulletin approval ratings for President Trump — and all presidents since Truman. “We’ve just launched this landing page, where we’ll update President Trump’s approval ratings several times per week. Sometimes, you’ll find a quick note here analyzing the latest trends. And sometimes, approval ratings can be pretty boring, so we won’t have much to …

Subjects: Economy

DOGE Is the Deep State

Wired: “A shadowy group of unelected figures reshaping the federal government to their own benefit from the inside? Sounds familiar! The “deep state” is a top-tier conservative bogeyman, right up there with DEI and George Soros. But it seems fair to ask: If a bunch of shadowy, unelected figures, many with shared business interests and …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Congress, Defense, E-Records, Government Documents, Privacy

The Fediverse Isn’t the Future. It’s the Present We’ve Been Denied

Joan Westenberg: “For years, the internet has been shrinking. Not in size, not in data, but in ownership. A vast, decentralized network of personal blogs, forums, and independent communities has been corralled into a handful of paved prison yards controlled by a few massive corporations. Every post, every “friend,” every creative work—locked behind closed doors, …

Subjects: Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Privacy, Social Media

Made O’Meter

Made O’Meter “Discover where a brand or product may originate* Made in to support Europe, Canada & friends Please add a photo of a product or brand. Made O’Meter is experimental non profit and 100% Free + Ads-free help us keep it that way.”

Subjects: Economy, Internet, Legal Research

Meet Rayhunter: A New Open Source Tool from EFF to Detect Cellular Spying

EFF: “At EFF we spend a lot of time thinking about Street Level Surveillance technologies—the technologies used by police and other authorities to spy on you while you are going about your everyday life—such as automated license plate readers, facial recognition, surveillance camera networks, and cell-site simulators (CSS). Rayhunter is a new open source tool …

Subjects: Knowledge Management, Privacy

Tariffs—Everything you need to know but were afraid to ask

Fact Sheet • By Adam S. Hersh and Josh Bivens • February 10, 2025 . “During his presidential campaign, President Trump pledged to impose universal tariffs of 10–60% on all U.S. imports—a whopping $4.2 trillion in goods and services purchased from abroad in 2024. This was always a real possibility. The International Economic Emergency Powers Act …

Subjects: Economy, Financial System

Trump Wants to Use the IRS to Track Down Immigrants. They May Stop Paying Taxes

The Bulwark: “Immigrants in this country illegally paid nearly $100 billion in taxes in 2022, according to a report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic policy. But that source of government revenue may soon taper off as the Trump administration pushes the Internal Revenue Service to help it accelerate its program of mass deportations. …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, E-Government, E-Records, Economy, Financial System, Legal Research

How to spot AI slop on Pinterest and why it’s such a big problem

ZDNet: “For years, Pinterest has been dubbed the go-to social media site for inspirational mood boards, tracking lifestyle, fashion, and beauty trends, and finding niche and popular consumer-based products. Recently, however, the site has been plagued with an onslaught of AI slop, making it difficult for users to decipher what’s real, human-made content or fake. …

Subjects: AI, E-Commerce, Search Engines, Social Media

The Authoritarian Regime Survival Guide

“The text below, dubbed the “Authoritarian Regime Survival Guide”, was published in social media in January 2017 in a series of improvised, spontaneous tweets, which reached 3 million views within one month. Their common element was their trademark signature, “- With love, your Eastern European friends”, and the accompanying hashtag #LearnFromEurope. The Guide went viral …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Free Speech, Government Documents, Legal Research