Joe Streckert
@joestreckert.bsky.social
Portland writer. Erstwhile podcaster. Occasional author. Horror fan and pinball enthusiast. https://linktr.ee/joestreckert
Very sad to hear about Sal Buscema passing away. I always liked his version of the Hulk and how it incorporated monstrosity with physical ideal. His Hulk was part beastly Mr. Hyde, part herculean hero. A very good balance that worked for the character.
January 26, 2026 at 11:26 PM
Very sad to hear about Sal Buscema passing away. I always liked his version of the Hulk and how it incorporated monstrosity with physical ideal. His Hulk was part beastly Mr. Hyde, part herculean hero. A very good balance that worked for the character.
Reposted by Joe Streckert
"Equal obligation" among citizens and government agents to "avoid violence" is a Hobbesian view of governance, the kind explicitly rejected by the Framers in favor of the Lockean social compact. The state is a trustee, the agents fiduciaries, the citizens beneficiaries.
Read a book you dullards.
Read a book you dullards.
This is from the NYT masthead editorial about the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. The highlighted line invalidates not just the editorial, but the very idea of newspaper editorials crafted by the consensus of a board. Better to publish nothing at all than to publish a line like this.
!["The temperature in Minneapolis is dangerously high. There is an urgent need for the federal agents deployed to the city to step back and take a breath before more Americans are hurt or killed. [Highlighted]: Those protesting the Trump administration have an equal obligation to avoid violence.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:zknk3rjsatent75sdbbopown/bafkreid6g5bmlf3gyxj2egzcy33hkwiaqgrzuoh3yhbpenmvdmvyyobfq4@jpeg)
January 26, 2026 at 12:09 AM
"Equal obligation" among citizens and government agents to "avoid violence" is a Hobbesian view of governance, the kind explicitly rejected by the Framers in favor of the Lockean social compact. The state is a trustee, the agents fiduciaries, the citizens beneficiaries.
Read a book you dullards.
Read a book you dullards.
Cities are good and we should celebrate them.
Unironically, I think we should do stuff like put the Hollywood sign or Times Square on things like American passports. Make the iconography of urban areas part of our civic religion, as revered and beloved as amber waves of grain.
Unironically, I think we should do stuff like put the Hollywood sign or Times Square on things like American passports. Make the iconography of urban areas part of our civic religion, as revered and beloved as amber waves of grain.
I hate how often people think / talk like "LA" (a place of tens of millions) isn't one of America's heartlands
January 25, 2026 at 11:55 PM
Cities are good and we should celebrate them.
Unironically, I think we should do stuff like put the Hollywood sign or Times Square on things like American passports. Make the iconography of urban areas part of our civic religion, as revered and beloved as amber waves of grain.
Unironically, I think we should do stuff like put the Hollywood sign or Times Square on things like American passports. Make the iconography of urban areas part of our civic religion, as revered and beloved as amber waves of grain.
Reposted by Joe Streckert
Live footage of Hannah Arendt's dichotomy between violence and power.
This administration is cooked. Literally no one is scared of them.
January 25, 2026 at 7:33 PM
Live footage of Hannah Arendt's dichotomy between violence and power.
Reposted by Joe Streckert
Years from now, it'll be difficult to explain the things people in media were wailing about before all this. Sophomores writing underconsidered op-eds about cultural appropriation. Protests against demagogues on campus. YA drama. "Mobs" on Twitter. These were the threats to free society.
January 25, 2026 at 3:08 PM
Years from now, it'll be difficult to explain the things people in media were wailing about before all this. Sophomores writing underconsidered op-eds about cultural appropriation. Protests against demagogues on campus. YA drama. "Mobs" on Twitter. These were the threats to free society.
Reposted by Joe Streckert
Worth noting that one reason you’re benefitting so fully from the Star-Tribune’s timely, extensive coverage of unfolding events is that it’s a metro newspaper that hasn’t been systematically starved to further enrich shareholders and executives.
