Justin Blankenship

On October 1, 2025, after successfully completing 16 weeks of the FBI Academy's 19-week training program, Maltinsky was handed a letter terminating his employment with the FBI. The letter was signed by Defendant Patel ("Patel"). In the letter, Patel wrote that he had "determined that [Maltinsky] exercised poor judgment with an inappropriate display of political signage in [his] work area during [his] previous assignment at the Los Angeles Field Office." In short, Patel fired Maltinsky for displaying a pride flag at his workstation that had been flown by the FBI at the LAFO and then given by the FBI to Maltinsky. The Defendants' discrimination against Maltinsky for engaging in protected speech was a clear and brazen violation of federal law and the Constitution.

Kash Patel's personal firing of the Pride flag-displaying employee was always absurd and unconstitutional, so I'm glad David Maltinsky is suing, but, wait.

It was a flag FLOWN BY THE FBI that was given to him BY THE FBI?! Come on.

Complaint: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

It's only fantasy when it's from Europe, and everything else is just sparkling mythology

If you're trying to convince your friends to spend time on Bluesky rather than X, maybe show them this. X is not "the public town square" or about "free speech." It's "just what Elon Musk wants you to see." If you see stuff he doesn't like he'll step in to make sure you don't see it for long.

Over on Threads there's discourse about some 28 year-old unschooled woman not knowing that Anne Frank died because her mother left the upsetting parts out of history when teaching her, and that would be an excellent example of why unschooling is frequently a fancy word for educational neglect.

Is it really work though? Seems things just fall in place naturally for this fool.

I liked America better before we had to watch our leaders slow-walk the discovery of extremely basic morality.

All this in service to a dude who completely derailed her career with his “blood coming out of her whatever” comment. 🙄

I don’t know if she knows this, but she can flail like this in private through therapy. She doesn’t have to process her failures before a live audience.

Men do not “have sex with underage girls” they rape them. Language matters. Children CANNOT consent

Hey so, today is my last day at Crystal Dynamics apparently. I joined the company in 2018 to work on Marvel's Avengers and it's been the longest (and best) job I've ever had. It now means I'm looking for work, so if you know of any senior writer/narrative designer positions please send them my way.

NEW: At Pope Leo’s Urging, Bishops Issue Historic Rebuke of Trump’s Raids Nearly all U.S. Catholic bishops united in Baltimore to denounce the Trump administration’s “inhumane” deportation campaign — a near-unanimous, unprecedented moral stand against a sitting president.

BREAKING: At Pope Leo XIV’s urging, U.S. Catholic bishops just delivered the strongest rebuke of a sitting president in Church history — condemning Trump-Vance raids as “inhumane” and “dehumanizing” in a 216–5 vote.

Real Optimus knows a Decepticon when he sees one.

I have a vivid memory of sitting in the back of my grandparents’ RV bawling my eyes out as the end of that book absolutely broke my heart like nothing I’d read before it.

Getting really sick of Nazis appropriating shit I like.

I’ve read LOTR probably 10+ times, and the color of elven/hobbit/human skin was integral to my enjoyment on exactly 0 occasions.

100% agreed. As I stated in another post, pushing for their removal is the minimum it would take for me to consider your gubernatorial candidacy.

Did you do any kind of quantitative analysis to figure out how worn out the existing battery is and how much benefit you’d get from the new one? I know my battery is fading, but not sure when it would be time to pull the trigger.

It’s the same old same old. Republicans do a tantrum and break the dishes. The Democrats clean it up. It’s an abusive relationship.

I’d love to hear how this goes. Battery life is my only complaint about what’s otherwise my favorite device.

Chuck Schumer must go as Senate Democratic leader. Period. We need a more effective fighter

We need fighters, not folders. And fighters who are effective at messaging. Neither of that is Schumer. That is why Chuck Schumer must go as Democratic Senate leader. My new article deanobeidallah.substack.com/p/chuck-schu...

I've been a supporter of @kaine.senate.gov since I was eligible to vote.

I've been confused by some of his votes this year, but he also fought some good fights.

This "rogue" vote, squandering our leverage & energy immediately following our historic Virginia election was the last straw.

I'm done.

Like most, I don’t entirely believe this. And even if I did, it wouldn’t change my opinion that it’s past time for a change in leadership.

He’s either spinning his feckless cowardice behind the scenes, or he has no ability to hold his caucus together at this crucial moment.

Either way, he’s done

Are you in favor of removing Schumer as Minority Leader?

You should be, because he may have just tanked your chances in the CO Gov race.

At this point, advocating for a change of leadership is the price just to get me to consider your candidacy. Otherwise, I’m behind AG Phil Weiser all the way.

We won’t get past these recriminations until there’s a change in leadership in the Senate. Trust is fully broken at this point and heads need to roll the fix it.

There’s no moving on until then.

My pocketbook is closed to ALL incumbent Dem Senators until the situation changes.

Save it for the caucus you have no ability to wrangle or control.

The Democratic Party desperately needs new leadership.

What’s your take on Sparta allying itself with the Persian Empire to get a leg up on Athens in Peloponnesian Wars only a generation or two after the heroics at Thermopylae? Always felt to me like the kind of move that might have been controversial domestically.

A reminder that this anti-trans panic is 100% bullshit and exactly none of our country’s problems are related to someone expressing their gender identity and everyone who isn’t a hate-filled weirdo knows it.

Dems backed Trump into a corner where he’s advocating for starving Americans and hemorrhaging support. If they vote to let him off the hook in exchange for nothing it’s a cataclysmic failure. I know people are in pain but insulating Republicans from political consequences is not the answer.

I am once again saying that we saw what wall to wall, panic coverage of a crisis looked like after the Biden debate and there’s no reason Trump isn’t getting that kind of coverage except for class solidarity.

Not sure what’s up, but I hope you’re doing well buddy!

“individual employees asked to change behavior in response to catastrophic mistakes made by their high-level leadership over the past 3-7 years” really feels like the overarching story of the current times

Yep. They use the anti-semitism debate both as a “look over here at the shiny object!” distraction on the media. But they also use it as a Trojan Horse to launder some unearned level of cachet and respectability.

Ignoring this garbage while giving them credit is playing their game.