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vivekgani.bsky.social
@vivekgani.bsky.social
500 followers 890 following 1.5K posts
Still wayfinding. Trying to understand paths during these times of planetary change. Open to feedback. Also on @vivekgani@mastodon.social

Likes ≠ Endorsements
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Reposted
valentinebarker.com
I'm sure we've all seen the graphic that lays out the United States ' relationship with slavery. It's good, but I never thought it was quite impactful enough. So I made my own.

I've used a few key events, including my birth, to highlight how recent these events are in history.

1 square = 1 year.
A graphic in pink, blue, and green that illustrates how recent many Black History events are to the current day -- ranging from 1619 to 2024.
February 16, 2026 at 6:12 PM
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bobbylee.bsky.social
Some good news
newrepublic.com/post/206625/...
Judge Orders Trump Admin to Restore Slavery Exhibits It Took Down
President Trump’s National Park Service has suffered a blow in its attempts to whitewash U.S. history.
newrepublic.com
February 16, 2026 at 7:51 PM
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vivekgani.bsky.social
Reading the Liz Bruenig fictional-but-researched measles story weirdly reminds me of Katy Bowman, who gets featured in mainstream places like @npr.org about moving your body but in this 2015 Rogan interview mentions she delayed her kids vaccinations: m.youtube.com/watch?v=0ub5... (2:05:03)
Joe Rogan Experience #601 - Katy Bowman
YouTube video by PowerfulJRE
m.youtube.com
February 16, 2026 at 6:03 PM
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texaswaterpunk.bsky.social
@texasstandard.bsky.social Per reporting from the Big Bend Sentinel, this canyon within Big Bend Ranch State Park is within the proposed footprint of a new, steel border wall. The hundreds of feet of canyon wall, as seen from canoe, are apparently not tall enough for DHS' disastrous project.
February 16, 2026 at 4:54 PM
vivekgani.bsky.social
Drop an album that was important to you when you were 19
Album cover image of 'source tags & codes' (2002) by the band '...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead' from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_Tags_%26_Codes
February 16, 2026 at 6:20 AM
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laikenjordahl.bsky.social
BREAKING: DHS waives dozens of laws to rush border wall construction through Big Bend State Park.

They want to rob this iconic western landscape from all of us, locking away our fishing holes & campsites behind concrete and steel. It's a grotesque act of political vandalism.
February 13, 2026 at 6:49 PM
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vivekgani.bsky.social
"How do you build a wall across an arroyo?" - Paul Krafel, 2016 - roamingupward.net/home/the-bes...

