When we left off on October 15, the Supreme Court had just heard the Voting Rights Act Section 2 case, so the second half of the month starts with some additional comments on that.
The shutdown is still going on 15 days later, and Mike Johnson continues to hold the House hostage. The gigantic No Kings demonstrations were held around the country on October 18, with something like 8 or 10 million people in almost 3,000 locations. Trump was so incensed that he (or his social media minions) immediately made an AI video of him flying a jet over U.S. cities and spewing shit onto demonstrators in the streets. Yes, that really [virtually] happened.
He also reacted to the march by tearing down the entire east wing of the White House, with unapproved plans to replace it with a gold-doused ballroom that's almost twice as large as the White House itself. The cost, in his own words, has ballooned from $200 million to $250 million to $300 million, or maybe $350 million. Which will supposedly be paid by private funds (bribes) from billionaires and corporations, though as Dean Baker points out below, those donations will be tax-deductible... and so will cost all of us about a third of whatever is donated. Oh, and he enmarbled the Lincoln bathroom just because he's really into redecorating.
As the month ends, SNAP benefits were about to end (as well as funding for Head Start, and other important social safety net supports — but not as much is being heard about those). The SNAP cutoff is ostensibly because of the shutdown, but it's really because the Trump regime is once again withholding money Congress has allocated for emergency funding. As I started compiling this, a court was just ordering that the SNAP funding would have to continue, but I predict the regime will vamp once again, so we'll see what happens with the funding. And of course health care premiums are about to escalate in extreme ways.
ICE, DHS, and CBP continued terrorizing people, particularly in Chicagoland. CBP head Greg Bovino is turning into a primary evil character. It's like they're all holding a Stephen Miller contest.
Pete Hegseth kept killing people traveling in boats in the Caribbean — they've killed almost 60 people, if I'm not mistaken? — and they're mobilizing other military in the vicinity of Venezuala. Oh, and Trump said we're going to start testing nukes again! La di dah. He's the peace president.
Everything below the line is in reverse chronological order — except some of the images, which I move up or down for better visual balance — and is quoted from the attributed account.
__
For the rest of the world, the single case of Mike Johnson refusing to swear in Adelita Grijalva after her special election win, because Johnson knows her vote will tip the scales for the release of the Epstein files, is enough evidence by itself that the U.S. political system is broken and lawless.
These are the people who demand Work Requirements.
Brent Toderian
Feel like, as a society, we might consider moving Halloween to the last Friday in October (observed.) Vibes truly immaculate tonight. Also, maybe we come up with, like, two more holidays, say in the early and late spring, that involve walking around the neighborhood and talking to your neighbors?
Chris Hayes
Happy Halloween:
P. Djéli Clark | The Disgruntled Haradrim
80% of air traffic controllers absent at New York facilities. The system is at breaking point.
Mark Chadbourn
Wow. Calls to a crisis hotline for LGBTQ+ youth have decreased by 36% ever since Ryan Walters resigned from leading the Oklahoma schools. "... We are grateful for the positive impact his departure has had on the mental well-being of our community."
Hemant Mehta @friendlyatheist.com
Even if the House was fully functional, they're in session for an avg of 147 days and out for 218. Under Speaker Johnson, Congress has been in session only 12 of the last 97 days, and he still won't swear in Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva. These are the people who demand Work Requirements.
Qasim Rashid, Esq.
It really is amazing that when a popular young Democratic politician who wants to solve real problems for people beats an old-guard institutionalist Democrat in a primary, the institutionalist Democrat just stays in the race and basically runs as a Republican.
A.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social
It’s almost like people with money and power are all republicans underneath. Hmmmmm.
Brandy Schillace
The Heritage Foundation, which staffs the current presidential administration and wrote its agenda, spent this past week defending Tucker Carlson’s decision to mainstream actual Nazis. Also this week, a thousand rabbis told me Zohran Mamdani is the greatest threat to my safety as an American Jew.
Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social
Happy Halloween!
Micheal Foley in Saint Paul @foleymo.bsky.social
I'll bet when Trump thinks about Lincoln, he just pictures the memorial. Lincoln = Marble Statue = Marble Bathroom.
Darrel @dlaw51.bsky.social
This chart always makes me think about how we made the streets "safer" by making sure no one goes outside ever, especially kids:
Madeleine Bonsma-Fisher, PhD @mbonsma.bsky.social
The biggest thing you need to protect yourself from on Halloween is automobiles and it’s not particularly close
Matthew Downhour
Republican platform: “you can’t eat until Democrats let us take away your healthcare.”
Erin Maye Quade
AI is akin to outsourcing your brain to a 5-year-old on acid. It doesn't know a lot, and what it does know comes out like gibberish.
Angry Algonquin
“They think that they’re tough. They have no idea how tough we are. They think that they’re hardcore. We are so much more hardcore than they are.” –Stephen Miller speaking to Memphis police earlier this month:
Mrs. Betty Bowers
When you call yourself the leaders of a democratic country, but have to hide on a military base from the people that you rule.
Patrick Chovanec
Interesting paper! When you ask people about the most important issue "facing the country," they often say immigration. But when you ask them about issues facing them personally, it doesn't crack the top 10. This indicates that voters are reacting to media narratives, not their own experience.
Michael Hobbes
pitching a movie in which J. R. R. Tolkien arises from the dead to take academically coded revenge on the techbros and MAGAs who continue to grotesquely misunderstand his work
Faine Greenwood
Spare a thought for all the native-born white supremacists who will now have to compete with these Afrikaner arrivals.
Patrick Chovanec
Reminder that biometrics literally is eugenics.
Build Soil, Collect Water, Emerge from the Ashes.
Remember: The richest 1% evade over $160 billion in taxes every year. That amount would fund SNAP for a year with money to spare. Ask yourself who the real freeloaders are.
Robert Reich
So cool that we’re doing the 2008 financial crisis but this time, we’ll be bailing out the website that made our grandparents insane.
Chad C
Rabih Alameddine
Data is sparse, but I'd bet school crossing guards are much more likely to die at work than police officers. They're at least as deserving of hazard pay.
David Zipper
Vaccines are one of humanity’s greatest scientific achievements. The fact that members of one political party in the US wants to destroy vaccines signals how unserious they are and how they should not be allowed to govern.
David Ho
Can't overstate how fucked up it is that unraveling what is arguably the greatest achievement in the history of humanity [vaccines] is now a motivating issue of one of the two dominant parties in the U.S.
Radley Balko
New paper: Global methane action pays for itself at least six times over - "reasonable actions could reduce climate-related damages in 2050 by more than a trillion dollars a year"
Damian Carrington
I did not have any of this on my bingo card, because a bingo card is typically just a grid with sets of numbers on it
Tom Tomorrow
You may not believe that new [housing] supply pushes down rents, but your landlord does.
bettybarcode
The most annoying thing about Bill Gates' recent climate comments is the assumption that we can deal with climate OR public health as though we can't afford to do both and that they're not related.
