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Jon Pennington

@jonpennington.bsky.social
1.4K followers 918 following 5.6K posts

Pro-labor, liberalish, leftish, semi-normie antifascist

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Reposted by Jon Pennington
darth™️ @darthbluesky.bsky.social · 2h
trump going on an emergency 17 state media tour to support republican candidates before the midterms and he is going with “nobody knows that dumb has a b on the end”
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Ryan Goodman @rgoodlaw.bsky.social · 53m
Bravo “New information has raised serious questions about how this case was handled, and I’ve lost faith in the Tompkins County D.A.’s ability to fairly oversee it.” - Governor Hochul in appointing A.G. Letitia James to serve as special prosecutor in Cornell case
nytimes.com
Hochul Names Letitia James as Special Prosecutor in Cornell Case
Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed the state attorney general to investigate a former Cornell University student’s allegation of rape. The woman has sued seven men in connection with the alleged assault.
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Julian Sanchez @normative.bsky.social · 2h
If you need to send a fundraising email with the header “We know you’re not an ATM” maybe it’s a sign you ought to reign in the grifter consulting firms that are alienating supporters with a constant stream of panhandling spam to raise money that mostly gets poured back into their own coffers?
Dem fundraising email headed “We know you’re not an ATM”
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Kevin Collins @kwcollins.bsky.social · 1h
Legal folks, how is this "defying Democrats" and not "illegally misappropriating funds"?
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Patrick De Haan @gasbuddyguy.bsky.social · 3h
it continues to absolutely boggle my mind how few people realize that refineries in the US Rockies, Plains, Midwest/Great Lakes rely so heavily on millions of barrels of Canadian crude oil *every day* and have since the 1950s
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Omar Wasow @owasow.bsky.social · 3h
Interviewee at The Bulwark argued recently one of Vance’s most important projects is to signal to MAGA base that—despite being married to the daughter of immigrants and the father of mixed kids—he, too, is a true believer in the myth that immigration poses an existential threat to white America.
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Kylie Cheung @kylietcheung.bsky.social · 2h
I wrote about the campus sexual assault crisis that never went away despite the public moving on after the Obama era; the material ways SA punishes victims the rest of their lives while assailants are systematically rewarded; and just tried to put to words what I think is going unsaid right now:
currentaffairs.org
The Campus Sexual Assault Crisis Never Went Away
At Cornell, a district attorney dismissed an alleged rape case without ever speaking to Jane Doe—and her story is all too common.
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Dan Nexon @dhnexon.net · 2h
Is multiparty democracy is a panacea? No. Can it be designed in ways that make it worse than two-party democracy? Yes. Is our current system preventing a fascist government from destroying the country? No. That's all you need to know.
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Dan Nexon @dhnexon.net · 2h
You can't have democracy in a two-party system in which one party is captured by white-nationalist authoritarians.
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Dan Nexon @dhnexon.net · 2h
U.S. politics are better with MAGA getting a 32% vote share in a PR House than a MAGA-controlled Republican party getting 46–54% vote share in an FPTP system.
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Jon Pennington @jonpennington.bsky.social · 2h
Kyrsten Sinema has probably used Mad Libs on ketamine as a methodology for writing her speeches. So there's that.
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Elizabeth Picciuto @epicciuto.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
At no point while reading this sentence did I correctly predict what was coming next.
Twitter screenshot: New: Kyrsten Sinema's ex-boyfriend and former bodyguard said he threw her paintings into her swimming pool in part because he felt disillusioned by her relationship with a major
U.S. Artificial Intelligence software developer amid the war in Gaza
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Jon Pennington @jonpennington.bsky.social · 2h
Palmer Luckey's head pasted on to a Simpsons meme of Poochie the dog. Dialogue in Simpsons font reads: "I'm a half Joe Camel and a third Fonzarelli. I'm the kung fu hippie from gangsta city."
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 3h
My man looks like Poochie the Rockin' Tech Support
theguardian.com
Exclusive: Major Republican fundraiser winning contracts from Trump administration, emails reveal
Palmer Luckey has donated $5.9m to Republicans and bundled more, while reaping billions in Pentagon contracts
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4h
Trump campaigns for Ken Paxton in Texas: "He can be a pain in the ass sometimes, I'll be honest. Is he here, by the way? Oh, there he is. I didn't even know if he was here! I don't care."
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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 8h
Renee Good's family filed two lawsuits today. The first, against, USG, is a standard wrongful death. The second is a Klan Act lawsuit against Jonathan Ross, AND STEPHEN MILLER and Greg Bovino. It names Nick Shirley and Christopher Rufo as non-party co-conspirators for their racist propaganda.
44. At all relevant times, Defendants Ross, Miller, Noem, Lyons, Homan,
Bovino, and the John Doe Federal Agents acted under color of federal law and within the
scope of a joint enterprise with the private actors described below. Defendant
Lewandowski acted in part under color of federal law and in part, as alleged below, as a
private person, his federal status having been limited to a temporary part-time designation
that his conduct exceeded. Shirley, Rufo, and Ben Bergquam, and the other non-party
private actors described below, agreed to and in fact participated in the conspiracy alleged
here: each acted in concert with, and with the knowledge and encouragement of, federal
officials.
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Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social · 6h
I’ve asked people who talk to her, including some rather regularly, and they’re like: yes she does talk like this
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Jon Pennington @jonpennington.bsky.social · 6h
We still have voters who think Israel is Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint in Exodus from 1962.
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Pride Ott 🦦 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @hikoukihikouki9.bsky.social · 7h
AIPAC is bad for a whole host of reasons but I get annoyed by people who blame it for politicians support of Israel. The much more obvious explanation is that the median primary voter is 150 years old and thinks that Egypt still is one more war away from wiping Israel off the face of the map.
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Urban Land Rent 🇸🇴🚰 @urbanlandrent.bsky.social · 7h
“No they really believe it” is a way better heuristic for understanding political actors than “they are on the take” 9 times out of 10. Sometimes beliefs are downstream of materialism and political economy. But these relationships are more complicated than “bribes”
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 7h
"they really believe it"/"they will try to do it"/"the promises are real" are things that most americans refuse to believe about politicians but if you take them seriously will help you predict political behavior more often than not
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Charlie Warzel @cwarzel.bsky.social · 8h
For a long time I've wanted a sense of how trump has or hasn't interacted with chatbots (we know he posts a lot of slop sure). And this TIME anecdote about Grok arguably leading Trump into war is just extremely bracing
Since returning to office, Trump has marveled at AI’s capabilities. He is increasingly in thrall to the tech executives courting him. In December 2025, Elon Musk returned to the Oval Office for a clandestine meeting. Trump spent hours asking Grok, Musk’s AI chatbot, questions about his presidency and legacy, according to an official present. At the time, Trump was ordering missile strikes against Venezuelan boats he alleged were smuggling drugs into the U.S. He asked Grok how Venezuelans would react if the U.S. captured Maduro. According to the official present, the chatbot responded that Maduro was a repressive and deeply unpopular dictator and that many Venezuelans would likely celebrate his downfall. After Trump ordered the mission to seize Maduro, the following month, celebrations broke out in the streets. Trump, according to officials, came away thinking Grok was ingenious.
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Coach Finstock @coachfinstock.bsky.social · 8h
The reason they want more people to adopt chatbots is because that could theoretically create a new revenue stream by eliminating the need for marketing or advertising and just taking cash from brands/parties/etc to change what the chatbot tells the user.
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Coach Finstock @coachfinstock.bsky.social · 8h
If your goal is to push people to a product or service (or ideology!), you need to establish that AI is coming to these conclusions on its own, and therefore more trustworthy than someone with an obvious agenda. Chatbots can be leaned on by their owners, but most users don't know that.
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Coach Finstock @coachfinstock.bsky.social · 8h
Dark thread. Since we watched Musk literally push a "protect the Boers" button in real time with Grok, we now know people or companies could theoretically pay their way into putting a thumb on the scale for Grok/Claude/ChatGPT. This is why the AI stans want you to believe it's thinking
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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 9h
And one more time, prescient JP Stevens dissent: “Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year’s presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation’s confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law”
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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 9h
Somehow not everyone is aware of fact alluded to below. So one more time: John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett were all on GWBush 2000 'Florida Recount' team. (Which made GWB first prez in 112 yrs to 'win' after losing popular vote. Now they 'impartially' rule on our future.)
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Amee Vanderpool @girlsreallyrule.bsky.social · 9h
Wouldn't you rather be the University that stood up and showed women that their minds, bodies, and money were fully respected at your institution by having a zero tolerance policy on rape and having law enforcement take over on everything. We have to do better for our little sisters. cc: Cornell
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ElieNYC @elienyc.bsky.social · 10h
Shout out to the heroes in Maine who do NOT sit quietly when the man who is taking away their rights walks into a brewery. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/u...
nytimes.com
John Roberts Retreated to His Island. Supreme Court Critics Found Him.
After decades of potlucks and paddle-boarding on Maine’s midcoast, rising anger and protests have left the Supreme Court’s chief justice more isolated than ever.
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Jon Pennington @jonpennington.bsky.social · 9h
In other cases, it was lack of experience. Jerry Garcia was the de facto producer of Jefferson Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow & the mono mix is way better. I just don’t think Garcia had the skills to pull off a good stereo mix back then.
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Emily Crockett @emilycrockett.bsky.social · 13h
Hey @politico.com can you explain why @thirdway.bsky.social is the source for what the Democrats' SCOTUS platform will be, when they don't even have the word "Democrat" in their name and routinely diss the party? I'll wait.
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Mike Masnick @masnick.com · 11h
Curious where all those "popularism" folks are on these things?
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Ruth Delgado @heylookitsruth.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
“To the ICE agent who took away my mother: I hope it was worth it,” wrote Samuel Gonzalez Terrones before taking his own life. This is the reality of what mass deportation looks like. Not only impacting those who are detained but also leaving a path of destruction for the family they leave behind.
latimes.com
His mom was detained by ICE. Two months later, he died by suicide
Samuel Gonzalez Terrones, 21, struggled with depression and schizophrenia. His mom's arrest by ICE became too much to bear.
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memeorandum @memeorandum.com · 11h
Renee Good's family sues US government and immigration officials over her killing in Minneapolis (Associated Press) Main Link | memeorandum Permalink
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Ivy @poisonivy.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
i love when these creeps are stupid enough to fuck up their own PR all the 'well there's no proof the CNC orgy is an AI networking event' people in shambles
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Liliana Segura @lilianasegura.bsky.social · 14h
If you want some backstory as to TN and lethal injection. I wrote at length in 2018 as TN sought to restart executions using a new protocol — a method it has since replaced. It’s not an exaggeration to say that when it comes to lethal injection, states have always been making it up as they go along.
theintercept.com
Chilling Testimony in a Tennessee Trial Exposes Lethal Injection as Court-Sanctioned Torture
The trial was a case study in the twisted legacy of Glossip v. Gross — and a chilling look at the botched executions that continue amid little controversy.
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Steve Marmel @marmel.bsky.social · 23h
The fuck?
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Dave Tait @davetait.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
It's close to the height of imperial arrogance to use any humans as simply decorations. Arraying military personnel as the backdrop to a speech is one thing, but having them stand pointlessly like this in the vague middle distance is beyond next level.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 01/10/2026
The fact is Trump not only lost his war but it's the biggest L the US has taken at least since Vietnam. Our bases are destroyed & abandoned, Iran is emboldened, China is toying w/ us. Hegseth & co want to move on to culture war slop, but they got routed & we'll be dealing w/repercussions for decades
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 23h
Ossoff on Mike Collins: "This is a congressman who called for executing immigrants by throwing them out of helicopter. He is a fanatic and Trump puppet."
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Ian Boudreau @ianboudreau.com · 21h
Hegseth is obviously a dumb animal but Jesus Christ is he ever a poser too. Trotting around in front of that giant Patton the Movie flag
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 29/09/2026
The Talmud teaches that anyone who sustains one soul, has sustained an entire world. For generations, Jewish New Yorkers have sustained our city. Today, we are launching the first-ever municipal Strategy to Combat Antisemitism.
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maura quint @mauraquint.bsky.social · 23h
Yes every woman has been harassed, many assaulted. But every woman has also experienced invisible loss from moments she avoided harassment. She felt a space becoming unsafe, so she left, while men stayed on. And in leaving, she lost: opportunities, experiences, learning, promotions, even simply fun.
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Lindsay Beyerstein @beyerstein.bsky.social · 22h
Cornell is thinking: If we refund Jane Doe's tuition every girl who got gang raped at our school is going to want a refund and who can afford that?
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Susan Rinkunas @susanrinkunas.com · 30/09/2026
To recap: three GOP-led states that wanted the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade in order to "send abortion back to the states" are now asking the Court to strike down abortion protections in blue states
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Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 21h
Anyone who, in 2026, is already saying “I don’t want to vote for Newsom but I will” is part of the problem. This man is a fucking monster and has betrayed everyone imaginable. He is unacceptable in every possible way. There is no world in which this piece of shit should be trusted with power.
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Anjali Dayal @anjalikdayal.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
like, every part of this is shot through with violent misogyny, down to "women need to be told the truth." because women can't discern it themselves? because being raped and and violated is unreadable to women unless there's a man there to recast it for them as their own frailty of the flesh?
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Andrew L. Seidel @andrewlseidel.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Hegseth's new Office of Religious Affairs was announced with some clear dog whistles for Christian Nationalists. He's telling them what this office is all about.
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Amanda Marcotte @amandamarcotte.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Trump's taxpayer-funded ad campaign and false promises that he'll write everyone a $5,000 check are transparently desperate. These tactics have sadly worked for him in the past. Finally, polls show Americans are wising up to his idiotic con job. www.salon.com/2026/09/30/t...
salon.com
Trump can't trick Americans into loving him
Voters aren’t falling for Trump’s taxpayer-funded ads and phony promises to pay them $5,000
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Oliver Willis @owillis.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
joe biden is the most powerful president in american history, able to control world events from his home in delaware, far away from the trappings of the presidency. biden, god emperor, manipulator of markets and media. bow before his grace, first of his name.
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