@bastillesam.bsky.social
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One of the funny thing about the "skilled labour" approach to immigration is that it turns apparent economic liberals into believers in 1950s Soviet planned economy where the government apparently knows how many pair of shoes we'll need to manufacture, hence we need so many shoemakers, not one more.
Probably further focus on people to fill job and skills gaps that we lack and try to avoid importing more “unskilled labour” that is unfair for the people coming here and for young people already trying to find employment.
February 18, 2026 at 2:43 AM
One of the funny thing about the "skilled labour" approach to immigration is that it turns apparent economic liberals into believers in 1950s Soviet planned economy where the government apparently knows how many pair of shoes we'll need to manufacture, hence we need so many shoemakers, not one more.
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The race to the bottom in destroying state institutions while not at all gaining from it because "anti-system" is to most nothing but vague vibes and social prejudices is obviously not a healthy path
To assume "anti-system" here = support for whatever leftie/socialist policy you want is naive
To assume "anti-system" here = support for whatever leftie/socialist policy you want is naive
February 18, 2026 at 1:24 PM
The race to the bottom in destroying state institutions while not at all gaining from it because "anti-system" is to most nothing but vague vibes and social prejudices is obviously not a healthy path
To assume "anti-system" here = support for whatever leftie/socialist policy you want is naive
To assume "anti-system" here = support for whatever leftie/socialist policy you want is naive
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This the skeleton key that explains the entire left-of-center political and informational environment. There is no social reward for ever saying anything nice about a mainline Democrat, so no one does. As a result, baseless antipathy towards the party completely pervades the environment.
February 17, 2026 at 3:03 PM
This the skeleton key that explains the entire left-of-center political and informational environment. There is no social reward for ever saying anything nice about a mainline Democrat, so no one does. As a result, baseless antipathy towards the party completely pervades the environment.
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"Economic anxiety" as an explanation for Trumpism is no more true when AOC says it in left-coded language than when the NYT says it in centrist-coded language.
February 15, 2026 at 7:07 PM
"Economic anxiety" as an explanation for Trumpism is no more true when AOC says it in left-coded language than when the NYT says it in centrist-coded language.
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I am a simple girl begging people who make covid their entire personality to learn some basic facts about the disease instead of mainlining Taylor Lorenz‘s feed
February 18, 2026 at 4:55 AM
I am a simple girl begging people who make covid their entire personality to learn some basic facts about the disease instead of mainlining Taylor Lorenz‘s feed
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Also, they will never forgive the US (in any shape or form) for winning the Cold War and the dissolution of USSR.
They can only allow the rights of the US citizens to expand only within the framework of US as a Communist nation—a USSR 2.0, if you will.
For them, any other US project is a death.
They can only allow the rights of the US citizens to expand only within the framework of US as a Communist nation—a USSR 2.0, if you will.
For them, any other US project is a death.
February 18, 2026 at 10:30 AM
Also, they will never forgive the US (in any shape or form) for winning the Cold War and the dissolution of USSR.
They can only allow the rights of the US citizens to expand only within the framework of US as a Communist nation—a USSR 2.0, if you will.
For them, any other US project is a death.
They can only allow the rights of the US citizens to expand only within the framework of US as a Communist nation—a USSR 2.0, if you will.
For them, any other US project is a death.
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There were so many childhood deaths before the age of 5 before antibiotics (and vaccines) that the median life expectancy increased by almost 2 decades.
To give a comparison of scale, if you removed every billionaire from the list, the median household wealth would change by less than $20.
To give a comparison of scale, if you removed every billionaire from the list, the median household wealth would change by less than $20.
before antibiotics did people just die all the time from everything?
February 18, 2026 at 6:18 AM
There were so many childhood deaths before the age of 5 before antibiotics (and vaccines) that the median life expectancy increased by almost 2 decades.
To give a comparison of scale, if you removed every billionaire from the list, the median household wealth would change by less than $20.
To give a comparison of scale, if you removed every billionaire from the list, the median household wealth would change by less than $20.
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Like this. "You must strategically abandon the specific issues that the right has rendered toxic & focus on others."
But then ... why wouldn't the right just be able to do the same thing on those other issues?
But then ... why wouldn't the right just be able to do the same thing on those other issues?
February 18, 2026 at 2:45 AM
Like this. "You must strategically abandon the specific issues that the right has rendered toxic & focus on others."
But then ... why wouldn't the right just be able to do the same thing on those other issues?
But then ... why wouldn't the right just be able to do the same thing on those other issues?
