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Alex Russell

@infrequently.org
6.7K followers 1.5K following 2.5K posts

Trying to make a web that works for everyone. Also at toot.cafe/@slightlyoff For more: infrequently.org/about-me infrequently.org

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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 5h
If you are still suffering the slow-as-balls official site/app for this service, may I commend to you @mary.my.id's excellent Skeetdeck? It's the only way to fly AirBsky: skeetdeck.pages.dev
skeetdeck.pages.dev
Skeetdeck
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A.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I’m sorry but if there is no Kermit what stops me from murdering people? A genuine internal desire to not harm others? Uh keep dreaming aphibiests
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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 11h
State Department employees were falsely accused of "censoring" Americans. When do they get justice? thehill.com/opinion/nati...
thehill.com
We need accountability for federal employee purges made on false pretenses
I was grilling chicken on a sweltering summer night in the Washington, D.C. suburbs, when I peeked at my phone and saw that a senior official in the administration had just accused me of lying to C…
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Louis @louisevans.bsky.social · 18h
Pass a law clarifying that the supreme court’s appellate jurisdiction does not begin until a final ruling has been made by district and appeals courts.
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Julian Sanchez @normative.bsky.social · 18h
This has been the pattern for a while. Lots of reasonable pundits cautioning against reading too much into the dogwhistle while the actual out-and-proud Nazis cheer “One of us! One of us!”
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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 29/09/2026
Why hello there, London. I'd ask "how is it this hot in Oct, nearly?," but we both know the answer.
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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 28/09/2026
With apologies to Doctorow, it seems we've evolved; the internet is now five websites filled with screenshots of Shrimp Jesus and text generated on demand by a sixth.
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Ben Prunty @benprunty.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I don't love dunking on folks but it's so fucking funny to me that Trump was convicted of 34 felonies 2 years ago, faced no punishment, and went on to win the presidency a second time and journalists are still like, "hmm, I have an inkling that maybe he believes he's above the law for some reason."
Post from NYT reporter Eric Lipton 

"What an odd moment in United States history.

A U.S. president is running an overtly political campaign advertisement, right before midterm elections, paid for by the U.S. government.

Trump appears to believe he is immune from any kind of legal limit."
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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 27/09/2026
If only there were a more concise word for “an overtly political campaign advertisement paid for by the government.” If only there were a roomful of writers and editors one could consult…
Eric Lipton NYT
@ericlipton.nytimes.com
What an odd moment in United States history.
A U.S. president is running an overtly political camaign advertisement, right before midterm elections, paid for by the U.S. government.
Trump appears to believe he is immune from any kind of legal limit.
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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I've had fire insurance on my house for decades and never had a fire. Obviously a fraudster.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 27/09/2026
To summarize: there's nothing wrong with fighting when you're fighting fascist fuckers.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 27/09/2026
"When one side rejects pluralism, electoral legitimacy, or epistemic accountability, then 'reconciliation' and even 'civility' function less as neutral civic virtues than as asymmetric constraints, and they risk unilaterally disarming pro-democracy forces." 🎯
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 27/09/2026
"Authoritarian, conservative, and reactionary networks have been among the principal drivers of the surge in distrust, conspiracism, and anti-scientific sentiment." Yes: contemporary polarization is driven by a deliberate campaign to destroy trust in core institutions & epistemic standards.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 27/09/2026
I love this paper so much. If I had my way every single journalist, pundit, analyst, and politician in the US would read it & then read it again. I want to quote all of it. www.frontiersin.org/journals/soc...
frontiersin.org
Frontiers | The problem with polarization research in an age of extremism
"I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block i...
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Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Wild stuff. Sheri Mecklenberg, career prosecutor accused of misconduct in Broadview 6 case, resigns from DOJ. The NYT obtained her scathing resignation letter, in which she says the U.S. attorney directed her to bring felony charges over her objection. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
Read the document (Gift Article)
Sheri H. Mecklenburg resignation letter
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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 27/09/2026
TIL! www.home-assistant.io/integrations...
home-assistant.io
Wake on LAN
Instructions on how to set up the Wake on LAN integration in Home Assistant.
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Noah Berlatsky @nberlat.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
you could avoid the atlantic and read my essay about the right's attack on empathy instead, if you wanted. therevealer.org/what-we-can-...
therevealer.org
What We Can Learn from the Right’s Attack On “Toxic Empathy” — The Revealer
Why are prominent right-wing figures and conservative Christians claiming empathy is bad?
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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 27/09/2026
Literally the guy you could have most predicted would get (more) broken by money.
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Meanwhile, far too many journalists are not doing their jobs here. I can't find transcripts so I can't get the exact wording, but on yesterday's BBC Newshour, METR President Chris Painter was saying absolutely unhinged things about imminent superintelligence that we would >>
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
When Coxon was suddenly ALL OVER the media, it felt to many like that was because his story deserved that much interest i.e. that the media was doing its job informing the public of an important threat. The wall-to-wall media coverage wasn't organic though, it was orchestrated: >>
piratewires.com
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Spencer Ackerman @attackerman.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Ha ha that’s gross and should make everyone uncomfortable, anyway, Rahm presided over a Chicago police black site, lied about what it was and then I sued the Chicago police for its records that proved it:
theguardian.com
Homan Square revealed: how Chicago police 'disappeared' 7,000 people
Exclusive: Lawsuit exposes scale of detention at off-the-books interrogation warehouse while attorneys describe find-your-client chase ‘from a Bond movie’
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Spencer Ackerman @attackerman.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Laquan McDonald was unavailable for comment on Rahm’s presidential ambitions and the Times manufacturing consent for it
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Molly Jong-Fast @mollyjongfast.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
This is not great
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Julian Sanchez @normative.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Buying into a ludicrous fantasy vision of how immigration stops function in the real world is a moral choice, not a matter of cognitive horsepower. You don’t have to be terribly bright to grasp that’s not actually how things work; you just have to care.
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Kevin Powell @kevinpowell.co · 23/09/2026
It's annoying to keep hearing about cool CSS features only to find out browser support isn't great, so today I take a look at a bunch of features that have fantastic support, but people still turn to JS for instead. youtu.be/qu1jE41O_8o
youtu.be
Use these CSS features instead of JavaScript
YouTube video by Kevin Powell
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Patrick Brosset @patrickbrosset.com · 24/09/2026
The call for Interop 2027 proposals is closing today. More than 100 proposals got created! Here are my favs 🤩 patrickbrosset.com/lab/interop-... Check them out!
40 colored squares with my favorite feature names.
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David Rothschild @davmicrot.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
World according to Media & Political Elite When Republicans win Big: they have mandate, charge righward! When Republicans win Small: they have mandate, charge rightward! When Democrats win Small: they need to unite US by looking right. When Democrats win Big: they need to unite US by looking right.
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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 23/09/2026
Tremendously excited to hang out with the folks doing the most in 2026 to keep the web healthy. If you're in London, pencil this in for after work next Thurs.
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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Useful reporting but would be worth more firmly stressing Hegseth’s achievement in overseeing a calamitous decline in US power and prestige, which was absolutely predictable and was presumably always the point. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/14/u...
nytimes.com
In Hegseth’s Pentagon, Top Leaders Battle Turmoil
Persistent distractions are feeding a climate of mistrust as the U.S. military faces a series of wartime issues, including shortfalls of missile interceptors.
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Thomas Fuchs 🫯 @thomasfuchs.at · 23/09/2026
Imagine paying for a ticket to attend this
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G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris.com · 23/09/2026
Begging pollsters to just stop for a single hour releasing new surveys with the president hitting new lows so I can finalize these graphs for an article
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Phillips OBrien @phillipspobrien.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
When historians look back on Trump's foreign policy in a century, I bet these are their verdict on his most famous policies: The support of Russia--the most evil. The pillaging of Venezuela--the most corrupt. The decision to go to war with Iran--the most incompetent.
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Patrick Brosset @patrickbrosset.com · 23/09/2026
One interesting thread emerged, downstream from the previewsrc attribute: 🔵 Would you use it to display unrecognizable blurs, because they're really small? 🔵 Or would you use it to show more recognizable previews, if you're willing to spend around 10x more bytes? Share your point of view here ⬇️
github.com
[Image Preview for HTML Images] Do better than blurhash · Issue #1406 · MicrosoftEdge/MSEdgeExplainers
Blurhash is cute and nothing else. It's close to useless even compared to CSS features we may soon get. It seems like sites are moving away from it for good reason. For example, I was sent an X lin...
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Perry Bacon @perrybaconjr.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
That was my first piece after leaving the Post because Bezos agreed with Trump about "wokeness" (and wealth taxes and any real regulation of big companies). newrepublic.com/article/1987...
newrepublic.com
Why So Many Key Institutions Have Folded Rather Than Challenge Trump
Yes, they’re under pressure. But maybe a lot of these leaders kinda like what Trump’s doing. Just remember: Trump was defeated once before.
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Luke Stark @lukestark.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Drywall, c'est moi
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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 23/09/2026
Dems for ~15 years: how does Susan Collins keep winning? Pro Publica: we did a journalism, it was corruption Dems: let's not be hasty now with these wild-eyed "get money out of politics" dreams. Might impact our fundraising.
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Charlotte Clymer @charlotteclymer.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
If I ever got bodied by Brian Kilmeade, of all people, on national television, I’d pack it up and find another line of work.
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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
NYT has now independently corroborated all the major allegations against Susan Collins in the ProPublica report, including that investigators were prepared to move against her and then Trump intervened to shut it down. This put Trump in a position of exceptional and extortionate leverage over her.
nytimes.com
F.B.I. Shut Down Inquiry Into Top Ally of Senator Susan Collins
The inquiry was closed last year because senior bureau officials questioned the veracity of a campaign donor’s account, according to current and former officials.
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Greg Greene (he/him/his) @greene.haus · 23/09/2026
And the wellness sector's takeover of health policy, yes. So many fully formed states in waiting within the Republican coalition — waiting to capture and subvert whole agencies and branches of government, like a cordyceps infestation controlling an ant.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
This is a common lie from DHS press flacks. They claim that people who came through CBP One — who registered for an appointment through a government app, went to a port of entry, and were issued a grant of humanitarian parole by a CBP officer letting them enter — "entered illegally." Total nonsense.
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Zach Everson @zacheverson.com · 22/09/2026
This Byron Donalds?
Congressman Byron Donalds
@RepDonaldsPress
Today, we celebrate America's Presidents for their dedication, leadership, and service to our nation.

