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Rick Rhodent

@emperorhipolito.bsky.social
368 followers 1K following 42 posts

Mostly gone from the old place. Miscellany about Chicago and things that matter.

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Reposted by Rick Rhodent
Greg Pak @gregpak.net · 11h
i dunno if i were a member of the press or punditry with a national platform, in the wake of this fascist government attack on Ilhan Omar, i would start asking all kinds of questions about and doing deep investigations into Melania Trump's and Elon Musk's immigration issues
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Greg Pak @gregpak.net · 11h
I still remember in 2015 when Trump was gonna hold a press conference clear up all the questions about Melania's immigration issues in two weeks. And then he didn't. And the press never asked them about it again.
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Denny Carter @dennycarter.bsky.social · 15h
I think a shocking number of our major societal problems would vanish overnight if you could magically pull the plug on the X platform and Meta, both of which are carefully designed to turn people into the worst version of themselves.
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Jenny Cohn @jennycohn.bsky.social · 14h
Trump’s State Department aims to “direct more than $175m of the…department’s…human rights fund to…an anti-communism fund,…a group advancing white Afrikaner rights in South Africa, a campaign against Brazil’s supreme court & programs that would reward ideological allies in Europe….” 9/30/26 … 1/
share.google
Trump administration diverts human rights funds to push far-right agenda abroad
Support such as for white Afrikaners and anti-communism reveals how US is redefining what qualifies as human rights
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Gwen Snyder is uncivil @gwensnyder.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Seems to me that if there were a legal mechanism to force AI agent traffic to identify itself, and a technological mechanism to allow websites to deny that traffic, we'd solve a lot of problems here
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Dean Obeidallah @deanobeidallah.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Meanwhile Merrick Garland would not even charge GOP members of Congress like Jim Jordan who were criminal conspirators in Trump's attempted coup. Next Democratic AG needs to have the guts required to prosecute Republicans in Congress for their crimes!!
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
X is the platform of choice for these smears. Musk himself pushed this conspiracy from his own account three times. Democrats need to go to war against Musk because he's already attacking them. He's deeply unpopular. And, as we saw in Wisconsin, voters recoil when he becomes an issue in a race.
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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
We've been boiled frogs for so long this never gets mentioned. But this violates DOJ policies that have been in place for decades, ones that Defense Attorney Todd Blanche said should have extended for the entirety of the time his client had declared his candidacy. (Tho I think this was DHS.)
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scarylawyerguy.bsky.social @scarylawyerguy.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
If you doubt the GOP's ability to shape media narratives, Talarico got the flu & right wingers spread lies that he had a mental breakdown (which the media of course picked up). Meanwhile, Trump's right hand is falling off and he falls asleep in public every day & it's crickets
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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Not only should brooks and others shut up. But Ossoff is the best example in the country of a Democrat playing dominance politics and using it to control the whole terms of his race.
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
More than 500 U.S. citizens have been detained by ICE, according to ProPublica. 70% of ICE detainees have no criminal conviction. Trump’s promise to go after the “worst of the worst” was always a lie. It was always a pretext to terrorize Black and brown communities. Remember this.
projects.propublica.org
More Than 500 U.S. Citizens Have Been Detained, Including Handcuffed or Held at Gunpoint, in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown — ProPublica
The government doesn’t track how often immigration officers detain U.S. citizens. So ProPublica did. We’ve found more th
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Anonymous @youranoncentral.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Russian bot traffic has dropped to nearly 0 after Ukraine struck a Yandex data center in Vladimir, Russia
• Source Network: AS13238 YANDEX – Yandex LLC (Russian Federation)
• Traffic Breakdown: Prior to the drop, bot traffic accounted for roughly 99.6% of requests compared to 0.4% human traffic.
• Event Cause: The sudden plunge to zero on October 11, 2026, corresponds to a reported military/drone attack on Yandex's data center facility in Vladimir, Russia—marking the third reported attack on Yandex data infrastructure since October 8.
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Mike Rothschild @rothschildmd.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
It's clear the plan is to blame Ukrainian refinery attacks for high gas prices, and portray Trump as working with Putin to save both nations. And the only way to stop the barbarism is to vote GOP in November. It's breathtaking in its cynicism, and it won't work.
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Rima I Anabtawi @rimaanabtawi.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Look at them picking up shackles and chains from the ground, on the left. Abject brutality. This makes no one safer, this is a desecration of the rights, freedoms and protections of our Constitution. Abolish ICE. Dismantle DHS.
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John Fugelsang @johnfugelsang.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
This is how the new CBS keeps people from remembering that the longest serving GOP Speaker of the House ultimately went to jail for covering up child rape. Which is apparently always in season.
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Dante Atkins @danteatkins.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
It's not hard. Both Yglesias moderates and Khanna leftists give MAGA politicians legitimacy because they want MAGA's base. Ossoff simply does not give a shit about the MAGA base, which allows him to speak with fierce clarity about MAGA politicians. He is willing to bet on an anti-MAGA majority.
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The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 10/10/2026
Alex Gibney’s “Musk” “creates a damning portrait of an emotionally unstable individual with the levers of power in his hand and no evident moral compass,” Sheelah Kolhatkar writes. Read her review of the documentary: newyorkermag.visitlink.me/pB7yW6
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Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
… “do u remember Donald Trump’s killing spree”, a perfectly appropriate response to that from any normal person would be: you gotta be more specific And it’s a testament to the horror of trump 2.0 that somehow term 2 is not just generally worse but markedly so
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The Editorial Board @editorialboard.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
8. The Washington press corps has "normalized having an insane president," as Aaron Rupar said, but allies must see it clearly. They don't have the luxury. bsky.app/profile/atru...
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🗽LOLGOP🗽 @lolgop.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
It's wild that the 2016 Democratic primary never ended, but a brutally successful attack on our democracy has been entirely buried from our collective memory by Trump repeating "Russia, Russia, Russia." www.youtube.com/shorts/8piSZ...
youtube.com
How Putin grabbed Trump by his balls
YouTube video by emptywheel
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Oliver Willis @owillis.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
every senate democrat voted to confirm marco rubio.
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I think people should listen to what the administration trying to bring back spectacle lynchings, race riots, and middle passage-esque deportation voyages are trying to tell you about themselves. bsky.app/profile/bren...
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Rima I Anabtawi @rimaanabtawi.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
“And he said that in the weeks and months before the attack, Netanyahu was warned **repeatedly** by ALL his security chiefs of an impending war.”
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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
“If you don’t like public executions just don’t watch it” says the crowd trying to ban drag shows and books
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Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
This is petty and least important aspect of this but: I reported on this years ago and the trump campaign falsely denied the reporting, and now via Hegseth they’re just doing it. Monstrous
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
“Every member of this ethnic group is a criminal who needs to be imprisoned by the state” is just pure uncut Nazi shit
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Jeff Tischauser @jtischauser.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
lmao Chicago Cubs 2nd basemen Matt Shaw. The guy ditched his team in the middle of a playoff run to go to a podcaster's funeral that he used to be neighbors with and he's now playing minor league fascism.
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Mike Black @mikeblack114.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
the funny thing is these aren't "military" training ships, they're training ships for the vanishingly tiny number of individuals attending state maritime academies to become members of the ever-shrinking US merchant marine, which are funded by DoD because it's considered a national security priority
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Melissa Gira Grant @melissagiragrant.com · 08/10/2026
In the Bronx, just now, near the Marble Hill Metro-North station. Also: “City officials have been told ICE has been using a nearby Target parking lot on 225th Street as a staging area.”
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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Once again, I have no hesitation in saying that RFK Jr is evil. I rarely use that word to describe people, its mostly not useful. But that man desires the suffering of the most vulnerable amongst us.
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Universities bring in foreign students ... to undercut the wages of American residents? What? This is exactly backwards. Foreign students subsidize the tuition of American students. I wonder why the VP who follows Nazis online has this all wrong. Probably an innocent, non-racist mistake.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 08/10/2026
the funny thing about this of course is that "athenian democracy" was a cautionary tale to the framers, who saw it as unstable and prone to demagogues and tyrants like the one rubio works for
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Rachel Courtland @rachelcourtland.com · 08/10/2026
RIP to the world's first software engineer news.mit.edu/2026/margare...
news.mit.edu
Margaret Hamilton, computing pioneer who led software development for the Apollo program, dies at 90
Margaret H. Hamilton, a profoundly influential computer scientist best known for leading the software engineering team at MIT’s Instrumentation Lab during NASA’s Apollo program, died at age 90.
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Chrononaut @chrononaut.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
How do you weaken one of the most important leftist mayors in the US while simultaneously doing nothing to help Palestine? This is how! These people are deranged and they continue to harm everything they pretend to care about If they were a MAGA ratfucking op they wouldn't do anything differently
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Schooley @schooley.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Just another day in the Presidency as directed by Fellini.
Trump nodding, Susan Dell emoting.
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
The richest man owns X. The second richest man owns The Washington Post. The third and fifth richest men control Google. The sixth richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. And the eighth richest man now owns both Paramount and Warner Bros. See the problem here?
bbc.com
Paramount takes over Warner Bros in $110bn Hollywood merger
The merger of two of Hollywood's biggest movie studios comes after months of legal disputes and concern over competition
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Grudgie the Wail @grudgie.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I’d argue the entire media does this consistently
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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
"De-Trumpification" has to be one of the top agenda items if Dems win power. All the lawlessness and every last one of his efforts to turn DC into an imperial capital should be undone.
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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Trump says 'Let them take out Los Angeles.' Recall this map: The *entire states* with population smaller than LA County. Among them they have 80+ US Senators. LA is about 1/3 of Calif's population, which has 2.
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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Every river in North America, every day for two years. The combined flow to the sea sinks as low as 53,000 m³/s in winter and swells past 290,000 by late June, more than quadrupling each spring. Data: GloFAS, @copernicusecmwf.bsky.social #rivers #dataviz #hydrology
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Oliver Willis @owillis.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
If you have $100 million to spend on ads saying you shouldn’t be taxed you’re not being taxed enough Google cofounder Sergey Brin has spent $102 million to fight California’s proposed billionaire tax—he could owe $13 billion if he loses fortune.com/article/how-...
fortune.com
Google co-founder Sergey Brin has now spent $100 million to fight California’s proposed billionaire tax—he could owe $13 billion if he loses | Fortune
The state’s ultrawealthy, including Larry Page and Peter Thiel, have similarly donated to efforts opposing the wealth tax.
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Ian Coldwater 🧊🚫 @lookitup.baby · 04/10/2026
Confirmed ICE seen skulking around South Minneapolis. Eyes out, whistles up
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 04/10/2026
1. She's president's human binky & controls his social media 2. Foreign govts use her a conduit for Trump 3. She's lied about much of her background 4. She wouldn't or couldn't get security clearance (see 3) 5. She has an obsession w/ Trump giving their relationship a vaguely inappropriate dynamic
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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
I know this isn’t useful but it’s weird how “the president should be coherent” was a Very Important Thing just a few years ago and then suddenly wasn’t.
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Dhruv Mehrotra @dmehro.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
NEW: DHS agents tracked people observing ICE arrests, photographed them, ran their plates, pulled personal information, and added them to a Palantir database, according to newly unsealed court filings. w/ @regret.bsky.social
wired.com
ICE Has Been Dumping Protester Photos Into a Palantir Database
DHS agents not only tracked and intimidated people observing ICE activity in Maine, but stored information about them in a Palantir-built database, newly unsealed court filings say.
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Angry @angrystaffer.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Don’t get complacent. They’re still going to try to cheat. Check your registration. Vote early if at all possible.
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Carolyn Barber, MD @cbarbermd.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
GOP bill hides brutal cuts until after midterms to shield them from voters. Dec 31: Medicaid work requirements trigger mass disenrollment. Jan 1: Trapped in a double-bind—denied Medicaid? You lose tax credits too. Immigrants lose credits. Jul 1: Student loan relief ends. Millions cascade into
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Chrononaut @chrononaut.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The idea that public transit is expensive compared to road transportation and that driving a car is a sign of "independence" rather than of complete reliance on a huge ongoing government investment program is based on nothing but vibes and ignorance.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 01/10/2026
If you can stomach it, here's a detailed reported story from @dropsitenews.com on the schoolchildren that the US bombed in Iran. However angry you are, it's not angry enough.
dropsitenews.com
Massacre at Minab: The School That Became a Grave
The bombing of an Iranian school, killing 120 children, is one of the worst U.S. war crimes since Vietnam. Drop Site spoke to survivors, first responders, parents, and witnesses. This is their story.
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Oliver Willis @owillis.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
republicans KNOW democrats are nervous-nellie scaredy cats and that if you create Some New Thing To Be Afraid Of the party always fucking folds and feeds into it fucking stop reject the entire premise and FUCKING FIGHT for once, goddamn
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