Sign in

Emery Berger

@emeryberger.bsky.social
2.3K followers 3.5K following 61 posts

Professor, Computer Science, UMass; Amazon Scholar. I work on programming languages & systems, among other things. PLASMA-UMass.org, github.com/plasma-umass, CSrankings.org, github.com/emeryberger. ACM Fellow.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Emery Berger
Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
One simple way that you know the United States is not a full democracy & has experienced significant democratic backsliding is that, in actual democracies, it does not matter "which party runs elections" heading into the next one. "Democracy is a system in which parties lose elections"
Przeworski, Democracy and the Market coverDemocracy is a system in which parties lose elections
413461
Reposted by Emery Berger
Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
There's a new wave of Democratic ads across the country that are somehow brutally partisan and incredibly effective and it's going to take some time for me to get used to this?
1213488732
Reposted by Emery Berger
James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Somehow not everyone is aware of fact alluded to below. So one more time: John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett were all on GWBush 2000 'Florida Recount' team. (Which made GWB first prez in 112 yrs to 'win' after losing popular vote. Now they 'impartially' rule on our future.)
9853362186
Reposted by Emery Berger
Kai Ryssdal @kairyssdal.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Just a reminder that the Secretary of Defense is a dangerous idiot
1726050915
Reposted by Emery Berger
Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Awful: The Supreme Court just let Trump's third-country deportations move forward. Still a shot at stopping them later but unlikely. Reminder: If Dems win power, they can and should defund both the white-nationalist Office of Remigration and third-country deportations, as I argue in this piece:
31632213
Reposted by Emery Berger
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 29/09/2026
Jack Smith: "History teaches that the rule of law is rarely destroyed all at once. It's often weakened by attacks on the institutions and the public servants sworn to uphold it. Since January 2025, we have witnessed precisely such an effort."
693279119538
Reposted by Emery Berger
Scott MacFarlane @macfarlanenews.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Jack Smith: “it’s inconceivable to me how you can pardon people who beat police officers… and then vilify the officers”
299214045941
Reposted by Emery Berger
Joe Walsh @walshfreedom.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
This. It has always been this. A sitting American president did this. And because he did this, he should have been convicted and put behind bars. And the fact that we never held him accountable for these crimes will forever stain this country. And we may never recover from it.👇
901264769101
Reposted by Emery Berger
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 29/09/2026
Jack Smith: "Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation ... rather than accept his defeat in the 2020 election, he engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results and prevent the lawful transfer of power"
346124754627
Reposted by Emery Berger
TofuNYG 🏈🏳️‍🌈🗽🇺🇦 🚫👑🖕🧊 @groguspeak.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
www.sacurrent.com/news/politic...
sacurrent.com
Karl Rove says Republican Party is being taken over by 'Nazis'
The Bush-era GOP political operative also said Republicans would be winning the battle for Texas' U.S. Senate seat if John Cornyn was the nominee.
452
Reposted by Emery Berger
James Medlock @jdcmedlock.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The GOP cut funding to the IRS because *audits work* and they fundamentally don't believe rich people should have to play by the rules.
Line chart titled "Revenue per audit," subtitled "In-person audits, 2010-2014." It plots average revenue and average cost per audit by taxpayer income percentile, poorer to richer, from the 0–5th percentile to the top 0.1%. Source: Boning et al. 2023, "A Welfare Analysis of Tax Audits Across the Income Distribution."

