Andrew
@andrewdavies.bsky.social
Netherlands / US citizen. Interested in the information ecosystem (especially in difficult places) AI's impacts, politics all over the place, and cat photos. Strongly convinced that bad pizza is still better than no pizza.
Happening now in Chicago: Local officials and attorneys, alongside Border Patrol shooting victim Marimar Martinez, are holding a presser outside CPD's District 19 police station to announce the filing of police reports over alleged crimes by federal immigration agents.
We have very unfortunate news to share today... 😢 I've been an author for this report since 2020, and we just celebrated our 20th anniversary edition last year.
Zack Colman@zcolman.bsky.social · yesterdaySCOOP: Trump is ending federal support for NOAA's Arctic Report Card, a major annual update shedding light on the effect climate change has on the Arctic. subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2026...
A must-read. I admit, I'm now leery of collaborating with people because undisclosed GenAI use on a manuscript can rather drastically alter the meaning / comprehensibility / flow of the text. For this reason (among others), I request tracked changes (or add them retroactively). #VersionControl
Colin Carlson@colincarlson.bsky.social · yesterdayI wrote about a reason not to use generative AI in your writing that I haven't seen anyone talking about. Once I realized this, banning GenAI in our lab's writing became a no-brainer. Feel free to share, I think this is probably useful especially for trainees: www.carlsonlab.bio/thoughts/the...
“That's why it's critical to seek all manner of censure and redress. In the Hearn affair, this will likely include civil lawsuits against the government, asking the courts to impose professional sanctions on key actors, and seeking their disbarment—possibly up to Pirro herself.” Full-court press!
Greg Sargent@gregsargent.bsky.social · yesterdayNEWS --> Dems are launching an investigation into Trump's corrupt prosecutions for "vandalism" of Reflecting Pool. They're demanding access to WH-DOJ communications and more. “Participants in this frame-up will be held to account," Jamie Raskin tells me. New piece: newrepublic.com/article/2141...
"...by limiting the number of international STEM students, instructors and researchers in the U.S., the new rule could cost the nation’s economy as much as $145 billion per year by 2035." GENIUS missouriindependent.com/2026/08/10/r...
With new tactics, ICE reaches new high in monthly arrests • Missouri Independent
Federal immigration agents are employing new tactics — from arresting academics at airports to setting up a checkpoint at a popular creek in a National Forest — to boost their arrest numbers, leading ...
missouriindependent.com
And, of course, this $100M could be providing healthcare to small businesses and food to children.
Stephen Semler@stephensemler.bsky.social · yesterdayICE is bewildered by the scale of its own budget. The agency has used just 12% of the funding from the GOP's two reconciliation bills. www.stephensemler.com/p/ice-is-sit...
Inflation is rising, the country is at war, people are losing their health insurance, but... Trump is focused on his Ballroom Battle www.today.com/video/trump-...
Trump Vows to Take Ballroom Battle to the Supreme Court
President Donald Trump’s planned ballroom is in jeopardy after a federal appeals court ruled Congress should have approved the project first. The president is now calling on the Supreme Court to overt...
today.com
Baltimore cut homicides 68% with 400 fewer cops, which is a deeply inconvenient plot twist for the “more police is the only way to safety” narrative.
How Baltimore Achieved Historically Low Homicides—With Less Police – Emerald Book
◆ Emerald Pages ◆ public safety / urban policy How Baltimore Achieved Historically Low Homicides—With Less Police Emerald Book Publication August 4, 2026 Updated: August 6, 2026 9 min read Baltimore h...
emeraldbook.org
Trump and the pandemic (which he fumbled the response to) had screwed the economy and left people with higher prices. Biden was making progress on that and climate change - but sure, tell me again how great Republicans are for the economy. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Bidenomics Was More Successful Than People Think
Conventional wisdom holds that Joe Biden’s bet on climate investment was a bust. The data suggest otherwise.
theatlantic.com
Dr. Fauci did a good job. He was the sane person in the room while Trump was telling people to drink bleach and massively screwing up the pandemic response. But spineless Republican politicians can't bring themselves to criticize Trump so they need a fall guy www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Dr Fauci made mistakes. But his persecution is a travesty | Margaret Sullivan
It’s easy to second-guess decisions made during the pandemic. That doesn’t justify the Republicans’ politicized response
theguardian.com
In an effort to appease Alberta separatists, Carney has just announced a new pipeline. It'll be 90% publicly funded, because the business case isn't remotely good enough for private investors to fund it. A very expensive stranded-asset-to-be. 4/ www.nationalobserver.com/2026/07/02/n...
Government-owned Trans Mountain to lead $35-44 billion oil pipeline to BC Lower Mainland
Smith and Carney announced Alberta’s proposal is opting for a route that roughly follows the path of the Trans Mountain Pipeline. The federal government and Alberta “will be equal partners in this pro...
nationalobserver.com
The race was not close - Hassan lost by 17 points. I'm not saying Hassan lost simply because of his name...but a lot of Republicans are saying that! donmoynihan.substack.com/p/a-candidat...
I continue to think that with historical detachment, it will be clear that the Iran War was always about just one thing: the enrichment of the Trump and Kushner families through oil futures trading. bsky.app/profile/maxb...
