Clifton Lee
@cliftonlee.bsky.social
Ted Scripps Fellow, CU-Boulder 23-24 https://www.colorado.edu/cej/2024/03/18/five-questions-fellows-clifton-wiens Formerly Nat Geo. Introvert but know many. Sorry I missed your party.
Pinned
Clifton Lee
@cliftonlee.bsky.social
· Nov 25
This one's for Dr. @kkdumez.bsky.social. I'm in Montana, and this afternoon I pulled up behind this truck and my jaw actually dropped. If you haven't read her book with both of these personages on the two bumper stickers in the title, you must! (The blurred vehicle tag is not Montana.)
I briefly met Reverend Jesse Jackson in the early 1990s in Washington at a conference dinner where he was the keynote speaker. A towering person who commanded the room. I was in awe. Rest in power, Reverend Jackson, rest in power. #Iamsomebody
February 18, 2026 at 11:25 AM
I briefly met Reverend Jesse Jackson in the early 1990s in Washington at a conference dinner where he was the keynote speaker. A towering person who commanded the room. I was in awe. Rest in power, Reverend Jackson, rest in power. #Iamsomebody
Match the numbered person with the lettered descriptor:
1. RFK Jr.
2. Donald Trump
3. Peter Thiel
A. Zombie-eyed orange-headed salesman
B. Green-washed, theo-fascist wannabe philosopher-king
C. Steroid-infused legacy son
#transactionalfascism
1. RFK Jr.
2. Donald Trump
3. Peter Thiel
A. Zombie-eyed orange-headed salesman
B. Green-washed, theo-fascist wannabe philosopher-king
C. Steroid-infused legacy son
#transactionalfascism
February 18, 2026 at 10:56 AM
Match the numbered person with the lettered descriptor:
1. RFK Jr.
2. Donald Trump
3. Peter Thiel
A. Zombie-eyed orange-headed salesman
B. Green-washed, theo-fascist wannabe philosopher-king
C. Steroid-infused legacy son
#transactionalfascism
1. RFK Jr.
2. Donald Trump
3. Peter Thiel
A. Zombie-eyed orange-headed salesman
B. Green-washed, theo-fascist wannabe philosopher-king
C. Steroid-infused legacy son
#transactionalfascism
The dilemma facing Western pluralistic democracies:
A solar eclipse occurs.
Ancient explanations: a dragon ate the sun or maybe two giant sky wolves.
Scientific: Earth's moon crosses ecliptic plane, aligning sun, moon, Earth.
Humans prefer dragons and wolves to planes & alignments every time.
A solar eclipse occurs.
Ancient explanations: a dragon ate the sun or maybe two giant sky wolves.
Scientific: Earth's moon crosses ecliptic plane, aligning sun, moon, Earth.
Humans prefer dragons and wolves to planes & alignments every time.
February 18, 2026 at 10:18 AM
The dilemma facing Western pluralistic democracies:
A solar eclipse occurs.
Ancient explanations: a dragon ate the sun or maybe two giant sky wolves.
Scientific: Earth's moon crosses ecliptic plane, aligning sun, moon, Earth.
Humans prefer dragons and wolves to planes & alignments every time.
A solar eclipse occurs.
Ancient explanations: a dragon ate the sun or maybe two giant sky wolves.
Scientific: Earth's moon crosses ecliptic plane, aligning sun, moon, Earth.
Humans prefer dragons and wolves to planes & alignments every time.
I want to encourage anyone in journalism or journalism-adjacent fields to apply for this fellowship. And if you don't get it the first time around apply again and again. (Twice was the charm for me.)https://www.colorado.edu/cej/ted-scripps-fellowships-environmental-journalism
Ted Scripps Fellowships in Environmental Journalism
Interested in deepening your understanding of environmental issues and expanding your journalistic skills? CU Boulder's reputation as one of the nation's best
www.colorado.edu
February 18, 2026 at 3:01 AM
I want to encourage anyone in journalism or journalism-adjacent fields to apply for this fellowship. And if you don't get it the first time around apply again and again. (Twice was the charm for me.)https://www.colorado.edu/cej/ted-scripps-fellowships-environmental-journalism
"No problems in paradise, we'll lock them up
We all gotta sacrifice, it won't be long
Shut the borders, burn the other, sons and daughters, and the mothers
Drink the Kool-Aid, it's a new way, do what I say... "
— Pussy Riot, 2017
Written about Putin's Russia, but fits Trump's US perfectly.
