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Brian Gocial

@briangocial.bsky.social
308 followers 934 following 852 posts

Grandson of Holocaust Survivors (גאטשל-רוס, Poland 🇵🇱 ), Son of Immigrants (Sweden 🇸🇪-Cuba 🇨🇺), 1G American (Philly 🦅 🇺🇸). Watching the world crumble, again.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Brian Gocial
Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
The fact that the president of the United States and his party are engaged in a full-on assault on the constitutional order, that they will obviously continue to search for ways to subvert the election process, is a reminder of how far away from a stable democracy America currently is.
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Matthew Gertz @mattgertz.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
They're holding up a major escalation in Iran and a crackdown on abortion until after the midterms to limit political damage. To the extent that the last two years have been a right-wing smash-and-grab operation, the next two will be worse.
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Brian Gocial @briangocial.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
“[Hegseth] holds some sort of grievance against senior military officers, perhaps because he wasn’t one himself.”
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 29/09/2026
CRUZ: Do you have any evidence whatsoever to believe that I and 20% of Republicans in the Senate will engage in destruction or tampering with evidence or intimidation of potential witnesses? JACK SMITH: No. We had powerful evidence that Donald Trump and his associates would
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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Americans need to recognize that the coup already happened, and is mostly complete.
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Brian Gocial @briangocial.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
“[The] New York Times did mention the Iran annihilation threat in its headline, but explained that Trump had laid out his “Winner-Takes-All Vision” of geopolitics, which also presumably would have been the paper of record’s 1938 sanewashing of a certain German dictator’s foreign policy.”
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Reposted by Brian Gocial
Rich Raho @richraho.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
‪“We saw ICE raids in the parking lots of Home Depot, and we passed to the other side, and just walked on by…We saw the suffering when men in masks detained immigrants, and we walked on by, crossed to the other side.”
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Brian Gocial @briangocial.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Gotta love hearing the Trump administration grovel for “another chance” from the very same people it’s been spitting on for the past two years. 
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Brian Gocial @briangocial.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
An American government that hates Americans: “A memo began circulating within the White House this week that seeks to paint effective altruism as a fringe, cultish collective out of touch with mainstream America.”
axios.com
Scoop: Trump allies open new front on Anthropic CEO as face of AI "doomerism"
Inside the MAGA effort to target Anthropic's Dario Amodei.
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Reposted by Brian Gocial
Walker Bragman @walkerbragman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
We need to dismantle the infrastructure that has allowed this cancer to metastasize and rot away our national foundations from the inside. Lives depend on it. It starts with transparency in political funding.
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Walker Bragman @walkerbragman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The conservative movement is a national death cult and it’s time to say so. It has destabilized and weakened America. We have mass shootings, medical bankruptcy, historic wealth inequality, a crumbling democracy, and out of control climate change—and a government unwilling to do anything about it.
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Brian Gocial @briangocial.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Let’s imagine the reaction had Obama proposed any one of these ideas… 🫠
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Reposted by Brian Gocial
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 22/09/2026
"Trump makes George W Bush look popular by comparison" -- Enten unpacks Trump's -42 approval rating on foreign affairs and how "it's the lowest any president has ever had on foreign affairs"
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Dean Baker @deanbaker13.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
With air travel down on the East Coast, maybe we need to go back to DEI when we had competent people running the FAA.
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Will Bunch @willbunch.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Imagine how simpler it would be if America just called our two parties "The Far Right" and "The Center" (since there is no Left)
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Josh Zingher @zingherpolisci.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
There is no sector of society or the economy that is immune from the costs of democratic backsliding. Your aspiring autocrat might pay lip service to helping your sector, but what they're really doing is cutting the wires holding up the whole economy.
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Brian Gocial @briangocial.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
The resemblance is uncanny.
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Eric Michael Garcia @ericmgarcia.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
This is a long but important read. It also shows that individual actions can’t match up to systemic inequalities. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/m...
nytimes.com
In Fighting for Every Black Child, Did I Betray My Own? (Gift Article)
A decade ago, I made a decision about my daughter’s education that I hoped would challenge New York City’s separate and unequal school system. Now 16, she thinks I made the wrong choice.
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Jen Mercieca @jenmercieca.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Anything he builds can and will be removed. And there is nothing he can do about it. I hope he's still alive when it happens so that he can see the power of the people and his final rebuke.
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Jen Mercieca @jenmercieca.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
“Presidents don’t name things after themselves, people name things after presidents — and there is a big difference between the two,” said Jennifer Mercieca, a communications professor at Texas A&M University and the author of “Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump.”
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alexis simpson is confused by display name changes @amutepiggy.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
nice of him to give away the game. so, they want americans to "be healthy" enough to... work more. notice how they don't talk at all about happiness or well being. they only want to extract the maximum value out of you until they dispose of you
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Brian Gocial @briangocial.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
“Salience.” Interesting.
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Reposted by Brian Gocial
Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
White House correspondents, D.C. bureau chiefs, and media execs: The German government expelled Dorothy Thompson from the country in August 1934. She's remembered and respected today for her important coverage and analysis over the next decade of the German regime. Be like Dorothy Thompson.
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Brian Gocial @briangocial.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Imagine all the tax breaks that could have been…
nytimes.com
Cost of Iran War Estimated at $43.6 Billion
For the first time, the Pentagon reported costs incurred by each armed service. The figures are almost certainly on the low side, congressional officials said.
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Reposted by Brian Gocial
Roger Parloff @rparloff.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Yesterday’s unanimous, bipartisan First Circuit ruling in the “D.V.D.” case, setting aside DHS’s policy for sending noncitizens to 3d countries, is remarkable. If upheld, it means DHS has deported 1000s illegally—enabled by SCOTUS, which lifted a preliminary injunction in June 2025. 1/6
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Brian Gocial @briangocial.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Old Man Trump will not be pleased.
nytimes.com
Two Centuries On, Smithsonian Connects Jefferson’s Hair to Hemings’s Children
A new book describes how cutting-edge genomics techniques yielded “extraordinary proof” that Thomas Jefferson fathered children with Sally Hemings.
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Reposted by Brian Gocial
Tim Dickinson @timdickinson.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Oregon has a long history as a datacenter state. But a new study details a wild imbalance that comes with the industry. Data centers consume ~23% of the state's electricity, but provide jobs for just 0.2% of the state's workforce
opb.org
Oregon data centers by the numbers: 111 facilities consume nearly one-quarter of state’s power, according to new report
A first-of-its-kind report details the footprint of the controversial facilities.
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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
8 months ago.
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Schooley @schooley.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The press treats Hasan Piker like he's running for office and Brandon Herrera like he's just a podcaster.
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." -Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953
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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
AFP photographer Brendan Smialowski's photo of Trump checking out a Pulte visual aid has now become a court exhibit in Joyce Beatty's heroic fight to save the Kennedy Center. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
A picture taken through the rounded windows of what may be the Flying Bribery Palace. Trump is visible, wearing a red cap with a flag on it (probably made in China). Someone who could be Bill Pulte is standing next to him. 

Through the next window to the left, a placard from which part of the title can be read: "dy Center DEMOLISH."
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Brian Gocial @briangocial.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
What they don’t want you to see.
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Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 17/09/2026
“We are not fairweather allies," 🇨🇦PM Carney tells the 🇪🇺Parliament. "We do not pursue zero sum deals. Our commitment to the rule of law and our unyielding defence of human dignity, individual freedom and democracy share the same deep roots, the same unwavering dedication."
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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The worst human being to ever occupy the office. Just reprehensible scum.
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Joe Noonan @joenoonan.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Banned: Macklemore's powerful statement deserves reading. www.instagram.com/p/DdRdsy0m2H...
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Dmitri. #freeLink @momus.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
they would like us to forget and move on, but it's vital that we don't look away thanks to amanda for this work. please see links in thread on how to support her:
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Reposted by Brian Gocial
Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 14/09/2026
Your regular reminder: If the Russians stop fighting, the war ends. If the Ukrainians stop fighting, their land will be occupied, their leaders will be killed, their history and language will be erased, their children will be kidnapped to serve Russia.
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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
All political candidates should be making a clear statement on this. It's not a trivial point. Trump's Albert Speer projects are the hallmarks of dictatorship.
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Brian Gocial @briangocial.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
“Everyone knows that the greatest threat to the upcoming midterm elections is not the Democrats or the Chinese, noncitizen voting, or electronic voting machines, but the president of the United States and his servile Republican Congress.”
newrepublic.com
The Final Battle for America’s Democracy
Forget November 3. It’s January 3 when Donald Trump and his MAGA Republicans might bury our democracy once and for all. Here’s how.
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Reposted by Brian Gocial
Philip Gourevitch @pgourevitch.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Yeah dude - the more I pay at the pump the less I fear nuclear attack by people who don’t have nukes and who wouldn’t be able to have them if you idiots didn’t tear up obama’s deal and start a self-defeating war about it.
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Brian Gocial @briangocial.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
“There is a cavernous void to be filled in American politics: No one has offered a vision for a future that a decisive majority of Americans can believe in.”
nytimes.com
Opinion | Voters Have Spoken. Why Aren’t Democrats Listening?
Less than two years after a catastrophic election, the Democratic brand remains unpopular, and the party is still in the grip of a divisive identity crisis.
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Brian Gocial @briangocial.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
"The Trump administration since 2025 has really just dismantled many of the fundamental protections we need to keep our food supply safe."
axios.com
The grocery aisle's new double whammy: price and safety
While grocery prices are driven by complex trade and energy costs, the safety net meant to keep them safe to eat is fraying.
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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
And if you think this is wrong and needs to be addressed they call you a communist
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Brian Gocial @briangocial.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
“The 80-year-old commander in chief spent more than 10 hours on Sunday posting dozens of apparently AI-generated images on his social media platform.” www.cnbc.com/2026/09/07/t...
NIght of camp David by Fletcher Knebel
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Reposted by Brian Gocial
Bill @bill-of-lefts.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Even from a purely national pride perspective, this requires you to think that the 100 year period from 1926 was a failure for the United States, instead of the zenith of its power, prosperity, and influence
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Schooley @schooley.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Let me guess, Elon made a call.
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Brian Gocial @briangocial.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
“The right learned pretty early on in Covid that public health is a threat to power.”
nytimes.com
Inside the D.O.J.’s Investigation of Fauci and Other Virus Scientists
As Dr. Anthony Fauci has faced public scrutiny from congressional Republicans, the D.O.J. has pursued a quieter and more expansive effort against a wider circle of researchers.
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Howard French @hofrench.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
You'd almost think they have a problem with Black people. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/0...
washingtonpost.com
The U.N. backed a map that shows Africa true to size. The U.S. was sole objector.
The U.S. was the only country to vote against the U.N. resolution, which encourages the use of an “Equal Earth” map. The U.S. described it as a “radical ideological project.”
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Brian Gocial @briangocial.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
“There is a bizarre value in the very incoherence – the more confusion, somehow, the better (even if the cost is undermining public faith in the security establishment, in a country facing existential security threats).”
forward.com
In upcoming Israeli election, Netanyahu is preparing to blame a loss on conspiracy
Sara Netanyahu’s extraordinary attack on Yair Golan reveals a reelection strategy increasingly built on vilification, conspiracy theories and the idea that political opponents are traitors
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