Liam McHugh-Russell
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xntl.info
Liam McHugh-Russell
@xntl.info
Canadian law professor. Transnational law, labour regulation, cooperatives and corporate governance, knowledge politics. Currently obsessed with the uses of legal scholarship. Two time dad. Not even a jack of any trades.
I thought that they had passed a law that you are only allowed to refer to him as Pete "Who Took a Paycheque to Tell Jokes to the People That Killed his Dad" Davidson
January 14, 2026 at 6:58 PM
Reposted by Liam McHugh-Russell
This made me think of this recent Chris Gethard quote at www.vulture.com/article/chri... : "Are you telling me that a video podcast hosted by an A-list celebrity where the video has exclusive distribution on Netflix is in the spirit of podcasting? What is that except a nonunion television show?"
‘Are We Participating in a Thing That Is Not Even Working?’
Chris Gethard on the end of the middle-class comedy job.
www.vulture.com
January 14, 2026 at 6:44 PM
It's legitimately great to see all the leftists, liberals and progressive posters who have hated on, dumped on and yelled at Will Stancil on here, all lining up on my feed to say, with some chagrin but no irony, "You know what? He's doing legitimately great legwork documenting ICE wrongdoing in MN"
January 14, 2026 at 6:47 PM
Reposted by Liam McHugh-Russell
re: putting QR codes on PowerPoint slides in lectures/presentations. PLEASE do not do this. I am a slow note taker already and drawing the whole code accurately takes forever and uses a ton of ink
January 14, 2026 at 5:28 PM
Reposted by Liam McHugh-Russell
Minnesota legend Charles M. Schulz knew what made a great citizen. “Sometimes it is the very people who cry out the loudest in favor of getting back to what they call ‘American Virtues’ who lack this faith in our country.”
January 14, 2026 at 7:55 AM
Reposted by Liam McHugh-Russell
There is precedent for this; Swedish and Norwegian naval ships have QR codes so that when they return to port they can scan da navy in.
I am introducing the Quick Recognition (QR) Act, which requires ICE and CBP officers to wear uniforms featuring QR codes. When scanned, the code would generate a digital ID displaying the officer’s name, badge number, and law enforcement agency.

ICE should be unmasked both physically and digitally.
January 14, 2026 at 5:24 PM
Reposted by Liam McHugh-Russell
We’re turning away from soft power because it has the word “soft” in it
January 14, 2026 at 4:31 PM
Reposted by Liam McHugh-Russell
Goddamn Labelmaker Ozymandias.
January 14, 2026 at 3:50 PM
Reposted by Liam McHugh-Russell
I think this analysis seriously underestimates Trump's desire to debase every American institution until they are all part of a sprawling reflection of his corrupt will
Editorial: Attacking Jerome Powell distracts from Republicans’ thin legislative record and policies that continue to squeeze American household incomes
The Guardian view on Trump’s assault on the Fed: it is part of an affordability blame game | Editorial
www.theguardian.com
January 13, 2026 at 11:28 PM
I saw a "Free Jay Powell" T Shirt in the style of the free Mumia shirts of old, and there was a part of me that was 19 in 1999 that was really tempted and I hate that version of me *so much*
I'm just remembering the couple decades where cool was largely equated with an irony and detachment that implied a rejection of aesthetic taste or political commitment (hur hur), and I'm much more willing to blame that cultural trend for where we are than a leftist over-investment in "critique"
January 13, 2026 at 11:28 PM
I'm just remembering the couple decades where cool was largely equated with an irony and detachment that implied a rejection of aesthetic taste or political commitment (hur hur), and I'm much more willing to blame that cultural trend for where we are than a leftist over-investment in "critique"
January 13, 2026 at 11:26 PM
Reposted by Liam McHugh-Russell
we're hiring in STS @fasosmaastricht.bsky.social!

deadline coming up soon (February 8). focus is the social science-y corners of STS preferably w/ some interest in sustainability & environment - but interpreted broadly.

vacancies.maastrichtuniversity.nl/job/Maastric...
Assistant Professor Science, Technology and Society Studies
Assistant Professor Science, Technology and Society Studies
vacancies.maastrichtuniversity.nl
January 6, 2026 at 3:55 PM
Reposted by Liam McHugh-Russell
Bring back shame.
The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement is “irrelevant,” President Trump said on Tuesday, dismissing America’s largest trade agreement that he signed in 2020 and is up for review this year.
“I don’t even think about USMCA.” www.wsj.com/livecoverage...
USMCA Is ‘Irrelevant,’ Trump Says
The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement is “irrelevant,” President Trump said on Tuesday, dismissing America’s largest trade agreement that he signed in 2020 and is up for review this year. “I don’t even thi...
www.wsj.com
January 13, 2026 at 10:03 PM
Reposted by Liam McHugh-Russell
someone in the replies asked, and now I also want to know—is this Hugo eligible?
“Why one small American town won’t stop stoning its residents to death,” an AO3 fic in which Isaac Chotiner interviews the guy who runs the lottery in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, is astounding. archiveofourown.org/works/73396436
Why one small American town won’t stop stoning its residents to death - Charlotte_Stant - The Lottery - Shirley Jackson [Archive of Our Own]
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
archiveofourown.org
January 13, 2026 at 8:21 AM
Reposted by Liam McHugh-Russell
Breaking News: The EPA will stop considering lives saved when setting pollution limits and instead calculate only the cost to businesses.
E.P.A. to Stop Considering Lives Saved by Limiting Air Pollution
In a reversal, the agency plans to calculate only the cost to industry when setting pollution limits, and not the monetary value of saving human lives, documents show.
nyti.ms
January 12, 2026 at 6:39 PM
Reposted by Liam McHugh-Russell
January 11, 2026 at 6:56 PM
Reposted by Liam McHugh-Russell
There are a lot of marginalised cultural, regional and language communities that exist on Twitter and which have a hard time moving here. How can we make that process easier?
January 9, 2026 at 4:55 PM
Reposted by Liam McHugh-Russell
60 workers at Ubisoft’s studio in Halifax, Nova Scotia voted to form a union.

In response, Ubisoft announced it was closing the entire studio. Maybe it’s time to look into the millions they get in public money for operating in Canada.
Video game giant Ubisoft closes Halifax studio, cutting 71 jobs | CBC News
Staff formed company's first North American union in late December but Ubisoft says unionization did not influence closure.
www.cbc.ca
January 8, 2026 at 8:09 PM
Quitting academia.edu was one of the best decisions I made last year
Academia dot edu's entire sales model is "oh hey, that cute guy is talking about you over there. Be my friend and I'll tell you what he's saying."
January 9, 2026 at 1:18 PM
Reposted by Liam McHugh-Russell
January 9, 2026 at 2:44 AM
Are governments going to actually do something about the deep fake child porn machine, or are they just going to keep "expressing outrage?"
Scathing words from No 10 on X making the Grok image tool available only to paying users: “That simply turns an AI feature that allows the creation of unlawful images into a premium service. It's not a solution. In fact, it's insulting to victims of misogyny and sexual violence."
January 9, 2026 at 12:34 PM
1. An interesting little thread that gets to the heart of a tension on social media. Jennings gets that posting always *does* something; he doesn't like what doom posting does, as a matter of shaping political possibilities (me neither). But of course, one of the things posting *does* is provide
This kind of thing does point out a real ethical dilemma: block or mute?
January 9, 2026 at 12:32 PM
Reposted by Liam McHugh-Russell
ladies, it's ok because only paying subscribers can make/distribute deepfake porn of you and your children now www.ft.com/content/c24d...
Elon Musk’s xAI restricts Grok after outcry over sexualised images
Start-up limits use of image generation system to paid users following spread of deepfakes and child sex abuse material
www.ft.com
January 9, 2026 at 11:36 AM
Reposted by Liam McHugh-Russell
Happy 13th birthday to the most essential artwork of the current era, @kcg.bsky.social ‘s “This is fine,” to all those who celebrate.
January 9, 2026 at 11:06 AM
Reposted by Liam McHugh-Russell
I might be wrong but I don’t think the Nobel Peace Prize is transferable, but perhaps it’s different if you take it forcibly by declaring war illegally on the holder 🤷‍♂️
January 9, 2026 at 11:50 AM