Ronak Patel
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Ronak Patel
@ronakpatel.bsky.social
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sjjphd.bsky.social
Anyway, good morning from this evergreen quote from a guy we teach the kids is a great American hero
Frederick Douglass quote from 1857: Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightening; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power conceded nothing without a demand; it never has and it never will.
April 30, 2024 at 11:41 AM
Reposted by Ronak Patel
kevinmkruse.bsky.social
Call 1-866-LEBENSRAUM
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 9d
straight up Gestapo shit
DHS: Want affordable housing? Help report illegal aliens in your area. Call 866-DHS-2-ICE. If you are an illegal alien, you can take control of your departure using DHS.GOV/CBPHOME.
January 31, 2026 at 9:36 PM
Reposted by Ronak Patel
senlouiselucas.bluesky.bot
I have the utmost respect for Senator Kaine and Senator Warner but we do not need “coaching” on redistricting coming from a cuck chair in the corner. How about you all stay focused on the fascist in the White House and let us handle redistricting in Virginia. 10-1
January 16, 2026 at 10:10 PM
Reposted by Ronak Patel
mcpli.bsky.social
Meanwhile, in Virginia
January 16, 2026 at 11:35 PM
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bcnjake.bsky.social
Also this oldie but goodie:
January 3, 2026 at 5:54 PM
Reposted by Ronak Patel
cristianfarias.com
Best thing I’ve read this morning, from a human rights lawyer in Mexico. Translation is in the ALT-text.
Twitter thread in Spanish by José Mario de la Garza, a human rights lawyer in Mexico, translated using Google Translate: 1. Overthrowing a dictator sounds morally right. No one mourns a tyrant. But international law wasn't built to protect the good, but to restrain the powerful. That's why it prohibits force almost without exception: not because it ignores injustice, but because it knows that if each country decides whom to "liberate" by force, the world reverts to the law of the strongest. 2. The problem is not Maduro. The problem is the precedent. When military force is used to change governments without clear rules, sovereignty ceases to be a limit and becomes an obstacle. Today it is “overthrowing a dictator”; tomorrow it will be “correcting an election,” “protecting interests,” “restoring order.” The law does not absolve dictatorships, but neither does it legitimize unilateral crusades. Cont’d: 3. The uncomfortable question is not whether a tyrant deserves to fall, but who decides when and how. Because history teaches something brutal: removing a dictator is easy; building justice afterward is not. And when legality is broken in the name of good, what almost always follows is not freedom, but chaos, violence, and new victims. The law exists to remind us of this, even when it makes us uncomfortable. Maduro isn't the problem: he's the face of the problem. Removing him from power would be merely opening the door. Behind him is the machine: Rodríguez, Cabello, the military command, the operators of repression and plunder. If you only change the person at the top and leave the system intact, what follows isn't democracy: it's a reshuffling. And there's something even more difficult: Chavismo didn't just capture institutions, it captured daily life. Economy, media, bureaucracy, employment, fear, favors, blackmail. A country can't be "de-Chavistaized" by decree or by an electoral miracle. The real transition begins when that network is broken without setting the country ablaze. The challenge is enormous, and it's also a moral one: to unite without vengeance, but without impunity. Targeted justice for those most responsible, truth for the victims, guarantees that the rest will dismantle the system, and a plan for people to live again—not just survive. Because freedom doesn't come with a new president: it comes when the state ceases to be a threat.
January 3, 2026 at 2:16 PM
Reposted by Ronak Patel
kevinmkruse.bsky.social
Kim is a phenomenal historian, equally well versed in political history and NYC’s history. Listen to her.
nytimes.com The New York Times @nytimes.com · Jan 1
In @nytopinion.nytimes.com

Zohran Mamdani “is part of a long tradition in New York City that has framed itself as seeking to reclaim the democratic community of the city from wealth, power and greed,” Kim Phillips-Fein writes.
Opinion | Why New York City Needs Someone Like Mamdani
The new mayor is an entirely familiar type of New York politician.
nyti.ms
January 1, 2026 at 8:34 PM
Reposted by Ronak Patel
adamserwer.bsky.social
At some point we just need to acknowledge that nothing will satisfy other than the near-total resegregation of elite and governing institutions in the United States.
January 2, 2024 at 6:27 PM
Reposted by Ronak Patel
adamserwer.bsky.social
They do not typically say this outright because of cognitive dissonance, but the more honest among them think Reconstruction was tyrannical and the way the amendments were adopted was unfair to the rebel states and therefore they don’t really count bsky.app/profile/jbou...
jamellebouie.net jamelle @jamellebouie.net · Dec 20
listening to @fivefourpod.bsky.social on cruzan v. missouri and one thing that is probably worth writing about is just how conservatives simply do not think that the 14th amendment is legitimate
December 20, 2023 at 2:07 PM