Joan McCarter
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joanmccarter.com
Joan McCarter
@joanmccarter.com
Political writer, politician haranguer, senior pet caretaker, gardener
Reposted by Joan McCarter
As an educator, I have a mandatory reporting duty to alert my school if I suspect a student is a victim of abuse, manipulation, and/or harassment. What happens when ChatGPT is the perpetrator?

For context, I teach "AI" and machine learning. I'm not anti-tech but GenAI should be shot into the sun.
Adam Raine’s life hurtled toward tragedy soon after he began talking with ChatGPT about homework. Analysis of his ChatGPT account shows how the chatbot became a confidant as he planned to end his life.
74 suicide warnings and 243 mentions of hanging: What ChatGPT said to a suicidal teen
Analysis of high-schooler Adam Raine’s ChatGPT account by attorneys for his parents shows how the chatbot became a confidant as he planned to end his life.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 28, 2025 at 2:44 AM
Reposted by Joan McCarter
Dysautonomia International: 'Research Update: Platlet Storage Pool Deficiency in POTS and Long COVID'

'Dr. William Gunning and Dr. Blair Grubb discuss their research on platelet storage pool deficiency in POTS and Long COVID.'

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU-Q...
Research Update: Platlet Storage Pool Deficiency in POTS and Long COVID
YouTube video by Dysautonomia International
www.youtube.com
December 27, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Reposted by Joan McCarter
December 26, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Reposted by Joan McCarter
Attorney General Dan Rayfield, who led the Oregon House when it passed some of the nation’s strongest laws to protect access to transgender health care, is suing the federal government over efforts to bar gender-affirming care for minors by stripping federal funding.
Oregon leads lawsuit over Kennedy's efforts to ban gender-affirming care for minors • Oregon Capital Chronicle
Attorney General Dan Rayfield is suing the federal government over efforts to bar gender-affirming care for minors by stripping federal funding.
buff.ly
December 24, 2025 at 9:23 PM
Reposted by Joan McCarter
There’s a lesson here about writing in the age of weaponized lies: Always precede false claims with giant red text, ideally wrapped in a <blink> tag, that says “THIS IS A LIE I AM REFUTING!!”

But also, why is a book that makes this kind of lazy, bad-faith argumentation getting any accolades at all?
December 24, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Reposted by Joan McCarter
A small (personal) example of this book’s intellectual dishonesty:

My father-in-law is reading In Covid’s Wake, and excitedly told me he found a passage where I’m quoted. The quote in question is me saying the FBI worked to censor speech on social media.

Huh? When did I say that?!
December 24, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Reposted by Joan McCarter
1 - the exec branch can't decline to spend $ Congress appropriated

2- the fed govt can't use federal $ to extort states over policy/political disagreements

3-the fed govt can't use federal $ to impose conditions unrelated to the funding program

4-the fed govt can't use federal $ to coerce states
Sean Duffy on blue states: "What I can do is I can pull their money. That's the leverage I do have ... I guarantee you that the federal taxpayer is not going to fund their roads and bridges and their systems when they are putting illegals on the roads."
December 23, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Reposted by Joan McCarter
Sean Duffy says he now has veto power over appropriations passed by Congress and signed into law. He is the dictator over infrastructure funds. If you do something he doesn’t like, you lose the funds passed by Congress. bsky.app/profile/atru...
Sean Duffy on blue states: "What I can do is I can pull their money. That's the leverage I do have ... I guarantee you that the federal taxpayer is not going to fund their roads and bridges and their systems when they are putting illegals on the roads."
December 23, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Reposted by Joan McCarter
ICE has posted a video of Santa Claus arresting immigrants. Your government is hijacking a symbol of charity to spread fear and hate. it’s up to all of us to defeat these twisted fascists.
December 22, 2025 at 11:49 PM
Reposted by Joan McCarter
this is ... quite a thing, that exists
the bullet-infused glassware market, once a bastion of bipartisan thin blue line cop-respecting, has gone full maga for the 2025 holiday season. i am just as surprised as you are and will be taking some time to process.
December 22, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Reposted by Joan McCarter
"Pulling the Supreme Court back from the cliff is something progressives should view as far preferable to the alternative—where it may not just be the Court that gets pushed over the edge and into oblivion, but our entire constitutional (and democratic) order."

