Positive take (relatively) on “we have lived among such people this whole time”: Yes, and that shows things don’t need to be like this. There will always be the sort of people who’d try to get the state to hurt kindergartners. We just need to keep them out of institutional power, and on the fringe.

This case is insane: ICE shot and killed a citizen last March then *hid it for a year.* The young man they killed had no criminal history. All we know about shooting is from internal ICE docs. We don't know officers' names. We don't have footage. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/20/u...

Turns out there’s an economic cost to everyone hating us.

Donald Trump illegally stole $1700 from you is a gift midterm message.

The only thing saving Trump at his afternoon whine fest is that he has got that dramatic lighting down pat.

Also; he has congressional majorities in both houses but knows he can’t actually get both houses to pass his tariffs. He probably *could* have in, say, March of last year. But I think that ship has sailed.

An upside of growing old is learning the art of guiltless 'no'

So illegally: • Trump tariffs drove up prices • Trade deficit 2025 unchanged from 2024 • Must return ~ $200 Bn (taxpayers now likely pay twice) • Trashed existing trade agreements • Hasn't negociated new ones • Alienated all our allies • Bc Trump thought he had SCOTUS totally in his pocket WONDERFUL

Key issue to bear in mind as you watch today's political response to the Supreme Court tariff decision: The Court didn't say that the US can't issue tariffs, simply that the President has to convince (the Republican-controlled) Congress first. If tariffs are great, that should be easy to do.

Trump will have a plan to reconstruct a lot of his tariffs after this SCOTUS ruling through a combination of other legal authorities (232, 301, 122). But those authorities are more narrow and process-intensive, so he has lost the ability to just rapidly slap tariffs on any country on a day's notice

Arendt: "The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that... one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism"

the new paper on bouba/kiki in chicks is utterly compelling canonical, elegant method from comparative cogsci & its partner in developmental science, ultra-simple design, ultra-clear effects, no need for fancy analyses, machine learning, or AI it appeared in an appropriately badass venue (Science)

WSJ EDITORIAL BOARD: “.. If your tariff policy is so unpopular that you have to bully the central bank into not talking about it, maybe it’s time for a new policy.” @wsj.com www.wsj.com/opinion/kevi...

a lot of you are probably too young to remember this but there was a time when the married dhs secretary using taxpayer money for a custom built fuck palace in the sky for her to bang coworkers wouldve been a big deal

Shame on NYU Langone for ending gender-affirming care & kicking trans New Yorkers to the curb. It's a violation of their promise to treat all people equally, kindly, and respectfully — and a violation of NYC's human rights law as well. Bending the knee is bad; denying people care is even worse.

a government for, by and of degenerates

How much media will cover the so-called "Board of Peace" as the gross farce it is? Will they publish misleading headlines like "Countries Pledge Billions to Rebuild Gaza"? Or will they accurately emphasize conditioned offers, some from serial liars, many of which contradict each other. Like this:

"excuse me sir, there must be some mistake- i voted to create the camps, not live in the zone of interest" is like every trump voter

There are many words that I recognize from context and think I know what they mean, but lately find it important to actually read the definition and understand its import. Stochastic is one of those words and this is a good explanation.

Gonna have a lot of “Lord, I see what you do for others…” in the timeline today but just remember that God helps those who help themselves so let’s hippity-hop to the chippity-chop.

I thought this was a nice summary in Bloomberg of what Hassett is railing against.

To be fair Brazil and South Korea cracked down on Yoon and Bolsonaro *precisely because* they have been dictatorships in living memory, and the UK monarchy let itself be investigated like this *because* other monarchies collapsed. Assuming your institutions are unimpregnable per se... not so smart

Two things stand out: 1. Trump-Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal continues "efforts to close OSHA offices that protect coal miners" and 2. audacity of Mackenzie R-PA to suggest OSHA's "...mission is too important to be undermined by overreach" bc they *may* have been trying too hard?! 🙄

I don't think I've read anything that grand in timescale since The Last Question, Asimov's famous short story about entropy. The grand sci-fi world-building Liu pulls off is incredible. There's a lot of unevenness in the characters and dialogue, but all forgivable for hard sci-fi, imo.

So I'm not the only one having wonderful space adventures when I'm doing housework. 🧑‍🚀

So Bree hinted at this story a few days ago, but I want to circle back now that I have permission to share it. WHISTLES OUT: A WHISTLE CREW MYSTERY

This is the kind of thing white supremacists have been doing to Emmett Till’s memorial for decades. It’s wild to see them do this to a white woman who the entire world saw extrajudicially murdered.

Still think turning Texas blue is long odds, but damn that is an impressive Dem spike and in Tarrant county no less.

Andrea makes a really strong point here, citing the history of Gitmo, that even if Democrats don't have votes *now* they need to be pushing the message that our entire immigration system must to be scrapped and rebuilt from the ground up without ICE and without concentration camps.

Threads like this are why the internet exists. Everything else is just noise. bsky.app/profile/cowt...

👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇

The interior of Kristi Noem’s new billionaire-class luxury jet is complete with two bidets and a wet bar with a wine chiller. It will be purchased on our dime from the slush fund Congress approved in the One Big Beautiful Bill. open.substack.com/pub/newsnotn...

Problem about the loneliness epidemic is, it's everywhere except in representative survey data. Let's look at where the claim comes from. 1/

The likelihood that one Colbert interview changes the outcome of the Democratic senate primary in Texas or the subsequent general election is very small. This is govt censorship for censorship’s sake. As assertion of power. Statement of values. Sending a signal. Pushing the line. Because they can.

Another reminder. Anne Frank and her sister Margot didn't die in gas chambers. They died of Typhus due to overcrowding at Bergen-Belsen women's camp, which also experienced outbreaks of tuberculosis and typhoid fever.

Will Stancil deserves so much respect! A true American hero.

Our grasp on reality is slipping. The response rate to the survey behind the unemployment rate (and the rest of the household survey) is now lower than during the pandemic. The decline in response rates during the first year of the Trump Admin 2.0 was larger than at any time outside the pandemic.

If anyone wants an example of the kind of stuff I wish more Democrats would do when it comes to defending trans rights, look no further than this from @jayapal.house.gov

I'm going to promote the heck out of this: The Minneapolis Foundation has $4 million in grants available to small businesses for everything from rent and payroll costs to legal help and temporary relocation. More details and the application here: www.minneapolisfoundation.org/stories/comm...

"The Crime of Witness" by Fintan O’Toole in @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social "The videos that expose the administration’s mendacity about its own use of extreme violence against peaceful dissent are themselves products of the courage to show up [and] see for yourself." www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

This city is home to people of countless faiths. But no matter what you believe, one thing unites us: we are all New Yorkers. We will not allow ICE to terrorize our neighbors. youtu.be/uoU9Img_B40

Multi-Technique Analysis and Digital Reconstruction of Polychromy on a Mithraic Altar from Carrawburgh Roman Fort near Hadrian’s Wall 📷 Carrawburgh altars on display in the Great North Museum: Hancock (by Carole Raddato).

This message from the US State Department about "not wanting allies to be shackled by guilt and shame" is a pretty direct call-out to the German far-right argument that Germany has spent too long feeling guilty about the Holocaust, and needs to move on and stop doing remembrance.

with alt text, because everyone needs to be able to read this 😭

Agreed. Have already emailed to friends and family.

you're never gonna guess whose fault the times says it is

So much of our present crisis is coddled, ignorant, and short sighted people tearing down the institutions that protect them because they don’t understand that bad things can happen.

Yesterday morning kids were sent running from their bus stop in panic because ICE showed up. This guy at today’s ICE Out of Lindenwold protest is a must watch 😭. @maddow.bsky.social

Imagine if even a fraction of what this administration plans to spend on cages went toward housing people.