John Franzel
@johnfranzel.bsky.social
IT, hockey, public safety diver, radical compassion, punk as funk.
Reposted by John Franzel
I really hate it when scientists keep saying that “we need to rebuild trust in science,” because it implies that scientists are to blame for the mistrust rather than the millions of dollars of dark money that have funded political attacks on science in order to advance a far right agenda.
November 19, 2025 at 9:48 PM
I really hate it when scientists keep saying that “we need to rebuild trust in science,” because it implies that scientists are to blame for the mistrust rather than the millions of dollars of dark money that have funded political attacks on science in order to advance a far right agenda.
Reposted by John Franzel
GI Joe was full of shit, knowing is at best like 12% of the battle.
December 2, 2025 at 7:55 PM
GI Joe was full of shit, knowing is at best like 12% of the battle.
It's amazing how many people are incompetent. Not just at their big job, but at every little task along the way. Bunch of coddled adult babies, begging for someone else to do everything for them. It's why I think AI is so alluring, you don't have to know anything, or ever learn anything yourself.
December 2, 2025 at 6:14 PM
It's amazing how many people are incompetent. Not just at their big job, but at every little task along the way. Bunch of coddled adult babies, begging for someone else to do everything for them. It's why I think AI is so alluring, you don't have to know anything, or ever learn anything yourself.
Reposted by John Franzel
Homeland Security doesn’t grasp the fact that the first Thanksgiving was about making “room at the table” for European “invaders.”
November 27, 2025 at 11:57 PM
Homeland Security doesn’t grasp the fact that the first Thanksgiving was about making “room at the table” for European “invaders.”
I am so tired of the people "in charge" so clearly being cowards. This is at every level, everywhere. Incompetence and rewarding false bravado has broken so many systems that we all rely on.
November 18, 2025 at 7:39 PM
I am so tired of the people "in charge" so clearly being cowards. This is at every level, everywhere. Incompetence and rewarding false bravado has broken so many systems that we all rely on.
Shout to the void: people around me keep talking about the hundreds of dollars they are losing on sports betting. They are buoyed by the occasional win, but the math isn't' hard to see how in the hole they actually are. It's terrifying.
November 11, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Shout to the void: people around me keep talking about the hundreds of dollars they are losing on sports betting. They are buoyed by the occasional win, but the math isn't' hard to see how in the hole they actually are. It's terrifying.
Reposted by John Franzel
Charlie Kirk woke up every day and made a conscious decision to be the Charlie Kirk we all saw. That’s the meanest thing I can think of to say about pretty much anyone, and it also happens to be completely true.
We can remember what he did, and we can remember who he did it to.
We can remember what he did, and we can remember who he did it to.
September 10, 2025 at 11:50 PM
Charlie Kirk woke up every day and made a conscious decision to be the Charlie Kirk we all saw. That’s the meanest thing I can think of to say about pretty much anyone, and it also happens to be completely true.
We can remember what he did, and we can remember who he did it to.
We can remember what he did, and we can remember who he did it to.
So much of what is happening is just people amassing power so that they can force people to like them. Wildly unhinged.
Hosting the awards shows yourself so you can hang out with Sylvester Stallone is surreal late stage dictatorship stuff—like kidnapping Japanese film stars or announcing you hit eighteen holes-in-one in a round of golf. Frontloading it into the consolidation stage seems chancy.
August 13, 2025 at 4:48 PM
So much of what is happening is just people amassing power so that they can force people to like them. Wildly unhinged.
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“President Donald Trump has expanded his military campaign against the United States…” is the only way we knew how to start this piece.
NEW: L.A. and D.C. are only the beginning, as Trump's team has been drawing up plans to unleash federal forces in other Democratic strongholds.
Story: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
Story: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
August 13, 2025 at 12:54 PM
“President Donald Trump has expanded his military campaign against the United States…” is the only way we knew how to start this piece.
Reposted by John Franzel
July 14, 2025 at 5:37 PM
There was a rush to blame NOAA cuts for the Texas disaster, but it seems more likely that the remaining NOAA staff did their job, sent out warnings, and then the local govt didn't do anything with that. Not surprising, public servants are generally pretty good at prioritizing, and safety is the goal
July 11, 2025 at 3:49 PM
There was a rush to blame NOAA cuts for the Texas disaster, but it seems more likely that the remaining NOAA staff did their job, sent out warnings, and then the local govt didn't do anything with that. Not surprising, public servants are generally pretty good at prioritizing, and safety is the goal
Reposted by John Franzel
That last line hits hard
July 6, 2025 at 5:19 PM
That last line hits hard
Reposted by John Franzel
Reposted by John Franzel
The most effective lens to read Trump 2.0 through is the placebo-based wellness scams that also transfixed his base.
Trump is lacing friendly media with sugar pills of political theatre—Alligator Alcatraz!—to create an illusion of a safer America.
Everything's worse, but his base *feels* safer.
Trump is lacing friendly media with sugar pills of political theatre—Alligator Alcatraz!—to create an illusion of a safer America.
Everything's worse, but his base *feels* safer.
I’ve been hesitating about sharing this audio of a debate Ezra Klein and Ben Rhodes vs Kevin Roberts & Kellyanne Conway, b/c you’re all aggravated enough already, but I really found it interesting and you might too:
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
Is This America’s Golden Age? A Debate.
Podcast Episode · The Ezra Klein Show · 06/20/2025 · Subscribers Only · 1h 44m
podcasts.apple.com
July 2, 2025 at 7:23 PM
The most effective lens to read Trump 2.0 through is the placebo-based wellness scams that also transfixed his base.
Trump is lacing friendly media with sugar pills of political theatre—Alligator Alcatraz!—to create an illusion of a safer America.
Everything's worse, but his base *feels* safer.
Trump is lacing friendly media with sugar pills of political theatre—Alligator Alcatraz!—to create an illusion of a safer America.
Everything's worse, but his base *feels* safer.
Reposted by John Franzel
We need a presidential candidate who vows to hold the Supreme Court as currently constituted to have invalidated itself through its open corruption and fraternization with anti-constitutional insurrectionist domestic enemies of the United States, to treat all its rulings as void, and to replace it.
June 27, 2025 at 2:55 PM
We need a presidential candidate who vows to hold the Supreme Court as currently constituted to have invalidated itself through its open corruption and fraternization with anti-constitutional insurrectionist domestic enemies of the United States, to treat all its rulings as void, and to replace it.
Reposted by John Franzel
And again, they were about 15-20 times as large as the April 2009 Tea Party protests, so I'll sit back and wait for 15-20 times as many stories from political pundits explaining that this was a decisive rebuke to the sitting president that Changes Everything.
Just to say it again, the Big Beautiful Protests (the No Kings marches) involved 5 million people and were likely the largest day of protest in America EVER. News outlets that downplay this fact, are lying.
June 16, 2025 at 1:34 PM
And again, they were about 15-20 times as large as the April 2009 Tea Party protests, so I'll sit back and wait for 15-20 times as many stories from political pundits explaining that this was a decisive rebuke to the sitting president that Changes Everything.
Reposted by John Franzel
There a reason the protests are being covered differently from the Tea Party
The Tea Party was a front for the wealth class that owns the media and were used to demonize necessary reform
These protests were democratic and populist, which the wealth class and its media opposes
Hope that helps
The Tea Party was a front for the wealth class that owns the media and were used to demonize necessary reform
These protests were democratic and populist, which the wealth class and its media opposes
Hope that helps
June 15, 2025 at 2:53 PM
There a reason the protests are being covered differently from the Tea Party
The Tea Party was a front for the wealth class that owns the media and were used to demonize necessary reform
These protests were democratic and populist, which the wealth class and its media opposes
Hope that helps
The Tea Party was a front for the wealth class that owns the media and were used to demonize necessary reform
These protests were democratic and populist, which the wealth class and its media opposes
Hope that helps
Reposted by John Franzel
"would be looters across multiple videos in different areas are wearing matching outfits."
Soviets (via KGB/local secret police agents) used this tactic to discredit protests in Poland, back in.. 70s-80s. Old shit, being used ad nausea by authoritarians.
Soviets (via KGB/local secret police agents) used this tactic to discredit protests in Poland, back in.. 70s-80s. Old shit, being used ad nausea by authoritarians.
June 11, 2025 at 10:42 PM
"would be looters across multiple videos in different areas are wearing matching outfits."
Soviets (via KGB/local secret police agents) used this tactic to discredit protests in Poland, back in.. 70s-80s. Old shit, being used ad nausea by authoritarians.
Soviets (via KGB/local secret police agents) used this tactic to discredit protests in Poland, back in.. 70s-80s. Old shit, being used ad nausea by authoritarians.
Reposted by John Franzel
Protestors shown stopping more instances of looting of community businesses. It is also noted that the would be looters across multiple videos in different areas are wearing matching outfits. #3E
June 11, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Protestors shown stopping more instances of looting of community businesses. It is also noted that the would be looters across multiple videos in different areas are wearing matching outfits. #3E
Reposted by John Franzel
I mean, scholars of fascism were like, “He’s going to attack universities, the media, and unions, and he’s going to arrest his political opponents,” and most of America was like, “Stop exaggerating.”
SEIU California President David Huerta has apparently been charged with a federal crime--conspiracy to impede an officer. This is a felony that carries a sentence of six years in federal prison.
June 9, 2025 at 5:41 PM
I mean, scholars of fascism were like, “He’s going to attack universities, the media, and unions, and he’s going to arrest his political opponents,” and most of America was like, “Stop exaggerating.”
Reposted by John Franzel
We need to build some real social stigma around being afraid of cities. You don't have to like them or live there, but a politics built this strongly around watching TV and going "ewww" is embarrassing, and people should be embarrassed by it. It's like "fear of werewolves" being your top issue.
June 10, 2025 at 3:17 PM
We need to build some real social stigma around being afraid of cities. You don't have to like them or live there, but a politics built this strongly around watching TV and going "ewww" is embarrassing, and people should be embarrassed by it. It's like "fear of werewolves" being your top issue.
Reposted by John Franzel
Everything that’s happened over the past six months has been a response to an imaginary crisis. There is no immigrant invasion. No trade crisis. No scientific or governance crisis. Just people completely high off their own supply trying to fundamentally reorder society. None of this had to happen.
June 9, 2025 at 12:39 AM
Everything that’s happened over the past six months has been a response to an imaginary crisis. There is no immigrant invasion. No trade crisis. No scientific or governance crisis. Just people completely high off their own supply trying to fundamentally reorder society. None of this had to happen.
Worst governor heel turn candidate here. What an embarrassment.
🚨NEWS: Colorado Gov. Jared Polis is ordering his employees to help Trump's immigration crackdown & follow a secret Trump subpoena that his top labor official says illegally violates state privacy laws that Polis himself signed, according to court documents reviewed by The Lever.
Whistleblower Lawsuit Exposes Trump’s Secret ICE Plot
The complaint by Gov. Jared Polis’ labor official also accuses the governor of illegally ordering state officials to aid the immigration crackdown.
www.levernews.com
June 6, 2025 at 1:25 AM
Worst governor heel turn candidate here. What an embarrassment.