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Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile @exiledsocscientist.bsky.social · 52m

The inflatable frog is immune to pepper ball rounds.

Their retreat makes more sense, I suppose . . .

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Danny K @dannykpolitics.bsky.social · 2d

WATCH: ‘Portland Frog’ pepper balled by ICE agents

Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile @exiledsocscientist.bsky.social · 3h

They are determined to make that inflatable frog sound totally badass.

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Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile @exiledsocscientist.bsky.social · 4h

A classic of the genre.

Of my 20 startup clients, not a single one could manage to keep their company's cap table absolutely unambiguous and meticulously documented.

The irony of this, of course, is that it only ever matters if your company is more successful than anyone hoped.

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Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile @exiledsocscientist.bsky.social · 4h

These days, he usually doesn't even bother starting with a denial.

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Amy @lolennui.bsky.social · 4h

So cool that whenever someone asks the president, “did you eat the Lindbergh baby” he’s like, “no but I’d be allowed to, I have the right to, I might do it later”

Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile @exiledsocscientist.bsky.social · 4h

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Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile @exiledsocscientist.bsky.social · 1d

"Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four drugs were imported together in harmony. Then, everything changed when Donald Trump attacked the Water Drugs."

bsky.app/profile/atru...

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Trump: "We call them the water drugs. The drugs that come in through water. They're not coming. There are no boats anymore. Frankly, there are no fishing boats. There are no boats out there period, if you want to know the truth. Does anybody go fishing anymore?"

Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile @exiledsocscientist.bsky.social · 4h

So, wait, your plan for dealing with the threat posed by that guy in the inflatable frog costume in Portland is to have Navy jets murder fishermen and tell the press that they were delivering "water drugs?"

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4h

Bondi: "Bondi: "Just like we did with cartels, we are going to take the same approach, President Trump, with antifa -- destroy the entire organization from top to bottom. We are going to take them apart."

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Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile @exiledsocscientist.bsky.social · 4h

Okay, let's do an informal poll - who would prefer the level of corruption characteristic of the past few decades over the level of corruption of the last 8 months?

(No matter how often I see him, I can't believe that this walleyed, grifting troglodyte is the FBI Director)

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4h

Patel: "I would like to remind the American public: they built this DC temple of corruption over decades, and in 8 short months, Mr President, you have crippled their foundation."

Reposted by Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 6h

Pritzker: "I think it's important to recognize that the Trump administration does not seem to respect any laws in the United States. They just do what they want to do and they'll keep doing it unless someone stops them. Here in Illinois we're stopping them."

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Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile @exiledsocscientist.bsky.social · 8h

I mean, they burned warehouses worth of food and allowed more still to rot rather than use it to feed these people.

What explains this? Does Elon Musk's racism run so deep that the mass death of non-white people is a positive good to be pursued?

(From last May)

www.reuters.com/world/us-aid...

www.reuters.com

Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile @exiledsocscientist.bsky.social · 8h

If there is a Hell, it is difficult to argue that the Trump Administration, with Rubio and Musk at the head of the line, richly deserve to experience it.

Hard to look at & accept, but this seems to be negligent mass murder committed out of nihilism and contempt for life.

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Amanda Katz @katzish.bsky.social · 13h

Horrific reporting from the AP on the Myanmar families watching their kids starve to death from Trump and Musk’s aid cuts apnews.com/article/myan...

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

apnews.com

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Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile @exiledsocscientist.bsky.social · 9h

I'm sorry, but anyone who wants you to tone down those epithets is disgracing the great American tradition of political invective.

Those were quality insults - think of the loss to history if McAdoo had been told to stop insulting Warren Harding.

Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile @exiledsocscientist.bsky.social · 1d

Of course, Trump may order unlawful violence & achieve his goals despite Pritzker's plans, but you play the hand you are dealt, and Pritzker's strategy is wiser than armed confrontation that would risk placing him (even arguably) on the wrong side of the law and the Constitution's Supremacy Clause.

Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile @exiledsocscientist.bsky.social · 1d

Pritzker understands that he can't match federal coercive force in direct conflict. Instead, he is setting up ICE to be responsible for violence and discredit itself, using its strength against it.

He's denying Trump the cloak of legitimacy under which he may use force.

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Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile @exiledsocscientist.bsky.social · 1d

Pritzker explains that giving in to the Dark Side only serves Donald Trump.

Dude is the reason you don't mess with Chicago.

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J. B. Pritzker as Bendu from Star Wars: Rebels - "You have brought war to my quiet state of Illinois, Donald Trump - and I will have no part of it!"

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Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile @exiledsocscientist.bsky.social · 1d

In a few years when they're just asking Sora to generate rage-bait pictures of black people murdering white children to go with their propaganda articles, we will look back on this nostalgically.

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CNN @cnn.com · 1d

"President Donald Trump and his top aides are using the word 'insurrection' more frequently to describe anti-ICE protests in places like Portland," writes Zachary B. Wolf. https://cnn.it/4pWYmzr

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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 1d

Picture here is from 1992. LA riots. Ive seen this called bad news judgment. In any real journalism outfit this is more like a firing offense. I basically say such things. Beyond belief.

CNN @cnn.com · 1d

"President Donald Trump and his top aides are using the word 'insurrection' more frequently to describe anti-ICE protests in places like Portland," writes Zachary B. Wolf. https://cnn.it/4pWYmzr

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Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile @exiledsocscientist.bsky.social · 1d

Go Liz! With you 100%.

Now, um, what exactly is the plan and how can a Congressional minority accomplish it?

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Elizabeth Warren @elizabeth-warren.bsky.social · 1d

President Trump is repealing federal funding and hurting American communities like he’s a vengeful king. It’s wrong, illegal, and Congress must push back.

Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile @exiledsocscientist.bsky.social · 1d

Seriously - you don't have to be an M&A lawyer to know lots of people who would gladly sell much more than their integrity for $150m + whatever ongoing compensation she gets as news head of CBS while she remains there.

Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile @exiledsocscientist.bsky.social · 1d

Ah, but she personally received a massive, inflated payout for selling her propaganda outfit - think of her as having signed an earnout to euthanize CBS news on behalf of billionaire oligarchs.

You can't judge a woman's marksmanship if you don't know what she is aiming at.

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Elizabeth Lopatto @lopatto.bsky.social · 1d

please read my memo www.theverge.com/business/793...

Memo to Bari Weiss Re: CBS News: You’re doomed

Bari Weiss has sold her company, The Free Press, to manage the decline of broadcast news at CBS. How many ways can it go wrong?

www.theverge.com

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Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile @exiledsocscientist.bsky.social · 1d

Okay, the Attorney General is in fact a new skin that Elon Musk has put on Grok - answering questions with confused and misdirected right wing talking points punctuated by bizarre partisan non-sequiturs.

Dress her like the X Waifu AI "companion" and you're done.

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

SCHIFF: If a video exists of Homan taking $50k in bribe money from the FBI, will you support a request to provide it to the committee?

BONDI: You can talk to Director Patel about that

SCHIFF: I'm talking to you about it

BONDI: Will you apologize to Donald Trump?

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Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile @exiledsocscientist.bsky.social · 1d

To be fair to Garland, we do need to acknowledge 2 points.

1st, no one could possibly have imagined that Republicans would just lie.

And 2nd, his decision to immunize powerful Republicans from investigation until forced by the J6 cmte made him feel nonpartisan & superior.

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Dave Weigel @daveweigel.bsky.social · 1d

This is a @brianbeutler.bsky.social point, I think, but Garland was careful to a fault not to coordinate w Biden, not to jump on Trump cases too fast, etc - even appointed special counsel to probe Hunter.

His reward: Republicans just insisting Biden/Garland coordinated and targeted their enemies.

Oliver Willis @owillis.bsky.social · 1d

Just this morning people told me that it’s not the job of the democrats to set a narrative, meanwhile congressional republicans continue to do just that

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Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile @exiledsocscientist.bsky.social · 1d

Or they're applying a very reasonable game theory algo. For the last 4 decades, Democrats who win power refuse to punish groups in civil society that help Republicans, instead courting them and taking their policy "concerns" seriously.

Republicans in power very much do.

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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 1d

Do CBS News executives understand that MAGA will not be in power forever? I genuinely think this is lost on a lot of people. They've gotten scammed by bad actors into believing Trump's 2024 win represented something seismic and even permanent. I predict they'll look back on this as a serious error.

max tani @maxtani.bsky.social · 1d

CBS News current president Tom Cibroski praised Weiss on the call, saying "Bari's energy and passion is infectious and you will feel it, big time." He also added that the Free Press and CBS News "are going to learn a lot from each other...that's what this is all about."

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Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile @exiledsocscientist.bsky.social · 1d

Just like non-delegation & states' rights, standing was weaponized against disfavored groups (largely environmentalists who were not 'harmed' by pollution) then discarded when inconvenient for favored groups.

John Roberts - making me miss even stupid good-faith formalism.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

very cool that if you are working on behalf of right-wing culture warriors, you no longer need standing to have your claim adjudicated by the supreme court

Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 1d

It's not just that they're going to strike down a law against conversion therapy, it's that they're going to do it on behalf of made-up claims from a straw plaintiff who can't honestly show the law affected her at all

Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile @exiledsocscientist.bsky.social · 1d

I wonder how many people realize that the genteel FT note that "critics have raised concerns over the circular structure of such huge AI infrastructure deals, amid uncertainty over how the vast data centres [...] would be financed or powered" is channeling Ed Zitron.

www.ft.com/content/bfaf...

OpenAI targets 10% AMD stake via multibillion-dollar chip deal

Latest circular transaction aims to make ChatGPT maker central to the effort to build a huge AI infrastructure

www.ft.com

Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile @exiledsocscientist.bsky.social · 1d

The logic is not the same because the coercive apparatus of the state operates legitimately under laws. Forcing it to act beyond those laws delegitimizes it and broadens opposition to it.

This was the strategic logic of nonviolence in the American Civil Rights Movement.

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Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 1d

Y'all who keep lecturing protesters to "not give them an excuse" need to pause for a minute. Imagine yourself telling a DV victim, "Be sure not to mouth off or make any mistakes so he won't hit you. Don't give him an excuse! It's what he wants!" That's what you fools sound like.

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Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile @exiledsocscientist.bsky.social · 1d

"Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four drugs were imported together in harmony. Then, everything changed when Donald Trump attacked the Water Drugs."

bsky.app/profile/atru...

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Trump: "We call them the water drugs. The drugs that come in through water. They're not coming. There are no boats anymore. Frankly, there are no fishing boats. There are no boats out there period, if you want to know the truth. Does anybody go fishing anymore?"