January 24, 2026 at 10:47 PM
Worth noting that one reason you’re benefitting so fully from the Star-Tribune’s timely, extensive coverage of unfolding events is that it’s a metro newspaper that hasn’t been systematically starved to further enrich shareholders and executives.
Reposted by Joe Streckert
January 24, 2026 at 11:30 PM
Reposted by Joe Streckert
Calling congress is super easy and if you have phone anxiety, they’re not at their offices right now. You can leave a message. You can have your voice heard without having to directly interact with anyone. It’s very easy.
January 24, 2026 at 7:27 PM
Calling congress is super easy and if you have phone anxiety, they’re not at their offices right now. You can leave a message. You can have your voice heard without having to directly interact with anyone. It’s very easy.
I’m calling my reps today and telling them to vote no on any and all continued ICE funding.
You should, too. Pick up the phone. They generally care about calls much more than emails.
You should, too. Pick up the phone. They generally care about calls much more than emails.
January 24, 2026 at 7:23 PM
I’m calling my reps today and telling them to vote no on any and all continued ICE funding.
You should, too. Pick up the phone. They generally care about calls much more than emails.
You should, too. Pick up the phone. They generally care about calls much more than emails.
Reposted by Joe Streckert
looks like a blink, thank god
Trump: "Based upon a very productive meeting I had with Mark Rutte, we have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region. This solution, if consummated, will be a great one... Based upon this understanding, I will not be imposing the Tariffs"
January 21, 2026 at 7:49 PM
looks like a blink, thank god
Reposted by Joe Streckert
I don’t think people understand how hard it is to find an issue that polls in the single digits. It’s close to impossible.
January 20, 2026 at 8:02 PM
I don’t think people understand how hard it is to find an issue that polls in the single digits. It’s close to impossible.
Reposted by Joe Streckert
imagining a work culture where every manager agrees not to give a shit about productivity metrics as long as work is generally getting done. rotating it in my mind
Remote work 2. Exact same people exact same problem
January 21, 2026 at 5:17 PM
imagining a work culture where every manager agrees not to give a shit about productivity metrics as long as work is generally getting done. rotating it in my mind
Amazing misunderstanding of what was in the speech. If a gangster says “I don’t want to hurt you,” that’s a threat.
Right on cue, here are the push alerts from the 3 major newspapers lmao
January 21, 2026 at 2:56 PM
Amazing misunderstanding of what was in the speech. If a gangster says “I don’t want to hurt you,” that’s a threat.
Reposted by Joe Streckert
Even after Trump is gone, the world will remember that he threatened to forcibly seize the territory of a peaceful democratic ally, and our institutions failed to immediately remove him. That makes US dangerously unreliable, not just one senile gangster.
His not being impeached by the end of the business day as a result of this threat is as much a problem as the threat itself. It’s not just Trump that the world has to worry about, it’s a GOP that supports him and Democrats who suck their thumbs and refuse to even discuss pushing to remove him
January 21, 2026 at 2:46 PM
Even after Trump is gone, the world will remember that he threatened to forcibly seize the territory of a peaceful democratic ally, and our institutions failed to immediately remove him. That makes US dangerously unreliable, not just one senile gangster.
The only question I want to hear asked of any member of Congress is: “Donald Trump is threatening war with our European allies. Why haven’t you removed him yet?”
January 21, 2026 at 2:32 PM
The only question I want to hear asked of any member of Congress is: “Donald Trump is threatening war with our European allies. Why haven’t you removed him yet?”
One of the big media failures of the past decade is the ongoing search for the deeper side of Trump. There isn't one. His ideology, such as it is, is personalist, transactional, and zero-sum. That's as vain, vulgar, and wrong as you can get. He likes gold shit and applause. There's nothing beneath.
