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Robert David Sullivan @robertdsullivan.bsky.social · 1d

Stop hurting America

Reposted by Robert David Sullivan

Will Harris @willharrisinva.bsky.social · 1d

Honoring Kirsty MacColl on her birthday with the reposting of the piece I wrote in her honor for the A.V. Club.

www.avclub.com/the-single-f...

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Robert David Sullivan @robertdsullivan.bsky.social · 1d

Mind you, I'm not dismissing the possibility that someone threw a wadded-up Subway wrapper at one of the Border Patrol vehicles.

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Reposted by Robert David Sullivan

Rufus Hickok @rufus-hickok.bsky.social · 1d

Not quite "Sic semper tyrannis," but still pretty good.

NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 1d

The Virginia Senate just told UVA it’s not getting state funding if it accepts the compact since UVA exists to serve Virginia, its residents, & their interests—not be a tool of the federal govt. Scoop from our student newspaper, who’ve been doing vital reporting www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...

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Robert David Sullivan @robertdsullivan.bsky.social · 1d

I think the DHS doesn’t regard journalism as a legitimate profession and honestly doesn’t realize how far-fetched this sounds.

CJ Ciaramella @cjciaramella.bsky.social · 1d

UPDATE: In emailed statement to me / @reason.com, DHS alleges that WGN-TV producer Debbie Brockman "threw objects at Border Patrol’s car and she was placed under arrest for assault on a federal law enforcement officer."

Screencap of email from DHS public affairs: Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin:

“U.S. Border Patrol was conducting immigration enforcement operations and when several violent agitators used their vehicles to block in agents in an effort to impede and assault federal officers. In fear of public safety and of law enforcement, officers used their service vehicle to strike a suspect’s vehicle and create an opening. As agents were driving, Deborah Brockman, a U.S. citizen, threw objects at Border Patrol’s car and she was placed under arrest for assault on a federal law enforcement officer.

“This incident is not isolated and reflects a growing and dangerous trend of illegal aliens violently resisting arrest and agitators and criminals ramming cars into our law enforcement officers. These attacks highlight the dangers our law enforcement officers face daily—all while receiving no pay thanks to the Democrats’ government shutdown.”

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Reposted by Robert David Sullivan

Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 1d

Speaking of Bovino: a Chicago-area pastor told me the Border Patrol official approached him and began personally shoving him at a protest last week.

It's not in the piece, but the pastor later added: "It did feel like this is being staged for some kind of audience." religionnews.com/2025/10/09/f...

However, faith leaders in Chicago say tensions surrounding the Broadview facility have escalated over the past few weeks.
The Rev. David Swanson, pastor at New Community Covenant Church on Chicago's South Side, declined to comment directly on the lawsuit, explaining that he's only been a part of demonstrations at Broadview on one occasion.
But he said that during his visit, when large numbers of demonstrators assembled near the facility last Friday, the behavior of DHS agents left him unnerved.
At one point, he said, senior Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino — who has become a visible presence in DHS immigration enforcement - walked over to where Swanson and others were standing and began shoving the pastor while yelling in his face. Swanson, who was wearing a clerical collar, said Bovino yelled "I'm not going to tell you again" even as the pastor continued to move back. Part of the incident was documented by a Associated Press photographer; however, DHS officials did not respond immediately to comment on the interaction.

Swanson said the experience differed dramatically from demonstrations elsewhere he has attended. In the past, he said, he has tried to be "a presence for peace in situations that can get volatile" and a "person who different sides can be able to approach and talk with and have conversations with." But his experience at Broadview felt different.
"This was the first time that I felt like there was absolutely no regard and no respect for a person who was visibly associated with a faith tradition," Swanson said. "It did not seem like it made one iota of difference."

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Reposted by Robert David Sullivan

Sam Adams @samadams.bsky.social · 1d

congrats to Nobel Peace Prize winner Portland Frog

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Robert David Sullivan @robertdsullivan.bsky.social · 1d

In which a senator from South Dakota voices horror at the thought of US citizens in DC and Puerto Rico having representation in the Senate. x.com/atrupar/stat...

