Please read @donmoyn.bsky.social's article, and share far and wide. I knew things were getting bad in the Twin Cities, but this seems much worse than anything we’ve seen in LA or elsewhere. open.substack.com/pub/donmoyni...
Joel grayson webbeR
Joel grayson webbeR
@j15r.com
Cofounder @fullstory.com, ex-Googler, reformed game developer, drummer.
425 followers667 following860 posts
Not in the MSP area? Feeling powerless? We have a way to help our friends there fight back in the most effective way — by supporting one another so they can withstand this assault by our federal gov’t: www.standwithminnesota.com
Seriously? This banner is at the top of cms.gov (and I assume other federal sites right now). Unless I'm missing something, this is a pretty obvious violation of the Hatch act, no?
Joel grayson webbeR reposted
Joel grayson webbeR reposted
Need yet more reasons to reduce the number of cars stuffed into our cities? Turns out the dark ones parked everywhere can easily increase the temperature in their vicinity by 3.8ºC! Cities must increasingly take heat into account in their design and rules, as they've always done historically.
GOOD THREAD: One more consequence of too many parked cars in cities (and one more reason to replace surface parking with trees and people-places). All those parked cars are making hot cities even hotter. (at a minimum, choose a white car.) #UrbanHeat
Let's assume this interviewer doesn't have the disproof of this bald faced lie immediately at hand. Then where's the follow-up where they do the legwork to validate or disprove her assertions, and air it in a prominent timeslot? Otherwise it's not journalism, just a mouthpiece for the regime.
Hi. I’m the executive director of the organization that had the honor of hosting the FEMA Katrina Declaration and I can confirm this is a lie. NICE TRY, KRISTI! @standupforscience.bsky.social @atrupar.com
100% this. Isolation, division, fear, and anger have played no small role in getting us to this point. They won't be the tools that get us back on track. Except maybe a little anger, pointed in the right direction!
Absolutely everyone is feeling the crushing weight of the present historical moment in some way or another, and the trick is to allow that fact to lead you to solidarity with others rather than bitterness and misdirected anger, which seems to be the dominant response right now.
Funny what a difference a little financial support makes, especially without onerous means testing. @scottsantens.com in case you're not already aware of this study.
To save the lives of infants and small kids in lower resource countries, there are a handful of tools: anti-malarial drugs, bed nets and vaccines. A massive experiment in rural Kenya suggests another.
Very glad Google's releasing this data: a median Gemini query burns 0.24 Wh and 0.26 ml of water. That's about 1s of microwave use, and 5 drops of water. Yes, they should release more data, and queries can vary. But it's good to have some transparency. www.technologyreview.com/2025/08/21/1...
Joel grayson webbeR reposted
I hate that I have to keep saying this in so many different contexts, but... This will go down in history as one of the dumbest self-inflicted wounds any state has managed to pull off.
The US is building a record amount of electricity generation capacity in 2025 to meet rapidly growing demand. And its overwhelmingly clean energy, with a bit of gas. Meanwhile the Trump administration wants to stop permitting of new solar and wind projects.
Joel grayson webbeR reposted
Replying to @tmwillia.bsky.social
If they can bring these pieces together, it will be terrifyingly similar to the (well-documented) use of incarceration for trivial infractions, to create cheap labor in the reconstruction-era South. We already have corrupt school -> private-prison pipelines. So the pieces _are_ coming together...
Oh, I see now. Clever and working-as-intended, even if I would never eat this. www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBKy...
Joel grayson webbeR reposted
Replying to @democracydocket.com
“all data [...] will be kept securely and treated consistently with the Privacy Act.” Until they begin filing specious complaints to strike voters from the rolls. Anyone doubt that this would be used to nationalize and scale up voter suppression efforts, like we've seen here in GA and elsewhere?
Thanks to @davekarpf.bsky.social for slogging through this garbage so the rest of us don't have to! This is what you get when SV "thinkers" learn to enjoy the smell of their own farts. I'm not a tech pessimist, but this is the kind of thinking that creates far more problems than it solves.
Next book on my reading pile: “Boom: bubbles and the end of stagnation.” Pretty sure this is gonna turn into another hate-read performance. 🤷♂️
TIL @billamend.bsky.social is on here, with some great dunks on the regime. It would be hysterical if the fine people of DC were to rain sandwiches down from the rooftops. If anyone in DC wants to organize a sandwich throwing party, I'll personally pay for about 10k sandwiches. Not joking. DM me.
Not the most important part of the story, but why the actual fuck is Antoni dressed like an 1890s robber baron? Oh, and apparently showing up for the insurrection is the main qualification to run the BLS. God help us... www.nbcnews.com/politics/jus... (h/t @donmoyn.bsky.social)
This is terrifying: "150 weaponized Firefox extensions. nearly 500 malicious executables. Dozens of phishing websites." Do I have a little schadenfreude about crypto scams? Maybe. But the ability to scale scams this rapidly with AI is concerning. blog.koi.security/greedy-bear-...
