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Robyn Eckhardt

@robyneckhardt.bsky.social

1.5K followers 2.1K following 1.4K posts

Former food journalist with past lives in Asia and Italy. Author, “Istanbul & Beyond”, about Turkey’s lesser known eastern cuisines. Dogs/cats/nature. The Pacific Northwest is best. 🌧️

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Robyn Eckhardt @robyneckhardt.bsky.social · May 4

The state of our country sucks but spring in the PNW does not. What a spectacularly beautiful day in Portland.

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Robyn Eckhardt @robyneckhardt.bsky.social · 9m

Amazing, isn’t it.

Reposted by Robyn Eckhardt

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 1h

Wow, wow, wow. This has always been legally possible but the law has virtually never been enforced — and now this is the SECOND case I've heard of in the last month (first involving a person with a green card) of a noncitizen being charged for failure to carry their papers.

Gregory Pratt @royalpratt.bsky.social · 2h

NEWS: ICE gave a Rogers Park man a $130 ticket for not having his papers on him. They rounded him up last week and eventually let him go, but not without a fine that some critics say is un-American. Trump admin enforcing little-used law
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/13/i...

ICE tickets Chicago man with legal residency $130 for not having his papers on him: ‘It’s not fair…I’m a resident’

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement fined Rueben Antonio Cruz $130 for not having his papers with him.

www.chicagotribune.com

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Robyn Eckhardt @robyneckhardt.bsky.social · 1h

Yes absolutely. Stay safe!

Robyn Eckhardt @robyneckhardt.bsky.social · 1h

Marcella Hazan.

Katelyn Boo-urns @katelynburns.com · 6h

name an italian more worthy of an american holiday than columbus

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Robyn Eckhardt @robyneckhardt.bsky.social · 1h

“Meister Eckhardt” combined with a passive aggressive threat? Nice. You are the leftie equivalent of the MAGA who have online attacked me because my IG handle includes the name of a non-American city.

Robyn Eckhardt @robyneckhardt.bsky.social · 1h

It came up in response to MY original post, OK? If you are offended by disagreement with your opinions suggest you avoid social media Lol.
As for me I’ll trust the thoughts on strategy of the people who’ve actually been in it over that of shitposters, thanks.

www.liberalcurrents.com/how-to-win-a...

How to Win a Rigged Game

The Civil Rights Movement is worth studying not just because they were right, but because they won.

www.liberalcurrents.com

Robyn Eckhardt @robyneckhardt.bsky.social · 1h

Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 7h

what's actually happening is in the first instance a war for narrative control, not physical control. blinding a troop with a laser, to use a technical term, "looks bad" to normies. being normal and peaceful at masked thugs "looks good" to normies.

www.liberalcurrents.com/how-to-win-a...

How to Win a Rigged Game

The Civil Rights Movement is worth studying not just because they were right, but because they won.

www.liberalcurrents.com

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Reposted by Robyn Eckhardt

Philip Gourevitch @pgourevitch.bsky.social · 6h

Yep when Trump says he loves coal miners he means the guys who own mines — as always the little guy was good for conning out of a vote and after that the mass grave.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/c...

Coal Miners With Black Lung Say They Are ‘Cast Aside to Die’ Under Trump

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Robyn Eckhardt

Charles Ghoul-ba ✡️ @charlesgaba.com · 6h

So basically this is Iranian Hostage Crisis 2.0, just with a 9-month delay in the payoff for no particular reason.

Il Pomodoro @dabenner.bsky.social · 8h

This seems like confirmation

Then Mr. Trump won the presidency back, and the Biden administration was determined to get a cease-fire in place by January, before it left office. It drafted a peace plan, much of which was quite similar to the “20 point plan” Mr. Trump recently issued. There was slow progress: More than 130 hostages had been released by the time the January cease-fire took place.

“We handed over a cease-fire that silenced the guns, had hostages coming out and aid going in, along with a day-after plan to make it permanent,” Mr. Blinken said. But when the new administration took over, “the moment was squandered,” he added. “Israel and Hamas went back to war for eight months.”

Israeli officials tell a different story. Mr. Biden was a lame duck, they noted, and disengaged. Mr. Trump was a known entity, less likely to lecture Mr. Netanyahu in private or public. They put their money on a new president, and a new negotiating team

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Reposted by Robyn Eckhardt

Zselyke Csaky @zecsaky.bsky.social · 11h

A reminder for the times we live in: once you break the rule of law, there is no easy way of fixing it again.

