There are already solutions right here on Earth to many of the problems “sunlight as a service” purports to solve. This approach is simply a reckless and inefficient use of Earth orbit, a precious and finite resource. This list of facts was developed by me and a bunch of very concerned […]

It's becoming increasingly clear to me that Reflect Orbital's fucking stupid giant mirror satellite, with absolutely NOTHING useful to offer, which will cause countless safety issues, ecological disasters, and destroy the night sky, is going to launch. A bunch of astronomers and I have sent out […]

Apple is at it again with its “plenary” banning of apps Apple Bans “Eyes Up” A Video Archival App For Perserving Video of ICE Actions #apple #politics #ice https://warnercrocker.com/2025/10/08/apple-bans-eyes-up-a-video-archival-app-for-perserving-video-of-ice-actions/

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.

FOX NEWS IDIOT: If you thought the masked "Former Antifa Member" Jesse Watters had on last week looked familiar, there's a reason for that... #OMG...He was also the masked "former gang member" and masked "Gaza resident" Watters had previously interviewed […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Freedom of speech depends on the freedom of existence.

Stephen Miller and also The President say they are sending combat troops into US cities to make them safe, which is a great idea. I don't understand why hotels in these cities aren't putting photos of these safety-making war fighters on their websites. It seems an obvious way to boost the […]

Part of an art installation outside Waterloo Station in London.

With a software issue at last run to the ground on my desk, here's a theme for winding down on this blessedly quiet evening in Japan. https://youtu.be/gJthGsBB5YQ?si=3PlGpWHzSO-ZZCOA

We have a lot of words for misgovernment: kleptocracy (gov't by thieves) kakistocracy (gov't by bunglers) plutocracy (gov't by robber barons) aristocracy (gov't by descendants of robber barons) We're one short. We need a term for government by extremely stupid people with guns and body armor […]

Speaking of image alt text, as a photographer who tries to put care into this, I would really love it if there were a single standard EXIF field in which alt text could be embedded and from which the text was reliably extracted when the image was uploaded. It would be much easier to write a […]

Someone needs to give Stephen Miller a forceful reminder that he is the help. #uspol

I don't want to be alarmist, but "troops occupying major cities" seems like the kind of milestone that we'll look back on and regret that we didn't stop.

Responsible journalism would preface every Stephen Miller interaction with, "I have a question for you, motherfucker." #uspol

We went from "we will deport the worst of the worst" to "we will deport anyone here illegally" to "we will round up anyone who looks wrong" to "people who live in cities are the enemy" essentially overnight.

NEW: ICE is planning to hire a team of nearly 30 people to surveil social media 24/7, build dossiers on people, and flag them for arrest and deportation. @dell.bsky.social has the scoop: www.wired.com/story/ice-so...

ICE admits that up to 50% of arrests in its Chicago raids are "collateral.” These aren't statistics. They are parents taken from their children, neighbors taken from our communities. When does a "collateral" U.S. citizen child's trauma matter? This isn't law enforcement; it's a campaign of terror.

Molly Jong-Fast talks with Ben Collins. I'd heard that the Onion has a newspaper … … but I didn't know that they have a movie out. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hgT_AWYta8Y

You know, one simple feature of pre-senility Trump rhetoric was the implicit and incessant suggestion that people go out and do rather specific stuff on the daily, and helped them feel good about it. We could use more of that from leadership on the not-a-jackboot-fascist side of things. #uspol

Here's a Fedi question. Is there a vendor in #japan for code signing certificates that doesn't charge a month's rent for the service? (I used to use a cert from the US, but they now insist on shipping a physical key through the broken postal system, and their charges have gone through the roof […]

Enough is Enough. To coin a phrase. It's time to release the full text of the Russia Election Interference Inquiry with no redactions. And to widen it's cope to include the Brexit Referendum. And it's time to keep asking the Reform Bots and Useful Idiots who support Reform UK Party Ltd why […]

this is wild: while Stephen Miller's guy was in Minnesota for his uncle's funeral, somebody was able to see his entire phone and take pictures of his Signal group chats talking about military deployments to Portland, and brought them to the Strib (gift link: www.startribune.com/trump-offici...)

Russ is absolutely faint from the constant raging boner he's getting about hurting people he hates.

We need a bigger national spotlight on this building raid, fam. Agents dropped from helicopters onto the roof. Citizens and non-citizens alike were dragged from their homes in the night. People who weren't kidnapped during the raid had their belongings seized after the fact. This is madness.

Stephen Miller makes a persuasive argument that Stephen Miller is a terrorist. www.emptywheel.net/2025/10/02/s...

Okay, that does it. Since the arrival of AI slop, I've been picking only known channels from YouTube. YT is now pumping sponsored channels into the mix, and it's time to clean up the media habit. Will set up a roster of channel links on my blog at https://fgbjr.name, and end the browsing.

