The Flannel Fist
@theflannelfist.bsky.social
Ordinary People, Loud Ideas brings a working-class, leftist perspective to the front lines of policy, power, and protest. From country roads to Capitol halls.
https://open.substack.com/pub/ordinarypeopleloudideas
https://open.substack.com/pub/ordinarypeopleloudideas
My new piece breaks down what happened, why it matters, and why this moment should wake up anyone who thinks ICE abuses only hit “other” people. #Solidarity
Read it here: open.substack.com/pub/ordinary...
Read it here: open.substack.com/pub/ordinary...
They Came for a Worker at a Gas Station. Bowling Green Didn’t Stay Quiet.
ICE raids don’t keep us safe. They fracture families, terrify communities, and make Kentucky poorer. WKU students just showed what solidarity looks like.
open.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:04 PM
My new piece breaks down what happened, why it matters, and why this moment should wake up anyone who thinks ICE abuses only hit “other” people. #Solidarity
Read it here: open.substack.com/pub/ordinary...
Read it here: open.substack.com/pub/ordinary...
But what happened in Bowling Green also showed something else: people still show up. Students still get loud. Ordinary folks still reject the idea that fear is the price of living here.
That’s Kentucky at its best.
#KYNews #HumanRights #ImmigrationJustice #AbolishICE #CommunityDefense
That’s Kentucky at its best.
#KYNews #HumanRights #ImmigrationJustice #AbolishICE #CommunityDefense
November 10, 2025 at 5:04 PM
But what happened in Bowling Green also showed something else: people still show up. Students still get loud. Ordinary folks still reject the idea that fear is the price of living here.
That’s Kentucky at its best.
#KYNews #HumanRights #ImmigrationJustice #AbolishICE #CommunityDefense
That’s Kentucky at its best.
#KYNews #HumanRights #ImmigrationJustice #AbolishICE #CommunityDefense
And let’s be honest: if Kentucky lawmakers get their way, we’re going to see a lot more of this. They treat ICE like a partner and Kentucky’s immigrant communities like collateral damage.
It’s state power outsourcing its conscience.
#Kentucky #BowlingGreen #WKU #KYPolitics
It’s state power outsourcing its conscience.
#Kentucky #BowlingGreen #WKU #KYPolitics
November 10, 2025 at 5:04 PM
And let’s be honest: if Kentucky lawmakers get their way, we’re going to see a lot more of this. They treat ICE like a partner and Kentucky’s immigrant communities like collateral damage.
It’s state power outsourcing its conscience.
#Kentucky #BowlingGreen #WKU #KYPolitics
It’s state power outsourcing its conscience.
#Kentucky #BowlingGreen #WKU #KYPolitics
The truth: ICE raids don’t make Kentucky safer.
They traumatize immigrant families, destabilize neighborhoods, and turn routine errands into arenas of fear.
Nobody is safer when your neighbor can disappear between the gas pump and the car door.
They traumatize immigrant families, destabilize neighborhoods, and turn routine errands into arenas of fear.
Nobody is safer when your neighbor can disappear between the gas pump and the car door.
November 10, 2025 at 5:04 PM
The truth: ICE raids don’t make Kentucky safer.
They traumatize immigrant families, destabilize neighborhoods, and turn routine errands into arenas of fear.
Nobody is safer when your neighbor can disappear between the gas pump and the car door.
They traumatize immigrant families, destabilize neighborhoods, and turn routine errands into arenas of fear.
Nobody is safer when your neighbor can disappear between the gas pump and the car door.
WKU students weren’t buying it. Word spread on campus and within hours they organized an impromptu protest calling out the cruelty and demanding basic accountability.
Nobody waited for a nonprofit or a politician. People moved because they cared.
#WKUStudents #CampusOrganizing #StudentPower
Nobody waited for a nonprofit or a politician. People moved because they cared.
#WKUStudents #CampusOrganizing #StudentPower
November 10, 2025 at 5:04 PM
WKU students weren’t buying it. Word spread on campus and within hours they organized an impromptu protest calling out the cruelty and demanding basic accountability.
Nobody waited for a nonprofit or a politician. People moved because they cared.
#WKUStudents #CampusOrganizing #StudentPower
Nobody waited for a nonprofit or a politician. People moved because they cared.
#WKUStudents #CampusOrganizing #StudentPower
This is how ICE works. No warning. No explanation. No transparency. Just federal agents materializing in everyday life like a weather system nobody asked for.
And our leaders call this “public safety.”
#EndStateViolence #AccountabilityNow
And our leaders call this “public safety.”
#EndStateViolence #AccountabilityNow
November 10, 2025 at 5:04 PM
This is how ICE works. No warning. No explanation. No transparency. Just federal agents materializing in everyday life like a weather system nobody asked for.
And our leaders call this “public safety.”
#EndStateViolence #AccountabilityNow
And our leaders call this “public safety.”
#EndStateViolence #AccountabilityNow
This isn’t “economic development.” It’s a gas-fired grift wrapped in Silicon Valley branding. When the servers don’t show up, we still get burned.
🔥 Full story: open.substack.com/pub/ordinary...
🔥 Full story: open.substack.com/pub/ordinary...
Kentucky’s Gas Gamble: Ratepayers Financing Big Data’s Bet on Our Power Grid
Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities just got the green light to build nearly $3 billion worth of new gas-fired power plants.
open.substack.com
November 6, 2025 at 6:45 PM
This isn’t “economic development.” It’s a gas-fired grift wrapped in Silicon Valley branding. When the servers don’t show up, we still get burned.
🔥 Full story: open.substack.com/pub/ordinary...
🔥 Full story: open.substack.com/pub/ordinary...
Kentucky’s leaders keep giving away the store — cheap power, tax breaks, public risk — chasing companies that vanish faster than campaign promises. Meanwhile, we’re locked into 40 more years of fossil fuel debt.
November 6, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Kentucky’s leaders keep giving away the store — cheap power, tax breaks, public risk — chasing companies that vanish faster than campaign promises. Meanwhile, we’re locked into 40 more years of fossil fuel debt.
If those data centers never come? You still pay.
💸 LG&E customers: +$138 a year
💸 KU customers: +$23 a year
The utilities get guaranteed profits either way. You take the risk, they take the reward.
💸 LG&E customers: +$138 a year
💸 KU customers: +$23 a year
The utilities get guaranteed profits either way. You take the risk, they take the reward.
November 6, 2025 at 6:45 PM
If those data centers never come? You still pay.
💸 LG&E customers: +$138 a year
💸 KU customers: +$23 a year
The utilities get guaranteed profits either way. You take the risk, they take the reward.
💸 LG&E customers: +$138 a year
💸 KU customers: +$23 a year
The utilities get guaranteed profits either way. You take the risk, they take the reward.
The PSC admitted there’s “no absolute certainty” these data centers will ever show up. They built in a monitoring case in case it all goes wrong. That’s not oversight. That’s regulatory prayer.
November 6, 2025 at 6:45 PM
The PSC admitted there’s “no absolute certainty” these data centers will ever show up. They built in a monitoring case in case it all goes wrong. That’s not oversight. That’s regulatory prayer.
Our full tribute to Martha Layne Collins — the teacher who taught Kentucky to dream bigger.
👉https://open.substack.com/pub/ordinarypeopleloudideas/p/martha-layne-collins-19362025-the?r=62e9l5&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
#Kentucky #MarthaLayneCollins #KYPolitics
👉https://open.substack.com/pub/ordinarypeopleloudideas/p/martha-layne-collins-19362025-the?r=62e9l5&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
#Kentucky #MarthaLayneCollins #KYPolitics
Martha Layne Collins, 1936–2025: The Teacher Who Made History
On November 1, 2025, Kentucky lost a quiet revolution-maker. Martha Layne Collins, the first woman ever elected governor of the Commonwealth, died at 88.
open.substack.com
November 6, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Our full tribute to Martha Layne Collins — the teacher who taught Kentucky to dream bigger.
👉https://open.substack.com/pub/ordinarypeopleloudideas/p/martha-layne-collins-19362025-the?r=62e9l5&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
#Kentucky #MarthaLayneCollins #KYPolitics
👉https://open.substack.com/pub/ordinarypeopleloudideas/p/martha-layne-collins-19362025-the?r=62e9l5&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
#Kentucky #MarthaLayneCollins #KYPolitics
Forty years later, Kentucky still hasn’t elected another woman governor. That says plenty about how much she broke through — and how hard the gatekeepers fought to rebuild the wall.
November 6, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Forty years later, Kentucky still hasn’t elected another woman governor. That says plenty about how much she broke through — and how hard the gatekeepers fought to rebuild the wall.
Her big swing was the Toyota deal in Georgetown. It brought jobs, but also the corporate-subsidy politics we still live with today. Legacy: complicated, real, and still shaping us.
November 6, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Her big swing was the Toyota deal in Georgetown. It brought jobs, but also the corporate-subsidy politics we still live with today. Legacy: complicated, real, and still shaping us.
Collins started in the classroom, not the boardroom. She believed public education and jobs went hand in hand — that Kentucky’s future was built by people, not just companies.
November 6, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Collins started in the classroom, not the boardroom. She believed public education and jobs went hand in hand — that Kentucky’s future was built by people, not just companies.
The Business Plot failed. The Powell Memo didn’t. Read Part III of The Long Coup here ⤵️
🔗 open.substack.com/pub/ordinary...
#TheLongCoup #OrdinaryPeopleLoudIdeas #Neoliberalism #HistoryOfPower
🔗 open.substack.com/pub/ordinary...
#TheLongCoup #OrdinaryPeopleLoudIdeas #Neoliberalism #HistoryOfPower
The Long Coup, Part III: The Counter-Revolution Institutionalized
When the smoke of McCarthyism and the Red Scare cleared, America looked like a victory parade for capitalism. Labor had been broken. The left was radioactive.
open.substack.com
November 3, 2025 at 3:45 PM
The Business Plot failed. The Powell Memo didn’t. Read Part III of The Long Coup here ⤵️
🔗 open.substack.com/pub/ordinary...
#TheLongCoup #OrdinaryPeopleLoudIdeas #Neoliberalism #HistoryOfPower
🔗 open.substack.com/pub/ordinary...
#TheLongCoup #OrdinaryPeopleLoudIdeas #Neoliberalism #HistoryOfPower
The coup of 1933 failed. The coup of 1971 succeeded. Now it wears a suit, funds a PAC, and calls itself “freedom.”
November 3, 2025 at 3:45 PM
The coup of 1933 failed. The coup of 1971 succeeded. Now it wears a suit, funds a PAC, and calls itself “freedom.”
By Reagan’s era, Powell’s revolution was complete. “Government is the problem,” Reagan said, and they all cheered. Unions were destroyed, the rich got richer, and even Democrats joined the faith.
November 3, 2025 at 3:45 PM
By Reagan’s era, Powell’s revolution was complete. “Government is the problem,” Reagan said, and they all cheered. Unions were destroyed, the rich got richer, and even Democrats joined the faith.
His memo birthed an empire: Heritage, ALEC, Cato, and the Federalist Society. They turned ideas into laws, laws into profits, and profits into political power. No bayonets, no generals—just think tanks and tax breaks.
November 3, 2025 at 3:45 PM
His memo birthed an empire: Heritage, ALEC, Cato, and the Federalist Society. They turned ideas into laws, laws into profits, and profits into political power. No bayonets, no generals—just think tanks and tax breaks.
In 1971, corporate lawyer Lewis Powell wrote a secret memo to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It wasn’t a complaint—it was a war plan. He told America’s richest men to seize the universities, the courts, and the press.
November 3, 2025 at 3:45 PM
In 1971, corporate lawyer Lewis Powell wrote a secret memo to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It wasn’t a complaint—it was a war plan. He told America’s richest men to seize the universities, the courts, and the press.