Dave Andress
banner
davidandress.bsky.social
Dave Andress
@davidandress.bsky.social
Historian of revolution, pessimistic anarchist. Nobody else wants these views, trust me. 'His real face is a hat' - Fern Riddell.
Reposted by Dave Andress
The Ponds patrons are overwhelmingly supportive of trans inclusion, and yet still Sex Matters keep pusing there idealogical agenda. They say they defend women's rights, but continue to ignore the voices of women; how very misogynistic.
Appeal sought against Hampstead ponds trans access
Sex Matters wants to appeal a ruling that it cannot take legal action against the City of London Corporation.
www.bbc.co.uk
February 20, 2026 at 3:55 PM
An affirmation to close the week. My book project is nearer to being finished now than it was last week, despite just finding a gap in my source-reading I needed to plug. And because of finding a gap in my source-reading I needed to plug.
February 20, 2026 at 4:22 PM
Reposted by Dave Andress
Yeah there are plenty of precedents for the federal government issuing mass refunds so I assume the point Kav is making is that this administration is criminal and incompetent and therefore too difficult for them.
Honestly I've never understood this idea that having to give refunds will be a mess. The government has records of which importers got charged tariffs. Just cut them checks. The IRS manages to give out millions of tax refunds every year. It's not like it's an unmanageable task.
In dissent, Kavanaugh specifically faults the majority for failing to explain whether the government must refund tariffs that it has unlawfully collected. Says the process may be a "mess." I am surprised the majority didn't address this! www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
February 20, 2026 at 4:19 PM
Antitrans bigots WANT to make trans people miserable, isolated and scared, and THEN argue that they're miserable, isolated and scared because they're trans, and should try being "normal" instead..
See, Cass in common with other anti-trans activists refuses to accept that transitioning helps, that we can't actually feel happier and better for doing it. The satisfaction rates cannot possibly be that high, we MUST be lying
February 20, 2026 at 4:19 PM
Reposted by Dave Andress
it is interesting that the most loyal footsoldiers for kingrule are not the 3 that Trump appointed but the 2 that Bush did
Yeah, the thing to understand is that only Thomas and Alito are loyal to the entire Trump package. The others are like the Heritage Foundation -- willing to use Trump to make Fascism go Up and Line Go Up but unwilling to let Trump risk Line Go Down.
If you are surprised by what SCOTUS just did, you need to revisit your premises about the Court and the political economy of constitutional litigation, which is very sensitive to the preferences of people who do not like market chaos even if the administration does not care.
February 20, 2026 at 4:15 PM
Reposted by Dave Andress
An amusing headline/poll when you remember the most straightforward way for him to do so is "become a Roman Catholic"
February 20, 2026 at 3:53 PM
Reposted by Dave Andress
Amazing writing:

"Reese’s foil-wrapped Peanut Butter Eggs no longer contain milk chocolate, either, The New York Times found on Thursday after an investigation that involved going to a drugstore near the office to buy a bag and read the ingredients."

And yes, this is (partly) climate change.
Some Reese’s Treats Drop the Milk Chocolate. Mr. Reese Disapproves.
www.nytimes.com
February 20, 2026 at 2:55 PM
Reposted by Dave Andress
Don't congratulate John Roberts or the Supreme Court.

Congratulate Rick Woldenberg, the Chicago-area leader of Learning Resources, an educadtional toy company that had the courage to sue the president of the United States to save his family business.

As well as everyone else who stepped up.
February 20, 2026 at 3:14 PM
After a certain point of wealth, you might as well just be a pile of meat someone put down as a marker. The money is out there doing its own thing.
I keep hearing that the Epstein files are so big if we held everyone accountable everything would collapse. And no it wouldn’t. These rich guys don’t do any actual work. They aren’t actually important or useful they are just rich.
February 20, 2026 at 3:38 PM
Reposted by Dave Andress
the lesson of the pandemic lockdowns should have been "the only people important to the functioning of society are the workers who actually do things"

if every rich asshole on earth vanished in a puff of smoke tomorrow, nobody would notice or care
I keep hearing that the Epstein files are so big if we held everyone accountable everything would collapse. And no it wouldn’t. These rich guys don’t do any actual work. They aren’t actually important or useful they are just rich.
February 20, 2026 at 3:25 PM
Reposted by Dave Andress
If you're curious how this has affected science, I devoted about 9 months to learning about tariff law so that I could avoid a $150k fee when I import an XPS/ARPES system next month, but still haven't gotten a waiver. Now we'll try to speed up delivery to avoid the next bomb that Trump throws.

