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Joshfrai @joshfrai.bsky.social · 2h

Reader, I laughed at him.

Newspaper headline:

As UNC struggles, what are Belichick's buyout terms?

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Joshfrai @joshfrai.bsky.social · 16h

From an interview he did with @parkermolloy.com

www.readtpa.com/p/an-intervi...

An Interview with Author A.R. Moxon About 'Very Fine People'

'Very Fine People' comes out on June 25, 2024.

www.readtpa.com

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Joshfrai @joshfrai.bsky.social · 16h

As explained by @juliusgoat.bsky.social ...

Excerpt from an interview with Andrew Moxon (aka @juliusgoat):

At the end what I heard expressed were three core lies, each of which rested upon the next. The first lie is that we bear no relation to one another; that society is purely individualistic-which negates any suggestion of the truth that we live in an interconnected system, and allows us to see the abuse and suffering and death of others as something that poses no threat to us. The second is that life must be earned, and profit is how you earn it-which means that some haven't earned it, and makes all abuse and suffering and death that a spiritually sick society produces the fault not of those who cause the abuse but those who suffer it. The third lie is that violence redeems the crime of having not earned life-which means that when those who are deemed to have not earned life are abused or harmed or killed, the violence is not only something that doesn't threaten our safety, but represents safety itself.

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Jordan! @jordanjamboree.bsky.social · 17h

If we called a lot of shit machine learning instead of AI less people would be mad

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Blandy Fisher @blandyfisher.bsky.social · 18h

Durham NC friends, come join us! You will be uniting with Americans everywhere in solidarity, and these rallies are FUN!

I'm attending No Kings's event, “Durham No Kings, No Billionaires!” - sign up now to join me! www.mobilize.us/nokings/even...

Durham No Kings, No Billionaires! · No Kings

Hello activism warriors!! October 18th is the next national mobilization date. We will gather at Central Park (501 Foster St, Durham, NC 27701 by the Farmer's Market) from 2pm-4pm. We plan to have a l...

www.mobilize.us

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Saeed @saed-in-gaza.bsky.social · 1d

Hi guys, I am Saeed and I support my large family of 11 people. We depend entirely on your funding and support to by able to live and provide food and sustenance. Without you, our lives become more difficult. I feel sorry for what is happening to us,

I hope you will help us 😔🙏

gofund.me/a0a540b8

Donate to Gaza Emergency Appeal - Help My Family, organized by Marina Reilly

Dear Comrade, In a world full of challenges, there are moments when assistanc… Marina Reilly needs your support for Gaza Emergency Appeal - Help My Family

gofund.me

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Ayo @darrylayo.bsky.social · 18h

Liberal guys think that if only the Epstein files would be released, every maga will have the trembling hand and the two stumble steps backwards and “m-my GOD” and a “h-how… how could I have been so wrong” then they fall to their knees in despair before taking up arms to oust Trump

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Joshfrai @joshfrai.bsky.social · 18h

Our Society's Relentless Push To Convince Us That The Solution To Every Problem Is Personal Responsibility So We Don't Think Too Hard About Systemic And Structural Causes, Asthma Edition

CNN @cnn.com · 1d

The people who are most vulnerable to the hard-to-breathe air that comes with climate change may inadvertently be adding to the problem, new research finds. https://cnn.it/4pWQMoh

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hammancheez @hammancheez.bsky.social · 19h

Exxon : while we're at it, can we talk about 80yos who aren't separating their recyclables

CNN @cnn.com · 1d

The people who are most vulnerable to the hard-to-breathe air that comes with climate change may inadvertently be adding to the problem, new research finds. https://cnn.it/4pWQMoh

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Joshfrai @joshfrai.bsky.social · 18h

Thanks for coming out tonight folks; here's a little number I like to call "Mansplainin' The Blues."

Natalie Weiner @natalieweiner.bsky.social · 19h

lmao a list of the top 20 blues artists of all time where the top 5 are all white guys... hellorayo.co.uk/planet-rock/...

The Top 20 Greatest Blues Artists of All Time

Here at Planet Rock, our resident blues expert Bernard Doherty brings you the...

hellorayo.co.uk

Joshfrai @joshfrai.bsky.social · 20h

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was making it seem perfectly normal to assume that anyone over the age of 16 has the ability to get behind the wheel of a 2-ton vehicle and safely navigate public roads on a daily basis.

