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Reposted by George Pagel

The Washington Post

@washingtonpost.com

Symbolically, the destruction of the East Wing is the end of an era, and it has been seen as a slight to the traditional respect for the Office of the First Lady.

The East Wing is gone. Here’s why it’s been called ‘the heart’ of the nation.

The East Wing played second banana to the West Wing, but the home of the first lady’s office was the source of quiet power and influence.

www.washingtonpost.com

October 28, 2025 at 4:00 AM

Reposted by George Pagel

Zach Harper

@talkhoops.bsky.social

Holy shit this ad

October 24, 2025 at 2:50 PM

Reposted by George Pagel

Ed Zitron

@edzitron.com

I need to be very explicit: there is not enough money in the world to fund OpenAI's $1 Trillion in commitments, and that's across the top 10 private equity firms, all US venture capital, and both Goldman and JPMorgan's direct lending funds. This is very bad.
www.wheresyoured.at/the-case-aga...

The World’s Private Credit and Venture Capital Cannot Afford OpenAI
Here’s some alarmism for you: the longer it takes for OpenAI to die, the more damage it will cause to the tech industry.

On Friday, when I put out my piece on OpenAI needing a trillion dollars, I asked analyst Gil Luria if the capital was there to build the 17 Gigawatts that OpenAI had allegedly planned to build.

He said the following:

No of course there isn't enough capital for all of this. Having said that, there is enough capital to do this for at least a little while longer.
That doesn’t sound good!

Anyway, as I discussed earlier, venture capital could run out in six quarters, with investor and researcher Jon Sakoda estimating that there will only be around $164 billion of dry powder (available capital) in US VC firms by the end of 2025.

In July, The French Tech Journal reported (using Pitchbook data) that global venture capital deal activity reached its lowest first-half total since 2018, with $139.4 billion in deal value in the first half of 2025, down from $183.4 billion in the first half of 2024, meaning that any further expansion or demands for venture capital from OpenAI will likely sap the dwindling funds available from other startups.

Things get worse when you narrow things to US venture capital. In a piece from April, EY reported that VC-backed investment in US companies hit $80 billion in Q1 2025, but “one $40 billion deal” accounted for half of the investment — OpenAI’s $40 billion deal of which only $10 billion has actually closed, and that didn’t happen until fucking June. Without the imaginary money from OpenAI, US venture would have declined by 36%.

The longer that OpenAI survives, the longer it will sap the remaining billions from the tech ecosystem, and I expect it to extend its tendrils to private credit too. The $325 billion it needs just to fulfil its NVIDIA contract, albeit over 4 years, is an egregious sum that I believe exceeds the available private capital in the …

Let’s get specific, and check out the top 10 private equity firms’ available capital!

Blackstone, as of writing this sentence, has about $39 billion available to invest. An article from the Wall Street Journal from April said it had $177 billion available, which means it’s approaching the point where they just don’t have the cash to issue.
KKR has, as of writing this sentence, has $55 billion available to invest.
Carlyle Group has, as of August 2025, has $89 billion available to invest.
Swedish PE firm EQT had around €50 billion as of July available to invest, or around $59 billion.
It’s not clear how much Thoma Bravo has, but this release suggests it’s recently raised $34.4 billion.
As of August, TPG had $63 billion available to invest.
As of March 2025, CVC Capital partners had around 40 billion euro ($47 billion) in available capital to invest.
It’s unclear how much HG Capital has available, but reports suggest it’s been trying to raise €24 billion (or $28.35 billion).
It’s unclear how much Hellman & Friedman have available to invest, but it raised a $24.4 billion fund last year.
It’s unclear how much Clayton, Dubilier & Rice have available to invest, but it raised a $26 billion fund in August 2023.
Insight Partners closed a $12.5 billion fund in January 2025. It is otherwise unclear how much they have to invest.
Assuming that all of this capital is currently available, the top 10 private equity firms in the world have around $477 billion of available capital.

We can, of course, include investment banks — Goldman Sachs had around $520 billion cash in hand available at the end of its last quarter, and JPMorgan over $1.7 trillion, but JP Morgan has only dedicated $50 billion in direct lending commitments as of February 2025, and while Goldman Sachs expanded its direct private credit lending by $15 billion back in June, that appears to be an extension of its “more than $20 billion” direct lending close from mid-2024.

Include both of those, and that brings us up …

September 29, 2025 at 5:37 PM

Reposted by George Pagel

Jimmy Pardo

@jimmypardo.com

I WTF it up on @marcmaron.bsky.social show tomorrow!!

Marc Maron @marcmaron.bsky.social · Sep 24

Tomorrow I talk to @jimmypardo.com on the show.

September 25, 2025 at 12:16 AM

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George Pearkes

@peark.es

Lol AFT, AFL-CIO, and a journalism nonprofit (all DIS shareholders) are demanding the company to reveal docs related to Jimmy Kimmel's suspension. Fun one.

