Go @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social ! What a wonderful day to be a progressive South Asian in NYC! This is the boost we need with the recent rise of the far right Desi in America.

Bywater Books has been named the 2024 Foreword INDIES Publisher of the Year! Please join us in celebrating this amazing honor from Foreword Reviews. #ForewordINDIES #PrideMonth #LGBTQBooks

If you have a dictionary that you don't show love Oh, yes, son, we're talking to you.

Again, worth at the last considering the possibility that he’s a malevolent idiot who has no idea what he’s doing.

Hey is it good to build a society where lonely people turn to chatbots?

Disruption is all they seem to understand—so that’s exactly what they’re getting. For 14 hours, @booker.senate.gov has been on the Senate floor, speaking truth within the rules. This cannot be business as usual when our democracy’s on the line. Thank you, senator.

NEW: A federal judge in Massachusetts has granted a temporary restraining order barring the Trump administration from deporting any person to a country they are not a national of (so-called 'third country removals') without written notice and an opportunity to apply for protection from that country.

What people in every part of higher education need to understand is that Republicans now want to do to universities what they’ve tried to do to labor unions: erase them from the institutional landscape. The question is how much you want to collaborate in your own destruction.

The publication, Global South, did a nice Q&A write up about my career in tech for social good / international development. Read here: globalsouth.org/2025/03/tech...

“One young man sobbed when a guard pushed him to the floor. He said, ‘I’m not a gang member. I’m gay. I’m a barber.’ I believed him. *** He “began to whimper,” as his head was roughly shaved, “folding his hands in prayer as his hair fell.” He “asked for his mother & cried as he was slapped again.”

Case closed! 🤩💥🚀. In settling my case, Meta has agreed to stop processing my personal data for direct marketing purposes. In non-legalese, that means I will no longer be shown surveillance-ads on Facebook. www.thetimes.com/article/ae70...

Oh great, per LibGen, my second novel - What It Meant to Survive - is one of the pirated books Meta used to train Llama 3 😡😡😡

We reported on this a few days ago, but I want to point out this headline because this is where we are at. A bill in Arkansas would ban gender affirming HAIRCUTS for transgender youth. HAIRCUTS. This is a straight up North Korea state sanctioned hairstyle proposed law for youth.

Mahmoud Khalil graduated from SIPA, which has graduated heads of state and other high level politicians, diplomats, and civil society leaders. Whatever the Trump Administration thinks it’s doing, they have created a new political star.

Grateful Canada is willing to host this American for a book event. Come out on April 10th, Toronto! Let’s talk about intersectionality and respect for sovereignty. 🇨🇦 Get your feee ticket: www.eventbrite.ca/e/what-it-me...

Tesla investor calls on Musk to quit DOGE or Tesla. Tells Sky News this is first time he has said it but it needs to be said . news.sky.com/story/its-a-...

BREAKING: Elon Musk and DOGE efforts to close USAID likely unconstitutional, agency must be restored, judge rules www.nbcnews.com/politics/dog...

I made a video about why the private sector won’t replace US government funding. Feel free to like and share with those people in your life who still don’t get why privatization in all aspects of life won’t work. youtu.be/AUHr0IgPKO8?...

Holy crap. The DOJ is arguing that the President can unilaterally deport anyone he wants without ANY statutory authority, just on his inherent authority as President over national security. That is a terrifying claim to make and not one that has ever been recognized before in US history.

Waiting until after Democrats caved on the CR, Trump issues a late night order to eliminate 7 agencies “to the maximum extent” allowed by law, including the organization running the Voice of America, the agency that helps fund museums and libraries in all 50 states, and so on. Order in alt text:

American politics makes a lot more sense when you realize that the GOP is afraid of pissing off the GOP base, and the Dems are afraid of pissing off the GOP base, but neither party is afraid of pissing off the Dem base.

I’m so over constantly blaming the state of American politics on messaging, as though this is all a marketing campaign. Democrat Senators, oppose the budget bill. Then have the National Committee build real community programs instead of only asking for money. The messaging will follow.

Betar USA says today “expect naturalized citizens to be picked up within the month.”

I made a video about why the private sector won’t replace US government funding. Feel free to like and share with those people in your life who still don’t get why privatization in all aspects of life won’t work. youtu.be/AUHr0IgPKO8?...

This is so disturbing. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/n...

I wrote a blog post about the demise of international aid, the tech industry’s obsession with scaling, and my second novel. Read it here: thenewcntxt.com/07-issue-03

So: — DHS (who conducted this detention) did not answer questions & said we should ask the White House — Columbia didn’t answer whether they knew in advance about campus DHS or ICE activity, or if they shared info about the detained individual or other students with authorities

This is flatly illegal. The plain text of the law says that any person who works for any 501(c)(3) nonprofit is eligible. There is ZERO authority for limiting eligibility based on the work such nonprofit does. They WILL lose the lawsuit. Even so, this is making so many people’s lives harder.

This "immediate cancellation" violates the law. If the Admin thinks Columbia has violated Title VI by being deliberately indifferent to antisemitic harassment, it has to give Columbia a chance for a hearing first, make findings on the record, & wait 30 days. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/03...

The Guardian is reporting that Trump is openly violating a court order, and has transferred multiple transgender women to men's facilities. We know in Florida, transgender women are having their hair shorn, feminine items confiscated, and pulled off medication. This is inhumane and illegal.

Imagine DOGE opens your mail and finds your household electric bill. To eliminate this cost, they burn your house down without warning. Then they total up the bills that, as a homeless person, you will never again pay. On its website, DOGE boasts about the money it has saved you.

I don't think there's precedent for this level of open corruption at the federal level, certainly not in the last 100+ years.

Maybe it’s because the international development experts of the US government who have seen this abroad were fired that this is not painfully obvious: DOGE is a thinly veiled front for government corruption. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

18F staffers- who were summarily fired en masse overnight- issue statement expressing shock, bewilderment: "18F was doing exactly the type of work that DOGE claims to want – yet we were eliminated."

We finally fixed illegal immigration (nobody wants to come here anymore)

If you worked for 18F and got fired, Group together to start a consulting company. It’s just a matter of time before DOGE needs you to fix the mess they inevitably create. They will have to hire your company as a contractor to fix it. But on your terms. I’m happy to invest and/or help

18F was doing exactly the type of work that DOGE claims to want – yet we were eliminated shortly after midnight. Read our letter to the American people: 18f.org

They told us in international development to adapt and use technology, and we DID! It hasn’t been perfect, but we tried and had a lot of success. We told the tech industry not to forget the humanities and lessons history taught us, but they largely ignored us. Now we’re here.

True story: I was working at a Men’s Beer and Video Games company. A liberal with blue hair came in and demanded we put woke pronouns in the beer so I made a citizen’s arrest and deported they-them to CommieFornia. Then 135-year-old World War I veteran tried to thank me, and I said no, thank YOU.

Did Rubio Tweet this as he was crying in the Oval Office?

Dickless chode

I think I am on to something here…

Five alarm fire. www.politico.com/news/2025/02...

Join me in Portland with @amysampleward.bsky.social next Thursday, 6 March for an event about my second novel, What It Meant to Survive. Feel free to come and vent about the state of America. www.broadwaybooks.net/event/2025-0...

I heart Tina Smith.

The expectation that there will be fewer jobs out there 6 months in the future just surged to its highest level in over a decade

You’ll notice the people who vehemently oppose DEI rarely have ideas about how to advance actual meritocracies.

in 8-10 years someone from Silicon Valley is going to invent the university, genuinely unaware that it's been done before