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John Gaffney

@jfpgaffney.bsky.social
495 followers 734 following 2K posts

Old guy. Seems that I am busy doing something close to nothing. Incredibly unfazed by immobile escalators.

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Reposted by John Gaffney
hilzoy @hilzoy.bsky.social · 19h
The HepB vaccine study, by contrast, is testing the safety of a vaccine whose safety is already well established. There is no problem that requires this study except in the minds of vaccine deniers. www.cidrap.umn.edu/sites/defaul...
cidrap.umn.edu
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John Gaffney @jfpgaffney.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Already did 😀
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DC Council @councilofdc.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
This is clearly not acceptable
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Eric Levai @ericlevai.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Now THIS is how you write a story. Devastating.
Screenshot from this article: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/08/us/politics/fort-hood-execution-streamed-public.html?unlocked_article_code=1.HVE.Rw7O.Sj-0_s5YONzL&smid=nytcore-android-share
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Xela Hart @xelahart.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
🎯🎯🎯
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Deeply American sentence (from Davy Crockett’s wikipedia page)
Despite Crockett’s opposition to the institution of slavery in the United States, he did enslave people.
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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
The Smithsonian is funded by Congress and heavily intertwined with the federal government, but it's not an executive branch agency. The president is not even nominally their boss. He has absolutely no lawful power to issue orders to them.
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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
It’s simply unimaginable that CDC Director Dr. Erica Schwartz has just bowed to RFK Jr. and approved funding for an utterly unethical clinical trial that will withhold the birth dose of HepB vaccine in Guinea Bissau. It is to be conducted by researchers accused of academic misconduct.
rollingstone.com
CDC Is Moving Forward With a Previously Shelved Controversial Hepatitis B Vaccine Study
“It’s a wholly unethical trial, and it shouldn’t be allowed,” says Dr. Paul Offit of Guinea-Bissau study
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The Mouthy Renegade Writer @mouthyrenegade.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Add Karen Smith to my list of badasses whose mouthy approach I respect. Actions usually speak louder than words. This is a hero, Y'all. Well done, Ma'am. You're gonna kick ass in your new position. ✊📖
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hilzoy @hilzoy.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
If, like me, you are someone who is interested in how AI works but doesn’t want to do the serious work that would normally involve, this is a great essay. It’s at (for me) the right level of abstraction: detailed enough that I can see how various types of models differ …
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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Just a reminder: Tillis persuaded the woman Hegseth allegedly raped to come forward with her story, and told her that if she did, it would sink the nomination. She did. At great risk to herself. Tillis then cast the deciding vote for Hegseth. Because he’s a goddamned coward.
ms.now
Outgoing Sen. Tillis regrets pivotal vote for Hegseth: ‘He’s an actor. He’s not a manager’
Outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis spoke to MS NOW about regretting his vote to confirm Pete Hegseth and his strained relationship with Trump.
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Pissedoffpundit @pissedoffpundant.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
No shit🤔💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯
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John Gaffney @jfpgaffney.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
The bigger the Dems win in November, the louder the shrieking about the deficit will be.
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Elizabeth Anne, PhD @lacksauthority.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
never the wrong time for this classic
Screenshot of a tweet by @RobbtKraft reading “scientist: "does everyone here know what Watson and Crick discovered?" 
me from back of room: "Rosalind Franklin's notes"”
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Ernest 🇺🇸 @earnestlib.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
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kobenhavn-kbh.bsky.social @kobenhavn-kbh.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
bsky.app/profile/gill...
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Gail Simone @gailsimone.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
