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Thomas

@quintonthomas.bsky.social
2.1K followers 6.4K following 440 posts

New Yorker in London 🌹 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 "Socialism – with its promise of freedom, its larger hope for humanity, its triumph of peace over war, its binding of the races of the earth into one all-embracing brotherhood – must prevail."

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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 6h
But also this heroine: "Cereese Qusba, 22, a senior and reporter for The Sun, couldn’t shake her concerned curiosity about the case. This month...Ms. Qusba was ready to hit publish on her investigation, which was 23 months in the making."
nytimes.com
Students at Cornell Daily Sun Pursued Sexual Assault Case for Two Years
The student newspaper, The Cornell Daily Sun, covered the allegations of rape at a fraternity party since they were first made in 2024 and led the reporting on the case.
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Charlie Warzel @cwarzel.bsky.social · 6h
There is a moment at the very very end of Abdul El-Sayed's podcast with Ezra Klein (book recommendation section) where he talks about the idea of "speaking truth to pain" and this will be staying with me for an extremely long time. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/o...
But there’s also something about truth to pain. We talk a lot about truth to power, but I think it’s actually a lot harder to speak truth to pain. I say that as someone who went to medical school, realizing that in a lot of our politics right now, we’ve got to get a lot better at speaking truth to pain if we’re going to get through some of these challenges that we have.

What does “truth to pain” mean?

It’s one thing to look power in the eye and say: You’re wrong about this. But there’s a way in which pain is very difficult to reason with. Because when somebody is in their pain, they’re in their trauma. They see that pain, and they may not see what’s causing it.

I remember just very explicitly being in a trauma ward with a gunshot wound patient and watching this big guy with his hand on his gunshot wound. All the folks are trying to pull his hand off his pain, that point of his gunshot wound, this clear vulnerability.

And this emergency room doctor had the presence of mind to be like: Everyone, stop. And she looks him in the eyes, and she’s like: I get that really hurts, and I’m so sorry that you’re here. You don’t want to be here. We don’t want you to be here. But if you don’t let us fix this, you could die. So I’m going to take your hand, and I’m going to move it off, OK? Because I need to get there so that you can live.

She was speaking truth to pain. He understands he’s at the hospital, he needs care, but he also doesn’t want anybody to touch the wound. Which is a natural thing. And I think it is a really great metaphor for how we think about a lot of these challenges we talked about today.
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Bill McKibben @billmckibben.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
We need affordability. And also just a smidgen of serenity? www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | I’m Exhausted. You’re Demoralized. We Weren’t Built for a World Like This.
A greatly underappreciated virtue of other presidents was that you could forget about them for weeks at a time.
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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Actually you did vote for this, dipshit
Erick Erickson: Talked to a friend whose business has been hit hard by diesel and tariffs. He vented, "I voted for him, but I didn't vote for this." Real frustration out there.
1:16 PM • 9/29/26 • 5.5K Views
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Kevin Moore @kevinwmoore.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
From this day on 2012: probably the most popular thing I’ve ever drawn.
TinTin discovers Edward Said.
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The Onion @theonion.com · 29/09/2026
Cornell Vows That Rapists Will Be Forced To Write Much Longer Essays In The Future theonion.com/cornell-vows...
Cornell Vows That Rapists Will Be Forced To Write Much Longer Essays In The Future
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Thomas @quintonthomas.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
End Times Capitalism
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Jeff Sharlet @jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I give up. I’m moving into a cave.
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BeshearStan @beshearstan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
God I love Angie Nixon. I hope she wins
Now @AshleyMoodyFL. Why would I want to abolish the police when I want you arrested and in jail for stealing $10 million from sick kids? BFFR
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Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Whenever you see a pollster or consultant give a take like this, it’s always worth following the money. In this case, Emanuel has paid Anzalone’s firm nearly $300k (maybe more but that’s what I found so far). A consultant class is devouring the Dem Party www.elections.il.gov/CampaignDisc...
John Anzalone &
@JohnAnzo
X.com
Underestimate @RahmEmanuel at your own risk.
He knows how to win. He knows how to fight.
And he knows how to message.
And no one will out work him. Regardless of whether he wins the Democratic nomination in 2028 he will make an impact on the race. You can be sure of that. Don't take your eyes off of him. At the minimum, learn from him.
Rahm Emanuel Makes His 2026 Play
Rahm Emanuel Makes His 2026 Play
From nytimes.com
6:47 AM • 9/26/26 • 274K Views
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Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Haven't thought this out all the way through, but now would be a good time for an aggressive humanitarian movement to combat the death cults, the rise of AI, and otherwise anti-life impulses coursing through our politics and society.
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jon christian @jonchristian.net · 28/09/2026
NEW: After we published an investigation into Brown Brothers Media, a company that buys struggling news sites and turns them into AI-powered content mills, we got a tip that completely gobsmacked me: one of the brothers has extensive connections to Ghislaine Maxwell futurism.com/artificial-i...
futurism.com
You Know Those Three Brothers Who Buy Struggling News Sites and Turn Them Into AI-Powered Content Farms? It Turns Out One of Them Has Extensive Connections to Ghislaine Maxwell
Ideapod, a cornerstone brand of Brown Brothers Media's AI empire, has deep ties to convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.
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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 26/09/2026
‘“Hard borders” are a creation of the modern age. Until the late 19th century, borders almost everywhere were more or less open, often fuzzy or undecided.’ Ferdinand Mount on immigration and emigration in the English imagination. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
lrb.co.uk
Ferdinand Mount · Modest and Misunderstood: Wretched Strangers
In the great immigration panics of today, sympathy is focused on the home team. We are the ones who are being hurt. It...
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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
So much of what we are confronting today is best understood by the actions undertaken by white communities in response to integration orders. White supremacy is a form of democratic nihilism. Every institution, norm, and value of democracy will be sacrificed for it. calendar.eji.org/racial-injus...
calendar.eji.org
Sep. 27, 1958 | White Little Rock Voters Choose to Close Public Schools Rather Than Integrate
Learn more about our history of racial injustice
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Mark Hamill @markhamillofficial.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Isn't it nice when there's something we can ALL agree on? #ReleaseTheUnredactedEPSTEIN-Files
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Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
BREAKING: 94 year old Jewish human rights barrister, Margaret Owen arrested under the Terrorism Act outside Andy Burnham’s Labour Party conference. UK taxpayers are funding these arrests while masked men terrorise the streets in coastal towns. Lift The Ban on Palestine Action.
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Thomas @quintonthomas.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The AI scene is a freakish cult, part 7,642: www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-s...
wsj.com
‘Things Will Never Be Chill Again’: The Doomers Who Shaped the AI Safety Freakout
Effective altruism and its fears that AI could wipe out humanity have wielded big influence at Anthropic.
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I could quote pretty much this entire article by @mjrobbins.com on the bizarre psychology of the AI apocalypse freaks, but you should just read it instead. Such a relief to see someone express my feelings so eloquently. martinrobbins.substack.com/p/the-ai-apo...
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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
And, in "It never gets old" territory, this from tenured pundit:
Headline from March 2026: 'The War Is Going Better Than You Think'
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Mike Eliason @holz-bau.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
chat is this good?
all construction dropping massively.
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Thomas @quintonthomas.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"Germany’s use of Israel transcends social circles & class, from the highest political elite down to the most average everyday German. It serves as an outlet for Germany’s own nationalism, militarism, and Islamophobia."
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Thomas @quintonthomas.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"The origins of M4A serve as a reminder that there was a time in U.S. history, not so long ago, when members of both parties saw merit in expanding the nation’s largest universal health insurance program to ensure that no American would have to confront illness and fear financial disaster."
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Spencer Ackerman @attackerman.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Ha ha that’s gross and should make everyone uncomfortable, anyway, Rahm presided over a Chicago police black site, lied about what it was and then I sued the Chicago police for its records that proved it:
theguardian.com
Homan Square revealed: how Chicago police 'disappeared' 7,000 people
Exclusive: Lawsuit exposes scale of detention at off-the-books interrogation warehouse while attorneys describe find-your-client chase ‘from a Bond movie’
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Thomas @quintonthomas.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Like Musk, Peter Thiel is a freak, an idiot, and incredibly dangerous
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Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Reminder that the Trump administration is trying to destroy the ICC in order to protect this man. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/w...
nytimes.com
Netanyahu Said to Have Been Warned by Emirati Leader About Hamas Attack Before Oct. 7
The warning from the leader of the United Arab Emirates, which lacked specific details about the nature of an attack, never reached the chiefs of Israel’s security establishment, Israeli officials sai...
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Seth Masket @smotus.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Interviewing the inventor of napalm about his hats
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Kat Abughazaleh @katmabu.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
It’s been a year since ICE drove a car through a crowd at Broadview, leading to the federal indictment of myself and five others. Today, those of us who could returned. The state can try all it wants, but it can’t silence us or our community’s fight for justice.
From left to right

Brian Straw, a white suburban dad with a dark brown beard, glasses, orange hat, and teal quarter zip

Me, a short blonde woman in a black sweatshirt reading, “IT’S MY BODY, IT’S MY CHOICE” in two curves on my chest

Michael Rabbit, a white older man with rosy cheeks in a black hoodie

Andre Martin, a tall curly-haired man with glasses, a grey hoodie, and blue fanny pack

Yes, we feel weird taking a picture at the concentration camp.
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Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 25/09/2026
tucker carlson is a foppish frozen TV dinner empire heir, a virulent bigot, and a grotesque opportunist/propagandist. it's embarrassing that NPR editors think he needs more attention for his phony-ass pivot away from a nightmare he helped build
NPR headline for tucker carlson interview: "Tucker Carlson has reconsidered Trump. And quite a bit else."
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G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris.com · 25/09/2026
The entire US politics and news industries spend a large chunk of their waking hours on a platform designed to inflate the importance of that 18%. It's a big problem, and why you get stuff like Tammy Duckworth saying she's against impeachment because she wants to "find a compromise" on USAID $
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
There are too many people in congress who would be happier doing this, and that's part of why our politics is so stupid bsky.app/profile/avit...
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Alexander Clarkson @aphclarkson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
That's because the anti-intellectualism of the populists and Far Right is in direct contradiction to the basic foundations of any civilisation
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Thomas @quintonthomas.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
More on the tech/AI industry as a cesspool of abuse and sociopathy: nypost.com/2026/09/24/t...
nypost.com
Silicon Valley ‘sex assault list’ with ‘over 100’ names circulated, warning female tech workers of predators to avoid
“Some of them were very prominent names, you know? People who were famous investors. Businessmen who were in the scene”
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Michael Sainato @msainato.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I spoke with @juliesulabor.bsky.social and workers in New York City about the urgent need for heat protections in the workplace www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
‘Your body fights to stay cool’: workers toil in record heat as federal rule frozen
Trump officials and Republicans are rolling back protections against heat-related illnesses and deaths
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leon @leyawn.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
ceo of burger king: our burgers have gone rogue again and infected people with e coli
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Alex Gibney @alexgibneyfilm.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The trailer for my new film, "Musk," has just been released.
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Thomas @quintonthomas.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
"According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Israel was responsible for two-thirds of all press killings in the world in both 2024 and 2025. More journalists have been killed in Gaza by the IDF than in all of the Second World War." www.equator.org/articles/gaz...
equator.org
The New McCarthyism • EQUATOR
How Israel’s advocates are working to silence dissent in Australia – and everywhere else
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Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 24/09/2026
Just when I think I can’t hate OpenAI and Sam Altman any more, new details come out about how ChatGPT helped a shooter plan one of the worst mass shootings in Canadian history in Tumbler Ridge, BC. OpenAI made an explicit decision not to report the user to authorities.
motherjones.com
ChatGPT helped the Tumbler Ridge school shooter focus on guns, tactics, and terror, our investigation reveals
OpenAI’s chatbot fed the shooter’s violent fantasies and planning up to the massacre.
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 24/09/2026
Last night I planted an olive tree at Gracie Mansion with Palestinian families from Gaza.  May peace be our future.
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David_j_roth @davidjroth.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
It's too depressing and obnoxious to write about, but virtually all of the doomy/horny AI hyperventilating is transparently displaced anxiety about our fucked climate and political situation. Even rich idiots know it's bad and being permitted to get worse. They're trying to write their own ending.
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The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 21/09/2026
Students and faculty across the country were punished for their actions in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s murder. A recent graduate of Texas Tech’s law school is still trying to clear her name. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
newyorker.com
The Fallout of a Charlie Kirk Campus Scandal
Students and faculty across the country were punished for their actions in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s murder. A recent graduate of Texas Tech’s law school is still trying to clear her name.
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Matt Ford @mford.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Ezra Klein asked Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about AI making kids worse at math and reading. Huang’s reply: “Does it matter?” Then he said he doesn’t know his own address or phone number. “We’re going to lose some fine intellectual dexterity.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/23/o...
So the message of this research out of China, where you were seeing a lot of kids using A.I. to help them, was that when they were using the A.I., they were getting things done faster. But it turned out that the skills they were learning were not holding, that their actual personal performance, at least in the way we traditionally measure it, was degrading.

What do you think when you hear that?

The last part — I completely agree. Try to get a kid to do long division right now. The multiplication table is starting to be forgotten. Doing square roots, my goodness. Basic math is being forgotten. Does it matter?

That’s my question for you.

Yeah. I don’t think it does. I don’t think it does.

But there must be some set of skills that matter.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But maybe not those. We’re going to discover new ones. Just maybe not those.

There are a lot of skills that don’t matter. My first confession, I actually don’t know my address.And I ——

I don’t really believe that to be true.

It’s completely true. Janine will tell you and Lori will tell you.

One day I had to pump gas — it was a few years ago. They needed my ZIP code, and I panicked. I didn’t know my ZIP code. I don’t know my telephone number. I forget these things. I can live with it.

But let me take the other side because I don’t want to fall into a thing where, because some skills can be safely offloaded ——

Yeah.

I also can’t get anywhere without a mapping system now. Never could, frankly. But I’m a big reader. And one of the skills I really value, one of the capacities I have that I really value is an attention span formed on physical books.

You’re a big reader. I’ve read about the kind of reading you do. And there is, prior to A.I., a lot of concern and noticing among college professors and others that the way people use the internet has probably shortened attention spans.
Some skills can be safely given away. Others are valuable. They are capacities that are needed for that flexibility, for that creative thinking, for that focus. It can’t be the case that everything can be traded off.Some skills can be safely given away. Others are valuable. They are capacities that are needed for that flexibility, for that creative thinking, for that focus. It can’t be the case that everything can be traded off.

Yeah. Well, I think that we’re going to lose some finer intellectual dexterity, but we’re going to be better systems thinkers.

Today’s engineers are far better systems thinkers than I was when I graduated from school. But I was a much better transistor thinker.

What do you mean by systems thinker?

They think of large systems. Today’s computers have trillions, hundreds of trillions of transistors in them. When I first graduated from school, the first chip I worked on had 200 transistors. I knew every one of them by name. No engineer does that today. Most engineers now work well above the transistor, well above the functionality, and they’re cobbling things together to do things.

So you need to think much more about systems and interactions of systems. So some of the lower-level knowledge is gone.
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Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (mirror) @reprashida.govpeeps.us · 24/09/2026
ICE killed another man. His name is Mario David Coronado Juarez. Mario lived and worked in Michigan for 7 years as a construction worker, sending money home to his kids in Guatemala. ICE pursued him in an unmarked car, causing a fatal car crash. These killings have to stop. #AbolishICE.
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Thomas @quintonthomas.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
"The Searchlight Institute has much of its $10 million annual budget covered by hedge-fund billionaire Stephen Mandel, who has launched a pair of super PACs to promote centrist candidates, and real-estate investor Eric Laufer."
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The Irish Times @irishtimes.com · 24/09/2026
Israeli bulldozers smash Palestinian olive trees before annual harvest
irishtimes.com
Israeli bulldozers smash Palestinian olive trees before annual harvest
‘They left us with nothing,’ says owner of olive grove in West Bank
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Taj Ali @tajali1.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Racism will not be defeated from above. It will only be defeated by us – ordinary citizens who refuse to look away. My piece for @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Britain’s far-right violence comes to us direct from the 1970s. But so does the solution | Taj Ali
Young men punched in the street, mosques attacked: Britain badly needs an anti-racist uprising. Let 70s Asian youth movements provide the inspiration, says Taj Ali, author of Come What May, We’re Here...
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 23/09/2026
UK shares findings of damning climate crisis national security report suppressed under Starmer
theguardian.com
UK shares findings of damning climate crisis national security report suppressed under Starmer
El Niño poses critical threat to nations’ defences, says Ed Miliband in presentation to global foreign ministers The UK has warned countries around the world that the climate and nature crises and the coming El Niño threaten their national security and defence, presenting foreign ministries with the findings of an explosive report suppressed under Keir Starmer. Ed Miliband, the foreign secretary, made a presentation to the foreign ministers of the EU as well as Kenya and other countries on Wednesday night at a private meeting during the UN general assembly in New York, based on the report by the UK’s spy chiefs that found the collapse of natural systems around the world would lead to conflict, migration and food shortages. Continue reading...
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Jason Linkins @dceiver.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Lord, please let Troy Jackson survive his close proximity to The Consultants nymag.com/intelligence...
Another source familiar with the campaign said, “I don’t even think it’s disdain for Maine so much as it’s just disdain for, more generally, people. They want to run this campaign through numbers and spreadsheets. And wherever a campaign is connecting with people or doing anything quirky or unique, they’re like, ‘This is bad and weird.’”
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Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Texas is a voter suppression state, not a red state
votebeat.org
Tens of thousands of Texas voter registration applications likely ensnared in state error
Democrats are calling for investigations into why voter registration applications submitted via a DPS portal weren’t forwarded to counties.
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
> @cnn.com www.cnn.com/2026/09/23/p...
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Stephen Judkins @stephenjudkins.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Back in November 2024 the smart boy pundits were talking about how the Democrats needed to moderate to win back voters. But they forgot this: Trump is a moron who will fuck everything up and the GOP are ghouls who will double down on their most unpopular policies in the least popular possible ways
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