Edward Perez

important
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Social media created this nonsense idea that not exposing yourself to hatred is isolationist. Choosing to not spend your free time with bigots isn’t living in a bubble. I don’t need to know what’s going on at X. I won’t be smarter or more knowledgeable or empathic by being there. Neither will you.

Trump’s Epstein Scandal Takes Damning Turn as Dem Drops New Bombshell As new revelations in the Jeffrey Epstein saga threaten the president, a legal expert decodes what we just learned—and lays out a roadmap to what will happen now.

"We are dealing now with an allegation that the president of the US raped and sexually assaulted a child and is now using his DOJ to try to cover that up."

If you want to understand latest Epstein revelations, @leahlitman.bsky.social explains them clearly on our pod:
newrepublic.com/article/2070...

Israel kills more journalists than any nation on record: Media watchdog Israel responsible for 84 of 129 journalist killings in 2025 tracked by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Israel responsible for 84 of 129 journalist killings in 2025 tracked by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

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i really do despise this mothefucker on a genetic bone marrow level, he's like a golem cobbled together by assholes, made of all the very worst american attributes

yup 😉

NJ lawmakers introduce the FUCK ICE Act.

The bill "permits civil action for violations of US Constitution related to immigration enforcement."

It remains astounding how unfaithfully the media covers Trump’s ramblings day to day. We’re a decade into this — and his rambling gets worse — and yet the coverage continues to portray his public appearances as if they’re coherent.

yeah, fuck this to the moon

A key point here is that Trump has no idea what he’s talking about. He’s just bloviating. That should be reflected in the news coverage, but it won’t be.

We should try electing some kind of deliberative body that makes decisions about levying taxes.

I appreciate all of these detailed analysis of what’s wrong with the policy, but the crucial thing to keep in mind here is that Donald Trump sincerely, literally does not understand what a tariff is and when that is your starting point, nothing beyond it really matters.

Sorry to get radical but I don’t think it’s my job or yours to embrace, accept, understand - and certainly not to use - the thing being sold to us as AI. I don’t like any part of it, so I won’t. I’m missing out? Good, that’s what I want. You’re worried about me missing out? That’s fuckin weird, man.

Article: The political effects of X’s feed algorithm Abstract: Feed algorithms are widely suspected to influence political attitudes. However, previous evidence from switching off the algorithm on Meta platforms found no political effects1. Here we present results from a 2023 field experiment on Elon Musk’s platform X shedding light on this puzzle. We assigned active US-based users randomly to either an algorithmic or a chronological feed for 7 weeks, measuring political attitudes and online behaviour. Switching from a chronological to an algorithmic feed increased engagement and shifted political opinion towards more conservative positions, particularly regarding policy priorities, perceptions of criminal investigations into Donald Trump and views on the war in Ukraine. In contrast, switching from the algorithmic to the chronological feed had no comparable effects. Neither switching the algorithm on nor switching it off significantly affected affective polarization or self-reported partisanship. To investigate the mechanism, we analysed users’ feed content and behaviour. We found that the algorithm promotes conservative content and demotes posts by traditional media. Exposure to algorithmic content leads users to follow conservative political activist accounts, which they continue to follow even after switching off the algorithm, helping explain the asymmetry in effects. These results suggest that initial exposure to X’s algorithm has persistent effects on users’ current political attitudes and account-following behaviour, even in the absence of a detectable effect on partisanship.

Figure 2. ITT estimates of feed-setting changes on engagement and political attitudes. ITT effect estimates of switching the algorithm on and off (in s.d.). Left, effect of moving from the chronological to the algorithmic feed for users initially on the chronological feed. Right, effect of moving in the opposite direction for users initially on the algorithmic feed. For each outcome, the results of two specifications are reported. Blue, unconditional estimates with robust s.e., controlling only for the initial feed setting and, where applicable, pre-treatment outcome levels. Orange: conditional estimates, controlling for pre-treatment covariates using GRFs; 90% and 95% CIs are reported. Numerical effect sizes and P values correspond to the conditional estimates (all tests are two-sided). The unit of observation is respondent. From top to bottom, sample sizes are n = 4,965, n = 3,337, n = 4,965, n = 4,965, n = 4,596, n = 4,596 and n = 4,850. Tests are described in Methods. Supplementary Information Table 2.16 reports the exact numerical point estimates, s.e., CIs and sample sizes for every specification. All outcomes are standardized. Additional results are presented in Supplementary Information section 2. PCA, first principal component from principal component analysis.

X's algorithm is in fact doing what you think it's doing. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Typo: that’s *Talarico (one ‘L’)

Just curious: would you say the same thing about Martin Luther King?

I don’t agree, Brandon. I don’t think his faith is his entire “schtick”; his main message is about how the focus needs to be on the billionaires who are working to divide the country.

I’m a 25+ year resident of Austin Texas, and I have watched Tallarico for a long time, and I endorse this message.

I don’t know who needs to hear Jesse Jackson leading the kids on Sesame Street in this beautiful call-and-response reminding them that every child is somebody, but here it is

Stephen Colbert responds to CBS disputing his claims that he was barred from airing the James Talarico interview:

"And for the lawyers to release this without even talking to me is really surprising. I don’t even know what to do with this crap. Hold on."

He then picks it up with a dog poop bag.

James Talarico.

Running for US Senate in Texas.

Watch, and you’ll see why he’s getting lots of attention.

A sober, realistic, and illuminating read.

Recommended.

A very detailed explanation of how FBI bamboozled a magistrate into authorizing a raid on Fulton County’s election offices by omitting critical information that would have totally undermined any probable cause claim. Pretty clear-cut case of calculated deception of the courts.

Rep. James Talarico On Confronting Christian Nationalism, And Strange Days In The Texas Legislatu… YouTube video by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Colbert and Talarico ended up talking at length about Freedom of Religion in the interview that Brendan Carr censored.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiTJ...

Yeah, shoutout to Carr for making Talarico a national figure.

Rep. James Talarico On Confronting Christian Nationalism, And Strange Days In The Texas Legislatu… YouTube video by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Here is Stephen Colbert’s full 14+ minute interview with James Talarico, which is worth a watch. As a resident of Austin, Texas, I am extremely proud of James Talarico, and I hope he wins election to represent Texas in the US Senate.
youtu.be/oiTJ7Pz_59A?...

“‘Let’s just call this what it is,’ said Colbert plainly. ‘Donald Trump’s administration wants to silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump on TV. Because all Trump does is **watch** TV.’”

“free speech” trump administration!! 🇺🇸