John Davisson

Massive MPD checkpoint at New York Ave & Bladensburg NE. Tow trucks present. Given today’s announcement about federalizing MPD we are unsure of what kind of enforcement they are engaging in. 2/

🚨ALERT: Fed activity continues tonight (8/11) in DC. We have received reports of sightings at:
- Benning Rd & 17th NE
- Franklin & 7th NE
- Dupont (17th & Church NW)
- Malcolm X (Meridian Hill) Park & surrounding area
- U St
- The Wharf

Well said!

Agree it's not as simple as MPD being under presidential/federal control, but "he may direct the Mayor to provide him, and the Mayor shall provide, such services of the [MPD] as the President may deem necessary and appropriate" is still distressingly broad & mandatory.

Anyhow

Hey NYT, you're not actually required to—indeed, shouldn't!—regurgitate the President's transparently made-up reason for doing a thing, particularly when it's refuted by your own reporting.

This is about seizing control; everyone (even you I suspect) gets that. Crime is just the paper thin excuse.

Jars of fig jam sitting on a counter in a room painted light blue

Chopped figs simmering on a stovetop

Green figs growing on a tree next to a light blue house

Shoutout to our fig tree, which produces like a boss every year without needing any help from us. Tomatoes, you could learn a thing or two.

Fort Totten 5/

🚨ALERT🚨 A group of about 10 Secret Service, ICE HSI, and DHS police have been spotted across various locations around Adams Morgan, the Columbia Heights metro, the triangle park at Harvard and 16th St NW in Mount Pleasant, and at the Ft. Totten metro between 8 and 9 PM today (8/8). 1/

Connoisseur

xkcd.com/915/

Two pop-up computer tabs are displayed against a light blue speckled background. One tab is titled "FCRA & GBLA Exemptions" and contains folders named after federal and state laws. The second tab is titled "Holding Data Brokers Accountable". It shows a quote from the white paper: "Consumers deserve robust privacy protections and rights over their own data, regardless of the type of business collecting and processing that information. Legislators should not limit those protections with unnecessary and overly broad exemptions.”

“Consumers deserve robust privacy protections and rights over their own data, regardless of the type of business collecting and processing that information...”

➡️ Read EPIC's latest white paper by Law Fellow Caroline Kraczon and Scholar in Residence @jshermcyber.bsky.social: epic.org/documents/un...

TIME CHANGE: Protecting the Virtual You: Safeguarding Americans' Online Data | United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary

This afternoon, EPIC Executive Director Alan Butler (@alanindc.bsky.social) will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on the importance of strong federal data regulations to protect the privacy of American consumers.

➡️ Tune in at 2:30 pm ET: www.judiciary.senate.gov/committee-ac...

Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die July 21, 2025 AFP has been working with 1 writer, 3 photographers and 6 videographers, all freelance, in the Gaza Strip since its staff journalists left in 2024. Along with a few others, they are now the only ones left to report what is happening in the Gaza Strip. The international press has been banned from entering the territory for nearly two years. We refuse to watch them die. One of them, Bashar, has been working with AFP since 2010, first as a fixer, then freelance photographer, and since 2024, as lead photographer. On July 19th he managed to post a message on Facebook: “I no longer have the strength to work for the media. My body is thin and I can’t work anymore.” Bashar, 30, works & lives in the same conditions as all Gazans, moving from one refugee camp to another under Israeli bombings. For > a year he’s lived in utter destitution, working at extreme risk to his life. Hygiene is a major issue for him, with recurring bouts of severe intestinal illness. Since Feb, Bashar’s been living in the ruins of his home in Gaza City with his mother, 4 brothers & sisters and the family of one of his brothers. Their house is devoid of any furnishings, except a few cushions. On Sunday morning, he reported that one of his brothers had “fallen, due to hunger.” Even though these journalists receive a monthly salary from AFP, it’s no longer enough to buy food, or they have to pay completely exorbitant prices. The banking system has collapsed, and those who exchange money via online bank accounts charge a commission of up to 40%. AFP no longer has the ability to provide them with a vehicle and there is not enough fuel to allow these journalists to travel for their reporting. Driving a car means becoming a target for Israeli airstrikes. AFP reporters therefore travel on foot or by donkey cart. (alt txt continued in next post)

A horrifying statement published today by the Editorial Committee of the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency.

"Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die"

Translation from French to English by @cnorristrent.bsky.social:

Back at it! 💪

You absolutely love to see it: "[Commissioner] Slaughter remains a rightful member of the Federal Trade Commission until the expiration of her Senate-confirmed term on September 25, 2029[.]"

Opinion: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Order: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

So I give it six months after rollout for someone to have a study showing racial or gender disparities in the real time AI individualized pricing.

If so, this would be an unfair trade practice under the FTC Act, at least. Which means it would also violate a lot of state consumer protection laws.

Wouldn't be the first time, of course: arxiv.org/pdf/2006.04599

For those of us who believe the Supreme Court is, at least in part, a political institution, its saving grace is that it moves the law only in increments, is reactive rather than proactive, and must give its reasons and be judged on them. A Court that doesn't do those things isn't worth having.

Grey and white cat sits to the left of a silver laptop with a paw on the user's arm.

"Incorrect, we will not be doing work today."

Research reveals a paradox: the more people understand AI, the more hesitant they may become to embrace it.

paradox, you say

It’s an embarrassingly shoddy (and of course motivated) opinion.

Every American should read this ACLU lawsuit about what is happening in Los Angeles and California. It is the stuff of dystopian nightmares. This is not immigration enforcement. It is positively stuffed with videos and articles documenting racial profiling on a scale unseen since Jim Crow.

This morning, the Federal Trade Commission is hosting a workshop titled: Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices in “Gender-Affirming Care” for Minors. If the scare quotes don't give it away, Trump's FTC chair Andrew Ferguson has promised from the start that harassing trans people would be on his agenda

Lmao so today the FTC is holding a "workshop" scapegoating trans kids & threatening their access to lifesaving healthcare. @fightforthefuture.org is driving this billboard truck past the building and it's BLARING "Protect Trans Kids" by me and @ryancassata.bsky.social

WTF is wrong with them indeed

As noted in the replies this faces long odds against the Byrd rule, but giving Trump + Vought this power would have ruinous consequences. It's a one-way ratchet that would be used to obliterate whole agencies and upend the structure of government—all without input from Congress.

Alleged shooter found Minnesota lawmakers’ addresses online, court docs say Two senators say the shooting shows it's time to address how people's private information is sold and shared online.

“Many data brokers, and in particular people search websites, have enabled horrific violence by aggregating and selling data on people and their families, searchable by name, for dollars or cents,” @jshermcyber.bsky.social, a scholar in residence at @epic.org, said. www.politico.com/news/2025/06...

The Minnesota shooter apparently used data broker websites to find the home addresses of the people he shot and murdered.

Congress has had years to do something about data brokers and they've sided with the tech lobby over and over again.

Their inaction is deadly.

Polling data from Harris & Associates 1966. Q: Do you approve of what Freedom Riders are Doing? 22% approve 61%disapprove18%no opinion.

I just like to post these data from time to time to puncture the mythological aura of mid 20th c protests. They were less popular than pretty much any 21st c mass action & people criticizing them used the same lines. Protest is about people coming together, shaping narratives, & building power.