@gleick@mas.to cover
@gleick@mas.to avatar

gleick

@[email protected]

Author.
Chaos, Genius, The Information, Time Travel

he/him

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. View on remote instance

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

Screwup Led to Shutdown of El Paso Airport
—
The secretary of transportation invented a lie and said the military had neutralized a drug cartel drone. Actually, two officials said testing of counter-drone technology prompted the closure.

The New York Times Live Updates: Officials Claim Drone Incursion Led to Shutdown of El Paso Airport The secretary of transportation said the military had neutralized a drug cartel drone. Two officials said testing of counter-drone technology prompted the closure. The F.A.A. initially said it would last 10 days.
ALT
gleick OP ,
@gleick@mas.to avatar
gleick OP ,
@gleick@mas.to avatar

“Military officials deployed that technology earlier this week against what they thought was a cartel drone, but which turned out to be a party balloon. That operation was carried out without proper coordination with the F.A.A.”

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

I'm so old I remember when Jeff seemed like sort of a good guy who chose books as the focus of his clever new internet store.

Now he will always be remembered as the toady who paid tens of millions in tribute to the Trumps while ruthlessly destroying one of history's great newspapers.

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

Pam Bondi should be aware that there is precedent in her lifetime for convicting and imprisoning an Attorney General guilty of obstructing justice.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/us/renee-good-investigation-minnesota-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.KVA.HNUI.oa_6C38blpaF&smid=url-share

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

“Donald Trump has clearly lost control of his emotions, his contact with reality, and such fidelity to truth as he ever had.

This is a problem for everyone on Earth: That a furious 79-year-old has asserted one-man authority to disrupt the world economy, destroy historic alliances, sell pardons to criminals, and conceivably start a nuclear war.”

James Fallows, keeping track of the many “examples of Trump saying and ordering things that his own people know are insane.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/fallows/p/management-under-a-mad-king-the-courtiers?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

The city that never sleeps (last night).

A New York City subway entrance, seen from above, filled with snow, as a man begins gingerly to descend.
ALT
@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

This is a brave man, with a phone camera in his hand, moments before he is tackled and murdered.

Alex Pretti, wearing a brown coat and a black cap, facing an unidentified masked federal agent who is about to murder him.
ALT
@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

Every public official—Trump, Vance, Bondi, Noem, and on down—lying to cover up the ICE killings is guilty as an accessory to murder. If the Trump era ever ends, there must be a reckoning.

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

It would be useful for reporters writing about Trump's preposterous "Board of Peace" to mention one country that is definitely not a member: the United States.

Trump doesn't have the power to join it. Any international treaty requires the vote of two-thirds of the Senate.

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

“We have become a country where people are disappeared by a paramilitary force that hunts them down in their apartments, on city streets and country roads.”

"We have become a country where a person can be summarily executed in public for protesting that paramilitary force.”

"We have become a country whose federal government deploys military and paramilitary forces in the streets of its major cities, terrorizing the residents in the guise of protecting them.” (1/2)

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

Prepare to see the American Gestapo deployed to polling places in November.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-miller-secret-police_n_696812bee4b0774cc19ebbe3

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

The US now presents itself as a lawless and piratical nation, plundering and pillaging the assets of a poorer neighbor. Serious question: Are most Americans okay with that?

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

Remember when the US Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act (by a vote of 427-1) and the president signed it into law? Good times, eh?

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

Epstein-Trump photos "disappear."
It's a mystery!
Whatever could have happened?

Or:

Justice Department Flouts Law,
Suppresses Evidence
Of Trump-Epstein Collusion

NY Times: Epstein Files Photos Disappear From Government Website, Including One of Trump A total of 16 photos were taken down at some point on Saturday from the website that the Justice Department created. One featured an open drawer containing other photos, including at least one of President Trump.
ALT
@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

These are workers removing the signage for Adolf Hitler street in 1945. This seems like a good day to remember.

Man on a ladder, wearing a hat and a white trenchcoat, passing down a sign that says “Adolf Hitler Str.”
ALT
@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

“Whatever you do, do not let her around any of these men, and especially my husband. Protect her.”

—Marla Maples to the mother of a 14-year-old girl at one of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago bacchanals.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/us/jeffrey-epstein-donald-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.9k8.lCbr.iiWKr9OvIMrg&smid=url-share

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

I first visited this magnificent citadel of science in 1984. NCAR has saved countless lives and pays for itself many times over. It's something the United States can be proud of.

And now the deranged zealots who have hijacked our government will destroy it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/17/climate/national-center-for-atmospheric-research-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.9U8._w4P.koJmi6jHMhtU&smid=url-share

gleick OP ,
@gleick@mas.to avatar

“It supports the scientists who fly into hurricanes, the meteorologists who develop new radar technology, the physicists who envision and code new weather models, and yes — the largest community climate model in the world. Dismantling NCAR is like taking a sledgehammer to the keystone holding up our scientific understanding of the planet.”

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

This is how every Democrat should be talking. “Politicize a tragedy”? Hell yes. https://med-mastodon.com/@cbarbermd/115720322179846160

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for daring to report bad news, so now the BLS is dutifully fudging the numbers to report job GAINS when in fact they are LOSSES.

Who says? The chair of the Fed.

Someone should investigate.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/fed-chair-warns-trump-admin-163052814.html https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/fed-chair-warns-trump-admin-163052814.html

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

If the formerly great American newspapers (New York Times, Washington Post) were really doing their jobs, it would look like this:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/feature/life-inside-the-undocumented-underground

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

It's December 2025, the Trump regime is engaged in a vicious and lawless pogrom, destroying the lives of immigrants and children of immigrants, creating a reign of terror and cruelty, and the New York Times assails ...

Biden. For not being tough enough on immigrants.

I won't link to it.

How Biden Ignored Warnings and Lost Americans' Faith in Immigration
ALT
@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

They can't use the word, but this is a $14 billion tax fraud—theft from Americans who actually DO pay taxes—by our untouchable oligarch Elon Musk.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/us/politics/elon-musk-foundation.html?unlocked_article_code=1.5k8.ObM-.eA2qGCNrJB2J&smid=url-share

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

This is heartbreaking, cruel, pointless, and criminal. The monsters responsible for seizing and deporting these innocents are doing incalculable harm. They are disregarding the courts and making America worse in every way possible.

A college freshman who has lived in the US most of her life.

Who will speak now for Any Lucia López Belloza?

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/30/us/politics/college-student-deported-thanksgiving-texas.html?unlocked_article_code=1.5E8.zEYe.bY2K3jOP9JIy&smid=url-share

@Daojoan@mastodon.social avatar Daojoan , to random

Outside of memoirs // academic works, most non-fiction books could be 25,000 words.

gleick ,
@gleick@mas.to avatar

@Daojoan Guernica can be a postcard, but less is not always more.

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

Even if you already assume that Trump is Putin’s toady, doing his bidding at every turn, the details of their so-called “peace plan” must shock you. It sells out not only Ukraine but all of Europe. And it is crafted to shift billions of dollars into the pockets of shady oligarchs.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/11/trumps-war-peace/685024/?gift=UDCAY75CzHyGUPSsXwkpWhjActye6JKOklBHVEsYxxM

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

Suppose you're a reporter on Air Force One. When one of your colleagues asks the president a question, he points at her and says, “Quiet. Quiet, piggy.”

What do you do?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/20/trump-quiet-piggy-reporter

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

Mobster on the left had the journalist Jamal Khashoggi murdered and dismembered with a bone saw.

Mobster on the right says that’s just fine: “A lot of people didn't like the gentleman you're talking about. Whether you like him or didn't like him, things happen.”

They don't even bother to pretend.

Mohammed bin Salman and Donald Trump in the Oval Office, before a background of gaudy fake-gold tat.
ALT
@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

Using the White House Situation Room to enforce the coverup is a confession. Trump is the pedophile who needs protecting. Nothing else could justify it.

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

How the Web Was Lost (The internet was not meant to suck).

I review some history—thoughtful, philosophical, and enraged—by Tim Berners-Lee, Joanna Walsh, and @pluralistic .

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2025/12/04/how-the-web-was-lost-internet-this-is-for-everyone/?utm_source=nybooks&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email-share

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

Elon Musk is stealing Wikipedia and creating a grotesque right-wing parody.

https://uk.pcmag.com/ai/160970/turns-out-wikipedia-isnt-that-woke-as-grokipedia-rips-off-most-of-its-pages

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

It’s unfortunate that “the White House" has become standard synecdoche for the president and his staff. Now we have newspapers saying with a straight face that the White House refuses to comment on its own demolition.

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

“How do you top ordering your appointees to cut you a check for $230 million taxpayer dollars. I’ve already seen the first advance troops of normalization trying to tame it, with the New York Times saying it raises potential “conflicts of interest.

“I don’t know how to capture this. What thing can be more unimaginable and beyond belief than the president just saying, Cut me a check for a quarter billion dollars?”

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump-moves-into-full-twilight-zone-anthony-phase

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

Dear New York Times,

Henceforth, forbid the tired formulation "both sides." Likewise the cliché "war of words."

These should be red flags. They encourage laziness.

Report what they say. And report what's true.

Here, for instance, your reporters can establish that there are no protesters in Portland engaging in insurrection.

They also see federal forces attacking protesters without provocation.

Don't be lazy. Tell your readers what you know.

As the legal battles intensified, both sides engaged in an increasingly caustic war of words, with administration officials accusing protesters in Portland of engaging in insurrection, and officials in Chicago accusing federal forces of attacking demonstrators without provocation.
ALT
@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

You know who did lie to Congress? Six sitting justices of the US Supreme Court. https://mas.to/@tpm_rss_bot/115288179816320325

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

This thing where the president of the United States sues individuals and newspapers and television networks IN HIS CAPACITY AS A PRIVATE CITIZEN in an effort to line his own pockets — how did that happen?

Meanwhile no one can sue or prosecute the president, because supposedly that would interfere with his official duties.

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

While no one pays attention, Putin has launched a low-grade war of micro-aggressions and attrition against Europe: drones, fighter-jet incursions, cyberattacks. He knows Trump has given him a green light, weakening NATO and (literally) rolling out the red carpet.

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

And now: The biggest straight-up bribe in American history.

Two billion dollars from a foreign ruler into the pockets of Trump, his family, and his cronies. In exchange, an AI chip sale that compromises national security.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/us/politics/trump-uae-chips-witkoff-world-liberty.html?unlocked_article_code=1.mE8.PK_M.0wjhruO9qOQy&smid=url-share

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

This is what we've come to. Inciting hatred of Blacks, Jews, and gays is, according to the New York Times, merely “brash right-wing spin.”

Did they think about this at all? Is it a considered policy choice?

He quickly became a fixture in the Trumpian media sphere. He tweeted relentlessly with a brash right-wing spin, including inflammatory comments about Jewish, gay and Black people.
ALT
@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

It is an undeniable fact that Charlie Kirk “spewed hate and racism on his show.” That was his brand. Apparently a Secret Service employee has been suspended for saying so.

That is very different from celebrating his murder. Is this distinction too subtle for the NY Times?

We need to be able to condemn his murder without celebrating his life.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/12/us/politics/charlie-kirk-shooting-firings-celebration.html?unlocked_article_code=1.lk8.UAVT.j3Bl-Nfgieff&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

Surely the lead story in every newspaper right now should be the President declaring war on a major American city—the White House posting violent imagery of the Chicago skyline in flames.

Here's a historian with news judgment.

https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/september-6-2025?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

gleick OP ,
@gleick@mas.to avatar

But at the NY Times, everything has two side. “Tensions escalated." As if Illinois leaders share the blame.

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

After this week there’s no uncertainty: The U.S. has fallen under fascist rule.

“Everything else from here on out is just a matter of degree and wondering how bad it will get and how far it will go? Do we end up ‘merely’ like Hungary or do we go all the way toward an American Reich?”

https://www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/america-tips-into-fascism-f51000e08e03254d

@Daojoan@mastodon.social avatar Daojoan , to random

Every beautiful app dies the same way:

• Mailbox
• Sparrow
• Wunderlist
• Sunrise
• Arc

I wrote about why in today's @theindex

https://www.theindex.media/p/why-beautiful-apps-always-die-the-same-way

gleick ,
@gleick@mas.to avatar

@Daojoan @theindex Yes, but. The Browser Company lost the thread. They walked away from their beautiful prodigy to pursue an AI fantasy.

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

This is actually terrifying. The dictator establishing his Palace Guard.

@heidilifeldman ]

The WHITE HOUSE (ii) The Secretary of Defense shall immediately begin ensuring that each State's Army National Guard and Air National Guard are resourced, trained, organized, and available to assist Federal, State, and local law enforcement in quelling civil disturbances and ensuring the public safety and order whenever the circumstances necessitate, as appropriate under law. In coordination with the respective adjutants general, the Secretary of Defense shall designate an appropriate number of each State's trained National Guard members to be reasonably available for rapid mobilization for such purposes. In addition, the Secretary of Defense shall ensure the availability of a standing National Guard quick reaction force that shall be resourced, trained, and available for rapid nationwide deployment.
ALT
@dangillmor@mastodon.social avatar dangillmor , to random

In Trump’s second term, the New York Times has completely normalized fascism.

The "paper of record" is an escalating disgrace to journalism.

gleick ,
@gleick@mas.to avatar

@dangillmor They might have said it “delighted” some and horrified others, but now they don’t even bother with both sides.

@gleick@mas.to avatar gleick , to random

We can expect these same masked thugs to swarm polling places on Election Day. This is one reason Trump wants to eliminate mail voting. https://mathstodon.xyz/@johncarlosbaez/115077373058583367