Jennifer Weeks
@jenniferweeks83.bsky.social
Freelance editor and writer, formerly @us.theconversation.com. Many bylines in many places. DC native, mom, Red Sox fan, alto II, Eph. Parallel parking is my special power.
Haven't read this book yet, but when I worked in DC restaurants, the Salvadoran and Guatemalan line cooks, table runners and (a few) servers) were the hardest-working people I ever met, and had lots of interesting things to say if you got to know them www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/b...
The Immigrant Workers Who Keep New York’s Restaurants Running
Food books by chefs and celebrities arrive by the landslide. “Voices From the Kitchen” highlights workers who get far less attention.
nytimes.com
“Are you okay, ma’am?” “I think I swallowed my router.” “Here, take my seat.”
New analysis from a group of 538 alums puts Dems at above even odds to take both houses of Congress in November. If you hovered on 538's website in past elections, compulsively clicking REFRESH REFRESH REFRESH, 'nuf said
G Elliott Morris@gelliottmorris.com · 2d agoDems strongly favored to take the House in our new election forecast. Senate just better than a tossup: Iowa: 41% Dem Texas: 48 Alaska: 51 Ohio: 53 Maine: 68 Michigan: 69 North Carolina: 84 Georgia: 94 www.gelliottmorris.com/p/democrats-...
Disaster relief should not be political -- and until Trump, it wasn't. www.eenews.net/articles/fem...
FEMA said yes to Democratic disaster requests. Trump killed them anyway.
President Donald Trump cast aside bipartisan precedent when he rejected eligible disaster requests from four blue states.
eenews.net
I used to do some work on the ethical use of satellite and drone imagery for aid and disaster response, and it is genuinely hard to express in words what a dangerous, stupid thing Google is doing by making it easy to use GenAI to create faked satellite imagery:
How to plant a nuclear plant in Iran
The question is: what on earth is Google doing?
digitaldigging.org
Conflicts of interest for members of Congress are a big problem, but also, this guy looks like a reincarnation of Rep. Bob Forehead from the "Washingtoon" comic strip that ran in the 1980s www.nytimes.com/1985/08/15/u...
CREW@citizensforethics.org · last wk.Four members of Congress who sit on committees that directly regulate SpaceX have a family stake in the company’s stock. Yes, these are conflicts of interest. No, this should not be allowed.
There's a big caveat -- lots of undecideds -- but still, notable www.texastribune.org/2026/07/28/t...
Talarico leads Paxton by 5 points in new Texas Senate poll
The poll found the Austin Democrat with a commanding lead among independents and a surprising edge with non-college-educated voters, who have consistently favored Republicans.
texastribune.org
To coverup true losses in IRAN WAR, Pentagon Changes How It Reports Casualties. After removing some casualties from reports, Pentagon quietly separated casualty numbers into two separate web pages, potentially making it more difficult to tally the war’s full toll www.nytimes.com/2026/07/26/u...
Pentagon Changes How It Reports Casualties in Iran War
The changes separated the casualty numbers into two separate web pages, potentially making it more difficult to tally the war’s full toll.
nytimes.com
TIL that the difference between the price of oil and that of the products it's refined into is called the crack spread, and a truer term was never coined.
Hegseth should be hauled back in front of Congress just over this, along with whoever is Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
Aric Toler@aric.bsky.social · 2w agoThe Pentagon removed the names of 4 servicemembers who died in Jordan from their official list of Iran war casualties. They explain that this is because "their deaths occurred after President Trump declared a cease-fire in the war in April." Free gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/23/u...
If the protocols are secret, it’s reasonable to expect the administration believes they would be embarrassing if made public. Congress should consider the pros and cons of making them public.
Kingston Reif@kingstonareif.bsky.social · 2w ago“The agreement includes two secret side letters reached with the Saudis. The administration is expected to argue they contain proprietary business information and deal with sensitive national security issues.”
"Liberal pundits used to describe former House Speaker Newt Gingrich as 'a dumb person’s idea of a smart person.' Vance appears to be performing a smart person’s idea of a dumb person."
The Atlantic@theatlantic.com · 2w agoEvery politician does some pandering, but few do it as clumsily, or with such evident disdain for their own supporters, as J. D. Vance, @dgraham.bsky.social argues in The Atlantic Daily:
BREAKING: $4 is back/ according to GasBuddy data, the national average just hit $4/gal again. 2026 is now the first year ever to reach $4 in two separate surges: once in the spring, now again. not in 2008, not in 2022, not ever. two $4 runs in the same year.
Trump's energy rollbacks have cost America $55 billion and over half a million jobs.
The economic cost of Trump’s clean energy rollbacks has been enormous—and it's still growing
More than 200 major clean energy projects have been canceled or downsized since Trump took office again, costing nearly half a million jobs and $55 billion in annual GDP growth.
fastcompany.com
Why is Trump punishing Brazil for adopting a digital payment system? basically, cronyism, @pkrugman explains Trump’s War on the Future, Monetary Edition open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...
Trump’s War on the Future, Monetary Edition
Trying to punish Brazil for adopting a better payment system
open.substack.com
Congrats we just made it impossible to come here for a PhD www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/16/m...
Trump administration limits student visas to four years, changing longstanding policy - The Boston Globe
The new rule, which also restricts the international students’ ability to transfer schools or change majors without approval in their first year, will go into effect in mid-September.
bostonglobe.com
If you're looking for a "democracy" issue that will move people in swing districts/states, this is that. He should lose all the close races in CA and NY (and thus the House) because of it. I argue that it should be among the first of the impeachment charges if not first.
What Trump Should Be Impeached For First
The disaster aid numbers are the clearest proof of what this presidency is—and what it threatens to become.
thefarce.org
Chicago Tribune@chicagotribune.com · 3w agoPresident Donald Trump is taking longer to approve disaster aid and denying Democratic states more frequently
Jay Clayton couldn’t answer a simple question about the 2020 election. Multiple times. Senator Mark Kelly presented the question a different way in this mic drop moment.
Weird yellow-grey skies over Boston from Minnesota wildfire smoke drifting east. It feels like the dimming before a partial eclipse.
“This is the path of selective science fiction operationalised as political reality – technological progress as cover for social regression.”
Aeon Magazine@aeon.co · 3w agoTech billionaires like to claim their work is inspired by science fiction, but in truth, they are using its ‘chrome-plated aesthetic’ as a fig leaf to further what the social theorist Ali Rıza Taşkale labels ‘reactionary futurism’
The best story ICE could make up, after 12 hours, is that ICE agents shot someone in the head because they believed the person they shot, who was not accused of any crime, was a different person also not accused of any crime, and so "public safety" required killing them on the spot.
Bill Grueskin@bgrueskin.bsky.social · 3w agoIt took DHS 12 hours to come up with this statement, And the best they could come up with is that ICE shot and killed an unarmed man who didn’t present a threat to the agents. They know they fucked this one up. And it’ll be up to state and local prosecutors—not the feds—to make the case
