(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
interesting to think that revolutionary era americans understood themselves as making a break with the “old world” and establishing a new civilization. and crucially, this new civilization rested on republican self-government, not “sovereignty.”
The Rubio speech really is appalling, and if you haven’t read it yet, you should.
www.state.gov/releases/off...
www.state.gov/releases/off...
February 15, 2026 at 1:17 AM
interesting to think that revolutionary era americans understood themselves as making a break with the “old world” and establishing a new civilization. and crucially, this new civilization rested on republican self-government, not “sovereignty.”
Vile of course in all the obvious ways but also keeps raising the question these guys never answer, which is, if all this is true, why doesn't Mexico count as Western Civilization?
The Rubio speech really is appalling, and if you haven’t read it yet, you should.
www.state.gov/releases/off...
www.state.gov/releases/off...
February 15, 2026 at 1:38 AM
Vile of course in all the obvious ways but also keeps raising the question these guys never answer, which is, if all this is true, why doesn't Mexico count as Western Civilization?
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
New update, including my reasoning that getting off US tech means deleting Uber and going back to taxis instead of jumping to another labor-violating ride-hailing service.
February 15, 2026 at 1:31 AM
New update, including my reasoning that getting off US tech means deleting Uber and going back to taxis instead of jumping to another labor-violating ride-hailing service.
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
Sort of gives away the lie that they're arresting hardened criminals who are drags on society when they're setting up traps to lure in Good Samaritans
CCTV footage appears to show DHS agents posing as people having car trouble in order to lure a target out of his house before arresting them. The target comes out and starts helping them before 3 vehicles surround the scene. The car "experiencing" trouble then drives off with them.
February 15, 2026 at 1:10 AM
Sort of gives away the lie that they're arresting hardened criminals who are drags on society when they're setting up traps to lure in Good Samaritans
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
It's not a new observation at this point but that wild Noem/Lewandowski story in WSJ really brings home the extent to which all the Trump 2 cabinet-level goblins see their jobs as flying private, doing short-form video, and screaming at underlings. They all hate each other and none of them can read.
February 13, 2026 at 4:48 AM
It's not a new observation at this point but that wild Noem/Lewandowski story in WSJ really brings home the extent to which all the Trump 2 cabinet-level goblins see their jobs as flying private, doing short-form video, and screaming at underlings. They all hate each other and none of them can read.
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
Ok is there anyone on Phillysky who’s low-income & looking for, or knows someone who’s looking to buy a house?
Bc there’s a *beautiful* rowhouse in a really great spot in Brewerytown sitting on the market & it’s killing me.
www.redfin.com/PA/Philadelp...
Bc there’s a *beautiful* rowhouse in a really great spot in Brewerytown sitting on the market & it’s killing me.
www.redfin.com/PA/Philadelp...
February 15, 2026 at 12:54 AM
Ok is there anyone on Phillysky who’s low-income & looking for, or knows someone who’s looking to buy a house?
Bc there’s a *beautiful* rowhouse in a really great spot in Brewerytown sitting on the market & it’s killing me.
www.redfin.com/PA/Philadelp...
Bc there’s a *beautiful* rowhouse in a really great spot in Brewerytown sitting on the market & it’s killing me.
www.redfin.com/PA/Philadelp...
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
This is 100 percent true and every single person who laments the loss of the antebellum South in any way should be forced to read firsthand accounts of what planters did to enslaved people with their eyeballs pinned open until reality sets in
"the elite of the antebellum South were degenerate gamblers who financed their lifestyles with industrialized rape and would kill you for pointing this out" is a straightforwardly accurate statement
February 15, 2026 at 12:37 AM
This is 100 percent true and every single person who laments the loss of the antebellum South in any way should be forced to read firsthand accounts of what planters did to enslaved people with their eyeballs pinned open until reality sets in
can you sprain something that *isn't* an ankle?
February 15, 2026 at 12:23 AM
can you sprain something that *isn't* an ankle?
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
So much of our present crisis is coddled, ignorant, and short sighted people tearing down the institutions that protect them because they don’t understand that bad things can happen.
February 14, 2026 at 8:37 PM
So much of our present crisis is coddled, ignorant, and short sighted people tearing down the institutions that protect them because they don’t understand that bad things can happen.
I feel like I understand this, but also do not know what I'm supposed to do about it.
I may say more later but part of what some of us need to understand is that the right has built an entirely distinct civic society, with its own hierarchy and (mostly networked) cultural institutions. That includes celebrity.
“The convergence of influencer culture and venture capital is part of a broader shift reshaping America’s institutions.”
February 14, 2026 at 11:48 PM
I feel like I understand this, but also do not know what I'm supposed to do about it.
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
slavery is one of the rare things historically where the more you learn about it the more you realize your initial assessment was correct and it was in fact one of the most evil things ever to occur
Physically incapable of analyzing politics outside of this insipid frame.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
February 14, 2026 at 2:28 PM
slavery is one of the rare things historically where the more you learn about it the more you realize your initial assessment was correct and it was in fact one of the most evil things ever to occur
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
It's very clear that they aren't satisfied with cutting $1Trillion from Medicaid, they won't be satisfied until the only people with access to healthcare are the billionaires
February 14, 2026 at 8:55 PM
It's very clear that they aren't satisfied with cutting $1Trillion from Medicaid, they won't be satisfied until the only people with access to healthcare are the billionaires
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
Goes without saying but this is a Massive problem, not just in what they’re doing but who they are literally, per our sources, drawing inspiration — about what to do next in the twin cities and elsewhere — from how the U.S. has handled foreign wars including ones we lost
Trump and his people are talking about Minnesota — even during a supposed “drawdown” — both publicly and privately in the language of war and saving face after encountering sustained local resistance that drains resources & bleeds political support
zeteo.com/p/trump-minn...
zeteo.com/p/trump-minn...
Trump’s Losing His War in Minnesota. He’s Ready to Declare ‘Mission Accomplished’
Trump may trim back his terror campaign in Minneapolis, because it’s bleeding political support. It’s not over.
zeteo.com
February 14, 2026 at 8:18 PM
Goes without saying but this is a Massive problem, not just in what they’re doing but who they are literally, per our sources, drawing inspiration — about what to do next in the twin cities and elsewhere — from how the U.S. has handled foreign wars including ones we lost
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
call me a carceral urbanist or whatever but i think that if you murder an entire family with your SUV, at the very least, you should never be allowed to drive again
She fucking killed an entire family while speeding in her Mercedes SUV and they’re not going to even take her license away??
February 14, 2026 at 2:49 PM
call me a carceral urbanist or whatever but i think that if you murder an entire family with your SUV, at the very least, you should never be allowed to drive again
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
People's trust in journalism declined because of (1) a nonstop barrage of right-wing propaganda that mainstream journalism never tried to meaningfully counter, and (2) the news industry's stubborn insistence that it stood apart from the communities it served.
February 14, 2026 at 7:16 PM
People's trust in journalism declined because of (1) a nonstop barrage of right-wing propaganda that mainstream journalism never tried to meaningfully counter, and (2) the news industry's stubborn insistence that it stood apart from the communities it served.
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
Honestly, if my experience as a journalist has taught me anything, it's that the vast majority of the audience does not pay enough attention to aggressive, probing journalism to be put off the whole enterprise by it. It's too long!
February 14, 2026 at 7:02 PM
Honestly, if my experience as a journalist has taught me anything, it's that the vast majority of the audience does not pay enough attention to aggressive, probing journalism to be put off the whole enterprise by it. It's too long!
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
It's true that probing journalism frequently ends up pissing lots of people off, but I'm not sure how to square this conclusion with the rise of woke. Aggressively holding a mirror up to American society was actually a transformatively popular thing!
This NYT column by @polgreen.bsky.social is the truest thing I've ever seen about the REAL reason public trust in the media collapsed
February 14, 2026 at 6:58 PM
It's true that probing journalism frequently ends up pissing lots of people off, but I'm not sure how to square this conclusion with the rise of woke. Aggressively holding a mirror up to American society was actually a transformatively popular thing!
Wonder Man a good example of the next phase of how comics works. First you got individual stories, some good, some bad. Then you get the interconnected stories. Then, whoops! Too much interconnection, it's now bloated and incomprehensible! And then final phase,
February 14, 2026 at 7:09 PM
Wonder Man a good example of the next phase of how comics works. First you got individual stories, some good, some bad. Then you get the interconnected stories. Then, whoops! Too much interconnection, it's now bloated and incomprehensible! And then final phase,
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
and menace to polite society #art #illustration
February 11, 2026 at 11:06 PM
and menace to polite society #art #illustration
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
Not only did I get this comment from the medical examiner, I carefully read the police statement and got the indictments myself. This helped me not make the mistake a person with a huge platform did: repeating an error from a local crime reporter :)
www.autonomynews.co/second-kentu...
www.autonomynews.co/second-kentu...
On Monday, state police arrested another woman and her husband for "reckless homicide" related to a November 2024 miscarriage. The state hasn't released the estimated gestational age of the fetus and it won't give us the autopsy report. This detail could matter for the homicide charge:
February 14, 2026 at 5:49 PM
Not only did I get this comment from the medical examiner, I carefully read the police statement and got the indictments myself. This helped me not make the mistake a person with a huge platform did: repeating an error from a local crime reporter :)
www.autonomynews.co/second-kentu...
www.autonomynews.co/second-kentu...
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
Remarkable: Majority of working class voters oppose deportations of undocumented immigrants with jobs/no criminal records, per new Marquette data.
Remember how pundits said 2024 meant Dems must become restrictionist to win back working class? I challenge that here:
newrepublic.com/article/2059...
Remember how pundits said 2024 meant Dems must become restrictionist to win back working class? I challenge that here:
newrepublic.com/article/2059...
February 14, 2026 at 1:31 PM
Remarkable: Majority of working class voters oppose deportations of undocumented immigrants with jobs/no criminal records, per new Marquette data.
Remember how pundits said 2024 meant Dems must become restrictionist to win back working class? I challenge that here:
newrepublic.com/article/2059...
Remember how pundits said 2024 meant Dems must become restrictionist to win back working class? I challenge that here:
newrepublic.com/article/2059...
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
Also the apathy some bystanders seemed to show was either 1) they were also queer and afraid that if they called the cops they'd also end up harmed or 2) actual apathy to domestic violence, because several people who heard it thought it was "just" a couple fighting and thus not important.
‘Heroic actions are a natural tendency’: why bystander apathy is a myth
A MYTH MADE UP BY COPS TO HIDE THE FACT THAT THEY STOOD BY AND LET KITTY GENOVESE DIE BECAUSE SHE WAS QUEER
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
A MYTH MADE UP BY COPS TO HIDE THE FACT THAT THEY STOOD BY AND LET KITTY GENOVESE DIE BECAUSE SHE WAS QUEER
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
‘Heroic actions are a natural tendency’: why bystander apathy is a myth
Modern research shows the public work together selflessly in an emergency, motivated by a strong impulse to help
www.theguardian.com
February 14, 2026 at 4:39 PM
Also the apathy some bystanders seemed to show was either 1) they were also queer and afraid that if they called the cops they'd also end up harmed or 2) actual apathy to domestic violence, because several people who heard it thought it was "just" a couple fighting and thus not important.
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
hello minnesota and beyond! thank you for your kind messages. it is very weird to be the news when you cover the news. i love this beautiful state and journalism, and i am hopeful for better days. but we will be forever changed bc of the last two months.
Meet Minnesota Bathrobe Lady Sam Stroozas of MPR News | Minnesota Public Radio
Earlier this week, an unexpected and fast-moving incident unfolded in St. Paul, Minnesota involving both federal and local law enforcement. As crowds gathered and questions mounted, one of our MPR New...
www.mpr.org
February 14, 2026 at 4:44 AM
hello minnesota and beyond! thank you for your kind messages. it is very weird to be the news when you cover the news. i love this beautiful state and journalism, and i am hopeful for better days. but we will be forever changed bc of the last two months.
It's funny that we had something like this, and then Zuckerberg spent a gazillion dollars building the Metaverse and his idea for it was "what if you could be yourself, and use it to go to meetings".
Okay so this is a game where you can be Chapell Roan and fight the xenomorph with a sword, and Spongebob is just there for like color commentary
February 14, 2026 at 4:04 PM
It's funny that we had something like this, and then Zuckerberg spent a gazillion dollars building the Metaverse and his idea for it was "what if you could be yourself, and use it to go to meetings".
Okay I thought i understood what Fortnite was but I am increasingly unsure.
February 14, 2026 at 3:36 PM
Okay I thought i understood what Fortnite was but I am increasingly unsure.