TBF they’re not that far apart. 40k also has more than a little WWI in Space
11.03.2026 03:22
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TBF they’re not that far apart. 40k also has more than a little WWI in Space
I am such a sucker for anything that’s like “it’s World War I… IN SPAAACCEEE!”
youtu.be/JUmGUecdj1o?...
It's funny watching a Fairfax County report and remembering when I used to take one item (crime stats, a parks update, etc) and find ways to spin that out into five stories. I'm almost nostalgic for that.
Now it's "take this whole meeting and find one 15 second soundbite"
Installed Stellaris to play the Star Trek mod. Opened it: rows of spreadsheets and obtuse mechanics. Close and uninstall. Trying Endless Space 2 instead for that sci-fi 4x kick.
My name is Marisa Kabas, and I'm an independent journalist who publishes The Handbasket. I'm reaching out about a matter that involves your team and that continues to trouble me. In June of last year, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and I filed a FOIA lawsuit against the DC Metropolitan Police Department to compel them to release body camera footage from the March 17, 2025 DOGE raid on the US Institute of Peace. What followed was months of back and forth with their lawyers, arguing why it was in the public interest to release the un-redacted footage in its entirety. Though tiny segments were handed over, that wasn't enough: We wanted all of it. On February 18, 2026, a DC judge ruled in our favor, and your reporter Mark Segraves sent a kind note of congratulations that day. Then on Monday, March 2nd, the footage was handed over to me and excitedly announced I'd received it and would be reviewing it in the coming days and sharing what I learned. When Segraves emailed me this past Thursday asking for my phone number, I didn't think much of it. But when he called me just before 2pm on Friday to let me know NBC4 Washington would be airing a segment at 5pm, I grew concerned. Segraves said he'd obtained some of the footage via a FOIA request that week after he heard the footage had been released to me. He said he'd credit the work of RCFP and me, but it was little comfort. I asked if he'd known the day before when he emailed me for my number, why didn't he tell me then? He didn't have a good answer for that. He acknowledged all the hard work I'd done getting this footage released. I asked him if he could hold the story until Monday, to which he replied that he's "not just a blogger" (implying that that's all I am, presumably) and that he'd have to check with his editor. I said fine. Nearly an hour later he called back to say his editor refused to hold the story, but that they were happy to interview me via Zoom to add to the package, and I said I would.
What followed was two hours of furiously writing and posting clips of the footage to Youtube so I could get something published before the 5pm broadcast, and in the midst of that, recording a quick Zoom interview with a person who was about to take credit for my work. At 4:59pm ET, The Handbasket published a piece titled "Police body cam footage shows DOGE knew Institute of Peace was private property during raid." Then I tuned into NBC4 Washington via your website to catch the broadcast, and my instinct to rush to get something out first was proven right. "It's a story you're seeing first on News4," your newscast began. "For the first time we're getting an inside look at what happened the day the Trump administration took over the US Institute of Peace. News4 obtained more than four hours of police body camera video from that day." What followed was more than six minutes of clips and commentary from Segraves, but it's not until six minutes and 21 seconds into the piece that he mentions my name (mispronounced though he asked for the correct pronunciation on Zoom), "The Handbasket blog," and the RCFP's foundational role in bringing this footage to light. I was angry, but didn't feel there was much I could do. Then I saw the version NBC4 posted to Instagram and TikTok—the video itself made ZERO mention of the RCFP or my work, only briefly acknowledging it in the written caption on Instagram, and not even bothering to do that on TikTok. An average viewer with no background on the case is lead to believe that this footage was released because of your efforts. When I saw that, I decided I couldn't let this go. It's difficult to explain what it's like to spend nearly a year working on a story only to have another reporter and outlet surreptitiously take credit for it; months of work and personal risk only to have another reporter lying in wait to swoop in. What NBC4 did was immoral, unethical, and to be frank, just truly sucked.
I just sent this email to the news director at NBC4 Washington about the unprofessional and disrespectful way they handled publishing the body camera footage of the DOGE raid on the US Institute of Peace that was obtained via my FOIA lawsuit:
Oh 100%. It's required by state law but I was on the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) and spent nearly every meeting thinking "we absolutely don't need a Local Emergency Planning Committee"
Not to say that isn't way more complicated than it sounds or needs to be: I'm absolutely sure that it is
Don't know what the internal systems that the City uses for meetings looks like, I'm sure it's more than just drag and drop the way we do on WordPress or iNews, but hard to imagine it would be that difficult for someone on the commission to record audio on their phone and submit it --
That's me with Cormac McCarthy. There's a full two pages in Blood Meridian just describing a hellish scene and at the end of it I audibly whispered "oh god" just to turn the page and the next line is one of the characters whimpering "oh god"
Valid. "Bleak as fuck" is my favorite genre. The whole book isn't in second person but sections of it are.
There's a producer in the newsroom I thought hated me for the longest time until we bonded over both having this reaction every time they try to shove more AI stuff down our throats, and now he's one of the people here I'm probably tightest with
Was worried at first this was about N.K. Jemisin's Fifth Season
The most egregious example is the very influential Waterfront Commission, which meets stupid early (understandable as it's made up of business owners) and shapes a lot of policy for Old Town. Every meeting was recorded until 2024. I've been told it's because of technical hurdles, but I don't buy it.
Swivel from the actual point of this post but: In addition to the "Alexandria, Fairfax" nonsense my Alexandria crank issue is we never should have let the city get away backsliding on recording meetings after Covid.
www.alxnow.com/2022/05/11/a...
Spending obscene amounts of money to build artificial ruins is still somewhat popular in England
I know this is just the nature of doing news in the US but it does seem bizarre and a little vile that most of the top-line-item news stuff about the war against Iran is the impact on gas prices and not "we've murdered over 1,300 civilians in Iran including around 170 girls in a school"
I don’t work on the digital side but I’ll pass that along
(First one isn’t actually a fight, I just couldn’t find any other article from then with a quick search)
“It is 2015 and I am covering a bike lane fight in Alexandria”
“It is 2019 and I am covering a bike lane fight in Alexandria”
“It is 2026 and I am…”
Happened to be on a show to talk about other stuff when breaking news hits. If I knew this was going to happen I wouldn’t have come dressed like a New England fisherman: youtu.be/T9Y-WNBya2o?...
One of the producers is going with "Secretary No More" as their headline and I'm punching the drywall that I didn't come up with that first
One of the producers is going with "Secretary No More" as their headline and I'm punching the drywall that I didn't come up with that first
One of the producers is going with "Secretary No More" as their headline and I'm punching the drywall that I didn't come up with that first
So far the two songs that calm Cadien down when he’s crying are “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” and “Yub Nub (Ewok Victory Celebration”
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed...This is not a way of life...it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”
-Dwight Eisenhower 1953
never, ever, ever, ever accept "how will you pay for it?" as an argument against social programs.
I know that’s the most controversial take here, but I find the really meta, self-referential humor exhausting, annoying and cheap. They aren’t jokes, they’re Family Guy-type “remember this” banter.
What’s funny is ironically I think the crossover with SNW is one of the best episodes of that show.
It’s kind of funny how communities around the country have absolutely barren news scenes and then in Alexandria it’s like:
Just finished Discovery s3 to get through enough to watch Starfleet Academy. I *love* ranking things and not sure if I’ve posted my Trek ranking.
I haven seen TAS, Prodigy or Starfleet Academy yet.
1. TNG
2. DS9
3. TOS
4. SNW
5. VOY
6. Disco
7. ENT
8. Lower Decks
9. Picard