Catrina

• "We have no inflation." Inflation is at 3%. • "It's at 2%. It's-- it's the perfect inflation." Inflation is at 3%. • "Right now [grocery prices are] going down." Grocery prices are up 1.4% since Trump came to office. • "A year ago, we were a dead country." Not only did the US have the fastest-growing economy in the G7 in both 2023 and 2024, but the Economist magazine called it "the envy of the world." • "11,888 murderers were let into our country." Not only is this number inaccurate, but many of the non-citizens convicted of homicide either here or abroad came in during Trump's first term. • "Washington, DC, was... almost like a crime capital of the world." In 2023, per PolitiFact, "at least 49 other cities in the world had higher homicide rates. • "[Biden] hardly went anywhere. Guy couldn't leave his bedroom." Not only did Joe Biden visit roughly as many countries in his term of office as Trump did in his first term, but Biden was the first US president to visit an active warzone - Ukraine - not under the control of US forces. • "I made Middle East peace. For 3,000 years, they couldn't do it." There is no peace in Palestine, no peace deal in place, and it isn't a 3,000-year-old conflict. • "Communist, not socialist. Communist. He's far worse than a socialist." Zohran Mamdani is not a communist. • "I can't give them $1.5 trillion so that they can give welfare to people that came into our country illegally." The Trump/GOP claim that Democrats want to give free healthcare to undocumented immigrants has been repeatedly debunked. • "They emptied their mental institutions and their insane asylums-- into the United States of America." Asylum seekers don't come from "insane asylums." Obviously. • "One thing I can tell you, the 2020 election was rigged." It wasn't. The courts agreed. • "And a lotta people say when it's rigged you're allowed to do it again." A lot of people don't say this. The US Constitution doesn't, for sure.

Trump did on 60 Minutes what he does every time. He spews a blizzard of lies, exaggerations and assorted other falsehoods, and if (as usual) the reporter isn’t equipped or doesn’t bother to push back, he keeps going.

Here is a detailed list, via @mehdirhasan.bsky.social

zeteo.com/p/factchecki...

NYC is going to have the world's biggest media-manufactured crime panic in history the second Mamdani is elected. They aren't even going to wait until he is inaugurated. Whether or not you like the guy, you need to start preparing now for the fire hose of disinformation that is about to activate.

The Sword of Damocles and the Myth of White Male Supremacy

I don’t know why, but out of nowhere the story of the “Sword of Damocles” came to mind today.

When I looked it up, this line from Wikipedia stopped me cold:

“Though having much fortune, [he was] always having to watch in anxiety against dangers that might try to overtake him.”

A pumpkin carved with the face of the animated character Brak

BRAK O LANTERN

Edison Park is where all the Chicago cops live and nobody wants ICE there either.

Punk as fuck

Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House.

Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity.

They are not the same.

Screenshot of an article headline "AI layoffs to backfire: Half quietly rehired at lower pay" with "at lower pay" being highlighted

This is sometimes read as "look 'AI' isn't working". But the opposite is true.

_This_ is what "AI" is _for_. Push down labor power, push down wages, make employment more insecure.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/29/forrester_ai_rehiring/

Families need to be able to put food on the table. Hungry kids need to be fed.

This is a crisis that Donald Trump and cowardly Republicans have caused, and they’re prolonging it because of petty politics.

If you're looking for a group of library workers who understand the power of labor organizing, social justice, & anti-racism, consider applying for the Library Freedom Institute. It's a 15-week program in privacy, intellectual freedom, & critical technology. libraryfreedom.org/institute/

Eating less beef remains one of the best climate choices you can make as an individual.

And, in the US right now, it is probably better for your wallet, too.

I know other media outlets around the country are running with "diseased monkeys with COVID, herpes and hepatitis are loose in Mississippi!"

And yes, it makes great clickbait. Those posts have thousands of RTs.

But it's just not accurate. Our factual report by @nickjudin.bsky.social:

This Little-Known Appeal Could Force Your Insurer to Pay for Lifesaving Care. Here’s How to File It. When a health insurer refuses to pay for your treatment, you may have the right to have the denial reviewed — and potentially overturned — by an independent provider. Here are six steps experts sugges...

Few patients appeal a health insurance denial, but a little-known process that requires insurers and plans to seek an independent opinion can force insurers to pay for what can be lifesaving treatment.

Here’s what experts say you need to know.

By @deldeib.bsky.social

What did people do before SNAP?”

They died.

Healthcare, vaccines, disability support, education & food assistance are vital to our survival.

They’re why the average lifespan isn’t 35 anymore

The mark of a good & decent society is whether it sees the value in helping others.

All I want is to live in a country where this story isn’t the 80th most alarming news story of the day

Protecting your privacy doesn't have to be scary. Check out our Surveillance Self-Defense guides for step-by-step tutorials for keeping your data and devices secure. ssd.eff.org/

Your ability to eat should not depend on your productivity

Your ability to get healthcare should not depend on your productivity

Your ability to get housing should not depend on your productivity

Saying “be more productive!” To those who are struggling devalues human life.

It aids fascism.

It’s not just that they don’t have to turn off SNAP benefits — they’re not legally allowed to. They legally must use the contingency fund.

The admin is pretending they can’t use it even though their own guidance from a month ago (that they’ve since deleted) contradicts that.

This is the executive director of The Food Depot in Santa Fe, NM, saying candidly that while food banks will do everything they can, they cannot replace SNAP.

In case facts still matter

The Man Who Keeps Predicting The Web’s Death A prominent analyst has spent the past 30 years suggesting the Web was not long for this world. It keeps proving him wrong.

Inspired by a great @zeldman.bsky.social piece, I dove into perhaps the worst predictor of the Web’s success, Forrester CEO George Colony.

He’s been saying the Web is dying or is dead for 30 years.

tedium.co/2025/10/25/w...

new @tedium.co

Here’s a little joy for you because we all need it

not trying to write a thinkpiece or anything, but this is basically all I did all four years of college—read a book per week in each history or lit class (so, for me, that often meant 4-5 books/week), participate in a 2- or 3-hour seminar once a week, and write longass research papers on my own time

If you're able, please consider donating to local food banks and pantries.

Receipts: a brief list of prominent articles proclaiming the death of the web. They say AI will replace the web as we know it, and this time they mean it. Here follows a short list of previous times they also meant it, starting way back in 1997. Wired: March 1, 1997: “You can kiss your web browser goodbye” – Kevin Kelly and Gary Wolf, The Big Story. 1Inspired by the success of PointCast, a clever application that displayed news headlines as a screensaver, our "Push!" story argued that Web browsers were about to become obsolete. 

They say AI will replace the web as we know it, and this time they mean it. Here follows a short list of previous times they also meant it, starting way back in 1997.

CNN: Mike Johnson says Republicans have proposals to address healthcare subsidies and they can have them ready immediately. Over 400k people in Missouri are enrolled in the marketplace. Have you seen those proposals?

REP. MARK ALFORD: No. I would like to.

I mean the easier thing here is it also is shitty politics.

The "Trump spent 250m on a ballroom while you were struggling for groceries" is like the easiest attack line ever. And the response being "WELL ACKSHUALLY.."

A Wikipedia Conference Took a Dark Turn. Unfortunately, It’s Not a Total Surprise. An armed man at a gathering of the website’s volunteers is just the latest reminder: Editing the internet’s encyclopedia has never been riskier.

completely insane that the wikipedia conference didn't end in a bloodbath because a couple of wiki editors rushed the gunman and disarmed him

slate.com/technology/2...

SNAP benefits expire in one week.