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the mjl (michael j leblanc)

@themjl.bsky.social

2.3K followers 4.1K following 8K posts

Engineer. Musician. Wily Chaote. Full-Stack Acerbic Humanist. Bandcamp: https://thebellmechanical.bandcamp.com/ SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/the_bell_mechanical Musings: https://nopeanutsinchurch.com/ Middle of Massachusetts. USENET refugee.

thebellmechanical.bandcamp.com

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the mjl (michael j leblanc) @themjl.bsky.social · Sep 2

Spock: "Captain, would you like to see my latest modular synth rack setup?"

Jim: "Damn, Spock. Now I know where most of your pay is going.."

Spock is fiddling with boxes and wires that look like a modular synth. Jim looks on, suddenly realizing where most of Spock's pay goes...

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BladeoftheSun @bladeofthes.bsky.social · 6m

There's monuments to Margaret Thatcher everywhere

Filthy, ripoff, privatised English Water, Thatcher
Ripoff Energy, most expensive in the world, Thatcher
Your ripoff Rent, only because of Thatcher

All your biggest bills that you have to pay to thieves, Thatcher did that.

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Keys for Liberty @demskeys.bsky.social · 4h

The so-called peace President has doubled the government expenditure for pepperballs and non-lethal rounds to be used against Americans exercising their First Amendment Rights.

#NoKings

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Adam Holisky @adam.holisky.com · 18h

I really miss software and games that came with thick, huge manuals. They inspired me as a kid to learn everything in them.

That meant learning BASIC was both a thing I did with the TRS-80 model 100 and wherever I read the book.

Found some pics. NOSTALGIA

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Δ8 THC Crepes @dadscrepes.bsky.social · 1h

Taylor Swift is a scientologist

A screenshot of the Wikipedia list of notable celebrity members of scientology which includes Taylor Swift (singer/songwriter)

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SpryOldLorax @spryoldlorax.bsky.social · 2h

Six years ago, Uganda announced a bill to legalize murdering gay people. The National Christian Organization paid a preacher to go to Uganda and help their lawmakers with the bill. Chick-fil-A funds The National Christian Org.

If you eat at Chick-fil-A, this is what your money goes to.
#Boycott

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George Gantsoudes @pedsortho.bsky.social · 3h

Please remember that the disgust people have over Christopher Columbus is not based on some modern, 21st century “woke” ideology, but rather on contemporaneous accounts of atrocities that make many modern genocides appear quaint in comparison.

Below, are the accounts of Bartlomé de las Casas.

But too many of the slaves died in captivity. And so Columbus, desperate to pay back dividends to those who had in-vested, had to make good his promise to fill the ships with gold. In the province of Cicao on Haiti, where he and his men imagined huge gold fields to exist, they ordered all persons fourteen years or older to collect a certain quantity of gold every three months. When they brought it, they were given copper tokens to hang around their necks. Indians found without a copper token had their hands cut off and bled to death.
The Indians had been given an impossible task. The only gold around was bits of dust garnered from the streams. So they fled, were hunted down with dogs, and were killed.

After each six or eight months' work in the mines, which was the time required of each crew to dig enough gold for melting, up to a third of the men died.
While the men were sent many miles away to the mines, the wives remained to work the soil, forced into the excruciating job of digging and making thousands of hills for cassava plants.
Thus husbands and wives were together only once every eight or ten months and when they met they were so exhausted and depressed on both sides... they ceased to pro-create. As for the newly born, they died early because their mothers, overworked and fam-ished, had no milk to nurse them, and for this reason, while I was in Cuba, 7000 children died in three months. Some mothers even drowned their babies from sheer desper-ation.... In this way, husbands died in the mines, wives died at work, and children died from lack of milk ... and in a short time this land which was so great, so powerful and fer-tile... was depopulated... My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature, and now I tremble as I write....

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the mjl (michael j leblanc) @themjl.bsky.social · 25m

"Contrarian Honor Students, funded by Angry Rich Boys..."

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elias isquith @eliasisquith.blog · 1h

it’s just remarkable how much of what’s wrong with this country can be put at the feet of overachieving dorks motivated by bottomless self-regard and ressentiment.

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 2h

Absolutely brutal.

Bari Weiss: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

YouTube video by LastWeekTonight

www.youtube.com

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matthew @pahuski.com · 4h

Happy Columbo’s Day

Screenshot from Columbo. He his talking to his dog, which is sitting is the drivers seat of a car. “Okay, I’m gonna put you in charge. You take care of the car. You’re a responsible dog. When I get back, if the car’s okay, I’ll give you another cookie.”

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Mightymite @mightymite.bsky.social · 4h

Hey, in case anyone forgot, Muskrat and his little band of thieves stole all of our information a while back...

