Bookworm and amateur photographer who likes the surreal and the silly.
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“Coca-Cola brought in Dean Kamen, known to most people as the Segway inventor but known to scientists for devising a system for microdosing prescription drugs. He applied that technology to soda pop, and voila: [the Coca-Cola Freestyle], a soda machine with hundreds of options, including regional flavors and sodas not sold in cans or on store shelves.”
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QudsNen: Israel’s Supreme Court has ruled to continue withholding the body of 14-year-old Palestinian boy Wadia Shadi Sa’d Elyan, killed by Israeli occupation forces near Ma’ale Adumim in February 2024. This decision comes despite video evidence showing he was shot from behind while fleeing and again while lying motionless. His remains have been held for a year and a half, with the Court accepting the state’s claim that the body can be used in future negotiations with Hamas. Israel’s systemic policy of withholding Palestinian bodies includes over 45 children and 668 individuals in total, denying families the right to a dignified burial.
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We Have Enough Dead Friends
We Have Enough Dead Friends Lena Oleanderson
Come over. The doors are open, my flat’s a mess and so is my heart but the doors are always open. Come over. I will make soup, probably from frozen but the important thing is we will both eat.
You don’t have to be dying, but if you are, or you feel like you are, or if living’s been hard, call me, and I will show up. It doesn’t have to be that bad, it doesn’t have to be bad at all, but if it is, please call.
Do you want me to do the groceries? Do you want me to mop the floors? Do you need to be held; you don’t have to be dying to be held. If you want me to be there, I want to.
T’m on the bathroom floor again, and breathing is hard, and eating’s been hard, and sleeping, the world is a laden thing rolling around on my chest lately. Just being alive is heavy tonight, but we have enough dead friends. Come over.
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Society is Powered by Empathy
Society is Powered by Empathy Jarod K. Anderson
Society is powered by empathy, by an understanding that diverse lives, goals, and perspectives deserve our consideration, respect, and mutual protection.
This empathy is not just rooted in idealism; it’s rooted in the fundamental truth that our shared needs and fates outweigh our differences.
This is true for human societies.
It’s also true for our broader fellowships of life,
Folks you have never met grow your food and build our technologies.
Creatures you do not see create your oxygen It’s a dangerous failure of imagination to forget the need we have for one another.
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Whitney Cummings - 9/11 - Audience Interaction
www.youtube.com/shorts/tW…
Whitney Cummings: Who do you think did 9/11?
Soldier: Us.
WC: So why did America do it?
S: To finish Bush 1’s job.
WC: Where’d you read this?
S: I served 11 years.
WC: Where in the military were you?
S: Syria.
WC: Yeah, I want the full conspiracy. Let’s go.
S: I was at the V.A. a year and a half after an operation that we went to. “Breaking News”: the operation that we did a year and a half ago popped up on the news. I immediately went to go check and I’m like, “Is this modern?” And they said, “Yes.” And I said, “No, it’s not. I need to go talk to Mental Health.” Because I was there when that happened.
WC: Oh, so you go and say like, “We, this, what’s on the news isn’t true.”
S: Yes.
WC: “Am I going crazy?”
S: Yeah, and it broke my whole reality.
[Crowd: “whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.”]
WC: Yeah, he cannot stop drinking. He, I, I think he’s telling the truth. Why did you just drag us into this nightmare? Is the Bermuda Triangle real?
S: Yes, but it’s because of a series of winds, not anything else.
WC: Nerd alert!
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Sovereign Citizenship
From ChatGPT, when I asked it to explain to me what’s behind the ideas of sovereign citizenship.
Sovereign citizenship is a pseudolegal belief system held by individuals known as sovereign citizens. These individuals assert that they are not subject to government laws, courts, or authority—especially that of the federal government—because they claim to exist outside of what they consider a corrupt or illegitimate legal system. The movement is rooted in conspiracy theories and a misinterpretation of history, law, and constitutional principles. > Core Beliefs (to adherents)
Sovereign citizens believe that: >
The legitimate government was subverted: Often pointing to events like the U.S. Civil War or the establishment of the Federal Reserve in 1913, they argue that the original, lawful U.S. government was replaced by a corrupt or corporate entity. >
The individual is separate from their legal identity: They distinguish between the “flesh-and-blood” person (themselves) and a “corporate fiction” created by the government—usually represented by their name in all capital letters on official documents (e.g., driver’s license, Social Security card). >
They can “opt out” of U.S. law: By declaring themselves sovereign and rejecting certain contracts (such as birth certificates or Social Security registration), they claim immunity from taxes, traffic laws, courts, and even criminal prosecution. >
Legal loopholes and word magic: They use elaborate, often incoherent language in legal filings to challenge jurisdiction—e.g., “I do not consent,” “I am a free inhabitant,” “I waive all benefits of U.S. citizenship.” They may file “affidavits of truth,” “common law liens,” or other bogus legal documents. >
The gold fringe theory and admiralty law: Some believe courtrooms with gold-fringed flags are actually “admiralty courts” with no authority over sovereign citizens. This is false but widely believed within the movement. >
Rejection of licenses, taxes, and courts: Sovereign citizens often refuse to get driver’s licenses, register their vehicles, pay taxes, or comply with court orders. They believe that doing so constitutes entering a contract with the government. > How They Think It Works
Sovereign citizens believe that: > Law operates by consent, so if they do not consent, they are not bound.
By using specific language or documentation, they can reclaim their status as “natural,” “common law,” or “sovereign” beings. Judges, police, and government officials must prove jurisdiction over them—something they assert is impossible unless they voluntarily contract into it.
Courts and officials are part of a massive fraud, and once exposed (by the sovereign’s filings), they will have no choice but to concede or lose legitimacy. > In Practice > This does not work legally. Courts consistently reject sovereign citizen arguments as frivolous and without merit. However, adherents often: >
File false liens against officials
Refuse to cooperate with police or judges
Attempt to issue bogus legal judgments or fines
Engage in “paper terrorism”—flooding courts with junk filings
The FBI considers parts of the sovereign citizen movement domestic terrorism, particularly when individuals escalate to violence in confrontations with law enforcement. > The earliest known roots of the sovereign citizen movement in the U.S. trace back to the Posse Comitatus movement in the 1970s, but some of its conceptual DNA reaches further back into: >
1950s–1960s: Tax Protest Movements > Early anti-tax groups, such as Willis Carto’s Liberty Lobby, began to circulate ideas about resisting federal income tax by claiming the IRS had no constitutional authority.
Some cited fringe interpretations of the Constitution and misreadings of the 14th Amendment, claiming it unlawfully created federal citizenship. > 2. 1970s: Posse Comitatus > Founded by William Potter Gale, this was a white supremacist, Christian Identity group that claimed: > All government above the county sheriff was illegitimate.
The federal government had been overtaken by Jewish conspirators.
Citizens could declare themselves sovereign under “common law” and reject federal authority. > This is the direct precursor to modern sovereign citizen ideology. Gale’s writing introduced: > The idea of “sovereignty” based on common law and local authority.
The claim that citizenship had been corrupted by secret law.
The view that birth certificates or driver’s licenses were contracts with a shadow government. > 3. 1980s: Emergence of Paper Tactics > Adherents began to develop pseudolegal tactics, such as: > Filing fake liens
Challenging court jurisdiction with elaborate scripts
Using all-caps names to reject their “corporate” identities > A key figure was Roger Elvick, who pushed the “redemption” theory—that by filing certain documents, one could reclaim a secret government trust account tied to their birth certificate. > 4. 1990s: Spread Through Anti-Government Milieu > After Ruby Ridge (1992) and Waco (1993), sovereign ideas spread within broader militia and patriot movements.
The Freemen in Montana (1996) held an 81-day standoff with the FBI using these theories. > **Summary of Earliest Example **
The clearest identifiable origin of modern sovereign citizen ideology is: > William Gale and the Posse Comitatus (early 1970s) — the first organized movement to claim U.S. citizens could reject federal law by invoking a form of racialized, biblical “common law” sovereignty.
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Karis Nemek, Andor:
There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy.
Remember this, Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they’ve already enlisted in the cause.
Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.
And remember this: the Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear.
Remember that. And know this, the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the Empires’s authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege.
Remember this: Try.
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i don’t like the fact that my changes of survival seem to be linked to the common sense of others.
Word of the Day is ‘copemate’ (16th century): the friend in life who gets you through.
Jack LaLanne: “Exercise is a CELEBRATION of what you can do, not a punishment for what you ate.”
Hurkle durkle: A 200 year-old Scottish term meaning to lounge in bed long after it’s time to get up.
We are things that labor under the illusion of having a self, this accretion of sensory experience and feeling.
In a society that profits from your self-doubt, liking yourself is a rebellious act.
Bayard Rustin: Let us be enraged about injustice, but let us not be destroyed by it.
I’m starting to realise that one of the purest forms of love is consideration. When someone thinks about how things would make you feel. In any situation how much they care about you is found in how much they consider you.
“When you’re not used to being confident, confidence feels like arrogance. When you’re used to being passive, assertiveness feels like aggression. When you’re not used to getting your needs met, prioritizing yourself feels selfish. Your comfort zone is not a good benchmark.”
Chidi,, The Good Place: So, why do it then? Why choose to be good, every day, if there is no guaranteed reward we can count on, now or in the afterlife? I argue that we choose to be good because of our bonds with other people and our innate desire to treat them with dignity. Simply put, We are not in this alone.
vanillatifa: My uncle said, “You’ll always be a boy to me." The table went silent. My little cousin, 9 years old, slammed her fork down and said, “No. She’s my aunt. And she’s pretty.” That one sentence did more for my soul than years of therapy.
“I think we’re living in a dystopic riff on the main timeline, like a nightmare that someone in the main plot is having. That’s where we exist, because I was just watching the news and they had a talking hat on. He was talking about the situation in the Middle East and he was like, I wish we had a Bush presidency right now. And my first thought was, oh man, that would be great. Anyway, happy Friday the 13th everyone.”
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Marc Maron Gets a Cereal Box with a "Lifetime Ally" Badge
Maron: At this point, it’s lazy and sloppy and hackneyed, you know, to be in a club where, you know, I’m walking down the hall at the comedy club, or, and, you know, in one room, someone’s doing their bit about trans people. And then I get down the hall and there’s someone on stage going, “Well, I guess I got to do my bit about trans people.” Like, no, you don’t. You don’t.
It’s hack now. I mean, you know, you guys got the freedom you wanted. You can now say whatever you want. They’re defeated. The rights have been denied. The policies that you guys encouraged, which are your stupid material, are now policy. And now, like, you know, half the people under the umbrella of anti-woke, we’ve lost a tremendous amount of Democratic-leaning ideas and movements.
So whether they knew it or not, that’s what they were spearheading. So now it’s reality. And you want to still keep kicking them?
Mandel: I don’t know that the comedians have had that much power.
Maron: Are you out of your mind?
Mandel: No, I’m being serious. I’m not—go ahead. Go ahead.
Maron: You know, you can’t separate—like, if the movement is like, you know, “We’re being censored.” No, you’re not. You’re not. There’s no constitutional censorship issue with your free speech. You say things, and in a Democratic show of an environment, you know, like Twitter or whatever, there’s cultural pushback. But that’s a specific issue.
To frame it as some sort of free speech problem was a misdirect. It wasn’t. It wasn’t a free speech problem. It was that people were getting cultural pushback. That is not a constitutional issue. No one was being put in jail for saying anything. That’s a free speech issue.
But my problem is, you’re going to start talking about anti-woke, and that’s going to be your point of view. That’s going to be your ideological, you know, grounding for what you do. OK, that’s fine.
But why does it have to be the same four things? You know, it’s like they talk about the same—and I don’t know a better definition of hack. I mean, after a certain point, it’s like, you know, what juice is the word we really had? How much do you have to give trans people? You know, what is your big problem with gay people? What’s your big problem with women?
It’s like, what is this, the 80s again?
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If President Nyarlathotep Says Colonial Williamsburg Requires 24-7 Carcass Battalion Patrols, So Be It
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Leah Litman: SCOTUS trans care ruling opens harmful loophole
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