"I wouldn’t even call it the Justice Department anymore." www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

The problem of preserving information. www.scientificamerican.com/report/the-e...

More people need to know the name @jacobgrier.bsky.social. This, in @theunpopulist.net, is absolute gold.

"And I am also extremely angry and frustrated with the pro-Israel and neoconservative right for looking the other way when it came to the racist takeover of the right." Agree. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/o...

Damon Linker on the New Right's factions and infighting: damonlinker.substack.com/p/the-intell... Background by me: www.splicetoday.com/politics-and...

My son DeWitt on a strategy for a non-extreme Republican Party: www.splicetoday.com/politics-and...

Judge Dismisses Bullshit Lawsuit Claiming Pollster Committed Fraud By Being Wrong Last year, we wrote about Donald Trump's bullshit lawsuit against Iowa pollster Ann Selzer for releasing surprising polls right before the 2024 election suggesting that Kamala Harris might actually beat Donald Trump…

www.splicetoday.com/writing/blac... Black holes in art and politics, by me.

Damon Linker on the New Right's factions and infighting: damonlinker.substack.com/p/the-intell... Background by me: www.splicetoday.com/politics-and...

Jeffrey Epstein Emails Reveal Depth of Ties to High-Profile Scientists A trove of emails of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was released Wednesday by a Congressional committee www.scientificamerican.com/article/jeff...

www.splicetoday.com/writing/blac... Black holes in art and politics, by me.

Whoa

"His life seems a case study in the way ideology often follows self-interest." www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/o...

Never forget what these people did

One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc

I review Furious Minds by @lkatfield.bsky.social , a book that puts recent history in a new light. www.splicetoday.com/politics-and...

I review Furious Minds by @lkatfield.bsky.social , a book that puts recent history in a new light. www.splicetoday.com/politics-and...

They have no f-ing idea how big and how complex Nigeria is. No f-ing idea what they’d be getting into.

NASA Administrator Nominee Would Shift Future of Space Exploration www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasa... "Privately, some former space agency officials say that Isaacman seems as good a pick for NASA as the Trump administration could deliver."

Yawning at the limited government folks warning that a democratic socialist mayor of New York is an existential threat, but who remain guardedly optimistic about an authoritarian president.

Such is a consequence, now breaking into public view, of a free-floating anti-intellectualism that has been building in right-wing circles, and which is reflected in the Trump administration’s emphasis on cutting science budgets and scientific advisory panels.

"We’re less than one-fifth of the way through Trump’s second term; things will get much worse. So it’s too early to know whether the damage that Trump and his MAGA movement are inflicting on the foundations of the United States is reversible..." www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

Scientists engaged in puzzling out black holes or elementary particles may be surprised to find themselves besieged by political hostility, but that’s what has happened.

I write about a family brush with history and politics. www.splicetoday.com/writing/gath...

The Trump administration’s reduction in funding for gravitational wave studies won’t save taxpayers much but it *will* jeopardize future scientific breakthroughs. @kensil.bsky.social

Commentary: Trump knows just how dangerous Obama is, writes Laura Washington. That’s why Trump has been attacking, demeaning and undermining Obama since he entered national politics.

NASA's Moon Race Looks like a Losing Bet Former NASA officials warn that the U.S. looks poised to lose its self-declared race to beat China to the moon www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasa...

Some thoughts after a visit to France. www.splicetoday.com/writing/retu...

Elon Musk Discovers What Hierarchy Actually Means Elon Musk is having a very bad week. The man who bought Twitter for $44 billion to secure unaccountable power over public discourse is discovering what unaccountable power actually looks like when wielded by someone who understands dominance better…

Graduate seminar did a deep dive on Thomas Paine’s Common Sense yesterday. At the line, “in America the law is king,” they (14 students from 6 countries) burst out laughing. I've been doing this for 35 years and this is the first time that was a laugh line.

"Wars on Science, Real and Otherwise." www.liberalcurrents.com/wars-on-scie...

"We will fight our fellow Americans, both on the suburban highways and right downtown." www.splicetoday.com/politics-and...

Scientists engaged in puzzling out black holes or elementary particles may be surprised to find themselves also besieged by political hostility, but that’s what has happened. www.theunpopulist.net/p/the-admini...

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv... Agree.

US ‘on a trajectory’ toward authoritarian rule, ex-officials warn www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Notes on the political climate for science. open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...

The Trump administration’s fiscal 2026 budget proposal for the National Science Foundation (NSF) slashed the science agency’s budget by 56% from $9 billion to $3.9 billion. @kensil.bsky.social

Notes on the political climate for science. open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...

"Our Constitution is not dying. It is waiting — waiting for us to claim it." A bracing essay. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/o...

I don't know how anyone could sit through these rancid lectures by Peter Thiel. I couldn't finish the article about them. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Nationalism's not what it used to be. time.com/7324968/qata...

Purporting to go after “domestic terrorism,” Trump is authorizing punishments for even tenuous connections to speech the administration doesn’t like. bit.ly/4330Su2

Nothing remotely resembling an insurrection is happening anywhere in the country. Any violence associated with protest has been isolated, mild, and, in nearly every case, instigated by federal law enforcement. If we let Trump get away with calling dissent an insurrection, our republic is over.

Following Frederick Douglass on free speech. www.splicetoday.com/politics-and...

The same forces breaking down democracy have succeeded in undermining key institutions: the judiciary, the integrity of religious institutions, and the guardrails of one of our two political parties. trib.al/zwHE2Jo If we want better outcomes, we must commit ourselves to restoring them.

This video of Chicagoans intervening to save a man from being abducted off the streets by ICE is making the rounds on Instagram. Community action works. Source: www.instagram.com/reel/DPZL2AL...

"Fuck ICE" is a patriotic sentiment. Perhaps the most patriotic in this moment.

Miller has Fascist Hissy #3 today after another court ruling. This one from a judge appointed by radical left marxist Donald J Trump.

"At some point in the not-to-distant future, I was told by a source close to Trump, there is a growing fear that someone in his own inner-circle may whisper the words '25th Amendment,' end the Trump presidency and usher in 'The Age of Ultron' — I mean Vance." www.salon.com/2025/10/03/i...