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

just took the subway like a big brave boy and was not scared one bit or even murdered once can i be secretary of transportation

submitted 4 hours ago • 10 comments

BREAKING: In a serious blow to US pandemic flu preparedness, HHS has cancelled a contract with Moderna to test and license prototype vaccines for #H5N1 #birdflu and other potential pandemic viruses. In a pandemic, mRNA is the fastest way to vaccine doses. www.statnews.com/2025/05/28/m...

submitted 5 hours ago • 101 comments

This is the Caligula's horse model. You choose completely unqualified people who know they are there for no reason other than their fealty to the ruler. See also Hegseth etc. The point is, they know exactly why they're there—and so does everyone else. No one is confused & thinks they're qualified.

submitted 5 hours ago • 0 comments

We must remember: it’s not that democracy doesn’t work. It’s that democracy requires work. That and three steps we can all take to ensure democracy endures are what I shared with @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social's Class of '25. Sharing here as they apply to us all: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoUj...

submitted 5 hours ago • 1 comment

Obviously crime can & does happen wherever, but I don't think I've encountered anything more threatening than a loud, erratic panhandler in 25+ years of regularly riding NY & DC Subways. This is just creepypasta for sheltered hicks.

submitted 5 hours ago • 6 comments

It's long been clear there's a common denominator to a lot of the institutions Trump picks as enemies: Journalists, Universities, Courts, the Intelligence Community. All independent sources of facts & information that might conflict with his fabricated reality. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

submitted 5 hours ago • 6 comments

While some law firms are cowering to Trump’s bullying and coercion, others are fighting back — and they’re winning.  I salute the firms and institutions that refuse to bend the knee to Trump’s lawlessness. And shame on those who cave in to political blackmail.

submitted 5 hours ago • 22 comments

A student said to me at an event today, ‘I’d love to speak out and say stuff but I can’t because I’m on a visa.’ What has happened to America? Trump and Rubio and MAGA have killed free speech and the First Amendment in this country.

submitted 5 hours ago • 114 comments

You are personally ordering the deportation of people because of things they’ve said and op-eds they’ve written. You don’t give a fuck about free speech.

submitted 11 hours ago • 299 comments

If someone were coming up with a dastardly plan to weaken our pandemic preparedness, they could hardly do better than RFK is doing. HHS cancels nearly $600 million Moderna contract on vaccines for flu pandemics www.statnews.com/2025/05/28/m... via @statnews.com

submitted 5 hours ago • 5 comments

Elon Musk learning for the first time that secure intelligence computers are air-gapped. What a joy it must be to discover this world like a newborn babe!

submitted 5 hours ago • 3 comments

“But no one voted to deport moms. We were all under the impression we were just getting rid of the gangs, the people who came here in droves.” Tens of millions completely addled by Fox and Facebook propaganda. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/28/u...

submitted 5 hours ago • 0 comments

In ranking the dumbest things that one could do with a potential influenza epidemic; this would be near the top of the list.

submitted 5 hours ago • 2 comments

My favorite thing about @peark.es pinned post is that every time I see it I assume it's new, and I nod along vigorously

submitted 5 hours ago • 0 comments

This is superb. “There is only one system that has ever truly protected Jews over time, and that is liberalism” “Illiberalism always turns on Jews. There are no significant counterexamples. In the end, authoritarians protect Jews until they don’t.”

submitted 17 hours ago • 2 comments

Pardoning people who murder leaders of the opposition party. It's the sort of behavior that could end democracy without technically violating the Constitution. Or put another way, the only constitutional remedy is removal through impeachment.

submitted 7 hours ago • 6 comments

Important compilation & analysis from @vermontgmg.bsky.social "This is textbook authoritarianism, a classic example of what one-time Peru president General Óscar Benavides captured in his adage: 'For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law.'" #RuleOfLaw

submitted 8 hours ago • 0 comments

Day by day, we’re seeing the Justice Department effectively decriminalize and wave away crimes by Trump’s friends and instead selectively focus investigatory resources on Trump’s adversaries and enemies. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/crime-is-n...

submitted 9 hours ago • 54 comments

Amazing. Right out in the open: "universities are free to do research as long as they're sympathetic to the administration." I want to personally play this clip in the face of every fucking clown who spent the last several years pretending that the left is the "real" threat to free speech.

submitted 7 hours ago • 46 comments

Textbook authoritarianism

submitted 7 hours ago • 1 comment

Update: reports today that multiple legal observers were arrested today in New York at two separate immigration courts, for allegedly “obstructing” ICE. Not only that, apparently some immigration courts are barring the public from attending hearings. This mess is escalating fast.

submitted 8 hours ago • 226 comments

In addition to Olmert excoriating the war in Gaza, note what he says about the West Bank:

submitted 7 hours ago • 3 comments

Seriously. Put Charles Sumner's face on the new Massachusetts flag. us.macmillan.com/books/978125...

submitted 7 hours ago • 0 comments

Here is the same RFK Jr. book covered by 2 different outlets. You be the judge:

submitted 8 hours ago • 17 comments

It seems Trump has become President Bystander, blissfully unaware of events unfolding around him. He’s taken a keen interest in countless trivialities, but on substantive issues, Trump’s offering the public a lot of shrugged shoulders and blank stares. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

submitted 7 hours ago • 7 comments

On Wall Street, it's called the "TACO trade" - Trump Always Chickens Out www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

submitted 7 hours ago • 0 comments

I have been sick for a week and I just read about "something going around" in a subreddit, which I guess is how I get my information now that the CDC is officially spending the next four years determining when and how microscopes became gay.

submitted 7 hours ago • 389 comments

He seems to be totally out of it, with his administration run by advisors.

submitted 8 hours ago • 5 comments

I do not think people are actually seriously calibrated for how rabidly anti-university the MAGA right is and how core that is to their policy goals. It is probably the #2 issue after immigration for them, and for some of them it’s higher.

submitted 1 day ago • 106 comments

Jeff and Bob's work deserves your support — especially so in a time of rampant denialism, budget cuts and attacks on science institutions. If you have a few bucks to chip in, please do.

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

Jake Tapper transforming himself into a cookie cutter MAGA Republican in Congress so he can sell some books to the right wing. Shameless stuff from hacks who never had any shame.

submitted 1 day ago • 6 comments

COVID infection in pregnancy is associated with DOUBLE the rate of stillbirths because the SARS-CoV-2 virus damages the placenta

submitted 1 day ago • 20 comments

“On any given day, Donald Trump is just an endless stream of addled nonsense,” says Chris Hayes. Alexi McCammond and Faiz Shakir join to discuss.

submitted 1 day ago • 20 comments

This guy stole $10 million from the employees of his nursing home to buy himself a luxury yacht and Cartier watches. He PLED GUILTY. And because his Mom gave Trump $1 million, he just got a pardon. And this story barely makes the news today. WTF. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/u...

submitted 1 day ago • 644 comments

reputable medical journals keep saying that RFK and his pro-disease friends are full of shit and so naturally they must be shunned www.politico.com/news/2025/05...

submitted 1 day ago • 509 comments

SCOOP— FEMA essential functions are at "high risk" of not functioning properly just days before hurricane season because of staffing shortages, per a recent internal memo obtained by The Handbasket. These deficiencies "may disrupt life-saving and life-sustaining program delivery." Full story here:

submitted 1 day ago • 102 comments

Just saying: Right at this moment, thousands upon thousands and thousands of Harvard alums all on a call about standing up for academic independence. (No revelations here, a "public" event.) This is not a "joiner" group of people. Have never seen anything like this.

submitted 1 day ago • 16 comments

Huh. Maybe!

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Can't help but feel we're living through an increasingly existential war between spectacle and substance with spectacle winning battle after battle after battle.

submitted 1 day ago • 1108 comments

A military parade in Washington for the President’s birthday is a misuse of taxpayer funds and an abuse of power by the commander in chief. This comes at the same time that the GOP are pushing through tax cuts for the rich on the backs of Medicaid, SNAP and Medicare cuts for working class Americans.

submitted 1 day ago • 55 comments

So a respected journalist warned the nation that the Trump administration is a threat to free speech and, true to form, its state media outlet warns that there will now surely be retribution by the administration against that same journalist and his network for his act of free speech.

submitted 1 day ago • 95 comments

This is one of my favorite not funny memes.

submitted 1 day ago • 37 comments