Retired outreacher, formerly at UW-Madison Biotech Center
230 followers 198 following 1,786 posts
view profile on Bluesky Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social) reply parent
“How are you gonna keep them down on the farm once they’ve seen gay Paree?” 1919 US farmers about their sons returning from the Great War to hard, boring, poor-paying work. Never conflate a farmworker with a farmer. I also note that most US farmers are first-order capitalists who own the land.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Oh, it’s not the reporting that’s nightmarish. Korean reporting is accurate on the nightmarish conditions Korean workers in Georgia endured.
Wow
Another reporter fired JUST FOR ACCURATELY REPORTING WHAT CHARLIE KIRK SAID. They want that guy elevated to sainthood not because of what he did but DESPITE it. This shit is as fixed as wrestling.
this documentary is so good and so important and it is embarrassing no one in America will distribute it
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Remember, this was part of the goal: to deprive migrant children, or citizen-children of migrants, the right to a public education.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
C'mon. Did weirdos not exist before the Internets? Did the Wide World Web spawn the crazy in people's minds?
We are at the point in the honoring-Charlie-Kirk's-memory cycle when faculty are being fired for posting, without comment, Charlie Kirk's words. At the behest of politicians sworn to uphold the first amendment, and in public institutions covered by first amendment protections.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social) reply parent
Squeaker of the White House would be, too.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Ottawa, IL, on the Illinois River.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
I don't usually say this, but the fucking Packers did a moment of silence for Kirk, and yet remained silent regarding the assassination of Melissa Hortman and her husband next door in Minnesota. It is a stain on the integrity of the Packers, who have no single owner, & yet managed to insult many
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
And it is still disgusting.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Those sticks--are they prods or are they goads?🍻
Citywide protest of police brutality in D.C., #tdih 1941. In 1937, African American leaders held mock trial to “provide a complete picture of lawless police terror which has reigned in [city] for past 10 years” and of “killer cops.” Read & find 📷⬇️🧵 www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/ra...
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Yes. Plus, the US Flag Code is peppered with "should" rather than "shall" & there are no penalties for violating the code. Also the First Amendment likely comes into play. Flag-lowering is a case study in distributed powers in a federal system, & the story did a pretty good job in describing it.🍻
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social) reply parent
Thank you. I am bewildered at the nature (and the wording) of 'grants' or 'contracts' from the US government that can be so capriciously and unilaterally rescinded without recourse.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social) reply parent
Yes. I note that internment of Japanese nationals during WW2 was legitimate. Internment of Japanese-American citizens was immoral & a violation of their rights, albeit OK'd by courts. I tend to use the longer phrase, "U.S. internment of Japanese-American citizens" to be clear who did what to whom.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Was the grant previously awarded and then rescinded, or was this a grant renewal application and the renewal was denied?
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Mmm..."Residential homes." Interesting. What other types are there? Nursing homes? Vacation homes? I'm wondering why not just say 'houses'.🍻
People missing an important point about folks getting fired for whatever they said about Charlie Kirk: Americans are being conditioned to be snitches on their fellow citizens who don’t toe a party line on what is “allowed” to be expressed. And employers are going along. It’s the new secret police
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Yep. Lamb up, folks.
I hadn’t seen this. Kirk, the moderate free speech guy who did politics the right way per some liberals (!), called for Biden to be executed. Meanwhile Joe Biden put out a very strong statement condemning Kirk’s killing. Both sides!
An Iowa official defied the governor’s orders to fly flags at half-staff for Charlie Kirk, writing he wouldn't honor a man who "did so much harm"
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Copy editing. We're doing copy editing. 🍻
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social) reply parent
Dunno, but they misspelled 'whey'
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
I care much more about fighting for civil rights than fawning for civility.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Those brave souls who point out Kirk's own words, in particular those words vilifying others, are ensuring an accurate & full accounting of the man's life. Poison? Hardly: this is powerful antidote to the words he himself spewed.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Well, yes sir, they will greet you. Bring yourself and your royal "us" to Chicago. It's been a while since Chicago whipped up a righteous riot, but I'll bet that'll be part of the welcoming party.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Amen. I was awake the day this was taught at St. Mary's.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Check the Island of Sodor.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Let me try: It's a trifecta clusterfuck.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Meanwhile, Fox folks keep moving the goalposts over the cesspool.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Wasn't just Kilmeade--his two cocklebursucking co-hosts spewed reprehensibly.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social) reply parent
Re-electing Trump was such a cataclysmic moral failure that it requires a descriptive neologism to match. Something guttural & Anglo Saxon, with a touch of Gaelic.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
I believe we're conflating "fired" with "fired up". In the cesspool that is Fox, consequences are for suckers and liberals--but I repeat myself.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
This is why I'm 100% delighted that my daughter is majoring in history, as did her grandfather before her.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Slippery slope? I believe in skiing terms it's called schussing. We've already slalomed past any legal moguls.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social) reply parent
JFC, people: who killed Abel? What's the moral of the story of the first murder in Creation?
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
I gotta love a laundry list typed out on a Remington. Better than being tapped out on another type of Remington.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Right there, on the air, with zero consequences-- lots of flames fanned, however.
Extremist murders by ideology, 2013 to 2022. www.pbump.net/o/reassessin...
Most Jews who were transported to Auschwitz were given the illusion of resettlement and were given instructions to pack the most important items with them. This was not only a planned robbery. In such a way, hope became a tool to avoid panic among the victims.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
But he did say, “Just to make it easier on us, to say that we don’t do this here.” 33 hours of prayer, and this is what he prayed for. And yet— No need to read the book of Revelations for this revelation: every community is capable of having people in it who murder. You’ll find it in Genesis.
The US energy secretary spells it out clearly: the intent of the tributary $750 billion in purchases of US fossil fuels 🇪🇺President von der Leyen agreed to is to lock Europe into long-term 🇺🇸 energy dependence. Have our leaders learned nothing from the Russia situation?
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
The whipsaw will not make it into the history books, but for me it is the most important fact of the day after the day after. September 10, 11, and 12, 2025: What a shit show for America.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Remember this on Constitution Day Sept 17, and remember to revile that which is worthy of being reviled, and to take care in choosing to revere that which others tell you to revere.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
The National Socialists Workers Party was not in power in 1930. But they were in 1938 when in Paris a 17-year-old Jew killed a Nazi diplomat. Trump & the MAGA party holds power untethered by the GOP controlled Congress and unimpeded by the Supreme Court, including the 3 justices he appointed.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
In no small part because the Supreme Court allowed the second part of the second amendment to swallow the “A well regulated militia” first part. Give me my sword and scabbard, my lance and my pike! Give me and my neighbors our cannon and caisson & our shot and powder! Give us our daily mortar!
It appears 'Charlie Kirk' will be added to the list of phrases searched on phones of people entering the US, along with Trump and Israel. Europeans should know that if they've criticised the far right in public or private messages they may be turned away. www.newsweek.com/charlie-kirk...
None of the young male mass shooters and now political assassins I've written about in recent years had stayed in higher education and pursued a bachelor's degree. Crazy enough, it's almost like college is a positive socializing force, not a radicalizing one
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social) reposted reply parent
“Complicating assumptions”? Trump didn’t make assumptions. He revealed his priors, he stated positions of his administration, he made promises of vindication & vengeance. The facts about the alleged killer destroy Trump’s premises, but his priors are bulletproof and immune to facts. Priors kill.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social) reply parent
“Complicating assumptions”? Trump didn’t make assumptions. He revealed his priors, he stated positions of his administration, he made promises of vindication & vengeance. The facts about the alleged killer destroy Trump’s premises, but his priors are bulletproof and immune to facts. Priors kill.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Also, my understanding is that the 60 votes required to invoke cloture to end debate is a Senate rule & the Senate can change it with a simple majority vote, as they did earlier this week to pass judicial appointments ‘en bloc.’ Ending cloture suggests GOP sees a permanent GOP majority at hand
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
CK was the vitriol-spewer who posited that some gun deaths every year are the price we in the US have to pay for our right to keep and bear arms. In a transactional analysis, he just made an autopayment. Thoughts and prayers.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
American Apartheid, as with its Boer South African cousin, had fundamental religious fears at its roots and in its functions: who can be saved, who can minister, who shall lead, who must follow, who shall teach & preach? White supremacy provided this immiscible elixir and bottled it as Jim Crow.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
So on what grounds was the FBI immediately involved in the investigation if no federal crime has yet to be alleged? Or did the state of Utah ‘invite’ the FBI to participate? What prominence will the FBI & its Fearless Director no take at the press conferences now that the suspect isn’t a lefty?
Miller: The power of law enforcement under President Trump's leadership will be used to find you, will be used to take away your money, take away your power and if you have broken the law, take away your freedom
We’re past that now. They’ve moved on to: he was radicalized by evil leftist professors.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
What a flock of cocklebursuckers they are.
If I don't see multiple ~media reporters~ columns about the extraordinarily irresponsible Wall Street Journal report from yesterday morning — and their extensive promotion of that inflammatory report — you all should just pack up and go home.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
“These are the times that try men’s souls…” National Guard members soon must choose between their oath to defend the constitution or their obligation to the chain of command. Are they a National Guard or are they an Imperial Guard?
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
The 1938 assassination in some ways fits our times better than the 1933 arson because in ‘38 & in ‘25 the assassination of one person by one person of a specific group is the pretext for the regime to target all members of the assassin’s specific group (in our case, “the left wing” will suffice)
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
And how befitting that the beshitting is on Fox, our vital national cesspool
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
12 years. Justice in America.
The fascist is ready for summary trials and executions.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Damage done and can’t be undone by the chuckleheads at WSJ
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
That’s a grassy knoll…
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social) reply parent
Here’s a list of (mostly, white male) Americans who have been assassinated (mostly, by white males) en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of... I couldn’t find MLK on this list.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Violence may never be the answer, but it often is the response, esp in a nation founded on violent insurrection, sustained by the lynching of perhaps as many as 50,000 Black people, expanded by a continental expropriation by force of arms, and a place where violence is as American as cherry pie.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social) reply parent
…and whose humanity he was willing to Debase
Melissa Hortman practiced politics the right way.
Donald Trump instigated a violent coup in an attempt to overthrow the U.S Government He later removed federal security for his opponents, despite credible threats against them by his supporters. Don’t be fooled, nobody has done more to get the U.S where it is today than Trump and his inner circle.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Math. It’s hard.
Correct
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
How about “the fleet of Russian drones”? “The flock” makes it sound like a bunch of white doves. Aircraft come in fleets; birds come in flocks. Sheep, too.
Remembering MN house speaker Melissa Hortman, her husband Mark and their beloved dog Gilbert. Murdered in June at their home by a rightwing Trump-voting evangelist, who also shot another MN lawmaker and his wife at THEIR home, 9 and 8 times, respectively (miraculously, they survived).
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Remember the Maine. Remember the Lusitania. Remember Pearl Harbor. Remember the Gulf of Tonkin. Remember the Pueblo. Remember Beirut. Remember 9/11 “Forgive us our trespasses (which we so often & so conveniently forget), as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation…”
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
His reputation will hang by his own words—voluminous and vitriolic as they were.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Oooh, better ease up on the heat of your skeet. As you know, they might come for you next.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Is there a low-powered rifle? Even a .22 LR bullet is lethal to 250 yards.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
As You Like It meets Some Like It Hot. But you can neither present these works nor analyze them at the puritanized Oklahoma Central University
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
The Janusian feat of the Thespians of Academe 🎭 👍 (Then there’s the nonplussed face of the outreacher…🤷♂️)
As someone who spent many hours listening to Kirk’s show on AM radio, I would say that he made Rush Limbaugh seem like Walter Cronkite by comparison, in terms of rhetorical tone and empirical rigor. The subtext of every show was “You don’t hate the left enough.”
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
If one is a confirmed Federalist Society type, one might wonder why the federal government would be involved in investigating a local crime such as the murder of one person. Does the FBI get involved in all murders by gunshot? What makes the Kirk murder a federal case?
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Trump incited and abetted a violent attempted coup against Congress assembled in joint session to confirm the election of his opponent as President
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Interviewed? Is the POI seeking a job? Interrogated is a more apt word.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
This skeet takes on additional meaning between being posted this morning and the assassination & the school shooting this afternoon.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Not all US flags. He has that power only over flags at federal properties. And the version of the US Flag Code I’m reading does not include private citizens among the enumerated classes of people whose deaths can be mourned by the president ordering flags to half staff
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
I’m wondering, “Why is the FBI involved?”
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
After Richard Jewell’s experience, I always withhold judgement
Trump writes that Charlie Kirk has died
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
Equally if not even more so, the news from the Colorado school shooting with three people in critical condition
The most unsurprising aspect of this story is that the cops apparently detained the wrong guy. Very on brand.
The MSNBC commentator saying that most political violence has historically come from the left just once again showed how we suffer from failing to learn history. Lynching, pogroms, race riots, the political violence that ended Reconstruction, and against the Civil Rights Movement. Come on.
Tom Zinnen (@tmzinnen.bsky.social)
The founding paradox of the United States is that we were founded by an act of violence sustained from at least 1775 through 1781.
"The moves this week by Texas A&M represented 'the death of academic freedom in Texas, the remaking of universities as tools of authoritarianism that suppress free thought'" 🤐 www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/u...
State and federal governments snapping into action to police the ideological boundaries of instruction. Utter fascist lunacy.