Firsk.bsky.social

Today, our election research team published our updated (from 2024) framework for understanding how most rumors that sow doubt in election processes mislead. A lot of what we see is on that right side of the graph, real issues that get wrapped into false rumors. uwcip.substack.com/p/spot-the-l...

It's a gift- his only natural political ability. This is up there with it taking too long to turn around the Titanic.

Judge Furman rules that Maureen Comey's firing violated separation of powers. Orders backpay. Govt's arguments violate 2 centuries of SCOTUS rulings & would "unsettle the equilibrium established by this Nation's constitutional system." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

This is causing Ukrainians to die for Hegseth's ego.

BREAKING!! Seven bipartisan lawmakers warn U.S. banks, fuel distributors and port authorities that importing Russian diesel could invite legal action and congressional scrutiny, while helping fund Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

Leaders of the No Kings movement are already gearing up for the next major grassroots campaign: Making sure congressional Democrats don’t wimp out. My first piece at @newrepublic.com! (Reposted to update link card) newrepublic.com/article/2168...

NEW: Maricopa County will restore 25 voters’ registrations after they were falsely flagged as noncitizens, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) announced. Mayes sued Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap (R) Thursday, demanding that he add the voters back to the registration rolls.

Alternet: Dr. Oz lashed out at a reporter after she challenged Trump's effort to shore up rural health care with a new $50 billion fund, despite the much larger Medicaid cuts included in the same law. Dr. Oz to self-quarantine following exposure to being fact checked. #ProudBlue #Pinks #SheShed

Love Penzey's Spices. Have a big drawer in our kitchen dedicate to them.

Meanwhile, pro-democracy, pro-Europe protesters in Tbilisi, Georgia, are tonight nearing their 700th consecutive day of protest against the pro-Russian government. They haven't missed a single day in the last 23 months.

Protest works. Organization is decisive. Draw your own conclusions. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

This drives me CRAZY. I grew up playing sports w/ boys. I played on a U12 boys select soccer team, b4 switching to a U12 girls team that kept beating us. Nobody had any issue with any of it. Youth sports have never had the strict sex/gender boundaries that “XX-XY” activists are now trying to defend.

I spent every free afternoon of my HS years playing pickup bball with (mostly male) soldiers on the military base where I lived. Other girls would play in from time to time. We just wanted to play. These “girls can’t conpete against boys” conversations are about to send us back to the side gyms…

The Parable of the Good Samaritan specifically makes it absolutely clear "your neighbor" includes people you don't like- even Samaritans. But if Jesus told the story today the Samaritan would have to be replaced by a gay, transgender, undocumented immigrant.

He's telling the truth. He does not care.

Early this year, I visited Ingram, a TX town of ~1,900, to check out a tip. The area was starting to recover from its worst flood in a century. But as Latino workers drove to jobsites to help rebuild, the tipster said, a cop in a black Dodge Charger kept stopping them ... 🧵

We saw reports of "machines switching votes" in TN & TX. These are typically real issues — a calibration problem w/ older touchscreen machines — but not intentional efforts to rig the vote. Always good for voters to check that their vote is being recorded correctly. www.cip.uw.edu/2026/10/22/e...

told in his interview to Suspilne that the Russian drone circled the park several times before coming down. It struck a tree next to a cafe, spraying shrapnel and sending a blast wave toward people relaxing nearby. ​The attack killed 6 people, including children.

​“This is a park area with a working fountain. Naturally, at this time of day, it’s packed with people and children. The weather today brought everyone outside—mothers with toddlers, kids riding bikes—and the strike targeted those exact people.” ​Yurii Yurchenko, chief of the Nova Vodolaha police,

Canadian married to an American, dentist trained in America, father of American child, volunteers at American church dental clinic, no criminal record. Does this sound like the worst of the worst to you?! #AbolishICE #CrushICE open.substack.com/pub/eyesonic...

#AbolishICE

Unfortunately there is also ample precedent for Republican hypocrisy.

Truth.

I don’t know if anyone will remember the names of Witkoff and Kushner. But history will certainly record how American negotiators, who had the opportunity to save a huge number of people, refused to raise uncomfortable questions before "humanist Putin."

