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Michael Pollak

@mdpollak.bsky.social
572 followers 300 following 646 posts

I love big books and I cannot lie

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Michael Pollak @mdpollak.bsky.social · 7h
Every leftist involved in elections must listen to Seth Ackerman's latest thoughts on the 10-year anniversary of his germinal article, Blueprint for a New Party. 3rd parties are literally against the law in the US. We're a 1 party state with 2 parties. www.patreon.com/radiowarnerd...
patreon.com
FREE REPOST Radio War Nerd EP #633 — America's Authoritarian Democracy, or Why The US Can't Have Third Parties, feat. Seth Ackerman [UNLOCKED] | Radio War Nerd
FREE REPOST Radio War Nerd EP #633 — America's Authoritarian Democracy, or Why The US Can't Have Third Parties, feat. Seth Ackerman [UNLOCKED] by Radio War Nerd on Patreon. Join Radio War Nerd's commu...
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JW Mason @jwmason.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
You would not guess it from the news coverage, but given stable growth and inflation and in the absence of a significant further rise in bond yields, current deficits of around 6% imply a *declining* path of debt relative to GDP.
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Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 25/09/2026
I have blamed The agents That hacked Your website And which You probably Reasonably thought I controlled Forgive me I am rich And unaccustomed To taking responsibility
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Michael Pollak @mdpollak.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
www.wsj.com/economy/the-...
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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 28/09/2026
Digital rights activists have long railed at the use of the term "IP," criticizing it for being deceptively imprecise and also rhetorically dishonest. I get where these objections are coming from, but I think they're misguided.
A pastoral landscape with a cablecar system running overhead. A procession of old-timey cash registers are being moved through the sky on it.
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ae @aelkus.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
People really need to go back to the original Jurassic Park and look at the rather disturbing ways in which InGen's management of it now looks prescient
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Mayfair Cynic @mayfaircynic.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
xkcd.com/1494/
xkcd.com
Insurance
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Michael Pollak @mdpollak.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
dropsitenews.com
U.S. Makes, Israel Takes: The Real Story of U.S.-Israeli Military Cooperation
The Iron Beam laser and Arrow anti-ballistic missile systems are touted as examples of Israeli military ingenuity. But they were largely developed and financed by the U.S.
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Michael Pollak @mdpollak.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
The latest official figure is that 60,000 rent-controlled apartments are being warehoused citylimits.org/opinion-most...
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Michael Pollak @mdpollak.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
This is a really wonderful debunking of the Huggingface AI stuff. It’s 25 minutes but I was riveted and now I feel liberated & smug again & it feels great youtu.be/jxM35ij5VGg?...
youtu.be
The Truth about OpenAI’s “Secret AI Civilizations”
YouTube video by Cal Newport
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JW Mason @jwmason.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
A fact that astonished me when I learned it a few years ago, is that until the mid-1980s much of Manhattan had no waste treatment plants - untreated sewage was just piped straight into the Hudson. www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2026/09/fact...
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 07/09/2026
worth tying this into the political economy of the slave south as well. from roughly the 1820s onwards, slavery became enormously lucrative in ways that had never been seen before. slave traders became millionaires. large planters had tremendous purchasing power. just huge amounts of wealth.
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Eli Valley @elivalley.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
The transformation into David Irving is now complete.
Deborah E. Lipstadt
@deborahlipstadt
Proud to be among the signatories to this important statement.  A lie is a lie. Wrongs happen in every war.  But the accusation of genocide beggars the imagination.  Unless you redefine what genocide is which is what many are doing.
From creativecommunityforpeace.com
4:10 PM · Sep 10, 2026
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Michael Pollak @mdpollak.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Song of the summer:
youtu.be
Send Us Thine Asteroid, O Lord
YouTube video by Joseph Murray
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Michael Pollak @mdpollak.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Capitalists seem pre-feudal when it comes to making people work in ovens. As things get hotter, they are trying to pass laws against passing laws. Phoenix workers have had some great local victories using politics, but the heat exploitation is jaw-dropping.
labornotes.org
Will Republicans in Congress Torch OSHA’s Heat Standard?
Workers around the country experienced brutal heat this summer, with July the hottest month on record. It’s creating a safety crisis on the job, as workers report severe nausea, dizziness, exhaustion,...
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Michael Pollak @mdpollak.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Happy Labor Day! I've always known Labor Day as a fake holiday the US created to smother May Day. But it turns out Labor Day started 4 years before Haymarket & was a moving occasion. It was only transmogrified later. From Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac:
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Daniel Ahmad @zhugeex.com · 04/09/2026
It takes you 20 paragraphs to get to the part of the article where they admit that Mamdani isn't paying the influencers and the reason they are posting videos of the stuff Mamdani is doing is because people are interested in watching it.
The mayor’s office says that it does not pay the influencers. Still, their proximity and access to a figure as popular as Mr. Mamdani can help increase their own social media following and, by extension, potentially put them in a position to attract paid content sponsorships from commercial brands. Some influencers said that when they feature Mr. Mamdani, the videos get more likes and viewers watch longer.
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JW Mason @jwmason.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
via @bcmerchant.bsky.social, who also links to a piece on why insurance claims adjusters specifically might be so anti-AI. www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/why-office...
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The Pub-Liking Universal Friend @johnb78.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Really pleased to see they've gone for Equal Earth rather than the awful Gail-Peters
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Michael Pollak @mdpollak.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
My truelove Jenny Brown wrote an obituary against the grain but I think it's perfect
jacobin.com
Gloria Steinem Was the Godmother of Neoliberal Feminism
Gloria Steinem died this week at age 92. The establishment’s favorite “radical” feminist, Steinem worked with the CIA to promote reactionary propaganda and helped direct the women’s liberation movemen...
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Dan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
I ask - in a world in which executives can replace the skill of workers, doesn't that mean that the executives get replaced by skilled workers? backofmind.substack.com/p/robot-clas...
backofmind.substack.com
robot class traitors
the future and its ownership
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Leah Litman @leahlitman.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
I have a piece in the Atlantic about SCOTUS’s ballroom order - and how the Court has a very wrongheaded and destructive account of the separation of powers www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
“The court is totally wrong on separation of powers”
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Michael Pollak @mdpollak.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Great piece. Unbelievable. responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-oil-ve...
responsiblestatecraft.org
Trump plan to control Venezuelan oil has more holes than Swiss cheese
The Pentagon could find itself underwriting risky loans to put Caracas' petroleum infrastructure back on track
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Michael Pollak @mdpollak.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
From today's Money Stuff by Matt Levine
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Michael Pollak @mdpollak.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Tremendous piece by Tony Wood on Cuba & Venezuela & how they fit right into the distinctive shape of the US Empire of Latin America as it's been continuously since the late 19C.
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Michael Pollak @mdpollak.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Ofc you already know this, but there are lots of surprisingly great supporting points in here. Gift link expires on Monday
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
How about an Accord where both US and China agree to get to much improved universal healthcare at 12% of GDP from the current 17% and 7% of GDP respectively, thus certainly tackling bilateral safety net quality, & maybe even C I S issues, REERs & global imbalances all at the same time?
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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 29/08/2026
‘Trump’s vice president was a writer before he was a politician, and brought a writer’s vices with him: a titanic but fragile ego, limitless self-interest and thirst for adulation, an unsleeping vigilance for any slight.’ @piercepenniless.bsky.social on J.D. Vance. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
lrb.co.uk
James Butler · Short Cuts: J.D. Vance’s Conversion
The most obvious question is not whether J.D. Vance believes what he claims to believe, but why, if he believes it, he...
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Michael Pollak @mdpollak.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
"Cuba’s iconic vintage cars have all but disappeared and in their place, small electric solar panel tricycles – most of them made in China – have become the primary means of transportation for hundreds of thousands of Cubans grappling with a prolonged fuel crisis."
travelindustrytoday.com
SOLAR CYCLES HELP RESILIENT CUBANS GET AROUND
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Michael Pollak @mdpollak.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Today I learned that the "chopper" in "lamb-chopper" cheese (a sheep-milk gouda that is both weird and good) is not what I thought it was
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Michael Pollak @mdpollak.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
This by Hans Kundnani is the best thing I've read in a long time on the term "populism" and how successful it's been at calumniating the left and mainstreaming the right www.theideasletter.org/essay/obfusc...
theideasletter.org
Obfuscations of Populism
The language of “populism” has distorted our understanding of Europe’s far right, shifting attention from its substantive politics to its political style and casting the central conflict as one betwee...
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Michael Pollak @mdpollak.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
A different take on Salieri by Garrison Keillor. Also I didn't know that play was originally by Pushkin
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Michael Pollak @mdpollak.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Sam Kriss at his best: Jason Arday as a wide boy tragic genius and the mob that flayed him with a reverse-panopticon substack.com/home/post/p-...
substack.com
The carrion-eaters
What we did to Jason Arday
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
All you have to do is find things that cue up the bigotry you want to promote, and make them salient - preferably, while avoiding the same for context that would complicate your intended narrative (in a distracted, low-participation political culture, the last bit comes practically for free). 8/
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Michael Pollak @mdpollak.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
insideclimatenews.org/news/1008202...
insideclimatenews.org
NYC Wants to Use Thermal Energy to Cool Subway Stations - Inside Climate News
The stations can become “underground saunas” in the summer. An $800,000 pilot study could help lower temperatures.
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Michael Pollak @mdpollak.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
This analysis of the Trump tariff regime by Ricardo Haussmann, edited by @adam_tooze, is quite something adamtooze.substack.com/p/taxing-ame...
adamtooze.substack.com
Taxing America's dark matter. Israeli emigration. Beijing insists Aristotle exists. Stuart Hall on political correctness.
Great links, images, and reading from Chartbook Newsletter by Adam Tooze
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Hadas Weiss @hadas.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
12yo nephew: if you take us there together we'll fight 10yo nephew: yeah me: you say it like it's your destiny. you have free will, you can choose not to fight 10yo: we'll fight out of our own free will 12yo: i know i will
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Michael Pollak @mdpollak.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
"If New Yorkers believe that a person experiencing a mental health crisis should be treated as a patient, not a criminal, then we have to build—and fund—the workforce capable of delivering it." Tiffany Cabán op-ed www.amny.com/law/op-ed-me...
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sam @samthielman.com · 14/08/2026
I believe they prefer to be called “tech reporters” but I applaud the directness
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#StupidSuez @diplomatofnight.com · 12/08/2026
I know I keep bringing it up but this graph should really clarify things for the people who may not care much about Israel-Palestine but do care about electing Democrats, especially liberal (not necessarily even left!) ones.
IMEU
POLICY PROJECT
Despite AIPAC's claim that it is a bipartisan organization, the vast majority of its money comes from Republican donors and a supermajority of its spending is in Democratic primaries.
Democratic voters are overwhelmingly opposed to US support for Israel, with poll after poll proving that AIPAC-backed candidates are viewed less favorably.
AIPAC spending in primaries by party
• Democratic • Republican
2022
$27.2 million
2024
$40.3 million
$3.08 million
2026
$63 million
Note: Figures for 2022 and 2024 are adjusted for inflation. The New York Times
$4.16 million
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Albert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Funny how no one calls this "overcapacity" @katemac.bsky.social @aldasky.bsky.social @edwardongwesojr.com US Data Center capex boom of many trillions over a decade + global dominance at about 80% of global AI investments is analagous to China's enormous Green boom + 70-80% global dominance.
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Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
The amazing data-vis folks at FT do it again. www.ft.com/content/25bc...
ft.com
Israel’s campaign to make southern Lebanon ‘unliveable’
Israeli forces have systematically destroyed homes, roads, farmland and forests despite ceasefire with Hizbollah
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Michael Pollak @mdpollak.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
From today's Writer's Almanac by Garrison Keillor
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Michael Pollak @mdpollak.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
From today's @jewishcurrents.bsky.social's newsletter by @joshnathankazis.bsky.social
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Michael Pollak @mdpollak.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Every "moderate" group is backed by billionaires, corps & Gulf countries. How do they get the label "moderates?" "Status quo" with heavy irony might be appropriate: the powers who rule under current system who want to stay Usual good piece by @ahjohnson.bsky.social therealnews.com/media-electa...
therealnews.com
The media’s go-to ‘electability’ experts are funded by Wall St., Amazon, and health insurance giants
The media is propping up “centrist” analysts warning voters that the progressive and democratic socialist candidates winning elections are “unelectable.” But they’re not disclosing that those analysts...
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Michael Pollak @mdpollak.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
This is the eye of the needle DSA has to thread legally in this stupid country where normal political parties are illegal. "Mixing politics with government" horrors www.cityandstateny.com/politics/202...
cityandstateny.com
Should DSA table at Mamdani’s government events?
NYC-DSA said it’s just like other nonprofits. An ethics watchdog said it’s not.
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Michael Pollak @mdpollak.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
TIL that Eleanor of Aquitaine is the mother of all Eleanors, the first of that name. It seems it was a joke. Her mother's name was Anor, and she was Alia Anor = Another Anor
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Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
You may see reminders in your timeline that today is the anniversary of the Klan's parade down Pennsylvania Avenue in 1925. Here's a little context about what preceded and inspired their march.
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Michael Pollak @mdpollak.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Mo Tkacik on the Charlie Kirk trial is a ton of fun. Now I see where the whirlwind comes from. Via @kthalps.bsky.social's podcast youtu.be/FKDQR-bzQ-o
youtu.be
New Charlie Kirk Evidence SHOCK–Here's What They Hid
YouTube video by Katie Halper
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JW Mason @jwmason.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
I feel like the fact that nearly half a million New Yorkers just lost their health insurance is not being talked about as much as it probably should be. www.politico.com/news/2026/07...
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