Firthermor
banner
firthermor.bsky.social
Firthermor
@firthermor.bsky.social
Mid-Atlantic nature. Natural world. Photography. Plays with words. Grovers Mill Martian invasion survivor 😉. Popular sovereignty, voting rights, democracy, and good governance stan.
Pinned
Hi! I am new around here.

Sometime doomscroller. Sometime hopescroller. Sometime serendipitous learnscroller. First time BlueSky poster.

It may look dark now, but with our work & what we build can reconstruct our democracy for the better. Succession happens, sometimes with a bit of engineering.
Reposted by Firthermor
Cannot overstate how, from my perch as a national-security reporter, this would have been an earth-shattering scandal in a prior era.
Billionaire Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, pardoned by Donald Trump, has been accused of facilitating millions of dollars’ worth of payments to Hamas in the wake of its attack on Israel on October 7 2023. Zhao also financed the Trump family's entrance into the cryptocurrency market.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao accused of facilitating payments to Hamas
Crypto tycoon pardoned by Donald Trump faces US court complaint from families of victims of October 7 attack
www.ft.com
November 25, 2025 at 4:33 AM
Reposted by Firthermor
Targeting Kelly is one of those “this is why we’ll win” moments, bc it shows how politically impetuous this admin is.

There’s clearly no adult in the room to say “wait, maybe don’t go after the charismatic war hero turned literal astronaut who ran after his wife was a victim of political violence.”
Mark Kelly: "My wife, Gabby Giffords, meeting with her constituents, shot in the head. Six people killed around her, a horrific thing. She spent six months in the hospital. We know what political violence is and we know what causes it too, The statements that Donald Trump made incites others."
November 25, 2025 at 3:10 AM
Reposted by Firthermor
Took a detour on my way home from the city today to look for snowy owls and lucked into one just before sunset. They're such beautiful birds. #birds 🌿
November 25, 2025 at 1:59 AM
Reposted by Firthermor
Ok one more video. the most beautiful fluke I've seen. edited for EXTRA BEAUTY!!!
November 24, 2025 at 4:51 AM
Reposted by Firthermor
Senator Kelly’s remarks in the video are “a 100% accurate representation of what the law says."

“No American citizen should have to deal with this type of preposterous investigation.”

- Professor Eugene Fidell, leading military justice expert in Wall Street Journal

www.wsj.com/politics/mar...
Pentagon Investigates Misconduct Allegations Against Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly
The review comes after Kelly, a retired Navy captain, appeared in a video with other lawmakers telling military members not to obey unlawful orders.
www.wsj.com
November 25, 2025 at 12:52 AM
Reposted by Firthermor
Alaska vowed to resolve the murders of Indigenous people.

But when one nonprofit asked state law enforcement officials for a fundamental piece of data — a list of Indigenous murders they’d investigated — the state said no.

With @adn.com
Alaska Vowed to Resolve Murders of Indigenous People. Now It Refuses to Provide Their Names.
When the nonprofit Data for Indigenous Justice filed public records requests with the Alaska Department of Public Safety concerning cases it had investigated, the state rejected them.
www.propublica.org
November 25, 2025 at 4:20 AM
Reposted by Firthermor
UPDATE: Boasberg orders the parties to submit plans for the "inquiry regarding a potential contempt referral," by tomorrow, "including names of possible witnesses and dates for hearings." (ACLU's Lee Gelernt smartly suggested waiting on the mandate from the DC Circuit before issuing any orders.)
November 25, 2025 at 3:18 AM
Reposted by Firthermor
no one wants to be interviewed so isaac chotiner is just stalking twitter now looking for new eager victims to admit they are dumbos
November 25, 2025 at 3:13 AM
Reposted by Firthermor
The frosting arrived 🍂 …
November 24, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Reposted by Firthermor
Seeing OLC’s “Murder Memo” would be interesting in the context of the debate over lawful orders.
The Trump Admin has conducted 21 unauthorized military strikes in the Caribbean & East Pacific—killing 83 people—without giving Americans a full explanation. I’m leading my colleagues in demanding the declassification & public release of documents justifying these airstrikes.
November 25, 2025 at 1:23 AM
Reposted by Firthermor
November 25, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Reposted by Firthermor
The Trump Admin has conducted 21 unauthorized military strikes in the Caribbean & East Pacific—killing 83 people—without giving Americans a full explanation. I’m leading my colleagues in demanding the declassification & public release of documents justifying these airstrikes.
November 24, 2025 at 5:21 PM
🧵👇
I have not logged into Twitter for a while but this was worth it
I generally try not to comment on Twitter but Isaac Chotiner is over there giving Semafor body blows right now and I just want to say I find it alarming that he's allowed to come for you without warning (asking for an interview)
November 25, 2025 at 2:55 AM
Reposted by Firthermor
A new kind of rapid Chotining. Please appreciate the alt-text.
November 25, 2025 at 1:09 AM
Reposted by Firthermor
I thought this was fairly well established, but: here's another new study showing that wind and solar complement each other and make for a more stable grid when combined.
Intermittent solar and wind complement each other for a more stable grid
A study finds combining wind and solar leverages their alternating peak periods, significantly boosting total generation capacity while providing a constant, predictable power curve critical for grid ...
pv-magazine-usa.com
November 24, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Reposted by Firthermor
TL cleanse.

Before acting, it is necessary to check. 😂
November 24, 2025 at 5:43 AM
Reposted by Firthermor
Today's regularly scheduled 10am Peregrine attack on the Montrose Snowy Owls. Third day in a row they've done this dance. 11/23/2025
#Birds #Owls #Falcons
November 23, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Reposted by Firthermor
Again, every elected Democrat needs to put out a video stating exactly what Kelly and the others said. If ever there were a line to draw in the sand, it’s here. The military is not the president’s Praetorian Guard.
“Within the White House, Trump and his lieutenants aren’t planning on letting up…Trump has told some advisers that he wants RICO prosecutions and conspiracy charges leveled against the six Democrats, a source with direct knowledge of the matter tells Zeteo…
zeteo.com/p/how-we-gre...
November 24, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Reposted by Firthermor
BREAKING: Comey case dismissed without prejudice. Halligan invalidly appointed, judge rules. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
November 24, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Reposted by Firthermor
The Valley of Death: Why $100,000 Is the New Poor

www.yesigiveafig.com/p/part-1-my-...
Part 1: My Life Is a Lie
How a Broken Benchmark Quietly Broke America
www.yesigiveafig.com
November 24, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Reposted by Firthermor
I know people are going to revel in the schadenfreude here, but this is really just an admission—given how close the House is split—that they’re just mad it didn’t work. Fewer than a dozen House GOPers could change America tomorrow. That they’re not proves this is just about losing, not principles.
PUNCHBOWL: “.. GOP members messaged us over the weekend saying that they, too, are considering retiring in the middle of the term. Here’s one particularly exercised senior House Republican:

@punchbowlnews.bsky.social
November 24, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Reposted by Firthermor
Trump's secret police vandalize houses and cars, assault citizens, fire potential lethal weapons for the hell of it, and assault children, often as sexual predators... and claim impunity for all of this. CATO proposes the fix. In the meantime it's essential to document all these crimes rigorously.
What Good Is a Right Without a Remedy?
Flagrant civil rights abuses are enabled by a legal scheme that makes it all but impossible to sue federal agents for constitutional violations and shields them with immunity should that barrier ever ...
www.cato.org
November 24, 2025 at 3:01 AM
Reposted by Firthermor
hey don't be so hard on yourselves; it delivered oceans of sensitive government and citizen data to billionaires
Musk’s DOGE Quietly Killed Off After Delivering Almost Nothing
The agency disbanded eight months ahead of schedule.
www.thedailybeast.com
November 24, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Reposted by Firthermor
WTF 🤬
ICE in DC is setting up racially driven checkpoints and roadblocks. This is one on Canal Road. A large number of vehicles can be seen waiting to be towed after these agents disappeared their owners.
November 24, 2025 at 12:16 AM
Reposted by Firthermor
Freezing a hummingbird’s wings at 1/4000 of a second. (Anna’s hummingbird feeding on Creosote blossom)
November 23, 2025 at 8:21 PM