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Ben Alpers@benalpers.bsky.social |
343 followers 444 following 797 posts
Associate Prof of US History in the Honors College at the University of Oklahoma. Author of HAPPY DAYS: IMAGES OF THE PRE-SIXTIES PAST IN SEVENTIES AMERICA (Rutgers University Press, 2024). Opinions are entirely my own. He/him.
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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Whatever might be gained by Biden's dropping out, it won't be an end to the NYT's attempts to ratfuck the Democratic campaign and elect Donald Trump. Nothing has stopped them from reporting on the grave threat Trump represents to American democracy and liberty. They just don't care.
0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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Paul F. Tompkins
@pftompkins.bsky.social
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The ultimate tragedy of Born In The USA is not only was it co-opted by dummies who embraced it because they didn’t catch any words past the title but that it has no barrier for entry for singers. No peaks, no valleys. It starts in the middle & stays there. Happy Birthday is more challenging.
38 replies 44 reposts 638 likes
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Jim Zub
@jimzub.bsky.social
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This photo is pure 2024.
40 replies 1461 reposts 5037 likes
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Katie Mack
@astrokatie.com
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I still think this and I try to keep it in mind even while 80% of my feed is people expressing outrage and vitriol at anyone who isn’t wholeheartedly promoting some specific opinion about the best path forward for the world
33 replies 96 reposts 904 likes
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Larry Glickman
@larryglickman.bsky.social
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The increasingly brazen endorsement of political violence by the GOP is a tremendously dangerous development that warrants high-profile media coverage.
6 replies 57 reposts 160 likes
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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There are no "strong candidates" who can avoid this treatment. This isn't an argument against changing the ticket (though we have no say in this, so why lose sleep about whether "we" should or shoudn't?), but it is a necessary piece of realism about what might and might not be gained by doing so.
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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"But Her Emails" did not just happen because of some special bad-candidate-ness of Hillary Clinton. This is the way Democratic nominees are always treated. The details will of course shift.
1 replies 0 reposts 7 likes
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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But I think Josh Marshall is also right about the ways in which the glass is half empty. Any Democratic presidential nominee is going to be subject to a barrage of utter bullshit that the media will both help instigate and endlessly parrot.
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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That Josh Marshall column is more glass half-full than glass half-empty about Harris at the top of the ticket (which I agree is the only likely alternative outcome to Biden simply staying there). And, well, fair enough. We could all use a little optimism. And I think JMM finds it in sensible places.
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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I am less convinced than @joshtpm.bsky.social is that it's a matter of when, not if. But he's been very clear-eyed and non-freakout-y about the current Biden crisis. And this latest piece is no exception.
talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/coupl...
1 replies 0 reposts 5 likes
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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Poor dear! My contempt for the Supreme Court as an institution knows no bounds.
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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Who knows (or, frankly, cares) what they felt in their heart of hearts? My sense is that O'Connor, at least, really wanted to retire and didn't want a Dem appointing her successor.
2 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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❀°。der Siebenschläfer *.ﾟ✿ ⋆
@sababausa.bsky.social
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One way it comes full-circle: there's no way a majority of SCOTUS in 1974–75 was going to hold Richard Nixon immune for obstruction for ordering HR Haldeman to order the CIA to obstruct the FBI's Watergate burglary investigation
And such precedent would not be reversed IMO
bsky.app/profile/saba...
0 replies 3 reposts 3 likes
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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That the media has spent the last forty years claiming that Ford's pardon of Nixon was an act of civic courage helped get us here. The media (and public) had it right in 1974: the pardon was the final major act of the coverup.
1 replies 0 reposts 4 likes
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Faine Greenwood
@faineg.bsky.social
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The New York Times ratfucking operation in favor of Trump is so incredibly blatant that it’s beyond parody. If you saw ratfucking like this coming from a newspaper in a movie, you’d probably think it was a bit over the top.
26 replies 112 reposts 457 likes
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David Ho
@davidho.bsky.social
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Say what you will about the UK, but the quick transition of power and the lack of election denial are refreshing to see.
16 replies 83 reposts 515 likes
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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This is generally true about everything having to do with the 2nd Amendment, for example.
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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Well that's a good argument not to feel entirely bound by _actual_ history. But very often what this century's bigoted asshole racist shitweasels believe is sufficiently different from what BARS believed in the pastthat today's BARSs still have to falsely project their beliefs onto the past.
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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The fact that a handful of critical rulings this term were so outrageous that the GOP justices weren't even able to give them the cover of the Federalist Society's made-up "history" doesn't make the other decisions any better.
0 replies 0 reposts 22 likes
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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When the Supreme Court's Republicans invoke history, it is invariably a cover for their desire to impose their modern policy preferences.
1 replies 2 reposts 29 likes
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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Sorry. This is still granting the Court far too much: "In case after case, it has rightly emphasized the importance of turning to historical understandings in deciding constitutional cases rather than imposing modern policy views." The GOP majority's "historical understandings" are nonsense.
3 replies 4 reposts 51 likes
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Don Moynihan
@donmoyn.bsky.social
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Lmao they just changed the title of the piece from “Why I don’t vote” to “Why I won’t vote” rather than tell readers that the guy actually does vote
52 replies 360 reposts 1404 likes
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Christopher Federico
@cmfederico.bsky.social
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Big victory for Labour — so big that the NYT just gave Sir Keir his own version of ‘Joe Biden Is Old’
42 replies 137 reposts 617 likes
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David M. Perry
@lollardfish.bsky.social
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CNN fact checked whether I in fact caught walleye while wearing a specific hat more thoroughly than the NYT checked whether the “I dont vote” guy actually voted.
14 replies 154 reposts 977 likes
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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So looking forward to hours of watching British election coverage. For some reason, it's a total (guilty?) pleasure of mine.
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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That doesn't mean candidate quality can't be a real concern. But one always needs to filter out a lot of media noise to assess it. And the idea that there's a Democrat who wouldn't be subject to this sort of thing if they were on the top of the ticket is a total fantasy.
0 replies 1 reposts 3 likes
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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None of that quarter century of utter nonsense from the media about Democratic candidates and presidents had anything to do with the actual quality of the particular politicians it was aimed at.
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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And we all remember But Her Emails all too well.
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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Obama...well how American is he, really?
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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John Kerry ordered the wrong thing on his cheesesteak and may not have been a decorated Vietnam War vet because some right-wing billionaires said he wasn't.
1 replies 0 reposts 4 likes
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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Al Gore faced accusations that, e.g., he claimed to have invented the internet and that he was basically no fun, unlike party-bus operator George W. Bush.
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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Bill Clinton survived eight years of media nonsense about Whitewater, "Travelgate," etc.
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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Any Democratic presidential candidate will have to run against the media, whether they like it or not. And there's nothing new about this.
1 replies 2 reposts 15 likes
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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This, on the other hand,
is what the media thinks about Trump.
www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general...
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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This is true. But it will likely also be true of anyone else the Democrats put on the top of the ticket. Remember But Her Emails. Our media loves drama and is, at best, indifferent about the truth and democracy.
1 replies 1 reposts 5 likes
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Gwendolyn Ann Smith
@gwenners.bsky.social
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Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m old enough to remember when George W. Bush expected to work “business hours” and Donald Trump had both “executive time” and short days. Is this another, “it’s only okay when the GOP do it?”
0 replies 7 reposts 23 likes
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emptywheel
@emptywheel.bsky.social
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Fucking hilarious NYT put their "But her emails" correspondent on a Biden story, when they pay her a lot of money to maintain non-stop access to Trump's camp.
9 replies 33 reposts 137 likes
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Carl T. Bergstrom
@carlbergstrom.com
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If you’ve never seen Dorothea Lange’s photographs of the World War II internment camps and the Japanese-Americans who were imprisoned there, today is a good day to see them and to commit to making sure this never happens again.
anchoreditions.com/blog/dorothe...
27 replies 573 reposts 1480 likes
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b-boy bouiebaisse
@jbouie.bsky.social
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just watched 74 people speaking at least a dozen different languages become american citizens in a ceremony at monticello, where the speakers were themselves children of immigrants. inspiring stuff and a vivid illustration of what reactionaries want to snuff out
75 replies 1064 reposts 5990 likes
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markgongloff
@markgongloff.bsky.social
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Roses are red, Curry has cumin,
53 replies 176 reposts 1047 likes
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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The word "Homeland" should have been a huge red flag from the start.
0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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David M. Perry
@lollardfish.bsky.social
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Since 2019 I've liked to remind you that we should work to break up not just ICE, but abolish the entire DHS. It's a post-9/11 reactionary agency that needs to be destroyed.
www.cnn.com/2019/07/04/o...
15 replies 193 reposts 577 likes
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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Small Silver Lining: the leading "third party" candidate is such an obvious and dangerous idiot that "I'll vote for Kennedy, then" isn't even something that bots and trolls are saying.
0 replies 0 reposts 5 likes
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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Happy Take the Preamble of the Declaration of Independence Seriously Day for all who celebrate (and you should)
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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Moreover, none of us will have any say in that answer. So rather than screaming at each other as if there's an easy answer to what is actually a complicated situation, let's calm down, see where the dust settles, and give our unqualified support to whatever the Democratic ticket will be.
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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The NYT's coverage of this presidential race reminds me a lot of their execrable coverage of the 2016 race...and of their coverage of the push to invade Iraq back in 2002.
This Paper of Record is a source of evil in American life.
talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/times...
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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Unnamed sources: "Biden won't run in 2024." Biden (repeatedly): "I have not promised to step down in 2024." The Internet: "Biden promised not to run! Look at all these unnamed sources!"
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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jaguarr
@the-jaguarr.bsky.social
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This story hits a little harder now that the jury documents for Epstein's case have been released (and Trump's name is ALLLLLL over those documents). Again, mainstream media is burying this story for Trump.
www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
8 replies 118 reposts 211 likes
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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I can't speak for Joanne, but I feel equally frustrated with those freaking out about Biden's performance and demanding that Biden step aside AND with those freaking out about the folks demanding that he step aside. There's just nothing to be gained by doing either of those things.
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Ben Alpers
@benalpers.bsky.social
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To be clear: I don't think the fact that he didn't make such a promise in any sense resolves the dilemma that he and the party are facing at the moment. But it really doesn't serve those arguing that he should step aside well to make false claims about things Biden said in the past.
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes