mjt

I offer help to people who want it.
Facilitator and lover of humans.
Somewhat retired, but not exactly retiring.
Interesting, handsome, shy, erudite.
Have accidentally posted from @mjt@agilealliance.social for months if not years. Ooops. This account on mastodon.online is my sole current account.

Public Key

npub1jdc5r7qk72lztk28968vr5w7phh3hcaytw3nr9j3ksuz9jjj5j7s88mtrq

NIP-05 Address

mjt@mastodon-online.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsfxu2plqt09039m9rjarkp680qmmcmuwj9hge3jegmgwpzeff2f0gpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsujd3yw

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1jdc5r7qk72lztk28968vr5w7phh3hcaytw3nr9j3ksuz9jjj5j7s88mtrq

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-03-27 00:36:08 UTC

Abraham Lincoln, first Republican US president:
“Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God and each invokes His aid against the other. … The prayers of both could not be answered—that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes.”
#USpol

2026-03-27 00:35:51 UTC

Prayeth Hegseth, US Secretary of Defense:
“Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation. Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”
#USpol
1/2

2026-03-22 17:14:45 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…f9wr The Congressperson behind this sure does.

2026-03-22 17:00:41 UTC

“That evaluation found that car traffic and travel times actually decreased along 15th Street after the bike lane was installed.”
Cut injuries by over 50%, reduced traffic: so it has to go!
https://51st.news/trump-administration-removing-dc-bike-lane/
#USpol #bikes #insanity

2026-03-08 23:08:53 UTC

- reply

“The instructions state explicitly that explaining ‘unequal outcomes between men and women’ in terms of ‘institutional sexism’ would violate state law.”
https://truthout.org/articles/florida-has-deemed-all-existing-intro-to-sociology-textbooks-illegal/ https://truthout.org/articles/florida-has-deemed-all-existing-intro-to-sociology-textbooks-illegal/?utm_source=Truthout&utm_campaign=bf35dbf74c-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_03_06_07_27_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bbb541a1db-bde349abf8-651072241 (2/2)

2026-03-08 23:08:52 UTC

“You’re teaching Introduction to Sociology at a community college in Florida, and today, you’re trying to explain the well-documented pay gap between men and women in the United States. You check the guidance you just received from your dean, who received instructions via email from the executive vice chancellor of the Florida College System.” (1/2)

2026-03-08 22:57:03 UTC

“Women are—or should be—human beings first, women second, wives and mothers third.”
~Mary Tyler Moore
Happy International Womens’ Day.

2026-03-07 07:38:17 UTC

“Have you ever toured an apartment building and thought, “It’s perfect, but I wish it had a jumbo jet?”
Yes.
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/in-nod-to-boeing-a-jumbo-fuselage-hangs-between-two-seattle-towers/

2026-02-28 03:10:35 UTC

- reply

“For thirty years, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint have shaped how people work. Employees have stopped complaining because they can’t imagine that business works without the Office theater. Lists need to refuse to indent. Files must come in a format. Apps need to crash. Documents need to corrupt data. Formats need to be bloated.”
https://ia.net/topics/trapped-in-ms-office

2026-02-28 03:07:47 UTC

“[The television show] ‘Severance’ illustrates something so familiar that it’s hard both to recognize and hard to ignore: Fluorescent light. Endless hallways. Ritualized procedures. People performing point-and-click tasks on screens whose purpose they cannot fully explain. And everyone behaves as if the system were natural. It’s both weirdly old and claustrophobically on brand.
https://ia.net/topics/trapped-in-ms-office (1/2)

2026-02-28 03:07:47 UTC

- reply

“Severance beautifully illustrates how it feels using Microsoft Office all day long, in 2026.”
https://ia.net/topics/trapped-in-ms-office (2/2)

2026-02-27 09:52:48 UTC

“Since Richard Nixon was forced to resign, powerful people in both political parties have worked assiduously to ensure that their leaders would escape the consequences of their actions.”
#USpol
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/02/elite-accountability-powerful-impunity/686134/?gift=RXPOOMoryRnayHP9s6YMzyDBTKlb-LMNRE8ukmiRgdQ

