Lurker > Antifar

That's good stuff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJBLA39spc4

https://twitter.com/BriannaWu/status/1576021072239300608

https://twitter.com/cbouzy/status/1575994358687731717

Hmm

Who are your favorite jazz musicians, CE?

Here is some shit I have been enjoying lately
https://youtu.be/wA1ZelIbUfI
https://youtu.be/fvRkGglLe-U
https://youtu.be/ihmuO4iQspI
https://youtu.be/lRDWsBx2loQ

https://twitter.com/Arr/status/1575706571597762562

stunning,
https://twitter.com/ABC7/status/1575832945310302208

It's Waco Wednesday

HHH_is_the_game posted...

If you strongly believe against stereotypes and of judging groups as a whole, it seems like that should extend to everybody, not just societally persecuted groups.

How does a group define itself? We have some groups that are defined by the circumstances of their birth, skin color, etc. But also there are groups defined by their members making choices to hold noxious views, or take take harmful positions in society. There are things that are perfectly fair to say about the latter set of groups that cannot be said for the former. "Republicans are anti-abortion" is a stereotype, but it is also true, for all intents and purposes.

Trying to take a nuanced view and thinking of imaginary good people in a group set on causing harm is missing the forest for the trees.

https://twitter.com/adamjohnsonNYC/status/1575149648242688001

https://twitter.com/adamjohnsonNYC/status/1574925966828183552

You should play Tunic

"onward" here refers to one sequel we haven't played yet. I don't think we can declare this the direction of the series.

https://twitter.com/sambrodey/status/1574408476964495360

Topic's not great

https://hellgatenyc.com/stop-using-migrants-as-political-pawns

The busing and flying of migrants under false pretenses by the hired goons of Texas governor and habitual border-security cosplayer Greg Abbott and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to Martha's Vineyard, Washington, D.C., and New York City with zero local coordination has gripped a national media and the Democratic political firmament typically unbothered by the mistreatment of migrants, raising the basic question of: What can be done about this?

That throngs of liberals were demanding the immediate jailing of Abbott and DeSantis just goes to show the extent to which the whole of our culture is geared towards the punitive as the super-solution, the remedy to all ills, including to itselfthe governors punish the migrants, we punish the governors and so on. Last week, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar had announced a criminal investigation, though he couldnt immediately name what criminal statutes might have been violated.

This will make a lot of people feel warm and fuzzy while likely accomplishing little beyond setting the precedent of sheriffs and other local law enforcement launching investigations into the transport of migrants. Prosecuting the governors is a self-evidently terrible idea that will most likely be weaponized by right-wing sheriffs to probe the many local governments and advocacy groups that actually help migrants get to their destinations. More sensible are the civil actions, like a recent lawsuit brought by several migrants against DeSantis for harms caused by the misleading nature of the transportation. Even these, though, are likely to drag on and provide relief to a small class of people even as Abbott and DeSantis escalate, thrilled as they are by the attention.

There are potentially some broader constitutional claims that could be made. For example, Linus Chan, a professor and director of the Detainee Rights Clinic at the University of Minnesota Law School, believes that the states are violating a doctrine known as the right to interstate travel, which very broadly holds that states cant block people from moving between states or grant new arrivals fewer rights than other state residents. Chan pointed to a 1917 incident known as the Brisbee Deportation, in which over a thousand striking miners were forcibly bussed from Brisbee, Arizona, to New Mexico, as well as efforts by states to move homeless populations out of state.

" We've created this idea of trying to kick poor people out of one state and into other states, and over time, the courts and the Constitution have said that that's not allowable. So the contention on my end is that this is no different. Texas treating people as a problem that they can get rid of by sending them to another state is very problematic," he said.

That brings us to the federal governments role, or rather the lack thereof. Customs and Border Protection officers have been giving migrants fake addresses and calendaring cases in courtrooms thousands of miles from where theyre ending up, all in an apparent effort to make them lose their cases by default. It's a pattern of conduct that could lead one to conclude that the agency is some sort of rogue militia, untethered from oversight and executive command.

This is to some extent practically trueCBP is the largest federal law enforcement agency, and Border Patrol in particular tends to view itself as something like the ronin, creating their own authority as they patrol the lawless expanse in some twisted fantasy of honor and heroicsbut it is certainly not legally true. There is a clear chain of command here that tops out with the president himself, and with every second that ticks by in which President Joe Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas refuse to exert and impose their authority, the mutiny gets more entrenched and harder to dislodge.

It's the federal equivalent of situations that have calcified in municipalities around the country, with local police departments and sheriff's offices deriding even the idea of civilian oversight or accountability, first taunting elected leadership and moving to direct threats and force when the former doesn't work. The main difference here is that we're talking about a nationwide force of over 45,000 armed and uniformed officers, including Border Patrol. CBP here is not just incidental or even negligent in this schemeit is an active participant, screwing over immigrants it sees as barely above vermin, to the extent that agents gleefully commemorate infamous instances of inhumanity, all in a protracted game of chicken with a president they're confident will blink.

The reason there are hundreds of recent asylum seekers milling about in San Antonio and desperate for transportation north in the first place is because the feds have abdicated their own role in this. DHS is happy to charter flights between different points along the border to facilitate so-called lateral deportations, for reasons that seem to stop at "increase cruelty." But it won't expend the same effort to actually help the people who it has already certified as having passed a credible fear test. There is precedent for this, with the Obama administration having instituted a policy to coordinate with nonprofits and migrants' friends and families to release asylum seekers directly to people or groups with which they would receive support.

"One of the sad realities is that the federal government is able, on a dime, to create a ton of detention facilities in no time flat when it comes to dealing with the surge, when they could, in fact, just provide more logistical support to the networks that are already there, to house people," said Chan. Doing so would not only ease the pressure on beleaguered cities bearing the brunt of the states' political antics, but give the federal government standing to challenge state and local officials maliciously shuffling people around the country. "Once they already have that humanitarian sort of response coordinated and put into place, then I think it becomes much easier for them to go into court and create a civil action against these state governments that are [fraudulently transporting people] and explicitly say that they are interfering with government programs."

Biden has recently taken a slightly less timid stance, but it seems he still fears the inevitable freakout over an effort to use federal resources to fly migrants to their destinations with coordination and buy-in from local governments and nonprofits.

Instead, the president is content to leave these migrants as political cannon fodder for the sadists in Austin and Tallahassee, shaking his head solemnly in the universal sign of 'someone should do something about this' while ignoring the fact that the best positioned such person is himself. The inaction isn't the absence of a decision, it's a decision.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-63035426

I haven't been able to get into games much lately. I would like to be playing MH Rise or Yakuza 5, but I just end up on my phone or playing FH5 instead.

Shockingly okay

https://twitter.com/terminallyOL/status/1573464903133823000

Lol

They can't be reformed.

I haven't found the time for new games of late, but I would like to replay Metroid Dread.

I put maybe 30 hours into it at first, didn't finish it, and was kinda lukewarm on it at the time.

I've since put another 60 hours in. It's a special game, with a sense of discovery that nothing else I've played can match.

I take the train, like a normal person

Bump

Mario+Rabbids
Bayo 3

https://newsone.com/4414891/judge-pulling-gun-on-black-man-in-court/

A New York judge is in hot water this week after bragging about pulling a gun on a Black man who appeared in front of him in court.

On Thursday, the states judicial conduct commission ruled that judge Robert J. Putorti be removed from his position after pulling out a semi-automatic handgun on a Black defendant in the Whitehall Town Court in Washington County. After the incident, he bragged about it to his colleagues and friends for years.

According to Syracuse.com, the incident happened in late 2015 or early 2016 but wasnt investigated until Putori boasted about his actions during a judges conference and then later to his supervising judge.

Do you separate music by genre, by era, by something else?

Lately I've been trying to make playlists consisting of one album each from the decades I listen to (60s-90s, sometimes dipping into the 50s or 00s but my selection is more limited there) that are connected in some thematic or stylistic way.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/23/texas-transgender-child-abuse-investigations/

The day after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the states Department of Family and Protective Services to conduct a prompt and thorough investigation of families with transgender children, the first case came up, and Morgan Daviss name was on it.

Davis was one of four investigators on a Travis County unit tasked with reviewing claims of child abuse. Usually, he and his colleagues took cases on a rotation. Davis was next in line.
That evening, a Wednesday in late February, hissupervisor called and relayed the basic facts. A mandated reporter by law, any licensed professional who works directly with children had turned in a family outside of Austin because theyd allowed their teenager to live as a girl. Under the governors order, someone had to investigate the family for child abuse.

Davisssupervisor told him she knew working the case might feel difficult. Nine months earlier, Davis had come out as a transgender man. He was 52, born in a generation when calling yourself tomboy felt daring enough, but after five decades, hed decided he was finally ready to live as himself.

On the phone, thesupervisor said she was prepared to offer Davis something she never had before.

If you want to recuse yourself, she said, you can.

Davis had taken the investigator job because he hoped to advocate for children in a way he felt no one had advocated for him when he was young. Usually, he believed in the departments mission of removing children from abusive situations. But if he took this case, he thought, hed be carrying out what many in his department had been calling a political stunt.
Across the country, Republican lawmakers were pushing anti-trans legislation to bar children from sports or gender-affirming health care. Abbotts letter went further. It didnt matter that puberty blockers and hormone therapy are endorsed by all major medical associations as appropriate treatments for gender dysphoria. If a parent allowed their child access to those medications, Abbott wrote, the state could break up the family.

Abbott said hed written the directive because he wanted to protect children from abusive procedures, but Davis and his colleagues believed the governor had done it to rouse his conservative base ahead of Novembers gubernatorial run against Beto ORourke.

It was evil, Davis thought, and he didnt want to participate in evil. But recusing himself wouldnt make the case go away. Another investigator would take it. Davis believed that most of his colleagues wanted to protect children from harm, but he knew that no one else had the lived experience he did. If he took the case, maybe he could tell the family he understood. Maybe he could thank them for giving their daughter the childhood he never had.
Davis pulled in a deep breath, exhaled, then told his boss hed do it.

