“The closest thing we have in this country to a pandemic plan is called the Pandemic Action Crisis Plan or PanCap. It remains the prevailing unclassified document. It posits stay-at-home orders, school closures, business shutdowns, office closures, travel restrictions, testing, track-and-trace, and the creation and distribution of countermeasures called vaccines. … This approach has no precedent in the long history of public health. The old way was to keep calm, understand the illness, treat those affected, and use rational approaches to mitigate the impacts. The new way invented in 2005 is about command and control, pretending to manage the microbial kingdom like an engineering project.” (06/24/26)
“Most attention surrounding Callais has focused on congressional maps, particularly in Louisiana and other Southern states where Black voters have successfully challenged racially discriminatory district lines since the passage of the VRA. But the decision will have effects up and down the ballot, including for races as consequential as for state supreme courts.” (06/24/26)
“The Reflecting Pool on the National Mall in Washington has turned pea green with algal growth — as shallow bodies of still water tend to do in summer when temperatures rise. President Trump’s $14-million no-bid ‘American flag blue’ paint job was never going to stop that. It may in fact have contributed, as being darker than the previous pool bottom it absorbs heat more readily.” (06/24/26)
“Following a similar lawsuit earlier this year, Google has settled with a minor known as ‘R.K.C.’ who claimed that social media platforms harmed them, Reuters reported. Terms of the settlement were confidential, the lawyers said yesterday. The same plaintiff also sued Meta, Snap and TikTok, with those trials set to proceed next month. YouTube has thousands of similar lawsuits pending, so this second case represents a test run for the many to follow. … More than 3,300 [frivolous/vexatious] lawsuits involving social media addiction [sic] are pending in California state courts, and another 2,600 were brought by people, school districts, municipalities and states in California federal court.” (06/24/26)
“I was riding my bike to work, a fun 7-mile commute in a city with bike lanes and a general respect for those who bicycle. Still, a bike vs auto or truck? No chance for the bike rider. … Sure enough, a truck veered right into my lane, the skinny bike lane only separated from auto traffic by a line of paint. I shifted to my extreme right, almost up against the curb. Another couple of inches and the truck would have ended me. In the moment I yelled and gave him a rude gesture with a middle finger. Um … I teach peace, I train deëscalation, and yet … It was the dreaded amygdala hijack, the rising up of the most primitive part of the brain, the limbic lizard brain, taking control when extreme fear activates it.” (06/24/26)
