avandoren.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

This is Marco Rubio explaining how the USA promised to defend Ukraine forever if they got rid of their nuclear arsenal left after the Soviet Union fell. This is why lil marco was sinking into the couch. He was hoping we wouldn’t find it…so don’t RT right now this very second.

submitted 1 day ago • 1826 comments

We are experiencing an assault on science unparalleled by anything I’ve seen in my life. It’s not one issue or another anymore, the entire institution is under attack by the most powerful individuals in the country. This Friday, where will you be? standupforscience2025.org

submitted 1 day ago • 679 comments

"In his first month, Donald Trump is yanking the rug out from under open, honest government and signaling a complete reversal to a time of rank corruption. There may be no historical analogue to the level of corruption Trump is inaugurating."

submitted 1 day ago • 58 comments

I appreciate this. But the loss of public goods and expertise is a harm to the nation. Privatization will not avert the harm. Essential services left to the highest bidder degrades the foundation needed for a healthy, sustainable nation.

submitted 1 day ago • 59 comments

There is no bottom. There will never be a bottom.

submitted 5 days ago • 94 comments

This from @jvl.bsky.social is one of the most insightful columns about the relationship of the tech industry to politics that I've read in a long time. Very smart. It's paywalled, but you should really subscribe to Bulwark these days.

submitted 7 days ago • 12 comments

Every country in the world… expect Russia, China and North Korea… see the US as an adversary with Trump and MAGA in power. We are a violent idiocracy. Dan Bongino as deputy director of the FBI… we are a global joke.

submitted 7 days ago • 41 comments

Donald Trump’s firing of military leaders — four-star General Brown and four-star Admiral Franchetti — along with top legal officers is a betrayal of legions of first rate service members who dedicate their lives to our nation’s defense. This is a growing national security risk.

submitted 9 days ago • 522 comments

None of this has anything to do with effectiveness, or “lethality,” or promoting “warfighters," or any other buzzwords. It is praetorianism, plain and simple, and it is an assault on our military and our democracy. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

submitted 9 days ago • 358 comments

Well you really have to take the 60 seconds to listen so you can understand the people Trump has selected for leadership. This the director of Trump’s National Economic Council. WATCH, then READ @jonathanvlast.bsky.social’s brilliant backstory on Hassett. www.thebulwark.com/p/meet-kevin...

submitted 12 days ago • 95 comments

I watched “Number 24” about the Norwegian resistance the other day. Am watching “Watch on the Rhine” now. These stories are so darkly resonant now. I can’t help but wonder if they are more than that. Foreshadowings of choices we will all soon face. Am I being melodramatic? I fear I’m not.

submitted 15 days ago • 367 comments

Meanwhile in Russia: Sergey Mikheyev says that in light of the Trump administration's express intent to abandon NATO allies in case they intervene in Ukraine, Russia should strike Brussels, London and Paris. Vladimir Solovyov wholeheartedly agrees. www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkX5...

submitted 15 days ago • 126 comments

Just read Vance's remarks. Breathtaking that a US vice-president would inject himself so brazenly into other democracies' politics - & most chilling of all to boost Germany's far right.

submitted 17 days ago • 53 comments

Missouri's AG Andrew Bailey is suing Starbucks, arguing that its workforce is too "female" and "non-white" and as a result Missouri consumers “pay higher prices and wait longer for goods and services" because its workforce is "less qualified" This is a brazenly racist and sexist lawsuit.

submitted 17 days ago • 1305 comments

This lawlessness was directly suborned by the Trump immunity decision. This is John Roberts' clusterfück, we're just living in it

submitted 17 days ago • 14 comments

The Danielle Sassoon letter to AG Bondi is wow. If you have a tip about what’s going on in DOJ/SDNY, I can be reached on Signal at annabower.24 Read the letter: www.documentcloud.org/documents/25...

submitted 18 days ago • 212 comments

If this is a direct quote, it's one of the most irresponsible and reckless things a SECDEF has ever said

submitted 19 days ago • 558 comments

This is a great thread. If you've managed complex data systems that need the ability to model the state of the data at a point in time, you understand how difficult this all is. These chucklefucks look at the data for an afternoon and think they've got it all figured out and can do better

submitted 22 days ago • 12 comments

JD Vance - If you believe any of the multiple federal courts that have ruled against you so far are exceeding their statutory or Constitutional authority, your recourse is to appeal. You don’t get to rage-quit the Republic just because you are losing. That’s tyranny.

submitted 22 days ago • 1057 comments

Their aim is nothing short of a new Dark Ages. Anti-science, anti-education, anti-democracy, in favor of needless human suffering. NIH cuts billions of dollars in biomedical funding, effective immediately www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

submitted 23 days ago • 531 comments

NYT v Sullivan is one of the load-bearing pillars of press freedom in this country. Trump’s guys are taking an axe to it.

submitted 24 days ago • 21 comments

From what I hear from multiple people in the space, the latest NIH indirect costs for medical research grants will basically mean the end most academic medical centers.

submitted 23 days ago • 92 comments

Around 35% of SpaceX’s revenue comes directly from the federal govt. Less than 1% of NPR’s budget comes from the federal govt.

submitted 26 days ago • 810 comments

If you don’t stand up for rule of law, nothing else matters. It’s the mechanism of accountability in democracies. If Trump can do anything he wants with shutting down agencies, it’s naive to imagine he will follow the rules in elections and beyond. Preserving rule of law is existential to democracy.

submitted 26 days ago • 34 comments

What @kairyssdal.bsky.social is saying is that BLS produces the official economic statistics that we all rely on and if they start messing with those, no one will no what is really happening -- and whoever is manipulating them can make a killing by knowing the numbers in advance

submitted 26 days ago • 48 comments

Had quite the exchange w/ Chuck Grassley moments ago. Asked if closing USAID is legal, which he said he doesn't know because "that's kind of a constitutional question" I then noted he's judiciary chairman, so he said of executive authority, "I can't define that for you"

submitted 28 days ago • 7 comments

Just spitballing, but things that could happen today: Court injunction protecting USAID Dems demand hearings on Musk's role Someone introduce articles of impeachment Dem officeholders go to USAID offices with USAID workers *Refuse to conduct any more Senate confirmations until this is resolved

submitted 28 days ago • 363 comments

The entire archive of CDC datasets can be found here. HUGE shoutout to data archivists- this work is important 👏🙌🏻 archive.org/details/2025...

submitted 30 days ago • 232 comments

As China continues to give money and projects to countries to gain influence, we are shutting down our agencies that do that. China is eating our lunch and Trump is the reason. Sorry folks, if you don’t see it you don’t understand how the world works. Period

submitted 28 days ago • 542 comments

Agree. Time to stand up. Oppose every single thing this corrupt and insane regime is trying to do. History will respect you. And so will we, now.

submitted 29 days ago • 24 comments

Democrats aren’t powerless against Trump’s blitzkrieg power-grab. Senate rules are designed to protect the rights of the minority and Democrats have tools at their disposal to grind Senate business to a halt if Republicans try to ram through Trump’s extremist agenda: indivisible.org/resource/how...

submitted 29 days ago • 105 comments

My mentions are filled with people insisting Senate Democrats are powerless. They’re not. They can throw up roadblocks by denying unanimous consent, forcing quorum calls, using holds and filibusters, etc It’s so easy to figure out even a dimwit like Tuberville managed to pull it off.

submitted 30 days ago • 286 comments

Thread

submitted 30 days ago • 0 comments

The digital infrastructure of the United States Government is both critical and fragile. Many of us who work in digital government have been trying to figure out what’s going on as norms and protocols are being subverted — Thread on some of what we know so far:

submitted 30 days ago • 76 comments

Having watched with growing alarm the developments of the last 24 and 36 hours in Washington, I thought I’d take a stab at how the US media would cover this story if it was happening in a foreign country. Here’s that story that should be written this weekend: www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/musk-s-jun...

submitted 30 days ago • 362 comments

www.civilservicestrong.org

submitted 30 days ago • 2 comments

My first and definitely last time working with the Los Angeles Times. Editing out the most urgent point of an OpEd in the minutes before sending to press while then also assigning a title and image that suggest an argument entirely opposite to the author’s clear intent is pretty shitty.

submitted 31 days ago • 510 comments

In the Handmaid’s Tale the extremists gained power by freezing people’s access to their money: bank accounts frozen, credit cards don’t work. Sounds insane but if you have control of government payment levers and private companies willing to do your bidding…dystopian fiction is our reality now

submitted 31 days ago • 86 comments

i think it is important to say that the open and explicit racism of the president and the vice president isn’t just uncouth or “controversial” but a direct attack on tens of millions of americans and a dereliction of their duty to represent the entire country

submitted 32 days ago • 2305 comments

Yes, this administration is dangerous and cruel, but they are also shockingly dim and incompetent. Opportunities are everywhere. Make everything as hard as possible. Resist every demand. Refuse entry without a warrant. Don’t take the buyout. Their problem solving skills are 📉

submitted 32 days ago • 3790 comments

Cassidy may be a vote to watch on Kennedy. Medical doctor, voted to convict Trump after Jan. 6, already has a credible primary challenger (state Treasurer John Fleming).

submitted 33 days ago • 2 comments

The US Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) website is now offline. Since 1985, FEWS NET has provided assessments of the location and severity of food crises. These assessments are used by gov and non-government humanitarian organizations across the world to allocate aid. static.fews.net

submitted 33 days ago • 2 comments

The new general counsel for OPM—the office issuing all those deranged memos—is Andrew Kloster, a self-described “raging misogynist” with a public history of racist comments and a temporary restraining order for domestic violence who most recently worked for Matt Gaetz. www.pogo.org/investigatio...

submitted 33 days ago • 74 comments

The poster boy for Trump’s unpopular federal funding freeze is a deeply unlikable and outspoken guy, one who looks and talks like the stock villain in a TV drama about politics and who has a confirmation to a powerful role pending before the Senate. Democrats need to beat him like a piñata

submitted 34 days ago • 94 comments