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Mark Sumner 🇺🇦

@devilstower.bsky.social

Author, journalist, old guy. Science, climate, space, transportation, energy, and how human selection drives the evolution of all of the above. www.unchartedblue.com

created July 9, 2023

18,750 followers 405 following 2,312 posts

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Posts

Profile picture Jason Karsh (@jkarsh.bsky.social) reposted

Whut in the whut. Did they say this with a straight face?

10/9/2025, 7:50:28 PM | 23 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Joshua Holland (@joshuaholland.bsky.social) reposted

We have a bit of a natural experiment here. Compare the tone, quantity and duration of Charlie Kirk coverage with that of the two Dem lawmakers gunned down in their homes in Minnesota 6 months ago. May be revealing.

10/9/2025, 7:28:54 PM | 23878 6852 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Stephen King (@stephenking.bsky.social) reposted

The motivation of the man who shot Charlie Kirk isn't clear (although he's probably mentally unstable--duh). What is clear is it was another example of American gun violence.

10/9/2025, 7:35:25 PM | 10255 1381 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Jacqueline Sweet (@jsweetli.bsky.social) reposted

The Charlie Kirk shooting happened essentially as another school shooting happened a state away

10/9/2025, 7:32:55 PM | 5136 2107 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture The Serfs (youtube.com/theserfstv) (@theserfstv.bsky.social) reposted

Late stage capitalism at its finest: the school shooting industry

9/9/2025, 10:09:15 PM | 242 61 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Parker Molloy (@parkermolloy.com) reposted

Why do these guys go running back to the Nazi-infested waters of Twitter after getting a tiny bit of pushback?

10/9/2025, 2:47:08 PM | 1278 112 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Ruth Delgado (@heylookitsruth.bsky.social) reposted

The judge ruled in Xochitl’s favor and dismissed her deportation proceedings. This is a huge victory, but Xochitl is not home yet, and there remains a number of other DACA recipients who continue to be wrongfully detained. ICE must release her & all DACA recipients! #FreeXochitl #QuietlyKillingDACA

10/9/2025, 2:28:04 PM | 129 48 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social)

Bees love sedum. Scrambling madly for some fall nectar.

Honeybees, bumblebee, and butterfly on pink sedum.
10/9/2025, 2:16:38 PM | 18 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline.com) reposted

One day after the Supreme Court lifted the ban on racial profiling, federal agents swarmed a car in Van Nuys. Four masked agents with guns drawn yanked people out, slammed them to the ground, and pointed a weapon at a pregnant woman. There is no justification for this. None.

10/9/2025, 5:34:18 AM | 17145 8433 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Angry (@angrystaffer.bsky.social) reposted

Last night, Poland recorded as many as 19 airspace violations by Russian drones coming from Belarus. Polish and NATO troops were forced to engage Russian targets over NATO territory. If NATO doesn’t set clear boundaries here, these probing missions by Russia won’t stop.

10/9/2025, 12:50:40 PM | 10952 3170 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social)

Experienced coders will tell you that most coding time is actually “refactoring” — correcting bugs, improving performance, adding security. Refactoring someone else’s code is always more difficult, and LLM_generated code is harder still.

10/9/2025, 12:45:27 PM | 11 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Bruno J. Navarro (@brunojnavarro.bsky.social) reposted

… when the METR team looked at the employees' actual work output, they found that the developers had completed tasks 20 percent slower when using Al than when working without it.

10/9/2025, 12:25:57 PM | 18 8 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social) reply parent

The color out of space?

9/9/2025, 10:12:42 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social) reply parent

There is absolutely no doubt that AI companies are using LLMs to spread their desired attitudes and policy positions by shaping the answers provided to users.

9/9/2025, 10:11:20 PM | 9 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social)

Not only has ChatGPT cheerfully encouraged suicide, but Grok’s adamant support of the holocaust shows that LLM models can easily be manipulated to give a slanted response.

9/9/2025, 10:04:37 PM | 9 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social) reply parent

You don’t have to run around burning paperwork at the last minute if you never had any paperwork to begin with.

9/9/2025, 12:20:16 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social)

Doubling down on the decision that makes racial profiling a legal basis for arrest, ICE is no longer filling out paperwork naming targets of raids. They’re just dragging away anyone they want.

9/9/2025, 12:15:02 PM | 143 74 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kat Abughazaleh (@katmabu.bsky.social) reposted

The Supreme Court just ruled that ICE can target people based on their race. Can we get a “Fuck ICE” in the chat?

8/9/2025, 4:47:57 PM | 13496 2853 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social) reply parent

Bullshit. If your business depends on theft to survive, it's not a business. It's a criminal enterprise. The idea that there's some essential "race" that must be won is the purest form of scam. There is no race. There is no prize. And there is no reason to exuse these companies from the law.

8/9/2025, 5:12:48 PM | 15 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social)

The idea that there's some kind of "AI race" that must be won is the hugest form of bullshit being used as an excuse to violate laws and regulations. If your organization is dependent on theft to survive, you don't have a business. You have a criminal enterprise.

8/9/2025, 5:10:45 PM | 14 3 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Talia Lavin (@swordsjew.bsky.social) reposted

now that i know anthropic has stolen all my books for training: fuck you pay me

8/9/2025, 5:06:44 PM | 467 57 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social)

You survive gulags, threats, and assassination attempts. You escape and make your way to “the land of the free and the home of the brave” and … they send you right back along with handy documentation to make your punishment more efficient.

8/9/2025, 2:59:08 PM | 19 7 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kerri The Ally 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇺🇸🌊🇨🇦🇺🇦 (@rushgirl3.bsky.social) reposted

THANKS FOR HELPING GET US HERE WITH YOU KNEE-BENDING BULLSHIT, @washingtonpost.com .

8/9/2025, 12:48:55 PM | 10 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Scott Horton (@robertscotthorton.bsky.social) reposted

BREAKING: ICE is sending Russian dissidents back to Russia. When the dissidents arrived in Russia, the Russian authorities were given documents relating to their asylum applications in the US which under US law are confidential. This seems to be part of a secret agreement between Trump and Putin.

6/9/2025, 10:52:49 PM | 6863 4165 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social) reply parent

All of these numbers are a sharp increase from recent years. It’s hard to believe Russia could hit these goals without significantly impacting non-military production.

8/9/2025, 12:23:42 PM | 6 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social) reply parent

Boat? They don’t need no stinkin’ boat.

8/9/2025, 12:09:27 PM | 5 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social)

This single thing, all on its own, would have meant the immediate bipartisan impeachment and removal of any past president. And that’s if the cabinet didn’t do the job first.

8/9/2025, 3:29:50 AM | 37 7 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Hamill (@markhamillofficial.bsky.social) reposted

Hey everyone...LOOK OVER HERE! It's Lt. Col. Bone Spurs declaring war on an American city!!! Does his rough tough cream-puff cosplay make you forget about the EPSTEIN survivors, their lifetime of trauma & their courage to speak the truth in public? Yeah, me neither. #ReleaseTheEPSTEINFilesASAP

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7/9/2025, 6:57:33 PM | 30057 7187 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social)

Backpacking Light has simple instructions for commenting on the attempt to end the “roadless rule” that protects wilderness areas and public lands from destruction. Please take a few minutes to show that you care about this issue. Thanks.

7/9/2025, 2:38:06 PM | 26 6 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Molly Jong-Fast (@mollyjongfast.bsky.social) reposted

I really resent my tax dollars being spent on this

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6/9/2025, 9:01:13 PM | 20842 4943 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Jamie K (@crumpsalljamie.bsky.social) reposted

the real glory of world war two was that it involved a warrior cult being ground down and beaten to a pulp by people who would rather have been doing something else.

5/9/2025, 10:11:21 PM | 8955 2069 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social) reply parent

90 minutes and a 3 mile walk later, I’m not dead. The obvious response is to eat more biscuits.

6/9/2025, 2:37:43 PM | 26 3 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social) reply parent

Canned biscuits. As opposed to real biscuits whipped up with butter and buttermilk and more butter.

6/9/2025, 1:18:47 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social)

I just ate two refrigerator biscuits, then discovered that they expired nine months ago. If they ask how I died, tell them with a smear of butter and blackberry jam.

6/9/2025, 12:58:45 PM | 38 3 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Morgan J Freeman (@mjfree.bsky.social) reposted

🩸🩸🩸 I'm going to post this video every day so we never forget what the 34x POS convicted felon & adjudicated rapist & pedophile Trump did 🩸🩸🩸

6/9/2025, 11:25:22 AM | 3697 1417 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Denise Wheeler (@denisedwheeler.bsky.social) reposted

Several anti-ICE protestors on the Ohio-Kentucky border. This is how the police dealt with them. Literally beat the hell out of them. This is Trump's police state America, coming to a protest near you.

5/9/2025, 2:32:36 AM | 2825 2045 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social)

The obvious reason Johnson would be making this ridiculous claim is because the files show Trump knowingly encouraging Epstein in criminal behavior. Johnson is likely trying to build an excuse for something he already knows about, but which isn’t yet public.

6/9/2025, 12:19:05 PM | 33 3 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Tammy Duckworth (@duckworth.senate.gov) reposted

Why stop there? Let’s rename all Depts after what Trump is inflicting on America. Dept of HHS -> Dept of Hepatitis and Human Suffering Dept of VA -> Dept of Veteran Abandonment Dept of Education -> Dept of Erasure of History Dept of Commerce -> Dept of Corruption Just a start.

5/9/2025, 2:21:07 AM | 1751 567 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Ed Zitron (@edzitron.com) reposted

Premium newsletter: A 8500 word analysis of how everybody is losing money on gen AI, with some startups spending 100%+ of their revenue on compute. Even GPU providers are struggling, with years-long time horizons to break even, if profit is even possible. www.wheresyoured.at/why-everybod...

5/9/2025, 4:56:00 PM | 806 171 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture God (@thegodpodcast.com) reposted

Reminder: At the start of his legal career, RFK Jr. failed the bar, was forced out as a D.A., and got arrested for heroin. Without the Kennedy name, that story ends there.

6/9/2025, 12:06:33 AM | 27932 7170 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture MeteorBlades (@meteorblades.bsky.social) reposted

On this date 148 years ago, the Ogala war chief Crazy Horse, was assassinated just 15 months after he and 2,000 Lakota, Cheyenne. and Arapahoe warriors humiliated the 7th Cavalry at Little Big Horn.

6/9/2025, 1:44:31 AM | 49 19 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Greg Sargent (@gregsargent.bsky.social) reposted

A key thing keeps getting lost. After CBS handed $16 million to Trump's "presidential library," his thugs saw that CBS can be extorted. Kristi Noem turned right around and made *exactly the same bogus claim of deceptive editing* that Trump made in his initial shakedown. CBS just surrendered again.

5/9/2025, 8:59:31 PM | 376 137 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social) reply parent

We had a nest hatch during the night this week. Woke up just to the remains of shells and an empty hole. So disappointing, especially since armadillos got a couple of nests over the summer.

6/9/2025, 1:04:39 AM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social) reply parent

This is a guy who can’t be bothered to work at his job beyond showing up for the occasional press event, whose political misadventures have absolutely tanked his company’s sales in multiple markets, and whose last big idea was a bigger flop than the Edsel. $1T payday. Sure.

6/9/2025, 12:59:00 AM | 20 3 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social)

Imagine the biggest example of pure rich white male privilege you have ever imagined. No. Bigger than that. Bigger. Sorry, you’re not even close.

6/9/2025, 12:53:57 AM | 26 8 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social) reply parent

Only to the extent that our current reality is composed entirely parody.

