Sandra Raponi

Last term I tried an experiment: I walked into my Tech and Design Ethics class, admitted that I had *no idea* what to do about ChatGPT - so I would let them figure it out.

As in: their first project was to decide and write the ChatGPT policy for the class.

Here's what happened:

Opinion | I’m the Prime Minister of Spain. This Is Why the West Needs Migrants.

I’m the Prime Minister of Spain. This Is Why the West Needs Migrants. Gift link
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/o...

Walk for peace: Buddhist monks arrive in Washington after 2,300-mile journey Draped in burnt-orange robes, two dozen Buddhist monks are due to finish a 2,300-mile "Walk for Peace" in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, a self-described spiritual journey across nine states that has been cheered on by crowds of thousands.

Walk for peace: Buddhist monks arrive in Washington after 2,300-mile journey reut.rs/4kqhinI

1/ ProPublica collected handwritten letters in mid-January from children held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the same facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was taken.

Hundreds of kids are still detained.

We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵

We are seeing what Ernst Fraenkel called “the dual state.” For most, life is routine and the rule of law exists. But if you interact with ICE, you face the full force of the prerogative state, which is marked by “unlimited arbitrariness and violence unchecked by any legal guarantees.”

Every social theory undergirding Trumpism has been broken on the steel of Minnesotan resolve. The multiracial community in Minneapolis was supposed to shatter. It did not. It held until Bovino was forced out of the Twin Cities with his long coat between his legs. The secret fear of the morally depraved is that virtue is actually common, and that they’re the ones who are alone. In Minnesota, all of the ideological cornerstones of MAGA have been proved false at once. Minnesotans, not the armed thugs of ICE and the Border Patrol, are brave. Minnesotans have shown that their community is socially cohesive—because of its diversity and not in spite of it. Minnesotans have found and loved one another in a world atomized by social media, where empty men have tried to fill their lonely soul with lies about their own inherent superiority. Minnesotans have preserved everything worthwhile about “Western civilization,” while armed brutes try to tear it down by force.

Last week in Minnesota, I watched ordinary people risk their lives to protect their neighbors. In the process, they not only won a significant—though not final—victory against authoritarianism, they proved virtually every MAGA social theory wrong. (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free

How to Have a ‘Don’t-Know Mind’ My quest to understand consciousness took me to a cave in New Mexico and then deep into the cosmos.

An essay as beautiful as it is insightful from @michaelpollan.bsky.social on the self & consciousness. The Buddhists figured out a good deal about how the mind works centuries ago, and there are few better guides than @joanhalifax.bsky.social, as Michael discovered.

Jessica Hauser 17h • • • • I was Alex Pretti's final nursing student. He was my friend and my nursing mentor. For the past four months, I stood shoulder to shoulder with him during my capstone preceptorship at the Minneapolis VA Hospital. There he trained me to care for the sickest of the sick as an ICU nurse. He taught me how to care for arterial and central lines, the intricacies of managing multiple IVs filled with lifesaving solutions, and how to watch over every heartbeat, every breath, and every flicker of life, ready to act the moment they wavered. Techniques intended to heal. Alex carried patience, compassion and calm as a steady light within him. Even at the very end, that light was there. I recognized his familiar stillness and signature calm composure shining through during those unbearable final moments captured on camera. It does not surprise me that his final words were, "Are you okay?" Caring for people was at the core of who he was. He was incapable of causing harm. He lived a life of healing, and he lived it well. Alex believed strongly in the Second Amendment and in the rights rooted in our Constitution and its amendments. He spoke out for justice and peace whenever he could, not only out of obligation, but out of a belief that we are more connected than divided, and that communication would bring us together.

Jessica Hauser 17h • O • .. I want his family to know his legacy lives on. I am a better nurse because of the wisdom and skills he instilled in me. I carry his light with me into every room, letting it guide and steady my hands as l heal and care for those in need. Please honor my friend by standing up for peace, preferably with a cup of black coffee in hand and a couple of pieces of candy in your pocket, just as he would. He would remind you that caring for others is hard work, and we must do whatever it takes to get through the long shifts. Step outside with your dog, breathe in the world, hike or bike as he loved to do, and let yourself find peace in the quiet moments within nature. Stand up for justice and speak with those whose views differ from your own. Hold your beliefs with strength, but always extend love outward, even in the face of adversity. Take one step, no matter how small, to help heal our world. Through these acts, carry his light forward in his name. Let his legacy continue to heal. Photo of tall white man with brown hair, glasses and a kind smile, wearing a hat in the forest

“Hold your beliefs with strength, but always extend love outward, even in the face of adversity.
Take one step, no matter how small, to help heal our world. Through these acts, carry his light forward in his name. Let his legacy continue to heal.”

This Cold Winter, Love Is a Superpower There are great days and terrible days in history, days a nation or world changed, that you remember forever. For me that's the fall of the Berlin Wall, the rise of the Zapatistas, 9/11, Hurricane Kat...

For many in the Trump regime it seems incomprehensible or a scam of sorts that those not categorically under attack by ICE are so committed to solidarity with their neighbors who are, and thereby to universal human rights, to standing up on principle, and will risk their lives to do so.....

