@stephkat17.bsky.social
Genetic counselor and almost bioethicist, avid reader, dog person raised in a cat household. She/her
Reposted
“when did you, jd vance, apologize for being white” feels like a pretty natural question for the press to ask the vice president now
JD Vance: "In the United States of America you don't have to apologize for being white anymore"
December 21, 2025 at 9:21 PM
“when did you, jd vance, apologize for being white” feels like a pretty natural question for the press to ask the vice president now
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“The Supreme Court decided not to have a Christmas party for 12 straight years because the justices couldn’t agree on whether to invite the Court’s Black employees” is about as tidy an encapsulation of the Supreme Court’s whole deal as I can think of
The Alarmingly Racist History of the Supreme Court’s Canceled 1947 Christmas Party
The Court held its first-ever office Christmas party in 1946. The following year, the clerks suggested inviting Black employees. It did not go over well.
ballsandstrikes.substack.com
December 20, 2025 at 9:06 PM
“The Supreme Court decided not to have a Christmas party for 12 straight years because the justices couldn’t agree on whether to invite the Court’s Black employees” is about as tidy an encapsulation of the Supreme Court’s whole deal as I can think of
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I want the people who self-righteously declared that voting for harm reduction in the 2024 presidential election was not the morally correct thing to do to really look at that headline and internalize it.
NEW: Without USAID funding to help buy food for refugees, the World Food Program rushed to prioritize families based on need, determining that only half the population would get food.
Refugees learned which half they were in from a number stamped on the back of their ration card.
Refugees learned which half they were in from a number stamped on the back of their ration card.
After Trump Officials Cut Food Aid to Kenya, Children Starved to Death
“Brutal and traumatizing”: Interviews and a trove of internal documents show government officials and aid workers desperately tried to warn Trump advisers about impending disaster and death.
www.propublica.org
December 17, 2025 at 3:53 PM
I want the people who self-righteously declared that voting for harm reduction in the 2024 presidential election was not the morally correct thing to do to really look at that headline and internalize it.
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If this were true, they wouldn't be banning the medical care that does this.
"Men are men. Men can never become women. Women are women. Women can never become men."
December 18, 2025 at 5:00 PM
If this were true, they wouldn't be banning the medical care that does this.
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*tearfully looking up at a portrait of the guy who illegally sold weapons to Iran and used to profits to fund right-wing death squads in Nicaragua*
The presidency once served as a reminder of our common humanity. Ronald Reagan described its purpose as building "a nation composed of good and decent people."
December 17, 2025 at 1:11 AM
*tearfully looking up at a portrait of the guy who illegally sold weapons to Iran and used to profits to fund right-wing death squads in Nicaragua*
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Even if you want criminal immigrants removed, the costs of terrorizing millions (and the literal costs of operations) against the “benefits” of removing a handful of criminals are just wayyyyyyyyy out of whack. A huge societal detriment.
"ICE and CBP must be abolished" is the only reasonable position. We can debate the specifics of new agencies for immigration functions, but these agencies are simply too infected with a culture of impunity, racism, and fascism to continue. They're gangs with badges.
Armed ICE agents trapped US citizens in a restaurant and demanded their papers. Federal agents walked into East African restaurants in Cedar-Riverside, MN. They closed and blocked the doors. Then they demanded to see everyone’s papers. Every person present was a US citizen.
December 14, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Even if you want criminal immigrants removed, the costs of terrorizing millions (and the literal costs of operations) against the “benefits” of removing a handful of criminals are just wayyyyyyyyy out of whack. A huge societal detriment.
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We’re closing in on two decades of Republicans telling you, in no uncertain terms, that they do not care about kids being shot dead. In schools, in movie theaters, at church, in the street. They. Do. Not. Care. But hey, at least they’re good at racism and destroying the economy, amirite.
December 14, 2025 at 7:12 PM
We’re closing in on two decades of Republicans telling you, in no uncertain terms, that they do not care about kids being shot dead. In schools, in movie theaters, at church, in the street. They. Do. Not. Care. But hey, at least they’re good at racism and destroying the economy, amirite.
