Valerie Braman

I really feel like the movie Mountainhead didn't get enough attention. It was a picture-perfect depiction of how stupid techbros are about how smart techbros are.

Do it

Your periodic reminder that the estimated cost to end hunger in the U.S. is $25 billion.

While the studio audience – and many viewers - clearly agreed with the eloquent sentiment, the show’s bosses did not. Now it looks like Colbert may not even make it to the end of the series next year, as, according to journalist Rob Shuter, there have been words had with Colbert, and they have come “very close” to pulling him off-air. After reportedly calling a emergency meeting the morning after Cobert’s show aired, two senior executives reportedly said: “He's daring us to fire him. And honestly? We’re close to doing it. He’s been warned. What he said was unacceptable. There are real consequences this time.”

Supposedly after pretending it was about money they're just openly talking in meetings about how they'll trash contracts and fire comedians for the absolutely unprescedented act of... making fun of the president on a late night talk show.

Dictator shit.

NLRB hearing officer rejects all election objections made by Amazon/Whole Foods to union election win in Philadelphia

The NLRB overruled every objection to the Whole Foods union election win by Amazon/Whole Foods

I went to Pittsburgh to cover the Post-Gazette strike in 2022. My story published when the strike was about 100 days old.

At 1,000 days, the @pghguild.com strike hasn't ended despite rulings in the union's favor. It's the longest ongoing strike in the country. www.niemanlab.org/2025/07/a-th...

I’m deeply troubled by the reported knife attack on a Black trans woman outside the Edgewood Giant Eagle. Violence like this has no place in Pittsburgh—or anywhere. We must stand united against transphobia and hate, and insist on justice, protection, and respect for our trans siblings.

Graphic advertising Rally at City Hall, Wednesday Ju 9 at 3 pm. Text reads: join union members in a citywide show of solidarity.

Philly, it’s time. Let’s take our voices right to City Hall.
bit.ly/33solidarity

With Philly's DC33 strike the fundamental thing that bothers me is that nobody who performs such critical functions for the city should be paid wages that make it hard to get by.

Budgets are difficult, but a city isn't a business and it should substantially respect those who keep the city running.

DC33 #Philly #Philadelphia AFSCME AFL-CIO #UnionStrong

Donate to Urgent Help Needed: Trans Youth Emergency Fund, organized by Zane Chancellor The Trump Administration’s cruel anti-trans agenda has inflicted a prof… Zane Chancellor needs your support for Urgent Help Needed: Trans Youth Emergency Fund

Hundreds of patients across the region will have their life saving healthcare stopped by UPMC. Why? All so UPMC can protect its profits.

The community has launched a campaign to help these families please spread the word.

www.gofundme.com/f/support-tr...

Hi everyone

I was denied entry, detained, and deported from the USA over the last 48 hours because of my reporting on the Columbia student protests

I arrived back in Melbourne hours ago and had my phone handed back to me upon landing

Worker arrested by ICE in Lynn, later released, says agents beat him in cemetery A Massachusetts man said he told immigration agents multiple times that he's a legal resident and that he was brought to a cemetery where they assaulted him.

A man with a green card said ICE agents arrested him in #Lynn, Mass then took him to a detention facility—but first made a detour to a cemetery, where they took him out of their vehicle and beat him.

#mapoli #Massachusetts

Tweet by Marco Rubio from 2018 saying "Every time you hear overblown rhetoric about how we are on the verge of 'tyranny' or 'authoritarianism' in America remember what real tyranny and authoritarianism looks like. In China the police arrested a Xi critic while he was in the middle of a live interview." Then a link is added to the tweet with the matching story.

How about now, little Marco?

The administration's goons are now manhandling United States senators for asking questions at a press conference.

Walk. Away.

BREAKING: A few minutes ago, a vehicle of three people was rammed by a truck belonging to federal immigration authorities in Boyle Heights, CA. According to security footage shown to me, they deployed chemical munitions & detained the driver at gunpoint. All are US citizens according to the wife.

Industry Lobbyists Pitch Driverless ‘Ghost Trains’ Across America Buoyed by Trump’s deregulatory agenda, rail companies press for cost-cutting measures that could undermine railroad safety.

Great piece here from James Baratta.
The rail industry is asking regulators to approve freight trains with *zero* crew members: fully remote, autonomous ghost trains, to ride on aging infrastructure without a proven record of split-second decision making in crisis.
prospect.org/infrastructu...

Anti-union extremists are taking money from working families to give billionaires massive handouts. Meanwhile, millions will lose their health care. Don't let them raid our public services and hurt our communities. Help fight back by texting GO to 237236

A man in Delco Wawa >> Punxsutawney Phil

Came here to see specifically what you would say on this. Each section just magnified my disbelief.

We love to drag a shitty boss! Loving @punkademic.bsky.social on thisguysucked.com!

"7 of the cited sources don’t appear to exist at all."

NOTUS: Epidemiologist Katherine Keyes is listed in the MAHA report as author of a study on anxiety in adolescents (and) was surprised to hear of the citation.

“The paper cited isn't a real paper that I or my colleagues were involved with."

"Our society could decide that police and fire departments will not respond to calls made by individuals who worked less than 80 hours in the prior month, but most would find this repugnant and contrary to the purpose of these services."

gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/o...

The Congressional Budget Office Still Works | Washington Monthly The nonpartisan CBO that scores legislation is giving an honest analysis of President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” and that’s a good thing.

CBO says Trump/ GOP spending bill will take away healthcare coverage from 8.6 million Americans. washingtonmonthly.com/2025/05/13/t...

Gotta love a "but both sides!" when one side is broadly aligned with reality and the other is demanding that there are only two genders like a king demanding his attendants turn back the tide

PSU Board of Trustees continues dodging the community with secretly timed, virtual meeting with no live public comment.

How Penn State’s trustees plan to vote on campus closures Penn State trustees plan to meet virtually in May to decide the fate of 12 commonwealth campuses. Lawyers say the plan could run afoul of PA’s transparency law.

“The board doesn’t have to agree with what the public says,” Ramsingh said. “But that’s the piece that I think a lot of them don’t understand: It’s that hearing an opinion that is contrary to yours is not an attack.”