Oran Magal
banner
oranmagal.bsky.social
Oran Magal
@oranmagal.bsky.social
620 followers 340 following 1.5K posts
I teach philosophy for a living. Working on a novel. World-weary.
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Reposted by Oran Magal
Once again, one reason Trump says & does whatever he wants is bc every societal institution, including the media, has totally normalized & internalized the idea that the laws, the Constitution, & the international treaties we have signed & ratified simply don’t apply to this one guy. It’s maddening.
No mention at all of the fact that Trump doesn't have the legal authority to do this, that plans haven't even been reviewed (because the office is closed for the government shutdown), that the size and cost estimates keep changing, etc., etc.
Part of White House Is Reduced to Rubble. Trump’s Ballroom Will Rise in Its Place.
www.nytimes.com
Reposted by Oran Magal
although some oppose the fifty foot hologram of a grinning Augusto Pinochet that appeared on the White House lawn this morning, we spoke with people from across the political spectrum to get a sense of how opinions differ
Reposted by Oran Magal
Just because he's acting like he's never leaving is no reason for you to act like he's never leaving.
Do these people think that 10,000,000,000 people should live in single-family homes?
Reposted by Oran Magal
Donald Trump has destroyed the East Wing of the White House the right way.

by Ezra Klein
Reposted by Oran Magal
Holy shit.

Game 7 between the Jays and the Mariners just ran an pro-free trade ad, targeted to American workers, decrying tariffs.

The twist being that, if you don't catch it beforehand, Ronald Reagan is revealed as the speaker in the closing seconds.

What PAC is this? The Province of Ontario.
Ronald Reagan narrates a new anti-tariff ad from Canada
The new commercial is part of a $75 million ad campaign by Ontario aimed at Republican voters.
www.fastcompany.com
Reposted by Oran Magal
"liberals lack a theory of change" is one of the things that gets me every time. like what's the leftist theory of change. how is its track record. what number general strike, seizure of the means of production, workers' revolution are we on.
Reposted by Oran Magal
The enhanced premium tax credits are a thing Biden did to make the ACA better. They are in danger. If they expire a lot of people will be made a lot worse off.

People are defending the ACA because it actually has real material impacts not because of emotional commitment to institutions.
Not trying to add to the pile on, but this way of understanding politics is totally mysterious to me. What is the appropriate amount of emotion to dedicate to any given issue and how do we know when that threshold has been met or exceeded.
Reposted by Oran Magal
The argument is that the National Guard is needed, over the objections of the Mayor and Governor, to manage the dangerous protests at a single federal building.

The protests:
we need the national guard for this. it’s an emergency
Reposted by Oran Magal
NEW: ICE remains mum regarding prosecutor exposed as white supremacist.

"They want to signal to the other white supremacists...out there that under this administration things are going to be different and you’re not going to have to worry about losing your job"
www.texasobserver.org/ice-white-su...
ICE Still Won't Answer Questions About Prosecutor with White Supremacist X Account
Congressman Marc Veasey arrived at an ICE facility Monday in his latest attempt to follow up on the Observer's reporting.
www.texasobserver.org
Reposted by Oran Magal
i do not think it’s wise for noem to tell the average citizen to start cooking for the secret police
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Monday criticized the media and politicians, including Gov. JB Pritzker, for “trying to demonize” federal immigration agents and she urged citizens to thank law enforcement officers and “cook a meal for their families.”
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem accuses Gov. JB Pritzker and media of ‘trying to demonize’ immigration officers
Speaking in Florida, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem criticized Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and the media, and she urged citizens to thank law enforcement officers and “cook the…
trib.al
Reposted by Oran Magal
Hi. I wrote an essay about AI slop: How it feels like an invasive species for the internet. How its boosters describe building a future that’s devoid of craft. How frictionlessness can be nihilistic & how this stuff seems to leach part of our shared humanity out of the world. I hope you'll read it.
AI’s Invasive Species
The slop is winning.
www.theatlantic.com
Reposted by Oran Magal
We just got the White House East Wing job. Maybe we should ask for the money up front, T.
“Averse to locomotion”
Reposted by Oran Magal
I’m sorry but “athletically allergic” is very good
SCOOP: more than a third of new recruits at the ICE training academy have failed the personal fitness test -- so many that the agency has had to start pre-screening new hires to weed out what one official called "athletically allergic candidates" www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
A Third of ICE-Academy Recruits Are Failing Out
Push-ups, sit-ups, and a brisk jog pose a threat to Trump’s deportation campaign.
www.theatlantic.com
Reposted by Oran Magal
I have yeeted
the LMS
my uni
has paid for
and which
you were probably
thinking
helps you teach
Forgive me
it was surveillant
so mid
and so broke
The NYT isn’t interested in reality, they’ll tell you what “reality” is. And they know before they look at any relevant facts.
I'm also frankly pretty floored that, in the sections of this editorial that deal with why Dems lost in 2024, there is no mention at all of inflation. According to the Times, Dems lost because of a bad favorability rating. But their favs weren't bad until after they lost!
Reposted by Oran Magal
Tragically, once you introduce costly signaling, all mathematics is impure.

COMIC ◆ www.smbc-comics.com/comic/signal-4
PATREON ◆ www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersm...
STORE ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com
In my curmudgeonly fantasy, one day everyone is so sick of LLMs and (unrelated but also an awful acronym) LMS (learning management systems) that we just go back to blackboard, chalk, and physical notebooks.
Reposted by Oran Magal
This shows in so many ways Halligan is unsuited to be United States Dogcatcher, let alone United States Attorney. She writes a reporter whining about reporting but not offering any actionable specific things the reporter got wrong. There's NO WAY that helps anything.
/1
Lindsey Halligan is a fucking moron.
You need to be a CEO making 8 figures to understand how this is actually smart business. It’s beyond my meagre intellect, clearly.
Reposted by Oran Magal
If a D is ever elected POTUS, razing the Trump ballroom and restoring the White House to pre-Trump status is non-negotiable.

You have to tear down the physical manifestations of authoritarianism.
Scoop: Trump has started demolishing the White House's East Wing facade to build his ballroom. The president had claimed construction of the $250 million building wouldn’t ‘interfere’ with the existing White House structure. /W @ddiamond.bsky.social wapo.st/4hqBNiU
White House begins demolishing East Wing facade to build Trump’s ballroom
The president had claimed construction of the $250 million ballroom wouldn’t ‘interfere’ with the existing White House structure.
wapo.st
Reposted by Oran Magal
Again, its not a mystery why this keeps happening at the NYT. Ownership and leadership are very much on board with Trump and support his goals and there is a cadre of high profile reporters and pundits there who agree.
Reposted by Oran Magal
Michael C Bender is one of the NYT reporters who has been writing all of those nakedly thirsty "Harvards about to cave to Trump any minute now" stories
You know that Mafia-like "compact" MAGA tried to force onto 9 universities? And that 7 (MIT, Brown, Penn, USC, Dartmouth, UVa, now UAriz) have rejected? Leaving Vandy and UT-Austin to reply?

If you wonder how this could be framed in a pro-Trump way, wonder no more: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/18/u...
White House’s Aggressive Tactics Are Complicating Its Education Agenda
www.nytimes.com