This is all well and good (the opening paragraphs are spot on), but insufficient. The AI companies will NEVER allow this kind of public intervention (as capitalists whose only measure is much more money, they won’t do it on their own).

And one political party (in the US at least) is completely owned by AI, the other party is actively courting it.

Only the rich will end up using AI to cement their privileged position, the working class be damned. Unless we organize.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/05/05/1136843/ai-democracy-blueprint/

“You all have AI—actual intelligence,” Wozniak said, eliciting applause from the Michigan audience. “My entire life in the technical world, I’ve been following people who were trying to figure out how to make a brain.

“I was at a company where the engineers figured out how to make a brain,” he continued, saying it “takes nine months.”—Steve Wozniak

https://www.fastcompany.com/91545731/this-sentence-about-ai-got-apple-co-founder-steve-wozniak-applause-not-boos-for-his-commencement-speech

RE: https://mastodon.social/@arstechnica/116602694526388591

Do you trust Google to do the right thing? I wouldn't bet on it.

This framing breaks the neoliberalism/neofascism duopoly:

https://prospect.org/2026/05/12/mamdani-announces-balanced-budget-without-cuts/

As Faiz Shakir noted on All In with Chris Hayes tonight, it's working class populism.

I'm all for voting for a Democrat, and even actively working to elect a candidate, as long as that candidate if sharpening the class contradictions in the party. Otherwise, they are wasting our limited time.

“Dia de la Madre honors the nurturing of all humanity.”

This mother and her son look over the valley in rural Oregon where they make their home. Contrary to our recent history, it’s unclear if they have a future anywhere in America.

#mothersday #immigration #authenticphoto #farmworkers

Fred Ritchin, who has written about the effects on technology on photography for years, catalogues some truly dystopic scenarios about how Google's Gemini can be used to distort our understanding of and relationship to the real world.

But Fred, perceptive as he is, does not offer any strategy to obviate what he foresees. That's a shortcoming that I tried to address at https://take-note.com/note-takers/marshall--mayer/related-content/apple-protect-authentic-photography (Tim Cook did not reply). And Apple is relying on Gemini for its AI. OMG!

https://fredritchin.substack.com/p/your-ai-knows-you-or-does-it

If you don't watch corporate media, I urge you to watch this segment of Chris Haye's "All In" from last Friday.

In a town hall with NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdami, the mayor outlines what democratic socialism means: it's delivering for all people the basics to enable everyone to build a good life. It's why he won.

The key question is about taxes. "Show me what I'm paying for." Most get not much.

The role of good government is to build public wealth.

Watch the segment here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zjqry1TKnc&list=PLDIVi-vBsOExbSqEOcs8y89xhOYLatXhW&index=3

I took this note in 2009, before Trump's 1st term. I drove by again yesterday. I did not take another note, because the scene was unchanged! There is still no wall, all along the Rio Grande for hundreds of miles.

On all the roads in all the communities near here in Far West Texas (Trump country), there are hundreds of signs proclaiming https://nobigbendwall.org. It's working!

#authenticphoto #bigbend #riogrande #borderwall #wildriver #resistance #immigration

Source: https://take-note.com/note-takers/marshall--mayer/notes/texas-xenophobes-want-us-taxpayers-to-wall-this-wild-river/view

I’ve posted here before about my involvement to pass the Roadless Rule. Turns out that in a very deep red state, Montanans love it!

First article only (please excuse the web graphic, click through to avoid): https://montanafreepress.bluelena.io/index.php?action=social&chash=fd0a5a5e367a0955d81278062ef37429.62266&s=e58ab34e8fb2f1436be5ea9e93cfb917