@radicalrealism.bsky.social
This Warzel piece reveals the shallowness, callowness & callousness of every elite who had contact w/ Epstein. Their interactions are all transactional, i.e., offers or offer-seeking in the mode of quid pro quos.
Importance: High
subj: An article for U (gift link)
i wrote ,,,,,, about jeff epstein. s emails.
www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
subj: An article for U (gift link)
i wrote ,,,,,, about jeff epstein. s emails.
www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
When QAnon Meets Veep
The dumb, abhorrent truth at the heart of the Epstein scandal
www.theatlantic.com
November 14, 2025 at 8:09 PM
This Warzel piece reveals the shallowness, callowness & callousness of every elite who had contact w/ Epstein. Their interactions are all transactional, i.e., offers or offer-seeking in the mode of quid pro quos.
A 27 screen cineplex operaring 24 hours/day doesn't project this much. Not even in a year.
Trump just now: “Epstein was a Democrat, and he is the Democrat's problem, not the Republican's problem! …Don’t waste your time with Trump. “
November 14, 2025 at 6:10 PM
A 27 screen cineplex operaring 24 hours/day doesn't project this much. Not even in a year.
That algorithms & AI often fail to distinguish reality from fiction is reason enough not to rely on either to judiciously & humanely mediate social interaction or the search for truth, i.e., to remove & dispose of errors injected--intentionally or not--into discourse or scientific inquiry.
I got suspended for an entire day once for calling Blanche Devereaux from the Golden Girls a slut. A thing she and every other character on the show said all the time.
November 14, 2025 at 5:13 PM
That algorithms & AI often fail to distinguish reality from fiction is reason enough not to rely on either to judiciously & humanely mediate social interaction or the search for truth, i.e., to remove & dispose of errors injected--intentionally or not--into discourse or scientific inquiry.
Reposted
The DOJ is suing California over Prop 50, saying it's a "brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process."
Nothing mocks democracy like a president ordering red states to gerrymander while prosecuting a blue state for letting its voters decide.
Nothing mocks democracy like a president ordering red states to gerrymander while prosecuting a blue state for letting its voters decide.
November 13, 2025 at 11:35 PM
The DOJ is suing California over Prop 50, saying it's a "brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process."
Nothing mocks democracy like a president ordering red states to gerrymander while prosecuting a blue state for letting its voters decide.
Nothing mocks democracy like a president ordering red states to gerrymander while prosecuting a blue state for letting its voters decide.
If this keeps up AI won't evolve to kill off or enslave the human race, at least not directly. Human use of AI will crash the world economy by making the internet & digital technologies unusable for trade & communication. That will unleashed chaos & uncertainty, but at least AI will be thwarted. 🤦♂️
(WSJ) -- China's state-sponsored hackers used artificial intelligence technology from Anthropic to automate break-ins of major corporations and foreign governments during a September hacking campaign, the company said Thursday.
@wsj.com
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/chin...
@wsj.com
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/chin...
November 13, 2025 at 9:05 PM
If this keeps up AI won't evolve to kill off or enslave the human race, at least not directly. Human use of AI will crash the world economy by making the internet & digital technologies unusable for trade & communication. That will unleashed chaos & uncertainty, but at least AI will be thwarted. 🤦♂️
This is a good assessment of the larger political realities behind & implicit in the DEM+1 defectors' capitulation to Trump/GOP. There are a couple of points I wish to expound on. A thread:
www.thenation.com/article/poli...
www.thenation.com/article/poli...
Democrats Should Have Let Republicans Kill the Filibuster
Instead of caving on the shutdown, Democrats should have waited for the GOP to cave on Trump’s demand to scotch this antidemocratic tactic.
www.thenation.com
November 12, 2025 at 4:05 AM
This is a good assessment of the larger political realities behind & implicit in the DEM+1 defectors' capitulation to Trump/GOP. There are a couple of points I wish to expound on. A thread:
www.thenation.com/article/poli...
www.thenation.com/article/poli...
Great short thread on the intangibles of institutional politics in an age of unscrupulous political partisans & the replacement of policy discourse w/ rhetoric & recrimination, i.e., thunderdome politics.
