Bruce Arthur
@brucearthur.bsky.social
37K followers 1K following 4.3K posts
Toronto Star columnist, nice guy, jump shooter.
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brucearthur.bsky.social
Harriette Mackenzie is such a rare athlete: she’s a BC college basketball star, and she is trans. This is the story of her season: an in-game attack, anti-trans hatred, outing herself, a lifetime of trauma, and how she kept going, despite it all. www.thestar.com/sports/baske...
Bullying, basketball and an online firestorm: How B.C. college star Harriette MacKenzie stood up to anti-trans hate — and won
Trans athlete Harriette Mackenzie has been ostracized most of her life. One violent play during a Pac West basketball game pushed her to fight back.
www.thestar.com
Reposted by Bruce Arthur
bencollins.bsky.social
Listen to the response to this and look how easy it is to say it.
grahamformaine.bsky.social
We have armed secret police kidnapping people off the street based on the color of their skin.

When we win: we will haul them before a Senate committee. The masks will come off. There will be consequences.
brucearthur.bsky.social
These people got rich in ways that avoided taking history or literature or any other arts courses, could not handle the internet, and are now just plum out of their minds
sharonk.bsky.social
thiel, man, what the fuck are you talking about

He describes the plot of Watchmen, a 1986 graphic novel involving superheroes grappling with moral questions about humanity against the backdrop of impending nuclear war:

The antihero Ozymandias, the antichrist-type figure, is sort of an early-modern person. He believes this will be a timeless and eternal solution – eternal world peace. Moore is sort of a late-modern. In early modernity, you have ideal solutions, ‘perfect’ solutions to calculus. In late modernity, things are sort of probabilistic. And at some point, he asks Dr Manhattan whether the world government is going to last. And he says that ‘nothing lasts forever.’ So you embrace the antichrist and it still doesn’t work.

Thiel later finds biblical meaning in the manga One Piece, discussing how he believes it represents a future where an antichrist-like one-world government has repressed science. He believes that the hero, Monkey D Luffy, represents a Christlike figure.

In One Piece, you are set in a fantasy world, again sort of an alternate earth, but it’s 800 years into the reign of this one-world state. Which, as the story unfolds, gradually gets darker and darker. You sort of realize, in my interpretation, who runs the world and it’s something like the antichrist. There’s Luffy, a pirate who wears a red straw hat, sort of like Christ’s crown of thorns. And then towards the end of the story, transforms into a figure who resembles Christ in Revelation.

Thiel, along with a researcher and writer at Thiel Capital, explored these ideas at greater length in an essay for the religious journal First Things earlier this month.
Reposted by Bruce Arthur
mcopelov.bsky.social
Not sure why it has taken until late 2025 to see this, but this is how you do it. Every time. For every one of these guests.
atrupar.com
STEPHANOPOULOS: I didn't insinuate anything. I asked you whether Tom Homan accepted $50k as was heard on an audio tape recorded by the FBI in September 2024. You did not answer the question. Thank you for your time.

VANCE: No, George, I sai--

STEPHANOPOULOS: We'll be right back
Reposted by Bruce Arthur
jamellebouie.net
really striking the degree to which not a single person working in the trump administration appears to be interested in serving the american people
Reposted by Bruce Arthur
ndrew.bsky.social
every single tech idea is like “soon our robots will be capable of playing catch with your kid, freeing you up to spend more time working on your employers’ spreadsheets”
Reposted by Bruce Arthur
mcopelov.bsky.social
Nixon’s crimes look like harmless high school pranks compared to the now-daily unprecedented illegal & unconstitutional crimes being committed daily by this president & his staff
kjephd.bsky.social
Unconstitutionally taking money that the law says must be spent on one purpose & using it for something else—when it's to establish personalist control over the FUCKING MILITARY—is about as dangerous a constitutional crisis/failure as you can imagine

Via: www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...
The Office of Management and Budget sent a notification to Congress about their intent to use research and development funds to pay members of the military, two sources with direct knowledge tell NBC News.

A spokesperson for the OMB confirmed to NBC News that it plans to use the research and development funds and that there are two years' worth of funds available within the Department of Defense.
Reposted by Bruce Arthur
senategabe.bsky.social
It is so inexcusable on so many levels how unprepared Congress has been for this administration.
kjephd.bsky.social
Unconstitutionally taking money that the law says must be spent on one purpose & using it for something else—when it's to establish personalist control over the FUCKING MILITARY—is about as dangerous a constitutional crisis/failure as you can imagine

Via: www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...
The Office of Management and Budget sent a notification to Congress about their intent to use research and development funds to pay members of the military, two sources with direct knowledge tell NBC News.

A spokesperson for the OMB confirmed to NBC News that it plans to use the research and development funds and that there are two years' worth of funds available within the Department of Defense.
Reposted by Bruce Arthur
jesseltaylor.bsky.social
Imagine if you did this in any other journalistic context

"Did the Tigers or Mariners Win Game 5? In Detroit, Depends on the Narrator."
davidcorn.bsky.social
A classic case of irresponsible both-sidesism from the NYT. The story is that Trump and MAGA propagandists are lying about Portland to incite a conflict, not that there are different views of the matter.
Reposted by Bruce Arthur
zacheverson.com
“Parliament had turned over its constitutional authority to Hitler and thereby committed suicide, though its body lingered on in an embalmed state.”

Shirer, William L. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (p. 331)
carlquintanilla.bsky.social
“.. Inside the White House, top advisers joke that they are ruling Congress with an “iron fist,” according to people who have heard the comments. Steve Bannon, the influential Trump ally, likened Congress to the Duma, the Russian assembly that is largely ceremonial.”

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
brucearthur.bsky.social
Here’s the thing with sports: when you’re in the high-pressure playoff spaces, it might feel like hell. But that’s the greatest thing about sports fandom: you get to feel it. You get to live and die. Feel it, live it, embrace it. You might never forget it, and how many things are like that?
brucearthur.bsky.social
Mariners fans must be smoking cigarettes like the file photo of Homer
brucearthur.bsky.social
How you doing Ryan, you doing good
Reposted by Bruce Arthur
donmoyn.bsky.social
RIFs can’t be done without agency leadership so this is RFK Jr extending his purge of CDC scientists to help Vought’s shutdown agenda. Genuine public health risks created by aggrieved men.
sherylnyt.bsky.social
BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:
Reposted by Bruce Arthur
saletan.bsky.social
Here's a neat trick they teach in authoritarianism school: If you purge the people who measure the effects of your policies (BLS, MMWR), you can just claim everything's great, and nobody can prove how much damage you're doing.
sherylnyt.bsky.social
BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:
Reposted by Bruce Arthur
ashtonpittman.bsky.social
ICE left David, a 17-year-old boy, stranded on the side of Interstate 20 after pulling over his immigrant father, Hector, in Mississippi.

David began running in the scorching sun after the car and watched as it disappeared from sight—soon headed to a Louisiana ICE prison.

Here's their story.
ICE Stranded a 17-Year-Old on I-20 After Arresting His Father. The Mississippi Dad Now Faces Deportation.
A 17-year-old watched as ICE arrested his immigrant father, Hector, on I-20 in June. The family faces mounting legal fees and the risk of deportation.
www.mississippifreepress.org
Reposted by Bruce Arthur
mmasnick.bsky.social
Only to be mocked by the Supreme Court.
chrislhayes.bsky.social
As a group, District Judges (from across the ideological spectrum!) performing as well as just about anyone right now in defending democratic liberty.
Reposted by Bruce Arthur
chrislhayes.bsky.social
As a group, District Judges (from across the ideological spectrum!) performing as well as just about anyone right now in defending democratic liberty.
brucearthur.bsky.social
I still believe America has more good people than bad
Reposted by Bruce Arthur
jsweetli.bsky.social
WGN, this woman’s employer, is now reporting she was not charged with any crimes and was released.

DHS said earlier she was arrested for assault for throwing objects at agents.
Reposted by Bruce Arthur
slackermom.bsky.social
Was just at a neighborhood school at dismissal. Hundreds of people with whistles surrounding the school and stationed down every block making sure ICE doesn’t snatch anyone. The same is happening at all the schools around here. I love my neighborhood and I love Chicago.
brucearthur.bsky.social
Linked to this in the post, but I recommend reading Dr. Rasmussen's latest analysis of the ostrich debacle. I couldn't go this long, and obviously don't have this level of expertise. substack.com/home/post/p-...
Reposted by Bruce Arthur
jameswsthomson.com
I give you: my billionaire former boss clapping his hands in delight at what has been better described as "Cocomelon for adults"
Reposted by Bruce Arthur
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Doubt.
cjciaramella.bsky.social
UPDATE: In emailed statement to me / @reason.com, DHS alleges that WGN-TV producer Debbie Brockman "threw objects at Border Patrol’s car and she was placed under arrest for assault on a federal law enforcement officer."
Screencap of email from DHS public affairs: Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin:

 

“U.S. Border Patrol was conducting immigration enforcement operations and when several violent agitators used their vehicles to block in agents in an effort to impede and assault federal officers. In fear of public safety and of law enforcement, officers used their service vehicle to strike a suspect’s vehicle and create an opening. As agents were driving, Deborah Brockman, a U.S. citizen, threw objects at Border Patrol’s car and she was placed under arrest for assault on a federal law enforcement officer. 

 

“This incident is not isolated and reflects a growing and dangerous trend of illegal aliens violently resisting arrest and agitators and criminals ramming cars into our law enforcement officers. These attacks highlight the dangers our law enforcement officers face daily—all while receiving no pay thanks to the Democrats’ government shutdown.”