6/9/2025, 12:45:11 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social)

For people who watched Starship Troopers but didn’t get the irony.

5/9/2025, 11:18:42 PM | 24 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Betty💪 (@bettyhumpter25.bsky.social) reposted reply parent

Republicans- a conspiracy to seize power

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4/9/2025, 12:31:44 PM | 417 95 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social)

Let’s fire some more scientists and doctors to free up cash for what’s important.

5/9/2025, 3:29:07 PM | 9 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Sky Bloo 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@sky-bloo.bsky.social) reposted reply parent

Reminder: Deliberately killing civilians is a war crime.

5/9/2025, 12:42:19 PM | 455 20 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) reposted

This story is WILD. Trump sent Seal Team 6 into North Korea to plant a listening device. The entire thing went sideways within minutes of landing when they noticed a fishing boat near the beach. They killed everyone on board, sunk the bodies to cover their tracks, and fled. Congress was never told.

5/9/2025, 12:35:58 PM | 9051 4518 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture BeijingPalmer (@beijingpalmer.bsky.social) reposted

strange to look at this - probably the greatest impromptu speech in U.S. history - and think: this man will be killed two months later and his son will go on to murder millions of people worldwide. www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2kW...

5/9/2025, 2:17:37 AM | 1005 218 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Danielle Froom 🏳️‍🌈 (@danifroom.bsky.social) reposted

It's just a sports ban. It's just a bathroom ban. It's just a healthcare for kids ban. It's just a military service ban. It's just a federal jobs ban. It's just a university housing ban. It's just a passport & visa ban. It's just one Constitutional right. It's just your status as free citizens.

5/9/2025, 12:34:34 AM | 13847 4835 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline.com) reposted

Sen. Warren Daniel (R–NC, District 46) was caught trading stocks right on the Senate floor. Didn’t even wait for a break. Playing the market on the taxpayers’ time…pure abuse of power.

5/9/2025, 12:40:03 AM | 18948 9374 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture MeteorBlades (@meteorblades.bsky.social) reposted

Isnt this a billionaires’ dream too? Glad I won’t be around to view the antics of 150-year-old Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. arstechnica.com/health/2025/...

4/9/2025, 12:00:40 PM | 12 4 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social) reply parent

Give it two weeks, and Kristen Welker will be using Department of War while interviewing Democratic members and no one will correct her.

4/9/2025, 11:19:13 PM | 10 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social)

It’s true that Trump can’t officially rename the DOD. However: 1) Trump, Hegseth, every Republican official will immediately start using DOW. 2) Fox News, Newsmax, and every RW outlet will follow suit. 3) Other outlets will quickly comply because they worry more about access than accuracy.

4/9/2025, 11:16:59 PM | 20 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social) reply parent

War is Peace, of course.

4/9/2025, 10:53:12 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social)

Now give me that Peace Prize! “President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Friday that will change the name of the Defense Department to the Department of War.”

4/9/2025, 10:48:07 PM | 10 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social) reply parent

FWIW, most of the comments were pretty moderate, but people were understandably worried about noise, road or beach closures, and environmental damage. Plus, there were several detailed complaints by a local nudist group whose location will be in the flight path.

4/9/2025, 4:28:33 PM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social)

For a “public comment period” on expanding flights of SpaceX’s Starship to Kennedy, the FAA didn’t bother to send an actual person. They had an AI voice read a slide show. Then an automated system recorded people for 3 minutes each. Thank you for your feedback, citizens.

4/9/2025, 4:18:42 PM | 16 3 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Carter P. Hayes (@allchronology.com) reposted

The President is a convicted felon DHS Secretary is puppy killer HHS Secretary is an ex-heroin addict and antivaxxer Education Secretary can't read Defense Secretary is a drunk DNI is a Russian asset WTF happened for us to end up here?????