Aaron Rupar on X: "Thune: "If the Democrats had won the majority, they probably would've tried to nuke the filibuster. And then you'd have four new senators from Puerto Rico and DC, you'd have a packed Supreme Court, you'd have abortion on demand ... " https://t.co/jPQriXLbNe" / X

Thune

x.com

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Robert David Sullivan @robertdsullivan.bsky.social · 1d

Future MTA announcement: “Attention, passengers: ICE has determined that everyone on this train looks a little wigged-out, so we are being rerouted to a detention center. No local stops.”

thematthill.bsky.social @thematthill.bsky.social · 4d

Wow. Greg Bovino admits on camera that his agents can detain people if you look scared, change your demeanor, or grip a steering wheel too tight.

As his unmasked agents walk around with large guns to scare you, they may arrest you just for that — even if you're a U.S. citizen.

Robert David Sullivan @robertdsullivan.bsky.social · 1d

You've come a long way, baby. www.wsj.com/politics/the...

The Beauty Queens of MAGA World

From cabinet secretaries to state legislators, many women in today’s GOP have one thing in common: they got their start in public life by winning pageants.

www.wsj.com

Reposted by Robert David Sullivan

Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 1d

NEW: Clergy are at the Broadview, IL ICE facility today — where clergy have been shot w/pepper balls in recent days.

UMC minister Rev. Hannah Kardon, one of those shot w/pepper balls in the past, among those asking to give communion to those detained. Attendees (who sent photos) say police declined

Clergy holding communion wares talking to police.

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Robert David Sullivan @robertdsullivan.bsky.social · 1d

Was Johnny Cash considered "uncool" in the South? Because I've lived in the Northeast Corridor my whole life and can't remember anyone being less than awed by Cash.

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Reposted by Robert David Sullivan

Dorian Lynskey @dorianlynskey.bsky.social · 2d

I love that Beckett is still confounding people after all these years. It’s like “I went to see The Rite of Spring. I don’t know what the hell that was but it sure wasn’t music. I felt like rioting. One star”

Lux "Nightmare" Alptraum @luxalptraum.com · 3d

TFW you paid $1400 to see Beckett’s most famous work without knowing anything about it

One Star Review of Waiting for Godot on Broadway
I recently attended Waiting for Godot on Broadway and spent over $1,400 for two Row C seats (103 and 104). I'm a longtime admirer of Broadway productions and even hold a season pass for Shea's Performing Arts Theatre, so I came in with genuine enthusiasm and high expectations. Unfortunately, this show was unlike anything ! have ever experienced —and not in a good way.
What I encountered was not the artistry, music, or emotional storytelling I usually associate with Broadway, but instead what felt like an endless cycle of nonsensical conversation between characters who seemed trapped in their own madness. I tried-truly tried-to find meaning, symbolism, or even a thread of emotional resonance. I stayed through the first half hoping the second would offer clarity. But by intermission, it was clear: this was a waste of both time and money.
Keanu Reeves is an actor I respect greatly, but I cannot fathom why he would agree to participate in such a disjointed, inaccessible production. His talent was lost in a performance that defied reason rather than provoked insight.
To anyone considering attending: unless you are drawn to highly abstract, nearly incomprehensible theater, I strongly caution you against this show. For the average, educated, thoughtful theatergoer, it is far more frustrating than fulfilling. In my opinion, this was the single most disappointing Broadway experience I've ever had - an unfortunate waste of money and, more importantly, of time.

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Robert David Sullivan @robertdsullivan.bsky.social · 2d

<“We must continue, then, to denounce the ‘dictatorship of an economy that kills,’ and to recognize that ‘while the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few.’”>

www.americamagazine.org/vatican-disp...

Pope Leo in first major document: Love for the poor is not optional for Christians

“I often wonder, even though the teaching of Sacred Scripture is so clear about the poor, why many people continue to think that they can safely disregard the poor,” Pope Leo XIV states in his first m...

www.americamagazine.org

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Robert David Sullivan @robertdsullivan.bsky.social · 2d

It's good for Times readers to know that people who think like him are out there. I doubt that he won many converts among the Times readership with this interview, though.

