Sam Tracy

Hey, Bluesky! Thought I'd introduce myself here. I'm a lefty activist living in Portland, Maine. I spent 15 years legalizing cannabis, defended voting rights for the 2024 election, & now work in sustainability. I also love sci-fi, board games, & sketch comedy (but post mainly about politics).

Given the shift in media ownership over the Trump era, Democrats REALLY need to learn to ignore media handwringing now. Because I have no doubt their every move for accountability will be attacked from every possible angle.

"Susan Collins is on the side of owners and Troy Jackson is on the side of workers." That would make a great slogan. That's what it all comes down to these days, isn't it. Are you on the side of owners, or workers?

We’re back with our second story about how Trump’s purge of the FBI killed a sweeping bribery probe in D.C. This time, we take you to South Carolina, where two powerful politicians escaped scrutiny: Sen. Lindsey Graham and Rep. James Clyburn. THREAD 👇

They started on illegal immigrants, expanded it to legal immigrants, now are going after naturalized citizens. If you are not one of those groups, you are just somewhere further down the chain, but they will get to eliminating your rights eventually too.

Ex-boss filed a $12 theft charge against an ex-employee because she got a restraining order in response to his creepy behavior. Charge was never prosecuted, but it gave ICE an excuse to arrest and detain her. Congratulations to the 58 Democrats who voted for the Laken Riley Act. You own this.

Multiple things are true here. This is a fascist, authoritarian administration. It has not yet fully consolidated power. Some of its efforts to do so have been frustrated. Trump is a doddering, confused egomaniac who started an unpopular war that's costing everyday people a lot of money.

If you hear in the next few days that there is a new security threat that you've never heard of that requires federal law enforcement or the military, an alarm bell should go off in your brain. Do not let him get away with that.

who knows if jackson can win this thing but i am glad that he is making clear that susan collins's whole scam is to do everything she can to make life worse for mainers and then take credit for mitigating it in the slightest way possible

bsky.app/profile/ronf...

Susan Collins vote to advance Trump's Big Beautiful Bill the day after Stephen Schwarzman sent her super PAC $2M hits pretty darn different after ProPublica's pay-to-play revelations. Does anyone doubt Schwarzman has Collins phone number? Or that they spoke before he forked over $2M? #MEpolitics

To distract from calamitous revelations (many undisputed!) in @propublica.org's bombshell report, Susan Collins has been talking about the respected outlet -- winner of 9 Pulitzers -- like it's a left-wing Newsmax. But there's a reason PPH/BDN ran the report. It's credible and damning. #MEpolitics

I'm convinced AI is our generation's radium - a discovery with genuinely useful applications in specific, controlled circumstances that we stupidly put in everything from kid's toys to toothpaste until we realised the harm far too late where future generations will ask if we were out of our minds.

Ossoff: The money that they took from you when they slashed Medicaid and defunded hospitals and nursing homes—They’re taking that money to buy corrupt, taxpayer-funded political ads on national television to try to promote the failed and broken president…

Pete is lost in terms of modern war. I use the example of this outgunned Ukrainian army officer who successfully terrorized a Russian unit for weeks because she "did the math." At the time, someone commented, "yeah, in combat, 'I did the math' beats 'I can do 100 pushups' every time."

Wildest bit of this: Susan Collins defending her decision to confirm a Trump acolyte who was open about his willingness to break the law on the grounds that he was was part of a package of nominees! That's not exculpatory! Then you vote against them all! #MEpolitics

Tomorrow, on October 1, the biggest transfer of wealth from the working class to the wealthy hits a critical milestone. Many of the provisions from the Big Ugly Bill will go into effect, harming hundreds of thousands of Michiganders in order to create tax cuts for the richest people in America.

Donald Trump and Republicans have broken every promise they made. Make your plan to vote them out on or before November 3 at IWillVote.com.

MAGA candidate Gaea Powell convicted on 9 counts of election fraud 9/28/26 www.sfgate.com/politics/art...

Mike Rogers is a corporate sellout who moves back to Michigan every few years to run for office to take another swing at the revolving door of corporate politics.

Washington Post confirms @propublica.org's reporting that the FBI shuttered a pay-to-play investigation into Susan Collins after Trump took over last year. #MEpolitics

Susan Collins has voted to confirm 60+ anti-abortion judges in her time in the Senate, and now she's voted for 3 more just since last week. Nice to see Senator Collins was able to take a break from lying about corruption to give a lifetime appointment to another anti-choice judge.

Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson addresses the serious allegations raised in ProPublica's reporting on Susan Collins's bribery scandal. "Mainers are owed the truth, and we won't stop asking until we get it." #RetireSusanCollins #VOTE #JacksonForMaine #MEpolitics

I mean come on people. #MEpolitics

6 years ago Susan Collins attacked another scathing @propublica.org investigative report (tinyurl.com/5n7awysw) by suggesting the nonprofit outlet must be biased since Soros and Sussman were both donors. At the time the two of them accounted for 0.13% of the news organization's revenue. #MEpolitics

This great list includes the race for Cumberland County DA - Sartoris is a great criminal justice reformer, and the "independent" challenger is actually a Republican. #maine #mepolitics #portlandme

After Benjamin Netanyahu, who I believe is a war criminal, just came and went from New York, I’ve been thinking a lot about the world my first granddaughter is about to enter.

DoorDash spent $1.4M trying to stop Zohran Mamdani from becoming mayor. This week's historic $131.5M enforcement action against DoorDash for underpaying NYC delivery workers shows why. Yet another reminder that the only thing that can beat organized money is organized people.

"RKF took money earmarked to provide health care for Black infants and spent it on his personal security detail" is a ludicrous headline. Comic book villainy.

If they deserve to be impeached — and so many of them do — then the House should impeach them. Maybe the Senate won‘t convict but it’s still worth the effort to remind people that laws still exist and that Democrats still defend it. Also, as noted here, make ‘em sweat.

Incredible. First Secretary Mullin claimed that DHS had identified 15,903 noncitizens on Nevada’s voter roll. Then DHS officials told a skeptical Nevada, no no no, that’s just people we flagged. Here are the names of 185 people we KNOW aren’t citizens. All 185 were citizens. DHS got 100% wrong.

Susan Collins is blatantly corrupt. Hollywood couldn't write this in a script.

Chinese media allowed at WH. American media banned in defiance of a court order.

It's too depressing and obnoxious to write about, but virtually all of the doomy/horny AI hyperventilating is transparently displaced anxiety about our fucked climate and political situation. Even rich idiots know it's bad and being permitted to get worse. They're trying to write their own ending.

White nationalism. That’s what the Trump regime’s immigration policies are all about. Brown and Black people out. White people in. Doesn’t get any simpler than that. The only immigrants the regime really wants are White Afrikaners: www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-a...

this is a genuinely crazy story

"OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman gave Trump's super PAC a whopping $25 million" is one of those things that could really stand to be pointed out more:

Ossoff: "What did they spend the most political capital trying to do over the last 18 months? Cover up the Epstein files. They worked harder to cover up the Epstein files than they ever did to lower grocery prices."

This is corruption of the highest order. Susan Collins delivered millions in taxpayer dollars for a corrupt donor bankrolling her campaign, and then Donald Trump helped her cover it up. No wonder she voted with him 96% of the time and has rubberstamped his agenda to hurt Maine.

Rough day for Susan Collins in the local Maine press, where ProPublica's bombshell story is the lead story.

Dear Democrats, You will never be able to triangulate your way through racism/sexism/transphobia, because pushing a lighter, politer form of bigotry is always a lose-lose proposition. The bigots want the uncut stuff, while normal people aren't drawn to cowards who sell out. Stand your ground.

Fun fact: in our polling of battleground states, about 60% of voters said it is a “top” or “high” priority for Congress to investigate and hold Musk accountable. Lean into it Dems. He’s a cartoon villain - treat him like one.

Since becoming president again, Trump has promised: -$5000 stimulus checks via "DOGE dividend" -$2000 stimulus checks via "tariff dividend" -$1000+ checks via "savings" from expiring ACA subsidies -$5000 "dividend" if Rs win midterms No checks have been issued www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-magi...

Here's a gift link to my 9/11 essay in the NYT. Civil libertarians long warned that before giving government new powers, we should consider how an administration with authoritarian ambition might abuse them. We were told that America was too exceptional to elect such a person. Well here we are.

RESULT: David Morales, a socialist challenger, has ousted the mayor of Providence David Smiley. Add Providence to NYC, DC, and Ann Arbor as socialist wins in mayoral elections.

There’s such an easy answer to this “gotcha” question and it’s “Sports are inherently unsafe and unfair and it’s ridiculous to single out trans athletes when we allow 150 pound linebackers to go up against 260 pound linemen in freshman football on a daily basis. Let kids play with their friends.”

All that matters in the long Politico piece about Susan Collins is she feels no remorse over Brett Kavanaugh and instead is attacking Planned Parenthood. Embarrassing and pathetic. www.politico.com/news/magazin... #mesen #mepolitics