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

From a FOIA perspective, "the entire federal workforce should write down and email what they did last week" is extremely funny

submitted 10 hours ago • 158 comments

“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive and judicial] in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self–appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” (James Madison, Federalist No. 51)

submitted 9 hours ago • 1 comment

New, from me @theatlantic.com: No, the federal government is not too big It has real human capital needs Firings are indiscriminate, weakening state capacity Creating a toxic and politicized workplace is driving away dedicated employees www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

submitted 20 hours ago • 38 comments

“It is very queer that the unhappiness of the world is so often brought on by small men.” Erich Maria Remarque, author of ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’

submitted 1 day ago • 2 comments

Some things to know about General Brown: - 41 years of military service - F16 fighter pilot and instructor with 3000 flight hours, 130 in combat - Master’s in aeronautical science - son of a U.S. Army colonel and Vietnam veteran - grandson of a WW2 veteran

submitted 22 hours ago • 28 comments

This is what the Silicon Valley gang wants the US to base its full faith and credit on.

submitted 1 day ago • 12 comments

This is the language of honor. "The unknown was not as scary as being complicit and not speaking up,” Ms. Ortiz said. “I can exist on cornflakes and community at the end of the day if it means that my soul is intact.” www.nytimes.com/2025/02/22/u...

submitted 22 hours ago • 2 comments

Consider... tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of people are losing their government jobs. Jobs that may have taken up to a year to secure. They bought homes, cars, started families. No income now to make payments or feed babies. How does that help our economy?

submitted 1 day ago • 31 comments

No matter how bad your week went at least you’re not an army recruiter who is going to have to figure out a way to pitch making a loyalty oath to Trump as cool to teens

submitted 1 day ago • 8 comments

Beyond betrayal.

submitted 1 day ago • 63 comments

General Brown is a brilliant, amazing leader. I worked at the Air Staff for three years and it was known that he read everything the staff wrote for him. He believes if an analyst took the time to write it, it’s his responsibility to read it. Very few generals do this.

submitted 1 day ago • 213 comments

Imagine how news media would respond if it was Harris saying this after a dozen eggs topped $8 nationally

submitted 1 day ago • 70 comments

Is it good when inflation expectations are up and consumer sentiment is down. is that supposed to happen.

submitted 1 day ago • 5 comments

Doesn't know what AI is, doesn't know what duplicitous means, doesn't know what the CDC does.

submitted 1 day ago • 69 comments

the fact that this is just a straightforward retelling of yesterday's events without hyperbole

submitted 1 day ago • 84 comments

The comparisons to the terrible advice people give to victims of domestic violence have never been more obvious.

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

Happening now: protesters are outside the Fine Arts Building on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago this evening. People are in line to see House of Reps Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries for an event tonight promoting his recently released book. Crowd chanting at them, "we don't need a book tour!"

submitted 2 days ago • 828 comments

Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia has published a letter sent to him by Trump’s Department of Justice threatening to potentially prosecute him for criticizing Elon Musk.

submitted 2 days ago • 510 comments

submitted 32 days ago • 0 comments

The good news is i saved you 60 billion dollars. The bad news is that is a typo i saved you 600 dollars and also your plane is falling out of the sky

submitted 3 days ago • 211 comments

You can’t “save money” by just deciding not to pay your bills. That’s not how it works.

submitted 3 days ago • 2 comments

Tyranny requires your fear, your silence, and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage.

submitted 3 days ago • 1921 comments

“Zelensky survived a dozen Russian assassination attempts including a special forces assault on his presidential complex.He stood up to Trump. I’m sure he’ll be deeply impressed to learn our Congressional Republicans live as terrified hostages of their own party leader.” ~ @michaeldweiss.bsky.social

submitted 3 days ago • 801 comments

We need to save some smoke for voters. Trump was very clear during the campaign that he planned to settle Russia's war on Ukraine quickly and on Putin's terms. 77 million people voted for him anyway, and now he's following through. American voters sold out our ally.

submitted 3 days ago • 372 comments

Calling yourself a king doesnt make you a king. Delivering an all-time banger of a speech on St. Crispin’s Day does.

submitted 3 days ago • 11 comments

Chicago River, 1967

submitted 3 days ago • 2 comments

The waste is coming from the White House. 👇

submitted 3 days ago • 841 comments

Black Panthers headquarters is raided by police (1969) Photo: Bob (Robert) Black for Chicago Sun-Times

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

For obvious reasons, the lesson—the internet wisdom—behind ‘don’t feed the trolls’ is applicable to random comment board participants but not the president of the United States. The president and his White House staff spending time fantasizing about a monarchy is not wise to ignore.

submitted 3 days ago • 198 comments

Two firsts here. The first time an American President has described themselves as a king. And the first time Trump has told the truth.

submitted 3 days ago • 34 comments

The root that tears apart your foundation begins as a seed of distrust, hate, and blame. The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe didn’t arrive overnight. It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame.

submitted 3 days ago • 845 comments

I've always understood why people hated and feared Pence. (I was one of them.). But I have never understood the argument that Pence would have been worse than Trump, who is mentally ill.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Counterargument: Musk is a few months and two million monkeys away from curing all dementias with his Neurolink technology.

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

This is @murray.senate.gov's effort to track what Trump has cut. I'd love to crowdsource a way to make this a point of exchange, to collect info from contractors who've gotten cut off, and match it to what she's learning as Appropriations Ranking. www.appropriations.senate.gov/news/minorit...

submitted 3 days ago • 33 comments

To the extent that Musk has a super-power it is that he is an obscenely rich person who is willing to confidently say (and get many people to accept) completely untrue things that (coincidentally) always serve his own interests. He's an ignorant person's idea of what an informed person sounds like.

submitted 3 days ago • 70 comments

This is a concentration camp. They are describing a concentration camp.

submitted 3 days ago • 503 comments

Adorno got it right in 1945

submitted 3 days ago • 16 comments

Two possibilities: 1. Trump isn't doing Putin's bidding but – in an amazing coincidence – he's doing what Putin wants. He took Putin's word over our intel agencies at Helsinki, he praised Putin, he weakened NATO, and he betrayed Ukraine. A total coincidence. 2. Trump is doing Putin's bidding.

submitted 3 days ago • 16 comments

"We didn’t become the greatest shirtwaist factory in the world by resting on our laurels. That’s why we’ve brought in a new efficiency czar, Noel Skum, whose job is to cut unnecessary spending and roll back overly restrictive safety regulations." www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/tha...

submitted 4 days ago • 15 comments

And fully half of it is a humiliating error where they mistake the value of a contract by 1000x confusing 8 million with 8 BILLION

submitted 3 days ago • 2406 comments

HIRE KIDS WITH COLLEGE DEBT TO DO YOUR COMMS WORK. BRING BACK TIM WALZ.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

“While the ads, which feature Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, are ostensibly designed to convince undocumented immigrants to self-deport from the United States or avoid coming here at all, the domestic and international versions of the ad feature Noem repeatedly lavishing praise on Trump.”

submitted 3 days ago • 2 comments

Trump isn't negotiating 'peace', he's cutting a surrender deal with an imperialist, fascist regime that invades sovereign states, murders its political opponents, and threatens to nuke our children. He cannot betray Ukraine and Europe without also betraying America.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

This framing that these moves "save" money is absolutely absurd given that many of these cuts are going to lead to other very expensive problems. It's like saying I'm "saving money" by not doing basic maintenance on my house, and then much more expensive things happen because of that.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments