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jgunncool.bsky.social

@jgunncool.bsky.social
203 followers 58 following 289 posts

Retired economist, full time activist.

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Reposted by @jgunncool.bsky.social
Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 09/10/2026
I am angry tonight. Because tonight ICE shot a New Yorker. They shot a New Yorker while his five year old child was in the car. ICE makes this city less safe. We want them out. Now.
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Yes and they are holding non criminals in MDC Brooklyn after grabbing from airports- pending asylum applications and never out of compliance of US immigration laws; the back logs for habeas Corpus get longer every day.
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Hmmm and yet our life expectancy is still mediocre compared to European and East Asian countries, while we pay almost double per capita. Maybe we're wasting a lot of money and resources? I wonder why?
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Reposted by @jgunncool.bsky.social
Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Judge Stadtmueller, a Reagan appointee in Wisconsin, orders the release of an ICE detainee in part because of the "systemic rigging of bond hearings against detainees." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
ICE "civil detainees" not even allowed access to the prison library, recreation facilities; worse restrictions on communications. If he gets out on habeas corpus they'll dump him on the street with the shirt on his back; if it's Friday night he'll have to wait for Monday morning to get his things.
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Similar situation - bond hearings before executive branch "immigration judge" ICE lied asserting he hadn't kept his addresses up to date; moved him from one jurisdiction to another in the middle of the night; now have him in MDC Brooklyn (US bureau of prisons - same facility as Maduro).
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Similar situation with a friend - he's never been arrested for anything; never been a day out of compliance with U.S. immigration laws; pending asylum application but detained by ICE (detain first, ask questions later). Habeas petition due any day now, but that's only a temporary reprieve.
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Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Each election year, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) takes extra steps to ensure ballots sent through the mail arrive at election offices on time. This year, it’s delaying those efforts. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
democracydocket.com
USPS pushes back measures that ensure mail ballots arrive on time
“The shorter timeframe is noteworthy and I don’t know why they’re doing this,” Steve Hutkins, who writes for Save the Post Office, told Democracy Docket.
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Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
🚨BREAKING: Tarrant County voters filed an emergency lawsuit Friday accusing Republican county officials of intentionally making it harder for Black and Hispanic residents to vote by eliminating dozens of Election Day polling places. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
democracydocket.com
Tarrant County voters sue to block GOP polling site cuts targeting minority voters
The lawsuit comes a month after the GOP-controlled Tarrant County Commissioners Court approved the cuts in a 3-2 vote despite intense opposition from residents and the court’s two Democratic commissio...
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
ICE = US Gestapo.
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Extremely alarming! Even in the near term, I am anxious about hackers using powerful A.I. to drain our bank accounts and IRAs - this is something that could probably happen very soon, and there are of course enormous incentives for bad actors. What's being done?
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
We have a friend with a pending asylum application who has never been out of compliance with US immigration laws but is being detained in a US prison. It is so cold there his fingernails turn blue.
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Reposted by @jgunncool.bsky.social
Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob." —FDR, 1936 www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
How A.I. Super PACs Are Trying to Influence the Midterms
See how groups aligned with Anthropic and OpenAI have funneled major money into the fight for control of Congress.
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Reposted by @jgunncool.bsky.social
Guardian US @us.theguardian.com · 28/09/2026
At the height of the ICE raids earlier this year, agents in armored military vehicles rolled through residential neighborhoods. Masked agents patrolled public parks and stationed themselves outside elementary schools; squadrons of ICE agents snatched pedestrians off the streets. 🧵
Federal agents line up in front of community members at the scene where federal agents fatally shot a man while trying to detain him, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., January 24, 2026.

REUTERS/Tim Evans
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Excellent article - but terrifying. American Gestapo detains first and asks questions later. Even deports first.
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Reposted by @jgunncool.bsky.social
Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Lower accountability reads as higher risk. When a town's newspaper closes those local governments end up paying higher interest rates to borrow. newsletter.platypuseconomics.com/p/…
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Adam Kinzinger @adamkinzinger.substack.com · 27/09/2026
This admin has spent years going after science. It proposed the largest cut in NASA’s history, about a quarter of the agency and half of its science programs. But last month, a groundbreaking telescope left the launch pad anyway. And the story of how it got there is our good news this Sunday.
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Reposted by @jgunncool.bsky.social
Alt National Park Service @altnps.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Who’s ready for No Kings? We’re getting an early start on making signs! ✊💚
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
1993
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Hmmm it was a long time ago - google is not showing me anything currently available. Keep eyes and ears open for a film festival or university series!
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
“Anna 6-18” by Nikita Mikhalkov: What do you love the most? What do you hate the most? What scares you the most? What do you want more than anything right now? What do you expect from life?
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Those in DC: go visit the National Museum of Health and Medicine (formerly Army Medical museum). There’s a whole section on mustard gas and other chemical weapons, finally outlawed by international treaty after WWI. Our current government is opening the door to new horrors that could be even worse.
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
wapo.st/4yWadkR
wapo.st
U.S., Russia stripped human oversight from global AI weapons pact
The two nations weakened a range of safeguards in a landmark U.N. effort to try to regulate the use of lethal autonomous weaponry. The global negotiations earlier this month marked the furthest progre...
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
There was also a similar series (unofficial and underground) from the Soviet Union, focused primarily on the film makers daughter. He would ask her the same questions every few years: what are your hopes, what are your fears?
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Oh wow - I’m only about a year younger - I’ve been watching this regularly since at least 28 up!
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Reposted by @jgunncool.bsky.social
Mar Hicks @histoftech.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Just found out that there’s a new, and final, installment of ITV’s groundbreaking 7up documentary series. Original creator/director Michael Apted died a few yrs ago so they got Asif Kapadia (dir. of Senna) to do it. Can’t wait to watch & have an existential crisis.
70 Up poster shows pictures of the children from 7up and them currently as 70 year olds
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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
#BREAKING: In non-Missouri emergency docket news, #SCOTUS *grants* the Trump administration's request for a stay in the SAVE case, allowing DHS to have access to certain Social Security information. The three Democratic appointees dissent.
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
How high are the error rates in that database? What’s the ratio of that error rate to the number of proven cases of non-citizen voting? A thousand to one? More?
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Reposted by @jgunncool.bsky.social
Askme @askme99.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I know I've posted this many times - needs to flood the media until election day.
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
CA AG caved for parochial reasons. I'm sick to my stomach that Dems can't stick together and Do The Right Thing for the American people. What will it take?
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Once upon a time, corporations were expected to enhance public welfare - in return, they could enjoy privileges such as limited liability. Then came "shareholder value" as the be-all and end-all. Then came Citizens United. Then endless tax cuts. None of it was inevitable.
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Reposted by @jgunncool.bsky.social
Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The vicious and corrupt cycle of monopolization: 1) Corporations argue that their growth is just part of the free market. 2) Use their monopoly power to price gouge consumers and shaft workers. 3) Use profits to make political donations. 4) Lobby against antitrust enforcement. 5) Repeat.
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Large chunk are people BELOW the poverty line, who were expected to benefit from expansion of Medicaid, but many states simply refused to do that.
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Reposted by @jgunncool.bsky.social
Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
When the Cincinnati Post shut down, it oddly had an effect on local elections. Fewer people ran for office, voter turnout fell, and incumbents became more likely to win. That's useful context for Trump's choice to ban 3 news orgs from the White House newsletter.platypuseconomics.com/p/what-econo...
newsletter.platypuseconomics.com
What Economists Know About Kicking Out Reporters
Trump banned three news organizations from the White House last week — and there’s a research literature on exactly where that leads.
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I liked your two-paragraph summary on FB. Will read the full essay (but note some of my friends, who might be sympathetic, have a knee-jerk reaction against the concept of "spiritual"- are likely to shut their ears against any argument that employs the term, though it's not needed to make the case.
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Reposted by @jgunncool.bsky.social
Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
This weekend's essay, with the perfect Tin Man doppelgänger illustration, and yeah, Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.
meditationsinanemergency.com
Yes They Want to Kill Us: The Worshippers of Machines Versus Human Beings
This is the week that someone pulled the fire alarm on AI. It began with industry employee Jacob Coxon issuing a dire warning: "I resigned from Anthropic today," he wrote on Twitter/X. "I spent the la...
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Americans for Tax Fairness @4taxfairness.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Tax the rich. Make corporations pay their fair share. Invest in working people. That's how a real economy runs. Everything else they've sold you is a scam.
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
If we lose, we submit to authoritarianism; if we win, we risk violent backlash. Meanwhile, the stockmarket is in a huge bubble; the climate is worsening; and A.I. may escape control and wreak havoc on human civilization. Seems there's plenty to worry about.
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This is good news. But keep in mind USPS can always do "Ooops! So sorry for the delays!" So everyone should treat their ballots like their tax returns and (if you can't use a drop-box) get them in EARLY!
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Reposted by @jgunncool.bsky.social
Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
🚨BREAKING: In another win for voters, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington, D.C. – appointed by President Donald Trump – issued a preliminary injunction late Sunday in favor of Democrats who challenged the rule as an unconstitutional power grab. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
democracydocket.com
Second judge halts Trump’s election power grab, barring states from voluntarily working on mail voting rule
States cannot voluntarily work toward meeting the U.S. Postal Service’s new mail voting requirements after a second judge said the requirements likely overstep the post office’s authority.
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
OK, so along with the obvious problem of bad actors using A.I. to sow election chaos, I'm worried about bad actors using A.I. to hack into millions of bank accounts and investment portfolios and drain them. There is means, motive and opportunity. What's to be done?
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Senator Chris Van Hollen @vanhollen.senate.gov · 12/09/2026
Judge Berner's decision is a sobering read. Trump's mass detention agenda "harkens back to some of the darkest moments in our country’s history," including the internment of Japanese people during WWII. 
9 Appellate Courts have now shot down this lawless policy. SCOTUS should too.
politico.com
Appeals court rejects ICE detention policy, setting stage for SCOTUS
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals compared ICE’s policy to Japanese internment.
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
ICE says the fact that he only applied for asylum after being here for three years (he was on an F1 student visa) instead of one year makes him subject to immediate deportation, although of course there were valid reasons, because his risks back home became much worse between those years.
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Is this mostly about undocumented immigrants? I have a friend from Central Asia with a pending asylum application who was nabbed by ICE and is being held in a federal prison; ICE is trying to deport him back to his very oppressive home country.
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
That should be an absolute LAST resort, because it can't go into the scanner. The e-mail ballots have to be mailed back and then at the Board of Elections, a team of two people (from different parties) have to hand copy the ballot selections onto a ballot that can be fed into the scanner.
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
In Maryland (every state is different) we have lots of early voting centers, and you can go to any center within your county, and there are no lines! Eight days: Oct. 22 - 29, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Look up locations here: elections.maryland.gov/elections/20...
elections.maryland.gov
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Attorney General Anthony Brown @oagmaryland.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Identity theft is on the rise in Maryland. But understanding the warning signs and acting quickly can help you avoid it. My Office offers free resources to help. We'll show you how to spot identity fraud and recover from it. Get started here: oag.maryland.gov/i-need-to/Pa...
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Very hard to imagine that the U.S. federal government will do anything at all for the next 2+ years. Xi will be visiting Drumpf later this month, and will play him like a fiddle. I really don't see any relief or hope in time. Can anyone reassure me? What can we do beyond fight local data centers?
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Best to go to your own state Secretary of State or Board of Elections site. You can (at the moment) also go to Vote.gov, which does not record or share your info. It just takes you to your own state's official election site.
vote.gov
Register to vote in your state | Vote.gov
Find the information you need to make registration and voting easy. Official voter registration website of the United States government.
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jgunncool.bsky.social @jgunncool.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Assume the worst. Assume it's like your tax return, and you'll face penalties if it's late. Remember that it's no longer sufficient to bring it to your local post office at the last minute - it doesn't get stamped until it reaches a "distribution center" which is often the next day.
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