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Ryan Van Loan

@ryanvanloan.bsky.social

1.5K followers 280 following 3.8K posts

Former infantry NCO turned fantasy/scifi author repped by DongWon Song. Proud Girl Dad. THE SIN IN THE STEEL, THE JUSTICE IN REVENGE, & THE MEMORY IN THE BLOOD out now from Tor Books! Eat. Lift. Travel. WRITE. (he/him) https://bio.site/RyanVanLoan

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Ryan Van Loan @ryanvanloan.bsky.social · Nov 13

Hey old friends from X & new followers! I'm a fantasy author. You can check out the link in my bio for my books which are about found friends overthrowing corrupt society along with magic, dead gods, & a lot of swashbuckling. I'm a former infantry NCO and polisci grad so politics comes up a lot 😅

Me wearing a green jacket, white shirt looking at the camera.

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Ryan Van Loan @ryanvanloan.bsky.social · 1d

All good 👍🏼

That's an eclectic mix! Will have to give The Midnight a spin, can use some relaxation in my life 😄

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 1d

Perhaps the likes of Chappelle, Ansari and CK felt there was less at stake because, by their own estimation, they have already suffered cancellation. Except that their exile from public life appears to include fresh Netflix specials and Grammy awards. Louis CK should count himself lucky; if he’d been caught with his dick in his hand in Najd, rather than Colorado, he may well have retained neither of those appendages (punitive limb amputation is an actual thing).

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Rose Lerner @roselerner.bsky.social · 2d

This made me so happy

Screenshot of Claire's last skeet with one from the Frog and Toad bot underneath of Frog saying "don't be silly"

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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 1d

Your regular reminder, aside from the performative public lying of far right authoritarians, that the GOP & the national media would have a week-long Discourse On Civility if <any Democrat> ever spoke about GOP voters/conservatives the way GOP leaders speak about Dem voters/liberals every single day

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Mike Johnson: "We're so angry about it. I mean, I'm a very patient guy, but I've had it with these people. The theory we have right now -- they have a hate America rally that's scheduled for October 18 on the National Mall. It's the pro-Hamas wing and antifa people ... "

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Jon Seidel @jonseidel.bsky.social · 2d

U.S. District Judge April Perry says it comes down to a "credibility determination."

"I simply cannot credit [the Trump administration's] declarations to the extent they contradict state and local law enforcement. … DHS' perception of events are simply unreliable."

Jon Seidel @jonseidel.bsky.social · 2d

#BREAKING A federal judge say she will grant "in part" a request by the state of Illinois for a temporary restraining order against the deployment of National Guard troops into the state.

U.S. District Judge April Perry is still ruling and has not outlined the details of her order.

Jon Seidel @jonseidel.bsky.social · 2d

Perry: "I'm going to issue an oral ruling."

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ghost malone ergo propter malone @proptermalone.bsky.social · 2d

what the fuck

Snowden St. @snowden.st · May 14

Yeah, this was in Dallas in the late 90s, but we had 4 armed men come in with real unloaded guns, and take a few of us aside. Said they were here to kill believers, and asked if we were believers. After we all said "Yes", they unmasked themselves as dads from church.

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Ryan Van Loan @ryanvanloan.bsky.social · 2d

"Concepts of a plan"

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

Oh, the incredibly competent and honest president promises that he's totally going to give us something that's much better and much cheaper than we already have? Golly, sign me up.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3d

Thune: "The president would like to overhaul Obamacare and give people health insurance that is higher quality and more affordable."

Ryan Van Loan @ryanvanloan.bsky.social · 2d

I kind of prefer the earlier ball where they dressed up as trees and *someone* accidentally brought a torch with them into the ball room.

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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 2d

Researchers in Taiwan have added a brand-new biochemical cycle to plants, allowing them to absorb & use carbon dioxide more efficiently than photosynthesis alone. Test plants carrying the “McG cycle” grew up to 3x larger, with bigger leaves & far more seeds and fats buff.ly/FIUA8Ca
#ShareGoodNewsToo

New pathway engineered into plants lets them suck up more CO₂

Engineered pathway lets carbon be plugged directly into key metabolic pathways.

buff.ly

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Ryan Van Loan @ryanvanloan.bsky.social · 3d

The Post is dead. For non partisan (e.g. natural disasters, science, international, etc.) coverage you're better served by Reuters, AP, the Guardian. And for the rest - you have lost all the talent to be replaced by Trump apologists.

Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 3d

I’m not saying that the Washpost’s new Opinion editor was sent on a mission destroy that section’s reputation.

I’m just saying that if someone were sent to destroy the Opinion section’s reputation, they’d be doing exactly what this guy is doing.

