KSher

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From left to right, Dr. Albert Mulenga, William Tae Heung Kim, Dr. Thu Thuy Nguyen, Dr. Alex Kiarie Gaithuma, Dr Hassan Hakimi and Emily Bencosme Cuevas. Kim is a Texas A&M researcher who was detained in San Francisco last Monday despite being a permanent resident of the United States and a green card holder. COURTESY OF TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

I NEED to tell you the story of Tae Heung “William” Kim.

He's a graduate student at Texas A&M where he's working on a vaccine for Lyme disease.

He's a *legal permanent resident* of the United States.

And he's been in ICE detention for 12 days & counting, transferred Tuesday to South Texas.

I have thought on it and prayed about it, and I have decided: I am running to be the next U.S. Senator from North Carolina.

It is fucking insane that we had a decade of people complaining about the dangers of cancel culture, and now literally hundreds of thousands of people are being purged from government jobs for ideological reasons, but that is not cancel culture.

I just held a rally in Plano, TX — a red part of the state — and 1,000 people showed up.

Many said it was their first political rally ever.

There’s something happening in Texas…

Never thought to do it. I mentioned the level of service in my full prof dossier, but didn’t give details about people/institutions. But I tend to chronically underreport so I’ll look to see what others say.

ADVISORY: Statement, media avail. from unjustly detained U.S. veteran George Retes

Ventura County, CA—
Wed 7/16 at 3 pm PT, George Retes, U.S. citizen and Army veteran unjustly detained by federal agents during last week’s raid will hold a virtual press availability. 1/

Sadly I think this is kind of okay with some parents who don't really like the idea of their kids being influenced by other adults--the idea of an impersonal but personalized system somewhat appeals to them in the abstract.

a poster that says friends do n't let friends not vote Alt: a poster that says friends don't let friends not vote

TODAY is the deadline to vote in ILSSA elections!

All students affiliated with @islsnews.bsky.social / @islsilssa.bsky.social are eligible to vote...so vote!

🗳️ Ballots can be accessed via your email (for ISLS members), the ILSSA Discord, or by emailing ilssacommittee@gmail.com 🗳️

First page of a July 8, 2025 letter from the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. Signed by hundreds of EPA staff, the letter accuses Zeldin of undermining the EPA’s mission and abusing his office. It states that Zeldin’s actions have harmed communities, set back science, and damaged the agency’s culture. The letter condemns the retaliatory administrative leave placed on at least 139 signatories of a previous dissent letter and warns that these retaliatory acts may violate the Whistleblower Protection Act.

🔥 Congress just issued a letter to EPA Admin Zeldin demanding an end to what they call “illegal retaliation” against the #EPA139 for signing the #DeclarationofDissent.

These civil servants warned that EPA leadership was endangering public health, abuse of authority, & gross mismanagement.

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Not to mention that it's only use is developed by harnessing the cultural, linguistic, artistic etc. work of pretty much anyone throughout history and yet it's going to be owned/controlled by a few.

Sure, but I think the critical distinctions need to be made. As a prof, I review an average of 2000 pgs of student work a semester-I target some assignments for careful feedback, others for completion of basics. I don't use AI, but could see it for the latter. I'm rethinking assignments too.

I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE.

This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.

It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.

“Congress” didn’t pass this murder budget.

Republicans did it.

Republicans did it without a single Democratic vote in the House, without a single Democratic vote in the Senate.

Be precise and give, uh, credit where credit is due

DCCC 2026 DISTRICTS IN PLAY NICK BEGICH AK-AL DAVID SCHWEIKERT AZ-OI ELI CRANE AZ-02 JUAN CISCOMANI AZ-06 DAVID VALADAO CA-22 YOUNG KIM CA-40 KEN CALVERT CA-41 GABE EVANS CO-08 CORY MILLS FL-07 ANNA PAULINA LUNA FL-13 MARIA ELVIRA SALAZAR FL-27 MARIANNETTE MILLER-MEEKS IA-OI ASHLEY HINSON IA-02 ZACH NUNN 1A-03 ANDY BARR KY-06 BILL HUIZENGA MI-04 TOM BARRETT MI-07 MIKE LAWLER NY-17 MAX MILLER OH-07 MIKE TURNER OH-10 OPEN SEAT MI-IO MIKE CAREY 0H-15 ANN WAGNER MO-02 DON BACON NE-02 TOM KEAN JR. NJ-07 BRIAN FITZPATRICK PA-OI RYAN MACKENZIE PA-07 ROB BRESNAHAN PA-08 SCOTT PERRY PA-10 ANDY OGLES TN-05 MONICA DE LA CRUZ TX-15 ROB WITTMAN VA-O1 JEN KIGGANS VA-02 BRYAN STEIL WI-OI DERRICK VAN ORDEN WI-03

IF YOU ARE IN ONE OF THESE DISTRICTS PLEASE MAKE A CALL RIGHT NOW

DOES NOT MATTER IF YOUR VOICE SHAKES

CALL AND SAY YOU OPPOSE BBB

Scripts here: 5calls.org

All you need is: "Hello, my name is [your name] in zip code [your zip code], and I oppose the funding bill that cuts funding for Medicaid and adds billions to ICE [or other parts of the bill you hate]."

That's it, you can do it in 60 seconds.

Private equity is destroying hospitals, housing markets, the media, and other vital parts of our communities.

The industry thrives off the "carried interest loophole" — which Trump promised to eliminate.

Guess what his budget doesn't eliminate? The carried interest loophole.

The cover page of a scientific paper published at nature.com entitled “Optogenetic restoration of high-sensitivity vision using ChRmine- and ChroME-based channelrhodopsins"

My kid did two years of research at U.C Berkeley on gene therapy to cure blindness in mice and the results have just been published for other researchers to build upon for a human cure. This is the kind of research Trump’s budget cuts are killing. rdcu.be/eulAo

I hope Harvard’s administration heeds the strong case @ryanenos.bsky.social and @stevelevitsky.bsky.social make in this piece.

To give in to the demands of an authoritarian government would risk the university’s credibility and make it complicit in the erosion of American democracy.

Or you can say, teachers have already developed adults and they use AI to assist in the mundane, repetitive tasks involved in teaching in order to preserve their time/energy for the harder parts of teaching. I'm an AI skeptic, but I think the "hypocrisy" aspect needs to be countered here.

Washington Post publishes an op-ed by Kristi Noem attacking Harvard. I wonder which of the two pillars--"personal liberties and free markets"--Jeff Bezos would say this supports.🤔

If you want independent pro-democracy news, information and analysis, sign up for Democracy Docket. hubs.ly/Q03jcjqP0

“family members identified the victim as Narciso Barranco, a father to three sons who are all U.S. Marines”

ktla.com/news/local-n...

👇🎯

Saying there are “too many non-working holidays” on Juneteenth is so on brand for a man who is actively trying to erase Black history.

This from the same man who’s wasted over $26 million in taxpayer dollars and spent more than 30 days golfing since January 20, 2025? Please.

The majority’s contention that I reject “ ‘pure textualism’ [a]s insuf ficiently pliable to secure the result [I] seek,” ante, at 10, stems from an unfortunate misunderstanding of the judicial role. Our interpretative task is not to seek our own desired results (whatever they may be). And, indeed, it is precisely because of this solemn duty that, in my view, it is imperative that we interpret statutes consistent with all relevant indicia of what Congress wanted, as best we can ascertain its intent. A method ology that includes consideration of Congress’s aims does exactly that— and no more. By contrast, pure textualism’s refusal to try to understand the text of a statute in the larger context of what Congress sought to achieve turns the interpretive task into a potent weapon for advancing judicial policy preferences. By “finding” answers in ambiguous text, and not bothering to consider whether those answers align with other sources of statutory meaning, pure textualists can easily disguise their own pref erences as “textual” inevitabilities. So, really, far from being “insuffi ciently pliable,” I think pure textualism is incessantly malleable—that’s its primary problem—and, indeed, it is certainly somehow always flexi ble enough to secure the majority’s desired outcome.

Whoa. Spicy footnote from Justice Jackson, dissenting in the ADA case. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

Letting Transgender Kids Play Sports Benefits All Kids States with policies allowing trans girls to play sports have seen increased rates of sports participation by cis girls.

⚽ In a new column for TIME magazine that I coauthored with Mandy Giles, Founder of Parents of Trans Youth, we argue that all kids benefit when trans kids are allowed to play sports in accordance with their gender identity

time.com/7296246/tran...

Warren, Markey call for probe into ‘escalating aggression’ by federal agents in immigration raids - The Boston Globe The Massachusetts senators called for the investigation in a letter sent Wednesday to the US Department of Homeland Security.

ICE's increasingly aggressive tactics are unacceptable and dangerous. They do not make us any safer.

I’m calling for an independent investigation right now — this abuse of power must end.

The thing is, when people don’t identify themselves it’s very hard to know which part of the security forces they are! Or if they are just random masked guys with guns! Maybe someone should look into how to solving this problem, with like, uniforms or badges or somesuch

Any word on the percentage increase in masked government officials waving guns at people while they grab people off the street?