@marybentley.bsky.social
Reposted
The U.S. is mirroring a pattern that has happened in authoritarian regimes around the world. When a government erects barriers to reproductive care, it doesn’t just cause death and suffering for women and their families. Such policies are often a first step in the gradual decline of democracies.
Opinion | Banning Abortion a Hallmark of Authoritarian Regimes
Seda Saluk writes about how U.S. policy on abortion rights has started to mirror patterns seen in authoritarian regimes around the world.
www.mississippifreepress.org
December 8, 2025 at 9:41 PM
The U.S. is mirroring a pattern that has happened in authoritarian regimes around the world. When a government erects barriers to reproductive care, it doesn’t just cause death and suffering for women and their families. Such policies are often a first step in the gradual decline of democracies.
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The first family corruption continues.
December 9, 2025 at 7:27 PM
The first family corruption continues.
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ICE is going after people who commit fewer crimes than U.S. born citizens. They're robbing people, hurting people, using racial profiling, violating due process, hurting children, and going after American citizens while they do. This is an illegal criminal enterprise from head to toe.
December 8, 2025 at 10:19 PM
ICE is going after people who commit fewer crimes than U.S. born citizens. They're robbing people, hurting people, using racial profiling, violating due process, hurting children, and going after American citizens while they do. This is an illegal criminal enterprise from head to toe.
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Ossoff: "She's gonna have to give up her insurance in the middle of chemotherapy while she's fighting breast cancer. What are people supposed to do when they lose health insurance in the middle of a cancer battle? ... this is life or death"
December 9, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Ossoff: "She's gonna have to give up her insurance in the middle of chemotherapy while she's fighting breast cancer. What are people supposed to do when they lose health insurance in the middle of a cancer battle? ... this is life or death"
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Supreme Court oral argument this morning, in sum
Sotomayor: you're asking us to destroy the foundation of government (derogatory)
Gorsuch: you're asking us to destroy the foundation of government (complimentary)
Sotomayor: you're asking us to destroy the foundation of government (derogatory)
Gorsuch: you're asking us to destroy the foundation of government (complimentary)
December 8, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Supreme Court oral argument this morning, in sum
Sotomayor: you're asking us to destroy the foundation of government (derogatory)
Gorsuch: you're asking us to destroy the foundation of government (complimentary)
Sotomayor: you're asking us to destroy the foundation of government (derogatory)
Gorsuch: you're asking us to destroy the foundation of government (complimentary)
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Rand Paul: "This is an insane policy. It's inconsistent. It's not war. It's not the way we've ever done this. If we can blow up a boat in the ocean, what about when they get to Miami & put it in a truck? Can you shoot a grenade launcher at the truck? No! We arrest people b/c sometimes we're wrong."
December 9, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Rand Paul: "This is an insane policy. It's inconsistent. It's not war. It's not the way we've ever done this. If we can blow up a boat in the ocean, what about when they get to Miami & put it in a truck? Can you shoot a grenade launcher at the truck? No! We arrest people b/c sometimes we're wrong."
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“I’d have no problem releasing the video”
“I didn’t say that, you said that. Fake news.”
5 days apart 😬
(From @therecount.com )
“I didn’t say that, you said that. Fake news.”
5 days apart 😬
(From @therecount.com )
December 8, 2025 at 10:16 PM
“I’d have no problem releasing the video”
“I didn’t say that, you said that. Fake news.”
5 days apart 😬
(From @therecount.com )
“I didn’t say that, you said that. Fake news.”
5 days apart 😬
(From @therecount.com )
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America got “the president is killing terrorists, don’t question it” in the 2000s too. But unlike now:
-The US had been attacked
-Al Qaeda was a terrorist group and planned more attacks
-They were in areas the US military did not freely operate, where arrest was risky
-Congress authorized the action
-The US had been attacked
-Al Qaeda was a terrorist group and planned more attacks
-They were in areas the US military did not freely operate, where arrest was risky
-Congress authorized the action
December 8, 2025 at 2:32 PM
America got “the president is killing terrorists, don’t question it” in the 2000s too. But unlike now:
-The US had been attacked
-Al Qaeda was a terrorist group and planned more attacks
-They were in areas the US military did not freely operate, where arrest was risky
-Congress authorized the action
-The US had been attacked
-Al Qaeda was a terrorist group and planned more attacks
-They were in areas the US military did not freely operate, where arrest was risky
-Congress authorized the action
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I remember when a president admitting to a bribery scheme would've been a career-ending scandal. Quaint times.
December 8, 2025 at 12:35 PM
I remember when a president admitting to a bribery scheme would've been a career-ending scandal. Quaint times.
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This report should have panicked everyone on the left into concerted, coordinated effort to address the information asymmetry. But as far as I can tell it just came & went & Dems are still in "buy TV ads about affordability" mode.
The right dominates the online media ecosystem, seeping into sports, comedy, and other supposedly nonpolitical spaces
As Americans increasingly get their news from online shows and streamers, the influence of this media ecosystem becomes more prominent — and Media Matters has found that the most popular of this conte...
www.mediamatters.org
December 9, 2025 at 6:02 AM
This report should have panicked everyone on the left into concerted, coordinated effort to address the information asymmetry. But as far as I can tell it just came & went & Dems are still in "buy TV ads about affordability" mode.
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#ICYMI: ProPublica obtained records from the Department of Agriculture that detailed the millions of pounds of food, down to the number of eggs, that never reached food banks because of the Trump administration’s cuts to an aid program.
(Published Oct. 2025)
(Published Oct. 2025)
Trump Canceled 94 Million Pounds of Food Aid. Here’s What Never Arrived.
ProPublica obtained records from the Department of Agriculture that detail the millions of pounds of food, down to the number of eggs, that never reached food banks because of the administration’s cut...
projects.propublica.org
December 9, 2025 at 4:00 AM
#ICYMI: ProPublica obtained records from the Department of Agriculture that detailed the millions of pounds of food, down to the number of eggs, that never reached food banks because of the Trump administration’s cuts to an aid program.
(Published Oct. 2025)
(Published Oct. 2025)
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Every Republican who kneeled to Trump knew what he was.
NEW on CNN: In several old videos we found, Pete Hegseth blasted Trump in 2016 warning he could issue unlawful orders that troops should refuse, calling him an “armchair tough guy” with five draft deferments.
Now he’s attacking Democrats for saying same.
LINK: www.cnn.com/2025/12/08/p...
Now he’s attacking Democrats for saying same.
LINK: www.cnn.com/2025/12/08/p...
December 8, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Every Republican who kneeled to Trump knew what he was.
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a thought about trump v. slaughter. it is largely unspoken, but the assertion that there is an unlimited presidential removal power and that independent agencies functionally cannot exist is an assertion of presidential sovereignty.
December 8, 2025 at 3:40 PM
a thought about trump v. slaughter. it is largely unspoken, but the assertion that there is an unlimited presidential removal power and that independent agencies functionally cannot exist is an assertion of presidential sovereignty.
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it's interesting how little the gop messaging apparatus, from the press secretary to election mailers, deviates from "i know you are but what am i"
LESLEY STAHL: You contributed to the toxic culture. You were out there pounding, insulting people
MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: You've contributed to it as well
STAHL: I want you to respond to what you have done in terms of insulting people
MTG: I'd like for you to respond to that
December 8, 2025 at 1:18 AM
it's interesting how little the gop messaging apparatus, from the press secretary to election mailers, deviates from "i know you are but what am i"
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TIL about a memorial ceremony in Iceland in 2019 to mark the end of a glacier, changing the place name from Okjökull to Ok (jökull = glacier). Uncompromising wording on the bronze plaque:
"This is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it".
"This is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it".
December 7, 2025 at 5:17 PM
TIL about a memorial ceremony in Iceland in 2019 to mark the end of a glacier, changing the place name from Okjökull to Ok (jökull = glacier). Uncompromising wording on the bronze plaque:
"This is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it".
"This is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it".
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To be very clear: Kennedy's team is messing with a vaccine which has led to a 99 percent drop in the incidence of hepatitis B, which kills, early and painfully, 25 percent of the children who get it.
RFK’s Anti-Vax Team Readies Its Next Moves
“Their game is, let’s really destabilize trust in the vaccine, and make people really anxious about it.”
lnk.thebulwark.com
December 7, 2025 at 7:00 PM
To be very clear: Kennedy's team is messing with a vaccine which has led to a 99 percent drop in the incidence of hepatitis B, which kills, early and painfully, 25 percent of the children who get it.
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What I always hear: “We can’t afford to pay our workers more than $15 an hour.”
What I never hear: “We can’t afford to pay our CEO millions of dollars a year.”
Funny how that works.
What I never hear: “We can’t afford to pay our CEO millions of dollars a year.”
Funny how that works.
December 7, 2025 at 10:01 PM
What I always hear: “We can’t afford to pay our workers more than $15 an hour.”
What I never hear: “We can’t afford to pay our CEO millions of dollars a year.”
Funny how that works.
What I never hear: “We can’t afford to pay our CEO millions of dollars a year.”
Funny how that works.
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Reject any and every lie of this regime that they are fighting the drug trade. Their boss pardons a drug kingpin who helped bring 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S.
December 8, 2025 at 12:14 AM
Reject any and every lie of this regime that they are fighting the drug trade. Their boss pardons a drug kingpin who helped bring 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S.
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I’m surprised more people aren’t talking about Don Jr receiving a massive loan for his startup from the Pentagon. I guess when there’s so much corruption some things fly under the radar?
December 7, 2025 at 7:19 PM
I’m surprised more people aren’t talking about Don Jr receiving a massive loan for his startup from the Pentagon. I guess when there’s so much corruption some things fly under the radar?
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Crumbling health systems fuelling global surge in measles, scientists warn
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/m...
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/m...
Crumbling health systems fuelling global surge in measles, scientists warn
Experts say that a ‘generational decline in living standards’ could be behind waning rates of vaccination
www.independent.co.uk
December 7, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Crumbling health systems fuelling global surge in measles, scientists warn
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/m...
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/m...
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"The baseline is that millions of people don’t have attorneys, and then the ones that do, for the attorneys to even find their clients is incredibly difficult."
A fully inhumane system
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/01/m...
A fully inhumane system
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/01/m...
Legal teams are having to work ‘miracles’ to get immigrants out of detention - The Boston Globe
As more people await hearings behind bars and with a shortage of immigration judges, legal cases take more work and time.
www.bostonglobe.com
December 7, 2025 at 1:47 PM
"The baseline is that millions of people don’t have attorneys, and then the ones that do, for the attorneys to even find their clients is incredibly difficult."
A fully inhumane system
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/01/m...
A fully inhumane system
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/01/m...
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I would say this because I edited it but @mshannahmurphy.bsky.social's piece on tech bros founding their own for-profit cities really is unmissable reading www.ft.com/content/b127...
Tech elites are starting their own for-profit cities
They want to escape from regulation and ‘failing’ democracy — but are they more opportunistic than libertarian?
www.ft.com
December 7, 2025 at 9:30 AM
I would say this because I edited it but @mshannahmurphy.bsky.social's piece on tech bros founding their own for-profit cities really is unmissable reading www.ft.com/content/b127...
Reposted
“The point of modern propaganda isn't only to misinform or push an agenda.
It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.”
- Garry Kasparov
It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.”
- Garry Kasparov
December 6, 2025 at 4:20 PM
“The point of modern propaganda isn't only to misinform or push an agenda.
It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.”
- Garry Kasparov
It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.”
- Garry Kasparov