Today in 1958, an F-86L interceptor collided with a B-47 bomber on a simulated nuclear attack run, severely damaging both aircraft. To land safely at Hunter AFB, Georgia, B-47 pilot Major Howard Richardson jettisoned a 3.4-Megaton Mark-15 thermonuclear bomb into Wassaw Sound. It was never recovered.

Watch this. Sir McKellen offering an extraordinary rendition of the Stranger’s Case, with direct gaze, piercing the fourth wall, because we need to hear this and remember.

Already we are boldly launched upon the deep; but soon we shall be lost in its unshored, harbourless immensities.

Must-read from @emptywheel.bsky.social "The problem here is not just that ICE is blowing off judicial orders ... there are so many orders because the detentions are illegal ... The crime is the unlawful detention of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people. They’re kidnapping people legally..."

This is another effort that has taken a HUGE amount of local activism, led by community folks who care. It CAN be done. Get involved where you live and push back. www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/i...

Loudermilk won’t seek reelection, opening fourth Georgia House seat www.ajc.com/politics/202...

If you use the CIA world Facebook for your assignments, you’ll need to change it. May I suggest noting that you *used* to use this info when you do however.

Insane thread

THE COURT: So are you telling the Court that you were brought in brand new, a shiny, brand new penny into this role, and you received no proper orientation or training on what you were supposed to do? MS. LE: I have to say yes to that question, Your Honor.

NEW: since last year, a pair of "highly trained" feds have been involved in an array of incidents attacking crowds with chemical weapons. We used public records and open source analysis to identify Edgar Vazquez and Michael Sveum, alongside some other members of their tactical team. Read more:

Incredible work here by local Chicago journalists investigating two of the especially violent DHS agents terrorizing people in Chicago & MSP. Using body cam footage, after-action reports, social media videos & much more, @unraveledpress.com tells a jarring and must read story:

NEW: Senator Ed Markey just introduced a critical bill that would ban ICE and CBP from buying or using facial recognition technology to go after our communities. Congress must pass the ICE Out of My Face Act and use their funding power to rein in these out-of-control agencies.

Groundhog Day Meaning xkcd.com/3202/

RuPaw, found in a box behind a dumpster in Clayton County last June, has become a Puppy Bowl star, a finalist in the "Most Pupular" contest.

Apparently French designer Marie Louise Bruyère was not that keen on Dior’s post war ‘New Look’. Here in 1947, though, is her full hipped ballgown, perhaps reminiscent of c18th France and a different period of excess @ngvmelbourne.bsky.social #FashionHistory 🗃️🪡

BREAKING: Supreme Court denies California Republicans’ emergency request to block their state’s newly redrawn House map

Go ahead and click through to see pictures of so many good pups!

The Eighteenth-Century Ireland Society is now inviting applications for its Open Bursary 2026-7. €2000 to support archival research, symposiums/conferences, or publication expenses associated with original work on eighteenth-century Ireland. More information here: www.ecis.ie/2026/01/05/e...

THEY PUT THE 13 MEN ON THE FIELD PENALTY IN THE AD!!!!

A good piece on why "professionalization" isn't the answer people think it is inquest.org/the-ice-refo...

Dog sneeze core. God bless them

Remember the instructor at Texas A&M who was fired for doing her job thanks to a ginned up political firestorm? She's speaking out. Hear Melissa McCoul tell her story in her own words. academicfreedomontheline.substack.com/p/texas-a-an...

🚨History Job: Assistant Professor in Early Modern British History (Permanent) 🗃️ Come work with us at Warwick! You will join a group of excellent early-modernists and one of the nicest bunches of historians around! 👇👇👇 @uni-of-warwick.bsky.social warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/lang-en-G...

Saw this article pop up and look who it is! Blair! #uglydogs

The US immigrant population generated more in taxes than they received in benefits from all levels of government every year from 1994 to 2023. The Cato study provides the first-ever 30-year analysis of the fiscal effects of immigration on government budgets. https://ow.ly/jy8a50Y8kM3

Follow-up:

Interesting paper, especially interesting it's coming from researchers at Anthropic arxiv.org/pdf/2601.20245

“I have always thought that the way back from this climate is through specific instances of individuals successfully challenging their persecution,” is what Wolff writes to Epstein about an anti-Me Too retaliatory lawsuit.

