Michael Rader
@theoryof.games
chaotic good xennial ND nerd in the coastal empire. vp at Frakture. longtime digital strategist + policy wonk. If we must do without hope, there is always vengeance.
Pinned
Michael Rader
@theoryof.games
· Nov 13
🧷 Hi! I'm Michael. Work in political data. Solar policy wonk, eternal dungeon master, video game nerd, ebike enthusiast. Chronic disease haver. Mostly post about:
- Progressive politics + solar/renewables
- Video games + TTRPGs
- Assorted health + nerd shit
- My beagle Sunny, the #1 best dog
- Progressive politics + solar/renewables
- Video games + TTRPGs
- Assorted health + nerd shit
- My beagle Sunny, the #1 best dog
Reposted by Michael Rader
When you ask yourself, why would they go ahead and do things like this, changing signage when there's a question of the legality, you have to remember that it will cost money to undo it, and when people try to do so, they will be met with complaints that they're looking backwards and wasting money
Wasting no time, the Trump administration begins adding his name to the Kennedy Center building, ignoring the understanding that it would require an act of Congress. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/12...
Trump Administration Live Updates: Kennedy Center Adds Trump’s Name to Facade
www.nytimes.com
December 19, 2025 at 5:55 PM
When you ask yourself, why would they go ahead and do things like this, changing signage when there's a question of the legality, you have to remember that it will cost money to undo it, and when people try to do so, they will be met with complaints that they're looking backwards and wasting money
The #1 movie when you were 10 years old is how your 2026 is going to go.
December 19, 2025 at 5:40 PM
The #1 movie when you were 10 years old is how your 2026 is going to go.
Reposted by Michael Rader
Not that it will but the willingness of Americans to obey is a very funny contrast with our self-image and should probably prompt some reflection bsky.app/profile/jonf...
NEWS: They're adding Trump's name to the Kennedy Center building right now. www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...
Kennedy Center adds Trump’s name to building
The signage change follows a vote by the board of trustees to rename the performing arts complex the Trump Kennedy Center.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 19, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Not that it will but the willingness of Americans to obey is a very funny contrast with our self-image and should probably prompt some reflection bsky.app/profile/jonf...
It is 2027 and I'm back in DC. I land at Trump-Reagan airport, and I can choose between the Trump Bike Share or the Trump Train (formerly Metro) to my Airbnb on Trump Avenue. After a show at the Trump Thirty Club and dinner at Trump's Chili Bowl, I meet some friends at a bar in Trumpian Heights.
December 19, 2025 at 4:04 PM
It is 2027 and I'm back in DC. I land at Trump-Reagan airport, and I can choose between the Trump Bike Share or the Trump Train (formerly Metro) to my Airbnb on Trump Avenue. After a show at the Trump Thirty Club and dinner at Trump's Chili Bowl, I meet some friends at a bar in Trumpian Heights.
Glad to see some signs of life from senate Dems on NCAR.
"A Democratic senator involved in the negotiations...said that Trump’s attempt to break up a premier weather and climate center based in Boulder, Colo., was like a “stick of dynamite” that exploded any chance of a bipartisan breakthrough on spending."
thehill.com/homenews/sen...
thehill.com/homenews/sen...
Trump move to dismantle climate agency blows up Senate funding deal
A potential deal to fund large swaths of the federal government, including the Departments of Defense and Health and Human Services, collapsed on Thursday night after Colorado senators demanded tha…
thehill.com
December 19, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Glad to see some signs of life from senate Dems on NCAR.
Reposted by Michael Rader
The collective delusion here is useful in that it has provoked conservatives to dispense with decades of bootstrap rhetoric and reveal what they would say if they thought black people were people, that is to say, if these things were happening to them
December 18, 2025 at 3:42 PM
The collective delusion here is useful in that it has provoked conservatives to dispense with decades of bootstrap rhetoric and reveal what they would say if they thought black people were people, that is to say, if these things were happening to them
I'm a natural born US citizen, adopted. My original birth certificate was altered to reflect my adopted name. What happens to me if ICE picks me up? Are my documents "fake"?
“The thing that’s been the most difficult so far is that, in all of our interactions with the government, they’re denying that any of her birth certificates, which are from Laurel, Maryland, her records of immunization, medical records — they’re denying the authenticity of them.”
ICE Says U.S. Citizen's Birth Certificate Is Fake After Arresting Her: Attorneys
Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales was arrested on Sunday. ICE won’t release her despite extensive documentation of her citizenship, her attorneys told HuffPost.
www.huffpost.com
December 19, 2025 at 3:08 AM
I'm a natural born US citizen, adopted. My original birth certificate was altered to reflect my adopted name. What happens to me if ICE picks me up? Are my documents "fake"?
Every single dumb Trump name that gets hacked onto a building in DC will become a ceremony and a public celebration when it inevitably gets taken down.
I was at the White House the night we got Bin Laden and it will be like that every time his name comes off one of these buildings.
I was at the White House the night we got Bin Laden and it will be like that every time his name comes off one of these buildings.
he can name everything after himself like DC is his own personal failed casino. it doesn’t matter. the moment he’s outta power it all comes down. i’ll show up with a chisel and pry that shit off the building myself.
December 18, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Every single dumb Trump name that gets hacked onto a building in DC will become a ceremony and a public celebration when it inevitably gets taken down.
I was at the White House the night we got Bin Laden and it will be like that every time his name comes off one of these buildings.
I was at the White House the night we got Bin Laden and it will be like that every time his name comes off one of these buildings.
Reposted by Michael Rader
Truly North Korea territory
Kennedy Center to be renamed Trump-Kennedy Center —Karoline Leavitt x.com/PressSec/sta...
December 18, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Truly North Korea territory
Genuinely the most disturbing scene from the entire Matrix series imo.
The news makes me think about this scene every single day.
December 18, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Genuinely the most disturbing scene from the entire Matrix series imo.
Reposted by Michael Rader
It's astonishing that somehow we have whole swathes of the political class that have not managed to connect "everything seems like a scam now" to a useful political platform.
Zohran: "I mean, think about when you fly. We have made it such a difficult experience to go through TSA that there's now a financial incentive to sign up for a separate program that can move you through it quicker. We have monetized the dysfunction."
December 18, 2025 at 4:31 PM
It's astonishing that somehow we have whole swathes of the political class that have not managed to connect "everything seems like a scam now" to a useful political platform.
I'll never forget the Obamacare debate and the shrieking about government death panels, as if they don't exist under private insurance.
"For every case like Taylor's that attracts media attention, there are hundreds every day that go unnoticed by anyone other than the patient. Or her survivors."
More on what happened to Carole (and how common it is) in this piece:
More on what happened to Carole (and how common it is) in this piece:
Cigna denied a double lung transplant after a donor was found, leaving a mother scrambling for answers
Today, I would like you to put yourself in Carole Taylor’s shoes for a few minutes, even if just as you read this.
healthcareuncovered.substack.com
December 17, 2025 at 7:50 PM
I'll never forget the Obamacare debate and the shrieking about government death panels, as if they don't exist under private insurance.
One day, "building a ballroom" will be shorthand for the most massive and brazen of fraudulent construction schemes.
Trump has announced his ballroom will now cost $400 million.
This comes as Americans' health care premiums are set to skyrocket in the coming weeks.
This comes as Americans' health care premiums are set to skyrocket in the coming weeks.
December 17, 2025 at 5:49 PM
One day, "building a ballroom" will be shorthand for the most massive and brazen of fraudulent construction schemes.
Reposted by Michael Rader
Unbelievable. This would be a terrible blow to American science, writ large. It would decimate not only climate research, but also the kind of weather, wildfire, and disaster research that has underpinned half a century of progress in prediction, early warning, and increased resilience.
Exclusive: The Trump administration is moving to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, according to a senior White House official, taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs.
Trump moves to dismantle major US climate research center in Colorado
The Trump administration is breaking up the National Center for Atmospheric Research, taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs.
bit.ly
December 17, 2025 at 2:49 AM
Unbelievable. This would be a terrible blow to American science, writ large. It would decimate not only climate research, but also the kind of weather, wildfire, and disaster research that has underpinned half a century of progress in prediction, early warning, and increased resilience.
When a billionaire CEO wanted to gut foreign aid to thwart an investigation into one of his companies, Republicans decided to ignore the Constitution and let him do it.
December 17, 2025 at 3:38 PM
When a billionaire CEO wanted to gut foreign aid to thwart an investigation into one of his companies, Republicans decided to ignore the Constitution and let him do it.
