Matt Ortega
@mattortega.com
6.5K followers 960 following 11K posts
Oakland-born, East Bay bred // Arizona Wildcat ‘06 // small businessman and union member creative digital https://e23.digital ሉካ + ኒኮ ···−
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mattortega.com
Me, 2024: We are not going back!

Me, 2025:
Robert DeNiro in "Heat," saying, "Told you I'm never going back."
Reposted by Matt Ortega
sjjphd.bsky.social
Belatedly reading about this and as always really important to remind people in *every breath* that when the right talks about “woke” and “DEI” they are talking about the cultural and political wins of the civil rights movement. This arrangement existed for 52 years because of historical activism.
mattortega.com
... and doing so for two reasons:

1. He speaks the Spanish.
2. He has a spine whereas they do not.
ericmgarcia.bsky.social
Bad Bunny went from bagging groceries recording music on SoundCloud to being one of the most streamed artists in the world. He embodies the entrepreneurial spirit of Latinos that Republicans say should make them natural conservatives. Instead they are crashing out on him.
mattortega.com
"Please enjoy this encore presentation of The Mike Francesca Show already in progress."
mattortega.com
(I really need to find the time to get back to writing at least periodically.)
mattortega.com
Absolutely. It is predictable. I wrote a warning about this a few weeks after the 2024 election.
When this ultimately all falls apart—and it will, one way or another—the overwhelming desire from elite quarters will be to just move on. It's in the past. We're looking forward.

Not this time.

When the country is left examining the wreckage of this administration and the movement which swept it back into power, those responsible and their enablers will seek to escape accountability on ratlines to the speaker's circuit for lucrative fees or slink off to the Harvard IOP fellows program. History informs us that the odds are in their favor. It is also instructive that the lack of accountability only begets further destructive actions. This past election is an acute example of this failing and we will all suffer as a result.
Reposted by Matt Ortega
goldengateblond.bsky.social
it actually offends me how sloppy and careless they are. anyone who’s ever been laid off knows the panic you feel when it happens. and while obviously it’s good that they backtracked, these are people’s fucking LIVELIHOODS they’re messing with.
Trump Administration Is Bringing Back Scores of C.D.C. Experts Fired in Error
www.nytimes.com
mattortega.com
We randomly had WGN in Oakland at my grandmother's house so it was very weird to grow up with the team productions for the A's (KRON/KICU), Giants (KTVU), Braves (TBS) and the Cubs (WGN).

(Weirdly did not get WGN in nearby Hayward nor Danville.)
mattortega.com
PCA has no composure, like, ever.
mattortega.com
Bay Area native
cooperlund.online
Andrew Vaughn? Really?
mattortega.com
Mackenzie Scott, Jeff Bezo’s ex-wife, is a rare exception. Nobody is mad at her—other than Jeff Bezos anyway.

It would be very easy to be a billionaire people actually liked but they choose evil time and again.
mattortega.com
… which is why everybody needs to be prosecuted once they are out of power.
mcopelov.bsky.social
Nixon’s crimes look like harmless high school pranks compared to the now-daily unprecedented illegal & unconstitutional crimes being committed daily by this president & his staff
kjephd.bsky.social
Unconstitutionally taking money that the law says must be spent on one purpose & using it for something else—when it's to establish personalist control over the FUCKING MILITARY—is about as dangerous a constitutional crisis/failure as you can imagine

Via: www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...
Reposted by Matt Ortega
jamellebouie.net
really striking the degree to which not a single person working in the trump administration appears to be interested in serving the american people
mattortega.com
Jimmy Carter was famously blasted by the press and Republicans for “indecision” because he announced a big energy *speech* and ventures to Camp David for a few days to work on it then canceled it.
Reposted by Matt Ortega
kjephd.bsky.social
Unconstitutionally taking money that the law says must be spent on one purpose & using it for something else—when it's to establish personalist control over the FUCKING MILITARY—is about as dangerous a constitutional crisis/failure as you can imagine

Via: www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...
The Office of Management and Budget sent a notification to Congress about their intent to use research and development funds to pay members of the military, two sources with direct knowledge tell NBC News.

A spokesperson for the OMB confirmed to NBC News that it plans to use the research and development funds and that there are two years' worth of funds available within the Department of Defense.
mattortega.com
“I’m [nominee], running for Congress. Things are tough for Americans just trying to get by. Republicans are enabling Donald Trump’s assault on our rights, our health care, and our ability to provide for our families. You don’t have to take my word for it. Here’s one of his biggest supporters.”
ofthebraveusa.bsky.social
Marjorie Taylor Greene : "Prices have not come down at all. The job market is extremely difficult. Wages have not gone up. Health insurance premiums are going to go up. Homeowner's insurance goes up every year. Rent is going up. Young people have no hope of buying a home."
Reposted by Matt Ortega
schooley.bsky.social
I still don’t get how the major reporting doesn’t frame this as obvious. It’s as if the administration just randomly shut off all traffic lights, in the absence of a plausible reason I think we could assume the goal is pain and chaos.
clarajeffery.bsky.social
They are trying to kill us
mcbridetd.bsky.social
C.D.C. Layoffs Included 2 Top Measles Experts Amid Rising Cases
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/h...
mattortega.com
They really don’t give a shit. If they think it helps people or costs big business money, they don’t want it. They are ideologically opposed to the mere concept of collective action. Meanwhile the technofascists who want to head their own Network State fiefdoms are fully ob board.
scott.hanselman.com
WTF is their goal? Small government means every man for themselves when the next catastrophe hits? What is the point? Government isn’t a business, it’s a service for the people. You’re saving minimal money with these cuts and only hurting literally everyone
sherylnyt.bsky.social
BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:
mattortega.com
All the people they will inevitably kill will just be dismissed as “unhealthy” and a burden being let go.
mattortega.com
I always assumed it was some kind of metaphor for relief.
Reposted by Matt Ortega
gravitysra1nbow.bsky.social
This shit is crazy because they're just straight up on video hitting a car that was blocked in the street. The extent as to which DHS now just brazenly puts out lies is utterly obscene.
cjciaramella.bsky.social
UPDATE: In emailed statement to me / @reason.com, DHS alleges that WGN-TV producer Debbie Brockman "threw objects at Border Patrol’s car and she was placed under arrest for assault on a federal law enforcement officer."
Screencap of email from DHS public affairs: Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin:

 

“U.S. Border Patrol was conducting immigration enforcement operations and when several violent agitators used their vehicles to block in agents in an effort to impede and assault federal officers. In fear of public safety and of law enforcement, officers used their service vehicle to strike a suspect’s vehicle and create an opening. As agents were driving, Deborah Brockman, a U.S. citizen, threw objects at Border Patrol’s car and she was placed under arrest for assault on a federal law enforcement officer. 

 

“This incident is not isolated and reflects a growing and dangerous trend of illegal aliens violently resisting arrest and agitators and criminals ramming cars into our law enforcement officers. These attacks highlight the dangers our law enforcement officers face daily—all while receiving no pay thanks to the Democrats’ government shutdown.”
Reposted by Matt Ortega
chrislhayes.bsky.social
As a group, District Judges (from across the ideological spectrum!) performing as well as just about anyone right now in defending democratic liberty.
Reposted by Matt Ortega
kwcollins.bsky.social
The founders in fact did NOT create the filibuster, but they DID give the Senate and House each the power to set their own rules, which includes changing rules to allow passage of appropriations bills with simple majorities
ringwiss.bsky.social
“And that’s why we nuked it twice in the past month.”
Reposted by Matt Ortega
motherjones.com
The US has finalized its $20 billion bailout for Argentina, a main US competitor in the soybean market.

This is a move that will only further screw over American soybean farmers, who're being priced out of their own market.
A 90-second crash course in Trump's betrayal of American soy farmers
Here’s the geopolitical beans.
www.motherjones.com