@msbellows@c.im avatar

msbellows

@msbellows@c.im

Twitter diaspora. Agamemnon sucks: we do the fighting, he gets the girls. (Oregonian. Mediator/lawyer/writer; bylines in The Guardian, Alternet, HuffPost/OffTheBus, more.)

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

profcarroll, to random
@profcarroll@federate.social avatar

Theocracy Alert: Alito has got to go. #uspol #scotus #GiftLink https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/22/us/justice-alito-flag-appeal-to-heaven.html?unlocked_article_code=1.t00.7gjA.O3KtP9fRE2GU&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@profcarroll The "Appeal to Heaven" flag Alito has been flying at his beach house is the same one Speaker Mike Johnson initially hung outside his office to signal his story for transitioning the U S to a conservative theocracy. Explainer from back then: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/mike-johnson-christian-nationalist-appeal-to-heaven-flag-1234873851/

msbellows, to random
@msbellows@c.im avatar

My wife and I both filled out our ballots today, and then because we live in Oregon (which is a relatively sane state that has vote by mail and dropbox), I went to the nearby city hall to drop off our ballots, only to realize that there is an 8:00 p.m. cutoff and the box was locked.

When I got home, I had my first panic attack in years. This is the first election I haven't participated in since 1980, and I hadn't realized how much I rely emotionally on the perception of control that voting gives me in a world that's dying and falling apart.

Please, friends: protest and rebel and fight back any way you can. Burn everything down if you need to. But please, please, don't abstain from voting.

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@upmultimedia We're both tree-hugging hippie libtards, so nah.

TonyStark, to random
@TonyStark@progressivecafe.social avatar

Saying “I support the right of Jewish people to exist” is already a little weird to me since I don’t see that as questionable (guess it is for some) but it definitely sounds bad if you add a “but” on the end. That’s not as supportive as you think it is, people who keep saying it.

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@TonyStark @dukepaaron Is anyone actually saying that? So far as I know, outside the real nutjobs (of which, yeah, there are too fucking many), people are saying Jewish people don't have a right to exist on other people's land, and only Zionists and American evangelicals are responding by saying that that somehow denies the right of Jewish people qua Jewish people to exist at all. But I'm neither Jewish nor plugged into the antisemitic world, so maybe I'm missing something.

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@TonyStark @Okanogen @dukepaaron I actually preferred Tony's reply, actually. It's one thing for the United States to have stolen native land in the 19th and early 20th centuries; it's quite another to have started doing it in 1948 or 1969 and still be doing it in 2024 and pretending it's okay. (And that's definitely Israel, not Jews, that's doing that.)

msbellows, to random
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@shoq Help me with something? Do you follow @longreads ?

heidilifeldman, to random
@heidilifeldman@mastodon.social avatar

I don’t believe for a second that the favorable reference to the Third Reich from Trump’s campaign was a mistake. But whether it is or not, why isn’t the staffer supposedly responsible for the post being fired immediately? The staffer is totally irresponsible or an actual Nazi. Any responsible campaign would discharge such a staffer post haste.

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@jeaton @heidilifeldman

GottaLaff, to legal
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

#TrumpTrial 🧵starts HERE. #Trump #legal

Plz remember to use NFL (Not For Laffy, no hashtag) so I can ignore those replies while live-posting. TY!

1/...Tyler McBrien:

Trey Gowdy again...

Per Trump's campaign, this is today's Greek chrous: Don Trump, Jr., Matt Whitaker, Pam Bondi, Sen. Eric Schmitt, Rep. Daniel Webster, Rep. Dan Meuser, Rep. Ronny Jackson, Rep. Troy Nehls, Rep. Dale Strong, Rep. Maria Salazar, Sebastian Gorka, Chuck Zito, Joe Piscopo, Bill White

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@GottaLaff NFL: This is incredibly good and difficult lawyering. When b an opposition witness wants to explain something, it's hard (but vital!) to stand in front of the jury and not let them seize the narrative by doing so.

stonekettle, to random

Boy, remember when we panicked after 911 and passed those cool laws with names like The Patriot Act and The Protect America Act and got rid of all those restrictions on the intelligence community that the intelligence community literally warned America NOT to do because we KNEW the power would abused?

Remember that?

No?

Welcome home, chickens.

RE: https://www.threads.net/@kenklipp/post/C7NZvhnu1nz

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@stonekettle Yeah, this might be a good time to call your Congresscritters and tell them to pressure the new Un-American Activities Inquisition to back the FUCK off because students protesting genocide is PROFOUNDLY LAWFUL AND PATRIOTIC AND WHAT AMERICANS ARE SUPPOSED TO DO AND SHOULD BE PRAISED, NOT INFILTRATED.

Here's how to reach your representatives and senators: https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member

https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/the-intelligence-community-is-spying

GottaLaff, to legal
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

NEW 🧵starts HERE.

Plz remember to use NFL (Not For Laffy, no hashtag) so I can ignore those replies while live-posting. TY!

1/... Tyler McBrien:

It's 2:09 p.m., Trump walks in with his defense team in tow.

Alan Dershowitz is still here as well.

All five members of the prosecution are already seated.

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@GottaLaff NFL: Which is the right move by Trump's lawyers. Disrupting the sequence by calling back a witness and laying a foundation for a new exhibit would have screamed to the jury that "THIS EXHIBIT IS SOOOOPER IMPORTANT!!!" Far better to just stipulate so it seems like no big deal.

jilleduffy, to random
@jilleduffy@mastodon.social avatar

One time I asked my South African friend why he called it "maths" with an "s," and I patiently waited while he said, "because there's more than one" before jumping in and shouting, "THEN WHY DO YOU SAY YOU PLAY 'SPORT?'"

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@jilleduffy It's not about how many different kinds of math there are, but how many NUMBERS there are. "Math" singular suggests that there's only one number, in which case there wouldn't really be much point in even having a word to describe how to manipulate that number, right? (What's the sum of 1? 1! What's the average of 1? 1!)

Whereas if there were only one sport (as most Europeans believe), there could still be endless discussion/iterations of that sport (again, see: Europe).

(Source: me, undercaffeinated, just making shzt up.)

msbellows, to random
@msbellows@c.im avatar

You: "I wonder what it would be like to be an English major with a brother who also was an English major."

Me:

msbellows, to random
@msbellows@c.im avatar

We've been like this for twenty minutes at least. I'm not allowed to move my hand, and wouldn't want to; to be so loved and trusted by such a small creature in such a large universe is a miracle to be appreciated moment by moment.

GrimmReality, to random
@GrimmReality@beige.party avatar

Texas is a Klan-controlled state. Literally no one there is safe from being murdered by militant neo-Nazi goons and, if you are a militant neo-Nazi goon, you now have absolute carte blanche to murder anyone you want.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/16/texas-greg-abbott-pardons-daniel-perry

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@GrimmReality Jesus.
"Governor Greg Abbott of Texas issued a full pardon on Thursday to a former US army sergeant convicted of murder for fatally shooting an armed demonstrator in 2020 during nationwide protests against police violence and racial injustice.... Perry has been held in state prison on a 25-year sentence since his conviction in 2023."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/16/texas-greg-abbott-pardons-daniel-perry?utm_source=pocket_mylist

msbellows, to random
@msbellows@c.im avatar

I'm gonna just say it (and from the perspective of a former trial lawyer with 37 years' experience): the posse of GOP slanderers Trump's bringing with him daily, and Trump's defense's failure to finish cross-examination of Michael Cohen today, are partly because they're hoping some idiot will kill Cohen before he's left the stand (because under the Sixth Amendment, no jury is allowed to rely on his testimony until his cross is complete).

Yes, I believe they're that evil. Stochastic terrorism is a tool, not an accident.

shoq, to random
@shoq@mastodon.social avatar

I so hope this an error. But I know it’s not. This alone is grounds for impeachment in a sane society. I wish I lived in one of those.

