Kat Tenbarge

@kattenbarge

Independent journalist covering tech, culture, and politics @spitfirenews.com. Buy me a coffee:

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Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· Jun 24

My younger brother picked the perfect time to visit NYC for the first time. Right after the Knicks won and right as DSA candidates are winning all over the city. He’s a huge Zohran fan all the way from Indianapolis and said his only letdown is not getting to meet him

Kat and her younger (but much taller) brother Luke standing side by side in the middle of Times Square. Kat is wearing a green shirt and black leggings with a New Yorker tote. Luke is wearing an Indianapolis firefighter t-shirt (his occupation) and blue shorts. They’re both holding umbrellas

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· Jun 2

Happy Pride Month :)

Kat and her fiancée Anna hold hands and face each other under a cherry blossom tree in Kyoto, Japan

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· May 26

Did you know Colombia has the highest bird diversity of any country on Earth? There are about 2,000 species found here! Got to visit the national aviary today and saw about 150 of them!

Some green parrots nuzzling on a branch. One appears to be cleaning the other’s feathers.

A blue and brown parrot sitting on a fence

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· May 24

This sounds like the beginning of a horror movie. And I truly hope it turns out that way—for him

A tweet from far-right Florida gubernatorial candidate James Fishback that says “I met her last week, got engaged on Wednesday, completed all of Catholic marriage prep on Thursday, found a venue Friday, and got married yesterday. Now hire me as Governor so I can deliver this level of speed and efficiency for Florida.” The tweet includes four photos of Fishback and his new wife, including them at a restaurant and three selfies

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· May 22

After everyone telling him his final season sucked I can only imagine how good Eric Kripke feels right now. Happy for him!

A screenshot of The Boys creator Eric Kripke’s X post that is itself a screenshot of Elon Musk’s X posts. Musk write “Kripke probably got flack from his wife’s bf for Homelander being used in based memes and had to write that ending as a groveling apology” and “I’m not upset, just remarking that the ending sounds fake and gay.” Kripke wrote “HAHAHAHAH. He’s posting. MULTIPLE TIMES. Also I have notes on his joke writing.”

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· May 21

We’re going to be seeing a lot more of this sentiment. Do not trust these people.

A screenshot of part of an X post that says “I am a massive, unapologetic AI enthusiast and this is NOT the future I had in mind.”

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· May 19

Oh wow, I should have done this first. I just checked out the supposed post in question and it’s even worse than I thought. Only a meme video he posted has that many views. The actual files he posted have fewer likes/views than some of my Epstein posts on Bluesky with 1/4 of his X following. Jesus

The first Liam Nissan post in his thread has 585,000 views and is a 36 second meme video about the Epstein Files

Liam Nissan’s posts about Donald Trump mentioned in the Epstein Files have 1.5k and 1.2k likes each and show screenshots of emails mentioning Trump.

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· May 19

You’re not getting half a million eyeballs on the Epstein Files. These numbers are inflated, bot-driven, and they don’t represent actual clicks, let alone reading them. You’re getting eyeballs on your own post is what you’re doing. We talk about Epstein on a platform that isn’t owned by his friends.

A post from the account Liam Nissan that reads: “My pinned tweet is a list of the most egregious Epstein files linking Donald to Jeffrey and it has about 500,000 views in the last three weeks. I’m getting eyes on files. You’re over here on BlueSky discussing mycology and pretending you’re ‘too good for Twitter’”

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· May 2

Good spicy wontons

Pork wontons with chili oil and Dan Dan noodles with pork from White Bear in Flushing, Queens

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· Apr 27

I couldn’t agree more with what Julie K. Brown is saying here. Michael Tracey’s misconduct is not funny. I understand why people mock him, but it would be nice to see more of our media peers actually seriously condemn his treatment of women.

A post on X from Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist Julie K. Brown about Michael Tracey screaming at her and obstructing her ability to get away from him at the Substack WHCD event: “When someone who labels himself a journalist starts screaming at you and blocking your path to walk away from a confrontation, it isn’t funny. I was more than rattled at how aggressive he was. It was scary and uncalled for, and journalists should be denouncing this behavior not laughing at it.”

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· Apr 26

The conduct Julie K Brown describes here is beyond unacceptable. Would love to see Michael Tracey face some actual consequences for this instead of it just being laughed off and justified.

A post on X from Julie K. Brown that says “@Acosta was a true gentleman who came to my aid last night after Tracey began screaming and blocking me from trying to leave the event. Acosta and several other men had to stand in his way to stop him from following me.”

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· Apr 13

I wrote about how Eric Swalwell supporters tried to reframe the sexual violence allegations against him as a MAGA hoax, how some folks fell for it, and how this kind of rhetoric actually mirrors Trump's line of defense against his own accusers. For @spitfirenews.com spitfirenews.com/p/eric-swalw...

Attorneys like Dabaie know how to use their client’s upper hand, as do press secretaries like Leavitt. They know that people are often swayed by the narrative that a victim was not acting like a victim in the immediate wake of an alleged assault. They know that people like to imagine survivors are actually fabulists who invent their allegations later on to try and collect a payday or sway an election. The perception that survivors stand to benefit from coming forward persists despite years of Me Too backlash showing just how much survivors are punished for doing so. A negligible number of survivors profit from speaking out, while the costs of being victimized—both literal and metaphorical—outweigh any payout.

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· Mar 17

This piece from Megan is so powerful. Detailing her story like this is a public service, one she recognizes may negatively impact her life and yet chose to do anyways.

An excerpt from a Substack post published by Megan Wachspress, who has accused Chicago area congressional candidate Daniel Biss of embarking on an inappropriate relationship with her when she was an undergraduate under his instruction. Afterward, she left math. She wrote: “And so, much later than I should, I realized this was my last chance, and I said something. I know it’s going to get ugly - it always does in these cases - but if there is one woman in a mathematics (or physics, or economics, or chemistry, or computer science) department out there who feels a little bit more empowered to recognize grooming for what it is, to insist on boundaries, to understand that no matter how flattering it may feel when the professor looks at you like that, it will destroy your relationship with the thing that really matters, which is what he is supposed to be teaching you, and you deserve better, well, it will have been worth it.”

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· Mar 6

Literally as I’m arguing with someone about whether AI companies are misleading people into believing their technology possesses God-like super-intelligence I see this monstrosity

A post on X from the betting platform Polymarket that says “BREAKING: Anthropic CEO says Claude may or may not have gained consciousness, as the model has begun showing symptoms of anxiety.”

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· Feb 23

Here’s a screen recording of the video where Kash Patel has Trump on the phone with the U.S. men’s hockey team and Trump invites them all to the SOTU, adding that he’ll have to invite the women’s team as well (to laughter from the men) or else he’ll be impeached

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· Feb 18

Melissa Nathan, through her lawyer Bryan Freedman, denies that said meeting ever took place or that she would ever meet with Epstein. But you won't hear about her denial from any mainstream media sources, because they exclusively shared it with a pro-Baldoni, anti-Lively podcaster.

An excerpt from the aforementioned Spitfire News article: One of those publicists, Nathan, is mentioned in the Epstein Files regarding a May 5, 2017 meeting scheduled between Epstein and Hiltzik that Sosenko and Nathan were supposed to attend. Bryan Freedman, the lawyer representing Baldoni and Nathan against Lively, denied that this meeting took place in an exclusive statement he shared with Zack Peter, a militantly anti-Lively and pro-Baldoni podcast host who gained attention in recent days for spreading cruel, baseless conspiracies that broadcaster Savannah Guthrie is hiding information from the public about her mother’s highly-publicized kidnapping.

This is reminiscent of when Depp’s lawyer Adam Waldman testified that he had been in contact with three pro-Depp YouTubers, engaging with them like he would with journalists. In Nathan’s case, the people most likely to care that she’s in the Epstein Files is the audience most avidly following the case against her and Baldoni. By issuing a denial through such a partisan source, she and Freedman are speaking through and to their most sympathetic audience. The mainstream media has yet to pick up on this, shielding the denial from much scrutiny. Peter didn’t respond to my request for comment.

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· Feb 15

Valentine’s Day with my favorite person and my favorite sushi in NYC (Yokox Omakase)

A grayish decorative bowl filled with tuna in a dark brown broth, topped with caviar and garnishes

A piece of seared A5 wagyu steak atop rice with a dark brown sauce

Some kind of seared fish over rice with a dab of orange sauce and a green garnish

Kat gives her fiancée Anna a kiss on the cheek in a selfie. Kat is wearing a red dress over a long sleeved black shirt and Anna is wearing a black sweater

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· Feb 7

You don’t see a frozen NYC subway pole covered in icicles every day

A pole in the Cortlandt Street subway station covered in icicles

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· Jan 28

Hundreds of people gathered and marched in downtown NYC tonight to protest ICE killing Alex Pretti. The crowd chanted “Fuck Hilton” outside one of their hotels. One man staying in a room there held up a sign saying “Fuck ICE” in his window.

A crowd of hundreds gathered in downtown Manhattan tonight to protest ICE killing Alex Pretti. The crowd in this picture wearing coats and hats (it was 15 degrees), standing outside a Hilton hotel yelling, at times, “Fuck Hilton!” One sign says “The whole world is watching”

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· Jan 14

I talked to @thorbenson.bsky.social about why and how people are getting their news from social media, plus how AI poses a massive threat to an already damaging and fractured media ecosystem madness.ghost.io/kat-tenbarge...

