I've not been in the mood for comedy for 5 months — ever since the most important and most admirable person in my life unexpectedly died. And it's a death that I could have easily prevented. Nevertheless, I'm going to watch this movie… GIFT LINK: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/m...

Trump confused nuclear-capable missile launch tests w/ weapons tests. The US test-launched an ICBM last month. It's been decades since China, Russia, or the US, exploded a nuclear device. (Thanks partly protest movements, computer modeling is used instead) GIFT LINK: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/u...

Millions of kilometers of thin plastic fiber optic cable litter Ukraine. There's enough to reach the Moon and back several times. (Russian drones have cables attached like kite strings to avoid signal jamming) NPR-ATC 8/7/25 4min segment by Larson, Aslam, and Summers: www.npr.org/2025/08/07/n...

Zelensky warns of a drones arms race. Like it or not, this war will end with a negotiated agreement. Hopefully, the agreement will include a section on drones that goes beyond airspace concerns. For example, drones with fiber optic cables could be banned. Santora & Nechepurenko, NYT 24 Sept 2025:

WTF?! Supreme Court — in a decree without explanation —approves deportation of 8 to South Sudan. “Before coming to the United States, the men hailed from Vietnam, Mexico, Laos, Cuba and Myanmar. Just one is from South Sudan” GIFT: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/03/u...

"If you believe that what a satirical band who play characters on stage do is more outrageous than the murdering of innocent Palestinians, then you need to give your head a fucking wobble.” We did a wee feature interview ahead of Glastonbury with the Guardian... www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...

BREAKING: At least 13 Palestinian aid seekers were killed by an Israeli air attack in Gaza's Khan Younis, sources at Nasser Medical Complex told Al Jazeera. 🔴 LIVE updates: aje.io/2s5r30

Video shows an Israeli drone killing a Palestinian carrying flour in Gaza City. The UN says food sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, where 600 were killed, are 'an abomination' and 'a death trap.'

🚨NEW from @dropsitenews.com: Israel Slaughters Dozens in Attack on Popular Gaza Cafe as Trump Claims a Ceasefire Deal is Moving Forward ✍️ Story by Abdel Qader Sabbah, Sharif Kouddous and @jeremyscahill.com www.dropsitenews.com/p/israel-bom...

GAZA GENOCIDE CONTINUES as world looks elsewhere, after Israel attacks yet another country — this time Iran. ‘Gazans are worried that Israel-Iran conflict will shift the world’s attention from their plight’ by Adam Rasgon NYT 6/14 www.nytimes.com/live/2025/06...

that's little rock, arkansas showing the hell up #nokings

Tanks, fighter jets, and 6,000 troops. All this… for one man’s birthday. Meanwhile, the rest of us are out here building a world where power isn’t something you hoard, but share. 🎂🪖 #NoKings

MN repealed state Medicaid coverage for undocumented immigrants, to avoid govt shutdown by GOP. The right-wing populist & fascist tide is fueled by the precarity experienced by millions of working-class & middle-class voters. Precarity breeds resentment. We need *Medicaid* (not Medicare) for all.

BREAKING: Federal agents in plain clothes and unmarked cars tried to snatch 1st graders from LA elementary schools—told staff they had “parental consent.” They lied. When pressed, they HID THEIR IDS. DHS admits they sent them. This wasn’t a welfare check. It was a test run for a police state.

Wow! These folks really know how to burn cars. Obviously, this calls for 4,000 National Guard troops & 700 Marines.* *sarcasm alert. GIFT LINK: www.nytimes.com/2025/06/09/u...

Trump orders National Guard to quell anti-ICE protests in County, without Gov Newsom’s consent. If troops are sent against the governor's will, it will be the first time since 1965 — when LBJ was protecting Black CRM protesters against white supremacists. GIFT LINK www.nytimes.com/2025/06/07/u...

