@mkarlesky.bsky.social
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Neutralize, Delay, Amplify… The average citizen’s guide to fighting authoritarianism…
6 months ago
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derek guy
about 5 hours ago
you think it's "gay" to be associated with anything left of center ... *opens manilla envelope* ... and yet, on jan 21, 2025 ... *slides 8x10 photo across table* ... you wore the tutti frutti
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reposted by
Mike Luckovich
about 6 hours ago
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reposted by
Republicans Against Trumpism
about 22 hours ago
Don JR: If he was a king, he probably would have never left office the first time (He literally tried to do it)
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reposted by
Senator Chris Van Hollen
about 24 hours ago
Just a reminder that — in the middle of a shutdown — House Republicans are on a paid vacation solely to avoid releasing the Epstein files and lowering your health care costs.
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reposted by
Robert Reich
2 days ago
It's no longer left versus right or even Democrat versus Republican. It’s now democracy versus oligarchy. Freedom versus dictatorship. Right versus wrong. Millions hit the streets this weekend in solidarity with each other and to affirm the foundations of the common good.
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reposted by
Governor Gavin Newsom
2 days ago
No other U.S. president has used the military as their own personal police force against the American people. We implore the courts to reject Donald Trump's ongoing, illegal actions and definitively affirm states' sovereign right to handle public safety matters.
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reposted by
The Tennessee Holler
2 days ago
Literally
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reposted by
OrangeSage
4 days ago
Here is the alt text version. Sorry I didn't post it the first time
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reposted by
George Conway 🇺🇸🚫👑🐸
3 days ago
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reposted by
Thomas Zimmer
2 days ago
Will it work? I don’t know. But it is certainly better than preemptively conceding ground to the Right’s claims that they deserve disproportionate power as representatives of “the people.” It is time for (small-d) democrats to assert their right to define what “real America” is going forward.
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Thomas Zimmer
2 days ago
The chasm between the traditional Republican assertion of representing “normal” America and the assortment of extremists, fraudsters, and weirdos in positions of influence and power has become brutally stark. It is time to pounce.
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Thomas Zimmer
2 days ago
But all (small-d) democrats in America must dispute this claim of “real American” normalcy and replace the repressive norm of white Christian patriarchal dominance with a promise that the expected norm is an acceptance of pluralism and diversity in all spheres of life.
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Thomas Zimmer
2 days ago
This is also where the (perceived) “normie” character of the No Kings protests becomes an asset. Too long have rightwingers been allowed to present themselves as “real Americans” and deride everyone who dares to dissent as “abnormal.”
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Thomas Zimmer
2 days ago
This is where the slogan “No Kings,” in all its simplicity, is effective. It is a reference to a founding myth – but mobilized in defense of democratic self-government, as an affirmation of democratic aspirations, even if America has certainly never fully lived up to them yet.
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Thomas Zimmer
2 days ago
Finally, the No Kings protests can be part of an effort to, as cringe as that may sound, reclaim patriotism from the Right. Too long have rightwingers been allowed to drape their grievances in the nation’s collective symbols and present themselves as the guardians of the national mythos.
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Thomas Zimmer
2 days ago
Secondly, a broad coalition is needed to defeat Trumpist authoritarianism. In thousands of places, Americans came together with their neighbors in a communal effort that created a shared experience beyond strategic or ideological disagreement. That matters.
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Thomas Zimmer
2 days ago
First of all, the Trumpists’ key assertion is that they represent “real America,” that the November election was a referendum that installed Trump as the tribune of “the people.” Anything that helps to dispel such notions – especially in the minds of mainstream elites – matters.
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Thomas Zimmer
2 days ago
The No Kings protests did not change anything in any immediate, tangible way. It was a highly symbolic affair. But that doesn’t relegate the protests to the status of an ephemeral blip. I believe they mattered for three main reasons:
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Thomas Zimmer
2 days ago
Binary categories of Trump “winning vs losing” – or the regime being “weak vs strong” – are not particularly helpful. Better to grapple with the murkiness of this moment: A staunchly authoritarian movement is in power, but they haven’t been able to install a consolidated autocracy yet.
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Thomas Zimmer
2 days ago
At the same time, the gulf between these authoritarian aspirations and violent desires on the one hand and the realities of a complex political system coupled with a population that predominantly rejects Trumpist dictatorship remains vast.
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Thomas Zimmer
2 days ago
Will they actually follow through on any of this? We don’t know. But let’s assume they will try. Any form of dissent is now Antifa, and Antifa is like a foreign terrorist organization… It is not hard to see where this *could* be going, where the Trumpists want this to go.
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Thomas Zimmer
2 days ago
Has the regime proven too weak to consolidate authoritarian rule? Is Trump definitively losing? Let’s be cautious with grand proclamations. Since “No Kings” I in June, the regime has escalated the militarization of the conflict and laid the pseudo-legal groundwork for a crackdown on “the left.”
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Thomas Zimmer
2 days ago
Let’s assume the Trumpists really mean it when they declare large swaths of the population the “enemy within.” Their claim to power is built on the idea that Trump embodies the nation. Because he channels the will of “the people,” dissent is disloyal, protest is tantamount to treason.
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Thomas Zimmer
2 days ago
Something significant happened on Saturday. After an all-out propaganda campaign to declare all dissent illegitimate and demonize the No Kings protests as a gathering of dangerous extremists, millions came out anyway – and the regime did… nothing. I reflect in what we should make of that.
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reposted by
Thomas Zimmer
2 days ago
America As No-Longer-Democracy and Not-Yet-Dictatorship Where does the country stand after the largest day of protest in U.S. history? Putting “No Kings” in perspective. Some thoughts from my new piece:
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America As No-Longer-Democracy and Not-Yet-Dictatorship
Where does the country stand after the largest day of protest in U.S. history? Putting “No Kings” in perspective
https://steady.page/en/democracyamericana/posts/a40ac673-b42b-4108-9756-feeae62ca5e8
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reposted by
Ron Filipkowski
3 days ago
Today, Mike Johnson will have the House adjourned for 77 out of the last 89 days. House Republicans have worked 12 days in 3 months. All to prevent a vote on releasing the Epstein files. The House Republican Epstein Shutdown continues.
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reposted by
Kevin M. Kruse
3 days ago
If your reporting constantly tries to place your subject in the best possible light, you are not actually reporting on them -- you are doing their PR work for free.
add a skeleton here at some point
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reposted by
Blue Georgia
3 days ago
Former DOJ lawyer Erez Reuveni was ordered to tell a judge that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was an MS-13 gang member and terrorist. "That is not factually correct." Reuveni: "They did everything to him in violation of his due process rights. What's to stop them if they decide they don't like you anymore?"
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Elizabeth N. Saunders
3 days ago
This story is extraordinary even by 2025 standards. Marco Rubio, the nation's top diplomat, made a deal with Bukele and agreed to renege on informant agreements in a years-long DOJ investigation into MS-13, totally undercutting credibility of such agreements.
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
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Rubio promised to betray U.S. informants to get Trump’s El Salvador prison deal
To secure U.S. access to President Nayib Bukele’s notorious CECOT prison, Rubio agreed to turn over several MS-13 leaders central to a long-running Justice Department investigation.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/10/19/rubio-el-salvador-prison-bukele-ms13-informants/
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reposted by
Seth Abramson
3 days ago
An even better version! (Apparently hand-drawn, rather than AI.)
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reposted by
Acyn
4 days ago
Pritzker: Throughout history we've learned that tyranny doesn't arrive with dramatic proclamations. Most times it comes quietly wrapped in the language of law and order, with fingers pointed at someone who doesn't look like you, promising safety while demanding that we sacrifice our neighbors.
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reposted by
Mueller, She Wrote
4 days ago
We stayed classy.
#NoKings
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reposted by
Matt Novak
4 days ago
Trump's Truth Social account just posted this AI video of him flying a fighter jet that reads "King Trump." AI Trump is wearing a crown while he dumps shit on protesters. He's such a pathetic little man.
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Micah
4 days ago
notice the general mood of the timeline? how everyone is in a good mood and there’s a lot less misery and dooming? how there’s a lot of “we’re going to beat these assholes”? anyway that’s why these events are important
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Massive
#NoKings
march shutting down downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan today. This was heading west down Fulton, but the march spread for blocks and blocks and filled the streets. So many more people than previous events.
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4 days ago
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Mrs. Betty Bowers
4 days ago
LEFT: Citizens assembling in Washington, DC to deride Donald J. Trump with a protest. RIGHT: Citizens assembling in Washington, DC to celebrate Donald J. Trump with a military birthday parade.
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reposted by
Robert Black
4 days ago
One cool thing about the No Kings branding is that it's negatively polarizing Trump and his supporters into just saying out loud that they want him to be king
add a skeleton here at some point
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Cory Booker
4 days ago
This is ridiculous.
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George Conway 🇺🇸🚫👑🐸
4 days ago
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Brendan Gutenschwager
4 days ago
Happening Now: Thousands out for a “No Kings” protest in Chicago
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reposted by
Seth Abramson
4 days ago
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David Ingram
4 days ago
A play in three acts
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reposted by
Marco Foster
4 days ago
WOW! Protesters created a HUGE human sign on San Francisco’s Ocean Beach reading “No Kings YES on 50” to support California’s Prop 50 and stand up against Donald Trump’s fascist regime
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reposted by
4 days ago
Best sign so far.
#NoKingsDay
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reposted by
jen sometimes aph 🌻
4 days ago
@govpritzker.illinois.gov
chanting “Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go” at a “No Kings” protest today in Chicago ht:
@bgonthescene.bsky.social
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reposted by
jamelle
4 days ago
“You can win elections by tacking to the middle; lots of people have. But you can also win elections by staking a moral position and convincing people to agree with you. You can earn support by demonstrating what is important to you instead of just being determined to nod along with what you hear.”
add a skeleton here at some point
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reposted by
Judd Legum
4 days ago
"I hear very few people are gonna be there" -- Donald Trump, 10/15/25
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Steven Beschloss
4 days ago
“This is what democracy looks like.” “This is what America looks like.” NYC
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reposted by
Frettie Fingers
4 days ago
#nokings
Portland frog brigade
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reposted by
Brian Tyler Cohen
4 days ago
NYPD announces that zero arrests were made at the massive No Kings protests today after Republicans spent days claiming the protestors are violent terrorists.
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