"History will remember this day— when an American President and Vice President abandoned all we stand for."

The first of many travesties.

CISA – a federal agency that helps secure elections from foreign threats and disinformation – has placed its employees on administrative leave. The move puts the security and integrity of elections in the U.S. at risk.

What these nihilistic vandals are doing to dismantle science & medicine—generations of expertise & public service & life improving benefits—is cultural revolution level national self harm. No foreign foe could inflict such brutal damage & senseless suffering on US so fast & effectively & unresisted.

I am really outdone. The Maryland National Guard cannot celebrate Frederick Douglass, the state’s native son and perhaps the greatest American this nation ever produced, because he’s Black and his chosen birthday happened to fall during Black History Month. (Ask me why he had to choose is b-day)

This is like if the mob got to fire every federal agent investigating organized crime bsky.app/profile/make...

what we have learned in just these two last weeks is that there is not a single solitary scandal republicans have harped upon in the last two decades that they genuinely cared about. they pretended to care to make political hay. when it’s their side doing it, everything is a-okay by them.

Some people have convinced themselves they're very clever because they've noticed Trump often says he wants to do a thing but doesn't end up doing it, and so they deem most things he says "distractions."

... but the most common reason he gives up is negative public reaction. It had to be fought.

Matthew 5:43-47 (part of the sermon on the mount)

FCC chief Brendan Carr launches inquiry into NPR and PBS stations with an eye to help allies on Capitol hill unravel federal funding for public broadcasting

My story for NPR:

www.npr.org/2025/01/30/n...

Imagine having to tell one of your best friends “and frankly, you frighten people.” You can just see how close to tears @whitehouse.senate.gov is while questioning RFK Jr. at today’s hearing.

The strength it must take not to break down in this moment. This is well worth a watch.

“DEI” is a capacious term that is meant to evoke tedious and ineffectual sexual harassment trainings but in practice is code for women or people of color having any dignity or prestige in public life.

New: An undocumented Texan is facing deportation after he and his wife got pulled over last week in Lubbock for an alleged traffic violation while they were out buying baby formula. The officer called ICE.

www.texastribune.org/2025/01/29/t...

if you cared about morale and recruitment you would not alienate a group that disproportionately enlists into the military, but if you are a white nationalist…

Calls and text messages have flooded me in the last 72 hours from friends and colleagues in Sierra Leone and elsewhere: Are my meds going to be cut off? Am I going to die? I don't know what to tell them. I don't know what to tell anyone. Hope is my whole jam, but I feel very distant from it.

American social media companies write the algorithms that determine what voters read; moderation systems are opaque; political advertising cannot always be tracked. Do European democracies, or any democracies, really have sovereign elections anymore?
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

Better link

protectdemocracy.org/how-to-prote...

Instagram and Facebook have recently blurred, blocked, or removed posts from two abortion pill providers.

Instagram also suspended the accounts of several abortion pill providers and hid the providers from appearing in search and recommendations.

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/23/t...