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Ishfal

@ishfal.bsky.social
313 followers 719 following 253 posts
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Reposted by Ishfal
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4h
New in PN: Scenes from a personality cult "The ads are unambiguously illegal — & that’s the point. Again & again, this regime has broken the law not just to accomplish some immediate goal, but as a dominance display to say to everyone: Donald Trump does whatever he wants, & nobody can stop him."
publicnotice.co
Scenes from a personality cult
Trump’s taxpayer-funded agitprop is clearly illegal — and that’s the point.
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Ryan Enos @ryanenos.bsky.social · 4h
AP NORC: Trump approval at 31 points. A majority of Americans, 51%, *strongly disapprove*. AFAIK, strong disapproval crushing overall approval by 20 points is unprecedented. There is no political downside to opposing authoritarianism.
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Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 14h
Per declaration from the Pentagon's General Counsel, the OLC boat strike memo is TS/SCI, exists in hard copy only, there are only four hard copies, and DoD's sole copy is secured in his safe. Umm, ok This is not some sort of super secret squirrel CA program www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/u...
nytimes.com
Judge Questions Secrecy Around Trump Administration’s Memo on Boat Strikes
The judge also ordered the Justice Department to privately show the court the contested document, which blesses the disputed killings at sea.
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The Washington Sun @washingtonsun.com · 19h
A federal judge rejected key Trump administration arguments for keeping secret a DOJ memo used to justify its lethal boat strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific. www.washingtonsun.com/courts/judge-…
washingtonsun.com
Judge Rejects Trump Administration's Effort to Keep Its Boat Strike Memo Secret
The Justice Department has 14 days to turn over the memo for the judge to decide if part can be made public.
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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
It’s important that Google Earth/Maps has done this, but worth noting that so far the updated 2026 imagery is only of southern Gaza—the imagery of northern Gaza is still from before the final destruction of spring-fall 2025, giving the impression that large areas of Gaza City and Jabaliya are…
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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
The title of this essay comes from a quotation by Avraham Zarbiv, the rabbinical judge and IDF reservist bulldozer operator who is the public face of the semi-irregular force of military and contractor earthmover operators who have both pushed for and executed mass demolition operations in Gaza
lrb.co.uk
Eyal Weizman · All they will find is sand: Gaza’s Yellow Line
Most of the Gaza Strip – cities, refugee camps, schools, universities, mosques, the health infrastructure, agriculture...
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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The White House accord on AI that was signed by all the big tech oligarchs today misspells United States as “Unites States.”
Document signed by Trump, Sundar Pichai
Google
Dario Amodei
Anthropic
Mark Zuckerberg
Meta

Greg Brockman
OpenAl

Elon Musk
XAI

Jensen Huang
nvidia “Unites States”
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eva (^_^)/ @eva.computer · 29/09/2026
what they don't say is that our noble cyber warfighters, oh whoops sorry i mean "cyber defenders", could also just use these same open models to report vulnerabilities without Anthropic gatekeeping everything for their own financial gain
In the first of these sessions, a researcher used GLM-5.3 on a sandboxed machine with a local Linux build of a popular web browser. Over the course of a day (and with limited human attention), GLM-5.3 found several previously unknown vulnerabilities in the browser’s JavaScript engine, and chained them together into a working exploit: a webpage that, when visited, reads arbitrary files from the visitor’s computer (shown in Figure 3). This exploit targets the Linux build of
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Euromaidan Press @euromaidanpress.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
A captured Wagner fighter says Russian mercenaries in Mali used African prisoners as live subjects for brutal training. He describes prisoners having their legs blown off so recruits could practice stopping bleeding, while others were used to practice killing techniques. buff.ly/C7Q3XjW
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E.J. Fagan @ejfagan.com · 29/09/2026
Dems need to win PA by around 9 points to flip its Senate (~D+11 nationally). In that situation, they likely also take the state legislatures of WI, MI, AZ and NV Gov. Dems would have the votes to push the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact over the line and eliminate the Electoral College.
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Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Amazing stuff here
America.gov


Menu













































Conversation with America
Response ready. Sources are available. Use “Skip to latest response” to read it.
Is it accurate to say that the Big Beautiful Bill on average made the poorest people in America even poorer and the richest people in America even richer, when looking at total household resources? One word answer only, please.