Me in today's issue of "One First":
198. Progressive Judicial Institutionalism
There's important daylight between those who are critical of the present degree of judicial power in the United States in general and those who are critical of the current Supreme Court, specifically.
www.stevevladeck.com
December 22, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Reposted by Joan McCarter
Over the weekend, JD Vance said: "In the United States of America you don't have to apologize for being white anymore.”
That’s a longtime theme of white supremacists in America, as Vance no doubt knows. In this thread, I cite similar racist rhetoric using the “apology” theme. 1/6 🧵🧵🧵🧵🧵🧵
JD Vance: "In the United States of America you don't have to apologize for being white anymore"
December 22, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Reposted by Joan McCarter
How did her Erika Kirk interview “advance the ball”
Bari Weiss this morning on the 60 Minutes segment: "We need to be able to get the principals on the record and on camera."

Of course, most journalists know that oftentimes people who are the subject of negative reporting don't want to speak on camera or on the record.
December 22, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Reposted by Joan McCarter
Notable absence of substantive reasons to prevent the piece from airing the day it was scheduled to bsky.app/profile/benm...
NEW: Bari Weiss addresses her decision to hold last night's CECOT story on the CBS News morning editorial call: "Our viewers come first, not a listing schedule or anything else..."
December 22, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Reposted by Joan McCarter
A win! Thanks to everyone who spoke out. Following public backlash, Mike Lee backtracked on the National Parks proposal, which would have rescinded legislation protecting national parks and maintaining their boundaries as federal lands.
December 21, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Reposted by Joan McCarter
BREAKING: At least 16 files from the Epstein release disappeared from DOJ's webpage, including a photo of Trump, with no explanation.
At least 16 files have disappeared from the DOJ webpage for documents related to Jeffrey Epstein
The Justice Department’s webpage for documents related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is missing at least 16 of its files a day after they were released.
bit.ly
December 20, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Reposted by Joan McCarter
REVEALED: Picture of Bill Clinton hanging out with a serial sex offender.
December 20, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Reposted by Joan McCarter
WOW: The DOJ has DELETED an image from its release of the Epstein files that shows photos of Trump in a drawer.

Yesterday, we noted that this image — file 468 — likely slipped through the cracks while officials were attempting to hide materials pertaining to Trump.

Now, it’s gone.
December 20, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Reposted by Joan McCarter
This Yglesias piece in the NYT is horrifically bad. Almost every "fact" it cites is provably false. At best it is cocktail party banter from a pundit who knows nothing of energy. At worst, it was cut/paste from oil industry talking points. So, a rebuttal: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/o...
Opinion | Obama Supported It. The Left in Canada and Norway Does. Why Don’t Democrats?
www.nytimes.com
December 20, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Reposted by Joan McCarter
BREAKING: The Democratic National Committee will NOT release its long-awaited autopsy on Trump's 2024 win. The report is completed but Dem leaders decided it could distract from their winning streak, so it will remain secret. Not good.

Details here:
newrepublic.com/article/2045...
Dem Leaders Decide to Bury Damning Report on Why Trump Won in 2024
The Democratic National Committee has completed its long-awaited analysis on what went wrong in the 2024 campaign. But in a move that will attract intense criticism, it’s keeping the findings secret.
newrepublic.com
December 18, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by Joan McCarter
It gets even more pathetic—

x.com/RepBeatty/st...
December 18, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Reposted by Joan McCarter
Nice to see the Cassandras who’ve been trying to warn people about Trumpian fascism since 2016 get their due.
December 18, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Reposted by Joan McCarter
David Brooks, who wrote in the NYT last month, "The Epstein Story? Count Me Out" is... in the latest Epstein photo dump published by @oversightdemocrats.house.gov.

He should absolutely be fired by NYT for this. Major conflict of interest that he didn't disclose.
December 18, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Reposted by Joan McCarter
It didn't get enough attention that Susie Wiles said she had read materials protected by grand jury secrecy and other protective orders.
December 18, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Reposted by Joan McCarter
Isn’t it amazing the way life can seem too short, and intrinsically magical, yet at the same time feel like a long, uphill road, potholed with fuckwits?
December 18, 2025 at 12:05 PM