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Reposted by John Howl Boo

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 9h

The elimination of USAID is a moral atrocity and all involved made a choice to enable, and then lie about, ending the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) - Mohammed Taher clutched the lifeless body of his 2-year-old son and wept. Ever since his family's food rations stopped arriving at their internment camp in Myanmar in April, the father had watched helplessly as his once-vibrant baby boy weakened, suffering from diarrhea and begging for food.
On May 21, exactly two weeks after Taher's little boy died, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat before Congress and declared: "No one has died" because of his government's decision to gut its foreign aid program. Rubio also insisted: "No children are dying on my watch."
That, Taher says, "is a lie."

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John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 16h

Kids are always delighted when you give them a poem by Baudelaire - as a treat. upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...

"Les Epaves", by Baudelaire. Original cover by Félicien Rops.

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John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 17h

Some historical context. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivl9...

Evolution of ELMER FUDD - 84 Years Explained ( + History of EGGHEAD) | CARTOON EVOLUTION

YouTube video by Dave Lee Down Under

www.youtube.com

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John A Dracula Cullen @nellucnhoj.bsky.social · Nov 8

create

------------------
bonus comics:
patreon.com/nhoj

4 panel comic

P1: a right hand draws a wavy stroke on a sketchbook page. A caption box up top reads "draw"

P2: the word "CREATE" dominates a panel with a black background, forming in the negative space. Various small shapes surround it.

P3: a lone simplified humanoid figure is on the bottom right of a another panel with a black background. A thought bubble forms above their head, the words "if not for others, then at least for yourself" within.

P4: The Earth dominates the bottom of the panel, with a sliver of space above it. Clouds swirl and boil across the Earth, which is the only element on the entire page coloured a pink-red. A caption box above reads "now, more than ever"

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John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 19h

I teach philosophy and science fiction and the AI segment is not what it used to be. There goes the neighbourhood (sniffs at ChatGPT.)

John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 19h

Science fiction has depended for a long time on three humane limits: you can't really travel faster than light, meaning we can keep making "Star Trek" and "Star Wars in peace, dreaming of FTL without living it; you can't build intelligent robots; you can't do some tech version of Plato's Cave.

Alexander Chee @alexanderchee.bsky.social · 22h

Speculative fiction class discussion two days in a row about how the stories don’t keep up with these days.

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John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 19h

I know. Keep science fiction fictional!

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John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 20h

Um, ICE just coldly shot an unarmed PRIEST in the head w a pepper ball when he (and everyone around him) clearly posed no threat.

For the crime of … complaining about government policy.

Core 1A speech.

With cameras rolling, they’re sniping priests for sport.

Kurt @flglchicago.bsky.social · 22h

Here’s video of the incident

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John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 20h

Bleak. www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

The Civil-Military Crisis Is Here

The leaders of the U.S. military may soon face a terrible decision.

www.theatlantic.com

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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 23h

Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.

(RNS) — Last month, the Rev. David Black stood in front of a Chicago-area U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and spread his arms wide. Adorned in all black and wearing a clerical collar, the pastor looked up at a group of masked, heavily armed ICE agents on the roof and began to pray.

“I invited them to repentance,” Black, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), said in an interview. “I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation, and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”

But when Black began to lower his arms a few seconds later, the agents responded to his spiritual plea by firing pepper balls, or chemical agents that cause eye irritation and respiratory distress, video footage shows. One struck Black in the head, exploding into a puff of white pepper smoke and forcing him to his knees. Fellow demonstrators rushed to his aid, and as the pastor rubbed his face in pain, the agents continued to fire.

“We could hear them laughing,” Black said.

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John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 21h

It's definitely a fantasy of attacking a school but also not having attacked it at all. So the woke liberals gets punished twice: first, they get attacked, which is fair. Second, they get punished again for complaining, crazily, they've been attacked, which they actually haven't been. No lion!

John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 21h

Sorry, I was getting a bit distracted there at the end, I think I may be misremembering details. Aslan blows down the wall - between Narnia & England, but it's ALSO an old wall at the school (?) - & the school head thinks she's seen a lion, so she gets relieved of duty & the bad kids are terrified.

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John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 21h

Aslan is really a Schrodinger-style cat that way.

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John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 21h

It's an elaborate fantasy about blowing up a school AND not having blown up a school, due to perceived liberal bias in the curriculum and unfair accusations of fascism. And progressives get the blame for the fact that you blew it up AND they are crazy for thinking you did really.

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John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 22h

And so: when our good young heroes get back to England, to put things right in their bad progressive school, the bullies and evil progressive head cry, “Murder! Fascists! Lions! It isn't fair.” The conservative imaginary, man. All WE ever do is save Narnia, purely, but do liberals thank us? No.

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John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 22h

Noticed "The Silver Chair" in my Audible library - so I listened. Good. As I kid, we owned only "Lion", "Dawn Treader" and "Silver Chair" from the series. So those three are etched into my brain. Reactivating all that, I knew I would be in for Lewis' reactionary editorialising via the frame story.

