great thread from Bruce; I'm a broken record but one of our best scholars of the medieval period, Umberto Eco, was predicting this as early as the 70s - he understood that what "medievalism" was, if it was anything, was an inability to have shared belief systems - "reality" changed from town to town

Bruce Wilson@brucewilson.bsky.social · 6h ago

We can could cook up various metaphors to describe what AI is doing to society. Try this on: what holds human societies & governments together are our shared beliefs on reality, as determined by the scientific method, our shared "facts", & our belief that such knowledge is even *possible*...

Valuable thread from Bruce

Bruce Wilson@brucewilson.bsky.social · 6h ago

We can could cook up various metaphors to describe what AI is doing to society. Try this on: what holds human societies & governments together are our shared beliefs on reality, as determined by the scientific method, our shared "facts", & our belief that such knowledge is even *possible*...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Trump administration has detained more than 50 spouses, parents of US troops in immigration crackdown, AP review finds. @apnews.com apnews.com/article/mili...

AP Exclusive: Trump's immigration crackdown has detained more than 50 military spouses and parents

An Associated Press investigation reveals that President Donald Trump’s administration has detained dozens of parents and spouses of active-duty U.S. troops.

apnews.com

a crazy thing: so, in Poland, even this summer, there have only been maybe 5 or 6 days when you "need" AC and only 4% of ppl have it meaning Poles are not used to AC - so, today it is 97F outside and our office has AC - but - every 30 mns or so, someone will feel hot and ...... open a window ....

Electric Buses Point of no return - have gone from 12% to 56% of new city bus sales in Europe in just 6yrs Europe's 2035 target of 100% zero emission bus sales could be reached as early as 2028 Bravo Europe 🇪🇺!

Let's all sit with the fact that the president wants to jail some random person who is self-evidently innocent. It's not surprising, but it's amazing that much of the media is almost completely disinterested in this fact.

Greg Sargent@gregsargent.bsky.social · 6h ago

It's funny that Jeanine Pirro brought a box of evidence to WH to persuade Trump. He wants her to consciously *throw out* exculpatory facts and *knowingly* prosecute innocent people. So facts can't persuade him by definition. Me and @barbmcquade.bsky.social on this: newrepublic.com/article/2139...

irony of strict pet shelter rules is that as an immigrant without a permanent residency permit I can't adopt a dog but I can just go out and buy one, something I have never done and am loathe to do

one word: Gaza

brent sewer socialist🚰🌹@therealbrent.bsky.social · 14h ago

So El-Sayed is doing better with Black voters and worse with white voters than most people imagined? That’ll be fun for The Discourse.

ICYMI last night, DHS is currently being fined every day for contempt of court until it coughs up the cell phone records of officers involved in immigration stops in L.A. last year that looked like racial profiling rather than reasonable cause. short thread -->

Gabriel Malor@gabrielmalor.bsky.social · 17h ago

Fed. judge holds DHS in civil contempt of court for refusing "intentionally and not in good faith" to provide plaintiffs with phone images they intend to use to prove DHS was racially profiling people arrested in Los Angeles without reasonable suspicion. Order from July 28, unsealed today.

The raw turnout for this race is bananas. It dwarfs previous senate primaries. It’s higher than two of the last three presidential primaries in Michigan, and equal to the third, 2020, with over a dozen candidates on the ballot.

You're fucking hilarious. Dark money and super PACs (mainly AIPAC) lost while spending $70 million. This was huge.

Politico@politico.com · 10h ago

Progressives didn’t get the big election night they wanted

It’s disgusting for the Conservatives to ask Jewish groups to meet their ex-neo-Nazi candidate, presumably in the hope he will charm them and they’ll offer their blessing. They should not expect Jewish people to sanitise this appalling choice. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Tories offer Jewish groups meeting with ex neo-Nazi activist candidate

Joshua Bonehill-Paine was jailed over neo-Nazi activism, but has been selected to stand in a new Somerset Council seat in 2027.

bbc.co.uk

if you've never read it, here's a PDF; one thing I love about Bradbury's writing is how deceptively "simple" it feels and how much he indulges in his own private onomatopoeia

Adam Rawnsley@arawnsley.bsky.social · yesterday

Today, August 4, 2026, is the setting of Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” about a fully automated house continuing on after the family who lived there and the world around it died in a nuclear blast.

