Alex
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amiraski.bsky.social
Alex
@amiraski.bsky.social
26 followers 65 following 26 posts
Just trying to wade through the morass of life.

Love my wife, my kid, my furballs, Liverpool FC, Chicago Cubs, Dragon Age, good books. (List not exhaustive but close)

YNWA
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Reposted by Alex
drewmagary.bsky.social
Good morning. JD Vance is a piece of shit. www.sfgate.com/politics/art...
JD Vance is a piece of s—t
We can't let the vice president off the hook.
www.sfgate.com
January 15, 2026 at 12:12 PM
amiraski.bsky.social
Time to brush up on my Python skills. Consider helping them out if able.
python.org Python Software Foundation @python.org · Oct 27
TLDR; The PSF has made the decision to put our community and our shared diversity, equity, and inclusion values ahead of seeking $1.5M in new revenue. Please read and share. pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/NSF-...
🧵
The official home of the Python Programming Language
www.python.org
October 28, 2025 at 10:58 AM
amiraski.bsky.social
“Evil will not prevail.” I hope these words will be proven correct.
May 8, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Reposted by Alex
craigcalcaterra.bsky.social
A specific thing I'd like to see: our leaders going beyond pointing out the illegality/destruction of what Musk is doing -- which is, of course, necessary -- and making the affirmative case FOR government.

I talk about that at length in today's newsletter. www.cupofcoffeenews.com/cup-of-coffe...
Government is not the enemy People have been asking Democrats to stand up to Elon Musk's illegal takeover and ongoing dismantling of the federal government. Scores of lawsuits have been filed in an effort to do that, but we also need some rhetorical leadership as well. We have had some of that – I was greatly impressed by the speech given by Illinois governor JB Prtizker earlier this week – but we could certainly use more. One specific thing I'd like to see more of are our leaders going beyond merely pointing out the illegality of what Musk is doing and making the affirmative case for government. I'd like to hear a full-throated defense of government. I'd like to hear more talk about the good and necessary – and in many cases essential – things government does. I'd like to hear more from people pointing out the dangers that will befall us if governmental capacity is hobbled, as it is well on its way toward being. I'd like to hear a clear statement of principles which holds that, contrary to what Republicans have been saying for the past 50 years, government is not our enemy. Government is, by definition, us. An instrument of the people and a manifestation of our will. I want our leaders make a clear and cogent case in defense of government as the means to a host of valuable ends: I want to hear them talk about how the purpose of government is to help ensure the well-being of the nation and the well-being of its citizens; About how government action is the best and in many cases the only way we can work toward ensuring that the environment is healthy and clean; About how it's the only entity truly capable of ensuring that people will not go hungry in the richest country in the world and that people will not die because they cannot afford necessary medical treatment; About how government is essential if we want our children to be educated and our workforce prepared for the challenges of the present and the future; About how it's the only way we can ensure that our workplaces are safe; About how it plays an essential role in working to keep our economy strong and vibrant; and About how government is the only thing that can hope to stop the rich from taking advantage of the poor and the strong from taking advantage of the weak. There are many, both Republicans and Democrats, who say that none of those things are the responsibility of the government. Rather, they argue, those things are the responsibility of individual citizens, who must pull themselves up by their bootstraps, or businesses who they believe can be counted on to deliver those goods out of either the profit motive or the goodness of their hearts. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of history, however, knows that that is ideological nonsense. We’ve tried such an approach before — think of the 19th century and the free market dominated run-up to the Great Depression — and it simply did not work. The bootstraps, the charities, the churches, the foundations and the good hearts of business and the wealthy, taken together, proved to be an abject failure in the face of the challenges of the industrialized world and an utter disaster once the calamity of the Depression struck. With the private sector and the philanthropy of industrialists and churches as the bulwark we had child labor, abhorrent levels of infant mortality, and polluted waterways, streets and skies. We had poorhouses and debtors prisons. We had public health crises and wholesale crop failures. We had a brand of unfettered capitalism that led to depressions, recessions and corruption. Conservatives often accuse liberals of being starry-eyed idealists, but the level of fantasy and delusion it takes to believe that we can address the problems faced by a nation of 340 million people by returning to the approach we took with respect to such matters at the turn of the 20th century, when our population was far smaller and our economy and our challenges far less complex, is off the charts. We still must deliver prosperity, health, safety and all of the other desirable ends upon which civilized people agree. We cannot, however, depend on some fantasy version of a government-free society to provide it. We’ve tried that before. It did not work then and it will not work now. Individual people and businesses, when given a choice, will not be charitable enough en masse to address our societal problems. To meet the challenges that impact an entire nation it takes the mobilization of an entire nation. It’s simply a matter of motivation, complexity, and scale. The private sector lacks the motivation to address societal ills. But even if it was motivated to address them, the problems are too complex and too big for it to handle. It's time to stop pretending that government is the enemy. It's time to acknowledge that government is the most effective means of delivering the ends we all desire. The hard turn to toward the private sector we’ve taken as a country since 1980 has already led to suffering and inequality on a level not seen since before the New Deal. With Elon Musk and Donald Trump systematically dismantling the government things are going to get far worse in that regard in very, very short order. It is time to restore some of the balance we saw when America was, without question, the leader of the world in prosperity and freedom. To do that we must stop Elon Musk and Donald Trump's nihilistic destruction of governmental capacity immediately, yes. But we also must work to rebuild the power of the American people, exercised through a democratic government, to meet the challenges they face. And to do that our leaders must make that case, in clear and unambiguous terms, to the American people. If a dumb blogger can write that up in a Friday newsletter I think that someone who wants to lead this country out of the darkness can make that case to the public. I sure as hell want to see one of 'em try.
February 21, 2025 at 1:58 PM
amiraski.bsky.social
Good thing I haven’t eaten my dinner yet or the Bears would’ve caused it come right back up.
November 28, 2024 at 9:13 PM