Brian C. Keegan, Ph.D.

I returned this week to Boulder, Colorado after my sabbatical in Cambridge, Massachusetts this past academic year. It's going to be a wild sprint the next few weeks but I'm looking forward to reconnecting with people here!

If they lose power, expect Republicans in several states to strip powers from incoming Democrats, pass voting restrictions, and new gerrymanders. They did it after losing governors races in NC in 2016 and 2024, MI and WI in 2018, and KY in 2019. They preemptively did it ahead of losing IA this year

Vote no on anti trans scapegoat bullshit propositions 134 and 135, Colorado, unless you want this fucking loser and his acolytes inspecting the inside of the underwear of your school kids. @briannatitone.bsky.social is a hero and these freaks need to be voted down into the goddamn Stone Age.

I wanted to "respectfully" share with you the reaction of the architect of the 134 and 135 initiatives. They talk a big game about what they want you to "think" they want to accomplish, but the tone and the slurs are the real story.

the biggest presidential scandal in history but the political media largely acts as if it's not happening. hasan piker has received more mainstream political media coverage over the last 6 months than trump's connections with epstein has

Saving this to the folder to bring out when the "we just joking snowflakes" phase starts on January 4

Ironic since Claremont Graduate University is the closest thing to the intellectual center of Trumpism and at the same time, its finances were wrecked because chud immigration policy choked off the supply of wealthy foreign students who'd pay for a PhD.

I'm going to try to do this cleanly. Today's right wing governments are networked to each other. Those networks are well-documented. You can read about them in books. Following the elections in one node of that network is good practice for understanding the U.S. node.

I don't know that there is a definitive line to cross that makes you say, "I live in a police state now" but when masked gunmen can routinely brutalize the public, citizen or immigrant alike, with impunity, you have reached that point.

Boar on the floor!

There's nuance here about "how do we use platforms owned by the fascists". You *have to understand the political purpose of the platforms* in order to use them to subvert authoritarians. For the most part, Americans simply do not. Centrists (including DNC consultants) do not. Major media does not.

but joe biden didn't give rollicking press conferences so it's really the democrats' fault the press continue to be in the tank for the world's specialest boy

TIL: someone has ported English to Rust github.com/Aaryan-Kapoo...

I missed this reporting from @noupside.bsky.social and @rer.bsky.social back in August, but add Grokipedia to the list of projects Musk hyped then discarded once he discovered it was hard www.lawfaremedia.org/article/grok...

absolutely fucking never

#webcomic #quipoftheiceberg #fall #autumn

One of the best parts of my rebooted @cuboulder.info Web Data Science class is watching students get radicalized by what’s happening to @archive.org, why you need headless to scrape, the withdrawal of APIs from the commons, and what a pain in the ass @github.com remains even with agents.

This is taxpayer-funded research data and info that belongs to the public and is not this administration’s to erase.

This “pick me” Blue Dog nonsense didn’t work to bring voters over by throwing gay people under the bus, didn’t work with throwing immigrants under the bus, and won’t work with throwing trans people under the bus.

My Chemical Coparenting

There’s actually no cognitive dissonance over Trump poisoning millions of Americans on behalf of his donors because the victims aren’t even people to MAGA-MAHA, much less Americans

free speech absolutist says what

The 5-year cancer survival rate is up to 70% SIDS deaths have decreased by over 50% 89% decline in tornado deaths All thanks to federal investment in science and OUR tax dollars at work!

Thanks again @colorado.gov!

Thanks again @colorado.gov!

Every time I hear this casino’s name, mt desire to see it destroyed doubles

"Treebeard is out there with his radical demands of restrictions on logging, unpolluted streams, and an effective end to ironworks. That is pure fantasy, and we cannot waste time on fantasy." buff.ly/9WluK1y

There is no multiverse where Utah is ever Colorado’s favorite other state.

Yes, the time to investigate and prosecute bribery, fraud, and corruption would’ve been January 2021, but we had to “look forward, not backward” yet again.

Have any social scientists tried to write baroque AI proofs in Lean to “formalize” complex social behavior? It should be self-evidently preposterous but it feels important to refute before we’re subjected to another round of “social physics.”

This vindictive targeting of career civil servants by Trump fascists precisely because they had served honorably was one of the things clearly at stake in 2024 - Trump promised it - but the media instead gave more coverage to the imaginary idea that Trump had a plan to lower prices to 2019 levels

As we approach the midterms, remember that the Alt National Park Service is a merch sales operation claiming without evidence to be a group of federal employees, and is not a genuine source of news about elections of any kind. Please get your election info from a local, reputable source.

How will the November midterms shake out? IQSS director Gary King, IQSS research associate Danny Ebanks, and @caltech.edu professor @jnkatz.bsky.social built an interactive forecast for US House and Senate seats on the ballot. gking.harvard.edu/electit/ #Elections #AmericanPolitics #Forecasting

There’s exactly zero downside to banishing the entire Democratic consulting class and starting over

all those people upset about Hunter Biden “selling access” to the swamp sure are going to be upset about this story padme-anakin.jpg

The website HaveIBeenFlocked.com lets users enter a license plate number to check whether it appears in publicly released records of searches conducted through Flock Safety's system, reports Mary Cunningham for CBS News.

Again I say, the scam economy is consuming the political will to fight authoritarianism.

the shiitake is hitting the fan

It’s a morel hazard

Today, we are announcing a huge new project in development: The Dark Money Illuminator. You can search any nonprofit to see: - Funders - Directors and officers - Groups it’s connected to You can also explore/search nonprofits by assets. And it’s going to be FREE! Donate to support this project

Can’t make the intergenerational compact work with declining birthrates and seniors going fully antisocial.

they will be studying how dogshit the marketing and PR strategy of US AI companies was in the 2020s for the next 400 years. they’re calling them the worst to ever do it

This slate looks like Boulder. A renter and barista. A community radio station manager. A real estate expert. Nonprofit and education leaders. Six endorsed candidates bringing real community experience to City Hall. You can only VOTE FOR FIVE! https://boulderprogressives.org/voter-guide

Golden Age of American Science, amirite

There's an entire generation of Beltway conventional wisdom that needs to be retired and ignored so that we can be clear eyed about what needs to be done to meet the polycrisis of technofascism, climate change, et al.

When I say "there are high ranking people in the media who want trump and Republicans to win" sometimes people think I'm talking about false balance or whatever when the thing I'm actually talking about is stuff like "Brooks Brothers Riot participant and Bush staffer is policy executive at Meta"

The key trait to a good civic technologist - or any public servant really - is empathy. You have to root yourself in the needs of the public. DOGE/NDS and the assholes who made aliens.gov seem to have rooted themselves solely on the whims of few and it shows.

Nothing I have to say about this man would pass mods and there is no French Revolution emoji, so I will just spit on the ground and keep moving. IYKYK.

Yet another issue where Trump demonstrates the urgent need for amending the Constitution to protect us from a competent fascist.