Tim

Man Opposing Data Center Arrested for Speaking Slightly Too Long An Oklahoma man tried to talk about a data center coming to his community. Police arrested him when he went a few seconds over his time limit.

a man in Oklahoma was speaking out against a data center in his community. He went a few seconds over time and the city had him arrested for trespassing

The Underclass Is in Session What do we see when we view the structure of academic labor as it is, not as we wish it to be?

Here’s the online version. The whole issue, “What is Academic Labor Now?” is deeply important.

-Contingent faculty now teach 45-54% of all classes at 4-year public institutions; these faculty are paid up to 60% less per course section than their (comparatively few) full time, tenure line counterparts.

This is a truly horrifying memo. It says that the policy of the US government will now be to proactively seek out and arrest likely tens of thousands of refugees who entered legally under Biden and subject them to detention, where they will be interrogated about their status.

On Nov. 16, a mental health counselor recorded in Kamilla’s medical records that her mother reported the girl had lost her appetite after being “served food that contained worms.” A week later, the couple said, children were told to gather in the gym for what they believed would be a Thanksgiving celebration. Excitement spread as families saw tables set with turkey, sandwiches, pastries and pies, they said. The children waited expectantly. But when a parent asked when the celebration would begin, Oksana said, staff told them the holiday meal was for employees, not detainees. The children, she said, watched despondently as the feast was packed away.

On Thanksgiving, the immigrant children held at the Dilley detention center gathered in the gym for what they thought was a holiday feast.

The kids salivated over a spread of turkey, sandwiches, pastries and pies, a family told me.

But the food wasn’t for detainees — it was for the staff.

The collapse of curiosity driven research has occurred in STEM too. Everything has to be outcomes focused - cure disease, grow better crops, etc. But so much of what humanity has discovered is from "basic" curiosity-driven science. I'm hugely in favor of funding curiosity in every discipline.

(3) But the Democrat view is also bad: while it's fine for people at Princeton and Harvard to study Latin and Sanskrit, public higher education is about job training and $ ROI. There is no room for the idea that curiosity-driven inquiry is a good that should be supported by the public.

ICE halts "all movement" at Texas detention facility due to measles infections The measles​ cases at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center were detected Friday, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to CBS News.

Horrifying. ICE confirms measles outbreak at Dilley family detention center. www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-dil...

"To help address rising public skepticism of higher education, Yale is launching a new program that will expand access to the transformative work of universities. Started by President Maurie McInnis, the Presidential Senior Fellowship will bring to campus experts to foster respectful debate and bridge the academy with society at large. As part of this effort, author and columnist David Brooks will join the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs as a Presidential Senior Fellow starting February 1. Read more in Yale News: bit.ly/49QpJoY #Yale"

OH COME ON. Brooks knows fuck-all about "society at large".

Dan McQuade, 1983–2026 | Defector Dan McQuade, our friend and colleague, died this week at the age of 43. He is survived by his wife and young son. At the end of 2024, Dan was diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer. The news of his diag...

I think the key that unlocks Dan was his desire to share the things he loved with other people. Wouldn’t be the worst way to honor him if we make the effort to do that for the things we love, too. defector.com/dan-mcquade-...

Hoo-boy. Mark Hyman? He's a functional medicine quack whose medical BS I've been debunking for two decades. He is antivax and wrote the preface to RFK Jr.'s book Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak.

More Than 100 Gazans Have Been Accepted to Canadian Universities. Canada Isn’t Letting Them In. See a map of the graduate programs they're planning to attend, if the government finally processes their visas

New from me: More Than 100 Gazans Have Been Accepted to Canadian Universities. Canada Isn’t Letting Them In.

Screenshot of an X.com post by The Associated Press (@AP) stating that dozens of immigrant families protested for better treatment behind fences at a Texas detention facility, where a 5-year-old Ecuadorian boy and his father were sent after being detained in Minnesota. Below is a video thumbnail showing a crowd gathered outdoors along a fenced walkway; many people wear bright blue or red outerwear, and some hold signs.

After being held in two of them as a boy, I fought for decades urging America to never again build concentration camps and put human beings in them. It breaks my heart to watch this happen twice now in my own lifetime.

AFL-CIO Mourns Killing of Minneapolis Union Member, Reiterates Calls for ICE to Leave Minnesota: The AFL-CIO mourns the senseless killing of another Minneapolis resident by federal agents. Alex Jeffrey Pretti was a VA intensive care unit nurse and a member of AFGE Local 3669—a brother in our union family. Our thoughts are with Alex’s loved ones, his union siblings, and the people of Minneapolis at this devastating time. As tens of thousands of Minnesotans made clear peacefully and powerfully yesterday, the Trump administration’s horrific operation—and their actions aimed at stoking violence and chaos—must end. America’s unions join the call for ICE to immediately leave Minnesota before anyone else is hurt or killed. We demand local authorities conduct a full, transparent investigation that will lead to accountability for this tragic and violent act, and for Congress to use its power to hold ICE accountable.

America’s unions mourn the senseless killing by federal agents of our AFGE Local 3669 union brother and VA nurse Alex Jeffrey Pretti.

We reiterate our call for ICE to immediately leave Minnesota before anyone else is hurt or killed.
https://bit.ly/4pVTpFO

Wael Tarabishi, the last person I wrote about for the Star-Telegram, died on Friday.

Wael’s health declined rapidly after his father and primary caretaker, Maher, was detained by ICE last fall.

