Clio2
@clio2.bsky.social
Observer of #polycrisis; excursions into history, nature, oddments. Degrees: philosophy, history of science. Former teacher, writer, editor, spokesperson, contract researcher, journalist. Occasional fictioneer. NB. No LLMs/other AI need apply. :-)
In other Michigan news, the state looks set to elect it's first transgender lawmaker. Joanna Whaley won her Democratic primary and will compete in November for a state house seat, beating a primary opponent who tried and failed to disqualify her for not running under her deadname
Let’s level set. MICHIGAN is a must-win if we want to flip the Senate. A word caution: This race was tighter than many predicted. El-Sayed needs Stevens supporters in the general, so it’s not smart strategy to keep them angry. Welcome them. Focus on issues. Time is short, so healing must be quick
A disappointing decision. A federal judge reluctantly dismissed the remaining criminal charges against eight Oath Keepers charged with seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6 attack after the Justice Department requested the case be thrown out.
Reup: Bc journalists simply are NOT reading the court filings closely enough to understand how bad the misconduct in the Davey Hearn case may be. What Did Jeanine Pirro Know and When Did She Know It? emptywheel.net/2026/08/05/w...
What Did Jeanine Pirro Know and When Did She Know It? - emptywheel
In a bid to get the indictment against him dismissed with prejudice, Davey Hearn reveals that DOJ misrepresented the circumstances of a "before" picture proving he didn't damage the reflecting pool.
emptywheel.net
Notice DOJ doesn't talk about its efforts to obtain state voter files anymore. They are 0-20 in those cases and today is the beginning of the quiet period -- states can no longer do systematic removals of names from the voter rolls. TLDR: We won!🥳
This is incredibly shameless. The bribery and blackmail are all on center stage now.
BREAKING: The New Mexico Department of Justice has sued Acting AG Todd Blanche and the DOJ, requesting the court for access to unredacted Epstein-related investigative files that the DOJ has been withholding.
Former J6 federal prosecutors are begging senators -- mostly GOPers, but a handful of Dems are in there, too -- to stop confirming election deniers to lifetime federal courts seats. “Please stop poisoning our courts." www.huffpost.com/entry/live-u...
Former J6 Prosecutors Beg Senators To Stop Confirming Election Deniers To Court Seats
huffpost.com
El-Sayed: "My commitment to Jewish safety is the same commitment that I have to the safety of my own daughters. Because if there is one question of political philosophy that ought to animate us all, it's what would we do if we treated all our kids like they were all of our kids?"
OPINION | The One Big Beautiful Bill Act should be measured in lives lost, not dollars saved
Republicans cut healthcare spending. Now Arizonans are paying the price.
A doctor warns Arizona healthcare cuts from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act are raising premiums and closing hospitals
azmirror.com
El-Sayed: We live in an era where we continue to see a few very small people try to define America as being as small as they are. We can't control the past 250 years. What we can do is build the next 250
3/ #AtlasNetwork is not one group, it is a web of hundreds of think tanks worldwide. Heritage, ALEC, Cato. In the US, another investigation from Drilled shows how Atlas affiliates helped write the legal playbook now used to criminalize climate protesters here at home. drilled.media/news/trfst-a...
How Think Tanks Laid the Groundwork to Criminalize Protest
It’s no coincidence that the backlash against climate protest looks the same from country to country. Not only is industry sharing tactics across borders, but also a global network of more than 500 th...
drilled.media
1/ People getting arrested at climate protests and a "spontaneous" youth march in Mexico have more in common than you think. Both trace back to one donor network built on Exxon money. That is a rigged system, seen from the outside. 🧵 #AtlasNetwork #DV1 #ProudBlue #Voices4Victory #USDemocracy
Trump is a true narcissist. He recognizes those things that are symbolic and larger than any one man, including him. Monuments. Agencies. Things that inspire. And that cannot be. So he uses his privilege to make them smaller, less impressive. Ruined as a symbol b/c he showed he had power over them.
'We are lagging behind the rest of the UK': Demands for transgender changing room guidelines to be published in Northern Ireland It's become a competition to see who can be the most transphobic & who can erase us from public life first. www.newsletter.co.uk/news/politic...
'We are lagging behind the rest of the UK': Demands for transgender changing room guidelines to be published in Northern Ireland
A unionist politician has said that “women should not have fewer safeguards simply because they live in Northern Ireland”, as he warned the Province “lags behind” the rest of the UK on the issue.
newsletter.co.uk
We are being turned into a society where anyone can have the opportunity to have a strong financial imperative to abandon pro-social values, just like Trump, techbros & capitalists.
Jacob Gellman@jacobgellman.com · yesterdayThere is no way that betting on wildfires should be legal. www.oregonlive.com/wildfires/20...
It is very distressing to see the decline of universities in the UK. There are many reasons for this, a decline in student numbers is one of the most pressing. I remember a work colleague lamenting when Exeter closed its Chemistry department, I believe it never reopened.
📢PROJECT UPDATE📢 You may have seen the news that the University of Exeter, home of the wills project, has placed 500 academics at risk of redundancy. The project leader Prof. Jane Whittle & project co-investigator Dr Laura Sangha are both at risk, alongside almost all of the History department. 1/
A 🧵with an update on the wills project: #EarlyModern 🗃️
The Material Culture of Wills Project@materialwills.bsky.social · 10h ago📢PROJECT UPDATE📢 You may have seen the news that the University of Exeter, home of the wills project, has placed 500 academics at risk of redundancy. The project leader Prof. Jane Whittle & project co-investigator Dr Laura Sangha are both at risk, alongside almost all of the History department. 1/
Apparently we're paying $25K bribes to AUSAs to convince the to risk their law license working for a shitshow DOJ. www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...
This morning's online Richmond Times-Dispatch front page doesn't even mention last night's Democratic and Republican primaries (their top "story" is something about an amusement park???) WTF? bluevirginia.us/2026/08/live...
9/ Here is the move for Abdul El-Sayed, and he is sharp enough to see it. Go find Haley Stevens voters now, before the ads & other nudges hit. Tell them plainly. You are about to see posts pushing you to stay home or back Rogers, from the same billionaires who spent $54 million to defeat AES.
3/ We know it works because it already happened. In 2016 ads were built to look like they came from Black organizers, quietly telling Black voters to stay home instead of vote. Turnout dropped. The trail led back to Russia’s Internet Research Agency. The tactic is proven.
1/ 🧵 It costs 8 cents to make you skip an election. Not a typo. A peer reviewed PNAS study found the right ad, aimed at the right voter, erased 1 in 6 votes of color in swing counties. The billionaires who lost Michigan can buy a lot of 8 cent nudges. #DV1 #ProudBlue #Voices4Victory #USDemocracy
There are better ways to talk about patriarchy www.wearequeeraf.com/transmasc-ap...
Transmasc apologies for male privilege: do we need them?
There are better ways to talk about patriarchy
wearequeeraf.com
Challenging the societal standard that not having sex is a problem would be a positive for everyone www.wearequeeraf.com/french-marit...
French marital reforms are an important step forward for women and asexual people
Challenging the societal standard that not having sex is a problem would be a positive for everyone
wearequeeraf.com