@dbspira.bsky.social I'm really enjoying this new season of @realityescapepod.bsky.social -- the first two episodes have been fantastic!

Has someone in the card-concepting department at WotC been reading my journal?

Part II is the first of three Review Crew Mixtapes that drop this weekend. This one is called “The Gang Saves Chevy’s” Representing the Crew: Brian Resler, @parkersela.bsky.social, Katrina Lat, and Scott Gillies. Plus a bonus segment with @dbspira.bsky.social of @roomescapeartist.bsky.social.

Don't just say it's unconstitutional, remind people that the constitution is full of very good ideas designed to prevent authoritarianism, and most people who want to ignore it want that specifically because they are authoritarian.

the issue is not just ICE. we can live free and safe. or we can have police like we have right now. we cannot do both

I'm just glad one of these men has the nuclear codes and the other has all our personal data.

remember this; try if the things some people are trying look useless or stupid to you maybe they are, find something that seems smart. and keep an eye on whether or not the shit other people are trying works.

this is only adjacent to the topic but I really hate the "this person will kick cancer's ass" style of discussion about illness. cancer is a tsunami. you might get lucky and survive it but you don't fight it. you get lucky enough to catch it early, and to have a cancer that we can treat, or not

The new Neil Halloran documentary on Smallpox has completely changed how I see the RFK Jr. version of the world. Neil (softly) argues that realizing that disease isn't the fault of the sick /or/ the fault of the Gods ushered in a new future where we felt the authority to care for each other.

"Masked security forces captured an opposition leader in the coastal province of New Jersey as regime officials continue their months-long crack-down against pro-democracy elements in the embattled United States. The arrest comes as the regime issued calls for summary detentions without trial."

Having now watched the footage and interview two of the members who were there, the amount of armed, masked federal agents surrounding three members of Congress and a mayor outside the ICE facility was totally unnecessary; the only possible reason for it was intentional escalation and intimidation.

I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.

Took a much needed break this evening and watched the latest @dropout.tv standup special: Cameron Esposito: Four Pills I highly recommend this. I also will encourage you to watch it in one sitting without reading anything about it. Also put down the phone and just watch it.

This is monstrous.

Scary things that you may have recently read headlines about that it turned out you didn’t have to worry about include: microplastics in your brain, black plastic spatulas, intermittent fasting, and plant based meat alternatives. Also, no, you do not eat a credit card’s worth of plastic a month.

An innocent man, picked up by “mistake,” must not be allowed to rot in an El Salvadorian jail. Mr. President. Obey the courts. Obey our Constitution. Bring him home immediately.

The CDC's cruise ship inspectors have been laid off, as well as agency's head epidemiologist for investigating cruise ship outbreaks That baffled health officials since this program is paid for by cruise ship fees, not taxpayer dollars www.cbsnews.com/news/cdc-cru...

Not a single word to help the 33m small businesses in this country. Not from anyone in the administration. So many buy from China, and don't have alternatives. So many didn't have the cash to front run the tariffs and buy inventory

It’s a recalibration of economic control. Oligarchs don’t live paycheck to paycheck. They have the capital to buy market dips and recoup faster, acquiring more assets at fire sale prices along the way. When the dust finally settles, they will own more. The rest of us will own less. A lot less.

How it started. How it’s going.

Just a legal historian here reminding everyone that “high crimes and misdemeanors” do not need to be felonies. They can include political abuses and stupidity, like, hypothetically, destroying the economy and wiping out people’s savings in 3 days.

A tricky thing about modern society is that no one has any idea when they don’t die. Like, the number of lives saved by controlling air pollution in America is probably over 200,000 per year, but the number of people who think their life was saved by controlling air pollution is zero.

Man it is really hard to be living in the USA right now and getting news about how South Korea deposed their president for staging a coup and then their Supreme Court just said yup, definitely the right thing to do there.

I lost my job, my kids have measles, and I had to drive my parents 200 miles to a Social Security office, but at least I know that immigrants are getting sent to torture prisons in El Salvador.

Every day I wake up to the news

“The President’s desires cannot be ignored”

one feature of due process is that it is meant to prevent un-fixable judicial mistakes

Republicans

When oligarchs talk of “personal liberties and free markets” they mean their own liberties to become even richer and more powerful. When oligarchs speak of “freedom,” what they actually seek is freedom from accountability. Know the truth.

Must read: Mahmoud Khalil speaks out for the first time since his arrest by the Trump administration in an exclusive letter, dictated over the phone to his family, from ICE detention in Louisiana.

Haven't seen this reported anywhere but a judge overseeing Florida's attempt to age gate all social media pointed to the failure of D&D to make him worship Satan as a kid to suggest the state needs actual evidence, and not just vibes about a social media moral panic. www.techdirt.com/2025/03/11/j...

this man is on enough speed to kill a great white shark. the rubbing-his-hand-over-his-face is like one of five dead giveaways

Cool. Big @magic.wizards.com Commander change is shifting everyone’s deck from a “7” to a “3.”

You can’t post your way out of fascism Authoritarians and tech CEOs now share the same goal: to keep us locked in an eternal doomscroll instead of organizing against them 🔗 www.404media.co/you-cant-pos...

Years back, @roomescapeartist.bsky.social vetted #Shopify for use as our e-commerce platform. Not only was it insufficient, but their customer support was a gaggle of crickets. They could not or would not answer even basic questions. And today, I am so glad that they ruled themselves out.

During an era of failing traditional media, TechDirt is absolutely killing it covering, explaining, contextualizing what is happening. Not a surprise if you’ve read them for a while.

A couple months ago I launched a new show with @peihgee.bsky.social. I am so very proud of this short format game show that we're now 7 episodes into. This Bat Bomb with @escapethispodcast.bsky.social is my favorite episode so far. roomescapeartist.com/2025/02/04/p...

Trump and the GOP are trying to repeal a Biden admin rule that requires lead water pipes to be replaced. Tens of millions of people, including children, would continue to have contaminated drinking water if the rules are revoked. So the GOP is the party of lead poisoning now?

We worked for months with USAID to build an $85,000,000 project to end TB in two regions of the Philippines. The project is funded by private money, the Philippine government, and matching USAID funds. It could provide a blueprint for eliminating TB worldwide--except it's...not happening.

You can't spell "felony" without "elon"

I thought that it would be cooler living through the inciting incident of a really messed up cyberpunk story.

The thing to understand about Trump is like in his first term, he doesn’t want to govern. He doesn’t want to learn. He wants to campaign and look good. Republicans know this. So there are battles going on right now to take control of the actual process of governing.

If a plea for kindness and empathy makes you furious, you might be a sociopath.

Sagan was a prophet.

We are doing a thing today…

Andrew Clyde voted against wildfire relief and prevention in December, but now pretends to be concerned about the fires in California. meidasnews.com/news/44-repu...

I really, really don't want to do this, but let's do a bit (just a LITTLE BIT) of fact checking about what Zuck said on the Joe Rogan podcast, because this is something I not only followed closely, but also spent time *talking to the actual people at Meta who dealt with this* which WAS NOT ZUCK.