Notices by kottke.org (kottke@mastodon.social), page 3

On a scale of +10 (full democracy) to -10 (full autocracy), the US now scores a 0, its lowest score since the Civil War. “The USA is no longer considered a democracy and lies at the cusp of autocracy.” https://www.systemicpeace.org/index.html

A federal judge has ordered the HHS, CDC, and FDA to restore their websites and datasets to how they were on Jan 30th by 11:59pm tonight. Resistance is not futile, but we’ll see how much Trump wants to push/piss off the judiciary. https://www.404media.co/federal-judge-orders-cdc-fda-to-bring-back-web-pages-before-midnight/

Unsurprising: a recent study of 32M tweets from politicians from 27 countries shows that “far-right populists [are] much more likely than the left to spread fake news” and “amplifying misinformation is now part of radical right strategy”. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/11/far-right-mps-fake-news-misinformation-left-study

Democracy is Crumbling. Is Anybody Doing Anything? Sherrilyn Ifill has a list of what people are doing to counter the coup and more importantly, what you can do. I’m working on this one: “Make sure you have and can share good information”. https://sherrilyn.substack.com/p/democracy-is-crumbling-is-anybody

Voting for the Mayor Who Promised to Blow Up the City Doesn’t Mean I Approve of the Mayor Blowing Up the City. “I just wanted him to fix the old bowling alley like he promised in passing once.” https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/voting-for-the-mayor-who-promised-to-blow-up-the-city-doesnt-mean-i-approve-of-the-mayor-blowing-up-the-city

The world has probably passed ‘peak air pollution’. “Global air pollution is now falling, and we can save many lives by accelerating this decline.” https://ourworldindata.org/data-insights/the-world-has-probably-passed-peak-air-pollution

David Kurtz argues that we should refer to Trump’s mass removal of federal employees as purges, not as “firings” or “layoffs”. “Business terms provide a totally wrong conceptual framework for the purges underway.” https://talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo/this-aint-the-apprentice-stop-calling-them-firings-theyre-purges

A kid named Big Balls (with some shady stuff in his past) hacked into gov’t computer systems for Elon Musk, but “there’s little chance that he could have passed a background check for privileged access to government systems” (that he now has access to). https://www.wired.com/story/edward-coristine-tesla-sexy-path-networks-doge/

“In 2022, one of Peter Thiel’s favorite thinkers envisioned a second Trump Administration in which the federal government would be run by a “CEO” who was not Trump and laid out a playbook for how it might work. Elon Musk is following it.” https://www.thenerdreich.com/reboot-elon-musk-ceo-dictator-doge/

A huge list of trans Girl Scouts that are selling Girl Scout Cookies. “Please consider choosing a trans girl scout to get your cookies from this year — the kids are under attack this year more than ever, so lets give them some joy.” https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/2025-trans-girl-scouts-to-order-cookies

Since NYC began congestion pricing, subway ridership is up, subway crime is way down, traffic fatalities are down. Also, trip times for drivers and buses are faster and bus ridership is up. https://www.amny.com/nyc-transit/nyc-subway-crime-plummets-ridership-jumps-2025/

“A self-coup, also called an autocoup…is a form of coup d’état in which a political leader, having come to power through legal means, stays in power illegally through the actions of themselves and/or their supporters.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-coup

The Verge interviewed federal employees about the chaos they’re seeing. “Many workers still worry that outside the government, people don’t realize how unprecedented this situation is — or how much is at stake.” https://www.theverge.com/policy/605611/trump-elon-musk-federal-government-employee

A simple guide to using Signal for government workers (written by a US federal employee). If you need to communicate securely with others (coworkers, journalists, etc.) during this coup attempt, this is the way to do it. https://a.wholelottanothing.org/a-guide-to-using-signal-for-government-workers/

The clever Salaryman Eraser features a Japanese businessman who goes bald as you use the eraser. https://kottke.org/25/01/japanese-salaryman-eraser-goes-bald

The Public Domain Image Archive is a newly launched “curated collection of more than 10,000 out-of-copyright historical images, free for all to explore and reuse”. Careful, you could lose some hours in here… https://kottke.org/25/01/the-public-domain-image-archive

“The MacArthur Foundation today announced more than $6 million in grants to support the growing field of climate journalism in the United States.” The grants will go to local and independent newsrooms & organizations. https://www.macfound.org/press/press-releases/more-than-6-million-in-support-of-climate-journalism

Paul Krugman on “recovering my freedom” and why he left the NY Times after 25 years. “In 2024, the editing of my regular columns went from light touch to extremely intrusive.” https://contrarian.substack.com/p/departing-the-new-york-times

Global economy could face 50% loss in GDP between 2070 and 2090 from climate shocks, say actuaries. They say conventional predictions ignore “tipping points, sea temperature rises, migration and conflict as a result of global heating”. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/16/economic-growth-could-fall-50-over-20-years-from-climate-shocks-say-actuaries

A caffeine calculator that tells you how much of your favorite beverage would kill you. “287.4 cans of Pepsi is a lethal dose.” https://www.caffeineinformer.com/death-by-caffeine