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Paul Callahan (he/him)

@paulcallahanmv.bsky.social

550 followers 130 following 4.9K posts

Computer scientist with a bunch of weird hobbies. I have mostly been linking news and making political comments. I plan to post more 3D print models and other math crafts when I can. "When the world falls apart, some things stay in place."

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Paul Callahan (he/him) @paulcallahanmv.bsky.social · Aug 16

Sadly, I mostly post news and politics these days. I post a little AI art now and then as well.

But see my printables link for what really gets me going: tesselations and puzzles.

Paul Callahan | Printables.com

I've had an interest in puzzles and tilings for many years and use 3D printing to try out ideas. – 3D models

www.printables.com

Paul Callahan (he/him) @paulcallahanmv.bsky.social · 7h

James Dean was also a hell of a lot more handsome. I mean, c'mon. Charlie Kirk is presentable in that clean cut way that conservatives love, but again, this is not the stuff that makes a youth idol.

Paul Callahan (he/him) @paulcallahanmv.bsky.social · 7h

A few sentences in and I'm wondering why I need to explore this premise. James Dean was a bona fide Hollywood star, not a polemicist. He also drove race cars and died driving a Porsche 550 Spyder. He didn't spend his time haranguing college students. He was cool. Kirk whatever you think, was not.

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Paul Callahan (he/him) @paulcallahanmv.bsky.social · 7h

I asked my college age daughter, and people her age are the ones who weren't terrified (like most media and politicians) to "speak ill of the dead", and were posting pretty tasteless comments to reddit.

So I really doubt there's youth movement aside from the far right.

Paul Callahan (he/him) @paulcallahanmv.bsky.social · 8h

I found an old email from DB Cooper in my AOL archives. Circa 1997. Is that good for anything?

Paul Callahan (he/him) @paulcallahanmv.bsky.social · 9h

It's what Bezos wants. Though in fairness, that sounds a little more like WSJ than Fox News, so maybe it is worse.

"Democracy Dies in Darkness. Nighty Night!"

Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos says opinion pages will defend free market and 'personal liberties'

Jeff Bezos, who also owns Amazon, said on X that "viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others."

www.pbs.org

Paul Callahan (he/him) @paulcallahanmv.bsky.social · 9h

I think it's likely to be a negative sum game in the near future. The core problem right now is an authoritarian government acting in contempt of the constitution. Until that is fixed, there aren't a lot of win-wins, or even wins. It's a long slog ahead and I hope it's not a civil war.

Paul Callahan (he/him) @paulcallahanmv.bsky.social · 9h

I'm normally a pessimist, but this is a no-brainer. Trump and the GOP cannot get more popular by making people's lives miserable. The Democratic party can't get much less popular and one reason for their unpopularity is their tendency to back down.

So how could this possibly work against Democrats?

Paul Callahan (he/him) @paulcallahanmv.bsky.social · 9h

"Our military" also includes some percentage of registered Democrats. I'm going to say at least 30%. It won't normalize it to them. It will be a form of discrimination against them.

Paul Callahan (he/him) @paulcallahanmv.bsky.social · 9h

What percentage of active service members are Democrats? Let's take 30% as a lower bound, because some independents or even Republicans might have voted for Harris.

Why is the so-called commander in chief picking a fight with at least 3 of out 10 people in front of him? Or was it a selected crowd?

Military veterans remain a Republican group, backing Trump over Harris by wide margin

Veteran voters have long been more likely to align themselves with the Republican Party than the Democratic Party.

www.pewresearch.org

Paul Callahan (he/him) @paulcallahanmv.bsky.social · 10h

I buy large amounts of Garofalo organic pasta at Costco as needed. I better see if I have enough to ride this out.

Paul Callahan (he/him) @paulcallahanmv.bsky.social · 10h

Well, in a broad sense, using government force to claim property is very Nazi-like. I agree it's not exactly the same.

Paul Callahan (he/him) @paulcallahanmv.bsky.social · 10h

I agree. One thing that made me a little nervous (though I wasn't that worried) was that the Trump admin could make some people's lives better, e.g. with a draconian approach to crime or even selective deportations that pleased bigots but flew under the radar. They have not chosen that path.

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Reposted by Paul Callahan (he/him)

Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 12h

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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Paul Callahan (he/him) @paulcallahanmv.bsky.social · 11h

This is literally Nazi tactics.

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Paul Callahan (he/him) @paulcallahanmv.bsky.social · 11h

Hahaha. No.

Was that a serious question 8 months ago?

Paul Callahan (he/him) @paulcallahanmv.bsky.social · 12h

Hilarious. Thanks for assembling this. I often try to point out that men used to be tailors, barbers, and pastry chefs. Nobody said they needed to be coal miners, lift weights, or go kill something. I think it's bizarre that in the 21st century, people are flipping out about masculine identity.

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Paul Callahan (he/him) @paulcallahanmv.bsky.social · 12h

Maybe he meant "plenty of authority".

Paul Callahan (he/him) @paulcallahanmv.bsky.social · 12h

Stephen Miller thinks he's a lawyer, but he's just a political hack. Keep him talking.

Paul Callahan (he/him) @paulcallahanmv.bsky.social · 14h

I'm hoping it fails so badly here that it stands as an object lesson to the world.

By "fail" I don't mean we all live happily ever after, just that it's a s*** show that nobody in their right mind wants to emulate, which is more likely than trains-run-on-time authoritarianism.

Paul Callahan (he/him) @paulcallahanmv.bsky.social · 14h

I think very few people want to volunteer as bathroom monitor regardless of their politics.

Paul Callahan (he/him) @paulcallahanmv.bsky.social · 14h

Republicans often make the mistake of assuming that people are "virtue signaling" or under duress when they express support for trans rights. To a large percentage of Americans, this is simply about human rights, while Republicans use words to wipe an entire group of individuals out of existence.

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Paul Callahan (he/him) @paulcallahanmv.bsky.social · 15h

Undercover Leftist, midnight fantasy. (And yes, I am indeed getting up there in years.)

Alan O'Day -1977- Undercover Angel

YouTube video by KOUJI328I

www.youtube.com

Paul Callahan (he/him) @paulcallahanmv.bsky.social · 15h

Right, that's why I don't compromise with MAGAheads, but in less charged terms "We cannot negotiate with people who say what's mine is mine and what's yours is negotiable." (JFK) an apt description if there ever was one of Republican "negotiating" tactics.

Paul Callahan (he/him) @paulcallahanmv.bsky.social · 15h

Politicians really need to avoid religiously charged terms like "martyrdom."

But if you look at the facts, Kirk appears to have been murdered by one individual with a personal grievance. There is little evidence even to call this a political killing, let alone "martyrdom."

Paul Callahan (he/him) @paulcallahanmv.bsky.social · 16h

Also, if she really thinks health insurance is a scam, nobody is stopping her from paying her kids' medical expenses out of pocket.

Sorry, I try to avoid MTG. I assume this level of incoherence is par for the course.