Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

I am pretty sure Katy Tur wasn’t always such a bootlicking sycophant.

It could be worse. Vance could have said “post-menopausal sows.” Waiting for that audiotape to surface.

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

The gop couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

The words do not have to be perfect.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

The Supreme Court is corrupt. Democrats must win in November and force court reform.

FFS people, this was a good thing. take the win.

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

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Open Thread: Social Microblogging

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Open Thread: Social Microblogging

Back when BlueSky was still invite-only, Major Major was kind enough to offer me one… so I felt it was only polite to set up my own marker (feed?) there. And now that it’s open to all, a whole bunch of you have been kind enough to follow me there. I do appreciate your vote(s) of confidence!

Thing is, though: There’s only so many hours, and I’m not a fast reader. The main reason I held out against forms of social media that were not this blog for so long was the fear that I could either blog here, or post on Twitter / BlueSky / wherever. And I’ve been the Carla Tortelli at this virtual watering hole for too long to break my streak now. Which means I’ve only got the bandwidth, at least while I’m still working on my skill set, to repost & quote-post more dedicated posters’ work on BlueSky (and to kilroy the occasional comment on twitter). Sorry I can’t offer you more, but at least I’m still here, okay?

And if you look at my BlueSky feed, you’ll get an idea of how I’ve been putting posts together all these years. Since I can’t handle a proper ‘My Feed’ setup, I just click on a carefully curated roster of favorite posters, one by one, and collect embed snippets like virtual index cards; some (small) portion of those embeds will end up bricolaged into posts. On BlueSky, that means I’ll dump half a dozen retweets / quote tweets from a particular individual, before moving on to my next victim target. Not ideal for you readers, I guess — but maybe you’ll find some new posters you’ll enjoy following.

So, final question: Should I start putting up links on my BlueSky feed, when I add a post over here? I have no idea if this is even *permitted*, much less how the BlueSky admin protocols would handle it. And while I’d be happy to give y’all a heads-up over there, I absolutely do not want to overload either WordPress, or our own precious sandbox walled garden…

Reader Interactions

48Comments

  1. 1.

    Scout211

    There are some here, including me, who don’t do any social media. So any way that you feel comfortable engaging in social media and posting embeds and screen shots is much appreciated to those of us who would not otherwise be exposed.

    Thank you for all you do to keep us informed and aware.

  3. 3.

    Major Major Major Major

    Incidentally, I was just typing this up to you…

    FYI, you can go to https://skyview.social/ and embed posts that way. Put in the post URL, then when it’s generated select ’embed’. You’ll probably want to adjust the iframe code to say “height: 300px” instead of 600px. Probably easier than a bunch of screenshots.

    As for

    So, final question: Should I start putting up links on my BlueSky feed, when I add a post over here? I have no idea if this is even *permitted*, much less how the BlueSky admin protocols would handle it. And while I’d be happy to give y’all a heads-up over there, I absolutely do not want to overload either WordPress, or our own precious sandbox walled garden…

    Why not? Bluesky is definitely a place for linking. I think somebody has a custom wordpress integration for cross-posting and embedding, too, if you/somebody want to talk to the devs…

  4. 4.

    BR

    I haven’t gotten into BlueSky, but welcome screenshotted/embeds like with Twitter. I tried out BlueSky but went back to Mastodon, which I’ve enjoyed much more for the sheer range of people posting on Mastodon servers all over the world.

  5. 5.

    NotMax

    @Scout211

    There are some here, including me, who don’t do any social media.

    Come sit by me.

    The way my PC browser is configured it blocks most embeds, also too, yet manage to live a satisfying life without them.

  8. 8.

    twbrandt

    I’m on both Mastodon and Bluesky. I’m on a small local masto instance where almost everyone I follow and who follows me know each in real life. We talk about local politics, mutual interests, life updates. Bluesky is where I follow a lot of national politics and tech stuff.

  9. 9.

    Alison Rose

    My hope is that once Twitter finally goes the way of all flesh, Bluesky will kick more into gear. I’d say handle your account however works for you, AL — if people don’t like it, they can unfollow.

    I know a lot of folks are anti-social media, but for people like me, social media (which, IMO, includes this blog in a way) is my only connection to the world and my friends and family. If I didn’t have this place, FB, and to a lesser extent Instagram and now Bluesky, I would have no one in my life at all and would be completely cut off from interaction.

    Since it’s an OT and to not end this comment on a downer note, this is a great read for any of you who are Deadheads. I was working at GDP when David Lemieux started there as the archivist and am still friends with him now, and I’m really glad to see not only the band still breaking records, but David’s talent and acumen and love for the music get the recognition it deserves.

    When telling the Grateful Dead’s story, many figures beyond the band itself factor prominently. Owsley “Bear” Stanley masterminded the group’s early sound rigs, recorded their shows – and synthesized their LSD. Crew members like Steve Parrish and Lawrence “Ramrod” Shurtliff supported the band through its relentless touring, while hard-nosed tour manager Sam Cutler proved a key business ally for the Dead. And since Jerry Garcia’s death in 1995, few have been more critical to the Dead’s continued relevance than David Lemieux, who as the band’s legacy manager and audio archivist oversees its official releases.

    “I don’t think anybody’s got better Grateful Dead ears than he has,” says Mark Pinkus, president of Rhino Entertainment, which has exclusively licensed the Dead’s intellectual property since 2006. “[Lemieux’s] ability to listen, evaluate, respond as a fan – and as an unbiased person – is second to none.”

    While the Dead released contemporaneous live albums throughout its career, from 1969’s Live/Dead to 1990’s Without a Net, the band’s first archival live release – and its first time releasing a complete show – was 1991’s One From The Vault, documenting a San Francisco concert on Aug. 13, 1975. Two years later, Dick’s Picks Vol. 1 arrived, capturing highlights from the band’s Dec. 19, 1973 performance and inaugurating what would become a 36-volume series named after longtime Dead archivist Dick Latvala. Latvala initially curated Dick’s Picks, but after his August 1999 passing, Lemieux – who celebrated 25 years working with the Dead’s archives on Feb. 1 – took over the series, then only 14 volumes in, along with stewardship of the vault and other future Dead releases. (Now 53, Lemieux, who saw the Dead exactly 100 times between 1987 and 1993, developed a passion for film archiving in college, which he parlayed into a short-term job cataloging the band’s video footage in early ’99.)

    Mostly multi-disc sets, Dick’s Picks captured complete shows or thoughtfully compiled selections from two- or three-night runs. For nearly any other artist, 36 such volumes would be exhaustive; for the Dead, they turned out to be only the beginning. On Monday, with the release of Dave’s Picks Volume 49, the Dead broke a chart record held by Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley for the most albums to chart in the top 40 on the Billboard 200 (59), largely propelled by the success of its current archival series, named after Lemieux, which is complemented by periodic reissues of Dead studio albums, an annual box set featuring multiple complete live shows, and twice-yearly vinyl-only Record Store Day sets.

    To quote the philosopher Adam Silverman, much much more at the link!

  10. 10.

    eclare

    I say do whatever is easiest for you, and we’ll adjust/deal with it.

    Don’t add more work, you already do so much.

  12. 12.

    Major Major Major Major

    Re the quoted post up top, it is pretty funny how a lot of people were tearing their hair out over the disinformation potential of generative AI, deepfakes etc, but it turns out enough people will just believe somebody said something if you claim that they did.

  15. 15.

    $8 blue check mistermix

    You’re a slow reader???  My god you’re so prolific I thought you would be a fast reader..

    Do whatever’s easiest is my vote, like the others…

  16. 16.

    Geminid

    @satby: There are so many circular arguments and discussions here! I sometimes wish we had a pi filter. You’d hit it and poof! half the thread’s gone.

  17. 17.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud:

    I’m here because I prefer antisocial media.

    I hate the goddamned rotating tags; I think we have way too many, but this is kind of perfect.

  24. 24.

    Josie

    Since this is an open thread, I have a question. I just finished with a bout of Covid–my first. I am not sick and I am testing negative. I just don’t seem to want to get up from my chair and do anything. I am completely unmotivated. Is this normal, and, if so, how long does it last? It’s just so unlike me.

  25. 25.

    Princess

    @Josie: It’s perfectly normal and it can take a couple of weeks to go away. Listen to your body and allow yourself to rest as much as you feel like. Doing too much when your body don’t wanna can lead to long covid.

  30. 30.

    Old School

    Chris Coons and Olaf Scholz met in Washington DC on Thursday. Afterward, they took a selfie together and posted it online teasing the same question.

    “Wer ist wer?”, Sen Coons joked – German for “who is who”.

    Click through for the picture.

  31. 31.

    Scout211

    @Josie:

    COVID fatigue is normal (Cleveland Clinic information 1/23/2024)

    COVID fatigue may last after other COVID-19 symptoms have subsided or even after you test negative for the virus. Generally, you should feel the fatigue subside after two to three weeks. Depending on the severity of your case, it could also last several months.

  32. 32.

    glc

    @Josie: If it lingers consult your doctor. It’s a typical reaction, but the details vary widely by individuals, and if you wind up with ongoing symptoms you’ll need to treat them. Which may simply mean resting for longer than you would like. But don’t ignore it, and don’t try to force the recovery.  The one thing that seems fairly well established is that physical exercise won’t help, and may be harmful.

  33. 33.

    Elizabelle

    @Josie:  Stay calm and web surf with us.  Rest up; do not allow that bad virus to stay even longer.

    Do you feel well enough to read?  Maybe time to read some mysteries or classics or anything you would like.

  34. 34.

    Anne Laurie

    @Major Major Major Major: Thank you, again & always!

    I haven’t the vocabulary to ‘ask the developers’ (yet), but I took your advice & just cross-posted my first link on BlueSky.  Figure this post is not liable to draw more outside attention than FYWP can handle (cross fingers)…

  35. 35.

    Hoppie

    @Scout211: With you on the (anti-)social media — except for blogs of course.

    Back when we still designed and sold t-shirts, I could never convince Ms. Hoppie to do “Don’t get in your FACE / Not a TWIT / I have a LIFE”.  She still calls it dorkissimo.  Guilty as charged!

  39. 39.

    TBone

    @Josie: mine lasted waaaaay too long.  It’s your body telling you to rest in the beginning, but after a certain point it gets LAME (I felt guilty about it).  I still have to force myself to find motivation a lot of the time.  Which didn’t happen before Covid.  Important:  don’t try to push through or overcompensate.  You’ll be sorry.  My best advice is to work up to your comfort level and do it slowly.  And don’t worry about it too much, that stress doesn’t help.

  41. 41.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Princess: Just to be clear: The Guardian article doesn’t say that heavy exercise can cause Long Covid, it says that people with Long Covid should avoid heavy exercise.

    Just chiming in because as a tennis instructor I often get involved in heavy hitting but I just got over Covid so I’ve been dealing with this scenario myself.  Luckily my doctor says that I don’t appear to have any symptoms of Long Covid, but I’m still taking it slow, just in case.

  42. 42.

    TBone

    Jamie Raskin ❤️ was just on All In.  I’ll find the video as soon as I can – I want to listen up again.  Regarding the Supremacists on the Court plus fascism – brutal truth telling.  Brutal!

  46. 46.

    Adam L Silverman

    I put up a link to my nightly Ukraine War updates on Bluesky every night. So I don’t see why it wouldn’t be okay for you to put links to your posts up over there.

  48. 48.

    lowtechcyclist

    No thoughts about this question, AL, but I am in admiration of your use of ‘kilroy’ as a verb. That’s a new thing to me!

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