@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

zakalwe

@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com

Culture Special Circumstances, detached.

pp desc for vision impaired: The N7 (Systems Alliance Special Forces) Seal from the Mass Effect games.

Neuro-spicy. Aspie pretending (sometimes badly) to be human (at least, it often feels that way) while fighting depression and chronic insomnia. Aspiring mostly-SF writer, burned-out IT geek, humanist who wants to see us make at least a token effort to stop enshittifying our entire planet. Is there really anything so incredibly, soul-threateningly terrible about the idea of giving a shit about other people?

Something I said pissed you off? It may be a misunderstanding, I'm far from immune to foot-in-mouth disease. Please check with me before you assume it was malicious. It most likely wasn't. If I don't think you're someone worth talking to, I just won't talk to you in the first place, period.

Follow-backs: If you have something to say, sure. No posts? Nothing to say? What would be the point? In the words of @PatternChaser, "I don't follow back, I follow interesting." I'm trying to keep the signal-to-noise ratio in my feed high. Still, if you follow me and I see it, I will do my best to at least find time to look. I can't guarantee I won't miss it, I'm not awake 24/7.
(And sorry, but don't expect me to follow you if you're posting the same dozen posts, day in, day out, day after day after week after month. In fact I'll most likely mute you.)

Came here to put words into my mouth so you could attack me over something I didn't say? (Yeah, sadly, it's happened.) Just don't. I WILL block your ass. Nobody has time for that shit.

Geek Stuff: I run Gentoo Linux, and I maintain a personal overlay with packages for dev-perl/Tk-MListbox, sys-apps/procmeter3, net-misc/icbm, media-sound/perljammer, app-crypt/sherpa, and app-editors/xnedit. Of those, net-misc/icbm and media-sound/perljammer are my own projects.

#nobot #writer #geek #linux #mysql #Gentoo #nosystemd #science

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

GottaLaff, to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

LOL!

Via Rupar:

just announced that someone named Nicole Shanahan is his running mate but she hasn't been seen on stage yet

lol CNN gave up too. RFK Jr got every cable news channel to pay attention to him and then totally botched his VP rollout by endlessly talking and talking and talking

we still don't know if Nicole Shanahan is a real person. every channel has cut away and i'm giving up too.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@GottaLaff https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/26/rfk-jr-vp-nicole-shanahan

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@GottaLaff Just you were saying "We still don't know if she's a real person", and I knew I'd seen an article...

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@GottaLaff Ooooohhh, sorry, I read in too much of a hurry..... 😅

Adam_Cadmon1, to random
@Adam_Cadmon1@mastodon.online avatar

What I'm saying in all of these seemingly bizarre out of nowhere shooting posts is two things:

I know my way around firearms

and

You don't have to own a gun, but you should know how to confidently and safely handle a variety of them

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@Adam_Cadmon1 IMO knowing the basic four rules of firearms safety is like knowing how to use a fire extinguisher or knowing CPR. Even if you never plan to own one, knowing what to safely do if you find someone has left a gun on a public restroom counter (for example, yes it's happened) could save someone's life.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@qurlyjoe @Adam_Cadmon1 3 — Keep your finger off the trigger until you're on target and ready to fire, and 4 — if you're in a firing situation, be sure of your target and what/who else is in or may enter your line of fire.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@Adam_Cadmon1 @qurlyjoe And the corollary to rule 1 is that you need to know how to check a gun to know whether it's loaded.

blogdiva, to random
@blogdiva@mastodon.social avatar

WOKE, when used as a pejorative by white people, is the 21st century's equivalent of n*-lover.

or, using Noel Ignatiev’s antiracism framework: if you are WOKE, you are not just a race traitor, you are a traitor to the whole concept of whiteness.

btw:
there’s a long philological history as to how antiblackness came to be in Europe, then the Américas. it started in Spain. as it always does.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@blogdiva One of my books has a one-star review on Goodreads which complains that it is "full of woke".

You know, coming as it does from a person who apparently uses "woke" as an epithet, I'll take that as a compliment. 😇

GottaLaff, to legal
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

🧵 Via Anna Bower/David Lat: 1/…

Hm. DavidLat reports that two of Judge 's clerks quit before the end of their clerkships.

The reasons for the departures are unclear, though it appears that one clerk possibly exited for family-related reasons.