(Previously mastodon.social/@vivekgani/1... , twitter.com/vivekgani/st... )
Highlighted excerpt and image from https://roamingupward.net/home/the-best-of-cairns/big-bend-and-trumps-wall/ (Paul Krafel, 2016): "As far as I can tell, Trump answers with images of precast concrete slabs lined up across the land. But in Big Bend, we found ourselves asking, “How do you build a wall across an arroyo?” The Rio Grande forms almost two-thirds of the U.S.-Mexican border. What this means is that every tributary has to flow through this wall. Or, put another way, the wall will have to cross every single drainage along more than 1200 miles of the river. We were counting drainage crossings as we drove along various stretches of Texas desert and estimated them at about three per mile. At that rate, there would be about 3500 drainage crossings. More than half of these would be small. A few would be full-size rivers. But a lot of them would look like the picture below." [Picture below is a man standing in west Texas on rocky desert land, with rocky bluff/dropoffs behind the person and in front a lower area where presumably water would flow during rain events]
November 6, 2025 at 4:44 PM
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paraben.bsky.social
Alright paleo peeps, what had we here? ~63mya #fossil #seacreature
February 14, 2026 at 1:32 AM
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charlescmann.bsky.social
Early, non-mRNA Covid vaccines from AstraZeneca and J&J had rare side effects--deadly blood clots and bleeding--that led to their discontinuance and fed anti-vaxx beliefs. Now researchers have ID'd the cause, which may make safer future vaxxes of this type, esp. a new Ebola vaccine.
Rare, dangerous side effects of some COVID-19 vaccines explained
“Groundbreaking” study uncovers why adenovirus-based shots caused life-threatening blood clots and bleeding in some people
www.science.org
February 12, 2026 at 5:12 PM
vivekgani.bsky.social
Full disclosure: I deleted a repost linking to a non-vetted buzzfeed article about a politician running who changed their name and is currently running. Found a statement the candidate themselves sharing more background here:
vivekgani.bsky.social vivekgani.bsky.social @vivekgani.bsky.social · 5d
I unreposted your initial post linking to the buzzfeed article, but found a statement on the name change from Jim McKay to J Gordon Mitchell from August 3 2025, along with his history at Leander ISD: www.facebook.com/permalink.ph...
J Gordon Mitchell Another question regarding my former name that came in as a comment. Question: Hi J Gordon Mitchell. Rumor has it that you are Jim McKay from Leander ISD running with a rebrand. Will you please clarify this? My answer in full disclosure and transparency: Yes, I changed my name. Yes, I served on the Leander ISD board. And yes, I’ve been open about both. If the intent behind this question is to stir drama or sow doubt, let me stop you right there. I’m not here to relitigate personal attacks. I’m here to lead. I was elected twice to the Leander ISD board, in 2016 and 2020—each time setting district records for votes received. I earned that support by fighting for all students, by standing up for teachers, and by refusing to play along with the culture war agitators who were more interested in headlines than helping kids. In 2021, I made the decision to step down. Not because I lost heart, but because the threats against me and my family escalated to a point where I could no longer serve the community effectively without putting loved ones at risk. Those culture wars cost me my home, my marriage, and the role I’d poured everything into. But it did not—and will never—shake my commitment to public service. In 2024, after many years of personal reflection—reflection that, in fact, predates my board service—I legally changed my name. It was one of the most personal, deeply considered decisions I’ve ever made. I chose to carry the name of the side of my family that shaped my moral compass and modeled a life of compassion, justice, and inclusion. I grew up in 1960s Detroit. I lived through the 1967 race riots and saw the “white flight” that followed. In our home, the MacKay name came with a culture of racism and intolerance. The N-word was commonplace. Bigotry was passed off as normalcy. I hated it as a child, I wrestled with it as a teenager, and as an adult, I rejected it outright. That was not the legacy I would pass forward. By contrast, the Mitchell side of my family—my mother’s lineage—showed me a very different way to live. They didn’t just say the right things; they lived them. Their lives were grounded in respect for others, in inclusion, and in seeing people’s humanity before their labels. They opened their home, stood up for others, and taught me through quiet consistency what decency looks like. That’s the legacy I chose to honor. So no—I didn’t change my name to hide from anything. I changed it to align my identity with the values I’ve lived by for decades. I hold a degree in Human and Social Services and a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins in Liberal Arts with concentrations in Government, Education, and Cultural Studies. I’ve written extensively on equity and social identity, including a published book exploring the cultural, psychological, and political dimensions of gender non-conformity in America. That’s not posturing—it’s purpose. In June, I decided to run for Congress, not as a rebrand, but as a response. A response to the extremism that continues to harm our communities. A response to a Republican agenda rooted in fear, cruelty, and division. And yes, a response to Pete Sessions, who has consistently failed to listen, to lead, or to represent all the people of this district. As for the book controversy so often twisted to score political points: I’ve never shied away from asking hard, developmentally appropriate questions about what belongs in our schools. I’ve never supported banning books, and I’ve never attacked marginalized authors. But I will always believe that asking whether graphic depictions of fourth graders performing oral sex belong in a middle school library is a valid question. And I’ll continue to say that conflating that concern with censorship is not only dishonest—it’s an insult to the very communities we claim to protect. Even the author of Lawn Boy, Jonathan Evison, publicly stated that his book was never intended for school libraries (source: Washington Post). Context matters. So here we are. I stepped away from public office in 2021. I embraced my true name in 2024. And in 2025, I re-entered the arena—more grounded, more resolved, and more committed than ever to the people I serve. This isn’t a rebrand. It’s a reckoning. And I’m proud to run as J. Gordon Mitchell. [image of blurred out outdoor image with text overlay saying 'EMBRACE who YOU ARE']
February 11, 2026 at 4:38 PM
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quinnslobodian.com
A leading historian of decolonization, Fred Cooper, on the uses and pitfalls of the inflationary invocation of decolonization.

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
February 10, 2026 at 4:12 PM
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jasonhickel.bsky.social
The US cutting off oil to Cuba is truly one of the most depraved acts it is possible to imagine. Hospitals will close, food production will collapse, people will starve. It is urgent for US citizens, and every sane person, to oppose this barbarism with all their might.
February 9, 2026 at 9:23 PM
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privatechand.bsky.social
Whenever I hear sanctions I think of this poem by the Iraqi Saadi Youssef, written before the invasion. The slow strangulation comes before the final blow from the imperial master. The US has destroyed society after society with sanctions that only strengthen authoritarian states, before invading.
A Vision By Saadi Youssef This Iraq will reach the ends of the graveyard. It will bury its sons in open country Generation after generation, And it will forgive its despot… It will not be the Iraq that once held the name. And the larks will not sing. So walk – if you wish – a long time. And call - if you wish - on all the world’s angels, And all its demons. Call on the bulls of Assyria And the wetly gryphons… Call them And through the haze of phantoms Watch for miracles to emerge From clouds of incense. - Amman, 1997 Translated from the Arabic by Khaled Mattawa. This poem appeared in Al Jadid Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 25, Fall 1998.
February 9, 2026 at 6:28 PM
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justinmikulka.bsky.social
I've written about the "speed of shale" and how since wells are only producing a lot of oil for a few years and can be abandoned after 10, it is a very different approach than with conventional oil production.

