mrtoads.bsky.social

mrtoads.bsky.social

@mrtoads.bsky.social

Grouchy old fart, enjoys books, birds, baroque music, alliteration and, of course, spiders (but then, who doesn’t?). Semi-skilled at a number of unimportant things like game-playing, computer surgery and natural history story-telling. Lazy.

4.5K followers422 following16.6K posts

While this election already simplifies the issues to voting Democrat vs voting for Naziism, treason and child rape (the Epstein Party of Donald Trump), here in Maryland one of the state Senate races also offers the distinct pleasure of voting for Martin van Buren as a Democrat.

mrtoads.bsky.social reposted

Watching atrocities be committed in your name and with your money and being unable to do a damn thing about it is one of the many horrifically frustrating things about this regime.

If you aren’t allowed to “prove” that you’re a citizen, does it matter if you are? What they do to Those Others, they are already doing to Us.

Lawyer dude@legalwombat.bsky.social

I have not yet read the majority opinion in full, but an unstated principle here is, IMO: if a person can be indefinitely detained on the allegation that they are in the country unlawfully, then a CITIZEN can be indefinitely on the erroneous allegation that they’re an alien

Just a note: The AI bots are getting very good now, and are a lot more sophisticated than they used to be. They can post photos with text and react to both photos and text almost like humans. Just do this, when someone new follows you - don’t follow back until you check their “replies”..

There are no laws for ICE any more, thanks to the Epstein Party. Vote. And doublecheck that your vote comes up the way you intended it to.

Radley Balko@radleybalko.bsky.social

ICE causes man to wreck while his children are in the car, then tries to pry his kids from his arms. They got the wrong guy. Toward the end of the video, an ICE officer says law requires the person recording to back up 25 feet and threatens with pepper spray. (There is no 25-foot law.)

mrtoads.bsky.social reposted

CHRISTOPHER LLOYD — 88 Candles 🎂 today — as ‘Banquo’ (and Christopher Walken as ‘Macbeth’) in the stage production of the Scottish play at the Lincoln Center — New York in 1974.

I just found out how much a stamp costs now. Apparently, that „forever stamp“ designation was a GOP trick, because what was 10 cents 60 years ago is 82 cents now, with the money clearly not going to operations and salaries. The GOP plant in 2017 destroyed the new sorting machines, to kill mailins.

So, last year was a big year for Golden Eagles running down the East coast in the fall, and it turns out this year’s looking exciting, too! We’ve already had 2 (maybe 3) Golden Eagles just north of Baltimore, in less than a week! Keep looking up - the GE season runs through December!

Remember, check your vote: Elon has rigged machines to flip votes from Democrat to Republican, but the GOP has apparently been doing this in the software for at least a decade. Make sure your vote is what you cast - and if it won’t let you change it back, call over a voting officer to document it!

mrtoads.bsky.social reposted

On Tues Oct 27th, Philly will have gone a full month without access to the Academy of Natural Sciences. Join us at academy at 6pm for a candlelight vigil. We’re keeping the light of hope alive. Wear black if you have it. We’re the dark times, but this fight isn’t over.

While it’s a bit late for people to be noticing this, at least they’re noticing it now.

Rachel Maddow@maddow.bsky.social

“A comparable scenario would have been President Franklin Roosevelt siding with Hitler or Stalin in 1939. 'Mind-boggling that we have a president in this position'...” www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...

mrtoads.bsky.social reposted

Remember when everyone was supposed to get “DOGE dividends” and $2,000 tariff rebates? Now Elon Musk is promising to give every child a SpaceX share, while Trump is claiming he'll dole out $5,000 checks if Republicans win the midterms. Their desperation is showing. Don’t be fooled.

mrtoads.bsky.social reposted

Aiding and abetting the enemy is...(checks notes)...called treason. Causing innocent civilians to be killed is...(checks notes)...called crimes against humanity and a war crime. Seriously, what the fuck is being done in our name, with our money?

mrtoads.bsky.social reposted

Today we launch the first episode of my podcast. I interviewed Whitney Mitchell, whose fiancé and caretaker Garrett Foster was murdered at a BLM protest in 2020. Foster's killer was convicted by a jury and given a 25-year sentence. Then Texas Gov. Greg Abbott pardoned him.

radleybalko.substack.comHer fiancé and caretaker was murdered by a far-right extremist. Then Texas Gov. Greg Abbott pardoned the killer. My interview with Whitney Mitchell.For my new podcast, The Watch With Radley Balko, Mitchell and I discuss Abbott, the coming election, and the legacy of Garrett Foster, her late fiancé

mrtoads.bsky.social reposted

Poverty is a policy decision. Concentrated wealth is a policy decision. Inequality is a policy decision. Economic inequality is not some naturally occurring phenomenon. It is the consequence of choices. One question I always urge my students to ask: who is the market organized for — and why?