Kelsey Atherton
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atherton.bsky.social
Kelsey Atherton
@atherton.bsky.social
30K followers 970 following 15K posts
War, robots, & bad futures but imagining better. I edit @cipolicy.bsky.social's International Policy Journal, opinions my own. Unitarian Universalist. He/him. Husband to @alymay.bsky.social & father of 2.

Front takes towards enemies.
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atherton.bsky.social
hey man, thanks for reading.
THIS PIECE OF PIE IS AWFULLY DARN SMALL! LIFE COULD BE WORSE, CALVIN. LIFE COULD BE A LOT BETTER, TOO! ... BUT WORSE IS MORE LIKELY.
November 24, 2025 at 3:28 AM
atherton.bsky.social
it is happening again theonion.com/this-war-wil...
Point/Counterpoint This War Will Destabilize The Entire Western Hemisphere And Set Off A Global Shockwave Of Anti-Americanism vs. No It Won't
November 23, 2025 at 9:52 PM
atherton.bsky.social
handshake meme with the WUBRG magic symbols and the city of Boston
November 23, 2025 at 6:03 AM
atherton.bsky.social
Comically I cannot remember what inspired me to make this years ago
Wasp Bottling Company Bottle it up forever! [image is a wasp in an old timey seltzer bottle]
November 23, 2025 at 3:37 AM
atherton.bsky.social
A diagram of the holy Trinity, except the father son and Holy Ghost are replaced by spaghetti, meatballs, breadsticks, and god at the center is replaced by the Olive Garden logo
November 23, 2025 at 3:01 AM
atherton.bsky.social
Bill Watterson anticipated BlueSky
THIS PIECE OF PIE IS AWFULLY DARN SMALL! LIFE COULD BE WORSE, CALVIN. LIFE COULD BE A LOT BETTER, TOO! ... BUT WORSE IS MORE LIKELY.
November 22, 2025 at 8:04 PM
atherton.bsky.social
Cartoon History of the Universe is deeply formative for me, I particularly find this self contained parable about a subcontinental atheist charming
A FAMOUS FABLE DESCRIBES AN ATHEIST WHO HATED GOD. GoD? THERE IS NO GOD! ALL HIS LIFE, WHATEVER HE DID, HE KEPT REMINDING HIMSELF-. THERE IS NO GOD THERE IS NO GOD THERE IS NO GOD THERE IS NO... UNTIL HE DIED. THERE IS NO GOD THERE IS NO GOD THERE NITT FIIT SURPRISE! BY CONSTANTLY DENYING GOD, HE HAD KEPT THE THOUGHT OF GOD CONSTANTLY IN MIND! 14 MY FACE RED: HERE WE DON'T EXACTLY HAVE FACES... SAY... HOW DID ANYONE KNOW WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THE GUY DIED? OF COURSE, AIS SOUL WAS INSTANTLY UNITED WITH GOD! 46
November 22, 2025 at 8:03 PM
atherton.bsky.social
been laughing at this Three Panel Soul for 17 years now www.threepanelsoul.com/comic/on-sob...
MR. BERNANKE, HOW'S THE ECONOMY? "K-CHIK" 'POOOGH" 3PS
November 22, 2025 at 8:00 PM
atherton.bsky.social
got hung up on "leading export" and now I want next year's Miss Norway to go as an oil rig
Mineral Fuels, Oils, Distillation Products Fish, Crustaceans, Molluscs, Aquatics Invertebrates 9.2% Machinery, Nuclear Reactors, Boilers 3.4% 66% Commodities Not Specified According to... 3.1% Aluminum 3.0% Optical,... 1.3% Nickel Ships,... Iron and Steel Electrical, Electronic... 2.3% Vehicles Other Than...
November 21, 2025 at 6:39 PM
atherton.bsky.social
shout-out to every single person you knew in high school who thought that naming it the department of homeland security was a gross fascist overture, and would ultimately come back to haunt us.

We have to dismantle the whole thing & jail everyone responsible.

x.com/DHSgov/statu...
Department of Homeland Security & @DHSgov "Rent is too high!" There are tens of millions of criminal illegals in our country. "Groceries cost too much!" There are tens of millions of criminal illegals in our country. "There aren't enough jobs!" There are tens of millions of criminal illegals in our country. "Women don't feel safe walking down the street!" There are tens of millions of criminal illegals in our country. "Traffic is terrible!" There are tens of millions of criminal illegals in our country. "Healthcare is too expensive!" There are tens of millions of criminal illegals in our country. "Welfare spending is through the roof!" There are tens of millions of criminal illegals in our country. "I can't afford a car!" There are tens of millions of criminal illegals in our country. "I can't afford a house!" "I can't afford a house!" There are tens of millions of criminal illegals in our country. Many problems. A simple answer.
November 20, 2025 at 6:10 PM
atherton.bsky.social
When you simply must tell everyone about your bamboo problem
the cuckold from the Oh Joy Sex Toy comic about cucking. He's looking out a window and giving a thumbs up.
November 18, 2025 at 6:12 AM
atherton.bsky.social
OUR BLESSED HOMELAND OUR GLORIOUS LEADER Albuquerque OUR GREAT RELIGION OUR NOBLE POPULACE OUR HEROIC ADVENTURERS THEIR BARBAROUS WASTES THEIR WICKED DESPOT THEIR PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITION THEIR BACKWARD SAVAGES THAN NY THEIR BRUTISH INVADERS Walth TOM GAULD
November 13, 2025 at 6:47 PM
atherton.bsky.social
With apologies to Tom Gauld
OUR BLESSED HOMELAND OUR GLORIOUS LEADER Allbuquerque OUR GREAT RELIGION OUR NOBLE POPULACE OUR HEROIC luminarias THEIR BARBAROUS WASTES THEIR WICKED DESPOT THEIR PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITION THEIR BACKWARD SAVAGES THEIR BRUTISH farolitos Ile 1110t " 1ll, 1t., 4lt TOM GAULO
November 13, 2025 at 6:40 PM
atherton.bsky.social
Yeah but what kind of New Mexican
Jesse Plemons in Alex Garland's "Civil War". short-cut bleach blond White Man in his late 30s or early 40s with an AR-pattern rifle, camouflage, and red plastic sunglasses
November 13, 2025 at 6:24 PM
atherton.bsky.social
Not every night you can step outside, see a faint pink glow over the Sandia mountains, then hold up a phone camera and watch it catch the Northern Lights above Albuquerque
trees houses and an ethereal pink glow extending to the night sky
November 12, 2025 at 3:29 AM
atherton.bsky.social
median youtube ad indistinguishable from satire. The product's actual name is MUD\WTR???
MUD \WTR® :rise Cacao ATRENS. CA 30008 Masala Chai Black tea, ginger, cardamo cloves, nutmeg, black pepp Cacao Lion's Mane 828%A7 Cordyceps Chaes MUD\WTR has NO hit case Reishi Skip Cinnamon Turmeric Himalayan Salt
November 11, 2025 at 11:38 PM
atherton.bsky.social
The Rick it is said
Never leaves you on read
When the texts come in a flurry
NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP RICK ASTLEY [handshake] LAKE SUPERIOR
November 11, 2025 at 2:21 AM
atherton.bsky.social
Wearing my "the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot absolutely wrecks me" hat on a lake this past summer, in perfectly calm weather
me (beared, browline glasses, polo shirt) on a boat on a lake in summer in a hat that says "the wreck of the edmund fitzgerald by gordon lightfoot absolutely wrecks me"
November 10, 2025 at 8:22 PM
atherton.bsky.social
The Vivi ban is the headliner here but good riddance to Screaming Nemesis
Banned Standard Cards The following cards have been added to the Standard banned list. Proft's Eidetic Memory Screaming Nemesis Vivi Ornitier la an eve release Legendary Enchantment When Proft's Eidetic Memory enters, draw a card. You have no maximum hand size. At the beginning of combat on your turn, if you've drawn more than one card this turn, put X +1/+1 counters on target creature you control, where X is the number of cards you've drawn this turn minus one. > JULIE DILLON Creature - Spirit Haste Whenever this creature is dealt damage, it deals that much damage to any other target. If a player is dealt damage this way, they can't gain life for the rest of the game. • LIGA SMILSHKALNE 3/3 Legendary Creature - Wizard O: Add X mana in any combination of and/or @, where X is Vivi Ornitier's power. Activate only during your turn and only once each turn. Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, put a +1/+1 counter on Vivi Ornitier and it deals 1 damage to each opponent. ›TONI INFANTE 0/3 19/25 67/ 5/15 Okay You will receive an equivalent Wildcard for each copy in your collection.
November 10, 2025 at 8:08 PM
atherton.bsky.social
This is what being in your 30s is like
BORR BLOOD WORK followed you • 29m
November 10, 2025 at 7:01 PM
atherton.bsky.social
worth rereading newrepublic.com/article/1532...
And the Mitch McConnell they were booing was pretty much peak Mitch McConnell. At that moment, he was in the middle of the greatest stand of his career: refusing to allow a Democratic president to fill a Supreme Court vacancy, based on an obscurantist reading of Senate appointment protocols that he was all but making up as he went along. The man nominated for the presidency at that convention would, with McConnell's considerable help, go on to give the conservative movement a Supreme Court majority that looks poised to last a generation. Back in July 2016, that victory seemed exceedingly unlikely, hinging, as it did, on the election of a widely hated and transparently ridiculous man as president. But McConnell was the only person with the power and audacity to get any sort of court victory out of the last year of the Obama presidency. They still booed him.
November 10, 2025 at 1:18 AM
atherton.bsky.social
My grandpa became a cyclops at age 6 from lawn darts, I think we are okay in the world without Javelins Marketed To Children

(I think, often, about the things that kill kids more than the banned childkillers and what it would be like if @cpsc.gov was able to talk about guns like button batteries)
My grandfather, in his twilight years, gave me the whole of his religion in six words: "Life on earth is hell enough." Life on earth is hell enough. He had never spoken much of hell, or at all really. I could imagine what he meant from his life. He grew up Universalist in New Hampshire in the 1930s, became a cyclops from lawn darts as a six year old, and once hitchhiked across the country to Colorado Springs to get a glass eye. The hitchhiking was a story he told me as a small child; lawn darts I learned about later, in part thanks to the extensive work that has been done to prevent the sale of javelins for children. From this: Life on earth is hell enough.
November 8, 2025 at 9:48 PM
atherton.bsky.social
Here's Haaland in the more tiktok/reels forward posture that worked so well in NYC. I'm especially fond of the way she uses the local ART bus stops www.instagram.com/reel/DQfTSqX...
November 8, 2025 at 8:42 PM
atherton.bsky.social
I should note that @debhaalandnm.bsky.social, plenty accomplished in her own right and undeniably progressive, has adopted an Aesthetic Zohranism with Southwestern Characteristics in her gubernatorial campaign material. It rules.

www.instagram.com/p/DQhzWVQj8T...
debhaalandnm & VOTE YES ON SCHOOL BONDS HAALAND NEW {MEXICO
November 8, 2025 at 8:30 PM
atherton.bsky.social
Aesthetic Zohranism but make it southwestern homes.luddy.indiana.edu/ccshan/for/f...
Brake for Roadrunners in the Zohran campaign font
November 8, 2025 at 8:26 PM