Sense & Synthesis
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sensynthesis.bsky.social
Sense & Synthesis
@sensynthesis.bsky.social
2.1K followers 5.8K following 950 posts
Liberal Texan. Appalled American. Pro-democracy mom, strategist, nerd, advocate, accidental science communicator.

No Kings. Good must prevail. 🇺🇦 🇺🇸 Public health is a group project. We’re all vulnerable to disability. Ish shouldn’t be this hard.
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sensynthesis.bsky.social
Seriously, Bluesky? The unwarranted suspension smacks of incompetent AI, but how you’re handling this suggests human incompetence. Hire an experienced strategic comms professional posthaste, and let them build a team.
Sarah Kendzior © 1h Sarah Kendzior's Newsletter Subscribe I was suspended from BlueSky for defending the honor of Johnny Cash. I wish I were joking. In early October, I referenced the "I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die" lyric of "Folsom Prison Blues" in response to a terrible Wall Street Journal article saying that Johnny Cash was uncool. I quote-tweeted the article and everyone understood the reference. There was no outcry. I stand by my assessment that Johnny Cash is cool. I do not like being the subject of so much attention, especially when I cannot see the discussion. But the BlueSky admins are now claiming that I wrote a post saying, out of nowhere, "I want to shoot the author of this article just to watch him die". They are not posting a screenshot of the actual tweet, which shows that I am quote-tweeting an article about Johnny Cash, and that my post is obviously not a threat but a play on "Folsom Prison Blues." BlueSky is lying and saying I posted this line on November 10. I did not. I posted it in early October, when the WS article came out. You can see that they are lying about the date from this page showing my last BlueSky tweets: I was not given any explanation for my suspension the first two times I inquired. Later I was told it was for the "Folsom Prison Blues" reference, and I asked for clarification but did not receive it. I thought it might be a prank until a reporter reached out this morning and confirmed it. BlueSky's behavior is bizarre and unwarranted. I have lost access to friends and all my posts and photos. I am incredibly grateful for the outpouring of support here on Substack and also on BlueSky - though I cannot see it, because I am suspended. To quote another Johnny Cash song: "I ain't never done nothin' to nobody/ I ain't never got nothin from nobody, no time/ And until I get somethin' from somebody, sometime, I don't intend to do nothin' for nobody, no time." As for BlueSky...
November 13, 2025 at 2:22 PM
sensynthesis.bsky.social
I wish @sharonastyk.bsky.social were wrong, but I don’t think she is.
9:43 AM Wed Nov 12 facebook Sharon Astyk So here's why I think we're actually reopening. And no, I don't think it is because of the Democrats' commitment to alleviating human suffering, although that makes good press. I think the reason that the Democrats were allowed and encouraged to break ranks BY THE REPUBLICANS WHO SIGNALLED THAT THEY WERE WILLING TO END A SHUTDOWN GENERALLY WANTED BY THE RIGHT was the airline industries. Think about it, polling shows that the general public did NOT believe the Republican "Democratic shutdown" message by and large, and that and the midterms showed that people are really angry at the Republicans. While the Republicans want a shutdown, their narrative was failing. Moreover, with the collapse of air travel, the airline and related industries were breathing hard down their necks. Meanwhile a lot of Democrats were both simultaneously legitimately queasy about SNAP and ALSO under pressure from the airline and hospitality industries (remember BOTH Nevada senators were among the votes for this?) Meanwhile, Trump just announced a "new" system for air traffic control, which I will be a billion dollars I don't have is an Al system, and that some kind of indemnifying of the airline industry against judgement is coming. Oh, and they slipped in a gutting of all food safety regulations for companies. 9:44 AM Wed Nov 12 facebook So here's what the Dems got. - A vote that will never, ever happen in the House on the ACA. Yes, Republican senators will have to vote against it, but since the House won't, it won't matter. And since they don't plan to have fair elections... - SNAP fully funded for one year, and it can't be cut during the next shutdown which ALL parties are fully aware of. - Return of federal employees with back pay they would have been getting anyway and a bar against firing those specific employees during the next shutdown. - A delay on the collapse of air travel until after peak flying season - The seating of Gri… 9:43 AM Wed Nov 12 facebook Sharon Astyk So here's why I think we're actually reopening. And no, I don't think it is because of the Democrats' commitment to alleviating human suffering, although that makes good press. I think the reason that the Democrats were allowed and encouraged to break ranks BY THE REPUBLICANS WHO SIGNALLED THAT THEY WERE WILLING TO END A SHUTDOWN GENERALLY WANTED BY THE RIGHT was the airline industries. Think about it, polling shows that the general public did NOT believe the Republican "Democratic shutdown" message by and large, and that and the midterms showed that people are really angry at the Republicans. While the Republicans want a shutdown, their narrative was failing. Moreover, with the collapse of air travel, the airline and related industries were breathing hard down their necks. Meanwhile a lot of Democrats were both simultaneously legitimately queasy about SNAP and ALSO under pressure from the airline and hospitality industries (remember BOTH Nevada senators were among the votes for this?) Meanwhile, Trump just announced a "new" system for air traffic control, which I will be a billion dollars I don't have is an Al system, and that some kind of indemnifying of the airline industry against judgement is coming. Oh, and they slipped in a gutting of all food safety regulations for companies. 9:44 AM Wed Nov 12 facebook So here's what the Dems got. - A vote that will never, ever happen in the House on the ACA. Yes, Republican senators will have to vote against it, but since the House won't, it won't matter. And since they don't plan to have fair elections... - SNAP fully funded for one year, and it can't be cut during the next shutdown which ALL parties are fully aware of. - Return of federal employees with back pay they would have been getting anyway and a bar against firing those specific employees during the next shutdown. - A delay on the collapse of air travel until after peak flying season - The seating of Gri…
November 12, 2025 at 4:04 PM
sensynthesis.bsky.social
Guidance for people who want to help.

I’ll add that food banks and pantries have purchasing power that individuals don’t, so if you can donate cash, they can stretch it to serve more people. Also, these orgs need volunteers.
October 29, 2025 at 1:44 PM
sensynthesis.bsky.social
The more I admire this, the more I see next-level malicious compliance. 😘

Applause and gratitude to the good folks at Time who made this cover happen.

Resistance at its finest.
Time Magazine cover of Donald Trump. “His Triumph” is the headline. This use of “Triumph” and the angle on the photo allude to Leni Riefenstahl’s Nazi propaganda.
October 16, 2025 at 4:57 PM
sensynthesis.bsky.social
That said, there are big differences between Qatar and Germany and Singapore, and scrutiny is appropriate.
October 10, 2025 at 10:19 PM
sensynthesis.bsky.social
Chicago today, looking a lot like Beijing in 1989.

If you still think it won’t happen here, time to wake the f up.
Student standing in front of four tanks, Tiananmen Square, 1989 U.S. soldier standing inside tank, aiming large gun towards peaceful protestors who are recording scene on their phones, Chicago, IL 10/04/2025
October 5, 2025 at 3:58 AM
sensynthesis.bsky.social
October 3, 2025 at 10:46 PM
sensynthesis.bsky.social
Propaganda 101: #1: If you tell a lie big enough, and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. #2: Accuse the other side of that which you are guilty. #3: Propaganda works best when those who are being manipulated are confident that they are acting on their own free will. #4: It [is] vitally important for the State... to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus... the greatest enemy of the State. - Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister for "Public Enlightenment" (Propaganda) in Nazi Germany.
October 2, 2025 at 12:25 PM
sensynthesis.bsky.social
Disappointing to see this unchanged a day later. Especially disappointing that this summary of Hegseth’s speech is credited to a trained journalist who undoubtedly knows that the summary isn’t the news story.
The reporter is a graduate of University of Pittsburgh and Columbia University.
October 1, 2025 at 3:15 PM
sensynthesis.bsky.social
This is your topline -and still your topline- more than two hours later? Ridiculous, terrible journalism. Do better.
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 PM
sensynthesis.bsky.social
“There is something deeply hypocritical about praying for a problem you are unwilling to resolve." - Miroslav Volf
July 7, 2025 at 10:14 PM
sensynthesis.bsky.social
These are the right words.

bsky.app/profile/qasi...
Image of 3 skeets re: a corrupt system
June 30, 2025 at 11:55 PM
sensynthesis.bsky.social
Oliver Jeffers re: his “America First” art:

“To stand any chance of survival, we need to start acting with a sense of unified purpose.”

Full quote in ALT text of images.
Oliver Jeffers, 03 April 2025: “Another piece I made 8 years ago that has eerie echoes to today. On top of an old globe I acquired long ago, decayed to such a degree that it looked like the earth was scorched, I found where the USA lay, and painted a beautiful rose garden behind a picket fence. I called it ‘America First’, and along with the handwritten type that says ‘Made America Great Again’ I was referring to two oft repeated Conservative slogans in order to point out both the absurdity and irresponsibility of an isolationist approach to a climate growing rapidly more hostile to human life. Yesterday’s news of the USAs new policy on global tariffs gives me similar feelings of an even stronger ‘what’s in it for me’ isolationist attitude to what has been an interconnected world. But with the added fear that climate, a still looming catastrophic problem, has been relegated to the sidelines. Tariffs, trade and economics are man-made concepts we could alter overnight, if we all agreed. The climate is not. To stand any chance of survival, we need to start acting with a sense of unified purpose. The weather doesn’t care about borders or tariffs. Oliver Jeffers, 03 April 2025: “Another piece I made 8 years ago that has eerie echoes to today. On top of an old globe I acquired long ago, decayed to such a degree that it looked like the earth was scorched, I found where the USA lay, and painted a beautiful rose garden behind a picket fence. I called it ‘America First’, and along with the handwritten type that says ‘Made America Great Again’ I was referring to two oft repeated Conservative slogans in order to point out both the absurdity and irresponsibility of an isolationist approach to a climate growing rapidly more hostile to human life. Yesterday’s news of the USAs new policy on global tariffs gives me similar feelings of an even stronger ‘what’s in it for me’ isolationist attitude to what has been an interconnected world. But with the added fear that climate, a still looming catastrophic problem, has been relegated to the sidelines. Tariffs, trade and economics are man-made concepts we could alter overnight, if we all agreed. The climate is not. To stand any chance of survival, we need to start acting with a sense of unified purpose. The weather doesn’t care about borders or tariffs.
June 15, 2025 at 4:42 PM
sensynthesis.bsky.social
The crisis is here now. Trump is enacting an insidious coordinated attack on our institutions of democratic accountability, designed to crater democracy before next fall.
April 27, 2025 at 2:51 PM
sensynthesis.bsky.social
That photo.

Agree, we haven’t learned the heartbreaking lessons, but we need to articulate them anew for those who didn’t live the horror: right wing extremism fomented hatred, violence & mass murder.

MAGA results in domestic terrorism.

www.nationalgeographic.com/history/arti...
nationalgeographic.com "April 19th, 1995, still matters," noted Clinton. "It matters a lot because it shows you how wrong things can go and how horrible the consequences can be when someone who feels politically and personally alienated from a country and a government thinks that there's no sensible alternative to mass violence. "We need for people to recognize that our differences are good, healthy, even essential. But only if our common humanity matters more. On April the 19th, Timothy McVeigh showed us what happens when our common humanity doesn't matter anymore."
April 21, 2025 at 4:36 PM
sensynthesis.bsky.social
OK’s MAGA Gov. Kevin Stitt, who may speak of these values publicly, but doesn’t practice them.
April 19, 2025 at 10:46 PM
sensynthesis.bsky.social
The Statue of Liberty was commissioned at the end of The Civil War, and Lady Liberty’s original design had her holding broken chains.

This is fascinating. And that it’s news to so many Americans tells you what you need to know about the authors of history. youtu.be/WLmi5nxP3pQ?...
https://youtu.be/WLmi5nxP3pQ?si=XWwsx7FIGtTHjCNz https://youtu.be/WLmi5nxP3pQ?si=XWwsx7FIGtTHjCNz https://youtu.be/WLmi5nxP3pQ?si=XWwsx7FIGtTHjCNz
April 12, 2025 at 4:51 PM
sensynthesis.bsky.social
“How to Interview a Fascist”

h/t
brexitbin.bsky.social
“How You Interview a Fascist” H/t to https://bsky.app/profile/brexitbin.bsky.social
April 6, 2025 at 4:24 PM
sensynthesis.bsky.social
Heartily agree.

But do take care with messaging and tone. An educational/informational approach > overtly anti-🍊 or -GOP.

These small flyers were in ladies room at my local Target yesterday morning. Maybe a bit too info-dense, but really effective guerilla placement…
Information flyer on facts about Social Security. Quarter-page flyer placed in a Target ladies room. Information flyer on facts about Social Security. Quarter-page flyer placed in a Target ladies room.
April 3, 2025 at 8:42 PM
sensynthesis.bsky.social
Tempting to roll the eyes and laugh, but please don’t make that mistake.

The guy wrote a book about the “Network State.” He envisions a future by and for the tech broligarchy that should snap you to attention.

See @jennycohn.bsky.social, @gilduran.com, @ebharrington.bsky.social
March 17, 2025 at 1:46 PM
sensynthesis.bsky.social
When people who really know their shit speak, @senatedemocrats.bsky.social should listen.
Amb. Susan Rice urges every Senate Dem to vote against cloture and against continuing resolution.
March 14, 2025 at 4:33 AM
sensynthesis.bsky.social
Fitting. As most of her words are.
Mary Oliver Of The Empire We will be known as a culture that feared death and adored power, that tried to vanquish insecurity for the few and cared little for the penury of the many. We will be known as a culture that taught and rewarded the amassing of things, that spoke little if at all about the quality of life for people (other people), for dogs, for rivers. All the world, in our eyes, they will say, was a commodity. And they will say that this structure was held together politically, which it was, and they will say also that our politics was no more than an apparatus to accommodate the feelings of the heart, and that the heart, in those days, was small, and hard, and full of meanness.
March 10, 2025 at 3:17 AM
sensynthesis.bsky.social
This excellent essay by
@sharonastyk.bsky.social deserves your time. Hoping for a non-FB link soon.

www.facebook.com/680933372/po...?
“When it comes down to it, we often don't know who has better angels in their nature. Sometimes the seemingly the worst people stand up, while people who seem better fail. Because human beings are often disappointing. And occasionally heroic. And the reason that happens is because humans have those principles they aspire to, and can sometimes, occasionally, apply them for justice. But in this case we know for public certainty, with no doubt- and it is because of the service that Zelensky did to America, that America chose leaders who do not share basic human values, and are so far removed from them they don't even understand that something is missing. And if they had the grace to be ashamed, or to understand how they failed, we'd be better off.” - Sharon Astyk
March 1, 2025 at 5:50 PM
sensynthesis.bsky.social
Really useful tool. Note that you also can use it to generate a .pdf fact sheet to share with others. This one is for TX-24, the North Texas district repped by Republican Beth Van Duyne.
Fact sheet of the proposed budget’s impact on TX-24, the North Texas district repped by Republican Beth Van Duyne. This tool can generate a district-specific PDF that you can share.
February 26, 2025 at 4:21 PM
sensynthesis.bsky.social
@chrismurphyct.bsky.social, thanks for communicating with us! Grateful to you and your colleagues for your leadership and service.

[More of this, please. I’m talking to Dems, Independents, and especially to any Republicans with a shred of integrity remaining.]

If not now, when? If not you, who?
February 24, 2025 at 10:02 PM