erik.nygren.org - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

No, the meeting did not go badly for Ukraine. It exposed in the most undeniable, unequivocal way possible the pro-Putin commitments of the president and vice president. That was information Americans and allies needed to have clear before them.

submitted 20 hours ago • 827 comments

I am unbelievably embarrassed for the leadership of our country... This is so very painful to watch. www.youtube.com/live/wFzT9Ei...

submitted 19 hours ago • 0 comments

How Elon Musk planned for DOGE: Our investigation found that he raised the idea in 2023, becoming fixated on gaining insider access to federal systems. By Dec., he chose USDS as a landing place, and future DOGE members began applying for jobs there. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/u...

submitted 1 day ago • 135 comments

Reporters with access to agency heads should absolutely be asking them to own each and every one of these cuts on the record. Because the Senate-confirmed cabinet members are the ones gutting their own departments, right?

submitted 1 day ago • 45 comments

I’ve been saying for over two decades there is no better bargain in the area of national defense than a proactive response to the threat of H5N1. Finally, someone was willing to do it…and now, of course, the GOP wants to kill it.

submitted 2 days ago • 24 comments

This is your regular reminder that government mandated backdoors for end-to-end encrypted comms are bullshit, make everyone less safe, and should be resisted at maximum volume.

submitted 3 days ago • 15 comments

If this sticks, I don't see how conferences like the #ietf or academic conferences can reasonably hold any future sessions in the US.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Thank you for your public service to the #USDS (subsumed into #DOGE) employees who resigned, as well as those who have been fired up until now. Your efforts to help secure and modernize US government systems were greatly appreciated. Details: gizmodo.com/21-workers-r... Letter: archive.is/AKhKO

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Joann had a sprawling retail footprint and was a victim of the slow US decline toward cheaper, more disposable clothing, but they also suffered a blow during Trump's first term. Trump's 2018 tariffs increased cost of imports and US equivalents were too expensive for customers.

submitted 4 days ago • 171 comments

Elon Musk recently posted on his site that another lawyer and I are “undermining civilization.” He goes on to ask if we suffered childhood trauma and concludes by suggesting we are suffering from “generational trauma.” This is my response. www.democracydocket.com/opinion/my-o...

submitted 9 days ago • 1381 comments

We at the Internet Society are deeply disappointed that Apple has had to stop offering end-to-end encryption in the UK. The following can be attributed to Dr. Joseph Lorenzo Hall, Distinguished Technologist at the Internet Society: 1/

submitted 7 days ago • 6 comments

If I'm reading the White House's fact sheet correctly -- the text of the actual EO doesn't seem to have been posted yet -- today's new executive order is momentous but not because it aggresses against the role of the courts or touches off any sort of constitutional crisis. /1

submitted 10 days ago • 21 comments

Akamai is on the @blacktechpipeline.com job board! Super excited to partner with a company that powers internet reliability on a massive scale 🙌🏾 Learn about Akamai and apply to their open roles on our job board or through our newsletter here: blacktechpipeline.substack.com/p/akamai-is-...

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

One of the more overt purposes of DOGE is to hollow out technical capacity within the government so that it will be entirely dependent on contractors to do things. NASA is just the most obvious example of who would benefit from that

submitted 14 days ago • 1 comment

The Trump administration dismissed many CDC staff members today, including everyone in the Epidemic Intelligence Service, first responders to outbreaks. This leaves us ill prepared to contain and deal with future outbreaks. It makes America less healthy.

submitted 14 days ago • 24 comments

I hope the city uses this chart to determine where speed humps and other traffic calming tools will be installed, not least because my neighborhood is represented here 👀 mailchi.mp/somervillema...

submitted 19 days ago • 4 comments

It's hard not to see this as a heat-seeking missile for MA. Do you have any idea how much health research happens here?!? CA gets about 60% more NIH funding but it also has FIVE TIMES the population. The per capita impact here is gigantic.

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

Thinking about this some more, few threat models account for the idea that the agency head is actively supporting the attack, but that has been the case for most of these DOGE takeovers

submitted 21 days ago • 1 comment

1. Today the NIH director issued a new directive slashing overhead rates to 15%. I want to provide some context on what that means and why it matters. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

submitted 21 days ago • 270 comments

There’s racist, there’s really racist, and then there’s this

submitted 21 days ago • 2 comments

For 20 years from now, THE GLASS BOX was a cautionary tale; for 2025, it's a manual of resistance.

submitted 24 days ago • 1 comment

Current homepage of usaid.gov

submitted 24 days ago • 87 comments

Elon Musk, on behalf of Donald Trump, is rampaging through the federal government, dismantling programs, locking civil servants out of buildings, and working to kill whole agencies created by Congress. It’s time to get off the mat and pressure Congress to assert its authority. Call them.

submitted 25 days ago • 4 comments

1/ OK, Democratic members of Congress in the US Senate. It’s time for some tough love. I am aware your pollsters and consultants tell you things like “the American people want us to work together” and “ focus on prescription drug prices in the economy.”

submitted 26 days ago • 831 comments

Two things: 1. If Elon really starts making unilateral cuts to money that was allocated by Congressional budgets, then people need to call it plainly for what it is 2. We don’t work weekends generally because of labor laws Elon wants to destroy and because we have families who love us

submitted 27 days ago • 30 comments

I always love articles that describe the US from a foreign point of view. Read it and weep!

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

Every year on February 1st when I start my little thread, I run across at least a few fully educated white folk in the US, that have never even heard of the "Declaration of Causes for Seceding states." By "fully educated," I mean "straight-A high student, then top university, then grad school."

submitted 27 days ago • 12 comments

i think an important thing for people outside the US to understand is that elon musk seized control of the government today and most americans don’t even realize it happened.

submitted 28 days ago • 451 comments

When you read "anti-immigrant" I want you to hear "Going after anyone who isn't white" because THAT is what they mean, and that is who they are after.

submitted 32 days ago • 2 comments

Auschwitz was at the end of a long process. It did not start from gas chambers. This hatred was gradually developed by humans. From ideas, words, stereotypes & prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanization & escalating violence... to systematic and industrial murder. Auschwitz took time.

submitted 33 days ago • 1092 comments

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. I strongly encourage following @auschwitzmemorial.bsky.social, as hard as it is to see their recurring reminders of humanity's failure. 1/4

submitted 32 days ago • 1 comment

Significant #Earthquake in the Boston area! Still going on. Coworkers felt all around the metro area (Somerville, our west a ways) and even up in Maine.

submitted 32 days ago • 3 comments

The price of eggs in the US is spiking, mostly due to #H5N1 bird flu. Solving the problem requires urgent, important communications from the CDC & FDA* and rapid development of research by the NIH** * Currently paused by Executive Order ** Grant reviews now all canceled www.kcur.org/news/2025-01...

submitted 36 days ago • 2540 comments

SHARE WIDELY. KNOW YOUR RIGHTS. With mass deportations starting today across the country, it is vitally important - for both citizens and non-citizens - to know your rights. You have the right to remain silent. Assert it. You have the right to a lawyer. Ask for one. (1/3)

submitted 38 days ago • 941 comments

The latest innovation in tech allows for the direct bribery of the president using securities fraud. Just breathtaking how brazen this is.

submitted 40 days ago • 51 comments

I want to share my experience today with Google support, trying to get Gemini (their AI/plagiarism machine) turned off in my Google workspace account. That account is where I personally do all my work communication—I am an editor, and most of my work contracts explicitly ban any use of Generative AI

submitted 43 days ago • 88 comments