Reposted by Michael Rader
Reposted by Michael Rader
I've tried and failed a couple times to write a post explaining how serious this would be. NCAR is globally essential to our climate change response. This can't just be replaced. Every scientist in the world will be doing climate research with one hand tied behind their back for at least a decade
Exclusive: The Trump administration is moving to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, according to a senior White House official, taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs.
Trump moves to dismantle major US climate research center in Colorado
The Trump administration is breaking up the National Center for Atmospheric Research, taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs.
bit.ly
December 17, 2025 at 2:30 AM
I've tried and failed a couple times to write a post explaining how serious this would be. NCAR is globally essential to our climate change response. This can't just be replaced. Every scientist in the world will be doing climate research with one hand tied behind their back for at least a decade
Reposted by Michael Rader
they keep emphasizing that these are on "known narcotrafficking routes" and like, those are just route-routes. there are not special ocean highways for drugs.
I'm not sure if people realize the murder strikes are taking place across a large region. It's quite staggering.
www.newsweek.com/map-us-strik...
www.newsweek.com/map-us-strik...
December 16, 2025 at 8:31 PM
they keep emphasizing that these are on "known narcotrafficking routes" and like, those are just route-routes. there are not special ocean highways for drugs.
Reposted by Michael Rader
Look, I didn’t vote for this - I voted for a hypothetical Trump administration grounded in zero empirical evidence
December 16, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Look, I didn’t vote for this - I voted for a hypothetical Trump administration grounded in zero empirical evidence
Reading all this true-but-trite criticism up front, it primes you to believe the absolute fiction Wiles serves up later in the interview. I would skip the whole thing, tbh.
Somebody posted "oh Wiles doing her exit interview" and idk man, think what you like, but this is weak tea.
👀 White House chief of staff Susie Wiles on Trump, Vance, Musk, Vought and Bondi: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/16/u...
December 16, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Reading all this true-but-trite criticism up front, it primes you to believe the absolute fiction Wiles serves up later in the interview. I would skip the whole thing, tbh.
Reposted by Michael Rader
It is pretty interesting how both elected officials and the media generally refuse to act like reality is reality, mostly because the people whose opinions they value are in the 17%
December 16, 2025 at 2:14 PM
It is pretty interesting how both elected officials and the media generally refuse to act like reality is reality, mostly because the people whose opinions they value are in the 17%
I read the whole interview with Susan Wiles (both parts) and although she is a very good liar, her bullshit gets more absurd and comical the longer the piece goes on.
By the time she's doing the memory hole of the Trump Retribution Tour, it's beyond parody.
By the time she's doing the memory hole of the Trump Retribution Tour, it's beyond parody.
December 16, 2025 at 2:12 PM
I read the whole interview with Susan Wiles (both parts) and although she is a very good liar, her bullshit gets more absurd and comical the longer the piece goes on.
By the time she's doing the memory hole of the Trump Retribution Tour, it's beyond parody.
By the time she's doing the memory hole of the Trump Retribution Tour, it's beyond parody.
When I scrolled past this, I assumed these were from an AI gacha mobile game.
If you're in Space Force, please let me know if they printed out and handed out actual playing cards the these naming schemes on them. Because this looks like Space Force is trying to make a Magic The Gathering-type game. taskandpurpose.com/culture/spac...
Space Force rolls out new themes for naming its weapons and space systems
Space Force wants to give systems familiar nicknames. It unveiled the themes for those names with bright, colorful playing card graphics.
taskandpurpose.com
December 15, 2025 at 10:12 PM
When I scrolled past this, I assumed these were from an AI gacha mobile game.
Reposted by Michael Rader
I’m just going to tell the story. Back in 2000 I was volunteering for the Gore campaign when he came along with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Alfre Woodard and Dule Hill to a GOTV event here in MN. He ended up sitting down across from me stuffing his envelopes.
December 15, 2025 at 2:43 AM
I’m just going to tell the story. Back in 2000 I was volunteering for the Gore campaign when he came along with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Alfre Woodard and Dule Hill to a GOTV event here in MN. He ended up sitting down across from me stuffing his envelopes.
Me, after getting triple-vaxxed yesterday:
a man with long white hair and a beard says `` so you have chosen death . ''
Alt: a man with long white hair and a beard says `` so you have chosen death . ''
media.tenor.com
December 14, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Me, after getting triple-vaxxed yesterday: