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Reposted by David Mouritsen

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · Jun 19

Putin gives an investment conference in St Petersburg, and no one comes... highlighting the instability and fragility of the Russian economy. www.ft.com/content/36b8...

Vladimir Putin’s investment forum fails to attract western companies

Even Russia’s allies send lower-ranking officials and executives to St Petersburg — except Indonesia’s president

www.ft.com

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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · Jun 19

The formidable Martin Wolf writes about the Trumpist “pluto-populism” — a term Wolf himself coined back in 2006 — evident in the appalling “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”:

www.ft.com/content/31f4...

A paragraph followed by two graphs from Martin Wolf’s 17 June 2025 article “For whom does Trump govern? The Big Beautiful Bill Act is a classic example of pluto-populism” on the website of The Financial Times.

The paragraph reads: “The Yale Budget Lab has estimated the impact of the tariffs implemented as of June 1 2025 and the OBBBA, as passed by the House of Representatives. Of course, the latter is likely to change. But the fact that it was passed by the House of Representatives at all is startling. In brief, the combination of tariff increases with the OBBBA “would reduce after-tax-and-transfer incomes on average among the bottom 80 per cent of US households. The bottom 10 per cent of households would see an average reduction of more than 6.5 per cent in incomes, while those at the top would see an increase of nearly 1.5 per cent.” (See charts.)”

The graphs are titled “For unto every one that hath shall be given but from him that hath not shall be taken away,” and subtitled “Combined distributional effects of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and of tariffs (average annual change in household resources, 2026-34).”

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Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR) @hcrichardson.bsky.social · Jun 19

A short video about Juneteenth:

What is Juneteenth and Why Does it Matter: A Short History | Journey to American Democracy

YouTube video by Heather Cox Richardson

youtu.be

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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · Jun 19

The formidable Martin Wolf writes about the Trumpist “pluto-populism” — a term Wolf himself coined back in 2006 — evident in the appalling “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”:

www.ft.com/content/31f4...

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Reposted by David Mouritsen

David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · Jun 18

“Trump told reporters: ‘The UK is very well protected. You know why? Because I like them, that's why. That's the ultimate protection.’

Commenters often note that Trump talks like a mob boss, but rarely has his organized-crime style of governance been clearer than in yesterday’s statement.”

June 17, 2025

Yesterday at the meeting of the leaders of the Group of Seven (G7), a forum of democracies with advanced economies, President Donald Trump told reporters: “The UK is very well protected.

heathercoxrichardson.substack.com

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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · Jun 18

“In the past, the NSF has usually enjoyed bipartisan support... But the ravages currently being inflicted upon the agency may bring a truly golden era of American science to a halt. … The Trump forces now directing the NSF have been terminating existing grants at a record pace…”

Opinion | Trump is undermining U.S. science. Here’s why that’s dangerous.

Science has played a crucial role in making the United States great and powerful.

www.washingtonpost.com

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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · Jun 18

“Trump told reporters: ‘The UK is very well protected. You know why? Because I like them, that's why. That's the ultimate protection.’

Commenters often note that Trump talks like a mob boss, but rarely has his organized-crime style of governance been clearer than in yesterday’s statement.”

June 17, 2025

Yesterday at the meeting of the leaders of the Group of Seven (G7), a forum of democracies with advanced economies, President Donald Trump told reporters: “The UK is very well protected.

heathercoxrichardson.substack.com

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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · Jun 17

Prof Krugman (@pkrugman.bsky.social‬):

“America is no longer a full-fledged democracy. We are currently living under a version of competitive authoritarianism... Trumpists, however, haven’t yet fully consolidated their hold.” 1/4

Trump’s parade flopped. No Kings Day was a hit.

Right now, images largely determine the outcome

paulkrugman.substack.com

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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · Jun 17

It seems hollering “woke” isn’t an argument:

“The court finds and rules that [NIH’s] explanations are bereft of reasoning, virtually in their entirety…”

And as for Trumpian anti-DEI rhetoric:

“I’ve sat on this bench now for 40 years and I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this”

Judge orders NIH to restore hundreds of grants cut under Trump

William Young calls terminations illegal, berates agency for discrimination

www.science.org

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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · Jun 17

A man with ALS who’d lost the ability to speak:

“The team asked the participant to attempt to make interjections such as ‘aah’, ‘ooh’ and ‘hmm’ and say made-up words. The BCI successfully produced these sounds, showing that it could generate speech without needing a fixed vocabulary.”

World first: brain implant lets man speak with expression — and sing

Device translates thought to speech in real time.

www.nature.com

David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · Jun 17

“Meanwhile, Donald Trump got the military parade he wanted for his birthday. And it was a box-office bust, probably attracting far fewer people than the 250,000 the White House claimed. In fact, the optics were simply embarrassing.” 5/5

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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · Jun 17

“[P]oll analyst G. Elliott Morris has worked with a number of independent journalists to produce rough estimates of how many people participated in the protests nationwide, and comes up with a number between 4 and 6 million. That’s a huge number.” 3/4

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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · Jun 17

“America still has a chance of reclaiming itself from the grip of brazen corruption, mindless destruction, and contempt both for the rule of law and for our erstwhile allies. …

On Saturday I, along with friends, joined the No Kings Day protest…” 2/4

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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · Jun 17

Prof Krugman (@pkrugman.bsky.social‬):

“America is no longer a full-fledged democracy. We are currently living under a version of competitive authoritarianism... Trumpists, however, haven’t yet fully consolidated their hold.” 1/4

Trump’s parade flopped. No Kings Day was a hit.

Right now, images largely determine the outcome

paulkrugman.substack.com

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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · Jun 17

It seems hollering “woke” isn’t an argument:

“The court finds and rules that [NIH’s] explanations are bereft of reasoning, virtually in their entirety…”

And as for Trumpian anti-DEI rhetoric:

“I’ve sat on this bench now for 40 years and I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this”

Judge orders NIH to restore hundreds of grants cut under Trump

William Young calls terminations illegal, berates agency for discrimination

www.science.org

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Reposted by David Mouritsen

David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · Jun 3

“This year, the BMJ, a publisher of medical journals based in London, has seen bot traffic to its websites surpass that of real users. The aggressive behaviour of these bots overloaded the publisher’s servers and led to interruptions in services for legitimate customers…”

Web-scraping AI bots cause disruption for scientific databases and journals

Automated programs gathering training data for artificial-intelligence tools are overwhelming academic websites.

www.nature.com

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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · Jun 3

Appalling. And so is:

"CBS reported Tuesday that the Navy is also considering renaming other John Lewis-class oilers including the USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and USNS Harriet Tubman."

Will the lead ship of the class keep the name John Lewis?

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Roger Parloff @rparloff.bsky.social · Jun 4

Another judge just ordered govt to reveal its deal with Bukele to another alien sent to CECOT. A magistrate judge in Columbus, GA (MDGa) did so in the case of Venezuelan EDQC, sent to CECOT on 3/15 without opportunity to raise a fear-of-torture claim.
1/5
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · Jun 3

I've seen folks talk about how "in four years" they'll be able to get back to their planned projects and I really don't think that's going to work out. People & projects losing funding now will not be able to hit pause and come back once funding is restored. Hard-won progress & capacity will be lost

Edward Nirenberg @enirenberg.bsky.social · Jun 3

I worry that not enough of a big deal is being made about how long-term the devastation of these budget cuts to our scientific and health agencies will be, beyond the absolute ruin they will cause in the acute period.

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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · Jun 4

Definitely cool. But he has a rough road ahead of him...

Thor Benson @thorbenson.bsky.social · Jun 4

Lee Jae-myung, the South Korean politician who climbed the fence of the parliament to get inside and vote against martial law, has been elected president. Pretty cooool

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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · Jun 4

Decidedly cool. But he has a rough road ahead of him...

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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · Jun 4

If RFK Jr. wants to identify toxins that are causing harm to Americans’ health, he should pick up his phone, open the camera, and flip it around to selfie mode.

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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · Jun 4

In a decade, The Lancet will doubtless have published a study or two establishing which, Elon Musk or RFK Jr, was responsible for the greater number of deaths.

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Reposted by David Mouritsen

Paulrus of West Bumblefrick @paulrusof.bsky.social · Jun 4

I am officially one of The Ancients, Keeper of Knowledge of the Before Time

Post to the subreddit r/AskHistorians:

What was navigation like for vehicle drivers in the United States before the internet and
GPS?

Before GPS devices and smartphones/cellular internet networks were a thing (Garmin company was founded 1989), millions of Americans were already getting around driving without the use of those inventions. How did they navigate? Did everyone need stacks of maps? Were drivers frequently lost? Did everyone have to understand the interstate system and use intuition to guide them? How burdensome was driving before GPS? Did drivers pay people to calculate an optimal route for them?

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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · Jun 4

Utterly appalling.

Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · Jun 4

RFK Jr. is absolutely poisonous. He has now caused Dr. Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos, the person in charge of COVID19 vaccinations at the CDC, to resign.

She did so because RFK Jr. demanded that the experts in charge of vaccine guidance listen to him and not to the scientific evidence.

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