Shannon E French
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sefrench.bsky.social
Shannon E French
@sefrench.bsky.social
Philosophy Prof, International Ethics Center Director, Author of Code of the Warrior. Fields: Military Ethics and Ethics & Emerging Technology. Views I post are mine alone and not any employer’s or sponsor’s, etc. Reposts are not necessarily endorsements.
Pinned
Whoohoo! IT HAS ARRIVED!

I gotta admit, the thrill of opening a box of freshly published books with my name on them never gets old. Thank you, @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social for a great author experience thus far.

I hope those of you with an interest in the subject enjoy the new material! #booksky
Look for the helpers ❤️
Donors from around the world raised $2.5 million to support Ahmed Al-Ahmad, the hero who neutralized one of the terrorists in the Bondi Beach terrorist attack
December 19, 2025 at 5:57 AM
Reposted by Shannon E French
Holy smokes
The process by which the Kennedy Center was renamed to honor Trump was about as bad as you assumed donmoynihan.substack.com/p/purge-merg...
December 19, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Reposted by Shannon E French
It’s a little on the nose for the guy kicking millions off SNAP to announce the first annual Hunger Games
December 18, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Um… How long do germs survive on paper? Asking because I’m grading final exams, and a fair few of my students were clearly ill or fighting something (poor kids!). I’m not a germophobe, but I’m leaving tomorrow for a two day drive, and I’m curious about my odds of not catching something. 😬
December 18, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Not that we’d forgotten, but this quiz is a bitter reminder of what a lousy year it’s been. I got 21/25. I’m not embarrassed that I didn’t know what gifts Pope Francis gave JD. What I do remember is that he died.

Do you remember what happened in 2025? Test your knowledge

apnews.com/article/test...
Do you remember what happened in 2025? Test your knowledge
Test your knowledge: 25 questions about 2025
apnews.com
December 18, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Hey universe, stop making me agree with Rand Paul!
Rand Paul: "We've never in our past decided just to shoot smugglers who are unarmed without even proof they're smuggling anything. So I think this is a horrendous thing that should stop. I think it's illegal & immoral... the kids in the military - I'm not for sending them down there to die for oil"
December 18, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Reposted by Shannon E French
Separately, Trump has diverted military housing funds for his campaign to terrorize immigrants. He's not looking out for the troops. He's trying to con them.
$2B in Pentagon funds diverted to immigration operations, congressional Democrats say
Democrats review finds that $2 Billion in Pentagon Funds has been diverted to fund military operations on border and other immigration operations.
abcnews.go.com
December 18, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Reposted by Shannon E French
Trump refused to bow his head for a solemn moment during the dignified transfer ceremony for fallen soldiers at Dover
December 18, 2025 at 3:03 PM
This deserves more attention. He’s trying to buy the troops’ loyalty with money that Congress, not him, already allocated to them.
Trump is taking money out their housing allowances approved by Congress and giving it to them in a “bonus” so it looks like it came from him. It’s just a shell game with military pay from the ultimate con man
December 18, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Reposted by Shannon E French
At this point I know there's nothing that's going to change anyone's mind one way or another but this NYT report is deeply sourced and leaves no doubt that Trump and Epstein were BFFs for many years www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/u...
‘Don’s Best Friend’: How Epstein and Trump Bonded Over the Pursuit of Women
www.nytimes.com
December 18, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Reposted by Shannon E French
what
Trump: "The only time anybody could see those planes was when those bomb chutes open up, because it becomes totally un-stealth. You're going in, you go like this. As soon as it goes like this, for some reason the plane is totally visible. Not good. I watched it happening. I watched it go bing bing"
December 17, 2025 at 11:01 PM
Reposted by Shannon E French
Evil shit.
December 17, 2025 at 10:13 PM
Reposted by Shannon E French
If you’re a White House reporter and you get a chance to see these, please send me photos of the plaques for Andrew Johnson and Ulysses Grant.
December 17, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Reposted by Shannon E French
The White House has added new plaques to a so-called “Presidential Walk of Fame.” The Biden and Obama entries are written in openly partisan, Trump-style mockery—more campaign grievance than historical record—turning a civic display into political propaganda.
December 17, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Holy hell. Please read her whole thread. RFK Jr.’s plan here is wildly unethical.
December 17, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Reposted by Shannon E French
"We envision a resistance that is...a repudiation of the efficiencies that automated algorithmic education falsely promises: a resistance comprising the collective force of small acts of friction."

"How to Resist AI in Education" by me & @cnygren.bsky.social
www.publicbooks.org/four-frictio...
Four Frictions: or, How to Resist AI in Education - Public Books
We are calling for resistance to the AI industry’s ongoing capture of higher education.
www.publicbooks.org
December 16, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Love how Sheehy thinks this is a threat. Meanwhile, I say, hell yes! We should absolutely investigate the drone program under the Obama administration. Go for it. I don’t care which party is/was power. If something is wrong, it’s wrong. I only care about ethics… which seems to be surprising to some.
After briefing on strikes off Venezuela, Sen. Sheehy says “if we're going to question the legal process and the procedural process to target bad guys that this administration is using, then all of you better start cracking open every single Obama kinetic strike”
December 16, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Me interviewed by an excellent journalist from France’s Le Figaro newspaper:

www.lefigaro.fr/offrir-artic...
Peter Hegseth, secrétaire à la Guerre des États-Unis, sur la défensive après des frappes contre les narcotrafiquants
RÉCIT - Le ministre est réticent à diffuser les vidéos d’une frappe contre les survivants d’une première attaque contre un bateau.
www.lefigaro.fr
December 15, 2025 at 11:52 PM
Reposted by Shannon E French
we just went through a months-long cultural project where people lost their jobs for speaking ill of a dead man's politics
Classy as always.
December 15, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Reposted by Shannon E French
Hungary rejects fascism, millions call on the corrupt Orbàn regime to fall. #3E
December 14, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Reposted by Shannon E French
This is fucking grim. Somebody invented a white guy, an "IT professional" named Edward Crabtree, who stopped the Bondi shooting and spread it all over the internet, which was picked up by AI agents and slop aggregation sites.

The real hero is a fruit stand owner named Ahmed el Ahmed.
December 14, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Completely fair question.
“What I’ve been feeling most is just, like, how dare this country allow this to happen to someone like me twice?” Weissman told the New York Times.
"Weissman was in her dorm room at Brown when a friend called to warn her that a shooting was under way. Her initial feelings of panic soon turned to anger, she told NBC. “I’m angry that I thought I’d never have to deal with this again, and here I am eight years later,” Weissman told NBC News."
December 14, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Reposted by Shannon E French
"surprisingly" only if you listen only to AI marketers and their remoras.
Three years into the generative-AI wave, demand for the technology seems surprisingly flimsy
Investors expect AI use to soar. That’s not happening
Recent surveys point to flatlining business adoption
econ.st
December 1, 2025 at 1:17 AM
Reposted by Shannon E French
Australian news reporting that the hero bystander here is named Ahmed al Ahmed. Muslim, father of two.
WATCH: Bystander disarms active shooter at Bondi Beach in Sydney
December 14, 2025 at 1:25 PM