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Patrick John Gillam@patrickgillam.bsky.social |
31 followers 151 following 385 posts
I’m not Christian in any conventional sense, but I love this thought in John 9:3: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” A good thought whenever I behold something needing fixing.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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As if any amount of vigorous action will magically delete all the derogatory TikToks amusing the un- and under-informed voters we need to win. Gaza wounded the President; the debates killed him; social media vids are shoveling dirt on his casket. Plus, Dems need a rebirth. Out with the old!
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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Pretty wild to hear Lou Reed’s 1972 David Bowie-produced “Walk on the Wild Side” today while conservatives are trying to outlaw the queerness the song celebrated *52 years ago.*
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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Thanks for that.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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I don’t think Chief Justice Roger Taney ever regretted his Dred Scott decision, and he died before the Civil War closed, so he never saw the decision’s full impact. But former President James Buchanan actually took heat from fleeing war refugees. I think John Roberts may be like Buchanan.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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In my retconned history, Democratic Senators convicted the House-impeached Bill Clinton and President Gore won his 2000 election on the strength of being the incumbent. I would not object to a similar scenario this year.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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Yet they exist. I live in south-central New Hampshire. I’ve had occasion lately to drive a series of country roads. I see innumerable Trump signs and two Kennedy signs. Biden Harris signs? Zero.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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These guys will leave the country in such shambles their own supporters will turn against them. Then libs will come in to clean up their mess, as we did in the 1860s and 1930s.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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Yes, he’s an asshole, but in this callout quote, he’s correct. We libs need to make damn sure we don’t get violent. Don’t get violent first, and with luck, don’t get violent at all, no matter how bad things get. When Trump refuses to leave office in 2029, then we can talk about it.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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My wife watched all the seasons of “Breaking Bad” except the last one, the final eight episodes. It was just too stressful, she said. That’s how I feel about the news. I’ve been devoting hours a day to the news for the last nine years, but now it’s just too much.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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I’ve been listening to Hilary Mantel’s “A Place of Greater Safety,” her book about leading figures in the French Revolution. Turns out the guillotine was actually a practical and humane improvement on having the mobs hack the privileged to pieces.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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After President Biden’s disappointing debate, it’s a comfort to think he could simply ignore next fall’s election. I’m sure he’s adequately compos mentis to frame his actions in some official capacity. Thanks, Chief Justice Roberts!
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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I wonder if the assumption goes beyond political media to be found in people at large, including conservatives. Can’t cite an example offhand, but conservative cries of “You made me do this” suggest it. And the very labels “progressive” and “conservative” say one side acts and the other resists.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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It’s a good day to remind myself how prospects appeared dark for the United States of America early in the Revolutionary War, early in the Civil War, and early in World War II. Then we won all three. Not that we’re in a shooting war. Not that it must come to that. But as crises go, that’s a pattern.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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America’s big advancements have come in the 1860s and 1930s, when the conservatives who instigated those crises were utterly and totally out of power. Compromise played little part, if any. Yes. Outvote them, and soundly, then do what’s right.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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Two thoughts: 1. Daniel Markovitz explains who’s making the most and how* in “The Meritocracy Trap.” 2. Your observation is one justification for taxing high earners highly. Low earners contribute to society by their work. High earners by their money. * They design systems that flow earnings upward.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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The Lord’s Work
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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If you haven’t already and would like to immerse yourself into a brilliant investigation of this graph, read (or as I did, listen to) Daniel Markovitz’s “The Meritocracy Trap.” It explains where the money is going, and why, and much else about Our Current Condition.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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What’s different after finishing this book is that I’m resigned to the destruction that’s building. We need to power through it. America has made its greatest progress after vanquishing bad guys. Maybe we can have a soft crisis, à la the 17th century’s Glorious Revolution. But if not, OK, I guess.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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The Obama interregnum relieved some anxiety for a while, but mostly this century has felt like I’m riding a train whose tracks are headed off a cliff. So I’ve been bingeing Strauss and Howe’s work on historical cycles. Howe says we’re in a crisis cycle, which’ll get worse before it gets better.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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The bike is lovely and the invitation sounds vaguely pornographic, but I’m replying to commend the care taken to use inch marks, as opposed to quotation marks. Nice work.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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I wish Marshalltown had an Art Cullen. (I live in New Hampshire now, but I’m a fifth-generation Marshalltonian.) Thanks for the link.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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During Trump’s term, one of the big outfits—probably the New York Times—wrote about a town’s reaction to having one of its highest contributing, most admired citizens deported to Mexico. Of course, it was a Trump town. Imagine their surprise.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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Neighbors recycled their Trump yard sign from 2020. All it took was some black tape over irrelevant information. I checked the back of the sign, facing away from the road, and sure enough, there he is. It’s tempting to write “Hang Mike“ in matching letters and flip the sign around.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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Today I installed a window air conditioner in five minutes and wasted 30 minutes fruitlessly trying to connect its app to our network so we can control the machine from across the room. It’s less hassle to get up and push the goddam buttons.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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“30 Rock” loved the series-of-three joke, and experimented with expanding the form. Daring!
