A peer reviewed study shows a promising link between flu and shingles vaccines and a reduced risk of dementia. A heroin addict who cut off a raccoon’s penis for “further study” says these vaccines cause autism. For busy Americans, it can be hard to know who to trust.

In thinking about what to do about the rogue Court, we maybe focus a bit too much on court packing yes or no, granted that's the most important. But some of the less sexy things can be done by more mundane statutory fixes. Congress could, and should, nuke the shadow docket.

#AvenueQ is such a fun show. I really wish they would revive it in the US for another national tour. Catching it on the original tour was a great time!

Section 230 Is Dying By A Thousand Workarounds, And Massachusetts Just Added Another One

We've been warning for a while now that Section 230 is dying by a thousand legal workarounds rather than a straightforward repeal, and the hits just keep coming. A few weeks ago, I wrote about how two jury…

No. The 2020 election was not rigged or stolen from Trump.

These lies aren’t just a tantrum because his ego is bruised from losing—they undermine our free & fair elections and are a threat to our democracy.

Oh, and didn't Fox News have to pay $787 million for spreading these lies?

The Internet's Most Powerful Archiving Tool Is in Peril As major news outlets cut off the Wayback Machine, journalists and advocacy groups are rallying to protect the Internet Archive’s vast collection of web pages.

As major news outlets including USA Today Co. and the New York Times restrict the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine from archiving their stories, journalists and advocacy groups are rallying to protect the vast collection of web pages.

The highs are high, and the lows are low, when examining the quality of Rolling Stone articles. 🤨

Donald Trump’s Truth Social feed can get awfully revealing at times: the transactionalism, the amorality, and the utter buffoonish incompetence. How do we make sense of the fact that this man is our president? trib.al/iO4TnqE

I got shingles in my early 40s. As it neared my left eye, I learned that shingles can cause permanent vision loss. I was lucky to catch it early and have a mild case, but it's scary. I'll be signing up for the vaccine the moment I'm eligible for it. 💉

Surcharges Are Suddenly Everywhere—And Grumpy Americans Are Paying Up The add-ons were a feature during Covid and are once again sneaking their way onto bills.

The Wall Street Journal writes an entire article on the subject of predatory corporate fees without mentioning (even once) that Trump and his courts have lobotomized consumer protection and regulatory autonomy

weird artifice that pretends the government still works

I've had similar experiences. I suggested they explore Substack's history further, providing a few relevant articles highlighting its problematic nature. However, I've only seen one person take action based on it.

The world's worst dealmaker screws up the Iran negotiations Forget the "Art of the Deal” myth.

"Trump still seems to believe that negotiations he has as president are basically the same as strong-arming a small business into giving him a better deal on some new curtains for one of his hotels. Preparation, understanding, and patience are for the weak." — @paulwaldman.bsky.social

Trump’s Justice Department Dropped 23,000 Criminal Investigations in Shift to Immigration Under Attorney General Pam Bondi, the DOJ abandoned a record number of cases — including hundreds of investigations into terrorism, white-collar crime and drugs — in just the first six months of Presi...

The Trump administration pledged to root out “rampant” fraud in federal benefit programs like SNAP and welfare.

But the DOJ has shut down more than 900 cases of federal program or procurement fraud in the first six months of this administration.

EFF is Leaving X After almost twenty years on the platform, EFF is logging off of X. This isn’t a decision we made lightly, but it might be overdue.

After almost twenty years on the platform, EFF is logging off of X.

This isn’t a decision we made lightly, but it might be overdue. 🧵 (1/5)
www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

I wanna point out something serious. The admin has been complaining about Iran winning the information war.

This same administration shut down Voice of America, and other information operations the US govt does.

It’s a self goal. Actions have consequences

A regime of idiots: A complete inventory of Trump stooges They will remain, festering, awaiting the next opportunity for soul-selling.

New in PN: A regime of idiots — A complete inventory of Trump stooges

"The downside of Trump’s reliance on sub-mediocre stooges is they amplify his own stupidity & terrible judgment. Dumb stooges inevitably emulate his sadism & laziness, leading to a govt marked by sociopathology on a grand scale."

The nerds are building a new internet, and I could feel it in the room The AT Protocol is a quiet attempt to rebuild social software the way email was built — open, portable, owned by no one. A meetup in Portland this week made the stakes feel real.

I wrote something about atproto from the perspective of having lived through the early days of the internet.
timtrautmann.com/blog/the-ner...

I'm sure this will work out just fine.

The Untold Saga of What Happened When DOGE Stormed Social Security DOGE has ignored urgently needed reforms and upgrades at the Social Security Administration, according to dozens of insiders and 15 hours of candid interviews with the former acting chief of the agenc...

The DOGE team was acting like “a bunch of people who didn’t know what they were doing, with ideas of how government should run — thinking it should work like a McDonald’s or a bank — screaming all the time,” former SSA Commissioner Leland Dudek said.

(Published Sept. 2025)

a consistent feature of these guys is that they go “I have an amazing idea nobody ever thought of before” and the reason nobody ever thought of it before is that is astoundingly world-historically stupid and evil

The man who watches Trump all day, every day Aaron Rupar spends up to 80 hours a week following the US president, from meandering speeches to impromptu press conferences. He says it’s ‘pretty bleak’

“It’s difficult to cover him in a way that conveys how unhinged he is. Journalists are trained to be like, ‘OK, what did he say that was newsworthy?’ So you convey that to your audience. But in reality, when you actually watch, you see he's full of hatred, lying constantly, and very incoherent.”

This should be an impeachable offense. I understand that we’re way past any of that, but that shouldn’t stop us from naming it.

I believe you have a typo in this post. You accidentally put "iconic" when you meant to put "ridiculous."

Wow! I feel you on this one! I still have a CueCat somewhere around here, along with my regularly stalled dream of a perfect catalog of all of my books!

I’m EFF’s next Executive Director! So proud to take the torch from Cindy Cohn and lead @eff.org forward in its next chapter. Here’s the link to the EFF announcement – www.eff.org/press/releas...
Together, we can meet the challenges and keep building a future where technology works for the people.

Mark Jacob on how the press ignores the biggest Trump story "The president of the United States is clearly mentally unfit for office."

"A major story that probably doesn’t get talked about enough is the reality that the president of the United States is, well, out of his mind."

Considering how weak the government's claim is, coupled with the clear indication that they're just being vindictive, it's a no-brainer that Anthropic would file suit over this. As the judge on the handling it has already indicated, anthropic has a strong case.

It's about protecting their business. Being designated a supply chain risk means that not only are government agencies prohibited from using them, but many contractors and companies that work with the government or deal with government data are also prohibited from using them.

The liberal case for voter ID The SAVE Act is a bad bill, but voter ID is a good idea

one thing that frustrates me quite a bit about modern opinion-writing is that hardly anyone tries to argue with a particular person or a specific argument. it's all gesturing towards people saying something. take this piece for example. setting aside the merits of the argument, who is the target?

are there any more things like this