Kiel Ortega
@kielortega.bsky.social
Radar things, hail freak, beer enthusiast, and small-time adventurer
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
* the aristocrats voice * democracy!
The unifying theme of the Supreme Court's campaign finance jurisprudence is "what decision will make it easier for Republican megadonors to buy elections"
Republicans Are Counting On the Supreme Court to Help Them Buy Elections
The GOP’s strategy for winning political power isn’t persuading voters. It’s controlling the Court.
ballsandstrikes.org
December 10, 2025 at 6:27 PM
* the aristocrats voice * democracy!
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
Federal prosecutors tried to charge a guy with a felony because he closed a door a Border Patrol agent and it lightly scraped the agent's leg.
(Grand jury said NOPE)
(Grand jury said NOPE)
wait, can we take a moment to look at the purported injury to USBP Agent 1's leg lmao
December 10, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Federal prosecutors tried to charge a guy with a felony because he closed a door a Border Patrol agent and it lightly scraped the agent's leg.
(Grand jury said NOPE)
(Grand jury said NOPE)
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
Every part of this is bonkers. The intro is bonkers. The transition to his health is bonkers. The mention that other presidents didn't need cognitive exams is bonkers. The claim that this screening test is somehow hard is bonkers. The idea that criticism of him is treason is bonkers. All of it.
December 10, 2025 at 2:40 AM
Every part of this is bonkers. The intro is bonkers. The transition to his health is bonkers. The mention that other presidents didn't need cognitive exams is bonkers. The claim that this screening test is somehow hard is bonkers. The idea that criticism of him is treason is bonkers. All of it.
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
Screenshotting this as a public service so no one who follows me has to hear Fallon's voice.
Given his reach and his reputation as America's harmless bedtime chuckle buddy, I'm really not sure there's a worse person in mass media. Just a cynical soulless hack.
Given his reach and his reputation as America's harmless bedtime chuckle buddy, I'm really not sure there's a worse person in mass media. Just a cynical soulless hack.
December 9, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Screenshotting this as a public service so no one who follows me has to hear Fallon's voice.
Given his reach and his reputation as America's harmless bedtime chuckle buddy, I'm really not sure there's a worse person in mass media. Just a cynical soulless hack.
Given his reach and his reputation as America's harmless bedtime chuckle buddy, I'm really not sure there's a worse person in mass media. Just a cynical soulless hack.
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
Not much daylight between what white nationalist Elon Musk regularly posts on the social media app he purchased to serve as a vehicle for his far right propaganda, and this late 1960s flyer sent to a few thousand people by the fringe neo-Nazis in the National Renaissance Party. CW: racist imgagery
December 6, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Not much daylight between what white nationalist Elon Musk regularly posts on the social media app he purchased to serve as a vehicle for his far right propaganda, and this late 1960s flyer sent to a few thousand people by the fringe neo-Nazis in the National Renaissance Party. CW: racist imgagery
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
people died for birthright citizenship. i get that it’s more fun to be a pundit when your team has the white house and you get to brag to friends about visiting the oval office; but what i’m wondering is if maybe that’s actually not a good reason to throw away something we fought a civil war to win?
December 6, 2025 at 4:39 PM
people died for birthright citizenship. i get that it’s more fun to be a pundit when your team has the white house and you get to brag to friends about visiting the oval office; but what i’m wondering is if maybe that’s actually not a good reason to throw away something we fought a civil war to win?
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
This is how my local paper in the swing state of Nevada covered it: Huge picture, AP story with nary a hint that this was weird or corrupt.
As low as Trump’s approval ratings are, they’d be much lower if he didn’t have the help of large swaths of the media
As low as Trump’s approval ratings are, they’d be much lower if he didn’t have the help of large swaths of the media
December 6, 2025 at 4:46 PM
This is how my local paper in the swing state of Nevada covered it: Huge picture, AP story with nary a hint that this was weird or corrupt.
As low as Trump’s approval ratings are, they’d be much lower if he didn’t have the help of large swaths of the media
As low as Trump’s approval ratings are, they’d be much lower if he didn’t have the help of large swaths of the media
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
This was just sent to me by an LAUSD parent. A 4th grader was assigned to design a book cover for Pippi Longstocking using Adobe for Education. Here is what the AI tool generated:
December 5, 2025 at 9:49 PM
This was just sent to me by an LAUSD parent. A 4th grader was assigned to design a book cover for Pippi Longstocking using Adobe for Education. Here is what the AI tool generated:
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
Illinois needs to retaliate with a 18-0 democratic map. VA needs a 10-1 dem.
December 6, 2025 at 4:22 AM
Illinois needs to retaliate with a 18-0 democratic map. VA needs a 10-1 dem.
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
“She showed up as scheduled, and when she arrived, officers were asking everyone what country they were from, and if they said a certain country, they were told to step out of line and that their oath ceremonies were canceled.”
www.wgbh.org/news/local/2... @gbhnews.bsky.social
www.wgbh.org/news/local/2... @gbhnews.bsky.social
Immigrants kept from Faneuil Hall citizenship ceremony as feds crackdown nationwide
Trump administration is pausing naturalizations for immigrants from 19 countries.
www.wgbh.org
December 5, 2025 at 10:56 PM
“She showed up as scheduled, and when she arrived, officers were asking everyone what country they were from, and if they said a certain country, they were told to step out of line and that their oath ceremonies were canceled.”
www.wgbh.org/news/local/2... @gbhnews.bsky.social
www.wgbh.org/news/local/2... @gbhnews.bsky.social
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
They know that SCOTUS is very likely to overturn the 14th amendment, which definitionally means that overturning the 14th amendment is a reasonable thing to do, which means they need to start preemptively constructing justifications for it now, to show how reasonable and sensible they are.
You could write this. Or you could write: “That notion, which has been the rule in nearly every country in the Western Hemisphere for over a century, is grounded in the language of the 14th Amendment.”
All how you choose to frame it.
All how you choose to frame it.
December 6, 2025 at 2:13 AM
They know that SCOTUS is very likely to overturn the 14th amendment, which definitionally means that overturning the 14th amendment is a reasonable thing to do, which means they need to start preemptively constructing justifications for it now, to show how reasonable and sensible they are.
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
Now official policy of the United States:
—Immigration is exclusively harmful
—All nations must “only rarely” grant citizenship to foreigners
—Immigration will “erase” Europe within 20 years and the US must act to prevent that
Read it yourself.
—Immigration is exclusively harmful
—All nations must “only rarely” grant citizenship to foreigners
—Immigration will “erase” Europe within 20 years and the US must act to prevent that
Read it yourself.
A few thoughts on the new US national security strategy that was released today.
🧵
www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...
🧵
www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...
December 5, 2025 at 11:18 AM
Now official policy of the United States:
—Immigration is exclusively harmful
—All nations must “only rarely” grant citizenship to foreigners
—Immigration will “erase” Europe within 20 years and the US must act to prevent that
Read it yourself.
—Immigration is exclusively harmful
—All nations must “only rarely” grant citizenship to foreigners
—Immigration will “erase” Europe within 20 years and the US must act to prevent that
Read it yourself.
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
The President of the United States is trying to throw Mark Kelly in prison and Mark Kelly's response is to confirm judges who have committed to putting him in prison
11 Senate Democrats just voted to advance the nomination of a Federal Society judge who used to defend banks and payday lenders:
Durbin
Gallego
Hassan
Hirono
Kaine
Kelly
King
Klobuchar
Reed
Rosen
Whitehouse
Durbin
Gallego
Hassan
Hirono
Kaine
Kelly
King
Klobuchar
Reed
Rosen
Whitehouse
December 4, 2025 at 4:14 AM
The President of the United States is trying to throw Mark Kelly in prison and Mark Kelly's response is to confirm judges who have committed to putting him in prison
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
What does it say about this country that that the kind of open, rank bigotry Trump administration officials regularly express towards black immigrants apparently has no social cost because of the number of Americans who quietly agree or don't care.
December 3, 2025 at 11:35 AM
What does it say about this country that that the kind of open, rank bigotry Trump administration officials regularly express towards black immigrants apparently has no social cost because of the number of Americans who quietly agree or don't care.
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
They're putting Grok in charge of national security investigations. What could go wrong?
Dan Bongino just posted a list of shitty things (like shifting FBI away fr public and corruption to hunting migrants, releasing details of criminal investigations and lying about what they show, and eliminating diversity) that he's proud of.
One of them is putting AI in charge of NatSec.
Alarming!
One of them is putting AI in charge of NatSec.
Alarming!
December 3, 2025 at 3:47 PM
They're putting Grok in charge of national security investigations. What could go wrong?
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
Even if they were on a "drug mission," the first strike was illegal and the second strike even more wildly illegal.
This is absolute nonsense from someone who committed war crimes and is now scrambling for cover. Lock him up.
This is absolute nonsense from someone who committed war crimes and is now scrambling for cover. Lock him up.
December 4, 2025 at 1:28 AM
Even if they were on a "drug mission," the first strike was illegal and the second strike even more wildly illegal.
This is absolute nonsense from someone who committed war crimes and is now scrambling for cover. Lock him up.
This is absolute nonsense from someone who committed war crimes and is now scrambling for cover. Lock him up.
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
hey so that sounds like total shit. really fucking awful. bleak. soul and society destroying. world eating levels of bad.
The co-founder of Kalshi says: " The long-term vision is to financialize everything and create a tradable asset out of any difference in opinion."
December 4, 2025 at 12:30 AM
hey so that sounds like total shit. really fucking awful. bleak. soul and society destroying. world eating levels of bad.
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
The refusal to consider DC Statehood is largely a reluctance to give DC two Senators, which itself is a tacit admission that the United States Senate is an anti-democratic institution.
Statehood for D.C. is an ethical obligation at this point, required to protect the rights of our residents to govern ourselves against such out-of-state troops being sent to patrol our city.
NEW: Republican-led states, in a new filing at the D.C. Circuit, say D.C. residents are irrelevant, D.C. belongs to everyone else. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
The filing is led by the South Carolina and West Virginia attorneys general. Both states sent troops to DC.
The filing is led by the South Carolina and West Virginia attorneys general. Both states sent troops to DC.
December 3, 2025 at 4:42 AM
The refusal to consider DC Statehood is largely a reluctance to give DC two Senators, which itself is a tacit admission that the United States Senate is an anti-democratic institution.
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
who decided to call it Secret Santa when Nondisclosure Claus was right there
December 1, 2025 at 10:55 PM
who decided to call it Secret Santa when Nondisclosure Claus was right there
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
My college had an info session with the legal department two weeks ago and they told us that the state (TX) has forced higher ed institutions to adopt a “terminate first and deal with the consequences later” policy.
Looks like Oklahoma is next.
Looks like Oklahoma is next.
Oklahoma University has placed a grad student instructor on admin leave for failing a psychology paper on gender for citing *the Bible* as a source of empirical evidence.
In response, OU has placed on instructor on admin leave citing, get this, the FIRST AMENDMENT.
Universities are cooked.
In response, OU has placed on instructor on admin leave citing, get this, the FIRST AMENDMENT.
Universities are cooked.
December 1, 2025 at 2:05 PM
My college had an info session with the legal department two weeks ago and they told us that the state (TX) has forced higher ed institutions to adopt a “terminate first and deal with the consequences later” policy.
Looks like Oklahoma is next.
Looks like Oklahoma is next.
Reposted by Kiel Ortega
Agree that it's a debasement of academic standards, but a minor correction: the instructor who was put on administrative leave is a graduate student, not a professor.
In some ways this is worse. This one incident could derail their academic career before it even starts.
In some ways this is worse. This one incident could derail their academic career before it even starts.
November 30, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Agree that it's a debasement of academic standards, but a minor correction: the instructor who was put on administrative leave is a graduate student, not a professor.
In some ways this is worse. This one incident could derail their academic career before it even starts.
In some ways this is worse. This one incident could derail their academic career before it even starts.
Alma mater getting real close to the "I'm gonna return them my degrees freshly shat upon" line
December 1, 2025 at 3:33 AM
Alma mater getting real close to the "I'm gonna return them my degrees freshly shat upon" line