Kiel Ortega
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kielortega.bsky.social
Kiel Ortega
@kielortega.bsky.social
Radar things, hail freak, beer enthusiast, and small-time adventurer
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
Labor gaining just the tiniest amount of power relative to capital a few years back absolutely broke employers' brains
November 27, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
This is an insightful but deeply upsetting article about why everyone in the US feels poor, and why the current political situation emerges as a direct result.

www.yesigiveafig.com/p/part-1-my-...
Part 1: My Life Is a Lie
How a Broken Benchmark Quietly Broke America
www.yesigiveafig.com
November 26, 2025 at 1:42 AM
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
TL;DR: the *actual* poverty line in the US for a family of four with two young children is about $140,000, and there isn't much improvement in quality of life between $40K and $100K.

There's more good stuff in there too, you should read the whole thing.
November 26, 2025 at 1:43 AM
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
This reads really yikes yikes yikes especially that quote at the end
"A woman with a family connection to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Revere, Massachusetts."

www.wcvb.com/article/karo...
November 26, 2025 at 4:11 AM
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
National parks have SO MANY people from other countries (since they get real vacations!)

And they spend a lot of money on hotels, food, souvenirs, etc.

This is unbelievably dumb, it will destroy entire tourist towns
November 26, 2025 at 3:13 AM
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
Salt water laced with cancer-causing chemicals, a byproduct of oil and gas drilling, keeps shooting out of the ground in Oklahoma.

Experts say it means even more wastewater is spreading underground, poisoning the state’s water supply.

With @readfrontier.bsky.social
Toxic Wastewater From Oil Fields Keeps Pouring Out of the Ground. Oklahoma Regulators Failed to Stop It.
Salt water laced with cancer-causing chemicals, a byproduct of oil and gas drilling, is spewing from old wells. Experts warn of a pollution crisis spreading underground and threatening Oklahoma’s drin...
www.propublica.org
November 26, 2025 at 2:30 AM
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
1) good, they should be prosecuted, they are responsible for countless deaths

2) always very funny when these people realize the extent to which their billionaire patrons could not possibly give less of a shit about them
November 22, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
So Bezos is in them too then?
The Washington Post editorial board decided the Epstein files have “no public interest” before even seeing them. That’s a stunning position for any newsroom to take. Praising Clay Higgins as the lone ‘no’ vote, too? No wonder no one trusts legacy media. Absolutely disgusting.
November 22, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
That's one word for it
November 22, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
this is the correct way to react to anything the president says-
November 20, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
If you scroll on X, you are only being shown what Elon wants you to see. If you create content on X, no one will see it unless Elon wants them to.
November 21, 2025 at 1:23 AM
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
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.
If you scroll on X, you are only being shown what Elon wants you to see. If you create content on X, no one will see it unless Elon wants them to.
November 21, 2025 at 1:31 AM
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
We have a serious white supremacy problem in the US, but misinformation is central to its dissemination & the operation of its systems. I sometimes wonder what kind of world would be possible if we destroyed the misinformation machine.
If you scroll on X, you are only being shown what Elon wants you to see. If you create content on X, no one will see it unless Elon wants them to.
November 21, 2025 at 1:44 AM
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
I think the word you’re looking for is “kept”
November 19, 2025 at 2:14 AM
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
The end of dollar hegemony will transform U.S. debt from a fiscal drag into a high-yield fusion bomb.

For decades dollarization has generated structural demand for U.S. treasuries, depressing the interest rates the U.S. needs to offer to service its debt.
one thing that I think we really don't think about is if Trump fucks up America's macro privileges or role in the international system and Americans are forced to end up dealing with a economic system that doesn't allow for the same old fiscal fixes as before
god I remember the fandom Russian zoomers on Twitter during the start of the war who were either "what can I do, I can't be held responsible" or "wow it's so mean that the West sanctioned us from our favourite fandoms"
November 16, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
Not that I believe really anything Nuzzi writes, given her record, but the far bigger scandal here is her claim that RFK Jr. was still actively using psychedelics last year, then became HHS secretary in an admin that is killing people for smuggling recreational drugs.
November 15, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Put out a trash fire.
November 15, 2025 at 11:06 PM
Sewer line needs replaced. Christmas cancelled.
November 15, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
Amendment which strikes section which “allows senators who were legally subpoenaed during the January 6 criminal conspiracy investigation to get millions of dollars deposited into their bank accounts at taxpayer expense” voted down by Republicans
November 12, 2025 at 6:35 AM
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
November 10, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Caught a meteor in the dash cam on the drive home this evening (above the street light on the right)
November 11, 2025 at 2:56 AM
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
The language of this pardon is extremely broad.

It includes “all United States citizens for conduct relating to the advice, creation, organization, execution, submission, support, voting, activities, participation in, or advocacy for or of any slate or proposed slate of Presidential
electors…”
November 10, 2025 at 4:51 AM
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
The ACA is less than the bare minimum if the US government wants to claim it isn’t intentionally doing eugenics on its citizens
The thing about ACA is that if an American describes how it works to someone from literally anywhere else, the other person will be utterly horrified at its deliberate cruelty.

The way the horror of pre-ACA healthcare sounds to an American, is basically how ACA sounds to everyone else on earth.
November 10, 2025 at 5:39 AM
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
I know this sounds mean but if you think that this is a coincidence you're more than a bit of a mark. If Kaine had been up next year, it would have been Warner, if Slotkin was retiring, Peters, etc.
The coordinated nature of this—none are facing voters in 2026—means that either Schumer approved it or failed in his job as Senate Majority Leader to stop it.

Dems voting "no" get zero credit until they demand a change in leadership. Schumer out as Leader, Durbin out as Whip.
so currently defectors are:

Kaine (2030)
Shaheen (Retiring)
Hasan (2028)
Fetterman (2028)
Durbin (Retiring)
CCM (2028)
Rosen (2030)
King (2030)
November 10, 2025 at 3:05 AM
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
As someone with stents in my brain who relies on health care...

Yeah.

Like even healthy business owners needed that shit. We're getting in to an age where there's no small business, period. No more single proprietor, no more mom-and-pop, nothing.
So every freelancer you know is going to lose their insurance or be bankrupted by premiums because Schumer is an invertebrate
November 10, 2025 at 5:51 AM