Reposted by Robert David Sullivan

Tim Howles @timhowles.bsky.social · 2d

Doris Lessing’s reaction to winning the Nobel Prize in 2007 is always worth a rewatch …
youtu.be/vuBODHFBZ8k

British author Doris Lessing reacts to Nobel win

YouTube video by ReutersLC

youtu.be

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Reposted by Robert David Sullivan

The American Prospect @prospect.org · 3d

While Trump illegally seizes power, Congress seems content to do nothing. Democratic governors are stepping up to protect their states from Trump’s interventions. From @gurleygg.bsky.social: trib.al/LK3l3gO

Governors Plunged Into Constitutional Crisis

State power brokers step up as a paralyzed Congress bows out.

trib.al

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Reposted by Robert David Sullivan

Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 3d

Federal officers are firing so much tear gas at protesters outside an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, that some nearby community members who aren’t even protesting are struggling to breathe when they leave their homes to run errands.

ICE is hounding Chicago area locals with excessive chemical munitions

Agents are firing tear gas and pepper balls on lawful protesters, lawsuits say, sickening even uninvolved residents.

www.motherjones.com

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Robert David Sullivan @robertdsullivan.bsky.social · 3d

This is not a story I'd expect to see in a newspaper that supposedly is trying to elect Cuomo. They didn't even wait for a new poll to justify the argument that "there is little evidence that Mr. Adams’s exit has been a game changer for Mr. Cuomo."

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/n...

Is Adams’s Exit a Game-Changer for Cuomo? Not So Far.

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Robert David Sullivan

Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 3d

Welcome to the era of “Kavanaugh Raids.” www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/welcome-to...

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Robert David Sullivan @robertdsullivan.bsky.social · 4d

Wasn’t this a scene in “War of the Worlds”? Except for the addition of the laughing?

Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 4d

Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.

(RNS) — Last month, the Rev. David Black stood in front of a Chicago-area U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and spread his arms wide. Adorned in all black and wearing a clerical collar, the pastor looked up at a group of masked, heavily armed ICE agents on the roof and began to pray.

“I invited them to repentance,” Black, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), said in an interview. “I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation, and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”

But when Black began to lower his arms a few seconds later, the agents responded to his spiritual plea by firing pepper balls, or chemical agents that cause eye irritation and respiratory distress, video footage shows. One struck Black in the head, exploding into a puff of white pepper smoke and forcing him to his knees. Fellow demonstrators rushed to his aid, and as the pastor rubbed his face in pain, the agents continued to fire.

“We could hear them laughing,” Black said.

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Robert David Sullivan @robertdsullivan.bsky.social · 4d

Trump has a Senate partisan majority without needing a single vote from a state that voted against him (Collins of Maine is not needed). I don’t think Obama or Biden ever had that advantage.

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Robert David Sullivan @robertdsullivan.bsky.social · 4d

Yes.

But why are there so many kids in strollers getting in my way on the Upper West Side?

Berny Belvedere @bernybelvedere.bsky.social · 4d

fellas is it gay to live in a city

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Robert David Sullivan @robertdsullivan.bsky.social · 4d

America's Gloria Purvis: "When well-known church leaders praise Mr. Kirk as a model Christian despite his racist rhetoric, they provide religious cover for racist thought and behavior."

www.americamagazine.org/faith-and-re...

What are Black Catholics hearing when church leaders praise Charlie Kirk?

For many Black Catholics familiar with Charlie Kirk's full record, endorsements of his message by Catholic leaders can be devastating.

www.americamagazine.org

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Robert David Sullivan @robertdsullivan.bsky.social · 4d

What percentage of the country are "Heritage Americans"? As the illustration suggests, it's gotta be a pretty small minority. (I think I may be 1/16th heritage?)

www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

Are You a ‘Heritage American’?

Why some on the right want to know if your ancestors were here during the Civil War.

www.theatlantic.com

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