Sean Casten

Congressman, IL-06. Engineer. Former CEO. Dad. Husband. Occasional piano player. "The best friend of a nation is he who most faithfully rebukes her for her sins—and he her worst enemy who, under the specious… garb of patriotism seeks to excuse, palliate or defend them." - Frederick Douglass

Xitter & Bluesky: Sean Casten (npub13ye…fhsw) / @SeanCasten.bsky.social
Official Site: https://casten.house.gov/
Campaign Site: https://castenforcongress.com/homepage/
Official Mastodonery: Congressman Sean Casten (npub1zrv…w6hy)

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Last Notes

2026-06-26 20:00:41 UTC

"I think it's ironic that we control the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court and the White House and we're yelling "Election Fraud" " - Thomas Massie https://www.instagram.com/reel/DaBg1y0DH21/

2026-04-17 03:52:43 UTC

So there's a really important debate on civil liberties and national security going on on the House floor right now. It is shameful that it's taking place at this late hour of the night / morning. But I'm going to at least do something productive & try to explain here:

2026-04-16 19:36:37 UTC

President Trump has protected, pardoned and/or partied with a lot of pedophiles. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/another-pardoned-jan-6-rioter-admit-guilt-child-sexual-abuse-case-rcna331841

2026-04-14 13:55:14 UTC

5 true things that shouldn't be partisan but are.
Orban and Putin are not America's friends.
Tariffs are inflationary.
Democracy is good.
Pedophilia is bad.
Trump isn't Jesus.

2026-04-13 13:16:45 UTC

Everyone has a crazy racist uncle who stays up all night shitposting on their local library's Facebook page. Good people ignore him. Better people try to lead him towards love. The GOP venerates him.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/397/585/327/960/295/original/ac2f47ae7369cc06.png

2026-04-07 21:11:54 UTC

The president’s threat to wipe out an entire civilization is dangerous, reckless, and would constitute a war crime under both domestic and international law. This rhetoric undermines U.S. credibility, endangers civilians, and places American personnel in untenable legal, moral, and mortal jeopardy. Anyone in the Trump Administration who acts on this threat and violates the law must be held accountable, including criminal liability.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/365/479/352/622/304/original/96cee07cd08f70fa.png

2026-04-06 12:57:10 UTC

Sometimes Easter falls on Trans Day of Visibility. Sometimes it falls on the same day as Passover. Hell, sometimes it’s on 4/20. But bombing civilian infrastructure is always a war crime, no matter what this transphobic so-called “Christian truth-teller” says to the contrary.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/357/870/143/259/518/original/81c36fd737f47203.png

2026-04-04 13:53:37 UTC

"Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command" https://www.ms.now/news/pam-bondis-portrait-already-taken-down-at-justice-department
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/346/769/375/319/512/original/c954b42da29d6a23.png

2026-04-03 13:02:04 UTC

Don't pay attention to the noise from the White House. It's very clear that markets and consumers vastly prefer lower cost energy sources that hedge fossil fuel price volatility. 88% of all new generation added in the US last year. https://electrek.co/2026/04/01/ferc-renewables-made-up-88-of-new-us-power-generating-capacity-in-2025/

2026-04-02 12:49:48 UTC

Donald Trump and the GOP gave our nation's wealthiest a $5 TRILLION tax cut. That's more than enough to cover these costs. That's what he's prioritized over your health and child care. Here are some other things Trump has prioritized: https://x.com/factpostnews/status/2039444784083771629?s=20

2026-03-31 13:06:18 UTC

We can't normalize the idea that the President of the United States just says random things on the internet because he has feelings. But this is a recipe to further increase US gasoline prices. What happens to US oil prices if we increase demand? This is Econ 101 stuff.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/323/934/170/879/213/original/684687c3594e029d.png

2026-03-27 17:35:05 UTC

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Postscript from the clownshow that is the GOP as I was typing up this summary.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/302/341/776/576/652/original/6c34519d721dac1c.png

2026-03-27 17:27:58 UTC

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15. Things are fluid and maybe these dynamics change over the next few hours. But it's your regular reminder that there is no overlap in the Venn diagram between a government that works and a Congress under GOP control. /fin

2026-03-27 17:27:09 UTC

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14. It's so maddening. Government workers should be paid. You shouldn't have to wait on lines in airports, or worry about Coast Guard preparedness, or whether FEMA can handle the next disaster. But you do because of the utter lack of character in GOP leadership.

