Robin Abcarian

This Is How a Child Dies of Measles When your family becomes a data point in an outbreak

Brutal, just brutal. Should be required reading for the guy who snorts cocaine off toilet seats.

From the Fauxmoi community on Reddit: Team USA Curler Rich Ruohonen: “We'd be remiss if we didn't at least mention what's going on in Minnesota…I am a lawyer, as you know, and we have a constitution… ... Explore this post and more from the Fauxmoi community

Another hero. Olympics edition:

YouTube video by Rep. Melanie Stansbury Rep. Stansbury: I viewed the unredacted Esptein files earlier today

I spent the morning at the DOJ looking at the unredacted Epstein files. Here are my initial thoughts and what I’ve found, so far.

From the law community on Reddit: Full video of today when Ro Khanna revealed Epstein associate's names on the floor of the US House of Representatives, protected by the Speech and Debate Clause Explore this post and more from the law community

My hero:

Lutnick claims no relationship with Epstein amid calls to resign U.S. Commerce Department Secretary Howard Lutnick sought on Tuesday to distance himself from Jeffrey Epstein, alleging he "barely had anything to do with" the financier and convicted sex offender amid...

Howard Lutnick really should resign. What a pitiful liar.

How Epstein Used Luxury Goods to Curry Favor

"In 2016, Soon-Yi Previn, the wife of Mr. Allen, thanked Epstein for 'the sweatshirts,' but asked that next time they not be monogrammed: “so when I regift it no one will suspect.” Epstein advised that she could always regift them to someone with the same initials."
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/s...

OMG the details from this @nytimes.com story about Epstein's penchant for gift giving: "Not all of Mr. Epstein’s presents were warmly received....

When they’re later exported, uploaded, or displayed in modern systems that expect UTF-8, things break.

1. Encoding problems (biggest culprit)
A lot of the “weird diacritical marks” — random accents, ’ instead of apostrophes, strange symbols — come from character-encoding mismatches. Many of those emails were originally written decades ago using older email systems (often Windows-1252 or ISO-8859-1)

I asked ChatGPT why the Epstein emails are so full of weird diacritical marks. Here is the response:

Word for word, one of the best and most depressing accounts of the Epstein files. They show "a hidden world oiled by porn-saturated misogyny." www.thetimes.com/life-style/c...

If I was still on Twitter, I would start a feed called @ScottJenningsPart. Who combs that dude’s hair? I cannot look at him on @cnn @abbyphillips without thinking “Hey! There’s Dennis the Menace all growed up!

Supreme Court, with no dissents, rejects GOP challenge to California's new election map With newly drawn maps, California may elect five more Democrats to Congress while Texas elects five more Republicans.

Good news for democracy: www.latimes.com/politics/sto...

Among the many things I find galling about Bezos gutting the WaPo: Management has the absolute gall to tell the journalists they are not giving readers what they want. Well, guess what? READERS WANTED A KAMALA HARRIS ENDORSEMENT. Bezos killed it and lost 250,000 subscribers. Fucking liars.

Column: When the government tramples people's rights, the people must take to the streets Political protests are a powerful tool for shaping public opinion, influencing policy and forcing leaders to do the right thing.

‘It’s important — really important — to exercise our right to speak and to assemble. It’s so fundamental to what America is. We can’t just take it for granted… We have to exercise our rights if we want to keep them.’

Via @rabcarian.bsky.social

www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

The L.A. cop who took the gun out of MacGyver’s hand The L.A. cop who took the gun out of MacGyver’s hand

Great piece @rabcarian.bsky.social - I interviewed Downing for my book “A Place to Go, A Place to Grow” re his tireless suport in South LA. Amazing storyteller w/an activist’s heart - even got MacGuyver cast & crew involved. We need more like him today!

enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/art...

Column: ICE is leading a 'campaign of organized brutality' against American cities The militarization of immigration efforts is turning Minneapolis into a battleground for no good reason.

‘It has become clear that the administration is attempting a certain kind of psychological conditioning in the blue cities its agents are now terrorizing.’

Via @rabcarian.bsky.social

www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: ICE shooting shows how those who serve Trump feel they're above the law You can draw a direct line between Wednesday’s killing of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis and the infamous Jan. 6 riot.

The extent to which the Trump administration is trying to pretend away what one former federal prosecutor called “the most documented crime in American history” is shameful. Commentary from @rabcarian.bsky.social at the Los Angeles Times.

RIP Bob Weir. Loved him, and have to say that his 1978 solo album "Heaven Help the Fool" is criminally underrated.

Opinion | Trump’s Cuts Are About to Make Health Care Even Worse

How do we live in a country so cold to human suffering? Bravo to @nickkristof.bsky.social for this heart breaking column. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/o...

Opinion | Justice in Venezuela The next challenge is setting the country up for long-term success.

Not a huge fan of criticizing fellow journalists, but this WaPo editorial on Venezuela is sub-literate: "Another bad outcome would be if the country falls into total chaos." Ya think?
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

It's especially silly because we no longer have an editorial board. Sigh.

Venezuela Live Updates: Trump Says U.S. Will ‘Run the Country’ After Capture of Maduro

Gee, maybe they can send the DOGE kids down there. After all, they did SUCH a great job here. www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...

Had my annual mammogram today. Always reminds me of what John Mitchell said about WaPo publisher Catherine Graham during Watergate. #IYKYK 😂😂😂

You probably aren’t a Democrat

I covered Mitt in 2012. His problems were a) He’s Mormon, b) As gov of Massachusetts, he instituted healthcare reform that became the model for Obamacare, and c) He could not relate to regular folks.

Maybe. Maybe not. You don’t seem to know much about him. (Signed) a journalist who has profiled him and thinks he’s underrated by folks who are put off by how he looks.

My name is Poppy, too! Would love to chase you sometime!

A Times investigation finds fraud and theft are rife at California’s county fairs More than a third of California's 77 county fairs have been plagued by an array of problems in the last decade.

California county fairs: A hotbed of scum and villainy. Who knew? Great piece by @jessicagarrison.bsky.social