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Kathleen McLaughlin

@kemc.bsky.social
1.8K followers 411 following 289 posts

Author of BLOOD MONEY Journalist, found all over kemc.substack.com www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Ka…

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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 12h
Tech's obsession with selling AI as a magical thing where everyone gets an agent to book travel and restaurant reservations just reveals how far they live outside the real world, where people can't afford food and gas. Solving problems that don't exist for the vast majority of us.
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The reach of the lesbian bar story in the Boston Globe gets to something about local news, which is that people want deeply reported, weird and wild stories in their newspapers - that was a big part of the draw for local news for generations, it was fun to read!
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
I'm admittedly not a super wealthy tech genius, but it seems if you are warning the thing you helped create could plausibly wipe out human civilization in the near future, you should be tasked with doing something to stop that?
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I had to say thank you.
meditationsinanemergency.com
In Praise of Dolly Parton, 1946-2026, Our Goddess of Kindness
We will always love her, and there will never be another like her, this artist who came out of deep rural poverty in the 1960s to become not just a staggeringly great performer and songwriter but phil...
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Katiesaurus @katiesaurusseven.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
I recommend @kemc.bsky.social's book, BLOOD MONEY to really understand the plasma industry.
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Danny Rivero @danielrivero.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
The real story in the US right now is the myriad of authoritarian-style hostile takeovers happening at public colleges and universities, where the VAST majority of people get their higher education
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
American media's obsession with elite colleges that educate a tiny fraction of the country makes sense when you understand it's the underpinning of our class system (which we pretend we don't have).
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
This picture looks fine if you don’t know there should be a giant wall of mountains right at the end of the road. The Continental Divide, in fact. That’s how bad wildfire smoke is in the West.
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
The uber wealthy used to build libraries, parks and museums to gain favor with the public, now they buy elections.
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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
cases like this have caused public outrage in other countries like Ireland that led to huge protests and changed laws; the majority of Americans don't seem to care.
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
No place does bizarro working-class cosplay quite as dramatically as the American West, where you can spot moneyed new arrivals for their expensive cowboy hats, boots and big trucks, and their leaning into yeehaw-isms, while everyone else just ... kind of normal.
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Organizers now say they've got more than enough signatures to qualify this initiative that could upend Citizens United for the November ballot in Montana 👀
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Dana R. Fisher (aka the Apocalyptic Optimist) @fisherdanar.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Anyone looking to understand corporate influence in American politics, this figure from @axios.com should be a wake-up-call as AI has dwarfed even oil and gas (though there are obviously connections there). To learn more about AI and the midterms, see this piece: www.nytimes.com/2026/05/13/t...
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Someone commission me to write a piece about how the red state/blue state-ification of American discourse has doomed us superficial, bad thinking about just about everything.
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
If you contextualize the mass expansion of data centers in spite of widespread public opposition as the latest, largest assault in an ongoing class war waged mostly from the top, things do make a bit more sense.
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The Nation Magazine @thenation.com · 04/05/2026
A grassroots effort in Montana aims to make Citizens United irrelevant by cutting corporate money out of elections. @kemc.bsky.social on the Montana Plan. www.thenation.com/article/poli...
thenation.com
How the Montana Plan Could Make “Citizens United” Irrelevant
A transpartisan initiative to return power to the people.
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Eileen Clancy 🧿 @clancyny.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
How the Montana Plan Could Make Citizens United Irrelevant By Kathleen McLaughlin A transpartisan initiative to return power to the people. @kemc.bsky.social
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
I wrote something last year about the repurposing of America's local newspaper buildings into new things and what it says about communities, but someone could write a very interesting book rooted in that shift in what's valued.
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Read my piece on Montana's (very long) fight against money controlling politics and why it matters.
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Starting to believe that a certain percentage of the American commentariat class are operating in a state of AI-induced psychosis.
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
The longest-running family owned Chinese restaurant in America shut down yesterday. Survived 115 years, two world wars and the Great Depression but couldn't withstand whatever it is we're doing right now.
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
I genuinely don’t think America can fix itself without an honest reckoning on class and inequity, but I also see no evidence that’s going to happen.
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
I think people are allowed to draw conclusions about the American people based on their decision to put this man in office bsky.app/profile/pear...
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
There was a village in rural China back in the mid-2010s where the local government had grown so corrupt that a couple of old ladies started their own competing official government, stamping documents and making decisions, and I think of them often.
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 31/03/2026
Happy Trans Day of Visibility. I know trans people and I know fascists who are making life difficult for trans people. The trans people are pretty cool and I'm glad I know them. The fascists can go fall down a deep dark hole.
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Unpopular opinion but perhaps we need to send coastal urban writers and journalists down to the countryside for a certain amount of time before they are allowed to write about it.
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
I wrote about a great new book by Megan Kate Nelson, out today, that blows apart the myths of the American West by telling the stories of real, interesting lives substack.com/home/post/p-...
substack.com
The Westerners
A new book reveals a more complex and fascinating story of the American West
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
The Lindy West book is grating not because of her relationships but because she demands grace and acceptance from everyone, but gives none to any of the people she encounters on a cross-country road trip. It's the opposite of what a road trip memoir should do, especially in our current moment.
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Aram Zucker-Scharff @chronotope.aramzs.xyz · 20/03/2026
I think there are a lot of Americans who don't realize that, in regards to purchasing power and no matter what their age or job, they will never make more money then they made in 2024—unless something radically changes.
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
As our economic divide widens, the plasma economy is reaching its tentacles into the middle class (I'm quoted in this one) www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/b...
nytimes.com
The Middle-Class Suburbanites Who Sell Their Blood Plasma to Get By
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
My local airport is having a food drive to support TSA employees who aren't getting paid for their work because the government is still shut down, in case anyone needs further evidence that the USA has lost its way entirely.
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
A million years ago, when the private prison industry was just gaining a footing, I wrote some stories about the perception of corruption with one company in Texas (they had a county judge on their board), and just that was enough for the company to lose its contracts. Whew.
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Regarding Montana politics and a US Senator unnecessarily involving himself in breaking a retired Marine's arm over a peaceful protest, don't forget, we also have a second-term governor who assaulted a reporter for asking a question.
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
Please recommend to me the best books about the Balkans. Nonfiction or fiction, whatever you like!
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Kameron Hurley @kameronhurley.com · 02/03/2026
Updates at both our jobs today have me thinking, "Man, neither of us is even eligible to sell plasma." But anyway, the U.S. economy is FINE, clearly.
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Erin Cunningham @erinmcunningham.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
As the laid off Middle East News Editor, I concur. Management eliminated the positions of every single staff correspondent and bureau chief in the Middle East.
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Siva @sivav.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Please take a moment to think about what this illegal and unjustified war on Iran mean to the basic moral fabric of our nation. newrepublic.com/article/2071...
newrepublic.com
Who’s Deciding Where the Bombs Drop in Iran? Maybe Not Even Humans.
Behind last week’s scrum between the Trump administration and Anthropic lies a deeper question of how warfare is conducted—and whether accountability even exists anymore.
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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Saving the people of Iran from being massacred by their government in the streets by massacring elementary schoolgirls from the air.
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
The backlash against AI and data centers has been entirely predictable, when the promise of AI thus far has been "We're going to steal your work, eliminate your ability to make a living and make art and you can't do anything to stop it."
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
The Washington Post's description of the bodycam video of his arrest last year, and the translation of Mr. Shah Alam's comments, is gutting. Remember, he was entirely blind in one eye and could only see three feet in the other, and he spoke virtually no English. He spent a year in jail for this.
Body-cam footage from the incident, reviewed by The Post, shows Shah Alam standing near the door of the shed holding two black poles. Officers shout at him and order him to drop the poles, reportedly curtain rods he’d fashioned into walking sticks. Shah Alam repeatedly says, “Sorry” while adjusting his grip on the poles and walking toward the officers. The officers continue to shout and warn that they will fire their Tasers. At one point, Shah Alam responds, “No,” then points the rods at the officers.

The officers both fire their Tasers and tackle him. Two officers report being bitten in the scuffle. After Shah Alam is restrained, the officers remark that they smell alcohol.

In the footage, Shah Alam can be heard speaking in Rohingya and Malay. He asks for God’s help and tries to explain to the uncomprehending officers that he lives nearby and was going to the store. He pleads with the officers not to throw away his phone.
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
This story is going to haunt me: a disabled man escaped the genocide in Myanmar, came to the US as a refugee seeking asylum, then died, alone, as a direct result of actions of the American government.
washingtonpost.com
Refugee released by Border Patrol found dead, sparking outrage
Surveillance video obtained by The Post shows Border Patrol agents releasing the partially blind refugee, who went missing for days before being found dead.
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Everything else aside, I just keep trying to imagine winning an Olympic gold medal and immediately wanting to party down with...the head of the FBI?
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai's daughter will be a guest at tonight's SOTU. To understand the context, the story of repression and censorship in Hong Kong and some lessons on creeping authoritarianism in the US, read my new interview with author Louisa Lim, out now substack.com/home/post/p-...
substack.com
'Disengagement is really dangerous'
Author and contemporary historian Louisa Lim on lessons from Hong Kong
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
The journalists-on-social-media discourse is fascinating because when I quit twitter in 2024 I was liberated from regular posting and mostly forget to do it now. This is an excellent thing!
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
"So grave is the scale, nature, systematic character, and transnational reach of these atrocities against women and girls, that a number of them may reasonably meet the legal threshold of crimes against humanity," UN experts said. www.reuters.com/world/allega...
reuters.com
Allegations in Epstein files may amount to 'crimes against humanity,' UN experts say
Millions of files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein suggest the existence of a "global criminal enterprise" that carried out acts meeting the legal threshold of crimes against humanity,...
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Kathleen McLaughlin @kemc.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
When I decided to do a series of interviews with smart folks about surviving this current moment in America, @garrettbucks.bsky.social was one of the first people I wanted to hear from. We all need some optimism to get us through and he has it, authentically. kemc.substack.com/p/theres-jus...
kemc.substack.com
'There's just so much we haven't done yet'
Surviving America: A conversation about building community resilience and optimism with organizer, writer and potluck evangelist Garrett Bucks
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 17/02/2026
Jesse Jackson, civil rights icon, dies aged 84
theguardian.com
Jesse Jackson, civil rights icon, dies aged 84
A fixture in Democratic politics who ran for 1988 presidential nomination, Jackson was once close to Martin Luther King Jr The Rev Jesse Jackson, the civil rights campaigner who was prominent for more than 50 years and who ran strongly for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988, has died. He was 84. “Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the Jackson family said in a statement. “We shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family. His unwavering belief in justice, equality, and love uplifted millions, and we ask you to honor his memory by continuing the fight for the values he lived by.” Continue reading...
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Rainesford Stauffer @rainesford.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
Related to this, Blood Money: The Story of Life, Death, and Profit Inside America's Blood Industry by @kemc.bsky.social is a book that I think about all the time. If you haven't read it: www.simonandschuster.com/books/Blood-...
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
“Collection of Handwritten Letters from Children in Detention Center” sounds like an exhibit in the Holocaust Museum.
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