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Forrest Bennett

@forrest-bennett.bsky.social
1.4K followers 114 following 71 posts

President of the Oklahoma AFL-CIO. Working for workers and growing the labor movement in Oklahoma and beyond. Former state legislator; lifelong Okie.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Forrest Bennett
Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
Increase in productivity since 1979: 87% Increase in hourly pay since 1979: 32% Just so happens that ~25% of workers were unionized in 1979. Today? 10%. As unions declined, the super-rich have taken a larger share of wealth generated by labor. We must build back union power.
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Cara Stewart @kycara.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
I got kicked out of the fight against the bullshit Medicaid paperwork reporting requirements but I can’t stop pointing out how ALMOST EVERYONE enrolled in Medicaid is already working or disabled or CHILDREN or in nursing homes
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Forrest Bennett @forrest-bennett.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
Friends, I’m running for Oklahoma AFL-CIO President. Now more than ever, Oklahomans need the kinds of policies that unions fight for. I’ve worked alongside Oklahoma’s unions during my time as a state representative, and I hope to work for them soon. Let’s get to work!
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Alt National Park Service @altnps.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
This is terrifying in America. ICE agents are showing up masked—these abductions must stop. If you’re going to detain someone, show your face, present a warrant, and proper ID. Disappearing people from their families without evidence or accountability isn’t law enforcement—it’s state-sponsored fear.
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Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Unidentified men grabbing someone off the street and putting her in a car because she wrote an op-Ed. This as flatly authoritarian as anything we’ve seen in this country in a very long time.
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
They are just disappearing people off the street. Having a hard time thinking about literally anything else.
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Ham Roids 🎃 @anarchymarshmallow.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
I unironically use my local library a lot. Ebooks, audio books, physical books, the seed exchange, the meeting spaces?? Passport services?? Citizenship and English classes? I grew up in the teen hangout area as a housing insecure youth with a bad parent. Libraries are important, I'm pissed
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Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
The institutional Democratic Party is guided by an almost pathological level of conflict avoidance in almost every direction. “What can we do to make the least number of people mad?” is just a bankrupt way to operate.
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Forrest Bennett @forrest-bennett.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
Please read this to understand how the most vulnerable Americans are taking it on the chin so that the wealthiest can get wealthier under the Musk/Trump regime: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
rollingstone.com
Republicans Want to Put Poor People Through Hell to Fund Tax Cuts for the Rich
To fund Donald Trump’s latest tax cuts for the wealthy, Mike Johnson and Republicans want to add harsh new bureaucratic hurdles to Medicaid.
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Kathy Piersall @k-piersall.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
Common-sense, compassionate and progressive: sounds like Oklahoma House Democrats and @forrest-bennett.bsky.social:
oklahoman.com
Oklahoma House bill would lessen the effects of medical debt on credit scores
Rep. Forrest Bennett introduced a bill that would prevent some medical debt from affecting people's credit scores.
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Forrest Bennett @forrest-bennett.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
TGIFMF (thank god it’s five minute Friday) At 8:30am over on instant graham, I’ll be live to discuss what happened this week at the state house. Join if you want! Don’t if you don’t! It’s your Friday; do what you want with it.
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @aoc.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
Medicaid is not for sale. NASA is not for sale. The Post Office is not for sale. America is not for sale. We have an obligation to resist kings. We outnumber them. And they can be overwhelmed.
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Sheryl Weikal says Prosecute ICE @leftistlawyer.com · 22/02/2025
I know things are bleak and scary right now. But I promise you that you - yes YOU - can get through this. You don't have to fight all of this on your own. Find one person you can help, and help them. Make the life of one person better every day. Hold onto your joy. That's how we win.
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Forrest Bennett @forrest-bennett.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
Friday mornings during the legislative session, I go live on Instagram and talk about what I observed from that week at the statehouse. That’s happening this morning at 8:30 on Instagram where my handle is @ForrestBennett. Join if you want!
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
The battle of our day is no longer about Democrats versus Republicans or left versus right. The choice right now is democracy or dictatorship. And we're sliding faster than I ever thought possible into the latter. Everyone must choose which side they’re on. Now.
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Michael Sainato @msainato.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
And as a Department of Education employee told me this week, "people have no idea how much that the federal government does actually touches their lives every day, but they'll notice it when it's gone"
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Joe Katz @joekatz45.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
UPDATE: The strike is over, with King Soopers agreeing to return to the bargaining table and make a better offer, no lockouts and no worker losing health care for April over the ULP strike.
cbsnews.com
King Soopers, Colorado workers union reach return-to-work settlement to end strike in the state
The King Soopers union worker strike ended on Monday night when both the grocery store chain and the union reached a return-to-work settlement.
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Forrest Bennett @forrest-bennett.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
I think a cool thing national media could do in this day and age, to cultivate meaningful and productive discussions around our collective situation, is to simply not have this absolute chaos vampire on as a guest of any program ever again, ever.
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Dripped Out Trade Unionists @uniondrip.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
Every union should be echoing this statement.
IUPAT Twitter post:

There are nearly 3 million immigrants in the construction industry, and they deserve the same rights as all other workers. Our union stands with our immigrant members and all working people in this country — an injury to one is an injury to all.
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𝕋𝕙𝕖 ℍ𝕚𝕤𝕥🎃𝕣𝕪 𝕠𝕗 ℂ𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕒 ℙ💀𝕕𝕔𝕒𝕤𝕥 @thoc.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
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LAISSEZ LES BOO QUESO ROULER @thequeso.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
"I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me." is metal as hell.
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Forrest Bennett @forrest-bennett.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
Would JD Vance come after these two in the succession plan? Or would it go Putin first, and then Vance? (my high school civics class covered traditional government processes, not oligarchical ones, so wasn’t sure how different it is)
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Forrest Bennett @forrest-bennett.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
That’s…not at all accurate. The supreme law of the land is the Constitution. There are three *CO-EQUAL* branches of government. The Courts (judicial branch) determine constitutionality, though a middle schooler could tell you that most of what the Musk/Trump admin are doing isn’t constitutional.
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Blue-Candae 💙 @blue-candae.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they have none. -Alice Walker
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ceej @ceej.online · 10/02/2025
“Oh, did a sportsball happen?” I whisper smugly from my vantage point on a distant cliff, the sounds of celebration in the village far below just barely audible over the lonely wind whipping my tattered cloak
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Forrest Bennett @forrest-bennett.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
Not understanding why a government program or funding mechanism works, why it’s necessary or helpful, and/or the accountable steps that were taken to get it in place — is not the same as corruption. Everything seems suspicious if you don’t know how things work. Educate yourself.
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Forrest Bennett @forrest-bennett.bsky.social · 09/02/2025
Literal centuries of work by organized labor stands to be severely set back by the guy who was never on the side of the working class in the first place. Now’s the time to join a union if you’re able.
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Forrest Bennett @forrest-bennett.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
Exaaaaactly. Had some delicious pizza for lunch yesterday and had to be pumped with caffeine two hours later to stay conscious
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Forrest Bennett @forrest-bennett.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
In that vein—would you agree that pizza for dinner is better than pizza for lunch?
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Fred Wellman @fpwellman.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
The United States Military Academy has just eliminated all Cadet clubs and activities for POC. Most of these have existed for decades like the Society of Black Engineers. They were there when I was a Cadet in 1987. All of the religious ones remain. This isn’t DEI. It’s white Christian Nationalism.
A memo listing all of the clubs eliminated by USMA.
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
Republicans have introduced a bill to abolish OSHA. As a former labor secretary, I know firsthand how crucial this agency is to protecting workers from bosses who cut corners on safety to pad their own pockets. This is the party of corporate greed, not the party of workers.
newsweek.com
Republican calls to scrap workplace safety agency
Representative Andy Biggs made an earlier bid to abolish the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 2021.
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Representative Becca Balint @balint.house.gov · 04/02/2025
What I’m reading on the plane. We all need to do what we can, when we can. If all you can do today to contribute is learn something about authoritarianism that you didn’t know before, that’s good enough. A little is better than none. Keep going.
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Forrest Bennett @forrest-bennett.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Oklahoma weather Trump Tariffs 🤝 If you don’t like it, wait five minutes and it might change
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Rep. Melissa Provenzano @proven4oklahoma.bsky.social · 02/02/2025
Empowering quote, brilliant woman. May we never forget the power we each possess.
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Amy Whitfield 💙 📚 @overbookish.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
I've been seeing a lot of posts about readers trying to curb their own book buying. Let me remind you of the library. Libraries can use your support now more than ever. When you checkout library books this lets funding authorities know the library is worthy of taxpayer money. 1/3 #booksky 💙 📚
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Mark Cuban @mcuban.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
PROP - PR Over Policy. Don't confuse them. He is flooding the zone. He knows that media will cover everything he does. Getting people upset. Which helps give him more coverage of the upset people. All just talking about him. Dems need to be strategic.
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Forrest Bennett @forrest-bennett.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
It will be incredibly ironic if the state of Oklahoma is forced to spend down the Rainy Day fund that my GOP colleagues are so damn proud of, in order to cover for all of the federal program money we rely on that’s been halted by the Trump administration, which they’re all so damn gleeful about.
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Okla City Free Press @freepressokc.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
The City of OKC's new Housing Affordability Implementation Plan (HAIP) will promote in increase in housing stock. But, will it reduce rents? | Brett Fieldcamp has the details.
freepressokc.com
City adopts far-reaching plan to trigger affordable housing
The City of OKC's new Housing Affordability Implementation Plan (HAIP) will promote in increase in housing stock. But, will it reduce rents? That's the plan.
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Petrana 冰冰 Radulovic (she/her) @petrana.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
Poetry Foundation not fucking around with today's poem of the day www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/89897/...
A screenshot of Maggie Smith's "Good Bones"
Life is short, though I keep this from my children.
Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine
in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways,
a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways
I’ll keep from my children. The world is at least
fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative
estimate, though I keep this from my children.
For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird.
For every loved child, a child broken, bagged,
sunk in a lake. Life is short and the world
is at least half terrible, and for every kind
stranger, there is one who would break you,
though I keep this from my children. I am trying
to sell them the world. Any decent realtor,
walking you through a real shithole, chirps on
about good bones: This place could be beautiful,
right? You could make this place beautiful.
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Forrest Bennett @forrest-bennett.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
Hey for what it’s worth I discovered the podcast you record from through the dimensional rift during his first term as Shit King and it was a relieving (and of course informative) escape. Glad you’re still doing it. Feels like we’re living through a Mittens game that just won’t end.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 20/01/2025
note to the press: this is why Biden issued preemptive pardons 👇
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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
Photo of Vivek Ramaswamy at one of the galas surrounding the inauguration. He's in a black tie rig and black overcoat. Close up of his shirt. There are four black dress studs and one mother of pearl button at the bottom. The white button is circled in red. Next to the circle, it says "DEI button."
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Forrest Bennett @forrest-bennett.bsky.social · 19/01/2025
In this economy?!
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Forrest Bennett @forrest-bennett.bsky.social · 19/01/2025
I deleted a post because I was wrong. First I just admitted I was wrong because simply deleting felt worse. But it was pointed out that leaving up “fake news” is bad, and that’s true too. So here’s the screenshot; I’m not hiding that I was wrong but trying to take accountability.
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Forrest Bennett @forrest-bennett.bsky.social · 19/01/2025
No joke. So wild. And so many willingly forgetting how big a deal they made it, and how recent that was.
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Forrest Bennett @forrest-bennett.bsky.social · 19/01/2025
I get it. It’s a pretty surreal time to be alive. I’ll try. Hope you have a good day too.
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Forrest Bennett @forrest-bennett.bsky.social · 19/01/2025
Yep, I was wrong. Thanks for sharing.
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Forrest Bennett @forrest-bennett.bsky.social · 19/01/2025
Yea I weighed that but probably would’ve caught criticism for deleting it as well. Instead I’ve made very clear I was wrong.
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Forrest Bennett @forrest-bennett.bsky.social · 19/01/2025
I rarely use TikTok so perhaps that had something to do with it. They want the people on the platform the most to echoe their praise of the not-even-President-yet’s “efforts” maybe? It’s gross all around no matter what though.
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