Billy Pierce
@billwpierce.co
phd student @ upenn annenberg
"I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me." - Hagan Scotten
"I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me." - Hagan Scotten
Reposted by Billy Pierce
A reminder for those who are not aware: "remigration" is the process of deporting all non-white people from a country. It includes citizens and is, by definition, ethnic cleansing.
And to be clear: this is not fake. I just screenshot it myself.
And to be clear: this is not fake. I just screenshot it myself.
November 28, 2025 at 6:12 PM
A reminder for those who are not aware: "remigration" is the process of deporting all non-white people from a country. It includes citizens and is, by definition, ethnic cleansing.
And to be clear: this is not fake. I just screenshot it myself.
And to be clear: this is not fake. I just screenshot it myself.
Trump hearing “man I need” every time he looks at Mamdani
November 21, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Trump hearing “man I need” every time he looks at Mamdani
Reposted by Billy Pierce
Was thrilled to help consult for this fantastic John Oliver segment on the tragic plight of U.S. public media and why, if we hope to be a democracy, we still need public media for so many things that commercial media will never provide. Deserves a wide viewership. www.youtube.com/watch?v=yknM...
Public Media: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
YouTube video by LastWeekTonight
www.youtube.com
November 17, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Was thrilled to help consult for this fantastic John Oliver segment on the tragic plight of U.S. public media and why, if we hope to be a democracy, we still need public media for so many things that commercial media will never provide. Deserves a wide viewership. www.youtube.com/watch?v=yknM...
Reposted by Billy Pierce
one month as the vogue political correspondent actually killing me
November 13, 2025 at 2:22 AM
one month as the vogue political correspondent actually killing me
Update to Bluesky’s moderation policy & ecosystem - important clarification for T&S researchers.
September 18, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Update to Bluesky’s moderation policy & ecosystem - important clarification for T&S researchers.
Question for #atproto developers: I'm attempting to index the ~40M Bluesky users using com.atproto.sync.list_repos on bsky.network; however, only ~26M DIDs are returned.
I'm new to atproto, so... any idea where this discrepancy may lie, and how might I collect the other ~14M DIDs? Thanks!
I'm new to atproto, so... any idea where this discrepancy may lie, and how might I collect the other ~14M DIDs? Thanks!
September 18, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Question for #atproto developers: I'm attempting to index the ~40M Bluesky users using com.atproto.sync.list_repos on bsky.network; however, only ~26M DIDs are returned.
I'm new to atproto, so... any idea where this discrepancy may lie, and how might I collect the other ~14M DIDs? Thanks!
I'm new to atproto, so... any idea where this discrepancy may lie, and how might I collect the other ~14M DIDs? Thanks!
Reposted by Billy Pierce
Ta-Nehisi Coates on Charlie Kirk and the pundits and politicians sanitizing his legacy.
Charlie Kirk, Redeemed: A Political Class Finds Its Lost Cause
By ignoring the rhetoric and actions of the Turning Point USA founder, pundits and politicians are sanitizing his legacy.
www.vanityfair.com
September 16, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Ta-Nehisi Coates on Charlie Kirk and the pundits and politicians sanitizing his legacy.
Reposted by Billy Pierce
Report: You To Be Fired For Reading This Headline About Charlie Kirk
Report: You To Be Fired For Reading This Headline About Charlie Kirk
NEW YORK—Insisting your fate was sealed the moment you clicked the link, a report released Tuesday found that you will be fired for reading this headline about Charlie Kirk. “Shortly after you navigat...
theonion.com
September 18, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Report: You To Be Fired For Reading This Headline About Charlie Kirk
Reposted by Billy Pierce
The level of state/corporate censorship that we're witnessing today in the U.S. is astonishing.
www.reuters.com
September 18, 2025 at 12:03 AM
The level of state/corporate censorship that we're witnessing today in the U.S. is astonishing.
Reposted by Billy Pierce
Not really an overstatement to say that the test of a free society is whether or not comedians can make fun of the country's leader on TV without repurcussions.
July 18, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Not really an overstatement to say that the test of a free society is whether or not comedians can make fun of the country's leader on TV without repurcussions.
Reposted by Billy Pierce
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both."
—Louis Brandeis
—Louis Brandeis
June 1, 2025 at 7:00 PM
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both."
—Louis Brandeis
—Louis Brandeis
Reposted by Billy Pierce
reputable medical journals keep saying that RFK and his pro-disease friends are full of shit and so naturally they must be shunned www.politico.com/news/2025/05...
