Fred Coppersmith
@unrealfred.bsky.social
Writer, editor, just this guy. Occasional stories: https://www.unreality.net/writings. I also publish the quarterly zine Kaleidotrope. (He/him.) 😷
Pinned
Fred Coppersmith
@unrealfred.bsky.social
· Nov 15
Fred Coppersmith > Where the Prayers Run Like Weeds Along the Road > Bourbon Penn
You find the dead man waiting for you right where you left him, leaning against the old wooden fence at the side of the road. He looks like he’s smiling, a lopsided grin of too many teeth, but you’re ...
www.bourbonpenn.com
Hello, new followers! Presumably you know this, or else why would you be following me, but I'm Fred. I natter on about this and that. I work in academic publishing, have edited and published @kaleidotrope.bsky.social for almost 20 years, and very occasionally write short fiction, most recently this:
Generative AI is disastrous for the environment, built and maintained through plagiarism, and owned by billionaires who don’t care (or actively delight) when it’s put to truly monstrous use. It also produces lousy-quality work and robs the user of skills, but that almost seems beside the point.
November 29, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Generative AI is disastrous for the environment, built and maintained through plagiarism, and owned by billionaires who don’t care (or actively delight) when it’s put to truly monstrous use. It also produces lousy-quality work and robs the user of skills, but that almost seems beside the point.
Reposted by Fred Coppersmith
“I was just following otters.”
November 28, 2025 at 9:09 PM
“I was just following otters.”
You make a good point. But I’m afraid you make it on Substack so I won’t share it with anyone.
November 29, 2025 at 2:28 AM
You make a good point. But I’m afraid you make it on Substack so I won’t share it with anyone.
Reposted by Fred Coppersmith
They really are just incapable of the most basic decency, reveling in their awfulness
November 29, 2025 at 2:08 AM
They really are just incapable of the most basic decency, reveling in their awfulness
Reposted by Fred Coppersmith
Reposted by Fred Coppersmith
“President says thing” is generally newsworthy because, well, it usually results in actual policy changes
increasingly, it’s just an angry old man typing into the void
increasingly, it’s just an angry old man typing into the void
President Trump said Friday he would reverse any law, pardon and executive order former President Biden signed with an autopen, though it wasn’t clear how that would work or whether it would be legal @jennifershutt.bsky.social reports wisconsinexaminer.com/2025/11/28/r...
Trump social media post claims to void Biden orders • Wisconsin Examiner
President Trump said Friday he would reverse any law, pardon or executive order that former President Biden signed with an autopen
wisconsinexaminer.com
November 28, 2025 at 10:06 PM
“President says thing” is generally newsworthy because, well, it usually results in actual policy changes
increasingly, it’s just an angry old man typing into the void
increasingly, it’s just an angry old man typing into the void
Reposted by Fred Coppersmith
I bet if you blow the dust of the DEPARTMENT OF WAR sign it’d reveal the word CRIMES right after that
November 29, 2025 at 1:41 AM
I bet if you blow the dust of the DEPARTMENT OF WAR sign it’d reveal the word CRIMES right after that
Reposted by Fred Coppersmith
We used to be a society.
The Spaceman was a fixture of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in the 1950s.
November 28, 2025 at 3:09 AM
We used to be a society.
Reposted by Fred Coppersmith
It's amazing how so fucking many institutions complied with fascism when pretty much every time someone goes "fuck you, make me" the government goes "oh no we made an oopsie, we didn't mean to say that, birthday boy did a lil poopsie oopsie"
April 20, 2025 at 7:16 AM
It's amazing how so fucking many institutions complied with fascism when pretty much every time someone goes "fuck you, make me" the government goes "oh no we made an oopsie, we didn't mean to say that, birthday boy did a lil poopsie oopsie"
Reposted by Fred Coppersmith
honestly, if you said the goal of this administration was to make cocaine as cheap and plentiful as possible, it would explain like 75% of their actions
in the midst of our supposed campaign against Venezuelan drug traffickers the President of the United States has chosen to pardon the Former President of Honduras, freeing him from his long prison sentence earned for trafficking more than 400 tons of cocaine into the United States
November 28, 2025 at 11:33 PM
honestly, if you said the goal of this administration was to make cocaine as cheap and plentiful as possible, it would explain like 75% of their actions
Reposted by Fred Coppersmith
a lot of words, none of them denying that Hegseth gave an order to kill helpless people who were stranded at sea after he blew up their boats
November 29, 2025 at 12:47 AM
a lot of words, none of them denying that Hegseth gave an order to kill helpless people who were stranded at sea after he blew up their boats
Reposted by Fred Coppersmith
Even if every word he said here is true (zero of the words he says are true) I would think the response of an ethical country in that case would be to offer immigrants health, protection, and a pathway to a safer life. If someone is coming from a “broken homeland,” you help them.
Stephen Miller is now arguing that assimilation is fundamentally impossible and that certain cultures are not compatible with Western civilization
November 29, 2025 at 12:37 AM
Even if every word he said here is true (zero of the words he says are true) I would think the response of an ethical country in that case would be to offer immigrants health, protection, and a pathway to a safer life. If someone is coming from a “broken homeland,” you help them.
Reposted by Fred Coppersmith
The president is such a bumbling idiot he thinks tweeting out the word "hereby" a couple times on his white supremacist social media site is the same thing as making an actual law.
