BlueSky, December 2024, Part 2

This post covers December 16–31, in reverse chronological order, which means the first quoted item is from December close to midnight on New Year's Eve, and the last one is from halfway through the month. (Here's Part 1, for December 1–15.)

In addition to more agita about Trump transition news, other major stories were continued discussion of the shooting of the UnitedHealthCare CEO in Manhattan, infighting among various racist parts of Trump's base, and Musk's attempted shutdown of the government.

As usual, I have moved some of the less timely images up or down in the order for better visual balance. Everything below the line is quoted from the attributed account.

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Good night Bluesky. Together is the only way we build liveable todays and tomorrows.
Martin Pfeiffer @nuclearanthro.bsky.social

The California grid ran on 100% renewables with no blackouts or cost rises for parts of a record 98 out of 116 days (and 132 days all year) in 2024oday. I listened to NPR this evening, and this wasn’t even reported in passing. There was even a report about an initiative to save endangered wolves somewhere, but no mention of the 100 people who were killed in less than 24 hours.
Mark Z. Jacobson

John Roberts: peaceful protests targeting me are bad. Also John Roberts: If the President wants to sic violent protests on a co-equal branch of government, that's totally cool.
emptywheel

Yes...


judithbolyard.bsky.social

My biggest surprise of 2024 is that when we learned Trump's DOJ criminally framed Joe Biden, no media outlets cared.
emptywheel

1.3 million Puerto Ricans are without power. If all of St. Paul or Minneapolis lost power. It be on the news everywhere, heads would roll, mayors would panic and rage tweet and get in trouble. Since it’s a territory and not a state. People can give two fucks about PR and that is fucking shameful.
Rodrigo Sánchez-Chavarria @rscspokenword.bsky.social

Here’s something folks might not know: since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration, total installed solar power in the US has doubled, and zero-carbon power plants will make up 96% of new capacity that will be installed this year. Looked this up today and the rate of utility scale solar power installations per month has TRIPLED since the start of the Biden-Harris Admin. And 12 Hoover Dams worth of batteries got connected to the grid. There is lots more to do, but the progress on especially solar and batteries is phenomenal.
Costa Samaras

e-bikes are immediate climate action. they are also a massive win for public health, for safe streets, and offer way more economic benefits for local communities. electric cars do none of this. and yet cities and states are only rolling out the carpet for one of them. what a joke.
Mike Eliason @holz-bau.bsky.social

United Healthcare just denied a claim on one of my patients in the ICU with:
- a brain hemorrhage
- in a coma
- on a ventilator
- in heart failure
...because I haven't proven to them that caring for her in the hospital was "medically necessary." Tear it all down.
Zachary David Levy @zlevymd.bsky.social

Own the libs...


Being Liberal

Tonight a quarter century ago, Boris Yeltsin appointed Vladimir Putin (acting) president of the Russian Federation. Regardless of his formal title, he's ruled the country ever since.
Toomas Hendrik Ilves @ilvestoomas.bsky.social

I just don’t see “womanhood” as something that needs to be defended, preserved, or redefined into positivity. I see it as a byproduct of hierarchy that human beings have survived under with their irrepressible creativity and determination.
Moira Donegan

Waymo is peak American innovation. With way less money they could have built a reliable public transport network, but instead someone was like "what if we could find a way for empty vehicles to contribute to traffic too? There's no reason we can't have more cars on the road than there are drivers"
Marcus Hutchins @malwaretech.com

I'm listening to another news story about new buildings that "remove as much carbon from the atmosphere as x-thousand cars removed from the road" but these folks rarely ever support actually removing cars from the road.
Mary Morse Marti @marymm.bsky.social

In Georgia, a mom facing eviction reached out to DFCS for help. They offered her nothing. Soon the agency took her kids away because of "inadequate housing." The state then paid *$6,200 a month* to house her kids in foster care.
Brian Goldstone

any time there's a proposed high speed rail map without a St. Paul/St. Louis line all the characters should be asking "where's the St. Paul/St. Louis line?"
logicbutton

Jacob Lawrence, "The Swearing In," an image of American citizens gathered to witness the peaceful transition of the US presidency, which Lawrence created for a portfolio honoring Jimmy Carter's inauguration in January 1977:


Michael Lobel

Both highways and transit are way too expensive to build in the U.S. (a subject for another post) but only transit gets torn apart for cost overruns & is thus deemed unworthy of getting built. Very few say “don’t build highways because they cost too much.” The highways just get built.
Senator Scott Wiener

Vivek Ramaswamy suggesting that US companies need to hire H-1B workers because American children have too many sleepovers, watch reruns of Friends, and spend their free time at the mall is the funniest part of the MAGA fight.
David Ho

Trump often floats trial balloons (personally or through proxies) about which he is serious and then uses the reactions as part of his decision tree ultimately.
Leah McElrath

"A request made through ChatGPT, an AI-based virtual assistant, consumes 10 times the electricity of a Google Search." This isn't a game. This is accelerated destruction via huge usage of power, water, resources etc. Stop using it - especially for messing about!!
Dr Tess Machling

"What trillion-dollar problem is AI trying to solve?" Wages. They're trying to use it to solve having to pay wages.
Jack @jackscarab.bsky.social

December is Minnesota's fastest-warming month. MSP temperatures have risen 7-8F since 1980, closer to a 10F rise over northern Minnesota. Still cold enough for snow for most storms, but "usable snow" doesn't stick around as long. Don't believe me? Ask anyone with a snowmobile
Paul Douglas @pdouglasweather.bsky.social

St. Paul's population density in 1930 versus 2020:


Chicago Urbanist

Musk spent nearly $300 million to elect a president with a virulently anti-immigrant agenda and now is telling Trump’s anti-immigrant supporters to “FUCK YOURSELF in the face.” Unclear who Musk thought was voting for the guy who blamed immigrants for all of America’s economic problems.
Judd Legum

On this day in 1956, days after the end of an anti-segregation bus boycott, sniper gunshots struck a pregnant Black woman named Rosa Jordan as she rode an integrated bus in Montgomery, Alabama.
Equal Justice Initiative @eji.org

Global tuberculosis deaths reached their lowest level ever recorded, with Africa recording the greatest progress among all regions — a 42% reduction in deaths and a 24% decrease in infection rates since 2015.
Ada Palmer

Strib letter writer points out that "human rights" don't extend to immigrants and I'm at a complete loss why any respectable editor would say, "this is good; let's print this!"
Bob Collins @mylittlebloggie.bsky.social

I find the "cars = freedom" thing so funny because the history is actually very clear that the advent of mass motorism substantially weakened privacy rights and empowered the police. Contemporary policing relies on roadside stops for a reason, the threshold for warrantless searches is much lower! Cars in the libertarian fantasy: haha, no commie government is going to make me ride the bus like a poor. Cars in reality: excuse me sir, your taillight flickered for a moment I'll need you to provide multiple pieces of sensitive personal documentation or go to jail.
John Michael McGrath @jm-mcgrath.bsky.social

What are we DOING here? We're just meant to sit and act like this insane plagiarism and climate threat that requires more money than anything has ever cost is worth it? Are we meant to pretend that ChatGPT is worth this aimless, meaningless destruction of capital and our environment? For what?


Ed Zitron @edzitron.com

Lowest level of plastic bottle litter in 35 years, and most bottles were older than the deposit return scheme. From a peak of 100 bottles per kilometre in 2010, it has dropped to just below eight bottles per kilometre in 2024 #ireland
Tom Gleeson @tggleeson.bsky.social

Daily reminder that the underlying purpose of AI is to allow wealth to access skill while removing from the skilled the ability to access wealth.
Unpaid Cat Maid @emeraldjaguar.bsky.social

the Republican mind is nothing more than grievance, projection, and oppositional defiant disorder
OnOneNow @ceebee4.bsky.social

It's sad to realize that many people, even Democrats, act in a way that suggests they would rather homeless and symptomatic people freeze to death than help them live a productive life with treatment. We know how to build apartments. We have new drugs. The moral urgency is what is lacking.
Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org

According to Barron’s, Elon Musk’s wealth increased by almost $200 billion between November 5 and December 20. That means he could give $250,000 to every homeless person in the US and still be as rich as he was on November 5.
Seth Cotlar

Swans, Becca Stadtlander:


Rachel Deering

I know this is polarizing among suburban white voters but i don’t think we need to pay anybody to ram down front doors and murder teens.
A.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social

people don’t like swatting, where someone calls the town’s death squad and sends them to someone’s house as a joke, but no one seems to question why every town needs a death squad on call
Ben @coxsportsohio.bsky.social

stunning increases in homelessness released today from HUD: 771,480 people experienced homelessness on a single night this past January, an 18 percent increase nationwide over 2023. Among those were 150,000 children, a 33 percent increase over 2023
Rachel Cohen

All of these fucking rich guys bitch and bitch and bitch, what else is American society supposed to give you? It’s given you everything! Is it that you don’t want everyone to think you’re embarrassing dorks? That’s not our problem
Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social

I often think of that line from Cat’s Cradle about how most travelers in foreign countries are fine with being tolerated, but that Americans expect to be loved wherever they go. I think some version of that sentiment applies to the intensely online rich and powerful.
Jeffrey R. Villines @jeffinthebowtie.bsky.social

How is that a publication like Rolling Stone gets it right when so many other news orgs are failing at real journalism and keeping it real—and so damn obvious about it?


Christopher Webb @cwebbonline.com

The idea that multifamily housing “belongs” along arterials is the product of a *political* compromise with incumbent homeowners. It has absolutely no basis in international best practices for urban planning.
Max Dubler

I’m not obsessed with Luigi but I am mildly obsessed with the people who are obsessed with him, because it’s *fascinating*.
Katherine Piper

At the old site [Twitter], the Tech Nazis and the Nazi Nazis are fighting. TNs assumed they could manipulate the NNs, only to discover that the NNs meant it when they said they wanted a totalitarian ethnostate. Meanwhile, the NNs are slowly coming to the realization that the TNs believe in absolutely nothing beyond their own smug and unjustified superiority complexes and only care about keeping their capital gains from being taxed. All of which should make for a delighful next four years 2/2
Bobby Silverman @robertsilverman.bsky.social

Don't think I've ever seen someone literally say "one of the good ones" verbatim like this:


@mumbly-joe.bsky.social

Amazing that MAGAs are only just now finding out that the reason such a high percentage of Elon Musk's workforce is foreign-born is because he wants a captive audience he can abuse due to their visa fears, rather than an US workforce that might engage in behavior he deems distasteful like unionizing
Seth Abramson

Multiple companies are discontinuing their blu ray and 4K players. In addition to the obvious, devastating implications for film preservation, it illustrates once again that the ultra-rich will not be happy until everything in our lives is subscription-based. A landlord for every need.
Abe Goldfarb

If up to RFK Jr., we will never have this success again. Thank you, Trump voters:


David Corn

Elon Musk is like a modern Aesop fable about a boy who tries to buy all the love in the world ... but ends up as the richest and most despised man on the planet. That is how this story ends. Do your part. He would be a lot more scary if he had the discipline to STFU for five minutes every once in a while
Gil Durán

apparently the instruction "leave meat to rest after cooking" was invented by pets to increase their chances
Elle @elleisanisland.bsky.social

