Hopefulness can be hard to come by these days — that probably makes it all the more important.

A Russian biologist — here LEGALLY — was arrested & has been incarcerated for 3 months. Her science could extend healthy lifespans & help treat Alzheimer’s and cancer. This is not only cruel but will result in the world's best & brightest going elsewhere. This hurts us all. dub.sh/ScientistDetained

Adventures on the lower Chesapeake (VA eastern shore) — a premium east coast sea kayaking spot. Amazing videography by Jeffrey Franco! Not pictured: The 15-20 mph hour winds we had at the start. After that challenging 1st hour things went swimmingly; the winds calmed down and the weather was great.

"What you are seeing is a president who ran for re-election to avoid prosecution and to get revenge on people he accused of stealing the 2020 election. He never had a coherent theory of the biggest trends in the world today and how to best align America with them to thrive..." dub.sh/Friedman-on-...

The destruction of the Washington Post continues. 😡

This will decrease the quality & availability of medical care, mental health services & disability compensation. It will also affect veteran homelessness & suicide prevention. Since 1/3 of VA employees are vets themselves it will increase vet unemployment. This is a betrayal. dub.sh/AP-VA-job-cuts

WashPost: "Who’s looking out for the public interest here when you get the person who’s cutting budgets and personnel from the FAA, suddenly trying to benefit from still another government contract?" This is an egregious violation of conflict of interest rules meant to protect taxpayers. #Oligarchy

Canaan Valley, West Virginia. ❤️

I happen to think Pete Buttigieg is a brilliant guy, but these ideas don’t require brilliance—just basic competence in governance.

Read or listen. Klein certainly doesn't let liberals off scot free. [gift link] On Congressional Republicans: "What an unbelievably strange life – to rise as far as they have in politics, to wield as much power as they could, and to be as afraid [of Trump] as they are." dub.sh/EzraKleinNYT

That'll be a helluva story to tell. 😳🐋 AP: 'A humpback whale briefly swallows kayaker in Chilean Patagonia — and it’s all captured on camera' apnews.com/article/chil...

Snow noir ❄️ ‘round midnight 🌙 (Part 2)

Snow noir ❄️ ‘round midnight 🌙 (Part 1)

Trump voters, the separation of powers should matter to you, too. Ignored court orders = a meaningless Constitution = end of democracy. A future president could ban your guns—or take any other action you find appalling—but Congress and the courts will be powerless. It's not about left or right.

Musk/Trump plan to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to "save money." It is already saving us money! Wash Post: "CFPB halts work. Consumer watchdog agency was formed after the 2008 financial crisis." wapo.st/3WMUp3r [gift article] Consumer Reports' details on CFPB: dub.sh/CFPB

Government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) have done important work for the American people for many years but now is a particularly important time to support them.

This song and performance is just gorgeous. 'Mar Vista' by Lily Meola and Lukas Nelson, with Bre Kennedy adding a third vocal. Wow. www.lilymeolamusic.com

Orwellian. Stalin would approve.

A reminder about the actions of the violent felons who the Felon-in-Chief has pardoned. Law and order?

What an extraordinary athlete! #HTTC My hat’s off to the Lions for an amazing season and my heart goes out to their passionate fans (including many of my Detroit cousins).

A jury should have been allowed to hear this case. The justice system failed the voters. Reuters: Special counsel report found Trump engaged in ‘criminal effort’ to overturn 2020 election – dub.sh/Sp-Counsel-Report

Another trek down Pennsylvania Avenue, 48 years later. Welcome back to DC, President Carter. R.I.P. 🙏

The U.S.’s winner-take-all electoral system depresses electoral competition which impacts voter turnout. Here are the three reasons proportional representation — an alternative to winner-take-all — increases voter turnout. 🔗 www.ifyoucankeepit.org/p/what-if-we...

An editorial cartoonist just quit @washingtonpost.com because her cartoon was rejected due to the point of view she took in it. "The cartoon that was killed criticizes the billionaire tech and media chief executives who have been doing their best to curry favor with incoming President-elect Trump."

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! 🎅

Good news for DC: Violent crime is down about 35%. DC is set to close 2024 with the lowest violent crime rate in three decades. 👍🏼 "During the same time last year, DC reported more than 5,200 violent crimes. So far this year, there have been fewer than 3,400 reported incidents."

We are a broken society when this can happen and nothing – NOTHING! – will change. American gun culture is uniquely dystopian, where the right to own an arsenal is fiercely defended while the right to simply feel safe is ignored, even when it's the safety of children. 😡

The moon briefly in the DC area around midnight. Beautiful! My smart NASA astrobiologist friend @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social said something about the “23° degree arc.” So I googled it: “A ‘23 degree arc moon’ typically refers to a halo around the moon, specifically the edge of a ‘22 degree halo’..."

Soccer in the city.⚽️ Fire in the sky.🔥

"If you want to assemble the infrastructure of an authoritarian government, this is how you do it."

New paper: Do social media algorithms shape affective polarization? We ran a field experiment on X/Twitter (N=1,256) using LLMs to rerank content in real-time, adjusting exposure to polarizing posts. Result: Algorithmic ranking impacts feelings toward the political outgroup! 🧵⬇️

"As scary as it seems right now, remember this: This time in world history is a call to action for all of us in this profession. It is a call to fight those who attempt to discredit us; it is a call to fight for the public’s trust; and it is a call to defend our work at all costs." - Jessica Lessin

In troubled times try to stay hopeful. From Irish poet Derek Mahon. ☘️