With all the pushback from Facebook against Karen Hao's recent story, and as one of the editors on the piece, I thought it worth making some observations on the PR strategy Facebook has adopted in response. Other journalists may find this useful. technologyreview.com/2021/03/11/102…

Why did America’s pandemic response fail? Don’t just blame Trump. The culture and mindset of the US public-health establishment also led us astray. @alexismadrigal and I wrote about the three big lessons we learned from a year of The COVID Tracking Project: theatlantic.com/science/archiv…

It was the last day of school and a bunch of us were hanging out in the cul-de-sac enjoying the start of summer break. I was resting on my bicycle, laughing and talking to my friends, I was 10 years old.

So you’re asking if I actually can explain how the new Georgia voting law discourages voting, especially in minority & lower income communities and sets up ways for the legislature and exec branch to tamper with elections the way President Trump tried? Okay, if you insist. 1/17

If that had been the law in November, a state board controlled by the Republican legislature would have been able to do exactly what President Trump illegally wanted—firing election officials in counties, like Clayton, Dekalb and Fulton, that voted big for Biden... 4/17

...And then sending in carpetbaggers to declare fraud where there was none, and fraudulently throw out thousands of African-American votes. 5/17

I think the things that I find compelling about my life are not the things that other people find compelling. I suspect what most people want is to get married and care about their home life more than adventures or other excitements.

I agree. They will demand it. Which is why all talk of “moving on” without renouncing the Big Lie is disingenuous. This is also why the mania to alter voting laws matters. It’s aimed at making an overturn of the election easier, whether or not the voter suppression tactics work.

Brad Simpson (bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social) @ProfessorShaw One thing under-appreciated about "both sides" and "bipartisanship forever" people is that there is deep pleasure in holding to these views. It feels so good to do it. You are emboldened by your even-handedness— even radicalized at times. Militant centrism is hard to defeat.

the number of 'it might not be super visible to most people but things are way worse than you think' stories about the state of democracy is pretty jarring right now!

NYT: "Victories by these Republicans would expand the number of lawmakers who have supported overturning the 2020 results, raising new doubts about whether Americans can still count on the routine certification of free and fair elections." We need more coverage like this.

Bans on Critical Race Theory are “memory laws”: "government actions designed to guide public interpretation of the past. Such measures work by asserting a mandatory view of historical events..." We can understand them in the context of precedents elsewhere nytimes.com/2021/06/29/mag…

.Sarah Isgur separated children from their parents on behalf of “every single one of us” and yet no one has made a movie about her

"In most cases, the new American memory laws have been passed by state legislatures that, in the same session, have passed laws designed to make voting more difficult. The memory management enables the voter suppression." nytimes.com/2021/06/29/mag…

3/3 "And no one was bound to identify with Right or Left. The trap of us-and-them was dehumanizing. What humanized was an active moral concern for truth, access to the historical record, and the freedom to express what was learned." tabletmag.com/sections/arts-…

Thread that is really worth reading:

When ProPublica does an investigation and gets criticism from the people investigated, they don't just say, "we stand by our story," or run a letter to the editor. They communicate with the complainants and respond point by point. propublica.org/article/sugar-… An excellent practice.

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