@richard_merren@mastodon.social
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richard_merren

@richard_merren@mastodon.social

Not internet famous and totally fine with that

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GottaLaff, to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

2017-2020 Uncovered Emails Reveal Border Patrol Agent's Horrific Jokes About Children

“Border Patrol agents freely used the derogatory slur “tonk” to describe unauthorized migrants on government computers, at times while joking about killing or beating them, according to emails & text messages” https://apple.news/AK-D5b6k2QeWmZuqzMOfNgw

richard_merren,
@richard_merren@mastodon.social avatar

@GottaLaff These emails are disgusting.

JoshuaHolland, to Israel
@JoshuaHolland@mastodon.social avatar

A minor point but they're driving me batty with that "threatening environment for our Jewish students and faculty" shit.

What about the many Jewish students and faculty who support these protests?

It's antisemitic AF to assume that American Jews are loyal to and its far-right government.

https://communications.news.columbia.edu/news/campus-updates

richard_merren,
@richard_merren@mastodon.social avatar

@JoshuaHolland So the Jewish students who say they feel threatened are lying? Or do they not count? I honestly don't get your reasoning here, and why you keep dismissing the genuine fears that students are expressing. You don't have to abandon your sympathy to Palestinians, or even to student protesters, to acknowledge that kids are expressing fear. Show some humanity.

richard_merren,
@richard_merren@mastodon.social avatar

@JoshuaHolland I have followed you for years, and your odd intransigence on this issue is just bizarre. You have repeatedly offered up excuses that keep turning out to be terribly wrong. (There's no violent speech or violence l, that guy is not really a leader and he said he was sorry.) I am sure you'll be happy to hear that I will not follow you any more and I will stop replying to you. I can't imagine what line you have that has not yet been crossed at Columbia, but it has gone far past mine.

richard_merren,
@richard_merren@mastodon.social avatar

@JoshuaHolland Trump held a seder, too. He has "blacks for Trump" at his rallies. Antigay churches frequently feature "reformed" gays. But I am not arguing that the camps are based on Antisemitism I assume the Jews in them are sincere in their beliefs. But to say that there is not real stuff happening that some Jewish students can reasonably be afraid of is naive or dishonest. It is like criticizing women who are afraid to walk alone at night because there are others who do it every day.

GottaLaff, to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

Via Kyle Cheney:

👉🏼House Dems make it official: If [Marj Q Greene] tries to oust Speaker Mike Johnson, they will help block it >>>>

richard_merren,
@richard_merren@mastodon.social avatar

@GottaLaff Johnson is in trouble with the wingers for accepting Democratic help. This will just make those folks even madder at Johnson, while letting Jeffries and Dems look more reasonable. Well played.

aaron.rupar, to random

PELOSI: Trump has the worst record of jobs loss of any president

KATY TUR: There was a global pandemic

PELOSI: He had the worst record of any president. If you want to be an apologist for Donald Trump, that may be your role

richard_merren,
@richard_merren@mastodon.social avatar

@jsit @atrupar Other presidents had depressions, world wars, major terrorist attacks, stock market crashes, financial crises, Wham breaking up. None of them were the worst. Trump was the worst. Don't make excuses for him.

deshipu, to random
@deshipu@fosstodon.org avatar

deleted_by_author

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    richard_merren,
    @richard_merren@mastodon.social avatar

    @deshipu When I was in college, everyone put messages on their mortarboard hats during graduation. I wonder how many roman soldiers scrawled rude graffiti on their shields. (Nowadays the commanders would sell ad space on their soldiers' shields and form up the lines to achieve maximum ad revenue.)

    atomicpoet, to random
    @atomicpoet@atomicpoet.org avatar

    Now I remember why I do everything on a desktop computer instead of a laptop on the couch.

    I have an ergonomic chair that gives me excellent lumbar support for my back. As well, I have my monitor attached to a pneumatic arm that adjusts the height with complete precision. If I’m sitting for an hour, my smartwatch reminds me to stand up and take a walk.

    And to keep my back healthy, I’m in the gym three times a week.

    A good chair, monitor adjustment, and exercise pay dividends. Ever since I made these adjustments, my back and neck pain has entirely gone away.

    richard_merren,
    @richard_merren@mastodon.social avatar

    @atomicpoet I get lazy occasionally and work from the couch, and it usually takes a couple of standing desk days to fix the lower back pain.

    GottaLaff, to random
    @GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

    Via Acyn:

    CNN's Bash: Lawyers for are telling Fox News to correct the record on bribery allegations made by a discredited FBI informant or face a defamation lawsuit..

    richard_merren,
    @richard_merren@mastodon.social avatar

    @GottaLaff After he wins a huge settlement from Fox, Republicans will investigate whether Biden is under the influence of foreign money from Rupert Murdoch

    deadtom, to photography
    @deadtom@dice.camp avatar

    A bit of fun news today, I ordered a new camera last night. It's an old model, a Nikon D7500, but it is brand new, and I feel like I got a pretty good deal on it.

    My first DSLR was a D50. I now carry two D3100 SLRs with me when I'm out shooting. This new camera will be the first one I've owned that wasn't near the bottom of Nikon's more economical line of SLRs.

    I will probably never own the latest, greatest thing, so I get excited when I can splurge a little.

    richard_merren,
    @richard_merren@mastodon.social avatar

    @deadtom I used the 3100 for years and then got my dad's D7500 when he passed away a few years ago. It is a little heavier, but otherwise an upgrade in every way. I have since moved to a Z5, which I love, but the D7500 is still great.

    One thing I didn't know for years until I started looking at full-frame lenses for the Z: you can use "screw drive" AF/AF-D autofocus lenses on the D7500. There are some great, cheap, used lenses that I wish I had been using, like the AF 20mm f/2.8.

    TonyStark, to random
    @TonyStark@progressivecafe.social avatar

    A common sense approach, in my opinion.

    Open Letter to College and University Presidents on Student Protests | ACLU
    https://www.aclu.org/news/free-speech/open-letter-to-college-and-university-presidents-on-student-protests

    richard_merren,
    @richard_merren@mastodon.social avatar

    @TonyStark These are great general principles when everyone is behaving well, which has been the case in many places where police swooped in unnecessarily. But what do you with the Columbia encampment physically removing "Zionists" from the public spaces? How about building or office occupations? How do you remove outside protesters (or do you)? Are Hamas flags threatening speech? Bringing in cops in riot gear is obviously wrong, but what is the right way for an administration to handle this?

    richard_merren,
    @richard_merren@mastodon.social avatar

    @mhanson101 @TonyStark Did you read the article. I did. I read it a second time before I replied again. This topic is impossible to discuss. People assume that every attempt to discuss is a secret plan to trick you somehow. It is ridiculous. If you don't like my question, or think it is beneath you, or you think it is some kind of sinister plan, thendon't answer it. But I honestly don't see how you get an accusation of pro-hamas sympathies out of my post or see it as any kind of attack on you.

    richard_merren,
    @richard_merren@mastodon.social avatar

    @mhanson101 @TonyStark And you get folks like mhanson who are just excited to have an opportunity to dunk on people when they see what looks like a conflict brewing.

    richard_merren,
    @richard_merren@mastodon.social avatar

    @mhanson101 @TonyStark And do your condescending lessons in reading comprehension extend to answering the asked question of what administrators should do in that case (which is not a "what if" as you rudely and falsely tossed out in your comment, but an actual thing on video from Columbia)? Sending in riot cops is bad all around. So what more surgical tools do they have to stop that bad behavior without infringing on the rest of the protest? This is what I didn't see in the ACLU article.

    richard_merren,
    @richard_merren@mastodon.social avatar

    @TonyStark @mhanson101 There is a video of students linking arms and chanting that zionists have entered the camp and physically forcing them out in an advancing line. There are lots of instances of students being denied access to buildings. There have been plenty of examples of occupied offices and buildings. (Yes, there are also tons of videos and testimonials of respectful, peaceful behavior.)

    When administrators set the sensible policies in the ACLU letter, what are the enforcement tools?

    richard_merren,
    @richard_merren@mastodon.social avatar

    @TonyStark @mhanson101 i don't want the students arrested and expelled for everything, both because that is an over-the-top response, and because theirnar,their are, presence creates dangers and inflames the situation. I agree with the ACLU piece you posted. The police action here at UT was ridiculous and dangerous. But after setting reasonable rules, what are reasonable measures that universities have to address behavior in progress outside of these reasonable rules?

    richard_merren,
    @richard_merren@mastodon.social avatar

    @TonyStark @mhanson101 Check your assumptions.. I have been a supporters the ACLU for decades. When George Bush (the older one) started complaining about "card-carrying ACLU members", I demanded that they send me a card I could carry. I know you hear a lot of crap from people here, but stop making up and arguing against crap that you are not hearing from me.

    richard_merren,
    @richard_merren@mastodon.social avatar

    @mhanson101 @TonyStark As I said, but you are not hearing, I agree with the article. I am asking what universities can do other than call police, expel, or ignore. How are bad actors removed. The article (rightly, I have to say to you YET AGAIN) says not to use riot police, but doesn't offer suggestions on what is a good way to proceed. Obviously these administrators need public advice on how to nonviolently enforce rules, but he ACLU offered no advice and I don't know what to tell them. Do you?

    richard_merren,
    @richard_merren@mastodon.social avatar

    @TonyStark @mhanson101 Again, I read it and am discussing what was omitted. How do they disperse? Do they come to the camps and just say "please disperse"? Because that is obviously being done and not terribly effective. What is the mechanism by which they disperse students as in your excerpt? I genuinely do not know the answer, and it is clear that the university administrators have no clue how to do this. The ACLU, while great, offers no suggestion on how to do this.

    richard_merren,
    @richard_merren@mastodon.social avatar

    @TonyStark @mhanson101 Ok thanks for the illuminating talk. Have a nice Sunday.

    richard_merren,
    @richard_merren@mastodon.social avatar

    @TonyStark @mhanson101 This is just such a wrong assessment of what happened here, but you can't see through anger. I didn't disagree with you, didn't challenge the article, and didn't express any support for police on campus. I don't know what you're digging in about but I'm tired of the insults and the randos piling on with invitations to fuck myself. I still honestly have no idea why my post set you off, but I really don't care anymore. Go be pissed off about something else.

    mhoye, to random
    @mhoye@mastodon.social avatar

    Not gonna lie, I kind of love saying "when I was your age video games were only on channel 3" and then watching the yoots trying to parse that sentence.

    richard_merren,
    @richard_merren@mastodon.social avatar

    @mhoye

    AnnaAnthro, to Argentina
    @AnnaAnthro@mastodon.social avatar

    ’s President Javier Milei’s attachment to his ‘ghost’ dog raises sanity worries

    “…facing questions about his late pet Conan, whom he had cloned into 4 copies he refers to as his ‘children’.

    An unauthorised biography has claimed that Milei consults his dogs – dead & alive – with the help of an ‘interspecies communication’ medium.”

    https://www.scmp.com/news/world/americas/article/3260597/barking-mad-argentina-leader-javier-mileis-attachment-ghost-dog-raises-sanity-worries

    richard_merren,
    @richard_merren@mastodon.social avatar

    @AnnaAnthro At least that's better than Kristi Noem the puppy-killer...

    GottaLaff, to legal
    @GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

    NOTE: I have stuff to do today. My live posting will be limited. So will my replies/reading your replies.

    THREAD: 🧵 1/…

    Klasfeld:

    Now

    Trump enters the courtroom and is seated at the defense table.

    Photojournalists go close up in front of him, as usual, to take their photos.

    "All rise."

    Justice Merchan takes the bench and invites Trump's lawyer Emil Bove to put their email exchange from Wednesday on the record.

    It's an evidentiary issue.

    richard_merren,
    @richard_merren@mastodon.social avatar

    @GottaLaff I hope this nugget--that ABC was buying salacious news stories with offers of a slot on other show--gets some discussion. It seems seedy and gross.

    TonyStark, to random
    @TonyStark@progressivecafe.social avatar

    One of the biggest complaints I get when I post about our necessary transition to clean energy is “the grid can’t handle it” which is an uninformed statement as is, but developments are always being made to make it stronger.

    Here’s one plan that will definitely raise grid reliability. As needs rise, so do solutions if you have people in charge who are actually interested in addressing climate issues.

    The Biden admin has a plan to get more mileage out of the power grid:
    https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/transmission/the-biden-admin-has-a-plan-to-get-more-mileage-out-of-the-power-grid

    richard_merren,
    @richard_merren@mastodon.social avatar

    @TonyStark Our grid in Texas can't handle things like "winter" and "summer".

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