Evan Simko-Bednarski

Harvard Is Said to Be Open to Spending Up to $500 Million to Resolve Trump Dispute

NYT had earlier reported that $500 million figure.

Harvard’s student paper says President Garber “claimed the figure was apparently leaked to the press by White House officials, according to the three faculty familiar.”

Here’s the Nyt story in question:

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/u...

Economist Amartya Sen won a Nobel in part for asking: Why did India avoid the mass famines that killed tens of millions in China? His answer: a free press. Journalists could expose suffering and shame governments into action. Silence and avoidance, by contrast, can be deadly.

It’s so bleak that the people running the US government and US mega-corporations no longer believe that “being able to know things about the real world” is a strategic asset

Statement from Katherine Maher, NPR President & CEO, on Closure of Corporation for Public Broadcasting Today, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announced that it will begin a "wind-down of its operations" and ultimate full operational closure following the passage of a federal rescissions p...

Here’s our CEO’s statement. Factually, I just want people to understand that you can still help a lot if this is something you care about. And because at this very hard moment I am not in a position to answer for the network, I’m going to keep this closed. (3/3) www.npr.org/2025/08/01/g...

They’re coming after cities, universities, professional bureaucrats, and markets. They want to flatten all countervailing institutional power that may exist outside of the executive in order to remake America into their single image.

“How does the computer know something happened if no one tells the computer about it” is the easy-reader way to explain why we still need human reporters and data-collectors

And I also find it genuinely alarming that even some people on this website don’t seem to grasp this

Reporting the news is akin to intelligence work: develop a diverse network of reputable sources with access to relevant information, and triangulate what they tell you to get to what’s actually going on

Anyone who tells you otherwise is doing commentary or stenography. Or coding an LLM.

AI chat bots cannot actually report the news. And I don’t say this on aesthetic grounds - I say this on “they do not exist in 3D space” grounds.

We will soon have no news whatsoever if this continues.

Too many people still either haven’t realized this, or don’t want to believe it, but it’s true.

I don’t know if these men are truly afraid-of-their-own-shadow level cowards, or if they’ve just made the craven decision to ensure their base remains afraid of the big bad Other—the cities with immigrants in them.

All I know is my kids scootered home after dark in Brooklyn last night just fine

You can't build your politics on fear without being, at heart, a coward.

“efficient”

Trump seems to be using "invasion" agitprop to recreate the national trauma that reigned after 9/11, to hyper-militarize the homeland.

As one scholar tells me, this "could create a kind of domestic ‘Forever War,’ but one that is uniquely dangerous."

newrepublic.com/article/1987...

Strikingly, the memo says straightforwardly that what happened in Los Angeles is the sort of operation that may be necessary "for years to come."

As one expert told me: "They see Los Angeles as a model to be replicated."

newrepublic.com/article/1987...

Trump’s Domestic Use of Military Set to Get Worse, Leaked Memo Shows A Department of Homeland Security memo obtained by TNR signals top-level discussions about a potential escalation of the Pentagon’s domestic anti-immigration role, and lays out new details.

NEWS --> An internal Homeland Security memo suggests Trump's use of military for domestic enforcement is about to get worse. It details top-level talks between Defense Department and DHS on what this should look like. Experts say it's alarming.

We obtained the memo:
newrepublic.com/article/1987...

I’ve had such joy introducing my 7y/o to PBS’ NOVA.

But I guess now he can just use AI to know things for him.

The business community happily funding the destruction of everything that created its prosperity will be studied by historians of stupidity.

www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/the-busine...

US undocumented farm workers feel ‘hunted like animals’ amid Trump’s immigration raids Ice raids have caused workers to lose hours and income, and forced them into hiding at home, according to interviews

for the unawares, monthly jobs reports explicitly exclude farm workers. so feel free to also mentally account for the impact of ICE hunting down agricultural laborers like runaway slaves

if i were a pro-trump financial type i might view the destruction of reliable government data with the kind of anger and apprehension that might lead me to reevaluate my politics, but then if i’m a financial guy throwing my weight behind strongman rule, i’m already too stupid to breathe

A transparent and enraging effort to make all of us less informed

Transit Reporter Code Title XI, Chapter VII, Section III stipulates that transit scribes park it on the ground at news conferences.

BREAKING: @simko-bednarski.bsky.social of the New York Daily News knows the score.
⬇️ Here’s the proof. ⬇️

"WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 1, 2025) – The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announced today that it will begin an orderly wind-down of its operations"

cpb.org/pressroom/Co...

Judge Coughenour continued:

“Looking back at what happened in Germany, my good friend Judge Lasnik said, ‘Where were the judges? Where were the lawyers?’”

“We need a call to action in this country from our lawyers and our judges to say ‘not in our country, not on our watch,’” he said.

Judge John C. Coughenour, who in February blocked Trump’s executive order to restrict birthright citizenship, said that he and his wife had been “swatted.”

“The local sheriff's office received a call saying that I had murdered my wife, and they arrived at my house with weapons drawn,” he said.

To Judge Lasnik, the message was clear:

“We know where you live, we know where your children live, and they could end up dead like Judge Salas's son did. That's a pretty cruel thing to do,” he said.

Judge Robert Lasnik said he also received pizzas that were sent under the name of Judge Salas’s murdered son

“Two of my adult kids, who live in other cities on the West Coast, received pizzas that they did not order, and we received one at our home in Seattle. All three were in the name of Daniel.”

NEW: A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze federal funds.

Then the harassment began.

Pizzas sent to his home in the name of Judge Esther Salas’s murdered son, Daniel.

Six credible threats to his life.

More than 400 “vile” calls to his chambers—including this voicemail:

i know it is cliché to bring up 1984 but holy shit lol

Saxophonist busking on the way home. Gotham abides.

I’m told MTA is calling official resumption of service 4:45 p.m.

I’m getting on an A train home. 🫡

Sources telling me the new transformer has been installed. MTA officials aren’t yet declaring service “resumed” — C and B trains are suspended still — and it doesn’t seem like root cause has been determined yet.

But the trains that are running seem to be at regular speeds through W4 again