Will Troppe

I didn’t read 1984 as part of my “elite” high school + university engineering education.

I chose to read it after I graduated.

I think this says a lot about tech industry support for MAGA.

I keep going back to this. This is a taunt. They're taunting us. There is no other possible interpretation of what they're doing.

But media simply ignores this deranged behavior, because if they talk about it, one must conclude that DHS is a rogue agency, of villainous paramilitary thugs.

Terrible.

bsky.app/profile/dani...

This is the video.

if you want an overview of where humanoid robots are at right now — what's hype and what's real — then check out my long read for @harpers.bsky.social. here's me teleopping a humanoid, and yes i was told MANY times "do not take off the headset until you've disconnected"

harpers.org/archive/2025...

The Quick and Shameful Death of Biden’s Biggest Policy It was far too easy for Republicans to kill the Inflation Reduction Act. Where did those who crafted it go wrong?

"[Climate change] hasn’t arrived all at once as some biblical apocalypse but as a creeping drain on rents, utility bills, and grocery prices."

An excellent longer analysis from @katearonoff.bsky.social

newrepublic.com/article/2027...

It really can't be said enough: the goal of the "anti-woke" movement was always to destroy social norms against bigotry. And it worked. And there's a whole lot of purportedly "left" thinkers & commentators who helped it -- indeed, it couldn't have been done without them.

They should feel bad.

I think I would take reactionary centrists more seriously if they could cite one (1) example of progressives pushing for social change the *right* way -- using just the right slogans, supporting just the right policies, protesting in just the right fashion.

enshittification | noun | when a digital platform is made worse for users, in order to increase profits

What makes Google's data center flex announcement today so notable, IMO: 🔌💡
1) 1st known utility contracts on AI DC flexibility
2) 1st incorporation into utility planning
3) 1st use of ML workloads for flexibility
4) Definitive, long-term contracts
5) Flex applies during certain hrs/times of year

I am grieving the barbarism that is going to unfurl from all this. People are going to die. Livelihoods gone. All to feed a corrupt kleptocracy.

I see every day up close how different it is from the first time around. There are no guardrails. A disaster. I’m sorry we have to live through this.

Legitimately feel sick. We are hours away from the largest cuts to low-income people in history. People’s lives will be ruined. It is so unfair. It’s unfair to be born into a system that allows this level of poverty in the first place and it’s evil to rip away aid from the needy. Hard to watch this.

. @danpfeiffer.bsky.social gave me the best political advice anyone ever has. Obama won because he was prepared to lose. You have to stand for something. Zohran stood for his values and something new, and he inspired many!

Speak up. It’s easy.

snap cuts, growing to 35% by 2034

chip and medicaid cuts growing to 12-14% by 2034

Cost estimate of the House-passed "Big Beautiful Bill" is out

It'd be the largest cut to Medicaid+CHIP and SNAP in history while still increasing deficits by $2.4 trillion due to $3.8 trillion in tax cuts

This'd be the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in a single law in history

Opinion | Save Us, Senators, From a Very Expensive Mistake

NEW, from me: The House reconciliation bill would be horrible for the country’s energy policy. But the Senate can fix it.

I have a new piece in the @nytimes.com with the three recommendations for how lawmakers can avoid disaster: www.nytimes.com/2025/06/02/o...

graph showing debt/gdp from 2001 to present. it breaks out the effect of the bush tax cuts, the trump tax cuts, and our one-time responses to the great recession and to covid. without the bush and trump tax cuts, debt/gdp would be stable.

I updated this old graph of mine. It shows that, if not for the Bush and Trump tax cuts, debt/GDP would be stable rather than rising forever.

I've updated the methodology to first assume an AMT patch at Clinton levels, so I'm only attributing to the Bush tax cuts their portion of the AMT patch.

If it’s _not_ a bribe, that means Qatar is just giving a $400M plane to Trump - why? For fun? Because they like his personality?

Tricia McLaughlin & @TriciaOhio 0... The narrative being pushed about Jose Hermosillo is false. On April 8, Hermosillo approached Border Patrol in Tucson and stated he had entered the U.S. illegally through Nogales. He said he wanted to turn himself in and completed a sworn statement identifying as a Mexican citizen who had entered unlawfully. He was processed and appeared in court on April 11. Afterward, he was held by the U.S. Marshals in Florence, AZ. A few days later, his family presented documents showing U.S. citizenship. The charges were dismissed, and he was released to his family. This arrest was the direct result of Hermosillo's own actions and statements.

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.

"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.

The officer also signed the document, which said Hermosillo "read" the document or had it read to him. But Hermosillo said no one read him the document. Other documents created by the officer have inaccuracies. For example, the criminal complaint says that Hermosillo was detained "at or near Nogales, Arizona." But Hermosillo was detained in Tuscon, which is more than 70 miles from Nogales. John Mennell, a spokesperson for the U.S. Border Patrol, said that it was an "unintentional" error. Hermosillo said he was detained with about 15 other men in a cell at the Florence Correctional Center. He was served only cold food. He said he contracted the flu because "they have it cold in there and everybody's getting sick." Hermosillo said he requested medicine but was not provided with any.

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...

What DEI threatens isn’t merit. It’s monopoly. Political science professor Hakeem Jefferson argues for DEI's importance to de-monopolizing universities.

A colleague at Stanford’s business school used The Stanford Daily to argue—poorly—against DEI. The piece was riddled with historical errors and left one searching for fact, so I broke my public writing hiatus to respond.

I hope you’ll read and share the piece.

stanforddaily.com/2025/04/22/w...

“But these tariffs just don’t make sense!”

Here’s the game:

Step 1: institute extremely high tariffs for no real reason
Step 2: retailers raise prices
Step 3: repeal tariffs (after declaring victory + claiming achievements no matter what)
Step 4: retailers keep prices high
Step 5: profit!

Live: Speaking on Trump, Musk, and America’s Moral Moment on the Senate Floor | Senator Cory Booker YouTube video by Senator Cory Booker

I’ve taken the Senate floor and will speak for as long as I’m physically able to lift the voices of Americans who are being harmed and not being heard in this moment of crisis. Watch here:

You’re still going! Thank you, Senator Booker, for showing what resistance looks like.

You’re giving hope to millions.

The party of “freedom” strikes again!

In addition to his political savvy, Chuck Schumer also offers cutting edge communication strategies ranging from an op-ed in the New York Times to an interview with the New York Times

Huge march in New York today protesting the illegal DOGE cuts

She saw family in Lebanon. Now this Brown Medicine doctor is being held at Logan for deportation. Dr. Rasha Alawieh flew into Logan Airport Thursday after visiting family in Lebanon. She's being detained now at Logan without legal counsel.

They're trying to deport my colleague from the med school and holding her without counsel. She was coming back from a visit to her family. If there are ways to help I'll let you know. www.providencejournal.com/story/news/l...

They’re not doing nothing.

I celebrate the good and critique when I believe they can do more - because the stakes are so high.

I use my voice to urge them to do more of the things I’d like them to do, which is my right and responsibility in our democracy.

What did he do?

Can you share any links? I searched via Google and Blue Sky and couldn’t turn anything up.

Yes, concrete things *also*.

I don’t feel that you’re having this discussion in good faith, so I’m going to stop responding. Thanks!