Three days: sanctioning the international criminal court, announcing that the firing-squad execution of NH will be live-streamed, investigating the WH press on bogus antitrust charges, searching IO’s home on transparently pretextual immigration charges, financing Putin, jettisoning Zelensky.

off the fucking rails. a rogue government.

Federal agents search Rep. Ilhan Omar's home as part of a criminal investigation, AP sources say

Federal agents have searched Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home as part of a criminal investigation. That's according to people familiar with the matter.

apnews.com

[I deleted my Nick Sortor skeet b/c it was misleading -- for disambiguation of the two far-right "Nick S" content creators & their relationship to Metro Surge, see this article] www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Rightwing influencer with White House ties turns focus to Minnesota

Critics draw ‘direct line’ between content by Nick Sortor and similar figures and violent actions of federal agents

theguardian.com

Cat food. (The cats themselves were on sale, however.)

Yours in negritude, Ryan K. Smith@mewefree.bsky.social · yesterday

What is something you'll never buy the cheap version of?

"GE warns its toaster may grow human arms and shoot you with a gun" Ok that sounds like their fault. They should do something about that

New open-access paper: Direct File showed that govt could build its own user-centered platform without relying on contractors. But the product was killed after a DOGE lead spoke with the private tax preparation industry lobbying against a private option. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

“Elgin Community College staff notified Flock in October 2025 that they wanted to cancel their contract and have the cameras taken down. Within a day, Heinrich said, Flock rejected the request and refused to uninstall the equipment on the basis that the company had not breached their agreement.”

To protect immigrant students, a Chicago-area college told Flock to remove its cameras. The company refused.

Elgin Community College resorted to covering the surveillance cameras with trash bags and zip ties. Public records show that federal immigration authorities have accessed Flock data at other Illinois ...

wbez.org

When I started writing about Supreme Court expansion, you couldn’t get the question *asked* in a poll. The first time I saw it actually polled, it was 8%. Now, we here.

Jay Willis@jaywillis.net · 4d ago

Kind of a buried lede in the results of this Supreme Court approval rating poll from Marquette: Overall support for Supreme Court expansion, which even Democratic politicians were dismissing as "radical" just a few years ago, is now at 53 percent today.marquette.edu/2026/09/marq...

Last year, Amazon ended its WFH policy and required employees return to the office five days a week. www.forbes.com/sites/siladi...

Billionaire Jeff Bezos Says AI Could Enable 3-Day Workweeks For Americans

In an interview with Fox News, the Amazon founder said he disagreed with the assessment that AI will lead to large-scale job losses.

forbes.com

Credit to the US for making the point the conference was trying to make about US foreign interference in European democracies for them, and bringing more attention to the conference and its themes than they could have possibly hoped for. www.politico.com/news/2026/10...

EU, Canada and Lithuania pull out of disinformation conference after US pressure

The Trump administration was bothered by panels that referred to the U.S. as a disinformation threat.

politico.com

Reuters is burying the lede here. Myanmar hired Roger Stone as a lobbyist in DC roughly the same time the Trump administration placed a de facto moratorium on accepting Myanmar refugees, after the country ranked top five in refugees heading to the United States for ten straight years.

Patrick Clarkin@patrickclarkin.bsky.social · last mo.

One of these things is not like the other. Top 5 countries by number of refugees to the U.S. each fiscal year www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

I'd be interested in seeing the CBA, if anyone wants to send it to me!

Philadelphia Inquirer@inquirer.com · 5d ago

Unionized journalists and product engineers at The Inquirer secured a new contract that includes AI protections, raises, and changes to healthcare coverage.

This is amazing. Because it this is NYC, where you can find people to pay for literally anything, there is a whole industry of consultants who parents pay to tell you the information @rachelholliday.bsky.social and @thecityreporter.nyc are telling you for FREE.

Rachel Holliday Smith@rachelholliday.bsky.social · 5d ago

for example: the Teacher-Principal Trust metric. if it's really low, that's a biiiig red flag for a school. reporters and experts know that. educators know that. but how would the average, busy parents in New York know that? it's hard www.thecityreporter.nyc/2026/10/07/b...

Found the email I sent when I got accidentally added to the faculty listserv of an orthopedic surgery clinic and nobody would remove me so I sent this email to all faculty/staff/med students and they removed me almost immediately

“Being in higher ed right now is just being on the receiving end of an onslaught of attacks…so it feels really good to know that we were able to build this strong coalition of people across the political spectrum to come together on this.” — Lorena Grundy, @aaup-penn.bsky.social

AAUP Nets Legal Victory Against EEOC in Penn Case

The appellate court decision could help other institutions if they face similar demands for information about Jewish employees, the American Association of University Professors said.

insidehighered.com

This is a real academic & journalistic freedom issue, but it is also just unbelievably stupid. (It will become somehow even more stupid when the GOP loses the presidency and the feds revert to "Gulf of Mexico," but this AL statute remains on the books) www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

Alabama’s New “Gulf of America” Mandate Impacts Colleges

Republican lawmakers say faculty can only call it the Gulf of Mexico for “historical purposes” in academic courses. Journalists are constrained by the restriction, too.

insidehighered.com

Well, that is certainly a way of picking a law school dean that will produce a result.

🚨🚨🚨 BREAKING: The AAUP is suing the Trump administration over new policies that threaten green card applicants with family separation. 1/

NEW FROM PP The Trump admin keeps denying immigration agents are grabbing Americans, so we tracked it 500+ Americans detained 70+ kids, some cuffed or zip-tied 60+ held after filming 36+ held for day+ w/o access to lawyer ~12 deported (yes, deported) projects.propublica.org/american-cit....

More Than 500 U.S. Citizens Have Been Detained, Including Handcuffed or Held at Gunpoint, in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown — ProPublica

The government doesn’t track how often immigration officers detain U.S. citizens. So ProPublica did. We’ve found more than 500 Americans who were held against their will during this Trump administrati...

projects.propublica.org

I’m still floating from this by @leahlitman.bsky.social: “Every once in a while, a book comes along that is so transformative and so persuasive that it has the potential to shape our institutions and our democracy. Supremacy is one such book.”

Niko Bowie@nikobowie.bsky.social · 2w ago

@leahlitman.bsky.social makes the case for Supremacy (the book, not the idea!) in @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social:

I like how “mandatory time change” implies that the alternative is optional time change. You know, America’s logical endpoint has always been “everyone decides for themselves what time it is,” I just didn’t see it until now.

Missing The Point@missingthept.bsky.social · last wk.

Federal policy setting by walking around the golf club dining room asking members their opinion.

this is pretty cool. Now that the CFPB has been functionally dismantled by Russell Vought, a bunch of the attorneys formed a consumer protection law firm www.law360.com/colorado/art...

Home Equity Fintech Is 1st Target Of Ex-CFPB Attys' Law Firm - Law360

Home equity fintech firm Unlock has used deceptive marketing and confusing contract terms to hide that its "investment" agreements are actually illegal high-cost loans, according to a new proposed cla...

law360.com

✊🫍✊

G. Willow Wilson@gwillow.me · last wk.

The cetaceans are unionizing

If Dems flip executive offices in GOP states, expect lame duck legislatures to strip what powers they can before Dems take over. They did it in NC, MI, WI, and KY last decade. Iowa’s GOP 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 did it in 2026, expecting a loss for governor. But in Texas, Dems could block it by denying a 2/3 quorum

Stephen Wolf@stephenwolf.bsky.social · last wk.

New York Times/Siena polls find Dems gaining the governors offices in Alaska, Iowa, Texas, and Ohio. That would give Dems control over election admin in Alaska and Texas. It’s a sign that Dems could also win for secretary of state in Iowa and Ohio in this environment www.nytimes.com/2026/10/04/u...

1) Alito revealing this now is an attempt to rally Republicans in Trump states where Dems lead for Senate. 2) He’s the most partisan R on the court—highly likely he steps down in the lame duck if Dems take the Senate. 3) Doing number 2) makes court expansion even more likely if Dems win in 2028

Anthony Michael Kreis@anthonymkreis.bsky.social · last wk.

Susan Collins must be defeated. www.politico.com/news/2026/10...

Current Affairs has ratified a union contract! 🎉 Our new agreement includes strong anti-AI protections, unlimited sick days, paid parental leave, just-cause protections, a worker representative on the board, and more. Full details below 🧵

A new level of lawlessness

Will Stancil@whstancil.bsky.social · last wk.

ICE’s new tactic, witnessed repeatedly at the federal building in MN: when a detained immigrant makes a successful habeas petition, release the immigrant for a few steps outside the building… then tackle and re-arrest them, and claim the habeas petition has been honored and nullified

“People around me were scared that they were going to be the next Mahmoud Khalil.” @veenadubal.bsky.social, General Counsel of @aaup.org, recalls the fear faculty and students felt when their free speech was threatened on campus. Watch the full interview: youtu.be/5VBJJKjwjFM

the worst thing you can do is to base your values on what you think the public wants, the second-worst thing you can do is convince yourself that the public really shares your values and is being betrayed. People are simply not consistent enough or knowledgeable enough en masse to say this.