2026-03-27 17:26:15 UTC

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13. So even if His Accidency's plan works, it serves only to call Senators back into town for a vote that won't pass, leaving huge parts of government unfunded, just because that's easier for him than standing up to Trump or his wingnuts.

2026-03-27 17:25:53 UTC

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12. 'Cause remember: Senators have just proven there aren't votes to fund ICE without reforms. And this CR would still take 60 votes in the Senate. So while he might be able to jam this bill through the House on a party line vote, that just goes back to step 2 above.

2026-03-27 17:25:07 UTC

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11. And so he is taking the coward's way out. Let's kick the can down the road for 60 days with a continuing resolution to fund everything. Except that this doesn't work, for completely obvious reasons.
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2026-03-27 17:23:49 UTC

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10. So Johnson - a man with no leadership skills, no political capital and no moral compass - is in a jam. If he brings a bill to the floor that would fully fund TSA, FEMA, Coast Guard with full funding AND leave ICE with 3x historic support, his wingnuts would get mad.

2026-03-27 17:23:22 UTC

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9. He got his job SPECIFICALLY because the wingnuts voted to remove Kevin McCarthy specifically for allowing a funding bill to pass on the floor overwhelmingly with democratic and non-wingnut republican support. https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/13/politics/mccarthy-motion-to-vacate-vote-to-oust-speaker

2026-03-27 17:22:21 UTC

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8. In theory, this doesn't matter. Johnson is the Speaker of the House. He could pass the bill on the floor with all Dems and most Rs. But that would make his wingnuts angry. And Mike Johnson not only owes his job to the wingnuts but...

2026-03-27 17:20:59 UTC

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7. House should have come in today, passed that bill and gone home. But we can't do that because the wingnuttiest members of the Republican caucus (a) love fascist ICE thugs and (b) hate democracy so refused to support. https://x.com/Olivia_Beavers/status/2037541068258848894?s=20

2026-03-27 17:19:23 UTC

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6. Once the Mad King said he'd fund TSA, they could finally get through this without risking a flying ketchup bottle next time they went to his house. So, they finally let - functionally, the Rosa Delauro bill - pass the Senate late last night. https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/senate-approves-funding-for-most-of-dhs-moving-to-end-airport-crisis-d8830efc

2026-03-27 17:18:25 UTC

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5. Congress could have fixed this too. But Congressional republicans have no animating north star other than falling in line behind Trump. No matter how irrational, inconsistent, angry or spiteful Trump is, they don't dare stand up to him. HOWEVER...

2026-03-27 17:16:11 UTC

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4. TSA lines got longer, Trump sent ICE goons into airports which predictably became politically toxic so he finally said he'd use $10B slush fund from OBBB to fund TSA. He had that power all along. But because he's an ass, he didn't use it. https://apnews.com/live/tsa-government-shutdown-ice-trump-03-26-2026

2026-03-27 17:15:32 UTC

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3. Dems, led by Rosa DeLauro countered with bill to fund all of DHS except ICE (Coast Guard, FEMA, TSA). Note this would have left ICE with 3x normal funding because of the OBBB. Rs could have taken that as a win. They blocked it.

2026-03-27 17:14:34 UTC

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2. "Members of Conscience" = Democrats. Republicans of course have the majority in the House and Senate but passing this bill requires a 60 vote supermajority in the Senate. So they passed an immoral spending bill in the House and stalled in the Senate. Predictably.

2026-03-27 17:13:57 UTC

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1. First, DHS hasn't been funded because of the illegal, immoral, murderous behavior by ICE. No members of conscience were willing to fund that agency, especially since they already had 3x their usual budget through the OBBB.

2026-03-27 17:13:22 UTC

House procedure is normally a snoozefest that only insiders care about. But this one is just such a perfect distillation of the incompetence in the GOP, failure of Trump as a leader and weakness of Mike Johnson. Let's roll the video tape:
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/302/255/519/780/625/original/977930993510d4e7.png

2026-03-27 13:30:05 UTC

I like this for a lot of reasons. But mostly because the path to decarbonization AND cost reduction is electification, and electric regulation is primarily done at the state level in the US. Governors can lead, and Spanberger is. https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/clean-energy/virginia-set-to-enact-laws-cleaner-cheaper-power

2026-03-23 12:52:08 UTC

And there it is. DHS and TSA aren't getting paid because Trump doesn't want to pay them, and Thune & Johnson are too afraid to act like the leaders of co-equal branch they claim to be to call the vote and force the question.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/278/579/170/052/937/original/f80bf3941ed78b6b.png

