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Aaron Lehr

@aaronjlehr.bsky.social
451 followers 412 following 1.8K posts

Lefty, #AllForCincy, recovering Reds fan, northern OTR resident www.liberalcurrents.com/liberalism-…

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Reposted by Aaron Lehr
James Hell Brooks @kleinman.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Cox has also banned fluoridation of water and packed his state supreme court so Republicans can gerrymander at will. Thoughts and feelings ass motherfucker.
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I love living in a country where a politician can sign a law banning the health care I need to live and be greeted as a hero of comity and good sense
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Aaron Lehr @aaronjlehr.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I’d argue this has long been the ethos of the Republican Party but Trump enabled the removal of all pretense.
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Nathan Newman @nathansnewman.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Roughly a quarter of Americans consider themselves to be democratic socialists - more than consider themselves allied with the MAGA movement. Which translates into roughly half of Democrats considering themselves democratic socialists AP-NORC poll apnorc.org/wp-content/u...
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David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
“Cutting this much from the university budget will mean that some of the core functions of the university will be lost. It’s not possible to just do more with less — to work smarter, to trim around the edges. We’re going to have to do less with less.” Gift link: www.startribune.com/umn-cuts-sta...
startribune.com
Perry: What we lose if the U cuts $225 million
"Austerity doesn’t work. Instead, it creates a death spiral, where reduction in services leads to reductions in revenue, which lead to reductions in services, which leads to reduction in revenue, whic...
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geoffrey @parsnip.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
there are moral arguments against the death penalty in its ideal form but in real life you never need to get there. the prior question is "can the state be trusted to end the life only of the rightly convicted without torture?" and the answer is no
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maura quint @mauraquint.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Yes every woman has been harassed, many assaulted. But every woman has also experienced invisible loss from moments she avoided harassment. She felt a space becoming unsafe, so she left, while men stayed on. And in leaving, she lost: opportunities, experiences, learning, promotions, even simply fun.
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Coach Finstock @coachfinstock.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Excellent. This song is stuck in my head. This whole comedy album is stuck in my head. Just yesterday I made a reference from the Talking Goat ('you better KNOT mention that again') and my wife looked at me like I was crazy.
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Just got an email from a former student who took my class a decade ago, asking me for the reading list because she enjoyed the course so much and wants to revisit the texts. And she *apologized* for making the request. Are you kidding me?
static.klipy.com
Sad Old Man Crying
ALT: Sad Old Man Crying
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Craig Calcaterra @craigcalcaterra.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I took graduate-level seminars as a senior and made it through law school and I did the reading. But, brother, 30 years later and I'd simply walk into the sea if I had to work half this hard again. Everyone's trying to break higher education, but it's everything to an advanced society. Go students.
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Every single person needs to read this book ASAP.
us.macmillan.com
End Times Fascism
A New York Times BestsellerA scathing investigation into the apocalyptic thinking of the Christian nationalists, tech-bro reactionaries, and populist surviva...
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Aaron Lehr @aaronjlehr.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
“If you think gas prices are bad now, imagine a theocracy with madmen at the helm actually threatening to destroy America.” Imagine it!
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Some of the wrongest in politics are “popularists,” who say public opinion can’t be changed, so politicians should never try to lead, only follow polls. This meant treating 2024 as permanent, conceding on immigration and other things. But as @gregsargent.bsky.social writes, the opposite’s working.
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JLRay @jlray.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
in terms of coming up with closing messages this month the GOP has been operating at Midwestern Thanksgiving after football-levels of repeatedly saying goodbye to people
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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
These ads go in the same category as brazen, easily disproven lies after ICE killings. It’s not about persuasion. It’s a display of power. They could have passed them off as PAC-funded. They added “paid for by the U.S. government” because they want us to know they can break the law with impunity.
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Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I think about this interview with the distinguished philosopher Conan O'Brien a lot. I actually think this is a healthy way to live your life! www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/a...
Is this how you want to go out, with a show that gets smaller and smaller until it’s gone?

Maybe that’s O.K. I think you have more of a problem with that than I do. [Laughs.] At this point in my career, I could go out with a grand, 21-gun salute, and climb into a rocket and the entire Supreme Court walks out and they jointly press a button, I’m shot up into the air and there’s an explosion and it’s orange and it spells, “Good night and God love.” In this culture? Two years later, it’s going to be, who’s Conan? This is going to sound grim, but eventually, all our graves go unattended.

You’re right, that does sound grim.

Sorry. Calvin Coolidge was a pretty popular president. I’ve been to his grave in Vermont. It has the presidential seal on it. Nobody was there. And by the way, I’m the only late-night host that has been to Calvin Coolidge’s grave. I think that’s what separates me from the other hosts.

I had a great conversation with Albert Brooks once. When I met him for the first time, I was kind of stammering. I said, you make movies, they live on forever. I just do these late-night shows, they get lost, they’re never seen again and who cares? And he looked at me and he said, [Albert Brooks voice] “What are you talking about? None of it matters.” None of it matters? “No, that’s the secret. In 1940, people said Clark Gable is the face of the 20th Century. Who [expletive] thinks about Clark Gable? It doesn’t matter. You’ll be forgotten. I’ll be forgotten. We’ll all be forgotten.” It’s so funny because you’d think that would depress me. I was walking on air after that.
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Grant Brisbee @grantbrisbee.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
oh shit, found a picture on twitter
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Aaron Huertas @aaronhuertas.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Kate Manne is an incredible writer and thinker. I forgot she was at Cornell. Please read this as well as her excellent book Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny. On here at: @katemanne.bsky.social
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Aaron Lehr @aaronjlehr.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Please, Jesus, allow me to avoid the brain disease that compels people to take unreasonable measures to avoid looking older. Instead, I shall spend 20 minutes brewing coffee, lace up my New Balance and get behind the wheel of my Porsche 911 like God intended.
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Sherrod Brown @sherrodbrownoh.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
NEW AD: Listen to this sh*t.
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Jeff Zimmerman @jeffwzimmerman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Can someone in the KC area help a brother out? I'd love to get the Zimmerman decanter found at this thrift store. I find a way to pick it up this fall/winter and pay you for your time. www.google.com/maps/place/F...
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Mad Dr. A-boo-ly (she/he) @amuly.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I cannot emphasize enough how college students were 6 years old when Trump first entered the presidential primary. Our rising adults, our next wave have experienced nothing other than Trumpian Republicanism. That's it. That's the party.
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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Huge bummer when you’re just innocently trying to join and promote a movement that hates Black people, immigrants, and Jews — but then you discover that they have a dark side. apple.news/A9g-feRPSTme...
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ae @aelkus.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
a focus on content moderation and censorship is a losing battle, and we have ten years of evidence to suggest it is a lost cause. it stimulates our own authoritarian instincts while leaving the problem untouched, and splits the pro-democracy coalition into libertarian and communitarian factions
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Aaron Lehr @aaronjlehr.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Musk fantasizes that we’re not operating in “base reality” while devoting all his resources toward its destruction.
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ae @aelkus.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
i think the answer, after several decades, is fairly obvious. its a person who suffers from all of the defects neil postman ascribed to television without any of the benefits of mass media creating a shared psychological space
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Aaron Lehr @aaronjlehr.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Proud to have him on my wife’s hall pass list
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Aaron Lehr @aaronjlehr.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
It’s funny. Cancel culture hardly exists, but for a few of the most extreme corner cases. McArdle has always been free to share her views, and for some reason she’s more concerned about being “cancelled” than peddling some of shittiest opinions in media.
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lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I think this blog post is correct: a tendency to read idfic structures into reality is very damaging to people and it would help people, a lot, to acquire the skills to better understand how fictional enjoyment of something is very distinct from real yearning. aquarusa.wordpress.com/2026/09/28/t...
aquarusa.wordpress.com
The Id Unexamined
What do romance novels, isekai stories, video games, and right-wing theories of white replacement all have in common? They are all examples to some degree of id fiction — a kind of fiction th…
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Will Bunch @willbunch.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
You wouldn't know it from reading the headlines, but the president's downward mental health spiral is the biggest story in America right now We won't salvage democracy unless the media and pols start speaking the truth about Trump's damaged mind My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/trum...
inquirer.com
We need to find the words for Trump’s madness before things blow up | Will Bunch
The media and politicians haven’t pinned down anything resembling a suitable description for a president’s downward spiral or the looming battle for U.S. democracy.
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Aaron Lehr @aaronjlehr.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
At least there’s this
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Toby Buckle @polphilpod.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
if he wins (& i hope he does), the moral is that this—reclaiming christ for the left—works, not that everyone has to "moderate" on trans rights
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Aaron Lehr @aaronjlehr.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
You’d think my gut would be hardened by now. But the punches still hurt.
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Aaron Lehr @aaronjlehr.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I hate playing the Steelers so much and will never not be scarred about it.
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Aaron Lehr @aaronjlehr.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Yeah. Cool. I would have no idea what’s going on in any of these games.
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Don’t believe people who tell you ai can be liberatory or any other misappropriation of movement talk or justice frameworks. Find some people who are preparing to rebuild and cast your lot with them. Then read a bit more. Just keep your wits about you because they are trying to run game.
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Lisa Diedrich @lisadiedrich.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Reading is a practice of freedom.
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Aaron Lehr @aaronjlehr.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The more I learn about the 70s the more parallels emerge
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Aaron Lehr @aaronjlehr.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
💯
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silver @silverboots.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This is just to say I have eaten the moon that was in my orbit and which you were probably wanting to study Forgive me it was delicious so crunchy and so cold
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Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 24/09/2026
In the latest development among anti-trans wings of the Democratic Party, the Ohio Democratic Party is now deleting criticism from caucus members of Kaptur's anti-trans ad calling transgender people an "ideology." It appears any dissent over the ad is practically banned on caucus social media.
erininthemorning.com
The Ohio Democratic Party Is Silencing Its Pride Caucus Over Criticism Of Kaptur's "Transgender Ideology" Ad
The Ohio Democratic Party suppressed dissent from within its own Pride Caucus, activists said.
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Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 25/09/2026
"What was written off as delusional hysterics in 2016 are now daily headlines a decade later. Defeating our modern-day oppressors may not require a capital-r Revolution against the government, but it does require a revolutionary change to our government." (July 4)
liberalcurrents.com
Every Act Which May Define a Tyrant
A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
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The Fig Economy @figgityfigs.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
It’s a genuinely interesting question and I think it’s worth parsing out some of the particulars. I think impeachment/removal is likely still beyond reach, but an enormous catastrophic loss would probably lead to, for instance, SCOTUS shutting down stuff like third term aspirations.
jamelle •
@jamellebouie.net
X
• Joined Apr '23 "
- Bluesky Elder
one thing i'm curious about is what republicans do if november is truly catastrophic. like, if we wake up and democrats have flipped iowa and kansas and florida and republican candidates have lost to independents in nebraska and montana. how do they react to trump?
Trump's Grip on GOP Slips as Midterm Election Anxiety Sets In
As Donald Trump took an aggressive stance on the global stage at the United Nations on Tuesday, sev...
& www.bloomberg.com
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
My entire life I've heard centrists scolding leftist candidates with "oh, but how will we pay for all that? isn't your agenda unreasonable? shouldn't we run on a modest proposal for means-tested tax rebates?" Then Mamdani gets elected and makes it all look pretty easy. No wonder they hate him.
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Aaron Lehr @aaronjlehr.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I don’t disagree, per se, but I think you could define vibes as “a skilled politician who can speak directly to voters, with a team that skillfully reads and decisively adapts to the local and national political climate”, which is more than “let’s just hope this candidate has the magic touch”.
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Jank @jank.cool · 22/09/2026
Are videogames trying to make me contemplate my mortality? Fine. I shall. By @jmrivera.bsky.social www.jank.cool/are-videogam...
jank.cool
Are videogames trying to make me contemplate my mortality? Fine. I shall.
The quantified life
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Katelyn Burns @katelynburns.com · 21/09/2026
For my newsletter, I wrote about Democrats coming out against "trans surgery for kids" (which do not happen) and how the myth took over our politics. www.burnsnotice.com/the-trans-ki...
burnsnotice.com
The "Trans Kid Surgery" Myth
The big lie worked because it played on your protective instincts
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Aaron Lehr @aaronjlehr.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
In my rudimentary first hand observations, solving the poverty that enables the most toxic elements of gentrification is like wack-a-mole. We’ve been ignoring the problem so long there are multiple systems at play that have become entangled with each other. It will take decades to fully address.
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