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What would normally be presidency-ending scandals not even a blip on the radar
Daily
Daily
February 17, 2026 at 2:48 PM
What would normally be presidency-ending scandals not even a blip on the radar
Daily
Daily
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Calling tariffs non-regressive because rich people buy more stuff is elite math. Poor households spend a higher share of income on essentials, and tariffs hit prices, not yachts. This isn’t economics, it’s justification for a consumer tax sold as populism.
February 17, 2026 at 7:10 PM
Calling tariffs non-regressive because rich people buy more stuff is elite math. Poor households spend a higher share of income on essentials, and tariffs hit prices, not yachts. This isn’t economics, it’s justification for a consumer tax sold as populism.
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Bloomberg says we've spent $3B on Trump's invasion of Venezuela.
Which is 6X more than the cancer, Alzheimer, diabetes, and heart disease cures they've cut to pay for it.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Which is 6X more than the cancer, Alzheimer, diabetes, and heart disease cures they've cut to pay for it.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Trump's Caribbean Surge Nears $3 Billion Price Tag So Far
The operations around Venezuela that eventually led to the capture of its president pulled in nearly a fifth of the US Navy’s surface fleet at a cost of more than $20 million a day.
www.bloomberg.com
February 17, 2026 at 11:26 PM
Bloomberg says we've spent $3B on Trump's invasion of Venezuela.
Which is 6X more than the cancer, Alzheimer, diabetes, and heart disease cures they've cut to pay for it.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Which is 6X more than the cancer, Alzheimer, diabetes, and heart disease cures they've cut to pay for it.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
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Further, the Georgia statute goes on to say that if a bystander is hurt or killed as a result of a police chase it's not the officer's fault.
UNLESS the officer acted with reckless disregard for proper law enforcement procedures in the decision to initiate or continue the pursuit.
UNLESS the officer acted with reckless disregard for proper law enforcement procedures in the decision to initiate or continue the pursuit.
February 17, 2026 at 6:48 PM
Further, the Georgia statute goes on to say that if a bystander is hurt or killed as a result of a police chase it's not the officer's fault.
UNLESS the officer acted with reckless disregard for proper law enforcement procedures in the decision to initiate or continue the pursuit.
UNLESS the officer acted with reckless disregard for proper law enforcement procedures in the decision to initiate or continue the pursuit.
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The current person in charge of ICE's procurement for detention is a GEO Group executive who ran the company's immigration detention portfolio. He was granted an "ethics waiver" from DHS allowing him to hand out contracts to GEO in his new role.
February 17, 2026 at 8:58 PM
The current person in charge of ICE's procurement for detention is a GEO Group executive who ran the company's immigration detention portfolio. He was granted an "ethics waiver" from DHS allowing him to hand out contracts to GEO in his new role.
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Let me add to the context of this statement by LeBron. He was asked this because of his Israeli teammate.
February 17, 2026 at 4:00 PM
Let me add to the context of this statement by LeBron. He was asked this because of his Israeli teammate.
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It is impossible to overstate how much MAGA and the anti-anti-Trump movement is just truly horrible awful bigots who want to be accepted into polite society and face no criticism for their shittiness.
Fuck them. And I am proud of us for refusing to accept them and continuing to shun them.
Fuck them. And I am proud of us for refusing to accept them and continuing to shun them.
February 17, 2026 at 5:51 PM
It is impossible to overstate how much MAGA and the anti-anti-Trump movement is just truly horrible awful bigots who want to be accepted into polite society and face no criticism for their shittiness.
Fuck them. And I am proud of us for refusing to accept them and continuing to shun them.
Fuck them. And I am proud of us for refusing to accept them and continuing to shun them.
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When you're targeting "the worst of the worst" by posing as people in distress needing help - *and it works* - whatever makes them "the worst of the worst" in your eyes clearly isn't their actions.
February 15, 2026 at 11:34 PM
When you're targeting "the worst of the worst" by posing as people in distress needing help - *and it works* - whatever makes them "the worst of the worst" in your eyes clearly isn't their actions.
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If you dress your soldiers up as Red Cross workers, for instance, then you are suddenly validating the enemy just shooting Red Cross workers.
If you start shooting people for surrendering, you're just disencentivizing surrender. You'd prefer people to feel like surrender is an option.
If you start shooting people for surrendering, you're just disencentivizing surrender. You'd prefer people to feel like surrender is an option.
February 15, 2026 at 11:38 PM
If you dress your soldiers up as Red Cross workers, for instance, then you are suddenly validating the enemy just shooting Red Cross workers.
If you start shooting people for surrendering, you're just disencentivizing surrender. You'd prefer people to feel like surrender is an option.
If you start shooting people for surrendering, you're just disencentivizing surrender. You'd prefer people to feel like surrender is an option.
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This is called Perfidy, it is an international war crime
anyone with decent training knows why you do not do this. because it puts the innocent civilians who do need aid or are offering it in harm's way because of distrust
anyone with decent training knows why you do not do this. because it puts the innocent civilians who do need aid or are offering it in harm's way because of distrust
February 15, 2026 at 1:09 AM
This is called Perfidy, it is an international war crime
anyone with decent training knows why you do not do this. because it puts the innocent civilians who do need aid or are offering it in harm's way because of distrust
anyone with decent training knows why you do not do this. because it puts the innocent civilians who do need aid or are offering it in harm's way because of distrust
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What this means is when you are truly emotional and stressed at a critical mass point or breaking point, you end up being cognitively overloaded filtering out any new information rather than using reasoned analysis 5/
February 15, 2026 at 2:53 PM
What this means is when you are truly emotional and stressed at a critical mass point or breaking point, you end up being cognitively overloaded filtering out any new information rather than using reasoned analysis 5/
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When ICE shot Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg, they claimed it was justified
They said the agent was “ambushed” by men who hit him with a shovel
They blamed Governor Walz and Mayor Frey for the attack
It was all a lie
The charges against Celis were dismissed
And the agents might be charged
They said the agent was “ambushed” by men who hit him with a shovel
They blamed Governor Walz and Mayor Frey for the attack
It was all a lie
The charges against Celis were dismissed
And the agents might be charged
February 14, 2026 at 9:55 PM
When ICE shot Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg, they claimed it was justified
They said the agent was “ambushed” by men who hit him with a shovel
They blamed Governor Walz and Mayor Frey for the attack
It was all a lie
The charges against Celis were dismissed
And the agents might be charged
They said the agent was “ambushed” by men who hit him with a shovel
They blamed Governor Walz and Mayor Frey for the attack
It was all a lie
The charges against Celis were dismissed
And the agents might be charged
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This is so deeply fucked. I wish these people would just admit they hate the idea of democracy and get it over with. This kayfabe bullshit is just silly at this point.
North Carolina lawmakers have voted to remove all college campus voting sites. Specifically at the largest HBCU in the US NC A&T. They now have to walk 30 minutes to their nearest polling place. Students are protesting this - pls share and support.
www.tiktok.com/t/ZThx29BJ9/
www.tiktok.com/t/ZThx29BJ9/
Even without an on-campus voting site, NCAT students still marched to the polls. 💙💛 Students at North Carolina A&T showed that barriers won’t stop their voices. When access isn’t easy, they organize. ...
TikTok video by HBCU Student Action Alliance
www.tiktok.com
February 15, 2026 at 3:48 AM
This is so deeply fucked. I wish these people would just admit they hate the idea of democracy and get it over with. This kayfabe bullshit is just silly at this point.
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A decent amount of that seems to come from very online Americans getting their ideas about government from listening to too many people in parliamentary systems being confidently wrong
February 15, 2026 at 6:00 AM
A decent amount of that seems to come from very online Americans getting their ideas about government from listening to too many people in parliamentary systems being confidently wrong
Whole comment thread resembles a situation I found myself in conversing with an acquaintance.
Guy was like: The speeches of both Obama and Hitler rouses you, raise your spirit, strike nationalistic chords, invoke patriotic tendencies.
Thus, he concluded, there is no tell difference between two.
Guy was like: The speeches of both Obama and Hitler rouses you, raise your spirit, strike nationalistic chords, invoke patriotic tendencies.
Thus, he concluded, there is no tell difference between two.
February 15, 2026 at 7:18 AM
Whole comment thread resembles a situation I found myself in conversing with an acquaintance.
Guy was like: The speeches of both Obama and Hitler rouses you, raise your spirit, strike nationalistic chords, invoke patriotic tendencies.
Thus, he concluded, there is no tell difference between two.
Guy was like: The speeches of both Obama and Hitler rouses you, raise your spirit, strike nationalistic chords, invoke patriotic tendencies.
Thus, he concluded, there is no tell difference between two.
That's everything wrong with the American Left.
February 15, 2026 at 7:05 AM
That's everything wrong with the American Left.
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the left should have absolutely no delusions about how white rural people vote. stop dreaming of a working class populist revolution. it is never fucking happening.
either embrace the reality that the vanguard are overeducated PMCs and queer baristas, or get the fuck out of our way.
either embrace the reality that the vanguard are overeducated PMCs and queer baristas, or get the fuck out of our way.
February 15, 2026 at 2:44 AM
the left should have absolutely no delusions about how white rural people vote. stop dreaming of a working class populist revolution. it is never fucking happening.
either embrace the reality that the vanguard are overeducated PMCs and queer baristas, or get the fuck out of our way.
either embrace the reality that the vanguard are overeducated PMCs and queer baristas, or get the fuck out of our way.