Alexander Martin @alexbuzzbee@fosstodon.org

(Made with kdenlive, youtube-dl, a sharpie, a piece of paper, and a smartphone.)

There are two genders: fools and idiots

Alright everyone, pencil in "Aliens?" for June/July on your 2021 Chaos Calendar, because that's when the US government has to submit an unclassified report on UFOs to Congress.

Batten. Not batted. Thanks autocorrect.

With some extreme-right "free speech" social media getting pummeled by cloud providers and app distributors, we may see a migration of their users towards Mastodon and the Fediverse at large. Batted down the hatches and hang on, it may get rough.

"There is no cause for alarm, which is itself cause for considerable alarm."

I suspect even in formal English capitalization will within a few decades be weakened to a "just be consistent" rule.

Image description (grr mobile client): A series of strange shimmering lines, which look vaguely like a longhand script, projected on the wall, presumably reflected onto it by something.

Who projecting Elvish on my wall‽

After 24 attempts to reach Mitch McConnell's voicemail, no success. I suspect they turned the voicemail off ("this mailbox cannot receive messages at this time" 20+ minutes after the office closure, when everything should be going to voicemail) after the phones just kept blowing up all day long, or the Capitol voicemail system straight-up crashed under the constant load. It was working this morning, but I got "mailbox full."

Imagining a much better alternate timeline with angry Mitch McConnell and Mike Pence racing to see who can remove Trump first. McConnell having Senate aides physically run a handwritten impeachment resolution from the House while Pence speeds around DC from secretary to secretary collecting signatures on the two letters he needs for the 25th, and then McConnell pushing for only an hour of debate on the impeachment while blocking Pence from delivering the letter to Grassley.

I've only posted half-jokes since it happened because that's part of how I manage rage and shock, but it's still stunning to me that there is now a "the Capitol riot" in American history. Not really surprising after everything, but shocking, stunning, and disappointing. The images of hundreds of National Guard troops marching to the Capitol will live for a long time, I think. I just hope that some kind of actual response is made soon.

(Your pessimism is understood but not required.)

Please note, just FYI: It is a serious federal crime to break into the U.S. Capitol, vandalize it, loot it, obstruct traffic through or immediately around it, chase Congress out of the building, or to attack the Capitol Police when they vaguely indicate you should probably stop, and if you do these things for long enough the National Guard WILL eventually show up to actually stop you.