2026-02-27 07:44:39 UTC

Too late.
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/116/141/475/672/070/711/original/7a9ddcfeb8271d16.jpeg

2026-02-23 20:00:25 UTC

“It’s not that Patel’s lawlessness is happening in light of these crimes. These crimes are happening in light of his lawlessness. Who cares about the law, or criminal consequences, when the country’s leading lawman has contempt for it?”
https://www.editorialboard.com/now-we-know-why-savannah-guthries-mom-is-still-missing/ https://www.editorialboard.com/now-we-know-why-savannah-guthries-mom-is-still-missing/?ref=the-editorial-board-newsletter
#USpol #Corruption #CrimeAllYouWant

2026-02-18 04:56:25 UTC

It’s fascinating that we’re setting out to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our people freeing themselves from the arbitrary dictates of a mad king by creating an incredibly lifelike re-enactment.
#USpol #1776 #doom

2026-02-18 03:39:40 UTC

The United States is now specifically building a concentration camp system identical to the beginnings of the one in Germany, and for the same reasons. Given how that episode ended, with all our “Never Again!”s…are we going to let this happen?
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/02/trump-deportation-warehouse-concentration-camp-history-germany.html?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=traffic&utm_source=article&utm_content=copy_link
#USpol #concentrationCamps #gulag

2026-02-18 00:08:02 UTC

“On day one…Trump issued an executive order that charged, ‘Over the last 4 years, the previous administration trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms, often by exerting substantial coercive pressure on third parties, such as social media companies, to moderate, deplatform, or otherwise suppress speech that the Federal Government did not approve.’ This is a good description of what Trump’s administration is doing now.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/2026/02/censorship-free-speech-trump-tv-senators-citizens/686034/
#USpol

2026-02-15 08:12:36 UTC

When people do things a certain way, don’t go thinking they did it by accident. We do what we intend to do.
Same goes for governments. Police. Lawmakers. Corporate executives. Billionaires.

2026-02-14 10:36:23 UTC

“There will be Voter I.D. for the Midterm Elections, whether approved by Congress or not!”
The current president has announced that the dictatorship has begun in earnest. These are his actual words, not a paraphrase.
This is not joking. This is seizing power. Who will stop him?
#USpol #tyrant

2026-02-13 05:45:22 UTC

- reply

This woman has written more about the US one-cent cousin than anyone ever will again.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/01/magazine/worthless-pennies-united-states-economy.html?unlocked_article_code=1.L1A.WEgi.2lkKuscXGCSD&smid=url-share

2026-02-13 05:30:15 UTC

“[I]n the year 2024, one out of every two coins minted in the United States was a one-cent piece, even though virtually no one-cent pieces were ever spent in the nationwide conduction of commerce, and, on top of that, each cost more than three cents apiece to manufacture.”
What will happen to the 300 billion cent coins that exist?
Nothing.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/11/pennies-circulation-mint/684935/?gift=RXPOOMoryRnayHP9s6YMz32ybRhaQo8G5kXamvZMYnQ

2026-02-12 05:42:21 UTC

- reply

“The problem for democracy is that it will not survive three more years of such a system. We cannot hold free and fair elections if judges blindly accept the word of Pam Bondi and Kash Patel’s minions.”
#USpol
https://newsletters.democracydocket.com/two-cases-and-the-grease-that-breaks-democracy?ecid=ACsprvub_eCq1tFswAOI_wJtZG9AtDVyifLyUBG-5tJfvcJtoRdXTk6J6zv1FS4zHZcfcaXhAvna&utm_campaign=12114861-Premium%20Membership%20Promo&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=403184531&utm_content=403184531&utm_source=hs_email (2/2)

2026-02-12 05:42:20 UTC

“Our criminal justice system is built on federal prosecutors having every advantage in court. It gives government officials the benefit of the doubt — even when the law does not require it. The presumption of good faith judges afford DOJ lawyers and FBI agents is the grease that makes the system run smoothly and efficiently.”
#USpol (1/2)

2026-02-08 19:05:12 UTC

“At first glance, it’s almost cute: a screw head shaped exactly like the BMW logo. … It’s a masterpiece of anti-functional design. [T]he patent explicitly states this as a function of its design in section [0006]: ‘…to prevent being loosened or tightened…by unauthorized individuals.’”
https://www.ifixit.com/News/115528/bmws-newest-innovation-is-a-logo-shaped-middle-finger-to-right-to-repair

2026-02-03 19:52:15 UTC

“Masks need to come off,” Sen. Chuck Schumer said Friday. “No secret police.”
#USpol #fascism #SecretPolice

2026-02-03 19:28:17 UTC

Ain’t that America?
Guns drawn, chemicals pointed at photographer, for following ICE agents. For *following*, not assaulting or obstructing.
Land of the free!
#USpol #fascism #SecretPolice
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/116/008/347/019/134/467/original/fe60020d0989dd69.jpeg

2026-02-03 19:13:42 UTC

“There are no real safeguards anymore, until people recognize that we’re all potential targets.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2026/02/03/homeland-security-administrative-subpoena/
#USpol #fascism

2026-02-02 04:38:19 UTC

“We’ve done this before; we just don’t like remembering it.”
Ashley, on the Palmer Raids. And BTW, Ashley’s vids totally rock.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8mWaWXR/
#USpol #fascism

2026-01-29 21:52:36 UTC

“Americans are shocked to discover authoritarianism did not stop at the color line.
“You are a friend or an enemy, even if you're white.”
More shocks are coming. Guaranteed.
https://www.editorialboard.com/americans-are-shocked-to-discover-authoritarianism-did-not-stop-at-the-color-line/
#USpol

2026-01-29 04:49:48 UTC

https://feelingagile.wordpress.com/2026/01/28/the-meaning-of-police-masking/
#USpolitics

2026-01-29 04:35:41 UTC

- reply

Anonimity create imperiosity and removes accountability. And the people’s government must be accountable, or abolished.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/the-real-meaning-of-those-ice-masks-as-blurted-out-in-a-wa-hearing/
#USpol #USpolitics (3/3)

2026-01-29 04:35:40 UTC

- reply

The people, as Lincoln reminded us, are the source of the government’s power. They’re the ones who, by serving in office or voting, create the government. And they are who the government serves. And the people deserve to know who is acting in their name, with their power, and on their behalf.
If ICE operatives are afraid of the people, maybe they need to think hard about why they’re afraid of the people. (2/3)

2026-01-29 04:35:39 UTC

A Seattle newspaper columnist wrote today about why ICE masks.
Officials who mask have the same motivation as criminals: they’re doing something wrong and they don’t want to be identified. If you don’t want people to know who you are because you’re afraid of being found out…maybe you shouldn’t be doing what you’re doing. (1/3)

2026-01-27 05:07:56 UTC

“The cameras have shifted the burden of judgment from institutions to individuals. We all see the fragments. We all have access to evidence. So we all decide what it means. In a tribal system, we decide based on our team. … In a tribal system where people already believe their side over their own eyes, you don't need to prove the video is fake. You only need to plant the question. Doubt is the weapon.”
https://om.co/2026/01/26/does-evidence-even-matter/
#USpolitics #USpol

2026-01-21 09:44:47 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…gfcd I’m happy I didn’t go with my first draft; too much. Less poetical, more political:
Fash on fash bash with ash

2026-01-21 08:28:44 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…gfcd Fash on fash with ash

2026-01-13 14:55:43 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…ukxe Incredibly, he did.

