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upstateken.bsky.social
Upstate Ken
@upstateken.bsky.social
93 followers 230 following 170 posts
Here for the sanity
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upstateken.bsky.social
www.instagram.com/p/DRu4DqvjbQ...
Madonna on Instagram: "Happy International AIDS Day! ♥️"
236K likes, 7,683 comments - madonna on December 1, 2025: "Happy International AIDS Day! ♥️".
www.instagram.com
December 3, 2025 at 3:42 AM
Reposted by Upstate Ken
mjsdc.bsky.social
D.C. doesn't have statehood. We don't have voting representation in Congress. We have limited home rule that can be taken away any time. When Trump oppresses us, we have few democratic means of fighting back.

Juries are one of them. And Trump can't take that away. slate.com/news-and-pol...
The Sandwich Guy’s Verdict Sent Exactly the Right Message to Trump
Dunn—aka Sandwich Guy—became a folk hero in August.
slate.com
November 7, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Reposted by Upstate Ken
escapedexplorer.bsky.social
"World's first potential trillionaire has killed 600,000 people, including 400,000 children" is the only headline that anyone should ever read about Elon Musk
newyorker.com The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 29d
One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc
The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
November 7, 2025 at 1:33 AM
upstateken.bsky.social
If we have to deal with Biff as our president, can we at least have the floating skateboards?
October 21, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Reposted by Upstate Ken
colincarlson.bsky.social
Absolutely off the charts public health capacity on display here.
September 5, 2025 at 2:04 AM
Reposted by Upstate Ken
deonandan.bsky.social
I love looking at this graph, showing it to my students, and sharing it on social media, even though it unerringly brings out the trolls.

This is the efficacy curve of Pfizer's mRNA COVID vaccine.

This, people, is what ended the emergency phase of the COVID pandemic. Despite what RFK Jr says.
September 2, 2025 at 3:32 AM
Reposted by Upstate Ken
markzaidesq.bsky.social
Abbe Lowell and I represent CDC Director #SusanMonarez. Contrary to govt statements, Dr. Monarez has neither resigned nor yet been fired. She will not resign. We have issued the following statement:
August 27, 2025 at 11:15 PM
upstateken.bsky.social
This is HORRIFIC, and it was done by our government, in our name, with our tax dollars. Shame on all involved… www.advocate.com/news/andry-h...
Gay makeup artist Andry Hernández Romero describes horrific sexual & physical abuse at CECOT in El Salvador
He called it "an encounter with torture and death."
www.advocate.com
July 27, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Reposted by Upstate Ken
gtconway.bsky.social
July 25, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Reposted by Upstate Ken
annabower.bsky.social
“In Cell 15, Plaintiff Abrego Garcia and 20 other Salvadorans were forced to kneel from approximately 9:00 PM to 6:00 AM, with guards striking anyone who fell from exhaustion. During this time, Plaintiff Abrego Garcia was denied bathroom access and soiled himself…”
120. Upon arrival at CECOT, the detainees were greeted by a prison official who stated, "Welcome to CECOT. Whoever enters here doesn't leave." Plaintiff Abrego Garcia was then forced to strip, issued prison clothing, and subjected to physical abuse including being kicked in the legs with boots and struck on his head and arms to make him change clothes faster. His head was shaved with a zero razor, and he was frog-marched to cell 15, being struck with wooden batons along the way. By the following day, Plaintiff Abrego Garcia had visible bruises and lumps all over his body. 121. In Cell 15, Plaintiff Abrego Garcia and 20 other Salvadorans were forced to kneel from approximately 9:00 PM to 6:00 AM, with guards striking anyone who fell from exhaustion. During this time, Plaintiff Abrego Garcia was denied bathroom access and soiled himself The detainees were confined to metal bunks with no mattresses in an overcrowded cell with no windows, bright lights that remained on 24 hours a day, and minimal access to sanitation. 122. After approximately one week at CECOT, prison director Osiris Luna and other officials separated the 21 Salvadorans who had arrived together. Twelve individuals with visible gang-related tattoos were moved to another cell, while Plaintiff Abrego Garcia remained with eight others who, like him, upon information and belief had no gang affiliations or tattoos. 123. As reflected by his segregation, the Salvadoran authorities recognized that Plaintiff Abrego Garcia was not affiliated with any gang and, at around this time, prison officials explicitly acknowledged that Plaintiff Abrego Garcia's tattoos were not gang-related, telling him "your
July 2, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Reposted by Upstate Ken
krassenstein.bsky.social
BREAKING: Zohran Mamdani, moments ago, talking about how he’s going to fix NYC.

