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

Statement from the Musk-appointed head of SSA celebrating the deletion of research grants studying the financial security of the older adults and the disabled. Just one way that the richest man in the world is dictating societal priorities. www.ssa.gov/news/press/r...

submitted 2 days ago • 66 comments

Remembered that I wrote about how awful Woodrow Wilson's historic segregationist purge of Black workers from federal government jobs was last year.... www.thedailybeast.com/woodrow-wils...

submitted 1 day ago • 14 comments

We’re busy working with old definitions of authoritarian forms that are continually evolving and shapeshifting. I’m uncertain why this being a coup is still a question.

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

I have to give it him. Given my knowledge of Latin American history, I couldn’t fathom how he’d gain control of the military, as is traditionally done, to mobilize a coup. Nope. He knew there’d be too many levels to clear. So he used computer/digital technology.

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

This is good advice. I've found that I'm much happier if I treat social media like I treat caffeine -- and for the same reasons 1. None of either when I first wake up 2. Stop consuming both after about 2pm so I can calm my nervous system enough to get ready for bed

submitted 11 days ago • 3 comments

I read a post elsewhere that advised, for the sake our our mental health, to treat current 24-hr news cycle like we did in the pre-social media—where we came home from work/school and only watched the news at 6 pm and 10 pm instead of scrolling all day. And I think I’m going to adopt that stance.

submitted 11 days ago • 2 comments

It feels strange to celebrate in these dark times. Yet ☝🏾Two days before its official pub date, my book has been #1 on Amazon’s new releases in Caribbean and Latin American literary criticism.🤭🫢 😮I know these rankings are arbitrary. Thanks to those who’ve preordered. So much went into writing this.

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

This man’s term will not end in 2028. They are setting everything up to ensure that.

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

submitted 12 days ago • 886 comments

Here we go…

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

I mean, thousands of Black folks do very well on standardized tests. I'm one of them. Many in my family test well. Barring an excessive amount of trauma and halfway decent schooling, etc. we'll pop up here and there in the first quartile, quintile, or decile with high GPAs, extracurriculars, etc.

submitted 17 days ago • 11 comments

They are paving the way for academia and the arts, which are already elite/privileged spaces, to fully return to being the domain of the very very privileged few (1%). We’re going back to pre-19th century

submitted 17 days ago • 2 comments

Meet Edward "Big Balls" Coristine, a teenage DOGE engineer, who has access to sensitive federal data • Runs Tesla.Sexy, a company operating a Russian website • Worked at startup that hired convicted hackers • Someone using his Telegram handle solicited a cyberattack www.wired.com/story/edward...

submitted 18 days ago • 132 comments

So, the National Endowment for the Arts announced today that they are reworking the guidelines for all 2026 grants and will be prioritizing projects that center the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It's now just a propaganda fund. www.arts.gov/news/press-r...

submitted 17 days ago • 36 comments

NEW: Archived tweets for Gavin Kriger, Musk's 20-something DOGE employee wreaking havoc inside USAID, shows that Kriger has retweeted multiple neo-Nazis including Nick Fuentes, leader of the so-called Groyper movement, and another popular explicit Nazi account recently unmasked by @travisbrown.dev

submitted 20 days ago • 310 comments

The 20-year-old hackers are not “little boys” or “kids.” To call them such is to minimize the gravity of their actions. When I recall the long history of criminalizing Black youth and designating them “adults,” this makes my blood boil. The racialized construction of “childhood” holds strong.

submitted 18 days ago • 26 comments

If they aren’t answering their D.C. phones call their local office. That’s what I did yesterday.

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

I think it's very cool that Wired in its current form has taken the tone and approach to current political events, but it's also wild to think about considering earlier incarnations of the publication kind of contributed to creating the current situation.

submitted 20 days ago • 8 comments

We need strategy, right now, not doom and gloom. That’s where I’m directing my energy.

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

Trump is advocating for ethnic cleansing of Gaza. This is a war crime. Centuries will not erase the shame of our country's complicity with this genocide. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/02...

submitted 19 days ago • 45 comments

So I was able to reach someone at my congressperson’s local office in Burbank. They took my contact info and said they’d email me when they have more details. We are two and a half weeks in to this country’s dismantling, and these people have no plan. 🤦🏾‍♀️ Let me make my exit strategy…

submitted 19 days ago • 1 comment

So the FBI could surveil & then assassinate a 21 year old Civil Rights leader in 1969, but is powerless to take any steps to stop--checks notes--a 19 year old who goes by the name Big Balls from defunding and defrauding a $6 Trillion economy? Do I have that right?

submitted 19 days ago • 126 comments

We cannot rely on “norms” and a “dignified” compliance with rules when the other side has set fire to the rule book along with every other book they don’t like.

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

Please stop posting if you’re not going to tell us what you are doing to stop this madness. I voted for you.

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

Resegregation orders. Not anti-DEIA orders. Not a "rollback" of DEIA. A rollback of DEIA is a return to segregation. You don't break even on a desegregation order issued in 1965 or after. Resegregation. Segregation. Segregationist. Resegregation. Segregationist.

submitted 23 days ago • 7 comments

The number of people surprised by the long list of words NSF is targeting makes me think many of you all have not seen this: www.commerce.senate.gov/services/fil...

submitted 20 days ago • 60 comments

Just called my congresswoman’s D.C. office, which went straight to voice mail. This is some bullshit. I cannot believe (oh yes, I can) that officials we elected are allowing an actual foreign enemy to dismantle the government.

submitted 19 days ago • 1 comment

You are MEMBERS OF CONGRESS. If they threaten you with arrest for trying to access a site you are lawfully entitled to access, YOU MAKE THEM FUCKING ARREST YOU. YOU MAKE THEM SLAP THE CUFFS ON A CONGRESSMAN LIVE ON TV, YOU MAKE THEM FUCKING DO IT.

submitted 20 days ago • 202 comments

Hear me out — If parents call colleges freaked about their FAFSA data being leaked, schools may have to issue statements — which would reach a whole lot more families about how warped this is. Organizing isn’t always calling electeds. Sometimes it’s just calling people with a bigger megaphone.

submitted 20 days ago • 77 comments

Judge rules that Black church in DC, which won a $2.8 million default judgment against the Proud Boys, now gains control over the trademark “Proud Boys.” The far-right group is barred from selling any related merchandise or symbols without the consent of the church. Gift link:

submitted 19 days ago • 1186 comments

Canada just signed a trade deal with Ecuador so the orange juice options will increase now Florida Oranges aren't being bought. Oasis is a Canadian brand in the mean time and Minute Maid is bottled here using Brazilian oranges.

submitted 20 days ago • 559 comments

NEW: Elon Musk’s attack on USAID has cut HIV/AIDS workers off from medicine and money. The Trump Administration claims it is allowing “lifesaving” foreign aid to continue, but in reality, DOGE is preventing vital work on HIV and AIDS from saving lives. Read our scoop here:

submitted 20 days ago • 140 comments

NEW: The consequences may be dire: “At a minimum, 300 babies that wouldn’t have had HIV, now do,” one current USAID worker estimates. @knibbs.bsky.social has the scoop: www.wired.com/story/usaid-...

submitted 20 days ago • 2 comments

🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science.

submitted 20 days ago • 1330 comments

Can't stress enough how important it is to care for our nervous systems right now and in the days, months and years to come. All of that fear and anxiety will take a toll on us. Take time to breathe, feel it and let it move through you. Even if all you can do is 5-15mins a day, that can do wonders.

submitted 21 days ago • 5 comments

In this week's security news: foreign hackers are using Google's Gemini in attacks on the US, WhatsApp discloses nearly 100 targets of spyware, hackers used the AT&T breach to hunt for details on US politicians, and more.

submitted 21 days ago • 9 comments

NEW: Engineers between 19 and 24, most linked to Musk’s companies, are playing a key role as he seizes control of federal infrastructure.

submitted 21 days ago • 59 comments