(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
Not easy to ignore what Trump is doing to the US right now in terms of attacking climate polices and climate science.
But this below is the biggest and most consequential climate story in the world right now.
Period.
But this below is the biggest and most consequential climate story in the world right now.
Period.
NEW ANALYSIS: China's CO2 has now been 'flat or falling' for 21 months
* Down in 2025
* Still below Mar 2024
* Clean energy wave a key factor
If this is China's peak (TBC) it's the climate story of the century so far…
www.carbonbrief.org/...
* Down in 2025
* Still below Mar 2024
* Clean energy wave a key factor
If this is China's peak (TBC) it's the climate story of the century so far…
www.carbonbrief.org/...
February 12, 2026 at 10:14 AM
Not easy to ignore what Trump is doing to the US right now in terms of attacking climate polices and climate science.
But this below is the biggest and most consequential climate story in the world right now.
Period.
But this below is the biggest and most consequential climate story in the world right now.
Period.
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
As someone who naturalised two weeks ago, I can confidently say that the immigration process in the UK is already expensive, humiliating, dehumanising, and inequitable. These proposals seek to make the whole thing worse and crueller at every stage.
If you know anyone who's ever come to the UK to live alongside you, and you'd either miss them if they were gone, or at the very least reckon they deserve to be treated humanely, please put aside some time to fill this in.
Tomorrow is the last day for people living in the UK to complete a govt consultation on particular immigration proposals. Here's my earlier post about it, which includes the links and background information.
Their proposals are cruel bollocks that need to be stopped.
ko-fi.com/post/How-to-...
Their proposals are cruel bollocks that need to be stopped.
ko-fi.com/post/How-to-...
February 12, 2026 at 10:39 AM
As someone who naturalised two weeks ago, I can confidently say that the immigration process in the UK is already expensive, humiliating, dehumanising, and inequitable. These proposals seek to make the whole thing worse and crueller at every stage.
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
Really powerful, really illuminating thread. Clear, precise, devastating.
I don’t really know what I expect in posting this, but maybe some people see it and can learn from it.
I’ll call it “lessons from an unwilling immigration attorney.”
1/
I’ll call it “lessons from an unwilling immigration attorney.”
1/
February 12, 2026 at 11:12 AM
Really powerful, really illuminating thread. Clear, precise, devastating.
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
This attorney is describing a concentration camp. The Holocaust didn't begin with exterminations, but systematic removal of legal rights, concentration in slums and then camps, and deportations and denatiralizations
And what awaits these clients in Texas? Unspeakably cruel and inhumane treatment.
1. Rotten food. I had a client explain she had to make a half-pint of milk and an apple last every day because the other meals consisted of spoiled or rotten food. One client wasn’t fed for >36 hours.
21/
1. Rotten food. I had a client explain she had to make a half-pint of milk and an apple last every day because the other meals consisted of spoiled or rotten food. One client wasn’t fed for >36 hours.
21/
February 12, 2026 at 3:50 AM
This attorney is describing a concentration camp. The Holocaust didn't begin with exterminations, but systematic removal of legal rights, concentration in slums and then camps, and deportations and denatiralizations
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
you can just not fund this shit under any circumstances
you don’t have to pretend they need better training, or are doing an important job incorrectly
they’re just racist thugs doing ethnic cleansing and the whole gang should be in jail
you don’t have to pretend they need better training, or are doing an important job incorrectly
they’re just racist thugs doing ethnic cleansing and the whole gang should be in jail
More than 400 people, including hundreds of citizens, were “sorted” at gun point into racial and ethnic groups by 200 ICE agents who fired flash-bang grenades into cars with people inside, pointed guns at children & demanded their zip tied parents not comfort them. apple.news/Ausdx6kWtT0e...
Idaho families sue over immigration raid that swept up hundreds, including U.S. citizens — NBC News
About 400 people, including children and U.S. citizens, were detained for four hours while they were denied food and water in the raid, according to the lawsuit.
apple.news
February 12, 2026 at 2:37 AM
you can just not fund this shit under any circumstances
you don’t have to pretend they need better training, or are doing an important job incorrectly
they’re just racist thugs doing ethnic cleansing and the whole gang should be in jail
you don’t have to pretend they need better training, or are doing an important job incorrectly
they’re just racist thugs doing ethnic cleansing and the whole gang should be in jail
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
So DOD risked civilian airspace to obliterate some fucking balloons; when FAA found out and asked them to stop they refused; FAA did what it had to keep people safe; when the public rightly freaked out, DOD relented, lied, and blamed the FAA.
Sounds like Hegseth!
www.cnn.com/2026/02/11/u...
Sounds like Hegseth!
www.cnn.com/2026/02/11/u...
February 11, 2026 at 10:58 PM
So DOD risked civilian airspace to obliterate some fucking balloons; when FAA found out and asked them to stop they refused; FAA did what it had to keep people safe; when the public rightly freaked out, DOD relented, lied, and blamed the FAA.
Sounds like Hegseth!
www.cnn.com/2026/02/11/u...
Sounds like Hegseth!
www.cnn.com/2026/02/11/u...