Across the bottom half of the income distribution, revenue and cost track closely, both around $3,000–$6,000 per audit. Above the median, revenue pulls ahead of cost: about $10,000 vs. $5,000 near the 90th percentile, and about $17,000 vs. $8,000 at the 95th–99th. At the top, revenue jumps to about $31,000 for the 99–99.9th percentile and about $90,000 for the top 0.1%.
273298771
Reposted by Emery Berger
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 27/09/2026
Johnson: "When people are promising free things to you, you must ask what the real price is. It's your freedom. It will drive costs up. It will make people more dependent upon govt, & that's the communist's ultimate goal." (Trump literally just proposed giving people $5k if they vote Republican...)
1662188520
Reposted by Emery Berger
@NewsJennifer (Jennifer Schulze) @newsjennifer.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Ummm. Locking the press out of the White House and AF1 is not the same thing as that one time the Obama admin suggested that Fox would not get an interview with one admin official.
34413
Reposted by Emery Berger
Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Elites that surrended to Trump in 2025 miscalculated, letting his imagined cultural dominance spook them into inflating the price of getting on his bad side. But now the logic of collective resistance has been confirmed as sound. Should have realized this earlier! newrepublic.com/article/2158...
25860181
Reposted by Emery Berger
Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Send this to every university President in the country.
361962441
Reposted by Emery Berger
Dan Friedman @dfriedman.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Emailing this not as smart. www.propublica.org/article/fbi-...
77321
Reposted by Emery Berger
ProPublica @propublica.org · 22/09/2026
Sen. Susan Collins helped steer millions in federal defense contracts to Navatek, whose CEO illegally funneled thousands of dollars to her campaign. The FBI sought to launch a probe and was eyeing Collins and other lawmakers. Then Trump gutted the unit in charge. THREAD 🧵
Martin Kao, CEO of defense contractor Navatek, poses next to Sen. Susan Collins for a photo. Collins is holding a model of a boat in her hands. Behind them is a large sign with the Navatek logo.
412113856078
Reposted by Emery Berger
Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
so i may be out of my depth here but hes at 30% approval, you elites can stop capitulating now
1004405563
Reposted by Emery Berger
Abdul El-Sayed @abdulelsayed.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
This is about one thing and one thing alone. Steering our research dollars for cancer, heart disease, and new infectious diseases to Trump’s political allies and friends.
24948401999
Reposted by Emery Berger
Greg Greene (he/him/his) @greene.haus · 17/09/2026
See, e.g., this timely exchange about stuff that'd boggle most normies' minds.
An exchange of posts between Anil Dash and Tom Lynch.

Dash: "I would like media to care more about the reality that tech tycoons want to kill people than what they're imagining about Al wanting to kill people. We have multi-millionaires (with support from billionaires!) calling for ethnic cleansing, a thing that has happened in living memory. Not theoretical!"

Lynch: "We need to separate outcome from motive.
I don't think any of them want to kill people. I think they want an Ayn Randian world where they can get as rich as they want & not care about victims (empathy is bad).
Zuckerberg didn't decide to hurt kids, he just didn't care that he was hurting kids. #AI"

Dash: "David Heinemeier Hansson called for the extermination of Romani people, comparing them to animals. An entire roster of tech tycoons responded by each personally giving him $1 million for his open source software project, even though he's already wealthy enough to have a personal race car team."

Dash: "Marc Andreessen and the team at his fund a16z hired - as a *partner*! - a man who has no background in finance, in tech, in startups at all, simply because that man had strangled one of my unarmed neighbors to death on the subway. To send a signal about what they support."

