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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 3m

Well…

I definitely could see JD Vance making use of a Gimp Room…

Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 4m

Thread.

Zimmer powerfully identifies the essential problem with @nytimes et al., a disastrous, seemingly unstoppable tendency to portray radical extremists as ordinary good guys with whom some might disagree.

And he nails Vought and his total commitment to fascism with blistering accuracy.

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 1h

Sunday reading:

I wrote about the aggrieved extremist who is currently firing thousands of federal workers and ravaging state capacity based on conspiratorial nonsense - and about mainstream media’s infuriating tendency to sanitize Russell Vought and the regime he serves.

This week’s piece:

We need to talk about Russell Vought – But Properly

Why certain mainstream outlets insist on sanitizing Vought as a devout “small government” conservative – and what actually animates his war against pluralistic democracy

steady.page

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Raider @iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social · 13h

This Is Fascism

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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 16h

“The administration did not like that CDC data did not support their narrative, so they got rid of them. They didn’t like that CDC policy groups would not rubber stamp their unscientific ideas, so they got rid of them”.

The damage to the CDC is “beyond repair”.

‘The damage is beyond repair’: The CDC faces another round of deep staff cuts | CNN

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suffered another round of deep staff cuts late Friday, with disease detectives, outbreak forecasters, policy and data offices among those impacted, ac...

edition.cnn.com

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Popehat Agitates And Irritates @kenwhite.bsky.social · 19h

Should the New York Times be sold to Pennysaver and its editors sent to work in Amazon warehouses? It depends on who you ask.

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Lynn Becker @cmgiulini.bsky.social · 13h

After spending 43 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit, evidence hidden by the prosecution reversed his conviction. Rather than finally enjoying freedom, ICE abducted him for deportation

Depraved.

www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...

He was wrongfully imprisoned for 43 years. Moments after being released, ICE took him

Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam now faces deportation.

www.miamiherald.com

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 10h

I know! Who was that guy?

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 10h

I just had the very odd experience of reading my 2015 book, The Hunt for Vulcan, and wondering how the hell I came to write it

It reads well, at least to me, & it’s a great story, but it’s so far from what I’ve been thinking about for the last 10 yrs I don’t remember how I arrived at those thoughts

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 10h

Don’t know about you lot but I am now an absolutely passionate Brewers fan of the Anybody But The Dodgers subspecies.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 16h

MissEd that. Let me know if you do such a ride again.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 1d

And this is why no elected Democrat does and no member of the US public should trust any Trump/Johnson/GOP promise of some future negotiation.

When Americans' healthcare is protected by ironclad, force of law, no recissions possible legislation...then we can talk.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Q: Rescission are something Dems have said is a reason for a lack of trust. What rescissions are you discussing?

JOHNSON: We have more than $37t in debt. We're doing everything we can to get us back to sound fiscal responsibility. What does that include? A rescission package is part of our process

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 1d

Recall how vibrant Franco's Spain was. Or the breakthroughs achieved by Stalin's USSR. (Yes, they could do 1st rate technical work—e.g. the Russian bomb & Sputnik. But ask yourself: what transformative science or tech came from that system. I'll wait.)

That's the trajectory of Trump's America.

David Gilbert @davidgilbert.bsky.social · 2d

BREAKING:

"Just landed."

Mark Bray confirms to me this morning that he and his family did, on the second attempt, make it out of the US and to Spain

www.wired.com/story/mark-b...

He Wrote a Book About Antifa. Death Threats Are Driving Him Out of the US

Rutgers historian Mark Bray is trying to flee to Spain after after an online campaign from far-right influencers was followed by death threats. He was turned back at the airport on his first attempt.

www.wired.com

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Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 2d

Just cast my vote for Prop 50. 👍

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Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 2d

Just bone chilling. And when the imprisonment of critics is combined with his offer to enrich and immunize his loyalists, this is how democracies die fast.

But it's still our choice. Don't let him silence you.

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NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 2d

News footage from Portland shows a calm, tranquil city. But an AI video that Stephen Miller texted to Donald Trump shows the city as a burning hellhole. The truth may lie somewhere in between.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 1d

I agree. It's just possible that Thiel looks in the mirror and fails to grasp that what he sees is who it is that threatens his very soul.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 1d

Well...there's precedent. Kristi Noem is a proud puppy killer.

MAGA hates humanity's best friends.

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 1d

EL PASO — a family says ICE showed up at their house looking for migrants and shot and KILLED THEIR DOG, then didn’t help them as the agent ran away and was not identified.

kfoxtv.com/news/local/e...

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Popehat Agitates And Irritates @kenwhite.bsky.social · 1d

Wen should direct more attention to incidents like these because Americans are more likely to respond to brutality to pets than to brutality to human beings.

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 1d

EL PASO — a family says ICE showed up at their house looking for migrants and shot and KILLED THEIR DOG, then didn’t help them as the agent ran away and was not identified.

kfoxtv.com/news/local/e...

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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 1d

Immigration raids in Nashville have made crime victims afraid to cooperate with police and seek counseling.

tennesseelookout.com/2025/10/08/i...

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Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 2d

It’s very much Not Great to have GOP leadership describe a planned non violent march as being in service a the “terrorist wing”

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Emmer: "This is about one thing and one thing alone -- to score political points with the terrorist wing of their party, which is set to hold a hate America rally in DC next week."

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 1d

3/ ...which is a far reaching and multi-pronged attempt to gain control over every civic space in which opposition to those seizing power could take form.

Pretending the "compact" is about anything but ideological control of the academy is...

...well, let's be kind. We can call it naive. /fin.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 1d

2/ Elite legacy media continues to sanewash Trump. As Orwell said, the most difficult thing to do is to recognize—& name—what's right in front of you.

Fascist takeovers proceed through institutions, and the easy path is such moves as discrete "reforms" instead of seeing them for what they are...

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 1d

So @nytimes.com is little better than WSJ.

What's wrong below? The word "benefits." The Trump junta is offering is continued access to federal funding (which has already been cut in various ways). In exchange, they want control over admissions, hiring, & curriculum.

Not a benefit—a bust out. 1/

"M.I.T. Rejects a White House Offer for Special Funding Treatment
The Trump administration offered nine universities benefits in exchange for signing an agreement to protect conservative voices, among other things. M.I.T. was the first to refuse."

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 1d

Cotton Mather wholly believed in the immanent reality of Satan working through Salem's witches to achieve the destruction of the Puritan experiment in New England.

He believed in the evidence of dreams. His convictions led to the deaths of innocents.

And he was still more coherent than this bozo.

The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 1d

Exclusive: Tech billionaire Peter Thiel warned that Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and critics of AI are “legionnaires of the Antichrist” in private lectures that connected government oversight of Silicon Valley to an apocalyptic future.

Inside billionaire Peter Thiel’s private lectures: Warnings of ‘the Antichrist’ and U.S. destruction

In leaked recordings of private lectures by tech billionaire Peter Thiel he argued that “the Antichrist” is likely to take the form of a critic of technology.

wapo.st

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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 2d

Trump can't deliver the lower costs he promised. All he has is cruelty and revenge.

Cuomo is unable to confront him because they share the same billionaire donors. Just look at his statement last night.

I will stand up for this city and with our Attorney General.

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