Doug Ramsdell
@dimmsdale.bsky.social
happy to be here. audiobook narrator. Owns (or is owned by) numerous woodwind instruments. Kindness and justice kind of a big deal.
"...they also serve who..."
After a long hectic few days, Blue is ready for a nap while I prepare to argue in the Supreme Court.💙
November 30, 2025 at 11:39 PM
"...they also serve who..."
Reposted by Doug Ramsdell
Unfortunately, in US journalism it is considered neutral to spread a lie, but it is considered "biased" to call out a lie. So, there is a structural asymmetry that rewards colorful lies with virality.
November 30, 2025 at 1:16 AM
Unfortunately, in US journalism it is considered neutral to spread a lie, but it is considered "biased" to call out a lie. So, there is a structural asymmetry that rewards colorful lies with virality.
Reposted by Doug Ramsdell
Hope is not a strategy.
As his approval sinks, Trump will turn to the emotion from which his power derives: fear.
Fear closes us off from each other, weakens what is our strength, deprives us of our future and only serves to secure his.
The antidote is hope. An autocrat cannot defeat a hopeful people. Hold fast to it.
Fear closes us off from each other, weakens what is our strength, deprives us of our future and only serves to secure his.
The antidote is hope. An autocrat cannot defeat a hopeful people. Hold fast to it.
November 30, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Hope is not a strategy.
Reposted by Doug Ramsdell
Hope may be necessary, but it is NOT sufficient.
As his approval sinks, Trump will turn to the emotion from which his power derives: fear.
Fear closes us off from each other, weakens what is our strength, deprives us of our future and only serves to secure his.
The antidote is hope. An autocrat cannot defeat a hopeful people. Hold fast to it.
Fear closes us off from each other, weakens what is our strength, deprives us of our future and only serves to secure his.
The antidote is hope. An autocrat cannot defeat a hopeful people. Hold fast to it.
November 30, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Hope may be necessary, but it is NOT sufficient.
Reposted by Doug Ramsdell
War for Ukraine Day 1,374 update has posted.
Balloon Juice - War for Ukraine Day 1,374: The Money!!!! Follow the Money!!!!!
The Wall Street Journal has decided to follow the money! (emphasis mine) Three powerful businessmen—two Americans and a Russian—hunched over a laptop in Miami Beach last month, ostensibly to draw up a...
balloon-juice.com
November 30, 2025 at 2:26 AM
War for Ukraine Day 1,374 update has posted.
Reposted by Doug Ramsdell
I said it and I'm glad.
May I suggest that Arcadia is the greatest play written in the English language in the last 150 years or so at least?
November 29, 2025 at 5:56 PM
I said it and I'm glad.
Reposted by Doug Ramsdell
So grateful to everyone in NYC who mobilized to stop the ICE raid of Canal St. The violence being committed against immigrants is heart-wrenching, but the shows of solidarity we have seen around the country give me so much hope.
November 29, 2025 at 6:33 PM
So grateful to everyone in NYC who mobilized to stop the ICE raid of Canal St. The violence being committed against immigrants is heart-wrenching, but the shows of solidarity we have seen around the country give me so much hope.
Reposted by Doug Ramsdell
Creating a military conflict with Venezuela gives this administration a legal "hook" to invoke the Alien Enemies Act. In other words, the foreign war is being manufactured in order to facilitate court deference for its domestic mass deportation policy. It's a Stephen Miller Special.
November 29, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Creating a military conflict with Venezuela gives this administration a legal "hook" to invoke the Alien Enemies Act. In other words, the foreign war is being manufactured in order to facilitate court deference for its domestic mass deportation policy. It's a Stephen Miller Special.
“…and them’s their GOOD points”
There are specific reasons Trumpists want war on Venezuela, but there‘s a generic one: they crave power to make war on anyone, any time, for completely fabricated reasons, and then to use the guise of war to increase violence and repression everywhere, including home.
They are lawless bestial scum.
They are lawless bestial scum.
November 29, 2025 at 7:40 PM
“…and them’s their GOOD points”
Reposted by Doug Ramsdell
A sickening read.
Five-byline alert: 🚨
“.. the full scope of [Witkoff’s talks] went much further, according to people familiar .. They were privately charting a path to bring Russia’s $2 trillion economy in from the cold—with American businesses first in line .. to the dividends. 🇺🇦
www.wsj.com/world/russia...
“.. the full scope of [Witkoff’s talks] went much further, according to people familiar .. They were privately charting a path to bring Russia’s $2 trillion economy in from the cold—with American businesses first in line .. to the dividends. 🇺🇦
www.wsj.com/world/russia...
November 29, 2025 at 12:56 PM
A sickening read.
Reposted by Doug Ramsdell
This is a highly unusual order from a Secretary of Defense, and it’s almost certainly a war crime.
In the strike in question, two people survived and were clinging to the side of the ruined boat, and a second mission was spun up to execute them.
In the strike in question, two people survived and were clinging to the side of the ruined boat, and a second mission was spun up to execute them.
Exclusive: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave an order to “kill everybody” in the first strike on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean. After two men survived, the mission commander ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, according to two sources.
Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to kill all crew members in the Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug boat. Navy SEALs fired a second missile.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 28, 2025 at 8:30 PM
This is a highly unusual order from a Secretary of Defense, and it’s almost certainly a war crime.
In the strike in question, two people survived and were clinging to the side of the ruined boat, and a second mission was spun up to execute them.
In the strike in question, two people survived and were clinging to the side of the ruined boat, and a second mission was spun up to execute them.