2026-03-21 14:27:15 UTC

The reason why Trump is so afraid of Democrats winning the House is because he will no longer have Mike Johnson around to block any investigation of his daily crimes. Today, it's 18 U.S. Code § 600. https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/20/politics/trump-reshapes-a-key-us-house-race-by-offering-a-candidate-and-her-husband-roles-in-his-administration

2026-03-13 12:38:54 UTC

As a guy who spent over a year negotiating / cajoling / fighting with MA utilities to create standard interconnection rules for non-utility power - this is a really big deal. https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/solar/virginia-to-become-second-state-balcony-solar

2026-03-10 22:35:21 UTC

Yesterday, Energy Secretary Wright said that I was wrong "on both counts" when I said that the WH had no plan going into the war with Iran and it's not surprising they also failed to account for the SPR. Then he lied about oil ships being escorted through Hormuz. I stand by my initial observation.

2026-03-08 17:55:10 UTC

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I'd respect him more if he just said "I don't want women or minorities or young people to vote". At least then he'd be honest about his intentions. But making up bad analogies doesn't make you a statesman. It makes you a liar.

2026-03-08 17:54:54 UTC

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...(b) that the % of non-citizens voting is a fraction of a percent of the % of underage people buying beer. Neither of those things are remotely true. Barrasso - like all Republicans - don't want citizens to vote who don't vote for them because their ideas aren't popular.

2026-03-08 17:54:35 UTC

This is nonsense. The idea that you need a photo ID to buy beer so it's just common sense that you need one to vote is premised on a world where (a) every liquor store has a list of all eligible drinkers that they check off when you buy a beer and...
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/194/833/856/124/602/original/2e63121dc4717372.png

2026-03-07 13:13:29 UTC

Wisdom from Jesse Jackson’s service yesterday: “You don’t forgive because they deserve mercy. You forgive because you deserve peace. Forgiveness is an emancipation.”

2026-03-04 00:42:45 UTC

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Immorality and strategy-free tactics is no basis for leadership. But it’s all we have out of this administration. Their bet is only that they can pass these liabilities onto the American people and will not bear personal responsibility.

2026-03-04 00:40:04 UTC

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The Colin Powell / Pottery Barn rule still applies: “you break it, you own it”. But having no plan beyond “let’s blow up the bad things” unleashes regional, political and humanitarian chaos that we will all collectively own.

2026-03-04 00:36:01 UTC

In today’s classified briefing on Iran we received ZERO information relating to (a) preplanning for anything beyond kinetic operations (b) planning for what happens when the bombing stops or (c) imminent threats to the US to warrant an attack without Congressional consent.

2026-03-04 00:29:42 UTC

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And I feel compelled to make the regular prebuttal to anyone arguing that wind, solar, battery, etc technology depends on overseas inputs: the US hasn’t manufactured steam turbine casings in years. Which are needed for every coal plant and combined cycle gas turbine.

2026-03-04 00:23:27 UTC

There is no better way to insulate yourself from global oil & gas price volatility than to invest in technologies that generate useful heat & power without any oil & gas input. The Trump WH attack on renewables is a direct attack on your economic security.

2026-02-25 13:58:10 UTC

Hmm.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/131/619/522/666/293/original/2179bb4286176c07.png

2026-02-25 03:22:14 UTC

33 of the people pardoned by Trump for January 6 have committed more crimes including molesting children and killing people while drunk driving.

2026-02-12 21:58:49 UTC

This is a BFD - watch this story. If any other country were to steal the assets of another country, move the money into a Qatari bank account and claim to have disbursed them with no audit controls we would see IMF and potentially ICC involvement. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/us/venezuela-oil-money-democrats-congress.html

2026-02-06 03:21:43 UTC

Really good explainer video from Vox on why expanding the House - and adding an option for multi-member districts with ranked choice voting - would make our democracy more democratic. (And my bill to do that.) https://youtu.be/KhQGHY44XPM?si=rm4k_RwIusxPOJkr

2026-02-04 12:32:52 UTC

"For much of the 2010s and likely before and since, it appears the crime rate of CBP agents and offices was higher PER CAPITA than the crime rate of undocumented immigrants in the United States." https://www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/accountability-for-ice-and-cbp

2026-02-02 16:28:41 UTC

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8. But as long as non-utilities have a stronger incentive to deploy the most economic technologies than their regulated brethren, we have a problem - and a huge opportunity. Set regulations that align utility profit incentive with the public interest and lots of good things will happen.

