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Steve Owens

@votesteveowens.bsky.social
1.1K followers 193 following 196 posts

MA State Representative 29th Middlesex District (Cambridge & Watertown); Former chair of Watertown Democratic Town Committee; current DSC member — He/Him

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Steve Owens
onekade @onekade.bsky.social · 21h
A sentence that may as well define our era: “Flock faces growing scrutiny from regulators, lawmakers, and privacy advocates, despite drawing strong ​investor interest among venture capitalists.” www.reuters.com/business/ai-...
reuters.com
EXCLUSIVE: AI surveillance startup Flock Safety to cut several hundred jobs amid backlash, sources say
Flock Safety plans to let go of about 18% of its employees, people with direct knowledge of the plans said on Thursday, as the maker of AI-powered ​surveillance cameras and license-plate readers faces...
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Steve Owens @votesteveowens.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
There is not believed to be any on-going danger to the community as a result of this incident. The investigation is on-going, CPD Officers and Detectives will remain in the vicinity. www.cambridgema.gov/departments/...
cambridgema.gov
CPD Responds to North Cambridge Shooting
On Tuesday, October 6, 2026 Cambridge Police responded to a shooting incident on Rindge Ave near Russell Field. At approximately 3:20PM Cambridge Emergency Communications received multiple 9-1-1 calls...
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Reposted by Steve Owens
rax ‘levon honkers’ king @raxkingisdead.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
'this AI agent can do all your tasks for you' so now i gotta sit here and write a list of all my tasks for a robot to fuck up. why. why wouldn't i just keep to the current system where i fuck up my own tasks
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Reposted by Steve Owens
Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
a bill which provided a strong footing for civil liability and punitive damages that attaches to Flock itself as well as the civil jurisdiction in question would do wonders for reining this kind of thing in.
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Reposted by Steve Owens
Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
1) Every damn things he's built without Congressional authorization gets demolished on the first day. 2) Christ, he's like a 7-year old. "Oh yeah? Well MY arch is going to be a FORTRESS with GUNS and DRONES and LASERS, you'll be able to CONTROL THE WHOLE CITY from there."
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🎃 Imani Gandy Corn 🎃 @angryblacklady.blacksky.app · 20/09/2026
I just honestly can't get over that Save Women Sports, an anti-trans group could only find five trans athletes competing K through 12. Five. The NCAA president testified a year and a half ago or so that there were less than 10 college level trans athletes. What the fuck are we doing, people
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Steve Owens @votesteveowens.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Signs the Ship is Sinking. www.wired.com/story/flock-...
wired.com
Flock Offers Employees Buyouts as Customers Flee
As dozens of cities end contracts for its controversial license plate readers, Flock is rolling out a voluntary severance program, WIRED has learned.
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Reposted by Steve Owens
The New York Times @nytimes.com · 19/09/2026
In @nytopinion.nytimes.com “For years, the prevailing narrative has been that privacy is dead and pervasive surveillance is just the cost of admission for existing in the digital age,” Evan Greer writes. “The Flock backlash shows that people aren’t apathetic about their privacy.”
nyti.ms
Opinion | How Flock Cameras Became the Enemy
The campaign against Flock shows that fighting to protect personal privacy isn’t a lost cause.
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Reposted by Steve Owens
jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 18/09/2026
RFK Jr. wants people to get sick. He wants them to get sick and he thinks it is a good thing if they die, since those who live will have "natural immunity" and emerge stronger and fitter.
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Steve Owens @votesteveowens.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
This is why it’s so hard to trust that out-of-state actors won’t use ALPR data to track down people seeking reproductive or gender affirming care in Mass. www.404media.co/cops-search-...
404media.co
Cops Search Thousands of Flock Cameras for Reasons of ‘LMAO,’ ‘IDK,’ ‘Hehe,’ and ‘asdfg’
The EFF found cops writing “idiot,” “WEIRD KID,” "blah," "leave me alone," and button mashing in Flock's 'reason' box.
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Reposted by Steve Owens
Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 16/09/2026
I'm just going to keep yelling this louder and louder until it clicks: weird overpaid AI nerds hand-wringing about human extinction are trying to distract you from the extremely deadly and serious harms they are causing yesterday, today and tomorrow www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Headline: "US Data Centers Set to Burn More Natural Gas Than Most Nations" above a photo of natural gas compressor towers, power lines and a crane at an industrial site, illustrating rising gas use tied to data centers.News excerpt reporting that U.S. data centers’ natural gas use is expected to grow by 15 billion cubic feet per day by 2035—amounting to more gas than every country except China, Russia, Iran and the U.S., citing the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
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Reposted by Steve Owens
The Boston LOL 💜 🚲 ⚡ @thebostonlol.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Thank you Rep Owens for trying to catch up on our lack of oversight. We appreciate you efforts
Crockford said the technology requires more regulation.

“ The problem is that right now in Massachusetts, there are no rules at all. We have no state law that regulates how police can use this technology,“ Crockford said, noting that regulations exist in 21 other states,  including Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire and Connecticut.

State Rep. Steven Owens, of Watertown, has introduced legislation to require police to obtain a court order before sharing data with outside agencies. In Boston, City Councilor Julia Mejia said that until that regulation exists, the city should take a step back.
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Steve Owens @votesteveowens.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
www.wbur.org/news/2026/09...
wbur.org
Flock Safety failed to secure Boston vehicle data during 2025 pilot, report finds
Three days into a pilot program with the Boston Police Department, city officials realized Flock Safety had been distributing data it promised not to share with external law enforcement agencies, acco...
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Steve Owens @votesteveowens.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
www.bostonglobe.com/2026/09/13/s...
bostonglobe.com
This program is driving up gas bills in Massachusetts. Did it make customers safer? - The Boston Globe
A recent study found there is no statistical evidence that increased spending on replacing old gas pipes has improved safety.
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Reposted by Steve Owens
Dean Obeidallah @deanobeidallah.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
New records released today tell us Rudy Giuliani knew the air at Ground Zero was dangerous but lied to New Yorkers. People died because of this. Yet no right wing media outlet will ask him about it abcnews.com/US/nyc-mayor...
abcnews.com
NYC Mayor Mamdani releases thousands of long-sought city documents on 9/11 air quality
First responders who rushed to the World Trade Center on and immediately after the 9/11 attacks were likely exposed to dangerous toxins, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said.
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Reposted by Steve Owens
ghost malone ergo propter bones @proptermalone.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I think MAHA is very straightforwardly the triumph of the snake oil salesmen and the way we beat it is the same way you always beat snake oil salesmen: regulate their claims
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 07/09/2026
under remarked on aspect of trump is his deep hatred of natural beauty and the natural world.
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Reposted by Steve Owens
Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org · 04/09/2026
"Camera networks are mass surveillance, and so you know they're not only trained on certain people; they're trained on everyone, and it doesn't matter your ideological bent," EFF’s Karen Gullo told ABC News.
abcnews.com
How Flock cameras are becoming an issue in the midterm elections
Automated license plate readers are collecting enemies across party lines.
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Reposted by Steve Owens
Cambridge Somerville Independent @csindie.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Smart glasses and other wearables are banned from Cambridge Public Schools before a problem emerges
csindie.com
Smart glasses and other wearables are banned from Cambridge Public Schools before a problem emerges
Smart glasses and other wearable technologies were banned from Cambridge Public Schools by a policy order passed Tuesday by the School Committee. The committee also discussed guidelines for screen time and artificial intelligence.  Smart glasses – which can subtly record what the viewer looks at and privately... The post Smart glasses and other wearables are banned from Cambridge Public Schools before a problem emerges appeared first on Cambridge | Somerville Independent.
