Derrell Durrett

Today I learned that Fawn Hall, the Ollie North assistant who helped him shred documents related to Iran-Contra, attended Jack Lemmon's 1988 AFI Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony with her date, Rob Lowe. What a world.

Reposted by

Derrell Durrett

Attention @blackmudpuppy.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/science/2024...

Scientists discover giant aquatic predator from a time before dinosaurswww.washingtonpost.com The ancient freshwater creature resembled a salamander and had a mouth dominated by “huge fangs,” according to a member of the team that discovered it.

Reposted by

Derrell Durrett

Reply to

Don Moynihan

"I don't know anything about Project 2025" says man recording Project 2025 promotional video in front of Project 2025 publication. More substantively, Project 2025 has embraced Trump and Miller's immigration approach of using power to close both legal and illegal immigration.

Reposted by

Derrell Durrett

He doesn’t even bother to disavow Project 2025’s aims, but the fact that they’re shying away from direct association with it demonstrates that it’s a vulnerability. If the press is looking for something new and substantive to report on, they could start with the dystopia that these folks want for us

Stephen Miller now following Trump's lead and saying he has nothing to do with Project 2025. 1. His organization is on the Project 2025 advisory board. 2. He recorded a video as part of Project 2025 training tools 3. You can see Mandate for Leadership, the Project 2025 publication in the background

Reposted by

Derrell Durrett

“National greatness” is a pernicious lie in any context. “Russians and Americans have a lot in common—much of it unhealthy—including an ‘imperial provincialist’ outlook, a tendency toward grandiosity and conspiracy theories, and a penchant for violence” www.bugbeardispatch.com/p/some-july-...

Some July 4 Thoughts on Nationalism, the Post-Debate Anti-Biden Media Frenzy, and the Stakes of the 2024 American Electionwww.bugbeardispatch.com An Update and a Recommendation Hello, fellow bugbears! I suspect that many of you are feeling disheartened this week, as I am. The last week brought such a deluge of bad news—not to mention copious ba...

Reposted by

Derrell Durrett

The French are world leaders at "The govt sucks, I'm voting for my ideal, no way I'll compromise, you compromise" (round 1) followed by "The only way to stop the far right? Ugh, fine." (round 2). Often a responsibility placed more on the left, but this time the center too, perhaps more. Let's see...

Reposted by

Derrell Durrett

Reposted by

Derrell Durrett

Reply to

The Author, Séamas O'Reilly

*now, four

Reposted by

Derrell Durrett

Seems possible that Trump’s actions in the classified docs case aren’t “official” under the SCOTUS decision. But if he wins he can end the case, pardon himself, and pardon anyone who who would implicate him. And those *would* be “official acts,” immune from scrutiny. www.npr.org/2024/07/06/n...

Judge pauses deadlines in Trump classified documents case over immunity questionswww.npr.org Trump has argued that him taking classified documents to his Mar-a-Lago home constituted an official act — and that the Supreme Court's ruling means the charges against him should be dropped.

Reposted by

Derrell Durrett

Reposted by

Derrell Durrett

I don’t even know where to begin with this.

Reposted by

Derrell Durrett

Reply to

Allison Good

there comes a time in every male journalist’s life where he must decide: am i going to sell my soul to fascists?

I should think that, were I French, I'd want to carefully consider this sentiment when choosing my next assembly.

Marine Le Pen has vowed to stop Kyiv from using French-made weapons to strike inside Russia. Polls suggest her far right party may have enough seats to choose the next Prime Minister after the vote today. www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/202...

Le Pen calls for cancellation of authorisation for Ukraine to use French weapons to strike Russiawww.pravda.com.ua Marine Le Pen, the de-facto leader of the French far-right National Rally party, has promised that if her party comes to power after the second round of parliamentary elections, she will not allow Ukr...

