"Last August, Adam Thomas found himself wandering the dunes of Christmas Valley, Oregon, after a chatbot kept suggesting he mystically 'follow the pattern' of his own consciousness. Thomas was running on very little sleep—he’d been talking to his chatbot around the clock for months by that point, asking it to help improve his life. Instead it sent him on empty assignments, like meandering the vacuous desert sprawl. He’d lost his job as a funeral director and was living out of a van, draining his savings, and now he found himself stranded in the desert."

slate.com/technology/2026/02/a…

It’s Causing People to Lose Jobs, Shatter Relationships, and Drain Their Savings. One Support Group Is Sounding the Alarm.

Victims often lose their grip on reality—but an unexpected recovery movement is taking shape online.

^{Tanya Chen (Slate)}

OH FUCK WE'RE COOKED

THEY GOT OUR LEADER

🤪

'Feds Identify “Leader of #Antifa”

Twenty-nine year old Chandler Patey has been regularly protesting outside his local #ICE facility in South Portland for months, offering up his apartment to fellow #protesters to use the bathroom or wash off pepper spray, according to local news.

To the #DHS, “he is the leader of Antifa in #Portland, #Oregon.”'

kenklippenstein.com/p/feds-ide…

#FuckICE #ICEOut

Feds Identify “Leader of Antifa”

The list they're creating says so, anyway

^{Ken Klippenstein}

Sensitive content Reveal/hide

My partner and I have gone all day without meds and have nothing to eat tonight, I am incredibly emotionally disregulated from a bad day with my complex PTSD and autism related issues and in a lot of pain due to endometriosis, please check out my Ko-Fi shop or send a donation to help!! We are trying to get to $120 and only have $8, but we’ll need more to bridge the gap that transfer fees cause 😞 please send help if you can, or at least boost this. I need help so I can be okay

ko-fi.com/lukeorion

#DisabledArtist #ActuallyAutistic #MutualAidRequest #UrgentMutualAid #kofiArtist #kofiGoal #kofi #lgbtqia #neurodivergent #crowdfund #cptsd #EmergencyFund #MutualAidSavesLives #MutualAid @mutualaid@fedigroups.social @mutualaid@ovo.st

Buy Luke Orion | Shop + Comms Open 🖤🎵🎨 a Coffee

Support Luke Orion on Ko-Fi!

^Ko-fi

I was struck by this description about Christine Keeler and the 1963 Profumo affair. The related sex scandal forced Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, to resign:

"A shooting incident...caused the press to investigate her, revealing that her affairs could be threatening national security."

The agency seems reversed. Keeler wasn't the one threatening national security. That her lovers were, among others, a cabinet minister and a Russian agent were responsible for that.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christin…

English model and showgirl (1942–2017)

^{Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)}

At Aldi I'm browsing near a family with small kids and I hear "Katie get off the floor love"

Katie goes "I'm a penguin mum!", flops down on the floor and just kicks herself along the whole length of the aisle making penguin noises.

Katie, I hope one day you'll know the effort your parents made not to laugh out loud.

I think they're kinda proud.

RE: dragonscave.space/@Peiress/116…

That's such an old unproven republican bullshit.

Eigh

2026-02-02 23:37:46

the department said the temporary ban (visa) will "remain active until the U.S. can ensure that new immigrants will not extract wealth from the American people."
---
Meanwhile?
A study published last week by the Cato Institute, found that "immigrants consumed about 24 percent less in welfare benefits than native-born Americans on a per capita basis ...
smh
cato.org/blog/immigrants-still…

RE: flipboard.com/@marketwatch/rea…

At least he is buying in California, unlike his friend Larry who buys on the other coast!

Google billionaire Sergey Brin buys a $42 million Tahoe mansion, a few months after buying a $50 million Malibu

Google billionaire Sergey Brin has been linked to two extravagant property purchases in neighboring states—with reports suggesting that the tech …

^MarketWatch

Cory Doctorow: "America is not great. It has been gutted by the Epstein class, who robbed us blind, raped our kids, and are now selling us shitcoins and chatbots and the spectacle of protesters being shot in the streets."

pluralistic.net/2026/02/02/cor…

George Carlin famously said that politics and economy are "a big club and you ain't in it."

The #Epstein files are showing how right he was, especially this one, in which Epstein cackles with his pal Peter Thiel about how #Brexit was "just the beginning" of their plans to destroy governments and institute a "return to tribalism."

They elected Trump knowing that he is a corrupt/evil imbecile who destroys anything he touches.

It's all about buying the dip justice.gov/epstein/files/Data…

By any measure, the F.B.I.’s search of an election center in Fulton County, Ga., last week was extraordinary.

Agents seized truckloads of 2020 ballots, as Trump harnessed the levers of government to not only buttress his false claims of widespread voter fraud,
but also to try to build a criminal case against those he believes wronged him.

What happened the next day was in some ways even more unusual, The New York Times has learned.

Behind closed doors, Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, met with some of the same F.B.I. agents,
members of the bureau’s field office in Atlanta, which is conducting the election inquiry, three people with knowledge of the meeting said.

They could not say why Ms. Gabbard, who also appeared on site at the search, was there, but her continued presence has raised eyebrows given that her role overseeing the nation’s intelligence agencies does not include on-site involvement in criminal investigative work.

nytimes.com/2026/02/02/us/poli…

Question for US legal things knowers RE Minneapolis and lawyering up.

