Rafi
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rafil.bsky.social
Rafi
@rafil.bsky.social
Not a journalist anymore. Not big on bluesky. Nothing of note to say.
Reposted by Rafi
Pam Bondi tried to steal this dog from an orphaned 4-year-old and his grandparents.
February 13, 2026 at 1:00 PM
Reposted by Rafi
Nuremberg
On Thanksgiving, the immigrant children held at the Dilley detention center gathered in the gym for what they thought was a holiday feast.

The kids salivated over a spread of turkey, sandwiches, pastries and pies, a family told me.

But the food wasn’t for detainees — it was for the staff.
February 13, 2026 at 9:25 PM
Reposted by Rafi
Netanyahu is evil; he's not in the epstein files. saying he is in the epstein files to claim a Jewish conspiracy is antisemitic. it is also imo wildly misogynist and cruel to treat the epstein files as an all purpose gotcha in this way. there are actual victims and survivors here. it's not a game.
This is not a serious person. This is not someone millions of young people should be getting their politics from.

And liberals and progressives should absolutely not be collaborating with him.
February 13, 2026 at 9:18 PM
Reposted by Rafi
The Border Patrol agents lied. They always lie. And they lie to destroy other people's lives for fun.

www.huffpost.com/entry/border...
Agents Who Shot Marimar Martinez Caught On Video Saying 'Do Something, Bitch'
Newly released body camera footage shows Border Patrol agents swerving their car into the Chicago woman before shooting her five times.
www.huffpost.com
February 13, 2026 at 4:49 AM
It's obviously important that the Epstein scandal be handled with transparency and also it's been extremely clear from the beginning that this is where it was headed
Current state of things: One Fox News host casually declares that Epstein’s money comes from “Jewish billionaires” and a “Jewish banking family,” another responds that he was a “sex rabbi.” www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/jes...
February 13, 2026 at 4:20 PM
Reposted by Rafi
Meta's plan for launching glasses that people can use to secretly identify strangers on the street is to do it "during a dynamic political environment" when people who care about why that's bad are "focused on other concerns."

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/t...
Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition Technology to Its Smart Glasses
www.nytimes.com
February 13, 2026 at 2:54 PM
I am not a lawyer but found this document legible and jaw-dropping
This is a simply incredible decision from Judge Brasel. Stunning. In that you will be stunned.

She captures perfectly the experience of trying to locate and help clients disappeared by ICE.

And the stories of detainee’s experience while ICE plays hide-and-seek with their lawyers are soul crushing.
Order on Motion for TRO – #95 in The Advocates for Human Rights v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (D. Minnesota, 0:26-cv-00749) – CourtListener.com
ORDER: Plaintiffs' Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order (ECF No. 17 ) is GRANTED IN PART. See Order for specifics. Signed by Judge Nancy E. Brasel on 2/12/2026. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit A) (RMM) ...
storage.courtlistener.com
February 13, 2026 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Rafi
“If you wanted to create a tool that would enable the destruction of institutions that prop up democratic life, you could not do better than AI. Authoritarian leaders & tech oligarchs are deploying AI systems to hollow out public institutions with an astonishing alacrity.”
February 12, 2026 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by Rafi
absolutely *incredible* scenes on vichy twitter
February 12, 2026 at 2:56 AM
Reposted by Rafi
I don’t really know what I expect in posting this, but maybe some people see it and can learn from it.

I’ll call it “lessons from an unwilling immigration attorney.”

1/
February 11, 2026 at 9:56 PM
Reposted by Rafi
If you saw the creepy Ring Super Bowl commercial then you know they're manufacturing consent for a surveillance state (that serves ICE) by emotionally blackmailing us with our dogs' safety.

This flyer can be printed out and posted all over, or shared online. Get your $ back, fuck ICE.
February 11, 2026 at 8:33 PM
what
February 11, 2026 at 5:58 PM
Reposted by Rafi
This is the aftermath of an ICE kidnapping a few blocks from my home in St. Paul—an hour ago. A quiet street full of broken glass and at least three wrecked cars. The target of the kidnapping was taken away by ambulance. He was on a stretcher and covered by a sheet, though a cop said he was alive.
February 11, 2026 at 4:46 PM
this is an astonishing article. worth reading top to bottom
For decades, Texas let drillers spread staggering amounts of radioactive and PFAS-ridden waste on the fringes of the nation’s fourth largest metro area — while making it virtually impossible for the public to know where.

Absolutely fucking insane story from @saulelbein.bsky.social today
Whistleblower Says Radioactive Fracking Waste Site Melted His Jaw. Now There’s an Elementary School There.
Then an elementary school was built on top of it.
thebarbedwire.com
February 11, 2026 at 3:28 PM
Reposted by Rafi
February 11, 2026 at 2:44 PM
Reposted by Rafi
‘Mom, they’re kidnapping kids,’” “‘Why would anybody do that? Why would people treat each other like that? That just doesn’t make any sense. There’s no reason to.’

Alex Pretti’s parent’s lawyer is Steven Schleicher, special prosecutor in Derek Chauvin trial.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/u...
‘No Reason He Should Have Died’: Alex Pretti’s Parents Open Up
www.nytimes.com
February 11, 2026 at 3:51 AM
Reposted by Rafi
Watch as a massive crack forms in the ice on Lake Erie.

An impressive view captured by GOES-19 earlier on Sunday.
February 9, 2026 at 7:07 AM
god
I would advise caution before clicking on this, and not only for the slur used to discredit an Epstein accuser. The sneering tone of disbelief and impatience, all on behalf of an Upper East Side monster presumed to be innocent
Amazingly, Jeffrey Epstein Sex Suit Gets Even More Insane
The <a href="http://www.nypost.com/seven/10242007/news/regionalnews/s_he__has_a_history.htm">news this morning</a> that Jeffrey Epstein accuser and tranny Maximilia Cordero filed a similar suit agains...
nymag.com
February 10, 2026 at 10:09 PM
Reposted by Rafi
Always a great sign for how things are going in your country when 21-year-olds are like “hey, I innovated a system to play bagpipes in tear gas”
Jack Duffy attaches a respirator to his bagpipes to play through tear gas. “I always play it whenever the police retreat because it's like, ‘You fucking ran while we stayed,’” he says.

The full story: lataco.com/protest-bagp...

By Julianne Le
February 10, 2026 at 2:19 PM
Reposted by Rafi
how cool would it be to have a lunar research station with a bunch of scientists doing cool shit. well this guy wants to put 1,000 Bitcoin losers there
cnn.com CNN @cnn.com · 4d
Elon Musk's ambition to one day settle Mars appears to have taken a back seat for a rather nearer and more achievable goal – sending humans to live on the moon. https://cnn.it/46sbAMm
February 10, 2026 at 12:24 AM
Reposted by Rafi
“Collection of Handwritten Letters from Children in Detention Center” sounds like an exhibit in the Holocaust Museum.
1/ ProPublica collected handwritten letters in mid-January from children held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the same facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was taken.

Hundreds of kids are still detained.

We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵
February 9, 2026 at 6:31 PM
Reposted by Rafi
Between the NYT’s ‘green grass’ and this, the cultural critcism chops of major papers seems to have fallen off a cliff

bsky.app/profile/wash...
Analysis: Weeks before he set foot on the stage, Bad Bunny’s halftime performance had already become a media event.

But if you were looking for political commentary, the closest that you got was when he said “God bless America” in English.
Analysis | Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show was expected to provoke. Did it?
The Bad Bunny Super Bowl show nodded to injustices in Puerto Rico but mostly evoked wholesome family values that meshed with the more sentimental commercials.
www.washingtonpost.com
February 9, 2026 at 6:32 PM
Reposted by Rafi
Last year I traveled all the way to rural Vietnam to officiate a friend's wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony that mixed cultures and language, and was a celebration of the best of humanity.

He just sent me this post and said "this is how you lost the war."
the bushes were people 😂
February 9, 2026 at 1:27 PM
my groupchats all immediately lit up at that dumbass superbowl ad
February 9, 2026 at 12:59 AM