Richard Mehlinger 🏳️🌈🩷💜💙↙↙↙
@richardm.bsky.social
Sunnyvale Councilmember, unofficial account.
Houser, liberal, democrat, Democrat, bicycling bisexual, unicameralist fanatic.
Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness. —Terry Pratchet
Houser, liberal, democrat, Democrat, bicycling bisexual, unicameralist fanatic.
Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness. —Terry Pratchet
Pinned
It’s not over yet
We are less than a month into the Trump administration, and let’s be honest: it sucks. It sucks considerably worse than even I was…
medium.com
I wrote a thing about what Musk and Trump are doing to the country. Their strategy is to overwhelm us, to panic us, to cause us to give up. If we don't give them that, they're in a world of hurt, because they are breaking their own tools. Read here:
medium.com/@rmehlinger/...
medium.com/@rmehlinger/...
That which can be destroyed by the truth should be.
November 15, 2025 at 9:00 PM
That which can be destroyed by the truth should be.
Reposted by Richard Mehlinger 🏳️🌈🩷💜💙↙↙↙
One of the most subtly insane aspects of the unrelenting car dependency we’ve deliberately built across North America is the incredible reluctance we have to remove the driving privilege, even from those who clearly are a danger to themselves & others, because “people have to drive.” #CarDependency
November 14, 2025 at 3:47 AM
One of the most subtly insane aspects of the unrelenting car dependency we’ve deliberately built across North America is the incredible reluctance we have to remove the driving privilege, even from those who clearly are a danger to themselves & others, because “people have to drive.” #CarDependency
Tonight, things are looking up, just a little bit.
November 5, 2025 at 5:46 AM
Tonight, things are looking up, just a little bit.
Folks, the official 2025 Mehlinger Voting Guide is finally here! If you live in California, vote YES on 50, and if you live in Santa Clara County, vote Neysa Fligor for county assessor and YES on Measure A! medium.com/@rmehlinger/...
The 2025 Mehlinger Voting Guide
Hello and welcome to a quite unexpected odd year edition of the Official Mehlinger Voting Guide! As always, opinions expressed herein…
medium.com
October 28, 2025 at 3:29 AM
Folks, the official 2025 Mehlinger Voting Guide is finally here! If you live in California, vote YES on 50, and if you live in Santa Clara County, vote Neysa Fligor for county assessor and YES on Measure A! medium.com/@rmehlinger/...
Some fun texts from Rishi Kumar's campaign for Santa Clara County Assessor! He's lying to seniors, saying he'll exempt them from property tax--which the assessor can't do.
So if you live in Santa Clara County, return your ballot by Nov 4 and vote YES on A, YES on 50, and Neysa Fliegor for Assessor!
So if you live in Santa Clara County, return your ballot by Nov 4 and vote YES on A, YES on 50, and Neysa Fliegor for Assessor!
October 27, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Some fun texts from Rishi Kumar's campaign for Santa Clara County Assessor! He's lying to seniors, saying he'll exempt them from property tax--which the assessor can't do.
So if you live in Santa Clara County, return your ballot by Nov 4 and vote YES on A, YES on 50, and Neysa Fliegor for Assessor!
So if you live in Santa Clara County, return your ballot by Nov 4 and vote YES on A, YES on 50, and Neysa Fliegor for Assessor!
Reposted by Richard Mehlinger 🏳️🌈🩷💜💙↙↙↙
You may have heard my arguments against the Electoral College before. Here’s a new one the Founders never anticipated:
If the President is elected by popular vote, he probably wouldn’t selectively punish entire states for voting against him.
If the President is elected by popular vote, he probably wouldn’t selectively punish entire states for voting against him.
Oregon is set to lose an additional $400 million in federal grants awarded for climate action and is among more than a dozen Democratic states losing federal funding after the Trump administration terminated nearly $8 billion for those states this week.
Oregon to lose an additional $400 million in federal climate grants
Oregon and 15 other Democratic states are losing nearly $8 billion toward climate projects, after the Trump administration terminated multiple federal grants.
www.opb.org
October 3, 2025 at 12:17 AM
You may have heard my arguments against the Electoral College before. Here’s a new one the Founders never anticipated:
If the President is elected by popular vote, he probably wouldn’t selectively punish entire states for voting against him.
If the President is elected by popular vote, he probably wouldn’t selectively punish entire states for voting against him.
Reposted by Richard Mehlinger 🏳️🌈🩷💜💙↙↙↙
We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.
October 1, 2025 at 2:38 PM
We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.
Reposted by Richard Mehlinger 🏳️🌈🩷💜💙↙↙↙
The gaslighting is wild. THEY control the White House, the House, and the Senate—yet always find a way to blame Democrats for their mess.
The so-called “$1.5 trillion wish list” is about protecting health care, food assistance, and housing. (1/2)
The so-called “$1.5 trillion wish list” is about protecting health care, food assistance, and housing. (1/2)
September 30, 2025 at 3:58 PM
The gaslighting is wild. THEY control the White House, the House, and the Senate—yet always find a way to blame Democrats for their mess.
The so-called “$1.5 trillion wish list” is about protecting health care, food assistance, and housing. (1/2)
The so-called “$1.5 trillion wish list” is about protecting health care, food assistance, and housing. (1/2)
Reposted by Richard Mehlinger 🏳️🌈🩷💜💙↙↙↙
You can literally just post a picture of a woman and be like WOMEN to rake in over 10k likes on Xitter now. I remember before I left there was a ten minutes hate against some 19 year old sorority girls dancing or some shit and I’m still not sure what everyone was pretending to be mad about.
this woman has been working at Nintendo for almost 20 years and nearly a decade longer than the guy she is replacing
how much more qualified does she have to be lol
how much more qualified does she have to be lol
September 26, 2025 at 11:12 PM
You can literally just post a picture of a woman and be like WOMEN to rake in over 10k likes on Xitter now. I remember before I left there was a ten minutes hate against some 19 year old sorority girls dancing or some shit and I’m still not sure what everyone was pretending to be mad about.
Some unfortunate personal news: I'm recovering from a broken left thumb and right wrist after a crash with a car while cycling home. On the one hand, my prognosis is good and I'm lucky it's not much worse. On the other, I don't have working hands right now.
sanjosespotlight.com/sunnyvale-co...
sanjosespotlight.com/sunnyvale-co...
Sunnyvale councilmember injured in bike collision - San José Spotlight
Sunnyvale Councilmember Richard Mehlinger was hit by a car while riding his bike on California Avenue Aug. 30, breaking his left thumb and right wrist. He said the incident shows the necessity and urg...
sanjosespotlight.com
September 11, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Some unfortunate personal news: I'm recovering from a broken left thumb and right wrist after a crash with a car while cycling home. On the one hand, my prognosis is good and I'm lucky it's not much worse. On the other, I don't have working hands right now.
sanjosespotlight.com/sunnyvale-co...
sanjosespotlight.com/sunnyvale-co...
I am sad that we seem to have settled on "clanker" for the anti-robot slur when "toaster" is just so much more derogatory.
August 20, 2025 at 4:34 AM
I am sad that we seem to have settled on "clanker" for the anti-robot slur when "toaster" is just so much more derogatory.
Reposted by Richard Mehlinger 🏳️🌈🩷💜💙↙↙↙
The deep irony is the insistence that everything is class politics, despite the overwhelming evidence against such a thing, is proof that ideas have independent causal force. People read Marx and it broke their brains!
August 14, 2025 at 2:18 PM
The deep irony is the insistence that everything is class politics, despite the overwhelming evidence against such a thing, is proof that ideas have independent causal force. People read Marx and it broke their brains!
Reposted by Richard Mehlinger 🏳️🌈🩷💜💙↙↙↙
This is no great insight, but actually one of the cardinal flaws in the Marxian tradition
August 14, 2025 at 1:47 PM
This is no great insight, but actually one of the cardinal flaws in the Marxian tradition
Reposted by Richard Mehlinger 🏳️🌈🩷💜💙↙↙↙
You need to be as excited for Mamdani as you are for Grijalva and vice versa. Trying to do this weird thing of claiming that an election in Arizona is somehow a rebuke of an election in NYC is insane and doing the work of the Republican Party for them.
July 16, 2025 at 2:45 PM
You need to be as excited for Mamdani as you are for Grijalva and vice versa. Trying to do this weird thing of claiming that an election in Arizona is somehow a rebuke of an election in NYC is insane and doing the work of the Republican Party for them.
Reposted by Richard Mehlinger 🏳️🌈🩷💜💙↙↙↙
Grijalva winning just shows what anyone who actually examines the Democratic Party for more than a second already knows; it’s a lib-left coalition that is going to nominate and elect representatives across that political spectrum depending on numerous factors for any given race.
“The Mamdani momentum withered in the deserts of southern Arizona on Tuesday night” is perhaps the dumbest lede of all time. 10/10 for propagandist bullshit, a banger for the ages, no notes.
July 16, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Grijalva winning just shows what anyone who actually examines the Democratic Party for more than a second already knows; it’s a lib-left coalition that is going to nominate and elect representatives across that political spectrum depending on numerous factors for any given race.
Reposted by Richard Mehlinger 🏳️🌈🩷💜💙↙↙↙
To me the NYT is WMD lies, Clinton email obsession, trans bashing and constant whitewashing of Nazis. The way liberals hold it in esteem is one of the worst parts of liberalism and a testament to media illiteracy nearly as bad as the right’s.
July 7, 2025 at 2:04 PM
To me the NYT is WMD lies, Clinton email obsession, trans bashing and constant whitewashing of Nazis. The way liberals hold it in esteem is one of the worst parts of liberalism and a testament to media illiteracy nearly as bad as the right’s.
<stares in Rimworld>
July 6, 2025 at 6:24 PM
<stares in Rimworld>
Reposted by Richard Mehlinger 🏳️🌈🩷💜💙↙↙↙
The New York Times was more skeptical of the academic qualifications of a black woman who had secured tenure and become the president of Harvard than they were of a white man who washed out of a grad program with a massive scandal and then became a white nationalist troll.
The saga of the NYT's anti-Mamdani story taken from notorious white supremacist Jordan Lasker (they call him an "academic") gets even more amazing: Lasker's only impactful paper, which claimed white people are smarter, is infamous: it misused data so badly it got his tenured co-author fired. 2/
July 5, 2025 at 5:04 PM
The New York Times was more skeptical of the academic qualifications of a black woman who had secured tenure and become the president of Harvard than they were of a white man who washed out of a grad program with a massive scandal and then became a white nationalist troll.
Reposted by Richard Mehlinger 🏳️🌈🩷💜💙↙↙↙
4/x And that's the Dream. To be that shining city on the hill. To live by the words of the New Colossus. To be that land at whose gates stands the Mother of Exiles and welcomes in--you get it. I'm crying, whatever.
And now we are reminded, as we were not a year ago, that the opposition hates that.
And now we are reminded, as we were not a year ago, that the opposition hates that.
July 4, 2025 at 4:32 PM
4/x And that's the Dream. To be that shining city on the hill. To live by the words of the New Colossus. To be that land at whose gates stands the Mother of Exiles and welcomes in--you get it. I'm crying, whatever.
And now we are reminded, as we were not a year ago, that the opposition hates that.
And now we are reminded, as we were not a year ago, that the opposition hates that.
Reposted by Richard Mehlinger 🏳️🌈🩷💜💙↙↙↙
3/x I grew up arguing civics around the Shabbat table, with family friends both Jewish and gentile, of all backgrounds. Grew up so immersed in pluralism and striving for a better future that I had to learn later how unusual it is. (Small wonder my first published novel is so drenched in this.)
July 4, 2025 at 4:30 PM
3/x I grew up arguing civics around the Shabbat table, with family friends both Jewish and gentile, of all backgrounds. Grew up so immersed in pluralism and striving for a better future that I had to learn later how unusual it is. (Small wonder my first published novel is so drenched in this.)
Reposted by Richard Mehlinger 🏳️🌈🩷💜💙↙↙↙
2/x My father's side of the family was cast out of their homes and washed up on these shores. My mother's side of the family found sanctuary here where they lived, as the other branches of the family burned.
These are stories told over and over, in the tens of millions. And some people hated that.
These are stories told over and over, in the tens of millions. And some people hated that.
July 4, 2025 at 4:27 PM
2/x My father's side of the family was cast out of their homes and washed up on these shores. My mother's side of the family found sanctuary here where they lived, as the other branches of the family burned.
These are stories told over and over, in the tens of millions. And some people hated that.
These are stories told over and over, in the tens of millions. And some people hated that.
Reposted by Richard Mehlinger 🏳️🌈🩷💜💙↙↙↙
A year ago, I knew these two things: America was the greatest country in the world, and I was going to work my ass off to keep it moving forwards.
We lost that battle. Lost it to complacency, vs the openly monstrous. But the Dream lives on; American liberalism may yet raise our banner higher. 1/x
We lost that battle. Lost it to complacency, vs the openly monstrous. But the Dream lives on; American liberalism may yet raise our banner higher. 1/x
July 4, 2025 at 4:24 PM
A year ago, I knew these two things: America was the greatest country in the world, and I was going to work my ass off to keep it moving forwards.
We lost that battle. Lost it to complacency, vs the openly monstrous. But the Dream lives on; American liberalism may yet raise our banner higher. 1/x
We lost that battle. Lost it to complacency, vs the openly monstrous. But the Dream lives on; American liberalism may yet raise our banner higher. 1/x
Reposted by Richard Mehlinger 🏳️🌈🩷💜💙↙↙↙
Happy birthday to the greatest articulation of critical American patriotism, Frederick Douglass’ “What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July” www.blackpast.org/african-amer...
July 4, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Happy birthday to the greatest articulation of critical American patriotism, Frederick Douglass’ “What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July” www.blackpast.org/african-amer...