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Reposted by Paul Matzko

Popehat Agitates And Irritates @kenwhite.bsky.social · 1d

These people are evil. Never stop saying so. Don’t be intimidated into shutting up.

Kurt @flglchicago.bsky.social · 1d

Here’s video of the incident

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David Bier @davidjbier.bsky.social · 5d

ICE says I cause assaults on ICE by reciting facts about ICE’s recent shooting but refuses to link to the thread. Only posting a picture. ICE lies and ICE hides. You can read the facts for yourselves

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 8d

That's the definition of fascism from Robert Paxton, one of the preeminent historians of the subject, from his book ANATOMY OF FASCISM which came out more than two decades ago.

George Takei @georgetakei.bsky.social · 8d

Oh yes, this is clearly now.

A post on X by Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan
) expresses frustration, asking how anyone can read a definition of fascism and not be alarmed, emphasizing that it is happening now. The post includes a quote from Cody Johnston (@drmistercody
) from one day ago, defining fascism as a form of political behavior marked by an obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood, and compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity. The definition describes a mass-based party of nationalist militants working with traditional elites, abandoning democratic liberties, and pursuing redemptive violence for internal cleansing and external expansion without ethical or legal restraints.

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Christopher Webb @cwebbonline.com · 9d

NEW: Rachel Maddow drops unseen bodycam footage of feds coordinating the arrest of Newark Mayor Baraka.

I REPEAT: the feds ordered his arrest even though he wasn’t breaking any laws.

Federal agent: “We are arresting the mayor right now per the Deputy Attorney General of the United States.”

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Paul Matzko @paulmatzko.bsky.social · 12d

"..., stripping it down to a dutiful trudge from forefather through forefather that eventually arrives at the front steps of the First Baptist (or Methodist or Presbyterian) Church down the street."

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Paul Matzko @paulmatzko.bsky.social · 12d

My review of Molly Worthen's "Spellbound" is up on Christianity Today.

"She offers a compelling corrective to the blander species of religious history produced for a churchly audience, which has a habit of sanitizing the past...

The Liturgy of American Charisma - Christianity Today

Historian Molly Worthen studies dynamic leaders, eager followers, and their shared efforts to “consecrate a new reality.”

www.christianitytoday.com

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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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Paul Matzko @paulmatzko.bsky.social · 13d

It was a flawed argument in 2019 that has aged like spoiled milk. Imagine Brendan Carr having any of the enhanced power that Glaser proposes!

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Popehat Agitates And Irritates @kenwhite.bsky.social · 13d

If a government tells you that you can’t call it authoritarian, it’s authoritarian.

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Paul Matzko @paulmatzko.bsky.social · 13d

Brendan Carr is rooting around in the FCC's shed looking for old, progressive regulations that he can weaponize against Trump's critics. My latest:

thedispatch.com/article/fcc-...

This Isn’t the First Time the FCC Has Weaponized Its Regulatory Power

How progressives devised the public interest and news distortion standards to chill free speech.

thedispatch.com

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Paul Matzko @paulmatzko.bsky.social · 13d

I have a new write-up in the Dispatch that speaks specifically to the regulations that Carr is currently weaponizing. thedispatch.com/article/fcc-...

This Isn’t the First Time the FCC Has Weaponized Its Regulatory Power

How progressives devised the public interest and news distortion standards to chill free speech.

thedispatch.com

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Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 14d

Again and again over decades, partisan federal office holders have used the FCC's public interest doctrine to push their critics' and opponents' speech off the airwaves. In this 2019 piece, @paulmatzko.bsky.social has the goods on the long and ugly history that led up to Carr's campaign.

The Fairness Doctrine Was Terrible for Broadcasting and It Would Be Terrible for the Internet

Government regulation of internet content providers will be ineffective, highly-intrusive, and will create significant unintended consequences.

www.cato.org

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Reconstructionist @unavaleable.bsky.social · 18d

so the president just tweeted out an offense worse than watergate, we all realize that right?

