Wonky
@wonkysq.bsky.social
Policy wonk specializing in climate change and urbanism, pessimistic optimist, 🔵😈
Reposted by Wonky
Any Dem that comes in without a plan for court reform will effectively be a lame duck on day 1, who will spend 4 years giving orders to agencies that the Supreme Court tears up and reverses with the help of burrowed right wing bureaucrats.
February 17, 2026 at 2:59 PM
Any Dem that comes in without a plan for court reform will effectively be a lame duck on day 1, who will spend 4 years giving orders to agencies that the Supreme Court tears up and reverses with the help of burrowed right wing bureaucrats.
Reposted by Wonky
Before there was Bernie, there was Jesse: showing up seemingly every time workers battled for a better deal on the job and a more just social order. Nobody fused the perspectives of race and class, nor battled more consistently for the claims of both, than Jesse Jackson. buff.ly/Ycz1CeH
Tribune for Race and Class
Jesse Jackson, 1941–2026
buff.ly
February 17, 2026 at 8:12 PM
Before there was Bernie, there was Jesse: showing up seemingly every time workers battled for a better deal on the job and a more just social order. Nobody fused the perspectives of race and class, nor battled more consistently for the claims of both, than Jesse Jackson. buff.ly/Ycz1CeH
Lots of A.I. and data center apologists hand-wave away any concerns about environmental impact by claiming A.I. will magically solve climate change. Well, about that...
February 17, 2026 at 4:20 PM
Lots of A.I. and data center apologists hand-wave away any concerns about environmental impact by claiming A.I. will magically solve climate change. Well, about that...
Reposted by Wonky
i think jesse jackson was one of the most important american political figures of the post-war era and i think that his 1984 and 1988 campaigns for the democratic nomination still have a great deal to teach about forging a path to a more egalitarian world. RIP.
February 17, 2026 at 1:36 PM
i think jesse jackson was one of the most important american political figures of the post-war era and i think that his 1984 and 1988 campaigns for the democratic nomination still have a great deal to teach about forging a path to a more egalitarian world. RIP.
Reposted by Wonky
Recent CBS News news:
1. Anderson Cooper leaves 60 Minutes after two decades
2. Stephen Colbert reveals network won’t let him air interview with Dem
3. Producer says politics dictating what airs
4. Owner’s bid for CNN parent back on the table.
5. Not firing Epstein pal.
1. Anderson Cooper leaves 60 Minutes after two decades
2. Stephen Colbert reveals network won’t let him air interview with Dem
3. Producer says politics dictating what airs
4. Owner’s bid for CNN parent back on the table.
5. Not firing Epstein pal.
February 17, 2026 at 12:27 PM
Recent CBS News news:
1. Anderson Cooper leaves 60 Minutes after two decades
2. Stephen Colbert reveals network won’t let him air interview with Dem
3. Producer says politics dictating what airs
4. Owner’s bid for CNN parent back on the table.
5. Not firing Epstein pal.
1. Anderson Cooper leaves 60 Minutes after two decades
2. Stephen Colbert reveals network won’t let him air interview with Dem
3. Producer says politics dictating what airs
4. Owner’s bid for CNN parent back on the table.
5. Not firing Epstein pal.
I forgot about this!
February 17, 2026 at 3:58 PM
I forgot about this!
Federal employees are not allowed to consume alcohol on work time or on government property. Why is taxpayer money paying for a fucking wine chiller? (Not that we should be paying for any of this bullshit.)
gotta do investigations into DHS “waste, fraud and abuse” as pretext for killing the agency
The interior of Kristi Noem’s new billionaire-class luxury jet is complete with two bidets and a wet bar with a wine chiller. It will be purchased on our dime from the slush fund Congress approved in the One Big Beautiful Bill.
open.substack.com/pub/newsnotn...
open.substack.com/pub/newsnotn...
February 17, 2026 at 2:58 AM
Federal employees are not allowed to consume alcohol on work time or on government property. Why is taxpayer money paying for a fucking wine chiller? (Not that we should be paying for any of this bullshit.)
It's hard to keep track of all the just plain shitty things this administration does, so I'm glad Zeteo is highlighting this casually cruel and pointless immiseration of the Cuban people.
"Why Is Trump Strangling Cuba?"
How Miami elites may be behind the current blockade causing a humanitarian crisis in Cuba.
Read/share/subscribe:
How Miami elites may be behind the current blockade causing a humanitarian crisis in Cuba.
Read/share/subscribe:
Why Is Trump Strangling Cuba?
How Miami elites may be behind the current blockade causing a humanitarian crisis in Cuba.
zeteo.com
February 17, 2026 at 2:47 AM
It's hard to keep track of all the just plain shitty things this administration does, so I'm glad Zeteo is highlighting this casually cruel and pointless immiseration of the Cuban people.
Reposted by Wonky
“False herring” is stupid, but the most dishonest & manipulative word here is “now.” As if this is some novelty. But warrants for entering homes, like cops who show their faces & badges, is how we’ve done things for 250 years. The radical novelty is suggesting we STOP doing these things.
