ddiamond.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

two great stories today — one in WSJ on UFOs, one in NYT on a social media influencer — appear to have little in common But they both speak to a shared truth: the broad desire to believe in conspiracies, and the self-interested motives of those who fan them

submitted 9 hours ago • 5 comments

this guy may have been onto something

submitted 1 day ago • 5 comments

The NOTUS reporters said they spent five days (!) going through the 522 citations in the report.

submitted 8 days ago • 11 comments

Reminded of a story that @hannahnatanson.bsky.social + I did in early April about how DOGE’s cuts were inevitably creating new risks for Americans — including risks related to severe weather

submitted 20 days ago • 3 comments

been away + focused on a personal project back at work later this year

submitted 24 days ago • 20 comments

Princeton has frozen most staff hiring and called on all departments and units to plan for 5% to 10% budget cuts as it prepares for the possibility of “very large, permanent cuts to federal research funding as well as substantial increases to the endowment tax” paw.princeton.edu/article/prin...

submitted 24 days ago • 15 comments

tough climate for the Surgeon General nominee when this is the headline in <checks> People Magazine

submitted 28 days ago • 4 comments

Every book published in the United States is sent to the Library of Congress. Also, if you are under 16 you cannot use the reading room or order books.

submitted 28 days ago • 705 comments

Incredible reporting by the Washington Post on the Trump administration's hurried, lawless effort to carry out illegal renditions to El Salvador - to terrorize people. (Including how they violated court directives.) Take a moment to read the entire thing: www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

submitted 34 days ago • 38 comments

Join me on May 18 at 3 PM @politicsprose.bsky.social in conversation with @ddiamond.bsky.social to discuss my new book. #DietDrugsDopamine

submitted 35 days ago • 0 comments

Writing in Health Affairs, Jess Schubel of @dayonestrategies.bsky.social says that Medicaid changes under consideration would "amount to the largest cut to the Medicaid program in its history" and eliminate Biden-era improvements to the program.

submitted 37 days ago • 1 comment

Got this book after former Sen. Alan Simpson died last month + just started reading. He spends several pages extolling segregationist colleague Strom Thurmond + blasting a 1992 Post story about Thurmond’s alleged biracial daughter as “crap,” “sludge,” fake news. Just one problem: it was true.

submitted 41 days ago • 8 comments

Trump has been telling a story about Kilmar Abrego García — that he's dangerous, didn't deserve a trial and belongs in prison in El Salvador. New polling shows the public isn't buying it. By 42-26 margin, Americans think he should be brought back. w @ence.bsky.social @emgusk.bsky.social

submitted 42 days ago • 9 comments

Trying to imagine how I’d explain this headline to myself in 2015, let alone three months ago.

submitted 42 days ago • 2 comments

Grateful to WaPo editors for putting this story on the front page today. And appreciate incredible colleagues like @faizsays.bsky.social, @jeffstein.bsky.social, @hannahnatanson.bsky.social, @emilydavies.bsky.social and many more as we’ve teamed up to cover the tentacles of DOGE.

submitted 42 days ago • 2 comments

Elon Musk yelled at Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in the West Wing. Then he lost a fight with him. Then he unfollowed him on X. Our story tracing Musk's rocky, chaotic 100 days in government — and the damage he's set to leave behind. @faizsays.bsky.social @jeffstein.bsky.social + Trisha Thadani.

submitted 43 days ago • 8 comments

Courtesy of HUBRIS MAXIMUS, the backstory on the time Elon Musk asked the chair of the Senate Finance Committee this:

submitted 43 days ago • 6 comments

“If ever there was a time to fire off the lewdest possible joke about a powerful senator, this was not it.” From @faizsays.bsky.social’s new book, HUBRIS MAXIMUS, about a 2021 episode when Elon mocked then-Senate finance chair @wyden.senate.gov + staff’s private alarm about their boss’ behavior.

submitted 43 days ago • 20 comments

Honestly I expected them to do this against the SEC first

submitted 43 days ago • 2 comments

where we are in 2025: major universities seeking a mutual-protection treaty against the U.S. president

submitted 44 days ago • 55 comments

Really great interview with @hannahnatanson.bsky.social, our tireless reporter covering the federal government and DOGE, on how she does her job, breaks so many scoops and the responsibility she feels to tell federal workers’ stories. (And it’s a podcast, so no paywall.)

submitted 44 days ago • 1 comment

In a major announcement yesterday, RFK Jr and his allies said they had an "understanding" with the food industry to phase out artificial food dyes. But Will Kubzansky + @rachelcohrs.bsky.social report that there's no agreement with the food industry to do so.

submitted 44 days ago • 7 comments

President Trump’s abrupt shift in rhetoric Tuesday toward Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell reflected the private lobbying of some of his senior advisers, who urged the president to back off his incendiary attacks.

submitted 44 days ago • 35 comments

Tim Pool is in the White House briefing room and is teed up for the first question today.

submitted 45 days ago • 39 comments

I was sold on this text message until the sign-off. I don't believe Apple would really tell me to have a great day.

submitted 45 days ago • 5 comments

One question that often comes up with my public health colleagues is: "But how much is the public aware of these attacks on public health and science?" Our team sought to answer that question in a rapid public opinion survey, and our results are published here: ⬇️

submitted 45 days ago • 3 comments

New survey on awareness of Trump cuts: "We found that a high proportion of the American public (almost 80%) had heard about the firing of federal scientists and health workers… undoubtedly an underestimate of current levels." @rebekahnagler.bsky.social @efranklinfowler.bsky.social et al

submitted 45 days ago • 0 comments

Timcast — led by conservative influencer Tim Pool — is set to get the first questions at tomorrow’s White House press briefing.

submitted 46 days ago • 9 comments

“Geometrically that should not have happened!” is one of the greatest in-game announcer calls I have ever heard

submitted 47 days ago • 6 comments

Hegseth backer and former spokesperson, John Ullyot: Dec - "Pete Hegseth Is the Best Choice to Reform the Pentagon" April - "There’s a ‘Meltdown’ on Hegseth’s Watch"

submitted 47 days ago • 64 comments

life's only constant

submitted 48 days ago • 4 comments

The White House Twitter posts like this because then all people talk about is the White House Twitter. It's a digital attention strategy (fueled, often, by people who hate it) and it works www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

submitted 49 days ago • 7 comments

The White House has embraced the lab-leak theory as the "true" origin of the pandemic, launching a website to replace Covid.gov. The claim — which some U.S. intelligence agencies dispute — appears to rest entirely on a House GOP report that no Democrats signed. w @laurenweberhp.bsky.social

submitted 49 days ago • 3 comments