A direct, prescient, and essential speech by @ricksteves.bsky.social. It is vital to remind ourselves that we are indeed seeing what we are seeing and Rick Steves helps us illuminate the stakes of the world today. www.youtube.com/watch?v=E20u...

"President Trump on Thursday announced he was erasing the scientific finding that climate change endangers human health and the environment..." You cannot erase science. You can blatantly ignore it and allow as much mass suffering as you want, but the truth stands. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/c...

My colleagues and I have a new paper on dementia stigma in the United States. We used a vignette experiment to study how the (a) gender and (b) impairment level of a fictional older adult shape stigma. Some interesting findings below: alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

A rare @nytimes.com article that places the news in its proper context, noting (for example) that Trump believes immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/u...

Every American needs to watch this:

As with everything, this latest midnight tantrum will amount to nothing. BUT just to stress how abnormal this presidency is: seven years ago, it was pretty major news that a *private* 1971 tape caught Reagan referring to Black people as monkeys. www.bbc.com/news/world-u...

“The state-approved version doesn’t include chapters on media and technology, global inequality, race and ethnicity, social stratification, or gender, sex and sexuality.” Just horrifying. All faculty should refuse to use this. (h/t @professorkd.bsky.social) www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

Wrote today about how Republican lawmakers, seemingly, had issues with ICE this whole time? (with more than a slight tip of the hat to Martha Gellhorn’s reporting in rural Germany after WWII) robrankin.substack.com/p/no-one-eve...

I get so tired of these @nytimes.com stories. The median income for a family of 5 in New York City is $87,500. The family profiled here makes 60% more than that. So this family's "strategy for making it work" is... more money. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Horrifying. This is not a free America. ICE is arresting and hunting witnesses to the murder this morning of Alex Peretti.

Beyond helping establish DHS itself in 2003, Mr. Mitnick was a senate-confirmed Trump choice for General Counsel for DHS in his first term. I've talked with him a few times, and he's not a man for hyperbole. So bear that in mind when you see him calling out DHS's "lawlessness, fascism, and cruelty."

The night is long that never finds the day.

Pam Bondi just sent a letter to Minnesota officials saying ICE will leave if the state turns over its voter database to Trump. Guess what? This has never been about safety or immigration. It’s a pretext for Trump to take over elections in swing states.

YES, YES, YES, 1,000x YES!

Excellent call-in discussion on Minnesota Public Radio right now. Addressing serious questions about how we live in this country now and after this regime is over. www.mprnews.org/listen

I hope Democratic senators and congressmen understand, out of pure lizard-brain self-interest if moral decency happens to be unavailable, what is at stake for them if they don't handle this the right way. This is a true "If not now, when?" moment.

If you’re a Democrat looking to run for president in 2028, now would be a good time to find the nearest microphone and state clearly that you will prosecute every Trump Administration official enabling this state sponsored terrorism to the fullest extent of the law.

How can anyone think that it might be appropriate to perform a trial, which would be considered unethical and not approved in their home country, in another country? #MedSky #PoliSky #AcademicSky

This pre-shooting video clearly shows victim holding a phone as if to film. Agent lays hands on first. Victim does not resist, walks backwards as agent pushes. Fellow observer does not interfere. Zero indication of aggression from victim, who appears only to be filming.

DHS is already lying and saying they fired “defensive shots” at the guy. He was already on the ground and being pistol-whipped when he was shot!

You can also send faxes using @resist.bot

America 2026

You did not bear the shame. You resisted. You bestowed the eternally vigilant symbol of change by sacrificing your impassioned lives for freedom, justice and honour. — The German Resistance Memorial in Berlin

The Hague wouldn’t be enough.

My group chats are full of Minnesotans reacting to today’s murder by figuring out ways they can help. We need people outside of the state to do the same thing. Whatever you wish everyone else was doing right now? Do it today. Let’s make a list of things that could help.

This is my art piece, entitled “No One Is Looking at the Artwork” (2025).

