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Chris Allen

@smugchristophe.bsky.social
308 followers 29 following 186 posts

Black. Atheist. Cranky left-liberal Democrat. 37. Don’t call me a Texan. smugchristophe.substack.com

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Chris Allen @smugchristophe.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
He’s correct. This is a non-starter in the House as Democrats are the minority party. This is not an issue that has not elicited widespread public outrage except for those who are politically engaged & up-to-date on current events.
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Yashar Ali 🐘 @yasharali.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
This is the kind of stuff that really radicalizes me and should infuriate any decent person: Big Pharma’s abuse of the patent system. I know this sounds naive, but something has got to change… there’s no constituency for Big Pharma! And no one, except for the lobbyists, wants higher drug prices.
bit.ly
Big Pharma Can Tweak Drugs to Keep Generics Off the Market
Taking advantage of a broken patent system, Big Pharma is making minor tweaks to medications just to keep affordable generics off the market, a new report suggests. They’ve made billions of dollars in...
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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
The thing is, we can disagree about all kinds of policies, and still fundamentally agree on some basic principles of government. I think many of us have rediscovered that, which is one good thing that comes out of all this.
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Yashar Ali 🐘 @yasharali.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
I have a favor to ask for my birthday, and it involves wildlife…of course. It would mean the world to me if you would click below to go to my IG post for my birthday request. And I would be so grateful if you would like and repost this so it gets maximum reach. Click Here: bit.ly/47YD9y5
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Jacob Soboroff @jacobsoboroff.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
“it is bonkers, frankly, when you see [what is happening in Charlotte] yourself.”
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🗽LOLGOP🗽 @lolgop.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
While Bouie notes that Vance is pretty useless compared to recent vice presidents, I'd add that all changed after this month's elections. With Trump a shamed duck, Vance is now the leader of the party. And that makes his welcoming stance towards the Groypers all the more sick and dangerous.
thefarce.org
JD Vance now leads the GOP. And he wants the party to welcome Hitler lovers.
And the press refuses to reckon with what this means.
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Chris Allen @smugchristophe.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
Just straight out of the Marine Le Pen playbook. (Compare this to when Le Pen tried to clean up the image of the National Front/Rally after years of racism, Islamophobia, & anti-Semitism from her father, Jean Le Pen.)
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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
Trump's people want a lot of bad things that will make America an authoritarian regime. But they haven't succeeded and it would take a while for them even to end democracy, much less build fascism. So act as if you live in a democracy - because you do. The End. /20x
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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
A regime of avaricious, cruel goons isn't the same thing as a "fascist state," and the fact that they have to go to court, fight it out in state elections and legislatures, cower from being filmed (instead of filming *you*) means everything. Recognize this. Don't surrender to your fears. /19
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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
But remember that most of Trump's people aren't deep thinkers. They want you to think they are, but they're mostly just tap dancing as fast as they can while raiding the treasury and inflicting their cruelty on others. They're living in fear of all this ending soon - and rightly so./18
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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
Many of you will read this and resort to "Yeah, but that's what Trump WANTS and it's gonna happen!" I think Trump doesn't give a flying fuck about most of this, including building THE STATE as a thing. Nor do most of his cronies. But sure, they have plans, and they're awful. /17
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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
So, fine, you don't care what the definition of "fascism" is. But please, think through how differently your strategies would be if America were a fascist state right now. It's not. You have all the powers of a democracy. Use them. Don't buy into the "fascism is now" drama. /16
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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
I could list even more stuff - about the media, the churches, etc - but my point is that fascism is a lot more than "violent racism" or "repressive police action." What we're seeing now is hideous, but it isn't in the same ballpark. /15
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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
Basically, if America were a fascist regime *right now*, you'd have to hope either for a civil war or a foreign invasion. All other avenues would have been snuffed out. In *authoritarianism*, control is a lot more tenuous and pluralist alternatives still exist - even if the regime are thugs. /14
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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
5. And most important, you wouldn't bother to vote. Why do something so stupid? Showing up and casting any vote but the right one would be basically signing your own arrest warrant, or worse, sooner or later. Nothing will matter; even if the opposition wins, they'll lose. /13
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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
You DEFINITELY wouldn't be out on the street, yelling at cops, or pleading with them to be honorable, or demanding to see their ID. You just...Would Not. (Throwing food at a cop? Under fascism, you'd be better off just jumping into the river instead of the beating - or bullet - you'd get.) /12
