Jeff
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bettysears.bsky.social
Jeff
@bettysears.bsky.social
In need of a Box of Rain and a Left-Handed Monkey Wrench, not necessarily in that order.

Music, Democracy, Colorectal Cancer Progress and Counseling, Climate, Tech Critique, Guitar, Surf, Bees, Grand Canyon, Boating, Urban Homesteading, YIMBY and more
Reposted by Jeff
According to a new study, members of Congressional leadership perform 47% better in stock market trades than their rank-and-file peers, thanks to access to nonpublic information.

Today would be a great day to ban ALL elected officials from trading stock, don't you think?
December 5, 2025 at 8:45 PM
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Sam Grisman & Susan Tedeschi sing the Beatles at late night Karaoke in SF
December 5, 2025 at 8:16 PM
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Rep. Grijalva says she was pepper-sprayed by ICE
December 5, 2025 at 8:00 PM
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Indiana state house Republicans just approved a new 9-0 gerrymandered map ousting two US House Democrats, giving Republicans 100% of seats in state where Trump got 58% of vote
December 5, 2025 at 6:48 PM
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There is no reason to be polite or decorous about this any more.

The current Supreme Court is corrupt.

US democracy cannot survive unless it is reformed.
December 5, 2025 at 7:28 PM
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Yep, the Supreme Court really is just a House of Lords—a purely political branch with bizarre veto power, wielded capriciously and without accountability. Time for massive reform.
December 4, 2025 at 11:59 PM
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Hannah reminds us why we have a cabinet with "talents" like Pete Hegseth, Kristi Noem, RFKJr and Pam Bondi...
December 4, 2025 at 10:11 PM
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Holy shit.

Reuters reporting that new admin instructions on visas are if you worked at a platform in trust & safety or content moderation or on fact checking or online safety at an platform you *and your loved ones* are ineligible for H-1B visa.

www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
December 4, 2025 at 5:41 PM
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Wow, an extraordinary generous offer from a Bolts reader:

Russ is offering to match any contribution you make to Bolts (just let him know)!

And he'll also throw in an additional $$ for each repost of his post, or each new follow @boltsmag.org gets. So at least smash those share or follow buttons!
You can help Bolts continue to provide crucial coverage of local elections. Here's how:

- Repost this = I donate $1.
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- Donate (link below) + tell me how much = I match your donation.
(Donate monthly = I match a year's worth)
Support Bolts
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December 3, 2025 at 6:44 PM
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When I say Spotify is Surveillance, I don’t just mean it’s creepy that they are tracking what music you listen to and using that data to serve ads.

I mean your Spotify data is deeply intimate and can be used to glean information about you like your daily habits, your moods, and more.
December 3, 2025 at 5:24 PM
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Anyone casually weighing in on this race needs to understand this.
If you ever wondered what GOP gerrymandering looks like in red states with blue cities, I present:
December 3, 2025 at 1:48 AM
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“The National AIDS Memorial, through a partnership with the AIDS Quilt Touch team, presents all 50,000 panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in an interactive experience so people around the world can experience the beauty of the Quilt and witness the love and stories stitched into each panel.”
Interactive AIDS Quilt
The National AIDS Memorial, through a partnership with the AIDS Quilt Touch team, presents all 48,000 panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in an interactive experience People around the world can experie...
www.aidsmemorial.org
December 1, 2025 at 11:19 PM
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Today is the 70th anniversary of Rosa Parks' arrest. Six myths: 1) She wasn't old or tired. 42 years old that day, she had a "life history of being rebellious" & had spent two decades helping to turn the Montgomery NAACP into a more activist branch alongside ED Nixon and Johnnie Carr.
December 1, 2025 at 3:27 PM
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The Boston Globe identified the companies in Massachusetts that employ the most SNAP recipients. A key stat: "In Massachusetts, 74% of working-age recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are employed, half of them full-time."

Full article: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/28/m...
November 29, 2025 at 3:55 PM
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Australia recorded ZERO cases of cervical cancer in women under 25 for the first time since they started tracking the cancer in the 80s.

This is the power of vaccines.

The HPV vaccine is extremely effective at preventing cancer.

Viruses can be oncogenic. Get your vaccines and protect yourself!
newsGP - Australia set for world-first cervical cancer elimination
Vaccination programs have played a key role, and GPs remain ‘instrumental’ in boosting screening rates to reach the 2035 target.
www1.racgp.org.au
November 27, 2025 at 3:45 AM
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They shouldn't even have been there!
A sad irony in Washington, D.C., where West Virginia National Guardsmen were shot today. Six days ago, a court ruled their deployment was illegal, but stayed the order pending appeal. My heart goes out to these public servants and their families. oag.dc.gov/sites/defaul...
November 28, 2025 at 12:03 AM
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Sometimes I think it’s going to be the librarians who will save us all.
November 25, 2025 at 1:47 AM
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solar is about to pass natural gas for power generation in California. good stuff www.eia.gov/todayinenerg...
Today in Energy - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)
www.eia.gov
November 25, 2025 at 5:39 PM
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Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
November 25, 2025 at 1:57 AM
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I will die on this Hill: At any moment, with as thing of a margin as the House GOP has, any member or frontliner like Mike Lawler or Brian Fitzpatrick or Don Bacon could have held up the process or demanded a return to regular order the way the Freedom Caucus did when it put a gun to McCarthy's head
The crazy thing is Republican members of Congress gave away their power and now they’re mad that they gave away their power. Like Trump didn’t do this to you, you did it to yourselves
November 25, 2025 at 12:49 AM
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This seems a significantly worse "tell" of derangement

-Sen Kelly has flown nearly 40 *combat missions* as a pilot.
-He's done 375+ carrier landings (Jeesh!)
-He's been in space as astronaut.
-He's flown 50+ different kinds of aircraft

And Hegseth and Trump are picking fight about valor with him?
The Department of Defense announces it's considering "court-martial proceedings or administrative measures" against Democratic Senator Mark Kelly.
November 24, 2025 at 7:40 PM
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he’s indicted falsely.
November 24, 2025 at 5:58 PM
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I literally went to court and won to defend my right to uphold my oath (in my case to the Florida constitution) over the interests of my governor
BLITZER: I want to be precise. Should members of the US military obey clearly illegal orders?

McCLAIN: You're asking an enlisted person for their opinion on what they think is legal. That's a pretty slippery slope. Follow your commander in chief. That's the oath that you took

(Not a no!)
November 24, 2025 at 3:44 PM
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Not long after my late husband was diagnosed, my bff invited us to her family’s thanksgiving. It was nice. Everyone was glad to see us. No ancient family baggage to unpack per tradition. I decided after that Thanksgiving didn’t need to be “family”.
Actually in the spirit of this conversation, what’s a decision you made about a past Thanksgiving holiday that really paid off? I think people often feel trapped by their lives. Sharing our experiences can liberate us from that sense of claustrophobia.
On the most recent episode of VIBE CHECK, we answer listener questions about Thanksgiving, most importantly “do you go celebrate with the family members you don’t even like?”
November 23, 2025 at 6:43 PM