Phil Rocco

Well said. The problem, as ever, is the system that structures incentives towards slop production.

truly

Footnote 3 — I was laughing

What if -- just for a moment -- we thought about knowledge production as a public good?

i see a lot more people saying that AI is better than the "average" social scientist, and a lot fewer saying they think AI is better than they are. Which maybe tells us something about how the view their peers...

I’m given to understand the technology can and has been harnessed to useful effect. Ok. But in aggregate it is also increasing the relative volume of garbage that editors and reviewers must now contend with. With limited time and resources, that leads invariably to inefficiencies. Not good! (2/2)

As a journal editor, the most noticeable consequence of LLMs I’ve observed is an increase in slop submissions. While this might show up on someone’s ledger as greater productivity, what it has meant for me is more toil at the desk review stage and challenges with workflow. (1/2)

My Interview with Terry Gross on NPR’s “Fresh Air:” “President Trump is trying to make it harder to vote. Here's why that matters” #ELB Listen: Trump is promoting tighter restrictions on mail-in ballots as well as passage of the SAVE Act, which requires proof of citizenship to vote. UCLA professor Richard Hasen unpacks the ramificatio...

My Interview with Terry Gross on NPR’s “Fresh Air:” “President Trump is trying to make it harder to vote. Here’s why that matters” electionlawblog.org?p=154603

She’d Never Changed Her Gender Marker. Kansas Invalidated Her License Anyway. — Assigned A trans Kansas resident recently changed her name but not her gender marker on her license, fearing what Kansas may do if she did. The Kansas DMV still flagged her ID.

This story, from @natezuke.bsky.social, is absolutely wild. A trans woman who never changed her gender marker was issued a letter invalidating her license. At the DMV they cut up her license, which had an "M" marker.

www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-new...

People keep acting as if there is no such thing as reputational risk anymore and that’s really what worries me

Worthless

Screenshot of excerpt from opinion that reads: "Despite this, the New York courts refused to stay the trial court’s order. After that highly questionable injunction was issued, the applicants filed appeals in both the Appellate Division (the State’s intermediate appellate court) and the Court of Appeals (its highest court) challenging the trial court’s order on federal constitutional grounds. At the same time, applicants asked both courts to stay the trial court’s order. The Appellate Division refused to issue a stay, and by order issued on February 11, the Court of Appeals sent the appeal filed in that court to the Appellate Division and dismissed applicants’ motions for a stay."

With nowhere else to turn, the applicants asked us to issue a stay, and we have jurisdiction to entertain their application. Title 28 U. S. C. §1257(a) gives us jurisdiction to review “[f]inal judgments or decrees” that are rendered by a State’s highest court and adjudicate federal constitutional claims, and the Court of Appeals’ February 11 order falls within that category.

1/9: In the New York redistricting case, Justice Alito's justification for why #SCOTUS even had *jurisdiction* to issue a stay is based upon a remarkably misleading portrayal of the state court proceedings.

I realize this is technical, but I wanted to write a short thread to explain the shadiness:

I had to punch you because my friend was about to punch you and you might have punched back and hit me by accident.
#JustWar

Virginia Pushes for Board Tying Drug Costs to Medicare Prices High prescription drug costs are facing greater oversight at the state level as Virginia lawmakers charge ahead with measures to lower prices, joining a handful of states already at odds with the phar...

States are leading in the fight to make drug prices more affordable. Our founder, @gabygoldstein.bsky.social spoke with @bloomberglaw.com about new prescription drug affordability boards (PDABs) legislation that is moving in Virginia.

Read more: news.bloomberglaw.com/health-law-a...

Yikes

In an Intense Election Year, New Post Office Rules Could Trip Up Voter Registration A change in how mail is postmarked could lead some voters to miss key deadlines, including voter registration. Advocates worry the people most affected will be those already facing voting barriers.

Florida doesn’t allow for same-day voter registration, so those left off the rolls due to a late postmark won’t be able to cast a ballot. “Voters are unfortunately out of luck if they register late,” says the state director for All Voting is Local.

FEDSPEAK: “.. To some degree, the Strait is experiencing ‘self-closure.’ .. No oil shipments have passed since morning, according to local reports; 22% of global supply is effectively ‘frozen’ .. indicating that the warnings by the IRGC are heeded.”

Same!

Seems like the solution now, as ever, is to teach the contradictions.

An Unpopular, Doomed, Bloody War People will die and nothing will be accomplished

From Paul Musgrave, who is in Qatar.

That Americans “do not know” whether war is being waged to stop an already dismantled nuclear program or to do regime change or […] is beside the point. Americans now overwhelmingly oppose war in Iran. So too did they oppose it in 2025 when the “nuclear program” rationale was the only game in town.

article 8bis of the rome statute of the international criminal court

continuation of article 8bis

posting, once again, the well-established definition of the crime of aggression in the rome statute for the ICC

And this is why the search for a method, a rationale, a plan must go on. Because registrars of opinion will try (as they always do) to furnish an administration these essentials if necessary. But it is not the same thing as an analysis of why Trump (or anyone) decides to kill.

That Americans “do not know” whether war is being waged to stop an already dismantled nuclear program or to do regime change or […] is beside the point. Americans now overwhelmingly oppose war in Iran. So too did they oppose it in 2025 when the “nuclear program” rationale was the only game in town.

Mr. Trump’s failure to articulate either goals or a strategy for a potential military intervention has created shocking levels of uncertainty about this attack. Americans do not know whether the president has ordered an attack in their name mostly to set back Iran’s nuclear program — or to go so far as toppling the government of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

It seems absurd to lock in, as growing number of commentators seem to be doing (NYT clip below), on Trump’s failure to articulate a casus belli in Iran. Asking “why?”, presuming a satisfactory explanation is out there, ignores the sense of unreality that perpetuates endless war in the first place.

Screenshot of website. Bets on Kalshi re: the Ayatollah being ousted jumped last night at 11:30.

Bets to oust the Ayatollah on Kalshi jumped last night at 11:30pm.

Trump claimed Iran is building missiles that could soon hit the US. Sources say that’s not backed up by US intelligence. | CNN Politics When US President Donald Trump addressed the American people on Tuesday night, he claimed that Iran is “working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America.”

When Trump addressed the American people on Tuesday night, he claimed that Iran is “working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America.”

That assertion is not backed up by US intelligence, sources told CNN. www.cnn.com/2026/02/27/p...

Mere hours after going to war, Trump has expanded the big lie to fit Iran into his 2020/24 election conspiracies.

Deeply conflicted, Kushner represents the U.S. in high-stakes negotiations with Iran Today in Geneva, Switzerland, Jared Kushner will represent the United States in meetings with Iranian officials — a last-ditch effort to avoid war.

Just a reminder: instead of an actual diplomat, we sent Trump’s deeply compromised son-in-law as the lead negotiator to avert war with Iran.

popular.info/p/deeply-con...

“Devil in the details” is his point. Action would have to be swift and there’s a lot to assemble to make it happen.