The only story here is the one about a mentally diminished, increasingly erratic president who thinks he's a king.
The only story here is the one about a mentally diminished, increasingly erratic president who thinks he's a king.
It should go without saying, but the president has no authority to do this, and anyone reporting the story needs to say as such.
November 28, 2025 at 9:48 PM
The president is such a bumbling idiot he thinks tweeting out the word "hereby" a couple times on his white supremacist social media site is the same thing as making an actual law.
The only story here is the one about a mentally diminished, increasingly erratic president who thinks he's a king.
The only story here is the one about a mentally diminished, increasingly erratic president who thinks he's a king.
Reposted by Fred Coppersmith
Dem Senators and MoCs shouldn’t be voting for DoD authorization spending legislation as long as Hegseth remains in charge of DoD. This should be basic and a position that Dem Leadership should be whipping while loudly speaking out against war crimes/extra judicial killings funded by our tax dollars.
Textbook war crime/extrajudicial killing
"Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions."
Report by @alexhorton.bsky.social @ellenwapo.bsky.social o.bsky.social
"Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions."
Report by @alexhorton.bsky.social @ellenwapo.bsky.social o.bsky.social
Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to kill all crew members in the Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug boat. Navy SEALs fired a second missile.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 28, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Dem Senators and MoCs shouldn’t be voting for DoD authorization spending legislation as long as Hegseth remains in charge of DoD. This should be basic and a position that Dem Leadership should be whipping while loudly speaking out against war crimes/extra judicial killings funded by our tax dollars.
Reposted by Fred Coppersmith
The fact doomers have gone from "America is over" to "Dems won't hold anyone responsible when this is over" can actually be read as an optimistic signal imo.
November 28, 2025 at 7:28 PM
The fact doomers have gone from "America is over" to "Dems won't hold anyone responsible when this is over" can actually be read as an optimistic signal imo.
If you’re wondering why US troops are being reminded they took an oath to disobey illegal orders.
Exclusive: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave an order to “kill everybody” in the first strike on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean. After two men survived, the mission commander ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, according to two sources.
Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to kill all crew members in the Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug boat. Navy SEALs fired a second missile.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 28, 2025 at 10:41 PM
If you’re wondering why US troops are being reminded they took an oath to disobey illegal orders.
Reposted by Fred Coppersmith
Pete Hagueseth. We should make it a thing.
Hagueseth
Exclusive: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave an order to “kill everybody” in the first strike on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean. After two men survived, the mission commander ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, according to two sources.
November 28, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Pete Hagueseth. We should make it a thing.
Reposted by Fred Coppersmith
Hey, journalists - Just a reminder that you can report on assholes without access to those assholes. BONUS: The quality of your reporting will improve and your soul will no longer be a shriveled lumpen walnut of shit. Try it!
November 28, 2025 at 3:38 AM
Hey, journalists - Just a reminder that you can report on assholes without access to those assholes. BONUS: The quality of your reporting will improve and your soul will no longer be a shriveled lumpen walnut of shit. Try it!
Reposted by Fred Coppersmith
A report reveals the DOJ—after frantically realizing the files would be released—has been paying FBI agents nearly $1M in overtime to work on the “Epstein Transparency Project."
Ostensibly aimed at protecting victims' privacy, the project could also prevent exposing Trump. trib.al/su4zh6N
Ostensibly aimed at protecting victims' privacy, the project could also prevent exposing Trump. trib.al/su4zh6N
November 28, 2025 at 5:39 PM
A report reveals the DOJ—after frantically realizing the files would be released—has been paying FBI agents nearly $1M in overtime to work on the “Epstein Transparency Project."
Ostensibly aimed at protecting victims' privacy, the project could also prevent exposing Trump. trib.al/su4zh6N
Ostensibly aimed at protecting victims' privacy, the project could also prevent exposing Trump. trib.al/su4zh6N
This may violate Godwin’s Law, but Stephen Miller is a fucking Nazi.
November 28, 2025 at 5:48 PM
This may violate Godwin’s Law, but Stephen Miller is a fucking Nazi.
They appear to have stopped selling these entirely and, not gonna lie, I am a little upset.
I have become dangerously addicted to dried Turkish apricots from Whole Foods.
November 28, 2025 at 5:42 PM
They appear to have stopped selling these entirely and, not gonna lie, I am a little upset.
Reposted by Fred Coppersmith
“In 2029 we will rebuild the White House and pay for it by seizing assets from Trump, his family, and all of his companies and organizations. We publicize the name of every contractor involved with this project and permanently ban them as corporate entities and individuals from public contracts.”
Trump fighting with his architect about wanting to build a ballroom bigger than the actual White House feels very on brand
wapo.st/4rqrqA2
wapo.st/4rqrqA2
November 28, 2025 at 5:16 PM
“In 2029 we will rebuild the White House and pay for it by seizing assets from Trump, his family, and all of his companies and organizations. We publicize the name of every contractor involved with this project and permanently ban them as corporate entities and individuals from public contracts.”
Reposted by Fred Coppersmith
Enjoy Kaleidotrope's Black Friday sale—one day (and this thread) only!—all the stories and poems from the archive with the word "black" in the title! Now (and always) with no charge whatsoever!
November 28, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Enjoy Kaleidotrope's Black Friday sale—one day (and this thread) only!—all the stories and poems from the archive with the word "black" in the title! Now (and always) with no charge whatsoever!