TracingVRL by A.J. Fish
@tracingvrl.bsky.social
The software-journalism project tracing the COVID infodemic going ViRaL. Local and international. Reposts are not endorsements.
By programmer-journalist A.J. Fish. Bylines @EastBayExpress @muckrack.
TracingVRL.substack.com
By programmer-journalist A.J. Fish. Bylines @EastBayExpress @muckrack.
TracingVRL.substack.com
Reposted by TracingVRL by A.J. Fish
Seems that Columbia Journalism Review agrees with me about ethics of not citing/linking to other outlets’ journalism. It is a 101 industry standard—at least up there where I got my master’s degree in the field.
www.cjr.org/laurels-and-...
www.cjr.org/laurels-and-...
February 13, 2026 at 9:00 PM
Seems that Columbia Journalism Review agrees with me about ethics of not citing/linking to other outlets’ journalism. It is a 101 industry standard—at least up there where I got my master’s degree in the field.
www.cjr.org/laurels-and-...
www.cjr.org/laurels-and-...
The downside of climate-change denial: #climatechange
White House Withholds Funding for NASA Science Missions Despite Recent Budget Bill gizmodo.com/white-house-...
White House Withholds Funding for NASA Science Missions Despite Recent Budget Bill
NASA has been forced to pause funds for Chandra X-Ray Observatory and other missions until further notice.
gizmodo.com
February 14, 2026 at 3:38 AM
The downside of climate-change denial: #climatechange
February 13, 2026 at 1:14 AM
Reposted by TracingVRL by A.J. Fish
This is cutting your nose to spite your face. Defunding hiv prevention and surveillance benefits no one regardless of who you voted for. Public health and disease prevention should not be partisan.
abcnews.com/Health/trump...
abcnews.com/Health/trump...
Trump administration cuts $600 million in HIV, STD prevention and surveillance grants
The Trump administration is terminating $600 million in CDC grants for programs supporting HIV and STD prevention and HIV surveillance.
abcnews.com
February 12, 2026 at 10:00 PM
This is cutting your nose to spite your face. Defunding hiv prevention and surveillance benefits no one regardless of who you voted for. Public health and disease prevention should not be partisan.
abcnews.com/Health/trump...
abcnews.com/Health/trump...
#Immigration is a manufactured crisis, manufactured by enemies of democracy. ⤵️
Russia is engineering a migration bomb for Europe. Disinformation on local airwaves in Mali and Niger pushes desperate youth toward deadly routes; Russian paramilitaries guard traffickers in Libya. Endgame? Chaos at EU gates, fractured politics. Europe ignores this at its peril.
February 12, 2026 at 8:45 PM
#Immigration is a manufactured crisis, manufactured by enemies of democracy. ⤵️
Reposted by TracingVRL by A.J. Fish
BREAKING: S.T.O.P. Condemns Newly Revealed NYPD Fake Social Media Vendor
“It’s long past time for New York to unfriend NYPD’s fake social media bots." - S.T.O.P. Exec. Director Michelle Dahl #NYPD #NTREPID
www.stopspying.org/latest-news/...
“It’s long past time for New York to unfriend NYPD’s fake social media bots." - S.T.O.P. Exec. Director Michelle Dahl #NYPD #NTREPID
www.stopspying.org/latest-news/...
S.T.O.P. Condemns Newly Revealed NYPD Fake Social Media Vendor — S.T.O.P. - The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project
www.stopspying.org
February 11, 2026 at 7:35 PM
BREAKING: S.T.O.P. Condemns Newly Revealed NYPD Fake Social Media Vendor
“It’s long past time for New York to unfriend NYPD’s fake social media bots." - S.T.O.P. Exec. Director Michelle Dahl #NYPD #NTREPID
www.stopspying.org/latest-news/...
“It’s long past time for New York to unfriend NYPD’s fake social media bots." - S.T.O.P. Exec. Director Michelle Dahl #NYPD #NTREPID
www.stopspying.org/latest-news/...
Dr. Oz of HHS.gov has been on an attention-splitting blitz this past month. Vulgar, virtuous, oligarchic, then back to the beginning. What are they up to now?
February 10, 2026 at 5:04 AM
Dr. Oz of HHS.gov has been on an attention-splitting blitz this past month. Vulgar, virtuous, oligarchic, then back to the beginning. What are they up to now?
The Olympics also are free. Oddly @nbcbayarea.com jumps around the digital dial, used to be at 11-1, and without announcement migrated to 13-3. But @nbcla.com @nbcboston.com et al should do a covert awareness campaign, because more eyeballs justifies ad buys on terrestrial TV. #advertising #media
The game and the halftime are free to all Americans. Antenna tv is still a thing, though I'll probably get disappeared by the streamers for saying so. And the reception is more clear than GoogleTV #Superbowl
February 9, 2026 at 9:57 PM
The Olympics also are free. Oddly @nbcbayarea.com jumps around the digital dial, used to be at 11-1, and without announcement migrated to 13-3. But @nbcla.com @nbcboston.com et al should do a covert awareness campaign, because more eyeballs justifies ad buys on terrestrial TV. #advertising #media
Drilled by @amywestervelt.bsky.social introduced a wider audience to the RAGA (Republican Attorneys General Association) influence drilled.media/news/RAGA and deserves early credit. (Alas, advanced user interfaces leave podcast episodes without dates, perhaps finding timestamps aesthetically gauche)
February 9, 2026 at 9:52 PM
Drilled by @amywestervelt.bsky.social introduced a wider audience to the RAGA (Republican Attorneys General Association) influence drilled.media/news/RAGA and deserves early credit. (Alas, advanced user interfaces leave podcast episodes without dates, perhaps finding timestamps aesthetically gauche)
Reposted by TracingVRL by A.J. Fish
thank you bad bunny for highlighting the importance of critical power distribution infrastructure bsky.app/profile/cost...
It’s the weekend everyone, so you know what that means. Time to drink two polar seltzers and do a thread on the power transformer shortage. Without transformers, we don’t get a clean energy transition. And as energysky knows, there’s been a shortage due to covid, supply chain, & labor constraints 🔌🔋
February 9, 2026 at 1:35 AM
thank you bad bunny for highlighting the importance of critical power distribution infrastructure bsky.app/profile/cost...
these ads have deluded a lot of people into believing they can do science and engineering and medicine when they absolutely cannot. should be fine
February 9, 2026 at 1:58 AM
💚🧡💙
The point of the AI project is to provoke despair in creative people. They haven’t produced profits or anything anyone wants, just a steady stream of articles about how us artistic types can’t do the thing we’re already doing, making art. Jokes on them, we’re even better at despair than they are.
February 8, 2026 at 10:37 PM
💚🧡💙
"... it is incredibly worrisome that Rupert Murdoch has appointed his cronies to run two papers of record in the months leading up to the 2024 Election." - Dame.
I pulled an @emilybell.bsky.social quote to illustrate the British press effect for TracingVRL tracingvrl.substack.com/i/146554638/...
I pulled an @emilybell.bsky.social quote to illustrate the British press effect for TracingVRL tracingvrl.substack.com/i/146554638/...
February 8, 2026 at 2:29 AM
"... it is incredibly worrisome that Rupert Murdoch has appointed his cronies to run two papers of record in the months leading up to the 2024 Election." - Dame.
I pulled an @emilybell.bsky.social quote to illustrate the British press effect for TracingVRL tracingvrl.substack.com/i/146554638/...
I pulled an @emilybell.bsky.social quote to illustrate the British press effect for TracingVRL tracingvrl.substack.com/i/146554638/...
Appropriate medium choice by @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social here in going with video over text. *Inappropriate* use of this was demonstrated last week by Chief of Medicaid & Medicare Mehmet Oz, when he targeted an ethnic group with unfounded accusations of illegalities www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dst3...
February 6, 2026 at 11:58 PM
Appropriate medium choice by @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social here in going with video over text. *Inappropriate* use of this was demonstrated last week by Chief of Medicaid & Medicare Mehmet Oz, when he targeted an ethnic group with unfounded accusations of illegalities www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dst3...
Reposted by TracingVRL by A.J. Fish
If you're building a startup in 2026, you are expected to work with the world's largest venture capital firm (which is not even really a VC firm), where one partner strangled my neighbor to death for being Black, and another actively sought Jeffrey Epstein's counsel for years. This is *normal*.
February 6, 2026 at 10:44 PM
If you're building a startup in 2026, you are expected to work with the world's largest venture capital firm (which is not even really a VC firm), where one partner strangled my neighbor to death for being Black, and another actively sought Jeffrey Epstein's counsel for years. This is *normal*.