4/9/2025, 10:50:15 AM | 15079 4483 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture NPR (@npr.org) reposted

Democratic lawmakers and more than a thousand current and former HHS staff say Kennedy's actions are endangering America's health. Kennedy says he came to clean house and he's delivering.

4/9/2025, 10:43:41 AM | 825 226 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Adam Isacson (@adamisacson.com) reposted

There it is. The Commander-in-Chief issued an illegal order to the U.S. armed forces within the Southern Command's Area of Responsibility, and the U.S. armed forces carried out that illegal order. www.state.gov/releases/off...

Highlighted from below:
4/9/2025, 1:37:48 AM | 177 85 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Jason "Red5" Lyall (@jaylyall.bsky.social) reposted

Nine grafs deep into the article and we find out: "Pentagon officials were still working Wednesday on what legal authority they would tell the public was used to back up the extraordinary strike in international waters."

4/9/2025, 1:45:55 AM | 3013 996 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) reposted

Follow the money on this scam. Miles and miles of prime oceanfront real estate between SD and LA. I’m surprised it took him this long to cook up something on it.

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4/9/2025, 1:47:10 AM | 2821 1105 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Elad Nehorai (@eladn.bsky.social) reposted

Twitter. Meta. Paramount/CBS. Washington Post. LA Times. CNN. It’s getting rough out there. A reminder how much we have to invest in our own media ecosystem. You may think it’s minor compared to this. But remember that the far right did it as well. It’s possible, but we need to be strategic.

4/9/2025, 2:44:37 AM | 529 142 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture George Takei (@georgetakei.bsky.social) reposted

Next they'll be rewriting textbooks to say Japanese American internment camps were delightful summer resorts.

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3/9/2025, 11:36:09 PM | 24695 7952 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy.bsky.social) reposted

John Malone's attacks on CNN underscore yet again that the MAGA audience cannot be won over by truth-telling news organizations, no matter how much they bend over backwards to please them. Here's what I wrote in @status.news: www.status.news/p/john-malon...

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3/9/2025, 5:17:18 PM | 808 211 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social) reply parent

Gladwell has never been anything but a shitpile of clickbait hunkered under a pseudoscience umbrella.

4/9/2025, 12:36:03 AM | 28 4 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Paul Waldman (@paulwaldman.bsky.social) reposted

The entire federal government is being mobilized to destroy the American wind energy industry. Why? Because the toddler king didn't like seeing windmills from a golf course, so he decided he hates wind power and now that's the policy of the United States. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/c...

Agencies that typically have little to do with offshore wind power have been drawn into the effort, the two people said. At the Health and Human Services Department, for instance, officials are studying whether wind turbines are emitting electromagnetic fields that could harm human health. And the Defense Department is probing whether the projects could pose risks to national security. Last week Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services secretary, said he was working with Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, Chris Wright, the energy secretary, and Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, as part of a “departmental coalition team” to investigate the risks from offshore wind farms. “We’re all working together on this issue,” Mr. Kennedy said during a cabinet meeting.
3/9/2025, 11:56:43 PM | 1922 585 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture David Roberts (@volts.wtf) reposted

I know I say this almost every day but I truly, truly do not understand the authoritarian personality. I genuinely can not imagine acting like a sniveling apparatchik like this in public and then looking at myself in the mirror at night. What goes on in their heads? Why are they like this?

3/9/2025, 5:44:04 PM | 1350 230 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social) reply parent

Pinhead would do a better job with healthcare.

3/9/2025, 4:40:16 PM | 5 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan.bsky.social) reposted

"It is past time for both Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer to step down and step aside. This fascist moment, this age of Trump, demands outspoken, unrelenting and fearless opposition... we all deserve better." I make the case, in my latest for The Guardian, for new leadership:

3/9/2025, 3:20:16 PM | 6314 1482 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Tom Scocca (@tomscocca.bsky.social) reposted

Don't feel like doing a repost that puts the murder video on the timeline yet again but do feel like repeating the point that the president just straight-up assassinated 11 people for supposedly doing something that wouldn't be a death-penalty crime if they were caught and convicted

3/9/2025, 2:55:56 AM | 12492 3664 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social) reply parent

As a descendant of Scotch-Irish and English ancestors, whose family moved to Kentucky in the 1700s, let me say: 1) The “wave after wave of Indian war band attacks” is something that never happened. Pure BS. 2) The Scotch, Irish, and English had homelands: Scotland, Ireland, and England.

