Impressive. This set of talks, along with the new America dot gov website, has the unmistakable feel of an Apple launch event. They're rebooting the federal government as a tech startup. Several observations. (1) First, with this new AI interface to the entire federal government, if it works as promised, there won't be a single American who can't say their life wasn't helped at least in part by AI, or that the benefits accrued solely to zillionaires. This in itself cannily mitigates anti-datacenter sentiment. (2) Second, Joe Gebbia and Marco Rubio's talks on simplifying name changes and passport filings introduce a completely new era where the US government is actually launching tangible features that benefit users. (3) Third, this launch event in and of itself may visibly drive reform. It could become much more important than the State of the Union. Unlike laws, code is user-visible, and can be instantly audited by the public, as Obama found out with the failed obamacare website launch. So: the annual America dot gov event may be substance, whereas SOTU is traditionally optics. I wouldn't be surprised to see the President present at the next one. (4) Fourth, this kind of event is a perfect example of where tech and red cooperate best. They both hate bureaucracy. Automating paperwork with code reduces the power of statists over both capitalists and nationalists. It's also hard to undo by other admins: once you digitize a process, hard to turn it back to paper. (5) Fifth, it's an obvious point perhaps, but think about how much influence YCombinator has had in 20 years. From Gebbia's Airbnb joining their 2009 batch to a complete overhaul of the user interface of the US bureaucracy, and thus the US government. (6) Sixth, this is another take on the network state. The functional part of the US (the network, meaning tech) is merging with and partially reforming the dysfunctional part (the state, meaning bureaucracy) by automating 20th century paper forms. As a tech startup, there will no doubt be bugs and user issues and so on, but unlike with paper laws those issues will be visible and the code fixes will be verifiable. A new era of AI America. Rooting for them.

My Heels are facing @fortworthchris' Frogs tonight in Chapel Bill. With MJ, Mia Hamm, LT, Peppers, Eric Church, & Chase Rice there, Belichick won't be the only 🐐 on campus. Carolina's a 3.5 point dog, but what should we wager? A trailer park for an industrial building? 😜

I’m so glad another generation gets to experience this meme ❤️😂😂😂

Waffle House is now testing tacos at about 45 metro Atlanta locations for a limited time. The new taco menu includes breakfast tacos and versions filled with chicken, cheesesteak or patty melt ingredients.

Caught the 🐐 in action today...

Lionel Messi was diagnosed with growth hormone deficiency when he was a child. But after watching him play, FC Barcelona’s sporting director Carles Rexach was adamant about signing him.

Our new lease with Starbucks came down to parking, and we had 8 stalls. Here's the ACTUAL scene at the planning department: Planner A: "You need 18 parking spaces, sorry." Us: "Oh wait, we need to take a call, BRB" Planner B: "You need 8 stalls. Approved” Us: "Thanks!" A million dollars in value, coming down to how two people interpret the code.

For all of you QSR nerds out there:

The Billionaire Tax is actually an Everyone Tax. The Billionaire Tax is a new tax proposal written by four professors who don't believe in the American dream. Some of them aren’t even American…go figure. Despite its name, it applies to every California resident who currently has assets or ever will. The creators named it the Billionaire Tax so you would get into a froth andwouldn't look closely at what it actually does to you. On page twenty-six, it explains how the government can convert to an Everyone Tax without voter approval. They can also adjust the tax to be a yearly tax, not just one time…again, without your approval. Here's how the tax would work: As a voter, you're being asked to approve a tax that would require you to: 1. list all your assets and the value of each, then submit them to the California Franchise Tax Board. 2. authorize the tax board to appraise your assets and confirm the value of each. 3. pay a penalty of up to forty percent of your tax bill if the board determines your reported value was too low in their opinion. 4. allow the tax board to subpoena your financial records from every one of your financial institutions for auditing. This Everyone Tax runs 34 pages of shifty language describing how the government plans to take your assets. Read the fine print and decide for yourself. If this were truly a billionaire tax, it would be 3 pages. It’s 34 pages so that it can create the mechanisms to steal from all of you.

Roy Williams says he never used email, even as a head coach, and once had over 18,000 unread messages on a computer he never opened.