FYI — These are the countries affected by Trump's travel ban, issued via executive order on June 4. The screenshot below comes from Allison McCann’s 6/4 NYT article, “See the Countries Under Trump’s New Travel Ban” (Click ALT to read most of the article text.) www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

2 GOP House reps, like MTG, say they didn't know of 2 controversial provisions in budget bill. GOP reps should stop ignoring their “Democrat” colleagues. (And at least ask their staff to read the bill.) M Gold, “After Muscling Their Bill Through the House, Some Republicans Have Regrets” NYT 6/3-4:

The use of a homemade flamethrower to injure 6 Boulder, Colorado senior citizens walking in a weekly vigil for Israeli hostages is another setback for pro-Palestinian advocacy in the US. It poisons our ability to sway those on the fence, diverts media, reinforces stereotypes & increases repression.

Panama banana workers live on plantations & buy from company stores. Last week, Chiquita fired 5000 banana plantation workers when they struck. A state of emergency followed. Panamanian political analyst Rodrigo Noriega explains much more in this 4min audio interview: theworld.org/segments/202...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has swabbed the DNA of migrant children as young as 4. Their genetic data is uploaded to an FBI database that can track them if they commit crimes in the future. Insane dystopia scoop from @dmehro.bsky.social www.wired.com/story/cbp-dn...

After its –01.1% decline in 2024 global sales, Tesla was banking on the +16% increase forecast for 2025. But 2025 sales are plunging deeply into the red. “Tesla’s sales [in Europe] fell for a 4th month in a row, down 49% year-on-year” 2025: kfgo.com/2025/05/26/c... 2015-2024, plus 2025 forecast:

🧵 This is a perfect example of how disordered discourse reshapes democratic politics, not by policy failure, but by the performative targeting of identity. Let’s unpack what’s happening.

'there is a special place in hell for politicians who object to solar farms & other renewable projects. But perhaps the hottest part is reserved for those who seek to slow pylons and other forms of electricity transmission, they keep us on course for a burning world. bright-green.org/2023/11/07/g...

“States rights“ was always only a fig leaf: Now that the far-right GOP dominates the entire federal government, they are making it crystal clear that they never cared about “states rights” as a principle in & of itself. Here is the latest example, and it's a big one. www.cnn.com/2025/05/21/p...

This is absolutely terrible news. With the shifting regulatory climate (i.e., antivax ratfuckery), Moderna has withdrawn their application for their eagerly anticipated COVID-flu combo vaccine. This vaccine offered better protection than getting each shot separately. h/t @merz.bsky.social

The killing by an advocate for Palestine of 2 Israeli Embassy aides outside the Capital Jewish Museum at an American Jewish Committee event was strategically stupid. It will be seen as proof that pro-Palestinian groups spawn anti-semitic terrorists in the US. GIFT: www.nytimes.com/2025/05/21/u...

5/21 Gaza update🇵🇸 “An insufficient amount of aid is being allowed into the Gaza Strip. It’s merely a smokescreen to pretend the siege is over. Meanwhile, at least 20 medical facilities in Gaza have been damaged“ & 139,000 displaced msf.org.uk/article/gaza... www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

DHS removed 8 men from Texas 5/13 & told them they're being deported to South Sudan(!). The plane has been tracked to Djibouti. DHS says they're convicted criminals from 6 countries. But the people involved in the flight could face criminal charges themselves. GIFT: www.nytimes.com/2025/05/21/u...

We broke the news today that the 747 plane donated by Qatar to become a new Air Force One is now in the possession of the United States. We now have updated our story with react from members of Congress and Trump's comments on the gift. Dems moving to try to block the gift. nyti.ms/439TqxR

The GOP budget bill is 1,116 pages long but it boils down to this one simple fact: Republicans are facilitating a massive transfer of wealth to the richest Americans while making cuts that would rip away healthcare and food from millions of people. It's Robin Hood in reverse.

staging a show-and-tell about a fake genocide during a real genocide to the government that has done the most to seek justice for that real genocide is designed to break our brains. They know what they are doing. www.cnn.com/2025/05/21/w...