This guy sounds presidential.
June 28, 2025 at 3:18 PM
upstateken.bsky.social
We’re actively defunding public broadcasting/journalism. Meanwhile, billionaire-owned newspapers frame a distorted narrative.
June 20, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Reposted by Upstate Ken
jeremykonyndyk.bsky.social
So - I've actually led Ebola outbreak response at USAID.

This is bunk from Elon. They have laid off most of the experts, they're bankrupting most of the partner orgs, have withdrawn from WHO, and muzzled CDC.

What's left is a fig-leaf effort to cover their asses politically.
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · Feb 26
Elon Musk: "We will make mistakes. We won't be perfect ... so for example, with USAID, one of the things we accidentally canceled very briefly was ebola prevention."
February 26, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Reposted by Upstate Ken
aoc.bsky.social
This vote was to start the process of the cuts. It WILL come back for a final vote.

There are some chances to slow or potentially stop it. Need constant pressure on GOP

Focus on GOP swing seats & key committees. Energy & Commerce is where the Medicaid fight will go down. Ways&Means for tax fight.
buddhaclauser.bsky.social Christine @buddhaclauser.bsky.social · Feb 26
@aoc.bsky.social
Please explain what just happened. Is there no way to stop this w the reconciliation to be used by GOP to get around the filibuster? Are we sunk?
February 26, 2025 at 3:09 AM
Reposted by Upstate Ken
cwebbonline.com
This hits hard…

“Then she was fired by a Fox News weekend host.”

You know what else hits hard? The fact that voters thought it was a good idea to hire a reality show host/bankrupt businessman as President of the United States.
February 25, 2025 at 8:47 PM
upstateken.bsky.social
These guys have absolutely zero understanding of federal contracting and procurement works.
goldengateblond.bsky.social shauna @goldengateblond.bsky.social · Feb 19
helluva thread from the hellsite about the comically bad “savings” doge claims to have found (sorry for the weirdly sized screenshots, I had to squeeze everything into only 4 of them)
from @electricfutures After several delays, @DOGE has finally posted its purported savings. Why did it take so long to create a simple webpage with a 1000-row table? Who knows! Let's dig in. Headline number: $55B saved. They list the savings per nixed contract. This should be easy to verify then. It's Monday. @DOGE is the laziest, most overpaid bunch of incompetent, unelected bureaucrats we've ever seen. The first thing I did is add up the "saved" column for all canceled contracts and real estate. The numbers are $16.5B and $O.14B, respectively. Odd... Since almost all of the purported savings come from contracts, we'll focus on that. The single biggest ticket item is a DHS contract listed as saving $8 billion. Wow, that's a huge contract! Actually no, it's $8 million. They must have tried to automate scraping the FPDS form and failed. That means we're down to $8.5B in savings. 3/ The next 3 biggest ticket items are all USAID contracts listed as $655M each, so $2B total. Wow, pretty big. Wait, these are IDVs, not contracts. $655M is the entire set-aside, being triple counted. In the first 5 years, only $73M was awarded, and only 2 years remain. 4/ So we're down to $6.5B in savings, and an alarming trend emerges: @DOGE does not seem to understand how the government contracts they are canceling work. The savings they are claiming are not annual savings, but rather hypothetical savings if we spent every unobligated penny. 5/ And more importantly, they are just getting it *wrong*, with alarming consistency. These numbers are erroneous. This "select group of geniuses" has not double checked even the LARGEST items accounting for the bulk of their claimed savings. This is a sad, pathetic farce Here's the next biggest item: an IT services contract for the Social Security Administration worth $1B. That's a lot of savings! Well, again, this contract spanned 6 years. 80% has already been spent. Ah well, more like $240M in savings spread over the next 3 years. $80M/year. In 2023, this contract funded 1000 FTEs working $100/hr. Did we need 1000 SWEs working on SSA infrastructure? Probably not - these could be valid savings (disclaimer: no idea what they actually did). But worth noting that these cuts will impact many private sector jobs as well. And if anyone is curious, there are currently 17 lines that say "SEE FPDS" rather than the savings amount, I guess because their automated scraping failed. I did it manually and it took roughly ~10 minutes. But that's too much to ask of super geniuses working 120 hours/week!
February 19, 2025 at 1:38 PM
upstateken.bsky.social
Through all the phony outrage and noise, it’s worth noting the facts: voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) has prevented over 600,000 HIV infections since 2008. hivpreventioncoalition.unaids.org/sites/defaul...
February 18, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Reposted by Upstate Ken
msf.ca
#USA: We are calling on the US government to immediately resume funding for the full range of PEPFAR operations as well as other critical health and humanitarian aid.

Uncertainty around PEPFAR program puts millions of people at risk

www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/uncer...
Uncertainty around PEPFAR program puts millions of people at risk
MSF is calling on the US government to immediately resume funding for the full range of PEPFAR operations as well as other critical health and humanitarian aid.
www.doctorswithoutborders.org
February 13, 2025 at 3:03 AM
Reposted by Upstate Ken
governorwalz.mn.gov
As the forces of hatred are on the march, my promise is this:

Our trans neighbors will continue to be safe, protected, and welcome in Minnesota.
February 7, 2025 at 10:02 PM
Reposted by Upstate Ken
jasonleopold.bsky.social
🚨BIG SCOOP: Musk’s DOGE Teen Was Fired By Cybersecurity Firm for Leaking Company Secrets

Edward Coristine posted online that he had retained access to the firm’s servers. Now he has access to sensitive government information.

🎁 www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Musk’s DOGE Teen Was Fired By Cybersecurity Firm for Leaking Company Secrets
Edward Coristine posted online that he had retained access to the firm’s servers. Now he has access to sensitive government information.
www.bloomberg.com
February 7, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Reposted by Upstate Ken
markwarner.bsky.social
USAID is an essential organization that supports the global economy and saves lives. If Trump or his unelected copresident succeed in shuttering it, it will deeply weaken America’s position in the world in a free giveaway to China.

We’re going to fight this.
February 3, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Reposted by Upstate Ken
carlbergstrom.com
What’s his beef against USAID in particu….oh. Wow.
X post: Elon Musk @elonmusk We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper. Could gone to some great parties. Did that instead. U.S. policy was to help bring an end to apartheid and establish a nonracial, democratic government. In response to this policy and the Act, USAID/South Africa was responsible for financing projects that apartheid victims viewed as critical in promoting social, political, and economic change through peaceful means. The mission enabled community consultation and ensured that the United States did not impose foreign-defined solutions to local problems. USAID created projects and activities to respond to the priorities of the black community and its leaders, maximized black participation and leadership, and ensured activities had a linkage to the general objectives of U.S. policy. First-year funding for the program was $25 million, which was raised to $50 million the second year. The main project areas were community outreach and leadership development to redress the repression of black-led institutions; educational support and training to address the educational crisis in South Africa; black private enterprise development to combat the inhibiting effects of apartheid–induced discrimination in private enterprise; university grants to help create a new generation of economic and political leaders; human rights; legal assistance; labor union training; and health and nutrition
February 3, 2025 at 11:19 AM
Reposted by Upstate Ken
astrokatie.com
I think some people hear “grants” and think that without them, scientists and government workers just have less stuff to play with at work. But grants fund salaries for students, academics, researchers, and people who work in all areas of public service.

“Pausing” grants means people don’t eat.
White House pauses all federal grants, sparking confusion
The Trump administration has put a hold on all federal financial grants and loans, affecting tens of billions of dollars in payments.
www.washingtonpost.com
January 28, 2025 at 3:03 AM
Reposted by Upstate Ken
mollyjongfast.bsky.social
Read this

www.cjr.org/analysis/tru...
January 7, 2025 at 3:02 AM
Reposted by Upstate Ken
zacheverson.com
What are your favorite IRL cheat codes?

Mine: Entering your area code and 867-5309 almost always works for a grocery store’s discount card.
December 22, 2024 at 8:27 PM