Dean
@lepetitanglais.bsky.social
-13 isn't enough to get the GOP to do anything
Not sure folks fully appreciate the intensity of public backlash to ICE. Since Trump’s second term began, ICE has seen a net 29-point collapse in favorability.
Feb 2025: 50–35 (+16%)
Jan 2026: 39–52 (–13%)
Trump administration tactics have deeply alienated persuadable voters.
Feb 2025: 50–35 (+16%)
Jan 2026: 39–52 (–13%)
Trump administration tactics have deeply alienated persuadable voters.
January 10, 2026 at 8:21 PM
-13 isn't enough to get the GOP to do anything
Reposted by Dean
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.” - Hannah Arendt
Trump: "I have just viewed the clip of the event which took place in Minneapolis. It is a horrible thing to watch. The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting ... "
January 7, 2026 at 9:03 PM
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.” - Hannah Arendt
Reposted by Dean
Lol how can you tell this administration is lying to you? Because oil hasn't been shipped in actual barrels in over a century
www.cnn.com/2026/01/06/b...
www.cnn.com/2026/01/06/b...
January 7, 2026 at 3:47 PM
Lol how can you tell this administration is lying to you? Because oil hasn't been shipped in actual barrels in over a century
www.cnn.com/2026/01/06/b...
www.cnn.com/2026/01/06/b...
Reposted by Dean
The US rushing towards an energy source on the verge of obsolescence while China breaks records with new solar power capacity will come to be seen as one of the most idiotic legacies of Trump era.
Trump on the US running Venezuela: It will not cost us anything because the money coming out of the ground is substantial. We’re going to take back the oil.
January 4, 2026 at 6:45 PM
The US rushing towards an energy source on the verge of obsolescence while China breaks records with new solar power capacity will come to be seen as one of the most idiotic legacies of Trump era.
"Nothing but profound admiration" for someone explicitly pro-genocide is not the way to go.
I will never understand the soullessness of people who try to strip a human rights defender and torture survivor of the safety that his family won at impossible cost. I have nothing but the most profound admiration for Alaa Abd el-Fattah
I will never regret being part of the movement to free Alaa Abd el-Fattah, or writing the foreword to his extraordinary book, You Have Not Yet Been Defeated.
Read his honest and heartfelt response to those playing politics with his hard-won freedom.
#FreeAlaa Always.
freealaa.net/alaa-response
Read his honest and heartfelt response to those playing politics with his hard-won freedom.
#FreeAlaa Always.
freealaa.net/alaa-response
December 29, 2025 at 11:33 AM
"Nothing but profound admiration" for someone explicitly pro-genocide is not the way to go.
Reposted by Dean
Having had a day to think through everything about El-Fattah, here's where I stand. Yes, it's possible to believe all of these things at once! In fact, it really shouldn't be that hard.
December 29, 2025 at 11:10 AM
Having had a day to think through everything about El-Fattah, here's where I stand. Yes, it's possible to believe all of these things at once! In fact, it really shouldn't be that hard.
The Brutalist is brilliant other than the One Thing. Which was really bad but still.
My Summer with Carmen. The Uninvited. Opus! How the hell did Opus get made? The final acts of Mickey 17 and Honey, Don't. The Monkey. The Brutalist, a film which in every sense goes off the rails.
December 15, 2025 at 5:09 PM
The Brutalist is brilliant other than the One Thing. Which was really bad but still.
This guy deserves all the awards.
7News Australia reports that the hero who jumped and disarmed one of the terrorist shooters
His name is Ahmed el-Ahmed
A 43 year old married father of two
He owns a fruit shop in Sutherland
No experience with guns
He was walking past
He has two bullets in his arm
His name is Ahmed el-Ahmed
A 43 year old married father of two
He owns a fruit shop in Sutherland
No experience with guns
He was walking past
He has two bullets in his arm
December 14, 2025 at 2:59 PM
This guy deserves all the awards.
Reposted by Dean
real or nominal?
Trump says he doesn't know why America can't achieve 25 percent annual economic growth
December 10, 2025 at 10:26 PM
real or nominal?
Clinton would have won without Comey and Harris wins in different circumstances too. Granted they were facing a generationally unpopular opponent but a mid woman defeating a toxic GOP candidate is plausible.
I think to break the glass ceiling would require a woman who is a generational talent, like Obama was.
I actually disagree with your main point. I think an unusually charismatic woman with centrist appeal and a record of fighting Trumpism would be successful. I don’t have obvious names for that list though.
December 9, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Clinton would have won without Comey and Harris wins in different circumstances too. Granted they were facing a generationally unpopular opponent but a mid woman defeating a toxic GOP candidate is plausible.
This is likely explained as National Rally was founded as an explicitly far-right party, that has moderated (or pretended to). Do the BBC refer to Orban, Trump etc. as far-right?
Interesting that the BBC will call National Rally "Far Right" (in an article about Bardella meeting Farage) - when they would never use that term for Reform. Their policies are very similar. If anything Reform's are more authoritarian.
December 9, 2025 at 10:31 PM
This is likely explained as National Rally was founded as an explicitly far-right party, that has moderated (or pretended to). Do the BBC refer to Orban, Trump etc. as far-right?
If you combined self-driving with carpooling it could greatly reduce traffic.
I find this pretty convincing but as ever with these discussions, it doesn't answer at all the question of how we deal with the extra traffic congestion that will be induced by the fact that being driven is much nicer and more convenient than driving a car yourself
good piece on Waymo's self driving cars
we can reasonably begin to look at self driving as a potential public health breakthrough, Waymo cars are much better and safer drivers than people
the problem is the economics of the technology not the technology itself
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/o...
we can reasonably begin to look at self driving as a potential public health breakthrough, Waymo cars are much better and safer drivers than people
the problem is the economics of the technology not the technology itself
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/o...
