RFK Jr: I terminated the COVID vaccines because it didn’t make any sense. COVID is gone.
Note: From July 2024 to June 2025 in the US, COVID19 caused up to 450,000 hospitalizations and 53,000 deaths.
COVID ain’t gone, shitbird.
Landing page for scienceimpacts.org
Today, our #SCIMaP team released an impact analysis of the White House proposed FY 2027 NIH and NSF budgets.
Bottom-line: if enacted, cuts to science and medical research would lead to $35B in economic losses and 150,000 lost jobs in communities all across the US.
scienceimpacts.org
🧵
I just checked, and we've actually done it twice this year now.
I can't believe that noted Astros ace pitcher <checks notes> <squints, checks notes again> Peter Lambert and the bullpen made Yordan's 1st inning blast stand up.
Quiet Posters feed not working
why.bsky.team subscribed to the anti anti ai block list, blocking over 300 000 users
If you wonder why the "Quiet Posters" feed doesn't work for you anymore, it is because the @why.bsky.team subscribed to an anti-anti-ai block list, rendering it useless for over 300 000 users. Good job bsky team!!
I think a lot of people think the point of sports is that your team will win and then you will be happy. That is not the point of sports. The point of sports is to be sad in a group
I have no idea what platform this is from. But it's from a tattoo artist saying AI art sucks. I'm not typing all this out, someone else can alt4me or whatever.
My tattoo artist just reposted this enthusiastically endorsing the messaging "what next should I have a computer that eats my dinner and fucks my wife?"
SCOOP: Two weeks ago, the head of the CDC delayed publication of a report showing covid vaccine cut likelihood of ER visits and hospitalizations by half. Now that report is no longer allowed to be published in CDC’s flagship scientific journal. My latest. 1/2
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/...
I don't know. There always seems to be a rat infestation or other small vermin problem popping up around town.
ALT TEXT: A vibrant, stylized acrylic painting of a sunset over water, rendered in a bold, folk-art style with thick black outlines reminiscent of stained glass. A large yellow-orange sun sits on the horizon, its semicircle edged with small dotted flecks suggesting sparkle. Wavy rays of red, magenta, and cream radiate outward across a deep pink and crimson sky. On the left, a tall, dark green conifer tree stands in silhouette against the bright sky, rooted on a patch of green grass. On the right, layered green and black mountain peaks recede into the distance. A blue lake fills the foreground, with wavy reflections of the sunset shimmering in pink, orange, and coral streaks across the water's surface. The overall style is naive and decorative, with flat color areas and undulating linework creating a cheerful, dreamlike atmosphere. FACT CHECK: This needs a hard look — the source alone is a major red flag, and the claim is extraordinary. Let me dig in.Let me verify a couple of specific details — Johnson's actual CIA tenure and the chain-of-command issue that keeps coming up.Now let me verify the chain-of-command specifics — a key claim here is that the Chairman of the JCS could "stop" a nuclear order.I have enough to write this up. Here's the fact-check: ## Fact check: "Trump tried to use nuclear codes, Gen. Caine said no" **Bottom line: The underlying claim is unverified, sourced to a single unreliable commentator, and the mechanical premise (that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs could "stand up and say no") is structurally wrong. Treat this as rumor, not news.** ### Where the claim actually comes from Paul Eric's post is a paraphrase of a claim Larry C. Johnson made on the "Judging Freedom" podcast, hosted by former judge Andrew Napolitano, amplified on X by Jimmy Dore, and picked up by IBTimes UK with the caveat that it "has not been confirmed by any official source." The White House, the Pentagon, and Gen. Caine's office have not responded to the claim — and no official record, court document, or on-the-record source has corroborated the account of an emergency meeting or nuclear codes being raised. So the entire chain is: one podcast guest → a Jimmy Dore tweet → aggregators → your Bluesky screenshot. No second source. No documents. No named officials. ### Who Larry Johnson is This matters, because "retired CIA analyst" is doing a lot of work in the framing. Johnson worked at the CIA as an analyst from 1985 through September 1989 — roughly four years — before moving to the State Department's Office of Counterterrorism, and left government entirely in October 1993. He has been out of government for **over 30 years**. He has no plausible mechanism to know what happened in a White House meeting on Saturday night. His track record also undercuts the "insider revelation" framing: - In 2008 he claimed a tape existed of Michelle Obama using the word "whitey"; no such tape ever surfaced and the Obama campaign denied it. - He was the source for Andrew Napolitano's 2017 Fox News claim that GCHQ had wiretapped Trump's 2016 campaign on Obama's orders — a claim Fox News itself later disavowed. - Since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Johnson has made regular appearances on Russian state media, expressed support for the war effort, and been cited hundreds of times in Izvestia, Sputnik, and RIA Novosti. - VOA documented that from August 2023 to September 2024, Russia's RIA Novosti alone published 403 pieces citing Johnson; Lenta.ru published 445; Rossiyskaya Gazeta 299; Sputnik 280; RT 163 — with the Kremlin using his claims to promote pro-Russian narratives. This is exactly the kind of source-laundering pattern you flag — a partisan-coded claim ("Trump is unstable") bolted onto a propaganda-coded source ("Judging Freedom" / Johnson), which then travels through left-of-center social media with the Russia-adjacent ecosystem scrubbed out of the attribution. ### The mechanical problem with the claim Even if you grant Johnson knew something, the story doesn't work as described. In the U.S., the president — and only the president — has the authority to order the use of nuclear weapons. Gen. Mark Milley told the Senate Armed Services Committee in 2021: "I explained to her that the president is the sole nuclear launch authority, and he doesn't launch them alone, and that I am not qualified to determine the mental health of the president of the United States." Milley also noted he is **not** in the chain of command — he is the principal military adviser — but is kept "in the loop." A 2021 CRS summary puts it directly: the CJCS "is part of the 'chain of communication' in his role as the President's primary military advisor, but he is not in the 'chain of command' for authorizing a nuclear launch… The President does not need the concurrence of either his military leaders or the U.S. Congress to order the launch of nuclear weapons. Neither the military nor Congress can overrule these orders." So the image of Gen. Caine "standing up and saying NO" in a meeting and thereby stopping a launch is not how the system works. A CJCS can raise legal objections, slow things down in a decision conference, or (in extremis) individual officers down the chain could refuse an order they judged illegal under UCMJ/LOAC — but none of that looks like the dramatic veto Johnson is describing. Even the **critics** of sole presidential authority, like former SecDef William Perry, argue for reform precisely because no such veto formally exists. ### What else is off - **"Saturday" is doing a lot of work.** Johnson offered no documents, no named attendees, no corroborating leakers. Not even an anonymous "senior administration official." Just vibes. - **The Hawaiian shirt is not a disqualifier on its own** — that's just a guy on a podcast set — but it's a useful reminder of what this actually is: a commentator riffing, not a source reporting. - **Epistemic consistency check:** If a right-wing podcast host claimed a retired CIA guy had revealed Biden tried to do something reckless and was stopped by an anonymous general, with zero corroboration and the source being a longtime Kremlin media fixture, you'd (rightly) demand more. Same standard applies here. ### If you're thinking about sharing a correction A tight version for a reply: "This is sourced to Larry Johnson on Napolitano's podcast — the same Johnson behind the debunked Obama 'whitey' tape and Napolitano's retracted GCHQ-wiretap claim, and a regular on Russian state media. No second source has confirmed it. Also, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs isn't in the nuclear chain of command — he advises, he doesn't veto."
There's a lot wrong with this claim.
I put a fact check in the alt-text for this lovely image.
Just a glow plug in the dark...
Do *not* miss the alt-text for a great story.
