Michael Oberg
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michaeloberg.bsky.social
Michael Oberg
@michaeloberg.bsky.social
1.1K followers 2K following 750 posts
Ex research faculty in High Performance Scientific Computing in bioinformatics and climate. Now run a nonprofit in renewable energy.
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michaeloberg.bsky.social
Michael Oberg @michaeloberg.bsky.social · May 21
Reposted by Michael Oberg
cameroncorduroy.bsky.social
the most impactful thing Elon Musk has ever done or will ever do regarding science and innovation in this country is illegally cut billions of dollars of research funds for literally no reason
February 8, 2026 at 3:01 AM
Reposted by Michael Oberg
gregpak.net
Taxing billionaires out of existence may be the most critical domestic policy fight of our lifetimes.
broadwaybabyto.bsky.social Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 9h
Former Washington Post journalists have launched a GoFundMe to help repatriate fired staff members who are effectively stranded in foreign countries.

One of the richest men in the world fired them from the paper and didn’t even pay to ensure they got home.

Abolish the billionaire class:
Donate to Support for Washington Post international employees, organized by Michelle Lee
Among the hundreds of journalists laid off by The Washington Post on … Michelle Lee needs your support for Support for Washington Post international employees
www.gofundme.com
February 8, 2026 at 4:40 AM
Reposted by Michael Oberg
robertscotthorton.bsky.social
In which Jeffrey Epstein, who laundered money for the Russians, explains how Donald Trump was doing exactly the same thing, and how this accounts for most of his wealth.
February 7, 2026 at 4:34 PM
Reposted by Michael Oberg
dieworkwear.bsky.social
kind of funny that an olympian said they are here to represent "compassion, respect, and love for others" and some people automatically knew that was a statement against them
February 7, 2026 at 10:25 PM
Reposted by Michael Oberg
cingraham.bsky.social
When Republicans do it / When Democrats do it
Left: Aug 20 2025 Wapo editorial The Texas gerrymander freakout What’s happening in the Lone Star State is not a threat to democracy. Right: Feb. 7 2026 Wapo editorial Brass-knuckled hypocrisy in Virginia Voters will get a chance to reject anti-democratic gamesmanship in an April referendum.
February 7, 2026 at 11:41 PM
Reposted by Michael Oberg
neimanmarxist.bsky.social
This is bleak: Jes Staley, currently CEO of Barclays, reassuring Epstein that popular revolt against financial elites is unlikely because capitalism and pop culture have defanged social movements, leaving people more invested in consumption than justice.
February 6, 2026 at 10:23 PM
Reposted by Michael Oberg
rowan.monster
hard to think of a better example of "you may not believe in class war, but billionaires know they're in one" than this
neimanmarxist.bsky.social Scott Patrick, PhD @neimanmarxist.bsky.social · 1d
This is bleak: Jes Staley, currently CEO of Barclays, reassuring Epstein that popular revolt against financial elites is unlikely because capitalism and pop culture have defanged social movements, leaving people more invested in consumption than justice.
February 7, 2026 at 3:53 AM
Reposted by Michael Oberg
volts.wtf
An observation I've been thinking about:

Around 2020, we were told that US political & corporate elites had been gripped by "wokeness" & thus become obsessed with climate change & diversity. This wokeness was alleged to be so severe & monomaniacal that it threatened the entire culture & economy.
February 7, 2026 at 8:41 PM
Reposted by Michael Oberg
carlquintanilla.bsky.social
February 7, 2026 at 7:27 PM
Reposted by Michael Oberg
brunojnavarro.bsky.social
The story of Peter Attia — a longevity doctor who graduated from medical school but never completed residency — is a good illustration of the flimsiness of what these alternative health influencers are selling. His name appears in more than 1,700 documents in the most recent … Epstein files.
Opinion | Peter Attia, the Epstein Files and the Lie Propping Up Big Wellness
www.nytimes.com
February 7, 2026 at 9:58 PM
Reposted by Michael Oberg
thegodpodcast.com
They looked for “Don T” in the Epstein files and redacted all instances, which means they also redacted a lot of “don’t”
February 7, 2026 at 7:56 PM
Reposted by Michael Oberg
jojofromjerz.bsky.social
Donald Trump is a racist.
He has always been a racist.
He will always be a racist.
When someone shows you who they are believe them the first time.
February 7, 2026 at 5:16 AM
Reposted by Michael Oberg
bgrueskin.bsky.social
In related news about the Washington Post and the state of journalism today, Amazon "ran a $1.2 billion tax bill last year, down from $9 billion the previous year, even as its profits jumped by 45% to nearly $90 billion."

