René Rodríguez
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renerod.bsky.social
René Rodríguez
@renerod.bsky.social
69 followers 170 following 71 posts
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Reposted by René Rodríguez
booch.com
In our current democracy, the loss of institutional memory, the distain of expertise, and the celebration of ignorance frighten me.
February 5, 2026 at 7:03 AM
Reposted by René Rodríguez
hcrichardson.bsky.social
This. They are turning the wealth the American people have created over generations into cash for their own dirty pockets. It’s obscene.
ronfilipkowski.bsky.social Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 6d
MAGA people lining up wanting the taxpayers to give them money. Trump wants $10 billion. Lindsey wants $1 million. J6ers want money. Farmers want money. Of course CEOs want their contracts,
subsidies & tariff waivers. It’s griftapalooza at taxpayer expense for the gangsters.
January 30, 2026 at 5:23 PM
Reposted by René Rodríguez
billkristolbulwark.bsky.social
Dems should introduce legislation now defunding ICE and CBP operations in Minnesota, so they have to leave the state. One sentence bill. Demand an immediate vote. Maybe refuse to vote for cloture on any funding bills (or other bills) until a vote. Make the GOP Congress break w/ Trump or own it all.
January 25, 2026 at 1:47 PM
Reposted by René Rodríguez
billkristolbulwark.bsky.social
Yes, the GOP controls Congress. That's why it's key to show Congress COULD stop the madness. And it's not just the DHS bill. Congress could repeal the prior multi-year $75b for DHS; set up a special investigative committee (cf. Watergate); amend the Insurrection Act; etc.
January 25, 2026 at 1:08 PM
Reposted by René Rodríguez
matthew.flux.community
This is literally what I've been writing and podcasting about for years. I was planning to do an essay on this, but here's a 🧵.

The main reason is psychology. Due to personal, family, and cultural histories, some people are inherently scared of the world.
kairyssdal.bsky.social Kai Ryssdal @kairyssdal.bsky.social · 18d
Fight and help win a world war.

Establish a global order that cements your national power for 80 years.

Blow it all up.

What am I missing?
January 18, 2026 at 5:43 PM
Reposted by René Rodríguez
philmandelbaum.bsky.social
“Tech fascists are working to establish their own sovereign, distributed state. This is the Network State: a new, billionaire-backed nation made up of crypto cities and colonies across the United States, Latin America, Africa, the Mediterranean, the Philippines.”

www.vcinfodocs.com/venture-capi...
This extremism emerges from the power grab of venture capitalists in the technology industry. Having grown exceedingly rich in the first two internet bubbles, this element now seeks to compromise the US government, to assume a new level of power and wealth, and attain forms of legal, economic and regulatory sovereignty, where they can operate outside of any other nation-state power. The resultant ideology is racist, eugenicist, fascist and authoritarian in nature, often openly so.
January 11, 2026 at 4:18 PM
Reposted by René Rodríguez
parkermolloy.com
People being like, "But Venezuelans are happy about Maduro being gone!" have the memories of goldfish. IN 2003, the narrative was that Iraqis celebrated the U.S. invasion and capture of Saddam.

