Michele Dostert
micheledostert.bsky.social
Michele Dostert
@micheledostert.bsky.social
Moved over from X. Mid-westerner. Slava Ukraina! Life-long Dem.
Until we fix the right-wing propaganda hold on the populace, things will get rapidly worse.
Reposted by Michele Dostert
For months I've banged the drum that "not sure" has become the safe harbor answer for "Republicans who know Trump's probably wrong, but don't want to admit it."

Today's Economist/YouGov Poll: Is Donald Trump racist?
41% of Republicans have No Opinion.

d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/ec...
February 18, 2026 at 1:12 AM
Reposted by Michele Dostert
When you say "vote blue no matter who" these guys always say "oh ho ho, but what if it was Lina Khan, would you vote blue THEN?"

And the answer is "yes"? Very obviously? Was "vote blue no matter who" unclear?
February 17, 2026 at 4:22 PM
Reposted by Michele Dostert
Coverage of Andy Barr, a sitting Congressman and candidate for U.S. Senate, running an ad declaring, "It's not a sin to be white" -- a variation of a notorious white nationalist slogan

AP: Zero
NYT: Zero
WashPost: Zero
Reuters: Zero
Politico: Zero
Axios: Zero
Major corporations bankroll political ad featuring white supremacist slogan
Congressman Andy Barr (R-KY), who is running to replace Mitch McConnell in the United States Senate, released his first television ad earlier this month.
popular.info
February 17, 2026 at 2:51 PM
Reposted by Michele Dostert
He’s not relatively popular among Dems because he’s moderate (and he isn’t, particularly). It’s because he’s the single most implacably anti-Trump major political figure in Democratic politics. This could be mirrored by someone else, but they’d have to, you know, actually do it.
February 17, 2026 at 11:37 PM
Reposted by Michele Dostert
One thing that really distorts the discourse is the belief that any politician could become wildly popular by embracing a Full Left Economic Agenda, which then positions people to believe that every politician is intentionally limiting their own power in order to keep progressives in check
February 18, 2026 at 12:04 AM
Reposted by Michele Dostert
Chuck Schumer spectacularly failed the “vote blue no matter who” test and should be hounded from office
I believe Stancil here, but to honor the skepticism some on the left have about this, i think it's fair to note that Chuck Schumer failed this test
When you say "vote blue no matter who" these guys always say "oh ho ho, but what if it was Lina Khan, would you vote blue THEN?"

And the answer is "yes"? Very obviously? Was "vote blue no matter who" unclear?
February 18, 2026 at 2:37 AM
Reposted by Michele Dostert
strategic dispersal to places where there's no legal observer network, no rapid response teams, no one filming. same playbook as workplace enforcement — hit the meatpacking plants in rural Iowa, not the tech offices in SF
February 17, 2026 at 5:08 PM
Reposted by Michele Dostert
There is no drawdown. There is no retreat. ICE is just redistributing their assets to better avoid accountability.
The same day DHS announced the surge would end in Minnesota, ICE activity increased in small towns
The less densely populated areas outside the Twin Cities make it harder for protesters and observers to organize.
www.theverge.com
February 17, 2026 at 4:26 PM
Reposted by Michele Dostert
The reality of more women now DYING NEEDLESSLY in OUR country due to anti-abortion/anti-women laws is UNCONSCIONABLE! The fact that GOP anti-abortion beliefs played a part in obscene insurance premiums may now kill the rest of us!👀

Why Congress failed to reach an Affordable Care Act deal - POLITICO
February 17, 2026 at 5:14 PM
Reposted by Michele Dostert
Sadly, ICE learned what not to do in Minnesota… they have not left… but are spreading out in disguise tricking and nabbing people before we can respond. We need a new plan….
February 17, 2026 at 1:01 AM
Reposted by Michele Dostert
I told you they’d come after Veterans’ benefits. www.stripes.com/veterans/202...
Veterans slam new VA rule for determining disability ratings
The new rule states that a disability level must be based on how well a veteran functions while on medication and not on the underlying impairment.
www.stripes.com
February 18, 2026 at 2:40 AM
Reposted by Michele Dostert
Please just shut up before you kill all our children.
Kennedy Allies Target States to Overturn Vaccine Mandates for Schoolchildren www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/h... so
Kennedy Allies Target States to Overturn Vaccine Mandates for Schoolchildren
www.nytimes.com
February 17, 2026 at 5:20 PM
Reposted by Michele Dostert
I look forward to the day when we once again do not have to identify federal court judges by which president appointed them. Another low bar that Donald Trump has infected our country with.