I proudly stand with President Trump as we fight to Make America Great Again and codify our America First Agenda.

Happy Presidents' Day🇺🇸
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 21/09/2026
If one of the "rewards" of affluence is that you get to opt out of the services everyone else uses -- roads & transit, aviation system, schools, healthcare, etc. -- then those services are inevitably starved of resources & decline. We have to force affluent people to be invested in them.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 21/09/2026
Agree with this & I'd broaden it: as income inequality increases, the affluent class increasingly strains to free itself of public services. Those services suffer & the flywheel accelerates. Only way to stop is to say, for certain things, no: you have to use the same shit as us.
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Patrick Brosset @patrickbrosset.com · 22/09/2026
One more call for feedback! Yeah, I know, I often ask for feedback but, think about it, the more you share, the better the feature. 💡Support low-quality image placeholders on the web! ➡️<img previewsrc="preview.avif" src="photo.avif"> ❓Would you use this? What capabilities do you need? Read more⬇️
patrickbrosset.com
Patrick - Blurry before beautiful: image previews for the web
Showing blurry previews while images are loading on the web is a very common pattern which we'd love to standardize at the browser level, so that all developers can use it with very little code and co...
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Ezra Levin ❌👑 @ezralevin.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
California’s AG caved on the Paramount case because of pressure from tech billionaires AND Gov. Gavin Newsom. Newsom even earned a “thank you” from David Ellison in his statement celebrating the monopoly merger. We’re going to make sure this backfires.
deadline.com
Paramount Settles Antitrust Suit, Set To Seal Deal For Warner Bros Discovery
Paramount agreed to settle an antitrust suit by a dozen state attorneys general led by California's Rob Bonta, the last obstacle to its merger with Warner Bros.
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Leah Greenberg ❌👑 @leahgreenberg.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I want to be 100% clear: @gavinnewsom.bsky.social's fingerprints are all over this deal and he owns the consequences. He has handed control of America's media ecosystem to Trump's top enablers and he should have to answer for it every day for the rest of his career. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/21/b...
nytimes.com
Paramount Settles States’ Lawsuit, Clearing Way for Warner Bros. Merger
By resolving a lawsuit filed by a group of states, the media mogul David Ellison removed the last major hurdle he faced in buying Warner Bros. Discovery.
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Jesse Eisinger @jeisinger.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
NEW: In ‘24, the FBI sought to launch a sweeping bribery probe that could ensnare top lawmakers, including Sen. Susan Collins. Then Trump eviscerated the FBI & DOJ public corruption teams. ProPublica unearthed the investigation and you can read it 👇 www.propublica.org/article/fbi-...
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Becca Lewis @beccalew.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
👀👀👀👀 fnl.mit.edu/how-we-learn...
fnl.mit.edu
How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Campus Surveillance – MIT Faculty Newsletter
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Alison Fitzgerald Kodjak @alikodjak.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
In 2024, the FBI sought to launch a sweeping pay-to-play investigation examining interactions between Sen. Susan Collins and a top donor, records and emails show. @propublica.org www.propublica.org/article/fbi-...
propublica.org
The FBI Anti-Corruption Squad Was Circling Susan Collins — Until Trump Got in the Way
After the FBI caught a defense contractor’s CEO making illegal campaign contributions, it sought to launch a sweeping political bribery probe involving Collins and others. Then the second Trump admini...
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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 22/09/2026
Tell me you don't understand 20th century social technology without telling me.
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