(1 of 3) I used to negotiate for a living, and I'm trying to determine how many basic rules of negotiation these eight schmucks who somehow stumbled into becoming United States Senators violated. The list seems endless. For instance, if your negotiating partner is fucking crazy sociopathic ghoul...
November 10, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Great short thread on the intangibles of institutional politics in an age of unscrupulous political partisans & the replacement of policy discourse w/ rhetoric & recrimination, i.e., thunderdome politics.
Durbin fails to understand how the GOP works, wch is, adversely to democracy, justice, decency & basic good-faith. The GOP must not be trusted to keep promises & obey norms because they have repeatedly reneged & transgressed. Norms apply only to those who obey them. Guess who obeys? Every damn time!
Durbin said critics of his vote “need to understand how the Senate works”
November 10, 2025 at 4:11 AM
Durbin fails to understand how the GOP works, wch is, adversely to democracy, justice, decency & basic good-faith. The GOP must not be trusted to keep promises & obey norms because they have repeatedly reneged & transgressed. Norms apply only to those who obey them. Guess who obeys? Every damn time!
Reposted
Expel the yes votes from the party and cut off all their access to fundraising, then remove Schumer from leadership. Anything less is mealy-mouthed coward bullshit.
As this vote moves to the House, I stand with Democratic leadership as they refuse to rubber stamp the full-scale Republican assault on Americans’ health care and I am proud of the majority of Senate Democrats who opposed this vote.
November 10, 2025 at 2:56 AM
Expel the yes votes from the party and cut off all their access to fundraising, then remove Schumer from leadership. Anything less is mealy-mouthed coward bullshit.
Using retail consumption as any kind of indicator of economic prosperity doesn't capture all the unrequited demand for luxury goods due to inequality, wch wld negate much of the perception of prosperity. Trying to objectively define or quantify prosperity this way is delusional; it's truly relative.
I followed the chain back and I don't think the claim is really consensus belief on here, I just think the relevant nexus of beliefs highly correlates with "likely to get in a fight with Will Stancil" and that is distorting his perception somewhat.
This is literally the consensus belief on this website. And because everyone knows it’s the consensus belief, big tastemaker accounts completely refuse to challenge it, because their game is to say things that they know the majority of their audience will agree with. So the falsehood spreads.
November 10, 2025 at 1:27 AM
Using retail consumption as any kind of indicator of economic prosperity doesn't capture all the unrequited demand for luxury goods due to inequality, wch wld negate much of the perception of prosperity. Trying to objectively define or quantify prosperity this way is delusional; it's truly relative.
This post and the one it's quoting each deserve more than one like and re-post. Alas!
👇🎯 Unfortunately, this is true & probably the only way. Voters need to realize that hating government, & illegally defunding & dismantling it, & pretending that we can run a modern society/economy on Ronald Reagan's shabby talking point & worn copies of Atlas Shrugged & Mein Kampf is untenable.
Democrats have to stop bailing out Republicans from facing the consequences of their own policies. And yeah, that means they have to stop sparing voters from experiencing what GOP government truly means.
Every time Dems step in, it only emboldens the GOP & they make it even worse the next time.
Every time Dems step in, it only emboldens the GOP & they make it even worse the next time.
November 10, 2025 at 1:00 AM
This post and the one it's quoting each deserve more than one like and re-post. Alas!
I have no notes . . . because I can't stop shaking my damn head.
With a “WOW!,” President Trump posts a claim about DOGE and “royalties linked to Obamacare” that originated on a satirical website. That site’s own About section reads: “Everything on this website is fiction… If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined.”
November 9, 2025 at 4:53 PM
I have no notes . . . because I can't stop shaking my damn head.
Reposted
Reposted
Have you heard of “The Populist Playbook?”
A few years ago, I posted what I still consider one of my most important messages.
It was about “The Populist Playbook” that I’ve watched play out often over my 33+ years of city planning.
Since then, it’s only gotten worse.
Do the steps sound familiar?
A few years ago, I posted what I still consider one of my most important messages.
It was about “The Populist Playbook” that I’ve watched play out often over my 33+ years of city planning.
Since then, it’s only gotten worse.
Do the steps sound familiar?
November 8, 2025 at 12:48 AM
Have you heard of “The Populist Playbook?”
A few years ago, I posted what I still consider one of my most important messages.
It was about “The Populist Playbook” that I’ve watched play out often over my 33+ years of city planning.
Since then, it’s only gotten worse.
Do the steps sound familiar?
A few years ago, I posted what I still consider one of my most important messages.
It was about “The Populist Playbook” that I’ve watched play out often over my 33+ years of city planning.
Since then, it’s only gotten worse.
Do the steps sound familiar?
There's an asymmetry of purposes, priorities & realities btwn L & R intellectuals that reorients the salience of the OP's point below.
LW intellectuals (LWi) read RWi to comprehend & analyze RW ideas & policies, & LW criticism of RW ideas & policies naturally flows from that academic endeavor.
LW intellectuals (LWi) read RWi to comprehend & analyze RW ideas & policies, & LW criticism of RW ideas & policies naturally flows from that academic endeavor.
I've been reporting on the Right for 25 years. You're mistaken. Their *strategists* spend an enormous amount of time studying liberal and left writers and generally are far more aware of the range of left & lib thinking than most of left/lib are of rightwing thinking. But so what? They're wrong.
November 7, 2025 at 10:25 PM
There's an asymmetry of purposes, priorities & realities btwn L & R intellectuals that reorients the salience of the OP's point below.
LW intellectuals (LWi) read RWi to comprehend & analyze RW ideas & policies, & LW criticism of RW ideas & policies naturally flows from that academic endeavor.
LW intellectuals (LWi) read RWi to comprehend & analyze RW ideas & policies, & LW criticism of RW ideas & policies naturally flows from that academic endeavor.
I second this motion!
Steve Bannon: If we lose the midterms and we lose 2028, some in this room are going to prison, myself included.
November 7, 2025 at 12:27 AM
I second this motion!
"[A] strong pro-democracy conservative party" is a whimsical notion, not a serious idea. Conservatism is inherently illiberal, i.e., rigidly conventional & intransigently opposed to non-traditional ideas & ways of being.
The other thing about Nancy Pelosi is that, like all of us who are Cassandras in political science, she was right about the need for a strong Republican Party (by which she, & we, mean a strong pro-democracy conservative party). This is deeply unpopular on Bluesky dot com, but no less true for it.
No, really, we need a strong pro-democracy conservative party to survive as a democracy. Nancy Pelosi & everyone you don't like for saying that are correct. You don't have to support it, or vote for it. You may hate its policies. But the survival of democracy requires it.
bsky.app/profile/tomp...
bsky.app/profile/tomp...
November 6, 2025 at 6:37 PM
"[A] strong pro-democracy conservative party" is a whimsical notion, not a serious idea. Conservatism is inherently illiberal, i.e., rigidly conventional & intransigently opposed to non-traditional ideas & ways of being.
The preeminent purpose of policing is to avail property rights. Policing was invented to secure the chattel of enslavers, who abused their "property" with absolute impunity, & to assuage the insecurities of enslavers who feared retribution from those they enslaved.
The nature of policing is to avoid accountability and responsibility. That is how it works, in the past, today, and in the future. (I’m not allowing responses because I don’t want to keep explaining. At this point if you tell me the police need to be more professional, I’ll just tap this.)
November 5, 2025 at 5:29 PM
The preeminent purpose of policing is to avail property rights. Policing was invented to secure the chattel of enslavers, who abused their "property" with absolute impunity, & to assuage the insecurities of enslavers who feared retribution from those they enslaved.
Prof Murray's observation (below) is one of, if not the most, critical truths to comprehend if we are going to preserve democracy as it is assailed by megalomaniacal GOPers & failed by weak DEMs.
