Columnist @californiajoe.bsky.social, a convert to the cause of California independence, wanted to love “One Battle After Another.” But as someone who makes a living by visiting all corners of this state, he found the film to be geographically confused. Read his take: zps.la/3MZO9nc

Like a prism, AI will reveal the civilizational differences between China & the U.S., making visible the invisible within each society, Jacob Dreyer writes. #ai #airevolution #china #us

Until LAX adopts a true traffic solution like congestion pricing, you might want to bookmark this video, which recommends a personal hack to avoid the "horseshoe" entirely.

“Many of the planet’s microbiomes are under serious threat, with untold numbers of species & ecosystems flickering silently out of existence.” — @moiradonovan.bsky.social #microbes #microbiome #conservation #environment

Some cool #FOIA Friday news! The American Society of Magazine Editors named my newsletter, FOIA Files, as a finalist for this year's National Magazine Awards!! Sign up for a FREE subscription to FOIA Files @bloomberg.com. New installment dropping in 30 minutes! www.bloomberg.com/account/news...

Deliberative democracy is officially entangled in California’s bureaucracy. That’s very good news, writes columnist @californiajoe.bsky.social. zps.la/4qMrzMx

When Moltbook emerged as an overnight sensation last month as a Reddit-like platform for AI agents, it revealed our instinctive need to anthropomorphize AI. But whether agents have a mind of their own isn’t what matters at this stage, Ben Bariach argues. #moltbook #aiagent #ai

The Los Angeles City Charter Assembly, the first such sortition-selected assembly ever convened in Southern California, starts deliberating on Feb. 28. 40 everyday Angelenos will decide what the future of the LA city council should be: its size and its structure. More details to come soon.

According to @nytopinion.nytimes.com California is destroying faith in government and democracy because we make it too easy to vote. Editorial fails to mention CA added 8 million to its registration rolls since 2006, while population grew by only 2.5 million. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/19/o...

Good piece. Wasserman must stay on. He, as an arrogant and self-destructive agent, is the perfect leader for a Games that is shaping up as a disaster—and existential threat to city government.

"Most men think that the happiness of a state depends on its being great... They judge greatness in numerical terms, by the size of the population; but it is capacity, rather than size, which should properly be the criterion." -Aristotle

MPLS was a great moral and practical victory for a new Trump-era resistance, but it was only the end of the beginning 15,000 new masked goons. 150 new ICE offices in every state, and a national network of warehouse concentration camps My column on the battle ahead www.inquirer.com/opinion/ice-...

Our gravest AI risk isn't runaway superintelligence but our cultural readiness to surrender collective judgment to algorithmic systems, Andrew Sorota argues. www.noemamag.com/rescuing-dem...

Do you feel like you don’t have any rights anymore? Me, too, writes columnist @californiajoe.bsky.social. He makes the case for why we should all look to city halls to enshrine our rights. zps.la/4rdfwcg

“Without the cultivated, meaning-laden, embodied intuition of the human scientist who is instinctively driven to ask questions about the nature of the world, AI systems remain rudderless when they enter the realms of uncertainty.” — @conorfeehly.bsky.social #ai #science #scientificdiscoveries

Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show was the largest independence rally ever held in California. Unfortunately, it was a rally for Puerto Rico's, not California's, independence. www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

How to run a coup: “In the seizure of power, ideology only goes so far. If a handful of skilled operatives manage to commandeer the mechanisms of the state—infrastructure, communications—a leader can take control without mass support or even favorable circumstances.” www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

Voices of Monterey story asks: Is the military involved in immigration stops and detention on Jolon Road? voicesofmontereybay.org/2026/01/29/i...

The next governor of California should be the state’s smartest and most able politician. That’s why columnist @californiajoe.bsky.social is drafting Assemblymember @buffywicks.bsky.social. zps.la/4ap3uqd

The world no longer properly values intellectual dispositions like introspection, self-criticism, humor, interdisciplinarity, and generosity — e.g., the dispositions needed to perform what George Kennan famously called "a cool and rational analysis in the unfirm substance of the imponderables."

Friday, Feb. 6 is the last day to sign up for the lottery to be part of the historic LA Charter Assembly. Participants will be paid for their time, and help decide on changes to size and structure of the Los Angeles City Council. If you received this card in the mail, sign-up instructions are on it.

Pretty great hearing about such initiatives--seems very vital during these times bayareacurrent.com/bay-area-chi...

A man who lost his apartment after his father died. A woman going into labor in a parking lot. These are some of the stories Mary Lynne Vellinga and Dan Morain recount from their night volunteering for Sacramento's point-in-time homelessness count.

Perfect piece by the wonderful Joe Mathews @californiajoe.bsky.social at @zocalopublicsquare.bsky.social about why Los Angeles has every right to be outraged that we're paying the salary of LAPD Chief McDonnell. @mayor.lacity.gov, will you respond? www.zocalopublicsquare.org/letter-to-la...

Comparing FDR and Trump because they both had disdain for extant liberal constitutional norms is akin to comparing a brain surgeon to Norman Bates in Psycho because they both use knives to do their work. nilsgilman.substack.com/p/the-execut...

What we saw on a January evening volunteering for the Point-In-Time count of people living on the streets in Sacramento. www.golden-state.org/what-a-cold-... h/t @marielgarza.bsky.social @paulthornton.bsky.social

The governor's race is a mess of mediocrities. So, why not draft our best lawmaker @buffywicks.bsky.social , and clear the field for her? #DraftBuffy My @zocalopublicsquare.bsky.social col @sfchronicle.com www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

"...if we lose that war, and in so doing lose this way of freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its happening." -Reagan, 'A Time for Choosing," 1964

Questions: Did this info, which Trump admin had, provide leverage for Trump and allies to stack LA 28? Why is LA risking its people's safety and its city finances on an Olympics run by this guy and Trump?

Trump: i’m at war with minnesota like i was with venezuela bsky.app/profile/leba...

Chief McDonnell's consistent message has been that the law is no use in dealing with federal abuses. And he's never wavered. He's such a revolutionary! My thank you letter to him. www.zocalopublicsquare.org/letter-to-la...

LA city residents, look for this postcard in your mail, and reply if you're among the 20,000 recipients. It puts you in a lottery to... -help decide the future size and structure of the Los Angeles city council -participate in a historic democratic process -get paid for this democratic work.

Neuroscientist @anilseth.bsky.social's new essay in Noema is a rigorous & compelling challenge to the notion that complex computation like AI can give rise to consciousness, Nathan Gardels writes. #consciousness #ai

Joel Fox, who died January 10, built deep relationships with people across the political spectrum. And he did so, writes @californiajoe.bsky.social, not by consensus or compromise, but through a “warm, open, and curious style of disagreement. zps.la/4jYk03A

Congratulations and thank you to @calmatters.org and UC Berkeley's Possibility Lab for creating The Knowledge Hub, which connects all of us to research that shows the state's different futures. calmatters.org/sponsored/kn...

LA city residents, look for this postcard in your mail, and reply if you're among the 20,000 recipients. It puts you in a lottery to... -help decide the future size and structure of the Los Angeles city council -participate in a historic democratic process -get paid for this democratic work.

LA city residents, look for these postcards in your mail, and please consider replying and signing up. You could help decide the size and structure of your city council, participate in a historic democratic process—and get paid to do it.

“In the most powerful speech in Davos this week, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney laid out a forward-looking vision for those who must operate in the breach.” —Nathan Gardels #carney #davos #worldorder

Rick Caruso won't run anything except his mouth...and outdoor malls with spectacular fountains.

“World-model-powered AI could one day mediate how people perceive, move through & make decisions within their everyday environments.” —Ben Bariach #ai #worldmodels #aiagents

How it started How it's going

L.A. activists and councilmembers say L.A.’s Police Chief Jim McDonnell’s lack of response to federal lawlessness is unwise. @californiajoe.bsky.social wants to thank him. Read why: zps.la/4sJkGOj

QUIZ: Which of below are candidates for governor of California? And which are Dodger benchwarmers or relief pitchers? Michael Younger Kyle Hurt Ethan Agarwal Paul Gervase Daniel Mercuri Ronan Kopp Tony Fitzpatrick Bobby Miller Jesse Alberti Michael Siani Brandon Jones Ryan Ward Nicholas Thompson

Many of the reactions to this post — those calling for the mass disemployment, incarceration, or even execution of ICE employees — reminds me of George Orwell’s line: “So much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don’t even know that fire is hot.”

Trump slashes free admissions to National Parks on MLK Day. California responds by making all its state parks free on MLK Day. #WeaponizeFederalism www.sfgate.com/national-par...

“Most often, color slips into planetary politics quietly, as the mood of a map, the warning of a dashboard, the tint of a season, the hue of a banner.” — @frederic-hanusch.bsky.social

“When looking to the future of the labor market in an AI economy, we can’t talk about ‘job loss vs. gains’ in any general sense. The key issue is not the quantity of jobs, but the value of labor.” —Nathan Gardels #ai #futureofwork #economy #aijobs

I bet @californiajoe.bsky.social would find this thread interesting…

50 years ago, Los Angeles defended law enforcement abuse—and created a precedent that Trump is now using to strangle California and the nation, writes @californiajoe.bsky.social. zps.la/4qQDrh9

Congrats to California Forward on the launch of its Resilience District Incubator. Ned Resnikoff also has a terrific blog post explaining the flexibility and potential of this tool. cafwd.org/fiscal-resil...