Jen Shorten
@ptexpat.bsky.social
Food obsessed traveler. Mountain goat. Professional data nerd. All opinions are mental.
Reposted by Jen Shorten
This is the aftermath of an ICE kidnapping a few blocks from my home in St. Paul—an hour ago. A quiet street full of broken glass and at least three wrecked cars. The target of the kidnapping was taken away by ambulance. He was on a stretcher and covered by a sheet, though a cop said he was alive.
February 11, 2026 at 4:46 PM
This is the aftermath of an ICE kidnapping a few blocks from my home in St. Paul—an hour ago. A quiet street full of broken glass and at least three wrecked cars. The target of the kidnapping was taken away by ambulance. He was on a stretcher and covered by a sheet, though a cop said he was alive.
Reposted by Jen Shorten
It's unusual when the government can't persuade a sufficient number of grand jurors to return an indictment. But this is a whole other kind of unusual.
No grand jurors found the Trump DOJ met low probable cause threshold in failed indictment of Democratic lawmakers
www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...
www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...
No grand jurors found the Trump DOJ met low probable cause threshold in failed indictment of Democratic lawmakers
None of the D.C. grand jurors who heard the Trump administration’s pitch on why they should indict Democratic lawmakers over a video urging members of the
www.nbcnews.com
February 11, 2026 at 4:02 PM
It's unusual when the government can't persuade a sufficient number of grand jurors to return an indictment. But this is a whole other kind of unusual.
Reposted by Jen Shorten
“Julie Sharman…of the Canal & River Trust, a charitable organisation in charge of maintaining 3,200km of waterways across England and Wales…’People sometimes think canals are looked after by local authorities or by the government, and they’re not. They’re looked after by us, as a charity’”
Crumbling canals.
On a winter's day in the English midlands, engineers struggle to drag stranded narrowboats from a waterless, mud-filled canal that collapsed. The sight starkly illustrates an ongoing battle to maintain the UK's historic, yet deteriorating, waterways
u.afp.com/S29E
On a winter's day in the English midlands, engineers struggle to drag stranded narrowboats from a waterless, mud-filled canal that collapsed. The sight starkly illustrates an ongoing battle to maintain the UK's historic, yet deteriorating, waterways
u.afp.com/S29E
February 11, 2026 at 9:06 AM
“Julie Sharman…of the Canal & River Trust, a charitable organisation in charge of maintaining 3,200km of waterways across England and Wales…’People sometimes think canals are looked after by local authorities or by the government, and they’re not. They’re looked after by us, as a charity’”
Reposted by Jen Shorten
This can be the site for breaking news, if journalists choose to break news on it. It is as simple as that. And that is not utopian. It is precisely what has happened the last week or so. If you weren't on BlueSky, you were late to each development.
February 10, 2026 at 11:42 AM
This can be the site for breaking news, if journalists choose to break news on it. It is as simple as that. And that is not utopian. It is precisely what has happened the last week or so. If you weren't on BlueSky, you were late to each development.
Reposted by Jen Shorten
No-one seems to have noticed, but many of the core developments in the Mandelson/Epstein story these last few days have been broken on this website. @pickardje.bsky.social and @petergeoghegan.bsky.social are both posting each breaking development on BlueSky, not X.
February 10, 2026 at 11:40 AM
No-one seems to have noticed, but many of the core developments in the Mandelson/Epstein story these last few days have been broken on this website. @pickardje.bsky.social and @petergeoghegan.bsky.social are both posting each breaking development on BlueSky, not X.
Reposted by Jen Shorten
always so funny to me when people are like “how am I supposed to explain Gay to my kids?” my kid asks me way harder shit all the time. “why did they build the road this way? why are some people bad?” I don’t know. please ask me about Gay
February 10, 2026 at 2:51 AM
always so funny to me when people are like “how am I supposed to explain Gay to my kids?” my kid asks me way harder shit all the time. “why did they build the road this way? why are some people bad?” I don’t know. please ask me about Gay
Reposted by Jen Shorten
Thomas Massie is cooking right now and explicitly states that UAE Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem was sending torture videos to Epstein
February 10, 2026 at 3:18 AM
Thomas Massie is cooking right now and explicitly states that UAE Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem was sending torture videos to Epstein
Reposted by Jen Shorten
Monday morning fusses.