Disney shareholders demand reasons for Kimmel suspension

A group of shareholders including the AFL-CIO are asking for records related to the decision.

www.semafor.com

September 24, 2025 at 8:03 PM

Reposted by George Pagel

DoomMate

@doommate.bsky.social

"That shit must've been laced with Tylenol, because I'm struggling to understand the social cue of giving a single fuck."

September 24, 2025 at 1:31 AM

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Ryan O'Horo

@redteamwrangler.bsky.social

VXUG dropped the news that a DEFCON talk was AI generated nonsense and so was the code put on github for it. Some attendees noticed it was off, but this talk was presented, passed review. The github issues are rolling in.

vx-underground
@vxunderground

Lots of frustration in the malware analysis
and reverse engineering community.

It's been discovered a DEFCON talk,
presentation, and the
code which coincided
withit, was AI slop. The talk itself had
hallucinated terminology which (apparently)
noone at DEFCON noticed.

Bad.

De-Virtualizing the Dragon

Automated Unpacking and Deobfuscation of
Nested
VM-Based Protectors

DEFCON 33 - August 9, 2025

Dr. Agostino 'van1sh' Panico
Security Researcher

van1sh@securitybsides.it|
@van1sh_bsidesit
"Democratizing Malware Analysis"

Github issue

poppopjmp /VMDragonSlayer
Public
<> Code
.
Issues
6
...
Add OSHA compliance #8
New issue

August 27, 2025 at 4:26 PM

Reposted by George Pagel

Aaron Rupar

@atrupar.com

US Attorney Jeanine Pirro: "I'm not going to bore you with the facts."

August 12, 2025 at 6:34 PM

Reposted by George Pagel

Aaron Rupar

@atrupar.com

REPORTER: What about crime prevention? Do you or the president plan to do anything to address the root causes of crime in DC, such as truancy?

PIRRO: I honestly am not concerned about why they commit crimes. My concern is if they commit crimes.

August 12, 2025 at 6:40 PM

George Pagel

@gdwallasign.bsky.social

An Old Grudge, A New Team, A Swole Caitlin: The 2025 WNBA Season Preview - defector.com/2025-wnba-se...

An Old Grudge, A New Team, A Swole Caitlin: The 2025 WNBA Season Preview | Defector

When the 2025 WNBA season tips off tonight, so much will be new: a new team, eight new head coaches, veterans in new places, and legions of new fans who saw the stupid fights we had online last year a...

defector.com

May 20, 2025 at 3:55 PM

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Chris Hine

@christopherhine.bsky.social

I told Nickeil Alexander-Walker earlier this season that I’m pretty sure this was going to make its way into the book and be immortalized forever and ever. He laughed.
www.harpercollins.com/products/ant...

May 15, 2025 at 5:58 PM

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Faine Greenwood

@faineg.bsky.social

even the rock radio announcer here in Southern California was like “I don’t wanna get political but I’m so saddened and horrified by the awful stuff some in the mainstream media are saying about autistic people like one of my best friends”

this is probably a good thing

April 25, 2025 at 3:00 PM

Reposted by George Pagel

Adam Serwer

@adamserwer.bsky.social

From February. But really much earlier because I started working on this more than a year ago. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

The Great Resegregation

The Trump administration’s attacks on DEI are aimed at reversing the civil-rights movement.

www.theatlantic.com

April 24, 2025 at 11:36 AM

Reposted by George Pagel

Adam Serwer

@adamserwer.bsky.social

Trump has announced that his adminstration will no longer be enforcing the civil rights act because "merit" is when you can discriminate on against non-whites and get away with it www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose. A

www.whitehouse.gov

April 24, 2025 at 11:30 AM

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Dr. Vickie Lynn Ph.D, MPH, MSW

@lovinglife.bsky.social

NIH guts its first and largest study centered on women | Science | AAAS

🧪

www.science.org/content/arti...

NIH guts its first and largest study centered on women

The Women’s Health Initiative has produced numerous influential findings

www.science.org

April 24, 2025 at 11:34 AM

Reposted by George Pagel

Matthew Green

@matthewdgreen.bsky.social

Messaging apps are increasingly deploying AI features like summarization. Apple Intelligence offers this for all newer devices. Others are considering or have already deployed similar features.

WhatsApp has even deployed an “advanced privacy mode” to except chats from AI.

April 24, 2025 at 10:01 AM

Reposted by George Pagel

æva black

@aeva.online

Combine with now-widely-reported abductions by plain-clothes agents (and their impersonators) ... and it should be clear to anyone that America has already become an unrecognizably authoritarian and unsafe country.

Yet I still can't convince many folks of this. :'(

April 24, 2025 at 10:08 AM

Reposted by George Pagel

Lesley Carhart

@hacks4pancakes.com

Just to make it abundantly clear, they're using modern data analytic tools to track Americans by political affiliation and even autism diagnosis to first take away those people's rights (including autonomy and self-defense) and then take -them- away when it's cost and politically efficient.

April 24, 2025 at 12:55 AM