Radley Balko

Modern Republicanism is making up a thing to be scared about and then using that as the basis for policy

This is a good judgement but intensely depressing timeline

The US led a coalition of navies trying to protect commercial ships through the Red Sea in 2024. It didn't work, fighting continued into 2025 and only diplomacy stopped it. This just happened!!!!

I am going to keep saying this because they're memory holing it.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operati...

Tennessee grandmother jailed after AI facial recognition error links her to fraud Angela Lipps spent nearly six months in jail after AI software linked her to a North Dakota bank fraud case

Tennessee grandmother spent nearly six months in jail after AI facial recognition mistakenly linked her to a North Dakota bank fraud case

Trump Can’t Decide Whether the Iran War Is Still Going On The president seems to be at odds with both himself and his secretary of defense about the status of the conflict.

@dgraham.bsky.social: “The Trump administration can’t say why the United States went to war with Iran, and it can’t say what the goal of the war is. Now it can’t even decide whether the war is still going on.”

I Ignored the Signs. I Was Only 42. When I Saw the Look on My Doctor’s Face, I Knew What Was Coming—or So I Thought. I've driven myself crazy by thinking through counterfactuals. All I'm left with is what really happened.

This is harrowing stuff and an engaging and amazing read.

But mostly just glad @cingraham.bsky.social is going to be around.

slate.com/life/2026/03...

Someone in NYC should do interviews with middle-school kids who take the subway to and from school every day, to see if they have any advice for Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy who can't seem to go a single day without pissing himself in fear over them.

Keep 'em coming

I Watched 6 Hours of DOGE Bro Testimony. Here's What They Had to Say For Themselves The hours of videos provide fascinating, or perhaps horrifying, insight into the thinking of someone inside DOGE.

I have watched 6 hours of a DOGE bro deposition. The whole thing, start to finish. It's a fascinating, and horrifying, look at the people who caused so much damage, didn't really achieve anything at all, while still being so sure they are right. Here's what they said: www.404media.co/i-watched-6-...

I know I’m a goddamn broken record, I really do, but Congress had a way to change that, it worked for decades, and the Supreme Court blew it up in the 1980s in a way that was impossible for Congress to fix. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Liberalism.org: An Online Magazine for Free and Open People An Online Magazine for Free & Open People

Today we launch Liberalism.org, @theihs.org public forum for the liberal tradition — a space where serious thinkers wrestle with the tensions of a free society. Drawing on @theihs.org network of over 7K liberal scholars, we explore how freedom sustains human dignity.

Meet the team.

🧵

UFC Fighters to Train FBI Agents in ‘Historic Seminar’ This Week: We’ll ‘Be Even Better Prepared to Protect the American People,’ Kash Patel Says UFC fighters will head to Quantico, Va. this week to train FBI agents and students in what FBI director Kash Patel is calling a "historic seminar."

What a joke. FBI agents are not street brawlers. They interview witnesses, uncover documents, analyze intelligence, and testify in court, usually while wearing a suit and tie. Just one more frolic for Kash at taxpayer expense.
variety.com/2026/politic...

It’s really a golden age for the follymath.

He’s a career civil servant who got an ambassadorship in Trump’s second term while others were getting fired. I’d suggest that choices like celebrating iftar at Burger King suggest he knows his audience.

Did DOGE pay this kid a salary or an allowance?

The Defense Minister of Israel says it was "blood libel" to go after Israeli soldiers caught on camera raping a Palestinian.

Judge Orders Colorado to Stop Throwing Prisoners in Solitary for Refusing to Work - Bolts Years after voters amended the state's constitution to ban forced labor in prison, a court ruling could finally make Colorado change how prison guards "compel and coerce" work.

When Nadia Reed refused to work while incarcerated in Colorado, she was punished.

She was put in solitary, not allowed to talk to her family, handcuffed, shackled, & moved to a more punitive part of the prison where she was sexually assaulted.

A judge ruled Colorado has to change its policies.

This New Yorker profile of Marimar Martinez--the US citizen CBP shot who survived--includes the friendship she made w/woman she met in jail who had protested her own shooting.

www.newyorker.com/news/annals-...

Another day, another day to be embarrassed by these buffoons.

Officer having anxiety attack took ambulance sent for man dying from police shooting, report says A man who was shot by Connecticut police last year and later died had to wait 10 extra minutes for another ambulance to arrive at the scene, after another officer having an anxiety attack took the first one.

A man who was shot by Connecticut police last year and later died had to wait 10 extra minutes for another ambulance to arrive at the scene, after another officer having an anxiety attack took the first one.

What a horrible fucking life philosophy.

What an empty, soulless approach to existence.

Pentagon bars press photographers over ‘unflattering’ Hegseth photos Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s staff took issue with photos taken in a rare briefing last week and decided to shut out press photographers from two subsequent news conferences.

there is no other kind of photo than unflattering of this hideous man

www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Pam Bondi reportedly moved to military base due to threats over Epstein files Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, former Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth all live in housing on secured military bases

Bunker Bondi joins the club.

“Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, former Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth all live in housing on secured military bases.”

One of my favorite parts of this whole thing is that it implies Rubio lied about his shoe size.

Video Refutes ICE Claim That Ruben Ray Martinez “Ran Over” Federal Agent Before Fatal Shooting In Texas, newly released body-camera and surveillance footage casts doubt on an ICE official’s claims about the killing of Ruben Ray Martinez, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen who was fatally shot by a fede...

The officer who killed Ruben Ray Martinez has been identified as Homeland Security Investigations agent Jack Stevens.

Sure sounds like somebody at DOGE took the Social Security numbers and personal information of every American on record, and put it on a thumb drive to bring home to Elon Musk’s AI company.

DHS Ousts CBP Privacy Officers Who Questioned ‘Illegal’ Orders Department of Homeland Security leaders removed top privacy officers who objected to mislabeling government records to block their public release, WIRED has learned.

Scoop: DHS ousted multiple privacy officers at CBP after they questioned orders to purposely mislabel records about government surveillance to prevent their release under FOIA.

nominative determinism hall of fame

I talked to dozens of experts in government, academia, cybersecurity, and industry about exactly this scenario last year and not only did not one of them think I was being alarmist, many brought it up unprompted and many said there was zero chance it hadn’t already happened

Alejandro Medina focused on wife's release from ICE custody - Nashville Banner Alejandro Medina reflects on life with with his wife, Nashville Noticias journalist Estefany Rodríguez, and works to get her released from ICE custody,

"The agents knew Alejandro and Estefany’s routine, that they went to the same gym around the same time every day."
Devastating and beautifully told, by @mikeiereiland.bsky.social at @nashvillebanner.bsky.social: