Jacob T. Levy
@jacobtlevy.bsky.social
Tomlinson Professor of Political Theory, Associate member of Philosophy, Coordinator of Research Group on Constitutional Studies, McGill. Posts here speak only for myself. Americo-Canadian; liberaltarian; aging geek. http://jacobtlevy.com
This here is a Golden Age Of Blogging-level blogpost. crookedtimber.org/2026/08/05/p...
Perfectly Plausible — Crooked Timber
crookedtimber.org
I have an “email job” at a computer ALL DAY and not one part of my workday involves AI. Unless you count scrolling past the AI results in google to find the correct answer/website/result, or ploughing through AI phone trees when I call companies to get to a human
Charlie Stross@cstross.bsky.social · 8h agoMy answer is LOL ROFL (dickbrain) The terminally AI-pilled can't even *imagine* some people have *never* asked stochastic parrots to cheat at their job for them.
Forty years ago, in 1986, NYC suffered over 1,600 homicides. Homicides would peak at over 2,200 a few years later. There were 305 in 2025.
Constantine@ajaxsinger.bsky.social · 16h agoFood, man. Food is so much better than it was in 1986. All of it. Poor-people food, restaurant food, fresh food, frozen food. Food is just a hell of a lot better.
1/ It's important that any thinking about post-Trump reforms think about the relative merits and demerits of rules vs. norms, as @dbernstein.bsky.social does today. But ... goodpoliticsbadpolitics.substack.com/p/restoring-...
Restoring Norms
Trump may have ruined assumptions of restraint for future Presidents. Should we do something to rein them in?
goodpoliticsbadpolitics.substack.com
bluesky life hack: before you post about being bluesky-mobbed, or even let yourself *feel* like you're being bluesky mobbed, check your ratio. 100 nasty replies and 20 nasty QTs feels bad! You notice it! But if you've also gotten 2k likes and 600 regular RTs, you haven't found The Bluesky Problem.
It's probably just me, but the artwork and animation on X-Men '97 s2 is kind of... too good? too sophisticated? The upgrade since last season is remarkable in the use of detail, inks, and shadow, but it's lost some of the Saturday morning charm.
While Democrats are paralyzed by factionalism and infighting, Republicans are marching in lockstep off a cliff behind the leadership of one of the least-popular presidents of all time. www.slowboring.com/p/republican...
Daaaamn. “AI is the asbestos we're shovelling into the walls of our technological society. Our descendants will spend generations digging it out again, and the longer the bubble goes on without popping, the longer it will take to repair the damage." www.thenerve.news/p/cory-docto...
Cory Doctorow: The people who tell you ‘AI is changing everything’ are lying
It has become impossible to tell managers mesmerised by artificial intelligence that the tools are not, in fact, helpful. So employees just play along with the fiction to keep their jobs, writes our t...
thenerve.news
Not small stretch: #RedSox improve to 32-8 (.800) for their last 40 games dating back to June 18. Last time BOS had as many as 32 wins over any 40-game stretch was in 2018. The Sox have won 15 straight games against teams that entered today with a winning record dating back to June 25.
bring back shame www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...
How Can We Live Together?
Ezra Klein is wrong: shame is essential.
bostonreview.net
A.R. Moxon@juliusgoat.bsky.social · yesterdayEverywhere should be a hostile place for Republicans. They should not be able to find a friend anywhere. They should lose all their professional and familial relationships. They should be blocked from signing up to social media platforms, clubs, and yard sales. They should be ejected from fairs.
Our average of polls at FiftyPlusOne gives Trump a roughly 36% approval rating and 61% disapproval rating — a net -25 — among all adults, and he’s rapidly losing ground. The president set a new record low six days in a row just in the last week: www.gelliottmorris.com/p/2026-08-04...
A lot going on here. First, Miller looks shaken. Or drunk. Second, he comes off every bit the creep that he seems to be. Saying he isn't dropping out because Trump didn't drop out after being accused of sexual assault is a hell of a choice. And third, he doesn't appear to know what hearsay means.
The Bulwark@thebulwark.com · 20h agoTapper: "There are now three women who have accused you of violent behavior…Are all three of these women who don't know each other lying?" Rep. Max Miller: "Yes…It's all hearsay." Tapper: "It's not hearsay if it is firsthand testimony from women."
Oh my god the dietician who is telling everyone in the White House to only eat steak and sauerkraut doesn't wipe his ass.
Depicting Jewish people with horns is a centuries-old, dehumanizing, antisemitic trope. Democratic Gov nominee Phil Weiser is outspoken about his mother’s birth in a Nazi concentration camp, his family members killed in the Holocaust, and the threat posed by antisemitism today.
How baffling that they refuse to pretend to have lost a war that they have actually won. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/u...
An Angry Trump Struggles to Understand Iran’s Defiant Leaders
Iran’s leaders have perplexed several American presidents, perhaps none more than President Trump.
nytimes.com
1990s: bankrupt Marvel sells off the lucrative movie rights to its popular franchises: Spider-Man, Hulk, X-Men/ mutants, Fantastic Four. 2000s: many mostly-successful movies with those characters leaves Marvel in a panic. 1/
I think it's very obvious that this sorta ultra aggro performance is what you do if you aren't actually a big tough guy. I think... like... Jason Mamoa's general affect is more similar to what I've experienced from actually big tough guys irl. Which is odd though cos the latter is just as fakeable?
Dan of the Year@downwithdan.bsky.social · 2d agoHe will never understand that being "the fat guy from Superbad" is infinitely better than being "the martial arts chud nobody likes"
Holy shit, the new season broke Jacob so badly that he's now a Tamarian. "SNW s4e1 aka Jurassic Trek" "SNW s4e2 aka EvenTrek Horizon"
Would be really cool if the organizations that could call out actual antisemitism centered around the state of Israel - migrants as pawns of an Israeli-led Great Replacement conspiracy - had not burned all their credibility defending Netanyahu and the IDF from highly credible war crimes charges.
Joel S.@joelhs.bsky.social · 2d agoA shocking number of people believe, with zero evidence, that Israel is behind Moroccan migrants into Spain, which is just the Great Replacement conspiracy. Meanwhile, US Jewish orgs have declared war on Mamdani for accurately describing Netanyahu as a war criminal. www.haaretz.com/world-news/e...
Applications for the 2026-27 RGCS Charles Taylor Student Fellowships at McGill are now open! www.mcgill.ca/rgcs/students
Charles Taylor Student Fellowship
CFA 2026-27 RGCS Charles Taylor Student Fellowship McGill's Research Group on Constitutional Studies brings together the study of political theory, political and legal philosophy, constitutional and p...
mcgill.ca
I know this would be closing the barn door after he horse has been reelected president, but if Democrats win both chambers I'd really like to see a concurrent resolution deeming January 6 an insurrection under 14(3). 1/
Four university presidents, "Andrew Martin at Washington University in St. Louis, Michael Crow at Arizona State University, Douglas Girod at the University of Kansas, & Ronald Daniels at the Johns Hopkins University" collaborated in the latest attack on higher ed. www.chronicle.com/liveblog/her...
Trump Has Released a New ‘Call to Action’ for Universities. 4 College Presidents Helped Draft It.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon sent a letter Monday imploring colleges to adopt a series of familiar-sounding reforms — this time, in partnership with leaders in the Association of American Univers...
chronicle.com
The Trump administration is so opposed to socialism that it has acquired — sometimes by coercion — equity stakes in 30 companies so far. www.cato.org/blog/governm...
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2d agoHassett: "After World War 2, bc we had centralized production to defeat the Nazis, there were a whole bunch of socialists in the UK and US that wanted to take over the economy bc they said, 'Look, we've already centralized production, so let's just be socialist.' That's why the CEA was created ... "
@unlawfulentries.bsky.social (Anna O Law) is teasing a new book on immigration and citizenship, but also a blueberry galette and: this is my favorite type of account. Equally devoted to (1) an important area of Expertise and (2) something nice, like baking. What other accounts fit that bill?
it turns out people like Tom Holland and Zendaya variety.com/2026/film/bo...
‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ and ‘The Odyssey’ Power Biggest Collective Weekend in Box Office History With $430 Million
Thanks to the one-two punch of "The Odyssey" and "Spider-Man: Brand New Day," the box office had its biggest collective haul of all time.
variety.com
