Joan
@belleofliberty.bsky.social
Former editor, proud mom of a trans kid, Democrat, Harris-Walz supporter, drama-avoidant, sober 2.5 years
Pinned
Joan
@belleofliberty.bsky.social
· Nov 26
Bottom line, this isn't Facebook. The asymmetrical nature of follows is a plus, not a negative. I will never pressure someone to follow me back. If they want to they will. Great. If not, they won't. That's perfectly fine also. We aren't all joined at the hip, for cryin' out loud.
Trump denies disaster declarations for Colorado fires, flooding: ‘We won't stop fighting'
Trump is punishing innocent Coloradans because the governor won't pardon or transfer Tina Peters, convicted on state charges of election interference.
www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-...
Trump is punishing innocent Coloradans because the governor won't pardon or transfer Tina Peters, convicted on state charges of election interference.
www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-...
Trump denies disaster declarations for Colorado fires, flooding: ‘We won't stop fighting'
President Donald Trump denied two disaster declaration requests from Colorado that would have allowe...
www.miamiherald.com
December 22, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Trump denies disaster declarations for Colorado fires, flooding: ‘We won't stop fighting'
Trump is punishing innocent Coloradans because the governor won't pardon or transfer Tina Peters, convicted on state charges of election interference.
www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-...
Trump is punishing innocent Coloradans because the governor won't pardon or transfer Tina Peters, convicted on state charges of election interference.
www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-...
Reposted by Joan
I have never, once in my career, heard of a news org responding to a decline-to-comment with, “Well, we’ll hold it until you do.”
The reason is obvious — it gives the subject of your story a pocket veto.
The reason is obvious — it gives the subject of your story a pocket veto.
December 22, 2025 at 2:48 AM
I have never, once in my career, heard of a news org responding to a decline-to-comment with, “Well, we’ll hold it until you do.”
The reason is obvious — it gives the subject of your story a pocket veto.
The reason is obvious — it gives the subject of your story a pocket veto.
Reposted by Joan
None of this is normal. It is quite abnormal.
Someone develops a sudden and inexplicable interest in sensitive compartmentalized information having nothing to do with their job?
That's like a bright red warning beacon for counter-intelligence (the mole hunters). The failed poly and firings? Yikes.
Someone develops a sudden and inexplicable interest in sensitive compartmentalized information having nothing to do with their job?
That's like a bright red warning beacon for counter-intelligence (the mole hunters). The failed poly and firings? Yikes.
December 22, 2025 at 7:31 AM
None of this is normal. It is quite abnormal.
Someone develops a sudden and inexplicable interest in sensitive compartmentalized information having nothing to do with their job?
That's like a bright red warning beacon for counter-intelligence (the mole hunters). The failed poly and firings? Yikes.
Someone develops a sudden and inexplicable interest in sensitive compartmentalized information having nothing to do with their job?
That's like a bright red warning beacon for counter-intelligence (the mole hunters). The failed poly and firings? Yikes.
Reposted by Joan
"Journalism is printing something that someone does not want printed. Everything else is public relations."
~ George Orwell
Cc: Bari Weiss, et al
~ George Orwell
Cc: Bari Weiss, et al
December 22, 2025 at 7:27 AM
"Journalism is printing something that someone does not want printed. Everything else is public relations."
~ George Orwell
Cc: Bari Weiss, et al
~ George Orwell
Cc: Bari Weiss, et al
Reposted by Joan
Discworld QOTD, from Lords and Ladies
December 21, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Discworld QOTD, from Lords and Ladies
Reposted by Joan
“Want to keep Christ in Christmas?
Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, forgive the guilty, welcome the stranger and the unwashed child, care for the sick, love your enemies.”
Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, forgive the guilty, welcome the stranger and the unwashed child, care for the sick, love your enemies.”
December 22, 2025 at 5:02 AM
“Want to keep Christ in Christmas?
Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, forgive the guilty, welcome the stranger and the unwashed child, care for the sick, love your enemies.”
Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, forgive the guilty, welcome the stranger and the unwashed child, care for the sick, love your enemies.”
Reposted by Joan
A since-deleted tweet by former KKK grand wizard David Duke is nearly identical to the statement today made by Vice President JD Vance
December 21, 2025 at 11:56 PM
A since-deleted tweet by former KKK grand wizard David Duke is nearly identical to the statement today made by Vice President JD Vance
Reposted by Joan
I finally got around to reading this tonight. Elon and the gang are going to hell for this
By the time Tor Top’s mother was sick with cholera, the nearby clinic had been shuttered for two weeks.