#EverybodyLovesMousecow
#EverybodyLovesMousecow
February 9, 2026 at 11:33 AM
Monday morning fusses.
#EverybodyLovesMousecow
#EverybodyLovesMousecow
Reposted by Jen Shorten
No. 10 communications were being directed!?
Tim Allan, Keir Starmer’s director of communications, has just quit his Downing Street role:
“I have decided to stand down to allow a new No 10 team to be built. I wish the PM and his team every success."
“I have decided to stand down to allow a new No 10 team to be built. I wish the PM and his team every success."
February 9, 2026 at 11:09 AM
No. 10 communications were being directed!?
Reposted by Jen Shorten
VC, founder, dumbass
February 8, 2026 at 9:37 PM
VC, founder, dumbass
Reposted by Jen Shorten
Reposted by Jen Shorten
kind of funny there are prob 1,000 major US musicians and every time conservatives need to put up a music artist to counter a mainstream narrative, they put up kid rock. "ok here's kid rock again" for the next 30 years, an octogenarian man in jean shorts rapping something from the 1990s
February 9, 2026 at 8:50 AM
kind of funny there are prob 1,000 major US musicians and every time conservatives need to put up a music artist to counter a mainstream narrative, they put up kid rock. "ok here's kid rock again" for the next 30 years, an octogenarian man in jean shorts rapping something from the 1990s
Reposted by Jen Shorten
9 February 1903 | A Frenchman, Octave Hervaux, was born in Romorantin-Lanthenay. An electromechanic.
In #Auschwitz on 8 July 1942.
No. 45660
He perished in the camp on 18 August 1942.
---
🎧/📖 Registration photos in Auschwitz: https://bit.ly/4adWOeJ
In #Auschwitz on 8 July 1942.
No. 45660
He perished in the camp on 18 August 1942.
---
🎧/📖 Registration photos in Auschwitz: https://bit.ly/4adWOeJ
February 9, 2026 at 9:00 AM
9 February 1903 | A Frenchman, Octave Hervaux, was born in Romorantin-Lanthenay. An electromechanic.
In #Auschwitz on 8 July 1942.
No. 45660
He perished in the camp on 18 August 1942.
---
🎧/📖 Registration photos in Auschwitz: https://bit.ly/4adWOeJ
In #Auschwitz on 8 July 1942.
No. 45660
He perished in the camp on 18 August 1942.
---
🎧/📖 Registration photos in Auschwitz: https://bit.ly/4adWOeJ
Reposted by Jen Shorten
No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition.
Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Gladys Mae West obituary: mathematician who pioneered GPS technology
She made key contributions to US cold-war science despite facing huge barriers as a Black woman.
www.nature.com
February 6, 2026 at 9:09 AM
No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition.
Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Jen Shorten
Those are the hardest working scare quotes in the business.
What is the goddamn bar for calling something racist without qualification if monkey videos don’t make the cut?
What is the goddamn bar for calling something racist without qualification if monkey videos don’t make the cut?
“.. while the song ‘The Lions Sleeps Tonight’ plays in the background.”
@lbc.co.uk
www.lbc.co.uk/article/trum...
@lbc.co.uk
www.lbc.co.uk/article/trum...
February 6, 2026 at 12:23 PM
Those are the hardest working scare quotes in the business.
What is the goddamn bar for calling something racist without qualification if monkey videos don’t make the cut?
What is the goddamn bar for calling something racist without qualification if monkey videos don’t make the cut?
Reposted by Jen Shorten
Pour one out for every professional political pundit, writer, consultant whatever that has spent the last decade trying to pretend that the Trump phenomenon was about trade or opiates and not a big chunk of white america losing its mind over having a black president bsky.app/profile/kyle...
A screenshot from a video posted on Trump's Truth Social account: truthsocial.com/@realDonaldT...
February 6, 2026 at 9:28 AM
Pour one out for every professional political pundit, writer, consultant whatever that has spent the last decade trying to pretend that the Trump phenomenon was about trade or opiates and not a big chunk of white america losing its mind over having a black president bsky.app/profile/kyle...
Reposted by Jen Shorten
oh y’know, just casually doing the thing most movies shoehorn in to establish how irredeemably villainous ancharacter is
TRIGGER WARNING, because here is a US Marshal from Trump‘s Gestapo Force in Memphis kicking a puppy today in the Whitehaven neighborhood and breaking its rib. They were serving a warrant and I guess BIG MAN got scared of the schnauzer.
(I didn’t take the video, the dog’s person did)
(I didn’t take the video, the dog’s person did)
February 6, 2026 at 4:48 AM
oh y’know, just casually doing the thing most movies shoehorn in to establish how irredeemably villainous ancharacter is
Reposted by Jen Shorten
The Brazilian federal police detained me for an hour as I had once overstayed a visa by accident for two weeks.
After giving me a lecture on immigration policies, they released me.
If I had been a Brazilian in the United States, I'd be in jail.
paydayreport.com/brazilian-fe...
After giving me a lecture on immigration policies, they released me.
If I had been a Brazilian in the United States, I'd be in jail.
paydayreport.com/brazilian-fe...
Brazilian Federal Police Detain Melk, But Release Him After Lecture on Immigration Policies
The Brazilian federal police officer immediately started joking with me, “What do you think, we were gonna throw you in jail? We’re not ICE, we’re Brazilians.”
paydayreport.com
February 6, 2026 at 1:05 AM
The Brazilian federal police detained me for an hour as I had once overstayed a visa by accident for two weeks.
After giving me a lecture on immigration policies, they released me.
If I had been a Brazilian in the United States, I'd be in jail.
paydayreport.com/brazilian-fe...
After giving me a lecture on immigration policies, they released me.
If I had been a Brazilian in the United States, I'd be in jail.
paydayreport.com/brazilian-fe...
Reposted by Jen Shorten
Reposted by Jen Shorten
Labour can't win Gorton and Denton. So, to keep Reform out please #VoteGreen.
Labour is briefing that they know they won't win the Gorton and Denton by election.
The Greens are favourites and are the only party that can stop Reform.
Lower bills, tax the rich, protect the NHS. We will win.
The Greens are favourites and are the only party that can stop Reform.
Lower bills, tax the rich, protect the NHS. We will win.
February 5, 2026 at 3:52 PM
Labour can't win Gorton and Denton. So, to keep Reform out please #VoteGreen.
Reposted by Jen Shorten
I'd like to add that like in all industries, when we stop understanding how our tools work, we become entirely dependent on the corporate entities that own the mold. We are trading the ability to build and repair for the convenience of being permanent tenants in someone else's infrastructure/subs.
Vibe coding is working as expected: it'll kill the open-source, secure, and ideologically maintained alternatives to make sure you have to pay the oligarchs to do anything at all, and they can control what you're allowed to make.
www.404media.co/vibe-coding-...
www.404media.co/vibe-coding-...
Vibe Coding Is Killing Open Source Software, Researchers Argue
‘If the maintainers of small projects give up, who will produce the next Linux?’
www.404media.co
February 5, 2026 at 5:29 PM
I'd like to add that like in all industries, when we stop understanding how our tools work, we become entirely dependent on the corporate entities that own the mold. We are trading the ability to build and repair for the convenience of being permanent tenants in someone else's infrastructure/subs.
Reposted by Jen Shorten
“Chilling” is right.
I'm not sure what to make of it, but every Somali I represent in immigration court currently (8 of them) have today had their hearings cancelled and their judges reassigned. They're now all assigned to a video judge from Louisiana and scheduled for court hearing in one month. 🧵
February 5, 2026 at 9:10 AM
“Chilling” is right.
Reposted by Jen Shorten
Wow
Exclusive: Morgan McSweeney sought official advice about whether Mandelson could be the UK's ambassador to the US on a part-time basis
Officials “had to explain that being His Majesty’s Ambassador in Washington was a full time job… in Washington"
observer.co.uk/news/politic...
Officials “had to explain that being His Majesty’s Ambassador in Washington was a full time job… in Washington"
observer.co.uk/news/politic...
McSweeney ‘asked if Mandelson US embassy role could be pa...
PM’s chief of staff sought advice on behalf of disgraced former Labour peer, senior government sources claim
observer.co.uk
February 5, 2026 at 9:15 AM
Wow