Geoff Johnson

@geoffthejohnson.bsky.social

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Teacher and dad. As a student once wrote of me in an evaluation, “CAN BE FUNNY AT TIMES."

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Geoff Johnson

If you haven't already done so, please consider becoming a monthly sustainer for as little as $5 a month or making a one time donation. We're less than $600 away from the halfway point for this month: donorbox.org/support-the-...

An update on where we are: $1845 gross donations 65 total donors & about 25 new monthly donors It looks like over $650 will be recurring monthly donors!! This is such a good start! Thank you to everyone who has joined in support! donorbox.org/support-the-... Let's keep it going!

Donate to Palmetto State Abortion Fund | Palmetto State Abortion Fund (Powered by Donorbox)donorbox.org Right now, abortion is only legal in South Carolina through 6 weeks of pregnancy, before most people even know they are pregnant.How Much Does an Abortion Cost?A medication abortion in South Carolina ...

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Geoff Johnson

For folks who've appreciated my coverage of the French elections... @bolts.bsky.social is quite different—but we cover US politics with such attention to detail. So give us a follow if you've enjoyed this, and care about the US. And our newsletter is free! boltsmag.org/newsletter

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Geoff Johnson

I was in my car 10 blocks away when the Facebook live was being shared about 10 minutes after the shooting, and drove over to it because it seemed so unreal. I’ll never forget standing there and staring at the car, trying to comprehend how it happened. We stayed until the car got towed away.

8 years ago today Philando Castile was murdered. The criminal legal system failed to convict the cop who shot him despite the recorded evidence. We had to watch that video live just 24 hours after we watched cops shoot Alton Sterling in the back. (The video does not play at link)

July 6th, 2016 | A History of Racial Injusticecalendar.eji.org On this day, Philando Castile was shot and killed by an officer during a traffic stop for a broken taillight in St. Paul, Minnesota.

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Geoff Johnson

gratitude to those who have pushed gross donations almost to $4,000 for this month! They need $10,000 and we're so much closer than a couple of days ago. Thank you so much and have a good night.

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Geoff Johnson

Reply to

Patrick Iber

Also the crowd wasn’t that big, it was a middle school gym plus an overflow room, admittedly assembled in about 48 hours. Earlier I asked for the criticism to be based in reality but the president also needs to be

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Geoff Johnson

I watched the Strephanopolous interview and Biden asked “who could get a crowd like I did today?” and said the crowd wanted him to continue. I was in the crowd and talked to people in the line and certainly these are strong Dems but we were also talking about who would be the strongest candidate

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Geoff Johnson

Just signed up for a monthly donation. Who's next? Set it and forget it.

Ironically the decision by Biden and his people to have an early debate was terrible for their candidate but likely good for the chance to defeat Trump in November. His inner circle may have inadvertently stumbled onto decent electoral strategy with that choice, just not in the way they hoped.

We need collective pushback against the seeming inevitable omnipresence of Generative AI. As a teacher, I hope that all of us in education can enter the next academic year questioning AI usage, explaining why we won't/don't use it, and pointing to its harmful effects on decarbonization. 🗃️

Google’s emissions are up 48% in 5 years. Microsoft’s are up 30% since 2020. Those soaring figures are being driven by mass investments in data centers to power AI tools. Generative AI is a climate disaster and data center expansion must be stopped.

Generative AI is a climate disasterdisconnect.blog Tech companies are abandoning emissions pledges to chase AI market share

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Geoff Johnson

I remain appalled that higher ed has largely embraced AI, or at best not taken much of a stance. The public university where I teach held a huge IT conference (with industry peeps) in the last academic year where essentially every panel was devoted to how to use AI in our classes. I did not... 🗃️

So. Google just released an internal paper about the epistemic, ethical, and sociopolitical threats of generative "AI," and golly gee whiz if that doesn't sure as shit sound familiar. 🤔🧐😒🙄 www.404media.co/google-ai-po...

Google: AI Potentially Breaking Reality Is a Feature Not a Bugwww.404media.co “While these uses of GenAI are often neither overtly malicious nor explicitly violate these tools’ content policies or terms of services, their potential for harm is significant.”

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Geoff Johnson

thanks to those who have already contributed and to those who will. If you can't give money [I know times are hard for many], please consider sharing the information with others in your network who might be interested.

OK Bluesky comrades, who can afford to donate at least $5 a month to @psabortionfund.bsky.social? They are an all-volunteer led abortion fund based in South Carolina. They do such good work. Will you join me as monthly subscribers? donorbox.org/support-the-... - they need a min of $10,000 a month.

