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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 14h

And this is why no elected Democrat does and no member of the US public should trust any Trump/Johnson/GOP promise of some future negotiation.

When Americans' healthcare is protected by ironclad, force of law, no recissions possible legislation...then we can talk.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 15h

Q: Rescission are something Dems have said is a reason for a lack of trust. What rescissions are you discussing?

JOHNSON: We have more than $37t in debt. We're doing everything we can to get us back to sound fiscal responsibility. What does that include? A rescission package is part of our process

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 14h

Recall how vibrant Franco's Spain was. Or the breakthroughs achieved by Stalin's USSR. (Yes, they could do 1st rate technical work—e.g. the Russian bomb & Sputnik. But ask yourself: what transformative science or tech came from that system. I'll wait.)

That's the trajectory of Trump's America.

David Gilbert @davidgilbert.bsky.social · 23h

BREAKING:

"Just landed."

Mark Bray confirms to me this morning that he and his family did, on the second attempt, make it out of the US and to Spain

www.wired.com/story/mark-b...

He Wrote a Book About Antifa. Death Threats Are Driving Him Out of the US

Rutgers historian Mark Bray is trying to flee to Spain after after an online campaign from far-right influencers was followed by death threats. He was turned back at the airport on his first attempt.

www.wired.com

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Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 1d

Just cast my vote for Prop 50. 👍

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Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 1d

Just bone chilling. And when the imprisonment of critics is combined with his offer to enrich and immunize his loyalists, this is how democracies die fast.

But it's still our choice. Don't let him silence you.

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NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 19h

News footage from Portland shows a calm, tranquil city. But an AI video that Stephen Miller texted to Donald Trump shows the city as a burning hellhole. The truth may lie somewhere in between.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 15h

I agree. It's just possible that Thiel looks in the mirror and fails to grasp that what he sees is who it is that threatens his very soul.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 15h

Well...there's precedent. Kristi Noem is a proud puppy killer.

MAGA hates humanity's best friends.

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 15h

EL PASO — a family says ICE showed up at their house looking for migrants and shot and KILLED THEIR DOG, then didn’t help them as the agent ran away and was not identified.

kfoxtv.com/news/local/e...

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Popehat Agitates And Irritates @kenwhite.bsky.social · 15h

Wen should direct more attention to incidents like these because Americans are more likely to respond to brutality to pets than to brutality to human beings.

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 15h

EL PASO — a family says ICE showed up at their house looking for migrants and shot and KILLED THEIR DOG, then didn’t help them as the agent ran away and was not identified.

kfoxtv.com/news/local/e...

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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 15h

Immigration raids in Nashville have made crime victims afraid to cooperate with police and seek counseling.

tennesseelookout.com/2025/10/08/i...

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Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 17h

It’s very much Not Great to have GOP leadership describe a planned non violent march as being in service a the “terrorist wing”

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 17h

Emmer: "This is about one thing and one thing alone -- to score political points with the terrorist wing of their party, which is set to hold a hate America rally in DC next week."

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 15h

3/ ...which is a far reaching and multi-pronged attempt to gain control over every civic space in which opposition to those seizing power could take form.

Pretending the "compact" is about anything but ideological control of the academy is...

...well, let's be kind. We can call it naive. /fin.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 15h

2/ Elite legacy media continues to sanewash Trump. As Orwell said, the most difficult thing to do is to recognize—& name—what's right in front of you.

Fascist takeovers proceed through institutions, and the easy path is such moves as discrete "reforms" instead of seeing them for what they are...

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 15h

So @nytimes.com is little better than WSJ.

What's wrong below? The word "benefits." The Trump junta is offering is continued access to federal funding (which has already been cut in various ways). In exchange, they want control over admissions, hiring, & curriculum.

Not a benefit—a bust out. 1/

"M.I.T. Rejects a White House Offer for Special Funding Treatment
The Trump administration offered nine universities benefits in exchange for signing an agreement to protect conservative voices, among other things. M.I.T. was the first to refuse."

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 15h

Cotton Mather wholly believed in the immanent reality of Satan working through Salem's witches to achieve the destruction of the Puritan experiment in New England.

He believed in the evidence of dreams. His convictions led to the deaths of innocents.

And he was still more coherent than this bozo.

The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 16h

Exclusive: Tech billionaire Peter Thiel warned that Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and critics of AI are “legionnaires of the Antichrist” in private lectures that connected government oversight of Silicon Valley to an apocalyptic future.

Inside billionaire Peter Thiel’s private lectures: Warnings of ‘the Antichrist’ and U.S. destruction

In leaked recordings of private lectures by tech billionaire Peter Thiel he argued that “the Antichrist” is likely to take the form of a critic of technology.

wapo.st

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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 17h

Trump can't deliver the lower costs he promised. All he has is cruelty and revenge.

Cuomo is unable to confront him because they share the same billionaire donors. Just look at his statement last night.

I will stand up for this city and with our Attorney General.

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Maggie Tokuda-Hall @maggietokudahall.bsky.social · 17h

Today my daughter's preschool is holding a farewell assembly for one of her classmates whose mother has no choice but to self deport. The school is hoping it will be joyful in tone, so we might make this less upsetting for this 3 year old.

There's just no words for the uselessness of this cruelty.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 15h

The "breaking" squib below is Orwellian Newspeak.

Those "far-reaching reforms" are a Mafia-style bust-out. Federal funds to buy control over curriculum, hiring, & admissions.

That's reform in the same sense Russian encounters with Ukraine's cities are urban renewal.

Do much better, @wsj.com

The Wall Street Journal @wsj.com · 16h

Breaking: MIT rejected President Trump’s "compact," which offers colleges funding advantages in exchange for far-reaching reforms. It is the first school to do so.

MIT Rejects Trump’s Sweeping ‘Compact’ Offering Colleges Funding Advantages

The school became the first university to reject the terms, saying they would undermine independence.

on.wsj.com

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Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 1d

Washington Post vs Democracy Docket.

If you value independent, pro-democracy media over the false neutrality of legacy outlets, support Democracy Docket by subscribing today. hubs.ly/Q03M8rql0

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BGinCHI @bginchi.bsky.social · 16h

GOOD

Excellent work, @tomlevenson.bsky.social

The Wall Street Journal @wsj.com · 16h

Breaking: MIT rejected President Trump’s "compact," which offers colleges funding advantages in exchange for far-reaching reforms. It is the first school to do so.

MIT Rejects Trump’s Sweeping ‘Compact’ Offering Colleges Funding Advantages

The school became the first university to reject the terms, saying they would undermine independence.

on.wsj.com

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Paul Turner @pst1953.bsky.social · 16h

And did so even if it meant accepting students less qualified by their traditional standards (which might include “family” or “character”) than those who prepped at Andover. The demand now is to give up this core value under duress and adopt its opposite (with a dash of xenophobia).

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Paul Turner @pst1953.bsky.social · 16h

A founding mission of many or even most U.S. colleges was to extend the benefits of higher education to those beyond its reach due to geography, race, sex, religion, or poverty. Others, including the most elite, remade themselves in the 20th century by adopting this as a core mission …

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Paul Turner @pst1953.bsky.social · 16h

Absolutely, and who could have imagined what might become a hot button in 2025. But beyond scientific truth, to demand no “institutional positions on political controversies unrelated to a school’s core mission” assumes the right to define core missions. DEI is now used as scary pejorative, but …

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 17h

Yup.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 17h

We build some of that into MIT's Communication requirement, which includes two classes in one's major that have to be "communication intensive"--and which include training in oral presentation.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 17h

Saw that. I'm glad.