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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
You certainly wouldn't trust your local cops or state police or local officials in ANY way, because they wouldn't be YOURS. And if they abuse you, you'd best shut up and take it. (See the part about "Courts"). You'd fear that every interaction would be an interaction with The State, the Regime. /11
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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
Federalism is a powerful obstacle to fascism, and if fascism were *already here*, federalism would not be around. Gavin Newsom would be spoken of in whispers as "that guy who did a funny thing once making fun of the Leader and then no one saw again." /10
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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
4. In a fascist regime, you wouldn't bother with federalism. Fascists worship the centralized STATE. One of the first things the Nazis did was dismantle Weimar federalism. You wouldn't give a damn if Mikie Sherrill became a governor- and you'd assume she's not long for this world if she did. /9
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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
You would not be a member of an opposition party or even a remotely suspicious dinner club, FFS. This is what "mass mobilization" means. It doesn't mean "mobs yelling YAY RACISM," it means all citizen action is re-channeled into the State and its Leader - especially in schools. /8
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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
3. In a fascist regime, you join the State's activities or you *stay the hell out of the public square.* Fascist regimes stomp out all *horizontal* social attachments among ppl - clubs, organizations, etc - and replace them with verticalized relationships binding the individual to the STATE. /7
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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
(A digression: If you don't believe this, you have no idea how much paperwork the Nazis - and their cousins, the Stalinists - kept. They wrote EVERYTHING down. It helped to hang them later. The movie Schindler's List actually captures this well.) /6a
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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
Under fascism, judges already know their decisions won't matter. They might rule for you or against you, but they'll hate you for putting them in the spotlight and you'll lose, eventually, one way or another. Fascist courts don't matter. The State's bureaucracies do. You'd have to use them. /6
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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
2. You would not take your political grievances to court. Fascist regimes are bureaucratic regimes. You want to fight them, you do so very carefully at the level of paperwork. Seriously. (@gvozdism.bsky.social has said many smart things about this.) You don't go to court. /5
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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
Fascist regimes are paranoid regimes, so you'd want to make the regime's opponents *harder* to identify, not easier. Lack of trust and shitty infomation flow is a characteristic of autocracies in general; you'd want to encourage that, not wear "I AM THE OPPOSITION" tee-shirts. /4
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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
Why? Because trying to incite popular resistance in a fascist society is bonkers. It's just a way to bring the State - its cops, courts, mobs, etc - down on your head. Fascist states don't fall to revolution. Under fascism, you want opponents to be hard to find, not parading around in frog suits./3
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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
1. If America were fascist right now, I would not be posting here. Neither would you. Instead, I - and you - would be trying to build networks of people *offline* who can support and protect each other, in the dark, rather than yelling at the president and his stooges in our own names. /2
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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
Understandable. Fascism is part of totalitarianism, which is part of authoritarianism. Think of it like Family/Genus/Species in biology: Family - Authoritarian Genus - Totalitarian Species - Fascist Getting the Family right and Species wrong is the difference between a tiger and a house cat!
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Chris Allen @smugchristophe.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
Pretty much.
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Ethan Nichtern @ethannichtern.com · 15/11/2025
Deciding between getting in an ambulance or paying your rent.
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Ethan Nichtern @ethannichtern.com · 15/11/2025
The degree to which I have no interest in your writing if you used AI to help you write it cannot be overstated. Trust yourself. Your mind is beautiful and it’s enough.
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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
Amazing how racist goon squads can wake people up to danger, but it's unfortunate that everyone had to touch the hot stove to find out it was hot
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Chris Tackett @cjtackett.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
Arlington City Council is considering an amendment to the anti-discrimination chapter of city code to remove the terms “sexual orientation” and “gender identity/expression” as protected classes. Show up. Stand up. Speak out against this at the Arlington City Council meeting at 6:30pm on 11/18.
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Ashton Pittman @ashtonpittman.bsky.social · 02/11/2025
NEW: 12 Mississippi polling places have moved and 4 have been closed ahead of the Nov. 4 legislative special elections, an MFP investigation finds. Counties also have incorrect addresses in the state system for 11 polling places, risking sending some voters to the wrong location.
mississippifreepress.org
12 Polling Places Move Before Mississippi Special Elections, 4 Close
County election officials in Mississippi have moved 12 polling places and closed four since 2024, an MFP investigation finds.
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The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 27/09/2025
A graveyard outside a state juvenile detention facility has been neglected by Maryland officials for decades. A Post investigation found that state officials had grossly undercounted the number of Black children who died while in the facility's care. wapo.st/4gFjINr
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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
Every time one of you says "well, that's it, this is fascism," you're giving up. If we were already living in a fascist regime, most of you - and certainly not anyone in the public space, like me - would not be here arguing about it. You're Americans. Stop fantasizing that you're the White Rose.
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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
This is, without any exaggeration, exactly how Putin and Orbán proceeded — using antisemitism to discredit the idea of civil society and political opposition, and as an excuse to undo the rule of law. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/u...
nytimes.com
Justice Dept. Official Pushes Prosecutors to Investigate George Soros’s Foundation
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The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 06/08/2025
Hiroshima's mayor is urging younger generations to recognize that such “misguided policies,” like the growing acceptance of nuclear weapons for national security, could cause “utterly inhumane” consequences. wapo.st/4owgrUn
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The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 06/08/2025
Wednesday’s anniversary comes at a time when possession of nuclear weapons for deterrence is increasingly supported by the international community, including Japan. But survivors want nuclear abolishment, not deterrence.
wapo.st
Hiroshima survivors fear rising nuclear threat on the 80th anniversary of atomic bombing
Hiroshima is marking the 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the western Japanese city
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The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 06/08/2025
As Hiroshima marks the 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing, many aging survivors express frustration about the growing support of global leaders for nuclear weapons as a deterrence. wapo.st/4owgrUn
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Chris Allen @smugchristophe.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Will be an interesting development, given how much the public has soured on Israel.
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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 24/07/2025
Donations to PBS and NPR surged after Congress eliminated $550 million a year in federal funding for public broadcasters across the U.S. last week.
trib.al
Donations to NPR and PBS Stations Surge After Funding Cuts
Donors are turning out to support local stations, but those contributions so far fall well short of the annual $550 million that Congress cut.
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Andrew Rumbach @andrewrumbach.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
Terrific story by the @houstonchronicle.com on the Texas Floods and insurance. Not surprisingly, most people affected did not have flood insurance...a chronic nationwide issue that is only more important in light of FEMA pulling back on disaster assistance. www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/tex...
houstonchronicle.com
Exclusive: Most Kerr County homes hit on July 4 had no flood insurance
Less than 5% of homes in the county's FEMA floodplain had flood coverage, well below the national average. Uptake was even worse in other areas that flooded.
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Chris Allen @smugchristophe.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
😬😬😬
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Randi Mayem Singer @rmayemsinger.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
I'm still not over yesterday's obscene SCOTUS decision that our government can deport people to prisons in countries they're not from. How is anyone walking around going about their day?
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GemmaGem @tippytaff.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
Welcome to fascism, folks.
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Denise Wheeler @denisedwheeler.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
DHS requested 20,000 National Guard troops 3 wks ago to assist w ICE raids & arrests 1st time in US history May 9 DHS memo details what they want them for 3500 to "attempt to locate — fugitives" 2500 for detention support Up to 10,000 for transportation support 1000 for translation & document
npr.org
DHS memo details how National Guard troops will be used for immigration enforcement
The memo obtained by NPR says troops would be used in activities, including in "night operations and rural interdiction," as well as "guard duty and riot control" inside detention facilities.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 02/06/2025
my takeaway from this feature is that in a functioning political system there would be televised congressional hearings over the fact that one of the most influential people in the white house is a total maniac www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
newyorker.com
Curtis Yarvin’s Plot Against America
The reactionary blogger’s call for a monarch to rule the country once seemed like a joke. Now the right is ready to bend the knee.
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Chandler Rome @chandlerrome.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
Framber Valdez tonight against the Rays: 9 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, 83 pitches, 59 strikes, 42 swings, 13 whiffs, 14 groundouts, 86.8 mph average exit velocity. Valdez’s 83 pitches match Darryl Kile for the fewest thrown in a complete game in Astros history. His ERA is 3.12
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Chris Allen @smugchristophe.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
Oh boy…
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