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Purely Speculative

@joleigh.bsky.social
635 followers 1K following 1.6K posts

A mostly lurking book gremlin. she/her

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Ilhan Omar @ilhanmn.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Like so many women, I’ve experienced a miscarriage. Years ago, when my doctor couldn’t find a heartbeat, I was given medication to help me through it. I was grateful to have access to the care I needed during an incredibly difficult time.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 26/09/2026
NEW: ProPublica’s Jake Pearson lost $10,000 mimicking the betting patterns of a problem gambler on DraftKings to test the company’s “responsible gaming” safeguards. One week in, he was invited to become a VIP — and faced little pushback as he spiraled.
propublica.org
I Deliberately Bet Like a Problem Gambler. DraftKings Made Me a VIP.
Amid growing public health concerns, operators like DraftKings have touted “responsible gaming” tools and prompts. But as I went off the deep end, I found they were no match for the incentives and pro...
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Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 21/09/2026
for your future voting knowledge, Gavin Newsom was central in pressuring the AGs to settle their antitrust lawsuit against Paramount:
deadline.com
Done! 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 WBD.
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Abdul El-Sayed @abdulelsayed.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
How do we make teaching a sustainable career? We need: 🎒Education budget tied to the defense budget 🎒Teacher minimum wage 🎒Strong teacher unions 🎒Investment in the paraprofessionals that a kid needs to be their best learner and so teachers can focus on teaching
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Kelly Barnhill @kellybarnhill.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Friends? Memorize this. Also, I will give you the lesson my dad taught me when I was only 10 years old: "If you are ever in a situation when you are arrested, the only word you know, or have ever known, is 'lawyer'."
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Kashana @kashana.blacksky.app · 20/09/2026
Americans: oh, look, a systemic issue. I will solve it individually
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Iron Spike @ironspike.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I’ll take this a step further and say, I believe we should be able to support an average-sized family on a single income at what we determine to be the minimum wage. A lot of Boomers got this. But for whatever reason, we’re considered ridiculous for proposing it.
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Purely Speculative @joleigh.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
There is a MG series that I will never shut up about. WILDERLORE BY AMANDA FOODY IS AMAZING AND WONDEROUS AND KIND *PLUS* MAGICAL ANIMAL COMPANIONS. In a just world, the ATLA team would be making an animated adaptation, one season per book. Read it and give it to the kids in your life.
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Purely Speculative @joleigh.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
If she wanted to adapt one of the books in this series as a standalone, The Horse and His Boy is right there!
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Luke Plunkett @lukeplunkett.com · 19/09/2026
this tweet is NINE years old and is still the best trans rights policy advice out there
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Purely Speculative @joleigh.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Child poverty is a policy choice.
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The Rest Is Politics @therestpolitics.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
How Ed Miliband's late mum was at the forefront of his mind during his statement on Israel-Palestine.
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SEIU_ORG @seiu.org · 16/09/2026
This is the same administration that cut $1 TRILLION from the Medicaid budget to give tax cuts to #GreedyCEOs, by the way. Anyone else see the problem with this?! 🤬
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On A Midnight Run @midnight-runner.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
"Cynicism is for losers" should be everyone's political guiding phrase. It's actually cool to care about things.
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👻madeline bOoOoOoOodent👻 @oldenoughtosay.com · 15/09/2026
okay while we’re all having a great time dunking on Ed Sheeran, and don’t let me stop you, but I just wanna pop in quickly and remind everyone that the “redheads don’t have souls” thing comes directly from medieval antisemitism, like directly, so let’s give that a miss. okay carry on
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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
And we already know the study’s results were falsified, that those playing guards were instructed to brutalize ti get that result, & when a similar study was taken without that manipulation, those in the guard role were kind. But refutations never circulate as far as convenient false findings. 😔
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Katelyn Burns @katelynburns.com · 15/09/2026
When the apocalypse comes, my only goal is finding this guy
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David Autovino @davidautovino.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Shel Silverstein somehow clocking AI all the way back in 1981
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Purely Speculative @joleigh.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
There are now two acceptable options for the Met Gala theme, Bob Mackie or Dolly Parton. Either way, it should be sequin season.
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🌈Dr. Frizzle @swilua.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The world did not end because WE DID NOT LET IT END The atmosphere has no hole in it BECAUSE WE FIXED THE HOLE WE BUILD THIS WORLD FROM DUST; IT WILL RETURN TO DUST THE MOMENT YOU STOP BUILDING IT anyway, yeah I've been thinking a lot about age and why it's important to talk to older people lol
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Purely Speculative @joleigh.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Can a virtuous circle only have two points?
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 14/09/2026
crypto, car dealerships and MLMs. ripe targets for political and policy reasons.
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Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 14/09/2026
The only person in public service who has consistently made 100% sense on issues of "AI," which is why they hate her so much.
Law enforcers already have authority to charge companies and their CEOs for creating and releasing dangerous, unvetted, or defective products. We shouldn’t let discussions about new legal regimes distract from the fact that there’s no AI exemption from laws already on the books — a point 
@FTC
 emphasized repeatedly during my tenure.

1. There is an extensive set of laws that govern dangerous and defective products. For example, releasing unvetted AI models or agents can violate consumer protection laws. Shipping flawed AI tools without implementing adequate measures to detect and stop rogue or defective AI agents can be an “unfair or deceptive” act or practice under the FTC Act (and analogous state laws). And some state AGs are already exploring holding AI firms and their CEOs criminally liable when their models participate in criminal activity.

2. Existing laws also prohibit “unfair methods of competition.” This covers instances where AI firms appropriate the competitively sensitive information of their customers, including through tracking their use of various tools. It can also cover instances where firms pursue dangerous behavior, aware that doing so may compel rivals to do the same.As the Supreme Court has noted: “A method of competition which casts upon one's competitors the burden of the loss of business unless they will descend to a practice which they are under a powerful moral compulsion not to adopt, even though it is not criminal, was thought to involve the kind of unfairness at which the [unfair methods of competition] statute was aimed."

3. The highly concentrated and interconnected structure of these markets could be creating major risks and conflicts of interest. We had started investigating these partnerships and cross-investments across the stack (and released a preliminarily overview of some findings: https://ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/01/ftc-issues-staff-report-ai-partnerships-investments-study). 

Both federal and state enforcers should be scrutinizing these opaque relationships and inter-dependencies. We are already seeing how these relationships could undermine accountability. For example, OpenAI could face liability given the Hugging Face incident, but Hugging Face being bought up by Nvidia means that we’re unlikely to see it file a lawsuit over this — given Nvidia’s strong incentive to see OpenAI continue full speed ahead.4. As AI tools dramatically change the landscape of cybersecurity risks and hacks, all businesses should be doubling down on having core security protections in place. Firms that fail to invest in adequate data security measures or fix known vulnerabilities can also be breaking the law. A recent analysis showed that around 1/3 of Fortune 100 companies do not even have a way to notify them about security issues. During my 
@FTC
 tenure, we sued firms for poor data security practices and held CEOs liable when they were personally responsible.

https://this.weekinsecurity.com/dozens-of-americas-largest-companies-have-no-simple-way-to-report-security-flaws/

https://ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2022/10/ftc-takes-action-against-drizly-its-ceo-james-cory-rellas-security-failures-exposed-data-25-million

