Winston Smith

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Winston Smith

Winston Smith

@WinstonSmith327

Mourning the country that used to be, trying to contribute to building something to be proud of in its place. Blocked by idealogues of both the left and right.

Bay Area Katılım Mayıs 2013
2.4K Takip Edilen548 Takipçiler
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Winston Smith
Winston Smith@WinstonSmith327·
I think this time will be different. Voters will overlook or explain away fraud, theft, abuse of power, destruction of the rule of law, sale of national security data, statutory rape, and other relatively minor offenses. High gas prices, though, are a much more serious issue.
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Winston Smith
Winston Smith@WinstonSmith327·
This is strategic. For Trump policymaking is a pretext for enabling autocracy--concentrating as much power as possible in himself. He doesn't want to actually solve any problems with legislation because that would make the system less reliant on executive power.
Matthew Yglesias@mattyglesias

Trump has tons and tons and tons of stated grievances with how American immigration law functions. A real president would try to get congress to address some of those concerns and try to do some dealmaking to get the votes. That's how the American system works.

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Winston Smith
Winston Smith@WinstonSmith327·
@mattyglesias No, it's worse than that. For Trump policymaking is a pretext for accruing more power to himself. He doesn't want to actually solve any problems with legislation because that would make the system less reliant on executive power.
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Matthew Yglesias
Matthew Yglesias@mattyglesias·
Trump has tons and tons and tons of stated grievances with how American immigration law functions. A real president would try to get congress to address some of those concerns and try to do some dealmaking to get the votes. That's how the American system works.
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Matthew Yglesias
Matthew Yglesias@mattyglesias·
I actually do understand this. Rather than doing the job of President of the United States in a constitutional republic, MAGA acts as if Trump should be a plebiscitary dictator and anything short of that means he's not he's responsible for whatever happens.
🐐QuirkyLlama@quirkyllama

I don't want to defend RFK or MAGA conspiracists, but I'm genuinely surprised Matt doesn't get that there is a real complaint here. The core hypothesis of Trump II is "Trump doesn't control the govt" Call it the deep state, call it bureaucracy, or just call it the Judiciary. The battle over Abrego Garcia- a man who no one disputes is here illegally- yet the entire might of the Trump administration can't deport him! The whole thesis of Trump II is "Yes, the laws say X, but the bureaucracy + judiciary don't care what the laws says". Or the recent Federal Court ruling effectively preventing Berkeley from cleaning up tent cities. Does the GOP have a Federal Trifecta? Yes. Does a Blue City in a Blue State want to clean up homelessness? Yes. Did a Federal judge prevent them from doing so? Also Yes. If you want to understand what's going on in Trump 2 these points are central. Republicans do not effectively control gov't even when they have a trifecta. Between bureaucrats bureaucrats and the Liberal Judiciary, it's ~impossible to change policy even when the law is clearly on GOP side.

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Winston Smith
Winston Smith@WinstonSmith327·
@maxbergmann You replace the US with Ukraine in NATO and prepare for war. Since Russia can't even beat Ukraine standing alone, Ukraine's assistance should certainly be enough for the Baltics to be defensible.
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Max Bergmann
Max Bergmann@maxbergmann·
What's the plan, Europe? NATO has nothing. All the eggs are in the Trump basket. So what do you do when its 2028, 200k Russian troops are moved to the border of Baltic states, and Trump/US isn't going to lift a finger. What do you do?
The White House@WhiteHouse

“NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN. REMEMBER GREENLAND, THAT BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE!!!” - President Donald J. Trump

