Interests include democracy, nature, science, Bay Area, travel, and beautiful nature photography. Former small-town mayor. Please don't ask me about potholes.
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HHS Secretary RFK Jr. wants to find the causes of #autism by September. Erin McCanlies has spent the past 20yrs studying how parents’ exposure to chemicals at work affects the chance that they will have a child with the condition. RFK Jr. cut her entire lab. My latest video for @propublica.org
No. But ballots which can be - and actually are - audited by hand recount are not where our elections are most vulnerable. If there was election software tampering resulting in altering vote counts, it would likely happen where detection would be difficult. Or where audits/reviews were shut down.
Impossible to hand recount votes that were cast entirely electronically. Even if the machines spit out a ballot receipt, those are often bar-coded and not readable by human eyes. Most secure voting method would be hand-marked paper ballots, electronically tallied, and audited.
Wham! (picturing the baby hurling the toys out of the crib)
This story is not getting the attention it deserves in fact it should be so shocking that it took over the CK story at this point. However, you would be hard pressed to find more than a couple people who even know what happened
And at the end of his presidency, that plane will be turned over to the Trump Library. So all that taxpayer money is going for 2-3 years of presidential use, tops.
Social media bots and algorithms and uncertainty/anxiety around COVID were used to further divide Americans and foment infighting. Classic example of divide and conquer.
The GOP ensured government would not work for the people’s benefit. When the economy crashed in ‘08-09, people struggled. Vulnerable people are vulnerable to influence. Wedge issues divided us. And later, social media was used to further influence and divide us. COVID made everything even worse.
What changed was a cabal of powerful, moneyed interests implemented a program to consolidate political control by using wedge issues to divide us, social media to influence us, and making sure government doesn’t serve the people so we’ll stop caring about losing it. It’s been engineered.
This is as huge a scandal & blunder as this chaotic Administration has seen. The person who should be called to answer for it is Secy Kristi Noem. When a woman who loves the camera as much as Noem is nowhere to be seen for 10 days it’s b/c she’s hiding out. Media should be all over this.
Fired based on mere allegations—another step on the slide towards a banana republic. www.nbcnews.com/politics/whi...
My name is Captain Dylan Blaha, and this message is for members of the National Guard across the USA. I've served in the Illinois Army National Guard for over 12 years, including a deployment to Afghanistan and three years on active duty in Europe. What's going on right now is not normal.
Many fires, especially in the mountainous Sierra Nevada range, are caused by dry lightning strikes.
Received a CA Redistricting hit piece in the mail yesterday featuring a prominent quote from the CA LWV president calling to reject mid-cycle redistricting to “protect the integrity of our democratic process.” Paid for in part by Republican mega donor Charles Munger Jr.
Exactly. I sincerely hope someday we do learn the details of Epstein’s Finances and activity with DB, JPM and others
Masked men jumped a San Bernardino family in unmarked cars, opened fire, and shattered their truck windows—all while the family was just coming home from work. The feds later admitted it was CBP, but the family says the agents never showed warrants or IDs.
One significant difference is that banks hold depositors’ funds and are under more stringent regulations. But Trump did take a LOT of money from Deutche Bank over the years. Google those loans - they didn’t seem like banking business as usual.
Strong: My answer to what James Madison would've done, and what he did, was draft a Constitution that made sure the president could never deploy armies to control civilian life as the king had in 1776.
Every activated Guardsman has a family, a job, school, or something that they are leaving to do their duty. It’s one thing when it’s a war… or a real mass civil disturbance, which those only last a few days. But to rip these people from their lives for a show… is awful.
LEFT: Where our government incarcerates a person who has a tattoo in honor of a family member. RIGHT: Where our government incarcerates a person who has facilitated and/or engaged in the sexual assault of over a thousand children.
Donald Trump f*cked kids. That should be what people post about nonstop until hell freezes over.
If you live in/represent a Blue State, want to gerrymander the FUCK out of your state, support and are willing to fight for a national anti-gerrymandering law you are principled, consistent and doing exactly the right thing.
Dems should fight on every front. If Texas steals 5 seats, Dem states should redistrict 30 GOP members out of their districts. We should insist DOJ release the entire Epstein File. Not only shouldn't we bring knives to a gun fight, if they bring pistols, we should bring machine guns.
I truly cannot emphasize enough how this is straight up Lysenkoism. Because of the incredible work of our nation’s scientists, we have our finger tips on the closest thing humanity has ever come to “a cure for cancer”, but brainworm over here doesn’t believe in it. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/05/h...
CARTOON OF THE DAY 🇺🇸
kennedy is going to kill a lot of people
South Park omg 😂
And that kleptocratic, kakistocratic cabal is operating with the absolute complicity of one openly Christian Nationalist political party who seem to think those kleptocrats will somehow share control with them.
“Nobody can know if the rights they have today will be the rights they have tomorrow. Nobody can know if a thing that is illegal for the government to do to them today will be illegal for the government to do to them tomorrow.” Sobering article by @elienyc.bsky.social
Jeffrey Epstein and a thousand victims is what happens when moral depravity meets extreme income inequality.
Trump's IRS commissioner says that the government's free, direct tax file program is now "gone."
This proves five things: 1. The protests in LA were peaceful 2. The National Guard and Marines were unnecessary 3. ICE officers lie 4. DHS stats on ICE agent assaults are overblown 5. You can not, in fact, indict a ham sandwich if you have no case www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
You forgot to mention the 14 years of brain damage due to heroin addiction
Thou shalt not pardon a convicted child molester. This one should be easy to follow.
Chris Hayes had two attorneys who represented Epstein/Maxwell victims on his show yesterday. Here’s a clip, with the key arguments beginning at 7:58: youtu.be/N8pKjwJKshE?...
According to the WSJ, he knew he was in the files. The Attorney General helped him hide the files. He likely has already destroyed the files that implicate him. Now we need an investigation that makes Watergate look small.
whatever else republican house speaker mike johnson (and the congressional republicans who serve under him) ever do in this life, this headline will last forever and ever, for their whole blessed lives. (gift link, no paywall) www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/u...
Also, what constitutes “the center” has shifted rightward as the GOP has gotten more extreme. So catering to “the center” now means a right-wing bias youtu.be/x_Q9ynm2Rfg
Oh this is….something. There is, apparently a message to be delivered. Because in what other circumstance would the Deputy AG of the United States personally meet with a convicted & imprisoned sex trafficker.
So many of the arguments are about the progressives vs centrist Dems. But what constitutes the political “center” has shifted as the GOP has moved hard right. We don’t talk about this enough youtu.be/x_Q9ynm2Rfg
"It’s statements like these from Mr. Colbert that have rankled many rightwing fundamentalists over the years because they can’t simply claim he’s being inaccurate or even particularly judgy."
Prior to the ACA, insurers would deny coverage to people with preexisting conditions. So if you or your child had a heart condition, diabetes, injury, or mental health issues you literally could not buy private health insurance and had to obtain an employment-based plan.
Public defenders are provided to defendants in criminal cases who cannot afford to pay for an attorney. But for someone who makes a decent, if modest, living above the income limit, paying legal fees could be financially devastating. And I’ll bet that’s part of ICE’s strategy
My non-lawyer understanding is that this requires those arrested to hire lawyers for defense, and if they want to fight the arrest itself, they also must hire a lawyer to file a civil suit claiming wrongful arrest. This sounds VERY expensive. Can any attorneys confirm or shed additional light?
Trump was raised to believe in the “Power of Positive Thinking,” literally attending author Norman Vincent Peale’s church. Paired with his narcissism it explains a lot.
EXCLUSIVE: DeSantis diverted disaster prep resources during hurricane season in the rush to build the "Alligator Alcatraz" detention camp talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/co...
Evergreen
George Retes, an American citizen disabled US Army veteran who has been held in federal custody since Thursday, was released without charges this evening. 1/
Remember: The oligarchs who control our economy and democracy seek to divide us so they can become more powerful. They want us to turn on each other so we don't look up and see where all the wealth and power have gone. Don't fall for it.
WaPo: purchased and gutted to pump propaganda by an oligarch. LA Times: purchased and gutted to pump propaganda by an oligarch. CNN: gutted and pushing propaganda MSNBC: being actively gutted and spun off CBS News: being purchased by an oligarch's failson and set up to push propaganda.
