Brian Kleinschmidt
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briguywi.bsky.social
Brian Kleinschmidt
@briguywi.bsky.social
120 followers 53 following 430 posts
Mostly here in a futile effort to point out America's slide into authoritarianism . Will pointing it out do much of anything? Nope! Can I stop myself? Also no!

I’m a progressive.
Not a liberal!
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briguywi.bsky.social
Vance is lying. Abrego Garcia was in the US legally, was granted protected status by a US judge, and the only "evidence" that he is a member of a gang is a claim made by a confidential information of ICE.

My further comment is that it's gross to use bigotry as a way to vilify innocent people.
JD Vance tweet replying to Jon Favreau where he makes up ridiculous lies regarding an innocent person who immigrated to the US and was granted protected status by a US judge.
April 1, 2025 at 10:46 PM
briguywi.bsky.social
This is genuinely disappointing. Trump firing civil servants meant to keep presidents in check might not be interesting or flashy but it is dangerous none the less. By focusing on what’s able to keep attention more than actual substance Stewart ends up playing a similar role as CNN and other networks he has been rightly critical of in the past. What Stewart doesn’t seem to understand is many fascist movements start of utilizing legal processes to take and consolidate power. Legal or technically allowed does not mean ethical. Also, not for nothing, Trump has been taking illegal actions, including firing people meant to oversee his branch of government—something Stewart seems to know as he discussed in this video after which he argues Trump’s actions have been legal. Stewart seems to think the American institutions are immune to fascism, and for fascism to take over it would have to do so outside of these institutions. In reality, fascism functions by taking over existing institutions, and this is sometimes done legally and even democratically. As one final point, calling the process by which the Senate consents to cabinet positions democratic is… debatable at best. How democratic is it when senators from states with a tens of millions of people have the same power as senators from states with only hundreds of thousands? Or when citizens living in DC and US territories have no senator at all (potentially not even votes in the electoral college)? Additionally, how free and fair are elections when billions of dollars can be spent supporting candidates, something Stewart himself has been highly critical of? I respect Stewart for what he’s done in the past and generally find his takes insightful, but I think he misses the mark here. He’s become the centrist yelling at the left telling them to calm down and shut up even as the political right start scaling up violence and removing anyone who might stop them.
January 28, 2025 at 6:02 AM