Matt Szafranski
@mszafranski.bsky.social
1.7K followers 1.2K following 13K posts
Attorney; Editor-in-Chief, @WMassPI.com; #Spfldpoli when you need it; #MaPoli when you want it. "Retweets" ≠ Seal of Approval. Likes = ??? Fasten your seatbelt, please. "You must go on. I can't go on. I'll go on." -Samuel Beckett Always Eccles. 1:9
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Reposted by Matt Szafranski
vermontgmg.bsky.social
My belief is that Kamala would have won last year if they’d let Tim Walz keep calling Vance and Trump “weird.” But the professional Dem consultant class closed off the one attack that actually resonated with voters.
fyodor.bsky.social
Endlessly attacking Trump as depraved and support for him as a form of moral failure actually made people stop supporting him. Shame and disgust are very powerful weapons.
Reposted by Matt Szafranski
mikeblack114.bsky.social
since there's reports on social media of money hitting accounts worth reiterating that this is illegal and unconstitutional as shit, it's not a close question, and while I don't expect anyone on H/SASC or H/SAC will do anything, anyone performing this 'reprogramming' should face criminal penalties
mikeblack114.bsky.social
It's also worth reiterating that absent this reprogramming authority being written into law it would be not just illegal but flatly unconstitutional for DoD to expend money in any fashion not explicitly specified (by both type/use and quantity) by Congress in an appropriations bill
mikeblack114.bsky.social
Since we're getting a crash course in DoD reprogramming authority, CRS has a good report on it linked below. Some important points:

Congress gives DoD reprogramming authority because when you're dealing with a trillion dollars, some stuff is probably going to need to be changed over 12 months
Reposted by Matt Szafranski
joedudekjd.bsky.social
Precisely the person Justice Kavanaugh said would not be inconvenienced.
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
The entire incident is infuriating and terrifying. She’s a Latina woman who was working a service job. On her way home late at night, with her headphones in, she was detained for an hour by masked federal agents who wouldn’t give her their names.
Maria Greeley, 44, had just finished working a double shift at the Beach Bar on Ohio Street
earlier this month when she said she was surrounded by three federal agents who grabbed her, forced her hands behind her back and zip tied her.
Headphones in, Greeley had been focused on getting home to her two dogs for a walk.
Instead, she said she was detained by masked agents who did not answer when she asked for names. They questioned her for an hour, she said.
Reposted by Matt Szafranski
oliverdarcy.bsky.social
Scoop: Deep cuts at NBC News—as a result of MSNBC and CNBC spinning off—are expected to start at the network on Wednesday. Details in @status.news: link.status.news/47aWtXm
mszafranski.bsky.social
🧐
zohrankmamdani.bsky.social
"We have an economy where a handful of modern-day robber barons wield extraordinary power. They hold enormous control over our paychecks, our bills, our time, and our futures.

...But the good news is that nothing about any of this is inevitable." - Lina Khan
Lina Khan on stage at the podium
Reposted by Matt Szafranski
Reposted by Matt Szafranski
mszafranski.bsky.social
I shall have to keep an eye on this. Curious how they might compare to @wmasspi.com.
joshgerstein.bsky.social
WORTH A LOOK: New online publication devoted to covering New England politics from a distinctly regional perspective. nebeacon.substack.com Also on Threads at @nebeacon and Bluesky at bsky.app/profile/nebe... The latest: a look at Maine governor's race nebeacon.substack.com/p/maines-gov...
The New England Beacon | Substack
Shining a light where others won't. Click to read The New England Beacon, a Substack publication with hundreds of subscribers.
nebeacon.substack.com
mszafranski.bsky.social
I don't disagree with this in one sense, but there is a lot out there for journalists who just look for it. Many simply don't. I see this in a lot of local contexts where it's just easier to kiss up to a mayor or whatnot so you have something for deadline rather than learn where the info is.
stano.bsky.social
I think people don't understand that the quality of journalism is directly influenced by the quality of open information laws. Political journalists are as obsequious as they are because they literally can't do their job without access to privileged information like when a bill will be heard.
beijingpalmer.bsky.social
I don't understand why U.S. reporters so regularly seem to let politicians get away with 'I haven't seen that' about stuff a) they obviously know and b) is directly relevant to their job. Did they sign some kind of agreement never to ask a follow-up question?
mszafranski.bsky.social
I'm fine with recognizing Trump for taking advantage of that to bring this about, but without this context, it's all bullshit.
mszafranski.bsky.social
The grotesque way Trump is getting credit hits even worse when you consider the only reason this "peace"
happened was because Bibi fucked up and bombed one of Trump's other friends in the region.
Reposted by Matt Szafranski
foreverwars.bsky.social
“If Israel wants to actually prevent the next October 7, in whatever form it will take, it must free Palestine,” writes @attackerman.bsky.social. “The rest is commentary. Or avoidance.”
‘The Barbarism of The Enemy’
Notes on the third ceasefire, and prayers that there won't have to be a fourth. Free Marwan Barghouti. Free Palestine
www.forever-wars.com
Reposted by Matt Szafranski
walmsley.bsky.social
an underrated problem Bari Weiss has is that there is a tension between "effective propaganda" and "media the regime will approve of"
Reposted by Matt Szafranski
david.noll.org
Ladies and gentlemen, the meritocracy
nycsouthpaw.bsky.social
Auspicious start for the new CBS News, laundering unattributed cop shit-talking through the incoming editor-in-chief’s blog and failing to correct a misspelling of the story subject’s name in the web headline for three days.
Reposted by Matt Szafranski
nycsouthpaw.bsky.social
Auspicious start for the new CBS News, laundering unattributed cop shit-talking through the incoming editor-in-chief’s blog and failing to correct a misspelling of the story subject’s name in the web headline for three days.
Reposted by Matt Szafranski
dbernstein.bsky.social
When you’re a Republican U.S. Senator but you represent South Dakota
Reposted by Matt Szafranski
mmasnick.bsky.social
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver this week is a complete takedown of Bari Weiss... and it's thorough and devastating.

And a bit of interesting timing, given that Weiss's new boss, David Ellison (who is talked about in the episode) is trying to buy HBO, where Oliver's show is...
Reposted by Matt Szafranski
markharris.bsky.social
Quick question: If the Republicans are right, and someone is paying millions and millions of us to protest, and has done it hundreds of other times, and they STILL can't figure out who's funding us, aren't they way too stupid to hold office?
atrupar.com
Sean Duffy: "The No Kings protest, Maria, really frustrating. This is part of antifa, paid protesters. It begs the question who's funding it."
mszafranski.bsky.social
This a version of a deep-seeded GOP beliefs that Dem/left wins are illegitimate. "Not rational person could vote against us/disagree with us. The votes must be rigged or people are bought off."
The difference now is the people in power aren't just saying/implying it. They believe it.
adamweinstein.bsky.social
A consistent thing about Trumpists in power is how they want everyone else to believe that people only do things for money
atrupar.com
Sean Duffy: "The No Kings protest, Maria, really frustrating. This is part of antifa, paid protesters. It begs the question who's funding it."
mszafranski.bsky.social
This was almost assuredly thrown up on the website outside the normal chain of command.
Reposted by Matt Szafranski
newsjennifer.bsky.social
CBS News would never put a thinly sourced 'story' by a rookie blogger like this on it's air. Until now. The Free Press isn't a journalism outlet, it's bloggers aren't reporters. This piece is more NYPost than Tiffany Network but I guess that's the goal.

www.cbsnews.com/video/some-n...
Some NYPD officers worry about Mandani becoming the NYC mayor, The Free Press reports
The Free Press spoke to several New York City Police Department officers who are worried about Zohran Mamdani becoming mayor. Olivia Reingold joins CBS News with more.
www.cbsnews.com
Reposted by Matt Szafranski
thefred.bsky.social
She can hire right-wing opinion writers, because that's what she's done. She actually doesn't know how to make a news division more ideological, because she has never worked in one, and network news is also different from print.

And she certainly has no idea how to stop losing viewers.