Ted Friedman
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Ted Friedman
@tedfriedman.bsky.social
Recovering academic
Reposted by Ted Friedman
However much you hate Bezos, this is a story that needed a whole newsroom and corporate infrastructure to produce.
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
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 29, 2025 at 2:29 AM
Reposted by Ted Friedman
The legal, media, and academic institutions capitulating to an authoritarian ordering payments for favorable treatment are damning themselves to irrelevance. They are destroying their institutions. They will be — and should be — shunned for failing in their most basic purposes for existing.
BREAKING: Northwestern University has agreed to pay the U.S. Treasury $75 million, over the course of three years as part of an agreement with the federal government to restore funding and end investigations into the university

Full statement from NU below:
November 29, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Reposted by Ted Friedman
Every single congressional Democrat needs to be out there, right now, insisting that Pete Hegseth resign right now and announcing that he will be held accountable for committing war crimes.

If you do not demand accountability here and now, they will only become more emboldened.
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 7:19 PM
Reposted by Ted Friedman
You've heard of the Friday night news dump. Here's the Friday night of Thanksgiving wknd dump. For special circumstances, like when the faculty assembly votes 595-4 against paying to end a shakedown and you do it anyway. Link to agreement here: bulkmail.northwestern.edu/trk/click?re...
BREAKING: Northwestern University has agreed to pay the U.S. Treasury $75 million, over the course of three years as part of an agreement with the federal government to restore funding and end investigations into the university

Full statement from NU below:
November 29, 2025 at 12:34 AM
Reposted by Ted Friedman
Now only did White House pool reporters not stick up for their colleague who Trump repeatedly called “stupid” but you can hear them thanking Trump a few minutes later after he ended the Q&A. Sad stuff.
November 28, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Reposted by Ted Friedman
A reminder for those who are not aware: "remigration" is the process of deporting all non-white people from a country. It includes citizens and is, by definition, ethnic cleansing.

And to be clear: this is not fake. I just screenshot it myself.
November 28, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Reposted by Ted Friedman
From Frederick Douglass's 1867 "Composite Nation" speech, a defense of Chinese migration to the United States at a time when anti-Chinese sentiment was intensifying.
teachingamericanhistory.org/document/our...
November 28, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Reposted by Ted Friedman
🎯
November 28, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Reposted by Ted Friedman
it’s vitally important for the future of this country that this wildly unpopular administration is tied directly to its enablers in congress and the courts and used to discredit the entire conservative movement
Gallup poll | 11/3-11/25

President Trump approval
Disapprove 60% (+6)
Approve 36% (-5)

news.gallup.com/poll/699221/...
November 28, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Reposted by Ted Friedman
"Would you support or oppose creating a national health insurance program, sometimes called "Medicare for All," that would cover all Americans and replace most private health insurance plans?"

Support: 65%
Oppose: 26%

Data For Progress / Nov 17, 2025
November 28, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Reposted by Ted Friedman
Important to do this press conference about a mass shooting from behind a comic book convention’s folding table inside the hotel from The Shining.
“You’re a stupid person” — Trump lashes out at a reporter who presses him on the fact that the suspected DC shooter was actually thoroughly vetted before he was let in the US from Afghanistan
November 28, 2025 at 3:16 AM
Reposted by Ted Friedman
Reporters who fact-check Trump to his face are not “stupid”, they are not “piggies”, and they are not “ugly”. They are doing their jobs, and doing it under pressure most of us will never experience.

We should be grateful for their service. I appreciate their courage now more than ever.
November 28, 2025 at 1:59 AM
Reposted by Ted Friedman
I can’t believe people in the room don’t push back. It doesn’t matter if he’s the president, part of holding him accountable is standing up to his bullying— especially if he’s doing it right in front of your face
“You’re a stupid person” — Trump lashes out at a reporter who presses him on the fact that the suspected DC shooter was actually thoroughly vetted before he was let in the US from Afghanistan
November 28, 2025 at 12:52 AM
Reposted by Ted Friedman
Homeland Security doesn’t grasp the fact that the first Thanksgiving was about making “room at the table” for European “invaders.”
November 27, 2025 at 11:57 PM
Reposted by Ted Friedman
Motion smoothing *is* on and it’s making the movie strange and dreamlike
November 27, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Reposted by Ted Friedman
Pringles Thanksgiving Kits (2017-2019): For three consecutive years, Pringles put out special Thanksgiving Dinner-themed collections of potato crisps, in flavors such as turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, creamed corn, pumpkin pie, and more
November 28, 2024 at 12:20 PM
Reposted by Ted Friedman
The White House is going to be haunted *so hard* by the ghosts of Andrea Palladio, Lord Burlington, Thomas Jefferson, and Charles Follen McKim.
November 27, 2025 at 12:11 AM
Reposted by Ted Friedman
“You better not be NBA Live ‘97 David Robinson when you get back from that *walk* with your cousins!”

{me coming back from the *walk* with my cousins}
November 27, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Reposted by Ted Friedman
People will die, and are currently dying, because RFK was granted one of the most powerful megaphones in the country. Two people who could have thrown barriers in front of his climb decided not to; there's a sex scandal here but it is not the biggest scandal.
November 26, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Reposted by Ted Friedman
everyone knows the number one quality of rigorous, responsible journalism is waiting months and months to reveal urgently newsworthy information until it can cause the most harm in your personal vendettas
November 26, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Reposted by Ted Friedman
wild that this happened within 24 hours of bolsanaro going to prison. will be a timeless textbook example of what works to save a democracy and what doesn’t
Breaking News: The last pending criminal prosecution against President Trump was dismissed by a judge in Georgia, effectively ending efforts to hold Trump criminally responsible for attempts to overturn the 2020 election. trib.al/EnJu57H
November 26, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Reposted by Ted Friedman
Handing back student work that’s been written by ChatGPT with a 0 followed by the comment “This essay will never stand in authentic wonder before the Beauty of God’s creation.”
Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’
Even God Is Worried About ChatGPT
Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’
www.vulture.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Reposted by Ted Friedman
Inbox: The independent union at Blue Bottle Coffee, @bbiunion.bsky.social, is on strike. “As of today, we have gone out on the picket line to combat Blue Bottle's bad faith bargaining and ensure fair wages and protections for baristas.”
November 26, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Reposted by Ted Friedman
RFK Jr. is neither a joke nor a well-intentioned proponent of public health with a few kooky beliefs. He's a menace, evil even by the standards of Trump's inner circle, and the failure of the political press to convey this is maddening
I actually think it’s okay to take a ridiculous scandal seriously when it involves a wingnut conspiracy theorist in charge of things like vaccine policy and pandemic preparedness

Sorry to be a wet blanket 🤷🏻‍♀️
She never misses a beat, of course, but Marina's first paragraph this week is *chef's kiss*

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
November 25, 2025 at 11:44 PM
Reposted by Ted Friedman
November 26, 2025 at 3:48 AM