Peter Gleick
I always get drawn back to Al Gore telling voters that he’d only raise taxes on the top 1% and then after the election a poll showed that something like 20% of voters thought they were in the top 1% and another 20% thought they would be in the next five years. Just a total tragic disconnect.
Kevin M. Kruse
Mike Luckovich
One crucial thing to understand about the current bubble is that none of the people dumping money into it or hyping it up will be hurt at all when it blows up. The US has made rich, powerful people effectively immune from consequences. It's the plebes who will suffer.
David Roberts @volts.wtf
There’s a lot of “hot takes” going around about how we could fix SNAP by only allowing healthy food and introducing stricter work requirements. Here’s my hot take. Make those in government rely on SNAP and Medicaid for one month. Just 30 days. Then see if they keep blaming the poor.
Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social
Trump just ordered the Pentagon to resume nuclear weapons testing, a move that could reignite a dangerous global arms race. He's also furloughed nearly all federal workers responsible for overseeing and safeguarding America's nuclear stockpile. Hello?
Robert Reich
In hindsight it’s too bad that Y2K didn’t shut down all of the computers.
Rob Schamberger
There used to be a consensus in the alternate history community that any "harsh" punishment of defeated Confederates would have led to an endless guerrilla war against the US in the south and — meh, I was never convinced it was ever that plausible.
The Alternate Historian
Nah. Once you read Chandra Mannings WHAT THIS CRUEL WAR WAS OVER it's pretty clear from their letters that the Confederate rank and file expected executions, imprisonment, and lifelong censure from voting and public life depending on who you were. Because they knew they earned it.
Ryan Van Loan
I'm increasingly convinced that the only good reconstruction path was to readmit the Confederate states as territories rather than states, with federally appointed governors and heavy Union garrisons enforcing desegregation for as long as it took to quash all traces of antebellum racism.
Kevin Young Propagandist @jfloyd314.bsky.social
The US federal government's spending on housing — directly through the budget, or through tax expenditures — amounts to more than $400 billion a year. Only about 1/4 of that goes to low-income renters. The majority is spent on subsidizing higher-income homeowners.
Yonah Freemark
Haunted house ghost prints!
@jenniferdavisart.bsky.social
People think “we” are not making progress on climate change because its politics are polarized. No, no, no. The electorate is polarized, sure, but among the ruling class there is basically TOTAL UNITY around the idea that we can keep using fossil fuels and still deal with climate change anyway.
Dr. Genevieve Guenther @doctorvive.bsky.social
All the empirics on misinformation indicate that the way to defeat bad ideas is to mock and marginalize them. Constantly declaring "hey the far right isn't so bad" is a terrible strategy both morally and electorally. Dems should be way more comfortable saying "look at these fucking psychos"
Michael Hobbes
Bill Gates hasn’t made sense on climate since he teamed up with Bjorn Lomberg in 2009. This is just a restating of Bjorn’s book from this year about how we have a finite amount of money and we shouldn’t use it for climate. What they get wrong is that climate solutions are now fully profitable.
Jigar Shah
We've gotten so many of these pieces where a liberal engages in a good-faith effort to understand Trump voters. Every time, they discover that there's no deeper sympathetic reason they hold their views. They're just misinformed and hateful. My own efforts have found this too. I know this reinforces a narrative about condescending leftists calling all conservatives bigots but I'm sorry, every form of data — anecdotes, polling and public statements by conservatives — indicate that these are the main drivers. It's a doomed quest to keep looking for good underneath evil.
Michael Hobbes
Trump apparently thinks that wind turbines cause cancer and nuclear explosions don’t
Jacob Harris
i think if you ride public transit enough you learn that most weird behavior is not dangerous, and conversely i think driving a car teaches you that everyone is trying to kill you at all times
beautiful women updates @aoife.bsky.social
Trying to explain [Mike Johnson's behavior] to a time-jumped James Madison: So yeah, the Speaker of the House refuses to bring the House back into session because swearing in a duly elected member will expose the President of the United States to consequences for his numerous crimes against children. JM: I want to die
Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started @gothamgirlblue.com
I think about this piece of shit pretty often.
Tom Tomorrow
Back in my day, AI used to stand for Adobe Illustrator! And we hated that, too!
Frank Cvetkovic @gofrankgo.bsky.social
I think if you’ve taken an oath to defend the Constitution, an NDA is unconstitutional. I’m neither a JAG, nor a Constitutional scholar if that matters.
Hupple’s Cat
I 100% agree, and have been saying this since the first Trump Admin. It puts appointees under a legal and potential financial obligation to an individual that could conflict with their oath. For instance, what if Biden appointees said that they couldn’t reveal anything about his health or capacity because they were constrained by an NDA? Would we accept that? Of course not - but that is exactly the kind of thing Trump is requiring people to sign.
Patrick Chovanec
“what radicalized you” – idk paying attention
Emily @emilyonhere.gay
A great irony of the climate change-driven insurance crisis is that the same insurers that are canceling homeowners’ policies en mass because they’re too “high risk” will turn around and write policies for giant fossil fuel facilities next to the literal ocean in hurricane alley.
Caleb Heeringa
The most insanely frustrating thing about the Climate Crisis is how the breakthrough we so clearly need isn’t technological. It’s just a collective willingness, a determination even, to change in ways that would clearly be SO MUCH BETTER than the clear and obvious consequences of NOT changing.
Brent Toderian
When Trump is finally gone, there is going to be this flood of books and tell all interviews from Republicans about how hard it was to be a Republican in Washington during this time and I am going to be galatically furious about it.
@helenkennedy.bsky.social
Trump's big ballroom is going to cost taxpayers over $100 million – his friends and business partners' contributions are tax deductible
Dean Baker
the german word for when you very clearly recognize someone in a movie but when you look them up on IMDB you haven't seen anything they've been in
Charles Richter @richterscale.bsky.social
Ah, bookshelves…
Moz Perkins
Has Mike Johnson ever considered holding his daily presser an hour later to give him time to read a paper?
Schooley
Whenever I take the train past a solar farm, people say what a disgrace it is to have it on good agricultural land. They say nothing about the golf courses, fields of Halloween pumpkins, or strips of fields left as cover for pheasants. They're the victims of oil and gas propaganda.
Dr Charlie Gardner
I was opening a bunch of PDFs in acrobat yesterday and my computer's fans were going wild. I have a lot of RAM so this was surprising to me. Turns out Acrobat now generates AI summaries by default when you open a file, instead of just asking if you want one (which I never do).
Jamie McKelvie
The Korean article on the Hyundai raid explained MAGA as a movement seeking to overturn the civil rights movement and I still haven’t found a better description
Brandon @btavshanjian.bsky.social
The president is experiencing OBVIOUS mental and physical decline. Pre$$ ignores. He barks about a third term, and the press asks how he'll do it, rather than pointing out that it's unconstitutional. That's not legal. Oligarchs purchased the news media and it died. Corporate news is a cancer.
Kimberley Johnson
If Elon Musk wasn't so politically polarizing, "[American] Tesla sales between October 2022 and April 2025 would have been 67–83% higher."
