Weston Abney
@westonabney.bsky.social
President of AFSCME Local 96. Just some guy. Posts do not reflect employer's positions.
The interesting thing about this is that the chairman of the board, who has specific fiduciary responsibilities, is Donald J. Trump in his capacity as a private individual.
The New York Times@nytimes.com · 19h agoBreaking News: President Trump said he would cancel a $257 million renovation of the Kennedy Center if his name wasn’t added to the building.
Happy Hispanic Heritage Month! America’s unions are proud to celebrate and honor the history, culture and incredible contributions Hispanic and Latino communities and working people have made in our lives, our workplaces and our labor movement.
Air force secretary Troy Meink said space was an important arena for American military and economic security, but experts warned that the disclosure could result in the proliferation of space weaponry by other governments. ft.trib.al/hfZQMiD
Militarization of space can have no positive outcome.
Unofficial BBCNews (World) Bot@bbcnews-world-rss.bsky.social · yesterdayUS confirms for first time it has deployed space weapons
Federal agents may have broken state laws after the Department of Homeland Security began surging personnel for what it called the Unlawful Voter Initiative, a federal whistleblower alleges. n.pr/4yE1CTT
Federal agents may have broken state laws in voter fraud hunt, whistleblower claims
Federal agents may have broken state laws after the Department of Homeland Security began surging personnel for what it called the Unlawful Voter Initiative, a federal whistleblower alleges.
n.pr
"Adding President Donald Trump's name may be the only way to avoid bankruptcy"? c'mon
Steve Herman@newsguy.bsky.social · 2d agoWaPo - Kennedy Center, on brink of bankruptcy, could close as early as tomorrow. wapo.st/4cLnDHP
Pro Publica - Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding in the Bahamas was heavily funded by a secret benefactor: Umar Kremlev, a Russian oligarch close to President Putin. www.propublica.org/article/dona...
Donald Trump Jr.’s Wedding Bankrolled by Putin-Linked Russian Oligarch
The oligarch, Umar Kremlev, spent hundreds of thousands on expenses like renting out a private island. He appears to have met Trump Jr. only recently, but he attended the intimate wedding with a large...
propublica.org
We have power in numbers, and we'll continue to fight for a better Starbucks. Support us by BOYCOTTING STARBUCKS until the company finalizes fair union contracts with workers! boycottstarbucks.net
BOYCOTT STARBUCKS
Starbucks is the biggest violator of U.S. labor law in modern history. Join the movement - Boycott Starbucks!
boycottstarbucks.net
Donald Trump has done far more to curtail free speech than any recent president. His actions to use government power & private lawsuits to bully private citizens are unprecedented. Great recounting which also relays Trump's false promises that he would protect free speech. Worth keeping track:
How Trump Is Wielding Power to Stifle Speech
President Trump has harnessed agencies across the government to curtail press freedoms, a sweeping campaign that free speech advocates say will have lasting effects.
nytimes.com
The unstoppable @mhackman.bsky.social of @wsj.com reported on this over the summer, when most of us had only heard disturbing rumors.
Exclusive | U.S. Weighs $100,000 Fee for Foreign Students Wanting to Work After Graduation
The proposed policy would particularly affect Silicon Valley, Wall Street and universities.
wsj.com
"Noe" works in Soledad CA transplanting broccoli. "The machine goes ahead planting and we follow behind the machine replanting where the machine doesn't plant correctly. I am very tired at the end of the day because we walk a lot and the work is done bent over low." #WeFeedYou
Let me tell you a story about how top-end menswear retail transformed over the last hundred years. 🧵
Wishing a sweet and joyful Rosh Hashanah to all who celebrate. May the year ahead bring renewed hope and a shared commitment to building a better future for all. Shana Tova!
Get in, folks: a new Russian disinfo campaign is targeting the midterms, specifically Democrats, in what seems to be the first attempt by the Kremlin-backed op to meddle in this year’s U.S. elections. They're faking celebrity videos attacking Dems and are...very stupid. www.ms.now/news/russia-...
A Russian disinformation campaign is doctoring celebrity videos to meddle in the midterms
The Kremlin-backed operation, known as Matryoshka, has Hollywood actors telling voters to disavow the Democratic Party and vote Republican.
ms.now
And to be extra clear, this Russian disinfo op is ... not persuasive. Not well executed. Just bad. But other faked videos from related campaigns have had real impact, their narratives reaching members of Congress and millions of voters. www.nbcnews.com/specials/rus... They just need one to hit.
This story is also a tale of two social media platforms. Seven of the videos were posted to Bluesky, but most were posted to X. Bluesky removed the inauthentic accounts. X did nothing.
WaPo - The US health secretary is using military jets for some travel, at a cost of $9,000/hr., including for trips primarily linked to Republican Party campaigning. wapo.st/4A8gbjU
RFK Jr. uses military aircraft as he campaigns for GOP in midterms
The White House and Department of Health and Human Services lawyers signed off on the plan to let the health secretary use military jets, according to people familiar with the plan.
wapo.st
Latest story from me and @kateconger.com, a reminder that even as AI creates new avenues for CSAM creation/distribution, X struggles with the "solved problem" of removing known, previously flagged, illegal images from its platform
kate conger@kateconger.com · 5d agoOver six months, we tracked the appearance of child sexual abuse material on X. We found images from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's database, which is considered one of the most highly vetted and which many tech companies block on upload. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/11/t...
When we presented our findings to child safety experts, they were shocked that we were persistently finding NCMEC images. Even though X said it reported 1.3 million images to NCMEC this year, some were clearly slipping through — X did not answer specific questions about how it blocks abuse material.
Twenty five years ago today, I was sitting in English class discussing Canterbury Tales when another student started talking about the news. It was a Tuesday. The AFROTC cadets were all in uniform, so the Colonel ordered them to get changed into civvies ASAP in case there were follow-ups.
It was immediate and violent. According to FBI statistics, hate crimes against Muslims skyrocketed by 1,617% between 2000 and 2001
Hate and Discrimination in the Wake of September 11
The association of Muslims with terrorists in the wake of the 9/11 attacks continues to affect the nation in myriad ways.
americanprogress.org
Jared Yates Sexton@jysexton.bsky.social · last wk.There are already articles circulating trying to rewrite history and say America was great after 9/11 and united and thoughtful and just a reminder that that period was marked by intense and insanely racist hatred, paranoia, and a frothing desire for unhinged violence and oppression.
Spoke with some of 600+ people who were punished for Charlie Kirk-related speech over the past year — about the anxieties they’ve faced, the crazy reasons they were fired or even arrested, and what their life has been like since:
A Year Ago, Charlie Kirk Was Killed. Meet the People Who Were Fired for Speaking Out About Him
In the year since the murder of the far-right commentator, those who were punished for comments about his death have met mixed fortunes. Over in Dallas, the GOP’s mad midterm Trumpapalooza began.
zeteo.com
"It sounds like Musk doesn't like the documentary, so he wants to do whatever he can to shut it down and intimidate distributors. It would be a much more impoverished democracy if we weren't allowed to make documentaries about public figures that were critical of them." www.npr.org/2026/09/10/g...
Elon Musk threatens to sue over Gibney documentary's "space lasers" claim
The tech billionaire's attorney has put documentarian Alex Gibney and his production company on legal notice, claiming the Oscar-winning director defamed Musk in his nearly four-hour documentary.
npr.org
McClatchy laid off 12 journalists at the Lexington Herald-Leader and eliminated a majority of its positions, as a part of its deep, nationwide layoffs. It leaves the second-largest newspaper in Kentucky with just two reporters left to cover city and state government.
McClatchy guts Lexington Herald-Leader newsroom, among nationwide layoffs
McClatchy laid off 12 journalists at the Lexington Herald-Leader and eliminated a majority of its positions, as a part of its deep, nationwide layoffs.
lpm.org