2026-02-02 16:27:49 UTC

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7. …an enlightened governor or utility commission do a historic review of the returns approved by regulated utilities and the actual returns realized. Because every utility knows how to structure their rate filing to over-earn on the back of consumers.

2026-02-02 16:27:22 UTC

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6. Which isn’t to say that we shouldn’t look at the rates utilities are allowed to earn on invested capital. Specifically, there’s no justifiable argument for two utilities, both with monopoly protection to earn different returns on capital. And I would LOVE to see…

2026-02-02 16:26:53 UTC

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5. Efficiency, renewables, dynamic line rating, grid enhancing technologies, building wires to connect high cost to low cost nodes - those things are consistently not done because there’s no incentive for regulated utilities.

2026-02-02 16:26:26 UTC

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4. That has made regulated utilities very good at making investments, very good at maintaining reliability and really bad at deploying least-cost solutions.

2026-02-02 16:25:24 UTC

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3. The theory was that you shouldn’t be able to make money by wasting money (e.g., you shouldn’t be able to burn more fuel and earn more than you spend). But it also meant utilities can’t make money by saving money.

2026-02-02 16:24:52 UTC

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2. But that formula always had an Achilles heel in the way it requires operating costs (at least in theory, subject to a rate case forecast) to be passed through without markup.

2026-02-02 16:24:11 UTC

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1. The model of utility rate regulation we’ve had for over a century wasn’t designed to optimize the grid - it was designed to build it out. Giving a fixed return on capital investment is a good way to spur investment, after all.

2026-02-02 16:15:29 UTC

As a general economic matter, caps on return are bad policy (because risk and return are supposed to be linked, and because it’s the spread against zero-risk rates that matter, not the absolute rate per se.). But I’m glad we’re finally having this conversation. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/business/energy-environment/energy-bills-costs-states-trump-power-plants.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

2026-01-30 15:06:58 UTC

Don Lemon was arrested because he’s a black man and Donald Trump is an easily distracted, racist demagogue with an ever shrinking number of non-pedophile friends who is incapable of decency but wants to change the subject. To spin this any other way is to lie.

2026-01-29 13:22:17 UTC

These pictures that Bondi posted to try and act tough could all be Rage Against the Machine cover art. Respect to all who stare into the camera, defending the Constitution.
Something must be done. About vengeance, a badge and a gun. Know your enemy.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/978/594/620/300/910/original/52764044ae594f2d.png
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/978/595/799/294/934/original/5d6d8e6c70dd372d.png

2026-01-28 01:33:13 UTC

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It is obscene that any member of Congress is suggesting that we can EO our way out of murder. Pass laws to reform ICE or get out of your damn job to make way for people who understand Congress' role. But don't ask for Trump to fix the mess your cowardice created. . (2/2)

2026-01-28 01:32:57 UTC

As Republican Senators pitch the idea of having Trump issue executive orders to dial down ICE in exchange for funding DHS, let's all be very clear: AN EXECUTIVE ORDER IS NOT THE LAW. (1/x)

2026-01-26 14:51:02 UTC

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Postscript: Here are two people who brought guns to a protest and are not only still alive, but were subsequently invited to speak at the 2020 RNC. The fact that this protest was in support of George Floyd does not imply a contradiction in the gun nut world view.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/961/958/080/156/401/original/c447849cc6863874.png

2026-01-26 13:58:11 UTC

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'cause they don't want to be a well regulated militia. They just want the right to kill people who they, in their sole discretion deem to be domestic insurrectionists. Is that what they say? No. But as the old saw goes: watch their feet, not their lips. /fin

2026-01-26 13:56:56 UTC

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But the fear of "domestic insurrectionists" from Denmark Vesey to the Black Panthers is still there. And it's not accidental that the Scalia court ruled in Heller that the first 13 words of 2A are "merely prefatory" and no longer apply.

2026-01-26 13:54:12 UTC

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And given the size and power of the US military (esp as compared to our founding era when we neither had a standing army nor the tax system to pay for it) it also doesn't make any sense to suggest Congress might need to call up well regulated militias to defend against foreign invasion.

2026-01-26 13:52:38 UTC

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Suffice to say that in the modern world, our nation's gun nuts are really not wild about the US government using a militia to enforce the law (see: Ruby Ridge, Waco, Constitutional Sheriff movement, etc.)

2026-01-26 13:50:23 UTC

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1) to enforce the laws of the US; 2) to defend against foreign invasions and 3) to suppress domestic insurrections. The folks who wrote this had direct, recent experience with Shay's Rebellion, the Revolutionary War and lived in constant fear of slave rebellions. 1, 2 and 3 respectively.

2026-01-26 13:47:09 UTC

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The TL;DR though is in plain text in the Constitution. When 2A referenced a well arm militia you can assume the writers were using that term in the same way they used it in the body of the Constitution, where Congress had the right to summon militias for only 3 reasons:

2026-01-26 13:45:10 UTC

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I recommend Carol Anderson's book "The Second" if you want to understand this history, and how we got 2A in the first place. It was decidedly NOT about making sure that future Alex Prettis could protect themselves from racist ICE agents who came on a Somali fraud pretext and started killing.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/961/698/292/175/845/original/b536fbeb3885d05d.png

2026-01-26 13:42:00 UTC

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(As an aside, the fact that these ideas go back to our inception when only 6% of the population could vote, thus sustaining that minority power largely explains why the most democracy-fearing members of the Supreme Court are all "originalists". But I digress.)

2026-01-26 13:40:30 UTC

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After all, if you think that a government of, by and for the people is carrying out tyrannical ideas it is axiomatic that you think the will of the majority is a tyrannical imposition on your right to elevate your liberty over my equality.

2026-01-26 13:38:52 UTC

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America has a long history of people with unpopular ideas who are hostile to our democratic system and want to constrain democracy so that their ideas can flourish. It's how we got the Senate, and the 3/5ths rule, and the narrative that guns exist to stand up to a "tyrannical government."

2026-01-26 13:37:06 UTC

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To suggest that there is some intellectual inconsistency between an ideology that says it's OK if George Zimmerman and Kyle Rittenhouse shoot people in the street but a capital crime if Alex Pretti is carrying is to assume that their stated policy is their actual logic. It ain't.

2026-01-26 13:35:03 UTC

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The NRA opposed open-carry in CA and got a bill signed in to ban the practice in 1967 under then Governor Ronald Reagan. It wasn't because they realized they'd gone too far. It was because black people were open-carrying. https://www.history.com/articles/black-panthers-gun-control-nra-support-mulford-act

2026-01-26 13:33:18 UTC

Look, I'm glad we're having a conversation about the hypocrisy of the legal logic used by America's gun nuts. But can we stop pretending this is a new thing? They have never advocated for universal access to firearms. They only want their team to be armed. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/01/25/alex-pretti-gun-debate-second-amendment/

2026-01-24 22:33:22 UTC

Don't forget: the reason ICE is in Minnesota is because Trump wanted to score some points with his xenophobic base by going after Somalis who committed financial fraud. And the GOP was fine with that.

2026-01-24 17:31:29 UTC

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The vast majority of Americans are good people who don't tolerate this. The mass protests in MN yesterday, the collapsing poll numbers, the decency scares them. They are shooting their way out and don't care who they hit.

2026-01-24 17:26:44 UTC

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Finally, if you think they wouldn't shoot you in a heartbeat because - I dunno, you're a white dude, or you voted for this - you are deluding yourself. They don't give a damn about any American. They know that the walls are closing in and are petrified about the accountability that will come.

2026-01-24 17:20:43 UTC

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As I write this, I see the jackboots are already suggesting that the victim had a gun. Srsly? He was pinned to the ground. And you know who else had a gun? George Zimmerman. Don't tell me you can shoot a kid with a bag of skittles but you should trust a fat dude with an ICE badge and a face mask.

2026-01-24 17:15:08 UTC

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Pam Bondi is complicit for running a Department of Justice that refuses to apply the rule of law equally to all, along with Kash "I don't read" Patel at the FBI. By taking Renee Goods investigation from the MN PD they sent a message that if you shoot civilians we'll protect you.

2026-01-24 17:08:53 UTC

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Donald Trump is complicit of course. But so is every single Republican in the House and Senate who voted for a massive increase in ICE funding in their Big Ugly Bill and refused to do any oversight. Trump is doing what he can get away with and you can smell their cowardice from a mile away.

2026-01-24 17:05:23 UTC

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Anything you hear from Kristi Noem other than shame and contrition will be a fucking lie. She made this happen by lying to defend Jonathan Ross after he murdered Renee Good and reinforcing a culture of hatred and uncontrolled violence by undertrained and over-armed punks.

2026-01-24 17:03:04 UTC

I am doing my best to respond to this without a string of expletives. But let's be very clear: what just happened in Minnesota was cold blooded murder of a civilian by out of control federal agents, aided and abetted by the entire Trump administration and their fascist enablers.

2026-01-22 15:13:59 UTC

A few thoughts after sitting in on the Supreme Court hearing yesterday for those interested in such things…

2026-01-19 15:42:01 UTC

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11. But the hope in this moment is that most Americans are fundamentally good. Whatever Trump breaks in this world will be repaired only to the extent that the rest of the world knows that the American people are better than him. And we are.

2026-01-19 15:40:35 UTC

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10. And if you read this and think "I'm more like King than Trump" ask yourself if you've ever thought that people who voted for Trump deserve what they're getting. Or stopped talking to a neighbor who put up a yard sign you didn't like. We honor King because what he did was so damned hard.

2026-01-19 15:40:16 UTC

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9. Trump will ultimately fail because he only knows division. He attacks those who didn't vote for him because he doesn't have the emotional maturity or the character to accept that people can change - or be an agent of that change.

2026-01-19 15:39:44 UTC

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8. As John Lewis always reminded us, the Beloved Community includes everyone. King criticized the silence of his friends without ever denying them his friendship. Yeah, this all sounds kind of sappy. But it's the only way!

2026-01-19 15:39:26 UTC

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7. MLK doesn't "matter" because he gave a speech, or went to a march. He matters because he represents a movement that succeeded. And he represents it because he - along with a lot of other folks - gave that movement a language grew with addition rather than division.

2026-01-19 15:39:04 UTC

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6. Which isn't to diminish their accomplishments. It's simply to note, as Charles Neblett once told me that "once you have a movement, you need a leader. But movements always come first". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Neblett

2026-01-19 15:38:32 UTC

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5. Frederick Douglass wasn't the first slave to beat up his master, get free and talk about it. Homer Plessy, Claudette Colvin and a lot of others sat down before Rosa Parks did. Lincoln pushed for "colonization" before he finally accepted freedom.

2026-01-19 15:38:12 UTC

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4. The story may be more compelling, and easier to remember with singular characters but the characters we learn were the tip of a spear. Their successful "bend of the arc" didn't happen because they were the first. It was because the moment was finally ready for what they did.

2026-01-19 15:37:30 UTC

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3. All of which makes for a nice story, but would come as news to anyone in the moment. There was almost a full century between when we declared all men are created equal and the end of slavery. Another 100 yrs before we'd pass consistent with the 14th amendment promise of equal protection.

2026-01-19 15:37:12 UTC

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2. The world becomes more democratic. Our democracy becomes more inclusive. Douglass frees himself and writes a book. Lincoln frees the slaves. Rosa sits down. Progress happens.

2026-01-19 15:36:53 UTC

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1. While never implicit, the subtext of my history classes was that progress is inevitable and history advances through the works of singular individuals.

2026-01-19 15:36:35 UTC

Some thoughts on Martin Luther King today, informed by the way I learned history as a kid and the truth of how history is made I've learned in this job - and from the honor of having been able to serve with and meet many of the foot soldiers who worked along side MLK:

2026-01-13 16:01:21 UTC

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You can see that in this chart from the power sector. Accelerating LNG exports took supply out of US markets, pushed up the domestic NG price and allowed more expensive coal to dispatch ahead of those plants. More emissions, and more expensive power.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/888/623/238/039/994/original/aa201398c8eda80e.png

2026-01-13 15:59:11 UTC

This flows directly from the fact that clean energy is cheap energy. The Trump administrations opposition to cheaper energy sources has raised the cost of energy AND raised emissions. https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/emissions-reduction/us-carbon-emissions-rose-coal

2026-01-13 13:12:38 UTC

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8. Spread that across the whole economy and you understand why GDP is slowing down and why Trump has never built a business with lasting value. Big investments require stability that he is mentally incapable of providing.

2026-01-13 13:10:44 UTC

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7. The logical answer, for a lot of players has to be “let’s not invest in the US for a while.” Find other markets. Hope stability returns to US regulation, but don’t make big capital bets on that future.

2026-01-13 13:09:32 UTC

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6. Meanwhile, your competitors and investors keep seeing projects like the Revolution Wind go on again/off again. Their capital is tied up & they don’t know when they’ll start generating revenue to pay it down. What would you do?