pianist
pianist38.bsky.social
pianist
@pianist38.bsky.social
Powerful brainrot from @ezraklein.bsky.social After doubling down on praising Charlie Kirk for his "right politics", now Governor Cox being "remarkable leader?" The same guy who "prayed [... the shooter] was from another country?"

@nytimes.com This is buffoonery coming from inside the house.
September 16, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by pianist
Hi @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social, we're friendly, we've been on each other's shows. We both agree Kirk's murder is horrific. Q: was Kirk "practicing politics in exactly the right way" when he called for me to be deported because he didn't like my Covid views on MSNBC?
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/o...
September 11, 2025 at 10:13 PM
More elite failure. The preservation of democracy required our journalists to tell straightforward truths and instead they have abdicated their role in the same way Congress and the Supreme Court have to support MAGA. Laziness? Incompetence? I can’t say for certain, probably a bit of both.
The big problem is that a large swath of America had never heard of Kirk until yesterday. Every piece in major media about him is an introduction for many, and so conferring the sense of sainthood on him in the long run creates permission for the dangerous response I fear is coming.
September 11, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Reposted by pianist
I feel like I am taking crazy pills. Charlie Kirk’s ultimate goal, which he said time and time again, would have been the suppression, through threat of violence and the use of state power, of the rights of those he disagreed with, including freedom of expression.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/o...
Opinion | Charlie Kirk Was Practicing Politics the Right Way
www.nytimes.com
September 11, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Reposted by pianist
Here are some things that Charlie Kirk said in his life.

The man is dead, and so it only seems fair to share his legacy by cataloguing the values he spread while alive.
September 10, 2025 at 11:52 PM
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Immigrants are a social good, anti-immigrant propaganda is basically all lies, and any approach to the "problem" that doesn't start form those two points is worthless
September 6, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Incredible steelmanning from the NYT: “RFK makes good points if you disregard the times he isn’t (even if it’s in the same sentence), and you also disregard the existence of at-risk populations…” great analysis holding the powerful accountable.
September 4, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Reposted by pianist
the thing everyone is going to have to accept is that the post-trump period, whenever it comes, will not and cannot be a project of national unity, it must be a project of partisan project of renewal, in the same way that reconstruction and the new deal were partisan projects of renewal.
August 12, 2025 at 11:18 PM
Reposted by pianist
The most disheartening thing about America’s descent into fascism has been the abject cowardice of virtually all the people and institutions that could have stood up and refused to comply.
July 26, 2025 at 9:49 AM
“Make America Healthy Again” is nothing short of a slogan for mass murder. Nothing about this benefits the health of Americans and only threatens ALL of us.
RFK Jr. has now officially stated that he will dismantle the United States Preventive ServicesTask Force (USPSTF).

This is an independent body of expert scientists who volunteer their time to review data and provide guidance to Americans on important things like cancer screenings.
Exclusive | RFK Jr. to Oust Advisory Panel on Cancer Screenings, HIV Prevention Drugs
The task force determines which preventive services insurers must cover at no cost to patients.
www.wsj.com
July 26, 2025 at 1:36 AM
Columbia heard “we must all hang together or we shall assuredly all hang separately” and seems to have decided being hanged was the better option. A loss for the world.
Columbia University has handed over its undergraduate admissions process to Donald Trump and his MAGA allies, who will now decide at their sole discretion whether the university has admitted enough white people. It's no longer an independent institution.
July 24, 2025 at 3:43 AM
Reposted by pianist
The newspaper that told the truth about Watergate and the Pentagon Papers will now “communicate with optimism about this country” in its time of rising fascism
Here’s the full memo:
July 14, 2025 at 4:38 PM
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Couldn't agree more Robert. It's time for courage, not concern.
centralmaine.com/2025/07/08/s...
July 12, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Reposted by pianist
The American public elected a president and administration who whether they knew it or not was intent on dismantling the very things that made America the economic and cultural envy of the world. That is the story of Trump 2.0.
July 10, 2025 at 2:27 AM
Reposted by pianist
Police who keep their identities secret are, quite literally, secret police. I don’t know why this is even controversial. You don’t get to yank people off the streets while hiding your face and identity and still retain the respectability of an accountable, democratic police force.
“Secret police” are your words, not mine. Seems like you’ve been giving them a lot of thought.

Unlike NYPD, your agents don’t identify themselves & wear masks that cover their faces. Now they ignore judges’ rulings, too.

What law enforcement agents are supposed to uphold … is the rule of law.
July 9, 2025 at 11:00 PM