Convolver
@convolver.bsky.social
What good is seeing-eye chocolate? What good is a computerized nose? What good’s Sanskrit read to a pony? Not much, I guess, not much at all.
Pinned
Convolver
@convolver.bsky.social
· Mar 28
Going to start a list of every program, agency, board, etc. that I can find that we know have been DOGEd out of existence. (You can also just check in with @kellylsmith.bsky.social at UCSD, where she maintains an exhaustive list of acronyms and links, including monthly data on who's been 404d).
The idea that the WH took a diplomatic overture and figured they could skip the track 2 bilat and jump to the desired outcome if they just went ahead and iced 40 civilians and kidnapped a head of state is … I mean, it’s /stupid/, but it’s very much the expected level of planning from these people.
"Senior Venezuelan government officials, led by Vice President Delcy Rodríguez...have quietly promoted a series of initiatives in recent months aimed at presenting themselves to Washington as a “more acceptable” alternative to Nicolás Maduro’s regime...funneled through intermediaries in Qatar."
Exclusive: Venezuelan leaders offered U.S. a path to stay in power without Maduro
Delcy and Jorge Rodríguez used Doha backchannels to offer Washington a 'Cartel Light' plan for a managed Venezuela transition that keeps chavismo in power.
www.miamiherald.com
January 4, 2026 at 4:57 AM
The idea that the WH took a diplomatic overture and figured they could skip the track 2 bilat and jump to the desired outcome if they just went ahead and iced 40 civilians and kidnapped a head of state is … I mean, it’s /stupid/, but it’s very much the expected level of planning from these people.
He’s suddenly realized that the courts can’t (and Congress won’t) stop him from running his own personal Banana Wars abroad, and it’s like giving a kid a lifetime supply of pixie stix and a Red Ryder BB gun.
Watch this. Watch again.
"This incredible thing last night... We have to do it again [in other countries]. We can do it again, too. Nobody can stop us."
"This incredible thing last night... We have to do it again [in other countries]. We can do it again, too. Nobody can stop us."
January 4, 2026 at 12:30 AM
He’s suddenly realized that the courts can’t (and Congress won’t) stop him from running his own personal Banana Wars abroad, and it’s like giving a kid a lifetime supply of pixie stix and a Red Ryder BB gun.
This is not the correct question. The correct question is “How will we punish the President and his cronies for prosecuting an unambiguously illegal executive use of military force?”
Schumer says he wants to know: "How many troops are on the ground now, American troops? How many troops do they expect have a week from now, a month from now, a year from now?"
January 3, 2026 at 8:15 PM
This is not the correct question. The correct question is “How will we punish the President and his cronies for prosecuting an unambiguously illegal executive use of military force?”
Jesus, this guy.
… Jared Polis celebrates that “… the tyrant has fallen!”
January 3, 2026 at 7:31 PM
Jesus, this guy.
If accurate, then the plan is just “Chavismo but Trump gets a cut.” Which seems about right.
Speaking to a solid source. Keep your eyes on Maduro’s Minister of Justice,
Diosdado Cabello as the new power supporter in VZ supported by Trump.
Source added, “if Cabello’s in charge it will be worse than Maduro”. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diosdad...
Diosdado Cabello as the new power supporter in VZ supported by Trump.
Source added, “if Cabello’s in charge it will be worse than Maduro”. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diosdad...
Diosdado Cabello - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
January 3, 2026 at 7:02 PM
If accurate, then the plan is just “Chavismo but Trump gets a cut.” Which seems about right.
Less of a statement and more of an apologetic murmur.
January 3, 2026 at 5:49 PM
Less of a statement and more of an apologetic murmur.
A month ago Trump’s argument was literally “you get to avoid justice for drug trafficking in the United States because you lived in a palace in Tegucigalpa.”
Vance pushes back and says this was not illegal, arguing "Maduro has multiple indictments in the United States for narcoterrorism. You don't get to avoid justice for drug trafficking in the United States because you live in a palace in Caracas."
January 3, 2026 at 5:35 PM
A month ago Trump’s argument was literally “you get to avoid justice for drug trafficking in the United States because you lived in a palace in Tegucigalpa.”
I don’t think there’s a lot of appetite by anyone to shovel money into politically-unstable poorly-maintained upstream production, but if VZ crude started pouring into Gulf refineries the immediate effect would be even more layoffs in the Permian Basin as heavy sour displaces nonconventional light.
Trump: "We're going to have our very large United States oil companies go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure and start making money for the country. And we are ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so."