Philip Bump @pbump.com · 3d

I spent more than a decade at The Post. It was good to me and I was proud to work there. I’ve largely refrained from being critical since I left. But this framing of the special counsel probe is embarrassing and flatly wrong. Stunning, but not. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

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Liz Bourke @hawkwinglb.bsky.social · 3d

127. Angel Maker by Elizabeth Bear

I've been waiting a long time for this book. It's worth it. The vast majority of my writing here is free to read and will remain so, but if you enjoy these sorts of posts, your support on Patreon or as a paying subscriber through WordPress is what subsidises me…

127. Angel Maker by Elizabeth Bear

I've been waiting a long time for this book. It's worth it. The vast majority of my writing here is free to read and will remain so, but if you enjoy these sorts of posts, your support on Patreon or as a paying subscriber through WordPress is what subsidises me to write more of them. (Alternately, you can always drop a penny in the bucket through…

lizbourke.wordpress.com

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Ryan Van Loan @ryanvanloan.bsky.social · 3d

They chose this, not us. To pretend that we did is to embrace the mindset of the abuser.

Ryan Van Loan @ryanvanloan.bsky.social · 3d

If Trump v US wasn't the Rubicon, what is? The Court rejected nearly 250 years of law, intent, and ideals in a ruling antithetical to the heart of what America means.

That they ceded so much power (unlawfully) to a former executive while blocking minor power to the current is de-legitimizing.

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♨ naïve dumbass @atticusgf.bsky.social · 3d

Trump vs. US was the final straw imo. You cannot read that ruling and continue believing they have legitimacy. It is not only against the plain text of the constitution, it is anathema to the national ethos. It is offensively, insultingly un-American and they ceded legitimacy by committing that sin.

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Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR) @hcrichardson.bsky.social · 3d

People ask what they can do in this moment: here's a crucially important election. There are 52,000 elections taking place next month, many of which will be determined by turnout.

Alex Burness @burness.bsky.social · 4d

Dispatch from Pennsylvania on a highly unusual state Supreme Court election—one of the few most consequential matters on the ballot anywhere in the country next month. New from me in @boltsmag.org: boltsmag.org/pennsylvania...

Inside the Clunky Elections to Control Pennsylvania's Supreme Court - Bolts

The GOP is making an expensive push to end Democrats’ majority on a court at the center of election lawsuits, sparking a fledging campaign season with little precedent or template.

boltsmag.org

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 3d

The clear split on Dem shutdown strategy is between:
a) the political folks who thing moving the conversation to health care is an electoral win
b) people whose eyes are wide open to extreme authoritarianism and think the main way out is Congress reasserting itself

Sahil Kapur @sahilkapur.bsky.social · 3d

Another reason Democrats are eager to talk about health care: they win when this is a top issue for voters

LEFT: 2018 exit polls (D+52)
RIGHT: 2020 exit polls (D+25)

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Pete Buttigieg @petebuttigieg.bsky.social · 3d

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Zach Halper @zanath.bsky.social · 3d

"We took freedom of speech away" should be in every campaign ad moving forward.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3d

Trump: "We took the freedom of speech away because that's been through the courts and the courts said you have freedom of speech, but what has happened is when they burn a flag it agitates and irritates crowds."

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Ryan Van Loan @ryanvanloan.bsky.social · 3d

Nichols as they're dragging him away to a camp, "*Now* this is fascism."

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Ben Raderstorf @raders.bsky.social · 4d

To be clear, this applies to the *National Guard* who are mostly civilians with day jobs and who can be called up in emergencies.

They are very, very different from ICE agents, who really do seem to be embracing the jackbooted ethos: bsky.app/profile/uroc...

Khashoggi's Ghost @urocklive1.bsky.social · 4d

This is not going to end well. Sooner or later an American citizen is going to get killed.

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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 3d

This is an important point.

Everyone one of these people has been asked to leave their home, their family, and their job to work without pay bc of the shutdown. We're better off thinking of ways to make this backfire on Abbott than to treat them poorly.

Ben Raderstorf @raders.bsky.social · 4d

Texas National Guard troops arriving in Chicago (via ABC News)

Remember: These are not MAGA stormtroopers. These are everyday teachers and accountants who signed up to serve their country with their spare time. They're being used as political pawns by venal, un-American, draft-dodging president

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Ryan Van Loan @ryanvanloan.bsky.social · 3d

Again, this is SV dev model on steroids.

"We've got this buggy app, we're putting it into production and will fix it slowly over many months based upon the decibel levels of our users' screams."

Only in this case the bugginess is a feature and they want users to solve it for them.

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 3d

Cyberlibertarianism.

He positioned the launch’s speed bumps as learning opportunities. “Not for much longer will we have the only good video model out there, and there’s going to be a ton of videos with none of our safeguards, and that’s fine, that’s the way the world works,” Altman said, adding, “We can use this window to get society to really understand, ‘Hey, the playing field changed, we can generate almost indistinguishable video in some cases now, and you’ve got to be ready for that.’”
Altman said he feels that people don’t pay attention to OpenAI’s technology when people at the company talk about it, only when they release it. “We’ve got to have … this sort of technological and societal co-evolution,” Altman said. “I believe that works, and I actually don’t know anything else that works. There are clearly going to be challenges for society contending with this quality, and what will get much better, with the video generation. But the only way that we know of to help mitigate it is to get the world to experience it and figure out how that’s going to go.”

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Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 3d

I will not back down.

Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power.

What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?

Donald Trump Truth Social Post: Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also.

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 4d

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.

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