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Reposted by Alison Smaalders

Cat Manning @catacalypto.bsky.social · 17h

chatgpt? whatever. I’m giving myself internet psychosis the old fashioned way: finding an unhinged individual and falling down a rabbit hole of trying to figure out whatever tf they’re doing

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Alison Smaalders @vividwings.bsky.social · 17h

(Okay, the sword in my case is foam, but still.)

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Alison Smaalders @vividwings.bsky.social · 17h

If you see this, QTP with a sword ⚔️

a white woman with dark hair stands facing the camera, her hands resting on a foam latex prop sword that is braced on the ground. She is wearing a long black cloak with white fur on the shoulders, a black tunic with silver clasps up the front, and heavyweight black thigh-high boots. She is standing in a baroque gilt ballroom with a chandelier in the background.

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Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · 22h

“This heckin’ pupperino fucking hates La Migra,” to paraphrase from @weratedogs.com

Rate Dogs & • Follow
...
2h •
This is Chop. He was shot and killed by masked assailants in plain clothes who go by ICE. They showed up at his door "looking for migrants after receiving a tip." The son of the family asked if they could wait before entering the home while he put Chop away in the bathroom, as the dog can be aggressive with strangers.
According to the family, it is at this point that the son went to his pickup truck to retrieve his ID and a Border Patrol agent entered the home, opened the bathroom door, and shot Chop. None of the agents helped the family, who desperately tried to render aid to Chop, as he bled to death on the kitchen floor. Unsurprisingly, the agent who shot their dog then hid from them and refused to give his name. Even more unsurprising, they did not find any evidence of the migrants they were there to terrorize in the first place.
Do not open your door for these fucking losers. Rest easy Chop
14/10
CBP Office of Professional Responsibility:
202-344-1808
JointIntake@cbp.dhs.gov
El Paso Border Patrol Sector:
915-834-8400
fpfelpaso@cbp.dhs.gov
Rep. Veronica Escobar (El Paso):
915-541-1400
veronica.escobar@mail.house.gov
https://kfoxtv.com/news/local/el-paso-family-claims-border-patrol-killed-their-dog-during-search-cbp-

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Dave Karpf @davekarpf.bsky.social · 1d

Everyone agrees that we're currently in a dotcom era-like AI bubble. People disagree what sort of bubble it is.

There are 3 stories one can tell about the dotcom crash: a startup story, a telecom story, and an accounting fraud story.

My take: it's giving Enron
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...

It's Giving Enron

On the AI bubble, and the various echoes of the dotcom crash

open.substack.com

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Alison Smaalders @vividwings.bsky.social · 23h

I know other supplements are also contaminated,. Some of them are probably getting well over the daily safe limit from multiple sources at once.

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Publius Maximus @publiusmaximus.bsky.social · 1d

Age verification runs into some major 1A problems.

To avoid that, we should ban LLM chatbots entirely.

Erin Fogg says Free Link @criminalerin.bsky.social · 1d

"“While I strongly support the author’s goal of establishing necessary safeguards for the safe use of AI by minors, (the bill) imposes such broad restrictions on the use of conversational AI tools that it may unintentionally lead to a total ban on the use of these products by minors,” Newsom said."

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Alison Smaalders @vividwings.bsky.social · 1d

It is true! I have made the thinking sand recognize the "e" key consistently again, and this is a triumph.

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Alison Smaalders @vividwings.bsky.social · 1d

That is not a good sign slogan, I'll work on it (suggestions accepted!), but this is the costume for reference. It would be wildly impractical to wear on city streets AND YET I AM TEMPTED.

A dark haired white woman posted in front of an ornate baroque fireplace dressed as a byzantine empress. She is wearing a long purple brocade gown with large hanging sleeves, a jeweled collar called a superhumeral, a gold brocade tabard, and a crown with orthodox icons on it.

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Alison Smaalders @vividwings.bsky.social · 1d

One problem with making very extravagant LARP/Halloween costumes is that I don't have anything suitably funny and practical to wear to the No Kings protests this weekend.

Or maybe I *should* wear my Byzantine Empress getup and a sign that says "the only kings in the US should be costumes"?

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Alison Smaalders @vividwings.bsky.social · 1d

I successfully changed a switch on my keyboard BY MYSELF and I am more proud of this than I should be.

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Reposted by Alison Smaalders

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 2d

Wow, wow, wow. This has always been legally possible but the law has virtually never been enforced — and now this is the SECOND case I've heard of in the last month (first involving a person with a green card) of a noncitizen being charged for failure to carry their papers.

Gregory Pratt @royalpratt.bsky.social · 2d

NEWS: ICE gave a Rogers Park man a $130 ticket for not having his papers on him. They rounded him up last week and eventually let him go, but not without a fine that some critics say is un-American. Trump admin enforcing little-used law
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/13/i...

ICE tickets Chicago man with legal residency $130 for not having his papers on him: ‘It’s not fair…I’m a resident’

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement fined Rueben Antonio Cruz $130 for not having his papers with him.

www.chicagotribune.com

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onion person @junlper.beer · 3d

we need to abolish this shit

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Preeti Chhibber @runwithskizzers.bsky.social · Oct 9

oh is it monday

A two panel screenshot from The Good Place where Janet is speaking to Chidi while Michael stands behind her.

In the first panel she's holding up a finger, grinning, and saying, "Fun fact: Columbus in the Bad Place"

In the second panel she's saying, "Because of all the raping, slave trade, and genocide."

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Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 2d

one thing that has been obvious for a while is this aspect of the authoritarian internationale: they recognize that their allies abroad are not *countries* but *political movements* within foreign countries.

time we liberals woke up and recognized this--because it's the truth.

Rigorous, Fred-based Reporting @thefred.bsky.social · 2d

Or maybe, just maybe, what was obvious in 2024 was correct: Netanyahu fully backed Trump and would not deal with Biden because Trump would give him a free hand to escalate the starvation, bombing, and do full ethnic cleansing. Which he then did, until Netanyahu embarrassed him by bombing Qatar.

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Pissedoffpundit @pissedoffpundant.bsky.social · 2d

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Alison Smaalders @vividwings.bsky.social · 2d

This is such an important historical fact: he was SO BAD that the monarchs who encouraged and presided over the *Spanish Inquisition* were horrified. The bar was in hell but Christopher Columbus was not about to lose that limbo championship.

Thomas Lecaque @tlecaque.bsky.social · 2d

Christopher Columbus was dragged back to Spain in chains by a crusading knight, convicted of tyranny and immeasurable cruelty, pardoned by Isabella but banned from returning to Hispaniola.

Fuck Columbus.

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 2d

This is correct, in part - as the grim, military historian in me feels the need to note - it is psychologically much harder to get soldiers to open fire on people they view as 'respectable.'

And I dread, with grim increasingly certainty, that we are headed to a point where that matters.

WhatSaraSaid @whatsarasaid.bsky.social · 2d

protests against this government should include white Boomer grandmothers who meet for pilates class, get a pitcher of mimosas & walk together to the public space

we need people in the street who think everyone can talk their way out of a speeding ticket, they're key to winning

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 3d

Some weirdo on Twitter has been absolutely melting down for like 36 straight hours because I posted:

When this is over, do not forget what ICE did, and what ICE is. And do not make room for them in society. Make sure they know that they are, and will continue to be, reviled and beneath contempt.

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rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 3d

It's always good to see priests who still remember there are *seven* Catholic social principles. Also, that noise you hear is the USCCB screeching to the Vatican and getting back nothing, lol

Rich Raho @richraho.bsky.social · 3d

Chicago priest Fr. Larry Dowling describes procession to ICE facility: “No one had the courage to speak directly to us. No one from Homeland Security could stand in the presence of the Monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament. No wonder. Evil is repelled, recoils in the presence of Christ.”

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Alison Smaalders @vividwings.bsky.social · 5d

If queer people feel the need to find safety in a straight-appearing marriage, I won't tell them this isn't the choice they should make because they are the best judges of their own safety, but it's a bellweather of how bad things are that people are going through with it.

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Alison Smaalders @vividwings.bsky.social · 5d

And yes, this life was as good a one was they could make, but it was full of compromises. My grandmother should have been able to marry without fear of a man taking away her work or her independence. My grandfather should have been able to marry who he loved without fear or shame.

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Alison Smaalders @vividwings.bsky.social · 5d

(My grandfather worked at the student health center at Stanford University, so was well-placed to help struggling queer kids there. My grandmother worked with Planned Parenthood.)

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Alison Smaalders @vividwings.bsky.social · 5d

They were lifelong friends, they built a stable household together, had lovers (pre-kids), had three kids, and had a rotating set of college students who helped out around the house and my mom realized many years later were probably queer kids who needed a place to stay.

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Alison Smaalders @vividwings.bsky.social · 5d

For my grandfather, he needed to be sure to beat the allegations of queerness so he wouldn't get his medical license stripped (psychiatrist). For my grandmother (also a doctor), she probably got assurances that he would never make her be a traditional housewife.

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