Reposted by

Derrell Durrett

Reply to

Dan Nexon

I’m skeptical that X did in fact cause Z, when Z is Russia launching a war of choice and X does not include the Russian govt making a choice. But even if one assumes Russian actions aren’t due to Russian agency here, there’s no good reason to think reversing X would therefore reverse Z. It’s done.

Reposted by

Derrell Durrett

Reply to

Taco Bell's Cannon

I don’t think that’s too reductive. A domestic abuser is a useful frame for understanding Putin (or, say, Trump and US media). Not 100% analogous of course, but definitely overlapping.

Reposted by

Derrell Durrett

Reply to

Nicholas Grossman

I don't mean to be too reductive about things but I feel like every woman who has been in an abusive relationship knows exactly how this goes. There is only one trajectory. "If I just stop doing the thing that makes him angry, he won't shove me into a wall again."

Reposted by

Derrell Durrett

The "Ukraine never in NATO" crowd seems to think they're avoiding confrontation with Russia, but they're actually encouraging Russia in a confrontation that's well underway. Events are past the point where "don't make Russia nervous, don't push back, or they might get aggressive" becomes denial.

Reposted by

Derrell Durrett

These mistakes originalist justices are making aren’t about disputed interpretations of history, with evidence on both sides. They’re pulling quotes out of context to attribute ideas to founding figures that those figures adamantly opposed. (via @andycraig.bsky.social) reason.com/volokh/2024/...

The Supreme Court's Dubious Use of History in Department of State v. Munozreason.com Justice Amy Coney Barrett's majority opinion includes significant errors, and violates some of her own precepts against excessive reliance on questionable history.

Reposted by

Derrell Durrett

I once wrote a fact check of a Morgan Spurlock book. He included what he said was a direct quote from the FDA that aspartame causes cancer. I checked the footnote. An FDA newsletter did publish that claim — but *only to specifically refute it*. That’s basically how Barrett quotes Madison here.

Reposted by

Derrell Durrett

Air strike on Gaza school kills at least 15 people

Air strike on Gaza school kills at least 15 peoplewww.bbc.com The school, located in the Nuseirat refugee camp, was sheltering displaced people, Palestinian officials say.

Climate change coverage and response are illustrative of this result. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Epistemic language in news headlines shapes readers’ perceptions of objectivity | PNASwww.pnas.org How we reason about objectivity—whether an assertion has a ground truth—has implications for belief formation on wide-ranging topics. For example, ...

I mean, this was true before Russia invaded Crimea. It's only become more true since. The actual solution was a NATO/Ukraine mutual defense pact in the aftermath of Ukraine surrendering its nukes, but that expired sometime around 2008.

OK, this is perfectly horrifying.

I allowed students to use ChatGPT in 2023 for an assignment of their choice.. The output (shared thru group discussions) infected the class. The final exam had the worst average ever, by 10 points. It’s not that students didn’t know the answers. It’s that they had “learned” things that were untrue.

Reposted by

Reposted by

This semester I’m going to tell my students I don’t care if they use ChatGPT to write their papers, much as I don’t care if they use LSD and a ouija board write their papers. I’ll give fancy-sounding bullshit a failing grade no matter how it’s produced.

Well this is grim

Reposted by

Derrell Durrett

the thing you really can't over-emphasize about reactionary centrists is how *dumb* they are www.persuasion.community/p/a-guide-fo...

Reposted by

Derrell Durrett

"We can't be bothered to teach it to you but you should definitely bother to learn it" Boy I dunno if that approach is going to work with children or really immature young adults whose motivation for anything academic is either weak and conditional or nonexistent.

How long before the professoriate is next? 🗃️ www.axios.com/local/atlant...

Morehouse to be the first university to use virtual AI teaching assistantswww.axios.com The Atlanta HBCU will have AI teaching assistants this fall.

Reposted by

Derrell Durrett

Reply to

The New York Times

When children tease, they are imitating the adult world. And they are using their only power -- ridicule -- to try and impose the racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, and other prejudices of the world, wherever they can. It's why "anti-bullying" campaigns do not work.