youtu.be/x5rh8NNLHV0?...
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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If one group of three is good, TWO groups of three will be even better!
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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The Big 3 generic meditation practices—focused attention, open awareness, and automatic self-transcending—are NOT methods for quieting thoughts. Rather, they create opportunities for awareness to be aware of itself.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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Just as moveable type facilitated the Protestant Reformation’s reevaluation of righteous behavior 500 years ago, social media are facilitating a reevaluation of ethics today.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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Ditto civil rights.
blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2015/03/10/s...
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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I like to read this post as if it’s the name of an aria. If we can have a “Nixon in China” I like to think we could have an opera about the Alitos. Titles? GO
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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You know how 1850s apologists for enslavement framed slavery as a “positive good”? Here we have a similar framing for conservatism’s insider/outsider orientation:
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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Of course. So if you want that better world by this year’s birthday, please accept my condolences. But I like to think you’ll be in the position my grandparents were, harvesting the fruits of a historic High while at the peak of your powers. Good luck!
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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I’ve been listening to the Fourth Turning books of Strauss and Howe. (Look ‘em up.) They describe cycles of history. If you’re now halfway through life, you’ll see our current Crisis era segue into a High like that following World War II, then that’ll give way to an Awakening à la the ‘60s–‘70s.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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The ageism against Baby Boomers on social media, especially TikTok, surpasses simple prejudice. It dances between vitriol and outright despising. I understand that technically it’s punching up and hence “OK,” but with some half of us unable to retire and growing frail, it unsettles one.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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Looks to me like the middle class, which had higher expectations but has been flatlining since 2000, is going to beat them to the punch.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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Apparently courts have ruled that a company forfeits its ownership of a brand when it permits the brand to enter the lexicon as a generic product name. Hence, corporate legal department Karens send stern corrections to people who treat brands as nouns instead of the adjectives they are.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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The Unguents and Future King
#MakeABookGreasy
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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Nineteen Eighty 10w40
#MakeABookGreasy
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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I sought in vain for puns using “canola.” Thanks for showing it was not only possible, but exemplary!
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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If u see this post a wolf
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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I think the way capitalism works is that when offshore products beat domestic products, the domestic businesses either die or never start. So if we want to develop domestic industries in key segments, we need to create a space for those businesses to grow. Hence the 19th century industrial tariffs.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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“When seeking refuge from warlords seeking to recruit your sons and gangsters seeking to rape your daughters, file your application with this handy mobile app. We’ll be in touch!”
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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We do like to tie human rights to property rights. Can a citizen truly have virtue if they don’t have money? The left says “Of course.” The right says “Don’t be ridiculous.” I fear the moderates—the people the left hope to persuade—silently sympathize with the right.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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“Go through channels” sounds like a variation on that old chestnut, “You’re protesting wrong,” which itself stands in for “We’re not going to do anything differently, so thanks for an excuse to change the subject.”
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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Thanks. I promise to use this information responsibly. No replying to posts with “Well, actually, he won’t be a *convicted* felon until…”
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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Show a picture from your phone that has your energy that’s not a selfie.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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I don’t recall the source, but I heard a person officially becomes a convicted felon upon sentencing. Is there some official starting point other than the jury verdict? And is “convicted” even necessary?
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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Swat people flying the flag as a distress signal because they’re flying the flag as a distress signal.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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It’s all fun and games until someone loses an i.
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Patrick John Gillam
@patrickgillam.bsky.social
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Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern call it the weaponization of speech. Everything is speech now.
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