Reposted by Doug Ramsdell
NYC: ICE is staging at Centre and Howard St. Get down there if you can.
Happening now near Canal Street, federal agents had been staging inside a fed owned parking garage, now being confronted by a group of protesters. masked agents are looking on from above.
November 29, 2025 at 5:08 PM
NYC: ICE is staging at Centre and Howard St. Get down there if you can.
Reposted by Doug Ramsdell
I am often asked what laws I would recommend blue states adopt. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach, there are seven changes every state could adopt right now, for virtually no cost or administrative burden. www.democracydocket.com/opinion/seve...
Seven Voting Laws Every Blue State Should Enact Right Now
Read more here.
www.democracydocket.com
November 29, 2025 at 2:14 PM
I am often asked what laws I would recommend blue states adopt. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach, there are seven changes every state could adopt right now, for virtually no cost or administrative burden. www.democracydocket.com/opinion/seve...
Reposted by Doug Ramsdell
Straight up war crime
Every single congressional Democrat needs to be out there, right now, insisting that Pete Hegseth resign right now and announcing that he will be held accountable for committing war crimes.
If you do not demand accountability here and now, they will only become more emboldened.
If you do not demand accountability here and now, they will only become more emboldened.
Exclusive: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave an order to “kill everybody” in the first strike on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean. After two men survived, the mission commander ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, according to two sources.
November 28, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Straight up war crime
let us all UNITE to make it so
I think Pete Hegseth is gonna wish he had lived out his professional life as a third-tier Fox News on-air talent
November 28, 2025 at 11:48 PM
let us all UNITE to make it so
Reposted by Doug Ramsdell
His twitter account is just completely unhinged. And he's only a step removed from all the power players.
November 28, 2025 at 11:47 PM
His twitter account is just completely unhinged. And he's only a step removed from all the power players.
Reposted by Doug Ramsdell
How would you know, you were drunk the whole time.
Jeanine Pirro: "Look, there was no vetting. If you think there was vetting I have a bridge to sell you. If you see the chaos that was going on at that airport in Kabul in Afghanistan, it was typical of what was going on in the Biden administration."
November 28, 2025 at 6:42 PM
How would you know, you were drunk the whole time.
Reposted by Doug Ramsdell
All in on boycotting the financiers of fascism say I, or ain't, as it suits you! #AintBuyingIt
November 26, 2025 at 7:44 PM
All in on boycotting the financiers of fascism say I, or ain't, as it suits you! #AintBuyingIt
Reposted by Doug Ramsdell
Reposted by Doug Ramsdell
On tonight’s episode: Pam Bondi lunges at Lindsey Halligan: "You ruined my James Comey revenge!" Halligan yells, “You were the idiot who let the statute of limitations run!” A drunk Jeanine Pirro pushes them apart. Pam snarls at Pirro: “I’m not through with you, Miss Can’t Get a Fucken Indictment!”
November 25, 2025 at 4:12 PM
On tonight’s episode: Pam Bondi lunges at Lindsey Halligan: "You ruined my James Comey revenge!" Halligan yells, “You were the idiot who let the statute of limitations run!” A drunk Jeanine Pirro pushes them apart. Pam snarls at Pirro: “I’m not through with you, Miss Can’t Get a Fucken Indictment!”
Reposted by Doug Ramsdell
Reposted by Doug Ramsdell
I am ready to go beyond implication and say after reading the facts here that one of the most recognizable people working in the White House almost certainly had ICE arrest her nephew's mother as a favor to her brother
This article heavily implies that ICE is being used in a custody dispute to help Karoline Leavitt's brother get his son and have the mother locked up in ICE detention
"A woman with a family connection to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Revere, Massachusetts."
www.wcvb.com/article/karo...
www.wcvb.com/article/karo...
November 26, 2025 at 5:49 AM
I am ready to go beyond implication and say after reading the facts here that one of the most recognizable people working in the White House almost certainly had ICE arrest her nephew's mother as a favor to her brother
Reposted by Doug Ramsdell
We're gonna need a truth and reconciliation commission and Nuremberg style trials to reckon with all of this evil, and any Dem candidate for office who shies away from a full reckoning in the name of "moving forward as a nation" can get well and truly fucked
I feel much safer today knowing that we deported a Babson College student back to a country where she hasn't lived since childhood.
She wasn't even flying internationally. She was flying to Texas.
She wasn't even flying internationally. She was flying to Texas.
A Babson College student wanted to surprise her family for Thanksgiving. She was deported instead. - The Boston Globe
Any Lucia Lopez Belloza was at Logan to catch a flight to Texas when immigration authorities detained her as she was about to board the plane.
www.bostonglobe.com
November 27, 2025 at 4:29 PM
We're gonna need a truth and reconciliation commission and Nuremberg style trials to reckon with all of this evil, and any Dem candidate for office who shies away from a full reckoning in the name of "moving forward as a nation" can get well and truly fucked
Reposted by Doug Ramsdell
If they want to slow down the Trump administration, Democrats should begin promising this *now*
We're gonna need a truth and reconciliation commission and Nuremberg style trials to reckon with all of this evil, and any Dem candidate for office who shies away from a full reckoning in the name of "moving forward as a nation" can get well and truly fucked
I feel much safer today knowing that we deported a Babson College student back to a country where she hasn't lived since childhood.
She wasn't even flying internationally. She was flying to Texas.
She wasn't even flying internationally. She was flying to Texas.
November 27, 2025 at 4:53 PM
If they want to slow down the Trump administration, Democrats should begin promising this *now*