Travis

@travtufts.bsky.social

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Travis

I can't stop thinking about how Trump would eliminate our free, public weather service, NOAA. It's an institution that goes back 53 years and protects Americans everyday with warnings for tornados, thunderstorms and more. That's the Project 2025 plan. www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...

The MAGA Plan to End Free Weather Reportswww.theatlantic.com Project 2025 would all but dissolve the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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Travis

school vouchers are designed to starve public schools and they’re working in that regard

Arizona, the model for voucher programs across the country, has spent so much money paying private schoolers' tuition that it's now facing hundreds of millions in budget cuts to critical state programs and projects.

School Vouchers Were Supposed to Save Taxpayer Money. Instead They Blew a Massive Hole in Arizona’s Budget.www.propublica.org Arizona, the model for voucher programs across the country, has spent so much money paying private schoolers’ tuition that it’s now facing hundreds of millions in budget cuts to critical state program...

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Travis

Yes, AND please note that far too many people in public ed don't know what U.S. DoE does. Tell 'em we'll lose Title I, for starters.

if you’re trying to engage with politically disconnected people about project 2025, identify a specific part that you think will resonate with them. i just told my friend who’s a public school teacher about the plan to abolish the department of education and that got her hooked.

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Travis

Reply to

Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie

To folks interested in a future other than fascism: Please check out The Originalism Trap, which famed law professor Erwin Chemerinsky called “a magnificent book" that "provides a way forward to reclaim the Constitution and advance freedom and justice” tinyurl.com/originalismtrap

The Originalism Trap by Madiba K. Dennie: 9780593729250 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Bookstinyurl.com A rallying cry for a more just approach to the law that bolsters social justice movements by throwing out originalism—the theory that judges should interpret the Constitution exactly as...

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Travis

I love getting the Boston Public Library to buy books for me! It's super easy to suggest purchases and then I and lots of others get to read for free. Best possible arrangement.

It's my job to buy books for my local library. One thing I wish more people knew is that we are very open to suggestions for new titles. I buy 90% of books that people suggest. Please, let your library know the kinds of things you want to read. It's helpful!

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Travis

it's so cool how every year i see an article about how a handful of boston cops make shocking amounts of overtime money and nothing ever changes about it

It's not even the main point of this article, but why the heck does the Police Commissioner have a higher base salary than the mayor?? #bospoli www.bostonglobe.com/2024/07/15/m...

Nearly 100 Boston police officers made $100,000-plus in overtime alone in 2023 - The Boston Globewww.bostonglobe.com Since 2021, the number of Boston police officers making more than $300,000 has nearly doubled, rocketing from around 30 to nearly 60.

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Travis

If you actually care about kids and their well-being, be sure you don’t miss this, which is straight up GAO data: www.k12dive.com/news/school-...

Student arrest rates more than double when police are on-sitewww.k12dive.com Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Black and American Indian/Alaska native students were arrested at two to three times the rate of White peers, GAO finds.

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Travis

let’s all turn down the rhetoric and try to remain cool and clearheaded as we discuss the best way to build concentration camps for the 20 million people we have sworn to deport because they’re poisoning our national bloodstream.

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Travis

“No one ran Jamelle Bouie off this site with purity test harassments. He’s just on vacation.” Meanwhile on Threads

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Travis

Reply to

ProPublica

For anyone curious about Uline, we reported in 2022 on how the boom in online shopping had enriched the company's owners, who have used their wealth to fund far-right causes: www.propublica.org/article/ulin...

That Cardboard Box in Your Home Is Fueling Election Denialwww.propublica.org A previously unreported boom in profits for the shipping supply giant Uline has provided the funds for a deeply conservative Midwestern family to bankroll anti-democracy causes around the country.

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Travis

Project 2025, page 592: make it harder for employees to be paid at overtime rates by allowing employers to average the number of hours worked over 2-4 weeks

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Travis

This is entirely unacceptable. There is no feasible reason it should take a year for these slum lords to get the AC fixed. It's decidedly worse that the city has done nothing for these vulnerable residents. @universalhub.com www.wcvb.com/article/we-r...

'We're working on it;' Mass. apartment building without air conditioning for a yearwww.wcvb.com As the summer heat intensifies, Boston residents are resorting to various methods to cool off, while some Malden apartment dwellers grapple with a lack of air conditioning.

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Travis

Would love to see the Venn Diagram of "Thinks Russia bombing hospitals is bad" and "Thinks Israel bombing hospitals is bad." Exist in that overlap! Too few people seem to.

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Travis

Newsletter: Goldman Sachs has called BS on Generative AI, and I believe that it's time that everybody follows suit - generative AI is unreliable, unsustainable, requires an entire rebuild of America's power grid, and is most decidedly not the future. www.wheresyoured.at/pop-culture/

Pop Culturewww.wheresyoured.at A week and a half ago, Goldman Sachs put out a 31-page-report (titled "Gen AI: Too Much Spend, Too Little Benefit?”) that includes some of the most damning literature on generative AI I've ever seen. ...

Artlist.io keeps hawking it's new "AI Voiceover Tool" every time I open it, but its "AI-powered support chatbot" can't answer a simple question and has to refer me to a human representative that will contact me in 24 hours.

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Travis

the Claudine Gay "plagiarism scandal" was such a vivid illustration of this, the paper deciding to do constant, full court press coverage of a story that had tenuous actual news value.

In this chat, we suggest a distinction between covering something (NYT does great reporting on Trump's autocratic plans), and *crusading.* The latter is wholly different: It uses saturation coverage to alert readers that they should be alarmed. That's just not happening w/r/t Trump's unfitness.

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Travis

Electric vehicle rebates never "fill up" (they shouldn't!) E-bikes achieve our climate, health & road safety goals better than EVs, but politicians drive everywhere & see people who bike as Others tl;dr subsidies for rich are Incentives (good!); subsidies for working class are Handouts (bad!)

In just 18 minutes, Minnesota received 10,000 applications for e-bike rebates. The website crashed. This happens pretty much every time a state or city offers e-bike rebates for the first time. www.startribune.com/minnesota-e-...

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Travis

Allison Cartwright, unlike Erin Murphy, is highly qualified for the job. www.bostonglobe.com/2024/07/07/m...

High-profile endorsements and controversy heat up race for Suffolk County Supreme Judicial Court clerkship - The Boston Globewww.bostonglobe.com Two very different candidates, Boston City Councilor Erin Murphy and experienced attorney Allison Cartwright, are vying to fill the role.

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Travis

Good Globe editorial about the Massachusetts cop who groomed and raped a child and then apparently impregnated and murdered her, and the police and DA coverup that ensued. www.bostonglobe.com/2024/07/07/o...

Where is justice for Sandra Birchmore? - The Boston Globewww.bostonglobe.com State Police and the Norfolk DA once again face questions about a double standard.

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Travis

Did you know that Trayvon Martin was interested in aviation & space? Working in the aviation industry? That he had his own flight suit from NASA? The Exhibit set to end/close in August, 2024 #AfroFuturism Go see it before it does

Trayvon Martin’s Flight Suit Will Be Displayed At This New Smithsonian Exhibit | Essencewww.essence.com

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Travis

bad luck for biden to run in an electoral cycle where "are you old" is the most important issue instead of in one of the cycles where email security procedures or accuracy of vietnam war medal citations was the most important issue in the country.

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Travis

A combination of the growing cost of materials and investors demanding higher returns is making it harder to build housing, thus exacerbating the inflationary impact of high housing costs for renters and homebuyers. www.bostonglobe.com/2024/07/05/b...

A 10,000-unit housing development at Suffolk Downs is on hold indefinitely. Here’s why. - The Boston Globewww.bostonglobe.com The construction pause is a testament to how high interest rates and materials costs are preventing developers from building much-needed projects.

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Travis

The most important line of this: "Last year’s month-late budget complicated efforts to roll out new initiatives like free community college for those over 25 and free school meals." www.wbur.org/news/2024/07...

The Massachusetts state budget is late (again). Should we care?www.wbur.org July 1 marks the start of the 2025 fiscal year, and once again, the Massachusetts state budget is once again late. Top lawmakers say it’s not a big deal, but that doesn't mean there aren't any real-li...

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Travis

I feel like it's a moral imperative that all of us terminally online weirdos must talk to a minimum of one (1) normal person about Project 2025 and back up that conversation with sources.

As a side note, this is John McEntee, Trump's Director of White House Personnel and the primary architect of Project 2025. On Tik Tok he said he gives counterfeit bills to homeless people so they will be arrested when they go to spend them.

The New Yorker takes on the Boston suburbs:

These are hateful bills target and ostracize vulnerable kids. They also speak to the misogyny of their authors, who are certain that anyone assigned male at birth is inherently better at sport. Sport can be a fun part of normal childhood. It needn’t be a high stakes gambit for college admissions.

Facing legislation that could reshape their lives, transgender teenagers became advocates in N.H. - The Boston Globewww.bostonglobe.com Bills heading to Governor Chris Sununu’s desk could block transgender teenagers from the sports teams, locker rooms, and bathrooms they identify with. So these teens spoke out.

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Travis

This seems to be a rather legit question more and more each day

Were you in a coma during the first trump admin

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Travis

The fact that Trump is actually weakly attempting to pretend he doesn’t back Project 2025 = EXACTLY why you need to be telling everyone you know about their evil, violent plans.

Don't let his lies scare you out of sharing the details of Project 2025 with everyone you know — especially those who are on the fence about their vote this year. There's good reason to believe knowing about Project 2025 focuses people's minds on the stakes. www.salon.com/2024/07/05/p...

Project 2025 was supposed to boost Donald Trump's campaign — but now it may be backfiringwww.salon.com Trump's authoritarian game plan is breaking through to people who haven't heard of it — and it's scaring them

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Travis

I just saw on Twitter that Planned Parenthood and National Abortion Federation are cutting funding nationally for abortion funds. If you can spare it, set up a recurring donation to your local abortion fund or the National Network of Abortion Funds at abortionfunds.org