Yes
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Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler.com · 28/09/2026
So-called “inclusionary zoning,” the practice of requiring home builders to rent new apartments at a loss to low-income tenants, is a tax on new housing that worsens the housing shortage and raises rents overall in exchange for a handful of means-tested units. It’s bad policy!
thecooldown.com
Greater Boston builders say affordable-unit rules stall housing, but Boston won't budge
Developers and city leaders across Greater Boston are clashing over whether affordable-housing requirements are helping address the region's housing shortage.
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Yonah Freemark @yonahfreemark.com · 29/09/2026
617 days into his 2nd term, Trump's Department of Transportation has *still* not approved a single new transit project for full funding. The problems I highlighted in March—how this lack of funding only makes projects cost more & delays completion—have only worsened www.urban.org/urban-wire/r...
There have been no approvals for new transit projects in the entire 2nd Trump Administration. This graph, produced in March 2026, remains accurate now, in September 2026.
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Jon Duffy @joncduffy.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
They're going to tear it all down... www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
latimes.com
The Pentagon is waging a war on critical thinking
A proposal to eliminate civilian tenure at military academies would weaken the minds and the might of America's future leaders.
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Harry Litman @harrylitman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Important loss for Trump in the bogus IRS tax settlement case. 11th Circuit declines to stay Judge Williams's order. Absent SCOTUS review, it will now return to Williams to assess penalties for contempt and sanctions.
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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
#BREAKING: Over dissents from the three Democratic appointees, #SCOTUS grants a stay in the third-country removals case; clears way for Trump admin. to continue removing non-citizens without a full chance to litigate the conditions in those countries (while also taking up the full merits appeal).
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Shannon E French @sefrench.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
While obviously not on the level of ordering war crimes, this policy change will do real and lasting harm of a different kind. The U.S. service academies have benefited tremendously by being able to attract and retain top academic talent to teach future leaders. That ends with this memo. 🤬
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Jim LaPorta @jimlaporta.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Def. Sec. Hegseth signed a memo today that CBS News obtained two months ago eliminating civilian tenure at military service academies. The Daily Wire was first to report on Tuesday that Hegseth signed the memo CBS News first reported on. Story: www.cbsnews.com/news/dod-pen...
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David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
it's evidently too much to ask the rw justices to consider the irreparable harm to individuals treated to such inhumanity. they are complicit in this criminality. shame on all six of them. and shame on us for having a system that allows this illegality.
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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"
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Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
"In the states examined in this analysis, a drop of approximately 20% in inflation-adjusted rents—as happened in Austin, Texas, and Minneapolis after those cities made reforms—could reduce poverty by 18% to 26% and child poverty by 21% to 38%." www.pew.org/en/research-...
pew.org
The Housing Shortage Is a Major Driver of Poverty
Housing costs are usually the largest item in a household’s budget and can determine a family’s financial stability.
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Ted Hesson @tedhesson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
An affidavit unsealed Tuesday said that the ICE officer who shot Venezuelan delivery driver Wilber Garcés Pérez in Austin was not wearing a body camera and that another officer turned his camera off www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
washingtonpost.com
Immigrant shot by ICE in Austin is charged with assault
An affidavit unsealed on Tuesday said the officer who shot Wilber Garcés Pérez was not wearing a body camera and that another officer turned his camera off.
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Sahil Kapur @sahilkapur.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
A phenomenal moment in the Senate. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., claims he has evidence Jack Smith went to a HAWKS game in Atlanta. Smith denies it. Schmitt declares he has busted Jack Smith for perjury. Smith, vexed, says he went to HAWKEYES game in Maryland. WATCH IN FULL, UNINTERRUPTED
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
"Fuck that." "I'm Sherrod Brown and I approve of this message."
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Ryan Goodman @rgoodlaw.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
"A senior prosecutor working on the so-called grand conspiracy investigation into a wide array of President Trump’s enemies has resigned from the case, adding to the turmoil that has recently plagued the inquiry" On the heels of diGenova's departure. Along with lead FBI agent's departing the team.
nytimes.com
Second Prosecutor Quits Trump’s ‘Grand Conspiracy’ Case
The resignation adds to the setbacks to the most sweeping effort by the Justice Department to fulfill the president’s desire to take revenge against the federal officials who have investigated him.
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Ann M. Lipton @annmlipton.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
And once again I have to ask, why has Reuters seen the prospectus and do we even have an SEC anymore? www.reuters.com/business/fin...
reuters.com
EXCLUSIVE: Anthropic's IPO prospectus shows sweeping AI vision, surging costs
Anthropic is making a massive bet that AI will transform the global economy ​more profoundly than industrialization, electricity and the internet, according to its IPO prospectus seen by Reuters.
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Matthew Gertz @mattgertz.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Kash Patel should resign in disgrace. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/28/u...
Ciaran Martin, the former head of Britain’s cyberdefense agency, said the F.B.I. hack likely had “huge impact on the operational capability” of the bureau and could rank as one of the most consequential data breaches in history — graver even than the Office of Personnel Management burglary.

“Losing the data on 20 million federal employees to the Chinese was bad,” Mr. Martin said. “But you knew the Chinese weren’t going to sell or publish it.”
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NOELREPORTS @noelreports.com · 28/09/2026
❗️South Korea’s presidential office demanded an apology from Ukraine over disclosure of the transfer of North Korean POWs to Seoul, Reuters and AFP report. It accused Kyiv of violating a confidentiality agreement and later falsely denying that such an agreement existed. #Ukraine
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Gerry Doyle @mgerrydoyle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
privatizing air defenses is like peak shadowrun
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Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Good thing that this couldn’t have been predicted almost a year ago <runs bitter victory lap> and the government didn’t just blithely carry on doing the same thing. www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/718...
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Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 27/09/2026
Four days ago, a scientist was surprised by the news that Anthropic discovered new virus genes for making DNA. He says he’s been studying them for years—and feeding his data to Anthropic’s AI as part of his own research. Coincidence? Here’s my story. nyti.ms/3VSWayc
nyti.ms
Did Anthropic’s A.I. Really Make a Scientific Discovery on Its Own? (Gift Article)
An expert at the University of Copenhagen said his team had been sharing its research with the company’s A.I. model, Claude, and that its new finding matched their work.
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
NEW from me: Over the last 4 years, America has lost more than 200k jobs in creative fields like publishing, film, TV, or graphic design. It's the worst stretch for arts jobs outside of recessions. How much is AI to blame? And can the arts' business model survive?🧵 www.apricitas.io/p/ai-and-the...
apricitas.io
AI and the Fall? of the Creative Class
America is Losing Hundreds of Thousands of Jobs in Media, Film & the Arts. How Much is AI to Blame?
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Still, it's extremely difficult to predict how tech will interact with arts businesses Take US novel sales, which had been declining for decades up to 2020. Would anyone have anticipated that short-form video apps like TikTok would reverse this trend and send book sales soaring?
a graph of recreational book sales
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Can the arts business model survive AI? Perhaps the best guide is to look at how the arts survived past tech revolutions Take music—internet piracy and then streaming killed the lucrative CD market, but musicians mostly saved their jobs by focusing much more on live concerts
a graph showing music as a % of consumer spending, with album sales rising through the 90s before crashing in the 2000s and being replaced with concert revenue
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amanda moore 🐢 @noturtlesoup17.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
9/27/25
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Robin Brooks @robin-j-brooks.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The attack on the East-West pipeline made it seem like Saudi Arabia is on the back foot. But oil exports are 5.5 mb/d, up from a low of 4 mb/d at the height of the war. That's below 7 mb/d pre-war, but - with higher prices - the Kingdom is minting money... robinjbrooks.substack.com/p/saudi-arab...
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Robin Brooks @robin-j-brooks.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
It's his eldest son who's running now...
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
We know a lot (but now talk less) about the Late 19th C. Americas Agriculture Shock in Europe. We know (and talk) a lot about the China Shock of the 2000s in the US and now Europe. We seem to know (or talk) less about the American Shale Shock of the 2010s and oil exporters.
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Dan O’Sullivan @osullyville.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
There's a moment early on that's just footage of Elon Musk balding and in khakis walking down an office hallway in the late 90s and the entire audience burst out laughing. If Musk is made aware of audience reactions like this I think he might actually crash out.
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Sam @samd.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
it’s particularly on-brand that Scott Wiener is an active participant in SF Transit Month while Connie Chan is nowhere to be found (which is unsurprising given that she fought against the ballot measure that saved Caltrain during the pandemic)
Elected Officials
Leaderboard - Rides - San Francisco Bay
Area
Top elected officials, appointed officials, candidates or board members who live in the San Francisco Bay Area by ride count for September 1 - 6

