Katherine Silkaitis

RFK Jr. backs down all the time when he gets push back, so if anyone wants to call, here's the HHS number 1-877-696-6775.
I'd also call your senators/reps as well.

We figured out to *cure cancer* (ref: last year’s pancreatic cancer trials) and the Trump administration decided “nah.” That a society could reject a cure for cancer is astounding.

There Is an Information Blackout at Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Migrant Detention Camp Public records related to Florida’s so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” migrant detention camp have...

Over 90 pages of "Alligator Alcatraz" files disappeared as I was looking at them and reporting on the situation. Our public records requests are getting stonewalled. A slew of experts told me this all seems to be illegal. talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/th...

Former Irish Republican Army soldier in Missouri self deports, afraid he’ll die in an ICE cell The Clinton administration once used Matthew Morrison’s U.S. immigration case to help solidify peace in Northern Ireland. Decades after moving to St. Louis to find safety and build a family, Morrison is now fleeing this country out of fear.

The Clinton administration once used Matthew Morrison’s U.S. immigration case to help solidify peace in Northern Ireland. Decades after moving to St. Louis to find safety and build a family, Morrison is now fleeing this country out of fear. https://loom.ly/KLxugYM

Ramis: I can’t tell you how many people have told me, “When I go to the movies, I don’t want to think.” Believer interviewer: Does that offend you as a filmmaker? Ramis: It offends me as a human being. Why wouldn’t you want to think? What does that mean? Why not just shoot yourself in the fucking head?

People plugging their entire skulls into A.I. makes me think of this old Believer interview with Harold Ramis

Joy and relief as lotus flowers bloom again in Kashmiri lake after three decades Wular Lake once supported 5,000 people who harvested the plant’s edible roots, until the lake silted up after floods. Now the lotuses are back

Joy and relief as lotus flowers bloom again in Kashmiri lake after three decades

and here's David Mamet revealing that getting snubbed by Terry Gross is what radicalized him into conservatism

chart: capital expenditures, quarterly shows hockey-stick like growth in the capex expenditures of Amazon, Microsoft, Google and meta, almost entirely on data centers in the most recent quarter it was nearly $100 billion, collectively

The AI infrastructure build-out is so gigantic that in the past 6 months, it contributed more to the growth of the U.S. economy than /all of consumer spending/

The 'magnificent 7' spent more than $100 billion on data centers and the like in the past three months *alone*

www.wsj.com/tech/ai/sili...

"É uma tragédia" que "caiu que nem uma bomba". Cientistas chocados com extinção da FCT sem aviso prévio Decisão anunciada esta tarde pelo Governo apanhou de surpresa a comunidade cientifica, que questiona o futuro da ciência em Portugal

The 🇵🇹 government just imploded science in Portugal by extinguishing several scientific entities including the FCT (Foundation for science and technology, the main funder in PT). Imagine DFG was extinguished in Germany, the CNRS in France, or the NIH in the USA 🧪
cnnportugal.iol.pt/fct/governo/...

UMich cancels doctoral epidemiology program admissions for 2026 The University of Michigan School of Public Health will not admit a 2025-2026 admissions cycle cohort to its PhD in Epidemiologic Sciences program.

People thought I was overreacting when I said Trump’s list of “banned” words meant epidemiology was itself defacto being banned.

But this week U Michigan announced they aren’t even accepting applications for the 2026 epi PhD admissions cycle.

www.michigandaily.com/news/news-br...

What’s a technology that you think is overhyped? I’m going to give a sideways answer to this, which is that the venture capital business model needs to be understood as requiring hype. You can go back to the Netscape IPO, and that was the proof point that made venture capital the financial lifeblood of the tech industry. Venture capital looks at valuations and growth, not necessarily at profit or revenue. So you don’t actually have to invest in technology that works, or that even makes a profit, you simply have to have a narrative that is compelling enough to float those valuations. So you see this repetitive and exhausting hype cycle as a feature in this industry. A couple of years ago, you would have been asking me about the metaverse, then last year, you would have asked me about Web3 and crypto, and for each of these inflection points there’s an Andreessen Horowitz manifesto. It’s not simply that one piece of technology is overhyped, it’s that hype is a necessary ingredient of the current business ecosystem of the tech industry. We should examine how often the financial incentive for hype is rewarded without any real social returns, without any meaningful progress in technology, without these tools and services and worlds ever actually manifesting. That’s key to understanding the growing chasm between the narrative of techno-optimists and the reality of our tech-encumbered world.

