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JNKumar

@jnkumar.bsky.social
3K followers 2.9K following 368 posts

PROTECT VOTING RIGHTS. Protect free press, democracy, our environment #resist #voteblue #womensrightsarehumanrights

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Reposted by JNKumar
MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · 12h
Tim Snyder: The term that I came up with… is superpower suicide. I just can’t see an example of a major country losing so much power so quickly as the United States under Trump. We’ve encouraged our enemies and we’ve made our allies not trust us.
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Ken Jennings @kenjennings.bsky.social · 11h
I said this in a NY Times story last week about the WA millionaire tax, but let’s bring back shame. Even if billionaires don’t know it’s wrong to do shit like this, they should know it’s embarrassing.
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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MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · 11h
NEWS: After losing a major court fight, Trump and Todd Blanche’s DOJ is now begging a federal judge to kill Katie Phang’s Epstein files lawsuit altogether.
meidasnews.com
Trump’s DOJ Begs Judge To Kill Epstein Files Case After Court Loss in Phang Lawsuit
The Justice Department now argues that journalist Katie Phang cannot use federal administrative law to force further disclosure.
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 11h
Less than 1% of major party nominees for Congress are working class. It is one of the most fundamental ways that Congress is not representative. And their views, e.g. on unregulated gambling websites, are apt to be different. www.bloomberg.com/features/202...
bloomberg.com
Why Working-Class Candidates Are Almost Never on the Ballot
Less than 1% of major-party candidates competing for a seat in the US Congress have a background in manual trades or service industries.
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Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 10h
Justice Alito is confusing court reform with attacking the court. Many of us simply want the Court to be better. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
democracydocket.com
Supreme Court expansion is ‘a concerted effort to intimidate the court,' Justice Alito says
Despite Americans' eroding trust in the Supreme Court, Alito says he's not discussed growing calls for expanding the court and setting term limits.
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 14h
Just a reminder that these Haitian immigrants in Springfield -- who came here legally, did everything they were asked to do and more -- became a target of federal crackdowns because the white nationalist vice president shamelessly spread racist lies about them.
rollingstone.com
J.D. Vance Defends False Claims Against Haitians: 'If I Have to Create Stories… That's What I'm Going to Do'
J.D. Vance defended his debunked claims that Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 13h
Putin apologists want you to buy that: -An alleged off-the-books 1991 verbal promise outweighs a signed 1994 treaty -Democratic countries formerly occupied by Russia asked to join an anti-Russia alliance for no reason -Ukrainians don't want freedom, an American tricked them into it with cookies
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Will Bunch @willbunch.bsky.social · 13h
The facts are shocking enough, but the bigger reason that the Cornell gang-rape case has broken through is that everyday Americans are sick of the rich and powerful and their sons getting away with it And everyone knows this fish stinks from the head My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/corn...
inquirer.com
For a fed-up America, the elite impunity of the Cornell rape case is the last straw | Will Bunch
A nation’s frustration with rich and powerful men boils over after a stunning rape allegation at an Ivy League college.
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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 13h
The problem has never really been that conservative voters are reluctant to criticize Trump. The problem is a relentless right-wing media apparatus that tells them Democrats are worse.
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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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Will Sommer @willsommer.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
New development this afternoon: Ben Shapiro's pro-ICE movie has lost its right to film in a Montana town, after city officials voted to suspend their filming permit. bsky.app/profile/will...
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ceej @ceej.online · 04/10/2026
“how do we win back trump voters in 2026” we don’t. we create an environment where admitting to voting for trump is so socially embarrassing as to render them completely inert. you don’t “win back” trump voters. you demoralize them into staying home. you make it a dunce cap
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 04/10/2026
We will not want to break the law and we won’t have SCOTUS on our side to let us break the law anyway. That means any serious reforms are doing to take substantial partnership with Congress to pass new legislation, as after Watergate. Let’s just be real about what the future will look like.
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 04/10/2026
That said, check this out: what Mamdani’s team is doing is good. Build strong public facing services (that is, rebuild govt) while at the same time increasing govt capacity and making sure in-house teams have the talent to run the show.
The Washington Sun
projects they'll focus on, but the work will be "core to the Mamdani administration's agenda around
attordability, housing, consumer and worker protection and more," said Maya Israni, senior adviser to the city's chief technology officer.
More than 4,000 people have submitted applications to join the New York City PIT crews, hich will consist of five teams focusing on building services in-house instead of using contractors.
"We really want to have a direct impact on someone's day-to-day life as a New Yorker and make their life on a day-to-day basis better and more affordable," Israni said. "We're here to deliver on core Mamdani administration priorities."
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 04/10/2026
Hi government employee here, who has visibility into how things worked before 2025 and since: This is correct. Rebuild government, prosecute DOGE and Trump officials, and think about contracting reform later.
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JNKumar @jnkumar.bsky.social · 14h
@schumer.senate.gov @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social @democrats.senate.gov @housedemocrats.bsky.social
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Reposted by JNKumar
Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
If the lessons Democrats (& democrats) draw from DOGE is “right idea, wrong implementation,” we are doomed. Everyone involved in the unprecedented crime that was DOGE needs to go to jail forever, & Democrats need to rebuild all of the programs & agencies first, not do digital management consulting 🤦‍♂️
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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
We can talk about re-engineering government <after> we: - Restore all the NIH/NSF funds - Restore at the Dept. of Education Title VI/FLAS funds - Rebuild USAID - Hire back as many of the fired federal workers as possible & replace those we can't with new talent as fast as possible - Etc. - Etc.
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Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 21h
It’s interesting how the standard bearer for the party whose message used to be “Democrats suck because they just buy votes by giving people free stuff” has decided the closing message for the midterms will just be “how many more checks do we have to send you in order to earn your vote?”
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Ruth Zakarin @ruthz.bsky.social · 19h
The fraternity brothers in the group chat who cheer violence? That behavior is being modeled by the president of this country. I cannot stress this enough — Trump is teaching young men how to be abusive every time he opens his mouth.
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Oliver Willis @owillis.bsky.social · 18h
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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Mr. Dan Zak @mrdanzak.com · 17h
A Haitian man legally immigrated to Ohio, then was given an ankle monitor bc Trump withdrew his status. He threw himself in front of truck. The trucker, who voted for Trump, is haunted. “Pierre was doing what he was supposed to do. We did not do right by him.” www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
theatlantic.com
A Reckoning in Springfield
A truck driver out on his route confronts what the country has become.
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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 17h
Joe Biden was too old to be president. Trump is the same age as Biden was when he was president. And it’s obvious that Trump is less mentally healthy than Biden was. So when will the media report that the president’s brain is broken? If the answer is “never,” that means the media are broken too.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 17h
What a lie. Some of these people are being imprisoned indefinitely in squalid condition in African prisons. Others report being beaten and arbitrarily deported in violation of international law back to their home countries, where they face persecution or torture.
The indefinite nature of their confinement has taken a severe toll. In October 2025, a Cuban man who was on the July flight went on a hunger strike for a month-until he started showing signs of organ failure —to protest the conditions of his detention, including his ongoing confinement and lack of access to legal counsel.
Terrified of being imprisoned in Eswatini forever, another man repeatedly told his attorney that the prison there never lets people go. One man told his attorney that he feels like a caged animal with no end in sight. The prison does not have air conditioning, making the hot, humid summer months especially uncomfortable for the men.
Food is insufficient, medication is scarce, and requests often go unmet or are belatedly met.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 16h
the idea that rufo has, at any point in his public career, been a sincere advocate for “colorblind meritocracy” is brain dead
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 16h
Impossible to understand how anyone could look at Rufo's career and conclude he was someone engaged in a "forthright defense of meritocracy." Rufo's entire career is built on the idea of purging people who don't think or look like him from positions of power.
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JNKumar @jnkumar.bsky.social · 15h
@housedemocrats.bsky.social @democrats.senate.gov @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social @schumer.senate.gov
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Reposted by JNKumar
Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 16h
Removal after impeachment would be better, yes, and there are enough anti-Constitution Republicans in the Senate that convicting Trump, Hegseth, Vought, etc. is unlikely. But why would that make letting crimes slide, and acting like there's nothing wrong, better than investigating and exposing?
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 16h
Exposing Trump's scheme to illegally withhold aid to coerce Ukraine into lying to help Trump's reelection got the aid released. Important point. I don't know how some Dems talked themselves into thinking the best way to counter criminality is to let it slide, rather than investigate and expose it.
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JNKumar @jnkumar.bsky.social · 15h
@housedemocrats.bsky.social @democrats.senate.gov @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social @schumer.senate.gov
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JNKumar @jnkumar.bsky.social · 15h
@housedemocrats.bsky.social @democrats.senate.gov @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social @chu.house.gov
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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The Democrats gotta stop thinking that impeachment is about *winning* a conviction. It is about stop the behavior: funny thing is Ukraine still gets the money!
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 16h
Five-byline alert: 🚨 “.. In the last hours of Kristi Noem’s tenure as the homeland security secretary, her agency delivered a windfall to one of her political donors by buying five airplanes from the man’s firm at a substantial markup ..” @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/10/04/u...
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Peter Jukes @peterjukes.bsky.social · 20h
Why you can’t trust Grok - or any other LLM which basically tells you what you want to hear and amplifies online echo chambers
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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 18h
This ad is obviously being made to tell Republicans to hold their nose & vote for her corrupt POS ex-husband who she covered for during his impeachment after he accepted a bribe to drop charges in exchange for his mistresses’ kitchen remodel, but she won’t even mention his name.
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JNKumar @jnkumar.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
@housedemocrats.bsky.social @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social @schumer.senate.gov @democrats.senate.gov
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Reposted by JNKumar
Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
What everyone has to prepare for is the constitutional crisis to accelerate if the Democrats take the House and the Senate. Vought has been allowed by the Republicans to act with impunity, so have he will continue to ignore Congress. This is why you have to impeach him immediately.
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@debbie156 @debbie156.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
#Maine It’s time for concerned Susan to retire. Vote for Troy Jackson for Senate! ✔️Healthcare for all ✔️Lower RX costs ✔️Tax the rich ✔️Disband ICE ✔️Protect Women’s Rights ✔️Ban stock trading in Congress ✔️Protect voting rights Vote for Troy! #ResistanceUnited #Pinks #ProudBlue #OneV1
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 03/10/2026
You can't get anyone in political media to say it plainly, but GOP strategy for several decades now has been built around the fact that its core goals/policies are *wildly unpopular*. Everything depends on a) polluting the information environment, b) cementing unfair structural advantages, & c) $$$.
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The GOP has put $2 million to this campaign, and the billionaires have put $23 million in. Their contribution is 92% of the money Tiffany raised.
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 03/10/2026
Killed. NSF’s SBE was killed, in violation of law. The President does not have the power to choose to kill programs at a whim by defunding them. The imperial presidency was a mistake and we are in a separation of powers constitutional crisis.
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 03/10/2026
But let’s be real: this is killing SBE, it’s in violation of the law and constitution, and judges that aren’t part of the P2025 political project would say that. The underlying problem is the Supreme Court is corrupt and doing politics. If not for that Vought would never get away w killing SBE.
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 03/10/2026
What is likely going on here: Vought, Project 2025, Trump etc want to kill social and behavioral research, blow up basic science, harm universities, and destroy govt generally. So they are defunding SBE almost completely, leaving a shred of activity behind so Vought can plausibly assert in court
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Schooley @schooley.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Trump’s TIME interview should have been treated about like Biden’s debate performance. That it mostly wasn’t says a lot about the media’s ongoing normalization of Trump’s cognitive downward spiral.
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KittyKatGirl😻🙏💞🐞 @mary1kathy.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
SENATOR SLOTKIN: If you hear in the next 34 days that there is a new security threat that you’ve never heard of, that somehow requires federal law enforcement or the military and not local police, an alarm bell should go off in your brain. Do not let him get away with that
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Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 03/10/2026
Everyone needs to read this. Reality is, in fact, stranger than fiction. Reality is worse than anything we can say about these people in a few words, media appearances, op-eds, or other conversations. Read the whole thing. ams3.digitaloceanspaces.com/urbits3/sitf...
A
B
I Safety Is Mostly A Sex Cult In
erkeley, California
SE GYGES
10 HOURS AGO
8
5
These people shouldn’t make policy.
There has been a great effort over many years to distance AI Safety
discussion from its origin and intellectual center, because its center is
predatory sex cult started by a fan fiction author. Since those involved
to be taken seriously, they have to hide that. Everyone else working in
Safety is, effectively, a smokescreen for this core group and their ideas
We might some day have “AI Safety”, as a science or policy area, that
primarily a sex cult in Berkeley, California, but it does not currently exi
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Jon Cooper @joncooper-us.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
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.
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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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
It appears that the National Guard shot and killed an unarmed man (in the back). www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Autopsy shows National Guard fatally shot Memphis man in the back
The report conflicts with the authorities’ initial account, which said Tyrin Johnson had been shot in the chest.
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Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 03/10/2026
I am not being hyperbolic: the current financial condition of Oracle is entirely untenable. It cannot afford its obligations with regard to these data centers. If it stopped here it would merely have a really bad few years. If it continues much further it will die soon. If not, it will eventually.
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Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 03/10/2026
Surprised more people aren’t alarmed about the financial condition of Oracle. Revenue flat for 15 years adjusted for inflation, only real growth engine is unprofitable AI data centers, future entirely tied to OpenAI and the most ambitious infra projects in history. It’s dying!
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