A THREAD.

Nazis were big into collective punishment after acts of civil resistance. The Israelis have used it widely in Gaza and the West Bank. It was even a major plot point in establishing the heinous villainy of the bad guys in Red Dawn.

This is exactly one block from the sandwich throwing incident. The neighborhood is being collectively punished for it.

The UK is about to ban access to Wikipedia, just remember this bill was originally pitched as a means to protect kids from accessing porn.

We were within inches of a vaccine for several cancers, flu, the cold. Inches.

Kim Davis going from "my religious beliefs demand that I don't facilitate a same-sex marriages" to "my religious beliefs demand that there are NO same-sex marriages anywhere" *should* make Democrats realize there is no "sincere" compromise with bigots on trans issues.

A graphic showing a mnemonic called MUDCAPS which stands for Misleading credentials (eg PhD in art history just referring to themselves as ‘Dr’ and talking about health) Undisclosed everything (if they hide financial conflicts, they are demonstrating they are willing to bend the truth) Defensive (in response to professional criticism) Credit (do they say where they have gained their knowledge, from whom eg educational resources) Authority (appeal to authority, can’t explain their position without relying on their status) Peers (what company do they keep, are they respected in their fields) Spotty track record (you can figure this one out)

Next is MUDCAPS from @labmuffin.com and @theecowell.bsky.social, more friends that are bigger deals on instagram so do follow them there if you use it. Here’s a frame from Michelle’s most recent vid which I really liked, even though I have no special interest in cosmetics, I still learnt loads

A graphic showing the CRABS mnemonic which stands for Conflict of Interest – eg are they selling what they’re promoting References – Do they include references so others can check their claims Author – What is their background, is it relevant? Do they have relevant expertise or publications? Buzz words – Do they use lots of jargon to sound impressive (ie an episode of the Huberman Lab) Scope of Practice – Are they misrepresenting their experience online vs real life, ie a junior doctor claiming they are managing complex patients indepdently

I want to share two handy mnemonics that can help you identify BS, BS peddlers, and ensure you give yourself the best chance to take in GOOD information

The first is CRABS by Jessica Stokes-Parish. We are instagram friends but I don’t think she’s here. She’s great! www.instagram.com/j_stokespari...

Press needs to stop repeating govt euphemism of “clearing homeless camps.” I’ve witnessed it in other cities: massive destruction of personal property. Not just bedrolls & tents; family photos, Bibles, meds. Times I’ve seen it people weren’t even given option to move their things.

The new admin strategy for facts and real data is to fire the messenger or demand retraction. That isn't going to work.

It is egregious that RFK Jr requested @annalsofim.bsky.social retraction of this paper because he didn't like the data www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/...
www.reuters.com/business/hea...

it is genuinely incredible that all you have to do is scratch the surface and it becomes clear that each of these guys is a huge piece of shit

New York Times excerpt that reads: Musk makes sweeping claims about federal corruption, without evidence. The billionaire Elon Musk said in an extraordinary Oval Office appearance Tuesday that he was providing maximum transparency, while offering no evidence for his sweeping claims that the federal bureaucracy is corrupted by cheats and officials who have approved money for “fraudsters.” Answering questions from the media for the first time since his arrival in Washington to run the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, Mr. Musk stood next to the Resolute Desk and asserted that his work was in the interest of the public and democracy. President Trump sat behind the desk, chiming in with approval as he let the world’s richest man expound for roughly 30 minutes on the rationale for the administration’s overhaul of the federal bureaucracy. Among Mr. Musk’s claims, offered without evidence, was that some officials at the now-gutted U.S.A.I.D. were taking “kickbacks.” He said that “quite a few people” in the bureaucracy somehow had “managed to accrue tens of millions of dollars in net worth while they are in that position.” He later claimed that some recipients of Social Security checks were as old as 150.

Report on Musk long enough and you start to see him say the same things over and over.

He agreed to buy Twitter then made sweeping accusations about fraud and bots to try to break the deal. He also accused Twitter of harboring "ghost employees" who took paychecks.

www.nytimes.com/live/2025/02...

Executive Orders tell Federal Agencies, in the Executive Branch, to change what they are doing or to make a report and send it to the White House. That's it!

EOs can't melt laws

Not just "without arrest" they were being shielded from counter-protesters by dozens of armed cops

Elon Musk’s Business Empire Scores Benefits Under Trump Shake-Up Government investigations into Mr. Musk’s companies are stalling amid President Trump’s firings and Biden administration resignations.

Musk has received $13B in government contracts over the last 5 yrs. With all his fuss about the $9B/yr in overhead to the more than 2,500 universities conducting lifesaving research, I am curious when he is going to turn DOGE on his own contracts and ‘efficiencies’.

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/u...

Instead of "don't cut our funding," our message should be: hands off higher ed.

You want to restrict what professors can say in the classroom? Hands off.

You want to ban diversity offices? Hands off.

You want to cut our research funding? Hands off.

Hands. Off. Higher. Ed.

The big takeaway here is that Reuters won this case against the AI company on grounds they violated fair use—the judge found the AI company was guilty because, in using copyrighted works to generate its output, it “meant to compete... by developing a market substitute.”

Huge.

The Staffers Helping Elon Musk Dismantle and Downsize the U.S. Government, One Agency at a Time Musk and his lieutenants are reshaping the government and its mission with the blessing of President Trump. ProPublica has confirmed the names and roles of more than 30 staffers affiliated with the…

NEW: ProPublica has identified nine additional Musk-affiliated staffers.

A former staffer at Boring Company now has an official role at DOGE in the Executive Office of the President. A former X employee now works in the General Services Administration.

And let's have a brief moment of history because I don't think people understand how long the American Revolution took. Or the Civil Rights movement. The American Revolution was 8 years. The Civil War was 4 years. And almost 100 years later Jim Crow "ended"

I blame dystopian fiction for the expectations I am seeing. Ironically, those books largely come after 50 years (or more) for a reason. You think the revolution is immediate because that's when you're brought into the story. But if the fall took decades, the revolution also took decades.

BREAKING: @lawyerscomm.bsky.social and partners have sued Meta for racially discriminatory advertising practices and for algorithmically sorting for-profit college ads to Black users disproportionately act.lawyerscommittee.org/ercvsmeta/

"Karina's Law" was signed into law on yesterday by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker.

The bill requires guns to be removed from an accused abuser's home after the victim in a domestic violence case is granted an order of protection.

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

Me, during every meeting since November: OMG WHY ARE WE SO TERRIBLE AT COMMS

This thread explains why in a nutshell.

in america giant bodies of water can change their names, but trans people can’t

People who are telling you that there's a lot of fraud in Medicaid are lying to you in order to try to convince you to support taking healthcare away from children on dialysis.

Because the only way to convince enough normal people to harm disabled children is by lying.

🧵 THREAD: In the second Trump administration, we’re devoting a significant part of our staff to detailing dramatic changes in the role of the federal government in the lives of Americans.

Here are some of the issues we’re watching — and how you can inform our work.