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Aaron Astor
@AstorAaron
Historian of the 19th Century U.S. and Professor at Maryville College. Author of Rebels on the Border and Civil War along Tennessee's Cumberland Plateau
Maryville, TN
Joined June 2009
Posts
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    I have criticized Elon Musk many times for letting neo-Nazis pollute this platform. But this gesture is not a Nazi salute. This is a socially awkward autistic man's wave to the crowd where he says "my heart goes out to you."
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    Nobody is saying this, but I will: This war will end in regime change - in Moscow. It won't be from an external military invasion into Russia. It will be mutiny and internal collapse that will bring Putin's regime down. It won't be overnight but it will happen.
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    If this goes through, the next Democratic Administration will start taxing churches. And it will focus on the most GOP-leaning churches.
    The Internal Revenue Service is making plans to rescind the tax-exempt status of Harvard University Really big scoop from @evanperez @alaynatreene cnn.com/2025/04/16/pol…
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    Reminder that 43 percent of white Harvard freshmen in 2019 were athletes, legacies, families of donors or of staff (ALDS). 70% of those white applicants would not have been accepted if they were not ALDS. If the issue is fairness, there is your problem.
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    Wait, so are lots of countries going to be flat-out refusing shipments to the US over the de minimis rule? Because THAT will create massive shortages and price increases for US customers if it’s much more than Switzerland.
    BREAKING: Switzerland’s Post Office is suspending shipments of US goods beginning tomorrow, August 26th, due to tariffs.
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    It's hard to comprehend the bravery of the US Marines who gave their lives in Kabul today. They were told days ago that they'd be targeted by ISIS-K bombers. They knew that. And, yet, they went ahead and did their duty, processing evacuations and winding down this terrible war.
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    Only one car company would be exempt from tariffs under this 85% rule: Tesla.
    BREAKING: Commerce Secretary Lutnick says tariffs will apply to foreign car makers building cars in the US. Only cars that are finished in the US with an 85%+ domestic content will have no tariffs.
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    Refusal to impeach Trump because the “Senate will acquit him anyway” is the same logic as McConnell refusing to put bills up for a vote “because the President won’t sign it.” It’s an abdication of Constitutional responsibility.
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    LOL - So it looks like the "condoms in Gaza" were being sent to the province of "Gaza" in...Mozambique. If the Administration doesn't like the idea of helping fight STDs in Africa (like PEPFAR) then they should say so. But they thought you'd think of that other Gaza.
    It took me some manual analysis because there is a misspelling in the award grant ("INGAZA"), but there does indeed appear to be a 83 million grant for STD prevention in Gaza.
    Readers added context
    This is a grant for AIDS/HIV prevention in Mozambique, a country in Africa, not Gaza. The description is for services "in Gaza and Inhambane," which are neighboring provinces in Mozambique. (mozambiquehighcommission.org.uk/the-provinces.…) The recipient foundation provides HIV prevention services in Mozambique (pedaids.org/country/mozamb…).
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    Let's be honest here: This was an across-the-board shift away from the Democratic Party. Not just one demo (though Hispanics shifted the most). Two main reasons: Inflation and Democratic priorities and language that just doesn't appeal to non-college people (esp. men).
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    LOL - Atlas's last Pennsylvania poll simply eliminated half the state's black population from its likely voter screen.
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    This is how one actually hacks an election. One doesn’t change the vote count. One alters the voter registration rolls so that when you present your ID to vote, your name is not there, or your address is wrong, etc. And then a huge line forms and hundreds of people don’t vote.
    Rosenstein: "In a second, related conspiracy, Russian GRU officers hacked the website of a state election board and stole information about 500,000 voters. They also hacked into computers of a company that supplied software used to verify voter registration information."
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    OK, this is what is so colossally stupid about much political analysis. There are 3,979 Democratic delegates; the winner needs 1,991 for a majority. We've had 3 small-state caucus/primaries so far and we're talking about an inevitable nomination for the guy with 34 delegates?
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    Replying to @AstorAaron
    It is obviously no longer possible for the world to interact with Putin like a normal political leader. China won't bail him out either. He stuck out his neck and thought he could crush Ukraine like he was Ivan the Terrible and leave the West divided. That's not happening.