Michael Mechanic

Wesleyan did right on legacy admissions. Let's talk about the Ivies now. Most elite colleges, shamefully, still have affirmative action for rich kids.

Trump is now demanding admissions data from universities, which the NYT reports may result in rich kids getting even more of an edge. This is farcical. How about Trump release the grades and SAT scores of Eric, Don Jr, and Baron, and we'll see how meritocratic things truly are.

Yeah, that's kind of what I meant. thx

A former IRS chief on Trump’s attempts to gut—and weaponize—his agency "This is an administration priding itself on revenge," says John Koskinen.

Welp, Trump just ousted yet another IRS chief, good ol' boy Billy Long, the fifth person to run the agency since January. To paraphrase Hamlet, all is not well in the state of Denmark. John Koskinen would certainly agree.

How Trump’s “mass deportation” plan would ruin America It would be brutal, costly, and likely illegal.

New Trump EO starts by saying: "Every tax dollar the Government spends should improve American lives or advance American interests." In fact, his administration's cuts to vaccine and medical research, gutting of the NIH and the IRS, mass deportations, and corrupt behavior will do the opposite.

Tesla withheld data, lied, and misdirected police and plaintiffs to avoid blame in Autopilot crash Tesla was caught withholding data, lying about it, and misdirecting authorities in the wrongful death case involving Autopilot that it...

The most damning part: The car was programmed to send all the information to Tesla then delete the local copies. Which speaks to a clear conspiracy to hide the fact that "driver assistance" features contributed to an accident #teslatakedown electrek.co/2025/08/04/t...

ICE is hiring! US immigration and Customs Enforcement is looking for highly motivated, morally indifferent individuals to join our team. Open positions include: Senior Goon Racism Enforcement Office Unmarked Van Driver (Part-Time) Experience with children a plus usajobs.gov

From this month's edition of The Onion.

Death & Taxes (W/ Filmmaker Q&A) @ 7 PM — CINEMASF Death & Taxes is a feature documentary about family, wealth, inequality and the American Dream, viewed through the lens of the estate tax and the very personal story of a father and son at odds over what kind of inheritance we want to leave our kids and our country. Filmmaker Justin Schein’s

SF folks: Tonight is your last chance (for now) to see this thought-provoking film and meet director Justin Schein (@deathandtaxesfilm.bsky.social), whom I interviewed in the reply link below.

@govpritzker.illinois.gov: "Texas Rangers can come to Illinois and enjoy our lakefront, but they're not arresting anybody and taking them away."

Hello journalists. If you report this you gotta say that under the Constitution he has no power to do it. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

This is true. It's selfish, shameful, and self-defeating.

And you are a troll. Goodbye.

This is misdirection. Most of the deportations under Obama were people who'd very recently come in. Trump's treatment of human beings is so cruel that fewer people are coming, so ICE is going into communities and taking people who have put down roots here. I happen to think that's fucked up.

Trump rants about ordering a new census excluding the undocumented population

A depressing number of news outlets are reporting this without mentioning the minor detail that it would be unconstitutional.

This is why I use an android phone.

That is just an idiotic thing to say. Also, the mass deportations are not "winning." It's cruelty. And a bad move, economically, to uproot communities of people doing productive work and paying taxes, which your homeboy shirks, btw.

Still resonates today, for sure.

JD Vance’s team had water level of Ohio river raised for family’s boating trip Exclusive: Incident raises questions of exploitation of public services, but Secret Service says it was requested for ‘safe navigation’

Yep, real man of the people here. A source claims the outflow was altered to create "ideal kayaking conditions" for the second family. Wow. And to think Vance is a guy who goes around criticizing "elites."

How Many Times Can Science Funding Be Canceled? Whether or not Congress cuts NIH’s budget, the Trump administration has devastated its ability to operate.

Sharing gift link. This story is a must-read for all who care about science in America and having a reasonable, well-functioning government, which this one is clearly not.

Such an important point:

“Progressive policies…are very popular in this country…but you have a segment of the Democratic Party that keeps trying to convince progressives we’re losing elections because their policies need to be more moderate.” Matt Dowd

I wish more understood this.

A confession…
🧵

Would love to hear Mayor Pete's take on this.

It probably means we're all going to die.

Can any experts here weigh in on the utility of mRNA vaccines in responding quickly to a fast-emerging strain of flu virus the predictions may have downplayed? Because the egg method is pretty archaic/hit-or-miss, is it not?

Not hard to sacrifice your modest salary when you are grifting relentlessly, selling access to the Oval Office, enriching yourself via blatant conflicts of interest, opening countless pathways to corruption and foreign influence, and very clearly violating the Constitution in the process.

And they want to open more of these hellholes.

If we don't slash our nukes, "a major city is going to be destroyed" Author Eric Schlosser on America's terrifying history of nuclear mishaps.

The Hiroshima anniversary is a good time to consider how lucky we've been, and the sheer madness of keeping these terrifying arsenals around. I highly recommend Schlosser's book "Command & Control" and the more recent "Nuclear War: A Scenario," by Annie Jacobsen.

Hegseth may well mean a "Redemption Monument," in which case he would be celebrating a campaign of domestic terrorism.

RFK Jr. announces end to some mRNA contracts, including for flu, covid The targeting of the vaccine technology once considered revolutionary follows intense criticism by conservatives and anti-vaccine activists.

We are now officially living in an idiocracy.

East Bay friends, come join us tonight. It's a good film and I expect a good conversation to follow.

Far-right militias adored the Constitution. Then came Trump. Right-wing activists have long warned of the coming federal invasion. Where are they now that it's happened?

For all their patriotic bullshit, these people never gave a damn about the Constitution, and now that it's under threat, they are failing to uphold their vows.