Gillian Branstetter

RFK Jr. asked the National Institute of Health to dedicate $5 billion (!) to finding a link between vaccines and autism. "That would have dedicated more than a tenth of the NIH’s annual budget to investigating a hypothesis already refuted by scientists worldwide."

Inside RFK Jr.’s push to dismantle decades of U.S. vaccine policy

Insider accounts reveal the scale of the health secretary's ambitions to curb childhood immunizations and unearth a link between vaccines and autism.

Literally the Supreme Court upheld sodomy bans in 1986 and said homosexuality was worse than rape and nobody even talks about it

I'm so thankful to Becky and her mom for their trust, generosity, and strength in front of the Supreme Court. No matter what the Court says, Becky is a hero for standing up for herself and trans girls like her. Doing what's right, even when the odds are against you, is the definition of courage.

"Another yelled at the little girl, who was trying to smell flowers."

Leah Greenberg ❌👑 @leahgreenberg.bsky.social

A report on the ground from the ICE shooting in Biddeford that should make every parent in this country lose their minds:

All this tells me is that we also have to also shut down the golf courses

Reply to @gbbranstetter.bsky.social

This is the most important lesson for her: "If you need to step away and breathe, please do. You have your whole life ahead of you. You have done more than enough for your community and your country...That's not quitting. That's surviving."

Reply to @gbbranstetter.bsky.social

In 2004 voters in seven states enacted gay marriage bans, some of which are still on the books, and yet every compare/contrast with trans rights is like "look how flawless and careful the gay marriage movement was"

Good example of how the US hates public housing until you put bars on the windows

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social

When Joseph Williams refused to leave the public park where he has lived for years, he was charged with a felony for camping and spent nine days in jail. He's from East Nashville, a historically Black community that has rapidly gentrified over the last 2 decades and lost many of its Black residents

A homeless man was charged with a felony for camping. He's one of the first

When Joseph Lamont Williams refused to leave the public park where he has lived for years, he was charged with a felony. Camping bans are on the rise as states seek to crack down on homelessness.

Agreed that not everyone who disagrees with me is filled with hate in their heart but the high cost of a college education sounds like a problem chasing trans kids out of public life isn't going to solve

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com

Gluesenkamp Perez: "At town halls, what I saw was the people who were the most upset had spent the last 12 years driving their girls to sports practice & they view their best shot of their student going to college as an athletic scholarship. So when we rush to moralize we miss some of the nuance."

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Sports are such a potent area of American cultural life because they're imagined as the last refuge of meritocracy

"Identified by an ex-wife" should replace "In god we trust" on our money

Bruno J. Navarro @brunojnavarro.bsky.social

The federal immigration agent who shot and killed a 26-year-old Colombian man in Biddeford has been identified as David Michael Brouillette. Brouillette, who is 37 and lives in Manchester, was identified by an ex-wife as the ICE agent who shot Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero.

ICE agent who shot man in Biddeford identified as former Maine law enforcement officer

Public and court records show that David Brouillette, 37, has worked for the VA in Togus, the Maine Correctional Center and the Manchester fire department.

Trump is abandoning sex ed programs that prevent teen pregnancy, STDs, and child abuse in favor of an abstinence-only approach that stresses "the importance of marriage and procreation." It also discourages girls from taking birth control and discourages boys from masturbation.

Government Overhauls Teen Pregnancy Program to Focus on Marriage and Starting Families (Gift Article)

The administration canceled federal grants to organizations across the country, accusing them of encouraging premarital sex. New criteria say programs should stress abstinence.

Reply to @gbbranstetter.bsky.social

A decision that was vigorously opposed by the *current Speaker of the House* bsky.app/profile/econ...

When even Third Way is telling you to back tf up

gwen howerton @kissphoria.bsky.social

i swear thomas b edsall has written this exact same column at least four times www.nytimes.com/2026/07/14/o...

Opinion | Three Things Democrats Have to Do if They Actually Want to Win

It is these issues that serve to reinforce the perception that Democrats are willing to sacrifice the interests of the working and middle classes.

"Taking sexual violence seriously isn’t a side issue getting in the way of the real fight against 'the establishment.' Fighting that machinery of domination is central to building a coalition broad and strong enough to beat that establishment." @naomiaklein.bsky.social

We have a right to be furious with Graham Platner

Fighting sexual violence isn't a distraction. It's how we win

"The fact that many women supported Platner because they cared so much about women makes this juncture extra enraging, heartbreaking, and horrible."

Amanda Litman @amandalitman.bsky.social

Always always always always read @rtraister.bsky.social -- and especially on Graham Platner, women, and what comes next. nymag.com/intelligence...

Anyway tomorrow we find out how many rights trans people have left

Rhymes with the Court's reasoning in Skrmetti on trans youth healthcare bans - they discriminated on the basis of age thus their discrimination on the basis of sex doesn't matter. Whichever has the lowest standard of scrutny, basically

Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social

Ruling against TPS for Haitians, the Trump justices on the Supreme Court have set a new impossible standard for proving discrimination against non-whites: if there is any other reason *in addition* to the racism, the racism doesn’t count www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Missed this Economist/YouGov poll from May that showed support for legalized same-sex marriage is down to 51%. Just five years ago it was 70%.

Cat

Fascinated by this NYT op-ed arguing parents should have more than one child so they don't have to [gasp] live in community with others

Canceled therapy so I could go to the movies after work

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Reply to @gbbranstetter.bsky.social

Washington and corporate America are corrupt, Hollywood is full of nepo babies, but sports are still imagined as the place where you can prove your worth through sheer grit and effort alone - and even that's not quite true either

Which is also the logic of our colleges