Top recent posts by Online Political Thinkers on Bluesky

Ran to Target for laundry detergent, saw about a dozen women in their 60s or thereabouts buying poster board and markers. I would have assumed they were teachers getting supplies until I remembered school's out and then it clicked.

you ever think about how in 2009 DHS released a report about the growing threat of violent domestic terrorism from the right and then Republicans got so mad about it the DHS secretary resigned?

OMG. According to two members of Congress that just conducted an inspection and confirmed horrible conditions at the ICE detention center where unrest led to 4 people escaping, apparently people were able to escape because an EXTERIOR WALL was made of drywall and wire mesh!

The first civilian detained by U.S. Marines in Los Angeles was an ARMY VETERAN on his way to a VA APPOINTMENT

at some point it is going to be America getting blown the fuck out by sophisticated, multi-year intel-driven strikes, because we put the dumbest and most venal people in the world in charge of counterintelligence

One thing that stood out really powerfully in last night's mayoral debate is that Zohran Mamdani and Brad Lander both operate from the premise that New York City is a wonderful and beautiful and precious place. Andrew Cuomo does not.

For Dallas protesters: I'm on the Police Oversight Board. If you'd like to file a complaint against an officer for behaving unprofessionally or abusively, let me know and I'll connect you to the right folks. At the same time, if you'd like to commend an officer for being helpful, also let me know.

This is dope show up

What happened in Minnesota is a direct consequence of the violent way that Trump talks about his political opponents.

The donors don't want their workforce deported. But you'll be subject to deportation if you quit your job or join a union or try to bargain for better wages or complain about sexual harassment.

The White House has already previewed their legal argument in the military deployment at the border context; they argue it's not a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act because the troops are not arresting the person, merely temporarily detaining them for local law enforcement to arrive.

Any time a woman thinks she's unqualified to run for office, show her this

[whispers in Canadian] pretty much every king in the last thousand years other than Louis XIV has always had more legal and constitutional limits than Trump and his Claremont apologists accept. The phrase you're all looking for is "no dictators."

Important further info: the email was sent only to ICE HSI, the arm of ICE more traditionally involved in worksite raids. It applies to any agricultural facility, restaurants, and hotels, and bars arresting workers, really. Other businesses, including factories, are presumably still fair game.

if you wanted to discredit the idea of revolution in Iran you couldn't do a better job than having Bibi call for it

A man "impersonating a police officer" does not rule out an actual law enforcement officer. Whenever an Afghan soldier or police officer went rogue, killing Americans in an insider attack, it was described as "a man dressed as an Afghan soldier" or a "man in an Afghan security uniform."

The way the ICE officer, who looks like a middle-aged guy who's probably been doing the job for years, just casually tosses off that line... My guess would be that he felt he was doing her a favor; he was being reasonable within the bounds of his orders. But it's the orders that are unreasonable.

BREAKING: Shootings reported at homes of 2 Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota. At least 3 people shot, suspect at large bnonews.com/index.php/20...

i mean, it *is* a trap. ICE have made *clear* that it’s a trap.

the modal protestor is going to be a retired elementary school teacher in a big sun hat who wears her little-old-ladydom like armor. it is true that there are risks but the risks are not especially large.

It’s not just that they normalize political violence. They also accuse the left of engaging in mostly imaginary violence, which gives unhinged right-wingers justification to “retaliate.”

no kings except short kings

you can just say that he fell off the wagon

Proud to join Reverend Barber to say: "Trump Won't Be King - Unless We Bow" Join us tomorrow. No Kings. www.newsweek.com/trump-wont-k...

“At least 3 people have been shot at the homes of Democratic lawmakers in Brooklyn Park and Champlin in Minnesota, according to law enforcement sources. The suspect is believed to be impersonating a police officer and is still at large. The first shooting happened just after 2 a.m. on Saturday”

Thank you Senator Padilla. We’re inspired by your courage

Imagine being too physically abusive and politically embarrassing for Corey Lewandowski

it is entirely obvious that trump told bibi not to attack iran, israel did anyway, and now trump is claiming he was in on it the whole time to try to save face and pretend he’s still in the driver’s seat as dealmaker. like, trump telling bibi to wait has been in the news for at least a couple weeks.

Important point from @anthonylfisher.bsky.social: Padilla wasn’t assaulted while asking about some mundane policy issue. He was shoved out and cuffed while Noem was gleefully talking about overthrowing California’s elected leaders by military force. That’s where we are.

"They are also worried about a potential Tiananmen Square moment where you have a protester standing in front of a tank. That is not what America is supposed to look like."

this user has correctly divined how a LLM works: you imagine that you are talking to a person but you are actually talking to an abstract representation of the collective efforts of everybody involved in moving the pointer

turns out he was in a taped off area he wasn’t supposed to be, they briefly detained him and he was quickly released, a pretty simple mistake. it *is* why you don’t deploy the military to do this, but *is not* the entrance to the cool zone.

"It's a republic, not a democracy," say the conservatives as they get very excited for a big display of military force moving across the river into the capital.

No surprise here. Note that it would be extremely rare for a green card holder with no criminal history whatsoever to be detained on allegations of misrepresentation in a green card application — the only charge that ICE could possibly hold him on.

huh almost as if having skilled people in government creates the capacity for dealing with crises even if they don't seem 'necessary' according to idiots feeding documents into AI. who knew

this shit is all elaborate fan fiction, every actual thing that underpins American dominance in science and tech is having a fucking sledgehammer taken to it because the groyphers in charge think expertise is woke and gay, and more actual news outlets (so not TFP) should point that out.

hell yeah, more of this please

Look who just resurfaced

June 14. A few months after coming to power, the regime orders a massive military parade in the nation’s capital, on the regime leader’s birthday - symbolizing the regime’s claim that the leader embodies the nation. This should be anathema in a democratic republic. It’s insulting and dangerous.

BREAKING: Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman (D) and her husband killed in shooting, Governor Walz says

the thing about Israel conducting an insane campaign of arbitrary violence against Iran while we were trying to negotiate with Iran is that, fundamentally, US foreign policy was the target, not Iran

They sold MAGA merchandise on Fort Bragg before Trump's speech. The Army complained. They were overruled.

I have seen multiple posts going around about this, but no actual evidence at this point. If there are actual confirmations, please point me to them, but until then please remember that fear spreads easily.

just really shocking the extent to which iran's foreign adventurism has made their military establishment entirely hollow

If Dems don’t capitalize on this, as @gregtsargent reasonably fears they won’t, Trump will do that thing where he claims credit for solving the problem he created, and lots of low-info voters will believe him. newrepublic.com/article/1968...

i do not think enough americans have yet grappled with how much this administration hates everything americans want to enjoy and how aggressively they want to ruin everything for everyone

A lot of leftist politics-as-aesthetics types mock them, but the wine moms have consistently shown up for democracy.

At @markwarner.bsky.social’s town hall. A questioner asked what the DNC is doing to attract younger voters. He answered by pointing to … his support for pro-crypto legislation, specifically the GENIUS Act.

I will believe it when I see it, BUT if so, this is a very important sign that backlash and political opinion still matter. And look for the courthouse arrests and check-in arrests to continue, if not accelerate dramatically.

I keep seeing calls for protesters to sit down if things turn violent and that seems like such a bad idea. They aren’t going to stop beating and shooting at you just because you sat down. It will just put you in more physical danger.

Sure reads like a planned assassination to give Republicans control of the Legislature The Minnesota House was tied 67-67 until Hortman (D) was murdered The Minnesota Senate is tied 34-34, unless Hoffman (D) dies

the israelis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them

I was standing in line at Federalist Pig when I saw Elena Kagan leave her car parked illegally with the flashers on to run in and pick up her takeout BBQ order. It was very relatable.

Wow. A sports team is telling its fans "We cannot in good faith as you to attend" a game at its stadium, given the possibility of ICE carrying out arrests at the game. That is a flashing red warning sign.

you want cringe people to show up. earnest cringe people showing up is a sign that the protest is broadly popular.

Anti-"warmonger" Republicans today

One criticism I do have of the way Americans teach English lit in school is that there’s too much emphasis on symbolism and not nearly enough close reading of the language itself. Most people don’t come out with the very basic vocabulary of literary devices or the ability to analyze structure.

Specifically a naturalized US citizen veteran, who had nothing bad to say about it.

I'm on the ground minding my own business and this little fellow walks up to me and gives me this look. How is this not a booping face? They're Begging. For. A. Booping. 🪶 🐣

BREAKING: Minnesota Senator John Hoffman (D) and State Rep. Melissa Hortman (D) have been shot at their homes. Condition unknown - KMSP

Hortman and her husband are dead, says Walz.

I note from that survey of big league ballplayers in The Athletic that they are sickened by the league getting in bed with gamblers -- not just on principle but because it's ruined how they interact with fans. To paraphrase they say it's brought more fans in, but the wrong kind and the wrong way.

BRAVO LA!!! Making the links that are critical. This is a regime by the bigots for the billionaires. A handful of broligarchs are monetizing hatred and minting a fortune off of destroying people's lives.

according to law enforcement speaker at the presser, they have the shooter's vehicle. they know it's politically motivated because the shooter had a "manifesto" with a list of elected officials - the two who were shot, Melissa Hortman and John Hoffman - were on that list, along with others

Notice the difference in how Padilla and Schiff talk about the protests. Padilla says we must protest peacefully "but we can't cower." Schiff was on the senate floor yesterday conceding Republican talking points about how there were some "vandals and miscreants" committing "vile acts" in L.A.