2026-01-13 06:22:04 UTC

House Speaker Mike Johnson: "If Powell is innocent, then he can prove that."
Oh, Mike. Does”innocent until proven guilty” remind you of anything?
#USPol #USPolitics

2026-01-13 06:10:51 UTC

Ashley makes a strong case that ICE aren’t Gestapo but rather slave patrols.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8fjTAty/
#uspolitics #USpol

2026-01-11 08:41:25 UTC

“The man was convicted of 34 felonies in a cold New York City courtroom in May 2024, a mere 19 months ago. Trump expected and asked for riots outside the courtroom. He got nothing but pathetic support from a handful of kooks. A year earlier, he lost a humiliating sexual assault civil lawsuit to E. Jean Carroll. Trump, just a year and a half ago, was a buffoon getting his mug shot taken. Today he’s arguing that his power is unchecked by anything other than his own sense of morality.” (1/2)

2026-01-10 09:05:13 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…zqp8 Can agree.

2026-01-08 23:49:51 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…gyk5 @nprofile…m2xn Sounds like they’ve got big plans for 2026. Explosive plans. Deadly plans. Repressive plans. Illegal plans.

2026-01-08 09:38:31 UTC

Joking. Talking. Doing.
That’s what they do. That’s how they make yesterday’s jest tomorrow’s horror.
#USpol

2026-01-08 07:00:13 UTC

ICE has contracted with a company that makes “bounty-hunter” AI agents.
You know who else was really good at using technology to commit atrocities?
https://www.404media.co/ice-contracts-company-making-bounty-hunter-ai-agents/
#USpol #Disgust

2026-01-08 06:51:46 UTC

- reply

Because we, millions of us, must witness to these actions, this murder. It will not be the last. And because, like the White House’s January 6th webpages, the lies will be recorded and repeated, we all need to remember and testify, so that we can either testify to what really happened, or suffer for the rest of our lives knowing we denied the truth.
#Upol #Murder #Corruption #Disgust (2/2)

2026-01-08 06:51:46 UTC

Please.
I’m asking you to do an extremely hard thing. Search for and watch all four videos of the goverment-approved murder in the streets of Minneapolis.
And please watch them even if you think I’m a commie liberal woke mentally defective piece of trash.
#Upol #Murder #Corruption #Disgust (1/2)

2026-01-08 06:43:39 UTC

- reply

“Yesterday, Trump announced that, as president of the United States, he would control the money from the sale of Venezuelan oil.”
It’s hard to describe the disgust I feel at even typing/pasting those words into this post. The United States as we knew it is dead. They’re not even trying to hide this. They’re confessing to the crimes before they commit them, because they know they are above the law and will never be punished.
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/january-7-2026?r=14j7ia&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
#USpol #Corruption #Disgust (3/3)

2026-01-08 06:43:39 UTC

- reply

“Lisa Desjardins and Nick Schifrin of PBS NewsHour reported this afternoon that Trump administration officials have told lawmakers that they plan to put the money raised from their seizure of Venezuelan oil into bank accounts outside the U.S. Treasury. Desjardins clarified that ‘[s]ources said they understood these as similar [to] or decidedly “off-shore” accounts.’
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/january-7-2026?r=14j7ia&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
#USpol #Corruption #Disgust (2/3)

2026-01-08 06:43:38 UTC

Ever wonder how Vlad Putin, a lifelong government servant, owns many dachas and compounds?
Seems he gave a brand-new government servant a few lessons in applied corruption, and the student has grown to surpass the master.
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/january-7-2026?r=14j7ia&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
#USpol #Corruption #Disgust (1/3)

2026-01-04 09:34:57 UTC

“This is where I should stop and define what democratic socialism is, as it’s been at the center of much of the misinformation about Mamdani. Democratic socialism, as practiced by Zohran Mamdani, is not about abolishing markets or nationalizing everything in sight. It’s about using democratic government to make sure basic needs—housing, transit, health care, education—aren’t treated like luxury goods. ...”
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/01/zohran-mamdani-new-york-mayor-first-big-speech.html
#USpol… (1/2)

2025-11-21 07:11:56 UTC

Meet the Veteran Who Chases ICE on a Scooter – Mother Jones https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/11/baltimore-scooter-ice-patrol-buzz-grambo-us-navy-veteran/

2025-11-15 09:16:35 UTC

Snap! https://beige.party/@GrimmReality/115544281475812293

2025-11-10 04:55:28 UTC

https://open.substack.com/pub/robertreich/p/earth-to-democrats-do-not-compromise?r=14j7ia&utm_medium=ios

2025-11-02 05:48:37 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…duyy Everyone’s making movies these days, and realizing just how hard it is. The fourth wall has been permanently broken for most of us.