Stand by this: www.politico.com/newsletters/...

Not just CEOs, let's not forget universities and foreign leaders

"The CEOs always think they can somehow pacify Trump or buy him off with concessions. And they are always wrong."

I very much blame Apple deciding to phase out the headphone jack (leading to all the other phone manufacturers following suit) for this plague

it’s all fun and games until Mom eats your watermelon 🍉

Missouri GOP repeal of voter-approved laws inspires backlash: 'They've kicked the hornet's nest' After Republican lawmakers rolled back sick leave benefits and targeted abortion rights, a bipartisan coalition called Respect Missouri Voters started pushing an initiative petition seeking to undermine the legislature’s ability to overturn voter-approved measures.

Respect Missouri Voters, a bipartisan constellation of organizations, submitted 38 versions of a new initiative petition seeking to undermine the legislature’s ability to overturn voter-approved measures. (@missouriindependent.com) https://loom.ly/3QljGFM

Media Matters shouldn't be paying for this at all. a big firm should be doing this pro bono. this is about basic press freedom.

and Elias, if they stand by their convictions, shouldn't be charging them. if they don't have the capacity to take the case for free, they shouldn't have taken it.

That weird inter-connected "S" type symbol everyone drew in notebooks and on desks in school.

an anonymous source that goes by the neutral name "jeffersondavisfan" has leaked that, as a child, Zohran Mamdani drew this hate-filled symbol in over eight notebooks and on two different desks

Tumblr normal-horoscopes Everyone shut up and look at this carving of a whale from the 1200-600 CE Chumash culture The whale looks delightfully round and seems to be smiling.

We have always made delightful little guys.

Exonerated Missouri woman sues police for conspiracy and coverup that put her in prison for 43 years Sandra Hemme's federal lawsuit accuses St. Joseph Police of suppressing and destroying evidence that pointed to a fellow officer who was guilty of the 1980 murder. Before being freed last year, Hemme served the longest sentence of any wrongly convicted woman in American history.

Sandra Hemme's federal lawsuit accuses St. Joseph Police of suppressing and destroying evidence that pointed to a fellow officer who was guilty of the 1980 murder.

Hemme served the longest sentence of any wrongly convicted woman in American history. https://loom.ly/j5y-laU

a reminder that every citizen should have the right to vote, regardless of criminal history, incarceration, or iq. we all get to vote, period. disenfranchising one group risks disenfranchising us all.

With Tom Lehrer's passing, I suppose this is a moment to share the story of the prank he played on the National Security Agency, and how it went undiscovered for nearly 60 years.

Trump tower glimmers over Gaza in Likud minister’s AI video pushing Gazan emigration Declaring 'it’s us or them,' Gila Gamliel posts clip showing Netanyahu and US president strolling with spouses in imagined future resort

There is no quiet part. The goal has been stated unambiguously since the beginning.

www.timesofisrael.com/trump-tower-...

Housing first has been an incredible success in terms of mental health and substance abuse to kill it in favor of tough love nonsense that doesn't work will destroy lives.

Apply!

City Attorney Election Puts Seattle's Renewed 'War on Drugs' Under Scrutiny - Bolts Over the past year, Seattle has begun barring some residents from entering certain neighborhoods of their city.  A new ordinance has given local judges the authority to ban people from... Read More

People talk about Seattle as though its a progressive city and yet it has effectively barred some people charged with drug crimes – *charged* not convicted – from entire areas of the city. If Trump did that there would be 1000 Bluesky posts decrying it. boltsmag.org/city-attorne...

I would like to propose peanut butter & jelly sandwiches

the city of philadelphia accounts for 40% of the economic output for the commonwealth and receives 27% of the transportation funding (***including*** road construction/maintenance, etc)

"Here, too, powerful people are responding to authoritarian advances just as their Hungarian counterparts have — not with defiance, but with capitulation....Institutions and professions that have long acted as bastions of critical inquiry, civilized contestation... have fallen silent"