@thenextvinnie.bsky.social
I like #RSL and music and drumming.
"Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth"
"Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth"
Reposted
Heads up that this is authorization for Trump to create his own version of the Wagner Group. Which would bring the number of “armies” at his disposal to four:
*regular armed forces (most regulated)
*ICE (minimally regulated)
*private mercenaries (?)
*MAGA thugs/militias (rogue)
All pardonable
*regular armed forces (most regulated)
*ICE (minimally regulated)
*private mercenaries (?)
*MAGA thugs/militias (rogue)
All pardonable
S.3567
A bill to authorize the President of the United States to ...
SPONSOR: Sen. Mike Lee (R), UT
№ CO-SPONSORS: 0
STATUS: Introduced
LATEST ACTION: Senate - 2025-12-18 Read twice and referred to the Committee on ...
#Republicans
Details at congress.gov
A bill to authorize the President of the United States to ...
SPONSOR: Sen. Mike Lee (R), UT
№ CO-SPONSORS: 0
STATUS: Introduced
LATEST ACTION: Senate - 2025-12-18 Read twice and referred to the Committee on ...
#Republicans
Details at congress.gov
December 29, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Heads up that this is authorization for Trump to create his own version of the Wagner Group. Which would bring the number of “armies” at his disposal to four:
*regular armed forces (most regulated)
*ICE (minimally regulated)
*private mercenaries (?)
*MAGA thugs/militias (rogue)
All pardonable
*regular armed forces (most regulated)
*ICE (minimally regulated)
*private mercenaries (?)
*MAGA thugs/militias (rogue)
All pardonable
Reposted
It's a good commentary on 2025 that the US President announces a major military attack on a foreign country and even the straightest arrows think, 50% chance it's an attack, 50% chance president is on another cognition bender.
December 29, 2025 at 8:10 PM
It's a good commentary on 2025 that the US President announces a major military attack on a foreign country and even the straightest arrows think, 50% chance it's an attack, 50% chance president is on another cognition bender.
Reposted
The New York Times investigated 346 people who donated at least $250,000 to Trump and found that more than half of them (197) have received pardons, jobs, government contracts, special treatment, or favors.
Hundreds of Big Post-Election Donors Have Benefited From Trump’s Return to Office
Well into his second term, the president and his allies have continued aggressively raising money. Many donors have interests before his administration, The Times found.
www.nytimes.com
December 22, 2025 at 3:41 PM
The New York Times investigated 346 people who donated at least $250,000 to Trump and found that more than half of them (197) have received pardons, jobs, government contracts, special treatment, or favors.
Reposted
Read this: www.wgbh.org/news/local/2...
December 7, 2025 at 12:22 AM
Read this: www.wgbh.org/news/local/2...
Reposted
In their confirmation hearings, RFK Jr pledged he would not be anti-vax, Hegseth said he respected women serving in leadership positions in the military, and Bondi said she would not weaponize DOJ against Trump’s political enemies.
December 6, 2025 at 2:20 AM
In their confirmation hearings, RFK Jr pledged he would not be anti-vax, Hegseth said he respected women serving in leadership positions in the military, and Bondi said she would not weaponize DOJ against Trump’s political enemies.
Reposted
"Can you do investigative journalism from a position of neutrality?"
Still a tricky subject because if you're not neutral that suggests bias. But if you go where the facts go it doesn't.
From: "Laura Poitras Investigates Seymour Hersh," in Columbia Journalism Preview: www.cjr.org/the-intervie...
Still a tricky subject because if you're not neutral that suggests bias. But if you go where the facts go it doesn't.
From: "Laura Poitras Investigates Seymour Hersh," in Columbia Journalism Preview: www.cjr.org/the-intervie...
December 5, 2025 at 4:46 PM
"Can you do investigative journalism from a position of neutrality?"
Still a tricky subject because if you're not neutral that suggests bias. But if you go where the facts go it doesn't.
From: "Laura Poitras Investigates Seymour Hersh," in Columbia Journalism Preview: www.cjr.org/the-intervie...
Still a tricky subject because if you're not neutral that suggests bias. But if you go where the facts go it doesn't.
From: "Laura Poitras Investigates Seymour Hersh," in Columbia Journalism Preview: www.cjr.org/the-intervie...
Reposted
After becoming a congressional leader, a politician’s stock portfolio beats out those of peers by 47 (!!!) percentage points a year through trades timed around bills and firms that later get government contracts
www.nber.org/papers/w34524
via @florianederer.bsky.social
www.nber.org/papers/w34524
via @florianederer.bsky.social
December 3, 2025 at 1:42 AM
After becoming a congressional leader, a politician’s stock portfolio beats out those of peers by 47 (!!!) percentage points a year through trades timed around bills and firms that later get government contracts
www.nber.org/papers/w34524
via @florianederer.bsky.social
www.nber.org/papers/w34524
via @florianederer.bsky.social
Reposted
We're gonna need a truth and reconciliation commission and Nuremberg style trials to reckon with all of this evil, and any Dem candidate for office who shies away from a full reckoning in the name of "moving forward as a nation" can get well and truly fucked
I feel much safer today knowing that we deported a Babson College student back to a country where she hasn't lived since childhood.
She wasn't even flying internationally. She was flying to Texas.
She wasn't even flying internationally. She was flying to Texas.
A Babson College student wanted to surprise her family for Thanksgiving. She was deported instead. - The Boston Globe
Any Lucia Lopez Belloza was at Logan to catch a flight to Texas when immigration authorities detained her as she was about to board the plane.
www.bostonglobe.com
November 27, 2025 at 4:29 PM
We're gonna need a truth and reconciliation commission and Nuremberg style trials to reckon with all of this evil, and any Dem candidate for office who shies away from a full reckoning in the name of "moving forward as a nation" can get well and truly fucked
Reposted
I think the belief by the powerful that "people will put up with many things if you are excellent at math" is incredibly revealing in terms of understanding How We Got Here
November 11, 2025 at 7:14 PM
I think the belief by the powerful that "people will put up with many things if you are excellent at math" is incredibly revealing in terms of understanding How We Got Here
Reposted
Here's a story about the family whose 1-year-old girl was pepper-sprayed yesterday by federal agents. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/09/c...
Pepper-sprayed Berwyn family rattled after getting caught up in federal blitz
Southwest Side politicians condemned Saturday’s pepper spraying and the federal sweep of Little Village as “state-sponsored terrorism” at a news conference Sunday.
www.chicagotribune.com
November 10, 2025 at 12:07 AM
Here's a story about the family whose 1-year-old girl was pepper-sprayed yesterday by federal agents. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/09/c...
Reposted
New from me in @newrepublic.com: “Primary Every Democrat.”
If the current crop cannot demonstrate they care more about democracy than enjoying three-day weekends, we should flood the zone and challenge them all.
If the current crop cannot demonstrate they care more about democracy than enjoying three-day weekends, we should flood the zone and challenge them all.
Primary Every Democrat
It’s exhausting to watch poll-tested, donor-beholden congressional Democrats continue to be too old, too cloistered, and too bumbling to do anything as the government burns.
newrepublic.com
February 3, 2025 at 12:58 PM
New from me in @newrepublic.com: “Primary Every Democrat.”
If the current crop cannot demonstrate they care more about democracy than enjoying three-day weekends, we should flood the zone and challenge them all.
If the current crop cannot demonstrate they care more about democracy than enjoying three-day weekends, we should flood the zone and challenge them all.
Reposted
Guillotine earrings, ca. 1793
November 10, 2025 at 12:00 AM
Guillotine earrings, ca. 1793
i'm maybe a bit dense, but what did the Democrats accomplish by not just conceding everything the Republicans wanted from day 1?
November 10, 2025 at 5:13 AM
i'm maybe a bit dense, but what did the Democrats accomplish by not just conceding everything the Republicans wanted from day 1?
i'm real skeptical of this claim. do jamelle or ryan really believe rich people hit a point where they say, "yeah, i'm wealthy enough. i don't need more."?
ryan is right. people HATE hearing this. but it is just a matter of simple incentives. if you want a more representative legislature — and if you want a legislature more resistant to corruption — then you need to jack up the salaries. serving as mayor of NYC should net you a cool 500K *at least*
people hate hearing this but it's 100% true, creating a huge pay gap between political leaders, their staffs, and other elites is a recipe for corruption. of course the flip side of that is taxes on the rich should be jacked way the hell up
November 7, 2025 at 8:41 PM
i'm real skeptical of this claim. do jamelle or ryan really believe rich people hit a point where they say, "yeah, i'm wealthy enough. i don't need more."?
Reposted
"You need liberal democracy to protect what journalism is. And I think part of the problem is that the traditional media doesn't know what to do as we slip further and further away from a pure liberal democracy."
@sarahlongwell25.bsky.social on The Rebooting Show with Brian Morrissey:
@sarahlongwell25.bsky.social on The Rebooting Show with Brian Morrissey:
November 7, 2025 at 4:56 PM
"You need liberal democracy to protect what journalism is. And I think part of the problem is that the traditional media doesn't know what to do as we slip further and further away from a pure liberal democracy."
@sarahlongwell25.bsky.social on The Rebooting Show with Brian Morrissey:
@sarahlongwell25.bsky.social on The Rebooting Show with Brian Morrissey:
Reposted
Cheney rightly came to decry Trump’s abuses of power, but many of Trump’s actions grew out of a contempt for congressional, media, and judicial oversight that was fostered by Cheney and other “normal” Republicans of his generation.
bit.ly/48YtqZA
bit.ly/48YtqZA
The Cheney Effect
How Dick Cheney became the accidental architect of Trump’s power.
bit.ly
November 5, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Cheney rightly came to decry Trump’s abuses of power, but many of Trump’s actions grew out of a contempt for congressional, media, and judicial oversight that was fostered by Cheney and other “normal” Republicans of his generation.
bit.ly/48YtqZA
bit.ly/48YtqZA
Reposted
I decided this morning that I will now approach every online video I see as fake - and attempt to be doubly wary if it supports or illustrates my main prejudices.
Look folks gen AI videos are out in the wild so if you weren't already being careful about sharing rage bait videos then now is a great time to start
If you can't trace a video back to a trusted source then I recommend leaving it where it is, like a slice of bologna you found on the street
If you can't trace a video back to a trusted source then I recommend leaving it where it is, like a slice of bologna you found on the street
November 2, 2025 at 9:58 PM
I decided this morning that I will now approach every online video I see as fake - and attempt to be doubly wary if it supports or illustrates my main prejudices.
Reposted
Feels like so many of our convos are revolving about how voters respond to what politicians are doing, or what parties’ positions on issues are, without much actual empirical sense of what they actually know about those topics.
October 29, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Feels like so many of our convos are revolving about how voters respond to what politicians are doing, or what parties’ positions on issues are, without much actual empirical sense of what they actually know about those topics.
Reposted
Here's a photo of my friend and colleague, Jorge Bautista, getting shot in the face with a flashbang grenade. The ICE Agent is so afraid of Jorge (who was posing no threat) that he has wet himself. Please share this photo. Everyone needs to know what cowards ICE agents are.
October 23, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Here's a photo of my friend and colleague, Jorge Bautista, getting shot in the face with a flashbang grenade. The ICE Agent is so afraid of Jorge (who was posing no threat) that he has wet himself. Please share this photo. Everyone needs to know what cowards ICE agents are.
Co-sign
Either this ends with some sort of truth and reconciliation process where a very large number of people go to prison for a very long time or we will take a short pause and then start doing it again, but worse.
A Naperville man was hauled away by federal immigration agents Thursday morning as his two sons watched, the older boy begging them not to hurt his father and tearfully asking for a chance to speak to him before they left.
October 26, 2025 at 2:06 AM
Co-sign
Reposted
"Now, the Trump administration is blowing it all up." 👀 www.politico.com/newsletters/...
October 25, 2025 at 7:56 PM
"Now, the Trump administration is blowing it all up." 👀 www.politico.com/newsletters/...
Reposted
Bezos is perfectly happy to publish the Post at a loss if he can use it to keep demonstrate obedience to the regime so his other businesses can keep making money. It’s just an operating cost to him.
Lmao WaPo has fewer than 100K circulation now. It turns out “alienate your liberal subscriber base” is not a good strategy when the Republicans also hate you. www.forbes.com/sites/andyme...
The Washington Post Is Running Out Of Readers Willing To Pay
Once a titan of American journalism, The Washington Post now struggles to reach even 100,000 print subscribers most days.
www.forbes.com
October 14, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Bezos is perfectly happy to publish the Post at a loss if he can use it to keep demonstrate obedience to the regime so his other businesses can keep making money. It’s just an operating cost to him.
Reposted
Head to a protest today. I can almost promise you will feel less hopeless. That's exactly what they don't want. There are more of us than there are of them.
October 18, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Head to a protest today. I can almost promise you will feel less hopeless. That's exactly what they don't want. There are more of us than there are of them.
Reposted
"I have a decent fluency in LLMs, and they have utility, but the absurd degree of over-hype, the way they're being forced on everyone, and the insistence on ignoring the many valid critiques about them make it very difficult to focus on legitimate uses where they might add value."
October 17, 2025 at 4:32 AM
"I have a decent fluency in LLMs, and they have utility, but the absurd degree of over-hype, the way they're being forced on everyone, and the insistence on ignoring the many valid critiques about them make it very difficult to focus on legitimate uses where they might add value."
Reposted
October 13, 2025 at 4:29 PM