iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLH2... youtu.be/L0nJA5licno?... youtu.be/7U6WqxnzwPc?... youtu.be/gUAGRyafasM?... etc etc etc

youtube.com

Buddy Miller - With God On Our Side (2004)

YouTube video by Darko Milosevic

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

This is my favorite "join in and retweet" game. I'm currently in to Holly Humberstone's "I Would Die 4 U" Also Francis Mercier's remix of Rachid Taha's cover of Dahmane El Harrachi's "Ya Rayah" But in general my answer to this question is "anything Buddy Miller covered"

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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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Reposted by David Thacher

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

Looks like (per @deportationdata.bsky.social) about half the 287(g) apprehensions are in Florida and Texas.

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Reposted by David Thacher

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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Reposted by David Thacher

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 · 23/09/2026

This bit is interesting. They seem to be specifically looking for emergency response to do more to broker long-term services than it has been doing? If that's in fact not happening I would suspect the blame lies more with the local mental health system than BCR but 🤷‍♂️

a staff presentation that will be made Wednesday says the program has excelled at de-escalation and resolving short-term crises, but has sometimes resulted in situations where a few people are relying heavily on the system without receiving sufficient long-term treatment or services.

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

Wow! That sounds amazing. York is really something. I had two days for touristing up in Yorkshire before #leph2026 in Leeds last week, so I spent one day in York and the other in the dales, which were also amazing (hiking into Linton Falls on the Dales Way by the river Wharfe...😮)

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

(built between 1220 and 1472, they don't make 'em like they used to)

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 · 06/09/2026

I'm in Leeds rn and the trains say "see it, say it, *we'll* sort it". I find it fascinating. It explicitly acknowledges that you, the layperson, may just be paranoid or whatever—but it’s ok, the friendly police will get to the bottom of it if you just share your unfiltered suspicions with them.

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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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

But then how would the children scan the QR code for the leadership club meeting and do 2-factor authentication for their school-issued chromebook?

David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

And it's not just about policing. As he suggests (following Rachel Harmon's lead), this argument about police authority is more central to the theory of the state than all the work about the philosophy of punishment (which is really about a more niche application of coercive authority)

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Reposted by David Thacher

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 · 12/08/2026

I have seen two total solar eclipses and they were absolute magic, otherworldly.

If they are jumping on the "defund sociology!" bandwagon, they might notice that Oxbridge already did and this was the result

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Yeah and that statement in the lede you flagged is genuinely insane, like batshit crazy talk.

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So the fragmentation issue is even deeper there I'd think...

I also don't know much about UK academia but I thought Oxford and Cambridge didn't have traditional sociology departments the way, say, Harvard and Columbia do?

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

I mostly ignored this story but it is all over my feed so I google-scholared the guy. Striking thing is not only had I not heard of him, I hadn't heard of any of the people who cite him either. There are these strange academic microcosms out there, completely detached from the worlds I know.

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

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

(director of the Hispanic Development Corp in SW Detroit)

David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Wait is that my friend Miguel in the photo on the right?!

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David Thacher @dtha15.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Interesting, I'd love a copy (dthacher is at umich with the edu). I recently wrote a chapter history of American policing in which the 19th century state takeovers get a brief mention (including the reconstruction-era takeovers of some Southern police departments by Republican state legislatures).

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

with the caveat that the rate of criminal violations remains ~0.02 per stop even at the end of shift. That does suggest that cops have some ability to predict "how likely they are to find something", but I wouldn't say they can do so "pretty well" (a formulation that seems to justify pretext stops).

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?"

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

Lucas knocked it out of the park but also so happy for his bff Sole who “shined in her solo moments, demonstrating her superb ballet skills” 🤩🤩

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, ...

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

For example here is the North Carolina agreement. Every measurable target is about the level of community based services -- housing slots, ACT teams, supported employment opportunities, etc. That's what this administration doesn't like.

justice.gov

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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