Jim Raffensperger
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jimraff.bsky.social
Jim Raffensperger
@jimraff.bsky.social
1.5K followers 1K following 3K posts
No relation to Brad

Find little sparks of joy to spite the horrors.
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Reposted by Jim Raffensperger
emptywheel.bsky.social
I wrote about how all the Butt Cracks and Beer Bellies we're seeing in the assault videos has neutralized the fascist porn efforts.

www.emptywheel.net/2025/09/29/b...
Butt Cracks and Beer Bellies: Is Trump Failing on Immigration because ICE Creates Negative Spectacle? - emptywheel
I suspect that a big reason Stephen Miller has turned immigration into a losing issue for Donald Trump is because Miller's goons create an endless supply of negative spectacle that goes viral and seed...
www.emptywheel.net
January 10, 2026 at 12:54 PM
Reposted by Jim Raffensperger
jamesgoodwin.bsky.social
It looks ridiculous to put it in writing, but the only way to stop this administration is to stop this administration. It's clear by now you have to say "no" to everything. You cannot compromise with them or hope they will do the right thing if you shame them enough.
January 8, 2026 at 1:59 PM
jimraff.bsky.social
You should follow Jeschill if you like cool art.
jeschill.bsky.social jeschill.bsky.social @jeschill.bsky.social · 1d
Working with Liquid enamels on white board steel. A large mountain deserves to be done in a large format.
January 9, 2026 at 6:05 PM
Reposted by Jim Raffensperger
charlotteclymer.bsky.social
Political cartoonists are not fuckin’ around this week. (thread)

1. Pat Bagley
January 9, 2026 at 1:35 PM
jimraff.bsky.social
This is what happens when you create the fifth largest military in the world and set them to be unfettered law enforcement charged with mass arrests.
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d
Rep. Wesley Hunt: "The bottom line is this: when a federal officer gives you instructions, you abide by them and then you get to keep you life"
January 8, 2026 at 12:16 AM
Reposted by Jim Raffensperger
emptywheel.bsky.social
This, from @rgoodlaw.bsky.social in 2019, is important background to the congressional discussion we're about to see.

www.justsecurity.org/63635/barrs-...
Barr’s Playbook: He Misled Congress When Omitting Parts of Justice Dep’t Memo in 1989
When Bill Barr was head of Office of Legal Counsel, he gave Congress the legal conclusions and reasoning of an important Justice Department memo but left out major portions of it. When the full memo w...
www.justsecurity.org
January 3, 2026 at 2:16 PM
Reposted by Jim Raffensperger
jbf1755.bsky.social
Hey folks,

Tomorrow on my live podcast, “History Matters:”

Talkin’ About a Revolution:
1776 and Now

Man, oh man.
What a year to ponder resistance!
The past is alive.
Join us!

Friday
10AM ET
On my YouTube channel:
m.youtube.com/@joannefreem...
Dr. Joanne Freeman
Professor Joanne Freeman is an award-winning historian who studies the politics and culture of America's past to better understand our history as a nation, and the roads and choices that have led us t...
m.youtube.com
January 2, 2026 at 1:24 AM
Reposted by Jim Raffensperger
gottalaff.bsky.social
Screaming!
December 31, 2025 at 9:20 PM
Reposted by Jim Raffensperger
katiephang.bsky.social
ICYMI: The deposition transcript of Former Special Counsel, Jack Smith, has been released by the House Judiciary Committee.

(I’ll share my thoughts and observations after I’ve had the chance to review it.)

judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-su...
judiciary.house.gov
December 31, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Reposted by Jim Raffensperger
thetnholler.bsky.social
Hey so this seems like something more people should be talking about 🤔 🗳️
www.npr.org/2025/10/23/n...
December 29, 2025 at 11:42 PM
Reposted by Jim Raffensperger
dpitti.bsky.social
Gift: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/24/o...
Opinion | The Epstein Files Should Not Have Been Released This Way
www.nytimes.com
December 25, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Reposted by Jim Raffensperger
maimonidesnutz.bsky.social
I said it better on Instagram
Half a masked face and the text: “How about instead of amplifying B*ri W*iss for being obnoxious with the intention to spread hate...amplify me, I am obnoxious purely for sport.”
December 24, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Reposted by Jim Raffensperger
bubbaprog.xyz
The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 5/5
December 23, 2025 at 1:30 AM
Reposted by Jim Raffensperger
bubbaprog.xyz
The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 4/5
December 23, 2025 at 1:29 AM
Reposted by Jim Raffensperger
bubbaprog.xyz
The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 3/5
December 23, 2025 at 1:29 AM
Reposted by Jim Raffensperger
bubbaprog.xyz
The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 2/5
December 23, 2025 at 1:28 AM
Reposted by Jim Raffensperger
bubbaprog.xyz
The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 1/5
December 23, 2025 at 1:28 AM
Reposted by Jim Raffensperger
lollardfish.bsky.social
"I honestly don’t care especially if the president insults a governor. It’s unbecoming of what the presidency should be, but that ship’s long since sailed. But by making bigotry explicit, Trump and his closest imitators create a permission structure for people to be their worst selves."
lollardfish.bsky.social David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 19d
“It turns out that banishing the slur from public discourse was, in fact, important. Because now it’s back and it turns out that it does matter when subtext becomes actual text, when terrible people enable open hatred and bigotry, encouraging others to emulate them, degrading us all.”
Perry: The return of the r-word
"These days, the r-word slur has become a staple of the American right wing, uttered with few professional or social consequences," David M. Perry writes.
www.startribune.com
December 22, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by Jim Raffensperger
annabower.bsky.social
Per NY Times’s Michael Grynbaum on X, this is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her “60 Minutes” colleagues in full:
News Team, Thank you for the notes and texts. I apologize for not reaching out earlier. I learned on Saturday that Bari Weiss spiked our story, INSIDE CECOT, which was supposed to air tonight. We (Ori and I) asked for a call to discuss her decision. She did not afford us that courtesy/opportunity. Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now-after every rigorous internal check has been met is not an editorial decision, it is a political one. We requested responses to questions and/or interviews with DHS, the White House, and the State Department. Government silence is a statement, not a VETO. Their refusal to be interviewed is a tactical maneuver designed to kill the story. If the administration's refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a "kill switch" for any reporting they find inconvenient. If the standard for airing a story becomes "the government must agree to be interviewed," then the government effectively gains control over the 60 Minutes broadcast. We go from an investigative powerhouse to a stenographer for the state. These men risked their lives to speak with us. We have a moral and professional obligation to the sources who entrusted us with their stories. Abandoning them now is a betrayal of the most basic tenet of journalism: giving voice to the voiceless. CBS spiked the Jeffrey Wigand interview due to legal concerns, nearly destroying the credibility of this broadcast. It took years to recover from that "low point." By pulling this story to shield an administration, we are repeating that history, but for political optics rather than legal ones. We have been promoting this story on social media for days. Our viewers are expecting it. When it fails to air without a credible explanation, the public will correctly identify this as corporate censorship. We are trading 50 years of "Gold Standard" reputation for a single week of political quiet. I care too much about this broadcast to watch it be dismantled without a fight. Sharyn
December 22, 2025 at 3:37 AM
Reposted by Jim Raffensperger
goingmedieval.bsky.social
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
A beautiful thing
A sweet to remember
"We are closer to Spring
than we were in September."
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
theroyalparks.bsky.social The Royal Parks @theroyalparks.bsky.social · 20d
Happy Winter Solstice ❄️

Make sure to get outside today, make use of every bit of daylight we have and when the night comes, know that tomorrow will be that little bit lighter 🙌🏻

📸 Lesley Marshall
Misty sunrise over a frost-covered meadow with silhouettes of leafless trees along a winding stream.
December 21, 2025 at 9:54 AM
Reposted by Jim Raffensperger
ricksteves.bsky.social
It’s the “season of love and giving”…but this year, doesn’t it seem more like a “season of fear and taking”? Like many of you, I’ve been saddened by the human impact of draconian government budget cuts and how angry many housed Americans are at unhoused Americans.

🧵 1 of 9
December 21, 2025 at 2:51 AM
Reposted by Jim Raffensperger
maimonidesnutz.bsky.social
Happy Solstice everyone!!
An image of a crescent moon with a serene face. There is a stick figure on the top of the moon and a stick figure on the bottom of the moon and they are reaching for each other. Text to the side reads: when Adam noticed the days getting shorter, he thought the world was ending. He fasted and repented for eight days. When he saw the days getting longer, he said “this is the order of the world.” (Avodah Zara 8a) It is in our ancient DNA to feel like the world is slipping away as we lose our days. It is our ancient heritage to realize that the world is still there. When we find connection in each day, we are honoring the way of the world. The signature in the corner says “m.nutz”
December 20, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Reposted by Jim Raffensperger
histoftech.bsky.social
Glad Rolling Stone published this, especially given the loud silence from the rest of the media on this grim watershed moment in US political history.
rollingstone.com Rolling Stone @rollingstone.com · 23d
Melissa Hortman Died in a Shocking Act of Political Violence. This Is the Story of Her Life

The Minnesota Speaker’s closest friends and family open up for the first time.

Read @stephenrodrick.bsky.social's exclusive: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
December 18, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Reposted by Jim Raffensperger
trans.bsky.social
meanwhile, the US attorney general also wants to categorize trans equality activists as belonging to “designated terrorist organizations”.

a leaked Justice Department memo from December 9th added “radical gender ideology” as part of its definition of “domestic terrorism”.
December 17, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Reposted by Jim Raffensperger
muellershewrote.com
He'll start a war to:

1. Distract from the Epstein Files
2. Steal oil
3. Justify emergency powers
4. Justify use of the AEA for deportation/internment
5. Help the drug lord he just pardoned
December 17, 2025 at 2:08 AM