But it's highly unusual for clerks to quit mid-clerkship

Lat:

…important story I just published on Original Jurisdiction:

"Cannon Fodder: Law Clerks Quit On Judge Aileen Cannon"
Full story:

https://davidlat.substack.com/p/judge-aileen-cannon-law-clerks-quit-on-her

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@GottaLaff @Janika Guardian report this morning says she just told the legal teams to prepare jury instructions for a basically "Trump gets to simply declare everything he did completely legal because he says so" scenario. I'm like, WTF....?

zakalwe, to random
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

I don’t want to hear one more fucking word about not voting for Joe “Actually the Most Progressive President Any of Us Have Seen” Biden from anyone with basic human decency who also maintains a Twitter account.

— @Catvalente

You know what?

I don't want to hear it FROM ANYONE WHO CLAIMS TO BE A PROGRESSIVE. Because if you are refusing to vote for “Actually the Most Progressive President Any of Us Have Seen” because he only checks nine out of the ten boxes on your scorecard, you are backing The Other Guy. The Mango Mussolini. Mr. Adjudged Guilty Of Rape, Mr. 91 Felony Indictments, Mr. Half Billion Dollar Judgment For Financial Fraud, Mr. Dictator On Day One (and two, and three, and...).

Yes, what's happening in Gaza is fucking awful. That's a lousy excuse for voting for it to happen HERE. The US actually has a lot less leverage on Israel, and specifically Netanyahu, than you might think. I totally agree we should be doing more to use what little leverage we actually have,¹ not to mention, oh, perhaps not using our UN Security Council veto against measures to try to stop the genocide. But if you think that not voting against Trump is somehow going to make that any better, oh boy, is 2025 under a Trump presidency going to be a rude awakening for you.

¹ And honestly, yes, I think we should be cutting off all aid to Israel, because while doing so won't stop or even slow down Netanyahu, maintaining it certainly won't either, and at least it would make our hands a little cleaner.

zakalwe, to random
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/19/social_media_sites_headed_to/

Court to Meta, Reddit, Twitch, Alphabet, Discord, 4Chan:
"Prove that you did not radicalize this teenage mass shooter."

Should be interesting.

GottaLaff, to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

🤣

Via Catherine Rampell

lol Fox basically now holding a telethon to raise $464M bond for .

Hope billionaires and other Viewers Like You at least get a free tote bag

Via Eric Kleefeld:

Larry Kudlow personally asks Kevin O’Leary to loan Trump the $464 million bond he’ll need to appeal the New York civil fraud case, “in order to protect America’s name, think of it that way.”

O’Leary never answers that one, instead says the Supreme Court needs to intervene.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@GottaLaff "How about you twits stop trying to run a convicted fraudster and adjudged rapist as a Presidential candidate, 'in order to protect America's name'?"

kaia, to random
@kaia@brotka.st avatar

what this

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@Hapbt @kaia That looks like the Surcouf, a French "submarine cruiser" with two 8" guns, launched in 1929 and lost with all hands in the Caribbean in 1942

GottaLaff, to Israel
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

Via Emptywheel:

As you read about advising that ethnically clean Palestinians out of their home to build a beach resort, remember that at his behest, on December 22, 2016, Mike Flynn "colluded" w/Russia to protect Bibi Netanyhu fr accountability for illegal West Bank settlements. 1/...

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@GottaLaff These people are just vile beyond words.

GottaLaff, to Russia
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

has launched 130 missiles of various types, more than 320 Shahed attack drones, and almost 900 guided bombs in attacks on this March, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday - JPost

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@GottaLaff @Snowshadow They're not pro-life, they're just pro-birth.

timnitGebru, to random
@timnitGebru@dair-community.social avatar

Have you heard of expert systems? Probably not. That was the "AI" that was gonna change humanity that billions were being poured into in the 80s. The same news orgs hype stuff up during "AI summers" without even looking into their archives to see what they wrote decades ago.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@timnitGebru (Footnote: Expert systems are still in use, and are very good at the things they were designed to do. But they are not artificial intelligence and never were.)

randahl, to random
@randahl@mastodon.social avatar

With interest Trump owes USD 464 million, and today his attorneys had to admit, he will not be paying the fine, because he is unable to pay, and not a single company has been willing to help him.

When they sell Trump tower, could we please rename it Justice Tower?

Source: CNN

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@randahl Trump already does not own Trump Tower. GMAC Mortgage has owned it since 2021.

GottaLaff, to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

Via NYCSouthpaw:

Putting today’s news together:

After admitting in court that he has struck out with legitimate sources of liquidity, is looking to rehire a convicted money launderer with deep ties to Russian oligarchs interested in influencing US politics.

re:

Manafort in Talks to Return for the Republican National Convention.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@DigitalTaoist @Snowshadow @GottaLaff It is first-past-the-post, winner-takes-all. The Electoral College is a confounding feature which, at the best of times, tends to amplify the voices of lightly-populated rural states and contested states. Essentially none of the reasons the Electoral College was created to address are still valid today.

