Critical Rationalist
@noncynic.bsky.social
Tech lawyer in practice for 40+ years. Pilot. Author. Veteran.
Philosophy of Science fan: Karl Popper.
Religion is irrational and dangerous.
Crypto is worse than tulipmania.
Political power based on lies (GOP, Russia, etc.) must be stopped.
Philosophy of Science fan: Karl Popper.
Religion is irrational and dangerous.
Crypto is worse than tulipmania.
Political power based on lies (GOP, Russia, etc.) must be stopped.
Pinned
![“With a narrowness, a prejudice, a blindness which in retrospect seem inconceivable . . . , [the German Right] hammered away at the foundations of the Republic until, in an alliance with Hitler, they brought it down. ... [T]he Third Reich was inaugurated in peacetime. . . . The Germans imposed the Nazi tyranny on themselves.
“Many of them, perhaps a majority, did not quite realize it at that noon hour of January 30, 1933, when President Hindenburg, acting in a perfectly constitutional manner, entrusted the chancellorship to Adolf Hitler.
“But they were soon to learn.”
- William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:yk3bwv3cq33onvcopzbwm6ec/bafkreigpkm4nn3adhalvrxazh2omznmh6wy3va6htal7nijpe6itx4ydmq@jpeg)
Reposted by Critical Rationalist
People should not forget. The DOJ is not a personal lawyer for the sitting president.
bsky.app/profile/bulg...
bsky.app/profile/bulg...
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is an executive department of the United States federal government that oversees the domestic enforcement of federal laws and the administration of justice.
Defamation suits and local misdemeanors are not the DOJ's responsibility.
Defamation suits and local misdemeanors are not the DOJ's responsibility.
United States Department of Justice - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
February 3, 2026 at 5:11 PM
People should not forget. The DOJ is not a personal lawyer for the sitting president.
bsky.app/profile/bulg...
bsky.app/profile/bulg...
Reposted by Critical Rationalist
The huge increase in the ICE budget isn't for immigration enforcement. Trump is forming his own SA/SS/Gestapo/Stasi.
Fascism is here, and we're only six months into this nightmare.
Fascism is here, and we're only six months into this nightmare.
July 10, 2025 at 7:41 AM
The huge increase in the ICE budget isn't for immigration enforcement. Trump is forming his own SA/SS/Gestapo/Stasi.
Fascism is here, and we're only six months into this nightmare.
Fascism is here, and we're only six months into this nightmare.
Reposted by Critical Rationalist
This is dangerous as hell.
New from 404 Media: ICE's facial recognition app, which the agency is using to decide who to detain and deport, misidentified a woman. Twice.
ICE says results of the app are definitive and override a birth certificate; obviously this case shows the app is inaccurate
www.404media.co/ices-facial-...
ICE says results of the app are definitive and override a birth certificate; obviously this case shows the app is inaccurate
www.404media.co/ices-facial-...
ICE’s Facial Recognition App Misidentified a Woman. Twice
In testimony from a CBP official obtained by 404 Media, the official described how Mobile Fortify returned two different names after scanning a woman's face during an immigration raid. ICE has said th...
www.404media.co
January 19, 2026 at 9:54 PM
This is dangerous as hell.
Reposted by Critical Rationalist
If they can get away with deporting US citizens claiming they are not, they can claim those neighbors whatever the want to support their narrative for the next step.
Don't expect they will find nothing. They will invent and lie. They are not into seeking truth. They know truth is not on their side.
Don't expect they will find nothing. They will invent and lie. They are not into seeking truth. They know truth is not on their side.
January 15, 2026 at 7:54 PM
If they can get away with deporting US citizens claiming they are not, they can claim those neighbors whatever the want to support their narrative for the next step.
Don't expect they will find nothing. They will invent and lie. They are not into seeking truth. They know truth is not on their side.
Don't expect they will find nothing. They will invent and lie. They are not into seeking truth. They know truth is not on their side.
Reposted by Critical Rationalist
Non-protesting dad just trying to hustle his kids, as young as 6mo, out of the neighborhood. ICE threw a flash-bang INTO HIS car, all 6 kids in the hospital now.
If anyone wondered how things turn against occupying armies there's a case study playing out in front of you.
If anyone wondered how things turn against occupying armies there's a case study playing out in front of you.
That is what was relayed
January 15, 2026 at 4:27 AM
Non-protesting dad just trying to hustle his kids, as young as 6mo, out of the neighborhood. ICE threw a flash-bang INTO HIS car, all 6 kids in the hospital now.
If anyone wondered how things turn against occupying armies there's a case study playing out in front of you.
If anyone wondered how things turn against occupying armies there's a case study playing out in front of you.
Reposted by Critical Rationalist
Bare bones, bare minimum starters:
-a daily press conference at the same time that catalogues and highlights the latest ICE abuses, with video evidence if possible
-a dedicated team of state lawyers and prosecutors who can be available as legal advisers to people caught up in ICE interactions
-a daily press conference at the same time that catalogues and highlights the latest ICE abuses, with video evidence if possible
-a dedicated team of state lawyers and prosecutors who can be available as legal advisers to people caught up in ICE interactions
January 15, 2026 at 1:50 AM
Bare bones, bare minimum starters:
-a daily press conference at the same time that catalogues and highlights the latest ICE abuses, with video evidence if possible
-a dedicated team of state lawyers and prosecutors who can be available as legal advisers to people caught up in ICE interactions
-a daily press conference at the same time that catalogues and highlights the latest ICE abuses, with video evidence if possible
-a dedicated team of state lawyers and prosecutors who can be available as legal advisers to people caught up in ICE interactions
Reposted by Critical Rationalist
A woman recording an ICE agent tells him "Shame on you."
The agent responds, "Have you all not learned from the past couple of days?"
"Learned what?" she asks
Then he knocks her phone out of her hand
The agent responds, "Have you all not learned from the past couple of days?"
"Learned what?" she asks
Then he knocks her phone out of her hand
January 10, 2026 at 2:52 PM
A woman recording an ICE agent tells him "Shame on you."
The agent responds, "Have you all not learned from the past couple of days?"
"Learned what?" she asks
Then he knocks her phone out of her hand
The agent responds, "Have you all not learned from the past couple of days?"
"Learned what?" she asks
Then he knocks her phone out of her hand
Reposted by Critical Rationalist
Not to mention grossly insufficient training.
January 10, 2026 at 5:58 PM
Not to mention grossly insufficient training.
Reposted by Critical Rationalist
Schools may want to consider expanding their "Active Shooter" protocols to handle these scenarios. Because they are shooters and there are many of them. They have no legitimate business at our schools.
January 8, 2026 at 2:14 PM
Schools may want to consider expanding their "Active Shooter" protocols to handle these scenarios. Because they are shooters and there are many of them. They have no legitimate business at our schools.
Reposted by Critical Rationalist
⬇️ Cops are not wrong...
January 9, 2026 at 3:08 AM
⬇️ Cops are not wrong...
Reposted by Critical Rationalist
To be clear what the "left-wing propaganda" is.
It is critical thinking, caring for each other, seeking truth, believing in science, and protecting human rights.
All of these are values of a decent human being.
It is critical thinking, caring for each other, seeking truth, believing in science, and protecting human rights.
All of these are values of a decent human being.
January 8, 2026 at 8:17 PM
To be clear what the "left-wing propaganda" is.
It is critical thinking, caring for each other, seeking truth, believing in science, and protecting human rights.
All of these are values of a decent human being.
It is critical thinking, caring for each other, seeking truth, believing in science, and protecting human rights.
All of these are values of a decent human being.
MAGA is:
- Putin & Russian mafia (Trump family is in deep)
- Ultra-rich fascists: democracy is an inconvenience
- Project 2025 fascists: same
- Business people: indifferent to fascism if they think it will make them money, just like 1930s
- Bigots
- Gullible rubes
* NOW DESTROYING AMERICA *
- Putin & Russian mafia (Trump family is in deep)
- Ultra-rich fascists: democracy is an inconvenience
- Project 2025 fascists: same
- Business people: indifferent to fascism if they think it will make them money, just like 1930s
- Bigots
- Gullible rubes
* NOW DESTROYING AMERICA *
October 31, 2025 at 11:56 PM
MAGA is:
- Putin & Russian mafia (Trump family is in deep)
- Ultra-rich fascists: democracy is an inconvenience
- Project 2025 fascists: same
- Business people: indifferent to fascism if they think it will make them money, just like 1930s
- Bigots
- Gullible rubes
* NOW DESTROYING AMERICA *
- Putin & Russian mafia (Trump family is in deep)
- Ultra-rich fascists: democracy is an inconvenience
- Project 2025 fascists: same
- Business people: indifferent to fascism if they think it will make them money, just like 1930s
- Bigots
- Gullible rubes
* NOW DESTROYING AMERICA *
Reposted by Critical Rationalist
Not confronting their lies lets them get away without accountability for their lies.
October 29, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Not confronting their lies lets them get away without accountability for their lies.
Reposted by Critical Rationalist
It’s pretty emblematic of the way things are going:
An institution lies in shambles while a bunch of people ask if he can do that
An institution lies in shambles while a bunch of people ask if he can do that
October 21, 2025 at 2:53 AM
It’s pretty emblematic of the way things are going:
An institution lies in shambles while a bunch of people ask if he can do that
An institution lies in shambles while a bunch of people ask if he can do that
Ok, here's from Columbus OH today. About 5x bigger than the last one.
October 18, 2025 at 11:55 PM
Ok, here's from Columbus OH today. About 5x bigger than the last one.
The "last chance" 2026 midterms are a year away, but the fascists are already disenfranchising as many nonwhites as possible. They're practicing urban show-of-force intimidation.
And they're still hiring.
What do we do when they show up at polling places in 2026, "checking IDs"? THEY WILL.
And they're still hiring.
What do we do when they show up at polling places in 2026, "checking IDs"? THEY WILL.
October 15, 2025 at 9:18 PM
The "last chance" 2026 midterms are a year away, but the fascists are already disenfranchising as many nonwhites as possible. They're practicing urban show-of-force intimidation.
And they're still hiring.
What do we do when they show up at polling places in 2026, "checking IDs"? THEY WILL.
And they're still hiring.
What do we do when they show up at polling places in 2026, "checking IDs"? THEY WILL.
Reposted by Critical Rationalist
AOC is spot on. I just wish her message traveled even further & wider than it already does.
Btw... WHY DON'T DEMS HAVE A PRESS SECRETARY who holds daily briefings? Why don't they have their own press pool? Rs are blowing up norms, so why shldn't Dems?
Btw... WHY DON'T DEMS HAVE A PRESS SECRETARY who holds daily briefings? Why don't they have their own press pool? Rs are blowing up norms, so why shldn't Dems?
October 1, 2025 at 11:16 PM
AOC is spot on. I just wish her message traveled even further & wider than it already does.
Btw... WHY DON'T DEMS HAVE A PRESS SECRETARY who holds daily briefings? Why don't they have their own press pool? Rs are blowing up norms, so why shldn't Dems?
Btw... WHY DON'T DEMS HAVE A PRESS SECRETARY who holds daily briefings? Why don't they have their own press pool? Rs are blowing up norms, so why shldn't Dems?
![“With a narrowness, a prejudice, a blindness which in retrospect seem inconceivable . . . , [the German Right] hammered away at the foundations of the Republic until, in an alliance with Hitler, they brought it down. ... [T]he Third Reich was inaugurated in peacetime. . . . The Germans imposed the Nazi tyranny on themselves.
“Many of them, perhaps a majority, did not quite realize it at that noon hour of January 30, 1933, when President Hindenburg, acting in a perfectly constitutional manner, entrusted the chancellorship to Adolf Hitler.
“But they were soon to learn.”
- William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:yk3bwv3cq33onvcopzbwm6ec/bafkreie6imj4jvpxxpfxfmestiqiwwhaipzu7cjrky7ew2zqgjbu4fbbj4@jpeg)
September 27, 2025 at 11:26 PM
Reposted by Critical Rationalist
#28. Luffing all the way to the Bank: Trump Ocean Club, Panama (2011)
Instead of functioning as a glamorous oasis for the rich and powerful, the Trump Ocean Club had become a high-speed laundromat that washed enormous amounts of tainted capital.
open.substack.com/pub/craigung...
Instead of functioning as a glamorous oasis for the rich and powerful, the Trump Ocean Club had become a high-speed laundromat that washed enormous amounts of tainted capital.
open.substack.com/pub/craigung...
#28. Luffing all the way to the Bank: Trump Ocean Club, Panama (2011)
South of the border, down Panama way, Trump's Russian Laundromat switched its spin cycle to overdrive.
open.substack.com
September 18, 2025 at 1:31 PM
#28. Luffing all the way to the Bank: Trump Ocean Club, Panama (2011)
Instead of functioning as a glamorous oasis for the rich and powerful, the Trump Ocean Club had become a high-speed laundromat that washed enormous amounts of tainted capital.
open.substack.com/pub/craigung...
Instead of functioning as a glamorous oasis for the rich and powerful, the Trump Ocean Club had become a high-speed laundromat that washed enormous amounts of tainted capital.
open.substack.com/pub/craigung...
Reposted by Critical Rationalist
Everyone should read this.
Even MAGA (to the extent they can read.)
Lays out in well-researched detail how the KGB used Trump's vanity, arrogance, and stupidity to reel him in.
He started out as a useful idiot. Now the White House is in effect a branch of the government of the Russian Federation.
Even MAGA (to the extent they can read.)
Lays out in well-researched detail how the KGB used Trump's vanity, arrogance, and stupidity to reel him in.
He started out as a useful idiot. Now the White House is in effect a branch of the government of the Russian Federation.
September 18, 2025 at 9:46 AM
Everyone should read this.
Even MAGA (to the extent they can read.)
Lays out in well-researched detail how the KGB used Trump's vanity, arrogance, and stupidity to reel him in.
He started out as a useful idiot. Now the White House is in effect a branch of the government of the Russian Federation.
Even MAGA (to the extent they can read.)
Lays out in well-researched detail how the KGB used Trump's vanity, arrogance, and stupidity to reel him in.
He started out as a useful idiot. Now the White House is in effect a branch of the government of the Russian Federation.
Reposted by Critical Rationalist
Dear journalists:
The President has not fired Lisa Cook. The President is *trying* to illegally fire her.
Your words shape people’s reality. Please be accurate in your reporting.
The President has not fired Lisa Cook. The President is *trying* to illegally fire her.
Your words shape people’s reality. Please be accurate in your reporting.
August 26, 2025 at 1:19 AM
Dear journalists:
The President has not fired Lisa Cook. The President is *trying* to illegally fire her.
Your words shape people’s reality. Please be accurate in your reporting.
The President has not fired Lisa Cook. The President is *trying* to illegally fire her.
Your words shape people’s reality. Please be accurate in your reporting.
Reposted by Critical Rationalist
August 18, 2025 at 12:17 AM
Reposted by Critical Rationalist
Think I now understand what lethality looks like! 😂
Duckworth to Hegseth: "You are blowing through money like my fellow cadets and I did in our first liberty after basic camp. Luckily I didn't end up with a questionable tattoo ... you're just an unqualified yes man who can't tell the president how to keep Americans safe."
June 18, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Think I now understand what lethality looks like! 😂