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Ted Fickes

@tedfickes.bsky.social

650 followers 430 following 1.1K posts

I run Bright+3 which provides content, community and fundraising strategy to nonprofit leaders. I also run the Future Community newsletter and jobs list. All that and more at https://brightplus3.com

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Ted Fickes

@tedfickes.bsky.social

The guy is a hack who is well aware that immigration and immigrants have nothing to do with child mortality/injury in his state and that they've long done a lousy job with prevention.

Perhaps because white children have lower death and injury rates? Hmm

State data...

ldh.la.gov/assets/oph/C...

Key Points
 Overall child mortality and the injury-related child mortality rate have remained relatively
steady since 2010.
 Louisiana has consistently had higher child mortality rates than the United States as a whole.
 Injury prevention programs have gained traction. While rates of injury-related child mortality
have not yet decreased, there are promising prevention strategies on the horizon. These
include:
o Providing free water safety and swim lessons to children.
o Implementing life jacket loaner programs.
o Training inspectors and contractors on current swimming pool and spa codes.
o Training school health personnel on suicide prevention methods.
o Educating about current child passenger safety laws

January 30, 2026 at 1:29 AM

Ted Fickes

@tedfickes.bsky.social

Here's a good one for you. Details destination and growth of American LNG exports since 2016. Before 2016 there were zero US LNG exports.

ieefa.org/north-americ...

A chart of the monthly volume of north american LNG exports by destination since 2016. Largest growth (top chunk on the chart) and current destination is Europe. Since 2016 US exports have grown from zero to nearly 10 million metric tonnes per month.

January 28, 2026 at 10:25 PM

Ted Fickes

@tedfickes.bsky.social

Fascists are pathetic because they only know how to operate through fear, hate, and pain.

They also always (always) lose so long as people come together to fight with care and community.

Anyway, this is great stuff from David Roth at @defector.com:

defector.com/fascists-are...

It's inspiring, this persistence of community and care in the face of a campaign to annihilate them, and the defiance of people who want to live their lives against a force that doesn't want anything at all, and all of these small and vital human things pushing up through the attempt to make those things and that resistance impossible. But it is also a reminder of how pathetic—how sincerely and deeply abject, how valueless and lost—this offensive is. There is all this rude and humble everyday life and all these different types of people who believe it is meaningful, and then there is this attempt, overseen by an elite that doesn't believe in anything at all, to replace it with something dumber, simpler, more demeaning, and more like content. They are going to lose, and not just because they are outnumbered.

January 15, 2026 at 3:28 PM

Ted Fickes

@tedfickes.bsky.social

Meanwhile over at the newspaper of record...

The New York Times breaking news with this story headlined "There's Party Power in the Shrimp Tower." Apparently, according the the lede, this is a guest wowing way to save space during those crowded holiday gatherings.

December 11, 2025 at 11:09 PM

Ted Fickes

@tedfickes.bsky.social

Among other things, Northwestern's capitulation commits the University to eliminating student protest on campus. The Rock even gets a few mentions.

This is the university essentially agreeing to implement discrimination against students based on race, religion, nationality and thought.

Parts of the agreement Northwestern University signed with Trump crime syndicate include restrictions on student protest. Including:

a. Prohibition on demonstrations and other protest activities that occur in academic
buildings and places where academic activities take place and that impede
ordinary classroom activities or studying.
b. Prohibition on overnight demonstrations in any University locations.
c. Prohibition on any disruption, prevention, obstruction, or attempt to prevent or
obstruct (i) regularly scheduled University activities; (ii) co-curricular activities;
(iii) University or public events; (iv) medical center access or business; or (v)
the movement of individuals throughout the campus, including on its grounds and buildings, except in specific outdoor areas designated for demonstrations.
d. Prohibition on demonstrations at the Rock location on the Evanston campus that violate University time, place, and manner rules which are designed to limit disruption during times when classes are offered in nearby buildings.
e. Prohibition on the use of amplified sound at the Rock location on the Evanston campus without reservation and approval or when it violates University time, place, and manner rules which are designed to limit disruption during times when classes are offered in nearby buildings.
f. Prohibition on on-campus displays, including flyers, banners, chalking, and 3-D installations outside of areas specifically designated by Northwestern.
g. Prohibition on the use of tents (with exception for University-sponsored events and for the purposes of guarding and painting the Rock), light displays, and chalking on buildings.
h. All demonstration activity

November 29, 2025 at 5:08 PM

Ted Fickes

@tedfickes.bsky.social

When in doubt follow the money. Climate change wipes out home insurance business and the ability of many (most) to ever get a mortgage.

Private equity can still get rich building apartments to suck you dry.

Just one more reason the GOP could care less.

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

In Butler’s Parable, corporations use global warming to their advantage, taking over distressed governments, buying up devastated lands, and providing housing to residents in exchange for cheap labor. Parts of this vision are manifesting in real life. Private-equity firms are deeply embedded in the disaster-recovery industry, sometimes relying on the low-wage labor of immigrants and incarcerated people in order to provide reconstruction services at cut rates. Investors often come into distressed real-estate markets and transform them, buying up land on the cheap and flipping residential homes into rental units. Essential services such as firefighting, disaster response, and cleanup are being slowly ceded by the public to the private sector in places under climate stress. Life in these places won’t be like life in the company towns of the 19th century, not exactly. But if you squint, it may not look that different, either.

November 10, 2025 at 10:30 PM

Ted Fickes

@tedfickes.bsky.social

One never knows what kind of broken email programs can be found buried in the promotions tab. Today, it's the Dems.

A screenshot of five emails received from The Democrats and Mikie Sherrill (probably via The Democrats). All have subject lines that leave off the full statement. For example, "WOW, Ted: -" is a subject line. How does that even make sense?

November 10, 2025 at 12:29 PM

Ted Fickes

@tedfickes.bsky.social

An actual sentence written in the year 2025.

Tech billionaire Peter Thiel has privately hosted a series of sold-out lectures in San Francisco warning that “the antichrist” may already be present, tying the idea to global governance, environmentalism, and technology regulation, and suggesting figures like Greta Thunberg and Bill Gates embody “anti-science” or authoritarian traits hastening Armageddon, according to recordings obtained by The Guardian.

October 10, 2025 at 11:21 PM

Ted Fickes

@tedfickes.bsky.social

Granada in October sounds amazing.

We went to flamenco in a cave: cuevaslostarantos.com sure, sounds touristy but fun.

Granada does good (and free) tapas. All the time.

Wander the streets of Albayzin.

We did a food tour w/ these folks: www.spainfoodsherpas.com/granada/

Alhambra at night!

October 6, 2025 at 9:46 PM

Ted Fickes

@tedfickes.bsky.social

Don't ever say that fascists don't know good art or that authoritarians are against innovative and interesting cultural products.

www.msn.com/en-us/news/u...

a gold spray painted statue of donald trump wearing a suit that fits (and probably about 25 pounds lighter than real life...and also with a full head of hair) holding a fucking bitcoin. This is a real statue that somebody actually took time and energy to create and then prop up in the national mall in DC near the US Capitol. We are doomed, aren't we?

September 18, 2025 at 4:31 PM

Ted Fickes

@tedfickes.bsky.social

It's only funny because it could be real text someone uses to describe their AI work.

alignmentalignment.ai/caaac/blog/e...

About the AI alignment alignment crisis:

Already, it has become clear that many AI alignment centers are producing reports that are misaligned with the best interests of AI and/or humanity. Worse, the research outputs of one center are frequently used as the inputs for another, causing our shared priors to be polluted by misaligned priors, or worse — prior priors.

However, there are reasons for optimism. We believe that humanity is approaching an AI alignment center singularity, where all alignment centers will eventually coalesce into a single self-reinforcing center that will finally possess the power to solve the alignment problem. We exist to accelerate humanity's progress towards that goal.

Our work is crucial to the future of AI alignment research. If the alignment problem is the first step to safe superintelligence, the alignment alignment problem is the zeroth step. Without solving this challenge, we risk a future where the sheer catastrophic scale of misaligned reports on AI alignment imperils all human life on this planet or, worse, exposes the majority of AI alignment research as a big waste of time.

Our mission is simple: solve the alignment alignment problem, then solve everything else.

September 11, 2025 at 11:17 PM

Ted Fickes

@tedfickes.bsky.social

Nature FTW

A late August snowfield holds onto the slope in a cirque above Lake Isabelle in the Indian Peaks Wilderness.

Two guys stand in front of a sign that says they are on the Continental Divide at an elevation of 12,250 feet. Also known as Pawnee Pass on the map.

A sign telling you that you are entering the Indian Peaks Wilderness area.

September 1, 2025 at 2:28 AM

Ted Fickes

@tedfickes.bsky.social

I don’t think they mean my culture.

An image of a guitar and the words “This machine kills fascists” — made famous by Woody Guthrie.

August 7, 2025 at 2:04 AM

Ted Fickes

@tedfickes.bsky.social

International tourist visits to Colorado have cratered this summer.

Big budget holes will follow for counties and towns across the state. And will be worsened by other federal policy/tax changes.

coloradosun.com/2025/08/04/c...

Bookings by Canadian travelers are down 58% compared with 2024, bookings from European visitors are down 39% and reservations from the Aussies and Kiwis are down 21%. The number of international tourists visiting Colorado has not returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2019. The Trump administration’s tariff policies and chatter about annexing Canada have irked a growing number of America’s northern and southern neighbors who are eschewing U.S. holidays.

August 4, 2025 at 7:52 PM

Ted Fickes

@tedfickes.bsky.social

If you want to turn off Google's damn AI email summaries in Gmail go into full settings and shut off all the "smart" features.

They're of course bundled w/ things that may actually be useful, like inbox categories.

They're forcing intrusive AI on you no matter what you pay.

#enshittification

A screenshot of the full setting page in Gmail. Highlighted are "smart features" and "Google Workspace Smart Features" options. This is where you turn AI on and off in Gmail.

July 30, 2025 at 3:00 PM

Ted Fickes

@tedfickes.bsky.social

Just saying.

A Hannah Arendt quote: The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is…people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”

July 23, 2025 at 1:17 AM

Ted Fickes

@tedfickes.bsky.social

As Trump and whatever that guy who's the gov of Texas will tell you, only losers like CNN and Accuweather say that climate change is making flooding worse.

Is it any wonder they mock and threaten journalists and scientists, take away their jobs, expunge anything climate related?

A screeshot from accuweather.com that's reposting a CNN story about flooding in the US this summer. The headline, subhead and byline say:

Is the US seeing worse flooding this summer? Here’s what’s happening

Climate change from fossil fuel pollution is amplifying the conditions that make flash floods more likely and more severe.

By Tyler Ory, CNN

July 12, 2025 at 12:26 AM

Ted Fickes

@tedfickes.bsky.social

Quite the assortment of headlines panning the Senate budget bill. Maybe this thing is very very bad.

Also, one has to appreciate the use of "toil" here. It's gracious of the Times to acknowledge that destroying the country can be hard work.

Headlines on the New York Times website at 11:30 am mountain on Sunday, June 29th. They include:

"Senate bill would add at least $3.3 trillion to debt, budget office says." The lede goes on to say "A new analysis showed the legislation would be far more expensive than the House version, complicating the bill's chances of final passage."

"Republicans toil to find votes for policy bill as Senate prepares for debate" boo fucking hoo...I guess it's hard work being a vile shitbird. who knew?

"G.O.P. bill has 11.8 million people losing health insurance, analysis finds"

"Surprise tax in G.O.P. Bill could cripple wind and solar power"

June 29, 2025 at 5:40 PM

Ted Fickes

@tedfickes.bsky.social

It's hard to describe how awful Republican Senators truly are but this article provides clarity.

Senate budget deliberately kills one of the only growing industries in the US, wrecks the climate, and raises energy costs for all. A Win Win Win for big oil.

heatmap.news/politics/big...

How the Senate GOP’s New Tax on Renewables Could ‘Kill’ the Industry

As bad as previous drafts of the reconciliation bill have been, this one is worse.

June 29, 2025 at 5:03 PM

Ted Fickes

@tedfickes.bsky.social

Corruption and the great white whale! Senate pays off Alaskan whaling captains so Murkowski can feel good about having no moral compass.

Highlight reads: Benefits for Alaska: The latest version of the Republican domestic policy package contains a number of unusual provisions, like benefits for whaling captains, aimed at winning the support of a critical G.O.P. holdout whose vote could make or break the measure: Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Read more>

June 29, 2025 at 12:45 AM

Ted Fickes

@tedfickes.bsky.social

Is the US now the world’s most “Pro-Cancer” country? Seems like it.

New York Times headline and subheading: E.P.A. Plans to Reconsider a Ban on Cancer-Causing Asbestos
The Trump administration’s move sets back a decades-long effort to end the use of the material, which is widely banned in other countries.

June 17, 2025 at 12:57 AM

Ted Fickes

@tedfickes.bsky.social

About 120 MILLION acres of American public lands are eligible for sale in the current US budget bill. A wild selloff of nature to help fatten up the rich.

These 2 screenshots are Colorado and CO front range. See all via @wilderness.org

www.wilderness.org/articles/med...