We all gotta sacrifice, it won't be long
Shut the borders, burn the other, sons and daughters, and the mothers
Drink the Kool-Aid, it's a new way, do what I say... "
— Pussy Riot, 2017
Written about Putin's Russia, but fits Trump's US perfectly.
February 17, 2026 at 6:27 PM
"No problems in paradise, we'll lock them up
We all gotta sacrifice, it won't be long
Shut the borders, burn the other, sons and daughters, and the mothers
Drink the Kool-Aid, it's a new way, do what I say... "
— Pussy Riot, 2017
Written about Putin's Russia, but fits Trump's US perfectly.
We all gotta sacrifice, it won't be long
Shut the borders, burn the other, sons and daughters, and the mothers
Drink the Kool-Aid, it's a new way, do what I say... "
— Pussy Riot, 2017
Written about Putin's Russia, but fits Trump's US perfectly.
Marry technology with human brains no more advanced than Bronze Age villagers and you get our world. Lethal.
February 16, 2026 at 3:21 PM
Marry technology with human brains no more advanced than Bronze Age villagers and you get our world. Lethal.
Reposted by Clifton Lee
Someone has sure already made this observation but the fact they can convert all those empty warehouses into prison camps means they could have converted them into housing, community centers, job training centers or, hell, libraries or schools all along. It’s always a matter of will not resources.
February 15, 2026 at 5:30 PM
Someone has sure already made this observation but the fact they can convert all those empty warehouses into prison camps means they could have converted them into housing, community centers, job training centers or, hell, libraries or schools all along. It’s always a matter of will not resources.
Reposted by Clifton Lee
People prefer stories of dragons eating the sun to actual scientific facts concerning a total eclipse.
This, in reality, is at the heart of the existential crises facing pluralistic democracies.
This, in reality, is at the heart of the existential crises facing pluralistic democracies.
February 16, 2026 at 4:09 AM
People prefer stories of dragons eating the sun to actual scientific facts concerning a total eclipse.
This, in reality, is at the heart of the existential crises facing pluralistic democracies.
This, in reality, is at the heart of the existential crises facing pluralistic democracies.
People prefer stories of dragons eating the sun to actual scientific facts concerning a total eclipse.
This, in reality, is at the heart of the existential crises facing pluralistic democracies.
This, in reality, is at the heart of the existential crises facing pluralistic democracies.
February 16, 2026 at 4:09 AM
People prefer stories of dragons eating the sun to actual scientific facts concerning a total eclipse.
This, in reality, is at the heart of the existential crises facing pluralistic democracies.
This, in reality, is at the heart of the existential crises facing pluralistic democracies.
Reposted by Clifton Lee
I’ll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition’s flames before I give him up.
February 16, 2026 at 3:47 AM
I’ll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition’s flames before I give him up.
I have been listening to the audiobook version of one of the most vile books ever written: The Late Great Planet Earth, by the late Hal Lindsey. I've read it multiple times for research purposes, and listening to it is even worse...
February 16, 2026 at 3:25 AM
I have been listening to the audiobook version of one of the most vile books ever written: The Late Great Planet Earth, by the late Hal Lindsey. I've read it multiple times for research purposes, and listening to it is even worse...
Reposted by Clifton Lee
Our court system is largely working, with the exception of the most important court
Courts have ruled 4,400 times that ICE jailed people illegally. It hasn’t stopped.
www.reuters.com/legal/govern...
www.reuters.com/legal/govern...
Courts have ruled 4,400 times that ICE jailed people illegally. It hasn’t stopped.
The decisions amount to a huge legal rebuke, but the administration has continued jailing people indefinitely.
www.reuters.com
February 15, 2026 at 5:53 AM
Our court system is largely working, with the exception of the most important court
Reposted by Clifton Lee
But war is pain, and hate is woe.
February 15, 2026 at 5:47 AM
But war is pain, and hate is woe.
