CLJohnson
@cjenergy.bsky.social
Economist and expert witness. 40 years in energy regulation. AEA member. Long time consumer advocate, and interested in civil rights, environment, government. Also, an Astros baseball fan.
This is absolutely torture. This is a crisis. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
‘What they’re doing qualifies as torture’: new details of ICE force-feeding revealed
Exclusive: cases of Afghan man, Ukrainian man and Saudi woman show repeated nasogastric tube insertions and lack of legal representation
theguardian.com
Via @oliverdarcy.bsky.social: www.status.news/p/david-elli... CNN reporters were not amused by David Ellison's op-ed in the NYT.
![The piece was "insulting," one CNNer told Status, adding, “We all have eyes and ears and see what’s happening at CBS. You can’t just write an op-ed and erase that.” Another CNNer said it was obvious to them Ellison "says whatever is best for him to get the merger through."
"The thing David Ellison seems to be missing is the wild mismanagement and disrespect that Bari [Weiss] has displayed at '60' and CBS," a third CNNer told Status. "These people just simply do not know what they are doing. We see it. And we don’t want it here."
Indeed, several CNNers said that Ellison's stewardship of CBS News had caused them to lose confidence in his ability to run a news organization and sour on his repeated assurances about respecting the independence of newsrooms. In The Times essay, Ellison wrote, "I understand that promises from an executive in the middle of a merger invite skepticism. So judge us by the year we just had."
But the last year at CBS News has been an unmitigated disaster. Most notably, Ellison allowed his handpicked news chief to take a sledgehammer to "60 Minutes," firing multiple correspondents and senior executives from television news' most prestigious broadcast—in most of the cases, without ever stating a cause for the dismissals. Beyond that, Weiss' tenure has been defined by her expunging those she is not ideologically aligned with, presiding over the worst ratings of the century for flagship programs like the "CBS Evening News" and "CBS Mornings," establishing a cozier relationship with an overtly corrupt White House, and sending employee morale cratering to astonishing lows.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:bbp2b224lro3bfnzcqwwnkfo/bafkreicybrw5xm7wnrleduxjtlfwlrcvjzs7qwwjijswwlluzh5x67iadi)
Oh, charge someone with a felony and then hide and lie to the defense (and probably the grand jury) about the evidence. For instance, relying on a photograph of the pool, without disclosing that it was taken an hour before Hearn showed up.
emptywheel@emptywheel.bsky.social · 10h agoWhat Did Jeanine Pirro Know and When Did She Know It? emptywheel.net/2026/08/05/w...
Who can forget the infamous Putin dinner before the 2016 election attended by Michael Flynn and Jill Stein.
Mark Jacob@markjacob.bsky.social · 11h ago🧵🧵🧵 A scandal that hardly anyone knows happened is Trump giving traitor Michael Flynn $1.25 million in your tax money. Flynn, Trump’s 1st national security adviser, pleaded guilty twice to lying to the FBI but was pardoned by Trump. He sued, alleging "weaponization," and DOJ paid him in March. 1/4🧵
size of corp debt one rung above junk is close to record highs
Video of Russian drove chasing Ukrainian street vendor in Kherson. The drone operator acts like it's a video game.
MAKS 26 👀🇺🇦@maks23.bsky.social · yesterday❗️Zelensky: Today, many were shocked by another video of the Russian drone safari against people in Kherson. The man was injured by the explosion. The world must see this. It must see every fact that Russia has gone mad, and every fact that the Russian military enjoys killing and mocking people.
I have to believe Trump said Juicebox Jeanine "choked" bc he knew well it would especially hurt her.
The money was supposed to fund Medicaid expansion for children but instead it went to two PACs supporting GOP positions.
emptywheel@emptywheel.bsky.social · 2d agoTrump endorsed both Ashley Moody and James Uthmeier in advance of the August 18 primary yesterday. Both are implicated in the suspected theft of $10M in Medicaid payments to use for political purposes--basically what Trump is trying to frame Tim Walz for. www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/f...
ICE is spending millions of dollars to contractors to scour the internet for criticism of ICE and its agents. Trump's DOJ considers some social media posts attacking ICE to be domestic terrorism. But the real aim appears to be intimidation and repressing free speech.
Anchorage @backbay.bsky.social · 2d agoGift article www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
NEW: Trump on Jeanine Pirro dropping the Reflecting Pool charges against David Hearn: "I guess she choked. I don't know what the hell happened."
He systematically tears apart the lies that the Fox News and the GOP weaponize to attack Fauci...and public health in general.
Jonathan Howard@joho.bsky.social · 2d agoAbout the show trials of Fauci by @saletan.bsky.social
I grew up in Kyiv, 10 mins away from Babi Yar. In 1941 Nazis told Jews to go to the ravine to check in and maybe get deported. September 29–30, 1941 almost 34,000 people were shot and dumped into the ravine instead.
Asawin Suebsaeng@swin24.bsky.social · 3d agoAm told at the blue ash Ohio ICE office today that a bunch of springfield Haitians were told to just “check in” at are now having ankle monitors put on them, which, uh….. they’re not supposed to be fucking doing that
There’s absolutely no reason why Obama could not be someone’s vice president. Ossoff/Obama?
Is the Alien secured by chains like an ICE detainee?
Eliot Higgins@eliothiggins.bsky.social · 4d agoTrump having a normal one today
Is this another AI "error?" Probably too little oversight or screening for civilian damage again. Is this another case of Palantir/Claude/Grok murder?
Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 4d agoThree-byline alert: 🚨 “.. The strike hit a densely populated neighborhood .. .. the evidence raises questions about what the United States was targeting and why such a large munition was used.” @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/w...
Trump's EPA has an email portal to exempt coal and chemical facilities from the Clean Air Act. Requests are transmitted to the White House which issues EO's granting exemptions. The rationale is that energy and material are necessary for national security (such as power for data centers).
ProPublica@propublica.org · 5d agoThe Trump administration has granted more than 180 polluting facilities nationwide a two-year pause on compliance with Clean Air Act rules. All they had to do was send an email. (Published May)
This should be a bigger story BEFORE midterms. Republicans and trump are re-starting the draft in December, after the midterms www.cnn.com/2026/04/09/p...
Automatic military draft registration takes effect in December. Here’s how it would work | CNN Politics
Young, eligible men will be automatically registered for the military draft pool starting in December as part of a measure tucked into the annual defense policy bill Congress signed into law late last...
cnn.com
Juicebox Jeanine tries to shift responsibility for DOJ's incompetence. "Not sure when I've seen this Olympic class ass-covering before."
emptywheel@emptywheel.bsky.social · 5d agoTl;dr: Their witness told the grand jury they didn't have a case. And then SOMEONE sent the witness back to lie, and say there surely was proof Davey Hearn did $1,000 of damage.
From the beginning, we have known that Trump's claims regarding the reflecting pool were bullshit. How has it taken the US Attorney, Jeanine Pirro, this long to find out the same thing? Meanwhile a former U.S. Olympian has been dragged through the legal system for nothing.
Allison Gill@muellershewrote.com · 5d agoBREAKING: Pirro has dismissed the case against Davey Hearn for vandalizing the reflecting pool, saying that there's no way vandals could have caused the damage.
this is the kind of obstreperousness, don't tell me what to do-ness, i got rightsness that is the sheet anchor of American liberties.
Soraya Nadia McDonald@soraya.press · 5d ago"WE THE FUCKING JUDGE SON" New York, I love you. I love you so fucking much. Via wali_talks on IG
Make no mistake here. This is Trump objectively taking the side of Iran, a nation we are currently at war with, over the Americans in Minnesota because he hates the governor and the fact that a majority of voters there did not vote for him
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 5d agoTrump: "We heard in Minnesota there was a cyberattack and they blame it on Iran. I don't think so. I blame it on Minnesota because they're grossly incompetent. Iran's got bigger problems than worrying about Minnesota."
Come on. This is worse than political illiteracy. The public is unable to apply any form of logic to basic facts. Public blames Biden for grocery prices. My hope is that this applies only to South Carolina voters.
Heathen Peasants@the-poors.bsky.social · 5d agoThis is the utter stupidity and ignorance we are up against. The dumbassess take Fox and other Reich wing networks as gospel truth without ever taking a moment to think. Trump has been in office for almost two years and these idiots still blame Biden. www.wsav.com/news/your-lo...
RBADVISERS: “.. More evidence speculation is driving stocks. Margin debt is a prime contributor to brokerage stock performance. Both up a lot over the past 3 years.”
FFS. Why do you need an intelligence service if you just take Putin's word for it? Zelensky gave the U.S. classified intelligence documenting Russian's complicity in attacking U.S. bases.
Hoodlum 🇺🇸@nothoodlum.bsky.social · 6d ago“I asked President Putin if he was supplying Iran with intelligence. He was extremely strong and powerful in his denial. I think he is very insulted by it.”
Dystopia alert - a subgroup of humanity is destroying our shared heritage - read and weep: “Project Panama is our effort to destructively scan all the books in the world,” an internal planning document said. “We don’t want it to be known that we are working on this.” novaramedia.com/2026/07/29/a...
AI Firms Are Buying up Old Books, Then Scanning and Destroying Them
The world’s biggest AI companies are buying antiquarian books en masse so they can be scanned to train their large language models (LLMs) before being destroyed.
novaramedia.com