David Zipper
My hunch is that by suspending SNAP benefits Dump is hoping that hungry people will start looting stores. You know he’s looking for any excuse to send in troops to more locations
Peace @peacebird.bsky.social
If not a Nazi, why Nazi shaped?
Jess Piper @piperformissouri.bsky.social
The Founders knew Congress – especially the House – was the backbone of U.S. democracy. It should be a huge story that Mike Johnson, serving Trump, has all but shut it down. From the Reichstag Fire to Putin's toothless Duma, this is what dictators do.
Will Bunch
Missing the days when, if a scary masked man approached us on the street, WE pepper sprayed HIM, not the other way around.
The Volatile Mermaid @ohnoshetwitnt.bsky.social
The punishment for accepting a golden crown from another country should be to have it melted down and poured down your throat.
Patrick Chovanec
The Federalist Society was founded in 1982 in direct response AGAINST recent SCOTUS decisions favoring working class, minorities and women. The Society members represent less than 5% of ALL US attorneys, yet hold a 2/3 SCOTUS majority. How? 4 decades of racist, right wing, $billionaire propaganda.
ed-never-forget.bsky.social
pretty much the most predictable thing in the world that Mamdani told a heartfelt story about embracing difference and celebrating his own cultural norms and racists are attacking him for being different and daring to express his own cultural norms.
Noah Berlatsky
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
Katie Mack @astrokatie.com
I cannot tell you how many tech journalists at prominent media organizations do not understand this
Karl Bode
Americans gambled $150 billion through online sportsbooks last year. Far too many lost nearly everything.
Rolling Stone
I don't think we should talk about climate change anymore, we should talk about kitchen-table issues. Like how climate change will destroy your kitchen table and everything else you have
Kate Marvel @drkatemarvel.bsky.social
I know it’s too much to expect them to know their history, but if the American Revolution had a motto, it definitely would not have been “immigrants go home.” It would have been “get your fucking soldiers out of our cities”:
Radley Balko
"Despite $30–40 billion in enterprise investment into GenAI, this report uncovers a surprising result in that 95% of organizations are getting zero return."
Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org
AI is all about stealing.
David Ho
Can you imagine hungry kids existing in the same country as billionaires?
Jess Piper @piperformissouri.bsky.social
Trump pulls gun and points at China.
China pulls gun and points at Trump.
Trump and China eye each other, then put guns down.
Headline: "Trump makes trade deal with China"
Patrick Chovanec
"Some people may perceive one [hurricane] category up from another one as only a 'little' bit stronger. Like earthquake scales, the hurricane intensity scale increases logarithmically. That means a doubling of wind is not a doubling of damage. It actually results in a 256-fold increase in possible damage."
David Ho
Federal workers who issue permits for oil, gas and mining operations are on the job, along with those working to repeal pollution limits.
Aric Caplan @aric-advocates.bsky.social
Yet another story on rising cancer rates in Iowa, this one including the entire Corn Belt:
Kat O’Brien @lavidagata.bsky.social
“The boat strikes constitute murder,” Eugene R. Fidell told me. He used to be a JAG in the Coast Guard and is now at Yale Law School. The entire operation amounts to “treating the world as a free-fire zone,” he said.
Francis Wilkinson
Whenever you hear a tech bro screeching about drug addiction in San Francisco, remember that crypto is supercharging the fentanyl trade and reflect on the quote historian Rick Perlstein attributed to Marc Andreessen in 2017: “I’m glad there’s OxyContin and video games to keep those people quiet.” Andreessen, per Perlstein, was referring to the small midwestern towns far from the tech hubs. Towns where the decline in manufacturing jobs due to automation has, indeed, led to higher levels of opioid addiction and death. How many jobs will AI kill, again?
Gil Durán
remember folks, we cant have gun restrictions because if we do the federal government will occupy our streets, imprison people without due process, ship dissidents to foreign gulags and things of that nature
Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social
They have tear gassed a parade of trick or treating children.
Kathleen Belew
A stat we don't talk about enough: Newspapers have lost 77% of their jobs over the last 20 year, more than any of the 532 other industries tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Amy Westervelt
Saw a video a few days ago where a woman compared AI to a thneed and I can’t quit thinking about it…
Jess Piper @piperformissouri.bsky.social
I’m so sick of the "economic issues are more important than social issues" people. 44% of the US is non-white, 30% are white women. We’re all included in “DEI,” a group they’re trying to kick out of the job market. It’s hilarious that anyone thinks they can have an economy without us.
Kashana @kashana.blacksky.app
The ballroom will cost $2,700 per square foot... To build an apartment building (which has lots and lots of plumbing) is like ~ $700/sq ft ... what is he actually building?
Kendra Pierre-Louis @kendrawrites.com
This was done to the White House, a federal property, by a man who wanted protesters who spray painted a wall arrested for "destruction of federal property":
Mrs. Betty Bowers
The desperate need to accumulate more and more at the cost of everyone else’s wellbeing should be classified as a mental disorder, and I will absolutely die on this hill.
Chris Kluwe @chriswarcraft.bsky.social
I continue to sincerely want the term “Kavanaugh Stop” to be a badge of shame for the rest of Brett Kavanaugh’s days; the only bit of writing he’s known or remembered for; his sole contribution to the Law; for him to perceive, in little stabs of self-awareness, that this will be his rancid legacy.
Kieran Healy @kjhealy.co
Every $1 invested in SNAP generates $1.80 in local economic activity. Without SNAP, that will mean a loss of $15 billion to the US economy just in November alone. That’s $500 million lost per day
Ryan Marino, MD
Farmers love it when some New Yorker in a suit tells them “I’m a farmer too – so I feel your pain.”
Patrick Chovanec
Fella Historian @thisuserisdumb.bsky.social
Democrats need to beat this drum: Who is running the country while the President is hyper focused on a ballroom? Is an 80 year old that’s worried about floor decorations capable of leading the country?
@ex-prezsnowflake.bsky.social
Stephen Miller answers the question: "what if we put a school shooter in charge of the federal government?"
@tenet-facts.bsky.social
I'm sure SCOTUS will issue a stay while Trump runs for a third term, then hear arguments in 2030 and issue an opinion about whether a third term is constitutional by at least October of 2032, or November at the very latest.
Mike Palmer @icengineer.bsky.social
It's just one of many things we'll have to do once we expel these people from power, but overhauling the Hatch Act into something that actually matters will certainly be on the list. Either that or every 4–8 years Government websites will turn into extensions of political parties.
Bradley P. Moss @bradmossesq.bsky.social
Dear New York Times, It is entirely possible to write a story about education without seeking comment from Chris Rufo. Sincerely, An actual educator
Matthew L Reznicek @drreznicek.bsky.social
Donald Trump is telling his DOJ to prosecute people involved in defeating him in 2020. He will claim the 2025 California referendum was fraudulent. He is going to try to impose voter ID and ban mail-in and early voting for 2026. I will do everything I can in the courtroom and in public to stop him.