If its got to be someone, he said, I want it to be me.
...
As Davis and his supervisor talked that Wednesday night, she told him he wouldnt have to spend long on this one.

She told me, Just go in, do the interview, assess the safety, then well close the case, Davis said.

When someone reports child abuse, investigators act immediately, Davis said within 24 hours for the most serious cases and within 48 for others. Investigators talk to the person who made the complaint, then they go to the childs school.

In this case, Daviss supervisor allowed him to schedule a meeting at the familys home for that Friday evening, roughly 48 hours after the initial report. (According to civil court filings, other families did not receive the same treatment: In at least two instances, investigators interviewed children at school with no warning.)

Davis spent that Thursday calling people for advice. He talked to his own doctor and to people from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association. Davis said the guidance they gave him echoed the statements they put in writing that same week: Gender-affirming care can be lifesaving for young trans people. The governors letter would put those children at even higher risk of anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicide.

Davis spoke to the person who reported the abuse and, later that afternoon, called the childs mother to set up the meeting.

My name is Morgan, he said. I need to let you know there has been a report.
Davis still believed he could make the situation better, so he told the woman shed be safe with him.

Im a trans man, he said. Ive been assigned to this case.

They spoke a few minutes longer, Davis said, then we just cried together.
...
He stepped outside. He called his supervisor and described the family as exemplary. The fridge was stocked. The books on the girls shelves were above grade level. Theres no abuse, Davis told his supervisor. We can shut this down.

Unfortunately, the supervisor said. We have to wait.

Davis still doesnt know when or why the higher-ups decided they wouldnt heed his report, but he said his supervisor told him it was beyond her control. One of her bosses had to join the investigation.

Davis returned to the living room, and he tried to frame his bosss words as no big deal, but the lawyers realized then, and the family did, too, that it didnt matter if the investigator was trans or kind. Something inextricable and horrible was beginning, and Davis couldnt stop it.
The parents lawyer walked Davis out. Maybe Davis did understand the family in ways other investigators couldnt, Harting thought, but that wasnt necessarily a good thing. Maybe the family had trusted Davis and told him things they wouldnt tell other investigators, things the state could eventually use against them.

You shouldnt be here, Harting told Davisin a tone that was firm but kind. I know you meant well, but this is wrong. You shouldnt do this.

Davis spent much of that weekend working and crying. He stayed up past midnight typing notes for his boss, and his stomach tightened as he uploaded the photograph of the girl. He woke up the next morning at 6, and he scrutinized his report until he was sure hed written the best version he could.

Still, Davis felt sunk. Hed watched for months as lawmakers in other states had moved to restrict transgender rights. Lobbying didnt seem to sway them, and neither did a broad medical consensus. The only tactics that seemed to work, Davis thought, were lawsuits. He spent most of that weekend hoping someone would sue, and on Tuesday, a week after Abbott published the order, one family did.

Davis read the civil court filing on his phone at the office the next morning. The family had a 16-year-old transgender daughter, Davis read, and the mother worked for CPS. After Abbott released the order, the mother, identified only as Jane Doe, asked her supervisor how it would affect her family. A few hours later, the agency placed Jane Doe on administrative leave. An investigator called the next day.

Davis winced as he read the familys affidavit. They wrote that they now live in constant fear. Jane Doe is unable to sleep, and her daughter has been traumatized by the prospect that she could be separated from her parents and could lose access to the medical treatment that has enabled her to thrive.

He imagined other families with trans kids must feel the same way.

I did this, Davis thought. I hurt a child. I hurt a family, a family I would have wanted.

https://twitter.com/davidminpdx/status/1573530439976833025

Hmm

David1988 posted...

Tell them youre a CEman

They know that already

How do I tell them the truth

:(

Received a pair of Sennheiser MTW 2 headphones for Christmas last year, and really loved them up until about three weeks ago, when I noticed that the battery life was far from its original level. Instead of going two weeks between charges, I'm suddenly having to charge multiple times a week. I know batteries are famous for two year life cycles now, but this is 9 months we're talking about. I'm usually careful not to let the case charge overnight or any of those things known to drain the battery.

I think/hope it's an issue with the case rather than the buds themselves, because at least that would be cheaper to replace.

Looking for sympathy/solutions/advice

https://twitter.com/melissagira/status/1573018294705070080
Hmm

I stand corrected

Weirdest possible angle to take here

When given the option, I prefer taking the stealthy approach. I just enjoy sneaking around and being methodical to group combat in most games.

I loved billiards and bowling. Didn't get into mahjong until the later games

FLAMING_EVIL_HOMER posted...

What happened with girl in wheelchair?

Unrelated. I went on two dates with her back in July, and I thought they went well, but then she told me that she wasn't feeling a connection.

She canceled on me again

I look forward to shuffling off this mortal coil

https://twitter.com/wnyc/status/1572338564557578241

Feel like there are better ways to promote this policy, if you are going to make it your policy.

Topic's not great

It's good as hell

seems like the current batteries have some problems

It's out this week

I've had a good amount of luck on Hinge that I wasn't getting on Tinder or Bumble

That guy did not like me.