In an ideal world, if such an utter mountebank as Donald Trump were to somehow win the election, the Electoral College could overrule the vote and select a less harmful person of better character as President. In the real world, we all know that's not going to happen.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@DigitalTaoist @Snowshadow @GottaLaff One thing that should be remembered on this front is that there is a compact of states which have pledges that as soon as the signatory states reach a total of 270 electoral votes, the minimum needed for a majority, all of the electoral votes of all of those states will be cast to the winner of the popular vote nationwide even if that candidate did not win that state.

GottaLaff, (edited ) to legal
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

1/…

has been unable to get bond for $464 million judgment, his lawyers say

In a filing to an appeals court, Trump's attorneys said getting the bond needed to halt proceedings while they appeal is a "practical impossibility." https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-unable-get-bond-464-million-judgment-lawyers-say-rcna143860

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@GottaLaff @peachfront ... Which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@GottaLaff @peachfront (sorry for unthinkingly voicing the cliché...)

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@GottaLaff @peachfront I know it's a pet peeve, which is why I TRY to remember not to do it. 😅

timrichards, to random
@timrichards@aus.social avatar

A difficult truth, but it's so. If Putin succeeds in Ukraine, he'll go further.

How will the Ukraine war end? Only when Vladimir Putin is toppled

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/16/raising-white-flag-in-kyiv-will-never-make-the-putin-problem-go-away?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@timrichards Absolutely. Putin WILL NOT stop at Ukraine. Fight him in Ukraine today ... or in Poland tomorrow, and in your living room next year.

hosford42, to random
@hosford42@techhub.social avatar

Being hyper-abled and disabled are not mutually exclusive. That's why there are terms for people who exist at both ends of the ability/disability spectrum at the same time. "Twice exceptional", "idiot savant", "splinter skills", "spiky skill profile"... These are a few of the terms invented specifically to describe such a pattern. Autistic people, in particular, are likely to fit this pattern.







zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@BernieDoesIt @violetmadder @hosford42 knave is such an under-used word. :)

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@BernieDoesIt @violetmadder @hosford42 To continue the thought — knave, though, really doesn't carry that context, at least to me. A knave can be a deceitful, dishonest person who chooses to act dishonorably or to live outside the law; or simply a servant (usually a young male) or someone of ignoble birth. (See also villein and rogue.) Neither of these contexts have bearing on the objective wisdom or foolishness of a person's actions. I am finding myself having great difficulty up with any adjective much different from "unwise" or "ill-advised" to negatively describe the wisdom of actions, that does not have a noun form typically applied to a person to indicate that they behave, whether intentionally or not, in ill-advised ways, and your argument seems to me to be that any such noun, and therefore any such adjective, is automatically ableist.

Now I see two problems with this. The first is that if all negative terms in any subject are excluded as ableist, it becomes impossible to express a negative opinion of something in that subject. And then you lose the ability to criticize — in this case, bad actions. And if you start using instead words like 'jerk' and 'asshole' to convey different meanings than are usually understood by them, as substitutes, then you've done two things. First, you've confused people as to what you mean. And second, by using those words as substitutes for a category of words that you've decided are ableist, you have de facto moved them into that category, and now you can't use them either, because now they are ableist.

The second problem I have with it is that if you assert that using words such as 'stupid' and 'idiotic' to describe bad actions or people who choose them is ableist about some certain set of people, then it seems to me that is tantamount to saying that bad actions of that type distinctively identify that set of people. And now by trying not to be ableist about them, you are being ableist about them.

Ultimately, the gripping hand is I think you may be trying to read too much into this. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and sometimes a stupid action is just a stupid action. All of us are stupid at times, because we all do stupid things, whether through malice, ignorance, thoughtlessness, or forgetfulness — or even because we're in a bad mood. "Stupid is as stupid does, Sir!"

Saltssaltgirl, to random
@Saltssaltgirl@mas.to avatar

When I leave teaching, it won't be because of the kids. The kids are the only reason I stay. I'm afraid they will feel like no one cares about them; so I stay.

But, I want to run. I want to know what's it's like to be appreciated by my superiors. I want people to follow through with promises. I want people to stop letting down our kids.

"They" wonder why there's a shortage of teachers, but I don't.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@Saltssaltgirl Bluntly? America treats schoolteachers like shit. You might be surprised how many of us are aware of that.

Education is an investment in a nation's future, and America is pissing its future down the drain. And that has brought us where we are now.

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