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

So many of my friends have been in denial. The whole world, in fact. Time to wake up and smell the fascists: "Schafer said she first dismissed Trump’s orders, saying, 'I’ll believe it when I see it.' Now, she says it’s important to acknowledge that Trump’s policies are “actually happening.”

submitted 17 hours ago • 0 comments

Europe is just now beginning to wake up. The US, no longer its powerful ally, is in fact, its enemy. The EU is scrambling to boost military spending, but it must also solve a huge new energy problem: It only just moved away from Russian to US energy. Now, it needs to free itself from that, as well.

submitted 17 hours ago • 0 comments

Today is one month since Trump's inauguration. Just for perspective: The transition from the Weimar Republic to Nazi dictatorship took about six months, from January to July 1933.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Yup. Straight out of "Change Your Democracy to Autocracy, For Dummies" — Erase all previous rules, start with a clean slate.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Posted to the official White House account on X. George Washington must be rolling over in his grave.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

We have truly entered The Upside Down: A fascist USA chastises Germany about squelching their far-right party while it also assists the negotiating position of Russia in its invasion of eastern Europe

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Remember sterilizing all the groceries? Seems so long ago. How time flies when you're waiting out an apocalypse.

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

54% of US adults have literacy below a 6th-grade level (20% are below 5th-grade level). Worse yet — there was a huge drop in literacy rate 2017 - 2023. Even worse — these figures are based on government studies currently being defunded. Soon, we will lack even the tools to know how dumb we are.

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

Umm... [tap... tap, tap] is anyone out there?.... This is the exact warning sign "doomers" have been talking about for decades and which you e/acc bros always called "alarmist nonsense." Hello? ... [tap]... Umm... time to act is quickly fading [soundtrack begins deep subwoofer dreadful sounds...]🤖

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

To understand what Musk and his DOGE effort is really all about, it helps to think in terms of the Kobayashi Maru. If the rules of a democratic society might prevent you from becoming multiplanetary, then first you "hack the simulation." That's what DOGE is really all about — hacking our democracy.

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

ChatGPT on Musk’s priorities (given his goal of a 1M-person Mars colony) Reshape U.S. power Make Mars a national security goal Deregulate space Deepen SpaceX-military ties Control public discourse Use economic leverage to force reliance on his infrastructure—all while exploiting political chaos.

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

You might see this pop up in your feed, "The U.S. Is Openly Stockpiling Dirt on All Its Citizens." It's true, but it is not just a Trump thing. Or, sadly, even a recent thing. This has been standard US policy for decades, under Dems as well as Reps. Even Obama.

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

“Deep State” was always a deliberate rebranding effort—turning the professional civil service, checks and balances, and longstanding democratic norms into something sinister, "liberal." Of course, these DEEP institutions, largely built to prevent authoritarian power grabs, are now it's prime target.

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

Today, I feel my whole life I was naive about America. Despite Reagan, and Bushes 1 & 2, and a lifetime of lefty activism, I always thought, deep down, we were the good guys. We saved the world from fascism (even if we were Johnny come lately.) But no. We just wanted it to be our brand of fascism.

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

I've always known the word "Replenish." I have never once heard the word "Plenish" used (even spell check thinks it's an error - it isn't.) I thought I was clever, making a joke by using it. Then I looked it up. It's there in the dictionary. Wow! Completely useful but lexically dead. A ghost word.

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

By the time it becomes obvious to all, it will be too late.

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

If Bluesky, being open-source, ends up as one of the main methods for The Resistance to organize, you can expect it to become an early target for a take-down. We need to take steps now to harden Bluesky against attack by the US Government (or Musk/DOGE et al.) If we wait, it could become too late.

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

"Musk is seemingly doing to the U.S. government what the U.S. government once did to the rest of the world: refashioning the plumbing of the federal government into a political weapon against his adversaries." and "Musk’s strategy has not been a coup so much as a takeover bid"

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

A sort of interesting thing is that on old Twitter you always had the sensation that the politics stuff was kind of floating on top of a superstructure of more normal people but you don’t get that feeling on either Bluesky or X, it’s all super political people all the way down (or so it feels)

submitted 16 days ago • 30 comments

Critical reporting on stuff not making it into any legacy media: "This is what militaries do during coups: you capture the major targets, with government buildings high on the list, and you take over communications and other systems."

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

The slow nazification of The Grey Lady. So sad. A sign of the times (no pun intended.)

submitted 17 days ago • 2 comments

"In reading the history of nations, we find that, like individuals, they have their whims and their peculiarities; their seasons of excitement and recklessness, when they care not what they do. We find that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object, and go mad in its pursuit..." 1/2

submitted 17 days ago • 1 comment

From the Department of: "I-Thought-Musk-Was-Against-Twitter-Colluding-With-The-Government" Musk removes Xpost listing DOGE employees, saying it is "criminal." (It's not, but violating the First Amendment is, or used to be.) Musk is now a gov official. And he's directly censuring social media.

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

The Guardian - unique among major newspapers, owned by The Scott Trust Limited, a structure designed to ensure its long-term independence and prevent it from being controlled by corporate interests or private owners. (It's still affected by the broader economic pressures of corporate media e.g. Ads)

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

Wonder what happened to our country, how bedrock American values shifted so much over the past five decades? This article illuminates one large piece in the puzzle. Beginning in the 80's Reagan Era, America allowed large corporations to slowly swallow the entire economy, boa constrictor style.

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments