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Yusuf Sarfati @yusufsarfati.bsky.social · 7h

The frogs of the world unite!

Bradley P. Moss @bradmossesq.bsky.social · 10h

I love this image.

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Yusuf Sarfati @yusufsarfati.bsky.social · 14h

A Nobel Prize for Eric Adams for turning the NYC around!

Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 14h

"What is it going to take before you drop your hate and say, 'Listen, the guy did the job!' I'm not running anymore, so you no longer have to do this whole charade. I turned the city around, folks—come on! ... Stop coming up with all of these creative ways of saying 'Eric failed.' Eric didn't fail."

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Yusuf Sarfati @yusufsarfati.bsky.social · 20h

In case you missed it, the agreed 21 point plan is in the 🧵

Drop Site @dropsitenews.com · 11d

Trump administration releases the full 21-point Gaza plan which redraws the Strip and sidelines Palestinians.

➤ Gaza would shrink with a permanent Israeli “security buffer zone,” swallowing the Philadelphi corridor on the Egypt border.

➤ A new Board of Peace chaired by Trump himself — with Tony…

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Reposted by Yusuf Sarfati

Yusuf Sarfati @yusufsarfati.bsky.social · 16h

"Fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone,” M.I.T president Kornbluth wrote.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

M.I.T. Rejects a White House Offer for Special Funding Treatment

www.nytimes.com

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Yusuf Sarfati @yusufsarfati.bsky.social · 16h

Many who would rush to condemn anti-Zionism as antisemitic would acknowledge that Zionism has different meanings. Well, you know what so does anti-Zionism. And ofc both terms have racist variants.

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Yusuf Sarfati @yusufsarfati.bsky.social · 16h

Apparently, she hasn't received the memo on good vs. bad Muslims.

Reposted by Yusuf Sarfati

Lynda Lopez @lyndab08.bsky.social · 16h

Seeing pictures of an abandoned tamale cart in Pilsen where ICE took a tamale street vendor. Those photos of left behind carts are so haunting. Community members disappeared. Not just vendors but people who have long standing relationships with the community and people.

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Joanne Freeman @jbf1755.bsky.social · 16h

Authoritarians rule based on fear.

Ridiculing them this way weakens their propaganda.

It matters.

Laura Jedeed @laurajedeed.bsky.social · 22h

This video is everywhere because it's a hilarious visual refutation of Portland being on fire. You can't get a mass movement going without convincing the masses

so yes, this does do something actually

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Dallas Steele

@Cherrykickstart

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This literally does nothing. You are not beating fascism by dressing up in inflatable suits and dancing

Quote tweeting Claude Taylor @TrueFactsStated

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Portland is leading the way. This is how you (non violently) beat Fascism. Humor and ridicule are key.

Stillframe from a video of Portland protesters dancing in inflatable suits

9:17 AM 08 Oct 25 758K Views

13:01 09 Oct 25 32.6K Views

88 Reposts

11 Quotes

1,049 Likes

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Yusuf Sarfati @yusufsarfati.bsky.social · 16h

"Fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone,” M.I.T president Kornbluth wrote.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

M.I.T. Rejects a White House Offer for Special Funding Treatment

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Yusuf Sarfati

Yusuf Sarfati @yusufsarfati.bsky.social · 18h

Humor is a potent tool in the fight against authoritarianism.

dr. caitlin m. green @caitlinmoriah.bsky.social · 1d

there are SO many more inflatable costumes tonight. clearly we have settled on a motif

Wide shot of many people in inflatable costumes

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Yusuf Sarfati @yusufsarfati.bsky.social · 17h

For a second, read your name as the Oregon Onion 😅

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Yusuf Sarfati @yusufsarfati.bsky.social · 17h

No, it's not the Onion.

The Oregonian @oregonian.com · 1d

Things are happening at Portland's ICE facility tonight.

Read more of our protest coverage here: www.oregonlive.com/crime/2025/1...

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Yusuf Sarfati @yusufsarfati.bsky.social · 18h

Humor is a potent tool in the fight against authoritarianism.

dr. caitlin m. green @caitlinmoriah.bsky.social · 1d

there are SO many more inflatable costumes tonight. clearly we have settled on a motif

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Howard Eissenstat @heissenstat.bsky.social · 19h

I’m a tenured professor with an endowed chair.

Looking back, I don’t think the freshly minted PhD version of me could land a job in today’s market. I was smart, I was driven — but mostly, I was lucky.

More of us in academia need to admit that.

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Yusuf Sarfati @yusufsarfati.bsky.social · 18h

The terrorist frogs are coming to DC!

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 19h

Emmer: "This is about one thing and one thing alone -- to score political points with the terrorist wing of their party, which is set to hold a hate America rally in DC next week."

Reposted by Yusuf Sarfati

Kathleen Clark @kathleenclark.bsky.social · 19h

A master class from MIT in responding to authoritarian overreach:

Your “premise … is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.
… America’s leadership in science & innovation depends on independent thinking & open competition for excellence.

