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Reposted by Fritz Swanson

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 20h

Also, a total lie that American students have been crowded out by international students. International students effectively subsidize the tuition of American students!

Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 20h

Quite a feat to go from this to "and therefore universities must ban faculty and students from belittling conservative ideas"

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Fritz Swanson @fritzswanson.bsky.social · 18h

This is why we overthrew our king. Billionaires are privatized kings, all the worse because they wield the power without any sense of obligation. At least kings had some sense of duty to their people. Which is not a defense of kings. But only to say that billionaires are far worse than kings.

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 22h

“The problem with billionaires isn’t that they’re hoarding money that would otherwise pay for a Scandinavian social utopia. It’s that their money has become a source of wildly distorted political power that allows a few men with extremist views to wreak havoc on the rest of us.”

Billionaires Are Hoarding Power, Not Money

Billionaire money has become a source of wildly distorted political power that allows a few men with extremist views to wreak havoc on the rest of us.

www.liberalcurrents.com

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Stephen Nuñez @socio-steve.bsky.social · 18h

THANK YOU. THIS IS WHAT WE MEAN WHEN WE SAY EVERY BILLIONAIRE IS A POLICY FAILURE. IT'S THE INSTABILITY LARGE CONCENTRATIONS OF POWER CREATE. NOT THE LOST REVENUE.

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 22h

“The problem with billionaires isn’t that they’re hoarding money that would otherwise pay for a Scandinavian social utopia. It’s that their money has become a source of wildly distorted political power that allows a few men with extremist views to wreak havoc on the rest of us.”

Billionaires Are Hoarding Power, Not Money

Billionaire money has become a source of wildly distorted political power that allows a few men with extremist views to wreak havoc on the rest of us.

www.liberalcurrents.com

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Fritz Swanson @fritzswanson.bsky.social · 18h

Courage is confidence within vulnerability. It means to act rightly even if you don't know the outcome. The brittle authoritarianism of MAGA is cowardly because they lack confidence. They seek to eliminate their vulnerability. They rig the game, they bully the weak, they lock down dissent.

Fritz Swanson @fritzswanson.bsky.social · 21h

I’d omit “do traditionally” as redundant after the phrase “by definition”.

Fritz Swanson @fritzswanson.bsky.social · 21h

Thanks, Commuting Dog.

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Fritz Swanson @fritzswanson.bsky.social · 1d

To be an asshole is to insist that whatever you think is right is right, even if it contradicts the other stuff you think. Bill Burr just happens to sometimes think things liberals like, and so he gets a pass. But it is the incoherent certainty that is the problem. No True Scotsmen rides again.

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Saint D'Khari @saintdkhari.bsky.social · 1d

I don't know what I was trippin on but now that I'm not trippin no more I can't believe I was trippin off some bullshit

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Michael @fleerultra.bsky.social · 2d

siri, please google: what do when sadness fully envelopes heart

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Fritz Swanson @fritzswanson.bsky.social · 2d

“We obviously really care about rightsholders and about people,” said Sam Altman.

And to that I say, "Fuck you, no."

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Fritz Swanson @fritzswanson.bsky.social · 2d

Panther Moderns on the case.

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David Ingram @davidingram.bsky.social · 2d

Was he angry about rent?

Prosecutors allege the "dystopian painting" had "hundreds of thousands of people in poverty trying to get past a gigantic gate with a big dollar sign on it." www.foxnews.com/us/arrest-ma...

Uber driver arrested for 'maliciously' igniting deadly Palisades Fire, feds announce

A news conference is expected to give details Wednesday on an arrest in connection to the deadly Pacific Palisades fire that killed 12 people in Los Angeles.

www.foxnews.com

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Fritz Swanson @fritzswanson.bsky.social · 2d

Read the article and then write the short story. Even though you abhor what this guy did, work through your feelings of sympathy with what he has done. In the story, encounter your own inchoate rage. But also, the sorrow of the buddha clearing. Flames licking skyward. www.latimes.com/california/s...

Florida man accused of intentionally starting fire that destroyed Pacific Palisades

Jonathan Rinderknecht accused of intentionally starting fire that destroyed Pacific Palisades

www.latimes.com

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Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez @gluesenkampperez.house.gov · 2d

Consolidation in the emergency vehicle industry is leaving local first responders — and by extension taxpayers — on the hook for increased costs.

I'm leading a bipartisan push to study this so we can better support first responders and save taxpayer dollars.
www.columbian.com/news/2025/oc...

