peter ⓥ

Disgruntled NYT journalist to ‘anti-woke’ power grab: how far can Bari Weiss go? After leaving the New York Times, she turned her Substack into an unshakable pro-Israel voice. Now as Paramount eyes acquisition of her company, Weiss is poised to become Trump’s ally among media elit...

"The pattern is clear: if you work at a liberal institution and you want the Trump-controlled federal government to step in and discipline it, Bari Weiss is there to help."

www.theguardian.com/media/ng-int...

3/ “In firing the TJAGs, Hegseth did not point to any misconduct to justify his decision. His only stated reasons were that he considered the TJAGs not ‘well-suited’ for the job, and he wanted to avoid ‘roadblocks to orders that are given by a commander in chief.’”

In Feb, Pete Hegseth “fired the Air Force’s & Army’s top judge advocates general (JAGs). Last month, he commissioned his personal lawyer as a Navy JAG. He is now reportedly paving the way to make major changes within the JAG Corps—including how military lawyers advise on the law of war…” 4/4/25… 1/

The “dual state” theory was invented to describe Nazis. The Supreme Court could take us there. Authoritarianism—but make it look like the rule of law.

Under the Third Reich, most Germans generally lived in the law-bound normative state, while Jews and other disfavored people were victims of the arbitrary and violent prerogative state.

The dual state is characterized by the facade of normalcy obscuring the fact of an authoritarian state.

You could just talk about Jim Crow. I promise you, there's no need to leave America's shores to talk about life in a fascist state

18) Nobody that you can yell at is a decision maker.

I work for a company that is owned by a company that contracts with a company that contracts with the City.

If you even want to talk to my manager, one level above me, it will be thirty minutes, she's a half mile away and underground.

17) My general vibe is that TSA knows that it's all security theater, and no matter how much you hate the government, you can't hate it more than TSA agents do, on account of the government being the ones who've made them stand there and do security theater.

Right now they're not even paid for it.

Pick something about their appearance that was a choice they made, and say it's nice.

"I love that shade of pink in your hair."
"That's a lovely scarf."
"That's some gorgeous line work on your tattoo."

It is not, it turns out, very hard to do well.

And kids!

Kids love nothing more than to wipe their nose with their hand, then use that hand to go back to touching everything!

Wash your hands every chance you get in an airport. Even when they have folks coming through hourly to wipe it all down, it's just a massive number of dirty hands.

Only about half of them wash their hands after using the bathroom!

I know! I work there! I can see them just walk straight out from the stall!

Would you let them all just spit in your mouth?

No?

Then put a mask on, what's wrong with you, you're being gross. And if nothing else, it will keep you from touching the straps/stanchions/railings that everyone else is touching, then absentmindedly touching your face.

11) I know I'm in the rare minority that's still masking because I take things like Covid seriously, but even outside of a pandemic, I have no idea what kind of person would willingly go through an airport unmasked.

It's... you're crammed in with thousands of people, from everywhere. Breathing.

10) If you give a shit about wait times, fly on Saturday or Tuesday. If you fly on a Friday, Sunday, or Monday something like Clear or PreCheck might be worth it, but otherwise you're wasting your money.

That's people being *personally* assholes, to be fair. Plenty of folks with shirts celebrating Trump renaming it the Gulf of America (God, I had no idea this was a huge celebrated popular choice with his base) are perfectly able to be warm & friendly in conversation, regardless of the harm they do.

9) People are, all things considered, pretty good.

I see twenty thousand people a day, and maybe two of them are assholes. Even on a stressful day, even in an unfamiliar environment, even hungry and tired and on a timer.

That's a *much* better ratio than folks realize.

And then, of course, there's the fact that the popular Iowa school superintendent that ICE dramatically arrested is Black.

That's no accident. This is part of a bigger story about the attacks on Black educational leaders. How is Claudine Gay not mentioned in this story? Or "critical race theory"?

It's 2025. Dreamers have been in the headlines for a decade. The median DACA recipient is a millennial in their 30s.

75% of Dreamers were pursuing a bachelor's degree or more, per one survey.

Who's shocked that someone undocumented became a school leader?

www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/u...

And then there's the characterization that a superintendent being undocumented "was counter to the image many have of undocumented immigrants. This was not someone living under the radar, toiling in a low-wage job."

Is this racist stereotype really the common belief of "many" @nytimes.com readers?

Being undocumented is not a "shocking secret."

And was Ian Roberts' bio "too good to be true?" According to this story's own reporting, he had a track record of actually delivering academic improving in struggling school systems'--including in Des Moines.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/05/u...

The Superintendent’s Bio Seemed Too Good to Be True. It Was.

There's plenty of complexity to the story of Ian Roberts, the Black Iowa superintendent arrested by ICE.

But the way the @nytimes.com chose to frame this article is racist and shameful.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/05/u...

OMB deletes reference to law guaranteeing backpay to furloughed feds from shutdown guidance An Office of Management and Budget FAQ document now states that only excepted employees forced to work without pay are guaranteed backpay at the conclusion of a lapse in appropriations.

Lawless Russell Vought thinks he can nullify a law by deleting it from an FAQ

www.govexec.com/pay-benefits...

It troubles me that I’m starting to feel the same way about Bluesky that I do about the UK. Like: it sounds great, and some of the people I know are great, but the leadership is making some weird choices and I’m a bit worried it may all be over in a couple of years.

I’m a career prosecutor who took a $25,000 check from an affiliated entity of Donald Trump’s while investigating Trump University and later left my lobbying firm to become Donald Trump’s personal impeachment lawyer, White House aide, and Attorney General. So don’t you DARE question my integrity.

It's not just that they're going to strike down a law against conversion therapy, it's that they're going to do it on behalf of made-up claims from a straw plaintiff who can't honestly show the law affected her at all

Supreme Court Live Updates: Justices Seem Set to Rule Against Colorado’s Ban on Conversion Therapy

One thing about American's widespread distrust and disapproval of the Supreme Court is that mainstream news coverage mostly doesn't dwell on stuff like standing, so people don't even begin to grasp how rigged the Court truly is www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...

and insurance paid for it. though the insurance company had to get on the list of creditors to the fly by night solar company that did the original installation and mysteriously no longer exists. kinda think we should bring back personal liability for officers of businesses and corporations imho

The best thing we ever did to our house was the 42 solar panels on our roof.

In a first, renewables generate more power than coal globally Solar and wind power aren’t just keeping up with global electricity demand anymore – they’re pulling ahead. According to a new analysis from energy think tank Ember, solar and wind combined outpaced global electricity demand growth in the first half of 2025. That shift led to a drop in both coal and gas generation compared to the same period last year. For the first time ever, renewables generated more power than coal globally. more…

In a first, renewables generate more power than coal globally

Healthcare should be guaranteed as a human right #MedicareForAll @salaambhattiva.bsky.social

These programs weren't set up this way simply for the benefit of recipients. They are by design also a subsidy for American agriculture. That's the longstanding red-blue, rural-urban political deal of it. Like how they're getting nuked by the trade war, they are cannibalizing their own coalition.