mcbenton.bsky.social

Remember the Bundy insanity during the Obama years? Armed guys occupied a federal office and one of their buddies took position with a sniper rifle aimed at federal agents?

Exactly how many of those guys were shot and killed?

Elon Musk saying: Teaching people to hate America fundamentally destroys patriotism and the desire to defend our country. Such teachings should be viewed as treason and those who do it imprisoned. This is a quote tweet of someone saying: In 2022, 45% of high schoolers polled say they were taught that "America is built on stolen land" in class at school, and another 22% heard it from an adult there.

Elon Musk: "I'm a free speech absolutist!"

Also Elon Musk: "Anyone who teaches students that America was built on stolen land is guilty of treason and should be imprisoned."

Look, some of us tried to warn people that Elon Musk doesn't care one bit about free speech. But did anyone listen?

this is all to say that should democrats win the house and senate this november, they should hold similarly dramatic — which is to say televised and highly publicized — hearings on the conduct of ICE and CBP, with testimony from victims. we want as much of *this* as possible in the record. (3/?)

Brett Kavanaugh (September 2025): The facts and how they relate to the law don’t matter. Assume ICE and other federal forces always act with integrity, always respect rights, and consistently impose minimal burden.

Brett Kavanaugh (December 2025): Should I not have done that? Was that wrong?

National Defense Ministry Honors 11 Soldiers for Refusing Illegal Orders National Defense Ministry Honors 11 Soldiers for Refusing Illegal Orders Honored for rejecting illegal orders during martial law, Marine death probe

The South Korean Ministry of Defense has awarded medals of merit to 11 officers for disobeying direct orders of superiors during the martial law fiasco, orders that they deemed to be contrary to the constitution and endangerment to democracy.
www.chosun.com/english/nati...

"...every ounce of my energy has been devoted to an active
opposition to cruel bigotry, convulsive violence, and the sadistic persecution which has characterised the philosophy and practice of fascism...nothing fruitful or sincere could ever emerge from association between us."

The adamant elite refusal to call bullshit is a big part of How We Got Here.

The prevailing cultural attitude for years is you must not, under any circumstances, treat anything as bad faith. You are obligated to find some reasonable idea and engage with that, even if you distort to get there.

I believe Keegan Murray was 3 years older than Cooper Flagg on draft day - not two.

Darnella Frazier was 17 when she had the presence of mind to document what was happening to George Floyd.

These ICE abduction videos differ but also convey an out-of-control state abusing its power.

Sometimes bearing witness is among the most important forms of civil resistance.

political press is doing a real disservice by basically not reporting the nuances of public opinion on deportations, and creating the appearance that most americans support the stephen miller-style gestapo tactics

what people seem to believe is that there is a large number of criminal, layabout immigrants who can be easily found and deported. they support doing so snd are dismayed by the deportation of otherwise law abiding people. the problem is that the criminal group is imaginary!

I think reporting on, writing about and understanding of all this is a totally legitimate undertaking. Biden's decision was, indeed, consequential. But given the context of well...everything, it seems *insane* for anyone to say this is some kind of unresolved political issue Dems must address.

Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, recently used my second-place finish in the 1,600-meter run, and that of my teammate in the 800-meter run, to malign Soren Stark-Chessa, the trans-identified athlete who finished first. One of the reasons I chose to run cross-country and track is the community: Teammates cheering each other on, athletes from different schools coming together, and the fact that personal improvement is valued as much as, if not more than, the place we finish. Last Friday, I ran the fastest 1,600-meter race I have ever run in middle school or high school track and earned varsity status by my school’s standards. I am extremely proud of the effort I put into the race and the time that I achieved. The fact that someone else finished in front of me didn’t diminish the happiness I felt after finishing that race. I don’t feel like first place was taken from me. Instead, I feel like a happy day was turned ugly by a bully who is using children to make political points. We are all just kids trying to make our way through high school. Participating in sports is the highlight of high school for some kids. No one was harmed by Soren’s participation in the girls’ track meet, but we are all harmed by the hateful rhetoric of bullies, like Rep. Libby, who want to take sports away from some kids just because of who they are. Anelise Feldman Freshman, Yarmouth High School Yarmouth

this is a letter to the editor from a high school track runner who came in second to a trans girl in a race. her state house rep in maine started talking about it. so she wrote this: www.pressherald.com/2025/05/14/r...

This expands a similar purge recently at the Naval Academy library, in Maryland. Last month, civilian Navy officials, following orders originating from Mr. Hegseth, pulled from shelves books including one that critiqued “The Bell Curve,” a 1994 text that argues that Black men and women are genetically less intelligent than white people. But the academy kept “The Bell Curve” itself on its shelves.

You’re allowed to argue that black people and women are genetically inferior. But you’re NOT allowed to argue they are NOT inferior because that’s divisive. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/09/u...

I feel like we need to keep saying this because it’s so insane: This is a legal U.S. resident who has been detained for over a month now for his political opinions.

Bukele’s Offense Against the American People Here’s how I look at today’s White House spectacle. I don’t really...

Any Democratic politician who doesn't understand Nayib Bukele's grave offense against the sovereignty of the American people and constitutional order and say as much publicly should have no future in elected office. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/bukel...

The US doesn’t have allies anymore, though. Not really. You guys threw that away too.

I agree. It's crazy, but that's probably the argument.

"But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States."

That's just about perfect. Good Lord.

Currently reading Kershaw and had the exact same thought upon seeing the Signal group chat.

Total domination does not allow for free initiative in any field of life, for any activity that is not entirely predictable. Totali- tarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.u

This seems like a good time to remind folks of what Hannah Arendt once wrote:

American civil society is full of abject cowards, that is the issue. The government is a mafia state but it is winning because most American elite institutions are devoid of anything resembling integrity and are folding rather than stand on principles that were little more than marketing.

I can’t believe this has to be said, but: You cannot tell the story of Jackie Robinson—as a ballplayer, serviceman, or human—without discussing our country’s history of racism.

From Around the Horn:

You heard Trump’s attorney general — if you visit a Tesla dealership, she will prosecute you.

Be safe! Shop somewhere else.

I know this is extremely vulgar idealism, but I do think we should try to aggressively reassert the norm that lying is bad. Not in a "Four Pinnochios" fact-checking kind of way, but in a way that frames this kind of lying as moral degeneracy that is fundamentally corrosive to the human spirit.

A message from Zelensky through his actions. Honor and dignity. Some things can only be surrendered. They can't be taken away.

Remember when John Roberts gutted the Medicaid expansion because he said the *offer* of medicaid money was too coercive to the states bsky.app/profile/atru...

Whenever you hear someone sneer about scientific research that seems useless to them — “they’re studying the spit of lizards?!” — remind them that’s exactly how we got Ozempic.

globalnews.ca/news/9793403...