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Matt Shipman (he/him)

@shiplives.bsky.social

8.6K followers 1.6K following 4.8K posts

Writer. Comms person. Mostly sci/tech/health. Sometimes music/food/culture. Lifelong Eagles fan from the South. (We exist!) Let’s make the South better, y’all. Stuff I write for fun here: https://medium.com/@shiplives

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Matt Shipman (he/him) @shiplives.bsky.social · Feb 18

Was recently thinking about a sort of hierarchy of needs that speaks to this moment.

1) Survive. Nothing happens without this.

2) Hope. Believe in a better future.

3) Plan. What can I do to help make that future a reality (even a small thing)?

4) Act. Put your plan in motion.

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Matt Shipman (he/him) @shiplives.bsky.social · 9h

Onion bagel (salt, garlic, poppyseed , or everything also okay - but onion is my favorite), toasted. Lox, red onion. That’s it.

Reposted by Matt Shipman (he/him)

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 9h

Like, I think our society has given way too much political power to guys whose worldview is reshaped by political invitations to dine with the King of England and have no idea about what is happening in American cities.

Mr. Benioff is close enough to Mr. Trump to have been invited last month to a state dinner that was hosted by King Charles for the president at Windsor Castle in England. Mr. Benioff said that he was incredibly honored to be seated directly across the table from Mr. Trump and spent the dinner telling him “how grateful I am for everything he’s doing,” he recounted.

Mr. Benioff, who also owns Time magazine, said he had not closely followed the news about the immigration raids, Mr. Trump’s call to gerrymander congressional districts before the midterm elections, the government shutdown or the Trump administration’s attacks on the media. He said Time, which named Mr. Trump its “Person of the Year” last year, had faced no pressure from the White House.

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Reposted by Matt Shipman (he/him)

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 9h

These guys have gotten incredibly rich by fleecing the government with subpar tech that was designed for rentseeking rather than performance. A smart Dem agenda item would be to build internal tech capacity. The fact that it would punish these guys is just a silver lining.

Mike Masnick @mmasnick.bsky.social · 9h

Being a billionaire must really fuck with your mind. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

Marc Benioff Says Trump Should Send Guard Troops to San Francisco

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Matt Shipman (he/him)

Philip Bump @pbump.com · 13h

In 2020, Trump put footage of vandalism and violence in Portland and elsewhere on repeat in his social media and campaign ads. This time, despite similar rhetoric about the city, he isn’t. And I bet you can guess why. www.pbump.net/o/the-presid...

The president’s pretend enemy

There is no crisis of unrest in Portland, Oregon. One way I know this to be true is that President Trump — who is insistent that Portland faces just such a crisis — doesn't offer any evidence of it. A...

www.pbump.net

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Matt Shipman (he/him) @shiplives.bsky.social · 15h

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha....

www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/aaa...

“AAAGGGHHH!!!” A Memo from Animal, Your New Editor-in-Chief

“[Editor-in-chief of CBS News] Bari Weiss told network staffers in a morning editorial call that she wants to ‘win’ before delivering a rallying cr...

www.mcsweeneys.net

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Reposted by Matt Shipman (he/him)

Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News @froomkin.bsky.social · 15h

Outrageous -- and apparently in blatant violation of yesterday's ruling protecting protesters and journalists from this kind of shit. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/10/w...

WGN-TV producer detained during ICE enforcement action in Lincoln Square

A WGN-TV video editor and producer was roughly detained by two Border Patrol agents on Friday morning during a highly visible rush hour enforcement action in Lincoln Square.

www.chicagotribune.com

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Reposted by Matt Shipman (he/him)

Sarah Taber @sarahtaber.bsky.social · 16h

Farm bankruptcies are back in the news, so it's time to pull this chart out again.

Hey look they kept rising during Trump's first term. Then they went way down under Biden.

Now they're up again? So weird. Thanks Farm Bureau for the graphic

Screenshot from Farm Bureau article on farm bankruptcies. It shows farm bankruptcies climbing steadily 2014-2020, falling by half in 2021, & continuing to fall through 2023.

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Matt Shipman (he/him) @shiplives.bsky.social · 20h

sigh

Philip Bump @pbump.com · 1d

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Reposted by Matt Shipman (he/him)

Syreeta McFadden @reetamac.bsky.social · 20h

This.

John Knefel @johnknefel.bsky.social · 20h

Giving the Nobel Peace Prize to someone who is begging Trump to start a war of choice with her Latin American country, but doing it with a little swipe at Trump -- that's the excellence I'd expect from a body that bestowed the same award on Kissinger

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Matt Shipman (he/him) @shiplives.bsky.social · 1d

I haven’t read it. Is it a good read?

Matt Shipman (he/him) @shiplives.bsky.social · 1d

No offense to Bob and Bruce! But Johnny Cash was just an exceptionally cool human, even by music legend standards.

Matt Shipman (he/him) @shiplives.bsky.social · 1d

Johnny Cash.

Member of the Million Dollar Quartet and the Highwaymen?

The Man in Black?

Recorded his most famous album in a MFing prison?

The man who truly did not give a f**k what other people thought?

You thought he was “deeply uncool” compared to Bob Dylan? And you admitted that out loud?

bendwalsh.bsky.social @bendwalsh.bsky.social · 1d

wtaf are you talking about

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Reposted by Matt Shipman (he/him)

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

practically a requirement for this administration to be a sex pest

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 1d

"30-year-old conservative lawyer and activist who is Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel, which deals with federal employee whistleblower complaints and discrimination" cancelled his colleague's hotel room so she would be forced to stay with him.
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

In late July, Paul Ingrassia, the White House liaison for the Department of Homeland Security, arrived at a Ritz-Carlton in Orlando with a lower-ranking female colleague and others from their department. When the group reached the front desk, the woman learned she didn’t have a hotel room.

Ingrassia then informed her that she would be staying with him, according to five administration officials familiar with the episode. Eventually the woman discovered that Ingrassia had arranged ahead of time to have her hotel room canceled so she would have to stay with him, three of those officials said.

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Matt Shipman (he/him) @shiplives.bsky.social · 1d

I almost never outline a story before I start writing, at least with any detail. The moment you’re talking about always hits me when the outline pops up out of my subconscious. It’s a relief *and* it’s daunting. So…dauntlief?

Matt Shipman (he/him) @shiplives.bsky.social · 1d

Oh no! Hope he is okay.

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Matt Shipman (he/him) @shiplives.bsky.social · 1d

I feel like less predictable playcalling could make a huge difference on offense. Defense seems like a personnel issue; no pass rush gives opponents plenty of time to pick on soft spots in the secondary. No clue how to fix that this season.

Matt Shipman (he/him) @shiplives.bsky.social · 1d

Oof. From bad to worse.

Matt Shipman (he/him) @shiplives.bsky.social · 1d

The Eagles better get their sh** together in a hurry, or this will be the most humiliating loss in a loooong time. Good grief. A comedy of errors.

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Matt Shipman (he/him) @shiplives.bsky.social · 1d

What the f**k is this insanity!?!?!?

Joshua Benton @joshuabenton.com · 1d

June 11: GOP Sen. Marsha Blackburn introduces a bill to defund NPR and PBS because of their "left-wing propaganda" and "radical leftist gender ideology."

October 7: The news industry's main trade group gives Blackburn its "Support Journalism Champion Award."

Just shameless.

Matt Shipman (he/him) @shiplives.bsky.social · 1d

[thinks for a moment; nods in agreement]

Reposted by Matt Shipman (he/him)

Edward Nirenberg @enirenberg.bsky.social · 1d

This is called policy-based evidence making (the antipode of evidence-based policymaking, a thing we should all want)

A.J. Bauer @ajbauer.bsky.social · 1d

This perfectly encapsulates how right-wing politics works and why it is so dangerous.

Rather than observing the world as it is and proposing changes, right-wing politics start with an idealized conception of the world and go about reshaping reality to confirm to that vision.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

RFK Jr on Tylenol and autism: "It is not proof. We're doing the studies to make the proof."

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Matt Shipman (he/him) @shiplives.bsky.social · 1d

Boy howdy, does this resonate.

Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 2d

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

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Matt Shipman (he/him) @shiplives.bsky.social · 1d

Maybe. But if they do, it's because they were going to fire you anyway.

Matt Shipman (he/him) @shiplives.bsky.social · 1d

*A lot of people** apparently need to hear this.

** A lot of managers***, in particular, need to hear this.

*** A lot of executive-level management who don't actually understand how generative AI technologies work, in particular, need to hear this.

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