I think one of the things that bothers me the most about the way Polymarket presents itself to the world is that it's adopted the language of journalism to make itself sound more legitimate. Like look at this post from yesterday morning incorrectly "projecting" the winner.
Seems bad
in retrospect most of the country is a vampire squid relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money
News gambling is some wicked shit.
Dusting this one off again:
As @clairewillett.bsky.social writes: "I hate these people to a degree that feels simultaneously corrosive to the soul, and also the only righteous response to this kind of evil."
Homer called it ฮฯฮณฮฎ. It's what Achilles feels. (It's what Achilles DOES.) Also used by St Paul for the wrath of God.
This is very bad. Handing CNN to Bari Weiss/David Ellison is very, very bad.
In competitive authoritarianism (US right now) there's often a "loyal opposition" that's essential to the regime. They are so wedded to "decorum," they go along with rites & rituals that help regime prop up veneer of normalcy, undermining clear view of regimes actions & aims.
What's next in this weird State of the Union? A live baptism?
excited to hear tech companies will now be allowed to build their own power plants for their data centers. i am sure the makers of "the app that tells kids to kill themselves" will responsibly operate coal plants
Sen. Warren was a professor of commercial law and bankruptcy law at Harvard (where she was the highest paid professor). She is one of the leading scholars in those fields.
No one in Congress has her expertise on money and debt. If Warren says the tariff money is owed, it is.
BREAKING
Former ICE agent:
On my first day training new cadets, I received secretive orders to teach them to violate the Constitution by entering homes without a judicial warrant.
Journalists Arrested in Cameroon While Reporting on Trumpโs Secretive Deportation Program
By Pranav Baskar
An AP reporter was hit and held with three other journalists and a lawyer, two detainees said, while at a center for migrants secretively deported from the U.S. @pbaskar.bsky.social
๐ Gift!
VT / NH pals: Please join me Feb 24 in Woodstock VT for a conversation with Julia Cooke about her genuinely splendid new book Starry and Restless, a group biography of Rebecca West, Martha Gellhorn, & Mickey Hahn, & a kind of journalism we need more of now. normanwilliams.org/event/j-cooke
@jacobharr.is's Doge Track timeline is a work of art. Not only is it illuminating, if you click the little notepad ๐๏ธ icon at the end of an entry, the source pops up! It's an accurate citation *and* click it to follow a link to the OG source!
๐ซก Jacob Harris!
URL: dogetrack.info/agencies/whi...
It is very very very difficult to stand out from the crowd of people writing about What Itโs Like In Minnesota Right Now. We are a hyper-literate people and we never actually stop talking.
This piece. about the terror and the joy, stands out:
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/o...
Bar graph showing survey responses to forced choice question "Which of the following best describes your view, even if neither is exactly right?" "Immigrants contribute to our culture and community, and we're all the better for having them here." 61% overall, 82% Dems, 67% Ind, 35% Rep vs. "Immigrants are a drain on our culture and community, and we would be better off without them here." 30% overall, 10% Dems, 24% Ind, 55% Reps. Remainder "not sure"
We not only can MAKE THE ARGUMENT we must. And it turns out, even in this horrific climate, most Americans already get it:
The question of our time is how do you artistically rebel โ and win โ against a totally flat cultural landscape? And before my readers, who I assume are all approximately 36 years old and very tired, say, โso what, who cares?โ This does matter. I mean, just look around right now lol. You know things are bad when even OpenAI President Greg Brockman is posting stuff, like โTaste is a new core skill.โ If people had taste, your company wouldnโt exist, Greg. But if everything is just attention now, and attention is completely commodified by algorithmic tech platforms, how can you push back against that? Well, I am slowly coming around to a theory on the new cool: You have to essentially pre-deplatform yourself. Culture right now is determined not by human teams of editors and producers picking and choosing what youth culture gets the spotlight, but, instead, by the unthinking algorithms that power YouTube and TikTok. Which means the only things that have the level of scarcity and danger required to be seen as cool by young people will, slowly, but surely, be whatever is unacceptable on those platforms.
A post so smart I'm almost afraid to share it.
www.garbageday.email/p/the-only-t...
Report: Staff at Dilley raiding cells to confiscate kids' letters and drawings detailing conditions inside
ProPublica published children's letters and drawings documenting their sadness and suffering at Dilley. And Dilley staff are now retaliating by confiscating kids' letters and drawings.
www.sacurrent.com/news/san-ant...
With only nine months before the midterms, Trump is plotting to prevent Democrats from taking control of Congress.
But contrary to many doomsayers, it isnโt too late to protect the elections.
Marc Elias shares three voting laws every blue state should enact to do so๐
On January 10, 2026, while driving back to work after getting lunch with his father and cousin, a car quickly passed O., sped up, then stopped in front of him. (Id. ยถ 3.) A few men in civilian clothes stepped out of the car and asked for his identification. (Id.) The men threatened O.โif he did not get out of the car, they would force him out. (Id.) O. exited the car and was told he was under arrest. (Id.) The men handcuffed him and did not allow him to bring his phone. (Id.) O. felt like he was being kidnapped. (Id.) The men detained O., his father, and his cousin, taking them all to Whipple. (Id. ยถ 4.) At Whipple, there was โfood scattered on the floor, the floor was sticky with mud, and everything stuck to your shoes.โ (Id. ยถ 5.) The space was so cramped that sometimes there was no space to sit on the floor. (Id.)
The horror stories rolling in from Minnesota are just the tip of the iceberg. This 20-year-old, who's lawfully present in the country, was arrested for being Latino, then jailed in a filthy cell where he couldn't even sit down. 18 days of illegal detention. democracyforward.org/wp-content/u...
Mia Valentina Paz Faria A 7-year-old from Venezuela who was living in Austin, Texas Detained for 70 days โI donโt want to be in this place I want to go to my school.โ
UPDATE: Staff at the ICE concentration camp in Dilley, Texas have begun raiding the dormitories of kids and their parents to confiscate and destroy letters from the children. This is in response to the ace reporting by @micarosenberg et al for ProPublica:
โI donโt want to be in this place I want to go to my school.โ
- 7 year old imprisoned by ICE for 70 days in a concentration camp in Texas.
Today, after @propublica.org published this story, the camp was raided to confiscate letters from the children.
www.propublica.org/article/ice-...
Have you ever once seen the New York Times quote Trump like this?
๐ญ๐ญ๐ญ a community member just handed this off to a patroller in our neighborhood
Some noble, inclusive, and democratic "real America" from the past is not coming to save us, nor are we doomed to forever live in an oppressive, racist, and exclusionary "real America" that has always existed. Both versions of "our" history are real. America's future is up to us.
When Americans talk about the question of whether "this is who we are" as a country, it's important to note that the answer will always be multivalent.
In 1854, after watching the federal government deploy 2000 federal troops and spend $40,000 sending Anthony Burns back into slavery, Boston's Amos Adams Lawrence said โwe went to bed one night old-fashioned, conservative, Compromise Union Whigs and waked up stark mad Abolitionists.โ
another guy who never protested before radicalized to the point of tears by watching masked ICE agents terrify children in his neighborhood
the Republicans are not ready or mentally capable of comprehending the backlash they have generated
Nuremberg Trials.
