Joel
@somebirdnerd.bsky.social
Reposted by Joel
Italian photographer Valerio Minato spent six years planning a perfectly aligned shot of the Moon with Turin’s Basilica of Superga and Monviso. Weather delays thwarted annual chances until December 2023, when a crescent Moon with visible da Vinci glow completed his long-envisioned composition
September 1, 2025 at 7:15 AM
Italian photographer Valerio Minato spent six years planning a perfectly aligned shot of the Moon with Turin’s Basilica of Superga and Monviso. Weather delays thwarted annual chances until December 2023, when a crescent Moon with visible da Vinci glow completed his long-envisioned composition
Reposted by Joel
Random wars, presidential corruption on an unprecedented scale, massive tax cuts for the rich being jammed through while Medicaid is cut, people being kidnapped & deported to torture prisons ... and what freaks out the chattering class?
Grocery stores & higher wages for the working class.
Grocery stores & higher wages for the working class.
June 28, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Random wars, presidential corruption on an unprecedented scale, massive tax cuts for the rich being jammed through while Medicaid is cut, people being kidnapped & deported to torture prisons ... and what freaks out the chattering class?
Grocery stores & higher wages for the working class.
Grocery stores & higher wages for the working class.
Reposted by Joel
Reposted by Joel
This is Utah in case anyone’s wondering how pissed off people are. I have never seen anything like this.
April 5, 2025 at 7:06 PM
This is Utah in case anyone’s wondering how pissed off people are. I have never seen anything like this.
Reposted by Joel
I saw someone criticizing a very funny poster for making jokes instead of posting about politics, and I am reminded of a favorite line from E. B. White: We should strive not for balanced books but balanced libraries
April 6, 2025 at 3:35 AM
I saw someone criticizing a very funny poster for making jokes instead of posting about politics, and I am reminded of a favorite line from E. B. White: We should strive not for balanced books but balanced libraries
Reposted by Joel
I will say that it is funny that three positions that were the core of my youth: the current neoliberal trade regime is bad, the Iraq War is a monstrous mistake and George W Bush sucks, have now become right-wing canon.
April 5, 2025 at 4:13 PM
I will say that it is funny that three positions that were the core of my youth: the current neoliberal trade regime is bad, the Iraq War is a monstrous mistake and George W Bush sucks, have now become right-wing canon.
Reposted by Joel
There's no question that today's tariff announcement will give the United States the highest tariff rates of any industrialized country. And it's not even close.
April 2, 2025 at 9:23 PM
There's no question that today's tariff announcement will give the United States the highest tariff rates of any industrialized country. And it's not even close.
Reposted by Joel
Military aid to Ukraine has always been a bargain for the U.S.
We degraded Russia’s armed forces and replaced our own stockpiles with brand new weapons, all while brave Ukrainians— not Americans—fought the Russians off.
Halting that aid is not only morally repulsive, it’s plain stupid.
We degraded Russia’s armed forces and replaced our own stockpiles with brand new weapons, all while brave Ukrainians— not Americans—fought the Russians off.
Halting that aid is not only morally repulsive, it’s plain stupid.
March 4, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Military aid to Ukraine has always been a bargain for the U.S.
We degraded Russia’s armed forces and replaced our own stockpiles with brand new weapons, all while brave Ukrainians— not Americans—fought the Russians off.
Halting that aid is not only morally repulsive, it’s plain stupid.
We degraded Russia’s armed forces and replaced our own stockpiles with brand new weapons, all while brave Ukrainians— not Americans—fought the Russians off.
Halting that aid is not only morally repulsive, it’s plain stupid.
Reposted by Joel
A reminder for these times.
March 1, 2025 at 10:24 PM
A reminder for these times.
Reposted by Joel
Perfect
February 28, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Perfect
Reposted by Joel
Everyone in the Trump coalition voted for someone to get got. Most of them didn’t realize that they were that someone to someone else.
February 17, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Everyone in the Trump coalition voted for someone to get got. Most of them didn’t realize that they were that someone to someone else.
Reposted by Joel
February 17, 2025 at 8:03 PM
This is not what I want to hear right now yet I can't find any fault in it. Yikes
As has been pointed out, GOP oversaw the worst national security (9/11), foreign policy (Iraq), disaster response (Katrina), economic (2008 crash) and public health (COVID) crises of our lifetimes. Voters would have to be absolutely nuts to repeatedly put that party back in power, right?
Lots of people out there saying, "at least by fucking everything up they're showing how incompetent they are, which will turn voters against them."
I just wonder where in the world people get this hope. America made it all the way through the election in near-total ignorance. Why would that change?
I just wonder where in the world people get this hope. America made it all the way through the election in near-total ignorance. Why would that change?
February 5, 2025 at 5:54 AM
This is not what I want to hear right now yet I can't find any fault in it. Yikes
Reposted by Joel
Now the whole country gets the experience of what it's like when private equity buys the place you work
February 4, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Now the whole country gets the experience of what it's like when private equity buys the place you work
Reposted by Joel
THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION IS A DEPARTMENT CREATED BY STATUTE; IT CANNOT BE ELIMINATED BY EXECUTIVE ORDER! EXECUTIVE ORDERS CANNOT REPEAL STATUTES! JUST LIKE DEPARTMENTS CANNOT BE CREATED BY EXECUTIVE ORDER!
she shouts into the void
she shouts into the void
BREAKING: The White House is preparing an executive order to eliminate the Department of Education, two sources familiar with the plans tell NBC News.
White House preparing executive order to abolish the Department of Education
The planned order follows years of campaign promises from President Donald Trump to abolish the federal Education Department.
www.nbcnews.com
February 4, 2025 at 8:07 PM
THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION IS A DEPARTMENT CREATED BY STATUTE; IT CANNOT BE ELIMINATED BY EXECUTIVE ORDER! EXECUTIVE ORDERS CANNOT REPEAL STATUTES! JUST LIKE DEPARTMENTS CANNOT BE CREATED BY EXECUTIVE ORDER!
she shouts into the void
she shouts into the void
Reposted by Joel
The Republican Congress has surrendered. They are no longer a functioning co-equal branch of government. Democrats need to do everything to not cooperate. Use your position to slow their fascist takeover. The time of “bipartisanship” and “finding common ground” is over. Now it’s time to fight.
February 4, 2025 at 1:17 PM
The Republican Congress has surrendered. They are no longer a functioning co-equal branch of government. Democrats need to do everything to not cooperate. Use your position to slow their fascist takeover. The time of “bipartisanship” and “finding common ground” is over. Now it’s time to fight.
Working for the Fox assignment desk must be like a stream of weird HS debate club/essay assignments. "Please prepare a 500 word essay on why Canada is our enemy/Chickens are the real threat/Babies are evil"
Fox News figures jump to defend Trump’s trade war: “Our neighbors are not playing nice with us”
Fox News scrambles to justify Trump’s tariff war with Mexico and Canada
www.mediamatters.org
February 3, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Working for the Fox assignment desk must be like a stream of weird HS debate club/essay assignments. "Please prepare a 500 word essay on why Canada is our enemy/Chickens are the real threat/Babies are evil"
Reposted by Joel
Way back in 2016,
@GOP
believed the truth: the economy is just a complex set of interactions between people, and govt should facilitate that. Tariffs are the opposite. It’s big govt.
And they say I changed. LOL
@GOP
believed the truth: the economy is just a complex set of interactions between people, and govt should facilitate that. Tariffs are the opposite. It’s big govt.
And they say I changed. LOL
February 2, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Way back in 2016,
@GOP
believed the truth: the economy is just a complex set of interactions between people, and govt should facilitate that. Tariffs are the opposite. It’s big govt.
And they say I changed. LOL
@GOP
believed the truth: the economy is just a complex set of interactions between people, and govt should facilitate that. Tariffs are the opposite. It’s big govt.
And they say I changed. LOL
Reposted by Joel
The last time people underestimated the authoritarian threat. We're living through the same cycle again.
February 1, 2025 at 2:19 PM
The last time people underestimated the authoritarian threat. We're living through the same cycle again.
Reposted by Joel
Political press: "We'll have to see if the American people will tolerate a president who regularly violates the law"
Trump: *immediately violates the law*
Political press: "Today, in an extraordinary display of his unconventional leadership style, Trump defied legal norms"
Trump: *immediately violates the law*
Political press: "Today, in an extraordinary display of his unconventional leadership style, Trump defied legal norms"
January 29, 2025 at 12:00 AM
Political press: "We'll have to see if the American people will tolerate a president who regularly violates the law"
Trump: *immediately violates the law*
Political press: "Today, in an extraordinary display of his unconventional leadership style, Trump defied legal norms"
Trump: *immediately violates the law*
Political press: "Today, in an extraordinary display of his unconventional leadership style, Trump defied legal norms"
Reposted by Joel
Fun fact: the second biggest buyer of wind turbines (after power companies) is the petroleum industry because it's cheaper to power their oil extraction equipment with wind power than with the product they extract from the ground.
Think about that for a minute.
Think about that for a minute.
January 26, 2025 at 5:00 AM
Fun fact: the second biggest buyer of wind turbines (after power companies) is the petroleum industry because it's cheaper to power their oil extraction equipment with wind power than with the product they extract from the ground.
Think about that for a minute.
Think about that for a minute.
Reposted by Joel
I've got a piece coming out next week but let me go ahead spoil it by saying I think this is the biggest political problem we face, and it's a pretty hard problem
January 19, 2025 at 4:07 PM
I've got a piece coming out next week but let me go ahead spoil it by saying I think this is the biggest political problem we face, and it's a pretty hard problem
Reposted by Joel
some ways to generate electricity
A) use sunlight to drive photosynthesis in plants, let plants die, wait ~100 million years, dig up fossilized plants, burn plants, use heat to boil water, use steam to drive a rotating turbine, use generator to make electrons
B) use sunlight to make electrons
A) use sunlight to drive photosynthesis in plants, let plants die, wait ~100 million years, dig up fossilized plants, burn plants, use heat to boil water, use steam to drive a rotating turbine, use generator to make electrons
B) use sunlight to make electrons
January 17, 2025 at 9:55 PM
some ways to generate electricity
A) use sunlight to drive photosynthesis in plants, let plants die, wait ~100 million years, dig up fossilized plants, burn plants, use heat to boil water, use steam to drive a rotating turbine, use generator to make electrons
B) use sunlight to make electrons
A) use sunlight to drive photosynthesis in plants, let plants die, wait ~100 million years, dig up fossilized plants, burn plants, use heat to boil water, use steam to drive a rotating turbine, use generator to make electrons
B) use sunlight to make electrons
Reposted by Joel
megawealth is a curse! you become acutely aware of the needs you have that cannot be satisfied through material means AND you are socially ill-positioned to be in a place where you can experience authentic human connection because everyone around you has every incentive to lie to you!
it is *wild* how a primary effect of unspendable wealth can be making someone incomprehensibly thin-skinned
January 17, 2025 at 5:52 PM
megawealth is a curse! you become acutely aware of the needs you have that cannot be satisfied through material means AND you are socially ill-positioned to be in a place where you can experience authentic human connection because everyone around you has every incentive to lie to you!