Faced with one last chance for the slightest bit of redemption after confirming rapist Hegseth and lying to his victim, Tillis obstinately chooses eternal damnation.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterday

Tillis: "Everybody has this view that they are as pure as the driven snow and it's the other side that has a problem. I think we both have a problem, folks. If you want to talk about weaponization, take a look at Biden, take a look at Obama, take a look at Crossfire Hurricane ... "

SCOTUS wrecked the First Amendment and trademark precedent just so we could end up back where we're supposed to be anyway.

Gabriel Malor@gabrielmalor.bsky.social · yesterday

9th Cir. holds that the Bad Spaniels parody toy of a Jack Daniel's bottle is unlikely to harm the reputation of Jack Daniel's trademarks *because* it is parody. Held: no dilution by tarnishment; remanded for entry of judgment in favor of Bad Spaniels maker. cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/op...

DOJ is now 0-20 in cases to obtain state voter files. Here is the list: Arizona California Colorado Connecticut Illinois Kentucky Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island Virginia West Virginia Wisconsin

Eliot Higgins@eliothiggins.bsky.social · 6d ago

Google Earth, a tool often used as a source of satellite imagery to verify photos and videos, has added a feature that allows you to alter satellite imagery with AI, for reasons. blog.google/products-and...

Time to offer this seminar again I see.

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 5d ago

there are a lot of philosophical concepts that get egregiously misused out of the seminar room (and in the seminar room, to be fair). but in terms of sheer pernicious misuse "social construct" has gotta be top 5 somewhere and it's not number 5

look. nobody here likes paying consultants. but the only alternative is paying *instructors*

Asheesh Kapur Siddique@asheeshks.org · 6d ago

“Harvard paid McKinsey & Company at least $250,000 to consult on the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ staff restructuring efforts, according to internal documents obtained by The Crimson.” www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...

So basically an adversary could attack any blue state and Trump wont care because he doesn't see himself as the President of the "United States" Without a doubt the most worst president we've ever had. Anti-republic, anti-democratic, anti-constitutional just devoid of basic dignity

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 5d ago

Trump: "We heard in Minnesota there was a cyberattack and they blame it on Iran. I don't think so. I blame it on Minnesota because they're grossly incompetent. Iran's got bigger problems than worrying about Minnesota."

"Free Should Be the Strong Default Setting for Academics’ Substacks and Other Online Work," an interesting post from Paul Horwitz over at Prawfs. Long post, but the basic idea is in the screenshot. prawfsblawg.com/free-should-...

Study Finds Most Americans Can't Find Where They Are Being Deported On Map

this is deeply and damnably irresponsible, but, also, what’s even the actual benefit for google here? what is the product use case for this?

Joseph Cox@josephcox.bsky.social · 5d ago

New from 404 Media: Google Earth has introduced an AI feature that lets anyone fabricate completely bullshit satellite images. In our own tests, we added a “bomb blast and crater” to an area of Los Angeles. This is a misinformation time bomb, will 100% be abused www.404media.co/google-earth...

If understand the rules correctly, a trigger warning preceding a reading about sexual assault is unacceptable coddling and anti-free-speech, but also if a reading causes an adult student “mild discomfort” that’s a firing offense.

Lincoln Michel@thelincoln.bsky.social · 6d ago

A college professors is fired for teaching an Ottessa Moshfegh story that causes "mild discomfort" for one student. Implication is that DeSantis government was involved in the firing. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/29/u...

The track record of militaries that have an officer corps chosen for political loyalty instead of merit is...not great

Senator Elissa Slotkin@slotkin.senate.gov · 6d ago

What I am hearing about from folks in uniform is a new secret vetting process where people in the Department of Defense are looking at someone’s social media history. Looking at whether they attended a Pride event or posted something on their personal Facebook page about Martin Luther King Day.

Tip of the hat to mainstream media, who credulously gave us those "Musk is getting out of politics" headlines last year and those "Musk has regrets" headlines last week, and will give us those "regretful Musk is getting out of politics" headlines next spring.

George Pearkes@peark.es · 6d ago

NYT: Musk preparing 9 figure spending campaign in support of Republicans in "swing" states like Ohio, Iowa, Alaska, and Texas.

What if KITT were wrong all the time and also gave all its insights about you to the government.

it’s never a great sign for your society when all the competent people who believe in doing a good job for the sake of it conclude that they’re actively being punished for these qualities, while malignantly stupid criminals are making bank

looking at the headlines and reflecting once again on how all the smart, hard-working, honest people I know feel like they’re going at least a little insane in our era of total Stupid Immoral Asshole ascendancy

I actually think that ONLY adjuncts and fixed-term workers should be allowed to write about the future of higher ed

For folks who live far from DC, it may be hard to appreciate the extent to which Trump has made DC's streets and its most popular public spaces hostile to ordinary activity. The environment is becoming increasingly carceral, with more fences and barriers and more law enforcement on constant patrol.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett@doggett.house.gov · 6d ago

Trump has fenced off Lafayette Square across from the White House, denying access to a public park long known as the site of celebrations, protests, and tourists taking photographs. Fencing off the public: fencing himself off from reality.

The bar exam tests you on whether you are able to take a few months to do nothing but shove useless facts in your head, and pay $10K (probably more now) to a bar exam prep company. It is highly discriminatory.

The bar exam tests you on memorizing large amounts of law, and for the record, it would be malpractice for a lawyer to rely solely on memory while practicing law because you should always check to make sure your memory is accurate and also that the law hasn't changed. It is a useless hurdle.

Read this. It's not just what happened at this specific circumstance, it's about the bar exam as a deliberate and discriminatory gatekeeping process.

Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie@audrelawdamercy.blacksky.app · 6d ago

I wrote about the hotass mess that hundreds of recent law grads in Washington are going through for no good reason! ballsandstrikes.org/legal-cultur...

Going to beat this dead horse again: we don’t have to live like this. Social media as it is currently construed in not inevitable. It’s a network that is breakable.

David Roberts@volts.wtf · 6d ago

I genuinely don't know what to do about this. In our diseased information environment, one MAGA-adjacent "influencer" can do more to shape public opinion than mountains of studies or facts. Where are the pro-clean-energy influencers to counter this shit?

BREAKING: The 9th Circuit has rejected ICE's unprecedented mass detention policy — the 5th striaght appellate loss for the Trump administration and perhaps the most significant, covering California, Arizona, Nevada and Washington, among others. cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/op...

The Trump admin had a real theory of war: Put on a show of toughness, tell people how manly you are, disdain law, do war crimes, and you win. Earlier losses came from leaders too "weak" to do that. It was a very stupid theory. But they espoused it a lot, really seem to believe it, and acted on it.

Shoe@shoe.bsky.social · 6d ago

President Toddler

See what consumers have to say about DuckDuckGo's perplexingly analog sunglasses. Head to https://knockaround.com/products/duckduckgo-paso-robles to purchase. #DuckDuckGo #knockaround #sponsored

An example of what Kendra means: In Sony v. Bleem, even though the Bleem emulation project was legal, Sony sued them for copyright infringement for using SCREENSHOTS of PlayStation games. lmao It was never about legal principles, it was just about stopping competition / behavior they didn't like

This is honestly one of the most shocking images coming out of this administration and that’s saying something

Murshed Zaheed@murshedz.bsky.social · last wk.

“Trump has rejected disaster aid for Democratic-run states at the highest rate in the 47-year history of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.” Right now people in blue states are basically paying federal taxes as if they’re colonized territories of red states. www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

@mariabonn.bsky.social, Josh Bolick, and I are updating our survey on scholarly communication competencies. If you or a colleague work in scholcomm we would love to hear from you. The survey is here and should take less than 5-10 minutes: ncsu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...