Dash: "They *very much* want people to die."
1143
Reposted by Emery Berger
Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Amazing stuff buried in new NYT poll: *Dems lead GOP on economy AND ON IMMIGRATION *70% of Latinos disapprove of Trump (!), 63% STRONGLY (!!) *60% of independents disapprove of Trump STRONGLY (!!!) On the pod, we bring you all these numbers and much more: newrepublic.com/article/2154...
newrepublic.com
Trump Rages Openly at Midterm Woes as His Worst Poll Yet Lands Hard
As a gold-standard poll delivers harsh news to a seething Trump, a Democratic strategist with experience in midterms explains what the data is really telling us—and how to prepare for what’s coming.
39897256
Reposted by Emery Berger
Erin Biba @erinbiba.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I didn’t want to bring it up because of all the “well actually’s” it was gonna draw but I’ve been waiting to see if anyone was gonna say something or if you were all just gonna memory hole this.
91829138
Reposted by Emery Berger
Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Again, absolutely wild that Republicans in Congress, so recently just spluttering mad about Hunter Biden, have decided that the most blatant corruption imaginable is in fact legal for this one guy
725287
Reposted by Emery Berger
Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
BREAKING: SCOTUS denies the Trump administration’s request to enforce the new U.S. Postal Service rule for the 2026 elections. Justices Alito and Thomas dissent. More to come at Law Dork. www.lawdork.com
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
No. 26A305
UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE, ET AL. U.
CALIFORNIA, ET AL.
ON APPLICATION FOR STAY
[September 14, 2026]
The application for stay presented to JUSTICE JACKSON and by her referred to the Court is denied. The Government is unlikely to succeed on the merits of its challenge to the District Court's preliminary injunction. And the equitable factors applicable for obtaining emergency relief from this Court do not favor a stay.
JUSTICE KAVANAUGH, concurring.
In my view, based on the briefing the Court has received at this interim stage, there is at least a fair prospect that the final rule falls within the Postal Service's statutory authority. See 39 U. S. C. §401(2). But applying the rule in the 2026 elections would be arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act because state and local election officials do not have sufficient time to reasonably implement the rule before the elections. See 39
U. S. C. §3001(m); 5 U. S. C. §706(2)(A). For that reason, I concur in the denial of the application for stay.
532655753
Reposted by Emery Berger
Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Jared Kushner wants Ukraine to give up part of its country so Trump and Putin can declare victory.
5125385
Reposted by Emery Berger
Mike Masnick @masnick.com · 13/09/2026
This is going to do so much damage.
24470109
Reposted by Emery Berger
Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
A recurrent theme in this excellent story about China’s progress is that people there regard Trump as essential to their success, including his ability to drive scientific talent from the US www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
In Beijing, a think tank at Renmin University recently published an assessment titled
"Thank Trump," which wryly hailed his efforts to hasten the "twilight of an empire," by undermining America's alliances, civil service, scientific institutions, and democratic credibility. In the past two years, the international approval rating of the U.S. has dropped nearly forty points, according to a worldwide survey by the Alliance of Democracies; in multiple polls, China now rates higher than the U.S.
361742738
Reposted by Emery Berger
Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
W/o getting drawn into the "seriously or literally" / "it'll never happen" trap, we need to stomp *hard* on the continuing effort to undermine Article 1 power of the purse by saying that this or that revenue stream makes something outside the normal budget process. 1/ www.nbcnews.com/business/eco...
nbcnews.com
Lutnick says Trump’s $5,000 checks for Americans wouldn’t rely on taxpayer funds
A top White House official suggested Congress would use a budget process to fund them. Vice President JD Vance had said tariff revenues.
1773207927
Reposted by Emery Berger
Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
theonion.com
Trump Claims He Was Falling Man
WASHINGTON—Saying America could frankly be more grateful for the enduring image he provided, President Donald Trump claimed Wednesday that he was the previously unidentified Falling Man captured midai...
412021316
Reposted by Emery Berger
Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Wow. New CNN poll finds 64% in Michigan say Trump's tariffs on Canada are bad for the state. Supports my argument below that Trump's disastrous trade wars are discrediting MAGA/right wing nationalist zero-sum thinking at a very profound level:
20600162
Reposted by Emery Berger
Eric Lipton NYT @ericlipton.nytimes.com · 08/09/2026
OpenAI’s top scientist, in a blog post on Sunday, warns that artificial intelligence is evolving so rapidly that it is becoming increasingly difficult for humans to understand and control it. Here is the post: openai.com/index/an-ali... And a couple of small excerpts--clear warnings.
224319129
Reposted by Emery Berger
Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Unprecedented corruption www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
692575879
Reposted by Emery Berger
Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Wouldn't it be weird if the racist billionaire who bankrolled and took credit for the neo-Nazi victory in Germany was somehow involved in American politics too? Can you even imagine? I bet the media would have a field day asking politicians who aligned with him and took his money for statements!
723230971
Reposted by Emery Berger
Dr. Jack Brown @drjackbrown.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Thank you to the USPS whistleblower. May your courage be contagious.
231224914923
Reposted by Emery Berger
Kai Ryssdal @kairyssdal.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Absolutely yes.
732638329
Reposted by Emery Berger
Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
This is pretty fucking wild. I had assumed in a worst case scenario he would target blue zip codes and toss ballots based on technicalities but this is even worse than I imagined.
Not only is this system astonishingly untested, USPS has simultaneously implemented an
impracticable zero percent failure rate.
13 When ballots are submitted to USPS in large-volume
batches, if any one ballot in the batch cannot be verified against the Portal, all ballots in that
batch will be rejected. For example, if a state election official brings a batch of 10,000 ballots to
USPS and USPS is unable to match just one of those ballots against the Portal – because, for
example, someone has recently changed their name after marriage or they’ve moved – then
USPS would refuse to mail the remaining 9,999 ballots as well. As the whistleblower notes,
34895854678
Reposted by Emery Berger
James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
This chart will figure prominently in a future historian's best-seller, "Self-Destruction: The End of the American Era."
13855208
Reposted by Emery Berger
Prof Dynarski @dynarski.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
23% drop in student visas to US in 2025 57% drop from India alone catastrophic for research and learning, here and abroad www.insidehighered.com/news/global/...
Graph of visas issued to students per month in 2024 and 2025
271255475
Reposted by Emery Berger
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 20/08/2026
perfect synopsis of modern Republicanism
Darline Graham: I tripped up on one question last night, regarding Taiwan. I don't speak politician. I was just honest. Of course, Taiwan is our friend. But I think people in South Carolina are more worried about boys in girls sports.
2859265336038
Reposted by Emery Berger
Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Your regular reminder that normal pro-democracy political parties do not make restricting suffrage the central pillar of their policy platform, & the fact that we tolerate this authoritarian behavior as a permanent feature of 🇺🇸 politics is a sign of just how deeply broken our democracy is.
212948
Reposted by Emery Berger
Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 04/08/2026
You could grow a spine and do your damn jobs.
781154033523
Reposted by Emery Berger
AAUP @aaup.org · 04/08/2026
BOOM. The AAUP is suing Texas A&M University System over their censorship policy that prohibits faculty from discussing topics & viewpoints related to race, sexual orientation, & gender. www.aclutx.org/app/uploads/... 1
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS, LEONARD BRIGHT, VANITA REDDY, LANDON SADLER, and AARON GEORGE,
Plaintiffs,
V.
ROBERT L. ALBRITTON, JAY GRAHAM, DAVID
C. BAGGETT, JOHN W. BELLINGER, JAMES R.
BROOKS, MICHAEL A. HERNANDEZ III,
WILLIAM MAHOMES JR., KELLEY SULLIVAN GEORGIADES, and SAM TORN, in their official capacities as members of the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents,
Defendants.
CIVIL ACTION NO.
COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY AND INJUNCTIVE RELIEF
COMPLAINT
Plaintiffs American Association of University Professors ("AAUP"), on behalf of
its members in the Texas A&M University System ("Texas A&M"), and individually named member professors Leonard Bright, Vanita Reddy, Landon Sadler, and Aaron George (collectively, "Plaintiffs") challenge Texas A&M System Policy ("System Policy") 08.01's prohibition on teaching "gender and race ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation, and gender identity" in academic coursework (the "Censorship Policy" or the "Policy").
On its face, the Censorship Policy imposes a complete prohibition, in all core-
curriculum courses, on courses "advocat[ing]" particular disfavored views of race or gender, or
any topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity, but the Policy does not impose any corresponding ban on opposing views on these issues.
7714228
Reposted by Emery Berger
David Corn @davidcorn.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
The founders are calling. They suggest you read the damn Constitution.
52680362096
Reposted by Emery Berger
Max Berger @maxberger.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
The U.S. Senate is about to advance the nomination of a man who has helped Trump unconstitutionally evade releasing the Epstein files, and tried to use federal funds to pay insurrectionists. If the purpose of the U.S. Senate is to defend against tyranny, it has failed in its purpose.
619552
Reposted by Emery Berger
💉Josh Rubin, MD @drsandman11.medsky.social · 04/08/2026
Call me crazy, but if a Democratic president had 350 accounts closed by their bank for money laundering it’d be more than a blip in the media
523228076488
Reposted by Emery Berger
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 04/08/2026
Whitehouse: "The last Q I'm left with is what's left of this committee? What's left when we don't demand straight answers? How many times has this DOJ been asked what became of the $50k the FBI reported it handed to Homan? ... our Republican colleagues see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil"
17358661868
Reposted by Emery Berger
Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Don't miss this vile story: MAGA is raging at DHS chief Markwayne Mullin for admitting migrant farmworkers can beneft our economy. This means his devotion to ethnic cleansing is in doubt. He must be excommunicated! I wrote about the collapse of MAGA mythology here: newrepublic.com/article/2138...
431448453
Reposted by Emery Berger
🗽LOLGOP🗽 @lolgop.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Just begging people to let it set in that even with the worst president in US history earning that title every day, a half billion dollars dumped into these elections by an amoral scammer, who may be the greatest con man who ever lived, can actually affect said elections if not effectively combated.
patreon.com
Democrats are pulling away in the generic ballot. So Elon’s trying to buy another election. | LOLGOP Studios
July 29, 2026 was the day reality rebooted. Right up until Axios reported that Elon Musk was reopening America PAC for the midterms, we were
513944
Reposted by Emery Berger
Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 01/08/2026
"The bill would effectively cap IRAs and 401(k)s at $10 million, a sum far beyond the basic retirement needs of most Americans." Could lower taxes on working Americans or afford more public services. www.usatoday.com/story/money/...
A new bill in Congress would crack down on wealthy Americans who use 401(k) retirement accounts and IRAs as tax shelters for billions of dollars in wealth. 

The 401(k) and IRA were designed to offer tax breaks to help Americans save enough money for a comfortable retirement.  

At a certain point, however, a swelling retirement account isn’t really about retirement
1017442
Emery Berger @emeryberger.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Selective pressure in action! “A generation of rabid, incompetent idiots.”
010