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Karin Gitchel

@kgitch.bsky.social
718 followers 781 following 43 posts

M.Ed. Writer of memories. Reader of mysteries. Quilter of rainbows. Cat wrangler. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐈‍⬛🧵🎨📚

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Reposted by Karin Gitchel
Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
a Sunday reminder for Washingtonians out there Washington is the only state where a MAJORITY of the state Supreme Court is on the ballot, all at once a very rare situation no party label on the ballot but candidates are still aligned with parties! important to learn: boltsmag.org/your-state-b...
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Reposted by Karin Gitchel
Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
underrated part of El-Sayed’s messaging strategy seems to be shaming journalists who ask dumb questions that play into right-wing frames. you can’t answer these in a way that satisfies them, but you can make it embarrassing enough that you impose a toll on asking.
Abdul El-Sayed: "Weijia, with all due respect, this is the third time you've asked about a Twitch streamer ... their whole game is to make us fight culture wars so that we don't pay attention to the fact the president has made $2.2 billion ... "
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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Why are AI firms w/big legal teams worried about antitrust liability when there's 100 yrs of jurisprudence in their favor? "They want a blank check. They don’t like product liability, they don’t like copyright, and now they don’t like antitrust.” @sladebond.bsky.social gift link t.co/iRJa0pocyE
Slade Bond, a former Biden Justice Department official, said courts for a century have allowed companies to cooperate for the purpose of public safety. Companies can’t invoke safety as pretext for suppressing competition for other, illegal reasons. But a deal between AI companies to prevent a cataclysmal event, such as a financial crisis induced by a bot swarm, would be viewed as pro-competitive under the Sherman Antitrust Act, an 1890 statute that undergirds U.S. competition policy. 

Asking the government for a waiver suggests the companies are extremely risk-averse when it comes to potential liability, despite having massive market caps, legal teams and litigation budgets, said Bond, who was a lead counsel on the House antitrust investigation into the tech industry in 2019 and 2020.“They want a blank check,” he said. “They don’t like product liability, they don’t like copyright, and now they don’t like antitrust.”
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Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 14/09/2026
The only person in public service who has consistently made 100% sense on issues of "AI," which is why they hate her so much.
Law enforcers already have authority to charge companies and their CEOs for creating and releasing dangerous, unvetted, or defective products. We shouldn’t let discussions about new legal regimes distract from the fact that there’s no AI exemption from laws already on the books — a point 
@FTC
 emphasized repeatedly during my tenure.

1. There is an extensive set of laws that govern dangerous and defective products. For example, releasing unvetted AI models or agents can violate consumer protection laws. Shipping flawed AI tools without implementing adequate measures to detect and stop rogue or defective AI agents can be an “unfair or deceptive” act or practice under the FTC Act (and analogous state laws). And some state AGs are already exploring holding AI firms and their CEOs criminally liable when their models participate in criminal activity.

2. Existing laws also prohibit “unfair methods of competition.” This covers instances where AI firms appropriate the competitively sensitive information of their customers, including through tracking their use of various tools. It can also cover instances where firms pursue dangerous behavior, aware that doing so may compel rivals to do the same.As the Supreme Court has noted: “A method of competition which casts upon one's competitors the burden of the loss of business unless they will descend to a practice which they are under a powerful moral compulsion not to adopt, even though it is not criminal, was thought to involve the kind of unfairness at which the [unfair methods of competition] statute was aimed."

3. The highly concentrated and interconnected structure of these markets could be creating major risks and conflicts of interest. We had started investigating these partnerships and cross-investments across the stack (and released a preliminarily overview of some findings: https://ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/01/ftc-issues-staff-report-ai-partnerships-investments-study). 

Both federal and state enforcers should be scrutinizing these opaque relationships and inter-dependencies. We are already seeing how these relationships could undermine accountability. For example, OpenAI could face liability given the Hugging Face incident, but Hugging Face being bought up by Nvidia means that we’re unlikely to see it file a lawsuit over this — given Nvidia’s strong incentive to see OpenAI continue full speed ahead.4. As AI tools dramatically change the landscape of cybersecurity risks and hacks, all businesses should be doubling down on having core security protections in place. Firms that fail to invest in adequate data security measures or fix known vulnerabilities can also be breaking the law. A recent analysis showed that around 1/3 of Fortune 100 companies do not even have a way to notify them about security issues. During my 
@FTC
 tenure, we sued firms for poor data security practices and held CEOs liable when they were personally responsible.

https://this.weekinsecurity.com/dozens-of-americas-largest-companies-have-no-simple-way-to-report-security-flaws/

https://ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2022/10/ftc-takes-action-against-drizly-its-ceo-james-cory-rellas-security-failures-exposed-data-25-million

5. As policymakers consider new legal regimes, we should be looking to lessons from prior efforts to govern major sectors, such as banking and other networks, platforms, and utilities. Tools like structural separations, nondiscrimination, and supervision could be key, and there’s a rich history of what works and what doesn’t. But we can and must pursue any new efforts alongside enforcing existing laws.
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Reposted by Karin Gitchel
Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Again, please share. In every aspect of American history you will run smack dab into the critical contributions of Black people. It’s not Black history. It’s American history. Trying to erase it is a fool’s errand. We live it every day. time.com/5836444/blac...
time.com
The Forgotten Black History of How Memorial Day Started
Historians like the Pulitzer Prize winner David Blight have tried to raise awareness of freed slaves who decorated soldiers' graves in 1865
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Randi Weingarten 🖇️📚✊🇺🇸 @rweingarten.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
We all should be alarmed by the DOJ targeting SPLC. NAACP President Derrick Johnson is spot on: “What we are seeing in real time is an administration seeking to leverage its position to target individuals and organizations that do not agree with its political thought.” apnews.com/article/sout...
apnews.com
Civil rights groups condemn Southern Poverty Law Center's indictment and prepare for legal fights
The Southern Poverty Law Center's indictment is sparking outrage among civil rights leaders. They have been preparing for increased legal scrutiny from the Trump administration.
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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 25/04/2026
Meta spent more on lobbying in 2025 than America’s three largest oil and gas companies combined.
motherjones.com
Number go up
Our charts tell the story of oligarchy in overdrive.
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🗽LOLGOP🗽 @lolgop.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
"One of Trump’s extraordinary skills is to recognize and recruit those whose greed and vanity outstrip their principles, and who are happy to shout righteously for a cause they once abhorred."
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Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
I promise I'm not trying to revive this discussion. Just wanted to highlight how this aligns with my "whose trust?" question. Nobody seems to care about the ways my trust in higher ed has been eroded.
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Adam Parkhomenko @adamparkhomenko.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
If you watch and share one thing today make at this. Why is every democrat in the country not talking like this?
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Large Marge (she/her) @margdoosamm.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
“Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.” -Margaret Atwood #WomenArePeople #StopKillingUs
apnews.com
Police say former Virginia lieutenant governor, wife dead in murder-suicide
Police in Virginia say Justin Fairfax, the state’s former lieutenant governor, shot and killed his wife and then fatally shot himself.
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Karin Gitchel @kgitch.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
“Don’t go anywhere near a checkpoint, and if your papers are in processing, just lay low. Trump meant what he said – he is trying to get rid of everyone, whether they are good or bad,” said Tania Warner, 47, who is currently held with her autistic daughter, Ayla, at the Dilley..."
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Reposted by Karin Gitchel
Rachel Maddow @maddow.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
"Previous demonstrations in Missoula have drawn thousands, and the one Saturday, organized by Missoula Resists, Indivisible Missoula and Stand Up Fight Back, was estimated at more than double, possibly triple, the first No Kings rally..." dailymontanan.com/2026/03/28/p...
dailymontanan.com
Protestors back at Montana Capitol, other ‘No King’ rallies double
Issues from No Kings protests across Montana ranged from threat of authoritarianism to war, healthcare and reproductive freedom
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
If the estimates were right, there were about 9 million people at No Kings rallies today. That would mean this protest was THIRTY TIMES AS LARGE AS THE TEA PARTY PROTEST which we were told, over and over again, was a massively important sign that US politics had shifted dramatically to the right
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Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
The other day I saw a video of an historian (maybe?) saying he didn’t understand why billionaires are opposed to being taxed more because “taxation is the compromise.” And that last ~500 years teaches us what happens when that compromise is not struck. Can’t stop thinking about it.
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Karin Gitchel @kgitch.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
🚨Call your house representative! “Classroom curriculum would be changed, & history that touches on LGBTQ+ rights would invariably be targeted…it would impact joint-use public school & public library facilities & it would absolutely be applied in public libraries as broadly as the right would like.”
targeted.it
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Reposted by Karin Gitchel
kelly jensen @heykellyjensen.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Emerging Tactics in Destroying Libraries for Political Power: Perkins County, South Carolina, and Randolph County, North Carolina, point to new tactics being used to destroy libraries for political power. That, plus this week's censorship news roundup. bookriot.com/destroying-l...
bookriot.com
Emerging Tactics in Destroying Libraries for Political Power: Book Censorship News, March 13, 2026
Perkins County, South Carolina, and Randolph County, North Carolina, point to new tactics being used to destroy libraries for political power.
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Karin Gitchel @kgitch.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Sensing this in real time. This tool very much changes work. "I am no longer needed for the actual technical work of my job. ... I tell the AI what I want, walk away from my computer... come back to find the work done. Done well" shumer.dev/something-bi...
shumer.dev
Something Big Is Happening
A personal note for non-tech friends and family on what AI is starting to change.
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Reposted by Karin Gitchel
Alexander Kustov @akoustov.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
My two posts on AI in academia provoked a lot of people this week, and some of it was unnecessary. I'm sorry for the tone and provocation. But I stand by the substance. Here are all my 20 theses. I'd genuinely like to know which ones folks *empirically* disagree or agree with.
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Alexander Kustov @akoustov.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Sorry, Bluesky, but I have to say it: AI can already do social science research better than most professors with PhDs. And, for the first time in my life, I really have no idea what happens in five years. Things are changing already, we just need to wake up.
alexanderkustov.substack.com
Academics Need to Wake Up on AI
Ten theses for folks who haven't noticed the ground shifting under their feet
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
A deeply underreported story. I know so many people struggling to pay their electric bills
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RANGE Media @rangemedia.co · 20/02/2026
As ICE continues to eye expansion into our region, local electeds in Spokane are proposing two ordinances to combat federal immigration enforcement overreach:
rangemedia.co
Two new anti-ICE laws proposed in Spokane
As ICE continues to eye expansion into our region, local electeds in Spokane are proposing two ordinances to combat federal immigration enforcement overreach.
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kyleberkopes.bsky.social @kyleberkopes.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Auschwitz-Birkenau. 😔
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Kirk Murphy @kirkmurphy.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
“We have all been here before We have all been here before”
Plan of lower deck with the stewage of 292 slaves.
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Eunice Cho @eunicehcho.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Concerned about ICE's $45 billion plan to convert warehouses into immigration detention centers? This is what they'll look like inside. From ICE's plan for the Social Circle, GA facility. Each little dot: a person. www.socialcirclega.gov/home/showpub...
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Andrea Pitzer @andreapitzer.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Two issues I'm pondering. One is that you can't move this many people without inflicting tremendous physical and psychological harm on those deported and on society itself. The second is that left in place for years, mass detention on a whole new level will be normalized. It rarely vanishes. [1/3]
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Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
A reminder that no matter how many videos of ICE abuses appear online, a chunk of America, a big chunk of Trump’s base, is not just totally fine with it, they want it, enjoy it, revel in it. The cruelty is indeed the point. The rest of us non-sociopaths need to reckon with that depressing reality.
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Peggi @p2cat.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
From FB comments: The day a prince got handcuffed, POTUS fell asleep in his own meeting, & a giant portrait of Trump was hung on the DoJ building...somehow this is just a Thursday. Take a moment to consider this, because it's crucial to be observant in today's world, not just skim over things🗣️
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Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Needless to say, there’s no way this scale is consistent with lawful due process — Trump is only hiring 100 new immigration judges. These concentration camps are intended to be so awful that detainees “voluntarily” agree to self-deport to end the trauma. More: www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/accountabi...
doomsdayscenario.co
Accountability for ICE and CBP
However bad you think the corruption and misconduct at ICE and CBP is — the reality is far far worse.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
You’ve got to click through to really be able to read this, but note that the box on the top right says this will actually be a two-level facility, with around 5,200 beds on the ground floor (if I’m reading the blurry text right) and around 3,100 on the “mezzanine.”
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Karin Gitchel @kgitch.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Looking for whistles to distribute in your town? See resource linked for free orders of 100-1000, send an email request. If you just need a few, purchase from the etsy account.
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David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Everyone here has had to decide what they will and won’t do. Will you take someone in your house? Will you bring them groceries? Will you patrol streets with a whistle? Will you do some other kind of work, of which there are many. And how many of these types.
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Ana Marie Cox @anamariecox.com · 10/02/2026
Worth watching this in full. The statement is more powerful than this quote alone. Here is is from USA Today, with alt text. Also! Rich Ruohonen is a personal injury lawyer and the oldest athlete to ever represent the United States in a Winter Games at 54 years old.
"I'm proud to be here to represent Team USA, and to represent our country. But we'd be remiss if we didn't at least mention what's going on in Minnesota and what a tough time it's been for everybody. This stuff is happening right, right around where we live""I am a lawyer, as you know, and we have a constitution," Ruohonen continued, "and it allows us to (have) freedom of press, freedom of speech, protects us from unreasonable searches and seizures, and makes it that we have to have probable cause to be pulled over. And what's happening in Minnesota is wrong. There's no shades of grey. It's clear.""I really love what's been happening there now with people coming out, showing the love, the compassion, integrity and respect for others that they don't know, and helping them out," Ruohonen said. "And we love Minnesota for that.

"And I want to make it clear that we are out here, we love our country. We're playing for the U.S. We're playing for Team USA. And we're playing for each other, and we're playing for our family and our friends that sacrificed so much to be here today. And that doesn't change anything.

"Because what the Olympics means is excellence, respect, friendship, and we all, I think, exemplify that. And we are playing for the people of Minnesota and the people around the country who share those same values. That compassion, that love and that respect."
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Washington State Democrats @wadems.org · 10/02/2026
Karla and her dad are finally home in Spokane after being in Texas’s detention center for weeks. Families seeking safety deserve dignity, due process, and compassion. WA Dems will fight to ensure that happens.
spokesman.com
Father and 10-year-old daughter released from ICE custody in Texas; pair returns to Spokane
A 10-year-old Spokane girl and her father detained by Border Patrol last month have been freed from a federal immigration detention center in Texas.
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Austin Kocher, PhD @austinkocher.com · 10/02/2026
A 920,000-sq-ft warehouse in south KC could detain up to 8,000 people. Port KC says that’s not what it signed up for and has now cut ties with the developer, citing misalignment and poor communication. www.kmbc.com/article/port...
kmbc.com
Port KC cuts ties with developer of potential ICE detention center in south Kansas City
Port KC has formally cut ties with Platform Ventures, the private developer that owns a massive warehouse in south Kansas City that could house an immigration detention center.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
I’ve seen a lot of questions on these lines, and the quick answer is that once the federal government purchases the property (including the land the warehouse sits on), local governments cannot regulate them or tax them. They are now federal properties and so the Supremacy Clause applies.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
In the last month ICE has bought warehouses in: - Hagerstown, MD: $102 million - Surprise, AZ: $70 million - Hamburg, PA: $87 million - Tremont, PA: $120 million - San Antonio, TX: $82 million - El Paso, TX: $123 million - Social Circle, GA: price unknown This is unprecedented.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
The closest modern historical parallel is the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay for intercepted Cubans and Haitians during the HW Bush and Clinton administrations, where at maximum capacity roughly 12,000 migrants were detained. But those migrants were never in the physical US.
Image of Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo Bay from 1991, showing row after row of people laying on cots in an airplane hangar.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
The largest federal prison in the nation is Fort Dix, which has a rated capacity of 4,600 people. The largest of these warehouse camps may hold more than twice that number of people. The federal government hasn't operated a prison camp inside the United States that large since Japanese Internment.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Right now Rikers Island, the physically largest jail in the entire United States, is holding under 7,000 people. ICE's warehouse plans include detention camps which will hold between 8,500-10,000 people in buildings not designed for human habitation.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 10/02/2026
i think this more than anything is what miller wants. vast detention camps with all of the suffering and death that means.
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Karin Gitchel @kgitch.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
🌎📚❤️ Looking for a fantastic reading challenge from 26 countries? Check this list from @tomesandtextiles.bsky.social challenge on @thestorygraph.com app.thestorygraph.com/reading_chal...
app.thestorygraph.com
TOGETHER WE ARE AMERICA READING LIST
Created by @tomesandtextiles and posted to SG by @overthinkereading History was made, and we'...
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Karin Gitchel @kgitch.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
More of this!! “The whole purpose behind Project Salt Box is to find data from publicly available sources (e.g. government contracts, FOIA libraries, local records, etc.) and use that data for good.” Link to substack: open.substack.com/pub/projects...
Screenshot from the Project Salt Box Warehouse Tracker. Image of white map of states with colored dots correlated to warehouse locations.
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FactPost @factpostnews.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
US Olympic Curling Team member speaks out against ICE: "I'm proud to represent Team USA. But we'd be remiss if we didn't mention what's going on in Minnesota and what a tough time it's been. What's happening is wrong. There's no shades of gray."
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Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Republicans in Congress have unveiled a new bill that would impose the most extreme voting restrictions ever proposed at the federal level. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
democracydocket.com
New GOP anti-voting bill may be the most dangerous attack on voting rights ever
The MEGA Act represents one of the most catastrophic proposals for democracy in the United States.
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Schooley @schooley.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
I’m not sure we’ve properly addressed how profoundly disturbing it is that America can largely shrug at the stashing of human beings in giant warehouses.
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Karin Gitchel @kgitch.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Stacey Abrams: “There are three components to voter suppression: Can you register and stay on the rolls? Can you cast a ballot? And does that ballot get counted?” They are attacking all three.
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Boo!-per Lund @cooperlund.online · 06/02/2026
They’re trying to run the Kilmar Abrego Garcia playbook with a five year old boy in a bunny hat because nobody can find peace if they embarrass the Trump administration publicly. Normal people didn’t like it with Garcia and they really aren’t going to like it for Liam.
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Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
Bannon (and his buddies) are using an informational strategy called reflexive control that intentionally exploits the reaction of his adversaries (on the left) to inflict damage on their own side. Don't become an unwitting agent in their information operation.
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Karin Gitchel @kgitch.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
Helpful thread.
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