Perhaps this is a minor event in the story of Trump’s corruption… but this app was banned by Congress *and* by the Supreme Court, and the executive branch just blatantly ignored them both. An early sign that this admin would have zero respect for the “rule of law.” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/t...

I’m reading a book on German history and there are some frightening parallels to the U.S. under Trump: On World War I: “Both high German officials and vigilant foreign diplomats attest to ‘numerous megalomaniacal schemes of expansion’ making the rounds in Germany.

From SCOTUSblog: “Just to be clear, the court is done issuing opinions [one opinion] for today and it did not issue opinions on tariffs or Louisiana voting rights.”

The obvious problem with this “we all need to live with each other” rhetoric is that one side’s sole ideology is the expulsion of an entire sector of society because they don’t want to live with them.

How it started How it’s going

Phenomenal reporting by the PBS News Hour (@pbsnews.org) on the 5th anniversary of January 6. The only serious coverage I’ve seen today. Three parts: 1. youtu.be/pvjdvc5Z7kw 2. youtu.be/klgjJaPYor0 3. youtu.be/ytUrYA9lyeQ

On the 5th Anniversary of the failed January 6th insurrection attempt, we’re reminded how fragile democracy can be. We must remember the darkness of that day so it’s never repeated. As history is rewritten by some, we choose to speak the truth of what happened.

Asked what Trump plans to do about the vice president of Venezuela, he said, “She’s willing to do what is necessary to Make America Great Again.” What??

Trump just now: “We’re going to get the oil flowing the way it should be.”

Best thing I’ve read this morning, from a human rights lawyer in Mexico. Translation is in the ALT-text.

Entering the second quarter of the 21st century and hearing national security pundits speak about the “day after plan.” Everything old is new again!

The capture and deposal of Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro by the U.S. does not mean a regime transition because his Vice President Delcy Rodriguez is now acting as President and the entire regime apparatus remains intact.

As a proud IU grad, let me just say: Go Hoosiers!! Let me also say: I don’t watch football and that didn’t change today. (I do watch baseball because my butch gay husband watches it.) ⚾️

My hope, following Mamdani’s inspired inauguration, is that we can leave that nihilistic notion of “cringe” (read: believing in anything) in 2025.

It's worth reading the whole interview in full. It basically verifies that the NYT has spent the past decade-plus doubling down on top-down narratives for coverage, getting more intense over time. Sulzberg personally picked & chose whom the news apparatus would target and whom it would kiss up to.

Great line from Mamdani’s inauguration speech: “We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.”

This should not be shrugged aside. They have stopped with the fake 22 million illegal immigrants things and are flat out saying we want to deport 10's of millions of citizens and legal residents from "third world countries" Basically they are advocating removing 1/3 of the population on a gov site.

A Hampton Inn in Asheville just canceled my family's reservation because our address (incorrectly) showed Asheville—and the hotel bars locals within 50 miles. When I asked why, they said, "because of our homeless population," adding that most hotels here have similar policies. This is outrageous.

This is the kind of situation where more solidarity is needed. This lecturer should sue the living daylights out of the university, and she should have her legal fees paid for by the AAUP, Lambda Legal, FIRE, and more.

28. “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).” I like the contrast between the generic song title and its strangely urgent subtitle. … It’s like if you had a song called “Hanukkah (Son, If You Can Hear This, I Forgive You)” or “Easter (WE ARE SURROUNDED).” www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/201...

Currently grading my third research paper with AI-generated citations. Thank you SO MUCH to Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and all the other titans of industry for making our lives that much easier. 🙄

Why is this so hard in our own country??

After President Trump makes light of the murder of a famous American—even implying that he brought it upon himself—I assume Republicans will call for him to be fired?

Great piece on the corporate & institutional pressures to assign fewer books to students. Less about what kids “can’t” do (because of dwindling attention spans), and more about the incentives that are pushing educators away from books and toward excerpts. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/12/u...