Michael Hawthorne

Latest from me: At least 22 million pounds of plastic waste end up in the Great Lakes every year.⁠ ⁠Made from climate-changing fossil fuels, plastics are linked to myriad health problems. Industry executives blame consumers for the waste, using tactics borrowed from and shared with Big Tobacco.

Over 2,000 alumni from Vivek’s all-boys catholic high school in Cincinnati have signed and circulated a petition demanding that he pull the ad and issue a public apology for “ignoring the moral responsibilities” of his Jesuit education. I think he’s pretty cooked.

this guy realizing, in real time, that people do not like him at all has been an amazing watch ... just melting down every week

It's really damning. The accusations are numerous and well-supported. But I was really struck by the descriptions of Trump's behavior -- the name dropping, strong-arming, and attempts to buy off silence. His gross rivalry with Epstein. It's all so familiar. It's shit he's been doing his entire life.

There are only two explanations for the NYT's habit of presenting GOP operatives and donors as true swing voters: 1. Their reporters and editors are somehow incapable of running a simple Google searches, showing just a staggering level of journalistic incompetence 2. They want to the GOP to win

Electoral sham candidate shenanigans? That would never happen here in the Great State of Illinois

“My Catholic Latina opponent wants to impose Sharia Law” is a hilariously desperate closing message. thehill.com/homenews/617...

New from me: The US has faced a higher cost than any other country from the global Hormuz oil shock, with the crisis adding $160 billion to its fuel bill — or $471 per person on average — despite being the world’s largest oil producer.

Not The Onion, Part 10,865:

A year after ‘Broadview Six’ indictment, failed case still reverberates in federal court

George walked country highways. He sat in with a band at a VFW hall. He bought a guitar at a local shop; a month later, he played it on “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” He discovered a 45 RPM single, James Ray’s “Got My Mind Set On You”; it inspired his own No. 1 hit single 25 years later.

JUST POSTED: A Russian energy giant has secretly moved to acquire a position in a massive Alaska gas project. Its part of talks between Witkoff/Kushner & Putin. But CEO of US company resigns after learning of Russian money in the project. A wowzer of a story. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/23/u...

Why is Trump making so many concessions to Russia now? I think it's three things. #HighStakes

This is just chilling. The whole Mussolini strut, the people cheering. Americans.

If Zohran Mamdani or Abdul El-Sayed had used the word “Shylock” as an insult, the ADL would be attacking them by name relentlessly. But Donald Trump used it, so we get a generic condemnation of the word without any specific reference to who actually used it, and with no assumption of intent.

That Vivek Ramaswamy ad might end up being the worst own goal we've seen in a major race. Platforming the estranged mother of your opponent to attack her, only for everyone to discover that the mother protected the rapist of her 12-year-old daughter and stayed married to him, is beyond despicable.

The E15 policy might seem obscure, but let’s not miss the forest for the trees: At his latest campaign rally, Trump told Kansans he’s prepared to hurt the state on purpose if he dislikes how they vote in the Senate race. How is this not a scandal? www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

The pattern isn’t exactly subtle: In 2016: Russia targets U.S. elections, tries to help Republicans win In 2018: See above In 2020: See above In 2022: See above In 2024: See above In 2026: See above www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

Huge follow-up reporting to my scoop: The Guardian confirmed America Next—the conservative nonprofit founded by Bobby Jindal that was offering students $ to disrupt El-Sayed events—paid a firm registered to Tommy Teepell’s dad Timmy $250k for “canvassing and influencer marketing” against El-Sayed.

Trump just claimed Sen Slotkin is threatening prosecutions to scare young people away from politics. False. This was picked up from a clipped video on an obscure right wing site that was then amplified by big MAGA. Note how the "reporter" teed up Trump here: newrepublic.com/article/2168...

Join me from noon to 4 CDT for an Ask Me Anything (about microplastics) on Reddit. Link to Great Waste in the Great Lakes here: www.chicagotribune.com/2026/10/20/g...

Last week I wrote about how Texas politicians’ “free speech” campaign has led to a campaign of academic censorship in the state’s universities that exceeds even the McCarthy era (🎁🔗) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/1...

state media

Boomers spent their peak earning years demanding lower income taxes now spending retirement years demanding no property taxes — that puts a very large burden on the income-earning generation squeezed between their kids and declining parents.

Lulz

Zelenskyy obviously has to say this. But Trump'ss been looking to forge a bond w/ Putin for over a dozen years & he's finally decided to not let the war get in the way of that. My new book, "HOW RUSSIA WON: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Fight for America," explains all. HowRussiaWon.com

Had a lot of fun reporting this story about Toledo's beautiful glass art scene! www.npr.org/2026/10/18/n...

Man, dependence on US technology is a pretty glaring national security vulnerability.

Barack Obama just delivered a blistering rebuke of Trump's actions against Ilhan Omar. This is worth reading in full.

I half-jokingly suggested to a Republican operative in Ohio that this is where his party was headed. In 1998.

Nobody hates free speech more than the fascist tech oligarchs who claimed to care about it more than anyone. What an absolute joke. P.S. they also hate democracy. As we hand them control of the country. www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/politic...

People may have forgotten, but Donald Trump secretly signed a letter of intent to build Trump Tower Moscow during his 2016 presidential campaign, while telling the public he had nothing to do with Russia. His attorney even emailed Putin's spokesman for help in getting the project done.

New Mexico has the power to regulate air quality and impose noise requirements within the state, but not at a data center being constructed a few hundred yards away in Texas. “This is why we need federal regulation,” a New Mexico lawmaker says. w/ @elpasomatters.bsky.social @texastribune.org

👇 spread this news far and wide

Friday Bonus: Scat/vocalese legend Jon Hendricks backed by primal Grateful Dead in 1967. www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkdW...

The slop party: "More than 80 percent of the [AI-generated] ads were produced by Republican campaigns or Republican-aligned political action committees."

Anyway I got a slew of Google alerts about this supposed announcement but none of the writeups adequately capture his absurd yammering or the fact that what Trump is describing — firefighters getting shot on ladders — is not a thing that is happening anywhere outside his addled brain).

(Reuters) - The order to limit a satellite system used by Ukraine for battlefield communications and drone operations came from inside the White House, according to two US officials and a Western official briefed on the matter. @reuters.com 🇺🇦 www.reuters.com/world/europe...

When immigration agents struck a man with an SUV in Houston over the weekend, they said they were chasing an undocumented Mexican man facing deportation and multiple criminal charges. But the photo they shared of their target was of a man whose family says he died almost a decade ago.

A piece in the November 2023 New York Review of Books catalyzed my interest in tech extremism and led to my book. It's great to see things come full circle with Sue Halpern's very positive review of "The Nerd Reich." The Plot to Delete Democracy www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

WATCH: The DOJ sent Los Angeles County a password-protected thumb drive with a list of suspected noncitizens, then sued election officials after the registrar refused to open it over data security concerns. California's Sen. Adam Schiff joins to discuss.

My family and I were worshipping at our Hindu temple in Aurora on Sunday when a white supremacist attempted a mass shooting targeting Indian Americans. I'm grateful to those who prevented a tragedy, but we must all come together to confront the hatred that put so many innocent lives at risk.

An attempted attack on a Hindu temple came amid a weeks-long right-wing frenzy over "The Indian Question"; police found a manifesto from the alleged shooter "containing statements expressing white supremacist and extremist ideologies."

“Is this phenomenon 5% responsible or 90% responsible for the health effects we are seeing, I can’t answer,” Columbia researcher tells me during an interview. “But I would be surprised if it doesn’t play any role.”

Read @swin24.bsky.social and @andrewperez.bsky.social's new profile of Stephen Miller, "American ‘Psycho,’ Fascist Dork." zeteo.com/p/stephen-mi...

Authoritarian regime grabs electronic communication devices of prominent opposition member. Since it’s highly unlikely there is anything on her phone about immigration paperwork from 30 years ago we can assume this just became a fishing expedition.

I just added 1,000 new rows to my Trump second term shadow docket spreadsheet, because why not. The latest: www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

Per Spotify, second most played song from this stellar 1970 Dead show. open.spotify.com/track/5VyKZR...

FULL STORY: A Chicago police officer who repeatedly used racial slurs while on duty should be fired, the agency tasked with investigating police misconduct and former Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling agreed, records show. @wttw.bsky.social