I haven’t felt like posting on this site since my mother died in October, but I feel compelled to raise my periscope given the horrifying crisis at the Morocco/Spain border in Ceuta and the disturbing amount of misinformation that’s circulating around it.

BREAKING: A federal judge has ordered Trump to restore $500 million in frozen UCLA NIH grants. The same judge, Rita F. Lin, previously ordered all UCLA NSF grants reinstated. Lin has now nearly entirely reversed Trump's July de-funding of UCLA research: www.latimes.com/california/s...

Federal judge orders Trump to restore $500 million in frozen UCLA medical research grants

A San Francisco-based federal judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to restore all National Institutes of Health grants to UCLA, roughly $500 million, that the government suspended in July.

latimes.com

Wonderful news!

The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · 11mo ago

Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi pardoned the country’s most high-profile political prisoner, the British-Egyptian computer programmer and Arab Spring activist Alaa Abdel Fattah.

It's a simple equation: it was costlier for the company to lose subscriptions/theme-park/ad revenue than to kowtow to Trump, so it made the decision to bring him back.

Scott Nover@scottnover.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Jimmy Kimmel will return to ABC's airwaves on Tuesday night, per parent company Disney. Kimmel was taken off air for "ill-timed and thus insensitive" comments about the aftermath of Charlie Kirk's shooting, the company said. My latest in @washingtonpost.com:

Homan would be such a easy target for an actual opposition party—the architect of a deeply unpopular program who is also cartoonishly corrupt.

And of course the headline downplays what happened. Tom Homan walked into a meeting with undercover FBI agents posing as business executives and accepted $50,000 in exchange for giving them contracts. www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/t...

Tom Homan was investigated for accepting $50,000 from undercover FBI agents. Trump's DOJ shut it down.

The FBI and Justice officials closed the investigation, which a Justice Department appointee had called a “deep state” probe in early 2025.

msnbc.com

You’re telling me that a man whom the FBI has on tape accepting a 50k bribe was not only not prosecuted, but promoted so he could send masked agents to kidnap day laborers on minimum wage. I feel like I’m going insane.

The New York Times@nytimes.com · 11mo ago

Tom Homan, who was later named President Trump’s border chief, was recorded in September 2024 accepting a bag with $50,000 in cash in an undercover FBI investigation, according to people familiar with the case, which was later closed by Trump administration officials.

This is exactly it. Too many people in the Democratic Party are invested in earning the respect of the other side, rather than their own.

Patrick "Inverted Vibe Curve" Blanchfield@patblanchfield.bsky.social · 11mo ago

the best way to earn the respect of political enemies who think you’re irredeemably immoral scum? well, have you to tried sacrificing your allies to them?

Please stop posting pictures of your kids on Instagram. Just stop.

Aaron Bady@zunguzungu.bsky.social · 11mo ago

I don't know, man, I just don't know.

Next weekend!

Laila Lalami@lailalalami.com · 11mo ago

Next up! If you find yourself in Winston-Salem, come on out to the Bookmarks Festival, where I'll be appearing alongside Deborah Jackson Taffa to discuss 'Dystopian Realities' on Saturday, September 27, 12.15 pm!

While we're on the subject of free speech, note that Israel bombed a newspaper complex in Yemen, killing 31 journalists. The pundits who've spent the last few days commenting on political violence will have nothing to say about the wholesale murder of thirty-one of their colleagues.

"But in danger and despair you acquire a faith in miracles; without it you would go under." - Erich Maria Remarque

Texas Man Indicted Over Series of Violent Threats to Mamdani Jeremy Fistel said Mamdani should "return to Uganda" before someone shoots him in the head. And, wished his wife and kids killed in front of him. Investigators tracked the calls to his personal cell and messages to his email account.

‘Deserve to die': Texas man indicted over series of violent threats to Mamdani

New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani faced threats directly to him and to his campaign in June, according to a senior law enforcement official.

nbcnewyork.com

Caving in to censorship will only beget more censorship.

The right-wing is treating Kirk's murder like it's 9/11, and proceeding with the same censorship and purge that they used to silence war critics.

I can’t believe I have to defend Jimmy the Sport Guy. (IYKYK)

Today, the UN officially designated Israel’s assault on Gaza as a genocide. As a party to the Genocide Convention, the U.S. has a legal obligation to obey our own laws, stop weapons sales to Israel, and demand a permanent ceasefire. End the genocide. Ceasefire now.

“Thirty-one Democrats joined Republicans in voting to restrict judges from having discretion to dole out lighter sentences to young people. Eight voted alongside Republicans to allow 14-year-olds to be charged as adults.”

King Algamemnon@adamrothman.bsky.social · 11mo ago

No 14-year-old should be tried as an adult. None. www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...

Congratulations to the winners of this year's American Book Awards! 🎉 🎉 🎉 www.beforecolumbusfoundation.com

Next up! If you find yourself in Winston-Salem, come on out to the Bookmarks Festival, where I'll be appearing alongside Deborah Jackson Taffa to discuss 'Dystopian Realities' on Saturday, September 27, 12.15 pm!

Here is what the Trump administration has asked of UCLA. None of this has anything to do with combating antisemitism. It is all about control of the campus and capture of its culture. www.kqed.org/news/1205611...

I've been on the UC faculty for 18 years and can't recall a time when our campuses were under graver threat than now. I'm happy that our faculty associations (across all ten campuses) joined in this suit.

Jaweed Kaleem@jaweedkaleem.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Facing a proposed $1.2-billion fine and severe medical research grant cuts at UCLA, the University of California has not gone head-to-head with Trump in court. So on Tuesday, groups representing more than 100,000 of its employees did. www.latimes.com/california/s...

"Big Tech’s ambition is to create an archive of everything we do and everything we are—an aspiration that is unprecedented in human history. The only thing that comes close can be found in religion." I wrote about Vauhini Vara's Searches @thenation.com (free link!) www.thenation.com/article/soci...

The Lost Souls of the Internet

In Searches, Vauhini Vara probes the ways that we rely on the Internet and how we periodically attempt to free ourselves from its grip.

thenation.com

If you find yourself in Twentynine Palms this Saturday (9/13), come listen to me talk about The Dream Hotel at Desert General. Details here: www.29pbf.com/events/event...

Israeli settlers are attacking Palestinians and their homes in the West Bank, unchecked and with impunity. These acts of violence are thuggish and inhumane. The silence of the international community is a disgrace. Shame on this world.

Infuriating that for 48 hours much of the media went with narratives that had no relationship to facts and now that the facts are starting to trickle in, there’s zero retraction or reflection.

An antisemite shot two kids in Colorado, at least one of whom is Jewish. The White House “fighting antisemitism” doesn’t care, because the shooter was a student radicalized online into far right beliefs, which the regime is cool with, rather than a student verbally criticizing Israeli govt policy.

‘Radicalized’ Evergreen High School shooter appeared to hold antisemitic, violent views in online accounts

Social media accounts that appear to be connected to the 16-year-old shooter are littered with references to mass shootings and antisemitic views, The Denver Post found.

denverpost.com

So much needless suffering, and for what? So that a bunch of companies can profit from caging, surveilling, and processing them.

Madison Swart@madisonswart.bsky.social · 11mo ago

After her hearing at 26 Federal Plaza, a woman was detained and escorted toward the stairwell. Her husband, confused and in shock, was guided toward the exit. Minutes later, he broke down in the elevator. They entered together, but he left alone. This happens here daily. #ICE