Hicks_MM
@hicksmm.bsky.social
We *ALWAYS* have money for war. Former Congressional & PA Legislative staff. *** Registered INDEPENDENT voter***
Reposted by Hicks_MM
US watchdog says F-35s flew half the time in 2024 due to Lockheed maintenance issues reut.rs/4pSBVuE
US watchdog says F-35s flew half the time in 2024 due to Lockheed maintenance issues
U.S. F-35 fighter jets were available to fly only half the time in 2024 due to maintenance shortcomings by Lockheed Martin , a report from the Defense Department's Office of the Inspector General said.
reut.rs
December 23, 2025 at 9:30 PM
US watchdog says F-35s flew half the time in 2024 due to Lockheed maintenance issues reut.rs/4pSBVuE
Reposted by Hicks_MM
In a new letter, the White House renewed its threat to withhold funding from the Smithsonian unless it hands over programming plans and other documents to be evaluated for their commitment to celebrating “American exceptionalism.”
White House Renews Threats to Smithsonian Institution
A letter to Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch reiterates that federal funds are conditional on the organization turning over records, including exhibition drafts.
hyperallergic.com
December 23, 2025 at 9:37 PM
In a new letter, the White House renewed its threat to withhold funding from the Smithsonian unless it hands over programming plans and other documents to be evaluated for their commitment to celebrating “American exceptionalism.”
Reposted by Hicks_MM
ESA/Webb's final Picture of the Month for 2025 features Westerlund 2 containing many of the Milky Way’s hottest, brightest & most massive stars. Located 20,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Carina
Link for more info: esawebb.org/images/potm2...
Photo credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA
Link for more info: esawebb.org/images/potm2...
Photo credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA
December 22, 2025 at 5:07 PM
ESA/Webb's final Picture of the Month for 2025 features Westerlund 2 containing many of the Milky Way’s hottest, brightest & most massive stars. Located 20,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Carina
Link for more info: esawebb.org/images/potm2...
Photo credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA
Link for more info: esawebb.org/images/potm2...
Photo credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA
Reposted by Hicks_MM
Reposted by Hicks_MM
Trump added to his Venezuelan pressure campaign by targeting the country’s oil. “The administration appears to be gambling that it can get what it wants from Maduro before tipping his country into total chaos,” Vivian Salama and Nancy A. Youssef report.
Trump Discovers Maduro’s Achilles’ Heel
After months of strikes, tankers are a new, and smarter, target.
bit.ly
December 22, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Trump added to his Venezuelan pressure campaign by targeting the country’s oil. “The administration appears to be gambling that it can get what it wants from Maduro before tipping his country into total chaos,” Vivian Salama and Nancy A. Youssef report.
Reposted by Hicks_MM
Per NY Times’s Michael Grynbaum on X, this is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her “60 Minutes” colleagues in full:
December 22, 2025 at 3:37 AM
Per NY Times’s Michael Grynbaum on X, this is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her “60 Minutes” colleagues in full:
Reposted by Hicks_MM
really cannot be emphasized enough that bari weiss has literally never done journalism. i don’t mean that in the pejorative sense. i mean that in the “has never performed the job she was hired to do” sense
One explanation for Bari killing the story is that she did so as a public act of fealty to the administration. But another is that, as an inexperienced journalist, she doesn’t understand that a refusal to go on the record is a kind of comment in and of itself
December 22, 2025 at 2:19 PM
really cannot be emphasized enough that bari weiss has literally never done journalism. i don’t mean that in the pejorative sense. i mean that in the “has never performed the job she was hired to do” sense
Reposted by Hicks_MM
As the Bay Area braces for an atmospheric river-fueled rainstorm, a potentially stronger system is on the horizon — one that could meet the criteria for a bomb cyclone and bring damaging winds.
Next storm forming off California’s coast could become bomb cyclone as it hits
As the Bay Area braces for an atmospheric river-fueled rainstorm, a potentially stronger system is on the horizon — one that could meet the criteria for a bomb cyclone and bring damaging winds.
bit.ly
December 21, 2025 at 1:30 AM
As the Bay Area braces for an atmospheric river-fueled rainstorm, a potentially stronger system is on the horizon — one that could meet the criteria for a bomb cyclone and bring damaging winds.
Reposted by Hicks_MM
I’m currently outside of the Kennedy Center:
December 19, 2025 at 9:02 PM
I’m currently outside of the Kennedy Center:
Reposted by Hicks_MM
Viewing this whole Trump nightmare from afar, it's truly amazing how anyone can make every single event about themselves. Somehow he manages to insert himself into everything. And while we're at it. Why the fuck is Jared Kushner anywhere near any US state business?
December 19, 2025 at 11:51 PM
Viewing this whole Trump nightmare from afar, it's truly amazing how anyone can make every single event about themselves. Somehow he manages to insert himself into everything. And while we're at it. Why the fuck is Jared Kushner anywhere near any US state business?
Reposted by Hicks_MM
ICE whistles work.
The horns and whistles work
What it's like to watch community activists stand up to a Border Patrol raid.
www.motherjones.com
December 19, 2025 at 5:09 PM
ICE whistles work.
Reposted by Hicks_MM
This week, Professor James Hansen and colleagues published projections that the global temperature record could reach +1.7°C by 2027.
And if that number lands in your gut the way it landed in mine, good. It should.
#climatecrisis #auspol www.lyrebirddreaming.com/post/two-yea...
And if that number lands in your gut the way it landed in mine, good. It should.
#climatecrisis #auspol www.lyrebirddreaming.com/post/two-yea...
Two Years to 1.7°C: the “Prediction Game” We Can’t Afford to Lose
Australia’s sweltering through another early-summer heatwave, and I’m trying to decide whether to write about the weather outside my window - or the bigger climate system we’re reengineering on this p...
www.lyrebirddreaming.com
December 20, 2025 at 12:29 PM
This week, Professor James Hansen and colleagues published projections that the global temperature record could reach +1.7°C by 2027.
And if that number lands in your gut the way it landed in mine, good. It should.
#climatecrisis #auspol www.lyrebirddreaming.com/post/two-yea...
And if that number lands in your gut the way it landed in mine, good. It should.
#climatecrisis #auspol www.lyrebirddreaming.com/post/two-yea...
Reposted by Hicks_MM
Nobody works this hard for this long to cover up something this bad unless they are guilty.
December 20, 2025 at 12:06 AM
Nobody works this hard for this long to cover up something this bad unless they are guilty.
Reposted by Hicks_MM
The Epstein files have arrived.
December 20, 2025 at 12:10 AM
The Epstein files have arrived.
Reposted by Hicks_MM
Reposted by Hicks_MM
I know people are rightly going to be worried about child health, their own health. But we also can't afford this. Like, John Hopkins did an estimate (next link) and every measles case during outbreaks cost on average $43,000 to treat. That kid who got tetanus cost $1 million dollars to treat /1
BREAKING: RFKJr directs that the US instantly stop recommending all vaccinations for children. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
Under RFK Jr., U.S. plans to stop recommending most vaccines, defer to doctors
The plan, which is not finalized, suggests children get fewer shots and shifts to a model telling parents to consult doctors to make their own vaccine choices.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 20, 2025 at 12:08 AM
I know people are rightly going to be worried about child health, their own health. But we also can't afford this. Like, John Hopkins did an estimate (next link) and every measles case during outbreaks cost on average $43,000 to treat. That kid who got tetanus cost $1 million dollars to treat /1
Reposted by Hicks_MM
Reposted by Hicks_MM
The Epstein Files, everybody!
December 19, 2025 at 9:13 PM
The Epstein Files, everybody!
Reposted by Hicks_MM
Tapper: This is one of the documents the DOJ released. It’s 100 pages. It’s all black. That’s the transparency we’re getting.
December 19, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Tapper: This is one of the documents the DOJ released. It’s 100 pages. It’s all black. That’s the transparency we’re getting.
Reposted by Hicks_MM
For the third winter in a row, Gazans are forced to survive in tents and collapsing homes. Under Israel’s siege and closed crossings, families face freezing rain, floods, and sewage as Gaza’s infrastructure remains destroyed after two years of ongoing genocide.
December 16, 2025 at 10:03 PM
For the third winter in a row, Gazans are forced to survive in tents and collapsing homes. Under Israel’s siege and closed crossings, families face freezing rain, floods, and sewage as Gaza’s infrastructure remains destroyed after two years of ongoing genocide.
Reposted by Hicks_MM
Unbelievable. Communities across Washington state are literally under water while Trump’s OMB Director dismantles the largest federal climate research center responsible for delivering life-saving data and research on wildfires and floods.
Trump officials to dismantle ‘global mothership’ of climate forecasting
Russell Vought, who directs the White House Office of Management and Budget, announced plans to split up the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, citing concerns about “clima...
www.washingtonpost.com
December 17, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Unbelievable. Communities across Washington state are literally under water while Trump’s OMB Director dismantles the largest federal climate research center responsible for delivering life-saving data and research on wildfires and floods.
Reposted by Hicks_MM
Research at Boulder's NCAR is a major source of "authoritative weather and climate data, forecasts of extreme weather and predictions of changes in climate," Robert S. Webb writes. "The administration would rather pretend: if we don’t see it, study it, or predict it, then it doesn’t exist."
I worked at NOAA for 30 years, and know Trump’s attack on Colorado’s world-class science labs puts us all at risk (Opinion)
The research activities NCAR and the NOAA labs in Boulder conduct are predominant sources of authoritative weather and climate data, forecasts of extreme weather and predictions of changes in clima…
trib.al
December 20, 2025 at 6:18 AM
Research at Boulder's NCAR is a major source of "authoritative weather and climate data, forecasts of extreme weather and predictions of changes in climate," Robert S. Webb writes. "The administration would rather pretend: if we don’t see it, study it, or predict it, then it doesn’t exist."
Reposted by Hicks_MM
Destructive wind gusts topping 100 mph along with other exceptional conditions are creating exceptional fire risk in Colorado and Wyoming. https://cnn.it/3Y4dfTW
December 19, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Destructive wind gusts topping 100 mph along with other exceptional conditions are creating exceptional fire risk in Colorado and Wyoming. https://cnn.it/3Y4dfTW
Reposted by Hicks_MM
FACT: I know an 82 year old guy here that is truly brilliant. His mind is sharp and he knows history. He voted Republican most of his life until Trump came along. He said, "The issue in the US now is we have too many unread and stupid people. Most that voted for Trump are simply stupid, that's it."
December 19, 2025 at 1:29 PM
FACT: I know an 82 year old guy here that is truly brilliant. His mind is sharp and he knows history. He voted Republican most of his life until Trump came along. He said, "The issue in the US now is we have too many unread and stupid people. Most that voted for Trump are simply stupid, that's it."
Reposted by Hicks_MM
There's going to be a "De-Trumpification" program when he's gone like Germany had to de-nazify all the buildings
December 19, 2025 at 7:04 PM
There's going to be a "De-Trumpification" program when he's gone like Germany had to de-nazify all the buildings