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Winston Smith
Winston Smith@WinstonSmith327·
@LeftHandStu It seems smart, because NATO is dead already, but Europe needs time to build its own capabilities. It's kind of like when you catch your spouse cheating, but the house won't sell and your youngest is finishing high school, so you've got no choice but to suck it up for a year.
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Melenie Stringer
Melenie Stringer@melehnie·
@dessacordell @TristanSnell He was registered when he turned 18. All men in the US have to register for the Selective Service when they turn 18. This has been a law longer than you've been alive. It was signed into law in 1917 for men 21 years of age and amended to 18 years of age in 1941.
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Tristan Snell
Tristan Snell@TristanSnell·
ATTENTION — ALL US MALES 18-25 You are automatically being registered for the DRAFT, starting in December Because of Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump Don’t want to fight in Trump’s wars? Soon you will not have a choice
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Winston Smith
Winston Smith@WinstonSmith327·
Paul McCartney, says he would teach piano to chilcren by only teaching the minimal chords necessary for composing on the piano. If they're only made to play fixed songs or just mechanically memorize them, they'll eventually get bored and quit music altogether.
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Winston Smith
Winston Smith@WinstonSmith327·
@CathyJoeGPT @atrupar Maybe the US lost, but Trump definitely won. His children got a chance to make tons more money trading on valuable insider information, which is what's important to him. The rest is just details.
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Cathy Coleman ☮️ 📚 🗳 ⚖️ 🔶🇺🇸
Cathy Coleman ☮️ 📚 🗳 ⚖️ 🔶🇺🇸@CathyJoeGPT·
@atrupar So the United States is in a much worst position than when we began - one might say Trump lost his Iranian war! Before Iran didn't control or profit from the Strait of Hormuz & now they will! I can hear Putin laughing!
Cathy Coleman ☮️ 📚 🗳 ⚖️ 🔶🇺🇸 tweet media
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Aaron Rupar
Aaron Rupar@atrupar·
Chris Murphy: "He's not telling the truth. But if you accept even part of the Iranian statement, Donald Trump has agreed to give Iran control of the Strait of Hormuz. That is extraordinary and cataclysmic for the world."
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Let Us Now Praise... The Beatles
Let Us Now Praise... The Beatles@BeatlesPraise·
"I heard Joni Mitchell say, 'Everybody's a songwriter, even people who shouldn't be.' It's true. It was as true in 1963 as it is today. People heard the Beatles and said, 'Oh, I could do that!' Actually, no, you couldn't. You couldn't write 'She Loves You,' let alone 'For No One' or 'Girl.' It's the same today. A lot of people who can sort of write songs screw up their ears and tell themselves it's something special. But it's not really. "Lennon, McCartney and Harrison had stunningly high standards as writers. Imagine releasing a song like 'Ask Me Why' or 'Things We Said Today' as a B side. They made such fantastic records as 'Penny Lane' b/w 'Strawberry Fields Forever' and only put them out as singles! These records were events, and not just advance notice of an album release. "You can’t really put onto the page what is great about 'And Your Bird Can Sing' or 'Paperback Writer' or even a great overlooked hard rock Beatles cut like 'Hey Bulldog.' Ok, you can break it down to this remarkable guitar part, those weirdly tracked, overlapping vocal harmonies or Lennon’s insanely intense delivery of an almost throwaway cut and even remark that the piano part is a relative of 'Lady Madonna.' But this doesn’t begin to explain how these records make me feel. That is beyond words." --#ElvisCostello #Songwriter #TheAttractions @ElvisCostello #Grammys #ASCAP #BAFTA #HallOfFame #TheBeatles #Influence #GOAT
Let Us Now Praise... The Beatles tweet mediaLet Us Now Praise... The Beatles tweet media
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Winston Smith
Winston Smith@WinstonSmith327·
@FusaGl @Noahpinion When you lead with the ad hominem, that's a pretty clear signal that you're engaging in X mud-wrestling, not anything that could be called debate. Noah believes that that's 95% of what X is, so he uses the platform mostly to raise his profile.
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Fusa
Fusa@FusaGl·
@Noahpinion Sorry I didn’t realize I wasn’t allowed to reply to you. Your reply that I’m “retarded” really proves I was wrong. Well done.
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Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼
Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼@Noahpinion·
For what it's worth, I think America should cancel its alliance with Israel, which is obviously a bad and unhelpful ally. But unlike leftists and rightists, I don't actually think canceling it will fix any of our fundamental problems, or help people in Gaza.
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Winston Smith
Winston Smith@WinstonSmith327·
@Contra_Flash @Noahpinion There are plenty of conservatives who think Israel is not a good ally, although they are more likely to couch their critiques in anti-Semitism.
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Matthew Yglesias
Matthew Yglesias@mattyglesias·
It’s just extremely strange that the Vice President of the United States is giving a campaign speech in a foreign country at all, much less that he’s specifically urging the re-election of the pro-Russian anti-western party rather than the reverse.
Rapid Response 47@RapidResponse47

.@VP in Budapest: "We want you to make a decision about your future with no outside forces pressuring you... The bureaucrats in Brussels, those people should not be listened to. Listen to your hearts, listen to your souls, and listen to the sovereignty of the Hungarian people."

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Winston Smith
Winston Smith@WinstonSmith327·
@American_Bridge Do the MAGA people really believe there is nothing incriminating in the millions of documents that the DOJ has been slow walking?
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American Bridge 21st Century
American Bridge 21st Century@American_Bridge·
“I think that to the extent that the Epstein files was a part of the past year of this Justice Department, it should not be a part of anything going forward.” Acting AG Todd Blanche says he’s slamming the door on the Epstein files. No investigations. No prosecutions. Nothing.
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Winston Smith
Winston Smith@WinstonSmith327·
@PunishedCHJ @JamesSurowiecki @nikitabier @NateSilver538 I've been following the NYT since I first got on Twitter, haven't had an NYT article show up in my feed for years. I do, however, get lots of unwanted come-ons for me to subscribe to Twitter accounts. It's a business decision, they prioritize monetization over usefulness
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Nate Silver
Nate Silver@NateSilver538·
It's not my data. The source is Cluvio, which is linked to in the article. I'd link to it in this tweet, but ironically, that would kill engagement. And I know that traffic is hard to count. Especially for a private company. But if you have more accurate data, then publish it.
Nikita Bier@nikitabier

@NateSilver538 Data isn’t accurate. Missing half the network.

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Grok
Grok@grok·
Senator Murphy posted about gas prices under Biden around a dozen times in searchable X records from 2021-2025—mostly defending the admin, crediting falling prices post-peak, or rebutting GOP claims on production. He didn't treat the 2021-2022 spike (from $2.39 to $4.88/gal as in your chart) as a crisis of Biden's making. Biden released 180 million barrels from the SPR in 2022 (largest ever emergency sale) to counter Ukraine war shocks. Before leaving office, his team repurchased/retained ~200 million barrels at lower average prices (~$75/barrel vs. ~$95 sale price).
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Chris Murphy 🟧
Chris Murphy 🟧@ChrisMurphyCT·
Trump's Iran War has been a disaster in the U.S., as gas prices eclipse $4. But in the developing world, the shock of spiralling energy prices has been cataclysmic. 1/ A short thread the scope of the damage Trump has caused. There are crises everywhere and you need to know.
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Winston Smith
Winston Smith@WinstonSmith327·
@HA_Fernandez @NickKristof I don't doubt that the majority of Iranians would want a very different government, but that doesn't mean that they want their country destroyed, with massive loss of life.
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Nicholas Kristof
Nicholas Kristof@NickKristof·
President Trump threatens not just war crimes but also what sounds like genocide, saying that in Iran "a whole civilization will die tonight." This is obviously morally repugnant and also raises alarms about the mental stability of a man who controls nuclear weapons.
Nicholas Kristof tweet media
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Winston Smith
Winston Smith@WinstonSmith327·
@ArizonaPartisan @ChrisMurphyCT If imposing hardship on its people was how to change brutal regimes, then North Korea's government would have fallen 20 years ago, Cuba's government 60.
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🌵 Arizona Partisan - DR ice 🌵🇺🇸
🌵 Arizona Partisan - DR ice 🌵🇺🇸@ArizonaPartisan·
@ChrisMurphyCT Typical that you would be more interested in cheap gas then opposing a regime that brutalizes women and gays and those who speak against the government. You show your true colors with each and every post.
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Keşfet

@mattyglesias @maxbergmann @LeftHandStu @melehnie @dessacordell @TristanSnell @tunedhuman @CathyJoeGPT