John Emerson
backspace.com
John Emerson
@backspace.com
Design, code, human rights.
Reposted by John Emerson
In late 2020 a Chinese man called Guan Heng travelled to Xinjiang with our BuzzFeed map of detention facilities to provide ground truth for our work - he provided the first corroborating evidence for many sites.

He escaped to the US - then ICE detained him.

www.wsj.com/world/china/...
ICE Holding Chinese Man Who Documented Uyghur Camps
Heng Guan is awaiting an immigration hearing on Monday that could lead to his removal from the U.S. and ultimately land him back in China, according to his lawyer and a New York-based activist group.
www.wsj.com
December 13, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Reposted by John Emerson
The devastation I feel about this attack on science in particular is hard to cope with. It’s like watching my dad die all over again. I would do anything to spare someone a death via pancreatic cancer.
A tiny trial in New York has shown that personalized mRNA vaccines can provoke massive, lasting immune responses against pancreatic cancer, even as sweeping federal cuts now threaten the fragile labs required to produce them.
theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/a-breakthr...
December 12, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Reposted by John Emerson
ProPublica spoke to about 150 people who had lived in homeless encampments when cities cleared them out in “sweeps.”

We distributed notecards so people could tell us about the toll in their own words.

➡️ This is what they wrote: https://propub.li/3MTlm33
December 12, 2025 at 3:15 AM
Reposted by John Emerson
Los Angeles is too busy to paint a crosswalk and make an intersection safer, but not too busy to arrest someone doing it for them. www.latimes.com/california/s... via @suhauna.bsky.social
Activists paint Westwood crosswalk to improve safety. Police shut down effort, cite volunteer for vandalism
A group of activists, frustrated by the city of Los Angeles' delays in painting crosswalks at intersections, took on the task in Westwood. One activist was cited for vandalism.
www.latimes.com
December 11, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Reposted by John Emerson
I've been putting a dash of Worcestershire sauce in my coffee for the last 5 years, it is an absolute game changer but I think it may be one of the many reasons my wife left me
December 11, 2025 at 12:20 PM
Reposted by John Emerson
I'll save you a click: he's doing this because Calibri is easier for some people with disabilities to read.
Marco Rubio ordered diplomats to return to using Times New Roman font in official communications, calling his predecessor's decision to adopt Calibri a “wasteful” diversity move
Rubio Stages Font Coup: Times New Roman Ousts Calibri
The secretary of state called it a "wasteful" diversity move, according to an internal department cable seen by Reuters.
www.huffpost.com
December 10, 2025 at 3:37 AM
Reposted by John Emerson
haha so.. I did some works! i guess u can look upon them? no worries if not!
December 9, 2025 at 10:22 PM
Reposted by John Emerson
"The small figures huddled together at Miami's airport carried backpacks, stuffed animals and suitcases. One wore a silver cross necklace. Families of the travelers – ages 3 to 15 – have been torn apart this year by Trump's deportation campaign..."

www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...
‘A sad, cruel moment’: 58 Florida children leaving US amid parent deportations
“The only losers are the children.”
www.miamiherald.com
December 7, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Reposted by John Emerson
Because of a state law, residential property owners in Boston are projected to face a 13% tax spike next year.

Meanwhile, corporations will pay their lowest share of property taxes in 43 years.

I’m hosting an AMA on Reddit about our plan to protect homeowners and deliver residential tax relief.
From the boston community on Reddit: Mayor Wu here! AMA about the fight to keep residential property taxes from spiking next year under state law
Explore this post and more from the boston community
www.reddit.com
December 6, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Reposted by John Emerson
December 5, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Reposted by John Emerson
Not like it would be justified if they were drug smugglers, but I think it hasn't gotten enough focus that a boat with 11 people onboard heading from Venezuela to Trinidad was almost certainly migrants. These were probably, at least for some of them, people fleeing Maduro. That's who they murdered.
December 4, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Reposted by John Emerson
Holy shit.

Reuters reporting that new admin instructions on visas are if you worked at a platform in trust & safety or content moderation or on fact checking or online safety at an platform you *and your loved ones* are ineligible for H-1B visa.

www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
December 4, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Reposted by John Emerson
BREAKING: The New York Times is suing the Department of Defense over the Pentagon’s new restrictions on press access. The Times is seeking a declaration that the new policy is unconstitutional on its face and an injunction barring its enforcement.
December 4, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Reposted by John Emerson
The U.S. does not subject itself to accountability, so we're using the avenues we have before us," Kovalik said Wednesday. "We believe that a decision in our favor, combined with public pressure, can get us that compensation and also can end the killings in the Caribbean
Family of Colombian man killed in illegal U.S. strike files human rights challenge
The petition from the family of Alejandro Carranza says the military bombed his fishing boat on when he was sailing off Colombia's Caribbean coast, in violation of human rights
#Wrldpoli🌐

www.npr.org/2025/12/04/g...
Family of Colombian man killed in U.S. strike files human rights challenge
In a petition to the premier human rights watchdog in the Americas, the first challenge to U.S. military strikes on alleged drug-carrying boats argues that the death was an extrajudicial killing.
www.npr.org
December 4, 2025 at 11:44 AM
Reposted by John Emerson
as a grantwriter, the lack of unrestricted funding is a MASSIVE burden on nonprofits. everyone wants to fund a new shiny pilot program that makes them look like innovators. they don’t want to help make your tried and tested programs that have served the community for 50 years more sustainable
The headline I feel like is that all the philanthropic donations from billionaires typically have a shitload of restrictions.

Mackenzie is like “you’re doing work to stop something horrible or to help something good? Cool. Here’s a few hundred million.” and the paper is like “wow… so novel”
Mackenzie Scott’s signature philanthropic style is giving unrestricted gifts—a rarity in the industry. trib.al/DjrurgM
December 3, 2025 at 2:53 AM
Reposted by John Emerson
ICE won’t tell anyone where 6-year-old Yuanxin is. He was separated from his dad at a mandatory check-in. The cruelty is unfathomable & makes us all unsafe. We must fight for freedom from fear & tyranny. We must abolish ICE & reunite all families separated by ICE.

www.thecity.nyc/2025/12/02/i...
December 2, 2025 at 11:55 PM
Reposted by John Emerson
be the bitch doing something yourself that you want to see in the world
there’s a scene in the new documentary where Elizabeth Taylor is talking about the stigma of AIDS and how she got involved in the movement and it’s fucking everything
December 1, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Reposted by John Emerson
Sometime last year, a CUNY alum contacted me saying they’d found some photos they took at the 1995 protest against budget cuts and would I please take them so they could clear out their attic?

They arrived today and they DID NOT DISAPPOINT
December 1, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Reposted by John Emerson
Not coincidentally this is a pretty good list of Most Important Companies to Unionize.
The Boston Globe identified the companies in Massachusetts that employ the most SNAP recipients. A key stat: "In Massachusetts, 74% of working-age recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are employed, half of them full-time."

Full article: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/28/m...
November 29, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Reposted by John Emerson
Another depiction if the circularity of capital flows between OpenAI, Microsoft, Nvidia, CoreWeave, AMD, and Oracle.
October 22, 2025 at 11:57 AM
Reposted by John Emerson
Headlines like this are extremely dangerous. Because moms of young kids are the people who make the bulk of the vaccine decisions for famillies. And for a lot of them, "reading the news" looks like scrolling past headlines on social media in the spare moments of the chaos of caring for kids.
November 29, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Reposted by John Emerson
I got permission to share this, and I'm extremely grateful for that.

The Onion got this letter from one of our subscribers in Alaska. She works with dementia patients and decided to leave a copy in the car for each one.

This email made my year. Read it and you'll see what I mean. People are good.
July 1, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Reposted by John Emerson
Good morning to Brazilian reporter Manuela Borges, who’s been waiting eleven years for this petty moment. ❤️ 🇧🇷
November 26, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Reposted by John Emerson
Reuters documented at least 470 targets of retribution under Trump’s leadership. They range from federal employees and prosecutors to universities and media outlets reut.rs/49B2UWt
November 26, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Reposted by John Emerson
New from 404 Media: X has shown where accounts are actually being run from, revealing many MAGA accounts are actually grifters in Eastern Europe, Asia, etc. But the situation is much, much worse. Entire guides specifically on how to squeeze US audiences with AI.

www.404media.co/americas-pol...
America’s Polarization Has Become the World's Side Hustle
The 'psyops' revealed by X are entirely the fault of the perverse incentives created by social media monetization programs.
www.404media.co
November 24, 2025 at 6:52 PM