francisco novoa

Democracy with a huge W yesterday

The Founders built a robust system that survived a civil war and all kinds of chaos, but it was built on the presumption that politicians would behave honorably or, at the very least, that the public would demand honorable behavior from politicians. An honor system cannot function in the Age of Ego.

Trench

Trump’s allies now control X, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, & TikTok.

They own Fox News, CBS, WaPo, WSJ & NY Post.

They own Sinclair Broadcasting which has 200 tv stations and local news in 100 markets.

“Freedom of speech” is now what Trump and his billionaire pals say it is.

People missing an important point about folks getting fired for whatever they said about Charlie Kirk: Americans are being conditioned to be snitches on their fellow citizens who don’t toe a party line on what is “allowed” to be expressed. And employers are going along. It’s the new secret police

Anyone seen Pat Brisson? I just wanna talk…

It is a hard, demanding time to be alive right now for anyone with a strong moral compass that cannot be dimmed.

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bluesky*

i need politicians to be as mad at housing prices as they are about cracker barrel's new logo

It is 2025, I’m 29 years old, and I’m posting twenty one pilots lyrics on blueksy

Stuck between a rock and a home

We got to fuck around for about a decade but we’re about to find out at light speed.

Anyway, something something both sides are the same, something something I have to withhold my vote for my conscience something something

Petition to refresh the Cracker Barrel logo—restoring its old glory with a proper, updated flair!

He instructed his political allies to break norms and give him five more seats to ensure he maintains his power, knowing he will likely lose power without rigging.

He also wants to unconstitutionally cease legal voting means.

And journos still don’t want to call him anti-democratic/authoritarian?

Spencer Horwitz always wears a reminder of the importance of mental health.

These are his cleats.

Presented by Xfinity

It's weird that he was walking around on the roof the other day but we've largely moved on.

I’ll keep saying it, even if my platform and influence isn’t that large, one of the first lessons of journalism school that got seared into my brain was:

If the left says it’s raining and the right says it isn’t, your job isn’t to report the disagreement. It’s to open the window.

Americans are relearning the lesson we learned during the Gilded Age of the late 1890s, when robber barons ran the government and the economy for their own benefit: Oligarchy is incompatible with the common good.

I'm hopeful we'll respond with a new progressive movement.

I’m a structural engineer, I always defer to the “Average Layman Smell Test,” when considering how physics works. All the math and science is unnecessary, you should feel confident being inside the buildings I have designed.

What stage of democratic breakdown is it when corporate CEO's have to favor the president with personal gifts in order to ensure favorable treatment from the government?

Americans are all into superhero movies and hero movies, hero stories, and yet when a dictator actually takes hold, they all cower. Pathetic.
They live in a fictional world. Lost in their own illusions.
Weaklings.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on what keeps her up at night:

"The state of our democracy. I would say that I am really very interested in getting people to focus and to invest and to pay attention to what is happening in our country and in our government."

I am grieving the barbarism that is going to unfurl from all this. People are going to die. Livelihoods gone. All to feed a corrupt kleptocracy.

I see every day up close how different it is from the first time around. There are no guardrails. A disaster. I’m sorry we have to live through this.

So am I reading this court decision correctly? We now have 50 micronations with their own laws interpreting the U.S. Constitution wholly separate from one another? But there's one guy with private law enforcement who is immune from all punishment who can do whatever he wants in those 50 states?

We won a court order restoring these crucial funds to help tackle pollution and combat climate change.
 
I will keep fighting to make sure New York gets the resources we need to support our environment.

Imagine if the Democratic Party actually helped Zohran instead of trying to kneecap him at every step. A better party is immediately possible if they stop shoving money into the anti-trans combination Racism Dial/Money Toilet and instead get behind candidates people actually want.

that’s nothing, a couple months ago he went 144 when he was supposed to go 25

I spent my youth thinking one day I'd have an epiphany and "get it" — i.e., feel like a fully actualized adult.

Then I realized everyone is constantly faking it, fucking up, and flailing around.

If you can easily admit to and learn from your mistakes, you're way ahead of 75% of so-called "adults."