We, not Me
LightNews LightNews
emwhitley.bsky.social
We, not Me
@emwhitley.bsky.social
860 followers 1.1K following 7.8K posts
Glad to be here.

Profile picture by Aleesia27 here on BlueSky, with my appreciation.

saw this post by 53rdplacestudios and I have to give it some more exposure: "trump is like a mushroom - fed bullshit and kept in the dark"
Posts Replies Media Videos
emwhitley.bsky.social
Sobering statistics. Happening in real time, every day. Vote for something different.
But consider this data: 1. In the second quarter of 2025, the top 10 percent of American households held 67 percent of American wealth, according to Federal Reserve data. Conversely, the bottom 50 percent of households own just 2.5 percent of American wealth. 2. The American middle class shrunk to 51 percent in 2023, from 61 percent in 1971. And while the number of people ascending to the upper class grew, so, too, did the number of people falling into the lower class. 3. Top 10 percent of American earners were responsible for nearly half of all consumer spending in the second quarter, according to Moody’s Analytics. Simply, the rich are getting richer. And that brings me back to my initial query: What next?
September 24, 2025 at 1:09 PM
emwhitley.bsky.social
This is from a later episode
September 15, 2025 at 7:47 PM
emwhitley.bsky.social
Something we (me included) tend to forget in our cushy, modern day lives.
This system’s greatest achievements lie in things that don’t happen — recessions, depressions, and bank runs that never materialize, famines that don’t break out, wars that don’t start, nuclear conflicts that never occur, poverty that doesn’t crush lives, children who don’t die of measles, sanitariums filled with polio victims in iron lungs that don’t exist, and kids’ cavities that never develop. It’s easy to lose sight to what an achievement that has been precisely because, decade by decade, the awful things that used to happen all the time have slipped from living memory into history.
August 6, 2025 at 4:46 PM
emwhitley.bsky.social
This sounds too familiar.
Moreover, they knew intimately and up-close that the alternative to peace and freedom — fascism and war — was worse. America itself flirted with authoritarian fascism before. It’s easy to forget the model that Father Coughlin and other right-wing leaders of the 1930s offered Americans disenchanted with the Great Depression. But as fascism’s dark cloak descended across Europe — as secret police began demanding “papers, please” and kidnapping people off the streets and disappearing them to concentration camps, as Hitler’s government cracked down on free speech and expression, labeling critics “evil” enemies of the state, as they cut off access to science and education and demanded arts organizations fall in line, persecuted homosexuals, and closed borders to visitors — America made a different choice. It, along with a precious few allies like Great Britain, stood and fought for democracy when it counted most.
August 6, 2025 at 4:46 PM
emwhitley.bsky.social
I try to keep up, but this one took me by surprise. If a person is not eligible for Medicaid because of work/school requirements, they are also not eligible for "subsidized" Marketplace coverage.

Medicaid eligibility redeterminations every 6 months.
August 4, 2025 at 4:12 PM
emwhitley.bsky.social
This is my favorite passage in the article. It sums up so many things in one details. His own background and upbringing.
Marcotte: It’s funny, he can’t help but show that he is that spoiled rich kid in these moments. He talks to her like she’s the help because he just can’t help but think of her that way, because she’s beneath him in his mind in every way: female, Latina, had this working-class job. She is college-educated but she did have a working-class job. And yeah, she’s from the part of Queens he only really witnessed from inside his limousine going to and from school when he was a kid.
June 25, 2025 at 2:12 PM
emwhitley.bsky.social
I'm gonna be ok. Jason Statham is on his way as Parker.
June 12, 2025 at 5:12 PM
emwhitley.bsky.social
This is today's best read. He backs up his assertions with facts. It will solidify in your mind that the problem is Republicans + tax cuts, the only thing they ever cared about or ever will care about. To hell with the consequences.
Among OECD countries in 2023, the United States ranked 32nd out of 38 for the revenue it collects as a share of GDP. Among advanced industrial democracies, only Ireland and Chile collect less. And at 17 percent of GDP in 2024, federal revenues are well below their peak of nearly 20 percent in 2000, at the end of the Clinton administration. The following year, the United States enjoyed a $128 billion surplus, and the Congressional Budget Office projected that the national debt would be paid off by 2009. Instead, tax cuts under George W. Bush in 2001 added $8 trillion to the deficit; a further round of cuts by Trump in 2017 contributed another $1.8 trillion. Spending went up as well, but the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that 37 percent of the current deficit can be attributed to these tax cuts. For the Republican Party, tax cuts are now divorced from any specific fiscal context and have become a way of life.
June 10, 2025 at 7:25 PM
emwhitley.bsky.social
This image is from a New Republic article about Trump sabotaging his case against Abrego Garcia.