Feel like it should be a bigger story that Howard Lutnick's firm (run by his kids) created a financial product to buy up tariff refund claims at a major discount, and will now be cashing in on the higher costs passed onto consumers.
This Is Just To Say
I have turned off
the AI features
that were in
the update
and which
you were probably
hoping
to monetize
Fuck you
they were stupid
so unnecessary
and so annoying
The stage during intermission.
Having a good old time with Little Feat at the Majestic in Dallas for The Last Farewell Tour.
The cover of Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil by Oliver Darkshire. A black vase that is shaped so that the negative space around it looks like two faces looking at each other, one with an X for an eye. A one-eyed cat sits atop it next to an apple amid the basil plant.
The cover of Mooncakes by Wendy Xu and Suzanne Walker. A young witch holds a plate of pastries stands next to a young female werewolf (humanish with wolf ears and tail).
Good evening, Womble. I'm reading Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil by @deathbybadger.bsky.social and, needing to reduce the TBR graphic novel pile, also reading Mooncakes by @wendyxu.bsky.social and Suzanne Walker.
i will keep reiterating it but the mRNA vaccine is one of the most important human inventions in history, next to the printing press and the solar panel, and the fact america is abandoning it is frankly anti-human in all ways possible
I NEED HELP!
Please take this quick, meaningless 19 question survey so I can get data for my students to learn stats!
I did a similar version a few months ago but missed an important question type. Even if you did the old one, please do it again!
Please circulate widely!
Adult Content
07:10:20 // CAM 0241 // scans her ticket to section 102, Row 8, Seat 5 07:11:14 // CAM 1434 // goes up terrace escalators on level 3 to level 6 concourse 07:12:52 // CAM AC10 // hugs usher Appendix A of the report has a screenshot of the embrace, with Richards circled in red. 08:08:58 // CAM 1093 // talking with F&B worker at the Draft Kings Bar 08:10:49 // CAM 0512 // pays for the drinks 08:31:19 // CAM 0485 // eating at a table It goes on and on. At 8:48 pm, camera 0489 spots another quick hug with an MSG “membership experience executive” (there's a grainy photo in the report's Appendix N). Two minutes and two seconds later, the same camera captures her heading into the women's bathroom. Her exit is noted after precisely two minutes and five seconds
Killer story from @noahshachtman.bsky.social @robertsilverman.bsky.social on the Madison Square panopticon. This guy's not an outlier, he's the start of a trend as surveillance tech commodifies and we get watched more and more. "We're in a time of private armies now"
www.wired.com/story/madiso...
April 17, 2026
Cumulative measles cases reported in the United States by year
Johns Hopkins
{publichealth.jhu.edu/ivac/resources/us-measle...
World's worst game of Red Light, Green Light
Cover of report "Mission Aborted: how NASA illegally implemented the president's budget request without congressional approval. Minority staff report, prepared by members of the committee on science, space, and technology, us house of representatives, April 2026
This report came out today by minority staff of the House science committee on how three NASA missions were aborted due to NASA illegally following the FY26 president's budget request instead of congressionally approved budget. Very important reading. 🔭🧪 democrats-science.house.gov/staff-report...
I see Aldi's own brand dog products are known as "Romeo" and for cats, "Juliet". If they don't make a treat called Monty Chew and litter called Cat Pellets, it will be a tragedy.
this is fucking nuts:
post the best picture you have ever taken of your pet (if you feel like it):
Rising costs didn't erode trust. Technology didn't erode trust. Biased admissions that have existed for a century didn't erode trust suddenly in the last decade. The self-censoring & campus speech stuff starts to get at the problem, but again, the root cause of that is not even mentioned here.
A screen shot of the trending topic "Bluesky Issues," with the message "Hmm, some kind of issue occurred when contacting the feed server. Please let the feed owner know about the issue."
No notes. 10/10
So they printed flyers before becoming flying printers.
......I'll see myself out.