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Pseudonym of a boring policy wonk by day @neveltenjohn.bsky.social · 15h

As a center-right, former lifelong Republican, I have repeatedly said that I would vote for Bernie/AOC over Trump/MAGA even if alcohol were needed.

So it disturbs me that so many on the left continue to indicate they would not support even a center-left Dem against MAGA.

Pseudonym of a boring policy wonk by day @neveltenjohn.bsky.social · 15h

Wrong model for the response, but I understand the sentiment.

Pseudonym of a boring policy wonk by day @neveltenjohn.bsky.social · 17h

It is always the Vice President in all the Manchurian Candidate like movies.

Pseudonym of a boring policy wonk by day @neveltenjohn.bsky.social · 17h

In 2016 (I can't believe I have been fighting Trump for a decade now), some MAGA supporters at Trump rallies shouted at the press: "we have a camp for you, you'll love the showers".

A sick joke—cosplay nazis rather than the real thing—but people do tend to become what they pretend to be.

Pseudonym of a boring policy wonk by day @neveltenjohn.bsky.social · 1d

The classic Portland Frog (identifiable by the blue scarf) has gone in a day from $28 to $58 (markets work!).

🙄 A 10% serious legal question. If I got a green alien costume and wore an "Illegal Alien" sign, would the current courts consider that probable cause?

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Pseudonym of a boring policy wonk by day @neveltenjohn.bsky.social · 1d

I agree that we are now seeing fascism in America, but during the '30s and '40s no one called America troops "Antifa" and to the extent the term was used it applied to German Communist Party street fighters who helped create the conditions for Nazi power.

The broad anti-MAGA coalition is different.

Pseudonym of a boring policy wonk by day @neveltenjohn.bsky.social · 1d

I look for a Statue of Liberty blowup, but alas they don't exist.

Also, I had a room of physical therapists laughing today when I listed being able to be handcuffed behind my back as a goal—at the moment my right arm just does not go there without serious damage.

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Pseudonym of a boring policy wonk by day @neveltenjohn.bsky.social · 1d

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Pseudonym of a boring policy wonk by day @neveltenjohn.bsky.social · 2d

It ain't easy being green.

Pseudonym of a boring policy wonk by day @neveltenjohn.bsky.social · 2d

Image from Grok 4

Portland protest frog wearing Guy Fawkes mask

Reposted by Pseudonym of a boring policy wonk by day

Adam Isacson @adamisacson.com · 2d

Viewed from the United States in 2025, I see what they did there and 👍 💪

The Nobel Prize @NobelPrize on Twitter

In the past year, #NobelPeacePrize laureate Maria Corina Machado has been forced to live in hiding. Despite serious threats against her life she has remained in the country, a choice that has inspired millions of people.

When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist. Democracy depends on people who refuse to stay silent, who dare to step forward despite grave risk, and who remind us that freedom must never be taken for granted, but must always be defended – with words, with courage and with determination.

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Pseudonym of a boring policy wonk by day @neveltenjohn.bsky.social · 2d

In previous message goon got autocorrected to good.

I usually resist STUPID MELODRAMATIC RESISTANCE FANTASIES, but I am picturing mass use of these like the Guy Fawkes mask in "V".

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Pseudonym of a boring policy wonk by day @neveltenjohn.bsky.social · 2d

Not only do pepper balls apparently bounce off, but this explains why the guy didn't get badly hurt when an ICE good sprayed into the bottom-rear vent—it was probably an exhaust hole with the fan pushing air out.

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Pseudonym of a boring policy wonk by day @neveltenjohn.bsky.social · 2d

OMG, it is a mass produced costume available for 2 day delivery on Amazon for $33.

🙃 I told you Jeff Bezos was a net force for good.

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Pseudonym of a boring policy wonk by day @neveltenjohn.bsky.social · 2d

If it were a permanent return to gerrymandering, I would oppose it.

But as a one-time response to a corruption process in Texas and elsewhere, it seems necessary.

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Pseudonym of a boring policy wonk by day @neveltenjohn.bsky.social · 3d

I admit that I was terrified that Portland demonstrators would be the idiots they were when they helped sink the BLM cause in 2020 with their Molotov cocktails. Trump wants provocations.

But this ridicule while exposing ICE brutality and incompetence is exactly right.

Danny K @dannykpolitics.bsky.social · 6d

WATCH: ‘Portland Frog’ pepper balled by ICE agents

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Pseudonym of a boring policy wonk by day @neveltenjohn.bsky.social · 3d

🙃 We took back the frog!!! (As stated on the original Twitter version of my icon, which I stole from someone else on the internet)

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Pseudonym of a boring policy wonk by day @neveltenjohn.bsky.social · 3d

People think of fascism as something with supernatural demons. But it always claims to be just asking for sacrifice for the common good (albeit for an exclusionary group—in our case "real Americans"). The Leader and the movement just need power to punish the bad people who are causing problems.

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Pseudonym of a boring policy wonk by day @neveltenjohn.bsky.social · 3d

WaPo Gift article: ¼ of the FBI has been pulled away from terrorism and crime to help staff Trump's domestic war on immigrants.

wapo.st/42y5QyO

A quarter of FBI agents are assigned to immigration enforcement, per FBI data

Nearly a quarter of FBI agents are currently assigned to immigration enforcement, with the number climbing above 40 percent in the bureau’s largest field offices.

wapo.st

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Pseudonym of a boring policy wonk by day @neveltenjohn.bsky.social · 3d

I (mostly) agree. But I also like nuance. I agree that conservatives are generically resistant to tax and spend (originally also hostile to spend without tax). And skeptical of the efficiency of gov programs.

Conditional upon those things, I don't think they are notably hostile to children.

Pseudonym of a boring policy wonk by day @neveltenjohn.bsky.social · 3d

🙃 I was always bemused about how disruptive it was to the usual (and usually correct) narrative that Trent Lott grew up as a share cropper to a black landowner.

Pseudonym of a boring policy wonk by day @neveltenjohn.bsky.social · 3d

Oklahoma (which is full of NOT-MY-TYPE-OF-REPUBLICANS) was the first state to pay for a year of universal pre-K.

Mississippi (also not my type of Republicans, though Trent Lott had his moments) is doing well with K-12.

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Pseudonym of a boring policy wonk by day @neveltenjohn.bsky.social · 3d

Yes I agree—though I reserve the right to be VERY skeptical about how the money is spent. (The Chicago Teacher Union is a kleptocracy).

While I hesitate to bothsides things, I think it is wrong (at least historically) to assume greater hypocrisy on the right than on the left.

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Pseudonym of a boring policy wonk by day @neveltenjohn.bsky.social · 3d

I think that (while we need both) that corporations do more good fthan governments; that equality of results (as opposed to opportunity) would be horrific; that democracy needs Constitutional limits to protect against the mob—I could go on. Are these views currently viewed "progressive".

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Pseudonym of a boring policy wonk by day @neveltenjohn.bsky.social · 3d

ROFL are you saying we agree on so much (even as we use different platitudes) because I was a conservative in the '70s???

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