Robert Karsten
rwkar.bsky.social
Robert Karsten
@rwkar.bsky.social
Former chemist, financial planner, politician, and current amateur house designer.
Christmas Dawn
After a long twelve-hour drive, we made it to Iowa last night.
open.substack.com
December 25, 2025 at 12:48 AM
Reposted by Robert Karsten
“What’s new is that the federal government now openly says it will use its supercharged spy capabilities to target people who oppose ICE’s actions. Labeled as “domestic terrorists” by the administration, these targets include anti-ICE protesters and anyone who allegedly funds them…”
Social media monitoring systems, cellphone location tracking, facial recognition, remote hacking tools — now being turned on Americans by ICE to target protesters. bit.ly/3Kq348R
ICE Wants to Go After Dissenters as well as Immigrants
The Trump administration is being open about its plans to violate Americans’ First and Fourth Amendment rights.
www.brennancenter.org
December 24, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Reposted by Robert Karsten
Those not horrified? The National Sheriffs Association, which just issued a statement saying, basically, we support this

www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-am...
December 24, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Reposted by Robert Karsten
🚨 Top 10% of U.S. earners spent $20.3 trillion through the first half of 2025 — nearly matching the $22.5 trillion shelled out by everyone else
🚨 Bank of #America says its top account holders saw take-home pay climb 4% last year, while income growth for poorer households grew just 1.4%
#EconSky
Trump's 'Golden Age' has arrived for the top 10 percent
The robust GDP numbers reported this week mask the extent to which wealthy Americans are driving growth.
www.politico.com
December 24, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Reposted by Robert Karsten
I've now watched the censored 60 Minutes report on CECOT. If you watched it too—and if you have any decency at all—I'm sure you came to the same conclusion I did: winning elections won't be enough; people like Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem will need to be charged and imprisoned.
December 24, 2025 at 5:40 AM
Reposted by Robert Karsten
"ICE officials are also investigating the couple for other crimes. They were found with a substantial amount of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 'What are those luxury goods doing in their possession?' asked the ICE spokesman, taking a moment to adjust his mask."
ICE Detains Undocumented Parents, Newborn
They await deportation proceedings.
charlotteclymer.substack.com
December 24, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Reposted by Robert Karsten
“.. There’s a couple dozen of us in there against, you know, the thousands and thousands outside, and we just held it as long as we could. It was a brutal fight.”

@apnews.com
apnews.com/article/capi...
December 23, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Reposted by Robert Karsten
Having to watch a bootlegged copy of a video from another country because my country censored it is making me feel as if I'm living in 1980s Eastern Germany.
December 23, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Reposted by Robert Karsten
This could wind up being the most-watched newsmagazine segment in television history!!

Congratulations to the Ellisons and Bari Weiss!!!
BREAKING: WATCH the full 60 Minutes CECOT segment here. This was sent to me anonymously. It appears to be the segment CBS' Bari Weiss killed. www.muellershewrote.com/p/watch-the-...
WATCH: The 60 Minutes CECOT Segment
I was sent the CECOT segment anonymously in a group chat.
www.muellershewrote.com
December 23, 2025 at 12:16 AM
Reposted by Robert Karsten
The vitally important story that Bari Weiss killed. My hope is now more people will see it than would've before. Spread the word.
archive.org/details/3mam...
Inside Cecot (Cam Rip By Jason Paris) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
https://bsky.app/profile/jasonparis.bsky.social/post/3mam565pyes24
archive.org
December 23, 2025 at 1:31 AM
MAGA’s Manly Manufacturing Misfire
open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...
MAGA’s Manly Manufacturing Misfire
Understanding Trump’s other big failure
open.substack.com
December 22, 2025 at 10:45 PM
Dear Bari Weiss: From a Russian Dissident
open.substack.com/pub/thenextm...
Dear Bari Weiss: From a Russian Dissident
From Garry to Bari: On CBS 60 Minutes, CECOT, and a free press.
open.substack.com
December 22, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Reposted by Robert Karsten
Now seems like a swell time to point out that Frontline just released this excellent 11-minute mini-documentary about what happened inside CECOT.
Surviving CECOT (full documentary) | Deported to a Maximum-Security Prison | FRONTLINE + ProPublica
YouTube video by FRONTLINE PBS | Official
m.youtube.com
December 21, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Reposted by Robert Karsten
This is a man who called himself an atheist until he was apprised that that was a political liability in Ohio. Now he calls himself a Catholic, while flouting the church's theology and holding the church itself up to ridicule.
JUST NOW: J.D. Vance gets 30 seconds of applause for declaring 🇺🇸 “a Christian nation” (as his boss covers up the Epstein files)
December 21, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Reposted by Robert Karsten
My top ten articles of 2025, a photo gallery of America, and more!
sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/my-top-ten...
The Top Ten Articles of 2025
My best writing of the year, a photo gallery of America, and a big sale!
sarahkendzior.substack.com
December 18, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Reposted by Robert Karsten
Not everything is bleak. ACA relief moves forward despite GOP leadership chaos. Trump ends the year deeply unpopular. Democrats keep wildly outperforming in specials. A courageous act at Bondi Beach sparks hope. And the statue of Barbara Rose Johns takes its rightful place in the Capitol.
Our Wins Of The Week
In yet another blow to Speaker Mike Johnson’s leadership, four Republicans joined Democrats this week to sign Hakeem Jeffries’ discharge petition to bring a 3-year extension of Obamacare premium…
thinkbigpicture.substack.com
December 21, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Reposted by Robert Karsten
The State Dept. painted humanitarian aid cuts as a necessary “disruption.”

For the World Food Program, that disruption meant telling 300,000 refugees half of them would receive a meager portion of rice, lentils and oil.

The rest would get nothing.
The Summer of Starvation: Amid Trump’s Foreign Aid Cuts, a Mother Struggles to Keep Her Sons Alive
After the Trump administration cut off food from the third-largest refugee camp in the world, thousands of families faced impossible choices as their children starved.
www.propublica.org
December 21, 2025 at 5:00 PM
America and the World
Talking with Martin Wolf
open.substack.com
December 21, 2025 at 12:19 AM
Live Laugh Lie
The ugly truth of things
open.substack.com
December 20, 2025 at 11:48 PM
MAGA Vanity and Advent Humility
open.substack.com/pub/convocat...
MAGA Vanity and Advent Humility
Plus the latest writing from the Convocation team.
open.substack.com
December 19, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Reposted by Robert Karsten
From my 2022 book THEY KNEW:
"It is very bad in America to be right too early."
www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/09...
December 18, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Why Trump’s Viciousness Matters
open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...
Why Trump’s Viciousness Matters
He wants to destroy our values, not just our democracy
open.substack.com
December 18, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Reposted by Robert Karsten
This is a wonderful book- I felt part of the family as she takes you on their family's road trips.
Hours left on the $2.99 sale of THE LAST AMERICAN ROAD TRIP! Some photos of things we saw:

* A lake in Death Valley
* The Burger King Museum of the Navajo Code Talkers
* Samuel Clemens’ teenage signature in Mark Twain Cave
* A memorial to a psychic dog

Get the book! www.amazon.com/Last-America...
December 18, 2025 at 1:58 AM
Reposted by Robert Karsten
Every day another appalling embarrassment.

abcnews.go.com/Politics/tru...
Trump hangs plaques mocking Biden, Obama along White House Colonnade
The plaques include insult and unfounded claims about some of his predecessors.
abcnews.go.com
December 17, 2025 at 10:40 PM
An A+++++ Economy, My A++
open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...
An A+++++ Economy, My A++
Trump made big boasts but he isn’t delivering
open.substack.com
December 17, 2025 at 12:14 PM