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Gavin

@gmackie.bsky.social
57 followers 169 following 102 posts

public interest lawyer in NYC. researching in LPE. democracy enthusiast. posts and opinions are my own. he/him/his.

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Reposted by Gavin
Vipassana @vipassana.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Ida❤️
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Wagatwe Wanjuki @wagatwe.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
saying "it's okay to be [x]" implies there is an overarching culture message that it's OK to be [x]. when a key part of toxic masculinity is false victimhood, I'm very wary of men implying that all masculinities are under attack when we are living under patriarchy
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Gavin @gmackie.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Do we really need the next Plaxton? Can we just not with these hyper masc dudes who want to prove themselves?
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Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.blacksky.app · 08/05/2026
oh God fuckin dammit
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Gavin @gmackie.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Last week SCOTUS effectively struck down the VRA. Today, the Supreme Court of VA overturned a vote of the people on a constitutional amendment - something they should have no role in. If we are living in a government of judges who have total control over voting we are no longer a democracy
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Matt Cameron @mattcameron.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
here's Tucker Carlson using his prime Sunday spot on the NYT podcast to echo the world's most well-known white supremacist creed within seconds of the usual complaints about "white ethnic awareness" and within moments of pretending that he didn't know what his recent guest Nick Fuentes believes
excerpt from Tucker Carlson on the NYT The Daily podcast (5/3/26):

the American media. Whiteness is bad, white supremacy is evil. Every other kind of ethnic awareness is great and celebrated, but white ethnic awareness is Nazism, etc. This absurd and pretty malicious double standard. And that’s annoying, and I’ve noted it many, many times, but ultimately what I’m saying is that people care about their economic fortunes and their ability to pay their bills and secure a better life for their kids. And those things are way more important to most Americans I have met than anything related to race.
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Reposted by Gavin
Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Gorsuch's opinion for the court holds that Colorado's law is subject to strict scrutiny as applied to talk therapy. But Gorsuch does not actually run through the test here—he just strongly implies that when the lower court does, it'll be obligated to block the law's application to this plaintiff.
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Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.blacksky.app · 31/03/2026
oh hell I was already in a birthright citizenship headspace and didn't realize the Court just dropped Chiles v. Salazar, holding that conversion therapy (when talk therapy) is speech under the First Amendment, so laws regulating it are subject to strict scrutiny www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
screenshot of p.23 of the Chiles v. Salazar opinion, showing Part III (the conclusion). excerpt reads as follows:

We do not doubt that the question “how best to help minors” struggling with issues of gender identity or sexual orientation is presently a subject of “fierce public debate.” Tingley v. Ferguson, 601 U. S. ___, ___ (2023) (THOMAS, J.,
dissenting from denial of certiorari) (slip op., at 1). But Colorado’s law addressing conversion therapy does not just ban
physical interventions. In cases like this, it censors speech
based on viewpoint. Colorado may regard its policy as essential to public health and safety. Certainly, censorious
governments throughout history have believed the same.
But the First Amendment stands as a shield against any
effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country. It reflects instead a judgment that every American possesses an inalienable right to think and speak freely, and a
faith in the free marketplace of ideas as the best means for
discovering truth. However well-intentioned, any law that
suppresses speech based on viewpoint represents an “egregious” assault on both of those commitments. Rosenberger,
515 U. S., at 829.
The judgment of the Tenth Circuit is reversed, and the
case remanded for further proceedings consistent with this
opinion.
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Gavin @gmackie.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Almost seems intentional to do this on trans day of visibility, though maybe I'm giving the Court too much credit that they would even know www.nytimes.com/2026/03/31/u...
nytimes.com
Justices Reject Colorado Law Banning ‘Conversion Therapy’ for L.G.B.T.Q. Minors
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elia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 28/06/2025
The death toll of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza is now estimated at 100,000 The list is 1,227 pages long. The first 11 pages are names of babies dead before the age of 6 months. The first 381 pages are all children. archive.is/2025.06.28-0...
On Monday of this week, Hamas' Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip published an updated list of those killed in the war, a 1,227-page chart, arranged from youngest to oldest. The Arabic-language document includes the deceased person's full name, the names of the father and grandfather, date of birth and ID number.
Unlike previous lists, this compilation notes the precise age of children who were under the age of one year when they were killed. Mahmoud al-Maranakh and seven more children died on the same day they were born. Four more children were killed on the day after they entered the world, five others lived to the age of two days. Not until page 11, following 486 names, does the name appear of the first child who was more than six months old when he was killed.
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Gavin @gmackie.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Everyone whining about @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social “He’s only 33” ok Alexander was the leader of half the known world at 32, what’s your point? He’s proven he can lead and has a vision that will carry the rest of us with him
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Gavin @gmackie.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
These people are either plainly acting in bad faith or incredibly stupid. A pilot program to open a few grocery stores in food deserts is not seizing the means of production. If anything, the Cuban state under Castro was much closer to Trump's style of authoritarianism.
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barbararogan.bsky.social @barbararogan.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
Beloit, WI revitalized its waterfront and chose this way to celebrate it: by bringing to life Georges Seurat's "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte."
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Evan Bernick, a finite mode with a smol hooman and a lorg floof @evanbernick.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
So, these people are white supremacists of a very specific, American kind. The idea that the right to govern belongs only to a select, racially defined group was *the* political theory of the antebellum and redeemed south. Ask who is being replaced and why that’s a problem, you’ll see it.
This is correct. They tell us that the great replacement is a "conspiracy theory, yet we can look at New York City and see it happening right in
front of our eyes.
Stephen Miller @ @StephenM • 10h The commentary about NYC Democrats nominating an anarchist-socialist for
Mayor omits one point: how unchecked migration fundamentally remade the NYC electorate. Democrats change politics by changing voters. That's how you
turn a city that defined US dominance into what it is now.
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Gavin @gmackie.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
All media seems to be obsessed with Trump at this point to the exclusion of everything else. Even other topics that would be important news in other times take a back seat to Trump coverage. So we end up forgetting this assassination and so many other terrible things because the zone is flooded
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Boo!-per Lund @cooperlund.online · 19/06/2025
Many years later, as he faced the editorial board, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani was to remember that distant afternoon when his father told him to abolish ICE
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Gavin @gmackie.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
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Gavin @gmackie.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Wtf is happening with the planes…? It’s been going on for months, and it’s not just in the US.
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Rachel Holliday Smith @rachelholliday.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
that $1M that Mamdani referenced is made through an independent expenditure, i.e. a local super PAC. this is how those work and how to look up what they’re spending money on:
thecity.nyc
Who’s Spending Big Money in NYC’s Local Elections? Here’s How to Find Out
Local super PACs called independent expenditure groups, or IEs, are trying to influence New York’s races. To learn more, take a close look at the next campaign flyer you get.
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My Password is Louvre @bmceuen.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
A political opponent was kidnapped. We are officially at that stage of the fascisms.
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Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like if a US exchange student in a foreign country (say, Turkey?) was imprisoned for six weeks because they wrote an op-ed in the student newspaper it would be a huge domestic story and an international incident.
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Marco Foster @marcofoster.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
HAPPENING NOW: Newark Mayor Ras Baraka is released as supporters chant “Power to the People!” (Video: @spydermonkeywatch.bsky.social)
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Gavin @gmackie.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
This is so ridiculous I thought it was satire at first read. No one is telling young men that they are inherently bad - people are highlighting terrible behavior of many men and telling younger ones they shouldn’t act like that. If they take that as a personal attack maybe they need to reflect a bit
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
As others have noted, if you’re not seeing this “pro-natalism” creepiness through the lens of the white nationalist Fourteen Words, you’re missing the point.
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The Serfs (youtube.com/theserfstv) @theserfstv.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
They received an average of 2100 calls a day... www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
HHS plans to cut the national suicide hotline’s program for LGBTQ youth
In February, the program received an average of 2,100 contacts per day.
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Gavin @gmackie.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
Trump literally campaigned on doing exactly this, told Rogan on his podcast that he would do this, and Rogan endorsed him. Why are we giving him any credit now that what he asked for and explicitly supported has come true?
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Sharon 🪳🌹 @sharonk.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
Camus: Under conditions so desperate, the hard, marvelous task of this century is to create justice in the most unjust of worlds, and to protect freedom from those souls who, out of principle, choose servitude. If we fail, man will return to darkness. But at least we will have fought to find light.
Under con-
ditions so desperate, the hard, marvelous task of this century is
to create justice in the most unjust of worlds, and to protect freedom from those souls who, out of principle, choose servitude. If
we fail, man will return to darkness. But at least we will have
fought to find light.
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Gavin @gmackie.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
Ok, sure grandpa, let's get you to bed...
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Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
It sure looks like they’re going all in on the “the executive branch can ignore court orders if it thinks the court lacks jurisdiction” thing
Tweet 1: Seung Min Kim @ @seungminkim •3h
HYATTSVILLE, Md. (AP) — A federal judge orders the US to return a Maryland man mistakenly deported to an El Salvador prison.

Tweet 2: Seung Min Kim & @seungminkim
White House response: "We suggest the Judge contact President Bukele because we are unaware of the judge having jurisdiction or authority over the country of El Salvador." - @PressSec
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Gavin @gmackie.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
This is ridiculous and these people have no idea what they are talking about. She doesn't even answer the question. Of course no American worker will make clothes for the same wage that is paid to people in other countries with much lower cost of living.
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Vipassana @vipassana.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
4/ Got this lovely flowering plant, the same as one I saw in a shop earlier in this thread as gift from my love for our anniversary. We got married in PP a few years ago and took pics in front of BPL as well cause #libraries! #100DaysOfBeauty
Cyclamen plant with red leaves in a pot covered by red and white checked paper.A south Asian woman in a red Mysore silk sari with gold borders leaning against a taller white person in black coat and navy and green kilt with long white socks. They are standing on a brick ground in front of a pond.The south Asian woman in a red and gold sorry facing a white person in a black coat and a kilt. They are holding hands. They are standing in front of the Brooklyn Public library Central branch with light brown stone and two tall pillars flanking black metal entrance. The pillars and entrance are covered with gold figures..
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Gavin @gmackie.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
This is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen the federal government do in this country. Unidentified thugs “detaining” someone because they exercised their rights under the US Constitution, with no process and no indication of where they are going. Absolutely illegal, but will we care?
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emily blight 🐦‍⬛ @threnody.northsky.social · 26/03/2025
hi, cis people! you might just now be hearing about this. there’s a thread in here with guidance. we’re down to 16 days and i have to believe more than 5,000 people give a shit if ~250,000 of us could lose our access to healthcare. tap in. scroll up. help out. please. ⬇️
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Gavin @gmackie.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
What even is this? @schumer.senate.gov's responses here are reprehensible and his capitulation to the Trump admin's actions should be disqualifying. He needs to step down as minority leader now if he can't defend his own constituents. I really hope that @aoc.bsky.social will primary him.
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Gavin @gmackie.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
This is very, very stupid. Republicans control both houses and the presidency. They don’t need you to vote for this if they could get their own members on board. This complacency just gives them power to enact their policies in reconciliation. You are betraying your constituents @schumer.senate.gov
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Gavin @gmackie.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
This is the naive thought process that too many people had leading up to this election that gave us this result. The “responsible people” from the last term warned us, and Trump and his lackeys told us exactly what they would do. It’s shocking that people now act surprised when they actually do it.
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Popehat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
Trump: COLUMBA IS AWFUL Columbia: [slaps student] Trump: COLUMBIA IS ANTISEMITIC Columbia: [kicks student in groin] Trump: NO MONEY FOR COLUMBIA LOL Columbia: [punches brown student in nose] Trump: WE WILL CLOSE COLUMBIA Columbia: [reaching for another student] okay this time it will work
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Gavin @gmackie.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
When Dems are the majority, it’s their fault for not capitulating to Republicans’ demand for spending cuts and reduced taxes on billionaires. When Dems are the minority, it’s their fault for not giving in to those same demands. Media will never hold Republicans responsible for their own actions.
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Gavin @gmackie.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
I get what they’re trying to do here but this is some pretty disgusting not-well-coded references to victim blaming.
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Gavin @gmackie.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
So Trump has just reinvented the EB5 program with lower benefits and a higher payment requirement? I’m sure it will be very successful…
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Gavin @gmackie.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
“Moving forward, the White House Press Pool will be decided by the White House press team” is some Kremlin level bullshit that I never thought I would see in this country. We are watching the destruction of our democracy every day before our eyes.
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Radical Graffiti @radicalgraffiti.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
"When you ride TESLA, you ride with Hitler. Join Public Transportation Today!" Reworked WW2 poster spotted in Oakland
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Jen Bendery @jbendery.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
Trump's DOJ has erased a report from its website that lays out its own recommendations for tackling violence against Indigenous women www.huffpost.com/entry/donald...
huffpost.com
Trump’s DOJ Erases Report On Violence Against Native American Women
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Gavin @gmackie.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
Trump has no authority to do this, the NCAA and local school districts should oppose it at every step, and the media should not just accept it as fact! It is their job to educate the public, not spew regime propaganda www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
wsj.com
Trump Order Set to Ban Transgender Girls and Women From Female School Sports
The president is expected to sign the executive order order Wednesday, according to people familiar with the matter.
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Gavin @gmackie.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
He can't do this, and the media needs to stop pretending he can. DOE is a congressionally authorized department, and can only be eliminated or defunded by an act of Congress. Anything he signs, aside from a law passed by both houses of Congress, is just a piece of paper with no effect.
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Gavin @gmackie.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
This is sure to be widely popular... Also, he does not have any authority to do this
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Gavin @gmackie.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
This is dangerous territory. This is what led to the fall of the Roman Republic. It is only a matter of time until Trump declares himself Dictator for Life and his heir becomes our new king. They'll keep the Congress, but it will always support their own ends. I'm very sad for our country
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Gavin @gmackie.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Too many people are spreading alarmist information since Trump took office. The truth is that ICE has not been expanded in any meaningful way and they still have to follow the law. This post has helpful, non alarmist information. @mattcameron.bsky.social @openargs.bsky.social
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