2025-11-02 02:54:13 UTC

https://substack.com/@xplicitpolitix/note/c-172361835?r=14j7ia&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action

2025-10-20 07:23:23 UTC

“Scholar of social movements Lisa Corrigan notes…that yesterday ‘every single rally (including in the small towns) was bigger than the surrounding police force available. That kind of image event is VERY IMPORTANT if you’re…demonstrating social coherence AGAINST a fascist government and its makeshift gestapo.”’ (1/2)

2025-10-19 01:31:00 UTC

- reply

“I started thinking about the difference between believing that I have a right not to be harmed and thinking that I have a responsibility not to harm others. I was struck by how passive and entitled, even whiny, the idea of ‘my rights’ suddenly felt. And how active and generative it felt to think about my responsibilities.”
https://radiolab.org/podcast/content-warning https://radiolab.org/podcast/content-warning
#USpol (2/2)

2025-10-19 01:30:59 UTC

“Dr. Goodall [said], “I don’t like to talk about animal rights. I prefer to talk about human responsibilities. The negative space of the idea of rights suddenly jumped out at me, like the classic picture of a vase that suddenly flips into two faces. I started to think about the way we talk about human rights, and what it might feel like if, instead of a Bill of Rights, our Constitution had a Bill of Responsibilities.
https://radiolab.org/podcast/content-warning https://radiolab.org/podcast/content-warning?utm_source=sfmc
#USpol… (1/2)

2025-10-12 19:39:58 UTC

From where did Arabic numerals come?
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPH9caSCJF1/?igsh=M2hreTFndjY3ajVj

2025-10-12 19:22:09 UTC

Maya Angelou on how our fear of death pushes us towards exclusion and ignorance.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPg4HxJiA2a/?igsh=N2w0ZndvYmo1MHlw
#USpol #Poetry

2025-10-12 04:59:59 UTC

A republic based on law is rapidly circling the drain over here in North America. If we can find ways to agree, we’re going to end the experiment before we make it to 250 years.
https://feelingagile.wordpress.com/2025/10/11/1607/
#USpol #EndTimes #AgreeOrDie

2025-10-12 01:18:24 UTC

“[T]he administration has posted a video at airport Transportation Security Administration (TSA) lines featuring Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem saying that operations are impacted because ‘Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government.’
“[A lawyer] posted ‘Can you think of a single movie in which there is a video from the government denouncing its political opponents playing on a loop in public spaces in which that government was the good guy?’”
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/october-10-2025?r=14j7ia

2025-10-11 02:09:37 UTC

Emily Gould in New York’s “Dinner Party”, interviewing author Brian Morton:
Gould: “What do great writers have in common?”
Morton: “The writers who move us most are usually completely idiosyncratic. They're really dedicated to their own weirdness, their own strange way of looking at the world. There's a saying from…a French poet and filmmaker, something along the lines of ‘Take the aspect of your work that everyone despises, and go more deeply into that.’ That's where your originality lies.”