#Maddow
February 17, 2026 at 2:07 AM
Reposted by Michele Dostert
Read and share all over..he nails it
February 16, 2026 at 3:58 PM
Reposted by Michele Dostert
Americans bewildered as release of Epstein Files leads to resignations and criminal investigations in democracies around the world.
February 17, 2026 at 4:35 PM
Reposted by Michele Dostert
I think they killed Epstein, but if it had gone down a few years later, they would've instead given him a cabinet position.
February 17, 2026 at 6:30 PM
Reposted by Michele Dostert
When you see how much time conservative outlets spend building an information moat around their audience, it’s really terrifying to think how you work your way out of this.
February 17, 2026 at 4:32 PM
Reposted by Michele Dostert
That's still murder, dudes. You don't have to kill them with missiles to murder them.
A second government official... questioned why, after months of attacks in the region, search and rescue assets weren’t pre-positioned closer to the Eastern Pacific.

“SOUTHCOM doesn’t want these people alive,” that official said.
EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Sent a Rescue Plane for Boat Strike Survivors. It Took 45 Hours to Arrive.

In seas that could kill a person within an hour, it took nearly two days for a rescue plane to arrive.

New from @airwars.bsky.social and @theintercept.com

theintercept.com/2026/02/17/b...
February 17, 2026 at 5:26 PM
Reposted by Michele Dostert
His alleged mistress left her precious heated blanket on the other plane, so Corey Lewandowski demanded the pilot turn the plane around to go get it.

When he refused, Lewandowski -- who has zero authority to fire anyone at any time -- tried to fire the pilot IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FLIGHT.
it's even worse than first reported

the fucking guy caused an inflight disruption so bad the pilot had to leave the command deck then he was like I RELIEVE U OF DUTY

absolute toddler baby shit brained government at the highest levels
New details emerge about in-flight blow-up between Corey Lewandowski and pilot
Additional details have emerged about a mid-flight showdown between Homeland Security advisor Corey Lewandowski that led to a Coast Guard pilot's firing — and immediate reinstatement.DHS Secretary Kri...
www.rawstory.com
February 17, 2026 at 2:56 PM
Reposted by Michele Dostert
That last sentence? That's the strategy. They've been pretty open about it.
“They’re trapped in this little confinement cell, a dark cell with no sunlight, with multiple people,” said Shaan Chatterjee, an attorney at New England Immigration Law. “They’re basically torturing people into signing off on their own deportation.”

(Free article) www.sunjournal.com/2026/02/07/i...
ICE detainees from Maine being held under ‘inhumane’ conditions in Mass. facility, attorneys say
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson said the allegations of overcrowding and lack of access to lawyers are false.
www.sunjournal.com
February 17, 2026 at 2:59 PM
Reposted by Michele Dostert
The regime is now dictating what political views are acceptable to air on television and paramount/cbs are collaborating in that censorship bsky.app/profile/ditz...
Stephen Colbert said that the FCC and CBS - which is in no way a compromised or complicit organization - wouldn’t allow him to broadcast an interview with Democratic State Rep James Talarico. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/a...
Colbert Doesn’t Give an FCC About Calling Out CBS
www.nytimes.com
February 17, 2026 at 12:09 PM
Reposted by Michele Dostert
“Billionaires really like thinkers who see their exploitation of the weak as a good and natural thing.”
The billionaires' eugenics project: how Epstein infiltrated Harvard, muzzled the humanities and preached master-race science
Edge - Jeffrey Epstein's favourite intellectual salon - was sold to me as a gathering of the world's finest minds, writes Virginia Heffernan. The files reveal it was something far darker: a decades-lo...
www.thenerve.news
February 17, 2026 at 4:12 PM
Reposted by Michele Dostert
I'm mystified by this GOP push, since conservative women are more likely to have adopted their husband's names than liberal women are; Republicans want women to get married and submit to their husbands; but if their husbands tell them how to vote but they can't because of this [brain melts on desk]
the new Republican talking point is that it's insulting to complain about requiring women to show their birth certificate and passport in order to vote because they're smart enough to figure it out
February 17, 2026 at 1:09 PM
Reposted by Michele Dostert
I don’t think anyone acquainted with the Epstein files can deny that the Republican Party is sincerely committed to putting children to work.
Florida AG James Uthmeier: "We need to focus on getting people into the workforce even earlier. We passed legislation last year to help high school students get their hands dirty and get on job sites more quickly."
February 17, 2026 at 4:36 PM
Reposted by Michele Dostert
“Not one third of the inhabitants, even of this province, are of English descent,” Thomas Paine noted in Common Sense, "This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe."
February 17, 2026 at 4:04 PM