I think a lot of us get hope wrong. Hope, I do not believe, is an emotion. In fact, hope makes space for lots of emotions to exist alongside it. You can DO hope scared, angry, sad etc...

Hope doesn't find us. We make hope through action and struggle. It's a practice of living and is re-made daily.

And what are they learning? Experts on the formation of internal security services in authoritarian regimes point to a sense of impunity as a warning sign. Regime officials abuse their power when they know they will be protected, and even praised, for doing so. Over the course of weeks and months, we have seen images of DHS officials abusing American citizens and immigrants alike, including killing them. What we do not hear is regime officials calling for credible investigations into such abuses, or even expressing any concerns. Renee Good’s killer was announced innocent, and both Good and her wife was instead the subject of an investigation, a perversion of justice so obvious that an FBI agent and half-dozen career Department of Justice prosecutors assigned to Minnesota resigned.

What we are watching is a paramilitary force learning that they can kill with impunity, that the regime will smear the victim and defend them. Unless politicians and the legal system exerts accountability, it will not stop. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/past-the-b...

How President Trump has challenged a constitutional foundation In his first year back in the White House, President Trump has presided over a sweeping expansion of executive power while eroding democratic norms.

In his first year back in the White House, President Trump has presided over a sweeping expansion of executive power while eroding democratic norms. n.pr/3YVl5Q3

Breaking the Fourth Amendment Last night, we learned from a report in the Associated Press that ICE, contrary to longstanding Fourth Amendment jurisprudence, is taking the position that it can enter people’s homes without a judici...

ICE’s new policy directing agents to ignore the 4th Amendment is one of the most frightening things we’ve seen yet. And there’s no telling where it could end up. open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

Tomorrow’s front page of the Minnesota Star Tribune: Jan. 23, 2026

🚨HOLY CRAP. An ICE whistleblower just revealed a secret memo authorizing ICE officers to break into homes without a judicial warrant, which DHS's own legal training materials say is unconstitutional!

ICE then hid the memo from the public, passing it along by word of mouth and private conversation.

Appreciate this from @dandrezner.bsky.social, and it was an honor to co-author with him.

“In a world of great power rivalry, the countries in-between have a choice: compete with each other for favour, or combine to create a third path with impact: …the power of legitimacy, integrity, and rules will remain strong if we choose to wield it together.”

You're paying for this.

Trump's Big Ugly Bill gave BILLIONS to ICE and giant corporations—using money meant to lower your health care costs.

Instead of helping your mom get cancer treatment, your tax dollars are being used to terrorize communities.

Ep. 164 - What is Engaged Buddhism? A Conversation with Roshi Joan Halifax Listen now | At a recent event in support of Dharma Moon’s Yearlong Buddhist Studies program on January 6th, Ethan was joined by the great Roshi Joan Halifax, to discuss the practice, history and theo...

My recent conversation: What Is Engaged Buddhism? with the great @joanhalifax.bsky.social now available on The Road Home podcast.

You can subscribe to the substack or download wherever you get your pods (please *don't* use Spotify, thank you deep bows).

ethannichtern.substack.com/p/ep-164-wha...

Why Donald Trump is telling such obvious lies on the ICE Minneapolis killing Obvious lies aren’t necessarily failed lies. They can confuse, distract, excite and intimidate a range of audiences. They can also be believed, no matter how obviously false they seem.

Why Donald Trump is telling such obvious lies on the ICE Minneapolis killing

Philosophers Tim Keyon and Jennifer Saul on authoritarian discourse

#philsky

theconversation.com/why-donald-t...

semi-regular reminder that ICE was only created in 2003

when you are asked to imagine a world without ICE, you're basically being asked to remember where you were when Lilo & Stitch came out

FOX: Where’s the protest against the regime that's killing people in the street right now?

Trent: They are doing those today. It’s called the ICE protests

FOX: Are they talking about Iran at the ICE protests?

Trent: No, I think they are talking about the regime that is shooting people in the face

NEW: Data released by ICE shows that virtually the entire growth of detention in the last few months has been among people with no criminal record at all - no prior convictions (no matter how minor) and no pending criminal charges.

The ICE killing takes America a step closer to George Orwell’s nightmare The ICE killing takes America a step closer to George Orwell’s nightmare

The ICE killing takes America a step closer to George Orwell’s nightmare

Withdrawing the United States from International Organizations, Conventions, and Treaties that Are Contrary to the Interests of the United States MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United

This is insane. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

The Cost of Staying Human Remarks from a vigil for Renee Nicole Good

Tonight, I was one of more than 200 people who gathered on Chicago’s North Side to mourn Renee Nicole Good. Several people asked me to publish my remarks from the vigil, so I’m sharing them here.

Texas A&M Bans Plato - Daily Nous Drop the race and gender material from your course and the Plato readings, or teach a different course. You have a day to decide. That's a paraphrase of what Martin Peterson, professor of philosophy a...

Texas A&M actually tells a philosophy professor he may not teach Plato.

Life Under a Clicktatorship What happens to government when everything is content?

New, from me: The Trump administration isn’t just using social media to shape a narrative. They view the world through a social media lens in a way that is plausibly corrupting their judgment and undermining their performance.
Welcome to the clicktatorship. 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/life-under...