randy r potts (@thephatic) header
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US journo + editor; Hromadske, New Yorker, AJE, et al; mieszkam w Warszawie Signal: at thephatic dot 39

Joined March 2009
Photo by randy r potts (@thephatic)Photo by randy r potts (@thephatic)
Pro-Ukraine candidates swept across most of the country. Trump's ending message on the campaign trail was pinning Americans economic woes on Kyiv. Yet voters responded by voting in an overwhelmingly Pro-Ukraine 120th congress.
Track Ukraine's 2026 projections for the incoming United States Congress: SENATE RACES: 25 of 35 seats are on track to go to Green-rated candidates. 🟢25 Green 🔴7 Red: Wyoming, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Florida 🟡2 with no stated position: Montana, Mississippi 🟣1 who has taken some pro-Ukraine positions: Iowa INCOMING HOUSE: 219 seats are on track to go to Green-rated candidates, past the 218 needed for a majority. 🟢219 Green 🔵1 Track Ukraine Pledge signee: Richard Ojeda (@Ojeda4America) 🟩2 Green, but all their pro-Ukraine statements were oddly removed from local North Carolina news outlet WSOC-TV 9 during the general election 🟡105 Yellow: 50 with no stated position, 14 who have made pro-Ukraine points, 40 who were rated Green until the Ukraine Support Act vote, 1 who has taken some pro-Ukraine positions 🔴106 Red ⚫2 runoffs, TBD INCOMING SENATE: 70 of 100 senators are rated Green. 🟢70 Green 🟡6 Yellow 🟣1 who has taken some pro-Ukraine positions 🔴16 Red ⚪5 with no Ukraine voting record yet ⚫2 appointments TBD Maps, ratings and sources by @TrackUkraine
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Are you fucking kidding us? The US Secretary of Defense posts “Patriots in control,” a notorious QAnon slogan. THREE MINUTES later, Putin's envoy Kirill Dmitriev responds with “WWG1WGA,” another QAnon cult mantra. What the actual fuck is this? A coordinated trolling operation? A joint US-Russian QAnon convention? Or have the lunatics finally taken over both asylums? These people are running two nuclear powers, for fuck's sake.
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Just sit back, watch this interaction, and see how ridiculous it gets.....
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Not a threat. Just a reminder that it would be a shame if something happened to them.
The White House warned more than 3,000 conservative groups that it is monitoring their public statements following Republicans’ crushing midterm defeat. The warning comes as prominent Republicans blame Trump’s tariffs and the Iran war for losing control of Congress. The administration says the memo is not a threat but an effort to keep its increasingly divided conservative coalition united. Source: WSJ
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This is why Republicans lost every statewide office and the State House in Georgia. I’m trying to lower your bills and you guys are asking me where I’m going to pee.
Replying to @bentleyforus
@bentleyforus which bathroom will you be using at the Capitol?
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Worth noting MSNOW has never asked a single politician what their plan was to protect Muslims or to promote “Muslim safety”. I studied the past three years from ten major media outlets and found Jewish safety was mentioned 4,200% more than Muslim/Arab safety, at 254-to-6
MSNOW: What is your message now to Jewish voters nationally and what you will do to protect them? Abdul El-Sayed: I’m committed to Jewish safety, and we are united against discrimination. The U.S. spends billions to carry out genocide and apartheid against Palestinians. The genocide in Gaza with our complicity is continuing right now. Nobody wants to talk about that.
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Easy to point out what candidates did and did not do well in hindsight… But if Colom pulls out a victory in Mississippi, walking the line of a Trump rally to engage w/Republican voters like this will look like a pretty damn smart move.
I walked the Trump rally line to listen, not make assumptions. I talked with voters, asked questions and heard what matters to them. When I'm elected, I'll represent all 82 counties and every Mississippian, no matter who they voted for. That's what being your senator means. #MississippiMatters
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A view worth considering when looking at the trajectory of right wing influencers in Europe
I’ve come to think @elonmusk ended up doing Dems and progressives a huge favor by turning this place into a fetid swamp of feral right wing freaks where the most prominent members of their coalition post like cartoon movie villains and think it makes them look cool.
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This contentious interchange between the NY Times and @GinaHinojosaTX was truly amazing. Hinojosa offered one of the best explanations of populism I've ever seen. Her comments were a total rejection of Corporate Dems' neoliberal formula. Her Texas victory is a game changer.
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The "diesel deal" theatre is over. The US is not getting Russian fuel. Instead, the tankers are going to regular Russian buyers such as Brazil. The good thing: This probably means that the US won't lift sanctions against Dmitriev's Russian Direct Investment Fund after all.
Russia is actually sending some diesel to the US. It doesn't make any commercial sense - it is a symbolic act, political support from Putin to Trump for the midterm elections. Of course, Dmitriev's Russia Direct Investment Fund is involved in arranging this theatre.
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"I don’t care how many jobs you've created if your employees live in poverty." - Abdul el-sayed 2019
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We have to say “Mississippi” after each number
Wtf takes Mississippi so gahdamn long to count votes??
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The nonpartisanship in question
Hakeem Jeffries: “This is not a partisan moment. This is a patriotic moment. This is not a blue moment or a red moment. It’s a red, white and blue moment because American has won tonight."
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People looked at these kinds of maps in 2024, which showed GOP swings everywhere, and decided the country was on a new MAGA trajectory. Trump hadn’t even cracked 50% of the vote. He won by 1.5%. Democrats just won the midterms by 13%, the biggest margin in at least 40 years.
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"Michurin's gardens" is translated by brilliant Boris Dralyuk! I am more than happy! First time my novel will be first published in English before other translations appear!
Speaking of blue waves, I’ve just sent in my translation of a wild, wryly funny seafaring novel by @AKurkov to @maclehosepress. It’s a fantastic—in both senses—alternative history centering on this man (seen here in an issue of Travel Magazine from 1934).
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such a good feeling when politicians give a full answer to one of my questions
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You fucking moron. That's the lesson you take? Your side won a giant multiracial coalition and then squandered it in about 20 minutes by governing like David Duke.
In 1970, the White population in Texas was 89%. In 2000, it was 50%. Now it’s less than 39%. Demographics is destiny.
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
In 1970 the White population included Hispanic people because surveys in Texas didn't ask about Hispanic ethnicity as a separate question from race. In 2000 the White population for just race was 71%. Today White is 74% and "White, not Hispanic" sorted for ethnic origin is 37%. census.gov/quickfacts/TX
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A lot of rats are going to pretend they didn’t spend the past few years whoring themselves out to Trump and it’s crucial not to let them get away with it.
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randy r potts retweeted
The Iran War is producing regime change after all.
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Minnesota Democrats have regained their trifecta. When they had it between 2022 and 2024, they passed an avalanche of legislation under the leadership in part of Melissa Hortman, the lawmaker who was later assassinated. A thread on her legacy here: xitter.cf/Taniel/status/19339206…
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