Ben Sessoms
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Ben Sessoms
@bensessoms.bsky.social
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Chattanooga Times editor @timesfreepress.bsky.social. Opinion writer. bsessoms@timesfreepress.com
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Reposted by Ben Sessoms
unavaleable.bsky.social
like this is basically it, the melts melted under pressure
More than anything else, this is what led some Senate Democrats to cut a deal: Trump’s willingness to hurt people exceeds their willingness to see people get hurt. I want to give them their due on this: They are hearing from their constituents and seeing the mounting problems, and they are trying to do what they see as the responsible, moral thing. They do not believe that holding out will lead to Trump restoring the subsidies. They fear that their Republican colleagues would, under mounting pressure, do as Trump had demanded and abolish the filibuster. (Whether that would be a good or a bad thing is a subject for another column.) This, in the end, is the calculation the defecting Senate Democrats are making: They don’t think a longer shutdown will cause Trump to cave. They just think it will cause more damage. If I were in the Senate, I wouldn’t vote for this compromise. Shutdowns are an opportunity to make an argument, and the country was just starting to pay attention. If Trump wanted to cancel flights over Thanksgiving rather than keep health care costs down, I don’t see why Democrats should save him from making his priorities so exquisitely clear. And I worry that Democrats have just taught Trump that they will fold under pressure. That’s the kind of lesson he remembers.
November 10, 2025 at 4:27 PM
bensessoms.bsky.social
www.timesfreepress.com/news/2025/oc...
Opinion: Tennessee’s lone Democratic congressional district is under threat | Chattanooga Times Free Press
Just before the 2022 midterm elections, Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper had held his Nashville congressional district seat for nearly two decades. But the long-time incumbent didn't even bother to run...
www.timesfreepress.com
October 26, 2025 at 7:43 PM
bensessoms.bsky.social
www.timesfreepress.com/news/2025/oc...
Opinion: Marjorie Taylor Greene’s turn reveals the Republican Party’s weak position | Chattanooga Times Free Press
Once again, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is making national news.
www.timesfreepress.com
October 19, 2025 at 5:22 PM
bensessoms.bsky.social
www.timesfreepress.com/news/2025/oc...
Opinion: This isn’t a game | Chattanooga Times Free Press
It's day 18 of the government shutdown, and neither side of the political aisle is any closer to a resolution than they were on day one.
www.timesfreepress.com
October 18, 2025 at 9:30 PM
bensessoms.bsky.social
www.timesfreepress.com/news/2025/oc...
Opinion: The quiet intent behind school vouchers said out loud | Chattanooga Times Free Press
Spearheading the school voucher movement is this narrative that the best way to improve the education system is through expanded options for parents. As often repeated by supporters of school vouchers...
www.timesfreepress.com
October 17, 2025 at 3:26 PM
bensessoms.bsky.social
www.timesfreepress.com/news/2025/oc...
Opinion: To upend the oligarchy, the Democratic Party needs more fight | Chattanooga Times Free Press
In the decades preceding the Civil War in the 1860s, a nefarious force had taken root in Washington, D.C. — from the halls of Congress to the U.S. Supreme Court to the White House.
www.timesfreepress.com
October 12, 2025 at 5:22 PM
bensessoms.bsky.social
www.timesfreepress.com/news/2025/oc...
Opinion: UTC — A safe space for conservatives | Chattanooga Times Free Press
At the core of new state laws enacted to dissolve official public university groups and offices promoting diversity, equity and inclusion — or DEI — is, in part, a right-wing panic over so-called safe...
www.timesfreepress.com
October 11, 2025 at 3:01 PM
bensessoms.bsky.social
www.timesfreepress.com/news/2025/oc...
Opinion: We need better public transit, not Waymo | Chattanooga Times Free Press
In a 21st century world with rapidly advancing technology, from the smartphone to AI chatbots like ChatGPT, there's a growing anticipation of what sci-fi-esque invention is around the corner.
www.timesfreepress.com
October 10, 2025 at 3:53 PM
bensessoms.bsky.social
Riveting stuff happening on the Senate floor while the government is shut down
October 8, 2025 at 6:05 PM
bensessoms.bsky.social
www.timesfreepress.com/news/2025/oc...
Opinion: LGBTQ+ rights should not be up for debate | Chattanooga Times Free Press
Over the past decade or so, a slew of U.S. Supreme Court cases has pushed the institution to the border of broader illegitimacy in the eyes of the public — a hack enterprise willing to use any and all...
www.timesfreepress.com
October 8, 2025 at 5:18 PM
bensessoms.bsky.social
www.timesfreepress.com/news/2025/oc...
Opinion: Marsha Blackburn is lying to you | Chattanooga Times Free Press
It's been nearly a week since the federal government shut down, and the Republican Party — the party which holds power over the House, the Senate and the White House — continues to absolve itself of a...
www.timesfreepress.com
October 7, 2025 at 3:27 PM
bensessoms.bsky.social
As with this administration's other actions, the killing of Charlie Kirk is just another pretext for authoritarianism
www.timesfreepress.com/news/2025/se...
Opinion: MAGA’s insatiable thirst for power | Chattanooga Times Free Press
What should be a moment of mourning for the conservative movement — following the assassination of right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk two weeks ago — has instead become a moment of retribution...
www.timesfreepress.com
September 24, 2025 at 4:01 PM
bensessoms.bsky.social
As mentioned in this piece, I found this ChatGPT poem posted on M4L's Chattanooga chapter Facebook page. Quite odd
www.timesfreepress.com/news/2025/se...
September 23, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Reposted by Ben Sessoms
coleskiiiiii.bsky.social
shit ain’t over til it’s over
September 22, 2025 at 8:53 AM
bensessoms.bsky.social
Sunday editorial: Political violence in a local and regional context
www.timesfreepress.com/news/2025/se...
Opinion: There’s nothing new about political violence in America | Chattanooga Times Free Press
Over the past decade or so, and especially in recent years, there has been a growing chorus of pundits and political commenters identifying an alarmingly rising tide of political violence in our civic...
www.timesfreepress.com
September 21, 2025 at 5:13 PM
bensessoms.bsky.social
fear is the mind killer
www.timesfreepress.com/news/2025/se...
Opinion: Marsha Blackburn and the MAGA movement rely on fear | Chattanooga Times Free Press
For a man who incessantly lies and almost never tells the truth, President Donald Trump, at times, can be brutally honest. Despite the MAGA political movement relying on deception and ignorance, Trump...
www.timesfreepress.com
September 19, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Reposted by Ben Sessoms
jamellebouie.net
RFK Jr. is objectively pro-disease, pro-illness and pro-child death.
RFK Jr.-Backed Vaccine Panel Advises Against MMRV Vaccine for Young Children
New members of a key committee tweak routine childhood vaccine guidance as some states and insurers go their own way.
www.wsj.com
September 18, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Reposted by Ben Sessoms
katz.theracket.news
My optimism here is limited, but I really hope centrist institutions like universities and major news organizations understand that the plan is for the govt to dismantle them. They do not care if you fire your columnists or discipline staff for accurately quoting Kirk. They just want us all gone.
esqueer.net Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · Sep 15
In a Hitleresque speech, JD Vance says there can be no unity with the left and vows to use the government to dismantle non-profit NGOs and liberal civil society who he says promote violence and terrorism.
September 15, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Reposted by Ben Sessoms
marcelias.bsky.social
My latest — JB Pritzker serves a Chicago TACO — was just sent out to Democracy Docket premium members. Join now to read the full version, receive DD’s premium content, access to special events and support Democracy Docket's vital work. hubs.ly/Q03jcjqP0
September 15, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Reposted by Ben Sessoms
jamellebouie.net
what this sounds like to me is the administration is cutting money for efforts to support integration and sending some of the cash over to HCBUs, under the view that this is where black students ought to go www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/u...
The Trump administration on Monday announced that it would inject nearly $500 million into historically Black colleges and tribal universities, a windfall funded largely by cuts to programs elsewhere for minority students. The administration will also redirect money to other political priorities for President Trump, including an extra $137 million for American history and civics education and $60 million more for charter schools. The increases follow a White House request for a 15 percent budget cut to the Education Department next year, as President Trump seeks support to permanently shutter the agency. History programs will now receive about seven times their expected funding for this year, and charter schools will see a 13 percent increase. To pay for the changes, the administration cut money from other parts of the education budget The details of the changes were described by three people familiar with the department’s plans who insisted on anonymity to speak about private discussions. The biggest cut, announced by the department last week, is a $350 million hit to programs that support minority students in science and engineering programs, schools with significant Hispanic enrollment, and other federal grants at minority-serving institutions. The administration also cut money from gifted and talented programs, which it said use racial targeting in recruitment in some cases, and from magnet schools, which have been used as a tool for combating school segregation.
September 15, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Reposted by Ben Sessoms
brian-goldstone.bsky.social
It's also "political violence" to steal years off people's lives by depriving them of shelter, stripping away health care, and gutting environmental protections — while funneling more and more wealth to the ultra-rich.
September 15, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Reposted by Ben Sessoms
ryanlcooper.com
definitely something to this www.unpopularfront.news/p/when-trump...
When Trump's Brain Broke
Sometime Around 1989
www.unpopularfront.news
August 21, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Reposted by Ben Sessoms
jamellebouie.net
i remember when jd vance blamed the haitian immigrants to springfield for rising home prices. well, the prices will come down, because a mass departure of haitian workers will crash the local economy.
An Ohio City Faces a Future Without Haitian Workers: ‘It’s Not Going to Be Good’
www.nytimes.com
August 21, 2025 at 3:03 PM
bensessoms.bsky.social
"Newspaper readers will vote Dem." Not according to the reader emails I get
whstancil.bsky.social Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · Aug 18
My theory of politics in 2024: “people have ideas and beliefs about the world, which today are heavily informed by media exposure, which means that we’ll see people vote largely in accordance with their media consumption. E.g., newspaper readers will vote Dem while TikTok scrollers will go Trump.”
August 18, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Reposted by Ben Sessoms
kenklippenstein.bsky.social
The plan? Change none of Pete Buttigieg's policies but give him a beard and run him again in 2028
August 11, 2025 at 9:59 PM