RFK Jr. threatens to bar government scientists from publishing in leading medical journals
The health secretary said the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association and The Lancet are in bed with pharma.
www.politico.com
May 27, 2025 at 11:20 PM
reputable medical journals keep saying that RFK and his pro-disease friends are full of shit and so naturally they must be shunned www.politico.com/news/2025/05...
Reposted by Billy Pierce
On chatbots: publiccomment.blog/p/you-ll-nev...
May 26, 2025 at 2:23 PM
On chatbots: publiccomment.blog/p/you-ll-nev...
Reposted by Billy Pierce
Hi. Elon Musk says that empathy is "the fundamental weakness of Western civilization." In this episode, we look at why the right hates empathy and how they're trying to get more Americans to approve of their antisocial behavior. youtu.be/dwdAEkJks8A
April 30, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Hi. Elon Musk says that empathy is "the fundamental weakness of Western civilization." In this episode, we look at why the right hates empathy and how they're trying to get more Americans to approve of their antisocial behavior. youtu.be/dwdAEkJks8A
Reposted by Billy Pierce
This week’s main story is about the budget and staffing cuts being made to public health agencies in the U.S. under RFK Jr.’s leadership, how those cuts will impact all of us, and some foolproof ideas for what scientists can do in the absence of totally superfluous stuff like, y’know, centrifuges.
April 28, 2025 at 4:19 PM
This week’s main story is about the budget and staffing cuts being made to public health agencies in the U.S. under RFK Jr.’s leadership, how those cuts will impact all of us, and some foolproof ideas for what scientists can do in the absence of totally superfluous stuff like, y’know, centrifuges.
Reposted by Billy Pierce
there really is no alternative to tearing up CBP and ICE root and branch
A US citizen with a learning disability who has just suffered a medical emergency asks a CBP officer for directions outside the emergency room. He ends up detained in an icebox for ten days and has the assistant secretary of DHS lying about him to the public at large. popular.info/p/us-citizen...
![In an interview with Popular Information, his first with any media outlet, Hermosillo said DHS'.
's account was false.
According to Hermosillo, he was visiting his girlfriend's family in Tucson from his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Several hours before his arrest, Hermosillo was transported to a hospital in Tucson by ambulance after suffering from a seizure. He has a New Mexico state ID, but did not take it with him during the medical emergency.
After being released from the hospital following treatment, Hermosillo did not know how to return to where he was staying.
He approached the Border Patrol officer because he was looking for someone to help him. "I saw a car, and I askled] him for help," Hermosillo said. He told the officer that he was staying in Tucson.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:on5oeywiqx32fh2zau473wz6/bafkreie3gc6fndj7mtotijddm4eg264zgsqxpn4nbekb3xq5ubdmskvr6u@jpeg)
!["You"
re not from here. Do you have your
papers?" the officer said, according to Hermosillo. When the officer asked where he was from, Hermosillo said he told the officer,
"New Mexico." The officer then accused Hermosillo of lying. "Don't make me lout] like [I'm] stupid," the officer said. "I know you're from Mexico." After that, Hermosillo said, he was arrested.
Hermosillo said that he never told the officer that he was born in Mexico, was a citizen of Mexico, or entered the country illegally. And he would not have said those things because they are not true. He signed the transcript released by DHS because the officer ordered him to "sign everything." But Hermosillo did not read it, because he cannot read.
According to Hermosillo's girlfriend, Grace Hernandez, Hermosillo has learning disabilities and can only write his name.
Hermosillo said he did not graduate from high school and dropped out after the 10th grade.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:on5oeywiqx32fh2zau473wz6/bafkreiensu64iobo4ftuqeaighf2p5k745uzdnmhcecugsi4ec74dnqse4@jpeg)
April 23, 2025 at 3:12 PM
there really is no alternative to tearing up CBP and ICE root and branch
Reposted by Billy Pierce
If Jesus had focused more on kitchen table issues and less on unpopular outcasts like lepers and prostitutes, he might have won more support from white working-class Judeans.
April 20, 2025 at 2:08 AM
If Jesus had focused more on kitchen table issues and less on unpopular outcasts like lepers and prostitutes, he might have won more support from white working-class Judeans.
Reposted by Billy Pierce
“If I had a room jammed with trophies and awards, and a child of mine came to me and asked what I had done in defence of black people, and I had to tell that child that I had kept quiet, I would have to mark myself a total failure at the whole business of living.” Jackie Robinson
April 16, 2025 at 4:14 PM
“If I had a room jammed with trophies and awards, and a child of mine came to me and asked what I had done in defence of black people, and I had to tell that child that I had kept quiet, I would have to mark myself a total failure at the whole business of living.” Jackie Robinson
Reposted by Billy Pierce
Steve Kerr: "I believe in academic freedom. I think it's crucial for all of our institutions to be able to handle their own business the way they want to. And they should not be shaken down and told what to teach, what to say, by our government. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."
