paddlefoot123.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Good morning and happy Thursday to everyone who woke up with a headache. 💙

submitted 2 days ago • 16 comments

None of this has anything to do with effectiveness, or “lethality,” or promoting “warfighters," or any other buzzwords. It is praetorianism, plain and simple, and it is an assault on our military and our democracy. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

submitted 19 hours ago • 320 comments

Three things that make the U.S. the envy of the world: 1) Professionalized military with strong norm of civilian control 2) Higher education and cutting-edge scientific research 3) Ability to welcome immigrants and attract the “best and the brightest” All three are under threat.

submitted 19 hours ago • 124 comments

One reason Trump is doing this is bc Trump has failed to come close to meeting his deportation promises. If that were to become a bigger narrative--if the mob learned that he was diverting NatSec resources yet is falling behind Sleepy Joe Biden's deportation numbers--Trump'd be in trouble.

submitted 3 hours ago • 28 comments

Running thread of people trying to normalize the sieg heil. It's not an "Elon gesture", it's not autism, it's not your heart going out, it's not parody or trolling. It's fucking despicable. Don't ever let this shit become normal. Fuck any excuse given, there is none. Zero tolerance. 1. Elon Musk

submitted 17 hours ago • 85 comments

Batman villain Emil Bove is Donald Trump’s hatchet man in the Department of Justice. The great @lizdye.bsky.social unpicks his past and his ruthless knifing of former colleagues. Move over Scarecrow and Riddler. It’s the hour of The Apostate! airmail.news/issues/2025-...

submitted 7 hours ago • 3 comments

The American right was always at real risk of turning into a personality cult, but you'd think they could've mustered the pride and self-respect to pick a less stupid personality.

submitted 22 hours ago • 4 comments

Beyond betrayal.

submitted 21 hours ago • 63 comments

Pay attention to this. Replacing JAGs with loyalists enables whatever orders Trump and Hegseth issue to be interpreted as lawful.

submitted 20 hours ago • 411 comments

Side note. There are eight members of the joint chiefs. the chair is black. the CNO (navy) is a woman. the other six are white guys. chair and the cno got fired tonight.

submitted 20 hours ago • 1057 comments

Most unsettling thing about the Chair of the Joint Chiefs nominee—besides a political purge opening the spot—is not that he lacks the legal requirements. He’s not far off. It’s that Trump reportedly picked him because he said beating ISIS would be quick and easy. Feeds Trump’s delusions about force.

submitted 7 hours ago • 25 comments

today in breaking laws no matter how obscure, ladies and gentlemen, the Goldwater-Nichols Act

submitted 21 hours ago • 52 comments

the stock market is now below where it was when Joe Biden left office

submitted 1 day ago • 250 comments

They are telling us, out loud, exactly how the 2026/28 elections will not be free & fair. They will go after vote by mail (bsky.app/profile/mira...). They will go after computer voting. They will then say we can't count all the paper ballots because it's taking too long & there must be fraud. Etc.

submitted 1 day ago • 73 comments

“Shortly after Friday’s exchange, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced that it launched a Title IX violation investigation into Maine’s Department of Education and one of its school districts.”

submitted 23 hours ago • 253 comments

JUST IN: A judge has enjoined President Trump's effort to block federal funds from going toward grant recipients who engage in DEI practices. The judge says the orgs are likely to succeed on claims that this is viewpoint discrimination, among other issues storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

submitted 22 hours ago • 38 comments

In addition to the gutting of federal research funds for higher education, these are the sorts of rules being imposed on existing research. My new piece at Tusk: smotus.substack.com/p/the-attack...

submitted 1 day ago • 12 comments

BREAKING — States attorneys general lead by @newyorkstateag.bsky.social were just granted a preliminary injunction in their case against DOGE. The team cannot access Treasury Department payment systems or data while the lawsuit proceeds. Major.

submitted 22 hours ago • 156 comments

"This is something that does not belong to the president or the White House. It belongs to the American people.” www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

submitted 1 day ago • 575 comments

Steve Bannon did a Sieg Heil at CPAC. I'm a 3rd generation Holocaust survivor. My grandparents met in a Concentration Camp. My grandfather's wife & young daughter were murdered. My grandmother's brothers were murdered. Her mother died in her arms from starvation. Is THIS what life in America is NOW?

submitted 1 day ago • 162 comments

"Soon you will understand why it is important to maybe have somebody who isn’t loud and ridiculous and maybe ‘Sleepy Joe’ is what we wanted because we could at least sleep at night.” #JasmineCrockett

submitted 1 day ago • 9 comments

So. It has officially happened. I have been officially let go from my position at CDC. I wasn’t a probationary employee. I had stellar performance reviews every year. I’ll be ok. But please understand that many worked HARD to get into these positions and were doing great public health work.

submitted 1 day ago • 1810 comments

submitted 1 day ago • 161 comments

I'm up to emailing my Congresswoman 5 times a day now... 🤬

submitted 1 day ago • 16 comments

The goal here, of course, is a self-fulfilling spiral of stupidity. You fire a bunch of worker because you say government isn't efficient. Then when people need help, there aren't enough workers to help them. And you say, "See? I told you government doesn't work." And the rubes believe you.

submitted 2 days ago • 19 comments

Trump: "If you notice, every country that has the death penalty has no drug problem. They execute drug dealers. And when you think about it, it's very humane, because every drug dealer on average they say kills at least 500 people ... I don't know if our country is ready for it. I am ready for it."

submitted 1 day ago • 759 comments

This is quite significant in many ways: the overt thuggery, Trump’s barely suppressed fury at being contradicted by a woman, the governor’s standing up, the total abandonment of the pretense of federalism, the continuing use of trans Americans the way Hitler used Jews.

submitted 1 day ago • 248 comments

TRUMP: The NCAA has complied immediately. That's good. But I understand Maine -- is the governor of Maine here? JANET MILLS: Yeah I'm here TRUMP: Are you not gonna comply? JM: I'm going to comply with state and federal law T: You better do it bc you're not gonna get any federal funding at all

submitted 1 day ago • 2151 comments

Hearing multiple reports that members of the current ACIP were fired. I hate it when my predictions come true. bsky.app/profile/dave...

submitted 1 day ago • 12 comments

BREAKING NEW YORK (AP) — The Associated Press sues three Trump administration officials over access to presidential events, citing First Amendment.

submitted 1 day ago • 29 comments

There have never been kings in America. The monarchy doesn't start now.

submitted 1 day ago • 1141 comments

In a small trial, nearly half of pancreatic cancer patients who received an mRNA vaccine had no signs of relapse after three years. Dr. Vinod Balachandran from @mskcancercenter.bsky.social joins us to discuss the results and what they could mean for cancer treatment.

submitted 1 day ago • 713 comments

submitted 1 day ago • 15 comments

Just going to keep posting this now and then, as events unfold.

submitted 2 days ago • 12 comments

This x10000000000 “In other words: We, the opposition, are the majority. Take heart.” www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/they-are-a...

submitted 1 day ago • 1218 comments

Just listened to this beautiful and heartbreaking remembrance of Kiah Duggins. 💔 www.npr.org/2025/02/20/g...

submitted 1 day ago • 7 comments

The Pentagon is now pausing their mass firing of civilian employees in order to evaluate potential impacts on military readiness. I’m just spitballing here, but maybe a readiness assessment should have been the first step. 🤦‍♂️

submitted 1 day ago • 351 comments

This is such a savvy move by Judge Ho. It’s not just that Clement has impeccable (conservative) credentials; he was the Solicitor General from 2004–08, and even Acting AG briefly, so he can participate with quite a bit of perspective as to the proper role of the Department of Justice.

submitted 1 day ago • 34 comments

Dale Ho REALLY thinking out of the box, appoints super conservative (and renowned appellate lawyer) Paul Clement as his amicus.

submitted 1 day ago • 13 comments

lmao, jesus

submitted 1 day ago • 281 comments

AP News not playin around. apnews.com/article/trum...

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

GOP Rep. Rich McCormick at his town hall last night justified the Trump administration firing CDC workers by saying "a lot of the work they do is duplicitous with AI"

submitted 1 day ago • 346 comments

Justice Dept. to Drop Discrimination Case Against Elon Musk’s SpaceX www.nytimes.com/2025/02/20/u...

submitted 1 day ago • 264 comments