2025-10-10 19:56:02 UTC

“China pushed more than one million people out of their homes in west-central China a quarter-century ago and flooded a vast area for the reservoir of the Three Gorges Dam. This year, China has been installing enough solar panels every three weeks to match the power generation capacity of that dam.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/business/china-solar-tibetan-plateau.html?unlocked_article_code=1.sU8.e3oo.uq9LcYJvNOGe&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
#CleanPower #Solar #China

2025-10-10 19:31:41 UTC

A frightening difference in magnitude and truth.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/nyregion/trump-james-indictment-retribution.html?unlocked_article_code=1.sU8.bFDg.cwzS29Ztc1wh&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
#USpol #EndTimes

2025-10-06 11:18:13 UTC

- reply

“We therefore assume our soda straw view captures the essential truth of the world around us. Innately aware of our limitations and neurologically averse to ambiguity, we welcome shortcuts that help us connect dots. Especially when they seem to provide clear and digestible explanations. When those explanations align to our biases, it is almost impossible to not accept them.”
https://radarblog.substack.com/p/american-zampolit
#USpol (2/2)

2025-10-06 11:18:12 UTC

“Most of us are tourists in our own lives. We do the three-day crepe-and-museum tour in Paris and become experts on living in France. We watch Animal Kingdom and become certified zoologists. Each of us directly observes and interacts with a tiny fractal of reality, but we did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night.”
https://radarblog.substack.com/p/american-zampolit
#USpol… (1/2)

2025-10-06 02:59:11 UTC

“U.S. Border Patrol agents deployed to Chicago led a late-night raid on an apartment building this week, rappelling from helicopters onto rooftops and breaking down doors in an operation authorities said targeted gang members but which swept up U.S. citizens and families.”
Agents rappelled from Blackhawk helicopters onto the roof of the building. Some US citizens were “inadvertently swept up” in the raid.
Is this the country you and I want to live in?
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-border-patrol-raid-sweeps-citizens-families-chicago-crackdown-intensifies-2025-10-04/
#USpol

2025-09-07 15:05:00 UTC

https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/115/161/576/802/001/260/original/f32002a03b3f9ea2.jpeg

2025-09-06 03:03:59 UTC

From Washington Post article headlined “Some suggest Tylenol is linked to autism. Here’s what to know”:
“Researchers have not found a link between vaccines and autism in dozens of studies across the globe.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/09/05/rfk-autism-tylenol-pregnancy/
“Some suggest”? I’d like to suggest something…
#USpol

2025-09-05 05:44:20 UTC

“‘The United States doesn’t really have the capability to develop good intelligence about these embarkations,’ [Mike Vigil, a former DEA director of international operations] said. ‘You don’t just send a missile and destroy a boat. It is the equivalent of a police officer walking up to a drug trafficker on the street and shooting him.’”
But riddle me this: who’s going to punish this, and who’s going to stop the next one?
No one.
@USpol
https://apple.news/AqSMiUv8MSyqQXNrE_ulYuQ

2025-08-28 05:41:12 UTC

TIL:
“A train melody is a melody played when a train is arriving at or about to depart from a train station. In Japan, departing train melodies are arranged to invoke a feeling of relief in a train passenger after sitting down and moving with the departing train. In contrast, arriving train melodies are configured to cause alertness, such as to help travelers shake off sleepiness experienced by morning commuters.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train_melody

2025-08-25 23:29:00 UTC

“Why are Americans so complacent as we slip into fascism? We are not taking to the streets every day, trying to stop this. There are no mass protests, no marches, no work stoppages, no strikes, boycotts. Sure, there is the occasional ‘No Kings’ rally or local protests, but it happens and then everything goes back to normal.”
Use it or lose it. Looks like we’re picking “lose it.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/saltypolitics/p/americas-fatal-complacency?r=14j7ia&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
#USpol

2025-08-18 16:25:13 UTC

“[T]he administration seems to be encouraging violence rather than shunning it. As Anna Merlan of Mother Jones reported on Friday, the White House, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Department of Homeland Security joke on social media about cruelty and torture, suggesting it’s fun to hurt people. They are sanitizing and popularizing state violence.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/august-17-2025?r=14j7ia
#USpol #resist

2025-08-15 05:32:30 UTC

We’ve been saying it for years, but folks still don’t get it.
You’re not stuck in traffic. You are traffic.
https://blogs-images.forbes.com/carltonreid/files/2018/12/notstuckintraffic-1200x917.jpg

2025-08-14 19:54:11 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…n43f Please LMK if you find it before I do!
(Love your real name string…)

2025-08-14 19:40:00 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…96hr Apprehension of reality hits hard. It’s easier to see everything and everyone as banal or pointless. There might even be a word for that ;-)
What can one do to improve our society and public conversation, I wonder?

2025-08-14 19:37:58 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…ghrz I’d be interested in hearing more. Write something and post about it, please!

2025-08-14 19:37:09 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…zedp Hmm. Does that also speak to the Facebook connections your husband curates? And as others have commented, these words can also smack of elitism and intellectual snobbery. I’ve found that if I listen well and am patient, most people are fascinating in some aspect and often in many. I try not to underestimate those I don’t know well, and credit those I do for being interesting enough for me to have befriended them.

2025-08-14 19:34:34 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…4042 Sometimes, sure. But look at the interesting exploration my posting these words here has generated! So social media, like anything, has a wealth of effects and influences, and as Shakespeare said, “There is nothing either good nor bad, but thinking makes it so.”

2025-08-14 19:32:39 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…n43f I’m still searching for the source. Wanted to post the words in the meantime, though, since they’re resonant. I’ve never seen such response to anything I’ve shared before, so my reaction seems to be not uncommon.

2025-08-14 19:30:47 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…7yy5 Still searching for the source. Like you, I’ve found a lot of things, but not the author.

2025-08-14 18:58:52 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…458r Indeed. I used to get upset that people at my workplace sometimes criticized me for using what they called “big words” and talking “over their heads.” While I never meant to do this, I took their comments to heart. Impact over intent.
I feel alive and energized when I’m in a discussion with people who are smarter than me, or who have different experiences and learning than I do. I’ve learned that those two qualifiers embrace almost everyone, if I listen well enough.

2025-08-14 18:55:43 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…spdd I agree! That’s why I felt compelled to share it, even without being able to identify who wrote it (yet!)

2025-08-14 18:52:49 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…fhhz I am still searching for the source, since I imagine if they can write that, their other writings must be engaging at the least.
It’s really resonated with a *lot* of folks. I’ve never had so many people react, favorite, and comment on anything I’ve posted. I really wish I’d added in the post that these are not my words, only that I’ve resonated with them.

2025-08-14 16:50:05 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…kksy It’s been a meme posted on Instagram and elsewhere in the past week. I’ve been looking for the source, as it appears to be an excerpt from an essay or book, and searches reveal nothing but tons and tons of riffs on the idea, or people who’ve quoted the text as it if were theirs. But boy, lots and lots of interesting essays result from following the hits. I’ll post the source as soon as (or if) I find it, because I try to give credit to authors so I don’t steal valor from the deserving.

2025-08-14 05:21:25 UTC

https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/115/025/437/318/108/002/original/17d9f1d0d07e0ce3.jpeg

2025-08-14 05:15:33 UTC

https://substack.com/@afterdinnerconversation/note/c-144555990?r=14j7ia&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action

2025-08-14 03:08:36 UTC

Absolutely astonishing. We can adjust things, in a consumer device, by a fraction of the width of a helium atom!!! https://hachyderm.io/@danderson/115013104997612022

2025-08-11 05:52:16 UTC

Andrew Coyne in the Toronto Globe and Mail:
“Nothing mattered, in the end. Not the probable dementia, the unfathomable ignorance, the emotional incontinence; not, certainly, the shambling, hate-filled campaign, or the ludicrously unworkable anti-policies.”
#USpol… (1/2)

2025-08-11 05:52:16 UTC

- reply

“The candidate out on bail in four jurisdictions, the convicted fraud artist, the adjudicated rapist and serial sexual predator, the habitual bankrupt, the stooge of Vladimir Putin, the man who tried to overturn the last election and all of his creepy retinue of crooks, ideologues and lunatics: Americans took a long look at all this and said, yes please.”
#USpol (2/2)

2025-08-11 05:42:56 UTC

“Judge Karen Henderson is standing up for our divided system of government. She might be the only appellate Republican appointee in D.C. willing to do so regularly these days, but the D.C. Circuit judge has kept it up — for whatever branch needs it.”
Definitely worth a read if you care about the separation of powers and who to favor when an order is stayed pending appeal.
What’s more, Judge Henderson writes very well. Great reading.
https://www.lawdork.com/p/judge-karen-henderson-separation-of-powers
#USpol

2025-08-10 01:00:25 UTC

“You, me and everyone we know have all been subjected to a 40-year blitz of anti-solidaristic propaganda, aimed at convincing us that we are only allowed to fight the system as individuals. Don’t like your health care? Shop around! Don’t like your boss? Quit your job! Under no circumstances should you advocate for either a union or socialized health-care. You’re an individual, there is no such thing as society.”
You can’t fight enshittification—but we can! Cory Doctorow https://pluralistic.net/2025/07/31/unsatisfying-answers/

2025-08-07 00:59:09 UTC

- reply

You know that feeling where it seems like something could, maybe, possibly be a mistake, but probably isn’t? Yeah.
https://www.axios.com/2025/08/06/constitution-missing-sections-coding-error
#USpol #Corruption #GoodbyeUS (2/2)

2025-08-07 00:59:08 UTC

From Axios:
“The Library of Congress on Wednesday pointed to an unspecified ‘coding error’ that led to key parts of the U.S. Constitution being deleted from the Constitution Annotated website. … The missing sections included foundational provisions, such as the right to habeas corpus — which protects people from unlawful detention — and the foreign emoluments clause.”
https://www.axios.com/2025/08/06/constitution-missing-sections-coding-error
#USpol #Corruption #GoodbyeUS… (1/2)

2025-08-04 05:19:20 UTC

“When the participants knew which soda they were drinking, brain scans showed that they liked Coke better. But when they didn’t know, they consistently preferred Pepsi. Dr. Montague’s interpretation, published in the journal Neuron in 2024, posited that the Coke brand is so powerful that its positive associations creep into our unconscious minds, causing us to prefer something even though it does not taste as good.“
#USpol #Perception
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/dining/cola-cane-sugar-taste-test.html?unlocked_article_code=1.bk8.3Q8P.clrxw2Y7RmJU&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

2025-07-31 15:11:55 UTC

Required reading. Only $2 for ebook. Buy at any price, and more importantly, read it. It’s about the future for our kids and grandkids.
https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/07/29/snyder-on-tyranny-two-bucks
#USpol

2025-07-30 22:19:20 UTC

“Trump seeks to replace that system with a caste-based vision of national identity in which every parent must provide documentation to secure their children’s fundamental rights. This system would put ICE agents in maternity wards and babies on deportation flights. It would also trip up millions of American citizens who lack the papers to prove that they belong here.”
There are guidance documents being developed to ensure government interference in childbirth.
#USpol
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/07/trump-birthright-citizenship-supreme-court-ice-maternity-ward.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Culture&utm_campaign=traffic&tpcc=newsletter-email-authoralert-traffic

2025-07-27 19:50:31 UTC

“How is it that half of America looks at Donald Trump and doesn’t find him morally repellent? He lies, cheats, steals, betrays, and behaves cruelly and corruptly, and more than 70 million Americans find him, at the very least, morally acceptable. Some even see him as heroic, admirable, and wonderful. What has brought us to this state of moral numbness?”
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/07/trump-administration-supporters-good/683441/?gift=RXPOOMoryRnayHP9s6YMz0_ddAsum59FP5ZpUz-j-44
#USPol #USpol #TFG #RightAndWrong

2025-07-24 06:03:06 UTC

TIL that the acronym SABRE, the airline reservations system created in 1966, Stan’s for “Semi-Automated Business Research Environment.” And it turns out that the Research part looms larger than one might have predicted back in 1966. Check out “surveillance pricing” and weep.
#AmazingAndTrue #zirlines