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Prosecute RFK Jr. I think manslaughter would be a good start, but I'll take jaywalking if it gets his ass in court.

Trump may fire Wiles because he's too stupid to realize it would be an admission that his dumb ideas, vanity, and bigotry got us in this mess. Traditionally monarchs and chief executives blame their ministers or underlings for poor execution. Trump doesn't know the playbook.

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 5h

It will be genuinely funny if Wiles gets fired for Trump's failures, not Hegseth, RFK Jr, Bessent, Rubio, or even Vance. Because it will be the closest thing we'll ever get to an admission that Trump himself is to blame. She enforces, not implements, his will. The ideas are bad, not just execution.

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MAKS 26 👀🇺🇦 @maks23.bsky.social · 7h

🇵🇱🇺🇦 Polish PM Donald Tusk: In my conversation with Zelensky, I learned that winter has practically already arrived in Ukraine. Because there is almost no electricity anywhere. There are problems with gas, so it gets cold at night. They are preparing for a very difficult winter.

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 5h

I knew it was her all along! It's her diabolical plot to stab Trump in the back by letting him have his way!

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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 7h

She will always be remembered as one of the all-time greats.

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 7h

I completely agree that voters simply don't buy it. But it's a remarkable admission of weakness and failure, even if it were taken at face value. Trump campaigned on the "I will fix everything on day one" pledge, and now claims he is utterly helpless to change anything. It's ridiculous.

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 9h

Trump's midterm message: Vote Republican because we are helpless before the mighty Biden! The irony, of course, is that Trump has directly and immediately affected the economy more than any president in our history. And it has all been bad. For once, a president truly deserves the blame.

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

All wrong! Fake news! It should read: "Trump's first choice for Attorney General Matt Gaetz is accused of sex trafficking."

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

"We are always confident that people we disagree with would be improved by a little self-doubt." —Louis Menand, "The Metaphysical Club" What a great, great book. A literary as well as historical classic.

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

Trump is fifteen seconds away from blaming trans people for catastrophic diesel and gas prices.

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

Trump’s midterm message: I’m on the ballot and you should vote for me because I am helpless before the awesome power of the mighty Biden.

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

On October 15, 2003, the Staten Island ferry Andrew Barberi collided with a concrete service pier, which cut into the hull right at the level of passenger seating on the lower deck, on the forward part of the hull. Eleven people died. Many more were horribly injured. I was aboard when it happened.

Photo taken from the Staten Island ferry Andrew Barberi on the afternoon of October 15, 2003, prior to the crash.
©T.J. Stiles 2003

Photo taken from the upper deck of the Staten Island ferry Andrew Barberi after the crash, after it docked at the St. George terminal on Staten Island. Rescue workers and police can be seen moving in and out of the lower deck.
©T.J. Stiles 2003

Photo of the Staten Island ferry Andrew Barberi, taken from a ferry returning to Manhattan's Whitehall slip after the crash (the last ferry to run that day). The gash torn into the side of the Andrew Barberi is clearly visible, as are rescue workers. The vessel passed the terminal and struck a concrete service pier, which cut into the lower deck right at the level of the seats.
©T.J. Stiles 2003

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

* in 3, "exit" instead of "exist." We regret the error.

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

I had taken the Staten Island ferry many times before the 2003 crash as I conducted research, but October 15, 2003, was the last time (so far) that I ever took it. Here is to the memory of the victims who lost their lives in one of New York's worst transit disasters, & to the wounded who suffered.

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

I experienced the uncertainty about what exactly was happening, the air of panic, the need to understand the danger (were we listing? sinking? where to go to be safe?), and then the boredom as we waited for some resolution. But I can only say this because I was no victim, never in harm's way.

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

No else cared (nor should they have), but I was then writing my biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt, the Staten Island-born boatman who rose to build a transportation empire (and started the now-municipal ferry). For me, the crash was an enlightening experience, as I was writing about ferry disasters.

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

By then we knew the chemically impaired pilot was to blame. They pressed me for details of the crash. They explained the ferry's workforce is all Staten Islanders, a tight-knit group. They'd gather in the pilot house on the crossing. This guy, they said, had a reputation for keeping everyone out.

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

It was well after the event that we even realized how horrible it had been for so many. We spent the evening in the offices of New York Newsday—a newspaper—which bought a photo my niece took of a woman & baby donning a life preserver. A year or so later I met two ferry workers in Rocky Sullivan's.

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

Eventually a tugboat came to assist. The Andrew Barberi turned around and docked from the other end. As we exited, I snapped a photo of rescue workers entering on the lower deck. We caught the last ferry that ran that day back to Manhattan, and I got this photo of the damaged Andrew Barberi.

