Varun
@varunr.bsky.social
Data science at Slack. Views are my own (obviously). Largely data posting and politics re-posting.
Politics blog: https://a-humble-politics-blog.ghost.io/
Data science + engineering blog: https://varunprajan.github.io/
Politics blog: https://a-humble-politics-blog.ghost.io/
Data science + engineering blog: https://varunprajan.github.io/
Pinned
Varun
@varunr.bsky.social
· 13h
The cost of living in America
I’ve been trying to read more serious books recently. One that I picked up, on J.W. Mason’s recommendation, is “The Cost of Living in America: A Political History of Economic Statistics, 1880-2000” by...
a-humble-politics-blog.ghost.io
I wrote about The Cost of Living in America (the book and the topic): a-humble-politics-blog.ghost.io/the-cost-of-...
Reposted by Varun
real, "sir, this is a Wendy's" moment here
February 12, 2026 at 9:54 PM
real, "sir, this is a Wendy's" moment here
I wrote about The Cost of Living in America (the book and the topic): a-humble-politics-blog.ghost.io/the-cost-of-...
The cost of living in America
I’ve been trying to read more serious books recently. One that I picked up, on J.W. Mason’s recommendation, is “The Cost of Living in America: A Political History of Economic Statistics, 1880-2000” by...
a-humble-politics-blog.ghost.io
February 12, 2026 at 2:47 PM
I wrote about The Cost of Living in America (the book and the topic): a-humble-politics-blog.ghost.io/the-cost-of-...
Reposted by Varun
NEW: “CBS Evening News” producer Alicia Hastey sends a bombshell farewell note:
Stories are “evaluated not just on their journalistic merit but on whether they conform to a shifting set of ideological expectations.”
Stories are “evaluated not just on their journalistic merit but on whether they conform to a shifting set of ideological expectations.”
February 12, 2026 at 3:22 AM
NEW: “CBS Evening News” producer Alicia Hastey sends a bombshell farewell note:
Stories are “evaluated not just on their journalistic merit but on whether they conform to a shifting set of ideological expectations.”
Stories are “evaluated not just on their journalistic merit but on whether they conform to a shifting set of ideological expectations.”
Reposted by Varun
Fuentes, yesterday: “Our #1 political enemy is women because women constrain everything, every conversation, every man, everything. They have to be imprisoned. They are the ones that are hurting the fertility rate. They're the ones making us sympathetic to poor people, which are also brown people.”
Nick Fuentes: “The number one political enemy in America is women. … They have to be imprisoned.”
www.mediamatters.org
February 12, 2026 at 12:13 PM
Fuentes, yesterday: “Our #1 political enemy is women because women constrain everything, every conversation, every man, everything. They have to be imprisoned. They are the ones that are hurting the fertility rate. They're the ones making us sympathetic to poor people, which are also brown people.”
Reposted by Varun
When you have made a terrible mistake
February 11, 2026 at 11:41 PM
When you have made a terrible mistake
Reposted by Varun
Top FDA official Vinay Prasad overruled the agency’s reviewers--career scientists--when he refused to accept Moderna’s application for a new influenza vaccine www.statnews.com/2026/02/11/m...
Prasad overruled FDA staff to reject Moderna's flu vaccine application
The rejection is the latest instance of Vinay Prasad overruling career FDA scientists to place vaccines under harsher scrutiny.
www.statnews.com
February 11, 2026 at 9:52 PM
Top FDA official Vinay Prasad overruled the agency’s reviewers--career scientists--when he refused to accept Moderna’s application for a new influenza vaccine www.statnews.com/2026/02/11/m...
I want to see Zohran's Beli
February 11, 2026 at 8:22 PM
I want to see Zohran's Beli
Reposted by Varun
Kate is a reporter for the American Banker. Trump’s DOJ & CFPB turn a predatory lending discrimination lawsuit into an anti-immigrant crusade. Instead of providing restitution for victims of discrimination they use $ to fund more police resources aimed at “illegals.” (Full article paywalled.)
February 11, 2026 at 1:57 PM
Kate is a reporter for the American Banker. Trump’s DOJ & CFPB turn a predatory lending discrimination lawsuit into an anti-immigrant crusade. Instead of providing restitution for victims of discrimination they use $ to fund more police resources aimed at “illegals.” (Full article paywalled.)
Reposted by Varun
We have received numerous credible reports of torture, killing, and inhumane treatment of detained individuals at the Camp East Montana migrant detention facility, located within Fort Bliss. #txlege
February 10, 2026 at 6:47 PM
We have received numerous credible reports of torture, killing, and inhumane treatment of detained individuals at the Camp East Montana migrant detention facility, located within Fort Bliss. #txlege
Reposted by Varun
Exclusive: OpenAI fired executive Ryan Beiermeister in January, citing sexual discrimination, after she opposed the planned AI erotica feature in ChatGPT, sources said.
OpenAI Executive Who Opposed ‘Adult Mode’ Fired for Sexual Discrimination
Ryan Beiermeister, who served as the vice president leading OpenAI’s product policy team, had raised concerns about the upcoming launch of erotic content.
on.wsj.com
February 11, 2026 at 9:59 AM
Exclusive: OpenAI fired executive Ryan Beiermeister in January, citing sexual discrimination, after she opposed the planned AI erotica feature in ChatGPT, sources said.
Reposted by Varun
I parsed through some of the emails in the Epstein files, and it’s very clear that Epstein was a eugenicist weirdo. Something he very much had in common with the billionaire class à la Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and Donald Trump. New for @motherjones.com.
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Epstein couldn't stop emailing people about eugenics
In the latest files, the trafficker gives it a Silicon Valley–pilled name: "genetic altruism."
www.motherjones.com
February 10, 2026 at 8:47 PM
I parsed through some of the emails in the Epstein files, and it’s very clear that Epstein was a eugenicist weirdo. Something he very much had in common with the billionaire class à la Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and Donald Trump. New for @motherjones.com.
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Varun
The Employment Cost Index shows continued deceleration in compensation growth in Q4. All metrics of wage growth are slowing even as inflation has gotten stuck confirming that labor demand < greatly reduced labor supply
February 10, 2026 at 1:58 PM
The Employment Cost Index shows continued deceleration in compensation growth in Q4. All metrics of wage growth are slowing even as inflation has gotten stuck confirming that labor demand < greatly reduced labor supply
"this is not you, this is not what you are about"
no it definitely is
no it definitely is
February 10, 2026 at 2:05 PM
"this is not you, this is not what you are about"
no it definitely is
no it definitely is
Reposted by Varun
In an attempt to distance himself from the Epstein scandal and Mandelson, the health secretary reveals that he's a moral coward only willing to say the obvious behind closed doors and in private groupchats.
In now publicly available text correspondence between the British health secretary Wes Streeting and former British ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, Streeting admitted that Israel was committing war crimes, conspiring to ethnically cleanse Gaza, and that the UK should sanction the government.
Wes Streeting privately said Israel committing war crimes, backed sanctions on 'rogue state'
The British health secretary privately admitted last year that the Israeli government 'talks the language of ethnic cleansing'
www.middleeasteye.net
February 9, 2026 at 10:25 PM
In an attempt to distance himself from the Epstein scandal and Mandelson, the health secretary reveals that he's a moral coward only willing to say the obvious behind closed doors and in private groupchats.
Reposted by Varun
NYC used to consistently build 5-10 new subway stations every single year.
Since 1990 we have built 4. Not 4 per year, 4 total over 36 years.
We need to get back to building transit on a grand scale. This is what our system could look like:
Since 1990 we have built 4. Not 4 per year, 4 total over 36 years.
We need to get back to building transit on a grand scale. This is what our system could look like:
February 6, 2026 at 3:14 AM
NYC used to consistently build 5-10 new subway stations every single year.
Since 1990 we have built 4. Not 4 per year, 4 total over 36 years.
We need to get back to building transit on a grand scale. This is what our system could look like:
Since 1990 we have built 4. Not 4 per year, 4 total over 36 years.
We need to get back to building transit on a grand scale. This is what our system could look like:
February 8, 2026 at 2:23 PM
Reposted by Varun
This just shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how to do news. Data helps, but data doesn’t tell a reporter to spend a years-long investigation into child labor or an editor to place staff in a country on the brink of war. What exactly does Bezos think WaPo’s “journalistic mission” is?
Jeff Bezos' statement, his first since last week's layoffs: "The Post has an essential journalistic mission and an extraordinary opportunity. Each and every day our readers give us a roadmap to success. The data tells us what is valuable and where to focus."
February 8, 2026 at 12:39 AM
This just shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how to do news. Data helps, but data doesn’t tell a reporter to spend a years-long investigation into child labor or an editor to place staff in a country on the brink of war. What exactly does Bezos think WaPo’s “journalistic mission” is?
Reposted by Varun
Bill Ackman's fund, Pershing Square, manages 18 billion dollars for wealthy clients, billions of it for the Harvard Endowment
Anyways here he is uncritically eating up conspiracy slop from Naomi Wolf about stolen NYC elections
Anyways here he is uncritically eating up conspiracy slop from Naomi Wolf about stolen NYC elections
February 8, 2026 at 2:28 AM
Bill Ackman's fund, Pershing Square, manages 18 billion dollars for wealthy clients, billions of it for the Harvard Endowment
Anyways here he is uncritically eating up conspiracy slop from Naomi Wolf about stolen NYC elections
Anyways here he is uncritically eating up conspiracy slop from Naomi Wolf about stolen NYC elections
Reposted by Varun
February 7, 2026 at 6:09 PM
Reposted by Varun
ICE told nurses this Minneapolis man “purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall.”
What actually happened is that they pulled him from a car, beat him so viciously with a steel baton that he had 8 skull fractures, 5 life-threatening brain hemorrhages, and couldn’t remember he had a daughter.
What actually happened is that they pulled him from a car, beat him so viciously with a steel baton that he had 8 skull fractures, 5 life-threatening brain hemorrhages, and couldn’t remember he had a daughter.
February 7, 2026 at 5:54 PM
ICE told nurses this Minneapolis man “purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall.”
What actually happened is that they pulled him from a car, beat him so viciously with a steel baton that he had 8 skull fractures, 5 life-threatening brain hemorrhages, and couldn’t remember he had a daughter.
What actually happened is that they pulled him from a car, beat him so viciously with a steel baton that he had 8 skull fractures, 5 life-threatening brain hemorrhages, and couldn’t remember he had a daughter.
Reposted by Varun
Every time I re-read Trump v. United States, it feels like getting hit in the head with a mallet.
February 6, 2026 at 5:55 PM
Every time I re-read Trump v. United States, it feels like getting hit in the head with a mallet.
Reposted by Varun
can't say which i find more appalling, remnick handing him a "fair enough" on the left and right being equally antisemitic or saying there was "no immigration policy" under dems. either way, super embarrassing for remnick to get steamrolled this hard by the right's pre-eminent midwit
In an interview with David Remnick, Ben Shapiro discusses his break with figures like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, and why he condemns President Trump as corrupt yet sticks with him. www.newyorker.com/news/the-new...
Ben Shapiro Is Waging Battle Inside the MAGA Movement
In an interview with David Remnick, Ben Shapiro discusses his break with figures like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, and why he condemns President Trump as corrupt yet sticks with him.
www.newyorker.com
February 6, 2026 at 9:31 PM
can't say which i find more appalling, remnick handing him a "fair enough" on the left and right being equally antisemitic or saying there was "no immigration policy" under dems. either way, super embarrassing for remnick to get steamrolled this hard by the right's pre-eminent midwit
Reposted by Varun
... and naturally, the guy they gave it to is a straight-up Nazi (2/2)
![Matt Viser
@mviser • 11/13/24
Photos taken today by White House photographers
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Penny
@pennyelizabeths •11/13/24
Weird that he looks so happy while hanging out with literally Hitler.
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Beaver @beaverd
Co2
X.com
God i wish he was literally hitler](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:hf7ezrajxadu7v3tzcyij424/bafkreif5fegrkf66c2k4mx47spaaczbw6jegdxeiobze2klww3cybnar2u@jpeg)
![Nicholas J. Fuentes @NickJFu... • 12/15/25
It's okay to dislike Israel.
JD Vance • @JDVance • 12/15/25
I would say there's a difference between not liking Israel (or disagreeing with a given Israeli policy) and anti-semitism.
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Beaver @beaverd
we are not celibrating hanukkah in my house you stupid bitch](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:hf7ezrajxadu7v3tzcyij424/bafkreifh5eyq24erfkicrpcyihd5cwg52mw4w2t72o4s5k6qcjojd4ftua@jpeg)
February 4, 2026 at 12:59 PM
... and naturally, the guy they gave it to is a straight-up Nazi (2/2)