Eric TF Bat

Have some more respect for the office of President of the United States, please! We always knew that any mentally competent white man could become President. In 2008 we learned that any mentally competent man could become President. In 2016 we learned that any man could become President. Progress!

Currently helping an elderly family friend figure out if an email is a scam (which it obviously is) and hey, people who make mobile email apps, it's a dark pattern to not make the email address of the sender visible without needing to click on the little arrow thing. Just thought you should know.

Supposing you had the ability to teleport yourself and anybody else to any location instantly, how many ICE operatives would need to be dropped into an Indonesian volcano before the USA became minimally civilised? Ten? A hundred? Every last fucking one of them?

The lawyers of BlueSky seem to know something we don't, and have applied age verification only to the Chat function of the app, not the whole thing. I'm 90% certain they've misunderstood the "law" on the Australian "ban" on "social media", but meh, whatever. Don't try to chat me; I refuse to verify.

Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day to this day's #1 greatest fan, @stilgherrian.com! Arrr, matey! Raise the mizzen fo'c'sle and shiver down the cabin boys!

Now that we know it was a cishet white guy, can we stop talking about the whole thing? That is standard policy, isn't it?

Fun fact: BSky does in fact have auto content moderation. I suggested that the way to deal with the US situation is to target NewsCorp management, not just politicians. I used the expression "Be the [name of Mario's brother] you want to see in the world." It was INSTANTLY taken down, at AI speeds.

I know y'all will accuse me of lying or hallucinating, but I saw it with my own eyes: I selected "Install updates and shut down" just now, and my Win11 PC installed updates and then... IT SHUT DOWN! By itself! It didn't restart and sit there waiting to log me in! Truly, this is the age of wonders.

Huh. Even the Nazis are punching Nazis now. Dare we hope it's a trend?

Currently, when a government does something stupid, like our government green-lighting yet another environment-raping business venture, our only recourse is protest. This is because we don't have assassinations any more. Governments should be grateful for this change, and act appropriately.

Just had to unfollow the beloved @georgetakei.bsky.social, legend of SFTV, the closest thing the US has to Stephen Fry, because I realised I don't need to see every single news post from the weirdly rabid pro-Democrat "news" site Comic Sands. Sadly, Bluesky doesn't support muting by linked URL.

Now what I want to see is a simple table, as follows: Column 1 and 2: the date and location of every national election starting 20 January 2025. Column 3: an icon indicating if the pre-election government is conservative, liberal/centrist, or progressive. Column 4: same icon, post-election

I guess it's lucky that Pope Leo is "woke". It saves the "Christians" of the US from having to temporarily pretend they think Catholics are Christians too.

We named a swimming pool and a submarine monitoring station after Harold Holt. What are we naming after Dutton? I propose: a unisex toilet block, a housing program for recent immigrants, or a Royal Commission into police brutality and corruption.

Feel free to add Australia's federal election to the list of those influenced by Trump. In December, the big question was which prime ministerial residence the conservative opposition leader would live in. Tonight, that same leader lost his seat. I vote for that to happen EVERYWHERE.

Decided to watch a whole episode of SNL, which I've never done before. It was astonishing. To think, they're all aware of what they did. How is the suicide rate from depression not a hundred times higher among the cast? I can't explain it.

Discovered some useful app settings: - Settings > Accessibility > Alt Text > Always require alt text before posting: so you don't post inexplicable images. - (Top right settings icon) > Show replies as > Threaded AND Reply sorting > Oldest replies first: to see long conversations in a sane order.

So did the Insurrection Act/Martial Law thing happen? And if not, are the people pushing the scary story now back-pedalling, or have they just gone to ground?

In case you wondered how things are going:

If anyone has the ear of any sitting member of the Democratic Party in the US, can you pass this on? Tell them to start announcing NOW that when they eventually hold power again, they will prosecute EVERYBODY who is involved in this government's crimes - NO exceptions. It could be a vote winner!

Wait - are you telling me that there is NOBODY in the entire USA who is suicidally depressed enough to give up their life to assassinate the President? How is that even possible?

See, now THIS is useful data. This is what I doomscroll for. 10/10 no notes.

I need a sanity check. This April 20/Hitler's Birthday/Insurrection Act thing - is it a crackpot conspiracy theory or a real possibility?

It's good to have definitions for words. For example, the definition for the word "stupid" is "any Australian who isn't fabulously wealthy but still votes for the Liberal Party". It's not stupid for wealthy people to vote Lib, but it is still selfish.

For all my trans-anything friends on this International Transgender Day of Visibility: I hope your eyesight is excellent or your lenses are clean and unscratched. I hope your ambient illumination is optimal. Furthermore, I hope you are exactly as visible TO OTHER PEOPLE as you want and need to be.

If anyone reading this is a fan of cat shelters that don't arbitrarily euthanise cats and kittens for dubious reasons, I would like to draw your attention to Rescue Cats Safe Haven in southern Tasmania. Please throw some money their way, because they deserve it! rescuecatssafehaven.com.au/donate/