In general, state or local police on the ground can do nothing good in this situation. But putting state & local resources behind identifying all federal personnel involved in unprofessional or illegal behavior and keeping the books for a future Democratic President is something they should do.

Some perspective: The ACA part of the shutdown fight is a little less than 0.1% of GDP. Or ~0.5% of the federal budget. It's in same ballpark as cost of Trump's estate tax cut. It's much less than Elon Musk's potential $1 trillion compensation package.

Always funny to learn another place’s local politics. There’s a lot of strenuous “gifted and talented for kindergarteners” posting, but for me, it’s the first time I even contemplated separating 4% of four year olds by examination. Researching, the NY people are the strange ones.

ICE lied about the person it shot, claiming he was a "criminal," but NBC finds that he had no criminal history whatsoever. Not even traffic tickets in 12 years! It also lied about the extent of the injuries to its agents....

“ABC7 spoke to Pertissue Fisher, a woman who lives in the building. She said ICE agents took everyone in the building, including her, and asked questions later….’They was bringing the kids down, too, had them zip tied to each other.’” It can’t happen here, you say. But it is happening.

I used to be a SALT-deduction hater, but now: sign me up. Unlimited cap. It’s worth $10-20 billion annual to Californian tax payers as it is, polity-willing, we can recapture some and make our own grants.

The Hatch Act of 1939 prohibited certain kinds of political activity by civilian federal employees. A few violations occurred in the Bush and Obama administrations; they proliferated in Trump’s first term. Trump has now evidently chosen to ignore the law completely. By @marisakabas.bsky.social

The prominent critique of the ADL on the left in recent years has been that they do whatever the Israeli government wants. And I understand why people think that! But this is actually not that. The Israeli government did not ask for this; the American Christian right did.

‘Most people are just toughing it out’: shortage of drugs leaves Gaza’s wounded without pain relief Operations are being carried out without proper anaesthetics and what painkillers there are have to be rationed, say doctors www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

That’s the spirit.

It does seem like “are foreign movies a national security emergency” is a question more tariff coverage should be asking

The federal government robbed this guy of a day of his life for absolutely no reason except his skin color. Unwarranted stress and indignity. #KavanughStop

I wonder if the ICE people have exploited hiring gig workers themselves in their Supreme Court approved fishing expeditions?

10 people shot, one killed (that we know of now) at a Mormon church in Michigan. 11 people shot, three killed at a waterside restaurant in North Carolina. High-powered rifle used in both. These victims won’t get televised funerals with the Republican Party’s leadership in attendance.

“Water and oxygen creep into the newly exposed soil, triggering the breakdown of sulfide-rich rocks, and creating sulfuric acid that leaches naturally occurring metals like iron, cadmium, and aluminum from rocks into the river.”

The Obama “beer summit” was the great betrayal? Imagine thinking like this (I literally can’t) smotus.substack.com/p/when-the-r...

This was revealing. Worth reading. The basic demand is that Coates spend less time thinking/writing his true feelings and more time playing political strategist. Klein asks him over and over him to do Dem strategy; he says no, over and over. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/o...

Republicans on the Supreme Court may think of themselves as Trump supporters, or as enablers. They’re not. They’re Trump’s marks. Having discovered how far the Court’s Republicans will go to protect him, or at least to avoid crossing him, Trump will just keep asking them for more. And more.

Fukuyamaists…trust the plan.

Some big implications for journalism, too, where reporters often mistake trending posts as a reasonable reflection of public opinion.

Reflecting on Waymo's mature deployment complex San Francisco streets, it's interesting that they still don't support the higher-speed, and thus higher-energy, but simpler freeway driving. I suppose the Waymo engineers have verified the adage: "speed kills"

again struck by the high level of literacy and analysis. he's going over some pretty obscure history but not talking down to the viewer either

Back in the 2016 era, I was worried about a stable, herrenvolk third-positionism with regard to welfare chauvinism. But it looks like that part has fallen away? We still get the the cranks, corruption, weird hang-ups on gender, and of course, the racism. Tin-pot dictator stuff.

It still puzzles me when Trump talks about any peace process. Granted, they’re not pursued realistically nor diligently, but I’m surprised he bothers at all rather than shrugging and disengaging.

“More for me” does not seem as strong an impulse as “less for ‘them’”

If the “built different” magnates of Silicon Valley walked the walk, they’d pick up the phone when Isaac Chotiner asks for an interview.

complicating this is the fact that generals loyal to Bolsonaro would have acted on his orders to execute on a coup had the CIA not gotten involved foreignpolicy.com/2024/02/20/b...

There is value in occasionally reminding ourselves of the obvious. Donald Trump is very old. His impulse control has diminished. His attention span is shorter. His need for constant affirmation is greater. Throughout his second administration are now people who are anxious only to please him.

A tough interview for Cass. This is also a good demonstration of Chotiner doing more than pressing on questions, but knowing a great deal about a subject before discussion.

There is no good end to this where Miller does not end up prosecuted and, in some way, contained for all time.

State support to get through a bout of severe market activity? But I was assured Argentina’s sharp reductions in government would quickly and decisively cause an economic boom, one so impressive that it’d be a model for everyone else. Could that have been wrong? Is it possible experts had a point?

The Khan, in his own words.

the sheer scale of depravity is incalculable which is why it might just be best to revoke ASPA and ship off these guys off to the hague

The Trump administration often uses Friday evenings to release news of its least creditable actions. Via @bcfinucane.bsky.social, here is another one, a US attack on what may have been a fishing boat. Trump, who lies about everything, asserts it belonged to a terrorist group & was carrying drugs.

I would call this “consciousness of guilt” in an eventual domestic trial or international war crimes tribunal.

the ACLU has sued ICE, saying its San Francisco holding cells are filthy, freezing, & unconstitutional and in its suit, it cites Mission Local's reporting *three* times

In the aftermath of the Sept. 4 raid in Georgia, Korean employees at the company’s Spring Hill, Tennessee, operation left the U.S., citing growing concerns over visa status and legal uncertainty, according to a Reuters report.

I wonder if we'll see Cloudflare, Fastly, and Akamai in the crosshairs of the administration? Delivering video or even a web site is vulnerable to these institutional choke-points, even more so than the hosting platform or telco.

The land of the free. This man is a citizen and a veteran. If they can do it to him, they’ll do it to you. www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

This is eliminationist, genocidal rhetoric. There’s nothing ambiguous about it. And it didn’t come from a random Bluesky account with 28 followers. It came from a sitting member of Congress. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/texas-c...

Good. It’s been two years, and there’s no vision in Israel’s government on a peace that will follow. It does look like they’re content to muddle their way towards elimination. www.sanders.senate.gov/op-eds/it-is...

Worth your time… but many of these responses make me feel like it is 2017 again. “Who could have known what would happen!?”

I didn’t care for Engardio’s overall positioning, but when saw his chance, he fell on the sword for something big that would truly endure and make the city a better place. An object lesson in bravery in politics, including the culling of brave politicians.

The insurers know the numbers. Get vaccinated.

THEY ARE LOSING JOHN YOO

As Israel launches another offensive into Gaza, imagine Israelis being told in mid-October 2023 that two years later Gaza would look like this; most Israeli hostages would be dead or still captive; and Hamas would still not be defeated. In what world is this success? (Via @wesleymorgan.bsky.social

One reason to tax billionaires heavily is that being that rich seems to make you crazy and then they have enormous power to impose their crazy on everyone else.

REPORTER: How much wealthier are you now than when you returned to the WH? TRUMP: The deals I made for the most part, other than what my kids are doing - they're running my business - were made before. Where are you from? R: Australia T: In my opinion you are hurting Australia right now. Quiet.

Glad to have changed a mind! TBH in most urban areas, SB 79 will look more like Middle Housing than highrises. The density limits dont lend themselves to giant projects on typical urban parcels