He bundled her into a rented canoe and paddled toward the nearest hospital, eight hours away.
Less than halfway into the journey, his mother died.
He bundled her into a rented canoe and paddled toward the nearest hospital, eight hours away.
Less than halfway into the journey, his mother died.
Trump Officials Celebrated With Cake After Slashing Aid. Then People Died of Cholera.
Behind closed doors in Washington, top advisers made a series of decisions that had devastating repercussions for the poorest country on earth. We went to South Sudan and found people who died as a re...
www.propublica.org
December 22, 2025 at 4:29 AM
I finally got around to reading this tonight. Elon and the gang are going to hell for this
Reposted by Joan
Bari only pulled this program after the promos started airing, which means she probably got a phone call. So she's not just bad at her ostensible job of running CBS news, but she's also bad at her *actual* job of running interference for the Trump admin
CBS News EIC Bari Weiss had concerns about the CECOT piece, I’m told. The network decided to hold the segment pending, among other things, comment or an interview with White House officials next year…
An Editor’s Note from 60 Minutes
December 22, 2025 at 3:01 AM
Bari only pulled this program after the promos started airing, which means she probably got a phone call. So she's not just bad at her ostensible job of running CBS news, but she's also bad at her *actual* job of running interference for the Trump admin
Reposted by Joan
🧑🌾 SPOTTED in Jackson County, Wisconsin…
December 21, 2025 at 6:44 PM
🧑🌾 SPOTTED in Jackson County, Wisconsin…
Reposted by Joan
The Ellison family is in lockstep with this fascist regime.’
📌CBS-News is now nothing but state-run media, which really should scare the shit out of everyone.
Because if they will pull a story this regime doesn’t like, what will they do when they report an election result they don’t like?
Because if they will pull a story this regime doesn’t like, what will they do when they report an election result they don’t like?
December 22, 2025 at 4:59 AM
The Ellison family is in lockstep with this fascist regime.’
Reposted by Joan
Now seems like a swell time to point out that Frontline just released this excellent 11-minute mini-documentary about what happened inside CECOT.
Surviving CECOT (full documentary) | Deported to a Maximum-Security Prison | FRONTLINE + ProPublica
YouTube video by FRONTLINE PBS | Official
m.youtube.com
December 21, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Now seems like a swell time to point out that Frontline just released this excellent 11-minute mini-documentary about what happened inside CECOT.
Reposted by Joan
maintaining the fiction that cbs news would remain relatively objective under her leadership was a *lot* more important — to the admin, to cbs news, to david ellison and to bari weiss — than killing this story was, and it’s incredibly funny she didn’t know that
the shitstorm that’s already brewing because of Bari’s decision to spike this story is going to end up being vastly more damaging to her and to the admin than allowing the story to air would have been
she’s an evil propagandist hack but she is also very bad at doing it in a way that isn’t hamfisted
she’s an evil propagandist hack but she is also very bad at doing it in a way that isn’t hamfisted
December 22, 2025 at 4:47 AM
maintaining the fiction that cbs news would remain relatively objective under her leadership was a *lot* more important — to the admin, to cbs news, to david ellison and to bari weiss — than killing this story was, and it’s incredibly funny she didn’t know that
Reposted by Joan
For Jesus’ birthday this year, he’s asking for affordable housing, universal healthcare, and for people to stop using his name to explain why they’re being cruel to strangers.
December 21, 2025 at 9:41 PM
For Jesus’ birthday this year, he’s asking for affordable housing, universal healthcare, and for people to stop using his name to explain why they’re being cruel to strangers.
Reposted by Joan
Why did CBS delete this promo and cancel this from airing in full?
December 22, 2025 at 12:41 AM
Why did CBS delete this promo and cancel this from airing in full?
Reposted by Joan
The story is insane. The acting head of cyber security, a Noem crony, repeatedly demanded to see highly classified information he didn’t need access to, and when staff set up a lie detector test as a condition to grant him access, he failed it. So DHS suspended the staffers.
Acting CISA director failed a polygraph. Career staff are now under investigation.
Acting CISA director failed a polygraph. Career staff are now under investigation.
At least six career staff were placed on leave after DHS opened an investigation into whether they misled the agency’s acting director, Madhu Gottumukkala, into taking the test.
dlvr.it
December 22, 2025 at 3:20 AM
The story is insane. The acting head of cyber security, a Noem crony, repeatedly demanded to see highly classified information he didn’t need access to, and when staff set up a lie detector test as a condition to grant him access, he failed it. So DHS suspended the staffers.