3/9/2025, 12:53:04 AM | 18 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social)

One nation, under military authority … apnews.com/article/trum... apnews.com/article/pent...

Hegseth assigns military lawyers as immigration judges Trump threatens to send military to Chicago
2/9/2025, 9:41:31 PM | 14 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Grudgie the Whale (@grudgie.bsky.social) reposted

A press that called out lying as a core task would have completely prevented Trump

2/9/2025, 7:39:55 PM | 317 60 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Parker Molloy (@parkermolloy.com) reposted

Buried 35 paragraphs in: "Violent crime in Chicago has dropped significantly in the first half of the year, according to official data released by the city. Shootings are down 37% and homicides have dropped by 32% compared to the first half of 2024, while total violent crime dropped by over 22%..."

2/9/2025, 7:11:19 PM | 1637 532 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social)

“Dr. Mengele promised us better dental care. If we cooperate, maybe we can all get a cleansing … I mean cleaning.”

2/9/2025, 7:44:17 PM | 12 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News (@froomkin.bsky.social) reposted

NYT found DC arrests were up only 13% over the previous two weeks and that the biggest change has been more arrests for minor infractions like smoking weed in a public place. (This does not include immigration abductions.) (Gift link.) www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/u...

2/9/2025, 7:24:06 PM | 159 68 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social)

I’m assuming Space Force is moving into all those buildings NASA used for science, which are clearly no longer needed.

2/9/2025, 6:26:06 PM | 32 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Ruth Zakarin (@ruthz.bsky.social) reposted

From today’s @bostonglobe.com. I’ll link the full article below, but for those who hit a paywall… “Velchik — who holds two degrees from Harvard, one from the college and one from the law school — was the sole lawyer arguing the case for the White House in July.” You really can’t make this up.

A DOJ lawyer accused Harvard of 'indifference to antisemitism? As a Harvard undergrad he wrote a paper from Hitler's perspective. Michael Velchik once also told a peer that The cornerstone of the Trump administration's justification for cracking down on Harvard University is that the Ivy League school has allegedly allowed antisemitism to fester on campus. Yet that lawyer, Michael Velchik, when he was a senior at Harvard 14 years ago, submitted a paper for a Latin class written from the perspective of Adolf Hitler, according to three people studying in the department with knowledge of the incident. The assignment was to write from the perspective of a controversial figure, but Velchik's choice of Hitler so unnerved the instructor that he was asked to redo the assignment. And in an email to a peer about 18 months later, as he was preparing to enter law school, Velchik wrote that he'd enjoyed Hitler's autobiography and political manifesto,
2/9/2025, 11:30:23 AM | 620 232 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social) reply parent

That shape? A dodecahedron. Which everyone knows is the best.

2/9/2025, 12:09:51 PM | 7 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Matthew J Kuiper (@matthewjkuiper.bsky.social) reposted

Been thinking a lot about the word “tool.” Tool… makes a thing seem so neutral. LLMs/AI just a tool, eh? Okay, but you wouldn’t use a hammer to brush your teeth would you? Or a string trimmer to cut your kids hair. This “tool” is similarly completely unsuited, ruinous even, for educational contexts.

