(VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
@braak.bsky.social
It's me, braak, returned at long last from my social media exile.
I encourage you to purchase my book, RADHIKA RAAD AND THE TOWER INGENIUS, which is now available (for purchase).
https://a.co/d/1nix74W
I encourage you to purchase my book, RADHIKA RAAD AND THE TOWER INGENIUS, which is now available (for purchase).
https://a.co/d/1nix74W
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The Scion of Oklahoma City’s largest McDonald’s franchisee family pissed himself at a peaceful anti-ICE protest in Mustang, OK this week when he tried to start shit and attacked protestors
February 18, 2026 at 4:21 PM
The Scion of Oklahoma City’s largest McDonald’s franchisee family pissed himself at a peaceful anti-ICE protest in Mustang, OK this week when he tried to start shit and attacked protestors
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There have been 14 crashes of Tesla "robotaxis" in Austin since June, and the public has only found out about them after the fact through mandatory reporting to NHTSA, which provides no real details. Police will serve Tesla, not the public interest. Only citizen documentation will keep you informed!
February 18, 2026 at 5:59 PM
There have been 14 crashes of Tesla "robotaxis" in Austin since June, and the public has only found out about them after the fact through mandatory reporting to NHTSA, which provides no real details. Police will serve Tesla, not the public interest. Only citizen documentation will keep you informed!
Warhammer designer Jervis Johnson...is correct.
February 18, 2026 at 5:52 PM
Warhammer designer Jervis Johnson...is correct.
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Recall the majority opinion in Plyler the justices pointedly said they wanted to avoid creating and underclass of people who wouldn't have a public education due to a legal status beyond their control. And now HF wants to go back to that. Fog horning racism.
The Heritage Foundation is now calling for the overturn of Plyler vs. Doe, the Supreme Court ruling that banned states from denying an education to the children of undocumented immigrants.
February 18, 2026 at 5:39 PM
Recall the majority opinion in Plyler the justices pointedly said they wanted to avoid creating and underclass of people who wouldn't have a public education due to a legal status beyond their control. And now HF wants to go back to that. Fog horning racism.
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propaganda works. I suspect it probably works better on people who think they're immune to it
X's algorithm is in fact doing what you think it's doing. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
February 18, 2026 at 5:27 PM
propaganda works. I suspect it probably works better on people who think they're immune to it
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Okay so this is true *but* not in the way most people think. Antibiotic overuse is not “I had five ear infections in a year so I took antibiotics five times this year”
It’s
“Farmers feeding antibiotics to chicken to make them fatter and more profitable” and “labs dumping chemicals into the river”
It’s
“Farmers feeding antibiotics to chicken to make them fatter and more profitable” and “labs dumping chemicals into the river”
Although in fun news from science, in some ways antibiotics kinda are causing worsening disease as our overuse deepens resistance. There are people in hospitals right now dying of bugs which would have been treatable 20 years ago. Though something tells me this is not the point being made here
February 18, 2026 at 4:51 PM
Okay so this is true *but* not in the way most people think. Antibiotic overuse is not “I had five ear infections in a year so I took antibiotics five times this year”
It’s
“Farmers feeding antibiotics to chicken to make them fatter and more profitable” and “labs dumping chemicals into the river”
It’s
“Farmers feeding antibiotics to chicken to make them fatter and more profitable” and “labs dumping chemicals into the river”
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Shame on NYU Langone for ending gender-affirming care & kicking trans New Yorkers to the curb. It's a violation of their promise to treat all people equally, kindly, and respectfully — and a violation of NYC's human rights law as well. Bending the knee is bad; denying people care is even worse.
February 18, 2026 at 4:45 PM
Shame on NYU Langone for ending gender-affirming care & kicking trans New Yorkers to the curb. It's a violation of their promise to treat all people equally, kindly, and respectfully — and a violation of NYC's human rights law as well. Bending the knee is bad; denying people care is even worse.
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is there a way of tearing down society and enriching billionaires that the left *is* excited about
February 18, 2026 at 4:47 PM
is there a way of tearing down society and enriching billionaires that the left *is* excited about
One of the Republican Theater Festival (I remember now, it was Republican Theater Festival, not Conservative Theater Festival) plays was about Occupy Wall Street and it was just like twenty five minutes of a Latina business owner lecturing a hippie occupier about how good capitalism is.
Anyway, the reason there aren't more conservative voices in the theater is conservatives don't go to the theater. They like to use the existence of art as a cudgel to browbeat their inferiors, but they actually think *making* or even *appreciating* art is gay.
February 18, 2026 at 4:45 PM
One of the Republican Theater Festival (I remember now, it was Republican Theater Festival, not Conservative Theater Festival) plays was about Occupy Wall Street and it was just like twenty five minutes of a Latina business owner lecturing a hippie occupier about how good capitalism is.
this reminds me of how, many years ago in Philadelphia, I worked on the Conservative Theater Festival with a friend of mine. She was not conservative but she said, "well, these guys always complain about the lack of conservative voices, so let's give them a shot" and we got a bunch of plays that
The decline of right wing cultural production is just due to the fact that they don’t like culture, they like the signifiers of culture, ie “classic sculpture means white people are better.” They don’t like art at all except for this purpose. They don’t even like the nerd stuff they whine about
February 18, 2026 at 4:35 PM
this reminds me of how, many years ago in Philadelphia, I worked on the Conservative Theater Festival with a friend of mine. She was not conservative but she said, "well, these guys always complain about the lack of conservative voices, so let's give them a shot" and we got a bunch of plays that
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This is why AI slop hit them like crack
The decline of right wing cultural production is just due to the fact that they don’t like culture, they like the signifiers of culture, ie “classic sculpture means white people are better.” They don’t like art at all except for this purpose. They don’t even like the nerd stuff they whine about
February 18, 2026 at 4:26 PM
This is why AI slop hit them like crack
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Twin Citizens: If you frequent a small, independently owned restaurant that would benefit from a grant for lost business during the siege, let them know about the Salt Cure Fund. It’s a small ($2500-10000) grant, and the deadline to apply is 2/23.
I made a flyer you can share out, DM me for the PDFs
I made a flyer you can share out, DM me for the PDFs
February 18, 2026 at 4:11 PM
Twin Citizens: If you frequent a small, independently owned restaurant that would benefit from a grant for lost business during the siege, let them know about the Salt Cure Fund. It’s a small ($2500-10000) grant, and the deadline to apply is 2/23.
I made a flyer you can share out, DM me for the PDFs
I made a flyer you can share out, DM me for the PDFs
well, right, but the problem when you ask it like that is that there isn't really much to say
Since the troll column seems to have worked: The very very very very very very very obvious question is not "why hasn't the left embraced AI" but "why has the right so eagerly embraced a tech product built on theft, sold by fraud, and optimized for abuse and misinformation"
February 18, 2026 at 4:12 PM
well, right, but the problem when you ask it like that is that there isn't really much to say
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Pardoning drug lords but deporting sick little kids straight from the hospital really sums the whole thing up doesn’t it
So after Trump pardoned Honduras's narco-president, the admin didn't just let him out--they canceled an immigration hold and sent a specialized team to **chauffeur him to the $1k/night Waldorf Astoria.**
“It's "absolutely fucking nuts,” said one official
www.propublica.org/article/trum...
“It's "absolutely fucking nuts,” said one official
www.propublica.org/article/trum...
February 18, 2026 at 2:11 PM
Pardoning drug lords but deporting sick little kids straight from the hospital really sums the whole thing up doesn’t it
good news everyone after filing my taxes this year and doing the year-over-year financial round up, I can confidently say that Donald Trump's economy has made me 0.87% richer.
February 18, 2026 at 3:35 PM
good news everyone after filing my taxes this year and doing the year-over-year financial round up, I can confidently say that Donald Trump's economy has made me 0.87% richer.
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one reset I'd personally appreciate: behind the insistence that we must offer the electorate a little bigotry is the idea that commoners are more bigoted than the richer and more educated, who can be appealed to with high minded policy. but then you Ctrl+F "phrenology" in the Epstein files
What strikes me is that 'the volk' have incredibly incoherent and everywhere ideas, but the people who claim to speak for them in the press are like clerics who think there are two poles for all politics and everything must fit between them. These poles are like, eight inches apart
February 18, 2026 at 1:19 PM
one reset I'd personally appreciate: behind the insistence that we must offer the electorate a little bigotry is the idea that commoners are more bigoted than the richer and more educated, who can be appealed to with high minded policy. but then you Ctrl+F "phrenology" in the Epstein files
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I regularly see people wondering how it's possible that there are so many musicians and writers and film makers and artists from a tiny nation like Iceland.
And the answer is really simple: State funding for art education and artists. I literally get a salary from the government to write books.
