Natalie Brender
@nataliebrender.bsky.social
Eternal migrant seeking opera, ruthless yet humane criticism, Jamesian ambivalence, vestigial Kantianisms. All the public health, politics, cultural, social & global policy interests.
'Targeted political reprisal against the Pope' -- what innovation in US politics.
NEW: The Trump-Vance White House has falsely accused an ally of Pope Leo — Sr. Norma Pimentel — of illegal activity tied to migrant aid, and cut off all federal funding to Catholic Charities in Texas.
Church leaders say it’s a targeted, political reprisal against Pope Leo and the Catholic Church.
Church leaders say it’s a targeted, political reprisal against Pope Leo and the Catholic Church.
Trump-Vance White House Targets Beloved Nun in Texas, Retaliates Against Catholic Charities
Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley — praised by Pope Leo as an “agent of hope” — now faces a six-year federal funding ban. Church leaders say it’s a vendetta by the Trump-Vance White House.
www.thelettersfromleo.com
December 13, 2025 at 1:37 PM
'Targeted political reprisal against the Pope' -- what innovation in US politics.
Reposted by Natalie Brender
Brutal but effective public health messaging from New York Public Health.
The CDC is compromised. They’re no longer a reliable source of information.
They push anti-vaxx & anti-science grift.
Get your vaccines. Wear a respirator. Clean the air
Get public health advice from experts, not RFK Jr
The CDC is compromised. They’re no longer a reliable source of information.
They push anti-vaxx & anti-science grift.
Get your vaccines. Wear a respirator. Clean the air
Get public health advice from experts, not RFK Jr
December 13, 2025 at 10:44 AM
Brutal but effective public health messaging from New York Public Health.
The CDC is compromised. They’re no longer a reliable source of information.
They push anti-vaxx & anti-science grift.
Get your vaccines. Wear a respirator. Clean the air
Get public health advice from experts, not RFK Jr
The CDC is compromised. They’re no longer a reliable source of information.
They push anti-vaxx & anti-science grift.
Get your vaccines. Wear a respirator. Clean the air
Get public health advice from experts, not RFK Jr
Reposted by Natalie Brender
The real lesson of Christmas is that if God had wanted to win over working-class Judeans, he should have sent down a less divisive Messiah.
December 13, 2025 at 2:12 AM
The real lesson of Christmas is that if God had wanted to win over working-class Judeans, he should have sent down a less divisive Messiah.
Reposted by Natalie Brender
New Björk lyric just dropped
There is no stopping the progress of #science.
"In a First, Photos Show Moths Sipping a Moose’s Tears"
www.scientificamerican.com/article/phot...
"In a First, Photos Show Moths Sipping a Moose’s Tears"
www.scientificamerican.com/article/phot...
December 12, 2025 at 9:00 PM
New Björk lyric just dropped
Reposted by Natalie Brender
What the fuck have i just watched
December 12, 2025 at 10:39 PM
What the fuck have i just watched
Reposted by Natalie Brender
Oh my GOD.
This is the Shopify broligarch-involved pet project to influence Canadian policy.
Build Canada told journalist Taylor Noakes that Carney's office "has reached out to Build Canada on occasion to ask about our memos."
www.desmog.com/2025/12/08/m...
This is the Shopify broligarch-involved pet project to influence Canadian policy.
Build Canada told journalist Taylor Noakes that Carney's office "has reached out to Build Canada on occasion to ask about our memos."
www.desmog.com/2025/12/08/m...
Mark Carney Took Speech Ideas From Billionaire-Founded ‘Build Canada’
The pro-AI and fossil fuel group tells DeSmog that it’s great to see its ideas “get taken up by government.”
www.desmog.com
December 12, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Oh my GOD.
This is the Shopify broligarch-involved pet project to influence Canadian policy.
Build Canada told journalist Taylor Noakes that Carney's office "has reached out to Build Canada on occasion to ask about our memos."
www.desmog.com/2025/12/08/m...
This is the Shopify broligarch-involved pet project to influence Canadian policy.
Build Canada told journalist Taylor Noakes that Carney's office "has reached out to Build Canada on occasion to ask about our memos."
www.desmog.com/2025/12/08/m...
Hey philosophers, if you ever wanted a Kant tree ornament you can just re-label Mozart. Even more festively, go on to re-label Beethoven as Schopenhauer.
Christmas ornaments: Mozart, Beethoven, and… Celine Dion?
December 12, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Hey philosophers, if you ever wanted a Kant tree ornament you can just re-label Mozart. Even more festively, go on to re-label Beethoven as Schopenhauer.
Reposted by Natalie Brender
Do I love that Pierre Poilievre is bleeding members? Heck yes.
Do I hate that the Liberals are so conservative that it's enticing Conservatives to join them? Heck yes.
Do I hate that the Liberals are so conservative that it's enticing Conservatives to join them? Heck yes.
Another MP leaves Conservatives, crosses floor to Liberals | CBC News
Ontario MP Michael Ma announced Thursday that he is leaving the Conservative Caucus and joining the Liberals.
www.cbc.ca
December 11, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Do I love that Pierre Poilievre is bleeding members? Heck yes.
Do I hate that the Liberals are so conservative that it's enticing Conservatives to join them? Heck yes.
Do I hate that the Liberals are so conservative that it's enticing Conservatives to join them? Heck yes.
You could do worse than a really catchy memorable title about a deep empirical-philosophical topic. I hope she considers the ethics of relations with ppl with addiction too.
One of the best things about my job is the steady stream of review copies of interesting books
December 11, 2025 at 11:30 PM
You could do worse than a really catchy memorable title about a deep empirical-philosophical topic. I hope she considers the ethics of relations with ppl with addiction too.
So the Israeli foreign minister is in his Cabaret period, singing 'Tomorrow Belongs to Me'. They are increasingly deranged in public now.
"Don’t speak in the name of the future. It’s not yours." says the Israeli foreign minister to the Prime Minister of Spain
December 11, 2025 at 3:23 PM
So the Israeli foreign minister is in his Cabaret period, singing 'Tomorrow Belongs to Me'. They are increasingly deranged in public now.
Reposted by Natalie Brender
This is what is going to happen. There will be a thin top layer of non-digital universities — and all the tech billionaires will send their kids to those places.
Total success to the first college/university that pledges to be AI-free and brand it as an opportunity to receive a real education.
My employer, Dartmouth College, today boasts it's 1st Ivy "to launch AI at an institutional scale." It is doing this by partnering--"more than a collaboration"--with Anthropic, a company that stole the books of many faculty, me included, which many of us are suing.
December 11, 2025 at 1:39 PM
This is what is going to happen. There will be a thin top layer of non-digital universities — and all the tech billionaires will send their kids to those places.
Reposted by Natalie Brender
Never before have I so profoundly understood the saying "get down off that cross, we need the wood"
December 11, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Never before have I so profoundly understood the saying "get down off that cross, we need the wood"
Reposted by Natalie Brender
This does actually change the entire story. Assuming it's correct, it was an entirely lawful seizure.
December 11, 2025 at 1:18 AM
This does actually change the entire story. Assuming it's correct, it was an entirely lawful seizure.
New philosophy of religious metaphysics paper just dropped: "What Is a Dreidel?"
update: these are genuinely even funnier in person on behalf of they make zero sense but they exist, and so here they are trying their best
December 11, 2025 at 12:10 AM
New philosophy of religious metaphysics paper just dropped: "What Is a Dreidel?"
This truly is straw man punditry. No Canadian aware of the US NSS has taken comfort.
"Canadian readers, from the prime minister on down, may be inclined to take comfort in the US NSS on the grounds that Canada gets no real mention. (....) But to take comfort would be a serious mistake."
By Wesley Wark
thewalrus.ca/trumps-terri...
By Wesley Wark
thewalrus.ca/trumps-terri...
Trump’s Terrifying New Security Doctrine Turns Canada into a Target | The Walrus
The 29-page blueprint casts us as expendable
thewalrus.ca
December 10, 2025 at 11:47 PM
This truly is straw man punditry. No Canadian aware of the US NSS has taken comfort.
Reposted by Natalie Brender
Dr. Mary T. Bassett is one of the bravest people I have met in my lifetime - her moral compass and commitment to justice are unmatched. Shame, shame, shame on Harvard. Her ouster is shocking yet unsurprising and on brand for the University.
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
Harvard Dismisses Director of FXB Center for Health and Human Rights | News | The Harvard Crimson
Harvard forced out the director of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights — another shakeup at a center whose programming on the Israel-Palestine conflict has been a flashpoint...
www.thecrimson.com
December 10, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Dr. Mary T. Bassett is one of the bravest people I have met in my lifetime - her moral compass and commitment to justice are unmatched. Shame, shame, shame on Harvard. Her ouster is shocking yet unsurprising and on brand for the University.
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
Anyone know what is a "sanctioned" oil tanker in this context?
And here we go www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
US Seizes Oil Tanker Off the Coast of Venezuela
US forces have intercepted and seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, according to people familiar with the matter, a move that marks a serious escalation of tensions between the t...
www.bloomberg.com
December 10, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Anyone know what is a "sanctioned" oil tanker in this context?