Trump’s peace negotiations have already gone down in history as the deadliest years for Ukraine’s civilian population since the start of the full-scale invasion.

I have read dozens of outraged posts because the US special envoy Witkoff called Putin a "humanist." But no one is writing about the fact that the American negotiators are simply not doing their job. Let me explain.

For the Americans the war is just an element of a grift; they are, sadly, not negotiators in any sense, just men seeking to make more money from the bloodshed their actions enable.

The disgraceful and incompetent treatment of American military & government families in this war... Forced to abandon their lives, belongings, and pets and sent to who knows where- and now losing the meager financial support. Incompetence and callousness. youtu.be/afGMaB1FDiU?...

Someone haw WAY too much power. That needs to change.

In the three months he had been detained at an immigration detention center in Louisiana, Julian Curo Churata had called or messaged every morning to reassure Ramirez and their three children in Maryland that he was okay. She soon learned her beloved husband had died in ICE custody wapo.st/4BimUIQ

ICE yesterday formally awarded Acentra $163,125,147.01 to operate its medical claims processing system until Oct. 24, 2030.

The “ballots in a dumpster” in WA is a real story, but it’s spawned some misleading takes. Here’s the full story: Ballots found with stolen mail. Very unlikely to be politically motivated. Already remedied. And not going to impact election results.

A lot of dictatorships try to make these kind of arrangements when things go south. Important to remember there are other kinds of criminal, civil and reputational accountability pardons can’t touch. And if you’re pardoned you have no 5th amendment rights.

Overall, we are seeing some very odd deal talks that are supposedly a part of ending the war in Ukraine. But in fact evidence shows these deals are structured (in the most recent case secretly until now) to financially benefit Russia or business partners of the Trump and Witkoff families.

To folks who follow me on Bluesky & appreciate the journalism I do. Can you please read the EPA story and post on social media platforms if you are so moved. This kind of work is important. But it only matters if people read it and engage with it. Here's the link. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/24/c...

"The venture was launched with the involvement of Gentry Beach, an investor with ties to Donald Trump’s family." Beach is a longtime friend of TrumpJr and was a guest at his recent island wedding financed by Russian mobster Umar Kremlëv at which at last ten Russian intel agents were present.

What happens to these criminals will determine whether, at some point in the near future, some not-huge number of years down the line, this country is a liberal democracy or else has a consolidated authoritarian regime and/or collapses into civil conflict. That's not hyperbole, it's what's at stake.

1000% agree with this thread. Accountability and justice are required if we are to have a democracy.

One of the biggest long term harms from Trump is to destroy all trust in America and American businesses- especially in defense. No other country will rely on American technology the way they have in the past. He has destroyed these markets to an extent our worst enemies could never have achieved.

Much of What Democrats Must Do boils down to valuing the good faith opinions of millions of Americans who vote for them more than bad faith opinions in media. They’ll call truth and justice “weaponization.” They’ll say voters don’t want accountability. They’re wrong, and Dems don’t have to listen.

michaelmcfaul.substack.com/p/trumps-cap...

Former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg: “Our support for Ukraine is not charity. “It is an investment in our own security and in the future of a democratic and peaceful Europe. “We cannot allow Russia to succeed. The fight for freedom must continue.”

This is the kind of deal the Democrats need to investigate immediately if they take Congress. An oil deal in Alaska which actually might be a gift to the Russians with Trump involvement. www.ft.com/content/e9cf...

Important, revelatory point in this @citizencohn.bsky.social piece on Abdul El-Sayed: Watching Obama deal with Republicans has convinced a younger generation of Dems that there's no reasoning with MAGA bad faith: www.thebulwark.com/p/abdul-el-s...

Straight up authoritarian theater- except with real world consequences.

🚨 NEW: The mother featured in Vivek Ramaswamy’s $4 MILLION attack ad against Amy Acton was found “not credible” by a court in an animal neglect case involving newborn kittens left in a 120°F car. Two kittens died. The disturbing details Ramaswamy’s ad leaves out: