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williamsaathoff.bsky.social

@williamsaathoff.bsky.social
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Glonzo the Bureaucrat 🇬🇱 🌹 @snarkranger.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Raising taxes to pay for expanded and improved government services is literally the opposite of austerity politics. Anti-tax leftism has got to be strangled in the crib before it destroys what scant hope we have of ever implementing a social democratic system in America.
anti tax no bedtime leftism
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ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 14/05/2026
no dude has ever rocked harder than this, I judge. how has this not been made into a movie
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Hank Green @hankgreen.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Some people say we don’t build beautiful things anymore and, like, lol. Motherfuckers, we built this:
A graph from Our World In Data showing a precipitous drop in child mortality starting in the late 1800s going from an average of 48% to global rate of 27% in 1950 to the 2020 infant mortality rate of 4%, with some countries having a rate as low as 0.3%
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James Medlock @jdcmedlock.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Happy tax day! This should be a civic holiday, we should have a parade and give out taxpayer awards. ruthbraunstein.substack.com/p/what-does-...
Tax law scholar Lawrence Zelenak observes, “April 15 can and should be as important a civic holiday as the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Together, the two days celebrate the fulfillment of the two great responsibilities of citizenship.”

The filing of the income tax return offers an opportunity to mark this achievement. Riffing on Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.’s famous quip, “I like to pay taxes. With them I buy civilization,” Zelenak calls for greater recognition of how filing an income tax return constitutes a “Purchase-of-Civilization Ceremony.”
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WeRateDogs @weratedogs.com · 13/04/2026
This is Sadie. She was finally reunited with her human, astronaut Christina Koch, after her mom’s voyage around the moon took her the furthest any human has ever been from their dog. She can't wait to hear all about the universe. 14/10 (IG: astro_christina)
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
rename all the Robert E Lee shit in Virginia for George Thomas, the Virginian General who stayed loyal to the union and kicked the Confederacy's ass.
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 07/04/2026
The #Artemis II astronauts said they needed more superlatives to describe their view of the eclipse, when the Sun was behind the Moon and its near surface was faintly illuminated by Earthshine
Captured by the Artemis II crew during their lunar flyby on April 6, 2026, this image shows the Moon fully eclipsing the Sun. From the crew’s perspective, the Moon appears large enough to completely block the Sun, creating nearly 54 minutes of totality and extending the view far beyond what is possible from Earth. The corona forms a glowing halo around the dark lunar disk, revealing details of the Sun’s outer atmosphere typically hidden by its brightness. Also visible are stars, typically too faint to see when imaging the Moon, but with the Moon in darkness stars are readily imaged. This unique vantage point provides both a striking visual and a valuable opportunity for astronauts to document and describe the corona during humanity’s return to deep space. The faint glow of the nearside of the Moon is visible in this image, having been illuminated by light reflected off the Earth. [alt text from NASA]
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 07/04/2026
#Artemis II lunar flyby images are showing up! 😍 A crescent Earth setting behind the Moon.
Earthset captured through the Orion spacecraft window at 6:41 p.m. EDT, April 6, 2026, during the Artemis II crew’s flyby of the Moon. A muted blue Earth with bright white clouds sets behind the cratered lunar surface. The dark portion of Earth is experiencing nighttime. On Earth’s day side, swirling clouds are visible over the Australia and Oceania region.  In the foreground, Ohm crater has terraced edges and a flat floor interrupted by central peaks. Central peaks form in complex craters when the lunar surface, liquefied on impact, splashes upwards during the crater’s formation.
[alt text from NASA]
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Boo!-per Lund @cooperlund.online · 07/04/2026
I keep seeing people say “why aren’t people doing something to stop this?” but this is the endpoint of the consolidation of executive power. There’s very little that can be done! One of the ways we’re going to have to fix things is figuring out what to do about that.
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CJ Fogler @cjzero.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Wild
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👻 Jack Djinn Wail 🧞 @jacktindale.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
If Artemis is going up then it gives me an excuse to once again post this photo, the only one to contain every human being in the universe but one.
Michael Collins, the chap who took this photograph, remains the only person on earth to have taken a photo that had everyone in shot aside himself.
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Bruce Arthur @brucearthur.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
NASA is honestly one of the greatest things humans have ever created, the stuff of math and dreams
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Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
We should rebuild the good parts of the midcentury American economy with the green energy transition and space exploration filling the role of WWII industrial mobilization / Cold War political economy send post
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Rodger Sherman @rodger.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
CBS turned their news operation into propaganda, kicked Colbert off the air for making too much trouble, and all that just to have Charles Barkley go on the air on one of their most-watched telecasts of the year and say this lmao
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Micah @rincewind.run · 28/03/2026
thoughts on today: 1) the protests are good, actually 2) you should go to one of you can 3) it will do you good to see how many other people also hate this guy 4) you might meet people who you can organize with 5) there are more of us than there are of them 6) we are going to win
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Kendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis @kendrawrites.com · 22/03/2026
I want fully staffed public pools, and libraries that are cathedrals to public goods and a society where walling yourself off with money is viewed as sociopathic.
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jess m. ☕🍂 @jametc.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
see? here's the thing. A lot of people are like, the earth is fucked, it's beyond salvation, it's hit the tipping point, but time and time again we see that if we just fucking fixed the problem, it rebounds so incredibly fast. Imagine what could be done if people actually cared
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Kat Abughazaleh @katmabu.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
Thank you to everyone who supported this campaign. Together we were able to do things never seen in American politics, to set a new standard from what we should expect from the people who try to represent us. What we built matters, regardless of the outcome. And the work isn’t over.
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Micah @rincewind.run · 07/03/2026
the IRA is an unfortunate example of the failure of the non-bigoted theory of popularism it was a good law that poured piles of money into infrastructure (in rural areas!) and they got zero credit for it from the people who complain about those sorts of things, because the complaining is the point
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Katelyn Burns @katelynburns.com · 06/03/2026
In every Republican presidency of my lifetime there's been a recession and a new war in the Middle East.
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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
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Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 05/03/2026
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Kristi Noem.
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Senator Ron Wyden @wyden.senate.gov · 05/03/2026
Turns out lawlessness is not a winning strategy. See you at Nuremberg 2.0
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
The left tried for decades to pass green energy subsidies, passed them, the subsidies worked, and now literally the entire planet's electricity grid is going to convert to solar+battery. It just doesn't feel like "tech" because it mostly produces kinda boring blue collar jobs instead of billionaires
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 16/02/2026
”This is a world of compensations; and he who would *be* no slave, must consent to *have* no slave. Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it.”
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 16/02/2026
i‘m using it for a column but i want to share here this line from lincoln on jefferson because it is applies to our situation as well. you can find it in his april 6, 1859 letter to henry l. pierce.
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JacketDan’s Stunt Spooktacular @jacketdan.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
We are going to win. Because we are stronger together and because love is more powerful than hate. (I am going to go cry now)
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Dax (David J.) Schwartz @snurri.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
Let me tell you a tale of how completely the normies have been mobilized. My 14 year-old niece has done School of Rock for the past 5 years; last summer she was part of their touring band, and the kids loved playing together so much that they decided to keep doing it. (1/?)
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Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler.com · 14/02/2026
So much of our present crisis is coddled, ignorant, and short sighted people tearing down the institutions that protect them because they don’t understand that bad things can happen.
That old saw about how "good times make weak men" is true in the sense that stable times with material abundance create reactionaries who want to destroy the systems that protect them because they're too sheltered and stupid to understand that things can get meaningfully worse.
Jason CO
@jasonc_nc. 2/8/25
I don't think a lot of people appreciate how much of their overall lifestyle and relative certainty is backstopped by a steady, boring stability of systems they don't understand or even realize exist.
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Max Dubler
@maxdubler
True decadence looks like people who are three generations removed from the cultural memory of polio refusing to vaccinate their children against deadly communicable diseases because they don't like needles and don't think there will be any consequences, not queer
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 12/02/2026
Walz: "The federal government needs to pay for what they broke here. There's going to be accountability on things that happened, but one of them is the incredible and immense cost borne by the people of this state. The federal government needs to be responsible."
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functional moron @fiveburger.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
america could be such a cool fucking place if we’d just let it be
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Rep. Sean Casten @casten.house.gov · 06/02/2026
Our government should be more representative of the American people. In a recent Vox interview, I talked about my bill to increase the size of the House, and what we can do to make sure every community has a real voice in Congress. www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhQG...
youtube.com
The House of Representatives is too small. Here is one way to fix it.
For more than a century, the size of the House of Representatives has been frozen at 435 seats; in that same period, the US population has tripled. This means that today, the average representative…
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Rodger Sherman @rodger.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Jessie Diggins, Olympic cross-country skiing gold medalist, from the Twin Cities: “I want to make sure you know who I’m racing for…”
Instagram post from Jessie Diggins, showing her carrying the American flag and smiling:

I want to make sure you know who I'm racing for when I get to the start line at the Olympics. I'm racing for an American people who stand for love, for acceptance, for compassion, honesty and respect for others. I do not stand for hate or violence or discrimination.
I get to decide who I'm racing for every single day, and how I want to live up to my values. For everyone out there caring for others, protecting their neighbors and meeting people with love - every single step is for you.
YOU are the ones who make me proud to carry the flag, and I hope I can bring you joy over these next few weeks.
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Rodger Sherman @rodger.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
I get this, but here's where I'm at: Trump & Vance are the worst of us. America is bigger than them, and they win if we let them define us. Team USA is the best of us. It's filled with Americans MAGA hates—first-generation + immigrants, LGBTQ+ athletes, people of color—& I'm gonna root for them.
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Technology Connections @techconnectify.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Let's do this. www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtQ9...
youtube.com
You are being misled about renewable energy technology.
YouTube video by Technology Connections
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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
This is Brad Lander doing pulltabs in the Uptown VFW. He’s one of us now
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dell cameron @dell.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
"If we have to hunt you down, the way they hunted down Nazis for decades, we will find your identities. We will find you. We will achieve justice. And we will do so under the Constitution and laws of the United States." www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ft1...
youtube.com
Philly DA vows to prosecute ‘wannabe Nazi' ICE agents who violate the law
YouTube video by NBC10 Philadelphia
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Sean T. Collins @seantcollins.com · 27/01/2026
The people of Minnesota did that. Not Schumer and Jeffries, not Walz and Frey, not the standard-bearers of decorum. The People.
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taylr @taylordahlin.com · 27/01/2026
brass solidarity band performing “stand by me” in the streets of whittier next to alex pretti’s memorial. the crowd started chanting “the people united will never be defeated” so they incorporated it into the song. i love minneapolis
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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
minneapolis was their gettysburg
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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
not over yet, but I literally cannot express the depth of my gratitude for the all the observers, patrollers, plate checkers, dispatchers, commuters who continue to successfully protect this city, sometimes at the cost of their wellbeing or lives. so many neighbors were not stolen, because of you
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Governor Tim Walz @governorwalz.mn.gov · 26/01/2026
Damn proud of Minnesota.
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Representative Becca Balint @balint.house.gov · 25/01/2026
We will need a Truth and Reconciliation Commission when these cruel, lawless people are out of office. They must be held accountable in order for our nation to heal.
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Aaron Stewart-Ahn @badideas.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
A video of Alex Pretti reading out the final salute of an unnamed veteran he cared for until the end of his life in the ICU, posted to Facebook by his son.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
You have to read this. Firsthand affidavit from one of the women who was there and recording the video. She talks about how Alex Pretti was directing traffic when she arrived. She watched him be killed in front of her. She's afraid to go home, worried she'll be arrested.
1. I am a resident of the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota. I am over 18 years of age. I am a children's entertainer who specializes in face painting.
2. On Saturday, January 24, 2026, at about 8:50 am, I was getting ready to go to work when I heard whistles outside. I knew the whistles meant that ICE agents were in the area, so I decided to check it out on my way to work. I've been involved in observing in my community because it is so important to document what ICE is doing to my neighbors. Connecting to your local community and knowing who your neighbors are is something I profoundly value.
3. I drove to Nicollet Ave. and 26th where I could hear the whistles coming from. I turned south onto Nicollet. There were already several ICE agents there and they'd set up a sort of vehicle convoy on Nicollet and 28th. There were also about 15 observers there, recording and observing ICE.
4. I saw ICE agents surrounding cars and punching car windows. I also saw them stopping vehicles further down Nicollet, so I backed up because I didn't feel safe continuing on.
5. I noticed a man sort of acting to help traffic move more smoothly. He helped me find a place to park. I got out with my whistle and my camera. I went over to him and said something like, "I'm going to film and use my whistle."
6. It seemed like most ICE activity was happening a little farther down the street from us, near 27th. Someone was being thrown to the ground.7. I started recording. There was an agent by a car across the street. Two observers were a few feet away from the agent, blowing their whistles. One was wearing a backpack.
8. I and the man who was observing and helping direct traffic were standing in the street. There was a phone in the man's hand recording a video.
9. An agent approached and asked us to back up, so I moved slowly back onto the sidewalk.
10. The man stayed in the street, filming as the other observers I mentioned earlier were being forced backward by another ICE agent threatening them with pepper spray. The man went closer to support them as they got threatened, just with his camera out. I didn't see him reach for or hold a gun.
11. Then the ICE agent shoved one of the other observers to the ground. Then he started pepper spraying all three of them directly in the face and all over. The man with the phone put his hands above his head and the agent sprayed him again and pushed him.
12. Then the man tried to help up the woman the ICE agent had shoved to the ground. The ICE agents just kept spraying. More agents came over and grabbed the man who was still trying to help the woman get up. All three of the observers looked to have been badly affected by the pepper spray. I could feel the pepper spray in my eyes.13. The agents pulled the man on the ground. I didn't see him touch any of them-he wasn't even turned toward them. It didn't look like he was trying to resist, just trying to help the woman up. I didn't see him with a gun. They threw him to the ground. Four or five agents had him on the ground and they just started shooting him. They shot him so many times.
14.1 don't know why they shot him. He was only helping. I was five feet from him and they just shot him.
15. The video I recorded of what happened accurately depicts the events leading up to the agents shooting him and several minutes afterwards. The video is attached as Exhibit 1.
16. I have read the statement from DHS about what happened and it is wrong. The man did not approach the agents with a gun. He approached them with a camera. He was just trying to help a woman get up and they took him to the ground.
17. I feel afraid. Only hours have passed since they shot a man right in front me and I don't feel like I can go home because I heard agents were looking for me. I don't know what the agents will do when they find me. I do know that they're not telling the truth about what happened. I've heard that other witnesses might have been arrested and taken to the Whipple Building.
18. I am disgusted and gutted at how they are treating my neighbors and my state. I keep alternating between crying and feeling determined it is important to remember the value of documenting injustice. We show up for the people who need us to bearwitness, because it can't just be one group of people bearing the brunt of their tyranny. This is a struggle to protect our freedom and democracy, those things are on the line. He lost his life for those values.
I declare under penalty of perjury that everything I have stated in this document is true and correct.

