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Rick Claypool

@rickclaypool.bsky.social
1.3K followers 616 following 569 posts

writing weird sad stories, foraging wild fungi, researching terrible things corporations do

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Rick Claypool @rickclaypool.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
almost forgot since I was up late celebrating lefty wins in Pvd 😅 the 10-year anniversary edition of LEECH GIRL LIVES is out TODAY TYSM @nmamatas.bsky.social for the killer intro & @spaceboybooks.bsky.social for helping me share my weirdo vision of the shitty future bookshop.org/p/books/leec...
a photo of the author with the book on his face
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Rick Claypool @rickclaypool.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
so we're all just like, guinea pigs in OpenAI's experiments now? cool, cool, I'm sure it'll work out fine
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Shana M. Broussard @shanambroussard.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
One year ago, I started highlighting the growing number of enforcement matters that the FEC cannot resolve until we regain a quorum. Last year, there were 154. Now, it’s doubled to 307. We need a quorum to tackle this backlog and fully achieve the agency’s mission this election.
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Rick Claypool @rickclaypool.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
NEW @publiccitizen.bsky.social report: Corporate money in the 2026 midterms has surged to $650 million. www.citizen.org/article/corp...
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Rick Claypool @rickclaypool.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
good morning to everyone except Charles Koch
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Eric Williams @geoliminal.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
I have five copies of Toadstones left over from NecronomiCon, each one exposed to the unnatural radiations of Providence, R.I. and exhibiting strange, supernatural properties, including the strange manifestation of unknown passages from the Necronomicon. Own one, if you dare...$25, that INCLUDES S+H
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McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 20/08/2026
Chicken Parmigiana: "I am filled with fear. Pullet flesh, seared to white, cast like bronze within a crunchy coat." (Happy b-day, HP) buff.ly/2unvzL4
mcsweeneys.net
H.P. Lovecraft Writes Olive Garden’s Dinner Menu
“Such that they confound the senses and simultaneously seduce my bravery to dread. I am left muttering to myself a mantra of origin unknown, ‘When you’re her...
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Rick Claypool @rickclaypool.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Great coverage of the eye-popping sums of corporate money gushing into the 2026 elections -- already 1/3 of all corporate money since 2010! A major problem I note is that it makes niche corporate policies (crypto regs) distract Congress from issues people actually care about (cheaper groceries)
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Zach Everson @zacheverson.com · 17/08/2026
"Trump dwarfs his predecessors in the number of ultra-rich in his second White House, report shows" Thomas Beaumont for @apnews.com with research via Doug Pasternak at @publiccitizen.bsky.social
apnews.com
Trump dwarfs his predecessors in the number of ultra-rich in his second White House, report shows
The number of people worth more than $100 million whom President Donald Trump has appointed to his administration is more than four times the combined total of the three previous presidents.
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Rick Claypool @rickclaypool.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
NecronomiCon night one -- kickin it in Pvd with @geoliminal.bsky.social!!
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Eric Williams @geoliminal.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
TOADSTONES (2022, Malarkey Books) would bring this troubled nation together
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Rick Claypool @rickclaypool.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Ok so "Win for America" is a super PAC that is literally being fueled by gambling losses – losses that are now being weaponized against our democracy to expand these corporations’ pool of potential marks. For the public and for our democracy, that’s a lose-lose.
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Brad Friedman / The BRAD BLOG @thebradblog.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Corporate Political Spending in 2026 Midterms Shatters All-Time Record: Today's #BradCast Guest: @rickclaypool.bsky.social of @publiccitizen.bsky.social; Also: Amazon and gig workers on SNAP and Medicaid skyrockets; Primary elections results from AZ... FULL STORY, LISTEN: bradblog.com?p=18216
bradblog.com
Corporate Political Spending in 2026 Midterms Shatters All-Time Record: ‘BradCast’ 7/22/2026
Guest: Rick Claypool of Public Citizen; Also: Number of Amazon and gig workers on SNAP and Medicaid skyrockets; Primary elections results from AZ...