Reposted by Clifton Lee
I’m traveling now in So Cal, so densely populated, fixations on toned bodies, big fast cars…seems a vast indifference to pervasive perversity loose in the world
February 15, 2026 at 5:12 AM
I’m traveling now in So Cal, so densely populated, fixations on toned bodies, big fast cars…seems a vast indifference to pervasive perversity loose in the world
We are living in a world of malignant normality. And it is reinforced by even the good things that anesthetize us all and the noise around us that makes us numb and able to cope with the madness.
February 15, 2026 at 4:56 AM
We are living in a world of malignant normality. And it is reinforced by even the good things that anesthetize us all and the noise around us that makes us numb and able to cope with the madness.
"We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar..."
— T.S. Eliot
This is a post about Marco Rubio.
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar..."
— T.S. Eliot
This is a post about Marco Rubio.
February 14, 2026 at 6:20 PM
"We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar..."
— T.S. Eliot
This is a post about Marco Rubio.
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar..."
— T.S. Eliot
This is a post about Marco Rubio.
Reposted by Clifton Lee
Reposted by Clifton Lee
Swalwell: ICE agents shot Alex Pretti and Renee Good. And the only person in the world who has been held accountable by DHS is the pilot who somehow forgot to move Kristi Noem’s blankie.
February 14, 2026 at 2:27 AM
Swalwell: ICE agents shot Alex Pretti and Renee Good. And the only person in the world who has been held accountable by DHS is the pilot who somehow forgot to move Kristi Noem’s blankie.
I did the calculations, and I drove eighteen hours yesterday, beginning at 4 AM EST. Put me behind on work one day but some moments were worth it. The Ohio River at sunrise.
February 14, 2026 at 1:01 AM
I did the calculations, and I drove eighteen hours yesterday, beginning at 4 AM EST. Put me behind on work one day but some moments were worth it. The Ohio River at sunrise.
You may have seen Trump's chief attack attorney (I refuse to call her the head of the Department of Justice) deride Congressman Jamie Raskin as a washed up lawyer.
In keeping with The Fascist Playbook for Dummies, of course, she followed the advice to use grade school playground taunts...
In keeping with The Fascist Playbook for Dummies, of course, she followed the advice to use grade school playground taunts...
February 13, 2026 at 7:32 PM
You may have seen Trump's chief attack attorney (I refuse to call her the head of the Department of Justice) deride Congressman Jamie Raskin as a washed up lawyer.
In keeping with The Fascist Playbook for Dummies, of course, she followed the advice to use grade school playground taunts...
In keeping with The Fascist Playbook for Dummies, of course, she followed the advice to use grade school playground taunts...
Reposted by Clifton Lee
TODAY IN LARGE NOMINAL NUMBERS!!!!
Media outlets should really stop doing this. It is meaningless without relevant denominators.
Also, yes. Neither party, but especially the Republican Party, actually cares about debt or deficits. We should stop pretending that they do:
bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Media outlets should really stop doing this. It is meaningless without relevant denominators.
Also, yes. Neither party, but especially the Republican Party, actually cares about debt or deficits. We should stop pretending that they do:
bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Reminder: Republicans don’t care about the debt as long as it’s exploding into their own pockets and the pockets of their donors.
abcnews.com/Business/us-...
abcnews.com/Business/us-...
February 13, 2026 at 7:30 PM
TODAY IN LARGE NOMINAL NUMBERS!!!!
Media outlets should really stop doing this. It is meaningless without relevant denominators.
Also, yes. Neither party, but especially the Republican Party, actually cares about debt or deficits. We should stop pretending that they do:
bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Media outlets should really stop doing this. It is meaningless without relevant denominators.
Also, yes. Neither party, but especially the Republican Party, actually cares about debt or deficits. We should stop pretending that they do:
bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Reposted by Clifton Lee
I would love to have a discussion with Jake Tapper about the history of the term "concentration camp" and its usage. It would do so much good if he would actually address this head on.
God the gall of @jaketapper.bsky.social lecturing that Minneapolis small business owner about the meaning of the word "concentration camp" while people are being crammed into poorly resourced buildings by the thousands and shuttled off never to be heard from again
February 13, 2026 at 12:50 AM
I would love to have a discussion with Jake Tapper about the history of the term "concentration camp" and its usage. It would do so much good if he would actually address this head on.
Punch gut lonely in Kansas.
February 13, 2026 at 12:23 AM
Punch gut lonely in Kansas.