Gravel Influencer @gravelinfluencer.bsky.social · 21h

You can be the safest, most attentive driver in the world and still pose a massive risk to other road users. That’s because cars and car dependency are inherently dangerous.

This doesn’t mean you’re a bad person if you drive, but I do think that drivers should acknowledge their role in this system.

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Joshfrai @joshfrai.bsky.social · 20h

New level of Frogger just dropped.

Amy @lolennui.bsky.social · 21h

George Orwell’s Animal Crossing

Someone in a frog costume facing down a line of police in riot gear

Joshfrai @joshfrai.bsky.social · 22h

#RandomSongInMyHead

youtu.be/8-bgiiTxhzM?...

Falco - Der Kommissar (U.S. Official Video) (VOD)

YouTube video by FalcoVEVO

youtu.be

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Joshfrai @joshfrai.bsky.social · 23h

He's more like the icing on the shit sandwich the legislature has been whipping up in Chapel Hill for the last decade+. Amazing how quickly and ruthlessly they've trashed things.

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Joshfrai @joshfrai.bsky.social · 1d

I've been trying to decode the hidden message in this Bloomberg oped, "America's elite universities have lost their way," but it's really subtle.

Part 1 of oped. Throughout, all uses of the word "elite" are highlighted. There are two in this section:

If you doubt that America's elite universities have lost their way, consider that, as part of a settlement with the Trump administration, Harvard is considering building trade schools. Whatever Harvard's comparative advantage is - and it has many! - it is not in vocational education.

U.S. colleges and universities attract the world's best students and academics, and produce research that powers the global economy. But the share of Americans who have a lot of trust in higher education has declined 15 percentage points over the last decade, to 42% - and trust in the Ivy League stands at just 15%. President Donald Trump is going after America's elite universities for a reason: Institutions that should be a source of national pride have become divisive (if not detested) because they have lost sight of their mission and why they are worthy of taxpayer support.

Part 2 of oped. Throughout, all uses of the word "elite" are highlighted. There are seven in this section:

And what is that mission? If you listen to college administrators, they describe institutions that are less about nurturing academic excellence than about constructing an elite with the right values and sense of civic engagement. In 2016, for example, Princeton changed its informal motto to be, "In the Nation's Service and the Service of Humanity."

To some extent, this impulse can be traced back to their founding. One of the original purposes of liberal-arts schools was to educate the children of elite families so they would become well-rounded citizens. In the mid-20th century, however, it shifted: Schools wanted to find the smartest students, a goal which better reflected America's meritocratic values.

Eventually, universities combined these goals. They would take the best and brightest and mold them into the nation's elite. But the latter goal came to dominate the former as the population grew and the competition for admission increased - as did the potential economic rewards and prestige from attending an elite university.

Since they had their pick of bright students, elite universities turned to their larger project: fixing what was broken in American society, which they saw (not unjustifiably) as stubborn racial and economic inequality and inadequate K-12 education. If it was a university's job to select and build the nations' elite, then administrators were going to make sure the elite reflected their values. It was not just the admissions department:
The mission of shaping the political and moral views of future leaders also infected the curriculum, as professors became less tolerant of differing points of view and confused teaching opinion with teaching knowledge.

Part 3 of oped. Throughout, all uses of the word "elite" are highlighted. There are three in this section:

This is one reason grade inflation became so prevalent. If teaching and learning are secondary to making the world a better place, why bother making students unhappy by giving low grades? Eventually students responded to these incentives and extracurricular activities, often with a social mission, become more important than classwork.

This social mission is also why universities became so political. Their job was not just to teach math or (as the case may be) comparative literature - it was to form and shape the elite. But this politicization came at a cost, as their universities increasingly found themselves estranged from (if not hostile to) the values of a large share of the public, on whose tax money they relied.

True, there is something noble about their endeavor. Many students from disadvantaged backgrounds were able to transform their lives by attending elite universities. And if elite schools admitted applicants only from competitive high schools or with perfect SATs, they would further entrench inequality and immobility in America.

At the same time: Should it be the job of the university to fix what is broken in America? Especially if Americans themselves can't agree about what that is? And even if universities accept that mission,

Part 4 of oped. Throughout, all uses of the word "elite" are highlighted. There are four in this section:

American universities are at a crossroads. More Americans are skeptical a college education is worth it at all. College graduates aren't finding jobs. Artificial intelligence makes it easier to cheat and not learn very much, while universities have yet to figure out how to train their students for an Al job market that will eliminate some knowledge jobs and create new ones. Elite schools have the extra challenge of winning back the nation's trust.

What they need to do is explicitly make education their primary mission again. They should adopt more objective admissions criteria; stop inflating grades as part of a drive to make science, social science and humanities classes more rigorous; and rededicate themselves to putting excellence in education and research first.

The sooner students realize they don't have to go to an elite school to get a great education - and those schools realize that their loftier goals may be undermining their ability to provide one - the sooner U.S. higher education can get back on track. As I've noted before, the best thing for both America and its system of higher education would be for its elite schools to become less elite.

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Joshfrai @joshfrai.bsky.social · 1d

The capitalism will continue until morale improves.

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Joshfrai @joshfrai.bsky.social · 1d

#TranslatedThusly

Beautifully

Excerpt from a book review:

Beautifully translated by Megan McDowell, in prose that shimmers with a sort of menacing lyricism, the stories of "Good and Evil" are powerfully evocative and unsettling.

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Joshfrai @joshfrai.bsky.social · 1d

Defund The Police (In The Stupidest Way Possible)

Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 1d

“A federal team in El Paso that once pursued child traffickers has been disbanded.

“A task force in Kansas focused on stemming fentanyl has been redirected.

“Highway checkpoints near the border—on roads identified as major drug-trafficking routes—have gone unstaffed”

🎁
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Trump’s Immigration Push Diverts U.S. Agents From Drug, Money and Sex-Crime Cases

Federal investigators are resigning, and morale is low, as they juggle complex cases and detain migrants.

www.wsj.com

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Joshfrai @joshfrai.bsky.social · 1d

“Appears to contradict” - that’s a real profile in courage there, fourth estate.

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Joshfrai @joshfrai.bsky.social · 1d

He’s sure making it seem that way….

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digby @digby56.bsky.social · 1d

I'm trying very hard not to second guess the DC Democrats.They don't have real institutional power and these subsidies are important to people. But it's surreal to see this normal policy argument on the split screen with the President sending an invasion force to American cities.

It's disorienting.

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Joshfrai @joshfrai.bsky.social · 1d

Dems Stand For Something Challenge Day # Oh I See The Problem Here Guys, You're Listening To The Wrong Matthew

Matthew Cortland (they) @matthewcort.land · Jun 7

I fundamentally, profoundly disagree with this incredibly dangerous A+B take from someone who has absolutely no business pretending to be a public intellectual.

We shouldn't use polling to tell us what our values are, we should use polling to further advance the causes we value.

Matthew Yglesias
@mattyglesias.bsky.social
I think a really underrated idea for Democrats would be to to try:
(a) Study public opinion accurately
(b) Adopt views, especially on social and moral values issues that align with public opinion
Or they can try this.
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/25/u..
The prospectus for one new $20 million effort, obtained by The Times, aims to reverse the erosion of Democratic support among young men, especially online. It is code-named SAM - short for
"Speaking with American Men: A Strategic Plan" - and promises investment to "study the syntax, language and content that gains attention and virality in these spaces." It recommends buying advertisements in video games, among other things.
"Above all, we must shift from a moralizing tone," it urges.
May 25, 2025 at 9:23 AM & Everybody can reply
5 reposts 7 quotes
46 likes

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Joshfrai @joshfrai.bsky.social · 1d

"Some official sources claim that the city is functioning normally; others allege that aliens have landed and are systematically shooting lasers at parked cars. (We have been unable to independently verify this claim.)"

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LorennaCleary.bsky.social @lorennacleary.bsky.social · 1d

WIC looks to be the first government assistance program to be disrupted entirely, meaning they’re going to run out of funds in as little as a week to two weeks, due to the government shutdown.

While other programs have a month or more emergency funds. WIC does not have enough to make it that long.

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Joshfrai @joshfrai.bsky.social · 1d

Best laugh I've had all day.