Today, August 4, 2026, is the setting of Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” about a fully automated house continuing on after the family who lived there and the world around it died in a nuclear blast.

“Wherever it extended, the area was ungrounded.” This is what has struck me the most, looking at photos of Gaza - the ungrounding. The literal scraping of streets off the face of the earth. There's only one word for this.

Hey ICE, you mass murdering fascist filth, go ahead and fuck with my rights. I can't wait to get you into court. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

How ICE Is Weaponizing Social Media Against Its Critics

The agency says its surveillance program searches for threats to agents, but critics see free-speech infringements.

wsj.com

Nearly 200 laughing emojis, on the Facebook page of a mainstream national newspaper.

Let's all collectively imagine what the coverage would be like if it were a 'former Hamas supporter selected as Green candidate'

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 2d ago

Former neo-Nazi activist selected as Tory candidate for Somerset council election

posting here as a journalist working outside the US, this whole site just seems like a bubble of US activists, thinkers, divas, etc - it's a nice salon to hang out in but it's so disconnected - the Arab Spring is not going to happen on bluesky

on the other hand, when I needed to crowd source video of my brother's ICE arrest in Minneapolis, bluesky had the goods

we're also missing 3 super important categories: 1, masses of non-English speakers, 2, journalists, and 3, govt/political figures - for me as a reporter in post-soviet spaces, this site is basically useless

Finn@thegoblinpoet.bsky.social · yesterday

I'm going to say something brave and controversial - the bit that is missing is normal people. more people just posting about da movies or sports and not really having political opinions at all

I was one of a handful of reporters at the Old Bailey for his 2016 trial. In one video seen by the jury he said: “The beauty of the white European woman is at stake ... Do not let this Jewish foreign enemy rape her out of these lands." www.buzzfeed.com/patricksmith...

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 2d ago

Former neo-Nazi activist selected as Tory candidate for Somerset council election

the tell is that this form of social rehab is only available to straight white men

Gigan, Therapod Enthusiast@gigansprogress.bsky.social · yesterday

It’s cool that we’re redoing the 2009 discourse of “all vets are broken people who are ready to attack you at a moments notice”

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 · yesterday

Everywhere 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.

the anger I feel at even the notion that we would allow racists to pick and choose their public servants

the policy here simply has to be this: you accept the caretaker you're assigned, or you leave - no fucking pasaran

Patients refusing to be treated by non-white staff as NHS reports shocking rise in racism

Paul Awah, a Bedfordshire-based diagnostic radiographer originally from Nigeria, said: "It's definitely got worse – people are more expressive."

news.sky.com

One of the things that sticks in my brain is how Jeffries suggested representatives not come to Minneapolis, supposedly because they'd be a distraction. No one on the ground wanted national politicians to stay away. We wanted people to come see what was being done to us. It infuriated me.

Eric Blair@protecttruth.bsky.social · 2d ago

How can we see this? if Schumer and Jeffries wanted to rally the grassroots they’d have been on the streets in Minneapolis and other cities leading, like Brad Lander. Instead they’ve been courting $$ into the DSCC and DCCC.

Many EU leaders are collapsing under a moment’s pressure on Ceuta but the hypocrisy of Meloni is particularly sickening. All those demands that Europe help Italy out on Lampedusa, and no-one asked for Italy to be excluded from Schengen. But as soon as a Social Democrat faces problems….

"they've been hiring too many darkies, maybe we should fix that first"

Jonathan Portes@jdportes.bsky.social · yesterday

"There's a real thing going on in the composition of the staff...does that not have to be looked at as well?" Nick Robinson, on Today, discussing this news.sky.com/story/nhs-st...

My non-fiction debut "We Shall Outlast Them: Putin's Global Campaign to Defeat the West" is out today. It's the result of years of research, travel to a dozen countries, and countless conversations. Thank you @wwnorton.com and everyone who supported me along the way. wwnorton.com/books/978132...