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Carter Kalchik

@carterkalchik.bsky.social

5.7K followers 870 following 1.4K posts

Typically terrific. 🏳️‍🌈 Books, the gayer the better Politics, the gayer the better Political books, the gayer the better All the links: https://linktr.ee/carterkalchik

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Carter Kalchik @carterkalchik.bsky.social · Nov 27

This was a fun time! I got to 25 pieces of lore and that feels good. Take a look to get to know me a little bit and find out exactly how many times I’ve turned yellow! (Hint, it’s more than 1…)

Carter Kalchik @carterkalchik.bsky.social · Nov 27

One like = one piece of lore. Lore about me, to be clear. I’ve included a photo for reference.

How about up to 25 or until we all get bored?

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Carter Kalchik @carterkalchik.bsky.social · 9h

Was pretty disappointed with The Fort Bragg Cartel by Seth Harp. Seems to be solid investigative reporting but also a whole lot of bizzaro conspiracy shit. It’s hard to say if it’s leftist or conservative conspiracism, too, it fits either side (although it feels pretty dirtbag left to me).

5 stars for on the ground reporting, 1 star for the every so often baffling shit.
There clearly is a deep and undermining rot inside U.S. special forces. And even if there wasn't, there clearly is an absurdly large amount of drug dealing and using in and around Fort Bragg. And suicides. And murders.
Harp did frankly heroic work reporting on it, although he never really did get to the bottom of everything, mostly because the military wants to sweep all this under the rug.
Although, the existence of this book does seem to belie the omnipotent power of special forces to suppress their misdeeds.
And then, like every dozen pages or so, you'll walk over these weirdo land mines. Harp credulously reports that U.S. special forces have technology that can "view you through your TV." That Muammar Qaddafi was merely an "idiosyncratic Arab nationalist." That Assad's only crime was being a foe of Israel.
That the U.S. provoked Russia into invading Ukraine as a pretext for "forever war". This is after the U.S. perpetrated a
"coup" against the "democratically elected" President Viktor Yanukovych. Oh, and that COVID "escaped from a U.S.-funded biolab in Wuhan, China!"
Maybe I can forgive the tech stuff because I'm not sure how savvy Harp is given that he referred to documents that were
"leaked to a server called Discord." Taken as a whole, though, this is a particular conspiracist worldview with which I'm deeply familiar and calls into question much of the rest of the book.
If you just take the investigative reporting, this is good stuff and even brave. The on the ground reporting is pretty thorough and Harp has extensive quotes and sourcing. But any time he strays into interpretation or analysis, I'm left to wonder how this worldview has potentially slanted things.

Reposted by Carter Kalchik

Thorne 🌸 @ens0.me · 1d

So tired of "this shouldn't be SNAP eligible discourse!!" on Twitter right now

with the exception of stuff like cigs and alcohol, honestly, just let people buy what they want from the damn Publix

you have better things to do than police the shopping habits of poor strangers

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Reposted by Carter Kalchik

KJ Charles @kjcharleswriter.com · 1d

It's my birthday, so have a present. SLIPPERY CREATURES (Will Darling Adventures book 1) is going on cheap over the weekend. 1920s pulp adventure m/m romance with plots, spies, Bright Young People, and emotional support knife, all for 99p!

Available now at your favorite digital store!

Slippery Creatures by KJ Charles

books2read.com

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Reposted by Carter Kalchik

Python Software Foundation @python.org · 4d

TLDR; The PSF has made the decision to put our community and our shared diversity, equity, and inclusion values ahead of seeking $1.5M in new revenue. Please read and share. pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/NSF-...
🧵

The official home of the Python Programming Language

www.python.org

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Reposted by Carter Kalchik

Micah @rincewind.run · 4d

neat trick the "centrists" love to pull: just blankly asserting that all of their personal biases are popular and the things they don't like are unpopular and dragging the party down

we see the transphobia, folks

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 4d

i'm fine with a deeper focus on economic issues over social issues but man does plank 2 give the game away

To give ourselves the best chance to win, we recommend the following changes to our approach. Democrats need to:

Focus our policy agenda and our messaging on an economic program centered on lowering costs, growing the economy, creating jobs, and expanding the social safety net.

Advocate for popular economic policies (e.g., expanding prescription drug price negotiation, making the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour) rather than unpopular economic policies (e.g., student loan forgiveness, electric vehicle subsidies, Medicare for All).