POLITICO Europe @politico.eu · 1d

Poland’s centrist government is pushing to restore the rule of law undermined by the previous populist administration — but the country’s divided politics mean the chances of success are slim.

Poland tries to restore rule of law in the face of a hostile president

Polish President Karol Nawrocki is vowing to scuttle any effort to change the legal system set up by the previous Law and Justice party government.

www.politico.eu

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Robyn Eckhardt @robyneckhardt.bsky.social · 2h

Oh. You’re one of those. Got it. Why didn’t you just go straight to “same as it ever was” / “we’ve been living under fascism for years” / etc etc ? Would have saved me wasted time and wasted effort.

Robyn Eckhardt @robyneckhardt.bsky.social · 2h

MAGAts, I think, are beyond reach. They are also not the entirety of Trump supporters or agnostics. Imagine Black Americans engaged in the Civil Rights movement saying “You can’t appeal to non-existent empathy.” They literally appealed to what then was or at least appeared to be non-existent empathy

Robyn Eckhardt @robyneckhardt.bsky.social · 2h

I’m not doing either? I’m thinking pragmatically and strategically. And there are anti-authoritarian movements abroad to look to. None of them resorted to violence immediately. You don’t convince regime opponents - who are nonetheless afraid - to join if it’s “come out and be violent.”

Reposted by Robyn Eckhardt

Ida Bae Wells @nhannahjones.bsky.social · 4h

For those who don’t intimately understand how news works and why Bari Weiss’s unearned elevation to head of CBS News matters, I’d recommend watching this in entirety. Also, will forever point out irony of how an admitted DEI hire thinks her hire was meritorious while Black people’s aren’t.

Katelyn Boo-urns @katelynburns.com · 7h

Holy shit go off John Oliver youtu.be/gieTx_P6INQ?...

Bari Weiss: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

YouTube video by LastWeekTonight

youtu.be

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Robyn Eckhardt @robyneckhardt.bsky.social · 2h

Before the folks aggressively driving giant SUVs and the disappearance of the mellow, “no, you go first” vibe at 4-way stops. Moved to the E Bay from NJ in 1990, you can imagine the culture shock.

Robyn Eckhardt @robyneckhardt.bsky.social · 2h

Right? Lived in the E Bay 8 yrs between 1990 -2002. Loved it so much. Goes a long way to explaining why I’m in Portland now.

Robyn Eckhardt @robyneckhardt.bsky.social · 2h

Violence as a last resort. Violent protest now gets what? The Insurrection Act, resulting in many would-be protesters deciding they’re too scared to come out, and the perfect excuse for the immediate across-the-board violent suppression of all rights that Trump Miller and Kegseth are dreaming of.

Reposted by Robyn Eckhardt

Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 3h

Promoting the editor-in-chief's personal side project. Zero named sources in a story that promotes the editor-in-chief's personal political position. Misspelling the subject's name. It took one day for CBS News to become a conservative blog.

www.cbsnews.com/video/some-n...

CBS News: Some NYPD officers worry about Mandani becoming NYC mayor the Free Press reports.

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Robyn Eckhardt @robyneckhardt.bsky.social · 2h

I watched just such a reel taken in an alleyway in Chicago — bunch of ICE goons holding guns on a guy who demanded they show their faces. Terrifying. Outrageous.

Reposted by Robyn Eckhardt

C. E. Aubin @ceaubin.bsky.social · 4h

You can arrest us or pepper spray us or whatever, but we will make you look stupid and feel silly doing it because wanting to assert control is stupid. You want to assert control? Do it to an inflatable frog!
So, it’s not just a meme thing, it’s a Portland cultural thing.

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Reposted by Robyn Eckhardt

Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 4h

Great thread on the distinctive political culture of Portland, by a US historian who is very much from Portland.

C. E. Aubin @ceaubin.bsky.social · 5h

What The Hell Is Going On, a thread:

I’ve seen some thinkpieces and posts about Portland protests that fail to understand the long-term hyperspecificity of Portland culture/humor, and frame it as a sort of shitposting meme-pilled ironic thing. Which is wrong.

So I’m gonna give you my breakdown.