Kat is quoted in Thor Benson’s madness. The text reads: “”It's no surprise to me that the people at the top of the AI industry are closely aligned with not only Donald Trump's administration, but also authoritarian movements around the globe, because AI at scale is a tool of disillusionment and disempowerment,’ Tenbarge says.
AI is designed to ensure people don't know what's real, Tenbarge says, and that makes it helpful to anyone hoping to spread propaganda.”

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· Jan 5

Just burst out laughing at the words "Bluesky celebrity"

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· Jan 2

And a few more for the road!

Kat is facing the lake, which is surrounded by Christmas lights. She’s wearing a blue faux satin minidress over a black long sleeved shirt. Anna, her fiancée, is turned toward the camera with her face resting on Kat’s shoulder. She’s wearing dark red lipstick and a white sweater dress.

Kat and Anna hold hands, turned toward each other, looking slightly off camera toward the purple and blue wall of a rainbow Christmas light tunnel. There are some people walking behind them and their faces are illuminated by purple lights.

A closeup photo of Kat and Anna’s engagement rings. Kat is pointing at Anna’s, which is a modern oval diamond with a diamond-studded band. Kat’s ring is a vintage square set of three diamonds. Kat has light brown nail polish and Anna has dark brown nail polish. Their hands are placed over Kat’s white faux fur scarf.

Anna hugs Kat from behind on a brick pathway surrounded by yellow fairy lights draped over tree branches and a black picket fence.

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· Jan 2

Less than a year until our wedding and we got our engagement pictures back 💛🥰

Kat and her fiancée Anna embrace with their foreheads touching in front of a spinning carousel that is blurry with motion. Kat is wearing a white faux fur scarf, a dark minidress and heeled gray boots. Anna is wearing a white sweater dress and tall dark boots.

Kat and Anna are pictured in a bamboo forest clearing surrounded by twinkling yellow string lights. Kat is kissing Anna’s forehead while she smiles

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· Dec 4

This is the first time I’ve ever seen my cat interact with a Christmas tree and so far he just loves posing with it

Kat’s senior tabby cat ET sits on a red Christmas tree skirt under a lit green Christmas tree and looks up at the camera. He’s sitting next to a cardboard holiday house

Kat’s senior tabby cat ET is loafing on a red Christmas tree skirt under a lit green Christmas tree and looking at the camera. He’s sitting next to a cardboard holiday house

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· Dec 1

For my next trick I used leftover pastrami and leftover Thanksgiving mac and cheese

A white bowl filled with delicious, gluttonous Mac and cheese mixed with bits of pastrami

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· Nov 29

My fiancée’s family has the most wonderful post-Thanksgiving tradition I lovingly refer to as the pastrami pile

The extra large pastrami sandwich from Harold’s New York Deli in Edison. It’s about the size of two babies in its towering glory. The meat is comically balanced between two slices of rye bread with American flag toothpicks and served with an entire loaf of rye on the side, along with stone ground mustard and coleslaw

The extra large pastrami sandwich from Harold’s New York Deli in Edison, with a fork held in front of it for scale

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· Nov 26

Finally got to try Radio Bakery in Prospect Heights today on our way to the Brooklyn Museum! The brown butter corn cake is easily one of the best bites I’ve had in NYC.

Brown butter corn cake and a brown butter apple croissant from Radio Bakery. The apple slices are arranged such that the croissant looks a bit like a trilobite from the Paleozoic Era

A pumpkin cheesecake croissant (circular) with Chantilly cream and some glazed pumpkin seeds on top from Radio Bakery

A box from Radio Bakery with a shakshouka focaccia (top) and a smoked salmon focaccia (bottom) complete with cream cheese, dill, and onions

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· Nov 18

My friend @asarch.bsky.social and I are soft launching our livestream about theme parks and internet culture with MrBeast’s controversial new venture in Saudi Arabia—you can watch it live now! www.youtube.com/live/G_nzPIf...

The teaser for YouTuber MrBeast’s temporary theme park in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a part of the government’s plan to improve its cultural reputation. A yellow arrow points to a rule in the theme park that says visitors must adhere to Saudi Arabian cultural rules and values

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· Nov 1

For a quick and easy costume may I recommend Peter Thiel’s vision of the Antichrist

Kat is wearing red devil horns, black lipstick and a black t-shirt that says “Do not talk to me about AI I will kill myself”

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge· Oct 31

On top of everything else, JD Vance can't even get "reek" versus "wreak" right. Pitiful