Reposted by TracingVRL by A.J. Fish
From New Yorker interview w longtime Washington Post staffer Ruth Marcus: “If Bezos took 1 percent of his net worth and put it into a trust that would endow the paper w/the resources to do the good journalism that it's been doing, he wd be remembered as the savior of the Post and not the destroyer.”
February 5, 2026 at 4:43 AM
From New Yorker interview w longtime Washington Post staffer Ruth Marcus: “If Bezos took 1 percent of his net worth and put it into a trust that would endow the paper w/the resources to do the good journalism that it's been doing, he wd be remembered as the savior of the Post and not the destroyer.”
Attention-splitting, perhaps, to detract from his vague inflammatory comments targeting Armenians in Los Angeles for Alleged healthcare fraud. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dst3... Which was how the ICE storm began in Minneapolis, inflammatory videos about an old story about Somalis
February 3, 2026 at 8:48 PM
Attention-splitting, perhaps, to detract from his vague inflammatory comments targeting Armenians in Los Angeles for Alleged healthcare fraud. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dst3... Which was how the ICE storm began in Minneapolis, inflammatory videos about an old story about Somalis
Reposted by TracingVRL by A.J. Fish
A good rundown with links to much of the original reporting that uncovered these tools.
How ICE is watching you • Minnesota Reformer
Once delivered via text message — no link required — Paragon’s spyware gains broad access to a phone’s contents, including encrypted messages.
minnesotareformer.com
February 3, 2026 at 4:48 PM
A good rundown with links to much of the original reporting that uncovered these tools.
Queueing up the next Minneapolis? HHS Department's Mehmet Oz, makes *via video* vague accusations of Armenians in Los Angeles area, alleges "Russian" "mafia" links: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dst3... #HHS
Gov. Newsom reviewing Dr. Oz video that appears to target Armenian bakery
YouTube video by ABC7
www.youtube.com
February 2, 2026 at 5:14 PM
Queueing up the next Minneapolis? HHS Department's Mehmet Oz, makes *via video* vague accusations of Armenians in Los Angeles area, alleges "Russian" "mafia" links: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dst3... #HHS
Reposted by TracingVRL by A.J. Fish
ICE now confirming that there is a measles outbreak at the Texas concentration camp where young Liam was held.
February 2, 2026 at 12:08 AM
ICE now confirming that there is a measles outbreak at the Texas concentration camp where young Liam was held.
@c-span.bsky.social Why is it still so hard to get this channel? It's not in the Roku Channel store. It's apparently available with the highest-tier Hulu package, but they don't list that on the Hulu.com website . C-Span is hiding in witness protection.
Stream TV and Movies Live and Online | Hulu
Watch TV shows and movies online. Stream TV episodes of Shōgun, Grey's Anatomy, This Is Us, Bob's Burgers, Empire, SNL, and popular movies on your favorite devices. Bundle with Disney+ for $12.99.
Hulu.com
January 30, 2026 at 5:45 PM
@c-span.bsky.social Why is it still so hard to get this channel? It's not in the Roku Channel store. It's apparently available with the highest-tier Hulu package, but they don't list that on the Hulu.com website . C-Span is hiding in witness protection.
Wow! Pope Leo in new address, says AI slop is "'Turning people into passive consumers of unthought thoughts'" www.pcgamer.com/software/ai/... #AI #disinformation
Pope Leo XIV brings not peace but a sword to AI oligarchs and a slop-mad world in new address, says it's 'Turning people into passive consumers of unthought thoughts'
Never thought I'd die fighting side-by-side with the Pope.
www.pcgamer.com
January 29, 2026 at 6:48 PM
Wow! Pope Leo in new address, says AI slop is "'Turning people into passive consumers of unthought thoughts'" www.pcgamer.com/software/ai/... #AI #disinformation
Reposted by TracingVRL by A.J. Fish
It’s the anniversary of Citizens United today so I’m back in my bullshit about the role of oil companies in the corporate free speech movement and how they are trying to expand it even further at the moment. We did a whole podcast season on it: drilled.media/podcasts/dri...
S9, Ep3 | The Next Citizens United Will Be a Climate Case
Investigating the obstacles to action on climate change.
drilled.media
January 29, 2026 at 4:47 AM
It’s the anniversary of Citizens United today so I’m back in my bullshit about the role of oil companies in the corporate free speech movement and how they are trying to expand it even further at the moment. We did a whole podcast season on it: drilled.media/podcasts/dri...