Marc Elias
There were many times SNAP and WIC fed me in early childhood. My mom was always working. If so many more people need it now, that tells you something about salaries, not work ethic.
Maggie Koerth
Little worried mouse:
JLMeyer @jenniferlmeyer.bsky.social
My gut feeling is that "people overworked and tired" accounts for 90% of what appears to be apathy.
Nomi @whatsoperadoc.bsky.social
butlerian jihad for sports gambling
phylan
Once you accept that these [mainstream] publications broke hard for Trump because their owners are attracted to the transactional nature of fascism, every thing else makes sense.
CavsKermit
There are ten times as many home health aides in the US as there are miners
timothy faust @tbone.malware-virus.biz
i really resent the continued assertion that there’s so much anger on both sides, as if the causes of the anger are equally legitimate. we’re angry because masked maniacs are violently snatching our family and neighbors off the street, and they’re angry because we’re calling them out for it.
Marisa Kabas
Is it too early to ask: What if Congress never meets again? What if the President just decides by himself, with the help of private donors, what he wants to spend money on or not? Because that’s certainly what Trump has been driving at this entire shutdown.
Patrick Chovanec
from "The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Made an American Aristocracy" by Ray D. Madoff:
Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò
Subverting the principles of Ronald Reagan – basically the word of god to many Republicans – is the final stage of appeasement to Trump.
Thomas Wade @thomasdub.bsky.social
What is the actual shortfall (in dollars) for the whole country for November which we are supposed to make up with our donations (and which we already paid once with our taxes)?
Dr. Elizabeth Sawin @bethsawin.bsky.social
America is very upset about migrants and drugs coming from Venezuela
So America is trying to destabilize the Venezuelan government
Which would create a lot more migrants
And open up more space for drug traffickers
Nicholas Grossman
trump's ballroom is going to be a monstrosity, dwarfing our beautiful White House. This graphic is from the Washington Post:
DemCatsGT
As folks are noting, $130m isn't anywhere near enough to actually pay the troops; the DoD spends something like $16bn on personnel costs per month. It is, however, more than enough to send everyone to prison for a couple of years under the antideficiency act for improperly appropriating funds.
@bretdevereaux.bsky.social
The E.P.A. is set to repeal the endangerment finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and therefore must be regulated by the federal government finding, claiming that the burden to industries of cutting greenhouse gas emissions is more harmful than a warming planet.
Harvey J. Miller @mobileharv.bsky.social
Our military is being paid by an anonymous donor. Our WH East Wing was demolished for a ballroom - paid for by donors. These aren’t acts of benevolence or patriotism. This is the oligarchy assuming control, insidiously becoming part of how we function. Every American should reject it.
Just Jack @just-jack-1.bsky.social
I believe this is called juxtaposition:
SolveForGenX
When people glorify ‘Tough on Crime’ they are just saying that they are gleefully punitive & nothing more. Being tough on crime isn’t the same as addressing crime. We know that the largest predictor for reducing crime is addressing need. Reducing benefits increases crime, endangering everyone.
Lupita Nihongo @otsumamiboy.bsky.social
It’s really curious how Trump wants to topple Maduro’s regime but also BECOME Maduro’s regime.
Patrick Chovanec
i think i would honestly find this whole discourse more tolerable if people simply said what they were actually saying, which is that they think the Democratic Party is too associated with femininity (and secondarily, with black people) and that they want to correct this
jamelle @jamellebouie.net
GOP: burning a flag disrespects the people who fought and died for that symbol
Also GOP: hahaha the White House is ours and we'll bulldoze it if we like, just be glad we left you the other half for now
Will Stancil
The pergola designed by renowned Chinese-American architect I. M. Pei (1917–2019) is another casualty of Trump's destruction of the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden. Trump's project is sweeping-away not just representations of women, but of Asian-Americans, too:
Theodore Grunewald
With millions at risk of losing SNAP in the coming days, a reminder: hunger doesn't happen in isolation. When food assistance disappears, families use rent money to eat. Then come evictions and homelessness. Housing, food, healthcare—it's all connected. Cut one thread and the whole thing unravels.
Brian Goldstone
it's wild to me that we have a letter from 850+ rabbis denouncing zohran mamdani for things he never said and positions he never took, while no such letter has been written condemning stephen miller for claiming to "defend jewish values" while being an utter fucking nazi and dismantling our democracy
daniel s. @self.agency
Why should New Yorkers on bikes be harassed, ticketed, or given criminal summonses for traveling 16 mph, when the driver of a vehicle that weighs 80x as much doesn't even receive a ticket for traveling 35 mph? This is a nonsensical, backward policy — not any real solution.
Transportation Alternatives
That’s no ballroom…
Wajahat Ali
Almost every major news story this week is about how the entire economy is now gambling, scams, bribes and theft.
Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social
Notice how Reagan — who was INDISPUTABLY already suffering cognitive decline from Alzheimer's by 1987 — is still capable of reading with inflection and nuance, and without straying off-script to rant about how Tip O'Neill should be lynched. Because he was nowhere near as far along as Trump is.
Spicy Bonus Content
Psst…rare earth elements are not that rare.
David Ho
every week is a year if you're even vaguely aware of politics in the Trump era. it was the most draining thing about his first term and it has been ratcheted up to 11 in the second term, fuck all the people who don't pay attention and decided to subject us to this again
Micah @rincewind.run
It's not lost on me that the part of the White House we are destroying is the part that has to do with women's history in the White House:
Jacqueline Antonovich
Burned bodies with missing limbs wash ashore after Trump's anti-drug boat strikes
Chris Lombardi @chrisblue.bsky.social
Consider how few anecdotes it took for the media to declare a Free Speech on Campus crisis. Every day we get more evidence that the Republican Party is teeming with white supremacists yet elite institutions refuse to frame this as a crisis that needs the nation’s attention.
Michael Hobbes
Describe a character in Greek mythology the way someone trying to defend a politician would. I’ll start.
Oedipus: Like you’ve never had sex with someone and regretted it later
Adam Serwer
Midas: So, now creating your own wealth is bad?
nicholasnovak.bsky.social
Zeus: Come on, we all know what a headache having kids can be.
@champychamp.bsky.social
Dionysus: I like beer! I really like beer, all right? *bursts into tears at confirmation hearing*
@cherylmcneillyphd.bsky.social
these are all over the sidewalks now:
Musicology Duck
"normies do not care about this thing and so it is no use raising a stink" is imho just an excuse for not doing politics, which is the job of making normies care about something
jamelle @jamellebouie.net
A very incomplete list of things we wouldn't have done if we waited for the normies to care:
- abolish slavery
- child labor laws
- votes for women
- social security
- fdic
- welfare
- medicare
- medicaid
- desegregation
- women's sports
Jess Calarco
im sorry but if you think “normies” dont care about the white house being demolished for a half billion dollar golden vanity ballroom as the economy implodes then you just arent as plugged in as you think you are
Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social
Pete Hegseth is the kind of guy you used to send on a Crusade so he’d stop bothering you and die from incompetence
Josephine Riesman @josie.zone
Every time Trump says "low IQ" he’s talking about a black person.
