@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.

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

Y'all, I couldn't let go of my Pumpkins and Gourds, so I painted them to look like ornaments, in case you ever thought I'd be cool to be married to.

image/jpeg
image/jpeg

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@RickiTarr SO MUCH better than this!

ai6yr, to india
@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org avatar

Delhi temperature hits 50.5C as India’s capital records hottest day

"Authorities warn of water shortages as temperatures reach nine degrees higher than expected...

At the SMS hospital in Rajasthan’s capital, Jaipur, so many bodies of casualties of the heat have arrived at the mortuary that its capacity has been exceeded. Police in the city say many of the victims are poor labourers, who have no choice but to work outside, and homeless people."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/29/delhi-temperature-hits-499c-as-indias-capital-records-hottest-day

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@ai6yr That's 123°F. Yikes.

Strandjunker, to random
@Strandjunker@mstdn.social avatar

I need someone to explain to me why Al Franken had to resign, but Matt Gaetz is still in Congress.

Explain it to me like I’m in kindergarten.

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@GGMcBG @Strandjunker You misspelled "actually have principles," but whatever.

profcarroll, to random
@profcarroll@federate.social avatar

Theocracy Alert: Alito has got to go. 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

We're listening to Beethoven's Symphony no. 8, one of my faves, and it hits me that Ludwig could simply be telling the story of his summer vacation: "we went to the Alps and there was this HUGE thunderstorm, and then we visited this small village where the peasants held a festival, and then two of the children played the funniest little game!"

Basically, a lot of classical music = the composer's vacation slide carousel.

msbellows, to random
@msbellows@c.im avatar

If you were allowed three magical wishes FOR THE COUNTRY YOU CONSIDER HOME, what would they be?

I'm in the U.S., and despite everything, I still love her. My current choices would be:

  1. Every state gets from 1-4 senators, depending on relative population

  2. Reconstruction gained momentum after 1872 instead of being abandoned.

  3. No one feels fear due to financial insecurity (ie, there's a strong social safety net guaranteeing basic food, healthcare, and housing security for all. (This probably requires amending the Constitution to expressly allows taxation of wealth as well as income.)

(And hoo, boy, the opportunity costs involved in limiting it to three! E.g., I could have wished slavery never happened, but that would glibly erase the existence of 14% of all Americans, which isn't my right to do, as well as the existence of blues, jazz, rock, most forms of individually expressive dance, many of our best thinkers and writers, etc.; I don't want to live in a giant, bland, rural Idaho.

Or I could wish the Constitution required presidential election by popular vote, not Electoral College; or to revoke the 2nd Amendment; or to make policing nonviolent; or for ranked choice voting; but I believe my other wishes would effectively accomplish those anyway.)

What are yours? Comments on mine? What would my Canadian, U.K., Aussie, Mexican, and other friends wish for their homes?

msbellows, to random
@msbellows@c.im avatar

He's not wrong. They're hoping that after all his family tragedies, the destruction of his remaining son will break Joe Biden.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67668480

msbellows, to random
@msbellows@c.im avatar

Eric Trump vs a NY judge vs me just looking up Mar-a-Lago's estimated value on Zillow for scale (and giggles):

Screencap of Zillow Page for Mar a Lago, with its estimated value highlighted as $24 million, not $1 billion. Full text reads as follows: 58 bd 33 ba 5,061 sq ft 1100 S Ocean Blvd, Palm Beach, FL 33480 Off market Zestimate®: $24,150,100 Rent Zestimate®: $149,761 Est. refi payment: $162,177/mo

msbellows, to random
@msbellows@c.im avatar

Proud boy Enrique Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison today.

Soon we'll know his facility and prisoner number.

Here are instructions how, every Jan 6, you can write to him in prison to tell him what a traitorous asshole he is and how happy you are that he won't have sex with a woman, drink a beer, or go for a walk in a park until he's in his fifties: https://www.bop.gov/inmates/communications.jsp

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.

GottaLaff, to legal
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

🧵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:

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.

msbellows, to random
@msbellows@c.im avatar

Hunter Biden has been indicted for owning a firearm while using scheduled drugs.

Don Jr.'s ex-girlfriend: "We did drugs together." https://allaboutthetea.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-06-at-9.29.31-AM.png

JuliusGoat, to random
@JuliusGoat@mastodon.social avatar

Bracing myself now for the slew of “yes but if the LEFT had control and the Supreme Court was protecting peoples’ rights instead of stripping them away, and preventing corruption instead of enabling it, the OTHER side would be just as angry” takes.

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@JuliusGoat
The Left: "Let's protect and respect everybody!"

The Right: "Let's kill everybody!"

Thanos: [acts as mediator, finds a compromise]

Gif of Thanos from the Marvel film Infinity War, saying, "It's a small price to pay for salvation."

msbellows, to random
@msbellows@c.im avatar

Dammit. From everything I could tell, he was one of the good people. One of his last quotes: ""Growing old is not for sissies." R.I.P.

Jimmy Buffett, 'Margaritaville' Singer, Dead at 76
https://people.com/music/jimmy-buffett-dead/

Jimmybuffett GIF

blogdiva, to random
@blogdiva@mastodon.social avatar

BTW

some bootlicking asshat just called me a terrorist because i dared to look at the Pew polls on trends among young voters and, as an actual mother of Zillennials, come to the conclusion that the gerontocracy of the Democratic Party have no strategy whatsoever about reaching young voters other "do what we say and shut up".

ZILLENNIALS ARE THE SWING VOTE.
they outnumber Boomers & GenX by millions.

2024 is the year of an actual demographics shift in voting.

DO NOT FUCK IT UP

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@blogdiva @jargoggles @jf_718 @Alarod_123 The U.S. two-party system isn't a moral failing or conspiracy, though. It's just math that the Framers didn't foresee. And it will continue until we stop whining about it and start doing the work of fixing it (eg, with ranked choice voting). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger%27s_law#:~:text=In%20political%20science%2C%20Duverger's%20law,the%20most%20similar%20major%20party.

msbellows, to random
@msbellows@c.im avatar

oh mai gawde. What a schmuck. Look at the last sentence:

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:

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

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.

msbellows, to random
@msbellows@c.im avatar

Mainstream legal commentators: "The possible outcomes of the are conviction, acquittal, or hung jury."

Me, a free thinker: "Or, if the jury simply keeps deliberating until January 2029, Trump will be required to spend all day every day in the courthouse even if he's re-elected."

msbellows, to random
@msbellows@c.im avatar

Because we all fzcking deserve to indulge in a little schaudenfreude, let's revisit some Donald Trump quotes from 2016, shall we?

“As you’ve heard, earlier today the FBI after discovering new emails is reopening their investigation into Hillary Clinton… The investigation is the biggest political scandal since Watergate and it’s everybody’s hope that justice at last can be delivered.” (10/28/2016)

“She’s likely to be under investigation for criminality for a very, very long time to come... We’re going to be tied up in court for the rest of our lives with this deal. She’s not going to win the election, but I’m just saying. If Hillary is elected, she will be under protracted criminal investigation likely followed by the trial of a sitting president. This is just what we need.” (10/31/2016)

“If Hillary Clinton were to be elected, it would create an unprecedented and protracted constitutional crisis. Haven’t we just been through a lot with the Clintons, right?” (11/02/2016)

“Hillary is likely to be under investigation for many years, probably concluding in a criminal trial.” (11/02/2016)
“She'll be under investigation for years. She'll be with trials. Our country, we have to get back to work.” (11/02/2016)
“Hillary has engaged in a criminal massive enterprise and cover-ups like probably nobody ever before.” (11/04/2016)

“There's virtually no doubt that FBI Director Comey and the great, great special agents of the FBI will be able to collect more than enough evidence to garner indictments against Hillary Clinton and her inner circle, despite her efforts to disparage them and to discredit them. If she were to win this election, it would create an unprecedented constitutional crisis. In that situation, we could very well have a sitting president under felony indictment and ultimately a criminal trial.” (11/05/2016)

“Her current scandals and controversies will continue throughout her presidency and we will make it honestly, look, it's gonna be virtually impossible for her to govern. Now, the Republicans have talked very tough and the Democrats. It's gonna be just another mess for another four years, folks. A mess. We've got to get back to work, right? I mean, we have to get back to work.” (11/05/2016)

“First thing you should do is get rid of Clinton. Hillary Clinton will be under investigation for a long, long time for her many crimes against our nation, our people, our democracy, likely concluding in a criminal trial.” (11/06/2016)

“The investigations into her crimes will go on for a long, long time. The rank and file special agents at the FBI won't let her get away with these terrible crimes, including the deletion of 33,000 emails after receiving a congressional subpoena. Right now, she's being protected by a rigged system.” (11/06/2016)

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

“She'll be under investigation for years. She'll be with trials. Our country, we have to get back to work.” (Trump, 11/02/2016)

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

“If Hillary Clinton were to be elected, it would create an unprecedented and protracted constitutional crisis. Haven’t we just been through a lot with the Clintons, right?” (Trump, 11/02/2016)

msquebanh, to Bloomscrolling
@msquebanh@mastodon.sdf.org avatar

#ForgetMeNots & #Petunias in full bloom 🥰

#bloomscrolling #WhatsInMyGarden #PollinatorGarden #Zone8 #PacificNorthwest #nature #floral #Spring #BCblooms #Wsanec #Saanich #YYJ #VictoriaBC #florespondence #flowers #PNW #botanical #VancouverIsland #VanIsle #perennials #Gardening #plants

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@Gurre @msquebanh @deepmud I, too, know one edible and one utterly toxic mushroom, and need to spend hours making spore prints and poring through books to ID any others.

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@Gurre @msquebanh @deepmud (To make it worse: the one mushroom I know is safe and will happily harvest and cook and know how to cook etc. is the oyster, which is delicious a.f. but also is basically the Chicken McNuggets of mushrooms.)

msbellows, to random
@msbellows@c.im avatar

Everything old is new again.

Back in 2006, I started my first blog, VichyDems, and immediately began using it to organize grassroots opposition to the confirmation of Samuel Alito. Specifically, I (and then others, esp. Bob Fertik) began tracking which Dem senators supported the filibuster against his nomination; which ones were leaning towards selling out and voting for cloture out of a misplaced sense of comity and institutionalism (the 'Vichies"); and which were on the fence. We published game plans, target lists, talking points, and contact info. SIX DAYS after starting the blog, we were getting thousands of views and had inspired tens of thousands of calls urging key senators to support the filibuster.

It failed, of course. The filibuster failed, and Auto was confirmed 75-25. But we definitely got one senator (Clinton) to outright reverse her position, from opposing to supporting the filibuster; persuaded some undecideds; and (so far as I can tell) demonstrated for the first time ever that the Internet could be used for political organizing. (And it launched my political writing career.)

And we were RIGHT, of course. 's treason flag and Dobbs and today's decision upholding racial gerrymandering and etc and etc prove we were right, and every fucking Vichy Dem senator who didn't support the filibuster was wrong.

My posts about Alito back then remain an interesting and relevant read, and include some very familiar names, including Biden: https://vichydems.blogspot.com/2006/01/

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

Alito has a flag, so fuck him, I have a flag too: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/22nd_United_States_Colored_Infantry_Regiment

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