John Mashey
Semi-retired computer scientist, ancient UNIXer, "Big Data"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mashey
Last 20 yrs: chasing anti-science disinfo, esp. on climate or tobacco, helping defend scientists.
Supporter of UCSF, CSLDF, NCSE, CSI, member AAAS, AGU.
- Reposted by John MasheyI do want to shout-out my fellow sociologists, who have collectively created a discipline so woke that not a single one of our introductory textbooks can make it past Florida's censors. Great work everyone.
- Reposted by John Mashey[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by John Mashey[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by John MasheyImportant AI reporting on the growing surveillance state by Wired—once again showing that it doesn’t matter if these systems work well or not, they will be deployed regardless by people in power: www.wired.com/story/cbp-ic...
- Reposted by John Mashey[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by John MasheyReally pathetic how the MSM is repeating White House claims that a staffer posted the racist video after *they denied earlier that it was racist *did not name staffer or say they'd been fired *post was amid dozens that he sent out *post came at midnight. Was this staffer in his bedroom?
- Reposted by John MasheyFederal judge: "The presumption of regularity that has previously extended to [the United States Government] that it could be taken at its word—with little doubt about its intentions and stated purposes—no longer holds." This is in a case where the Trump admin sued Oregon.
- Reposted by John Mashey[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by John MasheyIn an opinion dismissing Trump's attempt to get an unredacted copy of Oregon's complete voter registration list, a federal judge cites Bondi's extortion letter to Gov. Walz as support for denying the government a presumption of regularity storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
- Reposted by John MasheyTrue art. True humanity. What the struggle is all about.
- Important, well-informed post on DOJ Epstein redaction delays, despite huge staff & resources, compared to much larger @ucsf-industrydocs.bsky.social files and tiny staff: profglantz.com/2026/02/06/b... Good advice at end: talk to archivists and others who regularly do redactions.
- Reposted by John Mashey[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by John MasheyI read the “SAVE Act” (the GOP’s new voter suppression bill) so you don’t have to. This is my one page summary. Jesus it’s bad. 1/
- Reposted by John MasheyNo joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition. Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
- Reposted by John Mashey[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by John MasheyIn 1981, when I was ten, I visited Christchurch, New Zealand with my parents. I loved birds, especially albatrosses, and learned that tantalizingly close—360 km to the south—was the royal albatross colony in Dunedin. It was not meant to be that trip. But 44 years later, I finally made it happen.
- Reposted by John MasheyNEW: A federal judge in Oregon issued a sweeping rebuke of the Justice Department’s nationwide push to seize state voter rolls, ruling that the department can no longer be presumed to be acting in good faith and warning that its conduct threatens voters and states’ rights.
- Reposted by John Mashey"No amount of outrage, actually, should feel like enough," reports @lebassett.bsky.social. "The fact that the White House was shamed hard enough that they backed off and took the video down is a reminder that they’re weaker and smaller than they like they pretend." open.substack.com/pub/laurabas...
- Reposted by John Mashey[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by John MasheyMichelle Obama, exactly as she is. Beautiful, graceful, intelligent, and strong woman. Joy is resistance. Grace is power. #SheShed
- Reposted by John MasheyOnce again: the Trump administration isn't opposed to clean energy. They're opposed to cheap energy. Because it threatens the livelihood of their mediocre friends who can't compete against cheaper sources. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/c...
- Reposted by John Mashey[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by John Mashey"At least five former members and one current member of Scientific American’s scientific board of advisers — Lisa Randall, George Church, Danny Hillis, Martin Nowak, Lawrence Krauss and Nathan Wolfe — appear to have had connections with Epstein" Big YIKES
- Epstein files show a complicated relationship with science and journalism Jeffrey Epstein aggressively sought access to publishers, mentions of Scientific American and other media in Department of Justice files show www.scientificamerican.com/article/epst...
- Reposted by John MasheyRoger Stone recently posted a pic w/ Vance & published an article the same day recycling the baseless claim that VZ stole the 2020 election. Will Trump pressure Maduro to “admit” stealing that election as a pretext for Trump to cancel or f#ck with 2026? Is this why Tulsi seized machines from PR? 1/
- Reposted by John Mashey[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by John MasheySenator Katie Britt would like us all to know that she really really really doesn't want to use children as bait or for DHS to go off the chain even though she authored the legislation that allowed them to do just that and has supported Trump 100% of the time: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/u...
- Reposted by John Mashey[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by John MasheyWhile reporting this, I had something happen that's never happened. A comms rep for one of the co's disputed my reporting and said what I was telling them was untrue because it was not in Grok, xAI's chatbot. I was looking directly at the files. And this person was using AI to challenge the truth.
- Epstein had many known connections to Silicon Valley CEOs, but less known was how he made money from those relationships. We did a deep dive into how he got dealflow in Silicon Valley, giving him shots to invest in Coinbase, Palantir, SpaceX and other companies. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/b...
- Reposted by John MasheyBravo to the Environmental Defense Fund and @ucs.org - their lawsuit led a Reagan appointed judge to conclude the Department of Energy acted illegally in creating a panel to review climate change composed of climate deniers www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/c...
- Reposted by John MasheyPerhaps it was coincidental timing, but nothing underscores the collapse of the Washington Post like firing most of the Pulitzer prize winning #climate reporters the very same day as their opinion pages publishes a BS screed by climate misinformer Bjorn Lomborg.
- Reposted by John MasheyI’m having a hard time thinking of an interview between two human beings I enjoyed more than tonight’s interview of the great Ian McKellen by the great Stephen Colbert. Every moment of it was a pleasure that I highly recommend… but then came the most REMARKABLE ending that you really HAVE to watch.
- Reposted by John MasheyState vaccine requirements for school entry are absolutely essential if we have any hope of maintaining herd immunity. It is madness for states to repeal these requirements. And vaccine exemptions should not be permitted unless for a documented medical contraindication.
- Reposted by John MasheyThread: So on this day when one of the oligarchs of our digitized and dystopic world is emptying one of America's greatest newsrooms of trained and committed journalists, I thought I would regale you all with a wonderful little anecdote about our world to come. It involves two of the finest...
- Reposted by John Masheyin real terms, #7 would give states leverage to put an end to surges, #8 would give states the ability to outright stop construction of new detention facilities, #1 and #6 would slow the rate at which DHS could train and deploy officers, #2 and #10 would likely shrink the pool of recruits
- Reposted by John MasheySome people are asking what I want Schumer to do. He should be screaming over medical care and access to facilities. He should be going to detention facilities himself and putting his body on the line, as he did at the border in 2019. He should lean into stories about New Yorkers in detention. [1/4]
- Reposted by John MasheyI don't say this often but: I'm so proud to be a climate and environment reporter. We cover an issue that is vitally important to humanity and the natural world. 14 of my climate colleagues at the Post were laid off today and I'm devastated. www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/washington...
- Reposted by John MasheyMost people are worried about climate change - but most don't hear or talk about regularly. That's why I started my free newsletter Talking Climate. Every week I share good news, not so good news, and what people can do. If you aren't a reader yet, see below. I have 6 different ways to subscribe!
- Reposted by John MasheyFrom 1982-2018, the Republican National Committee was barred from "ballot security measures" because of their record of using state actors to intimidate minority voters. (H/t @rickhasen.bsky.social) www.npr.org/2018/01/09/5...
- Reposted by John MasheyWomen who took their spouses’ last names (& others with name changes) could get around the birth certificate problem by having or getting passports. But “getting” takes time & $$$, & Rs will likely slow down the process. Their bill doesn’t even offer to cover the expense, making it a poll tax.
- Reposted by John MasheyThe GOP’s new Voter Suppression bill, the so-called “SAVE Act,” would disenfranchise many of the 69 million women who took their husbands’ last names, as explained in my summary. It proposes *no penalties* for erroneous voter purges but potential *prison time* for erroneous registrations. WTF?! 1/
- Reposted by John MasheyThe thing I keep circling back to is that, when Bezos originally bought the Post, it legit seemed like the least-bad option. The expectation was that billionaires would treat media outlets like they do sports franchises — something to boast about owning, as a form of expensive status.
- NEWS: The cuts were so severe that at least one department head asked to leave The Post rather than be included in the planning. Peter Finn, The Post's international editor, requested that he be laid off once he learned about the scope of the cuts to his section. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/b...
- Reposted by John MasheyTrump's big, ugly budget megabill gives ICE more agents than the FBI, more jails than the federal Bureau of Prisons, and a larger budget than most countries' militaries. Not one more penny for ICE.
- Reposted by John MasheyThe Washington Post was consistently doing some of the best climate reporting out there in recent years. This is a huge loss (h/t @sammyroth.bsky.social) open.substack.com/pub/climatec...
- Reposted by John MasheyAnother always-good recommendation is to encourage people who are concerned to vote early and/or by mail (if those options are available) to reduce both real and perceived risk.
- Reposted by John MasheySide note: really feel like we need to just call dumb things dumb more. We went off track with being nice about dumbness
- This is so fucking stupid. No one wants this, even the car companies! Only cranky old guys who just want to go back to the 1980s. theicct.org/pr-nhtsa-pro...
- Reposted by John MasheyOperation Metro Surge is not making Minnesota safer. Today's announcement is a step in the right direction, but we need a faster and larger drawdown of forces, state-led investigations into the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, and an end to this campaign of retribution.
- Reposted by John Mashey[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by John Mashey[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by John MasheyDid you know air pollution is the top preventable cause of premature death + ill-health in the world today: killing nearly 10 million people per year? And 2/3 of air pollution comes from burning fossil fuels? For more surprising & powerful facts on health and climate, follow @maibached.bsky.social
- Reposted by John MasheyA publisher who lays off a reporter whose pen is freezing because she's covering a frigid war zone while dodging missiles is not an editor you want to work for, in a more perfect world
- Reposted by John MasheyMy entire X feed is @washingtonpost.com reporters in heated conflict zones around the world and the U.S. announcing that they've lost or left their jobs. The post is abdicating its responsibility and unique capacity to serve just when we need fierce, fully-funded & fully-staffed journalism the most.
