@abovoadmala.bsky.social
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It is literally life and death if you speed
December 12, 2025 at 10:56 PM
It is literally life and death if you speed
Beau Travail at Suns (a few years ago, not when it was released). I went in thinking: a French adaptation of a Melville story moved to Africa, was this just made for me? Turns out it's incredible and accessible. Afterward I looked it up and saw "widely considered the greatest film of the 1990s"
Raising the always fun question: What are your most memorable theater-going experiences?
Mine also include The Matrix, Blair Witch, and being way too stoned in Belgium when Fellowship of the Ring was sold out so we sat in the back row for Mulholland Drive instead.
Mine also include The Matrix, Blair Witch, and being way too stoned in Belgium when Fellowship of the Ring was sold out so we sat in the back row for Mulholland Drive instead.
It was hands-down one of the most memorable theater-going experiences I can remember, a collective 30-minute butt-clench/armrest-grab for the final climb. And we knew he lived! Wild.
December 12, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Beau Travail at Suns (a few years ago, not when it was released). I went in thinking: a French adaptation of a Melville story moved to Africa, was this just made for me? Turns out it's incredible and accessible. Afterward I looked it up and saw "widely considered the greatest film of the 1990s"
Who all has read And Quiet Flows the Don
December 12, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Who all has read And Quiet Flows the Don
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the people of this great republic yearn for locomotive transport
Amtrak reports Mardi Gras service among most successful ever https://mynbc15.com/news/local/amtrak-provides-boost-to-mobile-businesses
Amtrak's Mardi Gras service boosts Mobile tourism with higher than expected ridership
Amtrak says the new Mardi Gras service that connects Mobile to New Orleans is one of the most successful services ever launched and it's on track to double the
mynbc15.com
December 12, 2025 at 8:44 PM
the people of this great republic yearn for locomotive transport
I used to say in Monitoring & Evaluation that I'd rather have a colleague leave a meeting going "M&E makes sense" than "Sam knows a lot about M&E". This was a *distinctive* approach!
22. All chapters are short and accessible. They all provide examples of how the author(s) applied the method themselves. But, more than anything, it is a "warm" (rather than a "cold") publication. It wants to help rather than impress (intimidate) the reader.
global.oup.com
December 12, 2025 at 9:00 PM
I used to say in Monitoring & Evaluation that I'd rather have a colleague leave a meeting going "M&E makes sense" than "Sam knows a lot about M&E". This was a *distinctive* approach!
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This is something we need to reckon with when we reconstruct the government after we put the architects and executors of its destruction in prison.
Just no reason to have more than 2-3 layers of politicals. Below the deputy / undersecretary level you need deep substantive knowledge to do the job.
Just no reason to have more than 2-3 layers of politicals. Below the deputy / undersecretary level you need deep substantive knowledge to do the job.
The US has always been an outlier in terms of how much authority is given to political appointees instead of career professional civil servants.
In a way, what is surprising is how rare this kind of ignorance (re: the Social Security Administration & its child survivor benefit) is.
In a way, what is surprising is how rare this kind of ignorance (re: the Social Security Administration & its child survivor benefit) is.
Political appointees have a responsibility to learn the details of the programs they are trying to change. The ignorance here is shocking.
December 12, 2025 at 8:02 PM
This is something we need to reckon with when we reconstruct the government after we put the architects and executors of its destruction in prison.
Just no reason to have more than 2-3 layers of politicals. Below the deputy / undersecretary level you need deep substantive knowledge to do the job.
Just no reason to have more than 2-3 layers of politicals. Below the deputy / undersecretary level you need deep substantive knowledge to do the job.
If we don't have essentially a re-founding, Trump will be our Sulla: proof of concept for how to overthrow the system that everyone ambitious has been watching for the last 10 years
In my eyes, the true litmus test for Dem candidates is "do you understand the structural issues we are facing?" If they don't anything else they stand for is an empty promise that will be dashed on the rocks by SCOTUS and hostile oligarchs. We need someone clear eyed and ready to fight for reform.
December 12, 2025 at 7:58 PM
If we don't have essentially a re-founding, Trump will be our Sulla: proof of concept for how to overthrow the system that everyone ambitious has been watching for the last 10 years
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The long and short is that I don't think this *particular* guy is going to consolidate an authoritarian regime. I think we're going to get a big swing back in the other direction. That said, a lot of long term dynamics are real bad and the next administration needs to actively deal with them. 4/x
December 12, 2025 at 7:53 PM
The long and short is that I don't think this *particular* guy is going to consolidate an authoritarian regime. I think we're going to get a big swing back in the other direction. That said, a lot of long term dynamics are real bad and the next administration needs to actively deal with them. 4/x
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We're 11 months out from the Midterms. The strategy is straightforward--keep up the pressure and fight to a draw for the next year and then the Dems will have real power at their disposal. Who knows, based on the way he's looking there's a decent chance he doesn't live through 2026 3/x
December 12, 2025 at 7:53 PM
We're 11 months out from the Midterms. The strategy is straightforward--keep up the pressure and fight to a draw for the next year and then the Dems will have real power at their disposal. Who knows, based on the way he's looking there's a decent chance he doesn't live through 2026 3/x
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shoutout to the crowd that insisted it was a political loser to stand up for abrego garcia’s rights
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an ordinary man, has defeated the great might of the US Government
Kilmar Abrego Garcia is free. every bit of cruelty, boasting, slander, and persecution was for absolutely fucking nothing.
December 12, 2025 at 12:38 PM
shoutout to the crowd that insisted it was a political loser to stand up for abrego garcia’s rights
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This is a good example of how well-off senior staff at progressive nonprofits will reflexively advocate for their own class interests as suburban car owners but launder that position by sock puppeting low-income Black and brown people.
The California ACLU is staunchly opposed to the ignition interlock device program and is a big reason that it has not been expanded. Despite the fact that California heavily subsidizes the cost for low-income drunk drivers, the ACLU says that the program is a form of "racialized wealth extraction."
December 12, 2025 at 5:49 PM
This is a good example of how well-off senior staff at progressive nonprofits will reflexively advocate for their own class interests as suburban car owners but launder that position by sock puppeting low-income Black and brown people.
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I am deadly serious when I say that any liberal Project 2028 people should be taking names of the civil servants who go way past their authority to do stuff like this.
That is very much not me saying that normal employees following bad orders should be fired. But there’s a line. This crosses it.
That is very much not me saying that normal employees following bad orders should be fired. But there’s a line. This crosses it.
That should be a career ending act of corruption
December 12, 2025 at 1:52 PM
I am deadly serious when I say that any liberal Project 2028 people should be taking names of the civil servants who go way past their authority to do stuff like this.
That is very much not me saying that normal employees following bad orders should be fired. But there’s a line. This crosses it.
That is very much not me saying that normal employees following bad orders should be fired. But there’s a line. This crosses it.
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I don't think it should be borderline legal in this state to get loaded and kill someone with your car
“Drunk and drugged driving is now so common in car-centric California that drivers routinely rack up four, five, six DUIs. One woman in Fresno just got her 16th.”
California has some of the weakest DUI laws in the nation. Here, DUI-related deaths have been rising more than twice as fast as the rest of the country.
But this fall, a state bill to strengthen DUI penalties was gutted at the last minute. calmatters.org/investigatio...
8/9
But this fall, a state bill to strengthen DUI penalties was gutted at the last minute. calmatters.org/investigatio...
8/9
December 12, 2025 at 2:59 PM
I don't think it should be borderline legal in this state to get loaded and kill someone with your car
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Kilmar Abrego Garcia is free. every bit of cruelty, boasting, slander, and persecution was for absolutely fucking nothing.
December 12, 2025 at 5:34 AM
Kilmar Abrego Garcia is free. every bit of cruelty, boasting, slander, and persecution was for absolutely fucking nothing.
