@pitfall-jake.bsky.social
Reposted
The Expanse is brilliant. A slog first few episodes but starts to move along — more realistic spaceship physics and battles (strategy based on long distances, differential velocities, acceleration/deceleration, no artificial grav),complex interplanetary politics, great characters, weird alien tech.
a dark room with a ladder leading up to the top of it
ALT: a dark room with a ladder leading up to the top of it
media.tenor.com
December 14, 2025 at 6:20 AM
The Expanse is brilliant. A slog first few episodes but starts to move along — more realistic spaceship physics and battles (strategy based on long distances, differential velocities, acceleration/deceleration, no artificial grav),complex interplanetary politics, great characters, weird alien tech.
Reposted
We now learn that Fifa had a very specific "ask" in exchange for its "Peace Award" to Trump, with loads of gold trinkets, and that was dismissal of a criminal corruption case against senior Fifa officials. And Trump granted it. Another corrupt bargain, barely noticed (and ignored by US media).
December 11, 2025 at 12:59 AM
We now learn that Fifa had a very specific "ask" in exchange for its "Peace Award" to Trump, with loads of gold trinkets, and that was dismissal of a criminal corruption case against senior Fifa officials. And Trump granted it. Another corrupt bargain, barely noticed (and ignored by US media).
Reposted
You've been hit by a car and you're fading in and out. You ask the EMTs to price the ambulance ride. You get to the ER and tell the docs you'll need a price on each service before it's done. You get cancer so it's time to put treament out to competitive bid. I can keep going...
Roger Marshall: "We want patients to become consumers again. We want patients to see what the actual prices are. We believe that if we would add the price tags to this bill, that it would save the country a trillion dollars a year."
December 11, 2025 at 3:09 PM
You've been hit by a car and you're fading in and out. You ask the EMTs to price the ambulance ride. You get to the ER and tell the docs you'll need a price on each service before it's done. You get cancer so it's time to put treament out to competitive bid. I can keep going...
Reposted
This is a really good (and painful) illustration of what advocates have been saying for years about immigration enforcement by state cops: immigration status is way more complicated than “legal” vs “illegal,” and cops aren’t equipped to figure this out.
On Reddit, a post shows the ways in which 287(g) agreements, combined with ICE's mass deportation efforts are making a total hash of the the basic functioning of a fair system — a man in Florida was pulled over for a traffic stop on his way to an asylum interview and is now detained in Colorado!
December 11, 2025 at 3:23 PM
This is a really good (and painful) illustration of what advocates have been saying for years about immigration enforcement by state cops: immigration status is way more complicated than “legal” vs “illegal,” and cops aren’t equipped to figure this out.
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The US never ratified the treaty, but until this year, has treated UNCLOS as customary law.
If other major powers follow the US's lead and declare UNCLOS irrelevant (or worse, start pulling out of the treaty), the amount of global destabilization that will result is unfathomable.
If other major powers follow the US's lead and declare UNCLOS irrelevant (or worse, start pulling out of the treaty), the amount of global destabilization that will result is unfathomable.
December 10, 2025 at 7:03 PM
The US never ratified the treaty, but until this year, has treated UNCLOS as customary law.
If other major powers follow the US's lead and declare UNCLOS irrelevant (or worse, start pulling out of the treaty), the amount of global destabilization that will result is unfathomable.
If other major powers follow the US's lead and declare UNCLOS irrelevant (or worse, start pulling out of the treaty), the amount of global destabilization that will result is unfathomable.
Reposted
From today's "To the Contrary" Podcast. Be alarmed.
Pam Bondi is ordering the FBI to target domestic extremists. Listen to the list possible targets...
Pam Bondi is ordering the FBI to target domestic extremists. Listen to the list possible targets...
December 10, 2025 at 8:10 PM
From today's "To the Contrary" Podcast. Be alarmed.
Pam Bondi is ordering the FBI to target domestic extremists. Listen to the list possible targets...
Pam Bondi is ordering the FBI to target domestic extremists. Listen to the list possible targets...
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Brett Kavanaugh's "minor inconvience" now includes beating people up and cutting off their wedding rings for [checks notes] "observing ICE from a distance."
Federal agents are arresting American citizens.
This isn’t about public safety - it’s about stoking fear.
www.mprnews.org/story/2025/1...
