Mikhail Gorbaechev
@mikhailgorbaechev.bsky.social
Once a Reverend of the Avocado kind. The General Secretary is dead, long live the General Secretary.
Pinned
I'm back.
Reposted by Mikhail Gorbaechev
this could be real bad not least because daycares are disproportionately staffed by women of color and it is a mortal lock ICE is going to get involved
Trump guys are about to Comet Pizza every third daycare center because they think they are all fronts for Somali money laundering. They're only doing this near cities with progressive mayors. This is straight up Government by LibsOfTikTok.
December 30, 2025 at 10:19 PM
this could be real bad not least because daycares are disproportionately staffed by women of color and it is a mortal lock ICE is going to get involved
Reposted by Mikhail Gorbaechev
Swing voters were deaf to Trump's promises to remake America through radical xenophobia, but that does not mean he did not promise it. Voters elected Trump to make them rich. He told them he would do much more, & he is. If we pretend that didn't happen, we only doom ourselves.
Trump's attempting to transform the US from a country that welcomes immigrants into a radically xenophobic nation that demonizes immigrants of color, and even their US born children. But Trump didn't campaign on this destructive/reactionary remaking of America and most Americans don't support it. 1/
December 30, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Swing voters were deaf to Trump's promises to remake America through radical xenophobia, but that does not mean he did not promise it. Voters elected Trump to make them rich. He told them he would do much more, & he is. If we pretend that didn't happen, we only doom ourselves.
Reposted by Mikhail Gorbaechev
Real "oh my god, she admit it" moment here. Trump is treated as an uninteresting figure without agency so we can dump endless criticism on liberals for how they react to his "natural disaster." He "doesn't participate in moral frameworks" lmfao
December 30, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Real "oh my god, she admit it" moment here. Trump is treated as an uninteresting figure without agency so we can dump endless criticism on liberals for how they react to his "natural disaster." He "doesn't participate in moral frameworks" lmfao
I think it's that the people who ostensibly cared about drone strikes as an issue of principle actually mostly cared about it to rationalize thinking Democrats and Republicans are the same and you know actually Republicans are more anti-war if you think about it.
The fact that this year’s DOD Somalia strikes approaches or exceeds the number of CIA strikes in Pakistan in 2010—but hardly anyone cares or talks about the Somalia ones—makes me wonder if there wasn’t a bit of Streisand effect at work with the CIA’s Pakistan drone program, where the high…
Not planning to do an overall year wrap up but do want to share some work on US strikes in Somalia over the year.
By our tracking (not yet updated for holiday strikes), it is the peak of the campaign and may surpass the peak of strikes in Pakistan.
1/7
www.newamerica.org/future-secur...
By our tracking (not yet updated for holiday strikes), it is the peak of the campaign and may surpass the peak of strikes in Pakistan.
1/7
www.newamerica.org/future-secur...
December 30, 2025 at 7:32 PM
I think it's that the people who ostensibly cared about drone strikes as an issue of principle actually mostly cared about it to rationalize thinking Democrats and Republicans are the same and you know actually Republicans are more anti-war if you think about it.
Holding firm in your belief in something that's moderately unpopular or controversial is a political loss leader to produce trust in you as a politician. More people should try it.
(Mamdani won because he sincerely believes in SOMETHING and it really helps that the something is meaningful policy for working people.)
The big blind spot for them is that they've forgotten that there's any such thing as sincerity
December 30, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Holding firm in your belief in something that's moderately unpopular or controversial is a political loss leader to produce trust in you as a politician. More people should try it.
Reposted by Mikhail Gorbaechev
(Mamdani won because he sincerely believes in SOMETHING and it really helps that the something is meaningful policy for working people.)
The big blind spot for them is that they've forgotten that there's any such thing as sincerity
December 30, 2025 at 5:06 PM
(Mamdani won because he sincerely believes in SOMETHING and it really helps that the something is meaningful policy for working people.)
Reposted by Mikhail Gorbaechev
1. Taxing billionaires more by itself is not enough to raise the funds for a robust welfare state. You have to also tax upper middle and middle income people more.
2. To have any chance of getting the political buy in to do point 1, you have to make a big show of massively taxing billionaires.
