Leah Berman Williams
@leahwrenn.bsky.social
2.2K followers 1.8K following 3.3K posts
Mathematician (discrete geometry), U Alaska Fairbanks prof, former FNSB assembly. In Alaska since 2009. She/her/hers. @[email protected] @leahwrenn on MeFi
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Reposted by Leah Berman Williams
sigridellis.bsky.social
Quick cultural lecture time, from Sigrid Ellis:

As we are in Spooky Season, why do so many horror movies of the 80s and early 90s feature extremely creepy homeless people?

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Reposted by Leah Berman Williams
Reposted by Leah Berman Williams
dankaszeta.bsky.social
The ban in warfare for tear gas is not because it is particularly bad or anything, but because use of tear gas in battle could easily be mistaken for use of the more serious banned chemical weapons, like phosgene or Mustard gas.
Reposted by Leah Berman Williams
dankaszeta.bsky.social
Tear gases are classed as "riot control agents". International law (the Chemical Weapons Convention) bans them in warfare but specifically makes them legal in policing situations.
Reposted by Leah Berman Williams
Reposted by Leah Berman Williams
Reposted by Leah Berman Williams
fbxresistanceinfo.bsky.social
Who: Everyone!
What: No Kings Protest
When: Saturday, October 18 from noon to 2PM
Where: from Pioneer Park to the IBEW 1547 Hall at 2000 Airport Way

More info in comments.

#alaskasky #fbxresistanceinfo
leahwrenn.bsky.social
It was all I could do to just not repost every post in the whole thread.
Reposted by Leah Berman Williams
edmondsscanner.bsky.social
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Put on an inflatable frog suit and rage against the dying of the light.
leahwrenn.bsky.social
This is an amazing thread.

(Super informative. Terrifying content.)

You should read it.
bbkogan.bsky.social
Trump's mechanism to pay the troops during the shutdown is by far the most illegal budgetary action he's taken as POTUS, potentially setting the stage to break everything.

It's also needless because Congress would easily pass a troop pay bill if Johnson were willing to gavel in.

Long thread.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/10/national-security-presidential-memorandum-nspm-8/
Reposted by Leah Berman Williams
bbkogan.bsky.social
By an entire parsec, the Trump administration has undertaken the most illegal set of budget actions in history. This is why we desperately need guardrails to restrain and go after budget malfeasance from the White House.
Reposted by Leah Berman Williams
bbkogan.bsky.social
Taken together with impoundments, this would break everything. The president is claiming the power to not spend money he doesn't want to and now also to spend money where it's not allowed. And SCOTUS might say no one has standing to stop him. That would make him an appropriations king.
Reposted by Leah Berman Williams
bbkogan.bsky.social
Once you've decided to violate the ADA, even in the most narrow sense, all of those levels of badness are theoretically open to you. The only thing that matters is your own self-imposed restrictions.
Reposted by Leah Berman Williams
bbkogan.bsky.social
And the craziest part is this was needless. Congress would've passed a military pay bill with near unanimous support! Congressional Ds have been begging Rs to bring a bill to pay the military to the floor! But Johnson refuses to gavel in because he doesn't want an Epstein vote.
Johnson wearing a jacket that's photoshopped to say "this has nothing to do with epstein"
Reposted by Leah Berman Williams
bbkogan.bsky.social
That is profoundly illegal. You may not spend money on a purpose without funding. The constitution expressly forbids it, as does the ADA.
Reposted by Leah Berman Williams
bbkogan.bsky.social
Military pay is appropriated one year at a time, with a one-year period of availability. The fiscal year ended on September 30th, and we did not pass new appropriations bills (the government is shut down), so there's no money available to pay the troops (or to do lots of things).
Reposted by Leah Berman Williams
bbkogan.bsky.social
The mechanism through which Trump is paying the troops is the most blatant large Antideficiency Act (ADA) violation in US history. It's also clearly willful. No one has been charged under the ADA before, but violations carry a two-year jail term. The statute of limitations is five years.
Reposted by Leah Berman Williams
bbkogan.bsky.social
Trump's mechanism to pay the troops during the shutdown is by far the most illegal budgetary action he's taken as POTUS, potentially setting the stage to break everything.

It's also needless because Congress would easily pass a troop pay bill if Johnson were willing to gavel in.

Long thread.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/10/national-security-presidential-memorandum-nspm-8/
Reposted by Leah Berman Williams
rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social
My super modern regulatory plan is that any entity named for a thing from Tolkien has to publicly explain why Tolkien wouldn’t immediately throw it into Mount Doom
tonytassell.bsky.social
Tolkein continues to resonate. The new bank being set up by Palmer Luckey and backed by Peter Thiel is named Erebor after the “lonely mountain” in The Hobbit. This was also an interesting line in this rpt on the new bank by @tabbykinder.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/202d...
Reposted by Leah Berman Williams
markspringer.bsky.social
The Governor is at the Alaska Airlines Center as the first bus loads of Kipnuk Climate Refugees arrive from their C17 flight from Bethel tonight.
NOTE: Photo unattributed.
Reposted by Leah Berman Williams
stevenbeschloss.bsky.social
I’m old enough to remember when we had a system of checks & balances that involved Congress, when Congress controlled the purse and legislated, and the president respected the Constitution & rule of law. I’m old enough to remember when a U.S. president wouldn’t want to be King George or a dictator.
Reposted by Leah Berman Williams
corinne-smith.bsky.social
300 evacuees from Kipnuk and Kwigillingok departed on a C-17 military plane from Bethel to Anchorage today to shelter there.

Roughly 500 people have been evacuated from those two villages so far, the remaining 200 are sheltering in Bethel tonight. More flights will go out tomorrow
Reposted by Leah Berman Williams
truthout.org
The Rutgers teachers’ unions are standing in solidarity with History Professor Mark Bray, who has been targeted by Turning Point USA. The group has falsely claimed that Bray, the author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook is “a prominent leader of the antifa movement,” and should be fired.
Rutgers Unions Call to Disband Turning Point Chapter After Colleague Targeted
Professor Mark Bray, author of “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,” says he has received death threats.
buff.ly