Mike Chen
@mikechenwriter.bsky.social
10K followers 980 following 4K posts
NYT Bestselling Author Dabbles in time travel and vampires, Star Wars and Star Trek, novels and comics. Former NHL guy. Friend of dogs. Next: The Photonic Effect, Star Wars: Low Red Moon Mikechenwriter on all socials.
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Pinned
mikechenwriter.bsky.social
The news is out! For fans of underworld stories and the Outlaws video game, Star Wars: Low Red Moon will be loads of fun and have plenty of gut-punching emotional beats as we get to see how ND-5 and Jaylen Vrax became partners. THREAD!
Sexy murder droid ND-5 from Star Wars: Outlaws A title card revealing Star Wars: Outlaws - Low Red Moon by Mike Chen, coming February 3 2026
mikechenwriter.bsky.social
I rediscovered the whole series when we introduced kiddo to it at 8. The audiobooks by Broadway legend (and star of DC's Legends of Tomorrow) Victor Garber are perfect, he gets Chester's dry wit down so well.

They're really brilliant character studies!
Reposted by Mike Chen
tamaramatthews.bsky.social
“Got ya, Darryl.” This is why we have to be here for each other. Also note she’s filming landscape and narrating. The training helps.
iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social
Don’t dare record fascist goons! They’re kidnapping us citizens for doing so now in Chicago.
mikechenwriter.bsky.social
I have always been under the assumption that the weird "fear of satan" stuff from far-right "intellectuals" was just their way of using fear-based messaging to activate their religious, culty base...but maybe some of them really believe it?
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 Mike Chen
indivisible.org
The difference between Democrats surrendering in March and fighting back now is us. We must encourage Democrats to keep holding the line to protect healthcare for millions of Americans and stop health insurance costs from doubling this winter: indivisible.org/campaign/sto...
Axios headline: “Mike Johnson faces growing internal revolt over shutdown”
mikechenwriter.bsky.social
This is like in an RPG when you supposedly follow a moral code but actually wind up looting from and/or occasionally killing people in the village.
mikechenwriter.bsky.social
First draft from engineers
impavid.us
In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand

I'll go first: Six page commercial lease.
mikechenwriter.bsky.social
"Though this is the end of the age of heroes, it has saved its best for last."
darthinternous.bsky.social
Hey @mikechenwriter.bsky.social might want to keep an eye on the mail for a special #StarWars delivery

Matt Stover says hi, and thank you.
mikechenwriter.bsky.social
OH MY GOD TOM YOU JUST MADE ME SPIT OUT MY COFFEE

Thank you thank you thank you, this is incredible
mikechenwriter.bsky.social
In (very) small victories, I am happy to inform you that as a 40something homeowner, I've just learned that the toothpick trick for loose screws really works. www.youtube.com/watch?v=GetV...
Fix a Stripped Screw Hole Using Toothpicks, In Under 2 Minutes!
YouTube video by Your Landlord Resource
www.youtube.com
Reposted by Mike Chen
grubreport.bsky.social
Sorry, but Bay Area person here: Salesforce has always been bad.

Every tech billionaire in Silicon Valley has always been bad.

We live here.

We live it.

We know it.
Reposted by Mike Chen
markhisted.org
So to summarize:

- There is a pattern where Vought makes the RIFs too wide, apparently to flood the zone with sh*t and see who will draw protests.
- They restore some people after outrage and work by us.
- But we are still left with many who remain fired at the end.
Reposted by Mike Chen
altcdc.altgov.info
Many RIFed yesterday are now being unfired(?!)

Unclear if it’s evil or incompetence — but either way, calculated move. Meant to flex power.

Ha. Just shows Republicans are scared.

Dems, @schumer.senate.gov — don’t back down.
They know they’re losing the Republican shutdown shitshow.
We’re winning.
Official HHS memo showing someone RIFed yesterday is, um, no longer RIFed. wtf
mikechenwriter.bsky.social
Tilly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
gaghyogi49.bsky.social
Tilly!! Finally seen in the latest #StarTrekStarfleet Academy trailer! 🤩
mikechenwriter.bsky.social
Hey if anyone is at NYCC and you pass by the Saga Books booth, can you see if they have ARCs of THE PHOTONIC EFFECT? I would love to see it out in the world.
mikechenwriter.bsky.social
Call your reps about this. Use @5calls.org for a script, use @resist.bot via text/IG DG if easier. They have pulled back on CDC/FDA firings before due to mass outrage, this isn't over yet.
carlbergstrom.com
Fustiliarian Friday: Trump/Kennedy/GOP use the shutdown as an excuse to destroy the CDC’s elite field epidemiology team and one of the most important epidemiology journals in the world.

Gift link.
Trump Administration Lays Off Dozens of C.D.C. Officials
www.nytimes.com
mikechenwriter.bsky.social
I still chuckle when I think about that line in Venom's growly voice.
mikechenwriter.bsky.social
Yeah, this is a problem when Dems can have strong policy but it takes an understanding to really appreciate that and you can't communicate that in soundbites. I think the solution really is ground-up education and engagement but that takes decades, plus we have to survive THIS MOMENT first.
mikechenwriter.bsky.social
Right, exactly. It was interesting watching 2009 reactions when Obama voters realized he couldn't just magically do the vibe things he talked about and they just fell off, allowing the GOP to win 2010 on grievance. We're just lucky that Obama was a deep policy wonk too with amazing oratory skills.
mikechenwriter.bsky.social
Was this planned to rotate or a minor injury? Everyone seemed to agree that Muk played well.
mikechenwriter.bsky.social
This is a very good read. It reminds me of 2008 when Obama's primary was based on rhetoric and vibes without much policy about HOW. I voted for HRC because she was a policy wonk, but it was my first real understanding of how powerful vibes can motivate apathetic voters.
estherp.bsky.social
This is an interesting comparison. "The appeal they make to voters, and the way voters respond, is uncannily similar."

Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/o...
Opinion | Voting for Mamdani Taught Me Why Trump Won
www.nytimes.com