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THREAD: I got laid off from NYMag/Vulture after 14 years. The family lost 75% of income + medical. Now mzs.press bookstore, once a side project. is do-or-die for Judith & I. I feel weird telling you this because others are doing much worse. But if you could like or share this, we'd be so grateful!

If it's too good to be true, it probably isn't.

:(

kneeE

Hallelujah

What Franklin was concerned about was (in his view) the failure of German communities that had already settled in the colony of Pennsylvania to successfully assimilate to English civic institutions.

From the same letter quoted above:

"When I consider, that the English are the Offspring of Germans, that the Climate they live in is much of the same Temperature; when I can see nothing in Nature that should create this Difference, I am apt to suspect it must arise from Institution"

Founders Online: Benjamin Franklin to Peter Collinson, 9 May 1753 Benjamin Franklin to Peter Collinson, 9 May 1753

This is a sloppy exaggeration of a letter in which he also writes:

"I say I am not against the Admission of Germans in general, for they have their Virtues, their industry and frugality is exemplary; They are excellent husbandmen and contribute greatly to the improvement of a Country."

Ben Franklin published the first German-language newspaper in America.

Supremely compromised court.

There are no-fee 5% cashback options out there.

Avner de-Shalit and my maxim for a City of Equals is ‘I’m proud of my city and my city is proud of (people like) me’. The US cities standing up to ICE are showing what it is to live this idea.

Tadpole philosophy. Some tadpoles will grow to distend their mouths, become frogs, and lecture other tadpoles.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would never support this.

YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free

I wouldn't deny that the race of the victim is a factor, but I think the most important aspect is just how much video footage there is, from multiple angles, and how much the administration's knee-jerk attempt to smear the victim after the fact have no factual basis whatsoever.

Timothy Snyder describes the SS as "state destroyers." Part of his quasi-Arendtian argument is that they were most successful in mass extermination of human life where the established rule of law had collapsed and the primary goal of the SS was to effectuate that collapse.

Also because it is part of their "Salami tactics." When people on the "left" act like only immigrants or racial minorities will ever be targeted, they inadvertently play into the strategy of the far right.

I do not know how anyone could watch that footage and not see what is effectively a summary execution. The shooter wanders over while the man was already restrained on the ground and being beaten, fires into his back, and keeps shooting after the man is splayed.

MAGA death squads are not and will never be law enforcement. They use force to impose lawlessness.

ICE is full of new recruits with little training but that's not the case with CBP. Current reporting suggests this was a CBP incident.

Apart from his coterie of wealthy donors, I have no idea how any of his "regular" supporters have anything left to give after being money pumped nonstop for a decade.

MAGAdoxa: anything can be bought or stolen.

Jack Smith: "Donald Trump was not looking for honest answers about whether there was fraud in the election. He was looking for ways to stay in power. And when people told him things that conflicted with him staying in power, he rejected them."

I try to avoid hyperbole when it comes to Trump policies, but this is absolutely frickin’ insane—on about eleventy different levels.

Massive, systemic Fourth Amendment violations because … reasons.

This is my favorite quote by the NYC Mayor Ed Koch during the 1980s "I wouldn't believe Donald Trump even if he had his tongue notarized"

The Supreme Court had telegraphed they were likely to release their tariff decision yesterday but have yet to do so. This is speculative, but I suspect that the administration got tipped off that the Court will strike them down and requested a delay so that Trump could make one last bluff at Davos.