What's up with Justice Jackson? She started making her mark and speaking out early, and some of her dissents are so pointed Kagan and Sotomayor don’t even join them. The far right is out for her, and even Republican justices are getting snarky. So what's up? Here’s my take 🧵
“Secret police” are your words, not mine. Seems like you’ve been giving them a lot of thought. Unlike NYPD, your agents don’t identify themselves & wear masks that cover their faces. Now they ignore judges’ rulings, too. What law enforcement agents are supposed to uphold … is the rule of law.
I am from Maui - Lahaina was my hometown. That’s a blatant lie. Every single person I know was either homeless jobless or both - no one was driven to such extremes. In fact, in short order FEMA was on the ground helping people. Walk north on my street: help tents everywhere! Via @acyn.bsky.social
Blame the GOP’s decades-long voter suppression efforts, including Dem voter roll purges, gerrymandered district boundaries, mass Dem vote challenges, etc. and now the Supreme Court is backing up those efforts. We need to fight this rot at every election department. bsky.app/profile/aclu...
Harvard sociologist/polisci Theda Skocpol explains how the vast expansion of ICE in BBB may be Trump's secret weapon to overcome the barriers of federalism and complete his autocratic takeover of the American state. (History from Germany & Hungary in 20s/30s.) talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/criti...
I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE. This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined. It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.
Medicare for All - "That's socialism!" Social Security - "That's socialism!" Debt free education - "That's socialism!" Universal childcare - "That's socialism!" $1 trillion+ in tax cuts for the wealthy... "That's just how it is."
Never before in the history of this nation has such a large redistribution of income been directed upward, for no reason at all. It comes at a time of near-record inequalities of income and wealth. This budget bill is a nightmare.
Yesterday we released our cosmic treasure chest...and now it's yours to explore! With ✨~10 million galaxies✨ in the image, there's plenty to find. Pan, zoom, and hunt for gems in this treasure chest using Skyviewer - and be sure to share your favorites with us! 🔭🧪 ➡️ skyviewer.app/explorer
I was adopted via closed adoption, born in North Carolina. It was closed so I have no knowledge of or access to my biological mother’s details. It also means my biological mother isn’t on my birth certificate. So if birthright citizenship becomes a patchwork right, what’s someone like me to do?
Everyone is focusing on Bove’s “f*** you” comment but not enough attention being given to the other bombshell in the WB, which is the premeditated violation of the Mass. district court injunction and subsequent cover up, the same injunction which SCOTUS stayed on Monday 1/
That one person can drag us into a war without consulting or even notifying Congress, or our allies, or fully explaining to the American people why this is necessary, is absolutely bonkers. Reminder that Congress has the power to stop all of this. Where the hell are they? Hello?
Trump bombing Iran was illegal and unjustified. I ran for Congress to make sure our leaders consider the true costs of war. And I will be in the Senate, standing on my titanium legs, demanding answers from Trump. My statement:
Just want to remind Californians that when your kid is in/about to be in 4th grade, there's a free state park pass for you and your family for a year. Great mission to see as many as you can. www.parks.ca.gov/AdventurePas...
🚨 There’s a lot of horrific news out of Washington right now—but you might have missed this: Senate Republicans just introduced a plan to sell off 120 million acres of our public lands. Let me break down what’s in the bill and why it’s a full-scale land grab. 🧵
An LAPD officer in a helicopter announced to a crowd of protestors “I have all of you on camera. I’m going to come to your house.” This is the very definition of using surveillance and the threat of reprisals to chill constitutionally-protected free speech.
5th generation Californian here. Not gonna happen. Since before the Gold Rush, we’ve been a population of fiercely independent folks. That fueled the early computer/tech boom mid-1900’s
Jake Tapper is not reading the room.
Dem pols should be out there loudly shifting the narratives - every hour, if necessary. Fight back against the Fox News propaganda in ways that the public can easily grasp. AOC knows how to do this.
Hello. I live in Los Angeles. The president is lying.
ICE terrorizes our communities. People protest, and now Trump is sending 2,000 National Guard troops into Los Angeles. This is how martial law begins in the so-called land of the free.
DNI Director Tulsi Gabbard has installed her own advisor to the watchdog panel investigating Signalgate, in which she was a participant. Blatant fox watching the henhouse stuff.
If you were wondering why Trump’s war on Harvard matters, here is The Times of London detailing the costs: cancelling a planned TB vaccine, ending a clinical trial for severely allergic children, killing a new generation of air purifiers, curtailing research on ALS. www.thetimes.com/us/american-...
I read that in Dr. “Bones” McCoy’s voice. Just add, “Damnit, Jim!”
I subscribe to the @newyorker.com, I was part of ACT UP, I knew Larry Kramer well and know Tony Fauci too. Daniel Immerwahr's piece on RFKJr, features this and other passages that need a reponse. 1/
No one experiencing the tragedy of a miscarriage should be arrested, much less abandoned in jail for 5 months with a $100k bond. But that’s exactly what happened to Mallori Patrice Strait in Texas. Women, particularly women of color, in this country are no longer allowed dignity even in extreme loss
I said it would get worse very quickly. By tomorrow we will have completed the most dangerous & frightening 24 hours thus far of Trump 2.0. Just to name a few: 1. Defiance of a court order by sending migrants to Sudan without due process (despite clear DP decision SCOTUS) & Dist. CT. order.
Hey Ed Martin: You’ve got a really big “but” there. And it shows how much of an uncaring ass you are. Pathetic
Get your tradwife to hand-sew a quilt for you while the sourdough proofs.
RAW MILK TIME I was surprised to find most of the "raw milk cures ___" talking points from the last 20+ years come from one (1) raw milk dairy farmer in California. Let's get to know him!
My statement on the charges filed against me:
More Van Hollen stunts and less press releases and bullshit talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/fight...
@uschamber.bsky.social when is enough enough? Do you not have an obligation to protect your members. You spend billions lobbying against regulation, environmental laws, corporate taxes. But when you have an Executive who along with his cohorts menaces business leaders & corporations…nothing?
The Feds still haven’t shown up in St. Louis. The American Red Cross opened three shelters at Grace United Methodist Church, 6199 Waterman Blvd.; Friendly Temple Outreach Center, 6356 Dr. Martin Luther King Drive; and the 12th & Park Recreation Center, 1410 S. Tucker Blvd. #StLouis
We devote musicals, miniseries, and documentaries to the founders of our first republic and not to those of our second, who saw this country with clear eyes. We need fewer encomiums for Jefferson, Madison, and Lafayette. More respect for Sumner, Stevens, Bingham and Douglass (Frederick).
After-tax income under the Trump/GOP budget: -People making less than $17/k year: LOSE $1000 -People making between $17k and $51k/yr: LOSE $700 -People making over $4.3M/year: GAIN $389,000 This is what class warfare looks like.
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Eileen Laubacher is a Navy Rear Admiral, served on Biden's National Security Council, and importantly, she's running against Lauren Boebert. Let's elevate Eileen Laubacher to ensure that she can reach as many Coloradans as possible ahead of November 2026. If you can, contribute here:
Democrats want to keep the 2017 tax cuts for people making <$500,000/yr, and to let taxes on people making >$500,000/yr revert to 2017 levels. This doesn't seem so radical. Indeed, it seems to be what enlightened defenders of democratic capitalism would support.
Yesterday my hometown was hit with massive tornadoes. We weren't expecting them in places that have never been hit before and have no idea who will help us. FEMA is all but dead and our state is run by Republicans that hate the city. This is the canary in the coal mine. My latest.
Why add the “with no strings attached”? Why? The NYT can’t possibly know whether or what strings are attached and it defies logic that there aren’t any. Stop this @nytimes.com. It is monstrously irresponsible. A “charm offensive” is deployed to soften someone up to give you or do what you want.
Did Trump and Pam Bondi make a deal with the Sinaloa Cartel? It would seem so, and now 17 cartel family members have been allowed to enter the U.S. apnews.com/article/el-c...
Weird Al is fantastic in concert. One of my favorite songs is Word Crimes: youtu.be/8Gv0H-vPoDc?...
This isn’t a good idea even if the plane was being donated to the U.S. government. But Trump GETS TO KEEP THE PLANE??? It’s simply a cash payment to Trump in exchange for favors. Just wildly illegal.
Since I administered the WH emoluments rules, let me explain why this is forbidden Trump expressed interest in it before it was offered He is going to use & benefit from it a while in office And he's going to keep using it after he leaves! Functionally, it's a gift to him & so it's illegal
Bribery in plain sight.
An hour after I published this piece, Stephen Miller just comes right out and says Trump Administration is considering suspending habeas corpus rights for detained immigrants and claims America is being "invaded" right now. Tell me I'm being hysterical and irrational and yadda yadda yadda.