And the answer is really simple: State funding for art education and artists. I literally get a salary from the government to write books.
I’m constantly astounded at the sheer level of artistic production coming out of Iceland. Novels, movies, music. Amazing.
February 18, 2026 at 2:23 PM
I regularly see people wondering how it's possible that there are so many musicians and writers and film makers and artists from a tiny nation like Iceland.
And the answer is really simple: State funding for art education and artists. I literally get a salary from the government to write books.
And the answer is really simple: State funding for art education and artists. I literally get a salary from the government to write books.
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I received a report today from a community member who spotted approximately 24 new unmarked SUVs. outside the ICE facility in Tukwila, WA, just south of Seattle.
It’s hard to say for certain what this means, but it could indicate a greater deployment of personnel in the region in the near future.
It’s hard to say for certain what this means, but it could indicate a greater deployment of personnel in the region in the near future.
February 18, 2026 at 3:47 AM
I received a report today from a community member who spotted approximately 24 new unmarked SUVs. outside the ICE facility in Tukwila, WA, just south of Seattle.
It’s hard to say for certain what this means, but it could indicate a greater deployment of personnel in the region in the near future.
It’s hard to say for certain what this means, but it could indicate a greater deployment of personnel in the region in the near future.
"the 1% already pays 40% of the taxes" yeah okay but what if they paid 90% of the taxes, then the rest of us would barely have to pay anything and those guys would all still be rich.
February 18, 2026 at 2:24 PM
"the 1% already pays 40% of the taxes" yeah okay but what if they paid 90% of the taxes, then the rest of us would barely have to pay anything and those guys would all still be rich.
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hello philly fam, can we get this eagleville family fully funded? it’s only a little over $1k needed after a raid last week and i think we can push it over the finish line gofund.me/9e971cc7b
Donate to Support Eagleville, Pa family after traumatic ICE raid, organized by Community for Change
On the morning of February 9th, a family in Eagleville, Penns… Community for Change needs your support for Support Eagleville, Pa family after traumatic ICE raid
gofund.me
February 18, 2026 at 2:00 AM
hello philly fam, can we get this eagleville family fully funded? it’s only a little over $1k needed after a raid last week and i think we can push it over the finish line gofund.me/9e971cc7b
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G. R. R. martin gives all his notes for story ideas to three separate historians, each with a few different key points missing, and then they produce a book that's actually three monographs about the end of the war.
Not saying I think about the structural problems with A Song of Ice and Fire too much, but the other day I had a dream that 'The Winds of Winter' came out, and that it had an entirely new set of POV characters: historians trying to piece together how the war *really* ended a thousand years later.
February 18, 2026 at 12:39 PM
G. R. R. martin gives all his notes for story ideas to three separate historians, each with a few different key points missing, and then they produce a book that's actually three monographs about the end of the war.
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the overseer of project 2025 is telling you out loud that every inch you cede on trans rights is part of the plan to create a white christian fascist state
Kevin Roberts, President of The Heritage Foundation, claims that evidence suggests a correlation between undergoing Trans Medical Care and acts of violence.
He states Heritage's public policy solution is to ban it for all ages and they're willing to work towards this goal on an incremental basis.
He states Heritage's public policy solution is to ban it for all ages and they're willing to work towards this goal on an incremental basis.
February 18, 2026 at 9:08 AM
the overseer of project 2025 is telling you out loud that every inch you cede on trans rights is part of the plan to create a white christian fascist state
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February 18, 2026 at 12:02 PM
Our journalism is powered by readers. The newsletter is the easiest way to keep up.
A weekly round-up of our investigations and what we’re reporting next.
Join the list: https://f.mtr.cool/sksolbauxv
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Join the list: https://f.mtr.cool/sksolbauxv
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Japan PM Takaichi Sanae said it's been her "personal dearest wish" to lower the consumption tax. Nakano Tatsuya analyzed her blog from 2008 & found all the times she championed raising & keeping it at 10%.
Shortly after the article came out, Takaichi's entire blog was deleted.
Shortly after the article came out, Takaichi's entire blog was deleted.
February 17, 2026 at 9:32 PM
Japan PM Takaichi Sanae said it's been her "personal dearest wish" to lower the consumption tax. Nakano Tatsuya analyzed her blog from 2008 & found all the times she championed raising & keeping it at 10%.
Shortly after the article came out, Takaichi's entire blog was deleted.
Shortly after the article came out, Takaichi's entire blog was deleted.