rawstory.com
rawstory.com
AOC is maybe the only Democrat besides Pete Buttigieg who understands they're an opposition party now?
politics
presswatchers.org
presswatchers.orgEvery article written about Trump’s blitzkrieg against DEI should have at least a short section explaining in the institution’s own voice why these programs were needed and how diversity is valuable. Not doing that is journalistic malpractice. And I haven’t seen anyone do it.Sorry, that information has been placed in the Memory Hole.
Axios
AxiosFormer Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg swiftly shot back against President Trump's criticisms of him during a Thursday press conference, less than a day after a deadly plane collision outside Washington D.C.Every Democrat should do this every day. They need to stop trying to partner with a regime that will never cooperate, ever and start working to keep the government functioning.
Krebs on Security
Krebs on Security“I don’t recall seeing an ‘NTSB Board’ being fired during the middle of a plane crash investigation,” Frost said in a recent SANS newsletter. “I can say that the attackers in the phone companies will not stop because the review board has gone away. We do need to figure out how these attacks occurred, and CISA did appear to be doing some good for the vast majority of the federal systems.”If you never investigate crimes did they really happen?
Oregon Capital Chronicle
Oregon Capital ChronicleTheir cancellation, first reported by STAT News, worries local researchers, doctors and patients, who fear that the Trump administration, in its drive to cut spending, may stall or even cut off vital funds that pay for research on cancer, dementia and other conditions. NIH distributes about $40 billion a year in grants, and right now in Oregon, over $500 million in funded projects are in progress, supporting more than 5,000 jobs.We're finding out what happens when people who hate this country run the government.
News Habit Updates
Heckuva week, politicswise. I am not enjoying the firehose of news and I read a couple good reminders recently: Matt Haughey's Protecting your mental health during a clown president's second term and Mike Monteiro's How to survive being online. I especially liked this bit:
Am I telling you to bury your head in the sand? Far from it. I am telling you to moderate your exposure to the bullshit. Your retweet or reskeet or repost is not going to save democracy. Your hot take on some idiot’s confirmation hearing is, at most, freaking out your friends. And if you want to remain on social media, as I will be, do your best to separate the signal from the noise.
These were a great reminder that I am in control of the information I take in. The timing, the quantity, and the sources. I can turn off notifications, unfollow accounts that post breaking news, and batch my online reading time so it happens all at once instead of in constant drips.
I definitely do not want to tune out the world. I want to know what’s happening in a way that lets me contribute effectively over the long term rather than feeling constantly defeated. Here are some changes I’ve made recently to my media habits.
Tuning my social media
I’m not on the Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, or any of the ad-supported corporate social media sites. I removed those during the last Trump term and I’ve been enjoying the (soon to be nonprofit) Mastodon ever since for what I think of as big group social. However, I do follow many people who post breaking news and I’ve had to cut back on those. Mastodon has a mute feature that lets me mute accounts for a certain time period and then they’ll show up in my feed again. I’ve done a 7-day mute for about a dozen news-based accounts I follow. Now my timeline is much more social and less doom-y. I’ll see how it feels when the news shows up again. With the pull of breaking news gone, I can look at Mastodon less throughout the day and just catch up every so often.
I really like Sill for aggregating links from my Mastodon feed. It’s one of the only news sources I let into my email, but it arrives at the same time every day so it’s easy to add to a reading batch instead of consuming it as soon as it comes in.
Small group social media like private spaces, text groups, or other forums haven’t really needed any changes for me. They are super helpful for commiserating and don’t tend to turn into constant doom like big group social can. Maybe I’m just lucky on that front.
Tuning my news sources
As I mentioned in a post here the other day my window on the web is an RSS reader. I use a self-hosted, open source reader called Tiny Tiny RSS. tt-rss has an API which lets me write my own interface for consuming feeds—something I'm lucky to be able to do because I'm a web developer. But I still encourage people to look into hosted RSS readers. I read any email newsletters through RSS instead and I keep my email focused on alerts, notifications, and personal short reads. Anything longer goes into a newsreader.
I have had to remove a handful of breaking news and politics-related sources from my newsreader. So what sources do I tune into? Here are a few news-adjacent sites I keep up with regularly: Dan Gillmor's Cornerstone, Garbage Day, 404 Media, Press Watch, Vox Technology, and emptywheel. I also subscribe to weird art tumblrs, D&D blogs, music gear blogs, and a metric ton of personal blogs. I haven't needed many changes here.
Tuning my phone
Notifications are a tricky balance. My rule is that news, big group social, and most apps have alerts turned off. Small group social is ok for alerts. This has been a rule for me for a long time so nothing really changing on this front, but I remember the days when news apps were constantly grabbing my attention and it took a while for me to realize that was awful.
One big change I’m making is eliminating anything with advertising. The hardest on that front has been the Gmail email client on my phone. It includes ads in several places so I’ve been moving to Proton Mail which does not include ads. For the moment, I’m finding it a good substitute and anytime I can move something away from Gmail that feels like a good step. I think we have enough evidence to say ads are poison and will lead to constant enshittification.
Tuning my in-person interactions
I’m not a very in-person social person but I’ve been trying to change that by saying yes to more in-person social things. I think it’s important to make sure I’m not isolating myself in front of my numerous screens. Joking around and commiserating and having fun creating things with people is a nice shield against that feeling of doom. More of that in 2025 is my plan.
CNN
CNNWalmart, John Deere, Tractor Supply and other companies are changing or walking away from diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies. But Costco believes DEI helps its “treasure hunt” shopping atmosphere, and it is standing behind its efforts.This is the way. Happy to see this.
prospect.org
prospect.orgDemocrats are missing something that is arguably a prerequisite for ideological messaging to have any effect whatsoever: a media apparatus that can get these messages in front of swing voters. The content of the message doesn’t matter if voters never hear it. An obvious place to start would be to build up straightforward reporting operations in news deserts in critical states, and to stop making traditional election broadcast ads the core focus of campaign spending.True, but bleak. No easy fixes.
Truthout
Truthout“Without a thriving, inclusive higher education system that serves the public good, the majority of Americans will be excluded from meaningful participation in our democracy and this country will move backward,” Wolfson predicted. “We will do everything in our power to protect our institutions, faculty, staff and students and stand up against those seeking to violate academic freedom and the core principle of higher education.”The correct message. Amazingly, I’ve only seen higher ed unions discussing the new US administration. Unions might be the only resistance.
Emptywheel
EmptywheelMeanwhile, the BM’s political reporters decided that inflation was Biden’s fault because of all the government spending on COVID relief, infrastructure and bringing manufacturing jobs back to the US. This was a lie.This post-election analysis resonates with me. It does feel like many of my own habits, patterns, and assumptions need to change.
thebulwark.com
thebulwark.comWho in the White House is bothering, while the bully pulpit remains theirs, to educate the public about how the Constitution is supposed to operate?Excellent questions here. Democrats have power for a brief window, they should be maximizing it while they can.
Talking Points Memo
Talking Points MemoAt the very least, put him to the task. Make him execute on what he’s trying to do. It won’t be easy and there are a lot of ways to make it even less easy. That’s the first role of a political opposition.Yeah, that's enough doomerism. Time to start thinking like an opposition party.