Thom Volker
LightNews LightNews
thomvolker.bsky.social
Thom Volker
@thomvolker.bsky.social
290 followers 290 following 560 posts
PhD Candidate in Statistics, Utrecht University

Creates fake data for a living.

thomvolker.github.io
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Thom Volker
marisakabas.bsky.social
A desperate plea sent to me by a Minneapolis resident who's been on the front lines since the beginning of the ICE occupation:
Just a quick update from the Twin Cities. (Please forgive the unsolicited message). THINGS ARE NOT BETTER IN MINNEAPOLIS. The media is mostly moving on, Trump is focused on other stuff, BUT NOTHING HAS CHANGED ON THE GROUND. More than 2,000 DHS thugs continue to roam the streets, abducting people 24/7, assaulting legal observers with impunity, and routinely denying 1st, 4th, and 5th amendment rights. Drones and helicopters are overhead every day. Hundreds and hundreds of terrified families have not left their homes since mid-December ... relying on the community to bring them food and help with rent and other necessities. (Those people are NOT violent drug cartel sex offending murderers, as DHS would tell you. Most are legal residents or citizens.) If anything, things have just become more stressful and intractable (think trench warfare as a suitable metaphor): The resistance is better organized and numerous, but DHS has become more clever and better at disguise... and the county sheriff's office is increasingly supporting them . Do not let anyone tell you that Homans (the new person in charge of the occupation) is making anything better. Do not let anyone tell you that 700 ICE agents leaving the city has made much of a difference; the remaining force (again, ~2,000) is still larger than the entire city's police force (which is legally unable to do anything). Please call your congressional reps ... especially if there is any chance the administration might listen to them.
February 8, 2026 at 5:06 AM
Reposted by Thom Volker
perfors.net
This is an especially good article about why the Epstein files matter so much.
Being able to see their emails makes something very clear: The “anti-woke” movement was not a genteel intellectual inquiry, made by disinterested parties who cared deeply about free speech. It is a social circle of powerful people who feel threatened by #MeToo. Reading through the emails, it’s possible to see that Epstein himself coordinated pushback against #MeToo. Looking back, it seems obvious that sinking #MeToo also led to where we are now: a place where laws simply don’t apply if you have enough money and power. The same players are involved.
February 6, 2026 at 9:54 PM
Reposted by Thom Volker
gregdoucette.bsky.social
Back at the start of the Trump II administration, it was disorienting to watch powerful law firms preemptively surrender and genuflect before the King

Turns out it was because the people in charge were close friends with Epstein and were worried about getting outed

www.ft.com/content/7001...
Brad Karp to step down as Paul Weiss chair after Epstein revelations
Files released by US justice department detailed relationship with child sex offender
www.ft.com
February 6, 2026 at 9:09 PM
thomvolker.bsky.social
Sick of this world
wammezz.bsky.social Wim Zwijnenburg @wammezz.bsky.social · 2d
More spraying of likely glyphosate, a herbicide, by #Israel now also taking place over agricultural areas in border areas with #Lebanon, affecting livelihoods of farmers and posing additional health risk to civilians.

www.bbc.com/news/article...
February 6, 2026 at 8:44 PM
Reposted by Thom Volker
wammezz.bsky.social
More spraying of likely glyphosate, a herbicide, by #Israel now also taking place over agricultural areas in border areas with #Lebanon, affecting livelihoods of farmers and posing additional health risk to civilians.

www.bbc.com/news/article...
February 6, 2026 at 7:40 PM
thomvolker.bsky.social
Het zou toch mooi zijn als de Kamer hier ook eens een signaal afgeeft, dat het minste wat van een minister verwacht mag worden is dat deze zich aan de wet houdt.

Oftewel, stuur haar en haar collega van landbouw gewoon weg.
lisawesterveld.bsky.social Lisa Westerveld 🌱 @lisawesterveld.bsky.social · 2d
Terwijl iedereen zich aan de wet moet houden, vindt Minister Keijzer dat voor haar een uitzondering geldt.

Met wederom onzekerheid en onduidelijkheid voor de gemeenten die het wel moeten regelen.

Dat heet wanbestuur.

nos.nl/artikel/2601...
Minister Keijzer moet van de wet asielopvangcijfers delen, maar weigert dat
In de wet staat dat gemeenten voor 1 februari moeten weten hoeveel asielzoekers ze naar verwachting moeten opvangen. Minister Keijzer geeft die cijfers niet.
nos.nl
February 6, 2026 at 4:57 PM
Reposted by Thom Volker
myrthehilkens.bsky.social
Peter Thiel - sponsor Trump - noemt democratie een mislukt experiment en stelt dat vrouwen en ‘poor people’ nooit stemrecht hadden moeten krijgen. Dat schrijft hij aan Epstein. Die Thiel dus, ontwikkelt een deportatie-app voor I.C.E. en daar stroomt dus NL pensioengeld heen. Onsgeldtelt.nl : teken!
Ons Geld Telt – Pensioengeld duurzaam investeren
Je pensioengeld heeft meer impact dan je denkt. Met één klik roep je pensioenfondsen op om duurzaam en sociaal te investeren.
Onsgeldtelt.nl
February 6, 2026 at 9:07 AM
thomvolker.bsky.social
Went to see One Battle After Another this evening, and it is one of the better movies I’ve seen in a while. The setting is very serious and contemporary, but the mild absurdity also makes it really funny, even though the realism of the caricatures is quite striking. Oh and the music is good!
February 6, 2026 at 12:36 AM
Reposted by Thom Volker
kovanhuissteden.bsky.social
"Nergens anders in Europa is de druk op de ruimte zo hoog, en nergens is het grondbeleid zo liberaal."

www.ftm.nl/artikelen/zo...
Zo drijft de overheid grondprijzen op – en creëert ze problemen op het platteland
Milieuproblemen, boeren met hoge schulden en leegloop van het platteland: die problemen hangen allemaal samen met hoge grondprijzen voor boerenland. Een nieuw rapport is kritisch op overheidsbeleid da...
www.ftm.nl
February 5, 2026 at 8:27 PM
Reposted by Thom Volker
sanders.senate.gov
If Jeff Bezos could afford to spend $75 million on the Melania movie & $500 million for a yacht to sail off to his $55 million wedding to give his wife a $5 million ring, please don't tell me he needed to fire one-third of the Washington Post staff.

Democracy dies in oligarchy.
February 5, 2026 at 12:16 AM
thomvolker.bsky.social
Pretty please shut it down already
chicagotribune.com Chicago Tribune @chicagotribune.com · 3d
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday that demands made by Democrats for new restrictions on federal immigration officers are “unrealistic” and warned that the Department of Homeland Security will shut down next week if they do not work with Republicans and the White House.
Homeland Security shutdown grows more likely as Republicans rebuff Democratic demands for ICE
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday that demands made by Democrats for new restrictions on federal immigration officers are “unrealistic” and warned that the Department of Homeland Secu…
trib.al
February 5, 2026 at 11:08 PM
thomvolker.bsky.social
Is it really so hard for institutions to draw a fucking line when students get harassed by those they depend on?
tframpton.bsky.social Thomas Frampton @tframpton.bsky.social · 3d
Yale prof David Gelernter defends his letter urging Epstein to hire "v small goodlooking blonde" student by saying that he was "keep[ing] the potential boss's habits in mind."

This creep shouldn't be allowed anywhere near students.

yaledailynews.com/articles/gel...
February 5, 2026 at 5:12 PM
Reposted by Thom Volker
jasonkoebler.bsky.social
There is zero reason for a billionaire to own an adversarial news outlet in a kleptocracy. And so billionaires are gutting the media companies they own, reorienting them to better align with the regime, and spending money on bribes rather than journalists

www.404media.co/the-washingt...
The Washington Post Is No Longer Useful to Jeff Bezos
In a kleptocracy, there is no reason for a billionaire to own an adversarial news outlet.
www.404media.co
February 5, 2026 at 3:14 PM
Reposted by Thom Volker
schoutenlegal.bsky.social
Het meest opmerkelijke staaltje van framing: het is VERKRACHTING VAN KINDEREN.

In de Amerikaanse pers wordt nu in het kader van de Epstein-files gesproken over “underaged women”. Dat zijn dus “kinderen”. 1/5>
February 4, 2026 at 7:42 PM
Reposted by Thom Volker
thorbenson.bsky.social
Sacre bleu
Elon Musk responding to news of X office being raided in Paris: This is a political attack French Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Investigating child sexual abuse material isn’t controversial. Turning it into political theater is manipulation. Maybe that logic flies on some island. Doesn’t fly in France.
February 4, 2026 at 1:06 AM
thomvolker.bsky.social
I suddenly understand the exorbitant fees they charge
eikofried.bsky.social Eiko Fried @eikofried.bsky.social · 4d
Does anyone know why some fancy journals redraw your figures for you (no matter how much you object) — must be some copyright ($) thingie?

Below from the proofs I just got. Looks like they placed all numbers by hand (and definitely not in the node center, see e.g. "4") 🫣
February 4, 2026 at 10:15 PM
Reposted by Thom Volker
lotfielhamidi.bsky.social
Maar even zonder dollen: het is echt bizar. Correspondenten van de ene op de andere dag ontslagen.
February 4, 2026 at 8:56 PM
Reposted by Thom Volker
myrthehilkens.bsky.social
Wat een uitstekende journalistiek. Drie keer hetzelfde antwoord. CDA, D66 en VVD zeggen alledrie - op de vraag waarom inkomen wordt belast en niet vermogen - dat je nou eenmaal niet alles geregeld krijgt zoals je dat zou willen. Iemand liegt.
February 4, 2026 at 8:01 PM
Reposted by Thom Volker
alexip718.com
INBOX: Washington Post Ukraine Correspondent Lizzie Johnson announces that she has been laid off in the middle of a below-freezing war zone without power, heat, or running water.
lizzie johnson @lizziejohnsonnn · 49m I was just laid off by The Washington Post in the middle of a warzone. I have no words. I'm devastated. Quote lizzie johnson @lizziejohnsonnn · Jan 25 Waking up without power, heat, or running water. (Again.) But the work here in Kyiv continues. Warming up in the car, writing in pencil — pen ink freezes — by headlamp.
February 4, 2026 at 5:11 PM
Reposted by Thom Volker
johnholbein1.bsky.social
Are female economists treated differently than males in academic seminars?

These authors wanted to know whether gender shapes how scholars are treated when presenting research.

So they built a massive dataset of 2,000+ economics seminars, job talks, and conference presentations from 2019–2023...
February 3, 2026 at 8:54 PM
Reposted by Thom Volker
jakemgrumbach.bsky.social
This part of our response essay is where I'm at. Boiling down all of politics to electoralism has been absolutely terrible for resisting rising authoritarianism.

www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-no...
A final but especially important reason that popularism has put the United States at greater, not lower, risk of authoritarianism is the Democratic Party’s overly cautious use of institutional authority and political power beyond elections. Popularism doesn’t just urge candidates to check the polls before making a campaign decision; by defining politics down to poll-watching, it trains leaders to check with polls before governing—any use of their legislative and administrative power. Successful opposition parties in authoritarian environments around the world don’t do this: they engage in politics in order to wield power, not just to win or maintain it. But in the United States, the opposition party sees elections as its only tool, even as the regime repeatedly and brazenly threatens electoral integrity. The implicit pitch is “at least if you vote for us, you keep the right from governing.” Examples of Democratic squeamishness about power abound. The Democrats have just now begun to engage in partisan gerrymandering, fifteen years after Republicans used it to tremendous gain. And Democratic politicians who call Trump a dictator have voted for nearly all of his nominees in the Senate. In this, Democratic leaders are the ultimate popularists—waiting to use their institutional power until it is overwhelmingly clear that public opinion is on their side. The results have been disastrous. Most consequential was the hesitancy of the Department of Justice under Merrick Garland to swiftly and aggressively prosecute Trump for the coup attempt on January 6, 2021. That’s exactly the opposite of what Lula’s government has done to Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil after Bolsonaro’s own coup attempt. As seen across more than two dozen other countries that convicted or banned from office national leaders for constitutional violations and crimes since 2010, this is not an impossible task.
February 3, 2026 at 11:28 PM
Reposted by Thom Volker
drtomemery.bsky.social
In the Netherlands we are upgrading and integrating the Social Science and Humanities Research Infrastructure through a project called SSHOC-NL which is led by ODISSEI and CLARIAH.

You can find more about what we are up to in these videos: sshoc.nl#wp--skip-lin...
SSHOC-NL
sshoc.nl
February 3, 2026 at 1:32 PM
Reposted by Thom Volker
stevevladeck.bsky.social
Even if you don't have time to read all 83 pages of Judge Reyes's opinion barring the Trump administration from rescinding Temporary Protected Status for 350,000+ Haitians, please at least check out the four-page introduction.

It's a tour de force:

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
"On December 2, 1783, then-Commander-in-Chief George Washington penned: “America is open to receive not only the Opulent & respected Stranger, but the oppressed & persecuted of all Nations & Religions.”1 More than two centuries later, Congress reaffirmed President Washington’s vision by establishing the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program. See 8 U.S.C. § 1254a (TPS statute). It provides humanitarian relief to foreign nationals in the United States who come from disaster-stricken countries. It also brings in substantial revenue, with TPS holders generating $5.2 billion in taxes annually. See Part VI. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem has a different take. [screenshot of tweet]. So says the official responsible for overseeing the TPS program. And one of those (her word) “damn” countries is Haiti. Relevant here, three days before making the above post, Secretary Noem announced she would terminate Haiti’s TPS designation as of February 3, 2026. See 90 Fed. Reg. 54733 (Nov. 28, 2025) (Termination). Plaintiffs are five Haitian TPS holders. They are not, it emerges, “killers, leeches, or entitlement junkies.” They are instead: Fritz Emmanuel Lesly Miot, a neuroscientist researching Alzheimer’s disease, Dkt. 90 (Second Am. Compl. (SAC)) ¶ 1; Rudolph Civil, a software engineer at a national bank, id. ¶ 2; Marlene Gail Noble, a laboratory assistant in a toxicology department, id. ¶ 3; Marica Merline Laguerre, a college economics major, id. ¶ 4; and Vilbrun Dorsainvil, a full-time registered nurse, id. ¶ 5. They claim that Secretary Noem’s decision violates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. § 706(2), and the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The Government counters that the Court does not have jurisdiction, and, in any case, the Secretary did not violate the law. Plaintiffs seek to stay the Secretary’s decision under 5 U.S.C. § 705 pending the outcome of this litigation. See Dkt. 81 (§ 705 Mot.). To decide their motion, the Court considers first whether it has jurisdiction. It does. See Part II. It then considers: whether Plaintiffs have a substantial likelihood of success on the merits; whether they will be irreparably harmed absent a stay; and whether a merged balance of the equities and public interest analysis favors a stay. See Part III. Each element favors Plaintiffs. See Parts IV, V, and VI. Plaintiffs charge that Secretary Noem preordained her termination decision and did so because of hostility to nonwhite immigrants. This seems substantially likely. Secretary Noem has terminated every TPS country designation to have reached her desk—twelve countries up, twelve countries down. See Section IV.A.2. Her conclusion that Haiti (a majority nonwhite country) faces merely “concerning” conditions cannot be squared with the “perfect storm of suffering” and “staggering” “humanitarian toll” described in page-after-page of the Certified Administrative Record (CAR). See Section IV.A.3.a. She ignored Congress’s requirement that she “review the conditions” in Haiti only “after” consulting “with appropriate agencies.” 8 U.S.C. § 1254a(b)(3)(A); see Section IV.A.1. Indeed, she did not consult other agencies at all. See id. Her “national interest” analysis focuses on Haitians outside the United States or here illegally, ignoring that Haitian TPS holders already live here, and legally so. See Section IV.A.3.b. And though she states that the analysis must include “economic considerations,” she ignores altogether the billions Haitian TPS holders contribute to the economy. See id. The Government’s primary response is that the TPS statute gives the Secretary unbounded discretion to make whatever determination she wants, any way she wants. And, yes, the statute does grant her some discretion. But not unbounded discretion. To the contrary, Congress passed the TPS statute to standardize the then ad hoc temporary protection system—to replace executive whim with statutory predictability. See Section I.A. As to irreparable harm, the Government contends that, at most, the harms to Haitian TPS holders are speculative. But the Department of State (State) warns [screenshot] Dkt. 100 (§ 705 Reply) at 20–21.4 “Do not travel to Haiti for any reason” does not exactly scream, as Secretary Noem concluded, suitable for return. And so, the Government studiously does not argue that Plaintiffs will suffer no harm if removed to Haiti. Instead, it argues Plaintiffs will not certainly suffer irreparable harm because DHS might not remove them. But this fails to take Secretary Noem at her word: “WE DON’T WANT THEM. NOT ONE.” See Section IV.B.2.b. Finally, the balance of equities and public interest favor a stay. The Government does not cite any reason termination must occur post haste. Secretary Noem complains of strains unlawful immigrants place on our immigration-enforcement system. Her answer? Turn 352,959 lawful immigrants into unlawful immigrants overnight. She complains of strains to our economy. Her answer? Turn employed lawful immigrants who contribute billions in taxes into the legally unemployable. She complains of strains to our healthcare system. Her answer? Turn the insured into the uninsured. This approach is many things—in the public interest is not one of them. For the reasons below, the Court GRANTS Plaintiffs’ Renewed Motion for a Stay Under 5 U.S.C. § 705, Dkt. 81.
February 3, 2026 at 1:06 AM
Reposted by Thom Volker
myrthehilkens.bsky.social
❤️🩷♥️
February 2, 2026 at 9:15 PM
thomvolker.bsky.social
When the editor asks for major revisions
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 6d
Q: Do you plan on tearing the Kennedy Center down and how much will all of the renovations cost?

TRUMP: Probably around $200 million. I'm not ripping it down. I'll be using the steel. So we're using the structure. We're using some of the marble.
February 2, 2026 at 10:29 PM