Austin Kidwell
@austinkidwell.bsky.social
history, politics, economics, sac kings, colorado buffaloes
I am a leftist. Jean Jaures forever
Sacramento CA
I am a leftist. Jean Jaures forever
Sacramento CA
Reposted by Austin Kidwell
Yes, CECOT is a concentration camp in the guise of a prison. The Venezuelans were the first people to *ever* be released from CECOT since Bukele opened the prison in January 2023. Seriously. The first.
These are concentration camps. No other way to describe them. Truly horrific, and none of it surprising in the least.
30 minutes. Some deportees described sexual assault. Detainee describes the guard sexually assaulting most detainees. Lights left on all day. Prisoners not given clean water.
Now the DHS tour. Nobody spoke to the detainees. Noem's video was in a different area of the prison.
Now the DHS tour. Nobody spoke to the detainees. Noem's video was in a different area of the prison.
December 23, 2025 at 1:04 AM
Yes, CECOT is a concentration camp in the guise of a prison. The Venezuelans were the first people to *ever* be released from CECOT since Bukele opened the prison in January 2023. Seriously. The first.
Reposted by Austin Kidwell
Is this that cancel culture I hear so much about?
A graduate teaching assistant who gave a University of Oklahoma student a failing grade on a psychology essay will no longer be teaching at the university
Graduate instructor who gave failing grade to Samantha Fulnecky no longer teaching at OU
A graduate teaching assistant who gave a University of Oklahoma student a failing grade on a psychology essay will no longer be teaching at the university.
www.koco.com
December 23, 2025 at 2:13 AM
Is this that cancel culture I hear so much about?
Reposted by Austin Kidwell
The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 1/5
December 23, 2025 at 1:28 AM
The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 1/5
Reposted by Austin Kidwell
Samantha Fulnecky didn’t do the assignment.
She failed.
She cried discrimination and whined to right-wing media personalities.
The University of Oklahoma has now erased the grade and punished the instructor.
This is what academic cowardice looks like.
www.friendlyatheist.com/p/univ-of-ok...
She failed.
She cried discrimination and whined to right-wing media personalities.
The University of Oklahoma has now erased the grade and punished the instructor.
This is what academic cowardice looks like.
www.friendlyatheist.com/p/univ-of-ok...
Univ. of Oklahoma punishes instructor for failing Christian student who didn't do the assignment
Samantha Fulnecky didn’t do the work, and the university punished the only person who noticed
www.friendlyatheist.com
December 23, 2025 at 1:15 AM
Samantha Fulnecky didn’t do the assignment.
She failed.
She cried discrimination and whined to right-wing media personalities.
The University of Oklahoma has now erased the grade and punished the instructor.
This is what academic cowardice looks like.
www.friendlyatheist.com/p/univ-of-ok...
She failed.
She cried discrimination and whined to right-wing media personalities.
The University of Oklahoma has now erased the grade and punished the instructor.
This is what academic cowardice looks like.
www.friendlyatheist.com/p/univ-of-ok...
What an absolute disgrace by a joke university
A graduate teaching assistant who gave a University of Oklahoma student a failing grade on a psychology essay will no longer be teaching at the university
Graduate instructor who gave failing grade to Samantha Fulnecky no longer teaching at OU
A graduate teaching assistant who gave a University of Oklahoma student a failing grade on a psychology essay will no longer be teaching at the university.
www.koco.com
December 23, 2025 at 1:50 AM
What an absolute disgrace by a joke university
Reposted by Austin Kidwell
A graduate teaching assistant who gave a University of Oklahoma student a failing grade on a psychology essay will no longer be teaching at the university
Graduate instructor who gave failing grade to Samantha Fulnecky no longer teaching at OU
A graduate teaching assistant who gave a University of Oklahoma student a failing grade on a psychology essay will no longer be teaching at the university.
www.koco.com
December 23, 2025 at 1:29 AM
A graduate teaching assistant who gave a University of Oklahoma student a failing grade on a psychology essay will no longer be teaching at the university
Reposted by Austin Kidwell
when it comes to two-term presidencies that don’t involve a systematic embrace of torture as a tool of policy the republican party is 0/2 so far in the 21st century.
December 23, 2025 at 12:51 AM
when it comes to two-term presidencies that don’t involve a systematic embrace of torture as a tool of policy the republican party is 0/2 so far in the 21st century.
Reposted by Austin Kidwell
The Olivia Nuzzi story and the Bari Weiss at CBS story are the same story, which is that the upper echelons of legacy media are absolutely rife with people who worship power and don't feel burdened by any sense of responsibility to their profession or the public.
December 22, 2025 at 6:35 PM
The Olivia Nuzzi story and the Bari Weiss at CBS story are the same story, which is that the upper echelons of legacy media are absolutely rife with people who worship power and don't feel burdened by any sense of responsibility to their profession or the public.
Reposted by Austin Kidwell
bari is the standard bearer for the media types who think any journalism that leads the consumer toward a left-wing position must be tempered and balanced until it doesn’t.
December 22, 2025 at 5:49 AM
bari is the standard bearer for the media types who think any journalism that leads the consumer toward a left-wing position must be tempered and balanced until it doesn’t.
Reposted by Austin Kidwell
They fucked up by hiring Weiss, an incompetent mediocrity, however it is not actually difficult to hire the type of person who can do the thing Larry Ellison wants to do to CBS News. Not anyone can do it but there are dozens of guys who could and their identities are not secret.
December 22, 2025 at 4:32 AM
They fucked up by hiring Weiss, an incompetent mediocrity, however it is not actually difficult to hire the type of person who can do the thing Larry Ellison wants to do to CBS News. Not anyone can do it but there are dozens of guys who could and their identities are not secret.
Reposted by Austin Kidwell
the shitstorm that’s already brewing because of Bari’s decision to spike this story is going to end up being vastly more damaging to her and to the admin than allowing the story to air would have been
she’s an evil propagandist hack but she is also very bad at doing it in a way that isn’t hamfisted
she’s an evil propagandist hack but she is also very bad at doing it in a way that isn’t hamfisted
December 22, 2025 at 3:04 AM
the shitstorm that’s already brewing because of Bari’s decision to spike this story is going to end up being vastly more damaging to her and to the admin than allowing the story to air would have been
she’s an evil propagandist hack but she is also very bad at doing it in a way that isn’t hamfisted
she’s an evil propagandist hack but she is also very bad at doing it in a way that isn’t hamfisted
Reposted by Austin Kidwell
I appreciate folks following the breadcrumb trail and not trying to jump to conclusions, but I’m not bound by those rules and I think “a media toady nuking a story about American concentration camps” is pretty self-explanatory
December 22, 2025 at 2:38 AM
I appreciate folks following the breadcrumb trail and not trying to jump to conclusions, but I’m not bound by those rules and I think “a media toady nuking a story about American concentration camps” is pretty self-explanatory
Reposted by Austin Kidwell
people are calling these moves at cbs news “state media”, but they’re not gonna out-fox murdoch, and neither weiss nor ellison are talented or experienced enough to make this work, they’re just going to drive ratings and viewership into the ground
it remains intensely funny to me that the elisons decided to set money on fire by giving an obvious grifter whose best talent is self promotion, but who has no experience at all with running tv, the reigns to cbs
December 21, 2025 at 10:27 PM
people are calling these moves at cbs news “state media”, but they’re not gonna out-fox murdoch, and neither weiss nor ellison are talented or experienced enough to make this work, they’re just going to drive ratings and viewership into the ground
Reposted by Austin Kidwell
she's just doing what she was hired to do
Why would you need to put a pause on a story that has been meticulously fact-checked and lawyered?
Sounds like the kind of story you’d want to run right away!
Sounds like the kind of story you’d want to run right away!
December 22, 2025 at 2:22 AM
she's just doing what she was hired to do
Pretty bizarre first paragraph here:
“When Rep. Dan Goldman first ran for Congress in 2022, he was cheered on the left as the party’s top lawyer during President Donald Trump’s first impeachment.”
That just ain’t true!!!! When he first ran for Congress the left strongly opposed him!!!!
“When Rep. Dan Goldman first ran for Congress in 2022, he was cheered on the left as the party’s top lawyer during President Donald Trump’s first impeachment.”
That just ain’t true!!!! When he first ran for Congress the left strongly opposed him!!!!
CNN: DC Democrats irked by surge of left-wing challengers with House majority on the line www.cnn.com/2025/12/21/p...
‘They’re attacking their own’: DC Democrats irked by surge of left-wing challengers with House majority on the line | CNN Politics
When Rep. Dan Goldman first ran for Congress in 2022, he was cheered on the left as the party’s top lawyer during President Donald Trump’s first impeachment.
www.cnn.com
December 22, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Pretty bizarre first paragraph here:
“When Rep. Dan Goldman first ran for Congress in 2022, he was cheered on the left as the party’s top lawyer during President Donald Trump’s first impeachment.”
That just ain’t true!!!! When he first ran for Congress the left strongly opposed him!!!!
“When Rep. Dan Goldman first ran for Congress in 2022, he was cheered on the left as the party’s top lawyer during President Donald Trump’s first impeachment.”
That just ain’t true!!!! When he first ran for Congress the left strongly opposed him!!!!
Reposted by Austin Kidwell
Those of us who are not Jewish have to be more on our guard against antisemitism than ever right now, not just in the world but inside of our own hearts
No one is fully immune to the propaganda flooding social media from all directions or the rising hysteria of this moment
No one is fully immune to the propaganda flooding social media from all directions or the rising hysteria of this moment
December 21, 2025 at 5:51 AM
Those of us who are not Jewish have to be more on our guard against antisemitism than ever right now, not just in the world but inside of our own hearts
No one is fully immune to the propaganda flooding social media from all directions or the rising hysteria of this moment
No one is fully immune to the propaganda flooding social media from all directions or the rising hysteria of this moment
Reposted by Austin Kidwell
Before I went to college I thought studying History was about memorizing history facts
After six years of living with a historian getting her PhD, turns out that's like the least important aspect of being a historian!
After six years of living with a historian getting her PhD, turns out that's like the least important aspect of being a historian!
What historians (and other scholars do) is create knowledge. We should use that phrase more and talk about what it means. I think we don't, and it's part of why AI enthusiasts are confused when we don't readily agree that our work can be replicated/replaced by their products.
December 21, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Before I went to college I thought studying History was about memorizing history facts
After six years of living with a historian getting her PhD, turns out that's like the least important aspect of being a historian!
After six years of living with a historian getting her PhD, turns out that's like the least important aspect of being a historian!
Reposted by Austin Kidwell
When people say Bluesky is like 50% “Cheeto bad” posts that’s how I know their dislike of the platform is a skill issue. I have perfectly curated my feed and encounter fewer of these posts than I do on most other social media platforms
December 21, 2025 at 7:37 PM
When people say Bluesky is like 50% “Cheeto bad” posts that’s how I know their dislike of the platform is a skill issue. I have perfectly curated my feed and encounter fewer of these posts than I do on most other social media platforms
Reposted by Austin Kidwell
Shaedon Sharpe.
December 21, 2025 at 5:35 AM
Shaedon Sharpe.
any other coach I’d think it was weird but it’s really endearing to me that Tad Boyle still wears a suit
December 21, 2025 at 2:35 AM
any other coach I’d think it was weird but it’s really endearing to me that Tad Boyle still wears a suit
Reposted by Austin Kidwell
Obama became president because he opposed the war in Iraq before that was popular 🤷♂️
December 21, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Obama became president because he opposed the war in Iraq before that was popular 🤷♂️
Reposted by Austin Kidwell
Oh yeah, the fact that voters have a clear, demonstrated preference for politicians who do not seem like they're just following what the polls/focus groups say never enters the discussion lol
December 21, 2025 at 1:30 AM
Oh yeah, the fact that voters have a clear, demonstrated preference for politicians who do not seem like they're just following what the polls/focus groups say never enters the discussion lol
Reposted by Austin Kidwell
what's happened is a certain gaggle of dc technocrats have become totally tacticsbrained--they're just forever chasing the next move--and have totally lost sight of the idea that you start with a goal and then use polling to figure out how to achieve it--not vice versa
bsky.app/profile/hurr...
bsky.app/profile/hurr...
Right, sometimes you shouldn't run on what truth and justice demand, because it's impolitic
But you yourself should always have analytical clarity about when and whether that's what you're doing
Which requires doing the truth and justice analysis first, without looking at public opinion yet
But you yourself should always have analytical clarity about when and whether that's what you're doing
Which requires doing the truth and justice analysis first, without looking at public opinion yet
December 21, 2025 at 1:26 AM
what's happened is a certain gaggle of dc technocrats have become totally tacticsbrained--they're just forever chasing the next move--and have totally lost sight of the idea that you start with a goal and then use polling to figure out how to achieve it--not vice versa
bsky.app/profile/hurr...
bsky.app/profile/hurr...
Reposted by Austin Kidwell
striking i think that yglesias' response to being criticized on facts and policy is "well but it doesn't poll well in R+1 electoral districts." polling is important. sure. but it's not actually a good barometer of what's true lmao
Look as long as everybody starts ignoring Yglesias we are making progress.
December 21, 2025 at 1:17 AM
striking i think that yglesias' response to being criticized on facts and policy is "well but it doesn't poll well in R+1 electoral districts." polling is important. sure. but it's not actually a good barometer of what's true lmao
Reposted by Austin Kidwell
So much of punditry is just making up a guy to be mad on behalf of, it’s no wonder the median pundit doesn’t know shit about piss
December 20, 2025 at 11:56 PM
So much of punditry is just making up a guy to be mad on behalf of, it’s no wonder the median pundit doesn’t know shit about piss