Name
Total
Distance
Agency
Count
Ride
Count

1 Alfred Twu
138 mi

43

2 D7 Myrna Melgar
64.6 mi
2
20

3 Scott Wiener
31.6 mi
2
17

4 Marina MIMBY
16.3 mi
1
12

5 Joaquín Torres
109 mi
3
9

6 EmilyM
46.6 mi
5
9

7 Emma Hare, DCCC
18.7 mi
2
9

8 James4mv
32.9 mi
3
8

9 SaraLovesBART
29.8 mi
2
8

10 busbaddie
10.8 mi
1
8

11 RebeccaEC
40.0 mi
3
7

12 Rockgirl
94.6 mi
1
4

13 H.B.
34.8 mi
2
4

14 Janice Li
11.0 mi
1
4

15 Danny Sauter D3
3.8 mi
1
4

16 Lydia S
12.9 mi
2
3

17 IttyBittyP
10.9 mi
2
2

18 Sam Gould
4.3 mi
1
2

19 ChristinePelosi
2.1 mi
1
2

20 Mike Chen
1.4 mi
1
2
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Next door in Silicon Valley @nextdoorsv.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Check out also their endorsement for insurance commissioner: "One candidate is ready to be California’s insurance commissioner. The other would be a disaster." yowza www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/arti...
sfchronicle.com
Endorsement: Ben Allen for California insurance commissioner
OPINION: In a race with no Republican, some California voters may see an opportunity to take a chance on a radical candidate for state insurance commissioner. That would be a terrible mistake.
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Omri Marian @omrimarian.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Thank you. Finally.
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Ethan Mollick @emollick.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
It is strange how much LLMs turned out to be able to solve such a wide range of hard problems that would not, instinctively, seem to be problems that a model of human language would be able to solve This is from a Stanford project that let Astra drive a robot in a kitchen tml.stanford.edu/homebody/
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Huh. The Daily Wire is reporting something that would be *enormous* if true, as since July the majority of all ICE arrests are people with no criminal record. I am deeply skeptical of such a massive operational change, given how the White House/DHS keep bragging about setting arrest records.
Jennie Taer *
@JennieSTaer
X.com
SCOOP: ICE officers across the country were told this weekend to stop arresting non-criminals, agency sources tell @realDailyWire
Now, ICE may only arrest illegal immigrants with criminal convictions or charges for the time being, said the sources.
The change also ends so-called "collateral arrests,
" sources said, meaning officers who find a criminal target alongside others in the country illegally may detain only the target.
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@NewsJennifer (Jennifer Schulze) @newsjennifer.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
This is so disappointing. A few days of holding firm against an assault on the free press doesn’t cut it. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/26/b...
Networks to Resume Trump Coverage, Even as White House Excludes CNN
The White House TV pool went dark this past week amid a standoff between CNN and the president. Network leaders, however, believe an indefinite suspension may be untenable.
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Sam @samd.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
in my experience in NYC, transit unions are some of the worst on this front, opposing measurement because that would enable people to hold workers accountable not unrelatedly, the same locomotive part replacement that took the OEM 30 minutes requires 16 hours of labor for MTA workers
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Sir Humphrey Davy Would recommend a JV For a place on the podium Of Batteryizing Sodium www.ft.com/content/0e48... Western companies lag China in sodium battery race
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Sam @samd.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
it’s genuinely fascinating how establishment democratic politics in big cities has become so ossified and incompetent that they’ve created a huge lane for the left to embrace good government reforms and build a broad coalition of socialists and technocrats
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Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Russ Vought just sent a rescissions request to Congress, signaling he intends to illegally impound funds. The $810 million highlighted in this “request” (but this is a pretext to just illegally impound the funds) is not the exhaustive list of many billions of dollars he’s impounding this year.
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George Pearkes @peark.es · 26/09/2026
Guess the cuisine.
A bright red soup with a baked dumpling in the background Decorated bread roll with dumplings & sour cream
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