Patrick Chovanec
Sometimes I wonder whether the constant violations of the constitution and humanitarian outrages aren’t just a means of keeping the equally constant bribery and corruption off page 1.
Julian Sanchez @normative.bsky.social
Well, in a certain way, Trump achieved what the flight 93 hijackers could not:
Finch @finchowar.bsky.social
The only question for Mike Johnson should be "why did you dissolve Congress?" And when he predictably lies or changes the subject, repeatedly follow up with variations of "so why aren't you doing your job?" The Speaker's opinions on anything else matter little if Congress is artificially on leave.
Nicholas Grossman
Gosh, who would have thought that legalizing widespread gambling would lead to corruption and criminal involvement in sports?
Kevin Gallatin
If you object to DJT’s lie that this absurd vanity project would not even touch any part of the existing White House, or if you object to the unannounced demolition of the entire East Wing, the president’s sycophants want you to know that you are an “unhinged leftist.”
Peter Norton
Mike Luckovich
Welfare cuts have fueled the rise of far right and populism, top UN expert says: Governments need “to rethink the welfare state – from food assistance to healthcare and unemployment benefits – as an essential tool to maintain the social fabric of society, rather than a cost to be reduced.”
Leah McElrath
republicans have weaponized patriotism and the flag and loving america etc. for so long they assume it's their birthright. call me a crazy optimist but I think that stuff can only carry you so far when you're shitting on Americans, sending in troops, and LITERALLY DESTROYING THE WHITE HOUSE.
Tom Tomorrow
Well, well, well...
MeidasTouch
I know I’ve said this more than once, and I know it’s really obvious, but taking the train between cities in Europe is just fantastic. So easy. One of the dumbest mistakes North America ever made, and continues to make, is doing so relatively little with trains. Train networks are nation-building.
Brent Toderian
As a matter of current law, could the president just…knock down the entire White House? Just raze the whole thing to the ground?
Chris Hayes
In America it either takes years or is outright illegal to build a simple apartment building but the President can destroy the most famous residence in the world on a weekday afternoon on a personal whim. Cooked society. The despotic elite laugh at you while landlords boot you from your flat.
@sprawlhater.bsky.social
In 2024, 68 million Hispanics made up 20% of the U.S. population.
Conrad Hackett
Mike Luckovich
When communicating to the public about traffic safety projects, I propose that we dispense with the phrases:
"Calming traffic" or worse
"Slowing down the cars"
And replace them with:
"Preventing illegal speeding"
Warren Wells, AICP
If the National Guard is really in D.C. to protect federal property, they should probably have been at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. two days ago
Asha Rangappa
34 people killed in 50 days [in the Caribbean]. Their guilt or innocence unknown, for an alleged crime that doesn't carry a death sentence. That's a lot of death.
Adam Isacson
Pretty funny that Donald Trump is literally tearing down the White House, while the Republicans claim that No Kings protestors hate America
Dean Baker
This is just to say
I have bulldozed
the East Wing
that you were probably
hoping to pass down
to future generations
Well, fuck you
it was in the way
so inconvenient
and so old
Tom Tomorrow
Have been reminded of the time my girlfriend met a chihuahua called Death Row on her dog walk who turned out to actually be called Jethro.
Glennyrodge
My mum once had a lovely conversation with a stranger and came away telling me about the hockey team she'd learned about, the Toronto Make-Believes
Will Templeton @willeth.bsky.social
ICE is stockpiling arms, including chemical weapons, guided missile warheads and explosive components. The spending dwarfs anything we've ever seen in the agency - a 700% increase. The President is building an army to attack his own country:
Senator Chris Larson
Excited to see how the old “local cops hate when feds meddle in their affairs” trope plays out in a context where the feds are actively trying to subsume the concept of policing itself
ralphie hythloday, jr @offutopic.bsky.social
The fact that Republicans get upset about tearing down confederate monuments, but not demolishing the White House, says a lot.
The Volatile Mermaid @ohnoshetwitnt.bsky.social
I'm not sure you can get more marie antoinette than taking away food stamps before thanksgiving while you build a gold and marble dance hall so the other crooks can bring bribe you over a badly cooked (argentinian) steak
Elle @elleisanisland.bsky.social
We can make sure that when we win, when this ends, we rebuild brick by brick and fund it by pursuing the wealth of the Trump family unto seven generations. And we should.
David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social
Canceling SNAP benefits Nov 1 so remember that when you’re voting Nov 4. Think back to November 2, 2024. Remember how you used to have a hospital nearby, food in your cupboard, a job to cover your bills, and didn’t live in fear that you/your neighbors were going to be kidnapped off the street.
MB @ladygrl.bsky.social
a functional press would, every single day, repeatedly, across numerous paragraphs in every story about him, make it clear that this is indisputably the most corrupt President in U.S. history
Karl Bode
Air-quality reforms in China have slashed concentrations of fine particulates by nearly half since 2013, preventing an estimated 2.2 million premature deaths annually. New analysis from the University of Chicago shows the average citizen now lives 2.9 years longer.
Ada Palmer
These little tools are apple scoops. They date from the 1800s and are made of sheep bone. They were common in apple-growing districts. The marrow has been hollowed out to allow the user to scrape off pieces of apple if they had few teeth and couldn’t afford dentures:
Surgeons' Hall Museums
Graduate seminar did a deep dive on Thomas Paine’s Common Sense yesterday. At the line, “in America the law is king,” they (14 students from 6 countries) burst out laughing. I've been doing this for 35 years and this is the first time that was a laugh line.
Frank Cogliano
This week felt like someone ran a blacklight over the hotel bedspread of politics and it all came up smeary swastikas
@emilynussbaum.bsky.social
"The US economy has grown by $20 trillion since 2000, to $29 trillion last year. About $7.7 trillion of that — or 36% of all the growth in GDP — is spending related to recovering from or preparing for disasters"
Matthew Haugen @mjhaugen.bsky.social
The average age of U.S. homebuyers is now 56, up from 49 last year. In 1981, the year trickledown economics began, it was 31.
John Fugelsang
Trump, convicted of 34 felonies by a jury, demands $230M from taxpayers for being investigated and prosecuted. His own criminal defense attorneys now installed at DOJ decide if he gets paid. A felon is looting the Treasury as compensation for being caught, tried, and convicted. This is theft.
Ms. Misanthrope @lilmsmisanthrope.bsky.social
Ezra Levin: A hallmark of authoritarianism is it makes you feel like shit on a daily basis. That's what it does. And so in that environment, during this authoritarian breakthrough moment, celebrating success is an act of defiance.
Social Security Works
ICE training film:
Frank Conniff
I don’t want to romanticize the past, but I feel like I remember times in my life where there would be one or even zero Nazi news cycles per week
@mags.colvett.online
The New York Times decided last year what the story was; Trump II was the righteous punishment visited upon their interns and junior staffers and grandchildren for being so annoying about MeToo and BLM, and once they understood that and repented, they could have democracy back.