⚛️🧪
BREAKING: The Supreme Court STRIKES DOWN Trump's "emergency" tariffs. The vote is 6–3. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
February 20, 2026 at 3:18 PM
Reposted by Dave Andress
Absolute cracker - priceless. 🤣

Hunts descended on Whitehall today with their hounds to plea for the right to tear foxes apart - all 6 of them and … wait for it 🤣 … they turned up in an UNTAXED hound truck 🤣🤣🤣.

Utterly tragic

📸 Surrey Hunt Sabs
February 20, 2026 at 12:05 PM
Of course, “bombing Iran, again”, which is all the US military could conceivably do, unless it wants to play “Afghanistan II: but bigger” for the next 30 years, is already factored in to everyone’s model of what he might do.
Again, it feels insane how little attention is being paid to this. The build up to Iraq was months long, in the open, full public debate. This stuff is currently below Toy Story 5 on the BBC website.
just the tip

TRUMP SAYS HE IS CONSIDERING LIMITED STRIKE ON IRAN
February 20, 2026 at 3:22 PM
Reposted by Dave Andress
The Supreme Court did something right, which means they've probably got an epically wrong decision on deck.
BREAKING: The Supreme Court STRIKES DOWN Trump's "emergency" tariffs. The vote is 6–3. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
February 20, 2026 at 3:09 PM
Going to be a good day to remember that history is always complex, even when it's simple.
Thomas, Kavanaugh, Alito dissent.

Roberts writes the lead opinion. With Gorsuch and Barrett, he invokes the "major questions doctrine" to strike down the tariffs.

The three liberals say the major questions doctrine isn't needed to find the tariffs unlawful. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
February 20, 2026 at 3:06 PM
The rule of law, face-down in the mud, three arrows sticking out of its back, rolls onto its side and takes one... last... shot...
BREAKING: The Supreme Court STRIKES DOWN Trump's "emergency" tariffs. The vote is 6–3. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
February 20, 2026 at 3:05 PM
Six-alarm fire at the White House.
#BREAKING #SCOTUS blocks President Trump's tariffs.
February 20, 2026 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Dave Andress
HOLY SHIT
#BREAKING #SCOTUS blocks President Trump's tariffs.
February 20, 2026 at 3:02 PM
Reposted by Dave Andress
an interesting study that complements what historians have been saying for quite a while. people moved in the European Middle Ages, settled elsewhere. and genetics can tell where a person's ancestors came from but now which communities they belonged to #medievalsky

www.science.org/content/arti...
‘Viking' was a job description, not a matter of heredity, massive ancient DNA study shows
Study reveals family histories of black-haired Vikings who set forth—and died—far from home
www.science.org
February 20, 2026 at 2:55 PM
I'm so old I remember post-2010 Tories practically laughing as they slammed the doors on youth provision across the country, & sent all those "useless" council-funded support workers onto the dole queue.
Yes!! Love seeing a politician acknowledging this.

Young people face a crisis of space. Public areas are increasingly privatised, and once kids get over a certain age, even hanging out at a park can get them in trouble. This of course impacts working class and minority kids most of all.
All this talk about kids
Hanging out on the streets
Where have all the youth centres gone?
February 20, 2026 at 2:59 PM
Campism is politics for people who don't like to think too hard.
1. Pointing out that the Iranian regime's actions are horrific does not in any way subtract from the horror of the Israeli government's genocide in Gaza, or from other atrocities. There are, unfortunately, plenty here who seem to believe we should be partisan in our denunciations. They are wrong. 🧵
February 20, 2026 at 2:34 PM
ALL THIS is why the vicious Brexiteer lie about spending more on the NHS was so despicably evil. It needs a LOT more money spending on it, and everyone knows it, and Brexit is one of the key reasons it isn't getting it.
And now my wife has to drive him to A&E, of course, because there's literally nothing else anyone can do, of course.
Thanks to the NHS insisting on communicating with a 93-year-old man by text, he appears to have ACCIDENTALLY CANCELLED HIS URGENT CARDIOLOGY CONSULTATION.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.
February 20, 2026 at 2:33 PM
Reposted by Dave Andress
This picture is so crazy that if you had this as a scene in a made-for-TV dystopian scifi movie in like 2014 people would switch channels because you’d ruined the suspension of disbelief.
February 20, 2026 at 4:58 AM
Except Andress. We have been rocking that one for 250 years.
This seems a good moment to reflect on the fact that John Cleese's dad's name was actually Cheese, but he changed it because called Mr Cheese was too embarrassing. Always be suspicious of slightly off-sounding surnames.
Fun to remember that the dad of the Brontës was just a weird Irishman whose surname was actually Brunty, but he changed it up to be fancy.
February 20, 2026 at 2:29 PM