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Dick Polman

@dickpolman.bsky.social
349 followers 236 following 191 posts

I teach journalism at UPenn. I’ve been a journo since 1973, including 28 yrs at the Phila Inquirer. I write at dickpolman.substack.com and I’m archived at dickpolman.net Trying to sustain equilibrium in a land turned upside down.

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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
My latest, which puts much of the blame for our benighted era where it belongs.
dickpolman.substack.com
Ralph Nader is still a pariah. He deserves to be.
Tilting the ‘00 race to Bush was his original sin. We’re still suffering the consequences.
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David Corn @davidcorn.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Had a great chat with @mehdirhasan.bsky.social about my new book, "How Russia Won: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Fight for America." We agree: The Trump-Russia scandal is no hoax. Check it out. Learn more about the book (or order it) at HowRussiaWon.com
youtube.com
Trump Called Russia a Hoax. David Corn Says Putin Won
YouTube video by Zeteo
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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
My newest... dickpolman.substack.com/p/the-first-...
dickpolman.substack.com
The First Amendment is not a fascist chew toy
I stand with the banned. But let’s face it, the mainstream media helped create this monster.
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Ryan Goodman @rgoodlaw.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I discuss the mountain of First Amendment case law that prevents President Trump's attempt to punish journalists (ban them from the White House) because he doesn't like their reporting. Plus a good statement by Fox News' Jacqui Heinrich, president of White House Correspondents' Association.
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Josh Chafetz @joshchafetz.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
This is an R+6 district that @fiftyplusone.news currently has at an 88% chance of a GOP hold. Possible that GOP internal polling is even worse than the public polling.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 17/09/2026
Florida Republican tries to save her seat by ... running ads against Trump
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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Two posts I’m expecting from Trump: I’m glad Obama’s dog is dead. Obama’s dog died like a dog.
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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
My newest. The hustle never ends.
dickpolman.substack.com
Donald Trump, Buzz Windrip (who?), and Tony Soprano: A toxic trifecta.
Is the midterm electorate stupid enough to fall for the fraud’s five-grand con?
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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
My new piece... dickpolman.substack.com/p/senate-sla...
dickpolman.substack.com
Senate slacker John Fetterman needs to pack up his hoodies and get the hell out
Unless he quits his seat, the only hope is to bury him in a blue tsunami
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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
🎶” And the parting on the left / Is now a parting on the right…”🎶 -The Who
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George Conway ⚖️🇺🇸 @gtconway.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Love, love, love this. ht: @scottlincicome.bsky.social
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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
My newest, looking ahead... dickpolman.substack.com/p/a-stupid-w...
dickpolman.substack.com
A stupid war triggered a blue electoral tsunami 20 years ago. Now it could happen again.
Trump said his war would last “four weeks.” How’s that working out?
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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
EHTTTS, again. (Everything he touches...)
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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
My newest, with help from Karen Carpenter and Dante: dickpolman.substack.com/p/we-gotta-h...
dickpolman.substack.com
We gotta Harp on Trump and his handmaiden. Their besotted bond is a clear and present danger.
Calling 911. The stalker is inside the house.
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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
My newest... dickpolman.substack.com/p/does-trump...
dickpolman.substack.com
Does Trump have even a shred of credibility as a war leader? Nah, that ship has sailed.
The beleaguered U.S.S. Lincoln sailors serve at the pleasure of Cadet Bone Spurs.
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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
My latest. Good grief... open.substack.com/pub/dickpolm...
open.substack.com
Collaborating with fascism: The Washington press corps' quintessential ass kiss
By inviting Trump to trash-talk their First Amendment mission, they soiled themselves.
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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
My newest... dickpolman.substack.com/p/the-fraud-...
dickpolman.substack.com
The fraud-in-chief, a font of stupidity and hypocrisy, goes wild about Canada's fires
Climate change denier blames our neighbor for a climate change disaster
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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
My take (from Monday) on Lindsey's legacy.
dickpolman.substack.com
Lickspittle Lindsey Graham exits stage right
Every aspiring fascist needs a simpering flunky.
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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
My new piece: Justice at last for E. Jean Carroll.
open.substack.com
It's official, forevermore: Trump sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll. Thanks, Supreme Court!
Even the GOP judges refused to come to the aid of the adjudicated rapist.
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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
My new piece, intended as satire. But how can you tell anymore?
dickpolman.substack.com
Introducing Donald Trump's Green New Deal. He loves the algae and planned for it all along!
A transcript from his next press briefing. Some might call it satire. But who can tell?
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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Wrote this a year ago, on a trip to Normandy. Apt re-post for the holiday.
open.substack.com
I felt proud to be an American...in Normandy
On the 80th anniversary of V-E Day, I communed with our heroes
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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Some people are shocked that Trump is stealing $1.8 billion of *our* money to enrich his goons. How can anyone be shocked? I wrote in Dec. '24 that "Anyone who's still in denial about what awaits us should be indicted for failure of imagination." I'm re-upping that warning for what awaits us still.
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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
My latest... dickpolman.substack.com/p/democrats-...
dickpolman.substack.com
Democrats should pound a TRUMP TAX message into every persuadable skull, 24/7
The wind is at their backs. Do they have the balls and discipline to take advantage?
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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
My latest...
dickpolman.substack.com
For America's sake, let's welcome the MAGA dropouts who are finally waking up to reality
...Even though we're tempted to simply say, "We told ya so."
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
The second point cannot be emphasized enough. Guiliani put the command center in WTC against the advice of experts, and as a result of his horny incompetence, the city's command center was obliterated in the worst terrorist attack on NYC and its response suffered. But he got good photos so...
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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
My latest...
dickpolman.substack.com
James Comey's original sin
Indicting him is vengeful idiocy. But he helped give us Trump in the first place.
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Sarah Longwell @sarahlongwell25.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Here’s Trump threatening violence, calling for his political enemies’ executions, celebrating the deaths of people he didn’t like, and otherwise casually promoting political violence. There was also the small matter of Jan. 6 and subsequent pardons for violent felons.
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Mark Harris @markharris.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
No powerful person in my lifetime has degraded American discourse and vilified, dehumanized and demonized those who disagree with him more than Donald Trump. He and his sycophants are blaming the left for the world they themselves built, and their complaints should not be given a moment's credence.
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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
My latest, on the aborted White House Correspondents dinner. Welcome to what the rest of us feel and fear.
dickpolman.substack.com
Bullets and bedlam: America at its worst
The media banquet served up the perfect recipe for a toxic stew
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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Convicted criminal with 34 felonies saying he’s strong on crime, that’s funny.
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George Conway ⚖️🇺🇸 @gtconway.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
It should go without saying that, just because some bad people want to criminally do harm to other bad people, that does not mean that any of the bad people are not, in fact, bad people.
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Adam Kinzinger @adamkinzinger.substack.com · 26/04/2026
Don’t let last night’s attack be weaponized into silence. Speaking truth to power and demanding accountability from our leaders isn’t dangerous rhetoric, it’s the foundation of democracy. We can condemn violence and also demand accountability from our leaders.
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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
Anyone suggesting we should stop accurately pointing out factual ways that the president is wrecking this country on a daily basis, or expressing an opinion about that, because of something a random nut does is espousing a profoundly un-American concept that I completely reject.
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Hamilton Nolan @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
Hearing the head of the WHCA—who just days ago participated in a Paramount dinner “honoring” Trump— say tonight that the First Amendment is “fragile” because of a random shooter rather than because of the president sitting next to her on the podium is, I guess, exactly as pathetic as you’d expect.
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public health guy @publichealthguy1.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
unrelenting
Episode IV 
IT WAS ALL SO STUPID
Seriously, you would not believe how stupid it was.
Every day, unrelentingly, just the dumbest stuff, by the absolute worst people., And what made it worse was knowing that we'd brought this on ourselves.
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Journalists who are still attending the WHCD this year don't seem to get just how much things have changed. It isn't 1998. You're not going to pose for cute photos with the West Wing stars at "nerd prom." You're enabling a regime who's assaulting your own profession & you're torching your career.
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Rep. Melanie Stansbury (NM-01) @repstansbury.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
Just leaving this right here. #25thAmendment
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 23/04/2026
Trump is about to hit REM on camera during an Oval Office event. It's just incredible.
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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
My latest. Trump has created an opening for Dems that's wider than the Strait of Hormuz.
dickpolman.substack.com
Thanks to Trump's blasphemies, Democrats have a chance to finally narrow the "god gap"
Only one problem: They rarely miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
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George Conway ⚖️🇺🇸 @gtconway.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
"[Trump's] destroying his own base. He's destroying his own credibility. He's destroying his own power. And even though that means he's more dangerous, because he's going to be more desperate, I think we can see a path—a difficult path—but a path that can be traversed with great determination."
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George Conway ⚖️🇺🇸 @gtconway.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
"We have to impeach and remove [Trump], and it's not separate from all the issues that we need to address on an economic level for people here in this district and elsewhere. Because we can't accomplish any of that until he's gone."
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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Melania-Epstein is a distraction from Trump-Iran is a distraction from Melania-Epstein is a distraction from Trump-Iran is a
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MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · 07/04/2026
The receipts. A complete timeline of the shifting rhetoric. More: www.meidasplus.com/p/today-in-p...
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 05/04/2026
The biggest story in the world right now is that the president of the United States is a demented old man who takes pleasure in torturing and killing people and is committing crimes with impunity. And yet most legacy media outlets are too cowardly to tell it like it is.
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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
My latest. This seems obvious but worth 950 words.
dickpolman.substack.com
Our schools don't teach civics anymore. That's a big reason why we wound up with Trump.
Tyrants thrive when people are "functionally illiterate" about democracy.
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Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Trump told a lengthy story last week about negotiating over the price of Sharpie pens. The company says it has no record of any such conversation. "We don't have any information about the conversation described."
washingtonpost.com
Trump imagines negotiation with Sharpie maker for $5 signature pens
Trump told a lengthy story about negotiating over the price of Sharpie pens. The company says it has no record of any such conversation.
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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
My latest. Some historical perspective.
dickpolman.substack.com
Richard Nixon doesn't look so bad after all!
Corrupt and paranoid, yes. But light years more enlightened than the current guy.
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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Check out the fascizzzzt.
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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
I suspect that, deep down in Trump’s damaged depraved psyche, where perhaps Dr. Melfi in "The Sopranos" could effectively probe, perhaps with the help of sodium pentathol, there is a wee spark of realization that he couldn’t hold Mueller’s pen if it were duct-taped to his fingers.
dickpolman.substack.com
Robert Mueller was the best of America
Duty, public service, selfless sacrifice. Trump has no clue what those are.
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Dick Polman @dickpolman.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
My latest...
dickpolman.substack.com
Fill 'er up! Were paying a big price at the pump for the incompetent warlord's bloodlust
With '26 elections looming, will motorists connect dot A to dot B?
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