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Common Dreams @commondreams.org · 20/07/2026
"The Trump DOJ’s grotesque retreat from corporate crime enforcement leaves Americans increasingly vulnerable to tainted food, workplace exploitation, environmental destruction, widespread ripoffs, and all-around illegal corporate predation​."
commondreams.org
Letting Fraudsters Run Wild, Trump Justice Department Abandons Corporate Crime Enforcement
"The Trump DOJ’s grotesque retreat from corporate crime enforcement leaves Americans increasingly vulnerable to tainted food, workplace exploitation, environmental destruction, widespread ripoffs, and all-around illegal corporate predation."
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Rep. Summer Lee @repsummerlee.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
$517 million in corporate money and it's only July. This is exactly what happens when billionaires and corporations are allowed to bankroll our elections. The people should decide our future, not whoever can write the biggest check.
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Hilary J. Allen @profhilaryallen.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Silicon Valley really showing itself to be nothing more than Phillip Morris in a grey hoodie, buying the laws it wants so that it can continue its predation.
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Trump Swamp @doremusjessup4real.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
The midterms are a battle between the privileged and the oligarchs against the rest of us. The time to stand up and fight is now before it is too late.
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Common Dreams @commondreams.org · 30/06/2026
"If the current, broken campaign finance system remains unchallenged—and corporate spending is allowed to drown out the voices of real voters and real people—these corporate campaigns will keep multiplying."
commondreams.org
'A Disaster for Democracy': Report Shows Surging Corporate Spending in 2026 Elections
The US Supreme Court's ruling has opened the floodgates for corporate supremacists to pour millions into elections, drowning out the voices of real voters.
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Rick Claypool @rickclaypool.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
NEW @publiccitizen.bsky.social report: Corporations have already spent $517 million on the 2026 midterms. That's more corporate money than any previous election cycle -- and nearly 1/3 of all corporate political spending since Citizens United www.citizen.org/article/corp...
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Rick Claypool @rickclaypool.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
What an outrage. Proud to have contributed in a small way to the @publiccitizen.bsky.social research the Post's story is based on
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Rick Claypool @rickclaypool.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
is @anthropic.com finally catching up with @publiccitizen.bsky.social
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Alexis Goldstein @alexisgoldstein.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
I’m running for Congress! ❤️✌🏻
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Rick Claypool @rickclaypool.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
cointelegraph asked me about crypto and AI super PACs and I kind of unloaded 😂https://www.tradingview.com/news/cointelegraph:ab6436d34094b:0-crypto-and-ai-could-be-dirty-words-on-2026-midterm-campaign-trail/
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Rick Claypool @rickclaypool.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
happy 100th birthday David Attenborogh!!!
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Rick Claypool @rickclaypool.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
this was awesome (and I'm a little speechless the convo started with a discussion of my corporate crime research)
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Public Citizen @publiccitizen.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Big Tech companies have spent at least $653 MILLION cozying up to Trump & Congressional Republicans. Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, OpenAI, Oracle, and Palantir have all chosen to align themselves with Trump. We have to choose democracy over oligarchy.
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Rick Claypool @rickclaypool.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
$1.5 million. wow, that'll show him
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 03/05/2026
WATCH: The DOJ quietly closed 23,000+ criminal cases in the first six months of the second Trump administration, abandoning hundreds of investigations into terrorism, white-collar crime, drugs and other offenses as it shifted resources to pursue immigration cases. Full story: propub.li/4tHp2Wd
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Eric Williams @geoliminal.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
the first issue of Agita, the new magazine of flash horror and sci-fi from @agitapublishing.bsky.social, is live! co-edited and with an intro by yers truly, it's a pretty great collection of three fantastic little tales of BAD SCIENCE! check it out! agitamag.com/issue/issue-...
agitamag.com
Issue 1, May 2026 – Agita Magazine
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Rick Claypool @rickclaypool.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Every year, across multiple administrations, across both parties, the DOJ has announced over and over again that "individual accountability" is their priority when prosecuting corporate crime. And every year, they failed to prosecute the Sacklers. What a disgrace. www.cnbc.com/2026/04/29/p...
