James Barrass

Trump administration says it will fully fund SNAP while court appeal plays out The administration has asked a federal appeals court for an emergency pause on a judge's order to fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...

It's almost as if the White House *wants* Congress to exercise its authority. Who knew?

Ellis: "Requiring the government to comply with its obligations under the Constitution, in particular the Fourth Amendment, is simply not a harm."

Poster from 1936 says: Join the March to Old Age Security, with a long line of happy people

Poster with picture of old man holding pipe: More Security for the American Family (1939)

The Social Security Administration used to have an incredible communications arm, including even a film unit. This was crucial in helping people understand the program, and how it would work. From 1936, 1939.
www.ssa.gov/history/puba...

Mamdani: "We can respond to oligarchy and authoritarianism with the strength it fears, not the appeasement it craves. After all, if anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him."

Powerful new antibiotic that can kill superbugs discovered in soil bacteria Surprise discovery could pave the way for new treatments against drug-resistant infections.

An antibiotic for superbugs? "They discovered an intermediate compound — called premethylenomycin C lactone — whose antimicrobial activity was 100 times stronger than that of the final product. Tiny doses of it killed strains of bacteria known to cause hard-to-treat infections"

centrists will tell you to your face that we all need to abandon identity issues, and focus on kitchen table issues instead and yet when a leftist candidate runs a generational campaign based on kitchen table issues, it's the centrists weaponizing identity politics to smear the leftist.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute learned that the Government of Ontario, Canada, created an ad campaign using selective audio and video of President Ronald Reagan delivering his "Radio Address to the Nation on Free and Fair Trade," dated April 25, 1987. The ad misrepresents the Presidential Radio Address, and the Government of Ontario did not seek nor receive permission to use and edit the remarks. The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute is reviewing its legal options in this matter. We encourage you to watch President Reagan's unedited video on our YouTube channel.

The post from the Reagan Foundation is just complete gibberish.

The ad did not, in fact, misrepresent Reagan's views. But the idea that anyone needs the Reagan Foundation's goddamn permission to use the publicly broadcast official remarks of a former president and/or edit them for brevity is crazy

Mike Johnson doesn't know sh*t

The clean energy transition in three charts On the left is the way California supplied power in 2022. By 2024 (middle chart) we can start to see the impact of more solar and battery storage on the grid. Carry this trend forward to see the future of electricity. Data from www.caiso.com. https://landartgenerator.org/blagi/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Electricity-Supply-01.jpg

Won’t be long now until our use of gas peaker plants is only required on rare occasions.

landartgenerator.org/blagi/archiv...

Grid scale batteries are changing our electricity system. Excellent new visual story on batteries in FT today shows just how far this technology has evolved.

Fasten your seatbelts, this is just the beginning.

ig.ft.com/mega-batteri...

Pope Leo calls for news agencies to stand as bulwark against "post-truths," lies and manipulation Pope Leo XIV has encouraged international news agencies to stand firm as a bulwark against the "ancient art of lying" and manipulation.

Pope Leo quotes Hannah Arendt:

“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction and the distinction between true and false no longer exist."

www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news...

Toronto hospital performs Canada’s first heart transplant using a heart that stopped beating: UHN Canada’s first-ever heart transplant using a heart, which had stopped beating before donation, has successfully been performed in Toronto, according to the University Health Network.

www.ctvnews.ca/toronto/arti...

Renewables produced more electricity than coal

Renewables surpass coal for electricity in 1H2025.

Crucially, gas down slightly despite the investment boom in LNG in recent years

ember-energy.org/latest-insig...

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.

It's easy to see this speech as just weirdly performative, but there's a lot more—and a lot worse—going on here.

The meeting & speeches are part of a larger project aimed at promoting the military leadership’s partisan alignment with the administration.

How? 1/

New Climate Maps Show a Transformed United States According to new data analyzed by ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine, warming temperatures, rising seas and changing rainfall will profoundly reshape the way people have lived in North America...

In 2020, we mapped out the danger zones that will close in on Americans over the next 30 years — combining climate data with wildfire projections by US Forest Service researchers and others.

See what changes are in store for your county 👇

Kimmel: "This show is not important. What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this."

Opinion | The MAGA Movement Is Not a Debating Society

a few thoughts (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/o...

there’s a lot of talk about big tech and corporations but so many international academic colleagues are also on H1Bs.

no university is going to pay 100k extra a year to keep them. if this holds, it would essentially mean the end of foreigners on tenure track jobs at US universities.

i don’t think people on bluesky understand the severity of this situation.

i woke up to literally hundreds of texts from friends and family thinking about either moving back home to india or applying to other countries for jobs. this includes me.

Microsoft gave guidance on H1Bs to its employees last night

💡 Good idea 💡
“Hyperscalers should pay for heat pumps, rooftop solar, and storage to get the capacity they need on the grid now, while setting us up for an affordable, reliable, and clean energy future.”

Bingo. We understand just fine. And reject their odious or stupid beliefs

When Dementia Steals the Imagination of a Children’s Book Writer

I loved this piece. God, gorgeous. (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/m...

China is sending its world-beating auto industry into a tailspin Government policies that prioritize production targets over market demand have led to overinvestment by carmakers. The resulting glut of vehicles has created lose-lose transactions throughout the sales chain, and spawned a variety of irregular practices.

China is sending its world-beating auto industry into a tailspin reut.rs/3IdaxHp

I know jumping to politically-advantageous conclusions is just what we do now, but its still striking how many right wing folks have immediately jumped to "violent leftist," as if there hasn't been a sustained, decadelong hate campaign against Charlie Kirk from those to his right.

Opinion | Stop Acting Like This Is Normal

Stop Acting Like This Is Normal www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/o...

Disease prevalence in US states before & after vaccine introduction 🧪

From Edward Tufte & graphics.wsj.com/infectious-d...

5 forecasts early climate models got right – the evidence is all around you From rising global temperatures to the fast-warming Arctic, early climate models predicted the changes half a century ago.

theconversation.com/5-forecasts-...