My sister and spouse are actively helping vulnerable community members with things like rides etc. She’s been told that if she is detained that she’ll need to give her specific lawyer’s name and direct contact info, so she’s considering finding someone to have on retainer. Probably obviously, that’s not a straightforward thing to search for.

Does anyone with *specific and direct knowledge of these things* have any applicable information/guidance or local to MPLS recommendations that I can pass on?

Edit: June’s advice linked here about the National Lawyer's Guild seems to be exactly what she needed. Thanks for boosting! mspsocial.net/@june/1160020958…

Jennifer Brooks: "An avalanche of outerwear poured in."

“A couple of weeks ago, I was at Whipple, seeing if there was anything I could do,” said Rachel Gerdes, whose Instagram account now directs her 40,000 followers to Haven Watch and other mutual aid groups who are raising funds and supplies for people who are too afraid to leave their homes to shop, work or go to school.

Suddenly, she said, “They released someone in front of the Whipple Building in no winter clothes. It was freezing cold. She was just out in the cold.”

Gerdes approached the shivering woman and asked if she needed help. The woman said she had no way to get home. The light-rail station is half a mile from Whipple. A long way to walk without a coat in January.

Volunteers step up for ICE detainees who need winter coats
By Jennifer Brooks
The Minnesota Star Tribune
startribune.com/stepping-up-fo…

#Minnesota #WinterClothing #MutualAid #resist #WhippleBuilding

On a turnout of 53%, 93% of Resident Doctors have voted to continue their campaign of industrial action for another six months.... suggesting the absence of trust in Wes Streeting continues.

The Q. will now be whether the BMA can continue to (broadly) win the public argument on doctors pay - having navigated through the 'winter crisis' they may be able to keep people on side... but equally may have undermined the perception of their importance to the NHS?

#NHS #doctors
theguardian.com/society/2026/f…

Resident doctors in England vote to continue industrial action for another six months

British Medical Association members back further action as union’s chair says ‘a deal is there to be done’

^{Denis Campbell (The Guardian)}

And this week's key political Q. is likely to be:

How much did Keir Starmer know & when, about Peter Mandelson's links with Jeffery Epstein?

Whatever he did or didn't know this is unlikely to play well for Starmer, who should have been a little more sceptical about Mandelson's desire to return to politics for the third time!

#EpsteinFiles #politics #PeterMandelson

Pushing for trade, preparing for war: A document reveals Vietnam's dual approach toward the US
https://apnews.com/article/vietnam-us-war-planning-china-115c4f9bc69d91e7afe6b4dba7dc460f?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into Asia @asia-AssociatedPress

Is #izzyondroid down?

#foss #Android #opensource

I love how the #UK is speedrunning Canada and the United States right now, where the shit-tier centrist underwear stains are more terrified of the Left winning and just completely replacing them than they are of the country going open fascist.

independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli…

Labour MPs ‘reluctant to campaign in by-election’ as Reform and Greens threaten to snatch seat

‘We would have won with Andy Burnham, but I know activists from my constituency don’t exactly feel inspired to go and campaign there now,’ says one Labour MP

^{David Maddox (The Independent)}

Video Montage: Use Of Chemical Gas In Portland - January 31 and February 1, 2026 | 1:54

Heavy use of chemical gas in Portland Oregon.

Here is a collection of video clips from January 31 and February 1, 2026.

Video clips, media and quotes posted to Mastodon by independent journalist Alissa Azar @alissaazar on Jan 30 and Feb 1, 2026

[Edit: Removed background audio, updated captions]

#Portland #ICE #Gas

Hansen’s disease (leprosy) is treatable today in large part because of the work of Alice Ball, a 23-year-old chemist whose breakthrough turned a toxic folk remedy into the world’s first effective treatment.

Her science saved lives — but her legacy was nearly erased.

theconversation.com/a-young-bl…
#BlackHistoryMonth

A young Black scientist discovered a pivotal leprosy treatment in the 1920s − but an older colleague took the credit

Historians are working to shine a light on Alice Ball’s legacy and contributions to an early treatment of a dangerous and stigmatizing disease.

^{The Conversation}

Report: A Minnesotan man was treated for a shattered skull after an encounter with ICE agents.

The agents said he had “purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall” while trying to escape their custody.

But nurses who treated him said, "There was no way this person ran headfirst into a wall, [given] the sheer number of skull fractures... & internal bleeding".

truthout.org/articles/minneapo…

#USPol #ICE #EUPol #CdnPoli #racism #press #Minnesota .

Minneapolis Mayor Warns of “Invasion” as More ICE Horror Stories Emerge

Nurses are raising red flags about a man who was treated for a shattered skull after an encounter with ICE agents.

^{Brad Reed (Truthout)}

Report: At the present rate, urgent medical evacuations from Gaza would take a year.

"More than 1,000 Palestinians have died waiting for medical evacuation".

~James Smith, emergency doctor

aje.news/48xd9d?update=4283619

#GazaGenocide #USPol #EUPol #CdnPoli #BDS #palestine #DisplacementReplacement #GazaMedicalEvacuation #Press .

Updates: Only 5 patients leave Gaza after Israel reopens Rafah crossing

Very few patients have left Gaza on the first day of opening, as critics say ‘no information, no promises’ from Israel.

^{Edna Mohamed (Al Jazeera)}

I run a website called fediverseresources.com

Check it out!

A Resource For Figuring Out The Fediverse - Fediverse Resources

This little page started on my personal blog. It slowly took on a life of it's own. So here we are with our own domain name and site.

^{Seth (Fediverse Resources)}