20/8/2025, 7:17:56 PM | 19 6 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Marko Silberhand (@markosilberhand.bsky.social) reposted

. THIS is one of the biggest problems of our time . . . ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ .

image
2/9/2025, 7:13:39 AM | 16011 6361 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Pam Keith (@pamkeithdc.bsky.social) reposted

India, China and Russia are about to forge a global trade alliance that may even supplant the U.S. dollar as the principal trade currency. That would be disastrous for us. The thing is we might (maybe) beat the GOP in 26, but so much damage will be done

1/9/2025, 10:30:53 PM | 899 249 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture USA TODAY Opinion (@usatodayopinion.usatoday.com) reposted

"Whatever Trump says he wants to do, the safe bet is he will do it, law or public opinion be damned," writes columnist @rexhuppke.bsky.social. bit.ly/4oZVvFi

A photo of Donald Trump wearing a red hat that says
1/9/2025, 7:05:11 PM | 51 9 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social) reply parent

Fantastic find. I spent six years at the edge of the Hell Creek SE of Lemon, SD with the Univ. of IL team. Lots of sturgeon bits, but nothing anywhere approaching this. Wish I could find a crew willing to put up with an old (old) hand next season. It’s been too long.

1/9/2025, 7:13:20 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social)

More of this. It’s exactly what we need — and the kind of connection they fear most.

1/9/2025, 6:06:32 PM | 24 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Michael Hobbes (@michaelhobbes.bsky.social) reposted

This ‘blue states closed schools too long’ narrative is becoming increasingly entrenched in the Polite Center but it’s arguable at best. Republican states had far more deaths during COVID and their students have roughly comparable learning loss.

1/9/2025, 5:34:02 PM | 4151 920 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture MeteorBlades (@meteorblades.bsky.social) reposted

If Democrats ever gain power again, they could begin improving the situation by repealing the 78-year-old union-busting Taft-Hartley Act, superseding it with a worker-friendly law. bsky.app/profile/rbre...

1/9/2025, 1:49:32 PM | 35 9 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Alt National Park Service (@altnps.bsky.social) reposted

Today we celebrate the strength and resilience of working people everywhere. Nearly 300,000 federal employees have lost their jobs this year not because of necessity, but because of a political agenda. And while people’s lives were destroyed in the name of “saving money,”

1/9/2025, 1:50:15 PM | 11610 3010 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Sarah J. Jackson (@sjjphd.bsky.social) reposted

Okay. I just came back to this and you aren’t calling these efforts resegregation yet, you absolutely should be

31/8/2025, 10:49:19 PM | 7818 3338 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social) reply parent

The kingfisher is now freed, but not without significant injury. Just this year, I’ve seen two geese and a Great Blue Heron injured after becoming entangled in discarded fishing line. Casting 10 inches closer to shore is not worth the damage being caused. Please be more thoughtful.

1/9/2025, 12:11:56 AM | 22 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social)

Abandoned fishing line and lures are not harmless. Please don’t cast into areas you can’t reach. Today’s victim of careless anglers: a beautiful Belted Kingfisher. …

Belted Kingfisher ensnared by fishing line.
1/9/2025, 12:08:29 AM | 25 5 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social)

A record number of deaths from rabies. In part because vaccination rates for dogs have plunged. Because stupidity. “… nearly 40% believed canine vaccines were unsafe and 37% believed that vaccines could lead their dogs to develop cognitive issues, such as autism.”

31/8/2025, 12:35:23 PM | 62 21 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Sumner 🇺🇦 (@devilstower.bsky.social)

Fascism can tolerate no opposition, whether it’s chalk, a sandwich, or a joke. Laughter, joy, community, art, and empathy are the enemies of authoritarianism.

30/8/2025, 11:34:15 PM | 34 7 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Garrett M. Graff (@vermontgmg.bsky.social) reposted

If you don’t believe that Trump’s authoritarianism can be defeated, look at how scared MAGA is of chalk:

30/8/2025, 9:53:17 PM | 2550 734 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture James Fallows (@jfallows.bsky.social) reposted

This firefighter arrived in the US at age 4, has been here for 19 years, was on track to legal status, and was on a crew trying to contain a major blaze (in Washington state, vs Oregon, fwiw.) h/t @joshuajfriedman.com www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

30/8/2025, 6:58:05 PM | 6214 2880 | View on Bluesky | view