Dr. Ashok Karra
@akarra.bsky.social
4.8K followers 4.1K following 5.3K posts
Political philosophy and ethics. Currently working on Nietzsche, Heidegger, and problems of freedom & authenticity. I teach community college & you'll hear plenty about it. Let me know how you are and how I can help. http://encouragement.ghost.io
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Pinned
while we're doing introductions, i'm dr. karra. i think about how political philosophy works for us -- what do we do with words like "freedom," "authenticity," or "nobility?" i also read a lot of lyric poetry because that tends to illustrate philosophical problems in miniature. links below:
Reposted by Dr. Ashok Karra
Yeah when you don’t fire Nazis and you are the boss that is actually your fault
"Remember how the nazis are the dems' fault actually?"
do you remember during Trump 1 how someone in DHS put out a press release saying 1488 children were separated from parents and then during the Biden administration nobody seemed to do anything publicly visible to identify or purge the neo-nazis obviously working there
Reposted by Dr. Ashok Karra
We bombed a fishing boat in distress.
UPDATE: COLOMBIA’s President says 🇺🇸 government (Trump) “committed murder” and bombed a fisherman with no ties to drugs

“The boat was adrift and had its distress signal up due to an engine failure”
Propublica has a short documentary on Russ Vought that hits some themes really well: 1) OMB being a choke point where congressional spending and authority can be cut 2) vought’s overt Christian nationalism and embrace of conspiracy theories 3) Trump serves vought and bannon: youtu.be/w1LuV82l0vs
Russell Vought: The Shadow President
YouTube video by ProPublica
youtu.be
Reposted by Dr. Ashok Karra
In 2020 when I said Democrats should refuse to seat Republicans I was told if they did that nothing would stop Republicans from doing the same.
KARL: I mean, you could swear in Adelita Grijalva tomorrow, right?

MIKE JOHNSON: No, not tomorrow. We couldn't. We wouldn't.
Reposted by Dr. Ashok Karra
for the love of all that is holy WHY CAN YOU NOT DESCRIBE THE PLAIN REALITY OF THE VIDEO
Reposted by Dr. Ashok Karra
The Times of Northwest Indiana pushes back on House Speaker Mike Johnson's rhetoric:
Reposted by Dr. Ashok Karra
In Laredo, Texas, the front page headline uses a quote from a protester: "Standing up for the country"
Reposted by Dr. Ashok Karra
Folks who are rightfully frustrated at the indefensible NYT coverage, please do note: in terms of actually reaching people, this is way more important
I scrolled through the @1stforall.bsky.social's gallery of print front pages for local coverage of "No Kings" protests. Here are some of the standout papers, starting with the Daily Sentinel of Grand Junction, Colorado:
Reposted by Dr. Ashok Karra
Credit to Manu Raju and CNN, where they played Trump's AI diarrhea video this morning to talk about how weird our president is
Trump’s diarrhea video will probably benefit from the fact that it’s so gross TV news shows probably won’t want to air it for standards reasons alone.

Trump probably benefited from the same thing just a few days before the 2024 election when he pretended to blow a microphone and TV ignored it
Donald Trump Mimes Blow Job as He Vents About His Mic Setup, Threatens to ‘Knock the Hell Out of People Backstage’ | Video
Social media has a field day with Trump’s lewd gesture as he shows how he worked around the microphone situation The post Donald Trump Mimes Blow Job as He Vents About His Mic Setup, Threatens to ‘Kno...
www.yahoo.com
Reposted by Dr. Ashok Karra
Pro-gang administration, whether illegal gangs or legal ones (ICE)
“In promising to terminate the informant arrangements, Justice Dept. officials say Rubio threatened to undercut years of work by US law enforcement to apprehend and secure the cooperation of high-ranking members of MS-13, one of the world’s most deadly gangs.”
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
Reposted by Dr. Ashok Karra
“No public criminal charges have been filed against anyone in connection with the raid … The @chicagotribune.com has been able to confirm the identity of only one immigrant taken into custody by federal agents that night: a 41-year-old pizza delivery man … who has no apparent criminal history.”
They were already living in one of Chicago’s worst apartment buildings. Then came the ICE raid.
In what appears to have been a warrantless operation, the federal government will not say how many people were detained, who remains in custody and what happened to the children.
www.chicagotribune.com
Reposted by Dr. Ashok Karra
The left is melting down at the now iconic “diarrhea President”
Reposted by Dr. Ashok Karra
some folks I think legit are not interested in winning because their whole thing is being more righteous. For the rest of us, get onboard because I do not regret to inform you that we are going to win.
I realize that all the "we are going to win" inspiration posting codes as aesthetically liberal (being left is being unimpressed) and invites the responses you'd guess from a certain genre of more radical than thou poster but still surprised at the particular condescension strategies people go for
Reposted by Dr. Ashok Karra
the grievances of the Right are 'legitimate' and exist because the Left 'goes too far.' The grievances of the Left(s) are illegitimate because they are disfavored groups who should be grateful to get to live in this country.
I am remembering how the Tea Party protests in the Obama administration (2009-2010) were covered and thinking about how that coverage compares to the No Kings protests. #contentiousky
Reposted by Dr. Ashok Karra
I think putting it in those terms—that the speaker can ‘refuse to allow’ the House to sit—really highlights how ridiculous the unilateral adjournment/recess authorities are.
Reposted by Dr. Ashok Karra
enjoyed listening to this conversation with @tressiemcphd.bsky.social and @jamellebouie.net and david french. i need to break out my texts on southern honor and the myths of the southern aristocracy. crucial to understanding modern republican/trumpist politics
Opinion | There Is No Trump Without the South
www.nytimes.com
Reposted by Dr. Ashok Karra
Rand Paul: "When you kill someone, if you're not in a declared war, you really need to know someone's name at least. You have to accuse them of something. You have to present evidence. So all of these people have been blown up without any evidence of a crime."
Reposted by Dr. Ashok Karra
The Trump shit video is basically this, but I will reiterate that if a Dem is critical of conservative voters it’s a generational scandal and when Republican pols literally post themselves shitting on their opposition virtually the entire elite politics and media class treats it as fine and normal
Reposted by Dr. Ashok Karra
couldn’t agree with this more. conservatives in casual conversation will say the most out of pocket shit you’ve heard in your life but we’re out of touch if we call them out or judge them for it because they get a benefit of the doubt never afforded to progressives.
The reason for this is that this class of people has internalized the idea of conservatives as the American Volk, an idea downstream of the senate and EC giving them more power than their numbers that has somehow become a quasi spiritual belief about the nature of the country
Reposted by Dr. Ashok Karra
So the US had a huge case using high-level informants. Bukele wanted back 9 informants who could expose his govt's deals with that same gang to lower the level of violence, fueling his image as a crime-fighter. That Rubio made a deal was known. That he reneged on informants was not.
Reposted by Dr. Ashok Karra
Today is the 1st day of Prison Banned Books Week, a week examining the catastrophic impact of censorship on information access in carceral facilities. Go to prisonbannedbooksweek.org for updates & actions this week, and SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BOOKS TO PEOPLE IN PRISONS GROUP via books, $, volunteering!
Reposted by Dr. Ashok Karra
If you like what I do and wanna help me do more of it, consider subbing to my newsletter or dropping a tip in the jar. Feels stupid to have to ask but here we are, I guess.

Anyway, g’night, glad to be out and sharing in some radical joy & shining a light on the bullshit police state in the process
Reposted by Dr. Ashok Karra
A bicyclist riding in the intersection tried to join the group on the outside of the police line after it moved and was shoved off his bike by two officers and wrecked into the pavement. He’s bleeding from the head