December 2, 2025 at 3:26 PM
If you combined self-driving with carpooling it could greatly reduce traffic.
Reposted by Dean
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
Reposted by Dean
The thing to understand about this is that this catastrophe in the UK has redounded to the political benefit of the very same people and political movement that pushed for it! Extremely perverse.
I wonder if the United States can learn anything from the last time a major industrialized country decided to isolate itself from the rest of the world?
Almost a decade after the Brexit vote, GDP in the UK is around 6-8% lower relative to peer countries. (Source: www.nber.org/papers/w34459)
Almost a decade after the Brexit vote, GDP in the UK is around 6-8% lower relative to peer countries. (Source: www.nber.org/papers/w34459)
November 11, 2025 at 5:23 PM
The thing to understand about this is that this catastrophe in the UK has redounded to the political benefit of the very same people and political movement that pushed for it! Extremely perverse.
Reposted by Dean
We’re in this absurd space where the president has already pardoned every person who ransacked the Capitol as he watched on TV but only he is allowed to admit “that’s what I wanted.”
🇬🇧 The BBC is expected to apologise for editing a speech that suggested Donald Trump had directly instigated an attack on the US Capitol, resulting in the dramatic resignations of the broadcaster's top brass.
➡️ u.afp.com/Sni5
➡️ u.afp.com/Sni5
November 10, 2025 at 10:44 AM
We’re in this absurd space where the president has already pardoned every person who ransacked the Capitol as he watched on TV but only he is allowed to admit “that’s what I wanted.”
Disagree. It would be totally normal for, say, Rachel Levine to say something similar about the London mayoral election. And this obsession that people on the left* have with Mamdani's ethnicity/religion is creepy.
*and right
*and right
November 5, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Disagree. It would be totally normal for, say, Rachel Levine to say something similar about the London mayoral election. And this obsession that people on the left* have with Mamdani's ethnicity/religion is creepy.
*and right
*and right
Reposted by Dean
Call me old-fashioned, but as these election results come in, let me just say that I don’t think anyone’s ethnic background is a good reason to vote for or against them. There are plenty of much better criteria.
November 5, 2025 at 2:03 AM
Call me old-fashioned, but as these election results come in, let me just say that I don’t think anyone’s ethnic background is a good reason to vote for or against them. There are plenty of much better criteria.
Reposted by Dean
Purely policy-wise, it is objectively insane that we still have a hybrid between a poll tax and a property tax based on actual or retconned 1991 property values in England and we should obviously replace it, whether with a land value or a property tax.
October 14, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Purely policy-wise, it is objectively insane that we still have a hybrid between a poll tax and a property tax based on actual or retconned 1991 property values in England and we should obviously replace it, whether with a land value or a property tax.
Reposted by Dean
It might be hard to convey to people outside economics just how seismic this is. The Trump effect has most certainly arrived to US academia.
I am delighted to share that Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee will join our Department of Economics @econ.uzh.ch at the University of Zurich on July 1, 2026, as Lemann Foundation Professors of Economics.
🧵 1/7
🧵 1/7
October 10, 2025 at 12:23 PM
It might be hard to convey to people outside economics just how seismic this is. The Trump effect has most certainly arrived to US academia.
@alexsaysstuff.bsky.social what are the best books on Yugoslavia / the partition of Yugoslavia, for someone who doesn't know much about the subject?
October 6, 2025 at 4:33 PM
@alexsaysstuff.bsky.social what are the best books on Yugoslavia / the partition of Yugoslavia, for someone who doesn't know much about the subject?
Turkey are literally imprisoning their main opposition figures and nullifying election results they don't like. Far gone from Hungary.
Correct. And one more addition: Fascism relies on a disciplined mass party, mass mobilization (that is, forced participation in state-run organizations), and the complete shutdown of any form of alternate pluralism.
We're not even in that ballpark. We're headed for being Turkey or Hungary.
We're not even in that ballpark. We're headed for being Turkey or Hungary.
Like saying it’s a movement and they want it to be fascist but we can still vote and judges have held the line for some things so far so we aren’t there yet. Correct?
October 5, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Turkey are literally imprisoning their main opposition figures and nullifying election results they don't like. Far gone from Hungary.
Reposted by Dean
Jews, you do not need to read these replies on Yom Kippur. But leftist Gentiles who still insist there is not a problem with antisemitism on the left, you really do need to read these replies.
I am sickened by today’s attack in Manchester. Antisemitism is on the rise around the world, and we must do all we can to stomp it out. I am grateful to first responders and congregants who showed incredible bravery, and I am praying for those who were killed.
October 2, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Jews, you do not need to read these replies on Yom Kippur. But leftist Gentiles who still insist there is not a problem with antisemitism on the left, you really do need to read these replies.
I wish the BoD would stfu about Israel unless it directly affects British Jews. British hostages? Yes. anti-Semitism couched in anti-Zionism? Yes. Recognition of Palestine? Not their business.
September 22, 2025 at 3:26 PM
I wish the BoD would stfu about Israel unless it directly affects British Jews. British hostages? Yes. anti-Semitism couched in anti-Zionism? Yes. Recognition of Palestine? Not their business.
Reposted by Dean
Good thread
The H1-B visa thing is, like everything else in the Trump administration, set up to carve up exceptions for friends and punish enemies. It’s the authoritarian thru-line that stitches everything together.
September 21, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Good thread