Matthew Ryan

I'm outta here. You can find me at @matthewryan208.bsky.social

[Matthew Ryan @MatthewRyan208]

Are you tired of political campaign phone calls and mailers? Did you know that (competent) campaigns regularly check the voter roles, and that if you vote early, they'll take you off their list to call and mail? Go VOTE! The sooner, the better!

[Matt Jones @KySportsRadio]

Thank goodness for Birthright citizenship

4-1

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

To everyone so eager to cancel someone for a tattoo they got at age 22, a drunk text, a selfie they took in the middle of a mental health crisis:

Show us your laptop.
Show us your iCloud.
Open your entire digital life to your worst enemy. No context. No filter. No explanation.

You won’t.

You won’t because you know what I know. Any one of us, frozen at our worst moment, photographed in our lowest hour, looks like a monster. Looks like a stranger. Looks like someone who deserves to be cast out.

That is not who we are.

My mom and baby sister were killed in a car accident when I was just a kid. Cancer took my brother Beau, my best friend and my rock. I battled alcoholism. I battled addiction. I chose the coward’s way out more times than I can count.

For years I believed the defining chapters of my life were written by tragedy, loss, and shame.

I no longer believe that.

Pain can shape us. Loss can humble us. Failures can leave scars that never fully fade. But none of them have the authority to define us.

And it sure as hell ain’t the critic that counts.

That authority belongs to us alone-the person in the arena.

Every setback presents a choice. Play the victim, or cut the bullshit and take ownership for who we become next.

Life does not determine our character. It reveals it.

Again and again we are asked the same question. When shit happens, what next?

We are not defined by what happened to us. We are not defined by the worst photo, the worst text, the worst tattoo, the worst night. We are defined by the person we choose to become. And by the courage to choose that person, every single day.

So before you reach for the gavel - show us your laptop.

You won’t.

The whole world saw mine. And I am still here. Still becoming. Still choosing. Still standing.

That is the only definition that matters.

[Matthew Ryan @MatthewRyan208]

@stephen_richer It's not about not liking some of the court's decisions, it's about many of the court's decisions being wantonly partisan & several being outright lawless and unconstitutional while encroaching on the Article I powers of Congress. To deny this is to deny that words have meaning.

[@ijbailey @ijbailey]

A reminder that Susan Collins was the critical vote that led to the overturning of abortion rights and the gutting of the Voting Rights Act. I’ll never forget that. None of us should, even those of us who don’t believe a man with a Nazi tattoo should be in the Senate.

[Team Talarico @TeamTalaricoHQ]

.@JamesTalarico: There's been a lot of talk in this race about what it means to be a real man.

Recently on the campaign trail I told the story of my adoptive dad, Mark Talarico. Every Saturday morning, he would mow our lawn, and then without anyone asking him to, he would go next door and mow our neighbor's lawn because she was a widow. My dad never talked about it — he just did it, because that's what a man does.

A man takes responsibility, upholds his commitments to his family and his neighbors, and does what's right, even when no one is watching.

Here's what real men don't do. They don't lie and cheat their way through life, sell their soul to the highest bidder, or steal from other people in order to enrich themselves. Real men serve others. Weak men serve themselves.

I welcome this debate about what it means to be a man, and I don't think Ken Paxton or Ted Cruz are in a position to tell anybody what a real man is.

[Acyn @Acyn]

Talarico: Here's what real men don't do. They don't lie and cheat their way through life. They don't sell their soul to the highest bidder. Real men serve others, weak men serve themselves. So I welcome this debate. I don't think Paxton or Cruz are in a position to tell anyone what a real man is.

[Matthew Ryan @MatthewRyan208]

@Genevieve_207 Dozens of women (maybe hundreds) killed by Collins’ vote to confirm Kavanaugh were unavailable to comment. Enjoy your privilege to indulge in self-serving indignation, though!

[Nathan Gonzales @nathanlgonzales]

Republicans must feel comfortable enough with election integrity in California to swear in a new member before the election is even certified.

[Matthew Ryan @MatthewRyan208]

@Frasier67Blank @DrNeilStone Republicans can do that, but it’s not like a swastika or SS sig-runes, and when there’s nothing in all his candid reddit posts that corroborates Nazi ideology, voters see the charge as hyperbolic. They likely also discount subsequent charges against Platner.

[Matthew Ryan @MatthewRyan208]

Platner's detractors calling him a Nazi based solely on a tattoo with no corroborating comments/behavior--in spite of a massive online footprint--was a mistake. It led many voters to discount the charge as hyperbolic, as well as many subsequent charges leveled against him

[Caroline McCaughey @TheCarolineMc]

I hung out at a polling place in Kittery, Maine. Predictably almost everyone I spoke with voted for Platner.

Calling @grahamformaine a Nazi is backfiring. Voters don’t believe it and so question every other negative report about him. Supporters most disappointed by the sexting.

[𝗱𝗮𝗻𝗻𝘆🫧💚 @beyoncegarden]

this is truly the nastiest read anyone in history has ever received😭

[Matthew Ryan @MatthewRyan208]

@motivatedjoy2 I submit that the gerontocracy is at least as much to blame as white patriarchy: I suspect most Maine Dems weren't willing to vote for 79yo Janet Mills (5 years older than Collins) on the heels of the Biden debacle, and they saw no good alternatives to Platner.

[Matthew Ryan @MatthewRyan208]

@motivatedjoy2 It's a fair charge that mediocre white men are over-represented in American politics, but it strikes me as an unfair charge in Maine, where Susan Collins' last 2 general election opponents were women, and Gideon was Indian-Armenian.

[Matthew Ryan @MatthewRyan208]

@Socdem_Michael Collins hasn't faced reelection in a particularly blue year since 2008, when there was a lot more split-ticket voting (former Dem Joe Lieberman endorsed her). I suspect her 'moderate/independent' bona fides are running thin these days.

[Mike Nellis @MikeNellis]

Republicans have nominated…

* A guy in Texas for Senate who protected child sex predators

* A guy in New Jersey who hasn’t been seen in public for months

* A guy in Iowa for Governor who’s from fucking Kansas

And they want to lecture us about our nominees?

Clean up your own house first.

[Samantha Ruddy @samlymatters]

The girl in your freshman social studies class who raised her hand to ask why there’s no white history month is running half the major news outlets.

[Matthew Ryan @MatthewRyan208]

@PuckFupett69 I could be wrong, but I think putting this kind of stuff on broadcast will backfire with the intended audience.

[Matthew Ryan @MatthewRyan208]

@Timodc As usual, every accusation made by a Republican is a confession.

[Matthew Ryan @MatthewRyan208]

@citizengatsby Are we watching the same video?