Dr. M LaFrance

I’m SO glad to hear this. Please keep us posted. (May your day be restful. I hope you are able to sleep and breathe as your body needs.)

@jay.bsky.team visual notes from her keynote today at @sxsw!

Community! Open source! Creativity! Connection!

Graphic recording by @heatherwillems.bsky.social of #twolinestudios

#sxsw #sxsw2025 #graphicrecording

Now that the influential bigot who did a Hitler salute publicly claimed that organic protests against his malfeasance are secretly controlled by a list of foreign Jews, some of whom aren’t even alive today, are we allowed to call him a Nazi, or is there something even Nazier we have to wait for?

Really wish people would stop talking about the problem with Science under Trump as “budget cuts”.

No. Budgets are set deliberatively by elected members of congress. Budgets haven’t been cut.

What’s happening are *purges* and *censorship*.

🌱 "Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the field." -Dwight D. Eisenhower

🌱 "Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the field." -Dwight D. Eisenhower

Jean Baudrillard died on this day 18 years ago.

“Everywhere one seeks to produce meaning, to make the world signify, to render it visible. We are not, however, in danger of lacking meaning; quite the contrary, we are gorged with meaning and it is killing us.”

Whomever is advising the Democrats right now is criminally bad at their job. The notion that they can meme their way out of fascism is truly incredible.

Latest #NumbersDay data out from the Department of Labor (www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf) show the first signs of the federal worker layoffs. Federal Unemployment Insurance claims ticked up for the week ending February 22, 2.5 times higher than the prior week. Unfortunately, this is only the beginning.

One thing Trump didn't talk about last night: his plans to abandon American women’s right to abortion care in medical emergencies.

I wonder why he wouldn't want anyone to know that.

Most people are not political scientists using formal definitions. So I am curious when is the moment that people tell themselves "oh, I live under an authoritarian government now." Because what else is this?
www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

Trump Moves to Increase Logging in National Forests The president wants to circumvent environmental regulations to expand timber production, something sought by homebuilders and the construction industry.

President Trump has directed federal agencies to examine ways to bypass endangered species protections and other environmental regulations to ramp up logging across 280 million acres of national forests and other public lands.

Just saying.

Bezos’ Directive for Washington Post Opinion Pages Leads to Editor David Shipley’s Exit David Shipley, The Post’s opinion editor, is resigning after trying to persuade Jeff Bezos to reconsider the new direction.

SCOOP: Jeff Bezos’s rightward shift has been long in the making. In January, Will Lewis sent a memo to David Shipley summarizing Jeff’s vision for a WSJ-style opinions section. Shipley expressed doubts, suggested compromises and finally said he couldn't do it.
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/b...

Unvaccinated Child Dies of Measles in Texas, Officials Say (Gift Article) At least 124 cases have been identified in Texas since late January, mostly among children and teenagers who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown.

A child has died of measles in West Texas, the first known death in an outbreak that is spreading in the region and in neighboring New Mexico, state health officials said on Wednesday.

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/u...

Breaking: FDA's March meeting to select flu shot strains for 2025-2026 season has been canceled per email sent to committee members, a VRBPAC member told me. drug companies need about 6 months leeway to make shots in time for fall vax campaigns. #healthpolicy

The effects of the House’s proposed “Medicaid cuts to pay for tax cuts” in one graph: a 3.9% boost in income for the top 1% of households and a 7.4% reduction in income for the bottom fifth of households. In two words: class warfare. www.epi.org/blog/the-hou...

I loved Palookaville. 💚

My signature “tap tap cronch” mushroom ASMR compilation with >70 million views across platforms #asmr #mushrooms #mycology

I’m strongly in favor of mushroom thumping

Mushroom friends, what do we think

Big Big Scandal Brewing at DC US Attys Office There’s a big, big scandal brewing beneath the already big scandal of...

BIG: DC Metro Police decided they had sufficient evidence to arrest sitting GOP Congressman and sent warrant request to USATTY's office. Acting USATTY Martin, who's been explicitly acting as Trump's personal attorney, ignored it. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/big-b...

The pomodoro technique may be helpful. The ticking timer helps to keep me focused (for short, intensive sprints).

How blessed is it to received love and how much moreso to give it

Institute Asks Judge in Trump Documents Case to Disclose Special Counsel Report The report is the second volume of a report Jack Smith wrote after dropping the federal criminal cases he brought against Donald J. Trump because of his 2024 election victory.

Knight Institute asks Judge Cannon to make public Jack Smith's report on the Trump classified documents case, saying it is a judicial record so there is a 1st Amendment right of access. (American Oversight & the NYT are separately pursuing FOIA lawsuits for it.)

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/24/u...

If the point of having a society *isn't* to care for each other, to ease suffering and realize each life's potential, literally what is the point? To hoard wealth? To build empires on other people's throats? Life is brief, nothing lasts. Wealth and empires are pointless violence

Penn to reduce graduate admissions, rescind acceptances amid federal research funding cuts Penn notified department chairs that it will cut admissions across graduate programs — a decision faculty members say will force them to rescind offers from newly-accepted students.

Re-sharing – now without the editorializing! “On Friday, Penn notified department chairs that it will cut admissions across graduate programs, a decision faculty members say was made after programs had already accepted students.”

Amazing photo.

👇🏽

OurSpace: Resisting the Corporate Control of Culture a book by Christine Harold Culture jamming is so twentieth century! What's next? When reporters asked about the Bush administration's timing in making their case for the Iraq war, then Chief of Staff Andrew Card responded that...

P.p.s., Btw, I wrote a book (pretty dated now) about anti-corporate art such as culture jamming. Not trying to sell it! Just giving context for my interest in the subject.

DOGE’s Only Public Ledger Is Riddled With Mistakes The figures from Elon Musk’s team of outsiders represent billions in government cuts. They are also full of accounting errors, outdated data and other miscalculations.

Elon Musk and his team say they have saved the government $55 billion. Their “wall of receipts” is riddled with mistakes.