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Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · 22h

Good reporting on the South Shore raid from South Side weekly here.

Confirms one thing I was told but didn't put in my own piece because I didn't have a second source and it seemed too insane: border agents segregated arrested residents by race

southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...

Federal Agents Storm South Shore Building, Detaining Families and Children

Families were woken by flashbangs and helicopters as hundreds of federal agents raided their homes. Days later, neighbors are still searching for the missing.

southsideweekly.com

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 23h

I know we're all used to the president talking like Livia Soprano all the time, but this is a goddamn outrage

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 1d

“.. we’re going to take care of our people,” Trump added. “There are some people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of. And we’ll take care of them in a different way.”

@thehill.com
thehill.com/homenews/adm...

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Will Oremus @willoremus.com · 1d

Obviously not the main point here, but it's interesting how this is framed as content rather than policy.

"BREAKING" is typically what journalists or influencers say when they have a big story -- not what government officials say when they launch "undercover" operations

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John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 1d

Charles III. European monarch who looked most like Bugs Bunny was about to make a fool of him.

Charles III, painted by Anton Raphael Mengs.

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Daniel Kibblesmith @kibblesmith.com · 1d

Bad art used to have weird charm because you could wonder about the person making it and now that person doesn’t exist at all.

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John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 1d

Moral clarity brigading is always cancel culture. Moral clarity brigading against cancel culture is, at best, lack of moral clarity and most likely cynical 'joking/not-joking'.

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John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 1d

Saying you oppose cancel culture because you believe in good and evil? (Remember that time God cancelled Satan for being evil? Wasn't that cancel culture?) But seriously. When you see how unserious she is, what can you conclude other than that she is cynical about the whole anti-cancel racket.

"And uncouth pain fled bellowing. On each wing
Uriel, and Raphael, his vaunting foe,
Though huge, and in a rock of diamond armed,
Vanquished Adramelech, and Asmadai,
Two potent Thrones, that to be less than Gods
Disdained, but meaner thoughts learned in their flight,
Mangled with ghastly wounds through plate and mail.
Nor stood unmindful Abdiel to annoy
The atheist crew, but with redoubled blow
Ariel, and Arioch, and the violence
Of Ramiel scorched and blasted, overthrew.
I might relate of thousands, and their names
Eternize here on earth; but those elect
Angels, contented with their fame in Heaven,
Seek not the praise of men: The other sort,
In might though wonderous and in acts of war,
Nor of renown less eager, yet by doom
Cancelled from Heaven and sacred memory,
Nameless in dark oblivion let them dwell."

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John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 1d

People are pointing out - fair - she tries to play it off as a joke. Even so. She 1) denounces cancel culture as why the left is evil then 2) admits her allies also practice cancel culture but says they are 3) good because they - 4) see the other side as evil? This is good? bsky.app/profile/dand...

Daniel Drezner @dandrezner.bsky.social · 1d

There’s a lot in Bari Weiss’ 2023 FedSoc speech that merits scrutiny but I think the Times did a disservice by closing with this quote — given what she says immediately after. fedsoc.org/commentary/f...

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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 2d

NEW: I'm listening in on a second new lawsuit out of Illinois today, addressing First Amendment freedoms surrounding protests, including press and religious claims.

Judge Sara Ellis, an Obama appointee, is hearing the TRO motion and has found the plaintiffs, for TRO purposes, have standing.

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
EASTERN DIVISION
CHICAGO HEADLINE CLUB, BLOCK CLUB CHICAGO, CHICAGO NEWSPAPER GUILD LOCAL 34071, NABET-CWA LOCAL 54041, ILLINOIS PRESS ASSOCIATION, RAVEN GEARY, CHARLES THRUSH, STEPHEN HELD, DAVID BLACK, WILLIAM PAULSON, AUTUMN REIDY-HAMER, and LEIGH KUNKEL, on behalf of themselves and others similarly situated,
Plaintiffs,
V.
KRISTI NOEM, Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS); TODD LYONS,
Acting Director, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); MARCOS CHARLES,
Acting Executive Associate Director, Enforcement and Removal Operations, ICE;
RUSSELL HOTT, Chicago Field Office
Director, ICE; RODNEY S. SCOTT,
Commissioner, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP); GREGORY BOVINO, Chief Border Patrol Agent, CBP; DANIEL
DRISCOLL, Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF);
WILLIAM K. MARSHALL III, Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP); PAMELA BONDI, Attorney General of the United States;
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE; UNIDENTIFIED FEDERAL OFFICER DEFENDANTS; UNIDENTIFIED FEDERAL AGENCY DEFENDANTS; and
DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States,
No. 25-cv-12173
PLAINTIFFS' COMPLAINT FOR INJUCTIVE AND DECLARATORY RELIEF

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