The USPS posting a NINE BILLION DOLLAR LOSS!!! sounds terrible. Certainly worse than if you said "USPS costs thirty dollars per person per year" even though that means the same thing and more accurately describes a government service

Releasing 94 birds for the 94 countries that signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on December 3, 2008. This was 17 years ago in Phnom Penh together with survivors, deminers, monks, and activists. Time to ban cluster bombs, Cambodia (and everyone else).

The absurd (and illegal) "suspension" of the Mine Ban Treaty "also disregards the repeated pleas of mine victims and affected communities, who have consistently called on states to never return to these archaic and devastating weapons." humanitariandisarmament.org/2025/11/29/j...

I spent years dealing with the fallout of American military interventions. Think about the people impacted by decisions of those in power who force people kill each other. Make that your north star and it's much easier to understand where your sympathies should lie. www.fox4news.com/news/trump-a...

Trump is being nicer to Mamdani than Democratic leadership was lol

Is Trump also halting all military engagement until there's a complete assessment of the mental health impact? (I was going to say foreign but this applies equally to the U.S. now.)

I think the Baltic states know all of this to be true of landmines. They're just desperate to seem as if they're doing something on Ukraine, even if they know it will harm civilians. They admit as much in private. A pity they stoop to Russia's level after working so hard to leave their Soviet past.

Over half the world's recorded cluster bomb casualties were in Ukraine last year. They'll continue to kill and injure for years to come unless they're cleared. Cluster bomb clearance is a long, slow, costly process. There are many needs across the globe. They should never be used in the first place.

I used to facilitate these exchanges for the NYC Mayor's Office for International Affairs in de Blasio's (imperfect) administration. I'm bummed Adams undermined them with his terrible international engagement decisions, and hope Mamdani revives meaningful efforts for NYC to learn from others.

I'm ready to run as the humanitarian disarmament mom.

"While the world gathers a decade after the Paris Climate Accords were first signed, the single largest institutional emitter of greenhouse gasses—the US military—continues to expand its carbon footprint unchecked." www.thenation.com/article/envi...

NEW for @inkstickmedia.com: I spoke with former Human Rights Campaign employees & activists with @genderlib.com @adalahjustice.bsky.social about the 2-year campaign for America's largest LGBT advocacy group to divest from the arms manufacturer Northrop Grumman. inkstickmedia.com/largest-lgbt...

Factsheet updated with yesterday's U.S.-Saudi news as MBS visits White House and attends state dinner. Strategic Defense Agreement and US to sell F-35s and ~300 tanks. Saudi-Arabia to be made major non-NATO ally. www.forumarmstrade.org/us-saudi-arm...

Walking to my next meeting staring at my phone with a goofy grin seeing that Lex has found a new home and that the first article is an excellent one.

now that women have ruined the workplace we should just get rid of it

(The DNC Vice Chair who could have been our Senator in Pennsylvania, but instead we got Fetterman.)

Congrats to Daeja Baker for being elected to the Shaler School board! I have full faith your [sic] not going to marginalize the people who [sic] you consider not to be marginalized by representing the marginalized.

Mamdani is going to impose Shakira's law. No hips will be allowed to lie.

New documentary 'In Exile' spotlights global voices of Pittsburgh’s Scholars-at-Risk community Co-directed by the award-winning Syrian filmmaker Reem Alghazzi and Carnegie Mellon University faculty member Ralph Vituccio www.wesa.fm/arts-culture...

For those following elections in Allegheny County, here's the link you need: results.enr.clarityelections.com/PA/Allegheny...

Bolts is great for elections so now's a good time to follow, but I also appreciate their insight throughout the year (which is what makes their elections coverage so insightful). And I just signed up for $10 a month, which means they get $120. And we all get superb journalism.

Japan's "Mundane Halloween" costume contest is back! Each year website DailyPortalZ holds a contest where people dress up as something super duper ordinary. Here's a thread of some of my favorites from the 2025 contest! #MundaneHalloween

This, combined with getting Mamdani's age wrong (saying he's 27 instead of 34, though he later corrected that), is some sort of weird ongoing (intentional?) misreading of how politics and elections work. It's not rocket science. There is some bizarre refusal to accept that young people can do stuff.

Todd Zwillich on NPR gets it all wrong on Mamdani. Mamdani's popularity is not remarkable because of his online presence (great as it is), it's because he is getting people out to knock doors. That's what @aoc.bsky.social did in 2018 and it's why her win wasn't surprising to anyone in her district.

I made a raccoon pumpkin in honor of the new Rainbow Raccoon Park in my town, but the raccoons ate its face overnight.

When SNAP runs out on Nov. 1st, hundreds of thousands of people in Pittsburgh and across SWPA will struggle to afford food. I compiled (with the help of community members) a non-exhaustive list of where people can find help, including sites in Pittsburgh & outer counties. Please spread this.

Hooray for local government! What a delight to see NYC's Local Law 97 (2019) getting a shoutout during this New York Botanical Gardens presentation at the Phipps Climate Toolkit conference here in Pittsburgh.

"The decision to fire live artillery shells from the oceanfront training area was described as unusual by an active-duty Marine artillery officer." I know a lot of unexploded ordnance experts and "unusual" is exponentially more diplomatic than what they'd say.

'When you say your only going to represent the marginalized, you only end up marginalizing the people who you consider not to be marginalized. All our students have needs and their needs shall not be ignored." This is from a school board election mailer just outside of Pittsburgh.

D'Angelo at the Forest Hills Stadium in Queens back in 2015 remains one of the top three concerts of my lifetime. There is no photo evidence because everyone was too busy enjoying his immense talent. RIP www.wpxi.com/news/trendin...

Reconnected with a college friend through Friendster [RIP] and attended their wedding, where I met someone who helped me get my first job in international development when I couldn't even get a response to other applications. Kickstarted a 20-year career in the field.

write that novel, pitch the movie, apply for that job. life and short and imposter syndrome is over

Yes, and I find the Facebook comments from the hometown of Bari Weiss (Pittsburgh) even more telling than a NY Post article. www.facebook.com/share/p/19uj...

When I worked in/around the UN, I'd often see the Syrian ambassador who backed the deadly regime that killed countless people and destroyed the lives of many more. I'd say "kuss ummak" loud enough for him to hear, but not loud enough for him to know it was me. But sometimes he did. Like here.

"Two of the defense officials expressed shock...at the cost and danger, in terms of operational security, of assembling the military’s top officers to listen to a rant. 'He wants to talk about ‘garbage,’' one said, referencing the secretary’s use of the term. 'That’s the definition of it.'"

The Arab Spring.

“Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.” -Assata Shakur

From Laos to Gaza to Ukraine, we must confront the war beneath our feet "The haunting parallels remind us that wars never really end when the fighting stops. They live on in the ground itself, demanding generations of courage and resources to undo." www.salon.com/2025/09/27/f...

This lecture series about cities at war is free and open to all, thanks to @offuniversity.bsky.social. The topics and speakers are excellent. I highly recommend checking it out. offuniversity.org/current-cour...

Also, don't listen to the people who are seemingly doing everything everywhere, listen to the people who are doing the work on the thing.

Too often, only the terrible things in DC make it to the public eye, but there is a beautiful, longstanding punk history that warrants recognition. Proud to be born in DC to a dad who ran the Rainbow Press on 18th Street, which supported such movements in the 70s.

"We must center humanitarian needs in all conversations about conflict and recovery...solidarity isn't just a feeling but a responsibility. It means more than bearing witness; it means standing up, speaking out and stepping in." Thoughtful reflection on war legacies. www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...

“Why does transit seem to be in an endless emergency? Why is it so easy to assume that transit’s financial situation is hopeless? Because we have constructed our transportation funding streams to make transit’s costs visible, while the costs of car dependence are mostly concealed.”

Prince George's County Executive Braveboy issued an executive order to freeze data center development Taylor Frazier McCollum started the petition to do so www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/p...

It's been 17 years since I boarded a plane to Cambodia to work for the United Nations landmine clearance program. Considering what we know about its horrific impact, never would I have imagined that a US President (Biden!) would recommence using this banned weapon. medium.com/@alexhiniker...

Fascinating look into how plastic has shaped our lives. In addition to the local laws mentioned in this article, check out @magnuslovold.bsky.social summary of global plastic ban treaty discussions: share.google/vCU4M3FNa5Yc...

Ukraine: Danish Refugee Council statement on the Russian missile strike on a humanitarian demining site that killed two and injured eight drc.ngo/resources/ne...

Russian strike on demining mission in Ukraine kills two Demining is a long, slow, costly process that's underfunded in Ukraine (and globally). Odd that Russia is prioritizing this. My thoughts are with the deminers who now risk their lives in more ways than one. www.reuters.com/world/europe...

I read this joke maybe eight times and didn't get it. Turns out the punchline is in the next post! And it's worth the scroll.

We Have A Trillion Dollar Pentagon Budget. Now What? www.forbes.com/sites/willia...