Emmer: "It's a false herring for these guys to suggest, 'Oh, we now we need a judicial warrant,' because they know that that's going to delay any enforcement of the actual administrative warrant."
February 17, 2026 at 1:18 AM
“False herring” is stupid, but the most dishonest & manipulative word here is “now.” As if this is some novelty. But warrants for entering homes, like cops who show their faces & badges, is how we’ve done things for 250 years. The radical novelty is suggesting we STOP doing these things.
Reposted by Wonky
Elimination of emissions standards was one of the pretty clear policy stakes of the 2024 election and it received about 1% as much coverage as whether Tim Walz retiring from the national guard after 21 years was cowardly.
“The U.S. no longer has emission standards of any meaning,” said Margo T. Oge, who served as the E.P.A.’s top vehicle emissions regulator under three presidents and has since advised both automakers and environmental groups…
“Nothing. Zero,” she added. “Not many countries have zero.”
“Nothing. Zero,” she added. “Not many countries have zero.”
With Latest Rollback, the U.S. Essentially Has No Clean-Car Rules
www.nytimes.com
February 16, 2026 at 2:33 PM
Elimination of emissions standards was one of the pretty clear policy stakes of the 2024 election and it received about 1% as much coverage as whether Tim Walz retiring from the national guard after 21 years was cowardly.
What a headline.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Enforcement of laws against polluters nearly non-existent in US, analysis finds
EPA’s records show one environmental consent decree filed in last year – 26 were filed in year one of first Trump term
www.theguardian.com
February 16, 2026 at 7:15 PM
What a headline.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Reposted by Wonky
Everywhere this man goes he should be treated as if he murdered millions of children, because he did.
The Project 2025 architect who promised to put federal employees “in trauma” is spending $15 million of former USAID funding—money that would have gone toward fighting HIV, polio, malaria, and other diseases—to bankroll his security detail. trib.al/TSV3cmb
February 16, 2026 at 11:47 AM
Everywhere this man goes he should be treated as if he murdered millions of children, because he did.
Reposted by Wonky
As a White House ethics lawyer I told staff:
“Be allergic to free stuff” and not to even accept a can of soda from someone with business before the White House.
So how has the story of a UAE royal making a deal worth nearly $200m to the Trump family fallen out of news? www.ms.now/opinion/trum...
“Be allergic to free stuff” and not to even accept a can of soda from someone with business before the White House.
So how has the story of a UAE royal making a deal worth nearly $200m to the Trump family fallen out of news? www.ms.now/opinion/trum...
Opinion | How much money has Trump made as president? The answer should worry us all.
Ian Bassin: As an Obama White House lawyer, I counseled staff to behave like they are allergic to free stuff. What the Journal report describes threatens not just the public trust but also our nationa...
www.ms.now
February 16, 2026 at 4:53 PM
As a White House ethics lawyer I told staff:
“Be allergic to free stuff” and not to even accept a can of soda from someone with business before the White House.
So how has the story of a UAE royal making a deal worth nearly $200m to the Trump family fallen out of news? www.ms.now/opinion/trum...
“Be allergic to free stuff” and not to even accept a can of soda from someone with business before the White House.
So how has the story of a UAE royal making a deal worth nearly $200m to the Trump family fallen out of news? www.ms.now/opinion/trum...
This is a good plain-language summary of what the endangerment finding is and why it's important. Unfortunately, I think the answer to the question about the Supreme Court is "yes." They'll say Congress needs to explicitly tell EPA to regulate GHGs, or some other fig leaf.
February 16, 2026 at 6:56 PM
This is a good plain-language summary of what the endangerment finding is and why it's important. Unfortunately, I think the answer to the question about the Supreme Court is "yes." They'll say Congress needs to explicitly tell EPA to regulate GHGs, or some other fig leaf.
"When Musk & Hegseth argue that a racially diverse nation is inherently weak, they're not returning us to some long-established American tradition from which we've recently strayed. They are, instead, parroting the exact same propaganda that Nazi Germany promoted against America during WW II."
Elon's racist little post made me mad enough to write about it at CAMPAIGN TRAILS.
Diversity Is Our Strength
This morning, Elon Musk – the world's richest man and a key ally to the president of the United States – posted the content below to the white nationalist chat room and CSAM emporium he owns
There's ...
campaign-trails.ghost.io
February 15, 2026 at 9:06 PM
"When Musk & Hegseth argue that a racially diverse nation is inherently weak, they're not returning us to some long-established American tradition from which we've recently strayed. They are, instead, parroting the exact same propaganda that Nazi Germany promoted against America during WW II."
How do they see this playing out? That the only people who will get sick and die are the people they don't like? That cratering pharma R&D will improve the economy?
February 15, 2026 at 8:54 PM
How do they see this playing out? That the only people who will get sick and die are the people they don't like? That cratering pharma R&D will improve the economy?
People have gotten so inured to Trump's invective and disrespect that it barely seems to have registered that the president of the United States called an American Olympic athlete a "real loser" and said "it's too bad" he's on the team.
Why the Olympics turn Republicans into sore losers www.dailykos.com/stories/2026...
Why the Olympics turn Republicans into sore losers
Explaining the Right � is a weekly series that looks at what the right wing is currently obsessing over, how it influences politics—and why you need to know. President Donald Trump dragged the ...
www.dailykos.com
February 15, 2026 at 5:04 PM
People have gotten so inured to Trump's invective and disrespect that it barely seems to have registered that the president of the United States called an American Olympic athlete a "real loser" and said "it's too bad" he's on the team.
Reposted by Wonky
Good time to remind everyone that NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, a right-wing economist, has made it a personal goal to make sure lockdowns can never return.
Because in his mind, there is nothing that could ever justify shutting down the economy.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Because in his mind, there is nothing that could ever justify shutting down the economy.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Exclusive: Key US infectious-diseases centre to drop pandemic preparation
Staff members have been instructed to scrub this topic and ‘biodefense’ from the agency’s website.
www.nature.com
February 15, 2026 at 2:12 AM
Good time to remind everyone that NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, a right-wing economist, has made it a personal goal to make sure lockdowns can never return.
Because in his mind, there is nothing that could ever justify shutting down the economy.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Because in his mind, there is nothing that could ever justify shutting down the economy.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Wonky
no foreign foe has ever dreamed of being able to sack and pillaging this country the way Trump admin and its congressional and scotus enablers do every day.
A leading American research lab is slated to lose its critical supercomputing facility, according to a letter released by the National Science Foundation.https://cnn.it/3MoF7zU
February 14, 2026 at 3:43 AM
no foreign foe has ever dreamed of being able to sack and pillaging this country the way Trump admin and its congressional and scotus enablers do every day.
Excited to spend the next 3 years waiting to see if I and my loved ones can make it to a Democratic president before we're killed by a pandemic or our own government.
Scoop: The NIH infectious-diseases institute (NIAID) will soon scrub “pandemic preparedness” and “biodefense” from its web pages, according to e-mails I obtained.
The directive is the start of a broader shake-up at NIAID, which has long been attacked by Republicans.
The directive is the start of a broader shake-up at NIAID, which has long been attacked by Republicans.
Exclusive: Key US infectious-diseases centre to drop pandemic preparation
Staff members have been instructed to scrub this topic and ‘biodefense’ from the agency’s website.
www.nature.com
February 14, 2026 at 4:42 AM
Excited to spend the next 3 years waiting to see if I and my loved ones can make it to a Democratic president before we're killed by a pandemic or our own government.
Reposted by Wonky
The $38.3 billion they are going to spend for interment camps could fund the annual budget of NASA, the EPA, and all clean energy R&D at the Department of Energy—combined.
Breaking news: ICE expects to spend $38.3 billion on its plan to acquire warehouses across the U.S. and retrofit them into immigrant detention centers that can hold tens of thousands of people, according to agency documents.
ICE plans to spend $38.3 billion turning warehouses into detention centers
ICE plans to spend $38.3 billion converting warehouses into detention centers, according to planning documents, more than the annual budgets of 22 states.
www.washingtonpost.com
February 14, 2026 at 3:14 AM
The $38.3 billion they are going to spend for interment camps could fund the annual budget of NASA, the EPA, and all clean energy R&D at the Department of Energy—combined.
Sickening. Depraved, sadistic cruelty. We need Nuremberg-style trials.
On Thanksgiving, the immigrant children held at the Dilley detention center gathered in the gym for what they thought was a holiday feast.
The kids salivated over a spread of turkey, sandwiches, pastries and pies, a family told me.
But the food wasn’t for detainees — it was for the staff.
The kids salivated over a spread of turkey, sandwiches, pastries and pies, a family told me.
But the food wasn’t for detainees — it was for the staff.
February 13, 2026 at 11:31 PM
Sickening. Depraved, sadistic cruelty. We need Nuremberg-style trials.
Reposted by Wonky
It's not an exaggeration to say this will result in genocidal-scale death. And I don't mean in the distant, speculative future. Just the tens of thousands of pollution deaths in the relative near-term (Free link.) www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/c...
Trump Administration Erases the Government’s Power to Fight Climate Change
www.nytimes.com
February 12, 2026 at 10:50 PM
It's not an exaggeration to say this will result in genocidal-scale death. And I don't mean in the distant, speculative future. Just the tens of thousands of pollution deaths in the relative near-term (Free link.) www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/c...
Reposted by Wonky
reminds of that old bible story of how people were hungry and jesus conjured himself a security detail bsky.app/profile/carl...
“.. using millions of dollars from the former U.S. foreign aid agency to pay for the security detail of Russell Vought ..”
@reuters.com
www.reuters.com/world/us/whi...
@reuters.com
www.reuters.com/world/us/whi...
February 13, 2026 at 3:08 PM
reminds of that old bible story of how people were hungry and jesus conjured himself a security detail bsky.app/profile/carl...
Mike Judge looking at real life and thinking he way undershot it with Idiocracy.
February 13, 2026 at 4:56 PM
Mike Judge looking at real life and thinking he way undershot it with Idiocracy.