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Monica Potts

@monicapotts.bsky.social

2.4K followers 650 following 590 posts

Class Politics reporter at The New Republic. Tips on Signal at monicabpotts.57. Past: 538, The American Prospect. BUY: The Forgotten Girls monicapotts.com

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Monica Potts @monicapotts.bsky.social · Aug 21

Hello new followers! I'm the Class Politics reporter @newrepublic.com and the author of The Forgotten Girls: A Memoir of Friendship and Lost Promise in Rural America. I have 5 dogs and 4 cats. bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

The Forgotten Girls: A Memoir of Friendship and Lost Promise in Rural America

A Memoir of Friendship and Lost Promise in Rural America

bookshop.org

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Beth Macy @bethmacy.bsky.social · 5d

So grateful to @theatlantic.com for excerpting Paper Girl so beautifully yesterday.

TheTimeline 🔎🧩 @thetimeline.bsky.social · 5d

GREAT read on our changing society, communities, family-relations, news consumption — and just the change in humanity.

(🎁 gift article)

@bethmacy.bsky.social

What Happened to Ohio?

The fraying of my family and our working-class hometown

www.theatlantic.com

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Penguin Press @penguinpress.bsky.social · 6d

Paper Girl by @bethmacy.bsky.social is on sale today! The Washington Post Raves: "There couldn’t be a timelier book than Beth Macy’s searching and deeply reported Paper Girl… searingly poignant, essential.”

www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/1...

Review | To understand our divided America, she started with her hometown

In “Paper Girl,” Beth Macy describes returning to Urbana, Ohio, once a key stop on the Underground Railroad, now a place where Confederate flags abound.

www.washingtonpost.com

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José Sepúlveda @josesepulveda.bsky.social · 7h

ProPublica obtained records from the Department of Agriculture that detail the 94 million pounds of food, down to the number of eggs, that never reached food banks because of the #Trump administration’s cuts to The Emergency Food Assistance Program.

My latest video for @propublica.org.

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Jeff Sharlet @jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 17m

Listen to my pal @bethmacy.bsky.social brilliantly tie it all together on Fresh Air! Then check out her critical new book, Paper Girl. Not just another rant; real reporting about real people. 'Dopesick' author Beth Macy on escaping poverty -- and then going back home

www.npr.org/2025/10/07/n...

'Dopesick' author Beth Macy on escaping poverty -- and then going back home

Macy returned to the Ohio factory town where she grew up to find jobs have left, families are struggling and old friends now embrace conspiracy theories. Her new memoir is Paper Girl.

www.npr.org

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Sam Adams @samadams.bsky.social · 7h

welcome to the new era of CBS News, where brave truth-telling takes precedence over spelling Zohran Mamdani’s name correctly

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Gravel Influencer @gravelinfluencer.bsky.social · 22h

Two preventable causes of death that we have chosen to do nothing about. Two preventable causes of death with evidence-based solutions that we have chosen to ignore.

OPB @opb.org · 23h

Researchers discovered that since 2017, firearms have surpassed motor vehicle collisions as the leading cause of mortality for youth ages 11-18, spiking from 1,945 deaths in 2001 to 3,224 in 2022.

Gun deaths among high schoolers on the rise, WSU study finds

The researchers found that, nationwide, high schoolers ages 14 to 18 are at an exceptionally elevated risk for gun-inflicted injury and death compared to children in other age groups in both rural and urban settings.

www.opb.org

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Julie DiCaro @juliedicaro.bsky.social · 1d

So Kilmer Abrego-Garcia will not challenge a deportation to Costa Rica, who has agreed to for him residency, but DHS won’t agree to send him there because it’s not cruel enough.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

For weeks, Mr. Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who is married to a U.S. citizen, has made clear that he would not challenge his deportation if he were sent to Costa Rica, which has promised him legal residency and guaranteed that he would not be sent back to El Salvador.

But the Trump administration has refused to deport him to Costa Rica, and in an earlier hearing this week, Judge Xinis pressed the administration to consider the option or clarify why it was unacceptable.

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Comfortably Numb @numb.comfortab.ly · 1d

Since when Supreme Court justices go on Fox?

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Amy Coney Barrett defends heavy use of the shadow docket: "If we wrote a long opinion, it might give the impression that we have finally resolved the issue, and in none of these cases have we finally resolved the issue."

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 1d

At the end of the day liberals always seem very eager to collapse POLITICAL behavior - which is about social interactions, information, and belief - into POLICY explanations. Because then you can win at politics by being good at policy, which we believe we are. It doesn’t work like that, sadly.

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Monica Potts @monicapotts.bsky.social · 1d

I largely agree with this. I think if you went to college and live in a certain kind of environment you are used to reason and to justifying your arguments and beliefs with evidence. Most people don't go that deep! They just think things and that's it!

Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 1d

When people claim to be voting based on some problem that doesn’t exist, be it food price inflation, crime increases, or immigrant caravans, “they’re lying and/or misinformed” IS the most parsimonious explanation.

“They’re expressing sublimated anger over something else” is much more convoluted.

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Farb @efarb.bsky.social · 1d

Sorry, but everyone in this article deserves to be single for life. If you can’t have a conversation with someone, then maybe the problem is you and not dating apps

C. Buckthorn @cbuckthorn.bsky.social · 1d

This is amazing. I laughed out loud www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

As 32-year-old Rich points out, though, "it's not like using ChatGPT guarantees success".
When he met someone in a bar one Friday night and swapped social media handles, he asked AI what his next move should be.
ChatGPT discerned that sending an initial message on Monday midmorning would set the right pace. "Then it gave me some options for what the message could be," says Rich.
"Keep it light, warm, and low-stakes so it reads as genuine interest without urgency," the bot advised. "Something like: Hey Sarah, still laughing about [tiny shared moment/reference if you've got one] - good to meet you!" Rich went back and forth with ChatGPT until he felt they'd hit upon exactly the right message ("Hey Sarah, it was lovely to meet you") but sadly she never replied, he says. "It's been two weeks now."

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Monica Potts @monicapotts.bsky.social · 1d

The thing about being over 40 is that you can eat cheese, but it will cost you.

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 1d

The wrong was assuming that the Constitution and the law matters, which the Roberts Court is rapidly illustrating is false, at least while the court remains under Republican control.

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 1d

also "retribution" implies he was wronged in some way by the people he's persecuting, subtly justifying what he's doing. bsky.app/profile/reun...

Kevin Reuning @reuning.bsky.social · 2d

Trump straight up murdering people in the Caribbean and the NYT writes this

The Trump Split Screen: A Peacemaker Abroad, a Retribution Campaign at Home

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

STEPHANOPOULOS: I didn't insinuate anything. I asked you whether Tom Homan accepted $50k as was heard on an audio tape recorded by the FBI in September 2024. You did not answer the question. Thank you for your time.

VANCE: No, George, I sai--

STEPHANOPOULOS: We'll be right back

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Joyce White Vance @joycewhitevance.bsky.social · 1d

That’s a nice trick, since Biden wasn’t the president on Jan 6.

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Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 1d

Attacks on the federal workforce are also attacks on Black workers, who are overrepresented in the public sector.

Black unemployment is 7.5%. I'm reminded of Coates' observation that Black Americans regularly experience conditions that would be considered a crisis if whites faced them.

Black Unemployment Is Surging Again. This Time Is Different.

www.nytimes.com

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Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social · 1d

The new pope is quoting Hannah Arendt. www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news...

Pope Leo calls for news agencies to stand as bulwark against "post-truths," lies and manipulation

Pope Leo XIV has encouraged international news agencies to stand firm as a bulwark against the "ancient art of lying" and manipulation.

www.cbsnews.com

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Sara Partridge, Ph.D. @sarapartridge.bsky.social · 2d

There are reports that the *entire* office of special education at the US Dept of Education has been cut. These hardworking folks ensure kids with disabilities get equal access to a quality education.

America’s children deserve better than this.

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Monica Potts @monicapotts.bsky.social · 2d

It's actually useful that he keeps providing evidence of his wrongdoing.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3d

Q: How many layoffs have you authorized?

TRUMP: It'll be a lot. And it'll be Democrat-oriented.

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Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 2d

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

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Monica Potts @monicapotts.bsky.social · 2d

I do think bureaucracy should be run by experts I just don't think that's the political answer to anything, and also think advocates should play an important role in our politics.

Monica Potts @monicapotts.bsky.social · 2d

To be very clear: "technocrat" does not mean "people who work in tech."

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Maggie Blackhawk @maggieblackhawk.bsky.social · 4d

New essay in the Atlantic today: How Native Nations Shaped the Revolution by Ned Blackhawk (with many lessons on how we ended up where we are as a nation, and a gift link) www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

How Native Nations Shaped the Revolution

The Founders were inspired—and threatened—by the independence and self-governance of nations like the Iroquois Confederacy.

www.theatlantic.com

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Susan Rinkunas @susanrinkunas.com · 2d

The obvious response: “doing the fucking news”

Oliver Darcy @oliverdarcy.bsky.social · 3d

News: Bari Weiss just sent a memo to staffers at CBS News asking them to produce a memo explaining "how you spend your working hours—and ideally, what you've made (or are making) that you're most proud of."

One CBS News staffer puts it like this to me: "We just got Elon Musked."

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