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

Current and former U.S. military pilots expressed bewilderment after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth refused to acknowledge that he should not have disclosed sensitive information in an unsecured group chat. “If you can’t admit when you’re wrong, you’re going to kill somebody,” one pilot said.

submitted 32 days ago • 633 comments

BREAKING: DOGE is starting to put together a team to migrate the SSA's computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.

submitted 31 days ago • 851 comments

An advance look at Barry Blitt’s “Left to Their Own Devices,” the cover for next week’s issue. #NewYorkerCovers

submitted 31 days ago • 85 comments

DOGE “seemed unsure” of what USAID programs they cut and is now attempting to reverse some of the cuts, says @propublica.org reporter Brett Murphy. “This is the opposite of a careful review."

submitted 53 days ago • 763 comments

With his permission, I'm sharing Dean Treanor's response to Ed Martin's letter:

submitted 53 days ago • 873 comments

A Whole Bunch of Bad Stuff Is Coming When things are dark, the only way through is together. By Jonathan V. Last www.thebulwark.com/p/a-whole-bu...

submitted 95 days ago • 0 comments

GOOD CONVERSATION! Listen to: A landlord and man seeking Section 8 housing have an unexpected moment of connection - one.npr.org/i/nx-s1-5252...

submitted 102 days ago • 0 comments

@picskelton.bsky.social Hey! 😎

submitted 104 days ago • 0 comments

GIFT ARTICLE 🎁 Special Counsel Jack Smith's Report Says Trump Would Have Been CONVICTED in Election Case The report, which said the special counsel’s office stood “fully behind” merits of the prosecution, amounted to an extraordinary rebuke of the president-elect. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/14/u...

submitted 105 days ago • 0 comments

Donald Trump would have been convicted in his election case if his re-election had not made a trial impossible, the special counsel report said.

submitted 105 days ago • 208 comments

sometimes a picture (or magazine cover) is all you need

submitted 105 days ago • 456 comments

In any other democratic country, including the UK, Donald Trump would have been convicted in 2020 or soon after. It would not have taken over four years for a functioning justice system to find he encouraged a violent riot. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

submitted 105 days ago • 15 comments

Pete Hegseth isn't just a Christian nationalist, he's FAR to the theological right of anybody even close to national power in modern history. Ted Cruz is Ned Flanders next to Hegseth. I've been reporting on the Christian Right for 20+ years. This isn't just "another one"; this is new & worse.

submitted 105 days ago • 35 comments

Trump team apparentrly saying Hegseth FBI file too terrifying to let all but a couple of senators see it www.axios.com/2025/01/14/t...

submitted 105 days ago • 102 comments

Let me be clear. Barring a last minute injunction, Merrick Garland should post the Smith Report (vol. 1) tonight at 12:01 a.m.--not one minute later. Do not wait until tomorrow morning.

submitted 105 days ago • 560 comments

Elon Musk and the Decline of Western Civilization Silvio Berlusconi invented the modern oligarchy. Musk is expanding it. by FRANCIS FUKUYAMA www.persuasion.community/p/elon-musk-...

submitted 105 days ago • 0 comments

Anderson Cooper has a special broadcast on LA burning, on CNN right now (Sunday, started 8:30pm PST). This is a screenshot of a thermal image satellite photo of the Altadena CA fire and every one of those dots is a building burning. Astonishing. I've never seen anything like this.

submitted 106 days ago • 0 comments

GIFT ARTICLE 🎁 The Army of God Comes Out of the Shadows Tens of millions of American Christians are embracing a charismatic movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation, which seeks to destroy the secular state. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

submitted 109 days ago • 6 comments

State Farm, one of the biggest insurers in California, canceled hundreds of homeowners' policies last summer in Pacific Palisades—the same area which is now being ravaged by a devastating wildfire. www.newsweek.com/california-i...

submitted 110 days ago • 0 comments

VERY BAD Pacific Palisades fire explodes as thousands of residents flee, homes are lost www.latimes.com/california/s...

