My regular account is finally back in action! (After three weeks and no explanation of what happened.) So, please follow me over to @bowlerhatscience.org . I will keep this account open but inactive in case these shenanigans repeat themselves again.
Matthew R Francis (backup account)
@matthewrfrancis.bsky.social
Science journalist and writer, cat man, hat man, music man, queer. So very tired. He/him. Signal: BowlerHatScience.51 Backup account for when my main account @BowlerHatScience.org isn't functioning (which seems to happen a lot??) he/him
I'd quite like there *not* to be violence against minorites plz thx
Prem Sikka@premnsikka.bsky.social · 2w agoITV footage shows racist, sexual, violent rhetoric among Reform members. These lunatics say “King Charles is a f***ing Muslim… " and want him to be beheaded. They want concentration camps for migrants, violence against minorities. Return of the Nazis, 100 years after the Cable Street resistance.
and why it's not a career ender when they refuse to. Trump never once disavowed the KKK or the Proud Boys during his first campaiagn or his first term and no one even flinched.
Every time someone black or brown is challenged to disavow a group it should make you ask why no one asks white or white passing candidates to disavow Nazis or, specifically, the KKK.
This will make the Internet a intolerable place for Black folks. Depending on the licensing of that data, if it's open; it'll be great for moderation (to understand language) but great for harassment (by exacerbating digital Blackface). Are there any ethics folks working at Howard?
The Spook Who Sat by the Ring Doorbell@hypervisible.blacksky.app · 2w ago🤷🏿♂️
ah we are going to get some nice reverse disparate impact where having too many black people is evidence of anti-white discrimination
Mike Sacks@mikesacks.bsky.social · 2w agoSCOTUS making its first move to go after race-neutral high school admissions standards:
Again, this is mostly an attack on Black women.🤷🏿♂️ Because a disproportionate amount of student loan debt is held by Black women. Because: 1) Their families aren't rich 2) But they study hard and get into college 3) So they need much more in student loans 4) But they're paid less / hired less
Kyle Griffin@kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 2w agoThe Trump admin is moving forward on plans to impose financial penalties on Americans in default on their federal student loans and hire private debt collectors to go after them. The plans are unlikely to be announced until after the midterms.
Going blind and random explosions are back on the menu, I guess?!??
Phil Lewis@phillewis.bsky.social · 2w agoWASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court agrees to review Reconstruction-era ban on distilling spirits in private homes.
Trying to imagine the world’s worst movie scenario and the second I did my brain immediately went to the phrase “Starring Jared Leto as Rob Schneider in Ben Shapiro’s—” and now I’m sitting alone on a park bench contemplating my life alongside my dog because I think I may actually be a supervillain.
taking the morning to work on my book proposal (maybe one day I will finish it!), and I keep thinking how much I want to write the book and believe in its premise. Which means every publisher will tell me it's boring and unoriginal and who are you anyway?
I see this account pop up through reposts on my feed all the time. Sounds like it needs to be blocked. (Read Greg's whole thread, but the short version is deliberate disinfo + ai slop, all for hashtag-resistance clicks and views.)
Greg Pak@gregpak.net · 2w agothe saga has reached its natural conclusion. instead of responding to a reasonable request to delete disinfo, this account blocked me.
AI is the much condemned "participation trophy". If you get praised to high heaven in such an insincere way all the time, you mistrust genuine praise. (And @beebrookshire.bsky.social is worthy of genuine praise!)
Bethany Brookshire@beebrookshire.bsky.social · 2w agoToday I realized AI has made me distrust praise. I receive so many AI-written emails these days. The thing they have in common? "X was the highlight of" "Your article so clear-eyed and interesting!" "You do such excellent work..." AI is syncophantic and now your email is too.
Also, if you see this and think "but Rachel, I need to use AI for my story b/c my prose/English/plot/story/character skills aren't good enough yet!" No, you don't. You get better at those skills by writing! Readers hate AI writing anyway, so there's literally no upside here. DO NOT ENGAGE.
Rachel Aaron@rachel-aaron.bsky.social · 2w agoJust found out that some website called "WriteAIBook" is quoting my 2k to 10k method like they interviewed me. I HAVE NEVER TALKED TO THESE PEOPLE. I obviously do NOT want you to use AI to write a book. That is a waste of your creativity and a crime against books. Don't believe scammy AI websites!
Anyways, in case you wonder why Democrats won't say "abolish ICE" -- they plan to enable it more.
Congress is sitting on it probably until after midterms. "The bill would establish an Organized Retail and Supply Chain Crime Coordination Center, housed within Homeland Security Investigations at the Department of Homeland Security. "
It's hard to get attention when people are focused on the midterms, but politics will continue after November. On the horizon: a federal bill addressing "organized retail crime" and another addressing "carjacking." Both of these would be disasters and give DHS more power.
The reason I'm begging humans not to use AI is not because we are rejecting these pitches because we think they are AI. Whether they are AI is a secondary problem to whether or not we want to do business with someone who sounds this incompetent. We don't! AI makes you sound incompetent!
I hath (early) envotened! Enough people were voting that there was a line, but not a long one, so I was in and out quickly.
Anyways, read between the lines on all of this & you can see that the "intellectual wing" of modern US conservatism can see not just that the end of the Trump era is in sight but that also it will be a failure *&* they are desperate to keep his fascism while pretending like they never liked the guy.
"It was the saddest thing ever. What he did for this community for the past 14 years. He made sure that people in need had food on their tables for their families." The pantry serves between 7,000 and 8,000 people each month... They said if he does not return, the pantry will close indefinitely.
🌊@randym77.bsky.social · 3w agobronx.news12.com/bronx-food-p...
The “every accusation is a confession” thing is maybe overstated but when it comes to Republicans and “sharia” it is unquestionably the case that the people trying to impose their religion on others through the legal system in the US are not Muslims bsky.app/profile/qasi...
Qasim Rashid, Esq.@qasimrashid.com · 2w agoJan is a chief CBS reporter. She tweeted this about Tommy, the Republican operative accusing Abdul El-Sayed of terrorism, then deleted it. Zero questions about Tommy declaring he wants the Bible to supersede the Constitution. We need independent media. Join: www.qasimrashid.com/subscribe
Most of us are richer than Elon Musk. He is a soulless and miserable person.
When journalism-knowers talk about the Times these days they are apt to say absurd things like "They do incredible journalism, they're irreplaceable... well, their political coverage is a different story." The irreplaceable paper of record's coverage of POLITICS IN THE UNITED STATES doesn't count??
lmao if you thought they shit their pants when a Black man was elected President....
PEIPolitical 🇨🇦@peipolitical.bsky.social · 2w agoAbdul El-Sayed: “My name is not the reason you can’t afford your gas or groceries or to go see a doctor. Their war in Iran is the reason why. Their insane tariffs on Canada is the reason why. If you’re picking a fight with Canada, you’re the asshole.” #cdnpoli
Among those most responsible for the degradation of US journalism I'd put the New York Times first. That's Weiss' former place of employment, and one Jamelle Bouie (who I greatly respect!) can't really point the finger at.
Weiss is not a journalist. But in order for a non-journalist to be put in a position to destroy the legacy of a preeminent institution in US journalism a lot had to happen to degrade the boundary between journalist and non-journalist. Weiss benefitted from that degradation, she was not the cause.
jamelle@jamellebouie.net · 2w agowhen critics of bari weiss say that she is not a journalist, we mean that literally. she does not respect or even appear to understand the values of the profession. everything for her is propaganda. www.semafor.com/article/10/1...