You guys want to hear a short but adorable story that happened right in front of me at the baggage claim in NYC yesterday? I wasn't part of it and there are bits I didn't catch but holy crap, I can't stop thinking about it.
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Charlie Warzel @cwarzel.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
For a long time I've wanted a sense of how trump has or hasn't interacted with chatbots (we know he posts a lot of slop sure). And this TIME anecdote about Grok arguably leading Trump into war is just extremely bracing
Since returning to office, Trump has marveled at AI’s capabilities. He is increasingly in thrall to the tech executives courting him. In December 2025, Elon Musk returned to the Oval Office for a clandestine meeting. Trump spent hours asking Grok, Musk’s AI chatbot, questions about his presidency and legacy, according to an official present. At the time, Trump was ordering missile strikes against Venezuelan boats he alleged were smuggling drugs into the U.S. He asked Grok how Venezuelans would react if the U.S. captured Maduro. According to the official present, the chatbot responded that Maduro was a repressive and deeply unpopular dictator and that many Venezuelans would likely celebrate his downfall. After Trump ordered the mission to seize Maduro, the following month, celebrations broke out in the streets. Trump, according to officials, came away thinking Grok was ingenious.
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Robert Borden Stan Account @bordenstan.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
This scathing article in New Lines is a pretty good summation of McGurk and his rotten legacy. “Brett only meets people who speak English. … There are like four people in the government who speak English. And somehow he’s now the person who should decide the fate of Iraq? How did this happen?”
newlinesmag.com
Brett McGurk: A Hero of Our Time
Every generation of American diplomats has a figure who becomes the face of the era in foreign policy, a Dean Acheson, Henry Kissinger, or Richard Holbrooke. The years of pain and sorrow otherwise kno...
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Kyra Dempsey - Admiral Cloudberg @kyracloudy.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Passenger says he pulled FlyDubai plane out of its dive after struggle with suicidal pilot: "I watch Air Crash Investigation" (BBC News)
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Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I hope everyone reads this, thinks about it and then shares it. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
democracydocket.com
A few hundred noncitizen votes are a national scandal. But when states reject hundreds of thousands of ballots from eligible voters, it’s business as usual
One state rejected ballots because some voters failed to include their mother’s maiden name on the back of the return envelope.
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John Gaffney @jfpgaffney.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Well gee that’s unusual.
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Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
JUST IN: A federal judge has issued a permanent injunction upbraiding ICE for mass arrests that have strained detention facilities and forced detainees all over the country into "overcrowded, squalid, and degrading rooms for excessive periods of time" www.nysd.uscourts.gov/sites/defaul...
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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Stephen Miller’s Office of Remigration was deliberately named to announce to the world that white nationalism is now the basis for US immigration policy. If Dems win power, they should defund it. They should also defund third-country deportations. New from me: newrepublic.com/article/2157...
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tweety fish oh wow like a chimera or something spoooky @sifu.tweety.fish · 24/09/2026
(if you read the Gyges post, you'll know precisely where *koff*yudkowsky*koff* this dumbass shit came from, fyi)
verysane.ai
AI Safety Is Mostly A Sex Cult In Berkeley, California
We might some day have “AI Safety”, as a science or policy area, that is not primarily a sex cult in Berkeley, California, but it does not currently exist.
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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Chinese media allowed at WH. American media banned in defiance of a court order.
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The Onion @theonion.com · 24/09/2026
Dog Can’t Believe Guy She Hooked Up With 10 Years Ago Now Head Of FBI theonion.com/dog-cant-believe-guy-s…
Dog Can’t Believe Guy She Hooked Up With 10 Years Ago Now Head Of FBI
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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Learned yesterday that there's a vast swath of rural counties in New Mexico with a total population of 247,000ish people, covering an area id 53,259 square miles, without a pediatrician www.instagram.com/p/DdoegYHjFw...
15 New Mexico counties have zero pediatricians NM county map, revevant counties without pediatricians are:

