You want to democratize "going to therapy"? Make it "free" as in paid by socialized healthcare. You want to democratize "making art"? Give people money and free time to express themselves.

One of the more incredible stories out of LA this year has been how a taco review blog became the best on-the-ground coverage of ICE raids in the city.

They do a dispatch every day, follow-up on the kidnapped people (which almost no media outlet has done), and fact-check government claims.

This moment from our latest episode with science writer @edyong209.bsky.social is 🔥

We asked Ed — how do we talk up the benefits of science in the face of government cuts? He told us that's the wrong approach. 🧪

Listen wherever, or watch on Spotify 👇

open.spotify.com/episode/7Evh...

“We are told by leaders that we are the future. But when it comes to the ongoing pandemic, our present is being stolen right in front of our eyes.”

Incredible speech by Violet Affleck who warned about the ongoing dangers of COVID & Long Covid, & advocated for masks and clean air at the UN today!

The ATF's Nonsensical Non-Searchable Gun Databases, Explained The trace starts with a call or fax to the National Trace Center in Martinsburg, West Virginia. A police department has recovered a gun at a crime scene that was bought at a dealer that has since gone...

well thank god there's a great way to trace gun ownership in the U.S. wait what

www.thetrace.org/2016/08/atf-...

People who weaponize this dont ask “how am i supposed to explain school lunch debt to my children?” Or “how am i supposed to explain how pregnant people are dying of sepsis from miscarriages to my children?”

One of the things you learned at 18F and USDS is that government isn’t like a business: it has to serve everybody and not just specific market segments that are the most convenient.

The Bay Area Reporter front page, 13 August 1998. The headline ‘No obits’ is written in red above the lead story.

27 years ago, two years after the introduction of effective HIV treatment, the Bay Area Reporter, San Francisco’s lesbian and gay community newspaper, ran ‘No Obits’ as its headline.
It was the first edition not to report an AIDS death in almost 15 years.

Way too many people believe that both politics and democracy is simply when you do an election.

Here is what Zohran actually said, which is v. different from the impression the headline gives. Whether you disagree or not, what he says is careful and nuanced and demonstrates empathy for different communities. By contrast, the headline wants you to get angry and attack.
bsky.app/profile/mage...

if any technology has the capability for surveillance, you can be sure it'll be primarily used for surveillance

LA's ICE raids are impacting domestic violence shelters These programs "should be safe sanctuaries—and we can't even guarantee that anymore."

“She literally had to choose: physical harm or potential [ICE] custody.”

Every flashbang could instead be a meal for a poor kid. Every hotel room for a National Guardsman deployed to fire at our neighbors could house a homeless vet. Every "less-than-lethal" bullet pulled from a journalist's eye could be already needed healthcare for anyone else. All of this is a choice.

It's like how every single UBI study says it only has benefits and even saves governments money, and then governments simply don't want to do it.

If you're only following this "debate" through popular media you probably have the impression that studies on youth gender medicine are roughly split between benefits and harms.

Nope! Nearly every study finds benefits. The "debate" is just a bunch of people going, "Those don't count."

Try not to doomscroll too late tonight. You still need time to rest and recover.

How did we get from "Do not use Wikipedia as a source" to "ask hallucinating chatbot everything"?

If I see another article about birth rates that refuses to grapple with the way having children systematically disadvantages women I swear to god. There is no mystery. Stop pretending there is. We’ve got to do away with credulity for nonsense.

Your periodic reminder that one way to think about privilege is: who's allowed to make mistakes?

Radicalized White Men Like the FSU Shooter Are the Real Threat to Campuses—Not Student Protestors "The alleged gunman is a quintessentially American school shooter."

the US government is so hostile to immigrants and Palestine activism that they’re snatching students off campuses and deporting them—while radicalized white men like FSU shooter Phoenix Ikner, the son of a cop who used her gun, espouse Nazi ideology and ridicule protesters before killing.

my latest

Fight to Win! The revelatory history of the American labor movement, from independent journalist and Teen Vogue labor columnist Kim Kelly, now adapted for young ...

it feels deeply weird to be promoting something right now but the government has declared war on labor and history is being erased before our eyes—young people need to know what we are capable of accomplishing when we organize

www.simonandschuster.com/books/Fight-...

Yes

Students were told for years that, actually, hate speech was protected speech and what was needed at universities. They were told that heckling such speech was itself a sign of intolerance.

Pay attention to what 18F is calling out. We rely on government tech for far more services than we realize. 👇

Imagine DOGE opens your mail and finds your household electric bill. To eliminate this cost, they burn your house down without warning. Then they total up the bills that, as a homeless person, you will never again pay. On its website, DOGE boasts about the money it has saved you.

Of note: Gavin Newsom just issued a major return to office order for California state empoyees. These kinds of mandates hurt ALL workers and, ultimately, their workplaces as well by pushing great people to resign.

“Motherfuckers, that is the broader electorate.”

One-man off Broadway show where I perform 1200 classic Vines back-to-back over two hours