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

While millions of Americans were protesting Trump on Saturday — with thousands in Minnesota literally risking their lives to do so — Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries were in the Hamptons with the Clintons, Nancy Pelosi, Anna Wintour and Nicky Hilton for the wedding of Alex Soros and Huma Abedin

submitted 1 hour ago • 17 comments

This is just depraved stuff. I never thought I'd see this shit from sitting politicians. You expect some evil shit from people like Henry Kissinger or Giulio Andreotti, but even then, they were cold and pragmatic. This generation of politicians is defined by being loud, dumb, and illiterate.

submitted 2 hours ago • 13 comments

ICE raiding a crowded supermarket in Rosemead, California with no identification, indistinguishable from cartel hitmen, pulling high caliber rifles on unarmed US citizens trying to ask questions about wtf is going on. #3E #StopICE

submitted 12 hours ago • 413 comments

I don't get the Hakeem Jeffries things. He always strikes me as uninspiring, vaguely cowardly and just not that sharp. Like who listens to this guy and is like, "YES. This is the leader for this moment."

submitted 3 hours ago • 12 comments

A right-winger -- a registered Republican, a Trump voter, an evangelical anti-abortion activist -- assassinates a Democratic official. Republicans respond by blaming the left. Democrats respond by blaming ... no one.

submitted 4 hours ago • 48 comments

I just looked into this. Unsurprisingly, Charlotte and Los Angeles have weak police oversight bodies, while Savannah doesn't appear to have any at all. Will say it till I'm blue in the face: Strong, empowered, independent police oversight boards or commissions make an enormous difference.

submitted 4 hours ago • 5 comments

It's both. Everyone is aware of the chilling effect brought by billionaire owners, but less discussed is the fact that earning a BA in journalism, an MA in journalism, then going straight into journalism is a bad way to learn history, political science, public policy, governance or data analysis.

submitted 4 hours ago • 1 comment

It's pretty obvious that a lot of US mainstream media either doesn't recognise authoritarianism or doesn't want to call it out. Either way, it's an excellent way to destroy trust in your institution.

submitted 13 hours ago • 429 comments

How many reporters are currently working on tell-all exposés about their own organization, detailing all the acts of cowardice of their editors and publishers? I won’t ever buy your book about Sleepy Joe Biden, but I’d absolutely devour a book about the internal collapse of the NYT or CNN.

submitted 9 hours ago • 144 comments

Underneath all of those articles is a deep fury that Bluesky punishes instead of rewarding lazy and/or hostile engagement farming. Try to build a following here with trolling and slurs and you'll find yourself in a ghost town. To them that is simply intolerable.

submitted 8 hours ago • 42 comments

Just a massive violation of the constitution ongoing in California and it sure appears that no amount of protest or reliance on rule of law is going to stop them. The Republicans are waging war they are occupying our streets with military and they will not leave until they are forced out.

submitted 5 hours ago • 5 comments

Dem leaders want to work with Republicans. Republicans want to destroy Democrats. We know this. So here's a takeaway from the protests: They proved the Democratic approach is unnecessary. We have always outnumbered them. There's no reason to seek bipartisanship. Generate enthusiasm instead.

submitted 6 hours ago • 9 comments

Via ABC News's Rachel Scott, let's never forget for a minute what a classless scumbag the President is. x.com/rachelvscott...

submitted 6 hours ago • 253 comments

not the first time I’ve said this and more qualified people have surely said it to, but I still think this is the long tail of the professionalization of journalism. we were better served by working class, unionized news reporters who understood class in a way the J Schoolers just don’t.

submitted 7 hours ago • 7 comments

The Tea Party protests in April 2009 had about a third of a million people involved, and the political media treated it like a game changer for the Obama presidency. The No Kings rallies were AT LEAST ten times bigger than the Tea Party protests. Will the press keep pretending Trump is popular?

submitted 9 hours ago • 268 comments

According to the latest WaPo/Schar School poll, Trump’s handling of deportations has 37% approval, 52% disapproval. And Quinnipiac has it at 40% approval, 56% disapproval. But @facethenation.bsky.social insists “public approval is so high on deportation.”

submitted 9 hours ago • 163 comments

These people are the enemy.

submitted 9 hours ago • 602 comments

All in the last five weeks

submitted 20 hours ago • 3 comments

My favorite so far is "If not Gestapo, why Gestapo shaped?" Honorable mention for the most veteran "oligargle dez nuts."

submitted 1 day ago • 2 comments

This is Austin, where protesters are being kettled and gassed. Guess who the Austin city manager is: T.C. Broadnax. In Dallas, during the 2020 George Floyd protests, protesters were kettled, gassed and shot with rubber bullets. Guess who the Dallas city manager was: T.C. Broadnax.

submitted 21 hours ago • 9 comments

Estimated protesters today: 5 million WaPo: "thousands of Americans" Estimated parade crowd: 100,000 WaPo: "cheering crowds" A reader who missed both might reasonably conclude they involved roughly the same number of people.

submitted 21 hours ago • 16 comments

The video, the replies and the quotes are giving me an extra dose of joy

submitted 22 hours ago • 8 comments

These are failed state optics.

submitted 22 hours ago • 2 comments

I have so many thoughts about this and no idea why the soldiers marched like this, but I'm choosing to believe it was because Army leaders explicitly refused to sacrifice actual training time to practice for a Kremlin-style propaganda parade

submitted 23 hours ago • 10 comments

Seeing a Black Woman Second Lieutenant command a Bradley in the Army birthday parade is the only thing that made me tear up and smile. No kings but this queen. #Army250

submitted 1 day ago • 5 comments

Yesssssss… I love this 🙌🏼

submitted 23 hours ago • 356 comments

The US Army spends ~ a billion / year in marketing (1.1bn in 2025) to make service look like an exciting purposive path that young people want to take How much of that is flushed down the toilet by this shit show? Does this look enticing to high achieving drug free 17 and 18 year olds?

submitted 1 day ago • 7 comments

I watched one short video and boy, I dunno. Not sure it would be an overreaction.

submitted 23 hours ago • 5 comments

I see we're filing and uploading stories on Friday, scheduling them to run over the weekend

submitted 23 hours ago • 31 comments

OPINION by @brandonfriedman.bsky.social: "This use of the U.S. military is horrifying for a specific reason. It’s not simply because he’s showing off the hardware. It’s horrifying because the parade serves as a mirror, reflecting where we are as a nation." READ MORE: www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

submitted 1 day ago • 15 comments

Remarkable. MSNC: "I want to reiterate this has been 100% peaceful." Seconds later, LA County sheriffs start firing on the crowd. Yet again, "law enforcement" deliberately escalated.

submitted 1 day ago • 1077 comments

“You’re gonna get arrested too” he says to someone walking by wearing a KN95, then clarifies he is threatening arrest to people specifically for wearing masks (respiratory protection)

submitted 1 day ago • 27 comments

Every decision made that impacts people overseas, not only reflects the moral commitments (or lack thereof) of the government you live under--but is also a snapshot of how the government will treat you.

submitted 1 day ago • 13 comments

A Vance Boelter w/ similar educational timeline as the Minnesota assassin wrote online that he'd attended Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas. I've been there. Here's a quote from founder on wall in lobby.

submitted 1 day ago • 42 comments

If you take one thing away from today, let it be that we outnumber them.

submitted 1 day ago • 20 comments

Musk bought Twitter to turn it into a right-wing propaganda network precisely in moments like these.

submitted 1 day ago • 8 comments

Well past time for big city mayors to call for the arrest of anyone who claims to be law enforcement but wears a mask and/or won’t identify themselves

submitted 1 day ago • 9 comments

This is what rule by the confidently ignorant looks like; sabotage stuff you don't understand and then discover it was actually doing vital work well at trivial cost

submitted 1 day ago • 17 comments

The Minnesota assassinations, the attempted arson at Governor Shapiro's home, and the violent arrest of Senator Padilla are all straight out of the Jim Crow terrorism playbook. Same goes with cops aiming for journalists covering the ICE protests. None of these are new tactics, just a new iteration.

submitted 1 day ago • 112 comments

This means they likely have bodyworn camera footage of the gunman from the responding officers

submitted 1 day ago • 4 comments

What happened in Minnesota is a direct consequence of the violent way that Trump talks about his political opponents.

submitted 1 day ago • 74 comments

It's vital to emphasize that the GOP has been calling for violence against their political opponents for more than a decade now, led by Trump. The violence keeps escalating, and they keep doing it because they're getting results.

submitted 1 day ago • 13 comments

A man "impersonating a police officer" does not rule out an actual law enforcement officer. Whenever an Afghan soldier or police officer went rogue, killing Americans in an insider attack, it was described as "a man dressed as an Afghan soldier" or a "man in an Afghan security uniform."

submitted 1 day ago • 93 comments