submitted 111 days ago • 0 comments

GIFT ARTICLE 🎁 The Internet Is Worse Than a Brainwashing Machine In recent years, experts have worried over an online crisis of “misinformation,” Charlie Warzel and Mike Caulfield write. But that term doesn’t begin to describe what’s really happening. www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

submitted 112 days ago • 0 comments

Take a screenshot of this GIF, and whichever new word you land on is YOUR word for 2025. May the odds be ever in your favor.

submitted 115 days ago • 869 comments

Everything stated in this post is a provable fact. You are entitled to your own opinion. You are not entitled to your own facts. Looking at YOU, 2020 election-deniers.

submitted 115 days ago • 2063 comments

The Inauguration should be a great tradition, regardless who wins. But a lot of the money given to Trump for the 2016 inauguration was paid to related parties, and other funds remain mysteriously unaccounted for. To ignore this is to participate in corruption.

submitted 115 days ago • 57 comments

GIFT ARTICLE 🎁 Trump owes his victory to the millions of voters who saw him "as the stability candidate who would usher in a return to pre-COVID normalcy,” writes Rogé Karma. But his agenda “seems bound to generate conflict and chaos.” www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

submitted 115 days ago • 0 comments

A Tesla Cybertruck exploded in front of one of Trump’s hotels last night. Here’s why that’s bad news for Joe Biden.

submitted 117 days ago • 44 comments

Here we go! Hold fast, everyone. 💪

submitted 117 days ago • 0 comments

In the last year we've laughed, cried, been ferocious and danced together My goal on Twitter, and now here, has been to spread kindness & love. But you've all given me so much more than that Best wishes for a happy & healthy 2025, filled with love, peace, laughter and joy✨ l love you guys ❤️❤️❤️ 🔊

submitted 118 days ago • 243 comments

Just a couple of reasons why I'm still on X, and trolling Elmo is the main one.

submitted 118 days ago • 0 comments

2024 has been so off the charts crazy that you may be as exhausted as I am by it. I'm trying to be optimistic about the coming year but it's difficult. Hold fast, I guess, is all we can do. It seems like the world has gone half mad.

submitted 118 days ago • 0 comments

Incredibly sad. Entirely preventable. www.mediaite.com/news/washing...

submitted 118 days ago • 156 comments

The Dogs of 2024 youtu.be/yKcQScxYdYM?...

submitted 118 days ago • 81 comments

Nick Schifrin spoke with Judy Woodruff, who has covered the Carters for more than 50 years; @jfallows.bsky.social, Carter’s speechwriter during the first two years of the administration; and Kai Bird, author of “The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter.” www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...

submitted 119 days ago • 0 comments

And stay out!

submitted 119 days ago • 2911 comments

submitted 119 days ago • 0 comments

submitted 120 days ago • 0 comments

Photo by my friend Vince Compagnone in 1976, in Chula Vista, CA. RIP

submitted 120 days ago • 0 comments

A cartoon by Edward Koren #NewYorkerCartoons

submitted 120 days ago • 0 comments

PBS NEWSHOUR looks back at some of the year’s biggest stories through the images of PHOTOJOURNALISTS, including Evan Vucci. 4 photographers who documented the presidential campaign, the protests over war in Gaza, the Paris Olympics and more discuss it. www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...

submitted 122 days ago • 0 comments

submitted 123 days ago • 0 comments

❤️ I miss Thelma

submitted 123 days ago • 0 comments

Only a moron would think Canada would want to join a country that has a dictatorship in the making, while Canadians enjoy… National wide Healthcare Minimum Wage $15-$17 Paid maternity leave Subsidized Day Care Pro choice Democracy And, we are ranked 3rd best country to live in.

submitted 123 days ago • 495 comments

In 1950 the A.C. Gilbert Company, introduced the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab. Marketed as a cutting-edge science kit, it was designed to teach children about atomic energy and included real radioactive materials… It was removed from shelves in 1951

submitted 124 days ago • 20 comments

Merry Christmas from Bernard the Corgi! (Scene seen at church today) @gtconway.bsky.social

submitted 124 days ago • 0 comments