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Joseph Britt @zathras5.bsky.social · 6m

Well, I hope this is what today’s ceremonies represent. A lot of very grim history has been made in the last two years, so there is a great deal to overcome.

Joseph Britt @zathras5.bsky.social · 49m

There’s a lesson buried here for Republican politicians: make your own identity. The path of least resistance is to move as close to Trump as possible; nearly all Republicans in Congress have taken it. But Brian Kemp did not, and prospered. Now Greene is as well.

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Joseph Britt @zathras5.bsky.social · 58m

There is no “ongoing fight” against drug cartels. Indeed, law enforcement personnel at FBI and ATF have evidently been diverted away from counter-narcotics activities to deportation of migrants.

There have been showy air strikes, on what may have been Venezuelan fishing vessels.

Joseph Britt @zathras5.bsky.social · 14h

“Coral reefs have been in the midst of a global bleaching event since January 2023 – the fourth and worst on record – with more than 80% of reefs in more than 80 countries affected by extreme ocean temperatures.” Reporting by @readfearn.bsky.social

Michael Mazengarb @michaelmazengarb.bsky.social · 15h

This is very sad, but also not surprising. The science has warned for a long time, including in IPCC reports, that even modest levels of global warming will devastate virtually all coral reefs.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Planet’s first catastrophic climate tipping point reached, report says, with coral reefs facing ‘widespread dieback’

Unless global heating is reduced to 1.2C ‘as fast as possible’, warm water coral reefs will not remain ‘at any meaningful scale’, a report by 160 scientists from 23 countries warns

www.theguardian.com

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Joseph Britt @zathras5.bsky.social · 14h

Trump’s ICE: protecting America from middle schoolers. This is the kind of thing that happens when an agency measures success by the numbers it can report to a White House aide. The agency isn’t going to go after “the worst of the worst”: there are too few of those, and they’re too hard to find.

Caitlin G. DeAngelis @caitlindeangelis.bsky.social · 19h

ICE kidnapped a 7th-grader with a pending asylum claim and spirited him out of state without notifying his parents, seemingly with the cooperation of the local police in Everett, MA.

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/12/m...

Everett 13-year-old arrested by ICE and sent to Virginia detention facility
By Marcela Rodrigues Globe Staff,Updated October 12, 2025, 44 minutes ago

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A 13-year-old boy was arrested by ICE in Everett and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia.
A 13-year-old boy was arrested by ICE in Everett and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia.
A 13-year-old boy was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Everett after an interaction with members of the Everett Police Department and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia, according to his mother and immigration lawyer Andrew Lattarulo.

The boy’s mother, Josiele Berto, was called to pick her son up from the Everett Police Department on Thursday, the day he was arrested. After waiting for about an hour and a half, she was told her son was taken by ICE, Berto told the Globe in a phone interview.

“My world collapsed,” Berto said in Portuguese.

From the police department, the boy was taken to ICE’s holding facility in Burlington on Thursday evening, where he spent a night before being transferred by car to the Northwestern Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Winchester, Va., on Friday morning, his mother said. The juvenile facility is more than 500 miles away from Everett.

The boy is a 7th-grader at Albert N. Parlin School in Everett, his mother said. The teen and his family, who are Brazilian nationals, have a pending asylum case and are authorized to work legally in the United States, Lattarulo said.

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Joseph Britt @zathras5.bsky.social · 15h

A serious discussion begins with @jimacosta.bsky.social’s conclusion. The 25th Amendment’s drafters did not envision any President like Trump, or a Vice President and Cabinet like his: full of flakes, bimbos and shallow careerists. The Amendment is a dead letter in our current situation.

Joseph Britt @zathras5.bsky.social · 16h

Thread. As @walterolson.bsky.social rightly says, putting Republican propaganda on channels meant for official government information is standard practice during the Trump administration. No Republican will speak out against it.

Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 19h

“We didn’t consent to playing it, as we believe the Hatch Act clearly prohibits using public assets for political purposes and messaging. … We believe consenting to playing this video on Port assets would violate Oregon law." /1

PDX chooses not to air video of Sec. Noem blaming Democrats for shutdown

The Port of Portland is choosing not to broadcast a new video that shows DHS Secretary Kristi Noem blaming Democrats for the federal government shutdown."Democr

katu.com

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Joseph Britt @zathras5.bsky.social · 16h

If you’re struggling to beat the Bengals in October, you’re not looking good against the Eagles or Lions in January.

Joseph Britt @zathras5.bsky.social · 16h

It sure is. But luck runs out.

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Reposted by Joseph Britt

Corinne Smith @corinne-smith.bsky.social · 20h

At least 20 people are unaccounted for in Kwigillingok, in the Y-K Delta as of Sunday morning, and several homes were flooded and carried away by the remnants of Typhoon Halong - the worst storm on record.

Damage is still being assessed along the coast of Western Alaska
www.kyuk.org/alaska-state...

A major storm is bringing dangerous flooding and hurricane-force winds to Western Alaska

The remnants of Typhoon Halong have already caused damaging flooding in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. The storm is expected to move north and continue into Monday.

www.kyuk.org

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Joseph Britt @zathras5.bsky.social · 18h

Maybe that’s been Morgan’s problem all along. Bouncing from one position to another he has always looked not quite as good as the starters already there.

Joseph Britt @zathras5.bsky.social · 21h

Stupidity is the flour, malice the yeast.

Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social · 21h

For my piece today at @zeteo.com i wanted to truly underscore how punishingly stupid american fascism is now. Like, my original proposed headline for this was:

Our Democracy Is Imperiled Because One Old Man Won’t Stop ‘Yelling’ At His TV. zeteo.com/p/trump-addi...

Trump’s Addiction to Watching Fox Is Killing American Democracy

Our country is falling apart because one old man, Trump advisers and former administration officials say, won’t stop ‘yelling’ at his TV.

zeteo.com

Joseph Britt @zathras5.bsky.social · 21h

Government by Republicans, for Republicans states: the corruption of federal grant-making under Trump is intended to give money to communities that voted for him and take it away from communities that didn’t. It’s not good for the country, and isn’t meant to be. [gift link] wapo.st/3J8QASm

Trump escalates his use of federal power to target Democratic states

Democrats see a clear pattern of inflicting pain on places that are politically unfriendly, while Trump has declared his intent to hurt liberal areas and policies.

wapo.st

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Reposted by Joseph Britt

Anton Gerashchenko @antongerashchenko.bsky.social · 22h

In #Odesa, the choir and audience continued the performance in the shelter of the Philharmonic Theater despite a Russian attack.

📹: y.krasinskyi

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Joseph Britt @zathras5.bsky.social · 1d

Thread. Notes on the Russian war effort from @chriso-wiki.bsky.social. Putin, who is never to blame for anything, is preparing to blame other Russians for not winning his war.

ChrisO_wiki @chriso-wiki.bsky.social · 1d

1/ Russia is reportedly preparing to carry out a "sanitisation of the state" to purge "officials, military personnel, and members of the media and public" who are suspected of undermining the war against Ukraine. ⬇️

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Joseph Britt @zathras5.bsky.social · 1d

It’s noteworthy that Vance’s defense here is that the tape of Homan accepting $50,000 in a bag isn’t something he’s seen; that it may not even exist; and that the decision of the administration headed by Homan’s boss not to prosecute is definitive evidence Homan committed no crime.

Joseph Britt @zathras5.bsky.social · 1d

None of them are ideal in a President, either. The Presidency is a stressful position; it should be held by younger people, and for nearly all of American history it has been. Trump’s age is a further limitation of a man who was already unfit to hold office — but dementia is no more than a guess.

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Joseph Britt @zathras5.bsky.social · 1d

None of these were clearly symptoms of dementia.

Likewise with Trump: his impulse control has declined over the years, his need for flattery has increased, the vocabulary he uses has gotten smaller. Like Biden, he is more easily fatigued. These symptoms are not necessarily products of dementia

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Joseph Britt @zathras5.bsky.social · 1d

….and older people suffer many potentially debilitating conditions that are not dementia.

Joe Biden’s physical energy had visibly declined by 2020, and declined further by 2024. Always stubborn, he was more so in the Presidency. His voice got weaker, his gait more halting.

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Joseph Britt @zathras5.bsky.social · 1d

We should consider the dementia question. Dementia is thrown around a lot as an epithet; the condition frightens people (for reasons good and bad), so it fits easily into polemics. But actual dementia is hard to diagnose at a distance until it is well advanced —….

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Joseph Britt @zathras5.bsky.social · 1d

Vance seems to blink a lot when he’s reciting talking points, as he does here.

I don’t know what that signifies, or if it signifies anything. I sometimes blink a lot (dry eyes). It’s just really noticeable when Vance does it.

Joseph Britt @zathras5.bsky.social · 1d

Having met Sen. Baldwin, I can say with confidence that not only is her Wisconsin accent authentic, but she would affect a different accent only with great difficulty. The dairy thing is different; Baldwin is not interested in farmers so much as committed to advocating for the industry’s interests

Joseph Britt @zathras5.bsky.social · 1d

How was Watergate a hoax?

Reposted by Joseph Britt

Joseph Britt @zathras5.bsky.social · 1d

A bunch of things happened this past week. The one that stands out for me is the conduct of Republicans members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sitting meekly as Trump’s Attorney General showed contempt for them, their committee, and the Senate. I wonder why these people got into politics.

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Joseph Britt @zathras5.bsky.social · 1d

Sounds like “influencers” here really means “propagandists.” Why not use that word instead?

An influencer is someone who posts videos reviewing restaurants or offering weight loss tips.

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