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M.S. Bellows, Jr. msbellows@c.im Profile picture
M.S. Bellows, Jr. msbellows@c.im
@msbellows
Agamemnon sucks: we do the fighting, he gets the girls. (Oregonian. Mediator/lawyer/writer; bylines in The Guardian, Alternet, HP, more.) https://t.co/5lTrY4KD5L
6 subscribers
Feb 9, 2023 • 16 tweets • 36 min read
You: "I don't want to support Elmo's Twitter, but this still is where the cool kids are, and I value this community."

Me: "Yes, community matters! But your community is relocating. Here are some of the great writers, thinkers, and kind souls currently active on Mastodon:
1/ 2/
 @benjaminwittes
@BoozyBadger
@charliejane
@davidcorn
@DevinCow
@DiGBY
@ElonJet
@emptywheel
@GeorgeLakoff
@GeorgeTakei
@GottaLaff
@GrammarGirl
@Green_Footballs
@greg_doucette
@gregsargent
@GretaThunberg
@helenprejean
@IronSpike
@KagroX
@kairyssdal
@Karoli
@kathygriffin
@KFILE
Sep 11, 2022 • 9 tweets • 7 min read
This feels like a good time to remind everyone that six days from now my bride and I will climb on @HawaiianAir #25 to celebrate our 30th anniversary by learning to sail on a 33' sailboat cruising Molokai, Lanai, + Maui + earning our @__ASA__ 101, 103, 104 certifications.
1/ @HawaiianAir @__ASA__ You may think this is neither interesting nor relevant.

Oh, you poor misguided fool!

I share this so that my fellow Olds can remember who they are: ageless magical beings who are still 5 and 21 and 35 and 50. We've experienced most of the ages, and so we are all of them.
2/
Aug 4, 2022 • 23 tweets • 6 min read
From a trial lawyer's perspective, this short hearing on Alex Jones' emergency motion to suppress the contents of his cell phone is amazeballs. Short thread:
1/ First, trial judges generally bend WAY over backwards to protect lawyers from possible legal malpractice actions, and put privilege-waiver genies back in the bottle when possible. Why? Bec they want the case to be about *the case*, not setups for a later malpractice action.
2/
May 26, 2022 • 26 tweets • 9 min read
We all know the Second Amendment: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

What many don't know is the Constitution's *other* militia clauses that give the 2A context:
1/ Yes, "militia" is discussed OUTSIDE the 2A. Constitution Article 1 Section 8 gives Congress power over national defense, including the army, navy – and militia. If we want to understand what the 2A means by "well-regulated militia," that's where we have to start.
2/
May 24, 2022 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
A thread, in images:
1/ 2/
May 11, 2022 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
I hope everyone understands this, but in case they don't:

The Senate gives votes to land, not people. Wyoming has 2 senators per 290,000 people; California has 2 senators per 20 million people. It's the ultimate "gerrymander."
1/ The antidemocratic Senate —> an antidemocratic Electoral College —> undemocratic Presidential elections.

President + Senate choose SCOTUS justices.

Therefore, in our supposedly "democratic" republic, the Executive, Supreme Court, and half the Legislature are undemocratic.
2/
May 5, 2022 • 35 tweets • 11 min read
1/ I'm not sure all my non-lawyer friends fully understand how awful this leaked Alito opinion reversing Roe v. Wade is.

It's not just about abortion. It's about the entire concept of non-enumerated rights.

And it's LITERALLY about returning to Dred Scott.

Thread: 2/ The Constitution enumerates certain freedoms Americans have against government intrusion: speech, worship, assembly, firearms, etc.

But it also says that list isn't exclusive:
May 4, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Insane.

To protect their democracy from being overthrown by force from within, the Roman Republic forbade generals from moving their armies any closer to Rome than the Rubicon River. In 49 BCE Caesar did so anyway, starting a civil war that would end the Roman Republic. ...
1/ The Founders + Framers feared this. Jefferson wrote "nobody had done more than Caesar to corrupt" the Roman Republic into a nation "steeped in corruption vice and venality." John Quincy compared England to Caesar, trying to snuff out America's (Rome's) nascent democracy.
2/
Apr 23, 2022 • 22 tweets • 15 min read
Thread:

Let me try to help The Youngs understand that @SteveMartinToGo King Tut bit: @SteveMartinToGo 2/ Imagine a world where there is no YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook. No cable, no DVD, no VHS. Your ONLY home digital medium is broadcast TV.

And there are only three nationwide channels (ABC CBS NBC), plus PBS. That's it (besides fuzzy UHF local crap).
Mar 3, 2022 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
Personal news: nearly all the residents in my biomom's memory care facility, including her, have COVID. Mom was sent to the hospital two days ago with a fever and a pulse ox of 88.

1/ Her PCP is furious: he was there last week, and instead of being separated/kept in their rooms as had been done earlier in the epidemic, residents were in the common areas without masks, and even some workers weren't masked – WITH COVID-POSITIVE PEOPLE IN THE FACILITY.
2/
Dec 29, 2021 • 6 tweets • 4 min read
Holy HELL, @bootbarn. My wife and I went into your Tualatin, OR store, + as we entered a family of five was leaving – none masked. Then the employee who greeted me (quite cheerfully!) had her mask under her nose...
1/ @bootbarn Then I counted six other maskless customers + another employee with a mask half-off.

We left immediately.

Because we're not stupid, we respect the law, and we don't want to die.
2/
Dec 28, 2021 • 21 tweets • 17 min read
Context thread:
• The defense bill is DOUBLE the COMBINED costs of COVID stimulus + infrastructure + Build Back Better. (Where are the deficit hawks like @Sen_JoeManchin?)
• And it's unnecessary: U.S. defense $ exceed Russia + China + the next 9 countries COMBINED. ...
1/ @Sen_JoeManchin Some will argue, as @BroadbrainTV does here, that it's ok because "the defense bill is a jobs bill." And that's sort of true: the defense industry accounts for at least 800,000 jobs and 10% of U.S. manufacturing. is.gd/Brn8g0 ...
2/...
Aug 15, 2021 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
History from 2001:

The Taliban weren't involved with 9/11. A council of 600 senior AfPak Muslim clerics – essentially the Taliban's governing body – expressed dismay at the 9/11 attacks and offered to expel bin Laden from the country.

Bush said no. edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asi…
1/ The Taliban acknowledged that 9/11 violated Islamic law – but remember, bin Laden initially denied being behind the attacks. At the time, even the U.S. only labeled him a "prime suspect," stopping short of saying we were sure he did it.

That uncertainty was VERY significant.
2/
Jul 27, 2021 • 13 tweets • 5 min read
Thread:

Today's testimony by Capitol Police officers about the Jan. 6 insurrection is making me rethink the Boston Massacre, which in hindsight sounds more like 1/6 than a righteous revolutionary act.
1/ Eight soldiers guarding a government building were surrounded by 300-400 angry "patriots" hitting them with clubs, rocks, chunks of ice, oyster shells, lumps of coal; many in the crowd taunting the soldiers to fire, others warning them that if they do, the crowd will kill them;
2
May 30, 2021 • 16 tweets • 8 min read
.@RadioFreeTom's written an interesting thread here, but I keep thinking back to this old discussion where he said that conservatism's main feature isn't standing for things, but standing against them:
1/ @RadioFreeTom (Thread referenced above:)
2/
Apr 17, 2021 • 25 tweets • 5 min read
I just read the Anglo-Saxon/America First Caucus statement of (so-called) principles, and it's clear that the writers used "Anglo-Saxon" only because "Aryan" already was taken. It's the Racist/Nativist Caucus.

Here are some thoughts about "our" "Anglo Saxon" roots:
1/ First, who WERE the "Anglo-Saxons," anyway?

Immigrants and invaders. Germanic ones. Nothing "native" about them.

"Saxon" = "Germanic." "Anglo" = "the subset of Germanics who ran England for a while."
2/
Apr 2, 2021 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
This is a wonderful read. Some great quotes + stories. I'll thread a few of them (but not all): “I got on a bus in 1982, from the hills of Tennessee. I had $1,200 sewn into my underpants by my mother and I arrived in LA and found West Hollywood, which is where I currently live.”
Mar 31, 2021 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
(CW: child sexual abuse)

Matt Gaetz, Republican: child sex trafficker.
Joel Greenburg, Republican: child sex trafficker.
Ghislaine Maxwell, Republican: child sex trafficker.
Jeffrey Epstein, Republican: child sex trafficker....
1/ ... Ralph Shortey, Republican: child sex trafficker.
Tim Nolan, Republican: child sex trafficker.
Earl “Butch” Kimmerling, Republican: child sex trafficker.
Jon Matthews, Republican: child sex trafficker.
Stephen White, Republican: child sex trafficker...
2/
Mar 26, 2021 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
I hope John Roberts has a sleepless night tonight.

The Civil Rights Act of 1965 used to have a "preclearance" requirement that forced historically racist jurisdictions to obtain DOJ approval before changing their voting laws (like Georgia just did).
1/ SCOTUS struck that down in Shelby County v. Holder (2013). Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority that the problem of state voting discrimination had largely disappeared:

"Nearly 50 years later, things have changed dramatically...

2/
Mar 25, 2021 • 45 tweets • 9 min read
IN DEFENSE OF JOE MANCHIN: an obnoxiously lengthy historopragmatic thread. (Also, goodbye my mentions.)

1/whotheheckknows There are many words we could use to describe Joe Manchin, who’s one of the senators (though, importantly, not the ONLY senator) holding up filibuster reform:

Aggravating. Obstructive. Antediluvian.

But only one adjective matters: Democrat.
Mar 19, 2021 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
I have a rule: never become incensed based on a report that doesn't include a link.

So I researched this law.

NOW I'm incensed.
1/ A few points about this pro-bigotry bill in Arkansas:
• The bill, which the governor will sign, doesn't apply to emergency procedures, because federal law won't allow that...
2/