Hi. I'm the Secretary of War. You may have seen me on TV. And today I'm giving you-all an opportunity to be on TV too. Just like me. Also, I want you to start behaving more like a bunch of skinhead thugs. Or you can take a walk, it's your choice. Have a safe trip back to wherever you came from […]

It's kind of wild that crypto scammers became *the single biggest source of political donations* in the last US election and barely anyone even noticed. These dipshits basically own both parties now and are getting whatever they want and there's been zero (0) public deliberation or debate about it.

The Guardian: US citizen sues after twice being detained by immigration agents US-born Leo Garcia Venegas says ‘I just want to work in peace’ after agents in Alabama said his ID card was fake "...US citizen sues after twice being detained by immigration agents US-born Leo Garcia Venegas says […]

Republican Fascist Speaker of the House refuses to swear in newest elected House Representative, who would be the needed vote to release the Epstein files. https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5529055-republicans-grijalva-swearing-in-house/

One thing that impressed me while shopping to replace a failing Android unit yesterday is that they're now selling cooling fans and magnetic ice packs to stick on the back of a phone. I did not see that one coming.

The moment where Hegseth ends his speech and not a single officer claps is the most hopeful thing I have seen in a long time.

In 2011, Aaron Swartz was arrested after he downloaded millions of academic journal articles from JSTOR via the MIT network. He was charged under federal laws (including wire fraud and violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act) with up to 13 felony counts, carrying the possibility of […]

The president just gathered the highest ranking officers in the military to tell them that he may order them to kill American citizens -- and that they better follow his orders. All in response to a series of crises that have no basis in reality. I don't know how to yell any louder.

Are they related? #uspol

Actual excerpts from the text of the Trump administration's (DOA) peace plan.

Same playbook that the Chinese Communist Party has been using to disrupt any constructive academic discussion of its human rights abuses on American campuses: sending provocateurs with party or military backgrounds to disrupt class or event proceedings and recording the faces of every attendee.

[ICE, Fascism] From the Guardian: "...Tin Thanh Nguyen, a North Carolina-based immigration attorney, is representing two refugees from Vietnam and Laos who were flown in July to a maximum security prison in southern Africa. The men, aged 34 and 45, arrived in the US when they were children […]

[ICE, Fascism] The Guardian: Ice’s deportations of south-east Asian refugees creating ‘ripple effect’ of trauma: ‘I didn’t get to say bye to my husband’ "...Wa Kong Lor, a Hmong refugee from the outskirts of Detroit, was deported to Laos last month with only a driver’s license and $65 in cash […]

Pretty happy with myself today. I have an Edison Standard "Model C" phonograph, inherited from maternal grandfather ("Grosspa"), and a collection of fifty or sixty cylinders. Neighbors from Canada are musicians, and offered to digitize the recordings. I took it over there today, and when I […]

Whether one agrees with Comey's politics is no more relevant right now than whether one likes Kimmel's jokes. This isn't about substance to Trump. He's going after them as trophies, as a demonstration that if he can take them down, the rest of us better not cross him.

NEW: By inflating numbers and narrowing definitions, the Heritage Foundation is promoting a false link between transgender identity and violence in a push for the FBI to create a new category of terrorism. By me & @couts.bsky.social:

Netanyahu is speaking to a largely empty UN general assembly hall after hundreds walked out in protest:

I'm no economist, but in practical terms, it seems like the capacity of countries on the Pacific Rim, in Europe, and in Africa to make stuff has been raised by the voracious, insatiable hunger for stuff among US consumers. To keep his oligarch backers in line, Trump (or MAGA bigshot whoever) […]

You know, when you really think about it, does all that driving and car dependency really make sense? @adamconover.net weighed in.

With a fresh batch of sweeping tariffs on drugs, trucks and kitchen cabinets, the victorious junta of eternal sunshine continues to probe for the optimal bundle of bottlenecks in the market for presidential exemptions. #uspol […]

They’re literally giving prosecutors the names of people and organizations, and telling them to go find crimes. It’s clear from the NYT that the directive came from Trump. This is a direct consequence of Roberts explicitly immunizing weaponization of DOJ in Trump v. US.

This should have been major news. It wasn't. Cornelius Taylor, 46, was inside a tent in a long established homeless encampment off Old Wheat Street when he was bulldozed to death when Atlanta cleared his homeless camp, just yards away from Martin Luther King’s birthplace and the white marble […]

As I read Donald J. Trump's idiotic Executive Order on "Antifa," if I park illegally while wearing an Antifa t-shirt, I can be given a parking ticket. And if I'm caught for speeding while playing an Antifa anthem on the radio, I can be given a speeding ticket. Also, scary number go up. #uspol