Notices by Steve Silberman (stevesilberman@newsie.social), page 6

One reason everyone's so delighted by photos of the aurora is that it's a glimpse that the Universe is still alive, infinite, and beautiful outside of Donald Trump's colon, which we've all been trapped in for several years now.

The sea lions are out in force at Pier 39 in San Francisco, double the usual number, drawn by a large school of anchovies. [photo by Barbara Gersh]

Those "Marxist college professors" you've been hearing so much about? My father Donald was proudly one of them. At the height of the Vietnam War, he was fired for saying so, and his students and fellow professors, who loved him, occupied the administration building for 2 weeks before my parents and others were arrested. I just found this at a cool online bookstore, Bolerium.com. Such memories.

Happy #StarWarsDay! My own favorite personal anecdote: I saw Star Wars with poet Allen Ginsberg when it first opened in Boulder in 1977. When the crawl went up the screen ("A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away..."), Allen sighed, "Thank God - I don't have to worry about it!"

Amazing story: For the first time, scientists have observed an orangutan applying a medicated paste that it made to heal a wound. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-68942123

John Roberts' legacy is being Chief Justice of the most freakishly corrupt and anti-American SCOTUS in history. Even if he lives to be 100, the first paragraph of Roberts' obituary has already been written. [cartoon by Bill Bramhall]

Let's play "Pretend Democracy," where we pretend it's OK that this terrorist isn't in prison for helping to organize a coup and we pretend it's OK that her flamingly corrupt husband won't even recuse himself from the case. So fun!

Denied the nooses, firehoses, and dogs used in previous generations, Texas racists turn to mass firings, in keeping with the anti-DEI theories of Chris Rufo and other GOP darlings, to ensure that people of color never feel comfortable at the University of Texas. https://www.texastribune.org/2024/04/02/university-texas-austin-firings-dei-ban/

Trump says illegal immigrants are "not people," they're "animals," precisely echoing the language of Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin, and other mass murderers whose evil shadows the darkest pages of humanity's history. You can smell the crematoria in his words. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/16/trump-immigrants-not-people/

Exactly this, this all day, this x 1000.

BREAKING: Trump WH drug problems much worse than previously reported. Administration was "awash" in speed, Xanax, and other drugs, pushed by pill-popping quack Ronny Jackson. Melania was pissed when some random staffer couldn't just dash off a scrip for Xanax. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-white-house-drugs-speed-xanax-1234979503/

Say what you will about generative AI, it's certainly crammed all of my timelines with creepy fake-looking images that my friends keep posting as "Amazing!!" -- even friends who are art aficionados and I thought would know better. It's having a strange effect on me, which is a growing distaste and distrust of images themselves, as if the whole visible universe is being covered with some kind of slime.

The Hunter Biden investigation was a Russian psyop crammed down America's throat by Trump, Hannity, Ingraham and other traitors who should be in prison, but don't expect the media to tell you, because that would involve admitting they were "useful idiots" for Putin. https://presswatchers.org/2024/02/the-hunter-biden-story-has-done-a-total180-but-the-msm-is-in-denial/

With Roe overturned, the GOP now targets in-vitro fertilization (IVF), which has enabled a number of my dear friends and relatives to have kids after years of trying. It's hard to begin to comprehend how anyone could vote for any candidate from this deeply sick party. https://www.al.com/news/mobile/2024/02/frozen-embryos-are-children-alabama-supreme-court-rules-in-reviving-couples-wrongful-death-suits.html?fbclid=IwAR1xQxytZhalcdS-2YNTysg5KTYa0x9rdcHB7YYuCANORmL_nnQ6J6NjoFU

Crucially important NY Times article on how Russian asset Trump has become a massive threat to global security. Please spread this gift link! "Trump in a second term could effectively end the security umbrella that has guarded friends in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East for much of the nearly eight decades since the end of World War II." https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/11/us/politics/trump-nato.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Uk0.-Lfm.YKG_0ZDAykNz&smid=url-share

One thing I find fascinating about Republican voters and the mainstream media is that Trump routinely says things like this and -- well, you may not have heard, but the man is running for President of the United States -- and nobody just says outright, "WHAT THE BLOODY FUCK IS WRONG WITH THIS MAN? WHAT THE FUCK IS HE TALKING ABOUT?"

Amazed a creepy sociopath who turned universities into factories of racism and tried to climb to the White House over the dead bodies of immigrant kids, unvaxxed COVID victims, LGBTQ+ suicides, and women seeking abortions didn't "pop" in the GOP primaries. They're slipping!

Florida district removes *dictionaries* from school libraries because they may violate law pushed by freaky Republican bigots. https://popular.info/p/florida-school-district-removes-dictionaries?r=1v5azu&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Prominent vaper/handjob artist Lauren Boebert, who is paid $174,000 a year by American taxpayers to do jackass stunts for Fox News, accused of domestic violence by her exhibitionist husband. I'm not sure the Republican party is sending its best. https://www.thedailybeast.com/lauren-boeberts-ex-husband-jayson-called-the-cops-after-physical-fight-in-public?source=email&via=desktop

Gorgeous photo of twilight in #Provincetown by Marty Cowden.