Notices by Kat O’Brien (obrien_kat@mastodon.world)

Sunset views from the top floor at work.
#barcelona #norrsken #sunset #atardecer

This is a great listen with Joel Anderson and Bryan Curtis on publications lost in the 21st century that they miss. As an ESPN alum, ESPN The Magazine and FiveThirtyEight loom particularly large for me among those mentioned. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-press-box/id1058911614?i=1000701527315
#media #sports #journalism

@mattblaze I can not get over how very few of the people with Fuck You money and power are willing to take risks.
… I had that much written as I was in line at my fave restaurant in Barcelona, ended up eating w/a young female lawyer from SF (& her mom) who was also upset at so many law firms (not hers, as yet!!) caving. She plans to quit if hers caves.

Tiny timeline cleanse: I wore the brightly colored abacus earrings that my 4yo niece picked out for me to work today.
#gifts #jewelry #kids #earrings

Senator Cory Booker is still going at 21+ hours! I really hope he beats racist Storm Thurmond’s record. He only needs a few more hours.
I called his office to say thank him and also share the story of my dad meeting him and the video he shared. I also called my senators, Gillibrand and Schumer, to encourage them to seek inspiration in this. And separately called Rep Dan Goldman’s office bc he has been speaking and acting on many important issues and I wanted to say thanks.

Got a 14-mile run in this morning on my last day in NYC. 173 miles run this month, my highest-mileage month since having bilateral bunion surgery in November 2021, when I still lived in NYC. I had 8 months over 200 miles that year!
#running #runnersofmastodon #nyc #hudsonriverpark

The U.S. is truly becoming, not just a frenemy of our longtime allies, but an enemy of those allies and of long-stated U.S. values.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/03/28/ukraine-us-mineral-deal-russia-war/
#slavaukraini #uspol #Zelensky

I visited the National Archives, home of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution & Bill of Rights.
The four pillars of freedom - speech, religion, the press and assembly - the foundation of democracy. All under attack. We can’t be quiet.

https://katsstackofreadsandwriting.beehiiv.com/p/attacks-on-freedom-and-democracy
#uspol #democracy

@epistatacadam @EricLawton @mmasnick @bmacDonald94 😥
The right to not have national health care and instead be charged a fortune 🙃

This is incredibly dangerous, arresting an immigrant - with a green card (permanent residency) - over his organizing on behalf of a cause you disagree with. Arresting him and taking him to undisclosed location with no due process.
This is fascism, quite simply.
And you don’t have to agree with his actions or support his cause of protesting for Palestine. This is an opening salve and if they get away with it, they’ll go after people with any views they disagree with.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-authorities-arrest-palestinian-student-protester-columbia-university-students-2025-03-09/

@EricLawton @mmasnick @bmacDonald94 🙄 wow

Another half-marathon distance run in the bag, on the beautiful Carretera de les Aigües, and back down to Plaça Catalunya.
#running #runnersofmastodon #barcelona

It’s time - past time - to speak up about the sharp plunge into authoritarianism that Donald Trump, Elon Musk et al are trying to impose in the United States.
Time for EVERYONE to speak up.
My latest piece https://katsstackofreadsandwriting.beehiiv.com/p/time-for-collective-action
With plenty of receipts. 1/2
#uspol #democracy #freespeech

The U.S. is becoming a place without freedom of speech, freedom of press, rule of law or allies. A few of the many cited include work by Karen Attiah, Anne Applebaum, Masha Gessen, Timothy Snyder, and Ruth Ben-Ghiat. And one particularly salient piece I quote was by @mmasnick, who calls what’s happening “the systematic dismantling of the very infrastructure that made American innovation possible.
#journalism #freespeech #uspol

What Lindsey Boylan has gone through in the years since coming out accusing Andrew Cuomo as a sexual abuser and harasser is awful. NYC, you can’t put this man back in office. It’s not an Adams or Cuomo choice, there are plenty of qualified candidate.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/new-york-city-deserves-better-than-andrew-cuomo
#nyc #cuomo

This is quite the stark shift from the Atlanta Fed in predictions for GDP growth/decline in the U.S. Wow. Went from predicting close to 4% quarterly percent change a month ago to nearly negative 3% now.
#usa #economy #money

Wired is well worth your subscription money right now. They’re doing incredible investigative work.
https://www.wired.com/story/doge-worse-than-you-think/
#tech #journalism #uspol

Everything coming out of CPAC is batshit crazy. No way to accurately describe it and be more subtle. From Nazi salutes to every mind-addled thing Trump says. 😵💫

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/02/22/us/donald-trump-news?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

In case helpful for you or immigrants you know or people you know who work with immigrants, a nonprofit I am on the board of, The Opportunity Agenda, is organizing this webinar on Know Your Rights Feb 28. It will include people from National Immigration Law Center, NAKASEC and Legal Aid at Work.
Register at bit.lu/nrl225
#immigrants #knowyourrights

This article on the Trump administration’s efforts to deport large numbers of immigrants grabbed my attention with this figure - they want to increase the budget for border security and immigration enforcement by $175 billion!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/02/15/ice-arrests-immigration-deportations/

The entire USAID budget was about $40 billion per year, & all U.S. foreign aid in 2023 combined totaled $71.9 billion.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/02/06/what-the-data-says-about-us-foreign-aid/

They want a white Christian police, surveillance state with no services and no morals.
#usa #government