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Demolishing campaign finance rules. Gutting the Voting Rights Act. Allowing gerrymandered congressional districts. It’s time for the ideologues on the Supreme Court to stop meddling in elections. bit.ly/4a7H8d8
Supreme Court Hammers Away at Democracy
With its latest gerrymandering decision, the Court is creating a political system primed for distortion and deeper division.
www.brennancenter.org
December 14, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Demolishing campaign finance rules. Gutting the Voting Rights Act. Allowing gerrymandered congressional districts. It’s time for the ideologues on the Supreme Court to stop meddling in elections. bit.ly/4a7H8d8
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As always, we don’t yet know the identity of the shooter or the motivation for the massacre but we *do* know it involved one of the millions of guns that are drowning this country.
December 13, 2025 at 11:19 PM
As always, we don’t yet know the identity of the shooter or the motivation for the massacre but we *do* know it involved one of the millions of guns that are drowning this country.
Absolute same. And Key and Peele sketches.
my everyday speech is still sprinkled with lines from chappelle’s show, tbh
the 6-7 phenomenon is in no way different from any other catchphrase that kids have yelled out at any point in the last hundred years, there's no daylight between that and when i was in high school, the year straight where every guy kept yelling "i'm rick james bitch"
December 12, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Absolute same. And Key and Peele sketches.
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ProPublica spoke to about 150 people who had lived in homeless encampments when cities cleared them out in “sweeps.”
We distributed notecards so people could tell us about the toll in their own words.
➡️ This is what they wrote: https://propub.li/3MTlm33
We distributed notecards so people could tell us about the toll in their own words.
➡️ This is what they wrote: https://propub.li/3MTlm33
December 12, 2025 at 3:15 AM
ProPublica spoke to about 150 people who had lived in homeless encampments when cities cleared them out in “sweeps.”
We distributed notecards so people could tell us about the toll in their own words.
➡️ This is what they wrote: https://propub.li/3MTlm33
We distributed notecards so people could tell us about the toll in their own words.
➡️ This is what they wrote: https://propub.li/3MTlm33
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Too much shame can be toxic, sure. But sometimes you should feel shame, actually.
December 12, 2025 at 7:36 AM
Too much shame can be toxic, sure. But sometimes you should feel shame, actually.
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this excellent review of oral arguments in trump v. slaughter gets to the profound dishonesty of the conservative majority — the refusal to own the consequences of their actions
SlaughterHouse 9
The Unitary Executive Theory Ascendant – Sort of
harrylitman.substack.com
December 10, 2025 at 11:01 PM
this excellent review of oral arguments in trump v. slaughter gets to the profound dishonesty of the conservative majority — the refusal to own the consequences of their actions
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Put aside that it isn't actually all that horrible to say such a thing, he actually didn't say that. Why are people incapable of taking on someone's words as they actually exist?
Here's what he actually said on the right
Here's what he actually said on the right
![If I were 20 years old, born into Gaza, a giant open-air jail ... if my father is a fisherman and he goes too far out into the sea, he might get shot by somebody inside of Israeli boats ... if my mother picks the olive trees and she gets too close to the wall, she might be shot ... if my little sister has cancer and she needs treatment because there are no facilities to do that in Gaza and I don't get the right permit, she might die ... if I grow up under that oppression, and that poverty ... when the wall comes down lon October 7], am I also strong enough, or even constructed in such a way where I say: "This is too far"?
I don't know that I am. I don't know that I am. I don't know that I am. I just wish we had room to work through that, you know what I mean? And to think about that and
to talk about that.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vlpy6zuqqum5tumv7b6dw5fp/bafkreih5bnm3maheoeaeob722bzljt6fjbcaytw7xkmgsoppxmht4ddtam@jpeg)
December 11, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Put aside that it isn't actually all that horrible to say such a thing, he actually didn't say that. Why are people incapable of taking on someone's words as they actually exist?
