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James Gleick

@around.com

Author. Chaos, The Information, Time Travel. Other work can be found at https://around.com. My new history of the telephone will appear in November. On the open social web I'm gleick@mas.to.

906 Posts3509 Follower79 Folgt
James Gleick@around.com · 23h ago

In which the president of the United States summons an ostensibly independent US Attorney to the White House after she failed to prosecute an innocent man. Because that's completely normal. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/u...

Pirro Meets With Trump at the White House After He Said She ‘Choked’ in Reflecting Pool Case (Gift Article)

President Trump said Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., “folded like an umbrella.” For now, her job appeared to be safe, according to two people familiar with the meeting.

nytimes.com

James Gleick@around.com · 2d ago

In which Trump confirms that the single greatest priority of his presidency is to insure than his decades of personal tax fraud will go unpunished. And even the supposedly principled lame-duck Republicans roll over. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/u...

Blanche Gives G.O.P. Senators Written Assurances on Trump’s I.R.S. Deal (Gift Article)

Todd Blanche’s confirmation as attorney general has been held up over concerns about a planned $1.8 billion fund for Trump allies and the president’s immunity from tax scrutiny.

nytimes.com

Tom Cox@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 2w ago

Someone said to me, "I'm sorry but I got your book from a library." Nobody should ever apologise for that. You read my book! That's brilliant! I grew up hanging out in libraries and the idea of a world without them fills me with dread. Without libraries, authors, like readers, will only suffer.

Marc Elias@marcelias.bsky.social · 2w ago

If you were "stunned" by Trump's hateful rambling performance, then you haven't been paying attention for the last decade. If you sat in "silence" while Trump attacked democracy and elections, then you have learned nothing. We need an independent, pro-democracy media. demdock.com/4w6emld

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James Gleick@around.com · 4w ago

Trump’s anti-immigration fanatics even target children—but there's a problem. Sometimes the children shouldn’t legally be deported, and lawyers can be found to help them. Solution! Send the children, unaccompanied, to Texas. No one will help them there. www.texastribune.org/2026/07/03/t...

Trump admin asks Texas for legal help representing immigrant kids

Immigration rights experts worry that the recent inquiry is the latest sign Trump is interested in transferring unaccompanied minors to the state, where it is easier to quickly deport them.

texastribune.org

James Gleick@around.com · last mo.

Clearer headline: Trump Used Crypto Scam To Fleece His Investors (This is an example of the Opaque Passive voice. “Crypto” didn't do anything. Trump did.)

NY Times headline: Crypto Brought Trump a Huge Windfall, Even as Many Investors Lost Big President Trump and his family reaped vast financial rewards from a memecoin that generated losses for hundreds of thousands of investors.
Mark Jacob@markjacob.bsky.social · last mo.

Pete Hegseth's political purge of the U.S. military reminds me of Stalin's political purge of the Soviet military leadership in the 1930s, which left the country so weakened that Hitler was emboldened to invade. 24 million Soviet soldiers and civilians died in WWII.

Another top military commander resigns following clash with Hegseth

The Army confirmed that one of its most prominent generals would soon be retiring, ending his career and leaving his current job long before expected. It is the latest example of senior officers leavi...

pbs.org

jamelle@jamellebouie.net · last mo.

the way it works is that if i say, "i'm a black american," sam alito thinks that is "dividing people up by race." but if someone says, "get that jigaboo out of my country," alito thinks, "looks like nothing to me"

Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie@audrelawdamercy.blacksky.app · 3mo ago

Alito authoring opinion saying fixing a racial gerrymander is also racist and then musing, 2 hours later, during oral argument about Trump's racist effort to end humanitarian protections against deportation for Haitians, about how he doesn't like dividing up people by race I loathe this man so much

Boston Tom Levenson@tomlevenson.bsky.social · last mo.

Thread. Great science journals out there who could make your publications better from the first day you hire them (and the first stories you commission). And shame on Springer for this vicious and obvious act of union busting.

Meghan Bartels@meghanbartels.bsky.social · last mo.

I’m so sad to share that yesterday was my last day at Scientific American. It was an honor to work alongside my incredible colleagues and to speak with researchers across the sciences. If you’re looking to hire staff or freelance, please consider me and my other laid off coworkers (🧵)

Brian Merchant@bcmerchant.bsky.social · last mo.

A travesty. Springer Nature offloads SciAm—the most storied science magazine in the US—onto a content mill consortium, LabX, during an almost certainly successful union vote. LabX now says it will lay off 15 people, over 1/3rd of the unit and 60% of the bargaining committee. Pure union busting.

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth.bsky.social · last mo.

Statement by @sciamunion.bsky.social on Springer Nature's sale of Scientific American and massive editorial layoffs right before a successful union vote is counted. www.wgaeast.org/wgae-scienti...

James Gleick@around.com · last mo.

1. None of these protesters belonged to an organization called "Antifa," because 2. There is no such organization. Look it up. Try to find it. Try to join it. But 3. There is an attitude, a movement—yes, an ideology—which is that fascism should be opposed. I am Antifa, and I hear the "message."

DFW Support Committee@dfwsupportcommitt.bsky.social · last mo.

Judge O’Connor stated from the bench that he is giving maximum sentences to the Prairieland sentences because “the state wants to send a message to anyone who shares a similar ideology.”

James Gleick@around.com · last mo.

On this day 150 years ago, having arrived at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, Alec Bell wrote to his young wife Mabel: "I have been hard at work all day upon my exhibits. All is in readiness to try

James Gleick@around.com · 2mo ago

Italy is in an uproar. Its foreign minister has cancelled a trip to the US. Why? Because Trump told an offensive lie that he has used many times before about many people, only this time he told it about the Italian Prime Minister. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Italy PM Meloni ‘stunned’ by Trump’s claims she begged him for a photo

US president provokes outrage as PM says he ‘totally invented’ story in interview with Italian media

theguardian.com

James Gleick@around.com · 2mo ago

This is (as the law mandates) the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. But there's a coverup: a petty little man is using tarps to block the name. He can't handle the truth.

The grand facade of the Kennedy Center, with scaffolding and white tarpaulin obscuring its name. Photo by Rahmat Gul/Ap.
Rich Raho@richraho.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Pope Leo: "Every boat that arrives does not bring only migrants; it brings with it a question: what world have we built, if so many brothers must risk death to seek life?"

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