I don't know if people -- in general -- know what "authoritarianism" is. I don't know if they really know what "fascism" is. But I think they're far clearer on what a dictator is. Choice of words is very important right now.

why do i have so much time for bluesky you may ask? mostly it’s any distraction in a storm when most of your job is helping / waiting while other people make ‘expensive’ decisions which will directly determine your monthly/annual/life income it’s not the most relaxing of my distractions tho

quite well put, props

What Hegseth did today was inform an organization he’s unqualified to lead that (a) any area in which he believes he personally excels (e.g. physical fitness) is all that matters, and (b) any area in which he’s deficient (leadership, morality, ethics, record, experience, intelligence) is immaterial.

as plato famously asked, who disappears the disappearers?

Dude if the Democratic Party has a place for anti-trans and anti-abortion candidates then I’m not a democrat and I won’t vote for one I don’t know what to tell you man, there’s already a political party who believes these things It’s not a “big tent” to have zero fixed values in pursuit of power

It's enough to drive you insane watching the government constantly doing crimes and then calling a press conference to say "The real crime is when people say we're doing crimes, and we have to stop it"

If any other president in all of history said the military should use American cities as a training ground he would be removed from office that same day. The hardest thing to tolerate in all this is how relatively silent elected democrats are. It’s ridiculous.

my neat double-walled weeble-wobble shaped coffee mug does not, when near-full, behave as a weeble-wobble would despite looking stable on my bed and now i need to do laundry

The president just gathered the highest ranking officers in the military to tell them that he may order them to kill American citizens -- and that they better follow his orders. All in response to a series of crises that have no basis in reality. I don't know how to yell any louder.

The plan? Assemble the top military leadership in one place. Have an alcoholic who stalled out at major call them fat. Next have a sundowning draft dodger call them gay.

America: let’s put a moronic criminal in charge of our finest men and women in uniform. Also America: let’s hope our finest men and women in uniform do not listen to the moronic criminal we put in charge of them.

I don't think we'll ever get another sentence which sums up everything the New York Times embodies quite like "Some legal experts have called it a crime to summarily kill civilians".

just imagined discretely papering a park with leaflets early one saturday morning with a simple map & directions showing good places to go for a) folks at risk, b) folks willing to be in the way, and c) folks who shld def gtfo the way very hypothetical little brain flash for no reason

this guy gets it — for real plz watch this and pt.2 to see the plan and the future if we don’t stop it

i’m completely useless today waiting to see if a client indeed signs the deal that makes/breaks my month/year as agreed…or if instead the deal goes pear-shaped not that today would’ve been any more productive if he’d jumped this morning either way…but definitely useless now

christ

Their whole point is to smash up functioning government and use the spoils to terrorize everyone, while installing a state based on mafia-style patronage. Don't give them more tools. Don't fund the terror.

being honest i feel less than reassured

this i believe: we urgently need more physical propa…messaging posters again, talented designers spreading messages the oligarch media would never, in meatspace where the not-online live see also: pirate radio, zines, and idk neighborhood ice cream socials and bbqs and whatnot

I haven’t had a good belly-jiggler guffaw like this in so long…tears

Didn’t know this! Do you know how many years I pined for jstor access! Yes I am a giant nerd who pines for academe leave me alone with my papers and books

There is a difference between righteous anger, directed at injustice, and hateful anger, directed at those who are different. Authoritarian regimes deliberately conflate the two to silence criticism and create false equivalence. It's important we don't let those in power succeed in this endeavor.

been trying to reduce my carb and calorie intake been failing, too

i didn’t get something i wanted and I was bummed but then i found something better and now i’m glad i didn’t get what i wanted. i will learn nothing etc.

truly curious: a) which siri voice do you use? b) does its gender match your gender? c) does its nationality/accent? i’ll start a: Irish male b: yes c: no

i’ve heard it said avocados are the surest sign of god’s love, but i’d argue the surest sign of god’s love is honey. in this essay i will

fwiw you can safely assume my main take on the news of the day anytime in the last 10 months or more has been, “aaaaaaaaaaagghh!!!” — any further commentary was vain frippery

turns out some days I handle stress better than other days? wtf is up with that

OK, I’m gonna try a thing and I’m telling you about it to help keep me to it: Plan is to stop retweeting…almost all…the Bad Stuff and instead bookmark for future reference — I fear a few will force my hand. I don’t have the bandwidth to keep a separate atrocities / fall of democracy account.

If you read the article this was straight up a torture program that also featured a bunch of sexual assault, abuses on a level that one will day be in textbooks with the question how did it go on so long Moreover, ICE must be destroyed

Fortunately there's only 3 more years of rapidly escalating fascism before there's a peaceful exchange of power

Little Free Anti-ICE Libraries: yesterday multiple people were abducted by ICE in my Chicago neighborhood (Avondale). This morning I added 40 ICE alert whistles to three different LFLs, including one box that is about a block from one of the kidnappings. I have ordered 700 whistles.

Amid an ongoing wave of conspiracy theories and bogus claims about Jan 6, I’ll note this from our reporting: Rioters made all kinds of claims and defenses in court … and jurors convicted 100% of the defendants who went to trial 100%

Kennedy contributed more towards the current state of the nation than 99.9999% of the population. This is the America he worked for decades to create.

why do i keep forgetting to clean my grinder

I can’t tell you how much good could be done right now by average citizens socially cold-shouldering anyone tangentially working for ICE.

“In America, workers should benefit…” should be the first words out of every Dem politician’s mouth any time a reporter so much as glances their way… Instead, apparently only Bernie believes this.

lived here 23yrs, today new downstairs tenant knocked on my door at 8am to confront me for being ‘too loud’ in my kitchen ‘too early’ — i tried to explain it’s likely not me (it’s probably the pipes banging) but she was increasingly rude and barely let me say a word folks…we did not part amicably

it's so cool how as this administration proceeds down a clearly marked road to a well documented destination so many people adopt a posture of scornful disbelief that they'll continue with what they've been doing and promise to keep doing truly, the Air Bud tweet is the defining post of our age

i made a helpful reference

We currently have a Supreme Court that seriously claims (with no explanation) that the current occupant of the Presidency suffers irreparable harm by having to follow existing law, the constitutionality of which has never before been in doubt or even questioned.

What might not occur to you upon reading this headline is that, in other words, ICE is targeting gay men of color Every queer press org should be picking up this story

Supreme Court rules 6-3 that congressional appropriations are optional: www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

Nothing in this world pisses me off more than taking advantage of or neglecting innocents. Absolutely nothing. It is the unforgivable act.

*you are not…sigh…serious people.gif*

The wounded knee thing is really Trumpism distilled to its essence. It’s not enough to be able crush people who can’t fully defend themselves, it’s not enough to actually crush them, you also have to love and admire those who do the crushing otherwise the Trumpists’ delicate feelings are injured

A mass walkout of the UN General Assembly as Netanyahu prepares to speak.

i love to smoke weed and get paranoid about my digital footprint

In 1935 German leadership called a surprise meeting and informed their previous oath to uphold the Weimar constitution was now void and they instead must swear a personal oath to the Führer. Many claimed they didn’t like the order, but they did it anyway. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...