Democracy, more than anything is a practice. I always think that the Civil Rights Movement succeeded because from the Civil War black Americans built institutions: universities, fraternities and sororities, churches, that engaged them in democratic practice.
generally speaking, and with the glaring exception of november 2024, the more directly democratic an institution has been, the better it has checked Trump (eg grand and petit juries); the more elite and insular, the less effective (the Senate, the Supreme Court, big business)
October 30, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Prof Murray's observation (below) is one of, if not the most, critical truths to comprehend if we are going to preserve democracy as it is assailed by megalomaniacal GOPers & failed by weak DEMs.
Defending un-Constitutional acts & unscrupulous behavior is a choice wch reveals the character & substance of the defender, except to remedial rubes, cultivated cultists & syndicated sycophants.
The Washington Post editorial section hit rock bottom and just kept digging.
October 26, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Defending un-Constitutional acts & unscrupulous behavior is a choice wch reveals the character & substance of the defender, except to remedial rubes, cultivated cultists & syndicated sycophants.
Admitedly, I am more of a pedant than a poet, but this piece by @annabower.bsky.social satisfied my need for details, rules & the application of reason & logic, and then the ending tickled my funny bone. It's well worth reading on multiple levels.
EXCLUSIVE: One Saturday afternoon in October, my phone lit up with a notification.
I glanced down at the message.
“Anna, Lindsey Halligan here,” it began.
So began my text exchange with the woman who is prosecuting the president's perceived political enemies.
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/anna...
I glanced down at the message.
“Anna, Lindsey Halligan here,” it began.
So began my text exchange with the woman who is prosecuting the president's perceived political enemies.
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/anna...
October 20, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Admitedly, I am more of a pedant than a poet, but this piece by @annabower.bsky.social satisfied my need for details, rules & the application of reason & logic, and then the ending tickled my funny bone. It's well worth reading on multiple levels.
Corporations being granted the rights, privileges & circumstantial immunities of people, while also being exempt from possible legal liabilities that accrue to people bc of their actions, is immoral & the proximate cause of individual decadence & social decline.
Do you have any extremely niche, but serious, ethical stances?
October 20, 2025 at 7:05 AM
Corporations being granted the rights, privileges & circumstantial immunities of people, while also being exempt from possible legal liabilities that accrue to people bc of their actions, is immoral & the proximate cause of individual decadence & social decline.
Why don't we brainstorm ways to reaffirm & reinforce prosocial behavior instead of, or at least in addition to, dwelling on antisocial behavior?
We gotta do a nationwide inquest into antisocial behavior. Leaving your dog's poop on the street. Not returning shopping carts. The What's Wrong With You initiative
people playing music/videos on their phone speakers in public is more than just mildly annoying and is instead a leading indicator of the decline of community and empath
October 20, 2025 at 6:31 AM
Why don't we brainstorm ways to reaffirm & reinforce prosocial behavior instead of, or at least in addition to, dwelling on antisocial behavior?
A republic is made up of offices & inst'ns. A democracy consists of the interactions, processes & practices--many codified in Const/law, but many demarcated only by taboos & norms--engaged in btwn constituents, offices & inst'ns. Neither the Const. nor inst'ns are self-executing.
we are not having a lot of luck with institutional pushback - everyone who does is fired and replaced
we are definitely not having any luck with “norms”
what we are having luck with is ordinary people looking at the incompetent bullshit put in front of them and going “absolutely not”
we are definitely not having any luck with “norms”
what we are having luck with is ordinary people looking at the incompetent bullshit put in front of them and going “absolutely not”
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro lost 3x in a closely watched case that arose during the transfer of detainees to ICE outside of the D.C. jail.
~three grand jury no bills;
~one acquittal by the judge;
~one acquittal by the petit jury.
Juries are doing their jobs.
talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
~three grand jury no bills;
~one acquittal by the judge;
~one acquittal by the petit jury.
Juries are doing their jobs.
talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
October 17, 2025 at 7:02 PM
A republic is made up of offices & inst'ns. A democracy consists of the interactions, processes & practices--many codified in Const/law, but many demarcated only by taboos & norms--engaged in btwn constituents, offices & inst'ns. Neither the Const. nor inst'ns are self-executing.