(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
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
When we were evaluating them at the hospital I worked at over a decade ago, surgeons tried them and the response was "I guess I could see how this could be useful with a lot of caveats, but it's a lot easier to see how it will be terrible and make us look like assholes and creeps" and that was that.
I keep bringing up Googleglass because it’s a reminder that widespread opprobrium is still a useful tool. If your friend says he plans on buying them, tell him they are for creeps. If someone shows up to your party with them, ask them to leave. Brand these as a product for losers and pervs.
February 13, 2026 at 2:45 PM
When we were evaluating them at the hospital I worked at over a decade ago, surgeons tried them and the response was "I guess I could see how this could be useful with a lot of caveats, but it's a lot easier to see how it will be terrible and make us look like assholes and creeps" and that was that.
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
The Project 2025 author is using millions of dollars in USAID money for his own security detail.
It is estimated that 762,000 people have *already died* as a result of Elon Musk and Russell Vought’s obscene murder of USAID, including more than 500,000 children.
Vought is a mass murderer.
It is estimated that 762,000 people have *already died* as a result of Elon Musk and Russell Vought’s obscene murder of USAID, including more than 500,000 children.
Vought is a mass murderer.
Exclusive: White House uses USAID funds for budget director Vought's security, documents show
The White House budget office is using millions of dollars from the former U.S. foreign aid agency to pay for the security detail of Russell Vought, President Donald Trump's budget chief and an archit...
www.reuters.com
February 13, 2026 at 2:46 PM
The Project 2025 author is using millions of dollars in USAID money for his own security detail.
It is estimated that 762,000 people have *already died* as a result of Elon Musk and Russell Vought’s obscene murder of USAID, including more than 500,000 children.
Vought is a mass murderer.
It is estimated that 762,000 people have *already died* as a result of Elon Musk and Russell Vought’s obscene murder of USAID, including more than 500,000 children.
Vought is a mass murderer.
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
"Racist people are firing and laying off Black women at three times the rate of other women."
😬Yikes! It sounds bad when you say it like that!
"Black women are losing jobs at 3 times the rate."
Much better! Makes it sound like the Black women just need to be more careful or better at their jobs!
😬Yikes! It sounds bad when you say it like that!
"Black women are losing jobs at 3 times the rate."
Much better! Makes it sound like the Black women just need to be more careful or better at their jobs!
Black Women Are Losing Jobs At Three Times The Rate Of Other Women | Essence
New labor data shows Black women accounted for a disproportionate share of job losses across 2025, especially in federal, education, and care-sector roles.
www.essence.com
February 13, 2026 at 12:01 PM
"Racist people are firing and laying off Black women at three times the rate of other women."
😬Yikes! It sounds bad when you say it like that!
"Black women are losing jobs at 3 times the rate."
Much better! Makes it sound like the Black women just need to be more careful or better at their jobs!
😬Yikes! It sounds bad when you say it like that!
"Black women are losing jobs at 3 times the rate."
Much better! Makes it sound like the Black women just need to be more careful or better at their jobs!
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
This is worth reading, but read it with both your eyes open: it’s clearly coming from ICE’s Lyons, CPB’s Scott and Tom Homan to preserve their secret police while marginalizing their bureaucratic rivals
Firing a pilot for leaving Kristi Noem's blanket behind. Berating staff when she's not on TV enough. Inside the constant chaos at DHS.
A Pilot Fired Over Kristi Noem’s Missing Blanket and the Constant Chaos Inside DHS
Secretary faces fire for confrontational immigration crackdown and self-promotional style; White House to wind down Minnesota operations.
on.wsj.com
February 13, 2026 at 12:46 PM
This is worth reading, but read it with both your eyes open: it’s clearly coming from ICE’s Lyons, CPB’s Scott and Tom Homan to preserve their secret police while marginalizing their bureaucratic rivals
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
the hell bluesky puts palestinians through has finally broken containment
and they still won’t change.
NOTE: it’s primarily geoblocking, but they nuked emad’s accounts and he was posting from london to get support for his family in gaza. mohamed’s IP address hasn’t been in MENA for months. AND YET
and they still won’t change.