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Steve Owens @votesteveowens.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Surprise surprise www.bostonglobe.com/2026/09/03/m...
bostonglobe.com
Woman allegedly tracked by Revere police officer using Flock system accuses him of verbal, physical abuse - The Boston Globe
Marissa Todisco, speaking to reporters outside Revere City Hall on Thursday, also accused the Revere Police Department of turning a blind eye to her allegations against Officer Michael Tiso.
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Reposted by Steve Owens
Dr Grace S Peng @gspeng.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Full sized SUVs are 2x more likely to strike pedestrians and 2x more likely to kill or seriously injure pedestrians vs passenger cars. If a child is struck by a full size SUV, they are 8x more likely to die www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
2. Literature review
2.1. Vehicle type and crash biomechanics
Desapriya et al. (2010) found that when a collision occurs, the risk of
a pedestrian sustaining a fatal injury is 50% greater with a light truck
versus a conventional car and that vehicle design characteristics such as
height, width, and length have significant associations with pedestrian
severity outcomes. In addition to the physical dimensions of the vehicles,
the authors cited light trucks’ relatively poor braking and maneuverability
as other possible contributing factors to their poor pedestrian
safety outcomes. Recent research has found that the difference is more
drastic for children, with children being eight times more likely to be
killed when struck by an SUV versus a passenger car (Edwards &
Leonard, 2022).
Front-end dimensions have been a particular focus area of past researchers.
Studies have shown that impacts with tall front-end vehicles –
including SUVs and vans – resulted in pedestrians being pushed forward
which, depending on the height of the pedestrian, sometimes resulted in
high head-ground impact speeds, likely leading to more severe injuries
(Crocetta et al., 2015; Monfort et al., 2024). Pedestrians that are pushed
to the ground by high-front-end vehicles may also be more likely to be
run over by the vehicle, as opposed to pedestrians struck by low-front-
end vehicles who may be more likely to be forced on top of the hood
(Crocetta et al., 2015).
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Reposted by Steve Owens
ACLU @aclu.org · 04/09/2026
The key provision of USPS’s mail ballot rule is still blocked. It’s an unconstitutional attempt at upending the upcoming elections.
nytimes.com
Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court to Allow Mail Voting Limits
The justices have been asked to weigh in again on the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict mail voting — this time on whether the plans violate the Constitution.
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Steve Owens @votesteveowens.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
www.aclum.org/press-releas...
aclum.org
Massachusetts Court Rules State Police Must Disclose License Plate Reader Locations and Audit Records  - ACLU of Massachusetts
The ACLU has been seeking information about the state police's use of this surveillance technology for five years. A judge ruled the records must be disclosed.
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Steve Owens @votesteveowens.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...
arstechnica.com
Cities terminate Flock contracts at record pace in August
Cancellations have accelerated.
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Reposted by Steve Owens
Robert P. Jones @robertpjones.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
These side by side images tell the story: Trump welcomes only white South Africans while ICE descends on Haitians who have fled violence & established lives here legally. By abruptly ending TPS for Haitians & initiating mass deportations, our government is gleefully enacting racial apartheid in US.
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Steve Owens @votesteveowens.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Despicable
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Reposted by Steve Owens
AG Andrea Joy Campbell @massago.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
BREAKING: My office is leading a lawsuit against the USPS to block Donald Trump's latest attack on mail-in voting. States have authority over elections, not the President or the Postal Service. We’re asking the court to immediately block this unlawful rule. The Constitution is on our side.
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Steve Owens @votesteveowens.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
What radicalized me? It's walking my younger son to elementary school years ago and there was one of these behemoths parked in the crosswalk. He barely came up to the logo on the front grill.
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Reposted by Steve Owens
Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org · 25/08/2026
Flock ALPRs or Axon ALPRs? Same difference, EFF’s Rin Alajaji told @fox10phoenix.bsky.social. “There is not good surveillance or bad surveillance... it's just government surveillance of your movements.”
fox10phoenix.com
Arizona police cancel Flock contracts over data misuse while Axon expands surveillance tech
Following data misuse investigations in Arizona, police departments are severing ties with Flock, prompting competitor Axon to market its license plate readers with built-in privacy guardrails.
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Reposted by Steve Owens
Starbucks Workers United @sbworkersunited.org · 25/08/2026
🚨BREAKING: Our union of over 12,000 baristas are officially calling for a Starbucks boycott. Read this statement penned by Starbucks workers on why a boycott from ALL customers, allies, and organizations is necessary to fight back against corporate greed:
BOYCOTT STARBUCKS is written inside a zig-zaggy speech bubble against crumbled paper. Beside it are the Starbucks Workers United logo and an image of a coffee cup being poured out.We, the 12,000 and growing members of Starbucks Workers United, call on everyone who stands with working people to boycott Starbucks until they finalize a contract with union baristas and stop union-busting.
What we’re fighting for is simple: a minimum $17/hr wage, enough hours to live on, better staffing in our stores, and basic workplace protections. Every year, our living costs rise but our wages don’t keep up – a growing pressure many American workers are feeling as corporate greed accelerates unchecked in our country. 
Starbucks is banking on customers' blind loyalty to the integrity and values this company once stood for in order to keep squeezing them for profits. At a time when working-class people across the country are struggling in a challenging economy, it is no longer possible to be both a Starbucks customer and in support of workers; choosing to spend money at Starbucks is choosing a law breaking corporation over the baristas who make your coffee everyday exactly as you ask for it.
Starbucks has violated U.S. labor law more than any other company in modern history–the NLRB and its judges have found that Starbucks committed hundreds of labor violations and there are currently more than 550 unresolved unfair labor practice charges still pending against the company. Instead of finalizing a fair and reasonable union contract, Starbucks has repeatedly demonstrated a lack of care for the workers who fuel the company’s profits by wasting millions of dollars on AI and technology that doesn’t work, launching countless gimmicky drinks designed to distract from real problems, and inventing pointless policies that do nothing but make our jobs harder. 
This ongoing, irrational behavior by Starbucks and its refusal to settle a fair union contract with workers leaves us with no other choice than to call for a boycott. We know when working people stand up together, we win. 
No Contract? No Coffee.
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Ben White @speedofwhite.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Lmaooo The Grafton Police Department will begin deactivating all automated license plate readers from Flock Safety, just weeks after it signed a contract with the surveillance technology corporation, the chief announced Friday, Aug. 21st www.telegram.com/story/news/l...
telegram.com
Grafton deactivating Flock cameras, a month after installing them
Police chief cites vandalism and theft of devices, acknowledges concerns about use of technology.
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Reposted by Steve Owens
The New York Times @nytimes.com · 21/08/2026
Filming strangers is too new a behavior for there to be any sort of cultural consensus about it, Willy Staley writes. At what point does it become OK? If they’re breaking the law? Whose law? "So the court remains in session, all day and all night, thanks to the miniaturization of recording devices."
nyti.ms
Flock Cameras. Canoodling Lawyers. How Much Surveillance Are We Comfortable With?
Americans say they hate prying cameras. But they can’t look away.
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Steve Owens @votesteveowens.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
I did not set out to have my bluesky account be all Flock all the Time, but it seems like every day there's a new reason to reign these ALPR companies in. www.wcvb.com/article/hopk...
wcvb.com
Mass. town ends 'unlawful' Flock Safety contract after legal review
Hopkinton terminated its Flock Safety contract after a legal review found the agreement did not meet Massachusetts requirements.
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Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org · 21/08/2026
EFF’s @MGuariglia.bsky.social joined @whyy.org’s Studio 2 to discuss Flock Safety’s ALPRs and the “reforms” they announced last week. “A lot of these reforms are much too little, too late... It is warrantless mass surveillance writ large across the country.”
whyy.org
The surveillance state got creepier - WHYY
There’s growing backlash against Flock Safety cameras. Are they an essential crime-fighting tool, or a mass surveillance system ripe for abuse?
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Steve Owens @votesteveowens.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
www.kvue.com/article/news...
kvue.com
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James Talarico @jamestalarico.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
God already built a wall through Big Bend — it's called the Chisos Mountains. We don't need to give billions of our tax dollars to out of state vendors. We don't need to desecrate this sacred land. We don't need this useless, disgraceful, corrupt Big Bend border wall.
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Tina Smith @smith.senate.gov · 13/08/2026
The White House normally gets $2.5 million a year for maintenance. Trump’s team has allocated $875 million.   That’s 350 years’ worth of the usual budget spent by a single administration.
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Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
“Modern life is standing at a gas station sink with your hands under a motion-activated faucet waiting for water that doesn’t come.” sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/quicksand
sarahkendzior.substack.com
Quicksand
Gen X was right after all.
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Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org · 30/07/2026
EFF’s @maassive.bsky.social spoke with @cnn.com about the anti-ALPR sentiment sweeping the nation. “Once people start learning about the massive scale of the data that’s being collected and who it’s being accessed by, it starts to freak them out.”
cnn.com
Flock cameras are getting mobbed | CNN
From coast to coast, Americans across the political spectrum have been taking official or vigilante action against the always-on, searchable camera network.
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Steve Owens @votesteveowens.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
baystatebanner.com/2026/07/29/f...
baystatebanner.com
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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 24/07/2026
Breaking News: The U.S. has recorded more measles cases in 2026 than in any other year since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000. nyti.ms/4x0CLc2
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Sammy Roth @sammyroth.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Insane new research. Scientists gave asthma patients free electric stoves to replace their gas stoves, then checked to see if symptoms improved. Not only did symptoms improve, ditching gas was *better than medicine.* Details in today's newsletter: www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/electric-s...
climatecoloredgoggles.com
Researchers used electric stoves to treat asthma. It worked.
The latest evidence that gas is bad for your health.
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Nik DeCosta-Klipa @nikdecostaklipa.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
This morning in WBUR Today: 4 ways to get around the 10-day Red Line closure north of Boston www.wbur.org/news/2026/07... @wbur.org
wbur.org
4 ways to get around the 10-day Red Line closure north of Boston
The MBTA is suspending Red Line service between Alewife and Park Street for 10 days this month, July 21-30. Here's a look at your alternative options.
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Steve Owens @votesteveowens.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Flock has given the public _so many_ reasons not to trust them with our location data. www.aclu.org/news/privacy...
aclu.org
Flock Lied About its ALPR technology. What Else Has It Lied About?
ACLU documents how surveillance camera company Flock has lied to local officials about its operations
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Steve Owens @votesteveowens.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
Police keep losing their jobs for using Flock cameras to stalk people
Advocates say it's too easy to abuse automated license plate reader technology.
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The Liberal BoJack @thelibbojack.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Reminder: If voting requires you to spend $165 on a passport, that’s a poll tax. We made those unconstitutional in 1964. The SAVE Act is voter suppression.
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City of Cambridge @cambridgemass.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Will you be impacted by the train service shut down? 🚲 Enjoy free, low stress, bike rides weekday mornings from Alewife, passing Davis, Porter, Harvard, Central & Kendall Sq 🗓️ 7/21-30 ⏰ Mornings 📍 Alewife Bluebikes Station at Steel Place 🦺 Ride leaders will be in fluorescent vests 🔗 camb.ma/redline
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Steve Owens @votesteveowens.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
For the record, even if they were the people ICE was targeting, it would still be an outrageous crime to shoot them dead. Abolish ICE.
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McBoo-lie @mcjulie.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Republican policies are often so cartoonishly evil that **their own voters** do not believe those are really the things Republicans want to do, they think it’s just Democrat slander.
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