I do not understand the appeal of David Pepper.

They should re-release Team America: World Police

Per @reuters.com , US now seizing Russian-flag Venezuelan tanker Bella-1 / Marinera www.reuters.com/business/ene...

New: I spoke with a Colombian asylum seeker who was the victim of a ‘Kavanaugh stop’ about what it was like to be racially profiled, abducted in front his family and held in ICE detention hours from home for more than a month—despite doing everything “the right way.” This is Nick’s story.

If a university in a blue state advised removing Plato because he was pro-slavery it would be the top story on Fox for a year. Democratic elected officials would be expected to answer for it within hours

I hope they are adding in that he created a $40 a year Reagan(dot)com email company.

All options that don't require me to personally upset the world's richest man are on the table

Stealing more oil tankers

Researcher: Grok generated ~6,700 sexually suggestive or "nudifying" images per hour on X between January 5 and January 6; 85% of Grok images are sexualized (Cecilia D'Anastasio/Bloomberg) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

A big op is taking place North of Scotland potentially to attempt to board the Russian-flagged sanctioned tanker Marinera. Three US special ops spy planes in support. There’s a Russian sub in the vicinity.

"I’m going to pause here just to review: an institution that purports to be a university has told a philosophy professor he is forbidden from teaching Plato." surreal times dailynous.com/2026/01/06/t...

The President does not get to raise and spend his own separate money. This is Constitution 101 stuff, guys.

Breaking news: About 75 people were killed in Venezuela during Saturday’s military raid to capture President Nicolás Maduro, including dozens of fatalities that resulted from a gun battle at his compound in Caracas, according to U.S. officials.

Can't imagine this escalating.

This is the kind of thing that the Founders explicitly designed our constitution to prevent; a president who has seized wealth for his own benefit without any intervention from Congress, which in our system is supposed to be the holder of the power of the purse.

Serious answer. If part of the U.S. govt takes possession of money/property from Venezuela and hands it to Donald Trump, that is an appropriation to Donald Trump and must be authorized by law as well. If a check/gift goes directly to Donald Trump, it's a bribe/emolument. bsky.app/profile/toom...

Trump demands Venezuela kick out China and Russia, partner only with US on oil: EXCLUSIVE abcnews.go.com/Politics/tru...

Béla Fleck just announced he’s cancelling his performance at the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra 💪

Bill Ackman, who pressured Harvard to fire Claudine Gay (ostensibly over plagiarism allegations), is...funding Francesca Gino's lawsuit against Harvard; Harvard fired Gino for *checks notes* committing research misconduct. This man...

Uhm wtf so the President has his own oil slush fund?

It is interesting that Palestinians are relatively likely to say it is solely a Palestinian cause (69% still think it is a collective Arab cause, but that is well below the average of 80%)

From an email to one of our faculty members.... Not even Plato can escape censorship at Texas A&M!

It isn't untrue. Is there much political science work yet that directly engages with influencer as activist/lobbyist/political entrepreneur?

I've watched a lot of protests in my time. Police off escalate tensions. They were definitely not perfect on Jan 6th but it is hard to find many cases where the police were more lenient to aggressive protesters.

Do they know we are a net exporter of oil?

Wyoming’s top court struck down the state’s near-total abortion ban and a first-of-its-kind prohibition on abortion pills, saying that the laws violated the state constitution.

Armed militias deployed in Venezuela as regime attempts to impose authority

US discussing options to acquire Greenland, including use of military - White House www.bbc.com/news/article...

UK Government demands Musk's X deals with 'appalling' Grok AI deepfakes www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Israel pushes ahead with vast illegal settlement in heart of West Bank

Government by content creators continues.

Real normal things.

This piece really trashes the party decides/EPN theory of parties but I find that a bit absurd. Elite endorsements have continued to be very important. Trump's win in 2016 was a fracturing of a party but the party elite was rebuilt afterwards.

TFW you read a book you should have read before you started the project 3 years ago and just want to sink into your chair and vanish.

From the AP: "Republican Doug LaMalfa, a seven-term U.S. representative from California, has died, GOP officials said Tuesday. His death reduces the Republicans’ already narrow control of the House to 218 seats to Democrats’ 213." apnews.com/article/rep-...

Maduro is gonna walk lol

Statements like “international law is gay” are why we need gender studies

1950s style American foreign policy is back (yes I know American FP has often been about ignoring territorial sovereignty but we've used different tactics for it overtime)

NEW: Child welfare systems vary widely in what they count as a positive drug test. One state’s level is so low that Air Force pilots can fly with up to 400 times more opiates in their system.

The district court injunction that prevented NIH from capping indirects at 15% was upheld today on appeal! www.reuters.com/world/trump-...

I wrote section 230 to protect user speech, not a company's own speech. I've long said AI chatbot outputs are not protected by 230 and that it is not a close call. Given that the Trump administration is going to the mat to protect pedophiles, states should step in to hold Musk and X accountable.

Two thoughts. 1) Didn't they already drop the claim of TdA connection? 2) I swear these people think that Arkham Asylum is real.

Writing this I had to look through Grok's mentions. Earlier I counted around 8 requests PER MINUTE featuring "bikini" and "her". Thousands of women and girls stripped each day. I found users stripping dozens of women per hour, from female celebrities to gym selfies. www.thetimes.com/uk/technolog...

To be clear, this vaccine policy is Trump's policy. He wants to own it and he should — and whatever comes of it.

In In Covid's Wake Wake

Lots of gunfire near the presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela. The AFP reports that the president’s office claims that everything is under control.

Justice Dept. Drops Claim That Venezuela’s ‘Cartel de los Soles’ Is an Actual Group Last year, before capturing Maduro, the Trump administration designated a Venezuelan slang term for drug corruption in the military as a terrorist organization and said he led it. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/05/u...

Breaking news: The Department of Homeland Security drafted plans to drastically cut the FEMA workforce in 2026, according to documents obtained by The Post that detail potential reductions to thousands of disaster response and recovery roles.