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Kelsey Atherton

@atherton.bsky.social
32K followers 1.1K following 20K posts

War, robots, & bad futures but imagining better. I edit @cipolicy.bsky.social's International Policy Journal, opinions my own. Unitarian Universalist. He/him. Husband to @alymay.bsky.social & father of 2. Front takes towards enemies.

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Reposted by Kelsey Atherton
Thomas O’Mahony @gotitatguineys.bsky.social · 9h
For those interested: This episode is soundtracked using a vocal and piano operetta arrangement by Srul Irving Glick, based on the poems written by children in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp called “I Never Saw A Butterfly Again”.
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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
Every legal story now is either Ancient Circuit Judge Delivers Crystal Clear 100 Page Rebuke To Trumpist Overreach or In Unsigned Shadow Docket Decision, 6-3 Majority Declares Trump Can Hunt People For Sport
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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 9h
SCOTUS’s shadow docket strikes again. Third-country removals are back on, using a policy that two federal courts have now ruled is unlawful.
CORDER LIST: 609 U.S.)
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2026
26-426
(26A406)
CERTIORARI GRANTED
DEPT. OF HOMELAND SEC., ET AL. V. D.V.D., ET AL.
The application for stay presented to Justice Jackson and
by her referred to the Court is granted. The February 25, 2026 order and judgment of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, case No. 1:25-cv-10676, are stayed.
The application is also treated as a petition for a writ of certiorari, and the petition is granted. The parties are directed to brief and argue the following questions: (1) Whether the district court had jurisdiction over Respondents' claims.
(2) Whether the
district court had
authority to enter classwide
declaratory
relief
and APA vacatur under 8 U. S. C. §1252 (f) (1).
(3) Whether the Government's Guidance on third-country removals
is unlawful under 8 U. S. C. §1231(b), the Due Process Clause, or
FARRA/CAT and its
implementing regulations. (4) Such other
questions that the Government determines are appropriate for the
proper disposition of the case. The Clerk is directed to
establish a briefing schedule that will allow the case to be
argued in the December 2026 argument session. The stay shall
terminate upon the sending down of the judgment of this Court.
Justice Sotomayor, Justice Kagan, and Justice Jackson would
deny the application for stay.
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New town every hour @townsusa.bsky.social · 10h
Hanover, New Mexico Pop: 211 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanover,_New_… Images: commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?c… commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?c… commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?c…
picture of Hanover, New Mexicopicture of Hanover, New Mexicopicture of Hanover, New Mexicopicture of Hanover, New Mexico
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#StupidSuez @diplomatofnight.com · 10h
Worth looking at what Biden's top human rights diplomat Dafna Rand has to say about whether or not the Biden administration used all of the tools available to pursue an end to the end of the genocide in Gaza. Her conclusion, based on extensive interviews with other Biden alumna: no
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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 11h
Universal Daycare is a staggering boon for working parents and for kids, it is among the greatest blessings of living in New Mexico in this time, and everywhere else should be so lucky. The whole point is to make stay-at-home a choice, not obligation, so everyone can have full lives as full people.
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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 11h
Weird to remember 2019 as optimistic but I think it's the last major forward-looking moment before everything was seen as at best crisis and decline management. Not unrelated, here's a video in which then-new Rep AOC looks back on the Green New Deal as a Senator theintercept.com/2019/04/17/g...
theintercept.com
A Message From the Future With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
What if we actually pulled off a Green New Deal? What would the future look like? The Intercept presents a film narrated by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
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Stephen Schwartz @atomicanalyst.bsky.social · 12h
65 yrs ago tonight, CBS broadcast the second nuclear-war-themed episode of “The Twilight Zone” to air in a month. Written by Rod Serling, “The Shelter” dramatically and effectively distilled the profound moral/ethical dilemmas presented by the family fallout shelter during a serious nuclear crisis.
