john tomasic

It’s stunning to me that the New York Times did not put the story on the bloodbath at the NIH, CDC, and FDA on its front page this morning.

DOGE fires nearly all staff at U.S. Institute of Peace headquarters D.C. employees of the institute, founded and funded by Congress, received late-night termination notices, though most of its overseas staff were left in place.

They can't spell "April"?

"The termination emails were riddled with mistakes — with employees’ names, the month of April and even the institute’s title misspelled in places — a telling sign of the rushed and haphazard nature of the operation..."

www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

US faculty and anyone who cares about academic freedom:

I urge you to check out @wearehighered.bsky.social

* read through compelling letters signed by thousands of faculty

* learn about upcoming actions in which you can participate

* spread the word to encourage others to get involved, too !

We’ve all been trying to figure out how to solve this collective action problem. This seems like a very positive big step in the right direction. Very grateful to whatever combinations of Rutgers workers are included in the faculty senate.

The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.

American war planning usually takes place in highly secure facilities. But the Trump administration planned its strikes on the Houthis using a group chat—and accidentally included The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. theatln.tc/IuULQFiY

Lol Taibbi

If Trump Blows it on Speech, the World is Screwed With civil liberties flatlined around the globe, Donald Trump is blowing off the First Amendment at the worst conceivable time MATT TAIBBI MAR 12, 2025 • PAID

Ohhh nooooo who could have forseeeeeeen

Everyone who voted for Fetterman: Vote to shutdown this horrible government please before it does a much worse job shutting down itself.

Update

The Heritage Foundation's fever-dream version of democracy:

NEW: Biggest Federal Employee Unions Says Shutdown is Preferable to Elon/Trump CR talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/bigge...

....Howell, an Obama appointee, suggested other firms turned down the job. She expressed “enormous respect for them taking this case when not every law firm in this city or this country would.”

This isn't even a close call. Also the director is Israeli.

Introducing: The Musk Watch DOGE Tracker New tool reveals Musk has overstated verified DOGE savings by at least 92%

1. The DOGE website is garbage.

The claimed savings has no relationship to the data provided.

And the data that is provided grossly inflates the savings from each canceled contract.

So we just launched our own site — the Musk Watch DOGE Tracker — that breaks everything down.

The 200+ Sites an ICE Surveillance Contractor is Monitoring 404 Media has obtained the list of sites and services that ICE contractor ShadowDragon pulls data from. ShadowDragon sources data from all over the web and lets government analysts easily search it an...

New: we've obtained a leaked list of the more than 200 sites, services, apps an ICE surveillance contractor monitors. Bluesky, OnlyFans, many more. Used to track targets. Highly relevant with the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil by ICE. We've published the full list here: www.404media.co/the-200-site...

Home | Elect Katie Wilson I love this city and I know that we can solve our most pressing problems and accomplish great things together. We don’t have to settle for half measures. But we need to take initiative. We need to be ...

Katie Wilson has launched her campaign for mayor of Seattle, as the progressive organizer and general secretary of the Transit Riders Union challenges incumbent Bruce Harrell.

I've been on trial half my life. Yesterday, my 18-year legal drama finally came to an end when the Court of Cassation, Italy’s highest court, definitively convicted me of criminal slander.

/thread

Ladies and gentlemen: we did it

Hassini Yacine (B. 1979)
“Lemons from Algeria”
Oil on canvas

Le Monde quits Twitter.

NEWS: There already have been three Federal Advisory Committee Act lawsuits filed today regarding "DOGE" in federal court in DC:
- a @publiccitizen.bsky.social one
- a @nationalsecuritylaw.org one
- an American Public Health Association one by @democracyforward.bsky.social and @crew.bsky.social

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
--Martin Luther King Jr.

Vincent van Gogh, Tassel Hyacinth 1889

Stop posting photos. Stop taking photos. Stop asking to take photos. No one is safe.

The Fox News write-up of Kimberly Guilfoyle getting nominated to an ambassadorship does not mention her work for the network, possibly because her departure came after she was reported for sexual harassment with Fox paying a reported $4 million settlement.

Folks are underestimating how remaining on X has become a reputational hazard

A thing a lot of people don't understand about journalism is that a big part of the job is chasing leads that don't pan out and never get published.

Support Us | Los Angeles Local News Initiative Help us build local news for L.A. that is representative of, governed by, and sustained by L.A. communities.

My old boss, the truly terrific Kevin Merida, sits on the board of the Los Angeles Local News Initiative. They're currently attempting to build something better rather than leaving LA in the lurch.

You can sign up to support here!
www.localnewsforla.org/support-us

An extremely popular and influential "wholly unserious ecosystem of junk."