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

Someone from below came up the stairs, panicked, and declared the boat was sinking. I soon concluded it was not, but my nephew and I handed out life preservers. The boat halted and floated off Staten Island, and the upper deck calmed down, unaware of the carnage below us. No announcements.

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

On the lower deck, this led to intense carnage. As mentioned, 11 died, more were injured badly. On the upper deck, those crowded forward (you could exit from both decks) suddenly turned and ran toward us as a cloud of concrete dust rose in the air outside the boat. I hustled my niece & nephew back.

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

As I looked forward, we struck a concrete service pier. As the boat moved past, the pier cut into the forward starboard side of the hull, right at passenger level. It was mid-afternoon. Many passengers were returning home early to see a Yankee playoff game. They'd crowded forward to exist quickly.

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

I am technically a survivor of the crash, but I was never in danger. I was taking my visiting niece and nephew on the ferry to see the harbor. We sat on the starboard side on the upper deck. I stood up just before the crash because I noticed we had passed the St. George terminal & were moving fast.

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

* "puts" it not "outs" it. We regret the error.

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

It was probably turned off at Trump's personal order, but a subordinate might have done it because (as John Dickerson outs it) Trump creates a market for evil by incentivizing subordinates to please the fuhrer.

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Peter Gleick @petergleick.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

If nobody will cop to turning off Ukraine's Starlink, it should be pretty straightforward to turn it back on right away.

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Ray E. Boomhower @rboomhower.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” Dwight D. Eisenhower, born on this day in 1890

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

Honestly, Democrats should propose a bill that will pay $1 billion to every family to whom this happens. Republicans can hardly say no. When no one collects, it will prove the lie a lie.

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Miles Taylor @milestaylor.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Trump’s ex-chief of staff John Kelly said this to me, six years ago: “I don't know how he’s not in an institution somewhere, whether it’s jail or a nuthouse. He’s a seriously sick guy. I never heard him saying anything that wasn’t a lie.” Trump has only gotten worse since.

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

I have not found the answer, but I'll be honest: I haven't dug that deeply. If anyone happens to know...

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Serious question: Does anyone know who, if anyone, is actually buying the diesel fuel supposedly coming from Russia? I expect it will turn out to be fictional, but I'm curious about this question, if it's real. Trump doesn't understand that trade is conducted by private parties. So is it the U.S.?

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Anyway, beyond the historical profession, I believe, the history of slavery on both sides of the Hudson River is poorly understood by the public—as is the history of Black men wielding authority (for a time) on boats and ships. I'm not sure Texas today would allow a professor to teach it. 5/5

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Also the captain of Gibbons's ferry was a free Black man, one who had a reputation on the waterfront of taking sh*t from no one. As for the "escapee," he had been manumitted, answered an ad offering jobs in New Orleans, was seized and chained up in a ship in the harbor, and escaped. The layers! 4/

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

One case I came across was the story of a trial of Thomas Gibbons, Vanderbilt's first and only employer, for allowing an enslaved man to escape on a sailboat ferry from New Jersey to New York (on July 4, when the service was free). Ironic, as Gibbons held many people in bondage in the South. 3/

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Enslavers preyed upon newly liberated people. There were many cases of Black men and women responding to lucrative job offers, only to be clapped in chains, often in ships in the harbor. At the same time, some Black men held authority on the waterfront in the early 19th century. 2/

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

A volunteer at the New York Municipal Archives reached out with a question about young Cornelius Vanderbilt. It led to an email discussion of the horrors inflicted on manumitted Black people in New York and New Jersey in the early 19th century, when both states phased out slavery. It was bad. 1/

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

My bet is that "Bill Jones" never existed. Let me state the obvious: The notion that the president of the United States demands technical changes to the design of aircraft carriers—anachronistic, disruptive changes—is insane. It's like insisting that fighter aircraft must go back to propellers.

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

The Akron country club’s Sunday brunch’s loss is our gain.

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

To be fair, she was animated by the spirit of Western civilization. Not so much the Athenian spirit of philosophical inquiry as the Roman spirit of official corruption.

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Of course, with Trump it would just be the phrase “a golden age” printed ten thousand times.

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Emily St. James @emilystjams.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

There's a universe, like, two doors over where he's just a bitchy old queen living in a gorgeous UES penthouse with a handsome, buff, much younger man, and everybody in his building hates his guts, but I have never heard his name, not once.

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

For the first half of American history, the State of the Union was actually a message, not an address. A courier would carry the bulky document up to Congress. It was full of actual information.

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