Encinitas Highlands Surfer
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highlandsurfer.bsky.social
Encinitas Highlands Surfer
@highlandsurfer.bsky.social
I live and work in Encinitas, and I like to talk about housing a lot, transportation and biking from time to time, California and Encinitas politics, and cannabis.
Pinned
Never figured this DOGE thing I made 5 years ago at the onset of COVID might have relevance in the future, and now I'm terrified at that reality.

Anyhow, hello Bluesky, guess I'm a federationalist now.
Reposted by Encinitas Highlands Surfer
The choice to frame this rhetorically as a negotiation *with ICE and DHS* rather than, you know, a decision about their future made by their rightful superiors in the popularly elected legislature is, to me, incredibly grating.
Our DHS reform demands are exceedingly reasonable.

We're asking ICE to do nothing more than follow the standards that the vast majority of law enforcement agencies already follow.

Republicans, the ball is in your court. The clock is ticking.
February 10, 2026 at 4:55 AM
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i think this more than anything is what miller wants. vast detention camps with all of the suffering and death that means.
ICE has now spent over half a BILLION dollars just on purchasing warehouses around the country to convert into detention camps.

If these mega-camps are utilized to the full capacity ICE intends, they'll be the largest prisons in the country, with little real oversight. www.ajc.com/politics/202...
ICE to begin detaining immigrants inside Social Circle warehouse in April
Homeland Security plans to build warehouse detention facilities in other cities being met with opposition.
www.ajc.com
February 10, 2026 at 3:56 AM
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Leon Botstein, president of @bardcollege.bsky.social, was connected to a young woman, apparently a student, through Jeffrey Epstein. He must resign. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/u...
February 10, 2026 at 6:45 AM
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The shocking arrogance, bad judgement, and bad values of Leon Botstein have been on regular display throughout the Epstein saga, but this particular omission in his public statements—backed, suspects, by his certainty that this email would not come to light—reveals something else: his stupidity.
Leon Botstein, president of @bardcollege.bsky.social, first told reporters that he could not remember if he had ever visited the Caribbean island of his friend, the pedophile sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. New emails show Botstein thanking Epstein for the visit. “I had a great time,” Botstein said.
February 10, 2026 at 6:42 AM
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Kid Rock is 55 years old. Last night he was wearing jorts, lip-synching to a song he wrote when he was 20, 35 years ago.

America 2026 is discovering levels of divorced-dad energy that defy scientists' attempts at description. We need new instruments, a new vocabulary.
February 9, 2026 at 9:23 PM
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Columbia will never be free of this stain.
When Texas lawmakers tried to visit 33-year-old “political prisoner” Leqaa Kordia at an ICE facility, she’d already lost 50 pounds and was running a high fever.

By Friday, she was hospitalized. But her family still has not been able to locate her.
thebarbedwire.com/2026/02/09/l...
‘Political Prisoner’ Leqaa Kordia Has Been Hospitalized, DHS Says. After Calling 16 Hospitals, Her Lawyers Say They Can't Find Her.
The Columbia University protester had a fever when lawmakers tried to visit her last month — and her health is declining fast.
thebarbedwire.com
February 10, 2026 at 3:21 AM
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This is easily the hardest thing I've ever had to write.
I Had a Dream Journalism Job. Here's Why I Quit.
The rot that hollowed out trust in corporate media finally reached OPB. I had to go.
westernedgemedia.substack.com
February 9, 2026 at 4:58 PM
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If you want to understand how far-reaching the corporate rot in media is, read this gutting piece about the fall of Oregon Public Broadcasting.

(And follow @ryanjhaas.bsky.social and @leahsottile.bsky.social’s new publication @thewesternedge.bsky.social which will be amazing bc they’re amazing)
February 10, 2026 at 4:58 AM
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Thomas Massie is cooking right now and explicitly states that UAE Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem was sending torture videos to Epstein
February 10, 2026 at 3:18 AM
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For those familiar w/ "ARkStorm/ARk2.0" flood scenarios for California, a comparable event has been unfolding on the Iberian Peninsula. These ridiculous rainfall accumulations, caused by a long series of extremely moist atmospheric rivers, have brought widespread severe flooding to Spain & Portugal.
Grazalema, Spain, received over 2,000 mm (78 inches) of rain in just the last 20 days.

Over a year’s worth of rain — and it’s only early February. This is hydrologically absurd.
February 10, 2026 at 5:03 AM
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Quite a turducken.
February 9, 2026 at 9:00 PM
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A billionaire family that owns a bridge crossing between Michigan and Canada has wanted Trump to stop a new bridge — and Trump is now threatening to block its opening (with authority he doesn’t have). www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/u...
Trump Threatens to Block Opening of New Bridge to Canada
www.nytimes.com
February 10, 2026 at 4:08 AM
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NEW: Of all the states that voted for Harris over Trump in 2024, there's only one where a Dem governor is overseeing an ICE's 287(g) program:

Massachusetts.

Other blue states have quit, or even outright banned it. My colleague on what's happening: boltsmag.org/massachusett...
Inside ICE’s Only Contract with a Blue State - Bolts
As part of a 287(g) contract between state officials and ICE, Massachusetts continues to release prisoners into deportation—even as state lawmakers look to ban other forms of ICE collaboration.
boltsmag.org
February 9, 2026 at 7:35 PM
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The largest federal prison in the nation is Fort Dix, which has a rated capacity of 4,600 people. The largest of these warehouse camps may hold more than twice that number of people.

The federal government hasn't operated a prison camp inside the United States that large since Japanese Internment.
February 9, 2026 at 5:57 PM
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A tale told in two screenshots :)
February 9, 2026 at 2:40 PM
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I feel like I'm losing my goddamnned mind.

This op-ed was written by Kathrine Mangu-Ward. Katherine is editor-in-chief of Reason magazine.

Reason fired @shikhadalmia.bsky.social for being too anti-Trump.
Opinion | Libertarians Tried to Warn You About Trump
www.nytimes.com
February 9, 2026 at 2:09 PM
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It bears repeating that Tom Homan is a fucking psycho and Greg Bovino's exile means functionally nothing when it comes to what's happening on the ground in Minnesota.
February 9, 2026 at 6:57 PM
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Dying to see the venn diagram of people who think Waymo is going to solve the traffic violence problem and also think speed limiters can't work on a technical level.
February 9, 2026 at 8:03 PM
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Reached out to Ed Martin to ask if he'd comprehended that this was satire, and asked him whether he's even seen Arrested Development before. Will report back if he responds.
February 9, 2026 at 6:30 PM
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There was no happy ending for Patriots' owner Robert Kraft today.
February 9, 2026 at 3:34 AM
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crickets from the free speech crowd, of course
FAMU can't use the word Black on anything posted around campus related to Black History Month, to stay in compliance with Florida state laws against DEI. Black students can't use the word Black at their Historically Black College during Black History Month.
February 8, 2026 at 3:35 PM
I mean, crickets would be better than what they are actually doing.
February 8, 2026 at 9:09 PM
Win what now?
February 8, 2026 at 9:00 PM
As usual, if you want a good set of "outside the bubble" news takes, Harry Shearer's Le Show is the best place to go.

harryshearer.com/le-shows/feb...
February 8, 2026 at 8:58 PM
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February 8, 2026 at 5:41 PM