Derek Powazek
@fraying.bsky.social
I used to make websites (Blogger, JPG Mag, Fray). I wrote the book “Design for Community.” Now I grow flowers and keep animals at milkbarn.farm.
Replies limited to followers. It's not you, it's me.
Replies limited to followers. It's not you, it's me.
ICE is a federal army that is occupying and terrorizing an American city. Call it what it is. Work to make it stop. Swear to bring the perpetrators to justice.
This is not a time to be clever with messaging. This is the time to speak the truth plainly while you still can.
This is not a time to be clever with messaging. This is the time to speak the truth plainly while you still can.
January 16, 2026 at 8:23 PM
ICE is a federal army that is occupying and terrorizing an American city. Call it what it is. Work to make it stop. Swear to bring the perpetrators to justice.
This is not a time to be clever with messaging. This is the time to speak the truth plainly while you still can.
This is not a time to be clever with messaging. This is the time to speak the truth plainly while you still can.
I understand the concept of message discipline, but some things are important enough that you just have to talk about them, and only them, clearly.
January 16, 2026 at 8:19 PM
I understand the concept of message discipline, but some things are important enough that you just have to talk about them, and only them, clearly.
It’s not wrong because they lied to Congress, because they’re not wearing bodycams, because they are attacking Americans. The whole fucking thing is just wrong. Every part of it. Do not qualify its wrongness.
January 16, 2026 at 8:18 PM
It’s not wrong because they lied to Congress, because they’re not wearing bodycams, because they are attacking Americans. The whole fucking thing is just wrong. Every part of it. Do not qualify its wrongness.
And the public is with you! Everyone but the most crazy MAGA fascists know that it is wrong.
January 16, 2026 at 8:16 PM
And the public is with you! Everyone but the most crazy MAGA fascists know that it is wrong.
And not “this is wrong because it does nothing about the cost of living” or “this is wrong because they’re wearing masks.” It’s just wrong, full stop. Everything about it is wrong.
January 16, 2026 at 8:15 PM
And not “this is wrong because it does nothing about the cost of living” or “this is wrong because they’re wearing masks.” It’s just wrong, full stop. Everything about it is wrong.
If you’re an elected Democrat and you can’t point at what ICE is doing right now and say clearly “this is wrong,” then get out of politics immediately.
January 16, 2026 at 8:14 PM
If you’re an elected Democrat and you can’t point at what ICE is doing right now and say clearly “this is wrong,” then get out of politics immediately.
Reposted by Derek Powazek
NEW — ICE violence has spread well beyond Minneapolis, with agents landing in small cities like St. Cloud. I spoke with Alice Valentine, a local queer trans woman, who protested ICE on Monday and was pepper sprayed, beaten and jailed as a result, along with her girlfriend.
This is Alice's story:
This is Alice's story:
Queer trans ICE protester in small Minn. city recounts agents' violence and humiliation
Alice Valentine of St. Cloud was pepper sprayed and jailed by ICE for trying to protect immigrant neighbors.
www.thehandbasket.co
January 16, 2026 at 6:58 PM
NEW — ICE violence has spread well beyond Minneapolis, with agents landing in small cities like St. Cloud. I spoke with Alice Valentine, a local queer trans woman, who protested ICE on Monday and was pepper sprayed, beaten and jailed as a result, along with her girlfriend.
This is Alice's story:
This is Alice's story:
Reposted by Derek Powazek
There is no recalibrated or sanitized way to conduct the war that Trump and Stephen Miller are waging on American cities right now. That’s because it’s a campaign of deliberate terror.
The policy *is* the terror, and the terror *is* the policy.
newrepublic.com/article/2053...
The policy *is* the terror, and the terror *is* the policy.
newrepublic.com/article/2053...
January 16, 2026 at 7:40 PM
There is no recalibrated or sanitized way to conduct the war that Trump and Stephen Miller are waging on American cities right now. That’s because it’s a campaign of deliberate terror.
The policy *is* the terror, and the terror *is* the policy.
newrepublic.com/article/2053...
The policy *is* the terror, and the terror *is* the policy.
newrepublic.com/article/2053...
I love this idea for an additional reason Mike doesn't mention: in this scenario, and individual judge would likely hear fewer cases, so when they got one they'd feel extra personal pressure to get it right because their name will be on it.
www.techdirt.com/2026/01/16/t...
www.techdirt.com/2026/01/16/t...
The Case For A 100-Justice Supreme Court
With the current mess that the US is in, there has been plenty of talk of “what comes after” and how to think about the big structural changes needed to prevent another authoritarian fr…
www.techdirt.com
January 16, 2026 at 6:51 PM
I love this idea for an additional reason Mike doesn't mention: in this scenario, and individual judge would likely hear fewer cases, so when they got one they'd feel extra personal pressure to get it right because their name will be on it.
www.techdirt.com/2026/01/16/t...
www.techdirt.com/2026/01/16/t...
To an authoritarian, international collaboration is a threat.
January 16, 2026 at 6:32 PM
To an authoritarian, international collaboration is a threat.
Trump and his ilk want to turn America into their own private walled kingdom.
January 16, 2026 at 6:27 PM
Trump and his ilk want to turn America into their own private walled kingdom.
They are working so hard to destroy our relationships with every other country.
"The Trump administration is directing employees at the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate foreign scientists who collaborate with the agency on research papers for evidence of “subversive or criminal activity.”" www.propublica.org/article/trum...
Trump Administration Orders USDA Employees to Investigate Foreign Researchers They Work With
The new directive asks workers to check the backgrounds of foreign nationals collaborating with the department’s scientists for evidence of “subversive or criminal activity.” Their names are being sen...
www.propublica.org
January 16, 2026 at 6:26 PM
They are working so hard to destroy our relationships with every other country.
I’m really appreciating the daylight, too, but we’re gonna need a hard freeze before this winter is over.
January 16, 2026 at 6:24 PM
I’m really appreciating the daylight, too, but we’re gonna need a hard freeze before this winter is over.
Eerily, unseasonably dry winter lately, but the goats are loving it.
January 16, 2026 at 6:22 PM
Eerily, unseasonably dry winter lately, but the goats are loving it.
Reposted by Derek Powazek
"A Minneapolis couple said that ICE agents deployed tear gas... around them and their six children — the youngest only 6 months old — as they tried to maneuver their car out of a tense protest on Wednesday night."
They were driving home from a son’s basketball game.
www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...
They were driving home from a son’s basketball game.
www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...
January 16, 2026 at 5:42 PM
"A Minneapolis couple said that ICE agents deployed tear gas... around them and their six children — the youngest only 6 months old — as they tried to maneuver their car out of a tense protest on Wednesday night."
They were driving home from a son’s basketball game.
www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...
They were driving home from a son’s basketball game.
www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...
I have designed in my head a posting system where you literally ask the replier who they’re taking to (the author or the crowd) and put them in different places. And then the OP could set which kind of reply they want. It’s cumbersome but it would solve so many problems.
January 16, 2026 at 5:39 PM
I have designed in my head a posting system where you literally ask the replier who they’re taking to (the author or the crowd) and put them in different places. And then the OP could set which kind of reply they want. It’s cumbersome but it would solve so many problems.
The tension/blurriness between replies being a conversation with the original poster and replies being an open mic for everyone to talk to each other is one of the core interface problems with social media in general and causes a lot of the bad reply drama.
January 16, 2026 at 5:36 PM
The tension/blurriness between replies being a conversation with the original poster and replies being an open mic for everyone to talk to each other is one of the core interface problems with social media in general and causes a lot of the bad reply drama.
I hope you’re right, but I was in SF when he was mayor and he’s a highly motivated grifter who has been pointing his career at the presidency since way back then. And he’s spineless enough to attract the rich donors. We’re going to need a hugely popular person to knock him out of the running.
January 16, 2026 at 5:33 PM
I hope you’re right, but I was in SF when he was mayor and he’s a highly motivated grifter who has been pointing his career at the presidency since way back then. And he’s spineless enough to attract the rich donors. We’re going to need a hugely popular person to knock him out of the running.
I can’t think of a conversation I’d like to hear less. They’re all idiot grifters who talk about tech without understanding anything about it.
Standing on a train platform listening to the latest Hard Fork and, I'm sorry, but I'm not sure Jonathan Haidt understands what causation means. Hosts ask him to explain how he's proven causation and he cites single examples of individualized harm which have nothing to do with his broad thesis.
January 16, 2026 at 5:09 PM
I can’t think of a conversation I’d like to hear less. They’re all idiot grifters who talk about tech without understanding anything about it.
I consider myself pretty well informed on the nazi precedents for today, but I didn’t know this one. They truly are just running the playbook.
There is a precedent for a person getting someone else's Nobel Prize. In 1943, the Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun, gave his Nobel Prize in literature to Joseph Goebbels uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295...
Knut Hamsun
Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920, Knut Hamsun (1859–1952) was a towering figure of Norwegian letters. He was also a Nazi sympathizer and supp...
uwapress.uw.edu
January 16, 2026 at 5:04 PM
I consider myself pretty well informed on the nazi precedents for today, but I didn’t know this one. They truly are just running the playbook.
Yeah I find the other method easier to do blind but they both work.
January 16, 2026 at 4:57 PM
Yeah I find the other method easier to do blind but they both work.
Also the writing just made me sad. The campy villian calling the captain "HOT!" The "I'm (a species you've never heard of), bitch!" line they liked so much they had to use it twice.
This is how we're talking in the future. Ugh.
This is how we're talking in the future. Ugh.
January 16, 2026 at 4:27 AM
Also the writing just made me sad. The campy villian calling the captain "HOT!" The "I'm (a species you've never heard of), bitch!" line they liked so much they had to use it twice.
This is how we're talking in the future. Ugh.
This is how we're talking in the future. Ugh.
Only watched the first ep but it bounced around like a bouncy ball thrown into a box. Bounced between tones and stories and ideas in a way that made it feel like they took all the pitches and crammed them together. Also the cover of "San Francisco" was so cringe I may never recover.
January 16, 2026 at 4:25 AM
Only watched the first ep but it bounced around like a bouncy ball thrown into a box. Bounced between tones and stories and ideas in a way that made it feel like they took all the pitches and crammed them together. Also the cover of "San Francisco" was so cringe I may never recover.