If Not Us Who

A Letter to Mark Zuckerberg | GLAAD January 14, 2025: To Mr. Mark Zuckerberg Via Email, Re: Meta civil rights advisory group’s grave concerns with content policy changes

Civil society orgs letter to Meta:
American Association of People with Disabilities
Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC
Center for Democracy & Technology
Common Cause
GLAAD
Human Rights Campaign
Legal Defense Fund
Muslim Public Affairs Council
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glaad.org/a-letter-to-...

YouTube video by PettyYou007 Buffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth 1967

It's an old song. But I think it has a vibe for today's stress.

youtu.be/gp5JCrSXkJY?...

Jen Rubin exits Washington Post, joins Norm Eisen to launch new outlet countering ‘authoritarian threat’ | CNN Business Veteran opinion columnist Jennifer Rubin is becoming the latest in a long list of Washington Post figures to leave the troubled institution.

www.cnn.com/2025/01/13/m...

Join us @contrariannews.bsky.social !

In Praise of California It has its flaws — what place doesn’t? — but it plays a big role in America’s greatness

"California paid in a lot more [to the federal government] than it got back — $83 billion in total. So did Washington state and much of the Northeast. Most red states were in the reverse position, getting much more from DC than they paid in return."

California Fire Facts | Governor Gavin Newsom Get the facts about the Los Angeles fires.

Gavin Newsom launched a website to combat the wildfire disinformation spreading about Los Angeles, because people can’t be bothered to do a simple Google search before sharing nonsense. And because people suck!

Get the facts: californiafirefacts.com

Time is not on Russia’s side, argues Finland’s foreign minister Elina Valtonen calls for a lower oil-price cap and tougher measures against Russia’s shadow fleet

Very much worth reading.

www.economist.com/by-invitatio...

How about cutting out Amazon? We have to believe that we have the power to impact billionaires.

Red state life. Over 20 years of Republican majority rule in Missouri means that three days after one snowstorm major roads are still not plowed and safe. MODOT says they are short 200 plow drivers. MO has lowest state employee pay in the country. These clowns can’t handle basic governance. #moleg

Secretary of Transportation with Pete Buttigieg Podcast Episode · Civics 101 · 01/07/2025 · 24m

My strategy for mentally surviving the next 4 years is to listen to podcasts with Pete Buttigieg.

It's like oxygen for your brain:
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

Wildfire climate connection Climate change, including increased heat, extended drought, and a thirsty atmosphere, has been a key driver in increasing the risk and extent of wildfires in the western United States during the last ...

ABC, NBC & CBS dedicated about 16 minutes of airtime last night to the California wildfires without once mentioning climate change.

Since the news failed do it's job, here's a short summary of the role of climate change and wildfire risk:

www.noaa.gov/noaa-wildfir...

It hasn’t even started yet.

LA's wildfires sparked by rare collision of climate factors Extremely dry conditions and an hurricane force winds are overlapping unusually late in the year.

Los Angeles received just 0.16 inches of rain since May 2024, the second-driest period on record.

Wildfires are now engulfing the city in January.

But some politicians still claim the climate crisis is a "hoax" as they do the bidding of Big Oil.

What planet are they living on?

Bernie woke up, went on X, and chose violence.

Agreed. I will also stop buying from Amazon. It won’t mean a thing to Bezos, but I have to do something.

10 corporations that kept their promises after January 6, 2021 After a violent mob stormed the Capitol building on January 6, 2021, hundreds of corporations took action to communicate to the public that democracy itself was more important than maximizing their po...

1. Hundreds of companies who pledged to stop donating to members of Congress who voted to overturn the election on 1/6/21 have broken their promise over the last 4 years

But we've identified 10 promise keepers:

Farmers
Airbnb
Expedia
Nike
Clorox
General Mills
Holland & Hart
Qurate
Whirlpool
Lyft

Opinion | Joe Biden: What Americans should remember about Jan. 6 Four years ago, our democracy was put to the test — and prevailed.

“We should commit to remembering Jan. 6, 2021, every year. To remember it as a day when our democracy was put to the test and prevailed. To remember that democracy — even in America — is never guaranteed.”

We couldn’t have said it better, Joe Biden.

Is it under their starter packs?

“Four years ago, dozens of companies denounced the invasion of the U.S. Capitol and pledged to withhold support from those who disputed the 2020 election results. Now, many of those companies are lining up to fund Donald Trump’s inauguration.”

From the @wsj.com

www.wsj.com/business/tru...

Russian disinfo network “Matryoshka” is migrating to Bluesky as exodus from X continues The Russian disinformation network “Matryoshka” has launched a new campaign on the Bluesky social network. Eliot Higgins, founder of the investigative journalism group Bellingcat, has been one of the ...

The Russian disinformation network “Matryoshka” has launched a new campaign on Bluesky. Eliot Higgins, founder of the investigative journalism group Bellingcat, has been one of the first researchers to detect its activity. So far, four Russian-made fake videos have been identified on the platform.

THREAD: In 2023, I received an envelope with no return address. Inside was a flash drive containing tens of 1000s of secret files.

It came from a vigilante with a tumultuous past, who'd conducted a years-long undercover operation. He didn’t tell the FBI or his family. He only told me.

BREAKING NEWS:

President Biden will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Michael J. Fox and Hillary Clinton.

Who agrees they DESERVE it. 💙

Washington Post cartoonist resigns over paper’s refusal to publish satirical cartoon of Bezos and Trump | CNN Business Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes announced Friday she had resigned from The Washington Post after the newspaper refused to publish a satirical cartoon depicting billionaire Post owner Jef...

Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes announced she has resigned from The Washington Post after the newspaper refused to publish a satirical cartoon depicting billionaire Post owner Jeff Bezos (and others) on bended knee in front of President-elect Donald Trump.

www.cnn.com/2025/01/04/m...

As of January 1, Minnesotans won’t have co-pays higher than $25 per month for prescription drugs used to treat chronic diseases, and we’re putting a $50 per month cap on all related medical supplies.

We’re putting the wellbeing of our people before the profits of big pharma.

Trump can’t come close.

Yes, please make it “safer”.

It's official: For the first time, the U.S. Senate has two Black women as members.

Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware have just been sworn in as part of the 119th Congress.

Lobbying