Matt Pogue

1/Happy Saturday BSky fam! Been a while! I've been busy with work and family, I haven't had time for much of anything else. Back with a book, @joeconason.bsky.social's wonderful "The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers, and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism" - bookshop.org/p/books/the-... 💙 📚

3/One of the best uses of this book is for persuading folks waking up after decades of bullshit, realizing Trump might not be a populist savior after all. Conason ties it neatly together, from the Red Scare/war on gay gov officials of the 50's, straight through today, and the writing is superb. 💙📚

1/Happy Saturday BSky fam! Been a while! I've been busy with work and family, I haven't had time for much of anything else. Back with a book, @joeconason.bsky.social's wonderful "The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers, and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism" - bookshop.org/p/books/the-... 💙 📚

Is anyone else freaking excited about #ARTEMISII? As someone who's about 50/50 (or maybe 30/70 - centerforaninformedamerica.com/moondoggie-1/) that we went to the moon before, a trip around in 2026 would go a long way with me. Sending positive vibes to the 'nauts on board for a safe mission! 🙏❤️✌️

1/Hoo baby, fans of 60s history should check out "Chaos: Charles Manson, the Cia, and the Secret History of the Sixties" by Tom O'Neill - bookshop.org/p/books/chao.... No, it absolutely doesn't absolve Manson & Family of the murders, nor does it imply they were instigated by the CIA. But...

7/It's entirely possible - even most likely, imho - that a program of subversion, by the time it hit the streets, spiraled into a sprawling behemoth and they completely lost control, with late summer 1969 the culmination. Dig into the Church Committee hearings for proof that illegal ops were afoot.

1/Hoo baby, fans of 60s history should check out "Chaos: Charles Manson, the Cia, and the Secret History of the Sixties" by Tom O'Neill - bookshop.org/p/books/chao.... No, it absolutely doesn't absolve Manson & Family of the murders, nor does it imply they were instigated by the CIA. But...

5/There's a whole other side to this decade you've never been told. Student protests at UC Berkeley started as far back as 1961, and by 65, the tide was turning against LBJ and the hubris-filled CIA/FBI stepped in to "crisis manage" the situation. Was there genuine fear of foreign influence?

1/Hoo baby, fans of 60s history should check out "Chaos: Charles Manson, the Cia, and the Secret History of the Sixties" by Tom O'Neill - bookshop.org/p/books/chao.... No, it absolutely doesn't absolve Manson & Family of the murders, nor does it imply they were instigated by the CIA. But...

3/By 1969, "former" military intelligence officers posing as hippies were embedded deeply into SF, most notably to foment discord among groups and turn the country against the liberal left (I've heard this somewhere before...🤔). Sharon Tate's own father, for instance, was high-ranking military.

1/Hoo baby, fans of 60s history should check out "Chaos: Charles Manson, the Cia, and the Secret History of the Sixties" by Tom O'Neill - bookshop.org/p/books/chao.... No, it absolutely doesn't absolve Manson & Family of the murders, nor does it imply they were instigated by the CIA. But...

1/Good morning BSky fam. Need to ask a favor. I need all the prayers and positive healing vibes y'all can muster for my aunt Trish who found out yesterday she has a pretty advanced ovarian cancer. Chemo, etc, but prognosis is not great. Trish, and all my Mom's siblings, came up from a rough start.

2/My grandpa Joe was a WW2 vet who drank himself to death in his 30s, leaving behind 5 kids. My grandma, God rest her, picked up where he left off, working as a nurse in pre-welfare Missouri and drinking the rest of the time. I wouldn't raise dogs in some of the places my Mom lived as a child.

1/I don't say this lightly at all, but Noah Kahan has the potential to be up there with John Prine. "The Great Divide" is such a FANTASTIC song - youtu.be/wRzEvqbrn2c. Man, what a writer. My wife turned me on to "Stick Season" last year, and I enjoyed it, but this is something more.

2/But there's a lot of great songwriters. Flash in the pan? Maybe. But check this out - youtu.be/eIV330sRz34. That's a packed Fenway Park singing along with every word. Maybe it's just me and that's ok, but there's something about this guy's songwriting that resonates with me.

1/Good morning fam! Sorry to be away for so long. Busy! Dug BB's perf at the Bowl, made me realize I should learn some Spanish. After Kendrick last year, I have to give the NFL some props for bravery. Even tho Bunny's got 1B+ views on a single YT vid (all in Spanish), it took guts to put this on rn.

4/I grew up on Kid Rock in the 90s and he had a certain swagger back then. My parents hated him, which was its own seal of approval. Back then, the absolute UN-coolest thing you could be was a sellout and a political shill. My how times have changed! No one can be cool forever, I suppose.

1/Good morning fam! Sorry to be away for so long. Busy! Dug BB's perf at the Bowl, made me realize I should learn some Spanish. After Kendrick last year, I have to give the NFL some props for bravery. Even tho Bunny's got 1B+ views on a single YT vid (all in Spanish), it took guts to put this on rn.

2/Contrast that with the TPUSA (I know what "TP" means in my house 😂) show, "Faith, Family, Freedom" and Christian values, eh? "Dirt Road Anthem", a paean to drunk driving, Gabby Barrett's "I Hope", the "Louisville Slugger" of the 20s, and "Bawitdaba", an anthem to drug use and...mosh pits?

1/I remember the early 00s and Iraq 2: The Sequel when the FBI spied on craftspeople, librarians, Quakers, and any other group that couldn't be "dirtied up". It's easy to make ppl fear the Black Panthers, not so when it's 60 year olds knitting antigovernment slogans. The playbook hasn't changed.

4/But here's the thing - once you lose them, they're GONE. It's like turning around an oil tanker. Their opinions are mist, impossible to grasp. And they absolutely decide our fate. If you want to reach someone? Reach them. Keep knitting and conscientious objecting. Keep talking without yelling.

1/I remember the early 00s and Iraq 2: The Sequel when the FBI spied on craftspeople, librarians, Quakers, and any other group that couldn't be "dirtied up". It's easy to make ppl fear the Black Panthers, not so when it's 60 year olds knitting antigovernment slogans. The playbook hasn't changed.

2/Imho, this is one of the most effective forms of resistance: quietly powerful, hugely influential. Pat Buchanan (of all fscking ppl) coined a phrase when he was Nixon's speechwriter: "the silent majority". The 90% who aren't rabidly pro-government or anti-government, who don't post on socials.

1/Good God. I've seen news anchors (you know where) saying that Alex Pretti was "waving a gun in their faces", praising ICE for "preventing a MASS SHOOTING"! GRRRR! The hypocrisy of these fscking ppl! Remember Kyle Rittenhouse? Brought an AR-15 TO A PROTEST, murdered 2 ppl, and was praised by Trump.

2/Another jackass was calling ICE agents "victims". Almost 2 decades of screaming about Dems taking their guns, and they're the first to say a man legally carrying a gun is a criminal. What would the response have been if Biden was Pres? I had to stop screaming at the TV bc I was scaring my kitties.