January 21, 2026 at 12:50 AM
One of the big media failures of the past decade is the ongoing search for the deeper side of Trump. There isn't one. His ideology, such as it is, is personalist, transactional, and zero-sum. That's as vain, vulgar, and wrong as you can get. He likes gold shit and applause. There's nothing beneath.
Reposted by Joe Streckert
I think we’ve got better and more culturally-varied street food than I could have imagined, cool jackets galore, and drugs that make us think we’re really fast and strong before they kill us.
we're getting all the downsides of cyberpunk (social alienation, ruthless hyper capitalism, digital mass surveillance state) but none of the promised upsides (cheap street food, cool jackets, super drugs that make you really fast and strong before they kill you)
January 20, 2026 at 10:02 PM
I think we’ve got better and more culturally-varied street food than I could have imagined, cool jackets galore, and drugs that make us think we’re really fast and strong before they kill us.
Reposted by Joe Streckert
He was a Communist, Elmo.
January 19, 2026 at 9:59 PM
He was a Communist, Elmo.
Reposted by Joe Streckert
i think when people, and i include myself here, get mad about this, what they are actually mad about is "dammit why aren't any of the things the many americans of good conscience are doing working" and that really is the sixty four thousand dollar question isn't it
January 20, 2026 at 12:59 AM
i think when people, and i include myself here, get mad about this, what they are actually mad about is "dammit why aren't any of the things the many americans of good conscience are doing working" and that really is the sixty four thousand dollar question isn't it
Reposted by Joe Streckert
Reposted by Joe Streckert
this is the most ridiculous thing
we could make life enormously less stressful and awful by simply Not Doing Any Of This
call off the ICE goons, rescind the tariffs, stop threatening Greenland
just stop it! problem(s) solved!
we could make life enormously less stressful and awful by simply Not Doing Any Of This
call off the ICE goons, rescind the tariffs, stop threatening Greenland
just stop it! problem(s) solved!
every single goddam crisis happening right now is self imposed
January 19, 2026 at 5:54 PM
this is the most ridiculous thing
we could make life enormously less stressful and awful by simply Not Doing Any Of This
call off the ICE goons, rescind the tariffs, stop threatening Greenland
just stop it! problem(s) solved!
we could make life enormously less stressful and awful by simply Not Doing Any Of This
call off the ICE goons, rescind the tariffs, stop threatening Greenland
just stop it! problem(s) solved!
Reposted by Joe Streckert
I think maybe a lot of bad things could be avoided if the worlds most obvious crooks faced some sort of punishment other than “accumulating great sums of money and power”
January 19, 2026 at 6:28 AM
I think maybe a lot of bad things could be avoided if the worlds most obvious crooks faced some sort of punishment other than “accumulating great sums of money and power”
I just reached out to my representatives with the following message. I don't think this is hyperbolic in the least. An insane would-be emperor is playing at war between nuclear-armed powers because he's transfixed by the Mercator projection.
January 19, 2026 at 3:53 PM
I just reached out to my representatives with the following message. I don't think this is hyperbolic in the least. An insane would-be emperor is playing at war between nuclear-armed powers because he's transfixed by the Mercator projection.
Reposted by Joe Streckert
Again, I’m going to keep banging the drum that the fact we are threatening the territorial sovereignty of our closest allies is not only a gross violation of our UN & NATO treaty obligations & poses a massive threat to national security & world order but also should immediately end this presidency.
I spoke to the Secretary-General of NATO, Emmanuel Macron, Keir Starmer, Friedrich Merz and Giorgia Meloni.
Together we stand firm in our commitment to uphold the sovereignty of Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark.
Together we stand firm in our commitment to uphold the sovereignty of Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark.
January 18, 2026 at 9:10 PM
Again, I’m going to keep banging the drum that the fact we are threatening the territorial sovereignty of our closest allies is not only a gross violation of our UN & NATO treaty obligations & poses a massive threat to national security & world order but also should immediately end this presidency.