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Derek Willis

@dwillis.bsky.social

I teach data journalism at the University of Maryland, run OpenElections. Fan of WBB & test cricket. Posting obscure things about campaign finance, Congress & elections. https://github.com/dwillis https://thescoop.org

6,503 Followers  |  656 Following  |  3,689 Posts  |  Joined: 14.06.2023  |  1.8333

Latest posts by dwillis.bsky.social on Bluesky

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idk, seems like an unproductive thing to do:

09.02.2026 02:31 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Vito Marcantonio - Wikipedia

Looks like a rare chance to suggest people learn about former Rep. Vito Marcantonio, a New Yorker who supported Puerto Rican independence and was LaGuardia's campaign manager. Not a pal of @dicknixon.bsky.social, but an effective advocate for Harlem:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vito_Ma...

09.02.2026 02:11 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Bold of you to suggest thinking is involved.

09.02.2026 02:00 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

You're welcome for having our order shipped.

09.02.2026 01:13 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Both of those are pretty new for Maryland.

09.02.2026 00:09 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Not long after hitting a game-winning 3, UMD's Diggy Coit appears as the sender in an athletic department fundraising email.

Do other colleges do this, @mattbrown.bsky.social?

08.02.2026 23:49 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Also contains, without irony, the line "It's not against the law to be male."

My brother in Christ, who do you think wrote most of our laws?

08.02.2026 21:13 β€” πŸ‘ 9    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Wanker of the Day So early, but so deserving nonetheless. Derek Willis. ...oh, and if you click through the links you'll find that the WaPo has engaged in mas...

www.eschatonblog.com/2006/01/wank...

08.02.2026 21:11 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Well, when I was at the post, my comments to the then-ombudswoman took about three days to get into print, and the result was that I was named wanker of the day by a liberal blogger

08.02.2026 19:52 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Most charitable guess is that the readers editor has to ask some desk to respond to your legitimate complaint, they passive aggressively take their sweet time in doing so, and eventually a result emerges.

08.02.2026 19:20 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

The only way that the Post even approaches the 200 million paid user goal it declared last year is if it operates more like Amazon.

Trouble is, that makes it less like the Washington Post.

08.02.2026 01:07 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

It’s not nothing! But it’s also not legislation and Van Hollen represents a state that’s not going to punish him for doing so. Don’t think he changed support among any Senate Republicans.

07.02.2026 18:38 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Was having this discussion with a student last night, who kept insisting to me that senators "had an engaged electorate behind them" as if that triggered some magical abilities previously unavailable to the minority party.

07.02.2026 13:13 β€” πŸ‘ 66    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 1
We found at least 18 of the drugs on TrumpRx have cheaper generics available ranging from potential savings of over $600 for Tikosyn to just around $2 for Diflucan. Most of the drugs are made by Pfizer.

We found at least 18 of the drugs on TrumpRx have cheaper generics available ranging from potential savings of over $600 for Tikosyn to just around $2 for Diflucan. Most of the drugs are made by Pfizer.

So about TrumpRx: We crunched the numbers today and about half of the drugs on there have cheaper generics available already. www.statnews.com/2026/02/06/t...

06.02.2026 23:09 β€” πŸ‘ 1138    πŸ” 473    πŸ’¬ 5    πŸ“Œ 50
An email from Florida GOP congressional candidate Catalina Lauf's campaign with the subject line of "I was thinking about you all night" that begins with a picture of a smiling Lauf and the message "Friend, you've been on my mind all night."

An email from Florida GOP congressional candidate Catalina Lauf's campaign with the subject line of "I was thinking about you all night" that begins with a picture of a smiling Lauf and the message "Friend, you've been on my mind all night."

Political fundraising email or something else? You decide!

06.02.2026 20:16 β€” πŸ‘ 8    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

Thank goodness national flags are never political symbols.

05.02.2026 23:19 β€” πŸ‘ 33    πŸ” 10    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

SMDH Bluesky

05.02.2026 21:20 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Great that _tech company_ comms reps believe that an LLM is a fact machine.

05.02.2026 17:53 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Medgar Evers’ killer was a Klansman, but Trump administration says stop calling him a racist - Mississippi Today Among anticipated changes to a new visitor brochure for the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Home National Monument is no longer using "racist" to describe the killer of the civil rights leader.

Look, the least we can do for this White Citizens’ Council and KKK murderer is not to injure his reputation by calling him racist.

05.02.2026 17:01 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

When the cover is a subtweet

05.02.2026 14:55 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Student journalism strikes again.

05.02.2026 12:05 β€” πŸ‘ 16    πŸ” 7    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

In Oluchi and Kyndal we trust

05.02.2026 01:47 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Spotlighting The World Factbook as We Bid a Fond Farewell Somewhat devastating news today from the CIA: One of CIA’s oldest and most recognizable intelligence publications, The World Factbook, has sunset. There's not even a hint as to why they …

The CIA just stopped publishing their World Factbook and took every page, including the archived copies of previous versions!

This sucks. It was public domain, so I recovered the 2020 edition (the last one published as a zip file) and shared it to GitHub simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/5/t...

05.02.2026 00:25 β€” πŸ‘ 6038    πŸ” 2184    πŸ’¬ 178    πŸ“Œ 194
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Interesting trend unfolding in this cycle's special elections (data courtesy of @the-downballot.com). In 2018, Dems way overperformed on average in heavily GOP districts; slightly in more competitive ones; and not at all in heavily Dem districts.

In 2026, they're gangbusters in all three.

04.02.2026 19:27 β€” πŸ‘ 164    πŸ” 68    πŸ’¬ 7    πŸ“Œ 4

Owning the post still does provide him with some social and political benefit. He would still get most of those anyway, but this is not a valueless asset, IMO.

04.02.2026 22:42 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

I understand that argument and have some sympathy for it, but I don’t think the losses are really what’s driving this stuff. I mean, I think Bezos would prefer not to have a bunch of losses, but I think he also wants to see if there’s a way to massively scale a news operation.

04.02.2026 22:41 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

very normal stuff

04.02.2026 20:42 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I am so sorry, Emily.

04.02.2026 20:40 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

"Baby Baby Baby Baby Baby Baby Baby (I Love You)"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_...!

04.02.2026 19:28 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Alyssa is both a serious data journalist with immense technical chops and a super-talented visualization guru, figuring out all sorts of solutions to create the best storytelling approach. Plus she's a great collaborative partner :) Someone needs to hire her ASAP.

04.02.2026 18:14 β€” πŸ‘ 29    πŸ” 12    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

@dwillis is following 20 prominent accounts