2024 is almost history and the global temperature forecast for the remaining few days is rock solid now. Time to wrap up. In most datasets, 2024 will be 0.1 degree C warmer than 2023. Also, 2024 will be the 1st individual year above the 1.5 degree Paris warming threshold in all datasets.
KarSteN Haustein

The Greenland stuff is Trump's way of rolling the dice and maybe getting something (resources) for nothing.... Panama is transactional. Wants free passage for U.S. vessels. The Canadian thing is about trying to effect political change and giving right wing groups a leg up in Canadian politics.
Steve Leatherman

Something I’ve stressed in talks and interviews since the election is that we will not have restored the peaceful transfer of power in the U.S. until a Republican president willingly hands power to a Democratic president.
Nicole Hemmer @pastpunditry.bsky.social

I made a gingerbread panopticon:


Sasha Darling PHD, MD, DSL

I was curious and apparently there's an association between smoking and going gray before the age of 30. I kind of wonder if all of the "millennials look young" tropes is  simply millenials smoked less than earlier generations and wore some sunscreen
Kendra Pierre-Louis @kendrawrites.com

Historic inflection point: China set in 2020 an official target for EVs to reach 50% of car sales by 2035. It will hit it in 2025, 10 years ahead of schedule. Electrification happens slowly, then all of a sudden. Then, it's the end of the age of oil
Assaad Razzouk

Pretty convinced the boys never actually LEFT town.
@identityxcrisis.bsky.social

Prolonging a pandemic for profit is unconscionable. Taking global government resources to develop cures and then restricting access to the globe to the price you think people will pay is unconscionable. But that is what corporations are.
thimbles.bsky.social

It does speak volumes about the corruption of our media that the idea of having fully open research and technology transfer was never seriously discussed during the pandemic.
Dean Baker

On Christmas Day, after a stressful year packed with a genocide, invasions, wars, migrations, and a worsening climate crisis, a reminder of what the Nativity Scene looks like with no Palestinians, Jews, Semites, Africans, minorities, migrants and refugees:


Assaad Razzouk

Something that is really apparent to me as a state-school Californian is how much fucking elite conflict in politics is just some Ivy League or NYC grudge that somehow becomes the rest of our problem
William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social

I’ve always had my criticisms of Wikipedia, but compared to the people attacking it, it’s the Library of Alexandria
Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social

Trying to think of Black folks who have been celebrated for committing righteous murder as politics, drawing a blank. Hell it is still controversial to celebrate Nat Turner.
D.A. Bullock @bullycreative.bsky.social

Always wild to me how many people making a show of what free-thinking skeptics they are start out by assuming the gospels are factually accurate
Alexandra Merideth Erin [she/her] @alexandraerin.com

Everyone probably knows this, but I still think it's really cool that the *pop* made when you burst a balloon is caused by a sonic boom because the hole in the rubber expands faster than the speed of sound.
David Bowman @dlbowman76.com

Black spaces are a response to white violence… not a punishment
Solomon @solomonmissouri.bsky.social

Is there a bigger inversion of a famous figure's teachings than Jesus wants you to be rich, violent, and unwelcoming? And if you are, he'll reward you with material wealth that you should horde for yourself? I'm not a Christian, so others know this better, but I'm pretty sure he did not say that.
Nicholas Grossman

Don’t tell me how much you love It’s a Wonderful Life when you’re voting for Mr. Potter.
Kristy Parker

Stop Forcing A.I. into Fucking EVERYTHING!


@dynamoe.bsky.social

MAGA is the Scrooge of our time, demanding everything from America while giving nothing in return. Unlike Dickens' tale, the ghosts visited in 2016, whispered their warnings, and left unheard—perhaps even spirits tire of pleading with hearts turned to stone.
Fal Rising

One of the things that really shocked me in reading Matthew Desmond's eviction is how rare being unhoused used to actually be. People lived in shitty conditions but they weren't on the streets. The risk that we all live under now is from policy decisions especially since the 1980s.
Kendra Pierre-Louis @kendrawrites.com

I cured ballots for about 10 days post election, granted this is anecdata, but signature matching/not matching was easily 20–30% of our calls and for voters under 30 it was 60–70% of the reason for the call. This has been identified as an issue to solve for this year's elections and 2026.
Ipsita Chatterjea (she/her) @ichatterjea.bsky.social

Me, a night owl: I shall be very quiet, for my love is slumbering
My wife, an early bird: I’ll make as much noise as I want you sleepy piece of shit
lukelukeluke

Westerners often call modernist or brutalist high-rise housing blocks “Stalinist,” but Stalinist architecture was actually more classicist, and the more austere styles we often associate with communism didn’t come until afterwards.
Stephen Jacob Smith


Jess Piper @piperformissouri.bsky.social

In 1985, at the height of what was then called a Second Gilded Age, the combined wealth of the 400 richest Americans was the equivalent of $377 billion today. That's less than the current net worth of one person, Elon Musk.
Jon Schwarz @schwarz.bsky.social

Trump hasn’t yet taken office, but he has threatened four friendly countries. Plus Iran.
Radley Balko

Trump thinks going after enemies is hard, so he decided to instead go after allies
Dean Baker

Why is Missouri’s population declining? 30% of our schools run a 4-day week. We are dead last in starting teacher pay and state worker pay. 40% of our counties are maternity deserts. 50% of our counties are childcare deserts. Children can legally open carry guns. 22 years of a GOP supermajority.
Jess Piper @piperformissouri.bsky.social

Walking in my winter underwear:


Midge

A Hallmark movie where the rich, nationally prominent columnist who went to private school and then Harvard visits his partner’s middle class town for the holidays and uses his brief interactions with “regular Americans” as the fuel for another year’s worth of columns
Wes Burdine

Findings from the Senate Judiciary Committee's probe into the Supreme Court's 'ethical crisis': Scalia accepted lavish gifts from billionaires and others with business before the Court for over a decade, in violation of federal law, including 258 personal trips, dozens of which weren't disclosed.
Kyle Griffin

Remember in the aftermath of 10/7 even Israel’s major US defenders would acknowledge that netanyahu would continue the conflict until biden stopped him as he needed it to stay in power and avoid prison. Then they just stopped mentioning that
Atrios @eschatonblog.com

Ultimately Democrats vulnerability on trans rights has nothing to do with trans rights. What people hear is that Democrats care more about trans rights than their own concerns, a message that would have zero traction if they felt Democrats genuinely did care about their own concerns
Gillian Branstetter

I don’t see any reason to cooperate with Trump Republicans. They literally wish death on half of this country…do not concede. Do not go along. Do not be a partner. Shun them. Oppose them. Stand up and link arms and talk back. Fvck them.
Jess Piper @piperformissouri.bsky.social

I'm sorry, how does a House Republican even HAVE $90,000 to spend on 'sexual activity'? If we're looking to cut waste from government I think we need to start looking into Congressional sex and drug budgets.
Hunter @hunterub.bsky.social

No Child Left Behind: Elementary school edition. Schools were forced into a Faustian bargain. They could teach kids Social Studies that wouldn’t appear on a state test or they could spend Social Studies time teaching kids more English and Math that would appear on a state test. We see the results
Jess Piper @piperformissouri.bsky.social

Good morning:


Richard Kadrey

One of the lawmakers pushing for gun silencers in Missouri likes to play with flamethrowers. He also tried to pass a bill to legalize brass knuckles. Little men and their toys…
Jess Piper @piperformissouri.bsky.social

One of the best things I ever did for myself was stop comparing my life trajectory to people who have support systems. I won’t say I never had help, but I’m just now truly understanding the difference between “assistance” and “support.”
Ashley C. Ford @smashfizzle.bsky.social

You can be quite politically conservative and still be super into swinging, meditation and psychedelics. The actions themselves carry no inherent political position beyond (and I do not mean this as a criticism) a generalized social libertarianism. One of the reason "hippies" are generally imagined to be a leftwing phenomenon is because the counterculture is generally imagined to be left. (See also: kink, non-monogamy, substance use.) In practice, though, they're "left" simply because the Christian Right hates them
Asher Elbein

A “Joe Rogan of the Left” isn’t nearly as important as a “Moms for Liberty” of the left. Democrats need fierce, loud, righteous occupiers of the public square, asserting and celebrating our values.
The New Republic

“We’re going to pick our battles” = “we’re gonna chicken out.” One of the things we’re going to see after inauguration day: a whole lot of people and institutions “strategizing” themselves into compliance
Mary Annaïse Heglar

The Post’s year-long investigation found that three times as many Native American students had died at boarding schools between 1828 and 1970 as the U.S. government had previously reported.
The Washington Post

Optician's sign, Paris, circa 2015:


Anne Billson

Montana is the clearest place to see the nationalization of US politics. Whole Dem ticket was multigenerational MT hunters and farmers in bolo ties. Dem gov candidate owned a gun manufacturer. GOP slate was outta state tech. Whole race was dominated by natl culture war and southern border, GOP sweep. Dem gov candidate who owned gun manufacturer was effectively characterized as anti-gun lmaoooo
Jake Grumbach

Here is a student project idea. Do an inventory of public meetings on housing or transportation projects, and calculate what percentage are during work hours or dinner hours, held in transit deserts, offer childcare, are conducted in more than one language, only sent notices to home owners, etc.
Tara Goddard @drtaragoddard.bsky.social

The Ethicist | I spent years denying my support for Trump due to social disapproval. Now being an open Trump voter seems like the best way to make money and avoid prosecution. How do I get the word out that I've been MAGA all along?
New York Times Pitchbot

Members of Congress should get an annual pay raise. Better yet, raise their salaries to match the President’s salary ($400k/yr), prohibit any individual stock purchases or sales while in office, and put in a lobbying ban after office.
Costa Samaras

he's a 78 year old incoming president via historically narrow margins promising fascism while ineligible for another term with a single vote to spare in the house, any democrat who looks at that situation and with a straight face says "we have to work with them" deserves to be ejected from the party
festive seasonal geoffrey @parsnip.bsky.social

Why I am fine with Eat the Rich: Jeff Bezos announcing that he's marrying his next wife, Lauren Sanchez, in a lavish $600m ceremony. They live in Florida. $600m would cover 2 years of FL k-12 free lunch programs. Last year the state discontinued the office that helped schools file for free lunches.
Bo Thompson @gaudipern.bsky.social

To put this in perspective, he paid $250M for the Washington Post. Lmao.