Catron
Cibola
De Baca
Guadalupe 
Harding 
Hidalgo
Lincoln
Luna
Mora
Quay
Rio Arriba
Sierra
Torrance
Union
Valencia


NEW MEXICO
VOICES
FOR CHILDREN
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Next door in Silicon Valley @nextdoorsv.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Job opening! You could make $1000-$1500 per day! **MUST HAVE GENUINE, EXPERT-LEVEL DUMPLING/RAMEN/PHO SKILLS **MUST HAVE MICHELIN EXPERIENCE www.estatejobs.com/job/5ztstu/p...
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John Gaffney @jfpgaffney.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I think everyone is born a lawyer, but most of us outgrow it.
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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 24/09/2026
You have to at least read until this part.
Hours after the story published, DHS spokesman Micah Bock sent another email, writing: "When you fail to provide us with the necessary information to verify your claims, you're wasting our time, which is ironic considering we at DHS can't think of a bigger waste of time than writing for the American Prospect."As a matter of logic, a writer wasting time at the Prospect and also wasting DHS's time would have been fitting, not
ironic.
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Terry Buckalew @terrybuckalew.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
youtu.be/c9XdwDK2Btk?...
youtu.be
Bumble Bee by Charles Tuberville
YouTube video by TheSQUEEZEINN Thomas
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Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 19/09/2026
Tallinn, who led Anthropic's series A, funds METR, the "auditing institute" people took seriously 🙄 After criticism that METR was laughably NOT independent, Anthropic announces they'll pay Accenture to "audit" Accenture had acquired Tallinn firm which will be doing the "auditing" Full circle 🙄
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Paul Avey @paulcavey.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
DHS "sent Nevada a list of 185 names ... it claimed identified noncitizens who had been improperly allowed to register to vote...On Tuesday, the state sent a strongly worded rebuke...: Every single person on the list was a lawful citizen." www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/u...
nytimes.com
From 15,000 to 185 to Zero: Trump’s Claims of Illegal Voting in Nevada Fizzle (Gift Article)
It was the Trump administration’s latest stumble in its effort to find proof of widespread noncitizen voting, despite decades of evidence that it is extremely rare.
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David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
the @forbidden-stories.bsky.social investigation is so deeply important. put the illegality to one side. the trump admin is brazenly sending ppl to third countries, lacking any cxn, without any guarantee they won't be sent on for torture, abuse, persecution... it's horrible.
forbiddenstories.org
The Deportation Project: Inside the Trump administration's secret deals to expel people worldwide - Forbidden Stories
72 journalists, 26 news organizations, 15 countries: a global investigation into the Trump administration’s secret third-country deportation system
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David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
ppl like to dump on lawyers and journalists but the heroic ones are working their asses off for the public interest and human rights 👇
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John Gaffney @jfpgaffney.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Very much appreciate the medieval approach. I saw the headline on that piece of his and thought someone needed to do it ;-)
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Splinter @splinternews.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Debate an empty chair if you have to, James. Do it repeatedly. Let Texans watch as Paxton slinks away. Story: www.jezebel.com/ken-paxton-c... #KenPaxton #JamesTalarico #Senate #Texas #debate
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Susan Rinkunas @susanrinkunas.com · 23/09/2026
Coward shit Newsom vetoed “a bill that would have extended California’s abortion shield laws and expanded legal protections for gender-affirming care”
sfchronicle.com
A California bill sought to shore up Newsom’s abortion access plan. He vetoed it
One of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s most reliable allies, abortion rights advocacy groups, are issuing a rebuke after he vetoed a bill that would have extended California’s abortion shield laws.
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John Gaffney @jfpgaffney.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I literally cackled at this and it made me cough 😀
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Tim Carvell @timcarvell.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The nice thing about making panzanella is realizing that your frequently-thwarted childhood desire to fill a bowl with croutons and dressing at the salad bar was actually Correct, and Fancy, and Italian, Actually.
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Joe Sudbay @joesudbay.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
should be day 2 stories if Maine/national media pick up on fact Collins' lobbyist husband, Tom Daffron, worked closely - for years - with Scott Reed, a key player in the corruption scandal @andrewperez.bsky.social & @martinpengelly.bsky.social wrote about that in June zeteo.com/p/susan-coll...
zeteo.com
Susan Collins’s Husband Worked for the Lobbyist Running Her Super PAC
The Maine senator's husband apparently consulted last year for the lobbyist leading Pine Tree Results PAC, documents show.
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Schrödinger's Sneetch Belly @rtodkelly.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Please know that this is one of my few legitimate areas of actual, high-level professional expertise: Kicking the healthiest people off of a health insurance program will bankrupt it. Not 'could;' not 'might,' not 'probably," but absolutely will, with mathematical certainty.
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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
A great evisceration of WaPo's DOGE propaganda, from Lambert Strether. thejackpot.blog/node/NewTyle...
thejackpot.blog
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John Gaffney @jfpgaffney.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
It’s hard to prosecute white collar crime because the laws are written by white collar criminals.
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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
One of the people who bribed Trump w/a bunker-ballroom bribe, Konstantin Sokolov, got permission to do business with VTB. www.icij.org/news/2026/09...
icij.org
Trump administration gave firm with ties to ballroom donor the green light to do business with a sanctioned Russian bank - ICIJ
Private equity investor Konstantin Sokolov was also appointed to run a government enterprise fund.
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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
So in addition to being a former clerk to SCOTUS Justice Neil Gorsuch, Mike Davis’ lobbying clients include Hewlett Packard and Walmart. Have the CEOs of those companies been asked to “disavow” and “sever their relationships” with Mike Davis?? He is a grotesque racist.
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*it* is happening here @realworldrj.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
A reminder that Davis called the DOJ anti-trust head and threatened to destroy her life (and she was his friend!) www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...
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