They went to war with Iran (which nobody in America was asking for) so they could conjure an excuse to allow ICE to keep murdering Americans and teargassing schools here at home with impunity (which nobody in America was asking for).

jesus

Six suspected insiders made $1.2M betting on a US strike on Iran these wallets • were funded in the last 24h • specifically bet for February 28 • bought "yes" hours before the strikes

Sky once again with the lathe of heaven

A data point to remember re: “popularism” is that the popular position on what is happening in Iran and happened in Venezuela is “no war, this is insane, full stop” and the moderate elected officials we are supposed to like are saying contorted, legalistic, unpopular word salad instead of that.

Democrats are still in the defensive crouch George W Bush's aggressive domestic warmongering put them into after 9/11. They don't believe you can politically survive opposition to any aggressive foreign policy. (This seems like zombie common sense, to me)

On top of all the reporting that this war of aggression was planned well in advance, it seems that the reporting also indicates that the US political leadership are quite literally too stupid to understand basic diplomacy. I mean literally not smart enough.

Can I say that I think it’s very bad in it’s own right for what it is and also it is very either way re constitutionality but for different reasons?

I think also the weaponization of the DOJ, and all the RFKjr stuff

evergreen

This is presented as an aside, but we can’t overstate how big a deal it is that the USG and Silicon Valley have both rejected the moral superiority and lower risk of engagement they used to enjoy against China. It was our last remaining competitive advantage, and now there are no upsides to US tech.

We killed 85 schoolgirls. We are not the good guys.

bad

Here’s the thing: a President openly contemptuous of Congress & willing, unilaterally, to recklessly and illegally commit the US to wars of aggression is an existential threat to the Republic, *regardless* of whether he can ultimately explain his acts to Congress. The demand must be impeachment.

bad

The strikes on Iran are blatantly illegal. I explained in June why the strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities were unlawful under US and international law. Everything I wrote then is true today, but this is a far larger assault with far graver consequences. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/23/o...

It would be cool to have a legislature that acted to defend its own constitutional prerogatives and, maybe as a treat, the interests of the people it represents too.

And the answer we were looking for was nowhere, never

Stop calling the department of defense by the fake tough unofficial name the fake tough babies gave it. By statute & still by statute, it’s the department of defense. Stop accepting this juvenile garbage masquerading as accomplishments. Be an adult. Demand our officials be adults

I’m on an “Ideas Landlord” one because I’m pro-copyright.

a whole lot of businesspeople learning in real time that a predictable and stable regulatory state - even if you don’t like some of the regulations - is vastly preferable to “boss man doesn’t like you so you’re fucked now”

Radiohead is demanding that the Trump administration take down a pro-ICE promotional video featuring a version of its song “Let Down” without permission. Full statement from the band:

im not holding my breath but glad to see cm saying this

If the president could unilaterally change federal election law without Congress, it would destroy the Framers' design. That is why any legal claim of inherent presidential authority to regulate elections during a supposed "national security emergency" must be vigorously opposed.

Forthcoming from me in the Annual Review of Political Science: "Participatory Democracy and Its Limits." Download a complete preprint here: kevinjelliott.wordpress.com/wp-content/u...

sure but they didnt know about liverking

One function of the demonization of “DEI” as an umbrella label is to lump together stuff that’s at least debatable with a bunch of stuff no sane person would ever object to if you were actually described the specific thing you’re talking about.

my 4 year old has started saying "fricken" a lot

Entirely possible that this is a legal reprogramming of funds. Also entirely possible that this is an illegal transfer or other violation of the Antideficiency Act. And this administration has absolutely no claim to getting the benefit of the doubt, so I'd like to see the receipts, please.

nothing says "strong fighter" better than not fighting the authoritarian president but instead yelling at trans people, refugees, and the homeless

the thing that you think is some complicated error is always actually a typo

fellas is it woke to have some qualms about starting skynet

Thanks to the Nature team for digging into this. Apportionment is one of those inside-baseball issues that I hoped never to need to learn about... But here was are.

Finally, frosting for men.

The appropriators in Congress need to live up to the bill and guidance they passed and haul Russell Vought before the committee to answer for this

every time some horrifying sexual assault/failure of accountability in the Michigan comes to light Warde Manuel basically shrugs and says "pobody's nerfect" and then nothing changes

this is horrifying

right wing pastors are screaming, crying, throwing up because John Piper posted a Bible verse on the everything app.

truly rancid vibes today

Mass horror at the killings of Renee Good & Alex Pretti has DHS’s budget at stake. And yet in the past week, agents left a blind refugee to die alone. And lied about it. They pretended to be police looking for a missing child, to detain a college kid. And lied about it. What does this tell you?

This week's cover @thelancet.com

i cannot stop thinking about this man, who survived the Rohingya genocide but couldn’t survive border patrol. “He died trying to get home” is a gut punch

“The court is not aware of another occasion in the history of the US in which a federal court has had to threaten contempt—again & again & again—to force the US govt. to comply with court orders” *210* violations of court orders in MN alone according to Reagan-appointed judge x.com/rparloff/sta...

“This is a plot to interfere with the will of voters and undermine both the rule of law and public confidence in our elections.” www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

The North Carolina organizers of Moral Mondays built a broad coalition (labor + faith + civil rights + enviro + LGBTQ) using sustained action to beat back the extreme-right—and they offer real lessons for resisting Trump’s anti-democratic crackdown now. inthesetimes.com/article/what...

seems bad

not me, *I* will change the propaganda platform to be more like *my* values

I'm with @devezer.bsky.social, you *absolutely* cannot test for p-hacking. These tests universally assume p-hacking, and nothing else under the sun, explain deviations from idealized distributions and then claim to have found it.