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Croaker

@croakerx.bsky.social
173 followers 83 following 1K posts

Just a citizen.

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Reposted by Croaker
Mike Konczal @mtkonczal.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
BLS this morning, with revised 2Q data: "The labor share, which is the percentage of output that accrues to workers in the form of compensation, was 52.8 percent in the second quarter of 2026, the lowest level in the series, which begins in the first quarter of 1947."
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Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Chat, is it good when an aspiring authoritarian is purging the military leadership to install politically reliable generals (gift: www.nytimes.com/2026/08/28/u...)
Hegseth Blocks Promotions of Four Army Officers as Purge Widens

The turmoil has left a leadership vacuum in the Army at a moment when it is trying to find ways to defend troops against the threat posed by cheap drones.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is blocking the promotions of four Army officers selected for promotion to one-star rank, a highly unusual move that appears to be targeting officers who worked for generals he does not like, current and former defense officials said.

So far this year Mr. Hegseth has removed at least 45 officers, selected by boards made up of peers, from promotion lists. More than half of those officers have been female or Black.

Mr. Hegseth’s actions appear to violate the rules governing a promotion system that is meant to be apolitical and merit-based.
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Ryan Goodman @rgoodlaw.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Extraordinary, powerful and heart-wrenching. Active duty Marine Colonel Zach Schmidt, speaking in his personal capacity, about Khalil, an Afghan national whose family helped U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Khalil was deported by the U.S. on Friday to a conflict zone.
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David Rothkopf @djrothkopf.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
So, let me get this straight, the US illegally attacks a country, kidnaps its president, threatens its government with massive military force, gets them to hand over to US control a huge portion of their national assets, hails the billions it has already brought in and promises billions more...
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 25/08/2026
"I was not shocked that he helped somebody. My shock is that he was murdered. And no one has given us the complete truth or anyone has been held accountable. And it's been 7 months! ... there was more effort in vilifying him than pursuing justice" -- Alex Pretti's parents
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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
This is probably unpopular on Bluesky, but I think what French is saying here is basically true. The IDEOLOGICAL foundations of the GOP, pre-Trump, have been razed to the ground. What he omits is that most GOP voters were instead attracted to certain EMOTIONAL undercurrents, out of which MAGA arose.
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Food companies wanted deregulation. Now there are dozens of recalls across the country. Mining companies wanted deregulation. Now the black lung rate is at a 45-year high. Financial companies wanted deregulation. Now financial losses to fraud are the highest on record. Noticing a pattern?
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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Trump administration every day: Tariffs don’t raise prices. Trump administration today: We’re exempting 300,000 metric tons of ground beef from tariffs in order to lower prices.
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Patrick Chovanec @prchovanec.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
There are some self-described socialist candidates on the left who I strongly disagree with, but the only politician seizing and nationalizing shares of private companies that I know of is Donald J Trump.
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Leah Greenberg ❌👑 @leahgreenberg.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
OUT: Go woke, go broke IN: Go fash, lose cash www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...
theguardian.com
US firms that kept DEI policies despite ‘go woke, go broke’ threats thrived
Exclusive: Companies that kept policies did just as well financially, even after Trump’s executive order, as those that didn’t
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
He voted for Trump three times. Then ICE came for his wife, who had entered legally, sought asylum under the process even Trump used to say was “the right way,” and was months away from a green card. Now he says he’s “living in fear in my own country.”
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David Rothkopf @djrothkopf.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Reminder: Being woke means caring and being a decent human being. The term was demonized by people capable of neither. Being woke is a good thing. Media outlets are under no obligation to use MAGA definitions.
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Video of an ICE agent pulling a gun on a wife and mother, who is a US citizen born and raised in the area, near Bailey's Crossroads in Northern Virginia yesterday. Chillingly, they claimed she “almost ran them over” until she told them she had video proving that was a lie.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Wow! ICE’s airport arrests of people seemingly waiting in government immigration backlogs caught up a Fulbright scholar and public health researcher working at Johns Hopkins in their public health department. Not exactly the “worst of the worst”! Yet they threw her in detention anyway.
Baltimore Banner header.

A Johns Hopkins University public health researcher and former Fulbright scholar was detained this week by immigration agents while boarding a domestic flight as the Trump administration ramps up immigration enforcement efforts at airports.
In an email Thursday night, the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security confirmed that agents with its
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency arrested Fatima Ameaka on July 28 at Baltimore-Washington
International Thurgood Marshall Airport.
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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 24/07/2026
As an economic pathology, AI is *extraordinary*. AI boosters have spent a baffling and terrifying sum of money - over $1.4T, most of that in the past year - on the promise of making as many workers unemployed as possible, while lowering the wages of the meager survivors of this jobspocalypse. 3/
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Croaker @croakerx.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Excellent summary.
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Edward Luce @edwardluce.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Just want to register my strong disapproval of the profane language used in my home country.
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Jordan Harper @jordanharper.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
How long is a million seconds? ​

First, let me ask you a question: How long do you think a million seconds is? In terms of days, weeks, years, decades, or whatever.

Turns out it's 11.5 days. That's it. Less than two weeks.
How long is a billion seconds? ​

Now, how about a billion?

A billion seconds is 31.7 years.

So a million seconds ago was last week, and a billion seconds ago was 1993.
How long is a trillion seconds? ​

Okay, last one. How long do you think a trillion seconds is?

A trillion seconds is 31,689 years.

A trillion seconds ago, humans were still in the Stone Age. Writing hadn't been invented. Agriculture hadn't been invented. We were hunter-gatherers using basic tools.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 07/06/2026
WOW - Trump crashes out & cuts his interview w/ Welker short as she presses him on his lack of evidence for claiming elections are rigged "You're either crooked or you're stupid. I've had enough. Thank you darling," he tells her" "I traveled all the way to Wisconsin for this interview," she pleads
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Andrea Junker @strandjunker.com · 24/05/2026
Lest we forget: Obama secured the Iran deal without starting a war, shutting down the Strait of Hormuz, or losing a single American life. But please, tell me more about how “toughness” requires body bags.
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The Steady State @thesteadystate.org · 17/05/2026
An aging Trump posting multiple “I’m getting younger” memes is strongman mythology. The ruler is physically exceptional, immune to decline, and beyond ordinary human limits.
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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
You can take all the corruption from every single US administration in history, add it all together, and it will not equal the amount of corruption committed by the Trump Regime in less than two years.
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Hoodlum 🇺🇸 @nothoodlum.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
President Obama: “We pulled it off without firing a missile. We got 97% of their enriched uranium out. There’s no dispute that it worked and we didn’t have to kill a whole bunch of people or shut down the Strait of Hormuz.”
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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
👇
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Democracy Docket @democracydocket.com · 09/05/2026
NEW: We’re seeing what the Voting Rights Act had been protecting the nation against: aggressive GOP gerrymanders drawn to silence Black voters. But as the effects of SCOTUS’ catastrophic ruling ripple, voters are meeting this moment ready to fight. In words and photos, this is their response:
democracydocket.com
‘We shall overcome (again)': In powerful statehouse protests, Black voters and leaders decry GOP's Southern gerrymanders
Here are some of the most dramatic and powerful examples of how Black Americans -- from elected officials to ordinary voters -- have responded to the wave of GOP gerrymanders.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
You do not hate the DOGE people enough. Boys with toys breaking things they were too arrogant and lazy to understand.
Because the inquiry was framed only in terms of whether a project "relate[d] at all to DEI" (whatever that might mean to ChatGPT), projects whose abbreviated descriptions contained general references to "history," "culture," or "identity" were frequently identified by ChatGPT as relating to DEI. For example, a project to recover and analyze ancient writings attributed to Moses but excluded from the canonical Hebrew Bible and preserved in fragmentary form (e.g., the Book of Jubilees and the Testament of Moses) was classified as DEI because it claimed to "provide important insight into Jewish thought from two thousand years ago, complementary to insight from the Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament." Dkt. No. 248-11, at 99, C461-1461 (emphasis added). The project description reflects a highly technical effort involving multispectral imaging,
textual reconstruction, and the recovery of deteriorated source materials. Id. Yet, the assigned
rationale consists of a single sentence linking the project to "Jewish thought," which ChatGPT
considered to be aligned with "DEI" goals. Id.
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Paul Waldman @paulwaldman.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Today is a reminder that except for a brief period running roughly from Brown v. Board to Roe v. Wade, throughout its history the Supreme Court has been a reactionary force protecting the wealth of the wealthy and the power of the powerful, almost always hostile to equality and justice.
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Asha Rangappa @asharangappa.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
This. Thread.
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Khashoggi's Ghost @urocklive1.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Fisherman. We're blowing up fishing boats.
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Croaker @croakerx.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
No process. Just “kiss his ass” and you’ll get what you want from the President of the United States. Of course you have to be a billionaire for him to answer your call.
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Croaker @croakerx.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
100% this.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
I would like a Secretary of Defense who has read one (1) book on the history of warfare; preferably one that discusses the impact of disease on armies.
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Eric Lipton NYT @ericlipton.nytimes.com · 19/04/2026
NYT INVESTIGATION: As the Trump administration & Congress last year moved to repeal sanctions on Syria, the Qatar-based family that most stood to benefit was privately negotiating a real-estate partnership with Jared Kushner and proposing a Trump golf course in Syria www.nytimes.com/2026/04/19/u...
nytimes.com
Syrian Billionaires Needed a Favor in Washington. They Invoked the Trump Name.
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Judd Legum @juddlegum.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
Have been wondering when candidates would start talking about this. One of the biggest corruption scandals is U.S. history playing out in real time.
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Croaker @croakerx.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Sounds like Hungary has a functioning democracy whose structure allows for massive corrections when necessary. As an American, I’m envious.
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Barack Obama @barackobama.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
The victory of the opposition in Hungary yesterday, like the Polish election in 2023, is a victory for democracy, not just in Europe but around the world.
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Peter Baker @peterbakernyt.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
Hungary's Viktor Orban, a lodestar for MAGA culture warriors and right-wing populists in Europe, concedes defeat in a general election, breaking the momentum of a global nationalist revival promoted by Trump. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/12/w...
nytimes.com
Orban, Beacon to the Right, Concedes Defeat in Hungary’s Election
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Edward Luce @edwardluce.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
People will be closely studying how Hungary's opposition pulled off their win in such a pro-incumbent system. Important to note that the theme was corruption. Democrats need to get much better at calling out Trump's corruption.
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Colette Delawalla, PhD @cdelawalla.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
I had this thought last night that, in addition to the Challenger trauma, we all recently dealt with the (billionaire side project) Oceangate situation…which I think made us collectively forget how ABSOLUTELY METICULOUS AND CHOREOGRAPHED NASA is. NASA folks aren’t amateurs 💁🏻‍♀️
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Asha Rangappa @asharangappa.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
Is the fact that the Iran war wasn’t congressionally authorized something we no longer talk about? Seems like the reporting/discussion now just assumes that Trump can just do whatever he wants wrt the use of force
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Daniel Ahmad @zhugeex.com · 07/04/2026
I hate having to do the "look, they're normal just like us" post, but sometimes you have to do that when American propaganda tries to convince everyone Iranians are "animals".
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Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
A moment of sympathy for our president, who is being 'poorly served' by the people he appointed to carry out these inhumane policies. 1/
Opinion
Editorial Board
A shameful ICE detention of a soldier’s wife

The president is again poorly served by hardliners in his administration.
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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 05/04/2026
He is talking about creating a humanitarian disaster, a clear war crime
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
One thing I love is the percentage of “journalism” devoted to pretending this kind of gutter racism is some benign, rational other thing that only the white people midwestern diners and staffers at right wing think tanks can truly understand bsky.app/profile/pale...
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Jen Rubin @jenrubin.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
For a war ostensibly designed to reduce Iran’s military capabilities and ability to threaten the region, it would seem an extraordinary outcome to have a result…be a situation in which Iran could now export oil freely, but our allies would have to pay fees to Iran for the privilege of doing so”
result.be
Result
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
The data we are getting out of ICE now conclusively destroys their "worst of the worst" narrative. Since the Los Angeles raids began in June last year, there has been a massive expansion of ICE arrests against people with no criminal record, while arrests of others remained flat.
Chart showing Average Daily ICE Arrests by Criminal Record, 7-Day Rolling Average, October 1, 2024 to March 5, 2026. The data shows that arrests of people with any prior conviction or any pending charge fluctuated between 300-400 a day from June 2025 to March 2026, never spiking much below or above that. By March, arrests of that group had fallen from 380 a day in June 2025 to around 300 a day in March 2025

Arrests of people with any pending charge have fluctuated between 250 and 375 a day. In June 2025 it was around 300 a day. As of March 2026, it is also around 300 a day.

By contrast, arrests of people with no criminal record spiked to nearly 600 a day during the Los Angeles operation, and have consistently been above 350. Arrests of this group were above 500 a day from the start of Operation Midway Blitz in September through January. As of March 5, they had fallen to just over 400 a day.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 31/03/2026
South Australia has spent years patiently constructing one of the world's first big 100% clean grids. Its reward? Industries are *flocking* there to take advantage. Peak load is expected to double in coming years. Go green, make green.
reneweconomy.com.au
Peak load tipped to double as industries flock to Australia's world-first 100 pct renewables grid
Peak demand is expected to double over the next decade as industries flock to take advantage of the world's first 100 pct net renewable grid built around wind and solar.
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Croaker @croakerx.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
Manipulating the most ignorant Americans is usually easy. But not always.
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Benjamin Wittes @benjaminwittes.lawfaremedia.org · 22/03/2026
Are they going to wear masks? If not, let’s all go to the airports and take pictures.
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Croaker @croakerx.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
Another catch and kill operation. RIP Twitter RIP Washington Post RIP CBS News
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