Michael Cusac
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mlcusac.bsky.social
Michael Cusac
@mlcusac.bsky.social
270 followers 530 following 180 posts
i'm a people-person and a hermit
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mlcusac.bsky.social
You will be visited by three spirits.
December 9, 2025 at 2:31 PM
mlcusac.bsky.social
The best skeet-sized answer to 'why doesn't/can't/won't ________ resist totalitarianism?' may be 'because ________ is being run as a business.'
text: Terry McAuliffe, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is nothing if not a confident man. His confidence comes from his success in the many fields he has tackled over the years. During the 1990s he became the Democratic Party's most productive fundraiser while founding businesses of his own, chief among them a real-estate firm. "Don't forget, I did start two dozen companies," he told me when I visited him a few months ago. "I started my first business when I was fourteen years old. I was chairman of a bank when I was twenty-seven. Fundraising is like any other business."
September 18, 2025 at 4:34 PM
mlcusac.bsky.social
'Pi Day' was invented as a cope during the aftermath of the death of Frank Oppenheimer.

mvpl.catalogaccess.com/archives/11436
Interview excerpt: "Catherine Shaw: Okay. When Frank Oppenheimer, the founder, died, there was an interregnum which was somewhat difficult, and the next director was not a good fit. He was a good person, but not a good fit. So they were having difficulties. In fact, during that period, we happened to be in London, and at the Natural History Museum there, they asked us all about it. And we knew nothing, and they kept assuming that we were simply hiding the truth. [chuckles] And later we learned that many small, independent museums die under those circumstances, and that was what was expected of the Exploratorium. So they had an employees’ retreat, and staff retreated at Asilomar for a day or two. And during the course of that, Larry came up with the idea of Pi Day as something to unify the staff. And developed a Pi Shrine, which I have with me."
March 14, 2025 at 3:27 PM
mlcusac.bsky.social
not my home, but i know my way around
VT 220 text "You have moved into a dark place. It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue." followed by a right angle-quote prompt.
March 3, 2025 at 8:19 PM
mlcusac.bsky.social
Quote from Lemkin Institute: "Trump’s language denying the reality of trans identity and criminalizing its expression is similar to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s language regarding Ukrainian identity and Israel’s language regarding Palestinian identity. These three states each deny the identity of clearly visible, historically continuous, groups. Identity denial is a genocidal tactic aimed at vanquishing what is believed to be an evil, existential, and inherently criminal foe and it always results in mass atrocity if it is not nipped in the bud. While the latter two cases (Russia and Israel) involve imperialist land claims, in the case of the Trump Administration’s anti-trans policies, the goal is rather to achieve victory over an internal enemy: the perceived virus of “woke” ideology, of which US...."
March 3, 2025 at 3:51 PM
mlcusac.bsky.social
The important thing is that AOC is hosting educational webinars/livestreams about Constitutional rights, but all of the stories I see trending and being cheered are about her pwning a couple of administration freaks. Maybe a reason many Ds aren't doing much is that we only reward them for preaching.
Headline: "AOC Perfectly Shames Trump Aide After He Insults Her During His Cringey Interview: Preach, AOC!"
February 19, 2025 at 12:12 AM
mlcusac.bsky.social
The labels from @us-gov-funding.bsky.social help a lot.
Screenshot of a politician's skeet, with labels indicating companies and sectors which fund him.
February 16, 2025 at 7:21 PM
mlcusac.bsky.social
@newsweek.com please consider #SentenceStructure:

His legal team claims to have presented new evidence. "Alleged" should modify evidence or the verb. Easy to do without losing the clickbaity punch you want.

"Alleged New Evidence Emerges...."

"New Evidence of FBI blah blah Allegedly Emerges...."
An inaccurate Newsweek headline about allegations made by the legal team of the NXVIM cult leader.
January 19, 2025 at 8:32 PM
mlcusac.bsky.social
Back from back surgery!

TONIGHT! Have some joy and awe

one of the world's great drummers, Johnny Vidacovich

appearing with Ashlin Parker and Joe Ashlar

on their home ground, the Maple Leaf

20 bucks at the door, streaming free, ~8pm cst

www.youtube.com/@MapleLeafBa...
Johnny Vidacovich playing drums with joyful intensity
January 16, 2025 at 4:45 PM
mlcusac.bsky.social
Eric Skwarczynski is a wonderfully thoughtful interviewer.

As Sarah Posner says, to understand MAGA, listen to people who grew up evangelical.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdOm...
screenshot of a yt podcast which features Sarah McCammon and Adam Kinzinger
January 15, 2025 at 2:28 PM
mlcusac.bsky.social
Hey @wordgarbler.bsky.social, the algorithm that makes me playlists without me asking for them puts you in mighty good company.
playlist featuring Lou Donaldson, The Minor Thirds, Grant Green, Wes Montgomery, Little Maker, and Nat Adderley
January 15, 2025 at 7:22 AM
mlcusac.bsky.social
3/3 (I have a master's degree, and I defo got the count right this time)

These are images of Albert, the first one as he was between Paris Island and the Tet offensive, the second as I knew him, seeking sustenance and fellowship on Magazine between Louisiana and Washington.
photograph of a Albert Joseph Jackson, Jr., USMC, in his dress uniform photograph of Albert Joseph Jackson, Jr., from the early twenty-first century
January 11, 2025 at 10:38 PM
mlcusac.bsky.social
Books that have stayed with me, five of perhaps twenty.
#books #booksky #bookchallenge

Sea of Poppies
Amitav Ghosh
cover of Amitav Ghosh's book Sea of Poppies
January 10, 2025 at 8:27 PM
mlcusac.bsky.social
Books that have stayed with me, five of perhaps twenty.
#books #booksky #bookchallenge

Kurt Vonnegut, all of it

I just wasted ten minutes trying to pick one book, then five more minutes trying to pick a handful, concluding that these are psychologically impossible choices for me.
photograph of Kurt Vonnegut
January 10, 2025 at 1:11 AM
mlcusac.bsky.social
Books that have stayed with me, four of perhaps twenty.
#books #booksky #bookchallenge

The Mind Manipulators
Alan W. Scheflin & Edward M. Opton
book cover of The Mind Manipulators, featuring the eyeless face of a very distressed person
January 8, 2025 at 1:32 PM
mlcusac.bsky.social
As I recall, Moorcock's gripe was with the ending. I hated the last few minutes, but until then I thoroughly enjoyed the film.

Anyway, here's what you get for talking about MM here: his reflections on JC in 1989 in the intro to 'The Saga of the Man Elf' comic books, which use his characters.
a page of text, Michael Moorcock writing about Jerry Cornelius
January 7, 2025 at 11:21 PM
mlcusac.bsky.social
Books that have stayed with me, one of perhaps twenty.
#books #booksky #bookchallenge

Lancelot, or The Knight of the Cart
Chrétien de Troyes & Godefroi de Leigni
part of a page of a fifteenth century manuscript illuminated by Evrard d'Espinques
January 7, 2025 at 1:00 PM
mlcusac.bsky.social
Books that have stayed with me, one of perhaps twenty.
#books #booksky #bookchallenge

Mother London
Michael Moorcock
book cover of Mother London, by Michael Moorcock
January 6, 2025 at 11:56 AM
mlcusac.bsky.social
Books that have stayed with me, one of perhaps 20.
#books #booksky #bookchallenge

Imperial, Wm. T. Vollmann
cover of Wm. Vollman's book Imperial
January 5, 2025 at 2:44 PM