parts of the law enforcement apparatus in this country, both federal and local, is behaving as if we are in an autocracy or a State of Exception is in effect, but they can't actually...do autocracy/SOE things, because of what I can only describe as institutional inertia

We underestimate how impactful harassment and threats of violence are on politicians. Clear, large uptick in the number of major incumbent politicians not running/retiring specifically due to harassments and threats of violence. The harassers are like 0.1% of the population but hugely impactful.

STATEMENT: Maryland’s childhood vaccine schedule will continue to follow the guidance of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Read the full statement from Health Secretary Dr. Meena Seshamani: bit.ly/3Nffp0B.

Made up a song this weekend for my kid to help him clean up his room. Maybe it will help your kids (or you). To the tune of Frere Jacques: Pick up something. (rep) Where's it go? (rep) Any other things that go there? (rep) Put them all away. (rep)

Another reason for the changes, given by a "senior official" is that we don't have good enough information to accurately quantify vaccine risks. This is a lie. One that HHS head RFK Jr. says often. www.aap.org/en/news-room...

3/3 We urgently need Congress to reassert its war powers and hold Trump accountable for violating the Constitution. As we monitor the situation with concern, we know that authoritarians use wars to justify and distract from human rights abuses at home. We are deeply concerned about what is to come.

Once again, I implore media outlets to stop saying these are CDC decisions. These are changes being made unilaterally by RFK Jr. against the expert advice of CDC scientists. I note that RFK Jr. no longer recommends flu vaccine for kids in the midst of a horrible influenza year.

Normalize just responding with “oh”

i realllllly want to stress that this change is most likely going to be stopped in court, and quickly. but the confusion rfk jr. is spreading is also part of the project. that’s long term damage

In our family the steps are 1. Throw away trash 2. Take dishes to the kitchen 3. Put laundry in the basket 4. Look for things on the floor and put them away 5. Look for things on surfaces and put them away They're posted on the wall along with a list of (not shamey) reasons to clean.

"Democrats succeed in reducing crime and creating safe communities, while Republicans want to terrorize dishwashers and housekeepers when they're not demanding to inspect your kids' genitals" shouldn't be that hard of a message to communicate

December 12, 2025: CFPB Union NTEU 335 members rally after ten months of illegal efforts by Russell Vought and Donald Trump to shut down the CFPB. We are still fighting. #savecfpb #stopvought

Made up a song this weekend for my kid to help him clean up his room. Maybe it will help your kids (or you). To the tune of Frere Jacques: Pick up something. (rep) Where's it go? (rep) Any other things that go there? (rep) Put them all away. (rep)

Remember, to reporters the worst things a president can do are 1. End a war, and 2. Refuse to talk to them about nothing in particular

16yo. "'months & months... [some of the other young people] go through a period of madness. They start talking to themselves. They start walking around aimlessly.' "Kevin said he spent his time reading or playing with his hands, enduring the confinement in the hope of seeing his family again."

Josh Marshall on the mistaken assumption that there is “a” reason why we attacked Venezuela. I have an odd perspective on this, since I spent ages fixating on the analogous question about Iraq. It started when I noticed that none of the books about how we went to war in Iraq mentioned a DECISION.

No. No. No. Punitive processes make narrowly targeted programs *less* efficient and *more* costly. Because more scrutiny requires more bureaucracy. Punitive processes also make it *less* likely that people will get aid for which they qualify. Because of the roadblocks and stigma scrutiny creates.

yep. i can identify any number of structural issues but at the end of the day the basic problem is the republican party. this has been apparent for at least 20 years. it is also an incredibly unpopular observation to make among “serious” people.

Rough vibes on this website today, likely because people feel Hopeless and Helpless Because Can't Stop It and No One Who Is Supposed To Is Trying To So Now We're Fighting Each Other™. I recommend activities such as book, or potentially instrument if you like instrument, or even do talk on phone.

A thread for local Jewish parents on whether to take kids to the David movie seemed to mostly decide that the kids would probably miss all the Christian overtones of the movie. Which... well, I don't want my kids to have Christian ideas about Tanach subliminally given to them.

Trump/Hegseth/Rubio killed 40 Venezuelan civilians two days ago. They've been murdering random fishermen for weeks. Think about that. Really think about that. Think about shaking the hand of someone responsible for that. Think about writing a news article about them and not mentioning that.

The best explanation I've read of what's wrong with Trump's actions in Venezuela

Of course it's a foolish claim even if they had said what they meant. "Anyone who doesn't interpret the Bible the same way as me must not have read it" is the sort of thing you say when you yourself have not read much of the Bible in question.

I know that clowning on the Trump admin--filled with a bunch of degenerate, social‑media‑poisoned neo‑Nazis who have no plan beyond crime and plunder--might be fun. But please don't forget that at least 40 civilians have been murdered in this illegal stunt, and their suffering often goes unnoticed

You don’t have to want kids or even enjoy being around them. But it’s also worth unpacking why kids simply existing, learning, or having unmet needs reads as “annoying,” “unlikeable,” or “bad behavior.” This collective discomfort with noise, need, & vulnerability is why many ADULTS are struggling.

@socio-steve.bsky.social knows ball

absolutely bizarre to see a violent, rogue american regime, which is threatening military attacks on a bunch of major trading partners and close allies, and openly fantasizing about hitler-style wars of territorial conquest, covered in the tone of horse-race political commentary

These new technologies are not going away, but there's value in learning how to use them for *our* individual purposes rather than allowing them to bend us to *their* attention-sucking and profit-maximizing purposes. Like, microwaves were good, but "better living thru a 100% microwaved diet" was bad

I am trying to find the right term for the idea that governing decisions are disproportionately shaped by perceptions based from online bubbles, or aimed to please an imagined online audience. What would be a good term? *poster brain? *podcast brain? What else?

okay so they literally expect to run another country by truth social post, I can’t see any way this could possibly go wrong

See, it’s not hard to denounce this and toe it into the larger pattern of criminality.

if personnel is policy, then the most fundamental questions about an institution is not "what are the policy directives" but rather "what will get you promoted" vs. "what will get you fired"

17 states have legislative term limits, most for 30+ years. We have *mountains* of data on this. It all points in the same direction: term limits bad.

Venezuelan intelligence probably weren't monitoring polymarket activity a few days ago, but you can bet Mexican intelligence are now.

Speaking with the president is not the same as getting newsworthy information from the president. And Trump's dishonesty can often lead to unhelpful "Trump said" articles, in which what he says is centered, rather than the truth. I suspect it also leads to the excessive emphasis on Trump's moods.

This also seems an awful lot like a whistleblower who knew something fucked up was about to happen went to the press and the press just sat on it.

Yesterday, our Rabbi prefaced our usual English-language prayer for peace with "especially important given the news this morning" and I felt a sense of dread. I had not heard the news yet, and was just waiting for the awfulness.

Also, critically, it is based on a *lie.* Not the lie of America a Cruel Empire Worse than All Others, but the lie - regurgitated endlessly - that there is some vast consensus position internationally of hostility to America itself and the Pax Americana. There is not! We see this again & again!

I don’t understand how the first reaction from leadership isn’t “This is an impeachable offense. My colleagues must defund Hegseth and begin drafting articles immediately.” Like, even if it doesn’t get done, how are you not planting this flag in the ground immediately?

Okay here’s an actual take: the fascist international is at war with the very concept of legitimacy.

So, value expression probably rules the roost here, leading to policy that ends up taking the shape of gratuitous displays of dominance cut off from sophisticate instrumental thinking -- which is one way of thinking about how this has played out. (11/n)

for me, the apparent absence of any serious policy process, clear thinking about the national interest or more concrete foreign-policy goals, or effort to look down the game tree is impressive even by Trump standards (1/n)

What I mean is that their own conception of How Politics Would Work in Europe was still fundamentally nationalist and ethnicity-based in exactly the way modern neo-Bundists claim is Zionism's great illiberal sin, instead of being some anachronistic postnational movement

Nobody talks enough about the Jewish Autonomous Oblast and why that didn’t succeed

guys, "the judges at the ICC are being sanctioned by the USA and can't access their iphones or bank accounts" and "why aren't any countries banning twitter or prosecuting elon musk for owning a site that manufactures CSAM" stories are the same story

But seriously I'm begging you to stop seeing everything through this narrow moral binary where everyone is a goodie or a baddie, it's so childish

For the good of society, individuals should be way more concerned with obligations than with rights, but societies should be way more concerned with rights than with obligations

Like ultimately the Bund was just Wrong about the reality of their world. Whether Zionism is incorrect or not is a standing question, but the Bund just clearly failed, and people responded accordingly to the failure of that ideology to protect them or help them thrive.

I like Mamdani too, but Weiss's opinions mean literally nothing, his whole career has been getting himself on TV for saying something contrarian. The group he represents is a tiny fraction of the people who dress like him (which, loosely speaking, includes me)