Joel grayson webbeR reposted
Replying to @motherjones.com
This is epistemic nihilism -- facts and opinions are interchangeable, and serve only to support a desired outcome. We know the admin behaves this way, but when they ignore science, we must make them say, publicly, "we ignore science in our decisions." See how that resonates with the people.
Something tells me the markets aren't going to respond to this with deference to Trump. People tend to behave a bit more rationally when money's on the line.
The markets should respond VERY NEGATIVELY to attempts to intimidate the people who try to provide accurate information to all of us, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) does every day. Markets need accurate information not influenced by politics.
Are. You. Fucking. Kidding. Of course not. Of course it came about as part of a "content review" under pressure from the White House. electionlawblog.org?p=151278
Joel grayson webbeR reposted
Replying to @brenttoderian.bsky.social
I'm really of two minds about this. On one hand, I largely agree with the author (and the hyperloop was an obvious boondoggle). But I do see that Waymo and others have made huge strides in autonomy. I just want to see that progress applied to transit solutions like automated, flexible bus services.
The regime is pursuing policies that push the US towards an explicit ethno-state. I can't imagine this would survive constitutional muster (though who knows under the Roberts Court). But the intention is clear, and shares much in common with Putin's resurrection of the Russian Orthodox church.
Joel grayson webbeR reposted
Replying to @brooklynspoke.bsky.social
THIS. Now if more parents would realize that the world is actually a lot safer for them than when we were young. When we started spending more time in NYC (vs Atlanta), our teens gained autonomy and confidence very rapidly. I feel far better about them walking and taking the train in NYC.
Are we a: (a) Liberal, multicultural democracy? (b) Theocratic ethnostate? Pick one; they're mutually exclusive. IMHO (a) is the only viable option, but make no mistake, (b) is the path many implicitly want, whether they admit to it or not. Accept no argument for a middle path. It doesn't exist.
I do not like this remake of Bleeding Kansas
So DHS chases a guy onto private property, refuses to show id or a warrant while forcing themselves in, and arrests employees for "assault" for refusing entry. No probable cause, no warrant, just profiling. Staff calls 911, and the Ontario CA PD does... nothing. And their "statement" is horseshit.
DHS has arrested two medical personnel at a surgical center in California for demanding that the officers trespassing in their building identify themselves & provide a warrant, accusing them of another.... wait for it... ASSAULT. The case shows how DHS lies relentlessly to violate the Constitution
See also this local news article: abc7.com/post/ice-age... And the GoFundMe for his legal defense: www.gofundme.com/f/help-him-r... [It's frustrating to deal with these situations on a one-off basis, but I'll do what I can while also contributing to orgs that address the problem systemically.]
Joel grayson webbeR reposted
Tired of letting algorithms divine what you care about, decide what you see, and distract you with ads? Try the Marginalian newsletter—an oasis of undistracted inspiration and illumination, free, ad-free, algorithm-free, fully human since 2006: themarginalian.org/newsletter
Any functional difference between "inauguration committee" and "Nigerian scammer"? At least the latter contributes to the Nigerian economy. "Sent over $250,000 to a [...] Nigerian scammer, thinking they were donating to President Trump’s inaugural committee." www.theblock.co/post/362339/...
The first time I saw this outside our apartment on West 79th, I had no idea it was a thing. Then this amazing glow started creeping up the street from Riverside. Everyone just stopped what they were doing, and walked into the street to watch. Really a magical moment.
Manhattanhenge got some love this weekend. 💕 #NYC @newyorkcitykopp.bsky.social
Joel grayson webbeR reposted
Cuts to federal research will harm my majority-immigrant Environmental Justice community, Chelsea MA. Dr. Madeleine Scammel of @busph.bsky.social and I wrote op-eds in our local paper about the crisis. #standupforscience @standupforscience.bsky.social chelsearecord.com/wp-content/u...
Joel grayson webbeR reposted
Sometimes (well, oftentimes) @walthickey.bsky.social just nails it www.numlock.com/p/numlock-ne...
Terrifying piece from @404media.co on ICE's use of an existing national insurance claim database to hunt people down. ISO exists to help with insurance claims and fraud. Its use for this purpose is a glaring abuse, and a perfect example of why we need strict limits. www.404media.co/ice-is-searc...
See also: Their piece on Palantir contracting with ICE to build out high-scale merged analysis of this and other databases. Many of these uses (e.g., of SSA databases) are flatly illegal, and risk eroding what little trust remains in gov't stewardship of our data. www.404media.co/ice-just-pai...