Dated and signed on Jan 24, 2026 in Hennepin County, State of Minnesota.
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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 25/01/2026
Absolute banger of a comment on r/military: www.reddit.com/r/Military/c...
jaderemedy • 4h ago
And now comes the most nauseating part of this whole goddamn mess: the hypocrisy. The same loud-mouthed idiots who spent years screaming about tyranny are suddenly dead fucking silent, or worse, cheering, now that it's their side doing it. "ThEy'Re cOminG fOr OuR gUnS!" "GoVerNMenT oVerReAch!" "ShAll nOt bE inFrinGeD!" All that chest-thumping bullshit evaporated the second armed federal agents started terrorizing people they don't like.
Let me get this straight: a civilian gets shot dead by federal agents, and the only thing you brainless cunts can muster is
"well, DHS says he had a gun"? THAT'S your red line? Guns are sacred when they're strapped to your waist, but magically become a death sentence when they're used as a post-hoc excuse by the government? Either the Second Amendment applies to everyone, or you never believed in it at all. Fucking pick one and own it.
This is exactly what tyranny looks like, by the way. Not jackboots marching in formation, but armed agents roaming neighborhoods, stopping people, killing civilians, and then daring the public to question it. Tyranny is execution followed by a press release. Tyranny is labeling the dead a "threat" so the state doesn't have to explain why someone's life just ended in the street. Tyranny is demanding obedience while shredding due process and calling it order.
And all you so-called "freedom lovers" are fucking fine with it, as long as it's brown people, immigrants, protesters, or anyone you've already dehumanized. Turns out "don't tread on me" actually meant "tread on them." You weren't afraid of tyranny.
You were afraid of losing dominance. There's a difference, and this moment exposes it completely.
"Just comply" isn't a principle. It's cowardice dressed up as common sense. It's the language of people who have already accepted that the state gets to decide who deserves rights and who doesn't. And once you make that deal, don't act shocked when the line moves, because it always fuckin…
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Elise Schuenke @troubledminnesotan.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
There’s a rally going on in Boston rn and they’re chanting “we’re not cold, we’re not afraid, MN taught us to be brave!” and I might cry
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Jeff Rueter @jeffrueter.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
Kare 11 local news just read, in full, this statement from Michael and Susan Pretti, the parents of Alex Pretti. "Please get the truth out about our son."
Statement from Michael and Susan Pretti
Parents of Alex Jeffrey Pretti

“We are heartbroken but also very angry.

Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact.

I do not throw around the ‘hero’ term lightly. However, his last thought and act was to protect a woman. The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He had his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down, all while being pepper sprayed. 

Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 24/01/2026
youtu.be/H_71MhRqpVM
youtu.be
ICE Kills Another American
YouTube video by Takes™ by Jamelle Bouie
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