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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

This answer might seem nonsensical to folks not pickled in right wing fever swamp nonsense, but I'd guess that conceiving socialism as basically warmed over Great Replacement Theory is bog standard material on places like 8chan or X or wherever the most bigoted chuds like Vance hang out online today

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

🎯 If Dems regain Congress, Trump and his allies will spend the next two years looting whatever they can from the American people, burrowing true believers into government to sabotage efforts to rebuild, etc. Dems must be vigilant with oversight so that in 2029 they can claw back what gets taken.

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I feel like MGP lagging behind national Dems is a pretty easy story to tell. She ran her last two races against Joe Kent, probably one of the worst GOP candidates in the entire country. This cycle, there are a lot more Joe Kent types on the ballot everywhere, but MGP isn't facing one.

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Yup. I first noticed the GOP's performative cruelty in their 2012 primary, when a debate audience cheered Ron Paul's proposal to let uninsured people die. Trump then took over the GOP largely through vice signaling. The GOP has been selecting *for* Stephen Millers for a decade now.

abcnews.com

Tea Party Debate Audience Cheered Idea of Letting Uninsured Patients Die

Ron Paul Says Church, Not Government, Should Pay for Uninsured

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

You can tell a media outlet's political preferences by who is held accountable for the conduct of allies/supporters. Politicians on the left are constantly being held responsible for random supporters. Right-wing politicians often don't even get held accountable for their own votes and speech.

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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

"This election is about the threat of trans kids" is the worst possible messaging for Dems yet so many candidates are leaning into it. No voter will flip R->D over it. Low-info voters read this as "you're focused on bullshit that doesn't affect me" while the base reads this as "you're an asshole."

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

These "pollsters" are best understood not as engaging in an effort to measure public opinion accurately, but as part of a right wing messaging / disinformation machine shaping narratives to keep the GOP base (both voters and donors) engaged and activated, and the Dem base discouraged

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 15/09/2026

“trump will destroy everything he cannot own in perpetuity” is one reason i am filled with dread over 2028

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

This extends to things like healthcare, where Americans spend way more money than folks in peer countries. The US may measure higher than other major countries in some economic metrics (eg GDP), but it does not necessarily translate to a better quality of life or feeling less financially precarious.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 14/09/2026

crypto, car dealerships and MLMs. ripe targets for political and policy reasons.

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

The NYTimes running thinly-veiled PR for JD Vance, after the vile lies he made about Haitians during the campaign (which he admitted were lies!), is utterly despicable. When we do an accounting of the Trump Administration's crimes against humanity, media complicity has to be part of the picture.

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I don't think this deterioration in Trump's public standing is reversible. Trump is a conman, and once people see him as such, it shapes their reactions to news. There isn't really anything he can do to win people back when folks (rightly) see through his boasts and promises for the lies they are.

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

As best as I can tell, the reactionary press has not unearthed a single instance of a trans girl playing in girls' sports that endangered her competitors' safety. This is a fictional premise. Incredibly, the "fairness" concern misses the mark even further.

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Musk's fears seem especially misplaced given that he grew up in South Africa, where the end of Apartheid did not result in widespread retaliatory violence, as the perpetrators of Apartheid feared. He is just utterly detached from reality, living in a delusional world inside his own brain.

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

The NYTimes is so mad that Mamdani has figured out how to get his message out without having to go through traditional media gatekeepers.

static.klipy.com

Becklo Becklophoto

ALT: Becklo Becklophoto

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ceej @ceej.online · 03/09/2026

I do think “every rich person went insane during covid because it was the first time they’ve been inconvenienced in decades” felt a little reductive at first but damn if isn’t more and more compelling as the years drag on

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

If the NYTimes was genuinely interested in reporting newsworthy events and/or interesting stories, they'd be reporting on the Hermelyn autogolpe. But instead, to the extent they focus on local politics, they've decided to prioritize ideological axe-grinding against the left.

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

These messages are so benign. This is a demonstration of how the GOP and aligned media perceive voters in Middle America as hateful morons who are so bigoted and stupid that they will be persuaded by putting El Sayed's name and 9/11 in the same story, no matter the tenuousness of the connection.

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

There are going to be Democrats who say we shouldn’t rip it all out — it’s already built, we have other priorities — but removing the visible signs of Trumpism is absolutely necessary.

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Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

The main difference between 2016 and 2024 in terms of cultural response to Trump's victory was *elite* reaction (in 2016, horror; in 2024, delight bc of microwaved brains)

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

This is not remotely surprising, given the tenor of the coverage of the Trump Administration. Do these gullible morons really not understand that they're being manipulated?

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

This holds when an election result aligns with the preference of the pundits (see Hong's defeat, Trump 2024), but when the pundits prefer the loser, they frame it as how it shows the limitations of the winning candidates (see AES), or how the result threatens Dems elsewhere (see the NYC primaries).

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

I'm happy to see some defenses of "Woke 1" today, or at least critiques of the backlash to it. At heart, "Woke 1" was a recognition of several longstanding injustices, combined with an effort to prevent further injustice, including by imposing consequences on those who perpetrated harm.

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

This is annoying, but by framing these elections around the alleged radicalness of the Dems, the NYTimes is undercutting their most obvious way of dismissing the import of the eventual result (if the Dem wins), which is that the public didn't so much vote *for* them as it voted *against* the GOP.

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

This is not journalism, this is just an unsubtle attempt to contrive a scandal because CNN (and the NYPost) dislike Mamdani. We know this because these same media orgs amplifying this bigoted petition would condemn Mamdani mercilessly if he skipped a 9/11 remembrance event.

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Micah @rincewind.run · 06/08/2026

if the moderate wing of the Dem party would spend even half of the energy they are spending fighting the DSA on fighting Trump they wouldn't be losing so many primaries to the DSA

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

This is just conservative opinion / PR masquerading as reporting. If a progressive loses a primary, it was a referendum. If a progressive wins but it's close, it's a disappointment. If progressives win big it's a problem for Dems (see NYC). The throughline is Politico doesn't like progressives.

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

RFK's COVID gaslighting is gross and predictable. A lot of people look back on 2020-21 as a really terrible time, and Trump allies have spent the past half decade trying to deflect blame for the root cause of the despair, which was the mismanagement of the pandemic by the Trump Administration.

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Something I hadn't realized about the pied-a-terre tax until the freakout over this list is how it could ensnare wealthy people who had been committing tax fraud by falsely claiming that their primary residence was not in NYC. Whoops, now their actual home is gonna be taxed as a pied-a-terre!

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

In my view, these anti-DSA screeds from conservatives and reactionary centrists (see also recent pieces by Chait, Stephens, etc.) who trade in bad faith arguments trying to undermine progressive politics are actually a ringing endorsement for the DSA.

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

This is true if you take the prestige media and elites at their word that they actually want freedom of speech and intellectual inquiry. If, however, this discourse is really a pretext for promoting speech supporting the powerful and stifling dissent, it has been a wildly productive project.

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James Hell Brooks @kleinman.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

The entire credibility of judicial review rests on the fact that there's a reasoning behind orders that can be applied going forward. Otherwise it's just arbitrary rule by ayatollahs, which happens to be what the Supreme Court is right now.

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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

the next Democratic President needs to send aid targetted specifically to blue municipalities and states to restore the funds that were stolen from us under Trump.

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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

The “vibe shift” proclaimed Nov. 2024 - Jan. 2025 was just some elites—in business, media, law, and some higher ed admins—who kinda liked the fascism and gave themselves permission to accommodate it. That’s all it ever was. A close presidential election is not somehow a binding cultural referendum.

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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Your two options in American politics are the "let's raise taxes and give rural America subsidies" party and the "let's cut taxes and give it all to billionaires" party. I think it would be neat if there were a "raise taxes and invest in urban areas" option!

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David Nir @davidnir.com · 30/06/2026

SCOTUS reform won't just simply happen if Dems take Congress & the White House. A case has to be made for it—to a skeptical public, to reluctant politicians, to a hostile media. The blowback from the right will be intense and terrify a lot of weak-willed pols. The case has to be made starting *now*

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

As with some other things, i suspect if we have another dem president we will discover that the court did not so much transfer power to the executive as to themselves, ie they will find novel bullshit reasons to block a dem president the same way the find novel bullshit reasons to enable trump

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Asher HELLbein @asherelbein.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

I think there's actually a useful difference we can draw here. Namely: there is incrementalism that comes from pushing wherever possible (and with whatever levels possible) to make progress toward a maximalist demand, versus incrementalism that's positioned as an excuse for setting minor goals

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Sam Feldman @srfeld.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Extremely proud to be part of the @uaw.org, the best union in New York City, which has been listening to members when engaging with elections, taking big swings, and winning big the past few years. Now we’re sending two of our members to Congress.

thecityreporter.nyc

The United Auto Workers Is New York City’s Unlikeliest Kingmaker

For the second consecutive year, the UAW bet early on long-shot candidates, putting themselves in opposition to their allies in labor. Now two of its own are set to serve in Congress.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 24/06/2026

in addition to every other problem here, mamdani spends the vast majority of his time in the public eye speaking about hyper-local new york city governance issues. the idea that he is preoccupied with israel at all times is based on nothing other than the fact that he is muslim

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

I’ve been saying for years that party insiders care more about maintaining control of the party than advocating for their base and opposing the GOP. It’s tough to find dispositive evidence to prove it though. Until the DSA wins a few primaries and the former head of the DNC just posts it explicitly.

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Michael Caley @michaelcaley.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Brooklyn Can't Wait candidates are now uncontested or leading in 22 seats, out of 42 that is a majority, enough to elect a new chair I think we did it

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

What a revealing post. The Democratic Party doesn't belong to its leaders, it belongs to its supporters. When its leaders completely fail to represent the base's preferences, the answer is new leadership, not icing out the base.

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

What a night for the left in NYC. And its not just the congressional races. Incredible wins downballot too. These results really add some important context to Mamdani's win in 2025. It wasn't just that NYC voters didn't want Cuomo. They wanted people with politics like Mamdani in power.

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

"The Groups" was a euphemism used by pundits who didn't have compelling substantive reasons for why they wanted to diminish the influence of major orgs that advocate for parts of the Dem coalition, and who knew that being explicit about their project would be wildly unpopular with the Dem base.

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

For me, this post was a sign of right wing cultural capitulation. They decades trying to kill soccer in the USA, labeling it as foreign, effeminate. Now that the country cares about it, all they can do is try to coopt it. But fascists don't get to dictate what brings people joy. They can fuck off.

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

It boggles my mind that a legal scholar would argue that the solution to SCOTUS overturning the VRA in Callais is to pass another law. SCOTUS demonstrated *in Callais itself* that it will overturn duly passed laws on contrived, bad-faith, legally backwards arguments!

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Mahtin @mahtininthesky.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Of all the horror stories during this administration, this might be the one that made me angriest. This sort of tragedy is an inevitable result of a deportation policy designed to be profoundly cruel and disruptive. Blaming the deported mother for her toddler's death further adds to the injustice.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 01/06/2026

congrats to jared polis once again

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The Downballot @the-downballot.com · 29/05/2026

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has endorsed activist Darializa Avila Chevalier's campaign to defeat Rep. Adriano Espaillat in next month's Democratic primary. #NY13

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