Auntie Smithbrainz
Lisa Smith. Writer, narrator, migraine advocate, connector of dots. Sarcasm free of charge. She/her. (I block at the drop of a hat. Nothing personal.)
- Reposted by Auntie Smithbrainzsomething I remember from the big tech layoffs of a couple years ago is seeing coworkers with excellent performance reviews - even some who had literally just been promoted - getting thrown overboard for completely opaque reasons and realizing that was part of the point
- At the same time, the extent of the Washington Post layoffs highlight how it didn't matter how hardworking, loyal, smart, collaborative, award-winning, competitive, knowledgeable and devoted so many of the staff were. It wasn't enough to prevent being laid off by one of the richest men in the world.
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzFinal schedule F rule "will allow agencies to quickly remove employees from critical positions who engage in misconduct, perform poorly, or *obstruct the democratic process by intentionally subverting Presidential directives.*" (emphasis mine) public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2026-02375.pdf
- Reposted by Auntie Smithbrainz[This post could not be retrieved]
- Reposted by Auntie Smithbrainz“The main feeling among [House Democrats] is a lack of trust in [Schumer’s] strength and ability to strike a hard bargain." This is “a House Democrat, speaking on the condition of anonymity to offer insights into private conversations among lawmakers” www.axios.com/2026/02/05/d...
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzAmazing. If a professional wrestling crowd is chanting "fuck ICE," it suggests to me that large swaths of the culture are not just upset over ICE tactics, they're coalescing against mass deportations as a broader ideological project. newrepublic.com/article/2060...
- Reposted by Auntie Smithbrainzthis does admittedly minimize the "making Kirk and Spock fight to the death" of it all, but also like...God forbid women have hobbies
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzWaPo laid off one of the guys who broke Watergate. WATERGATE. They laid off a woman reporting in Ukraine while bombs fell around her. It's not just shameless and greedy. It's cruel.
- Reposted by Auntie Smithbrainzas i keep saying, the things to do to secure elections are to volunteer to work the polls or to serve as an observer, & to pressure your *state representatives* to take steps to further secure voting locations and ballots. you should also learn about how election administration works in your area.
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzConfirmed with Burlington PD on scene AND the Malls security service. Per the Simon Coporation you cannot park at the Burlington Mall if you intend to leave mall property and they intend to tow cars in the future.
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzAfter a judge ordered #ICE to release an immigrant they'd shoved in a bedless, windowless basement, they arrested her husband www.universalhub.com/2026/after-j... #immigrants #lawsuits
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzNEW: New training from a Texas regulator about when doctors can legally terminate a pregnancy comes nearly five years after the state passed its abortion ban in 2021. Experts contend the guidance can’t capture all complications that arise in pregnancy.
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzI am running out of ways to convey how disconnected from reality Trump's judicial nominees are. They can't say that Trump lost the 2020 election, they won't say that the January 6 insurrection happened, they don't acknowledge any fact about anything if Trump hasn't authorized them to believe it
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzA ProPublica report on plans to use AI to write regulations at the US Department of Transportation should be a warning signal for public interest advocates and litigators, writes Jordan Ascher, policy counsel at Governing for Impact. It’s time to prepare for a flood of machine-generated rules.
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzVenerable magazine Harper's Bazaar is running its short story contest again, with the winner receiving "the chance" of publication in the magazine. Just one catch: per the wording of the guidelines, _just by entering_ you transfer copyright ownership of your story to Harper's parent, Hearst. 1/3
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzAsymptomatic does not equal harmless and up to 49% of the population are catching Covid this way.
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzThe problem of ICE/CBP reform is we have a monster rampaging through our democracy and are trying to restrict *which* cities it can pillage and *how many* civilians it can eat. The problem isn’t the restrictions on the monster; the problem is the monster. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/six-ways-t...
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzNEW: The Justice Department unit responsible for pursuing potential wrongdoing by law enforcement, including during the crackdown in Minneapolis, has lost two-thirds of its prosecutors and is under orders to scale back its investigations of excessive force. www.reuters.com/world/justic...
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzSURGICAL MASKS DO NOT PROTECT So encouraging to see the sheer strength of feeling amongst so many highly-respected scientists & medical practitioners from across the world making representations to WHO This letter from World Health Network is a must-read tinyurl.com/WHN-Letter-t...
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzIt’s also been let down by lack of transparency on post infection covid risks and the guidance. This caused the slide to the right with misinformation. Labour needs to change the guidance! We have been waiting for 6 years now!
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzI’m voting for not living with COVID. It’s the singularly worst idea since they told us smoking was good for us to sell cigarettes. #CleantheAir #WearARespie ffp2/3 #Covidisairborne Vaccinate
- 🧠 Daily Feed of Brain Damage 🧠 😬😬 pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzSir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again. #Pinks #ProudBlue
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzOMG. He literally went with "they were no angels" which is the mocking phrase people use to point out how authorities try to minimize their law enforcement executions. And he's using it earnestly because he doesn't realize how it's actually used.
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzSince the transphobic dog whistle/air horn of "trans people are an affluent white demographic" is doing the rounds again, remember that it is an absolute crock of shit and you should call it out accordingly. Here's some info on the transgender pay gap in the US:
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzBREAKING: BRAD KARP OUT AS CHAIR OF PAUL WEISS.