Coach Finstock

capitalism: *happily running the person-grinder* yaaay, number go up
HP Lovecraft: my god, an unthinking engine of evil so incomprehensible in scale that to truly reckon with is to go mad *points past capitalism to a dude from Morocco*
Moroccan guy: *minding his own business* wait, what?
Beccas can't be choosers @beccanical.bsky.social

I dream that one day our passenger trains will be as fast as our entry-level base-model personal cars that children aged 16 can drive.
Tom Flood

I think this is my underrated pet issue, that american transportation and roads and city planning is making us sick and unhealthy with aggregate more expensive healthcare outcomes. this goes to my other pet issue, which is that "kids safety" has become synonymous with social media use, when their safety in reality is most threatened by guns and cars
sarah jeong

I love all the american travel blogs that mention their 6 months in japan or year working in France and how they lost SOOOO much weight it's gotta be because they mostly ate organic food or something.  They never clue in on the daily exercise from not driving.
BARO

One reason it sort of makes sense to frame car dependency as an addiction is because it genuinely does make us all miserable and less healthy, but trying to get people to cut back even a little causes many of them to lose their shit
Ned Resnikoff

Indeed, this is where we are:


George Takei

the most embarrassing part of being a “100 tabs open at once” guy is when you inadvertently close them and don’t even notice and there are absolutely no negative consequences
Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social

The main argument for a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve seems to be that Bitcoin holders worry about an impending shortage of greater fools and need the US government to act as the greatest fool of last resort.
David Frum

One symptom of a moral panic is that "i've never experienced it, but I've heard its bad elsewhere" because they are responding to extreme and unrepresentative cases that gain disproportionate attention.
Don Moynihan

Me, googling [Party City going out of business]: ah yes, purchased by private equity.
Courtney Milan

To those asking, here's Vance's comments. When news broke that the terrorist in Germany was a Saudi immigrant, Vance implied blame on all immigrants/Muslims. When it came out that the attacker was an Elon Musk fan, AfD supporter, and anti-Islam, Vance defended AfD. He's said nothing else about it.
Nicholas Grossman

Selling young men who feel like they’re not masculine enough on the idea that they’ll be basically samurai or cowboys or whatever if they put their money in a speculative financial asset that’ll surely make them rich and tough and desirable sounds like such a classic scam holy cow.
Nicholas Grossman

This bloom cycle is simply delightful:


Eileen Ridge @eileen4ever.bsky.social

I will not respond to most of Trump’s nonsense [about the Canal]. But out of respect for my forbears, let me set the record straight. The people who did most of the working and dying in constructing the Panama Canal were Black people from the West Indies. Not Americans. What America did was support a consortium of corporations in fomenting rebellion in a region of Colombia, in order to get the land needed to build the Canal. That land became Panama. Americans running the Canal Zone imposed a system of segregation for living and pay with Black West Indians at the bottom.
@SIfill

The history of urban snow removal is really fascinating; the obligation for property owners to shovel predates plowing (and autos) and so until cars snow removal was a civic obligation FOR PEDESTRIANS; now that has flipped and snow gets plowed ON TO sidewalks and sidewalks are impassable
tweety fish @sifu.tweety.fish

The AfD/Musk-supporting terrorist who attacked the German Christmas market planned his atrocity in full view on TwitterX over the course of a year. He was reported multiple times, but TwitterX did nothing to take him down or report him to authorities.
Mark Chadbourn

When Idaho conservatives argue that childcare = communism it sounds extreme. But it's also the logic of voucher advocates. Betsy DeVos made the same point when she argued that schools were replacing the family and kids were becoming constituents of the state
Jennifer Berkshire

"Here is the bill you demanded that nullifies all safety regulations for EVs and rockets, Your Majesty. I'll be back with your iced tea":


Mrs. Betty Bowers

The Senate confirmed on Friday the 235th lifetime federal judge nominated by President Biden, topping the four-year record set during the first Trump administration by a single judge.
The New York Times

Party City is bust. Michael's and Joanne Fabric are both owned by private equity. I went to Sur La Table recently and it looked so sad I googled and it has also been bought by private equity. Is the goal to get everyone to shop at Amazon/walmart/target? cause it's working.
Kendra Pierre-Louis @kendrawrites.com

Day 20 of my Texas Hates Mothers and Children Advent Calendar: Texas had more school shootings than any other state in 2024, yet every change to gun laws in recent years has been to lift restrictions.
Joanna Grossman

How to gift wrap a book… my cartoon for this week’s The Guardian books:


Tom Gauld

It should be a rule that cable news has to show a video of the Cybertruck wiper in action any time anyone says they support Elon and DOGE’s mission of making the government work better
nilay patel @reckless.bsky.social

Let's have some fun with numbers with Elon. His friendship with Trump has gotten him roughly $100 billion since Election Day. There have been 45 days since the election, so that comes to $2.2 billion a day that his Trump friendship brought him. Pretty funny that Elon Musk can express outrage over members of Congress getting a $6,600 pay increase when his friendship with Trump has already netted him over $100 billion, more than 14 million times as much. That's very MAGA! You have to admit it's pretty MAGA that, since the election, Musk's friendship with Donald Trump brought him four times as much, per second, as the ANNUAL congressional pay increase that he is screaming about as an outrage. $2.2 billion a day comes to $92.6 million an hour. This translates into $1,540,000 a minute, which comes to $25,700 a second.
Dean Baker

The way that university officials have begun to treat “peaceful” and “disruptive” as antonyms, when they in fact are not antonyms, is the kind of violence to language that one expects of authoritarians
Gabriel Winant

True story:


Hoodlum @nothoodlum.bsky.social

A funny aspect of the Elite Squadron marching with Mangione in lower Manhattan is that he was caught by a McDonald’s employee and an Altoona cop.
Philip Bump

New Department of Energy report "estimates that data center load growth has tripled over the past decade and is projected to double or triple by 2028."
David Roberts @volts.wtf

One collateral consequence of the GOP Congressional Resolution shitshow: Senate Dems are taking advantage of the extra time in session to confirm a few more judges than they probably would have otherwise.
Josh Chafetz

Ireland is the Black Twitter of countries. Good luck yelling at them, you just made them madder and funnier.
Brandi @itsthebrandi.bsky.social

7-up bottling company, overall diagonal view, ne 14 & sandy boulevard, portland, oregon, 1976:


old roadside pics @roadside.xor.blue

Republicans openly talk about cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid on TV, and then the media treat me like I am making things up because they haven’t each received an embossed memorandum titled Republican Plan and are too lazy to google.
Alex Lawson @alaw202.bsky.social

Remembering all the pooh-pooling when I flagged Musk and racism. The limitations of our “experts” are leaving us consistently unprepared. 2024 happens when you think shoplifters are a bigger threat to our country than an ultra-wealthy,power-hungry narcissist with power over satellites, communications and currency.
@SIfill

seems very bad that the richest person on Earth bought an election, thus installing his own personal fascist puppet, unilaterally conducts foreign policy violating Logan Act, owns a massive engine of fash disinfo, and has access to natsec secrets while regularly violating terms of security clearance
Soraya Nadia McDonald

The odds that Trump is inaugurated on a Trump-branded Bible that is then marketed as the "Inauguration Edition" are probably about 50-50.
Philip Bump

2020: omg let’s hire Black people
2024: well thank god that’s over
Kashana

Another thing I made this year: Real and implied birds:


Rosemary Mosco

United States is only 1.87% of earth’s surface area but has the vast majority of alien spacecraft sightings. Thats called global leadership, UFOs just sense we’re the winners, the big dawgs
Adam H Johnson

I find it interesting that it took us years to charge Donald Trump in federal court and weeks to charge Luigi. It says a lot about the priorities of who the state is protecting.
Courtney Milan

I mean I could also make good money using copyrighted materials for free. But I think if I said that I can't make money without it, it would be reasonable to reply: "get a fucking job."


Naomi Alderman

Las Vegas has not had measurable rain in 158 days:
Elizabeth Kolbert

spent this afternoon reading some early US history (as one does) and was reminded of the important fact that these people were almost constantly drunk as hell
jamelle @jamellebouie.net

And really young a lot of them! Every once in a while I gently remind myself that basically everything prior to the mid-19th century was driven by the decisions of day drunk 25 year olds.
kp jones @surrealisthells.bsky.social

Sometimes something can be photoshopped and true at the same time:


Carolyn Whitzman

It's not an accident or bad luck that many systems are spinning into red alert territory all at the same time, friends. It's happening because everything is connected so crises spiral and cascade and converge.
Dr. Elizabeth Sawin @bethsawin.bsky.social

Reporters need to understand that Musk is worth more than Trump by *at least* two orders of magnitude. For perspective, this is like the difference between a part-time minimum wage worker who sweeps floors for $10,000 a year and a multi-millionaire CEO who earns $1 million a year. Musk OWNS Trump.
Brandon Friedman

If I were a billionaire living in an environment with anti-billionaire popular sentiment boiling over, I would simply not risk making public statements about my intention to buy the entire US government. I would be off on one of my private islands somewhere reading books and swimming with dolphins.
Leah McElrath

Who does your eyebrows?


NorCal Lynne

For some reason, none of the 2,000-word articles talking about Elon's power grab mention that he destroyed ~80% of Twitter's value. Like, wtf have you all been hyperventilating about "DOGE" when destroying value is Elon's immediate precedent?
emptywheel

has there been a piece about Giselle Pelicot by a man, reflecting on what he's learned about masculinity, about himself and about other men from this horrific case? I feel I've seen so much by women, but it wasn't women who bloody did it. It's not women who need to reflect on how it could happen.
Naomi Alderman

A new ProPublica analysis shows a stark pattern across the Deep South: Alongside about 200 majority-Black public school districts are private academies filled almost entirely with white students.
ProPublica

It's unfair and nonsensical to demand that every person, in their everyday life and work, follow best practices for clear political messaging, just in the off chance that some national pundit will clip their work and post it out of context. We are not all public figures or spokespeople.
Doug Mack @douglasmack.bsky.social

If a church doesn’t have a food pantry or a soup kitchen or a closet full of clothes and blankets open to the public or isn’t showing up at natural disasters to help, why does that church have a tax-exempt status?
Jess Piper @piperformissouri.bsky.social

The owner of the Nazi bar came out in favor of Nazis? What a shock
Kevin M. Kruse

Gisèle Pelicot stood with her head held high in a courtroom in Avignon, France, on Thursday as the verdicts in the four-month rape trial of her ex-husband and 50 other men were read. Her image has become a symbol of female strength around the world, our critic writes.
The New York Times

It is astounding to me the way that climate change is such a direct threat to power, and those with the most power are intensifying rather than mitigating that threat.
David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social

ABSOFUCKINGLUTELY:


@lepapillonblue.bsky.social

Raw milk is one of those ideas that can really only take hold when people haven't seen a cow. if you see a cow from let's say ten feet or less you immediately understand the problem that pasteurization is solving
shanley tucci @markpopham.bsky.social

A publicly funded USPS gets your letter delivered. A privatized USPS gets your data delivered directly to an ad agency.
God @godpod.bsky.social

Charles fucking Dickens would’ve heard “cutting funding for cancer kids a week before Christmas” and said nah, too on the nose
Jason Bailey @jasondashbailey.bsky.social

The old robber barons had to pay the Pinkertons. Nowadays, they get security [from cops] at full taxpayer expense!
the mjl (michael j leblanc) @themjl.bsky.social

English is three languages in a trench coat beating up other languages for spare adjectives.
techgnosi

On this day in 1865, following the emancipation of Black people, South Carolina passed a law requiring labor contracts to refer to white people as "masters" and Black people as "servants."
Equal Justice Initiative @eji.org

after years of hearing conservatives describe basic political equality as "mob rule," i am darkly amused that this country is being subjected to literal mob rule by deranged reactionaries
jamelle @jamellebouie.net

Let’s assume for a minute that Trump really is “just joking” about Canada becoming a U.S. State (he’s not…his lip-smacking over this incredibly insulting “idea” was 100% predictable). Consider how offensive and un-diplomatic referring to a leader of a sovereign nation & close ally as “Governor” is.
Brent Toderian

