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KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 1h

Then I fear the question is whether we get a Stalin or a Khrushchev out of the melee. I'd prefer neither.

Idk. Just feels like shit is bad, generally.

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KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 1h

Inshallah but I'm getting concerned about the AI resurrection of Charlie Kirk that these MAGA pastors are so infatuated with. You can definitely see how someone could claim that they're blessed to be his successor and anyone who disagrees is a heretic/RINO/etc as they move to fill his place.

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KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 5h

Per PEW, I can say that "most" are homeschooled out of ideological reasons: www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

I'm glad that it worked for your family with highly favorable circumstances, but by the numbers, it's mostly about social control and ideological indoctrination against liberalism.

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KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 6h

#3 was the hardest part, by the way, and even today people risk life, limb, and liberty to do it. Even here, in the 'tolerant' US, but especially in the Global South and conservative autocracies worldwide. Getting celebrities in every sphere to acknowledge their loved ones is *still* fraught.

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KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 6h

#3 was for everyday gay people to come out and be publicly gay instead of dying as closet cases. If your social sphere is accepting, your allies now have a stake in equality. If it's not, onlookers see their bigotry and are negatively polarized towards equality. Win/win.

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KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 9h

They are if you are actually schooling the kid(s). Most people who homeschool are doing it for ideological reasons that don't map to a quality education. Which is why most developed countries do not indulge in the practice, as compulsory public schooling produces obviously better results.

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The TRiiBE @thetriibe.com · 21h

Big news of the day included the announcement of a new hearing for the restraining order meant to rein in federal agents’ violent behavior.

Despite the order, agents have deployed tear gas in two separate Chicago communities in the week since the judge handed it down.

thetriibe.com/2025/10/deta...

Detained youth released after feds gas East Side neighborhood, judge calls for morning hearing on restraining order against feds, and more from court • The TRiiBE

In Chicago, criminal and civil proceedings stemming from Trump’s “Operation Midway Blitz” continued Wednesday, with more to come this and next week.

thetriibe.com

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KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 22h

Impeachment is a political process, and thankfully most of the GOP majority have committed impeachable offenses w/r/t ethics and bribery violations. You can also just change the size and structure of the court by legislation, it's not fixed in the Constitution.

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Chicago 🏳️‍⚧️🌱 @chicagotrans-plant.bsky.social · 1d

They are repealing the civil rights era. This has always been the long arc of the conservative movement. They are fundamentally opposed to human rights and if you believe they are not... maybe it's just not *your* human rights

NBC headline: "Supreme court leans towards further weakening landmark voting rights act" subhead: "The conservative majority seems willing to raise the bar on plaintiffs seeking to challenge legislative district maps for violating the 1965 law aimed at protecting minority voters

article headline: how charlie kirk plans to discredit martin luther king jr and the civil rights act: turning point USA founder charlie kirk is preparting to launch a campaign against MLK and the landmark civil rights law he helped enact

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KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 1d

Mostly because it's their adult kids begging them to turn off Fox and get vaccinated themselves...

KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 1d

When their fans are clogging the Red Line and I have places to be, I find myself uncomfortably sympathetic to the authority and moral force of apostolic succession.

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utopia deferred @utopia-defer.red · 1d

Another good way to think of this moment is that the American secret police are increasingly comfortable black bagging American citizens on camera and in broad daylight with no basis of detention. The mere act of criticism, no matter how petty and silly, is its own justification for brutality.

Robby Roadsteamer @roadsteamer.bsky.social · 1d

🚨 *Breaking News* Robby Roadsteamer has been detained by ICE Portland after singing Rod Stewart with the Portland Frog! We need your help!

Please support Robby's campaign and lawyer fees at robbyroadsteamer.com link on bio 💙🦒🦒🦒

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Annette Gordon-Reed @agordonreed.bsky.social · 1d

4) What’s happening now is an attempt to render those sentiments acceptable in polite company & to make people feel guilty for having negative judgments about people who express their racism and anti-semitism.

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KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 1d

Ok then but why does a miasma of right-wing influencers have more agenda power than the guy with a fistful of nuclear launch codes? And why does that situation switch with the partisan affiliation of the president?

I'm not sure anyone my age considers the media an honest broker of facts anymore.

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KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 1d

The Trump numbers have been negatives, for one, and now they've stopped publishing them until they can come up with a way to fabricate good news for Dear Leader.

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KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 1d

I think it's both simpler and deeper than that; Herman and Chomsky clocked it in the 80s. Corporate media likes authoritarianism, because it corporations are authoritarian. There may be occasional spasms of liberal performance, but it'll never meaningfully bite the hand that owns them.

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KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 2d

A certain proportion that know they'd be fired by pro-fash or "the status quo is eternal" editors if they tried. You have to engage in a certain amount of Orwellian doublethink to survive on the national political news beat, much less thrive, and it's the "thriving" that set the agenda.

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Heather Cherone @heathercherone.bsky.social · 2d

David Black, senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, in a photo by Ashlee Rezin of the @chicago.suntimes.com

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unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 2d

Yes, you should be surprised and horrified by secret federal police running around our city kidnapping immigrants, crashing cars, launching chemical weapons and shooting and killing people. This is a thing you should be *perpetually* shocked by. We lose when we become numb to it.

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Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 12d

I will not call up our National Guard to further Trump’s acts of aggression against our people.

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ProPublica @propublica.org · 3d

Current and former Department of Education employees: We want to hear from you.

Use Signal to contact our reporters @jsmithrichards.bsky.social at jsmithrichards.93, @jodiscohen.bsky.social at jodireporter.88 or @megomatz.bsky.social at 414-207-6225.

Help ProPublica Report on Education

ProPublica needs your help to track how the upheaval of public education is affecting schools and colleges in your community. Take a few minutes to join our source network and help guide our coverage.

www.propublica.org

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KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 4d

I'm pretty sure Chomsky et al licked it decades ago: corporate media reflects corporate priorities, and corporations are inherently authoritarian even when they have liberal stylings or rely on liberal norms for their business. Dems are more corporate-friendly than they used to be, but not enough.

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KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 4d

The intermediate institutions are the problem as much/more than the principals. Many "median" voters thought Harris' campaign was about transing middle school athletes and Trump's was about deporting Haitian dogmeat chefs.

Political news rarely has a meaningful relationship with reality these days.

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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 4d

Hannah Arendt distinguished totalitarianism “from other forms of political oppression known to us such as despotism, tyranny and dictatorship” in that totalitarianism seeks to subjugate civil society and private lives, not just political opponents, using psychological, not just physical, repression.

The Editorial Board @editorialboard.bsky.social · 4d

I saw the new George Orwell documentary last night. It’s called 2+2=5. I have been a little bit squeamish about applying the word totalitarian to Trump and the Republicans. Not anymore. We are experiencing a totalitarian movement. There’s no question.

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KPM @kpmcgrath.bsky.social · 4d

Far too many would be happy to wait that out and in the meantime prepare for the next Fascist wave. It's not like many of these chuds have had secure alternative employment before.

We should absolutely RIF out as much as possible and leave the rest strung out on wilderness interior borders.