Reposted by Joan
That’s a funny note to end the episode on
December 22, 2025 at 5:14 AM
That’s a funny note to end the episode on
Reposted by Joan
Per NY Times’s Michael Grynbaum on X, this is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her “60 Minutes” colleagues in full:
December 22, 2025 at 3:37 AM
Per NY Times’s Michael Grynbaum on X, this is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her “60 Minutes” colleagues in full:
Reposted by Joan
it's so goofy to believe making software that mimics human thought is related in any meaningful way to making software that thinks. building the most amazing lifelike animatronic horse the world ever saw does not represent progress if your goal is to create a real horse. huge waste of time actually
December 20, 2025 at 2:49 PM
it's so goofy to believe making software that mimics human thought is related in any meaningful way to making software that thinks. building the most amazing lifelike animatronic horse the world ever saw does not represent progress if your goal is to create a real horse. huge waste of time actually
Reposted by Joan
“These men risked their lives to speak with us. We have a moral and professional obligation to the sources who entrusted us with their
stories. Abandoning them now is a betrayal of the most basic tenet of journalism: giving voice to the voiceless.”
stories. Abandoning them now is a betrayal of the most basic tenet of journalism: giving voice to the voiceless.”
Per NY Times’s Michael Grynbaum on X, this is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her “60 Minutes” colleagues in full:
December 22, 2025 at 3:42 AM
“These men risked their lives to speak with us. We have a moral and professional obligation to the sources who entrusted us with their
stories. Abandoning them now is a betrayal of the most basic tenet of journalism: giving voice to the voiceless.”
stories. Abandoning them now is a betrayal of the most basic tenet of journalism: giving voice to the voiceless.”
Reposted by Joan
No one is going to tune in to CBS because they know it won’t be critical of Trump but lots of people will tune out for that reason. Spiking the CECOT story to curry favor is a terrible moral and journalistic decision — but it’s also a terrible business decision.
“We are trading 50 years of ‘gold standard’ reputation for a single week of political quiet.” www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/b...
‘60 Minutes’ Pulled a Segment. A Correspondent Calls It ‘Political.’
www.nytimes.com
December 22, 2025 at 3:57 AM
No one is going to tune in to CBS because they know it won’t be critical of Trump but lots of people will tune out for that reason. Spiking the CECOT story to curry favor is a terrible moral and journalistic decision — but it’s also a terrible business decision.
Reposted by Joan
Melania Trump Documentary Director Brett Ratner is in the Epstein Files
www.usatoday.com/story/entert...
www.usatoday.com/story/entert...
Melania Trump documentary director Brett Ratner is in the Epstein files
"Rush Hour" director Brett Ratner, who is helming first lady Melania Trump's upcoming documentary, is in a photo in the Epstein files.
www.usatoday.com
December 22, 2025 at 5:16 AM
Melania Trump Documentary Director Brett Ratner is in the Epstein Files
www.usatoday.com/story/entert...
www.usatoday.com/story/entert...
Reposted by Joan
Here’s a gift link to this stunner Washpost story, quoting the 60 Minutes correspondent on the CECOT story, who accuses Bari Weiss of spiking the piece all because the Trump Administration wouldn’t comment.
“Government silence is a statement, not a VETO.”
wapo.st/3YL4T3D
“Government silence is a statement, not a VETO.”
wapo.st/3YL4T3D
‘60 Minutes’ correspondent says CBS’s Bari Weiss abruptly pulled segment on Trump deportations
CBS News pulled a ‘60 Minutes’ segment about a prison in El Salvador one day before it was set to air because the Trump administration declined to participate.
wapo.st
December 22, 2025 at 3:14 AM
Here’s a gift link to this stunner Washpost story, quoting the 60 Minutes correspondent on the CECOT story, who accuses Bari Weiss of spiking the piece all because the Trump Administration wouldn’t comment.
“Government silence is a statement, not a VETO.”
wapo.st/3YL4T3D
“Government silence is a statement, not a VETO.”
wapo.st/3YL4T3D
Jerry O'Connell just made me sob. This Tob Reiner special is lovely but also heartbreaking.
December 22, 2025 at 2:21 AM
Jerry O'Connell just made me sob. This Tob Reiner special is lovely but also heartbreaking.