2. To have any chance of getting the political buy in to do point 1, you have to make a big show of massively taxing billionaires.
December 30, 2025 at 5:34 PM
1. Taxing billionaires more by itself is not enough to raise the funds for a robust welfare state. You have to also tax upper middle and middle income people more.
2. To have any chance of getting the political buy in to do point 1, you have to make a big show of massively taxing billionaires.
2. To have any chance of getting the political buy in to do point 1, you have to make a big show of massively taxing billionaires.
I think this is fair and also it creates pretty perverse incentives and outcomes given that many, many people seemed to believe that Trump was anti-war and would be better on Palestine.
I think it's funny that liberals are upset that anti war and anti genocide protestors targeted their rhetoric towards Dems.
It's a sign that those protestors think you're the party that can change, dumbass. They showed up to appeal to liberal morals and were told to fuck off.
It's a sign that those protestors think you're the party that can change, dumbass. They showed up to appeal to liberal morals and were told to fuck off.
December 30, 2025 at 5:21 PM
I think this is fair and also it creates pretty perverse incentives and outcomes given that many, many people seemed to believe that Trump was anti-war and would be better on Palestine.
bro you look like Al Franken fucked a Teletubby
There is a culture of immediate gratification that isn't satisfied by rigorous fact-gathering and editing. The internet runs fast and shallow.
December 30, 2025 at 5:15 PM
bro you look like Al Franken fucked a Teletubby
Reposted by Mikhail Gorbaechev
I think it's really worth noting that literally ZERO mainstream media outlets were talking about Trump claiming a land strike on Venezuela until a few others and I noticed this post here on Sunday and started asking questions. That goes completely unacknowledged in coverage.
Trump says this December 26 in an interview with John Catsimatidis that the US destroyed a drug trafficking plant in Venezuela on Christmas Eve.
“They have a big plant. A building from where the boats leave. Two nights ago we hit them hard.”
“They have a big plant. A building from where the boats leave. Two nights ago we hit them hard.”
December 30, 2025 at 3:43 PM
I think it's really worth noting that literally ZERO mainstream media outlets were talking about Trump claiming a land strike on Venezuela until a few others and I noticed this post here on Sunday and started asking questions. That goes completely unacknowledged in coverage.
I think we should embrace this mindset but for the Democratic Party
MAGA folks and their dreams of dictatorship are so boring. But I guess it shows how desperate they're getting, and how much they know they're losing.
December 30, 2025 at 5:03 PM
I think we should embrace this mindset but for the Democratic Party
Reposted by Mikhail Gorbaechev
there is no moral universe in which someone who ran on QAnon and supported a coup is pro-democracy, and if there is, it’s worse than worthless
The pro-democracy movement needs to include factions which we disagree with vehemently on all other matters.
That’s the point of a pro-democracy movement—we aren’t aligned on the direction of our society, but we all agree we should have a right to contest it freely and fairly.
That’s the point of a pro-democracy movement—we aren’t aligned on the direction of our society, but we all agree we should have a right to contest it freely and fairly.
December 30, 2025 at 4:19 PM
there is no moral universe in which someone who ran on QAnon and supported a coup is pro-democracy, and if there is, it’s worse than worthless
Reposted by Mikhail Gorbaechev
with $15,000(!) raised a bunch of you have taken this to heart, and of course I am curious to see how much farther we can go
December 30, 2025 at 1:08 PM
with $15,000(!) raised a bunch of you have taken this to heart, and of course I am curious to see how much farther we can go
Let's make it $20,000 by tomorrow. I believe in us.
with $15,000(!) raised a bunch of you have taken this to heart, and of course I am curious to see how much farther we can go
December 30, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Let's make it $20,000 by tomorrow. I believe in us.
Reposted by Mikhail Gorbaechev
Pretty strong vindication of @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com’s “gender camp” argument bsky.app/profile/hann...
Decades of the white nationalist movement evolving to adapt to current political trends has brought them to this moment.
December 30, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Pretty strong vindication of @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com’s “gender camp” argument bsky.app/profile/hann...
Reposted by Mikhail Gorbaechev
December 30, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Lie down with dogs and get fleas, I guess.
Byron Donalds, the Black MAGA candidate for FL governor who romanticized the Jim Crow era, now faces racist attacks from his white supremacist GOP primary opponent who has repeatedly called him a slave.
Byron Donalds faces racist attacks in Florida’s ugly GOP gubernatorial primary
The Trump-loving congressman is running for governor against an opponent who has continually referred to him as a slave. And he’s getting a taste of his own medicine.
www.ms.now
December 30, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Lie down with dogs and get fleas, I guess.
Reposted by Mikhail Gorbaechev
I would add that Last (along with Kristol, approvingly sharing that same article) is also making a common and fundamental category error, i.e. viewing liberalism as purely consisting of the barest of structural commitments and no substantive ones. I think that is both dangerous and self-defeating.
Liberalism Without Principles
“[M]y hunch is that Western social and political thought may have had the last conceptual revolution it needs,” Richard Rorty wrote. “J.S. Mill’s suggestion that governments devote themselves to optim...
www.liberalcurrents.com
December 30, 2025 at 3:07 PM
I would add that Last (along with Kristol, approvingly sharing that same article) is also making a common and fundamental category error, i.e. viewing liberalism as purely consisting of the barest of structural commitments and no substantive ones. I think that is both dangerous and self-defeating.
She's not standing for liberal democracy, she's a rat fleeing the ship and trying to set up her own post-MAGA neofascist movement.
And if you refuse to give someone credit for standing for liberal democracy just because they don’t agree with your policy preferences, you’re missing the big picture. www.thebulwark.com/p/why-marjor...
Why Marjorie Taylor Greene Gives Me Hope
People don’t change—but they can remember who they are.
www.thebulwark.com
December 30, 2025 at 2:27 PM
She's not standing for liberal democracy, she's a rat fleeing the ship and trying to set up her own post-MAGA neofascist movement.
Reposted by Mikhail Gorbaechev
I feel like the GOP is in a death spiral of our worst impulses as humans and dragging the country down with them.
Byron Donalds, the Black MAGA candidate for FL governor who romanticized the Jim Crow era, now faces racist attacks from his white supremacist GOP primary opponent who has repeatedly called him a slave.
Byron Donalds faces racist attacks in Florida’s ugly GOP gubernatorial primary
The Trump-loving congressman is running for governor against an opponent who has continually referred to him as a slave. And he’s getting a taste of his own medicine.
www.ms.now
December 30, 2025 at 5:43 AM
I feel like the GOP is in a death spiral of our worst impulses as humans and dragging the country down with them.
Toussaint Douglass is a fucken *name*
December 30, 2025 at 5:04 AM
Toussaint Douglass is a fucken *name*
Reposted by Mikhail Gorbaechev
I am.
December 29, 2025 at 11:54 PM
I am.
Yeah this is why it'll be a good thing when Nancy is fucking dead
Brad Lander approached Nancy Pelosi at a gala and told her he was running for Congress. “I am a Dan Goldman Democrat,” she responded. “Democrats don’t run against Democrats.”
“Was I too much of a b—?” she asked after.
@donlemonofficial.bsky.social tells the story:
“Was I too much of a b—?” she asked after.
@donlemonofficial.bsky.social tells the story:
December 30, 2025 at 4:58 AM
Yeah this is why it'll be a good thing when Nancy is fucking dead
Reposted by Mikhail Gorbaechev
One thing that is under-appreciated is the reality that if you can’t walk *to* downtown from anywhere, the couple commercial blocks themselves being walkable is not terribly valuable
Me: would you say that Cupertino is walkable city? Yes or no?
Reply: Main street, yes
STRAIGHT INTO MY VEINS!!!!!
Reply: Main street, yes
STRAIGHT INTO MY VEINS!!!!!
December 30, 2025 at 12:50 AM
One thing that is under-appreciated is the reality that if you can’t walk *to* downtown from anywhere, the couple commercial blocks themselves being walkable is not terribly valuable
Everyone's 12 Theory strikes again
Fascists truly cannot distinguish fiction from reality
This has ELEVEN THOUSAND likes on the hellsite
This has ELEVEN THOUSAND likes on the hellsite
December 30, 2025 at 4:53 AM
Everyone's 12 Theory strikes again