Dave
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policywank.com
Dave
@policywank.com
Photography at @flowstateneworleans and this is for other things. Former Latin American historian. Opinionated. Hates Nazis and not just the Illinois ones.
#nolasky
Reposted by Dave
January 13, 2026 at 1:36 AM
I'm taking a break from the horrors of the last few days to watch some college football tonight. And as a guy who spent the 80s and 90s in Tallahassee, my favorite teams remain FSU and whoever is playing Miami. Weird to find myself rooting for Mississippi.
January 9, 2026 at 12:50 AM
Reposted by Dave
Didn’t realize this had published, given everything else today, but wrote about an underappreciated element of Trump’s Greenland obsession: climate change. www.ms.now/opinion/trum...
Opinion | What's really fueling Trump's interest in Greenland
Philip Bump: The warming climate has changed the options of what might be possible to explore, and exploit, in Greenland.
www.ms.now
January 8, 2026 at 3:12 AM
Reposted by Dave
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” - George Orwell, 1984
January 8, 2026 at 9:45 AM
Reposted by Dave
For the Daily Beast, I wrote about the moment America broke. www.thedailybeast.com/five-years-l...
Five Years Later, It’s Clear Jan 6 (and Trump) Broke America
The great American experiment has been revealed to be little more than a gentleman’s agreement among white men in knee breeches.
www.thedailybeast.com
January 8, 2026 at 3:52 AM
Reposted by Dave
Newsom is bad
By the way, Gavin Newsom is apparently raising money to fight AGAINST the billionaire tax. So thoughtful of him to come to their aid at this particular time in history,
December 29, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Reposted by Dave
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing ordinary people that inflation is bad for them and good for rich people
This is true, and to spell the quiet part out real loud: why do you think the people who have money, in a nation of debtors, are all-in on inflation being a bad thing?

Spiraling hyperinflation is bad for everyone. But if prices and wages *both* go up, and your debt is the same? You're better off.
If you’re wondering, deflation is bad because the amount of your debt stays the same but you make less money, meaning the real value of that debt increases. People also spend less!
March 11, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Reposted by Dave
The only, and I mean the only, way to understand the Congressional/national Dems’ lack of movement on anything related to tech (beyond their own ineptitude, in general), is that they are either captured, or hope to be, by the tech lobby, its money, the power of its controllers. Pathetic.
If the DNC had a sophisticated and strategic digital comms/advo operation they’d be launching multi channel online and offline blitz targeting every Republican (the party of Epstein) electeds and candidates to give back their money from Musk.

This shouldn’t be difficult Dems.
BREAKING: X’s chatbot Grok isn’t just making AI porn deepfakes, it’s now making Nazi AI porn deepfakes, undressing women and showing them wearing “swastika bikinis”. Many of these women are Jewish, including a recently deceased Holocaust survivor.
January 7, 2026 at 1:34 PM
I got a jury summons for four days before Mardi Gras. Please tell me there's some way to get an exemption or postponement when you live in the box?
#nolasky
January 5, 2026 at 11:09 PM
Reposted by Dave
Writing this out to remind myself:

Everything is going to get very, very shitty BECAUSE this administration is failing.

They will make ALL the poor decisions. They will hurt ALL the people.

As they get more desperate, they will flail and lash out more.

We can’t lose hope. We must keep going.
January 4, 2026 at 9:05 AM
As a former Latin America historian who went into the field via studying south american politics, this is a really shitty weekend. Even the people with "good" opinions on Venezuela don't know what the fuck they're talking about, mostly.
January 4, 2026 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by Dave
I would like to exit the simulation now.
“What appears to be a newly created account appeared to invest $30,000 Friday in Maduro's exit. After Maduro went into custody Saturday morning, that same investor netted $436,759.61.”
Someone made $400K by predicting Maduro's capture. Here's what happened
The winnings come as the rules governing prediction markets are still evolving.
www.axios.com
January 3, 2026 at 7:55 PM
If you want to understand why the US will face no international sanction for what we're doing in Venezuela today, this is a good place to start. Our power is sliding, but we still control international banking and finance to a very large degree.
Worth noting that even as Trump bombs Venezuela to unilaterally seize Maduro on domestic US charges, the ICC judges who voted to investigate US war crimes in Afghanistan face such severe US banking sanctions that they are for all intents and purposes excluded from modern life.
‘It’s surreal’: US sanctions lock International Criminal Court judge out of daily life
Canadian judge Kimberly Prost is unable to use credit cards, transfer money or book everyday services in what she calls an attack on the independence of the judiciary
www.irishtimes.com
January 3, 2026 at 5:47 PM
If you don't have at the barest of minimums, something like this in your personal list of books you've read, you maybe shouldn't be commenting on what the US has or hasn't done in Latin America. Venezuela was where we first gave The Monroe Doctrine teeth with another world power.

amzn.to/3YmJ9ep
Latin America: A Concise Interpretive History (7th Edition)
Latin America: A Concise Interpretive History (7th Edition) [Burns, E. Bradford, Charlip, Julie A.] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Latin America: A Concise Interpretive History (7th Edition)
amzn.to
January 3, 2026 at 3:44 PM
Read up, fuckers. Then go buy a book. This ain't new. It's just flashier and a bit more gold plated, though Manuel Noriega might disagree with that.
#venezuela
www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11...
A timeline of CIA operations in Latin America
The recent strikes on boats in the Caribbean are an extension of a long US tradition of interference in the region.
www.aljazeera.com
January 3, 2026 at 1:44 PM
Oh, Venezuela. Everything old is new again.
January 3, 2026 at 1:20 PM
January 2, 2026 at 6:04 PM
Reposted by Dave
We haven't seen an Indiana squad turn back an Alabama offense this decisively since Antietam
January 1, 2026 at 10:23 PM
I got a half price month of SlingTV today to watch some college playoff football. It's the first time I've been exposed to TV commercials in nearly a year. I have to say there's absolutely nothing to be worried about in the "#ChatGPT, show me how to fake having a personality" ads. That'll end well.
January 2, 2026 at 12:25 AM
Reposted by Dave
RIP Tatiana Schlossberg, journalist and member of the Kennedy family

She wrote an amazing essay about RFK Jr. and I think a wonderful tribute to her is sharing it with you

www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
A Battle with My Blood
When I was diagnosed with leukemia, my first thought was that this couldn’t be happening to me, to my family.
www.newyorker.com
December 30, 2025 at 7:41 PM
1/2 Today I saw a really cool interaction between two regulars at my coffee shop. One is a guy who looks a little older than me and no matter how he is dressed, just gives off a wealthy executive/entrepreneur vibe. The other guy is a homeless musical busker.
December 30, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Just in case your CO2 emissions weren't scratching your nihilism itch hard enough...
share.google/gHcBVIflaqOT...
#climatechange #ai #climateemergency
Gemini is here for Android Auto: 5 things to try
Gemini is beginning to roll out in Android Auto. Here’s what to try.
share.google
December 30, 2025 at 2:07 PM
What do we want?
Highs in the mid to upper 60s, lows in the 50s!
When are we going to get it?
Fucking never!
#nolasky
December 29, 2025 at 11:21 PM
If anyone has direct experiencing bridging your own domain to pixelfed the way I've done it here on bluesky and from here to mastodon and has any suggestions or could answer a couple of questions, I'd appreciate. First question in a comment here.
I am so frustrated. #Bridgy from here to mastodon works absolutely flawlessly, but I cannot make it work with pixelfed. I've got the bridgy to the account. I've got the dns TXT entry with the did provided by @ap.brid.gy. Read a bunch of tutorials, but I just can't get it to work. #pixelfed
December 29, 2025 at 6:28 PM