Stephen Baines
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stephenbaines.bsky.social
Stephen Baines
@stephenbaines.bsky.social
Ecologist, biogeochemist, drummer and gardener interested in effective pro-people politics, and equitable climate policy. (Also a Wisconsin Badgers volleyball fanatic.) Stony Brook E&E. He/him

Opinions are my own. Also, our brains are too small.
Pinned
Nice to see so many arriving!

I have mostly studied how elemental cycles are affected by phytoplankton and the things what eats ‘em. Although I often get sidetracked!

Recently my lab has moved inland to work on nitrogen transformations and organic matter decomposition in wetlands.
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This is extremely important
December 16, 2025 at 12:48 PM
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It is rare that i reach out to as many trump advisers and officials that I did today and get literally no one willing to defend this, even off the record.
December 16, 2025 at 2:17 AM
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i have said this before but if you are actually interested in influencing people beyond a narrow circle of too-online journalists you will be making direct to camera videos on tiktok, instagram and youtube. if you primarily post on text-based social media then you're just dicking around.
December 15, 2025 at 7:26 PM
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Trump Officials Celebrated With Cake After Slashing Aid. Then People Died of Cholera. www.propublica.org/article/usai...
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 15, 2025 at 6:02 PM
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Bluesky has genuinely revived my love for science communication online. After watching the same posts go nowhere on Twitter, seeing them resonate here has been such a good reminder of why I do this. Thanks for being here 🖤
December 14, 2025 at 8:55 PM
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Just want to share with my American friends how the Australians respond to a shooting tragedy. Action, rather than thoughts and prayers.
December 15, 2025 at 4:09 AM
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BREAKING: Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar says her son was pulled over by immigration agents and asked to prove his citizenship.
Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar says her son was pulled over by ICE
Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar said federal immigration agents pulled over her son on Saturday and asked him to prove his citizenship.
cbsn.ws
December 14, 2025 at 6:44 PM
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It’s important to contextualize just how much less safe American drivers are than everywhere else in the world, and it’s getting worse!
December 13, 2025 at 5:15 PM
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so if you personally pay donald trump you get a fast track to a green card
trumpcard.gov is live and the million dollar fees are all referred to as “gifts” or “contributions” to an undisclosed party lol
December 14, 2025 at 3:08 PM
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The atrophy of congressional war powers to an effective nullity is just as much part of how we got to such an insanely aggrandized imperial presidency as all the other cases of executive power run amok. There would be no question of war with Venezuela right now without it.
December 13, 2025 at 9:40 PM
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They used to "laugh and call him names." Now they're all dead
December 14, 2025 at 1:55 PM
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I have been teaching at Brown University for 16 years, and have considered campus and Providence as one of the safest places I've ever lived in the U.S. Still, it's happened here.

My heart goes out to those students and families as they deal with this. We owe them better.
December 14, 2025 at 1:53 AM
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so far tonight msnbc has interviewed two students from brown university that are also survivors of separate high school shootings.

insanity.
December 14, 2025 at 1:28 AM
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Brutal but effective public health messaging from New York Public Health.

The CDC is compromised. They’re no longer a reliable source of information.

They push anti-vaxx & anti-science grift.

Get your vaccines. Wear a respirator. Clean the air

Get public health advice from experts, not RFK Jr
December 13, 2025 at 10:44 AM
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Happy 100th birthday to Dick Van Dyke!
December 13, 2025 at 9:05 AM
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America is a mafia state running a protection racket in the interest of the boss, not the people www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1... bsky.app/profile/john...
December 12, 2025 at 11:54 AM
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Part of the Civil Rights Movement was a dignity claim that when you are in public you have a right to be spoken to in a neutral manner. Hamilton v. Alabama. This service worker may hate to serve me Cinnabons, but it is part of her job to serve every customer in the same manner.
ah yes, all workers should have the right to hurl racial slurs at black customers
“Those of us on the left should be fighting to improve protections for workers of all races, and thereby for the betterment of people’s material conditions regardless of their views,” Arash Azizi argues:
December 12, 2025 at 4:01 PM
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there is a certain condescension in the idea that “racism should be publicly unacceptable and come with consequences” is an attack on the “working class.”
December 12, 2025 at 3:44 PM
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shoutout to the crowd that insisted it was a political loser to stand up for abrego garcia’s rights
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an ordinary man, has defeated the great might of the US Government
Kilmar Abrego Garcia is free. every bit of cruelty, boasting, slander, and persecution was for absolutely fucking nothing.
December 12, 2025 at 12:38 PM
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Trump sent Vance there twice. He threatened to cut off all federal spending to the state. He vowed to back primary challengers of any Republican who voted against him here. He posted their names online, prompting his fans to send them death threats.

But all that failed, so now he wasn't involved.
Reporter: The senate in Indiana voted against the redistricting effort.

Trump: I wasn't working on it very hard. I wasn't very much involved
December 12, 2025 at 12:57 AM
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Democratic leadership didn’t want to stick their necks out for him. The GOP didn’t want him even referred to as a “Maryland man.” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, his congressional representative fought for him. And we should never forget any of this. apnews.com/article/abre...
Kilmar Abrego Garcia freed from federal immigration detention, his attorney's office says
Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been released from an immigration detention center in Pennsylvania following an order from a federal judge issued Thursday, according to his attorney’s office.
apnews.com
December 11, 2025 at 10:29 PM
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This should be the biggest story in the country right now. The sitting US President was extorting state lawmakers from his own party by threatening to withhold public money if they didn’t gerrymander for him.

I don’t know how else to say it…
December 12, 2025 at 4:21 AM
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"The request to publish syllabi is not an honest one. It is an effort to intimidate faculty whose instruction ventures into subjects some conservatives don’t want explored...It’s about protecting free inquiry. It is a process that is essential to serving society by pursuing truth."
UNC System faculty take a new stand against push to publish course details | Opinion
People might wonder why employees are reluctant to post the details. But the request to publish syllabi is not an honest one from conservatives. | Opinion
www.newsobserver.com
December 11, 2025 at 6:31 PM
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It’s been two weeks since ICE took Yuanxin Zheng from his father. He is six years old. He’s still not home. This has to end.
December 10, 2025 at 10:32 PM