January 3, 2026 at 5:28 PM
I don’t think there’s a lot of appetite by anyone to shovel money into politically-unstable poorly-maintained upstream production, but if VZ crude started pouring into Gulf refineries the immediate effect would be even more layoffs in the Permian Basin as heavy sour displaces nonconventional light.
So far this feels like they looked at Libya and thought, “Let’s do that again, but this time within 500 miles of US ground.”
The US will run Venezuela until there can be
"a safe, proper and judicious transition," announces President Trump.
"a safe, proper and judicious transition," announces President Trump.
January 3, 2026 at 4:53 PM
So far this feels like they looked at Libya and thought, “Let’s do that again, but this time within 500 miles of US ground.”
Reposted by Convolver
Trump on Sheinbaum: "The cartels are running Mexico. She's not running Mexico. We could be politically correct & nice and say, 'Oh, yes, she is.' No no. And I've asked her number times, 'Would you like us to take out the cartels?' ... something is gonna have to be done with Mexico."
January 3, 2026 at 2:36 PM
Trump on Sheinbaum: "The cartels are running Mexico. She's not running Mexico. We could be politically correct & nice and say, 'Oh, yes, she is.' No no. And I've asked her number times, 'Would you like us to take out the cartels?' ... something is gonna have to be done with Mexico."
Someone inside the regime used CIA to carry out an internal power play with US forces, and what happens next is impossible to predict, because a whole lot of other actors now get a veto on whether there’s an orderly transition.
The next person in the Venezuelan line of succession is Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, although the NYT reports "it was not immediately clear who was in power." www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/w...
January 3, 2026 at 4:01 PM
Someone inside the regime used CIA to carry out an internal power play with US forces, and what happens next is impossible to predict, because a whole lot of other actors now get a veto on whether there’s an orderly transition.
Telling that one of Weiss and Dokoupil’s only defenders at the network is Jan Crawford, last seen castigating her legal journalist colleagues for being insufficiently deferential to the hard-right wing of the Supreme Court.
NEW from me:
Currently on tap for Tony Dokoupil on his first day as CBS Evening News anchor -- taking a private plane to Miami to so he can go jet skiing with DJ Khaled and play soccer with David Beckham.
Take that, elites!
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
Currently on tap for Tony Dokoupil on his first day as CBS Evening News anchor -- taking a private plane to Miami to so he can go jet skiing with DJ Khaled and play soccer with David Beckham.
Take that, elites!
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
Private jets and ‘Bari pitches’: Inside Weiss’ chaotic CBS Evening News reboot
EXCLUSIVE: The new CBS News editor-in-chief has chartered private flights for her armed security detail, made last-minute logistical changes and fired off ‘Bari Pitches.’ Weiss is once again accused o...
www.independent.co.uk
January 3, 2026 at 1:25 AM
Telling that one of Weiss and Dokoupil’s only defenders at the network is Jan Crawford, last seen castigating her legal journalist colleagues for being insufficiently deferential to the hard-right wing of the Supreme Court.
The Tablet repurposing gutter anti-semitism for its own use probably shouldn’t come as a surprise, but it’s grim. Very, very grim.
Here is the editor of Tablet agreeably reposting someone calling nonwhite NYC immigrants "worthless biotrash." It's astonishing how quickly this stuff has escaped containment
January 2, 2026 at 3:20 PM
The Tablet repurposing gutter anti-semitism for its own use probably shouldn’t come as a surprise, but it’s grim. Very, very grim.
Hardly surprising that a heat-not-light blogger whose meager journalistic background was in opinion editing would proudly and volubly make CBS News into a post-truth, post-fact media organization, but dispiriting nonetheless.
Bari Weiss’s CBS News directly attacking academics, subject matter experts, in the promo for her new CBS Evening News.
January 2, 2026 at 2:55 PM
Hardly surprising that a heat-not-light blogger whose meager journalistic background was in opinion editing would proudly and volubly make CBS News into a post-truth, post-fact media organization, but dispiriting nonetheless.
Reposted by Convolver
My annual anthem until the year actually does kill me.
January 2, 2026 at 2:07 AM
My annual anthem until the year actually does kill me.
This is something the Dems can force a legislative stop to in negotiations this month. No federal funds shall be spent to depict a sitting President in any form on any currency, coin, or stamp; nor name or appear to name an agency, facility, building, or other government entity after the same, etc.
I really don’t know why this particular story hasn’t broken through.
January 1, 2026 at 5:23 PM
This is something the Dems can force a legislative stop to in negotiations this month. No federal funds shall be spent to depict a sitting President in any form on any currency, coin, or stamp; nor name or appear to name an agency, facility, building, or other government entity after the same, etc.