Nathan Goldwag
$40 billion to Argentina’s right-wing government. The entire USAID budget was $34 billion.
Ryan Marino, MD
A lot of Americans want to be plantation owners. Not most. But more than enough to cause problems
Adam Serwer
the NYT's opinion is that the Democrats should take the position that upper-class Connecticut Republicans held in 2012 and that politics should be preserved in amber in that state until the sun runs out of hydrogen and swallows the earth
rev. howard arson @theophite.bsky.social
Every day is like a cross between “Who Goes Nazi?” and “…the Aristocrats!”
Moira Donegan
the year is 2030. the white house remains half demolished because president trump refused to pay construction workers and musk gutted government spending. two thieves sneak into the white house using a truck mounted ladder and steal the constitution
derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social
I mean this is viscerally upsetting because it's really genuinely him treating the white house like it's his own personal property; he's the king and it's his palace. No other president ever thought like this, even if they were a fucking horrible person, because it goes against our founding creed
Hemry, Local Bartender
Fascinating world of ancient glass! This marvelous blue Roman glass vessel with a white base and white handles dates back to the 3rd/4th century AD. It was found in an early medieval burial from the 6th century AD in Hüfingen — already an antique piece at the time. Photo by @almbawue.bsky.social:
Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social
I'm not a West Wing obsessed lib or anything but the more I see pictures of this the more fucked up I think it is. It's like he cut off one of the hands of the Lincoln memorial with an angle grinder so he could add a big gun to it.
Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social
Never forget that the GOP refuses to impeach the man responsible for this, for waging war on American cities, for punishing political speech that he personally dislikes, for murders at sea, for multiple Saturday night massacre level firings, for unlawful impoundment of funds, and so much more.
Heidi Kitrosser
Dudes who did “Tea Party” cosplay are now like “shut up and bow to your rightful king.”
Patrick Chovanec
Fa seems to be WAY more destructive than antifa.
Dr. William Horne
Still appalled at how paltry and terrible the NYT coverage of the [No Kings]protests were and how nobody there feels any responsibility to address the criticism. This was not something that caught them off guard. This was many levels of decisions.
Clara Jeffery
He tore down the White House because he was mad about No Kings Day.
Robert Simonson
I feel like giving five companies the ability to crash the entire internet is a mild problem.
David Shapiro @blueseatblogs.com
I'm old enough to remember when David Broder said of Bill Clinton, "He came in here and he trashed the place, and it's not his place." Every day, in ways both literal and figurative, we now can see what trashing the place truly means.
Sam Bagenstos
A family member just sent this to me from Chicago O’Hare Airport:
Guardrails of Democracy
"The amount of grain needed to fill the tank of an SUV with ethanol just once can feed one person for an entire year."
Carter Rubin
"if you hate Trump you hate Jesus" is definitely something normal and healthy to say
@bowlerhatscience.org
Republican Leaders are simultaneously saying that the Jews funded No Kings rallies AND No Kings rallies were promoting antisemitic
David Rothschild @davmicrot.bsky.social
Like one criticism of No Kings both sides of the political divide can agree upon is that older people were over represented at No Kings... but you know which age group tends to attend church more than others? If they want to say all those people hate Jesus be my guest.
The Alternate Historian
If there's one thing Jesus loved it was dumping loads of diarrhea on his opponents.
David Roberts @volts.wtf
The "it's a republic not a democracy" crowd is really leaning into "he won an election so he can't be doing anything wrong."
Hans Noel @profhansnoel.bsky.social
my woke take is that entirely too many people feel entitled to the benefits of a social contract while not feeling bound by the responsibilities of said contract
cait
lol imagine if Trump Fascism becomes so cringe and useless it prevents fascism all over the world for several generations.
Sooz Kempner
The entire HR department at the CDC is gone. Everyone at the IRB, which makes sure studies are conducted ethically and rigorously, and the ethics office, which oversee conflicts of interest for CDC leaders and advisory committee members, were also let go.
@melodyschreiber.com
Ah! Good morning, reality. And welcome. We’ve been expecting you…
James O’Brien @mrjamesob.bsky.social
Most of my life I thought deep and abiding overt racism had been reduced to perhaps 10% of the population. I was wrong. Another 25% hid it better but seem to have been happy to rise up and happily proclaim it in the last 10 years. They were just waiting for permission.
infinite-jester.bsky.social
The regret numbers on Brexit rise in the same way Trump’s approval numbers drop. There is an existential need to improve the standard and quality of public debate; a plague on everyone’s house right now. ‘Fuck Around and Find Out’ is proving a flawed approach to running the world.
News Eye
The main achievement of the tech industry has been increasing the flow of money from people who make or do things to people who already have more money than they could spend in a hundred lifetimes
Jamie McKelvie
Most people do not make sense and you can't convince people that this is true lol. Our brains are built to blissfully hold dozens of completely incompatible beliefs at the same time.
estarianne
With the AWS outage, now‘s as good a time as any to post this old strip:
DESIGN THINKING! Comic
If your reporting constantly tries to place your subject in the best possible light, you are not actually reporting on them — you are doing their PR work for free.
Kevin M. Kruse
in hindsight i think musk turning twitter into a right-wing propaganda outlet all but guaranteed the democrats couldn't win in 2024. once musk went in on trump, the machine could be used fully as a reality shaper for the people who cover the campaign and the casual voter.
Denny Carter
I think I understand the many reasons why people believe it's not worth it to phase out fossil fuels, but I also feel exhausted and vaguely insane living my life knowing that while the world seems normal on the surface, the fossil-fuel economy is, right now, breaking the world forever.
Dr. Genevieve Guenther @doctorvive.bsky.social
15 Presidents (32%) + General MacArthur invoked the Insurrection Act 31 times, none for peaceful protests. For example, Nixon never invoked it for anti-war protests. The last time, 1992 for LA Riots. The only violence so far @ protests is from state agents.
macatoo.bsky.social
"...when the team looked at the employees’ actual work output, they found that the developers had completed tasks 20% slower when using AI than when working without it. Researchers were stunned. “No one expected that outcome. We didn’t even really consider a slowdown as a possibility.”
@cityofangelle.bsky.social
The new york times prominently covered (home page and front page) the memorial for a dead guy [charlie kirk] where 30,000 showed up and ignored protests against their fav president where 10 million showed up
@realworldrj.bsky.social
The distinction between us and the fascists is that when I say that Republicans should be accountable for the literal crimes they’ve committed, I’m talking about trials, loss of office, and public humiliation. When they say we should be punished, it’s a death sentence for disagreeing.
Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started @gothamgirlblue.com
cannot overstate the degree to which "relatively comfortable middle class people with low political consciousness" is unfortunately the axis on which fascist takeovers fail or succeed
@mel.bzky.team
DC. No Kings!
Joe Walsh @walshfreedom.bsky.social
Fun fact: There were ZERO arrests of #NoKings protesters yesterday, however there were 22 MAGAs arrested for attempting to incite violence.
