As I review ACA plans from insurers with 1- and 2-star ratings, where I pay exorbitant fees for the privilege of being one accident from bankruptcy, I shake my fist at the Democrats who caved to bullies. It is time for a generation of leaders to retire and hand the reins to mobilizers and fighters.

It is time for Democrats to choose a Minority Leader who both understands this unique moment in US political history AND who will stand and fight for what is right. If he chooses (and it is not an easy choice), @chrismurphyct.bsky.social could be that leader.

As a Bostonian, I am conflicted about how many positive feelings I'm having about New York at this moment

As my cynical soul watches a blue tsunami, it cannot hide a Judy-Dench smirk as the necromongers falter...

More people marched today than at any time in the history of the United States. For @nytimes.com, it was the 6th most important story. They are making sure that those in power do not see what they do not want to see. This is not what we were brought up to think of as journalism.

It’s incredible that the VT State Senator wrapped up in this hasn’t resigned yet — every major GOP leader in the state has called for his resignation. Fixing democracy requires restoring shame to public life. And accountability. Lots of accountability. vtdigger.org/2025/10/14/v...

These are mostly indigenous communities in Alaska that have been slammed by the storm. The local manager of a small airline fleet says he is the only one doing evacuations right now! Defund FEMA and people are abandoned. Defund public media and no-one knows. FYI, today is Indigenous Peoples Day.

Maps matter. Maps are a product of ethical and moral choices about how to represent an analysis of people over space and time. Here, there is a shortcoming that needs to be addressed.

It’s like this comic was made for him:

I will not back down. Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power. What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?

Someone looking at all this with a cold eye might say that Miller and Hegseth are seeking control over the power ministries before a Vance ally invokes the 25th Amendment.

Within 24 hours of the Kirk shooting, top Trump officials and administration lawyers were drafting legal memos, writing blueprints for possible executive actions and prioritizing which liberal organizations and strongholds of the left needed targeting. 🔗 www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

Harmeet Dhillon (DOJ) publicly targeted this judge on Twitter a couple weeks ago.

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.

The Third Reich didn't last 1,000 years. Pinochet was ousted with a referendum. And the US isn't exactly dealing with the smartest, most competent fascists. Those of you insisting that 2025 is forever need to read a book, touch grass, go to therapy, anything other than trying to make others quit.

NEW: We got access to Jeffrey Epstein’s personal Yahoo inbox — more than 18,000 emails. It shows Epstein’s world in his own words: an unfiltered look at how his operation worked, who enabled it, and how Ghislaine Maxwell stayed at the center of it all.

We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.

Rear Adm. James E. McPherson, former top judge advocate general for the Navy who later served in first Trump administration: “I would be interested if they could come up for any legal basis for what they did. ... if they turned back, then that threat has gone away.” 1/2

How should an organization support open source? A key goal for 2i2c is to lead by example in contributing to a healthy open source ecosystem. We've learned a lot over the years - here's our framework for building healthy open source relationships. 👉 2i2c.org/blog/2025/go...

Racial profiling is anathema to US democracy. SCOTUS continues to denigrate the concept of equality before the law.

People from all over are showing up for DC. This is not a moment. It’s a movement. We are united in our demands. We are all DC! #FreeDC

After US DOGE Service fired COVID technologists & designers in cruel, public ways & deleted 18F, devastating state capacity to deliver, the acting USDS administrator now says… the US government needs to hire more technologists & designers.

In case you missed it here's a senior Trump official admitting, on camera, to what has to be the most consequential scandal and coverup in American history: bsky.app/profile/blue...

1 Small Thing: Trump tried to change DoD’s name Reality check: Only Congress can do that Get Smart: Access journalism in the age of Trump has hidden risks. Why it matters: Authoritarian regimes lie, deny, & distract from corruption & failures. Honest journalists shouldn’t repeat claims unchecked.

Spent five minutes staring at this trying to work out what it had reminded me of. Realised it was this horrifying passage from George Orwell’s 1984.

1/ I worked at DoD. I literally cannot imagine lawyers coming up with a legal basis for lethal strike of suspected Venezuelan drug boat. Hard to see how this would not be "murder" or war crime under international law that DoD considers applicable. Read expert analysis by @bcfinucane.bsky.social⤵️

@kiricarini.com sent me this kickass zine about geospatial data and I will be demanding that all of my new documentation be presented by cartoon astronaut raccoons.

BREAKING: Judge Charles Breyer finds that the Trump administration violated the Posse Comitatus Act by using the military for domestic law enforcement purpose in Los Angeles. He enjoins further violations of the Posse Comitatus Act ⬇️ storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

If you’ve ever compared unvaccinated kids to vaccinated kids, you’ve seen the former are more likely to die.

As someone who wants to see pattern recognition lead to advanced disaster risk modelling via AI, I am afraid that this graphic is all too true.

*stares into the camera* *sighs*

BREAKING: Social Security Administration chief data officer and whistle-blower Charles Borges has resigned after bombshell report that SSA put highly-sensitive data at risk. He sent out an email to colleagues moments ago. Here is the text of his email shared with me:

“End-run” “Pushing limits” “Unusual” “Redefining” “Challenging norms” “Boldly upending” Sounds heroic, muscular. Our English language already contains the word illegal. No need to craft misleading/laudatory synonyms for suspending our Constitution. In this dangerous moment, we must speak clearly.

CDC employees standing up and walking out in light of the mass shootings, firings, and *waves hands in the air* everything else. #USAnotRFK Lets gooooo

As the former manager of learning at the IFRC, I must point out the Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross Movement: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality.

I adapted Michael Pollan's frame for eating healthy a decade ago for ways to *digitally* detox on vacation: Access information. Mostly maps. Delete social apps. Read books. Facts & fiction. Mostly print. Cache email. Respond later. Mostly family. Limit videos. Not too much TV. Mostly movies.

Judge Sol Wachtler neglected to mention that even though you can indict a ham sandwich, that doesn't mean you'll succeed in indicting the man who threw it. GIFT LINK. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/u...

As a crisis management professional who entered our field because of Hurricane Katrina, this letter from 150 FEMA colleagues hits hard. Unless we act now, our nation is going to have another Katrina-level failure. www.standupforscience.net/fema-katrina...

This is public policy insanity. It will kill untold numbers Americans, likely in the 100s of thousands.

What ICE is doing right now is historically illegal, immoral, and inhumane. If you voted for Donald Trump and you don’t support it, you cannot remain silent or your regret is cowardly and useless. If you do support it, your humanity is busted.

The brown suit is not an accident.

Over the past two decades, I have worked on disaster ops (HADR & DSCA) with many DoD employees, civilian and military. With only a few exceptions, they take their oaths seriously and live by their honor. The chances of more than a handful 'volunteering' to support mass deportations are near zero.

Slavery was and still is an evil system whose history has been watered down in our museums and schools. We need to come to grips with the darkness of our nation's fight to make all persons created equal, not to erase it. And we must fight against anyone who wants to whitewash these injustices.

You are, in the next few months, going to see a few pro-AI people who start trying to morph into "thoughtful cynics" on the issue, and I can't wait, because I've been taking such detailed notes

No, Just no. We will not normalize this.

Like, I don't think we can put the toothpaste back in the tube at this point. But I think we can maybe get to a point where we recognize that AI, like toothpaste, is best used in scant amounts for specific, relatively infrequent tasks, rather than slathered indiscriminately all over everything.

NEW — I’ve learned members of the DC National Guard were told they were being activated via a mass text message sent with no warning this evening, less than 24 hours before they were expected to show up. Here is the full text of the message, shared with me by a DCNG source: