Chris Conway
@clconway.bsky.social
Too old, too tired and too talented for any of that shit. Software Engineer. Union member. Dad. Interested but unenthusiastic. He/him. San Francisco.
Reposted by Chris Conway
Prison rape is wrong.
Jokes about prison rape are wrong.
Eliminating protections against prison rape is wrong.
If another country sentenced a criminal to be raped, we'd consider it a crime against humanity.
BUT
A large segment of Americans regard prison rape as a de facto part of the sentence.
Jokes about prison rape are wrong.
Eliminating protections against prison rape is wrong.
If another country sentenced a criminal to be raped, we'd consider it a crime against humanity.
BUT
A large segment of Americans regard prison rape as a de facto part of the sentence.
BREAKING: Trump administration plans to end prison rape protections for trans & intersex people, memo says. A DOJ memo says certain standards under the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) do not align with Trump’s Jan. 20 anti-trans executive order, @byadamrhodes.bsky.social reports.
Trump administration plans to end prison rape protections for trans and intersex people
A Department of Justice memo says certain standards under the Prison Rape Elimination Act do not align with Trump’s executive order
prismreports.org
December 5, 2025 at 1:28 AM
Prison rape is wrong.
Jokes about prison rape are wrong.
Eliminating protections against prison rape is wrong.
If another country sentenced a criminal to be raped, we'd consider it a crime against humanity.
BUT
A large segment of Americans regard prison rape as a de facto part of the sentence.
Jokes about prison rape are wrong.
Eliminating protections against prison rape is wrong.
If another country sentenced a criminal to be raped, we'd consider it a crime against humanity.
BUT
A large segment of Americans regard prison rape as a de facto part of the sentence.
Reposted by Chris Conway
This is one of those things that I think is quietly important – when these people are talking shit about cities, Portland or Minneapolis or New York or Charlotte or wherever, you have to loudly say, “no, fuck you, you’re lying, that town and its people whip ass and you’re the asshole”
“I walk around Portland, and I go, ‘Fuck you, assholes. Portland is fine.’” - John Darnielle, @themountaingoats.bsky.social. We're proud to claim you as a Portlander, sir.
The Mountain Goats Ascend to Revolution Hall
Mountain Goats frontman John Darnielle discusses musicals, his new album, and why he keeps coming home to Portland.
www.wweek.com
December 3, 2025 at 4:46 PM
This is one of those things that I think is quietly important – when these people are talking shit about cities, Portland or Minneapolis or New York or Charlotte or wherever, you have to loudly say, “no, fuck you, you’re lying, that town and its people whip ass and you’re the asshole”
Reposted by Chris Conway
You’ve heard of elf on a shelf. You’ve probably heard of some other stuff too. I get it. You’re a man of the world.
November 29, 2025 at 7:17 PM
You’ve heard of elf on a shelf. You’ve probably heard of some other stuff too. I get it. You’re a man of the world.
Reposted by Chris Conway
We do know who killed JFK. The Warren Commission was an incredibly thorough and good-faith effort to prove and document what had happened, which they did. The conspiracy theories arose in spite of best efforts to avoid them, but there really isn't anything they could have reasonably done better.
My first political memory - exactly 62 years ago right now, a 4-year-old boy trying to understand his mom's tears - is still the biggest event in my lifetime. We still (IMO) don't *really* know who killed JFK, but we know the public's trust was shattered. It's a straight line to today's mess
November 22, 2025 at 10:36 PM
We do know who killed JFK. The Warren Commission was an incredibly thorough and good-faith effort to prove and document what had happened, which they did. The conspiracy theories arose in spite of best efforts to avoid them, but there really isn't anything they could have reasonably done better.
Reposted by Chris Conway
#3157 A helpful tutorial
November 17, 2025 at 11:40 PM
#3157 A helpful tutorial
Reposted by Chris Conway
Every time a tech entrepreneur says “we don’t need to stop global warming because AI will” I want to slap them with a fish that says, “if a superhuman intelligence came into being and we asked it how to stop global warming, it would say ‘stop burning fossil fuels, you fools.’”
I’m going to regret asking this, but… what mechanism are people proposing whereby AI will “end scarcity”?
This feels like literal underpants gnomes thinking, and as I never tire of pointing out, it’s being driven by a lot of the same actual people
This feels like literal underpants gnomes thinking, and as I never tire of pointing out, it’s being driven by a lot of the same actual people
AI could end scarcity, end humanity - or boost trend growth by 0.2 percentage points
November 7, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Every time a tech entrepreneur says “we don’t need to stop global warming because AI will” I want to slap them with a fish that says, “if a superhuman intelligence came into being and we asked it how to stop global warming, it would say ‘stop burning fossil fuels, you fools.’”
Reposted by Chris Conway
The officer Sandwich Guy is charged with assaulting testifies that he could feel the impact of the sandwich through his ballistic vest, and it “exploded all over my uniform.” He says he could “smell the onions and the mustard.”
November 4, 2025 at 3:34 PM
The officer Sandwich Guy is charged with assaulting testifies that he could feel the impact of the sandwich through his ballistic vest, and it “exploded all over my uniform.” He says he could “smell the onions and the mustard.”
Reposted by Chris Conway
We gotta normalize responding to bullshit with "dude who fucking cares"
October 29, 2025 at 5:35 AM
We gotta normalize responding to bullshit with "dude who fucking cares"
I call my cousin's kid my niece so I guess I helped do 9/11.
Your dad's cousin is your aunt. I am from a family of plain boring white people and my kids call my wife's cousins who live around here and they see all the time "aunt/uncle." This is not even some "see, in other cultures," thing this is just a total normal thing they are presenting as scandalous
lmao
October 28, 2025 at 4:11 PM
I call my cousin's kid my niece so I guess I helped do 9/11.
Reposted by Chris Conway
Happy 121st birthday to the NYC Subway, opened on this day in 1904. Like the city itself, you can’t truly love it until there are days where you hate it. But I will always be grateful for it every one of those days.
October 27, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Happy 121st birthday to the NYC Subway, opened on this day in 1904. Like the city itself, you can’t truly love it until there are days where you hate it. But I will always be grateful for it every one of those days.
Reposted by Chris Conway
Fantastic essay. Maybe my favorite part, and a great rallying cry:
October 27, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Fantastic essay. Maybe my favorite part, and a great rallying cry:
Reposted by Chris Conway
You know that thing where politically active people need to remind themselves that normal people simply don't know lots of things that seem obvious? I think people are massively underestimating how little Trump knows about pretty much everything.
October 26, 2025 at 9:33 PM
You know that thing where politically active people need to remind themselves that normal people simply don't know lots of things that seem obvious? I think people are massively underestimating how little Trump knows about pretty much everything.
Reposted by Chris Conway
Theory one: Trump is going nuts/senile
Theory two: The difference between resisting briefing from qualified professionals and not even having qualified professionals around really makes a difference - Trump's information environment is pure garbage now.
I'm all in on theory two.
Theory two: The difference between resisting briefing from qualified professionals and not even having qualified professionals around really makes a difference - Trump's information environment is pure garbage now.
I'm all in on theory two.
Is this Gray Ladyspeak for, “The President of the United States is Losing His Marbles”?
News Analysis: Nine months into his term, President Trump’s approach to allies, adversaries and competitors around the world has proved a strange mix of successes and increasingly frequent and erratic eruptions.
October 26, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Theory one: Trump is going nuts/senile
Theory two: The difference between resisting briefing from qualified professionals and not even having qualified professionals around really makes a difference - Trump's information environment is pure garbage now.
I'm all in on theory two.
Theory two: The difference between resisting briefing from qualified professionals and not even having qualified professionals around really makes a difference - Trump's information environment is pure garbage now.
I'm all in on theory two.
Reposted by Chris Conway
see the control on pardons is supposed to be "if the president blatantly pardons a criminal ally, he gets impeached"
all of this comes back to the failure of the Republican Party and Congress to have even a modicum of public decency.
all of this comes back to the failure of the Republican Party and Congress to have even a modicum of public decency.
October 23, 2025 at 4:16 PM
see the control on pardons is supposed to be "if the president blatantly pardons a criminal ally, he gets impeached"
all of this comes back to the failure of the Republican Party and Congress to have even a modicum of public decency.
all of this comes back to the failure of the Republican Party and Congress to have even a modicum of public decency.
Reposted by Chris Conway
I've been thinking a lot about @bretdevereaux.bsky.social's discussion of how a lot of Late Roman Republic attempts at reform involved codifying previously de facto political norms; which failed to help because it was the loss of the underlying social fabric that mattered, not the letter of the law.
see the control on pardons is supposed to be "if the president blatantly pardons a criminal ally, he gets impeached"
all of this comes back to the failure of the Republican Party and Congress to have even a modicum of public decency.
all of this comes back to the failure of the Republican Party and Congress to have even a modicum of public decency.
October 23, 2025 at 8:42 PM
I've been thinking a lot about @bretdevereaux.bsky.social's discussion of how a lot of Late Roman Republic attempts at reform involved codifying previously de facto political norms; which failed to help because it was the loss of the underlying social fabric that mattered, not the letter of the law.
Obama once wore a tan suit in the Oval Office.
Trump posts AI video showing him literally dumping shit on America
October 19, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Obama once wore a tan suit in the Oval Office.
Reposted by Chris Conway
Do you think I’d explain my masterstroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome? I made the NYPD woke 35 minutes ago.
October 18, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Do you think I’d explain my masterstroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome? I made the NYPD woke 35 minutes ago.
Reposted by Chris Conway
WOW! Protesters created a HUGE human sign on San Francisco’s Ocean Beach reading “No Kings YES on 50” to support California’s Prop 50 and stand up against Donald Trump’s fascist regime
October 18, 2025 at 7:53 PM
WOW! Protesters created a HUGE human sign on San Francisco’s Ocean Beach reading “No Kings YES on 50” to support California’s Prop 50 and stand up against Donald Trump’s fascist regime
Reposted by Chris Conway
Trump's mechanism to pay the troops during the shutdown is by far the most illegal budgetary action he's taken as POTUS, potentially setting the stage to break everything.
It's also needless because Congress would easily pass a troop pay bill if Johnson were willing to gavel in.
Long thread.
It's also needless because Congress would easily pass a troop pay bill if Johnson were willing to gavel in.
Long thread.
October 15, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Trump's mechanism to pay the troops during the shutdown is by far the most illegal budgetary action he's taken as POTUS, potentially setting the stage to break everything.
It's also needless because Congress would easily pass a troop pay bill if Johnson were willing to gavel in.
Long thread.
It's also needless because Congress would easily pass a troop pay bill if Johnson were willing to gavel in.
Long thread.
🧵
This is correct, in part - as the grim, military historian in me feels the need to note - it is psychologically much harder to get soldiers to open fire on people they view as 'respectable.'
And I dread, with grim increasingly certainty, that we are headed to a point where that matters.
And I dread, with grim increasingly certainty, that we are headed to a point where that matters.
protests against this government should include white Boomer grandmothers who meet for pilates class, get a pitcher of mimosas & walk together to the public space
we need people in the street who think everyone can talk their way out of a speeding ticket, they're key to winning
we need people in the street who think everyone can talk their way out of a speeding ticket, they're key to winning
October 13, 2025 at 5:36 AM
🧵
Reposted by Chris Conway
LA: we will fight you.
Chicago: we will fight you.
PDX: we will make you endure week after week of of improv theater.
Chicago: we will fight you.
PDX: we will make you endure week after week of of improv theater.
October 8, 2025 at 1:38 AM
LA: we will fight you.
Chicago: we will fight you.
PDX: we will make you endure week after week of of improv theater.
Chicago: we will fight you.
PDX: we will make you endure week after week of of improv theater.
Chesterton's Fence, only it's the entire post-war global order
MAGA's arrogance, thinking that there was no reason for anything that they want to destroy, no wisdom that ever predated them to make things how they were.
Rules of engagement is what protects our forces, and American civilians, as well
September 30, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Chesterton's Fence, only it's the entire post-war global order