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Bill Lascher

@bill-lascher.bsky.social

350 followers 230 following 210 posts

Writer of stories about people, history, and place. Lover of getting lost in research. Player of pinball. I often digress. NEW BOOK: A Danger Shared - A Journalist's Glimpses of a Continent at War www.lascheratlarge.com

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Bill Lascher @bill-lascher.bsky.social · Jul 24

“Los Angeles’ 1936 ‘Bum Blockade’ Targeted American Migrants Fleeing Poverty and Drought During the Great Depression”

@smithsonianmag.bsky.social justice published a fantastic article about the LAPD’s 1936 attempt to keep Dust Bowl refugees out of California.

www.smithsonianmag.com/history/los-...

Los Angeles' 1936 'Bum Blockade' Targeted American Migrants Fleeing Poverty and Drought During the Great Depression

The two-month patrol stopped supposedly "suspicious" individuals from crossing into California from other states. But its execution was uneven, and the initiative proved controversial

www.smithsonianmag.com

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Reposted by Bill Lascher

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 4d

also, in keeping with Vance’s view of american identity, only white people are fully American with the right to critique or dissent. nonwhites must show proper gratitude (supporting Trump or marrying JD Vance) before they can speak critically of the country (in approved ways, of course)

Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 4d

Weaponized gratitude is a key tool in the abuser's toolkit. The goal is to convince the victim that they owe the abuser so much, they should feel guilty for wanting to complain.

Tweet from the VP:
Joy Reid has had such a good life in this country. It's been
overwhelmingly kind and gracious to her. She is far wealthier than most.
Yet she oozes with contempt.
My honest, non-trolling advice to Joy Reid is that you'd be a much
happier person if you showed a little gratitude

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Reposted by Bill Lascher

Nicholas Slayton @nslayton.bsky.social · 5d

What war? Name the war. You can't keep saying "war-ravaged." What war?

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 5d

Leavitt: "President Trump will end the radical left's reign of terror in Portland once and for all. The president has directed Secretary Hegseth to provide all necessary troops to protect war-ravaged Portland."

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Bill Lascher @bill-lascher.bsky.social · 5d

In other words, it’s not a failure in ICE’s view, and while it may be a loophole it was an intentionally exploited one. There’s nothing accidental about it.

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Bill Lascher @bill-lascher.bsky.social · 5d

The consciously concocted kind that enables access for sympathetic voices in order to advance a particular narrative.

Carol Fenton @cfpdx.bsky.social · 5d

What loopholes or security failures allowed self-described ‘journalists’ to gain rooftop access at the ICE facility in Portland? x.com/KatieDavisco...

Katie Daviscourt 📸 on X: "On top of the roof at Portland ICE with @hunnybadgermom! 🤍 https://t.co/wXQRI0MsEB" / X

On top of the roof at Portland ICE with @hunnybadgermom! 🤍 https://t.co/wXQRI0MsEB

x.com

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Reposted by Bill Lascher

SwiftOnSecurity @swiftonsecurity.com · 5d

Asserting false binaries is essentially cheating at rhetoric, especially in short-form mediums. It's so effective because nobody has time to debate the shape of what's actually in question, not just the answers.

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Bill Lascher @bill-lascher.bsky.social · 5d

Of all the all-too-predictable “unprecedented” actions of the Trump Administration and its fascist allies, I did not have them accusing the Portland Police Bureau of anti-fascist sympathies on my 2025 bingo card.

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🎃scarecrowcialism👻 @swolecialism.bsky.social · 20d

i stg one of the problems with the modern pundit-pocalypse is their sheer *incuriousity*. everything is based off their first impressions, their gut instincts, their thinking from first principle. they gotta get that take out before they do any reading. what hath the Blog Era wrought, man

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🎃scarecrowcialism👻 @swolecialism.bsky.social · 20d

this is the sort of opinion that you get if you don't have the faintest fucking idea
1) how most right wing content creators make a living
2) what an evangelical church is like

both of which are extensively documented and easy to just *read* about

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Bill Lascher @bill-lascher.bsky.social · 20d

He’s not wrong, but you’re also not wrong that the Bush Administration and its allies — to say nothing of the Senate under McConnell in particular — enabled the conditions we’re experiencing today.

David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 20d

look it's really irritating that Bush I dudes like Dowd here,
the men who created the conditions leading to today, are allies. But they are, and he's not wrong.

That doesn't mean I have to be graceful about it though. I'm only human.

Matthew Dowd @matthewjdowd.bsky.social · 20d

I would love to be part of the conversation on MSNBC related to the Kimmel story and it's chilling effects on first amendment, but unfortunately I was terminated by MSNBC for stating that "hateful thoughts lead to hateful words which lead to hateful actions".

Reposted by Bill Lascher

Nicholas Slayton @nslayton.bsky.social · 22d

In Los Angeles a fire at a homeless encampment in 2019 got major attention, people blamed the homeless and it turned out it was actually started by the son of a chamber of commerce member in an attack on unhoused Angelenos www.theeastsiderla.com/neighborhood...

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Bill Lascher @bill-lascher.bsky.social · 26d

L is for Lingnan University. OTD (Sept. 12) in 1936, Melville Jacoby first visited Lingnan's campus — then located in Guangzhou (Canton) on what is now Sun Yat-Sen University — and began a transformative year studying in #China.

#MelAtoZ #history #WorldWarII

Bill Lascher @bill-lascher.bsky.social · 27d

K is for Kunming, capital of Yunnan in southern China. Melville Jacoby made these images In August, 1940, when he stopped en route to a stint freelancing for the United Press in Hanoi. #kunming #meljacoby #melAtoZ #WWII #1940s #history #adangershared

Reposted by Bill Lascher

Aaron Weiss @aweiss.bsky.social · 28d

Someone shot up my kid's school today, and our governor is paying tribute to a guy who thought that is an acceptable price to pay for having the Second Amendment.

Jared Polis has failed Colorado.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Governor Polis Orders Flags to Half-Staff to Honor the Anniversary of September 11th and the Passing of Charlie Kirk

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Bill Lascher @bill-lascher.bsky.social · 28d

The New York Times seems to be taking a similar approach as the Yankees, so the disgrace stretches beyond baseball

Rita Moore @ritamoore.bsky.social · 28d

I'm a lifelong Red Sox fan, so doesn't take much to convince me to hate the Yankees. But even I am gobsmacked by their instant canonization of a man who devoted his life to fomenting hatred and violence. A disgrace to baseball. @mlb.com

Wajahat Ali @wajali.bsky.social · 28d

Your invitation to hate the Yankees

This is wild and obscene. How about the victims of mass shootings, such as the kids in Colorado today or Melissa Hortman.

"Both sides" nonsense. All power in America caves to the right wing.

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Bill Lascher @bill-lascher.bsky.social · 28d

The right’s frothing readiness to score political points from Kirk’s death is unsurprising, abhorrent, as as craven as they regularly accuse Democrats and progressives as being. But what is truly shameful is how readily broader public institutions are buying into the lionizing rhetoric.

Reposted by Bill Lascher

Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 28d

Excellent response from Hasan Piker, who was scheduled to debate Charlie Kirk in two weeks. On his stream he said: “The reverberation of people seeking out vengeance in the aftermath of this violent, abhorrent incident is going to be genuinely worrisome.” Also talked about his own vulnerability

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Melissa Lewis @melissa.news · 28d

Kendra wasn't trying to be exhaustive, but I also want to add:
In June, two MN legislators and their spouses were shot: John Hoffman & spouse survived, and Melissa Hortman & spouse died.

In 2020, a man intending to kill federal judge Esther Salas killed her son, shot her husband.

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Bill Lascher @bill-lascher.bsky.social · 28d

As others have noted, the answer is, of course and predictably, no

Bill Lascher @bill-lascher.bsky.social · Sep 8

I’ll offer the America First Policy Institute a suggestion of “good policy for America!” for free: shut down. Want to help America thrive? Prevent it from sliding further into autocracy and fascism.

Bill Lascher @bill-lascher.bsky.social · Sep 8

Gross. Why are the fascist sympathizers at America First advertising to me on Reddit?

Reposted by Bill Lascher

The Foreign Correspondents' Club, Hong Kong @fcchk.bsky.social · Aug 7

Sitting down with former FCC President Lee Williamson, @bill-lascher.bsky.social talked about Jacoby’s life at a Club Lunch highlighting his 2024 book “A Danger Shared”, which includes never-before-seen images depicting war-torn Chungking that were also displayed on the FCC’s Van Es Wall in April.

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Bill Lascher @bill-lascher.bsky.social · Jul 24

Thanks! If you want a signed copy you can order directly from my website. Link in profile.

Bill Lascher @bill-lascher.bsky.social · Jul 24

Also, the “Americanism” of today traces quite directly to the Americanism of the 1930s, and prior, often with the same spectres of crime and savagery and vague ideas of conspiritorial “communism” trotted out.

Bill Lascher @bill-lascher.bsky.social · Jul 24

Someone should show a great deal of history to J.D. Vance. The question is whether he’ll actually digest it.

But yes, the thrust of my book’s conclusion is to recall how much of U.S. history has been spent trying to define and redefine who is and is not accepted to participate fully in society

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Bill Lascher @bill-lascher.bsky.social · Jul 24

Los Angeles' 1936 'Bum Blockade' Targeted American Migrants Fleeing Poverty and Drought During the Great Depression

The two-month patrol stopped supposedly "suspicious" individuals from crossing into California from other states. But its execution was uneven, and the initiative proved controversial

www.smithsonianmag.com

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