infopleaseh.bsky.social
@infopleaseh.bsky.social
Passionate about human rights, democracy, history, science, and 🐈. My worst nightmare is the Twilight Zone episode with the broken eyeglasses. I have champagne ready for January 20, 2029.
New: The US is enduring one of its worst wildfire seasons in years, with blazes scorching millions of acres. It’s part of a global pattern of hot, dry conditions that favor fires becoming more common with climate change. Free link. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Global Wildfire Surge Hits US, Propelled by Rising Temperatures
Blazes in the Western US and Europe point to a global shift: Climate change is making fire weather more extreme and more widespread.
bloomberg.com
Expect her minions in DC media and Maine media to dutifully portray this as a bold move when it's the same old story if Thune needed her, he'd have her. See, for example, Brett Kavanaugh Any Hill reporters who uses "🚨 Breaking News" on an expected Collins vote is pretty much on her comms team
Collins Watch@collinswatch.bsky.social · 23h agoSusan comes out against Todd Blanche now that he's got the votes. So tiresome. (We called it: tinyurl.com/3bepafkz) #MEpolitics
One more interesting point: this spring I sat down with Sharyn Alfonsi of 60 Minutes for an extensive interview about my Epstein investigation. Subsequently, CBS pulled the segment and fired the reporter. The MAGA buyout of media has unquestionably aided the Trump administration’s cover up here.
Senator Ron Wyden@wyden.senate.gov · yesterdayBombshell new report out from my investigators this morning spanning our four year investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s financial records. This report shows exactly how Wall Street protected Epstein and enabled his sex trafficking for decades. Mega thread following with some key points:
More evidence that Reform voters are not like other people in the UK. Show them some potential corruption and they’re all in.
Yes, I’m still going to see “The Odyssey”. variety.com/2026/film/ne...
Ben McKenzie Says Major Streamers Were Scared to License His Anti-Crypto Documentary, So He Found a Different Way to Reach Audiences
Ben McKenzie, "The O.C." star turned documentarian, is releasing his film about cryptocurrency in a unique way.
variety.com
The mayor of Newark announced yet another unexplained death at the ICE concentration camp in Newark, that of Edwin López-Cornejo.
Immigrant Held at Delaney Detention Center Has Died, Officials Say
The mayor of Newark identified the dead man as Edwin Lopez-Cornejo. The New Jersey center has been the focus of intense scrutiny for its treatment of detainees.
nytimes.com
CATO argues Bill Pulte could not legally serve after Jay Clayton was confirmed, so everything Pulte did in the last week (like firing a bunch of people) can be challenged. www.cato.org/blog/william...
William Pulte Served Illegally as Acting Director of National Intelligence for Nearly a Week
William Pulte purported to act as the director of national intelligence for nearly a week after Jay Clayton was confirmed as his successor. That violates the plain text of the Vacancies Act.
cato.org
in constitutional terms i think this kind of has to be right. this isn't a ceo transition where they negotiate the hand off. pulte is a temporary whose only authority rests on the job being vacant which it ceased to be with Clayton's confirmation.
emptywheel@emptywheel.bsky.social · 2d agoCATO argues Bill Pulte could not legally serve after Jay Clayton was confirmed, so everything Pulte did in the last week (like firing a bunch of people) can be challenged. www.cato.org/blog/william...
great reporting from @drewharwell.com as usual
Drew Harwell@drewharwell.com · 3d agoNew: We found 50 cops who misused Flock cameras and other license-plate readers for personal purposes, often to spy on their girlfriends or ex-wives. He "watched every single move I made. ... Who do you turn the chief of police in to?" wapo.st/3S6rTuo
Inflammatory disorders can be brutal. I’d know personally (thanks vasculitis et al). But the misinformation, including on vaccines, is dangerous. A deep dive from me into how MAHA sped up the inflammation panic. New from me at @motherjones.com www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
The Great Inflammation panic
The wellness world's favorite buzzword has gone federal. For those of us with real inflammatory disorders, the misinformation isn't just annoying—it's harmful.
motherjones.com
NY police tricked a woman into drinking from a cup, then pulled her DNA and added it to a secret database. They have done this to thousands of people who were never charged with a crime. Cato filed a brief in this case, arguing that the Fourth Amendment requires a warrant. https://ow.ly/1mHL50ZvUlN
Leslie v. City of New York Brief: NYC's "Suspect Index" of Secretly Harvested DNA Is Unconstitutional
The NYPD routinely collects DNA samples in an orchestrated surreptitious manner through ruses involving straws, bottles, or even cigarettes, without the knowledge or consent of the searched individual and without a court order.
ow.ly
Is there any news about Senator Mitch (Schrödinger’s Mitch) McConnell?
LT@spartalpt.bsky.social · 4w agoIf it turns out that Mitch McConnell is (and has been) dead all these people who claimed to have conversations with him should be investigated. Concealing a death is a crime and conspiring to defraud the public is also.
Which gets announced first? 1. Jeanine Pirro has been fired or 2. Mitch McConnell is dead
McConnell has a long history of dirty tricks — culminating in functionally stealing a Supreme Court nomination from then-President Barack Obama and holding it for Donald Trump www.salon.com/2026/08/03/m...
Mitch McConnell is never coming back to the Senate
The likeliest reason for the Kentucky senator's ruse is also the most pathetic
salon.com
Doctors and nurses were triaging ventilators in New York City wearing improvised cloth masks and black garbage bags while Trump and his dudes were sending boxes of N95s to Florida
It's absolutely insane we've somehow let the Covid recriminations debate become like "why didn't we reopen in person schools before there was a vaccine" and not "why did none of the trump guys go to jail for stealing PPE from New York hospitals in March 2020"
Attorneys for anti-abortion activist Paul Vaughn, who was convicted in 2024 on a felony charge of conspiring to prevent access to a Mt. Juliet reproductive clinic and later pardoned by President Donald Trump, say they have reached a seven-figure settlement with the federal government on his behalf.
Attorneys for pardoned abortion clinic protester announce 7-figure settlement with DOJ • Tennessee Lookout
Anti-abortion activist Paul Vaughn got a settlement from the federal government after a 2024 conviction for harassment at Carafem Mt. Juliet.
tennesseelookout.com
The effective federal corporate income tax rate: 1950: 50% 1990: 25% 2020: 13% Stop asking "but how we will pay for it?" Restore the corporate tax rate. That is how we will pay for it.
From the people who brought you “stop injecting politics into everything.”
Gillian Branstetter@gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 2d agoAn initiative on the ballot in Washington state in November would require all athletes seeking to play girl's sports from kindergarten to high school to undergo "genetic screening, a testosterone-levels test, or an examination of their reproductive anatomy" before they can play
Donald still gets his $100 million tax windfall.
Allison Gill@muellershewrote.com · 3d agoBREAKING: Todd Blanche has released what he calls a rescission of the slush fund (left). The last lawsuit he mentions is mine (Gill v DOJ). This doesn't change the fact that the "settlement" setting up the fund is still in effect. On the right, Blanche is LEAVING IN PLACE Trump's tax immunity.
They stole PPE from the the State of Massachussetts when it was sitting on a plane on the runway waiting to be unloaded.
everyone forgot this! doctors and nurses got sick and died because of this theft! bsky.app/profile/cras...
@crashcityrocker.bsky.social · 3d agoKushner literally stole PPE that my hospital system had bought and sent it to Florida. This is big reason why why Charlie Baker is no longer (directly) in politics. abcnews.com/amp/Health/e...
People ask me why the COVID contrarians were needed. Why did the first Trump White House align with rightwing billionaires and orgs to find credentialed ppl who looked good on TV that would deny COVID severity and yell about lockdowns? This is why
mtsw@mtsw.bsky.social · 3d agoIt's absolutely insane we've somehow let the Covid recriminations debate become like "why didn't we reopen in person schools before there was a vaccine" and not "why did none of the trump guys go to jail for stealing PPE from New York hospitals in March 2020"
I think of the headlines below whenever someone insists the worst most horrible thing that happened "during covid" was that children were harmed by schools being closed. We had YEARS of coast-to-coast waves of running out of room for dead bodies * "during covid" is now, we're still during covid
Jonathan Howard@joho.bsky.social · 3d ago
Farmers are experiencing major shifts in demand amid fears of cyclospora.
California Lettuce Growers Destroy Crops As Customers Cut Back: WSJ
California Lettuce Growers Destroy Crops As Customers Cut Back: WSJ
huffpost.com
NEW: after our coverage of this company's little scheme to use printed books to train AI, it calls it a "test of the market" and walked the entire thing back: www.404media.co/ai-company-t...
Company Offering Printed Books to Train AI Stops After 404 Media Coverage
Citing backlash, ISBNdb removed its webpages about training AI, denied ever buying, scanning, or selling a book for AI training, and said the site was a "test of market interest."
404media.co
Yeah, this was coming. They're selling people on this tech's ability to comb vast archives of content, but in reality they are feeding the LLMs a very select archive that's going to result in white nationalists skewed content.
