Epstein, aliens & AI

When late night host Jimmy Kimmel asked former Vice President Kamala Harris this question last December, she said it was because the administration didn’t want to tell the Department of Justice what to do. Still, the Democratic-controlled Congress could have released the files sooner. But Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), who has long advocated for the files’ release, also told PolitiFact that "pushes for oversight and record releases were at times tempered by a need to respect both the victims’ pursuit of justice in courts and their fears of reprisals.”

So, why did Democrats double down on releasing the files after Trump was elected? More public support may have been a factor. A YouGov poll last November found that large bipartisan majorities wanted the government to release the files. The Justice Department, under the leadership of Attorney General Pam Bondi, also faced criticism for its handling of the files.

The DOJ’s handling of all this included giving binders of the files containing no new information to far-right influencers, said it wouldn’t release any more files, announced investigations into Epstein’s ties to Trump’s political enemies, and missed its deadline to release the files. When the files were released, the DOJ redacted powerful people’s names but exposed victims’ sensitive information.

Big picture, the Department of Justice has come under a lot of criticism — not only for its handling of the Epstein Files, but also for the way Trump has stripped it of its independence more generally. For instance, federal prosecutors this week tried and failed to indict six lawmakers who urged military service members to refuse illegal orders. Trump had previously called for those six lawmakers’ death. Incidentally, one definition of “obstruction of justice” — an impeachable offense — includes corruptly, threateningly or forcefully influencing a federal agency’s work.

A podcaster asked the former president if aliens are real and he said yes. But he later clarified that he “was trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round” of questioning, and while he believes it’s likely that “there’s life out there,” he “saw no evidence” of alien contact during his presidency.

Scientists agree that extraterrestrial life has likely existed. The Drake equation is a formula used to estimate the number of civilizations in our galaxy that could communicate with us. It includes variables like planets per star that can support life and longevity of civilizations.

Without knowing all the variables in the equation, it’s impossible to solve. But by instead asking if aliens have ever existed on any planet at any time, it’s easier to measure the probability. Using that methodology, scientists calculated there’s less than a one in 10 billion trillion chance that there are no other civilizations like ours out there.

The Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of ICE and Border Patrol, subpoenaed social media sites for information on users tracking ICE or posting anti-ICE comments. Three companies — Reddit, Google and Meta — have reportedly complied with the subpoenas. A Google spokesperson didn’t deny the company’s compliance via a statement to The New York Times, and said the company notifies users when their accounts have been subpoenaed — unless, of course, they don’t notify them.

Do tech companies have to comply with these subpoenas? Before it became an addition circle of hell ruled by Grok and Elon Musk, Twitter resisted a similar order from DHS during Trump’s first term. Twitter sued the government, saying Customs and Border Patrol exceeded its authority by issuing an administrative subpoena to unmask who was behind an account. DHS is similarly using administrative subpoenas against tech companies today.

Caving to the Trump administration notably doesn’t work. For instance, Apple let the Trump administration bully them into taking down an app used to track ICE. And days ago, the administration pushed Apple News to promote more right-wing content. As a counterexample, Costco stood by its DEI efforts after Trump pressured companies to dismantle those programs, and they’re on pretty solid financial ground.

Late night host Stephen Colbert said CBS, a subsidiary of a company run by Trump’s friend’s nepobaby, pressured him not to air an interview with a Democratic congressional candidate. Colbert said CBS told him it could trigger the Federal Communication Commission’s “equal time rule.”

The equal time rule is part of a law stating that broadcasters have to give equal time to all political candidates. In 2006, talk shows like Colbert’s became exempt from this, though the FCC has more recently said that those shows do need to comply with the equal time rule, even though the law hasn’t changed.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr confirmed that the FCC opened an investigation into “The View” for not following the rule, and CBS lawyers told Colbert that airing the interview he wanted to air could trigger a similar investigation. But the harshest possible consequences of such an investigation would likely be a fine, since there are legal hurdles to pulling a station off the air completely over something like this.

It’s basically when programmers let AI write code, instead of writing code themselves. Agentic coding takes it a step further — that’s when you tell AI what you want to build, and AI basically takes it from there.

Why is the term gaining so much attention? Recently, millions of users have flocked to tools like Codex and Claude Code. These are pretty new tools doing increasingly complex things.

And sure, these tools save people a lot of time writing code at work, but at what cost? AI agents doing this are essentially doing the equivalent of entry-level tasks in many white collar industries, replacing the need for human workers like you or me. In fact, a recent Stanford study found that employment for young software engineers has dropped by 20 percent since late 2022.

No one has better speciality pizzas than Minksy’s. From their Hawaiian to their cheeseburger to their speciality KC Joe’s pizza, every single gourmet pizza is a success. 

Pizza Shoppe holds a special place in my heart, having celebrated the end of no less than 10 elementary school soccer and basketball season there. Honorable mention for Old Shawnee Pizza, which used to be a Pizza Shoppe then was spun off into its own brand by the owner a couple decades ago.

Buffalo State Pizza Co. popped up during covid and I tried it for the first time after moving back here. It’s delightful. I love the restaurant itself too. Good music, good vibes and still family-friendly.

Pizza Tascio is nice but my sisters are way too obsessed with it. As their younger brother I am required by law to like it less.

Wiseguy pizza is just okay, but living above their 4th street location for all of covid offered terrific free smells.

Andy’s is very good. Not the best but very good.

I used to get pizza from this place near Logan Circle called Pizzoli’s. I loved it dearly. No one else has ever agreed with me, except my wife. That’s true love.

Nothing beats a Jumbo slice at 3 am.