I did not see this, but since I'm doing belated burning Waymo takes today, I'll just say: sympathizing with technology over humans is a deeply troubling sign of sociopathy. In case it wasn't already obvious, A16Z is a hive of profound and malignant mental illness.

An horrific and shocking act of political violence. Our hearts are with Rep. Hortman’s family and loved ones. Every elected in the country must denounce this evil act

An enormous part of the reactionary pushback has been men mad that anyone could contradict them, let alone call them out, so ofc they love the endless, unthinking fellatio offered by AI.

Literally the arbitrary exercise of government power

Impersonating law enforcement just requires wearing a balaclava, some tacticool, and maybe but not necessarily an ICE patch

Folks, look who I'm with

Missing from Trump’s Truth Social account so far today: A single word about the dual shootings of Minnesota Democratic legislators. Same goes for the official DHS and Noem accounts

here’s the fun part: both can be, and probably are, true

believing that trump secretly agreed to this weeks ago means believing that this white house and DoD can keep an enormous secret and manage a successful disinfo campaign for weeks. trump knew a day or two ahead, at best.

U.S. Marines have detained a civilian for the first time on the streets of Los Angeles, where President Trump ordered them to guard a federal building. The civilian, an Army veteran, said he was on his way to a VA office inside the building. www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...

they were always like this. the thing that changed is that the circle of people they felt to have to be respectful to used to include powerful democrats and it no longer does.

Trump's financial disclosures reveal tens of millions in income from guitars, bibles and watches with his name on them

Marginally literate sheriff in Denton County, Texas is ready "to kick some ass" tomorrow at planned protests. It's a near certainty that whatever violence we see tomorrow will be instigated by law enforcement, not protesters.

that's an amount and a time window that says "if you win, remember that i bribed you, and if you lose remember i don't care that you lost"

The number of people booked into immigration detention who have not previously been convicted of a crime has jumped eight-fold since President Donald Trump took office, government data shows, undercutting his anti-crime message. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

❤️❤️❤️ 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

this is *still* completely unworkable and ICE will entirely ignore it

lol, complying with orders in the most technically correct way possible

Iran's U.N. ambassador says 78 people were killed and over 320 injured in the Israeli attacks apnews.com/live/israel-...

Trump hired undocumented workers at his golf courses, construction sites and vineyards for decades So when his rich buddies call to complain, he knows what they're talking about There will still be vicious cruelty, but this is a major concession and undermines Miller's agenda

Which centrist columnists will publish the first “both sides need to tone down the rhetoric or more Democratic leaders will be shot” opinion piece?

fyre festival ass politics

"Could you have waited until she finished to ask your questions? To shout your questions? You’re a senator, right? You couldn’t wait? That was just you out of control because you were just losing it." There are clowns in DC/NY who pitched this blowhard as a potential Dem presidential for 2028.

like, the basic problem with police is that we give them a monopoly on violence and then permit police to essentially use that monopoly in their personal capacity -- which means that the police, in many ways, usurp the power of the state. disaggregating the policing function is good!

I know people are skeptical, but it is good to have members of the gop speaking out, if only to give the media a chance to not be bothsidesing assholes. 1

The US was already deporting criminals who entered illegally, prioritizing those who committed the worst crimes. Had for years. Trump’s pitch was always to be harsh to noncriminal migrants, or treat “criminal” and “immigrant” as synonyms, including legal ones and naturalized or second gen citizens.

Have you ever wanted to stand in the hot LA sun in full tactical gear and helmet and pay $5 more for a Coke than at home? The Marines might be for you

the idea of collegiality should be dead in a Senate where the vast majority of GOP senators have not condemned an assault on one of the body's own members

The point here is you can be the whitest Connecticut brunchlord ever and if they decide to throw you on the truck it literally doesn't matter what the law says. This is for the Dem senators. You guys are getting scooped up soon enough. If you have any interest in self-preservation, do something.

between this and the push to legally protect cryptocurrency it's hard not to conclude that the trump administration just in affirmatively in favor of identity theft and pig butchering scams. hail to the thief

Bernie Sanders had to apologize for a random person on Twitter with 32 followers being an asshole. It became a nationwide story An individual pretends to be a cop and murders sitting Dems and not a single law enforcement agent nor right wing elected will be questioned if they're at fault. They are.

Seems very bad but it's time to put up the bat signal

Is anyone going to ask Mike Johnson if he still thinks Gavin Newsom should be tarred and feathered?

to be clear I got a five second blaring flash flood warning from my phone last night, this is potentially more than a sprinkling and I think some of the safety concerns are legitimate