Melissa Ridley Elmes

So happy to have my work published in Penumbric! <3

OK look no shade to England's defense, they were excellent. But Scotland definitely beat Scotland today. So unfortunate.
#SixNations #6nations #rugby #ENGvSCO

I don't think we're talking enough about the fact that the pressure to remove DEI from science means women die.

Let's go Scotland! #CalcuttaCup #SixNations #6nations #rugby

New Social Security chief was being investigated when Musk team tapped him Data analyst Leland Dudek was suspected of sharing unauthorized access to information with the U.S. DOGE Service. Now he’s the acting Social Security commissioner.

SCOOP: New Social Security chief was being investigated for leaking data to DOGE when Musk team tapped him. Sr officials placed him on paid leave while probing whether he may have violated privacy & tax laws, WaPo's Lisa Rein reports.

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

If you look at all the firings across the government over the last two weeks it's frequently been taken as a given that any black or woman official or officer is either a DEI hire or supports DEI and is summarily fired on that basis. Seems like the same model here.

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 They are also full of accounting errors, outdated data and other miscalculations.

So DOGE's 'wall of receipts' is riddled with errors, falsehoods and distortions. big shock. about what you'd expect from 6 tech bros dragged over from the strip club www.nytimes.com/2025/02/21/u...

A closer score than anyone imagined & LOVE what happened after the 80' mark. THIS is the Wales team we want--all heart & pluck & never-give-up + skill. So much better! And only 4 sessions into this interim coach's tenure. Give Sherratt the full-time head coach contract.
#rugby #sixnations #6nations

This morning my joy is a proper contest between Ireland & a substantially upgraded Wales side.

Sherratt has stepped in with efficiency & effectiveness, & clearly Gatland was the primary issue this season. It's like we're watching an entirely different squad on that field. Cymru am byth!

#rugby

So the President not only fired the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He also fired the top JAGs at the Army, Navy and Air Force. Those are the lead people who determine what is a legal order and what is not. So if you're planning to do things that are illegal they're the most obvious obstacle.

BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: While the Trump Justice Department is telling a federal court that Elon Musk has nothing to do with DOGE, Republican members of Congress are telling their constituents that DOGE is “led by Elon Musk.”

See below 👇

the line about how trump is just trolling or joking about the “king” thing is belied somewhat by the fact that his administration’s explicit position is he can do whatever he wants and that everyone in every branch of government needs to bow to his demands or be banished

DOGErs now accessED into systems designed to protect US critical infrastructure from cyber attacks

Very pleased to have my poem, "What you hear in the shadows," included in this issue of Penumbric, alongside many fantastic pieces by inventive and skilled writers!

I have no doubt I will have a wonderful time just being in your beautiful country: Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Culloden/Inverness, the lochs, Glencoe, and Isle. I'm beyond excited! But mostly about the rugby! lol I played myself as a college student and just after, so it is dear to me. <3

I'm an American coming to Scotland for the first time in March, and we have tickets for the Scotland/Wales match at Murrayfield, and it is the part of the trip I'm most excited about of all of the truly exciting trip we're going on. Is there a best pub we should visit post-match in Edinburgh?

Well, if that wasn't the single most disappointing Six Nations match in recent history, I don't know what was. It's up to Ireland now to shut out England. Et tu, Dupont? 😭😭😭

Funny how a little bit of complicity doesn’t save your ass … as we’ve been saying because Germany already ran this experiment

even newsmax doesn’t know how to spin this one www.newsmax.com/amp/newsfron...

How is this ENGvFRA match so close? France has made some massive errors--I've never actually seen Dupont drop a ball with my own eyes in any game I've watched him in, so that shook me a bit TBH. But France should have easily pulled away already. Second half will be intense.

These are my precise emotions ATM. Gutted for this young & inexperienced Wales squad, but delighted for Italy who've been working towards this point for many years now. WRU needs to get its nonsense in order & start investing in the system again. Who imagined this storied team would ever be here?

@nbcpeacock.bsky.social many thanks for airing the anthems this morning during the #Guinnesssixnations ITAvWAL match. Appreciated! #SixNations #SixNationsRugby #rugby

Kaine: "Last week the president signed an emergency order regarding energy. There's an energy emergency and he just put a 10% tariffs on energy from Canada? He is increasing prices at the pump at the same time he's saying there's an energy emergency. The emergency is self-created."

That goal, for all intents and purposes, has been achieved, or very shortly will be achieved. We are in fact at constitutional crisis.

As I came to consciousness after fitful sleep last night, I could not stop this historical moment running through my head:

“A republic, if you can keep it.”
--Benjamin Franklin's response to Elizabeth Willing Powel's question: "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" (1787).

while Canada and Mexico have already answered with tariffs of their own, all of which will be passed on to US consumers as higher costs.

Ask yourself what you’d think about another country if a new regime quickly prohibited all government agencies from communicating with the public, then began deleting data from government websites that it deemed unacceptable.

This should be 25th amendment level conduct. The president ordered water to be released from a random dam in California nowhere near the wildfires and then claimed it would help. That’s literally Mad King behavior.

I hate that it's gotten this far, but if countries want to counter a US-imposed trade war, they should make Elon Musk's companies a focus of their retaliation.
Those business interests have effectively merged with the US executive branch, and decision-makers value them more than the American people.