This isn’t about public safety - it’s about stoking fear.
www.mprnews.org/story/2025/1...
Federal agents arrest citizen observer watching ICE detain neighbors on her north Minneapolis block
Susan Tincher, a 55-year-old American citizen, appears to be the first observer arrested by federal immigration enforcement officers since the agency launched an immigration surge in the Twin Cities l...
www.mprnews.org
December 10, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Brett Kavanaugh's "minor inconvience" now includes beating people up and cutting off their wedding rings for [checks notes] "observing ICE from a distance."
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The U.S. *was* feeding poor people then Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and JD Vance illegally killed off USAID.
Seeing a leader of the United States adopt this line is revolting. While the US remains imperfect, it is also the global leader in FDI as well as the world’s leading destination for inbound investment. China would love to have an economy like America’s.
December 9, 2025 at 1:57 AM
The U.S. *was* feeding poor people then Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and JD Vance illegally killed off USAID.
Reposted
🚨BREAKING: A federal judge Monday dismissed Missouri Republicans’ attempt to stop voters from pursuing a referendum against the state’s newly gerrymandered congressional map. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
Federal Court Tosses GOP Lawsuit Against Missouri’s Gerrymander Referendum Effort
Read more here.
www.democracydocket.com
December 9, 2025 at 2:01 AM
🚨BREAKING: A federal judge Monday dismissed Missouri Republicans’ attempt to stop voters from pursuing a referendum against the state’s newly gerrymandered congressional map. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
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Idiocracy was meant to be comedy and a cautionary tale, not a playbook
December 9, 2025 at 3:03 AM
Idiocracy was meant to be comedy and a cautionary tale, not a playbook
Reposted
Exactly why the Ellisons are completely unfit to own Warner and CNN — even with all their wealth, what a bunch of acquiescent stooges. They are uninterested in making journalism better or a better business, but happy to make it better for Trump.
December 9, 2025 at 3:10 AM
Exactly why the Ellisons are completely unfit to own Warner and CNN — even with all their wealth, what a bunch of acquiescent stooges. They are uninterested in making journalism better or a better business, but happy to make it better for Trump.
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Jared Kushner's involvement was "not mentioned in Paramount's press release on Monday morning about its $108 billion bid, nor were participating sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar."
fancy that
fancy that
Jared Kushner is part of Paramount's hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery
Paramount is telling WBD shareholders that it has a smoother path to regulatory approval than does Netflix.
www.axios.com
December 8, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Jared Kushner's involvement was "not mentioned in Paramount's press release on Monday morning about its $108 billion bid, nor were participating sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar."
fancy that
fancy that
Reposted
Every elected Dem should do this. Absolute #FloodTheZone with mockery of Trump. The more folks do it, the more ludicrously it oh-so-rightly appears to be.
Governor Gavin Newsom's press office expertly trolling the bullshit "prizes" being given to President Piggy.
December 6, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Every elected Dem should do this. Absolute #FloodTheZone with mockery of Trump. The more folks do it, the more ludicrously it oh-so-rightly appears to be.
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This will always and forever be the most on point and prescient thing that Fukuyama ever wrote.
December 6, 2025 at 7:21 PM
This will always and forever be the most on point and prescient thing that Fukuyama ever wrote.
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These are people who thought wearing a mask was painful and not being able to eat out twice a week was state terrorism
December 6, 2025 at 7:10 PM
These are people who thought wearing a mask was painful and not being able to eat out twice a week was state terrorism
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These are also the same 35 year olds who call their mom so she can tell you to be nice to them after you say one mild insult
December 6, 2025 at 7:08 PM
These are also the same 35 year olds who call their mom so she can tell you to be nice to them after you say one mild insult
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People who couldn't handle the mild inconvenience of social distancing are somehow going to endure the far more immense disruption of getting randomly shot by their neighbors?
Sure, ok 👍👍
Sure, ok 👍👍
that's cool, man, but have you tried the taste of a refreshing matcha latte
December 6, 2025 at 6:42 PM
People who couldn't handle the mild inconvenience of social distancing are somehow going to endure the far more immense disruption of getting randomly shot by their neighbors?
Sure, ok 👍👍
Sure, ok 👍👍
Reposted
How many people who watch Fox News know Trump pardoned a man who helped bring 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S.?
Hardly any of them, I suspect.
Sometimes the right wing murders the truth, sometimes is just kidnaps it and throws it in the basement.
Hardly any of them, I suspect.
Sometimes the right wing murders the truth, sometimes is just kidnaps it and throws it in the basement.
December 6, 2025 at 1:34 PM
How many people who watch Fox News know Trump pardoned a man who helped bring 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S.?
Hardly any of them, I suspect.
Sometimes the right wing murders the truth, sometimes is just kidnaps it and throws it in the basement.
Hardly any of them, I suspect.
Sometimes the right wing murders the truth, sometimes is just kidnaps it and throws it in the basement.
Reposted
Trumpworld likes to present comparisons of his anti-immigrant rhetoric with 1930s Germany as inherently hyperbolic. So I asked some historians if they were.
www.ms.now/opinion/trum...
www.ms.now/opinion/trum...
December 6, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Trumpworld likes to present comparisons of his anti-immigrant rhetoric with 1930s Germany as inherently hyperbolic. So I asked some historians if they were.
www.ms.now/opinion/trum...
www.ms.now/opinion/trum...
Reposted
Reposted
Renaming the Institute for Peace after yourself as you defend extrajudicial executions and prepare for war in Venezuela is really leaning into the mad dictator shtick.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/u...
Trump Renames Institute of Peace for Himself
www.nytimes.com
December 5, 2025 at 12:03 AM
Renaming the Institute for Peace after yourself as you defend extrajudicial executions and prepare for war in Venezuela is really leaning into the mad dictator shtick.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/u...
Reposted
As Justice Kagan begins her dissent by pointing out, what is even the point of trial, of fact-finding, of clear error, of standards of review, when the Supreme Court simply ignores every single part of that and decides everything purely on the papers without any real consideration of the facts?
December 4, 2025 at 11:08 PM
As Justice Kagan begins her dissent by pointing out, what is even the point of trial, of fact-finding, of clear error, of standards of review, when the Supreme Court simply ignores every single part of that and decides everything purely on the papers without any real consideration of the facts?
Reposted
The top-10 carmakers by market cap make up 75% of global passenger car sales.
Tesla makes up less than 2%.
The Tesla bubble will be widely documented in history books.
Tesla makes up less than 2%.
The Tesla bubble will be widely documented in history books.
December 4, 2025 at 2:27 PM
The top-10 carmakers by market cap make up 75% of global passenger car sales.
Tesla makes up less than 2%.
The Tesla bubble will be widely documented in history books.
Tesla makes up less than 2%.
The Tesla bubble will be widely documented in history books.
Reposted
To average Americans these rulings come out of the blue, because there's no oral argument and less focus on the shadow docket. And when the Court fails to explain its emergency rulings, they undermine their own legitimacy because they appear to be acting in an unprincipled way.
December 4, 2025 at 6:51 PM
To average Americans these rulings come out of the blue, because there's no oral argument and less focus on the shadow docket. And when the Court fails to explain its emergency rulings, they undermine their own legitimacy because they appear to be acting in an unprincipled way.
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I wish I were kidding.
Imagine lecturing district court judges for not assuming the Texas Republican Party was full of honest public servants who sincerely have the best interests of their constituents at heart.
Imagine lecturing district court judges for not assuming the Texas Republican Party was full of honest public servants who sincerely have the best interests of their constituents at heart.
Texas clearly did a racial gerrymander, which is illegal.
A district court found that Texas did a racial gerrymander, rejecting the new map because it is illegal.
But the Supreme Court reversed it.
Because? Must assume the gerrymanderers were acting in good faith (despite the evidence otherwise).
A district court found that Texas did a racial gerrymander, rejecting the new map because it is illegal.
But the Supreme Court reversed it.
Because? Must assume the gerrymanderers were acting in good faith (despite the evidence otherwise).
December 5, 2025 at 12:41 AM
I wish I were kidding.
Imagine lecturing district court judges for not assuming the Texas Republican Party was full of honest public servants who sincerely have the best interests of their constituents at heart.
Imagine lecturing district court judges for not assuming the Texas Republican Party was full of honest public servants who sincerely have the best interests of their constituents at heart.