Whoa—the Montana Supreme Court holds that its state constitution protects the right to "a stable climate system," and strikes down a law that barred consideration of greenhouse gas emissions when permitting new fossil fuel projects.
Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social

One of the very cool things about this case is that the court called one of the original framers of the MT state constitution to help interpret it because our constitution is only 50 years old and Mae Nan Robinson Ellingson was 24 years old when she helped write it.
Hank Green

Here are some nice mushrooms:


lukelukeluke

One of my favourite metaphors I use a lot when discussing whether folks I’m working with will end up not following through is “Lucy with the football.” It’s been a useful shorthand. Today I had to explain it to a client. Metaphors are useful but only if people know them. Also, I’m getting old.
Brent Toderian

Remember when Lina Khan blocked the Kroger/Albertsons merger, which would've sent grocery prices skyrocketing? Trump’s new FTC pick vowed to end the “war on mergers.” And wouldn’t you know it, Trump is now walking back his promise to lower grocery prices. Funny how that works.
Robert Reich

Idk who needs to hear this, but Trump and his ilk are not in denial about climate change. They know it’s real, and they know who it hurts. And they’re thrilled about it.
Mary Annaïse Heglar

Where bike-friendly infrastructure is the norm, kids gain freedom. No car keys, no backseat waiting. They learn independence, time management, and how to get around on their own. A small shift in how we design cities helps them grow into confident, capable adults.
American Fietser

It’s weird to think that Elon Musk will end up having paid far less for the United States Government than he did for Twitter
George Conway

Ornithology 101:  Owl life stages:


c0nc0rdance

Here’s a way for Dems to give an ethical form of populism and demagoguery a trial run: instead of playing savvy games vis a vis RFK, try just saying what makes him repulsive: he’s a scumbag who preys on innocent people and has cost many of them their lives.
Brian Beutler

Cannot see an Arkansas Black apple without thinking it’s the most witch-from-Snow-White looking apple I’ve ever seen.


Sharon Z

It's always interesting to me that private land owners (most notably mobile home parks and grocery stores) will install very serious, scrape your bumper-style speed bumps, while cities shy away from even the most marginal speed humps on public roads.
Warren Wells, AICP

“Once you decide that a single vulnerable minority can be sacrificed, you’re operating within a fascist logic,” they said. “That means there might be a second one you’re willing to sacrifice and a third, a fourth. Then what happens?” –Judith Butler
Bruno J. Navarro

The problem with meeting voters where they are is that voters have no idea where they are:


Gillian Branstetter

Do you remember saying to family in early 2020, "they said there could be a million dead from this" in horror and disbelief? I do. At least 7 million have died. Past pandemics had a worse death toll but WE HAVE MODERN MEDICINE AND COULD'VE PREVENTED SO MUCH SUFFERING.
Ebony Elizabeth Thomas @ebonyteach.bsky.social

First, that guy fucks up building a truck, and now he's ruining our government? Ech. Who let that guy in? It is WILD that he can buy a social media platform, trash it, donate some money to a chump and now he's the vizier? The man behind the thrown, out there making threats?
Sarah Tuttle @niais.bsky.social

musk shutdown. muskdown. musk shutdown. elon musk shutdown. musk's government shutdown. elon musk's government shutdown.
Michael Tae Sweeney @mtsw.bsky.social

This is my periodic reminder that no one elected Elon Musk to any political office. Government by plutocracy is not only anti-democratic but also kleptocratic and chaotic.
Helaine Olen

And, in other news, WTF did the Washington Post do its comments? No one wants an AI summation of this stuff. But I salute the achievement — it's hard to make comments sections worse, but the Will Lewis era Post managed to pull it off.
Helaine Olen

Any kind of terminology used by marginalized groups to make a claim to their rights or to demand the same privileges as others is always deemed illegitimate. It is a deliberate tactic. The right has *perfected* it. And they’ve got the infrastructure to set definitions before any can be solidified
surlyurbanist.bsky.social

If the guy charged with the murder of the insurance CEO is charged with terrorism, why isn’t every school shooter charged with terrorism? They are both meant to send a message and terrorize the public.
Jess Piper @piperformissouri.bsky.social

How genetics works:


CrazyMyra @outonthemoors.bsky.social

I gotta be honest with myself; I’ve long thought of America as an empire in decline and somehow I thought that I could believe that without America actually doing empire-in-decline type things like electing the racist game show host twice and not allowing women to be president
Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social

The richest man in the world says he wants to shut down the government, forcing millions of American workers — including our troops — to go without pay through the holidays. Republicans are following his orders. This is insane.
Congressman Don Beyer @repdonbeyer.bsky.social

"Plutocracy is its own kind of dictatorship. When companies larger and more powerful than most world governments threaten individual liberty with coercive private taxation and regulation, it threatens our way of life." –Jonathan Kanter, head of Antitrust at DOJ in his farewell
Stacy Mitchell

So I’ve had my 1st Black History Month event cancellation because of “DEI concerns,” citing a fear of frivolous suits. Funny thing is, I don’t do DEI, I’m a historian of the Black American experience. A reminder that DEI is just a dog whistle about suppressing history, if you need a reminder.
Blair LM Kelley, Ph.D. @profblmkelley.bsky.social

This has ALWAYS been what is going to happen. The way that tariffs work makes them perfect vehicles for presidential corruption. If you're on team Trump you get a waiver. If you're not, well ... sucks to be you. That's why the inaugural committee is cleaning up with CEOs.
Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social

