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Leo Burnett

@cascobay.bsky.social
120 followers 150 following 115 posts

civic tech, Maine politics, decolonial history, tech privacy, housing justice. Code for America alum and occasional political campaigner. 🏳️‍⚧️ wabanaki land - machigonne aka portland ME

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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
It's so refreshing. He's showing us a lost art of building power in American politics, too: use government to actually help people and communicate in ways they recognize what you're doing. This creates a durable and regenerative coalition of political support for decades (a la new deal)
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The fact that Musk himself is sponsoring so many of the anti-trans ads this cycle presents a pretty golden opportunity for Dems to point out that of course the guy who literally wants to build a gas-powered data center in your backyard wants this election to be about trans people.
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
If this hospital were owned by the people who pay for its services, it wouldn’t be closing. It’s closing because the executives demand profit. Let‘s not pretend this is a rational decision. It’s cruel and inhumane and simply greedy.
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
We should study the political campaign industry as a key driver of the digital advertising ecosystem, the data broker industry + loss of 4th amendment rights. Everything campaigns touch (email, texting, phone calls) they torch and ruin.
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Local news media ecosystem was already really bleak, but this year it appears that the Maine Wire is churning out way more racist, inaccurate clickbait - including about city councils and hyper-local stuff no one else is reporting on. That's very, very bad
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Abolish credit scores and make data brokers illegal. This should not be a business that exists. www.404media.co/you-opened-a...
404media.co
You Opened a Credit Card. ICE Now Knows Where You Live
Here's how your personal address travels from your credit card provider, through middlemen companies, and ends up with ICE.
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Megan L. Cook @meganlcook.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
I hope all of you who've become out-of-state experts on Maine and its voters in the last month will just as vocally throw your support and resource behind Troy Jackson. Because the Maine senate race IS important, and Jackson CAN win www.pressherald.com/2026/07/20/h...
pressherald.com
How Troy Jackson mobilized supporters to take command of Maine’s Democratic Senate race
Jackson, a longtime lawmaker, consolidated support among Democrats at weekend caucuses thanks to his campaign's organization and policy overlaps with Graham Platner. He's almost certain to be the nomi...
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Some entire countries hold elections in a matter of weeks. The Democratic Party being forced to create a democratic and transparent process for this is a good thing. it’s just treated as pure abject failure and chaos because the outcome isn’t determined yet.
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
“But the bigger problem is how much of the media of ‘the left’ is dominated by men who appear to have no understanding of sexual abuse or intimate partner violence, but do have a pretty hefty sexist streak that they either aren’t aware of or don’t care to remedy.” YES @juliedicaro.bsky.social
losingmyperspicacity.beehiiv.com
We have an even bigger problem than Graham Platner
The candidate's rise and fall perfectly illustrates the sexism in lefty media
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Jason Read @jasonread.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
For months now, almost since the beginning of Graham Platner's campaign, I have seen the same pattern unfold. Some scandal breaks out, first the tattoo, then the racist and sexist Reddit posts, and then the texts, but I walk around my neighborhood and still see the Platner signs up, still hear about the massive turn outs for his rallies across the state. Support never wavered, and I do not think that it was for the reasons that people out of state thought; it was not because people in the state were basically Nazis, or so caught up in some fantasy of flannel and masculinity that they fell for the image. People were willing to forgive, to believe that he had changed, because they wanted very much to believe that there was a politician who wanted to help working people, to deliver promises of universal healthcare, to say no to genocide and war, and to openly confront the rise of fascism in Washington. People believed that Platner was the person he said he was, and he exploited that belief until it could no longer be sustained.
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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
"What I learned, from ACT-UP and the squatters movement, was that in thinking about electoral politics, ideology doesn't matter much. Only 2 questions matter. What can a person holding that position actually do? Will they do it?" - Seth Tobocman Basically.
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
This is a great post. I keep thinking about a few interactions I've had with older boomer men being enthralled with ChatGPT. It was more than just liking it on a utility level: they are clearly getting some validation and raw emotional sustenance from having someone (a tool) think they are brilliant
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
I think a really important thing to know about the democratic party establishment and specifically the staffers is that they got their jobs by being loyal - not by being particularly talented. Some of the most incompetent people fail upwards. Most will be incapable of adapting and that is fine
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
I love that the ranked choice voting livestream is boring and just shows the inside of dimly lit office building and clerks counting votes. This is just government working. That being said I do hope they have a tiiiny bit of theatrical flair when reading the final votes. #mepolitics
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
The @workingfamilies.org has zero on the ground infrastructure in Maine yet they have sent mailers and texts in support of Jackie sartoris for DA and for the progressive gov ticket. I wish groups that have no in-state grassroots network gave $$ to in state groups or organizers instead #mepolitics
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
At this point you’ve got to recognize that there are two completely different discussions happening about the Platner race, depending on whether you’re in or out of the state of Maine. I have zero interest in discussing the race with someone who isn’t in the state.
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
My parents met working at the local newspaper (before it was sold for parts and dismantled, of course) and the newspaper kid in me is constantly impressed by the incredible work being done by @404media.co and indie journalists like @marisakabas.bsky.social. Give them your money and attention.
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Yup. But no politician wants to be blamed for raising their own salary. Grassroot groups have to demand and campaign on this.
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Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 07/05/2026
“On Bullshit Engines' Politics” link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...
Clearly, whether we’re talking about GPTs and LLMs or just “machine learning” and algorithms, “AI” systems definitely have politics. The problem is not and never has been that what “AI” is and does is “out of step” or “unaligned” with human values, but rather that the values with which “AI” is aligned are a) very, very human, b) woefully under-examined, and often c) terrible. Those values embedded here tend to be racism, sexism, ableism, efficiency, power-over, speed, control, white supremacy, eugenics, hegemony, kyriarchy; what they don’t tend be are prosocial consensus reality, intersubjective truth, or facts. Because obfuscation, misinformation, and disinformation are valuative positions— and they are also mechanisms of control.
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Folks outside of Maine focusing on Platner and all his ills with zero context to just how cruel and damaging Janet Mills has been to just about every single marginalized group in the state should maybe refrain from comments today.
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
When Portland's skydio drone gets used to surveil protests, I plan to send a "thank you" note to every city councilor who ignored the will of the community, plugged their ears, and voted to expand surveillance anyway. #mepolitics theintercept.com/2026/04/20/l...
theintercept.com
LAPD Deployed Drones to Spy on No Kings Protest
Flight records show that Los Angeles police dispatched drones 32 times over last month’s No Kings rally.
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
"For more than an hour, several employees said, workers in the facility were instructed to continue fetching totes, picking items off shelves and loading them onto trucks for delivery as the man lay dead, and management figured out their next steps."
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
"It’s exposed a gulf between those who want to have their words remembered and those who just want people to remember that they wrote." Brilliance from @marisakabas.bsky.social www.thehandbasket.co/p/refusing-t...
thehandbasket.co
Refusing to accept big tech's AI-poisoned 'future of journalism'
Humans, however flawed, are
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
If I had 60 hrs to spare I’d like to dig into every tech purchase made by local govs with covid relief money and how the recurring software costs for these purchases are about to hit for the first time and only go up from here on out. Surprise!
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
The magic of the thoroughly undemocratic city gov system: unelected staff make political choices with zero awareness of the political cost. Someone in the assessors office should be fired. Will they?
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
When you've given up trying to empathize or be kind to people, dogs will still love you. Even if your soul is dead inside and you're responsible for the deaths of millions, your dog will still love you. Maybe that's why.
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Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
I’m glad to see people protesting Discord forcing IDs for age verification, but what I need everyone to understand is that there’s immense bipartisan pressure to make the entire internet like this, and they are likely going to succeed unless something drastic happens
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Meridith Bolster @meribolst.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
www.pressherald.com/2026/01/28/a...
pressherald.com
A pastor searched for a missing congregant. He found a car with the keys on the floor
Evaristo Kalonji, an asylum seeker from Angola who has no criminal record, vanished from South Portland. He turned up in one detention center, then another.
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Dylan Tusinski @dylantus.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Video shows ICE leaving behind an infant and broken glass after arresting a man with no criminal history. “There was a car seat in the back... There were broken glass shards all over it... There was just this tiny peanut of a baby. He was crying.” My latest: www.pressherald.com/2026/01/28/i...
pressherald.com
ICE agents shatter window, leave 1-month-old baby, mother in car after Portland arrest
Video shows federal immigration agents leaving behind an infant and broken glass after detaining a Guinean immigrant with no known criminal history.
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Erin Maye Quade @erinmayequade.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
We are observers, not protestors. We show up to document and film the atrocities ICE is committing. Using 5 year olds as bait. Kidnapping senior citizens. Breaking down doors without warrants. Murdering poets and nurses. Media has all of that information because *observers* were there to document it
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William C. @williamcson.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Once you understand that you're dealing with murderous liars, you stop entertaining what they say as possibly credible and legitimate. The fight against them is about stopping them from terrorizing and killing by any means, not winning debates about your reality versus theirs.
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
We are witnessing in #PortlandME the full scale assault and abduction of our neighbors and unsurprisingly the press coverage is three steps behind. Of course the feds are lying when they say they are rounding up criminals. Of course they are lying when they say they are here illegally.
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Megan Piontkowski Illustration @meganpiont.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
"How to Report ICE" #Maine edition is up! Print, cut, fold and distribute to help keep our neighbors safe! drive.google.com/file/d/1SYez...
drive.google.com
Maine-SALUTE-zine-1-15-26.pdf
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
"ICE violence is enabled by ICE surveillance, often with help from local police and city-run surveillance systems. If local leaders want to protect their residents from ICE's gestapo tactics, one of the most immediate things they can do is roll back and limit surveillance"
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
Consistent ongoing theme that almost any regulation with the purpose of "protecting kids" or "ensuring safety" online for children or s*x workers is a backdoor for authoritarian surveillance.
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 30/12/2025
I hate these charts so much because they imply chatgpt is comparable to the internet or phones You could create the same graphic for full screen pop-up advertising on websites and make them look like ultra-rapid technology adoption when really they were just baked unavoidably into the internet
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
I wrote a piece in the @mainemorningstar.com on data centers and the AI debate in Maine- and why political leaders should catch on to the growing pushback to big tech #mepolitics
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
Calling it a fancy spellcheck instead of AI is both a great mockery and it’s descriptive and actually helpful in explaining what large language models actually ARE which are prediction machines and not at all intelligent
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
There are some pretty scary political applications of AI, especially with video. But as someone who has worked in the churn n' burn political biz, I think AI's largest impact won't be in the realm of persuasion but rather in further eroding the legitimacy of the entire process
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
I've noticed a new trend where the for-profit utility companies (spectruminternet, CMP electricity) are starting to send customer emails that make it seem like they are being proactive and responsive, like "we're letting you know that we're monitoring the storm"
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Charles Logan @charleswlogan.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
Joseph Weizenbaum wrote that, "The myth of technological and political and social inevitability is a powerful tranquilizer of the conscience," and one thing I'm thankful for today is everybody working together to fight the myths of inevitability.
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
And even in the actual "news" sections, the headline is "Dems are angry at Angus, in an unexpected and new development" as though it's just whiny partisans who are pissed their healthcare premiums are doubling.
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Candidates whose whole politics amounts to “let’s just all be reasonable and sit around a table and calmly solve our differences” are a fascist’s ideal politician.
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Has anyone in Maine done a search for George Mitchell in the Epstein trove yet? Elite impunity isn’t just in Washington.. #mepolitics
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
Angus King is a businessman and he leads with that perspective. Time to get back to work, everyone. Solidarity? Leverage? Fight? Foreign concepts to a guy whose entire career is one long train of forgettable, pro-corporate policies sprinkled with self-serious speeches. #mepolitics
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
Worth noting that the same ways Susan Collins is repeatedly given the fluff treatment by the Maine press (something covered in excellent detail by @collinswatch.bsky.social) is how King is treated, too. Today's Press Herald headline: "Shutdown end in sight as Maine’s King helps break stalemate"
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
Angus King and Janet Mills both could have retired comfortably and retained their reputation as fairly respected politicians. Instead both decided to cling to power into their 80s and show the entire nation their true colors. #mepolitics
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Leo Burnett @cascobay.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Increasingly clear that more people need to understand what the cloud is and the basics of how it works. Having the entire web hosted on Amazon Web Services is a huge vulnerability - not to mention a consolidation of power and loss of democracy when AI is brought into the picture.
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