Ric Stubbs

@stubbazubba.bsky.social

239

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National security lawyer (all views strictly my own), TTRPG enthusiast, Tolkien lover, occasional songwriter, and a partridge in a pear tree. He/him.

Cover photo: concept art for Númenor in The Rings of Power.

Posts Replies Media

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Ric Stubbs

A reminder that the ancient world was incredibly diverse and interconnected even over thousands of miles, and in TTRPGs—even fantasy TTRPGs—ignoring or excluding this fact is the opposite of "realistic". Populate your worlds with many different peoples. #TTRPG

this absolutely blew my mind it's the coolest thing i've read in a minute www.smithsonianmag.com/history/hidd...

A Buried Ancient Egyptian Port Reveals the Hidden Connections Between Distant Civilizationswww.smithsonianmag.com At the site of Berenike, in the desert sands along the Red Sea, archaeologists are uncovering wondrous new finds that challenge old ideas about the makings of the modern world

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Ric Stubbs

I will bang this drum forever: in THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE FREE: THE GERMANS, 1933-45 Milton Mayer interviewed 10 ordinary Germans after WW2 to learn how fascism took hold. There was never a moment when everyone woke up:

if you’re waiting for everyone around you to wake up, you’ll wait forever. this is how the people grinding our bones to make their bread WANT you to be. paralyzed, alienated & purposeless

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Ric Stubbs

There are two elements to the immunity decision that are particularly extreme in a way that many will miss: (1) motive is irrelevant and (2) immune acts are not just excluded from prosecution, they’re excluded from evidence. /1

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Ric Stubbs

The president is himself forever immune from prosecution for crimes committed using his official power, and he can pardon anyone for helping him to commit federal crimes, explicitly including an actions in furtherance of a coup to illegally hold onto the office of the presidency. That’s the upshot.

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Ric Stubbs

Also just tossing it out there, but SCOTUS saying "we need to do this to protect executive authority" when it's literally the executive branch arguing they shouldn't, sort of gives the lie to the idea this was about protecting constitutional departmental interests as opposed to protecting Mr Trump

Just realized that the two dwarves with the beard tattoos are sporting tattoos *of each other's beards*! That is both precious and gives the scene more of a story to it, brilliant!

Three 'Species' paintings that I made for D&D's new Revised Player's Handbook – Dwarves, Elves, and Orcs!

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Ric Stubbs

Reply to

Wormhole42

Dead is the only age that's too late to start being an author.

Kind of handy that I've been too lazy to take down the Christmas lights all year... might accidentally plug them in tonight...

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Ric Stubbs

The only people who've ever held Trump meaningfully accountable over the last nine years have been ordinary Americans and they've spent that entire time being lectured to and berated by elites who've failed to do anything.

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Ric Stubbs

Today is the day Donald Trump became precedent

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Ric Stubbs

This is exactly right, and also exactly why the media struggles to report on what his admin's plans are

I think honestly a key to Trump's popularity. He inverted the theatrical aspect from one where the Meet The Press class were in on the joke and the conservative voters were the rubes, to one where the conservative chuds were in on the joke and the DC crowd were the rubes bsky.app/profile/rinc...

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Ric Stubbs

New post at CAMPAIGN TRAILS: open.substack.com/pub/kevinmkr...

Polarization or Radicalization?open.substack.com This post is a little unusual for CAMPAIGN TRAILS, but we’re heading into a long holiday weekend, so … why not. This morning I woke up to an email from a columnist at a major newspaper, asking for my ...

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Ric Stubbs

Reply to

Kevin M. Kruse

If House Republicans can get the nation focused on Ivy League student protesters, Senate Democrats should be able to do the same with insurrection enabling judges

youtu.be/S1tGAwuiRzI?...

We all carry around magical objects in our pocket that contain all of the world’s grief, maybe that’s not such a great idea

Denethor's Palantiryoutu.be A video about Lord of the Rings and nothing else.

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Ric Stubbs

"The over-emphasis on How will this play? is the scourge of modern political coverage... How will this work? is the more informative but rarer question." fallows.substack.com/p/election-c...

No, that's a paladin. You're thinking of the centermost of the seven hills of Rome.

No, that's a palindrome. You're thinking of the TTRPG class where you're not quite a fighter and not quite a cleric

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Ric Stubbs

Israel Accuses Al Jazeera Of Being Mouthpiece For Journalismwww.theonion.com JERUSALEM—Following its ban of the Qatar-based news outlet’s operations in the country, Israel accused Al Jazeera Monday of being a mouthpiece for journalism. “It is clear from its continuous, 24-hour...

Did the student protesters ever try chanting "Hang Mike Pence" to seem more peaceful?

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Ric Stubbs

👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 Full solidarity

Letter from Jewish faculty [at Columbia] on academic freedom, attacks on the University, and the weaponization of antisemitism

Letter from Jewish faculty on academic freedom, attacks on the University, and the weaponization of antisemitism.docxdocs.google.com

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Ric Stubbs

Brilliant review of Haidt's book and moral entrepreneurship by @mmasnick.bsky.social, who brings, as ever, reason & receipts. "Kids and mental health is a very complex issue, and Haidt’s solution appears to be, in the words of H.L. Mencken: clear, simple, and wrong."

The Coddling of the American Parentwww.thedailybeast.com Jonathan Haidt’s new book “The Anxious Generation” blames youth mental health issues on social media in a way that’s easy, wrong, and dangerous.

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Ric Stubbs

Sitting in a Tree xkcd.com/2919

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Ric Stubbs

‘Some exciting new literary genres’ My latest Guardian Books cartoon.

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Ric Stubbs

The Fifth Circuit is aggressively, and without the clearest of legal authority, trying to stop two cases from being transferred to courts outside of the Fifth Circuit. Here is @chrisgeidner.bsky.social’s report at Law Dork —>

The Fifth Circuit's lawlessness is now spreading from California to D.C.www.lawdork.com Two federal judges in Texas recently granted motions to transfer cases to other courts. Then the Fifth Circuit got involved. Now, it's a nationwide mess.

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Ric Stubbs

This one feels like a punch in the chest: Vinay Krishnan on the bird app.

The silver lining of today's ruling is that it is so vapid, shallow, and unmoored from any principle of law whatsoever that the absurd rules it seems to articulate are unlikely to be cited for much force until jurists forget its grotesque context. Assuming, of course, there are still jurists then.

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Ric Stubbs

It never stops being darkly funny how the same people who insist gender is inborn and immoveable are also the same people who claim your manhood can be taken from you for the smallest things: Eating ice cream or soup. Crossing your legs. Being nice to a woman.

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Ric Stubbs

States’ Rights is an American political philosophy that means states are allowed to be more authoritarian than the federal government, but cannot be more liberal than the federal government

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Ric Stubbs

Conventionally decorous fascism is apparently preferable to a chaotic and complicated Republic.

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Ric Stubbs

Terry Pratchett about fantasy ❤ - interview in The Onion, 1995 #TerryPratchett transcript: www.tumblr.com/fuckyeahgood...

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Ric Stubbs

What is remarkable is that no-one has made a compelling argument that Biden's age has affected his decisionmaking or performance as President, whereas Trump's erratic behavior and deep self-interest did so in a myriad of ways.

This is the other one that got to me today. Biden's age is the only thing we've been talking about for weeks! It's so much easier to just repeat "why won't democrats address the concerns!?" over and over than it is to actually address them by comparing Biden's acuity to Trump's.