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
As a senator, McConnell gets to enjoy the best health care that our taxes can buy while denying the same to everyone else
February 12, 2026 at 3:04 AM
As a senator, McConnell gets to enjoy the best health care that our taxes can buy while denying the same to everyone else
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
Van Der Beek dead at 48, leaving his family (SIX kids and a wife) broke because of the evil insurance system THIS fucking hag took a leading role in perpetuating
After an entire WEEK in the hospital, Mitch was released
Kentucky’s McConnell discharged from hospital after ‘experiencing flu-like symptoms’
Kentucky Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell was discharged from a hospital Tuesday and is working from home, according to his office.McConnell had checked himself in last week “after experiencing fl...
www.newsfromthestates.com
February 12, 2026 at 3:02 AM
Van Der Beek dead at 48, leaving his family (SIX kids and a wife) broke because of the evil insurance system THIS fucking hag took a leading role in perpetuating
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
Dell has been on this beat since the very beginning and points out a thing often missed: the cost to all of us for Amazon’s loss prevention strategy is a nationwide surveillance network.
Ring is first and foremost a scheme to charge Amazon customers to deter crime that costs Amazon (not the customers themselves) billions annually in refunds, returns, double shipping, and customer service overhead.
February 12, 2026 at 12:45 AM
Dell has been on this beat since the very beginning and points out a thing often missed: the cost to all of us for Amazon’s loss prevention strategy is a nationwide surveillance network.
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
Yet another indictment of the United States health system that James Van Der Beek’s wife and six kids need a gofundme because his unsuccessful cancer treatment destroyed them financially
www.gofundme.com/f/support-fo...
www.gofundme.com/f/support-fo...
Donate to Support for James Van Der Beek's Family, organized by Jason K
James Van Der Beek was a beloved husband, father, and friend who touched the lives of … Jason K needs your support for Support for James Van Der Beek's Family
www.gofundme.com
February 12, 2026 at 1:49 AM
Yet another indictment of the United States health system that James Van Der Beek’s wife and six kids need a gofundme because his unsuccessful cancer treatment destroyed them financially
www.gofundme.com/f/support-fo...
www.gofundme.com/f/support-fo...
God omnipresent and omniscient, technically speaking God is never *not* looking at titties.
Y'all think God ever looks at titties
February 12, 2026 at 2:06 AM
God omnipresent and omniscient, technically speaking God is never *not* looking at titties.
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
A young man at our town hall asked if I was pushing class warfare.
I told him: “We already have class warfare in this country — billionaires are waging war on the rest of us.”
I told him: “We already have class warfare in this country — billionaires are waging war on the rest of us.”
February 12, 2026 at 1:27 AM
A young man at our town hall asked if I was pushing class warfare.
I told him: “We already have class warfare in this country — billionaires are waging war on the rest of us.”
I told him: “We already have class warfare in this country — billionaires are waging war on the rest of us.”
I don't know a lot about this sort of thing but I strongly feel that a knife loses a lot of its utility when you stick it in your wall.
no Elon, all experts agree the ideal close quarters weapon is a Sig P320, carried in a special holster configuration only used by special forces guys called "reverse appendix carry". If the barrel is pointed into your guts when holstered you're doing it right.
Always keep the chamber loaded.
Always keep the chamber loaded.
February 12, 2026 at 2:04 AM
I don't know a lot about this sort of thing but I strongly feel that a knife loses a lot of its utility when you stick it in your wall.
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
I don't know if it's really clear, outside of coverage of Mpls and pockets of organizing elsewhere, that hundreds of thousands of people are actively and at every level of society fighting our government as it abducts and imprisons and torments our neighbors.
February 12, 2026 at 1:09 AM
I don't know if it's really clear, outside of coverage of Mpls and pockets of organizing elsewhere, that hundreds of thousands of people are actively and at every level of society fighting our government as it abducts and imprisons and torments our neighbors.
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
hope this doesn't need to be said, but nationalpost.com/news/canada/...
February 12, 2026 at 1:33 AM
hope this doesn't need to be said, but nationalpost.com/news/canada/...
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
Seeing Pam Bondi cry and freak out is a reminder that when Kavanaugh cried and shouted about how very much he likes beer, he was doing so under advice he got from Bannon who got it from Epstein.
February 12, 2026 at 1:08 AM
Seeing Pam Bondi cry and freak out is a reminder that when Kavanaugh cried and shouted about how very much he likes beer, he was doing so under advice he got from Bannon who got it from Epstein.
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
DID YOU KNOW: it has been approximately six years since this morning
Still thinking about this morning when my extended family in El Paso texted in a panic that their airspace was closed for 10 days, convinced we were going to war with Mexico, and it turned out Hegseth was drunk (probably) and attacking a party ballon
February 12, 2026 at 1:06 AM
DID YOU KNOW: it has been approximately six years since this morning
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
Every photo from Minneapolis looks like this. Cops decked out with guns and full tac gear facing off against people in bathrobes, parkas, and sweatpants armed only with whistles and cell phones.
Yet every verified MAGA chode on X dutifully calls it a riot or violent insurrection.
Yet every verified MAGA chode on X dutifully calls it a riot or violent insurrection.
February 11, 2026 at 11:50 PM
Every photo from Minneapolis looks like this. Cops decked out with guns and full tac gear facing off against people in bathrobes, parkas, and sweatpants armed only with whistles and cell phones.
Yet every verified MAGA chode on X dutifully calls it a riot or violent insurrection.
Yet every verified MAGA chode on X dutifully calls it a riot or violent insurrection.
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
Seeing this insane ICE violence in Saint Paul, and I’m wondering where Betty McCollum is. Just the most absent congressperson of all time. Hardly any communication about what’s happening to her constituent. Not built for the moment.
February 11, 2026 at 5:15 PM
Seeing this insane ICE violence in Saint Paul, and I’m wondering where Betty McCollum is. Just the most absent congressperson of all time. Hardly any communication about what’s happening to her constituent. Not built for the moment.
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
I called up one of the White House's "special government employees" involved in the Fulton County FBI raid.
I ended up on the phone for almost two hours hearing about the "deep state" "cabal," "Satanists," poison soda, and the "pure evil" of "gay pride." talkingpointsmemo.com/news/meet-th...
I ended up on the phone for almost two hours hearing about the "deep state" "cabal," "Satanists," poison soda, and the "pure evil" of "gay pride." talkingpointsmemo.com/news/meet-th...
February 11, 2026 at 11:53 PM
I called up one of the White House's "special government employees" involved in the Fulton County FBI raid.
I ended up on the phone for almost two hours hearing about the "deep state" "cabal," "Satanists," poison soda, and the "pure evil" of "gay pride." talkingpointsmemo.com/news/meet-th...
I ended up on the phone for almost two hours hearing about the "deep state" "cabal," "Satanists," poison soda, and the "pure evil" of "gay pride." talkingpointsmemo.com/news/meet-th...
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
"its hard to talk about a complex and multi-faceted subject that's also one of the most hotly debated topics on the planet that potentially touches many aspects of everyone's lives" yeah man this is the About Forty Words app. why're you trying to do all that on the About Forty Words app
Once again: people are angry for very good reason, and this brand of post is perhaps one of the most tedious and bewildering. Practically every social media platform is rabidly pro-‘AI’ so are govts, academia, companies. This one small space being critical of AI is okay, I think.
February 11, 2026 at 11:41 PM
"its hard to talk about a complex and multi-faceted subject that's also one of the most hotly debated topics on the planet that potentially touches many aspects of everyone's lives" yeah man this is the About Forty Words app. why're you trying to do all that on the About Forty Words app
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
for no reason whatsoever, I am bringing out my favorite 12th-century illumination today, which depicts
1) a Thracesian woman killing a Varangian Guard who tried to assault her
and
2) his comrades praising her and giving her all of his stuff for her very understandable and justifiable actions 🙏
1) a Thracesian woman killing a Varangian Guard who tried to assault her
and
2) his comrades praising her and giving her all of his stuff for her very understandable and justifiable actions 🙏
February 11, 2026 at 10:52 PM
for no reason whatsoever, I am bringing out my favorite 12th-century illumination today, which depicts
1) a Thracesian woman killing a Varangian Guard who tried to assault her
and
2) his comrades praising her and giving her all of his stuff for her very understandable and justifiable actions 🙏
1) a Thracesian woman killing a Varangian Guard who tried to assault her
and
2) his comrades praising her and giving her all of his stuff for her very understandable and justifiable actions 🙏
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
At long last, we have created the Luftballons from classic pop song 99 Luftballons!
February 11, 2026 at 11:44 PM
At long last, we have created the Luftballons from classic pop song 99 Luftballons!
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
Anyways, today is a good day to become @thexylom.com's member. As WaPo abandons its international coverage, the responsibility of reporting from Sudan to Ukraine will fall to indie outlets like ours.
I just want to keep my job and not have to self-deport by the end of 2026:
bsky.app/profile/thex...
I just want to keep my job and not have to self-deport by the end of 2026:
bsky.app/profile/thex...
February 4, 2026 at 6:14 PM
Anyways, today is a good day to become @thexylom.com's member. As WaPo abandons its international coverage, the responsibility of reporting from Sudan to Ukraine will fall to indie outlets like ours.
I just want to keep my job and not have to self-deport by the end of 2026:
bsky.app/profile/thex...
I just want to keep my job and not have to self-deport by the end of 2026:
bsky.app/profile/thex...
I think broadly this kind of thing "it's bad we can't have this kind of discussion here" is a weird sort of point. Like. *Why* is it unfortunate? What is the outcome that we aren't enjoying because of this?
Once again: people are angry for very good reason, and this brand of post is perhaps one of the most tedious and bewildering. Practically every social media platform is rabidly pro-‘AI’ so are govts, academia, companies. This one small space being critical of AI is okay, I think.
February 11, 2026 at 11:18 PM
I think broadly this kind of thing "it's bad we can't have this kind of discussion here" is a weird sort of point. Like. *Why* is it unfortunate? What is the outcome that we aren't enjoying because of this?