One more example. They claim they can extract all of this oil before the next flood.
oilfieldwitness.bsky.social Oilfield Witness @oilfieldwitness.bsky.social · 7d
Scary article from @dylanbaddour.bsky.social and @peteraldhous.com

“When they were getting ready to drill there, he said, ‘Please don’t drill them here, it’s a floodplain. They will flood.’ The oil man says, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll have all the oil and gas out of this ground before the next flood.”
Fracking boom put oil field in Texas river’s floodplain
Lack of a state floodplain policy enabled oil companies to build in parts of Texas hit by an epic inundation less than 30 years ago.
www.texastribune.org
February 9, 2026 at 4:31 PM
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gabrieldread.bsky.social
Five-year old model Lincoln Fox was representing Bad Bunny as a child.

Here is a picture of 5-year old Bad Bunny wearing the same clothes as the kid on Super Bowl
Bad Bunny as a child, wearing the exact same clothes as the kid on Super Bowl
February 9, 2026 at 3:40 AM
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kinarnicholas.bsky.social
Hydrology Paper of the Day @hydrohammond.bsky.social on how hydrological processes are affected by fire in the western United States: watersheds and streamflow generation; interception, snowmelt and ablation; evapotranspiration and overland flow; seasonality and a synthesis of environmental factors.
February 9, 2026 at 2:45 AM
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iansociologo.bsky.social
Seeing fieldworkers produce their own histories, knowledge, narratives, and generally assert their power and voice over the world has been sugarcane plantation owners' greatest fear.
Laura Loomer - what the hell is this illegal alien farmowker non English shit on my TV. Someone call ICE.gov
February 9, 2026 at 2:46 AM
vivekgani.bsky.social
Online event tomorrow (Feb. 9th) hosted by Chicago Public Library for those trying to better understand Puerto Rico history & Bad Bunny.

(see also bsky.app/profile/drme... & bsky.app/profile/chan... )
February 9, 2026 at 2:25 AM
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jowiph.bsky.social
Going from that incredible show to Mike Tyson fat shaming America on behalf of RFK Jr. is some fucking tonal whiplash
February 9, 2026 at 1:35 AM
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avielroshwald.bsky.social
“It’s cold here all the time and the food is poor. For 280 days we haven’t eaten a single piece of fruit, banana, apple, orange, or anything fresh. We are all in one big room with no doors or windows. We can’t see any grass or trees. We are all constantly sick.”

lataco.com/captive-loti...
Exclusive: Detention Center Captives Are Throwing Lotion Bottles Wrapped With Notes to Organizers Outside Otay Mesa Facility ~ L.A. TACO
“For 280 days we haven’t eaten a single piece of fruit, banana, apple, orange, or anything fresh," an Otay Mesa captive communicated through handwritten note. "We are all in one big room with no doors...
lataco.com
February 8, 2026 at 2:51 AM
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mikehixenbaugh.com
Maria is one of hundreds of children, who — like Liam Ramos — have been held at a Texas detention facility where parents say children languish as they’re served contaminated food, receive little education and struggle to obtain basic medical care.

Here's our attempt at telling their stories. 2/
Children trapped in Texas immigration facility recount nightmares, inedible food, no school
A photo of Liam Conejo Ramos, a scared 5-year-old, drew attention to a detention center in Dilley, Texas. Advocates say his experience reflects what hundreds of children have endured out of public vie...
www.nbcnews.com
February 6, 2026 at 6:25 PM
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danieljpierce.bsky.social
I've got a new video on my YouTube channel, The Cutblock, about the recent #ComoxValley #floods and the connection to #clearcutting in the #watersheds. We also look at a road washout + dirty drinking water in the CVRD, also linked to #clearcut #logging.

WATCH HERE >> www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxKk...
Comox Valley flooding linked to clearcut logging
YouTube video by The Cutblock
www.youtube.com
February 5, 2026 at 10:31 PM
vivekgani.bsky.social
"the main cultural and political work of new age spirituality was to lock in the depoliticization of an anxious generation of post 1960's liberals to get them focusing on the self project rather than class solidarity"
matthewremski.bsky.social Matthew Remski @matthewremski.bsky.social · 12d
Deepak in the Files. Appears to be playing guru to a sex trafficker, transmitting his parody of non-dual wisdom so that the trafficker can relax into divine impunity.

youtube.com/shorts/1dqqj...
Deepak in the Files.
YouTube video by AntifascistDad
youtube.com
February 6, 2026 at 3:43 AM
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derekberes.bsky.social
Oh this just keeps getting worse…
February 3, 2026 at 5:28 PM
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tterence.bsky.social
The Amazon basin. Been wanting to do this for a while and finally managed to fix the errors I was getting.

I rather like how it turned out.

#rayshader adventures, an #rstats tale
A visualisation of the rivers of the Amazon basin
February 6, 2026 at 12:22 AM