That's in the wake of the 2025 tax bill

www.politico.com/news/2026/02...
Amazon's tax bill plunges after GOP tax cuts
The 87 percent drop is largely due to a more generous depreciation break in the 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act.'
www.politico.com
February 6, 2026 at 7:33 PM
Reposted by Michael Oberg
normeisen.bsky.social
A federal court cleared way for us @democracydefendersfund.org to depose Elon Musk over the unconstitutional shutdown of USAID

Our case now moves into discovery

As our Legal Director Tianna Mays explains: accountability starts w/ facts👇 - TN
Elon Musk Will Be Deposed Over What He Did With DOGE
The former DOGE head will have to answer for what happened at USAID.
newrepublic.com
February 6, 2026 at 11:05 PM
Reposted by Michael Oberg
chrisgeidner.bsky.social
In an amicus brief submitted by the MacArthur Justice Center at the Fifth Circuit, immigration law scholars explained quite plainly what was going on here: www.macarthurjustice.org/wp-content/u...
INTRODUCTION In mid-2025, bureaucrats purportedly discovered a sweeping command to detain millions of immigrants in the interior of the country who initially entered without inspection, without regard to how long they have resided within the United States, and without the opportunity to seek release on bond. This would constitute the broadest detention-without-bond mandate in the history of the Republic. According to Respondents, Congress added this unfunded mandate to a border- focused statute as part of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 ("IIRIRA"), Pub. L. No. 104-208, div. C, 110 Stat. 3009-546, yet its existence eluded five presidential administrations, the courts, and Congress itself for three decades. As of January 5, 2026, at least 300 district court judges had ruled that Respondents' unprecedented reading of the provision in question, 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2)(A), was wrong. Indeed, as Petitioners explain, the text and context of this border-focused provision refute Respondents' novel interpretation. See Answering Brief (hereinafter "AB") at 34-39; Castañon-Nava v. U.S. Dep't of Homeland Sec., 161 F.4th 1048, 1060-62 (7th Cir. 2025).
February 7, 2026 at 3:48 AM
Reposted by Michael Oberg
whstancil.bsky.social
By the way, for those of you not in MN: Homan’s strategy was to withdraw some agents, so it felt like we were in the denouement of the crisis, and then escalate hard against observers. They’re being incredibly aggressive with observers now. National media may not want to check out just yet
February 7, 2026 at 3:38 AM
Reposted by Michael Oberg
emptywheel.bsky.social
Marco Rubio Will Let 2.5 Million Children Die so Sarah Rogers Can Fund Far Right Extremists in Europe

emptywheel.net/marco-rubio-...
Marco Rubio Will Let 2.5 Million Children Die so Sarah Rogers Can Fund Far Right Extremists in Europe - emptywheel
The same week we got new figures of how many deaths -- 9.4 million, of which 2.5 million would be young children -- Marco Rubio's destruction of US foreign aid may cause, we got new details on the slu...
emptywheel.net
February 7, 2026 at 6:38 AM
Reposted by Michael Oberg
jeremyschulman.bsky.social
New video from @noturtlesoup17.bsky.social on her months of reporting on Gregory Bovino — and the legacy he leaves behind www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Four shocking months with Gregory Bovino
YouTube video by Mother Jones
www.youtube.com
February 6, 2026 at 9:29 PM
Reposted by Michael Oberg
chrisgeidner.bsky.social
Judge Dana Douglas's dissent sets up the unusual circumstances of this appeal, the stakes of this case, and the error of the majority very well from the start.

"Straining at a gnat, the majority swallows a camel."
Dana M. Douglas, Circuit Judge, dissenting: The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA) was passed in part out of a desire to equalize the treatment of noncitizens presenting at ports of entry for inspection and those apprehended in the interior after effecting an unlawful entry. It pursued this aim in several ways, most prominently by deeming both classes of noncitizens “applicants for admission” subject to the same removal procedures and excluding noncitizens detained based on certain criminal offenses from eligibility for bond. The Congress that passed IIRIRA would be surprised to learn it had also required the detention without bond of two million people. For almost thirty years there was no sign anyone thought it had done so, and nothing in the congressional record or the history of the statute’s enforcement suggests that it did. Nonetheless, the government today asserts the authority and mandate to detain millions of noncitizens in the interior, some of them present here for decades, on the same terms as if they were apprehended at the border.1 No matter that this newly discovered mandate arrives without historical precedent, and in the teeth of one of the core distinctions of immigration law. The overwhelming majority of courts in this circuit and elsewhere have recognized that the government’s position is totally unsupported. Undeterred, the majority and the government distort the statutory text, abstract it from its context and history, ignore the Supreme Court’s clearly stated understanding of the statutory scheme, and wave away the agency’s previous failure to detain millions of noncitizens as if it were a rounding error. And for what? The majority stakes the largest detention initiative in American history on the possibility that “seeking admission” is like being an “applicant for admission,” in a statute that has never been applied in this way, based on little more than an apparent conviction that Congress must have wanted these noncitizens detained—some of them the spouses, mothers, fathers, and grandparents of American citizens. Straining at a gnat, the majority swallows a camel. I dissent. 1 Despite the long period of undisturbed interpretation of the statutory provisions at issue here, the government has insisted that we take up this issue with unprecedented urgency, in a manner that does not reflect the gravity of the outcome Petitioners face. After our court granted the government’s request to expedite this case, the government requested that we further expedite our disposition of the case by issuing an order resolving the appeal with a notation that the opinion would follow. This request appears to be virtually unprecedented in this circuit. Notably, as of February 5, 2026, the government has not made a similar request in its case pending before the Seventh Circuit, the only other circuit that thus far has heard the government’s argument on this statutory issue. See Castañon-Nava v. U.S. Dep’t of Homeland Sec., No. 1:18-cv-03757 (7th Cir.), docket.
February 7, 2026 at 3:23 AM
Reposted by Michael Oberg
brenttoderian.bsky.social
“In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back to a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.”

IT SAVES PUBLIC MONEY to house people.
Finland ends homelessness and provides shelter for all in need - scoop.me
In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Why? The country applies the "Housing First" concept agains homelessness.
thebetter.news
February 6, 2026 at 4:45 AM
Reposted by Michael Oberg
thegodpodcast.com
Why isn't news of Trump building vast concentration camps being treated as a national emergency?
February 7, 2026 at 1:54 AM
Reposted by Michael Oberg
joshuaraclaw.com
We put on an all-Yiddish community production of fiddler on the roof in Philadelphia and cast member and local artist Sofie Rose Seymour created the most amazing show poster that ever was
Incredible art of gritty playing fiddle on the roof of a west Philadelphia row home. In Yiddish it says Fidler Oyfn Fakh פֿידלער אױפֿן דאַך)
February 6, 2026 at 5:10 AM
Reposted by Michael Oberg
pplscitycouncil.bsky.social
ITS SHUT THE FUCK UP FRIDAY

This is a very important message you should share with the people in your life that may be hitting the streets to protest: never talk to the police! WATCH:
February 7, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Reposted by Michael Oberg
earlymodjustice.bsky.social
The really appalling part is that the supposedly “originalist” justices on the Supreme court completely ignored both the text of the constitution and the history.
They stand exposed.
15 Historians File Amicus Brief in Trump v. US Debunking Immunity Claim
Historians show that history doesn’t support presidential immunity from criminal prosecution.
www.brennancenter.org
February 6, 2026 at 11:03 PM
Reposted by Michael Oberg
jayrosen.bsky.social
"This is a case study in near-instant, self-inflicted brand destruction."

Former Washington Post editor Marty Baron dismembers Jeff Bezos.
benmullin.bsky.social Ben Mullin @benmullin.bsky.social · 3d
A staggering statement from former Washington Post editor Marty Baron: "This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world's greatest news organizations."
February 4, 2026 at 6:03 PM