Notices by Michelle Catherine Marcó (digichelle@hachyderm.io)

@skinnylatte I’m sad that I never got to meet Cookie, but I hope she’s having lots of fun on the other side of the rainbow bridge.

@skinnylatte Must be quite cathartic too!

@skinnylatte One thing The Man in the High Castle got horribly right is how quickly white Americans embraced Nazism. Like, damn.

@skinnylatte I really wish straight women would stop doing this. They keep giving me false hope!

@skinnylatte I haven’t eaten anything from Carl’s Jr. in years, possibly even decades. But I used to eat there all the time when I was a little Michelle, and I still have fond memories of the Western Bacon Cheeseburger.

@skinnylatte I’m relishing the irony. Fucking President Bongbong Marcos, son of Ferdinand Marcos and no fan of the ICC, let it happen—because their families have beef.

I’m just saying, this went down in the most Filipino way imaginable.

@skinnylatte Rhythm Nation 1814, by Janet Jackson, Side B. But I would be mad about not being able to listen to Side A.

@skinnylatte And not just any laser printer! A humble and inexpensive Brother unit is the way to go. (Well, it is unless they go the way of HP and introduce all manner of predatory practices.)

@mekkaokereke As a driver, I appreciate bollards, especially when they’re used to protect bicyclists. Makes it a lot easier—and a lot less anxiety-inducing—to share the road with them.

I’m sure I’ll appreciate it even more if I ever return to cycling. (I stopped as a child, out of fear, after I got hit by a car. The fear has long since abated. The only challenge remaining is getting a good bike at a good price.)

@skinnylatte I’m DYING with laughter. Such a great take! 😂💀

@skinnylatte I had a PowerMac G4 graphite back in the day. Apple’s monitors were (and are) way too expensive, so I went with a Samsung one like this. Worked great!

I’m almost willing to bet there are people on Craigslist looking to sell something like this for not a lot of money.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/256688318852

@skinnylatte Of course you have a BART ugly sweater! 🤣

@skinnylatte Cash flow tips from Lin-Manuel Miranda:

1. Be freakishly talented.
2. Write two (2) successful Broadway musicals.
3. Don’t spend it all on hookers and blow.

@skinnylatte Having never lived in such a place, that sounds magical.

I’m thinking about my visit to the International Spy Museum in DC, last time I was there. One exhibit puts visitors in the role of a clandestine operative operating in a foreign country and presents a picture of a street scene. They ask, can you identify the potential threats?

There are a pair of police officers in the picture, and yep—they’re on the list, because obviously. Best not to tangle with local law enforcement when you’re a spy.

For a long time, I held on to the naïve assumption that cops in the US and cops in oppressive regimes were different. Surely US cops are held to a higher standard. Surely our democratic system means that, ultimately, they serve the people.

Needless to say, I’ve long since dispensed with this ridiculous notion. Like anywhere else, American cops are charged with protecting the state—and by extension, the powerful and the system they created.

Now I’m thinking about all the times I’ve witnessed popular uprising against dictators abroad. Who’s on the front line, trying to push back the angry tide? Cops, of course, and often the military.

Either way, we’re talking about agents of the state, charged with its protection. Sounds innocuous enough at first, but consider—preservation of the state is not the same thing as serving the people. And these ends are opposed when the people oppose the state.

Also worth remembering—yes, it can happen here. And by “it”, I mean autocracy. The GOP planted the seeds long before Trump came on the scene. Now they’re making it plain that it’s their aim.

As for the cops, notice how many of them are lining up behind Trump, a convicted criminal. It reveals them for what they are and what they value. It’s not the law. It’s not the people. It’s order, the kind that puts people in their place and allows them to evade any sort of accountability.

In recent years, more and more people are shedding that naïve view. The vast majority of Black people never held it—they’ve been trying to tell us for years. Still, too many people still believe we’re the exceptional exception to the rule.

We’re not. We should be just as skeptical about the police as people living under autocracy. And while I don’t endorse espionage on behalf of a foreign nation, it’s probably a good idea to regard cops the way spies do.

Copaganda is unintentionally revealing. Note how often fictional cops get away with excessive force or overly aggressive interrogation tactics. Note how often they bend or break the rules, and how often it’s excused because the ends justified the means. Note the disdain towards internal affairs. Note the sheer number of shots fired. Note the ensuing carnage.

Sure, a lot of this is exaggerated for dramatic effect. But a lot of this is uncomfortably close to the truth.