Steve Potts
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otispott.bsky.social
Steve Potts
@otispott.bsky.social
610 followers 720 following 760 posts
Lawyer. Believer in democracy and the rule of law.
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otispott.bsky.social
my squirrel can beat up your dog
hefty gray squirrel sitting on a fencerail
December 4, 2025 at 2:45 AM
otispott.bsky.social
how will Afghani immigrants adjust to the high homicide rate in the USA?
Table of murder rates per 100,000 inhabitants in Afghanistan (4.022) and the United States (5.763). source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate
November 28, 2025 at 2:23 PM
otispott.bsky.social
Wishing everyone a cozy Thanksgiving
Our cat Scooby curled up in a blankie
November 27, 2025 at 6:29 PM
otispott.bsky.social
"I can distinguish a tiger from a duck which proves I'm totally fine."
specimen of Montreal cognitive test
November 26, 2025 at 2:14 PM
otispott.bsky.social
"an orgiastic celebration of death"

true but also — yikes!
This was an orgiastic celebration of death — not just the literal state murders of Khashoggi, al-Jasser and other journalists and dissidents hacked to death so that the Saudis can keep their fossil fuels flowing, but also the death of press freedom, the death of the make-believe era of “woke corporations,” the death of democracy, and — worst of all — the death of a planet.
November 24, 2025 at 4:28 PM
otispott.bsky.social
New Illinois Law Expands Employee Privacy Rights and Employer Obligations
"This new legislation is a response to the increased federal immigration enforcement and will reshape employer responsibilities around employment eligibility verification and employee privacy."
natlawreview.com/article/new-...
The law will also transform how employers handle notifications about discrepancies in employee documentation. If an employer receives notice from a federal agency or a third party not responsible for enforcing immigration law — such as the Social Security Administration or IRS — about a mismatch in an employee’s taxpayer identification number or other documents, the employer cannot take adverse action based solely on this notice; actions like suspension or termination are expressly prohibited. Instead, employers must give the employee written notice within five business days. Delivery should be in person and by hand whenever feasible, but if that’s not possible, then by mail and email. The notice must explain what the discrepancy is, how long the employee has to respond or contest it, and what comes next.
November 14, 2025 at 5:37 PM
otispott.bsky.social
I keep wondering, what's stopping them from shooting?
November 10, 2025 at 3:35 PM
otispott.bsky.social
like the instructions on a moist towelette-

Tear open packet
remove towelette
use

😜
moist towelette packet: Refreshing Moistwipe Moist Towelette Lemon scented Cleans and refreshes hands and face without soap or water. Self dries in seconds. Leaves skin soft and smooth. Directions: Tear open packet, remove towelette and use. Mfd. By dispoz-o plastics inc. Fountain Inn, SC 29644 and I can't believe I just typed all that i must have ocd maybe this is a task AI could do to make itself useful
November 9, 2025 at 5:28 PM
otispott.bsky.social
Today in America
post from the fmr bird site with photo of fed officer on street in Chicago 11/8/25. Officer dressed in full combat gear and wearing helmet with American flag decal, dark glasses, mask over face, pointing long gun at Chicago Tribune photographer. Text of post: Laura N. Rodríguez Presa @LAURA_N_ROD Another photo from today in Little Village and Cicero: Agents pointed guns out of their car windows at civilians and members of the media, including two Tribune photographers, as they roamed around the neighborhood. Meanwhile, the shooter who allegedly targeted Border Patrol agents remains at large. The Department of Homeland Security did not specify which agency is investigating the attack. Bovino said on X that between five and seven shots were fired "directly" at his agents. Photo taken by @briancassella . Read the full story:
November 9, 2025 at 2:49 AM
otispott.bsky.social
top stories on NYT. the rich get richer and the poor can suck it.
Families In Limbo After Supreme Court Order Interrupts Food Stamp Payments How the Trump Administration Is Giving More Tax Breaks to the Wealthy
November 8, 2025 at 7:27 PM
otispott.bsky.social
ATTENTION so-called centrists: MAGA cannot be reasoned with but can only be defeated
This is why MAGA cannot be dismantled through argument. It isn’t a debate to be won; it’s a design built to resist persuasion. Each beam of its architecture braces another: fear feeds dominance, purity justifies cruelty, cruelty reinforces belonging. Its moral chemistry reverses the natural order, compassion is weakness, ignorance authenticity, vengeance virtue. The MAGA adherent isn’t persuaded; he’s produced, a psychological construct assembled from fear and grievance, maintained by outrage, and polished through repetition. His worldview offers what freedom never could: the relief of certainty, the permission to stop thinking.
November 6, 2025 at 3:03 PM
otispott.bsky.social
Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now shirtless kneeling on a beach in Viet Nam with shells exploding in the background saying to nearby troops "I love the smell of onions and mustard in the morning"
November 4, 2025 at 4:50 PM
otispott.bsky.social
Tell us another lie Kristi Noem
Christopher Klim, a U.S. citizen from Poland, was seen handcuffed and later released around 2 p.m. as he remodeled a home in the 7400 block of North Oconto Avenue. His co-worker, who Klim said also is a U.S. citizen from Poland, was arrested and taken away in the caravan of SUVs.
November 1, 2025 at 5:09 PM
otispott.bsky.social
Also this from the same story. How do you know people are guilty if you don't know who they are?
Representative Sara Jacobs, Democrat of California, said the Pentagon officials conceded that the administration did not know the identities of all of the individuals who were killed in the strikes.
October 31, 2025 at 1:12 PM
otispott.bsky.social
Hopefully no one in the gov't has seen Soylent Green
October 29, 2025 at 2:39 PM
otispott.bsky.social
Agree and I'd go further (and maybe this is what you meant) and hold that illegal and criminal acts are by definition outside the scope of "official acts." (Noting this was a case of first impression) the D.C. Circuit had the law exactly right (summarized here by SCOTUS):
In the [D.C. Circuit] Court’s view, the fact that Trump’s actions “allegedly violated generally applicable criminal laws” meant that those actions “were not properly within the scope of his lawful discretion.” Id., at 1192. The D. C. Circuit thus concluded that Trump had “no structural immunity from the charges in the Indictment.” Ibid.
October 25, 2025 at 6:56 PM
otispott.bsky.social
Happy #caturday eve to all who celebrate
Brown tabby kitty asleep in a pile of blue yarn
October 24, 2025 at 9:58 PM
otispott.bsky.social
President George W Bush in 2003 standing on a USN aircraft carrier in front of a giant banner reading MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, a reference to the alleged cessation of combat activity in Iraq.
October 23, 2025 at 1:30 AM
otispott.bsky.social
#NOKINGS
Protest sign: McTreason served cold, with a side of fascism i'm hatin' it Warning: contains artificial orange coloring & authoritarianism (above drawing of Donald Trump behind bars)
October 18, 2025 at 10:01 PM
otispott.bsky.social
Highland Park IL
October 18, 2025 at 4:12 PM
otispott.bsky.social
Garrett Graff reminds us: Trump won't last forever.
Whenever and however Donald Trump exits the stage, there just isn’t anyone who will step into the MAGA movement’s shoes — there are plenty of people who will try, from JD Vance to Marco Rubio to Ron DeSantis to Don Jr. to Ted Cruz, but the thing we’ve seen over and over across the last decade is that no one is Donald Trump. Vice President JD Vance, an incredibly awkward and unfunny Trump-lite who is widely despised by both sides, is most certainly not Donald Trump. Trump has built in MAGA not a movement but a personality cult — a fragile coalition of anti-government extremists, white nationalists, conspiracists, disaffected people hurt by globalization, and a lot of low-information voters whose brains have been fried by right-wing media and social media algorithms.
October 18, 2025 at 2:04 PM
otispott.bsky.social
For reference the "war ravaged" area of Chicago affected by these protests is circled on this map.
map of metro Chicago with a teeny one block portion of Broadview IL circled
October 10, 2025 at 1:42 PM
otispott.bsky.social
Incompetence and corruption are the price we pay for Trump's pathological need to surround himself with unqualified toadies but that's what narcissists do.
The narcissist tends to surround himself with his inferiors (in some respect - intellectually, financially, physically). He limits his interactions with them to the plane of his superiority. This is the safest and fastest way to sustain his grandiose fantasies of superiority, omnipotence and omniscience, brilliance, ideal traits, perfection and so on. Humans are interchangeable and the narcissist anyhow does not distinguish one individual from another. To him they are all inanimate parts of "his audience" whose job is to reflect his false self to him. This generates a perpetual and permanent cognitive dissonance: The narcissist despises the very people who sustain his ego boundaries and functions. He cannot respect people so expressly and clearly inferior to him - yet he can never associate with people evidently on his level or superior to him, the risk of narcissistic injury in such associations being too great. Equipped with a fragile ego, precariously teetering on the brink of narcissistic injury - the narcissist prefers the safe route. But he feels contempt for himself and for others for having preferred it. (reprinted from: https://drirene.com/7_nar.php)
October 9, 2025 at 4:40 PM
otispott.bsky.social
full reprint at: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://randolphcountydems.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/On-Tyranny-Twenty-Lessons-from-the-Twentieth-Century-by-Timothy-Snyder-z-lib.org_.pdf For resistance to succeed, two boundaries must be crossed. First, ideas about change must engage people of various backgrounds who do not agree about everything. Second, people must find themselves in places that are not their homes, and among groups who were not previously their friends. Protest can be organized through social media, but nothing is real that does not end on the streets. If tyrants feel no consequences for their actions in the three-dimensional world, nothing will change. The one example of successful resistance to communism was the Solidarity labor movement in Poland in 1980–81: a coalition of workers and professionals, elements of the Roman Catholic Church, and secular groups. Its leaders had learned hard lessons under communism. In 1968, the regime mobilized workers against students who protested. In 1970, when a strike in Gdańsk on the Baltic coast was bloodily suppressed, it was the workers’ turn to feel isolated. In 1976, however, intellectuals and professionals formed a group to assist workers who had been abused by the government. These were people from both the Right and the Left, believers and atheists, who created trust among workers—people whom they would not otherwise have met. When Polish workers on the Baltic coast went on strike again in 1980, they were joined by lawyers, scholars, and others who helped them make their case. The result was the creation of a free labor union, as well as government guarantees to observe human rights. During the sixteen months that Solidarity was legal, ten million people joined, and countless new friendships were created amid strikes, marches, and demonstrations. The Polish communist regime put down the movement with martial law in 1981. Yet eight years later, in 1989, when they needed negoti…
October 6, 2025 at 2:39 PM
otispott.bsky.social
I keep coming back to and re-reading this lesson about practicing corporeal politics from Prof Timothy Snyder's On Tyranny. It's meant for our time. It's meant for us.
13 Practice corporeal politics. Power wants your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipating on the screen. Get outside. Put your body in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people. Make new friends and march with them.
October 6, 2025 at 2:39 PM