Here's what he actually said on the right
Here's what he actually said on the right
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What if they constantly want culture war because policy war is complicated and hard and culture war is stupid and easy
Marco Rubio ordered diplomats to return to using Times New Roman font in official communications, calling his predecessor's decision to adopt Calibri a “wasteful” diversity move
Rubio Stages Font Coup: Times New Roman Ousts Calibri
The secretary of state called it a "wasteful" diversity move, according to an internal department cable seen by Reuters.
www.huffpost.com
December 10, 2025 at 7:11 PM
What if they constantly want culture war because policy war is complicated and hard and culture war is stupid and easy
Don't know how i wasn't already following @boltsmag.org because Taniel is an incredible resource, but if you are making the same mistake I was, please go follow!
I'm not exaggerating when I say following @boltsmag.org rn will unlock money for our journalism.
A generous reader, @russ41.bsky.social, has offered to donate $1 for every 1-person increase to our follower count.
If you're not following @boltsmag.org yet, it'll directly help fund our reporting!
A generous reader, @russ41.bsky.social, has offered to donate $1 for every 1-person increase to our follower count.
If you're not following @boltsmag.org yet, it'll directly help fund our reporting!
December 6, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Don't know how i wasn't already following @boltsmag.org because Taniel is an incredible resource, but if you are making the same mistake I was, please go follow!
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cool that the official position of the administration appears to be that black people don’t really count as americans
"The Donald Trump administration has changed which holidays qualify for free entrance to national parks, removing two holidays celebrating Black people and adding the president’s birthday."
National parks change prioritizes Trump birthday over days honoring Black people
Free entrance days at national parks no longer include MLK Day and Juneteenth.
www.sfgate.com
December 5, 2025 at 1:20 PM
cool that the official position of the administration appears to be that black people don’t really count as americans
This is the entirety of his bio on the official Vandy roster
December 4, 2025 at 9:30 PM
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just for anyone who lost track;
The inch bigots were given a decade ago has turned into several miles and my friends are suffering for it.
The inch bigots were given a decade ago has turned into several miles and my friends are suffering for it.
December 3, 2025 at 11:46 AM
just for anyone who lost track;
The inch bigots were given a decade ago has turned into several miles and my friends are suffering for it.
The inch bigots were given a decade ago has turned into several miles and my friends are suffering for it.
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TN07 is a story about gerrymandering: the GOP cracked Nashville into 3 districts when it redrew the 2022 map, destroying the Dem seat there.
Fast-forward: a section of Nashville, which just 5 years ago had a Dem representative, is now voting Dem by huge margins but it's been designed to not matter.
Fast-forward: a section of Nashville, which just 5 years ago had a Dem representative, is now voting Dem by huge margins but it's been designed to not matter.
December 3, 2025 at 2:14 AM
TN07 is a story about gerrymandering: the GOP cracked Nashville into 3 districts when it redrew the 2022 map, destroying the Dem seat there.
Fast-forward: a section of Nashville, which just 5 years ago had a Dem representative, is now voting Dem by huge margins but it's been designed to not matter.
Fast-forward: a section of Nashville, which just 5 years ago had a Dem representative, is now voting Dem by huge margins but it's been designed to not matter.
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Antonin Scalia cared deeply about "diversity" when it helped him become a Supreme Court justice. He hated it whenever it benefited anyone else
Antonin Scalia Was a Diversity Hire
The late justice spent his career ridiculing the notion that elite institutions had any interest in diversity. He might not have made the Supreme Court without it.
ballsandstrikes.substack.com
December 2, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Antonin Scalia cared deeply about "diversity" when it helped him become a Supreme Court justice. He hated it whenever it benefited anyone else
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He’s gesturing to a sleeping man as he says “He’s the only leader in the world who can help end [the war in Ukraine].”
Trump dozes while Marco Rubio speaks to him directly next to him. Just insane optics.
December 2, 2025 at 7:57 PM
He’s gesturing to a sleeping man as he says “He’s the only leader in the world who can help end [the war in Ukraine].”
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i'm actually struck by how pete hegseth isn't just a cowardly man but a capital-c Coward. a guy who gets off on abusing and hurting people he thinks are weaker than him and then tries to run and hide when there might be consequences
December 2, 2025 at 1:45 PM
i'm actually struck by how pete hegseth isn't just a cowardly man but a capital-c Coward. a guy who gets off on abusing and hurting people he thinks are weaker than him and then tries to run and hide when there might be consequences