5. As policymakers consider new legal regimes, we should be looking to lessons from prior efforts to govern major sectors, such as banking and other networks, platforms, and utilities. Tools like structural separations, nondiscrimination, and supervision could be key, and there’s a rich history of what works and what doesn’t. But we can and must pursue any new efforts alongside enforcing existing laws.
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Bill Stinkwater @klausbromi.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Lol they both really should be sent off
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Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 13/09/2026
One of many things we've posted that's a counterpoint to the absolute nonsense in today's NYT opinion pages. 👇
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
When Democrats attempt to triangulate on trans rights, it's my sense that many liberals and people in politics don't understand why many trans people are so upset. I wrote about the differences between then and now, what trans people have lost, and what we still stand to lose
autonomy.substack.com
This Is Not A Love Song
Explaining the “maximalism” of trans rights
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Purely Speculative @joleigh.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Rights are rights are rights are rights.
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Purely Speculative @joleigh.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
EXACTLY. The man was shaped like a human torpedo with big flat flipper feet and dinner plate sized paddle hands *plus* about half the rate of lactic acid production?!? “Fairness in sport” should refer to the rules governing the game, not the body of the athlete participating.
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Jessica Ellis @baddestmamajama.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
You do not have a right to win at sports. You have a right to play sports.
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Jessica Ellis @baddestmamajama.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
If anything, people concerned about “safety and fairness” should be advocating hard for puberty hormonal treatment for trans minors, as these help them physically develop the way they want to, which would likely eliminate or reduce size and strength differences. But they don’t do that.
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Purely Speculative @joleigh.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
As a progressive in California, I can assure the voters in Massachusetts that they want nothing to do with jungle primaries. #NoOn3
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Michael Warburton @michaelwarburton.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
“Do you think HUMAN CREATIVITY matters? Most people don't spend a lot of time thinking about poetry until their father dies, you go to a funeral, you lose a child, somebody breaks your heart & that's when Art’s not a luxury it's sustenance.” — ETHAN HAWKE
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Purely Speculative @joleigh.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
This is how the chefs of Redwall prepare for battle. Get you a badger that can do both.
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Purely Speculative @joleigh.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Seriously though, this is a great way to frame a response. All of sport has some aspect of “natural biological advantage” at play; a 6’3” person guarding a 5’7” person isn’t “fair” but happens in high school basketball all the time. Let kids play with their friends!
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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Dolly Parton's take on AI in 2023: “I hope nobody can ever replicate me or what I do. AI is a scary thing. I’m sure it’s a good thing for scientists or medical things. But when it comes to trying to duplicate a human being and every little thing they are, it don’t seem right to me. It’s too much.”
gizmodo.com
Dolly Parton's Sister Asks People to Stop Posting AI Slop of the Legendary Singer
"I hope nobody can ever replicate me or what I do. AI is a scary thing," said Dolly Parton in 2023.
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Treyf Posting 🤌 @postingtreyf.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
10000% Shit, there should be a Nudie Suit exhibition. www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/0...
washingtonpost.com
Column | We need a Dolly Parton Met Gala
Fashion’s darkness can be cleared only by Dolly's light.
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shintigercurl @shintigercurl.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
RT if you've never had a tab of ChatGPT open, period.
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Brian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
A Labor Day reminder: having a job is no longer enough to protect millions of Americans from homelessness. For many workers, the greatest threat isn't losing their job. It's that their job will never pay enough, never provide enough hours, never offer enough stability to keep them housed.
nytimes.com
Opinion | America Is Pushing Its Workers Into Homelessness (Gift Article)
The working homeless are casualties of our prosperity.
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Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 06/09/2026
You cannot publish the phrase “reverse decades of structural disinvestment in public higher education” at the New York Times. It’s illegal. You’d be arrested.
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Puff the Magic Hater @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
If a chemical is only supposed to dissolve one thing but dissolves everything, we don't say, "OMG, the chemical has gained a higher intelligence and hates everything and now wants to destroy the world! WHAT DO WE DO?" We say, "This company made a dangerous product that needs to be discontinued."
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Elephant Mastodon @emath.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Literary fiction is coming. It is going to revolutionize the economy. We know that China has already got a start on literary fiction. We can’t afford to be left out of the literary fiction economy. Think of your kids. They might already be engaging with literary fiction.
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Purely Speculative @joleigh.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Cold comfort for Fulham. We have yet to win but we *have* scored.
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Senator Scott Wiener @scottwiener.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
We must move toward a publicly owned utility model. The shareholder model is deeply broken and doesn’t serve the public interest.
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The Verge @theverge.com · 02/09/2026
As a new Harry Potter trailer makes the rounds, it bears repeating that there’s no way to watch this show without supporting J.K. Rowling’s bigotry and the structural violence she’s inflicting on the trans community.
theverge.com
There is no ethical consumption of HBO’s Harry Potter series
You can’t without supporting Rowling’s transphobic bigotry.
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Daniel Suitor @danielsuitor.com · 02/09/2026
Ed Markey wearing a trans rights scarf and speaking into a microphone
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Purely Speculative @joleigh.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Yet another ticking time bomb set to destroy cultural institutions and higher education. Hopefully this is one we can defuse before it goes off.
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Mikhail Gorbaechev @mikhailgorbaechev.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I'm sure I have a lot of disagreements with the good rabbi here, but this is a thoughtful essay.
usatoday.com
I'm a Zionist rabbi. My friends are DSA. Here's how that works.
I'm a Zionist rabbi in AOC's district. Here's what I've learned from the relationships I've built with the democratic socialists representing us.
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Thomas Lecaque @tlecaque.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
are supposed to be, so they can try and use the LLM to speed up real tasks AND KNOW HOW TO DOUBLE CHECK THE WORK. You don't have to be a Luddite to oppose handing children tools they are incapable of using reasonably or well. You should, in fact, oppose that, even if you are in support of the tool.
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Purely Speculative @joleigh.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
One group that frequently operates in gaps left by a lack of aid orgs are Christian missionaries and their aid is usually contingent on conversion. On a totally unrelated note, why do so many historically exploited/impoverished countries have loud groups of aggressively conservative Christians?
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