Dear Madam Secretary,
I write in response to your letter of October 1, inviting MIT to review a "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education." I acknowledge the vital importance of these matters.
I appreciated the chance to meet with you earlier this year to discuss the priorities we share for American higher education.
As we discussed, the Institute's mission of service to the nation directs us to advance knowledge, educate students and bring knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges.
We do that in line with a clear set of values, with excellence above all. Some practical examples:
• MIT prides itself on rewarding merit. Students, faculty and staff succeed here based on the strength of their talent, ideas and hard work. For instance, the Institute was the first to reinstate the SAT/ACT requirement after the pandemic. And MIT has never had legacy preferences in admissions.
• MIT opens its doors to the most talented students regardless of their family's finances. Admissions are need-blind. Incoming undergraduates whose families earn less than $200,000 a year pay no tuition. Nearly 88% of our last graduating class left MIT with no debt for their education. We make a wealth of free courses and low-cost certificates available to any American with an internet connection. Of the undergraduate degrees we award, 94% are in STEM fields. And in service to the nation, we cap enrollment of international undergraduates at roughly 10%.

source:
https://orgchart.mit.edu/letters/regarding-compact

• We value free expression, as clearly described in the MIT Statement on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom. We must hear facts and opinions we don't like - and engage respectfully with those with whom we disagree.
These values and other MIT practices meet or exceed many standards outlined in the document you sent. We freely choose these values because they're right, and we live by them because they support our mission - work of immense value to the prosperity, competitiveness, health and security of the United States. And of course, MIT abides by the law.
The document also includes principles with which we disagree, including those that would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution. And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.
In our view, America's leadership in science and innovation depends on independent thinking and open competition for excellence. In that free marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences. Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education.
As you know, MIT's record of service to the nation is long and enduring. Eight decades ago, MIT leaders helped invent a scientific partnership between America's research universities and the U.S. government that has delivered extraordinary benefits for the American people. We continue to believe in the power of this partnership to serve the nation.
Sincerely,
Sally Kornbluth

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Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 21h

It’s an insane world where militarizing your own civilian streets and ordering extrajudicial murders on the high seas doesn’t get you a prize.

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Nathan Kalmoe (he/him) @nathankalmoe.bsky.social · 20h

This is a much better way to frame "affordability,"
@democrats.org.

It centers corruption, condemns the unfair economic system that produces, connects those to harms to ordinary people, & doesn't ignore Trump's authoritarianism nor his racist attacks on immigrants & their supporters.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 20h

Mamdani: "Trump ran on 3 promises - punishment of his political enemies, easing cost of living crisis, & mass deportation. It's that second promise that brought so many to his campaign. And yet he's unable & unwilling to deliver bc he's beholden to the very billionaires that are profiting off of it"

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Yusuf Sarfati @yusufsarfati.bsky.social · 20h

Exactly!

Yusuf Sarfati @yusufsarfati.bsky.social · 20h

He didn't say this, your framing is purposefully deceiving and clearly meant to be clickbait.

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Yusuf Sarfati @yusufsarfati.bsky.social · 20h

Lock up the terrorist unicorns!

dr. caitlin m. green @caitlinmoriah.bsky.social · 1d

there are SO many more inflatable costumes tonight. clearly we have settled on a motif

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Yusuf Sarfati @yusufsarfati.bsky.social · 20h

In case you missed it, the agreed 21 point plan is in the 🧵

Drop Site @dropsitenews.com · 11d

Trump administration releases the full 21-point Gaza plan which redraws the Strip and sidelines Palestinians.

➤ Gaza would shrink with a permanent Israeli “security buffer zone,” swallowing the Philadelphi corridor on the Egypt border.

➤ A new Board of Peace chaired by Trump himself — with Tony…

3 2

Reposted by Yusuf Sarfati

Lisel Hintz @liselhintz.bsky.social · 1d

Humorous costumes and symbols do powerful work in anti-authoritarian protest.

They symbolically erode the power of the regime, humanize protesters, and promote viral sharing of images countering regime claims.

“Dismantling their narrative” captures it well.

See: Turkey’s Pikachu. And penguins.

Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 1d

www.wweek.com/culture/2025...

Can you put into words what that purpose is? You and the frog have really become icons of this protest.

There’s been a nice overall whimsy that has shown up. The frog is amazing. We had a bunch of other inflatable people here last night, too. I saw people playing Twister the other day.

What they rely on is fear. So by coming out in an absurdist manner, it speaks to them, to some extent, that we’re actually not that afraid.

It also dismantles their narrative a little bit. When they try to describe this situation as “war-torn,” it becomes much harder to take them seriously when they have to post a video saying [U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security] Kristi Noem is up on the balcony staring over the Antifa Army and it’s, like, eight journalists and five protesters and one of them is in a chicken suit.

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Rima I Anabtawi @rimaanabtawi.bsky.social · 1d

Why Hamas Agreed to Release the Hostages

And why it might not matter much for Gaza’s future, or for Palestinian statehood.

@ichotiner.bsky.social talks with @elgindy.bsky.social

www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...

Why Hamas Agreed to Release the Hostages

And why it might not matter much for Gaza’s future, or for Palestinian statehood.

www.newyorker.com

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 1d

This is the genius of the Portland protests - they make the claims of lawlessness look not just wrong, but comical

The Daily Show @thedailyshow.com · 1d

The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.

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