Azure Raphael

@trai70.bsky.social

555

Posts

Sometimes I write, rarely finish. I believe in public service. Library assistant. Retired bartender, carpenter. Father of 3 amazing adults. Mostly cat memes

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what men think women are judging them for: - not being rich enough - not knowing everything - not being perfect at things - not taking charge enough what women are actually judging men for: - covering all those insecurities up by being a reflexively negative dick to the people they love most

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Azure Raphael

“They want to eliminate national parks” is a very simple way to get just about anyone on the Stop Project 2025 train. Are there much more glaring and life-threatening goals of P25? Yes but even your most bigoted cousin does not want to see the parks system sold for parts.

This!! Start with “they want to end no fault divorce, sell national parks, and ban porn” end with tax structure.

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Azure Raphael

Yep. One of the biggest blind spots people have is assuming that underneath, others share the same basic values as them. They have trouble imagining an ideology that is completely misaligned with theirs.

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Azure Raphael

When you see the way the press is treating Joe Biden for aging in public, you see how they could treat Donald Trump for committing fraud, rape, espionage, and insurrection and never, ever will.

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Azure Raphael

Reply to

Courtney Milan

I'm not interested in arguing with people who have been doing this. Please understand that the thing I think you're accomplishing, wittingly or not, is making people with stories feel like they can't come forward.

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Azure Raphael

Reply to

Kingfisher & Wombat

I just. The glimpse of a society where you actually fund the library? Like a lot? And people USE it? It was packed!

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Azure Raphael

The Helsinki library is like the apotheosis of Library As Useful Public Space. I am in awe.

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Azure Raphael

Reply to

Iron Spike

When people say “it’s never been this bad” I can tell their understanding of American history goes back 20 years, max.

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Azure Raphael

Reply to

A.R. Moxon

I think the biggest problem we face isn't actually the practical steps. I think it's the collective determination to take those steps, because we know that those steps carry cost, and too many of us (including all too often me), would rather avoid cost. We must speak our determination.

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Azure Raphael

A good way to challenge the authority of an illegitimate institution is to find an issue where their authority is unpopular and difficult to enforce and openly defy them on it.

Lol. Folks who love to complain about luddites often forget that they were right.

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Azure Raphael

Welp. I think we’ll hear about presidential immunity from SCOTUS today. The fact that this is an open question is stunningly wrong-headed. You certainly can’t claim the founders wanted it. Or rather, you can. But you’d be wrong. Here’s a brief explaining why. www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...

<p>Historians' Amicus Brief in <em>Trump v. United States</em></p>www.brennancenter.org A group of 15 founding era historians represented by the Brennan Center and Friedman Kaplan Seiler Adelman LLP have filed a brief challenging Trump's claim of immunity.

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Azure Raphael

every time I see someone complain about unions I think about how unions were the consensus alternative to the previous system of burning the factory owner alive inside his house

Not making any threats here, just thinking out loud as a historian — do they people brazenly pushing for impunity for the wealthy elites not know what traditionally comes next?

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Azure Raphael

Reply to

Jonathan Cohn

100% in all seriousness, one justice for every circuit, plus a new circuit for administrative law

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Azure Raphael

A few years ago, Jon Lovett floated a theory that media treats Democrats like protagonists - to be challenged, accounted, and forced to be behave in growth-oriented ways - while the GOP are treated like antagonists - immutable, expected to disrupt, thematic obstacles. Thinking about that a lot.

I don’t recall the NYT calling for Trump to step down after being convicted of 34 counts of fraud and being called by a judge at his civil trial a rapist in the common person sense

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Azure Raphael

Reply to

Faine Greenwood

Farmers in my area: We feed you! Me: I don’t eat alfalfa, bud. And that’s all you grow.

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Azure Raphael

Reply to

Kevin Elliott

If only the rich “centrists” were spending their millions on ballot initiatives to create state-level proportional representation instead of the top-4 “primary” nonsense designed to tear down parties

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Azure Raphael

oh my god there's a chinese knockoff of the cybertruck and somehow the cybertruck looks like a cheap knockoff of it www.carscoops.com/2024/05/dong...

Maybe -- and I'm just spitballing here -- letting extremists in an apocalyptic death cult define educational priorities for an entire generation is something we're going to wish we hadn't done. 😶

Overheard at the library: "Well, you know how toddlers are: you can't make them behave." Me, under my breath: "It helps if you try." 😏

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Azure Raphael

This is why mask bans are suddenly being proposed. If you’re in a place where that’s happening and you think we should prioritize public and personal health and freedom over expanding the powers of the police state then please do let your representatives know why the freedom to mask matters to you

Cops don’t like them; makes it harder to use surveillance footage and facial recognition to arrest people (especially at protests).

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Azure Raphael

i am tired of politicians who are Characters. i long for representatives who are Boring and Go To Work.

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Azure Raphael

Reply to

zendarva.bsky.social

Sadly, the first amendment says that you can't sue someone because you disagree with their opinions about you.

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Azure Raphael

My colleagues and employees have informed me the "AI in law discourse" has fired back up. I am where I have been: 1. I *use* AI. 2. I've never seen a tech bro demonstrate a thread of comprehension of what I use it for, or what I do for a living, which is why it's still largely useless to lawyers.

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Azure Raphael

If JD Vance is chosen as Trump’s running mate, twenty bucks says that he introduces him as JV Dance.

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Azure Raphael

A reporter called me to ask about the historical accuracy of Prager U videos

One thing about having a doctorate in internet politics is that sometimes a reporter will call you up and ask, "hey, some guy says he's running ChatGPT for mayor of his town. Is this just a gimmick?" And you then get to stroke your beard and expertly reply: "Yes. That is indeed just a gimmick."

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Azure Raphael

The point you were arguing yesterday was wrong. If you want to say “yeah, I didn’t understand what I was talking about; I have now learned a lot and I understand why GPT isn’t useful in the way that I thought it was,” you should just say that.

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Azure Raphael

Oh, good. Another attempt at using AI to litigate. This one is (thank GOD) hypothetical. But let's see how it does. To put it differntly: Does Daniel know what he's talking about, or is he a tech dude in desperate need of a sense of humility and an understanding of his own limitations? Thread.

Is ChatGPT or other similar technology useful for law? Probably. Here's a hypothetical legal and use case.

How LLMs May Be Used in Court Casesmedium.com A hypothetical case as an example of how LLMs can be used in legal research.

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Azure Raphael

Dozens of IDF reservists who served in Gaza during the war sign a consciousness objection letter saying they will not agree to serve in Gaza again. Haaretz. There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.

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Azure Raphael

I sent this email to Snopes about their ridiculous Charlottesville "fact check" on Friday, followed up yesterday, no response. So sharing it here as an open letter. Apologies for the typos, I wrote it pretty fast. @brooklynmarie.bsky.social