Steve Kerr wore a Harvard basketball shirt after the Warriors’ win tonight: “Yes, this is me supporting Harvard. Way to go. Way to stand up to the bully.”
April 16, 2025 at 12:13 PM
Steve Kerr: "I believe in academic freedom. I think it's crucial for all of our institutions to be able to handle their own business the way they want to. And they should not be shaken down and told what to teach, what to say, by our government. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."
Reposted by Billy Pierce
This is so heartbreaking and makes nothing better and no one safer. It is the punitive act of an administration that values fealty over human health.
A top scientist at Harvard who has spent years unraveling the mysteries of tuberculosis woke up Tuesday morning and discovered an order from the federal government telling her to halt her research.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/04/15/m...
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/04/15/m...
Leading Harvard scientist ordered to halt research in funding freeze - The Boston Globe
Researchers may have to kill macaques, a kind of primate used in a vaccine study, due to the order.
www.bostonglobe.com
April 16, 2025 at 1:41 AM
This is so heartbreaking and makes nothing better and no one safer. It is the punitive act of an administration that values fealty over human health.
Reposted by Billy Pierce
“It’s amazing that others in this room underwrote electing a man who, in the last week, single-handedly destroyed all of American science. It’s amazing how much good science you can destroy with $320 million and RFK Jr, very fast.”
— Seth Rogen’s censored remarks presenting the Breakthrough Prize
— Seth Rogen’s censored remarks presenting the Breakthrough Prize
April 16, 2025 at 3:10 AM
“It’s amazing that others in this room underwrote electing a man who, in the last week, single-handedly destroyed all of American science. It’s amazing how much good science you can destroy with $320 million and RFK Jr, very fast.”
— Seth Rogen’s censored remarks presenting the Breakthrough Prize
— Seth Rogen’s censored remarks presenting the Breakthrough Prize
Reposted by Billy Pierce
2/4. The entire practice of the Holocaust of the Jews involved zones of statelessness. It is easier to move people away from law than it is to remove law from people. Almost all of the killing took place in artificially created stateless zones.
April 15, 2025 at 1:13 AM
2/4. The entire practice of the Holocaust of the Jews involved zones of statelessness. It is easier to move people away from law than it is to remove law from people. Almost all of the killing took place in artificially created stateless zones.
Reposted by Billy Pierce
April 15, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Reposted by Billy Pierce
In the Oval Office, President Trump sat in silence as El Salvadoran President Bukele smeared Kilmar Abrego Garcia as a “terrorist.”
SCOTUS ordered his return—but instead, the Trump Admin is defying the law, disappearing people and yielding to a fellow tyrant at the expense of the victim’s family.
SCOTUS ordered his return—but instead, the Trump Admin is defying the law, disappearing people and yielding to a fellow tyrant at the expense of the victim’s family.
April 14, 2025 at 6:30 PM
In the Oval Office, President Trump sat in silence as El Salvadoran President Bukele smeared Kilmar Abrego Garcia as a “terrorist.”
SCOTUS ordered his return—but instead, the Trump Admin is defying the law, disappearing people and yielding to a fellow tyrant at the expense of the victim’s family.
SCOTUS ordered his return—but instead, the Trump Admin is defying the law, disappearing people and yielding to a fellow tyrant at the expense of the victim’s family.
Reposted by Billy Pierce
REPORTER: You mentioned you're open to deporting individuals that aren't foreign aliens but aren't criminal to El Salvador. Does that include US citizens?
TRUMP: If they are criminals and hit people with baseball bats, if they rape 87 year old women, yeah. Yeah. That includes them. I'm all for it.
TRUMP: If they are criminals and hit people with baseball bats, if they rape 87 year old women, yeah. Yeah. That includes them. I'm all for it.
April 14, 2025 at 4:22 PM
REPORTER: You mentioned you're open to deporting individuals that aren't foreign aliens but aren't criminal to El Salvador. Does that include US citizens?
TRUMP: If they are criminals and hit people with baseball bats, if they rape 87 year old women, yeah. Yeah. That includes them. I'm all for it.
TRUMP: If they are criminals and hit people with baseball bats, if they rape 87 year old women, yeah. Yeah. That includes them. I'm all for it.