brkirsch.bsky.social
@brkirsch.bsky.social
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i read stuff like this and can genuinely angry at guys like jd vance who insist that this country belongs to some narrow vision of the "native born"
December 9, 2025 at 11:58 PM
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They're using the confinement box, one of the most horrific methods of CIA torture in the post-9/11 black sites, against migrants now. This is the direct result of the lack of consequences for the architects of the torture program. Either there will be criminal penalties for this or it will expand.
Torture Techniques from CIA Black Sites Were Used at Alligator Alcatraz
Amnesty International, interviewing migrant detainees, identifies use of the confinement box. There can be no denying it is a torture prison
www.forever-wars.com
December 8, 2025 at 9:40 PM
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There is no sight that more efficiently puts the lie to immigration “court” than the common sight of children “representing themselves.” Children too small to climb into the chair, children in pajamas who don’t know where they are, children not yet old enough to speak.
Three-year-old child forced to serve as her own attorney in Tucson immigration court
More than a dozen undocumented minors were forced to make their case in front of an immigration judge as the Trump administration ramps up removal proceedings.
coppercourier.com
December 6, 2025 at 5:18 PM
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FT has a piece on how particularly poisonous the Juan Orlando Hernández pardon was (but is a good overview and unlikely many pieces did note that Roger Stone himself needed a pardon).

www.ft.com/content/1dc4...
December 6, 2025 at 12:30 PM
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NEW info on shipwreck attack. It gets worse.

The 2 survivors climbed atop wreckage and waved to overhead.

"Some of the people viewing the video thought ... could have been an attempt to surrender"

Others "said the most logical explanation was ... signaling for a rescue."

1/
December 5, 2025 at 7:50 PM
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Today the Census Bureau released an updated estimate of the US immigrant population in 2024, and it shows that despite all the legal and illegal immigration under Biden, the immigrant share of the US population had grown at the slowest pace for any decade since the 1970s www.cato.org/blog/immigra...
December 4, 2025 at 8:38 PM
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We are finally back to our late 19th century high for immigrant share, but it's not b/c the annual rate of immigration is high, but because the US-born population growth has plummeted, falling 90% from its historic highs, so any immigration matters more. cato.org/blog/immigra...
December 4, 2025 at 8:38 PM
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Holy shit.

Reuters reporting that new admin instructions on visas are if you worked at a platform in trust & safety or content moderation or on fact checking or online safety at an platform you *and your loved ones* are ineligible for H-1B visa.

www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
December 4, 2025 at 5:41 PM
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On this day in 1871, The Halifax School for the Blind opened with four students in attendance. After the Halifax Explosion in 1917, the building survived and the number of students increased due to how many people were blinded by broken glass.
December 4, 2025 at 12:15 PM
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Trump Appears To Doze During Stroke
December 3, 2025 at 11:27 PM
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Agents in Key Largo, Florida ripped this woman wearing medical scrubs out of her car as she screamed she is a US citizen. Agents cuffed her and put her in one of their cars.

She was eventually let go, per David Goodhue of the Miami Herald, who also took this footage:
December 3, 2025 at 5:20 PM
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This is such an incredible story I at first wondered if it was fake. But it appears to be real.

www.ag.ks.gov/Home/Compone...
December 2, 2025 at 12:30 AM
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"Teens may have come up with a new way to detect, treat Lyme disease using CRISPR gene editing."

But the Trump administration cut the money (granted to pursue the research), claiming it fell under DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion www.cbsnews.com/news/teens-m...
Teens may have come up with a new way to detect, treat Lyme disease using CRISPR gene editing
To compete at iGEM, a sort of science Olympics, teens at a Georgia high school set their sights on finding a better way to detect and treat Lyme disease. Their approach uses CRISPR gene editing.
www.cbsnews.com
December 1, 2025 at 12:00 PM
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Senator Kelly is correct.

Plus a Public Service Announcement:

KEY section of Department of Defense's Law of War Manual is 18.3.2.1.

The VERY rule on the "requirement" to refuse illegal orders gives as its paradigmatic example of what is "clearly illegal:
"orders to fire upon the shipwrecked."
November 30, 2025 at 4:35 PM
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Roses are red
Violets are blue
What the hell are we doing here?
"You can get ChatGPT to help you build a nuclear bomb if you simply design the prompt in the form of a poem, according to a new study from researchers in Europe. "

www.wired.com/story/poems-...
Poems Can Trick AI Into Helping You Make a Nuclear Weapon
It turns out all the guardrails in the world won’t protect a chatbot from meter and rhyme.
www.wired.com
November 30, 2025 at 12:25 PM
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WHOA. Trump says he will pardon Juan Orlando Hernandez, who once said that he wanted to “shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos.” He had people killed as part of his narco-trafficking ring, which he at times operated directly out of his presidential office.
November 29, 2025 at 12:05 AM
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America, It's Not You, It's...
November 28, 2025 at 7:11 PM
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To be explicit, we executed a German U-Boat commander who said he had to sink lifesaving gear / “inadvertently” kill survivors because it might give away his position, thereby potentially resulting in the loss of his submarine.

We executed multiple members of that crew.
Heinz-Wilhelm Eck might have something to say about this one.

www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
November 28, 2025 at 6:11 PM
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Nothing says defending your right to exist quite like killing two Palestinian men in the West Bank while they are trying to surrender.
Israeli forces kill Palestinian men in West Bank after they appear to surrender
Israeli forces on Thursday killed a pair of Palestinian men in the occupied West Bank after they appeared to surrender, drawing Palestinian accusations that the men were executed "in cold blood."
www.npr.org
November 28, 2025 at 7:25 PM
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Textbook war crime/extrajudicial killing

"Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions."

Report by @alexhorton.bsky.social @ellenwapo.bsky.social o.bsky.social
Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to kill all crew members in the Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug boat. Navy SEALs fired a second missile.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 28, 2025 at 6:13 PM
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"The agency also announced plans to relax a rule requiring companies to report all products containing PFAS and has proposed weakening drinking water standards for the chemicals."
The EPA is starting to allow the use of pesticides containing PFAS on food. The move is part of an effort to roll back the regulation of PFAS — also known as "forever chemicals" because they don't break down easily in the environment.
November 25, 2025 at 5:38 PM
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Billionaire Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, pardoned by Donald Trump, has been accused of facilitating millions of dollars’ worth of payments to Hamas in the wake of its attack on Israel on October 7 2023. Zhao also financed the Trump family's entrance into the cryptocurrency market.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao accused of facilitating payments to Hamas
Crypto tycoon pardoned by Donald Trump faces US court complaint from families of victims of October 7 attack
www.ft.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:06 AM
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Republican Senator Mike Rounds said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a call to senators, confirmed the so-called 28-point “peace plan” was actually a Russian wishlist and is “not the administration’s position”. Nor is there any threat to cut off weapons or intelligence to Ukraine.
November 22, 2025 at 11:12 PM
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🎵 “Join Ice” - @wellesmusic on Colbert
November 22, 2025 at 1:54 PM
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62 Years Ago Today:
November 22, 2025 at 3:00 PM