iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Re: that WSJ story about 287(g)s, the $ that DHS has put behind this push is really staggering -- like one-sixth of the largest-ever federal revenue-sharing program for police. (And since big states like CA & NY are basically not participating, the $ for those like TX & FL that are is even bigger.)

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Elizabeth Joh @elizabethjoh.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

sickening: DHS task force program "has become a cash cow for state and local law enforcement agencies nationwide." Arrest 1 deportable immigrant = $60,000 a year per deputized officer. WV sheriff: “When you get an opportunity to get possibly $100,000 for equipment or vehicles, that’s a no-brainer.”

wsj.com

Exclusive | How Local Police Get Paid Big Money for Just a Few Immigration Arrests

The Department of Homeland Security gives local agencies as much as $2 million for each arrest in a nationwide task force.

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Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center @anzaborrego.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

A stronger thunderstorm developed yesterday evening over the Coachella Valley and provided even more awesome lightning viewing from the Borrego area. Seen here in this timelapse behind the Santa Rosa Mountains with the camera starting a bit after 9:30 pm. www.nbcpalmsprings.com/local-and-co...

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Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell @hottycouture.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

They are coming for birth control. #vote

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Just FYI the York Minster is the most amazing building.

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

This is really good. "Solving problems is only a tool and proxy for achieving the primary goal of conceptual understanding and insight. Forgetting this in the world of AI may turn the tool against the primary goal."

mathandai.org

Declaration — Math and AI

Read the declaration and add your name.

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Critics of alternative response programs often say that social workers &c shouldn't or won't accept the risk of being assaulted. There's some truth to that but it's also worth noting how often they're already assaulted at pretty high rates -- not quite as high as police but not *that* much lower.

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Bethany Albertson @albertsonb2.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Sharing this one because we don't read enough about what's happening in the lives of trans people - this is thorough and tragic.

nytimes.com

Opinion | What’s Happening in Kansas Should Alarm Us All (Gift Article)

Is Kansas just the beginning?

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

This is, no joke, my favorite museum in the world.

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

I guess, but the handwringing about ideological scholarship on the left is..very partial. I just read Allen Guelzo's critique of Alan Taylor's work. Guelzo thinks a test for good history should be "Is this the kind of book that would've steeled the nerves of some 18 year old to land on Omaha Beach?"

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

I stayed at the Residence Inn in Franklin, Mass. last night and met some very nice Ghanians. But tbh also some nice Englishmen. We had a cosmopolitan moment at the breakfast bar!

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

OMG don’t get a big head kid — first newspaper review 🤩 ‘What ranks as the highlight of the show is the “Dream Ballet”…Soledad Beck…was joined by Tommy Monroe…and Lucas Thacher…The four put on a show for the ages...’

thesuntimesnews.com

From The Great American Song Book: CAP Presents Oklahoma - The Sun Times News

The Chelsea Area Players’ (CAP) raised the curtain on Broadway’s most decorated team, Rogers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma June 12 – 14, at the Ron Mead Auditorium. Oklahoma premiered on Broadway in 1943, ...

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

OLC falsely says DOJ has "pressure[d] states into discharging individuals from mental-health institutions." In fact it has pressured them to create the capacity to support people in communities, so institutionalization isn't the only option. It has asked them to do more, not less

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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 @mkang.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

@jessicacalarco.com hit the nail on the head in her @pnas.org editorial about why the trend towards data transparency can be complicated for qualitative research--a dilemma that came to head in our recent PNAS paper on violence. I recommend giving it a read. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

pnas.org

With qualitative research, the risks of data sharing can outweigh the rewards | PNAS

With qualitative research, the risks of data sharing can outweigh the rewards

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

A banger as expected, long live the Mekons!

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Southeast Michigan, you have one more chance to see LUCAS on stage before he makes it big on Broadway! The Chelsea Area Players are doing Oklahoma in 11 days; he & other Ballet Chelsea dancers will perform the dream/dance scenes. Here he is strangling Tommy. Tix here: chelseaareaplayers.org

Dancer strangling another dancer while other dancers look on aghast, during rehearsal

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Whoever found my wallet and brought it to my house and left it by the front door, THANK YOU! There are nice people in this world.

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

turning the screws on retailers who sell crime guns >> turning the screws on brown-skinned teenagers out for a walk or a drive

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Brad Heath @bradheath.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

The aftermath of President Trump's Minnesota immigration blitz has brought federal law enforcement there to a near-standstill. Gun and drug prosecutions plunged. Prosecutors quit. Agents disappeared from taskforces and increasingly turn their cases over to the state. www.reuters.com/world/americ...

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Once when I was backpacking in Glacier I sprayed myself with bear spray when I went around a blind corner and found myself face-to-face with a bear

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Herman Goldstein's comments on a draft of Egon Bittner's "Florence Nightingale in Pursuit of Willie Sutton", challenging the demand to isolate a single characteristic that unifies all police work. It's an interesting bridge to Goldstein's own, more eclectic analysis, in Policing a Free Society.

As to the overall thrust of your analysis, I, for one, appreciate your effort to come up with a singular characteristic that is descriptive of all that the police do and that provides the unifying theme for the vast array of functions in which the police are involved. I must admit, however, that there are times - ln debates over the nature of the police function - that I find myself hard-pressed to explain why it is so essential

that we identify the characteristic that is common to all that the police do. Maybe I simply despair at hard work, but more recently - especially ln contact with students - I have found it easier to explain the police function as organized around four or five common characteristics - each of which shows up ln your analysis of the police role. The authority to make use of force stands out as being of special importance -as does the ability to bring about a temPorary solution a problem that is ln need of immediate attention. It seems to me that the average citizen, in calling the police, is summoning a package of characteristics and attributes (e.g., the authority and ability to use force, the ability to investigate, the capacity to deal wlth situations quickly, and the capacity to freeze situations) - one or more of which he thinks are necessary to deal with the problem he confronts.

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Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center @anzaborrego.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

View of Mescal Bajada this morning with Golden Pacific Powerlink 500-kV high-voltage transmission line. will cut through the middle of Anza-Borrego Desert (if SDGE and their investors get what they want). Please go here to learn more and take action: theabf.org/park-threat/

View of Mescal Bajada this morning with Golden Pacific Powerlink 500-kV high-voltage transmission line. This will cut through the middle of Anza-Borrego Desert.

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Mad Hatter is ready. Get your tix! (Lucas is Mad Hatter in the Sunday show.). events.ticketleap.com/tickets/ball...

dancer with pink hair and multicolored nails

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

I'm late to this important article. Mental health policy debates are broken. The same people demanding involuntary treatment are slashing budgets for the ACT teams that would make it less necessary. (At least in Idaho they realized the mistake & reversed course, but not before the damage was done.)

nytimes.com

Idaho Cut Services for People With Schizophrenia. Then the Deaths Began.

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

just left a bar that was livestreaming the artemis splashdown

photo of a bar, with tv on the orion capsule floating in the ocean and the list of beers next to it

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

Artemis is now behind the moon and completely out of radio contact for 40 minutes! 😬 artemis-ii-tracker.com

artemis-ii-tracker.com

Artemis II Mission Dashboard

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American Immigration Council @immcouncil.org · 06/04/2026

“It has become riskier for victims who are not citizens to report crimes or seek protections, including restraining orders." When families are scared to call 911 or report real threats due to increased immigration enforcement, it makes entire communities less safe.

theatlantic.com

She Testified About Being Raped. Then ICE Showed Up.

Immigration officers are making arrests in sensitive locations, including family court.

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

This story is absolutely crazy and the people involved were/are complete maniacs.

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

This is interesting and useful for people other than psychiatrists, who usually aren't the first people who have to attend to the social disruptions that madness can cause.

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

"Employee well-being is shaped less by individual coping capacity and more by workplace conditions." Now, apply that philosophy to mental health crisis response in the community: academic.oup.com/policing/art...

police1.com

Why coping skills aren’t enough for officer wellness

Leadership behavior, workload and organizational conditions — not just resilience training — determine whether officers can stay well on the job

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

I am somewhere in this second photo (the excellent Thievery Corporation show Wednesday night), please lmk if you find me historicdetroit.org/galleries/ma...

historicdetroit.org

Majestic Theatre - Photos (interior) gallery | Historic Detroit

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

My nephew goes to Northern Michigan University, in Marquette, where they got 36" of snow in 48 hours (on top of God knows how much snow was already on the ground).

photo of a yield sign 2/3 buried in snow

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New York Magazine @nymag.com · 15/03/2026

Misty Copeland comes out of retirement to put Timothée Chalamet in his place during a live ‘Sinners’ performance at the #Oscars.

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Paired with reporting on the VA's new authority to initiate guardianships, this neatly displays the pathologies of today's mental health policy: Starve & otherwise corrode the quality of voluntary services, and make up for it by forcing people to accept the inadequate options the system does provide

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

A careful, quietly devastating review of research on involuntary outpatient treatment. Coercion is being oversold as a way of addressing serious mental illness, and its harms (forcing patients to accept useless or harmful meds & therapies, disempowerment, social disruption, etc) are being downplayed

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

With Kid Rock in the news I'd like to re-up this story about the now-defunct Oakley MI police dept. and its 100+ "reserve officers" (who became such by making big $ donations to the city to fund its police force; in return they got extra-special concealed carry gun rights). Kid Rock was one of them

mlive.com

Oakley reserve police saga and how we got to federal raid on chief's house

Here's a look back at MLive's coverage of the controversy surrounding the Oakley reserve police force and events that unfolded in the small Saginaw County village over the last several years.

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

This is one big problem with the current push for involuntary removal: It's using mental health law & acute care facilities for purposes they aren't designed for. Psych ERs & inpatient facilities have no special role keeping homeless people warm. Why isn't narrower/more specific authority available?

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Stephanie Chang @stephanielilychang.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

SUMMER 2028. That is TWO YEARS from now. Imagine if we invested billions in asylum case processing instead of ICE terror. #iceoutofourcommunities #keepfamiliestogether 3/3

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