The Tarabishi family believes that if Maher had not been arrested, Wael would still be alive. I do too.

Imagine what’s happening in the camps.

Statement from Michael and Susan Pretti Parents of Alex Jeffrey Pretti “We are heartbroken but also very angry. Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not throw around the ‘hero’ term lightly. However, his last thought and act was to protect a woman. The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He had his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down, all while being pepper sprayed. Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you.

Kare 11 local news just read, in full, this statement from Michael and Susan Pretti, the parents of Alex Pretti.

"Please get the truth out about our son."

In about 20 seconds we see that Alex went from filming an ICE arrest, to helping a woman they shoved, then being maced, forced face down on the pavement with 6 agents on top him, shot dead, and called a domestic terrorist.

All the evidence one would need to impeach both Rubio and Noem was just posted to the AAUP v. Rubio docket. @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social

She said she and her volunteers have been tailed by ICE, and that agents have even shown up at her residence because some of the delivery vans they use are registered in her name.

The executive director of a food pantry reports ICE tailing volunteers and showing up at her house www.kare11.com/article/news...

ICE ended up returning the man, Saly, after realizing he’s a fucking US citizen with no criminal record, per his sister-in-law. These fucking animals.

U.S. military troops on standby for possible deployment to Minnesota The move comes after President Trump again threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to control ongoing protests over the immigration enforcement surge in Minneapolis.

The move comes after President Trump again threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to control ongoing protests over the immigration enforcement surge in Minneapolis. n.pr/4r3Jz5S

Guild member detained by ICE in Minnesota January 16, 2026 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Dylan Manshack, Comms | dmanshack@cwa-union.org | 202-445-4033 Member remains in ICE custody in Texas MINNEAPOLIS — On Friday, January 9, ICE arrested a member of our union, the Minnesota Newspaper and Communications Guild, TNG-CWA Local 37002, as part of Operation Metro Surge. While the circumstances of his arrest are not clear, we know he has been transferred to an ICE detention facility in El Paso, Texas, where he is awaiting action on his petition for habeas corpus. The Guild is not publicly identifying the member out of concern for his family’s safety, but he is a father, a husband, and a staff member at a Minneapolis non-profit organization. He is a steward in our union and an advocate for all workers. And he is one of dozens of Minnesota union members who have been detained in recent weeks. The Department of Homeland Security says it has made more than 2,000 arrests since the surge began in December, according to an MPR News report. But the agency has not provided details about the people arrested, such as how many were charged with a crime, how many face deportation, and how many were subsequently released. “The Minnesota Newspaper and Communications Guild stands with our member and his family as they face an uncertainty that is all too common in our state right now,” local president Nick Woltman said. “Like all Minnesota workers, our members deserve to feel safe in their communities both on and off the job.” “The detention of a Guild member in Minnesota amidst the chaos created by DHS is heartbreaking and infuriating,” said NewsGuild-CWA President Jon Schleuss. “My heart goes out to his family, who are now without their father and husband. As a union, we commit to fight for each other as stewards of our communities—especially in times as dark as this, while federal agents continue to target working families.” ALT TEXT CONTINUED IN NEXT POST

ICE has kidnapped one of my MN News Guild siblings

small-government conservatism is when a guy in a mask who won't show you his badge shoots you through the window of your car while you're driving away from him

A Deadly Shooting in Minnesota A federal immigration agent’s killing of a woman driving an SUV fits into a tragic pattern.

"A doctor at the scene attempted to help the woman who was shot, but was kept away by federal agents. When an ambulance finally arrived, it was blocked from reaching her by law-enforcement vehicles, and paramedics had to reach her on foot. The woman has died." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

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...

"I’m going to pause here just to review: an institution that purports to be a university has told a philosophy professor he is forbidden from teaching Plato."

surreal times

dailynous.com/2026/01/06/t...

Stand Up For Science: Politicizing the Childhood Vaccine Schedule Will Cost Lives Washington, D.C. — Stand Up For Science strongly condemns Health and Human Services (HHS) Deputy Secretary O’Neill’s reported decision to overhaul the U.S. childhood immunization schedule, yet another dangerous escalation in HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s agenda to politicize children’s health and undermine American public health. First, the “peer” countries cited as models differ in fundamental ways. Many are significantly smaller in population and geography and have universal health care systems with strong primary-care access and follow-up. When it comes to public health, these are critical distinctions. We must meet our health where it is, not where we want it to be.

Second, when a vaccine is already known to be safe and effective, it is unethical to withhold it from children for the sake of “placebo-controlled randomized trials.” For diseases like RSV, hepatitis A and B, dengue, and meningococcal disease (ACWY and B), the ethical standard is to compare schedules against existing protocols, not to deny proven protection. Calling placebo trials the “gold standard” in this context is unscientific and a violation of globally accepted research ethics. We will not mince words. Under Secretary Kennedy’s leadership, this change will lead to preventable illness, death, and devastation for American families. Congress must act now to impeach and remove Secretary Kennedy.

Statement from Stand Up For Science: Politicizing the Childhood Vaccine Schedule Will Cost Lives.

"Under Secretary Kennedy’s leadership, this change will lead to preventable illness, death, and devastation for American families. Congress must act now to impeach and remove Secretary Kennedy."

And then there’s the story about Alex Karp’s not-at-all-weird interview (for lack of a better word) with Oswald Mosley’s grandson for a senior position at Palantir.