A black and white screenshot of the title screen for the episode “The Shelter” of “The Twilight Zone.”A black and white screenshot of a scene from “The Shelter” showing three men frantically trying to use a large pipe to ram through the reinforced metal door of the shelter.A black and white screenshot of a scene from “The Shelter” showing four men looking through the now broken open door of the shelter, fear and uncertainty on their faces. In the background, two of their wives can be seen at the top of the basement stairs with similar expressions on their faces.
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Spencer Ackerman @attackerman.bsky.social · 13h
This is so important. They’ve broken the economic models that fund journalism is because they recognize the *purpose* of journalism threatens their bullshit-based valuations, ie, the sources of their wealth and power. Yet actual-existing journalists were instead crucial for creating their myths.
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Ariel Edwards-Levy @aedwardslevy.bsky.social · 14h
at least they've stopped polling horserace
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Anjali Dayal @anjalikdayal.bsky.social · 15h
The mayor of NYC isn’t a usual draw during UNGA week, but this year was different
apple.news
Subway, soccer and spats: New York's Mamdani a UN week attraction — Reuters
The United Nations wasn't the only New York attraction for visiting world leaders this week – Mayor Zohran Mamdani emerged as a popular draw for like-minded politicians and ​a target for Israeli Prime...
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mattie lubchansky @mattielubchansky.com · 15h
awoke this morning with a Vision
that diagram showing  the SUV blind spot in the front but it's lowly worm driving his little applemobile
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A K @aklingus.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
You can tell this asshole doesn’t know shit about real digging because record store owners would rather take a shotgun blast to the knee than tell you everything they know bsky.app/profile/hoov...
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Katie Stone @abqkatiestone.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Please enjoy our latest episode on Space Junk. SpaceX pollutes space more than anyone else. ChildrensHour.org/space-junk
childrenshour.org
Space Junk Podcast for Kids
Space Junk Podcast for Kids
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#StupidSuez @diplomatofnight.com · 28/09/2026
The settlement trade ban initiative has already proven to be more effective at shaping Israeli action than virtually anything else done by the West since 1956
haaretz.com
Israel's AG postpones West Bank E1 construction tender until after election
The attorney general's office said the deadline for bids on more than 2,100 housing units should be postponed by a month to prevent the internationally condemned project from being used for election c...
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#StupidSuez @diplomatofnight.com · 28/09/2026
I think the president should enforce arms transfer law no matter who the president is
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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
It's not the main reason that any future democratic administration needs to not hire Jake Sullivan (that would be his role in refusing to stop the flow of US weapons & funds into the genocide of Gaza) but him being this petty about accurate reporting is disqualifying alone
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Kylie Eleison @gonebabygone.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Article about left-wing space's dirty laundry: NB named Jennica took off their mask to do the land acknowledgment Article about right-wing space's dirty laundry: The guy who coded the lynching simulator game turned out to have a Portuguese grandmother so we changed his name in the GC to the n-word
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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
if you show me an AI video you are my enemy
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Nikki McCann Ramírez @nikkimcr.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
"I think Abbott may lose." Outgoing Texas Ag. Comissioner Sid Miller, a career Trump ally, on how data center backlash may be the thing that tips the electoral scales against Republican Governor Greg Abbott. www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
rollingstone.com
The Trump-Loving Texas Republican Sounding the Alarm on Data Centers
Sid Miller, the Trump-loving Texas agricultural commissioner, talks on his opposition to data centers, and why Greg Abbott may lose.
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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 28/09/2026
these guys are so bad at this it's almost comical. "just think of data centers like highways, the infrastructure everybody loves and thinks is good." excellent analogy sir keep saying that.
“I’m a pro-AI advocate, one of the biggest named [organizations] in town. My mom hates data centers. I love her. Bless her heart,” Nathan Leamer, executive director of the advocacy organization Build American AI, said.

Leamer compared data centers to highways: a development that could fundamentally reshape the country, in his eyes, for the better. (His mom, he said, doesn’t care about the highway near her home — despite the noise.)
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Gerry Doyle @mgerrydoyle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
privatizing air defenses is like peak shadowrun
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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
working on a theory that there are five maximally thirst-quenching beverages: the Great Slakes
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Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 27/09/2026
The Internet, Social Media and AI are facilitating the churning out of obscene atrocity denial propaganda to deterritorialised global audiences in a way that feels unlike any prior epoch, and I feels like nobody in power is even willing to confront that because they expect to exploit it themselves.
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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Richard Scarry implies the existence of Dick Comforting
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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
plotting all Star Wars on a Calvinist/Universalist ideological X-wing-axis and a successful/unsuccessful execution Y-wing-axis
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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
took a vibecoded quizilla assesment that said my greatest utility is being rendered a slurry that feeds data centers
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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Owl City The e-cards you've sent your kids monthly ever since you lost custody go unopened but ChatGPT tells you that they'll come back to you as soon as they're old enough to refuse vaccines. Your dating profiles say "apolitical" and Ecanvasser has you as voting for Trump in 2020 and 2024.
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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
JD: With these things there's no telling We'll just have to wait and see ICC JUDGE: ... JD: But I'd rather be working for a paycheck Than waiting to win the lottery ICC JUDGE, to aide: do you think we can set up a double guillotine
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Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 26/09/2026
Just dawned on me that we’re maybe two decades out from this becoming an actual possibility.
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conputer dipshit @davidcrespo.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I’m sorry, but if you bring gypsum - or any damn mineral below 3 on the Mohs scale at all - to a job interview, you’re disqualified. It’s not hard, people.
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 26/09/2026
Being a leftist means taking big shots. And making them.
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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The Calvinist Force
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lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 26/09/2026
beast mode
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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
$10 diesel and a third impeachment
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Center for International Policy @cipolicy.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Iranian leadership signaled this week that it's willing to end the war, if Trump is willing to demonstrate reciprocal action and return towards the diplomacy of the MoU. There's a 7-day proposal on the table. CIP's own @negarmortazavi.bsky.social reports internationalpolicy.org/publications...
internationalpolicy.org
Iran Sends Trump Seven Day Proposal To End War - CIP
A clear timeline and reciprocal steps could let Washington and Tehran return to the negotiating table, just in time for mid-terms.
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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Albuquerque undefeated
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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
🎵 cider man / cider man / ferments an apple / in a can 🎵
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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Hello! welcome to my mentions. Since it's your first day on the internet, feel free to do what your heart says and misread my post to be about whatever grievance you like, and then let me know! Here, I can make it easy. Start with this post.
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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
[THIRD WAY CONSULTANT CHARGING $500/hour] Here's the list of constituents whose rights you can walk back for up to an increase of 0.25% in the polls [MEDIAN DRIVER] I will kill for whoever promises to bring back the gas prices we had during Woke 1.0
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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
There is power in a Brewnion
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Tim Price @timprice.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
You joined "grand vizier chat (secret)" You: dark rumors from aboard You: abroad* fuck Sssnakecharmer: mf said aboard WhispersintheChapel: ahoy matey lol PonderMyOrb changed the group name to "rumors from aboard"
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Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 24/09/2026
The first rule of military ethics is have fun :)
In an unprecedented move, according to two of the sources, the army also decided during the first weeks of the war that, for every junior Hamas operative that Lavender marked, it was permissible to kill up to 15 or 20 civilians; in the past, the military did not authorize any "collateral damage" during assassinations of low-ranking militants. The sources added that, in the event that the target was a senior Hamas official with the rank of battalion or brigade commander, the army on several occasions authorized the killing of more than 100 civilians in the assassination of a single commander.
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Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 24/09/2026
Thought math was lame? You can do all kinds of neat tricks with numbers: Watch me make these dozens of children’s corpses disappear.
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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
1: For every hour you travel from the nearest clinic, the odds of detecting an outbreak decreases by about 1/3. 👉 For policymakers: the best thing we can do to catch and intercept spillovers before they become epidemics is build rural clinics and pay for diagnostic machines and supplies.
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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Learned yesterday that there's a vast swath of rural counties in New Mexico with a total population of 247,000ish people, covering an area id 53,259 square miles, without a pediatrician www.instagram.com/p/DdoegYHjFw...
15 New Mexico counties have zero pediatricians NM county map, revevant counties without pediatricians are:

Catron
Cibola
De Baca
Guadalupe 
Harding 
Hidalgo
Lincoln
Luna
Mora
Quay
Rio Arriba
Sierra
Torrance
Union
Valencia


NEW MEXICO
VOICES
FOR CHILDREN
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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
What's behind this tidal wave of epidemics? In the largest study ever conducted on emerging infectious diseases, we show that the popular explanation - "our relationship with nature is out of balance" - doesn't hold up. Out now in Nature, after half a decade of work: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
The anthropogenic fingerprint on emerging infectious diseases - Nature
Emerging infectious disease outbreak risks are ubiquitous worldwide, and highest in landscapes where people, livestock and fragmented natural ecosystems coexist, but detection and data ...
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