Hooray! I have blocked "AI" on Firefox in their new settings. All browsers and software should provide this option.

"We are dealing now with an allegation that the president of the US raped and sexually assaulted a child and is now using his DOJ to try to cover that up." If you want to understand latest Epstein revelations, @leahlitman.bsky.social explains them clearly on our pod: newrepublic.com/article/2070...

Make things in the cracks. Gather with others to create. Live now; leave good traces. #zentao

Interesting how when a tradition gets undermined to the point of meaninglessness its essential weirdness, previously latent, seems inescapable

Nonsensical things presented as policy. Not civilized yet. #zentao

Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus. FOSS nerds: the Torment Nexus cannot be ethical until it is Open Source

Damn. This guy really knows how to mayor!

🆕 at @naturemedicine.bsky.social How does ChatGPT Health do for appropriately triaging a person as to whether to go to the emergency room or stay home? www.nature.com/articles/s41... Not very well. Under-triaged 52% of case vignettes that are considered gold-standard emergencies

How do you limit this to five authors? Even if I went for 20 authors I'd probably skip someone I really like. And then there are the people who I'll read everything they write who don't have five books out. It would be easier to do with male authors and even then I'd want more than five.

Prescience comes from paying attention to what’s happening now. #zentao h/t @andreahairston.bsky.social

found the pic

So much is spent to fix things that aren’t a problem, but not things that are. #zentao

ANYWAY. I'm not on the @unbreaking.org Infectious Disease team because for this round, I'm on the Immigration team instead. But they are doing vital work compiling reports and keeping the count, and this week's timeline update was massive: unbreaking.org/issues/infec...

This is a fabulous book, and I say that as someone who thought she was bored by retellings of Arthur stories.

We have what it takes for solid infrastructure, so why don’t we have it? #zentao

The story that Elon Musk committed voter fraud has gotten next to no coverage -- one of those things you can't make come up on a Google search. But I think it's time for Dems to go on offensive abt right wing coddling of this immigrant interfering in our elections. newrepublic.com/post/206857/...

Maybe people need to read more feminist science fiction instead of the technocentric "golden age" stuff to understand what's going on in the world. Over at the Treehouse Writers blog I suggest the Holdfast Chronicles by Suzy McKee Charnas. treehousewriters.com/wp53/2026/02...

The so-called elites are spoiled, not smart or worthy. And unnecessary. #zentao

People know important things digital tech can’t comprehend. Don’t let it steal them. #zentao

Worse, it's really SMART. When/if Trump gets knocked out of power, the tech billionaires behind him will still keep theirs. Because they are also bankrolling Trump's opposition. In early 2026, they have the California Democratic Party on retainer.

Amazing how many of the state's top Democratic consultants are selling out to tech. Just cashing tf out. This is why I say the biggest threat doesn't come from Republicans—it comes from Democrats selling us out over time. BTW: I spent most of my career working for California Democrats.

Here are my three extensive Law Dork reports on this, none of which are cited in The Washington Post's report tonight: 2/11: www.lawdork.com/p/opening-up... 2/13: www.lawdork.com/p/uscis-refu... Today: www.lawdork.com/p/exclusive-...

New — This was projected on the US Institute of Peace building this evening ahead of the first meeting tomorrow of Trump’s farcically-named “Board of Peace.” Photo taken by person who was over there tonight. Unclear who’s behind the projection.

2) Every fascist/nationalist/etc. targeting of a marginalized group I’m aware of (and I’ve read about a LOT of them) has always been accompanied by attempts to constrain the role of women

Efficiency shouldn’t be good enough to block serendipity. #zentao

Sorry to get radical but I don’t think it’s my job or yours to embrace, accept, understand - and certainly not to use - the thing being sold to us as AI. I don’t like any part of it, so I won’t. I’m missing out? Good, that’s what I want. You’re worried about me missing out? That’s fuckin weird, man.

They don’t just destroy; they block others from rebuilding. Not civilized yet. #zentao

Efficiency is designed to trap folks like us not to help us. #zentao

“That facility is, like, terrible, horrible. There’s a lot of people in there. A lot. Each room has like 45 capacity. And they’re putting like 60 people in each room. The restroom is a mess. Dirty. People are sleeping on the floor, people are sleeping in the restroom.”

We'll be immortal then.

The kind of civil resistance we need: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

There's nothing so good that some fool or con man won’t get it wrong. #zentao

How many times, in how many contexts, in how many ways am I going to have to say that this is what "AI" does— what it fundamentally *is*— before it sinks in? That all Bullshit engines do is statistically correlate training data & inputs via their weights to produce outputs you are likely to accept…

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

It's Mandatory Monday and AI is clearly the future. mandatoryrollercoaster.com/post/8081046...

To develop a place move with it, sleep with it, know it before changing it. #zentao

As the media moved "from deferential stenography and toward fearless investigation, that led to declining trust in the news media. Aggressive, probing and accountability-oriented journalism held up a mirror to American society — and many Americans didn’t like what they saw." @polgreen.bsky.social

The extraordinary courage of people who are documenting ICE atrocities in places like Minneapolis, at great personal risk, are also achieving something else: They're changing the public's mind about immigration. We have a rare opportunity here. 1/ (new piece) newrepublic.com/article/2059...

Yep. The "AI" isn't conscious and won't be. What they're calling AI is software that might be useful for some things once they get the bugs out, though not writing. And it's not useful enough to support all the investment, thus the hype.

I've been reading Vanessa Chang's The Body Digital, so I shared some of her ideas related to writing over at the Treehouse Writers blog. The book's about way more than that, though. treehousewriters.com/wp53/2026/02...

So many new things, but we have to adapt to them rather than adapt them. #zentao

DID YOU KNOW that if an AFAB person (including teen) goes on Accutane for acne, they must join a federal program called iPLEDGE (because the meds are "potentially harmful to fetuses") wherein they must get bloodwork & a pregnancy test each month & fill out forms re: what birth control they're on

Protests matter. And people are turning out and doing things right. @chenoweth.bsky.social has the data.

. @nisishawl.bsky.social and I are so lucky to have this gorgeous cover by @katherinelam.bsky.social for our collaboration. So glad Katherine enjoyed our collab, too. Just what we want :D Hope you enjoy it, as well.

BREAKING: Judge Nancy Brasel, a Trump appointee, has issued a TRO in the Minnesota access-to-counsel case about treatment at Whipple. "It appears that in planning for Operation Metro Surge, the government failed to plan for the constitutional rights of its civil detainees."

BREAKING: The Trump administraiton has committed a mass violation of ICE detainees' constitutional rights in MN, effectively blocking their acess to attorneys in the Whipple building, a judge ruled tonight. The judge: Trump appointeee Nancy Brasel storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

As I say here, there is no scientific justification to revoke the engagement finding. In fact, over the last 15+ yrs, the evidence of how climate change affects our health has only grown. Higher risk of allergies, dementia, fertility, heart disease, and death: that’s what’s on the line. @nature.org

The Save Act is a full frontal assault against our democracy and we must defeat it. It’s time to light up your senators’ phone lines.

Let's make it clearer. This week's in-depth briefing from our volunteer collective at @unbreaking.org is on extraordinary acts of courage and decency by ordinary people fighting back against inhumane attacks on their neighbors. unbreaking.org/blog/this-we...

Our tiny team also did a giant timeline update this week—48 new entries, each involving an unhinged level of rereading and arguing about how to explain about things that are so cruel and evil and also so abidingly dumb in a way that makes sense to normal people. unbreaking.org/issues/immig...