“It's amazing how pollution has dropped in Paris in 15 years. Mayor Anne Hidalgo has filled the city with bike-lanes and not only has she reduced pollution by 40% but she’s also been re-elected.” Trading car space for green space, bike space, kid space…trading pollution for people. Good trade:


Brent Toderian

The Republicans confront the media with outright lies ALL THE TIME. Democrats are scared to confront them with the truth.
Dean Baker

I've taken to referring to corruption claims in standardized units. Jared Kushner got bribes of $3,115 million. Ivanka got bribes of $640 million. Hunter Biden was accused of accepting $0.6 million in salary from Burisma.
Ken Burnside

“But what about people who depend on driving?” always overlooks that there are more people who depend on not driving. An equitable transportation system has safe and convenient options for everyone.
Ariel Méndez @amendez.bsky.social

In 2010, anti-copyright activist Aaron Swartz hanged himself after being prosecuted to the full extent of the law for making copyrighted academic publications freely available. Today, academic publishers are insisting those copyrights be lifted to feed the corporate AI slop machine.
Dan Hassler-Forest @danhf.bsky.social

Dylan Roof gunned down 9 black people in a church. He was not charged with terrorism. Luigi Mangione shot one white CEO and is charged with terrorism. If you ever wonder who runs our country just look at what the government defines as terrorism.
Pete Woods @thatpetewoods.bsky.social

LET'S DO THE SAME FOR ASSAULT RIFLES:


Meta Resistance

20 years ago we were suing teenagers for millions of dollars because they were torrenting a single Metallica album and now billionaires are demanding the free right to every work in history, so that they can re-sell it. The law only ever serves capital.
@lonestartallboi.bsky.social

So many drivers can't wrap their heads around the fact that the goal of traffic calming actually is to make it harder to drive fast. It's not a byproduct. Slowing you down is the actual point.
Tab Combs @drtcombs.bsky.social

After his successful consolidation of power, the Leader prepares for show trials of those who resisted his first failed putsch.


David Frum

We need a ban on stock trading by members of Congress. I am sure the vast majority of our constituents would agree.
Ilhan Omar

Give her what she really wants this holiday season. Death to the patriarchy, bodily autonomy, and real pockets in every dress and pair of pants.
The Volatile Mermaid @ohnoshetwitnt.bsky.social

some fun news context: rep barry loudermilk, who chaired the committee calling for liz cheney's prosecution, compared the 2019 trump impeachment to the crucifixion of jesus.
Oliver Willis

Wondrous Rose Wednesday:


kms @karmso.bsky.social

Driving defensively and obeying the rules of the road is the most radical, rebellious and anti-social thing you can do in a car.
Tom Flood

This really should be the deal. Keep gambling legal but you got to physically go to the sportsbook to bet. Nothing wrong with sports betting or gambling, but being able to feed a casino money from your cell phone is going to and has ruined so many lives.
Patrick Damp @synonymforwet.bsky.social

People keep saying Trump's lawsuit against [pollster] Ann Selzer is absurd, but the absurdity is the point. If he can sue for something this baseless, critics will be intimidated, fearing his legal terror will target them.
Greg Sargent

A visualization of the razor thin margin of this election. Of the 244+ million voting-eligible population:
31.5% voted for Trump
30.6% voted for Harris
37.7% did not vote
Popular is not a word that would accurately describe Trump or the MAGA movement:


Ian Carrillo @iansociologo.bsky.social

everything is speech now, except for actual speech, which is unfortunately election interference.
Tim Murphy @timothypmurphy.bsky.social

People bothered by drones, let me tell you about flying cars…
David Ho

Why would Americans have confidence in the judiciary when the highest court repeatedly demonstrates that it doesn’t care what the law says?
Nicholas Grossman

33 cases of Pertussis in Minnesota in 2023
2,324 cases so far in 2024
smcgee

In addition to other sinister motives, attacks on USPS are because it’s a pillar of the black middle class and black labor. As of 2020 postal workers have the highest avg annual wage ($52K) and the highest hourly wage ($25) among the 10 occupations with the heaviest representation of Black workers.
Adam H Johnson

It's nearly time to reveal my Quote Of The Year. In preparation, here's last year's one: a corker, from The Guardian:


Caroline Fiennes

Decivilization is when children are murdered at school and we act like it’s just another day in the USA.
Tanzina Vega

Losing my mind at how every establishment media outlet pretends Trump's appointees have a bunch of secret good things they want to do underneath the batshit ideas they've dedicated their lives to.
Michael Hobbes

I remain forever mystified by people who answer questions on Facebook that...they do not know the correct answers to.
Jennifer Mendelsohn

Seeing someone use “woke” as a derogatory descriptor is useful in that it lets me know I don’t need to take whatever they say next seriously.
Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social

Registered vehicles on UK roads:
1991: 20 million
2023: 41.2 million
Congestion is caused — and air pollution and climate change is made worse — not by cycleways or low traffic neighborhoods, but by too many motor vehicles.
Carlton Reid

One thing we've consistently seen since 2008 is that unrelenting minority party obstruction is politically effective and has no real cost. That doesn't entirely discount working across the aisle, but doing so requires good faith actors and a cost-benefit analysis—both of which seem absent here.
Justin Schuh

They’re so mad at FDR, they’re bringing back polio
sasha-rhys.bsky.social

The US health care industry in one graph:


Mother Jones

couple years ago right-wingers bought up all the big Spanish-language TV networks, stuffed them full of Trump propaganda. could that have anything to do with anti-immigrant talking points coming out of the mouths of immigrants themselves?
ryan cooper

Im not American at all, but it is striking to me having lived there for years, how American politicians and journalists baby their billionaires while treating school shooting survivors, victims and their families like annoying pests
Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social

There have been 83 school shootings this year.
Elli Anderson