Whether they were happy or not, invading Iraq was still the wrong thing to do.
WORLD Iraqis Celebrate in Baghdad Streets APRIL 9, 2003 • 12:00 AM ET HEARD ON MORNING EDITION By Anne Garrels Listen + PLAYLIST Related NPR Stories Expanded coverage In Baghdad, security forces desert the streets, replaced by looters, and government officials have disappeared. Hundreds of Iraqi civilians take to the streets, cheering U.S. soldiers and ripping up posters of Saddam Hussein. And with the help of a U.S. Marine vehicle, a crowd of Iraqi citizens topples a giant statue of the Iraqi leader. Hear NPR's Anne Garrels. < Back WORLD Iraqis Rejoice at Saddam's Capture DECEMBER 14, 2003 • 12:00 AM ET By Ivan Watson Audio for this story is unavailable. News of the capture of Saddam Hussein by U.S. troops sets off celebrations across Iraq, as citizens in Baghdad play loud music and fire into the air. The former dictator was found in a camouflaged hole near a farmhouse outside of Tikrit. Hear NPR'S Ivan Watson.
January 4, 2026 at 2:39 PM
Reposted by René Rodríguez
emilynussbaum.bsky.social
Virginia Heffernan wrote this shortly after the 2016 election and it still holds true
THIS is what makes my head spin: The president is not a moral figure in any idiom, any land, any culture, any subculture. I'm not talking about the liberal enlightenment that would make him want the country to take care of the poor and sick. I mean he has no Republican values either. He has no honor among thieves, no cosa nostra loyalty, no Southern code against cheating or lying, none of the openness of New York, rectitude of Boston, expressiveness and kindness of California, no evangelical family values, no Protestant work ethic. No Catholic moral seriousness, no sense of contrition or gratitude. No Jewish moral and intellectual precision, sense of history. He doesn't care about the life of the mind OR the life of the senses. He is not mandarin, not committed to inquiry or justice, not hospitable. He is not proper. He is not a bon vivant who loves to eat, drink, laugh. There's nothing he would die for - not American values, obviously, but not the land of Russia or his wife or young son. He has some hollow success creeds from Norman Vincent Peale, but Peale was obsessed with fair-dealing and a Presbyterian pastor; Trump has no fairness or piety. He's not sentimental; no affection for dogs or babies. No love for mothers, "the common man"" veterans. He has no sense of military valor, and is openly a coward about war. He would have sorely lacked the pagan beauty and capacity to fight required in ancient Greece. He doesn't care about his wife or wives; he is a philanderer but he's not a romantic hero with great love for women and sex. He commands loyalty and labor from his children not because he loves them, even; he seems almost to hate them — and if one of them slipped it would be terrifying. He does no philanthropy. He doesn't - in a more secular key - even seem to have a sense of his enlightened self-interest enough to shake Angela Merkel's hand. Doesn't even affect a love for the arts, like most rich New Yorkers. He doesn't live and die by aesthetics and health practices like some fascists; he's very ugly and barely mammalian. Am I missing an obscure moral system to which he so much as nods? Also are there other people, living or dead, like him?
December 16, 2025 at 4:21 AM
Reposted by René Rodríguez
slotkin.senate.gov
We want to speak directly to members of the Military and the Intelligence Community.

The American people need you to stand up for our laws and our Constitution.

Don’t give up the ship.
November 18, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Reposted by René Rodríguez
kevinmkruse.bsky.social
Tuesday night, in an off-year election, a majority — yes, a goddamn majority — of eligible American voters agreed with me. These people spent eight months living in a woke-free America and collectively decided, “We don’t want this.” What we DO want is to be left the f—k alone. Contrary to what Ted Cruz might tell you, that’s what woke does. Woke lets you drive around town without the threat of a cop pulling you over to gun you down. Woke lets you be gender fluid without an emergency PTA meeting springing up outside your door. Woke lets you go to college without entering into a modern sharecropping agreement. It lets children read, lets every citizen be able to vote without a fuss, leaves the original recipe for Tylenol intact, and endeavors to keep our air and water clean. Woke, in other words, is good.
November 5, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Reposted by René Rodríguez
juliusgoat.bsky.social
“Tell your children who the cowards were.”
October 27, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Reposted by René Rodríguez
meidastouch.com
TWO CAN PLAY THAT GAME: The official Massachusetts SNAP website now warns that Trump is “choosing not to issue November SNAP benefits that help you and many families put food on the table.” It also warns of cuts due to “Congressional Republicans and President Trump” in the “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
October 27, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Reposted by René Rodríguez
elleisanisland.bsky.social
I'm not sure you can get more marie antoinette than taking away food stamps before thanksgiving while you build a gold and marble dance hall so the other crooks can bring bribe you over a badly-cooked (argentinian) steak
October 22, 2025 at 11:53 AM
Reposted by René Rodríguez
joncooper-us.bsky.social
This is your daily reminder that this really did happen.
November 29, 2024 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by René Rodríguez
carlquintanilla.bsky.social
> @ishaantharoor.bsky.social
September 23, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Reposted by René Rodríguez
yasharali.bsky.social
CNN has made the editorial decision to keep playing this clip on air for guests making sure they get the full context of what Kimmel said.

Good.
yasharali.bsky.social Yashar Ali 🐘 @yasharali.bsky.social · Sep 18
1. Just so we’re clear, this is the clip that got Jimmy Kimmel’s show shelved by ABC.

If I’m missing any other clips please let me know.
September 18, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Reposted by René Rodríguez
clairewillett.bsky.social
reposting with alt text because this feels incredibly significant. the right-wing disinfo machine means a lot of the people grieving Charlie Kirk never heard any of the things he said that would have tarnished his brand as Guy Who Just Wants to Have Dialogue Across the Aisle
One thing that has become really clear since yesterday is that we live in at least two different realities. Talking to a friend who only knew Charlie as a Christian motivational speaker because that's all that ever came across her feed. Showed me videos I've never seen before of him saying perfectly reasonable and empowering things. I showed her videos she'd never seen before of his racism, misogyny, homophobia, advocating for violence against specific groups of people. She was horrified by his remarks about Pelosi's husband's attacker being bailed out and celebrated for his violent act. She was horrified by a number of things that he said, but she had never seen or heard them before, the same as I had never seen or heard the generalized clips of him sounding like a perfectly nice loving man and father. Neither of us had a whole picture of this man. I mentioned he was a known white supremacist and she thought I was joking. She talked about him giving a speech about finding your purpose and doing good in the world and I thought she was joking. I saw why this friend was mourning the loss of a person she thought was a good person. My friend, bless her, saw why I feel the way I do about him. We understood each other better. In spite of a multi-billion dollar internet machine specifically focused on keeping us apart. Because we talked to each other with the desire to listen and to learn rather than the desire to change someone else's mind or to be "right". None of those motivational things he said change my opinion about him because they don't erase the negativity, the subtle calls for violence, the belittling and denigrating of other races religions genders etc. His negative and blaming comments about homeless people, the poor, and victims of domestic violence. His comments about rounding up people who didn't think like him and putting them in camps where their behavior could be corrected. That time he said empathy was a made-up word he didnt believe in. That other time he said the Civil Rights Act was a mistake. The time he said most people are afraid when they get on a plane and see that there's a black pilot. His anti-vaccination rhetoric and his active campaigning against people being allowed to wear masks for their own health. His open support of fascism and white supremacy. To me, all of those are fully unchristian sentiments. Those are undeniable and just one of them would be a deal-breaker for me. All of them together are a picture of a man who was polarizing, enraged a lot of people and rightly so, but even with all of that I would never wish upon him or especially his children the end that he got. Oh, and my friend had never heard, and God help me I don't know how she escaped the news, but she had never heard of the Minnesota legislators who were shot in June. The husband and wife and dog who were killed, one after throwing themselves over their child to protect the child. The other couple who somehow survived. Politically motivated attacks specifically because they were democrats. She learned about those shootings that happened months ago because I showed her Charlie Kirk's comments about them. The kidnapping plot against a female Midwestern Democratic governor. The assassination attempt against Pennsylvania's democratic governor. All things Charlie had plenty to say about while supporting the Second Amendment and bashing the Democratic party. She didn't know about any of it because we're all living in two different worlds and none of us have the whole story.
September 13, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Reposted by René Rodríguez
kateross.bsky.social
White woman puts Mexican flag on her truck to waste ICE’s time.
Scooby I am as white as a hotel towel, and the closest thing to Mexican I am was a single all inclusive resort stay in Cancun. I put a Mexican flag sticker on my old Tacoma abd was promptly pulled over by ICE in San Antonio. I'm happy to waste their time 1d RookaTX This is the way Scooby • RookaTX Their big question was like, "why the sticker" I told them it was on the truck when I bought it-and they suggested I remove it. Obnoxious creatures. 1d
August 21, 2025 at 4:59 AM
renerod.bsky.social
@expressnews.com What hell is this???
August 14, 2025 at 4:18 PM
renerod.bsky.social
@expressnews.com what’s happening with your website? I get a “press and hold” button that gets me nowhere.
July 10, 2025 at 2:37 PM
renerod.bsky.social
I wholly agree with this thread 🧵 Thank you, Scott.
scott.hanselman.com Scott Hanselman 🌮 @scott.hanselman.com · Jul 3
It’s so frustrating that there is this illusion that we are all 49%/49% right now. Us versus them, good versus bad, and it’s all because of the BS that is the electoral system. It’s very likely 70% versus 30% and we’re just not seeing representative government.There’s just no common sense right now
July 3, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Reposted by René Rodríguez
queenofthinair.bsky.social
My story. Told my way with truth and as much grace I can muster. Thank you, Tom.
radiofreetom.bsky.social Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · Jun 25
Seven years ago, Pauline Shanks Kaurin left a good job as a tenured professor, uprooted her family, and moved to teach military ethics at the Naval War College. Now she's leaving in protest of policies she can't support and that make her job impossible.

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
A Military Ethics Professor Resigns in Protest
Over the course of several months, Pauline Shanks Kaurin concluded she no longer had the academic freedom necessary for doing her job.
www.theatlantic.com
June 25, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Reposted by René Rodríguez
matthewjdowd.bsky.social
if you are more offended by the pride flag than the confederate flag, you aren't a patriot. if you are more in fear of immigrants than the corrupt power of an autocratic government, you aren't a patriot. if you still support Trump after all this, you aren't a patriot.
June 11, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Reposted by René Rodríguez
chathamharrison.bsky.social
Today Trump's main legislative initiative died *in committee*, his main domestic policy initiative was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, & his economic shenanigans got the whole country's credit downgraded.

Let's talk about what's important: Biden Old
May 16, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Reposted by René Rodríguez
newyorker.com
Barry Blitt’s cover for this week’s issue, “The First Hundred Days.” #NewYorkerCovers nyer.cm/ysrCZ47
April 28, 2025 at 4:20 PM