President Trump spent much of yesterday posting about his unlimited support for AI development and data-center construction and calling criticism of it a “hoax.”
asserted
Trump → spend → it
It’s rare to see a politician stake his ground on the 20 side of an 80–20 issue.
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politician → ’ → issue
But that’s our president!
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that → ’ → ?
Next, we suspect he will launch into caps-lock tirades against ice cream, puppies, and the Beatles.
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he → suspect → cream
SCOTUS Dashes Trump’s Last, Best Midterm Hope
by Andrew Egger
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SCOTUS → dash → Egger
Yes, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority has sometimes let Donald Trump get away with too much.
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Trump → let → much
And yes, there are still myriad ways Trump could try to tamper with the upcoming midterms—and it’s all but certain that he’ll try to spin any Democratic victories as fraudulent, at least in the minds of his own base.
uncertain
he → be → base
For this one moment, though, I’m hitting pause on caring about any of that.
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I → hit → that
Last night’s Supreme Court decision blocking Trump’s ridiculous anti-mail-in ballots scheme was a massive rebuke of the president, a giant wrench in his plans to monkey with elections, and the death of his last, best hope to stave off the coming blue wave.
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decision → block → wave
Before we turn back to the future dangers, let’s sit and savor it a little.
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’s → turn → it
Covering this scheme—which we’ve been writing about for months—it’s been difficult to figure out exactly how anxious to be about it.
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it → cover → it
On the one hand, it seemed deeply unlikely all along that it would succeed in court.
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it → seem → court
It was simply too outlandish, too much “one weird trick to seize control of elections”: a brazen attempt to destabilize states’ mail-in voting systems by giving the U.S. Postal Service and its Trump-lackey leadership unprecedented control over which mail-in ballots to deliver and which ones to refuse.
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It → seize → ones
On the other hand, the damage the scheme would have done if Trump had been allowed to proceed was far too massive to ignore.
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Trump → do → hand
Overnight, we could have been looking at a genuine constitutional crisis, with blue states forced to choose between handing troves of voter data over to Trump’s government or carrying out their elections without the use of the mail—which, of course, is what Trump has wanted all along.
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Trump → look → what
Even if they had agreed to give over their data, there were screaming warning signs that mail-in voters could be disenfranchised en masse anyway.
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voters → agree → masse
Justice Samuel Alito, joined in dissent by Justice Clarence Thomas, hand-waves the possibility of this chaos on the thinnest imaginable grounds.
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Alito → join → grounds
First, Alito argued, “the States disagree about the nature of these effects.”
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States → argue → effects
In effect: What are all these blue states complaining about?
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states → complain → What
The red states don’t see a compliance issue here.
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states → see → issue
Second, Alito blames the possibility of all this chaos unfolding just before the midterms on the plaintiff states—for having had the temerity to sue over Trump’s ridiculous order in the first place.
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Alito → blame → place
“In April, the plaintiff States sued to challenge the President’s internal directive to subordinates mandating a rulemaking,” the justice huffed.
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justice → sue → rulemaking
“For months, this litigation cast a cloud over the Government’s ability to issue a final rule.
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litigation → cast → rule
The plaintiff States cannot claim the timing of the rule tilts the equities in their favor when they, and courts hearing their claims, are responsible for so much of the delay.”
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they → claim → delay
It’s clownish stuff, but who cares?
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who → ’ → ?
Don’t let the trolls ruin your day, that’s what I always say.
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I → let → what
Alito and Thomas’s “my president, right or wrong” shtick is isolated on the Court, which handed Trump a growing stack of major Ls this term, stomping on his “Liberation Day” tariffs, upholding birthright citizenship, and now kicking down a tentpole of his election strategy.
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which → isolate → strategy
It makes no sense to treat this Court as a feckless rubber-stamp body for Trump, then to turn around and scoff off their rebukes of his most unconstitutional actions as easy calls.
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It → make → calls
The easy calls are the most important ones to get right, and Trump is far better hemmed in by them than he would be otherwise.
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he → get → them
The fight continues, of course.
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fight → continue → course
As the New York Times notes, the president’s other plans to bully state election officials and to root around in state voter rolls continue unabated.
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plans → note → rolls
And of course, the 2020-style playbook is still right there on the table: Trump is all but guaranteed to decry any Republican losses—of which we expect there to be many—as inherently illegitimate, and he could well lean on quisling allies like House Speaker Mike Johnson to try to block new Democratic majorities from taking office.
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he → guarantee → office
One constitutional crisis averted today is no guarantee we won’t get another one tomorrow.
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we → avert → one
But one constitutional crisis averted today is still cause for momentary relief, reassurance, invigoration, and celebration.
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crisis → avert → relief
The bastards couldn’t manage to pull this one off.
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bastards → manage → one
They’ll keep grinding.
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They → keep → ?
Whom should you listen to on the issue of artificial intelligence?
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you → listen → intelligence
You could listen to the American public.
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You → listen → public
Back in 2025, before this year’s reports of incidents of AI going rogue, polling from the University of Massachusetts Amherst revealed widespread public unease regarding AI.
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polling → go → AI
Fifty-eight percent of Americans said then that AI should be strictly regulated by the government.
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AI → say → government
…and 55 more, not listed.
The Aporia