There are endless reasons why we need to dismantle DHS into its component agencies, but the most compelling might just be “you cannot post genocidal fascist propaganda and continue to exist as an arm of the US government.”
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.
January 1, 2026 at 3:14 AM
There are endless reasons why we need to dismantle DHS into its component agencies, but the most compelling might just be “you cannot post genocidal fascist propaganda and continue to exist as an arm of the US government.”
For God’s sake, the NYT quoted this same conservative student op-ed writer for another “man on the street” in October regarding how much he loves the East Wing demolition. The NYT has a very small Rolodex and we ain’t in it.
oh thank god we have the Groyper demographic represented here
December 30, 2025 at 7:33 PM
For God’s sake, the NYT quoted this same conservative student op-ed writer for another “man on the street” in October regarding how much he loves the East Wing demolition. The NYT has a very small Rolodex and we ain’t in it.
Where this 🧵goes …!
right after my father died several of his contemporaries invited me to come speak at their churches ... they knew i was in college and wanted to help me out
December 30, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Where this 🧵goes …!
Iowa State wants to complain about student athletes not having loyalty to their school? Let’s ask WSU what they think about coach Jimmy Rogers jumping ship for Iowa after a single season.
Ted Cruz has found the most important issue, putting College Athletes back into slavery
December 30, 2025 at 5:04 AM
Iowa State wants to complain about student athletes not having loyalty to their school? Let’s ask WSU what they think about coach Jimmy Rogers jumping ship for Iowa after a single season.
If AI were a football game it would be fifteen-love with the overs completed, but America has a full count and China is dribbling the puck for a layup in the red zone.
If the U.S.-China artificial-intelligence rivalry were a football game, America would be leading at halftime—but it just made a risky trade.
The AI Scorecard: How the U.S. Built a Lead—and Could Lose It to China
If the U.S.-China artificial-intelligence rivalry were a football game, America would be leading at halftime—but it just made a risky trade.
on.wsj.com
December 30, 2025 at 4:19 AM
If AI were a football game it would be fifteen-love with the overs completed, but America has a full count and China is dribbling the puck for a layup in the red zone.
We talk about how Americans should travel globally to appreciate other cultures more, and we should, but Americans should also travel more in order to appreciate what we have and understand the fragility of the sociopolitical system that made it possible.
My “well not going back” moment was when a job in Oxford came up that was perfectly suited to my skill set - head of a new journalism center on China - and the pay was literally 1/4th of what I would expect for the same job in the US.
I'm a New Yorker who lived in affordable East Yorkshire in 13-15. It was shameful how my colleagues and friends had masters degrees and made under $30k.
Dated someone who would run out of electricity at home because she had to go to a corner shop to reload it 10 pounds at a time.
Dated someone who would run out of electricity at home because she had to go to a corner shop to reload it 10 pounds at a time.
December 27, 2025 at 10:03 PM
We talk about how Americans should travel globally to appreciate other cultures more, and we should, but Americans should also travel more in order to appreciate what we have and understand the fragility of the sociopolitical system that made it possible.
It’s helpful to recall that Vermeule’s program is a kind of Chicago School version of 17th-century “Catholic majesty” absolutism that the founders, being good Englishmen, were horrified by; and thus anything he says about them must be assumed to be either deeply erroneous or simply in bad faith.
So what he's saying here is that Roger Taney is part of that adoptive family which must be worshipped but Frederick Douglass and David Walker and and William Lloyd Garrison and other fantastic spewers of venom against the founders were not
December 27, 2025 at 10:01 PM
It’s helpful to recall that Vermeule’s program is a kind of Chicago School version of 17th-century “Catholic majesty” absolutism that the founders, being good Englishmen, were horrified by; and thus anything he says about them must be assumed to be either deeply erroneous or simply in bad faith.
Deport the (checks notes) American musical artist so he can be replaced by (squints at notes) an Italian singer and a (flips through notes frantically) Korean pop-inspired movie from a Japanese studio directed by a Canadian (throws notes into the air, walks away).
Deport Bad Bunny? Where, back to the Puerto Rico…which is part of what country again?
December 27, 2025 at 4:04 AM
Deport the (checks notes) American musical artist so he can be replaced by (squints at notes) an Italian singer and a (flips through notes frantically) Korean pop-inspired movie from a Japanese studio directed by a Canadian (throws notes into the air, walks away).
That’s about one-third of the total number of TLAMs the Navy was able to procure in 2024, by the way.
Reuters reporting it was over a dozen Tomahawks
December 26, 2025 at 7:13 PM
That’s about one-third of the total number of TLAMs the Navy was able to procure in 2024, by the way.