In reply to…
https://mastodon.social/@jeffjarvis/112453236723090182

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@shoq Look, man, at least we got to live in a mostly-sane society for most of our lives. My kids are clear that they never, ever have, and never will, and it breaks my fucking heart, because people like you and me tried really hard to prevent this.

msbellows, to random
@msbellows@c.im avatar

Okay, I'll admit it. I did not have this on my 2024 bingo card.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/angie-harmon-sues-instacart-delivery-driver-fatal-shooting-dog-north-carolina/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

JonBaker, to random
@JonBaker@mastodon.social avatar

GENIE: You have 3 wishes

ME: I want you to yeet Neptune out of the solar system

GENIE: what

ME: I don’t care where, just get it the fuck outta here

GENIE: Ok but why

ME: Gonna freak the fuck out of some scientists

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@JonBaker Yeah, that's an instafollow. Don't make me regret it, hoser.

msbellows, to random
@msbellows@c.im avatar

Under the Sixth Amendment, the jury isn't allowed to rely on Michael Cohen's testimony until cross-examination is complete. I hope he spends the time between now and Thursday sitting quietly in a reinforced-concrete safe room with an emergency physician and a well-vetted bodyguard.

tiamat271, to random
@tiamat271@mastodon.online avatar

@ai6yr in case you’re bored and need something to do?

https://www.fox21news.com/news/search-for-colorado-springs-man-missing-on-longs-peak

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@ai6yr @tiamat271 I almost certainly don't even need to say this, but if any hams listen in on searchers' comms, please be careful not to publicize info that might be misleading or raise false hopes (eg, team radioing that they found footprints or a piece of clothing, which may or may not be the subject's), and ESPECIALLY not to share news of a subject being found before cleared to do so by search officials (bec searchers will NOT radio in the clear that the subject is dead, so "we've found the subject" isn't necessarily good news). (Authority: I spent 10 years in mountain rescue.)

realtegan, to random
@realtegan@wandering.shop avatar

For Americans looking at people posting in Celsius temperatures: don't try to convert, just remember this...

Zero is freezing,
Ten is not.
Twenty is warm and
Thirty is hot
(And forty is DAMNED hot)

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@realtegan

GhostOnTheHalfShell, (edited ) to Economics
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@economics@a.gup.pe

File this under the heading economics is not even a dismal science, because mainstream economics isn’t even science. Economics could actually be a rigorous discipline, if orthodoxy can be kicked out.

“ In contrast to its attitude to private debt, which it ignores, mainstream economics obsesses about government debt. But this volte-face doesn't besmirch its record of being 100% wrong.”

https://profstevekeen.substack.com/p/its-a-mixed-credit-fiat-world-e3f

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@GhostOnTheHalfShell @economics@a.gup.pe Please explain this to me like I'm a preschooler (kindergarten being too rigorous): was Keynes right or wrong?

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@GhostOnTheHalfShell @economics@a.gup.pe I suppose my main summary of my understanding of canes is that he said the government should collect surpluses when the economy is good, then spend them like crazy in deficit when the economy is bad, so that in the end the budget is roughly balanced but no one is truly obsessing about deficits.

hakaimagazine, to worldwithoutus
@hakaimagazine@sciencemastodon.com avatar

“The winds will change the ocean, the ocean will melt —and the water is coming to visit you.” If the collapses, it could bring much of the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet with it and raise sea levels by over three meters. The potential collapse of Thwaites is among the largest environmental threats to global civilization—and we’ve barely begun to understand it. What took us so long?

By Marissa Grunes.

https://hakaimagazine.com/features/how-we-came-to-know-and-fear-the-doomsday-glacier/

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@hakaimagazine Link?

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@hakaimagazine Thanks! You might want to put a URL to your front page in your Mastodon bio, as well. (You look like a really interesting magazine, and I'm looking forward to following you, so it would make it easier for me!)Aa

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • JUstTest
  • kavyap
  • DreamBathrooms
  • thenastyranch
  • magazineikmin
  • tacticalgear
  • cubers
  • Youngstown
  • mdbf
  • slotface
  • rosin
  • osvaldo12
  • ngwrru68w68
  • GTA5RPClips
  • provamag3
  • InstantRegret
  • everett
  • Durango
  • cisconetworking
  • khanakhh
  • ethstaker
  • tester
  • anitta
  • Leos
  • normalnudes
  • modclub
  • megavids
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •