Ben Epstein

As far as threats to a representative democracy goes, this is a five alarm fire, and it is entirely in the hands of the Supreme Court. They essentially ruled on this two years ago and are now reconsidering.... democracy I guess.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...

My husband was detained by ICE today

Juan Muñoz, an American citizen, father of 2, and local government official, was peacefully protesting w. other elected officials. He was assaulted and taken away

I have had zero contact or updates since

#SOS
@duckworth.senate.gov @durbin.senate.gov

So excited to celebrate my colleague & friend Molly Andolina on her Cortelyou Lowry Award, the most prestigious award offered by the Liberal Arts College at @DePaulU)! Molly is an extraordinary teacher scholar colleague & mentor, & an even better human. Congrats Molly! las.depaul.edu/academics/po...

[cont'd, the final 1:26 of the clip Shams reposted]

RETWEET BY SHAMS:

Napheesa Collier’s full statement today, where she challenged Commissioner Cathy Engelbert and the WNBA with directness and stunning detail we rarely hear from active players. Worth listening to every word.

[First 2:57 of 4:23 clip posted]

x.com/malika_andre...

Opinion | Trump Is Building the Blue Scare

A really thoughtful conversation between Ezra Klein and my former professor and one of the smartest people I know Corey Robin. Trump Is Building the Blue Scare www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/o...

What the data says about gun deaths in the U.S. While the number of gun deaths in the U.S. fell for the second consecutive year in 2023, it remained among the highest annual totals on record.

Shame on anyone elected or not who is not actively trying to reduce this epidemic of gun deaths. 💔
3/3

www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

Yes it’s mental health. Yes it’s access to guns. Yes it’s complacency. Yes it’s education. We are the only nation with this level of gun deaths. My heart breaks for the families and community members forever shattered in Minneapolis today.
2/3

Every shooting in this country is tragic. Today’s mass shooting of children just blocks from where I grew up in my favorite place anywhere is off the charts horrific. Nearly 47,000 Americans died from gun related deaths in 2023, including 18,000 murders. 1/3

For those of you interested in (or concerned about) news media and news bias, there are a few different media bias measurement organizations out there. One of my favorites is Ad Fontes, which updates its ratings constantly. Here is their latest chart. Hope it is useful!

Elections have consequences. The GOP led House followed Trump's lead and created a horrendous bill that rips healthcare, food, & security from poor & working class & gave it to the rich. The GOP led Senate made it worse. Never let them forget it. And remember this every election.

We're going to need to keep taking to the streets. We're going to need a General Strike and maybe many. We need to treat this like the red alarm moment in our history that it is.

a man in a maroon shirt sits at a desk with a book ALT: a man in a maroon shirt sits at a desk with a book

I am stunned that Noem is not 100% ethical. Who could have seen this coming?

What's in the Senate Version of Trump's Big Policy Bill? The legislation includes tax cuts as well as big cuts to Medicaid, food benefits and other programs, and it would add more than $3 trillion to the national debt.

The bill being pushed through Congress will explode the deficit, cause millions of poor & working class to lose healthcare & go hungry. Americans will struggle more & die earlier as a result. It's the most harmful single piece of legislation proposed in decades. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Every year this Supreme Court seems to set this country back a decade or more in various ways. Today shows this trend continues.

Evergreen message from our son from back in 2017. True every day.

Sotomayor Writes the Court ‘Abandons’ Transgender Children to ‘Political Whims’

Sotomayor Writes the Court ‘Abandons’ Transgender Children to ‘Political Whims’ www.nytimes.com/2025/06/18/u...

Statement from Melissa and Mark Hortman’s children. ❤️‍🩹

BREAKING: Vance Boelter is in custody. He was arrested minutes ago near Green Isle. Developing story…

The point is that we need better ability as consumers of content to figure out good from bad information and better tools that can be used in this effort.

Even images that are real are sometimes used out of context or to show outlier events that do not represent the tone and context of a situation. However, images and video can also be used to shine a light on situations that can change public opinion and uncover wrongdoing.

a yellow sign that says created with artificial intelligence on it ALT: a yellow sign that says created with artificial intelligence on it

It took 5 minutes to make these images and to be clear, NONE OF THESE EVENTS HAPPENED. Yet I could imagine seeing them in news reports framing the events in LA easily. Each has a small AI logo in the bottom right hand corner. Many other AI image generators do not include that.

I am including the "thinking" that gemini said it was doing during the creation of the images.

I just created each of these images with the most recent free version of gemini (by google).

I recently taught a lesson on deepfakes and AI and how it is both being used to increasingly show things that didn't happen, AND is also used to raise doubt about things that did happen that has photographic evidence. Images aren't the evidence they once were.
Let me offer a couple examples...

Really important, and increasingly difficult to focus on what is truly happening and what is misinformation or disinformation in LA and in all events. This NYTimes article suggests some of the concerns here: t.co/8SRtxqzcAO

donald trump is standing in front of the white house ALT: donald trump is standing in front of the white house

And there is an admin. looking to stoke tensions to create an excuse for more military control. If you are looking for examples of an insurrection check out events from Jan. 6 2021 & compare. Then remember that all of those responsible were pardoned by the same man calling in the marines today.

The unnecessary escalation of military presence in Los Angeles continues as hundreds of marines have been called in. There is no crisis. There is no insurrection. There are protesters concerned for their neighbors, family, and communities. #LosAngelesProtests via NY Times👇

Hello. I live in Los Angeles. The president is lying.

I'm just glad one of these men has the nuclear codes and the other has all our personal data.