I like it because of the up close view of his left ear. Note there doesn't seem to be any damage from a bullet wound. Not even a scar.

Others point out the makeup line around his face.
Undated photograph of right side of Donald Trump's head showing his face and his ear. His ear does not show any scar or damage from a bullet wound. His cheek and forehead show a definitive line between parts with makeup and parts without.
May 4, 2025 at 2:52 PM
emwhitley.bsky.social
I think this helps explain some of the disconnect the people of different social and financial classes are feeling. Link to article in The Guardian Sunday April 20, 2025 in the next post. It is about an America of the past. Like Sarah Kenzidor's new book, "The Last American Road Trip".
The country clubs are rife with men and women, in incredible luxury, complaining bitterly about the state of the country. The richest and most powerful, the Americans who have won, who have everything, are still not happy, and why? Their answer is that the American dream must be broken. There is no one who feels more betrayed by the American dream than the world’s richest man. Why else do you think he’s out there with a chainsaw? The American elites of the past 20 years have called their foremost principle freedom, but what they meant was impunity. That’s what the original slave masters built: a world where they could do whatever they wanted to whomever they wanted, without consequences. That’s what the techlords dream of today. The truly frictionless world they seek eludes them exactly because it is a dream, because it is unreal. The ultimate truth of bubbles is that they pop.
April 22, 2025 at 3:12 PM
emwhitley.bsky.social
to continue the above screenshot:
Those who may not be eligible for the vaccine include people with weakened immune systems and those who have had an organ transplant or are receiving certain medical treatments, including chemotherapy, radiation, and immunotherapy. The vaccine is usually not given to children under 1 year of age, although it may be given to children as young as 6 months if they are traveling internationally or are in an area where there is an outbreak. (For a full list of people who should not receive the measles vaccine, check the CDC website.) If you suspect you have been exposed to someone who has measles, call your doctor immediately so they can make a plan to determine whether you have immunity, evaluate you, and provide advice on what to do next. If you do get the illness and your case isn’t severe enough for you to go to the hospital, you should stay home and isolate yourself for four days so you won’t spread the virus to others, according to the CDC. There is no specific antiviral therapy for measles, but medical care can help relieve symptoms and address complications.
April 17, 2025 at 2:56 PM
emwhitley.bsky.social
There is more, but I thought this was important:
Another group that may be at risk is adults who were immunized between 1963, when the first measles vaccine was approved, and 1967. During that period, some children received an inactivated (killed) measles vaccine that was less effective than the live vaccine. If you know that you got the inactivated vaccine and not the live one, or aren’t sure, you should get at least one dose of the live MMR vaccine, according to the CDC. The CDC provides more information on how many MMR shots you may need—if you still aren’t sure, you should ask your doctor. There are a few ways to confirm your vaccination status, including records on paper or in a database. If you don’t have records from your childhood pediatrician, your state may have an Immunization Information System (IIS). The CDC provides more information on locating vaccination records on its website. Alternatively, you can talk to your medical provider about having an MMR immunity blood test, which can show whether you have antibodies against measles. If you decide that you do need a measles vaccination, check with your doctor to make sure that you’re eligible to get one. “Because the MMR vaccine is a live vaccine, some people cannot get it safely,” Dr. Roberts says.
April 17, 2025 at 2:56 PM
emwhitley.bsky.social
I am posting because I wanted to share this section on the real numbers we all face today:
"Twenty-five hedge-fund managers make more money than all of the kindergarten teachers in America combined," he said. Being one of those twenty-five doesn’t feel good. I think they’ve developed a heightened sensitivity.” The gap is widening further. In December, the National Bureau of Economic Research published a new analysis, by the economists Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and Gabriel Zucman, which found that half of American adults have been “completely shut off from economic growth since the 1970s.” Approximately a hundred and seventeen million people earn, on average, the same income that they did in 1980, while the typical income for the top one per cent has nearly tripled. That gap is comparable to the gap between average incomes in the U.S. and the Democratic Republic of Congo,"
April 13, 2025 at 2:15 PM
emwhitley.bsky.social
My favorite part:
Gaslighters are manipulative and controlling, comfortable belittling and insulting others. They are accomplished at denying, lying, and projecting. And sometimes, if they’re lucky enough and skilled enough, they make it to the White House. When they do, the horrors that are usually visited on an individual are instead visited on an entire nation. At that point, the enormous machinery of the federal government, supported by outside groups and media outlets, becomes part of a massive and relentless disinformation campaign. The aim is to provoke distrust, confusion, and disorientation, which corrodes people’s confidence in institutions and undermines their grasp of reality. The ultimate goal is to divide and weaken civil society, and to undermine its ability to mobilize and cohere.
April 8, 2025 at 8:17 PM
emwhitley.bsky.social
This is from the COBOL Cowboys website today:
COBOL supports close to 90% of Fortune 500 business systems today. COBOL is 65% of active code used today; and runs 85% of all business transactions. Market Research claims 800 billion lines of COBOL code are still in use today by various industries
April 1, 2025 at 6:47 PM
emwhitley.bsky.social
Here is the tweet
Tweet from Andrew Hitchcock from October 31, 2023 with 38.5k views that he said "Praxis has announced its host country for a new charter city on the Mediterranean." Below there is a map with a body of water on the top left to the middle, Egypt in the bottom left corner, Israel reaching from the top right to bottom right and leftward towards the water. In the middle is a red area between Israel and the body of water that is measured to be 41 km long on the water side, 10 km wide on the northern side, 13 km long on the south Egyptian side. A black box with white lettering says "Praxis". I believe that today this red area is currently called Palestine. Borders could be different, I'm no expert.
March 25, 2025 at 1:07 AM
emwhitley.bsky.social
Here is one scary part. Doing away with humans in the government allows the AI programmers to BE the government.
To serve its purpose, any generative AI deployed here wouldn't have to be good at making decisions or even showcase any new capacities at all. It merely has to be considered a plausible competitor to human decision-making long enough to dislodge the existing human decision-makers in civil service, workers who embody the institution's values and mission. Once replaced, the human knowledge that produces the institution will be lost. Once the employees are terminated, the institution is no longer itself. Trump and Musk can shift it to any purpose inscribed into the chatbot's system prompt, directing the kind of output it is allowed to provide a user. After that, the automated system can fail–but that is a feature, not a bug. Because if the system fails, the Silicon Valley elite that created it will secure their place in a new technical regime. This regime concentrates power with those who understand and control this system's maintenance, upkeep, and upgrades. Any failure would also accelerate efforts to shift work to private contractors. OpenAI's ChatGPTGov is a prime example of a system that is ready to come into play. By shifting government decisions to AI systems they must know are unsuitable, these tech elites avoid a political debate they would probably lose. Instead, they create a nationwide IT crisis that they alone can fix.
March 21, 2025 at 2:37 AM
emwhitley.bsky.social
These paragraphs hit the hardest. All of them will cause you, or enable you, to think about uses of AI in a different way.
AI then becomes a tool for replacing politics. The Trump administration frames generative AI as a remedy to "government waste." However, what it seeks to automate is not paperwork but democratic decision-making. Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are banking on a popular but false delusion that word prediction technologies make meaningful inferences about the world. They are using it to sidestep Congressional oversight of the budget, which is, Constitutionally, the allotment of resources to government programs through representative politics. While discussing an AI coup may seem conspiratorial or paranoid, it's banal. In contrast to Musk and his acolytes' ongoing claims of "existential risk," which envision AI taking over the world through brute force, an AI coup rises from collective decisions about how much power we hand to machines. It is political offloading, shifting the messy work of winning political debates to the false authority of machine analytics. It's a way of displacing the collective decision-making at the core of representative politics.
March 21, 2025 at 2:37 AM
emwhitley.bsky.social
This part is what I thought was most important to help understand what is being done in America today by Trump. He is following the Putin playbook because Trump has the same goals.
Right now, this domestic repression makes it easier for Putin to wage war — and to stay in power. Putin has always seen Ukraine, which has long struggled to separate itself from Russia, as undermining his regime at home. The existence of a democratic and prosperous Ukraine that is allied with Europe could show Russians that there is a better alternative to Putinism. That is why Putin would prefer to eliminate Ukraine as a country. Being at war also allows Putin to keep Russia in a state of emergency, which gives him multiple advantages: It is a perfect pretext for increased repression, tightened censorship laws and an all-purpose explanation for economic hardships. The elimination of independent media and laws against criticizing the military have made it easier to brainwash the Russian people into believing that an endless war is necessary despite its huge costs in terms of lives and economic hardship.
March 20, 2025 at 6:28 PM
emwhitley.bsky.social
This sums up the problem the Democrats need to overcome and they need to do it now:
I think there’s a natural caution to a lot of Democrats that I served with. Democrats have a tendency to overthink things. We meet in committees; we look at polls very, very carefully; we think through all the potential negative consequences that may accrue from any of our actions. And I guess that makes us responsible people. But that approach to leadership is not in keeping with the nature of the challenge that we face right now as a country. And it may be that I was born in a communist country and I spent my life working to support movements, fight really nasty people who were ruthless and who would kill you if they won—and that’s not their background of most of the people I served with in Congress. Why would it be? They’re Americans. They’ve spent their whole lives in a democracy that works by consent. So my fear going into this that some of them just wouldn’t have the stomach for the fighting that we’re going to need to do.
March 11, 2025 at 12:28 PM
emwhitley.bsky.social
I wanted to have a record of where I read this about what the Democrats need to do and say in the face of a government shutdown. They cannot vote for the Continuing Resolution because it will only cement their powerlessness.
excerpt from article: It’s a different context from any that we have experienced in the past. Democrats will be able to say, if it comes to it, that it’s Musk and Trump who are shutting down Social Security offices all over the country. It’s Musk and Trump who are shutting down V.A. centers. It’s Musk and Trump who are shutting down NOAA, which provides us with our weather reports and hurricane safety. It’s Musk and Trump who are shutting down all foreign aid around the world, ceding the ground to China and to Russia. We’re the ones who are trying to save and reopen the government of the United States by not giving these guys a blank check to do with it as they please. We want to pass a budget that actually requires them to keep Social Security going, to keep Medicaid and Medicare going, to keep veteran services going. So it’s a very different argument than I think we’ve ever had before in a situation like this, and one the Democrats can and should be able to win.
March 11, 2025 at 12:21 PM
emwhitley.bsky.social
This was filed in response to one of the lawsuits that accused DOGE and OPM of not following federal law. One point is that a PIA for GWSE had not been filed. This was the response to that one point, among many others.
February 23, 2025 at 8:57 PM
emwhitley.bsky.social
I found out today that Musk did not really post this. According to Snopes, this was posted as satire.
www.snopes.com/fact-check/m...
written explanation from Snopes of investigation results that Musk post was satire
February 21, 2025 at 2:47 PM
emwhitley.bsky.social
Is this real? Did he really put those thoughts in writing?

Where is the uproar and outrage? There are only 813 billionaires in the US. I thought they didn't pay taxes and were proud of it. Now, they're funding the whole damn country?

He is living in a billionaire bubble.
Tweet by Elon Musk on 02/14/25 that says "Here's the hard truth: this country's billionaires are tired of subsidizing everyone else's schools, parks, health care, even food and entertainment. You want nature? Buy some land. Health care? Befriend a doctor. Entertainment? Roll around in the mud with your fellow pigs
February 19, 2025 at 3:02 PM
emwhitley.bsky.social
aaahh, the much needed "pause". Maybe you need to redefine what your place is in this situation. This infographic from the other day helped me handle the stress of it.
February 11, 2025 at 12:44 PM