Jeff Johnston
@koeselitz.bsky.social
he/him | db programmer | New Mexican | piano, accordion, &c | bi, monogamous, married | medievalist: Dante; Farabi | now leading study groups on: Bach’s Matthew Passion; Louis Armstrong’s Hot Fives
Pinned
Jeff Johnston
@koeselitz.bsky.social
· Jul 9
A Zohran victory would be very very good for a great number of reasons, but nobody bats a thousand and on this particular issue he is going to need to adjust somehow. I’m willing to say that, because the function of discourse is coalition setting, not electioneering.
“The function of discourse is coalition setting, not electioneering” - this is so important! In a time when electoral anxiety can feel overwhelming - esp for the liberals among us more prone to worry - we have to moderate that impulse and focus on building the coalition through honest discourse.
Reposted by Jeff Johnston
On my drive back to New York from giving a book talk at Bowdoin College, I stopped briefly at Portsmouth, New Hampshire,where I stumbled on this remarkable history. A sharp reminder that slavery permeated the American experience,even where least expected. www.seacoastonline.com/story/news/l...
November 22, 2025 at 1:55 PM
On my drive back to New York from giving a book talk at Bowdoin College, I stopped briefly at Portsmouth, New Hampshire,where I stumbled on this remarkable history. A sharp reminder that slavery permeated the American experience,even where least expected. www.seacoastonline.com/story/news/l...
Just a little reminder: Olivia Nuzzi is just awful, we all accept that - but also Ryan Lizza is a known abuser, stalker, harasser, and all round gross person.
He foisted this shit on us now - instead of at any time when it would’ve mattered - to make a lot of money.
Nobody should give him money.
He foisted this shit on us now - instead of at any time when it would’ve mattered - to make a lot of money.
Nobody should give him money.
He was still working at Politico then- presumably holding onto this so he’d have material to launch his dumb substack.
Also, Nuzzi had a (probably justified) protection order against him from Oct to Nov 2024, so releasing his blackmail material might’ve looked odd.
Last slide provided w/o comment.
Also, Nuzzi had a (probably justified) protection order against him from Oct to Nov 2024, so releasing his blackmail material might’ve looked odd.
Last slide provided w/o comment.
![screenshot from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivia_Nuzzi
In October 2024, Nuzzi filed a protection order against Lizza saying he "explicitly threatened to make public personal information about me to destroy my life, career, and reputation—a threat he has since carried out." [48] Nuzzi
alleged Lizza hacked her devices "for the purposes of stalking and surveilling me and to collect materials to deploy as blackmail to intimidate me back into a relationship and to inflict public ridicule and humiliation as well as professional damage as punishment when I would not return to the relationship."[49] She asked a court to drop the protection order against Lizza in November 2024. 150]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:leysmyft7ckos2sdkmstapw6/bafkreifzifywjsqazlplnx5wzuqbjncwcjuya4ok4gt5xpq7u7hfblyk2u@jpeg)
![screenshot from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Lizza
- Sexual misconduct allegation
On December 11, 2017, The New Yorker fired Lizza, saying that he engaged in "improper sexual conduct". 6] Lizza called The New Yorker's characterization a "terrible mistake" that had been "made hastily and without a full investigation of the relevant facts". 6] The alleged victim supported the magazine's version of the events; in a statement, her attorney, Douglas Wigdor, said, "I]n no way did Mr. Lizza's misconduct constitute a
'respectful relationship' as he has now tried to characterize it."[25][6] Lizza was temporarily suspended by CNN pending an investigation; six weeks later, the network announced that its
"extensive investigation" had yielded "no reason to continue to keep Mr. Lizza off the air" 26) Politico, Rolling Stone, and other media organizations were later said to have reached similar conclusions during their investigations, determining not to bar Lizza from employment.
[7][8][25]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:leysmyft7ckos2sdkmstapw6/bafkreiei673pd2efndnihwarcs32twhvfmlrewiztfz5lphxagsdp7vmfu@jpeg)
November 22, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Just a little reminder: Olivia Nuzzi is just awful, we all accept that - but also Ryan Lizza is a known abuser, stalker, harasser, and all round gross person.
He foisted this shit on us now - instead of at any time when it would’ve mattered - to make a lot of money.
Nobody should give him money.
He foisted this shit on us now - instead of at any time when it would’ve mattered - to make a lot of money.
Nobody should give him money.
Reposted by Jeff Johnston
@juliaserano.bsky.social doing excellent reporting debunking the “social contagion” myth pushed by anti-trans reactionaries.
juliaserano.substack.com/p/lies-damne...
juliaserano.substack.com/p/lies-damne...
Lies, Damned Lies, and Transgender Statistics
plus over a dozen studies contradicting the “social contagion/rapid onset gender dysphoria” hypothesis
juliaserano.substack.com
November 21, 2025 at 8:55 PM
@juliaserano.bsky.social doing excellent reporting debunking the “social contagion” myth pushed by anti-trans reactionaries.
juliaserano.substack.com/p/lies-damne...
juliaserano.substack.com/p/lies-damne...
Reposted by Jeff Johnston
Machine learning (umbrella term, I know) is a useful, sometimes transformative tool in the hands of trained researchers who understand how to deploy it and critically assess the results.
A chatbot is not useful in the same ways (though underlying technologies may be, in other contexts).
A chatbot is not useful in the same ways (though underlying technologies may be, in other contexts).
November 22, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Machine learning (umbrella term, I know) is a useful, sometimes transformative tool in the hands of trained researchers who understand how to deploy it and critically assess the results.
A chatbot is not useful in the same ways (though underlying technologies may be, in other contexts).
A chatbot is not useful in the same ways (though underlying technologies may be, in other contexts).
Reposted by Jeff Johnston
Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪
November 22, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪
Reposted by Jeff Johnston
“ChatGPT, as it scales…becomes increasingly anti-black.”
Holy f@$k!
“ChatGPT exhibits the highest level of anti-Black racism ever experimentally recorded.”
This whole video is jaw-dropping.
“ChatGPT exhibits the highest level of anti-Black racism ever experimentally recorded.”
This whole video is jaw-dropping.
I need everyone, esp anyone working in education or tech (but really everyone) to WATCH THIS CLIP of @drtanksley.bsky.social discussing the technologies infiltrating our schools & psyches and how she is addressing it with our young people. youtu.be/5mtcSL4S3HQ
November 22, 2025 at 3:18 PM
“ChatGPT, as it scales…becomes increasingly anti-black.”
Reposted by Jeff Johnston
Reposted by Jeff Johnston
This is not a peace plan. It is a proposal that weakens Ukraine and divides America from Europe, preparing the way for a larger war in the future. In the meantime, it benefits unnamed Russian and American investors, at the expense of everyone else.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Trump Has a Recipe for War and Corruption, Not Peace
Who would benefit from the White House’s 28-point proposal for Ukraine?
www.theatlantic.com
November 22, 2025 at 11:11 AM
This is not a peace plan. It is a proposal that weakens Ukraine and divides America from Europe, preparing the way for a larger war in the future. In the meantime, it benefits unnamed Russian and American investors, at the expense of everyone else.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Reposted by Jeff Johnston
"The intern was reportedly shaken [by ICE agents photographing him IN THE COURTROOM], so [Superior Court Judge] McBurney offered to drive him home. ICE agents then surrounded the judge's car and demanded everyone to exit the vehicle, threatening to smash in the windows if they did not comply."
November 21, 2025 at 4:41 PM
"The intern was reportedly shaken [by ICE agents photographing him IN THE COURTROOM], so [Superior Court Judge] McBurney offered to drive him home. ICE agents then surrounded the judge's car and demanded everyone to exit the vehicle, threatening to smash in the windows if they did not comply."
Reposted by Jeff Johnston
Here's another way to say this: they broke the law to murder people
November 22, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Here's another way to say this: they broke the law to murder people
Tim Keller’s cameo in Pluribus was pretty awesome
November 22, 2025 at 6:51 AM
Tim Keller’s cameo in Pluribus was pretty awesome
Reposted by Jeff Johnston
Democrats must abolish ICE no matter the centrist teeth gnashing when they get back in power
NEW: Federal prison workers are jumping ship & heading to ICE for better pay + bonuses. Already BOP lost >1400 people this year, reversing all of 2024’s staffing gains. It’s an unintended consequence of Trump’s push for mass deportations
My 1st for @propublica.org
www.propublica.org/article/ice-...
My 1st for @propublica.org
www.propublica.org/article/ice-...
As Federal Prisons Run Low on Food and Toilet Paper, Corrections Officers Leave in Droves for ICE
Many of the problems the agency is facing now are not new, but staff and prisoners fear an exodus of officers could make life behind bars even worse.
www.propublica.org
November 21, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Democrats must abolish ICE no matter the centrist teeth gnashing when they get back in power
Reposted by Jeff Johnston
PLEASE tell every author you know about this!
Authors beware: ClaimsHero is urging authors to opt out of the Anthropic settlement in order to file their own separate lawsuit. Except this outfit has no federal or state court experience with class-action suits. And the judge has called them a fraud.
Predatory Opt-Out Scheme ClaimsHero Targets Anthropic Settlement Participants: What Authors Need to Know - The Authors Guild
In recent weeks, a third-party law firm, ClaimsHero, has launched an aggressive online campaign urging authors to opt out of the Bartz v. Anthropic copyright settlement. ClaimsHero—which has no litiga...
authorsguild.org
November 21, 2025 at 8:41 PM
PLEASE tell every author you know about this!
Reposted by Jeff Johnston
Reposted by Jeff Johnston
“The Internet is the Palantiri” metaphor stays winning.
November 21, 2025 at 8:49 PM
“The Internet is the Palantiri” metaphor stays winning.
Reposted by Jeff Johnston
TRUMP: globalize the intifadata. you’re hearing it more and more. globalize the infante. it’s a beautiful term. i think i may have just coined it. i’m not sure. but you’re hearing it more and more.
November 21, 2025 at 8:51 PM
TRUMP: globalize the intifadata. you’re hearing it more and more. globalize the infante. it’s a beautiful term. i think i may have just coined it. i’m not sure. but you’re hearing it more and more.
Reposted by Jeff Johnston
it is extra annoying that the nazis currently running the United States government are also twelve years old
like, really, we have to fear for our communities because of some groyper dipshits who post dank memes on 8chan all day
like, really, we have to fear for our communities because of some groyper dipshits who post dank memes on 8chan all day
November 21, 2025 at 4:18 PM
it is extra annoying that the nazis currently running the United States government are also twelve years old
like, really, we have to fear for our communities because of some groyper dipshits who post dank memes on 8chan all day
like, really, we have to fear for our communities because of some groyper dipshits who post dank memes on 8chan all day
Reposted by Jeff Johnston
For contrast, one of my favorite sentences from Catherine Drinker Bowen’s Miracle at Philadelphia: “A single executive for the national government conjured up visions from the past — royal governors who could not be restrained, a crown, ermine, a scepter!”
a nice reminder of one of the more absurd elements of trump v. u.s., which is roberts’ apparent belief that the constitution was written to remove limits on executive power prospect.org/2025/11/21/r...
The Right-Wing Legal Movement Made Trump a King - The American Prospect
John Roberts created a monster: Donald Trump compressed a solid millennium or two of monarchical misrule into a mere ten months.
prospect.org
November 21, 2025 at 3:00 PM
For contrast, one of my favorite sentences from Catherine Drinker Bowen’s Miracle at Philadelphia: “A single executive for the national government conjured up visions from the past — royal governors who could not be restrained, a crown, ermine, a scepter!”
Reposted by Jeff Johnston
“Kelly’s grotesque minimization of Epstein’s abuses rests on deeply ingrained attitudes and ideas about women in American society, including evangelical Christianity.”
www.liberalcurrents.com/the-barely-l...
www.liberalcurrents.com/the-barely-l...
The Barely Legal Type: Purity Culture, Rape Culture, and America’s Lose-Lose Proposition for Girls
The very parts of American culture that claim to promote teen abstinence and sexual purity operate on a parallel logic to the rape culture that enables the darkest misogynistic violence against women.
www.liberalcurrents.com
November 21, 2025 at 2:19 PM
“Kelly’s grotesque minimization of Epstein’s abuses rests on deeply ingrained attitudes and ideas about women in American society, including evangelical Christianity.”
www.liberalcurrents.com/the-barely-l...
www.liberalcurrents.com/the-barely-l...
Reposted by Jeff Johnston
It’s a very big deal that Spotlight reporters published details about how and how much public money is being spent to support ICE’s favored airline.
Why? Bc the body gifting ICE Air all this public cash – the Delaware River and Bay Authority, or DRBA – is an oversight black hole.
Why? Bc the body gifting ICE Air all this public cash – the Delaware River and Bay Authority, or DRBA – is an oversight black hole.
“Public money is quietly funding a half-million-dollar annual marketing campaign for Avelo Airlines’ Delaware operations, even as the company faces mounting criticism in the state and nationally for operating deportation flights for the Trump administration.“
Amid ICE controversy, public dollars pay for Avelo marketing in Delaware
Public money is quietly funding a half-million-dollar annual marketing campaign for Avelo Airlines’ Delaware operations, even as the company faces mounting criticism in the state and nationally for op...
https://spotlightdelaware.org/2025/11/20/amid-ice-controversy-public-dollars-pay-for-avelo-marketing-in-delaware/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=✈%EF%B8%8F%20Public%20funds%20pay%20Avelo%20marketing%20despite%20outcry%3B%20Data%20center%20vote%20delayed&utm_campaign=11%2020%2025%20Newsletter%20%28Copy%29
November 21, 2025 at 2:36 PM
It’s a very big deal that Spotlight reporters published details about how and how much public money is being spent to support ICE’s favored airline.
Why? Bc the body gifting ICE Air all this public cash – the Delaware River and Bay Authority, or DRBA – is an oversight black hole.
Why? Bc the body gifting ICE Air all this public cash – the Delaware River and Bay Authority, or DRBA – is an oversight black hole.
Reposted by Jeff Johnston
The opposite of the Moms for Liberty wave should get more attention
In culture war backlash, Democrats sweep school boards
In culture war backlash, Democrats sweep school boards
The party recruited and invested in school board races to oust Republicans. It worked.
dlvr.it
November 21, 2025 at 2:37 PM
The opposite of the Moms for Liberty wave should get more attention
Reposted by Jeff Johnston
If you scroll on X, you are only being shown what Elon wants you to see. If you create content on X, no one will see it unless Elon wants them to.
November 21, 2025 at 1:23 AM
If you scroll on X, you are only being shown what Elon wants you to see. If you create content on X, no one will see it unless Elon wants them to.
Reposted by Jeff Johnston
Quite frankly, I think non-fascists who are still using Twitter and somehow still believe it’ll help them achieve non-fascist aims are 100% delusional. It’s pathetic.
It's a censorship engine designed to promote ideas that Elon Musk likes and suppress ideas that Elon Musk does not like. I really don't get why this evident fact - that Musk openly admits! - is so hard for so many people to understand
An X user asks Elon Musk why they’re seeing tweets from left-wing lawmakers.
Musk: “Because we are failing very badly with the recommendations algorithm. Doing my best to address this.”
Musk: “Because we are failing very badly with the recommendations algorithm. Doing my best to address this.”
November 21, 2025 at 6:37 AM
Quite frankly, I think non-fascists who are still using Twitter and somehow still believe it’ll help them achieve non-fascist aims are 100% delusional. It’s pathetic.
Reposted by Jeff Johnston
i know i can be sensitive but the world could be a little kinder too
November 21, 2025 at 3:46 AM
i know i can be sensitive but the world could be a little kinder too
Reposted by Jeff Johnston
THREAD: Judge Ellis is the first federal judge to review extensive body cam video of DHS's actions in Chicago. She finds that DHS *repeatedly* misled the public and made claims that were disproven by agents' own videos.
I'll go through some of the most egregious ones here.
I'll go through some of the most egregious ones here.
![II. Credibility
The Court next addresses the credibility of the parties’ evidence and witnesses. After reviewing all the evidence submitted to the Court and listening to the testimony elicited at the preliminary injunction hearing, during depositions, and in other court proceedings, the Court finds Defendants’ evidence simply not credible. [FN 6]
Plaintiffs submitted a mountain of evidence, providing the Court with over eighty declarations, numerous videos and articles, and other evidence. Defendants did not rebut anything that Plaintiffs set forth in their declarations or testimony, even with BWC footage.
[FN 6] In another case considering some of the same evidence presented to this Court, another court in this district also found that the perceptions of certain of Defendants’ declarants, such as Hott and Parra, were not reliable. See Illinois v. Trump, No. 25-cv-12174, 2025 WL 2886645, at *5 (N.D. Ill. Oct. 10, 2025) (noting a “troubling trend of Defendants’ declarants equating protests with riots and a lack of appreciation for the wide spectrum that exists between citizens who are observing, questioning, and criticizing their government, and those who are obstructing, assaulting, or doing violence”), motion to stay denied in part, 155 F.4th 929 (7th Cir. 2025).](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2vtbmhmrwzbqcfv4we4uxzzt/bafkreifpyry2il5toxbr3iejgrsxs6kmnwve75qwnhebfp44ieyjrfpsdu@jpeg)
November 20, 2025 at 11:04 PM
THREAD: Judge Ellis is the first federal judge to review extensive body cam video of DHS's actions in Chicago. She finds that DHS *repeatedly* misled the public and made claims that were disproven by agents' own videos.
I'll go through some of the most egregious ones here.
I'll go through some of the most egregious ones here.