NOTE: it’s primarily geoblocking, but they nuked emad’s accounts and he was posting from london to get support for his family in gaza. mohamed’s IP address hasn’t been in MENA for months. AND YET
somehow there's an update... and it's not a great look. it shouldn't be the case that the admin react when there's an outcry then just don't change whatever system they've got in place anyway.
![Tamer Nahed 𓂆🇵🇸
@Tamer_Alnoaizy
The Bluesky platform has truly become a strange and deeply frustrating experience for me. At 3 a.m., I received an email on my official address from them explaining that what happened was merely a technical error, and that my account had been closed due to a platform glitch after the tweet spread very widely and created significant pressure on their system.
I was genuinely happy when I read the message. I thought the issue had finally been resolved and that I would regain access to my account normally. But the moment I logged in, I was shocked to find that my account had been suspended again.
It was extremely painful… like a door that opened for a brief moment only to be shut harshly once more. Honestly, I no longer feel any desire to use this platform. It feels like there is no real freedom of expression, and that our voices are only allowed to exist as long as they don’t disturb anyone.
[the poster uploaded two screenshots, one of an email telling him that bluesky reviewed their decision and restored his account. the second screenshot shows his account has been suspended again]
11:42 AM · Feb 12, 2026
https://twitter.com/Tamer_Alnoaizy/status/2021912820057509913](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2l6seozmjsqc4kfukjejat77/bafkreibhacmj4yhhfaq5jd7bgungrpahz2xzavabcsxgghwrvxh2onhnom@jpeg)
February 13, 2026 at 12:33 PM
the hell bluesky puts palestinians through has finally broken containment
and they still won’t change.
NOTE: it’s primarily geoblocking, but they nuked emad’s accounts and he was posting from london to get support for his family in gaza. mohamed’s IP address hasn’t been in MENA for months. AND YET
and they still won’t change.
NOTE: it’s primarily geoblocking, but they nuked emad’s accounts and he was posting from london to get support for his family in gaza. mohamed’s IP address hasn’t been in MENA for months. AND YET
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
The WSJ story on Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski has a lot of bombshells. But if anyone happens to know anything more about this particular section, please reach out. I am sure there is more to this story.
My Signal is annakramer.54
My Signal is annakramer.54
February 13, 2026 at 12:42 PM
The WSJ story on Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski has a lot of bombshells. But if anyone happens to know anything more about this particular section, please reach out. I am sure there is more to this story.
My Signal is annakramer.54
My Signal is annakramer.54
is this actually the first instance of a reverse Superbowl ad
Ring cancels its partnership with Flock Safety after surveillance backlash
Ring cancels its partnership with Flock Safety after surveillance backlash
Flock off
buff.ly
February 13, 2026 at 1:33 AM
is this actually the first instance of a reverse Superbowl ad
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
“The Constitution does not permit the government to arrest thousands of individuals and then disregard their constitutional rights because it would be too challenging to honor those rights.”
BREAKING: Judge Nancy Brasel, a Trump appointee, has issued a TRO in the Minnesota access-to-counsel case about treatment at Whipple.
"It appears that in planning for Operation Metro Surge, the government failed to plan for the constitutional rights of its civil detainees."
"It appears that in planning for Operation Metro Surge, the government failed to plan for the constitutional rights of its civil detainees."
February 13, 2026 at 12:24 AM
“The Constitution does not permit the government to arrest thousands of individuals and then disregard their constitutional rights because it would be too challenging to honor those rights.”
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
here is the book. highly recommend it. wwnorton.com/books/978132...
Savings and Trust
Winner of the 2025 Frederick Douglass Book Prize<br />A <em>Publishers Weekly</em> Best Nonfiction Book of 2024<br /><br />A leading historian exposes how the rise and tragic failure of the Freedman&#...
wwnorton.com
February 13, 2026 at 12:12 AM
here is the book. highly recommend it. wwnorton.com/books/978132...
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
Brandy Jensen on the cheating Norwegian biathlete: defector.com/adulterous-n...
February 12, 2026 at 11:55 PM
Brandy Jensen on the cheating Norwegian biathlete: defector.com/adulterous-n...
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
Much like it took Nixon to go to China, it took Kanye West to summarize American white supremacist culture (a song called "Heil Hitler" that is mostly about losing visitation rights)
February 12, 2026 at 11:47 PM
Much like it took Nixon to go to China, it took Kanye West to summarize American white supremacist culture (a song called "Heil Hitler" that is mostly about losing visitation rights)
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
You can't... repeal... a scientific finding. At that point it's just called lying about it.
Breaking News: The Trump administration repealed the bedrock scientific finding that greenhouse gases threaten human life and well being, meaning that the EPA can no longer regulate them. nyti.ms/4rSszQu
February 12, 2026 at 8:38 PM
You can't... repeal... a scientific finding. At that point it's just called lying about it.
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
i can remember how in the 80s and the 90s, imelda marcos’ shoe collection was a shorthand for comically naked thievery and corruption and now we have a first family who literally shat in golden toilets
one of the things that’s harder to see while we are in it, but will jump off the page at future historians, is how deeply corrupt *the entire trump family* is, and how they abused and and manipulated every lever of the federal government they could grab to steal everything that isn’t nailed down
News: The top-secret whistleblower complaint against Tulsi Gabbard is related to a conversation intercepted last spring in which two foreign nationals discussed Jared Kushner, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter. www.wsj.com/politics/nat...
February 12, 2026 at 9:18 PM
i can remember how in the 80s and the 90s, imelda marcos’ shoe collection was a shorthand for comically naked thievery and corruption and now we have a first family who literally shat in golden toilets
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
Tom Homan announced on that “Operation Metro Surge” — the Trump administration’s violent immigration crackdown in Minnesota — would be ending in around a week. Notably, DHS funding is set to expire this week unless Republicans and Democrats can agree on a budget bill.
Minnesotans Skeptical as “Border Czar” Homan Announces Drawdown of DHS Operations in State
One Minneapolis lawmaker urged residents to “remain cautious and vigilant until we can confirm what this truly means.”…
buff.ly
February 12, 2026 at 10:45 PM
Tom Homan announced on that “Operation Metro Surge” — the Trump administration’s violent immigration crackdown in Minnesota — would be ending in around a week. Notably, DHS funding is set to expire this week unless Republicans and Democrats can agree on a budget bill.
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
yep, they're still at it in LA and Portland too
the media is gonna be like "time for a new narrative" and it's so important to keep talking about how none of the cities they invaded have become more safe since the spotlight shifted away from them
the media is gonna be like "time for a new narrative" and it's so important to keep talking about how none of the cities they invaded have become more safe since the spotlight shifted away from them
ICE “left” Chicago in November, but they’ve disappeared three people from my community in two days this week.
Don’t believe the hype about them, leaving Minnesota, either.
Don’t believe the hype about them, leaving Minnesota, either.
February 12, 2026 at 7:17 PM
yep, they're still at it in LA and Portland too
the media is gonna be like "time for a new narrative" and it's so important to keep talking about how none of the cities they invaded have become more safe since the spotlight shifted away from them
the media is gonna be like "time for a new narrative" and it's so important to keep talking about how none of the cities they invaded have become more safe since the spotlight shifted away from them
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
And they're still grabbing observers like Maria Santay.
www-nbclosangeles-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.nbcl...
www-nbclosangeles-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.nbcl...
February 12, 2026 at 10:01 PM
And they're still grabbing observers like Maria Santay.
www-nbclosangeles-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.nbcl...
www-nbclosangeles-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.nbcl...
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
two days ago, the WSJ described young people as "splurging on" rotisserie chicken, the $6 item that, by weight, is the cheapest meat at the grocery store. the ruling class tells each other with increasing desperation that we deserve what they're doing to us
February 12, 2026 at 9:28 PM
two days ago, the WSJ described young people as "splurging on" rotisserie chicken, the $6 item that, by weight, is the cheapest meat at the grocery store. the ruling class tells each other with increasing desperation that we deserve what they're doing to us
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
Much like the theory that infinite monkeys at infinite typewriters will write Shakespeare, a large enough concentration of evangelical American Protestants will produce Magdalene laundries
The Trump administration is incarcerating migrant girls in, essentially, a forced pregnancy camp.
Trump administration is sending pregnant migrant girls to South Texas shelter flagged as medically inadequate
Government sources and advocates for the children worry the goal is to concentrate them in Texas, where abortion is banned.
www.kut.org
February 12, 2026 at 6:47 PM
Much like the theory that infinite monkeys at infinite typewriters will write Shakespeare, a large enough concentration of evangelical American Protestants will produce Magdalene laundries
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
and they were relatively well-off and well-known! we gotta do something about health system for all of us!!!!
Chadwick Boseman and James van der Beek both died in their 40s of an illness that's treatable if a colonoscopy catches it but almost no insurer covers them for people under 45, this is what Engels meant by "social murder"
February 12, 2026 at 7:13 PM
and they were relatively well-off and well-known! we gotta do something about health system for all of us!!!!
don't really speak Spanish but I get the gist I think
El Vaticano presenta a Waria, la némesis malvada de la Virgen María
La Iglesia Católica Romana ha introducido un nuevo personaje en un congreso religioso en Roma: Waria, la contraparte malvada de María. Según el cardenal Luis Ladaria Ferrer, prefecto del estudio del C...
www.elmundotoday.com
February 12, 2026 at 7:15 PM
don't really speak Spanish but I get the gist I think
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
We need to dismantle ICE and CBP when Democrats are in the majority.
In the meantime, we cannot send another cent to DHS without massive reforms to protect the American people.
In the meantime, we cannot send another cent to DHS without massive reforms to protect the American people.
February 12, 2026 at 4:46 PM
We need to dismantle ICE and CBP when Democrats are in the majority.
In the meantime, we cannot send another cent to DHS without massive reforms to protect the American people.
In the meantime, we cannot send another cent to DHS without massive reforms to protect the American people.
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
still looking for those photos of amy klobuchar on the streets standing up to ICE like we saw from jason chavez and elliott payne and doron clark, to name just a handful of electeds who are out here protecting people
Minnesotans stood together, stared down ICE, and never blinked.
February 12, 2026 at 6:04 PM
still looking for those photos of amy klobuchar on the streets standing up to ICE like we saw from jason chavez and elliott payne and doron clark, to name just a handful of electeds who are out here protecting people
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
‘Imprison all women’ may sound outrageous. But all of the horrors that are routine today started out as some ghoulish guy being allowed to say stuff like this without being beaten with hammers.
Fuentes, yesterday: “Our #1 political enemy is women because women constrain everything, every conversation, every man, everything. They have to be imprisoned. They are the ones that are hurting the fertility rate. They're the ones making us sympathetic to poor people, which are also brown people.”
Nick Fuentes: “The number one political enemy in America is women. … They have to be imprisoned.”
www.mediamatters.org
February 12, 2026 at 2:57 PM
‘Imprison all women’ may sound outrageous. But all of the horrors that are routine today started out as some ghoulish guy being allowed to say stuff like this without being beaten with hammers.
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
Someone was abducted at 10 AM by ICE on Central Ave. Their coworker says they’ve lived here for over 20 years, are documented, and have 3 kids who were born here.
Don’t be fooled by headlines when they’ve been lying to us the whole time. We still need you out patrolling until every agent is gone.
Don’t be fooled by headlines when they’ve been lying to us the whole time. We still need you out patrolling until every agent is gone.
February 12, 2026 at 5:22 PM
Someone was abducted at 10 AM by ICE on Central Ave. Their coworker says they’ve lived here for over 20 years, are documented, and have 3 kids who were born here.
Don’t be fooled by headlines when they’ve been lying to us the whole time. We still need you out patrolling until every agent is gone.
Don’t be fooled by headlines when they’ve been lying to us the whole time. We still need you out patrolling until every agent is gone.
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
you didn't do shit
Minnesotans stood together, stared down ICE, and never blinked.
February 12, 2026 at 5:33 PM
you didn't do shit