Sandhya Dirks

Rep. Ilhan Omar: "When I think about Stephen Miller and his white supremacist rhetoric, it reminds me of the way the Nazis described Jewish people in Germany."

According to Article 1(1) of the UN Convention against Torture, an act constitutes torture if four elements are present: (1) intention, (2) infliction of severe physical or mental pain or suffering, (3) a purpose such as coercion, intimidation, obtaining information or a confession, or discrimination and (4) a degree of official involvement.254 State agents at “Alligator Alcatraz” use the ‘box’ as a form of punishment. The conditions of the ‘box’ – an extremely small space that prevents sitting, lying or changing position –, combined with high temperatures and humidity levels, and the deprivation of water, sanitation and protection from harsh weather conditions and insects, would likely cause severe physical and psychological pain and suffering.255 Amnesty International considers that the use of the ‘box’ as a form of punishment at “Alligator Alcatraz” constitutes torture.

Amnesty International released findings from its investigation into the Everglades Concentration Camp (Alligator Alcatraz), which was built by the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

They found evidence of torture, among other human rights violations.

www.amnesty.org/en/documents...

Buy Low, Sell to Yourself Continuation funds, Amazon drivers, a narrow bank, Trump accounts, crypto gambling and PDT puzzles.

"I always feel so stupid when I write this, but when I started in financial journalism, I assumed that the point of financial markets was to allocate capital to real-world economic uses, and by now I know that the point of financial markets is to create fun opportunities for gambling."

THIS

The stuff I want to read about that is about institutional failures. She's a symptom not the disease.

imagine investing in public media and ensuring that media literacy (and spotting unreliable narrators) was integral in primary school education

In the era of slavery, free black people had to carry their "free papers" with them so they could prove to the authorities that they were free, or else they would be thrown in jail and sold.

Ben, Jerry told to “hand over” Ben & Jerry's by corporate big wigs "This is another attempt to silence the social mission," co-founder Ben Cohen told the Financial Times.

“Ben & Jerry’s has been silenced, sidelined for fear of upsetting those in power.”
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

WELKER: Is there any hard evidence showing this particular boat was headed to the US?

TOM COTTON: That didn't come up in my briefing

WELKER: Are you comfortable having the US target a boat that you're not sure is heading to the US?

COTTON: I'm not just comfortable with it -- I want to continue it

“The mosquitoes are getting worse”: Life inside Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz detention camp “This facility is not one that is sustainable.”

“This facility is not one that is sustainable.”

why some people be mad at me sometimes

they ask me to remember
but they want me to remember
their memories
and i keep on remembering
mine.

+ Lucille Clifton

Pete Hegseth kept MAGA backing despite his advocacy for *convicted* war criminals, Nazi tattoos, rape allegations, & signal idiocy — but we think now he’s gone too far for even them by killing the people they want killed?

He could've just said he wanted to bring back lynchings it would've been more honest.

San Diego agrees to pay $30m to family of boy, 16, shot dead by police Settlement one of US’s largest and comes after officer killed Konoa Wilson, who was running from teen shooting at him

San Diego agrees to pay $30 million to family of teenager mistakenly shot in the back by cop. "[Konoa] Wilson ran away from the gunfire and, as he fled, passed by officer Daniel Gold near the station corridor." www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

BASH: The president said very clearly this week he doesn't want Somali immigrants in America. He called them 'garbage.' Is that the real reason this operation is happening?

HOMAN: No. I think President Trump is referring to public safety threats & natl security threats

BASH: He didn't say that

The university-surveillance component of this piece is !!! I had missed the Qualtrics shift and acquisition and wow.
We really need an ed-tech key players power-map, does anyone know if this exists?

So, to all the "RFK's got some good ideas" folks (Rachael Bedard, Leana Wen) and Jay Bhattacharya is "an excellent choice for NIH" (Steven Macedo, Frances Lee) and Vinay Prasad "will bring a breath of fresh air to FDA" (Adam Cifu, John Mandrola) groupies--you own this now too.

Mom of Karoline Leavitt’s nephew rejects White House narrative of her ICE arrest In an interview, Bruna Ferreira, who chose the White House press secretary as her son’s godmother, contested the portrayal of her as a criminal, absentee mom.

I am not a criminal or an absentee mom, says the mother of Karoline Leavitt’s nephew after being snatched by ICE 🎁 wapo.st/48qWW9C

The Ellisons Are Beta-Testing Big Brother. If your feeds, subs, streams, games, and sports don't ensure you are on your "best behavior," your school and its EdTech partners will.

“If you believe, as Ellison does, that Americans will be better off when they are subjected to ‘supervision at all times,’ then buying microvideo platforms, enterprise software, streaming services, cable networks, gaming developers, & internet publishers is just buying supervision capacity.”

BREAKING: ‘This hurts’: UNL eliminates 4 programs despite faculty, student pleas The University of Nebraska-Lincoln eliminates the Earth and atmospheric sciences 8-0, educational administration 7-1, statistics 7-1, textiles, merchandising and fashion design 7-1 programs.

It's over.

Despite the fact that the academic council recommended against it, despite the fact that the program brought in more tuition than it cost, and despite the fact that Nebraskans need & deserve this expertise, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences will be cut.

www.dailynebraskan.com/news/adminis...

Heartbreaking. The University of Nebraska will terminate its entire Earth science department.

One of the country's most successful and respected geology & climate programs: gone.

When ideologues & politicians are threatened by the very act of studying climate change, I wonder: who of us is next?

We share the nativism and immigration restrictions with the 1920s, which also gave us eugenics and a resurgent KKK. This piece doesn't mention another key element we share with that period: Panic over the "demographic crisis" of falling birth rates, here and in Europe, which also boosted fascism.

AAP: ‘Stop wasting government resources to amplify false claims’ about vaccines, autism The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated its website to include false claims linking vaccines and autism, prompting a swift rebuke from the AAP and other medical experts.

I don’t think people outside of healthcare realize how much AAP is standing out as a moral backbone of medicine right now, especially in pediatrics. There is so much fear at institutions. Seeing an org directly and repeatedly targeted refuse to budge an inch is extraordinary.

There are several academics, not Anthony, who jumped into this research area AFTER Trump issued his EO on birthright, had never/rarely written in the area. For what ends? To try to create a constitutional controversy where there is none. Framers' intent, text, doctrinal development are clear.

‘Masculine leadership’
And they say gender studies is all bunk

Whether it's bizarre tariff policies, the recent National Security Strategy statement encouraging white nationalist & authoritarian regimes in Europe, or the more visible attempts to resurrect the explicitly racist Immigration Act of 1924, the throughline is the same: reviving the Jim Crow state.

Citizen Ceremonies Canceled Dutchess, Putnam clerks say they have new dates for next year 

Routine naturalization ceremonies scheduled for this month in Putnam, Dutchess and Ulster counties to welcome new U.S. citizens were abruptly canceled last week by the federal government, surprising local officials.   buff.ly/8emFeDU

‘The professor was right’: Oklahoma Republican college leader criticizes essay controversy The chairman of the Oklahoma Federation of College Republicans is weighing in on controversy surrounding a failed essay submitted by a University of Oklahoma student.

This is in fact the material point:
“The essay not only fails to meet basic college requirements — such as citing its primary source, the Bible — but fundamentally missed the assignment’s objective,” Tranquill said.

Every time I go to the ocean the whole poem goes through my head, but this part especially:

may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea

…I believe in such cartography - to be marked by nature, not just to label ourselves on a map like the names of rich men and women on buildings. We are communal histories, communal books.