Max Boot@maxboot.bsky.social · yesterdayThe unnecessary war with Iran continues to drag on, with no end in sight, more than five months after it started. There are many reasons for this quagmire, but a significant part of the explanation is Trump’s schizophrenic approach. He veers between conciliation and confrontation. wapo.st/3S5tdxs
"People won’t begin to feel the true pain of these cuts until about 60 days after the last vote is counted...And then the hell begins." Vivid detail from @thefarce.org on the Trump GOP's Medicaid "time bomb" and making sure voters know exactly who to blame. thecause.substack.com/p/republican...
Republicans Built a Medicaid Time Bomb. It Goes Off After the Election.
It's Democrats job to explain what's coming and who must be blamed by November.
thecause.substack.com
This is a quick description of the impact of Trump v. US on criminal prosecutions that people are missing (working on a longer one). www.youtube.com/shorts/M78Ck...
The Nuclear Bomb Hidden in Trump’s Immunity Decision
YouTube video by emptywheel
youtube.com
Why aren’t Dems doing any— Hold up. Many are using the minority’s limited powers to push for accountability, and importantly, to lay the groundwork for a bigger push when in the majority. As @gregsargent.bsky.social details, Rep. Raskin is going after Reflecting Pool malfeasance. More like this.
Greg Sargent@gregsargent.bsky.social · yesterdayNEWS --> Dems are launching an investigation into Trump's corrupt prosecutions for "vandalism" of Reflecting Pool. They're demanding access to WH-DOJ communications and more. “Participants in this frame-up will be held to account," Jamie Raskin tells me. New piece: newrepublic.com/article/2141...
"Tech companies have never really been sensitive to issues of consent."
The AI Slop Backlash Is Actually Having an Impact
Platforms are finally recognizing that people don’t want to consume AI slop. A growing number of sites and apps now have tools and policies to flag, label, and ban AI-generated content.
wired.com
It would be very, very good if we got our act together on climate ASAP. Some people are linking this to fertilizer issues, that's not quite right--growth season for wheat is the spring and it was already evident months ago that drought was going to make this a bad year.
US Winter Wheat Crop Smallest Since 1965, USDA Says - Farm Policy News
The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday cut its U.S. winter wheat crop outlook by 2% from a month earlier as a harsh drought in the Plains cut its hard red winter wheat production view to the...
farmpolicynews.illinois.edu
Dale @dalejohn.bsky.social · 3d agoThe USDA is projecting the wheat harvest to be cut by almost half in the US. The state of Kansas is the largest producer of wheat and it is projected to harvest 44% less than from 2025. The American Farm Bureau sees a continued increase of Chapter 12 bankruptcies from 2025 as well.
But not every DOGE operator was a digital arsonist. Take Dan Berulis, a DOGE staffer who came out of the private sector and later turned whistleblower over the group's activities, who now faces assassination attempts: www.wired.com/story/he-ble... 29/
He Blew the Whistle on DOGE. Then His Brakes Were Cut
A federal IT staffer filed a complaint about DOGE, then went public. Shortly after Elon Musk boosted a post calling his claims false, his brake lines were cut. Now he’s suing for defamation.
wired.com
DOGE deliberately sabotaged the usability of America's governmental systems to make it harder for the public to access the services they are entitled to and pay for with their taxes. 23/
Other opportunities for public interest technologists proliferated. Bruce Schneier created the canonical resource page for Public Interest Technologists, including career opportunities for would-be public interest technologists: public-interest-tech.com 10/
Public-Interest Technology Resources
public-interest-tech.com
It was the era when (in the words of Facebook's Jeff Hammerbacher) "The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads": quoteinvestigator.com/2017/06/12/c... 6/
Quote Origin: The Best Minds of My Generation Are Thinking About How To Make People Click Ads – Quote Investigator®
quoteinvestigator.com
The task for the next several US Secretaries of Defense is understanding that the nature of modern warfare has changed (because Ukraine has changed it) and adjusting strategies, procurement and commands accordingly. Instead, our first SecDef in the drone era is focused on testosterone.
Victor Asal @victorasal.bsky.social · 2d agoHow a Drone ‘Hellscape’ Might Stop a Chinese Invasion of Taiwan Inspired by Ukraine’s battlefield gains, Taiwan is betting on drones to deter a potential Chinese invasion www.nytimes.com/2026/08/09/w...
All the while they don't seem to understand basic facts about drone combat in Ukraine, namely that you still need soldiers!
In any prior era, a windfall for the president of that size from a foreigner with no signs of access to that level of wealth might have spawned an investigation. Instead, the curious case of Mr. Zhou illustrates how buyers can use the anonymity of cryptocurrency to shower Mr. Trump with money.
Eric Lipton NYT@ericlipton.nytimes.com · 2d agoThe curious case of Guren “Bobby” Zhou shows the ease with which investors with shady backgrounds and unknown motivations can funnel money to the president By Russ Buettner, who covers the Trump family’s finances. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/09/u...
there is a problem in policy analysis i'm going to try to dub the "half-assed apocalypse" issue. which is that people make apocalyptic pronouncements about something but fail to behave in any way consistent with the implications. the "AI will take all the jobs" thing is a good example.....
When I gave tours at the Whitney ages ago (during my grad school days) I asked visitors to consider the dark form at upper right. We can't know exactly what it is—a looming skyscraper? a billboard?—but it suggests a more intimately-scaled city now being literally overshadowed by further construction
Michael Lobel@mlobelart.bsky.social · 2d agoEdward Hopper, Early Sunday Morning, 1930 whitney.org/collection/w...
Someone explain to me like I'm 5 how America, a country with a trillion-dollar defense budget, is out of missiles?