Not a good week when you're like And now for the fun part, my diff eq exam
December 12, 2025 at 5:37 AM
Not a good week when you're like And now for the fun part, my diff eq exam
Lately have had a tough time explaining to people that I'm optimistic about avoiding consolidated authoritarianism and pessimistic about avoiding widespread strife and turmoil
I've never been one to support buying a gun because you have fantasies of going innawoods and being a guerilla army but the fact of the matter is we probably live in a time where politics happens in its most basic form - force against force. All there is to be done is to win
December 12, 2025 at 4:14 AM
Lately have had a tough time explaining to people that I'm optimistic about avoiding consolidated authoritarianism and pessimistic about avoiding widespread strife and turmoil
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Political violence in this country is entirely asymmetric. The right has killed hundreds more people than the left and the far-right infests the police, military and ICE. The president has made it clear he will pardon those who kill for him. Scalise getting shot does not register
December 12, 2025 at 4:12 AM
Political violence in this country is entirely asymmetric. The right has killed hundreds more people than the left and the far-right infests the police, military and ICE. The president has made it clear he will pardon those who kill for him. Scalise getting shot does not register
One thing I wonder about the Riley-Brenner thesis is: I don't think there's evidence that immigration decreases local wages/xenophobia juices them. Maybe the answer is just "uncredentialed labor is pursuing a strategy that can't possibly work"
December 12, 2025 at 3:18 AM
One thing I wonder about the Riley-Brenner thesis is: I don't think there's evidence that immigration decreases local wages/xenophobia juices them. Maybe the answer is just "uncredentialed labor is pursuing a strategy that can't possibly work"
I often wonder, if a person only read the major works of Adam Tooze, Perry Anderson, Peter Brown, Robert Bates, and Charles Tilly, how their understanding of politics would compare to, like, a typical MPA grad's
December 12, 2025 at 2:38 AM
I often wonder, if a person only read the major works of Adam Tooze, Perry Anderson, Peter Brown, Robert Bates, and Charles Tilly, how their understanding of politics would compare to, like, a typical MPA grad's
Back in March some senior people at my job floated the idea of seeking funding from Heritage lmao
The Heritage Foundation is an authoritarian Christian Nationalist organization.
Treat their people accordingly.
Treat their people accordingly.
In case you ever needed proof that the Heritage Foundation is not a conservative organization, here we have them cheering on the Federal Government threatening to strip all funding from a state that does not make political decisions the President likes. Any true conservative would be howling.
December 11, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Back in March some senior people at my job floated the idea of seeking funding from Heritage lmao
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Once again, for 2028 I'm a single issue voter and that issue is post-Trump lustration. GTFO with "better angels of our nature" for once.
They're using the confinement box, one of the most horrific methods of CIA torture in the post-9/11 black sites, against migrants now. This is the direct result of the lack of consequences for the architects of the torture program. Either there will be criminal penalties for this or it will expand.
Torture Techniques from CIA Black Sites Were Used at Alligator Alcatraz
Amnesty International, interviewing migrant detainees, identifies use of the confinement box. There can be no denying it is a torture prison
www.forever-wars.com
December 8, 2025 at 10:22 PM
Once again, for 2028 I'm a single issue voter and that issue is post-Trump lustration. GTFO with "better angels of our nature" for once.
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The dictatorship is crumbling. If there were ever a time to push against its foundations, it is right now.
Breaking: Indiana State Senate rejects 9-0 Republican gerrymandered congressional map, stands up to Trump’s pressure campaign of threats and intimidation. Huge victory for democracy & defeat for Trump in gerrymandering war he started
December 11, 2025 at 9:48 PM
The dictatorship is crumbling. If there were ever a time to push against its foundations, it is right now.
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I’m teaching a course on data wrangling with R & the tidyverse for @stathorizons.bsky.social in January. Filled to the brim with ways to do the stuff you have to do before you can run any of your spiffy models and that often breezily gets glossed over even though it’ll take up 90% of your time.
Data Wrangling with the Tidyverse | Online Seminar | Code Horizons
Learn how to clean, organize, and prepare your research data in R using the tidyverse with Kieran Healy, Ph.D., in this online seminar.
codehorizons.com
December 11, 2025 at 7:47 PM
I’m teaching a course on data wrangling with R & the tidyverse for @stathorizons.bsky.social in January. Filled to the brim with ways to do the stuff you have to do before you can run any of your spiffy models and that often breezily gets glossed over even though it’ll take up 90% of your time.
As Jordan Perkins put it: the hard problem of constitutional design is to have limits on what laws the legislature can pass without making the limit-enforcer a supra-legislature
2/ First, when Congress has legislated in response to national problems, the Roberts Court has repeatedly either struck it down or interpreted it into a nullity. Congress gave us the Voting Rights Act and its reauthorizations; the Court gave us Shelby County, Brnovich, etc.
December 11, 2025 at 9:06 PM
As Jordan Perkins put it: the hard problem of constitutional design is to have limits on what laws the legislature can pass without making the limit-enforcer a supra-legislature