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Zach Everson @zacheverson.com · 23/04/2026
Must-read on how Big Tech execs are pandering to Trump and supporting authoritarianism.
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Emily Atkin @emorwee.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
Ted Cruz is the #1 lifetime recipient of fossil fuel money in the entire U.S. senate, receiving over $1 million from the oil and gas industry in the 2024 cycle alone Now he's proposed a bill to give the fossil fuel industry lifetime legal immunity from climate lawsuits
heated.world
Republicans introduce extreme bill to ban lawsuits against Big Oil forever
Shouldn't Democrats... be saying something about this?
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
New report that mentions Scale AI’s influence with the federal government via Kratsios: www.citizen.org/article/big-... bsky.app/profile/rick...
To lead tech policy for the transition, Trump tapped Michael Kratsios, a Thiel ally who served in Trump’s first term and is a former executive for Scale AI, and Gail Slater, a policy advisor to Vance and former Internet Association lobbyist. Both served in the White House during Trump’s first term.

Scale AI is a startup that has been accused of running “digital sweatshops” abroad and donated $125,000 toward Trump’s inaugural fund. Its workers label data to aid the development of large language models for Big Tech corporations, including OpenAI, Microsoft, and Meta, which in June hired the startup’s founder and purchased a 49% stake in Scale AI for $15 billion. Trump would later select Kratsios to lead the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Slater to lead the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.

Kratsios also is a former board member for the Foundation for American Innovation, a Silicon Valley think tank that has advocated for using A.I. to automate government jobs and criticized the Biden administration as “much too risk averse” in terms of its efforts to implement A.I.
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Rick Claypool @rickclaypool.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
"The dangerous synergies of an authoritarian White House supported and supercharged by Big Tech titans puts on full display the risk of concentrated and excessive corporate and oligarchic power." New from me in @techpolicypress.bsky.social: www.techpolicy.press/dont-trust-t...
techpolicy.press
Don’t Trust Trump? Don’t Trust Big Tech
Public Citizen's Rick Claypool says there are dangerous synergies on display between an authoritarian White House and Big Tech titans.
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Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
Public Citizen’s Rick Claypool documents how Big Tech firms have engaged in deliberate campaigns to ingratiate themselves with the Trump administration, heaping excessive praise on the President while going along with his unpopular and authoritarian policies.
techpolicy.press
Don’t Trust Trump? Don’t Trust Big Tech
Public Citizen's Rick Claypool says there are dangerous synergies on display between an authoritarian White House and Big Tech titans.
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Ashley Belanger @ashleybelanger.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Ahead of the next Mar-a-Lago gala, I talked to a researcher analyzing suspected insider trading on Trump's memecoin and an ethicist who (with a grain of salt) thinks a crackdown on Trump's crypto empires may be coming soon... arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...
arstechnica.com
Investors lost billions on Trump’s memecoin. Another gala won’t fix that.
If Dems take Congress, Trump may face reckoning for “pay-to-play” memecoin galas.
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Saimi Hanma ⚔️ サイミ @saimihanma.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
#InverteFest starts in two days, on the 24th! This time we'll release our anthology AND our usual art book. Starting on Friday, go out (or in), hunt for invertebrates, share photos, art, poems, facts, anything about inverts! More info here: saimihanma.com/invertefest/
saimihanma.com
InverteFest
InverteFest
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Wendy Xu @wendyxu.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
his dark materials was a parable for kids to be openminded and curious. which is more important than any kind of "intelligence" that sam altman and his homunculi ilk value
from the amber spyglass in his dark materials:

"Understand this," said Xaphania: "Dust is not a constant.
There's not a fixed quantity that has always been the same.
Conscious beings make Dust - they renew it all the time, by thinking and feeling and reflecting, by gaining wisdom and passing it on.
"And if you help everyone else in your worlds to do that, by helping them to learn and understand about themselves and each other and the way everything works, and by showing them how to be kind instead of cruel, and patient instead of hasty, and cheerful instead of surly, and above all how to keep their minds open and free and curious... Then they will renew enough to
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HAD @havehashad.com · 08/04/2026
got some new new zac smith special just for you today! "Dennis was sitting in the office room. He was reading an AI-generated article about tech companies that were hiring. He clicked on one of the company websites at random..." www.havehashad.com/a3ynx
havehashad.com
The Walk by zac smith
Dennis was sitting in the office room. He was reading an AI-generated article about tech companies that were hiring. He clicked on one of the company websites at random. He opened the application…
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Rick Claypool @rickclaypool.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
if you see this, post a character from space
media.tenor.com
a purple pixel character with blue arms and legs is walking on a grassy field
ALT: a purple pixel character with blue arms and legs is walking on a grassy field
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Andy Famiglietti @afamiglietti.org · 07/04/2026
Maybe if we explained that being vaporized in WWIII is sort of like being cancelled they would see the gravity of the situation
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Abdallah Fayyad @abdallahfayyad.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
I wrote about our tough-on-street-crime/soft-on-corporate-crime mentality and why we're in the midst of a white-collar crime wave that way too few people in Washington are taking seriously: www.bostonglobe.com/2026/04/06/o...
bostonglobe.com
The crime wave the government keeps ignoring - The Boston Globe
White-collar prosecutions have steadily declined over the past three decades. It's not because fewer crimes are taking place.
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Rick Claypool @rickclaypool.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Listened to a lot of Gost while writing my first couple of books. Heartbreaking
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Rik Scarce @rikscarce.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Corruption is an essential part of the chaos. Where is the rule of law?
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Rick Claypool @rickclaypool.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Pam Bondi's DOJ let corporate crime run rampant. That's unlikely to change whoever is in charge. But worth noting that the DOJ over the past year has canceled enforcement against 50+ corporations, including former Bondi employers Amazon, Pfizer & UnitedHealth www.citizen.org/article/canc...
citizen.org
Canceled Corporate Enforcement
During the First Year of Trump’s Second Term, Federal Agencies Canceled and Froze Enforcement Against 166 Alleged Corporate Lawbreakers
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Rick Claypool @rickclaypool.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Pam Bondi's DOJ let corporate crime run rampant. That's unlikely to change whoever is in charge. But worth noting that the DOJ over the past year has canceled enforcement against 50+ corporations, including former Bondi employers Amazon, Pfizer & UnitedHealth www.citizen.org/article/canc...
citizen.org
Canceled Corporate Enforcement
During the First Year of Trump’s Second Term, Federal Agencies Canceled and Froze Enforcement Against 166 Alleged Corporate Lawbreakers
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Revolving Door Project @revolvingdoordc.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
OpenAI has plotted a turn towards defense contracting since at least early 2024, first erasing its prohibitions on military use of their models, and then turning towards the revolving door to buy influence with the Pentagon by hiring defense insiders, our @henryburke.bsky.social writes
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Alexis Goldstein @alexisgoldstein.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Financial companies know that no one is minding the store as the Consumer Bureau (CFPB) remains largely frozen. Last year, Senate Democrats *abandoned* leverage to restore the CFPB by passing GENIUS Act, a giveaway to Trump’s massive crypto corruption. This year—will they fight for CFPB instead?
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Judd Legum @juddlegum.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
1. The AI industry has tapped Taylor Budowich, a key operative in the effort to undermine the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, to lead a new group dedicated to boosting GOP candidates in the 2026 midterms. The group is reportedly planning to spend $100 million.
popular.info
AI industry taps January 6 operative to run $100 million campaign to boost MAGA candidates
The AI industry has tapped Taylor Budowich, a key operative in the effort to undermine the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, to lead a new group dedicated to boosting Republican candidates…
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
One reason why the East Wing resonates with people is that it will be incredibly difficulty, divisive and costly to undo this shit. And in that respect it serves as an apt metaphor for the Trump administration.
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