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 19d

Elected lawmakers aren't just there to carry out bureaucratic technocratic procedures. They are your agents, to stand between you and the force of the state, empowered with the people's "she speaks for us." This is what representative democracy is for, at its best in the face of its worst failures.

unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 19d

State Senator Graciela Guzman is out here in front of the facility demanding the release of two of her constituents (who are U.S. citizens), asking to speak with federal agents. No response from them so far. Shes putting on a respirator.

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Paul Matzko @paulmatzko.bsky.social · 20d

As I wrote before the election in October last year:

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Paul Matzko @paulmatzko.bsky.social · 20d

I told you this would happen. Brendan Carr told us this would happen. It wasn't a question of whether but when the Trump administration would abuse the FCC's various constitutionally-tenuous powers to advance its naked self-interest.

Act Now to Prevent Trump From Weaponizing the FCC Against Political Opponents

If reelected, Trump will be even more dangerous because previous presidents have left a bad precedent of regulatory abuses that he'll turbocharge

www.theunpopulist.net

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Molly Jong-Fast @mollyjongfast.bsky.social · 21d

They are literally canceling culture

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Popehat Agitates And Irritates @kenwhite.bsky.social · 21d

Anyway, now we know what the FCC thinks is in the public interest:

Fox host advocating for executing homeless people? Yes

ABC comic suggesting Trumpers are using a death cynically? No

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Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 21d

On the toboggan of authoritarian consolidation in the U.S., we've just whizzed past the "regime pressure forces major broadcast figure off the air" marker.

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David Bier @davidjbier.bsky.social · 22d

They search. Find nothing. STOP DOING SEARCHES. JUST BLOW THEM UP FROM NOW ON.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 22d

under this language charlie kirk would not have been allowed to speak on clemson’s campus

Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 23d

"We stand firmly on the principles of the U.S. Constitution, including the protection of free speech. HOWEVER, that right does not extend to speech that incites harm OR UNDERMINES THE DIGNITY OF OTHERS."

Emphasis added because holy fuck

@ClemsonUniv on X: A statement from Clemson University: [image of statement]

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Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 24d

korean reporting is nightmarish on the conditions Korean workers were contained in

Their waists and hands were tied together, forcing them to bend down and lick water to drink. The unscreened bathrooms contained only a single sheet to cover their lower bodies. Sunlight barely penetrated through a fist-sized hole, and they were only allowed access to the small yard for two hours. Detained by US immigration authorities for eight days, the workers and their families expressed shock, describing human rights violations and absurdities they could not have imagined as ordinary Koreans living in 2025.

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Paul Matzko @paulmatzko.bsky.social · 28d

Lots of (deserved) animus for the MAGA candidate who sicced ICE on the Hyundai plant, but bear in mind that a union guy gave her the tip.

Unions maximize benefits for union members, even when that means collaborating with fascists and when it comes at the expense of the general welfare.

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Paul Matzko @paulmatzko.bsky.social · Sep 3

Trump's mass deportations are all but indistinguishable from human trafficking.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · Sep 3

🚨NEW: Declarations filed in the lawsuit against the rushed attempt to deport 600 Guatemalan children reveals the chaotic way the Trump admin carried out the operation.

Children were taken out of bed after midnight to be rushed onto planes. One girl "was so scared she vomited."

7. At all of the shelters visited in the middle of the night, ProBAR staff witnessed children who had been pulled out of their beds. They were confused and scared. At Hands of Healing Los Fresnos, one young girl was extremely distraught, crying and repeatedly saying that she could not go back to Guatemala. At New Hope McAllen, one young girl was so scared that she vomited and asked to speak with a clinician. At Urban Strategies Alamo, one young teenager was scared that he might end up murdered like one of his family members. At Compass Connection in Harlingen, an attorney was able to meet with only one child. None of these children’s parents in their home country had requested their return. ProBAR’s client and named Plaintiff ARMD was at Compass Connection, but he was transported to a plane without notifying me as his attorney of record.

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Paul Matzko @paulmatzko.bsky.social · Sep 3

"Very expensive mall cops."

Stephanie Mencimer @smencimer.bsky.social · Sep 3

National Guardsmen now stationed outside our DC building confirmed that the only thing they can do if they witness a crime is call 911. The have no more authority than my office mate to intervene. Despite the handcuffs, they can't make arrests. They are very expensive mall cops.