rice is life, and I got a thread to share about rice: Park Chung-hee's obsession to make South Korea rice self-sufficient in the 1970s changed everything about the country, including your favorite Korean foods and the urban environment 🧵

‘Don’t go to the US – not with Trump in charge’: the UK tourist with a valid visa detained by ICE for six weeks

Yoon Suk Yeol sentenced to life in prison for leading insurrection in South Korea

Rereading Hickman’s Fantastic Four and I have to say that his techbro take on Reed has not aged well.

American culture of the 1840’s would have been *very fucking surprised* to see the Irish considered as co-founders. Elon’s an ahistorical dipshit, but its always worth saying some stuff out loud: if you‘re a fellow Irish-American and you aren’t 100% pro-immigrant, you’re a fucking embarassment.

Same old, same old. This is about the Canadian Exclusion Act in 1923.

This is absolutely terrible. The Tavistock clinic was an absolute good, destroyed by TERF Island and NHS England.

I'd like at add a few things to this. (1) humanists have not been able to convince any political party that curiosity-driven humanities research is a public good that should be funded using tax dollars. Republicans don't believe this, but neither do Democrats.

"Epstein class" is terrific not simply because several of them are directly tied to Epstein's crimes, but because it strikes at the corruption, immorality and impunity of that entire circle.

GM: Charisma check. Mamdani: [rolls natural 20] GM: that’s a d6 how did you Mamdani: [direct to camera] Did you know you can check out board games at your local public library? 😊

No, really, @washingtonpost.com, I am the one who is sorry to see you go. Farewell to what was once my go-to, trusted news source. I'm sorry that you had to die in darkness.

😬

This took me fucking ages

Beware of any Christian movement that demands the government be an instrument of God's wrath but never a source of God's charity, mercy, or compassion.

Poverty is deepening. 🔎 Our #UKPoverty2026 report was launched this morning. People in very deep poverty now make up the biggest group of people in poverty, at 6.8 million people. This is unacceptable for the fifth richest country in the world, and it has consequences.

Bitterly disappointing that the UK has lost its Measles elimination status again. "UN health body says Britain is one of six countries in Europe and central Asia where disease has become re-established"

pretty wild statement re: Republican Chris Madel drop from race for MN governor: "Saying he cannot support the national GOP's 'stated retribution on citizens of our state, nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so."

part of this is like, conservatives projecting; part of this is conservatives unable to imagine politics without money; and part of this is dudes who are so out of touch with feminized labor that they think children's birthday parties exist as a spontaneous act of parthogenesis

This was just me making this comparison yesterday, but today the Korean news is calling Minnesota "America's Gwangju" and have human rights lawyers explaining how America is now living through the dictatorship Korea once had.

Walz: "To Americans who are watching this, I've got a question for you: What side do you want to be on? The side of an all powerful federal govt that can kill, injury, menace, & kidnap its citizens off the streets? Or on the side of a nurse at the VA hospital who died bearing witness to such govt?"

I am past 'retrain ICE.' I am past 'reform ICE.' I am past 'abolish ICE.' I am at 'imprison ICE.'

a very good, thoughtful Helen Gao piece on actual *life in China* at the moment - and whether the economic slowdown and social crisis is making for a more interesting, thoughtful way of living for young people. foreignpolicy.com/2026/01/23/c...

If the admin's strategic goal was to break public resistance to immigration enforcement activities, it was a tactical mistake to go to the Twin Cities.

"What I would really love to see — and the tech companies I'm talking to are very excited about this — is a situation where, if you like, Big Brother is watching you. A Thought Police could really transform the law and order space so that we can catch people before they even commit crimes."

What an embarrassing circus this regime is 🎪

Sir, you can’t break up with someone who already blocked your number

Suggestions welcome.

I cannot tell you how absolutely infuriatingly this stuff comes across to Europeans. When we say America is no longer a reliable ally, it goes considerably deeper than Donald Trump himself. This kind of complacent, condescending shit is a *huge* part of it.

You could’ve fooled us…

🚨HOLY CRAP. An ICE whistleblower just revealed a secret memo authorizing ICE officers to break into homes without a judicial warrant, which DHS's own legal training materials say is unconstitutional! ICE then hid the memo from the public, passing it along by word of mouth and private conversation.

It cannot be made clearer. If you continue to support the Harry Potter franchise in any way, you are directly funding the removal of trans people's human rights in the UK.

If nothing else, pretty amazing Canadian PM Carney said the quiet part out loud today: international law has never been real and the ‘rules’ of the international order have never applied to the US and its allies. This may indeed be the actual death of neoliberalism. globalnews.ca/news/1162087...

“The speed, the scope and the severity of the attacks on science are beyond anything we’ve ever seen,” says @gretchentg.bsky.social. My @nature.com story on the human toll of the 2nd Trump presidency. Thx to @dochfroehlich.bsky.social, @briannosek.bsky.social, @katharinehayhoe.com & others.

A joke for the history buffs.

Minneapolis and Saint Paul have basically mobilized into a war economy of mutual aid and non-violent defense. I’ve never seen anything like it, even during Covid. People who barely vote are guarding their schools from ICE and doing the shopping for neighbors in hiding.

‘I was afraid for my life’: the transgender refugees fleeing Trump’s America

Lancelot Blackburne, also Bishop of Exeter.

Córy Doctorow with another verbal bullseye: pluralistic.net/2026/01/13/n...

Two people you should never trust; A religious leader who tells you how to vote, and a polition who tells you how to pray.

This opens up wider questions about how far the UK and Canada in the 5 eyes intel sharing framework as well as other former allies of the United States can still provide the Americans with any sensitive intelligence information at all

The books of @wiswell.bsky.social, @percivaleverett.bsky.social, and @franceshardinge.bsky.social were invaluable in getting me through last year.

Because you know that truth is not the same as what you want to hear.

wrote about the occupation in minnesota with a closing note on how the white house has exactly one tactic — repression with goons — but no particular strategy for dealing with entrenched resistance. gift link.

“A federal judge on Friday barred federal agents in Minneapolis from arresting peaceful protesters, or using nonlethal munitions and crowd control tools against them.” www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

Is there a bureau of exactly how much everyone should care about each thing and does the Atlantic run it and how does it measure that care and who exactly is the left anyway, and here we are in the US of A where the right regards human rights violations unto death with grisly enthusiasm, hello?

A lawless regime — breaking the law to protect powerful pedophiles

Of course the Home Secretary should not be allowed to dismiss police officers - it’s ridiculous to suggest it.