Tea Pain
Say it with me: butthurt is an emotion. Guys who spend their lives butthurt are emotional. I would even go so far as to say the very core of fascism is an elevation of raw male emotions — the two-sided coin of drippy nostalgia and butthurt fury. The whole point of fascism is to say: trust those emotions, those instincts, they are pure and right, don't examine or get any distance from them.
David Roberts @volts.wtf
America is being run by people whose social media presence would see them getting fired from a part time job stacking shelves. If you worked at Aldi and posted a video of you pouring shit all over Aldi customers, you wouldn't work at Aldi.
Nick Pettigrew
seems that RFK is clearing the path for his CDC to do tuskegee syphillis experiments as a matter of course. in other news, RFK is a genuine monster who relishes in the pain and suffering of those he feels he has control or dominion over
jamelle @jamellebouie.net
Trump’s “message”: I am a king and I douse you all in shit. I say go ahead and amplify it.
Patrick Chovanec
jacklarson.bsky.social
Truly, a moment for the history books. Let this be how Trumpism is remembered, as they have memorialized themselves. This is President Trump. This is the GOP.
Lara @kle138.bsky.social
I often think of the poor future historians who will have to study those inane social media posts because they are a large part of the presidential record
Aurora-boreali
Can you imagine any grown man you know sitting down and coming up with something so immature and vile and thinking he was sane?
julesp1.bsky.social
Shit posting — the closest thing the Trump regime has to an ideology
Billy Bragg
Dems held to highest standards of propriety.
Republicans held to zero standards of any kind.
Gotta love that "both sides" media.
Beyond both sides.
Eli Friedmann @eligit.bsky.social
future grandchild: like shit, from an ass?
me in 30 years: Swear to God. Then he demolished the White House
SwampLizard
Tonight the president of the United States posted a video of himself wearing a crown and flying a jet that dumps diarrhea all over the United States. Seriously. He actually did this.
@charles.littlegreenfootballs.com
...If a Dem is critical of conservative voters it’s a generational scandal and when Republican pols literally post themselves shitting on their opposition virtually the entire elite politics and media class treats it as fine and normal
Adam Serwer
Not on his "opposition" on his "constituents." He's supposed to be President of all Americans. The ones who like him and the ones who don't.
Stu Stein
as awful as this country has often been, there is no version of the US in which the president posting diarrhea-themed AI slop wins people over. the regime is shrinking into a tiny malevolent corncob
@seachanger.bsky.social
Ever wonder how people move full-sized furniture in and out of stair-only buildings, and old European buildings? Seen in Strasbourg:
Janne K. Flisrand
I’m a simple man, all I ask is that books indicate whether I actually need to remember someone’s name or they’re never going to be mentioned again in the whole book.
Tim Carvell
Remember April 2009 when about 250,000 people took to America’s streets in Tea Party rallies and the media was like “oh man, the Dems are in trouble?” Approximately 28X as many people took to the streets to protest Trump yesterday. Didn’t even make the NYT front page.
Seth Cotlar
Yesterday's No Kings protests were apparently the largest since the first Earth Day in 1970. The NYT covered that story with a six column headline across the top of the paper and two full pages inside. Today, two small pics below the fold and a story on page A23. They constantly let America down.
Bill McKibben
the killer line the right wing geniuses are pushing now: "would a KING allow NO KINGS protests?" man do I feel owned
Tom Tomorrow
Same…
Jess Piper @piperformissouri.bsky.social
It's not even 10 months since the silly cunt was sworn in for a second time and we're already at the Biggest Protest in US History stage of shit. While Americans see their already garbage healthcare taken away at the same time as he brags about his wanker ballroom.
Sooz Kempner
Technology "advancements" are about MARKETING and capitalism, not helping anyone. AI (Buy it!): AI detection software (Buy it!): How not to write like AI to avoid being caught by AI detection software (Buy it!)
PL Thomas EdD
I just keep thinking about the first guy to put on the frog costume reading the news today and seeing frogs literally all over the world. what a fucking thing, man. that 25 year old did more for the country in a week than most of the NYT op-ed section in a lifetime
Claire Willett
CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1965: 20-1
CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1990: 75-1
CEO-to-worker pay ratio today: 280-to-1
Trickle-down economics was always a sham.
Nothing has ever trickled down.
Robert Reich
@Peg33
Today is a good reminder that the elites of both parties collapsed and capitulated with fascism selling us all out but the average population has not.
Karl (sad trombone noise enthusiast) @brainnotonyet.bsky.social
The administration simultaneously says it needs to lay off employees because it is out of money and also that Kristi Noem needs two private jets because it is not safe for her to travel through the airports where her propaganda is running 24/7
Don Moynihan
They don't think they're public servants. They think they're kings, princes, dukes, and barons. They control the government, and that makes them royalty, and that means our money should be used to buy them planes and gold-plated toys and gilded ballrooms
Will Stancil
“Some say”: they should etch that on the tombstone of American journalism
@alanallport.bsky.social
Caturday meets No Kings day:
50501: The People’s Movement
Sleep is a biological necessity, and sleep deprivation has real physical, psychological, and social consequences that need to be taken seriously. The way our society treats it as slothful to sleep according to natural rhythms (including midday naps and variant chronotypes like night owls) is evil.
M. Gordon @dimespin.bsky.social
It’s so impressive that Kodiak bears started that camera company.
Cmonstermacques
For years I thought the Greek and Roman obsession with public virtue was kind of a scam but now I understand why they valued it so highly, tyranny is indeed pretty bad
Patrick Wyman
If nothing else I find it obscene to turn governmental agencies that are meant to function as institutions in service of the entire American political community into overtly partisan propaganda mouthpieces. It’s just such a visceral degeneration of civic life it drives me insane.
James @gravitysra1nbow.bsky.social
most people don't want politics that hurt other people. we just want a long overcoat like david bowie and affordable housing:
derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social
Not being even vaguely sarcastic: At some point, a journalist needs to ask Mike Johnson “you regularly claim you have no idea what your own government is doing. If we take you at your word, how are you so poorly informed, and do you this level of ignorance should disqualify you as speaker?”
John Pfaff
working on a new unified theory of american reality i'm calling "everyone is twelve now"
Patrick Cosmos @veryimportant.lawyer
This is one of those posts I think about a lot now. Especially on a day when the White House press secretary replied "your mom" to an earnest question about peace negotiations.
Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social
"Technologies purchased by ICE in recent weeks include spyware that can hack into smartphones remotely and cellphone location software that can enable the tracking of a phone’s movements without a court warrant..."
Rachel Maddow
The president is actually allowed to pardon anyone he wants. Those are ACTUALLY within his power. Too bad Democratic Presidents didn't use their commutation powers to free masses of people.
Prisonculture
US Academia Be Like:
@pardoguerra.bsky.social
John Bolton is being prosecuted because Trump hates him. I cannot understand why anyone credits anything in a document prepared by Trump's DOJ targeting his political opponents. The coverage of this case makes me think we have learned nothing about giving Trump's DOJ the benefit of the doubt.
Marc Elias
In our non-DEI meritocracy, Larry Ellison's son bought CBS so that Bari Weiss could then put her sister on air.
Mehdi Hasan
If you let Trump just declare random innocent Venezuelans terrorists and assassinate them, if you let him just get away with summary executions with no due process; no oversight and no penalty, then eventually Trump WILL start killing American citizens who criticize his administration.
Emily @emilyyour8.bsky.social
I found it pretty charming to learn that after Roger Taney died, sitting lawmakers called his death a "victory for liberty and the Constitution," suggested that he was probably burning in hell, and joked (?) that they'd rather hang him in effigy than do literally anything to honor his memory
Jay Willis
for millennia, people would quite literally kill to find a way of protecting their loved ones from disease as easy and effective as vaccination. if you told them that there was such a way, and it required only a needle prick and half a workweek of fever, they would stampede
@aelkus.bsky.social
ChatGPT gave a significant portion of my students the wrong answer to an easy quiz question that everyone used to always get right. I had two groups of students turn in annotated bibliographies that were ChatGPT generated — not a single citation actually existed
Jocelyn Leitzinger @jocelynl.bsky.social
Day 16 of the Trump shutdown, where every day feels like a year for American citizens:
Reyna Loe @lisaloe.bsky.social
MAGA hates America.
They hate our people.
They hate our culture.
They hate our places.
Stan Bileschi
What’s frustrating is, none of [the AI] companies have viable pathways to profitability so they’re giving this crap away for free to get lock-in so we’ll accept massive price hikes later. It’s drug dealer logic, but the “innovation” is too much to resist for a lot of leaders and they force it on us.
Joshua Foust
wikipedia's data shows that AI is siphoning traffic away from the site, which is a danger to its sustainability. ironically Wikipedia is more important than ever to users who want reliable information instead of slop, and to AI companies that need it for training data
Emanuel Maiberg
once more because I feel like it:
women are not your economic birthing engines
go figure out how to run a sustainable economic system
without forcing pregnancy on half the population
@marymm.bsky.social
I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many super-rich men trying so hard to blatantly buy a mayoral election in a city before.
Brent Toderian
Cars aren’t “evil,” and driving one doesn’t make you a bad person. That said, they have become an unhealthy addiction in North America and caused us to lose sight of what’s reasonable and sustainable in terms of urban design and day-to-day life. “Everything in moderation,” and that includes cars.
Nissa Mitchell
Remember the Year of the MOOC from a decade ago? The one where tech bros predicted the end of all but 3-4 universities because who needs campuses when everyone can just take MOOCs and learn everything? Hits a little different now after pandemic pedagogy, huh? The tech hype cycle is a helluva drug.
Kevin Gannon @thetattooedprof.bsky.social
John Pavlovitz
We’re making fun of Karoline Leavitt, but it really is beyond the pale that the White House press secretary would say this in public and it would not be a scandal. [She said: "The Democrat Party's main constituency is made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals."]
@helenkennedy.bsky.social
Defining half the country as terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals seems problematic. But sure, tell me how offended you were at being called "deplorable" once.
Patrick Chovanec
Every time this woman [Leavitt] smiles an angel's wings bursts into flames.
ice.cream.assassin
Opinion | Liberals say they are tolerant. So why are they so intolerant of Hitler?
NY Times Pitchbot
Remember the first few months of this year, when all we talked about was DOGE and spending cuts and waste, and this administration gutted USAID? And now they’re giving $40 billion (!) to Argentina. Insane the amount of amnesia in this country and in our politics and media.
Mehdi Hasan
An atheist in South Carolina wanted to become a poll worker to help run fair elections. The state told him he couldn’t—unless he swore an oath to God. Now he’s suing.
Hemant Mehta @friendlyatheist.com
The most corrupt administration, the most corrupt party, the most corrupt people. They’re all crooks:
Pat Bagley
Former GOP operative Scott Leiendecker just bought Dominion Voting Systems, giving him ownership of voting systems used in 27 states. Election experts have concerns.
WIRED
This sounds like a joke but the actual argument being made by the white voters [in the VRA case] is that making state policy to enforce Black people’s equal access to the franchise is a violation of the 15th amendment, which was ratified to ensure Black men’s equal access to the franchise.
Moira Donegan
If Vance wants to have a conversation about people in ERs waiting for immigrants to be treated before them, we should also have a conversation about all the native-born Americans getting treated by immigrant doctors and nurses. The notion that immigrants take take take and give nothing in return is one the greatest MAGA lies.
Patrick Chovanec
If you were “prematurely anti fascist” about this you were a hysterical lib, if you were wrong about it you’re a respectable intellectual with lots of billionaire connections
Adam Serwer
All of the talk of "doxing ICE agents" should be a non-premise because law enforcement agents working for the government shouldn't have anonymity to begin with. "Steve Johnson from Duluth is a cop" should be a matter of public record. You're a government employee not fucking Banksy
@matttomic.bsky.social
The thing about Joe Rogan isn't that he's fundamentally malevolent. It's that he's dumber than a rock and, consequently, susceptible to actually malevolent people.
@ultramod2.bsky.social
This apartment is ready for poodle skirts and a sock hop! This is the apartment that Prince’s parents brought him home to after he was born:
Wendy @hyssop.bsky.social
My super modern regulatory plan is that any entity named for a thing from Tolkien has to publicly explain why Tolkien wouldn’t immediately throw it into Mount Doom
Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social
Trump and Vought are now breaking both sides of spending law. They’re illegally not spending where the law requires them to spend, and they’re illegally spending where they don’t have the money to spend. What we have is an appropriations king. Spending “deals” are meaningless under that setup.
Bobby Kogan
Demagogic president seizes money to pay standing army, arrogating to himself legislative power, while his cronies keep Congress out of session is honestly more or less exactly how the Founders thought this would end
Noah Rosenblum
The dominant business plan these days seems to be let’s turn everyone into slaves, who famously never revolt
Kashana @kashana.blacksky.app
Roberts has always felt that the suggestion that white people might discriminate on the basis of race is a profound moral injustice, much greater than black people being denied the right to vote
Adam Serwer
roberts’s constitution allows for racial discrimination as long as you don’t say you’re racially discriminating, because in a classic bit of racecraft, roberts’s constitution forbids acknowledging race but has no particular issue with racism.
jamelle @jamellebouie.net
Again, it is a full-blown federal felony crime for anyone in the White House or Executive Office of the President to order tax investigations into anyone. And it's not just a crime to DO it, it's even a federal crime for an employee not to REPORT such an order to the Treasury Inspector General.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick
File under: Arch Villain:
Robert Moffitt @justplainbob.bsky.social
The Supreme Court’s majority right wing indicated in oral arguments that they think racism is over on the same day that the vice president defended the “I love Hitler” guy, and that the NYT reported that the current administration plans to accept only white, English-speaking refugees.
Radley Balko
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