Immigrant health care threatened “If Democratic-led states thought they were on safe ground to provide their own benefits to immigrants without interference from Washington, it may have been because past Republican leaders believed in upholding states’ rights” Gift: www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/u...

America's bratty sub, Israel, has been dissed by Trump. But as Trump & Netanyahu play their power games, and swap fantasies about Gaza’s future, the genocide accelerates. www.cnn.com/2025/05/16/m...

The world post-USAID & Gaza: Gaza is just the beginning. The militarization & privatization (via mercenary forces) of humanitarian aid as an undisguised weapon of war & ethnic cleansing is expected to be the new norm across the globe, post-USAID & Gaza. www.npr.org/2025/05/15/n...

SCOOP: Since SSA installed new anti-fraud checks on claims made over the phone, only 2 claims out of over 110,000 were found to likely be fraudulent, according to internal documents I obtained. The policy has slowed down payments, though. Retirement claim processing is down 25%

Genocide with intent “Some Israeli military officials have privately concluded that Palestinians in Gaza face widespread starvation unless aid deliveries are restored within weeks, according to three Israeli defense officials familiar with conditions in the enclave” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/w...

🇬🇧WAR CRIMES ‘Killing of detainees "became routine" the veteran said. "They'd search someone, handcuff them, then shoot them" Former members of UK Special Forces have broken years of silence to give BBC Panorama eyewitness accounts of…colleagues in Iraq and Afghanistan’ www.bbc.com/news/article...

Trump is a size king. So MBS exaggerates his size to seduce DT: Trump asks Saudi Arabia to invest $1t in US (SA GDP = $1t). Saudi prince says $600b. Both are absurdly unrealistic. “They speak the same language… 2 guys who like throwing very large numbers around” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/12/w...

Trump's profitable competition to buy a chance to meet him draws to close: www.nytimes.com/2025/05/12/u... The NYT Daily podcast recently re-aired a superb report from late 2024 on the Trump family's new cryptocurrency business empire. This auction is discussed: m.youtube.com/watch?v=rjB4...

Above all else, Bluesky recommends that I follow Duran Duran. I am offended offended.

Baraka was released last night after being held for three hours. The administration is lying about what happened. Baraka and congressional reps did not storm into the facility. DHS said that if the mayor had asked for a tour he would've gotten one. Lies. The city has been denied entry multiple times

Lately I've seen many references to the 3.5% rule. A few years ago I pulled together this Q&A on potential uses and misuses of this statistic. www.hks.harvard.edu/sites/defaul...

Just amazing: Trump grew angry over a Biden-era program with the word "equity" in its name, so he ended it. But a key part of the program was sending money to red states to expand internet access in rural/MAGA country. Now they might not get it. New piece from me: newrepublic.com/article/1950...

“When it comes to .. raw milk, I want to be free to form a relationship with a local farmer, look him in the eyes, pet his cow, and then decide if I feel safe to drink the milk from his farm.” — Casey Means, Trump’s latest surgeon-general nominee. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Black Africans are no longer able to apply for entry to the US as refugees. But 49 white ‘Afrikaners’ are flying to the US as expedited “refugees” from post-apartheid South Africa (where whites continue to prosper). Gift link to 5/11 NYT article by John Eligon: www.nytimes.com/2025/05/11/w...

COME AND SEE USSR, 9 May 1945: The war against Germany ends. The USSR lost 27 million people in that war. The USA lost 250k. Two superb antiwar war films by Russian directors depict the Nazi invasion and resistance from a child’s POV: Come and See (Klimov, 1985) Ivan's Childhood (Tarkovsky, 1962)

Since Jan 21, ICE has been free to apprehend allegedly undocumented immigrants at hospitals. As a result many immigrants are avoiding medical care, whether it's for diabetes or gunshot wounds. This endangers everyone, esp if the new avian flu spreads (see comment). www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/h...