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzMy general response to any MAGA announcement that overstates their power is: - What does this tell us about the general direction of their future plans? - What can we do to keep them from amassing the power needed? - How can we direct our energy at addressing related problems that already exist?
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzI’m seeing so many posts from white men about how ICE isn’t big enough to target every polling place in the country. I won’t argue that they’re overstating their capacity. But also… we know they aren’t planning to target *all* polling places, right? The white ones will have a normal Election Day.
- Reposted by Auntie Smithbrainz#DEVELOPING A major police presence has been seen at the home of Nancy Guthrie, mother of Savannah Guthrie. wfla.com/news/national/major…
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzWaPo laid off one of the journalists who won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for reporting on the January 6th attack on the Capitol.
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzIn 2011 I had a well-sourced story on medical students doing unauthorized gynecological exams on unconscious patients without consent and we didn't publish it at a major women's mag because my boss, whose husband was a new doctor, said "He told me that doesn't happen." www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzBrian Kilmeade from Fox literally just said out loud that ICE pulled out of Maine to protect Susan Collins’ re‑election campaign. I can’t believe he would just admit that.
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzWyden was doing the same “hey, over here!” routine about the §215 bulk phone program long before anyone heard the name Edward Snowden.
- This is how Sen. Ron Wyden clues the public into activity that he finds extremely alarming. He does a press release about a letter he sent to the director of the CIA that basically says, 'I want to make sure you saw the classified letter I sent early today.' www.wyden.senate.gov/imo/media/do...
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzThe CIA is up to something and Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who is the longest serving member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, doesn't like it but can't tell us about it.
- Reposted by Auntie Smithbrainz4 million tenth grade global studies students wept
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzHighlighting the speaker who stood in front of the Surprise mayor and told him to consider what the Mayor of Ohrdruf must’ve thought before he died by suicide: “He might have thought ‘how is this my fault I had no jurisdiction over this’ maybe he said ‘this site was not subject to local zoning.’”
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzNEW: Abigail Spanberger this afternoon ordered that all state agencies leave ICE's 287(g) program. This means that the state police (and some other agencies) will no longer be empowered to detain and arrest people for ICE. Big, big move by the governor within weeks of coming into office.
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzThis is stupid. I'm sorry to be rude, but it just is. If you don't want to vaccinate your kids, then you should be forced to homeschool them to keep them and everyone else safe. Nobody has time for this Dark Ages bull****.
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzWe have a ton of great journalists. What we need is an army of Excel geeks to figure out a sustainable business model for independent, worker-owned media outlets that can scale up and down
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzAttorneys preparing for this deposition— YOU’VE GOT ONE SHOT ONE OPPORTUNITY DO NOT MISS YOUR CHANCE TO #WITAOD???
- NEWS Elon Musk and others LOSE their bid to duck depositions in DOGE litigation. Judge doubts protections for "high-ranking government officials" for multiple reasons. It's unclear they ever had that status, and Musk "left government service." Doc buff.ly/uhpSOTz
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzThis is another effort that has taken a HUGE amount of local activism, led by community folks who care. It CAN be done. Get involved where you live and push back. www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/i...
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzWe’re literally killing ourselves. They’ve been working on cutting edge cancer vaccines
- Moderna announced that they’re cutting back late-stage vaccine trials due to the uncertainty in the US market www.cidrap.umn.edu/misc-emergin...
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzIf you use the CIA world Facebook for your assignments, you’ll need to change it. May I suggest noting that you *used* to use this info when you do however.
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzWe’re dancing on the edge of “either this information validates the regime and is therefore superfluous, or it contradicts the regime and is therefore forbidden” territory at this point.
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzI’ve been using the CIA World Factbook online since I was a little kid. What a stupid, pointless desecration.
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzLawyers dream of this sort of thing. Big dreams. "Answer the question, Mr. Musk."
- NEWS Elon Musk and others LOSE their bid to duck depositions in DOGE litigation. Judge doubts protections for "high-ranking government officials" for multiple reasons. It's unclear they ever had that status, and Musk "left government service." Doc buff.ly/uhpSOTz
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzThis letter from Sen. Wyden (D-OR) to CIA Director Brennan is unusual. For reasons unknown, Sen. Wyden felt the need to create a paper trail that lets the public know something is wrong in the classified arena. Very curious indeed.
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzUSC has a new president!
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzIf you thought "This job sucks, please hold me in contempt" was wild, try reading the next 10 pages of the transcript. Just beggars belief.
- If you want to read the transcript of the February 3 hearing where Julie Le had her "this job sucks" meltdown, now you can: drive.google.com/file/d/1FnY2...
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzIowa legislators have just passed a bill out of committee that would end childhood vaccine requirements for school entry. A state legislator said vaccine exemptions aren’t enough—the whole system must go—because to have to claim a medical or religious exemption is against parental rights.
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzBREAKING: Judge Boasberg has GRANTED our motion to compel in our DOGE FOIA case involving Musk's phone(s). The government must now reach out to Sean Duffy and multiple Republican Senators to comply. www.muellershewrote.com/p/breaking-j...
- Reposted by Auntie SmithbrainzHeartbreaking. Renee Good's family is right. What happened to her was violent, unnecessary, and it must lead to change. The majority of people in this country do not support armed federal agents acting like they are above the law. Enough is enough.
