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Reposted by Don Cruse

@attorneydad.bsky.social

Austin-area types: one of my favorite people was a career diplomat with USAID until there wasn’t one. He and family are back in Central Texas. Any job ideas, recruiters, or just generally good networking contacts I can share with him?

October 8, 2025 at 5:08 PM

Reposted by Don Cruse

Adi Robertson

@thedextriarchy.bsky.social

the verge and various other sites have referred to DOGE as "fake" or "not real" a lot because musk didn't follow the legal rules for creating a US government department, and the effect this apparently had on google's magic answer machine is truly incredible

iucounu @iucounu.bsky.social · Sep 10

was idly looking up how many people DOGE is projected to kill and Google’s AI informed me that it was all in my head and that DOGE isn’t real

• Al Overview
"DOGE" in the search results does not refer to the cryptocurrency Dogecoin, but rather to the fictional "Department of Governance and Efficiency" from a political satire or conspiracy theory, which has been blamed for hypothetical deaths related to alleged funding cuts to public health initiatives. There is no actual government department named DOGE, and the term is used in critical or satirical contexts to refer to policies or actions taken by the Trump administration. o
Here's a breakdown of the context:
• DOGE as a Fictional Department: Several sources identify "DOGE" as a fictional
"Department of Governance and Efficiency" from a political narrative or satire. o
• Blame for Deaths: This fictional entity has been blamed in articles and reports for causing deaths due to alleged cuts in foreign aid and public health funding.

more gaslighting

• Criticism and Satire: Bill Gates, for example, has criticized what he perceived as massive cuts to global health programs, linking them to potential millions of deaths, which could be interpreted as a response to the fictional
"DOGE" policies. o
• No Real Department: It is crucial to understand that there is no actual government entity named DOGE, and the discussion around it is part of political discourse or satire, not a factual government action.

September 10, 2025 at 5:44 PM

Reposted by Don Cruse

Quinn Yeargain

@yeargain.bsky.social

I'm reading through the lawsuit now, and I'm going to live-post my reactions to it. The lawsuit is linked below. My immediate reaction: this is really bad, and egregiously misstates the law in a painfully obvious way.
gov.texas.gov/uploads/file...

Jessica Montoya Coggins @jessicamcoggins.bsky.social · Aug 5

INBOX: Texas Governor Greg Abbott has filed a lawsuit in the state Supreme Court against State Rep. Gene Wu, the Chair of the Texas Democratic Caucus, seeking his removal from office

Lawsuit by Texas Governor Greg Abbott against Rep. Gene Wu seeking to remove him from office

August 5, 2025 at 10:42 PM

Reposted by Don Cruse

Alexandra Petri

@petridishes.bsky.social

it’s even more demoralizing when the history you’re repeating is history you were around for the first time

June 22, 2025 at 1:44 AM

Reposted by Don Cruse

Kate Jackson

@katejackson.bsky.social

Here is Rico from Cincinnati eating popcorn

youtube.com/shorts/6uz3X...

Rico Loves National Popcorn Day - Cincinnati Zoo

YouTube video by The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden

youtube.com

January 29, 2025 at 12:44 AM

Reposted by Don Cruse

Rebecca Tushnet

@rtushnet.bsky.social

"Rebecca Tushnet, the Frank Stanton professor of First Amendment law at Harvard Law School, put it more simply: 'It’s ridiculous junk and should be mocked.'” www.cnn.com/2024/11/01/m...

Trump sues CBS over ‘60 Minutes’ interview with Harris. Legal experts call it ‘frivolous and dangerous’ | CNN Business

Former President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Thursday against CBS broadcasting Inc. and CBS Interactive Inc., demanding $10 billion in damages over the network’s “60 Minutes” interview with Vice Pres...

www.cnn.com

November 2, 2024 at 4:54 PM

Reposted by Don Cruse

Elizabeth Spiers

@espiers.bsky.social

Happy Halloween from Brooklyn. The 9 year old says he got no bad candy. I told him that was bc the candy was dispensed by Gen Xers still traumatized by the memory of circus peanuts, those weird peanut butter candies in orange and black wrappings, loose handfuls of candy corn, and dirty pennies

November 1, 2024 at 1:32 AM

Reposted by Don Cruse

Alexandra Petri

@petridishes.bsky.social

I guess it has fallen to me, the humor columnist, to endorse Harris for president wapo.st/3UqHWRM

The Washington Post is not bothering to endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential election. (Jeff Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin and the founder and executive chairman of Amazon and Amazon Web Services, also owns The Post.)
We as a newspaper suddenly remembered, less than two weeks before the election, that we had a robust tradition 50 years ago of not telling anyone what to do with their vote for president. It is time we got back to those “roots,” I’m told!
Roots are important, of course. As recently as the 1970s, The Post did not endorse a candidate for president. As recently as centuries ago, there was no Post and the country had a king! Go even further back, and the entire continent of North America was totally uninhabitable, and we were all spineless creatures who lived in the ocean, and certainly there were no Post subscribers.

But if I were the paper, I would be a little embarrassed that it has fallen to me, the humor columnist, to make our presidential endorsement. I will spare you the suspense: I am endorsing Kamala Harris for president, because I like elections and want to keep having them.
Let me tell you something. I am having a baby (It’s a boy!), and he is expected on Jan. 6, 2025 (It’s a … Proud Boy?). This is either slightly funny or not at all funny. This whole election, I have been lurching around, increasingly heavily pregnant, nauseated, unwieldy, full of the commingled hopes and terrors that come every time you are on the verge of introducing a new person to the world.
Well, that world will look very different, depending on the outcome of November’s election, and I care which world my kid gets born into. I also live here myself. And I happen to care about the people who are already here, in this world. Come to think of it, I have a lot of reasons for caring how the election goes. I think it should be obvious that this is not an election for sitting out.

The case for Donald Trump is “I erroneously think the economy used to be better? I know that he has made many ominous-sounding threats about mass deportations, going after his political enemies, shutting down the speech of those who disagree with him (especially media outlets), and that he wants to make things worse for almost every category of person — people with wombs, immigrants, transgender people, journalists, protesters, people of color — but … maybe he’ll forget.”
“But maybe he’ll forget” is not enough to hang a country on!
Embarrassingly enough, I like this country. But everything good about it has been the product of centuries of people who had no reason to hope for better but chose to believe that better things were possible, clawing their way uphill — protesting, marching, voting, and, yes, doing the work of journalism — to build this fragile thing called democracy. But to be fragile is not the same as to be perishable, as G.K. Chesterton wrote. Simply do not break a glass, and it will last a thousand years. Smash it, and it will not last an instant. Democracy is like that: fragile, but only if you shatter it.

Trust is like that, too, as newspapers know.
I’m just a humor columnist. I only know what’s happening because our actual journalists are out there reporting, knowing that their editors have their backs, that there’s no one too powerful to report on, that we would never pull a punch out of fear. That’s what our readers deserve and expect: that we are saying what we really think, reporting what we really see; that if we think Trump should not return to the White House and Harris would make a fine president, we’re going to be able to say so.

That’s why I, the humor columnist, am endorsing Kamala Harris by myself!

October 26, 2024 at 10:50 PM

Reposted by Don Cruse

Quinta Jurecic

@qjurecic.bsky.social

the hilarious thing is that the "non-denial denial" (of which this is an example) entered the cultural lexicon thanks to ben bradlee, during watergate

Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · Oct 26

This is so insulting from Lewis. “Did not see the draft I wrote” =/= “did not tell me what to do”

Tweet from Ben mullin: NEW: Will Lewis, the C.E.O. of The Washington Post, issues a statement saying Jeff Bezos "was not sent, did not read and did not opine on any draft" of an endorsement for president.

"We are an independent newspaper and should support our readers’ ability to make up their own minds.”

October 26, 2024 at 4:46 PM

Don Cruse

@doncruse.com

Of possible interest to court watchers: these new Twitter terms of service have a forum selection clause choosing NDTX rather than the district where Twitter HQ will actually be located (WDTX). The terms put state court suits in Tarrant County (Fort Worth), from which some could be removed to NDTX.

Ravin Boodram @rvbdrm.com · Oct 16

The new TOS replaces the California office with the new location in Texas.

So, Texas state law governs the new TOS.

I don't see anything about force arbitration, but this is Texas...

"The laws of the State of Texas, excluding its choice of law provisions, will govern these Terms and any dispute that arises between you and us, notwithstanding any other agreement between you and us to the contrary. All disputes related to these Terms or the Services, including without limitation disputes related to or arising from other users’ and third parties’ use of the Services and any Content made available by other users and third parties on the Services, will be brought exclusively in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas or state courts located in Tarrant County, Texas, United States, and you consent to personal jurisdiction in those forums and waive any objection as to inconvenient forum. Without prejudice to the foregoing, you agree that, in its sole discretion, X may bring any claim, cause of action, or dispute we have against you in any competent court in the country in which you reside that has jurisdiction and venue over the claim."

October 16, 2024 at 8:17 PM

Reposted by Don Cruse

Ariel Edwards-Levy

@aedwardslevy.bsky.social

the october surprise is october being tomorrow

September 30, 2024 at 8:26 PM

Reposted by Don Cruse

Madame Hardy

@madamehardy.bsky.social

I'll never forget the staff meeting where the senior engineer, who always knitted during meetings, said at the ending, "Well, I got an inch of sock out of that; I don't know what the rest of you got."

She went on to become a professional sock designer and wrote a book on reading charts.

September 29, 2024 at 1:10 AM

Reposted by Don Cruse

Amanda Marcotte

@amandamarcotte.bsky.social

Wild stuff! Doug Emhoff and Gavin Newsom stopped by Latchkey Records — owned by my partner Marc Faletti — this afternoon!

So I interviewed my own boyfriend about it. 😂 The good news is Marc is an awesome storyteller with a great eye for funny details.

www.salon.com/2024/09/10/e...

Exclusive: Doug Emhoff bought records at my boyfriend's store

The Second Gentleman purchased New Order, Stone Roses, and Chappell Roan

www.salon.com

September 10, 2024 at 11:28 PM

Don Cruse

@doncruse.com

Congratulations to Bluesky for moving from the "we're going to need more engineers!" to "we're going to need more lawyers!" part of the growth curve.

September 3, 2024 at 7:56 PM

Reposted by Don Cruse

Erin Fogg says Free Link

@criminalerin.bsky.social

JD Vance, to a glazed donut: so how long u worked here. Ok. Good.

August 22, 2024 at 10:24 PM

Reposted by Don Cruse

Sarah J. Jackson

@sjjphd.bsky.social

Someone hurry and tell the pundits that satire and humor are a grand and ancient rhetorical tradition that happens as a way to punch up at the bullies who won’t stop punching down. The audience of satire is in on the joke, if you aren’t in on the joke, sorry for you.

Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · Aug 12

The performance of political neutrality destroys nuance. There is no way a person who takes themselves seriously can equate misinformation like “Hillary Clinton runs a child rape ring” and “immigrants are raping everybody” with a joke about sexual relations w/ a couch that everyone knows is a joke.

August 12, 2024 at 3:00 PM

Reposted by Don Cruse

Jamie Levine Daniel

@jamielevdan.bsky.social

10 yo: yes that's the US. They look American.

Me: what does that mean to you, looking American?

10yo, waving hands are tv: all of that. They all look different.

July 26, 2024 at 8:02 PM

Reposted by Don Cruse

the Mountain Goats

@themountaingoats.bsky.social

You reach a point where a friend dies and you say: sixty-one! that so young. When you are in your twenties and struggling that point is hard to visualize - you feel like forty more years will be too much. May all who struggle today live in the hope of knowing that sixty-one is so young, so young.

May 8, 2024 at 6:22 PM

Don Cruse

@doncruse.com

I momentarily forgot the name of the "TSA" and, stg, just spelled it out by remembering "tub stacking agency."

May 3, 2024 at 7:11 PM

Reposted by Don Cruse

Big Fat Bartolo's Colon

@bigfatbartolocolon.bsky.social

another great thing books do is they usually have a brief bio of the person who wrote the things in there, so you can get a sense if they are full of shit or not. more data sources should let you know if they were created by a total cretin.

March 23, 2024 at 6:47 PM

Don Cruse

@doncruse.com

Is this Navarro opinion by Roberts the first "in-chambers opinion" the Supreme Court has issued in literally years?

SCOTUS has a page for them. It's empty (before this one): www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/in-...

Per, Wikipedia this might be the first in a decade: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-cham...

Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · Mar 18

NEW: CJ Roberts DENIES Peter Navarro's bid to stay out of prison pending appeal

The application for release pending appeal under 18
U.S. C. §3113(b) is denied. This application concerns only the question whether the applicant, Peter Navarro, has met his burden to establish his entitlement to relief under the Bail Reform Act. The Court of Appeals disposed of the proceeding on the ground that Navarro "forfeited" any argument in this release proceeding challenging the District Court's conclusion that "executive privilege was not in-voked," "forfeited any challenge" to the conclusion that relief would not be required in any event because of the qualified nature of executive privilege, and "forfeited any challenge" to the conclusion that apart from executive priv-ilege, he was still obligated to appear before Congress and answer questions seeking information outside the scope of the asserted privilege. Order in No. 24-3006 (DC, Mar. 14,
2024). I see no basis to disagree with the determination that Navarro forfeited those arguments in the release proceeding.

March 18, 2024 at 10:17 PM

Reposted by Don Cruse

Kashmir Hill

@kashhill.bsky.social

I’ve been lurking in car forums for the last few months and saw reports from drivers of General Motors cars that GM was selling their driving data to LexisNexis. It was resulting in their insurance going up. Can that be true, I thought.

Reported it out. Yes. True.
www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/t...