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John A. Farrell

@biographer.bsky.social
1.1K followers 2.8K following 513 posts

Historian. UVA. PhD, Groningen. Biographer of Clarence Darrow, Tip O'Neill, Ted Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Next up: The American Revolution on the Frontier.

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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Little Rock: the Communist Eisenhower. The EPA and China: the Communist Nixon. Extending the Voting Rights Act, Tax Reform: the Communist Reagan. Saving and improving Social Security: the Communists Ike, Nixon, Reagan. Disabilities Act: the Communist Bush. Aid to Africa : the Communist W.
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
More soup sandwich
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Welcome to the crew of the Nostromo.
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Before we get into the inevitable distortions of the 2028 campaign, I would like to read a nuanced, deep-diving piece on Marco Rubio that answers the question: What has he been up to? Is he checked out and in hiding? Or working hard behind the scenes to minimize the damage?
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This White House is such a soup sandwich.
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
"Annihilate and dispatch to hell." A madman. Not theory.
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Class act, that AGR
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
NPR and The New Yorker join the NYT in ignoring Fawn Brodie and giving what seems an only obligatory nod to Annette Gordon Reed, whose book The Hemingses of Monticello may be the greatest of all American biographies.
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
F-a-w-n B-r-o-d-i-e For audacity and courage, there's no American biographer like her. She got pilloried for challenging the idolaters of Jefferson regarding Sally Hemings, and for exposing Joseph Smith and the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. NYT should know better. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/18/a...
nytimes.com
Two Centuries On, Smithsonian Connects Jefferson’s Hair to Hemings’s Children (Gift Article)
A new book describes how cutting-edge genomics techniques yielded “extraordinary proof” that Thomas Jefferson fathered children with Sally Hemings.
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
It appears we need a prime directive.
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
So here we are praying for a Three Mile Island in the AI industry: something damn scary, but not extermination, to get the president off his fat ass.
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Deborah Lynn @mrsdeborahlynn.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
ysph.yale.edu/news-article... Single-payer universal health care system could cover every American, save more than 100,000 lives a year, and still cost $1.04 trillion or 20% less than the system it would replace, according to new preprint study led by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health.
ysph.yale.edu
Universal Health Coverage Could Save $1 Trillion and 114,000 Lives Every Year, Yale Study Projects
A single-payer universal health care system could cover every American, save more than 100,000 lives a year, and still cost $1 trillion less than the system it
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
"The system was blinking red" the 9-11 commission concluded. It is blinking red again. www.axios.com/2026/09/12/a...
axios.com
Behind the Curtain: It's not too late
If we don't act, the chances of AI worst-case scenarios will explode.
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
"The system was blinking red" the 9-11 commission concluded. It is blinking red again. www.axios.com/2026/09/12/a...
axios.com
Behind the Curtain: It's not too late
If we don't act, the chances of AI worst-case scenarios will explode.
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
"These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world... and then we fucked up the endgame." -- Charlie Wilson
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
The memories of unity are accurate. It lasted a little over a year. Then the Republican Party embraced Soft on Terror as a campaign epithet in the midterm elections, (do a search for Max Cleland) and took us into the disastrous war in Iraq. Gephardt and Daschle got thoroughly outplayed.
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Kent Conrad. Tom Daschle. Fritz Hollings. George Mitchell. Tom Harkin. Ed Muskie. Jon Tester. Frank Church. George McGovern. Al Gore. Jim Sasser. Gary Hart. Dale Bumpers. Bob Kerrey. John Glenn. Birch Bayh. Bob Graham. Lawton Chiles. Mike Gravel. Why not Annie Andrews, Josh Turek, Dan Osborn?
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Jimmy Carter's Democrats had a midterm convention in 1978. It was a debacle. Ted Kennedy used it as a forum to thrill the base. The press went gaga with horse race coverage. End results: 20 years of Reagan- Bush-W presidencies, Gingrich, loss of Congress and SCOTUS seats.
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Obama offered us the crew of the starship Enterprise. Thiel and Musk and Bezos and Ellison et al will have us drones on the Nostromo.
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Get real. Ask young folks what they saw in the Smithsonian and they'll say: Cool US space ships, Wright Bros plane, Enola Gay, Hope diamond, Star Spangled Banner, dinosaurs, First Ladies gowns, pandas, Washington's sword, Lincoln's hat, Chuck Berry's Cadillac. Only twisted adults see woke.
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Trump to campaign in Fritters, Alabama this fall.
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Jimmy Carter's Democrats had a midterm convention in 1978. It was a debacle. Ted Kennedy used it as a forum to thrill the base. The press went gaga with horse race coverage. End results: 20 years of Reagan- Bush-W presidencies, Gingrich, loss of Congress and SCOTUS seats.
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Midterm Races Are Drowning in Dark Money www.nytimes.com/video/us/100...
nytimes.com
Video: Midterm Races Are Drowning in Dark Money
Dark money is flooding the 2026 midterm elections, allowing donors to spend heavily on ads without revealing their identities. Shane Goldmacher, a New York Times political correspondent, explains how ...
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
True. But like Annette Gordon-Reed wrote, "Not all of anyone ever always does anything."
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Gasoline. Toilet Paper. Hamburger. Coffee. Let's rename it Lake Cantafford.
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
JFK on journalism: “They just can’t wait until they can get hold of something they can understand and sink their teeth…and then they just go to town.” He compared it to Nero fiddling. “It will take death in large quantities to wake us up, but I really don’t think anything else ever will.”
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
The Republican Party claimed to have a conservative core, dedicated to the preservation of liberties from a swollen central government. John Roberts now says it's okay for the MAGA Federales to dictate "approved" voters in the states, because the states can't show harm. Pandora weeps.
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
A recent survey found that 92% of U.S. adults have delayed or avoided medical care due to high costs. Meanwhile, a new study from Yale estimates that Medicare for All would save over 114,000 lives and $1 trillion a year. If this country was truly “pro-life,” we would have universal healthcare.
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
There is an argument to be made that AOC should run because she is the one with the talent to bring the youth movement’s appealing energy into the party without the silliness: an Obama, rather than a McGovern.
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Joshua Holland @joshuaholland.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Gonna be a big problem as soon as a Dem is in office.
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
I would not put it past a White House to fuel Natalie talk (or at least be happy with it) as a way of sending MAGA the message that the sleepy rambling and fumbler of a president is in fact - nudge nudge wink wink - virile.
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
My biography of the late great Tip O'Neill chronicles how the corporations wormed their way into a Democratic Party shocked and awed by Reagan. Tip saw a crisis and "Save the House" was the overriding necessity. A Faustian bargain?
robertreich.substack.com
The Last Stand of the Corporate Democrats
Their reign is coming to an end
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
"There is a revolution happening right now. It's not a woke one, it's an authoritarian one."
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
I hope you give Samuel Johnson a proper drubbing. As in: How is it that we hear the loudest yelps about hypocrisy from the paid minions of the Slavery King?
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Dan DeFreest @dandefreest.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Blanche was confirmed as AG. Just a reminder: The last time a president appointed an attorney he had personal ties to, was when Nixon appointed his law partner and campaign manager John Mitchell. Mitchell ended up disbarred and spent 2 yrs in prison for his role as AG protecting Nixon.
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Robert Reich spent too much time drinking the Kool-Aid on liberal campuses. The Founders were in no way oligarchs, and he looks silly saying so.
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
The dogs on Main Street howl.
nytimes.com
Moderate Democrats Prepare for ‘War’ Against an Ascendant Left
One moderate group says the progressive wins are “deeply troubling” and is planning a $15 million effort against democratic socialism.
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
None of what you read - except this post by Robert Reich - is what this is all about. The Real Meaning of El-Sayed's Victory robertreich.substack.com/p/the-real-m...
robertreich.substack.com
The Real Meaning of El-Sayed's Victory
It's not what you're hearing
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Senator Ron Wyden @wyden.senate.gov · 04/08/2026
One more interesting point: this spring I sat down with Sharyn Alfonsi of 60 Minutes for an extensive interview about my Epstein investigation. Subsequently, CBS pulled the segment and fired the reporter. The MAGA buyout of media has unquestionably aided the Trump administration’s cover up here.
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
A thing about the French Revolution is that all understood the system needed significant reform, yet didn't fix it fast enough. We haven't gotten that far: a mayor helping families buy nutritious food still offends Calvinistic thought (in ways corporate welfare does not.) Yet bread prices matter.
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George Conway ⚖️🇺🇸 @gtconway.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
I was thinking for a moment there should be a drinking game where everyone downs a shot when the United States Attorney's office for the District of Columbia has to drop a frivolous indictment but then I realized only the United States Attorney herself could survive that game
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MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · 01/08/2026
We could've made this montage of liars an hour long but you get the point
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
If the president was a good man he would apologize to David Hearn and the United States of America.
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CNN @cnn.com · 31/07/2026
The Justice Department is admitting that a $14 million renovation on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, DC, was flawed, and is dropping the criminal case against a former Olympian that accused him of damaging the pool, according to a new court filing. cnn.it/3RJJnwj
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
The roller coaster we are riding will doubtless have more double dips and hops as today's malefactors fight to retain their power. A key question: Is there a charismatic Roosevelt out there who can sell a reform agenda to both Center and Center-Left? If so, that person will be worth watching.
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Then came one of those great accidents of American history: Theodore Roosevelt, "that damn cowboy" as Mark Hanna called him, was elected by Leon Czolgosz. And the Republican Roosevelt decided to go after the malefactors of great wealth. He opened the White House doors to the progressive era. /3
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
The last time we were here, the Left splintered among Democrats, Wall Street Democrats, Populists and Socialists and kept offering the very flawed William Jennings Bryan as its candidate and/or the radicalized Gene Debs on a Socialist ticket. It was a prescription for losing, and lose they did. /2
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
"Socialism" is not thriving because there are evil commissars in a basement in Cambridge scheming to make us Reds. My take: Younger generations don't see the Democratic Party of the Schumer/Pelosi/Biden era offering change. Right now, voting for "socialists" is a demand for "Change!" /1
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Again. Asked AI. It gave me a citation, but when I looked for it I could not find it. Asked the AI again. It confessed it made it up. Why are we paying for wasted time?
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John A. Farrell @biographer.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Los Lobos! Lobby the rock hall of fame, Barack! 50 years on the road, still touring, five or six great albums. But the R&R Hall of Fame is not friendly to Hispanics. I wonder why....
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