Convince voters that we share their priorities by focusing more on issues voters do not think our party prioritizes highly enough (the economy, the cost of living, health care, border security, public safety), and focusing less on issues voters think we place too much emphasis on (climate change, democracy, abortion, identity and cultural issues).

Moderate our positions where our agenda is unpopular, including on issues like immigration, public safety, energy production, and some identity and cultural issues.

Embrace a substantive and rhetorical critique of the outsized political and economic influence of lobbyists, corporations, and the ultra-wealthy, while keeping two considerations in mind: First, voters' frustrations with the status quo are not the same as a desire for socialism. And second, criticizing the status quo is a complement to advocating for popular policies on the issues that matter most to the American people, not a substitute.

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Reposted by Carter Kalchik

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 4d

i'm fine with a deeper focus on economic issues over social issues but man does plank 2 give the game away

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Carter Kalchik @carterkalchik.bsky.social · 4d

😅

Carter Kalchik @carterkalchik.bsky.social · 5d

“How long, you think?”

Text says "Caption this with the 2nd to last text you sent." Image is the corner of a room that looks like a murder scene with blood on the walls and a chest with a lamp and a small TV which has, on its screen, an image that looks very much like a naked butt.)

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Reposted by Carter Kalchik

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 5d

Marjorie Taylor Green is literally the Jewish space lasers lady

She’s an anti-semite!

That’s why she opposes Israel, not because she supports human rights

Do not fucking circulate her saying “oh she’s being reasonable” jfc

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Reposted by Carter Kalchik

En Buen Ora - "Hell Çid" 😈 @enbuenora.bsky.social · 6d

it's very hard to distinguish between Trump's cognitive decline and his cognitive never-having-inclined

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Carter Kalchik @carterkalchik.bsky.social · 5d

Good heavens!

Carter Kalchik @carterkalchik.bsky.social · 5d

Extremely gay (derogatory)

Reposted by Carter Kalchik

HELL Kennedy ☠️ <—- not a totenkopf @helenkennedy.bsky.social · 5d

Taking food from hungry American children to send to Argentina to prop up the regime there. Seems like that might not be super popular.

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 5d

SNAP benefits are about to lapse because of the shutdown. Reminders:
1. About 1 in 2 children will receive SNAP benefits at some point and 1 in 4 children are receiving benefits in a given month.
2. Trump is already planning to cut SNAP in other ways.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-big-be...

The Big Beautiful Bill has a SNAP Poison Pill

How states will get the blame for massive cuts to food stamps

donmoynihan.substack.com

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Carter Kalchik @carterkalchik.bsky.social · 5d

Oh and one more thing: what is Padmé and Anakin’s love theme called?

youtu.be/7wMiMDBHnJ0?...

Across the Stars (Love Theme from "Star Wars: Attack of the Clones")

YouTube video by John Williams - Topic

youtu.be

Carter Kalchik @carterkalchik.bsky.social · 5d

The final lines are:

“Love is more than a candle.

Love can ignite the stars.”

And, in a final coup de grâce, what is the final image of RotS and the most iconic image of Luke Skywalker?

Binary sunsets across the Star Wars movies: the final image of RotS, Star Wars classic binary sunset scene, and TLJ.

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Carter Kalchik @carterkalchik.bsky.social · 5d

But we know that’s not the real answer. And we know that Anakin will eventually be redeemed by his son.

The last lines of the book are:

“The dark is generous,

and it is patient, and it always wins—

but in the heart of its strength lies its weakness:

one lone candle is enough to hold it back.”

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Carter Kalchik @carterkalchik.bsky.social · 5d

Throughout the RotS novelization (which I can’t stop thinking about), Anakin obsesses over a thought: “All things die. Even stars burn out.”

Anakin’s fear drives him to seek power and he thinks he finds the answer in Palpatine. That through his rage and will he can hold on to the things he loves.

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Reposted by Carter Kalchik

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 6d

Women invented science fiction — at least twice:

Mary Shelley in 1818

Margaret Cavendish in 1666

publicdomainreview.org/essay/mistre...

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Reposted by Carter Kalchik

Matthew Blanchette @mattpb.bsky.social · 6d

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Carter Kalchik @carterkalchik.bsky.social · 6d

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Carter Kalchik @carterkalchik.bsky.social · 6d

In the Revenge of the Sith novelization, when Obi-Wan talks with Padmé about Anakin she’s says she’s happy that he’s been appointed to the Jedi Council and Obi-Wan says: “It is perhaps less than he deserves—though I’m afraid it may be more than he can handle.”

There is this great version of RotS.