Jay
laefer.com
Jay
@laefer.com
Views are my own and do not reflect those of my employer.
Reposted by Jay
Why Christmas is a Christian Holiday

A thread for Nittel Nacht ♟️
December 24, 2025 at 4:11 PM
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AWU STATEMENT✍️

In response to last week’s announcement that Google has entered into a partnership with the U.S. Department of War, the elected Executive Board of the Alphabet Workers Union released the following statement: www.alphabetworkersunion.org/press/awu-st...
December 18, 2025 at 4:42 PM
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I wrote a bit for McSweeney's about Isaac Chotiner interviewing Santa Claus. Just a little something for the holiday season. Enjoy!
The New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner Interviews Santa Claus
For several centuries, Santa Claus has been one of the most prolific mythical gift-givers in the world. Formerly known as Saint Nicholas of Myra, a...
www.mcsweeneys.net
December 4, 2025 at 7:02 PM
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It's that giving time of year again, so this is a reminder that no matter how they try to dress it up, the Salvation Army is not a charity.
December 3, 2025 at 1:58 AM
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The four horsemen of internet service outages are DNS, BGP, the Greater American Cable Seeking Backhoe, and a fucked up config file getting propagated through the network, and the result is in: the fourth horseman is what got Cloudflare this time blog.cloudflare.com/18-november-...
Cloudflare outage on November 18, 2025
Cloudflare suffered a service outage on November 18, 2025. The outage was triggered by a bug in generation logic for a Bot Management feature file causing many Cloudflare services to be affected.
blog.cloudflare.com
November 19, 2025 at 5:57 PM
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@govpritzker.illinois.gov I want you to watch this video of me slammed to the ground- why are you allowing this to happen to people you know are on the right side of history. They tied my hands behind my back and when I asked them to be loosened because I was going numb they said, “STFU.”
at one point, i watched a cook county sheriff’s officer (who appears to be in charge) point out a priest in the crowd.

he and a couple officers then went into the crowd , dragged him into the street, and arrested him.

situation is still tense as crowd jostles with police to get into the street.
November 15, 2025 at 5:34 PM
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Don’t break the picket line!
BREAKING: Starbucks workers have launched a massive, nationwide strike.

Baristas in 40 cities have walked off the job on the busiest day of Starbucks' year.

Upwards of 12,000 @sbworkersunited.org members could ultimately go on strike as the union escalates.
November 13, 2025 at 3:40 PM
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If you get called for jury service, please go and serve.
November 6, 2025 at 8:44 PM
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Don’t stream fascism. Spotify is running recruitment ads for ICE, helping tear families apart. Cancel your subscription and make Spotify listen — the power belongs to the people: indivisible.org/canc...
November 3, 2025 at 8:00 PM
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Today was a hard day. Regulations that we passed unanimously last year, after 7 years of advocacy, were largely gutted. The FCC capitulated to the correctional telecom industry in roughly doubling rate caps for prison and jail calls. I'm truly sorry.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/28/u...
F.C.C. Changes Course on the Price of Prisoners’ Phone Calls
www.nytimes.com
October 28, 2025 at 10:51 PM
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TLDR: tech workers, get organized!

The Alphabet Workers Union has issued a statement in response to Amazon’s announcement that it will lay off 14,000 corporate workers: “Now is the time for us to stand together collectively, so we have power and a real voice in our industry.”
October 28, 2025 at 7:23 PM
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Speaker Johnson, you ready to swear me in?
October 15, 2025 at 12:46 AM
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Mr. Benioff: Military troops and armed federal agents don’t make our communities safer. Advocating to bring the National Guard to San Francisco is dangerous, and instills fear in people as they go about their daily lives.
Marc Benioff Says Trump Should Send Guard Troops to San Francisco
www.nytimes.com
October 14, 2025 at 9:44 PM
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I think we really should stop using antifa and just fully say anti-fascist and get them saying they are against anti fascism. Using antifa is giving them some distance and I genuinely think some of their base don’t even know that’s what it stands for.
October 11, 2025 at 11:10 PM
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I was born and raised in CAs Central Valley and I'm voting #YesOnProp50. Farm workers and people of color are suffering under this administration's racial profiling. Prop 50 gives us the opportunity to fight back on the power grab that TX Republicans and Trump are attempting.
October 11, 2025 at 1:02 AM
Reposted by Jay
Some personal news:

I've been fired from the Washington Post in the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting.

Thread incoming.

substack.com/@karenattiah...
The Washington Post Fired Me — But My Voice Will Not Be Silenced.
I spoke out against hatred and violence in America — and it cost me my job.
substack.com
September 15, 2025 at 11:07 AM
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The New Yorker asked me “how bad” today’s Supreme Court ruling was. I boiled it down to one paragraph:

link.newyorker.com/view/5bda429...
September 8, 2025 at 9:52 PM
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CTA: Call Your Member of Congress and U.S. Senators
Regardless of which party your Member of Congress and U.S. Senators belong to, please call them (actually call them on the phone if at all possible) and tell them:

www.patreon.com/posts/137525...
August 28, 2025 at 4:55 PM
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Thesis: Trump is ticking off his authoritarian to do list quickly
Antithesis: While Trump is *trying* to tick off his authoritarian to do list, he's not fully succeeding

Synthesis: Each item on this check list is not a binary but a spectrum, and we're *way* too far down the spectrum for any comfort
I find this @donmoyn.bsky.social piece helpful in clarifying why I disagree with the "America is already in competitive authoritarianism" thesis.

Don's checklist shows things that Trump has tried to do, but he hasn't *succeeded* in most areas

donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-author...
August 28, 2025 at 5:57 PM
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Trump doesn't seem to see that some people are still immune to his threats.

Jack White criticized Trump's Oval Office decor. The White House then called White a "washed-up, has-been loser... masquerading as a real artist." And White, undeterred, posted an absolutely blistering takedown in response.
August 22, 2025 at 5:56 PM
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Patient, sobbing: But Doctor, I AM Pagliacci!
ChatGPT: Apologies. I didn't realise when recommending Pagliacci's epic show to cure your depression that you were the genius himself. I'm impressed! With regards to your initial question, I can recommend seeing the Great Clown Pagliacci.
August 7, 2025 at 11:31 AM
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BREAKING: With Emil Bove's confirmation to the Third Circuit his phylactery has been transferred from Pam Bondi's office safe to the filing cabinet of the GSA building supervisor at the James A. Byrne Courthouse in Philly
July 30, 2025 at 3:45 PM
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we will look back on this era and realize the student newspapers were the free press.

www.thedp.com/article/2025...
Editorial | Penn descends into fascism
The Daily Pennsylvanian Summer Editorial Board argues that Penn’s concessions to the Trump administration set a dangerous precedent for academic freedom.
www.thedp.com
July 22, 2025 at 11:51 AM
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ICE just prevented me from entering an immigration detention facility in my district—a clear violation of federal law.

Members of Congress have the right to immediately access these facilities. Listen here 👇
July 20, 2025 at 10:36 PM
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Our strategy is straightforward:

bring medically complex and disabled children who rely on Medicaid and their families to the U.S. Capitol;

get them into the offices of Senators/MoC who will vote to let them live or to kill them;

tell the American people about it:
‘Little Lobbyists’ Urge Senators to Oppose Trump’s Bill Cutting Medicaid
www.nytimes.com
June 25, 2025 at 8:52 PM