Good

He’s correct, and I’d add, too, that Trump voters and supporters have actively chosen since 2016 to grant him impunity for his many and various crimes, including sexual assault, abuse, and rape. They knew and know Trump is a convicted criminal and adjudicated rapist and *they don’t care*.

More than 21 million American adults lack easy access to a passport or birth certificate. Requiring these documents to register to vote could disenfranchise millions of eligible Americans. bit.ly/40ysFRc

A new study reveals that some smart dogs can learn words just by overhearing humans’ conversations

Definitely seems like they destroyed the country on purpose.

They stole my and others’ ballots on behalf of a convicted felon, adjudicated rapist and verified absolute loser. I and others living in Fulton County who voted in the 2020 election are directly harmed by the criminal behaviors on display.

Four days before Donald Trump’s inauguration last year, lieutenants to an Abu Dhabi royal secretly signed a deal with the Trump family to purchase a 49% stake in their fledgling cryptocurrency venture for half a billion dollars. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Last week, the FBI looted voting data because Trump still lies about his election loss. Today, GA House Republicans take up SB214, which implements a new voting system sure to destabilize GA midterms. Hearing @ 3pm or write the Government Affairs Committee Chair [email protected].

So Musk intentionally forced xAI to embrace making sexualized material to increase user active seconds, and the AI chatbot had, throughout 2025, only two employees devoted to safety compared to dozens of staffers on similar teams at OpenAI or other rivals. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Exclusive: A U.S. official has alleged wrongdoing by U.S. spy chief Tulsi Gabbard in a complaint that is so highly classified it has sparked months of wrangling over how to share it with Congress, according to people familiar with the matter.

A reminder that the Kennedy Center is the literal and legal and congressional designated presidential memorial to JFK. This would be like Trump tearing down the Lincoln Memorial to build something “better.”

Donald Trump just announced that he's going to demolish the Kennedy Center on the 250th anniversary of the United States: July 4th, 2026.

Just think about the amazing Epstein scoops the new CBS Evening News contributors will have just by interviewing each other.

The person to watch is David Rubenstein, who has poured millions in philanthropy into the Kennedy Center, is not going to be pleased about this, and has money, ego, and patriotism long enough to sustain a long-ass legal battle. Particularly since his cash isn't crypto.

🧵

Do the senior citizens of Florida, all of whom are experiencing immunosenescence that makes them vulnerable to infections even if vaccinated 60+ years ago, understand that he’s risking their health and their lives?

I testified Friday before Gov. Pritzker's commission studying abuses of ICE and CBP and tried to explain how the agencies went so far off track. It's actually way worse than I ever realized. Please read and share my testimony as Congress considers reform: www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/accountabi...

Drill down to the initial post and details. There’s a real case to be made that dismantling CBP and prosecuting its lawbreaking members is what might achieve the GOP’s supposed goal of getting criminals off our streets.

The elite world Epstein traveled in is VERY small: Yale Law prof Jed Rubenfeld's wife Amy Chua, also a Yale Law prof, was the mentor of Yale Law student JD Vance. Ken Starr was the mentor of Yale Law grad Brett Kavanaugh, also accused of sexual assault but now seated on the Supreme Court. 2/

It’s striking how many of the implicated academics also falsified data or faked their research results or were doing bullshit pseudoscience in the first place— another indication of how fully commodification has infiltrated the sphere of knowledge, especially at the supposed “top”

"When in doubt, draw a distinction." Not sure where he got it, but in grad school one of my teachers taught me that. This (long) thread is about the key distinctions I rely on as a critic. There's a Twitter version from 2021. This one builds on that one. I will post them one at a time. Ready?

Just a reminder that Todd Blanche was Trump's lead criminal defense lawyer before he made him Deputy AG.