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Geoff Johnson

if you feel like you need to do something, find the folks who’re doing the work and give them money. that also counts as doing something.

One thing I don’t understand is why, when people are outraged by some injustice or affront — like book bans — they don’t first look to see who is already tracking the issue, who’s already working on education + organization. “We need to do something!” People *are*. Find them. Help them.

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Geoff Johnson

[U.S. Postal Service] Me: *hands over change of address form* Clerk: Ma'am, this just says "bathtub” Me: I live there now Clerk: We can't send mail to a bathtub Me: Yay

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Geoff Johnson

I do the same for Utah Abortion Fund. You can too!

Donating to abortion funds like Palmetto State is one of the more meaningful forms of financial support we can offer in this moment. I’m kicking in a small monthly amount and encourage those who can to do the same (or just to amplify this call for funding). These groups need grassroots support!

This sounds about right, but I think with some solid radical political education and a collective “hey now! let’s think for just one minute there before we post!” promise we can whip this crew into fighting shape.

bluesky is full of people with milquetoast politics who don't know shit about fuck patting themselves on the back for being radical and knowing so much more than those plebes on twitter, filtered through the grating mannerisms of elder millennials and Gen Xers

The current leadership of the Democratic Party can for sure find a way, but we should try to prevent them pursuing such a path.

I don't know how you lose running against a Court that wants to prosecute the pregnant and preemptively pardon that perpetrator.

I understand why people say things like this—it’s quite common rhetoric—and Trump II is a horrifying prospect. But referring to one electoral loss, no matter how bad, as “the end” of elections, any vague sort of democracy, etc. is defeatist and false. The fight goes on after November either way. 1/2

when we say a second Trump term will be the end of meaningful elections in America, we mean it

This is an important point from Kelly. Superhero Biden smashing fascists with his John Robert’s-gifted Thorhammer or whatever is so much less likely than Biden doing nothing or doing something fucked up with said power. I get why our minds go there but no, that’s just not the way.

Folks fantasizing about Biden using expanded powers to harm political bad guys need to process that if he flexes those powers, he will do so in order to harm activists and people living in the margins. Reimagining these people as having completely different MOs than they've always had won't save us.

The lack of democracy within the Democratic Party is obvious but still painful in this moment. There isn’t actually a simple answer to the Biden stay/go question. But it’s a key decision we should participate in collectively in some way. Instead it will be made by a handful of not so awesome people.

It's a clarifying moment for sure. Elected Democrats need to be part of any successful resistance to said project, but unfortunately we can't expect much from those folks. It's up to the rest of us to take the lead in this fight, which will go on for years (regardless of what happens in November).

SCOTUS is telling us that it has completely signed on to the project of a second Trump administration, which is establishing an elected autocracy.

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Geoff Johnson

Reply to

Emissary Of Night | ليلى

slightly less virulent version of brain worms you see on here: people conceding that Palestine is an issue but treating it as simply one among many similarly weighted issues, as if disagreeing with a candidate on genocide is like a disagreement on tax cuts

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Geoff Johnson

Join me in supporting the Free Store at Bluestockings! There is a great need for snacks and for Gatorade. Thank you to everyone who can contribute and/or share the call for donations: www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/...

Check out my list on Amazonwww.amazon.com

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Geoff Johnson

alt: two frame image comparing the 13000 explosive tons used on 905 square kilometers in hiroshima to the 79000 explosive tons used on 36 square kms in gaza

This would actually be a great time to give a massive platform to professors with expertise in administrative law. Spice up those lectures for next fall y'all: not so much for your law school students, but because we're putting you on cable news every day for the next several years at least.

I guess I don’t need this baby anymore

Chances are quite good that we are heading for a reality where the executive branch—regardless of which party controls it—begins ignoring court rulings, i.e. not “enforcing the law.” Those of us to the left of center need to be thinking about what sort of political activity we’ll do in that context.

The Court is intoxicated with power and is now in the "Because fuck you; that's why" phase of its jurisprudence

Biden doing badly in a debate and the cable networks freaking out/making it sound even worse is exactly the kind of outcome that folks who have suggested for months that it might be good to replace Biden on the ticket have predicted. (Not sure it will affect the November results much at all though.)

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Geoff Johnson

i don’t mean to judge but i feel like a lot of you would benefit mentally and emotionally from simply not watching presidential debates