Fire officials face ‘skyrocketing prices, brutal backlogs’ replacing aging vehicles in Clark County

In April 2020, just one month into the COVID-19 pandemic, the Vancouver Fire Department replaced one of its aging fire engines with a new rig that cost $614,000. Today, that same fire engine, built by

www.columbian.com

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Fritz Swanson @fritzswanson.bsky.social · 2d

The deep critique that monied interests make of this is “how will you pay for it?” But what that really means is: “Don’t get their hopes up, because we won’t pay for this.” We already have the money for a good life. It’s just temporarily in a rich man’s pocket. And it doesn’t belong there.

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 2d

I'm on the slowest bus line in the city with the slowest buses in the nation to talk to New Yorkers about what it would mean for their lives if we made them fast and free.

Zohran sits on a bus talking to a rider sitting behind him.

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Fritz Swanson @fritzswanson.bsky.social · 2d

It’s like the people pushing AI don’t know or care how humans work. We relate through shared effort and shared struggle. Teachers want to be understood, students want to understand. Each learns from and instructs the other. That IS the relationship.

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Charles Logan @charleswlogan.bsky.social · 2d

If teachers are told using AI technologies creates time to spend developing relationships with students, and the report’s findings suggest AI technologies undermine these vital relationships, then it seems to me resistance and refusal of AI technologies is the most caring response.

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 2d

“One of the negative consequences AI is having on students is that it is hurting their ability to develop meaningful relationships with teachers, the report finds. Half of the students agree that using AI in class makes them feel less connected to their teachers.”

Rising Use of AI in Schools Comes With Big Downsides for Students

A report by the Center for Democracy and Technology looks at teachers' and students' experiences with the technology.

www.edweek.org

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Fritz Swanson @fritzswanson.bsky.social · 2d

The bias in media against reporting on things that won’t change should be called the Efficacy Bias. While he doesn’t name it, @joshtpm.bsky.social describes it here. Republicans hacks the bias by being predictably intransigent. Democrats need to learn quick. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-s...

The Shutdown, Zombie Politics and How Trump Stumbled Into Not Being All-Powerful

It’s always a complicated matter to say who is “winning” a shutdown...

talkingpointsmemo.com

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Jason Kuznicki @jkuznicki.bsky.social · 4d

“Once authoritarianism shows up to the party, there can be only two kinds of media:

•Propaganda that is sanctioned by the regime

•Independent media that exists to see the authoritarian project ended

There is no third way. Eventually, every media institution will have to choose a side.”

The Washington Post and CBS News are dying. The Bulwark is the future.

We drink their milkshake.

www.thebulwark.com

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Fritz Swanson @fritzswanson.bsky.social · 3d

Love and respect, but there is a direct line from there to here. Because we were enthused by the chat rooms we liked, and ignored the chat rooms we didn’t like. Surely no one was going into the Bronze Age Pervert chat room, right? The Stormfront one? The internet sorts all people by all interests.

David Kuhne @davidkuhne.bsky.social · 4d

There’s an interview with Tom
Hanks where he’s just signed up to AOL and he’s all excited about going online and going into a chat group where everyone’s a 2001: A Space Odyssey enthusiast. Maybe we need to get back to that

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Fritz Swanson @fritzswanson.bsky.social · 3d

Mill owners confident new powered looms a good investment. Skilled weavers raise concerns about looms in workplace.

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Fritz Swanson @fritzswanson.bsky.social · 3d

Fracturing the audience was the focus of the right from the 70s through into the 2000s with Fox News and Talk Radio. But then we gave over editorial control to robots with our algorithmic news feeds. We are awash in Salt Marches. And they have no effect. We need a Gandhi of today.

Fritz Swanson @fritzswanson.bsky.social · 3d

I felt the same when re-watching the movie. Gandhi leveraged the broadcast networks, which created a singular global audience; but we don't live in that world at all. The Salt march was in 1930. Cronkite turned against the war in Vietnam in 1968. The right learned that a mass audience is dangerous.

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Rich Raho @richraho.bsky.social · 3d

Pope Leo in message for 40th World Youth Day: “True witnesses are humble and inwardly free, above all from themselves, that is, from the pretense of being the center of attention.” www.vatican.va/content/leo-...

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Fritz Swanson @fritzswanson.bsky.social · 3d

There is no better evidence that Trump is dying than his recent obsession with getting into heaven. www.huffpost.com/entry/donald...

Trump Says ‘There’s No Reason To Be Good’ Except For...

The president framed morality as a kind of transaction.

www.huffpost.com

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