Breathe deeply before reading this piece by Josh Marshall, but please read it

"The moderator never mentioned Baltimore — or the role that Abramovich’s firm, Roc Capital, played in creating a foreclosure crisis roiling the city. Instead, he wanted to know: Could this be happening elsewhere?" www.thebanner.com/economy/real...

Just saw a climate scientist refer to Trump as a "fucking moron," the same term used in Trump's first term by former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson. A plea: insult better. Trump is a lying criminal, sadist etc etc but "moron" is an ableist slur born of eugenics www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/mor...

Trump’s biggest issue with Europe — we’re not racist enough. It's time Keir Starmer showed some backbone, emulating German chancellor Friedrich Merz with a forceful response to Trump’s National Security Strategy, rather than persisting with mealy-mouthed appeasement.

The Miami Herald tracked 16,569 flood complaints from over 12,000 locations in Miami-Dade and Broward over the last 11 years, and found 32% were outside the newly-expanded 500-year flood zones scheduled to go into effect as early as 2026: www.miamiherald.com/news/local/e...

Great copyediting job (words I don't get to type often!)

Coho salmon spotted in Sonoma Coast's East Branch Russian Gulch for the first time in 60 years! A hopeful sign for conservation efforts and the resilience of nature. 🐟🌲 #cawater www.mercurynews.com/2025/12/09/c...

"'Neither the king nor parliament nor prime ministers, England at the time of the founding, ever had an unqualified removal power,' Sotomayor said Monday, adding: 'You’re asking us to destroy the structure of government.'"

The research so far has shown this is is NOT TRUE. Autism seems to be significantly genetic and there is some evidence pointing to inflammatory illness during pregnancy, e.g. Covid, increasing autism rates. But Tylenol has been widely shown to be safe during pregnancy.

"...investor money is distorting the housing market in communities with low wages and decent-enough housing supply, pushing thousands of Black and Latino families off the property ladder" www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

'In Ukraine, the state itself is investigating the government, the cabinet, the president’s closest advisers. By contrast, it is impossible to imagine Kash Patel’s FBI investigating anyone in Trump’s White House. Any Russian who investigates Putin goes to jail" www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

Ukrainians "want to have a government that’s accountable to the public. Meanwhile, American and Russian kleptocrats are circling the country, looking for ways to make deals that benefit themselves." www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

More seasonal colors for today's sign wave

18 Democrats voted for Trump's "Genius Act" that purported to regulate Stablecoins in the US though funds can still move freely through offshore platforms www.nytimes.com/2025/12/07/t...

Urban wetlands mitigate flooding, cool cities, recharge groundwater, foster wildlife, and help resist wildfires #cawater www.nature.com/articles/d41...

"... in Baltimore’s close-knit Italian-American community, the response to the arrest was not fascination but disbelief—and concern for him and his family." www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/hist...

from @nickcohen.bsky.social: Europe's fake patriots nickcohen.substack.com/p/the-fake-p...

The jingoism behind Brexit and this has always had only one goal: Upending the EU's collective ability to set trade, safety, environmental, and human rights goals that benefit the continent and nearby islands, as opposed to the polluting industries sponsoring Trump, Farage and the bogus nationalists

Tom Hall set the bar so high that the search committee for his replacement may have to, after exhausting all alternatives, recruit him all over again www.wypr.org/show/midday/...

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has stopped receiving any coal-fired power. Mayor Karen Bass calls it a defining moment for the city in transitioning to clean energy. @hayleysmith.bsky.social www.latimes.com/environment/...

"After the birth dose policy was adopted in 1991, the number of infants and babies who tested positive for hepatitis B plummeted into single or low-double digits, from the thousands." www.statnews.com/2025/12/05/c...

Cool story, literally. "Streams running through hemlock groves tend to be cooler too, creating a chill climate for brook trout and an endangered salamander, called the eastern hellbender. Certain bird species prefer nesting in hemlock branches..." www.thebanner.com/community/cl...

RFK, Jr "fired all 17 previous members of the vaccine panel in June... Meetings of the new members, most of whom have no experience in vaccine research or clinical practice, have been marred by disorganization... " Gift link www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/h...

If you want GOP Sen. Ron Johnson influencing approval of a cancer drug that is being promoted for expanded approval on shaky science, then pharma bro, RFK Jr booster, and LA Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong is working the ropes of the FDA for you www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Acting on an order from President Trump, the federal government has adopted a plan to pump more water to Central Valley farmlands from the Delta. The Newsom administration objects, saying Trump is “catering to big donors instead of doing what’s right for Californians” www.latimes.com/environment/...

Utility company Southern California Gas is using ratepayer funds to incentivize Los Angeles wildfire survivors to rebuild their homes with gas appliances. And the California Public Utilities Commissions is letting it happen. insideclimatenews.org/news/0312202... via @hilarybeaumont.bsky.social

To be very clear, Kennedy's team is messing with a vaccine which has led to a 99 percent drop in the incidence of hepatitis B, which kills, early and painfully, 25 percent of the people who get it as children. lnk.thebulwark.com/3Xt957M

Tracy Chapman, aged 24, singing ‘Fast Car‘ at the Nelson Mandela 70th birthday concert at Wembley Stadium in 1988. A lastminute substitute for Stevie Wonder, she appeared with just a guitar and microphone. The performance transformed her from an unknown to a global superstar overnight.

In any life of an artist, there's what happened, and then there are stories about what happened. Add a cult, wait a century, and you have the story of af Klint. What a turn received wisdom took when 2 interested parties finally read the 26,000 pages of her journals www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

It's not clear why the American president would care about Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, until you consider that the country is home to Próspera, founded in Honduras by a cadre of American tech titans including Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen

I give you data, one of those “Science confirms the obvious, but with graphs!” things" www.inkstain.net/2025/12/albu...

The Independent was only successful because Andreas didn't want what other papers already did, just in a different font. Among the Indy's many innovations, an unmatched obituaries desk where signed accounts were written by people who actually knew the subject www.independent.co.uk/voices/comme...

"The brain-breaking effects of autocracy are why we need small magazines as places of sense-making." Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/o...

As the mom of a five-year-old reading this and imagining what this family is going through made me physically ill. Unimaginable evil is being perpetrated before our eyes and with our tax dollars.

Meet the new Deputy Chief of Staff at the CDC.

Last week, ICE arrested and separated a father and son after a routine check-in. Six-year-old Yuanxin had just enrolled in the first grade at an elementary school in Astoria. Now he's in custody, alone. ICE won't say where. This cruelty serves no one. It must end.

Agriculture Dept. Threatens to Withhold Food Stamps From Democratic States www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/u...

We can not normalize this. ICE slave catchers or traffic violence

While "peace" negotiations continue, remember that Russia could simply stop the war at any time.

The message from the Miller-Bondi regime: Ignore the law or be fired. "Before Monday, about 90 immigration judges had been fired this year across the United States, including six in New York City" www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/n...

Damn it. Do it anyway because it's the right thing to do. www.axios.com/2025/12/01/j...

Farewell to the Beloved Friend in My Window www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/o...

"Federal funding supports the researchers who may one day treat Tatiana Schlossberg’s cancer...Cut that funding, and you do not eliminate waste. You eliminate possibility." www.statnews.com/2025/11/26/t...

"During the Biden presidency, it was shorthanded the 'hug Bibi' strategy-the idea that smothering Mr Netanyahu with unconditional support would give the US leverage to influence his actions ... Netanyahu was hugged all the way into the arms of Donald Trump" Gift link www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/o...

Department of Defense Law of War Manual, Sec. 18.3.2.1 states the "requirement" to refuse illegal orders. What’s its key example? Wait for it . . . It’s "orders to fire upon the shipwrecked."

🔴Trump Envoy Has Financial Ties With Former Adviser to Putin’s ‘Money Man’ Now Leading Kremlin Peace Talks Steve Witkoff’s real-estate empire is bankrolled by a former adviser to Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and a key architect of Moscow’s Ukraine negotiations