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Andrew D Thaler @drandrewthaler.bsky.social · 5h

You don't have to judge Columbus by the standards of today. His tenure as governor of Hispaniola was so horrific that he was dragged back to Spain in chains to answer for his many crimes.

Plus he never set foot on any land that would ever be a part of the United States of America.

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C. E. Aubin @ceaubin.bsky.social · 1h

Oregon has, as an undercurrent, what I would call the “libertarian impulse” — the need to say ‘f*ck you, I’m doing my own thing.’ That’s why, running alongside what people imagine to be the sort of hippy dippy stuff, are separatist movements/overt white supremacists. Cc: @sethcotlar.bsky.social

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Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 1h

Great thread on the distinctive political culture of Portland, by a US historian who is very much from Portland.

C. E. Aubin @ceaubin.bsky.social · 1h

What The Hell Is Going On, a thread:

I’ve seen some thinkpieces and posts about Portland protests that fail to understand the long-term hyperspecificity of Portland culture/humor, and frame it as a sort of shitposting meme-pilled ironic thing. Which is wrong.

So I’m gonna give you my breakdown.

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the mjl (michael j leblanc) @themjl.bsky.social · 37m

Normally when you plan risky complex shit like this, you don’t expunge the STEM class from government.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3h

Sean Duffy: "If we go to the south pole of the moon, we can set up a base. We want to put up fission power. We think we can have longterm stays on the south pole of the moon."

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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 44m

But we cant have healthcare. bsky.app/profile/atru...

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3h

Sean Duffy: "If we go to the south pole of the moon, we can set up a base. We want to put up fission power. We think we can have longterm stays on the south pole of the moon."

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George Takei @georgetakei.bsky.social · 2h

You gotta give ‘em hop.

A tweet from the Anonymous account says, “Make sure the dude in the frog costume in Portland knows he's an icon.” The image is a stylized poster of a frog wearing a stars-and-stripes scarf with the word “HOP” below, in the style of the Obama “HOPE” poster.

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Greg Proops @gregproops.bsky.social · 43m

Wow @marcmaron.bsky.social

Marc Maron @marcmaron.bsky.social · 1h

Today is the final episode of the show! wtfpod.com

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thinkingbayonet.bsky.social @thinkingbayonet.bsky.social · 3h

I now realize that for my entire adult life, I've had a very narrow conception of what "supporting and defending the Constitution" means. Standing on business when armed agents of the State are knocking on your door is way more important, by a country mile, than anything I did overseas

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 11h

Border Patrol “attempted to arrest a plumber working inside a Logan Heights home but left empty-handed after the homeowner refused them entry.

The homeowner told agents she would not allow them inside because the warrant they presented did not include her address and lacked a judge's signature.”

Federal immigration operations target San Diego neighborhoods, sparking community resistance

Federal immigration agents conducted operations in Logan Heights and Southeast San Diego on Friday, with community members capturing footage of the enforcement actions.

www.10news.com

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Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 2h

By the time you get to the point where the Transportation Secretary is complaining about political protests, you know the administration is truly scared of the public backlash.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3h

Sean Duffy: "The No Kings protest, Maria, really frustrating. This is part of antifa, paid protesters. It begs the question who's funding it."

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Senator Mark Warner @markwarner.bsky.social · 1h

After more than 700 days of anguish, every living hostage has finally been freed by Hamas. Their return home is a moment of relief and renewed hope. May this be the start of healing for families and a step toward lasting peace in the region.

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David @dkuofu.bsky.social · 11h

"Laughtivism" is very successful in undermining autocrats. It was used by Otpor! in the Serbian Revolution, and then by revolutionaries in the Arab Spring. Making fascists look ridiculous weakens them and is also a powerful recruiting tool. Keep it up.

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Laprofmme @laprofmme.bsky.social · 16h

Courtesy of colleagues at Penn

A variation on Benjamin Franklin’s 1754 engraving in the Pennsylvania Gazette, published in Philadelphia, in an effort to foster cooperation among the various colonies against the tyrant king of Britain, with the American colonies replaced by the nine universities selected for special collaboration opportunities

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 15h

Someone in my mentions is upset because these people haven’t suffered the worst at ICE’s hands and therefore they shouldn’t be praised for being out on the streets?

Yeah, no. To push back on these people we need everyone — especially those with relative privilege — to get up and get involved.

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 18h

Portland, you magnificent weirdos

Tim Dickinson @timdickinson.bsky.social · 18h

Live from the Emergency Naked Bike Ride 🚲 where the crowd hase just erupted in cheers with the arrival of the Unipipier

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Perry Bacon @perrybaconjr.bsky.social · 2h

"FDR knew there are sides. When you replace that and have no villains because you want neoliberalism and a rising tide lifts all boats, you render people susceptible to the right. Neoliberalism is the handmaiden to authoritarianism," says @anatosaurus.bsky.social. newrepublic.com/article/2015...

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