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

How a British citizen has been left ‘to die’ in a Dubai prison: I plead for justice for Ryan Cornelius who has been wrongfully detained in Dubai for more than 17 years in one of the most shocking cases of injustices I’ve ever seen. youtu.be/2tJe6KyWJTo

submitted 10 hours ago • 1 comment

This seems fine dot gif.

submitted 10 hours ago • 7 comments

Looking at a recent court filing that has garnered little attention, @AnnaBower.bsky.social provides new details on the extent of DOGE's influence within the executive branch and whether its role goes beyond advising—to calling the shots. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/on-d...

submitted 16 hours ago • 1 comment

“Democracy got us into this mess, and democracy is going to have to get us out.” Former Acting Attorney General Peter Keisler says the public must encourage politicians to follow norms and principles—even when they’re not mandated to do so by the law.

submitted 4 days ago • 12 comments

The rule of law, crucial in itself, is also the fundamental economic issue. I try to explain in this video I made in Chicago in October, before the election. open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p...

submitted 6 days ago • 19 comments

Yes. And do so not for the sake of those of us you berated but because, like David Brooks, your very failure in the past gives you credibility with many whom you misled now. If you were wrong, you have an opportunity to do a whole lot of right by saying so now.

submitted 9 days ago • 14 comments

How Trump moved swiftly to punish perceived foes in his first 100 days rappler.com/world/us-can... via @rappler.com.web.brid.gy

submitted 6 days ago • 8 comments

I saw firsthand the impact of stop-work-orders/terminations at USAID & now Harvard. My new @NewYorker piece is on the serious implications for the lives of millions across the world and the US – including for my own family and very possibly your own. 🧵 www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

submitted 6 days ago • 6 comments

DOGE claims it will take only a few months to replace legacy systems at the Social Security Administration. Having worked on similar modernization efforts before, we can tell you that isn’t true—here’s why.

submitted 6 days ago • 19 comments

Thread: Woke up to the horrible news. The world is just a little darker. He fought for justice, an end to war - peace & unity. He understood the dehumanizing effects of technology and he reminded us of the goodness inside us #Hope #BeHuman #RIP Pope Francis dies rappler.com/world/europe...

submitted 7 days ago • 17 comments

Good time to subscribe to Wired. I used to think of it as a guilty pleasure at the newsstand, a holdover from nerdy youth. But they are doing an excellent job covering key elements of our political reality.

submitted 7 days ago • 77 comments

Earlier, I published an article in Foreign Affairs titled “The Perils of ‘Russia First’” detailing how decades of short-term, transactional decision making by several presidential administrations has compromised American interests in Eastern Europe & Eurasia & inadvertently advanced Moscow’s agenda.

submitted 9 days ago • 13 comments

This is an enormous theft—not just privatizing a government function with a worse and more expensive for-profit substitute, but also a massive government financial data heist—and on the other side of it everyone needs to end up broke and imprisoned to deter them and others from doing it again.

submitted 9 days ago • 89 comments

“‘Pretty soon, within the next couple of weeks, everything regarding IT and cyber at the department will start to operationally reach a point of no return,’ one source, who was part of a team that managed these systems at HHS for a decade before being part of the RIF, alleges to WIRED.”

submitted 9 days ago • 193 comments

From @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social "Yet there is another reason Abrego Garcia is useful as a captive body: his fate speaks to the apparent randomness of authoritarian repression. Autocracies encourage compliance by telegraphing that anyone can be a target. lucid.substack.com/p/bukeles-bo...

submitted 10 days ago • 4 comments

In case you needed proof that the disastrous Citizens United decision put a for sale sign on our democracy. 👇

submitted 10 days ago • 37 comments

"We are living through a revolutionary change," @anneapplebaum.bsky.social writes of the Trump era. "For the past decade, American government and business alike have slowly begun to adopt the kleptocratic model pioneered by countries such as Russia and China." https://theatln.tc/ldjLYq88

submitted 12 days ago • 17 comments

Trump, who (falsely) claimed during his election campaign that Biden wasn't doing ENOUGH to assist with NC's hurricane recovery....wait for it....just revoked Biden's Dec 2024 hurricane clean-up reimbursement agreement. #ncpol ncnewsline.com/2025/04/12/f...

submitted 13 days ago • 55 comments

This is really unfair to everyone who just voted for him for the racism.

submitted 22 days ago • 1139 comments

Hundreds show up to #HandsOff Protest at Brunswick County NC Courthouse. SOLIDARITY and DETERMINATION.

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

You must listen to Derek Thompson push back against gullible CNBC anchors @dkthomp.bsky.social www.cnbc.com/video/2025/0...

submitted 24 days ago • 90 comments

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's firing of top judge advocates in the military and planned changes within the JAG Corps could have wide-ranging consequences for how the U.S. military conducts operations and disciplines personnel, writes @seharrison7.bsky.social.

submitted 24 days ago • 14 comments

This asshole raised prices and ruined your retirement savings, and now he's out golfing for the rest of the weekend.

submitted 24 days ago • 5322 comments

My interview with the Kyiv Independent. kyivindependent.com/us-overestim...

submitted 27 days ago • 6 comments

Trump is repeating all the mistakes of the past 35 years as well as amplifying those mistakes in new and dangerous ways. His approach delays the possibility of peace between Russia and Ukraine and endangers the U.S. | The Perils of “Russia First” www.foreignaffairs.com/russia/peril...

submitted 32 days ago • 64 comments

The worst thing the federal government has done to unions in my lifetime happened last night. The second worst thing was three weeks ago. The labor movement will either protect ourselves right now or be smashed. That's all there is to it. www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/they-are-g...

submitted 31 days ago • 85 comments

So much of "Abundance" is about failures of government in California specifically. So I was pretty damn interested to hear what @gavinnewsom.bsky.social thought of it, and how he'd answer some of those critiques. Then he invited me on his podcast. youtu.be/Bt_LQNS7hmU?...

submitted 33 days ago • 50 comments

In the Situation, @benjaminwittes.bsky.social explains the 5 pillars of Trumpian repression: attacking federal grant-making; retribution within the government; impunity for political allies; non-criminal legal pressures against perceived foes; and threats of criminal prosecution.

submitted 34 days ago • 2 comments

This is unconscionable.

submitted 34 days ago • 31 comments

Unreal. "Hundreds of Thousands Will Die: The writer, surgeon, and former U.S.A.I.D. senior official Atul Gawande on the Trump Administration’s decimation of foreign aid and the consequences around the world." www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-...

submitted 40 days ago • 50 comments

SCOOP: Before the IRS fired nearly 7,000 probationary employees, a senior lawyer raised the alarm that: - the terminations contained "false" information - they amounted to a "fraud" on the US judicial system Don't miss this @propublica.org exclusive: www.propublica.org/article/trum...

submitted 40 days ago • 62 comments

Watch who and what they are attacking first.

submitted 40 days ago • 86 comments

DOGE has spent the last six weeks on a supposed crusade to audit the government and stop fraud, waste, and abuse. But two federal auditors with years of experience say that DOGE’s actions are the furthest thing from what an actual audit looks like. wrd.cm/420UPoq

submitted 41 days ago • 84 comments

Trying to imagine Biden withholding disaster funds from red states unless they first instituted gun control

submitted 44 days ago • 193 comments

submitted 44 days ago • 43 comments

This is blood-boiling. Charles Rogers was awarded the Medal of Honor in Vietnam after being wounded three times leading the defense of a position. Google his name and the entry below comes up. When you click, you'll see the page has been deleted and the URL changed to include "DEI medal."

submitted 44 days ago • 2773 comments

I searched this and just wow, there are tons of stories of Rogers' heroism & service but now the official DoD site not only says "not found" but the text is "deimedal" | see Congressional Medal of Honor list www.cmohs.org/recipients/c...

submitted 44 days ago • 27 comments

Extraordinary scenes in Serbia’s capital Belgrade right now. Around 500,000 people are on the streets in what may be the biggest protest in Serbian history. All demanding the resignation of President Vučić & his government. What began as a student protest is now a full democratic uprising. 🇷🇸

submitted 44 days ago • 174 comments

Thanks for sharing, @altusds.bsky.social ! We miss working with you 🤝

submitted 48 days ago • 4 comments

Critical reporting from Stephanie Nolen on what the interruption of TB funding actually means for those living with the disease--and those caring for them. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/11/h...

submitted 48 days ago • 10 comments