Reposted by Natalie Brender
The Houthis:
December 10, 2025 at 6:42 PM
The Houthis:
Reposted by Natalie Brender
scanning the @sundance.org lineup: hmm, interesting, might be good, sure why not, :loses entire fucking mind:
December 10, 2025 at 5:04 PM
scanning the @sundance.org lineup: hmm, interesting, might be good, sure why not, :loses entire fucking mind:
Reposted by Natalie Brender
There's an astounding amount of data in this. I'm using it to help update my understanding of the global higher ed landscape.
Here it is, folks: The World of Higher Education - Year in Review 2025.
Everything you need to know about where the sector is going across the globe right now in one convenient package.
There will be a quiz.
Everything you need to know about where the sector is going across the globe right now in one convenient package.
There will be a quiz.
The World of Higher Education – Year in Review 2025 | HESA
Morning all. Today, HESA is releasing The World of Higher Education – Year in Review 2025, the first in our to-be-annual series chronicling how the world’s higher education systems have fared over the...
higheredstrategy.com
December 10, 2025 at 4:34 PM
There's an astounding amount of data in this. I'm using it to help update my understanding of the global higher ed landscape.
Reposted by Natalie Brender
In a column coming out later this week, I refer to Smith as the Viktor Orbán of Canada.
Alberta legislature passes bill invoking Charter override for fourth time nationalnewswatch.com/2025/12/10/a...
Alberta legislature passes bill invoking Charter override for fourth…
National Newswatch: Canada's most comprehensive site for political news and views.
nationalnewswatch.com
December 10, 2025 at 3:40 PM
In a column coming out later this week, I refer to Smith as the Viktor Orbán of Canada.
Hoping at least one of those Walter Reed docs is having a medical ethics crisis wondering if it's permissible to shade the truth when the patient has access to all the nuclear bombs.
The President is bragging again about passing a basic cognitive exam they give to determine if your brain still works.
Every part of this is bonkers. The intro is bonkers. The transition to his health is bonkers. The mention that other presidents didn't need cognitive exams is bonkers. The claim that this screening test is somehow hard is bonkers. The idea that criticism of him is treason is bonkers. All of it.
December 10, 2025 at 3:11 AM
Hoping at least one of those Walter Reed docs is having a medical ethics crisis wondering if it's permissible to shade the truth when the patient has access to all the nuclear bombs.
Reposted by Natalie Brender
Marco Rubio should just say the quiet part out loud and change the font to Fraktur
Marco Rubio ordered diplomats to return to using Times New Roman font in official communications, calling his predecessor's decision to adopt Calibri a “wasteful” diversity move
Rubio Stages Font Coup: Times New Roman Ousts Calibri
The secretary of state called it a "wasteful" diversity move, according to an internal department cable seen by Reuters.
www.huffpost.com
December 10, 2025 at 2:30 AM
Marco Rubio should just say the quiet part out loud and change the font to Fraktur
Reposted by Natalie Brender
The US bilateral health deals offer less money for health than FY25, and come with significant impositions. The Kenyan deal had to be walked back because US demands for Kenyan health data violated the Kenyan constitution
emilysbass.substack.com/p/lessons-fr...
emilysbass.substack.com/p/lessons-fr...
Lessons from America's Health Agreements with Kenya and Rwanda
What America politicians are paying for, what they want, and what countries and civil society can own.
emilysbass.substack.com
December 9, 2025 at 10:34 PM
The US bilateral health deals offer less money for health than FY25, and come with significant impositions. The Kenyan deal had to be walked back because US demands for Kenyan health data violated the Kenyan constitution
emilysbass.substack.com/p/lessons-fr...
emilysbass.substack.com/p/lessons-fr...
Such an important intvu w @milleridriss.bsky.social; also see today's newly released report below by @isdglobal.org. We urgently need conclusions about most effective ways of investing $ to prevent misogyny from taking root & aligning w other forms of extremism.
www.isdglobal.org/isd-publicat...
www.isdglobal.org/isd-publicat...
Misogyny, Racism, Power: Connecting the Dots in the Violent Far Right
Cynthia Miller-Idriss' new book Man Up explores the links between misogyny, gendered violence against women and political extremism.
msmagazine.com
December 9, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Such an important intvu w @milleridriss.bsky.social; also see today's newly released report below by @isdglobal.org. We urgently need conclusions about most effective ways of investing $ to prevent misogyny from taking root & aligning w other forms of extremism.
www.isdglobal.org/isd-publicat...
www.isdglobal.org/isd-publicat...