Tootfinder

Trump’s IRS chief reorganizes tax agency days before filing season
The Internal Revenue Service will reorganize its senior ranks
days before this year’s tax filing season opens
and try to use technology to become more efficient,
the Trump administration’s IRS leader Frank Bisignano told The Washington Post on Tuesday.

Administration officials named Bisignano the IRS’s chief executive,
a role that does not formally exist in the agency’s governing structur…

Trump’s IRS chief reorganizes tax agency days before filing season
The Trump administration’s IRS chief, Frank Bisignano, is reorganizing the tax agency ahead of the upcoming tax filing season.

This is "interesting" - In a civil trial in which Elon M. is the defendant they are having difficulty finding enough unbiased jurors to empanel a jury:
Well, that's one way to evade liability: become so hated that there aren't enough people who don't hate your guts to form a jury.
"Musk’s Twitter Trial Gets Jurors Who Can Set Aside Feelings"

Musk’s Twitter Trial Gets Jurors Who Can Set Aside Feelings
Nine jurors, claiming they can be fair and impartial to Elon Musk and his controversial purchase of Twitter in 2022, were seated in San Francisco federal court Thursday, whittled down from a pool of 93.

'Hereby strikes the words': Court orders newspaper ads to 'solicit' Lindsey Halligan's replacement as judge removes her claimed title from 'all' filings in criminal case | Law & Crime
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/chief-judge-orders-up-newspaper-ads-to-solicit-expressions-of-interest-in-replacing-lindsey-halligan/

It's Interesting today that the popularization of @…'s concept of "enshittification" is leading us to really think hard about how various methods of vendor lock-in enable corporations to abuse users. We see how first there's lock-in then quickly abuse follows, and recognize that the only way out of this trap is to build systems where users can leave at will.
But it's interesting that in this time of rising fascism no one is making the connection to fascism, as both increased lock in and enshittification of government. And no one is making the connection between the need to make systems optional to avoid enshittification, and libertarian socialist arguments against the systemic lock-in (and following abuse) of capitalism and the state.

Filings from Elon Musk's OpenAI lawsuit detail Microsoft's decade-long relationship with OpenAI, including plans for a new subsidiary during Sam Altman's firing (Todd Bishop/GeekWire)
https://www.geekwire.com/2026/the-microsof

An evening discussing falling enrollment in #STEM courses at universities across Europe, especially traditional studies like chemistry, geology and meteorology. I wonder if young people are unaware of just how interesting #STEM careers to be? Or do they have the perception it's "too hard" compared to other subjects where easier grades may be had? Or is it simply they think they can have "better"* jobs in other fields?
#AcademicChatter
*Where better might mean higher paid, more prestigious, more certain of employment, or less workload or some combination of all of these... ?

This is timely - and well worth attending.
Timely Films of Remembrance shed light on WWII internment
https://www.sfexaminer.com/culture/movies-and-tv/timely-films-of-remembrance…

Film fest on WWII internment holds timely message
AMC Kabuki 8 to host showcase of 10 films Feb. 21.

Trump promised Iranians the U.S. would rescue them.
They were betrayed.
Reeling from a crackdown on protesters in Iran that left thousands dead,
Iranians are now grappling with feelings of betrayal, confusion and uncertainty
after Donald Trump repeatedly promised to intervene on their behalf
and then declined to do so.

Some Iranians said in interviews that Trump’s words of support had added to their determination to resist the Iranian government
aft…

Trump promised Iranians the U.S. would rescue them. Some feel betrayed.
In the midst of the mass uprising in Iran, President Trump vowed the U.S. would intervene if the Iranian government killed protesters. Thousands are dead.

Owl City has been an interesting recurring character for a long time. He fundamentally makes kinkade music, but in many instances there's something unintentionally captivating about watching a sheltered autistic christian man trying and failing to emulate the sterile neurotypical inhumanity of late 00s commercials, attempts at sincerely becoming what the squeakiest cleanest presenting factions want giving birth to an entirely different surreal alternate reality from the one he professes …

I haven’t tuned into CBS since its morning news promoted that interview (and Weiss) last week. This latest announcement validates my decision.
“CBS News launches town hall series featuring JD Vance following Bari Weiss’ ratings flop”
https://www.indep…

CBS News launches town hall series featuring JD Vance following Bari Weiss’ ratings flop
Following the Bari Weiss-moderated sitdown with Erika Kirk that was a massive ratings flop, CBS News has doubled down on the format and is launching a new town hall series in partnership with Weiss’ “anti-woke” digital media outlet that the network’s parent company recently purchased.