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Michael Macher

@michael-macher.bsky.social

320 followers 1.2K following 210 posts

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Michael Macher @michael-macher.bsky.social · Apr 11

I wrote about the politics of immigration (non)enforcement for @phenomenalworld.bsky.social. www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/wag...

Wages of Citizenship | Michael Macher

US immigration enforcement and the cannibalization of labor law

www.phenomenalworld.org

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Michael Macher @michael-macher.bsky.social · 1d

Balk's 3 laws of the internet:

Balk’s First Law: Everything you hate about the Internet is actually everything you hate about people.

Balk’s Second Law: The worst thing is knowing what everyone thinks about anything.

Balk’s Third Law: If you think the Internet is terrible now, just wait a while.

Michael Macher @michael-macher.bsky.social · 1d

Trump admin is refusing backpay to furloughed federal workers while insulating DHS from the worst effects of the shutdown.

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Michael Macher @michael-macher.bsky.social · 2d

An image of TFP "reporter" Olivia Reingold with text overlay that reads: "pretty shocking."

Michael Macher @michael-macher.bsky.social · 4d

"...it’s insidious for Anderson to use a movement of men and white leftists that was heavily criticized in its time by other Black revolutionaries and make a Black woman the face of it for the plot alone—a plot in which she doesn’t even get to actively participate!"

One Fetish After Another: PTA Exploits Black Women and Averts Revolution

Paul Thomas Anderson's action flick leaves much to be desired.

open.substack.com

Michael Macher @michael-macher.bsky.social · 4d

Crucial point here: federal discretion plays a massive role in defining the terms and limits of immigration policy; and the use of discretion is one way to get at what is novel in Trump's enforcement regime.

radleybalko.substack.com/p/yes-the-tr...

via @radleybalko.bsky.social

Article text: "Moreover, the law does not “mandate” that people seeking asylum “be detained until their case concludes.” The law gives the executive branch discretion. The Trump administration has chosen to exercise that discretion in a way that maximizes its ability to detain and deport people. And as we’ll see, they’re also going way beyond even what the outer parameters of the law allow."

Reposted by Michael Macher

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 4d

In many ways the Border Patrol can be thought of as the vestiges of an era of policing that had been stamped out in many major police departments nationwide - the era predating efforts to create a more “professional” police force.

unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 4d

Is CBP "worse" than ICE has been operating alone? On every level, yes, due in no small part to their propaganda ops which demand bigger raids. But they're also just overall bolder, more violent, less concerned about operating under the surface/evading surveillance

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Michael Macher @michael-macher.bsky.social · 5d

A bop.

An excerpt from the Slant manifesto: "we are looking for a society where the genuine personal openness which the experience of culture can provide has been generalised to the level of a whole way of life."

Michael Macher @michael-macher.bsky.social · 5d

Eagleton and Cunningham were playing in the pocket on this one.

From the "Slant Manifesto" (1966).

Pictured: an issue of the Catholic leftist journal "Slant."

An excerpt from the Slant manifesto: "for the question is not whether we prefer a loving to a cruel father, but whether, in church and society, the implications of fatherhood make the image of a father desirable at all."

An excerpt from the Slant manifesto, continued: "the liberal pressure toward 'solving' a structural problem by personal kindness must be resisted as mystification..."

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Michael Macher @michael-macher.bsky.social · 5d

"In retrospect, we pretend to understand why history took a particular course...The brutal fact that we find it so difficult to predict what will happen under our current circumstances is evidence that we do not have theories we can rely on."

How Democracies Fall Apart - Dissent Magazine

An interview with Adam Przeworski.

www.dissentmagazine.org

Michael Macher @michael-macher.bsky.social · 6d

Submitted without commentary.

A screenshot of an article titled "My Favorite Actress Is Not Human" written by the economist Tyler Cowen, who writes: "...if you wish to see a virgin on-screen, this is one of your better chances."

Elon Musk tweeting "nice" to a picture of a scantily clad AI companion.

Screenshot of an article about how ex investor and Business Insider founder Henry Blodget created an AI co-worker and then sexually harassed her.

Reposted by Michael Macher

Ken Klippenstein @kenklippenstein.bsky.social · 7d

91% of homeland security personnel are exempt from the "shutdown," including most of ICE, Border Patrol, TSA and other agencies:
www.kenklippenstein.com/p/ice-border...

ICE, Border Patrol Continue Work Under Shutdown

91 percent of homeland security department still on the job

www.kenklippenstein.com

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Michael Macher @michael-macher.bsky.social · 7d

Incredible vibes at this local public library in Paris.

An issue of Histoire magazine featuring Marc Bloch on the cover.

A sign in French for the Naguib Mahfouz public library in Paris.

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Michael Macher @michael-macher.bsky.social · 8d

"With no operational free cash flow to cover preferred dividends, Strategy must keep issuing new common shares to raise funds. It is the corporate equivalent of diluting common Peter to pay preferred Paul."

herman mark schwartz @thunen.bsky.social · 9d

we have surely entered the ponzi finance minsky moment with crypto (probably were there months or years ago but this is so clear)
www.ft.com/content/88f9...

Strategy’s incredible shrinking bitcoin purchases

What shall we do with a shrunken Saylor?

www.ft.com

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Michael Macher @michael-macher.bsky.social · 9d

Just caught One Battle After Another at a theater in Paris. Crowd was quiet save for a ripple of laughter when Leo flips on La Bataille d'Alger in his living room.

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Michael Macher @michael-macher.bsky.social · 9d

Hardcore centrist getting a back tattoo that says 𝕻𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖚𝖆𝖘𝖎𝖔𝖓

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Reposted by Michael Macher

Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 12d

Thinking of this classic for no particular reason.

Note the author.

Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · Nov 13

Trump's SecDef pick is hardly the first US military officer to question the application of the law of war to non-western foes.

This classic of the genre was published in the American Journal of International Law in 1927.

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Michael Macher @michael-macher.bsky.social · 12d

Insightful piece on the relationship between elite/media framing and desire.

www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/se...

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Michael Macher @michael-macher.bsky.social · 13d

Male friendship? In this economy?

Reposted by Michael Macher

Brad Lander @bradlander.bsky.social · 13d

I was back at 26 Federal Plaza today, where an ICE agent violently threw this bereft woman to the ground in front of her kids. She had not touched him. She did not pose any threat. She had to be taken to the hospital. (🎥: Elias Eliahu)

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Reposted by Michael Macher

Yusuf @yusufimaadkhan.com · Nov 19

“If in all ideology men and their circumstances appear upside-down as in a camera obscura, this phenomenon arises just as much from their historical life-process as the inversion of objects on the retina does from their physical life-process.” - Marx & Engels

observablehq.com/d/7a4d1a11c2...

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Michael Macher @michael-macher.bsky.social · 16d

The fact that Tucker Carlson is Trump's most high profile foreign policy critic from the right suggests there is ideological space for this kind of pivot. The path is narrow but it's certainly not beneath him. High level move if he can pull off the grift without jettisoning Islam.

Anna Merlan @annamerlan.bsky.social · 16d

Now that’s what I call a pivot

Tweet from Shaun king that reads: “Fascinating to see Jews, who do not believe in the Christian Bible, and generally do not read or study it, critique how a Christian tells a story from it at the funeral of a Christian.

I was a Christian pastor for 14 years.

The story Tucker Carlson told was Biblical. Period.”

Michael Macher @michael-macher.bsky.social · 16d

Reposted by Michael Macher

Itamar Mann @itamann.bsky.social · 17d

Recognition of Palestine is welcome, but the time has come for more direct measures. States should consider e.g. naval escorts for the Sumud flotilla. Israel has no legal right to block humanitarian aid while committing genocide.

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Reposted by Michael Macher

Harsha Walia @harshawalia.bsky.social · 17d

Recognition of State of Palestine by Canada, France, UK etc is not only performative it is dangerous.

It doesnt commit to ending genocide or implementing arms embargo and sanctions.

Plus, explicitly calls for demilitarization of Palestine and disarming resistance.

Reviving Oslo is not an option!

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Michael Macher @michael-macher.bsky.social · 18d

Homan, all too Homan.

Timothy McBride @mcbridetd.bsky.social · 18d

Tom Homan was investigated for accepting $50,000 from undercover FBI agents. Trump's DOJ shut it down.

The FBI and Justice officials closed the investigation, which a Justice Department appointee had called a “deep state” probe in early 2025.
www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/t...

Tom Homan was investigated for accepting $50,000 from undercover FBI agents. Trump's DOJ shut it down.

The FBI and Justice officials closed the investigation, which a Justice Department appointee had called a “deep state” probe in early 2025.