walterolson.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Mini-tartlets using ground almonds. At left the filling is watermelon pudding with chocolate chips, at right it’s homemade ricotta with sherry. As always unless otherwise noted I’m not the one who cooks the dishes I post, just the grateful beneficiary. #WhatsCooking #BlueskySupperClub

submitted 1 hour ago • 0 comments

From the always-amusing and always-on-point @loweringthebar.bsky.social: the ludicrous frequency at which lawyers don't understand "AI" writing tools; and I sure hope the lessons for scientific writers are obvious! www.loweringthebar.net/2025/06/plea...

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Federal court in DC: Judge denies government's motion to seal court order, calling it an "attempt to muzzle the Court." "Public access to criminal proceedings provides a 'safeguard against the corrupt or overzealous prosecutor,' especially, as at this juncture, where there is no jury present."

submitted 2 hours ago • 1 comment

More crimes caught on camera. When will LA prosecutors identify the perpetrators?

submitted 5 hours ago • 0 comments

Trump has gone far toward achieving a goal once unimaginable: an American media too far cowed to accord his administration full and fearless coverage. How should we as news consumers respond? [@davidfrum.bsky.social]

submitted 3 hours ago • 1 comment

My husband’s cell was getting calls from people thinking they were phoning a certain city’s police number. He was puzzled—his number doesn’t appear on any web page. Then he learned that if you Google “[city name] non-emergency police”, the AI overview hallucinates his number. Thanks, Google!

submitted 3 hours ago • 7 comments

I see that over at X the users are having a polite disagreement over immigration policy with my colleagues from @cato.org

submitted 4 hours ago • 2 comments

The Trump administration is refusing to tell agencies that received information about the WilmerHale executive order that the executive order has since been declared "null and void" unless they are the 26 named defendant agencies.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Analysis: The Big Banks Abandon Post-Parkland Gun Policies [Member Exclusive] thereload.com/analysis-the...

submitted 7 hours ago • 0 comments

Previously confidential documents reveal the EU Commission paid environmental groups to pursue lawsuits against coal-fired power plants along with campaigns against free trade and companies based in Germany and elsewhere. [Welt am Sonntag]

submitted 5 hours ago • 1 comment

Fine print: *Offer doesn’t apply to Capitol Police

submitted 7 hours ago • 44 comments

Yes, France has military parades. But context matters: Trump is no Macron. He's itching to use the military against U.S. citizens, and he wants generals who are loyal to him, not the Constitution. This parade — on his birthday, no less — is neither unifying nor benign. [@joelmathis.bsky.social]

submitted 9 hours ago • 3 comments

open.substack.com/pub/joelmmat...

submitted 20 hours ago • 0 comments

Includes a discussion of the bonding requirement, how the Trump admin has sought high-$$$ bonds that would discourage injunctions against government misbehavior, and how the House bill language could pressure judges to set higher bonds "to avoid litigation over the suitability of the amount."

submitted 9 hours ago • 1 comment

God bless and keep safe this woman.

submitted 18 hours ago • 1 comment

If Trump is when you started resisting, then it is we who welcome you.

submitted 18 hours ago • 3 comments

These govt employees are not in an undercover operation, not in a covert operation. Their role is clear. But their individual identities are not. Recipe for impunity. No transparency. No accountability. www.foxla.com/news/paramou...

submitted 19 hours ago • 6 comments

Yesterday ICE’s acting director, Todd Lyons, put out a message “demanding” a stop to “political rhetoric causing anti-ICE sentiment,” claiming that doing so was causing threats against the officers and their families. /1

submitted 18 hours ago • 5 comments

Via "One First," my quick write-up of President Trump's "Presidential Memorandum" purporting to federalize 2000 California National Guard troops; the relevant legal authorities for doing so; and how the move is both a modest and dangerous escalation of what's going on in and around Los Angeles:

submitted 18 hours ago • 57 comments

Important statement from LAPD on peaceful nature of protests against which 2000 national guard members have been mobilized by Pres. Trump. Seems disproportionate in the extreme.

submitted 18 hours ago • 1 comment

Re-upping this “One First” post from April asking—and trying to answer—five questions about the domestic use of the military:

submitted 21 hours ago • 44 comments

We hear about how pro-immigrant side is extreme. There is literally nothing more extreme than this statement. Being willing to sacrifice the country’s foundations for an evil goal

submitted 23 hours ago • 144 comments

We don't have secret police in America. At least we're not supposed to.

submitted 1 day ago • 695 comments

submitted 21 hours ago • 2 comments

My hunch is that, as we saw with Lafayette Park, National Guard troops are not going to be as compliant as this administration thinks. It’s one thing to unleash cops consumed by warrior cop culture on neighborhoods. Quite another to send reservists who are also accountants, barbers, and teachers.

submitted 22 hours ago • 175 comments

A state's Guard has not been federalized like this over the governor's objection since 1965.

submitted 21 hours ago • 69 comments

Based on reports out of LA, there is nothing that justifies this. Very worrisome when an authoritarian is so eager to deploy the military domestically.

submitted 21 hours ago • 16 comments

There is absolutely zero need for the federal government to invoke the Insurrection Act, federalize the CA National Guard over state government objections, and send troops into Los Angeles. This will be bad for the situation in LA, and bad for the US military

submitted 21 hours ago • 12 comments

submitted 69 days ago • 0 comments

Garcia's return shows this admin is susceptible to judicial & political pressure, even on immigration. "The lawyers, activists, & others who pursued this matter—initially against seemingly insurmountable odds—deserve great credit. The rest of us should learn from their success, and build on it." /1

submitted 23 hours ago • 5 comments

Time to challenge the Municipal Labor Committee, which "makes decisions about billions of dollars in public spending but isn’t accountable to the mayor, the council, or any other elected official." Plus other tangible things the next NYC mayor could do to break unions' grip on the municipal budget.

submitted 23 hours ago • 2 comments

www.cato.org/blog/when-pr... Injustice will always prevail if we’re not willing to fight for what we know to be right. In public interest law, you learn to brace for losses and to cherish the wins.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

"'You could have a great employment in the city of Logan, Utah, of people growing bananas in hothouses,' [economist Milton] Friedman said in 1978 during a lecture at Utah State," thus anticipating Trump Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Trouble is, Friedman intended it as a reductio ad absurdum.

submitted 23 hours ago • 1 comment

"Gov't employees, including LEOs, generally don't have the presumption of privacy when it comes to info such as their names, salaries, and business conducted in public. Nevertheless, that hasn't stopped police and politicians from accusing people of 'doxxing' officers for releasing public info."

submitted 23 hours ago • 3 comments

The criminal charges should be, and will be, subjected to extreme scrutiny. As should the particular ICE agents and AUSAs supporting them.

submitted 2 days ago • 51 comments

Heavily-armed DHS paramilitary forces in military vehicles fired dozens of stun grenades at a crowd of onlookers today in Los Angeles.

submitted 1 day ago • 221 comments

Markets are pricing US debt default probability as nearer to BBB+, far below its official credit rating and alongside Greece and Italy Striking graph from Apollo's Torsten Slok www.apolloacademy.com/us-sovereign...

submitted 9 days ago • 2 comments

"One-man control of international trade is a feature of authoritarian regimes." Yet Trump's convenient reading of IEEPA would give him a button to start a trade war as easily as ordering a Diet Coke. The Supreme Court can and should stop him [Gene Healy, @cato.org]

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment