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John Pettus

@johngpettus.bsky.social

2.2K followers 1.7K following 9.4K posts

Social venture entrepreneur. San Francisco native. Iraq veteran. Economics-trained, MBA liberal. Both more liberal and more conservative than you, in some ways. Working on improving public discourse and teaching & measuring critical thinking at scale.

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John Pettus @johngpettus.bsky.social · Jun 10

Mon Mothma: "The Death of Truth is the Ultimate Victory of Evil."

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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 1h

Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune

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Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 6h

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

nyti.ms

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John Pettus @johngpettus.bsky.social · 15m

WTF? We were down like 20 with 10 minutes remaining in the 4th when my recording crapped out.

Are you telling me the #babydubs made this comeback with the shock troop lineup?!

Now I gotta try to make my recording work!!!

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Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 5h

he's going to come after you either way, so you might as well act with integrity

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Miles Taylor @milestaylor.bsky.social · 1d

I co-wrote Trump’s first anti-terrorism plan in 2017-18. He’s not trying to stop “left-wing” terrorism. He is staging it.

His troop deployments are a false flag — meant to provoke a response in order to justify harsh crackdowns.

This is now very obvious.

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NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 22h

doomscroll break

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StrictlyChristo 🦋🇺🇦🌻❌👑 @strictlychristo.bsky.social · 54m

Portland is so good at trolling these fascists.

I ❤️ Portland

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John Pettus @johngpettus.bsky.social · 1h

I agree with you more than him. That is how it should work.
The corrupt Supreme Court maneuvered to effectively turn off this part of the Constitution, which is a major reason I consider them to be illegitimate.

But that was the controlling adjudication, so I still regard Trump as legitimate.

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John Pettus @johngpettus.bsky.social · 1h

Their ruling in Trump v United States essentially/effectively ended the rule of law in this nation. It's an absurd fiction promulgated for partisan power which eviscerates all the rest of the Constitution and the basic social contract.

We cannot have a society w/o the rule of law.

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Adam Kinzinger @adamkinzinger.substack.com · 4h

Russia took less than 1% of Ukraine since Nov 2023. Only cost them at least half a million soldiers.

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John Pettus @johngpettus.bsky.social · 1h

Wait - what was illegal about Special Counsel Jack Smith's work?

Am I misreading this somehow?

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Philip Bump @pbump.com · 5h

I spent more than a decade at The Post. It was good to me and I was proud to work there. I’ve largely refrained from being critical since I left. But this framing of the special counsel probe is embarrassing and flatly wrong. Stunning, but not. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Opinion | Jack Smith’s lawfare and James Comey’s arraignment on pathetically weak charges

Good people will be deterred from public service if they see a meaningful risk of winding up in jail afterward.

www.washingtonpost.com

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John Pettus @johngpettus.bsky.social · 2h

Exactly.

John Pettus @johngpettus.bsky.social · 2h

This is straight up abuser psychology.

The look-what-you-made-me-do excuse.

It is morally GROTESQUE.

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Philip Bump @pbump.com · 4h

I guess I should also add that a key difference between the Trump investigation and the Comey indictment is that *Trump did something obviously and significantly wrong*. Like, if you can't grok that distinction as important, I don't know what to say.

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John Pettus @johngpettus.bsky.social · 3h

<When did you stop beating your wife? It’s not good to beat your wife. You get that, right?>

Why even bother with these petty, patently dishonest, cliche straw man attacks?

Why waste your life scoring farcically dishonest political points over things nobody said?

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John Pettus @johngpettus.bsky.social · 3h

Oh ha ha thank god.

I was thinking about stopping work and doing a reverse image search!

John Pettus @johngpettus.bsky.social · 3h

That’s a weird lesson to take from this video on an unrelated topic.

Who’s to say who gets or takes “credit” for social progress. That’s not a defined term. Not a fact.

So why attack your political allies over ephemeral/bullshit/opinion “credit” instead of focusing on Trump?

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LOLGOP ❌👑❌ @thefarce.org · 5h

"The thing about irrational, increasingly unfit authoritarians guarded by an even more ruthless henchman is that demands for loyalty only keep going up."

emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 17h

How Kash Patel and Pam Bondi became Slaves to Stephen Miller

www.emptywheel.net/2025/10/08/h...

How Kash Patel and Pam Bondi became Slaves to Stephen Miller - emptywheel

By indicting the first of Trump's FBI Directors and preparing to frame the second, Kash Patel may have signed his own arrest warrant.

www.emptywheel.net

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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 6h

What Governor Pritzker is doing is right for his state, but it is vital for the Republic.

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Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 8h

Siva Vaidhyanathan on the Trump admin’s proposed “compact” for universities (to give up academic freedom in exchange for favorable treatment by the Trump government): “This ‘compact’ is more like an invitation to borrow money from the mob, with substantial control and future penalties assured.”

Siva @sivav.bsky.social · 12h

And from me:

newrepublic.com/article/2013...

Why This Essay Could Cause the University of Virginia to Shut Down

How Linda McMahon’s latest “compact” would do deep and permanent harm to American higher education

newrepublic.com

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Veni Kunche @veni.dev · 5h

"CNBC found that one Microsoft data center in Illinois received more than $38 million in data center sales tax exemptions but created just 20 permanent jobs."

What are we doing?! 😐

www.cnbc.com/2025/06/20/t...

In race to attract data centers, states can forfeit hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue to tech companies

Amazon, Meta and Google are among the beneficiaries of state tax exemptions for data centers that help power AI.

www.cnbc.com

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Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 5h

Quite the headline. Will be forwarding to everyone who told me I was "overreacting."

Reuters: National Guard poised to enter Chicago as Trump calls for jailing Democratic leaders
By Emily Schmall, Susan Heavey and Daniel Trotta
October 8, 2025 6:47 PM CDT Updated 19 mins ago

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John Pettus @johngpettus.bsky.social · 5h

@adamserwer.bsky.social is able to speak clearly about what is actually happening in America.

Why can’t all journalists and leaders speak this honestly about the fascist attack on American democracy?

The Power of the People When America’s Elites Are Absent | Amanpour and Company

YouTube video by Amanpour and Company

youtu.be

John Pettus @johngpettus.bsky.social · 6h

Unlike fascists, liberals do not prosecute people for their speech, even if it is deeply evil and anti-American, as Yarvin's is.

But we WILL need to prosecute the many, many people who committed crimes during Trumpism.

Mark Hennessy-Barrett @markhb.bsky.social · 6h

www.thenerdreich.com/panicked-cur...

Curtis Yarvin, the anti-American “Dark Enlightenment” guru credited as “the philosopher behind JD Vance,” believes the Trump administration is doomed to fail.
Fearing retribution from a future Democratic administration, a terrified Yarvin declared on October 5 that he is already planning to flee the country.
Wrote Yarvin on Substack:
The second Trump revolution, like the first, is failing. It is failing because it deserves to fail. It is failing because it spends all its time patting itself on the back. It is failing because its true mission, which neither it nor (still less) its supporters understand, is still as far beyond its reach as algebra is beyond a cat. Because the vengeance meted out after its failure will dwarf the vengeance after 2020—because the successes of the second revolution are so much greater than the first—I feel that I personally have to start thinking realistically about how to flee the country. Everyone else in a similar position should have a 2029 plan as well. And it is not even clear that it will wait until 2029: losing the Congress will instantly put the administration on the defensive.

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