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KPM

@kpmcgrath.bsky.social

320 followers 370 following 570 posts

Chicago Gay. Day job is healthcare analytics, unpaid night gig is trying to get my friends to play math rocks with me. Recovering policy addict. Cat pics are my own, but it's not my cat.

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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 46m

Hannah Arendt distinguished totalitarianism “from other forms of political oppression known to us such as despotism, tyranny and dictatorship” in that totalitarianism seeks to subjugate civil society and private lives, not just political opponents, using psychological, not just physical, repression.

The Editorial Board @editorialboard.bsky.social · 1h

I saw the new George Orwell documentary last night. It’s called 2+2=5. I have been a little bit squeamish about applying the word totalitarian to Trump and the Republicans. Not anymore. We are experiencing a totalitarian movement. There’s no question.

KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 52m

Far too many would be happy to wait that out and in the meantime prepare for the next Fascist wave. It's not like many of these chuds have had secure alternative employment before.

We should absolutely RIF out as much as possible and leave the rest strung out on wilderness interior borders.

KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 59m

Some of my neighbors *also* are always down for it and literally gifted me a copy after we played it for the first time. But that's because they'd got spare copies at GenCon this year 😅

It's way more fun than I expected!

KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 9h

I've enjoyed the idea of the USAG or similar office being a directly elected position (it'd be a first! Our country hasn't done that before!) with universal standing and jurisdiction. But granting that standing to everyone for separations of power matters feels like a more democratized solution.

KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 10h

And it's not like there are ICE janitors. That shit's outsourced to contractors through a minimum of four no-bid contracts to politically connected donors.

Reposted by KPM

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 13h

really striking the degree to which not a single person working in the trump administration appears to be interested in serving the american people

KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 1d

Unironically: fine. Wean their grids off fossil fuels and maybe their political economies will suck a little bit less and stop causing as many problems for literally everyone. Would have been nice for the sugar to reward good behavior but decarbonizing the South is fine.

KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 1d

Ok but then what? The GOP isn't capable of being shamed out of position and if people are told the problem is solved they'll go back to their panem et circuses. Then we're out a billionaire, civil servants, a national resource, and public will and fury, and right back at public health crisis.

KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 1d

That'll change some hearts and minds in a way that will be hard for Goebbles Barbie et al to change back.

KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 1d

I mid-key think there's an Abu Gharib level of horrfying conditions in some of these facilities (maybe Broadview! Maybe not) that ICE knows will puncture the fascist project entirely if it is broadcast to the world.

Reports are one thing, but seeing a hundred starving men in a cage with a US flag?

KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 1d

Like, the funniest thing overall is that if they were both Dems it'd almost certainly be due to the racist contempt of mainland conservatives and how directly it has harmed PR. And that's a choice! That they keep making! All the time!

KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 1d

I'm not sure Pritzker's fortune is personally able to replace billions of dollars of state fuding and research for these orgs. Most atates are bound by budget amendments and with the SALT exemptions going away to appease oligarchs, there's no appetite for states to take on new spending.

KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 1d

Nuked regulatory capacity. As far as the business idiots are concerned, any government stands in the way of profit.

Of course, business idiots rarely understand their businesses or how they're usually dependent on government products like fair markets, reliable data, etc.

KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 1d

That'd require the Supreme Court to reverse its finding that "nah, it's not a crime when police do it while on duty." The government can ruin your life, violate your rights, and injure your health, and it's rare to get meaningful recompense.

Unless you're wealthy enough to bribe a Senator or six.

KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 2d

Sure but the IRA and other botnets can't go far without dupes and accomplices. Gullible conservative social media networks (AI images of Jesus galore!) provide dupes. Conservative pundits financed by grey-ops cutout companies provide accomplices.

But no need for a conspiracy when interests align.

KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 2d

Durbin finally pulling his damned weight for once, thank the saints

KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 2d

This frog out here running laps around the House and Senate Minority Leaders

KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 2d

At the barest minimum it exposes their priorities. It hasn't given enough people enough of a clue in the past but you never know what'll crack the reality shear vortex apart.

KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 2d

I think we are - I certainly don't think you're a bot or anything. But I think you're bought-in on the idea that somehow, doing the things Dems have been doing for the last decade while steadily losing power and the public will somehow, finally pay off via mechanisms that aren't very convincing.

KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 2d

I don't like that we're in the position where it's important to ask ourselves these questions, but pretending that we aren't is an integral part of of how we got here.

And we don't have to give our consent to being governed this way. That's still a choice, for now, for how much it matters.

KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 2d

To be clear, the status quo is already killing people. And the White House is eager to expand the killing to other persecuted minorities and eventually to anyone who disagrees with them.

Are immigrants lives acceptable casualties for your peace and order and conscience? Queer ones? Black ones?

KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 2d

He is the anti-Pepe

Reposted by KPM

Jennifer Smith Richards @jsmithrichards.bsky.social · 3d

To understand the Trump administration’s vision for American education, @megomatz.bsky.social and I studied dozens of hours of political appointees’ speeches and podcasts and essays. What emerged is a desire to dismantle the nation’s system of public schools.

These Activists Want to Dismantle Public Schools. Now They Run the Education Department.

Under Trump, the Department of Education has been bringing in activists hostile to public schools. It could mean a new era of private and religious schools boosted by tax dollars — and the end of publ...

www.propublica.org

KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 5d

Wool aka Silo as well, I believe.

There's a lot of selfpub literature in this space, much of it mediocre or simply in niche genres (litRPG, Wattpad romance, etc).

Then you have mammoths like Wildbow or pirateaba whose web serials are enough for them to live off of patronage subscribers.

KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 5d

Only true if you consider Republicans the only "actual residents" of the city. Their contempt for the people who actually live in the city and make it go is palpable. There's plenty of racism implict there too, but it's an outright lie and news organizations should ban people who lie to them.